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Les diagrammes suivants illustrant la mOthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. 6 MICTOCOPY RESOIUTION TIST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) ^ /^PPUEDjyMGE 1653 East Main Street Roctiester. Ne« rork 14609 USA (716) 482 - 030- - Phone (716) 288 - 59 D UP LAND If" J.P MOWBRAY • ^>«m!a*u .: k.:: itiBKL : isrr-:-? a ii '^.jV^'^'.:'*^^^!* >iks,^ '^-«»-'-' THIS BOOK FUHMH PART or A CONHIDKRARLK rOLLKOTIOW DOlfATKD TO THI I.1BRARY OF PARLIAMENT OTTAWA, CANADA CNOKR THE TE«M(* OF TUB WILL OF THE LATE Cbtoarb Pruce Pates; IN HIS LIFKTIMK A HIOHLT-EST EMED CIVIL, SERVANT WHO FOR MOKE THAN FORTY YEARS HAS RENDERED FAITHFlTLi HERVICE LATTERLY AS DEPUTY-POSTMASTER OF OTTAWA 19B3 rffSfflllfllSiP' MiiS^a \" a TANGLED Up 'fsm IN sse' BEULAH /^ LAND " j»-'< '*^ ^M^^' ?rr r ^80855 NortDoob )9rtM J. & Cn.hiiig k Co. - Berwick ft Smith Norwood M»ii. U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAPTER VII The Capitulation of Polly CHAPTER IX Five O'clock in the Morning CHAPTER X In which I become a Nonentity CHAPTER XI The Tournament and what came of it CHAPTER XII Polly untangles pa<;k I20 CHAPTER VIII In which I struggle vsith My Own Web ^37 . i6i 178 '97 215 VI BEULAH LAND CHAPTER I ^ J THE DISTURBING DUCKLING Y excellent half-sister, Madame Petunia Dewey, looked at me with a sparkling superiority as she said : — " A conscience in a disreputably comfortable man of fifty-four is nothing more than a moral gout. Its twinges annoy without awakening him. He wraps some more flannels about his judgment, and waits for the east wind to stop blowing." Petunia looked light and airy in her morning wrap. I often thought that her conversation was TANGLED UP m BEULAH LAND to exhibit. E^e^her rJn^^T"'?'' '«"''»''=d when .he had tha" c LTaTt'n' ''T I ""'' a woman of the worlH t^J "i j ' ^"^ s""^ *" kind of perfumed „tdo„frot<' ^'^""'^ '""^ or had it acquired for her lit '"^ P"terres, forgave the nrn„„7 •' ^= * "!"«" bee, so I .0 fet her see"^ h7l ,™'""'''™l '"'tude, and tried " P«"nia," I /aii Ta '° 'j^.^^P^™"'/- " I don't believe it •■ Z '" '/"""^i" trying to coax yoursdf into 'S'J'fy rY°" "' can be worried like o her h, ''1''='^ 'hat you cann« even assume th't o'T"" ''""^- ^°" airs. Ifrsuffer'"ata'lTir''!,S"'°''"^»'"™"g feelings are ^ir^^^'l^^.^^^'l^^'^Z. ••^' „ £?''■' your valet struck ' " ' « hZ ""'' ''! '^"°"' » moment." pomt at which Aese things atoymr"'"'''^ "" found ZZky "". .tllf ' '"" ^,f P--"^'°" of Pr°- "w'-^t things Lan^oy'/o:""'" "''" ^'•^ -«• the tteLtMr/ot'^t'a'n^^-'P'' "' "^ "^ my place a moment." '^ '' P"' y"""'"" i" Ask me^^ha"vrmS"eXT "'h ™P°--''ilities. to take the veil, ThXes[ "^ ^'^°" ''?"' = treatment — anvthin.. TJ^'h — or g,ve absent anytning, Rutus, except to put my- THE DISTURBING DUCKLING self in your place. Why should one indulge in such fantastic feats of the imagination ? " "Because," I said mildly, "it would be more rational than to indulge in unbridled persiflage when a human being and a brother comes to you with a misgiving and asks you for advice." " Brother, I allow," she replied, " I cannot help myself. But human being, Rufus — isn't that rather a large assumption? Human beings are supposed to have some relation to the rest of the world. You are only related to your club and your son." " Can it be possible that you regard the latter attachment as a misfortune ? " " Certainly, to the son. He was probably in- tended, m the nature of things, to be part of the social system. You have succeeded in making him an annex of your own comfort." " You are disposed to be exceedingly ungracious this mormng," I said. "If your acerbity is the result of the social fruit, I ought to congratulate myself that Charlie has been kept out of the orchard." " I think," she remarked, "that if he had been allowed to eat a few of the green apples it would have benefited him. Life has its necessary colics — at least for young men, and they are probably dis- ciplinary. Does it ever occur to you that you have been trying to teach your one duckling that It is immoral to swim ? " " It is rather unjust to assume that I have de- tached myself from all human interests because TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND your Thursday nights bore me a h'ttle I trv tn do my duty to sorief*/ ;« . «""'«:. i try to .lementlf"'''''^'/^^'' '° V""-- University le,! ;o:lSS-^°"f-S-'ifx-; you would not be expected to occupy it." "to ao"'^ ..;' ' '""""'■ °^ conscience," I said and IthL^f ^P'*"' ""''^ ^'^^'•"^ oc asionaJ y and 1 think I can say truthfully that I try to N'^heafd the' f'T^ ^"' "^^^^ ^'-V last thirty 'yTa^/a'^V-^' ttlmTSK^ Dehghtful ! exclaimed Petunia " After .11 perhaps you are exhausted by you^ publifdutie ' That had not occurred to me " wisJ^o^sneakT""^' 'V' "^^ ^"^^^^ ^"^^ ^^^^t I wisr. to speak to you about. . ou feel at least « woman s interest in the future of that boy Con sider a moment — his mother lefi- I,- • ^' me sacrpHl,7 r u '^^^^^^ ^ett him in trust to me sacredly. I haye given up most of the things 4 'dWMt' THE DISTURBING DUCKLING in life that a man at my age enjoys in order to guard and shape his future. We have been com- panions, confidants, ever since he and I came out of that experiment in the Hotchkiss woods ten years ago. I have made it the one purpose of my life to correct and redeem in his the errors and shortcomings of mine. I think that you will acknowledge that Charlie has been kept clean and sweet as a girl, shielded from all the temptations and unsmirched by any of the profligacies that make up the curriculum of the well-to-do young man of our day." My excellent sister took a long breath at the end of my preludium, but she did it very much as if she had said, " You are not candid enough to gasp at your own folly, so I will do it for you." Then she remarked quite purringly: — " Very well, conceding the superhuman beauty of your paternalism, what is it is worrying you ? Has the moral superiority of your duckling begun to frighten you ? " "Charlie," i observed, "is of a fir.e, suscep- tible nature, liable to make irremediable mistakes on the side of his affections, and though I have endeavoured to strengthen his judgment and de- velop his moral sense of values — " "The boy is in love," said Petunia; "is that it ? " " I don't think that he could reach that unfor- tunate condition without confiding it to me. No, I will not say that he is in love, but it might result in that." In T«»OLBD UP ,» „„u„ ^^^ " What might ? " 4^^^^^' "- P-ing ,„d pes. Who is it ? " "I have not the slightest idea" that I tr„«tS 4 LT "''"";? »« ^"ch ™rked Petu'nt "He 111 ""^ ''''■"?""'." ^ «™e blind till he reacLs "ft^fouV' ' """ "^ blind""' """ "-"■ y™ "o "o/S that I a„ be called doting ctta^f'"^^!''/.*''" °"ght Z discovered ? " ^"'f '« " you have ""■er night wheS''h"etd "^"'^ '""". ''"'the' » little i|f.rpe„ nott Z"! °",.'' ' "™= "Po" table carelessly*." """ '"' ^"i ''ft on the in^f :";ourf;<;t"- *'"> -''"emy awakened advan^e^Vhi; Lttsress ' n""", ''°' '^^^ ''"l^t"-'.' ""Id hilp it"' "' ' ^'" "-"^ ^^^ What ,„credibleforbea;ance-and that line THE DISTURBING DUCKLING " • Darling.' " Petunia seemed to break out into an extra bloom of laughter. Perhaps the word awoke tender and joyful memories in her. "You do not detect anything sad in it?" I i.iquired. " S?d ! " she exclaimed. « Why, it is the first peep of exultant nature." " But there was something else visible at the top of the paper, and I could not avoid see- ing it." ^^ "Yes," said my sister, holding her jewelled fingers over her mouth, "it was, * My only, onRest,' or some other throbbing incohr.ence." " No. ^^ It was — ' Wallack's Theatre.' " "Yes," said Petunia, in quite a matter-of-fact way, "how fortunate! It might have been vaudeville." "The association does rot appear to startle you." " No. It lacks he element of surprise." " Then you knew something of it ? " " How could I he., it ? Everybody is not as blind as you are." " And you never told me," I said pathetically, as I buttoned my coat. "My dear Rufus, a man who will not read his son's letters will not take his sister's advice. Be- sides, it is not proper form to nip love's young dream in the bud nowadays. The boy will have his own way, and why waste anxiety about it ? " " Pardon me," I said, " I don't intend that he 7 li ) h * , I ">«» great injusticcAuf"," H •^°" "' ■'"'ng An(< then my ,Ut,r T' i " """"'•s me « «ro„ one eye w^th ?da,W fl ''"• '•»'"ik"cWef Are you aware " r/ ''°"™''- middle o? the „:;„ „»"'• « I stood i„ the »"t with a specially suscenriu f ''' «Perience have fifteen Por twen.^KsinH''"""'"^' '^'We to the scarlet fever, and ant ,„ ? "J'"' '"'' like «t.ons. Have you inTui "j""^"^''™"''^ c„n,p«! :;s?tS'j?^-^-:'r-tteL';rd her badinage behind her*^ ^ """ '° ">«. '«vi„g •■Te"ribr'?o!,''d"'='''''^'«- somebody has said that THE DISTURBING DUCKLING if they were never knocked down they would never get up — it must have been an Irishman. At the worst, the affair would only be temporary. Charlie would probably get divorced in six months." " Petunia," I replie^, with as much dignity as I could command, " I feel that in this matter we are talking at each other from different worlds. You do not know how deep it reaches down into my hopes and happiness." " No," she said, " I haven't thought it neces- sary to dive so deep, when a small amount of prac- tical sense on your part would stop the nonsense by stopping the supp'ies." She must have seen me shrink a little at the proposition, for she added: — " But of course you will never do that on account of the boy's :onfidence in you." " I am not thinking of punitive measures — only of the temperament, the inexperience, and the sad disappointment." "Isn't that about what the hen said to the duckling. Consider the dry barnyard, the com- fortable roost, and beware of the duck pond, with Its snapping turtles and bullfrogs. Do you know what the duckling said ? You have probably for- gotten. It was this,* I prefer them — it is life.' " My mterview with Petunia was discouraging. She evidently knew more about the conduct of Charlie than she had cared to tell me. Then, too, I had an ill-defined consciousness of my own comfortable remissness, upon which she had so adroitly put her flashing finger. I found myself 9 ! 1 f f • TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND hurrying away in my walk, very much as if there was not much time. 1 ' id ffonc to a woman of the world in what I cone cd to be a purely worldly matter. I would new try a man of the world. Men grasped these matters more firn.ly. There was m, old friend! Major Downs at the Club; he had jist the kind of sagac.:y to handle such a case, simebody had said he was a Major Pendennis. With a Fother- ingay on my hands, what could be more appro- priate than a Major Pendcanis. ^^ He sat, as usual, at the Club window, watching the afternoon procession on the Avenue. If h were not for his white side-whiskers and equallv white mustache and very pink cheeks, I sA-'ld door fnT 'T '° \g^'-g°yl« over a temple door, for he was a ways there, watching the coming and going with the same unalterable stare. The animated drift of equipages had for him some kind of personal responsibility, as if he had become its automatic indicator, and must note correctly every day in the year if A were driving his bays and B had his tandem out and C was in proper fettle. Pull a chair up," he said. " The"^ turnout is ^'^S- } really didn't know he was back." D, I said to myself; "it will take him an hour tc get through the rest of the alphabet," ronn! "1?°'"^ ^°T """l"^ ^ ^'g^'" '" tJ^e reading- room, Major. I wish you would join me at dinner when the show is over." " Yes, yes," he replied impatiently, as if I were 10 THE DISTURBING DUCKLING disturbing his view, as he bowed to somebody, " yes, yes ; K is in F's landau. They must have made up. New coachman, too. I suppose that old match will be consummated now." "I will be in the reading-room," I said, and walked away. When he joined me later at dinner, he was so full of the afternoon drift that it was some time before I could get him around to my affairs, and I had to approach the matter with a guarded in- difference. " Don't you find the season intolerably dull ? " I asked. '• Oh, just the usual dulness. I haven't noticed anything extra in it. Nothing hapjjcns this time of year. ' " Nothing going on even at the theatres ? " He looked up from his plate as if the drop from society to the theatre was not altogether excusable. " I don't think anv of cur set are going to the theatres now," he said. "It's a little late in the season." " By our set you mean the old fellows." " Oh, the young fellows have no regard for the calendar. Some of them would go to the theatre on Good Friday if the ballet was a new one." "Major," I said, "you can give me a little advice. Did you not have some trouble as guardian with your nephews ? " " Oh, just the ordinary trouble, the recular thing." / ' B "One of the boys made a mesalliance — " II I'i TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND fixed up." ' ^ " ''"°»'' >"d the mattS- <" S"'T '*''"' prevent it?" thing. Go it, l":rd to'^j; '" P'"-' 'h»t sort of did.?t do thi, yoL "ouidT"^"^"".?- "■)'<"' go;\t'{4r7sr„'irh:;''if ™ ^''«''. -i m preventing the aff^r . i r y°" '"^^^^^ded you how yo/set about it '"^ ^ "^^ ^°'"g ^° ^^^ su;sr:s^:^h:;c/ttt:;:t?^:^^ir^^^^'^ have his swWand h a P^'".'° ^^^ ^^e fellow " V^ ^ '^ ^^^^ 'lone with it " " Quite'S'' '^' '^'"^ ^'"^^^^d i;self." ^ No no -not at all -no! at all." Whatevt Tofll^Z^^' Tf ^^^ P^dd-k. his heels. WheThe pe^. /•' ^'t^ ^ " ^" °"f o^ ."Oh^XiTte^^^ ation," and the Major smacked h;rr'"''"\'^-^^^>^- " As you are oleaseH^^ u ^'P' ^^ ^'« P""- Wuage! Major7Tsa S "if' ^^-^-breeder's that society would do welt^im^ "^e re„,,„d cart of his stock." ^^^^ ^'^ scrupulous 12 THE DISTURBING DUCKLING " Egad," said the Major, " I suppose it does try to, but the tendency of the times is against it, and the stock insist on taking care of themselves. This is a liberal age, you know. Too d d lib- eral, I suppose, tor some of us old fellows. We can't keep up the lines of caste now without going abroad to live. Why, sir, v/hen you and I were young men and had our swing, — and we did have it, old chap, — we drew the line at anything like permanent alliances. By Jove, the old governors wouldn't have it. I remember, in the sixties, I was smitten, along with a number of other young fellows, by Bonfanti — you remember Bonfanti ? " " Bonfanti," I repeated ; " the name sounds familiar. A French actress ? " " No, just a premiere assoluta. We used to squander a good deal of money on tuberoses and japonicas — you remember tuberoses and japonicas were the rage in the early sixties — but, by Jove, sir, nobody thought of setting her down in his family circle. Why, sir, we had dowagers then who would have blighted her with a look. We took our divertisements like gentlemen then, not like business men. I don't know whether the theatre has come up or society has come down, but I'll be hanged if the old chalk-line between them hasn't disappeared. Madame Grampus said a good thing the other night at the Polchers' — what the deuce was it ; wait a moment — oh, yes, says she, ' The theatre is a place now where the curtain alone separates the professional beauties 13 ,i I I tfi h i 't I ) \ il n n u TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND who have their chance from the professional beau- ties who haven't.' Rather good that, eh ? " "Rather a sweeping imputation, Major," I re- marked. J , * It " Deucexl clever, though," replied the Major, his idea of what is deucedly clever being much more liberal than mine. " You know," he went on, "one of the Polcher boys was educated for a clergyman, and he came home one day v.ith a soubrette on his arm." " Married ? " "Well, that was the professional claim. I think it cost old Polcher something like ten thou- sand to get his cub out of it, and the fun of it was that the girl turned out to have a better theo- logical education than the Polcher. Now, you wouldn t look for that sort of thing on the stage when we were young, would you ? Let them alone for a year, I said to old Polcher, and it will fix Itself What can you expect if you begin to hamper these young fellows with theology before they get their eye-teeth cut. They must have waTd ..^''P^"^"''^ ^''^ ^"'^ f^^''" morality after- I had never given much attention to large edu- ca onal matters, but this presentation of the rising generation as inverted pyramids must have lit up my face as if a popular cartoon had passed by. 1 he Major must have seen it, for he went on assuringly : — " Fact, sure as you live. Why, I remember when our governors used to say, train up a child 14 •I I 1 tS THE DISTURBING DUCKLING in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not bolt the truck. You remember that it was the school motto over the teacher s desk. Bless my soul, those old fellows really believed it. But you don't see it now. Got broader views. Leave them alone, and they'll come home and bring their tails behind them, doesn t look well worked in worsted— so now we work it in taffeta. These glistening gems of thought, thrown ott over his wine by the Major, made me feel very lonely, and I could not help regarding the Major for the moment as a social siphon intent only on aerating the conversation. I had a personal grievance, a private bereave- ment, and it was very plain that the Major would regard it as one of those weaknesses out of which a man of the world should grow. _ I ought to have arrived at "just the ordinary indiflFerence to any such foolishness as was involved in trying to keep my boy from traversing my old tracks. It was impossible either to make my excellent half-sister or the Major understand h.,w my ma- ture roots had become entangled in this saphng, and how I resented, with all my might, the idea of giving him up to his " swing." The boy had come home from college six months before, looking a little worn and pale, and the physician had said he must have a year s rest. We had taken the elegant apartments up- town, and had gone into that luxurious bachelor chumship so seldom sustained by father and son, and which I fondly believed was a renewal of the 15 1 1 ' I ( I I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND pleasant companionship of former days, when we were boys together off there in the Hotchkiss woods. Now that there was some uncertain danger of bemg compelled to give the fellow up to his own courses, I became aware of how inextricably woven into me were all the hopes and gentler ambitions and reliant affections that our compan- ionship had nurtured. I believe I could have r.'Z"' /tT?V"P '"^ f'^' "^°^ «Pe^d, Com- rade, It 1 had been confident that his departure was insured against the pitfalls, the rocks, the sirens, and miserable mistakes through which I had laboriously come. It would be unbearably forlorn for me no doubt, but I would weather it through somehow. The covert allusions of my sister and the Major hurt me. They both as- sumed that Charlie had easily and naturally lent himself to some kind of hypocrisy, and was lead- ing one life to my face and another behind my back. I blushed at the recreancy to Charlie of such a thought. I would read the truth in his candid face. At the worst, I said, I have the matter in my own hands, and can at any time shut off the supplies and bring him up with a round turn. o r « ^ He did not return to the rooms until one o clock that night When he opened the door so latT ^ ' ^ ^"^''^' ^° '^^ ""^ ''"'"S "P JrJ^r '"^ '\''^'^''^^" I asked, as uncon- cernedly as possible. i6 Mi 'i THE DISTURBING DUCKLING «*Yes." « What theatre ? " . n- « Wallack's," and he bustled round getting otF his dress coat and slipping on a jacket. " Anything interesting to be seen there ? " English burlesque. Some interesting people • , »> in It. ,, " Ah — would it interest me ? « Hardly ; you are not easily interested, Dad. This, I thought, was the first intimation that there was a divergence in our tastes. He came over to the table and saw the open letter with its telltale heading, where he had dropped it, and, picking it up with a passing expression of annoy- ance at his own carelessness, put it in his jacket pocket. The act was a fine example of the deli- cacy of our relationship. He knew I had not read the letter. " What kept you up so late ? he asked. „ " Was looking over some old papers. « Did you dine at the Club ? " « Yes, with Major Downs. It was very dull. In fact, the town has got so dull that I was going to propose that we run away somewheres." « You don't mean abroad ? " with a little, sud- den start, I though*-. "Why not? I'm getting almost lonely. « Why, I was saying only this morning, how pleasant the town is becoming, now that the bores are all leaving it." « Perhaps you would like me to clrar out on that theory, Comrade ? " 17 'i I 1 « iiU TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND He had gone over to the bookcase, and was looking for a novel, with his back toward me. At this remark he turned squarely around and looked at me mqumngly, with a copy of Mere- dith in his hands. I could not help remarking to myself how handsome he looked, as his motTier's features and ner unruffled candour of expression came out in the light of the chandelier as he stood there " Go without me ? " he said. " You speak as It you thought it would please me." "Well, I have fallen into such a habit of ac- commodating you, that I suppose I could do even that ifit would make you more comfort- aoie. " ^''' ^^^" c"t '<' he said. « I'd look like a detached spar floating around in these rooms with- out you. "What do you suppose I would look like, floating around Europe without you ? " Well, you can at least wait till the season is "Do you mean the theatrical season ? " He did not answer me promptly, and I fumbled something on the table, trying to recall the words of lago about " trifles light a? air," and 3 T?' u'"'"' ^r^ ^' ^"°^'"g anything Iite.ally. The theatrical company would be going back to England at the end of the season. I waited. ^ I felt, rather than saw, that there was in Charlies face an expression of inquiry— a possi- ble pause between suspicion and doubt. Then he J8 THK DISTURBING DUCKLING '); came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder in his old affectionate way, and I felt, even before he spoke, that candour had taken the bit in its mouth. " Dad," he said, " I never lied to you in my life, and it is too late to begin now. If there is anything on your mind, give it to me straight and let's have it out." I was not equal to having it out. Something forewarned me that if I precipitated the issue, he would have the best of it. " I never doubted you. Comrade," I said, " and it's too far into the night to open a new catechism. I am going to bed. Good night." " Good night. Dad." I felt when I was alone that I had temporized with the matter in a most craven manner. Some kind of passive rage took possession of me and kept me awake. It was not indignation at Charlie, but at some impalpable danger that threatened to come between us. About half-past two, tired of my own foolish perplexities, and seeing the light reflected from the sitting room, I got up softly and, going along the passage, peeped through the portiere. He was sitting at the table. Meredith's novel was turned face down, and, lying back in the chair, Charlie was staring at a photograph which he held in his hand, and his face wore an expression that I had never seen there before. h i. I ' 'I I CHAPTER II AFFECTION AS A GAY DECEIVER 1^"^"}^ ^^''^" '""^^ w'th my sister, ^ Mrs Petunia Dewey, and, to get ^ nd of listeners, she h^d our coffee ^^ taken into the conservatory, where ^^ she said, I could smoke as violently as I pleased — the smoke was an lerr'oses ' "^ ^°°' ^°^ '^^ ^^^^'^ ^a-lrd fh;nt°'" ^^l •^'?' ^% '^^ 'P'"^^^ J^er laces, "you thmk your he.r has fallen among the PhilisrinJs " INo, no. Petunia, do not say fallen. He mav have encountered some seductive influences Tnd owing to his ignorance of the world, may hav'e had his senses entangled. I thought f iVoJd get him^away, it would be to his be'nefit and my pea'ce She smiled rather incredulously, I thought. You don t believe he will go," I said 20 ! 1. AFFECTION AS A GAY DKCKIVER " I was smiling," she replied, "at your belief in your ability to carry him off. Men are so credu- lous with respect to their own strength at your age." " But you understand," I said, " that the boy is closely attached to me — I have always made an intimate companion of him, and I have that influence over him still — " She waved her hand as if my idea annoyed her, and she wished to brush it away. " I clearly understand that you are so attached to the boy that you will let him do as he pleases in the end." " I think you underestimate my strength of purpose as well as my influence." " Oh, I dare say it is a fine, fatherly feeling, but it lacks dramatic interest for a young man. I dare say he has committed himself by this time, without regard to your arrangements or feelings." " You don't know that he has ? " I asked abruptly. " I am not going to worry you, Rufus, by tell- ing you how much I know. It is enough for me that you have done your best to develop the fac- ulties in that boy that usually end in a reckless plunge." " Then you can suggest no means by which I can save him from what to both of us would be a very disastrous mistake ? " " Nothing," said Petunia, "unless — " and she paused. " Unless what ? " " Unless you take a fatal plunge yourself." 21 :( TANGI.KD UP IN HKULAH I.ANU "Marriage? Ai>suril." pracricalit es than von liiv,. ''"-'"^^^'««-a of the Coldcreim \l ,. ' "^""^ ^^^ Widow She gor . .„,„ ,.r Shirfj^t' cl"r:^,:: ^^^ peoples ^sri;™^ "" ''''•""' '" "-'"ing other in were not constitutionallv slow in niv annre hem on,, I would have thanked „,y sSr Xn ra^tM,^^:X^"oforthi„ ""'?''■-' V youtll fi7y. "'" *" '°y fr™' " !"■«« of But I had not walked two block, before fh, exercse freshened my faculties. Something seen ed "ig, Wen, bless my sou ' turned hnr-u i I beg your pardon, Petunia," I said, as^she 22 1 AFFKCTION AS A GAY DKCKIVKR came out in the hull wearing a look of surprise, " you don't happen to have a photograph of Madame Coldcream, do you ? " " Yes," she replied, with a smile, " I think I have. Sit down there a moment. I'll hunt it up for you." When she put it into my hands I saw a picture of a highly respectable and slightly prim elderly lady in Mack, whose jaw indicateil considerable decision of character, and whose attire showed a rich but obdurate disregard of the prevailing mode. I put the picture in my breast pocket, merely thanking my sister. But when I reached the door she whisp.red in my ear, so that her ser- vant could not hear, " I would call on her if I were you." Having reached my rooms, I found a note for me that Charlie had left : — "Have gone to the ball match — don't wait dinner for me — must be b.ack, however, before seven." What a naive confession, I said. The curtain rings up at eight, of course. Everything Charlie did now was beginning to be flavoured by my own suspicions, and I suppose I was pretty melancholy there alone in the rooms. I sat thinking over the past, and our almost sacred intimacy that threatened to be disturbed, and something the Doctor had once written to me when we were ofi^ there in the Hotchkiss woods kept reverberating in my mind. Finally, I got out a tin box and began hunting for the letter to 23 ■MMM TANGLKD UP IN BKJI.AM LAND :rhns';:„^::''-'''='-^''-'.''-- could At last I found it, yellow and faded. As I o^>ened u, some dried lilac petals fell out of it Ia.d back ,n my chair, with 'the letter in my hiind and m.sed a n,oment. The filmy smoke^f my cigar seemed to be wreathed by my fancy in o half-human convolutions, and a Florentine m. went undulantly by and dissolvlT into^ Thin toTecalhr' '^' ^'°"°'''^ ^"'•^^ ^hat I had tried climb un rhi,t° ^"' ' r^^y '•^P''" ^hat can ci.mb up on his knees need not waste rciirets that he cannot hve his life over again. He /> liv nl j tr^mS"' H^^ »^.>- -g-Aimself with Sd tremblmg. How js he to load the results of his experience mto that shallop of hins^" wid.o f smlcmg .t? Presently the y^oung sai w.llb "s over^^air" ^^^V^-'^^^-^'ng out to try it 7l wnrs^fe'Hm^f om Te's^nr to" °' ^°"" there on the sands and wair'some'^d^.^erh.^r he w,l, come forlornly back, looking for^he o I wat:;-rks"-' ^'^' '"' °"'^ ^'^ -- -^ °he Dear old Doctor, how unerringly sad his clear wh"h r^'r^' '!^' --•'I'y observation 'To frnm h- r i''''y ''''""^^- ' had not heard wrre.tntftr^.,/,\t^^^ still full ofvitaiityr-T s:';li!;irwrt'^ir: 24 AFFKCTION AS A GAY DFCKIVER long letter, which, I dare say, if I couKI read it now, would appear to be absurdly cffuhivc and appealing. It was a stormy evening, — a bitter spring rain with sleet was driving against the window, — and, not caring to venture out, I ordered a dinner for two sent in ; and when it was ready to serve, Charlie arrived. "There's no place like home to-night, Dad," he remarked. "Then I'll stay in and keep you company," I replied. " I've ordered a good dinner. How is your appetite ? " " Prime," he said. " Let me get my jacket on, and I will carve that capon for you." He was in excellent spirits, and I felt that he was bestow- ing upon me some of the exhilaration that another person had supplied. But I was not to be out- done by this sort of elation. " Capital ! " I cried. " I'll give you the whole evening. Comrade. I suppose you do get lonely here at times, and, come to think of it, it's a lonely business. I shouldn't be surprised if we both went off in different directions looking for the necessary female society." " Both of us ? Oh, don't say that." " Well," I remarked, " it could be made a shade more homelike than two men can make it. But we'll remedy all that in good time, eh ? " " Remedy what ? " "The heavy air of bachelordom. But it will correct itself. Have a little patience, my boy 25 I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND There, there, that will do — help yourself. Will you try some of the wine to-night? " jj "„^°' thank you. Have you been trying "Certainly not. It is possible for some men to be in good spirits without the aid of wine though I doubt, my boy, if thev could get alone permanently without Luther's two other adjuncts '' and I poured out the amber liquid with a gener- ous dash of exultation, and pretended not to see the puzzled look that he gave me. " I don't think you are quite fair with me " he said. " You alluded last night to something and then strode off to bed without an explanation It isn t like you." " IJo, I was not very candid, but I have made up my mind to be perfectly frank with you." "Frank about what.? You are not going to lecture me at dinner, are you ? " => & " Certainly not," "When I explain matters to you and put the thing in the right light — " "Hold on," I said, "you've got it wrong. 1 m going to explain matters to you, and when you see theiii in the right light, you will agree with me. You eat your dinner, and let me t^ilk. You have noticed, of course, that I have not given you as much of my society lately as you are en- titled to, and you must have had a suspicion of what was going on. I ought to have taken you into my confidence at the start, I suppose. But in these matters everybody is naturally more or 26 AFFECTION AS A GAY DKCKIVER less selfish. But as the matter involves some- thing o":- ciiangc i.. our establishment — " Char ;e l.iid dov his knife and fork, and, leanmg ;):i(!-:, took ; long breath. "By UwVigc, Governor, you're not thinking of — " =" " Why, yes, I am. Comrade. Now don't give me that nonsense about my being too old. I never felt in better feather in mv life, and a man at fifty-four doesn't etijoy any immunity in these matters. Hang me, if you don't look as if my confidence were misplaced." " It's a little sudden, isn't it ? " "Well, I never did linger much over such affairs, and I don't suppose you will when you come to face them." " Do I know the lady ? " " You may have seen her, but you cannot know her as I do, until you have acquainted yourself with her many virtues. Solid sort — fine, mature judgment, great refinement of taste, and a capital manager." " Has she got a son abroad ? " " Ah, you dog, you have got upon my trail." "Coldcream. Moses!" 