Carolina Lee

by Lilian Bell

  CHAPTER V.

  BROTHER AND SISTER

  Carolina had left the drawing-room before Sherman sought her there, buton receipt of a message from him that he wished to see her immediatelyin the library, she once more descended the stairs to wait for him.

  An anxious look swept over her face as she passed the door of his room,for she heard Addie's voice raised in shrill accents, and to hear itthus was growing to be an every-day affair. She knew her brother'ssensitive, yet proud and gentle nature, and she knew how difficult hiswife's loud reproaches were to endure.

  Suddenly the door opened and his rapid footsteps were heard running downthe stairs and hurrying to the library. She rose to meet him with heranxiety to make up to him for his wife's conduct written in her face.He saw the look and misunderstood it.

  "Don't look at me like that, Carol!" he cried, raising his hands as ifto ward off a blow. "If you, too, feel the loss of the money as Addiedoes and you reproach me, I shall go mad."

  "Sherman!" cried his sister. "Don't insult me by the suggestion of myreproaching you! Haven't you lost all your money as well as mine? Andwould you have done either if you could have helped it?"

  Her brother turned uneasily.

  "You don't know how it came about?" he asked.

  Carolina shook her head.

  "Ah," he breathed, "then I must wait until you have heard before I daretrust such generous statements." He hesitated, then burst out. "But atleast you shall know the truth. We are absolute beggars, you and I, andCousin Lois, and wholly dependent upon Adelaide's bounty until I canpull myself together."

  Carolina recoiled as if he had struck her. A sudden sickening fearclutched her heart. Sherman said "everything." Did he includeGuildford? She could not clear her eyes and voice sufficiently tomention that beloved name. Sherman went on, not heeding her silence.

  "I know what you mean, but it's the truth. She acknowledges it as wellas I. Her money is intact, and she will keep it so. She cannot spareany of it to start me again. I must trust in strangers."

  "Why strangers?" asked Carolina. "Have you no friends?"

  "Friends!" sneered her brother. "What do friends do for a man when heis down? Give him good advice, offer to lend him a few hundreds forliving expenses, but trust him to make a second success after onefailure? Never! Not even St. Quentin, one of the best fellows who everlived, would do that!"

  "I think you do Noel an injustice," said Carolina, quietly. "He hasoffered to help me!"

  Sherman looked quizzically at his sister and laughed a little.

  "Has he, indeed?" he said, with a lift of his eyebrows.

  Carolina noticed his manner with a slight inward start of surprise.What could he be thinking of? She had known Noel all her life, and notonce had the idea Sherman's tone suggested entered her mind. Noel St.Quentin? She dismissed the thought with impatience. Sherman did notknow what he was talking about.

  "I have not yet told you," he broke out suddenly, "how the money waslost. Have you no idea? You ought to know. You warned me against theman, but I refused to believe you."

  Carolina leaned forward and her eyes blazed.

  "Not Colonel Yancey?" she half-whispered.

  Her brother nodded.

  "Tell me," she said, with white lips.

  "There is very little to tell. The whole thing was an elaborate lie--aswindle from one end to the other. I don't believe there ever was anyoil on the lands he sold us. He swore there was, and bought outrightthe man I sent down to Texas to investigate. I could put him in jail, Isuppose, but what good would that do me? Yancey says he has used allthe money in speculation and lost it, so even to prosecute him would notget a penny back. Now he has disappeared--Algiers, I believe they say.It makes no difference where. He was so plausible, and his enthusiasmwas so contagious, we kept handing over the money like born fools. Iwonder that he did not laugh in our faces. But he deceived well. Heplanned from the ground up, and was ready with letters and witnesses ofall sorts whenever we began to show signs of weakening. I can see itall now with fatal clearness. But then he had me thoroughly blinded byhis own artful proceedings. He has wrecked two others besides myself.The other three men in the syndicate suspected him and sold out toBrainard and me. We continued to believe in him and he has ruined us."

  Carolina listened in silence, dreading, yet waiting, for the next blow.

  "He could be the most charming man in the world when he wanted to,"Sherman continued. "I will admit that I felt his spell, but all the timethere was something in his face which I distrusted. First I thought itwas his shifty eyes, and then, as if he had read my thoughts, he wouldmeet my glance with perfect candour and frankness and the craft would goto his lips, and when I looked again for it, I would be disarmed by thesincerity of his smile, so I was left to fall back on my Doctor Felldislike of him, which always attacked me most strongly when I was not inhis magnetic presence."

