The Flower of the Chapdelaines Read online

  The father was frank yet deferential. Our parley was brief. His onlypomp lay in his manner of calling me madam. I felt myself a queen.Handing him a note to the stable-keeper, "You can read," I said, "can'tyou? Or your son can?"

  "No, madam, I regrets to say we's minus dat."

  I hid my pleasure. "Well, at the stable, if they seem to think thisnote is from a man, or that the coach is owned by a man----"

  "Keep silent," put in Euonymus, "an' see de counsel o' de Lawdovehcome."

  Luke went. I pencilled another note. It requested my landlady to giveEuonymus a hat, boots, and suit from my armoire and speed him back allshe could. (To avoid her queries.)

  Rebecca gazed anxiously after this second messenger. Robelia, near by,munched blackberries.

  "Rebecca, did you ever think what you'd do if both your children werein equal danger?"

  "Why, yass'm, I is studie' dat, dis ve'y day, ef de trufe got to betol'."

  Thought I: "If anything else has to be told, Robelia'll be my onlyhelper." I asked Rebecca which one she would try to save first.

  "Why, mist'ess, I could tell dat a heap sight betteh when de time come.De Lawd mowt move me to do most fo' de one what least fitt'n' to"--shechoked--"to die. An' yit ag'in dat mowt depen' on de circumstances o'de time bein'."

  "Well, it mustn't, Rebecca, it mustn't!"

  "Y'--yass'm--no'm'm! Mustn' it?"

  "No, in any case you must do as I tell you."

  "Oh, o' co'se! yass'm!"

  "So promise, now, that in any pinch you'll try first to save your son."

  "Yass'm." A pang of duplicity showed in her uplifted glance, yet shemurmured again: "Yass'm, I promise you dat." Nevertheless, I had mydoubts.

  A hum of voices told us my two anglers were approaching, and withRebecca's quieting hand on the pusillanimous Robelia we drew intohiding and saw them cross the corner of a clearing and vanish againdownstream. Then, hearing the coach, we went to meet it.

  Both messengers were on the box. Euonymus passed me my bundle ofstuff. The coach turned round. Bidding Euonymus stay on the box I hadRebecca and Robelia take the front seat inside. Following in Iremarked: "Good boy, that of yours, Luke."

  Luke bowed so reverently that I saw Euonymus's belief in me was not hisalone. "We thaynk de Lawd," Luke replied, "fo' boy an' gal alike; degood Lawd sawnt 'em bofe."

  "Yet extra thanks for the son wouldn't hurt."

  Robelia buried a sob of laughter in the nearest cushion, and as werolled away gaped at me with a face on which a dozen flies danced andplayed tag. And so we went----.

  Chester ceased reading and stood up. For Mlle. Chapdelaine was rising.All the men rose.

  "And so, also," she said, "I too must go."

  "Oh, but the story is juz' big-inning," Mme. Alexandra protested, andMme. De l'Isle said:

  "I'm sure 'twill turn out magnificent, yes!"

  Mademoiselle declared the tale fascinating. She "would be enchanted tostay," but her aunts _must_ be considered, etc.; and when Chesterconfessed the reading would require another session anyhow Mmes. Del'Isle and Alexandre arose, and M. Castanado asked aloud if there wasany of the company who could not return a week from that evening.

  No one was so unlucky. "But!" cried Mme. Alexandre, "why not to myparlor?"

  "Because!" said Mme. Castanado, to Chester's vivid enlightenment,"every week-day, all day, you have mademoiselle with you."

  "With me, ah, no! me forever down in my shop, and mademoiselleincessantly upstair'!"

  Mme. Castanado prevailed. That same room, one week later.

  Scipion and Dubroca escorted Mme. De l'Isle across to her beautifulgates, and Chester, not in dream but in fact, with M. De l'Isle andMme. Alexandre following well in the rear, walked with mademoiselle tothe high fence and green batten wicket of her olive-scented garden inthe rue Bourbon. So walking, and urged by him, she began to tell ofmatters in her father's life, the old Hotel St. Louis life before hersbegan--matters that gave to "The Clock in the Sky" and "The Angel ofthe Lord" a personal interest beyond all academic values.

