V
How I enjoyed the next three weeks! Jamie said the household activity had been "switched off" until the arrival of the letter and telegram from Mr. Ewart; these, he declared, made the connection and started a current. Its energy made itself pleasurably felt in every member of the household. Cale was twice in Montreal, on a personally conducted tour, for the coach horses. Big Pete was putting on double windows all over the house, stuffing the cracks with moss, piling cords of winter wood, hauling grain and, during the long evenings, enjoying himself by cutting up the Canadian grown tobacco, mixing it with a little molasses, and storing it for his winter solace. Angélique was making the kitchen to shine, and Marie was helping Mrs. Macleod.
For the first week Jamie and I lived, in part, on the road between Lamoral and Richelieu-en-Bas. With little Pete for driver, an old cart-horse and a long low-bodied wagon carried us, sometimes twice a day, to the village. We spent hours in the one "goods" shop of the place. It was a long, low, dark room stocked to the ceiling on both walls and on shelves down the middle, with all varieties of cotton, woolen and silk goods, some of modern manufacture but more of past decades. In the dim background, a broad flight of stairs, bisecting on a landing, led to the gallery where were piled higgledy-piggledy every Canadian want in the way of furnishings, from old-fashioned bellows and all wool blankets, to Englishware toilet sets that must have found storage there for a generation, and no customer till Jamie and I appeared to claim them. There, too, I unearthed a bolt of English chintz.
In a tiny front room of a tiny house on the marketplace, I found an old dealer in skins. He and his wife made some up for me into small foot-rugs for the bedrooms. Acting on Angélique's suggestion, I visited old Mère Guillardeau's daughter. I found her in her cabin at her rag carpet loom, and bought two rolls which she was just about to leave with the "goods" merchant to sell on commission. I wanted them to make the long passageways more comfortable.
I revelled in each day's work which was as good as play to me. I gloried in being able to spend the money for what was needed to make the house comfortable, without the burden of having to earn it; just as I rejoiced in the abundant wholesome food that now nourished me, without impoverishing my pocket. There were times when I found myself almost grateful for the discipline and denial of those years in the city; for, against that background, my present life seemed one of care-free luxury. I began to feel young; and it was a pleasure to know I was needed and helpful.
The shortening November days, the strengthening cold, that closed the creek and was beginning to bind the river, the gray unlifting skies, I welcomed as a foil to the cosy evenings in the dining-room where Mrs. Macleod and I sewed and stitched, and planned for the various rooms, Jamie smoked and jeered or encouraged, and the four dogs watched every movement on our part, with an ear cocked for little Pete who was cracking butternuts in the kitchen.
The life in the manor was so peaceful, so sheltered, so normal. Every member of the household was busy with work during the day, and the night brought with it well-earned rest, and a sense of comfort and security in the flame-lighted rooms.
Often after going up to my bedroom, which Marie kept acceptably warm for me, I used to sit before the open grate stove for an hour before going to bed, just to enjoy the white-walled peace around me, the night silence without, the restful quiet of the old manor within. At such times I found myself dreading the "foreign invasion", as I termed in jest the coming of the owner of Lamoral and Doctor Rugvie. To the first I gave little thought; the second was rarely absent from my consciousness. "How will it all end?" I asked myself time and time again while counting off the days before his arrival. What should I find out? What would the knowledge lead to?
"Who am I? Who—who?" I said to myself over and over again during those three weeks of preparation. And at night, creeping into my bed—than which there could be none better, for it was in three layers: spring, feather bed and hair mattress—and drawing up the blankets and comforter preparatory for the sharp frost of the early morning, I cried out in revolt:
"I don't care a rap who I may prove to be! If only this peaceful sense of security will last, I want to remain Marcia Farrell to the end."
But I knew it could not last. I hinted as much to Jamie Macleod only three days before the fifteenth of November. We were making our last trip to the village for some extra supplies for Angélique. We were alone, and I was driving.
"Jamie," I said suddenly, after the old and trustworthy cart-horse, newly and sharply shod for the ice, had taken us safely over the frozen creek, "I wish this might last, don't you?"
He looked at me a little doubtfully.
"You mean the kind of life we 're living now? Yes,"—he hesitated,—"for some reasons I do; but there are others, and for those it is better that the change should come."
