Latest / G.T.T., or The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman / Chapter IX

Transcript

Chapter IX · G.T.T., or The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman

0:01
Chapter nine of G. T. T Or The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman
0:07
by Edward Hale. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter nine.
0:13
As they went south, the shores grew greener and the air more soft.
0:20
Once, as they ran into the levee for some wood, Effie broke
0:23
off with her own hand a branch of fresh leaves quite large. Fred Haydock
0:29
told her that she was the dove after the deluge and after every meal,
0:35
dinner, supper, breakfast, how few they were when one came to count
0:40
them. It seemed more and more a thing, of course, that while
0:44
e Fie painted on the after guards or wrote in the after cabin, mister
0:49
Haydock and miss Something should be sitting in some shelter forward, or that he
0:55
should be reading to her the ring and the book while he knitted, or
1:00
that they should be walking together for exercise, or in the evening they should
1:06
be singing together at the same piano. It was clear enough, however,
1:10
the first time that Fred Haydock sang, that he was not the absolute tenor
1:15
who had sung the praise of his own amy in the dark palace on the
1:19
backs of the Juniata, and all three of them, all four if you
1:25
count doctor Summerfield, who was very lovely and kind all the time. All
1:30
four came to be good friends with the other cabin dwellers. They had good
1:34
novels which they read aloud in the ladies end of the cabin at night.
1:40
They had glees or Psalmody. At the mouth of the Tennessee River, the
1:45
boat had taken on a very wild but very simple family who had somehow heard
1:49
of Texas and were going there with the most pathetic ignorance as to what and
1:56
where it was and why they were going. But from the old grandsire of
2:01
eighty five, who seemed forever young when there was a question as to a
2:06
new home, down to shy girls of four years and adventurous boys of six
2:12
and seven, dressed in the most extraordinary costume whichever the wit of northern Alabama
2:17
devised, all were delighted to be on the move. And to the magic
2:23
of Effie's kindness, this tall, handsome girl, shy as the children,
2:29
who for a day stayed in her stateroom she was so frightened, revealed herself
2:35
as a bride. Never did the designer in distant Lawrence, who painted the
2:39
pattern for that calico, suppose it was to be worn as a bride's traveling
2:45
dress. But no matter, for that as true a heart beat under it,
2:50
as ever beat under Madame de Maeste's regulation uniform. And she and he,
2:55
so soon as they were married in the old home on the western slope
2:59
of the Alleghenies back in West Virginia, had determined to go to Florida.
3:05
Why to Florida, even Effie, with all her tact could not discover.
3:10
She tried them with talk of oranges and sugar cane and bananas, but they
3:15
seemed to have little care for these things. Even Effie could not imagine that
3:21
that stout young bridegroom had a hole in his lungs. No, it was
3:25
only that they were determined that they would go somewhere, and that they had
3:30
heard of Florida, like some other people I know, said Hester meekly,
3:36
who might be sitting over a hard coal fire now if they wanted to.
3:42
Only they did not want to, said missus Apgar, laughing. Dear heart,
3:46
it is the mania of the American people. They must pull up stakes
3:51
and travel, say rather, said doctor Summerfield. More wisely, it is
3:58
the mania of that part of the American people whom you and I meet in
4:02
steamboats. If we wanted to study the traits of those who stay at home,
4:09
we must knock at the doors of their homes to find them. That's
4:13
true enough. I am as wise as the English travelers who think all Americans
4:17
live in hotels, because those they see in hotels live in them. What
4:24
can they think the houses they ride by are built? For they had poked
4:29
their great nose upon the levee once and again. Now to leave a barrel.
4:33
Now it would seem only to leave a newspaper, perhaps to take an
4:38
order once to leave two bedsteads, a rocking chair, a cooking stove,
4:44
a bride her trunks, and a bridegroom, in short, for any device
4:48
by which civilization might be set forward in what seemed an utter wilderness. It
4:56
was quite late in the afternoon that the clerk came aft for the purpose to
5:00
say that they had some heavy boilers to land at mister van Meeter's plantation,
5:04
and perhaps the ladies would like to walk like to Of course they did.
