Part 5 (1/2)
As they shook hands Father Temple asked:
”And what have scientific congresses done for your soul, Noel?”
”Drawn me closer, I hope, to the Creator whose subtle and inexorable laws are best revealed to the faithful student that fearlessly a.n.a.lyzes His universal work. The sole aim of scientists is 'to admit nothing false, and to omit nothing true.' Vernon, have faith in me as of old, and keep a cell whitewashed for me at Calvary House. Truly--
”So many paths lead up to G.o.d, 'Twere strange if any soul should miss them all.”
With his hand on the stair rail the minister paused and looked back.
”One thing I wish to ask is whether Eglah had any special admirers abroad? American heiresses are attractive.”
”She had as many beaux as she chose to permit. Two attaches of American legations were particularly attentive, and a handsome English naval officer whose father is a duke will doubtless cross the ocean to renew his acquaintance. Possess your soul in patience. Her heart is as sound asleep as when she dreamed in her crib, and the man who wakes and wins it will travel no macadamized road. Before Lent she will be in New York for a week, and when Congress adjourns the family will come to me on the Lake for a visit.”
Given a man of thirty-three, unusually good-looking, possessing by inheritance a large fortune, dowered with infinite leisure upon which no professional duties laid intrusive claim, handicapped by no church obligations, and the world a.s.sumes that he has inevitably run the gamut of those iniquities set by Satan as snares for the idle rich. Intensely virile as was Noel Herriott, his polished placidity of manner and courteous conservatism masked in some degree the strength and tenacious obstinacy of a character that presented enigmatical phases to those who knew him best. Heredity and education had combined in kneading him physically, mentally, and morally along rather peculiar curves during the plastic period of boyhood, and the finis.h.i.+ng touches that determined the mould came from his parting interview with his Presbyterian father, when Fergus Herriott sent him away to college.
”My son, G.o.d gave you a remarkably fine body. Neither neglect nor abuse it, but be sure you master it from the start, else you will be the slave of your own flesh. Bad habits are the leeches that would suck a Hercules to effeminacy. Steer as clear of the sins labelled ”Thou shalt not” as you would of that leper island down in the Pacific. The ten commandments are equal links in the moral chain, and it is no man's privilege to pick and choose which he will break or which he will keep; because if he violates one, it is merely a question of temptation, necessity, and opportunity when he will transgress all. If he bears false witness and lies, he will steal money as he filched character; if he covets his neighbor's wife, the time comes when he murders her husband. _Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus._ You are going where you will hear much fine talk about 'lofty, broadening, philosophic ideals' and 'progressive, altruistic standards of humanitarianism and honor.' Now mark you, G.o.d's laws are not 'progressive,' they are absolutely fixed, and when you are as old as I am you will have learned that 'man's honor,' unless based on them, is merely a sliding scale set up on a quicksand. My boy, try to lead such a clean life that when the mirror of records is held up to you in the final judgment you will not squirm and want to look the other way; and now, my last word is, you had the great misfortune to lose your dear, sweet mother in this world--be sure you deserve to find her in the next.”
During the journey to college he found in his well-filled pocket-book a folded sheet containing additional memoranda in his father's cramped, old-fas.h.i.+oned writing.
”Be honest first, then generous--never wasteful. Pose on no pedestals and you will escape falls. Avoid priggishness, which is detestable mental dry-rot; and flee from cant, the convenient domino of hypocrisy.
Cultivate genuine sympathy for all suffering humanity, and remember that a man's safest companion is his own conscientious, incorruptible self-respect.”
Doubtless in the years that followed Noel realized that indeed
”Souls were dangerous things to carry straight Through all the spilt saltpetre of the world;”
but that he succeeded fairly well might have been inferred from a certain scar on his throat, received while chastising two of his cla.s.smates who had caricatured him in doggerel under the t.i.tle of ”Sir Dandy Galahad.” Misled by the quiet reserve of his manner, and an inborn courtesy that made him as good a listener as talker, strangers never suspected the existence of a temper fierce and, when fully aroused, well-nigh implacable. In his third collegiate year the death of his father left him untrammelled in the selection of a profession, and soon after he entered into possession of a fortune so large that its golden key would have opened the door of almost any career he might have chosen. His mental trend was toward scientific studies, and his dominant scheme of investigation embraced the elusive problems of anthropology.
His individual and favorite hypothesis involved the genesis of aboriginal American man, and to secure all prehistoric and especially pre-glacial data he had attended post-collegiate lectures at several European universities, supplemented by sojourns in Central America, Pacific Islands, and British North America.
Since the death of his stepmother, Mr. Herriott had established temporary headquarters in New York in ”apartments” not far from the old Herriott house, which by provision of his wife's will was now the property of Judge Kent. While the family of the senator usually remained in Was.h.i.+ngton, Eglah and Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l frequently spent a week in New York, and on such occasions, if Noel chanced to be in the city, they relied upon him to serve as escort when needed. That he had successfully run the gauntlet of Eliza's years of cautious, suspicious observation, and finally commanded her admiring confidence, contributed in some degree to the easy _camaraderie_ maintained between Eglah and himself: on her part a genuinely trusting friends.h.i.+p, pure and simple; on his that cool, watchful quietude that holds in leash the one deep pa.s.sionate love of a strong nature and a lonely life. From the day he first saw the little quivering white-clad girl standing in the sunset glow that flooded the fragrant, flower-filled dining-room at Nutwood, he had opened the empty temple of his heart, and where no image dwelt--save the memory of his father--he lifted this child to a pure altar, and offered silent homage.
CHAPTER VI
”Of course, Mr. Herriott, you are vastly amused by my ambitious pretension.”
”Why Mr. Herriott? And why a.s.sume amus.e.m.e.nt which I certainly have not expressed?”
”Not verbally; but I quite understand that look in your eyes, when by sheer force of will you hold your lips from smiling. Only courtesy keeps in check your contempt for our 'higher education.'”
”Eglah, be a little more just in your generalizations. If the education be really 'higher' and thorough, no reasonable man could afford to disparage it. You have spent the morning over volumes of tedious statistics, extracting figures on _ad valorem_ and 'specific' schedules that only a custom-house clerk or a tariff expert could utilize by eliminating nonessentials and compiling valuable tables. Why waste this perfect day over metric puzzles--dekameter, hectoliter, myriagram?”
”Father wished the exact figures, and to work for him is my greatest pleasure.”
”Do not confound motive and accomplishment. Your father's secretary would have collected the statistics in half the time and in a more satisfactory form, simply because he has been trained for such search, as dogs are taught to hunt truffles.”
”Mr. Metcalf was needed in Was.h.i.+ngton, and as father has tried me sufficiently to trust the accuracy of my work, he asked me to make this investigation while I was in New York. Mr. Noel, to help him even in trifles is my very life; he is my world, my all.”