Galusha the Magnificent

by Joseph Crosby Lincoln

  CHAPTER XIV

  With the end of the following week spring came in earnest to Gould'sBluffs, not yet as a steady boarder--spring in New England is a younglady far too fickle for that--but to make the first of her series ofever-lengthening visits. Galusha found her, indeed, a charming youngperson. His walks now were no longer between snowdrifts or over frozenfields and hills. Those hills and fields were still bare and brown, ofcourse, but here and there, in sheltered hollows, tiny bits of new greenbegan to show. In April, by disturbing the layers of dead leaves andsodden vegetation through which these hints of greenness peeped, one waslikely to come upon fragrant treasures, the pink and white blossoms ofthe trailing arbutus.

  There was a superfluity of mud, of course, and as Miss Phipps ofteninformed him, Galusha's boots and lower trouser legs were "sights tosee" when he came back from those walks. He expressed contrition andalways proclaimed that he should be much more careful in future--muchmore, yes. But he was not, nor did he care greatly. He was feeling quitewell again, better than he had felt for years, and spring was in hismiddle-aged blood and was rejuvenating him, just as it was rejuvenatingthe world and its creatures about him, including Lucy Larcom, Martha'sancient and rheumatic Thomas cat. Lucy--an animal as misnamed asPrimmie's "Aunt Lucifer"--instead of slumbering peacefully andrespectably in his cushioned box in the kitchen, which had been hiscustom of winter nights, now refused to come in at bedtime, ignored hismistress' calls altogether, and came rolling home in the morning withslit ears and scarred hide and an air of unrepentant and dissipatedabandon.

  Galusha, inspecting the prodigal's return one morning, observed: "Luce,when I first met you, you reminded me strongly of my Aunt Clarissa. Theair of--ah--dignity and respectable disapproval with which you looked meover was much like hers. But now--now, if you wore a hat on one side andan--ah--exuberant waistcoat, you would remind me more of Mr. Pulcifer."

  With April came the fogs, and the great foghorn bellowed and howlednight after night. Galusha soon learned to sleep through the racket. Itwas astonishing, his capacity for sleep and his capability in sleepingup to capacity. His appetite, too, was equally capable. He was, in fact,feeling so very well that his conscience began troubling himconcerning his duty to the Institute. He wrote to the directors of thatestablishment suggesting that, as his health was so greatly improved,perhaps he had better return to his desk. The reply was prompt. Thedirectors were, so the letter said, much pleased to hear of his improvedhealth, but they wished him to insure the permanence of that improvementby remaining away for another six months at least. "We have," the writeradded, "a plan, not yet definite and complete, although approaching thatcondition, which will call for your knowledge and experienced guidance.Our plan will probably materialize in the fall or winter. I can say nomore concerning it now, except to add that we feel sure that it willbe acceptable to you and that you should take every precaution to gainstrength and health as a preparatory measure."

  Galusha could not guess what the plan might be, but he was a bitsurprised to find himself so willing to agree to the directors' mandatethat he remain in East Wellmouth for the present. His beloved desk inhis beloved study there in Washington had been torn from him, or ratherhe had been torn from it, and for a time it had really seemed as if thepangs of severance might prove fatal. By all that was fit and proper heshould fiercely resent the order to remain away for another six months.But he did not resent it fiercely; did not resent it at all; in fact, tobe quite honest, he welcomed it. He was inwardly delighted to be orderedto remain in East Wellmouth. Such a state of mind was surprising, quitenonunderstandable.

  And, day by day and week by week, the fear that his guilty secretconcerning the Wellmouth Development stock might be discovered becameless and less acute. Captain Jethro never mentioned it; Martha Phipps,when she found that he preferred not to discuss it, kept quiet, also.Perhaps, after all, no one would ever know anything about it. And thechange in Martha's spirits was glorious to see.

