The Locusts' Years Part 11

"That is quite so," Charlotte replied gravely, and then, as Martin relapsed into laziness again, she remained studying him and pondering the somewhat irrelevant motives which had influenced his life.

"A jay-bird heel!" She looked with amused scrutiny at his somewhat emphasized masculine beauty. What magnificence, what unconscious arrogance of self-esteem lay unrebuked in this innocent youth; for in spite of the fact that he had known sin as she had never known it, that his unrestrained instincts had reached forth into experiments with life from which not only her s.e.x, but the inheritance of tradition and of environment had eternally debarred her--in spite of these facts, Charlotte had always a sense of cynical and satiated age beside his debonair innocence. It had been her lot to be both player and onlooker in that melodrama where the possession of ample means and the development of critical and aesthetic faculties have frowned upon the expression of a direct and creative ambition; and yet, where all that is subtly ambitious, and all that is meanly jealous, and all that is secretly arrogant, deprived of a natural and healthy expression, underlie and taint the whole body of society. She had come to realize that, in that world in which money must not be mentioned, money is the most indispensable necessity; that every instinct tabooed as vulgar has been so tabooed, because, when it is no longer recognized in speech, it may be the more successfully pursued in action. She had discovered that the exquisite charm of manner which is called high-bred unconsciousness is the result of a self-consciousness so unflagging that its possessor is incapable of losing herself utterly in any emotion; and that the final result of the developing process is an individuality whose utter selfishness and nullity are not patent simply because all the arts of society and all the material advantages of wealth are bent to the concealment of the truth. Collingwood was, as he had said of his sweetheart, "no fool." He had a keen interest in life, a rather broad knowledge of men and affairs as they are judged by concrete results; but of that sense of social values which amounts almost to a cult with our so-called aristocratic cla.s.ses, Martin was as ignorant as his primeval parents were of sin. Suddenly, as she looked at him, a quotation flashed into Charlotte's mind. She formed the words with her lips as her memory groped for them:

The ancients set no value on that half feminine delicacy, that nervous sensibility which we call distinction, and on which we pride ourselves. For the distingue man of the present day, a salon is necessary; he is a dilettante and entertaining with ladies; although capable of enthusiasms, he is inclined to scepticism; his politeness is exquisite; he dislikes foul hands and disagreeable odors, and shrinks from being confounded with the vulgar. Alcibiades had no apprehension of being confounded with the vulgar.

Martin opened his eyes as she was breathing the words to herself, but she did not stop. He stared at her, and when she paused, he asked:

"What kind of hoodoo was that?"

"That, O my Alcibiades, was a charm." She leaned forward and kissed him--a half repentant, wholly tender little caress. It pleased him, for while she was ready enough to be petted, Charlotte was slow to offer endearments. Lifelong habit was stronger even than the impulses of a naturally demonstrative nature.

"Who are you hoodooing? Me?"

"No: myself. It was I that needed the charm."

"Now you are getting mysterious again. Tell me what it was about." Collingwood had, when he desired to wheedle, not only a child's persistency but a child's alluringness. Charlotte had had experience in plenty with him, and knew her own weakness in resisting him. She cast a hasty glance around and perceived the steamer, the smoke of which had been visible when they gained the hill. They had, in seating themselves, half turned their backs in her direction, and she had crept very close to the island.

"Martin, that boat seems to be coming nearer. She would not come this close if she were heading for Cuyo."

"Eh! Here?" Collingwood raised himself alertly and stared. "That's strange. Coastguard. She isn't making Iloilo, or she would not be cutting across our bows; but it is a queer route for Cuyo. Why didn't she cut over to the west after leaving Romblon?"

"You'll have to signal her for information, Martin."

"Information be blanked. I'll signal her for fresh beef if she gets close enough. We may be able to exchange a bit of fish. Have you seen the fish parao go in yet?"

"It went by a few minutes ago."

"That's good. Maybe we had better go down and be ready to trade if she comes near enough. I'll send out a note with the launch. It looks, though, as if she were heading straight for us."

"Would a coastguard steamer drop mail here?"

"No: catch a Government captain dropping an anchor to oblige anybody. If she is coming in, it is either with somebody interested in pearl fishery statistics, or some sort of survey, or--" he turned suddenly, a teasing smile melting all his handsome features to winningness--"your friend Barton. Didn't he promise us a visit sometime?"

