Joseph Crosby Lincoln

“ Reliance noticed the change, of course, but she did not refer to it, nor hint at the heartache which, at times, she could not help feeling. It was what she had foreseen, had known must be the inevitable result of the complete change in the girl’s life. Esther had learned to love and trust her uncle, had become accustomed to wealth and what it gave her, had made new, and quite different friends, was now well on her way to the brilliant future Foster Townsend had planned for her. It was a natural development, that was all. ”

“ Esther’s resentment melted under it. The tears sprang to her eyes and this time they were not tears of anger or wounded pride. She stammered a confession of her own consciousness of guilt at having kept the secret from him.
“I am so sorry I didn’t tell you, Uncle Foster,” she declared. “I was going to—I meant to—and then—oh, I guess I was afraid. I know it was wrong. But the portrait is so good—really, it is wonderful. And—and we thought—I thought if I gave it to you for a birthday surprise you might—you might forgive me for letting him paint it.” ”

“ Esther nodded. “Yes,” she said. “That is just what it means. Oh, Aunt Reliance, can’t you see? I have made up my mind at last. I have thought of others and for others long enough. They haven’t been thinking of me at all, but of their own selfish pride and prejudices. It is time—high time—I thought of my own happiness. I could never be happy without Bob, nor he without me. So we are going to be happy together, that is all.” ”

“ The fact that she had gone, alone and in spite of his orders and her promise, to see Griffin was sufficient. All his delusions, all his conceit in the triumph of his scheming, all his silly, easy confidence that her interest in Elisha Cook’s grandson was a thing of the dead past—all these were blown away like a summer fog by that one disclosure. She had paid no attention to his wishes, his commands—she had defied him—him, Foster Townsend. If she had been a man he would have knocked her down. ”

“ Ever since Millard Clark had told him of the meetings in the Eldridge shanty he had been brooding over the disclosure. He was furious at her for keeping the secret from him and more furious at himself for being so easily hoodwinked. His serene self-confidence was decidedly shaken. Apparently this skittish colt was not so completely broken to harness as he had supposed. How many other secrets might she be hiding behind that innocent exterior? And the thought that a grandson of his arch enemy should have shared a secret with her was the crowning ignominy. ”

“ But, Esther Townsend, you must listen and you must let me say things. I don’t think your marryin’ Bob here is dreadful. If you care enough for him to give up everything and every one else for his sake, then it is exactly what you ought to do. It is the way you are doing it that is the dreadful part. Esther, dear, have you thought what this will mean to your Uncle Foster? He worships the ground you walk on. And he has been awfully good to you—you can’t deny that. And, if everything folks say is true, old Mr. Cook idolizes his grandson. ”

“ Behind the barn were hen yards, pigsties, and, beyond these, the rolling acres of Townsend pastures, meadows and pine groves.
In the white painted stables beyond the carriage house the captain found Mr. Gifford seated upon an overturned bucket. Upon his shriveled little face was an expression of huge satisfaction. His puckered lips widened in a grin as Townsend came in.
“Been waitin’ for you, Cap’n Foster,” he announced. “Ain’t touched a thing. Left the whitewashin’ job just as ’twas for you to see. You stay right where you be and I’ll fetch him out.” ”

“ Half an hour later she knocked at the door of the rickety building on the beach near—but fortunately out of sight from—the Tobias Eldridge house. Bob himself opened the door. He greeted her with a whoop of delight.
“So you did come, didn’t you!” he crowed. “I thought you would. I knew you had sense and a mind of your own. Come in! Come in! It is all ready for you to look at.”
The portrait was on an easel in the middle of the dusty, littered floor. It was an oil sketch in full color and she could not repress an exclamation of delighted surprise when she saw it. ”

“ He had told Esther he trusted her. Well, he would carry the trust to the limit, and, thank heaven, that limit was close at hand. Foster Townsend prided himself upon never having, in trade or politics or horse racing, played the sneak. He would beat his competitor by what he considered fair means—that is, by craft or shrewdness or even force—but not by sneaking or spying. To remain in that room during Bob Griffin’s visits seemed to him just that, and he would not stoop to it.
Esther, for her part, was always conscious of the trust which her uncle placed in her. ”

“ Why, the other day I said something about how marvelous it must be to sing in opera. I wish you could have heard him. The things he said about opera and those who sing in it were—well, they were what Nabby Gifford would have called ‘blasphemious.’”
Bob laughed at the word, but he was too much in earnest to laugh long.
“There you are!” he exclaimed. “That’s it. They don’t understand, either of them. They are like all old people, they belong back in another generation.” He spoke as if Elisha Cook and Foster Townsend were nonogenarians. ”

“ The city friends were agreeable, occasional evenings at concerts, the theater and even the opera less of a marvelous novelty than at first, although not less enjoyable. She enjoyed the week-ends at Harniss also, but she no longer looked forward to them as oases in a desert of homesickness. She saw her Aunt Reliance and Millard less frequently, not from design, but because her Uncle Foster had always so many plans for those week-ends that she had scarce time to run down to the cottage or the millinery shop. ”

