University of Virginia Library

23. CHAPTER XXIII.
WILL YOU WALK INTO MY PARLOR?

VANCE passed on through the streets, wondering what
could be the mystery which had driven his new acquaintance
forth into the wide world without a protector. Should he
speak of her to Miss Tremaine? Perhaps. But not unless he
could do it without betrayal of confidence.

There was something in Perdita that reminded him of Estelle.
Had a pressure of similar circumstances wrought the
peculiarity which awakened the association? Yet he missed
in Perdita that diaphanous simplicity, that uncalculating candor,
which seemed to lead Estelle to unveil her whole nature before
him. But Perdita had not wholly failed in frankness. Had
she not glorified the old flag in her music? And had she not
been outspoken on the one forbidden theme?

As these thoughts flitted through his mind, excluding for the
moment those graver interests, involving a people's doom, he
heard the shouts of a crowd, and saw a man, pale and bloody,
standing on a table under a tree, from a branch of which a
rope was dangling. Vance comprehended the meaning of it
all in an instant. He darted toward the spot, gliding swift,
agile, and flexuous through the compacted crowd. Yes! The
victim was the same man to whom he had given the gold-piece,
some days before. Vance put a summary stop to Judge
Lynch's proceedings, breaking up the court precisely as Bernard
had related. The wounded man was conveyed to the

hospital. Here Vance saw his wound dressed, hired an extra
attendant to nurse him, and then, in tones of warmest sympathy,
asked the sufferer what more he could do for him.

The man opened his eyes. A swarthy, filthy, uncombed,
unshaven wretch. He had been so blinded by blood that he
had not recognized Vance. But now, seeing him, he started,
and strove to raise himself on his elbow.

Vance and the surgeon prevented the movement. The
patient stared, and said: “You 've done it agin, have yer?
What 's yer name?”

“This is Mr. Vance,” replied the surgeon.

“Vance! Vance!” said the patient, as if trying to force his
memory to some particular point. Then he added: “Can't do
it! And yit I 've seen him afore somewhar.”

“Well, my poor fellow, I must leave you. Good by.”

“Why, this hand is small and white as a woman's!” said the
patient, touching Vance's fingers carefully as he might have
touched some fragile flower. “Yer 'll come agin to see me, —
woan't yer?”

“Yes, I 'll not forget it.” — “Call to-morrow, will yer?” —
“Yes, if I 'm alive I 'll call.” — “Thahnk yer, strannger.
Good by.”

Giving a few dollars to the surgeon for the patient's benefit,
Vance quitted the hospital. An hour afterwards, in his room
at the St. Charles, he penned and sent this note: —

This little note was read and re-read by Clara, till the darkness
of night came on. She studied the forms of the letters,
the curves and flourishes, all the peculiarities of the chirography,
as if she could derive from them some new hints for her incipient
hero-worship. Then, lighting the gas, she acted on the
advice of the letter, by devoting herself to the performance of
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Vance meanwhile, after a frugal dinner, eliminated from

luxurious viands, rang the bell, and sent his card to Miss Tremaine.
Laura's mother was an invalid, and Laura herself,
relieved from maternal restraint, had been lately in the habit
of receiving and entertaining company, much to her own satisfaction,
as she now had an enlarged field for indulging a propensity
not uncommon among young women who have been
much admired and much indulged.

Laura was a predestined flirt. Had she been brought up
between the walls of a nunnery, where the profane presence of
a man had never been known, she would instinctively have
launched into coquetry the first time the bishop or the gardener
made his appearance.

Having heard Madame Brugière, the fashionable widow,
speak of Mr. Vance as the handsomest man in New Orleans,
Laura was possessed with the desire of bringing him into her
circle of admirers. So, one day after dinner, she begged her
father to stroll with her through a certain corridor of the hotel.
She calculated that Vance would pass there on his way to his
room. She was right. “Is that Mr. Vance, papa?” — “Yes,
my dear.” — “O, do introduce him. They say he 's such a
superb musician. We must have him to try our new piano.”
— “I 'm but slightly acquainted with him.” — “No matter.
He goes into the best society, you know.” (The father did n't
know it, — neither did the daughter, — but he took it for
granted she spoke by authority.) “He 's very rich, too,” added
Laura. This was enough to satisfy the paternal conscience.
“Good evening, Mr. Vance! Lively times these! Let me
make you acquainted with my daughter, Miss Laura. We
shall be happy to see you in our parlor, Mr. Vance.” Vance
bowed, and complimented the lady on a tea-rose she held in
her hand. “Did you ever see anything more beautiful?”
she asked. — “Never till now,” he replied. — “Ah! The
rose is yours. You 've fairly won it, Mr. Vance; but there 's
a condition attached: you must promise to call and try my
new piano.” — “Agreed. I 'll call at an early day.” He bowed,
and passed on. “A very charming person,” said Laura. — “Yes,
a gentleman evidently,” said the father. — “And he is n't redolent
of cigar-smoke and whiskey, as nine tenths of you ill-smelling
men are,” added Laura. — “Tut! Don't abuse your

