"And now," proclaimed Mandeville, "you"ll see them form into line fazed to the rear!" And Flora, seeing and applauding, saw also Anna turn to her suitor a glance, half pity for him, half pleading for his pity.
"I say unless--" Greenleaf persisted--
"There is no "unless." There can"t ever be any."
"But may I not at least say--?"
"I"d so much rather you would not," she begged.
"At present, you mean?"
"Or in the future," said Anna, and, having done perfectly thus far, spoiled all by declaring she would "never marry!" Her gaze rested far across the field on the quietly clad figure of Kincaid riding to and fro and pointing hither and yon to his gold-laced cousin. Off here on the left she heard Mandeville announcing:
"Now they"ll form batt"rie to the front by throwing caisson" to the rear--look--look!... Ah, ha! was not that a prettie?"
Pretty it was declared to be on all sides. Flora called it "a beautiful." Part of her charm was a Creole accent much too dainty for print. Anna and Greenleaf and the other couples regathered about the carriage, and Miss Valcour from her high seat smiled her enthusiasm down among them, exalting theirs. And now as a new movement of the battery followed, and now another, her glow heightened, and she called musically to Constance, Mrs. Callender and Anna, by turns, to behold and admire. For one telling moment she was, and felt herself, the focus of her group, the centre of its living picture. Out afield yet another manoeuvre was on, and while Anna and her suitor stood close below her helplessly becalmed each by each, Flora rose to her feet and caught a great breath of delight. Her gaze was on the glittering ma.s.s of men, horses, and brazen guns that came thundering across the plain in double column--Irby at its head, Kincaid alone on the flank--and sweeping right and left deployed into battery to the front with cannoneers springing to their posts for action.
"Pretties" of all!" she cried, and stood, a gentle air stirring her light draperies, until the boys at the empty guns were red-browed and short of breath in their fierce pretence of loading and firing. Suddenly the guns were limbered up and went bounding over the field, caissons in front. And now pieces pa.s.sed their caissons, and now they were in line, then in double column, and presently were gleaming in battery again, faced to the rear. And now at command the tired lads dropped to the ground to rest, or sauntered from one lounging squad to another, to chat and chaff and puff cigarettes. Kincaid and Irby lent their horses to Mandeville and Charlie, who rode to the battery while the lenders joined the ladies.
Once more Hilary yielded Flora and sought Anna; but with kinder thought for Flora Anna pressed herself upon Irby, to the open chagrin of his uncle. So Kincaid cheerfully paired with Flora. But thus both he and Anna unwittingly put the finishing touch upon that change of heart in the General which Flora, by every subtlety of indirection, this hour and more in the carriage, had been bringing about.
A query: With Kincaid and Irby the chief figures in their social arena and Hilary so palpably his cousin"s better in looks, in bearing, talents, and character, is it not strange that Flora, having conquest for her ruling pa.s.sion, should strive so to relate Anna to Hilary as to give her, Anna, every advantage for the higher prize? Maybe it is, but she liked strangeness--and a stiff game.
V
HILARY?--YES, UNCLE?
Second half as well as first, the drill was ended. The low acacias and great live-oaks were casting their longest shadows. The great plain rested from the trample and whirl of hoofs, guns, and simulated battle. A whiff of dust showed where the battery ambled townward among roadside gardens, the Callender carriage spinning by it to hurry its three ladies and Mandeville far away to the city"s lower end. At the column"s head rode Irby in good spirits, having got large solace of Flora"s society since we last saw her paired with Kincaid. Now beside the tiny railway station Hilary was with her once more as she and Charlie awaited the train from town. Out afield were left only General Brodnax and Greenleaf, dismounted between the Northerner"s horse and Hilary"s. Now Kincaid came across the turf.
"Greenleaf," said the old soldier, "why does Hilary forever walk as though he were bringing the best joke of the season? Can"t you make him quit it?"
The nephew joined them: "Uncle, if you"d like to borrow my horse I can go by train."
That was a joke. "H-m-m! I see! No, Greenleaf"s going by train. Would you like to ride with me?"
"Well, eh--ha! Why, uncle, I--why, of course, if Fred really--" They mounted and went.
"Hilary?"
"Yes, uncle?"
