"I guess I WAS mistaken," he said gravely. "I guess you"re right about my not havin" seen you before. If I had I wouldn"t have forgot where."
Monty evidently thought it his turn to be funny.
"You have a good memory, haven"t you, Deacon?" he observed.
The captain looked at him.
"That don"t necessarily follow, young man," he said. "There"s some things you CAN"T forget."
There was a choking sound at the next table; a stout man there seemed to be having trouble in swallowing. Those with him looked strangely happy, considering.
"Tacks" frowned, pushed back his chair and stood up.
"Come on, Monty," he growled. "This place is going to the dogs. They let ANYTHING in here now."
Daniel turned to the stout man and his party.
"That"s strange, ain"t it?" he said in a tone of grave surprise. "I was just thinkin" that myself."
Then, his cigar smoked to the bitter end, he, too, rose, and, declining the invitations of the stout man and his friends to have something "because he had earned it," he walked out of the Rathskeller and took the elevator to the third floor.
He opened the door of the room gently and entered on tiptoe, for he thought it likely that Serena was taking a nap. She was not, however; on the contrary, she was very wide awake.
"Where have you been?" she demanded. "I"ve been waiting and waiting for you."
Daniel chuckled.
"I"ve been down below in a place they call the Rat Cellar, or some such name," he said. "The rats was there, two of "em, anyhow. And I"d met one of "em before. I know I have. I wish I could think who he was. A sort of--"
But Serena was not listening.
"Daniel," she interrupted, "it is all settled. I have made up my mind."
Her voice was tremulous with excitement. Captain Dan looked at her.
"Made up your mind?" he repeated. "I want to know! What about?"
"About our plans and our future, Daniel; my opportunity has come, the opportunity I was wishing for. It has been sent to me by Providence, I do believe--and it would be wicked not to take advantage of it. Daniel, you and I must move to Scarford."
The captain gasped.
"Why--why, Serena," he faltered. "What are you talkin" about? DON"T talk so! Move to Scarford! Give up Trumet and--"
"Trumet! Don"t mention Trumet to me. Daniel Dott, you"ll never get me back to Trumet again--to live there, I mean--never, never, NEVER!"
CHAPTER V
Captain Dan said--Well, it does not matter much what he said. He said a great deal, of course, during that evening and the next morning, and would have kept on saying it all the way to Trumet if his wife had not declined to listen.
"It is no use, Daniel," she declared calmly but firmly. "I have thought it all out and I KNOW it is the right thing for us to do. You will think so, too, one of these days."
"Durned if I will! I tell you, Serena--"
"Hush! you"re telling everybody in the car, and THAT isn"t necessary, at any rate. Now we won"t argue any more until we get home. Then you can say your say; but"--with discouraging candor--"it won"t change my decision a single mite. My mind is made up. A higher power than you or me has settled everything for us. We are going to Scarford to live, and we will go just as soon as we can get ready."
And go they did. The captain fought a stubborn battle, surprisingly stubborn and protracted for him, but he surrendered at last. Serena drove him from one line of entrenchments after the other, and, at length, when she had him in the last ditch, where, argument and expostulation unavailing, he could only say, "No! no, I won"t, I tell you!" over and over again, she used her most effective weapon, tears, and brought him to terms.
"You don"t care," she sobbed. "You don"t care for me at all. All you care about is just yourself. You"re willing to stay here in this awful place, you"re willing to plod along just as you always have; and it doesn"t make any difference about my wishes or my hopes, or anything. If you were like most husbands you"d be proud and glad to see me getting on in the world; you"d be glad to give me the chance to be somebody; you"d--"
"There! there! Serena, don"t talk so. I"d do anything in this world to please you."
"Hush! hush! I should think you"d be ashamed to say such things. I should think you"d be AFRAID to say them, afraid something would happen to you--you"d be struck down or something. Oh, well! I must be resigned, I suppose. I must give in, just as I always do. I must be satisfied to be miserable and--and--Oh, what shall I do? What SHALL I do?"
