A Gentleman from Mississippi - Thomas A. Wise
Peabody and Stevens were the dinner guests to-night, as they were to
confer afterward with Langdon and settle on the action of the naval
affairs committee regarding the naval base. The three, being a
majority, could control the action of the committee.
Senator Peabody had finally postponed leaving for Philadelphia until
the midnight train in order to be present, he assured Langdon as the
trio entered the library. The girls, Norton and Randolph were left
to oversee preparations for the prominent Washingtonians invited to
attend the musicale to be given later in the evening.
Carolina and Hope Georgia were in distinctly different moods--the
elder, vivacious, elated over the bright outlook for her future;
the younger, cast down and wearing a worried expression. Norton and
Randolph in jubilant spirit tried to cheer her, and failing, resorted
to taunts about some imaginary love affair.
The courage of the afternoon, which had enabled her to speak to Haines
as she had, was gone; girlish fears now swept over her as to the
outcome of the evening. Haines had not come! Was he really guilty and
had promised to come merely to get rid of her? Why was he late? If he
did come, would she be able to have her father see him, as she had
promised? If she failed, and she might, she would never see this young
man again.
"If I looked as unhappy as you, Hope, I'd go to bed and not discourage
our guests as they arrive," Carolina suggested. "Our floral
decorations alone for to-night cost $700, and the musical program cost
over $3,000. The most fashionable folks in Washington coming--what
more could you want, Hope? Isn't it perfectly glorious? Why--"
"Mr. Haines is below, asking to see Senator Langdon," announced a
servant, entering.
"Oh, I knew he'd come! I knew it! I knew it!" cried Hope Georgia in
pure ecstasy, clapping her hands.
The three plotters turned on the girl in amazement; then they stared
at each other.
"Mr. Haines!" ejaculated Carolina.
"Haines!" exclaimed Randolph, hurriedly leaving the room.
"Haines!" sneered Norton. "We can take care of him. The Senator won't
see him."
Carolina caught the suggestion.
"Tell Mr. Haines that Senator Langdon regrets that he cannot possibly
receive him," she directed.
"Carolina!"
There was a ring of protest and pain in Hope Georgia's voice as she
darted out of the door after the servant.
"What's the matter with that girl?" asked Norton, trying to be calm.
Carolina shook her head.
"I don't know. She's queer to-day. I believe she imagines herself in
love with Mr. Haines."
"Aren't you afraid she'll make trouble?"
The other sister laughed confidently.
"Little Hope make trouble? Of course not. If she does, we can always
frighten her into obedience."
The door reopened and Hope entered, followed by Bud Haines. The girl's
head was high; her cheeks were red; her eyes glittered ominously.
"I brought him back, Carolina," she said coolly. "Father will want to
see him. I know there has been some mistake."
"Yes," supplemented Bud, "there has been a decided mistake, and I must
refuse to accept the word that came to me from Senator Langdon."
Carolina Langdon drew herself up in her most dignified manner.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Haines, but you must accept it," she said.
"Exactly," seconded Norton. "Senator Langdon entirely declines to
receive you."
"I don't trust anything you say, Congressman Norton, and I may say
also that I recognize no right of yours to interfere in any affair
between me and the Langdon family."
"Perhaps I can explain my right, Mr. Haines," Norton said coolly,
stepping beside Carolina. "I have just had the pleasure of announcing
to Miss Hope Georgia Langdon my engagement to Miss Carolina Langdon."
Haines, entirely unprepared for such a denouement, shot a searching
glance at Carolina. She bowed her head in affirmation.
"So that's why you tried to ruin me!" he cried. "You're both from the
same mold," turning from Carolina Langdon to Congressman Norton, then
back to the girl.
They stood facing each other when Randolph Langdon returned. At sight
of Bud Haines he started, stopped short a second, then came forward
quickly.
"Mr. Haines, my father has declared that he will not see you, and
either you leave this house at once or I shall call the servants."
Bud looked at young Langdon contemptuously.
"Yes, I think you would need some help," he sneered, feeling in his
veins the rush of red blood, the determination in his heart that had
a few years back carried him through eighty yards of struggling Yale
football players to a touchdown.
The Senator's son drew back his arm, but the confident look of the New
Yorker restrained him.
"Mr. Haines, in the South gentlemen do not make scenes of violence
before ladies."
The cold rebuke of Carolina cut into the silence.
Haines stood in perplexity. He did not know what to do or how to get
to the Senator. It was Hope who came to his rescue.
