A Man's Hearth

by Eleanor M. Ingram

  CHAPTER XI

  THE GLOWING HEARTH

  Christened Noel, in honor of the day of his arrival, the puppy thrivedand grew toward young doghood in a household atmosphere of serenecontent. From Christmas to Easter the days flowed by in an untroubledcurrent of time. Day after day, Anthony and Elsie Adriance grew intocloser and fuller companionship. The winter was a hard and long one, butnever dull to them.

  They found so much to do. In return for his reading to her, Elsiesometimes put out the lamp and in the flickering firelight told himquaint, grotesque legends of Creole and negro lore. Her soft accentsfell naturally into patois; she was a born mimic, and interspersedfragments of plaintive songs, old as the tragedy of slavery or theromance of a pre-Napoleonic France. Her voice could be drowsy assunshine on a still lagoon, or instinct with life as the ring of amarching regiment's tread.

  She taught him to play chess, too, with a wonderful set ofjade-and-ivory men produced from among her few belongings.

  "Do you know these must be mighty valuable?" Adriance exclaimed, thefirst time he saw them.

  "I know they are mighty old," she mocked his seriousness. "And Iwouldn't sell them, so the rest doesn't matter."

  "Tell me about them."

  "There is nothing very definite to tell." She regarded him askance fromthe corner of a laughing eye. "Can you bear the shock of hearing thatone of your wife's ancestors was suspected of having secret relationswith the notorious LaFitte?"

  "Who was he?"

  "LaFitte was a pirate and freebooter, sir, who had a stronghold belowNew Orleans, where the mouth of the Mississippi widens into the Gulf.Many a ship paid toll to him, many curious prizes fell into his greedyhands; and it was whispered that some of these strange, foreign thingsmysteriously appeared in the house of Martin Galvez. Negroes were heardto tell, with breath hushed and eyes rolling, of a swift-sailing sloop,black of hull and rigged in black canvas, lines, and all. It slipped upthe river at midnight and down again before dawn, past all defences,they said--and its point of landing was Colonel Galvez's wharf, tenmiles above the city. No one ever knew more than a rumor that ranuntraced like the black sloop. But it was said the ivory-and-jadechessmen had travelled by that craft, as had great-great-grandmother'sstring of pink pearls which are painted around her neck in her portrait.Loud and often her husband laughed at the tales, inviting all who choseto watch his wharf between sunset and sunrise, any night. The chessmen,he declared, were presented to him by a prince of Cairo, whose enemieshad betrayed him into the hands of a slave-trader. The Egyptian noble'sdark skin and ignorance of Western speech had made him a helplessvictim; he faced the final degradation of the lash when Colonel Galvezsaw and rescued him. His gratitude sent the pretty playthings. As forthe pink pearls, they came from Vienna, by lawful purchase. At least, sothe worthy Colonel was fond of relating, with a convincing detail, overhis incomparable French wines and Havana cigars."

  "But, what was truth? Which, I mean?" he questioned.

  She shut her eyes in droll disclaimer.

  "How should I know? The pink pearls disappeared before Josephine Galvezmarried Fairfax Murray, sixty years ago. The chessmen are dumb. But Iknow of many an old toy from overseas, around our house still. Nothingof great value! We are as poor as ecclesiastical mice; the family wealthlong ago fled down the wind on the black sails of ill-luck. Yes, theMurrays usually held poor hands at cards. Will you move first, or shallI?"

  "You," he invited. He looked at her with curiosity. "Why didn't you tellme before that you were a princess in disguise? I never knew you had anancestor on record, and here you have a procession of them. You're afunny girl."

  If you don't like me, Why do you, why do you, _Why_ do you stay around?

  She sang the very modern verse to him with a mockery altogethertantalizing; and he upset all the chessboard in answering her properly.

  Little by little he learned a great deal about her home; which, hediscovered, had once been the veritable home of the punctilious Mait'Raoul Galvez of surprising memory. He made acquaintance with her parentsand her sisters, as Elsie brought before him a living simulacra of eachone with her magician-like arts of description and mimicry. There werefive sisters, it appeared: Lee, Roberta, Virginia, Clotilda andNicolette.

  "Mother named the first three of us and Daddy the last three," sheexplained. "Wasn't he right polite to wait so long? Mother is a rebelConfederate up to this minute, while Daddy altogether indorses the Northand is a professional delver in romantic history."

  "'Elsie' is not historical," he objected, much diverted.

  "Oh, my truly name is Elcise; I come before Clotilda and Nicolette. Butmy grandfather insisted upon calling me Elsie as long as he lived, so indeference to him the first intention was abandoned. Poor Daddy lost oneof his turns, after all. It happened very well, though! Elsie is morepractical, and I am the most practical member of the whole familycircle."

  "Really?"

