But Harry apparently was as content as ever with doing nothing. He arose at ten, dined at seven, and went to bed between midnight and sunrise. There was some committee meetings and much mail, but Mary was admitted to knowledge of none of these. The obvious step, of course, would be to set him at work; but from this undertaking Mary unconsciously recoiled. She had already recognized that while her tastes and her husband’s were mostly alike, they were also strikingly different in many respects. They agreed in the daintiness of things, the elegance of detail; but they did not agree always as to the things themselves. Given the picture, they would choose the same frame—but they would not choose the same picture. They liked the same voice, but not the same song; the same company, but not the same conversation. Of course, Mary reflected, frowning at the flowers—of course, this must always be so when two human beings are thrown into new and intimate association. In time they would grow to sweet communion; only, she hoped the communion would be on tastes nearer hers than those he sometimes manifested.
She turned impatiently from the window with a feeling of loneliness. But why lonely? She idly fingered a new book on the table and then put it down sharply. There had been several attempts at reading aloud between them some evenings ago, and this book reminded her of them. She had bought Jane Addams’ “Newer Ideals of Peace,” and he had yawned over it undisguisedly. Then he had brought this novel, and—well, she had balked at the second chapter, and he had kissed her and called her his “little prude.” She did not want to be a prude; she hated to seem so, and had for some time prided herself on emancipation from narrow New England prejudices. For example, she had not objected to wine at dinner; it had seemed indeed rather fine, imparting, as it did, an old-fashioned flavor; but she did not like the whiskey, and Harry at times appeared to become just a bit too lively—nothing excessive, of course, but his eyes and the smell and the color were a little too suggestive. And yet he was so kind and good, and when he came in at evening he bent so gallantly for his kiss, and laid fresh flowers before her: could anything have been more thoughtful and knightly?
Just here again she was puzzled; with her folk, hard work and inflexible duty were of prime importance; they were the rock foundation; and she somehow had always counted on the courtesies of life as added to them, making them sweet and beautiful. But in this world, not perhaps so much with Harry as with others of his set, the depths beneath the gravely inclined head, the deferential smile and ceremonious action, the light clever converse, had sounded strangely hollow once or twice when she had essayed to sound them, and a certain fear to look and see possessed her.
The bell rang, and she was a little startled at the fright that struck her heart. She did not analyze it. In reality—pride forbade her to admit it—she feared it was a call of some of Harry’s friends: some languid, assured Southern ladies, perilously gowned, with veiled disdain for this interloping Northerner and her strong mind. Especially was there one from New Orleans, tall and dark—
But it was no caller. It was simply some one named Stillings to see Mr. Cresswell. She went down to see him—he might be a constituent—and found a smirky brown man, very apologetic.
“You don’t know me—does you, Mrs. Cresswell?” said Stillings. He knew when it was diplomatic to forget his grammar and assume his dialect.
“Why—no.”
“You remember I worked for Mr. Harry and served you-all lunch one day.”
“Oh, yes—why, yes! I remember now very well.”
“Well, I wants to see Mr. Harry very much; could I wait in the back hall?”
Mary started to have him wait in the front hall, but she thought better of it and had him shown back. Less than an hour later her husband entered and she went quickly to him. He looked worn and white and tired, but he laughed her concern lightly off.
“I’ll be in earlier tonight,” he declared.
“Is the Congressional business very heavy?”
He laughed so hilariously that she felt uncomfortable, which he observed.
“Oh, no,” he answered deftly; “not very.” And as they moved toward the dining-room Mary changed the subject.
“Oh,” she exclaimed, suddenly remembering. “There is a man—a colored man—waiting to see you in the back hall, but I guess he can wait until after lunch.”
They ate leisurely.
“There’s going to be racing out at the park this evening,” said Harry. “Want to go?”
“I was going to hear an art lecture at the Club,” Mary returned, and grew thoughtful; for here walked her ghost again. Of course, the Club was an affair with more of gossip than of intellectual effort, but today, largely through her own suggestion, an art teacher of European reputation was going to lecture, and Mary preferred it to the company of the race track. And—just as certainly—her husband didn’t.