"I'll tell father you are here. I'll make him come, Mr. Haines. He
shall see you."
With the air of a defiant little princess she started for the door.
"Hope, I forbid you doing any such thing," exclaimed her older sister,
but the younger girl paid no attention. Randolph caught her arm.
"You shall not, Hope," he cried.
Hope Georgia struggled and pulled her arm free.
"I reckon I just got to do what seems right to me, Randolph," she
exclaimed. "I reckon I've grown up to-night, and I tell you--I tell
all of you"--she whirled and faced them--"there's something wrong
here, and father is going to see Mr. Haines to-night, and they are
going to settle it."
Norton alone was equal to the situation, temporarily at least.
"I'll be fair with you, Hope," he said reassuringly, and she stopped
in her flight to the hall door. "I'll take Carolina and Randolph in to
see the Senator, and we'll tell him Mr. Haines is here. Perhaps we had
better tell the Senator," Norton suggested, beckoning to Carolina and
her brother. "Let Mr. Haines wait here, and we will make the situation
clear to the Senator."
"You'd better make it very clear," exclaimed the younger girl, "for
I'm going to stay here with Mr. Haines until he has seen father."
The guilty trio, fearful of this new and unexplainable activity of
Hope Georgia, slowly departed in search of Senator Langdon to make a
last desperate attempt to prevent him from meeting this pestilential
secretary that was--and might be again.
When the door closed after them Hope came down to the table where Bud
Haines was standing.
"Won't you sit down, Mr. Haines?" she said. "I'll--I'll try to
entertain you until father comes," she said weakly, realizing that
again she was alone with the man she loved.
CHAPTER XVIII
HOPE LANGDON'S HOUR OF TRIUMPH
Haines sat at a table in the reception-room, across from Hope
Georgia, and his gratitude for her battle in his favor mingled with a
realization of qualities in this young lady that he had never before
noticed. Probably he did not know that what he had really seen in her
that day and that evening was the sudden transition from girlhood to
womanhood, her casting aside of thoughtless, irresponsive youth and
the shouldering of the responsibilities of the grown woman who would
do her share in the world's work.
He stared across in astonishment at this slip of a girl who had
outwitted two resourceful men and an older sister of unquestioned
ability.
"I do not recognize you, Miss Hope," he said finally.
"Perhaps you never looked at me before," she suggested archly, feeling
instinctively that this was her hour; that the man she loved was at
this moment thinking more about her than of anything else in the
world.
Haines made a gesture of regret.
"That must be it," he agreed. Then he leaned forward eagerly. "But I'm
looking at you now, and I like looking at you. I like what you've done
for me."
"Oh, that was nothing, Mr. Haines," she exclaimed airily, her
intuition telling her of her sway over the man.
"Nothing!" he exclaimed. "Well, it's more than any one ever did for me
before. I've known lots of girls--"
"I don't doubt that, Mr. Haines," Hope interjected, with a light
laugh.
"Yes, I say I've known lots of girls, but there's never been one who
showed herself such a true friend as you have been. There's never been
any one who believed in me this way when I was practically down and
out."
"Perhaps you've never been down and out before, Mr. Haines, so they
never had a chance to show whether they believed in you or not."
"That may be one reason," he answered. "I wonder why"--he paused--"I
wonder why your sister Carolina did not believe in me."
"You were quite fond of her, weren't you?" the girl began, then
stopped and turned away her head.
Haines gazed curiously at Hope.
"I was, yes. I even thought I loved her, but I soon saw my mistake. It
wasn't love. It was only a kind of--"
Suddenly pausing, Bud Haines shot a swift glance at the girl.
"What wonderful hair you have, Miss Hope."
The girl smiled invitingly.
"Think so?"
"Yes," he declared earnestly. "I know so. I never noticed it before,
but I guess lots of fellows down in Mississippi have."
Hope's tantalizing smile worried him. "I hope you are not secretly
engaged too!" he exclaimed.
"No, oh, no!" she answered quickly, before she thought.
"Or in love?" he asked seriously.
Haines had stood up and was now leaning intently over the table. He
realized the difference between the feeling he had had for Carolina
and the tender emotion that thrilled him as he thought of the sweet
girl before him. This time he knew he was not mistaken. He knew that
he truly loved Hope Langdon.
"Or in love?" he asked again, anxious at her silence.
Hope looked at him slowly. A faint blush illumined her face.
"Oh, don't let's talk about me," she exclaimed.
