350CHAPTER XXXITHE DEPOSED RULER
The day of the meeting was never forgotten at Carrington, and distorted rumors of what had happened there traveled far across the prairie. One Mennonite settler compared it to the downfall of King Herod, but among Carrington’s own people there were none who referred to the events of that evening without reluctance and regret.
It was a glorious afternoon when I set out, and the prairie was fresh and green after a gentle rain that promised an early sprouting of the seed, but as I neared the Manor the faces of those I met were anxious and somber. They looked like men who after mature consideration had undertaken an unpleasant duty, and I could not help a fancy that some of them wished themselves well out of it. Saddled horses, buggies, and wagons stood in front of the house, and further mounted figures were approaching across the prairie, but the men who had already arrived seemed more inclined to wait for them than to enter the building, until its owner stood in the doorway. He looked at them with a little grim smile.
“It is not the first time you have been here, and this difference appears a little unusual,” he said. “Won’t you come in?”
I went in with the others, and was not pleased when Lyle placed me beside himself in a prominent position. Indeed, after a desultory conversation during which no one seemed quite at ease it was a relief to hear the last arrivals351dismount and then to take our places at the long table upon which Lyle had deposited plans of the settlement. He with a few others of what was evidently the executive committee sat near me, and the rest stretched back toward the doorway. As we waited a few moments in a state of tense expectation the details of the scene impressed themselves on my memory.
There were heads and skins, as well as Eastern weapons—trophies the Colonel had brought home from several of England’s smaller wars—on the cedar wainscot. The prairie was flooded with sunlight outside, and an invigorating breeze that flowed in through the open windows brought with it the smell of the grass and stirred the heavy curtains. Carrington sat at the head of the table in a great oak chair which Grace once told me had come from a house that was famous in English history. There was an escutcheon which some of the settlers derided on the paneling above it, and the sunlight beating in through a window fell on him. He sat very erect, a lean, commanding figure with expressionless face and drooping white moustache, close to the great English pattern hearth which in winter assisted the much more useful stove, while both his manner and the surroundings suggested some scene in the feudal ages rather than an incident on the newly-opened prairie.
“You asked me to meet you, and, as far as I can see, every man in Carrington is here,” he said. “Raymond Lyle, you called this meeting. We are waiting for what you have to say.”
Lyle was not an orator, but he was filled with his subject, and the men listened to him that day. First he supplied them with details respecting the projected creamery, and then straightening himself a little he turned his quiet, honest eyes upon his host.
“We desire to have your approval, sir, but we clearly recognize the necessity for more attention to the commercial352side of the question if there is to be a lasting future for Carrington,” he said. “We are proud of the colony, and we are all sportsmen, I think, but it seems to us that it is not wise to make it a mere playground and keep out all but people of our own station. On the contrary it would be better to welcome any well-educated Englishman and make it easier for him to earn a living here. In fact, we want an open-door policy, and a means of providing for the future of our children. It can be provided only by industrial enterprise, which is why I advocate the building of the creamery.”
For the first time a cynical smile flickered across Carrington’s face.
“Are you speaking for yourself, or for the rest?” he asked.
“For myself certainly,” said Lyle. “How far the rest agree with me will be seen if we appeal to them as an assembly with power to decide, which, unless we are forced to it, I think most of us should sooner avoid.”
“Then,” remarked Carrington dryly, “in your case, at least, I quite fail to see any duty toward posterity. You have always lived among us as a bachelor, Lyle. I suspect your other arguments would appear equally foolish on examination. Will somebody else set out the precise advantages we may expect to derive from this creamery. I wish to see how far the crazy notion has laid hold of you.”
Lyle flushed. Some of the younger men laughed, and it is possible that had their leader shown any sign of faltering, the Colonel’s sarcastic disapproval would even then have induced them to abandon the scheme. Most of the men of Carrington had, however, made up their minds, and several in succession explained in deferent but determined fashion why they considered it necessary to support Lyle. Carrington, I fancied, found it somewhat difficult to hide his astonishment.353
“We are going down to the root of the matter,” said the last of them. “We wish to earn money, and not merely to spend it on half-hearted farming; and every desirable settler who takes up Carrington land increases the value of our possessions, and what is more important, our means of progress. We want more bridges, graded roads through the coulées, a stockyard on the railroad, and some day a branch line; and with all deference to you, we mean to get them. If this is impossible under present conditions, those conditions must be changed.”
There was a murmur of approval, but watching Colonel Carrington I knew that the man had said too much. In reply to a sharp question as to who was to undertake the building operations my name was mentioned.
“Lorimer of Fairmead! I might have known it!” gasped the Colonel.
Then there was silence as he gazed down the long rows of faces before answering.
“I have listened with painful surprise,” he said. “You wish to hear my views, and you shall have them, but first I want to read the agreement made by each one of you when you first settled in Carrington.”
He did so, and some of the men looked uncomfortable, for the land-settlement scheme practically made him supreme authority over all matters which the law of Canada did not affect. It also made it clear that he had borne the largest share of the cost of inaugurating the colony. He broke off, and it was a few moments before he went on again.
“I founded this colony, and—I feel compelled to mention it—delivered some of you from difficulties, and brought you here. I have spent my time and money freely for the good of the Carrington district, and I have made it what it is, a place where an English gentleman can live economically if he will work a little, enjoying abundant sport and354the society of his equals. That was my one object, and I have accomplished it, but further I will not go. Green Mountain is the finest cover for game on the prairie, and while I live no man shall cut timber, make roads, or put up a factory there. Neither will I in any way countenance the opening up of Carrington—my Carrington—to industrial exploitation for the influx of all and sundry. I will have no railroad nor any kind of factory within our limits if I can prevent it, and seeing in it the thin end of the wedge I must ask you to abandon the creamery scheme.”
He broke off abruptly, and then turned to Lyle again.
“Have you lost your senses, Raymond. Would you make this clean, green land like Lancashire or parts of Pennsylvania?”