future husband, my dear.” — “How old should you take Mr.
Vance to be?” — “About thirty-five.” — “O no! Not a year
over thirty.” — “He 's too old to be caught by any chaff of
yours, my dear!” — “Now, papa! I 'll not walk with you
another minute!”

A few evenings afterwards, as Laura sat lonely in her private
parlor, a waiter put into her hand a card on which was
simply written in pencil, “Mr. Vance.” She did not try
to check the start of exultation with which she said, “Show
him in.”

Laura was now verging on her eighteenth year. A little
above the Medicean height, her well-rounded shoulders and
bust prefigured for her womanhood a voluptuous fulness. Nine
men out of ten would have pronounced her beautiful. Had
she been put up at a slave-vendue, the auctioneer, if a connoisseur,
would have expatiated thus: “Let me call your attention,
gentlemen, to this very superior article. Faultless, you
see, every way. In limb and action perfect. Too showy, perhaps,
for a field-hand, but excellent for the parlor. Look at
that profile. The Grecian type in its perfection! Nose a little
retroussé, but what piquancy in the expression! Hair dark,
glossy, abundant. Cheeks, — do you notice that little dimple
when she smiles? Teeth sound and white: open the mouth of
the article and look, gentlemen. Just feel of those arms, gentlemen.
Complexion smooth, brilliant, perfect. Did you ever
see a head and neck more neatly set on the shoulders? — and
such shoulders! What are you prepared to bid, gentlemen, for
this very, very superior article?”

Laura was attired in a light checked foulard silk, trimmed
with cherry-colored ribbons. Running to the mirror, she adjusted
here and there a curl, and lowered the gauze over her
shoulders. Then, resuming her seat, she took Tennyson's
“In Memoriam” from the table, and became intensely absorbed
in the perusal.

As Vance entered, Laura said to herself, “I know I 'm right
as to his age!” Nor was her estimate surprising. During the
last two lustrums of his nomadic life, he had rather reinvigorated
than impaired his physical frame. He never counteracted
the hygienic benefits of his Arab habits by vices of eating and

drinking. Abjuring all liquids but water, sleeping often on the
bare ground under the open sky, he so hardened and purified
his constitution that those constantly recurring local inflammations
which, under the name of “colds” of some sort, beset men
in their ordinary lives in cities, were to him almost unknown.
And so he was what the Creoles called bien conservé.

Laura, with a pretty affectation of surprise, threw down her
book, and, with extended hand, rose to greet her visitor. To him
the art he had first studied on the stage had become a second
nature. Every movement was proportioned, graceful, harmonious.
He fell into no inelegant posture. He did not sit
down in a chair without naturally falling into the attitude that
an artist would have thought right. That consummate ease
and grace which play-goers used to admire in James Wallack
were remarkable in Vance, whether in motion or in repose.

Taking Laura's proffered hand, he led her to the sofa, where
they sat down. After some commonplaces in regard to the
news of the day, he remarked: “By the way, do you know of
any good school in the city for a young girl, say of fourteen?”

