The Crisis — Complete

by Winston Churchill

  CHAPTER XII. "MISS JINNY"

  The years have sped indeed since that gray December when Miss VirginiaCarvel became eighteen. Old St. Louis has changed from a pleasantSouthern town to a bustling city, and a high building stands on the siteof that wide and hospitable home of Colonel Carvel. And the Colonel'sthoughts that morning, as Ned shaved him, flew back through the years toa gently rolling Kentucky countryside, and a pillared white house amongthe oaks. He was riding again with Beatrice Colfax in the springtime.Again he stretched out his arm as if to seize her bridle-hand, and hefelt the thoroughbred rear. Then the vision faded, and the memory of hisdead wife became an angel's face, far--so far away.

  He had brought her to St. Louis, and with his inheritance had foundedhis business, and built the great double house on the corner. The childcame, and was named after the noble state which had given so many of hersons to the service of the Republic.

  Five simple, happy years--then war. A black war of conquest which,like many such, was to add to the nation's fame and greatness: Glorybeckoned, honor called--or Comyn Carvel felt them. With nothing of theprofession of arms save that born in the Carvels, he kissed Beatricefarewell and steamed down the Mississippi, a captain in Missouriregiment. The young wife was ailing. Anguish killed her. Had ComynCarvel been selfish?

  Ned, as he shaved his master's face, read his thoughts by the strangesympathy of love. He had heard the last pitiful words of his mistress.Had listened, choking, to Dr. Posthlewaite as he read the sublimeservice of the burial of the dead. It was Ned who had met his master,the Colonel, at the levee, and had fallen sobbing at his feet.

  Long after he was shaved that morning, the Colonel sat rapt in hischair, while the faithful servant busied himself about the room, one eyeon his master the while. But presently Mr. Carvel's revery is broken bythe swift rustle of a dress, and a girlish figure flutters in and plantsitself on the wide arm of his mahogany barber chair, Mammy Easter in thedoor behind her. And the Colonel, stretching forth his hands, strainsher to him, and then holds her away that he may look and look again intoher face.

  "Honey," he said, "I was thinking of your mother."

  Virginia raised her eyes to the painting on the wall over the marblemantel. The face under the heavy coils of brown hair was sweet andgentle, delicately feminine. It had an expression of sorrow that seemeda prophecy.

  The Colonel's hand strayed upward to Virginia's head.

  "You are not like her, honey," he said: "You may see for yourself. Youare more like your Aunt Bess, who lived in Baltimore, and she--"

  "I know," said Virginia, "she was the image of the beauty, DorothyManners, who married my great-grandfather."

  "Yes, Jinny," replied the Colonel, smiling. "That is so. You aresomewhat like your great-grandmother."

  "Somewhat!" cried Virginia, putting her hand over his mouth, "I likethat. You and Captain Lige are always afraid of turning my head. I neednot be a beauty to resemble her. I know that I am like her. When youtook me on to Calvert House to see Uncle Daniel that time, I rememberthe picture by, by--"

  "Sir Joshua Reynolds."

  "Yes, Sir Joshua."

  "You were only eleven," says the Colonel.

  "She is not a difficult person to remember."

  "No," said Mr. Carvel, laughing, "especially if you have lived withher."

  "Not that I wish to be that kind," said Virginia, meditatively,--"totake London by storm, and keep a man dangling for years."

  "But he got her in the end," said the Colonel. "Where did you hear allthis?" he asked.

  "Uncle Daniel told me. He has Richard Carvel's diary."

  "And a very honorable record it is," exclaimed the Colonel. "Jinny,we shall read it together when we go a-visiting to Culvert House. Iremember the old gentleman as well as if I had seen him yesterday."

  Virginia appeared thoughtful.

  "Pa," she began, "Pa, did you ever see the pearls Dorothy Carvel wore onher wedding day? What makes you jump like that? Did you ever see them?"

  "Well, I reckon I did," replied the Colonel, gazing at her steadfastly.

  "Pa, Uncle Daniel told me that I was to have that necklace when I wasold enough."

  "Law!" said the Colonel, fidgeting, "your Uncle Daniel was just foolingyou."