“Don’t forget the man, dear,” she reminded him; but he was buried in his paper, frowning.
“Look at that,” he said finally. She glanced at the head-lines—“Prominent Negro Politician Candidate for High Office at Hands of New Administration. B. Alwyn of Alabama.”
“Why, it’s Bles!” she said, her face lighting as his darkened.
“An impudent Negro,” he voiced his disgust. “If they must appoint darkies why can’t they get tractable ones like my nigger Stillings.”
“Stillings?” she repeated. “Why, he’s the man that’s waiting.”
“Sam, is it? Used to be one of our servants—you remember? Wants to borrow more money, I presume.” He went down-stairs, after first helping himself to a glass of whiskey, and then gallantly kissing his wife. Mrs. Cresswell was more unsatisfied than usual. She could not help feeling that Mr. Cresswell was treating her about as he treated his wine—as an indulgence; a loved one, a regular one, but somehow not as the reality and prose of life, unless—she started at the thought—his life was all indulgence. Having nothing else to do, she went out and paraded the streets, watching the people who were happy enough to be busy.
Cresswell and Stillings had a long conference, and when Stillings hastened away he could not forbear cutting a discreet pigeon-wing as he rounded the corner. He had been promised the backing of the whole Southern delegation in his schemes.
That night Teerswell called on him in his modest lodgings, where over hot whiskey and water they talked.
“The damned Southern upstart,” growled Teerswell, forgetting Stillings’ birth-place. “Do you mean to say he’s actually slated for the place?”
“He’s sure of it, unless something turns up.”
“Well, who’d have dreamed it?” Teerswell mixed another stiff dram.
“And that isn’t all,” came Sam Stillings’ unctuous voice.
Teerswell glanced at him. “What else?” he asked, pausing with the steaming drink poised aloft.
“If I’m not mistaken, Alwyn intends to marry Miss Wynn.”
“You lie!” the other suddenly yelled with an oath, overturning his tumbler and striding across the floor. “Do you suppose she’d look at that black—”
“Well, see here,” said the astute Stillings, checking the details upon his fingers. “They visit Senator Smith’s together; he takes her home from the Treble Clef; they say he talked to nobody else at her party; she recommends him for the campaign—”
“What!” Teerswell again exploded. But Stillings continued smoothly:
“Oh, I have ways of finding things out. She corresponds with him during the campaign; she asks Smith to make him Register; and he calls on her every night.”
Teerswell sat down limply.
“I see,” he groaned. “It’s all up. She’s jilted me—and I—and I—”
“I don’t see as it’s all up yet,” Stillings tried to reassure him.
“But didn’t you say they were engaged?”
“I think they are; but—well, you know Carrie Wynn better than I do: suppose, now—suppose he should lose the appointment?”
“But you say that’s sure.”
�
�Unless something turns up.”
“But what can turn up?”
“We might turn something.”
“What—what—I tell you man, I’d—I’d do anything to down that nigger. I hate him. If you’ll help me I’ll do anything for you.”
Stillings arose and carefully opening the hall door peered out. Then he came back and, seating himself close to Teerswell, pushed aside the whiskey.
“Teerswell,” he whispered, “you know I was working to be Register of the Treasury. Well, now, when the scheme of making Alwyn Treasurer came up they determined to appoint a Southern white Republican and give me a place under Alwyn. Now, if Alwyn fails to land I’ve got no chance for the bigger place, but I’ve got a good chance to be Register according to the first plan. I helped in the campaign; I’ve got the Negro secret societies backing me and—I don’t mind telling you—the solid Southern Congressional delegation. I’m trying now ostensibly for a chief-clerkship under Bles, and I’m pretty sure of it: it pays twenty-five hundred. See here: if we can make Bles do some fool talking and get it into the papers, he’ll be ditched, and I’ll be Register.”
“Great!” shouted Teerswell.
“Wait—wait. Now, if I get the job, how would you like to be my assistant?”
“Like it? Why, great Jehoshaphat! I’d marry Carrie—but how can I help you?”