"What others?" I was at times boldly inquisitive of Jamie; I took liberties with his youth.
"You would n't understand them if I told you. Wait till the others come and you 'll see, in part, why."
"Do you know," I continued, my words following my thought, "that you 've never told me a thing about Doctor Rugvie and Mr. Ewart?"
"Not told you anything? Why, I thought I 'd said enough that first evening for you to know as much of them as you can without seeing them."
"No, you have n't; you 've been like a clam so far as telling me anything about their looks, or age, or—or anything—"
"Oh, own up, now; you mean you want to know if they 're married or single?" He was beginning to tease.
"Of course I do. This old manor has had a good many surprises for me already in these three weeks, you, for one—"
He threw back his head, laughing heartily.
"—And the 'elderly Scotchwoman', and Cale for a third; and if you would give me a hint as to the matrimonial standing of the two from over-seas, I should feel fortified against any future petticoat invasion of their wives, or children, or sweethearts."
Jamie laughed uproariously.
"Oh, Guy Mannering, hear her! I thought you said you saw Doctor Rugvie in the hospital."
"So I did; but it was only a glimpse, and a long way off, as he was passing through another ward."
He turned to me quickly. "It's Doctor Rugvie you want to know about then? Why about him, rather than Ewart?"
"Because,—('Be cautious,' I warned myself),—I happen to have known of him."
"Well, fire away, and I 'll answer to the best of my knowledge. I believe a woman lives, moves and has her being in details," he said a little scornfully.
"Have you just found that out?" I retorted. "Well, you have n't cut all your wisdom teeth yet. And now, as you seem to think it's Doctor Rugvie I 'm most interested in, we 'll begin with your Mr. Ewart." I changed my tactics, for I feared I had shown too much eagerness for information about Doctor Rugvie.
"My Mr. Ewart!" He smiled to himself in a way that exasperated me.
"Yes, your Mr. Ewart. How old is he? For all you 've told me he might be a grandfather."
"Ewart—a grandfather!" Again he laughed, provokingly as I thought. I kept silence.
"Honestly, Marcia, I don't know Ewart's age, and"—he was suddenly serious—"for all I know, he may be a grandfather."
"For all you know! What do you mean by that?"
"I mean I never seriously gave Gordon Ewart's age a thought. When I am with him he seems, somehow, as young as I—younger in one way, for he has such splendid health. But I suppose he really is old enough to be my father—forty-five or six, possibly; I don't know."
"Is he married?"
Jamie brought his hand down upon his knee with such a whack that the old cart-horse gave a queer hop-skip-and-jump. We both laughed at his antic.
"There you have me, Marcia. I 'm floored in your first round of questions. I don't know exactly—"
"Exactly! It seems to me that, marriage being an exact science, if a man is married why he is—and no ifs and buts."
"That's so." Jamie spoke seriously and nodded wisely. "I never heard it put in just those words, 'exact science', but come to think of it, you 're right."
"Well, is he?"
"Is he what?"
"Married. Are we to expect later on a Mrs. Ewart at Lamoral?"
"Great Scott, no!" said Jamie emphatically. "Look here, Marcia, I hate to tell tales that possibly, and probably, have no foundation—"
"Who wants you to tell tales?" I said indignantly. "I won't hear you now whatever you say. You think a woman has no honor in such things."
"Oh, well, you 'll have to hear it sometime, I suppose, in the village—"
"I won't—and I won't hear you either," I said, and closed my ears with my fingers; but in vain, for he fairly shouted at me:
"I say, I don't know whether he 's married or not—"
"And I say I don't care—"
"Well, you heard that anyway," he shouted again diabolically; "here 's another: they say—"
"Keep still; the whole village can hear you—"
"We 're not within a mile of the village; take your fingers out of your ears if you don't want me to shout."
"Not till you stop shouting." He lowered his voice then, and I unstopped my ears.
"I say, Marcia, I believe it's all a rotten lot of damned gossip—"
"Why, Jamie Macleod! I never heard you use so strong an expression."
"I don't care; it's my way of letting off steam. Mother is n't round."
We both laughed and grew good-humored again.
"I never thought a Scotsman, who takes porridge regularly at nine o'clock every evening, could swear—"
"Oh, did n't you! Where are your wisdom teeth? Live and learn, Marcia."
