John, apologetic, perturbed, nodded toward the old gentleman. "Yes, miss, I know. I told Mr. McBride, miss----"
Grandfather McBride turned coldly upon Katrina. "I ordered this bonfire," he said.
"But, Grandfather, you know the old orders. Father never allows them."
"I allow them," said Mr. McBride. "Your father"s away fishing, and I"m in charge. This is my bonfire. I order bonfires when I please. I like "em. I like the smell of "em, I like the smoke----" Here an unexpected cough gave Katrina a word.
"But, Grandfather," she began again, only to be cut short.
"When the folks are home, I sit still and mind my own business. Now they"re away, I"m goin" to do things. I"m on a vacation myself," said Mr. McBride, "and I"ll have a bonfire on the front lawn if I say so. You go back to the house, Katriny, and read Gibson."
"Ibsen," flashed Katrina.
"I don"t care what his Dutch name is--read him. Or else"--a grim light of humor in his hard gray eye--"go over and see that parrot."
Katrina almost stamped her foot. "I loathe parrots," she cried, "and I came out to talk about this bonfire."
"I know you did," said Mr. McBride, "but this parrot ain"t like other parrots. It"s a clown. It would make a rag baby laugh."
Katrina, flushed, angry, at a loss what to say, decided to say nothing.
The sight of John, discreetly gazing at the roof of the chicken house, the grimness of Grandfather"s face, the discomfort of the choking smoke, urged a dignified retreat. She turned abruptly and left them, overwhelmed at the exhibition furnished by Mr. McBride, confounded at his sudden leap into activity after years of serene floating and absolutely in the dark as to any method of controlling him in the future.
For a week, his pipe and his daily bonfire contented Mr. McBride.
Between himself and Katrina, relations were polite but not cordial.
Katrina preserved a dignity which deceived neither of them. Both knew that she was awaiting something sensational, and the fact worried the old gentleman, for already he had exhausted his possibilities. He longed for new ideas in this matter of revolution, but none came. He began to be bored by bonfires, and the lack of opposition to them. Even the parrot failed to amuse, and he was sinking into dull monotony, when a walk down the long lane behind the back garden one sunny afternoon changed the horizon of his world.
He was gone for two hours; but Katrina was away from the house herself, and did not notice. The next afternoon he disappeared for three, finally dragging in weary in body, but high in spirit. Twice at dinner he chuckled audibly, and three times he recommended the parrot across the street to Katrina. The next day he vanished after luncheon, and was late for dinner. At this, Katrina decided to take a hand.
"Grandfather," she said abruptly at dessert, after a long interval of silence on both sides, "it"s all very well to take a vacation, but there is such a thing as overdoing it. I"m sure you would do nothing that would alarm mother, and I know that if she were at home she would worry over you. For days you have had no nap. Please rest to-morrow. Don"t go walking. Let me drive you to the club for luncheon."
The old gentleman glanced up at Katrina quickly. "I declare if I hadn"t forgot all about that fellow till this minute," he said. "Speaking of the club, how"s Sparks, Katriny?"
Katrina sat suddenly erect and her color deepened. "Do you by any chance mean Mr. Willoughby Park, Grandfather? If so, I know nothing whatever about him. I haven"t seen him for a week." This with a jerk.
"Don"t you marry that chap, Katriny," went on Mr. McBride, unimpressed, "and don"t you let him come around here. He"s no good. A fellow that hangs around a country club when he ain"t hangin" around a girl, is always no good. You marry a chap with brains, Katriny, even if he ain"t so long on the cash. Why, I know a young fellow----" Mr. McBride pulled himself up short. "You dash in for brains, Triny, and I"ll take out my pocket book." Here he nodded, as if concluding a bargain, but Katrina was already upon her feet.
"Grandfather McBride, you are growing insufferable," she cried. "Simply because I mention the club, you a.s.sume that I am--angling--for a man that--that has been decently polite to me. I have never been invited to marry Mr. Park. And you give me low advice about laying traps for some other sort of a man. And you mention pocket books! And you go off alone for hours and come home worn out. And you smoke your horrible old pipe and build your sickening bonfires, just to spite me! I think you are a wretch, and I"ve worried over you every day since mother left." Here she stopped suddenly, with a catch in her throat.
