"Oh, it isn"t! Well, I don"t care whether it is or is not; I shall speak my mind. His whole att.i.tude has been hostile to the best interests of the State, and he must get off his high horse."
As he growled and sneered his way through a long diatribe, she brought water and bathed his face and hands and brushed his hair, her anger melting into pity as she comprehended how weak and broken he was. She had observed it before in times of great fatigue, but the heat and dust and discomfort of the drive had reduced the big body, debilitated by lack of exercise, to a nerveless lump, his brain to a ma.s.s of incoherent and savage impulses. No matter what he said thereafter, she realized his pitiable weakness and felt no anger.
As he rested he grew calmer, and at last consented to lie down while she made a little tea on an alcohol lamp. After sipping the tea he fell asleep, and she sat by his side, her mind filled with the fundamental conception of a daughter"s obligation to her sire. To her he was no longer a great politician, no longer a powerful, aggressive business man--he was only her poor, old, dying father, to whom she owed her every comfort, her education, her jewels, her art. He had never been a companion to her--his had been the rule absolute--and yet a hundred indulgences, a hundred really kind and considerate acts came thronging to her mind as she fanned his flushed face.
"I must go with him," she said; "it is my duty."
Curtis came to the door again and tapped. She put her finger to her lips, and so he stood silent, looking in at her. His eyes called her and she rose and tiptoed to the door.
"I came to ask you both to dinner," he whispered.
Her eyes filled with quick tears. "That"s good of you," she returned, in a low voice. "But he would not come. He"s only a poor, old, broken man, after all." Her voice was apologetic in tone. "I hope you will not be angry." They both stood looking down at him. "He has failed terribly in the last few weeks. His campaigning will kill him. I wish he would give it up. He needs rest and quiet. What can I do?"
Curtis, looking upon the livid old man, inert and lumpish, yet venerable because of his white hairs--and because he was the sire of his love--experienced a sudden melting of his own resolution. His throat choked, but he said:
"Go with him. He needs you."
At the moment words were unnecessary. She understood his deeper meaning, and lifted her hand to him. He took it in both his. "It may be a long time before I shall see you again. I--I ought not--" he struggled with himself and ceased to speak.
Her eyes wavered and she withdrew her hand. "My duty is with him now; perhaps I can carry him through his campaign, or dissuade him altogether. Don"t you see that I am right?"
He drew himself up as though his general-in-chief were pa.s.sing. "Duty is a word I can understand," he said, and turned away.
XXVIII
A WALK IN THE STARLIGHT
Having no further pretext for calling upon her, Curtis thought of Elsie as of a strain of music which had pa.s.sed. He was rather silent at dinner, but not noticeably so, for Maynard absorbed most of the time and attention of those present. At the first opportunity he returned to his papers, and was deep in work when Jennie came in to tell him that Elsie was coming over to stay the night.
"She has given up her bed to her father, and so she will sleep here. Go over about nine and get her."
If she knew how deeply this command moved him, she was considerate enough to make no comment. "Very well, sis," he replied, quietly. "As soon as I finish this letter."
But he did not finish the letter--did not even complete the sentence with which his pen was engaged when Jennie interrupted him. After she went out he sat in silence and in complete immobility for nearly an hour. At last he rose and went out into the warm and windless night.
When he entered the studio he found her seated upon one trunk and surveying another.
"This looks like flight," he said.
"Yes; papa insists on our going early to-morrow morning. Isn"t it preposterous! I can only pack my clothing. He says the trouble is only beginning, and that I must not remain here another day."
"I have come to fetch you to Jennie."
"I will be ready presently. I am just looking round to decide on what to take. Be seated, please, while I look over this pile of sketches."
He took a seat and looked at her sombrely. "You"ll leave a great big empty place here when you go."
"Do you mean this studio?"
"I mean in my daily life."
She became reflective. "I hate to go, and that"s the truth of it. I am just beginning to feel my grip tighten on this material. I know I could do some good work here, but really I was frightened at papa"s condition this afternoon. He is better now, but I can see that he is failing. If he insists on campaigning I must go with him--but, oh, how I hate it!
Think of standing up and shaking hands with all these queer people for months! I oughtn"t to feel so, of course, but I can"t help it. I"ve no patience with people who are half-baked, neither bread nor dough. I believe I like old Mary and Two Horns better."
"I fear you are voicing a mood, not a conviction. We ought not to condemn any one;" he paused a moment, then added: "I don"t like you to even _say_ cruel things. It hurts me. As I look round this room I see nothing which has to do with duty or conviction or war or politics.
