CHAPTER V.
CORNER LOTS.
Mr. Plausaby was one of those men who speak upon a level pitch, in a gentle and winsome monotony. His voice was never broken by impulse, never shaken by feeling. He was courteous without ostentation, treating everybody kindly without exactly seeming to intend it. He let fall pleasant remarks incidentally or accidentally, so that one was always fortuitously overhearing his good opinion of one"s self. He did not have any conscious intent to flatter each person with some ulterior design in view, but only a general disposition to keep everybody cheerful, and an impression that it was quite profitable as a rule to stand well with one"s neighbors.
The morning after Charlton"s arrival the fat pa.s.senger called, eager as usual to buy lots. To his lively imagination, every piece of ground staked off into town lots had infinite possibilities. It seemed that the law of probabilities had been no part of the sanguine gentleman"s education, but the gloriousness of possibilities was a thing that he appreciated naturally; hopefulness was in his very fiber.
Mr. Plausaby spread his "Map of Metropolisville" on the table, let his hand slip gently down past the "Depot Ground," so that the fat gentleman saw it without seeming to have had his attention called to it; then Plausaby, Esq., looked meditatively at the ground set apart for "College," and seemed to be making a mental calculation. Then Plausaby proceeded to unfold the many advantages of the place, and Albert was a pleased listener; he had never before suspected that Metropolisville had prospects so entirely dazzling. He could not doubt the statements of the bland Plausaby, who said these things in a confidential and reserved way to the fat gentleman. Charlton did not understand, but Plausaby did, that what is told in a corner to a fat gentleman with curly hair and a hopeful nose is sure to be repeated from the house-tops.
"You are an Episcopalian, I believe?" said Plausaby, Esq. The fat gentleman replied that he was a Baptist.
"Oh! well, I might have known it from your cordial way of talking.
Baptist myself, in principle. In principle, at least Not a member of any church, sorry to say. Very sorry. My mother and my first Wife were both Baptists. Both of them. I have a very warm side for the good old Baptist church. Very warm side. And a warm side for every Baptist. Every Baptist.
To say nothing of the feeling I have always had for you--well, well, let us not pa.s.s compliments. Business is business in this country. In this country, you know. But I will tell _you_ one thing. The lot there marked "College" I am just about transferring to trustees for a Baptist university. There are two or three parties, members of Dr. Armitage"s church in New York City, that are going to give us a hundred thousand dollars endowment. A hundred thousand dollars. Don"t say anything about it. There are people who--well, who would spoil the thing if they could.
We have neighbors, you know. Not very friendly ones. Not very friendly.
Perritaut, for instance. It isn"t best to tell one"s neighbor all one"s good luck. Not all one"s good luck," and Plausaby, Esq., smiled knowingly at the fat man, who did his best to screw his very transparent face into a crafty smile in return. "Besides," continued Squire Plausaby, "once let it get out that the Baptist University is going to occupy that block, and there"ll be a great demand--"
[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAUSABY SELLS LOTS.]
"For all the blocks around," said the eager fat gentleman, growing impatient at Plausaby"s long-windedness.
"Precisely. For all the blocks around," went on Plausaby. "And I want to hold on to as much of the property in this quarter as--"
"As you can, of course," said the other.
"As I can, of course. As much as I can, of course. But I"d like to have you interested. You are a man of influence. A man of weight. Of weight of character. You will bring other Baptists. And the more Baptists, the better for--the better for--"
"For the college, of course."
"Exactly. Precisely. For the college, of course. The more, the better.
And I should like your name on the board of trustees of--of--"
"The college?"
"The university, of course. I should like your name."
The fat gentleman was pleased at the prospect of owning land near the Baptist University, and doubly pleased at the prospect of seeing his name in print as one of the guardians of the destiny of the infant inst.i.tution. He thought he would like to buy half of block 26.
"Well, no. I couldn"t sell in 26 to you or any man. Couldn"t sell to any man. I want to hold that block because of its slope. I"ll sell in 28 _to you_, and the lots there are just about as good. Quite as good, indeed.
But I want to build on 26."
The fat gentleman declared that he wouldn"t have anything but lots in 26.
That block suited his fancy, and he didn"t care to buy if he could not have a pick.
"Well, you"re an experienced buyer, I see," said Plausaby, Esq. "An experienced buyer. Any other man would have preferred 28 to 26. But you"re a little hard to insist on that particular block. I want you here, and I"ll _give_ half of 28 rather than sell you out of 26."
"Well, now, my friend, I am sorry to seem hard. But I fastened my eye on 26. I have a fine eye for direction and distance. One, two, three, four blocks from the public square. That"s the block with the solitary oak-tree in it, if I"m right. Yes? Well, I must have lots in that very block. When I take a whim of that kind, heaven and earth can"t turn me, Mr. Plausaby. So you"d just as well let me have them."
Plausaby, Esq., at last concluded that he would sell to the plump gentleman any part of block 26 except the two lots on the south-east corner. But that gentleman said that those were the very two he had fixed his eyes upon. He would not buy if there were any reserves. He always took his very pick out of each town.