  "He's a bachelor," said Virginia; "what use has he got for it?"

  "Why," says the Colonel, "he's a young man yet, your uncle, onlyfifty-three. I've known older fools than he to go and do it. Eh, Ned?"

  "Yes, marsa. Yes, suh. I've seed 'em at seventy, an' shufflin' aboutpeart as Marse Clarence's gamecocks. Why, dar was old Marse Ludlow--"

  "Now, Mister Johnson," Virginia put in severely, "no more about oldLudlow."

  Ned grinned from ear to ear, and in the ecstasy of his delight droppedthe Colonel's clothes-brush. "Lan' sakes!" he cried, "ef she ain'trecommembered." Recovering his gravity and the brush simultaneously, hemade Virginia a low bow. "Mornin', Miss Jinny. I sholy is gwinter s'luteyou dis day. May de good Lawd make you happy, Miss Jinny, an' give you agood husban'--"

  "Thank you, Mister Johnson, thank you," said Virginia, blushing.

  "How come she recommembered, Marse Comyn? Dat's de quality. Dat's why.Doan't you talk to Ned 'bout de quality, Marsa."

  "And when did I ever talk to you about the quality, you scalawag?" asksthe Colonel, laughing.

  "Th' ain't none 'cept de bes' quality keep they word dat-a-way," saidNed, as he went off to tell Uncle Ben in the kitchen.

  Was there ever, in all this wide country, a good cook who was not atyrant? Uncle Ben Carvel was a veritable emperor in his own domain; andthe Colonel himself, had he desired to enter the kitchen, would havebeen obliged to come with humble and submissive spirit. As for Virginia,she had had since childhood more than one passage at arms with UncleBen. And the question of who had come off victorious had been thesubject of many a debate below stairs.

  There were a few days in the year, however, when Uncle Ben permittedthe sanctity of his territory to be violated. One was the seventh ofDecember. On such a day it was his habit to retire to the broken chairbeside the sink (the chair to which he had clung for five-and-twentyyears). There he would sit, blinking, and carrying on the while anundercurrent of protests and rumblings, while Miss Virginia and otheryoung ladies mixed and chopped and boiled and baked and gossiped. Butwoe to the unfortunate Rosetta if she overstepped the bounds of respect!Woe to Ned or Jackson or Tato, if they came an inch over the thresholdfrom the hall beyond! Even Aunt Easter stepped gingerly, though she waswont to affirm, when assisting Miss Jinny in her toilet, an absolutecontempt for Ben's commands.

  "So Ben ordered you out, Mammy?" Virginia would say mischievously.

  "Order me out! Hugh! think I'se skeered o' him, honey? Reckon I'd frail'em good ef he cotched hole of me with his black hands. Jes' let him tryto come upstairs once, honey, an' see what I say to 'm."

  Nevertheless Ben had, on one never-to-be-forgotten occasion, orderedMammy Easter out, and she had gone. And now, as she was working the beatbiscuits to be baked that evening, Uncle Ben's eye rested on her withsuspicion.

  What mere man may write with any confidence of the delicacies whichwere prepared in Uncle's kitchen that morning? No need in those days ofcooking schools. What Southern lady, to the manner born, is not a cookfrom the cradle? Even Ben noted with approval Miss Virginia's scorn forpecks and pints, and grunted with satisfaction over the accurate pinchesof spices and flavors which she used. And he did Miss Eugenie the honorto eat one of her praleens.

  That night came Captain Lige Brent, the figure of an eager anddetermined man swinging up the street, and pulling out his watch underevery lamp-post. And in his haste, in the darkness of a midblock, heran into another solid body clad in high boots and an old army overcoat,beside a wood wagon.

  "Howdy, Captain," said he of the high boots.

  "Well, I just thought as much," was the energetic reply; "minute I seenthe rig I knew Captain Grant was behind it."

  He held out a big hand, which Captain Grant clasped
, just looking athis own with a smile. The stranger was Captain Elijah Brent of the'Louisiana'.

  "Now," said Brent, "I'll just bet a full cargo that you're off to thePlanters' House, and smoke an El Sol with the boys."

  Mr. Grant nodded. "You're keen, Captain," said he.

