Under the Country Sky

by Grace S. Richmond

  CHAPTER XXVI

  SALT WATER

  It was the tenth day of April. A great ship was making ready to sail;she lay like some inert monster at her pier, while all about her, withinand without, was apparent commotion yet really ordered haste, thecustomary scene of bustling activity.

  Few passengers had yet arrived, for the time of sailing was still somehours away. One party of three, however, had just driven down to thevery gangway, allowed by some special privilege a closer approach thanmost at this hour. The reason was apparent when the party alighted, forone of its number was clearly an invalid, a frail-looking man with curlygray hair, who leaned upon the arm of a much younger man with a keen,distinguished face. The third person was a young woman, the sort ofyoung woman who looks as if no buffeting wind could blow her away,because she would be sure to face it with delight, her eager face onlyglowing the brighter for the conflict.

  "This is the advantage of coming early, isn't it?" said Mrs. JeffersonCraig, with a look of congratulation at her husband. "It's not much asit was when we saw Mr. and Mrs. Brandt off last week. You can walk onboard as slowly as you please, Father Davy; there's no one to push."

  Mr. David Warne was drawing deep breaths of the salty air, with itspeculiar mixture of odours. He was also gazing about him with delightedeyes, seeming in no haste to cross the gangway.

  "When I was a boy," he said to his daughter, who remained close at hisside, "I lived, as you know, in a seaport town. Ever since I came away,it seems to me, I have been longing to smell that salty, marshy, brinysmell again. It takes me back--how it takes me back!"

  "The voyage is going to do you worlds of good," exulted Georgiana, hereyes bright with hope. "Jefferson was quite right: the winter at home,to help the poor spine; now the sea air, and the complete change, tomake you strong. We'll have you marching back and forth with the otherlearned men, under the lindens at Trinity, while we are in Oxford--handsclasped behind your back, impressive nose in air--the very picture of agentleman and a scholar."

  "As if there were anything of the scholar about me," murmured Mr. Warne,smiling at this picture of his undistinguished self. "Well, my children,I suppose you are ready to go on, and I imagine we are not wanted in theway here. Let us proceed across that little bridge, and then we canlook back at all this interesting activity."

  Half an hour later, having taken possession of their staterooms, theparty returned to the deck, where Georgiana and her husband establishedMr. Warne in his chair, well tucked up in rugs--for the April air thoughbalmy was treacherous. They then fell to pacing up and down, accordingto the irresistible tendency of the human foot the moment that it treadsthe deck.

  "He seems deliciously happy, doesn't he?" said Georgiana's voice in herhusband's ear. "If he were twenty-six instead of fifty-six he couldn'tenter into it all with more zest. How pleased he was with Mrs. Brandt'sflowers, and how dear it was of her to send them to him!"

  "However happy he may be," declared Jefferson Craig, "it's not withinthe bounds of possibility that he is so happy as we!"

  "Oh, of course not!" agreed Georgiana to this decidedly boyish speech.She realized suddenly how quickly the sense of relaxation from care wasbeginning to show in her husband. Her hand within his arm gave it a warmlittle squeeze. "That couldn't be expected. To be torn apart, at any andall hours, and kept apart day after day, just when we most want to betogether--and then to come down to a big ship and know that no telephonebell can ring, nobody can make a single demand upon us that can preventour being by ourselves--well, words simply can't express how wonderfulit seems!"

  "It _is_ wonderful, and we'll make the most of it. There's just onething I want to get out of this vacation in the way of work, and thenall the rest of it shall be at your service."

  "The book?"

  "The book. How did you guess? I haven't spoken of it."

  "No, but I've seen you looking wistfully at your notebook time andagain, and guessed what you were thinking of. Well, we can make it fly.I'm ready for you."

  Georgiana plunged her hand into a small bag she carried on her arm, andbrought forth a notebook--of her own. She produced a pencil. "You may aswell begin to dictate now," she said demurely. "What's the use of losingtime? Just don't go too fast, that's all."

  He stared at her. "What do you mean, dear? You don't know shorthand."

  "Don't I? Well, perhaps I can write fast enough in long hand. Try me."

