Van Lennop watched her troubled face and waited.
"Then that"s why old Edouard Dubois was asked, though he never speaks, and Alva Jackson, who is uncouth and ignorant? They represent money."
Van Lennop smiled.
"Undoubtedly."
"And the Starrs are brains."
He laughed outright now.
"The power of the press! Correct, Miss Tisdale."
"And Andy P. Symes----" Van Lennop supplied dryly--"is family. He had a great-grandfather, I believe."
Van Lennop returned the persistent, pleading stare of Alphonse and Gaston while Essie pondered this bewildering subject.
"But out here it"s mostly money that counts, or rather will count in the future."
"Yes, with a man of Symes"s type it would be nearly the only qualification necessary. If you had been the "rich Miss Tisdale" you undoubtedly would have been the guest of honor."
"Then," she said chokingly, "my good times are over, for I"m--n.o.body knows who--just Essie Tisdale--a biscuit-shooter whose friendship counts for nothing."
With feminine intuition she grasped Crowheart"s new point of view, and Van Lennop, because he knew human nature, could not contradict her, but in the security of his own position he could not fully understand how much it all meant to her in her small world.
"You mustn"t take this to heart," he said gently, conscious of a strong desire to comfort her. "If the cost of an invitation were a single tear it would be too high a price to pay. In explaining to you what the world recognizes in a general way as "Society," I had no thought of Crowheart in my mind. There can be no "Society" in Crowheart with its present material. What it is obvious this man Symes means to attempt, is only an absurd imitation of something he can never hope to attain. The effort resembles the attempts of a group of amateurs to present a Boucicault comedy, while "in front" the world laughs at them, not with them. It is a dangerous experiment to pretend to be anything other than what you are. It means loss of dignity, for you are merely absurd when you attempt to play a part which by birth and training and temperament you are nowise fitted to play. You become a target for the people whom you care most to impress.
"When one begins to imitate he loses his individuality and his individuality is the westerner"s chief charm. Be yourself, Essie Tisdale, be simple, sincere, and you can never be absurd.
"I am sorry for what you have told me, since, if what seems threatening comes to pa.s.s, Crowheart will be only a middle cla.s.s, commonplace town of which it has a thousand prototypes. Its strongest attraction now is its western flavor, the lingering atmosphere of the frontier. This must pa.s.s with time, of course, but it seems a shame that the change should be forced prematurely by the efforts of this man Symes. Really I feel a distinct sense of personal injury at his innovations." Van Lennop laughed slightly. "The old way was the best way for a long time to come, it seems to me. That was real democracy--a Utopian condition that had of necessity to go with the town"s growth, but certainly not at this stage.
In larger communities it is natural enough that those of similar tastes should seek each other, but, in a place like Crowheart where the interests and the mental calibre of its inhabitants are practically the same, the man who seeks to establish an "aristocracy" proclaims himself a petty-minded, silly a.s.s. Be a philosopher, Miss Tisdale."
But Essie Tisdale was not a philosopher; the experience was still too new and bewildering for philosophy to prove an instant remedy. She found Van Lennop"s sympathy far more comforting than his logic, but through her heavy-heartedness there was creeping a growing appreciation of the superiority of this stranger in worn corduroys to his surroundings, a clearer conception of his calm mental poise.
Van Lennop himself was a living contradiction of the fallacious statement that all men are equal, and now, moved by her unhappiness, she caught a glimpse of that lying beneath the impregnable reserve of a polite and agreeable exterior which made the distinction. She realized more strongly than before that he lived upon a different plane from that of any man she ever had known.
"Do you know who I think must have been like you?" she asked him unexpectedly.
He shook his head smilingly.
"I can"t imagine."
"Robert Louis Stevenson."
He flushed a little.
"You surely flatter me; there is no one whom I admire more." He looked at her in something of pleased surprise. "You read Stevenson--you like him?"
Her face lighted with enthusiasm.
"So very, very much. He seems so wise and so--human. I have all that he has written--his published letters, everything."
He continued to look at her oddly. Yes, Essie Tisdale was "different"
and somehow he was glad. The personal conversation had shown him unexpected phases of her character. He saw beneath her youthful unworldliness the latent ambitions, undeveloped, immature desires and something of the underlying strength concealed by her ordinarily light-hearted exuberance. While the readjustment of Crowheart"s social affairs was hurting her on the raw he saw the sensitiveness of her nature, the quick pride and perceptions which he might otherwise have been long in discovering. Previously she had amused and interested him, now she awakened in him a real anxiety as to her future.
"Be brave," he said, "and keep on smiling, Essie Tisdale. You must work out your own salvation as must we all. This will pa.s.s and be forgotten; there will be triumphs with your failures, don"t forget that, and the long years ahead of you which you so dread may hold better things than you dare dream. In some way that I don"t see now I may be able to lend you a helping hand."
"Your friendship and your sympathy are enough," she said gratefully.
"You have them both," he answered, and on the strength of ten years"
difference in their ages he patted her slim fingers with a quite paternal hand, in ignorance of the malevolent pair of eyes watching him from the window at the end of the upper corridor.