"Well," said Mr. Plausaby coaxingly, "you see I have selected those two lots for my step-daughter. For little Katy. She is going to get married next spring, I suppose, and I have promised her the two best in the town, and I had marked off these two. Marked them off for her. I"ll sell you lots alongside, nearly as good, for half-price. Just half-price."
But the fat gentleman was inexorable. Mr. Plausaby complained that the fat gentleman was hard, and the fat gentleman was pleased with the compliment. Having been frequently lectured by his wife for being so easy and gullible, he was now eager to believe himself a very Shylock. Did not like to rob little Kate of her marriage portion, he said, but he must have the best or none. He wanted the whole south half of 26.
And so Mr. Plausaby sold him the corner-lot and the one next to it for ever so much more than their value, pathetically remarking that he"d have to hunt up some other lots for Kate. And then Mr. Plausaby took the fat gentleman out and showed him the identical corner, with the little oak and the slope to the south.
"Mother," said Albert, when they were gone, "is Katy going to be married in the spring?"
"Why, how should I know?" queried Mrs. Plausaby, as she adjusted her collar, the wide collar of that day, and set her breastpin before the gla.s.s. "How should I know? Katy has never told me. There"s a young man hangs round here Sundays, and goes boating and riding with her, and makes her presents, and walks with her of evenings, and calls her his pet and his darling and all that kind of nonsense, and I half-suspect"--here she took out her breastpin entirely and began over again--"I half-suspect he"s in earnest. But what have I got to do with it? Kate must marry for herself. I did twice, and done pretty well both times. But I can"t see to Kate"s beaux. Marrying, my son, is a thing everybody must attend to personally for themselves. At least, so it seems to me." And having succeeded in getting her ribbon adjusted as she wanted it, Mrs. Plausaby looked at herself in the gla.s.s with an approving conscience.
"But is Kate going to be married in the spring?" asked Albert.
"I don"t know whether she will have her wedding in the spring or summer.
I can"t bother myself about Kate"s affairs. Marrying is a thing that everybody must attend to personally for themselves, Albert. If Kate gets married, I can"t help it; and I don"t know as there"s any great sin in it. You"ll get married yourself some day."
"Did fa--did Mr. Plausaby promise Katy some lots?"
"Law, no! Every lot he sells "most is sold for Kate"s lot. It"s a way he has. He knows how to deal with these sharks. If you want any trading done, Albert, you let Mr. Plausaby do it for you."
"But, mother, that isn"t right."
"You"ve got queer notions, Albert. You"ll want us all to quit eating meat, I suppose. Mr. Plausaby said last night you"d be cheated out of your eyes before you"d been here a month, if you stuck to your ideas of things. You see, you don"t understand sharks. Plausaby does. But then that is not my lookout. I have all I can do to attend to myself. But Mr.
Plausaby _does_ know how to manage sharks."
The more Albert thought the matter over, the more he was convinced that Mr. Plausaby did know how to manage sharks. He went out and examined the stakes, and found that block 26 did not contain the oak, but was much farther down in the slough, and that the corner lots that were to have been Katy"s wedding portion stretched quite into the peat bog, and further that if the Baptist University should stand on block 27, it would have a baptistery all around it.
CHAPTER VI.
LITTLE KATY"S LOVER.
Katy was fifteen and a half, according to the family Bible. Katy was a woman grown in the depth and tenderness of her feeling. But Katy wasn"t twelve years of age, if measured by the development of her discretionary powers. The phenomenon of a girl in intellect with a woman"s pa.s.sion is not an uncommon one. Such girls are always attractive--feeling in woman goes for so much more than thought. And such a girl-woman as Kate has a twofold hold on other people--she is loved as a woman and petted as a child.
Albert Charlton knew that for her to love was for her to give herself away without thought, without reserve, almost without the possibility of revocation. Because he was so oppressed with dread in regard to the young man who walked and boated with Katy, courted and caressed her, but about the seriousness of whose intentions the mother seemed to have some doubt--because of the very awfulness of his apprehensions, he dared not ask Kate anything.
The suspense was not for long. On the second evening after Albert"s return, Smith Westcott, the chief clerk, the agent in charge of the branch store of Jackson, Jones & Co., in Metropolisville, called at the house of Plausaby. Mr. Smith Westcott was apparently more than twenty-six, but not more than thirty years of age, very well-dressed, rather fast-looking, and decidedly _blase_. His history was written in general but not-to-be-misunderstood terms all over his face. It was not the face of a drunkard, but there was the redness of many gla.s.ses of wine in his complexion, and a nose that expressed nothing so much as pampered self-indulgence. He had the reputation of being a good, sharp business man, with his "eye-teeth cut," but his conversation was:
"Well--ha! ha!--and how"s Katy? Divine as ever! he! he!" rattling the keys and coins in his pocket and frisking about. "Beautiful evening! And how does my sweet Katy? The loveliest maiden in the town! He! he! ha! ha!
I declare!"
Then, as Albert came in and was introduced, he broke out with: