The girl instantly whipped the slipper behind her. Is yo wanting Miss Mirandy Dows, she asked with great dignity, oah Miss Sally Dowsher niece? Miss Mirandys bin gone to Atlanta for a week.
I have a letter for Miss Miranda, but I shall be very glad if Miss Sally Dows will receive me, returned Courtland, handing the letter and his card to the girl.
She received it with a still greater access of dignity and marked deliberation. Its clean gone outer my mind, sah, ef Miss Sally is in de resumption of visitahs at dis houah. In fac, sah, she continued, with intensified gravity and an exaggeration of thoughtfulness as the sounds of Miss Sallys hammering came shamelessly from the wall, I doahn know exacly ef shes engaged playin de harp, practicin de languages, or paintin in oil and watah colors, o givin audiences to offishals from de Court House. It might be de houah for de one or de odder. But Ill communicate wid her, sah, in de budwoh on de uppah flo. She backed dexterously, so as to keep the slipper behind her, but with no diminution of dignity, out of a side door. In another moment the hammering ceased, followed by the sound of rapid whispering without; a few tiny twigs and leaves slowly rustled to the ground, and then there was complete silence. He ventured to walk to the fateful window again.
Presently he heard a faint rustle at the other end of the room, and he turned. A sudden tremulousness swept along his pulses, and then they seemed to pause; he drew a deep breath that was almost a sigh, and remained motionless.
He had no preconceived idea of falling in love with Miss Sally at first sight, nor had he dreamed such a thing possible. Even the girlish face that he had seen in the locket, although it had stirred him with a singular emotion, had not suggested that. And the ideal he had evolved from it was never a potent presence. But the exquisitely pretty face and figure before him, although it might have been painted from his own fancy of her, was still something more and something unexpected. All that had gone before had never prepared him for the beautiful girl who now stood there. It was a poor explanation to say that Miss Sally was four or five years older than her picture, and that later experiences, enlarged capacity, a different life, and new ambition had impressed her youthful face with a refined mobility; it was a weird fancy to imagine that the blood of those who had died for her had in some vague, mysterious way imparted an actual fascination to her, and he dismissed it. But even the most familiar spectator, like Sophy, could see that Miss Sally had the softest pink complexion, the silkiest hair, that looked as the floss of the Indian corn might look if curled, or golden spider threads if materialized, and eyes that were in bright gray harmony with both; that the frock of India muslin, albeit home-made, fitted her figure perfectly, from the azure bows on her shoulders to the ribbon around her waist; and that the hem of its billowy skirt showed a foot which had the reputation of being the smallest foot south of Mason and Dixons Line! But it was something more intangible than this which kept Courtland breathless and silent.
Im not Miss Miranda Dows, said the vision with a frankness that was half childlike and half practical, as she extended a little hand, but I can talk fahm with yo about as well as aunty, and I reckon from what Major Reed says heah, holding up the letter between her fingers, as long as yo get the persimmons yo dont mind what kind o pole yo knock em down with.
The voice that carried this speech was so fresh, clear, and sweet that I am afraid Courtland thought little of its bluntness or its conventional transgressions. But it brought him his own tongue quite unemotionally and quietly. I dont know what was in that note, Miss Dows, but I can hardly believe that Major Reed ever put my present felicity quite in that way.
Miss Sally laughed. Then with a charming exaggeration she waved her little hand towards the sofa.
There! Yo naturally wanted a little room for that, connle, but now that yo ve got it off,and mighty pooty it was, too,yo can sit down. And with that she sank down at one end of the sofa, prettily drew aside a white billow of skirt so as to leave ample room for Courtland at the other, and clasping her fingers over her knees, looked demurely expectant.
But let me hope that I am not disturbing you unseasonably, said Courtland, catching sight of the fateful little slipper beneath her skirt, and remembering the window. I was so preoccupied in thinking of your aunt as the business manager of these estates that I quite forget that she might have a ladys hours for receiving.
We havent got any company hours, said Miss Sally, and we havent just now any servants for company manners, for were short-handed in the fields and barns. When yo came I was nailing up the laths for the vines outside, because we couldnt spare carpenters from the factory. But, she added, with a faint accession of mischief in her voice, yo came to talk about the fahm?
Yes, said Courtland, rising, but not to interrupt the work on it. Will you let me help you nail up the laths on the wall? I have some experience that way, and we can talk as we work. Do oblige me!
The young girl looked at him brightly.
