A Woman Named Smith Read online

  CHAPTER XVII

  ON THE KNEES OF THE GODS

  We gave over the futile search at last. Mr. Jelnik sat down and tookhis head in his hands, for the moment a prey to overwhelmingdisappointment. I could have wept for him. Presently:

  "Is it so hard to lose that which you never possessed?" I venturedto ask.

  "It is always bitter to fail."

  "But you haven't really failed. You have succeeded in proving thatboth Richard and Freeman were the victims of an insane jealousy anda terrible revenge."

  "Jessamine's confession might well be set aside: insane people oftenaccuse themselves of crimes committed only in their own disorderedbrains. The one indisputable proof would be the jewels in my hands."He added, with a faint smile: "I should have liked to see thoseaccursed things made clean by your wearing them, Sophy."

  "I don't want them!" I said, and my head went up. "I don't care_that_ for all the Hynds jewels ever lost! I wouldn't have come hereto-night for their sake or mine, not if they were worth an empire'sransom! I wanted them for Richard's sake, and--and yours."

  "I know, I know. At first I wanted them for him and me, too.Afterward I wanted them for him and for you, Sophy."

  "For me? _I_ have no right to them. What have _I_ to do with Hyndsjewels?" And then I stopped. If Jessamine's confession weretrue--and I believed in my heart that every word Jessamine hadwritten was the truth--what right had I to Hynds House itself? "Asto that, I have no right to Hynds House, either. It is yours," Isaid.

  He stared at me thoughtfully.

  "It is yours," I repeated, gaining courage. "I am an outsider, towhom this house was left from motives of malice and revenge. Mr.Jelnik, this thing must be set straight. We will show Jessamine'sconfession and clear Richard's name. We will bring Freeman's diaryforward to prove the truth of our assertions. Then you can come intoyour own."

  "Ah!" said Mr. Jelnik, gently, "I see. Quite simple, and perfectlyfeasible. And after I have taken Hynds House, what of you? What doyou get?"

  "I get out," I said briefly. And a horrid qualm came over me. LeaveHynds House, forever? Go away from Hyndsville, leaving thisfriendlier, pleasanter, happier life behind?

  "You are forgetting my training," I reminded him, trying to keep myvoice steady. "I can always do what I did before I came here. I--I'mreally an excellent private secretary, Mr. Jelnik."

  "That," said Mr. Jelnik, smiling curiously, "may very well be. But Ithink the stars in their courses fought to bring you here. And Ireally do not at all relish the notion of your turning backward intoa private secretary, although there is, of course, the alternativeof The Author. And what of Alicia?"

  "Alicia's sense of justice is quite as well developed as mine," Itold him proudly.

  "Alicia is a dear girl," he agreed. "But, my dear lady, your planwouldn't hold water in any court. This place isn't mine, legally ormorally, though the jewels would be if I could find them. If ever Ido find them, which is highly improbable, I may be tempted to makeyou an offer of exchange."

  "You don't want Hynds House? Richard's house? You won't take HyndsHouse?"

  "I don't want Hynds House. I won't take Hynds House. Further, ifanybody on earth but you made me such an offer, in suchcircumstances, I should find it hard to forgive. Even from you Ihardly think I could bear it twice." A bright red showed in hischeeks for an instant, his nostrils quivered, his whole face was ablaze of pride. "What! Nicholas Jelnik accept gifts from women?"

  "As good and proud men as Nicholas Jelnik have accepted gifts fromwomen, and been none the worse for it," said I, tartly. "You offeredme your jewels. Why shouldn't I offer you my house?--particularlywhen it should have been your house. I also have my pride, Mr.Jelnik!"

  The hauteur went out of his face, and something sweet and quizzicaland boyish flooded it.

  "Keep Hynds House, dear, dear Donna Quixotta," said he, gently. "Youhave given me something I needed a thousand times more."

  Now, although we had not found the jewels, we had found JessamineHynds, and there remained to be done a thing that called for whatstrength of will and courage we possessed. And we had need to makehaste. Already more time had been consumed than we bargained for.

