Part 10 (1/2)
CHAPTER X.
We Dedicate Lynhurst Park.
The Hindu adept sometimes suspends before the eyes of his subject a bright ball of carnelian or crystal, in the steady contemplation of which the sensitive swims off into the realms of subjectivity--that mysterious bourn from whence no traveler brings anything back. J.
Bedford Cornish was Mr. Elkins's glittering ball; his psychic subject was the world in general and Lattimore in particular. Scientific principles, confirmed by experience, led us to the conclusion that the att.i.tude of fixed contemplation carried with it some nervous strain, ought to be of limited duration, and hence that Mr. Cornish should remove from our midst the glittering mystery of his presence, lest familiarity should breed contempt. So in about ten days he went away, giving to the _Herald_ a parting interview, in which he expressed unbounded delight with Lattimore, and hinted that he might return for a longer stay. Editorially, the _Herald_ expressed the hope that this characteristically veiled allusion to a longer sojourn might mean that Mr. Cornish had some idea of becoming a citizen of Lattimore. This would denote, the editorial continued, that men like Mr. Cornish, accustomed to the mighty world-pulse of New York, could find objects of pursuit equally worthy in Lattimore.
”Which is mixed metaphor,” Mr. Giddings admitted in confidence; ”but,”
he continued, ”if metaphors, like drinks, happen to be more potent mixed, the _Herald_ proposes to mix 'em.”
All these things consumed time, and still our life was one devoted to business exclusively. At last Mr. Elkins himself, urged, I feel sure, by Antonia Hinckley, gave evidence of weariness.
”Al,” said he one day, ”don't you think it's about time to go ash.o.r.e for a carouse?”
”Unless something in the way of a let-up comes soon,” said I, ”the position of lieutenant, or first mate, or whatever my job is piratically termed, will become vacant. The pace is pretty rapid. Last night I dreamed that the new Hotel Elkins was founded on my chest; and I have had troubles enough of the same kind before to show me that my nervous system is slowly ravelling out.”
”I have arrangements made, in my mind, for a sort of al fresco function, to come off about the time Cornish gets back with our London visitor,”
he replied, ”which ought to knit up the ravelled sleeve better than new.
I'm going to dedicate Lynhurst Park to the nymphs and deities of sport--which wrinkled care derides.”
”I hadn't heard of Lynhurst Park,” I was forced to say. ”I'm curious to know, first, who named it, and, second, where it is.”
”Didn't I show you those blueprints?” he asked. ”An oversight I a.s.sure you. As for the scheme, you suggested it yourself that night we first drove out to Trescott's. Don't you remember saying something about 'breathing s.p.a.ce for the populace'? Well, I had the surveys made at once; contracted for the land, all but what Bill owns of it, which we'll have to get later; and had a landscapist out from Chicago to direct us as to what we ought to admire in improving the place. As for the name, I'm indebted to kind nature, which planted the valley in ba.s.swood, and to Josie, who contributed the philological knowledge and the taste.
That's the street-car line,” said he, unrolling an elaborate plat and pointing. ”We may throw it over to the west to develop section seven, if we close for it. Otherwise, that line is the very thing.”
Our street-railway franchise had been granted by the Lattimore city council--they would have granted the public square, had we asked for it in the potent name of ”progress”--and Cornish was even now making arrangements for placing our bonds. The impossible of less than a year ago was now included in the next season's program, as an inconsiderable feature of a great project for a street-railway system, and the ”development” of hundreds of acres of land.
The place so to be named Lynhurst Park was most agreeably reached by a walk up Brushy Creek from Lattimore. Such a stroll took one into the gorge, where the rocks shelved toward each other, until their crowning fringes of cedar almost interlocked, like the eyelashes of drowsiness.
Down there in the twilight one felt a sense of being defrauded, in contemplation of the fact that the stream was troutless: it was such an ideal place for trout. The quiet and mellow gloom made the gorge a favorite trysting-place, and perhaps the cool-blooded stream-folk had fled from the presence of the more fervid dwellers on the banks. In the crevices of the rocks were the nests of the village pigeons. The combined effects of all these causes was to make this a spot devoted to billing and cooing.
Farther up the stream the rock walls grew lower and parted wider, islanding a rich bottom of lush gra.s.s-plot, alternating with groves of walnut, linden, and elm. This was the Lynhurst Park of the blueprints and plats. Trescott's farm lay on the right bank, and others on either side; but the houses were none of them near the stream, and the entire walk was wild and woodsy-looking. None but nature-lovers came that way.
Others drove out by the road past Trescott's, seeing more of corn and barn, but less of rock, moss, and fern.
Mr. Cornish was to return on Friday with the Honorable De Forest Barr-Smith, who lived in London and ”represented English capital.” To us Westerners the very hyphen of his name spoke eloquently of s. d.
Through him we hoped to get the money to build that street railway.
Cornish had written that Mr. Barr-Smith wanted to look the thing over personally; and that, given the element of safety, his people would much prefer an investment of a million to one of ten thousand. Cornish further hinted that the London gentleman acted like a man who wanted a side interest in the construction company; as to which he would sound him further by the way.
”He'll expect something in the way of birds and bottles,” observed Elkins; ”but they won't mix with the general society of this town, where the worm of the still is popularly supposed to be the original Edenic tempter. And he'll want to inspect Lynhurst Park. I want him to see our beauty and our chivalry,--meaning the ladies and Captain Tolliver,--and the rest of our best people. I guess we'll have to make it a temperate sort of orgy, making up in the spectacular what it lacks in spirituousness.”
Mr. Cornish came, gradually moulting his mystery; but still far above the Lattimore standard in dress and style of living. In truth, he always had a good deal of the swell in his make-up, and can almost be acquitted of deceit in the impressions conveyed at his coming. The Honorable De Forest Barr-Smith fraternized with Cornish, as he could with no one else. No one looking at Mr. Cornish could harbor a doubt as to his morning tub; and his evening dress was always correct. With Jim, Mr.
Barr-Smith went into the discussion of business propositions freely and confidentially. I feel sure that had he greatly desired a candid statement of the very truth as to local views, or the exact judgment of one on the spot, he would have come to me. But between him and Cornish there was the stronger sympathy of a common understanding of the occult intricacies of clothes, and a view-point as to the surface of things, embracing manifold points of agreement. Cornish's unerring conformity of vogue in the manner and as to the occasion of wearing the tuxedo or the claw-hammer coat was clearly restful to Mr. Barr-Smith, in this new and strange country, where, if danger was to be avoided, things had to be approached with distended nostril and many preliminary snuffings of the wind.
There came with these two a younger brother of Mr. Barr-Smith, Cecil--a big young civil engineer, just out of college, and as like his brother in accent and dress as could be expected of one of his years; but national characteristics are matters of growth, and college boys all over the world are a good deal alike. Cecil Barr-Smith, with his red mustache, his dark eyes, and his six feet of British brawn, was nearer in touch with our younger people that first day than his honorable brother ever became. To Antonia, especially, he took kindly, and respectfully devoted himself.
”At this distance,” said Mr. Barr-Smith, as he saw his brother sitting on the gra.s.s at Miss Hinckley's feet, ”I'd think them brother and sister. She resembles sister Gritty remarkably; the same complexion and the same style, you know. Quite so!”
The Lynhurst function was the real introduction of these three gentlemen to Lattimore society. I knew nothing of the arrangements, except what I could deduce from Jim's volume of business with caterers and other handicraftsmen; and I looked forward to the fete with much curiosity.