Well, now, theres nothing mean about THAT. Yo mean it for sure?
Perfectly. I shall feel so much less as if I was enjoying your company under false pretenses.
Yo just wait here, then.
She jumped from the sofa, ran out of the room, and returned presently, tying the string of a long striped cotton blouseevidently an extra one of Sophysbehind her back as she returned. It was gathered under her oval chin by a tape also tied behind her, while her fair hair was tucked under the usual red bandana handkerchief of the negro housemaid. It is scarcely necessary to add that the effect was bewitching.
But, said Miss Sally, eying her guests smartly fitting frock-coat, yo ll spoil yor pooty clothes, sure! Take off yor coatdont mind meand work in yor shirtsleeves.
Courtland obediently flung aside his coat and followed his active hostess through the French window to the platform outside. Above them a wooden ledge or cornice, projecting several inches, ran the whole length of the building. It was on this that Miss Sally had evidently found a foothold while she was nailing up a trellis-work of laths between it and the windows of the second floor. Courtland found the ladder, mounted to the ledge, followed by the young girl, who smilingly waived his proffered hand to help her up, and the two gravely set to work. But in the intervals of hammering and tying up the vines Miss Sallys tongue was not idle. Her talk was as fresh, as quaint, as original as herself, and yet so practical and to the purpose of Courtlands visit as to excuse his delight in it and her own fascinating propinquity. Whether she stopped to take a nail from between her pretty lips when she spoke to him, or whether holding on perilously with one hand to the trellis while she gesticulated with the hammer, pointing out the divisions of the plantation from her coign of vantage, he thought she was as clear and convincing to his intellect as she was distracting to his senses.
She told him how the war had broken up their old home in Pineville, sending her father to serve in the Confederate councils of Richmond, and leaving her aunt and herself to manage the property alone; how the estate had been devastated, the house destroyed, and how they had barely time to remove a few valuables; how, although SHE had always been opposed to secession and the war, she had not gone North, preferring to stay with her people, and take with them the punishment of the folly she had foreseen. How after the war and her fathers death she and her aunt had determined to reconstruct THEMSELVES after their own fashion on this bit of property, which had survived their fortunes because it had always been considered valueless and unprofitable for negro labor. How at first they had undergone serious difficulty, through the incompetence and ignorance of the freed laborer, and the equal apathy and prejudice of their neighbors. How they had gradually succeeded with the adoption of new methods and ideas that she herself had conceived, which she now briefly and clearly stated. Courtland listened with a new, breathless, and almost superstitious interest: they were HIS OWN THEORIESperfected and demonstrated!
But you must have had capital for this?
Ah, yes! that was where they were fortunate. There were some French cousins with whom she had once stayed in Paris, who advanced enough to stock the estate. There were some English friends of her fathers, old blockade runners, who had taken shares, provided them with more capital, and imported some skilled laborers and a kind of steward or agent to represent them. But they were getting on, and perhaps it was better for their reputation with their neighbors that they had not been BEHOLDEN to the Noth. Seeing a cloud pass over Courtlands face, the young lady added with an affected sigh, and the first touch of feminine coquetry which had invaded their wholesome camaraderie:
Yo ought to have found us out BEFORE, connle.
For an impulsive moment Courtland felt like telling her then and there the story of his romantic quest; but the reflection that they were standing on a narrow ledge with no room for the emotions, and that Miss Sally had just put a nail in her mouth and a start might be dangerous, checked him. To this may be added a new jealousy of her previous experiences, which he had not felt before. Nevertheless, he managed to say with some effusion:
But I hope we are not too late NOW. I think my principals are quite ready and able to buy up any English or French investor now or to come.
Yo might try yo hand on that one, said Miss Sally, pointing to a young fellow who had just emerged from the office and was crossing the courtyard. Hes the English agent.
He was square-shouldered and round-headed, fresh and clean looking in his white flannels, but with an air of being utterly distinct and alien to everything around him, and mentally and morally irreconcilable to it. As he passed the house he glanced shyly at it; his eye brightened and his manner became self-conscious as he caught sight of the young girl, but changed again when he saw her companion. Courtland likewise was conscious of a certain uneasiness; it was one thing to be helping Miss Sally ALONE, but certainly another thing to be doing so under the eye of a stranger; and I am afraid that he met the stony observation of the Englishman with an equally cold stare. Miss Sally alone retained her languid ease and self-possession. She called out, Wait a moment, Mr. Champney, slipped lightly down the ladder, and leaning against it with one foot on its lowest rung awaited his approach.