One could see by the faces of the others that this shot had told. There was no great liking for commerce in any of those who heard him. They were sportsmen first of all, and they loved the open. Even had the thing been probable none of them would have wished to see Carrington defiled by the smoke of mills and factories. It seemed to me that the Colonel might have bent them to his will had he made some trifling concession or been willing to discuss the matter quietly. Most of them, I felt, would gladly have met him half-way. Still that was never a habit of Colonel Carrington’s. He was an autocrat all through, and when he desired anything done he simply commanded it. In a moment or two Lyle answered him.
“No sir,” he said. “At least, not exactly, though Lancashire clothes half the people in the world with her cotton, and the roads that have opened up this continent are laid with Pennsylvania steel. Still, as we haven’t iron or coal here there’s very little probability of our doing what you seem afraid of with Carrington. We believe that the enterprise will prove a general benefit. We merely want good355wagon roads, a creamery, and a few other similar things, and we respectfully ask you not to veto them.”
“I can’t meet you,” said Carrington. “As I said, my suggestion is that this preposterous scheme be abandoned forthwith.”
There was for a few moments a silence which seemed intensified by the soft rustle of the curtains as the breeze from the prairie flowed into the room. Then one of the men who had spoken in favor of the creamery rose and looked hard at Lyle who made a little sign.
“Then as a matter of form and to take a vote I second that,” he said.
The others were very still, but I saw Carrington gaze at the speaker almost incredulously. Though, as one of them told me afterward, a vote had once before been asked for, it had only established their leader’s authority more firmly, and I think this was the first time that any determined opposition had been offered to his will.
“You mean to take a vote?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” said another man, and there was a little murmur of concurrence. “I’m afraid there is no other course left open to us.”
Again the Colonel stared at them incredulously, and it seemed to me that there was something almost pathetic about the old man’s position. Grim and overbearing as he was, he stood alone, and for the first time I think he to some extent realized it. Still, it was evident that he could not bring himself to believe that they would go so far as to overrule his plainly expressed decision.
“Then,” he said, “you must proceed to take it. As stipulated in the charter it must be by ballot.”
A man who had not spoken yet, stood up. “To save time I move as an amendment that a committee be appointed to confer with Mr. Lorimer, who is here for the purpose, as to356the construction of the creamery and to prepare a workable scheme which will if possible be submitted to this meeting.”
It was seconded, and Lyle moved down the long table with a handful of little papers. It was clear that the supporters of the scheme had everything ready, and for the first time a shadow of doubt seemed to creep into Carrington’s eyes.
“You are all supplied?” he said at length. “Then we will, as usual, take the amendment first.”
One or two of them borrowed a pencil from a neighbor, but it seemed very significant to me that most had one ready, and though I had no part in what was being done, I felt the tension when a man moved down the table collecting the little folded papers on a tray. Then the Colonel signed for him and another man to open them, and I think every eye was fixed on the two men who stood by the window tossing the papers upon a growing pile. There was only one pile, though three little slips were laid suggestively by themselves. Then in the midst of a very impressive silence through which the footsteps broke with a startling distinctness the two men moved toward the head of the table. The rest leaned forward watching their ruler who sat very still and grim in face. I fancied that though he was anxious he could not realize what awaited him.
“They have all voted?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” said one of the men in a voice that sounded somewhat strained, and Carrington looked at him sharply.
“The result?” he asked.
“The amendment is carried, sir. There are only three dissentients.”
No one spoke, but I think a thrill ran through everybody in the room, and I know the blood rose to my face. Still, I fancy their own sensations troubled very few of my companions for every eye was fixed on their leader, as the357stiffness seemed suddenly to melt out of him. He gasped, and for a moment or two seemed to be struggling to recover himself.
Though I had not expected this I felt sorry for him. All but three of his followers had turned against him, and it was evident after what had been said that their decision implied the subversion of his authority. To a man of his temperament it must have been inexpressibly galling. Then he painfully straightened himself. He had in all probability never been beaten yet, and he had once, so his sister afterward told me, tamed a native levy of irregular cavalry and commanded them for two years in spite of the fact that a number of the dusky troopers had sworn to murder him on opportunity.
“You cannot have the Green Mountain site, and I’ll stop this thing yet,” he said.
The listeners’ faces were a study. Indignation, regret, suppressed sympathy and a determination to maintain their rights, were stamped on them.
They were Englishman born with a due respect for constituted authority who had loyally obeyed a leader of their own class, but they had also the average Englishman’s respect for the liberty of the individual, and there were signs of approval when Lyle spoke again.
“We have every respect for you, Colonel Carrington, and the course we have been compelled to take is a painful one, but I think there was no avoiding it,” he said. “In regard to the charter, we have kept it faithfully even when you rather overstrained its meaning. Now we can no longer allow it to bar all progress, and we have resolved, if in agreement with one clause it can as I think be done, to entirely remodel it by a unanimous assembly. If not we will sell our holdings and move out in a body onto Government land.”358
Lyle had faced the crisis. There was nothing left but open defiance, and he did not shrink from it. When he broke off, Carrington, who had listened with the veins swelling on his forehead, rose suddenly. It was evident that he had allowed his passion to master him.
“Will you all turn against me, you dividend-hunting traitors?” he thundered. “You whom I brought here, and spent the best of my life for, squandering my daughter’s patrimony on this colony until she too sets her will against me. Then listen to me. You shall do none of the things you say. By heaven, you shall not. There shall never be a factory in my settlement. In spite of you—I say—you shall not—do—one—of them!”
His voice broke, and his jaw dropped. The hand he had swung up fell to his side, and I heard a faint cry as he sank limply into his chair. He lay there with his head on the carved back gazing at his rebellious followers with glassy eyes.
I do not know who was the first to move, but in a moment I was standing near his side, and while a confused bustle commenced behind us I saw Lyle slip an arm beneath his neck.
“Bring water, somebody! Ask Miss Carrington for brandy—don’t tell her what it’s for,” he said. “Hurry, he’s either in a fit or choking.”
A man brought the spirits, and Lyle mopped Carrington’s forehead with a wetted handkerchief, which was probably of no great benefit, while when with the assistance of somebody I managed to open his clenched teeth and pour a little brandy down his throat a faint sign of returning sense crept into his eyes. He looked at us in a puzzled manner, saying in short gasps, “Lorimer and Lyle! You shall not—I tell you!”