  He and Lulie Hallett had many quiet talks together. Ever since theevening of the seance when, partially by craft and partially by luck,he had prevented her father's discovering young Howard's presence inthe house, she had unreservedly given him her friendship. And this giftGalusha appreciated. He had liked her when they first met and the likinghad increased. She was a sensible, quiet, unaffected country girl. Shewas also an extremely pretty girl, and when a very pretty girl--andsensible and unaffected and the rest--makes you her confidant and asksyour advice concerning her love affair and her heart's most precioussecrets, even a middle-aged "mummy duster," whose interest in the femalesex has, until very recently, centered upon specimens of that sex whohave been embalmed several thousand years--even such a one cannot helpbeing gratified by the subtle flattery.

  So when Lulie asked his advice Galusha gave it, such as he happened tohave in stock, whole-heartedly and without reserve. He and she had manychats and the subjects of these chats were almost invariably two--herfather and Nelson Howard. How could she reconcile the one with and tothe other? Mr. Bangs' council was, of course, to wait and hope, buta council of procrastination is, to say the most, but partiallysatisfying.

  One afternoon, in the middle of May, he met her on the way back from thevillage and, as they walked on together, he asked her if there were anynew developments in the situation. She looked troubled.

  "I don't exactly know what you mean by developments," she said. "If youmean that father is any more reconciled to Nelson, he isn't, that's all.On any other subject he is as nice as he can be. If I wanted anything inthe world, and he had money enough to buy it, I do believe I could haveit just for the asking. That is a good deal to say," she added, with ahalf smile, "considering how fond father is of money, but honestly, Mr.Bangs, I think it's true."

  Galusha declared that he had no doubt of its truth, indeed, no.

  "But, you see," continued Lulie, "the one thing I do want--which is forfather to like Nelson--can't be bought with money. I try to talk withhim, and argue with him; sometimes when he is especially good-naturedand has been especially nice to me, I try to coax him, but it alwaysends in one way; he gets cross and won't listen. 'Don't talk to meabout that Howard swab, I won't hear it.' That's what he always says. Healways calls Nelson a 'swab.' Oh, dear! I'm so tired of it all."

  "Yes--ah--yes, I'm sure you must be. Ah--um--swab? Swab? It doesn'tsound agreeable. What is a--ah--swab, may I ask?"

  "Oh, I believe it's a kind of mop that the sailors use aboard ship toclean decks with. I believe that is what it is."

  "Indeed? Yes, yes, of course. Now that is quite interesting, isn't it?A mop--yes. But really, I don't see why Mr. Howard should be calleda--ah--mop. There is nothing about him which suggests a mop to me. Nowin my case--why, this very morning Miss Mar--Miss Phipps suggested thatmy hair needed cutting very badly. I hadn't noticed it, myself, but whenshe called my attention I looked in the mirror and--ah--really, I wasquite a sight. Ah--shaggy, you know, like a--like a yak."

  "A what?"

  "A yak. The--ah--Tibetan animal. I spent a season in Tibet a numberof years ago and they use them there for beasts of burden. They have agreat deal of hair, you know, and so did I--ah--this morning. Dear me,yes; I was quite yaklike."

  Lulie turned an amused glance at him. "So Martha tells you when--"she began, and then stopped, having spoken without thinking. But hercompanion was not offended.

  "Oh, yes, yes," he said cheerfully. "She tells me many things for my owngood. She quite manages me. It is extremely good of her, for goodnessknows I need it. Dear me, yes!" He thoughtfully rubbed his shorn neckand added, "I told that barber that my hair needed cutting badly.I--ah--fear that is the way he cut it.... I read that joke in the paper,Miss Lulie; it isn't original, really."

  He smiled and she burst out laughing. But she did not laugh long. Whenshe next spoke she was serious enough.

  "Mr. Bangs," she said, "you don't think it dishonorable, or mean tofather, for me to keep on seeing Nelson, do you? Father keeps orderingme not to, but I n
ever say I won't. If he asked me I should tell himthat I did."

  Galusha's answer was promptly given.

  "No, I don't think it dishonorable," he said. "Of course, you must seehim. It is too bad that you are obliged to see him in--ah--ah--dear me,what is the word I want? Clan--clan--sounds Scottish, doesn'tit?--oh, yes, clandestine! It is too bad you are obliged to see himclandestinely, but I suppose your father's attitude makes anything elseimpossible. I am very sorry that my claiming to be the evil influencehas had so little effect. That was a mistake, I fear."