  "We'll finish about that another time," she said, and with "anothertime" singing in his heart like a taut wire he verily enjoyed therasping of the wicket's big lock as he turned away.

  The week wore round. Except M. De l'Isle, kept away by a meeting ofthe Athenee Louisianais, all were regathered; one thing alone delayedthe reading. Each of the three women had separately asked her fatherconfessor how far one might justly--well--lie--to those seeking thetruth only for cruel and wicked ends. But as no two had received thesame answer, and as Chester's uncle was gone to his reward--orpenalty--the question was early tabled. "Well," Mme. Castanado said:"'And so we went--' in the coach. Go on, read."

  XIII

  And so we went, not through the town but around it.

  My attendants were heavy with sleep. Seating Rebecca next me I calledEuonymus into the coach and let mother, son, and daughter slumber atease.

  To the few persons we met I paraded my bonnet and curls. Some, inSouthern fashion, I questioned. I was a widow who had sold herplantation in order to go and live with a widowed brother. Euonymustoo I showed off, who, waking at every halt, presented a face thatseemed any boy's rather than a runaway's. So natural to these Africanswas the supernatural that I could be one of the men who plucked Lotfrom Sodom and yet a becurled widow.

  When at noon, at a farmhouse, we had fed horses and dined, I at theplanter's board, my "slaves" under the house-grove trees, Euonymus tookthe lines, and for five hours Luke slept inside. Then they changedplaces again, and Euonymus and I, face to face, watched the long hotday wane, and pass through gorgeous changes into twilight. Often I sawquestions in the young eyes that watched me so reverently, but I darednot encourage them; dared not be a talkative angel. Also my brain hadits questions. How was I to get out of the most perilous trap intowhich a sane man--if sane I was--ever thrust himself? There was nosign that we were being pursued, but it was a harrowing puzzle how,without drawing suspicion upon the runaways, to get them once moreseparated from me and the coach while I should vanish as a lady andreappear as a gentleman.

  "Euonymus, boy, if I should by and by dress as a man could you putthese woman things on, over what you're wearing, and be a lady in myplace?"

  "Why, eh, y'--yass'm. Oh, yass'm, ef you say so, my--mistress;howsomever, you know what de good book say' 'bout de Ethiopium."

  "Can't change--yes, I know; but this would be only for an hour or twoand in the dark."

  "It'd have to be pow'ful dahk," sighed Euonymus, and from Robelia'ssunbonnet came--"Unh!"

  Rebecca interposed: "An' still, o' co'se, we all gwine do ezac'ly whatyou say."

  "Well," I responded, "maybe we won't do that." And we never did. Iwas still "Mrs. Southmayd," as we came into a small railway station.At the ticket-window I asked if any one had come up in the train ofhalf an hour before, inquiring for a lady in a coach.

  "No, ma'am, nobody got off that train. But there's another train athalf past eight."

  "Oh," I whined, "he won't come on that; he's overrated my speed andgone on to the next station, making five miles more going for me!"

  "Why, no, you can give three of your servants a pass to go on with thecarriage, keep your maid and wait for the train."

  "Ah, no! No lady can choose to travel by rail where she can go in herown coach!"

  They said no more except to warn Luke of a bad piece of road about twomiles on. Sure enough, in its very middle--crack!--we broke down. "Dekingbolt done gone clean in two!" said Luke, and Robelia repeated thenews explosively.

  "We'll leave the coach," I announced. "Fold the lap-robes on the backsof the two horses, for Rebecca and me. You-all can walk beside us."

  After a while, so going, we passed a large plantation house, itswindows ruddy with home cheer. A second quarter-mile brought dimly toview a railroad water-tank and an empty flag-station house, and in thenext bit of woods I spoke to Euonymus: "Have you that bundle? Ah, yes
.Luke, this boy and I are going off here a step for me to change mydress. If any passer questions you, say I'll be right back."

  "Yass, madam, but, er, eh--wouldn' you sooner take yo' maid, Robelia,instid?"

  "No, for as to dress I'll be as much of a man, when I get back, asEuonymus."

  "Is Euonymus gwine change dress too?"

  "No, these things that I take off, your wife and Robelia may dividebetween them."

  I started away but Luke lifted a hand. I thought he was going to claimevery dud for Robelia. Not so.