  "I've got something here that'll outlast an El Sol a whole day,"continued Captain Breast, tugging at his pocket and pulling out asix-inch cigar as black as the night. "Just you try that."

  The Captain instantly struck a match on his boot and was puffing in asilent enjoyment which delighted his friend.

  "Reckon he don't bring out cigars when you make him a call," said thesteamboat captain, jerking his thumb up at the house. It was Mr. JacobCluyme's.

  Captain Grant did not reply to that, nor did Captain Lige expect him to,as it was the custom of this strange and silent man to speak ill of noone. He turned rather to put the stakes back into his wagon.

  "Where are you off to, Lige?" he asked.

  "Lord bless my soul," said Captain Lige, "to think that I could forget!"He tucked a bundle tighter under his arm. "Grant, did you ever see mylittle sweetheart, Jinny Carvel?" The Captain sighed. "She ain't littleany more, and she eighteen to-day."

  Captain Grant clapped his hand to his forehead.

  "Say, Lige," said he, "that reminds me. A month or so ago I pulled afellow out of Renault's area across from there. First I thought he wasa thief. After he got away I saw the Colonel and his daughter in thewindow."

  Instantly Captain Lige became excited, and seized Captain Grant by thecape of his overcoat.

  "Say, Grant, what kind of appearing fellow was he?"

  "Short, thick-set, blocky face."

  "I reckon I know," said Breast, bringing down his fist on the wagonboard; "I've had my eye on him for some little time."

  He walked around the block twice after Captain Grant had driven down themuddy street, before he composed himself to enter the Carvel mansion. Hepaid no attention to the salutations of Jackson, the butler, who saw himcoming and opened the door, but climbed the stairs to the sitting-room.

  "Why, Captain Lige, you must have put wings on the Louisiana," saidVirginia, rising joyfully from the arm of her father's chair to meethim. "We had given you up."

  "What?" cried the Captain. "Give me up? Don't you know better than that?What, give me up when I never missed a birthday,--and this the best ofall of 'em.

  "If your pa had got sight of me shovin' in wood and cussin' the pilotfor slowin' at the crossin's, he'd never let you ride in my boat again.Bill Jenks said: 'Are you plum crazy, Brent? Look at them cressets.''Five dollars'' says I; 'wouldn't go in for five hundred. To-morrow'sJinny Carvel's birthday, and I've just got to be there.' I reckon thetime's come when I've got to say Miss Jinny," he added ruefully.

  The Colonel rose, laughing, and hit the Captain on the back.

  "Drat you, Lige, why don't you kiss the girl? Can't you see she'swaiting?"

  The honest Captain stole one glance at Virginia, and turned red coppercolor.

  "Shucks, Colonel, I can't be kissing her always. What'll her husbandsay?"

  For an instant Mr. Carvel's brow clouded.

  "We'll not talk of husbands yet awhile, Lige."

  Virginia went up to Captain Lige, deftly twisted into shape his blacktie, and kissed him on the check. How his face burned when she touchedhim.

  "There!" said she, "and don't you ever dare to treat me as a young lady.Why, Pa, he's blushing like a girl. I know. He's ashamed to kiss me now.He's going to be married at last to that Creole girl in New Orleans."

  The Colonel slapped his knee, winked slyly at Lige, while Virginia beganto sing:

  "I built me a house on the mountain so high, To gaze at my true love as she do go by."

  "There's only one I'd ever marry, Jinny," protested the Captain,soberly, "and I'm a heap too old for her. But I've seen a youngsterthat might mate with her, Colonel," he added mischievously. "If he justwasn't a Yankee. Jinny, what's the story I hear about Judge Whipple'syoung man buying Hester?"

  Mr. Carvel looked uneasy. It was Virginia's turn to blush, and she grewred as a peony.

  "He's a tall, hateful, Black Republican Yankee!" she said.

  "Phee-ew!" whistled the Captain. "Any more epithets?"

  "He's a nasty Abolitionist!"

  "There you do him wrong, honey," the Colonel put in.

  "I hear he took Hester to Miss Crane's," the Captain continued, fillingthe room with his hearty laughter. "That boy has sand enough, Jinny; I'dlike to know him."

