"You are always so good and thoughtful," said Miss Sarah, as soon as Miss Blair left a little hole in her conversation. "We knew you"d want to see Agatha before she left, and we were just planning to send her to you for dinner. In fact she"s gone up to dress. But this is so much better, particularly as we have Mr. Baillie Pegram with us, too. This is his regular day, you know, and he is always so mindful of his engagements. We had feared we should miss seeing him to-day, as he was away in Richmond; but he got home in time, and he never fails us when within reach. He has an admirable habit of punctuality which the other young men of our rather lax time might emulate with advantage."
Here was Baillie Pegram"s opportunity, but he missed it. If he had possessed one-half or one-tenth the tact that Agatha had shown fifteen minutes before, he would have protested that, much to his regret, he could not remain to dinner that day, as he had a guest of his own at Warlock, and had ridden over only to make his apologies and express his regret. But Baillie Pegram, not being a woman, did not think of the right thing to say until it was one full minute too late, wherefore, of course, it would not do for him to say it at all.
What a pity it is that men can"t be women--sometimes! Just for lack of that tact which is instinctive in a woman, the master of Warlock was doomed to dine that day under a sense of intrusion on his part, which certainly did not contribute to his enjoyment of the dinner or the company. But he had only himself to blame, and, like the resolute fellow that he was, he determined to bear the consequences of his blundering stupidity with the best grace he could. He professed the keenest delight in the unexpected pleasure of having Miss Blair for his fellow guest, adding, with an obeisance to The Oaks ladies, "Though of course one needs no other company than that of our hostesses themselves, to make the day of a dinner at The Oaks altogether delightful."
Obviously the young man was improving in tactfulness under the stimulus of circ.u.mstances.
When dinner was served half an hour later, he gave his arm to Miss Sarah, and entered the stately but gloomy old dining-room, with its high-backed, carved mahogany chairs, its stained-gla.s.s cathedral windows, and its general atmosphere of solemnity and depression, with such grace as a resolute spirit could command. He managed to taste the dishes as they were served, and to carve without a mishap of any kind, but in the matter of conversation he was certainly not brilliant, though he had the approaching war for his theme.
After the old English custom which survived in Virginia, the wine--a rich old Madeira--was not served until the dessert was removed. Then it came on with the cigars. The ladies sipped a single gla.s.s each, and rose, whereupon the young man gallantly held open the great door, bowing as the womankind took their departure.
When they had gone, there being no gentleman present except himself, young Pegram was left alone with the wine, the cigars, a single wax candle for cigar-lighting purposes,--and Henry. Henry was the perfectly trained butler of the establishment, a butler taught from childhood, by his late master, to comport himself always with the dignity of a diplomat who has dined. He stood bolt upright behind the young man"s chair, eager to antic.i.p.ate every want, and antic.i.p.ating them all without a false movement or any suggestion of hurry. Henry had presided as butler in his late master"s establishment when that master kept "open house" as a distinguished senator in Washington, and it was the serving-man"s boast that he "knew what a gentleman wants and when he wants it."
But Henry"s very propriety became irksome to Baillie Pegram presently.
It reminded him of his own lack of any ease except a forcibly a.s.sumed one. "Henry feels himself in his proper place," the young man reflected.
"I do not."
It was not the young man"s habit to take more than a gla.s.s or two of wine after dinner, and on this occasion he had no relish even for that small allowance. Yet he sat with it for a sufficient time to show proper respect for the hospitality of the house. He held his gla.s.s up between him and the stained-gla.s.s windows, and went through all the motions of watching the play of colours through the amber liquid, quite as if his relish for it had been that of a confirmed _bon vivant_. Finally he lighted a fresh cigar, and said to Henry: "It is quite warm. I think I"ll finish my cigar out among the shrubbery. Please say to the ladies that I"ll join them within half an hour."
He was not destined, however, to fulfil this promise. For, as he pa.s.sed out into the shrubbery, he encountered Miss Agatha by an accident which that young lady had in all probability arranged with the utmost care, as women do sometimes. She very much wanted speech with Baillie.
"I want to thank you, Mr. Pegram," she said, eagerly, "for not making a scene. It was very hard on you--the situation, I mean--and you have spared me at every point. Perhaps you had better take your leave now as quickly as you can."
But the young man"s courage had completely come back to him, with something of the dare-devil spirit added to it: as the soldier beset, sometimes comes to relish danger for its own sake, and deliberately invites more of it, so Baillie Pegram, knowing perfectly that he had completely outraged the proprieties, as The Oaks ladies interpreted them, was minded to outrage them still further. Having braved the situation to this point, he was determined to brave it out to the end--whatever the end might be. So to the girl"s suggestion, he answered:
"But the day is not over yet, and the piazzas of The Oaks fortunately include one with a western aspect. Let us sit there and enjoy the sunset. We"ll join the ladies later."
The girl consented, willingly enough. She was already in revolt, for one thing, and she knew that her aunts would not venture again to censure her severely, after what had happened.
"But you must not misunderstand me, Mr. Pegram," she said, as the two seated themselves in the great oaken chairs fabricated on the plantation during colonial times. "I have declared my independence so far as to insist upon my right to treat you with courtesy upon occasion. But you must not suppose that I have forgotten the gulf that lies between us, and especially you must not interpret my att.i.tude to mean that I am disloyal to the memory of my poor father."
"I quite understand," he answered, meditatively and sadly. "You and I are privileged, by your good pleasure, to treat each other with formal courtesy, but I must not in any way presume upon that privilege beyond its intention."
The girl sat silent, looking wistfully out into the glow that had followed the sunset. Finally she said:
"I suppose that is it. It is a hard situation to deal with--for me."
"And for me," the youth replied.
