We walked around to the sh.o.r.e side of the cottage and there stood Roger on its weather-beaten veranda, his hand held out to me eagerly, an anxious, an almost wistful look in his honest blue eyes. He was unusually but not unbecomingly dressed in faded blue serge trousers, too tight for the dictates of fashion, but quite telling in their revelation of his magnificent thighs, tucked into very high wading boots and topped by a grey flannel blouse open at the neck for comfort, with a twisted dull green handkerchief by way of a collar. It was really quite picturesque altogether, and suited him excellently, as all rough-and-ready, notably masculine attire has always done.
Curiously enough, he combines with this, when in evening clothes, the least resemblance to a head-waiter I have ever observed in an American; the price they pay, I suppose, for being quite the best dressed business and professional men in the world.
I took all this in, of course, in a fraction of the time it takes to write it, and also the fact that old Roger looked ten years younger than when I had last seen him. He had always been a steady, responsible fellow, you see, one of the men people put things on, and not particularly youthful for his age: a great help to him as a budding young lawyer.
But now I saw the eyes we used to see on the football field in New Haven, and even, it seemed to me for a moment, the little worried yet patient intentness I knew so well at school when some one of those tiny climaxes (that seemed so terrible then!) depended on him for a fair solution. They used to say so clearly, those honest eyes, that he hoped you agreed with him and that you felt his way was the best way, but that whether or not you agreed, he would have to do it, all the same.
He had, as I say, his hand out, and I quickly put mine into it, somehow or other not losing Margarita"s at the same time. As unconsciously as a child she reached out her other hand to him and we stood like boys and girls in a ring-game, Roger and I looking deep into each other"s eyes and holding Margarita tightly.
"Is it all right, Jerry?" he asked me earnestly.
"It"s all right if you say so, Roger," I answered promptly. All our friendship was packed into that question and answer, and I like to think that I never asked any explanations and that he never thought of giving any till they were more or less unnecessary, the matter being settled.
"You"re not alone, I hope?" he said as we moved, one each side of Margarita, into the house. I dropped her hand abruptly. Up to that moment I had completely forgotten my sensible parson.
"Not unless he"s given me up and rowed back to the town," I a.s.sured him contritely, "and I hope to heaven you know who he is, for I don"t!
He"s a thoroughly good fellow, anyhow, and he knows us, and from what I"ve seen of him he strikes me as just about the man we want."
"Thank you for that "we," Jerry," said Roger soberly, putting his arm over my shoulder, and I realised suddenly and completely that I had taken the jump and cleared my last ditch: Roger"s interest in to-day"s event, for good or bad, was mine.
"I"ll run and call him," I began, "and mind you mention his name directly, for it"s a bit awkward for me all this while." Something struck me and I turned back.
"By the way," I tried to say easily, "do you want me to--to begin any explanations?"
He laughed shortly.
"Good old Jerry!" he said affectionately. "No, I"ll manage that when I find out who he is. Hurry him along, for breakfast is ready."
I dashed off to the landing and hailed the boat, now plainly visible on the bright, clear moving sea. She flew in like a swallow, the oarsman coat off and dripping, and evidently royally content.
"Has Roger got a change for me?" he called as he reached the landing.
"I won"t keep him ten minutes longer, but I"d like to go over the side here, tremendously."
I, too, had begun to be conscious of a wrinkled, cinder-coated feeling, and Roger, who had followed me at a distance, turned at my shout and ran back to the cottage, returning with a white armful of linen and towels just as we had slipped into the blue, cold water. I shall never forget his expression of mingled relief, real pleasure and amus.e.m.e.nt as he recognised my companion"s face, bobbing upon the surface.
"This is mighty good of you, Elder," he said simply, and reached down from the slippery stone to shake the dripping hand held out to him.
Then it came to me in a flash. Tip Elder, of course! He was supposed to have been christened Tyler, but was never known by any other name than Tippecanoe, for reasons clearer in those days than these, the old political war cry in connection with his boating fame having proved too temptingly obvious to the rest of his cla.s.s crew. He was in Roger"s cla.s.s; I remembered how, even then, he had dragged Roger down to some boys" club of his to give a boxing lesson once to some of his proteges. He and Russell Dodge had a notable and historic quarrel once because Tip had refused to break an engagement in order to take one of Russell"s many feminine inc.u.mbrances to a dance. Tip had steadily refused to accept the obligation, and had endured very patiently a vast amount of hectoring from Russell, who was then as now a trifle sn.o.bbish and unsteady; but had finally been forced (or so we regarded it, at that hot and touchy period) to accept what was practically a challenge, and we were actually on tiptoe for a duel. Feeling ran high about it, and there might have been a very disagreeable scandal had not Tip"s clear common sense and persuasive oratory burst out at the last possible minute from this murky thunder-cloud and effectively swept the whole business out of the way.
