Kennedy Square Part 49

The polished k.n.o.bs, knocker, and the perfect level and whiteness of the marble steps first caught his eye; then the door swung open and Jemima in white ap.r.o.n and bandanna stood bowing to the floor, Todd straight as a ramrod in a new livery and a grin on his face that cut it in two, with Kate and Harry hidden behind them, suffocating from suppressed laughter.

"Why, you dear Jemima! Howdy--... Why, who the devil sent that old table back, Todd, and the hall rack and--What!" Here he entered the dining-room. Everything was as he remembered it in the old days. "Harry!

Kate!--Why--" then he broke down and dropped into a chair, his eyes still roaming around the room taking in every object, even the loving cup, which Mr. Kennedy had made a personal point of buying back from the French secretary, who was gracious enough to part with it when he learned the story of its enforced sale--each and every one of them--ready to spring forward from its place to welcome him!

"So this," he stammered out--"is what you have kept me up at Moorlands for, is it? You never say a word to me--and--Oh, you children!--you children! Todd, did you ever see anything like it?--my guns--and the loving cup--and the clock, and--Come here you two blessed things and let me get my arms around you! Kiss me, Kate--and Harry, my son--give me your hand. No, don't say a word--don't mind me--I'm all knocked out and--"

Down went his face in his hands and he in a heap in the chair; then he stiffened and gave a little shiver to his elbows in the effort to keep himself from going completely to pieces, and scrambled to his feet again, one arm around Kate's neck, his free hand in Harry's.

"Take me everywhere and show me everything. Todd, go and find Mr. Pawson and see if Mr. Gadgem is anywhere around; they've had something to do with this"--here his eyes took in Todd--"You d.a.m.ned scoundrel, who the devil rigged you out in that new suit?"

"Ma.r.s.e Harry done sont me to de tailor. See dem b.u.t.tons?--but dey ain't nuthin' to what's on the top shelf--you'll bust yo'self wide open a-laughin', Ma.r.s.e George, when ye sees what's in dar--you gotter come wid me--please Mistis an' Ma.r.s.e Harry, you come too. Dis way--"

Todd was full to bursting. Had his grin been half an inch wider his ears would have dropped off.

"An' fore ye look at dem shelves der's annuder thing I gotter tell ye;--an' dat is dat the dogs--all fo' oh em is comin' in the mawnin'.

Mister Floyd's coach-man done tole me so," and with a jerk and a whoop, completely ignoring his master's exclamation of joy over the return of his beloved setters, the darky threw back the door of the little cubby-hole of a room where the Black Warrior and his brethren had once rested in peace, and pointed to a row of erect black bottles backed by another of rec.u.mbent ones.

"Look at dat wine, will ye, Ma.r.s.e George," he shouted, "all racked up on dern shelves? Dat come f'om Mister Talbot Rutter wid dis yere cyard--"

and he handed it out.

St. George reached over, took it from his hand, and read it aloud:

"With the compliments of an old friend, who sends you herewith a few bottles of the Jefferson and some Sercial and old Port--and a basket or two of Royal Brown Sherry--nothing like your own, but the best he could scare up."

Soon the newly polished and replated knocker began to get in its liveliest work: "Mrs. Richard Horn's compliments, and would St. George be pleased to accept a basket of Maryland biscuit and a sallylunn just out of the oven." Mrs. Bowdoin's compliments with three brace of ducks--"a little late in the season, my dear St. George, but they are just up from Currytuck where Mr. Bowdoin has had extremely good luck--for Mr. Bowdoin." "Mrs. Cheston's congratulations, and would Mr.

Temple do her the honor of placing on his sideboard an old Accomack County ham which her cook had baked that morning and which should have all the charm and flavor of the State which had given him birth--"

and last a huge basket of spring roses from Miss Virginia Clendenning, accompanied by a card bearing the inscription--"You don't deserve them, you renegade," and signed--"Your deserted and heart-broken sweetheart."

All of which were duly spread out on the sideboard, together with one lone bottle to which was attached an envelope.

Before the day was over half the club had called--Richard acting master of ceremonies--Kate and old Prim--(he seemed perfectly contented with the way everything had turned out)--doing the honors with St. George.

