Kincaid's Battery
Page 16
XVI
CONSTANCE TRIES TO HELP
One day, in Canal Street, Kincaid met "Smellemout and Ketchem." It waspleasant to talk with men of such tranquil speech. He proposed a glassof wine, but just then they were "strictly temperance." They alludedfamiliarly to his and Greenleaf's midnight adventure. The twobull-drivers, they said, were still unapprehended.
Dropping to trifles they mentioned a knife, a rather glittering gewgaw,which, as evidence, ought--
"Oh, that one!" said Hilary. "Yes, I have it, mud, glass jewels and all.No," he laughed, "I can keep it quite as safely as you can."
So they passed to a larger matter. "For, really, as to Gibbs andLafontaine--"
"You can't have them either," interrupted their Captain, setting thewords to a tune. Then only less melodiously--"No, sir-ee! Why,gentlemen, they weren't trying to kill the poor devil, he was trying tokill them, tell your Committee of Public Safety. And tell them times arechanged. You can _take_ Sam and Maxime, of course, _if_ you can take thewhole battery; we're not doing a retail business. By the by--did youknow?--'twas Sam's gun broke the city's record, last week, for rapidfiring! Funny, isn't it!--Excuse me, I must speak to those ladies."
The ladies, never prettier, were Mrs. Callender and Constance. They werejust reentering, from a shop, their open carriage. In amiable reproachthey called him a stranger, yet with bewitching resignation accepted andhelped out his lame explanations.
"You look--" began Constance--but "careworn" was a risky term and shestopped. He suggested "weather-beaten," and the ladies laughed.
"Yes," they said, "even they were overtasked with patriotic activities,and Anna had almost made herself ill. Nevertheless if he would call heshould see her too. Oh, no, not to-day; no, not to-morrow; but--well--the day after." (Miss Valcour passed so close as to hear theappointment, but her greeting smile failed to draw their attention.)"And oh, then you must tell us all about that fearful adventure in whichyou saved Lieutenant Greenleaf's life! Ah, we've heard, just heard, _ina letter_." The horses danced with impatience. "We shall expect you!"
As they drove into Royal Street with Constance rapturously pressingMiranda's hand the latter tried vainly to exchange bows with a thirdbeauty and a second captain, but these were busy meeting each other inbright surprise and espied the carriage only when it had passed.
Might the two not walk together a step or so? With pleasure. They wereFlora and Irby. Presently--
"Do you know," she asked, "where your cousin proposes to be day afterto-morrow evening--in case you should want to communicate with him?"
He did not. She told him.