But none of his prayer meetings, nor the trip to the Holy Land that he made in one long vacation ever deceived anyone who knew the fellow into thinking him a prig. He never pretended that his ideals of practical conduct were a bit higher than those of scores of the men who had none of these interests of his. So marked was this absence of the goody-goody in Tip that I, though I recalled his face and vaguely connected him with something or other in the athletic line, never remembered these other characteristics of his until, at Roger"s warm greeting, the years rolled back and Tip Elder, oarsman and philanthropist, took his proper place in my memory again.
We scrambled up the rough landing steps, rubbed down quickly and got into the fresh linen Roger had brought us, talking curt commonplaces, not even embarra.s.sed, in the glow and vigour of that strengthening dip, and I noticed that the underwear, though of the best linen, was somehow a little unfamiliar in its fashion, indescribably antiquated in cut.
"We"ll talk at breakfast," said Roger, as we hurried toward the cottage. "I know you"re hungry."
He pushed open the door, and we entered, gazing curiously around us.
We stood in a large, square room, evidently a dining and living-room, washed with a greyish plaster, at once warm and cool. There was a deep, wide hearth of faded red brick on one side, and an old oak dresser covered with a very good service of gold-rimmed white china and several pieces of handsome Sheffield plate. The few chairs and settees and the one large table in the centre were all of that solid yet graceful Georgian style that our ancestors brought with them; the bare clean floor and the home-made rugs, taken with this furniture, gave an effect more usual now in a summer cottage than it was then. On the walls were eight or ten water-colour sketches framed in rustic wood; a worn wicker _chaise-longue_ with patchwork cushions, struck a curiously exotic note; two spinning-wheels, a large and a small, flanked the fire and bore every evidence of use, not aestheticism; a silver bowl of unmistakable Queen Anne date, beautifully chased, filled with fiery nasturtiums, stood in strange neighbourliness to a cheap American alarum clock; a lovely, tarnished oval mirror reflected a hideous floral calendar, the advertis.e.m.e.nt of some seedsman. The room turned in a small ell, and this, which was evidently the kitchen corner of it, could be completely hidden from the rest by a quaint screen, very broad and high, of home manufacture, the body of which was composed of several calfskins beautifully marked and adroitly fitted together. This last gave a touch of quaint antiquity, a hint of the bold and primitive that was deliciously satisfying. I thought it then and still think it a room in ten thousand. It had no other door nor any window opening on the beach, and this produced a softened dimness, a richness, so to speak, of lighting and gloom, a sinking into shadow of the hearth and spinning-wheels, a lightness of the dresser and the polished settle near it that struck the eye with the same contented shock one gets from a mellow Dutch interior--the same impression of previous acquaintance, of a once familiar, only half forgotten home.
I have since tried to a.n.a.lyse the charm of that room, its inevitable hold upon every one privileged to enter it (and I suppose few rooms in America have held a greater number of really select souls), and I have decided that its spell consisted in its deeply impersonal character; its utter lack of the characteristics, the idiosyncrasies, the imbecilities, even the fascinations of other, no matter how attractive dwelling places. It had the restful aloofness of a studio, with none of its professional limitations; the domesticity of a home, with none of its fatiguing clutter; the freedom of an inn, with none of its stale sense of over-use. And above and through all this ran the note of almost ascetic cleanliness, a purity fairly conventual. Like most men, I have a concealed pa.s.sion for perfect cleanliness--concealed, because to the s.e.x so ironically intrusted with the duty of domestic l.u.s.tration cleanliness appears to mean frightful and devastating upheavals resulting in a nauseating odour of soap and furniture polish. When you shall have learned, dear ladies, to _keep_ your domains clean without so furiously _getting_ them clean, you will have earned, in our eyes, your somewhat dubious t.i.tle of housekeepers.
Meanwhile, continue, in heaven"s name, to think us the contentedly dirty s.e.x!
From the kitchen ell delicious odours proceeded, and as we sat down around the shining old table with its fine, much-darned linen, and its delicate china eked out where necessary by cheap, coa.r.s.e, village crockery, a heavy-faced fellow with dull eyes under a shock of hair served us with what, upon mature consideration, I believe to have been the finest breakfast I have ever eaten. A great fresh fish, broiled with bacon, plenty of those delicious corn-meal m.u.f.fins (I believe they are locally and truly known as "gems") mealy potatoes fried in bacon fat, and a sort of tart jam or marmalade made of wild plums to top off with, the whole washed down with strong coffee and rich cream, melted before our keen-edged appet.i.tes like dew before the hungry sun, and we hardly spoke as we filled ourselves.
Much combined to give a flavour to the meal: the long, worried night, the short, cool plunge, the excitement of our adventure, the mystery of this empty house (for neither Margarita nor any other hostess was present) and in my own case the wild, heady consciousness of that absurd, incredible thing that had just happened to me: the confused yet certain sense that it could never be quite the same with me as it had been before I met that extraordinary girl in the faded red jersey.
