A Volunteer with Pike. Robert Ames Bennet

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СКАЧАТЬ room for her beauty where the rude strength of the woman had met with counter elbowing. Nine in ten of those who surrounded her would gladly have given her their seats had they been in possession of chair or bench. But mine was the only vacant seat in the hall. The Irishwoman, who stood half a span taller even than the señorita, had already perceived the fact. I saw her bend to whisper.

      This time the señorita met my salute with a slight bow of recognition, and advanced toward me, followed closely by her duenna. Had there been no other ladies in the throng her passage would have been along an open lane of admiring gallants. But not until she was within arm's-length did I dare step down from my post of defence to meet her. We alike had the other ladies to face and avoid. Half a dozen beaux were already before me to proffer their assistance. I thrust aside the nearest and offered my hand.

      She placed her gloved fingers in my big palm and stepped up, without so much as a word or a glance. For all that I found myself in an exultant glow. Had I not had the forethought to procure the chair for her? and, what was far more, had I not exercised sufficient courage to retain it for her, despite the other ladies? The big Irishwoman gave me a glance as kindly as it was shrewd, and took up her position beside me, her coal-scuttle bonnet on a level with my curls.

      Having done the señorita a service, it seemed to me fitting that I should wait for her to speak before pressing her with further attentions. Accordingly I stood with unturned head, gazing across toward the Speaker's stand, and drinking in with appreciative ears the sonorous bars of "Columbia."

      With the last note of the national anthem ringing in my ears I became aware of a far more musical sound—the low-pitched voice of the señorita: "There is space for one to stand beside the chair. Dr. Robinson has my permission to step up and discover for me if Mrs. Merry is present."

      "Dr. Robinson accepts the invitation of Señorita Vallois with pleasure," I replied, hoping to bring a smile to the scarlet lips. They did not bend, and I could see nothing but hauteur in her pale face and the drooping lashes of her eyes. I stepped up into the narrow space beside the chair, but it was not to stare about in search of Mrs. Merry.

      "You do not look," she said with a trace of impatience.

      "There is no need," I replied, my gaze downbent upon her cheek.

      "No need?"

      "The wife of the British Minister is not here."

      "You have heard that she is ill?"

      "No, señorita."

      "Then how should you know that she is not here?"

      "Because I have looked into the face of every lady present."

      She smiled with a touch of scorn. "I had not thought the American gentlemen so gallant!"

      "I looked into the faces of all, señorita, searching for one."

      To this she made no reply; and I, fearing that I had gone too far, stood silent, under pretence of listening to the service. It was indeed a pretence, for had I been in sober earnest I could have heard little other than the band above the whispering and giggling all about the room, the occasional loud talk in the lobbies, and the open laughter and conversation of the young ladies and their lovers warming themselves at the fireplaces. Throughout the service these gay young couples came and went from their seats whenever the ladies felt chilled or took the whim, the freedom of their movements seemingly limited only by the closeness of the aisles.

      When the time came for the bishop to preach there was a lull, owing to his stately appearance and forceful oratory. The lull was brief. Once more the young couples fell to whispering and tittering. A group of Representatives and a Senator near us began a muttered disputation about the question of naval appropriations. The señorita bent forward, straining her ears to catch the words of the bishop. It was hopeless. In the most favorable circumstances the Hall of Representatives has a bad name for its wretched acoustic properties.

      In the midst, at the stroke of noon, the attendant who had brought my chair, came in with a great sack and, escorted by an officer of the House, passed across the hall through the thick of the throng to the letter-box on the far side. Having emptied the box, he returned with his official escort in the same fashion, the bag on his shoulder bulging with letters. The spectacle did not tend to lessen the lively spirits of the assembly.

      For the first time since I had taken my place beside her the señorita looked up at me. Her face was still cold, but in the sombre depths of her eyes glowed a fire of anger.

      "Is it so you republican heretics meet the words of a most venerable prelate?" she demanded.

      "From what I hear, señorita, preachers of other churches receive, if anything, still less consideration than this."

      "It is a mockery of worship!"

      "With the thoughtless, perhaps. I see many who listen. Another time it would be advisable to come early and find a seat nearer the speaker."

      "There will be no other time."

      "Señorita!" I murmured, "you leave?"

      "Within the week."

      "So soon! You go by water. Would that I were a sailor in the West Indian trade!"

      She gave me a curious glance. "Why in the West Indian trade?"

      "Ships carry passengers. Aboard even the greatest of ships the sailors have glimpses of the passengers."

      "Sometimes passengers stay below, in the cabin," she said coldly.

      "That may well be in times of storm," I replied. "Then the sailor is above, striving to save those who are in his care from shipwreck. But in the warm waters of the Gulf the passengers show themselves on deck, pleased to leave the narrow bounds of their staterooms."

      "There are some who would rather stifle in their staterooms than be stared at by the common herd."

      "There are others, born in state, who would rather stand beneath the open sky, side by side with a true man, than share the tinsel display of kings," I persisted.

      "Rousseau is somewhat out of style."

      "No less is royalty."

      "The French murdered their king, and God sent them a tyrant."

      "A tyrant not for France alone. All Europe trembles at the word of the Corsican."

      "And your country, the glorious free Republic."

      The bitter words forced past my lips: "My country writhes and bends beneath the insults of the fighting bullies, and clutches eagerly at the price of shame—the carrying trades of the world."

      She raised her eyes to mine, grave but no longer scornful. "At last I have found an American!"

      "There are others beyond the Alleghanies. We of the West are not sold to the shipping trade."

      "No; you do not take by commerce. You have ever been given to taking by force."

      "We have conquered the Indian with our rifles, and the wilderness with our axes."

      "Yet you turned to your East for it to buy you Louisiana, through a conspiracy СКАЧАТЬ