"How is it now? Like my girl any better?"
"Why--yes! Oh, she"s fine! And yet I--"
"You must say? What must you say?"
"Nothing much; only that she"s not the kind to seem like the owner of a field battery. My goodness! uncle, if she had half Miss Flora"s tang--"
"She hasn"t the least need of it! She"s the quiet kind, sir, that fools who love "tang" overlook!"
"Yes," laughed Hilary, "she"s quiet; quiet as a fortification by moonlight! Poor Fred! I wish--"
"Well, thank G.o.d you wish in vain! That"s just been settled. I asked him--oh, don"t look surprised at me. Good Lord! hadn"t I the right to know?"
The two rode some way in silence. "I wish," mused the nephew aloud, "it could be as he wants it."
The uncle"s smile was satirical: "Did you ever, my boy, wish anything could be as I want it?"
"Now, uncle, there"s a big difference--"
"d.a.m.n THE DIFFERENCE! I"m going to try you. I"m going to make Adolphe my adjutant-general. Then if you hanker for this battery as it hankers for you--"
"Mary, Queen of Scots!" rejoiced Hilary. "That"ll suit us both to the bone! And if it suits you too--"
"Well it doesn"t! You know I"ve never wanted Adolphe about me. But you"ve got me all snarled up, the whole kit of you. What"s more, I don"t want him for my heir nor any girl with "tang" for mistress of my lands and people. Hilary, I swear! if you"ve got the sand to want Anna and she"s got the grace to take you, then, adjutant-general or not, I"ll leave you my whole fortune! Well, what amuses you now?"
"Why, uncle, all the cotton in New Orleans couldn"t tempt me to marry the girl I wouldn"t take dry so without a continental cent."
"But your own present poverty might hold you back even from the girl you wanted, mightn"t it?"
"No!" laughed the nephew, "nothing would!"
"Good G.o.d! Well, if you"ll want Anna I"ll make it easy for you to ask for her. If not, I"ll make it as hard as I can for you to get any one else."
Still Hilary laughed: "H-oh, uncle, if I loved any girl, I"d rather have her without your estate than with it." Suddenly he sobered and glowed: "I wish you"d leave it to Adolphe! He"s a heap-sight better business man than I. Besides, being older, he feels he has the better right to it. You know you always counted on leaving it to him."
The General looked black: "You actually decline the gift?"
"No. No, I don"t. I want to please you. But of my own free choice I wouldn"t have it. I"m no abolitionist, but I don"t want that kind of property. I don"t want the life that has to go with it. I know other sorts that are so much better. I"m not thinking only of the moral responsibility--"
"By--! sir, I am!"
"I know you are, and I honor you for it."
"Bah!... Hilary, I--I"m much obliged to you for your company, but--"
"You"ve had enough," laughed the good-natured young man. "Good-evening, sir." He took a cross-street.
"Good-evening, my boy." The tone was so kind that Hilary cast a look back. But the General"s eyes were straight before him.
Greenleaf accompanied the Valcours to their door. Charlie, who disliked him, and whose admiration for his own sister was privately cynical, had left them to themselves in the train. There, wholly undetected by the very man who had said some women were too feminine and she was one, she had played her s.e.x against his with an energy veiled only by its intellectual nimbleness and its utterly dispa.s.sionate design. Charlie detected achievement in her voice as she twittered good-by to the departing soldier from their street door.
VI
MESSRS. SMELLEMOUT AND KETCHEM
Night came, all stars. The old St. Charles Theatre filled to overflowing with the city"s best, the hours melted away while Maggie Mitch.e.l.l played Fanchon, and now, in the bright gas-light of the narrow thoroughfare, here were Adolphe and Hilary helping their three ladies into a carriage. All about them the feasted audience was pouring forth into the mild February night.
The smallest of the three women was aged. That the other two were young and beautiful we know already. At eighteen the old lady, the Bohemian-gla.s.s one, had been one of those royalist refugees of the French Revolution whose b.u.t.terfly endeavors to colonize in Alabama and become bees make so pathetic a chapter in history. When one knew that, he could hardly resent her being heavily enamelled. Irby pressed into the coach after the three and shut the door, Kincaid uncovered, and the carriage sped off.