It was too soon to think about it, I was still stupid from the shock of it, but my blood ran very sweetly through my veins, the delicious, strong air of the beach was in my nostrils and the food was fit for the hunger of the G.o.ds.
CHAPTER XI
OUR PARSON PROVES CAPABLE
At last even we could eat no more, and Roger pulled out an old pipe that I had never seen before, pushed a jar of fragrant tobacco toward us, brought us pipes from the chimney-piece and crossed his legs definitely.
"I suppose, Tip," he said, "you"re wondering why you"re here, eh?"
"A little," said Tip comfortably, "but not too much. To tell you the truth, fellows, I haven"t had such a thoroughly good time for--oh, for ten years, I should say! Somehow I feel as if everything but just this actual moment--this breakfast, this pipe, this queer old room--was a sort of dream and these were the only things that mattered."
"I know," Roger answered quietly, "that"s the way one feels here. The place is bewitched, I think. Well, Tip, I want to get married, and I"d rather you"d be the one to do the business than any man I know."
"I rather suspected it," Tip said, "and I"ll be mighty glad to do it for you, Roger. Who is she?"
There was quite a pause here, and Roger puffed slowly and thoughtfully at the old pipe and looked out of the open door toward the little bay.
By and by he spoke, and the concise clearness of what he said was most characteristic of him.
"Of course I needn"t go into all this at all," he began, "unless I wanted to. In fact, my original idea was to have a perfect stranger (as I somehow thought Jerry would bring) marry us without his being any the wiser. But the minute I saw you, Tip, I felt that I"d like you to know. But I"d rather you kept it to yourself."
He paused a moment, and Tip nodded gravely.
"Of course you have my word for that," he said.
"The woman I"m going to marry," Roger went on, in his quiet, practical voice, "was born and brought up on this little peninsula. She has never left it but once in her life. Her mother died when she was a baby, her father a few weeks ago, I should say. She does not know her father"s name, nor, consequently, her own. It is evident from this house, the furnishings and the books, that he was a gentleman and an educated one. For as long as she can remember they were served and looked after in every way by a woman called Hester Prynne and this half-witted fellow called Caliban. Of course I have no idea what their real names were. The woman died very recently and the girl was left alone. There was a big chest fairly well filled with money under her father"s bed, but not a line or word in it to give any clue. Either her father or mother must have been Italian, I should think, both from her name and her general type, but she knows no Italian whatever--only a simple childish sort of French. She is the only woman I should ever marry if I lived a hundred years, and I want you to do it to-day. Will you?"
I drew the long breath I had been holding during this speech and felt a great relief. It was all so simple, after all! I hoped Tip wouldn"t spoil it, but I was afraid he would. He wasn"t at all what one would call a man of the world: he had always felt a terrible responsibility for other people"s actions, and this particular action was, to put it mildly, certainly rather unusual. But I had under-estimated both Tip"s keenness and the effect of Roger"s big, quiet personality. For Tip stared hard at his pipe a moment, then at Roger, then back at the pipe, and said:
"Surely I will, Roger. And be glad to." And there"s Tip Elder for you!
We smoked awhile longer in silence. Finally Tip began again in a casual sort of way, as if, the main question having been settled, this were a mere detail, but one that he might as well mention.
"How about the name, Roger?" he asked. "Won"t that be a little awkward? At home, you know. I suppose you couldn"t wait till you found it out?"
Roger threw his jaw forward a bit and pursed his mouth, a trick he had when he was bothered but couldn"t see any way out of it.
"No, I couldn"t," he said thoughtfully. "In the first place, to tell you the truth, I don"t much believe there"s any chance of finding it out except by pure accident. There"s not a sc.r.a.p of evidence about the place, and it is undoubtedly intentional. I"ve opened every book in her father"s room and there are no collections of old litter in any closet--there"s no attic--and not a letter or bill in the house. A doctor came here once or twice, but he never mentioned her father"s name in her hearing, and this Hester told her he came from New York.
Caliban did the marketing and paid cash for everything. The telegraph operator, who is the only one I"ve spoken with in the town, represents the att.i.tude of everybody there, probably, and he thinks, evidently, that an eccentric recluse lives here, and that his housekeeper is pretty close-mouthed and "unsociable," as he put it. It"s rather strange that they aren"t more curious, but she must have known how to deal with them, for whatever interest anybody may have felt died out long ago. They know the man had a daughter and that she"s grown now, but this fellow told me that he"d heard she went barefoot most of the time, and there was a half rumour that she was feeble-minded, and that was why they kept so close. He thinks I"m boarding here, apparently. I suppose that any curious boys or tramps that might have been tempted over here were frightened off by the dogs--there used to be a pair of them."
He paused to fill his pipe again and Tip nodded comprehendingly.