I believe this was the last time he ever recognized us.359When his face grew expressionless, Lyle who laid him back again, turned to me.
“Did you notice that he moved as though he had no power in his left side?” he said. “Foster and Broomfield, come here and help me. Armadale, you go and tell Miss Carrington tactfully.”
We left consternation behind us when after the return of the unwilling Armadale we carried the Colonel into his great bedroom where he lay breathing stertorously while Foster remained to assist his sister. Then the murmurs broke out as I returned, and each man looked at his neighbor in dismay, until there was once more stillness when dressed in some clinging white fabric Grace stood with a stern, cold face in the doorway.
“You have spoken sufficient for one day,” she said, and some of those who heard her afterward observed how like her voice was to her father’s. “Enough to kill my father between you. May I ask you, now that you can do no more, to leave this house in quietness.”
The climax had filled them with consternation. They had acted in all honesty, and I cannot think they were to blame, but the riders of Carrington, stalwart, courageous men, slunk out like beaten dogs under the gaze of the girl. When they had gone, she beckoned me.
“Ride hard to the railroad, and don’t return without a doctor from Winnipeg. I wish to hear no excuses or explanations. Every moment is precious—go!”
I went, much as did the others, and found Lyle who looked very shamefaced fumbling with his saddle cinch outside.
“It’s an unfortunate business, but of course we never expected such a sending—heaven forbid!” he said. “Well, if the wires will do it we’ll bring out the best doctor they’ve got in Winnipeg. With all respect to them I360shouldn’t like to be Foster left behind to face those two women. Go home, and abuse me for making an unprecedented mess of it if you like, the rest of you!”
It was a hard ride to the railroad, for we did not spare the beasts, and when the instrument clicked out a message that the doctor was ready but could not start before the next day’s train Lyle wired back, “Come now in a special. We guarantee expense.”
Then he turned to me. “I think we were justified in what we said; but he was our chief, and a good one for a long time. Now I’d give up the whole scheme to set the thing straight again.”
In due time we brought a skillful surgeon to Carrington Manor, and waited very anxiously until he descended in search of us.
“It is by no means a common case,” he said. “Mental aberration and partial paralysis. Miss Carrington refers me to you for the possible cause of it. I gather that Colonel Carrington was a headstrong man who could brook no opposition to his will and was subjected to great excitement at a meeting you held.”
“Yes,” replied Lyle. “Without going into unnecessary details, he strenuously resisted a project we had decided on, and the defeat of his wishes apparently came as a shock. He was speaking vehemently and collapsed in the middle of it.”
“What one might have anticipated,” said the doctor. “I scarcely think the result will be fatal, but Colonel Carrington will never be the same man again. It is quite likely that he will not recover the use of his mental faculties, though it is rather premature to speak definitely yet, and I should not unduly alarm the two ladies.” Then, perhaps noticing the genuine distress in Lyle’s face, he added, “I don’t think you need attribute too much to the incident you mentioned. It was only the last straw, so to speak, for I361fancy the patient had been under a severe mental strain for a long time, and from what his sister tells me he was predisposed to attack, while some other cause would probably have precipitated the crisis.”
I sent word asking whether Grace would see me, and receiving an answer that she would see no one I rode moodily back to Fairmead. As Lyle had said, we were sorry, and should have given much to undo what had been done, but it was too late, and I felt that Colonel Carrington who could never have accepted a public defeat had, unyielding to the last, made a characteristic ending.
362CHAPTER XXXIITHE NEW RULER OF CARRINGTON
A month slipped by, and though I rode over often to the Manor it was seldom that I had speech with Grace, and never saw her father. The attack had left him with intellect clouded and limbs nearly powerless on one side, while he would hardly permit either his sister or daughter, who were the only persons he apparently recognized, to leave his sight. It was also with some trepidation that I awaited the first interview with Grace, but this vanished when she came in showing signs of an anxious vigil but only pleasure at my presence.
“I am sorry that I spoke so to you, Ralph, that awful day,” she said. “For hours together I have thought over all that happened, and though it was hard to overcome a feeling of resentment against the others, and even you at first, I tried to judge them fairly; and, if it is not disloyal to say so, I think they were right. Some day, when there will be many things to settle, I hope to tell them so; but I cannot do it yet.”
She would say nothing in the meantime as to her own plans, beyond that before she could consider herself there was much to be arranged that concerned her father and the Manor, and with this I had to be content. Lyle also showed his regret in a practical fashion by visiting the Manor constantly and supervising the farming, though I knew his own holding suffered in consequence, and by his advice young Foster had been appointed bailiff at a salary.363Meanwhile, Harry and I were busy almost night and day, for when the sowing was finished I brought out carpenters and set them to work extending Fairmead, while with our own hands we hewed wind-felled timber where we could find it in the bluffs ready for them and the creamery. It was often necessary to ride long leagues for birches stout enough, and we frequently slept on the bare earth or in the wagon beside our work.
To please a friend in Winnipeg I had accepted the services of a destitute British mechanic, who, when he arrived at Fairmead, with his fare advanced at our expense, demanded the highest wages paid in Canada, and then expressed grave doubts as to whether he could conscientiously undertake the more laborious parts of the framing, because he was a cabinet joiner, and this, so he said, was carpenter’s work. We had met others of the kind before, who had made their employers’ lives a burden in the old country, but they were the exception, after all.
“You can please yourself,” said Harry. “I’m a landowner and ploughman; but if I hadn’t my hands full already I’d tackle anything, from making bricks to framing bridges, for the wages you’re getting. However, to please you, we’ll call the operation joinery.”
We had further trouble with this individual, who continually lamented he had ever come to a country wherein there was no beer, and derided his Ontario comrade for doing too much. The longer a job lasted the better for those employed on it and the rest of the profession, he said: to which, as we heard later, the Ontario man replied: “If the job lasts too long in this country they pretty well fire you out of it.”
