The Wide House

  Stuart, drawing deep gulping breaths, heard that cry, and turned about. He saw Janie preparing to attack again. He saw Marvina’s torn sleeve, and her bewilderment. In an instant he had seized Janie by the arm and had wrenched her about. He lifted his hand and struck her savagely on the cheek, first one side and then the other, with the back of his hand. And she turned upon him, fiercely, like an untamable cat from the jungles, trying to tear at his eyes, his cheeks. Once her nails actually reached his cheek, and a long bleeding gash appeared.

  She was tiny and he was big, but she had the strength of a dozen devils. She slipped out of his grasp again and again, twisting sinuously, trying to dodge about him to get at Marvina, who was now really pale and frightened, and who was actually whimpering. The girl’s chignon had become loosened; her long black hair began to uncoil on her shoulders. “Stuart! Stuart!” she cried faintly.

  But Stuart, cursing between his teeth, was too busy to heed her just yet. He tried to grasp Janie’s arms, to pin them to her sides. He shook her violently when he could, until her teeth chattered. But she was almost too much for him. A kind of horror overwhelmed him; her face floated beneath his own, the face of a demon, flashing white and wild, and full of insensate madness. Never had he seen or confronted a thing like this in all his life. It was as if he had become entangled with an obscene loathesomeness, which threw his senses into appalled abhorrence. He could not endure it that she touched him. His cheek smarted as though venom had been poured into it. His very soul sickened, and became frenzied. He retched, through his curses, through his panting cries: “Now then, you she-devil, now then!”

  He hated her, abominated her. Finally he was able to catch both of her flaying arms and pin them together before him. Even then she wrenched and tore, turned one hand inwards and raked his wrist. He could not bear to look at her face, so distorted was it.

  “Oh, you bitch!” he grunted. “You bitch!”

  He was driven almost to insanity by his horror of her. He wanted to kill her. He twisted her arms until she screeched, and the servants crowded at the doorway, trembling. She flung back her head and screamed like a demon out of hell. Her children, who ate their dinners in the servants’ dining—room, heard, and huddled together on the stairs. Even the composed Robbie was weeping. Angus held his little sister in his arms, and tried to cover her ears with his hands.

  Then Stuart, his horror mounting, his eyes dazed with faintness, clapped his hand on Janie’s mouth. She gurgled and choked under it; she tried to bite it. But he was inexorable. He wanted only to still that ghastly noise of hers. It made him frantic. Shuddering though he was, he dragged her tightly against him, and increased the pressure on her mouth with his other hand. Only her legs were free now; with one sharp toe she kicked his shins over and over. He did not feel it. He closed his eyes; only the blubbering sound she made against his smothering hand filled the room.

  It was on this pleasant scene that Joshua entered, accompanied by the Sheriff.

  He saw the servants, who had not heard his furious ringing, who had not opened the door. He saw the huddled children on the stairs. He saw Stuart struggling with the maddened woman; he saw his daughter standing at a distance from them, her eyes wide in her white confused face, her hair on her shoulders, her gown tom.

  He looked at them all, incredulously. He stood there, leaning on his cane. Only the Sheriff moved. Stuart was an old friend of his, and the tall stout man was greatly embarrassed. But he knew what to do in the face of violence. He put his hand strongly on Stuart’s arm, and caught at Janie with the other. He wrenched them apart. Janie, free, gulping, saw only another antagonist, and turned upon him. He struck her smartly in the face, and dexterously sent her whirling in a billowing of petticoats. She fell into a chair.

  “Now, then, what’s all this, eh?” he growled. “What is the meaning of it? Come now, man, speak up.”

  But Stuart could not speak. He pulled his kerchief from his pocket. He dabbed at his bleeding cheek. Janie, in her chair, sensing what had happened now, was weeping noisily.

  She pointed a shaking finger at her cousin. “He tried to kill me! He tried to strangle me to death!”

