The Man in Lonely Land.
by Kate Langley Bosher.
I
GENERAL
Mr. Winthrop Laine threw his gloves on the table, his overcoat on a chair, put his hat on the desk, and then looked down at his shoes.
"Soaking wet," he said, as if to them. "I swear this weather would ruin a Tapley temper! For two weeks rain and sleet and snow and steam heat to come home to. h.e.l.lo, General! How are the legs tonight, old man?" Stooping, he patted softly the big, beautiful collie which was trying to welcome him, and gently he lifted the dog"s head and looked in the patient eyes.
"No better? Not even a little bit? I"d take half if I could, General, more than half. It"s hard luck, but it"s worse not to know what to do for you." He turned his head from the beseeching eyes.
"For the love of heaven don"t look at me like that, General, don"t make it--" His breath was drawn in sharply; then, as the dog made effort to bark, to raise his right paw in greeting as of old, he put it down carefully, rang the bell, walked over to the window, and for a moment looked out on the street below.
The gray dullness of a late November afternoon was in the air of New York, and the fast-falling snowflakes so thickened it that the people hurrying this way and that seemed twisted figures of fantastic shapes, wind-blown and bent, and with a shiver Laine came back and again stood by General"s side.
At the door Moses, his man, waited. Laine turned toward him. "Get out some dry clothes and see what"s the matter with the heat. A blind man coming in here would think he"d struck an ice-pond." He looked around and then at the darkey in front of him. "The Lord gave you a head for the purpose of using it, Moses, but you mistake it at times for an ornament. Zero weather and windows down from the top twelve inches! Has General been in here to-day?"
"No, sir. He been in the kitchen "most all day. You told me this morning to put fresh air in here and I put, but me and General ain"t been in here since I clean up. He"s been powerful poorly to-day, sir."
"I see he has." Laine"s hand went to the dog and rested a moment on his head. "Close up those windows and turn on the lights and see about the heat. This room is almost as cheerful as a morgue at daybreak."
"I reckon you done took a little cold, sir." Moses closed the windows, drew the curtains, turned on more heat, and made the room a blaze of light. "It"s a very s.p.a.cious room, sir, and for them what loves books it"s very aspirin", but of course in winter-time a room without a woman or a blazin" fire in it ain"t what it might be.
Don"t you think you"d better take a little something, sir, to het you up inside?"
Laine, bending over General, shook his head. "No, I don"t. I want sleep. I came home early to try and get a little, but--"
"You ain"t had none to speak of for "most a week." Moses still lingered. "I wish you"d let General come in my room to-night. You can"t stand seein" him suffer, and you"ll be sick yourself if you keep a-waitin" on him all night. Can"t I get you a little Scotch, sir, or a hot whiskey punch? I got the water waitin". They say now whiskey ain"t no permanent cure for colds, but it sure do help you think it is. Experience is better than expoundin" and--"
Again Laine shook his head. "Get me some dry clothes," he said, then went to the table and looked over the letters laid in a row upon it.
"Have a taxi-cab here by quarter past six and don"t come in again until I ring. I"m going to lie down."
A few minutes later, on a rug-covered couch, General on the floor beside him, he was trying to sleep. He was strangely tired, and for a while his only well-defined feeling was one of impatience at having to go out. Why must people do so many things they don"t want to do?
He put out his hand and smoothed softly General"s long ears. Why couldn"t a man be let alone and allowed to live the way he preferred?
Why-- "Quit it," he said, half aloud. "What isn"t Why in life is Wherefore, and guessing isn"t your job. Go to sleep."
After a while he opened his eyes and looked around the book-lined walls. When he first began to invest in books he could only buy one at a time, and now there was no room for more. He wondered if there was anything he could buy to-day that would give him the thrill his first books had given. He had almost forgotten what a thrill could mean. But who cared for books nowadays? The men and women he knew, with few exceptions, wouldn"t give a twist of their necks to see his, would as soon think of reading them as of talking Dutch at a dinner-party, and very probably they were right. Knowledge added little to human happiness. Science and skill could do nothing for General. Poor General! Again he smoothed the latter"s head. For years he had barked his good-bye in the morning, for years watched eagerly his coming, paws on the window-sill as dusk grew on, for years leaped joyously to meet him on his return, but he would do these things no longer. There was no chance of betterment, and death would be a mercy--a painless death which could be arranged. But he had said no, said it angrily when the doctor so suggested, and had tried a new man, who was deceiving him.
"You are all I have, General"--his hand traveled softly up and down the length of the dog"s back--"and somewhere you must wait for me.