At last, returning one morning wet with dew from a damp bed on a bluff, where we had slept after toiling late the night before, we decided to dispense with his services.364
“Good heavens, man! if you get on at that rate it will take you two years to finish,” I said, when I found him tranquilly notching the ends of some beams with mallet and chisel. “How long do you spend over one? And didn’t I tell you to use the axe?”
“Half a day to make a good job! There’s no man in Canada can teach me what tools to use,” he said; and, being stiff all over, I turned to Harry.
“There’s a fair edge on that axe. You might show him,” I suggested.
Harry, who was in a hurry, flung off his jacket, badly tearing it; and for a while the heavy blade made flashes in the sunlight, while the white chips leaped up in showers, until, flinging down the axe, he pulled out his watch.
“Ten minutes exactly—you can dress it another five,” he said. “Now are you willing to do it in that way? No? I didn’t suppose you would be. Well, we won’t detain you. Give him his fare to Winnipeg and some breakfast, Ralph—it will pay you.”
I found Ormond’s horses useful; for between timber-cutting, marking down growing hay, rides to purchase cattle, and visits to the Manor, we often covered fifty miles a day, with hard work besides; while, when we brought out Ontario bushmen, Fairmead and the creamery lumber piles increased rapidly in size, and our bank balance diminished as rapidly. Once, too, when I came home so weary that I could scarcely get out of the saddle, I found a black-edged letter awaiting me, and dropped heavily into a chair after opening it.
“I hope there’s no bad news,” said Aline; “it has an American stamp. Who can it be?”
“Cousin Alice! You might read it—the sun and the grass dust have almost blinded me.”
Martin Lorimer had written the letter from a little365town in Southern California, and Aline read: “I am in sore distress, Ralph. Your poor cousin died here yesterday of an old sickness she had long greatly suffered from. She was my only child—all that was left me; and I’m going back to England a very lonely man. I’ll ask you in a post or two to meet me.”
“I am very sorry, and yet it may have been a release,” said Aline. “Hers was a very hard lot to bear, but she was always cheerful. Poor Uncle Martin! Of course you will go to meet him.”
I did so later when, as a special favor, a mounted man brought me a telegram from Elktail, and Martin Lorimer gripped my fingers hard when I boarded the east-bound train at that station.
“I knew thee would come, Ralph, and I was longing for a face that I knew,” he said. “Ay, to the last my poor girl remembered thee. I’m going home to England—stayed here too long; and Canada seems empty without her. Only time to catch the liner, or I’d have come to Fairmead, and I’ve much to tell thee on the road to Winnipeg.”
He looked sadly shaken, but glad to meet any kinsman in his trouble, and, asking few questions, I listened quietly while, ensconced in a corner of a first-class car, he relieved his soul with talk. He told me much that surprised me, but which is not connected with this story, until I started when he said: “Now I may tell thee that it was Alice sent that money. She did it main cleverly,—her own savings, poor girl; I’m glad I never stinted her in the matter of money. ‘You can tell him when I’m gone, father; it pleased me well to know I had helped to make him happy,’ she said. Then again, almost at the end, she whispered: ‘Tell Ralph I wish him a long life, and the best this world can give him and Miss Carrington.’”
Martin Lorimer coughed vigorously before he continued:366“I never heard a word about that loan until I guessed from thy tale at the chalet that my girl, never suspecting it, had countered my plans. Well, well, it was all as it had to be; but if she had never helped thee maybe another Lorimer would be waiting instead of a stranger to carry on the Orb Mill when I’ve done with it.”
We were nearing the Red River, and the roofs of Winnipeg lifted themselves higher above the prairie, when he said, for Martin Lorimer, almost timidly, “Remembering our talk at the chalet, canst change thy mind, lad, or is it too late?”
“It is too late, Uncle Martin,” I answered with reluctance, for I longed to do something to comfort him. “As I told you, even if I were ready there are others to consider now.”
He sighed before he answered sadly: “Ay, thou’lt take thy own road; it’s born in thee. Then follow it steadfastly, and God bless thee. Some day I’ll come back to Fairmead, but I must have time to get over this blow.”
Ten minutes later we parted, and it was some hours after the Atlantic express pulled out of Winnipeg before I recovered my serenity. I could not forget the kindness of my dead cousin, who, in spite of sickness and physical suffering, had so cleverly aided me in my time of need.
The next event of moment happened when Foster brought me a message from Grace requesting my presence at the Manor on the following day. Most of the men of Carrington were also expected, Foster said. I reached the Manor at the appointed time, and made the latter portion of the journey in company with several of the colonists, and it was with mingled curiosity and reluctance that we gathered in the great hall.
Except that the air was warmer and there were flowers and feathery grasses in the tall vases, it looked much the same367as it did on our last eventful visit, though there was now no grim figure in the carved oak chair. No one knew why we had been summoned except Lyle and myself, and I did not know wholly. So there was a buzz of curious whispers, until Lyle flung back the doors, and Grace, followed by Miss Carrington, appeared in the opening. They were dressed alike in some neutral-tinted fabric, and with one accord the riders of Carrington rose to their feet, and stood fast and motionless until with a queenly gesture Grace seated herself in the oaken chair. Grace was younger than myself by two full years, but there was no trace of diffidence about her as she looked down out of steady eyes at the men who, as it were, did homage before her. Then deep silence followed as she said with a perfect distinctness:
“It was fitting after what has happened that I should send for you. My father founded this colony, and still nominally holds the greater portion of the land in it. As you know, he has been stricken—and has lost his reason; and accordingly the management of the estate devolves upon Miss Carrington and myself—principally, under his last will, on myself. It is a heavy responsibility for two women, to do the best, not only for Carrington Manor, but for the Carrington colony, until it shall please the Almighty to restore its founder—or grant him release. While the Manor lands remain intact and the agreement binding, all that affects our welfare affects that of the whole settlement.”
Grace paused, and a man rose upright at the further end of the hall.
“We came here with a feeling of contrition, yet not wholly ashamed,” he said. “On behalf of all I offer the new mistress of Carrington our deepest sympathy and an assurance of good-will,” and again there was a deep murmur of chivalrous respect from the sun and wind-bronzed men.368
Grace’s gaze was not so steady and her voice was lower as she answered, “I thank you. It is a barren heritage, weighted down by debt, but with the help of my kinsman Lyle we shall do our utmost to improve it. Still, it was not that that I wanted to tell you. How we last parted you know,” and some of those I noticed showed a darker color in their cheeks, as though it were an unpleasant memory. “Since then I have tried to consider rightly all that led up to it, and I ask you to forgive me.”
