The Candidate: A Political Romance
In her heart she was genuinely sorry for Mr. Plummer, thinking at that
moment more of his grief than of her husband's risk, but she was
resolute to mail the letter, nevertheless. She read it a little later to
Mr. Grayson, and he approved.
"It is likely to bring 'King' Plummer raging down from Idaho, but it
ought to go," he said.
A half-hour later, this letter, written in a delicate, feminine hand,
but heavy with fate, was speeding northwestward.
XVIII
THE SACRIFICE
A few days after writing this letter, Mrs. Grayson announced that Sylvia
would rejoin them on the following afternoon, having shortened her stay
in Salt Lake City, as her relations were about to depart on a visit to
California.
"She wants very much to go on with us," said Mrs. Grayson, "and rather
than send her either to Boise or to our home, where she would be alone,
we are willing for her to continue."
"I should think you would be!" exclaimed Hobart. "Why, Mrs. Grayson,
much as we esteem you, we would start a violent rebellion if you should
send Miss Morgan away, a rebellion attended by bloodshed and desperate
deeds."
Mrs. Grayson smiled and glanced at Harley, who was silent. But she did
not fail to see the flash of pleasure under his veiled eyelids.
"Keep your pistol in your pocket and your sword in its sheath, Mr.
Hobart," she said; "I shall not give you occasion to use either."
"Then I declare for peace."
Sylvia joined them at the time mentioned by Mrs. Grayson, quiet,
slightly pale, and disposed, in the opinion of the Graysons, to much
thought. "The girl has something on her mind which she cannot put off,"
said Tremaine, and in this case he was right.
Sylvia, while in Salt Lake City, far from the influences which recently
had brought to her acute pain and joy alike, considered her position
with as much personal detachment as she could assume. Away from Harley
and the magic of his presence and his confident voice, she strengthened
her resolve to keep her word--if "King" Plummer claimed her, he should
yet have her. But this same examination showed her another fact that was
unalterable. She loved Harley, and, though she might marry another man,
she would continue to love him. In a way she gloried in the truth and
her recognition of it. It was a love she intended to hide, but it
brought her a sad happiness nevertheless.
It was this feeling, spiritual in its nature, that gave to Sylvia a new
charm when she came back, a touch of sorrow and womanly dignity that all
noticed at once, and to which they gave tribute. It melted the heart of
Jimmy Grayson, who knew so well the reason why, and he was glad now that
his wife had written to "King" Plummer.
Sylvia said nothing about Mr. Plummer; if she knew whether he would
return and when, she kept it to herself, and Mrs. Grayson, who was
waiting in anxiety for an answer to her letter--an answer that did not
come--was in a state of apprehension, which she hid, however, from all
except Mr. Grayson. This agitation was increased by an event in her
husband's career, so unexpected in its nature and so extraordinary that
it was the sensation of the country, and exercised an unfavorable
influence upon the campaign. If any one in the United States, whether
friend or enemy, had been asked if such a thing could occur, he would
have said that it was impossible.
In their travels they came presently to Egmont, a snug town, lying in a
hollow of the land, from which they were going to conduct what Hobart
called a circular campaign--that is, it was the centre from which they
were to make journeys to a ring of smaller places lying in a circle
about it, returning late at night for sleep and rest.
They were all pleased with Egmont; though less than ten years old, it
had houses of brick and stone, a trim look, and the smoothness of life
and comfort that usually come only with age. It was a pleasure to return
to it every night from the newer and cruder villages in the outer ring,
and enjoy good beds and fresh sheets.
But the candidate spoke first in Egmont, and the chairman of the
committee that managed the meeting was the solid man of the town. Harley
and his comrades required no information on this point; it was visible
at once in the important manner of the Honorable John Anderson, the cool
way in which he assumed authority, and his slight air of patronage when
he came in contact with the correspondents. Harley and his comrades only
laughed; they had often noticed the same bearing in men much better
known in the world than the Honorable John Anderson, of Egmont, Montana,
and they generally set it down as one of the faults of success;
therefore they could smile.
But Mr. Anderson was hospitable, insisting that the candidate and his
family, instead of spending the first night at the hotel, should go with
him to his house. "I have room and to spare," he said, with a slight
touch of importance. "My house will be honored if it can shelter
to-night the next President of the United States."
"Thank you for the invitation," said Jimmy Grayson, gravely. "I shall be
glad to join you with my family and Mr. Harley. Mr. Harley has become in
a sense one of my advisers, almost a lieutenant, I might say."
Mr. Anderson was not intending to ask Harley, as the correspondent knew,
but the candidate had included him so deftly that the important citizen
must do so, too, and he widened the invitation with courtesy. Harley,
always in search of new types, always anxious to explore the secrets of
new lands, accepted as promptly as if the request had been spontaneous.
Although his house was only a few hundred yards away, Mr. Anderson took
them there in his two-seated, highly polished carriage, drawn by a pair
of seal-brown trotters. "Good horses," he said, as he cracked his whip
contentedly over them. "I brought them all the way from Kentucky. Cost
me a lot, too."
