The Complete Works of Stephen Crane (102 page)

“John,” said the old mother, from the profound mufflings of the pillow and quilts.

“What?” said the old man. He was tugging at his right boot, and his tone was very irascible.

“I think William’s changed a good deal.”

“Well, what if he has?” replied the father, in another burst of ill-temper. He was then tugging at his left boot.

“Yes, I’m afraid he’s changed a good deal,” said the muffled voice from the bed. “He’s got a good many fine friends, now, John — folks what put on a good many airs; and he don’t care for his home like he did.”

“Oh, well, I don’t guess he’s changed very much,” said the old man cheerfully. He was now free of both boots.

She raised herself on an elbow and looked out with a troubled face. “John, I think he likes that girl.”

“What girl?” said he.

“What girl? Why, that awful handsome girl you see around — of course.”

“Do you think he likes ‘er?”

“I’m afraid so — I’m afraid so,” murmured the mother mournfully.

“Oh, well,” said the old man, without alarm, or grief, or pleasure in his tone.

He turned the lamp’s wick very low and carried the lamp to the head of the stairs, where he perched it on the step. When he returned he said, “She’s mighty good-look-in’!”

“Well, that ain’t everything,” she snapped. “How do we know she ain’t proud, and selfish, and — everything?”

“How do you know she is?” returned the old man.

“And she may just be leading him on.”

“Do him good, then,” said he, with impregnable serenity. “Next time he’ll know better.”

“Well, I’m worried about it,” she said, as she sank back on the pillow again. “I think William’s changed a good deal. He don’t seem to care about — us — like he did.”

“Oh, go to sleep!” said the father drowsily.

She was silent for a time, and then she said, “John?”

“What?”

“Do you think I better speak to him about that girl?”

“No.”

She grew silent again, but at last she demanded, “Why not?”

“‘Cause it’s none of your business. Go to sleep, will you?” And presently he did, but the old mother lay blinking wild-eyed into the darkness.

In the morning Hawker did not appear at the early breakfast, eaten when the blue glow of dawn shed its ghostly lights upon the valley. The old mother placed various dishes on the back part of the stove. At ten o’clock he came downstairs. His mother was sweeping busily in the parlour at the time, but she saw him and ran to the back part of the stove. She slid the various dishes on to the table. “Did you oversleep?” she asked.

“Yes. I don’t feel very well this morning,” he said. He pulled his chair close to the table and sat there staring.

She renewed her sweeping in the parlour. When she returned he sat still staring undeviatingly at nothing.

“Why don’t you eat your breakfast?” she said anxiously.

“I tell you, mother, I don’t feel very well this morning,” he answered quite sharply.

“Well,” she said meekly, “drink some coffee and you’ll feel better.”

Afterward he took his painting machinery and left the house. His younger sister was at the well. She looked at him with a little smile and a little sneer. “Going up to the inn this morning?” she said.

“I don’t see how that concerns you, Mary?” he rejoined, with dignity.

“Oh, my!” she said airily.

“But since you are so interested, I don’t mind telling you that I’m not going up to the inn this morning.”

His sister fixed him with her eye. “She ain’t mad at you, is she, Will?”

“I don’t know what you mean, Mary.” He glared hatefully at her and strode away.

Stanley saw him going through the fields and leaped a fence jubilantly in pursuit. In a wood the light sifted through the foliage and burned with a peculiar reddish lustre on the masses of dead leaves. He frowned at it for a while from different points. Presently he erected his easel and began to paint. After a a time he threw down his brush and swore. Stanley, who had been solemnly staring at the scene as if he too was sketching it, looked up in surprise.

In wandering aimlessly through the fields and the forest Hawker once found himself near the road to Hemlock Inn. He shied away from it quickly as if it were a great snake.

While most of the family were at supper, Mary, the younger sister, came charging breathlessly into the kitchen. “Ma — sister,” she cried, “I know why — why Will didn’t go to the inn to-day. There’s another fellow come. Another fellow.”

“Who? Where? What do you mean?” exclaimed her mother and her sister.

“Why, another fellow up at the inn,” she shouted, triumphant in her information. “Another fellow come up on the stage this morning. And she went out driving with him this afternoon.”

“Well,” exclaimed her mother and her sister.

“Yep. And he’s an awful good-looking fellow, too. And she — oh, my — she looked as if she thought the world and all of him.”

