"Yes," I answered, "longer than I had planned, by many weeks. And now I am glad to be back once more. No--" in answer to his turning toward his horse as though he would leave us. "You are looking well, Harry. Indeed, everything in old Virginia is good to see again."
"Wish I could be as polite with you. Have you been sick? And, I say, you did meet the savages, didn"t you?"
I knew he meant the scar on the side of my neck, which still was rather evident, but I did not care to repeat the old story again. "Yes," I answered a bit shortly, "rather a near thing of it. I presume Captain Orme told you?" I turned to Miss Grace, who then admitted that she had heard something of the surgery which had thus left its mark. Harry seemed puzzled, so I saw it was news to him. Miss Grace relieved the situation somewhat by turning toward the house.
"I am sure you will want to talk with Jack," she said to him. "And listen, Harry, you must have him and Mrs. Cowles over here this very evening--we cannot think of her living alone at the old place. I shall send Cato down with, the carriage directly, and you may drive over after Mrs. Cowles." She held out her hand to me. "At dinner to-night, then?"
I bowed, saying that we would be very happy, by which I meant that we would be very miserable.
This, then, was all that had been determined by my visit. I was still an engaged man. Evidently nothing otherwise had been discussed in the Sheraton family councils, if any such had been held. If never suitor in Old Virginia rode up in sorrier case than mine that morning, as I came to call upon my fiancee, certainly did never one depart in more uncertain frame of mind than mine at this very moment. I presume that young Sheraton felt something of this, for he began awkwardly to speak of matters related thereto.
"It"s awfully hard," he began, "to see strangers there in your own house--I know it must be hard. But I say, your father must have plunged heavily on those lands over West in the mountains. I"ve heard they"re very rich in coal, and that all that was necessary was simply cash or credit enough to tide the deal over till next year"s crops."
"My father always said there was a great fortune in the lands," I replied. "Yes, I think another year would have seen him through; but that year was not to come for him."
"But couldn"t funds be raised somehow, even yet?"
I shook my head. "It is going to be hard in these times to raise funds in any way. Values are bad now, and if the Republican party elects Lincoln next month, there will be no such things as values left in Virginia. I don"t see how anything can save our property."
"Well, I"m not so sure," he went on, embarra.s.sed. "My father and I have been talking over these matters, and we concluded to ask you if we might not take a hand in this. At least, we have agreed all along that--in this case you know--you and my sister--we have planned definitely that you should live in your old place. We"re going to take that over. The redemption time has plenty of margin, and we can"t allow those people to come in here and steal one of the old Virginia places in that way. We are going to arrange to hold that for you and my sister, and we thought that perhaps in time something could be worked out of the rest of the property in the same way. That is, unless Colonel Meriwether, your father"s partner, shall offer some better solution. I suppose you talked it over with him?"
"I did not talk with him about it at all," said I, dully. For many reasons I did not care to repeat all of my story to him. I had told it often enough already. "None the less, it seems very generous of you and your father to take this interest in me. It would be very churlish of me if I did not appreciate it. But I trust nothing has been done as yet--"
"You trust not? Why, Cowles, you speak as though you did not want us to do it."
"I do not," said I.
"Oh, then--"
"You know our family well enough."
"That"s true. But you won"t be offended if I suggest to you that there are two sides to this, and two prides. All the country knows of your engagement, and now that you have returned, it will be expected that my sister will set the day before long. Of course, we shouldn"t want my sister to begin too far down--oh, d.a.m.n it, Cowles, you know what I mean."
"I presume so," said I to him, slowly. "But suppose that your sister should offer to her friends the explanation that the change in my fortunes no longer leaves desirable this alliance with my family?"
"Do you suggest that?"
"I have not done so."
"Has she suggested it?"
"We have not talked of it, yet it might be hard for your sister to share a lot so humble and so uncertain."
