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

Transcript

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

0:01
Chapter sixteen of G. G. G Or The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman
0:06
by Edward Hale. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter sixteen.
0:13
The ladies slept in the same room in the confidences of the toilet night
0:18
and morning. Hester told Effie Yes, of fifty things which she and Fred
0:24
had agreed upon in the long talks of the day and the evening before.
0:29
But Effie, she did not know why, though she made up her mind
0:34
to it two or three times, did not tell Hester of the mistake of
0:38
mister Brinkerhoff, and of her discovery of it, and of the foolish way
0:43
in which, for the moment it had disturbed her. Missus Abgar did not
0:48
need to take the trouble, for the night before Fred Haydock had told Hester
0:53
Suffen the whole of it, and Hester could not conceive how or why the
0:58
two men should have been mistaken. There had been some hitch about the expected
1:03
letters the night before, but at breakfast the hitch was loosened, and the
1:08
great stack of letters came in to the gentlemen, not so many to the
1:14
ladies galore, and over cooling mutton chops and coffee, which was cold.
1:21
Before they were done, they read now silent and now aloud, with ejaculations
1:26
of surprise. After the ladies had finished theirs, Effie turned to mister Brinkerhoff,
1:33
resolved to show that the stiffness of a minute of yesterday should not last.
1:38
And what are your letters? She said? You have better luck than
1:44
Fred has, for by this time Fred had insisted that they should not call
1:49
him mister Haydock. Oh, mine are all business. I am sorry to
1:53
say, except this from my mother. She has sent me her picture,
1:57
which she has just had taken at me. It is not nearly good enough,
2:02
he added fondly, as he gave it to missus Adgar to look upon.
2:07
It is perfectly lovely, said she frankly, and with an artist's pleasure.
2:13
So friendly and so young. But why does not Amy write to you,
2:16
said hester supfin, beginning to take advantage of the newly born intimacies.
2:23
Is not there a word from Amy? Hiram Brinkerhoff looked puzzled, was puzzled.
2:29
Why this is Amy? Said he? At last, It seems foolish
2:35
to you, But I do not know when I did not call my mother
2:38
Amy. My father liked it. She liked it, and I am sure
2:43
I liked it. It was a trick of a baby, and I never
2:46
grew out of it when I was a man. The girls would have given
2:51
gold if they could have kept their faces unchanged, but they knew that blood
2:55
flushed them with a resolution of martyrs. At the they looked neither to the
3:01
right nor to the left. Effie Apgar said nothing, had nothing to say,
3:07
but the recollection of speculations and discussions about what manner of woman Amy was
3:14
would come back. Even in that moment, Hester, because she was the
3:19
interlocutor, forced herself to say, why we took it for granted you were
3:23
married, and for one I wondered why you never said a word about your
3:30
wife. With this bold speech, the conversation dropped for a moment. Fred
3:36
Haydock would have given his hot omelet if he could have thought of anything to
3:40
say, but he could not. The pause was but for an instant when
3:45
Tom Dunston came in to ask if they would ride. Yes, they would
3:49
ride, and he need not drive them. Mister Haydock would drive. And
3:53
each of the four said to himself or herself that the botch about Amy was
3:59
over, and that it made no sort of difference. And they ran up
4:03
those queer stairways to their rooms round that Moorish courtyard, all saying to themselves
4:11
it was all nonsense and will make no difference. And when the girls came
4:15
into their own room, Hester kissed Effie and said, did you think I
4:19
was such a perfect fool? For I did not till this morning. We
4:25
were all fools for a tenth part of a second, said Effie. But
4:29
it will make no difference. Now, Still in her heart she felt it
4:32
would make a difference. She understood in her heart of hearts, that she
4:38
and this loyal, frank, thoughtful, experienced gentleman had been living together for
4:45
many days, and she for one thinking much of him in other days when
4:49
they were not together, with an ease and simplicity which would have been just
4:55
possible, perhaps had each been quite well informed as to the other, not
5:00
to which after these two blunders it would be very hard to return. Hiram
5:05
Brinkerhoff had had nearly twenty four hours to consider another question, and Hiram Brinkerhoff
5:13
was well aware by this time that with this lovely, conscientious, unselfish woman,
5:18
so kind and affectionate, so quick of observation, but so unconscious of
5:25
her own quickness and tenderness, he did not want to be on the same
5:29
calm, reserved or unreserved relation in which they had lived while he had supposed
5:34
her to be a married woman wresting herself from the cares of housekeeping, while
5:40
she played the matron for her friend. But Hiram Brinkerhoff knew that he must
5:46
somehow show himself worthy such a woman if he would win her, and this
5:50
he knew would take time. Of the four, he was perhaps the very
5:56
cheeriest of all as they entered the ambulance. But it was a lovely day.