5:10
They landed, and were almost tempted to kneel like crusaders and kiss the sod,
5:15
So delicious was it to find spring? Really in sway to gather a
5:19
handful of even the simplest weeds. They struck off up the river on the
5:26
levee for a long pull, assured that they might safely be gone an hour,
5:30
but shall it be confessed in ten minutes? Hester was frightened if the
5:38
moon should go with all their household goods and they have to spend the rest
5:43
of their lives in Mississippi. Doctor Somerfield tried to reassure her, but the
5:47
pleasure of the walk was gone, and after pretending they were not afraid a
5:51
little, they turned back with one accord, built larger their branches of green
5:57
leaves, and like burnham Wood, indeed approached the friendly monster. It was
6:02
impossible to believe that they had been only thirty hours on the boat. In
6:08
that time they had entered on a wholly new arrangement of time and life.
6:12
They had passed from coal fires to balmy spring weather and delicate green foliage,
6:17
and also ah Me Hester Sutfin had held two long confidential talks with Fred Haydock.
6:27
It seemed as if they had been a month on the voyage, and
6:30
the boat was home As they drew near the boat, a gentleman came out
6:34
from a little white washed shed, which seemed to be an outlying building of
6:40
the plantation, of which the larger buildings were hidden by trees. A quarter
6:45
of a mile away. He took out money, which he gave to the
6:47
black boy by his side, and then, with rapid step, advanced to
6:53
the Chester Boon, about a hundred yards in front of our party. The
6:57
boy followed with his carpet bag. Frederick Haydock and Hester Supfin were walking behind
7:02
Doctor Summerfield and missus Abgar occupied with each other. Effie had her eyes open.
7:10
She suddenly made a horrible botch about something doctor Summerfield was telling her,
7:15
and said she was very glad mister Glass was deposed by his presbytery. When
7:20
she did not in the least know what she was saying. The truth was
7:25
that she was simply watching the stranger and the black boy. At last,
7:29
she forced herself to turn back and say, mister Haydock, is not that
7:33
your friend mister brinker Hoff. Fred Haydock started, had the question repeated to
7:40
him, looked forward and cried, of course. Then with a queer schoolboy
7:46
war whoop, and three shrill calls, Hi, Hi, Hi. He
7:50
brought the stranger to bay. The moment Hiram Brinkerhoff turned, he recognized them.
7:58
A minute more and they were all together, and he was congratulating himself
8:01
that he had not taken the Morgan. As she passed down that very day.
8:07
To say the truth, Effie Apgar was not very sorry, for she
8:11
had felt already that the time might come when doctor Summerfield should be perfectly informed
8:18
as to tone, color, perspective, middle distance, foreground, broken lights,
8:24
motive and action. And she was quite certain that she had herself received
8:30
all she could digest as to the relations between the directors of the publishing Board
8:35
and the trustees, and about the legitimate supervision of the Board of Managers and
8:41
the President on the affairs of both these bodies. For Frederick Haydock and Hester
8:48
Suckfin, they seemed to be in a mood in which most things were satisfactory.
8:54
Both of them seemed to think it was quite as well that Hiram Brinkerhoff
8:56
should be there. They would have thought it quite as well if he had
9:01
not been there. For Hiram Brinkerhoff himself, he expressed himself very promptly the
9:07
moment they were all on board. It is so lucky that I struck you.
9:13
Have you ever seen a sugar plantation, missus Apgar, only in Vermont,
9:18
said she. We put on long boots and then I filled mine with
9:22
wet snow and retired ignominiously. Then you are just the person to see the
9:28
finest plantation in the United States, And I believe in the world. If
9:33
you count in the men and women who carried it on, you will say
9:37
so too. Fred Haydock and Miss Sutfin were by this time looking at something
9:43
in his scrap book, which he had brought out from his stateroom. Miss
9:48
Sutfin cried the impetuous Hiram eager in his plan. Let me interrupt you for
9:54
a moment, for this must be settled before the boat starts. Would not
9:58
you like to make a visit a the finest sugar plantation on the river.
