Jupiter Lights Part 29

Then came a sound. Eve ran within, the two men behind her.

Little Jack, on the bed, was sleeping peacefully. Cicely had fallen from her seat to the matting that covered the floor.

Eve lifted her; kneeling on the matting, she held her in her arms.

XVIII.

The letter, though it was only a partial revelation, roused in Ferdie's wife a pa.s.sion of anger so intense that they were all alarmed. She did not speak or stir; she sat looking at them; but her very immobility, with the deep spot of red in each cheek, and her darkened narrowed eyes, made her terrible. This state lasted for twenty-four hours, during which time the poor old judge, unable to sit down or to sleep, wandered about, Hollis accompanying him silently, and waiting outside when he went every now and then to the entrance of the tent to look in. Paul came once. But Cicely's eyes darkened so when she saw him that Eve hurriedly motioned him away. She followed him out.

"Do not come again until I send for you."

"If there is nothing for me to do then, I might as well go to bed."

"You are fortunate in being able to sleep!"

"I shall sleep a great deal better than I did when I thought she would be starting south in spite of us," retorted Paul. "Imagine her arriving there and finding out--It's much worse than she knows; that letter only tells a little. There are others, telling more, which I have kept back."

"Did you really, then, keep back anything!"

"She'll forgive me. She'll forgive me, and like me better than ever; you'll see."

"And is it a question of you? It is her husband, her faith in him, her love for him," said Eve, pa.s.sionately.

"Oh, as to that, she will forgive _him_ the very first moment she sees him," answered Paul, going off.

Early in the morning of the second day, Cicely sent for him. "If you don't still believe in him, if you don't still love him--" she began the instant he entered, her poor little voice trying to be a threat.

"Of course I believe in him."

"And he is n.o.ble? and good?"

"If you can call him that--to-day--you are a trump," said Paul, delightedly.

He had gained his point; and, by one of the miracles of love, she could forgive her husband and excuse his fault; she could still worship him, believe in him. Paul also believed in him, but in another way. And upon this ground they met, Paul full of admiration for what he called her pluck and common-sense (both were but love), and she adoring him for his unswerving affection for his brother. Paul would go South soon; he would--he would make arrangements. She pinned all her faith upon Paul now; Paul was her demi-G.o.d because he believed in his brother.

And thus the camp-life went on again.

One morning, not long after this, Hollis and the judge were sitting at the out-door table, engaged with their fishing-tackle. Hollis was talking of the approaches of old age.

"Yes, two sure signs of it are a real liking for getting up early in the morning, and a promptness in doing little things. Contrariwise, an impatience with the younger people, who _don't_ do 'em."

"Stuff!" said the judge. "The younger people are lazy; that's the whole of it."

"Yet they do all the important work of the world," Hollis went on; "old people only potter round. Take Paul, now--he ain't at all keen about getting up at daylight; in fact, he has a most uncommon genius for sleep; but, once up, he makes things drive all along the line, I can tell you. Not the trifles" (here Hollis's voice took a sarcastic tone); "not what borrowed books must be sent here, nor what small packages left there; you never saw _him_ pasting slips out of a newspaper in a blank-book, nor being particular about his ink, with a neat little tray for pens; the things he concerns himself about are big things: ore contracts, machinery for the mines, negotiations with thousands of dollars tacked to the tail of 'em."

"I dare say," said the judge, with a dry little yawn; "Mr. Tennant is, without doubt, an excellent accountant."

The tone of this remark, however, was lost upon Hollis. "That Paul, now, has done, since I've known him, at least twenty things that I couldn't have done myself, any one of them, to save my life," he went on; "and yet I'm no fool. Not that they were big undertakings, like the Suez Ca.n.a.l or the capture of Vicksburg; but at least they were things _done_, and completely done. Have you ever noticed how mighty easy it is to believe that you _could_ do all sorts of things if you only had the opportunity? The best way, sir, to go on believing that is never to let yourself try! I once had a lot of that kind of fool conceit myself. But I know better now; I know that from top to bottom and all round I'm a failure."

The judge made no effort to contradict this statement; he changed the position of his legs a little, by way of answer, so as not to appear too discourteous.

"I'm a failure because I always see double," pursued Hollis, meditatively; "I'm like a stereoscope out of kilter. When I was practising law, the man I was pitching into always seemed to me to have his good side; contrariwise, the man I was defending had his bad one; and rather more bad because my especial business was to make him out a capital good fellow."

There was a sound of voices; Paul came through the wood on his way to the beach, with Cicely; Eve, behind them, was leading Jack.

"Are you going out again?" said the judge.

"Yes. Paul can go this morning," Cicely answered.

"But you were out so long yesterday," said the old man, following them.

"Open air fatigue is a good fatigue," said Paul, as he lifted Cicely into one of the canoes.

The judge had stopped at the edge of the beach; he now went slowly back into the wood and joined Hollis.

"Your turn, Miss Bruce," said Paul. And Eve and Jack were placed in a second canoe. One of the Indians was to paddle it, but he was not quite ready. Paul and Cicely did not wait; they started.

"I's a-goin' wis old Eve!--_old_ Eve!--_old_ Eve!"

chanted Jack, at the top of his voice, to the tune of "Charley is my darling," which Hollis had taught him.

"Seems mean that she should have to go with a Chip, when there are white men round," said Hollis.

The judge made no reply.

But Eve at that moment called, "Mr. Hollis, are you busy? If not, couldn't you come with me instead of this man?"

Hollis advanced to the edge of the woods and made a bow. "I am exceedingly pleased to accept. My best respects." He then took off his coat, and, clucking to the Indian as a sign of dismissal, he got into the canoe with the activity of a boy, and pushed off.

It was a beautiful day. The thick woods on the sh.o.r.e were outlined sharply in the Northern air against the blue sky. Hollis paddled slowly.

"Why do you keep so far behind the other boat?" said Eve, after a while.

"That's so; I'm just loafing," answered Hollis.

"Christopher H., paddle right along," he went on to himself. "You needn't be so afraid that Paul will grin; he'll understand."

And Paul did understand. At the end of half an hour, when Eagle Point was reached, and all had disembarked, he came to Hollis, and stood beside him for a moment.

"This canoe is not one of the best," Hollis remarked.

"No," said Paul.

"I think we can make it do for a while longer, though," Hollis went on, examining it more closely.