  "My idea is," he said, "that we might spend a couple of hours everymorning, and another couple in the afternoon, if you don't mind, andreally get ahead quite a bit while we are at sea--provided you prove agood sailor, which I have an idea you will if---- See here, what are youdoing? You're not taking that down in signs!" He looked over hershoulder at the notebook, where a series of dashes, angles, hooks anddots was forming with great rapidity. "You don't mean to say----"

  "No, I mean to write, and let you do the saying. Go ahead, sir--only besure you say something worth while."

  "But--you didn't have that accomplishment when we worked together lastsummer."

  "How I did wish I had, though! You kept insisting that I was doing all Icould for you by copying endlessly, but I knew perfectly well that if Iwere a stenographer you could accomplish just three times as much in agiven time as you did. You know perfectly well you only took that courseto give a poor girl the chance to earn. If it hadn't been for helping meyou would have had a secretary at your elbow, after you got to the pointof needing him."

  "I took that course, as you well know, because I wanted you at my elbow.If you had been able to write only a word a minute, I should have wantedyou there just the same."

  She gave him a merry, understanding look, then read him the words he hadjust spoken from her book.

  "Where in the world did you learn, and how?" he demanded. "And how haveyou become so proficient in so short a time?"

  "I'm afraid it's rather blundering work yet, but it will grow better allthe time. Why, I've been taking lessons all winter, dear sir, at thebest shorthand school in the city. I made up my mind that it was thething I could do that would be of most use to you. It's a shame that aman who is doing the original work that you are shouldn't have time togive other people more benefit of it. It seemed to me you could write animportant monograph in an hour, if you just had me at hand to take downthe words of wisdom as they fell from your learned lips. Why you haven'tused a secretary before for this purpose I don't know, but I certainlyam glad you haven't. It insures me the position."

  If she had wanted a reward for long and severe labours she had it in hislook. "Other men dictate such papers," he said, "but somehow it hasnever seemed to me I could. I tried it once or twice and didn't get onat all as I did when I had the pen in my fingers. But with you, it maybe different."

  "It will be different," she told him confidently. "You're going tobecome used to my being so much a part of you that you can think as ifyou were using my brains--or I were using yours, which would be more tothe purpose, I admit. Oh, we're going to accomplish all sorts of thingstogether."

  He looked down into her eager face, glowing with colour, the dark eyesapparently seeing visions which gave them keen delight. "You are apartner worth having," he said, much moved. "I knew you would be, andit's seemed to me all winter that no wife could be more of one. But ifyou're going to add this to your other activities you will make yourselfeven more indispensable than you already are, which is saying much."

  She could hardly wait until she had made a trial of this new form ofpartnership. The ship had barely turned her face out to sea, partingcompany with her pilot, before the work began.

  Doctor Craig had secured a small suite of staterooms opening upon acentral sitting-room, and here he and Georgiana could be sure of muchtime to themselves. While the pair were engaged Mr. Warne was supremelycontent to lie in a sheltered corner of the deck, book in hand, readingor watching the ever new glory of sea and sky, or talking with somefellow passenger who possessed intelligence enough to discover whatmanner of man was here.
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  When Georgiana, ardent as a child in her joy over what was to berevealed, unpacked a small, portable typewriter and set it upon thetable of the sitting-room, Jefferson Craig suddenly caught her in hisarms.

  "My blessed girl," he cried, "this, too? What haven't you done withyour winter, when I thought you were spending your time gettingacquainted with New York, as I meant you to do? You and Mrs. Brandt weresupposed to be seeing everything worth seeing, on those morning drives.Were you shut up in your room all that time learning machines?"

  "No, indeed. Do you imagine I made up all the stories I told you ofthose expeditions? We did all that, and this, too. I spent only an houreach morning at the school; the rest of the study I put in at all hours.Many of them were when I was waiting for you, Doctor Craig, to take meto a dinner or the opera. My notebook lived with me as if it had been atreasure I couldn't have out of my sight. It was just that. I never wasso proud of anything I learned at college as I was when the gruff manwho had my special training in charge told me I would make astenographer. Not all of them did, he said. Some never could get hold ofit, or acquire any speed or accuracy. Just give me a year, and I'll putdown your thoughts before you think them!"

