"Oh, she"s only been here about two weeks," his wife answered.
"Ah, I was thinking of her predecessor, a most wonderful cat, with a keen sense of propriety, never disturbing the loose ends of thought that a student suffers to lie upon his table."
Mrs. Dolihide agreed that the other cat was good enough, but that she had fits, and in his way Milford acknowledged that fits, while not necessarily arguing a want of merit, could not avoid giving an erratic cast even to most p.r.o.nounced worth. This was all the Professor needed, and he forthwith launched a ship of disquisition, but when he had fully rigged it and neatly trimmed its sails, his wife broke in with the remark that the country was overrun with common people from the city.
One would naturally expect noisy uncouthness, and a lack in many instances of refined reading, but--
"My dear," the Professor interrupted, "you must bear in mind that the minor summer resort is a kind of Castle Garden, with now and then a shining exception. Here we have the drudges of trade. Am I right, Mr.
Milford?"
"Yes, the experiments, the hagglers and the failures."
The Professor slapped his leg. "A goodly remark, sir; upon my soul, a worthy ill.u.s.tration."
"And I have a good deal of fault to find with the home society," said Mrs. Dolihide. "It is jagged and raw, with a constant scuffle after the dollar--"
"The necessary dollar," observed the Professor.
"The scarce dollar," she replied.
"And therefore necessary, my dear. But you are right as to society.
There are many good people here, excellent families, but the rank and file are common scratchers of the soil. But they thrive, a reproach to men of more intelligence. And now, sir," he added, turning to Milford, "upon what does success depend? Mind? Oh, no. Industry? No. What then?
Temperament. Temperament is of itself a success. It--"
"Supper," said a young woman appearing in the door.
At the table Milford was presented to Miss Katherine Dolihide, slim, cold and prettyish. She might have had a respect for her father"s learning, but it was evident that she held his failure in contempt. With her, a mind that gathered the trinkets of knowledge and fell short of providing luxuries for the body could not be reckoned among the virtues.
Wisdom"s reflected light was dimmer than an earring. She looked at Milford, and he felt that he failed to reach her mark. She gave him, he thought, the dry and narrow smile of ironic pity. She asked him if he liked the country. He answered that he did, and she remarked that it was a crude picture daubed with green. There were no old mills. She loved old mills; no country was beautiful without them. Had she seen old mills? No, she had not, but she had read of them and had found them scattered throughout the pages of art. She acknowledged after a time that the lakes were charming, the woods replete with sweet dreaming, the lanes full of a vagabond fancy, tinkers of imagination sleeping under the leaves; but without a ruined mill there could be no perfect rest for the mind. Milford knew that this was a pretense, not from any psychological reasoning, but because she was so unlike the Norwegian girl. To him there was more of conviction in silent opposites than in noisy arguments.
"I heard of you the other night over at the honey sociable," she said.
"Honey sociable?"
"Yes, honey and biscuit for the benefit of the church. Quite a unique affair, and wholly new to me, I a.s.sure you. A Mrs. Blakemore was present and spoke of you; she said it was a pity that you hadn"t come to tell stories of the West. A very intelligent woman, don"t you think?"
"Yes, I guess she is."
"But the most intelligent woman over there," said the Professor, "is Mrs. Goodwin."
"Over where?" his wife asked.
"Why, over at Mrs. Stuvic"s."
"When did you meet her?"
"Why--er--let me see. I was pa.s.sing, stepped in to get a drink of water, and was presented to the lady by Mrs. Stuvic. I didn"t stay long, mind you, but long enough to discover the lady"s intelligence. Mr. Milford, it may take years to discover a comet, sir, but intelligence, brighter in quality, shines out at once. Pa.s.s your cup."
"You didn"t tell me you"d met her," said Mrs. Dolihide.
"Didn"t I mention it? I thought I did. Speaking of this part of the country, Mr. Milford, is like discussing a new picture with old spots on it; but all great pictures were once new. Take the view, for instance, from our veranda. Nothing could be more charming. The gra.s.s land, with scattered trees, trim and graceful in their individuality, the cattle beneath them, the woods beyond, and--"
"No, you didn"t mention meeting her," said Mrs. Dolihide.
