CHAPTER XVII.
With a generous and perhaps weak falsehood the Major sought to a.s.sure his wife that Gid had paid a part of his debt, and that a complete settlement was not far off, but with a cool smile she looked at him and replied: "John, please don"t tax your conscience any further. It"s too great a strain on you. Let the matter drop. I won"t even say I told you so."
"And as much as you might want the subject to be dropped you can"t let it fall without reminding me--but we will let it drop; we"ll throw it down. But you have your rights, Margaret, and they shall be respected. I will tell him that out of respect to you he must stay away from here."
"That is very thoughtful, dear; but does it occur to you that your continued intimacy with him, whether he comes here or not, will show a want of respect for me?"
"You don"t give a snap whether he pays his debts or not. You simply don"t want me to a.s.sociate with him. No, it has not occurred to me that I am not showing you proper respect and neither is it true. Margaret, do you know what is the most absurd and insupportable tyranny that woman can put upon man? It is to choose a companion for her husband."
"With me, dear, it is not tyranny; it is judgment."
"Oh, yes; or rather, it is the wonderful intuition which we are taught to believe that woman possesses. I admit that she is quick to see evil in a man, but she shuts her eyes to the good quality that stands opposite to offset it."
"Oh, I know that I haven"t shrewdness enough to discover a good trait; I can recognize only the bad, for they are always clearly in view. It is a wonder that you can respect so stupid a creature as I am, and I know that you have ceased to have a deeper feeling for me."
"Now, Margaret, for gracious sake don"t talk that way. Oh, of course you"ve got me now, and I have to flop or be a brute. Yes, you"ve got me.
You know I respect your good sense and love you, so what"s the use of this wrangle. There, now, it"s all right. I"ll promise not to go near him if you say so. And I have made up my mind to attend church with more regularity. I acknowledge that I can go wrong oftener than almost any man. Respect for you!" he suddenly broke out. "Why, you are the smartest woman in this state, and everybody knows it. Come on out to the office and sit with me."
Sometimes the Major, with a pretense of having business to call him away at night, would go over to old Gid"s house, and together they would chuckle by the fire or nod over roasting potatoes. They talked of their days on the river, and of their nights at Natchez under the hill. To be wholly respectable, a man must give up many an enjoyment, but when at last he has become virtuous, he fondly recounts the escapades of former years; and thus the memory of hot blood quickens the feeble pulse of age.
Sometimes old Gid would meet the Major at the gin house and joke with him amid the dust and lint, but he always came and departed in a roundabout way, so that Mrs. Cranceford, sitting at the window, might not be offended by his horse and his figure in the road. A time came when there was an interval of a week, and the old fellow had not shown himself at the gin house, and one night the Major went to the cypress log home to invade his retirement, but the place was dark. He pushed open the door and lighted the lamp. The fireplace was cheerless with cold ashes. He went to a cabin and made inquiry of a negro, and was told that Mr. Batts had been gone more than a week, and that he had left no word as to when he intended to return. Greatly worried, the Major went home; wide awake he pondered during long hours in bed, but no light fell upon the mystery of the old man"s absence; nor in the night nor at breakfast did the Major speak of it to his wife, but silently he took his worry with him to his office. One morning while the planter was at his desk, there came a storming at the dogs in the yard.
"Get down, boys. Don"t put your muddy paws on me. Hi, there, Bill, you seven years" itch of a scoundrel, take my horse to the stable."
The Major threw open the door. "Don"t come out, John!" Gid shouted, coming forward among the prancing dogs. "Don"t come out, for I want to see you in there."
He appeared to have gained flesh; his cheeks were ruddy, and his grasp was strong as he seized the Major"s hand. "How are you, John?"
"Why, old man, where on earth have you been?"
"I have been in the swamp for many years, but now I touch the ground only in high places."
He boldly stepped into the office, and as he sat down the sweep of his coat-tails brushed chattel mortgages and bills of sale from the desk.
"Only in high places do my feet touch the ground, John. I have just returned from Kentucky. And I bring the news that my old uncle is no more to this life, but is more to me than ever."
"And you were summoned to his bedside," said the Major, striving to be serious, but smiling upon him.
"Not exactly. You might say that I was summoned by a lawyer to his chest-side. He left me no word of affection, but his money is mine, and on many a half-dollar of it I warrant you there is the print of his tooth. Give me your check-book, John."
"Wait a while, Gid. Let us accustom ourselves to the situation."
"No; let us get down to business. I am impatient to pay a mildewed debt.
G.o.d"s love was slow, John, but it came. How much do I owe?"
"I don"t believe I"d pay it all at once, Gid. Leave a part to be met by the next crop."
"All right; but it"s yours at any time. The only way I can use money is to get rid of it as soon as possible. Make out a check for two-thirds of the amount and I"ll put my strong hand to it. But you haven"t congratulated me."
"No," the Major replied, with a drawl, "for I felt that it would have too much the appearance of my own greed. I have hounded you--" The old fellow seized him, and stopped his utterance. "Don"t say that, John. You have kept me out of h.e.l.l and you ought to complete my heaven with a congratulation."
