James Bowdoin threw himself on a chair and laughed. "Who is it?"
"It"ll be your Miss Abby, I"m thinkin"."
"The imp! I stopped her week"s money for losing her hat this morning, and she"s got ahead of me and come down to get it of the governor."
There was a sudden and mysterious silence in the inner room. James Bowdoin looked at Jamie, and noted again his expression. "What"s the matter, Jamie? Have you anything to tell me?"
"It"s for Mr. Bowdoin"s private ear, Mr. James," said Jamie testily.
"Oh, ah! in that case I"ll go in and see." James threw the door open.
Old Mr. Bowdoin was standing, still puffing, in front of the fire, evidently quite breathless. In the corner by the window, too rapt to notice her father"s entrance, sat Miss Abby, intently gazing into a round gla.s.s crystal that, with a carved ebony frame, formed one of the Oriental ornaments of the counting-room.
"I trust we are not disturbing important business, sir?" said Mr.
James the younger dryly.
"Sh, sh! Abby, my dear, don"t take your eyes out of it for twenty minutes, and you"ll see the soldiers." And the old gentleman winked at James and Jamie, and became still purpler with laughter that was struggling to be heard.
"As for that child of mine"--
"Psst! h"sh!" and Mr. Bowdoin snapped his fingers in desperation at his uncomprehending son. "Never mind them, dear!" he cried to the child. "Only look steady; don"t take your eyes out of it for twenty minutes, and you"re sure to see the armies fighting! The most marvelous idea, and all my own," he said, as he slammed the door behind him. "Crystal-gazing, for keeping children quiet,--nothing beats it!"
"I thought, sir, you were both in need of it. But Jamie here has something to say to you."
"What is it--Jamie? No more trouble about that ship Maine Lady? D--n the British collier tramps! and she as fine a clipper as ever left Bath Bay. Well, send her back in ballast; chessmen and India shawls, I suppose, as usual"--
"It"s about Mercedes, sir."
"Oh, ah!" Mr. Bowdoin"s brow grew grave.
"She will not marry John Hughson, sir."
"Now, Jamie, how the devil am I to make her?"
XII.
John Hughson took his rejection rather sullenly, and Mercedes was more than ever alone in the old house. She never had had intimate companions among the young women of the neighborhood, and now they put the stigma of exclusion upon her. They envied her rejection of a serious suitor such as John. It was rumored the latter was taking to liquor, and she was blamed for it. Women often like to have others say yes to the first man who comes, and not leave old love affairs to c.u.mber the ground. And girls, however loving to their friends, have but a cold sympathy for their s.e.x in general.
One person profited by it, and that was old Jamie. He urged Mercedes nearly every day to alter her decision, and she seemed to like him for it. Always, now, one saw her walking with him; he became her ally against a disapproving world.
The next thing that happened was, Jamie"s mother fell very ill. He had to sit with her of nights; and she would look at him fondly (she was too old and weak to speak much), as if he had been any handsome heir.
Mercedes would sit with them sometimes, and then go into her parlor, where she would try to play a little, and then, as they supposed, would read. But books, before these realities of life, failed her.
What she really did I hardly know. She wrote one letter to young Harleston Bowdoin, and he answered it; and then a second, which was still unanswered.
One night "the mother" spoke to Jamie of the girl: ""Tis a comely la.s.s. I suppose you"re proud you were adopting her?"
Old Jamie"s face was always red as a winter apple, but his eyes blushed. "Anybody"d "a" done that, mither,--such a lady as she is!"
"What"ll ye be doin" of her after I"m gone? The pirate father"ll come a-claimin" of her."
Jamie looked as if the pirate captain then might meet his match.
"Jamie, my son--have ye never thought o" marryin" her your own sel"?
I"d like to see you with a wife before I go."
There was no doubt that Jamie was blushing now.
"Do ye no love the la.s.s enough?"
"I"--Jamie stopped himself. "I am too old, mither, and--and too queer."
"Too old! too queer! There"s not a better son than my Jamie in all the town. I"d like to see a better, braver boy make claim! And if you seem old, it"s through tending of your old forbears. Whatever would the la.s.sie want, indeed!"
"Good heavens! I"ve never asked her, mither," said Jamie.
The old woman looked fondly at her boy. "Ask her, then, Jamie; ask her, and give her the chance. She"s a daft creature, but bonny; and you love her, I see."
Jamie pinched up his rosy features and squirmed upon his chair. "Can I do anything for ye, mither? Then I think I"ll go out and take a bit o"
pipe in the streets with John Hughson."
"John Hughson, indeed!" snorted the old woman, and set her face to the wall.
But Jamie did not go near John Hughson. He rambled alone about the city streets, and it was late at night before he came back. Late as it was, there was a light behind Mercedes" window-shade, and he walked across the street and watched it, until a policeman, coming by, stopped and asked him who he was.--But the virus took possession of him and spread.
The Bowdoins, father and son, noted that their old clerk"s dress was sprucer. He was more than ever seen with Miss Mercedes, and she seemed to like him better than before. Women who are to all men fascinating must have a subtle instinct for perceiving it, a half-conscious liking for it. Else why do not they stop it sooner?
But Jamie had never admitted it to himself. Perhaps because he loved her better than himself. He judged his own pretensions solely from her interest. Marriages were fewer did all men so.
Still a year went by, and no other man seemed near Mercedes. Then the old mother died. To Mercedes, life seemed always going into mourning for elderly people. They went on living, she and Jamie, as before. He had got to be so completely accepted as her adoptive father that to no one, not even the Bowdoins, had the situation raised a question; to Mercedes least of all. With such natures as hers, there also goes instinctive knowledge of how far male natures, most widely different, may be trusted. But Jamie had thought it over many times.
Until one morning, James Bowdoin and his father, coming to the counting-room, found Jamie with a face of circ.u.mstance. He had on his newest clothes; his boots were polished; and his hair, already somewhat gray, was carefully brushed.
"What is it, Jamie? Have you come for a vacation?" said Mr. Bowdoin.
"Vacation!" sniffed Jamie. Once, many years before, he had been given a week off, and had gone to Nantasket; but his princ.i.p.al diversion had been to take the morning steamboat thence to the city, and gaze into the office windows from the wharf.
"It is something about pretty Miss Sadie, I"ll be bound."
"You are always right, sir," said Jamie quietly. His eyes were very bright; he was almost young-looking; and his manner had a certain dignity. "And I beg you, sir, for leave to ask your judgment."
Mr. Bowdoin motioned Jamie to a chair. And it marked his curious sense that he was treating as man to man that for the first and only time within that office Jamie took it.
"Mercedes." Jamie lingered lovingly over the name. "I have tried my best, sir. I have made her--nay, she was one--like a lady. You would not let her marry Master Harley."
"I never"--the old gentleman interrupted. Jamie waved his hand.