1^' Why Moses?" I asked with slight dignity. " I don't know," he answered helplessly. " An- cient history, I suppose." " Don't be disrespectful, my bov. This is a very serious matter to me." "I think, sir, it will be equally serious to me." 27 •.i< :1 msm mamm TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND r " Ah, then we shall understand each other perfectly." " When did you make up your mind to this ? " " When did 1 ? Why, there you have me. One's mind is made up by such imperceptible degrees in these matters, and they are usually of such a nature that he does not remark the progress." " Then it is made up ? " " Why, as to that, I suppose I can say it is. The final word has not been spoken — I thought 1 would like to have a little word with you before speaking it. Don't you think Madame Coldcream is an unusually fine-looking woman ? " "Oh, pardon me, Dad; it isn't fair to push me to the point of declaring that I differ from you." " You must lay your prejudices aside, my boy. Madame Coldcream has connections in Warwick- shire. Her family is one of the oldest in the kingdom. Her son is in the English consular service. A very fine fellow, I understand, but hampered a little for want of funds — was educated at Leipsic." At this he got up and took a purposeless turn or two. Presently he came up and laid his hand on my shoulder in the old familiar way. "Say, Dad, this is so unexpected, don't you know, it takes the wind out of me. I suppose there's no use of my expressing an opinion about it, however respectfully." It was as much as I could do to keep from 28 AFFECTION AS A GAY DFXEIVER catching him by both hands and lettinir the bottoni out of my device by one weak rebound — he looked so forlorn. However, I kept up my paternal recklessness as well as I could "Comrade," I said, "I knew that it would strike you like cold water at the first dash, but when you come to see ner through my eyes, as you are bound to do, you will ag.ee with me You will, I am sure of it. There's a picture of her. Study the ample brow, and breadth of the lower face." ^ And I pulled out the photograph. He took It mechanically, and I, pouring out some more wine, galloped on over my home stretch. " Remark the equipoise of faculties — the strength of jaw, and the aristocratic pose of the head. Just the kind of woman to keep a foolish old ^ like your Dad well in hand, don't vou thin: •' I V ..vv very well that he was not looking at the photograph at all, but was looking over it at his Dad with a melancholy tenderness, and so I did not turn around. " There's a quiei authority about that kind of woman t 'lat is worth its weight in gold in society." Then I waited a moment, but he said nothing. So I pushed back my chair, and, getting up, took the photograph from his hands and walked over to the grate, where I stood regarding it tenderly with my back to him. But there was a mirror over the mantle, and I could keep one eye on 29 I i I t TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND him as he stood there, leaning against the book- shelves, with his eyes on the carpet. It was two days after this when I got an answer from the Doctor to my letter. It was character- istically brief and pertinent, and read as follows : TusKALOo, Pa. " My dear Old F'riend : I am out of practice, and the invalid world will have to Gobble over its chasms without me. As to your predicament, I foresaw something of it long ago, and warned you of it when you kept coddling t'.at boy's sensibilities at the expense of his will. I should not be surprised if it were now too late, and you were to find out that it is easier to lift yourself by your own waistband than to lift somebody else, when you have taken such precious good care to deprive him of a waistband. I suppose that some of your chickens have respect enough for the proverb to come home to roost, and I cannot for the life of me see what I can do to block the wheels of Nature's Juggernaut, unless you come down here with the young rascal, where you and I can, perhaps, throw ourselves jointly under the car. I have been making my final cocoon here, and have wound myself about pretty comfortably with my own silk for the final transformation; but if you collar the ingrate and drag him to my doorstep, why, confound you, there's a warm place for both of you in my idiotic old heart, and mayhap redemption in my me- nage." 30 AFFECTION AS A GAY DECEIVER These racing metaphors did not then amuse me. I thought only of the genen^us nature that defied them. Anything like an intrigue has always been very repugnant to me, and I never was on masciuerade in my life. But, all at oner, I found mvsclf in- triguing against my own boy, and acting, at my sister's suggestion, a little comedv-drama for his reclamation. Still, there was no help for it. Most comedy-dramas have for their purpose the out- vyitting of the intrigante, and mine was no excep- tion. Who she was, or what she was, or what she looked like, I had not the fiintest notion other than my bedizened fears had portrayed her. It was a fight carried on in the dark so far as the antagonists were concerned, because I shrank a little from the light. It had never occurred to Charlie, poor fellow, while he was running his head into some kind of a silken noose, that his old Dad could encounter the same fate. It began to dawn upon his mind that his old Dad was, after all, an important, if not an inestimable, factor in his future arrangements, and not to be carritd off, if he could help it, by some alien. I flattered myself that I had awakened in him something of my sense of loss in having any marrying going on in our small family. To me, at least, the situation must have had a humorous, almost a farcical, aspect, but I was playing a high, conservative game, and did not at the time consider the absurdity of fiither and son doing their best to keep each other from reaping :l DBMI TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND the benefit of their folly. The only person alive who had the full advantage of whatever humour there was in it was my half-sister, Petunia, to whom my alarmed scion rushed, just as I had done, when he awoke to the fact that a mature siren was after his Dad, scrip and scrippage. Petunia, that most admirable social manager, preserved a family discretion, and exercised a most tactful wisdom. " Your idol has been to see me," she said, a day or two later, " and he wore an encouraging suggestion of being shattered." " Poor Charlie ! " I murmured. " I suppose you are ready to patch him up in any way he desires ? " " Dear boy, it's his first pang." "First rubbish. Do compose yourself, and don't begin your quivering." " I s-ippose he felt the blow keenly. What did he say ? " " He announced to me, with an almost super- human air of distress, that you thought of taking a wife. I congratulated him. " ' But, my dear aunt,' he said, * you don't know who it is. It's Coldcream.' "'So I have heard,' I replied. *A most excel- lent choice — a woman of shrewd business capacity. She only needs an income to be able to exercise a real talent for managing. I cannot imagine a better supervising partner for my brother.* " ' Then you seriously approve of it ? ' he asked me with blank surprise. 32 AFFECTION AS A GAY DECEIVER "'Undoubtedly.' " * But you do not consider me.* " * Consider you ? ' I said. ' You could not let yo^r selfishness interfere with your father's hap- piness. You are young, and have your own path to make. It does not become you, Charles,' I observed, * to be thinking only of yourself.' " ' I am not, I assure you,' jaid the young hypocrite. * I am thinking of him. A man at his age, with responsibilities, is as liable to make mistakes, I suppose, as a young man. You must remember, Aunt, that we are very much attached to each other.' " " He said that, did he ? " " Yes, but I did not tell him that it was just what you had said." " No. That was not necessary." " I reminded him that true affection is largely made up of self-sacrifice; that he would be get- ting married himself presently, and would prob- ably take a woman who supported herself by her own talents, and who would not need your assistance." " Do you think it was necessary to go as far as that ? " " Yes, I certainly do, and when I went that far he acted exactly as you did. He buttoned up his coat, took the middle of the floor, tried to look as if he wanted to hate me, and then col- lapsed. I didn't tell him that you were a pair, but you are." " He certainly takes after me in some respects." 33 ft TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND " Not in looks, Rufus." "You think not?" "Oh, he is like his mother — the handsome young cub. I wanted to get up and give him a good shaking as he stood there, but I had my laces on, and couldn't afiuid to rumple my authority." "Did you ascertain definitely just how far his passing infatuation has gone?'" I asked this rather timidly, fearing that she might tell me. "Head over heels, Rufus. It's what your friend the Major calls just the ordinary madness of youth — but fatal." " Bless my soul. Petunia, you speak as if it were a hopeless case." " Precisely. That's exactly the way I spoke to him about you, and he went off in the same way and asked me if it were a hopeless case. I told him it was, unless he got you away immediately. Rufus, you will have to get each other away as quickly as possible, if only for my sake." And Petunia held her jewelled hand over her mouth, as if to suppress an unseemly impulse of humour. " But the rascal will not go until the season is over," I said, " and everything else may be over by that time." " Oh, to save you, I think he will consent to wrench himself a little. By the way, he expressed the same doubt about your consenting to go. You see you will both have to consent for each other's sakes. It's getting intricate, isn't it? If 34 AFFECTION AS A GAY DECEIVER you should both go, it will be interesting to see which protects the other the best." " You gave him some advice, did you not? " ** How could I help it. The handsome young proflijrate appealed to my woman's sensibilities in spite of myself." " Excuse me, Petunia, • profligate * is rather an unnecessarily harsh word to apniy to that bov." "He looked so crestfallen at the prospect of the Coldcream gobbling all the resources — you don't object to ' gobbling,' do you .-' it is such a comprehensive vulgarism — that I had to treat him confidentially, just as I do you." " Heavens, Petunia, you did not betray to him that my idea of marrying was a mere ruse ? " "Not exactly. I said to him, 'Young man, these are difficult cases to handle. Men of your father's age are unreasonably susceptible. The only thing to do is to get him away from the illusions that affect the mature eye.' " " What did the boy say ? " " He valked about a bit, tugged at his mus- tache, and said, ' Confound it, he wanted to go to Europe the other day, and I opposed it. Now he's got over it.' " " ' Yes,' I remarked, * the Coldcream probably talked him out of it, because she isn't ready to go herself. You know she has had a project for years of going to the Holy Land to live perma- nently, on account of the sweet oil there. Her brother is consul at Beirut.' ' How terrible ! ' remarked your innocent." 35 KM^^-f^i'iMtMir^rfi .-^-^ I 1 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LANr3 " Petunia," I said, " I have received an invita- tion from my old friend and adviser, the Doctor to bnng the boy down there. If I could get him' away and under new influences, I feel that it would be advantageous." " It will never work. You must let him get you away," replied Petunia. " You do not seem to see that it is most important that he should save you. These young fellows shy at the first mtimation of being saved themselves." That evening I came home rather late and suddenly. Charlie was there waiting for me He had not been out. I fondly fancied that there was a slight shade of anxiety in his face, that iVle. Itth could not quite dispel. " V', aat's the matter. Dad ? " he asked. ' Y ju appear to be worried." "Yes," I said. « Deuce take it, I received a letter from the Doctor, asking me to come down to his place in Pennsylvania, and spend a month — you remember the Doctor .? " "Of course I do — a grand old man. Why don t you go ? " ^ " I should like to, but, to tell the truth, it will interfere with some other private arrangements of mine just now. It's too bad, too, for nothing would please me better, and he expects me. Do you think this white tie becomes me as well as those black ones ? " "I shouldn't think you would let such an opportunity slip." " Well, Comrade, I suppose I'm getting too 36 AFFECTION AS A GAY DKCEIVKR old or too indolent to travel alone. That barber has cut my hair in a new style — he says it makes me look five years younger." Then I strode over to the mirror to admire myself. Charlie laughed ironically. " I hope," he said, ♦' that I shall be as chipper at your age as you are, and as ready to go off at a tangent." " Why can't you run down there and explain matters?" I said. " I might join you for a few days, later, though I suppose if the Doctor got me there he would not let me get away." ** Let me see the letter, Dad." This unexpected shot converted me into a gay deceiver literally. I began feeling in my pocket for it, saying, " What the deuce did I do with that letter ? " But, of course, having care- fully burnt it up, I did not find it. •* It is one of his brief and imperative notes," I said. " I'll have to write him and beg off." " Why, it was only a day or two ago that you wanted to run away somewhere, and now you funk at the first opportunity." " Yes," I said, " but it will interfere with some- thing else now. You don't wane me to go, do you r "Yes — if it will interfere with something else." This was candour with a vengeance, but I was too old to be caught off my guard by such a left- hander. We sat down and pretended to waive the whole matter. " By the way," I said, " have we got a Baedeker among our books ? " " Yes," he said, " there is an old one." 37 i iC! -,, TANGLKO UP IN BKULAH LAND " (iive it to mt, please," the pis hurning for you." ^ •- i'c pur on his coat. I was i Utt\.. .c • i i. wir'h';,;™';::,;^;,7;:;'„- ■"" -i-''^' - ^-'^ I looked at hir., over the page as 1 replied • •• I •lo "ot see what could put ,1,at in v.w heul bo:k th«T"ll 'i ."••">■'•■ ^'''™" »"-■ Hetairin'" hi- Dook that I dicln t wish to l,„re vou with — '• Doctor" and ""U''''"""' '" "«^-^ ^' visit to the eHeK^-„^;ts.;ttS;rc-i-;T!^^- ■here might he a dlly'inlt glif^g:;:'' '° "■•= ''■" I laid the book down as I said 'M K i • thought of the matter in the ighf ^f Ai.t duty to whom ? " ^ "^'^^ ~ /' Well, to me, Dad. I think vou owe it to me to take a reasonable care of your health and go slow " 14 AKP'IXTION AS A GAY DKCKIVI K •' (io slow? What do vou mean? There is Thfv arc no danger of my changing my habits pretty well rtxetl." '* How about your tastes? " " They were always uuife liberal. There never was a time when I could not admire the sterling (jualities of a thoroughbred woman. 'Ihat is one of the tastes that improve with age." " Do you know what I think ? " he said. " You need a change." " Yes," 1 replied, '* I have fell it for some rime. I was going to speak to you about it." " VVe shall not agree about the nature of the change. You need toning up by a vigorous mas- culine nature of your own kind — a man of large views, who understands you. You will pardon me, Dad, but you — well, the fact is, you under- stand me — this kind of life is apt to make you — well, just a little eccentric. You really ought to consult your old friend, the Doctor. If I have not the right to feel concerned about you, nobody has. Didn't he save your life once?" "Yes, he did. But you do not think there is any need of his services to save it now, I hijpe. 1 never was in better condition in m\ life." " Physically, yes. But the mind will get stag- nant or capricious in one rut. You have changed. Dad, of late ; there's no use in my denying it." " No; look here, Comrade, you don't mean to insinuate that I am failing, do you r " " I hope not," said my young Guardian, rather pathetically. " Why don't you ask your sister or 39 'i^:,'"'-vciTT'j TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND ^.dt^I^Z.-^""'^''"! nn..rM. "Try you for discretio., and sobriety " ^ ° " Egad, that's fine " I saiH « cu l differ from ^h^ ^* ^"ows how you Oh, I can't advise you Dar? R..^ t your old friend could. '^H'e would l"u yr JhC Your"S„d'i:V"^^-P"''^P= ">= -n Vu'rnisht £|r^p„r.rd3-H&i v„ h J ""; ""-"S yo"-- own words, sir. Why jj "• "iLy rour — to be accurate ? " "W u* ^l"'^' perhaps, you are right" I said Tha s the very thmg I want to correct." It sounds rather harsh," he renllpH «^« u tod that I rnust think of simebodTtsides you' I have not been accustomed to it " ^ .!PP ,T a , 1 P • ^^ w^s watch ng me to see If a weak spot appeared. Presently he^said'- 40 ■ AFFECTION AS A GAY DKCEIVER " You want new faces and new environment with some of the old and best influences. Why not cut everything and take a new dash ? I'm not thinking of myself, though I should really like to see tne Doctor." " But I couldn't think of dragging you away when the city is at its best." " Yes, I know, but consider the joy it would give me to drag you away." I threw the Baedeker on the table. " Con- found you," I said, " I suppose you will have your own way. You always do." " When will you go ? " " There's no hurry, is there ? " "Oh, yes, there is. If we mean it, let's have at it before somebody changes your mind." As I fel' into a condition of helpless acquies- cence, I t: aid see that there was a sly look of triumph in his face as he took oft' his coat again and bustled around the room. Perhaps there was a similar look in my face, as I thought I had got him back into leading-strings, like the little fellow I had so often cajoled before, and I said musingly to myself, with Mother Goose's irony, as I watched him : — Goosey, goosey gander, O whither would you wander ? But I dare say he was equally self-congratula- tory, and was saying to himself, " I'll spike Cold- cream's gun, confound her I " it t 41 ■Hi CHAPTER III WHERE IS TUSKALOO? I^T was a nasty May day when we ^> iocked our rooms and saw our ^ traps loaded on an express wagon. ^^ A sharp, wet wind was blowing ^^ trom the northeast, bringing flur- borin^ Jn^ "^' °^ aggravating crystals and boring into one s marrow acutely. It required considerable moral determination on my pin to abandon my comfortable quarters and my easy habits and go blindly forth' on such an uncerta ^ chase as this in the teeth of an acrid spring. Neither of us had a very definite idea of where we were gomg or what it was we were to accord! phsh by going. But I am quite sure that eadi of us held stoutly to the vague notion that it was a stern duty to get the othe? away. 1 must say that Charlie kept up the appearance of bravery at the start much better than I did! 42 1 WHERE IS TUSKALOO? He fussed about with what looked like resolute energy, as if he were a little afraid I would change my mind if he did not get me started immediately But what does a fellow of his age know or care about weather or definite destination? I was glad to get into our comfortable section on the train tor the city we were leaving was about as woebegone under the spring infliction as I had ever seen it — business trying to execute itself under futile umbrellas, plunging about in sticky and slimy streets ; leaden skies hanging low and emitting wintry blasts fitfully. I could see the look of relief on the young rascals face as we took possession of our com- partment He was saying to himself, " I've got him landed anyway, and now if his old friend the Doctor does not keep him out of mischief, when he understands the case, then I deserve to have Madame Coldcream for a keeper " I forgave him easily because I could not bring myself to believe that he was reading me as well He must have been joyously ignorant of the tact that 1 was saying to myself, " I've got the scapegrace started, and if he gets away from my fnend the Doctor when the Doctor understands the case, then I deserve to have a dancing rughter.' °'' ''"''' '^' '^'""^ ""'^ ^'' ^''' ^ Just exactly into what kind of a country we were plunging by the aid of our self-sacrifice neither of us knew. Tuskaloo might as well have been in Thibet or hid away in the Carnac 43 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND Alps, as far as our knowledge extended. The Doctor had on one occasion referred to the do- main that had swallowed him up as " Beulah Land." Whether this was his affectionate way of labelling things that took his eye or was so set down in the surveys, I had not the faintest idea. If Charlie had asked me as we sat there, what kind of a place Pennsylvania is, I presume I should have answered in a large and compre- hensive way, that Pennsylvania is the Keystone state, crossed diagonally by the Appalachian chain, with three great terraces respectively in- habited by Moravians, Scotchmen, Quakers, and rattlesnakes, and beautifully traversed by thin and noble rivers. Perhaps I might have ex- pressed the conviction that Pennsylvania is a barbaric domain that is always committing a sort of commercial hara-kari and disembowelling itself of coal and iron and other intestinal products for the benefit of mankind and the much smudging of itself. But Charlie had not the slightest curiosity about the matter. He settled himself comfort- ably over a novel, and had evidently made up his mind not to look out of the car window or in any manner interest himself in our destination. He would be satisfied to get there and see me safely entangled in an old friend's hospitality. Then he would find some excuse to hurry back to New York and have the full swing of our rooms. Before we reached Harrisburg, he had the 44 WHERE IS TUSKALOO? car window open and had relinquished his novel for the spring, full-blossomed, was coming up that way. He noticed that the sunshine was quite yellow the air was heavy with the scent of lilacs and the glades were already purple with the hepatica. The traveller leaves behind him at Harrisburg most of those familiar reminders of a common country and thereafter slips easily into what is distinctively Pennsylvania. But if he is unbur- dened, as we were, by personal or commercial pre- dilections, he accepts the new conditions as he penetrates them, with a comfortable wonder and a calm zest, and thinks of them as belonging not so much to Pennsylvania as to a pleasing picture that defies locality. As he reaches the Juniata and turns north to MifBintown, a new and serene pastoral world welcomes him with pleasant out- stretch. It remains to all such persons as come that way for the first time, to discover the Juniata for themselves, and to wonder, as so many English- mien have done, why they have not heard more about It. But It is when the vagrant traveller takes the great bend southward again at MifBin- town, in obedience to the graceful sweep of this river, and spins along between the Black Log and the Jacks ranges, halfthe length of Mifflin Countv in a vale beside which Tempe was rude and gaunt,' that he feels himself rather voluptuously entering Beulah Land. He may at some time have called Maine and New Hampshire and the Berkshire hills the Switzerland of America in succession. 45 Vi. TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND I It I ■ I- •' We all do. But when he reaches this spot, he is very apt to give over all that nonsense and call this the America of America, as if it were the heart of it, and wearing upon its plateaus and meadowy pleasances, and waving in its gonfalon surprises, high up the timber line, a constant suggestion of calm, beauty, and remoteness. The railway has pierced its secret with iron, but it could not destroy it. The charm that hangs heavy on its gladdening pictures is like a Sabbath-yesterday ; and whether the scenes are English or Scotch, whether they are like Lombardy or Brittany, and they are like all of these in succession, they preserve for us the picturesqueness of Nature and the thrift of a happy and contented people in such combination as one will find nowhere else. And always it is the beautiful river that does the chief beguiling. It is so flush and exultant and joy- ously companionable, growing under your eye more voluble and capricious as it narrows towards its source in the mountains ; springing upon one unexpected tours de force of shadowy pools and silver reaches ; little enchanted islands, fantasti- cally embowered, scurrying past ; and fringed mar- gins of poplar and larch leaping into masterpieces as the eye grasps after them. Other rivers lend their presence to man soberly on his journeyings. This little river accompanies him like a true artist and forever thrums, now softly and now wildly, on the lyre of God. Somewhere, far down this legendary vale, lying in the silences, is Tuskaloo. One does not 46 WHKRK IS TUSKALOO? I stumble over it as if it were an advertisement. One has to hunt for it as if it were a sentiment. It IS encompassed by what remains of the grandi- ose American forest— that stupendous coverlet that once spread over this state and canopied Kentucky and Tennessee on the other side of the great range ; out of whose trackless glooms the Indian peered in war paint, and under whose endless apse civilization had to hew its way when it went up to possess the land. Some insistent commonplaces of travel may have fretted us as we neared our destination, but I have forgotten them. There was of course the regular railway station. I believe there were heads of through passengers thrust out of the tram to see if possible why anybody should get off there, and then the train left us to the mercy of a lumbering stage-coach that swallowed up our traps and invited us to be swallowed up ourselves as It cried aloud, " All aboard for Tuskaloo." Charlie bravely kept up an appearance of in- terest and inspected the homespun and tow- frocked inhabitants, and remarked to me that it was Arden peopled only with Audreys, to which I replied: "Yes, my Boy, I know, I know. But we are doing the' Midsummer Night's Dream.' Let us keep our repertory straight." To be rolled away over cushiony roads, already padded with grass and moss, our vehicle giving back no other sound than the stretching and flapping of its leathers, and to be brushed by blossomy boughs and to sniff the arbutus that 47 \i I' \( 'i i!- TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND our wheels crushed ; always confronting that h'ttle river at unexpected moments, to hear it cry out liquidly, "Here I am again,'* — all this was to slip submissively enough out of accustomed life into Tuskaloo, which was something slumberously inc -edible to men so lately escaping from the thousand fangs of sound. It gave me a Rip Van Winkle-ish feeling to be set down in front of an old tavern with a swinging sign on the green in front, and, as I live, indubitable evidences that human beings played bowls there — probably in the twilight. It was difficult to restrain one's archaic inclina- tions when thus plumped, as one might say, into the eighteenth century. I came perilously near to saluting the tavern-keeper as mine host and swearing he was rubicund, which he was not, and ordering a flagon of wine to begin with. Airs of Provence or of Arcady blew his scraggly white locks about, and he wanted to know if " you be the gents Boylston's got to fetch." Boylston ! Fifty years came trooping back with that word. It had touched me long ago when I went to singing-school in the basement of the old stone church. " I guess," said Charlie, " we shall have to foot it. How far is it to the Doctor's ? " " Goin' on two mile or thereabout. I reckon his team may hev got stuck," said the tavern- keeper. « Will yer step in and hev suthin'? " We thanked him decorously, as if we owed him some kind of apology for breaking into his coun- 48 WHERE IS TUSKALOO? try, and Charlie, who was an object of interest to several red-faced girls behind the adjacent blinds, whose "te-he's" escaped through the openings, remarked that it seemed to be a nice, quiet, agri- cultural country. He was probably thinking of the girls in flesh- ings that he had left behind, and I merely said : — " Yes, we shall miss the influence of those dis- creet women of the world who lend such a charm to real life, not alone by their graces, but by their wisdom." He turned away with a little jerk as he said rather testily, " Oh, we didn't come down here, Dad, for that sort of thing." "Certainly not," I replied. "So we'll just take a lung full of it and scurry back among our kind." " I shouldn't think," he n^-'-^'ed, " a man of your age would want to do so n.uwh scurrying. Now that you are here, you'd better make up your mind to stay awhile." "You shall have it your (wn way, my boy, but I'll be hanged if I'll stay here alone." Before we could exchange any further condo- lences, a stout, handsome equipage, drawn by a pair of high-stepping bays, came up, carrying Boylston on the front seat as easily as the Doctor had carried Union Pacific when it broke five points. Boylston touched his hat and pointed with his whip. He evidently wasted no words on the ob- vious. It was late in the afternoon when we were 49 Pi ^ n I TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND once more rolling toward the Doctor's— this time at a gallant pace. Everything glistened and flashed, and the sweeping houghs now and then sprinkled us with iridescent drops, " Sun-shower half an hour ago,*' said Boylston, and then relapsed into the general jingle of our ongoing. We saw the drifting pigments of the shower scumbled in the west, in the gaps of the moun- tains, as we came out of the woods, roiled lakes of fire and blood and gold, with the evening shad- ows creeping upon them, but still throwing great shafts of colour over the vistas, so that the meadows were molten and the jutting crags were rimmed with crimson. And still the little brimming river, flashing in and out upon us with its deepening darks, like Nature's own corybant. Just this da-'i through 'glades and groves smitten now by the damp, odorous breath of a bottom, pink with the azaleas and w^ rose, and spicy with the tender birch and sas .as, — and now coming head on into the full bl: onry of the dying day, fly.ng as if pursued by the scented evening, — and then, turning in at 'the gravelled walks of a park and coming all at otice abreast of a large colonial house peering through the trees, on the broad veranda of vhich was grouped the last tableau into which our panorama had resolved itself 'vith finishing magic. Yl...s had whitened but not denuded the Jovian head of the Doctor. Indeed, the frost of time was more like the jolly frost of a wedding cake 50 I! WHEKK IS TUSKALOO? that is made to keep, and his ruddy, frank face ac- cepteil the snow as a good picture of Ajax grown old will accept a new niat. Still as erect and hearty at seventy as that Mingo cliicf whose hunt- ing lodge was once on this very spot, he held out his arms to us, laid his trip-hammer hand on Char- lie's shoulder as if he expected him to bend a little in the knees, — which a father's pritie may be pardoned for saying, parenthetically, he didn't, — ami, turning him round as a recruiting sergeant might have done, said, in well-remembered tones: — " Great Scott, and you are the young rascal I used to carry on my shoulder! lo, my d»."ar, I present to you an old friend in our voung guest. Polly, attention, eyes front ! This is a serious business. Polly is my niece. Take him away, girls. He is reeking with city. Have him fumi- gated, and puL !.:m m the haunted chamber." lo and Polly were not to be driven out of their proper reserve by this gustiness, and Charlie, I observed, did not come to this part of the tableau so stoutly. I think the sudden apparition of un- expected loveliness rather took his breath away. However, I can only judge of the matter by my- self. Some kind of a notion floated through mv head swiftly enough that the Doctor had offered a prize for the handsomest girls in Mifllin County in order to strike us dumb, which notion was in ridiculous contrast to the matter-of-fact pair of theni, who stood in the doorway, and tried their best to look as if the arrival of Charlies was of 51 I TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND hourly occurrence, the novelty of which had lone since worn off. * This part of the tableau melted away, after in- troductions, through the doorway, my contribution to It going humbly enough along, followed a little way by an old negro in a dress coat from another generation and luce, which coat was verv much wrinkled in th ■ Wk. He carried a wisp'broom, and I was kv to be properly explained and gen- erously exalted to the Doctor's sister, a quaint relic of other days, fragile and softly spoken, in sober, trim attire, with a pink flush in her cheeks, and a kindly sparkle behind her spectacles. So curiously like a delicate heirloom did she appear that one was a little afraid the Doctor's brceziness would knock ofl^ an edge, but one soon enough saw that the Doctor's bounce iuid long since been adapted to this gracious light of other days. She had a way of involuntarily putting two fingers over her lips just before speaking, as if her re- moteness, so like the spirit of Tuskaloo, might become oppressive, which was rather aggravating, for I am sure that everybody wanted more of it as he always does of a lost ideal. Something in the gray kerchief round her neck, but more in the soft, equable perspective of her manner, invested her with a far-away charm, as if some Quaker an- cestor—perhaps Penn himself— had insisted on peeping out of her, with occasional " thees and thous," all the more delicious, like that kerchief because they did not quite agree with the present.' Her stately courtesy had something aerial about 52 WHERK !S TUSKALOO? it, as if it were always seen through the haze of years ; and it is worth saying here that, long 's wc stayed at the mansion, wc never heard her cal' d anything but " Mother " by each and all, no*^ one of whom !iad any other than a tacit metaphor to stand upon excepting lo. Some women bear with them, into old age, ancestral rights that make the whole wt>rld kin. Thus were we landcil softly enough, but to our glad amazement, into the manorial near: of I'us- kaloo, where life went on with whelming gentle- ness, like that little river, making, as it seemed to me, green pastures and sweet cloistered de- mesnes, that, even to write about, now that I think about ir, is perilously near to impertinence. I suppose all fairly rounded out men — that is, rounded out by protean life itself — come in their ascending spirals to that point when it is no longer possible to go forward with their hopes without going backward with their desires. Heaven slowly shifts its position from the clouds and re- appears behind us in the memory. But how few of us can retrace our steps or renew our /est. In this respect the Doctor loomed up to ne as a favoured paragon, and I must have said s ^. and transform the materials with a new mastc hip of ahcction ? I took off my hat as if to let the cool, rose- scented air come to the assistance of my brain, 62 THE ROSE BENTH and stood there, feeling that I was turning from a bewildered artist to a reverent worshipper? Thus it is, I said to myself, that the Master con- tinues to plant gardens eastward in Eden,and a river still goes out to water the garden and compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold Having returned this borrowed tribute where It belonged, I put my hat on, and was about to stride aimlessly through the grass, when there — shall I say rose up, or descended, or merely developed like a figure on a film?