  "I haven't a doubt of it," he agreed, with a laugh of amusement anddelight.

  Thus the work began, and thus it proceeded, with only one day'sinterruption when, in mid-ocean, came twenty-four hours of moderatelybad weather.

  To Georgiana's joy she proved herself the sailor her husband hadprophesied, but her father was not so fortunate, and she promptlytucked him in his berth, where she kept him fairly comfortable until therough seas quieted. When he was recovered he lay for one morning on thecouch in the sitting-room, while the two workers resumed their task.Here he seemed to slumber much of the time, but in reality he keptrather a close watch on the absorbed pair, whom he had never before seenthus engaged, much as he had heard of their labours.

  Looking up suddenly Georgiana discovered the blue eyes upon her, andwhen her flying fingers next stopped she put a question: "A penny foryour thoughts, Father Davy. Don't we work together rather well, in spiteof my being such a novice?"

  "You two pull excellently well in double harness, it seems to me," heresponded. "I can't see that either is taking all the load while theother soldiers and lets the traces slack."

  Doctor Craig looked around at him. "She's always ahead by a pair of earsat least," he declared with a laugh.

  "But I hear his steady pound--pound--at my side, and I'm afraid he'sgoing to get a shoulder ahead," his wife explained.

  The interest the pair excited on shipboard was greater than Georgianaguessed, though Doctor Craig was quite aware of it. Somehow or other theword had gone around, as words do go in a ship's company, as to theliterary labours they were engaged in, and as Jefferson Craig's name wasone known to more people than Georgiana had the slightest notion of,there was cause enough for the attention given them. Craig's noteworthypersonality--one which marked him anywhere as a man of intellect andaction--Georgiana's fresh young beauty, her spontaneous low laughter asshe paced the deck at her husband's side, her readiness to make friendswith those whose looks and bearing attracted her--these attributes madethe Craigs the target for all eyes.

  "I never saw people who looked so absolutely content," fretfullymurmured one swathed mummy in a deck chair to another, as the pairpassed them, on the tenth round of a long tramp, one gray morning whenthe wind was more than ordinarily chill. The speaker's black eyes,heavily lidded in a pale, discontented face, followed the Craigs out ofsight as she spoke.

  "Oh, they're on their honeymoon--that accounts for it," replied theother, languidly. Her glance also had followed the walkers.

  "No, they're not--I've told you that before. They were married lastDecember--plenty of time for the glamour to wear off. They act as ifthey never expected it to wear off. Sue Burlison must hate to look atthem--she certainly had her mind made up to marry Jefferson Craig, if itcould be done."

  "So did Ursula Brandywine," contributed the languid one.

  "You could say that of a dozen--twenty. I presume there are at leastfour disappointed mothers on board, besides Jane Burlison. Not that anyof them ever had much encouragement from him--I'll say that for him.They'd about given him up as hopeless when he went off and married thiscountry girl. One thing is certain--in spite of her fine clothes shehasn't the air his wife ought to have--she's not his equal."

  "What's that you say?" The questioner was a sallow-faced youth upon theblack-eyed lady's other side. Sunk deep in a fur-lined coat, his cappulled low over his eyes--which were precisely like hers, even to theexpression of discontent--he had seemed for the last hour to beslumbering. But at the moment he looked quite wide awake, as he turnedhis head toward his mother and challenged her latest statement. "What'sthat you say?" he repeated, in her own acrimonious tone.

  "Oh, have you come to at last?" she inquired. "It is quite impossible toremember that though you sleep for hours you are liable to wake in timeto contradict me on any point whatever. In this case it is of noconsequence what I may have said."

  "You were handing us the hot dope about Mrs. Craig's not being in thesame class with Dr. Jeff. It certainly does take a woman to stick herclaws into another woman's fur. There's one thing I can tell you--thereisn't a man on board who'd agree with you. If she's a country girl--youcan say good-bye for me to the little old town. I'm going to take torural life till I find another. Talk about peaches and cream!"

  "I believe I did not mention her complexion," his mother observedcoldly.