6:01
They were to see if they had found what they had come so far
6:04
to find, and they were all cheery, I believe, he said,
6:10
so soon as all were seated, that we are to go and look for
6:15
school rooms for miss Sutfin's school. I have in my pocket a list of
6:18
unoccupied old court rooms and vestries of churches. Indeed, if she will pay
6:24
enough, she may have an old corn bin in the corner of the Alamo,
6:29
which the government has been storing some musket barrels. In all this was
6:34
his invention. There was no such bin, nor such musket barrels. But
6:41
this must be said because some readers are dull. I thank you, said
6:46
hester, laughing, But I will not trouble you to look for rooms with
6:49
me. I know all my friends may not stay till autumn. Let us
6:55
go out to one of the missions. I can confess there and receptive absolution,
7:00
which I need. Meanwhile, there seemed to be enough children here.
7:05
The multitude of children in the streets of a city in which there is no
7:10
system of general schooling always amazes a new Englander. So they asked their way
7:15
here, and asked it there, and without losing it more than twenty times,
7:20
they came to one of the missions. It was not the one they
7:25
started for. But what difference did that make a great ruined church a ruin
7:30
as satisfactory as if it had been in Morocco or Spain. Big dogs had
7:35
to be quelled, and from the door of a hovel came out a pretty
7:40
shy looking Mexican girl with an immense bunch of keys. Yes, there is
7:46
a consecrated altar still, and at fit times there is worship still, But
7:50
who worships it would be hard to say. For all, this is miles
7:56
away from the city. But This was once the active center of one of
8:01
those colonies of reduced Indians Indios reducidos, which the Franciscans managed somehow to convert
8:07
to habits of peace of Christianity in its other forms. It is said that
8:13
they knew the sign of the Cross when they saw it, and I am
8:18
afraid they knew no more. Where are they now? Ken Sally. It
8:24
is a strangely fascinating place, a curious bit of careful carving. Here,
8:30
two or three rough hewn rails from a fence. There a pile of fallen
8:35
stones, a crucifix and an altar. The inquiring shy Mexican girl the inquiring
8:43
eager New England woman. Are the two of the same race? And were
8:48
they born into the same world? There are I believe five mission buildings in
8:54
all. You might see two or three in a day, but our travelers
8:58
were in no hurry. There are wonders in the city as well, the
9:03
archives to be hunted through under mister Smith's kind help, for rumors about Aaron
9:09
Burr, for the fate of poor Philip Nolan the elder, and in the
9:13
hope of a trace of Ana's perry and her aunt Eunice. No end of
9:20
thoughtful and kind hospitalities from the gentlemen of the army, from their wives and
9:24
daughters, whose welcome to their homes made these stray travelers feel as if this
9:31
were not a bit of Spain, not a scrap from Mexico, but that
9:35
all that had been a dream, and they were all at home. One
9:39
of their friends took them to the headquarters, and here they were most cordially
9:45
welcomed. Here they saw the very table on which General Lee signed the great
9:50
paper of capitulation at Appomattox Court House. Had you ever thought they had marble
9:56
topped tables in such places? And here were gentlemen who had been engaged in
10:01
those long forest marshes, aye, and ladies who had been watching and waiting
10:07
at home. For those gentlemen, it was hearing history, indeed, to
10:13
listen to the anecdotes of those days, a thousand pretty hospitalities, a thousand
10:20
funny adventures, when they did not know whether they were to speak German or
10:24
Spanish, or the language of Pimos or Panis. Loiterings in gardens and scampers
10:31
on prairies took up the time, and would have taken up a great deal
10:35
more, only too fast in the climate of Paradise slipped by the fortnight,
10:43
which was the furlough which the young men had granted themselves. In the morning,
10:48
after an early walk, the ladies would paint or draw, or press
10:52
their flowers or dissect them, or sow or embroider, and the gentlemen would
10:58
read or draw or talk at their sides. In the afternoon, after siesta,
11:05
all four would ride. It never rained. Dear reader, if you
11:11
have a friend who is a little hectic, who begins to cough, and
11:16
if the doctor begins to talk of a milder climate than that of Boston,
11:20
or Portland or Bangor, think twice before you send him or her whom you
11:26
love, across the waters. While you are thinking, determine whether it be
11:31
not better for an invalid to stay in his own country. Let him go
11:37
to San Antonio, said to be the most healthy city in the world.