— a thing in a tucked-up petticoat and tilted chip hat, showing Arcadian ankles in red stockings, dew-stained I swear and carrying a little basket on her arm, as jauntily as if she had been picking airy pippins in the garden of the Hesperides. It was Polly. I never knew dew and sunrise and ether and bird songs to come together on their own account but out stepped a Polly like a melody when the mstrument and the Master were ready. Gener- ally she is as impalpable and evanescent as the filmies that flout themselves behind all sympho- nies. But this time she was indubitable, dew- bedraggled, making a shadow of her own, like a French silhouette, on the wet June grass, — which I am sure a filmy never does, — and holding down two measurable spots in the clover with her little buckled shoes. " Bon jour, mademoiselle," I said, my polite- ness and my astonishment going ofl^ together with an impromptu French alacrity. 63 tim TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND i : s?-'^ " My," she said, " I did not expect to meet you so early 1 I must look like a tramp. Have you had your coffee ? " " CofFee ? " I repeated with considerable disdain, and making an absurd inflation as if a man of my age could live on rose-scented air. " I have been taking my Clicquot in a supernal bath, and 1 fancy I got ahead of coflte this morning." " How stupid not to have told you. You came out the back way ! " " I believe I did, if there is a back way." "And the coffee is in the front hall. I will walk round and show it to you. Then you will know better •'ext time." " Delighted. Let me carry your basket." " No. I will leave it at the kitchen as we go round. I gathered them at the Swirl." It was full of mushrooms. Having deposited her basket at the kitchen door, she led me to the front veranda, her little heels clattering ahead of me, and inside the wide- open hall door, on a small table, was a steaming urn of coffee with a spirit lamp under it, and be- side it a tray of cups, a sugar bowl, and a jug of cream. " Everybody comes out this way in the morn- ing," she said, " and takes his coffee as he passes. It is the Doctor's rule. You will have no excuse for breaking it again." Then she held a cup under the silver tap and handed me the black product daintily, pointing as she did so to the cream jug and the sugar; and, 64 THE ROSE BENCH >» before I knew it, she had excused herself and flitted up the broad staircase. I stood there a moment stirring my coftee con- templatively, wondering at the extra flavour of it, and feeling rather proud of my early achieve nicnt, when I saw the tray of abandoned cups with the spoons in them, and it occurred to me for the first time that the family had all preceded me, and having passed the cofl^ee ordeal, had gone on somewhere silently into the mazes of outdoors. As there was a box of perfecto cigars on the table, with the lid invitingly open, I helped my- self, and strolled out upon the front veranda; and presently Polly, in dry shoes and stockings, — the stockings having undergone some kind of sea change to a sober gray, — came out, and catching hold of my arm as I strode up and down, promptly and unconcernedly kept step rhyth- mically and colloquially. " He has been up an hour," she said. "He and Boylston went to Tuskaloo for the mail. Where did Mr. Charles go ? " " Go ? " I said. " He has no go in him at this hour. He is fast asleep in his room." " Dear me ! " she exclaimed. " Let's wake him up. That's his window over the rose bench. We can throw things up at him." I pulled her arm a little closer through mine. We were walking quite vigorously up and down on the veranda, and there is some kind of luxury in having a girl keep step with you buoyantly while she hangs on to you. (So many of them 65 li » i:' '1 :Ui i I TANGLRD UP IX BKULAH LAND add a drag instead of wings.) Such a girl con- vcrrs a solo of motion into a duct of delight. "Icrhaps he is timid," I said, "and it would not hJp matters if you made a demonstration." ^^ ^ 1 cs, she repluil ; " he is quite young, isn't If is a curious feniinine phenomenon that mrls regard .dl hoys '.f their own age as being pexul- la.Iy young. ° ' " Besides," I said, " there is nothing to throw un ess we take the bricks out of the foundation." With that she drew her arm away, skipped off the end of the veranda, and, pulling at the great masses of roses that hung over the stone bench, twisted the stems together deftly, making a clumsy bouquet, and then dexterously shot if into the upper window. As I stood at the step, laughing at this exhibi- tion of girlishness, she caught up another hand- ful of the plentiful blooms, and just as she threw It, Lharlie appeared at the window in a bath robe ptnned together over his breast by a live fist, and received the morning message full in the face where, like a friendly bombshell, it burst into a thousand leaves, that came fluttering and whirling ma descending shower upon the rose bench, at which the picturesque maiden executed a staire courtesy, and cried out, in imitation of mt • — "Bon jour, monsieur. Shall I have your coffee sent up, with the cream of the morninu on !t, or will you come down ? " And Charlie, unable to grasp the true sportive- 66 THK ROSF', Bl NCH ness of it at once, retired from view, v\ • g the dew from his face without making replv. This incident served to pave the way — shall I say with rof^c leaves? — to Polly's' character, though it is unjust to her to suppose that she so intended it, I think uuc clings to such a deliyht- hil indirterence to the usual methods of estabfish- ingan intimacy, ant! I was saying to myself, " Oh,, ho! that's the kind of witch "you arc, is it?" when she flirted awav the hank of petals on the rose bench with hti skirt, and hc^koned me to come and sit down h sidt Ik r. "I suppose," she ;iui, " he will think I am a dreadfully rude sort of tvisc^n. I^verybodv does at first." ■ ' " I'.xcuse me," I rcplird, sifting down beside her, " not everybody." "What do v&// think? Yan expected to meer a lady, of course. 1 suppose it is a shame." " What is ? " " I am." " Why do you wish to disagree with me at t.: first jump? " "Tell me about him" (sticking her index finger up at Charlie's window). " Ditj you bring him down here, or did he bring you ? " I confess that this incredible and instinctive leap of the witch's apprehension startled me. I looked at her with indulgent surprise, wondering what kind of divination was lurking under that chip hat and trim, round bodice. " Why don't you tell me all about it? " she asked. 67 -±^ii TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND M* i" \ ( f r'i "My dear Polly — " " I wish you wouldn't call me Polly." " What shall I caJl you ? " "Call me Bob. Everybody here does. It saves time." " I cannot imagine who invented that atrocious and ill-fitting name for you." "Why, HK, of course." "He?" "The Doctor. He is HE. We couldn't be calling him Doctor all the time." "So my old friend has become a pronoun ! " "HE used to call me Bobolink, then it got shortened to Bob. It was very absurd, because, as I told Him, if I was a real bobolink, you couldn't keep me here in the winter. Guess what HE said. Oh. ,-s, we could. Birdie — in a cage. How would >ou like to be kept in a cage in winter ? " " I fancy I might like it if it belonged to such a HE." ^ "At first I retaliated and called lo Ike, but somehow it wouldn't stick to her, though I am sure Ike has a truer Greek ring than lo, hasn't it? If one stops to think of lo, one wants to add ' sometimes W and Y.' What do people call you, who are familiar? 'Mister' is dreadfully clumsy." ' " Nobody treated me with true familiarity till I met you — except Charlie, and he calls me' Com- rade sometimes," "How perfectly childlike and lovely. It's 68 ,1 THE ROSE BENCH almost as endearing as * Old Chap.' I suppose me call you Old you wouldn't care to have Chap.' " " No, you couldn't get the right swagger. Women never do. Now tell me, what made you think that either of us brought the other? " When one asks this kind of a creature to tell him what makes her think, he baffles her. She is not yet quite sure that she does think at all. At all events this young woman did not stop to think, she went right along. " It is so unusual," she said, "for young men to stick to their fathers and keep their eyes on them all the time." " Oh, I assure you he will not be able to keep his eyes on me all the time down here. I should think you would know that." " You felt that way about it, did you, before you came ? " Then we both looked at each other a moment as if worldly wisdom and inscrutable ingenuous- ness would like to shake handb, but did not know how to go about it. "HE is awfully transparent sometimes, but HE doesn't know it, so HE cannot help letting the cat out of the bag," While I was trying to separate these metaphors and pronouns, she rattled on : — "'Bob,' says HE, 'an old friend of mine is coming here ; try and behave yourself. I have special reasons for making it as pleasant as pos- sible for him. He brings his son with him — a 69 I 1^1 11 I' li(' TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND rt3""^ ."??"•■ ' ?''''■ '^y' '■ ' '' ^^ "'- special HK . ,.,. "^ T" ''"" ' '"'''"' yourself/ says Ht, II, pack you off while they are here' Then, says I, ■ they will not stay.' 'Confound yZ :::'t""'' r' "^^ '^o vorz' jou are the special reason for cvervthinir rhit n en^ .V)h"' '"?"'"'''°'li ^'^^i"'''i^ -«l'l-h- grthefti^!iCsr«:u;thaT stL:'a„i:rwiXEs';,"P4B-nd teeX^r :^:rf^- ^- - '- >■- "Look here, Bob," said I, adapting myself to her fam.hanty without the slightest effor " you have gone quite ahead of the ficts vvirh J ferv d finrx- V ;»u i V f ^^"^" Vour .ngconfession.hu., J.er .in htV^f^^^^^^^ vance/'"" " ''•^' '''' '''''' '^^^ >-^ i" ad- ^^'M don-t behcve HE saw the burning importance " Ho you ? " " Well, I'm beginning to" " Who is it important to ^ " (sticking her finger up.n the a.r again), "f suppose you think he^is handsome, don't you ? " ' " A father's opinion' is of no account Wh*f do you think ? " '»'^<-ount. w hM 70 1 } ^ THE KOSK BKXCH "Oh, 1 think he is so-so. But I don't cut any ice Why cannot men be simple and candid when they cease to be so very young? " ;' I am not so very old, Bob," I protested. ^ No, you don't seem to be as old as vou must oe. You see, I was not sent off to Harrisburg to be htted with new dresses because you were coming. ^ ''That is a compliment; you didn't need to be. "You mean that I was not a need of the tKcasion. « No, I don't mean anything of the kind. J here wasn t any special occasion " "Then what did HI-, mean by 'special rea- sons ? ^ " HK is an old chum of mine, and he wanted to keep me as long as possible, I suppose. Do ymj fhink that you are following his directions now .'' "I am trying to find out how to follow them " By this time 1 was beginning to readjust my opinion of Polly's intuition, and to suspect that she had obtained a glimpse of my letter to the Doctor. " Perhaps," I said, " HE only wanted to warn you against your reckless curiosity. You are trying to make yourself believe that we came down here for a HirtaHon. Fancy running away trom a city full o^' ..omen— and such women — to get up a flirt, tion where there are only two women." " And such women," added Polly. « People 7» I r ;;i TANGLKI) UP IN BEULAH LAND sonKHmes run away to avoid a flirtation, don't this was too much. She had certainly seen my letter to the Doctor, so I said : — " Very well. Suppose it was true, how can you help the matter by proving that we have jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire?" And then this incorrigible minx, with her' chip hat nearly over one eye, looked at me without a tremor and said : — I til me about the frying pan." \ returned her look with what 'her confounded divination must have seen was admiration, and while I was considering if I should not make a clean breast of ir, she said : — " You are really a much meaner man at bottom than y-x3u look to be -one of those smiling men who like to torment a girl by looking confidential, and acting like a long-distance telephone." " Bob," I said, " you are too old for your age and as I am altogether too young for mine, we are going to have considerable trouble in adjustine ourselves to each other." ^ This was an obvious evasion, and it was like a worm talking sophistry to the woodpecker. Of course you know that Charles, now that he^is here, will fall in love with lo," she said. 1 hen I should have to take him away, for it would be very indiscreet on his part." At this she leaned over to look up into my face, as if she had the power of peeping behind my words. I could feel the pry of her bright 72 THE ROSE BENCH eyes. " Then you do take him away from places when he is indiscreet, don't you ? " And then suddenly she exclaimed: "Gracious me, you must think I am an impertinent gossip. When you and HE get your heads together, how my ears will burn ! " " Bob, I am quite willing to acknowledge that you are a delightful little gossip," I said. " But you must not conclude that everybody else is." "Oh, you will sit here together; this is HIS judgment seat, where HI-, smokes HIS pipe and looks like Solomon and tries to talk like Carlyle, and you will fnjth tear me limb from limb. You will say, ' What Kind of a girl is that Bob ? She tried to make a confidant of me at the first clip, and, by Jove ! ' — you say ' By Jove ! * don't you ? — ' by Jove ! I'll be hanged if she didn't come within an ace of it, too ! ' And HK will sav, ' Oh, don't bother with Bob — we have other' fish to fry. Let her hop round and pick up a worm or two and twitter. Twitter, my dear sir, is one of the harmless embellishments of retirement.' " I listened to this vivacity with indulgent admira- tion. Her heedless volubility and piquant sauci- ness were suggestive truly of a bobolink. " Yes," I said, like the boy who is having his fortune told, " then what will 'l say ? " " Oh, you will look a little ' tired, and say, * Oh, Bob is all right, and, by Jove ! sir, if she wasn't so confounded old, I'd make love to her myself.' " At this point, as we were both looking into 7J ^1 li' TANGLED UP IN BKULAH LAND Th^}Tl''l '•'".'.'' '''-'' '1"'^^ "--^f""' that we should both tumble into a common lau.h just wil fall re^'th "'"'"^ '"•" °^^P"^'^^ ^'-^S will rail over the same precipice ^■I^u ''wM ^"^'""^y' ^ was saying to myself work 7 '" ""^ !'■'''■ ^^'""^^g^' wilf make^m k work of n,y unsophisticated lad. There wil not be a family secret that she will not use as a perch on which to twitter. ^^ Just then the Doctor's resonant voice broke m upon us pleasantly as he drove up to the rear "I'll tell you what we will do," said Bob jumping up. "You and I will g;, off to the Swirl as soon as we get our breakfast You nryr: ^'ihaiT I'p'.^-^^ ^' ''^ -' ' -- ^^o^ " Must I see the Swirl ? " " Certainly, and you must see it with me be ore you and HE get your heads togeth r " ' .U ?"''l ' J '"'^^ helplessly, as I followed her hrough the hall, to find Charlie a littiral ScKto "hI' ?^'"S ^. ^'">' '^'"^' '^'^^-' -^^i the v.Se '"^i*^r>'^^^'!; ""'-^'ii"g packages from the V h.cle Bob rushed at Charlie impetuously, with the one purpose, I am sure, of seein.. how a^l^getair; ^'^^ ''' ''''-' ^^^ -'"^^ ^'"^ son %1X- ""'^'"^^' ' •'^l"''^' >'"^''" ■'^=^'J '"V absurd son, flushing up as it he felt the blow of the 74 THE ROSE BENCH money. i rather iked it vou knnu, " u -1 " Yes r mirrh^ k ^ Know, he said. You see he said, addressing himself to me as if an apo bey were ner».«nr,r r u ^ ' jaunt " thes.^ H.vc "^'^^''^'^^ ^o*" ^^'s morning Holding a finger to her lip. Off went all rh.hT' down to Bovlston a., if ^^ ? , ^"^ "^^^' their coiffures of 1 ^ '""'''y ^"""-s with us all '^'''" "^^^^ ^"^'^"f gallants of "I must have overslept myself" salH r« sunrise. ° '" open at gun under your Imdow." ^ "^ '° P"' * ^""'•'^^- " Do you think it necessarv I J.^^i^ u can come under it your^e P '^'ayked in "J °" parting with her demureness! °' '"''^"^ ' 75 ]i\ TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND There was a moment or two in which we ex- changed prim morning compliments, rather stately beside the conversation from which I had just escaped, and then the Doctor drove us all in to breakfast, sa»s cer'emoniey but not before I had the opportunity of admiring lo with some reference to particulars. I am afraid my appraisement may have been somewhat unjust, as it was certainly inadequate ; but it seemed to me, as I felt the morning im- pression made by the handsome girl, that Nature, in bending all its efforts to execute a chef ^ceuvre of physical perfection, must have overlooked some other essentials. Experience alone teaches a man that these superb examples of femininity are generally consummated at a sacrifice of some internal qualities. Nature never tries to do two things at once. If she sets out to make a be- wilderingly lovely woman, she seems to forget everything else, and her product is very apt to forget everything else too. I found myself try- ing to extricate my admiration by means of my reason. What is it such external perfection lacks ? It must lack something or it would not be human ; for Nature, that succeeds in making paragons, never accomplishes miracles. lo's eyebrows were especially coercive. They were insistent parabolas that were like the signa- ture of the great artists, a finishing flourish of completeness, as if the last curve in the picture should be a summary of all the others — occult Oriental arches sprung over mysterious chambers, 76 ssra? 4 THE ROSE BENCH that turn out to be all labyrinths, hard to interpret, and from which it is impossible to escape I noticed that she dropped the lids at my scru- S ?h I ""■"■" ^"/"i^^'^^-^'^gi^t who was /amiliar the h ^rT'^""^- ^"'"'y' '^"^ '"'ght read into the h eroglyphs their true meaning, to discover illusior, "'''^°""*' ^^" ^-^^ ^^^ ever recurring But, [,less her soul, imbedded as it was in so much perfection of form and colour, I was think- ing of my good fortune in having met with some- hing that would bring my young prodigal's sensibilities back to the natural path If I had possessed the true Oriental magic, I might have called into existence, for my own fatherly pur- poses, something of this kind, with just that soft brown hair always restrained a little this side of revelry, and that mild, wondering, receptive look of bottomless ey^s and that half^luminous white pl.shed the eyebrows, for they, I acknowledged were beyond magic; but here it was, .ll madt to order, put up ,n dainty habiliments, and saying. Here I am; you conjured me with your talis- manic imagination — what will you do with me ?"" AM this was palpable fate. lo had looked "it. Charlie and I had plunged toward it, as dull iron plunges to a magnet. Polly had perceived it with a bobolinks instinct, just as a bird perceives the approach of the inevitable spring before it is in So I exulted secretly, as a fond, conniving father 77 rl I ' TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND might, saying fo himself: "So, so, my hoy, your city hallucination will dog us to rht- edge of Eden with blue letters, will she ? You refuse to hum your bridges behind you, do you ? All right, my young master. Now that I have Aladdin's lamp, we shall see, you handsome and overweening young idiot ! " A fiither who has reason and foresight and affec- tion on his side never feels quite confident until eyebrows come to his assistance. I leave out the Doctor's exordium on breakfasts in general, and my own vivid remembrance of that breakfast in particular. I believe he said something about the meal needing a portico of approach, with white I lours, like the ambulatory of a classic temple. One must come up the steps in the morning to a breakfast, with a bevy of the Appetites in attendance, as if going to a festival with obedient nymphs. He always would make these Icarian flights — how well I remembered them of old ! But I noticed that his jolly household held it to be a duty to melt his wings with indulgent indifference. Mother was always deliciously malapropos, and on this occasion wanted to know if the omelette was just right, and lo, beautifully recreant to her Athenian origin, spoke of Johnny-cake ; and my restrained son remarked, with what I thought was an inspiration of imbecility, that Johnnv-cake must be a souvenir of the Civil War — were not theSouth- erners called Johnnies? Whereupon Polly put the finishing touch on this episode by saying: — 78 THK ROSK BKXCM .frV^h' '' 'C ' """^ '^' ^^orrhern soldiers clutched t^A.:^''-' '^''-'^''^'^y ^'^^ ^^^y -- Ar which eycrvbody laughed except M«rher and lo on, o ^,h,„„ ,,,, „,,^ nimhic enough to ^ ' '-V I'ollv's .mpc-rtinence. and the otherof Iho n ;lul not nulude hearty laughs in her stately reper- s;iiart:;/r-[^"^^-'^--'^'^s--^''y-hL " Vou shall enjoy yourselves this morninc in our own way. There are horses if your dv Hones are not too brittle; and if they are. there are v.hKles. You shall expend yourLuher^ce n rtv.ng nowhither joyously. I shall leave vou to the tender mercies of these women, and n,av Heaven have p,ty on your souls, for J must look after H.e men m the fields until eleven o'clock.- " We g!, trthrS^irr ^ ^^^"Sramme," said Polly. ;; We ? •• they all said in polyphonic chorus. it>s, we. Kh, Comrade .? •• "Polly," said Mother, "try and restrain vour farmhanty. Our guests do n'ot yet understand " Oh. don't mind Boh," said the Doctor. « Our ^^"u'vir ';:7V''^"'" ^'^ '" ^'V. Bob's all riL^ht •■ ;; What d.d I tell you? ''said Polly, in mv' ear. Bob I whispered, bending down to let everybody see just how familiar we were "vou are a w.tch. Whatever you say. I'll swear to." 79 IJ MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TKT CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) A APPLIED IM/1GE 1653 East Main Street Rochester. Ne« York 14609 USA (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone (716) 288- 5989 -Fax i.'l -»■». CHAPTER V THE SWIRL O Polly and I went out together into the morning. The dewy brightness of it seemed to obliterate the distance that years had placed between us. She put her little hand in mine on the stones in the wet meadow, saying that she would lead me, for she knew them all. And so, through brambly ways, noisy with the early birds that lent their trillets to every spray and bending sweet flag, we climbed the banks and waded through the blooms into aisles of old trees, ver- nally groined and fretted by the early architect of sunrise, and suddenly stood on the edge of the Swirl. Once, in that unpremeditated walk, we came upon a rug woven of star mosses and cryptoga- mous threads in Persian brightness, and spread in 80 THE SWIRL cushiony pile round a tulip tree that canopied it with protective sprawl, and I turned to look back at the American chateau, poking its dormers and chimneys out of the near green perspective, and tipped here and there, like a Damascus kiosk, with the glittering old gold of the morning. In that glancing retrospect I must have given way to the necromancy of it impotently. There lay the fairy mansion, softly wrapped in the illu- sion of the hour, wholly out of the world of work- a-day stress, and having passed its portals and seen the sleeping beauty, I felt like the tired worker who throws himself upon a couch and gives way to the sweet beguilement of his own fancy. From this nepenthe of the senses I was whisked back by Polly under the tulip tree, holding her skirt deftly lifted, her buckled shoes almost hid in the cushiony rug. " This was certainly laid to be danced on," she said. " I never come here myself without feeling its appeal to my tees." And with that she began to pirouette, her gray stockings twinkling over the green moss, as you may have seen a pair of butterflies flit and flutter across an everglade. While I was indulgently regarding this pic- turesque impulse, gone off like a cadenza in the middle of a duet, she caught me by the hand and pulled me upon the enchanted tapestry, saying, " You must remember some steps of a gavotte. It goes like this, doesn't it? " 8i k ■H 1 1 fi/ I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND Whereupon she began to whistle some t^^ r a qua,nt improvised air. stepprnrout wi^h " in°^ table mock courtesy and I handing her aC; with an impromptu ceremoniousnessfthat now I think of ,t, was very absurd. ' ^ let, a stave of fugitive music .n TZ ? u "P" sporeed with a I^L t fesnls.""^ '""^ "^ the hiir tL"'''"^ '° r'S™" 'he souvenirs of iike fossils i„ .he cVrsta^ZueT'oT;:: Tv ,'11 e^orT/H°'«'''^' "'^ '"-h of P^-i g low- ers or the disintegrating finger of time itself r1 TiVh^ri "■;"'' "^ '^^ "ir afterwaTdV^hen ^he flashes, and to whistle was to start frL J*^ pensile branch about us a newt™u^:r:S 82 THE SWIRL protest, that made her strike an attitude of frolic- some astonishment and put her hand over her mouth as .f she had tumbled inadvertent vn Wt both drew ourselves up into laughing statues and then went on to the Swirl ^ ' By this time Polly had prepared my indolence ?heTJV'"^' '""^"" '' '^^ ^P-^ive beck She had but to crook her arm or toss her he.d Youth 'ir" '^ ";''^°" ^' ^^^ FounLin of J^outh. It IS so comfortable to give over your volition and be wafted by Caprice ^ or in' r P^*"^""'^' '^'-f song in : ^acedonia or in the mirage that beckoned to 'once de nZ ^A u '^^ ^P""' °^ ^he protean stream none could be so whelmingly sleek and copiou^ as th,s. It came sinuously through slanting meadows roistering over stones, to a great deep pool, and then, pouring over the ledge that could not restrain it, turned in a short curve and came smoothly and silently down to us in a great, glassy sherry-brown volume, scarcely broken by ^^ripl' and flecked only by spots of foam, holding; brea h, as one might say, as it slid between^he limestone -ceway to break out exulting in the wider poo. .elow with sudden and pleasfnt glee! A ittle distance up the bank, at the first rfool close Z"X " '""'"'u'" ''""^^' P^g«da-fashioned, so close to the water that its lattices were duplicated below; and when I expressed some surp^rise at 8J I U TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND finding it so conveniently poised over the still waters, not unlike a heron with its wings folded. oily informed me that it was a bath-house, and I learned that the nymphs, here partly disrobed, and flmgmg themselves mto the little lake, went unres.stmgly over the spillway into the sliding stream and down the sluice, to be tossed into the foam below, where I could easily imagine, there would be much flashmg of white limbs in " dolphin tumults mmgled with blithe laughter It was there at the Swirl that I began the most extraordmary flirtation of my life. Extraor- dinary m that it was divested of all the dangers that usually accompany such a performance. I'clly seemed bent on presenting to me her volatile nature in its entirety, and managing with rare unconsciousness to identify it with the as- pects of vernal nature around her. But I felt the protection of a certain incongruity in it and thought there was no more danger of my falling m love with her at my age than of falling into the Juniata upon whose grassy banks we sat and discoursed, and had either accident happened, I should probably have regained my footing, and after shaking myself as became an exper^nced man of the world, would have gone back from the episode to my tramway of propriety. But nevertheless, I was wheedled into a pleasant admira- tion of the unceremonious and ingenuous girl, that may have be.n as aesthetic as it is possible tor one s emotions to become without quite ar- riving at the voluptuous. ^ 84 THK SWIRL We sat there on the step of the rustic pagoda, and as she chattered aimlessly but interLsting'v, I wondered if the charm of sprightliness and guilelessness would make the same appeal to an inexperienced young man that it did to me. One gives way supinely to an authority of graciousness, especially when it is sportive. This minx had had her own way without protest. My own plans, whatever they were, had somehow been softly superseded. I had promised myself a confidential consultation with the Doctor, and there I was whipped off at the start most aimlessly, sitting on the bank with new and unexpected confidences opening to me, as my companion threw buttercups into the stream to see them glide away like receding spots of sunshine. But why should I hesitate to declare that the way of a man of fifty with a maid differs widely from the way of a man of nineteen. It is gen- erally held by the world (and universally acted upon by the maids themselves, I believe) that the man of fifty is altogether more susceptible ; and, while I am not prepared to deny it, I shall insist to my latest breath that the man of fifty keeps one eye open on his own susceptibility, which the man of nineteen never does. What, I asked myself, in a running aside, as I watched the 1 attercups one after the other go the same way and lose themselves in the voiceless torrent, — what is the way of a maU with a man of fifty? Why should she make it apparent that she had gone out of her way to touch my suscep- 85 m [ i i ! I i I] TANGLIiD UP IN BKULAH LAND Sr.'h f'^''-, '"""'';' ^'"' "«i« - going off "it, a g.uottc with mc l,cl„re the ilcw was off 2:Z ' w' "" ''"'' ;" "'^'^^- - "on,s to he T M ;" " '"■"" "'^ ''"^ understood policv of .. s'fh^r' i"''"«'"'^ t '^«''"s';ho\, d inh;rLt«ing;='"'""^^™'''''''=""<'--'-d 1 think I'oliy had an instinctive sense that a .ran of my age was liahle to eonsidet, foTshe h ad iV:Sl It"? '" ""'' ""' "'"'' ---«ion''^ It sne wisha. to prevent it, and even a man of pninnr to •""'■•/'='■' "^"' " '^ somXim- pertin.nt to consider, — verv much in fact it appears at such times, hke analysing' : J:Z': to sit"'here"an''th';''' '"*''="'>'' " "^ '" "« going lo S.IC nere all the morning, are we ? " => & I thmk she felt that she was better protected a pre^ttl'litr- " ""'^"- '° "^ ^^ J^^P- h a pretty little impatience. " There's the neighbourhood, you know ArenV you interested in the place ? " ^ "Are there then really neighbours ? " J asked "Heaps,' she replied, follLing it with a qu ck a^clew^^/patois"^-^^^^ '-' ^^^^'^-'^ ^4pe1 1^' I mean lots," she added. " Lots ? " I repeated, trying to fix the word to ''\f:TJ g^^g'-^Phical origin!' "^ '° " Well, piles." And having heaped each absurd colloquialism 86 THF. SWIKI. on the other, she fell to hiughing at my inahilitv to sort them. " I suppose," she said, " you thought we kept neighbours oft' with acres. I suppose the Doctor did intend to, hut it doesn't work. When I .'.st came here I felt just as you do. I used to look out my window in the morning and scream for Boylston to come and do something human, and he often came and performed on the hoe or a wheelbarrow just to relieve my mind. So much Nature was like those hideous hoop-skirts the women used to wear, it kept everybody at arms* length. But, dear me, I soon found out what a goose I was. There are neighbours hiding in all the woods and hills. Over near the Clove there's the Big Game Hunting Club from New York. Up on the slope of the Black Log spur there's the Juniata Valley Camp. Then there's the Phila- delphia T:out Club's house on the Sprawl. Are you good at walking? because, if you are, I'm going to ask you to climb the side of the Clove some day with me, just to smell the rose fields in Perry County when the wind is sou'-sou'east. You'd think there wasn't a man within gunshot, wouldn't you — I mean an eligible man." "Yes, I was falling into that pleasing fantasy — or perhaps it was a hope that the country produced nothing but girls. It would certainly be more cons'stent on the part of the country."' She slipped her arm into mine, and as we walked along the bank of the stream imparted a secret. 87 '1^ ■ I- TANGI.KO UP ,x „,,:i„.,,„ ,^^„ "Sr-f— "--"-"^ ■ the ':rt 'A zi:^ ':ir^ -- - °^ Wh . we go off for a Jll '"^ f"" ''•^'^''- «^^- Tus.aloo Pike thev nf ^^ '°^'''^''' ^'«"S ^''e i"g jackets, andTlt^,,!;: ;/;f^ ^^ocis in hunt- -ith their hats in ZkCi?^: '^""'r'-' alone in all kinds of r.M . "'^^^ ^ried it yodled but notl^r/n" rj\l"' ^f'^'^ ^^'^ times there are so mmv h ^V- .''>'' ^o^^e- fence that people ^usJ/h-rr ^"'^'^^^ '"^^ «"«• Then mv Mi Uss cVn l^u''' ^ ^■^'"'^"'^■" road one day, and ?he„ .h ' '>' "" '° °" '''= put in a g'and Piano an ''.''"''l'"'' '^^''"'8 »"d hodv wl,o knew \„vTh?n^ 't '""' '/'"= ''"'' ""v- ■'( there is anytWngiJe .!o.^'"u P'"""-'' ^'°«- He hates it alLostas ^uch ^s .1 dn""' u' P""'' "What did the Doctors' to ,rd-'"'^'Se." request ? " ^ ™ '"'^ aismterested "H^j-t said, .Tush, tush, boys.' and went 88 b THK SWIRL on smoking his hricr-wood pipe. Don't uu want to smoke? Gentlemen usually do when .hey walk, and they seem to he more r«- ease when thty do.** "That is heaven's truth, Bob, but I came off without my cigar case." " Wait a moment. I took one of the cigars as I came out of the hall, I suppose I've smashed It all to smithereens. No. Here it is," produc- ing the article from a little pocket, along with a square pad of handkerchief, two or three curl papers, and some half-melted peppermints. " Of course you haven't a match. Let me lir^ht It. ^ " Wait a moment," I said, " till I get the lunner- mintoff." ^ *"** And then up went one buckled slioe a little detonation on the sole of it, and she was' holding the match to the cigar in my mouth, while I made stertorous efforts to do my part, and noticed what a pretty little hand she had, and how daintily her httle finger stood out like the curlicue at the end of a girl's signature. " Now vou feel more comfortable, don't \ ju ? " " Bob," I said, " if you don't supervise it too much, my con.fort will ji-st amble along disinterest- eoly like yours." M that she drew in her under lip quickly and looked up. She was tiying to catch the exact import of my remark, and drew her arm away, saying : — ^ "I'm too familiar oi. short acquaintance. I know it, and i* isn't becoming." 89 T.mGM..D UP ,N- B|.;u,All I.AN,> '---ja.n.M,;;:tti':.r.:;.ffi:;-;;'',;«.-r: without a shrink !)« ,, i ^' l^onizctti It always sccn.s to u'Trvl ''" *'""'l''^' '^^^''^ " Usui Iv .\ ' > "^'^g^'f ""t and can't." hayrjcks, would yo. just for ,h. fLZX'? """ tion °;if „'^l'':,/t r,";'i!"'?e the propos,-. should sec rcialg';ol^''',h':;ti:h?r^--" hefore the situation wfs'i^xplaSneS " ^ "'" ""= brawling wi,h sLll^w" ^t i L^Zfa's^r bar, between gteen, sloping banks; dotte^d LT.Z 9° therr on the orhcr sIiIl- • itU .1 i 1 rv^>mk,i us wirh tn .„ ^'V '^' ^'^•q\v c„„, ,hat Across the (Irv m;"i:. " " /•''"^'*^^"^' supcrioritv. and gums rhcrc";' T^ "'.among tlv aK|,;.s house-. Poll . ' K n '^' ^'"^^' ^'^'Pl^'arws cf a . I on\ vvas sut c t-n V st- y.