  Sherman looked at his sister expectantly. He noticed for the first timehow pale she was. Her own recollections of Colonel Yancey, hisceaseless pursuit of her, his intimacy with her father in Paris, herfear that he knew of the Lees' great wish to restore Guildford were allgathering themselves together into a horrible certainty. She wasobliged to listen with an effort to her brother's next words.

  "I've always thought that he tried to make love to you, Carol. Did he?"

  "I believe there was something of the sort suggested," answered hissister, carelessly. She did not choose to admit that Colonel Yancey hadproposed to her regularly ever since his wife died, and that he hadpursued her with letters as far as India itself.

  A silence fell between them. It struck Sherman Lee as mostextraordinary that his sister should evince no more curiosity or eveninterest in the loss of her fortune than she had hitherto expressed. Hefelt that possibly she was only holding herself in check.

  "You said a moment ago," she began so suddenly and in such a differenttone that her brother nerved himself for the explosion he felt sure wasat hand, "that we were both--you and I--dependent upon Addie. Just whatdid you mean?"

  "Simply that neither of us has a dollar of ready money."

  "That is all very well for you," pursued Carolina, in a low voice, "butfor me to be Adelaide's guest for even a day would be intolerable. Ishall sell my jewels and accept Kate Howard's invitation to spend a fewweeks with her until I find something to do. I made Cousin Lois go toBoston to see her niece. I feel that I ought to tell you how glad--howmore than glad I am that the money is gone. I never wanted it! I neverliked it! But Cousin Lois! What will she do? Oh, Sherman! If only Ihad been a man, too!"

  "If only you had been a man instead of me," he cried, "you never wouldhave lost it. I always made money when I took your advice. I alwayslost it when I went against you."

  Carolina's face glowed. She felt equal now to putting the question.

  "What has become of Guildford?" she asked, in a low tone.

  "Guildford?" he repeated, to gain time.

  At the mere mention of that beloved name Carolina's face was aflame.Her great blue eyes flashed and she seemed illumined from within. Herbrother stared at her with astonishment and a growing uneasiness.

  "Yes, Guildford!" she whispered. "Oh, Sherman! I have been so afraid toask. Tell me, is that lost, too?"

  The man's eyes fell before her accusing gaze.

  "Not--not entirely," he stammered. "I--I raised money on it--I forgetjust how much--I will investigate--I had no idea you cared--it isdeserted--the house burned, you know--"

  He broke off, as he realized his sister's gathering anger.

  "Stop!" she said. "I have not uttered one complaint because you lostour money, nor would I complain at the loss of Guildford. You could notknow how I cared for the place, because no one knew it. I never eventold Cousin Lois. But don't, if you love me, belittle the place or tryto excuse your having mortgaged it because it had no value in your eyes!I know the hou
se is gone, but the ground is there, and we Lees haveowned it since we bought it from the Indians. That same ground that theCherokees used to tread with moccasined feet has been in our family eversince they owned it, and the dream of my life has been to restore thehouse and to live there--to marry from Guildford and to give my childrenrecollections that you and I were denied, and of which nothing can takethe place. Oh, Sherman, doesn't it fairly break your heart to thinkthat we are the only generation that Guildford skipped? Fatherremembered it and loved it beyond words to express."

  "And you are like him," said her brother, gloomily. "I am like mymother. She never cared for Guildford, and refused to let fatherrestore it. It was she who urged him into diplomacy--"

  "Where he distinguished himself," cried Carolina, loyally.

  "Yes, where he distinguished himself, as all the Lees have done exceptme!" he said, bitterly.

  "It's your name!" cried Carolina, passionately. "What could you expectwith those two names pulling you in opposite directions! Why did theyever name you, a Southern man, Sherman?"

  "Father named you, and mother named me," answered her brother. "I haveheard them say that it was all planned before either of us was born.Then, too, you must remember that--well, that I am not as enthusiasticover the traditions of the Lee family as you are. I think that myleanings are all toward the de Cliffords, if anything."

  "It's only fair," said Carolina, with justice, "that you should be likemother and love her family best. Only--only I am glad my name isCarolina!"

  Her brother bent down and kissed her flushed face.

  "And I am glad, too, little sister, for you are a veritable Lee, and oneto be proud of."

  Carolina felt herself grow warm in every fibre of her being over thefirst compliment which had ever reached her heart.

  Sherman was still holding her hand, and she pressed his fingersgratefully.

  "I will look up the papers to-morrow, and let you know the moment Idiscover anything. I can easily guess what your plan is, but--withoutmoney?"

  Carolina laughed strangely.

  "Thank you, brother. And in the meantime I shall go to stay with Kate."

  Again the slight lift to Sherman's eyebrows.

  "You will doubtless be happier there," he said, quietly.