They shook hands, looking not into each other"s eyes, but downward; the Major pretended to laugh, and old Gid, dropping his hand, bl.u.s.tered about the room, whistled and stormed at a dog that poked his head in at the door. Then he sat down, crossed his legs; but finding this uncomfortable, sprawled himself into an easier position and began to moralize upon the life and character of his uncle. "He always called me a fool with an uproarious fancy, an idiot with wit, and a wise man lacking in sense. He denied himself everything, and it strikes me that he must have been the fool. I wish he had gathered spoil enough to make me rich, but I reckon he did the best he could, and I forgive him. We must respect the dead, and sometimes the sooner they are dead the sooner we respect them. Let me sign that thing. Oh, he hasn"t left me so much, but I won"t quarrel with him now. What was it the moralist said?" he asked, pressing a blotting pad upon his name. "Said something about we must educate or we must perish. That"s all right, but I say we must have money. Without money you may be honest," he went on, handing the check to the Major, "but your honesty doesn"t show to advantage. Money makes a man appear honorable whether he is or not. It gives him courage, and nothing is more honorable than courage. The fact that a man pays a debt doesn"t always argue that he"s honest--it more often argues that he"s got money. Accident may make a man honest just as it may make him a thief."
"Your log fire and your old books haven"t done you any harm, Gid."
"They have saved my life, John. And let me tell you, that a man who grows gray without loving some old book is worse than a fool. The quaint thought of an old thinker is a cordial to aged men who come after him. I used to regret that I had not been better educated, but now I"m glad that my learning is not broader--it might give me too many loves--might make me a book polygamist. I have wondered why any university man can"t sit down and write a thing to startle the world; but the old world herself is learned, and what she demands is originality. We may learn how to express thought, John, but after all, thought itself must be born in us. There, I have discharged an obligation and delivered a moral lecture, and I want to tell you that you are the best man I ever saw."
"Now you are talking nonsense, Gid. Why, you have been just as necessary to me as I have to you. In a manner you have been the completion of myself."
"Ah," Gid cried, scuffling to his feet and bowing, "I have the pleasure of saluting Mrs. Cranceford. Some time has pa.s.sed since I saw you, ma"am, and I hope you will pardon my absence."
The Major sprawled himself back with a laugh. Mrs. Cranceford, standing on the door sill, gave Gid a cool stare.
"Won"t you please come in?" he asked, courteously waving his hand over the chair which he had just quitted.
"No, I thank you."
"Ah, I see you are surprised to see me in here. There was a time when it would have strained my boldness, but now it is a pleasure. I am here on business. To me business is a sweet morsel, and I delight myself with rolling it under my tongue. Ma"am, I have just signed a check. My dear old uncle, one of the most humane and charming of men, has been cruelly s.n.a.t.c.hed from this life; and as he found it impossible to take his money with him, he left it to me."
"I hope you will make good use of it," she replied, with never a softening toward him.
"I am beginning well," he rejoined, surprised that she did not give him a kindlier look. "I am discharging my obligations, and before night I"ll call on the rector and give him a check."
She smiled, but whether in doubt as to his sincerity or in commendation of his purpose he could not determine. But he took encouragement. "Yes, ma"am, and as I have now become a man of some importance, I am going to act accordingly. I am free to confess that my first endeavor shall be to gain your good opinion."
"And I"ll freely give it, Mr. Batts, when I believe you merit it."
"To desire it, ma"am, is of itself a merit."
She laughed at this, and the Major laughed, too, for he saw that no longer should he be compelled to defend his fondness for the old fellow.
"I am more than willing to confess my mountain of faults," Gid went on, smiling, and his smile was not disagreeable. "I am more than willing to do this, and when I have--and which I now do--your Christian heart must forgive me."
She laughed and held out her hand, and with a gallantry that would have been reminiscent, even in old Virginia, he touched it with his lips.
"Come here, Margaret," said the Major, and when she turned toward him, smiling, he put his arms about her, pressed her to his breast and fondly kissed her.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Mrs. Cranceford"s surrender was not as complete as Gid"s fancy had fore-pictured it; he had expected to see her bundle of prejudices thrown down like Christian"s load; and therefore the dignity with which she looked upon the establishment of his honor was a disappointment to him, but she invited him to stay for dinner, and this argued that her reserve could not much longer maintain itself. With pleasure he recalled that she had given him her hand, but in this he feared that there was more of haughtiness than of generosity. And at the table, and later in the library, he was made to feel that after all she had accepted him merely on probation; still, her treatment of him was so different from what it had been, that he took the courage to build up a hope that he might at last subdue her. To what was pa.s.sing the Major was humorously alive, and, too keenly tickled to sit still, he walked up and down the room, slyly shaking himself. Mrs. Cranceford asked Gid if he had read the book which she had loaned him, the "Prince of the House of David," and he answered that when at last he had fallen asleep the night before, the precious volume had dropped beside his pillow. There were some books which he read while sitting by the fire, and some whose stirring qualities moved him to walk about as he gulped their contents; but with a G.o.dly book he must lay himself down so that he might be more receptive of its soothing influence. Then he reviewed the book in question, and did it shrewdly. With the Jewish maiden and the Roman centurion going to see the strange man perform the novel rite of baptism in the river of Jordan, he looked back upon the city of Jerusalem; and further along he pointed out Judas, plodding the dusty road--squat, sullen, and with a sneer at the marvel he was destined to see.
"I believe you have read it," the Major spoke up, still slyly shaking himself.