“This way. I want to be better known among influential Negroes. You introduce me and let me make myself solid. Especially I must get in Miss Wynn’s set so that both of us can watch her and Alwyn, and make her friends ours.”
“I’ll do it—shake!” And Stillings put his oily hand into Teerswell’s nervous grip.
“Now, here,” Stillings went on, “you stow all that jealousy and heavy tragedy. Treat Alwyn well and call on Miss Wynn as usual—see?”
“It’s a hard pill—but all right.”
“Leave the rest to me; I’m hand in glove with Alwyn. I’ll put stuff into him that’ll make him wave the bloody shirt at the next meeting of the Bethel Literary—see? Then I’ll go to Cresswell and say, ‘Dangerous nigger—, just as I told you.’ He’ll begin to move things. You see? Cresswell is in with Smith—both directors in the big Cotton Combine—and Smith will call Alwyn down. Then we’ll think further.”
“Stillings, you look like a fool, but you’re a genius.” And Teerswell fairly hugged him. A few more details settled, and some more whiskey consumed, and Teerswell went home at midnight in high spirits. Stillings looked into the glass and scowled.
“Look like a fool, do I?” he mused. “Well, I ain’t!”
Congressman Cresswell was stirred to his first political activity by the hint given him through Stillings. He not only had a strong personal dislike for Alwyn, but he regarded the promise to him of a high office as a menace to the South.
The second speech which Alwyn made at the Bethel Literary was, as Stillings foresaw, a reply to the stinging criticisms of certain colored papers engineered by Teerswell, who said that Alwyn had been bribed to remain loyal to the Republicans by a six thousand dollar office. Alwyn had been cut to the quick, and his reply was a straight out defence of Negro rights and a call to the Republican Party to redeem its pledges.
Caroline Wynn, seeing the rocks for which her political craft was headed, adroitly steered several newspaper reports into the waste basket, but Stillings saw to it that a circumstantial account was in the Colored American, and that a copy of this paper was in Congressman Cresswell’s hands. Cresswell lost no time in calling on Senator Smith and pointing out to him that Bles Alwyn was a dangerous Negro: seeking social equality, hating white people, and scheming to make trouble. He was too young and heady. It would be fatal to give such a man office and influence; fatal for the development of the South, and bad for the Cotton Combine.
Senator Smith was unconvinced. Alwyn struck him as a well-balanced fellow, and he thought he deserved the office. He would, however, warn him to make no further speeches like that of last night. Cresswell mentioned Stillings as a good, inoffensive Negro who knew his place and could be kept track of.
“Stillings is a good man,” admitted Smith; “but Alwyn is better. However, I’ll bear what you say in mind.”
Cresswell found Mr. Easterly in Mrs. Vanderpool’s parlor, and that gentleman was annoyed at the news.
“I especially picked out this Alwyn because he was Southern and tractable, and seemed to have sense enough to know how to say well what we wanted to say.”
“When, as a matter of fact,” drawled Mrs. Vanderpool, “he was simply honest.”
“The South won’t stand it,” Cresswell decisively affirmed.
“Well—” began Mr. Easterly.
“See here,” interrupted Mrs. Vanderpool. “I’m interested in Alwyn; in fact, an honest man in politics, even if he is black, piques my curiosity. Give him a chance and I’ll warrant he’ll develop all the desirable traits of a first class office-holder.”
Easterly hesitated. “We must not offend the South, and we must placate the Negroes,” he said.
“The right sort of Negro—one like Stillings—appointed to a reasonable position, would do both,” opined Cresswell.
“It evidently didn’t,” Mrs. Vanderpool interjected.
Cresswell arose. “I tell you, Mr. Easterly, I object—it mustn’t go through.” He took his leave.
Mrs. Vanderpool did not readily give up her plea for Alwyn, and bade Zora get Mr. Smith on the telephone for discussion.
“Well,” reported Easterly, hanging up the receiver, “we may land him. It seems that he is engaged to a Washington school-teacher, and Smith says she has him well in hand. She’s a pretty shrewd proposition, and understands that Alwyn’s only chance now lies in keeping his mouth shut. We may land him,” he repeated.
