Kincaid's Battery
Page 4
IV
MANOEUVRES
Captain Irby, strong, shapely, well clad, auburn-haired, left his haltedcommand and came into the carriage group, while from the trainapproached his cousin and the lithe and picturesque Miss Valcour.
The tallish girl always looked her best beside some manly form ofunusual stature, and because that form now was Hilary's Irby wasaggrieved. All their days his cousin had been getting into his light,and this realization still shaded his brow as Kincaid yielded Flora tohim and returned to Anna to talk of things too light for record.
Not so light were the thoughts Anna kept unuttered. Here again, shereflected, was he who (according to Greenleaf) had declined to commandher guns in order to let Irby have them. Why? In kindness to his cousin,or in mild dislike of a woman's battery? If intuition was worth while,this man was soon to be a captain somewhere. Here was that rare find forwhich even maidens' eyes were alert those days--a born leader. Noladies' man this--"of all things on God's earth!" A men's man! Andyet--nay, _therefore_--a man for some unparagoned woman some day toyield her heart and life to, and to have for her very own, herself hisconsummate adornment. She cast a glance at Flora.
But her next was to him as they talked on. How nearly black was thewaving abundance of his hair. How placid his brow, above eyes whose longlashes would have made them meltingly tender had they not been so largewith mirth: "A boy's eyes," thought she while he remembered what he hadjust called hers. She noted his mouth, how gently firm: "A man's mouth!"
Charlie Valcour broke in between them: "Is there not going to be anydrill, after all?"
"Tell Captain Irby you can't wait any longer," replied Kincaid with amock frown and gave Anna yet gayer attention a minute more. Then hewalked beside his cousin toward the command, his horse close at hisback. The group, by pairs, chose view points. Only Miss Valcour stayedin the carriage with the General, bent on effecting a change in hismind. In Mobile Flora had been easily first in any social set to whichshe condescended. In New Orleans, brought into the Callenders' circles byher cousin Mandeville, she had found herself quietly ranked second toAnna, and Anna now yet more pointedly outshining her through the brazensplendor of this patriotic gift of guns. For this reason and others yetto appear she had planned a strategy and begun a campaign, one of whoseearliest manoeuvres must be to get Irby, not Kincaid, made their uncle'sadjutant-general, and therefore to persuade the uncle that to giveKincaid the battery would endear him to Anna and so crown with victorythe old man's perfectly obvious plan.
Greenleaf left his horse tied and walked apart with Anna. This, hemurmured, was the last time they would be together for years.
"Yes," she replied with a disheartening composure, although from underthe parasol with which he shaded her she met his eyes so kindly that hisheart beat quicker. But before he could speak on she looked away to hisfretting horse and then across to the battery, where a growing laugh wasrunning through the whole undisciplined command. "What is it about?" sheplayfully inquired, but then saw. In response to the neigh ofGreenleaf's steed Hilary's had paused an instant and turned his head,but now followed on again, while the laughter ended in the clapping of ahundred hands; for Kincaid's horse had the bridle free on his neck andwas following his master as a dog follows. Irby scowled, the General sethis jaws, and Hilary took his horse's bridle and led him on.
"That's what _I_ want to do every time I look at him!" called Charlie tohis sister.
"Then look the other way!" carolled back the slender beauty. To whomAnna smiled across in her belated way, and wondered if the impulse tofollow Hilary Kincaid ever came to women.
But now out yonder the two cousins were in the saddle, Irby's sabre wasout, and soon the manoeuvres were fully under way. Flora, at theGeneral's side, missed nothing of them, yet her nimble eye kept her wellaware that across here in this open seclusion the desperate Greenleaf'swords to Anna were rarely explanatory of the drill.
"And now," proclaimed Mandeville, "you'll see them form into line fazedto the rear!" And Flora, seeing and applauding, saw also Anna turn toher suitor a glance, half pity for him, half pleading for his pity.
"I say unless--" Greenleaf persisted--
"There is no 'unless.' There can't ever be any."
"But may I not at least say--?"
"I'd so much rather you would not," she begged.
"At present, you mean?"
"Or in the future," said Anna, and, having done perfectly thus far,spoiled all by declaring she would "never marry!" Her gaze rested faracross the field on the quietly clad figure of Kincaid riding to and froand pointing hither and yon to his gold-laced cousin. Off here on theleft she heard Mandeville announcing:
"Now they'll form batt'rie to the front by throwing caisson' to therear--look--look!... Ah, ha! was not that a prettie?"
Pretty it was declared to be on all sides. Flora called it "abeautiful." Part of her charm was a Creole accent much too dainty forprint. Anna and Greenleaf and the other couples regathered about thecarriage, and Miss Valcour from her high seat smiled her enthusiasm downamong them, exalting theirs. And now as a new movement of the batteryfollowed, and now another, her glow heightened, and she called musicallyto Constance, Mrs. Callender and Anna, by turns, to behold and admire.For one telling moment she was, and felt herself, the focus of hergroup, the centre of its living picture. Out afield yet anothermanoeuvre was on, and while Anna and her suitor stood close below herhelplessly becalmed each by each, Flora rose to her feet and caught agreat breath of delight. Her gaze was on the glittering mass of men,horses, and brazen guns that came thundering across the plain in doublecolumn--Irby at its head, Kincaid alone on the flank--and sweeping rightand left deployed into battery to the front with cannoneers springing totheir posts for action.
"Pretties' of all!" she cried, and stood, a gentle air stirring herlight draperies, until the boys at the empty guns were red-browed andshort of breath in their fierce pretence of loading and firing. Suddenlythe guns were limbered up and went bounding over the field, caissons infront. And now pieces passed their caissons, and now they were in line,then in double column, and presently were gleaming in battery again,faced to the rear. And now at command the tired lads dropped to theground to rest, or sauntered from one lounging squad to another, to chatand chaff and puff cigarettes. Kincaid and Irby lent their horses toMandeville and Charlie, who rode to the battery while the lenders joinedthe ladies.
Once more Hilary yielded Flora and sought Anna; but with kinder thoughtfor Flora Anna pressed herself upon Irby, to the open chagrin of hisuncle. So Kincaid cheerfully paired with Flora. But thus both he andAnna unwittingly put the finishing touch upon that change of heart inthe General which Flora, by every subtlety of indirection, this hour andmore in the carriage, had been bringing about.
A query: With Kincaid and Irby the chief figures in their social arenaand Hilary so palpably his cousin's better in looks, in bearing,talents, and character, is it not strange that Flora, having conquestfor her ruling passion, should strive so to relate Anna to Hilary as togive her, Anna, every advantage for the higher prize? Maybe it is, butshe liked strangeness--and a stiff game.