“Yes. Mrs. Gentry's school, which I 've just left, is one of
the most select in the city. Here 's her card.” — “But are her
pupils all from the best families?” — “I believe so. Indeed,
I know the families of all except one.” — “And who is she?”
— “Her name is Ellen Murray, but I call her Darling. I
think she must be preparing either for the opera or the ballet;
for in music, singing, and dancing she 's far beyond the rest of
us.” — “And behind you in the other branches, I suppose.” —
“I 'm afraid not. She won't be kept back. She must have
given twice the time to study that any of the rest of us gave.”
— “Does she seem to be of gentle blood?” — “Yes; though
Mrs. Gentry tells us she is low-born. For all that, she 's quite
pretty, and knows more than Madame Groux herself about
dress. And so Darling and I, in spite of Mrs. Gentry, were
getting to be quite intimate, when we quarrelled on the slavery
question, and separated.” — “What! the little miss is a politician,
is she?” — “Oh! she 's a downright Abolitionist! — talks
like a little fury against the wrongs of slavery. I could n't
endure it, and so cast her off.” — “Bring her to me. I 'll convert
her in five minutes.” — “O you vain man! But I wish

you could hear her sing. Such a voice!” — “Could n't you
give me an opportunity? You should n't have quarrelled with
her, Miss Tremaine! It rather amuses me that she should
talk treason. Why not arrange a little musical party? I 'll
come and play for you a whole evening, if you 'll have Darling
to sing.” — “O, that would be so charming! But then
Darling and I have separated. We don't speak.” — “Nonsense!
Miss Laura Tremaine can afford to offer the olive-branch
to a poor little outcast.” — “To be sure I can, Mr.
Vance! And I 'll have her here, if I have to bring her by
stratagem.” — “Admirable! Just send for me as soon as you
secure the bird. And keep her strictly caged till I can hear
her sing.” — “I 'll do it, Mr. Vance. Even the dragon Gentry
shall not prevent it.” — “Shall I try the new piano?” — “O,
I 've been so longing to hear you!”

And Vance, seating himself at the instrument, exerted himself
as he had rarely done to fascinate an audience. Laura,
who had taste, if not diligence, in music, was charmed and
bewildered. “How delightful! How very delightful!” she
exclaimed. Vance was growing dangerous.

At that moment the servant entered with two cards.

“Did you tell them I 'm in?” — “Yes, Mahmzel.”

“Well, then,” said Laura, with an air of disappointment,
“show them up.” And handing the cards to Vance, she
asked, “Shall I introduce them?”

“Mr. Robert Onslow, — Charles Kenrick. Certainly.”

The young men entered, and were introduced.

Kenrick drew near, and said: “Mr. Vance, allow me the
honor of taking you by the hand. I 've heard of the poor
fellow you rescued from the halter of Judge Lynch. In the
name of humanity, I thank you. That poor ragged declaimer
merely spoke my own sentiments.”

“Indeed! What did he say?”

“He said, according to the Delta's report, that this was the
rich man's war; that the laboring man who should lift his arm
in defence of slavery was a fool. All which I hold to be true.”

“Pshaw, Charles! A truce to politics!” said Onslow.
“Why will you thrust it into faces that frown on your wild
notions?”

“Miss Tremaine reigns absolute in this room,” rejoined
Vance; “and from the slavery she imposes we have no desire,
I presume, to be free.”

“And her order is,” cried Laura, “that you sink the shop.
Thank you, Mr. Vance, for vindicating my authority.”

There was no further jarring. Both the young men were
personally fine specimens of the Southern chivalric race. Onslow
was the larger and handsomer. He seemed to unite with
a feminine gentleness the traits that make a man popular and
beloved among men; a charming companion, sunny-tempered,
amiable, social, ever finding a soul of goodness in things evil,
and making even trivialities surrender enjoyments, where to
other men all was barren. Life was to him a sort of grand
picnic, and a man's true business was to make himself as
agreeable as possible, first to himself, and then to others.

Far different seemed Kenrick. To him the important world
was that of ideas. All else was unsubstantial. The thought
that was uppermost must be uttered. Not to conciliate, not to
please, even in the drawing-room, would he be an assentator, a
flatterer. To him truth was the one thing needful, and therefore,
in season and out of season, must error be combated
whenever met. The times were of a character to intensify in
him all his idiosyncrasies. He could not smile, and sing, and
utter small-talk while his country was being weighed in the
balance of the All-just, — and her institutions purged as by fire.

And so to Laura he dwindled into insignificance.

Vance rose to go.

“One song. Indeed, I must have one,” said Laura.

Vance complied with her request, singing a favorite song of
Estelle's, Reichardt's

Then, pressing Laura's proffered hand, and bowing, he left.

“What a voice! what a touch!” said Onslow.

“It was enchanting!” cried Laura.

“I thought he was a different sort of man,” sighed Kenrick.