  "Don't say that, Mr. Bangs. You saved us all from a dreadful scene, andfather himself from--I hate to think what. Don't ever say that it was amistake, please. But I do so hate all this hiding and pretending. Someday it will have to end, but how I don't know. Nelson comes first,of course; but how can I leave father? I shall see him--Nelson, Imean--to-night, Mr. Bangs. He has written me saying he is coming over,and I am going to meet him. He says he has good news. I can't think whatit can be. I can't think of any good news that could come for him andme, except that father has stopped believing in Marietta Hoag'sspirits and has gotten over his ridiculous prejudice; and that WON'Tcome--ever."

  "Oh, yes, it will! I'm sure it will. Dear me, you mustn't lose heart,you know."

  "Mustn't I? No, I suppose I mustn't. Thank you, Mr. Bangs. Nelson and Iare ever and ever so much obliged to you. You are a great comfort to me.I told Martha that very thing yesterday," she added.

  Galusha could not help looking pleased. "Did you, indeed?" he observed."Well, well--ah--dear me, that was a rather rash statement, wasn't it?"

  "Not a bit. And do you want to know what she said? She said you were agreat comfort to a good many people, Mr. Bangs. So there; you see!"

  That evening the moon rolled, like a silver bowl, over the liquid rim ofthe horizon, and, upsetting, spilled shimmering, shining, dancingfire in a broad path from sky edge to the beach at the foot of Gould'sBluffs. At the top of that bluff, in the rear of a clump of bayberrybushes which shielded them from the gaze of possible watchers at thelighthouse, Nelson Howard and Lulie, walking slowly back and forth, sawit rise.

  Nelson told her the good news he had mentioned in his letter. It wasthat he had been offered a position as operator at the great wirelessstation in Trumet. It was what he had been striving for and hoping forand his war record in the radio service had made it possible for himto obtain it. The pay was good to begin with and the prospect ofadvancement bright.

  "And, of course, the best of it is," he said, "that I shall be nofurther away from you than I am now. Trumet isn't a bit farther thanSouth Wellmouth. There! Don't you think that my good news IS good news?"

  Of course she did and said so.

  "And I'm awfully proud of you, too," she told him.

  "Nothing to be proud of; I'm lucky, that's all. And don't you see, dear,how this is going to help us? I shall be earning good pay and I shallsave every cent possible, you can bet on that. Rooms are furnished bythe company for single men, and houses, nice, comfortable houses, forthe married ones. In three months, or in six at the most, I shall haveadded enough to what I have saved already to make it possible for us tobe married. And we WILL be married. Just think of you and me having oneof those pretty little houses for our own, and being there together, inour home! Just think of it! Won't it be wonderful!"

  He looked down into her face and smiled and she, looking up into his,smiled, too. But she shook her head, nevertheless.

  "Yes, dear," she said, "it would be wonderful. But it's too wonderful tobe true, I'm afraid."

  "Why? Nonsense! Of course it can be true. And it's going to be, too, insix months, perhaps sooner."

  But still she shook her head.

  "It can't be, Nelson," she said, sadly. "Don't you see it can't? Thereis father."

  "Your father will be all right. That's one of the good things about thisnew job of mine. You will be only a little way from him. He'll be hereat the light, with Zach to look after him, and you can come over everyfew days to make sure things are going as they should. Why--"

  She touched his lips with her fingers.

  "Don't, dear," she begged. "You know you're only talking just becauseit is nice to make-believe. I like to hear you, too; but what is the usewhen it's ONLY make-believe? You know what father's health reallyis; you know how nervous he is. Doctor Powers told me he must not beoverexcited or--or dreadful things might happen. You saw him at thathorrid seance thing."

  He shrugged. "If I didn't see I heard," he admitted.

  "Yes, you heard. And you know how near--Now suppose I should tell himthat you and I intended getting married and going to Trumet to live;what do you think would happen?"

  "But, look here, Lulie: You've got to tell him some time, because we AREgoing to be married, you know."

  "Are we? Yes, I--I hope we are. But, oh, Nelson, sometimes I get almostdiscouraged. I CAN'T leave him in that way, you know that. And, in asense, I don't want to leave him, because he is my father and I lovehim."