  Mr. Jelnik fetched a deep breath, and went over to the Thing in thechair. There was in his manner neither repugnance nor horror,nothing but an almost divine compassion. Never, never, had Irespected the courage, the honor, the mercy of man so greatly as Idid then.

  It was a ghastly task; I do not like to remember it. In the hot, dryair of the room without windows she had become, not a bleachedskeleton, but a shriveled, fleshless, blackened mummy. The hairstill clung tightly to the skull, the discolored skin was stretchedover the bony contour of the face; the lips had shriveled away fromthe teeth, which showed in a sort of jeering grin. And--well, we hadto tie her hair, like a rope, around her chest and arms; and I torethe ruffles off my petticoat, to tie her skirts at the knees andankles.

  The brown frock was low-necked and short-sleeved, too. And thepicture of her, down-stairs, showed her with so red a lip, so roundan arm, so soft, so white a bosom!

  Thou might'st think thou hadst drunk the water of Paradise who had tasted the nectar of her lip.... The ends of her ringlets fell into the hand like as the sleeve of the generous in the hand of the needy.

  Oh, Jessamine!

  She had been so splendidly tall a woman, that as he held her grislyhead upon his shoulder the little shoes that rattled upon hershriveled feet were well below his knees. One great rope of herblue-black hair escaped and fell down the back of his whitecoat, and as he moved it moved, too, with a lazy and languidcoquettishness horribly travesting youth and beauty. It was suchwonderful hair! Small wonder young Richard had praised its darksplendor, and kissed its shining folds to his undoing!

  "Jessamine," Nicholas Jelnik said as he bent over her, "you shallhave your chance to rest. You shall sleep under the open sky. Natureshall have you, Jessamine, and make you over into something ofloveliness and of peace."

  "Because she loved much, much shall be forgiven her," I whispered.Ah! At the last, who but Him of Galilee shall speak for us?

  Never, until I shall be what she was then, shall I be able to forgetthat return journey. Mr. Jelnik walked ahead, holding her on onearm, and carrying the flash-light with his free hand. I followedwith a candle that burned with a low and reddish glare and gave offa heavy, waxy odor in the still air. Whenever the faintest draftlifted the dull flame, we two living creatures seemed to recede intodarkness, while the light sought her out and stayed upon her. Themotion of his body shook her lightly, and she gave forth a dry andstealthy rattling, an uneasy rustling. One hand hung down, with aloose, loose bracelet jingling on the brittle brown wrist. And herpoor little feet with the rotting shoes upon them moved delicately,as if they trod the impalpable air. Once her head struck, with ahollow thud, as we turned a corner. It was almost more than fleshand blood could bear,--like things you were afraid of when you werea child in the dark--the candles melting audibly, and walls, walls,pressing us in.

  I think it took us years to reach the room where Achmet waited. Atsight of what the master bore, The Jinnee started up and called uponGod the Lord Paramount, Help of the Faithful. Then, like the fineold fighter he was, he squared his shoulders, folded his arms, andwaited orders. Boris, with a deep-throated, smothered growl of fearand protest, bared his teeth and sidled against him, bristling andtrembling.

  We consulted briefly. Mr. Jelnik was for leaving her there in thecellar room, until a fitter opportunity offered to give hersepulture. But to this I vehemently objected. I could not havestayed another hour in that house while I knew she was in it. Iwanted Jessamine Hynds consigned to the grave from which she hadbeen too long kept. I wanted her to sleep in the brown bosom of theearth, with the impartial grass to cover her, and roses to blow overher by and by, when summer should have come back to South Carolina.

  Achmet led the way, and presently we were in the spring-house. WhenI am feverish I dream of that last climb up
the spidery stair, withJessamine's jaws widened into a soundless laugh, and The Jinnee'slight playing at hide-and-seek upon her.