-J » i^k »u™ lo and Charlie-, if ,h„. h , J ^r""' gallop, would stem It th,. I •,"•'" S^, ' "I* for,-! 'he hridL-e t«„ „ i|, J 'r ^- '"'" " *'•■ "oss at othcT side' W i\ ■ T' '"""■- "I' "" 'I'' purpose? rshoutlTd'^"".^ "° -'""-•■•.l-lc Lghed « her rron " I "'" ,'"^' ' "> authenticate provVatbn ^ ^ ""'' '"■""" " "•'^ slightest when"?':::'e^^j:Xt.';"'''-'>-^-'^. sue^^h\rt£;re=L^^'v:--'^ Pnse she said promptly • _ """'^y* ^° "^X sur- "Will vou?" ^ ^* I sat down on the grass and began untying my 91 iri i, TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND heavy shoes, and getting my trousers rolled up. " I certainly will," I said, " unless you escape me." She was poised on one foot not ten feet away, in involuntary suspense between flight and aston- ishment — a fine feminine astonishment that any- body could have the hardihood to take her at her word. " I'm heavier than you think," she said. " Perhaps," I replied, with grim complacency, as I looked at my stockinged feet. " But I am stronger than you imagine." She was a gamey girl, after all. She let me pick her up in my two arms, and I walked into the water, carrying her nurse fashion, her little buckled shoes hanging down pendulously. The stretch of shallows was only thirty-five or forty feet wide, a clear, sandy reach, with a ten or twelve inch film of sweet water racing over it ; and if I did not step into a hole, or run a flint through my foot, I would deposit my burden on the oppo- site bank as triumphantly indiflferent as if my life had been in training for it. But before I was half-way across I became aware that mv burden was quite a hundred and thirty-five pounds avoir- dupois, and I was wondering to myself where these airy creatures hide all their solidity, when she said : — What do you suppose people would think if they saw you carrying me about the country in this fashion ? " "If you don't keep still," I panted, "I'll drop 92 I THE SWIRL This is getting you in the middle of the stream, serious." rn^^''l'u^^^''l'■ ^'^f ^'"^ ^^"^ '■^""'i '"y neck, rather tightly I thought. "You can't," she cried. « I'm going to hang on to you like grim death. Heavens - wait a moment. " What's the matter ? " " xr°" f ^ "°^ ^ ^^P^'^^ preacher, are you ? " ^^ No; but I will be if you don't keep still." ^^ 1 am trying to make myself light." 1 hat s all right. But when I am trying to get you over one shallow stream, it isn't fair to add """u wu ^^''^^^' yo" are choking me." What do you suppose Charlie would sav " she continued "and I haven't known you twenty- four hours. Don't you think you had better take me back again .? ,t s becoming awfully scandalous." 1 hen she gurgled, or perhaps it was the water running through my ankles. I did not at the moment stop to investigate it closely. There were ten feet more of wading to do, 'and, as I stepped out for the bank, Charlie and lo rode soberly out of the trees, and drew up in very allowable astonishment at the spectacle. jo's first impression was that Pollv was drowned and that I was dragging her ashore like a retriever' so the beauty gave a shrill gasp; but when I had set my burden down on the bank, it jumped to Its feet^ and declared that it was as dry as the Doctors best wine, to which I could only add exultingly, " and just as full of life." . 93 y di ')-{: I' i I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND _ This was literally true, and all the more obvious just at that moment, for the reason that the two equestrians were doing the dismally formal and ex- emplary pohte, as if in mortal dread of each other whi e I had just had Polly's arm around my neck' When my entirely proper son had somewhat recovered from the astonishment that the parental bare legs had occasioned, he slipped off his horse and pulhng me aside, said : " Look here. Dad, for a man that lays some claim to gout, isn't this rather foolhardy business ? °f " t want you to die on my hands down here " " Don t be a fastidious ninny," I said, " but "uM °7.';/'^^''^ ^^^ ^'""g "ly shoes across. Mean- while I 11 go and dance in that warm grass, and dry myself: Come on, Bob, how does that ga- votte go ? ° The charm of such a girl as Polly is that you never have to explain anything, much less excuse anything; and I now recall the picture of Charlie standing by the mounted lo, with one hand on the saddle and the other holding my shoes, as he and his companion looked pensively over to the hot clover, where Po'ly and I were trvinc to execute a wild minuet, she whistling like a meadow thrush. If age has its tender retrospects, why deny to youth and hot blood its tender perspectives, and the privilege of saying to itself, " Oh, for the far- away times when we can be old and gay without bothering, and the skies will be bluer than thev ever were before." ' 94 THE SWIRL It was evident enough that lo looked upon the performance wth much less concern than die! Charhe She sat her horse with the constan respons.bd.ty of being carved to do it. A Z for'hcr'to h T r '^''' ^"'- '^' ^''' ^'■-^- thai disturb fTe 'be'au?;!^ '"^""^' "" ^"^^^'"^ ^"'^ They both watched us a few moments with ndulgent composure, and then Folly told them that they need not wait -we were going on to the Lodge. She even added that we mlgh? be back to dinner ,f nothing happened. Thef rode .way with much dignity, Charlie looking^ back several times as if there were some doubts^in his mind as to who had the best of it After that incident Polly and I were on a new footing of mtiimacy. I suppose that this kind of acquaintanceship has its first kiss, like young love and then things get along with a tacit Ldefstand^ ing We went to the Lodge, so called on account w ith 7h If ""' ,°^''. ""^ ^°^^^ "^y^»°w milk with chunks of apple p.e in it, for tiffin, and, sit- I?n!h°" " ,"??^- bench, Polly and I ate our unch as children do porridge, that is, with the savage zest of hunger, and she said : - 1 know what you are thinking about. You ?or k'e7ps"^ "'" "^° "'" ^'^^ ^° --y "- a t'ask?fVri"''"''°" '''" ^ '■^P''^^' "'^ ^i" be of thinl/ I r^' T' '° set on the other side ot things. I fancy the man who undertakes it 9S I y I. iff I I < r» 1 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND SI "ging, will be like that devotee who is always 1 her« IS one wide river to cross.' " " Oh, that's the Jordan. It wouldn't be such a bugaboo ,f there were men like you about o carry folks over. I suppose you think I am a very d.sagreeable person by this time." ""'''"" 1 haven t quite made up my mind. And yet I feel quite confident that you are not such a dithcult person to carry." ;; But I am not so light as you thought me." lution .'n'rl r'' ^^^^^^'•^^'g^^ to a man of reso- lution, and then your conversation always relieves your specific gravity." ^ relieves " Oh, I can be serious and painful and mean hke other people. Ycu don't know me. I hope y'^ung^;.""' ' ^°"^^ -' - recklessly I- h^: "My dear," I said, "you are over confident You never can tell from appearances just how young a man is. Some men [:onceal thiir youth till they come to a river." 7«-'"lii " Don't say that. Somehow I thought that you were a man with whom it wasn't nlcessary o be careful and laced up, and it was suTh a luxury to meet a man who was without any perils -who could eat milk and pie as you do ^Wa k a moment, and I will get yoi a napkin." Dear little midge, she vanished a moment came back with a towel that she tucked Tnto my shirt front, and then stood off to look at i as iHt 96 I THE SWIRL (( ' ' You ought to have somebody to keep an eve on you all the time -fancy a man dropping earnestly."" '"' ^'^" '^''' ^^'"^ ^' '' ^•^''^'"g " To have an eye on you "— and such an eye — IS, 1 suppose one of the vain ideals of a mature iite. And if the eye isn't literally on you ail the time, to feel that it is somewhere in the im- mediate vicinity, liable to light on you suddenly and straighten out things, must be one of the premonitions of dotage. I wonder if it is. _ The world is basely ignorant of the noble virtues of dotage. It mistakes the last develop- ment of sensibility for sentimentalism and over- grown selfishness. But the first shoots of the grandfather instinct in a man are quite as beauti- ful in their way as are the first shoots of maternity in a woman, and altogether less selfish. The next time you get the chance, watch the old man with his first grandchild, and compare his tender solicitude and wholly disinterested self-sacrifice with his earlier parental conduct, when he was presented with a child of his own. I think you will recall his airs of proprietorship and severity ot fatherhood as something preposterous and over- weening by the side of his later gentleness and love for what is another's. But to return to our milk and pie. " Bob," I said, wiping my mouth with the end of the towel, " you are a jollv good girl, and whenever you find a man strong enough to carry you over without complaining, I want to be on 97 ■'It TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND the bank and dance a gavotte with you before you get your arm round his neck for keeps " Ihats very nice," she exclaimed, "and I'd be pretty sure to get the other arm around your tradiHnnnl h^"^'"''" "'"'""'g"' ^"^ ^ ^'"^he raditional church mouse and must work for my living. Nobody will want to carry me around/'' a disgrTceT '' '^^°'''^'"g ^^'^ V^^' living were en" V!i'f ^?^ ^°""^ ^^^^ ""'"^ persons think so. I didn't know it before." J^J^7u ?u^^ ^- ""^'y "^'■'■°^ ^"d bigoted per- sons All labour IS worthy in the worthy worker." Its awfully good of you to say that. It sounds so fatherly I'll try and remember it.-- « n ^"'"^ Boylston with a team." 2 Do you suppose he is coming for us ? " i>ure i^harhe did not know what would ha^^pen to you if he left you alone with me too i f I 98 i^^^fi^^^ -J -^-''- •'^;r?*?*-^.•■.^Sl&*-'3la.'kr''■' \. •••"**•. •■-V-'-,^ t I ^ CHAPTER VI THE SECESSION OF POLLY f^"'nj?^i O be privileged guests in the house I ^^ °^^ '^^^'^ friend is the surest eman- ■ ^^ cipa;' jn we can ever enjoy in this ■ ^S life from the innumerable burdens M^^ of Jjfe itself Nothing comes so near to shuffling off the mortal coils and cares, without abandoning the senses. The world of duty is just now praising the nobility of service, and very rightly too. But to some of us, now and then, there come times when the ser- vice stops for a while and we are served. These are the spots in our worrying lives where we rest, and say to ourselves with transient delight, " Are they not all ministering spirits .? " The Doctor's spacious establishment, so majes- tically curtained from the world by Nature herself, seemed to have been put at our disposal. He had drawn the mountains round about him and sat 99 t f TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND down to pleasant dreams. But there «,„. secrets about it, no nrivacies tnd hi? f n "° mysteries, unless we'brough 'them' w th us Th" broad hosnitality of the place Nt^ .k J-^" candour of'his handsome old S 'ad,h ' """''"^, a.r of open arms, and seemed U,^ir""n' as you please, it will he entirely s^^^'nTy'don^ afteVour"a?;i;arThe d'"'"^ °"' "«»«• shortly windows were open H^r!,"'"' '^'" ""^ '^' on a lounge V?e cm.lH 1, "^ f "'i""* ''™»=l'' of youth 'at thrX'tndrf rtVho'"'™"' some of the old war sones and th ^'"K^ piano tinkled in bet„«n.'''we „te f°r he°^ ""= from the,r thoughts than the lengTof* he"o7s7 you,"°saL°";:°&r°" '" ''^"""^ - »-y H:;::'a:°u:e!,tV^iifn7inTo'[hr"^^'"Kr nonsense of immaturity If^I TLtr Tt?^'^ P-n him out. I should''ask'^u''forrset it '""• •■ Thafs th. h %" " ^'''-"'y" »^id the Doaor .W and l^:tlt''thin-^ tat^ th^tdr^ .inct°^o'; t" to I'ar" "h' ^''T« »° ""^h dis- " Dist°nctr„'j A '^ "°i*""S °f «pletives." ".stincnon.' Great Scott, don't flatter your- lOO t TriK SlXKSSrON OF POLLY self. I am getting to be the same sort of a dotard myself. It is one of the discoi. -agements of life, that when you give over worrying about m.irrying yourself, yo-i must begin to worry about getting other people married. You have a nuisance, I speak physiologically, that has to be abated by natural means. So have L Yours is masculine, or will be in time. Mine is feminine, which, so far as responsibility goes, is a distinction without a difference. Perhaps if we could consolidate the two idiocies, they might have strength enough between them to walk off and relieve us both." " Are you speaking of lo ? " I asked, with gen- uine surprise. " I'll tell you," he said. " I have clung tena- ciously all my life to the theory that these things regulate themselves much better than we can regu- late them. Now, I have arrived at a point of dotage where I must aband n my theory and begin to do a little regulating myself That girl IS part of the estate. My sist^. there is respon- sible for her. That is to say, the original respon- sibility was hers, and she bore it with the usual feminine ignorance of consequences. When this thousand acres fell to her from her husband, she became a little involved, naturally enough for a woman whose kindly disposition was better able to manage aches than acres, and, as you probubly know, when I was ready to retire, I pulled her out by buying a half-interest and taking the whole tract on my shoulders. You see, her half-interest will go to the girl, and as neither I nor my sister lOI ■I 'f ; I [I! TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND can reasonably expect to keen up this \oa trnr nvc rnousand ilollars, I am naturallv a little -inx >ous to see the concern fall into hands thitwi^l carry out my plans " ^ ^'" a stronger will ,h»„ her own. and til J subm to .t. Ord.nanly ,h,s would be none of n.v bus7 be LbL^Ul" " '■"''""'; '.^Satee. I fi7d Fan partner mto the concern ? " "nngmg a The Docto- , .vho had been lying at full length .-.f up and, resting his fore arms on Ws l^^nees fc oward me wtK a new and confidential earn'e tness at the san:e t,n,e softening the tones of his voice Roes butl t " -^^"^ eirl. as the phrase' power So, J"" ? '"'''"^'^^ ^"^^ "" --e isting powei . Some day the executive will dism,isec' in sentjment, will turn up and inform he That hir destmy ,s, and she will accept it as gospel truth without any guarantee." ^ ^ "^" 102 THK SECESSION OF POLLY " And you are desirous of preventing it ? " "Preventing it? Heavenly smoke, man, do you suppose that I am such a condign boohv as that ? I want to brint; it on. You never fight a prairie fire with water. " Ah, no," I said. " You light another fire." " Well, it has just occurreil io me, that as you and I are both threatened in our camns. we might — " ' " Light two fires," I said. " I am not going into the incendiary business directly, but as we both have the inflammable material, I was thinking that if it cpme together there might be some spontaneous combustion." I began to laugh. " I see you understand mv case better than I suspected," I said. "Oh, yours is a common ca-,e enough," he replied. " But try and understand mine. In the first place, the camps must be consumed at some time, — that's inevitable. It is simply a question of directing the conflagration, and not having any more smoke and ashes than is necessary. I don't say this is pleasant or commendable business for men of our age. But if we haven't any old women about capable of doing it for us, heavenly smoke, man, I suppose we must try our hands at it." " Are you sure there is anything to do ? Judg- ing from appearances, we ought to be delightfully superfluous." " Pardon me a moment," he said, " if I clear up matters. I haven't told you what I am doini^ here." ^ 103 I If » "" arc (i„i„,r w»,.,. ' ,?'"• 'f «'«"" t necessary '^'^•als of pence and cHll r^", ''r'^' ''^''^ >""r ' rcrtd o^ ten thous nTrr"^-^"^'^^^^ ^'^^^er per cents. There's norl ^'^''"' '" «^"<^"'-e four ^Jy ^en rhousandVyear E"^ ''?' «^""^ ^''•" 'o help other peopir^But^r'"'' ^''' '"'^g"''''-'/ ^ '^ h,s work af-ter hL hand U "" """"' g"»''«n- g'-cs, than the ,wt worn "' '"u"'^' "^ Pl^^e ««h"ut the Icaw din- . '" ^'''» •">"« and O" the work I ha e iecn P "'u" "' "> »"y 'o make faith cures . t'\>'"' 'han I am 7^Wng for other peon e and' v"" '" "-^ ''■<"- place for > ;her people ••'^' '' ' *" '"""'"S this ;;«"« it make you happy?" rightiyv™ed:th:t'':uitTo"m:t""''i:"»'''^. ""d. P°«- I'll take you ov„ th f " "= ''"PPy. ' sup- ;; '' ■■» t".iy p'hILThro;-: »'"' """ ^"^ y™-- ^ ruly iiioonshinp '!'», > •" making other people InT " T Philanthropy Kvofyour should^bvanvn ?••• ^''"' '^^^^^t "P. down here, to a pralvT ''"'^^^^ ^^'"'"ed '"'ght be providential/ "'' ^'^^ °^ things, it 104 THK SKCF.SSION OF POI.I.Y " Why providential ? " ^nV^"' *' ''"'""'*^' ^'' ^"' have ten thou- sand a year to pour in when I have got throu^rh and thus prevent son>c unknown quantitv"vo„; undo.^g my work. I suppose you have seen "Doctor," I said, "you have omitted anv mcnnon o the other girl'in your estal.li:;:^ent ' Mil,' u ofher girl ,s an incident. I am talkmg about the fixtures of the estate. The other girl doesn't count." At that moment the voices came to us from he parlour woven into some old trio. We bo'th ■stened. Something of the characters of the ^rec personages was suggested in the tores. mere was a rich accenting contralto heard in a voluptuous undercurrent, some uneven dabs of teno, a little uncertain, and over all a clear, un- te ered soprano dominating with pitch and volu- b hty, running along, in fact as if challenging the rouJade of laughter. ° . I looked at the Doctor. He was not affected m a similar manner, for he said : — "You see it wat only fair to tell you what had occurred to my mind." " I think I understand you," I said, " and I see no reason why we should not contemplate the progress of events conjointly. Suppose you telJ me about the unknown quantity." " We have some neighbours," he replied, " who 105 !.i} ( I « T/VGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND are landed proprietors, and others who make flymg tnps down here in the summer in search tim:rriues: r "ir'; "^ "^ «"-« -"-'o- eyrandPgUn^'" '"" ^™ " "- y--- with'j'^'f """""]' ''""y P-'^l'^d the door open with her foot and came in, bearing a tray °Ln :i5a:::r'™'°f""'^- ''-'=' f^-'-y^s "I suppose," she said, " vou were hemnn;«„ no. Shed '^f.'j,^:T-<'^'r:xr'"'' the fahip a^rt rrr. "*""-"• A ut that down on tne table, and go and get me a small box of light Havanas that is on my dressing-case " ^ She tossed her head rather saucily. i will send your servant, sahib," she said turnmg to make a flying exit. ' But he got an arm about her and gave her a tXl'ri:::^, ' ^^-^^^ ^^ --ght ha?e onl^itted " Bob can stand smoke like a squaw," he siid but she resents my orders. Gre'at C.st, giH.' It 1 didn t have you to explode against, vou un mmgable l^tle snipe, I'd be worse^hanVet gu -" powder. Now go and fetch the small box like a good g,rl and you shall crack the nuts for us and we'll dnnk your blessed health, which J gettmg to be a terrible burden to everybody bu me, --you mcorngible, si.ck-up banshee Ire- member, the small box." She gave me one glance as sl.^ disappeared. 1 06 THE SECESSION OF POLLY It was singularly legible, and it said: «« You see how the Mogul all went out of him at the slightest resistance. Talk about wet gunpowder " K uVn "u'/v''''P'^'^ ^^ ""'^^ '"fo the theme wh.ch 1 oily had disturbed without dislodging. Old man, he said, - and " old man '• was his favounte term of confidence.-" old man, neither you nor I at our age can go into the match-mak- ing business but it seems to me the depth of hoary imbecility for one man to be going about with an interrogation in his keeping, and the other man guarding the answer to it, afid both of them looking askance at each other " Our heads had come pretty close together, and our voices had sunk to undertones When Polly came in with the box of cigars, I think we wares '"'"S''''""^ ^'P ^ ^'"'^ ^^ if caught una- knlld.''"^'"' ''' f ' "^ °"g^^ - ^- " What are they doing out there in the parlour ? " asked the Doctor. She looked sidewise out the door, as if it were necessary to ascertain. "They are together, turning over a pile of old music. o I w " I gues. so," said Polly ; " but it answers its purpose just as well as new." "Very well, don't disturb them," said the Doctor, prying open the cigar box with a paper- 107 ^m^- I ■f TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND What did you knife. " You serve our wine, bring that pony glass for? " " You said you were going to drink my health, and I supposed I would have to be in it mod- estly." "So you shall," coming down at once to a familiar courtliness. " Here's to your dauntless vitality. As it couldn't be worse, may it never be less. You were born to defy all doctors in general, and one Doctor in particular." Whereupon he drank off .his sherry with a fine old-fashioned smack, and the minx at the table, looking through her tiny glass with one eye, said : — " I seem to be drinking to my own misfortunes, but I go you." Whereupon she sipped the wine and made a face. " Now sit down and suppress yourself," said the Doctor, " and we'll let you into the private council. I have just been telling my old friend here that there are no secrets in this house. Do you understand ? He is a privileged guest. He is to have whatever he takes a kncy to. If he wants the key of the wine-cellar, it must be taken up to his room. If he should take a notion to marry the young lady of the house, not a word must be said." " Not even by the young lady herself? " asked Polly, with genuine surprise. " Well, you see, she isn't as anxious to say things as you are, my dear," continued the Doctor. "My friend here is a good deal like myself; he 1 08 THE SECESSION OF POLLY takes great pride in his dignity and decorum as a father, and insists on all the small proprieties " " Oh, come now," I interrupted, seeing that the young lady was making some ironical comments on this speech with her eyebrows and the corners of her mouth, "you are putting me in a false light; yes, you are — Bob and I understood each other at the first jump. Confound the small proprieties where everything is on so large a scale." "Ti ti, tush, old man. I never could keep more than one eye on Bob, but now that you are here, she ought to see that there are two on her. ^^ When you understand him better, my dear," he said, turning to Polly, " you will see that he doesn't do things rashly like young men." " You mean," said Polly, " that he doesn't wade in at the first invitation." I laughed boisterously, but the Doctor regarded her seriously. " * Wade in,' my child ?" he said. " If there is anything that my friend dislikes, it is slang, ar.i especially New York slang." " Doctor," I said, making one of those plunges that divert, if they do not relieve, one'b conscience, " did Polly come from New York .? " " Where she came from," he replied, " does not appear to me at this moment to be so exigent as the where she is driving at, if you will pardon that form of speech." " Let me ask you one other question ; did you show her that letter I wrote you ? " 109 4! ■'^ TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND The Doctor took his cigar from his mouth and looked at me in undisguised astonishment But Polly got ahead of him. " The Doctor " she said, " is not in the habit of showing his private letters, and what is more to the point, nobody in the house would read one if he left it open on the That this was jumping behind my question to the real import of it, my cheek must have betrayed to her. But I admirea her sudden assumption badinf e^ ^^^" "^ore than I had admired her "My dear girl," I said, "you told me that you could be mean if you tried. It wasn't necessary to prove It by thinking me capable of such a suspicion. I thought this embodied enough of compliment and apology to turn away the wrath of the baggage but, when I looked at her, she had her head up! her under hp was drawn in, and there was a scintil- lant drop in the corner of her eye, as I live. rhe Doctor was lying back, rolling out a per- fectly disinterested column of smoke ni "hf^'"'^^"'^"'" '^'^ P°Hy' " I wish you good And out she marched like a vivandiere. ' You are not as old as I am," said the Doctor contemplating the ceiling. ' "No," I said " I appear to be young enough to have made what we call in New YoFk a bad break. I must have offended her. Wait a moment. I'll ask her pardon and bring her back." I TO THE SECESSION OF POLLY Whereupon I started in pursuit of her. But I ZlTw'\^''- ^/^" "P '^' stairs, saw a flash of white skirt as a door was opened and shut quickly, and fancied I heard the click of a key It is very ridiculous," I said to myself,' as I i'u?enit°r ^h ''V' '° I:' J""^P'"g ^^°"^ i" this juvenile fashion after that petticoat. Confound herelusive airs, what am I thinking about?" When ilatii7h"'1- "^'"'^' '^' ^°"°^' ^^'" ^°"tem- plating the ceiling, said: — " Let me see, how old are you, anyway ? " I suppose I did act like a boy " "More like a trout when he sees a glitterine fly observed the Doctor. " I should^supposf that you had learned by this time that nothing hurts a young woman so much as to discover that she IS not the one who is going to be married ofl^." talkiIg:bout!- ""^ '^^^ '"°^" ^'^^^ ^'^ -- " My dear fellow, if there is anything in this house that Bob doesn't know all about,^.ou can make up your mind it isn't worth knowi^a." 1 hen he dismissed the subject perempto^rily Several days passed in this uneventful manner, the Doctor carrying me into all the byways of his domain and pointing out with admirable' patience the multitudinous details of the estate, which J saw wi h much the same pleasure that one experiences in looking at a vast piece of machinery that does its prod,g,ous work noiselessly. How smooth and systematic and unobtrusively the great farm and the great park came together without the observer III 1 ! ■A . 'I ■ hi ' TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND being able to tell where one melted into the other, making of thrift and luxury a rare marriage of con- tent ! As for the Doctor, he was like the master of the machine, who stands by to keep his eye on the gearing and bearings, only adding a drop of oil here and there, and all the hard work is done easily and continuously under the steady gaze of intelligence. In the afternoons — what drowsy, fragrant after- noons they were — I was left to my siesta, or allowed to read in the Doctor's well-stocked library, where the sun came in broken and danc- ing lights through the rose vines, and sometimes I could hear, over the drone of the bees, the mur- mur of voices on the rose bench, and knew that Charlie and lo were weaving their own spell, so I was content. Into the lumbrous restfulness of the place came lo's admirers, with pleasant disturbance. I could see them from the window, ride up and make their courtly obeisance on the big veranda, gallant fel- lows enough, in corduroy breeches and gay sporting coats, with large exuberant carelessness, mingling formal politeness with freedom of demeanour, and acting altogether like city men who have left met- ropolitan restraints behind. It was plain that they were tolerated by the Doctor's generous hospitality, and that they made the most of it, without penetrat- ing very deep into his domesticity or drawing him familiarly into their group. They regarded our menage with good-natured familiarity, but it was evident enough that there was only one real object 112 'I THE SECESSION OF POLLY neighbours had been introduced to me as Mr Ber- wick Fancher, and his personalit) outranked the others in quantity rather than in quality. There was so much more of him. He knew my sister, Mrs. Dewey, very well ; was glad to meet a city man so far away from his base; how did I fill in l!l^T.V ^ u3''^ ^^^"^y^ ^"P^'^ J ^o"''^ come up to the club house ; there were some extra flies and rods there, and a rack of good fowling-pieces • and then he stalked ofl^as if he had exhausted the polite repertoire. It required a constant exercise ot one s self-conscious dignity to withstand this magnificent impact of health and egotism. Mr Rancher s heartiness was entirely dynamic, and was' probably not intended to be supercilious, but over- weening physical health sometimes manages to be both. His broad shoulders, square face, massive jaw heavy, jet-black whiskers, and handsome, sparkling brown eye, made an ensemble of virility that overrode everything. J think sensibility invariably shrank a little at his personal momen- tum, tor there was an irresistible puissance in his vibrant bass voice and his sinewy step. That it was lo who attracted him to our otherwise un- attractive group, he took no pains to conceal. This young man's father had more than once flitted across my view at the Club. 1 remembered that Major Downs held him in great estimation, as in fact did a very large circle of men, for no other apparent reason than that he was able to buy them all up. As to how the elder Fancher made "3 y •r ■• TANGLKD UP IN BI.ULAH LAND his money, proper form never permitted us to in- qmre. f that matter was discussed at all, it was discussed amcmg the dowagers whose social bait he son had refused to nibble. It was very certain hat the son had fallen into the worst of all hunu halms, wh.ch IS the habit of obtaining all that one desires Perhaps my passing interest in him sprang from a parental pride in my own offspring, and I w,ll not deny that I had a little anxiety, ^' not resentment, at the self-complacent manner in which obstreperous health planted both its feet into a demesne that the Doctor and I had staked out between us. sw^cu . I was walking on the big porch one morning jus after breakfast, wondering what had become o? 1 o y, and expecting every moment that she would flutter outof the hal lightly, and, catching me by the arm, agam add buoyancy and intimacy to mv exercse, when Mr. Fancher arrived, quite spectacu- larly, on a splendid black animal, accompanied by a mounted groom who led an extra horse He came up to the porch in fine style. He had changed his jaunty white corduroy jacket for p 1 nnce Albert coat and wore a silk hat. His salutation to me was not lacking in politeness, but I thought It was tinged with a slight air of supererogation. " Miss lo," he said, "promised to try this Morgan horse. We are going to take a^five-mile dash. A capital mornini ^r a run, Then he ignored me entirely in the inspection of the animal, so that I continued my walk with 114 'f THE SECESSION OF POLLY a half-conscious dutv to let him see that his arrangements were of* no especial interest to me. But 1 could not help wondering it" lo — )o with those drooping lids — would not accept this man's coercive masculinity as irresistihle. I had seen such women before. Their weight of loveliness destroyed their resistance. I slipped away to the library, and watched her come out in a riding habit and wait for Boylston to bring her side-saddle. She was animated and flushed, and I remarked that Mr. Fancher was not restrained by any idola- trous delicacy. As the little cavalcade rode away, Charlie came up just in time to see them issue at the gate into the highway. If he had a spark of his hither's enthusiasm, he must have admired the beauty with such a mount, as she galloped out of sight. He leaned against one of the pil- lars of the veranda, gazing after her, and if you will pardon that kind of dotage which in a parent IS not the result of age, I must acknowledge that he for the moment appeared somewhat inadequate to the situation. How, I asked myself, was that slender and sensitive youth, who had never been allowed to put one foot beyond the limits of a delicate mblesse oblige, to grapple with this lusty Lochinvar who would ride up and carry off ih'e maiden under his eyes by sheer strength and audacity. It seemed to me at that moment that Charlie looked smaller than usual as he stood there, limply enough, up against the possibilities. Perhaps every fond father does not go through this experience, but how many mothers do; and 115 "it TANGLIiD UP IN BIULAH LAND t'ihZ'tj^"",'^'" P,'">'"8 ""^ 'f""! role in Sit I f.l, ^^ ""'' ''."■''"'''y ''^aggcrating him" But I lacked a wo,„a,A power ofl^agnifj^ng h"; reproach in ,he reflection that I " -i^h, hav "« .his beaui and-Ht^eficlC^'™ r„":^„^d' blame h„n for that. -how was I to a" st hirn^ t>»J always come to his rescue promptly Must ayerse to i,..r gues, at least he pretended that 1„ There'^jrUlT '''''" '« '"^ beslman ti " 1 nere was nobody in the establishment that a dotmg father could confide in. P„n rj ""'!■ >"'''■ '^"' was, -there was mfr of rh"t '>"'^\»°rk her nimble wit ^ou d fi^«l \. "^'-bearing masculinity. What Z,-o-:Xrr°''' "'•".'''''^'^ discernment Wha aid ^f''T' r^l.Pi'^^d herself at me be to a -well to h' '!■" '""' diplomatist might J a — well, to a doting person por.h^°' up and strode out again upon matt"?'''°' my boy," I cried, "what's ;; Matter," he said, "with me?" les, you look lonesome." Ii6 the the THE SKCKSSION OF POLLY " More than usual ? " he asked. " What's become of Miss Polly ? " "Miss Polly, — why, I umlerstand that she's gone." " Gone ? " I almost gasped. " Gone where ? " He turned away, hut I got in front of him. " How do you know she has gone ? " I asked. " I heard it mentioned. I supposed you knew " What did she go for ? " " Perhaps there wasn't any adequate reason for her staying." There was something like evasion in his man- ner and answers, and I did not like it. " Look here. Comrade," I said, " if you have done anything or said anything to drive that girl away, hang me if I don't' hunt her up and make an apology." This conversation was broken into by the appearance of " Mother," who cunie out smil- ingly, with her two fingers on her mouth. I came at her directly. " Madame," I said, " what has become of Polly ? " The dear old lady had her eyes on the high- way, and I could see that her mind was there also. Polly was of little account to her at that moment. "Miss Polly," she said, "has gone to her cousin's over at the Lodge. We never can tell just what that young lady will do next." " Delightful/' I said," "she is liable to come back at any moment." 117 i 'V!- I'! TANGLKD UP IN BKULAM LAM) »» mJq.cn>lcn, a, if sh, was hir«I " '^' ''" cision"" r' '''"''r^ '° "g^" ^i'h h'-^ final dc or The same IT ;•■• ""^'•^"''-•ously not thinking that IcouM fee the r"-''' "'^.'t'" '""•"'' - Thl\?' / ^"^'? 