"Quits, Jamie." He chuckled.
"Honestly, Marcia, I could n't answer you in any other way. Ewart has never opened his lips to me about his intimate personal life; he has no need to—for, of course, there is a great difference in our ages even if he is such a companion. And then, you know, I only saw him that one week in Crieff when he was with us, and I was a little chap—it was just after father left us—and he was no end good to me. And the second time was this year in June when he stayed a week here and then took me up to André. He was with us a month in camp; that is where I came to know him so well. He 's an Oxford man, and that's what I was aiming at when—when my health funked. He seems to understand how hard it is to me to give it all up. I don't object to telling you it was Doctor Rugvie who was going to put me through."
"Oh, Jamie!" It was all I could say, for I had known during our few weeks of an intimacy, which circumstances warranted, that some great disappointment had been his—wholly apart from his being handicapped by his inheritance.
"About Ewart," he went on; "you know a village is a village, and a dish of gossip is meat and drink for all alike. It's only a rumor anyway, but it crops out at odd times and in the queerest places that he was married and divorced, and that he has a son living whom he is educating in Europe. I don't believe one bally word of it, and I don't want you to."
"Well, I won't to please you."
"Now, if you want to know about Doctor Rugvie, I can tell you. He lives, you might say, in the open. Ewart strikes me as the kind that takes to covert more. Doctor Rugvie is older too."
"He must be fifty if he 's a day."
"He 's fifty-four—and he is a widower, a straight out and out one."
"I know that."
"Oh, you do! Who told you?"
"Delia Beaseley."
"Is she a widow?" Jamie asked slyly.
"Now, no nonsense, Jamie Macleod." I spoke severely.
"Nonsense! I was only putting two and two together logically; you said the Doctor trusted her—"
"And well he may. No, she is n't a widow," I said shortly.
"That settles it; you need n't be so touchy about it."
"Has he any children?" I asked, ignoring the admonition.
"No; that's his other great sorrow. He lost both his son and daughter. Do you know, I can't help thinking he 's doing all this for them?"
"You mean the farm arrangement?"
"Yes, and us—he 's been such a friend to mother and me. Oh, he 's great!" He was lost suddenly in one of his silences. I had already learned never to permit myself the liberty of breaking them.
We drove into the village, and, while Jamie was with the grocer, "stoking ", as he put it for the coming week, I was wondering what to make of Delia Beaseley's theory about the "conscience money" and its connection with the farm. Was it to aid in carrying out the Doctor's plans for helpfulness? From what Jamie Macleod had told me, I came to the conclusion that neither he nor his mother knew anything of that financial source. How strange it seemed to know of this tangled skein of circumstance, the right thread of which I could not grasp!
While thinking of this, I became aware of the noise of a cheap graphophone carrying a melody with its raucous voice; the sounds came from a cabaret just below the steamboat landing-place. I listened closely to catch the words; the melody, even in this cheap reproduction, was a beautiful one.
"O Canada, pays de mon amour—"
I caught those words distinctly, and was amusing myself with this expression of patriotism when Jamie came out of the shop.
"What's up?" he asked, noticing my listening attitude.
"Hark!" He listened intently.
"Oh, that!" he said with a smile of recognition as he stepped into the wagon; "you should hear Ewart sing it. I 've heard him in camp and seen old André fairly weep at hearing it. I see you are discovering Richelieu-en-Bas; but you should make acquaintance with the apple-boat."
"What's that?"
"It's a month too late now for it; it moors just below the cabaret by the lowest level of the bank. It's a fine old sloop, and the hull is filled with the reddest, roundest, biggest apples that you 've ever seen. I come down here once a day regularly while she is here, just to get the fragrance into my nostrils, to walk the narrow plank to her deck, and touch—and taste to my satisfaction. We put in ten barrels at the manor."
I could see that picture in my mind's eye: the old apple-boat, the heaped up apples, the hull glowing with their color, the green river bank, the blue waters of the St. Lawrence, the islands for a background—and the October air spicy with the fragrance of Pomona's blessed gift!
We put the old cart-horse through his best paces in order to be at home before sunset. We had all the books to arrange in the next two days for we had left them until the last. Pete was opening the boxes when we came away.