  I knelt down and plunged my face into the cold spring-water, anddrank and drank. How good it was! And how grateful to my lungs wasthe outside air, so sweet, so fresh, so clean! I loved the friendlytrees waving in the good wind, I blessed the friendly stars.

  We stopped at Mr. Jelnik's house, and the man Daoud appeared inanswer to a low-voiced summons and fetched me a most beautifulshawl, which I found extremely comfortable. A stately and stoicalpersonage was Daoud, unlike shy black Achmet, who hid himself fromobservation so thoroughly that people in Hyndsville were not awareof his existence. I sat on the steps while for Jessamine Hynds wasfetched a length of canvas, a linen sheet, and a gray army blanket.Achmet appeared with spades. And so we set out.

  The old cemetery in Hyndsville, unlike the newer one in which folkstake a sort of ghastly pride, one lot differing from another lot inglory, is an unpretentious place, enclosed by crumbling walls, theiron gates of which have rusted ajar. It is a grassy, bird-haunted,tree-shaded spot, with some dozen or so old family vaults, somemodest monuments that bear stately names, some raised marble slabssupported on carved and slender legs, like Death's own littlecard-tables, some stones let flat into the earth, with names anddates long since erased by rain and wind and fallen leaf. Nobodycomes here any more. Sophronisba Scarlett was the first and last tobe interred in the old cemetery within the memory of the presentgeneration.

  We went down dismal paths where the night wind sighed a miserere inthe cedars, and things of the dark scurried away with furtivenoises, or flapped ill-omened black wings overhead. In a cornershaded by cypresses was the Hynds vault, a venerable affair with aslate roof. Outside, in an inclosed space were some marble-coveredgraves and in a corner the simplest of all, one marked "R.H." Emilyslept beside him, and their son beside her. But on the farther side,next the wall, was room for one more sleeper. And here, while Mr.Jelnik laid down his burden, Daoud and Achmet began to dig.

  She lay there in the ghostly light and shade, so utterly cast asideand forgotten, so unloved, so unwept, so far removed from everyhuman tie, that terror and pity filled my heart. While Daoud andAchmet were making ready her bed, Nicholas Jelnik and I spread outthe length of canvas, and wrapped her securely in the sheet andblanket. We folded her claws upon the empty breast in which had oncepulsed the passionate heart of Jessamine Hynds, and spread her hairover what had been her face.

  Over in a sheltered spot behind the vault clambered a huge,overgrown, briery rose, and by some sweet impatience of nature oneshoot had budded before its time. I broke off the small, pale rosesand placed them in her grasp. But Mr. Jelnik took from his breast apearl and silver crucifix, and this, reverently, he laid upon hers.

  "It was my father's grandmother's. She held it when she was dying.She was an old saint. It would please her to know that her crucifixshould stay, one holy thing, with Jessamine Hynds."

  "'_Verily, the gate of repentance is not nor shall be shut uponGod's creatures until the sun shall rise in the west_,'" The Jinneequoted his Prophet And he broke off two of his _saphies_, each witha holy verse written upon it, and dropped them upon her out of purecharity.

  Daoud, who was intelligent and orthodox where Achmet was emotionaland tender, was evidently not altogether sure of the wisdom of thisproceeding; but he was not too orthodox to stand up arrow-straight,face the East, and pray for her.

  So we wrapped her, brown silk dress and yellowed laces, and longblack hair, in the strip of canvas, and gave her to the earth. Thelast thing we saw, thank God! before the blanket fell over her forthe last time, was the silver crucifix shining out of the roses inher hands.

  Daoud and Achmet, their spades over their shoulders, left thecemetery, the latter the strangest, quaintest, most outlandishfigure ever seen on a Carolina road. Mr. Jelnik and I, with Borisclose beside us, walked more slowly.

  "Shall you go on with the search?" I ventured presently.

  "But where shall I begin now?" he wondered. "I have searchedeverything and every place searchable."

