"--Splendid draughtsman," a man was saying, "and pa.s.sed at the head of the crowd; but, of course, he has no chance."
"Why, it"s civil-service, isn"t it?"
"It is. But what of that? There was Watson--"
Miss Wynn did not pause. She whispered: "This is the tale of Civil Service Reform, and how this mighty government gets rid of black men who know too much."
"But--" Bles tried to protest.
"Hush," Miss Wynn commanded and they joined the group about the piano.
Teerswell, who was speaking, affected not to notice them, and continued:
"--I tell you, it"s got to come. We must act independently and not be bought by a few offices."
"That"s all well enough for you to talk, Teerswell; you have no wife and babies dependant on you. Why should we who have sacrifice the substance for the shadow?"
"You see, the Judge has got the substance," laughed Teerswell. "Still I insist: divide and conquer."
"Nonsense! Unite, and keep."
Bles was puzzled.
"They"re talking of the coming campaign," said Miss Wynn.
"What!" exclaimed Bles aloud. "You don"t mean that any one can advise a black man to vote the Democratic ticket?"
An elderly man turned to them.
"Thank you, sir," he said; "that is just my att.i.tude; I fought for my freedom. I know what slavery is; may I forget G.o.d when I vote for traitors and slave-holders."
The discussion waxed warm and Miss Wynn turned away and sought Miss Jones.
"Come, my dear," she said, "it"s "The Problem" again." They sauntered away toward a ring of laughter.
The discussion thus begun at Miss Wynn"s did not end there. It was on the eve of the great party conventions, and the next night Sam Stillings came around to get some crumbs from this a.s.sembly of the inner circle, into which Alwyn had been so unaccountably s.n.a.t.c.hed, and outside of which, despite his endeavors, Stillings lingered and seemed destined to linger. But Stillings was a patient, resolute man beneath his deferential exterior, and he saw in Bles a stepping stone. So he began to drop in at his lodgings and tonight invited him to the Bethel Literary.
"What"s that?" asked Bles.
"A debating club--oldest in the city; the best people all attend."
Bles hesitated. He had half made up his mind that this was the proper time to call on Miss Wynn. He told Stillings so, and told him also of the evening and the discussion.
"Why, that"s the subject up tonight," Stillings declared, "and Miss Wynn will be sure to be there. You can make your call later. Perhaps you wouldn"t mind taking me when you call." Alwyn reached for his hat.
When they arrived, the bas.e.m.e.nt of the great church was filling with a throng of men and women. Soon the officers and the speaker of the evening appeared. The president was a brown woman who spoke easily and well, and introduced the main speaker. He was a tall, thin, hatchet-faced black man, clean shaven and well dressed, a lawyer by profession. His theme was "The Democratic Party and the Negro." His argument was cool, carefully reasoned, and plausible. He was evidently feeling for the sympathy of his audience, and while they were not enthusiastic, they warmed to him gradually and he certainly was strongly impressing them.
Bles was thinking. He sat in the back of the hall, tense, alert, nervous. As the speaker progressed a white man came in and sat down beside him. He was spectacled, with bushy eyebrows and a sleepy look.
But he did not sleep. He was very observant.
"Who"s speaking?" he asked Bles, and Bles told him. Then he inquired about one or two other persons. Bles could not inform him, but Stillings could and did. Stillings seemed willing to devote considerable time to him.
Bles forgot the man. He was almost crouching for a spring, and no sooner had the speaker, with a really fine apostrophe to independence and reason in voting, sat down, than Bles was on his feet, walking forward.
His form was commanding, his voice deep and musical, and his earnestness terribly evident. He hardly waited for recognition from the slightly astonished president, but fairly burst into speech.
"I am from Alabama," he began earnestly, "and I know the Democratic Party." Then he told of government and conditions in the Black Belt, of the lying, oppression, and helplessness of the sodden black ma.s.ses; then, turning, he reminded them of the history of slavery. Finally, he pointed to Lincoln"s picture and to Sumner"s and mentioned other white friends.
"And, my brothers, they are not all dead yet. The gentleman spoke of Senator Smith and blamed and ridiculed him. I know Senator Smith but slightly, but I do know his sister well."
Dropping to simple narrative, he told of Miss Smith and of his coming to school; and if his audience felt that great depth of emotion that welled beneath his quiet, almost hesitating, address, it was not simply because of what he did say, but because, too, of the unspoken story that lay too deep for words. He spoke for nearly an hour, and when he stopped, for a moment his hearers sighed and then sprang into a whirlwind of applause.
They shouted, clapped, and waved while he sat in blank amazement, and was with difficulty forced to the rostrum to bow again and again. The spectacled white man leaned over to Stillings.
"Who is he?" he asked. Stillings told him. The man noted the name and went quietly out.
Miss Wynn sat lost in thought, and Teerswell beside her fumed. She was not easily moved, but that speech had moved her. If he could thus stir men and not be himself swayed, she mused, he would be--invincible. But tonight he was moved as greatly as his hearers had been, and that was dangerous. If his intense belief happened to be popular, all right; but if not? She frowned. He was worth watching, she concluded; quite worth watching, and perhaps worth guiding.
When Alwyn accompanied her home that night, Miss Wynn set herself to know him better for she suspected that he might be a coming man. The best preliminary to her purpose was, she knew, to speak frankly of herself, and that she did. She told him of her youth and training, her ambitions, her disappointments. Quite unconsciously her cynicism crept to the fore, until in word and tone she had almost scoffed at many things that Alwyn held true and dear. The touch was too light, the meaning too elusive, for Alwyn to grasp always the point of attack; but somehow he got the distant impression that Miss Wynn had little faith in Truth and Goodness and Love. Vaguely shocked he grew so silent that she noticed it and concluded she had said too much. But he pursued the subject.
"Surely there must be many friends of our race willing to stand for the right and sacrifice for it?"
She laughed unpleasantly, almost mockingly.
"Where?"
"Well--there"s Miss Smith."
"She gets a salary, doesn"t she?"
"A very small one."
"About as large as she could earn. North, I don"t doubt."
"But the unselfish work she does--the utter sacrifice?"
"Oh, well, we"ll omit Alabama, and admit the exception."
"Well, here, in Washington--there"s your friend, the Judge, who has befriended you so, as you admit."
She laughed again.
"You remember our visit to Senator Smith?"
"Yes."
"Well, it got the Judge his reappointment to the school board."
"He deserved it, didn"t he?"
"I deserved it," she said luxuriously, hugging her knee and smiling; "you see, his appointment meant mine."