  White and mute as a ghost, Stuart continued to wipe his cheek. The Sheriff, understanding not a little, looked at him compassionately. Then he turned to the servants. “Bring some whiskey, you fools,” he ordered, in a tone of authority. He turned back to Stuart. “Come, man, sit down. Take hold of yourself. That’s right. Here’s a chair.”

  Stuart sat down. He appeared deathly ill. He bent his head on his hand, his arm supported by his knee. The Sheriff sighed.

  “I’ve got a warrant for you, Stuart, for kidnapping. Have you anything to say?”

  Stuart found his voice. “Tell that woman to cease her screeching,” he implored, dully.

  Janie’s wails were increasing in strength. The Sheriff turned on her abruptly. “Stop that!” he bellowed. “What’s going on here, anyway?” The servant returned with a glass of whiskey. The Sheriff pressed it upon Stuart. “Drink this,” he ordered. “You need it.”

  In the meantime Joshua had edged and crept towards his daughter. He looked at her expressionlessly. “Come home at once, my dear,” he said. “This is no place for you. Where is your cloak and bonnet? Come, my dear, Papa will take you home.”

  But Marvina did not appear even to be aware of him. She looked only at Stuart, who was drinking the whiskey. Mechanically, she put up her hands and rewound her hair neatly.

  “You don’t want him arrested, do you, my love?” Joshua said softly. “He will spend the night in jail if you don’t come home at once.” He chortled evilly. He pointed to Stuart, and the sobbing dishevelled Janie. “Do you want to live here, with them, with these dreadful creatures? Come at once, lovey, and Papa shall not mention this again. Papa and his little girl shall go away, far away, and forget all this.”

  He, too, understood what had happened. He squinted at Janie, and chortled again. Lady Vere de Vere and Sir Angus Fraser, indeed! He was voluptuously delighted. Nothing could have gone better for him.

  “That is his fancy woman there, my little love. That is what innocence has led my darling child into, this abominable house. This is the scoundrel who persuaded you to leave your papa for him, this den of iniquity. But Papa has rescued you. We shall forget all this. It never happened. In the meantime, he will get his deserts.”

  Stuart handed the glass back to the Sheriff, who still regarded him with compassionate regret. “Thanks, Bob.” He breathed deeply, over and over. “I wasn’t about to kill her, Bob, though I wanted to. She attacked my wife.”

  The Sheriff moved a little. “You married Miss Marvina, Stuart?”

  “Yes, this afternoon.” Stuart became aware of his wife now. He stood up, weakly. He turned to the girl and held out his hand. His stiff face broke into a feeble smile. She left her father immediately, and came to him without hesitation. Her serenity had returned. She put her hand in his, trustfully, and smiled up at him.

  The Sheriff stared at them both. Then he scowled. He looked at Joshua. “You said that he had kidnapped her, and was forcing her into marriage, Mr. Allstairs.”

  Joshua grimaced at him, malevolently. “The girl is under age!” he exclaimed. “I don’t believe he married her! He only wanted to bring her to this house!”

  “You can prove this, Stuart?” asked the Sheriff, sternly.

  “Certainly. I have my marriage lines here.” Stuart fumbled at his pocket. “We were married today by a Methodist minister in La Grange. Here are the names of the witnesses. The girl is not under age. She is nearly nineteen. She is a woman, not a child.”

  The Sheriff examined the paper closely. His embarrassment grew. He looked at Stuart, standing there with his young wife. There was a quiet dignity about him, despite his disordered array and bleeding cheek, a kind of splendor which was one of his strongest physical characteristics, and very magnetic. There was a sudden silence in the room, broken only by Janie’s dull sobbing and her hyst
erical appeals to the Almighty for justice.

  “This seems correct, Mr. Allstairs,” said the Sheriff. He was an honest man, and he hated Joshua. His voice took on roughness. “Your daughter is past eighteen. She is of age; the law permits her to marry. She was not kidnapped, but came with Stuart of her own free will. You could not have restrained her. She has married Stuart, and I am afraid there is nothing we can do.”

