A Summer's Outing Part 13

"Bress de Lord, Mars Jack; shout glory hallelujer Dineh, you black n.i.g.g.ar! We'se free! and created equal as shuah as Tom Jeffersom printed de declaratium!"

I made him sit down and tell his story. He told me all he thought of interest regarding the dear home of my childhood.

I tried to get him to the point on which I most desired information, but he could not be induced to alter the thread of his narration in the least detail. Finally I learned that Belle, who had gone abroad twelve months before, was to be married in a month to an Italian Lord.

"Jess think of it Dineh--git it through yo' wool, ole gal.--over dah dey calls men lords. I don't wonnah dat Sodum and Gomorrah was guv up to fire and brimstone. I specks dar was lords in dem days.

The reel Lord will make Miss Belle a piller of salt--shuah! stick dat in yo' craw, Dineh--dar is one Lord, and he tells us in de book, dat he am a jellus G.o.d."

Jim then spread before me a newspaper printed in ----. It announced, as a most important event--"That the beautiful and queenly Mrs. Belle ---- whose husband, Mr. John ---- had mysteriously disappeared in 185--, supposed to have died of cholera in India, had become a Catholic and was about to be married to the Marquis of ---- in Rome. Mrs. ---- had with hopeful love for her husband, for all these years refused to credit the report of his death; even now, she was unwilling to act on information she had gained at great expense, from India; information which every one else thought thoroughly reliable. She had therefore applied to the Pope for a dispensation; that as soon as the formalities necessary at the Vatican were completed, she would at once become the Marchionness of ----. The marriage was to occur on the ---- day ----, just one month from the day of the publication of this paper."

Oh Jamison, old fellow, that was a happy hour for me. I had that day closed very successful deals. I was almost rich and could win and wear Rita. I did not for a moment doubt she would be mine, for I honestly believed her my mate. All impatience to fly to her, I made an arrangement to travel south for a Chicago firm, to be paid out of commission alone. Jim informed me that Rita's aunt sometimes rented her front parlor and a bed-room attached, to traveling men with samples; that it was a source of much mortification to the niece, for the elderly lady was rich and had no children, renting the room out of pure avarice. I resolved to lease it, for it would bring me close to Rita and would arouse her animosity, out of which I would s.n.a.t.c.h victory.

I washed every vestige of Jack Felden from my hair and skin, but put a scar on my cheek, which with a full beard and straight hair, I thought would insure me against all recognition, should chance bring me in contact with some one I had known in early manhood. On reaching ----, leaving my luggage and sample boxes at the wharf, I went at once to the home of the aunt; secured the rooms and agreed to pay a large price for my breakfast and supper in the house.

Thus the best of treatment was secured, for the avaricious old lady would try to keep me as long as possible.

My first meal in the house, was supper. When Rita came to the table, she scarcely deigned to notice me. She disliked me for taking the parlor.

Mrs. Allen, the aunt, was a screw, but she was an epicure. Her old cook was an artist. Like all genuine gourmets, the old lady was a table talker, and a good one. I resolved to return Miss Rita's disdain, by ignoring her presence, and if possible to arouse her interest in me, against her will.

When the aunt served me with tea, she said:

"Mr. Felden, there is a cup which I am sure you cannot equal in Chicago. New made people can soon become good judges of coffee, but a connoisseur in tea must have blue blood in his veins."

"I do not boast a long line of ancestry," I rejoined, "but my palate must be the heritage of good blood, for I enjoy the Chinese drink greatly, and am very particular as to the brand. There is only one country in the world where good tea is almost universal.

A bad cup in Russia, I found the exception."

"Ah," she said, "but it is in England, that it is always above the average."

"Yes," I acknowledged, "as a food, not as a beverage. English tea is good to eat--that is to mix with, and wash down your m.u.f.fins.

In Russia tea is a drink, and is even jealous of a thing so coa.r.s.e as sugar. I learned there to put into my cup only a soupcon of sweet."

"You have been in the land of the Czar then, have you?"

"I spent some time within his dominions," I replied.

"You have been a traveler, then I suppose. What other countries have you visited? Pardon my seeming impertinence, but I have found it a good beginning to an acquaintance, to learn where each has been. I have myself, wandered considerably, but only in Europe."

"I have visited nearly every European land;" I said, for I was determined to please her and at the same time to win the attention of the niece, who so far, had only noticed me by casual glances, "have hunted the tiger in Indian jungles and laved my limbs in holy Ganges among its devotees."

"Oh, how charming!" the good lady exclaimed. "I thought I was getting only a liberal lodger and I find I may be entertaining a savant."

"To get myself on the best footing, dear Madam," I rejoined, "I will say I have straddled the equator, and have used the Arctic Circle for a trapeze."

She clapped her hands, saying, "That's capital, is it not, Rita?

What else, and where else, Mr. Traveler?"

