Seemingly Aunt Sharley approved. For if at the moment she mumbled out a complaint about chillens too young to know their own minds being p.r.o.ne to fly off with the first young w"ite gen"l"man that came along frum n.o.body knowed whar, still there was nothing begrudged or forced about the vocal jubilations with which she made the house ring during the succeeding week. At prayer meeting on Wednesday night at Zion Coloured Baptist Church and at lodge meeting on Friday night she bore herself with an air of triumphant haughtiness which sorely irked her fellow members. It was agreed privily that Sis" Charlotte Helm got mo" and mo"
bigotty, and not alone that, but mo" and mo" uppety, ever" day she lived.
If young Mr. Winslow had been, indirectly, the cause for her prideful deportment before her own colour, it was likewise Mr. Winslow who shortly was to be the instrument for humbling her into the dust. Now this same Mr. Winslow, it should be stated, was a masterful young man.
Only an abiding sense of humour kept him sometimes from being domineering. Along with divers other qualities it had taken masterfulness for him at twenty-nine to be superintendent of our street-railway system, now owned and operated by Northern capitalists.
Likewise it had taken masterfulness for him to distance the field of Emmy Lou"s local admirers within the s.p.a.ce of five short months after he procured his transfer to our town from another town where his company likewise had traction interests. He showed the same trait in the stand he presently took with regard to the future status of Aunt Sharley in the household of which he was to become a member and of which he meant to be the head.
For moral support--which she very seriously felt she needed--Emmy Lou took her sister with her on the afternoon when she invaded the kitchen to break the news to Aunt Sharley. The girls came upon the old woman in one of her busiest moments. She was elbows deep in a white ma.s.s which in due time would become a batch of the hot biscuits of perfection.
"Auntie," began Emmy Lou in a voice which she tried to make matter-of-fact, "we"ve--I"ve something I want to say to you."
"Ise lissenin", chile," stated the old woman shortly.
"It"s this way, Auntie: We think--I mean we"re afraid that you"re getting along so in life--getting so old that we----"
"Who say Ise gittin" ole?" demanded Aunt Sharley, and she jerked her hands out of the dough she was kneading.
"We both think so--I mean we all think so," corrected Emmy Lou.
"Who do you mean by we all? Does you mean dat young Mistah Winslow, Esquire, late of de North?" Her blazing eyes darted from the face of one sister to the face of the other, reading their looks. "Uh-huh!" she snorted. "I mout "a" knowed he"d be de ver" one to come puttin" sech notions ez dem in you chillens" haids. Well, ma"am, an" whut, pray, do he want?" Her words fairly dripped with sarcasm.
"He thinks--in fact we all three do--that because you are getting along in years--you know you are, Auntie--and because your rheumatism bothers you so much at times that--that--well, perhaps that we should make a change in the running of the house. So--so----" She hesitated, then broke off altogether, anxious though she was to make an end to what she foresaw must be a painful scene for all three of them. Poor Emmy Lou was finding this job which she had nerved herself to carry through a desperately hard job. And Aunt Sharley"s att.i.tude was not making it any easier for her either.
""So" whut?" snapped Aunt Sharley; then answered herself: "An" so de wind blow frum dat quarter, do hit? De young gen"l"man ain"t j"ined de fambly yit an" already he"s settin" hisse"f to run it. All right den. Go on, chile--quit mumblin" up yore words an" please go on an" tell me whut you got to say! But ef you"s fixin" to bring up de subjec" of my lettin"
ary one of dese yere young flighty-haided, flibbertigibbeted, free-issue n.i.g.g.e.r gals come to work on dis place, you mout ez well save yore breath now an" yereafter, "ca"se so long ez Ise able to drag one foot behine t"other I p"intedly does aim to manage dis yere kitchen."
"It isn"t that--exactly," blurted out Emmy Lou. "You see, Auntie," she went on desperately, "we"ve decided, Harvey and I, that after our marriage we"ll live here. We couldn"t leave Mildred alone, and until she gets married this is going to be home for us all. And so we"re afraid--with one more coming into the household and everything--that the added work is going to be too heavy for you to undertake. So we"ve decided that--that perhaps it would be better all round if you--if we--if you----"
"Go on, chile; say it, whutever it is."
"----that perhaps it would be better if you left here altogether and went to live in that nice little house that papa left you in his will."
Perhaps they did not see the stricken look that came into the eyes of the old negress or else she hid the look behind the fit of rage that instantly possessed her. Perhaps they mistook the grey pallor that overspread the old face, turning it to an ashen colour, for the hue of temper.
"Do it all mean, den, dat after all dese yeahs you"s tryin" to git shet of me--tryin" to t"row me aside lak an" ole worn-out broom? Well, I ain"t gwine go!" Her voice soared shrilly to match the heights of her tantrum.
