Nannie had never received a caress at home in her life and very few abroad, for she was not one to form close friendships among the girls.
Her parents had died before she could become acquainted with them, and the aunt who had reared her was a worldly woman who looked upon her merely as a valuable piece of social property. Nannie"s lack of popularity was disappointing, but the aunt still hoped that her unusual beauty would atone for her brusqueness, crudity, and lack of tact, and she would form a rich alliance. Between her aunt and uncle there had never been, to Nannie"s knowledge, the slightest expression of affection, and so when one spoke of "hearts and roses" and "true lovers" knots" in a domestic connection, the words fell strangely upon the girl"s ears.
The sun was streaming through the trees that lined the broad, handsome avenue as the merry group broke up. Happy children, their dear little bodies tastefully clothed and their dear little faces wreathed in smiles, flitted about here and there at play, like pretty elves. Now and then some one or more of them would run, with shouts of glee, to welcome a home-coming father.
In the heart of a more womanly, more happily trained girl, all this would have awakened tender yearnings. It awakened a feeling in Nannie"s heart--just what it meant she could not have told--but this vague, unused something was soon swept one side by a more comical image. As she looked at the handsome dwellings she seemed to hear a voice calling:
"Wives for dinner! wives for dinner!"
And from the household altars there rose the smoke of unique dishes--domestic fries, feminine roasts, conjugal stews, in highly colored family jars.
"Come, ducky, come and be cooked!" sounded in her ears.
"No, I thank you," said Nannie audibly.
And she hurried down the avenue.
II
One evening a few weeks previous to the formation of the Young Woman"s Club--for an infant society of that name dated from the burlesque meeting just described--Randolph Chance was seated in the room of his nearest friend and was talking over the events of the day. Ordinarily he was not free of speech, but with this man he could think aloud.
There are folk whose very presence is enough to shut one up with a snap as the wrong touch closes the sh.e.l.l of a clam; there are others who act upon us as heaven"s own sun and dew act upon the flowers.
For a time after Randolph had taken his accustomed seat--an old chair in an ingle-nook of the fireplace--he was silent, possibly through physical disability, for there was no elevator at night, and nine flights of stairs is not provocative of conversation; or he may have been awed into silence, for he often told Steve that he was nearer heaven than he would ever be again in all probability. Be that as it may, he sat there enjoying his thoughts and the restful atmosphere of the room. Quite unlike a bachelor"s apartment, this; as unlike as many another belonging to that particular branch of the _genus h.o.m.o_--rooms in which we would probably receive a mild shock and be compelled to rebuild our entire structure of theories on the subject of the helplessness, uncomfortableness, and general miserableness of that specimen known as bachelor. To be sure, Steve Loveland was fortunate in the selection of his rookery, but that might be called an outcome of his genius--a genius with which bachelors are not supposed to be blessed. At first glance, one who had no such gift for situation would not have considered such a spot favorable for the construction of a home--if this word may, for a moment, be s.n.a.t.c.hed from the wedded portion of the human race--but the artist in Steve recognized its possibilities.
Carnot Fonnac, who originally reared and owned the building under discussion, was himself a wretched, reprehensible bachelor, but being also a Frenchman he possessed some taste; and intending to make his abode in the sky-parlor of his structure, he so planned it that there was a hint of grace and beauty in its arches and dimensions, as well as of expanse. An English friend suggested the fireplace, and he had the good sense to act upon this most sensible advice. After Fonnac"s death his building went into retirement, so to speak; fashion minced off in another direction and left it to its grief, so now, at the remove of some fifteen years, Steve Loveland obtained the rental of the attic for a mere song, and here he cast his lot, for he was his own housekeeper. A few screens skillfully arranged reduced the apparent size of the apartment; some old-fashioned furniture his mother spared him made it homelike and comfortable; an air-tight stove on the one side (there were two chimneys) held Boreas at bay, while on the other a little basket grate of coals, setting like a ruddy gem in the center of the ample fireplace, was at once an element of good cheer and a respecter of the law of economy.
On this particular evening the cronies sat in their accustomed places within the fireplace, one on either side; a little stand, on which were set a couple of plates of crackers and cheese, stood near by, and a pot of oysters, cheerily simmering, hung from the crane above the fire.
Randolph was silent; so was Steve--the latter never talked; in place of words he used the poker--not in any fiendish way; heaven forbid!
but in a mild, un.o.btrusive manner, intelligible only to himself and Randolph. In this system of fireworks stenography, so to speak, a series of slow, deliberate pokes under the fire implied contemplation; poking down from above stood for disagreement; while thrusts of the poker between the ribs of the grate expressed sympathy or agitation.
"Steve," said Randolph--his chair was tilted against the brick side wall of the chimney, and he was leaning back, with his hands clasped behind his head--"I tell you she"s a pretty nice girl; an awfully sensible girl; one of the kind that sets your brain to jogging. It"s easy to talk to her, she"s so suggestive, wide awake, and at the same time she"s restful, too. She"s none of your hoity-toity characters, one thing one day and another the next, so you never know where you stand with them. You can feel secure with her. I feel as if I had known her all my life; there"s the most perfect understanding between us; we don"t have to talk; I think she knows my thoughts, and I"m certain I know hers. Awfully nice girl; one of the nicest I ever knew."
