"Free?" said I, and he nodded with tragic solemnity.
"You know who I mean, of course?"
"Certainly; you mean Mrs. Sessions."
He shook his head bitterly. "Oh, well, then, of course I know. How am I to help you to help him; help him to do what?"
"O--oh! to tear himself away from her, Smith. I want you to appeal to him. He"s taken a great shine to you. You can appeal to his feeling for romance--poetry--whatever he calls his h.e.l.l-fired--I mean his unfortunate impiety. You know how, and I don"t. And there you reach the foundations of his character, as far as it"s got any; there"s his conscience if it"s anywhere!"
I find myself giving but a faint impression of the spirit in which Gholson spoke; it went away beyond a mere backbiting mood and became a temper so vindictive and so venomously purposeful that I was startled; his condition seemed so fearfully like that of the old paralytic when he whined "That"s not our way."
"Smith," my companion went on, "we ought to protect Ned Ferry from himself!" The words came through his clenched teeth. "And even more we ought to protect her. Who"s to do it if we don"t? Smith, I believe Providence has been a-preparing you to do this, all through these last three nights and days!"
He looked at me for an answer until I became frightened. Was my late folly known to this crawling maligner after all? A sweet-scented preparation I"ve had, thought I, but aloud I said only, "If Ned Ferry clears out, I suppose we must clear out, too."
"Why, eh,--I--I don"t know that my movements need have anything to do with his. Yours, of course,--"
"Yes," I interrupted, beginning to boil.
"I know," he said, "that comes hard; you"ll have to tear yourself away--"
He stared at me and hushed. A panic was surging through me; must I be brought to book by such as he? "Mr. Gholson," I cried, all scorn without, all terror within; "Mr. Gholson, I--Mr. Gholson, sir!--" and set my jaws and heaved for breath.
"Why, Smith,--" He extended a soothing hand.
"No explanation, sir, if you please! I can get away from here without tearing myself, which is more than you can boast. Any fool can see why you are here. Stop, I take that back, sir! I don"t play t.i.t-for-tat with my tongue."
Gholson turned red on the brow and ashen about the lips. "I don"t call that t.i.t-for-tat, Mr. Smith. I remind you of an innocent attachment for a young girl; you accuse me of harboring a guilty pa.s.sion for--" All at once he ceased with open lips, and then said as he drew a long breath of relief, "Smith, I beg your pardon! We"ve each misunderstood the other; I see, now, who you meant; you meant Miss Estelle Harper!"
"Whom else could I mean?" Disdain was in my voice, but he ought to have seen the falsehood in my eye, for I could feel it there.
"Of course!" he said; "of course! But, Smith, my mind was so full--just for the moment, you know,--of her we were speaking of in connection with Ned Ferry--Do you know? she"s so unprotected and tagged after and talked about that it seems to me sometimes, in this nervous condition of mine, that if I could catch the entire gang of her pursuers in one hole I"d--I"d end "em like so many rats. That sort of feeling is mere impulse, of course," he went on, "and only shows how near I am to that nervous breakdown. Yes, the Harper ladies are mighty lovely and hard enough to leave, but that"s all I meant to you, and I"m sorry I touched your feelings. I"m tchagrined. Anyhow, all this is between us, you know. I wouldn"t ever have confessed such feelings as I did just now except to a friend who knows as well as you do that if I ever should do a man a mortal injury I wouldn"t do it in a spirit of resentment. You know that, don"t you? No, that"s not my way--Why, Smith, what gives you those starts? That"s the third time you"ve done that this morning."
I said that entering the cool shade of the Sessions grove after the blazing heat of that long lane gave any one the right to a little shudder, and as we turned toward the house Gholson murmured "If you say you"ll speak to Ned as I"ve asked you, I"ll sort o" toll Squire Sessions off with me so"s to give you the chance. It"s for his own sake, you know, and you"re the only one can do it."
x.x.x
DIGNITY AND IMPUDENCE
I knew Ned Ferry was having that inner strife with which we ought always to credit even Gholson"s sort, and I had a loving ambition to help him "take the upper fork." So doing, I might help Charlotte Oliver fulfil the same principle, win the same victory. When, therefore, Gholson put the question to me squarely, Would I speak to Ferry? I consented, and as the four of us, hors.e.m.e.n, left our beasts in the stable munching corn, Gholson began a surprisingly animated talk with our host, and Ferry, with a quizzical smile, said to me "Talk with you?--shall be happy to; we"ll just make a slight detour on this side the grove and woods-pasture, eh?"
