CHAPTER VII.
A MOTHER"S AFFECTION.
In one bedazzled moment we review a whole night of darkness. A luxury brings with it the memory of a privation. The first glimpse of those drawing-rooms, gleaming with white and warm with gold, were seen against a black cloud, and that cloud was the past. The wanderer was startled; there was nothing now to turn aside the full shock of his responsibilities. He felt the enormity of his pretense, and he began again to pick at his motive. Mrs. Witherspoon perceived a change in him and anxiously asked if he were ill. No, but now that his long journey was ended he felt worn by it. The father saw him with a fresh criticism and said that he looked older than his years bespoke him; but the mother, quick in every defense, insisted that he had gone through enough to make any one look old; and besides, the Craigs, being a thoughtful people, always looked older than they really were.
In the years that followed, this first day "at home" was reviewed in all its memories--the library with its busts of old thinkers and its bright array of new books; the sober breakfast-room in which luncheon was served; the orderly servants; the plants; the gold fishes; the heavy hangings; a tiger skin with a life-expressive head; the portraits of American statesmen; the rich painting of a cow that flashed back the tradition of a trade-mark bull on a dead wall.
Evening came with melody in the music-room; midnight, and Henry sat alone in his room. He was heavy with sadness. The feeling that henceforth his success must depend upon the skill of his hypocrisy, and that he must at last die a liar, lay upon him with cold oppression. Kindness was a reproach and love was a censure. Some one tapped at the door.
"Come in."
Mrs. Witherspoon entered. "I just wanted to see if you were comfortable," she said, seating herself in a rocking-chair.
"So much so that I am tempted to rebel against it," he answered.
She smiled sadly. "There are so many things that I wanted to say to you, dear, but I haven"t had a chance, somehow."
Her eyes were tear-stricken and her voice trembled. "It isn"t possible that you could know what a mother"s love is, my son."
"I _didn"t_ know, but you have taught me."
"No, not yet; but I will--if you"ll let me."
"If I"ll let you?" He looked at her in surprise.
"Yes, if you will bear with me. Sit here," she said, tapping the broad arm of the chair. He obeyed, and she took his arms and put them about her neck. "There hasn"t been much love in my life, precious. Perhaps I am not showy enough, not strong enough for the place I occupy."
"But you are good enough to hold the place of an angel."
She attempted to speak, but failed. Something fell on her hand, and she looked up. The man was weeping. They sat there in silence.
"In your early life," she said, pressing his arms closer about her neck, "my love sought to protect you, but now it must turn to you for support. Your uncle--but you told me not to speak of him." She paused a moment, and then continued: "Your uncle did me a deep wrong, but I had wronged him. Oh, I don"t know why I did. And he had kept my letters all these years." Another silence. She was the first to speak.
"Ellen loves me, but a daughter"s love is more of a help than a support."
"And father?"
"Oh, he is good and kind," she quickly answered, "but somehow I haven"t kept up with him. He is so strong, and I fear that my nature is too simple; I haven"t force enough to help him when he"s worried.
He hasn"t said so, but I know it! And of course you don"t understand me yet; but won"t you bear with me?"
In her voice there was a sad pleading for love, and this man, though playing a part, dropped the promptings of his role, and with the memory of his own mother strong within him, pressed this frail woman to his bosom and with tender reverence kissed her.
"Oh," she sobbed, "I thank G.o.d for bringing you back to me. Good night."
He closed the door when she was gone, and stood as though he knew not whither to turn. He looked at the onyx clock ticking on the mantelpiece. He listened to the rumble of a carriage in the street. He put out his hands, and going slowly into his sleeping-room, sank upon his knees at the bedside.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE DOMAIN OF A GREAT MERCHANT.
To one who has gazed for many hours upon whirling scenes, and who at his journey"s end has gone to sleep in an unfamiliar place, the question of self-ident.i.ty presents itself at morning and of the dozing faculties demands an answer. Henry lay in bed, catching at flitting consciousness, but missing it. He tried to recall his own name, but could not. One moment he felt that he was on board a ship, rising and sinking with the mood of the sea; then he was on a railway train, catching sight of a fence that streaked its way across a field. He saw a boy struggling with a horse that was frightened at the train; he saw a girl wave her beflowered hat--a rushing woods, a whirling open s.p.a.ce, a sleepy station. Once he fancied that he was a child lying in bed, not at midnight, but at happy, bird-chattered morning, when the sun was bright; but then he heard a roar and he saw a street stretch out into a darkening distance, and he knew that he was in a great city. Consciousness loitered within reach, and he seized it. He was called to breakfast.
How bright the morning. Through the high and church-like windows softened sunbeams fell upon the stairway. He heard Ellen singing in the music-room; he met the rich fragrance of coffee. Mrs. Witherspoon, with a smile of quiet happiness, stood at the foot of the stairs.
Ellen came out with a lithe skip and threw a kiss at him. Witherspoon sat in the breakfast-room reading a morning newspaper.
"Well, my son, how do you find yourself this morning?" the merchant asked, throwing aside the newspaper and stretching himself back in his chair.
"First-rate; but I had quite a time placing myself before I was fully awake."
"I guess that"s true of nearly everybody who comes to Chicago. It makes no difference how wide-awake a man thinks he is, he will find when he comes to this city that he has been nodding."
Breakfast was announced. Ellen took Henry"s hand and said: "Come, this is your place here by me. Mother told me to sit near you; she wants me to check any threatened outbreak of your foreign peculiarities."
"Ellen, what do you mean? I didn"t say anything of the sort, Henry. It could make no difference where my mother"s people were brought up. The Craigs always knew how to conduct themselves."
"Oh, yes," Witherspoon spoke up, "the Craigs were undoubtedly all right, but we are dealing with live issues now. Henry, we"ll go down to the store this morning"--
"So soon?" his wife interrupted.
"So soon?" the merchant repeated. "What do you mean by so soon? Won"t it be time to go?"
"Oh, yes, I suppose so."
"And where do I come in?" asked the girl.
"You can go if you insist," said Witherspoon, "but there are matters that he and I must arrange at once. We"ve got to fix up some sort of statement for the newspapers; can"t keep this thing a secret, you know, and a tailor must be consulted. Your clothes are all right, my son," he quickly added, "but--well, you understand."
Henry understood, but he had thought when he left New Orleans that he was well dressed. And now for a moment he felt ragged.
"When shall we have the reception?" Ellen asked.
"The reception," Henry repeated, looking up in alarm.
"Why, listen to him," the girl cried. "Don"t you know that we must give a reception? Why, we couldn"t get along without it; society would cut us dead. Think how nice it will be--invitations with "To meet Mr.
Henry Witherspoon" on them."
"Must I go through that?" Henry asked, appealing to Mrs. Witherspoon.
"Of course you must, but not until the proper time."
"Why, it will be just splendid," the girl declared. "You ought to have seen me the night society smiled and said, "Well, we will now permit you to be one of us." Oh, the idea of not showing you off, now that we"ve caught you, is ridiculous. You needn"t appeal to mother. You couldn"t keep her from parading you up and down in the presence of her friends."
He was looking at Mrs. Witherspoon. She smiled with more of humor than he had seen her face express, and thus delivered her opinion: "If we had no reception, people would think that we were ashamed of our son."