"But I want to talk about you," he cried. "I don't want to talk about
anything else. I must talk about you, and I'm going to talk whether
you want to hear or not. You've believed in me when nobody else
believed. You've fought for me when everybody else was fighting
against me. You've shown that you think I am honest and worthy of a
woman's faith. You fought your own family for me. Nobody has ever done
for me what you have, and--and--"
He faltered, full of what he was about to say.
"And you're grateful," she ended.
He looked her squarely in the eyes as though to fathom her thoughts.
Then he reached toward the girl and seized both her hands.
"Grateful nothing!" he cried. "I'm not grateful. I'm in love--in love
with you. I want you--want you as I never wanted anything or anybody
before, and I tell you I'm going to have you. Do you hear?"
Hope could not hide her agitation. The light in her eyes showed she
was all a woman.
[Illustration: THE LANGDON FAMILY.]
"Oh, nothing in the world could happen as quickly as that, Mr.
Haines!" she protested, with her last attempt at archness.
"Nothing could?" he threatened. "I'll show you."
He advanced quickly around the table, but the girl darted just beyond
his grasp. Then she paused--and her lover gathered her in his arms.
"Hope, my dear, you are my own," was all he could say as he bent over
to kiss the lips that were not refused to him.
Hope released herself from his fervent grasp.
"I love you, I do love you," she said fondly. "I believe in you, and
father must too. You've got to straighten this tangle out now, for my
sake as well as your own. Father will listen."
"It's all so strange, so wonderful, I can hardly understand it," began
Haines slowly, as he held the girl's hands.
Unknown to both, the door leading from the hall had opened to admit
Senator Langdon into the lower end of the room. Surprised at the sight
of the couple, so seriously intent on each other, he made a sudden
gesture of anger, then, apparently changing his mind, advanced toward
them.
"I believe you want to see me, sir," he said to Haines. "I hope you'll
be brief. I have very little time to spare from my guests."
Hope's bosom fluttered timorously at the interruption. The man
nervously stepped forward.
"I sha'n't take much of your time, Senator Langdon," he said. "There
has been a misunderstanding, a terrible mistake. I am sure I can
convince you."
Senator Langdon hesitated doubtfully, half turned toward Carolina,
Randolph and Norton, who had followed him, and again faced Haines.
Hope pressed her father's arm and looked up into his face
entreatingly. Randolph, observing this, quickly stepped close to the
Senator's side, saying, "I can settle with this Mr. Haines for you."
Waving his son aside, the Senator finally spoke.
"I reckon there's been too many attending to my business and settling
my affairs, Randolph," he said. "I think for a change I'll settle a
few of my own. All of you children go out and leave me here with Mr.
Haines."
CHAPTER XIX
SENATOR LANGDON LEARNS THE TRUTH
When they were alone Haines faced the Senator and spoke determinedly.
"They told you I was not running straight," he said.
The Senator nodded, and the lines about his mouth deepened.
"Yes."
Bud Haines stiffened at the word. Every muscle in his body seemed to
become rigid as he mentally vowed that he would retaliate against his
traducers if it cost him his life to do it. Hope had informed him only
too accurately, he now realized. Little did the Senator know that what
he was now about to hear would give him one of the severest shocks of
his life.
"They told me you weren't running straight," said Haines deliberately.
"Now, neither one of us has been crooked, but somebody else has been,
and this was the plan to keep us apart."
"Norton told me you were speculating in Altacoola lands," said
Langdon.
"And Norton told me the same of you," retorted Bud.
The Senator's face grew very serious.
"But my daughter, Miss Carolina Langdon, confirmed Norton's story."
Haines here faced the most difficult part of his interview. He hardly
knew how to answer. His manhood rebelled against placing any blame on
a woman. He revolted at the thought of ruining a father's faith in his
daughter's honesty, especially when that father was the man he most
admired, a man for whom he had genuine, deep-rooted affection. But it
was necessary that the words be spoken.
"I hate to tell you, sir," he said in a low, uncertain voice, "that it
was your daughter Carolina who made me believe this story told about
you and vouched for by your son Randolph."
Langdon started back aghast. He stared at Haines and knew that he
spoke the truth. Then his white head sank pathetically. Tears welled
into the eyes of the planter, and this sturdy old fighting man dropped
weakly into a chair, sobbing convulsively, broken in spirit and
wearied in body.
At length Haines spoke to his stricken chief.
"I know it hurts," he said. "It hurt me to have to say it. Don't
believe it until you get it out of Norton, but then you must do
something."