The old gentleman looked at her silently. Then he got up and came around the table. Awkwardly, he patted her shoulder. Katrina sat down.
"I"m glad you don"t like Sparks, my dear," said Mr. McBride, leaning on his stick. "And don"t worry your heart over Grandfather, Triny.
Grandfather"s no fool. He ain"t had so much fun in years." Mr. McBride winked just here, and put on an air of profound mystery.
"I wonder where you do disappear to," said Katrina. "I think I"ll go along."
"Don"t you do that," spoke up Mr. McBride alertly. "Don"t you do that!
A man can"t stand a woman tagging at his heels. He"s got to have room, and air to breathe."
"Smoke, you mean," put in Katrina, with returning spirit, "and I warn you, Grandfather, that if you make fires off our place, you"ll be arrested."
"Pooh! Fires!" said Mr. McBride contemptuously. "Amus.e.m.e.nt for children.
I ain"t a-makin" fires these days, Katriny. I"ve got other things to do." And, with a final pat upon her shoulder, and a last most telling wink, Grandfather McBride dragged himself wearily, but triumphantly, to bed.
When Katrina, on the lookout next afternoon, saw Mr. McBride join John in the back garden, hold with him a whispered consultation broken by many stealthy glances toward the house, and finally disappear with him down the lane, behind a wheelbarrow laden with boards, she gave orders that she was not at home, waited half an hour, and followed.
The lane wound coolly green and deserted from the Prentiss place into the heart of the country. Katrina, walking steadily, pa.s.sed her own, pa.s.sed the Graham and the Haskell boundaries, and stopped in surprise.
At a branching path hung a new and conspicuous sign. "Private Road! No Trespa.s.sing, Under Penalty of the Law."
It was a churlish sign. The people of the neighborhood--a summer settlement of friends and pleasant informalities--were used to no such signs. And Katrina, knowing Grandfather McBride, turned at once into the branching path. At some distance in, she pa.s.sed a similar sign, with every mark of disdain. Finally, she was brought up short by a wire fence, with a gate, high, wooden, and new, that stretched across the path. She tried the gate, but it did not budge. From the wood beyond came the sound of voices and the strokes of a hammer. With a quick glance behind her, and a determined set to her chin, she began to climb the gate.
She was descending upon the other side in safety, when Grandfather McBride came upon her. His hat was pushed back upon his head, his stick was forgotten. He descended upon her as might a hungry lion upon its prey. He roared--in fact, he bellowed.
"Katrina Prentiss, get back over that fence. Climb back over that gate; you"re trespa.s.sing. Didn"t you see the signs? Are you blind? Can"t you read? What do you mean by coming in here where you don"t belong? Climb back there and go home at once!"
Katrina, unprepared for battle and aware of being at a disadvantage, swallowed hard and obeyed. She climbed back over the gate. Once upon solid earth, however, and she glared as fiercely at Grandfather McBride as he stared ferociously at her.
"I"m not a child," she said furiously, when he stopped to breathe, "to be ordered about and sent home and insulted. I have never been so treated in my life and I give you fair warning, Grandfather, that I"ll stand it no longer. After this I"ll do as I please." Whereupon Katrina, having woman-like, in the act of obedience, said her say, retreated with dignity and dispatch. Behind her, Mr. McBride waved his recovered stick over the gate and shouted, but she did not turn nor attempt an answer.
He came home within an hour, slowly, leaning heavily upon his stick.
John followed with the empty wheelbarrow. They parted at the barn and Mr. McBride went at once to his room and shut the door. Katrina, sitting at her own window, looked thoughtfully into s.p.a.ce and swung a key upon her forefinger. After a time she stood up, smoothed her hair and pinned on her wide, rose-laden hat. Then she went down the hall quietly, stopped before Mr. McBride"s door, and listened a moment. A gentle snore proclaimed Mr. McBride"s occupation. Katrina fitted the key into the lock and turned it, took it out again and slipped it beneath a corner of the rug, listened a further moment and then walked down the stairs, out through the back garden, and, with a final glance behind her, turned once more into the green and deserted lane.