“ Paris with Esther in Jane Carter’s company, three thousand miles away from young Griffin, was one thing. Paris, with those two together, and he, Townsend, on this side of the water, was quite another. No, if it was true that Griffin was going there, then Esther was not. So much was certain.
It was a galling conclusion, his pride winced under it. To think that a boy in his twenties had forced a wily, shrewd veteran of his years and experience to back water was almost too much to bear. ”

“ Foster Townsend was a very satisfactory traveling companion. She had but to mention a wish to visit some new locality and her wish was granted. She had learned to like him long before, now she loved him. As for him, he was happier than he had been for years. He never would have admitted it, but this charming, talented niece of his was now his sincerest, his chief interest. Even the great lawsuit, dragging its eternal length along between one set of lawyers who prodded it on to the Supreme Court and another set who held it back, was secondary. ”

“ She was thankful for the semidarkness and the fog, for they might shield her from observation, from recognition at least. But had the afternoon been brilliant with sunshine she would not have hesitated. She was on her way to see Bob Griffin. She did not know, of course, that he was there, in his studio; it was just as likely that he was not. But if he were not there, even if he were at his grandfather’s home in Denboro, she would seek him out. She must see him. She must know.
She rapped on the weather-beaten door of the shanty. A moment later and Bob himself opened that door. ”

“ Bob had broken the news to his grandfather and there had been another distressing scene.
“It is all so dreadful,” wrote Esther, “that I don’t want to think about it now. Poor Bob! And poor Mr. Cook! And Uncle Foster! And you, Auntie! I feel as if I must be a wicked, ungrateful girl. He says I am not and that we have done the only thing that could be done. He is a dear fellow and I love him. He is sure we will never be sorry and that by and by everything will be right again. Oh, I hope so!... You will tell Uncle Foster how sorry I was to leave him, won’t you? ”

“ I want somebody to talk to and to talk to me, and I’d rather have a Townsend than anybody else. So I thought of Esther. If she wants to, she can move up there and call it home. I’ll look out for her and be as decent as I can to her. She can have all the things she wants—things she can’t have now—and all the money she wants—all I think it good for her to have, anyhow. ”

“ That evening, after she had gone up to bed, the chieftain of the Townsend clan spent several hours in the leather easy-chair thinking and planning. Here was a new and unforeseen complication, one which, he now realized, was certain to be followed by more of the same variety. He should have foreseen it, of course. It was as natural as life, it was what made life. Esther was a pretty, attractive girl. She was bound to attract masculine admiration. As she grew older there would be more of them and the consequent complications were serious. ”

“ It is as much as the average person’s life is worth to hint they are sorry for him, or anything like that. Let them say that to him just once and they don’t get the chance to say much of anything to him again. It is stubborn and foolish, perhaps, but I declare it makes me proud of him. I am a little that way myself, I guess. He has never yet told me out and out that I did right in insisting on you and Bob getting married before you left Harniss that night. But I have said it two or three times and he hasn’t contradicted me, and that is a lot—for him. Give him time, Esther, dear. ”

“ So when the young lady breezed into the little sitting-room that Sunday afternoon, expensively and becomingly gowned, her cheeks aglow and her eyes shining with excitement in prospect of her part in the concert and the praise which—to quote the Reverend Colton—“the best people” had already accorded her singing at the rehearsals, Reliance met her with the usual sunny smile and cheerful every day greeting. ”

“ Quite conscious that she made a charming picture in Grandmother Townsend’s gown and aware that she had sung her best, she was happy. People wished to shake hands with her—the “best people” and many of them—and her lifelong acquaintances and friends crowded about to say pleasant things. Reliance did not say much. “I can’t, dearie,” she whispered. “My, but I’m proud of you, though!” Millard would have said much, and said it stentoriously, if his half-sister had not dragged him away. Nabby Gifford cackled like a hen. Varunas’s praise was characteristic.
“You done well, Esther,” he declared. ”

“ You haven’t any reason to say he doesn’t like you.”
“Maybe not. Perhaps he does like me. I hope he does. I want him to. As for his letting me come here to see you, I must say it’s mighty decent of him. I doubt if I should, if I were in his place—considering who I am. Come, Esther, don’t pitch into me this way. What have I done?”
She smiled then. “Oh, you haven’t done anything, Bob,” she said. “I am just—oh, excited and upset, that’s all. Uncle Foster has just told me the most wonderful thing. He is going to let me do what I have wanted to do for years and—and I ought to be very happy. ”

“ Mooney shifted uneasily in his chair.
“Yes, yes, I know,” he admitted. “That’s all right, so far as it goes.... But, Cap’n Townsend, I—well, I know you aren’t as—well, as strong for me as you were when I ran before. You thought, I suppose—like a good many other folks who didn’t know—that I ought to have voted for that cranberry bill. You, nor they, didn’t understand about that bill. That bill—well, it read all right enough, but—well, there was more to it than just reading. There were influences behind that bill that I didn’t like, that’s all. No honest man could like them.” ”

