Here Comes a Candle (22 page)

TEN

T
hey made good time on the way home, returning to Penrose just as the shadows were lengthening and the day
’
s sounds dying toward dusk. Sarah had fallen asleep with her head in Kate
’
s lap, and Jonathan picked her up gently so as not to wake her.
“
Put the carriage away, Job,
”
he said,
“
and have the boy get out my horse. I
’
m riding to Boston tonight.
”

“
Yassuh, Mr. Jonathan, but I
’
ll gladly drive you if you
’
d liever.
”

“
No, thanks. The ride will do me good after sitting in the carriage all day.
”

“
You
’
ll take something to eat before you go?
”
Kate asked, and then wished she had not.

“
No, thank you. I
’
ve no doubt there will be a supper for me in Boston. Arabella keeps open house these days.
”
And indeed, when he rode into the Tontine Crescent soon after eight o
’
clock, it was to see flares burning at the
doo
r
of
his house and a carriage in the act
of
setting down guests
.

Arabella greeted him with her usual cool aplomb, almost as if he had been another guest.
“
Jonathan! I hardly expected you so late.
”

“
And not dressed for a party either. You must forgive me.
”

“
Oh, it
’
s nothing; just a few friends and a little music.
”
But the house was decorated throughout with flowers from the Botanical Gardens and the
“
few friends
”
kept on coming until there must have been thirty or forty of them in the two big rooms that could be thrown together on the main floor.

D
ownstairs, Jonathan found the usual lavish spread of buffet food for the gentlemen, and found too an old Harvard friend of his already sampling the lobster and pink champagne.

“
Josiah, you
’
re the very man I hoped to see.
”
Jonathan refilled his friend
’
s glass and helped himself more modestly to porter.

“
Delighted to hear it, Jon. What can I do for you?
”
He was in that happy state when sobriety is just ebbing away, and nothing much matters.

“
You know everyone in town, Josh: tell me about an Englishman—a prisoner of war called Manningham.
”

“
Charles Manningham?
”
Josiah swept the now crowded room with his wide half-focused stare.
“
Must be upstairs still-—devil of a ladies
’
man! Handsome, I reckon, if you like them long-haired and stinking of scent. Well—you know the English. Good family, to hear him talk, but short on the dollars—you know the kind of thing—take a lift in your hackney—take just about anything, if you ask me, and not much giving. Not much sign of getting his exchange, either, and going back to the fighting. Well, can
’
t say I blame him for that: nothing elegant about what
’
s going on up there at Niagara: I reckon he
’
s had enough. Besides—he
’
s got
...
interests here. Plenty of them. No need for you to worry, Jon—
”
This was the formidable frankness of the near-drunk.
“
It
’
s marriage he
’
s after, and the more dollars the better.
”

“
I see. And will he succeed, do you think?
”

“
Bound to, if he can just hang on here long enough. Far as I can see, the girls are all mad for him:
‘
Such an air,
’
you know,
‘
such manners.
’
He kisses their hands.
”
Josiah found this so exquisitely funny that he had to have recourse to his champagne glass to recover himself.
“
There he is, just come in at the doorway. Pretty, ain
’
t he? Shall I make you known to him?
”

“
No, thanks, Josiah. I think I
’
ll wait a little.
”
The last thing he wanted was to seem unduly interested in Manningham.
“
Tell me instead what
’
s new in town?
”

“
Nothing good, I can tell you. How could there be? What
’
s the use of old Granny Madison taking off his embargo, now the English are blockading us? Mark my words, Jon, there will be bankruptcies by the score if we don
’
t see the end of this war soon. It
’
s all very well for you with your contracts for uniform cloth, but what about the rest of us? I tell you, it breaks my heart to go down State Street and see the ships rotting in the harbor. You
’
d not think, to see her now, that our poor
Constitution
had ever sunk the
Guerriere.
Or shown the blasted British a clean pair of heels this winter. But look at her now! And where
’
s the end of it? Answer me that. What are they doing, down there in Washington, but talk? A separate peace, that
’
s what we need, and the sooner the better.
”

“
And destroy the Union? Have you thought what that would mean? The blockade
’
s hurting us, it
’
s true, but why? Because it interrupts our trade with the southern states. Well, then, break up the Union, and where are you? Where
’
s your trade then?
”

“
Good God, Jon! Don
’
t tell me you
’
ve turned Republican? Why—your old dad would turn in his grave if
co
uld hear you talk like that.
”

“
You forget that my father sacrificed everything he had for the cause of freedom and union.
”

“
Everythin
g
y
our old grandfather hadn
’
t sacrificed for the other side, eh?
”
But to Jonathan
’
s relief he was losing interest in the subject. As soon fetch water in a sieve as argue politics with a drunken man. Jonathan refilled h
i
s champagne glass and left him.