'l*^ ''"^^^ fhat we miss her jnout Folly uas like trymg to shave with cold eanfr.?K u ^ ^^^ S^te with much more m^ eantry than they were aware of, and the oS fad^v ii8 ^ "'i;: ii- i THK SECESSION OK POLI.y fairly beamed with admirafion. As soon as lo was dismounted, her cavalier, with a sweep of liis hat put snurs to his horse and he and his groom went thundenng off. It was like a page of Kroissart. I he first thing th.it Miss lo said as she mounted the steps was, " Has I 'oily come hack ? " It thus became evitjent to me that the whole household wanted Polly back again, and I made up my mind that I would find Charlie, who had wandered off somewhere, and then see if we could find the house called the Lodge, and, if possible, bring her back. In my search for Charlie, I ran upon the Doctor in the trees, and told him frankly what I intended to do. 'I o mv surprise he said : Very good. I will go with you. I want to give her a piece of my mind. If you feel like it, we will walk there. It is only a couple of miles " 119 i ^•--'l - , ., . CHAPTER VII THE CAPITULATION OF POLLY f'^'^^^FjH^ HE Doctor and I strode along ■ ^^ across his fields in the full glare I ^^ ?^ ^^^^ summer day, heralded by ■ ^^ innumerable birds and bannered B ^^w by blossoming trees. The aspect of the country was one of whelm- ing life and beauty, softened by infinite varieties of colour, and prophetic of an orderly opulence that seemed to be the expression of an undis- turbed divine plan. It was impossible not to feel the gentle stress of Nature, everywhere luxuriat- ing in the early stages of its exultation. The lanes were snowed deep in blossoms, the air was heavy with the incense of a thousand censers. It was that auspicious moment when, as the poet has said, " the earth is in tune," and out of her myriad mysteries came only the harmonies that intoxicate the sense. 120 -3 i THE CAPITULATION OF POLLY The Doctor, who instinctively knew what I was thinking about, fitte* himself into it with a ready gusto "The real charm .)f ihis cour:ry," he said, " has not changed mu^ h tor half a century. The sturdy men who came litre uw.a Scotland and the north of Ireland left most of the distressing influ- ences behind them. They came from bleak hills and storm-swept moors into a land flowing with milk and honey, where the roses sprang up over night and the grasses of the field stretched for- ward millions of hands to meet them. The whole belt of this country, from the mountains eastward across the great terraces to the sea, slopes away in an intermediate zone of quiet luxuriance. On one side races the torrent of Northern enterprise, magnificent, clamorous, in- satiable ; on the other side stretches the exhausted domains of an outlived condition, waiting for new life. This is the splendid mean between the aggressive destructiveness and the patriarchal in- dolence of man. Here he seems to have lost everything but the primitive thrift and content, and walks in the footsteps of his fathers with a homely industry." Having delivered himself of this characteristic speech, the Doctor stopped in the lane and pointed — very much as Abraham might have done — to the outlying meadows, through which a bit of blue ribbon ran its watery way, and upon which the dainty mistress of the season had shirred her wild parterres with feminine device. It was 121 i ^i AU TANGLI.D UP IN BKULAH LAND not that however, to which he directed mv it hTTicror :r ^'r '°"^'^^"^^'" .-tt^n .Zi.; an I like ,V I ?"' '"^ '""'^'"g '' ^^at dis! tance like the aphides on a succulent leaf Sil houetted on the crown of the rise, aga nst the purple bastions of a far-off moun ain^ \t he tne run of it all. The pastoral perspective wis l>ke an opening into ancient ckys/ The s^f south wind s^n.pt over the stretches, rippHn. the sailed into the northeast. No doubt the Doctor saw that my fancy was leaping ahead of hf ^acts and for that profligacy he always had a leash of adjust ,t to my evasive faculties. I believe his T"'a' ?t' °" ^^'^ «'^^^«'°"> refenTce to pounds of fleece and heads of fatlings, "i'h a qu.et observatmn about the easv flux ofvegetable Z\X 1 '^''^" ''^ ^•■^^ '"e down to the stark market rates, and told me that he would cut a hundred and fifty tons of hay, worth two thou sand do ars in the market, and' began to figure on the smal profits, I, who must have been 1, e'th nig m a httle of the illimitable, and thinkinrof a shepherdess in her buckled shoes dlmcm^ofe those slopes, rather resented his sordid disturbance of my atmosphere, and told him that the result by "Vu • ^^^"^f'"g'y remunerative. Ihat is because you look at it through your 122 m miL Lr THK CAP! rui.ATlON OF PoiJ.Y infernal Wall Street spectacles," he said « I o L -m'.o;Vchrg^^,>;?"^ =>->•■ '-''ed." is the erasniru/ an,l „„ M "'™"' '™"i 'iisanatc guar anshin ^Y T^ '° " ''''"' "^ "l^^ea] a„ J gta::".'^'''^"^'^'^"' -Poland .„u„on ;n;|^-.^ira,,^^^c-;t--r mtnts. J he spiritualitv of it re'iidp^ in ,1, f . that I get so precious little out ofl; '^ '" ""■ ^'" i nat s It," I s-iifl • " ^^, . • • i fancy." ' • ' ' """'"f your harvesting fancilsr • °" "^''" "■" ' ™P "«hing but .ha;"'';hr:oro'f''a'N-:rv''-^-, ^,7? ^^'f ^^=p I shall aaree llth ,- i l "P»«ment house, so longTs vou H "'"' '^'''"■f y™^ enjoyment avail.al:fc resources." ""' ''' '° ''»' ^""^ ^-''^ - appeIi'^h'a[';:vto''f ""'">'""'>' ^'^''^'"^ """'' ^n ar that way to you, and ,s not an industrial 12 •r| 'l,! ^ I' I "I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND " Better," I said. " As you put it, it seems to me to he a religious scheme." He laughed heartily. " Try and understand me," he said. " I have been beguiled into it, not by a promoter, but by the cajolement of the thing itself. So great has been its influence that I have given up working for myself and taken to work- ing for other people. You have no idea what a relief it is. Instead of pulling the other fellows down in a strictly business or industrial manner, I stoop a little so that the other fellows can climb up a little higher on my shoulders. I am carry- ing seven families on my back." " But you do not stoop any." " No, I stand pretty straight to it, do I not ? I learned, when I was in I\ngland, that the whole art of being a successful landed proprietor is not to depend on your land, but to make it depend on you. Nothing is more un-American and effete and delightful. It is a lesson that I learned from the land itself, and I think any one can learn it when he isn't content to furrow the land, but fraternizes with it." " That," I said, " is undoubtedly a pretty poetic idea, and is properly appreciated when a man has ten thousand a year." The Doctor gave no heed to this, but con- tinued : " I came into this country with the common understanding that I was to get every- thing I could out of it. Squeeze and grub was the agricultural motto. If I hadn't leftmost of my human kind out of the scheme and taken a 124 M II. THE CAPITULATION OF POLLY lesson or two from Nature herself, I should have been much more successful as an agriculturist but not as se f-respecting as a philosopher o a religionist. No sooner had I settled myself and arranged my sordid machinery than I established an mtimacy w,th Nature and began to fee! a little ashamed of myself She hnH f-« o j rrr-.k L' 'J^^cif. csnt Had to squeeze and fk' V *^'^7'^^'"g ^'? giving up to something else; from the stem at .rass to the Holstein cow! the whole procession of forces was bent on relin- quishing, giving up joyously all that it had, and then getting out of the- way for something else I pictured myself bringing the procession to a hal on my porch, spreading myself and taking It all in and congratulating myself that I was a terminal depot where it all stopped. I think that 1 sneaked around among the fields for a while feeling that I was a piece of impertinence, and before I knew it I had fallen into the general scheme. 1 here was no use in breaking a cog in such enginery. So I took to passinl on ^he benefits. I might have discharged my seven workmen and lived on my interestTbut I retained them and let them hve on it. When a man gets to be my age, I suppose it does look like religion, but It IS only a doting voluptuousness. I like to fancy myself sitting over these people and shep- herding them with a benign superiority like that tellow you saw on the rim with his dogs. Now and then one of the flock gets a little astray, like this lamb we are going after, and then I come down with my crook and fetch things round into 125 ;M l« •* TANGLKI) UP IN BKULAH LAND natural order again. It's about the only luxury left to a dotard." "Doctor," I said, "you are perfectly right, and I think I understand you. Having imbibed the great lesson from Nature, you set about trans- forming your human establishment into a par- terre where everybody should bloom and sing and grow, and take no special heed. I suppose it IS as near to a paradisiacal condition as a philos- opher ever gets in this world, and it was worth coming a long way to see. If you will pardon me tor saying it, I feel like a bird myself on this occasion; but what I cannot understand is why any lamb in the flock should be at all anxious to get away." '- Bob — ah, you are thinking of Bob. Well, you see that Bob belongs so entirely to the nature of things, that her absence makes me feel that I have in some way disturbed the natural order just as if the robins should depart in July." "I hope there was nothing in my treatment of her," I said, " that made her uncomfortable." " That's just it," said the Doctor, catching hold of my arm. " Bob probably scented our con- spiracy, and being such a child of Nature, her first impulse was to escape from anything so dia- bolically unnatural — you understand me, I mean that she scented the conspiracy and resented the omission. It is a peculiarity of Bob's, that she must not only suspect everything, but must have a finger in everything. I think you will have to tell her all about your paternal anxiety, and ask 126 :' , iry THK CAPITULATION OF HOLLY her fo help you. I have givat faith in Bob's caprices and inscrutahk- impulses." . " I wish you would suggest some possible wiv 'n which her delightful caprices would be of nv assistance to a slight.y perturbed father " ^^ One can never tell. She might keep Mr rtt h" "' -^ ^f "^^" ^ ^-^'^'^ ^^'-'^^iv observed that he avoids her as he would an X-'ray. Has -t occurred to you that Mr. Fancher needs a gentle repulsion, such as the duties of hospita itv forbid me to exercise ? " ^ - ''From the somewhat casual observation that I made of Mr. Fancher, I think that gent en s would play a part of no more importfnce with him than does water on a duck's baJk. I hope I am^^nor disparaging your guest." " Ah, you have been observing him " " I passed the time of day with him, and he r^p?f:'/a:,"r ••" "" ^"''•"'>- ' ''"'-' '^- I he Doctor laughed. " Bob," he sa-l, " is a most extraordinary buffer. If I though there was any danger of my colliding with Mr. Fancher I d hang Bob over my gunwale." "I wish you would tell me explicitly in what way I can avail myself of Polly's talents!" don t know that I can tell you why a pinch of salt adds to the zest of one's appetite.^ I^hav" an Idea that Polly belongs morj Ltirely to he natural order than we do, and as the consequence which we are trying to avoid belong aIso\o tha order, we mightbaffle Nature herself with analliance 127 TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND \l with Nature. Boh probahly sees through us both, and is pitiued that she has been left out of the conspiracy. Besides, with the mingled impudence and acumen of her sex, she detests Fancher." "Why do you think so?" I asked, feeling a sudden throb of kindliness toward Boh. " Don't ask me why I think. Great Scott, man, when one is up to his ears in a day like this, he doesn't try to find out why he thinks. He just keeps on thinking, very much as he keeps on breathing." And the Doctor threw out his ample breast and took in an extra supply of oxygen. " Doctor," I said, " what do you suppose Miss lo's views are with respect to Mr. Fancher ? " " Absolutely nebulous and abeyant," he re- plied, "waiting like chaos to be shaped by some imperaMve will. lo is the most plastic arrange- ment of beauty and inertia you ever saw. So imagine my anxiety and, to some extent, my responsibility." Here we came within sight of the house where our renegade had taken refuge, and I exclaimed: — "Why, I've been here before; eaten pie and milk here." "So much the better," said the Doctor. " We'll just clap her straw hat on, take her by the ear, and march her hack. When you get a good opportunity take her into your confidence dis- creetly." On arriving at the gate we were confronted by two malicious mastiffs that had the run of the 128 * ; TMK CAPITULATION OK POLLY yard, and that warned us off with a suiHTfluoiis show of white teeth and a duet of growls. The Doctor expressed some indignant astonish- ment that the dogs were not chained up, and then shouted "House" in summoning tones. Im- mediately there appeared at an upper window the pert face of Polly h"rsdf, holding the curtain away with a quick hand and leaning eagerly out. "Come down here, you baggage," cried the Doctor, ":ind shut up these dogs." ^•■acious, how you frightened me," said Polly. "I thought you were tramps. Did you bring my trunk? How kind — " " No nonsense. I've come to fetch you back. Put your hat on." Polly leaned her elbows on the window-sill "1 here comes Boylston," sNe said, " how good ofhmi. He's bringing the trunk." We looked round and presently up drove the family phaeton, with " Mother" and Boylston in it. I he old lady leaned out and, seeing us at the gate, said in an explanatory way : — " I'll take her back with me." " How good of you all, said Polly. " But you know I can't come down. I am just as much atraid of the dogs as you are, and if I came down they would be sure to tear the only innocent per- son there is to pieces. Marjory has gone to the field, and she always lets them loose till she comes back. The doctor leaned on the gate-post and shouted to the dogs to be quiet, and " Mother " tried to '^9 ,( ' a I f I l'(^ rAN(il.i:i) Ul» IN HI.UI.AII LAND coax tlu'in witli miiili sihilation tVom tin- vcliiik-, while Hoylston, who was assuiirtif the hoisi- that tlu-iv was MO hurglary inti-iukil ilispitc the noise, also trieil to whistle arnii.iMy hetvveeti. I looked at the scene ami especially at the hriglu face so leisurely taking it all in at the wimiow, ami saiil to the Doctor : — " It seems fo nie that this is one of those occa- sions when it w'ouUI liisturl) the natural order to iiUertere, There is soniehoiiy else coming up the roail," ami sure enough, presetitly Miss lo ami my liisinteresteil son appeared on horseback ami ined the group, therehy increasing the clamour of the dogs, that were eviilently not used to such convocatii.Mis. Charlie legariied the family gather- ing with considerable awe, 1 thought, hut" I'olly clappeil her hands. "What a surpi'. ,»arty," she cried. "Stand still a moment. 1 have it." Then she disappeared from the window. "It's all right," said the Doctor. "She has gone to get her hat. We ought to have brought a shotgun and a pair of hamlcufts." Boylston, who had tied his horse, approached the fence coaxingly, and Polly, calling to him from the window, asked him to stand a little more on one side. " Come, come," cried the Doctor, " never mind your frills. We can't stand here all day." "Just a moment," said Polly. "Keep your eye on that chimney. All right now — there you are," and we all heard the click, and knew that 130 w* Jt\ rill' CAIMI UI.A I ION ()|. I'OI.I.V the captive maiikii li.ul siiappul us with lur canK-ra. " If was siuh a s|.liiuli(l oppoitiinity," she saivl atuiwaiil, " to tatch tlii.- wliok' family at hay, with I MM in the torigroiiiul, giiashirii^ his tilth, anil I'viiyhuilv staring into the skv, as \\' a new star hail apjuareil." Hut it was reserved tor Charlie to put the finish inif touch of' alisurdity on this picture. I le came up to the fence, saying (|uirc deimirely : " I sup pose you all want to go in. I ilon'r think these ilogs arc dangerous," and, putting his hand over the rail, he patted them on their heails, and with a word or two transfornad them into tail wagging lambs. " I'll just chain them up," he said, open ing the gate and striiling oft' round the house with the two animals at his heels. "Now, then," crietl the Doctor, "you stand here at the gate, ami Hoylstoii, you guard the rear exit, while I take the position hy storm." " You had hclter let me go in," said Mother, "and help her arrange herself." isense,*' said the Doctor. " I will arrange her in short order," and iti he strode. " It seems to me," said lo, " that Mr. Charles is better than atiy of you in arranging matters." " Oh, when it comes to dogs," I said, " he al- ways did show the stufi' he was made of. It's what the Doctor calls fraternization." Our colloquy was interrupted l)y the appearance of the Doctor leading the captive on his arm. She looked very demure, but stepped rather airily *.4 I TANGr.KD UP IN BKUI.AH LAND f()r a prisoner, and prcservcii, I rhought, sonic- kind of latent defiance in the tilt of that chip hat. ' '♦ Please," she saiil, making a great show of struggling with the Doctor's arm, " please ~ I see one frieiul in the crowd — let me go to him," and she kissed her hanil to me. " You just get in to that phaeton and do as I tell you, you absconding and inertable little in- grate," said the Doctor. Once in the phaeton, guarded by the old lady beside het, the Doctor arranged the bodyguard. He and I walked Indian file on one siile, Charlie and Boylston on the other, lo bringing up the rear with the two horses, and thus protecteil, the cor- tege moved in solemn procession down the road, its majesty broken only at times by little flute- like bursts from the phaeton. VVhen the captive was once more landed in triumph on the Doctor's front veranda, I think there were many upbraidings and explanations and evasions all tangled up in soprano, from which the masculine conspirators kept well away. But an hour or two later, when matters had apparently fallen into their old rut and everybody seemed to have recovered his and her former buoyancy, except Charlie, who was moping somewhere round the carriage house, trying to make up for the loss of New York excitement by the vivacity of Boylston and the animation of the horses, then it was I caught Bob on the fly and pinned her down on the rose bench. She appeared to be 132 h TflK CAIMrULAIlON OK POLLY a little more nervous than usual, I tli.)uglit, and showed an inclination to escape nu-. " Folly," I said, " the first time that we hat! a talk, you invited nie to be confiilential with vou. I have just come to the conclusion that I should have taken you at your won!." That did not allay her nervousness. "Oh, don't bother with it," she said. " 1 was too It I e. " Not a bit. I was too reserved. The Doctor thinks I ought to tell you everything." "HK? I'.verything? Me?" " Yes ; what makes you so apprehensive ? I am old enough to be your father, and you are young enough to be my daughter. Yoii might even, as a matter of friendship, regard Charlie as your brother." " Father," she repeated rather softly, looking up at me, and pulling in her under lip as was her habit. " It sounds a little too sacred for a pretence." " You suspected that I had run away from something when I came down here. You were right. Now let me tell you just what it was." " Oh," said she, ciuite impulsively, " why not write it? It would be ever so much nicer in a letter — and then I can study it." " No. I am going to tell you all about it now. You see, Charlie and I are a little different from most persons. We have always been close to- gether, and think a great deal more of each other than father and son usually do. I suppose his 133 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND k i li I'Ui! 1 1 1 ^'i' ^ future and happiness are really more important to me than anything else in life; you can under- stand that." "Yes," she said, "in a father that sounds all right." " Oh, Charlie feels the same way. I don't be- lieve he would deliberately do anything against my wishes ; but Charlie is young, you know, and might do something before he knew it." " Did he ? " " Why, yes. There wasn't anything wrong, you understand. It was only foolish. Young men cannot always see as far ahead as their fathers. Try and imagine yourself his sister, and then I am sure you will take my view of it. Remember that I had been for so many vears planning and preparing and watching and guard- ing, and then vou will see how it affected me." " What did'? " "Why, his, — how shall I put it? — his get- ting estranged from me a little, — just a little, you know. Being deluded, beguiled, — only through his eyes, you know. He allowed himself to get acquainted with a girl in the theatre. I don't be- lieve he stopped to think, or he wouldn't have done it. Boys are so easily caught by a passing illusion, and, poor fellows, they have no means of knowing just how unworthy it may be. Probably he thought she was an angel, and all that sort of thing, just because of her glitter and shallow prettiness." " Was she pretty ? " " I suppose she was. But all girls are more or 1J4 *) THE CAPITULAIION OF POLLY less pretty to young men. She was probably nothing more than the ordinary creature of plu- mage and vanity, the kind that one expects to find in a theatre. Now if it were your brother and I were telling you this about him, you would feel just as I do, wouldn't you ? But Charlie is made of such excellent stuff that I knew if I could only get him away where some other and better ideal could fill his eye, don't you know, he would rise to the situation. There's nothing so cfl^ectual for this kind of disease as change of air and scene, and when my old friend the Doctor invited us down here, fortune favoured me by presenting such new attractions as I feel sure would create in any young man's mind a new standard of beauty and character. Remember that the Doctor and I are old and intimate friends, and when he told me that he was anxious to save lo from the same mistakes of youth that ha my boy, — and, if you will permit me to say so, my dear girl, that beset all young persons, — you can imagine how providential it all seemed. Can't you turn round and let me see your face when I am trying my best to be confidential ? Just think what a dis- aster it would have been if Charlie in a moment of heedlessness had made an alliance with some dreadful woman in a theatre ; and young men are all liable to do these insane things. I have been young myself, Polly." " Have you, reaily ? " said Polly, in a tone of doubt. " Sure. Don't you feel the least bit of sym- 135 1 • , »n i I ir j i TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND pathy for me in my experience. I had an idea that you could help me." " O dear me," said Polly, « I don't see what you brought me back here for. What can I do ? " "You are so quick and clever, and then you are closer to lo than anybody else can be at pres- ent; and it is all such a plain-sailing duty for every one of us. You seem to have lost all your desire to be confidential. What is it I have done to forfeit your candour ? " She was silent a moment, as if trying to think. Then she said rather hesitatingly: — "Was the New York person — Mr. Charles's sweetheart, wasn't that what you called her? " " No, I didn't call her that." " Was she irredeemably unworthy ? " " I didn't say that either. She wasn't in Charlie's class, that is all, and he will forget her — he must " " For lo's sake." " Let us say for his own sake and his father's." " ^".'^ } ^"^ ^° ^^'P ^" ^^' You ought to see that it is impossible." " I cannot see why," I said, taking her little hand coaxingly, and remembering how it had gone up round my neck there at the river. " I wish you would tell me why you cannot." She gave something like a little gulp. I felt it come down to her fingers. But she did not turn round. "Because — " she said, and then she took a fresh breath — "because I am the disreputable New York girl herself." 136 CHAPTER VIII IN WHICH I STRUGGLE WITH MV OWN WEB I.^^S WISH I could describe with ex- ^^ actness how this large clap of (^^ thunder from a small pink cloud ^^ affected me. I suppose the best ^^ way to express it would be to avoid the idea of thunder and stick to that of lightning, for I was not so much stunned as illuminated. A great deal of what ought to have been perplexity disappeared in a flash. Presto, the whole business cleared up at a stroke, as if all of the facts had been set in order on a dark stage, and only awaited this elec- tric flash. Whatever may have been my imme- diate surprise, I had no opportunity to express it to my companion, for she pulled her hand away from mine suddenly, and disappeared, leaving only a few flurries of rose leaves. 137 „ I m h TANGL.KD UP IN BKULAH LAND I sat there a few moments and made an inven- tory of the details that came into view. Her pre- science, her intuition, when I first met her — they looked rather sh; bby now. Her protean vivacity and frankness — of course, if she was an actress, they were her stock in trade. Her coquetry with me and all that silly business in the river — part of the comedy of cajolement. What craft in tell- ing me that she had to earn her living and bedevilling me into praise of it. Her rogu- ish ingenuousness in throwing the roses into Charlie's face — that was nothing more, after all, than the familiarity of two comedians. I did not at the moment ask myself how the girl cf the theatre came to be down there, lying in w;ut for me, though that was a question that, more than any other, needed explanation. What just then appeared to me to be of more immediate concern than anything else was my sudden flow- ering out as the dupe of the whole group, every one of whom appeared to have entered into an easy understanding to fool me to the top of my bent. Perhaps in any other mood I should have regarded the disclosure as something in the nature of a practical joke, of which I was the victim, to be put by without annoyance. But as I had set out with what I considered superior craft to bring things about to my own satisfaction, I could not very well at the first view help feeling that my own doting imbecility was the largest element on exhibition, and some degree of pride and pique must be allowed to a man of my years who 138 h I STRUGGLE WITH MY OWN WEB does not like to be outwitted even by his affec- I think I sat there some time feding that noth.ng but sheer slang would accuratel eL ess a purblmd chump." But this easy labellinc of my discomfiture did not disentangle anything Jntlf"toTh" pible that the Doctor h^d leS himself to the cheap trick of befooling me, and ye how was it possible for him not to know what ^vas going on in his own establishment. How in hunder, I as.ed myself, did my unsophis^i^rteS nswTr't^'^hf' """i° '''""'''y- 'Th'- -- no answer to this conundrum to be pumped out of my consciousness. But I must sfy that my Mo- mentary irritation and resentment were acTJm^^- n.ed by a very distinct sense of loss that, to tell he truth, was more poignant than anyth h^g else wither tm t rtL'sXrf 'A-''-^ frankness that. I htd ZT^^r hi^.td'^^ ce tbn . t?'"" "^° '^' ^°"^"^- arena oPde! Ze of in" ' '^"''\l ''^^' ''^^' ^"d lovable fo with al iTh""°".' ^"■"'°°^' '^^^ ^ f^^d warmed to with all the ardent susceptibility of years had shaken her skirts and resolved herself in'^T^om mon actress, mtent only on making me a victb. geals'a manf b .'"'.' ' ''"°^'^'-' ^'^vs con Mmn;/ ^"^ judgment, turning e^en his limpid magnanimity into sharp crystals It was growing late in the afternoon. I sat there on the rose bench feeling a new sense of I .If M I . TANGUiD UP IN BEULAH LAND loneliness stealing over me. After all, what folly it was to try and keep alive and fresh the zest- ful companionships which one has outgrown. The things that one cherishes most must go on their way. It is the penalty of age to be de- serted. What was it the Doctor had so recently preached to me about turning the penalty into a privilege and giving up. Must a man then tear out of his heart all that keeps him alive, and say to it cheerfully, Go your way — my share in it all is relinquished? What a supreme and protective philosophy such a man as Major Downs possessed. Those practical old fellows kept their systems free from these undergrowths, and escaped from the dotage of the sensibili- ties into the sufficient routine of dinners, and cards, and good wholesome tittle-tattle, enjoying the prr cession calmly from the safe Club win- dow. I looked at the roses, hanging all round me with odorous opulence. They wore a new as- pect of evanescence, and every light breath of air bade them fall to pieces and litter the ground with outworn beauty. The bees far up the wall of the house kept up a dull moan. It was like the movement of some irresistible, ongoing stream. A few swallows flickered across the sky, to and fro, with vagrant uncertainty. The b:g shadow of the house reached eastward. I could see its peak crawling across the highway, as if to empha- size the passing of the afternoon, or perhaps, with the merciless symbolism of all visible things, only 140 t ' I STRUGGLK WITH MY OWN WKB tc) picture for me what might be crawling over my own heart. =• Bah ! you will say. For a man of your age, this -s the very effervescence of decline. Up, man and about your duty, if you have any. I? is no't the role of maturity to s.t m rose bowers and moon It you are saymg this, it is a coincidence, for 'it .s just what I was saying myself, as I got up and struck the rose vme with my cane, a hftle vfndfc .vd . only to bnng down a shower of petals as .f I deserved to be snowed under, pinklv But you are to have a little patience with ma- It IS only a man s weaknesses, after all, that en- t le h.m to your attention. Dear me, if we were all strong hke you, where would be our tande and our romance ? "ngie I walked off vigorously, because muscular exer- cise without our knowing it, is a faucet when the enclosed feelings are too heady. But my vigorous step aid not prevent me from keeping fn the other side of the junipers, so that m^y fondit on should not be observed from the house. Thus i" d "ire ?o b "y^''^ "f "^ °^.^'"^^ "^^h a sneaking desire to be alone with my discomfiture. ^ i^erhaps the circulation of the blood helped to ror 1 said, Ho, ho, I am on v so much wq«;rp material to be used by others.^ Mv views and desires are entitled only to politeness.^ Very we f 2Jh Y'l^^""'''''' by Jove, there's Coldmam who has to be counted with." ««-rcdm 141 !■ I ' : i , ! II TANGLKD VV IN BKULAH LAND I believe 1 stopped and put my hand on the opposite arm, as if 1 had a card up my sleeve. But the act, absurd as it was, brought its own reaction, as if I had assured myself that there really was no card there. . , , j r . ''Is there a Coldcream ? " I asked aloud ot a bird that was sitting on the ton of a shadbush,^ « or is she another va-ary made for the occasion ? The bird said nothing, and I replied to myself, " I will write to Coldcream to-night, and just then the note of a tanager came across to me from the trees at the river, as if the summer had an- swered me with a bell. , 1 • 1 •» n I would go over to the Swirl and think it all out with a severe sense of duty, and thus be able to meet circumstances with the austere complacency of a disciplined mind. Then I strode along again as I felt my resolution reaching from my limbs into my mind, occasionally looking back just as though Coldcream might be pursuing me. The portal of the- woods was carpeted with moss, and I entered it noiselessly and preoccupied with mv own musings, to come in sight of tne bwirl, and, as I live, Polly herself, sitting by the side of the pagoda with her head in her hands, Niobe like, all tears. A more disconsolate little wreck 1 never before saw in such a frame of gold and green. Before she was aware of it, I was upon her, and had sat down beside her, putting out one authoritative hand as gently and firmly as 1 could, to keep her from going off in another flurry. "Young woman," I said, calling to my gravity 142 I STRUGGLE WITH MY OWN WEB the full aid of the vernacular, "we must have :his thing out I suppose you thought 1 was on I v made to dance a gavotte with " ^ " Why couldn't you let me alone ? " she siid sockarly of those roses ail falling to pieces thit It seemed as ,f I had used my speech^as / had r^ t'iir bC; '-' ''' -- sh^rin^king/shatLrtd; . '■ I do not fed guilty of havini; desiL-nc.llv .nrud«l upon you at any' time," I s^aid -'S „^ W.I hng fron, the first to let you alone/' ' 1 erhaps I was overarniine mvself nrriln^r I, v.vacous tongue with cocl^sevjrn Tut .h ooked so helpless that I felt in^ta^iy sure that " I packed my trunk and went away What d,d you br,„p me back for ? " she asked?^ expla*::'! it X:^:>-;-;ee that some teii";™^':",.^;!? " '" "-^ '•"''■ ' --^d to do^now''™- ' - g'^d 'o hear it. You can or::°^cie'nr-:fntlj^^^brd^rt'^^^^ "But remember, that I still consider myself of sufficient account to expect it, and Cha'lie tol H3 .•J****' /' '. I I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND — he is of sufficient account, at k-ast in my estimation." " Then why don't you go to him ? You prob- ably understand him better than you do me. Did he ever deceive you ? " " I was proud to think that he never did. But that was before he met you, Polly." " And I am a deceiving, frivolous, mischief- making thing, bent on ruinmg him." "Do sit down, Polly, and try and act like a sensible woman. I did not say anything like that. I am trying my best to find out what you are." "I am just a poor innocent girl who never wanted to deceive anybody, and between you all I feel like a guilty wretch." " But if you will only sit down and make a clean breast of it, I am sure you will feel better. 