VI
After supper we went over the house to see the various furnishings by firelight. Pete had built roaring fires in each bedroom to take off the chill, and was to keep them going till the rooms should be occupied on the night of the fifteenth; this was necessary against the increasing cold.
I confess I had worked to some purpose, and Mrs. Macleod and every member of the household seconded me with might and main. Now, in a body, the eight of us trooped from room to room, to enjoy the sight of the labor of our hands. Angélique was stolidly content. Marie was volubly enthusiastic. Cale, his hands in his pockets, took in all with keen appreciative eyes, and expressed his satisfaction in a few words:
"'T ain't every man can get a welcome home like this."
"You 're right, Cale," said Jamie, "and there are n't so many men it's worth doing all this for."
We stood together, admiring,—and I was happy. I had spent but eighty-seven dollars, "pièces", and the rooms did look so inviting! The windows and beds were hung with the English chintz, which was old fashioned, a mixture of red and white with a touch of gray. I had sent to Montreal for fine lamb's wool coverlets for every bed. The village furnished plain deal tables for writing. Jamie stained them dark oak, and I put on desk pads and writing utensils. Two easy chairs cushioned with the chintz were in each room. The old English-ware toilet sets of white and gold looked really stately on the old-fashioned stands. Mrs. Macleod sewed, with Marie's help, until she had provided every window with an inner set of white dimity curtains, every washstand, every bureau and table with a cover. She made sheets by the dozen which Angélique and Marie laundered. Pete had polished the fine old brass andirons, that furnished each fireplace, till they shone. My bedroom foot-rugs were pronounced a success, and graced the rag carpets beside each bed; they were of coarse gray and white fur. Marie had found in the garret some long-unused white china candlesticks of curious design, like those in my room; a pair stood on each bureau.
We were standing about in the Doctor's room, admiring. The firelight played on the white walls, deepened the red in the hangings to crimson, shone in the ball-topped andirons, and lighted the pleased satisfied faces about me. A sudden thought struck a chill to my heart:
"What a contrast between this room and that poor basement in V– Court where, twenty-six years ago, the man who is going to enjoy this comfort fought for my mother's life, and succeeded in giving me mine!"
I left the room abruptly. Jamie called after me:
"Where are you going, Marcia?"
"Down stairs to begin with the books."
"Hold on till I come; you can't handle them alone. Cale, put the screens before the fires. Come on down, mother."
The passageway was stacked high with books along the walls. Cale had brought them in, and these were not the half. I was looking at them when the others came down.
"You took them out, Cale, how many do you think there are?"
"I cal'lated 'bout three hundred in a box. We 've opened five, and there 's two we ain't opened."
Jamie started to gather up an armful, but Cale took them from him. His tenderness and care of him were wonderful to see.
"No yer don't! If there 's to be any fetchin' and carryin', I 'm the one ter do it."
"And I 'm the one to place and classify. I want to prove that I did n't work five years in the New York Library for nothing." I stayed with Cale while he was gathering up the books.
"I cal'late you was paid a good price fer handlin' other folks' brains." Cale spoke tentatively, and I humored him; I like to give news of myself piece-meal.
"Of course, I did, Cale; I had nine dollars a week."
"Hm—pretty small wages fer a treadmill like thet!" He spoke almost scornfully.
"Oh, that was better than I had in the beginning. What would you say to four dollars a week, Cale?"
"With room and keep?"
"Not a bit of it; board and room and clothes had to come out of that."
"Hm—". He looked at me keenly, but made no reply. "You tend ter putting 'em on the shelves, an' I 'll take 'em all in. 'T ain't fit work fer women, all such liftin'; books has heft, if what's in 'em is pretty light weight sometimes."
"What would you say about the owner of all these books, Cale? Let's guess what he 's like," I said, laughing, as I lingered to hear what he would say. But he was non-committal.
"I could n't guess fer I ain't seen the insides. I 'm glad he 's coming, though; I want ter get down to some real work 'fore long. Wal, we 'll see what he 's like in two days now. Pete an' I have got to drive over ter Richelieu-en-Haut—durn me, if I can see why they don't call it Upper Richelieu!—an' meet the Quebec express."
"They won't get here till long after dark, then."
"No.—Here, jest put a couple more on each arm, will you?"
