A trace of gravity crept into Flora Schuyler"s blue eyes, which were unusually attractive ones. "When they come too often I send them back,"
she said. "Oh, I know I"m careless now and then, but one has to do the square thing, and I wouldn"t let any man do all that for me unless I was so fond of him that I meant to marry him. Now I"m going to talk quite straight to you, Hetty. You"ll have to give up Larry by and by, but if you find that"s going to hurt you, send the other man away."
"You don"t understand," and there was a little flash in Hetty"s dark eyes.
"Larry"s kind to everyone--he can"t help it; but he doesn"t want me."
Flora Schuyler gravely patted her companion"s arm. "My dear, we don"t want to quarrel, but you"ll be careful--to please me. Jake Cheyne is coming, and you might be sorry ever after if you made a mistake to-night."
Hetty made no answer, and there was silence for a s.p.a.ce while the light grew dimmer, until the sound of voices rose from without, and she felt her heart beat a trifle faster than usual, when somebody said, "Captain Cheyne!"
Then there was a rustle of draperies and Mrs. Schuyler, thin, angular, and considerably more silent than is customary with women of her race, came in, with her younger daughter and a man in her train. The latter bore the stamp of the soldier plainly, but there was a distinction in his pose that was not the result of a military training. Then as he shook hands with Flora Schuyler the fading light from the window fell upon his face, showing it clean cut from the broad forehead to the solid chin, and reposeful instead of nervously mobile. His even, low-pitched voice was also in keeping with it, for Jackson Cheyne was an unostentatious American of culture widened by travel, and, though they are not always to be found in the forefront in their own country, unless it has need of them, men of his type have little to fear from comparison with those to be met with in any other one.
He spoke when there was occasion, and was listened to, but some time had pa.s.sed before he turned to Mrs. Schuyler. "I wonder if it would be too great a liberty if I asked Miss Torrance to give us some music," he said.
"I am going away to-morrow to a desolate outpost in New Mexico, and it will be the last time for months that I shall have a treat of that kind."
Flora Schuyler opened the piano, and Hetty smiled at Cheyne as she took her place; but the man made a little gesture of negation when Mrs.
Schuyler would have rung for lights.
"Wouldn"t it be nicer as it is?" he said.
Hetty nodded, and there was silence before the first chords rang softly through the room. Though it may have been that the absence of necessity to strive and stain her daintiness amidst the press was responsible for much, Hetty Torrance"s voice had failed to win her fame; but she sang and played better than most well-trained amateurs. Thus there was no rustle of drapery or restless movements until the last low notes sank into the stillness. Then the girl glanced at the man who had un.o.btrusively managed to find a place close beside her.
"You know what that is?" she said.
Carolina Schuyler laughed. "Jake knows everything!"
"Yes," said the man quietly. "A nocturne. You were thinking of something when you played it."
"The sea," said Flora Schuyler, "when the moon is on it. Was that it, Hetty?"
"No," said Miss Torrance, who afterwards wondered whether it would have made a great difference if she had not chosen that nocturne. "It was the prairie when the stars are coming out over Cedar Range. Then it seems bigger and more solemn than the sea. I can see it now, wide and grey and shadowy, and so still that you feel afraid to hear yourself breathing, with the last smoky flush burning on its northern rim. Now, you may laugh at me, for you couldn"t understand. When you have been born there, you always love the prairie."
Then with a little deprecatory gesture she touched the keys again. "It will be different this time."
Cheyne glanced up sharply during the prelude, and then, feeling that the girl"s eyes were upon him, nodded as out of the swelling harmonies there crept the theme. It suggested the tramp of marching feet, but there was a curious unevenness in its rhythm, and the crescendo one of the listeners looked for never came. The room was almost dark now, but none of those who sat there seemed to notice it as they listened to the listless tramp of marching feet. Then the harmonies drowned it again, and Hetty looked at Cheyne.
"Now," she said, "can you tell me what that means?"
Cheyne"s voice seemed a trifle strained, as though the music had troubled him. "I know the march, but the composer never wrote what you have played to-night," he said. "It was--may mine be defended from it!--the shuffle of beaten men. How could you have felt what you put into the music?"
"No," said Hetty. "Your men could never march like that. It was footsteps going west, and I could not have originated their dragging beat. I have heard it."
There was a little silence, until Cheyne said softly, "One more."
"Then," said Hetty, "you will recognize this."
The chords rang under her fingers until they swelled into confused and conflicting harmonies that clashed and jarred upon the theme. Their burden was strife and struggle and the anguish of strain, until at last, in the high clear note of victory, the theme rose supreme.