There is peace and beauty here. You belong in this atmosphere; you are fitted to your environment. I admit that I was fired at first with a desire to convert you to my ways of thought; now, when a sense of duty troubles you, takes you away from the joy of your art, I question myself. You are too beautiful to wear yourself out in problems. I now say, remain an artist. There is something idyllic about your artist life as I now understand it. It is simple and childlike. In that respect it seems to have less troublesome questions of right or wrong to decide than science. Its one care seems to be, "What will produce and preserve beauty, and so a.s.suage the pain of the world?" No question of money or religion or politics--just the pursuit of an ideal in a sheltered nook."
"You have gone too far the other way, I fear," she said, sadly. "Our lives, even at the best, are far from being the ideal you present. It seems very strange to me to hear you say those things--"
"I have given the matter much thought," he replied. "If I have made you think of the woes of the world, so you have shown me glimpses of a life where men and women are almost free from care. We are mutually instructed." He rose at this point and, after hesitation, said: "When you go I wish you would leave this room just as it is, and when I am tired and irritable and lonely I"ll come here and imagine myself a part of your world of harmonious colors, with no race questions to settle and no harsh duties to perform. Will you do this? These few hangings and lamps and easels are unimportant to you--you won"t miss them; to me they will be priceless, and, besides, you may come back again some time. Say you will. It will comfort me."
There was a light in his eyes and an intensity in his voice which startled her. She stammered a little.
"Why, of course, if it will give you the slightest pleasure; there is nothing here of any particular value. I"ll be glad to leave them."
"Thank you. So long as I have this room as it is I shall be able to persuade myself that you have not pa.s.sed utterly out of my life."
She was a little alarmed now, and hastened to say: "I do not see why we should not meet again. I shall expect you to call when you come to Washington--" she checked herself. "I"m afraid my sense of duty to the Tetongs is not strong. Don"t think too hardly of me because of it."
He seemed intent on another thought. "Do you know, you"ve given me a dim notion of a new philosophy. I haven"t organized it yet, but it"s something like this: Beauty is a sense of fitness, harmony. This sense of beauty--call it taste--demands positively a readjustment of the external facts of life, so that all angles, all suffering and violence, shall cease. If all men were lovers of the beautiful, the gentle, then the world would needs be suave and genial, and life harmoniously colored, like your own studio, and we would campaign only against ugliness. To civilize would mean a totally different thing. I"m not quite clear on my theory yet, but perhaps you can help me out."
"I think I see what you mean. But my world," she hastened to say, "is nothing like so blameless as you think it. Don"t think artists are actually what they should be. They are very human, eager to succeed, to outstrip each other; and they are sordid, too. No, you are too kind to us. We are a poor lot when you take us as a whole, and the worst of it is the cleverest makers of the beautiful are often the least inspiring in their lives. I mean they"re ignorant and spiteful, and often dishonorable." She stopped abruptly.
"I"m sorry to hear you say that. It certainly shatters a beautiful theory I had built up out of what you and other artists have said to me." After a little silence he resumed: "It comes down to this, then: that all arts and professions are a part of life, and life is a compromise between desire and duty. There are certain things I want to do to-day, but my duties for to-morrow forbid. You are right in going away with your father--I"m not one to keep you from doing that--but I must tell you how great has been the pleasure of having you here, and I hope you will come again. If you go to-morrow morning I shall not see you again."
"Why not?"
"I start at dawn to arrest Cut Finger."
"Alone?"
"No. The captain of the police goes with me."
Her face paled a little. "Oh! I wish you wouldn"t! Why don"t you take the soldiers?"
"They are not necessary. I shall leave here about four o"clock and surprise the guilty man in his bed. He will not fight me." He rose. "Are you ready to go now?"
"In a moment," she said, and softly crossed the floor to peep into the bedroom. "Poor papa, he looks almost bloodless as he sleeps."
As they stepped out into the darkness Curtis realized that this was their last walk together, and the thought was both sweet and sad.
"Will you take my arm?" he asked. "It is very dark, though there should be a new moon."
"It has gone down; I saw it," she replied, as she slipped her hand through his elbow. "How peaceful it all is! It doesn"t seem possible that to-morrow you will risk your life in the performance of duty, and that I will leave here, never to return. I have a curious feeling about this place now. It seems as though I were settled here, and that I am to go on living here forever."