“It was our own blind precipitancy. I am afraid you spoke the truth,” a voice said; but raising her hand for silence Grace went on:
“As I said, this estate entails a heavy responsibility, and I have been considering what I should do concerning the creamery. My father acted as seemed right according to his judgment, and I do not know all his reasons, but now that the decision devolves upon me I am impelled to act according to my own. No two people see the same thing under the same aspect, and—this is no disrespect to him—I dare not do otherwise. I think the creamery will enhance the settlement’s prosperity, and though I cannot grant the Green Mountain site, in which you must bear with me, you may take the next best, the Willow Grove, with its timber and water, at an appraised value, to be represented by stock in the creamery. This is all I have to tell you, and until I resign this position to Miss Carrington I trust to enjoy your friendship and good-will. You will, I hope, decide, before you go when to start the work.”
“There is still a ruler of Carrington; we haven’t a Salic law. We are all your servants, madam,” a big man said, and when some one cried, “To the Princess of Carrington,” the rafters rang to the thunderous cheer, while once more I wondered that Grace should ever have listened to me. Whether it was born in her, an hereditary369dowry, or was the result of her father’s influence and company, I do not know, but Grace, who could at other times be only womanly, spoke to the riders of Carrington with the air of a sovereign. And yet it appeared perfectly seemly that she should do so, for whether mirthful, commanding, or pitiful, Grace was in all things natural. Neither is this prejudice in her favor on my part, for it is well known on the Assiniboian prairie. Still, even after work had commenced on the creamery and the finances of the Manor were adjusted temporarily, Grace would give me no definite promise as to when she would leave it for Fairmead. As yet her first duty was toward the helpless old man and the charge he had left her, she said.
By one of the striking coincidences that it is hard to believe are accidents, it happened that as we mounted outside the Manor a buggy came around one corner of the house, and with a feeling akin to consternation we turned to regard its occupant. A hired man held the reins, but beside him, wrapped in a fur coat although the day was warm, sat Colonel Carrington, a shivering, huddled object propped against the backboard. It was the first time we had seen him, and the sight troubled us, for the few weeks had made great changes in the ruler of Carrington.
“I’m afraid I’m breaking orders,” the driver explained. “Miss Grace said wait until you all had gone, but he would come, and I hadn’t the heart to refuse him. He’s not understanding much these days, but we take him out for an hour or two, when he’s able for it, in the sun.”
Colonel Carrington regarded us as if we were strangers, as with a pitiful courtesy some raised their hats to him. He attempted with one hand to strike a match and dropped it, and after Lyle ignited another and held it to his cigar he nodded cordially. “I thank you, sir,” he said with an entire absence of recognition. “I am not quite370as strong as I used to be. Could you tell me how far it is to Lone Hollow? I seem to have forgotten the way, and the snow is soft and heavy.”
It was a relief to all of us when the buggy drove off, and the assembly broke up with a sudden chill upon its enthusiasm.
One evening later I was walking home past Hudson’s dwelling when I noticed a curious cloud of dust hanging over the house, and strange sounds proceeding from it. They suggested that somebody was vigorously brushing it, which was certainly unusual. Now Hudson, though he held a quarter-section of Government land, had really no legal claim to it, because he had neither broken sufficient virgin sod nor put the necessary acreage under cultivation. He freely admitted that he was prejudiced against hard work, and, when in need of a few dollars to purchase actual necessities that he could not borrow, he would drive away with his wagon and peddle German oleographs and patent medicines to the less-educated settlers, returning after several weeks’ absence to settle down again to a period of loafing.
Aline and her friend Lilian Kenyon, as well as the latter’s brother were with me.
“What on earth can they be doing inside there, and what a noise they are making,” said Miss Kenyon.
“It shows that my good counsel has not all fallen on stony soil,” Aline answered laughingly. “Harry—that is Mr. Lorraine—is apparently seriously engaged in spring cleaning. I have been giving him lessons lately on the virtues of cleanliness.”
Understanding the process, I grinned at this, and fancied, though I could not be certain, that Aline’s fair companion envied her the opportunity for giving Harry lessons on anything. When the next cloud of dust rolled out of the window an irate voice came with it:371
“I’m the biggest slouch on the prairie, eh; I’ll pretty well show you nobody takes liberties with me. I’m almighty sick of this fooling already; there goes your confounded bucket, and the rest of the blamed caboodle after it.”
Lilian Kenyon started when a bucket fell clattering at her feet, a brush came hurtling toward us, and amid wild language a grimy figure appeared at the window, dropping chairs and other furniture wholesale out of it, while her brother, who strove to conceal his merriment, observed:
“Say, hadn’t you two better come on with me? It’s getting late already, and Hudson is not as particular as he ought to be when he’s angry.”
“I agree with you,” said Aline in a tone of severity. “He is a very disgraceful man, and by no means a fit companion for Harry. Ralph, I am sorry there are occasions when both of you indulge in unwarranted expressions. Don’t you think such conduct unbecoming in an elder brother, or any respectable landowner, Lily?”
I laughed and Miss Kenyon looked indignant when I answered: “Then go along; you don’t understand our trials, or you wouldn’t condemn us. It can only be natural depravity that leads Harry to persist in living with such a companion when half the girls on the prairie are willing to provide him with a better one.”
They had hardly left me when, disheveled and dusty, Hudson strode forth in wrathful disgust.
“It’s almighty hard when a man can’t live peacefully in his own home without your confounded partner brushing all over it,” he muttered, “I guess it’s your sister’s doing—I knew there would be trouble when she came in, stepping like a gopher on wet ploughing, with her skirts held up. Anyway, I’m blamed well sick of Canada, and them Government land fellows are coming right down on me, so I’m just going to drop the whole thing and skip. I’m going372to sell the place for an old song, or burn it, and light out for Dakota.”