"Must be," said Steve gently.
After this there was some talk of a desultory sort, some solicitous watching of the oysters that were singing softly preparatory to boiling, and then Randolph bethought him of a conversation he overheard on the train that day and repeated it to Loveland, who sat bending over toward the fire, his elbows resting on his knees and poker in hand ready for action.
"I tell you, Steve, it sets one thinking to get at the woman"s side of the matter," said Randolph. "I"ve been idiot enough to suppose they thought just as we do on most subjects."
Loveland smiled and poked the fire gently from above.
"You know we"ve always been taught that women were naturally dependent, and I supposed it was second nature for them to receive money from their husbands, and so they got enough they cared no more about it. Do you think many of them feel like that woman in the car?"
Loveland poked the fire from beneath and then sighed helplessly.
"Can"t say, I"m sure," he replied in his gentle, hesitant way. "They don"t seem to go according to tradition in anything, so far as I"ve noticed. They"re a peculiar race."
"Oh, I don"t know about that," said Randolph in a practical tone.
"It"s pretty easy to understand, once your attention"s called to it.
I"d never given the subject any thought, but if one chooses to observe he can very soon find out what"s what. Some men are idiots and won"t learn, so they get in a mess.
"It"s natural for you to be mystified, Steve," continued Randolph after a short pause, "but you see I have a sister and I know all about women. You can judge of the rest by any one of them. They"re pretty much alike."
Loveland gave the top of the fire a few little jabs.
"Yes, I know," said Randolph. "You have mother and sister both, but you haven"t lived with them for years. If you don"t actually live in the same house with women you can"t know them. Of course even then you may be in the dark on a point or two, as I was on the money question, but you can soon learn. All a woman wants is fair treatment. If a man drinks and makes a beast of himself or sulks around in place of telling her what he don"t like and letting her change it, of course she isn"t going to be happy. It"s easy as rolling off a log to manage a woman."
Loveland rose and thrust the poker down through the top crust of the fire and left it standing there.
"As far as management goes," Randolph went on unheedingly, "leaving morality, and expense, and all that out of the question, I"d just as soon turn Mormon and marry forty women."
Here Loveland stabbed the fire clear through the body, bringing the poker out on the under side and against the hearth with a force that bent its glowing point.
"The stew"s done," he said. "We"ll dish up now."
This little scene, or rather the conversation that seasoned the stew, soon faded from Randolph"s memory, but it lingered in the mind of his companion. Men like the latter, little given to speech, are apt to turn and re-turn in thought what has been said to them, and therefore do not easily forget.
Several weeks after this the two men sat on the bachelor hearth once more; Loveland in his usual quiet mood and Chance smarting from a recent wound. He had begun to feel that his position was almost secure with Miss Leigh, but that day, on the occasion of a picnic at which he had amused himself by trifling with a silly young girl, he was amazed, mortified, and hurt by receiving the cold shoulder when he proffered his company to Miss Leigh on the way home.
His friend"s hospitable hearth had more than once proven a refuge and a solace. It was so to-night, and Randolph began to take heart again as he settled back in his comfortable chair in the ingle-nook and watched the hanging of the oyster stew upon the crane.
For a time the gentle simmering of the appetizing dish was the only sound to be heard. Randolph did not feel like talking or even listening, and his companion knew how to hold his peace.
Steve Loveland was one of those men whose intuitive sense is as fine as a woman"s; of delicate physique, strong brain, and a sensitive temperament that might have gone off on a morbid tangent but for the common sense, cheerfulness, and unselfishness that held it true to the course. The last man in the world to lead a lonely life, but there was an invalid mother and a delicate sister in a pretty little country town home some two hundred miles away, and that was why Steve had no home of his own. Loving nature as I think most men of fine, sensitive fiber do, yearning for wife, and children, and hearthstone, as every good man must, he had cheerfully and forever put one side all hope of fulfilling these holy dreams and had taken his place on the force of a daily paper, never thinking he was a hero. His comrades never thought of that, either; they only knew that he was always pleasant, always considerate, always every inch a man, and they loved him with one accord.
It was to such a friend as this that Randolph had given his heart, for although he did not fully understand him, he loved him, and the answering affection he received was one of the most beautiful of tributes to his own fine qualities.
When Randolph was ready to talk he told the story of the day--its hope, its disappointment, and humiliation.
"It beats the Dutch, Steve. I can"t think what was the matter. There wasn"t a thing I did or a word I said to make her behave so."
Steve was softly poking the fire from above. The night was quite cool for June.
"No, there was not," Randolph reaffirmed. "I"ve gone over the whole day again and again. I didn"t give her the least excuse. What do you suppose was the matter with her?"
Steve looked up with an almost startled air.
"Oh, I"m sure I can"t say. They"re quite beyond me."
"They"re beyond every one," said Randolph in the tone of a Supreme Court judge. "I don"t see what the Lord made them for."
Steve looked up again and there was the least suspicion of a twinkle in his eye.
"How is it," he asked in his gentle way--"how many of them is it you are prepared to manage?"
Randolph brought his chair down on its four legs.