XVIII
But when he came out upon the terrace, Sarah Ellen Haggage stoppedhim--stopped him with a queer blending of diffidence and resolve inher manner.
The others, by this, had disappeared in various directions, puzzledand exceedingly uncertain what to do. Indeed, to congratulate Billyin the Colonel's presence would have been tactless; and, on the otherhand, to condole with the Colonel without seeming to affront thewealthy Mr. Woods was almost impossible. So they temporised andfled--all save Mrs. Haggage.
She, alone, remained to view Mr. Woods with newly opened eyes; foras he paused impatiently--the sculptured Eagle above his head--sheperceived that he was a remarkably handsome and intelligent young man.Her motherly heart opened toward this lonely, wealthy orphan.
"My dear Billy," she cooed, with asthmatic gentleness, "as an old,old friend of your mother's, aren't you going to let me tell you howrejoiced Adele and I are over your good fortune? It isn't polite, younaughty boy, for you to run away from your friends as soon as they'veheard this wonderful news. Ah, such news it was--such a manifestintervention of Providence! My heart has been fluttering, flutteringlike a little bird, Billy, ever since I heard it."
In testimony to this fact, Mrs. Haggage clasped a stodgy hand to anexceedingly capacious bosom, and exhibited the whites of her eyesfreely. Her smile, however, remained unchanged and ample.
"Er--ah--oh, yes! Very kind of you, I'm sure!" said Mr. Woods.
"I never in my life saw Adele so deeply affected by _anything_," Mrs.Haggage continued, with a certain large archness. "The sweet childwas always so fond of you, you know, Billy. Ah, I remember distinctlyhearing her speak of you many and many a time when you were in thatdear, delightful, wicked Paris, and wonder when you would come backto your friends--not very grand and influential friends, Billy, butsincere, I trust, for all that."
Mr. Woods said he had no doubt of it.
"So many people," she informed him, confidentially, "will pursue youwith adulation now that you are wealthy. Oh, yes, you will find thatwealth makes a great difference, Billy. But not with Adele andme--no, dear boy, despise us if you will, but my child and I are notmercenary. Money makes no difference with us; we shall be the same toyou that we always were--sincerely interested in your true welfare,overjoyed at your present good fortune, prayerful as to your brilliantfuture, and delighted to have you drop in any evening to dinner. We donot consider money the chief blessing of life; no, don't tell me thatmost people are different, Billy, for I know it very well, and many isthe tear that thought has cost me. We live in a very mercenary world,my dear boy; but _our_ thoughts, at least, are set on higher things,and I trust we can afford to despise the merely temporal blessings oflife, and I entreat you to remember that our humble dwelling is alwaysopen to the son of my old, old friend, and that there is always a jugof good whiskey in the cupboard."
Thus in the shadow of the Eagle babbled the woman whom--for all herabsurdities--Margaret had loved as a mother.
Billy thanked her with an angry heart.
"And this"--I give you the gist of his meditations--"this is Peggy'sdearest friend! Oh, Philanthropy, are thy protestations, then, allvoid and empty, and are thy noblest sentiments--every one of 'em--sofull of sound and rhetoric, so specious, so delectable--are these,then, but dicers' oaths!"
Aloud, "I'm rather surprised, you know," he said, slowly, "that youtake it just this way, Mrs. Haggage. I should have thought you'd havebeen sorry on--on Miss Hugonin's account. It's awfully jolly of you,of course--oh, awfully jolly, and I appreciate it at its true worth, Iassure you. But it's a bit awkward, isn't it, that the poor girl willbe practically penniless? I really don't know whom she'll turn tonow."
Then Billy, the diplomatist, received a surprise.
"She'll come with me, of course," said Mrs. Haggage.
Mr. Woods made an--unfortunately--inaudible observation.
"I beg your pardon?" she queried. Then, obtaining no response, shecontinued, with perfect simplicity: "Margaret's quite like a daughterto me, you know. Of course, she and the Colonel will come with us--atleast, until affairs are a bit more settled. Even afterward--well, wehave a large house, Billy, and I don't see that they'd be any betteroff anywhere else."
Billy's emotions were complex.
"You big-hearted old parasite," his own heart was singing. "If youcould only keep that ring of truth that's in your voice for yourplatform utterances--why, in less than no time you could afford tofeed your Afro-Americans on nightingales' tongues and clothe everyworking-girl in the land in cloth of gold! You've been pilfering fromPeggy for years--pilfering right and left with both hands! But you'veloved her all the time, God bless you; and now the moment she's introuble you're ready to take both her and the Colonel--whom, by theway, you must very cordially detest--and share your pitiful, pilferedlittle crusts with 'em and--having two more mouths to feed--probablypilfer a little more outrageously in the future! You're asanctimonious old hypocrite, you are, and a pious fraud, and adelusion, and a snare, and you and Adele have nefarious designs on meat this very moment, but I think I'd like to kiss you!"
Indeed, I believe Mr. Woods came very near doing so. She loved Peggy,you see; and he loved every one who loved her.
But he compromised by shaking hands energetically, for a matter offive minutes, and entreating to be allowed to subscribe to some of herdeserving charitable enterprises--any one she might mention--and soleft the old lady a little bewildered, but very much pleased.
She decided that for the future Adele must not see so much of Mr.Van Orden. She began to fear that gentleman's views of life were notsufficiently serious.