Martin had a.s.sumed a marital jocularity on the subject of the Judge. Charlotte had honestly but vainly tried to dispel from his mind his strong conviction that Judge Barton was a rival who had hardly been allowed to approach the tentative stages of worship. Her quick frown and "Impossible!" only made her husband grin more broadly. "That was a mere civility at parting," she insisted. "Judge Barton hasn't a particle of interest in us."

"He hasn't any in me, certainly; and he would be justified in not having any in you. Snapped his nose off, you did, every time he opened his mouth."

"Martin, you do not understand. I tried my best to be agreeable to Judge Barton, just as any nurse ought to be to any patient; and every time I 'snapped his nose off' as you express it, I did it in self-defence. He was very often impertinent to me."

"Why Charlotte, I heard pretty near every word he ever said to you, and I never heard anything out of the way."

They were going down hill by that time, Martin ahead, picking the trail; and Charlotte made a quaintly affectionate grimace behind his st.u.r.dy back. There were various reasons why she was unwilling to make any effort to enlighten Martin's denseness. There was no earthly danger of his appreciating unaided the delicate flavor of Judge Barton's impertinence.

"Anyway," she remarked, deftly slipping from the discussion of facts upon which disagreement was certain, "he will have forgotten both of us completely by this time, and there is not one chance in a hundred of his being on that boat if it does stop here." But Martin had time to correct her. He was willing to admit that there was not much certainty of the Judge's being on the boat unless she stopped; and then he stood ready to back his judgment. By the time they had crossed the cocoanut grove and had gained the beach, it was evident that the boat was making for the island. Kingsnorth had sighted her, and had sent out the launch, which was puffing busily toward her. "Kingsnorth's got as good a nose for fresh beef as I have,"

Collingwood grunted approvingly. The Maclaughlins were on their veranda with a pair of binoculars, and some excitement could be perceived even in the distant village.

The steamer slowed up in reply to signals from the launch, and evidently awaited advice about dropping anchor. When she did come to a halt, however, and put a boat out, Martin counted the persons who descended into it.

"Distinguished pa.s.sengers," he remarked concisely. "The captain would not put out the gang-way for his own use in that sea. Three men in white suits; three rowers; and the skipper is coming along. We're in for visitors, Charlotte. What is there for dinner?"

Charlotte was away on the instant. He heard her despatching boys--one to the village, bidding him secure the very best of the afternoon's catch; another to the poultry yard with orders to bring up the two fattest capons, but not to slay them till further orders. Complaining shrieks of the storeroom door, the hinges of which were exceedingly rusty, bore testimony to repeated openings; and the voice of old Pedro was audible, cursing the ice-machine.

By the time the boat was close in, the sun was fairly low and seemed to be sucking up the whole Visaya Sea is shafts of splendor. As soon as the narrowing distance permitted the little crafts' pa.s.sengers to be recognized, Collingwood c.o.c.ked a humorous eye upon his wife and went into silent ecstasies of laughter, much to the amazement of Kingsnorth and the Maclaughlins. Charlotte blushed, bit her lips and then she laughed also, at first in helpless embarra.s.sment, and finally with a sheer burst of merriment. She had barely time to recover her gravity when the boat grounded, and Judge Barton, as an acquaintance, took precedence of his fellow-pa.s.sengers, and was carried ash.o.r.e in time to introduce them as they landed. All had to avail themselves of the primitive transporting process by which Charlotte herself had made her landing, and it was in no hateful spirit that she admitted that dignity and such a progress are almost incompatible.

CHAPTER IX

This is an unexpected pleasure, murmured Mrs. Collingwood, giving to Judge Barton a warm pressure of the hand. For though she was proud and sensitive, she was not vindictive, and the Judge's conduct on her wedding day had gone far to blot out the recollection of their of their unamicable past. Also his presence was a compliment, an a.s.surance that his professions of interest were not wholly perfunctory.

"It should not be so," he replied. "What did I tell you on your wedding day? You've forgotten. I haven't, you see, and here I am! Moreover, I have brought you a commissioner and a gentleman interested in pearl sh.e.l.ls." By the time he had finished this long speech, the Judge had shaken hands with both husband and wife, and stood ready to introduce the men who followed him. They were respectively a member of the Philippine Commission and an American agent for a b.u.t.ton factory in the United States, who was desirous of making arrangements for a permanent supply of sh.e.l.ls.

