Mrs. Dallas

“ Dallas, for a moment, as if with the conscious acceptance of a familiar ritual, also closed her eyes and breathed in, with the scent of her carnations, the immortal fragrance of the youth and passion that, to her, could soon no longer come. “Dear boy!” she murmured.
They heard the step of Colonel Dallas descending from the upper lawn. Rupert drew back sharply; Mrs. Dallas softly replaced her hand upon the other in her lap. Her husband appeared, and he looked very fretful.
“The sun is quite tropical. It’s impossible to play in it. We don’t get a breath of air down in this hole.” ”

“ Dallas, watching into the blackness from her bench by the door, was up and armed on the instant, and leaning far over the sill, as if to see the better through the dark. Soon she made out something—a glimmer—that, in the beginning, was redder than the flare of the lightning, fainter, and more fixed; but which, growing as the din grew, swiftly deepened in colour, spread wide, and rose, throwing into relief the intervening grove of cottonwoods, and the form of a man who was racing riverward from the swale. ”

“ Dallas, smiling at her.
“Better than anything,” said Cassy.
“I know it is a responsibility,” Mrs. Dallas went on, “and that one always feels more or less uneasy if he or she is given charge of another’s belongings, but you need use only the rooms at the back of the house, and I am sure everything will be in much better condition than if the house were left closed. Mr. Dallas will only sleep there when he is in town, so you will not have to think of meals for him, and, oh yes, whenever you think there is need of extra cleaning you are at liberty [Pg 150] to call upon Martha Collins ”

“ Dallas had begged her to play. Human hearts are certainly strange things. What were the Gainsboroughs to Miss Betty Frere? Nothing in the world, half an hour before; now? Now there was a vague suspicion of an enemy somewhere; a scent of rivalry in the air; an immediate rising of partisanship. Were these the people of whom Mrs. Dallas was afraid? against whom she craved help? She should have help. Was it not even a meritorious thing, to withdraw a young man from untoward influences, and keep him in the path marked out by his mother?
Miss Frere scented a battle like Job's war-horse. ”

“ The last time George Dallas had taken farewell of his old nurse, he had parted from her, a big strong healthy youth of eighteen, with short curly brown hair, clear skin, bright complexion, the incarnation of youth and strength and health. He knelt before her now, a gaunt grisly man, with high cheek-bones and hollow rings round his great brown eyes, with that dead sodden pallor which a life of London dissipation always produces, and with long thin bony hands with which he clutched hold of the old woman, who put her arms round him and seemed about to burst into a fit of sobbing. ”

“ Dallas was the richest woman in the West Indies, that she had one fair and marriageable daughter, and that mother and daughter were under the influence of a negress called Dido, who was a profound believer in the cult of Obi. I determined, therefore, to bend the negress to my will by means of the Voodoo stone, and to marry the daughter. Unfortunately, Mrs. Dallas and her child were in England. So thither I went in order to prosecute my suit, and obtain a rich wife in the person of Miss Isabella Dallas. ”

“ Laurel is yours, Mrs. Dallas. A child is always her mother's, I think."
"You mean, Laurel would keep right on making her headquarters with me, the same as she does now?"
"Why, of course. I am a mother, Mrs. Dallas. Once I was the mother of a little girl. My little girl would be just Laurel's age now. As long as I live I shall never be guilty of robbing any woman of her only little daughter."
Stella glanced down at her shoe, out upon the terrace, back to her shoe again, cleared her throat, then boldly raised her eyes to Helen's. ”

“ He was something when he was alive; but what is he to us now? And why should we care,'—Betty hastily went on to generalities, seeing the astonishment in Mrs. Dallas's face,—'why should we be more interested in the monuments and deaths of the great, than in those of lesser people? In death and bereavement all come down to a common humanity.'
'Not a common humanity!' said Mrs. Dallas, rather staring at Betty.
'All are alike on the other side, mother,' observed Pitt. 'The king's daughter and the little village girl stand on the same footing, when once they have left this state of things. ”