Langdon came to his feet, mopping his cheeks. But there was no
weakness in him now. Yes, he would do something. He would go after the
thieves that had turned his own flesh and blood against him and root
them all out--show them all up.
"Oh, I'll do something," he said grimly. "I'm going to make up for
lost time. Of course, Norton is speculating. Who's behind him?"
"Stevens and Peabody, I'm positive," answered Haines, "and behind them
is Standard Steel."
"What!" exclaimed Langdon. "Stevens in a swindle like this! Are you
sure? How do you know?"
"A Gulf City man who couldn't carry his liquor gave me some clues,
and I worked Norton into telling some more," answered the secretary.
"Where is Peabody?"
"He's here now."
"Then he hasn't got my letter yet. I sent him a note and signed your
name, Senator, to the effect that the Gulf City claims have been
brought before you so strongly that you might vote for Gulf City."
Langdon was amazed.
"You sent that note," he exclaimed, "when you know Altacoola is the
only proper place and Gulf City is a mud bank?"
The newspaper man smiled.
"Of course," he agreed, "but I had to get a rise out of Peabody. This
will show where he stands."
"Oh," said Langdon, "I understand. Thanks, boy."
A servant entered with a note.
"For Senator Peabody, sir, marked 'Urgent.' The messenger's been
hunting him for some hours."
Langdon looked shrewdly at Bud, then turned to the servant.
"You keep that note until I ring for you, then bring it to Senator
Peabody. Understand? No matter how urgent it's marked."
The man bowed.
"Yes, sir."
"Now tell Mr. Norton, Miss Langdon and Mr. Randolph to come here."
The Senator turned back to his secretary.
"I expect I'm going to be pretty busy the rest of the evening, Bud, so
in case I forget to mention it again, remember to show up at your old
desk in the morning."
"I will. Thank you, sir."
"You sent for us, Senator," said Norton, approaching with his two
dupes.
"You are interested in Altacoola lands," the Senator angrily charged.
"I am, sir," he said.
"And you told Mr. Haines that I was interested in Altacoola lands?"
The schemer hesitated, and the Senator broke in on him in rage.
"Speak out, man! Tell the truth, if you can."
"I did," admitted the Congressman finally.
"Was there any particular reason for your not telling the truth?"
demanded the Mississippian in threatening tone.
"I told the truth," replied Norton. "You are interested in them."
For an instant Langdon seemed about to step toward him, then he
controlled himself.
"I didn't know it," he said.
"You have several things to learn, Senator," declared the Congressman.
"I have things to learn and things to teach," he said. "But go on. Why
am I interested?"
"You are interested, Senator," replied the trickster, making his big
play, "through your son, Randolph, who invested $50,000 of your money
in Altacoola, and also through your daughter, Miss Carolina, who,
acting on my advice, has put her own money--$25,000--in Altacoola land
also."
For a moment Langdon was speechless. It was too much at first for the
honest old Southerner to comprehend.
"You mean," he gasped at last, "that you induce a boy to put $50,000
in Altacoola land when you knew I had to vote on the bill? And you
even let my daughter put her money in the same scheme?"
"Of course, I did. It was a splendid chance, and I let your son in
for friendship and your daughter because she has done me the honor to
promise to become my wife."
"What! You have my daughter's promise to marry you, you--"
"She admits it herself."
"Then I reckon here's where I lose a prospective son-in-law," sneered
Langdon. "But that's unimportant. Now, Norton, who's behind you?"
"I must decline to answer that."
Langdon looked at him sternly.
"Very well," he said. "You are too small to count. I'll find out for
myself. Now you go to my study and wait there until I send for you. I
must be alone with my children."
When Norton and Haines had left them, Langdon turned sadly to the two
children who had disgraced him.
"Can you understand?" he said. "Do you know what you've done to me?"
"What, father? We've done nothing wrong!" protested Carolina.
"They told me it was perfectly legitimate," urged Randolph. "They said
everybody--Peabody and Stevens and the rest--were in it, and Peabody
is the boss of the Senate."
"Yes, my boy," assented the old planter, "he's the leader in the
Senate, and that's the shameful part of all this--that a man of his
high standing should set you so miserable an example."
Randolph Langdon was not a vicious lad, not a youth who preferred or
chose wrongdoing for the increased rewards it offered. He was at heart
a chivalrous, straightforward, trustful Southern boy who believed in
the splendid traditions of his family and loved his father as a
son should a parent having the qualities of the old hero of
Crawfordsville. Jealous of his honor, he had been a victim of Norton's
wiles because of the Congressman's position and persuasiveness,
because this companion of his young days had won his confidence and
had not hesitated to distort the lad's idea of what was right and what
was wrong.
