That was a dark winter that followed, the darkest in our history. Gloom and despondency came fast upon the heels of Republican exultation. Men rose early for tidings from Charleston, the storm centre. The Union was cracking here and there. Would it crumble in pieces before Abraham Lincoln got to Washington?
One smoky morning early in December Stephen arrived late at the office to find Richter sitting idle on his stool, concern graven on his face.
"The Judge has had no breakfast, Stephen," he whispered. "Listen!
Shadrach tells me he has been doing that since six this morning, when he got his newspaper."
Stephen listened, and he heard the Judge pacing and pacing in his room.
Presently the door was flung open, And they saw Mr. Whipple standing in the threshold, stern and dishevelled. Astonishment did not pause here.
He came out and sat down in Stephen"s chair, striking the newspaper in his hand, and they feared at first that his Mind had wandered.
"Propitiate!" he cried, "propitiate, propitiate, and again propitiate.
How long, O Lord?" Suddenly he turned upon Stephen, who was frightened.
But now his voice was natural, and he thrust the paper into the young man"s lap. "Have you read the President"s message to Congress, sir? G.o.d help me that I am spared to call that wobbling Buchanan President. Read it. Read it, sir. You have a legal brain. Perhaps you can tell me why, if a man admits that it is wrong for a state to abandon this Union, he cannot call upon Congress for men and money to bring her back. No, this weakling lets Floyd stock the Southern a.r.s.enals. He pays tribute to Barbary. He is for bribing them not to be angry. Take Cuba from Spain, says he, and steal the rest of Mexico that the maw of slavery may be filled, and the demon propitiated."
They dared not answer him. And so he went back into his room, shutting the door. That day no clients saw him, even those poor ones dependent on his charity whom had never before denied. Richter and Stephen took counsel together, and sent Shadrach out for his dinner.
Three weeks pa.s.sed. There arrived a sparkling Sunday, brought down the valley of the Missouri from the frozen northwest. The Sat.u.r.day had been soggy and warm.
Thursday had seen South Carolina leave that Union into which she was born, amid prayers and the ringing of bells. Tuesday was to be Christmas day. A young lady, who had listened to a solemn sermon of Dr.
Posthelwaite"s, slipped out of Church before the prayers were ended, and hurried into that deserted portion of the town about the Court House where on week days business held its sway.
She stopped once at the bottom of the grimy flight of steps leading to Judge Whipple"s office. At the top she paused again, and for a short s.p.a.ce stood alert, her glance resting on the little table in the corner, on top of which a few thumbed law books lay neatly piled. Once she made a hesitating step in this direction. Then, as if by a resolution quickly taken, she turned her back and softly opened the door of the Judge"s room. He was sitting upright in his chair. A book was open in his lap, but it did not seem to Virginia that he was reading it.
"Uncle Silas," she said, "aren"t you coming to dinner any more?"
He looked up swiftly from under his s.h.a.ggy brows. The book fell to the floor.
"Uncle Silas," said Virginia, bravely, "I came to get you to-day."
Never before had she known him to turn away from man or woman, but now Judge Whipple drew his handkerchief from his pocket and blew his nose violently. A woman"s intuition told her that locked tight in his heart was what he longed to say, and could not. The shiny black overcoat he wore was on the bed. Virginia picked it up and held it out to him, an appeal in her eyes.
He got into it. Then she handed him his hat. Many people walking home from church that morning marvelled as they saw these two on Locust Street together, the young girl supporting the elderly man over the slippery places at the crossings. For neighbor had begun to look coldly upon neighbor.
Colonel Carvel beheld them from his armchair by the sitting-room window, and leaned forward with a start. His lips moved as he closed his Bible reverently and marked his place. At the foot of the stairs he surprised Jackson by waving him aside, for the Colonel himself flung open the door and held out his hand to his friend. The Judge released Virginia"s arm, and his own trembled as he gave it.
"Silas," said the Colonel, "Silas, we"ve missed you."
Virginia stood by, smiling, but her breath came deeply. Had she done right? Could any good come of it all? Judge Whipple did not go in at the door--He stood uncompromisingly planted on the threshold, his head flung back, and actual fierceness in his stare.
"Do you guess we can keep off the subject, Comyn?" he demanded.
