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The Mettle of the Pasture

14 of 69

town knew him and were ready to chat with him on street corners--but never very long at a time. In his old law offices he could spend part of every day, guiding or guying his nephew Barbee, who had just begun to practice. But when all his social resources were reckoned, his days contained great voids and his nights were lonelier still. The society of women remained a necessity of his life; and the only woman in town, always bright, always full of ideas, and always glad to see him (the main difficulty) was Mrs. Conyers. So that for years now he had been going regularly on Sunday evenings. He kept up apologies to his conscience regularly also; but it must have become clear that his conscience was not a fire to make him boil; it was merely a few coals to keep him bubbling. In this acceptance of her at the end of life there was of course mournful evidence of his own deterioration. During the years between being a young man and being an old one he had so far descended toward her level, that upon renewing acquaintance with her he actually thought that she had improved. Youth with its white-flaming ideals is the great separator; by middle age most of us have become so shaken down, on life's rough road, to a certain equality of bearing and forbearing, that miscellaneous comradeship becomes easy and rather comforting; while extremely aged people are as compatible and as miserable as disabled old eagles, grouped with a few inches of each other's beaks and claws on the sleek perches of a cage. This evening therefore, as he took his seat and looked across at her, so richly dressed, so youthful, soft, and rosy, he all but thanked heaven out loud that she was at home. "Madam," he cried, "you are a wonderful and bewitching old lady"--it was on the tip of his tongue to say "beldam." "I know it," she replied briskly, "have you been so long in finding it out?" "It is a fresh discovery every time I come." "Then you forget me in the meanwhile." "I never forget you unless I am thinking of Miss Isabel. How is she?" "Not well." "Then I'm not well! No one is well! Everybody must suffer if she is suffering. The universe sympathizes." "She is not ill. She is in trouble." "But she must not be in trouble! She has done nothing to be in trouble about. Who troubles her? What troubles her?" "She will not tell." "Ah!" he cried, checking himself gravely and dropping the subject. She noted the decisive change of tone: it was not by this direct route that she would be able to enter his confidence. "What did you think of the sermon this morning?" "The sermon on the prodigal? Well, it is too late for such sermons to be levelled at me; and I never listen to those aimed at other people." "At what other people do you suppose this one could have been directed?" She asked the question most carelessly, lifting her imponderable handkerchief and letting it drop into her lap as a sign of how little her interest weighed. "It is not my duty to judge." "We cannot help our thoughts, you know." "I think we can, madam; and I also think we can hold our tongues," and he laughed at her very good-naturedly. "Sometimes we can even help to hold other people's--if they are long." "Oh, what a rude speech to a lady!" she exclaimed gallantly. "Did you see the Osborns at church? And did you notice him? What an unhappy marriage! He is breaking Kate's heart. And to think that his character--or the lack of it--should have been discovered only when it was too late! How can you men so cloak yourselves before marriage? Why not tell women the truth then instead of leaving them to find it out afterward? Are he and Rowan as good friends as ever?" The question was asked with the air of guilelessness. "I know nothing about that," he replied dryly. "I never knew Rowan to drop his friends because they had failings: it would break up all friendships, I imagine." "Well, I cannot help _my_ thoughts, and I think George Osborn was the prodigal aimed at in the sermon. Everybody thought so." "How does she know what everybody thought?" commented the Judge to himself. He tapped the porch nervously with his cane, sniffed his heliotrope and said irrelevantly: "Ah me, what a beautiful night! What a beautiful night!" The implied rebuff provoked her. Irritation winged a venomous little shaft: "At least no woman has ever held _you_ responsible for her unhappiness." "You are quite right, madam," he replied, "the only irreproachable husband in this world is the man who has no wife." "By the way," she continued, "in all these years you have not told me why you never married. Come now, confess!" How well she knew! How often as she had driven through the streets and observed him sitting alone in the door of his office or walking aimlessly about, she had leaned back and laughed. "Madam," he replied, for he did not like the question, "neither have you ever told me why you married three times. Come now, confess." It would soon be time for him to leave; and still she had not gained her point. "Rowan was here this afternoon," she remarked carelessly. He was sitting so that the light fell sidewise on his face. She noted how alert it became, but he said nothing. "Isabel refused to see him." He wheeled round and faced her with pain and surprise. "Refused to see him!" "She has told me since that she never intends to see him." "Never intends to see Rowan again!" he repeated the incredible words, "not see Rowan again!" "She says we are to drop him from the list of our acquaintances." "Ah!" he cried with impetuous sadness, "they must not quarrel! They _must_ not!" "But they _have_ quarrelled," she replied, revealing her own anxiety. "Now they must be reconciled. That is why I come to you. I am Isabel's guardian; you were Rowan's. Each of us wishes this marriage. Isabel loves Rowan. I know that; therefore it is not her fault. Therefore it is Rowan's fault. Therefore he has said something or he has done something to offend her deeply. Therefore if you do not know what this Is, you must find out. And you must come and tell me. May I depend upon you?" He had become grave. At length he said: "I shall go straight to Rowan and ask him." "No!" she cried, laying her hand heavily on his arm, "Isabel bound me to secrecy. She does not wish this to be known."

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