  "Neither did your little son--though it would bear mentioning. I shouldsay yes! You said she hadn't any air. Jupiter--there she comes now. Noair!"

  He subsided into his high-turned fur collar but his eyes watchedintently as the Craigs, still walking briskly after at least an hour'sexercise, came up the deck from the stern. His mother, on the contrary,let her drooping lids fall indifferently. The moment they were out ofpossible hearing the young man sat up.

  "By Jove, if you call that no air, tell the grande dames to get a moveon. She walks like a young goddess--that's what."

  "Silly boy! Nobody is talking of her face or her gait. If you don't knowwhat I mean, no one can tell you."

  "Oh, I know what you mean," her son assured her. "I get you. What I sayis--you don't get _her_! Jefferson Craig's the one who gets her--luckychap! Maybe he doesn't know it--oh, no! Maybe not!" And turning hisback he once more appeared to slumber.

  It was fortunate for Georgiana that she never even imagined suchcomments, though she passed these rows of critical eyes a hundred timesa day, sat at table with people who were keenly observant of her everyact and word, and spent some reluctant hours in the society of those whostrove to cultivate her for their own blase enjoyment. She only knewthat among the company she met a number of interesting men and women,with whom she and her husband were thoroughly congenial, and that it didnot matter in the least about the rest. If those whom she liked so much,and with whom she could talk with the greatest zest, turned out to bethe men and women of scientific or literary achievement, this seemedonly natural to the college-bred girl, and she cared not at all that shedid not get on so easily with those whose distinction lay in purelysocial or financial lines.

  During the winter just past her experience had been much the same, in alarger way. Her husband's acquaintance was naturally a large one, butthe circle of his real friends was bound almost wholly by these samecongenialities of mind and tastes. Georgiana had met and beenentertained by many people whose names stood high on the list of thedistinguished, though their personal fortunes were small, and theirsocial activities were ignored in the society columns of the Sundaypress. A college president, several famous surgeons, not a few notedauthors of scientific books, as well as certain social workers, and twoor three clergymen--these, with their wives and families, were the sortof people who gave to Georgiana Craig a hearty and sincere welcome,recognizing her at once as one who belonged to them. It was small wonderthat the young wife, train
ed in a school of life in which nothingcounted except worth and ability, found no lack, nor thought of sighingfor the privilege her husband could easily have given her, had he caredfor it himself, of mingling with a quite different class, that of therich and gay who cared for little except that which could give them themost powerfully emotional reactions in the way of diversion,acquisition, or notoriety.

  So they continued to work and walk their joyously contented way acrossthe wide Atlantic during the six days between port and port. Georgianaenjoyed every hour, from that early morning one in which she first cameon deck, running up with her husband to breathe deeply of thestimulating sea breeze before breakfasting, to the latest one, when,furry coat drawn hurriedly on over her pretty evening frock, her darkhair lightly confined under a gauzy scarf, she with Craig and a merryhalf-dozen of the evening's group came up again upon a deserted deck,to "blow the society fog out of their lungs," as one young biologist ofcoming reputation put it, in the silvery April moonlight, with only afew similarly inclined spirits to share with them the big empty spaces.

  "I shall really be sorry to land to-morrow," sighed Georgiana, leaningupon the rail on the last night of the voyage, and staring ahead towardthe quarter where her husband had just indicated they would be seeingland when they came up in the morning. "It has been so perfect, thisbeing off between the sea and the sky together. When shall I ever forgetthis first voyage? It's a dream come true."

  "You will enjoy the second one just as much, for you're a born sailor,and there'll be a long succession of voyages for you to look back uponby and by. Not just my annual pilgrimages to foreign clinics, butjourneys to the ends of the earth if you like. Will that suit you,eager-eyed one?"

  "Suit me? Oh, wonderful to think of! Am I eager-eyed really? I try sohard to cultivate that beautiful calm of manner I admire so much inother people. Haven't I acquired a bit of it yet?"

  "A beautiful calm of manner--all that could be desired. But your eyesstill suggest that you're standing on tiptoe, with your face lighted bythe dawn," Craig answered contentedly. "Heaven forbid you ever lose thatlook! It's what gives the zest to my life."