11:41
Since these ladies went, a railroad has been finished, so that the invalid
11:46
need not leave the palace till he arrive at his journey's end. And there,
11:52
with this exquisite climate, there is all the variety of two or three
11:56
civilizations, and best of all, the presence of friends who make him feel
12:03
at home. A full fortnight after our party arrived, a fortnight which seemed
12:09
much longer, so complete had been the change it wrought in all their habits.
12:15
A fortnight in which they were wanted of fruit and roses, peas and
12:20
other summer vegetables, and rising to a higher plain, to a climate without
12:26
a touch of winter, and as yet without a breath of summer, to
12:31
the real spring tide of poetry. A full fortnight after their arrival, they
12:37
made a merry horseback party with some officers of the garrison and some young ladies
12:43
who were now near friends. And of this party the objective was the springs.
12:52
The copious rush of the green waters of the San Antonio or of its
12:56
sister river always makes a picturesque whenever, in riding or in walking you come
13:03
to either stream. There is a little watering place, perhaps under German oversight,
13:09
much favored by the people who have leisure for a drive not many miles
13:15
out of the town, where in one or another corner is a table set
13:20
in the open air, where a bridge here, a bank of willows or
13:24
mesquites there give resting places for talk, and where any afternoon their cluster throngs
13:31
of children, and of grown up children too, who are not beyond or
13:37
above being amused. As it happened on this particular afternoon, as the different
13:43
members of the party strolled through the grounds together, Hiram, Brinkerhoff and Fie
13:48
Apgar stood on a great mass of rock from beneath, which pours out a
13:52
stream of raging water, as the fountain of Arithusa may be supposed to rush
13:58
forth from its life long underground prison. No end of underground waters there.
14:05
There are people who think that two thirds of the rainfall of the Valley of
14:09
the Mississippi flows in such underground currents to the sea. Frederick Haydock and Hester
14:16
Supfinn have disappeared. They were lost, as one is apt to be,
14:20
on a mesquite grown prairie, and as they had often been before. How
14:26
happy they are, said Hiram, when missus Apgar had said she wondered where
14:31
they would turn up this time. Yes, indeed, was her answer.
14:37
And no one deserves happiness more than she. Her eyes flashed as she praised
14:41
her friend. You will say so when you know her as I do.
14:46
She has never sought happiness since she gave me the biggest half of her stick
14:52
of barley candy. She has never grumbled, but in fun she has been
14:58
her mother's blessing, where indeed any of us would have been but for her.