“ Bob Griffin was an even-tempered young man and as sensible as the average, but he was young and head over heels in love. The manner in which Covell appealed to Esther and hinted at understandings and confidences between them made him furious. He was jealous, and growing more so every minute. ”

“ He was quite aware of the local sensation which his frequent calls at the Townsend house had caused. And since those calls ceased and Esther was seen so much in Seymour Covell’s company, sly hints had been dropped in his presence to the effect that the visitor from Chicago had “cut him out.” If he should tell the whole truth, of the meeting with his reputed rival and their quarrel—why— No, the truth must not be told, nor must any one discover it. So he had dismissed all idea of seeking help, had lifted the unconscious man to the carriage seat and driven carefully and quietly away. ”

“ Esther accompanied her uncle to the “rally” on Tuesday evening. The Town Hall was packed, and again there was the same stir and whispering when they passed up the aisle between the lines of crowded settees. Men were in the majority, of course, but there were many women there also, and some girls. The men looked at Foster Townsend, but the feminine element centered its interest upon his niece, and Esther wondered if they noticed the new brooch which she was wearing. It was a present from her Uncle Foster, who had bought it from the local jeweler and watchmaker that afternoon. ”

“ I am shaking in my shoes. These good people don’t know what they have been let in for. By the time I get to the place in that performance where I announce that I ‘go to a dungeon cell,’ I’m betting that the audience will be perfectly satisfied to have me go there, provided I don’t come back. Oh, Josephine!” with a laughing glance at Esther, “I am sorry for you!”
Esther laughed, too, and declared that she was not afraid. Townsend chuckled. Bob Griffin’s smile was more than ever a product of main strength and determination. ”

“ I never had a girl of my own to bring up, or a boy either, so far as that goes—I wish to God I had—and there are some things a woman can advise her about better than a man. If I didn’t know you had sense, Reliance—as well as the stubbornness of a balky horse—I shouldn’t think of saying what I am going to say. I want you to shut up this house here. It is mine and I can sell it, I guess; or rent it, anyhow. And if I can’t do either I can afford to let it stand empty. Shut it up and come along with Esther to my place. There’s room enough there, too much room. ”

“ Esther, quite aware of what his feelings must be, hastened to explain.
“I have told Uncle Foster all about the portrait,” she said, quickly. “He couldn’t wait until his birthday and made me bring him right down here to see it.... Uncle Foster, you remember Bob. At the horse race that day, he was the one who—”
Townsend interrupted. “Of course I remember,” he said, with a very plausible imitation of heartiness. “How are you, young man? I understand you’ve got to be what they call an artist. Esther says you have painted a picture of her that does everything but walk around and talk. ”

“ Good-night, Uncle dear.”
He chuckled to himself. In spite of her care there had been a tremor in her voice. He guessed the reason, or thought he did. She had told Griffin of the European trip and he—and perhaps she—had come to realize that it meant the end of their association. Well, that is exactly what he intended it to mean. No doubt they both regretted the parting. Never mind. Esther would soon get over it. Better a trifling heartache now than a big one later on. She should not marry Elisha Cook’s grandson if he were the only man on earth. ”

“ You are ashamed of havin’ to ask a woman’s advice and you don’t want anybody to know that the great Foster Townsend does have to ask for anything. Of course I don’t tell. But if you think nobody knows you come to this house—yes, and doesn’t know it every time you come—it must be because you carry your head so high in the air you can’t see what is on either side of you. I have been asked a dozen times what you come here for. The last time you came—when Esther wasn’t with you, I mean—Abbie Makepeace was waitin’ to ask why you did it. ”

“ Eldridge sniffed. “She done her best to look that way,” she said. “Paint and powder and I don’t know what all! If I was her folks she’d be to home before this, now I tell you. Put out that lamp!”
Tobias obeyed orders. “Women are funny critters,” he philosophized. “You are all down on Carrie because she is pretty and the boys like her. Next to Esther Townsend she was the best-lookin’ girl in that show to-night. I heard more than one say so, too.”
“Umph! More men, you mean. I don’t doubt it. Well, handsome is that handsome does, but men don’t never pay attention to that. ”

“ He shook his head. “I wouldn’t say that, quite,” he observed. “It isn’t as good looking as you are. I’m right there, eh, Griffin? Doesn’t flatter her, does it?”
Bob spoke for the first time. He seemed to be in hearty accord.
“You bet it doesn’t!” he agreed, with emphasis. “I’m not satisfied with it, of course.”
“Why, Bob Griffin!” cried Esther. “How can you say that? You told me yourself you thought it was awfully good.”
“Well, I—I think it is pretty fair, considering who painted it; but Captain Townsend is right when he says it doesn’t do you justice. I knew that all along.” ”