"Your wages will go on just the same--Harvey insists on that as much as we do," Emmy Lou essayed. "Don"t you see, Auntie, that your life will be easier? You will have your own little home and your own little garden.
You can come to see us--come every day if you want to. We"ll come to see you. Things between us will go on almost exactly the same as they do now. You know how much we love you--Mildred and I. You know we are trying to think of your comfort, don"t you?"
"Of course you do, Aunt Sharley," Mildred put in. "It isn"t as if you were going clear out of our lives or we out of yours. You"ll be ever so much happier."
"Well, I jes" ain"t gwine go nary step." The defiant voice had become a pa.s.sionate shriek. "Think Ise gwine leave yere an" go live in dat little house down dere by dem noisy tracks whar all dem odds an" ends of pore w"ite trash lives--dem scourin"s an" sweepin"s whut come yere to wuk in de new cotton mill! Think Ise gwine be corntent to wuk in a gyarden whilst I knows Ise needed right yere to run dis place de way which it should be run! Think Ise gwine set quiet whilst Ise pulled up by de roots an" transported "way frum de house whar Ise spend purty nigh de whole of my endurin" life! Well, I won"t go--_I_ won"t never go! I won"t go--"ca"se I jes" can"t!" And then, to the intense distress of the girls, Aunt Sharley slumped into a chair, threw her floury hands over her face and with the big tears trickling out between her fingers she moaned over and over again between her gulping breaths:
"Oh, dat I should live to see de day w"en my own chillens wants to drive me away frum "em! Oh, dat I should live to see dis day!"
Neither of them had ever seen Aunt Sharley weep like this--shaken as she was with great sobs, her head bowed almost to her knees, her bared arms quivering in a very palsy. They tried to comfort her, tried to put their arms about her, both of them crying too. At the touch of their arms stealing about her hunched shoulders she straightened, showing a spark of the spirit with which they were more familiar. She wrenched her body free of them and pointed a tremulous finger at the door. The two sisters stole out, feeling terribly guilty and thoroughly miserable.
It was not the Aunt Sharley they knew who waited upon them that dusk at supper. Rather it was her ghost--a ghost with a black mask of tragedy for a face, with eyes swollen and reddened, with lips which shook in occasional spasms of pain, though their owner strove to keep them firm.
With their own faces tear-streaked and with lumps in their throats the girls kept their heads averted, as though they had been caught doing something very wrong, and made poor pretense of eating the dishes that the old woman placed before them. Such glances as they stole at her were sidelong covert glances, but they marked plainly enough how her shoulders drooped and how she dragged herself about the table.
Within a s.p.a.ce of time to be measured by hours and almost by minutes she seemed to have aged years.
It was a mute meal and a most unhappy one for the sisters. More than once Aunt Sharley seemed on the point of saying something, but she, too, held her tongue until they had risen up from their places. From within the pa.s.sageway leading to the rear porch she spoke then across the threshold of the door at the back end of the dining room.
"You, nur n.o.body else, can"t turn me out of dis house," she warned them, and in her words was the dead weight of finality. "An" ef you does, I ain"t gwine leave de premises. Ise gwine camp right dere on de sidewalk an" dere I means to stay twell de policemens teks me up fur a vagrom. De shame of it won"t be no greater fur me "n "tis fur you. Dat"s all!" And with that she was gone before they could answer, if indeed they had any answer to make.
It was the next day that the _Daily Evening News_ announced the engagement and the date of the marriage, which would follow within four weeks. Congratulations in number were bestowed upon Emmy Lou; they came by telephone and in letters from former schoolmates, but mainly they came by word of mouth from townspeople who trooped in to say the things which people always say on such occasions--such things, for example, as that young Mr. Winslow should count himself a lucky man and that Emmy Lou would make a lovely bride; that he should be the proudest young man in the Union and she the happiest girl in the state, and all the rest of it. Under this outpouring of kindly words from kindly folk the recipient was radiant enough to all appearances, which was a tribute to her powers as an actress. Beneath the streams of her happiness coursed sombre undercurrents of distress and perplexity, roiling the waters of her joy and her pride.
For nearly a week, with no outsider becoming privy to the facts, she endured a situation which daily was marked by hara.s.sing experiences and which hourly became more intolerable. Then, in despair, seeing no way out at all, she went to a certain old white house out on Clay Street to confide in one to whom many another had turned, seeking counsel in the time of trouble. She went to see Judge William Pitman Priest, and she went alone, telling no one, not even Mildred, of the errand upon which she was bound.
The wide front porch was empty where the old Judge spent most of his leisure hours when the weather suited, and knowing as she did the custom of the house, and being, for a fact, almost as much at home beneath its roof as beneath her own, Emmy Lou, without knocking, walked into the hall and turning to the right entered the big sitting room. Its lone occupant sat up with a jerk, wiping the drowsiness out of his eyes with the back of his hand. He had been taking a cat nap on his ancient sofa; his long white back hair was tousled up comically behind his bald pink brow.