“ Dallas went, but Mr. Tracy stayed at home.”
“Alone?”
“I think so, except for his two secretaries. When I came home, he was in a pleasant enough mood, and I concluded he had thought it all over and straightened it out in his mind one way or another. I didn’t refer to the matter at all, but he asked me many questions about Mrs. Dallas, such as how she looked, what mood she was in and whether she said anything about him. Just such questions as a man would naturally ask about his absent sweetheart.”
“All this properly belongs to the inquest,” Coroner Hart said. ”

“ That vague and wondering look was less noticeable and an element of comprehendingness that made her eyes look hard now struggled with it sometimes.
After the visit of Jannish and his wife other people called, and immediately Mrs. Dallas was drifting in a stream of musical engagements and rehearsals that took up most of her time, and formed a strong contrast to her former mode of life. She had opportunities to indulge her taste for dress and to wear some of the charming costumes which belonged to her trousseau—bought with what girlish ardor, and then laid away out of sight! ”

“ Dallas slipped to her feet and wielded the black-snake vigorously.
The mules shot forward for a wagon-length. The [Pg 243] sudden jolt awakened Marylyn. She got to her knees—and there were the cottonwoods with the laden boughs!
"Spunky little sister," encouraged the elder girl, and helped the other to the seat.
The road was so dark, now, that it took on the aspect of a standing man, who was no sooner overridden than he rose again in the lead. This was a beginning for all manner of fears. Dallas fought her own. But she could not conquer them. ”

“ Merrill and myself.”
“No, ma’am, you had no motive. You’re not mentioned in the will.”
“But surely then, Mrs. Dallas had no motive. She expected to marry Mr. Tracy—why should she want to kill him?”
“Mrs. Dallas is in love with Mr. Everett. She would rather have her legacy and his legacy than to marry Tracy and have the whole works. Mrs. Dallas is not a grasping sort, but she is a woman of deep passions and she is desperately in love with that good-looking young man.”
“You seem to know the secrets of their hearts, March,” Keeley said. “What about Harper Ames?” ”

“ Dallas may be divorced?"
"I should say not! My husband's business keeps him in New York——my friends and your school keep me here."
"Mother, what did Miss Philiburn want?"
"Keep your shirt on, old girl——I'll be right up!"
"Always wanting everything so darn plain and simple—if you ain't the very spit of your father."
"Gee, Ed, you're certainly nutty about Lollie. Anybody would think that you were her father."
"Laurel is going to have a wonderful birthday party. I'm making her a dress and tomorrow I'm going to the city and buy some beautiful favors." ”

“ A thing like that cannot be known about a woman, and countenanced, can it?"
"Certainly not," was the general dictum.
"I for one won't countenance it anyhow," announced Mrs. Kay Bird, with emphasis. "Either Mrs. Dallas moves out of the King Arthur or I do. I had to play bridge with her twice last winter!"
"And either her child is removed from Miss Fillibrown's or mine is," another voice proclaimed.
This conversation took place in Myrtle Holland's living-room a few days after her return to Milhampton, in late September. There were half a dozen women gathered round the tea-table. ”

“ It was a new thought for the section-boss. And while Dallas disappeared behind Betty, he pondered it with hanging head. She came around soon to hitch Ben's tugs, when her father looked up shamefacedly. "Ah'll tell y', Dallas," he said, by way of compromise, "ef Lounsbury don't come back with y'——"
"He will," assured Dallas, stoutly.
"W'y, we'll go t' th' Fort, as you say."
"All right, dad," she replied, giving his back a pat.
He began to hobble up and down. "You ain't scairt t' go?" he ventured at last. "Ain't afeerd o' nothin'?" ”

“ Dallas,” Maud said, “losing her expected fortune and prominent position.”
“Yes, and no.” Ames smiled a little. “Between you and me, Mrs. Merrill, though Mrs. Dallas is terribly shocked at the manner of his death, I can’t feel she is mourning deeply for Mr. Tracy. I think Charlie Everett had pretty well cut out the elderly millionaire.”
“Well, that’s her business,” Lora said, coldly. “I am so sorry for Alma, I’ve no sympathy to spare for Mrs. Dallas. They can’t arrest the girl if she isn’t responsible for her actions, can they?” ”

