Mearns

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nine rang from a dock-tower or two as he jubilantly received coffee from the large silver-service at which Miss Geraldine Wells presided.
“Jerry!” he cried joyfully. “It’s done. The Rubicon is crossed and the Atlantic is not! We’ll hunt up one of those Woman’s League places right after dinner.”
“No,” she corrected; “not immediately. My conscience is York State and peculiar. You’ll have to drive me down to the boat-landing, so that I can say truthfully that I went there, but it was too late.”
“That is rural!” he laughed. “My conscience is strictly urban, like a steel bridge ”

“ And how fared it with Dulcie at Craigengowan?
The season was the early days of April; but in the Mearns they are usually more like last days of March, when the Bervie, the Finella River, and their tributaries were hurrying towards the sea in haste, as if they had no time to dally with the pebbles and boulders that impeded them; when the early-yeaned lambs begin to gambol and play, and the cloud and sunshine seem to chase each other over the tender grass; and when violets, as Shakspeare has it, 'sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,' give their fragrance to the passing breeze. ”

“ You are to go to Penn Yan (not China) , New York, and thence to ‘Red Jacket’—which is a house—and inquire for your hostess, Mrs. Emma Wells. Some time to-day I shall let her invite you.
“The daughter, Geraldine, will interest your Irish heart. She sheds flattery as if she were used to it, as I suspect she is; but she has never met your subtle blarney. I’m on tiptoe to see the effect on her.
“But that isn’t the point. It may turn out to be. We’ll leave it to the gods, who manage beautifully if we are not too presumptuous. The point is a boy, neurotic, just your kind; idiot with gleams of sense ”

“ His earnestness was very soothing to her pride; one might as well steep as long as possible in the experience.
Meanwhile, out on the Lake, Walter had been struggling with his remnant of a soul, and had found some touch of that peace which comes to the Lake people, to all people who look out daily on vast stretches of water. It was peace, but it was tinged with tragic sorrow, and thereby, and only thereby, it was worthy and beyond price.
While Jerry and Richard were still strolling along the Penn Yan road, Walter was again at Phœbe’s door. She had prepared herself for bed when his knock came ”

“ Richard sat on the settle and admired. “Beautiful!” he exclaimed again and again. It was a bower of blue—blue and purple and violet and lavender and red-blue; but nothing clashed or interfered with the dominant cerulean note; there was enough rich green to separate what would otherwise be jarring shades.
What a puzzling mute Jerry Wells could be when she chose! In all their chatty hours together there had been hardly a word about this; and undoubtedly here was but the vestibule of the gardens. “Red Jacket” should be discovered for oneself, she always said. ”

“ I’m really quite hungry.”
“Of course you would be!” she said. “Feed a stray dog an’ he’ll always come back. It was a mistake ever to give you two anything. Your friend Jawn was here for two-o’clock tea. What’ll you have, sir?” She flung a bit of sewing over her left arm and impersonated an ingratiating waiter. “We recommend our toasted muffins and tea.”
“Great!” he agreed politely. “I’d be delighted.”
But anyone could see that his mind was not on food. Down the Lake he squinted with wrinkling brows as if he were trying to read the name on a far-distant steamer. ”

“ And all that takes money, heaps of it. We’ve just got to have money, woman; don’t you see that?”
She saw that—better than he did, perhaps—but she could not trust herself to take up that point in the debate. Fortunately at this moment she caught through the trees a clear light shining far below in Phœbe Norris’s cottage.
“I wonder what Phœbe is doing up at this hour?” she turned the subject. “She usually goes to bed with her Orpingtons.”
“Suppose we find out?” he challenged her.
The returning trolley was grinding up the hill from Branchport and would soon expose them in the road. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Walter’s room was on the other side of the boat. Geraldine gave her mother time to get to the end of the corridor before she arose, snapped on the light and donned shoes and a kimono and twisted her plaited hair into a shape fit for public view. Then she sat on the edge of the berth and pondered. To-morrow early she would——
What was that? A fumbling of the catch of her door and a hesitant knock. She knew that uneven [43] touch. She drew the door partly open. In the hall-way, shrinking far back, was Walter, grinning, breathing long, deep breaths through his open mouth. ”