15:03
I do not know, and he I hope he is as true as
15:07
he seems. This was an eager question. Never fear for him, said
15:13
Hiram boldly. Truer heart never beat under breastplate or under Moslem. I am
15:18
glad to see how she loves him, But she cannot love that man too
15:22
well. He is as gentle as he is true, and he is as
15:28
true as he is brave. And Hiram looked as handsome as Amadys himself as
15:33
he blazed up for his friend. Both of them were silent for a moment,
15:39
silent from the very emotion of pride with which they had spoken. Silent
15:43
as well, be it added, because each was so glad to speak to
15:48
somebody who could respect such enthusiasm. The man took courage first to break a
15:54
silence which each enjoyed. I must leave this paradise tomorrow, he said,
16:00
and he faltered a moment where I too have been happier than I have ever
16:06
been in my life. I must go to my work again, for I
16:10
too have something to do in life besides studying. How I shall be happy.
16:15
But I will not go till I have told you what I think you
16:18
know, how you are everything to me, and that in the months since
16:26
I met you so happily I have been more seen, more known more and
16:33
hoped more than in all my life before. May I tell Amy that,
16:38
and he smiled half sadly. And may I ask her to write to you
16:44
and beg you to make me perfectly happy. There is a sweetheart who will
16:48
never be jealous of you, And he smiled with that serious smile again.
16:53
No, she was not startled. My dear mister Brinkerhoff. You see in
16:59
me what is not here. But I do not think that matters. I
17:03
never thought I should stand where I stand, no, nor that I should
17:08
say what I say. But I should be very unwomanly and very mean.
17:15
If I did not say, as soon as I can find any words,
17:19
that that, I should be very wretched. If I thought I must go
17:25
back to the east alone. It was a blundering answer, but it served
17:32
her turn and his. He flung his arm around her and kissed her and
17:37
led her by some mysterious byway to the gateway of the springs. He found
17:42
their horses without calling on any of the rest of the party, and they
17:48
rode home before the rest of the party. Perhaps the army gentlemen thought that
17:52
the New Englanders had very queer ways when they went on riding parties. If
17:56
they did, they were unjust to the Englanders, for neither mister Haydock,
18:02
the carpetbagger, nor mister Brinkerhoff the drummer, hailed from New England. These
18:08
gentlemen made all right that evening at Missus General mc lane's elegant party, no
18:15
men were more attentive and courteous to all the guests than mister Haydock and his
18:19
friend. Nor did the ladies lack attention, because the gentlemen of their personal
18:25
escort left them mostly to the care of the gentlemen who were more at home.
18:30
As one of the groups gathered round the piano in illustration of some story,
18:36
Lieutenant Laudonniere sang a little song in honor of Texas, which he said
18:41
a Spanish bishop Don Diego Marin wrote, when Texas was yet a wilderness,
18:48
dios tsarve tierra de Texas don natura con hermosuras antes no considas semstro aquilamano,
19:00
divina quetodo loordna conmas com placenia ceparo ellano de TuS verdesprados de mil colores es
19:11
maltaros conla quietude del vasto mar i horizonte in menso seer revela estenso cuando seve
19:19
el sol rayar entre mil naranjos floridos caesidesmayen mis sentidos kiro miss lories olvidar ella
19:32
no prelado edor mir sepultado in atmosphera de azar. Everyone was delighted. Only
19:41
we do not understand the Spanish, said missus abgar mil colorus. I can
19:45
well make out and naranjos, but then I break down. Then I will
19:52
try again, said the lieutenant, and he sang his little translation, fair
19:57
Land of Texas. Heaven save thee nature her choicest blessings, gave thee and
20:03
beauty all unknown before the all creating word thy loveliness preferred, pronounced it good,
20:12
and gave one blessing more enamel'd plains so far extending a thousand rival colors,
20:21
blending stretch out as broadly as the lonely sea when the first sunbeams shine
20:27
on its horizon line, to show how wide and lovely Earth can be.
20:34
Thine orange breezes, gently blowing, sweep all away the plague of knowing.