  "We all thanks you mighty much, madam, but in fac', ef de trufe got tobe tol'----"

  "It hasn't got to be told _me_, Luke, if I----"

  "Oh, no, madam, o' co'se. I 'uz on'y gwine say--a-concernin'Euonymus----"

  I hurried off while the wife chided her good man: "Why don't you desshide all dem thing' in yo' heart like _dey_ used to do when d' angel'pear' unto _dem_?"

  Alone with Euonymus, as I whipped off my feminine garb and whirled intothe other, I began to say that however suddenly I might leave thefugitives they must rest assured that I was not deserting them. Towhich----

  "Oh, my Lawd," Euonymus replied, "us know dat!"

  We reached the pike again. "Rebecca, dismount. Hand me your bridle.Luke, for you-all's better safety I'm going back and return thesehorses. We may not see one another again----"

  "Oh, Lawdy, Lawdy!" moaned Rebecca.

  "In dis vain worl' you mean," Luke said.

  "That's all. Come, don't waste time. You'd better walk on for a shortway in the pike before taking to the woods. Now go all night for allyou're worth. Good-by." I turned abruptly. But my led horse wasaverse to abruptness, and all the family except the torpid Robeliapoured up their blessings and rained kisses on my very feet.

  In my half-intelligent plan I intended first to stop at the house wehad gone by, and had reached the gate of its front lane when I met oneof its household, a lad of sixteen, on the pike.

  "Yes, he had just seen the disabled coach."

  I said that by business appointment with the lady who had just left thecoach I had gone to the next railway station northward in order to meether. That I had come down the turnpike on a hired horse and met herand her servants pushing forward to our appointment as best they could.Now, I said, our business, a law matter, was accomplished and she wasgone on on my hired horse. This span I was taking back to the stablewhence I had hired them for her in the morning.

  The boy's graciousness shamed me through and through. "Why, certainly!He would have the coach drawn up to the house before sunrise and wouldkeep it as long as I liked." He asked me in, but I went on to thelittle railway town, repeated my tarradiddle at its "hotel," and soonwas asleep.

  ["'Tarradi'l','" said Mme. Castanado, "tha'z may be a species ofpaternoster, I suppose, eh?"

  "No," said Scipion, "I think tha'z juz' a fashion of speech that hetook a drink. I do that myself, going to bed."

  Chester explained, but said that to admit one's untruthfulness by evena nickname implied _some_ compunction. Whereat two or three put in:

  "Ah! if he acknowledge' his compunction he's all right! But we arestopping the story."

  It went on.]

  XIV

  I was awakened, after the breakfast hour, by a tap on my door. Why itgave me consternation I could not have told; I dare say my inveracitiesof the day before had failed to digest. "Come in," I called, and instepped my two fishermen.

  Their good mornings were pleasant, but, "Fact is," said one, "we'rebothered about your client."

  "The lady who passed through here last evening?"

  "Yes, it looks as though----"

  "Go on while I dress. Looks as though--what?"

  "As though she wa'n't what you thought, or else----"

  I smiled aggressively: "Pardon, I _know_ that lady. 'Or else,' yousay? What else? Go on."

  "Oh, you go on dressing. Do you know them darkies are hers?"

  "Hoh! Are your teeth yours? Why do you ask?"

  He handed me a newspaper clipping:

  Two Hundred Dollars Reward. Ran away from my plantation in ---- countyof this State, on the ------ day of ------ the following named anddescribed slaves; father, mother, daughter, and son: . . . A reward offifty dollars will be paid to any person for the capture andimprisonment in any jail, of each or either of the above named. Etc.

  With a laugh I returned the thing and went on dressing. "It doesn't,"I said aloud to my busy image in the mirror, "describe my client'sdarkies at all." I faced round: "Why, gentlemen, if this isn't themost astonishing----"

  "Ho-old on. Ho-old on! Finish your dressing. We're told it doesdescribe two of them and we thought we'd just come and see forourselves."

  "And you followed the unprotected lady?"

  "We followed four runaway niggers, sir! Else why did they take to thewoods inside of a mile from that house where you left the coach? Oh,you're dressed; come along; time's flying!"