“ Otherwise, we should not have been on this delightfully unconventional trip.”
“Oh, you must see Penn Yan,” she chirped, “especially [18] on Saturday night. Our Main Street is paved,” she added archly, “and we have an electric line and sweetly subdued arc-lights. But of course I don’t live in the throbbing town—that would be too exciting. We live far off down the Lake, in Jerusalem township. You see, Sir—Sir——” she hesitated, plucked out her steamer-list and went on, “—Sir Richard, we are really not even villagers; we are, I fear, hopelessly rural.” ”

“ 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.” ”

“ Seth had always dropped on all fours at the very sight of the whip; this man was built on a more courageous mould, and she admired him immensely for it.
“You’re a good sport,” she summed him up, “even if you are a bad lot.”
“Thanks.... Where is Walter?” he asked.
“He and Jawn are sailing the new boat.” She laughed at some memory of their setting forth. That laugh was a brave attempt to conceal her worry over the Wells’ affairs. “Jawn’s a bright lad, he is; but he—he ought to have the whip, too.”
“I believe you,” Richard assented. “Was he nice and vulgar to you to-day? Jawn loves to be vulgar.” ”

“ I couldn’t quarrel with anybody very long today; this new dress fits too well; but I just had to have this thing out with you, Allen Blynn, or—or—” She could not think of an adequate figure of speech.
“Now,” she went on; “topic number—what number is it? Five, I think. Topic number five. Tell me all about Germany. That’s the last topic till we reach Haverford. Just go on, and on, and talk and talk, and [178] I’ll snuggle up in this corner and listen.... Hurry!... Begin!”
She leaned back in the cushion with a rug tucked up and around her as warm and contented as a sleepy kitten. ”

“ Weak as he is, he’s got your Virginia determination; and when he goes to the devil it will be on the gallop. I know; for I am a strong man, but he almost succeeded in breaking down my grip on the rope [155] rail on the Victoria—all by sheer will, too—and if he had——”
Mrs. Wells ceased rocking. She looked helplessly at Richard, mutely begging him not again to force that picture into her mind.
“Well,” he spoke calmly, “you are going to give up, aren’t you—for the sake of that boy?”
Walter had broken a tack suddenly in the middle of the Lake, obviously to take quick advantage of a change of wind. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Do you mean to say your last name’s Richard?”
“I do.”
“And you say your first name’s Richard, too?”
“I do.”
“You talk like a wedding.”
“I do.”
“Your middle name isn’t by chance Richard, is it?”
“I tried to have it that way,” he explained, “but——”
“The family voted you down, I suppose.”
“Exactly. You see, Mrs. Norris——”
“Drat Mrs. Norris!” she interrupted. “A man with only front names can’t have any advantages over me. You’ll call me Phœbe, young man, as everybody else does. You don’t suppose I’m goin’ to delay our intimacy by Misterin’ you, do you?” She turned abruptly to Jerry. ”

“ Miss Warren looked helplessly about. “Like a man!” she added. “Mercy! Do go out and tell her—”
But Gorgas cut that command short by dismounting—like a man. She was leading Gyp toward the stables, one arm over the horse’s mane, her head erect, her eyes focused far away. At that moment she was enjoying a childlike delight in successful martyrdom. As she passed around the school—really a fine old Colonial mansion—she came face to face with Miss Warren framed in a massive side door.
“You are Miss Gorgas Levering, I presume?” Miss Warren made the statement with disarming graciousness. ”

“ It’s like the business of hiring an undertaker,” she smiled squarely at him, gamely, “and you might as well get the job. I’ll turn the papers over to you to-night, and the quicker you get at it the better. No,” she changed her mind. “Don’t do anything until after the races next week. And don’t be surprised, Richard dear,” she reverted to the phrase she had used at the top of the hill back of Naples, “if you find me quite careless and birdlike for the next few days. We own ‘Red Jacket’ until it is sold out from under us. ”

“ It would be pleasant to anchor off the Inn and watch the veterans, Moodiks and Cohlosa, fight it out for second place. But Walter said “No,” and no one pressed him. The victory was his entirely, they realized, and in this happy hour the captain’s wishes would be their law.
[358] On his way home Richard spent his time watching the boy’s face. In the past month Walter seemed to have grown several steps nearer to manhood; certainly as he held the tiller snug under his left arm and trimmed the mainsheet with his right hand he looked miles removed from the helpless creature of the S.S. Victoria. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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” ”