Sobs and more sobs, frantic clutchings at the sofa pillows and declarations that she had better die; it would be better for her and ever so much better for everyone else if she were dead. No one would care.
Poor Daniel, distressed and remorseful, vaguely conscious that he was right, but conscience stricken nevertheless, hoisted the white flag.
"Hush, hush, Serena!" he pleaded. "Land sakes, don"t say such things--please don"t. I"ll do anything you want, of course I will. I"ll go to Scarford, if you say so. I was just--"
"I don"t ask you to go there forever. I never have asked that. I only ask you to go there and live a while and just see how we like it. That was all I asked, and you knew it. But you won"t! you won"t!"
"Why, yes I will, too. I"ll go--go next week, if you say so. I--I just--"
He got no further. Mrs. Dott, wet-eyed but radiant, lifted her head from the sofa pillow and threw her arms about his neck.
"Will you?" she cried ecstatically. "Will you, Daniel? I knew you would.
You"re a dear, good man and I love you better than all the world. We will be so happy. You see if we aren"t."
The captain was no less doubtful of the happiness than he had ever been, but he tried to smile and to find comfort in the thought that she was happy if he was not.
He had written Gertrude telling of her mother"s new notion and asking for advice and counsel. The reply, which came by return mail, did not cheer him as much as he had hoped.
"It was inevitable, I suppose," Gertrude wrote. "I expected it. I was almost certain that Mother would want to live in Scarford. Mrs. Black has been telling her all summer about society and club life and what she calls "woman"s opportunity," and Mother has come to believe that Scarford is Paradise. You will have to go, I think, Daddy dear. Perhaps it is just as well. Mother won"t be satisfied until she has tried it, and perhaps, after she has tried it, she may be glad to come back to Trumet. My advice is to let her find out for herself, but, of course, if you feel sure it is wrong, then you must put your foot down, say no, and stick to it. No one can do that for you; you must do it yourself."
Which was perfectly true, as true as the other fact--namely, that Captain Dan could not "stick to it" in a controversy with his wife, having lost the sticking faculty years before.
But, oddly enough, there was one point upon which he did stick and refused to budge: That point was Azuba"s going to Scarford with them.
Mrs. Ginn"s att.i.tude when she was told of the family exodus was a great surprise. Serena, who broke the news to her, expected grief and lamentations; instead Azuba was delighted.
"Well, now!" she exclaimed. "Ain"t that fine! Ain"t that splendid! I always wanted to go somewhere"s besides Trumet, and now I"m goin". I always told Labe, my husband, that if there was one thing I was jealous of him about "twas travelin". "You go from Dan to Beersheby," I says to him, "any time you want to." "Yes," says he--this was the last time he was to home, three years ago--"Yes," he says, "and when I don"t want to, too." "And I," I says, "I have to say stuck here in Trumet like a post in a rail fence." "You look more like the rail, Zuby," he says--he"s always pokin" fun "cause I ain"t fleshy. "Don"t make no difference what I LOOK like," I says, "here I be and I ain"t never been further than the Brockton cattle show since I was ten year old." But now I"m goin" to travel at last. My! I"m so tickled I don"t know what to do. I"ll start in makin" my last fall"s hat over this very night. Say, it"s a good thing you"ve got me to help in the goin" and the settlin", ain"t it, Sereny--Mrs. Dott, I mean."
In the face of this superb confidence Serena, who had intended leaving Azuba behind, lacked the courage to mention the fact. And when she sought her husband in the store and asked him to do it, he flatly refused.
"What!" he said. "Tell Zuba Ginn we"re goin" to cast her adrift! I should say not! Of course we can"t do any such thing, Serena."
"But what can we do with her, Daniel? We might leave her here to take care of the place, I suppose, but that would only be for a time, until we find somebody to buy it. Of course we can"t run two places, and we"ll have to sell this one some time or other."