1 shall." In spite of myself I could not \ .Ip admiring her as she stood there, in a piquant attitude of defence, her head up saucily, and her little hand- kerchief in her hand ready at intervals to give her eyes a dab. " You make a great mistake," she said. " I refuse to be a culprit and make a confession. I haven't done a thing to be ashamed of" " Now, now, Polly," I rejoined, as I shook my finger monitorily at her, " you '-now very well that you have committed two unpardonable sins. In the first place, you i ide Charlie fall in love with you." 144 i i I I STRUGGLE WITH MY OWN WEB "I maili- him?" "Yes. And it seems that would not satisA. hX'"' ''"" "■"" '-'"y y"' mischTefTjj; "I must? How must I?" " Whv, you had to make his old father fall in love with you too." '" She had retreated some feet awiv ^^^ .u- acknowledg„,cnt seemed to catch hjr as the ■..lots say, "all abaft" as she stood there A| fhose variant emotions of which h,.r IX then al;d1h:;:^"s'hff;i::rjr and .^^^^^^^ some half drowned gleams of her old roguish::^: " Because I belong here Whnf riiA for? you do not belfng he^e." ^'^^°" '^'"^ " It seems to me now," I said « th.*- t down here because you and Chal a™ g dT" Yrrk th. . "J"'"'"- _ '"''' y™^ 'on in New aw^. Yr:e-X7o:X:::rh::ofS t t H \y TANGLED UP IN BKULAH LAND have to come with you. What had he to do with it — what had I to do with it?" She was fairly started now, and her sense of wrong thawed her into volubility. "When you came here and made your plans, 1 tried to get away again. I don't want to in- terfere with anything. Why can't vou le^ me alone?" " Perhaps," I said meditatively, is I gazed into the deep green Swirl, " perhaps',! s ;>ccause your going away would be the greatest interference of all. I suppose Charlie and you have about fixed everything in your minds, just how it should all end, if other pei-sons would only let you alone. You would go otf, and the next thing, he would go off after you. My views of the matter would not be o'' .lie slightest moment." "Y"M are doing him a great injustice," said Polly. "He is a young thing and cannot leave his father." " And you tried to beguile him away. Polly, you are a young thing yourself. I am sorry to say you are a disappointment." " So are you. What's the use talking any more about it. We are both disappointments. ' Let's part." " Oh, I don't see any sense in that. Running away will not help matters. Anyway, I don't want you to run away from me." " VVell, I don't see how I can run away from Charlie without running away from you." "But I want you to help me — and Charlie. 146 If I siKUGcaj.; vvnii mv qwx VVKB '<)u real I V havi vou his interest at heart, haven't one acfu,n neutrah/cd the other. ' ^ ' " Don't worry, I'oHv " I v;.,ij utl ,• to ne. rou wil get over it" F tJJ j • l •ndulgent in..>.i,it^ . /U J ^^: h^t that was smoothly eddying in oily vortices. ' ^^ OUourse, she replied, " I'll g,t „,e of it." ^^ ^ an you get out of it nicely ? •' York '• '"'■' ' ""• ' "" g° ''^^^'^ 'o New leaving it '"'bI'^m""'- ' T"''^"'^ ^^'^ ^^at, after "l^idn'tl^k^^ '• That is not a good reason." ^^ I eople would not let me alone." Lharhe told you he didn't like it ? " " No, he didn't." ;;i^idn'the.^ What did he tell vou .? " « /?. *^"^ J«« wouldn't like it " ' " But IT f VV"'-^'"''"^""" ' ^°"'d"'f like it." But you do l,ke,t now, don't vou.?" 1 neither like nor dislike if ' WM,.* .hLg from the sta":"^'™" ''"^^ •°''' ™^ "-X' '47 J TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND m i»f ir I " Well, he wanted to, and — I wouldn't let him." " And why wouldn't you let him, pray ? " " Because I wanted to tell you myself." " Oh, it was arranged between you to tell me all about it, and you both failed to do it." " I suppose so. But that's all done now. We didn't know what your plans were, and I didn't know how easily he could do what you desired. It's different now." " What is different ? " « Charlie." "In what respect ? " " Well, he is beginning to see now that he ought to do what you want him to do. He didn't see it so clearly before." " Before ? Before what ? " " Before he saw lo." " Do you mean to tell me, Polly, that my son has no more strength of character than to fall in love with every pretty face he encounters ? " " Oh, it would be very impolite to tell you whac I think about it." " I shall not have him disparaged, Polly." " No, consider his filial duty. He has more strength of character than I have, and more father." It took all my mental power to separate her irony from her admiration, as she sat there perked up on the root of the tulip tree, like a French picture of the seventeenth century. " I hope," she said, " you do not think I am 148 I STRUGGLE WITH MY OWN WEB mean enough to interfere with his duty, now that it is made piain to me." " But it isn't as plain to me, my dear, as it was." " No ? " ' Such a composite and amorphous " No " never could have been uttered before. I felt something like a little pang of pity as I looked at her sitting there bolt upright, for after all it was a most un- warrantable proceeding on my part. I should have gone my way, and had it, like a .man, and not fooled away the time prying into a girl's wholly unreliable and inconsequential vagaries. But nobody ever goes away on such occasions. I stayed and grew weak and indulgent on account of the French picture. " No," I said, " I don't think you should go away and carry such mistakes with you. Better stay and help me clear up matter^ What is that bell ringing for ? " "That is your dinner — they are waiting for you." " Then come along. Let us go to dinner." " I don't want any dinner. Don't bother about me." " But I shall bother," I said, getting up. " I shall not go back without you. If you do not come along, you will have 'the whole household out here looking for you again, and then our little private affairs will be betrayed to everybody." As she stood up I approached her, seeing that there was a sign of irresolution. " Let me wipe your eyes," I said, taking her 149 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND H H f,i; handkerchief and dipping it into the Swirl. " We need not exhibit our feelings any more than is necessary." She let me do some gentle dabbing myself, and looked up at me half wonderingly, like a child, with her handsome blue eyes full of a tender, liquid light, and I thought to myself that Charlie was not such a fool after all. She had another dry handkerchief handy with which she wiped the water from her face, and while she was doing it, I leaned over, and before she knew it had kissed her on the forehead paternally and even forgiv- ingly, and got ahead of all protest by saying: — " Come along, now, you look like the morning star again." She was passive and unresisting anil allowed me to pull her arm under mine, and then we started on our way back to the house. I tried to make her feel that the subject was dismissed for the time being, but a young woman's emotions are very tenacious, and my endeavours to assume a light and airy tone about irrelevant things were regarded somewhat suspiciously, I thought, as more becoming an old and practised deceiver, and her volubility did not return at once. Just before we arrived at the house, I said : — " Polly, no matter what occurs, there is no good reason why we should not remain fast friends and keep our own counsel, is there ? " " It would be great fun to keep one friend through thick and thin," she replied. " I should like to try it." 150 ■ It m I STRUGGLE WITH MY OWN WKB " So you shall. But we mustn't do any acting, remember that." We were too late to join the family at dinner, and partook of our meal tete-a-tete. Boylston had brought some letters for me, which I found upon the table. I put them in my pocket and gave my- self entirely to the pleasant task of convincing Polly that I had not lost my good humour. It was somewhat interfered with by " Mother," who presently joined us and evinced' considerable curi- osity, m her discreet way, about our absence from the family dinner, and I thought was trying to make out through her spectacles what the exact condition of Polly's eyes was ; at which that young lady turned on their electric vivacity on purpose to baffle her, and there ensued a very pretty little game of Hunt the Slipper between them, which I admired very much. "Jo," said Polly, "is out on the rose bench with Mr. Charlie, isn't she?" " Is she ? " said Mother, meekly. " Why, Mr. Fancher is in the parlour talking to the Doctor.'" "Oh, then they are waiting there on the bench for him to bring the news of his interview," said Polly. Before we had finished our meal and the candles were lighted, we heard Mr. Fancher ride away and immediately after came the sound of the Doctor's tread on the afternoon porch, and then a cheery call to us to come out in the twilight. I joined him, but Polly disappeared in another direction. We sat down there in the dying rose \l *mm m^mtmivm l-Mi 4!K m'^l ' TANGI.KD UP IN BKULAH LAND light, and he told me that Mr. Fancher had been to see hMn with regard to lo. " I guess," he said, " the matter will turn out all right, so far as we are concerned." " Did he make a formal proposal to you ? " " I suppose he thought it was a proposal, but it was more like a pronunciamento." " He is desirous of marrying Miss lo? " " He warned me that such was his intention. I thanked him for his frankness and told him I should do everything in my power to prevent it. He wanted to know if I had made other arrange- ments for the young lady. I told him I had. He said she was of age. I acknowledged it, but told him she v^/as also under bonds. He seemed to think that he could exercise more authority with her than I could, and I believe we locked horns in a gentlemanly fashion about it. But he preserved his good humour, and, to show that he had no resentment, invited my whole household up to their tournament at the Club House, and I, not to be outdone in civility, agreed to have my whole establishment there." " Doctor," I said, " it seems to me that a great deal of time might be saved by ascertaining the young lady's views in the matter." "My dear sir," replied the Doctor, " I have before mentioned the fact that the young lady has no views — merely impressions — and that is de- cidedly to our advantage; for, as I understand it, both you and I have decided views. Mr. Fancher asked me very bluntly if I objected to telling him 152 »\ i^^.'^-.f-?' I STRUGGLE W[TH MV OWN WEB " Did you tell him ? " I • snooK hands and mrf^r? i;i,l two business men who intend to /et tf e bts of each other if they can." ^ °* " Perhaps, after all." I saiH " th^ „ nxed and moves in good society." lure on mv son Yon ^li^'/ancher than to , ,. . V °^n. lou see vou hnvp m.,« ladies n the house f L ^ , ° >'°""g 'S3 I SI >.«r-.Ti" T liife t h\ I . .SiLM. TANGLKI) UP IN BKULAH LAND off to New York and let her earn her own liv- ing. It was very evident from this speech that the Doctor had no part in Polly's intrigue, and from a sheer sense of pity for her I felt reluctant to tell him of it. So I said : — " Our conclusions will be premature before we ascertain which way the tide sets — I mean the current of young blood. I will have a serious talk with my son, and I would suggest that you pin Miss lo down to a confession, and then we can compare results." The Doctor's reply showed very plainly that, sagacious as he was in most worldly affairs, he was no expert in dealing with love's young dream. He had made up his mind to a match between Miss lo and Charlie, and he regarded her in the matter as passive material quite incapable of seri- ously opposing his desires. " It will not do," he said, "to let the natural currents have their own way, when a little guidance will bring them into the proper channel. I regard Mr. Fancher's bold declaration as an advantage. If your son has the slightest amount of spirit, it will awaken his opposition. It usually acts that way, — and you will allow me to speak of your son as partaking of the common qualities of youth." " Alas, yes," I said, " it was the common quali- ties of youth that brought me down here. At least, I thought so." "Then," said the Doctor, " havmg escaped f ii ■ I* \ . r STRUGGLE WITH MY OWN WKB from the snare, the best we can do is to regulate things w,th our g,.od sense for the benefit of dl parties. In my profession we learn soon enough that to gu.de and assist Nature is the best pla^n We^cannot destroy the appetites, but we can S Considering all that Polly had said to me, this sion"°an7^r" T '%^ ^"^ ^^'"^^^^^^'^ --'- Doc'tor -' f I' ^"' "' '° ^*'^>'' " »"f Polly, anl- :n-^"'^" '' ^"^ -^ «hort as usual wit'h ni>selt. J like to have her twitter and stick her h.li mro matters that she doesn't understand I he pecu bar charm of such a woodpecker s thai she doesn t require any serious attention." what of ''''^.f°"^'^'-«''»;'«". ^vhich left me in some- what of a dilemma, I was desirous of having a heart-to-heart talk with my son, and that Sf he came mto my room just as I had pulled he fetters from my pocket and laid them on the tab e 7 came at him directly. ^ "Well Comrade, I saw you on the r>«^ bench with Miss lo- making love?" ' He looked at me inquirinelv " Trv;«„ ► j my duty," he said. ^ ^^' ^'""^ ^° ^° " Was it painful ? " " Well, no. I never found it verv nainfnl f« carry out your wishes, and in ,l,is case i^Tsra her pkasant^ One must kill time scnehow down " Now look here, don't load your responsibility '55 y4 mm TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND ■4H 1} upon me. I never had any wishes in the matter that you were aware of." He stood there looking at me with the same inquiring expression. Then he said : — " Hasn't Polly told you ? " " Yes. Polly has made a clean breast of it." " I hope you treated her kindly. It wasn't her fault." " No. It was yours. You at least were under obligations of confidence." " I was the victim — innocent victim — of cir- cumstances. They were your circumstances." " Mine ? " " Why, yes. This was your trip, not mine. I was thinking of you in the whole matt^jr. It seemed to me that you were about to sacrifice yourself." I laughed somewhat derisively. "You are thinking of Madame Coldcream," I said. " Dis- miss her — dismiss her. Let's talk about Miss lo — she's more to the point." "Have you dismissed Madame Coldcream ? " " My boy, look here, — if I dismiss Madame Coldcream, will you dismiss Polly ? " " Good heavens, Governor, that sounds as if you had made up your mind to substitute Polly for Madame Coldcream." " Don't be frivolous," I said, with an eiFort to be stern. " Try and tell me exactly what your attitude is in this matter." " I think it is one of filial obedience," and he turned his back on n r as he said it. " I try to 156 » STRUGGLK WITH MV OWN WKB ca ,„n to g,ve up one woman for another '^ , " ""=. '^■" ' """lU make love to one estlnnhr, tSll "tr ""'* ■""''' '°- to a,: he 'e d "ire iV°f- '"'''' 'o-rfow, because some one mTllliiyofXrarr""""'''''''''^--""^ „')J''« has that to do with it'" thing" ,'4Slv''"'V ''"" ""?'',' '° '""■= " 'h' unfLd^IlV^i^LrrolafrrM^Janl: wanted money We 1 of . ' u"''"' '°" ^'^^ ferent face on my affairs T? ')f '^''' ^ ^'^■ poor girl, and I h/d f look outTo te ^it? ' income to accommodate vou and MnT n ,? cream and her son. When I do Ik ^"^ ^?'^- n^yself, you change y o " mfnd7irh"' '" i'^' marrying Madame CoidcreimVl -u^'^'l '" me, there wasn't much rf-n Z' ""■'"• P"""^"" choice, and there se^ms to\TleTs ir^r^h^""^ of mind." -^ "^ change «cL™ed'"^'a„'rf°'''"'""' ™"^ ' "'"^ '-tasv," I ia.yrn^-^,^re-SLt"h-K '57 li TANGLKD UP IN BF.ULAH LAND V! I !/l you dismiss Polly without a pang? Are y«>u, then, one of those heartless men who triHe with a girl's affections and throw them aside at any caprice? " " You will have to make some allowance for me, Dad. I never had but one example set be- fore me." "Rubbish — you are talking nonsense. My feelings for that estimable woman, Madame Cold- cream, were those of respectful appreciation, and I have not changed them. But as to marrying, I can change my views, I suppose, without any recreancy or dishonour, seeing that the whole matter was one of convenience." " Oh," said Charlie, " then you have given up that idea ? " " Yes, yes. Let us stick to th** really impor- tant matter in hand, which is Miss lo. Did you know that Mr. Fancher had made an avowal to the Doctor ? " " Oh, yes. lo told me." " Then she knew it. What did she say about it?" " I don't remember that she said anything defi- nite. She seemed to regard it as quite the regular course of affairs. Mr. Fancher is the fifth or sixth. I suppose these things lose their edge in time." " Suppose Mr. Fancher gets her ? " " Well, then, I suppose I can change my views without any recreancy, seeing that it would be a matter of convenience." 158 I STRUdGLK WITH MY OWN WI.B "Bur have you no blood, n« passion, no vouth ful hrc- not a single emotion ? What the.We are you vawning for ? " "*•"" sleenv"Y'-"-V'''r'^'''^ ■'"•'» litHc riral and J.ol.krca,„. Good „,gh,. I a„, g„i„g „ ^^.^j _,_^ bchin^d't'et'"' "l"?'" ""^ ^»y. and. coming up neck and add^d'-'-'wI ""' f^^'if^'y ^-d n,^ New York nutters hJ"' H'^f^ J""'' i" »"■• -d .he rese''r;H^:',''! -fe^^''- „^;"'--' pose we go back." " "^- ^^P- sir- we s.; he. :^^^^^^^^^^^ Dewey, and this is wha? it said : ~ ''""'" care of the other But I L. ' ^'' '"''"" ^''^ ^'"' I ^hink wil, gladden' rN;:e\:;r'"/r-^''^"' ^^"''^■^ an invitation from ou^ old V end V r R ? ."■"'^'^'' to come down to the =,nn \ Berwick Fanchcr own to the annual tounuunent of the Game ^S9 ^fM m mtmm TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND Club, and I have invited Madame Coldcrcam to join me. By the way, I have told her of your admiration, and I think you will find the way made tpiite smooth for vou when she arrives, for she has promised toaccompanv me, and I have written to the Doctor bv this mail informing him of our visit, with a request to wire us if his accom- modations arc not ample. I trust, my dear Rufus, that you will make the most of this visit, for the more I think of it the more I am satisfied that both you and your son need a practical woman at the h»ad of affairs, and I have done all that can be done to pave the way. Affectionately yours, Petunia Dewey. if. <»; 1 60 CHAPTER IX FIVE o'clock in the MORNINC f-'^^jR^^ HfS letter completely threw nu ■ <^^ °^ "^^ mental balance. fate W^& sometimes is a Nemesis trying ■ ^a fo P'ay the Merry Andrew. It J[(^jg 'sn't pleasant. It annoys one to have serious matters masquerade. Destmy I said to myself, has a serious role to play, and this is too ridiculous. Madame Cold- cream com mg here, is she? Then, by the in- exorable demands of business, I can pack mv gripsack and hie me to New York to-morrow on a matter of vital importance. What is it Mae- terlinck says about destiny being a blear-eyed bowman aiming straight ahead, but if the target be raised somewhat higher than usual, the arrows pass underneath? Good; I'll raise the target and go back to New York. ^ i6i '4 i I ? , TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND Having adjusted destiny to my own schedule, I went to bed, and so well satisfied was I that I could at least dodge the blear-eyed jade, that I went to sleep. I woke up the next morning, and, looking at myself in the glass, saw with satisfaction that I had a well-defined expression of decision round my mouth. I prided myself that it was the mature expression that belongs to such an act as is called " taking the bull by the horns." But those summer mornings at Tuskaloo, when all the ephemeral annoyances of life fled from the memory and nothing remained but the glory of the hour! Those glittering moments sang to- gether a new symphony of life, and it was impos- sible not to feel, despite all the conditions of one's mind, that these were transitional and tran- scendent moments when dumb material uttered its elemental rhythmus with effluent uniso . . nd the vivid sunlight, the cool shadows, the dewy, rose-scented air, and the disturbance of the birds were all parts of the same uplifting oratorio. I walked about as I attired myself and tried to sup- press an inclination to whistle, because in a reso- lute frame of mind whistling is not consistent. But when all the elements about one are kicking up a roulade, it is difficult to suppress one's auto- matic sympathies. I looked into "my companion's room. He was gone. Wayward youth, I said, he has no sense of the seriousness of life; and just then the pulse of air that came in my vine- covered window brought with it a stave of human 162 i,(^ (I 1 I I^IVE O'CLOCK IN THK MORNING song, itself rosf -scented and softly exultant —a mere snatch of song that seemed to have tumbled into expression out of the condition of thincs and was going Its bright way with the hurrying hours. But how well I knew it — a strain of" Lucia di quest Amma "-just that bobolink burst, and I knew that Polly was somewhere mixed up in the dewy shadows, exulting like all other things with- out considering. All the old associations of that bubbling romanza were touched in me, and I listened with my head cocked on one side and I dare say, with a smile of recognition on my face that must have diluted my decision. Polly was somewhere at a softening distance contributing, to the morning fund. I felt sure she was in the wet grass, with her buckled shoes, colloguing with the robins and that if I listened long enough I shoud hear a stave of the song in " Dinorah," and know that she was mocking the birds with J>i Carina, and presently would catch up her Skirts and go pirouetting round in the "Shadow ?' J"'^ fo show those pretentious robins how much better she could do it. 1 suppose every exultant girl has a casket of a voice into which the old masters have at some time dropped their ana let them shine. asembled at the breakfast table, aH wearirlg the norningon their unlike visages, and I alone try- ing to look judiciously malapropos with my sense of impending danger. They were all keyed '6j _.i^ TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND i ir up to the auroral gayety of heart, and the Doctor began his fanfare as soon as we were seated. " Good news for all of you ! " he said. " Have to brush up the old ranch, and get out our laced and embroidered hospitality. High-stepping company coming." We all looked at him with a keen interest, I alone suspecting what was impending. " We are to have a tournament in the moun- tains at the Club House," he said ; " that you know. But what you do not know is that some old friends of mine are coming to it from New York. I have a letter from your sister," he said, looking at me, " Madame Petunia Dewey, an- nouncing her intended visit here to renew her old acquaintance with me and to look after her brother; and she brings with her a friend, Madame Cold- cream." This announcement, so confidently and jovi- ally made, did not fall upon all of us with the same enlivenment. Charlie, who sat opposite me, let his two hands come down upon the table, hold- ing his knife and fork in them, and stared at me with his eyes propped very wide open by inquiry, and 'lis mouth partly open as if to accommodate a little gasp. lo, who sat next him, was alone unperturbed, and went placidly on taking her coffee by the spoonful. lo, as usual, was superiur to any vagrant emotions. There was a moment of silence, and then the voices all broke out together. *' I suppose you were also notified of the visit," 164 ^ th( FIVJ: O'CLOCK IN THK MORNING said Charlie, still boring at me with his wide-open eyes. Molly, by my side, was leaning forward tryintr to look into my face, — I felt that she was anx'ioiis to see how Charlie's look affected me, — and Mother's household anxiety surmounted every- thing. " Why, Doctor," she said," you know we've only one upstairs maid, and all the woollens in the extra chambers are put away for the summer; the mus- lin curtains are not up, and the mosquito frames are all in the barn." "They will have to take pot-luck," said the Doctor. " Madame Dewey I know very well, and she will accommodate herself to circumstances. As for the other lady, I presume mv friend Hufus can vouch for her adaptabilitv to our barbarism." "A most estimable ladv'of the old school, Doctor," I said, " and sure to add distinction to your group.' "And that is just what our group needs. When it comes to tournaments, we shall need a chaperon." " But we do not need two, do we ? " asked Polly. **^ Who's the other one for ? " Bob," said the Doctor, " always speaks as if there were only one young lady in the house " "Naturally," replied Polly,' "when I don't count. But isn't it rather late for a chaperon ? " " A good chaperon ought to be a great relief to all of you," said lo, holding ■ piece of ome' ^ m the air with her fork. "It strikes me," said Mother, "that ycu are 165 "■ ■ ■Ul. ■ ( TANGLF.D UP IN BKULAH LAND speaking somewhat disrespectfully of our cominc guests. As they are friends of Mr. Fancher's, I think we ought to try and match them in poHte- ness and courtesy." " Perhaps," said Polly, " they are coming to chaperon Mr. Fancher." " That will do, Bob," said the Doctor. « Please keep your twitters until after meals. You do not need a chaperon — only a policeman. You must understand that the ladies are not only Mr Fancher's friends, but the friends of Charlie and his father." " I beg your pardon, I only know one of the ladies — she IS my aunt," said Charlie. " Oh, you'll learn to appreciate the other lady's good qualities, from all I hear," observed the Doctor, looking at me with a particularly sly expression. But Charlie tried to rise to the occasion and remarked, " I have heard of the lady, and I am quite anxious to see her and satisfy myself if she be a fact or a fantasy." I was getting impaled on both sides now, and I didn't like it. "Fantasy, my boy?" exclaimed the Doctor, " whose fantasy ? Y'ours ? " " No, indeed," replied Charlie, " not mine " *; Can I twitter, please ? " asked Polly, demurely. No, not a twit, my dear. It strikes me that you are putting a rather flippant aspect on a very miportant event. I expect this establishment to assume its highest tone and wear its best bib and 1 66 K-, FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING A nicker on the arrival of our honoured guests. The visit may result in some very interesting, not to say serious, considerations. 'At all events, we must do our best to preserve the record of this house in high-toned gayety and hospitality." They all promptly avowed their willingness to do all in their power, but I could feel Charlie stare at me as if he were inquiring of himself if, after all, his Dad was a consummate old deceiver. Nevertheless, the Doctor's voluble good spirits overrode everything, ^ " We'll make it antiquely and rustically warm tor them," he said, "an j if we all work together matters will go as merry as a — well " (looking at lo and then at me), " as merry as a marriage bell." When t'^c [)reakfasf was over I went immedi- ately to my chamfKr, where 1 felt sure Charlie would seek me for an explanation. How 1 was to act in the matter I scarcely knew at the mo- ment. It occurred to me that the apparent collusion of myself and Madame Coldcream might enable me still to hold the whip-ham. over Charlie Should I tell him the truth — that I had nothing whatever to do wich the visit, or should I let hini think that I hnd ? In the one case I might sacri- fice my advantage, in the other I might sacrifice his respect for me. Before I had mlide up mv mind ne was upon me. He came in with a rather brusque manner, I thought, shutting the door after him. "^'^7' ^^^^y you ought to treat me squarely. I here's not one chance in a hundred that 167 TANGLED UP IN BKULAH LAND : »' %■ I I ! Madame Coldcream would come here unless you wanted her." " My son," I said, " I had no hand in bring- ing her here, but now that she is coming it may be of some practical advantage to me." " Practical advantage ? " he exclaimed. " You said last night she was a fantasy and I was to dis- miss her. Did you know she was coming when you said that ? " This direct appeal to my sincerity was very hard to dodge, and I was afraid that the intrigue would sooner or later disturb his faith in me. "Certainly not," I replied. "But now that she is coming, of course the fantasy idea will have to be given up. She is determined to convert herself into a living fact, it seems. But that is a matter that need not give you any uneasiness." " But it does. I do not like to have Madame Coldcream suspended above me like the sword of Damocles, liable to fall at any moment." " Explain vour .If" " 1 mean thit it is better to have done with it — to havi !U! all, than to have her always im- pending, if you and I must go different ways, why, 1 suppose the best thing to do is to bnice ourselves and accept the decree." " Oh, you feel that way, do you ? " and I could feci myself collapsing at this first assertion of independence. " Look here, Charlie, it sounds as it you had made your programme much more definitely than I have. I can invent an excuse to get out of this — urgent business in New York. i68 ^- ^ ii W» Bi E ! 'wrfM [ ,i » c~ - FIVE O'CLOCK IN THK MORNING Wc can go hack to our rooms and dodge Madame Coldcream if she annoys you." He was standing near the table, and, striking his fist upon it in exact imitation of his Daci, }• said : — " No, sir. I stay here and fight it out. I've never had but one model, and I have tried to imitate it pretty closely, — even in its lightning changes. Let the Damoclean Coldcream tall." This was fairly hoisting me with my own petard, whether Charlie was aware of it or not. I did not want Madame Coldcream to fall at least upon myself, and after considering a mo- ment, I told him so. 1 hen," said he, " I cannot understand why you should want to run away, just as matters are approaching a crisis here." " Oh, they are getting interesting, are they ? I suspected as much." " Suspected ? You desired it, didn't you ? See here. Dad, I think I have been a pretty docile son. I've tried my best to adapt myself to your changing moods, but I'm blessed if I can do It any more unless you give me a route of thtm. Your mind is getting so eccentric that it changes over night. Yesterdav, Madame Cold- cream was a fantasy. To-day she is a fact. What she will be to-morrow, I shudder to think. A week ago, you were scared to death because you thought I had fallen in love with a church-mouse, and in a spirit of the most self-sacrificing, filial obedience, I tore the church-mouse out of my 169 ■■Hfc. TANGLED VV IN BEULAH LAND heart and proceeded to fall in love with a wax Venus. Instead of cahning your mind and bring- ing it round to its normal gait, I'm blessed if you haven't gone off at another turn and act as though you were indignant because I didn't defy you in the first place." " Kasy, easy, my boy. I didn't know how far matters had gone." " Didn't you ? Then what made you so anx- ious to get me aw ly from New York ? " " Why, you young ingrate, it was you who were anxious to get me away. You were scared to death by Madame Coldcream, and now you want her to fall upon me like the wolf upon the fold. Talk about an eccentric mind, — look at yourself and blush. Why, it was only last night you wanted to go back to our rooms." " Pure regard for you, sir. I am learning to put my own desires in these matters entirely at your disposal and prepare for anything. I have told lo that I love her. 1 didn't expect a medal for it, but I certainly did expect some considera- tion for my obedience." " But confound it, sir, you toid the other girl that you loved her too. Must I inform you that no man of our stock would lead an innocent girl to believe that he loved her, and then coolly desert her for the first good-looking woman he met ? What would you think of me if I did such a thing ? " " You labour under some disadvantages, Dad — you haven't a father." 170 ! i jiP*'^4vwiai * *";_ FIVE O'CLOCK IN THK MORNING " But this is a serious matter, my bov, to trifle with a girl's heart, and the worst of crimes to break it. That poor girl may be crying her eyes out now on your account. By Jove, sir, I saw tears in her eyes, and it went to' my heart. I don't know how you feel, but there is something shameful in the mere possibility of a double game of this kind." We were looking at each other rather seriously, and at that moment there came through the roses at the window a snatch of that same scented song : — IM^ — ?zr-:^-T -!?>- m w n- --w:r:n iE- It stopped short, and Charlie said : — '• There are no tears in that, Dad. Why in thunder doesn't she finish it? " " Ah," I said pensively, " it is like a broken column." "Do you think so? It seems to me like a cash payment on the instalment plan. You said you wanted to see us together. Why not give her a yodel out of the wmdow ? IVo'll the rest of that song. You know it. I've heard voii whistle it." He looked at his watch. " Ta-ta," he said, 171 l~g_^ I H TANGLED Ul» IN BEULAH LAND " I promised I o to go with her for a gallop before the sun got up." " Go your way," I said. " I will have a talk with Polly alone." " That's good of you — you comfort her and cheer her up like you do me. I'll be back in an hour, and maybe by that time you will have a new idea." I went down and sat on the big veranda, where I lit a cigar and tried to give myself up to the morning swoon. But there is no nepenthe in such a morning. The days at Tuskaloo were all arranged on an electric plan, each with its poles, very positive at one end and negative at the other, full of stimulant matin influences at the beginning and tapering oflfat the end with slum- berous sedatives m the gloaming. Presently the Doctor joined me. His heavy tread on the porch made the boards creak as if even the old lumber of the place had sharp tiny voices that could be called into service. He had on his nankeen jacket, a soft, yellow, unstarched roundabout with big side pockets, out of one of which hung a silk bandanna like a toreador's, and his immaculate duck trousers gleamed round his massive legs with ample coolness. He took off the broad Panama hat, fanned his ruddy face with it once or twice, and, taking in all the inspi- .ition of the moment, said, with a lusty, compre- hensive breath : — " Well, my old friend, it is for this we toil and spin." 172 m ij.i FIVK O'CLOCK IN IHh MORNING " True," I replied. " I here are some moi lents here that are too bright to belong to time. They seem to have filtered down from eternity." " My dear fellow," he said, pulling lip another big Quaker rocker, and disposing himself in it like a rajah who has included Nirvana in his assets, '* my dear fellow, wc apportion our feelings off to the hours. If we could keep our morning fresh- ness till evening, everything would glitter and sing in the dusks as it does in the dawns. It is not that there is any more joy afloat in the morn- ing, it is because we are better attuned. It's a fact, — after seven or eight hours of enforced faith in the Unseen — absolute self-abnegation in sleep— we get up brimful of the I'.ternal and thmk It has just arrived. We wear our faith out before nightfall, and then, because the fumes of earth make the sun go down murky, we become pessimists. I like to catch a man in the morn- ing, when he is at conc.