I frowned, for this was the first time I had heard of Aline’s visit, and it struck me that although I suffered from her craze for neatness at Fairmead she was overstepping the bounds in attempting to reform Hudson’s homestead too; but Harry evidently overheard him, for he came out.
“Try to talk sensible for once, Hudson,” he said. “See here, I don’t want to take advantage of your beastly temper, but if you are really bent on selling the place, and not vaporing as usual, I’m open to make you an offer.”
“I’ve been willing to sell it for two years,” Hudson answered with a grin. “Haven’t done half my legal breaking, and don’t mean to, so it’s not mine to sell, and would have to remain registered to me until the improvements were completed. Then, you see, I could come back, and jump you.”
“I don’t think you could,” said Harry. “You might hurt yourself trying it. How much do you call a fair thing for the holding as it stands, bearing in mind our risk in buying what is only the good-will with the owner absent?”
They haggled over the terms for a while, and then Harry turned to me.
“We can do it at a stretch, Ralph, by paying him so much after the crop’s sold for the next two years. Of course, it’s a big handful, but there’s lots of sloo hay that would feed winter stock, and I want the house badly. Indeed, if I don’t get it I’m going to build one. Don’t you think we could take the risk?”
I thought hard for a few minutes. We were speculating boldly, and already had undertaken rather more than we could manage; but the offer was tempting, and, noting Harry’s eagerness, I agreed.
“Yes; we will chance it,” I said, “on his own terms of373yearly payments, although heaven only knows how we’re going to finance it if the crop dies off. Hudson, I’ll give you a small check to-morrow if you are satisfied, but it’s fair to tell you that if you stayed and completed the improvements you would get more for it when you held the patent.”
“That’s all right,” said Hudson. “I guess I’ll take the check. You may have the building and the hundred and sixty blanked acres, scarcely ten of them broken. It’s easier peddling pictures than farming, any day, and no one else would buy it in the circumstances. It’s not even mine without the patent, and if I die in the meantime you’ll get nothing.”
“We’ll get the crop and the cattle feed; you don’t suppose we’ve bought it to look at; and if you died the pay would stop,” said Harry dryly, and turned toward me when Hudson, moving away contented, sat down to enjoy a peaceful smoke.
“That settles it, Ralph,” he said. “The deal ought to show a good result, and I wanted the house. Now that I have got it, it’s time for me to ask you a question which would have to be answered presently in any case. I was waiting to see how things would go, out of fairness to her, but as we have bound ourselves hard and fast to Fairmead for several years at least, I’m going to ask you a great thing. Will you give me Aline?”
“Will she have you?” I said smiling.
“That’s just what I don’t know,” Harry answered rather dismally. “Sometimes I hope so, and sometimes I’ve a cold fear that she won’t. But now that I’ve told you, I’ll ask her this very evening. You’ll wish me Godspeed, won’t you?”
I looked at him with sympathy, for I knew the feeling, and I had some experience of Aline’s moods. Then I laid374my hand on his shoulder, “We have been as brothers for a long time, Harry, and it would be only good news if you strengthen the tie. If Aline has the wisdom I give her credit for, she won’t say no, and there’s no one in the Dominion I should sooner trust her to.”
“Then I’ll make the plunge,” said Harry. “Ralph, I’m very grateful for your good-will. Hudson, where did you fling that confounded bucket? Get up and straighten yourself, and go after Miss Kenyon. Take her anywhere away from Miss Lorimer, and, if you feel like it, make love to her. You’re not bad-looking when you wash yourself, and I think she has a fancy for you.”
“Not much!” said Hudson grinning as he refilled his pipe. “I’ve had one experience in that line, and I don’t want another. No, sir, henceforward I leave women alone.”
Harry went back to the house to shed his working attire, and I strode on toward Fairmead, leaving Hudson sitting among his furniture and kitchen utensils on the darkening prairie, smoking tranquilly. The stars shone out when Harry and Aline came in together. Harry looked exultant, Aline unusually subdued, and me first thing she did was, to my astonishment, to kiss me.
“Aline has promised to marry me before the winter,” said Harry.
Wishing them every happiness I went out and left them. I was occupied two hours over some badly needed repairs to the granary, and then for a long time I stood under the stars thinking of Grace.
375CHAPTER XXXIIIA BOUNTIFUL HARVEST
Henceforward Harry’s wooing, like my own, was conducted in an intermittent and fragmentary manner. But little time was left us for dalliance or soft speeches, and we paid our homage in practical fashion, with axe and saw and bridle, for there was truth in what Harry said: “The best compliment a man can pay a woman is to work for her comfort. Still, I don’t know that more leisure for other things wouldn’t be pleasant, too. There is more in life after all than an endless round of sowing and reaping.”
Jasper was among the first to congratulate him, which he did so heartily that I concluded that he had stopped his visits in time, and it was with a repetition of his former kindness that he added:
“You’ll need to rustle this season, for you’ve plainly bitten off more than you can chew. Still, you’ve friends on the prairie who’ll see you through, and if it’s horses or men or money you’re stuck for, I guess you know where to find them.”
We borrowed oxen, we borrowed mowers, we hired help everywhere, and somehow paid for it, while by dint of endless planning we managed to avoid an overdraft at the bank. Still, I lamed Ormond’s hunter, and dawn was often in the sky when I rode home from the Manor to begin the day’s round again without resting. But our efforts prospered, and the weather favored us, while Jasper and other neighbors, including some from Carrington, helped us on opportunity,376until one summer day I rode over to the Manor to press for a decision. I hesitated when I got there, for I was heavy from want of sleep and troubled about many small matters, and, when Grace greeted me, she looked so fresh and tranquil that it seemed unfair to bring the stains of turmoil and fierce hurry into her presence.
“You are tired, poor Ralph,” she said, laying a cool hand on my forehead when I drew her down beside me. “The sun has darkened you to the color of a Blackfoot. You are thin, and there are too many wrinkles on your brow—put them away immediately. I wonder whether any one would recognize in you the fresh-faced and somewhat callow stripling with whom I talked about the Dominion that day on Starcross Moor. It is not so very long ago, and yet life has greatly changed and taught us much since then. You must not be vain about it, but I really think I prefer you now.”