10:01
We could stop tomorrow night. What did you say? Said Hester, startled
10:07
a little and hardly getting at her vessel into action. I want to persuade
10:11
you ladies to stop at a beautiful plantation on the river and see the way
10:16
people live here. Will you stay if missus Apgar will stay where, said
10:22
missus Apgar. This is the first I have heard of it. You do
10:26
not expect us to stay anywhere where we are not invited, No, indeed,
10:31
but if you will only do it, you will be invited in no
10:33
time. This is the whole story. And Hiram had to speak fast,
10:39
for the bell was beginning to ring the wandering passengers on board. I am
10:43
on my way down to this earthly paradise, a fine plantation on the coast,
10:50
Missus Apgar. It is called Arcadie. Is not that a pretty name?
10:54
Mister le Clerk will be delighted if you will both make them a visit.
11:00
And Madame le Clerk, and my lovely friend Eugenie and miss Ferguson,
11:05
they are all so nice. Now just say you could possibly stop there,
11:11
and they would be so much pleased to see you. Then, as he
11:16
saw his friend Fred's woebegone face, Hiram added, if you would all give
11:22
up just two days to see this beautiful place, why you would enjoy it
11:26
as much in one way as you did Cincinnati in another. By this happy
11:31
word, all poor Fred was saved from the lowest depths. If he was
11:37
not to be counted out from the party. They might stay a month for
11:41
all he cared. But missus Apgar was herself again, without the least asperity,
11:46
but with perfectly defined firmness. She said, Oh, think a moment,
11:52
mister Brinkerhoff, and you see it is out of the question. How
11:56
could Miss sup Fin and I think of pushing ourselves, never so indirectly on
12:01
people we had never seen. Hiram Brinkerhoff saw he had made a botch of
12:07
it, and had sense enough not to persist in a blunder. He retired
12:11
to arrange for his stateroom, and in a few minutes the boat was under
12:15
way. That evening, doctor Summerfield was able to prepare his quarterly report without
12:20
giving up his time to the instruction or entertainment of missus Apgar. Mister Hiram
12:26
Brinkerhoff and she sat in the pilot house, while mister Haydock and Miss Sutfin
12:31
were well wrapped in traveling cloaks. Somewhere forward were they studying the newer stars
12:39
which began to appear south of the skylines. More familiar to her, were
12:43
they discussing favorite novels. Was he telling her old stories of the camp,
12:48
and she to her own surprise, going over old hidden experiences of her own
12:54
life, which she had hardly entrusted even to Effie. Ah Me, I
13:00
cannot tell only it was a long, eager talk, and neither of them
13:05
knew how fast the time passed by. For Missus Atgar. She was not
13:09
sorry, as has been said, to have so intelligent a man to talk
13:15
with. The pilot said, but little sometimes had a word for a young
13:20
man by him what Mark Twain calls a cub who regarded him with untold reverence
13:26
and seemed to be learning to pilot. And when Effie or Hiram Brinkerhoff asked
13:31
for any information, the pilot gave it cordially and intelligently. A monarch he
13:39
and a well bred monarch who knew his place. Missus Atgar was not more
13:45
than woman. She was not therefore without curiosity to learn more about what amy,
13:50
of whom he had sung with the exquisite tenor, and with whom he
13:56
was more in love than ever after fifteen years. Hiram Brinkerhoff was not a
14:01
pennyweight more than man. He was therefore very curious to know more of the
14:07
Philip Apgar, who was willing to let this beautiful wife, travel without escort,
14:13
so far from home for so long a time. Why did she never
14:16
drop a word about him? Perhaps Effie asked herself the question, why did
14:22
he never drop a word about Amy? But when she made little plans of
14:28
leading up to the unknown Amy, somehow she had not the courage to carry
14:33
them out. And for him, in his blundering man fashion, he took
14:37
it for granted that something would reveal all mysteries about Philip Apgar, and so
14:43
he made no plans at all. So the long evening sped by without any
14:48
personal talk. But it were hard to tell what other subject except these personal
14:54
matters was not talked upon. Art could literature, poetry, actors, actresses,
15:05
artists of every kind, music and musicians, the opera and the great
15:11
singers, magazines and publishers. The authors he had known and those she wanted
15:16
to know, the books she had read, and those of them which he
15:20
knew, and those he did not know. History, philosophy, theology,
15:26
religion, hymns and hymn writers, preachers and sermons, politics, politicians,
15:35
race, beggars, social science, charity, housekeeping, party giving, dancing,
15:43
talking, friends, friendship, love, marriage, home education, schools,
15:50
public and private governesses, only children, large families. What in the
15:56
world does not come in review when a thoughtful, high trained young man,
16:02
who has lived much alone, has traveled much abroad, and has read many
16:06
books, happens to meet with a high trained young woman who has read many
16:11
books, has lived much alone, and has never gone abroad. What interested
16:17
e Fie most, or what she thought interested her most, was that he
16:22
had not only seen many states, but many men. She remembered the classical
16:27
lines. He had the most modest way of speaking of them, But he
16:32
seemed to have had a gift of meeting just the interesting people. Thus,
16:37
when they talked of style, she said, General Grant's English is remarkably good.