I accommodated him, and we went into the living-room. Jamie looked rather glum. Sometimes, I know, he feels as if he had no place in all this preparation.
"Now, Jamie, let me plan—" I began, but he interrupted me:
"Maîtresse femme," he muttered; then he smiled on me, but I paid no heed.
"You sit at the library table; Cale will bring in the books and pile them round it; you will sort them according to subject, and I will put them on the shelves."
"Go ahead, I 'm ready."
To help us, we pressed Angélique and Marie into service. In a little while we had five hundred books piled about the table. These were as many as Mrs. Macleod and I could handle for the evening, so we dismissed the others.
It was pleasant work, filling the empty shelves; moreover, I was in my element. It was good to see books about again; I owed so much to them.
"This is what the room needed," I said, placing the last of the historical works on a lower shelf.
"Yes; what a difference it makes, doesn't it? Oh, I say, mother, here 's one of your late favorites!"
"What is it?"
"Memoirs of Doctor Barnardo."
"I must read them again."
"Who was Doctor Barnardo?" I asked; I was curious.
"If you don't know of him and his London work, then you have a treat before you in this book." Mrs. Macleod spoke with unusual enthusiasm.
"And he was Ewart's friend too. I might have known I should find this among his books. It always seems to me as if it were 'books and the man'. Show me what books are a man's familiars, and I 'll tell you his characteristics."
"No, really, can you do that?" I asked, surprised at this dictum from such youthful lips.
"Yes, in a general way I can. Look at this for instance." He held out a volume. "The man who has this book for an inner possession, and also on his shelves, is a thinker, broad-minded, scholarly, human to an intense degree—"
"What is it?" I said, impatient to see.
"Something you don't know, I 'll wager; it is n't a woman's book."
"Now, Jamie Macleod, read your characteristics of men, if you can, by the books they read and love, but, please, please, keep within your masculine 'sphere of influence', and don't presume to say what is or what is n't a woman's book. I know a good deal more about those than you do—what is the book anyway?" I confess his overbearing ways about women provoke me at times. But he paid no heed to my little temper.
"It's dear old Murray's 'Rise of the Greek Epic'—it comes next to the Bible. It's an English book; you would n't be apt to read it."
"Oh, would n't I?" I exclaimed, and determined another forty-eight hours should not pass without my having made myself familiar with the rise of the Greek epic, and the fall of it, for that matter. I swallowed my indignation, for the truth was I had not heard of it.
"And here 's another—American, this time, and right up to date. I 'll wager you never heard of this either. Would n't I know just by the title it would be Ewart's!"
"How would you know?"
"Oh, because any man of his calibre would have it."
And I was no wiser than before. I was beginning to realize that there was a whole world of experience of which I knew nothing; that, in my struggle to exist in the conditions of the city so far away, I had grown self-centered and, in consequence, narrow, not open to the world of others. Jamie Macleod, with his twenty-three years, was opening my inward eye. I can't say that what I saw of myself was pleasing.
"What is the book?" I asked, after a moment's silence in which Mrs. Macleod was busy with the "Memoirs", and Jamie was looking over titles.
"'The Anthracite Coal Industry'."
"Well, give it to me; I 'll classify it with 'Economics and Sociology'. There will be more of this kind, I 'm sure. Let's go on with the work or we shan't be through before midnight. Look up the 'Lives' and 'Letters', and 'Autobiographies' next. I want to put them on the upper shelf—"
"I know;" he nodded approvingly; "so they will be at your elbow when, of a winter's evening, you want to reach out your hand, without much trouble, and find a companion. Well, give me a little time to look them over."
I watched him for a few minutes, as he took up book after book, examined the title, sometimes turned the leaves rapidly, and again opened to some particular page and lost himself for a moment. Jamie was showing me another side than that to which I had grown accustomed in our daily intercourse. I sat down while I was waiting, for I was tired. Mrs. Macleod was reading.
"Are you ready now?" I asked, after waiting a quarter of an hour, and still no sound from behind the pile of books across the table.
"M-hm, in a minute."
His mother looked up, and we both saw that he was absorbed in something. Mrs. Macleod smiled indulgently.
"That's always his way with a book—lost to everything around him. He would n't hear a word we said if we were to talk here for an hour."