“ I wish I could have stayed a few days longer and seen just what would have happened when that woman appeared on the scene."
"What's the woman's story?"
"I don't know. I never heard of her before. Dallas is her name, from Boston."
"Poor girl. It's like having a ball and chain around her ankle to be obliged to drag a woman like that after her wherever she goes." ”

“ Dallas.
'Stopped for luncheon,' said her husband.
'And we did our work thoroughly, mamma,' added Pitt. 'You must take time, if you want to see anything.'
'Well,' said Betty, 'I must say, if this is what it means, to live in an old country, I am thankful I live in a new one.'
'What now?' asked Mr. Dallas. 'What's the matter?'
'Mrs. Dallas was wiser, that she did not go,' Betty went on. '"I have supped fall of horrors." Really I have read history, but that gives it to one diluted. I had no notion that the English people were so savage.'
'Come, come! no worse than other people,' Mr. ”

“ He had no forgiveness, no charity, for his father. He told his mother and his older sister Fanny that he wished they could dispose of the ruined thing his father had made of the Dallas reputation as easily as they could dispose of the ruined thing he had made of his body. But no, the reputation they must wear tied round their necks for everybody to see, and stare at, and keep away from. Obliged as he was to bear his father's name (why had his parents handicapped him thus?) he could never hope to succeed in any large way, he said; for who would ever trust a man with the name of Stephen Dallas? ”

“ Dallas, regarding her son.
'Why shouldn't I look well?'
'Hard work,' suggested the mother.
'Work is good for a fellow. I never got hard work enough yet. But home is jolly, mother. That's the use of going away, I suppose,' said the young man, drawing a chair comfortably in front of the fire; while Mrs. Dallas rang for supper and gave orders, and then sat down to gaze at him with those mother's eyes that are like nothing else in the world. Searching, fond, proud, tender, devoted,—Pitt met them and smiled. ”

“ Dallas proceeded to remedy the damage wrought by her tears, working dexterously with various little sticks and tubes, without any attempt at concealment, apparently without the slightest self-consciousness, although just beside her a prim, school-teacherish-looking little woman, middle-aged, observed her operations with interest. ”

“ But the other method will not be exactly to your liking, I fear," he announced, fastening his keen shrewd eyes upon Stella. "I always feel sorry for any woman," he went on, "whose mistakes and misdemeanors of a dozen years are dragged out by opposing lawyers from the little hiding-places where she thought they were safe, and held up for the curious public to gape at and glory in. Your husband, Mrs. Dallas, in allowing you to bring suit against him, instead of the other way round, is acting chivalrously. He is offering you an avenue of escape." ”

“ She saw the dark form sitting in the shadow so silently, and as the hem of her white gown brushed against his knee, she faltered:
“Who wants me?”
Dallas half rose, holding out impassioned arms, whispering:
“I want you, Daisie, darling! I want you to forgive my folly and madness! I want you to be my little love still, as you promised that day before I left you! I want——”
But then his arms closed around her yielding form, and his last words were smothered in the kiss he pressed on the top of her shining head.
Ah! what joy for little Daisie, what sudden rapture! ”

“ Life at the shack was even less eventful. For Dallas, it was a season of idleness. The pumpkins and the melons were swelling; the tasselled corn wanted weeks before it would ripen; the field and garden were free of weeds. With no work to do, alone except for her sister, the elder girl had ample time to worry.
[Pg 310] Marylyn saw that she was dispirited, and increased in tenderness toward her, following her about with eyes that entreated, yet were not sad. At breakfast she spitted the choicest cuts for Dallas. In the noon heat, she was at her elbow with a dipper of ginger-beer. ”

“ Dallas, when he talked sometimes, used to have just such a light in his eyes—just such a glory streaming from all his features; but then he was a boy, and this was a woman. Ay, one felt her womanhood, the passion and power of it, with all its capabilities for either blessing or maddening, in the very core of one's being.
The others chattered a little more, and then I heard her speaking again.
“Yes, Lisabel, you are quite right; I do not think it of so very much importance, whether people who are very deeply attached, ever live to be married or not. ”