Randolph began an indignant protest against his father's reproof when
the Senator cut him short.
"Don't you see?" said the Senator. "I can understand there being
rascals in the outside world and that they should believe your
careless, foolish old father lawful game, but that he should be
thought a tool for dishonest thieving by members of his own family is
incomprehensible.
"Randolph, my son, Carolina, my daughter, through all their
generations the Langdons have been honorable. Your mother was a
Randolph, and this from you! Oh, Carolina! And you, Randolph! How
could you? How could you betray or seek to betray your father, who
sees in you the image of your dear mother, who has gone?"
CHAPTER XX
THE CALL TO ARMS
Both Randolph, and Carolina were deeply affected by their father's
words.
The daughter attempted to take on herself the blame for her brother's
action.
"I was the older one. I might have stopped him if I had wished, and
should bear the burden."
"No, no, father," exclaimed the youth, his inborn self-reliance
prompting him to shoulder the consequences of his own mistakes. "I,
and I alone, am responsible for what I did. I did not realize that it
was wrong. I will not hide behind Carolina."
Carolina Langdon bore herself better than was to have been expected
under the strain of the painful interview. She saw more clearly now
how she had erred. She was undergoing an inward revolution that would
make it impossible for her ever again to veer so far from the line of
duty to her father, her family and to herself.
When Randolph had finished Carolina took up her own defense, and
eloquently she pleaded the defense of many a woman who yearns for what
she has not got, for what may be beyond her reach--the defense of the
woman who chafes under the limitations of worldly position, of sex and
of opportunity. It was the defense of an ambitious woman.
"Perhaps I ought to have been a man of the Langdon family," she
exclaimed. "Father, oh, can't you understand that I couldn't doze my
life away down on those plantations? You don't know what ambition is.
I had to have the world. I had to have money. If I had been a man I
would have tried big financial enterprises. I should have liked to
fight for a fortune. You wouldn't have condemned me then. You might
have said my methods were bold, but if I succeeded I would have been
a great man. But just because I am a woman you think I must sit home
with my knitting. No, father, the world does move. Women must have an
equal chance with men, but I wish I had been a man!"
"Even then I hope you would have been a gentleman," rebuked her father
sternly. "Women should have an equal chance, Carolina. They should
have an equal chance for the same virtues as men, not for the same
vices."
"But an equal chance," returned the girl fervidly. "There, father, you
have admitted what I have tried to prove. The woman with the spirit of
a man, the spirit that cries to a woman. 'Advance,' 'Accomplish,' 'Be
something,' 'Strike for yourself,' cannot sit idly by while all the
world moves on. If it is true that I have chosen the wrong means,
the wrong way, to better my lot I did it through ignorance, and that
ignorance is the fault of the times in which I live, of the system
that guides the era in which I live.
"I am what the world calls 'educated,' but the world, the world of
men, knows better. It laughs at me. It has cheated me because I am
a woman. The world of men has fenced me in and hobbled me with
convention, with precedent, with fictitious sentiment. If I pursue
the business of men as they themselves would pursue it I am called an
ungrateful daughter. If I should adopt the morals of men I would be
called a fallen woman. If I adopted the religion of men I would have
no religion at all. Turn what way I will--"
[Illustration: "YOU'LL HAVE TO TAKE YOUR MEDICINE LIKE A MAN."]
"But not every woman feels the way you do, my daughter," broke in the
Senator.
"No, you are right, because their spirit has been crushed by
generations, by centuries of forced subserviency to men. They tell us
we should be thankful that we do not live in China, where women are
physical slaves to men. In our country they are forced to be mental
and social slaves to men. Is one very much worse than the other?"
"Then, dear," and her father's tone was very gentle, "if you want an
equal chance--want to be equal to a man--you must take your medicine
with Randolph, like a man."
"What are you going to do, sir?" she asked, afraid.
"I'm going to spoil all your little scheme, dear," he returned,
smiling sadly. "I'm going, I fear, to make you lose all your money.
I'd like to make it easy for you, but I can't. You've got to take your
medicine, children, and when it's all over back there in Mississippi I
shall be able, I hope, to patch up your broken lives, and together we
will work out your mistakes. I can't think of that now. The honor of
the Langdons calls. This is the time for the fight, and any one who
fights against me must take the consequences."