Part 25 (1/2)
”I must have been rude indeed, when you, so generous and kind, will not forgive me. Mr. Noel, I am not quite my old self, and to-day have felt at odds with the world. Father's incomprehensible retirement from public life grieves and perplexes me, because his health is perfect, and I cannot patiently accept the forfeiture of all my hopes for his political future. Without his knowledge, I wrote early in the new Administration to two prominent officials, close personal friends of the President, and asked their influence in securing a foreign ministerial position for my father. With elaborate circ.u.mlocution they expressed regrets, and 'tendered kindest remembrance and best wishes.' I presume it is wise to wage no war with the inevitable, but I simply cannot reconcile myself to the most bitter disappointment of my life. You see, I trust you so entirely I am opening my heart to you, that you may quite understand I did not intend to show any lack of cordiality to you.”
He laughed, and tapped her shoulder twice with the acanthus spray.
”With all my heart I absolve you. Rude you could not be, and I trust the time will never come when I deserve to be treated less cordially than in the past. When do you go back to America?”
”In May or June. Ma-Lila will stay away no longer; she is so anxious to look after her little fifty-acre farm.”
”In the South, of course?”
”Yes; it is a corner of one of the 'bend plantations,' and with a new, pretty cottage, well furnished, grandmother gave it to her as a bridal present. None of us can ever forget that her father was killed while bringing my dying grandfather off the battle-field.”
”Has Judge Kent decided where he will live?”
”He has sold the old homestead in New England, and we expect to settle down in the only remaining home, Nutwood, which, in accordance with grandmother's will, we now have the right to occupy. Until this year the trustees controlled and closed it.”
”Do not forget that whenever you and your father wish to visit New York the house in Thirty-eighth Street will be entirely at your disposal--at least for a couple of years. A telegram to my old butler Hawkins will always insure a comfortable reception. Here comes the Judge. How remarkably well he looks.”
Very late that night, when adieux had been spoken and only father and daughter remained in the small salon, Eglah rose, and they looked steadily at each other. In her dark brown eyes two defiant stars glowed, but the clear, sweet voice was low and tender.
”Father, after what was said this morning, I of course can only wish you good-night. Your conditions make it impossible for me to attempt to kiss you, and until you choose to remove the embargo, I certainly shall observe it, in accordance with your orders. Good-night, dear father.”
He bowed as if to a d.u.c.h.ess.
”Good-night, Eglah.”
When Mr. Herriott went down the steps leading from the Kent apartments to the street, Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l beckoned him into a niche between two stone pillars, and said, almost in a whisper:
”Excuse me, sir, but will you tell me what is behind this trouble between Eglah and her father?”
”She says it is the result of his refusal to re-enter politics.”
”Exactly; but what is behind his refusal? She is fretting herself ill, because she cannot find out. Ever since our last day at Greyledge they have been estranged. This morning, when your letter arrived, something very unpleasant occurred; and you see Eglah is not like herself.”
”My letter was a most innocent paper bomb--the mere announcement that I intended to stop here a few hours on my way to Messina. It contained absolutely nothing more, and you must have mistaken the cause of her annoyance. Perhaps you wish to intimate that you think my presence enhances the trouble, whatever it may be? I shall be glad to have you speak frankly.”
For a moment she was silent, but she patted his coat sleeve approvingly.
”Mr. Herriott, she is all I have in this world, and I can't see the child breaking her heart over Judge Kent's selfish secretiveness. There is something about him I do not understand, and I thought you might be able to explain it to me.”
”As you have known him so much longer and more intimately than I, it seems probable that you can estimate him accurately without my a.s.sistance. Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l, it will be a long time before I see any of you again, and going so far away, I shall remember with great pleasure that our dear Eglah will have you always at her side, in dark and stormy as well as sunny hours. Good-bye; my very best wishes for you all.”
He understood most thoroughly. Eglah's struggle to receive cordially an evidently unwelcome visitor had pained him inexpressibly, wounding his pride even more than his heart, and since his absence contributed to her peace, he resolved that henceforth she should know no disquietude. If, despite his efforts to surrender, he had cherished a faint, unacknowledged hope, he strangled it effectually now, and in after years he thought of aetna only as a monument whose shadow lay ever across the acanthus-covered grave of his last beautiful illusion.
Longer than usual Eglah knelt beside her bed that night, and when she rose, Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l, waiting to brush out and braid her hair, noted in the pale young face traces of mental wrestling.
”Little mother, does G.o.d answer your prayers?”
”Not always in the way I may have wished, but when they are denied I seem to receive instead an increased a.s.surance that He knows best; and as to a child crying for sharp-edged tools, His refusal springs from omniscient mercy.”