Kincaid's Battery Read online

  II

  CARRIAGE COMPANY

  Bareheaded the uncle crossed the fountained court, sat down at a tableand read again. In the veranda a negro, his own slave, hired to thishotel, held up an elegant military cap, struck an inquiring attitude,and called softly, "Gen'al?"

  "Bring it with the coffee."

  But the negro instantly brought it without the coffee and placed it onthe table with a delicate flourish, shuffled a step back and bowed low:

  "Coffee black, Gen'al, o' co'se?"

  "Black as your grandmother."

  The servant tittered: "Yas, suh, so whah it flop up-siden de cup itleave a lemon-yalleh sta-ain."

  He capered away, leaving the General to the little steamboats and to ablessed ignorance of times to be when at "Vicksburg and the Bends" thissame waiter would bring his coffee made of corn-meal bran and muddywater, with which to wash down scant snacks of mule meat. The listlesseye still roamed the arid page as the slave returned with the fragrantpot and cup, but now the sitter laid it by, lighted a cigar and mused:--

  In this impending war the South would win, of course--oh, God is just!But this muser could only expect to fall at the front. Then his largeestate, all lands and slaves, five hundred souls--who would inherit thatand hold it together? Held together it must be! Any partition of itwould break no end of sacredly humble household and family ties andwork spiritual havoc incalculable. There must be but one heir. Who?Hilary's mother had been in heaven these many years, the mother ofAdolphe eighteen months; months quite enough to show the lone brotherhow vast a loss is the absence of the right mistress from such veryhuman interests as those of a great plantation. Not only must there bebut one heir, but he _must have the right wife_.

  The schemer sipped. So it was Anna for Hilary if he could bring itabout. So, too, it must be Hilary for his adjutant-general, to keep himnear enough to teach him the management of the fortune coming to him ifhe, Hilary, would only treat his kind uncle's wishes--reasonably. Withthe cup half lifted he harkened. From a hidden walk and bower close onthe garden side of this vine-mantled fence sounded footsteps and voices:

  "But, Fred! where on earth did she get--let's sit in here--get thatrich, belated, gradual smile?"

  A memory thrilled the listening General. "From her mother," thought he,and listened on.

  "It's like," continued his nephew--"I'll tell you what it's like. It'slike--Now, let me alone! You see, one has to _learn_ her beauty--bydegrees. You know, there _is_ a sort of beauty that flashes on you atfirst sight, like--like the blaze of a ball-room. I was just nowthinking of a striking instance--"

  "From Mobile? You always are."

  "No such thing! Say, Fred, I'll tell you what Miss Anna's smile is like.It's as if you were trying--say in a telescope--for a focus, and at lastall at once it comes and--there's your star!"

  The Northerner softly assented.

  "Fred! Fancy Flora Valcour with that smile!"

  "No! Hilary Kincaid, I think you were born to believe in every femininecreature God ever made. No wonder they nickname you as they do. Now,some girls are quite too feminine for me."

  In his own smoke the General's eyes opened aggressively. But hark! Hisnephew spoke again:

  "Fred, if you knew all that girl has done for that boy and thatgrandmother--It may sound like an overstatement, but you must haveobserved--"

  "That she's a sort of overstatement herself?"

  "Go to grass! _Your_ young lady's not even an understatement; she's onlya profound pause. See here! what time is it? I prom--"

  On the uncle's side of the fence a quick step brought a newcomer, aCreole of maybe twenty-nine years, member of his new staff, in brightuniform:

  "Ah, General, yo' moze ob-edient! Never less al-lone then when al-lone?'T is the way with myseff--"

  He seemed not unrefined, though of almost too mettlesome an eye; inlength of leg showing just the lack, in girth of waist just the excess,to imply a better dignity on horseback and to allow a proud tailor toprove how much art can overcome. Out on the road a liveried blackcoachman had halted an open carriage, in which this soldier had arrivedwith two ladies. Now these bowed delightedly from it to the General,while Kincaid and his friend stood close hid and listened agape, equallyamused and dismayed.

  "How are you, Mandeville?" said the General. "I am not nearly as muchalone as I seem, sir!"

  A voice just beyond the green-veiled fence cast a light on this replyand brought a flush to the Creole's very brows. "Alas! Greenleaf," itcried, "we search in vain! He is not here! We are even more alone thanwe seem! Ah! where is that peerless chevalier, my beloved, accomplished,blameless, sagacious, just, valiant and amiable uncle? Come let us presson. Let not the fair sex find him first and snatch him from us forever!"

  The General's scorn showed only in his eyes as they met the blaze ofMandeville's. "You were about to remark--?" he began, but rose andstarted toward the carriage.

  There not many minutes later you might have seen the four men amicablygathered and vying in clever speeches to pretty Mrs. Callender and heryet fairer though less scintillant step-daughter Anna.