"Why, h.e.l.lo, honey!" he said heartily, rising to his feet and bowing with a quaint ceremonial gesture that contrasted with and yet somehow matched the homeliness of his greeting. "You slipped in so quiet on them dainty little feet of yours I never heared you comin" a-tall." He took her small hands in his broad pudgy ones, holding her off at arm"s length. "And don"t you look purty! Mighty nigh any woman looks cool and sweet when she"s got on white fixin"s, but when a girl like you puts "em on--well, child, there ain"t no use talkin", you sh.o.r.ely are a sight to cure sore eyes. And you git to favour your sweet mother more and more every day you live. I can"t pay you no higher compliment than that. Set down in that cheer yonder, where I kin look at you whilst we visit."
"I"d rather sit here by you, sir, on the sofa, if you don"t mind," she said.
"Suit yourself, honey."
She settled herself upon the sofa and he let his bulky frame down alongside her, taking one of her hands into his. Her free hand played with one of the big b.u.t.tons on the front of her starched linen skirt and she looked, not at him, but at the shining disk of pearl, as he said:
"Well, Emmy Lou, whut brings you "way out here to my house in the heat of the day?"
She turned her face full upon him then and he saw the brooding in her eyes and gave her hand a sympathetic little squeeze.
"Judge," she told him, "you went to so much trouble on my account and Mildred"s when we were still minors that I hate to come now worrying you with my affairs. But somehow I felt that you were the one for me to turn to."
"Emmy Lou," he said very gravely, "your father was one of the best men that ever lived and one of the best friends ever I had on this earth.
And no dearer woman than your mother ever drawed the breath of life. It was a mighty proud day fur me and fur Lew Lake when he named us two as the guardians of his children, and it was a pleasure to both of us to help look to your interests after he was took from us. Why, when your mother went too, I"d a" liked the best in the world to have adopted you two children outright." He chuckled a soft little chuckle. "I reckin I would have made the effort, too, only it seemed like that old n.i.g.g.e.r woman of yours appeared to have prior rights in the matter, and knowin"
her disposition I was kind of skeered to advance the suggestion.""
"It was about Aunt Sharley that I came to see you to-day, Judge Priest."
"That so? I had a visit from her here the other day."
"What other day?" she asked, startled.
"Oh, it must have been a matter of three weeks ago--fully. Shall I tell you whut she come to see me about? You"ll laugh when you hear it. It tickled me right smartly at the time. She wanted to know what I knew about this here young Mr. Winslow--yes, that was it. She said all the visible signs p"inted to a serious affair "twixt you two young people, and she said before it went any further she wanted to know ef he was the kind of a young man to be gittin" hisself engaged to a member of the Dabney family, and she wanted to know ef his folks were the real quality folks and not this here codfish aristocracy: That was the very term she used--"codfish aristocracy." Well, I was able to rea.s.sh.o.r.e her. You see, honey, I"d took it on myself to do a little inquirin" round about Mr.
Winslow on my own responsibility--not that I wanted to be pryin" into your business and not because I aimed to be tryin" to come between you and the young man ef I wasn"t altogether satisfied with the accounts I got of him, but because I loved you and wanted to make sure in my own mind that Tom Dabney"s child wasn"t makin" the wrong choice. You understand, don"t you? You see, ez fur back ez a month and a half ago, or mebbe even further back than that, I was kind of given to understand that you and this young man were gittin" deeply interested in each other."
"Why, how could you?" inquired Emmy Lou. "We weren"t even engaged then.
Who could have circulated such a report about us?"
"The very first time I seen you two young folks walkin" up Franklin Street together you both were circulatin" it," he said, chuckling again.
"You may not "a" knowed it, but you were. I may be gittin" old, but my eyesight ain"t entirely failed up on me yit--I could read the signs when I was still half a block away frum you. It was right after that that I started my own little private investigation. So you see I was qualified to rea.s.sh.o.r.e Aunt Sharley. I told her all the available information on the subject proved the young gentleman in question was not only a mighty clever, up-standin", manly young feller, but that where he hailed from he belonged to the quality folks, which really was the p"int she seemed most anxious about. That"s whut I told her, and I was monstrous glad to be able to tell her. A stranger might have thought it was pure impudence on her part, but of course we both know, you and me, whut was in the back part of her old kinky head. And when I"d got done tellin" her she went down the street from here with her head throwed away back, singin"
till you could "a" heard her half a mile off, I reckin."
"I never guessed it. She never told me she"d been to see you. And you didn"t tell me, either, when you came the other night to wish me joy, Judge."
"I kind of figgered she wanted the matter treated confidential,"
explained Judge Priest. "So I respected whut I took to be her wishes in the matter. But wasn"t it fur all the world jest like that old black woman?"