He meant the north side, opposite that one by which we had come from church. Here the landscape was much the same as there; wide fields on each side the fenced highway that still ran north and south, and woods for the sky-line everywhere. We chose an easy footpath along the northern fence of the grove, crossed the highway, and pa.s.sed on a few steps alongside the woods-pasture fence. We talked as we went, he giving the kindest heed to my every word though I could see that, like any good soldier, he was scanning all the ground for its fighting values, and, not to be outdone, I, myself, pointed out, a short way up the public road, a fence-gap on the left, made by our camping soldiers two nights before. It was at another such gap, in the woods-pasture fence, that we turned back by a path through it which led into the wood and so again toward the highway and the house-grove. The evening General Austin sent me to Wiggins it was at this gap that I saw old Dismukes sitting cross-legged on the ground, playing poker; and here, now, I summoned the desperation to speak directly to my point.
I had already tried hard to get something said, but had found myself at every turn entangled in generalities. Now, stammering and gagging I remarked that our experiences of the morning, both in church and out, had in some way combined with an earlier word of his own to me, and given me a valuable thought. "You remember, when I wanted to shoot that Yankee off my horse?"
"Yes; and I said--what?"
"You said "This isn"t your private war." Lieutenant, I hope those words may last in my memory forever and come to me in every moral situation in which I may find myself."
"Yes? Well, I think that"s good."
"It seems to me, Lieutenant Ferry, that in every problem of moral conduct we confront we really hold in trust an interest of all mankind. To solve that problem bravely and faithfully is to make life just so much easier for everybody; and to fail to do so is to make it just so much harder to solve by whoever has next to face it." Whurroo! my blood was up now, let him look to himself!
"Yes?" said Ferry, picking at the underbrush as we sauntered, and for some time he said no more. Then he asked, "You want me to apply that to myself, in--in the present case?" and to my tender amazement, while his eyes seemed to count his slackening steps, he laid his arm across my shoulders.
An hour of avowal could not have told me more; could not have filled me half so full of sympathy, admiration and love, as did that one slight motion. It befitted the day, a day outwardly so quiescent, yet in which so much was going on. A realization of this quiet activity kept us silent until we had come through the woods-pasture to its southern border, and so through the big white field-gate into the public road; now we turned up toward the grove-gate, and here I spoke again. "Do you still think we ought to wait here for the command?"
That from a private soldier to his captain! Yet all my leader answered was "You think there"s cause to change our mind?"
"I don"t know, Lieutenant; do you think Jewett has run back into his own lines?"
"Yes, I think so; and you?"
"Why, eh,--Lieutenant, I don"t believe there"s a braver man in Grant"s army than that one a-straddle of my horse to-day! Why, just the way he got him, night before last,--you"ve heard that, haven"t you?"
"Yes, the General told me. And so you think--"
"Lieutenant, I can"t help believing he"s out here to make a new record for himself, at whatever cost!"
We went on some steps in silence and entered the gate of the house-grove; and just as Ferry would have replied we discovered before us in the mottled shade of the driveway, with her arm on Cecile"s shoulders as his lay on mine, and with her eyes counting her slackening steps, Charlotte Oliver. They must have espied us already out in the highway, for they also were turned toward the house, and as we neared them Charlotte faced round with a cheery absence of surprise and said "Mr. Smith, don"t we owe each other a better acquaintance? Suppose we settle up."
x.x.xI
THE RED STAR"S WARNING
It seemed quite as undeniable, as we stood there, that Ned Ferry owed Cecile a better acquaintance. Every new hour enhanced her graces, and were I, here, less engrossed with her companion, I could pitch the praises of Cecile upon almost as high and brilliant a key--there may be room for that yet. Ferry moved on at her side. Charlotte stayed a moment to laugh at a squirrel, and then turned to walk, saying with eyes on the earth--
"If I tell you something, will you never tell?"
I looked down too. "Suppose I should feel sure it ought to be told."
"If you wait till you do you may tell it; that will suit me well enough."
"I will always suit you the best I can."
"I don"t know why you should," she said.
"You risked your life to save mine; and you risked it when I did not deserve so much as your respect."
"Oh!--we must never talk about that again, Richard; you saw me in the evilest guise I ever wore, and that is saying much."