The Lady and the Pirate by Emerson Hough (ebook reader library TXT) đ
- Author: Emerson Hough
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âJimmy!â I heard a clear voice calling along the deck. No answer, and Jimmy raised a hand to command silence of me also.
âJimme-e-e-e!â It was Helenaâs voice, and nearer along the rail. âHereâs the fudgesânow where can the little nuisance have gone! Jim!â
âHere I am, Auntie,â replied the little nuisance, as she now approached the door of our cabin; and he brushed past me and started not aft but toward the bows. âAnâ there you are!â he shouted over his shoulder in cryptic speech, whether to me or to his Auntie Helen I could not say.
She stood now in such position near my door that neither of us could avoid the other without open rudeness. I looked at her gravely and she at me, her eyes wide, her lips silent for a time. Silently also, I swung the cabin door wide and stood back for her to pass.
âYou have sent for me?â she said at last, still standing as she was. A faint smileâpart in humor, part in timidity, part, it seemed suddenly to me, wistful; and all just a trifle patheticâstirred her lips.
ââI sent my soul through the Invisible,ââ said I; and stepped within and quite aside for her to pass.
âJimmy told the biggest lie in all his career,â said I. She would have sprung back.
ââAnd the greatest truth ever told in all the world. Come in, Helena Emory. Come into my quiet home. Already, as you know, you have come into my heart.â
âI am not used to going into a gentlemanâsâquarters,â said she: but her foot was on the shallow stair.
âIt is common to three gentlemen of the shipâs company, Helena Emory,â said I, âand we have no better place to receive our friends.â
She now was in the room. I closed the door, and sprung the catch.
âAt last,â said I, âyou are in my power!â And I bent upon her the piercing gaze of my eagle eye.
CHAPTER XXXIX IN WHICH ARE SEALED ORDERSSHE stood before me for just a moment undecided. The twilight was coming and the room was dim.
âAuntie will miss me,â said she, âafter a time.â
âI have missed you all the time,â was my reply.
âBut you sent for me?â
âOf course I did. Doesnât this look as though I had?â
âI donât quite understandâââ
âShall I call Jimmy to explain? He called you a heartless jadeâââ
âThe little imp! How dare he!â
ââAs in fact all of our brotherhood has come to call you: âThe heartless jade.ââ
âI made fudges for him! And the little wretch told me I wasnât playing the game! What did he mean? Oh, Harry, I wouldnât have come if I hadnât wanted to play the game fairly. Iâm sorry for what I said.â She spoke now suddenly, impulsively.
âWhat was it you said?â
âWhen I saidâwhen I called youâa coward. I didnât mean it.â
âYou said it.â
âBut not the way you thought. I only meant, you took an unfair advantage of a girl, running off with her, this way, and giving her no chance toâto get away. But now you do give me a chanceâyou meant to, all alongâand in every way, as Iâve just done telling auntie, youâve been perfectly fine, perfectly splendid, perfectly bully, too! It has been a hard place for a man, too, butâHarry, dear boy, Iâll have to say it, youâve been some considerable gentleman through it all! There now!â And she stood, aloof, agitated, very likely flushed, though I could not tell in the dark.
âThank you, Helena,â I said.
âAnd as to your being any other sort of a cowardâthat you had physical fearâthat you wouldnât do a manâs partâwhy, I never did mean that at all. How could I? And if I hadâwhy, even Auntie Lucinda said your going out after that Chinaman the other night was heroicâeven if he couldnât have cooked a bit!âand you know Auntie Lucinda has always been against you.â
âYes, and you both called me a coward, because I quit my law office and ran away from misfortune.â
âYes, we did. And I meant that, too! I say it now to your face, Harry. But maybe I donât know all about thatâââ
âMaybe not.â
âWell, I wouldnât want to be unjust, of course, but I donât think a man ought to throw away his life. Youâre young. You could start over again, and you ought to have tried. Your father made his own money, and so did my fatherâwhy, look at the Sally M. mine, that has given me my own fortune. Do you suppose that grew on a bush to be shaken off? So why couldnât you go out in the same way and do something in the worldâI donât mean just make money, you know, but do something? Thatâs what a girl likes. And you were able enough. You are young and strong, and you have your education; and Iâve heard my father say, before he diedâand other men agreed with himâthat you were the best lawyer at our bar, and that you had an extraordinary mind, and a clear sense of justice, and, andâââ
âGo on. Did he say that?â
âYes.â
âBut with all my fine qualities of mind and heart,â said I, âI lost all when I lost my money!â
âWhat do you mean?â
âIâll tell you what I meanâyou dropped me because you thought me poor. Well, I donât blame you. It takes money to live, and you deserved all that the world can give. I donât blame you. There were other men in the world for you. The trouble with me was that there was no other woman in the world for me. All our troubleâall our many meetings and partingsâhave come out of those two facts.â
âDid you think that of me?â she asked at length, slowly. I suppose she was pale, but I could not see.
