Aladdin & Co.: A Romance of Yankee Magic
silence, and in stiff and formal dignity, for a matter of five minutes
or so, and then retired, with the suggestion that if there was any way
in which he could serve Mr. Elkins he should be happy.
"Do you know," said Jim to me, "that I'm afraid Hamlet's 'bugs and
goblins' are troubling Tolliver; in other words, that he's getting
bughouse?"
"No," said I; "while I haven't the slightest idea what ails him, you'll
find that it's something quite natural for him when you get a full view
of his case."
Finally, Jim, in thanking him for his proffered assistance, inquired
diplomatically after the thing which weighed upon the Captain's mind.
"I may be mistaken, suh," said he, drawing himself up, and thrusting one
hand into the tightly-buttoned breast of his black Prince Albert,
"entiahly mistaken in the premises; but I have the impression that
diffe'ences of a pussonal nature ah in existence between youahself and a
gentleman whose name in this connection I prefuh to leave unmentioned.
Such being the case, I assume that occasion may and naturally will arise
foh the use of a friend, suh, who unde'stands the code--the code,
suh--and is not without experience in affaiahs of honah. I recognize the
fact that in cehtain exigencies nothing, by Gad, but pistols, ovah a
measu'ed distance, meets the case. In such an event, suh, I shall be mo'
than happy to suhve you; mo' than happy, by the Lord!"
"Captain," said Jim feelingly, "you're a good fellow and a true friend,
and I promise you I shall have no other second."
"In that promise," replied the Captain gravely, "you confeh an honah,
suh!"
After this it was thought wise to permit the papers to print the story
of Cornish's retirement; otherwise the Captain might have fomented an
insurrection.
"The reasons for this step on the part of Mr. Cornish are purely
personal," said the _Herald_. "While retaining his feeling of interest
in Lattimore, his desire to engage in certain broader fields of
promotion and development in the tropics had made it seem to him
necessary to lay down the work here which up to this time he has so well
done. He will still remain a citizen of our city. On the other hand,
while we shall not lose Mr. Cornish, we shall gain the active and
powerful influence of Mr. Charles Harper, the president of the Frugality
and Indemnity Life Insurance Company. It is thus that Lattimore rises
constantly to higher prosperity, and wields greater and greater power.
The remarkable activity lately noted in the local real-estate market,
especially in the sales of unconsidered trifles of land at high prices,
is to be attributed to the strengthening of conditions by these steps in
the ascent of the ladder of progress."
Cornish, however, was not without his partisans. Cecil Barr-Smith almost
quarreled with Antonia because she struck Cornish off her books, Cecil
insisting that he was an entirely decent chap. In this position Cecil
was in accord with the clubmen of the younger sort, who had much in
common with Cornish, and little with the overworked and busy railway
president. Even Giddings, to me, seemed to remain unduly intimate with
Cornish; but this did not affect the utterances of his paper, which
still maintained what he called the policy of boost.
The behavior of Josie, however, was enigmatical. Cornish's attentions to
her redoubled, while Jim seemed dropped out of the race--and therefore
my wife's relations with Miss Trescott were subjected to a severe
strain. Naturally, being a matron, and of the age of thirty-odd years,
she put on some airs with her younger friend, still in the chrysalis of
maidenhood. Sometimes, in a sweet sort of a way, she almost domineered
over her. On this Elkins-Cornish matter, however, Josie held her at
arms' length, and refused to make her position plain; and Alice nursed
that simulated resentment which one dear friend sometimes feels toward
another, because of a real or imagined breach of the obligations of
reciprocity.
One night, as we sat about the grate in the Trescott library, some
veiled insinuations on Alice's part caused a turning of the worm.
"If there is anything you want to say, Alice," said Josie, "there seems
to be no good reason why you shouldn't speak out. I have asked your
advice--yours and Albert's--frequently, having really no one else to
trust; and therefore I am willing to hear your reproof, if you have it
for me. What is it?"
"Oh, Josie," said I, seeking cover. "You are too sensitive. There isn't
anything, is there, Alice?"
Here I scowled violently, and shook my head at my wife; but all to no
effect.
"Yes, there is," said Alice. "We have a dear friend, the best in the
world, and he has an enemy. The whole town is divided in allegiance
between them, about nine on one side to one on the other--"
"Which proves nothing," said Josie.
"And now," Alice went on, "you, who have had every opportunity of
seeing, and ought to know, that one of them is, in every look, and
thought, and act, a _man_, while the other is--"
"A friend of mine and of my mother's," said Josie; "please omit the
character-sketch. And remember that I refuse even to consider these
business differences. Each claims to be right; and I shall judge them by
other things."
"Business differences, indeed!" scoffed Alice, albeit a little impressed
by the girl's dignity. "As if you did not know what these differences
came from! But it isn't because you remain neutral that we com--"
"_You_ complain, Alice," said I; "I am distinctly out of this."
