"Nay," says candid Tom, "that work was done before ever we had the chance of a hand in it."
"Well," retorted Margaret, with good-humoured pertness, "there"ll never be reason for me to make my brother vain of his wit."
"Nor for my sister to be vain of hers," said Tom, not in nettled retaliation, but merely as uttering a truth.
"You compliment me there," says Margaret, lightly. "Did you ever hear of a witty woman that was charming?"
"That is true," I put in, remembering some talk of Phil"s, based upon reading as well as upon observation, "for usually a woman must be ugly, before she will take the trouble to cultivate wit. The possession of wit in a woman seems to imply a lack of other reliances.
And if a woman be pretty and witty both, her arrogance is like to be such as drives every man away. And men resent wit in a woman as if "twere an invasion of their own province."
"Sure your explanation must be true, Mr. Philosopher," said Margaret, ""tis so profound. As for me, I seek no reasons; "tis enough to know that most witty women are frights; and I don"t blame the men for refusing to be charmed by "em."
"Well, sis," said Tom, "I"m sure even the cultivation of wit wouldn"t make you a fright. So you might amuse yourself by trying it, ma"am. As for charming the men, you married ladies have no more to do with that."
"Oh, haven"t we? Sure, I think "tis time little boys were in bed, who talk of things they know nothing about. Isn"t that so, Bert?"
"Why," said I, "for my part, I think "tis unkind for a woman to exercise her charms upon men after she has destroyed the possibility of rewarding their devotion."
"Dear me, you talk like a character in a novel. Well, then, you"re both agreed I mustn"t be charming. So I"ll be disagreeable, and begin with you two. Here"s a book of sermons Mr. Cornelius must have left.
That will help me, if anything will." And she sat down with the volume in her hands, took on a solemn frown, and began to read to herself.
After awhile, at a giggle of amus.e.m.e.nt from schoolboy Tom, she turned a rebuking gaze upon us, over the top of the book; but the very effort to be severe emphasised the fact that her countenance was formed to give only pleasure, and our looks brought back the smile to her eyes.
""Tis no use," said Tom, "you couldn"t help being charming if you tried."
She threw down the book, and came and put her arm around him, and so we all three stood before the fire till Philip returned.
"Ah," she said, "here is one who will never ask me to be ugly or unpleasant."
"Who has been asking impossibilities, my dear?" inquired Philip, taking her offered hand in his.
"These wise gentlemen think I oughtn"t to be charming, now that I"m married."
"Then they think you oughtn"t to be yourself; and I disagree with "em entirely."
She gave him her other hand also, and stood for a short while looking into his innocent, fond eyes.
"You dear old Phil!" she said slowly, in a low voice, falling for the moment into a tender gravity, and her eyes having a more than wonted softness. The next instant, recovering her light playfulness with a little laugh, she took his arm and led the way to the dining-room.
And now came Spring--the Spring of 1775. There had been, of course, for years past, and increasing daily in recent months, talk of the disagreement between the king and the colonies. I have purposely deferred mention of this subject, to the time when it was to fall upon us in its full force so that no one could ignore it or avoid action with regard to it. But I now reach the beginning of the drama which is the matter of this history, and to which all I have written is uneventful prologue. We young people of the Faringfield house (for I was still as much of that house as of my own) had concerned ourselves little with the news from London and Boston, of the concentration of British troops in the latter town in consequence of the increased disaffection upon the closing of its port. We heeded little the fact that the colonies meant to convene another general congress at Philadelphia, or that certain colonial a.s.semblies had done thus and so, and certain local committees decided upon this or that. "Twould all blow over, of course, as the Stamp Act trouble had done; the seditious cla.s.s in Boston would soon be overawed, and the king would then concede, of his gracious will, what the malcontents had failed to obtain by their violent demands. Such a thing as actual rebellion, real war, was to us simply inconceivable. I believe now that Philip had earlier and deeper thoughts on the subject than I had: indeed events showed that he must have had: but he kept them to himself. And far other and lighter subjects occupied our minds as he and I started for a walk out the Bowery lane one balmy Sunday morning in April, the twenty-third day of the month.
Mr. and Mrs. Faringfield, f.a.n.n.y, and Tom, had gone to church. Philip and I boasted of too much philosophical reading to be churchgoers, and I had let my mother walk off to Trinity with a neighbour. As for Margaret, she stayed home because she was now her own mistress and had a novel to read, out of the last parcel received from London. We left her on the rear veranda, amidst the honeysuckle vines that climbed the trellis-work.
"I"ve been counting the weeks," she said to Phil, as we were about to set forth. "Only seven more Sundays." And she stopped him to adjust the ribbon of his queue more to her taste. "Aren"t you glad?"
"Yes; and a thousand times so because it makes you happy, my dear,"
said he.