  "If Shooba hid them anywhere outside of that room, it must have beenin some place that Jessamine herself knew and could get at if shewished; some particular place where nobody would dream of lookingfor them. Women always choose hiding-places like that, and thenotion would suit Shooba's grim humor," I said.

  "They who knew every nook and cranny of the house searched it prettythoroughly at the time," he reminded me. "I have fine-combed itmyself."

  "I am so sorry! I wanted you to find them. But the fact that youdidn't surely couldn't make very much difference to you. One'shappiness doesn't depend upon anything so problematical."

  He hesitated. "Aside from their value, which is by no meansinconsiderable, I--well, they would have made certain things easierfor me. I should then have been in a better position to do what Iwant to do."

  "Oh! You had some definite plan which hinged upon your findingthem?"

  He was silent for a space, as if considering within himself just howfar he could admit me into his confidence.

  "At first, it was a matter of family pride with me to clear up thismystery. Later--I wanted to have the Hynds jewels in my possession,that I might ask the woman I love to marry me." His voice vibratedlike a violin string.

  I took the blow standing. I did not wince, though it had comeunexpectedly. Of course I had known all along that there must besome lady whom he loved, a woman of that world to which he himselfbelonged. But I couldn't for the life of me imagine how the findingor the not finding of the Hynds jewels could have any bearing uponthe case. I couldn't understand how any woman, any real woman, couldlet such a thing come between her and Nicholas Jelnik.

  When we had walked a little farther: "Doesn't she know you care forher?"

  "Who knows what any woman knows or thinks? She may really care foranother man."

  "There is another man?"

  "There is always another man. Her feeling for me may be nothing butpure kindness, for she is kindness itself."

  "Still, I think you should tell her," I said, with such a heavyheart!

  He shook his head. "There are reasons why my faith might bequestioned, my motives doubted; and I couldn't bear that."

  "But if you are perfectly sure of your own feelings, if there isabsolutely no doubt in your mind that you love her--"

  "Love her? I never thought," he said, "that any woman could mean somuch to a man! I never dreamed that just one woman could be inherself all that a man needs to hold fast to! Love her? I have beenall over the world and I have seen many women in many lands, butnever any woman of them all, save that one, for me! It was arevelation to me, that I could care so much. Ah! I wish I could makeit plain just how much I do care!"

  I had not known until that moment how much the heart can bear ofanguish and not break.

  "I hope she loves you just as much in return, Mr. Jelnik. I hopewith all my heart you will be happy, both of you."

  "I hope she does! I hope we shall!" he cried, with ardor. "Why, ifI could be sure she cares for me, like that, if I could know thatall other men counted as little with her as all other women countwith me! But I am not sure. And I do not take it lightly, for mywoman must be more to me than most women mean to most men. Well, itis on the knees of the gods."

  I stole a covert glance at him as he walked beside me. It seemed tome he had never been so beautiful. But his beauty hurt me. I feltold, very, very old, and sad, and tired. The salt taste of tears wasin my mouth. My feet dragged.

  We entered that strip of land which on a time old Sophronisbabarb-wired and barricaded against her neighbors, and which touchedthe Jelnik grounds in the rear. We were to cut through his gardenand enter mine by the gap in the hedge behind the spring-houseand I hoped to get into the house and up-stairs to my own roomunperceived.

  The gray cottage lay dark and silent, but there were lights in HyndsHouse although the night was upon the verge of morning. A graylight, upon which was st
ealing a primrose tinge, was already in thesky. It was, in fact, four o'clock. I was so mortally tired that fora moment I sat down on his steps.

  "It's been pretty rough on you, Sophy. One woman in a thousandcould have gone through this night's experience without going topieces," said Mr. Jelnik, with feeling. And then:

  "Sophy!" cried a frightened and hysterical voice. "Oh, is that you,at last, Sophy?" And turning a corner of the gray cottage, Alicia,Doctor Geddes, and The Author confronted us. They were still incostume, and the Mephistophelian effect of The Author was such aswould turn any actor green with envy. Ensued a pregnant pause. Itwas a lovely situation! It reduced me, for one, to idiocy.