“Engaged!” gasped Mrs. Vanderpool.
Zora quietly closed the door.
Twenty-seven
THE VISION OF ZORA
How Zora found the little church she never knew; but somehow, in the long dark wanderings which she had fallen into the habit of taking at nightfall, she stood one evening before it. It looked warm, and she was cold. It was full of her people, and she was very, very lonely. She sat in a back seat, and saw with unseeing eyes. She said again, as she had said to herself a hundred times, that it was all right and just what she had expected. What else could she have dreamed? That he should ever marry her was beyond possibility; that had been settled long since—there where the tall, dark pines, wan with the shades of evening, cast their haunting shadows across the Silver Fleece and half hid the blood-washed west. After that he would marry some one else, of course; some good and pure woman who would help and uplift and serve him.
She had dreamed that she would help—unknown, unseen—and perhaps she had helped a little through Mrs. Vanderpool. It was all right, and yet why so suddenly had the threads of life let go? Why was she drifting in vast waters; in uncharted wastes of sea? Why was the puzzle of life suddenly so intricate when but a little week ago she was reading it, and its beauty and wisdom and power were thrilling her delighted hands? Could it be possible that all unconsciously she had dared dream a forbidden dream? No, she had always rejected it. When no one else had the right; when no one thought; when no one cared, she had hovered over his soul as some dark guardian angel; but now, now somebody else was receiving his gratitude. It was all right, she supposed; but she, the outcast child of the swamp, what was there for her to do in the great world—her, the burden of whose sin—
But then came the voice of the preacher: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.”
She found herself all at once intently listening. She had been to church many times before, but under the sermons and ceremonies she had always sat coldly inert. In the South the cries, contortions, and religious frenzy left her mind untouched; she did not laugh or mock, she simply sat and watched and wondered. At the North, in the white churches, she enjoyed the beauty of wall, windows, and hymn, liked the voice and surplice
of the preacher; but his words had no reference to anything in which she was interested. Here suddenly came an earnest voice addressed, by singular chance, to her of all the world.
She listened, bending forward, her eyes glued to the speaker’s lips and letting no word drop. He had the build and look of the fanatic: thin to emancipation; brown; brilliant-eyed; his words snapped in nervous energy and rang in awful earnestness.
“Life is sin, and sin is sorrow. Sorrow is born of selfishness and self-seeking—our own good, our own happiness, our own glory. As if any one of us were worth a life! No, never. A single self as an end is, and ought to be, disappointment; it is too low; it is nothing. Only in a whole world of selves, infinite, endless, eternal world on worlds of selves—only in their vast good is true salvation. The good of others is our true good; work for others; not for your salvation, but the salvation of the world.” The audience gave a low uneasy groan and the minister in whose pulpit the stranger preached stirred uneasily. But he went on tensely, with flying words:
“Unselfishness is sacrifice—Jesus was supreme sacrifice.” (“Amen,” screamed a voice.) “In your dark lives,” he cried, “who is the King of Glory? Sacrifice. Lift up your heads, then, ye gates of prejudice and hate, and let the King of Glory come in. Forget yourselves and your petty wants, and behold your starving people. The wail of black millions sweeps the air—east and west they cry, Help! Help! Are you dumb? Are you blind? Do you dance and laugh, and hear and see not? The cry of death is in the air; they murder, burn, and maim us!” (“Oh—oh—” moaned the people swaying in their seats.) “When we cry they mock us; they ruin our women and debauch our children—what shall we do?
“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away sin. Behold the Supreme Sacrifice that makes us clean. Give up your pleasures; give up your wants; give up all to the weak and wretched of our people. Go down to Pharaoh and smite him in God’s name. Go down to the South where we writhe. Strive—work—build—hew—lead—inspire! God calls. Will you hear? Come to Jesus. The harvest is waiting. Who will cry: ‘Here am I, send me!’ ”
The Quest of the Silver Fleece Page 24