"Yes," said Flora Schuyler, "we know that. We heard it with the Kaiser in Berlin. Only one man could have written it; but his own countrymen could not play it better than you do. A little overwhelming. How did you get down to the spirit of it, Hetty?"
Lights were brought in just then, and they showed that the girl"s face was a trifle paler than usual, as closing the piano, she turned, with a little laugh, upon the music-stool.
"Oh!" she said, "I don"t quite know, and until to-night it always cheated me. I got it at the depot--no, I didn"t. It was there I felt the marching, and Larry brought the prairie back to me; but I couldn"t have seen what was in the last music, because it hasn"t happened yet."
"It will come?" said Flora.
"Yes," said Hetty, "wherever those weary men are going to."
"And to every one of us," said Cheyne, with a curious graveness they afterwards remembered. "That is, the stress and strain--it is the triumph at the end of it only the few attain."
Once more there was silence, and it was a relief when the unemotional Mrs.
Schuyler rose.
"Now," she said, and her voice, at least, had in it the tw.a.n.g of the country, "you young folks have been solemn quite long enough. Can"t you talk something kind of lively?"
They did what they could, and--for Cheyne could on occasion display a polished wit--light laughter filled the room, until Caroline Schuyler, perhaps not without a motive, suggested a stroll on the lawn. If there was dew upon the gra.s.s none of them heeded it, and it was but seldom anyone enjoyed the privilege of pacing that sod when Mr. Schuyler was at home.
Every foot had cost him many dollars, and it remained but an imperfect imitation of an English lawn. There was on the one side a fringe of maples, and it was perhaps by Mrs. Schuyler"s contrivance that eventually Hetty found herself alone with Cheyne in their deeper shadow. It was not, however, a surprise to her, for she had seen the man"s desire and tacitly fallen in with it. Miss Torrance had discovered that one seldom gains anything by endeavouring to avoid the inevitable.
"Hetty," he said quietly, "I think you know why I have come to-night?"
The girl stood very still and silent for a s.p.a.ce of seconds, and afterwards wondered whether she made the decision then, or what she had seen and heard since she entered the depot had formed it for her.
"Yes," she said slowly. "I am so sorry!"
Cheyne laid his hand upon her arm, and his voice trembled a little. "Don"t be too hasty, Hetty," he said. "I would not ask you for very much just now, but I had ventured to fancy you could in time grow fond of me. I know I should have waited, but I am going away to-morrow, and I only want you to give me a promise to take away with me."
It was with a visible effort the girl lifted her head and looked at him.
"I feel horribly mean, Jake, but I can"t," she said. "I ought to have made you realize that long ago, but I liked you, and, you see, I didn"t quite know. I thought if I waited a little I might be more sure of what I felt for you!"
"Then," said the man, a trifle hoa.r.s.ely, "give me what you can now and I will be patient."
Hetty turned half way from him and closed one hand. The man was pleasant to look upon, in character and disposition all she could desire, and she had found a curious content in his company. Had that day pa.s.sed as other days had done, she might have yielded to him, but she had been stirred to the depths of her nature during the last few hours, and Flora Schuyler"s warning had been opportune. She had, as she had told him, a liking for Jackson Cheyne, but that, she saw very clearly now, was insufficient.
Destiny had sent Larry Grant, with the a.s.sociations that clung about him, into the depot.
"No," she said, with a little tremble in her voice, "it wouldn"t be honest or fair to you. I am not half good enough for you."
The man smiled somewhat mirthlessly, but his voice was reproachful. "You always speak the truth, Hetty. My dear, knowing what the best of us are, I wonder how I dared to venture to ask you to share your life with me."
Hetty checked him with a little gesture. "Can"t you understand?" she said.
"The girl who sang to you now and then isn"t me. I am selfish, discontented, and shallow, and if you hadn"t heard me sing or play you would never have thought of me. There are people who sing divinely, and are--you see, I have met them with the mask off--just horrible."
"Hetty," said Cheyne, "I can"t allow anyone to malign you, even if it"s yourself, and if you have any faults, my dear, I"ll take them with the rest. In fact, I would be glad of one or two. They would only bring you a little nearer to me."
The girl lifted her hand and silenced him. "Jake," she said appealingly, "please take your answer and go away. If I could only be fond of you in the right way I would, but I can"t, you see. It is not my fault--it isn"t in me."
The man recognized the finality in her tone, but, feeling that it was useless, made a last endeavour.
"I"m going away to-morrow," he said. "You might think differently when I come back again."
The girl"s voice quivered a little. "No," she said. "I have to be straightforward now, and I know you will try to make it easier for me, even if I"m hurting you. It"s no use. I shall think the same, and by and by you"ll get over this fancy, and wonder what you ever saw in me."