Even Mr. Carvel, so used to the Judge"s ways, was a bit taken aback by this question. It set him tugging at his goatee, and his voice was not quite steady as he answered:
"G.o.d knows, Silas. We are human, and we can only try."
Then Mr. Whipple marched in. It lacked a quarter of an hour of dinner,--a crucial period to tax the resources of any woman. Virginia led the talk, but oh, the pathetic lameness of it. Her own mind was wandering when it should not, and recollections she had tried to strangle had sprung up once more. Only that morning in church she had lived over again the scene by Mr. Brinsmade"s gate, and it was then that a wayward but resistless impulse to go to the Judge"s office had seized her. The thought of the old man lonely and bitter in his room decided her. On her knees she prayed that she might save the bond between him and her father. For the Colonel had been morose on Sundays, and had taken to reading the Bible, a custom he had not had since she was a child.
In the dining-room Jackson, bowing and smiling, pulled out the Judge"s chair, and got his customary curt nod as a reward. Virginia carved.
"Oh, Uncle Silas," she cried, "I am so glad that we have a wild turkey.
And you shall have your side-bone." The girl carved deftly, feverishly, talking the while, aided by that most kind and accomplished of hosts, her father. In the corner the dreaded skeleton of the subject grinned sardonically. Were they going to be able to keep it off? There was to be no help from Judge Whipple, who sat in grim silence. A man who feels his soul burning is not given to small talk. Virginia alone had ever possessed the power to make him forget.
"Uncle Silas, I am sure there are some things about our trip that we never told you. How we saw Napoleon and his beautiful Empress driving in the Bois, and how Eugenie smiled and bowed at the people. I never saw such enthusiasm in my life. And oh, I learned such a lot of French history. All about Francis the First, and Pa took me to see his chateaus along the Loire. Very few tourists go there. You really ought to have gone with us."
Take care, Virginia!
"I had other work to do, Jinny," said the Judge.
Virginia rattled on.
"I told you that we stayed with a real lord in England, didn"t I?" said she. "He wasn"t half as nice as the Prince. But he had a beautiful house in Surrey, all windows, which was built in Elizabeth"s time. They called the architecture Tudor, didn"t they, Pa?"
"Yes, dear," said the Colonel, smiling.
"The Countess was nice to me," continued the girl, "and took me to garden parties. But Lord Jermyn was always talking politics."
The Colonel was stroking his goatee.
"Tell Silas about the house, Jinny--Jackson, help the Judge again."
"No," said Virginia, drawing a breath. "I"m going to tell him about that queer club where my great-grand-father used to bet with Charles Fox. We saw a great many places where Richard Carvel had been in England. That was before the Revolution. Uncle Daniel read me some of his memoirs when we were at Calvert House. I know that you would be interested in them, Uncle Silas. He sailed under Paul Jones."
"And fought for his country and for his flag, Virginia," said the Judge, who had scarcely spoken until then. "No, I could not bear to read them now, when those who should love that country are leaving it in pa.s.sion."
There was a heavy silence. Virginia did not dare to look at her father.
But the Colonel said, gently:
"Not in pa.s.sion, Silas, but in sorrow."
The Judge tightened his lips. But the effort was beyond him, and the flood within him broke loose.
"Colonel Carvel," he cried, "South Carolina is mad--She is departing in sin, in order that a fiendish practice may be perpetuated. If her people stopped to think they would know that slavery cannot exist except by means of this Union. But let this milksop of a President do his worst.
We have chosen a man who has the strength to say, "You shall not go!""
It was an awful moment. The saving grace of it was that respect and love for her father filled Virginia"s heart. In his just anger Colonel Carvel remembered that he was the host, and strove to think only of his affection for his old friend.
"To invade a sovereign state, sir, is a crime against the sacred spirit of this government," he said.
"There is no such thing as a sovereign state, sir," exclaimed the Judge, hotly. "I am an American, and not a Missourian."
"When the time comes, sir," said the Colonel, with dignity, "Missouri will join with her sister sovereign states against oppression."
"Missouri will not secede, sir."
"Why not, sir!" demanded the Colonel.
"Because, sir, when the worst comes, the Soothing Syrup men will rally for the Union. And there are enough loyal people here to keep her straight."