I"ve got to stay on and play the game, and it"s to be played straight, but when it"s called I sha"n"t be sorry."
From a box on a table close to him he took a cigar, lighted it, and watched its spirals of smoke curl upward. Life and the smoke that vanisheth had much in common. On the whole, he had no grievance against life. If it was proving a rather wearisome affair it was doubtless his own fault, and yet this finding of himself alone at forty was hardly what he had intended. There was something actually comic about it. That for which he had striven had been secured, but for what? Success unshared is of all things ironic, and soon not even General would be here to greet him when the day"s work was done.
He blew out a thin thread of smoke and followed its curvings with half-shut eyes. He had made money, made it honestly, and it had brought him that which it brought others, but if this were all life had to give--He threw his cigar away, and as General"s soft breathing reached him he clasped his hands at the back of his head and stared up at the ceiling.
Why didn"t he love his work as he used to? He had played fair, but to play fair was to play against the odds, and there were times when he hated the thing which made men fight as fiercely to-day as in the days of the jungle, though they no longer sprang at each other"s throats. On the whole, he preferred the cavemen"s method of attack.
They at least fought face to face. As for women--
He got up, stooped down, and patted General softly. "I"m sorry to leave you, old man, but you"ll sleep and I won"t be long. Why Hope didn"t telephone what she wanted me to do, instead of beseeching me to come to her that she might tell me, is beyond male understanding.
But we don"t try to understand women, do we, General?"
The big brown eyes of the collie looked up in his master"s face and in them was beseeching adoration. With painful effort he laid first one paw and then the other on Laine"s hand, and as the latter stroked them he barked feebly.
For a moment there was silence, the silence of understanding comrades, then Laine turned away and began to dress.
II
THE REQUEST
Hands in his pockets and back to the fire, Mr. Winthrop Laine looked around the room which his sister, Mrs. Channing Warrick, believed was a library, and again wondered why she had sent for him instead of telephoning what she wanted. He wasn"t going to do it. That is, if it were one of the old pleadings that he would come to her parties or go to some one else"s he would decline to do it, and usually the important matter on which she must see him proved something of that sort. Five years ago he had cut out things of this kind and--
"Oh, Winthrop, I"m so glad you"ve come!" Laine stooped and kissed his sister. "And going out to prove it." In a gown of clinging silver over soft satin she was very lovely, and as he held her off he looked at her critically. "That is a pretty dress you have on, but there isn"t enough of it. What on earth did you make me come for if you"re going out? When a man is my age he is privileged to stay at home and enjoy himself, not--"
Mrs. Channing Warrick stopped the b.u.t.toning of her long white gloves and looked up in her brother"s face. "Do you enjoy yourself when you stay at home?"
"I enjoy myself much more at home than in other people"s houses.
Where are you going to-night?"
"To the Warings. There"ll be cards after dinner. I suppose you declined."
"I wasn"t invited."
"Hilda wanted you, but knew it was useless." Again the big blue eyes were raised to her brother"s. "What makes you so horrid, Winthrop?
If you go on ignoring people as you do--"
"I"ll have to have paid pall-bearers at my funeral, won"t I? Not a bad idea. Well, why this summons to-night?"
Mrs. Warrick pressed the last b.u.t.ton of her glove securely, eased her skirt over her hips, and sat down carefully. "To ask you to do something for me," she said. "Channing won"t be back until to-morrow, and there is no one to meet her except Decker if you don"t. Outside of an automobile Decker has no sense and--"
"Meet whom?" Laine flicked the ashes from his cigar into the grate.
"Who is it you want me to meet?"
"Claudia Keith. She is a cousin of Channing"s and lives somewhere in Virginia on the Rappahannock River, miles from a railroad, and has never been to New York alone before. I thought I had told you she was coming, but I see you so seldom lately that I forget what I tell you and what I don"t. The children think it"s inhuman. After a while you won"t know how to behave in company, and what will your old books and your money matter if--"
"By and by nothing will matter, my dear, but Decker"s honk will be heard before I understand what you"re getting at, if you don"t hurry.
What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to meet the nine-fifteen train from the South and--"
"Pick out an unknown person and bring her to a hostless house? I wish I was as nice as you think I am, dear madam, but I"m not. I suppose you also want me to apologize to your guest for your absence from home, tell her a pretty fairy tale and say--"
"If you"d say the right thing I"d like you to make up something, but you wouldn"t. I certainly have no idea of breaking an engagement, however, just to be home when a country cousin of Channing"s arrives.
Being such an out-of-the-world sort of person she may think it is strange, so please tell her--"
"I"ll tell her nothing." Laine lighted a fresh cigar. "I"m going home."