"That I complain, then," amended Alice reproachfully. "It is because you
dismiss the _man_ and keep the--other! You may say I have no right to be
heard in this, but I'm going to complain Josie Trescott, just the same!"
This seemed to approach actual conflict, and I was frightened. Had it
been two men, I should have thought nothing of it, but with women such
differences cut deeper than with us. Josie stepped to her writing-desk
and took from it a letter.
"We may as well clear this matter up," said she, "for it has stood
between us for a long time. I think that Mr. Elkins will not feel that
any confidences are violated by my showing you this--you who have been
my dearest friends--"
She stopped for no reason, unless it was agitation.
"Are," said I, "I hope, not 'have been.'"
"Well," said she, "read the letter, and then tell me who has been
'dismissed.'"
I shrank from reading it; but Alice was determined to know all. It was
dated the day before I left New York.
"Dear Josie," it read, "I have told you so many times that I love you
that it is an old story to you; yet I must say it once more. Until that
night when we brought your father home, I was never able to understand
why you would never say definitely yes or no to me; but I felt that you
could not be expected to understand my feeling that the best years of
our lives were wasting--you are so much younger than I--and so I hoped
on. Sometimes I feared that somebody else stood in the way, and do fear
it now, but that alone would have been a much simpler thing, and of that
I could not complain. But on that fearful night you said something which
hurt me more than anything else could, because it was an accusation of
which I could not clear myself in the court of my own conscience--except
so far as to say that I never dreamed of doing your father anything but
good. Surely, surely you must feel this!
"Since that time, however, you have been so kind to me that I have
become sure that you see that terrible tragedy as I do, and acquit me of
all blame, except that of blindly setting in motion the machinery which
did the awful deed. This is enough for you to forgive, God knows; but I
have thought lately that you had forgiven it. You have been very kind
and good to me, and your presence and influence have made me look at
things in a different way from that of years ago, and I am now doing
things which ought to be credited to you, so far as they are good. As
for the bad, I must bear the blame myself!"
Thus far Alice had read aloud.
"Don't, don't," said Josie, hiding her face. "Don't read it aloud,
please!"
"But now I am writing, not to explain anything which has taken place,
but to set me right as to the future. You gave me reason to think, when
we met, that I might have my answer. Things which I cannot explain have
occurred, which may turn out very evilly for me, and for any one
connected with me. Therefore, until this state of things passes, I shall
not see you. I write this, not that I think you will care much, but that
you may not believe that I have changed in my feelings toward you. If my
time ever comes, and I believe it will, and that before very long, you
will find me harder to dispose of without an answer than I have been in
the past. I shall claim you in spite of every foe that may rise up to
keep you from me. You may change, but I shall not.
"'Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds.'
And mine will not alter. J. R. E."
"My dear," said Alice very humbly, "I beg your pardon. I have misjudged
you. Will you forgive me?"
Josie came to take her letter, and, in lieu of other answer, stood with
her arm about Alice's waist.
"And now," said Alice, "have you no other confidences for us?"
"No!" she cried, "no! there is nothing more! Nothing, absolutely
nothing, believe me! But, now, confidence for confidence, Albert, what
is this great danger? Is it anything for which any one here--for which I
am to blame? Does it threaten any one else? Can't something be done
about it? Tell me, tell me!"
"I think," said I, "that the letter was written before my telegram from
New York came, and after--some great difficulties came upon us. I don't
believe he would have written it five hours later; and I don't believe
he would have written it to any one in anything but the depression
of--the feeling he has for you."
"If that is true," said she, "why does he still avoid me? Why does he
still avoid me? You have not told me all; or there is something you do
not know."
As we went home, Alice kept referring to Jim's letter, and was as much
troubled by it as was Josie.
"How do you explain it?" she asked.
"I explain it," said I, "by ranging it with the well-known phenomenon of
the love-sick youth of all lands and in every time, who revels in the
thought of incurring danger or death, and heralding the fact to his
loved one. Even Jim is not exempt from the feelings of the boy who
rejoices in delicious tears at the thought of being found cold and dead
on the doorstep of the cruel maiden of his dreams. And that letter, with
a slight substratum of fact, is the result. Don't bother about it for a
moment."
This answer may not have been completely frank, or quite expressive of
my views; but I was tired of the subject. It was hardly a time to play
with mammets or to tilt with lips, and it seemed that the matter might
wait. There was a good deal of the pettishness of nervousness among us
at that time, and I had my full share of it. Insomnia was prevalent, and
gray hairs increased and multiplied. The time was drawing near for our
meeting with Pendleton in Chicago. We had advices that he was coming in
from the West, on his return from a long journey of inspection, and
would pass over his Pacific Division. We asked him to run down to
Lattimore over our road, but Smith answered that the running schedule
could not be altered.
There seemed to be no reason for doubting that the proposed contract
would be ratified; for the last desperate rally on our part appeared to
have put a crash out of the question, for some time at least. To him
that hath shall be given; and so long as we were supposed to possess
power, we felt that we were safe. Yet the blow dealt by Cornish had