Pawson had also put in an appearance and been publicly thanked--a mark of St. George's confidence and esteem which doubled his practice before the year was out, and Gadgem--

No, Gadgem did not put in an appearance. Gadgem got as far as the hall and looked in, and, seeing all the great people thronging about St.

George, would have sneaked out again to await some more favorable occasion had not Harry's sharp eyes discovered the top of his scraggly head over the shoulders of some others, and darted towards him, and when he couldn't be made to budge, had beckoned to St. George, who came on a run and shook Gadgem's hand so heartily and thanked him in so loud a voice--(everybody in the hall heard him)--that he could only sputter--"Didn't do a thing, sir--no, sir--and if I--" and then, overwhelmed, shot out of the door and down the steps and into Pawson's office where he stood panting, saying to himself--"I'll be tuckered if I ain't happier than I--yes--by Jingo, I am. JIMminy-CRIMminy what a man he is!"

And so the day pa.s.sed and the night came and the neighbors took their leave, and Harry escorted Kate back to Seymours' and the tired knocker gave out and fell asleep, and at last Todd said good-night and stole down to Jemima, and St. George found himself once more in his easy chair, his head in his hand, his eyes fixed on the dead coals of a past fire.

As the echo of Todd's steps faded away and he began to realize that he was alone, there crept over him for the first time in years the comforting sense that he was once more under his own roof--his again and all that it covered--all that he loved; even his beloved dogs. He left his chair and with a quick indrawing of his breath, as if he had just sniffed the air from some open sea, stretched himself to his full height. There he stood looking about him, his shapely fingers patting his chest; his eyes wandering over the room, first with a sweeping glance, and then resting on each separate object as it nodded to him under the glow of the candles.

He had come into his possessions once more. Not that the very belongings made so much difference as his sense of pride in their ownership. They had, too, in a certain way regained for him his freedom--freedom to go and come and do as he pleased untrammelled by makeshifts and humiliating exposures and concealments. Best of all, they had given him back his courage, bracing the inner man, strengthening his beliefs in his traditions and in the things that his race and blood stood for.

Then as a flash of lightning reveals from out black darkness the recurrent waves of a troubled sea, there rushed over him the roll and surge of the events which had led up to his rehabilitation. Suddenly a feeling of intense humiliation and profound grat.i.tude swept through him.

He raised his arms, covered his face with his hands, and stood swaying; forcing back his tears; muttering to himself: "How good they have been--how good, how good! All mine once more--wonderful--wonderful!"

With a resolute bracing of his shoulders and a brave lift of his chin, he began a tour of the room, stopping before each one of his beloved heirlooms and treasures--his precious gun that Gadgem had given up--(the collector coveted it badly as a souvenir, and got it the next day from St. George, with his compliments)--the famous silver loving cup with an extra polish Kirk had given it; his punch bowl--scarf rings and knick-knacks and the furniture and hangings of various kinds. At last he reached the sideboard, and bending over reread the several cards affixed to the different donations--Mrs. Cheston's, Mrs. Horn's, Miss Clendenning's, and the others. His eye now fell on the lone bottle--this he had not heretofore noticed--and the note bearing Mr. Kennedy's signature. "I send you back, St. George, that last bottle of old Madeira, the Black Warrior of 1810--the one you gave me and which we were to share together. I hadn't the heart to drink my half without you and so here is the whole and my warmest congratulations on your home-coming and long life to you!"

Picking up the quaint bottle, he pa.s.sed his hand tenderly over its crusted surface, paused for an instant to examine the cork, and held it closer to the light that he might note its condition. There he stood musing, his mind far away, his fingers caressing its sides. All the aroma of the past; all the splendor of the old regime--all its good-fellowship, hospitality, and courtesy--that which his soul loved--lay imprisoned under his hand. Suddenly one of his old-time quizzical smiles irradiated his face: "By Jove!--just the thing!" he cried joyously, "it will take the place of the one Talbot didn't open!"

With a mighty jerk of the bell cord he awoke the echoes below stairs.

Todd came on the double quick:

"Todd."

"Yes, Ma.r.s.e George."

"Todd, here's the last bottle of the 1810. Lay it flat on the top shelf with the cork next the wall. We'll open it at Mr. Harry's wedding."

[THE END]