Claude and his father left the next day,--Sat.u.r.day. Only the author of the A. of U. I. knew whither they were gone. As they were going he said very privately to Claude:
"I"ll be with you day after to-morrow. You can"t be ready for me before then, and you and your father can take Sunday to look around, and kind o" see the city. But don"t go into the down-town part; you"ll not like it; nothing but narrow streets and old buildings with histories to "em, and gardens hid away inside of "em, and damp archways, and pagan-looking females who can"t talk English, peeping out over balconies that offer to drop down on you, and then don"t keep their word; every thing old-timey, and Frenchy, and Spanishy; unprogressive--you wouldn"t like it. Go up-town. That"s American. It"s new and fresh. There you"ll find beautiful mansions, mostly frame, it"s true, but made to look like stone, you know. There you"ll see wealth! There you"ll get the broad daylight--
"The merry, merry sunshine, that makes the heart so gay."
See? Yes, and Monday we"ll meet at Jones"s, 17 Tchoupitoulas Street; all right; I"ll be on hand. But to-day and to-morrow--"Alabama"--"here I rest." I feel constrained"--he laid his hand upon his heart, closed one eye, and whispered--"to stay. I would fain spend the sabbath in sweet Vermilionville. You get my idea?"
The sabbath afternoon, beyond the town, where Mr. Tarbox strolled, was lovelier than can be told. Yet he was troubled. Zosephine had not thus far given him a moment alone. I suppose, when a hundred generations more have succeeded us on the earth, lovers will still be blind to the fact that women do not do things our way. How can they? That would be capitulation at once, and even we should find the whole business as stupid as shooting barnyard fowls.
Zosephine had walked out earlier than Tarbox. He had seen her go, but dared not follow. He read "thou shalt not" as plain as print on her back as she walked quietly away; that same little peremptory back that once in her father"s caleche used to hold itself stiff when "Thanase rode up behind. The occasional townsman that lifted his slouch hat in deep deference to her silent bow, did not read unusual care on her fair brow; yet she, too, was troubled.
Marguerite! she was the trouble. Zosephine knew her child could never come back to these old surroundings and be content. The mother was not willing she should. She looked at a photograph that her daughter had lately sent her. What a change from the child that had left her! It was like the change from a leaf to a flower. There was but one thing to do: follow her. So Zosephine had resolved to sell the inn. She was gone, now, to talk with the old ex-governor about finding a purchaser.
Her route was not by the avenue of oaks, but around by a northern and then eastern circuit. She knew Mr. Tarbox must have seen her go; had a genuine fear that he would guess whither she was bound, and yet, deeper down in her heart than woman ever lets soliloquy go, was willing he should. For she had another trouble. We shall come to that presently.
Her suitor walked in the avenue of oaks.
"She"s gone," he reckoned to himself, "to consult the governor about something, and she"ll come back this way." He loitered out across fields, but not too far off or out of sight; and by and by there she came, with just the slightest haste in her walk. She received him with kindly reserve, and they went more slowly, together.
She told where she had been, and that the governor approved a decision she had made.
"Ya.s.s; I goin" sell my hotel."
"He"s right!" exclaimed her companion, with joy; "and you"re right!"
"Well, "tain"t sold yet," she responded. She did not smile as she looked at him. He read trouble; some trouble apart from the subject, in her quiet, intense eyes.
"You know sombodie want buy dat?" she asked.
"I"ll find some one," he promptly replied. Then they talked a little about the proper price for it, and then were very still until Mr.
Tarbox said:
"I walked out here hoping to meet you."
Madame Beausoleil looked slightly startled, and then bowed gravely.
"Yes; I want your advice. It"s only business, but it"s important, and it"s a point where a woman"s instinct is better than a man"s judgment."
There was some melancholy satire in her responding smile; but it pa.s.sed away, and Mr. Tarbox went on:
"You never liked my line of business"--
Zosephine interrupted with kind resentment:
"Ah!"
"No; I know you didn"t. You"re one of the few women whose subscription I"ve sought in vain. Till then I loved my business. I"ve never loved it since. I"ve decided to sell out and quit. I"m going into another business, one that you"ll admire. I don"t say any thing about the man going into it,--
"Honor and shame from no condition rise: Act well your part; there all the honor lies,"--
but I want your advice about the party I think of going in with. It"s Claude St. Pierre."
Zosephine turned upon the speaker a look of steady penetration. He met it with a glance of perfect confiding. "She sees me," he said, at the same time, far within himself.
It was as natural to Mr. Tarbox to spin a web as it is for a spider.
To manoeuvre was the profoundest instinct of his unprofound nature.
Zosephine felt the slender threads weaving around her. But in her heart of hearts there was a certain pleasure in being snared. It could not, to her, seem wholly bad for Tarbox to play spider, provided he should play the harmless spider. Mr. Tarbox spoke again, and she listened amiably.
