CHAPTER XXI
GOOD-BY TO JERRY DANGERFIELD
The next morning Ardmore knocked at Griswold's door as early as hedared, and went in and talked to his friend in their old intimatefashion. The associate professor of admiralty was shaving himself withcare.
"You won't have any hard feelings about that scarlet fever business,will you, Grissy? It was downright selfish of me to want to keep thething to myself, but I thought it would be fun to go ahead and carry itthrough and then show you how well I pulled it off."
"Don't ever refer to it again, if you love me," spluttered Griswoldamiably, as he washed off the lather. "I, too, have ruled over akingdom, and I have seen history in the making, _quorum pars magnafui_."
"But I say, Grissy, there is such a thing as fate and destiny and allthat after all; don't you believe it?"
"Don't I believe it! I know it!" thundered Griswold, reaching for atowel. He lifted a white rose from a glass of water where it had spentthe night and regarded it tenderly. "The right rose under the rightstar, and the thing's done; the rose, the star and the girl,--thecombination simply can't be beat, Ardy."
Ardmore seized and wrung his friend's hand, for the twentieth time; buthe was preoccupied, and Griswold, fastening his collar at the mirror,hummed softly the couplet:
With the winking eye For my battle-cry.
"Grissy!" shouted Ardmore, "she never did it!"
"Oh--bless my soul, what was I saying! Why, of course she wasn't theone! Not Miss Dangerfield--never!"
"Well, you like her, don't you?" demanded Ardmore petulantly.
"Of course I like her, you idiot! She's wonderful. She's--"
He frowned upon the scarf he had chosen with much care, snapped it toshake the wrinkles out, humming softly, while Ardmore glared at him.
"She's wise," Griswold resumed, "with the wisdom of laughter--acceptthat, with my compliments. It's not often I do so well before breakfast.And now if you're to be congratulated before I go back to the groves ofAcademe pray bestir yourself. At this very moment I have an engagementto walk with a lady before breakfast--thanks, yes, that's my coat.Good-by!"
Breakfast was a lingering affair at Ardsley that morning. The twogovernors and the national guard officers who had spent the night in thehouse were not in the slightest hurry to break up the party, for such acompany, they all knew, could hardly be assembled again. The governorswere a trifle nervous as to the attitude of the press, in spite ofCollins' efforts to dictate what history should say of the affair on theRaccoon; but before they left the table the Raleigh morning papers werebrought in and it was clear that the newspaper men were keeping theircontract.
"I congratulate you, Dangerfield," said Governor Osborne. "I only hopethat the Columbia and Charleston papers have done half as well by me."
Both governors had decided upon an inspection of such portions of theirmilitia as were assembled on the Raccoon, and a joint dress parade wasappointed for six o'clock.
Ardmore, anxious to make every one at home, saw the morning pass withouta chance to speak to Jerry; and when he was free shortly before noon hewas chagrined to find that she had gone for a ride over the estate withher father, Governor Osborne, Barbara and Griswold. He went in pursuit,and to his delight found her presently sitting alone on a log by theRaccoon, having dismounted, it appeared, to rescue a fledgling robinwhose cries had led her away from her companions. She pointed out thenest and directed him to climb the tree and restore the bird. This donehe sat down beside her at a point where the Raccoon curved sweepinglyand swung off abruptly into a new course.
"I hope your father didn't scold you for anything we did," he beganmeekly.
"No; he took it all pretty well, and promised that if I wouldn't tellmama what he had been doing--about coming down here with GovernorOsborne just to settle an old score at poker--mama doesn't approve ofcards, you know--that he would make me a present of a better ridinghorse than the one I now have, and he might even consider a trip abroadnext summer."
"Oh, you mustn't go abroad! It's--it's so lonesome abroad!"
"How perfectly ridiculous! Has it never occurred to you that I am neverlonesome, not even when I'm alone."
"Well," said Ardmore, who saw that he was headed for a blind alley,"I'm glad your father was not displeased with our work."
"He'll think we did pretty well after he's read our correspondence inhis letter books. I told him the stamp we stamped his name with workedbetter with the red ink pad than with the black one, which ought, at anyrate, to be clear enough to a man of papa's intelligence."
