第17章 CHAPTER III(5)
"Well,"said Vashti,"don't tell ME.But if there wasn't something between him and that Mamie Mulrady,I don't know a jilted man when I see him.""Well,you needn't have let him SEE that you knew it,so that any civility of ours would look as if we were ready to take up with her leavings,"responded Esther,astutely,as the girls reentered the house.
Meantime,the unconscious object of their criticism walked sadly down the old market-garden,whose rude outlines and homely details he once clothed with the poetry of a sensitive man's first love.
Well,it was a common cabbage field and potato patch after all.In his disgust he felt conscious of even the loss of that sense of patronage and superiority which had invested his affection for a girl of meaner condition.His self-respect was humiliated with his love.The soil and dirt of those wretched cabbages had clung to him,but not to her.It was she who had gone higher;it was he who was left in the vulgar ruins of his misplaced passion.
He reached the bottom of the garden without observing any sign of the lonely invalid.He looked up and down the cabbage rows,and through the long perspective of pea-vines,without result.There was a newer trail leading from a gap in the pines to the wooded hollow,which undoubtedly intersected the little path that he and Mamie had once followed from the high road.If the old man had taken this trail he had possibly over-tasked his strength,and there was the more reason why he should continue his search,and render any assistance if required.There was another idea that occurred to him,which eventually decided him to go on.It was that both these trails led to the decayed sycamore stump,and that the older Slinn might have something to do with the mysterious letter.Quickening his steps through the field,he entered the hollow,and reached the intersecting trail as he expected.To the right it lost itself in the dense woods in the direction of the ominous stump;to the left it descended in nearly a straight line to the highway,now plainly visible,as was equally the boulder on which he had last discovered Mamie sitting with young Slinn.If he were not mistaken,there was a figure sitting there now;it was surely a man.And by that half-bowed,helpless attitude,the object of his search!
It did not take him long to descend the track to the highway and approach the stranger.He was seated with his hands upon his knees,gazing in a vague,absorbed fashion upon the hillside,now crowned with the engine-house and chimney that marked the site of Mulrady's shaft.He started slightly,and looked up,as Don Caesar paused before him.The young man was surprised to see that the unfortunate man was not as old as he had expected,and that his expression was one of quiet and beatified contentment.
"Your daughters told me you were here,"said Don Caesar,with gentle respect."I am Caesar Alvarado,your not very far neighbor;very happy to pay his respects to you as he has to them.""My daughters?"said the old man,vaguely."Oh,yes!nice little girls.And my boy Harry.Did you see Harry?Fine little fellow,Harry.""I am glad to hear that you are better,"said Don Caesar,hastily,"and that the air of our country does you no harm.God benefit you,senor,"he added,with a profoundly reverential gesture,dropping unconsciously into the religious habit of his youth."May he protect you,and bring you back to health and happiness!""Happiness?"said Slinn,amazedly."I am happy--very happy!Ihave everything I want:good air,good food,good clothes,pretty little children,kind friends--"He smiled benignantly at Don Caesar."God is very good to me!"Indeed,he seemed very happy;and his face,albeit crowned with white hair,unmarked by care and any disturbing impression,had so much of satisfied youth in it that the grave features of his questioner made him appear the elder.Nevertheless,Don Caesar noticed that his eyes,when withdrawn from him,sought the hillside with the same visionary abstraction.
"It is a fine view,Senor Esslinn,"said Don Caesar.