Manningham was at the far end of the long buffet table now, helping himself liberally to smoked oysters. Jonathan debated for a moment whether to go up and speak to him, but decided against it. The sight of him, exquisitely dressed, evidently satisfied with himself, and making the most of a free meal, brought too forcibly to mind what he had nearly done to Sarah that morning. And—one did not make scenes in one
’
s own house. He left the room quietly and went upstairs to find Arabella.

The floor had been cleared for dancing, and the
master of ceremonies was summoning the gentlemen to lead the ladies o
u
t for a cotillion. To Jonathan
’
s rather savage amusement, the first strains of music brought Manningham hurrying upstairs to claim the hand of a signally plain Miss Betterton whose father owned several successful privateers. Arabella, on the other hand, did not seem to be dancing, and Jonathan crossed the floor to join her.
“
You do not dance?
”

“
The floor
’
s quite full enough as it is. Besides, I
’
ve had an exhausting day. I want to talk to you, Jonathan.
”

“
Curiously enough, I want to talk to you too. But perhaps we had better delay the pleasure until your guests are gone.
”

“
Our guests, surely?
”

“
I don
’
t recollect inviting them. I can tell you one, at least, who would not be here if I had had the issuing of the invitations. I don
’
t like to see you connive at fortune-hunting, Arabella.
”

“
What do you mean?
”
And then, following his glance to where Manningham was leading his plain partner down the set,
“
Nonsense. Nothing of the kind.
”
She was oddly emphatic about it,
“
He does it, if you must know, as a favor to me. Since you are never here to help me with my parties, I just have to do the best I can.
”

“
And a very elegant best it seems to be.
”

If she noticed the irony in his voice, she chose to ignore it
“
Thank you, Jonathan. But you have brought up the very thing I wished to discuss with you.
”
She looked around. The dance was set to go on for some time longer and they were, for the moment, as good as alone in the room.
“
I
’
d rather get it over with now, if it
’
s all the same to you. It
’
s—painful, Jon. I should warn you.
”

“
If you mean to break it to me that your English friend over there nearly killed our daughter this morning, I know it already.
”

“
Of course. Mrs. Croston would have had to tell you that. I just wonder what else she chose to tell you.
”

“
What else?
”
He would not get angry.
“
If you really want to know, Arabella, she told me she thought it very encouraging that Sarah took the whole scene so well.
”

“
Mighty handsome of her, I
’
m sure.
”
And then, on a totally different note,
“
Jonathan, don
’
t let us quarrel. I
’
ve something I feel it my duty to tell you, and frankly, I don
’
t like doing it. Please help me.
”

“
Of course. I
’
m sorry, Bella, I don
’
t want to quarrel either.
”
Just for a moment, then, pleading with him, she had been the girl he had married, eager to please, unsure of herself, the young girl who had disappeared somehow into the accomplished woman of the world.

“
Thank you.
”
She stopped to look around again, but the dancing was still going full tilt, while men
’
s faces grew red and girls
’
hair began to tangle becomingly or otherwise on their shoulders.
“
It
’
s about Mrs. Croston,
”
she said.
“
Did she tell you that she knew Manningham in England?
”

“
Yes, she did.
”

“
Poor girl; she
’
d know she had to.
”
It sounded like genuine sympathy.
“
But I guess that was all she told you.
”

“
No. She said she thought he had ruined her father.
”

Now Arabella laughed.
“
Clever.
”
She said it almost with approval.
“
Not a bad try. You can
’
t help being sorry for her. To come all this way; to think she had lived it down; and then
...
Almost, Jonathan, I wonder if we should pretend we had never discovered.
”

“
Discovered what?
”

“
Why—the truth about Mrs. Croston. Had you never
wondered—I know I have, many times—how she—a minister
’
s daughter, gently bred, came to be wandering around Canada as the wife of a noncommissioned officer?
”

Of course he had.
“
I look on that as entirely her own affair,
”
he said.