第19章

"I must remind you, Champney," he said, with freezing deliberation, "that Miss Miranda Dows and her niece now represent the Drummond Company equally with myself, and that you cannot expect me to listen to any reflections upon the way they choose to administer their part in its affairs, either now, or to come.Still less do Icare to discuss the idle gossip which can affect only the PRIVATEinterests of these ladies, with which neither you nor I have any right to interfere."But the naivete of the young Englishman was as invincible as Miss Sally's own, and as fatal to Courtland's attitude."Of course Ihaven't any RIGHT, you know," he said, calmly ignoring the severe preamble of his companion's speech, "but I say! hang it all! even if a fellow has no chance HIMSELF, he don't like to see a girl throw herself and her property away on a man like that.""One moment, Champney," said Courtland, under the infection of his guest's simplicity, abandoning his former superior attitude."You say you have no chance.Do you want me to understand that you are regularly a suitor of Miss Dows?""Y-e-e-s," said the young fellow, but with the hesitation of conscientiousness rather than evasion."That is--you know I WAS.

But don't you see, it couldn't be.It wouldn't do, you know.If those clannish neighbors of hers--that Southern set--suspected that Miss Sally was courted by an Englishman, don't you know--a poacher on their preserves--it would be all up with her position on the property and her influence over them.I don't mind telling you that's one reason why I left the company and took that other plantation.But even that didn't work; they had their suspicions excited already.""Did Miss Dows give that as a reason for declining your suit?"asked Courtland slowly.

"Yes.You know what a straightforward girl she is.She didn't come no rot about 'not expecting anything of the kind,' or about 'being a sister to me,' and all that, for, by Jove! she's always more like a fellow's sister, don't you know, than his girl.Of course, it was hard lines for me, but I suppose she was about right." He stopped, and then added with a kind of gentle persistency: "YOU think she was about right, don't you?"With what was passing in Courtland's mind the question seemed so bitterly ironical that at first he leaned half angrily forward, in an unconscious attempt to catch the speaker's expression in the darkness."I should hardly venture to give an opinion," he said, after a pause."Miss Dows' relations with her neighbors are so very peculiar.And from what you tell me of her cousin it would seem that her desire to placate them is not always to be depended upon.""I'm not finding fault with HER, you know," said Champney hastily.

"I'm not such a beastly cad as that; I wouldn't have spoken of my affairs at all, but you asked, you know.I only thought, if she was going to get herself into trouble on account of that Frenchman, you might talk to her--she'd listen to you, because she'd know you only did it out of business reasons.And they're really business reasons, you know.I suppose you don't think much of my business capacity, colonel, and you wouldn't go much on my judgment--especially now; but I've been here longer than you and"--he lowered his voice slightly and dragged his chair nearer Courtland--"I don't like the looks of things here.There's some devilment plotting among those rascals.They're only awaiting an opportunity; a single flash would be enough to set them in a blaze, even if the fire wasn't lit and smouldering already like a spark in a bale of cotton.I'd cut the whole thing and clear out if I didn't think it would make it harder for Miss Dows, who would be left alone.""You're a good fellow, Champney," said Courtland, laying his hand on the young man's shoulder with a sudden impulse, "and I forgive you for overlooking any concern that I might have.Indeed," he added, with an odd seriousness and a half sigh, "it's not strange that you should.But I must remind you that the Dowses are strictly the agents and tenants of the company I represent, and that their rights and property under that tenancy shall not be interfered with by others as long as I am here.I have no right, however," he added gravely, "to keep Miss Dows from imperiling them by her social relations."Champney rose and shook hands with him awkwardly."The shower seems to be holding up," he said, "and I'll toddle along before it starts afresh.Good-night! I say--you didn't mind my coming to you this way, did you? By Jove! I thought you were a little stand-offish at first.But you know what I meant?""Perfectly, and I thank you." They shook hands again.Champney stepped from the portico, and, reaching the gate, seemed to vanish as he had come, out of the darkness.

The storm was not yet over; the air had again become close and suffocating.Courtland remained brooding in his chair.Whether he could accept Champney's news as true or not, he felt that he must end this suspense at once.A half-guilty consciousness that he was thinking more of it in reference to his own passion than his duty to the company did not render his meditations less unpleasant.Yet while he could not reconcile Miss Sally's confidences in the cemetery concerning the indifference of her people to Champney's attentions with what Champney had just told him of the reasons she had given HIM for declining them, I am afraid he was not shocked by her peculiar ethics.A lover seldom finds fault with his mistress for deceiving his rival, and is as little apt to consider the logical deduction that she could deceive him also, as Othello was to accept Brabantio's warning, The masculine sense of honor which might have resented the friendship of a man capable of such treachery did not hesitate to accept the love of a woman under the same conditions.Perhaps there was an implied compliment in thus allowing her to take the sole ethical responsibility, which few women would resist.