It must be confessed that Katrina started upon her quest in a spirit far removed from that of your single-minded explorer. She was urged by a variety of causes. Among them was a determination to disobey Grandfather McBride, to serve him with his own medicine, to pay him in his own coin, and to do it as quickly and as frankly as possible. Her rapidly increasing curiosity concerning the region he guarded with so much mystery counted as well, but the paramount force--for Katrina was young enough to take her responsibility seriously--was anxiety over the old gentleman himself. In fact, Katrina departed, as did Lot"s wife, with her face and her thought turned backward, a policy not conducive to brilliant success in exploration.
This time, however, she was stopped by no one. She pa.s.sed the gate safely, penetrated the wood and came at length upon a part of Mr.
McBride"s secret. It was a rough little flight of steps, made with the help of John, the wheelbarrow, and the boards, which led to the top of a high brick wall. The wall astounded Katrina even more than did the steps, which is saying a good deal. The whole elaborate contrivance for keeping people away, puzzled Katrina. It was some time before she mounted the steps and looked over the wall, but when she finally did so, she ceased to be merely puzzled. She became lost in a maze of wonder.
Stretching before her, was a wide expanse of green. Just opposite stood a long, low building of workmanlike appearance. At the left was a very presentable rose garden. At the right, a rustic summer-house.
Surrounding all was the high brick wall. But it was none of these things that amazed Katrina.
Moving toward her, from the door of the long building, came a little procession--men and women, walking slowly, sedately dressed in old-time silks and finery, decked with plumes, jewels, laces, bouquets of flowers. Arrived at a broad s.p.a.ce near the summer-house, the company, after a series of low and preliminary bows, launched forth into a stately dance. Katrina, conscious of music, descried an individual in very modern blue overalls, who manipulated a phonograph. A voice from beyond the summer-house, called forth instructions at intervals, with a huskiness vaguely suggestive of old Coney.
"More side-play there, Miss Beals. Just imagine he"s a young hobo you"re in love with and yer father won"t let him up the steps. You"re doing the Merry Widow act while the old man"s not looking. Don"t bow so low you hide your face, Mr. Peters. Your face is worth money to us all. And everybody get a move on! You"re too slow! Hit it up a bit, Jim."
The overalls, thus adjured, accelerated the time of his machine, and a new spirit animated the group. Katrina leaned far over the wall in order to miss nothing. At length, the dance, moving toward a finale, reached it with a succession of stirring chords, and a flourish of curtseys, and the group dissolved.
"That"ll do for to-day. You can knock off now," began the husky voice, when Jim, glancing up from his phonograph, beheld Katrina in her rose-laden hat, leaning far over the wall. If he had stopped to reflect, he might have ignored the vision, for he was but man, and the vision a guilelessly pretty one, but he did not stop to reflect. With Jim, to see a thing was to proclaim it abroad. Immediately, he yelled:
"Hey! Get on to the lady on the wall! Hey! Mr. Connor, come around here.
There"s somebody on the wall. Hey!"
At once Katrina, to her utmost discomfort, became the centre of the stage. Everybody turned, saw her, and began to stare. The silken ladies, the velvet gentlemen, delayed their return to modern apparel, and took her in. Jim stared clamorously. Mr. Connor, rounding the summer-house, glared angrily. To Katrina, even the long building blinked its windows at her, and she thought, with sudden longing, of Grandfather McBride.
She wished she had not come. Most of all, she wished to go, but she did not quite dare.
At once, Mr. Connor took charge of the situation. "Say, young lady," he demanded, in a truculent manner, "what do you mean by gettin" into these grounds and rubberin" at us over our wall? Don"t you know you can be run in for pa.s.sin" those signs? Didn"t you see that gate?"
"Oh, yes," faltered Katrina; "yes--I saw the gate."
"Well, how"d you get past that gate and them signs," Mr. Connor wanted to know.