She kissed him, and let him go. "Don"t walk too far, dear!" she called after us.
We looked back from the gateway, and saw that she had come to the end of the veranda to see us from the garden. We doffed our hats, and Phil threw her a kiss; which she returned, and then waved her hand after us, softly smiling. Philip lingered a moment, smiling back, to get this last view of her ere he closed the gate.
We had just pa.s.sed the common, at the Northern end of the town, when we heard a clatter of galloping hoofs in the Bowery lane before us.
Looking up the vista of road shaded by trees in fresh leaf.a.ge, we saw a rider coming toward us at a very severe pace. As he approached, the horse stumbled; and the man on its back, fearing it might sink from exhaustion, drew up and gave it a moment in which to recover itself.
He evidently wished to make a decent entrance into the town. He was in a great panting and perspiration, like his trembling steed, which was covered with foam; and his clothes were disturbed and soiled with travel. He took off his c.o.c.ked felt hat to fan himself.
"You ride fast, for Sunday, friend," said Phil pleasantly. "Any trouble?"
"Trouble for some folks, I guess," was the reply, spoken with a Yankee drawl and tw.a.n.g. "I"m bringing news from Ma.s.sachusetts." He slapped the great pocket of his plain coat, calling attention to its well-filled condition as with square papers. "Letters from the Committee of Safety."
"Why, has anything happened at Boston?" asked Phil, quickly.
"Well, no, not just at Boston. But out Concord way, and at Lexington, and on the road back to Boston, I should reckon a few things _had_ happened." And then, leaving off his exasperating drawl, he very speedily related the terrible occurrence of the nineteenth of April--terrible because "twas warlike bloodshed in a peaceful land, between the king"s soldiers and the king"s subjects, between men of the same race and speech, men of the same mother country; and because of what was to follow in its train. I remember how easily and soon the tale was told; how clearly the man"s calm voice, though scarce raised above a usual speaking tone, stood out against the Sunday morning stillness, with no sound else but the twittering of birds in the trees near by.
"Get up!" said the messenger, not waiting for our thanks or comments; and so galloped into the town, leaving us to stare after him and then at each other.
""Faith, this will make the colonies stand together," said Philip at last.
"Ay," said I, "against the rebellious party."
"No," quoth he, "when I say the colonies, I mean what you call the rebellious party in them."
"Why, "tis not the majority, and therefore it can"t be said to represent the colonies."
"I beg your pardon--I think we shall find it is the majority, particularly outside of the large towns. This news will fly to every corner of the land as fast as horses can carry it, and put the country folk in readiness for whatever the Continental Congress may decide upon."
"Why, then, "twill put our people on their guard, too, for whatever the rebels may attempt."
Philip"s answer to this brought about some dispute as to whether the name rebels, in its ordinary sense, could properly be applied to those colonists who had what he termed grievances. We both showed heat, I the more, until he, rather than quarrel, fell into silence. We had turned back into the town; choosing a roundabout way for home, that we might observe the effect of the messenger"s news upon the citizens. In a few streets the narrow footways were thronged with people in their churchgoing clothes, and many of these had already gathered into startled groups, where the rider who came in such un-Sabbath-like haste had stopped to justify himself, and satisfy the curiosity of observers, and ask the whereabouts of certain gentlemen of the provincial a.s.sembly, to whom he had letters. We heard details repeated, and opinions uttered guardedly, and grave concern everywhere expressed.
By the time we had reached home, Mr. and Mrs. Faringfield were already there, discussing the news with my mother, in the presence of the two daughters and Tom. We found them all in the parlour. Margaret stood in the library doorway, still holding her novel in her hand, her finger keeping the page. Her face showed but a languid interest in the tragedy which made all the others look so grave.
"You"ve heard the news, of course?" said Mr. Faringfield to us as we entered, curiously searching Philip"s face while he spoke.
"Yes, sir; we were the first in the town to hear it, I think," replied Phil.
"Tis a miracle if we do not have war," said Mr. Faringfield.
"I pray not," says my mother, who was a little less terrified than Mrs. Faringfield. "And I won"t believe we shall, till I see it at our doors."
"Oh, don"t speak of it!" cried Mrs. Faringfield, with a shudder.
"Why, ladies," says Philip, ""tis best to think of it as if "twere surely coming, and so accustom the mind to endure its horrors. I shall teach my wife to do so." And he looked playfully over at Margaret.
"Why, what is it to me?" said Margaret. "Tis not like to come before we sail, and in England we shall be well out of it. Sure you don"t think the rebels will cross the ocean and attack London?"
"Why, if war comes," said Phil, quietly, "we shall have to postpone our sailing."
"Postpone it!" she cried, in alarm. "Why? And how long?"