âI certainly did. How could I think anything else?â
âHarry!â she half whispered. âWhy, Harry, Harry!â
âAdmit that you did!â I exclaimed bitterly, âand let me start from that as a premise. Listen! If you were a man, and loved a woman, and she chucked you when you lost your money, do you think youâd break your neck to make any more success in the world after that? Why should you? Why does a man work? Itâs for a home, for the sake of power, and mostly for the sake of the game.â
âYes.â
âAnd I could play that gameâI can play it now, and win at it, any time I like. I quit it not because I was afraid of the gameâitâs the easiest thing in the world to make money, if thatâs all you really want to do. Thatâs all your father wanted, or mine, and it was easy. I can play that game. But why? Ah! if it were to win a quiet home, the woman I loved, independence, usefulness, contentment,âyes! But when all those stakes were out of the game, Helena, I didnât care to play it any more. And that was why you thought I ran away. I did run awayâfrom myself, and you.â
She was silent now, and perhaps palerâI could not see.
ââBut wherever I have gone, Helena, all over the world, Iâve found those two people there ahead of me, and I couldnât escape themâmyself, and you!â
âDid you think that of me, Harry?â She half whispered once more.
âYes, I did. And did you think that of me?â
âYes, I did. But I did not understand.â
âNo. Like many a woman, you got cause and effect mixed up: and you never troubled yourself to get it straight. Let me tell you, unless two people can come to each other without compromises and without explanations and without reservations, they would better never come at all. I donât want you cheap, you oughtnât to want me cheap. So how can it end any way other than the way it has? If it was my loss of fortune that made you chuck me, I oughtnât ever to give you a second thought, for you wouldnât be worth it. The fact you did, and that I do, hasnât anything to do with it at all.â
âNo.â
âAnd if you donât think me able and disposed to play a manâs part in the world, you oughtnât to care a copper for me, that is plain, isnât it?â
âYes, quite plain.â
âAnd the fact that you did, and that you do, has nothing to do with itânothing in the world, has it, Helena?â
âNo.â She must have been very pale, though I could not tell.
âTherefore, as logic shows us, my dear, and because we never did get our premises straight, and so never will get our conclusions straight, eitherâwe donât belong together and never can come together, can we?â
âNo.â I could barely hear her whisper.
âNo. And that is why, just before you came, I was trying to pull myself together and to advance as best an unhappy devil may, upon Chaos and the Dark! And thatâs all I see ahead, Helena, without youâChaos and the Dark.â
âIt was all you saw that night, in the little boat,â she said after a time. âYet you went?â
âOh, yes, but that was different.â
âIs this all, Harry?â she said, and moved toward the door.
âYes, my dear; it is allâbut all the rest.â
Her color must have risen, for I saw dimly that she raised both her hands to her bosom, her throat. Thus the heartless jade stood, her head drooped, unable to meet the piercing gaze of my eagle eye.
There came a faint scratching at the door, a little whimpering whine.
âIt is Partial, my dog, come after you,â said I bitterly. âHe knows you are here. He never has done that way for me. He loves you.â
âHe knows you are here, and he loves you,â said she. âThat is why things come and scratch at doors where ruffians live.â
I flung open the door. âPartial,â said I, âcome in; and choose between us.â
As to the first part of my speech, the invitation to enter, Partial obeyed with a rush; as to the second, the admonition, he apparently could not obey at all. In his poor dumb brute affliction, lack of human speech, he stood, after saluting us both, alternately and equally, hesitant between us, wagging, whining and gazing, knowing full well somewhat was wrong between us, grieving over us, beseeching usâbut certainly not choosing between us.
âGive him time,â said I hoarsely. âHe loves you more, and is merely polite to me.â
âGive him time,â said she bitterly. âHe loves you more, and you donât deserve it.â
But Partial would not choose.
âHe wants us both, Helena!â said I at last. âHe has wiped out logic, premises, conclusions, cause and effect, horse, cart and all! He wants us both! He wants a quiet home and independence, Helena, and usefulness, and contentment. Ah, my God!â
She reached down and put a hand on his head, but he only looked from one to the other of us, unhappy.
âDonât you love me, Helena?â I asked quietly, after a time. âFor the sake of my dog, can you not love me?â
She continued stroking the head of the agonized Partial.... And until, somewhat inarticulately, I had choked or spoken, and had caught her dark hair against my cheek and kissed her hair and stammered in her ear, and turned her face and kissed her eyes and her cheek and her lips many, many times, Partial held his peace and issued no decision.... At
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