"The Commissioner is headed for Cuyo, and will go on there to-morrow,"

said Judge Barton. "Mr. Jones would like to stay and see the field and talk business with Mr. Collingwood until the steamer returns, in about a week; and I have wondered if you could put up with me that long also. But n.o.body is to be inconvenienced. Knowing the limited resources of islands in the Visaya Sea, each of us has come provided with an army cot and bedding, and we have also a first-cla.s.s shelter tent. Likewise, remembering Mr. Collingwood's reminiscences in hospital, and being minded of the scarcity of fresh beef, I ventured to bring along the quarter of a cow--I believe a part of the hind quarter."

He got no further. Martin had again taken his hand between two bronzed paws and was shaking it fervently.

"I understand, Judge," he declared, "just why you hold your eminent position. A man can't be great these days without a head for detail, and you have one. There are plenty of men who would have forgotten all I said about this place, but you haven't. You remembered it at the right time. Now, frankly, Judge, where is that beef at the present moment?"

The Judge hooked a thumb in the direction of the steamer's boat. "That beef is in that dinghey," he replied, "and, without desiring to advise Mrs. Collingwood in her domestic arrangements, I should suggest that the sooner it is eaten the better. The steamer's ice-carrying facilities are limited, and it is by the grace of G.o.d that it has 'kept' till now."

"He means by the grace of Government coal, Mrs. Collingwood,"

interrupted the steamer's captain, who was standing by talking to Kingsnorth, whom he knew. "I had nearly to ruin my engines getting that beef down here, the Judge was so concerned about it." It came ash.o.r.e at that minute, a suggestively dead piece of beef in cheese-cloth wrappings, but the fishers received it almost with rites of welcome.

Kingsnorth and the Maclaughlins having been presented, the group wandered leisurely toward the Collingwood cottage. The newcomers protested that there was no need of Mrs. Collingwood's giving herself trouble about dinner; they could go back to the steamer for dinner; it would be waiting for them. It was the stereotyped convention throughout a land where hospitality is as catholic as is the necessity for it. Martin and Charlotte, naturally, would hear nothing of the visitors' returning to the steamer before bedtime.

"If you don't mind dinner's being a little late," Charlotte added, while Mrs. Maclaughlin threw in, in response to a last weak protest, "Trouble! Why we would cook for twenty people to get to talk to one."

So the boat went back for the tent, the cots, and the luggage of the prospective guests, while the visitors sat on Charlotte's veranda, enjoying the evening breeze and the sunset, as they drank tea and consumed delicious little triangles of b.u.t.tered toast, and slices of sweet cake. The Commissioner wanted to know all about the island: who owned it? what crops did it produce? was there an intelligent teniente? "He obeys the orders that we give him," replied Martin dryly, and the Commissioner smiled: Was there easy communication with the mainland? What did Mr. Collingwood think of coprax in the Visayas? Then, in an aside, to Charlotte, What a pity that he had not brought Mrs. Commissioner! she would have enjoyed this. Such a charming situation and such a delightful home! Mrs. Commissioner would never cease to regret having missed it. "We hope that you will have occasion to pa.s.s again, and will bring her with you," Charlotte murmured politely, and the great man a.s.sured her that he should make a point of it. "She loves atmosphere," he said. "We have more of that than anything else," Kingsnorth interjected, and to the Commissioner's hearty laugh, Martin added, "Specially when it is moving N.N.E. eighty miles an hour."

Meanwhile Judge Barton was trying out his Grand Army manner with Mrs. Maclaughlin, and privately taking stock of place and people.

"Chickens!" he said regretfully in response to her remark that she guessed those chickens would live a day longer in view of that quarter of beef. "Have I contributed, by my own unselfishness, to my own undoing? The chickens of Manila are not chickens, they are merely delusions in the form of blood, bones, and feathers, bought, killed, and served, by a succession of inhuman Chinese cooks, for the sole purpose of tantalizing the American stomach. Do I understand that you feed your chickens, and that they are actually fat?"

"Fat as b.u.t.ter," said Mrs. Maclaughlin proudly.

The Judge sighed with antic.i.p.ation. "I'm glad I'm going to stay a week," he declared. "I'm fond of chicken--when it is chicken. But tell me, are you never lonely here, Mrs. Maclaughlin?"

"I am. Charlotte ain't."

The Judge took note of the familiarity, but the laughing eye he turned upon Mrs. Collingwood did not betray that fact. "Yes, we are talking about you," he said in response to the glance she gave, hearing her name used. "Mrs. Maclaughlin says that you are never lonely."

"Of course I am not. I have too many occupations. I am busy from morning till night. There is no excuse for ennui."