"That I presume will be for her to decide," he said slowly. "I admit it is a hard question all around. But, of course, in a matter of this kind, the man has to carry the heavy end of the log if there is one. If that falls to you, we know you will not complain."
"No," said I, "I hope not."
His forehead still remained furrowed with the old Sheraton wrinkles. He seemed uneasy. "By Jove," he broke out at length, flushing as he turned to me, "it is hard for a fellow to tell sometimes what"s right, isn"t it? Jack, you remember Jennie Williams, across under Catoctin?"
I nodded. "I thought you two were going to make a match of it sometime,"
I said.
"Prettiest girl in the valley," he a.s.sented; "but her family is hardly what we would call the best, you know." I looked at him very hard.
"Then why did you go there so often all last year?" I asked him. "Might she not think--"
He flushed still more, his mouth twitching now. "Jack," he said, "it"s all through. I want to ask you. I ought to marry Jennie Williams, but--"
Now I looked at him full and hard, and guessed. Perhaps my face was grave. I was beginning to wonder whether there was one clean thing in all the world.
"Oh, she can marry," went on Harry. "No difficulty about that. She has another beau who loves her to distraction, and who doesn"t in the least suspect--a decent sort of a fellow, a young farmer of her own cla.s.s."
"And, in your belief, that wedding should go on?"
He shifted uneasily.
"When is this wedding to be?" I asked.
"Oh, naturally, very soon," he answered. "I am doing as handsome a thing as I know how by her. Sometimes it"s mighty hard to do the handsome thing--even mighty hard to know what is the handsome thing itself."
"Yes," said I. But who was I that I should judge him?
"If you were just where I am," asked Harry Sheraton, slowly, "what would you do? I"d like to do what is right, you know."
"Oh no, you don"t, Harry," I broke out. "You want to do what is easiest.
If you wanted to do what is right, you"d never ask me nor any one else.
Don"t ask me, because I don"t know. Suppose you were in the case of that other young man who loves her? Suppose he did not know--or suppose he _did_ know. What would be right for him?"
"Heavy end of the log for him," admitted he, grimly. "That"s true, sure as you"re born."
"When one does not love a girl, and sees no happiness in the thought of living with her all his life, what squares that, Harry, in your opinion?"
"I"ve just asked you," he rejoined. "Why do you ask me? You say one ought to know what is right in his own case without any such asking, and I say that isn"t always true. Oh, d.a.m.n it all, anyway. Why are we made the way we are?"
"If only the girl in each case would be content by having the handsome thing done by her!" said I, bitterly.
CHAPTER x.x.xIX
THE UNCOVERING OF GORDON ORME
It is not necessary for me to state that dinner in the Sheraton hall, with its dull mahogany and its shining silver and gla.s.s, was barely better than a nightmare to me, who should have been most happy. At least there remained the topic of politics and war; and never was I more glad to plunge into such matters than upon that evening. In some way the dinner hour pa.s.sed. Miss Grace pleaded a headache and left us; my mother asked leave; and presently our hostess and host departed. Harry and I remained to stare at each other moodily. I admit I was glad when finally he announced his intention of retiring.
A servant showed me my own room, and some time before midnight I went up, hoping that I might sleep. My long life in the open air had made all rooms and roofs seem confining and distasteful to me, and I slept badly in the best of beds. Now my restlessness so grew upon me that, some time past midnight, not having made any attempt to prepare for sleep, I arose, went quietly down the stair and out at the front door, to see if I could find more peace in the open air. I sat down on the gra.s.s with my back against one of the big oaks, and so continued brooding moodily over my affairs, confused as they had now become.
By this time every one of the household had retired. I was surprised, therefore, when I saw a faint streak of light from one of the windows flash out across the lawn. Not wishing to intrude, I rose quietly and changed my position, pa.s.sing around the tree. Almost at that instant I saw the figure of a man appear from the shrubbery and walk directly toward the house, apparently headed for the window from which emerged the light.