  "You'll have that priceless opportunity to-night," retorted MissVirginia, as she flung herself out of the room. "Pa has made me invitehim to my party."

  "Here, Jinny! Hold on!" cried the Captain, running after her. "I've gotsomething for you."

  She stopped on the stairs, hesitating. Whereupon the Captain hastilyripped open the bundle under his arm and produced a very handsome Indiashawl. With a cry of delight Virginia threw it over her shoulders andran to the long glass between the high windows.

  "Who spoils her, Lige?" asked the Colonel, fondly.

  "Her father, I reckon," was the prompt reply.

  "Who spoils you, Jinny?"

  "Captain Lige," said she, turning to him. "If you had only kept thepresents you have brought me from New Orleans, you might sell out yoursteamboat and be a rich man."

  "He is a rich man," said the Colonel, promptly. "Did you ever missbringing her a present, Lige?" he asked.

  "When the Cora Anderson burnt," answered the Captain.

  "Why," cried Virginia, "you brought me a piece of her wheel, with thechar on it. You swam ashore with it."

  "So I did," said Captain Brent. "I had forgotten that. It was when theFrench dress, with the furbelows, which Madame Pitou had gotten me fromParis for you, was lost."

  "And I think I liked the piece of wheel better," says Virginia. "It wasbrought me by a brave man, the last to leave his boat."

  "And who should be the last to leave, but the captain? I saw the thingin the water; and I just thought we ought to have a relic."

  "Lige," said the Colonel, putting up his feet, "do you remember theFrench toys you used to bring up here from New Orleans?"

  "Colonel," replied Brent, "do you recall the rough and uncouth youngcitizen who came over here from Cincinnati, as clerk on the Vicksburg?"

  "I remember, sir, that he was so promising that they made himprovisional captain the next trip, and he was not yet twenty-four yearsof age."

  "And do you remember buying the Vicksburg at the sheriff's sale fortwenty thousand dollars, and handing her over to young Brent, andsaying, 'There, my son, she's your boat, and you can pay for her whenyou like'?"

  "Shucks, Brent!" said Mr. Carvel, sternly, "your memory's too good. ButI proved myself a good business man, Jinny; he paid for her in a year."

  "You don't mean that you made him pay you for the boat?" cried Jinny."Why, Pa, I didn't think you were that mean!"

  The two men laughed heartily.

  "I was a heap meaner," said her father. "I made him pay interest."

  Virginia drew in her breath, and looked at the Colonel in amazement.

  "He's the meanest man I know," said Captain Lige. "He made me payinterest, and a mint julep."

  "Upon my word, Pa," said Miss Virginia, soberly, "I shouldn't havebelieved it of you."

  Just then Jackson, in his white jacket; came to announce that supper wasready, and they met Ned at the dining-room door, fairly staggering undera load of roses.

  "Marse Clarence done send 'em in, des picked out'n de hothouse disafternoon, Miss Jinny. Jackson, fotch a bowl!"

  "No," said Virginia. She took the flowers from Ned, one by one, and tothe wonderment of Captain Lige and her--father strewed them hither andthither upon the table until the white cloth was hid by the red flowers.The Colonel stroked his goatee and nudged Captain Lige.

  "Look-a-there, now," said he. "Any other woman would have spent twomortal hours stickin' 'em in china."

/>   Virginia, having critically surveyed her work, amid exclamations fromNed and Jackson, had gone around to her place. And there upon her platelay a pearl necklace. For an instant she clapped her palms together,staring at it in bewilderment. And once more the little childish cry ofdelight, long sweet to the Colonel's ears, escaped her.

  "Pa," she said, "is it--?" And there she stopped, for fear that it mightnot be. But he nodded encouragingly.

  "Dorothy Carvel's necklace! No, it can't be."

  "Yes, honey," said the Colonel. "Your Uncle Daniel sent it, as hepromised. And when you go upstairs, if Easter has done as I told her,you will see a primrose dress with blue coin-flowers on your bed. Danielthought you might like that, too, for a keepsake. Dorothy Manners woreit in London, when she was a girl."