16:42
Did you happen to read his report of the very last battle of the
16:47
war? I was in Washington the day it was published, As it happened,
16:51
I had met him only the night before, and it seemed as if
16:55
he were talking. Or when something was said of the perspective of clouds,
17:02
and she cited Ruskin, he said, no man looks less like your idea
17:07
of him. He came into the reading room of the Workingmen's College once when
17:11
I was sitting there, and fell into talk with a gentleman by my side.
17:17
He had seen Napoleon at his last review. He had heard Martineau preach.
17:22
He was present when the Queen opened Parliament. He was on duty at
17:26
Norfolk the day Jeff Davis was imprisoned. He had in his trunk the photograph
17:32
Likeness which the President of Mexico had given him. All this came out by
17:37
the merest accidents. Nor was there the least wish on his part to say
17:41
I was here or I was there. But in three hours talk there were
17:48
just enough of these accidents to surprise Effie with the thought of how very quiet
17:52
her life had been, and how much it had been a life of books,
17:56
while his had been a life of action. On his part, there
18:02
was not surprise that she knew so much, and had thought so much,
18:06
and had felt so much. For Effie Apgar was not the first intelligent and
18:11
charming woman whom Hiram Brinkerhoff had met in this active life. Perhaps there was
18:18
no surprise at all. Perhaps from the first he took her even balance what
18:22
seemed to him the perfect harmony of her thoughts and her emotions as something entirely
18:29
of course in a woman whose voice was so sweet whose face was so lovely,
18:33
whose motion was so graceful, and whose bearing was so dignified, and
18:38
yet so easy. When he went to bed that night and tried to analyze
18:44
the delight of this long evening's talk, he did not own to surprise.
18:49
He took it all as a thing of course, that it should be delightful.
18:53
What was unusual, he said to himself, was that she should be
18:57
so thoroughly right, even on subjects where you would have said she might know
19:03
nothing, and might never have thought that with sense so acute and passion so
19:08
warm, she should never overstep by a hair's breadth, And that, with
19:14
judgment so steady, analysis so perfect, and conscience so stern, she should
19:18
never be cold nor fall short by a hand's breadth. Her choice of words
19:25
was wonderful. Any fool could see that, he said to himself, But
19:30
how in the world does she know things which nobody can have told her,
19:33
pass correct judgment on the instant, in cases which she has not heard argued,
19:40
and in short, without any experience of the world more than rival in
19:45
nicety of perception, The oldest stager of them all, All which Master Hiram
19:52
Brinkerhoff is to ask, why a truly noble woman is wholly outside and beyond
19:59
the scales and standards and measuring staves of your human philosophies and analysis. All
20:07
four they slept in their several staterooms happily and soundly. It was only doctor
20:12
Summerfield, who sat up too late over his figures and could not make the
20:18
account's balance, who lay tossing in bed, regretting his third cup of green
20:23
tea. Our little story must not linger. Given two ladies who loved each
20:29
other, and two men who loved each other, who had so fortunately and
20:33
so skillfully gained together the luxurious repose and companionship of a first class packet boat
20:41
on the river, it is not hard to imagine one part of what passed
20:45
on the happy spring day which followed their meeting, For that varied adventure which
20:52
relieves such a voyage of all monotony. The story must not pause to speak
20:57
of it. Only after dinner, after the ladies naps, when they were
21:03
all together in the pilot house, a smoke miles below, far down beyond
21:07
the green, announced an approaching vessel. Before the travelers could make out her
21:12
form, the pilot had declared that she was the River Queen on her way