"Yes, for you, too, I suppose. But neither of us is responsible. We must recognise conditions and do the best we can."
"I quite understand. You give me leave hereafter to behave like a gentleman toward you, whenever circ.u.mstances shall happen to force any sort of intercourse upon us; but beyond that you remind me that there is war between your house and mine, and between me and thee. It is not a treaty of peace that you offer, or even a protocol looking to peace; it is only an amenity of war, like a cartel for the exchange of prisoners, or a temporary truce, for the burial of the dead who have fallen between the lines."
This statement of the case did not at all satisfy the bewildered girl"s mind, but there was no opportunity to correct it, for at that moment a maid came with a formally polite message to the effect that if Mr.
Pegram and Miss Ronald had _quite_ finished their conversation in the porch, the Misses Ronald and Miss Blair were waiting to receive them in the library.
"After all," Agatha thought, afterward, "I do not know that I could have bettered his definition of the situation. But it isn"t one that I like."
All skies seemed serene as the two miscreants entered the library, Baillie making all that was necessary of apology by saying:
"Pardon us, good ladies, I pray you. We have lingered too long in the porch, but you will graciously attribute our fault to the unusual beauty of the sunset. Sunsets mean so much, you know. They suggest the end of pleasant things and the coming of a darkness to which we do not know the dawn. I cannot help thinking that the sunset that Miss Ronald and I have been witnessing is typical. Our beautiful Virginia life is at its sunset. A night-time of war and suffering is approaching, and we cannot know of the day that must follow."
At this point Miss Blair relieved the situation by giving the conversation a thoroughly practical and commonplace turn.
"Why, Mr. Pegram," she exclaimed, "you surely do not doubt the outcome of the war? You confidently expect the triumph of our righteous cause?"
"Well, I hope for it. But the size and the number of the guns will have something to do with the result, and our enemies can put four or five men and four or five guns to our one in the field. It is a dark night that must follow our sunset. We can only do our best, and leave the result to G.o.d. Ladies, I bid you good night, and good-bye; for I fear I shall see none of you again soon. I shall be off soldiering almost at once."
VI
_NEXT MORNING_
If Baillie Pegram imagined that by his parting words he had silenced the batteries of The Oaks ladies, he totally misjudged his enemy. For in spite of his intimation of intent not to dine at The Oaks again, there came to him at breakfast the next morning a little note in which the good ladies calmly rea.s.serted their privilege of deciding such matters for themselves quite irrespective of the wishes or purposes of young persons of whatever s.e.x or degree.
"The Misses Ronald present their respectful compliments to Mr.
Baillie Pegram," the note ran, "and beg to say that in view of the terribly disturbed condition of the times, it is their purpose presently to close The Oaks for a season, so far at least as the entertainment of guests is concerned. They may perhaps go upon a journey. As to that, their plans are as yet unformed, but at any rate it is their purpose not to entertain again for the present, except by special invitation to their nearest intimates. They feel it inc.u.mbent upon them to give timely notice of this alteration in the customs of their house to those valued friends who, like Mr.
Pegram, have been accustomed to dine at The Oaks at stated intervals.
"With sincere good wishes for Mr. Pegram"s safety and good fortune in that soldierly career to which he feels himself summoned by the circ.u.mstances of the time, and in full confidence that he is destined to win for himself the laurels that befit one of his distinguished ancestry, The Oaks ladies remain,
"Most respectfully,
"SARAH RONALD, "JANE RONALD."
Having read the joint note, Baillie pa.s.sed it to his friend at the other end of the breakfast-table, saying: "Read that, old fellow, and see what has come of following your madcap advice."
Pollard carefully read the letter through, and then asked:
"Well, what of it?"
"Why, don"t you see, by going to The Oaks yesterday as you advised, I"ve managed to get myself forbidden the house."
"Well, what of that? I don"t understand that you have any pa.s.sionate desire to dine with the estimable old ladies every month, and I think you told me last night, when I was trying to get a nap, that Miss Agatha is leaving this morning."
"Yes, of course. But can"t you understand that it"s a disagreeable and humiliating thing thus to be forbidden the house, just as if I were guilty of some misconduct--"
"O, yes, I understand perfectly. It is exceedingly inconvenient to find yourself at odds with the elderly female relatives of a young gentlewoman to whom you would very much like to pay your addresses. But in this case, I do not see that it complicates matters very much, as you told me yourself yesterday that the case is hopeless--that there is already an impa.s.sable barrier between yourself and Miss Agatha Ronald, so what difference does it make? When you"ve a ten-rail staked and ridered fence in front of you, a rail more or less doesn"t signify much.
I"ll tell you, Baillie, you must do as I"ve done. In view of the chances of war, which are apt to worry one who thinks much about them, I have decided to accept and believe the fatalistic philosophy, which teaches that what is to be will be, even if it never happens."
Pegram sat silent for a while before answering. Then he said:
"Be serious for a little if you can, Pollard, I want to talk with you.
You were right after all in what you said to me yesterday, though at the time I regarded it as unutterable nonsense. It seems absurd, under the circ.u.mstances, but the fact is that--well, that Agatha Ronald has somehow come to mean more to me than any other woman ever did or ever will. Perhaps I shouldn"t have found out the fact for a long time to come, if it hadn"t been for what you said to me yesterday. But I"ve found it out now, and I know all that it means to me. It means that I"ve made a fool of myself, and I must set to work to repair the mistake.
Fortunately, the way is open, and that is what I want to say to you. I"m going to leave you to-day. I"m going to Richmond to volunteer in one of the batteries there that are already organised, armed, and equipped, and nearly ready for the field. They"ll be the first sent to the front, and I intend to put myself at the front just as speedily as I can."