"I 'll make him hear." I spoke positively, and again Mrs. Macleod smiled.
"Jamie—I would like a few books, the 'Lives' and 'Letters'."
For answer he burst into a roar that roused the dogs under the table. He slapped his hand on his knee, threw his leg over the arm of the easy chair, and settled into an attitude that indicated, there would be no more work gotten out of him for the rest of the evening. Suddenly he shouted again.
"Here 's a man for you!" he said joyfully.
"Who?" I demanded, but might have spared myself the question. There was another interval of silence, followed by an uproarious outburst:
"Oh, I do love Stevenson's 'damns'! They 're great! Hear this—"
He read a portion of a letter which included a choicely selected expletive.
"Jamie!" It was a decided protest on his mother's part; but I laughed aloud, for I, too, knew what he meant. I, too, loved the varied and picturesque "damns" of those letters that had been so much to me in the past few years. As I looked at Jamie, another Scotsman, with the thin bright eager face, I knew at once that, without realizing it, I had connected his appearance with that of Robert Louis Stevenson, his countryman. And how like the two spirits were!
"I wonder," I said to myself, "I wonder if this same Jamie Macleod also has the inner impulse to write!" And, having said that in thought, I looked at Jamie Macleod through different glasses.
We let him mercifully alone; but I went on with my work, reading titles, classifying, placing, finding genuine pleasure in speculating on the "calibre" of the owner.
At nine, Marie entered with the porridge; Cale followed her.
"Here endeth the first chapter," I said to Cale. "We 'll try to get all the books on the shelves to-morrow; then we can have one day of rest before they come."
"You kinder speak as if two extra men in the fam'ly would make some difference," said Cale, smiling down at me from his place by the mantel.
"It will make a difference I shall not like, Cale. There 'll be no more cosy evening-ends with porridge, after the lord of the manor comes."
"What's that you say?" Jamie was roused at last. I thought I could do it.
"Nothing in particular; only Cale and I were saying how different it would be when Mr. Ewart comes."
"You bet it will!" said Jamie emphatically. "You won't know this house,"—he took up his porridge,—"and Ewart won't know it either since you 've had your hand on it, Marcia." This I perceived to be a sop.
"Thet's so," said Cale, with emphasis. "I never see what a difference all thet calico an' fixin's has made; an' my room looks as warm with them red blankets and foot-rugs! It beats me how a woman can take an old house like this, an' make it look as if it had been lived in always. I thank you," he said, looking hard at me, "fer all the comfort you 've worked inter my room."
"You have n't thanked me the way I want to be thanked, Cale," I said, smiling up at him.
"I done the best I could," he replied with such a crestfallen air that we laughed.
"The only way you can thank me is to call me 'Marcia'. I 've wanted to ask you to, ever since our first drive together up from the steamboat landing."
"Sho!—Have you?"
He looked at me intently for a minute; then he spoke slowly and we all knew with deep feeling: "You 're name 's all right; but you've made such a lot of happiness in this house since you come, I 'd like ter have my own name fer you—"
"What's that?" I said.
"I 'd like ter call you 'Happy', if you don't mind."
I know I turned white, but I controlled myself. Was it possible he knew! It could not be. I dared not assume that he knew and refuse him. I made an effort to answer in my usual voice:
"Of course I don't, Cale—only, I hardly deserve it; all I 've done is just in 'the day's work', you know."
"Not all," he said, putting down his emptied bowl and turning to the door; "no wages thet I ever heard of will buy good-will an' the happiness you 've put inter all this work."
"Oh, Cale, I don't deserve this—" But he was gone without the usual good night to any of us.
"You do too," said Jamie shortly, and, reaching for his pipe, went off into the dining-room.
Mrs. Macleod laid her hand on my shoulder. "They mean it, Marcia; good night, my dear."
For the first time she leaned over and kissed me. I ran up to my room without any good night on my part. I needed to be alone after what Cale had said. Did he know? Could he know? Or was it merely chance that he chose that name? Over and over again I asked myself these questions—and could find no answer.
Late at night I made ready for bed. I drew the curtains and looked out. The window ledge was piled two inches high with snow; against the panes I saw the soft white swirl and heard the hushed, intermittent brushing of the drifting storm.