"Did you tell him about that railroad lawyer from New York who wanted tosuppress the law which compels all locomotive whistles to be tuned to Eflat?"
"No; that man sent me a ten-pound box of candy, which was highlyimproper, considering papa's position, and I should have scorned toaccept the candy only I had forgotten to keep his card."
"And besides," added Ardmore gently, "you had eaten the candy. Don't youremember that you left nothing but a few burnt almonds which you wantedto keep for eating filapenas?"
"Don't be silly!" ejaculated Jerry contemptuously.
"It's a good thing all this fuss about the Appleweight people is over orI should be worse than silly. My mind was not intended for such heavywork."
"I think you have a good mind, Mr. Ardmore," said Jerry, with the airof one who makes concessions. "You really did well in all thesetroubles, and you did much better than I thought you would the day Ihired you for private secretary. I think I could safely recommend you toany governor in need of assistance."
"You talk as though you were getting ready to discharge me," saidArdmore plaintively, "and I don't want to lose my job."
"You ought to have something to do," said Jerry thoughtfully. "As nearas I can make out you have never done anything but study about piratesand collect pernicious books on the sinful life of Captain Kidd. Youshould have some larger aim in life than that and I think I know of agood position that is now open, or will be as soon as papa has clearedout the peanut shells we left in his desk. I think you would make anexcellent adjutant-general with full charge of the state militia. Youhave already had experience in the handling of troops, and as RutherfordGillingwater never did anything but get typhoid fever to earn the place,I see no reason why papa should not appoint you to the position."
"But you have to get rid of Gillingwater first," suggested Ardmore, hisheart beating fast.
"If you mean that he has to be removed from office, I will tell younow, Mr. Ardmore, that Rutherford Gillingwater will no longer signhimself adjutant-general of North Carolina. I removed him myself in ageneral order I wrote yesterday afternoon just before I told papa thatyou and I could not act as governor any longer, but that he must resumethe yoke."
"But that must have been a matter of considerable delicacy, MissDangerfield, when you consider that you are engaged to marry Mr.Gillingwater."
"Not in the least," said Jerry. "I broke our engagement the moment I sawthat he came here the other night all dressed up to eat and not tofight, and he is now free to engage himself to that thin blonde atGoldsboro whom he thinks so highly intellectual."
Jerry held up her left hand and regarded its ringless fingersjudicially, while Ardmore, his heart racing hotly against all records,watched her, and with a particular covetousness his eyes studied thattrifle of a hand.
Then with a quick gesture he seized her hand and raised her gently toher feet.
"Jerry!" he cried. "From the moment you winked at me I have loved you. Ishould have followed you round the world until I found you. If you canmarry a worthless wretch like me, if--oh, Jerry!"
She gently freed her hand and stepped to one side, bending her head likea bird that pauses alarmed, or uncertain of its whereabouts, glancingcautiously up and down the creek.
"Mr. Ardmore," she said, "you may not be aware that when you asked me tobe your wife--and that, I take it, was your intention--you were standingin South Carolina, while I stood with both feet on the sacred soi
l ofthe Old North State. Under the circumstances I do not think yourproposal is legal. Moreover, unless you are quite positive which eye itwas that so far forgot itself as to wink, I do not think the matter cango further."
The slightest suggestion of a smile played about her lips, but he wasvery deeply troubled, and, seeing this, her eyes grew grave withkindness.
"Mr. Ardmore, if your muscles of locomotion have not been utterlyparalyzed, and if you will leave that particular state of the Unionwhich, next to Massachusetts, I most deeply abhor, I will do what I canin my poor weak way--as father says in beginning his best speeches--toassist you to the answer."
Then for many aeons, when he had his arms about her, a kiss, which hehad intended for the lips that were so near, somehow failed of itsdestination, and fell upon what seemed to him a rose-leaf gone toHeaven, but which was, in fact, Jerry Dangerfield's left eye. His beingtingled with the most delicious of intoxications, to which the clasp ofher arms about his neck added unnecessary though not unwelcome delight.Then she drew back and held him away with her finger-tips for aninstant.
"Mr. Thomas Ardmore," she said, with maddening deliberation, "it may notbe important, but I must tell you in all candor that it was the othereye."
The Little Brown Jug at Kildare Page 21