第45章 From the Bedside(2)

After the bell and Daphne had stopped,the invaluable Briton addressed a genial generalization to us all:"I often think how truly awful your war would have been if the women had fought it,y'know,instead of the men.""Quite so!"said the easy-going Edward "Squaws!Mutilation!Yes!"and he laughed at his little joke,but he laughed alone.

I turned to Juno."Speaking of mutilation,I trust your nephew is better this evening."I was rejoiced by receiving a glare in response.But still more joy was to come.

"An apology ought to help cure him a lot,"observed the Briton.

Juno employed her policy of not hearing him.

"Indeed,I trust that your nephew is in less pain,"said the poetess.

Juno was willing to answer this."The injuries,thank you,are the merest trifles--all that such a light-weight could inflict."And she shrugged her shoulders to indicate the futility of young John's pugilism.

"But,"the surprised Briton interposed,"I thought you said your nephew was too feeble to eat steak or hear poetry."Juno could always stem the eddy of her own contradictions--but she did raise her voice a little."I fancy,sir,that Doctor Beaugarcon knows what he is talking about.""Have they apologized yet?"inquired the male honeymooner from the up-country.

"My nephew,sir,nobly consented to shake hands this afternoon.He did it entirely out of respect for Mr.Mayrant's family,who coerced him into this tardy reparation,and who feel unable to recognize him since his treasonable attitude in the Custom House.""Must be fairly hard to coerce a chap you can't recognize,"said the Briton.

An et cetera now spoke to the honeymoon bride from the up-country:"Iheard Doctor Beaugarcon say he was coming to visit you this evening.""Yais,"assented the bride."Doctor Beaugarcon is my mother's fourth cousin."Juno now took--most unwisely,as it proved--a vindictive turn at me."Iknew that your friend,Mr.Mayrant,was intemperate,"she began.

I don't think that Mrs.Trevise had any intention to ring for Daphne at this point--her curiosity was too lively;but Juno was going to risk no such intervention,and I saw her lay a precautionary hand heavily down over the bell."But,"she continued,"I did not know that Mr.Mayrant was a gambler.""Have you ever seen him intemperate?"I asked.

"That would be quite needless,"Juno returned."And of the gambling Ihave ocular proof,since I found him,cards,counters,and money,with my sick nephew.He had actually brought cards in his pocket.""I suppose,"said the Briton,"your nephew was too sick to resist him."The male honeymooner,with two of the et ceteras,made such unsteady demonstrations at this that Mrs.Trevise protracted our sitting no longer.She rose,and this meant rising for us all.

A sense of regret and incompleteness filled me,and finding the Briton at my elbow as our company proceeded toward the sitting room,I said:"Too bad!"His whisper was confident."We'll get the rest of it out of her yet."But the rest of it came without our connivance.

In the sitting room Doctor Beaugarcon sat waiting,and at sight of Juno entering the door (she headed our irregular procession)he sprang up and lifted admiring hands."Oh,why didn't I have an aunt like you!"he exclaimed,and to Mrs.Trevise as she followed:"She pays her nephew's poker debts.""How much,cousin Tom?"asked the upcountry bride.

And the gay old doctor chuckled,as he kissed her:"Thirty dollars this afternoon,my darling."At this the Briton dragged me behind a door in the hall,and there we danced together.

"That Mayrant chap will do,"he declared;and we composed ourselves for a proper entrance into the sitting room,where the introductions had been made,and where Doctor Beaugarcon and Mrs.Braintree's husband had already fallen into war reminiscences,and were discovering with mutual amiability that they had fought against each other in a number of battles.

"And you generally licked us,"smiled the Union soldier.

"Ah!don't I know myself how it feels to run!"laughed the Confederate.

"Are you down at the club?"

But upon learning from the poetess that her ode was now to be read aloud,Doctor Beaugarcon paid his fourth cousin's daughter a brief,though affectionate,visit,lamenting that a very ill patient should compel him to take himself away so immediately,but promising her presently in his stead two visitors much more interesting.

"Miss Josephine St.Michael desires to call upon you,"he said,"and Ifancy that her nephew will escort her."

"In all this rain?"said the bride.

"Oh,it's letting up,letting up!Good night,Mistress Trevise.Good night,sir;I am glad to have met you."He shook hands with Mrs.

Braintree's husband."We fellows,"he whispered,"who fought in the war have had war enough."And bidding the general company good night,and kissing the bride again,he left us even as the poetess returned from her room with the manuscript.

I soon wished that I had escaped with him,because I feared what Mrs.

Braintree might say when the verses should be finished;and so,I think,did her husband.We should have taken the hint which tactful Doctor Beaugarcon had meant,I began to believe,to give us in that whispered remark of his.But it had been given too lightly,and so we sat and heard the ode out.I am sure that the poetess,wrapped in the thoughts of her own composition,had lost sight of all but the phrasing of her poem and the strong feelings which it not unmusically voiced;there Is no other way to account for her being willing to read it in Mrs.Braintree's presence.