XI
THE OPENING WEDGE
It was with mixed feelings that Dr. Harpe saw Van Lennop ride briskly from the livery stable leading a saddle horse behind his own. It was for Essie Tisdale, she surmised, and her conjecture was confirmed when she saw them gallop away.
While the sight galled her it pleased her, too, for it lent color to the impression she was discreetly but persistently endeavoring to spread in the community that the open rupture between herself and the girl was of her making and was necessitated by reasons which she could but did not care to make public. She made no definite charge, but with a deprecatory shrug of her shoulder and a casual observation that "it was a pity Essie Tisdale was making such a fool of herself and allowing a perfect stranger to make such a fool of her" she was gradually achieving the result she desired. The newcomers seized upon her insinuations with avidity, but the old settlers were loath to believe, though upon each, in the end, it had its effect, for Dr. Harpe was now firmly established in Crowheart"s esteem. She had, she felt sure, safeguarded herself so far as Essie Tisdale was concerned, yet she was not satisfied, for she seemed no nearer overcoming Van Lennop"s prejudice than the day she had aroused it. He distinctly avoided her, and she did not believe in forcing issues. Time, she often averred, would bring nearly every desired result, and she could wait; but she did not wait patiently, fretting more and more as the days drifted by without bringing to her the desired opportunity.
"I hate to be thwarted! I hate it! I hate it!" she often said angrily to herself, but she was helpless in the face of Van Lennop"s cool avoidance.
In the meantime the bugbear of her existence was making history in his own way. The Dago Duke was no inconspicuous figure in Crowheart, for his daily life was punctuated with escapades which constantly furnished fresh topics of conversation to the populace. He fluctuated between periods of abject poverty and briefer periods of princely affluence, the latter seldom lasting longer than a night. He engaged in disputes over money where the sum involved rarely exceeded a dollar, with a night in the calaboose and a fine as a result, after which it was his wont to present his disfigured opponent with a munificent gift as a token of his esteem. Who or what he was and why he chose to honor Crowheart with his presence were questions which he showed no desire to answer. He was duly considered as a social possibility by Andy P. Symes, but rejected owing to the fact that he was seldom if ever sober, and, furthermore, in spite of his undeniably polished manners, showed a marked preference for the companionship of the element who were unmistakably goats in the social division.
At last there came a time when the Dago Duke was unable to raise a cup of coffee to his lips without scalding himself. He had no desire for food, his eyes were bloodshot, and his favorite bartender tied his scarf for him mornings. He moved from saloon to saloon haranguing the patrons upon the curse of wealth, encouraged in his socialistic views by the professional gamblers who presided over the poker games and roulette wheels. In view of their interest there seemed no likelihood that the curse would rest upon him long.
Then one night, or morning, to be exact, after the Dago Duke had been a.s.sisted to retire by his friend the bartender, and the washstand by actual count had chased the bureau sixty-two times around the room, the Dago Duke noticed a lizard on the wall. He was not entirely convinced that it was a lizard until he sat up in bed and noticed that there were two lizards.
He crept out and picked up his shoe for a weapon.
"Now if I can paste that first one," he told himself optimistically, "I know the other will leave."
He struck at it with the heel of his shoe, and it darted to the ceiling, whence it looked down upon him with a peculiarly tantalizing smile.
The Dago Duke stood on the bureau and endeavored to reach it, but it was surprisingly agile; besides other lizards were now appearing. They came from every crack and corner. They swarmed. Lizards though harmless are unpleasant and the perspiration stood out on the Dago Duke"s brow as he watched their number grow. He struck a mighty blow at the lizard on the ceiling and the bureau toppled. He found himself uninjured, but the breaking of the gla.s.s made something of a crash. The floor was all but covered with lizards, so he decided to return to his bed before he was obliged to step on them. He was shaking as with a chill and his teeth clicked. They were on his bed! They were under his pillow! Then he laughed aloud when he discovered it was only a roll of banknotes he had placed there before his friend the bartender had blown out the light.
But the rest were lizards, there was no doubt about that, and he would tell Terriberry in the morning what he thought of him and his hotel!
They were darting over the walls and ceiling and wiggling over the floor.
"I can stand it to-night," he muttered, "but to-morrow----"
What was that in the corner? He had only to look twice to know. He had seen Gila monsters in Arizona! He had seen a cowpuncher ride into town with one biting his thumb in two. The puncher went crazy later. Yes, he knew a Gila monster when he saw one and this was plain enough; there were the orange and black markings, the wicked head, the beady, evil eyes--and this one was growing! It would soon be as big as a sea-turtle and it was blinking at him with malicious purpose in its fixed gaze.
The Dago Duke"s hands and feet were like ice, while the cold sweat stood in beads on his forehead. Then he screamed. He had not intended to scream, but the monster had moved toward him, hypnotizing him with its stare. He could see clearly the poisonous vapor which it was said to exhale! He screamed again and a man"s scream is a sound not to be forgotten. The Dago Duke "had them," as Crowheart phrased it, and "had them" right.
The bartender was the first to arrive and Van Lennop was not far behind, while others, hastily dressed, followed.