20:41
I lay my Bishop's grandeur gladly by beneath thy fragrant trees, enjoy the scented
20:48
breeze, and let these cares in thy elysium die. In the hearty applause
20:56
which followed the unexpected version, our four friends looked sympathetically each on other,
21:02
as if this dear old bishop had sung for them what they would be glad
21:07
for themselves to say. Hester broke the silence to thank the Lieutenant. You
21:12
have given missus Abgar all she needed to complete her song book. All what
21:19
is that? He asked, laughing, Oh, Missus Abgar is only a
21:25
Boston Cockney. You know, she never dreamed of what her own country was,
21:30
one out of many. But now she has picked up in a month's
21:33
time from the lips of her own countrymen. First a Pennsylvania song, then
21:41
a chip Away song, and a German and a French, interrupted Fred Haydock,
21:45
don't forget the Negro song, and our Texan Methodist song, said Effie,
21:52
No, no. And there is a Norwegian song and an Italian song,
21:56
Lieutenant Laudonniere. And now you give her a Spanish song, all sung
22:02
by her own countrymen. Let missus Abgar stay only a few weeks longer,
22:07
and she shall hear a Mexican ranchero, a Comanche chief, a Greek vivandiere,
22:15
and an Arab sheikh if I can find one of the camel drivers,
22:18
said he. They are all her countrymen. But I hope she would all
22:22
the same be at home. Indeed I should be, said Effie frankly.
22:27
And yet, do you know Duston, the good natured fellow who drove our
22:32
ambulance, would gladly have persuaded us to go as much farther still in our
22:37
own country as we have come, Yes, said Haydok, laughing. I
22:41
overheard him. Just as well, go on to Chihuahua, missus Apgar,
22:45
only five hundred miles. This team can take you easy in thirty days.
22:51
Just as well, go on to fort Yuma, only six hundred miles more.
22:56
This team take you easy, And then missus Aphar are nothing to go
23:00
to San FRISKI ever been to San Frisky, missus Apgar, ever been there,
23:04
Miss Supplant, These were the words he said. They all laughed.
23:11
But we are too much at home here, said Effie. Though now we
23:17
must say good night to missus mc lean. But here came, indeed the
23:21
end of this story. Not but the ladies spent the foe ordained month in
23:26
San Antonio. But the gentlemen left them the morning after General mc lean's party,
23:32
one to his office and the other to his merchandise. But when the
23:37
end of May came, after Effie and Hester had had the charming month of
23:41
rest and of paradise which they went for, had read and sung, and
23:45
drawn and painted, had picked flowers and pressed them and analyzed them, had
23:51
talked and slept and dreamed to their heart's content. Then their fellow travelers appeared
23:57
again, knowing that they were ready to go back to other strawberries and to
24:03
other cream. There is one more lion, said missus Apgar to one of
24:10
their hosts, as he called on the last evening, which I shall ask
24:14
you to take me to see. I'm sure there's a market here. Now,
24:18
I don't mean a butcher's shop, a market in the open air.
24:22
I always make Hester go to the markets with me. We have tried it
24:26
here, but not before breakfast. And so she had in every Southwestern town
24:33
where they had spent any time, and though sometimes they were not all her
24:37
fancy painted, they were generally a great deal better. Neither Hiram nor Fred
24:44
knew about the San Antonio market, but mister Latour said very readily that he
24:49
did know, And at half past six in the morning of their last day,
24:53
he knocked at their parlor door and led them out of their dear menger
24:57
house, through the Alamo Plaza and into the town beyond. We're going to
25:03
the military plaza, he said. A plaza isn't such a mysterious thing,
25:08
after all, said Hester, looking back at the gloomy, beautiful Alamo across
25:14
a wide expanse of gravel and dust. It will be a good word to
25:18
astonish them with at home. But the more familiar square describes it as well
25:23
for us. No, indeed, cried, Effie. Squares aren't as large
25:29
a plaza was a plaza, once, said mister Latour. When you saw
25:34
a little army drawn up in the military plaza where we are going, or
25:38
when the greasers as you call them, were beating through the Alamo gates behind
25:44
us, then Miss Sutfin would have found it. Spanish enough, Spanish enough.