“Well,” exclaimed her mother and her sister again.

“Sho!” said the old man. “You wimen leave William alone and quit your gabbling.”

The three women made a combined assault upon him. “Well, we ain’t a-hurting him, are we, pa? You needn’t be so snifty. I guess we ain’t a-hurting him much.”

“Well,” said the old man. And to this argument he added, “Sho!”

They kept him out of the subsequent consultations.

The next day, as little Roger was going toward the tennis court, a large orange and white setter ran effusively from around the corner of the inn and greeted him. Miss Fanhall, the Worcester girls, Hollanden, and Oglethorpe faced to the front like soldiers. Hollanden cried, “Why, Billie Hawker must be coming!” Hawker at that moment appeared, coming toward them with a smile which was not overconfident.

Little Roger went off to perform some festivities of his own on the brown carpet under a clump of pines. The dog, to join him, felt obliged to circle widely about the tennis court. He was much afraid of this tennis court, with its tiny round things that sometimes hit him. When near it he usually slunk along at a little sheep trot and with an eye of wariness upon it.

At her first opportunity the younger Worcester girl said, “You didn’t come up yesterday, Mr. Hawker.”

Hollanden seemed to think that Miss Fanhall turned her head as if she wished to hear the explanation of the painter’s absence, so he engaged her in swift and fierce conversation.

“No,” said Hawker. “I was resolved to finish a sketch of a stubble field which I began a good many days ago. You see, I was going to do such a great lot of work this summer, and I’ve done hardly a thing. I really ought to compel myself to do some, you know.”

“There,” said Hollanden, with a victorious nod, “just what I told you!”

“You didn’t tell us anything of the kind,” retorted the Worcester girls with one voice.

A middle-aged woman came upon the porch of the inn, and after scanning for a moment the group at the tennis court she hurriedly withdrew. Presently she appeared again, accompanied by five more middle-aged women. “You see,” she said to the others, “it is as I said. He has come back.”

The five surveyed the group at the tennis court, and then said: “So he has. I knew he would. Well, I declare! Did you ever?” Their voices were pitched at low keys and they moved with care, but their smiles were broad and full of a strange glee.

“I wonder how he feels,” said one in subtle ecstasy.

Another laughed. “You know how you would feel, my dear, if you were him and saw yourself suddenly cut out by a man who was so hopelessly superior to you. Why, Oglethorpe’s a thousand times better looking. And then think of his wealth and social position!”

One whispered dramatically, “They say he never came up here at all yesterday.”

Another replied: “No more he did. That’s what we’ve been talking about. Stayed down at the farm all day, poor fellow!”

“Do you really think she cares for Oglethorpe?”

“Care for him? Why, of course she does. Why, when they came up the path yesterday morning I never saw a girl’s face so bright. I asked my husband how much of the Chambers Street Bank stock Oglethorpe owned, and he said that if Oglethorpe took his money out there wouldn’t be enough left to buy a pie.”

The youngest woman in the corps said: “Well, I don’t care. I think it is too bad. I don’t see anything so much in that Mr. Oglethorpe.”

The others at once patronized her. “Oh, you don’t, my dear? Well, let me tell you that bank stock waves in the air like a banner. You would see it if you were her.”

“Well, she don’t have to care for his money.”

“Oh, no, of course she don’t have to. But they are just the ones that do, my dear. They are just the ones that do.”

“Well, it’s a shame.”

“Oh, of course it’s a shame.”

The woman who had assembled the corps said to one at her side: “Oh, the commonest kind of people, my dear, the commonest kind. The father is a regular farmer, you know. He drives oxen. Such language! You can really hear him miles away bellowing at those oxen. And the girls are shy, half-wild things — oh, you have no idea! I saw one of them yesterday when we were out driving. She dodged as we came along, for I suppose she was ashamed of her frock, poor child! And the mother — well, I wish you could see her! A little, old, dried-up thing. We saw her carrying a pail of water from the well, and, oh, she bent and staggered dreadfully, poor thing!”

“And the gate to their front yard, it has a broken hinge, you know. Of course, that’s an awful bad sign. When people let their front gate hang on one hinge you know what that means.”

After gazing again at the group at the court, the youngest member of the corps said, “Well, he’s a good tennis player anyhow.”

The others smiled indulgently. “Oh, yes, my dear, he’s a good tennis player.”