She strove to avoid my answer, which was an active one, and then settled to grave attention when I said: “You were always the same, Grace, unequaled among women. I was very raw and foolish, but you have helped me, and experience in these new lands teaches even fools. Now, however, I am chiefly lonely—and Fairmead is waiting for you.”
“I wish to know my duty,” said Grace. “I still think and think until my brain grows tired, and yet I cannot see it clearly. As I told the others, the Manor is an undesirable inheritance; but I am its mistress, and it brings heavy charges with it, a load of debt among them, which it would seem cruel to leave my aunt to grapple with. If we sold it there would be nothing left for her, and even that might not be possible while my father lives. Ralph, dear, he was once very kind to me, and it is hard that I can do so little to help him.”377
She sighed, and looking at me wearily made no answer to my further pleading, until, as it happened, Miss Carrington, preceded by a very awkward Scandinavian maid, entered the room with a tray on which was placed the Russian tea and dainties for which the house was famous.
“You looked in need of refreshment, Ralph, when you came in,” she said. “There have been changes at the Manor, but we have not forsaken all our ancient customs.”
She was, as Aline said, “a dear old lady,” sweet of face, yet stately, though now she looked careworn too; and rising I bowed respectfully, as, acting under one of those sudden impulses which are sometimes better than judgment, I said:
“I hope you will believe that no one regrets the changes more than I do, and it is only trusting in your kindness that I venture to look for a welcome here. There cannot be many who would so kindly receive one who even against his will has been indirectly connected with your troubles. Besides, I have been abusing your generosity further by trying to persuade Grace to desert you, and, strangest of all, I ask you to help me.”
Grace blushed, and her aunt sat silent for a while.
“I am glad you told me,” she then answered quietly, “for I have been thinking what she ought to do. I wondered now and then that my niece did not ask me, and I am going to tell my thoughts to both of you. There is a will extant leaving her this property, with a portion to me, but it will be a long struggle to free the land from its creditors, and my poor brother may live as he is for years. He has been mercifully spared all further anxiety, and I hope that he will. I am old, and my day has long gone by. Grace is young, with the world before her; and it is neither right nor necessary that she should put away all hope of happiness indefinitely. There is only one time378when the joy of life is more real than its sorrows. With kinsman Lyle’s counsel, and Foster to work the land, I can hold the Manor and care for my brother, and for both to remain here would be a useless sacrifice. So if you love her, as I believe you do, it is right that you should enjoy together what is sent you. Grace should go to you.”
I had passed my younger days among a homely people, and had been taught little except what I learned in the silence of the mountains and on the wide prairie, and yet I think it was without awkwardness that I bent over Miss Carrington’s hand. Speech would hardly have expressed the gratitude and respect I felt, while I recognize now that the motive of the action was in her and not in me. Then I turned to her niece and waited with longing in my eyes until Grace, who had changed to her softest mood and was now only a blushing girl, said simply:
“You have made it easy, Aunt. Ralph, I will come.”
“That is right,” said Miss Carrington. “Ralph, you have waited patiently, and I can trust you to be kind to her.” Then she smiled upon us as she added: “If not, I take my brother’s place, and you shall answer for it. There is still a Carrington at the Manor holding authority. And so, to turn to the practical, if either of you can consider such prosaic things as tea, it is growing cold already, and it is a pity to waste the Carrington tea.”
The tea was not wasted. We are only creatures of flesh and blood, thankful, the wiser among us, for the transitory glimmer of romance that brightens our work-a-day lot, and gives some much-needed strength to grapple with it, and I had ridden far after a night spent in the open and a hard morning’s work. So I accepted what was offered, and found it delicious to rest in that pretty room, where the last of the sunlight sparkled on the silver and lit up the sweet face of the lady who beamed upon us. Again379it seemed almost too good to be true, and hard to believe, that victory had crowned the struggle, while even as I balanced the dainty China cup it reminded me of the battered kettle from which we filled the blackened cans in a British Columbian camp. There, instead of embroidered curtains, were festoons of cedar sprays, biting cold and acrid wood-smoke in place of warmth and artistic luxury, and I knew that I had been favored greatly—for though many strive, the victory is to the few. Still, from out of the shadows of the somber firs, I seemed to hear our partner who lay among the boulders say: “The long, long road has a turning, and there is rest at last.”
Before I left the Manor late that night all was settled, for when I pressed for an early conclusion Grace, yielding, said: “I am not afraid of poverty, Ralph; and if it comes we will lighten it by each bearing half. So we will take the risk of the harvest together, for if I share in your prosperity I must also take my share in the hardship.”
I did not get home to Fairmead until the next day, for I nodded in the saddle until I could not see the way, and several times nearly fell out of it, and when the tired horse stopped on a bluff I found a couch in withered fern and slept there soundly, to waken long after sunrise, wet with dew. That, however, was a trifling matter on the Western prairie, because the man who loves small comforts has no business there, and after the events of the previous day discomfort was nothing to me. Dreams seldom trouble the toiler in that land; and when I stood up refreshed under the early sunlight, and memory returned, the world seemed filled with light and beauty to reflect my own gladness. Ormond’s horse was cropping the grasses not far away, and when I caught him the very birch leaves rustled joyfully under their tender shimmering green as we rode over the bluff, while once out on the prairie a flight of sand-hill380cranes came up from the south, calling to one another, dazzling blurs of whiteness against the blue, and even their hoarse cry seemed to ring with triumph.
Aline ran out to meet me when I dismounted, and my mood must have been infectious, for she smiled as she greeted me.
“I sent Harry to scour the prairie in search of you, for I feared you must have been dead tired and the horse had fallen in a ravine. But you must have slept among the fairies, Ralph, and risen transfigured. You look too radiant for my serious brother.”
It was after hay-time, and the wheat was tall and green, when Grace and I were married in the little wooden church at Carrington, and every man in the settlement rode there in her train. Few princesses of royal blood ever had a finer escort than hers, and she came in state, as was due to her—for Grace was a prairie princess and the heiress of Carrington. Perhaps the memory of what had happened made her subjects doubly anxious to show their loyalty; while, remembering who I was, and how I landed in that country a poor emigrant, once more I found it hard to understand why of all men such a gift had been bestowed on me.