  "Sophy! Jelnik!" exploded Doctor Geddes, with a gesture of rage andastonishment.

  "Yes. It is I. What is the matter? Why aren't you home and in bed?What are you doing here, at this hour?" I asked, stupidly.

  Here The Author, all in red tights, cape, and doublet, snatched hisred cap with the cock's feather in it off his head, and boweddiabolically:

  "Let us ask you that same question: Why aren't _you_ home and inbed? What are _you_ doing here at this hour?"

  "After everybody had gone home, I ran up to your room,Sophy--and--and you were gone. You weren't in the house. I lookedeverywhere; and you'd disappeared, as if the earth had opened andswallowed you." Alicia's voice was trembling.

  "Oh, Sophy, I was so frightened, so horribly frightened! I keptthinking every minute you must come. I kept looking and waiting, andstill you didn't come. I telephoned Doctor Geddes, when I couldn'tstand it any longer. And then The Author came down-stairs. And oh,Sophy, there was such an unearthly, clammy, waiting sort of feelingin the house--all those lights, all those empty rooms--I felt as ifsomething terrible must be happening!" She clung to me as she spoke,kissing me, and shook, and wept. "And when you still didn't come,and we couldn't find you anywhere, The Author suggested that weshould come over here and enlist Mr. Jelnik.

  "When we got here, there wasn't a soul in this house. Not even thedog. We went back to Hynds House, and walked through our garden, andthen came back here, because we didn't know what else to do. Oh,Sophy!" I patted her shoulders, mumbling that she mustn't cry, itwas ail right.

  "Miss Gaines, I am dreadfully sorry you should have been frightened.But there really wasn't the least occasion for alarm. Because MissSmith was with _me_," said Mr. Jelnik calmly.

  Alicia looked at him, trying to read his face in the wan light. Herworld, as it were, was rocking under her feet. She looked at me; andI said nothing. To save my life I couldn't speak of Jessamine Hyndsthen, nor talk coherently of that night's experience. I couldn'tbetray Nicholas Jelnik's secrets, nor mention the Watcher in theDark, nor that dreadful red-walled room. So I merely patted Alicia'sshoulder, while she held fast to me as if I might again disappear.

  "That is exactly what we should like you to explain, Mr. Jelnik, ifyou please," said The Author, with deadly politeness. "You mustpardon us if we disagree with your assertion that Miss Gaines had noreal occasion for alarm."

  "Miss Smith and I," said Mr. Jelnik, stiffening, at the tone, "foundit absolute necessary to leave Hynds House for a short whileto-night, to attend to--an affair of some importance to us both, butwhich concerns no one else on earth." Under the grave politeness hisvoice had an edge of irritation. "I repeat that I am sincerely sorryMiss Alicia was frightened. For my share in that, I crave herpardon. I ask all of you to accept this apology as an explanationwhich is final."

  "I for one shall do no such thing!" cried The Author, hotly. "Arewe impertinent children to be thus lightly dismissed? Of course, ifMiss Smith herself--"

  "You have neither right nor authority to cross-question Miss Smith,"interposed Mr. Jelnik, sharply. But Doctor Geddes broke in, withmounting anger and astonishment:

  "Of course we've got the right and the reason to question both ofyou! You might just as well come off your high horse; you've behavedvery badly, Jelnik! To induce Sophy to scuttle off in the middle ofthe night, without a word to anybody, and go wild-goose-chasing withyou, was an unworthy action. I wouldn't have believed it of you,Jelnik; I thought you had more common sense--not to speak of Sophyherself. Gad, I'd like to shake the pair of you!" And he stamped hisfeet.

  "Doctor Richard Geddes," said Mr. Jelnik, in dangerously low andhoneyed tones, "I find you insufferable. You have the instincts andthe manners of a navvy."