  "Why, certainly! Lee married a dramatic poet, who is also the editor ofa newspaper," she retorted upon his incredulity. "And one who lets histwo vocations interfere with one another! Roberta has been engaged to anarmy officer these five years. He is stationed in the Philippines, whereshe is to join him and live in some jungle with him whenever he issufficiently promoted to marry. Virginia is a beauty, who has the entirecollege full of young men vibrating around our house; and she declaresthat she is going into a convent when she is twenty-five. Clotilda andNicolette are twin babies of eleven years. They still have plenty oftime to do anything, you see. We were all perfectly happy as we were,but it became really necessary for someone to relieve Daddy, if only bysupporting herself and leaving more for the others. So I began, and wentas private secretary and companion with the old lady of whom I have toldyou. Wasn't that practical? Of course, Lee's husband supports her,usually.

  "But the spring that I came away, Daddy had urged him to resign from thenewspaper and come home for six months in order to write a poetic dramaover which they both were enthusiastic. No one expects it to make muchmoney, but, as Daddy said, we have always had enough for dignifiedsimplicity, and it should be our duty as well as our glory to help Lee'shusband to fame."

  "Elsie's husband means to support her all the time."

  "Oh, I told you Elsie was practical. She married sensibly."

  "Should you call it that?" doubtingly.

  "Her husband is quite kind to her, you know."

  "Well, he is still in love. When that wears off as she grows tired offeeding him, and ill-tempered----?"

  They laughed at one another across the hearth. But presently Adriancebecame serious.

  "Elsie, I think that I should write to your father. One does not snatcha man's daughter in this barefaced fashion, without so much as a word tohim, in civilized lands. Why haven't I thought of that before? And Ishould like to be welcomed into your family, or at least toleratedthere. Do you suppose we might visit them, some day when our financespermit? Or perhaps some of my sisters-in-law might come to see us?George, what a time we could have given those girls with some of themoney that I had, and haven't!"

  His wife leaned toward him, her gray eyes quite wet with herearnestness.

  "Anthony, there is nothing in the world that would make me so happy asfor you to write home and tell them that I belong to you. I have so_hoped_ you would think of it!"

  "Why didn't you tell me to do so, long ago?" he asked reproachfully.

  "Now, how could I tell you a thing like that?"

  "Why not?" he wondered, densely.

  She made an expressive gesture with her little hands, resigning thehopeless task of explanation.

  "Never mind. But I shall be so glad! You see, they do not know that I ammarried at all. I have not dared tell them, because they have suchstately, quaint ideas that they would be profoundly offended if you didnot write yourself. They would consider it a great slight to me. So Ihave just waited."

  He gazed at her in utter marvel at such patience.

  "Never do it again," he re
quested. "Please remember that you havedeigned to wed a poor, dull animal who needs your constant guidance.Even yet, I have failed to grasp the delicate point of your not settingme to work at this weeks ago. But bring the writing things and sitbeside me as expert critic; we will attend to this before we sleep."

  They did so; and were drawn still closer together by the fulfillment ofthat act of courtesy and consideration which they unwittingly hadneglected so long.

  The warm, gay intimacy of their life together sank deeper into the fibreof both, as the days went by. They found a comradeship of minds as wellas hearts, never failing in novelty and delight to the man.

  "I never before had an intimate friend," he said, one morning, with awondering realization of the fact. "I knew so many people that I neverguessed it, Elsie, but I've been lonely all my life. I can't see how Icould be any happier than I am now."

  They had just risen from the breakfast-table.

  Across it Elsie met her husband's eyes; her own infinitely wise,splendidly happy as his, yet touched with that delicate raillery whichcaressed and laughed at him.

  "Oh, yes!" she dissented. "Yes, Anthony."

  Puzzled, he searched her meaning in her shining gaze.

  "I could be happier?"

  "Yes. _We_ could be."

  "But----?"

  She came around the table and told him the answer, putting her handsinto his. She did not speak shyly, but proudly, with frank courage andcomradeship.

  An hour later, when Adriance went down the long hill to his day's work,he carried himself with a dignity new as the blended exaltation anddread that paled his face. Once he stopped in the snapping March wind tobare his head and draw a full, deep breath, looking up at thebright-blue sky where tufts of white cloud sailed. Although the seasonwas so far advanced, new-fallen snow overlay road and hills, so thatAdriance seemed to himself as standing between two surfaces of pure,glinting brightness. His thoughts were only now becoming articulate, yeta sense of final change had settled through him. His manhood had come tofull dignity. Now he knew what he had done when he snatched Elsie Murrayout of her cross-current of life and took her for himself. He had foundlove like a jewel on the road; content had reared a shelter for hisinexperience. Now, he stood as protector and shelter as long as heshould live for the weaker ones who were his. And with responsibility,ambition sprang fully grown to life and challenged him. Was his wife torank as a chauffeur's wife, and nothing more? Was their child to bereared in that place, and he to give the two nothing better? AnthonyAdriance passed his glance, with his father's cold accuracy ofappraisal, over the great factory lying far down at the foot of thecliffs, where he himself was awaited to drive a truck.

  Presently he went on, down the road. But he went differently.