  Joshua hobbled up to the Sheriff and Stuart, shaking as if with a palsy. He looked slowly from his daughter to Stuart, and then at the Sheriff. Then he cried: “Is there no justice for this seduction of my daughter, who has been guarded in her innocence and protected from such scoundrels? Is there no redress for a man entering another’s house and stealing his treasure? Had the girl not been so guarded, so innocent, this would never have happened. She may be of age, so far as years are concerned, but her mind is still the mind of a child! I demand justice!”

  The sheriff made a wry face. “Mr. Allstairs, the law does not consider it kidnapping when a young female is of age, physically, and consents to marry her suitor, and is not concerned with what her male parent considers her correct mental age. You are not implying that your daughter is an imbecile, and incompetent under the law?”

  Joshua ground his teeth. His daughter gazed at him with that pleasantly smiling emptiness with which she surveyed all things. “Dear Papa,” she murmured fondly, as though everything were natural, and her father had just delivered himself of commonplace remarks.

  Joshua lifted his cane, swayed, shook his cane in the air, and cried out furiously: “I demand justice! There is a moral law as well as that written on the books! This man is a thief and a scoundrel, a lecherous roué whose name is a byword in detestable places, a mendacious and larcenous blackguard! He married my daughter for her fortune. He is in dire financial straits, and has used this innocent child to obtain money from me! That was his sole purpose in seducing and carrying her away!”

  “Careful, careful”, said the Sheriff sternly. “It will be Stuart who may have redress under the law for these remarks, and I give him this information freely.”

  But Joshua was beside himself with frustration and hatred and grief. “He suborned my employee! He induced, with his wiles, this man to deliver my daughter into his hands, my daughter who knows nothing of men! He bribed this man! This I learned only two hours ago, from a maid in the confidence of the wretch. Is there no justice for a robbed father, for a violated house, for a ruined child?”

  He thumped his cane on the floor with uncontrollable rage. Tears ran over his withered cheeks. He lifted his cane and pointed to the sobbing Janie.

  “Look at that woman, the woman he alleges is his cousin! He has attacked her feloniously, with homicidal intent! This took place when he brought my daughter to this iniquitous house. Ask her why this attack upon her person, a defenseless female, a widow with helpless children?”

  The Sheriff automatically turned to Janie at Joshua’s command. He muttered: “This does not change the matter.” In a louder tone, he said: “Mrs. Cauder! A charge has been made. Will you kindly cease your weeping for a moment, and reply to a question or two?”

  Janie had been well aware of what had been taking place, though she had continued to wail and beseech Heaven. Now she went off into fresh paroxysms of anguish, flinging herself back into her chair, covering her face with her hands, and praying in long thin screams. The Sheriff, very harassed, scowled at a staring maid and demanded that she bring smelling salts, and while efforts were made to calm Janie, the poor man turned to Stuart and shook his head with somber reproof. “How you do get into scrapes, Stuart,” he said in a low, regretful voice.

  Stuart grinned. But he was uneasy, and extremely embarrassed. He put his arm about his wife. He said: “Though it may appear ungallant, truth compels me to say that my cousin, Mrs. Cauder, is not always truthful in her allegations. I ask you, Bob, to bear this in mind when she recovers her delicate breath and can curse and lie with her usual dexterity.”

  Janie, having decided that she had displayed enough agony, flung back her tangled curls, wiped her cheeks, bowed her head, and was suddenly the silent picture of shame and distraught sorrow, all bereft and defenseless. The Sheriff took a step or two towards her.

  “Mrs. Cauder, I beg of you to maintain your composure and answer a question or two. You have declared that Mr. Coleman made an attempt upon your life. Why was this?”

  Janie’s head bowed lower. Her breast heaved. “O dear God,” she whimpered, “that I have had to come to a strange land, without a natural protector, for this! I am only a poor widow with four helpless children, and I listened, with all faith, to my cousin’s importunities that I join him in America.”

  The Sheriff interrupted. “He promised you marriage, Mrs. Cauder?” he asked, incredulously.