25:49
They did find it when at the end of their walk they came out
25:53
into the great open space crowded with ox carts, mule carts, sat horses,
26:00
and buyers and cellars. The brown Mexicans with stiff back hair under those
26:06
felt sombreros so dear to Effie's heart, with actually leathern straps to keep them
26:12
on like little boys, light cotton shirts, red topped boots or leathern leggings,
26:22
and an occasional crimson silk scarf round the waist or a gay handkerchief about
26:27
the neck. Such figures as these, with melancholy browned faces, as much
26:33
Indian as Spanish, were quite as delightful as the ideal Texan herdsmen, though
26:40
they were not at all the same thing, and the women were a new
26:45
revelation of the possible beauty of the arrangement of a shawl over the head,
26:49
though our travelers wished that their Moorish reserve didn't sometimes make them hold it over
26:55
the lower part of the face. Such people as these, they had often
26:59
seen before in Saint Antoine, especially in Chihuahua, as they call the Mexican
27:03
Quarter, but never so many together, and never under such delightful circumstances.
27:11
There was a little boy struggling with a lively cock, which he had bought
27:15
against its will. There were women selling the brightest of green and red vegetables
27:22
there, but mister Latour was pointing out one group, the most Mexican of
27:26
all. One of the women was sitting on the ground with a great three
27:30
legged, black iron pot before her. There was no fire visible, but
27:36
she was taking out and distributing some kind of hot breakfast, which her friends
27:41
were eating at a table with a white cloth. Close by, one or
27:45
two preferred squatting on the ground. Her little daughter, in her gray veil,
27:51
was handing round cups of coffee. Behind were the strong, light ox
27:56
carts which carry cotton to Mexico, of which some of the guests were probably
28:00
drivers. Farther back still were the low white stucco Spanish houses of the square.
28:07
Effie's sketch of part of all this was interrupted by mister Letour's bringing her
28:12
some of the contents of the pot. This was a little bundle wrapped in
28:18
a soft and thin court husk in which it had been cooked. Inside was
28:22
Indian meal and red pepper and mince meat, and strange to say, it
28:27
was very nice. It made Effie's breakfast that day. The meal for this
28:33
must be ground by hand, said mister LeTour, And he led them into
28:37
a pawnbroker's shop close by, where they saw low stone three legged stools with
28:44
other stones upon them. And these, they were told, were mills at
28:48
which two women ground, almost as they did in Palestine. All sorts of
28:55
other interesting things were in this shop, gay worsted hat bands, saddles,
29:00
whips, silver jewelry, everything in fact which a Mexican can pawn to pay
29:07
his gambling debts. On the way home, before they crossed the pretty bridges
29:11
over the deep blue river, they thought no Swiss lake could be bluer.
29:17
On the way home, they stopped at another shop where they could get chocolate
29:21
and graceful earthen water coolers and tremendous whips to carry home with them for the
29:27
boys, and Mexican tobacco for the gentlemen. The only good thing the greasers
29:33
do make, said Tom. Duston and high colored hat bands for phil Apgar's
29:38
boys. And indeed no end of quaint half savage tokens. They asked in
29:45
vain for long gray silk shawls, which the brown women wore, though they
29:51
saw them directly afterwards in the street there wearers were carrying great wooden cages of
29:57
little birds and offered them to the ladies with mysterious smiles. The Mexicans were
30:03
almost the only women to be seen on foot in the streets. Hester had
30:07
been out alone once walking, and though no one was rude to her,
30:12
she had not been sorry to rejoin her own sex. The solitude and company
30:18
was as shocking as Alexander Selkirk found the tameness of the beasts. This was
30:25
Spanish. Too little appetite after the nameless morning cakes for the nice manger house
30:32
breakfast, and then when the last good byes were spoken Dustin having been summoned
30:37
once more, they started to cross the prairie to Austin. This time no
30:44
brigands frightened them. They arrived just in time to secure berths six and seven,
30:48
eight and nine in the pullman. Shall we say, of course,
30:53
Aurelius was standing on the platform. Here's your palace, car ladies and gentlemen.
31:00
Of course, the palace car was the Gold Conda end of chapter sixteen,