第45章

They were but the gay vanguard of the life which the street, quite dead through the Sunday dinner-hour, presently took on.Young couples with their progeny began to appear, returning from the weekly reunion Sunday dinner with relatives; young people meditative (until they reached the Pike Mansion), the wives fanning themselves or shooing the tots-able-to-walk ahead of them, while the husbands, wearing long coats, satin ties, and showing dust upon their blazing shoes, invariably pushed the perambulators.Most of these passers-by exchanged greetings with Mamie and Eugene, and all of them looked hard at Ariel as long as it was possible.

And now the young men of the town, laboriously arranged as to apparel, began to appear on the street in small squads, making their Sunday rounds;the youngest working in phalanxes of threes and fours, those somewhat older inclining to move in pairs; the eldest, such as were now beginning to be considered middle-aged beaux, or (by the extremely youthful) "old bachelors," evidently considered it advantageous to travel alone.Of all these, there were few who did not, before evening fell, turn in at the gate of the Pike Mansion.

Consciously, shyly or confidently, according to the condition of their souls, they made their way between the cast-iron deer to be presented to the visitor.

Ariel sat at the top of the steps, and, looking amiably over their heads, talked with such as could get near her.There were many who could not, and Mamie, occupying the bench below, was surrounded by the overflow.The difficulty of reaching and maintaining a position near Miss Tabor was increased by the attitude and behavior of Mr.Flitcroft, who that day cooled the feeling of friendship which several of his fellow-townsmen had hitherto entertained for him.He had been the first to arrive, coming alone, though that was not his custom, and he established himself at Ariel's right, upon the step just below her, so disposing the great body and the ponderous arms and legs the gods had given him, that no one could mount above him to sit beside her, or approach her from that direction within conversational distance.Once established, he was not to be dislodged, and the only satisfaction for those in this manner debarred from the society of the beautiful stranger was obtained when they were presented to her and when they took their departure.

On these occasions it was necessary by custom for them to shake her hand, a ceremony they accomplished by leaning across Mr.Flitcroft, which was a long way to lean, and the fat back and shoulders were sore that night because of what had been surreptitiously done to them by revengeful elbows and knees.

Norbert, not ordinarily talkative, had nothing to say; he seemed to find sufficient occupation in keeping the place he had gained; and from this close vantage he fastened his small eyes immovably upon Ariel's profile.Eugene, also apparently determined not to move, sat throughout the afternoon at her left, but as he was thin, others, who came and went, were able to approach upon that side and hold speech with her.

She was a stranger to these young people, most of whom had grown up together in a nickname intimacy.Few of them had more than a very imperfect recollection of her as she was before Roger Tabor and she had departed out of Canaan.She had lived her girlhood only upon their borderland, with no intimates save her grandfather and Joe; and she returned to her native town "a revelation and a dream," as young Mr.Bradbury told his incredulous grandmother that night.

The conversation of the gallants consisted, for the greater part, of witticisms at one another's expense, which, though evoked for Ariel's benefit (all eyes furtively reverting to her as each shaft was loosed), she found more or less enigmatical.The young men, however, laughed at each other loudly, and seemed content if now and then she smiled.

"You must be frightfully ennuied with all this,"Eugene said to her."You see how provincial we still are."She did not answer; she had not heard him.The shadows were stretching themselves over the grass, long and attenuated; the sunlight upon the trees and houses was like a thin, rosy pigment; black birds were calling each other home to beech and elm; and Ariel's eyes were fixed upon the western distance of the street where gold-dust was beginning to quiver in the air.She did not hear Eugene, but she started, a moment later, when the name "Joe Louden" was pronounced by a young man, the poetic Bradbury, on the step below Eugene.

Some one immediately said "'SH!" But she leaned over and addressed Mr.Bradbury, who, shut out, not only from the group about her, but from the other centring upon Miss Pike, as well, was holding a private conversation with a friend in like misfortune.

"What were you saying of Mr.Louden?" she asked, smiling down upon the young man.(It was this smile which inspired his description of her as "a revelation and a dream.")"Oh, nothing particular," was his embarrassed reply."I only mentioned I'd heard there was some talk among the--" He paused awkwardly, remembering that Ariel had walked with Joseph Louden in the face of Canaan that very day.

"That is, I mean to say, there's some talk of his running for Mayor.""WHAT?"There was a general exclamation, followed by an uncomfortable moment or two of silence.No one present was unaware of that noon walk, though there was prevalent a pleasing notion that it would not happen again, founded on the idea that Ariel, having only arrived the previous evening, had probably met Joe on the street by accident, and, remembering him as a playmate of her childhood and uninformed as to his reputation, had, naturally enough, permitted him to walk home with her.