John March, Southerner Part 29

"Who, me? Lord, yes! The finest girl I know is that way--dances Spanish dances--alone with other girls, of course. The church folks raised Cain about it once. O I--you think I mean Miss Halliday--well I do. Miss Garnet can tease me about her all she likes--ha, ha! it doesn't faze me!

Miss Fannie's nothing to me but a dear friend--never was! Why, she's older than I am--h-though h-you'd never suspect it."

"Well, yes, I think I should have known it."

"O go 'long! Somebody told you! But I swear, Mr. Fair, I wonder, sir, you're not more struck with Miss Halliday. Now, I go in for mind and heart. I don't give a continental for externals; and yet--did you ever see such glorious eyes as Fan--Miss Halliday's? Now, honest Ingin! _did_ you, _ever_?"

Mr. Fair admitted that Miss Halliday's eyes danced.

"You say they do? You're right! Hah! _they_ dance Spanish dances. I've seen black eyes that went through you like a sword; I've seen blue eyes that drilled through you like an auger; and I've seen gray ones that bit through you like a cold-chisel; and I've seen--now, there's Miss Garnet's, that just see through you without going through you at all--O I don't like any of 'em! but Fannie Halliday's eyes--Miss Fannie, I should say--they seem to say, 'Come out o' that. I'm not looking at all, but I know you're there!' O sir!--Mr. Fair, don't you hate, sir, to see such a creature as that get married to anybody? I say, to _anybody_! I tell you what it's like, Mr. Fair. It's like chloroforming a b.u.t.terfly, sir! That's what it's like!"

He meditated and presently resumed--"But, Law' no! She's nothing to me.

I've got too much to think of with these lands on my hands. D'you know, sir, I really speak more freely to you than if you belonged here and knew me better? And I confess to you that a girl like F--Miss Halliday--would be enough to keep me from ever marrying!"

"Why, how is that?"

"Why? O well, because!--knowing her, I couldn't ever be content with less, and, of course, I couldn't get her or make her happy if I got her.

Torture for one's better than torture for two. Mind, that's a long ways from saying I ever did want her, or ever will. I'm happy as I am--confirmed bachelor--ha-ha-ha! What I do want, Mr. Fair, sir, is to colonize these lands, and to tell you the truth, sir--h--I don't know how to do it!"

"Are your t.i.tles good?"

"Perfect."

"Are the lands free from mortgage?"

"Free! ha-ha! they'd be free from mortgage, sir, but for one thing."

"What's that?"

"Why, they're mortgaged till you can't rest! The mortgages ain't so mortal much, but they've been on so long we'd almost be afraid to take them off. They're dried on sir!--grown in! Why, sir, we've paid more interest than the mortgages foot up, sir!"

"What were they made for? improvements?"

"Impr--O yes, sir; most of 'em were given to improve the interior of our smoke-house--sort o' decorate it with meat."

"Ah, you wasted your substance in riotous living!"

"No, sir, we were simply empty in the same old anatomical vicinity and had to fill it. The mortgages wa'n't all made for that; two or three were made to raise money to pay the interest on old ones--interest and taxes. Mr. Fair, if ever a saint on earth lived up to his belief my father did. He believed in citizenship confined to taxpayers, and he'd pay his taxes owing for the pegs in his shoes--he made his own shoes, sir."

"Who hold these mortgages?"

"On paper, Major Garnet, but really Jeff-Jack Ravenal. That's private, sir."

"Yes, very properly, I see."

"Do you? Wha' do you see? Wish I could see something. Seems like I can't."

"O, I only see as you do, no doubt, that any successful scheme to improve your lands will have to be in part a public scheme, and be backed by Mr. Ravenel's newspaper, and he can do that better if he's privately interested and supposed not to be so, can't he?"

March stared, and then mused. "Well, I'll be--doggoned!"

"Of course, Mr. March, that needn't be unfair to you. Is it to accommodate you, or him, that Major Garnet lends his name?"

"O me!--At least--O! they're always accommodating each other."

"My father told me of these lands before I came here. He thinks that the fortunes of Suez, and consequently of Rosemont, in degree, not to speak"--the speaker smiled--"of individual fates, _is_ locked up in them."

"I know! I know! The fact grows on me, sir, every day and hour! But, sir, the lands are my lawful inheritance, and although I admit that the public----"

"You quite misunderstand me! Miss Garnet said--in play, I know--that the key of this lock isn't far off, or words to that effect. Was she not right? And doesn't Mr. Ravenel hold it? In fact--pardon my freedom--is it not best that he should?"

"Good heavens, sir! why, Miss Garnet didn't mean--you say, does Jeff-Jack hold that key? He was holding it the last time I saw him! O yes. Even according to your meaning he thinks he holds it, and he thinks he ought to. I don't think he ought to, and incline to believe he won't!

_Lift_ your miserable head!" he cried to his horse, spurred fiercely, and jerked the curb till the animal reared and plunged. When he laughed again, in apology, Fair asked,

"Do you propose to organize a company yourself to--eh--boom your lands?"

"Well, I don't--Yes, I reckon I shall. I reckon I'll have to. Wha' do you think?"

"Might not Mr. Ravenel let you pay off your mortgages in stock?"

"I--he might. But could I do that and still control the thing? For, Mr.

Fair, I've got to control! There's a private reason why I mustn't let Jeff-Jack manage me. I've got to show myself the better man. He knows why. O! we're good friends. I can't explain it to you, and you'd never guess it in the world! But there's a heavy prize up between us, and I believe that if I can show myself more than a match for him in these lists--this land business--I'll stand a chance for that prize. There, sir, I tell you that much. It's only proper that I should. I've got to be the master."

"Is your policy, then, to gain time--to put the thing off while you----"

"Good Lord, no! I haven't a day to spare! I'll show you these lands, Mr.

Fair, and then if you'll accept the transfer of these mortgages, I'll begin the work of opening these lands, somehow, before the sun goes down. But if I let Ravenel or Garnet in, I--" John pondered.

"Haven't you let them in already, Mr. March? I don't see clearly why it isn't your best place for them."

March was silent.

x.x.xII.

JORDAN

Barbara lay on a rug in her room, reading before the fragrant ashes of a perished fire. She heard her father's angry step, and his stern rap on her door. Before she could more than lift her brow he entered.

"Barb!--O what sort of posture--" She started, and sat coiled on the rug.

"Barb, how is it you're not with your mother?"

"Mom-a sent me out, pop-a. She thought if I'd leave her she might drop asleep."

He smiled contemptuously. "How long ago was that?"