The Anderson house was really fine, built of light stone, standing far
back on a wide lawn, and Harley could see that the good taste of some
one had presided at its birth. It had an Eastern air of quiet and
completion. When Mr. Anderson, glancing at his guests, beheld the look
of approval on their faces, he was pleased, and said, in an easy,
off-hand manner:
"Been up only four years; planned it myself, with a little help from
wife and daughter."
Harley at once surmised that the good effect was due to the taste of the
wife or daughter, or both, and he was confirmed in the opinion when he
met Mrs. Anderson, a slight, modest woman, superior to her husband in
some respects that Harley thought important. The daughter did not appear
until just before dinner, but when she came into the parlor to meet the
guest the correspondent held his breath for a moment.
Rare and beautiful flowers bloom now and then on the cold plains of the
great Northwest, and Harley said in his heart that Helen Anderson was
one of the rarest and most beautiful of them all. It was not alone the
beauty of face and figure, but it was, even more, the nobility of
expression and a singular touch of pathos, as if neither youth nor
beauty had kept from her a great sadness. This almost hidden note of
sorrow seemed to Harley to make perfect her grace and charm, and he
felt, stranger though he was, that he was willing to sacrifice himself
to protect her from some blow unknown to him. Speaking of it afterwards,
he found that she had the same effect upon the candidate. "I felt that I
must be her champion," said Mr. Grayson. "Why, I did not know, but I
wanted to fight for her."
Miss Anderson herself was unconscious of the impression that she
created, and she strove only to entertain her father's guests, a task in
which she achieved the full measure of success. Mr. Anderson mentioned,
casually, how he had sent her to Wellesley, and Harley saw that her
horizon was wider than that of her parents. But the pathetic, appealing
look came now and then into her beautiful eyes, and Harley was convinced
of her unhappiness. Once he saw a sudden glance, as of sympathy and
understanding, pass between her and Sylvia.
It was not long before the secret of Helen Anderson was told to him,
because it was no secret at all. The whole town was proud of her, and
everybody in it knew that she was in love with Arthur Lee, the young
lawyer whose sign hung on the main street of Egmont before an office
which was yet unvisited by clients. It was true love on both sides,
they said, with sympathy; they had been boy and girl together, and
during her long stay in the East at school she had never forgotten him.
But Mr. Anderson would have none of the briefless youth; his prosperity
had fed his pride--a lawyer without a case was not a fit match for his
daughter. "If you were famous, if it were common talk that some day you
might be governor or United States senator, I might consent, but, sir,
you have done nothing," he had said, with cruel sarcasm to Lee.
It was a bitter truth, and Lee himself, high and honorable in all his
nature, saw it. The girl, too, had old-fashioned ideas of duty to
parents, and when her father bade her think no more of Lee she humbly
bowed her head. But the town said, and the town knew, that the more she
sought to put him out of her heart, the more strongly intrenched was he
there; that while she now tried to think of him not at all, she thought
of him all the time.
The whole story was brought to Harley; it was not in his nature to pry
into the sacred mysteries of a young girl's heart, but the tale moved
him all the more deeply when he saw young Lee, a man with a high, noble
brow and clear, open eyes, through which his honest soul shone, that all
might see. But upon his face was the same faint veil of sadness that
hovered over Helen Anderson's, as if hope were lacking.
Harley met young Lee two or three times, and on each occasion purposely
prolonged the talk, because the young lawyer without a case aroused his
interest and sympathy. He soon discovered that Lee had an uncommon mind,
acute, penetrating, and on fire with noble ideals. But it was a fire
that smouldered unseen. He had never had a chance; it would come to him
some day, Harley knew, but it might be, it surely would be, too late.
Harley had seen much of the world, its glory and its shame alike, and he
was convinced that nothing else in it was worth so much to man as the
spontaneous love of a pure woman and a happy marriage. He knew from dear
experience how much Lee was losing--nay, had lost already--and his pity
was deeply stirred. He wished to speak of it to Sylvia, but the thought
of such words only made his own wound the deeper. The whole town was on
the side of the lovers, but it was bound and helpless; the father's
command and Lee's own honor were barriers that could not be passed.
The people about Egmont were so much delighted with Mr. Grayson's speech
that they demanded a second from him, and, with his usual good-nature,
he yielded, although Harley knew that he was feeling the strain of such
a long and severe campaign. The evening of the fifth day after his
arrival was set for the time, and he was expected to deliver the address
at a late hour, when he returned from one of the circle of villages.
On the night before the second speech, the candidate and Harley, who
were now staying at the hotel, after making their excuses to the others,
slipped out for a walk in the cool and silence of the dark. The rarest
thing in Jimmy Grayson's life now was privacy, and he longed for it as a
parched throat longs for water; it was only at such times as this, with
a late hour and a favoring night, that he could secure it.
Nearly all Egmont was in bed, and they turned from the chief street into
the residence quarter, where a few lights twinkled amid the lawns and