Last Pages. Oscar Mandel

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ I call you Nicholas?”

      “No, Marquise—unless you allow me to call your daughter Madeleine.”

      “Shall we petition her directly? Well, my child?”

      “You may call me Madeleine, sir,” said the girl shyly.

      “This is a high privilege.”

      “Now Nicholas,” said Aimée, “tell me about this wearisome tea. Why such pother about something so very quotidian?”

      “Have you forgotten, mother?”

      Needless to say, she had not (that naive daughter of hers!).

      “I forget what I’ve forgotten. I know so little about your politics, Nicholas. This tea….”

      “A symbol, Marquise, nothing more. Our brothers in Britain granted themselves a monopoly of the tea trade in the colonies—”

      “Ah, now I remember.”

      “And the colonies object.”

      “You men! If you cannot make war over the gold mines of Peru, you will do it over a tea leaf.”

      “Tea leaf is perhaps unjust, Marquise. Our Whigs speak of Liberty.”

      “Are you a Whig, Mr. Mayhew?”

      “Like yourself, Marquise, I forget. I attend to my bills of lading.”

      “You disappoint me. Or rather, I hope you are using discretion in front of two strangers, and there I commend you. I, who am here simply de passage, may freely confess that my heart pounds to the drums of liberty. But I pray you do not mention this to Judge Weamish, who, entre nous, appears to be an ultra on the Tory side.”

      “I promise to keep the peace between you and our excellent magistrate.”

      “Yes,” said Aimée, who believed in reinforcing a won position, “were I a man, I would swim away from this island if need be and make for the hottest sector of the battlefield!”

      “You too, Madeleine?” asked Nicholas, looking at the girl with some tenderness.

      “I am an obedient daughter,” she replied, smiling.

      Upon the Judge and Mayhew reappearing, the little party finally broke up, with promises of further delightful meetings. Outside, as the Mayhews were helping the two ladies into their little carriage (Old Moses had fallen asleep sitting on the box, reins in hand), Nicholas exclaimed: “Why not an excursion as soon as you are both settled? While my dear uncle inspects barrels, sacks and hogsheads, I propose to take Old Moses’ place and show you our windy island.”

      This was all the more readily accepted as it proved to Aimée that no immediate plot of escape existed (if any existed at all), and that her instructions to Sergeant Cuff could safely wait till tomorrow. After more niceties, uncle and nephew walked away while the chaise carried Aimée and Madeleine to the inn over the unpaved but decent Main Street. None had far to go. Swain’s Inn looked at the waters just above the North Wharf, and the Mayhew residence, with its considerable counting-house in the rear, stood nearby in Oak Street. A chaise, in these circumstances, was meant for dignity rather than for convenience.

      That Aimée and Madeleine were the only guests at the inn would have surprised no one in Nantucket. Visitors to the island were almost invariably relations or business friends, and these were given hospitality in homes as a matter of course. Swain’s Inn catered principally to drinkers and diners, whether on the occasion of “important” meetings or without noble pretext. That was where Mr. Swain’s chief interest and profit lay. Still, the house had some fine rooms, occupied, after all, now and then by a voyager and his family. The elegant strangers, greeted with homely courtesy, could count on sufficient comfort.

      As soon as the two gentlemen were alone among passers-by, with most of whom they exchanged tippings of the hat, the Colonel said to Nicholas, speaking casually as if the subject were merely the weather: “The captain of the New York packet told me that the whale-ship Enterprise will be mooring offshore in the very near future. A dinghy will enter the harbor. One of the men in it will be our own Henry Wallace. They will ask to be directed to Obed Coffin so they can purchase a few barrels for their sloop.”

      Here the Colonel took his nephew’s arm. “Henry,” he continued, lowering his voice a little, “will give Obed important letters for us. That is all the captain knew.”

      “And here I came storming after the mail!” said Young Nick with suppressed excitement. “Uncle!” he whispered, “They want you in command against Boston.”

      “They can have me as a private,” said Mayhew simply.

      General Gage had been no fool to send Aimée on her mission.

      4

      COLONEL MAYHEW cared about his island’s reputation for civilized courtesy and hospitality to newcomers and visitors. Besides, he could not fail to be fascinated by the mother and beguiled by the daughter. Accordingly, the morning after the ladies’ arrival—but not unseemly early—he walked over to Swain’s Inn and announced himself. Aimée graciously came downstairs, and the two went to sit in Swain’s homely but honest parlor. Mayhew wished to know, in his and his nephew’s names, whether the two women had rested and whether they found their accommodations satisfactory. “This is no château,” he quipped. He found that all was well. A girl had been hired to serve the ladies, and Madeleine, it seemed, already looked healthier than but a week ago in New York.

      The main purpose of the Colonel’s visit, however, was to invite the ladies to tea at the Mayhew home that same late afternoon. It may be guessed that Aimée accepted with delight. “I do so want to see how you islanders live!” she exclaimed. Mayhew promised to introduce her to several of the leading Nantucket families. “I assure you that they will be as eager to meet you and your sweet daughter as you are to have a look at them.”

      After expressing her thankful sense of the kindness she was being shown in Nantucket so soon after her arrival, Aimée thought it wise to tell the Colonel that, “unavoidably,” (as she put it), she had accepted Judge Weamish’s invitation as well, namely for that very morning. “You are indeed becoming one of us!” he exclaimed as he left.

      At eleven o’clock, as arranged, Aimée walked, parasol in hand, to the Judge’s home, where Weamish and Sergeant Cuff awaited her.

      The two men had been in conversation for some minutes in the parlor.

      “Why should I be meeting with that Marquise of yours?” the Sergeant had wanted to know.

      “You will be told in a few minutes, my friend; be patient,” answered the Judge.

      Not much interested—he thought that some social flummery was at hand—Cuff turned to the worries that beset him.

      “I’ve but thirty men under me,” he grumbled, “and two or three of them sick any day of the week. Everywhere we go we’re surrounded by swarms of urchins. The urchins run ahead to warn their elders and by the time we reach a spot it’s been swept clear of weapons and ammunition. Now, if your so-called Loyalists showed more spunk—”

      “Most of the islanders—many of the islanders—are actively loyal, Sergeant. СКАЧАТЬ