  Janie lifted her head. She was an excellent actress. She revealed a brave white face, quivering, pure, wet with tears. She looked at the Sheriff, humbly. She made her eyelids tremble, her lips shake. Very quietly she said: “Yes, he did that. He has promised me marriage several times, and as I am alone and defenseless and unaccustomed to the ways of the world, having always been protected by my dear papa and mama, I believed him.”

  She allowed fresh tears to run down her cheeks. “I believed him, sir! I believed him to such an extent that I gave him twenty thousand dollars of my small fortune, the fortune my dear mama gave me when I left England!”

  “Oh, the rascal, the unprincipled creature, the monster!” groaned Joshua. “The thief and murderer! This robber of helpless widows and children, this seducer of pure young females!”

  “Twenty thousand dollars!” exclaimed the Sheriff, in distress. He looked at Stuart, who had flushed heavily.

  “Let me explain, Bob. She did not ‘give’ me the money. She knew that her fortune of approximately seventy-five thousand dollars would not last long in America, with four children to sustain. I offered her a share in my shops, though my partner was very reluctant. I was moved by only the highest motives, as she is my cousin, and I am her only male relative in America. An agreement was drawn up in proper terms, of which she is possessed. A copy is in our bank, where it may be examined at any time.”

  He continued, with rising anger and excitement: “As for my promises of marriage, that is a lie, and she knows it is! I made no promises to her!” He paused. A cunning look harrowed his eyes. “Ask her under what stress she claims I gave her these promises! Was it under seduction? Is she ready to confess that she cohabited with me in this house? Is she so ready to foreswear her good name—for a lie? For an advantage, is she prepared to make her name a byword in this city, her position untenable?”

  Janie opened her mouth to scream, and then suddenly met Stuart’s narrowed and gleaming eye, his nasty smile. His words rang in her ears.

  The unpleasant expression increased on Stuart’s face. He chuckled. “You can see, Bob, that my cousin is a virtuous woman, and though somewhat disturbed that her secret plans have gone awry, she cannot, for her own sake, falsely declare that she has been seduced by me in my own house, which she, a mature woman, entered of her own free will and desire. However excited she may be at this time, and disappointed, you will readily discern that she is all virtue and modesty, and that she spoke only under the stress of a vehement and hysterical emotion.”

  The Sheriff regarded Stuart suspiciously. He understood. He frowned. He shook his head, saying under his breath: “You should be more careful! Someday there will be a reckoning.”

  Triumphant now, filled with the toxins of excitement, Stuart turned to Joshua, who stood, blinking his eyes, confounded:

  “As for you, you old dog, only the fact that you are now my father-in-law restrains me from decisive action against you. Thank your God for that. You have called me a thief. I can bring you to account for that, and sue you for a pretty sum. You have made false accusations against me, for which I could shoot you with impunity.” He made a grandiose gesture, and smiled disagreeably, “But I
am filled with Christian charity tonight. Out of the kindness of my nature, I shall refrain from prosecuting you, and giving you your deserts.”

  Janie was so filled with hatred, with insensate madness and frustration, that she could only cower in her chair and look at Stuart with an expression that resembled lightning in its menace and balefulness. It was a look that might have killed.

  Stuart was rising very rapidly to the occasion. He continued, to Joshua: “I owe you very little, now. Within four weeks I shall receive a large sum resulting from a certain business transaction. I shall repay you all my just debts. You declared that I married your daughter for her fortune. Why, you gray old dog, I shall soon be able to sell you half a dozen times over!”

  “Oh, the odious wretch! Oh, the liar and the rascal!” moaned Janie, wringing her hands.

  But Joshua looked in silence at Stuart. He began to speak, almost whisperingly: “You have won just now. But this is not the end. There will come a day when there shall be a reckoning, and with God’s help, I shall speed that day.”

  He turned to his daughter, and his voice was sincerely broken. “My love, you have seen what has taken place in this house. I am an old man, and you are my treasure, that I have loved and guarded. You have deserted me, not of your own will, but because of your innocence. I ask you, for the last time, to leave this villain, who will destroy and ruin you, and return with me to your own dear home, where you will be protected against him.” In strangled tones, he continued: “Come home with your papa, my darling!”