The riders of Carrington also filled one room at the Manor with glittering tokens of their good-will from Toronto and Montreal, besides such useful things as tools and harness, while among the presents lay a plain letter with a black border which Grace and I read together. It was from Martin Lorimer. “I wish you both many blessings,” it ran, “and knowing your foolish way of thinking, I could not send the present I wanted to; but you’ll take this, with an old man’s very good wishes. It’s a certificate of paid-up stock in the new Day Spring Mining Company, of which Calvert is manager. Sell or hold as pleases you. You’ll find a market—for already Calvert’s sending up good ore.381I also send you something else—your cousin valued it.”
Another paper fluttered out of the envelope, and my amusement died away as I recognized the letter I had given the bankers in Winnipeg when I drew upon the loan.
“Of all the gifts I value this from poor Alice most,” I said a little huskily. “We should have gone under without it, and perhaps it alone helped me to win you. Grace, to both of us, this is the strangest of wedding presents; but what shall we do with these shares in the Day Spring mine? They represent the principal portion of the paid-up capital.”
“You will keep them,” Grace said. “I think I understand why he sent them. I had a very bitter feeling against your uncle, but I have conquered it. The past is never done with, and it may be that what my father toiled for and lost will come to his daughter in its own way. Ralph, there’s a story of hope and struggle and sorrow written between every line on either paper.”
We rode, in accordance with prairie custom, straight home from the church, for Grace was no longer princess of Carrington, but the wife of a struggling farmer, and she said that until the harvest was gathered there must be no honeymoon. Fairmead, as all the inhabitants of the prairie know, was only a small holding hampered by lack of capital when she married its owner and forthwith commenced to live in strict accordance with her adopted station. We hoped to improve that station, but this depended on the crops and the weather, and the heavens continued to favor us that year. Seldom had there been such grass for cattle or such a yield of wheat. No acre returned less than its twenty bushels, and many nearer forty; while Grace, who drove the first binder into the tall yellow stems and worked on through the rush and dust of harvest and thrashing, rejoiced as she said she had never done when all was safely gathered in.
Then Harry and Aline were married and settled in Hudson’s382dwelling; and one evening toward the close of the Indian summer, when our work was done at last we drove slowly down the long incline away from Fairmead. A maple flamed red on the bluff, the birch leaves were golden; but the prairie was lone and empty, save for a breadth of tall stubble, and there was neither a sack in the granary nor a beast in a stall. Harry had taken the working cattle, while the stock were traveling eastward across the ocean and the wheat lay piled in the elevators or had been ground already into finest flour. But the result of our labors was bearing interest, and would do so until spring, in the shape of a balance at the Bank of Montreal. Each venture had succeeded, and evidence was not wanting that at last we were being carried smoothly forward on the flood-tide of prosperity; and so with thankful hearts we prepared to enjoy a well-earned holiday in the older cities of eastern Canada.
The garish light died out as we passed the last of the stubble, which grew dusky behind us, the stars that shone forth one by one glimmered frostily, and silence closed down on the prairie, while the jingle of harness and the groaning of wheels recalled the day I had first driven across it. Grace, too, seemed lost in reverie, for presently she said:
“Another year’s work ended, and the bounteous harvest in. Ralph, why is it that happiness brings with it a tinge of melancholy, and that out of our present brightness we look back to the shadows of other days? I have been thinking all day of curious things and people we knew—our first dance at Lone Hollow, of Geoffrey Ormond and your cousin. They all played their part in giving us what we now enjoy.”
I cracked the whip, stirring the horses into a quicker pace, and, slipping one arm around her, I said: “It is not those who work or suffer most who are always rewarded383as they would hope to be; and, as Johnston once said, the fallen have done great things. But we will look forward. You made true forecasts that night at Lone Hollow, and no fairer witch ever came out of Lancashire. So look again deep into the future, and tell me what you see.”
Grace laughed, and nestled closer to me under the furs, for the nights were chilly, before she answered: “There are compensations, and one cannot have everything, so I lost the gift of prophecy when a better one came to me—and, Ralph, it came that very night at the Hollow, I think. Instead, I will tell you what I hope to see. First, you faithful to your task, as faithful to me, laying together acre on acre and adding crop to crop until the possessions of Fairmead are greater than Carrington. But even before this comes—and come, I think, it will—we will try to remember that we are but stewards, and that possession brings its duties. My father was a keen sportsman, and I, too, love a horse and gun, but we thought too much of pleasure at Carrington. We will fling our doors wide open to the English poor—there are no poor in the Dominion like the English poor—and share with the needy the harvests that are granted us. I have been thinking often of your helper, Lee, and as a beginning he could send you two families in the spring—we have room for them. And so, Ralph, if you will humor me in this I shall never be sorry to preside over Fairmead instead of Carrington.”
“I will,” I answered simply; but she seemed content with the answer, and asked for no further assurance as we drove on through the night. No one could laugh more joyously than Grace, or cast about her flashes of brighter humor; but we had just completed an arduous task whose reward was greater almost than we dared hope, and our gladness was too great to find expression in merriment.
On reaching the Elktail station I was handed a telegram384from Calvert which had lain there some time awaiting an opportunity for delivery. It was brief, but reassuring.
“Great news. Bottomed on rich ore at last. Day Spring stock cent. per cent. premium. Don’t sell. Looking for surprising dividends.”
“This is the beginning,” said Grace. “Some day all the rest will come.”
And then, with a blast of the whistle and the lighted cars clashing as they lurched up out of the prairie, the Atlantic express rolled in and bore us east to enjoy our belated honeymoon.
Grace’s prediction was fulfilled, for although we had reverses we prospered from that day, and there are now few farms anywhere on the wide grass-lands between Winnipeg and Regina, to compare, either in area or fertility, with Fairmead, while the flour made from our wheat is spread across the breadth of Europe. And better than lands and stock is the content and peace that came to me through Grace’s companionship.