第37章 High Walk and the Ladies(6)

I addressed Mrs.Gregory."By his 'present stubborn course'I suppose you mean the Custom House.""All of us deplore his obstinacy.His Aunt Eliza has strongly but vainly expostulated with him.And after that,Miss Josephine felt obliged to tell him that he need not come to see her again until he resigned a position which reflects ignominy upon us all."I suppressed a whistle.I thought (as I have said earlier)that I had caught a full vision of John Mayrant's present plight.But my imagination had not soared to the height of Miss Josephine St.Michael's act of discipline.This,it must have been,that the boy had checked himself from telling me in the churchyard.What a character of sterner times was Miss Josephine!I thought of Aunt Carola,but even she was not quite of this iron,and I said so to Mrs.Gregory."I doubt if there be any old lady left in the North,"I said,"capable of such antique severity."But Mrs.Gregory opened my eyes still further."Oh,you'd have them if you had the negro to deal with as we have him.Miss Josephine,"she added,"has to-day removed her sentence of banishment."I felt on the verge of new discoveries."What!"I exclaimed,"and did she relent?""New circumstances intervened,"Mrs.Gregory loftily explained."There was an occurrence--an encounter,in fact--in which John Mayrant fittingly punished one who had presumed.Upon hearing of it,this morning,Miss Josephine sent a message to John that he might resume visiting her.

"But that is perfectly grand!"I cried in my delight over Miss Josephine as a character.

"It is perfectly natural,"returned Mrs.Gregory,quietly."John has behaved with credit throughout.He was at length made to see that circumstances forbade any breach between his family and that of the other young man.John held back--who would not,after such an insult?--but Miss Josephine was firm,and he has promised to call and shake hands.My cousin,Doctor Beaugarcon,assures me that the young man's injuries are trifling--a week will see him restored and presentable again.""A week?A mere nothing!"I answered "Do you know,"I now suggested,"that you have forgotten to ask me what I was thinking about when we met?""Bless me,young gentleman!and was it so remarkable?""Not at all,but it partly answers what Mrs.Weguelin St.Michael asked me.If a young man does not really wish to marry a young woman there are ways well known by which she can be brought to break the engagement.""Ah,"said Mrs.Gregory,"of course;gayeties and irregularities--""That is,if he's not above them,"I hastily subjoined.

"Not always,by any means,"Mrs.Gregory returned."Kings Port has been treated to some episodes--"Mrs.Weguelin put in a word of defence."It is to be said,Maria,that John's irregularities have invariably been conducted with perfect propriety.""Oh,"said Mrs.Gregory,"no Mayrant was ever known to be gross!""But this particular young lady,"said Mrs.Weguelin,"would not be estranged by an masculine irregularities and gayeties.Not many.""How about infidelities?"I suggested."If he should flagrantly lose his heart to another?"Mrs.Weguelin replied quickly."That answers very well where hearts are in question.""But,"said I,"since phosphates are no longer--?"There was a pause."It would be a new dilemma,"Mrs.Gregory then said slowly,"if she turned out to care for him,after all."Throughout all this I was getting more and more the sense of how a total circle of people,a well-filled,wide circle of interested people,surrounded and cherished John Mayrant,made itself the setting of which he was the jewel;I felt in it,even stronger than the manifestation of personal affection (which certainly was strong enough),a collective sense of possession in him,a clan value,a pride and a guardianship concentrated and jealous,as of an heir to some princely estate,who must be worthy for the sake of a community even before he was worthy for his own sake.Thus he might amuse himself--it was in the code that princely heirs so should pour se deniaiser,as they neatly put it in Paris--thus might he and must he fight when his dignity was assailed;but thus might he not marry outside certain lines prescribed,or depart from his circle's established creeds,divine and social,especially to hold any position which (to borrow Mrs.Gregory's phrase)"reflected ignominy"upon them all.When he transgressed,their very value for him turned them bitter against him.I know that all of us are more or less chained to our community,which is pleased to expect us to walk its way,and mightily displeased when we please ourselves instead by breaking the chain and walking our own way;and I know that we are forgiven very slowly;but I had not dreamed what a prisoner to communal criticism a young American could be until I beheld Kings Port over John Mayrant.

And to what estate was this prince heir?Alas,his inheritance was all of it the Past and none of it the Future;was the full churchyard and the empty wharves!He was paying dear for his princedom!And then,there was yet another sense of this beautiful town that I got here completely,suddenly crystallized,though slowly gathering ever since my arrival:all these old people were clustered about one young one.That was it;that was the town's ultimate tragic note:the old timber of the forest dying and the too sparse new growth appearing scantily amid the tall,fine,venerable,decaying trunks.It had been by no razing to the ground and sowing with salt that the city had perished;a process less violent but more sad had done away with it.Youth,in the wake of commerce,had ebbed from Kings Port,had flowed out from the silent,mourning houses,and sought life North and West,and wherever else life was to be found.Into my revery floated a phrase from a melodious and once favorite song:Otempo passato perche non ritorni?