Part 8 (1/2)
”I have practically nothing to do for the next hour. Please consider it yours.”
Betty stole a glance at him. He was leaning back in his chair regarding her intently. It was impossible to say whether his eyes had softened or not, but he looked kind and interested.
”I never have told you that your father was a great friend of mine,” he said. ”You really have a claim on me.” In spite of the fact that the Congressional Directory gave him sixty years, he looked anything but fatherly. Although there never was the slightest affectation of youth in his dress or manner, he suggested threescore years as little. So strong was his individuality that Betty could not imagine him having been at any time other than he was now. He was Senator North, that was the rounded fact; years had nothing to do with him.
”Well, I'm glad you knew papa; it will help you to understand. I--But perhaps you had better read this.”
She took the clergyman's letter from her m.u.f.f, and Senator North put on a pair of steel-rimmed eyegla.s.ses and read it. When he had finished he put the eyegla.s.ses in his pocket, folded the letter, and handed it to her. He had read the contents with equal deliberation. It seemed impossible that he would act otherwise in any circ.u.mstance.
”Well?” he said, looking keenly at her. ”What are you going to do about it?”
”I am ashamed to tell you how I have felt. But we Southerners feel so strongly on--on--that subject--it is difficult to explain!”
”We Northerners know exactly how you feel,” he said dryly. ”We should be singularly obtuse if we did not. However, do not for a moment imagine that I am unsympathetic. We all have our prejudices, and the strongest one is a part of us. And for the matter of that, the average American is no more anxious to marry a woman with negro blood in her than the Southerner is, and looks down upon the Black from almost as lofty a height. Only our prejudice is pa.s.sive, for he is not the constant source of annoyance and anxiety with us that he is with you.”
”Then you understand how repulsive it is to me to have a sister who is white by accident only, and how torn I am between pity for her and a physical antipathy that I cannot overcome?”
”I understand perfectly.”
”That is why I have come to you--to ask you what I _must_ do. This is the first time I have been confronted by a real problem; my life has been so smooth and my trials so petty. It is too great a problem for me to solve by myself, and I could not think of anybody's advice but yours that--that I would take,” she finished, with her first flash of humour.
”I fully expect you to take the advice I am going to give you. Your duty is plain; you must do all you can for this girl. But by no means receive her into your house until you have made her acquaintance. Take the ten o'clock B. & O. to-morrow morning and go to St. Andrew; it is about four hours' journey and on the line of the railroad. Spend several hours with the girl, and, if she is worth the trouble, bring her back with you and do all you can for her: it would be cruel and heartless to refuse her consolation if she is all this old man describes--and you are not cruel and heartless. And if this drop of black blood is abhorrent to you, think what it must be to her. It is enough to torment a high-strung woman into insanity or suicide. On the other hand, if she is common, or looks as if she had a violent temper, or is conceited and self-sufficient like so many of that hybrid race, settle an income on her and send her to Europe: in placing her above temptation you will have done your duty.”
”But that is the whole point--to be sure that _you_ do the right thing.”
”I almost hope she will be impossible, so that I can wipe her off the slate at once. Otherwise it will be a terrible problem.”
”It is no problem at all. There is no problem in plain duty. Problems exist princ.i.p.ally in works of fiction and in the minds of unoccupied women. If you meet each development of every question in the most natural and reasonable manner,--presupposing that you possess that highest attribute of civilization, common-sense,--no question will ever resolve itself into a problem. And difficulties usually disappear as the range of vision contracts. If your house takes fire, you save what you can, not what you have elaborately planned to save in case of fire.
Train your common-sense and let the windy a.n.a.lysis pertaining to problems alone.”
”But how can I ever get over the horror of the thing, Mr. North?”
”You will forget all about it when she has been your daily companion for a few weeks. If she lacked a nose, you would as soon cease to remember it. If this girl is worth liking, you will like her, and soon cease to feel tragic. Leave that to her!”
”I know that you are right, and of course I shall take your advice. I did not come here to trouble you for nothing. But if I liked her at first and not afterward--”
”Pack her off to Europe. Europe will console an American woman for every ill in life. If you take the right att.i.tude in the beginning, it all rests with her after that. You will have but one duty further. If she wishes to marry, you must tell the man the truth, if she will not.
Don't hesitate on that point a moment. Her children are liable to be coal-black. That African blood seems to have a curse on it, and the curse is usually visited on the unoffending.”
”I will, I will,” said Betty. She rose, and he rose also and took her hand in both of his. She felt an almost irresistible desire to put her head on his shoulder, for she was tired and depressed.
”Your att.i.tude in the matter is the important thing to me,” he said.
”That is why I have spoken so emphatically. You are a child yet, in spite of your twenty-seven years and your admirable intelligence. This is practically your first trial, the first time you have been called upon to make a decision which, either way, is bound to have a strong effect on your character, and to affect still greater decisions you may be called upon to make in the future. You have only one defect; you are not quite serious enough--yet.”