"But what difference does it make, mother?" the daughter spoke up. "By this time you ought to know that he meets many intelligent persons that we never see. Stuck here all the time," she added under her breath.
"Ah," said the Professor, "man may be walking pleasantly with prosperity hooked upon his arm, talking of the deeds they are to perform in common, when up gallops misfortune on a horse, and that is the end. I was going to take my family to Europe, but there came a galloping down the road and overtook me. Since then my hands have been tied."
"When I look around," said Mrs. Dolihide, "and see ordinary people living on the best in the land, it makes me mad to think that as smart a man as the Professor--"
"My dear, like you I could question fate, but--"
"Fate nothing; I don"t know what it is, but it does seem strange to me.
I don"t understand why a man as well educated as you are has to struggle with the world when the commonest sort of a person can buy property. I don"t understand it."
"Easy enough," the Professor replied. "The commonest sort of a person may have money, and having money, buys property. Nut-sh.e.l.l argument, Milford," he added, slapping his hand flat upon the table.
"Failure has always been easier to understand than success," said Milford. "Failure is natural, it seems to me. It comes from the weakness of man and nothing is more natural than weakness. I am arguing from my own case, and don"t mean to reflect on any one else. I have thrown away many an opportunity, but that was in keeping with my weakness."
"But I hear that you are anything but weak," said the Professor"s daughter. "They call you a mystery, and a mystery is a success until it is solved."
"But an unsolved conundrum might starve to death," he replied.
"Not so long as it remained unsolved," the Professor declared. "We feed the performer till he explains the trick."
"Then I suppose Mr. Milford will not explain his trick," said the girl.
"I"d be foolish to shut off my supplies, wouldn"t I?"
"Yes," she admitted, "but if you have a mystery you ought to let your friends share it."
"Ha," said the Professor, "that would mean the disposition of all the shares. But I don"t see why they call my friend a mystery. A man comes into the neighborhood and goes to work. Is there anything so mysterious about that? It would be more of a mystery if he lived without work."
"Father sometimes fails to catch the atmosphere of a situation," said the girl, giving Milford a smile not so narrow and not so dry with irony. "One"s appearance might have something to do with the estimate formed of him," she continued.
"The hired man marches from the east to the west and back again," said Milford. "And I am a hired man--hired by myself to do something, and I am going to do it," he added with a tightening of his face.
"But that mysterious something?" queried the girl. "What is it?"
"To make money," he answered. "Simmer it down and that"s all there is to life."
In her heart she agreed with him, but she took issue. She said that there was something better than money. He asked if it were an old mill, and they laughed themselves into better acquaintance.
"It would be well to sit here," said the Professor to Milford, "but I want you to go up to my work shop with me. I wish to show you something."
As Milford arose to follow him, he thought that on the woman"s face he saw a sneer at "work shop," and he felt that she and her daughter had learned to look upon it as an idle corner, full of useless lumber. The schemes of this ducking failure of a man were not of serious interest to them. His readiness to talk made him seem light of purpose, and a sigh that came from his heart might have been an unuttered word breathed upon the air, a word in excuse of his poverty.
Milford was conducted to an upper room, furnished with two chairs, a worn carpet and a table. But the Professor entered it reverently, as if it were the joss-house of hope. He turned down his light to steady the flame, placed the lamp upon the table, motioned his visitor to a chair, sat down, drew a pile of papers toward him, and said: "My dear fellow, I think I have something here that will tide me over the quarterly rapids.
I believe that among these sheets lie a life insurance premium of ninety-seven dollars and forty cents. I want you to hear it, and then I will steal it forth to that woman. Now, in writing for a professional man, a physician, we will say, you must of all things employ sky-sc.r.a.ping terms. Medicine has no use for the simple. I wanted to start off with a cloud-capped sentence, a quotation, and here is one I found in Hazlett, referring to old Sir Thomas Brown: "He scooped an ant.i.thesis from fabulous antiquity and raked up an epithet from the sweepings of chaos." Isn"t that a wild pigeon with the sun on its back?"
"Yes, I know, but what has it to do with an article on medicine?"