21:18
up from New Orleans a mile in five minutes by one boat, and a
21:22
mile in three minutes by the other. As they approached each other, bring
21:26
the two soon together. Then signal bells by the bell intimated that the Queen
21:33
wished to speak the boon. The engines of each boat were slowed, and
21:37
they drew near each other cautiously. An instant more showed that no one was
21:44
to cross from boat to boat, as had been at first supposed. The
21:48
first officer of the Queen showed himself on her texas and in his hand waved
21:52
a paper parcel. As the boats passed, he flung it with a skillful
21:57
throw. One of the hands of the boon caught it and tossed it to
22:02
the waiting captain above. Both boats swept off on their course, whistled courteously
22:07
a parting salute, and, as they say in the French chambers, the
22:12
incident was exhausted, not quite exhausted. In a moment more, the captain
22:18
came up into the pilot house a most unusual courtesy. He handed to missus
22:23
Apgar a letter. The Queen stopped to leave this for you, madam.
22:30
Er mister Haydock. Here is yesterday's Picayune, and he gave him the newspaper
22:36
for me. Cried Effie. Amazed for you, cried Hester, and Effie
22:41
broke open her letter from Missus le Clerk to missus e Apgar arkadye Wednesday evening.
22:51
My dear missus Apgar, I have only to day learned that you are
22:56
to be in our neighborhood with your friends, and I write although in haste
23:00
to beg you not to pass us on your way down the river. I
23:03
know very well how much of pleasure you have before you, but surely,
23:07
after your long journey, you will need some rest, and I cannot but
23:12
hope that you and your friends will stay with us long enough to secure it.
23:18
Really, although our life is very simple, there will be a good
23:21
deal here that will be new to you, and at the least we can
23:26
assure you of a cordial Southern welcome. Do not feel as if we were
23:30
strangers. I must know many friends of yours among my northern friends, and
23:36
our friend Miss Ferguson, who is as eager as I am that you shall
23:40
stay with us. Feel sure that her niece was at Miss Sutfand's school be
23:45
sure that your visit will be to us a very real pleasure. My husband
23:51
will be on the levee to welcome you as the boon comes in. Very
23:55
truly yours, Adelie Leclerc. That is hospitality, said Effie Apgar, after
24:03
she had twice read through the letter and made sure that it was indeed for
24:07
her. How in the world did they know we were here, said Hester.
24:12
I know, Effie, they must have been friends of that nice missus
24:17
Chaine in Louisville. She said she had a sister on the coast, and
24:21
I did not know what on the coast meant. Then Effie had to speak,
24:26
though she knew she crimsoned as she did so. I do not think
24:30
they are missus Chain's friends. They are mister Brinkerhoff's friends. And this is
24:36
the arcady he described. Is it not so? Certainly? It is?
24:41
Said he frankly. There is no mystery. You said you could not go
24:45
without an invitation. I cannot but hope you will go. Now you see
24:49
how much pleasure you will give. It would be very churlish to refuse so
24:55
kind a request, said Effie, quite carefully. Do not think so,
24:59
Hester, and both the gentlemen stepped forward to ask the pilot a question.
25:03
Effie said hester in a whisper, If you think it right, I should
25:08
like to go. Of all things, think it right, said missus Apgar.
25:12
It would be almost rude to refuse. So they asked the gentlemen at
25:18
what time they should pass the house. Not till after midnight, but if
25:23
mister le Clerk were waiting for them in the cold, all the more rude
25:27
to pass by. The gentleman went down and made the arrangement with the captain,
25:33
and Effie Apgar felt that in her first trial of strength, with this
25:37
modest, thoughtful, determined Hiram Brinkerhoff, she had come off second best,
25:44
and she was not sorry. End of Chapter nine