  "Mr. Jelnik!" cried The Author. "Mr. Jelnik, honor me, please, byconsidering my instincts and manners infinitely worse than DoctorGeddes's. I, Mr. Jelnik, at this instant feel within me theinstincts of a cave man and I hone for the thigh-bone of an aurochsto prove it to you. Do you know what I think of you, Mr. Jelnik? Iconsider you a man without conscience and without scruples, sir!"

  "My faith! The man even talks like a serial!" said Mr. Jelnik,weariedly. "My dear, good sir, while we're by way of indulging inpersonalities permit me to inform you that you annoy me by existing.As to your behavior to Miss Smith--"

  "_My_ behavior to Miss Smith?" shrieked The Author, stamping withfury, "_my_ behavior to Miss Smith? You had better set aboutexplaining _your_ behavior to Miss Smith! You're a rascal, Mr.Jelnik!"

  "You, my dear sir, are worse: you're an ass," said Mr. Jelnik, andfetched a sigh of tiredness. "Would to heaven somebody would fetchyou a halter!"

  "Jelnik," choked Doctor Geddes, "a man who behaves as you'rebehaving to-night runs the risk of getting himself shot. You're myown cousin, but--"

  Mr. Jelnik turned at bay.

  "Doctor Geddes," said he, in a razor-edged voice, "it is no lightaffliction to be kin to the Hyndses!--What do you want me toexplain? I have already told you it was necessary for Miss Smith andme to attend to a matter that is none of your business. In return,you hold us up like brigands. Would it make a dent in your armor ofrighteous meddling, if I were to remind you that you are seriouslyannoying Miss Smith?"

  "Not a dent!" roared the doctor. "And if it annoys Sophy to be askeda straight question by those who have her interest at heart, let herbe annoyed and take shame to herself!"

  Alicia began to cry.

  "Oh, Sophy!" wailed Alicia, "whatever is the matter with us, anyhow?What is wrong, Sophy? Why are we quarreling? What are we quarrelingabout, Sophy?"

  I put my hands to my head. "I don't know. That is. I can't tell. Imean. I can't think, at all!

  "Doctor Geddes has spoken like an honest man," said The Author,standing flat-footed in his pointed red shoes. "Mr. Jelnik, I askyou plainly: Why do I find Miss Smith here at this hour? Why andwherefore the mystery? Let me remind you that I have asked MissSmith to marry me, and that she hasn't as yet given me her answer,"he finished, significantly.

  "Why, Sophy!" gasped Alicia. "Why, Sophy Smith!"

  "Holy Moses!" gasped Doctor Geddes. "What, man, you too? Well, then,if it comes to that, I can call you to account, Jelnik, because _I_asked Sophy to marry me, too. In my case she had sense enough tosay 'No' at once."

  "You know he did, Sophy!" Alicia corroborated him tearfully. "Youtold me so yourself, though you never so much as opened your mouthabout The Author; and I don't think that was a bit like you, Sophy.And why you refused the doctor, I can't for the life of me imagine!"

  "Can't you? Well, _I_ can," snorted the doctor, and drew Aliciacloser to him. She put both her hands around his arm.

  "What!" gulped The Author, rocking on his red toes, and wrinklinghis nose until his waxed mustache stood out with infernal effect,and his corked eyebrows climbed into his hair. "What! You, Geddes?My sainted aunt! Why, man alive, I thought that you--that is I'dhave sworn that you--" Here The Author's breath mercifully failedhim.

  I was dumb as a sheep in the hands of the slayers. I could onlyblink at these dear people who were tormenting me. I thought ofJessamine Hynds in her brown silk frock, with the crucifix in herskeleton fingers and the earth fresh over her. And I couldn't say aword. And while I stood thus silent, Mr. Nicholas Jelnik walked upand took my hand in his warm and comforting clasp, and looked at mewith kindling, starry e
yes, and laughed a deep-chested laugh.

  "Gentlemen and Miss Gaines," said Mr. Jelnik, in a ringing andvibrant voice, "permit me to inform you that I also have asked MissSmith to marry me. And she has done me the honor to accept me."