  "But, confound it, you love me, too, don't you?"

  "You know I do. But--but--oh, dear! What can I do?"

  He did not answer at once. After a moment he said, rebelliously: "Youhave got your own life to live. Your father has lived the biggest partof his. He hasn't any right to prevent your being happy. It would bedifferent if he had any excuse for it, reasonable excuse. I'm a--well,I'm not a thief--or a fool, quite, I hope. I can provide for youcomfortably and I'll do my level best to be a good husband to you. Ifthere was any excuse for his hating me, any except that idiotic spiritcraziness of his. And what right has he to order you around? A hundredyears or so ago fathers used to order their sons and daughters to marrythis one or the other, and if they didn't mind they disinherited 'em, orthrew 'em out of doors, or some such stuff. At least, that's the way itworked, according to the books and plays. But that doesn't go nowadays.What right has he--"

  But again she touched his lips.

  "Don't, Nelson, please," she said, gently. "Rights haven't anything todo with it, of course. You know they haven't, don't you? You know it'sjust--just that things are AS they are and that's all. If father was ashe used to be, his real self, and he behaved toward you as he is doing,I shouldn't hesitate at all. I should marry you and feel I was doingexactly right. But now--"

  She stopped and he, stooping, caught a gleam of moisture where themoonlight touched her cheek. He put his arm about her waist.

  "Don't, dear," he said, hastily. "I'm sorry. Forgive me, will you? Ofcourse you're dead right and I've been talking like a jackass. I'llbehave, honest I will.... But what ARE we going to do? I won't give youup, you know, no matter if every spirit control in--in wherever theycome from orders me to."

  She smiled. "Of course we're not going to give each other up," shedeclared. "As for what we're going to do, I don't know. I suppose thereis nothing to do for the present except to wait and--and hope father maychange his mind. That's all, isn't it?"

  He shook his head. "Waiting is a pretty slow game," he said. "I wonder,if I pretended to fall in love with Marietta Hoag, if those Chinesespooks of hers would send word to Cap'n Jeth that I was really a fairlydecent citizen. Courting Marietta would be hard medicine to take, but ifit worked a cure we might try it. What do you think?"

  "I should be afraid that the remedy might be worse than the disease.Once in Marietta's clutches how would you get away?"

  "Oh, that would be easy. I'd have Doctor Powers swear that I had beensuffering from temporary softening of the brain and wasn't accountablefor what I'd been doing."

  "She might not believe it."

  "Maybe not, but everybody else would. Nothing milder than softening ofthe brain would account for a fellow's falling in love with MariettaHoag."

  A little later, as they were parting, she said, "Nelson, you're anawfully dear fellow to be so thoughtful and forbearing and--and patient.Sometimes I think I shouldn't let you wait for me any longer."

  "Let me! How are you going to stop me? Of course I'll wait
for you.You're the only thing worth waiting for in the world. Don't you knowthat?"

  "I know you think so. But, oh, dear, it seems sometimes as if therenever would be any end to the waiting, and as if I had no right toask--"

  "There, there! Don't YOU begin talking about rights. There's going to bean end and the right kind of end. No Chinese spooks are going to keep usapart, my girl, not if I can help it."

  "I know. But can you help it?... I must go now. Yes, I must, or fatherwill wonder where I am and begin looking for me. He thinks I am over atMartha Phipps', you know. Good-night, dear."

  "Good-night, girlie. Don't worry, it's coming out all right for us, I'msure of it. This new job of mine is the first step in that direction.There! Kiss me and run along. Good-night."

  They kissed and parted, Lulie to hasten back along the path to thelight and Nelson to stride off in the opposite direction toward SouthWellmouth. Neither of them saw two figures which had, the moment before,appeared upon the summit of the knoll about thirty yards from the edgeof the bluff and directly behind them. But the pair on the knoll sawthem.

  Martha Phipps had been standing by the window of the sitting room in herhome looking out. She had been standing there for some minutes. GalushaBangs, in the rocking-chair by the center table, was looking at her.Suddenly Martha spoke.