I reckoned yo might be passing by, she said, as he came forward. Connle Courtland, with an explanatory wave of the hammer towards her companion, who remained erect and slightly stiffened on the cornice, is no relation to those figures along the frieze of the Redlands Court House, but a Nothn officer, a friend of Major Reeds, whos come down here to look after Sothn property for some Nothn capitalists. Mr. Champney, she continued, turning and lifting her eyes to Courtland as she indicated Champney with her hammer, when he isnt talking English, seeing English, thinking English, dressing English, and wondering why God didnt make everything English, is trying to do the same for HIS folks. Mr. Champney, Connle Courtland. Connle Courtland, Mr. Champney! The two men bowed formally. And now, Connle, if yoll come down, Mr. Champney will show yo round the fahm. When yo ve got through yoll find me here at work.
Courtland would have preferred, and half looked for her company and commentary on this round of inspection, but he concealed his disappointment and descended. It did not exactly please him that Champney seemed relieved, and appeared to accept him as a bona fide stranger who could not possibly interfere with any confidential relations that he might have with Miss Sally. Nevertheless, he met the Englishmans offer to accompany him with polite gratitude, and they left the house together.
In less than an hour they returned. It had not even taken that time for Courtland to discover that the real improvements and the new methods had originated with Miss Sally; that she was virtually the controlling influence there, and that she was probably retarded rather than assisted by the old-fashioned and traditional conservatism of the company of which Champney was steward. It was equally plain, however, that the young fellow was dimly conscious of this, and was frankly communicative about it.
You see, over there they work things in a different way, and, by Jove! they cant understand that there is any other, dont you know? Theyre always wigging me as if I could help it, although Ive tried to explain the nigger business, and all that, dont you know? They want Miss Dows to refer her plans to me, and expect me to report on them, and then theyll submit them to the Board and wait for its decision. Fancy Miss Dows doing that! But, by Jove! they cant conceive of her AT ALL over there, dont you know?
Which Miss Dows do you mean? asked Courtland dryly.
Miss Sally, of course, said the young fellow briskly. SHE manages everythingher aunt included. She can make those niggers work when no one else can, a word or smile from her is enough. She can make terms with dealers and contractorsher own terms, toowhen they wont look at MY figures. By Jove! she even gets points out of those traveling agents and inventors, dont you know, who come along the road with patents and samples. She got one of those lightning-rod and wire-fence men to show her how to put up an arbor for her trailing roses. Why, when I first saw YOU up on the cornice, I thought you were some other chap that shed askeddont you knowthat is, at first, of course!you know what I meanha, by Jove!before we were introduced, dont you know.
I think I OFFERED to help Miss Dows, said Courtland with a quickness that he at once regretted.
So did HE, dont you know? Miss Sally does not ASK anybody. Dont you see? a fellow dont like to stand by and see a young lady like her doing such work. Vaguely aware of some infelicity in his speech, he awkwardly turned the subject: I dont think I shall stay here long, myself.
You expect to return to England? asked Courtland.
Oh, no! But I shall go out of the companys service and try my own hand. Theres a good bit of land about three miles from here thats in the market, and I think I could make something out of it. A fellow ought to settle down and be his own master, he answered tentatively, eh?
But how will Miss Dows be able to spare you? asked Courtland, uneasily conscious that he was assuming an indifference.
Oh, Im not much use to her, dont you knowat least not HERE. But I might, if I had my own land and if we were neighbors. I told you SHE runs the place, no matter whos here, or whose money is invested.
I presume you are speaking now of young Miss Dows? said Courtland dryly.
Miss Sallyof coursealways, said Champney simply. She runs the shop.
Were there not some French investorsrelations of Miss Dows? Does anybody represent THEM? asked Courtland pointedly.
Yet he was not quite prepared for the naive change in his companions face. No. There was a sort of French cousin who used to be a good deal to the fore, dont you know? But I rather fancy he didnt come here to look after the PROPERTY, returned Champney with a quick laugh. I think the aunt must have written to his friends, for they called him off, and I dont think Miss Sally broke her heart about him. Shes not that sort of girleh? She could have her pick of the State if she went in for that sort of thingeh?
Although this was exactly what Courtland was thinking, it pleased him to answer in a distrait sort of fashion, Certainly, I should think so, and to relapse into an apparently business abstraction.