-rt pitch, before he is self- jangled. Then everything is at early mass. If I wanted to convert men I'd begin at daybreak, when the souls are already half converted and don't know it. Religion is a matin hvmn, and I suppose love is too, — our young lovers have gone away into the dew and sunshine. I saw them ride off." He said this jocularly enough, but it sounded rather melancholy to me. I don't know whv. " lo has acknowledged to me that your son is an attractive young man. Attractive,' niv friend Weigh that word from a girl's mouth. lo is not tfi MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) 1.0 I.I Ijf IS iM mil 2.0 1.8 ^ /APPLIED IM/IGE Inc ^^ 1653 East Mom Street r.S Roctiester. Ne« York 14609 USA i^S (716) 482 - 0300 - Phone ^= (716) 288- 5989 - Fox ['f l\ ffc^;' i>i *;■ > 4 I' k TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND volatile and effusive like Polly, but there is evei reason to believe that the wind sets from t\ right quarter and I do not mind saying frank] to you that it is a great relief to me." Now, what would you have done in such case ? I mean you who are reading this page, think I see you drawing yourself up with thj severe ethical judgment that is given to us onl when we read, seldom indeed when we act, an saying, If I had emitted so many fine s-nti ments and put such a high estimate on sinccrit and frankness as you have done, I would try an( act up to my theories, tell the Doctor the plaii truth, and be hanged to the tangle. You would, would you ? You would tell thi Doctor that Polly had deceived him ; that Charli, had lent himself to the deception ; that we hac been pretending to run away from a temptatior and had followed it up, making the Doctor parti- ceps cnminis. You would say to him, I have pretended to lend myself to your scheme, but ] was not honest, and now that Charlie is making love to lo, I think he ought to marry Polly And you would still eat the Doctor's salt. Consider. I was not sure that Charlie ought to marry Polly, nor was I entirely certain that she would break her heart if he didn't. Let me re- mind you again that if the men who write books were as strong and direct as the men who read them, there would be an end of all romance If I had shown the slightest inclination to be as frank as the circumstances seemed to demand, the Doc- »74 t'J: . m I '< s'^nt'- FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING tor would have gone off, hunted up that letter I Z"'" W m'" ^'l ^'"'•'^ -d flourished in ,m face. Would .t not have been extremelv selfish "n my part to d.sturb, simply on account of a pair of blue eyes the relntionship which was growW ui between lo and Charlie?' Then, too, fhe K had made ,t very plain that his interest in the future of the estate would be assured b" thJ clearl how, but I suspected that he needed fresh cap,t^l to contmue his generous patriarrhaHi^' guarded '"dL'"^'/'''""^ '"'^ "^«^ -'o%- "Ah," he said, "there you touch me She belongs to the atmosphere of the place one of those appurtenances with which you must n^t do anything. I cannot bear to think of the uIhI ° evaporation of Bob. Her twitter is as mLh "p ? of the sunshme and song of the long evening of m> life, as IS Nature herself, and gives it the lest burr™oL ^f ';TP°^^ ^'^'^^ bubble mu Durst, bome confounded vokel like a hav^\. n come aong and pick he/up 'nd fl^ X J^jL her, and then why then, thil,gs will-grow'^.iT ^t S,e'det-n"rtf^-':£-^^^^ but^.t ,s the penalty of having no Bob^ of your "Yes," I said, "I can understand that. It '75 , , I » I TANGLED UP IN BKULAH LAND makes us old fellows wish that we were thirt years younger." " Then we should not appreciate it. A youn man doesn't care for atmospheie, he wani avoirdupois." " Doctor, Polly weighs at least a hundred an forty. She is heavier than you think. I wouldn' estimate her by her twitters, and she is not a bad looking girl, either." " Yes, yes ; it takes sixty or seventy years t estimate Bob's weight. I see you have arrivei at years of discretion, and then, our faculties ar keen in the morning. You always were susccpti ble just after breakfast. I remember how yoi tried to build an ivory throne in the Hotchkis woods for a milkmaid. \ ;11, well, I shall no blame you, — in the morning, when the universe i flirting with itself I felt like singing when I sav your boy galloping off an hour ago. Yes, I did I haven't got much voice left, but my memory i good and an old ballad slipped through my mind as if it had Polly's buckled shoes on : — " And as he lingered at her side, Despite his comrade's warning. The old, old story was told again At five o'clock in the morning. Do you remember how Parepa Rosa sang tha homespun ballad years ago, with her sunrise voic( making daybreak for dusky souls ? " The Doctor was reminiscent and human — it the morning. 176 IJtlh 1 1 ■ young wants FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING " It is always tht; old, old story," he said. " The best we can do is to sit on the shore and watch the old springtides flushing." Somehow it did not appeal to nn • exactly the same way. I saw a pair of violet eyes looking up into mine, suffused and appealing. They re- mained to me the most eloquent eyes I had ever looked in. It was plain that the Doctor had never detected their pathos. But all this was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a horn on the road! " Aha," exclaimed the Doctor, jumping up. "Our guests, -and Boylston is making an ass of himself with a horn." We could hear the horses coming, and presently the laughter of voices. I had just time to breathe a transitory hope to myself that Madame Cold- cream had been left behind, when the equipage turned in at the gate dramatically, with m't. Fancher galloping by its side; and there was Madame Coldcream sure enough on the front seat, just as large and resolute as life itself, and as they came jingling up to the veranda in the highest of spirits, there came faintly from the distance the vanishing strain so like a receding bobolink's: — 177 Uf: ''i i':^ ;i.f >^, I'M ill i ¥i f:l CHAPTER X IN WHICH I BECOME A NONENTITY §-^■^■7^^ HE old Manse wore a livelier air ol I ^S) contemporaneous life when thes( I ^^ visitors came to it. My excelleni ■ ^^ half-sister Petunia Dewey flutterec M^^ ^^^ Mater of the house, you may be sure. It was such an 'event tc have personages of affairs come this way from a seethmg centre and sit down at the archaic board and make the recluses feel how provincial thev were! But the Doctor gave no heed to such consideration. His exuberant hospitality stopped not at trifles, but went on its overflowing way without recognizing any new responsibilities. I think that he exulted a little, as a provincial pa^^i- arch might, in being able to show ofl^ his rustv court iness to such good advantage. • ' Ine moment that all the preliminary greetings and welcomings were over and the g'uc^sts were 178 * I BECOME A NONEXTITY adjusted to the menage, Petunia pulled me awav to herself and came at me with interrogations as the crow fl'es. " What is the situation here ? " she asked. " Have you and your precious scion taken such good care of each other that the inevitable is a back number? " " Petunia," I said, " you are disingenuous. You probably know that I ran away from a temp- tation only to rush into its arms. ' Between you all I have been made the dupe of my own solici- tude." "That is interesting,' she exclaimed. "Tell me all about it." ^ " I would if it could possibly have any novelty tor you." ^ But Petunia vowed that she had not the slight- est idea what I was talking about, and sometimes her vows wore the aspect- of sincerity. So I told her, making my explanations as brief as possible. Sne was frankly amazed, and disavowed all com- plicity. " It is not a plot," she said. « It is fate." " Then permit me to say that fate is a bungling playwright. No sooner does it arrange its denoue- ment than the actors strike, My wayward scion appears to have fallen in love with the leading lady here." ^ " Then it is not fate that has miscarried, but the stage manager." " Who is the stage manager? " " You. You have changed your point of view." 179 f li ^mmw I TANGLKD UP IN RKULAH LANI " My son has changed his point of view." " And for some reason that I do not undi stand, you appear to regret it." "Yes, I cannot help feeling annoyed at exhibition of such wayward susceptibility. rather counted on the fellow's stubborn lovaltv his first love." ^ ^ Then he has fallen in love again. He vivacious, isn't he ? " " He has had his youthful sensibilities touch( by a new face." " Then, in Heaven's name, Rufus, let Natu take Its course this time, if there are no oth new faces here. I warn you that I shall throw a my mfluence on the side of Nature, unless yc tell me that the latest is out of our class." Petunia's estimate of these things was entirel social. Like a great many other estimable womei she had relegated her conscience to her set. ] was useless for me to tell her that I was governe m the matter by the fitness that insured the futun " You observed Miss lo," I said, " and prob ably measured her charms if not her capacity Isn't she a beautiful girl ?" "She is good-looking enough," replied Petunia with a woman's conservatism when speaking o other women, " good-looking enough as girls ac The question is, Is she able to ta^e her place'^ii the circle that your son will move in ? " "As to that," I said, " I suppose that with sucl a face and figure, the circle, whatever it may be will square itself to her authority." i8o ^1 , I i : ! I BKCOMK A NONKNTITY He IS " Humph," she observed. " It is very evident that you and the Doctor have arranged it. I didn't think you were so lively." '* We have recognized it." " Where is the other one, into whose arms I understood you to say you had rushed? Is that arranged, too ? " Now, the "other one" had withdrawn into "!»e background. I presumed that, like myself, she had made up her mind that it was folly to oppose the inevitable, and was over at the Lodge, packing her trunk. At all events, she was not in evidence; so I could not expect Petunia to make any immediate comparisons, and I said: — " See here, Petunia, I have only one desire in this matter, and it is that boy's future. I don't care a rap for what you call his or his wife's social position." " Since when did you execute this lightning change ? " she ask«.u " What I want," I continued, " is to secure his future domestic happiness, and if I felt sure that his present susceptibility would insure it, I should give no further thought to the matter. But that is just where I am baffled. Such beauty as lo's is sphinxine, at least to a man. I have been here some time, and I know no more of lo's character than when I came ; and the worst of it is, she ap- ars to know that she can dazzle any man's judgment by looking at him." " What rubbish ! " said Petunia. " The only amiable weakness that you have hol outgrown is i8i x {) m»- il' I >) 1 TAXGLFD UP is Bl.VLAU LAX an inveterate .,„ality of sex. Sh. can't da: " I know it Therefore I expect you to I me^vour unhl.n^ ing judgment." > " ^^ ' " Let me see .hem together, and I will tell y o aii r' I '""" '^''''' '^^^ -- --" quality — fhey are transparent." It Miss lo h.id known that Madame Dewe eye was upon her and going through her .luri thatv.s.t, [ think it would have given her extra charm of nervousness. And vet, now tl I hmk of ,t. how do I know that 'lo's ev^ v not plaodly on Madame herself, making low these reciprocal processes? The worn pr'^bahly read each oth'er through and throZ and never for one momer.t . cknowledged S others acumen. ^ whirh'T '^^ r^'^^f Perceives the dilemma which I was pkced, and understands my furth dnemma m bemg the narrator of what thVread fondly beheves Ts a love storv. When did t reader get a love story from the father^"point view? It ,s a most mcredible undertaking for man of my age, for a father las qualr^s^ H uX2l':: ' f'^''^ --P^it^iu'y to beaut found it ' hef "^ 'u' '''' '-^"^ y'-^"^^' but, .on round It ! he carries his experience also and the are sure to lode horns, pie turns ov"; the ml of the new book and the rhetoric holds him ^l •ts f esh glitter But he knows the trite plo J a glance. M.st of the veterans, they tell me 182 LAND n't dazzle 3U to lend II tell you excellent Dewey's "r during r> her an now that eye was iking an > can fol- women through, ;t'd each mma in ' further e reader did the 3oint of ng for a IS. He beauty ut, I'on- id they le page im with plot at ell me, I FU'.COMI-: A NONKXiii'v leave the theatre ;tt the end of the second act I hey have seen rhc new beauty and fhev know the rest Sohudy ever thinks of getting a n. w plot, only Of seeing a new woman. That is why popular piays depend on the relays, not on the reason. rhe only advantage that a fati- -r has in trying lo te.l a love story, is that he is :i little suspicious of superlative beauty. It is no lonucr a guarantee. lie has learned, perhaps, that Nature's purpose 'n getting up what wc call her divinities, is wholly cu.sociated from anything but her own i'^ea of fecundity, and that consequently she often adorns the shallowest souls with the most regal lines and colours. It takes a man generally about forty years to earn that real beauty is like Truth — hke I ruth, I cry you shame. It is Truth, and It never bursts upon the vision, outside of the current novel, with the blazon of voluptuous fc'cts, but glimmers up slowly according to the law of evolutic. ,, and shines securely when Aph- rodite IS grown obtse and dull. VVnatthe wor! : has .nsented to call beauty m a woman ever since e Aigive Helen, is often u vacuum which that .aiiie world rushes to fili with Its fancies. Whc . Scautv co, sents to die or, what is worse, to T . • . > ness, we can discovc* we imputed to it. I suppose, if the trut •vas mean enough to harbo ""rk^Jlking 'distrust of Miss lo. Her impet .s «MperioHty to all '^'■voiul its attractive- g bit the vagaries must be told, that I h. .'» l| V f'' TANGI.I I) i;|» IN HI Ifl.Alf I.AM the ik-mamls ot'a farhi-r, Iut unaiithori/ul sovi cigtuy of line and colour -L'gravafed me in soi unknown way. Shr otfcn Tookal at me with mild and natchless contenjpt that only I cou interpret, for it said to me, " Pish, for your yea ot watchfulness and of anxious guardianship ! override them all with contour and the divii right of effulgence." I was not sure, even liile experiencing th unworthy feeling, that I was not doing her gre; injustice. One thing I am sure of I nev( came under the sivll of her heautv without fee ing the ahsenc -f something. I'dare say I w: foolish enough to think of an overflowing girlhoo somewhere; something scintillant, in buckle shoes; daring to throw its arms about m neck; now looking at the shadows of its ow -emperament through tears, and now dancing gavotte — mternreting itself like a wind harp, a the breath of heaven touched it. And then wondered at the majestic keyboard of this othe instrument which kept every player at dis tance. I had already learned that there are two occa sions in a father's life when he is expected to be come a nonentity. One is a birth and the othe IS a death. I had now to learn that there an three, and a marriage must be added to th( periods of self-extinction, when your friendi push you aside and take upon themselves th( management of what looks to you like youi destiny. Now that I had a marriageable son 184 I UICOMI A NOM NTirV my irulivii u.il'ry was kiiiilly ri-miiuliil uii .iL sides th. r siioukl p-main at zero. I'hc l)c,ctor caujhr mc hy the arm ami walked mc ijp .xnd down hiu veranda with coniphuent patronage. " Now that the house wears a gala-day aspect," said he, " we might ^op otf with a wedding. What ilo you say ? Suj^pose we seize the opportunity and tic the knot." I shr.itik a little at this unexpictcil piecipMncy. " Better wait awhile," I said. " Ihere is noth- ing gained l>y taki.ig the matter out of its natural course." "Certainly not, certainly not; Inif, having as- certained the natural course and determineil the result, we might as \« I! arrive at it and have done with it. Just tell yc voungster to fix the day, while the company is i.ere ; to strike while the iron is hot; you understand. One day is as good as another. By the soul of Andrew Jackson I feel like shaking an archaic leg myself and tap- ping tuns of wine, and tripping it gayly on the greensward. I haven't had a square merrymaking these forty years. Gads, my old friend, we'll renew our youth and pack these perilous young responsibilities off in the narrow path of honour and offspring while the roses are in bloom." It is astonishing, I said to myself, with what avidity philosophy worms itself into other persons' affairs. Here was my discreet old mentor thrown off his balance entirely by a prospect of orange blossoms, and ready to avail himself of the hal- 185 i • k I TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND lucinations of youth, to fasten two young persoi irremediably together for life. I told him I would consult with one of tl principals and talk further of it. But they kei the principal out of the way between 'then Charlie and Miss lo had ridden up to the Clu to make inquiries about the tournament. I in agined that he slipped out in the mornings b( tore I was up, and lingered round somewhere : night till I had gone to bed. Some kind of film had come between us already. In such an uneasy condition of mind, mad restless by the conviction that I no longer ha any determining voice in that which alone inter ested me, I felt an impulse to rush after my so and throw my arm about him with the old-tim confidence and say, " Come, come. Comrade, ou interests are identical — let us tear ourselves awa' from all this and recover our implicit candour bori of so many hours of affection." The more I pon dered over these intricacies of my own weaving the more vividly I remembered the spontaneity and motiveless vivacity of Polly, who had no pur poses — only instincts. I am afraid the Doctor's circle began to bon me a little. Madame Coldcream put my com- placence to a severe test. I was kept at a con- tinual pitch of decorous consideration by hei well-bred platitudes and her unexceptionable arti- ficiality. She had brought her groove with her, and one could not be polite without walking in It. The Doctor appeared to think it was a i86 I BECOME A NONENTITY luxury to bounce about her with elephantine graces. But I had no vanity of hospitality to sustain, and when he carried them all off f'or a drive to show them the country, I begged out of the group and was left behind in the big, echoing house with the servants. Then it was that I seized a sombrero from the hat rack and, clutch- ing a heavy cane, set out for the Lodge I never before had been so destitute of a definite purj.ose If you had asked me what I was going to he Lodge for, I should have looked at^o^ with a vacuous ignorance worthy of a wax figure. It IS well perhaps, that one dees not at times know what he is about. He is thus enabled to stumble on providentially. When I arrived within a stone's throw of the rZ7' The'""'-°' ^'^"j° ^'^^ '^-"gf^ the called Ji! ^':^^'J°'-'""d stroke of its fewltrings called to me from very far back, and I kept sten n Jh/V ^"'"? '^' ^"^'--e and found^Pd ^ n the back yard sitting on an overturned wash- ofbX!:^:;: ''- '''-'' -''^'--'-^ -- ^-^ surp:?.f£" SH ^'"^^ ?T "P°" ^^'•' '^ ^'d not for aMl\ ^' "['Sht have been expecting me herminne,^''"^' '''' "^ ^PP— ' -'e in "Listen to this," she said. « I have been picking at It two days and I have just got it snatc ed ,t like a bun^h of marshmal/ows,?ow ' the meadows where the boys play it to the cattle 187 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LANI «« Wait awhile, my honey dear, Summer time's a-comin'; When the snow is melted, suah You'll hear de bees a-hummin'." One makes quick estimates sometimes. I s to myself in one of those lightning calculati( that astonish us afterwards, I know now w is the matter with Miss lo and Madame Co cream and Petunia herself — they have no ba in their dispositions. " Polly," I said, looking round for anot overturned tub and not finding it, " have ) abandoned us ? There is something atroci( in leaving us to our own resources at sucl crisis." " Us ? " repeated the minstrel, with an ini rogative plunky-plunk. " Are you speaking the company ? " " No," I replied, tumbling at the first stn to her own frankness, " only for myself." " There is something funny in a man of y resources coming to a church mouse. (Plunkt plunk.) Listen to the second verse." " Wait a moment," I said. " Aren't you gc to the tournament with the family ? " " Nobody axed me, sir, she said." (Plunk( plunk.) " That explains why I am here." " To ask me ? " " Will you go with me ? " "Yes, with you." (Plinkety-plink.) She jumped up, ran to the door of the ho i88 "■""'-VWM^'j'^SMS.-.— LAND s. I said Iculations now what me Cold- no banjo r another have you atrocious It such a an inter- :ak:ing for rst stroke ti of your Plunkety- you going Plunkety- :he house, I BECOME A NONENTITY placed the banjo inside, seized her chip hat, and coming b ick, slipped her arm through mine! ' It was real good of you," she said, as we Well Polly, I have turned it all over in mv mmd and do my best I cannot find anything to be offended at-m you, at least. I have been a ihose ttng's'- '"^'' ' ^"PP°^^^' .^"^ - g- -er " And you are recovered ? " " Somewhat. It is a man's duty to rectify mis- takes when he cannot prevent them." <" M°" 'i"^^" ^^^^^ persons' mistakes." Mo, I don't. I mean my own. Pollv I want you to tell me exactly how old you are '' You can t correct that. I was twenty on the first of Apnl. All Fool's day. You might have guessed It— I mean the day." ^ "True, if I had thought of sunshine and showers, which you take such good care to re mind me of But, after all, what have the ye rs to do with It? Some girls are born women,Tnd some men remain boys. You know we we e so confidential at the start." " Yes, at the start." "Why shouldn't we be at the finish ? " looked f^PP^^-l'^^'-^ i"/he grassy 'road and ooked at me with one of those quick, involun- tary starts that were her own property and "n which she always played the echo ^ ^ alarm "'"mI "^" ^^C T^ ' ^°^^' rose-tinted alarm. My — what has happened ? " 189 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAN "You have," I replied, catching hold of and resuming the walk. " If you had been ( tent to remain an uncertain danger, all w( have been well. But you must happen in priz persona and muddle everything — even r "Walk along this path to the meadow," murmured. " I want you to see the Holste When I am muddled, I come down here look at the cows. Aren't you fond of cow; " Polly," I said, " you may be able to reli my mind of a burden. I feel that my family placed itself under some kind of obligation you, ard as a man of honour I think it ough be redeemed, if not by one, why then by anol member of the family. Has it ever occurrec you that Charlie may be too young to see ii that light ? " We had come to the heavy stile at the mead and we both leaned upon it close together. 1 Holsteins dotted the green stretches with tl white stomachers, and the long afternoon sh ows reached across the fields in soft bars. "You really feel sometimes," she said, "t you are younger than Charlie, don't you ? that what you mean by being muddled?" " Would you mind telling me what jo« think " I don't think there is so much differe between you as one ought to expect." " Oh, yes, there is. I cannot do the same thi that Charlie does — at least, with his indifferer A young man never has so much considerat for other persons." 190 LAND aid of her been con- all would en in pro- even me," dow," she Holsteins. here and )f cows ? " to relieve family has igation to t ought to >y another ccurred to ) see it in I meadow, ler. The with their 3on shad- ars. lid, "that you ? Is d?" « think ? " difference me things difference, sideration I BECOME A NONENTITY While we were talking, the Holsteins that were scat ered about the field began to movf ow ? softly chat I did not notice it until thev had drawn together at some little distance an^were all pointing at Polly. I looked up and saw the absurd semicircle of beasts that had closed in upon us, as if indeed Polly carried her magnet |sm into the fields and al/ things cameToS" pocket. You shall see them stick out their hJ jolly tongues and lick my hand. Aren' thel.' h^^Kisome, with their velvet belts and big agate They came so close that I could smell their minty breaths, - a warm, musky fragranTe/pi ked up from daisied glades and gatherfd a ong wet blades of balsam. One or two of them tried to say something m their own absurdly inarticulate and mumbling way -a way that opened "e' coral caverns of mouths, and emitted soft fum rumble of the heavens after a hot, drv dav when ^you l.sten ,„ .he booing i„ ^he Irt^T Polly held out a little white hand, and thev all came up ,n turn and kissed it, _ beautiful, ha " m the nature of things ; and she pulled their velvety ears and stroked their massive jo Jls, and 191 . 1 '^' TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LANI had untranslatable words for each one, that beic to the mid-kingdom between instinct and reasc I believe the influence of the honest kine nn have affected me. Perhaps I tried myself to mc It is some time ago, and I cannot be accurate, leaned close to my companion and said : — " Polly, be frank with me — Charlie has hi you." She gave a little start, as if I had tried to op the lid of a forbidden casket. But her impulsi frankness dominated her. " Yes — a little," she said ; " but it does n count now." I pulled her a little closer. " Yes, it does count," I insisted. " We a both hurt in the same way." " Oh, no — not in the same way." " Well, at least by the same act." " No, no — you are unjust." " He preiended to love you." " Pretended ? Dear me." I held her fast, fv,. I could feel her shrink fro the subject. " It must have been a pretence if it was so shor lived. Something or somebody interfered with it « Well ? " " Why do you say 'well.' It is not well." "Isn't it?" " Why, no. How can it be ? Now he lov^ somebody else. It's lo, isn't it?" " Oh, no, certainly not." " What ? " 192 F.AND I BECOME A NONENTITY at belong d reason. :ine must r to moo. urate. I has hurt [ to open mpulsive does not We are nk from so short- with it." ell." he loves " It isn't lo." " Then who, in the name of all the youthful follies, is it? " " You." "Try and be serious a moment. He cannot help that, and it is no great credit to one's flesh and blood. You understand that I am speaking oi his recreancy to you," "Yes. It was his fidelity to you. I rather admired it, it was so original. He couldn't love anybody unless you did." " What imbecility ! Do you mean to say that my son has never grown out of his infancy and has to ask his father what kind of emotion he shall experience ? " " Oh, his father stands first in his consideration. You don't know him." " Polly, tell me honestly, did Charlie ask you if you could love him ? Speak up. We want to understand each other." She turned her head away and put her salty hand to her mouth, so that she answered through her fingers. " He asked me if I thought I could love his Governor." "Great Solomon, Polly, and what did you sav ?*• " I said I could try, — he had set me such a good example. And I did try." She must have rubbed her salty hand across her eyes, for, as I pulled her face gently round, those violet eyes were swimming again. This I9J J Il lit I M t TANGLKD UP IN BEULAH LAN was too much for me. I had no immediate wo that were fitted to the occasion; so what shoul do but pull her a little closer and kiss her — t being m some sort an acknowledgment to her well as a comfort to my.elf, the cows looking complacently, as ,f it were part of the ordinanc 1 think we understand each other better ' said, not quite understanding myself. ' " Yes, and so we need not mention the subii again, for after all it isn't a matter of life a death. I should hate to imagine myself bereavec You never shall. When a father sees I form it •''' ^''^''^' ^''P^''^' '''' '°" *° P* This was at last so exactly idiotic in its fitness the occasion that one of the cattle sniled ponde ous y, which ooked very much like a yawn ; b roily only said : — ^ ''He always performed it, didn't he.?" " Yes, according to his changing lights h may consider it his dutv now to be a ninny." His duty to you ? ' , "Suppose we hurry ' xk. I should like t give him some fresh poims on what may be h duty to nie. ^ " I am sure it would be more comfortable fo everybody to let him find out fcr himself. Beside^ It really isn t of so much importance " _ Then we returned along the lane, Polly hann ing to my arm with what I thought was a nev confidenc^, and after some little argument sh, consented to accompany me to the Doctor's man 194 |] J J LAND iate words : should I sr, — that to her as •oking on •di nances, letter," I e subject life and ;reaved." sees his to per- fitness to ponder- wn; but ^s. He like to Y be his able for Besides, \ hang- a new ?nt she *s man- I BKCOMK A NONENTITY sion and undergo the ordeal of Mcsdanus Dcwev's and CoUlcrcam's inspection, an ordeal from which she did not flinch and of the success of which I, in my infatuation, had not the Icasr doubt. I recall that walk back from t'lc meadow with a vivid memory. These incidental pictures remain longest in the mind and flash their colours with unhiding brilliancy. Pclly must have noticed that I held to her with a new zest, as if I had in some measure reclaimed her. I remember that there was a peculiar golden glow over the land- scape, and I was bucolic enough to remaik that It seemed to come through fresh cream. Polly only said, "If you don't mind, I'll take m'w banjo with me," and, as I had to carry it, we ar- rived at the Doctor's porch like two' wandering minstrels, but received a boisterou-: reception It was well that I had brought her back, for that evening down came Mr. 1-ancher and two or three of his associ-^es to pay thi ir respects to the guests, and to make the old ho ise ring with their merriment, in ^hich the Doctor joined with a youthful zest that was amazing, and Polly Nvith her banjo and her vivacity violated all forms and delighted everybody. Madame Coldcream and I watchea the young people from our corner, vainly endeavouring to read, between all the lines of merrymaking, some sober purposes that might be lurking there. But It was of no use. Charlie did not hesitate to rival Mr. Rancher in dancing attendance upon lo, and 1 could not see that Polly was at all distressed by It I TANGLED UP m BEULAH LAI Kutus, she sTi' "^ ! sporting terms f" V^? "^•'-'^^'""^^Ily cerement. You^reVn?'' "Z'^''' '^"^"^^''-^ headachU"„VrUo".T'/°^! i^r V' i>» ii;* 196 m I LAND f us whose e preparing fit of it, my ly off your "ally uses If " (snap- Jctors dis- excniplary ■e a slight 3o late to assistance, at most 5 of sleep. 3 3 N CHAPIER XI THE TOURNAMENT AND V'HAT CAMK IT I^jjgN^ the midst of prcparat , I al( nc ^g^ la'-ked a merry heart. I was p' n ^gj enougfi thMt any social event «- ^^ sunied undue proporr ons to ^^ household, dependent ' ,• th^ num part upon themselves tor fesu h\ There was, I noticed, a slightly t" rish anv and an unusual activity on that i rning of *, tournament. The Doctor himself was not cnr ' tree from excitement. He bounded in, < amiable imperatives, and bounced out. Th.- m. fast, at a most unseemly hour, was hurri.-d tlirott«i as a matter of routine duty, and even lo, I thot ht wore something like a suppressed flutter on le^ madonna face. The only person who preserved an observant composure, and insisted on taking all the time that propriety called for over iicr cottee, was my sister, and presently she and 1 197 Nff f ' I \ • m t i TANGLED UP IN BKUI.AH LAND found ourselves deserted at the table, not y< having finished our meal. " Rufus," she said, " we must be getting ok Neither of us seems to be human enouirh to b ■iisturbed." ^ " I am afraid," I said, " that with our cxncrienc we are apt to rccard tournamci.ts as a bore." "Yes, undoubtedly; but it is part of woman* education to be bored patiently. I think, how ever, there is a surprise in store for you at thi particular merrymaking." •' For mc .? I wish you would prepare me foi " That's just it. I am not in the secret. 