"Claude is talented. He has what I haven"t; I have what he hasn"t, and together we could make each other"s fortunes, if he"s only the square, high-style fellow I think he is. I"m a student of human nature, and I think I"ve made him out. I think he"ll do to tie to. But will he? You can tell me. You read people by instinct. I ask you just as a matter of business advice and in business confidence. What do you think? Will you trust me and tell me--as my one only trusted friend--freely and fully--as I would tell you?"
Madame Beausoleil felt the odds against her, but she looked into her companion"s face with bright, frank eyes and said: "Ya.s.s, I t"ink ya.s.s; I t"ink _"tis_ so."
"Thanks!" said her friend, with unnecessary fervor and tenderness.
"Then Claude will be my partner, unless--my dear friend, shall you be so kind--I might almost say confiding--to me, and me not tell you something I think you"d ought to know? For I hope we are always to be friends; don"t you?"
"Ya.s.s," she said, very sadly and sweetly.
"Thanks! And if Claude and I become partners that will naturally bring him into our circle, as it were; see?"
The little madame looked up with a sudden austere exaltation of frame and intensity of face, but her companion rushed on with--"And I"m going to tell you, let the risk to me be what it may, that it may result in great unhappiness to Claude; for he loves your daughter, who, I know, you must think too good for him!"
Madame Beausoleil blushed as though she herself were Marguerite and Tarbox were Claude.
"Ah! love Marguerite! Naw, naw! He dawn"t love n.o.boddie but hees papa!
Hees papa tell me dat! Ah! naw, "tis _not_ so!"
Mr. Tarbox stopped still; and when Zosephine saw they were in the shadow of the trees while all about them was brightened by the momentary Southern twilight, she, too, stopped, and he spoke.
"What brought Claude back here when by right he should have gone straight to the city? You might have guessed it when you saw him." He paused to let her revolve the thought, and added in his own mind--"If you had disliked the idea, you"d "a" suspected him quick enough"--and was pleased. He spoke again. "But I didn"t stop with guessing."
Zosephine looked up to his face from the little foot that edgewise was writing nothings in the dust.
"No," continued her companion: "I walked with him two evenings ago in this avenue, and right where we stand now, without his ever knowing it--then or now--he as good as told me. Yes, Josephine, he dares to love your beautiful and accomplished daughter! The thought may offend you, but--was I not right to tell you?"
She nodded and began to move slowly on, he following.
"I"m not betraying anyone"s confidence," persisted he; "and I can"t help but have a care for you. Not that you need it, or anybody"s. You can take care of yourself if any man or woman can. Every time your foot touches the ground it says so as plain as words. That"s what first caught my fancy. You haven"t got to have somebody to take care of you. O Josephine! that"s just why I want to take care of you so bad! I can take care of myself, and I used to like to do it; I was just that selfish and small; but love"s widened me. I can take care of myself; but, oh! what satisfaction is there in it? Is there any? Now, I ask you! It may do for you, for you"re worth taking care of; but I want to take care of something I needn"t be ashamed to love!" He softly stole her hand as they went. She let it stay, yet looked away from him, up through the darkling branches, and distressfully shook her head.
"Don"t, Josephine!--don"t do that. I want you to take care of me. You could do better, I know, if love wasn"t the count; but when it comes to loving you, I"m the edition deloox! I know you"ve an aspiring nature, but so have I; and I believe with you to love and you loving me, and counselling and guiding me, I could climb high. O Josephine!
it isn"t this poor Tarbox I"m asking you to give yourself to; it"s the Tarbox that is to be; it"s the coming Tarbox! Why, it"s even a good business move! If it wasn"t I wouldn"t say a word! You know I can, and will take the very best care of every thing you"ve got; and I know you"ll take the same of mine. It"s a good move, every way. Why, here"s every thing just fixed for it! Listen to the mocking-bird! See him yonder, just at the right of the stile. See! O Josephine! don"t you see he isn"t
"Still singing where the weeping willow waves"?
he"s on the myrtle; the myrtle, Josephine, and the c.r.a.pe-myrtle at that!--widowhood unwidowed!--Now he"s on the fence--but he"ll not stay there,--and you mustn"t either!" The suitor smiled at his own ludicrousness, yet for all that looked beseechingly in earnest. He stood still again, continuing to hold her hand. She stole a furtive glance here and there for possible spectators. He smiled again.
"You don"t see anybody; the world waives its claim." But there was such distress in her face that his smile pa.s.sed away, and he made a new effort to accommodate his suit to her mood. "Josephine, there"s no eye on us except it"s overhead. Tell me this; if he that was yours until ten years ago was looking down now and could speak to us, don"t you believe he"d say yes?"
"Oh! I dunno. Not to-day! Not _dis_ day!" The widow"s eyes met his gaze of tender inquiry and then sank to the ground. She shook her head mournfully. "Naw, naw; not dis day. "Tis to-day "Thanase was kill"!"