  "I declare!" she exclaimed. "I do believe that's the loveliest moon Iever saw. I presume likely," she added, with a laugh, "it's the samemoon I've always seen; it just looks lovelier, that's all, seems to me.It will be beautiful to look at from the top of the bluff, the light onthe water, I mean. You really ought to walk over and see it, Mr. Bangs."

  Galusha hesitated, rubbed his spectacles, and then was seized with aninspiration.

  "I--I will if you will go, too," he said.

  Martha turned to see if he was in earnest.

  "Mercy me!" she exclaimed. "Why should I go? I've seen that moon on thatsame water more times than I like to count."

  "But you haven't seen it--ah--recently. Now have you?"

  "Why, no, I don't know as I have. Come to think of it, I don't believeI've been over to the top of the bank to see the moonlight since--well,since father died. Father loved to look at salt water by sunlightor moonlight--or no light. But, good gracious," she added, "it seemsawfully foolish, doesn't it, to go wading through the wet grass to lookat the moon--at my age?"

  "Why, not at all, not at all," persisted Galusha. "I must be--ah--vastlyolder than you, Miss Phipps, and--"

  "Nonsense!"

  "Oh, but I am, really. One has only to look at me to see. And thereare times when I feel--ah--incredibly ancient; indeed, yes. Now in yourcase, Miss Martha--"

  "In my case I suppose I'm just a slip of a girl. For mercy sakes, don'tlet's talk ages, no, nor think about 'em, either.... Do YOU want to goout to-night to look at that moon, Mr. Bangs?"

  "Why, yes--I--if you--"

  "Then get your rubbers and cap. I'll be ready in a minute."

  The moon was well up now and land and sea were swimming in its mistyradiance. There was not a breath of wind and the air was as mild as ifthe month had been June and not May. Under their feet the damp grass andlow bushes swished and rustled. An adventurous beetle, abroad before histime, blundered droning by their heads. From the shadow of a bunch ofhuckleberry bushes by the path a lithe figure soared lightly aloft, afurry paw swept across, and that June bug was knocked into the vaguelydefinite locality known as the "middle of next week."

  Martha uttered a little scream. "Goodness gracious me!" she exclaimed."Lucy Larcom, you bad cat, how you did scare me!"

  Lucy leaped soundlessly over the clump of huckleberry bushes andgalloped gayly into the distance, his tail waving like a banner.

  "WELL!" observed his mistress; "for a cat as old as you are I must say!"

  "He feels young to-night," said Galusha. "It must be the--ah--moonlight,I think. Really, I--ah--I feel surprisingly young, myself. I do,indeed!"

  Martha laughed blithely. They came to the abrupt little slope at thesouthwestern edge of the government property and when he offered to helpher down she took his hand and sprang down herself, almost aslightly and easily as Lucy could have done it. Galusha laughed, too,light-heartedly as a boy. His spectacles fell off and he laughed atthat.

  The minute afterward they arrived at the crest of the knoll. Anothermoment and the silhouetted figures of Lulie Hallett and Nelson Howardappeared from behind the clump of bayberry bushes and walked onwardtogether, his arm about her waist. The pair on the knoll saw theparting.

  Lulie ran up the path and the door of the light keeper's cottage closedbehind her. Howard disappeared around the bend of the hill. Martha andGalusha turned hastily and began walking toward home. Neither spokeuntil they were almost there. Then Miss Phipps, apparently feeling thatsomething should be said, observed: "The moon was--was real pretty,wasn't it, Mr. Bangs?"

  Galusha started. "Eh?" he queried. "Oh, yes! yes, indeed! Ah--quite so."

  He made the next remark also; it was quite irrelevant.

  "Youth," he said, musingly. "Youth is a wonderful thing, really it is."

  Possibly his companion understood his thought, or had been thinkingalong the same line herself. At all events she agreed. "Yes, it is," shesaid. "It is so. And most of us don't realize how wonderful until it'sgone."

  From the shadows by the gate Lucy Larcom sprang aloft to knock anotherbeetle galley-west. Lucy was distinctly a middle-aged cat, but he didnot allow the fact to trouble him. He gathered his June bugs while hemight and did not stop to dream vain dreams of vanished youth.