"In Burmah I have ogled beauties with huge cigars piercing the lobes of their ears, and have worshipped Soudanise ladies closely veiled on the upper Nile, awakening from my dream of adoration to find the Yashmac of my divinities covering ebony coloured features."

"Go on, dear sir, go on, I am wrapt in profound attention," and the old wizened eyes sparkled with pleasure.

"I have been in ----," I glanced at Rita, she was listening with intense interest; I grew ashamed of the game and paused. But knowing how a woman's nature clothes the mysterious man in brightest garments, and is ready to find the prince in beggar's raiment, I resolved to show her a despised drummer, who had been in all lands, and even an actor in wild and dangerous adventures.

"I have crossed the dark teak forests of Siam, where jungle fever kills its victims in a single day, and escaped its venom by swallowing quinine by the handful and by sleeping in the houdah on my elephant's back. A single night on the ground would have been death."

Rita changed her seat to become my vis-a-vis and from then never removed her eyes from my face.

I continued: "In Cambodia I lived a week in a grand palace, surrounded by huge temples of fine architectural beauty; temples and palaces covering a mile square; and excepting my servants, I was the only tenant of a magnificent lost city. Trees were rooting on the friezes of n.o.ble porticos and splitting their marble members asunder.

"I was once caged in a small cave near old Golconda, and my guard of honor was a huge tiger, who lay across the entrance to the den, and strove to tear down the barricade I had erected to keep him out. His fierce growls as he wildly scratched against the granite wall, curdled the blood in my veins and his breath came hot upon my face, the winding crevices in the barricade permitting this, while not allowing me to shoot through them. I sat rifle in hand, expecting every minute that my protection would give way, and then barely hoping that I might send a bullet into the monster's brain.

Finally the wall toppled--he crouched for the fatal spring, when a sh.e.l.l from my faithful gun pierced his heart, and I sank in a swoon from long excitement, and physical exhaustion."

A sweet voice of intense emotion came across the table.

"And--and--please tell me how long did you lie in the swoon?"

Ah, how I did long to press to my bosom that dear, sympathetic heart!

I replied, "I do not know, but when I came to, I felt I was dying from thirst. I crept through the opening and with the tiger's blood not yet cold, moistened my parching tongue. I lapped it in a sort of revenge."

"That was grand! Oh, why am I not a man?" she exclaimed.

I leaned towards her, my heart spoke in tones she did not mistake.

"Thank G.o.d! thank G.o.d! you are not."

She started, her eyes met mine, every drop of blood seemed to leave her cheek, she was so pale; our eyes looked into our eyes.

Her face crimsoned, and she rushed out of the room.

Mrs. Allen apolegetically--"do not mind that child, Mr. Felden, she's an idiot," and then, her face became nearly malignant, "Yes, she's an idiot, a plague and a nuisance."

How I hated her! How I gloated over the idea, that I would take the plague from her, resolved never to ask her consent. For several days the young lady's manner was constrained but not haughty. I was differential but reserved. Indeed I felt a sort of timidity when she was present. I avoided every appearance of throwing myself into her company.

I spent some time in the business quarter of town and soon secured some capital orders for my employers. This gave me real pleasure.

You, old Jamison, who are so true to your firm, understand this feeling. I made excursions to other towns where I was somewhat successful.

The fourth Sunday was a glorious sunny day, just the one for a long ramble in the country.

At breakfast I asked Rita to join me in a const.i.tutional. The aunt spoke up, "Of course she will, I would go myself, but my lame foot forbids it."

I proposed going to the hotel to get a lunch.

"No! No!" the old lady said. "No! I will put you up a nice basket.

In a few days you will take me out for a long promenade a voiture." I consented by a nod.

With basket in hand, we left the house early. My companion wore a charming but plain walking habit; a boy's straw hat sat jauntily on her head. I was sure I had never seen anything half so beautiful, as was this dark, yet fair young girl. Rita was a glorious walker. Hers was not the gliding swimming motion which in America and especially in the South, has been regarded as the ne plus ultra of female grace; but the light springing movement, with which fair Eve tripped over Eden's bloom bespangled glens, when she gathered flowers of every sweet odor and of every native tint to deck her bridal bed; when she tripped over nature's parterres and scarcely brushed away the dews sparkling on their wealth of fragrant bloom.

We walked and gaily chatted. She lost all the reserve, which since I became an inmate of her auntie's home had more or less marked her demeanor. She was the young village maiden, who had in artless innocence, at Boston's old frog pond, laughingly talked with the respectful stranger. But when our eyes met, her soul spoke unconsciously through them, telling me that she read my heart and was full of sympathy.

We reached a high tree-clad bluff, which overlooked a wide river bend. The sun was warm, but sent upon us no burning rays; rather shimmering his light through the leafy shade. Across the stream, a broad bottom lay, waving in gra.s.s and grain, and bright here and there with opening cotton bloom. We sat side by side on a fallen tree, and drank in the beauty of a picture painted from colors worked upon nature's pallette.