  Determined to waste all the time I could, "Wait," I said, strapping onmy pistol. "Now, gentlemen, we'll follow this matter to the end,beginning now, instantly. But it must be done as----"

  "Oh, as privately as possible! Certainly!"

  "Certainly. You want the reward and you want it all. But understand,I know you're in error, and I go with you solely to prove you are.Now, by your theory----"

  "Oh, come along!" We went. I killed time over my coffee, and ingetting a saddle for one of my hired span. "You must excuse us ifwe're not polite," my friends apologized after another flash ofimpatience. "Of course those niggers are not on the run in broad day,but their trail's getting cold!"

  "You're not as bad-mannered as I am," I laughed as we mounted, buttheir allusion to hounds made me enjoy the burden of my six-shooter.

  As we ambled off, "What were you going to say," one asked me, "aboutour 'theory,' or something?"

  "Oh! I see you think Mrs. Southmayd must have met up with company andleft her servants to follow on to the next station alone."

  "Exactly. We tracked the darkies along the edge of the road; but herhorse tracks--we could only see that no horse tracks left the roadwhere any of their man tracks left it."

  When we had gone a mile or so one of the boys turned to leave us by aneighborhood road, saying: "I'll rejoin you, 'cross fields, where youturned back last night. I'm going for the dogs."

  "Stop! Gentlemen, this is too high-handed. Do you reckon I'll let yourun down those four innocent creatures with hounds? I _swear_ youshan't do it, sirs."

  "See here," said the one still with me, "come on. We'll show you thevery spots where those innocents left the road one by one, and if youdon't say they've used every trick known to a nigger to kill theirtrail, we'll just quit and go home. Does that suit you?"

  "Not by a long chalk!" I retorted as I moved with him up the pike."Those poor simpletons--alone in a strange land, maybe without a pass,at any moment liable to meet a patrol--how easy for them to make thefatal mistake of leaving the road and hiding their tracks!"

  "All right, come ahead, you'll see fair play."

  We passed the scene of the breakdown and then the house to which thecoach had been drawn. I saw the coach in a stable door. By and by aturn in the pike revealed the other clerk and a tall, slim horsemanjust dismounting among four lop-eared, black-and-brown dogs coupled twoand two by light steel breast-yokes. With a heavy whip and without afrown this man gave one of them a quick cut over the face as the bruteventured to lift a voice as hollow and melodious as a bell.

  "He's a puppy I'm breaking in," said the man. "Now here, you see"--hepointed to the middle of the road--"is where you, sir, met up with themadam and her niggers, and given her yo' hoss and taken her span.Here's the tracks o' the span, you takin' 'em back; you can see they'rethe same as these comin' this way. T'other critter's tracks I don'tmake out, but no matter, here's the niggers' along here--and here, see?and here--here--there." We rode for ten minutes or so. Then haltingagain:

/>   "Look yonder in that lock o' fence. There's where one went over intothe brush."

  Beyond the high worm fence grew a stubborn tangle of briers, vines, andcane. "Mind you," I began to call after the nigger-chaser, but one ofmy companions spoke for me:

  "Mr. Hardy, we got to be dead sure they're runaways before we put thedogs on."

  "No, we ain't," Hardy called through the back of his head. "Dandy andCharmer'll tell us if they're not, before we've gone three hundredyards, and I can call 'em off so quick it'll turn 'em a somerset." Hedismounted, and, while unyoking the two older hounds, spoke softly afew words of gusto that put them into a dumb ecstasy. One of the boyspressed his horse up to mine.

  "There's the place," he said. "Now watch the dogs find it."

  As the pair sprang from Hardy's hands one began to nose the air, theother the earth, to left, to right, and to cross each other's short,swift circuits. With stony face while assuming a voice of wildesteagerness he cried in searching whispers: "Niggeh thah, Dandy! Niggehthah, Charmer! Take him, my lady!"

  Skimming the ground with hungry noses, the dogs answered each cry witha single keen yap of preoccupied affirmation. Almost at once Charmercame to the spot pointed out to me, reared her full length upon therails and let out a new note; long, musical, fretful, overjoyed. Hardymounted breast-high to the fence's top, wreathed two fingers in thewilling brute's collar, lifted her, and dropped her on the other side.There she instantly resumed her search.