The General immediately seized his opportunity."'Sweet Auburn,loveliest village of the plain!'You are acquainted with the works of Goldsmith,sir?"I professed some knowledge of this author also,and the General's talk flowed ornately onward.Though I had little to say to him about his daughter's marriage,he had much to say to me.Miss Josephine St.Michael would have been gratified to hear that her family was considered suitable for Hortense to contract an alliance with."My girl is not stepping down,sir,"the father assured me;and he commended the St.Michaels and the whole connection.He next alluded tragically but vaguely to misfortunes which had totally deprived him of income.I could not precisely fix what his inheritance had been;sometimes he spoke of cotton,but next it would be rice,and he touched upon sugar more than once;but,whatever it was,it had been vast and was gone.He told me that I could not imagine the feelings of a father who possessed a jewel and no dowry to give her."Aqueen's estate should have been hers,"he said."But what!'Who steals my purse steals trash.'"And he sat up,nobly braced by the philosophic thought.But he soon was shaking his head over his enfeebled health.Was I aware that he had been the cause of postponing the young people's joy twice?Twice had the doctors forbidden him to risk the emotions that would attend his giving his jewel away.He dwelt upon his shattered system to me,and,indeed,it required some dwelling on,for he was the picture of admirable preservation."But I know what it is myself,"he declared,"to be a lover and have bliss delayed.They shall be united now.A soldier must face all arrows.What!"I had hoped he might quote something here,but was disappointed.His conversation would soon cease to interest me,should I lose the ex-citement of watching for the next classic;and my eye wandered from the General to the water,where,happily,I saw John Mayrant coming in the launch.I briskly called the General's attention to him,and was delighted with the unexpected result.
"'Oh,young Lochinvar has come out of the West,'"said the General,lifting his glass.
I touched it ceremoniously with mine."The day will be hot,"I said;"'The boy stood on the burning deck.'"
On this I made my escape from him,and,leaving him to his whiskey and his contemplating,I became aware that the eyes of the rest of the party were eager to watch the greeting between Hortense and John.But there was nothing to see.Hortense waited until her lover had made his apologies to Charley for being late,and,from the way they met,she might have been no more to him than Kitty was.Whatever might be thought,whatever might be known,by these onlookers,Hortense set the pace of how the open secret was to be taken.She made it,for all of us,as smooth and smiling as the waters of Kings Port were this fine day.How much did they each know?I asked myself how much they had shared in common.To these Replacers Kings Port had opened no doors;they and their automobile had skirted around the outside of all things.And if Charley knew about the wedding,he also knew that it had been already twice postponed.He,too,could have said,as Miss Eliza had once said to me,"The cake is not baked yet."The General's talk to me (I felt as I took in how his health had been the centred point)was probably the result of previous arrangements with Hortense herself;and she quite as certainly inspired whatever she allowed him to say to Charley.
As for Kitty,she knew that her brother was "set";she always came back to that.
If Hortense found this Sunday morning a passage of particularly delicate steering,she showed it in no way,unless by that heightened radiance and triumph of beauty which I had seen in her before.No;the splendor of the day,the luxuries of the Hermana,the conviviality of the Replacers--all melted the occasion down to an ease and enjoyment in which even John Mayrant,with his grave face,was not perceptible,unless,like myself,one watched him.
It was my full expectation that we should now get under way and proceed among the various historic sights of Kings Port harbor,but of this I saw no signs anywhere on board the Hermana.Abeam of the foremast her boat booms remained rigged out on port and starboard,her boats riding to painters,while her crew wore a look as generally lounging as that of her passengers.Beverly Rodgers told me the reason:we had no pilot;the negro Waterman engaged for this excursion in the upper waters had failed of appearance,and when Charley was for looking up another,Kitty,Bohm,and Gazza had dissuaded him.
"Kitty,"said Beverly,"told me she didn't care about the musty old forts and things,anyhow."I looked at Kitty,and heard her tongue ticking away,like the little clock she was;she had her Bohm,she had her nautical costume and her Remsen cooler.These,with the lunch that would come in time,were enough for her.
"But it was such a good chance!"I exclaimed in disappointment "Chance for what,old man?""To see everything--the forts,the islands--and it's beautiful,you know,all the way to the navy yard."Beverly followed my glance to where the gay company was sitting among the cracked ice,and bottles,and cigar boxes,chattering volubly,with its back to the scenery.He gave his laisser-faire chuckle,and laid a hand on my shoulder."Don't worry 'em with forts and islands,old boy!They know what they want.No living breed on earth knows better what it wants.""Well,they don't get it."
"Ho,don't they?"
"The cold fear of ennui gnaws at their vitals this minute."Shrill laughter from Kitty and Gazza served to refute my theory.
"Of course,very few know what's the matter with them,"I added."You seldom spot an organic disease at the start.""Hm,"said Beverly,lengthily."You put a pin through some of 'em.
Hortense hasn't got the disease,though."
"Ah,she spotted it!She's taking treatment.It's likely to help her--for a time."He looked at me."You know something;"