  And so Virginia ran and threw her arms about her father's neck, andkissed him again and again. And lest the Captain feel badly, she laidhis India shawl beside her; and the necklace upon it.

  What a joyful supper they had,--just the three of them! And as the freshroses filled the room with fragrance, Virginia filled it with youth andspirits, and Mr. Carvel and the Captain with honest, manly merriment.And Jackson plied Captain Brent (who was a prime favorite in that house)with broiled chicken and hot beat biscuits and with waffles, until atlength he lay back in his chair and heaved a sigh of content, lighting acigar. And then Virginia, with a little curtsey to both of them, ran offto dress for the party.

  "Well," said Captain Brent, "I reckon there'll be gay goings-on hereto-night. I wouldn't miss the sight of 'em, Colonel, for all the cargoeson the Mississippi. Ain't there anything I can do?"

  "No, thank you, Lige," Mr. Carvel answered. "Do you remember, onemorning some five years ago, when I took in at the store a Yankee namedHopper? You didn't like him, I believe."

  Captain Brent jumped, and the ashes of his cigar fell on his coat. Hehad forgotten his conversation with Captain Grant.

  "I reckon I do," he said dryly.

  For a moment he was on the point of telling the affair. Then hedesisted. He could not be sure of Eliphalet from Grant's description. Sohe decided to await a better time. Captain Brent was one to make sure ofhis channel before going ahead.

  "Well," continued the Colonel, "I have been rather pushed the last week,and Hopper managed things for this dance. He got the music, and saw theconfectioner. But he made such a close bargain with both of 'em thatthey came around to me afterward," he added, laughing.

  "Is he coming here to-night?" demanded the Captain, looking disgusted.

  "Lige," replied the Colonel, "you never do get over a prejudice. Yes,he's coming, just to oversee things. He seems to have mighty littlepleasure, and he's got the best business head I ever did see. A Yankee,"said Mr. Carvel, meditatively, as he put on his hat, "a Yankee, when hewill work, works like all possessed. Hood don't like him any more thanyou do, but he allows Hopper is a natural-born business man. Last monthSamuels got tight, and Wright & Company were going to place the largestorder in years. I called in Hood. 'Go yourself, Colonel,' says he. I I'mtoo old to solicit business, Hood,' said I. 'Then there's only one manto send,' says he, 'young Hopper. He'll get the order, or I'll give upthis place I've had for twenty years.' Hopper 'callated' to get it, andanother small one pitched in. And you'd die laughing, Lige, to hear howhe did it."

  "Some slickness, I'll gamble," grunted Captain Lige.

  "Well, I reckon 'twas slick," said the Colonel, thoughtfully. "You knowold man Wright hates a solicitor like poison. He has his notions. Andmaybe you've noticed signs stuck up all over his store, 'No Solicitorsnor Travelling Men Allowed Here'."

  The Captain nodded.

  "But Hopper--Hopper walks in, sir, bold as you please, right past thesigns till he comes to the old man's cage. 'I want to see Mr. Wright,'says he to the clerk. And the clerk begins to grin. 'Name, please,' sayshe. Mr. Hopper whips out his business card. 'What!' shouts old Wright,flying 'round in his chair, 'what the devil does this mean? Can't youread, sir?' 'callate to,' says Mr. Hopper. 'And you dare to come inhere?

  "'Business is business,' says Hopper. 'You "callate"!' bellowed theold man; 'I reckon you're a damned Yankee. I reckon I'll upset your"callations" for once. And if I catch you in here again, I'll wring yourneck like a roostah's. Git!'"

  "Who told you this?" asked Captain Brent.

  "Wright himself,--afterward," replied Mr. Carvel, laughing. "But listen,Lige. The old man lives at the Planters' House, you know. What does Mr.Hopper do but go 'round there that very night and give a nigger two bitsto put him at the old man's table. When Wright comes and sees him, henearly has one of his apoplectic fits. But in marches Hopper the nextmorning with twice the order. The good Lord knows how he did it."

  There was a silence. Then the door-bell rang.

  "He's dangerous," said the Captain, emphatically. "That's what I callhim."

  "The Yankees are changing business in this town," was the Colonel'sanswer. "We've got to keep the pace, Lige."