The Barrier: A Novel. French Allen

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СКАЧАТЬ and divined that no great barrier separated him from the aristocrat; there had been in Blanchard's manner nothing that expressed repulsion – nothing like Fenno's coolness, for instance, or the constant scrutiny which was so uncomfortable. Blanchard had seemed willing to fill up his idle hours by speech with any one; he was a new specimen, therefore, and Ellis was studying him, when of a sudden he heard Judith speak his name, and looked up to meet the gaze of a pair of quiet eyes. With a little start he scrambled to his feet.

      "My sister," Judith was saying.

      He bowed and endeavoured to speak, but he felt that the beginning was wrong. Beth was in turn dissecting him; she was something entirely different from Judith, more thoughtful, less headstrong. The idea that here was an adverse influence came into his mind, as he stammered that he was pleased to meet her.

      "Thank you, Mr. Ellis," she answered. Judith noticed that Beth on her part expressed no pleasure. The little sister had individuality, with a persistence in her own opinion which sometimes contrasted strongly with her usual softness. But the incident was brief, for Beth's eye lighted as she saw a visitor at the corner of the piazza, hesitating with hat in hand.

      "Mr. Pease!" she exclaimed.

      The little conventionalities of this new welcome also passed. Mr. Pease had met Mr. Ellis; he was delighted to find the family at home; the others were equally pleased that he had come. But when the pause came it was awkward, for Judith and Ellis were clearly uncongenial with Beth and Pease; it required the Colonel's intervention to prevent a hopeless attempt at general conversation. He drew Ellis away; Judith followed, and Beth sat down to serve Pease with tea.

      Then the Colonel himself withdrew, on pretext of the need to catch the mail. He went into the library to write, and Judith turned to Ellis.

      "Can we go from here to see the land you spoke of?"

      "The old Welton place," he said. "Do you know the way?"

      "Certainly," answered Judith. They excused themselves to the others.

      As they prepared to go, the Colonel looked at them from his desk; then turned his eyes on Beth and Pease. A thrill of wonder, then a sense of exultation seized him. Attractive girls they both were, and the men were the two richest in the city.

      Judith conducted Ellis through shrubbery and across fields, up the hillside to a spot where little trees were growing in an old cellar, while charred timbers lying half buried spoke of the catastrophe which had destroyed the house. "I remember the fire," Judith said. "I was a child then, but I stood at the window in the night, mother holding me, and watched the house burn down. Mr. Welton would neither build again nor sell. But the place is on the market now?"

      "He's to marry again, I understand," answered Ellis. They both accepted the fact as explaining any and all departures from previous lines of conduct.

      "Would you build on this spot?" she asked him.

      "What would you advise?" he returned. She swept the situation with her gaze.

      "There are sites higher up, or lower down," she said. "Lower is too low. Higher – you might see the chimney."

      Ellis noted with satisfaction the prejudice against Mather's landmark, but he passed the remark by. "Don't you like," he said, "a house placed at the highest possible point? It is so striking."

      "Couldn't it be too much so?" she inquired.

      He turned his sharp look on her, willing to take a lesson and at the same time make it evident that he welcomed the instruction. "That is a new idea," he said. "It explains why that chimney, for instance, is unpleasant."

      "It is so tall and – stupid," explained Judith; "and you never can get rid of it."

      "I understand," he said. "Then perhaps this is the best place to build. I could get it roofed in before winter, easily, and have the whole thing ready by next summer. Stables where the barn stands, I suppose. My architect could get out the plans in a fortnight."

      "The same architect," queried Judith, "that built your city house?" There was that in her voice which seized Ellis's attention.

      "You don't like his work?" he demanded.

      "Why," she hesitated, caught, "I – you wouldn't put a city house here, would you?"

      "I like the kind," he said. "Stone, you know; turrets, carvings, imps, and that sort of thing. All hand-work, but they get them out quickly. Kind of a tall house. Wouldn't that do here?"

      "No, no, Mr. Ellis," she answered quickly, almost shuddering at his description. "Think how out of place – here. On a hill a low house, but a long one if you need it, is proper."

      "Oh," he said slowly, thinking. "Seems reasonable. But tall is the kind Smithson always builds."

      "I know," answered Judith. Smithson was responsible for a good deal, in the city.

      Again Ellis searched her face. "You don't care for my city house?"

      She had to tell the truth. "For my taste," she acknowledged, "it's a little – ornate."

      "That's ornamental?" he asked. "But that's what I like about it. Don't the rest of my neighbours care for it any more than you do?"

      "Some do not," she admitted.

      "I guess that most of you don't, then," he decided. "Well, well, how a fellow makes mistakes! One of those quiet buildings with columns, now, such as I tore down, I suppose would have been just the thing?"

      "Yes," she said. "But Mr. Ellis, you mustn't think – "

      He smiled. "Never mind, Miss Blanchard. You would say something nice, I'm sure, but the mischief's done; the building's there, ain't it?"

      "I wish – " she began.

      "And really I'm obliged to you," he went on. "Because I might have built a house here just like the other. Now we'll have it right – if I decide to build here at all."

      "Then you've not made up your mind?"

      "Almost," he said. "The bargain's all but closed. Only it seems so useless, for a bachelor." He looked at her a moment. "Give me your advice," he begged. "Sometimes I think I'm doing the foolish thing."

      "Why, Mr. Ellis, what can I – and it's not my affair."

      "Make it your affair!" he urged. "This is very important to me. I don't want to sicken these people by crowding in; you saw what Miss Fenno thought of me this afternoon. But if there is any chance for me – what do you say?"

      It was the mention of Miss Fenno that did it. She sprang up in Judith's consciousness, clothed in her armour of correctness – proper, prim, and stupid. And in Judith was roused wrath against this type of her life, against her class and its narrowness. She obeyed her impulse, and turned a quickening glance on him.

      "Would you turn back now?" she asked.

      "That is enough!" he cried, with sudden vehemence.

      For a while they stood and said no more. Judith saw that he looked around him on the level space where his house was to stand; then he cast his glance down toward those estates which he would overlook. His eye almost flashed – was there more of the hawk or the eagle in his gaze? Judith thought it was the eagle; she knew she had stirred him anew to the struggle, and was exhilarated. Unmarked at the moment, she had taken a СКАЧАТЬ