1 only suspect, and could not help overhearine s word or two." " "It is very annoying," I said, "that there should be secrets when there is no occasion for them." " There wouldn't be any, Rufus, if there weren't men. A secret is merely a defect of vision." "Now see here, Petunia," I said, with sc-ie irritation, " I have been very much disturbed oy what I may call a complication, which is partly of my own making, and I don't think you ought to add any more weight to it than you can avoid. Just tell me plainly what it is you think will sur- prise me ; perhaps, if it isn't an agreeable surprise, 1 may prevtrnt or avoid it." "That's it. It is never safe to tell you any- thing. You rush off at a parental tangent and make a fuss. Now if you will just remain cool 198 THF. TOIJRN AMI-NT : there ion for anil inilitfircnt, as 1 ilo, ami let things take their course, you can lauKh at surprises. Nature will have its own wav. The truth is a father who has a son old enough to crack stone should be inured to surprises." " It seems to me that you are intimating as plainly as you can that it is my son who has a surprise for me." " I am sure of it. The hoy is in love, and you are bothering him. He is liable to do any- thing rash." " I don't believe a word of it. He mav be in love, and I think he is, but it does not at all fol- low that he will deceive me, and nothing else would surprise me. But to make sure of it, I will take the young bull by the horns." As I got upon my feet with impulsive deter- mination. Petunia imitateil me, and took hold of my arm. But before she could say anything, the Doctor burst in upon us. " Now, then, my excellent friends," he cried, " if we are to gftt away before the sun is unen- durable, you really must come along." " Where is that son of mine ? " 1 asked, some- what anxiously. " That son of yours has been gone ten minutes. He and lo are in the saddle. The surrey is wait- ing tor Mrs. Dewey, who is going under my pro- tection, and the phaeton is there for you and Polly, as you desired. Heavenly smoke, man, go and hunt up Bob, and leave my guests to me." Polly and I jogged along in the family phaeton .1; U.io TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND after all the inmates of the house had set out with a compounded hurrah-boys air. It was early in the morning. The sun had not been up long enough to dispel the dew, and the shadows of the trees lay long and damp over the road. I could not recall that I had ridden at so early an hour for twenty years. " Polly," I said, when we were seated side by side, " Charlie has avoiiled me for several days, I fancy. What do you suppose can be the reason ? " " I cannot, for the life of me, imagine," said Polly, " what any one should avoid you for. But then I haven't had as much of you as Charlie has." " There is something on his mind and in his conduct that I do not understand. He hurried off with Miss lo before I could get a word with h>» o im. " The Doctor hurried them off together. He is terribly brisk in the mornings. Mr. Charlie is all right." " Do you really feel that way, Polly ? " "Oh, yes, I'm naturally of a generous disposi- tion." " What do persons do at these tournaments ? " " They sit on the balcony and watch the young men play polo, and then they eat a trout dinner, and call on the Doctor to make a speech. Then they have a dance, and flirt and gossip, and drive home in the moonlight. You'll enjoy it." " Vv^ill you ? " "Certainly — if it's moonlight and you drive me back." U'-- m 200 I. r THK TOURNAMENT e has." in his lurried d with . He irlie is " I mean the festival." " Oh, yes, that's great fun in its way. The Club members will try to break their necks, and the old folks will look on, and lo will be perked up on a throne and not move a muscle if two of them are killed. She has a great deal of firmness." " I fancy it will be something of a bore to me. I would rather sit down at the Swirl and talk to you. " Oh, no, you will be surprised." "Surprised? There you go. That is what Mrs. Dewey said. But you are confidential enough to forewarn me. What am I to be surprised at ? " " Well, then, you will be surprised at the com- pany, first of all. There will be the homespun gentry and the city athletes. Then the dinner will surprise you ; then, lo will be a surprise, and, last of all, HE will astonish you." I hese things do not appear to promise any surprises. You must remember that 1 am a some- what blase veteran." " That's the reason it will surprise you — like a new salad. The young gentlemen o'f the Club are so fir away from their city governors that they think they can let themselves loose in the woods." '' You have been to the annual tournament before." " I missed it last year. I was in New York. But the year before I attended it. I'll tell you what they did. First, they had the joust on 'the lawn. Polo and hurdles and rough-riding. They picked up handkerchiefs (the ladies' handker- 201 !v' 'M % J- , • 'i TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND chiefs) ar full gallop, and kept them as prizes ; an Barclay Jennings was thrown and dislocated hi shoulder; and Frank Buckley sprained his ankle and they had to carry them upstairs, and the Doc tor took his coat off and operated — yes, he die ' Now this is something like sport,' said HE. * Ge me warm water and bandages.' ' Bind it up witl that handkerchief. Doctor,' says Frank Buckley ' the one with the pink monogram on it.' ' Tush tush, boys,' says the Doctor, ' we'll keep that fo the next patient, who will probably dislocate hi r— k. You keep quiet or I will take your leg off. lou know it was lo's handkerchief." " I should think that would have dampenec the merriment." "O dear, no — enhanced it. lo put on j white apron and played the nurse in spite of tht Doctor, who ramped and stamped and said ' Holy smoke, girl, don't you do it. We'll hav( the whole Club dislocated.' " And here Polly let off a little roulade of laughter like a small sky-rocket. " Yes," I said, " I can understand tha? To as j nurse is worth risking one's neck for." " The Doctor said she was too ridiculous — lei me see, what was it he did sa\ —oh, yes, ' Great Scott,' says he, 'fancy a man with a sprained ankle who wants his temples bathed every ten minutes. Where's Bob .? '" ^ Then I tried to execute a roulade of my own. I'm afraid I was not in very good voice. " Is Mr. Fancher a rough rider ? " I asked, 202 THE TOURNAMENT feeling a little gleam of hope that perhaps he would be the surprise in store for me, and in- tended to risk his neck. " I should think he must be," replied Polly. " You know he told the Doctor he intended to marry lo. That was rather desperate, wasn't it ? " " I should like to know what it was the Doctor really said to the proposition." " Oh, I can tell you. HE said : ' Tush, tush, my son, you had better stick to your regular amusement and break your neck in some other comfortable way. I flatter myself I'm master of this paddock.' Did it ever occur to you that the Doctor is especially good at flattering him- self? " *' Polly," I said quite seriously, " the Doctor has set his mind on marrying lo to Charlie. He has reasoned himself into a belief that it is a duty." "Yes, dear old goose, you can't help feeling sorry for him." " For Charlie, you mean." " No, for the Doctor." "You don't believe that Charlie will ever marry lo?" I asked, as I tightened on the reins and, without knowing it, stopped the horse in the road. " Never," said Polly, with what I thought was a soft intensity. " What have you stopped for ? " "You must have taken my breath and the horse's at the same time. Get up, Periwinkle. Polly, if there is anybody to be sorry for, it is 203 •^ \ n w M.i 1^1 •, '' IP ' ^ I' TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND you. I should think you could see that Charlit like all the rest of them, has fallen down abjectl at lo's feet. He's bewitched." She was looking straight ahead, and I coul not see her telltale eyes, but I thought she shoo her head with a slightly negative action, as if sh had repeated to herself the word never. Whetht it was resolution or faith in Charlie I could nc tell, but in either case, it had only, for me, tender solicitude. She was a confiding girl, afti all, believing with a girl's innocence that a your man holds his vows sacred. How little she kne of the power of passion in the young man to blir the judgment and hide the consequences. Ar yet, the father instinct of me felt strangely toucht by the fidelity of this girl, who, in spite of a believed in Charlie, or pretended to. " We shall never get to the tournament," si said, " if you do not drive faster." " Bother the tournament," I replied. " seems to me we have come to it. Polly, ju listen to me a moment. You are strangely co fident. I honour you for it, but I do not fe about it as you do, and I am going to ask you do a strange thing." " Wait a moment," she said. " Stop the hon I want to gather some of those wild flowers," ai out she jumped. I watched her flitting in the grass and amo the bushes, plucking the summer blooms that h come up with many colours along the stretch damp meadow, and the unconscious grace of m 204 THK TOURNAMKXT she Hon and strong relief of her hthe figure against the shadowy wood filled me with new adniira- rion. There was something about Polly, seen thus, that defied all analysis that I could com- mand. Whenever I thought of her and lo with comparative intent as two pictures, it always seemed to me that one of them carried her own light and irradiated herself without knowing it. She possessed a human and fluctuant quality that fitted itself inimitably and instantly, like that little river, to whatever it touched. As 'she went lightly among the stems, she occasionally looked toward me, holding up a bunch of colour's, but I saw only the glad smiling face, and it seemed to me that this was what Vernet and all those French romancers of l! ' ■-' had been trying to realize. Pres- ently b.ie «. Tibed back into the phaeton with her burden, and once bestowed, she said, in the most matter-of-fact way : — " I interrupted you. You were going to say something and you looked solemn. Have vou thought it over ? " " Polly," I said, "if you do not marry Charlie — will you marry me? It isn't so much of a pledge as a test," She turned squarely round, held out her hand, and, without the least hesitation, replied promptly: — " Yes, sir." It came at me so plumply that I held her hand until she pulled it away, and being for a moment unable to inake out the exact meaning of her 205 H k u r TANGLED UP IN BKULAH LAND promptitude, must have looked rather wonder- ingly sentimental. Nevertheless, my remaining good sense told me that it was simply a declara- tion on her part that she would never be called upon to marry me. " Now, please whip up the horse," she said, "We must not think altogether of ourselves There are others." We arrived at the Club House about nine o'clock. A more romantic spot could not havt been found than this broad plateau on the moun- tain side, with a torrent tumbling down withir view, and a great campus stretching out under th< ancestral trees in front, beyond which the mist) perspectives of the valleys made spacious out looks. We were hailed from the crowded balcony wit! shouts of greeting, and Polly was carried off by body-guard of athletic young men. I saw bu little of her after that, save in flashes, and onl; heard of her in airy gurgles, blown to me fron the wood, and always accompanied, I thought, b a chorus of acclamations. The only distinguishing feature of such a affair as was this is the easy determination o everybody to leave as many of the convention behind as is compatible with the association o ladies and gentlemen. The young men of th Club, in becoming hosts for one day, demande and received the right to mingle some of the free dom of an outdoor camp with the amenities c a formal function. Even the dowagers and ve 206 m THK TOURNAMENT crans who have to be present for protective rea- sons are supposed to relax a little of their vigilance in the wildwood, and their endeavour to do so on this occasion was to me one of the most amusing features of the gathering, and I saw with zest, before the day was over, the proper Madame Coldcrcam skipping in the grass with wide-awake hat on, and positively showing her autumnal ankles with some- thing like mature abandonment. How much a tournament costs these profligate young men I should not like to estimate. They had French cooks from Philadelphia and New York, and coloured waiters '"om the Hot Springs, to say nothing of the Hur rian band and exotic flowers. There were wine and cigars galore, and Roman punches handed round in tiny Dresden bowls, hired, I dare say, for the occasion. Then, too, they had assembled most of the landed gen- try in the county, or at least that portion of them which had eligible daughters likely to be inter- ested in the sports of the city gentlemen, and a variegated and interesting collection it made, re- minding me more of Commencement Day at West Point than of any other tournament I had ever attended, minus, of course, those fetching gray coats and white trousers. Polly had described the festivities with her usual accuracy. Most of the members had their hunters brought down, and there was an exhibition of high jumping and other reminiscences of the New York Horse Show, with a competing struggle for the handkerchief, which lo from her chair of state 207 I r h I f i.' TANGLKD UP IN BKULAH LAND had given up, all of which elicited a good deal o hearty applause from the ladies and some crit cism from the Doctor, who had served a term o the plains and was fiimiliar with the feats of th cowboys. When it was over the guests and th club men paired off, and 1 saw Mr. Fancher carr awav lo on his arm, and caught a glimpse of Poll hanging to a stalwart beau. I must have acted a little morosely, I suppos straying off alone and trying to make up my min if, after all, it might not be an allowable arrangi ment to claim Polly for myself and let Charl'e g his headlong way. I own that I had a growir inclination to retain Polly in my family, and seemed to me at the moment that Polly ha evinced no opposition to being retained one wt or the other. The simple fact is Polly had grow by some inscrutable virtue of her own to be a vei important consideration with me, and I confe that I gave way to the ignoble thought for moment, that perhaps it would be well to I Nature have her way with the three of us. Eve fathers have their weak moments. Might it m be that Fate had reserved Polly for my matu rescuing? It would not be such a monstroi thing if the girl saw something in the father - better balanced and more reliable — than had wc her in the son. I had gone so far as to make : unprecedented and conditional proposal to Poll and the girl had accepted it promptly and frankl For the life of me I could not make out, now th I thought it over, whether her acceptance was ( 208 1! THE TOURNAMKNT me or the result that was already guaranteed to her faith. So it was that Polly, by baffling me, won me to an admiration that was beyond all reason. And so it always is with a man when he gets past his headlong stage. He begins to worship a supernal twitter that reminds him of his own youth. Against the chiselled lo, Polly seemed to" throb and qiMver and smile and weep as the tides of life went exultingly on. Now this IS all very well, but when a father of fifty with a son of twenty gets into this tangle, he has to deal with a new element, utterly unknown to the youthful lover who is foot-loose. The parental bonds are tight. He may play at the selfishness of passion, but he cannot get rid of the father's loyalty. I do not know which is the most craven, his admiration for that which is most admirable in a girl, or his sympathy for that which is most contemptible in his own offspring. It was plain enough to me that Charlie, like all the rest of them, was under the spell of lo. How could I help pitying him. Suppose she jilted him. Just think of that poor fellow being all smashed up at his age. And then I was respon- sible for most of it myself. What did the Doctor know of a father's feelings? So I wandered about and smoked my cigar and watched the romp of exuberant nature, and tried to read for myself between the lines of flirtation. I)o my best, I could not discover any surprises. 1 here were some bouncing girls ;. -he bowling 209 ^' • M illi •I J / ) iS I < TANGLED UP IN BKULAH LAND alley — one of them had dropped a hall on he toes and was being fanned in a c!)air; another ha made a ten-strike and fainted. There were othc groups in the billiard room and on the croquc ground. It was all traditional, and familiar t the man who has been through it. But I note( that Mr. Kancher had appropriated lo, and fondly believed that my boy, like myself, wa wandering about slightly disgruntled, not evei caring :o interfere with Barclay Jennings, who hai carried off Polly. As for the Doctor, he ha( encountered Judge Gates of Mifflin, one of thi staunchest of the old Quaker stock of Pennsylva nia, with a large family of girls and boys, severa of who.m had come with him and were introducec as Pearl and Sapphira and Jasper, for, as th( Doctor gallantly remarked, the Gates house hold had as many shining portals as the Hob City. With this btaunch old gentleman, th( Doctor entered into an argument on protectior and free trade, to the delectation of a small grouj of ancients, and the consequence was that th« young folks had everything their own way, anc everything seemed to gallop or dawdle in th< farniliar and preordained route. The dinner wa; quite an achievement of its kind, with mountain; of wild berries and trout in various modes There were appropriate wines and confections and Mr. Fancher was master of ceremonies He had put lo at the end of the table, and had i wreath of white roses suspended above her heac like a halo, He took good care to have the seal 2IO V \>i li THE TOURNAMKNT V next to her, and to have my son pushed down to the other end amoni; the reverend seniors, where he was compelled to listen to the IVarl (iates open- ing and shutting. I think Mr. Fancher managed to say to the Doctor in this arrangement, without any words, that at this banquet his worthy guest \ IS not quite master of the paddock. So there was some good-natured cut and thrust between them which amused the rest of us, though the wit was not remarkable. When the Doctor asked what the thing was above Miss lo's he:ul, Mr. Fancher replied that it was a reminder that she was not under a cloud for one day. It was a crown. Whereupon the young men applauded, and lo did not even blush, though the Doctor called upon her vehemently to do so for the sake 'M of her sex, and Polly tartly volunteered to do it for her. With such exhilaration as the dinner afforded, they gathered on the lawn, and with the Hunga- rian band well disposed, danced the hours away until the moon was up. As 1 sat on the balcony with " Mother" and Madame Coldcream, watching the figures, and remarking that Polly was the best dancer in the party, the Doctor came up, and touching me on the shoulder, drew me away from the group. "What do you suppose has become of lo?" he w hispered. " She and Fancher have not been seen for an hour, and these runagates are too mad to miss anything." " They are probably wandering about in the 211 ^^ TASGU.D LP IN BKULAH LAND moonlight somewhere," I replied. " I saw then this afternoon in a shady dell holding each other's hands." " Confounc' that fellow," said the Doctor. " 1 don't want to mar this merrymaking, but I sup- pose I nuist give him a piece of my miml Don't worry the old lady about it— I'll find out." And he strode off. I heard afterward that he went down among the dancing groups to make inquiries, and catching Barclay Jennings between whirls, he asked, " What has become of Fancher .? " and Jennings, keeping time with one leg, and speaking in purts, said : — " Fancher? Why, Fancher, he's gone to New York. Now, then. Miss Polly, there s the waltz." 'I'he Doctor took out his big red handkerchief and wiped his forehead. He waited for a few moments to catch Jennings again, and this time he caught luni by the arm. " Look here, young man, one of my family, Miss lo, has not been seen for an hour. I'm'a little anxious about her." Miss lo?" says Jennings, beating time with his hand, "oh, she's all right. She's gone to New York too. You see I was to go with them as best man, but I got tangled up in this dance, and they were in such a confounded hurry — " and then Jennings was swept away in the waves ot motion. The Doctor has what is called a level head. He took in the matter at one gulp, and sup- 212 H ,i THK TOURNAMI NT pressed himself with admirahlc will, for he per- fectly well understood that Kanchcr in such an escapade would have the sympathy of the Club, if indeed the Club had not been his fellow con- spirators. I le looked at his watch. The through train did not pass Tuskaloo for an hour. He could get there in time, and make such a row that the val- iant Mr. I'ancher would back away from the in- dignant brawn of Tuskaloo. Besides, he would take Boylston with him, and Boylston had once broken a man's back. This was all very natural, and very like the Doctor, who in an emergency was a very cool and determined man. But when he got back to the balcony, carrying his Panama in his hand, and still mopping his forehead, he encountered "Mother" and me, we having withdrawn from the group, and "Mother" handed him a note that had just reached her. She pressed her two fingers on her lips as he read it, rather, I thought, to suppress him this time than herself It was very simple and direct. All it said was : — " Don't worry about me — Married at Tuska- loo— Will telegraph from New York. lo." The Doctor looked crestfallen rather than grim. " Don't discuss the matter here," he s.iid. " A misfortune is bad enough, but to have it t . -led mto a joke is worse. We'll get away, if you Jun't mind, as soon as possible. Just find our people and I'll order the teams." 213 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND '.. i fi «' li •U It, In such a denouement my first thought was of Charlie. How would he take this blow? I sighed for him. Th-. was his first shock in life. He had never ci any dis-'i-ipointments. His poor young hear wc^.dd prol .bly feel very dis- mal, and life, foi ;i rime at least, would not be worth living. I naisc ii;ij !iim at once, and, like a true fiither, come to his assistance and brace him up. That Hungarian band was getting infernal. I went down and hunted for him through the gal- loping coterie. When I caught him with an affectionate but firm grasp, I said : — "My boy, something has happened. Prepare yourself for a great shock." He was blowing like a porpoise. "What is ir?" he said — "Madame Cold- cream had a paralytic stroke ? " " Miss lo has eloped with Mr. Fancher." He was not looking at me at all. His eyes were going up and down with the music and the figures. " Yes," he said, " I heard of it. Wait a moment. Dad, till I finish this dance, and I'll be with you. Polly is engaged to me for this set." 214 CHAPTER XII POLLY UNTANGLES ^^^■■F!™^HE morning after this unexpected /p^l I ^^^ and unpardonable escapade of Jo's ^^/■^^^ broke rainy and leaden. I must ^^^ I ^^l ^^^^ overslept myself owing to the ^^^B^^a sombre light of my chamber, I ^^**^^^^^ stood at my open window and lis- tened to the rain. It was pattering with steady persistency on the rose vines and running in riv- ulets from the porches. It was one of those summer rains that come now and then in June and July and that have a reminder of April and a presage of September in them-- -something passed and something chilly approaching. I looked into the adjoining chamber. It was empty. Then I proceeded to attire myself in the most discon- nected manner, sitting on the edge of the bed with one shoe on my foot and the other in my 215 ■ TANGLFD UP IN BKULAH LAND hantl — listening to the rain and trying to recall what it was I said to Folly in the phaeton. These summer rains that borrow the melan- '-f^oly of October and pour it steadily for hours out ot unlit skies have an occult retroactive effect, rhey suggest a chilliness that does not exist. They make you huddle and remember. You light wood fires in the large rooms, but they burn pallidly and spit reproachmlly, — like things born out of season, — and your convivial circle falls into commonplaces of impatience and supposes "this has set in for a week," and, being in the country, thinks of the roads. However, the weather is often singularly apro- pos, and at this time it was only trying to supple- ment the chill that had settled on the group in the Doctor's establishment. I could hear a mono- tone of voices in the room beneath, and I learned when I came downstairs that //t-and Mother were having it out b i ' locked doors. A slight oscil- lation suggeste the Doctor was walking the floor, and a lack ot femininity in the tones implied that Mother had her fingers on her lips. No coffee in the hall. I looked at the bare little table and wondered if it was intentional or accidental. I tried the porch. The rain blew in upon it, and when I turned the corner a wet blast smote me and I buttoned up my coat. The pros- pect was shivery and dripping. Recreant Nature that had been saying for so many days, " When you get tired of each other come out here to me — I have zithers and tabernacles and companion- 2l6 ■i POLLY UXTANGLKS ship " — now seemed to wear a viiulictive spite and say, "I^all back on your humanities, you mis- erable, overweening mortals ! " It is at such limes that the overweening mor- tals have a fine opportunity to snap their fingers m the face ot Nature and laugh at its storn ca- prices, and mortals now and then avail themselves of It with all the exuberant authority -.f Lords and Masters. We all remember hours when Boreas only melted us to defiant revelry. We have, most of us, been shut up by the weather at some' time m big, rambling, isolated houses where we were besieged by storms. And what a jolly contempt- uous defence we made of it. How we heaped up the logs and laughed through the frosty panes at the snow-drifts and the cohorts of winte'r. What games we played, what forfeits we paid and exacted V\ e never heard the shriek of the wind, or, if we did, It only spurred our merry-making. What a shame it is that we lose our power of resistance as we get wiser. But the breakfast ? Oh, yes, we assembled at the breakfast table. But we seemed to have made a tacit agreement to preserve the relations of guests and host and not disturb any family secrets It was evident that the Doctor and Mother had as- sumed an extra air of polite formality. They spoke rather elaborately about the weather, and the Doc- tor seemed to think it was a subject that we ought to consider specially interesting. P T^^'^ "^f ^V ^"^^^y "^^^'^ o" one side and l^olly s on the other. Charlie came in a little out 217 III m Vol I ; ili .-I'i TANGI.FD UP IN bEULAH L an J'r do™t« r^^ ^.^-1-g - ' took up the t e" c of h "'\'"''''>' ^^^ been cramming ^orftH"'""'" "^ "■ ' thorouehlv kmiZ.i. "' tcr regrettedThawh """'>'■ '° ^^'^l' 'he they fou d not stav ','■ '"uS^S'^T""' ""= ^"-^l drive even TmL I "''*='" ""^ ^n""! looked up at m'i asTf''h " '° *f "'y- ^i the ladies Bur i 11 expected me to go drift of c;mmonnbrr°'?"""e,^P«'al heed t to an end XT vbodfha^da'd-''""'-'^" ' . off where nobody wou|/i„ er^e^J^S'?^ " Vidua e minpco M '"terrere with the : gavhered her skirts fl ZMVT ''■'''' " Petunia," I said " VP the stairs, moment th^re is „1 ' ?"" '"'° the parlo, should congeal" ^°°'' "^^°" ^l-y X™ an "rfS';!Tf'i't';irref^''™PP'"S h- ski regards me as T rr i 1 ■ '^"'['gfator. Your fri, -and t"e wor't o'nr ,*' ''°"'"' °^^'' fan " Nonsenl H ■ ' ' '"PP°^' ' am." wiilgetreT!;i„':^j:/--;|.>;,*»gtunt,ed. I I ill ^H LAND ng us waiting, pty chairs and as if he had voluble and naged to fit >f that break- measure the -ety, and she : necessity of :ool a recog- i^ there had 'ch the Doc- -'•e such that ! enough to y. Charh'e • to go with heed to the ikfast came ition to go 1 the indi- ■d my esti- ^s she had -airs. parlour a you and I ler skirts, our friend his family 1." :led. He POLLY UNTANGLES " Are you going to stay and wait for it ? " she asked. '\ I am not going to do anything rash. Let me advise you to wait till the weather changes, and not rush off in this storm." We walked into the parlour and stood at one ot the windows, looking unobservantly out at the steady downpour. "You see," she said, "the Doctor suspects me of having a hand in this folly of lo's. But he does me a great injustice. 1 had only a finger in It. There, there ! do keep quiet a moment if you want me to tell you. I had an inkling of Mr i 1 rf.-i He took out his bandanna and wiped the rain from his face. "If there is anything that I have set great store on all my life," he said, " it is honesty and fair dealing among friends." " True, in that we are one," I replied en- couragingly. " Not at all ! Not at all ! " and he began fumbling in his breast pocket for the letter I wrote him from New York. I held up my hand. " Why go back to that," I said. " Let us deal with the present. I am as completely taken aback by what has occurred as you are." " You speak as if some one had deceived you too." " If any one has deceived you, Doctor, it was not me. I am surprised at your imputation." " There's your letter," he replied, throwing it on the table. "You had better refresh your mind." " About what ? " "See here, my old friend," he said, " if you think you have treated me with exact fairness, I am not going to disturb your conviction. We can at least disagree about some things without forgetting our present relations as host and guest." I felt my cheek burn a little as I got up and we stood facing each other across the table. " Doctor," I exclaimed impulsively, " our relations as guest and host need not interfere 222 4-10 POLLY UNTANGLES en- with the expression of our opinions of each other. The relations can cease from this moment if you desire more latitude of suspicion." "My share of the relation forbids me to reply in kind," he said. •' You arc in my house." " Perhaps that is unfortunate, but it is not irremediable. I beg your pardon, but nothing is easier than to readjust^ our relations if it will give you ?. better command of language." T'len I took two steps toward the door and came face to face with Charlie. "Ah, there you are, my boy," I said. "Just m time, we go back at three. Get your things together." ^ He looked from me to the Doctor who had walked to the window and was examining the barometer with his back towards us. " What's the matter ? " he asked. " We have forfeited the Doctor's respect be- cause we let Mr. Fancher carry off Miss lo." " Pardon me," said the Doctor, turning round. " Do you think that is a fair explanation ? " " I think it is accurate," I replied. "It isn't anything of the sort. Charlie, my boy, he said, striding over and putting his hand on my son's shoulder, « I had great hopes of you. I didn t think that you would permit yourself to be beaten in a game of this kind." Charlie hung his head a little. "Speak up," I said. "What's the matter with you r " I don't know," said Charlie, " unless it is 223 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND [< f J that I am one of those fellows who do not know when they are beaten." " Well, if you do not know it by this time ou never will, and I give you up. Between the ot of you I must look like a consummate old guy. But I deserve it. 1 deserve it for med- dling with such tomfoolery at my age." Then the Doctor went over and looked at the barometer again with his back towa'-d us, and I really believe the old savage was affected. It is astonishing how much pathos a man can put into his back. For a moment I felt sorry for the Doctor who, bavins lost a choice piece of bric- a-brac, must look bereaved even in the rear. I could imagine how a man must suffer who is robbed of a Fortuny that has gladdened him for years. It was not the moment to speak to him about carrying off his remaining picture. " Doctor," I said, " it is very unfortunate that you and I should allow a misunderstanding of so ft^vial a nature to strain the friendship of years." Trivial ! " he exclaimed. " Confound it, sir, it goes to my marrow. A man at my age doesn't like to be made a monkey of. I told you why I had set my mind on this thing, and was weak enough to believe that you understood my posi- tion in the matter." " I believe I did." " See here ! " he shouted. " You ought to know that what 1 was trying to do was to keep together a little group that I had gathered about me in my decline. It was the only thing I had 224 POLLY UNTAXGLKS to live for down here. A man hates to see his work all go to pieces when he takes his hand off. Confound that ungrateful baggage — after all I have done for her. Gentlemen, I feel as if I had lost a leg. 1 should think you would have some sympathy for me." At that moment the sun broke out and came in a deep yellow shaft through the bay window. Everything outside sparkled and danced in pris- matic splendour. And then, as if it were part of it, came the voice of Polly — that same roulading exultation. We looked at each other a second, and the Doctor opened the sash. " You have I\)lly, Doctor," I said. ** Have I ?" he snapped. '* How long will I have her, do you suppose ? How long will 1 have anything?" '" Call her in and ask her," said Charlie, with appropriate imbecility. She must have glittered into view, for we heard her say, " Come out on the gravel, there's a rain- bow." "You come in here, you infatuated treetoad, I want to chain you down," cried the Doctor, and a moment later she appeared at the door, looking as if she had brought the rainbow with her. She gave one quick look at the solemn trio, let out a gurgle, and then clapping her hand on her mouth tried to look solemn like the rest of us. " Polly," I said, jumping into the breach, " the Doctor has lost one of his girls, and he wants to feel assured that he will not lose the other." 225 TANGLED UP IN BEULAH LAND if "Oh, the other doesn't count," said Polly, de- murely. " None of your twitters," cried the Doctor. ** Pardon me, Doctor," I said. " This goes to my marrow. Pray he serious. I had the privi- lege of asking this young lady if, in a certain con- tingency, she would he my wife. Her reply was remarkahle." " It couldn't he as remarkahle as the question," said the Doctor. ♦' Why not ? Her answer was, ' Yes, sir.' " " It was quite safe. He knew I was engaged already," simpered Polly. " Engaged, were you, already ! " snorted the Doctor — "and under my very eyes? " " Yes, sir," replied Polly, hanging her head. " I couldn't marry hoth of them. He must have known that, and besides" — said the minx, drop- ping her head lower and looking out of the cor- ner of her eye at Charlie — "either one would do." " You see. Doctor," said Charlie, " I couldn't help myself when it was a question of saving my Dad. I promised his sister, my aunt, to look after him down here." " That's all you want of me, isn't it ? " asked Polly, edging off toward the door. " Come back here, you inscrutable jack-o'-lan- tern ! " shouted the Doctor. " So you are going to marry Charlie, are you ? " " Either Charlie or his father," said Polly, put- ting her hands over her eyes as if to shut out the 226 IHJIJ.V UMANGLKS prospect. " Why not let them settle it between them ? " " Very well," ejaculated the l)