CHAPTER IV
DISILLUSIONMENT
It was the most ambitious affair that had been attempted in Prouty--thisfunction at the Prouty House. The printed invitations had made a deepimpression; besides, wild rumors were flying about as to the elaboratecostumes that were to be worn by the socially prominent.
It was whispered that Mrs. Abram Pantin, wife of the wealthy capitalistfrom Keokuk, now "settled in their midst," was to be seen in electricblue silk with real lace collar and cuffs; while Mrs. Sudds, wife of anear-governor, who had moved to Prouty from another part of the state,was to appear in her lansdowne wedding dress. Mrs. Myron Neifkins, too,if report could be believed, was to be gowned in peach-blow satin workedin French knots.
He was a dull clod indeed who could not feel the tremors in the air thatmomentous Saturday and by night there was not tying space at anyhitching rack.
If the ball loomed so large to the townfolks, it may be assumed thatKate's anticipation was no less. As a matter of fact, she could scarcelysleep for thinking of it. She did not know much about God--Mormon Joewas not religious--but she felt vaguely that she must have Him to thankfor this wonderful happiness. It was the most important happening sinceshe had run, terrified, from home that black night three years ago.
There had not been a night since Hughie had given her the invitationthat she had not lain awake for hours staring at the stars with a smileon her lips as she visualized situations. She saw herself dividingdances as belles did in books, taking her part in lively conversations,the center of merry groups. Oh, no, life would never be the same again;she was certain of it.
Hughie had kept his word and ridden over several times to teach her thesteps, and they had practised them on the hard-trodden ground in frontof the cook tent, where the dust could be kept down by frequentsprinkling. If the waltz and the polka and schottische sent her bloodracing under such adverse conditions, what must it be like on a realfloor with real music, she asked herself ecstatically. These dancinglessons were provocative of much merriment and teasing from the Toomeys.While Hugh did not resent it or defend Kate, he did not join in theirridicule of her. She was "green," he could not deny that, yet not in thesense the Toomeys meant. Naive, ingenuous, he felt were better words.She knew nothing of social usages, and she was without a suspicion ofthe coquetry that he looked for in girls before they had begun to do uptheir hair. She spoke with startling frankness upon subjects which hehad been taught were taboo. He admired and was accustomed to soft,helpless, clinging femininity, and it grated upon him to see Kate at thewoodpile swinging an axe in a matter-of-fact way.
"It's because there's no one else around," he told himself, to explainthe eagerness with which he rode over while he was teaching Kate todance.
The boy was intelligent enough to recognize the fact that, howeverunschooled Kate might be in the things that counted in the outsideworld, she was not ignorant when it came to those within her ken. Sheknew the habits and peculiarities of wild animals and insects, everycharacteristic of sheep, and she was a nearly unfailing weather prophetthrough her interpretation of the meaning of wind and sky and clouds.Her knowledge of botany was a constant surprise to him, for she seemedto know the name and use of the tiniest plant that grew upon the range.
But, after all, he demanded of himself, what did a girl want to knowsuch things for? He would have liked better to see her in the shade withan embroidery hoop.
* * * * *
Restraining their trembling haste, yet fearing that they might misssomething, the initiated townfolks managed to stay away from the ProutyHouse until the fashionably late hour of eight, but the simpler ruralguests having eaten at six were ready and holding down the chairs in theoffice before "the music" had arrived. There was a flutter of puzzledinquiry among the Early Birds when Mrs. Abram Pantin, Mrs. Sudds andMrs. Myron Neifkins with an air of conscious importance stationedthemselves in a row at the door opening into the dining room, which wasnow being noisily cleared of tables and chairs.
Mrs. Pantin, as gossip had surmised, wore electric blue with collar andcuffs of lace that presumably was real, while angular Mrs. Sudds lookedchaste, if somewhat like a windmill in repose, in her bridal gown. Mrs.Neifkins, too, came up to expectations in her peach-blow satin.
For a while the ladies of the receiving line found their positionsomewhat of a sinecure, for nobody knew what they were standing therefor until Mrs. Rufus Webb, the wife of Prouty's new haberdasher,arrived. Mrs. Webb had been called home to her dying mother's bedside,but fortunately had been able to return from her sad errand in time forthe function at the Prouty House. When she laid aside her wrap it wasobserved that she had gone into red.
Kate was an unconscionable time in dressing, Hugh thought, as he waitedin the office, considering that the flour sack tied behind her saddlehad seemed to contain her wardrobe easily enough.
His attention was focused upon Mrs. Neifkins, whom he had last seen in awrapper and slat sunbonnet, when a lull in the hubbub that became a hushcaused him to look up. His eyes followed the gaze of every other pair ofeyes to the head of the stairs that came down from the floor above intothe office. He saw Kate--dreadful as to clothes as a caricature or acomic valentine! She had a wreath of red paper roses in her hair and achain of them reached from one shoulder nearly to the hem of her skirton the other side. The dress itself was made without regard to theprevailing mode and of the three-cent-a-yard bunting bought by sheepmenby the bolt to be used for flags to scare off coyotes in lambing time.The body of the dress was blue, trimmed with the same material in red.The sleeves were elbow length, and she wore black mitts. But thecrowning horror, unless it was the wreath, was the string of redwild-rose seed pods around her neck.
Kate had cut out her gown without a pattern and with no mirror to guideher, the skirt was several inches shorter behind than in front, and amiscalculation put the gathers chiefly in one spot.
She was not recognized at first, for her visits to Prouty had been madeat too long intervals for her to be known save by a few. Then,quickly--"Mormon Joe's Kate!" was whispered behind hands and passed frommouth to mouth.
The girl's eager glowing face was the one redeeming thing of herappearance. Half way down the stairs she stopped involuntarily andlooked with an expression of wondering inquiry into the many staringeyes focused upon herself. Then a titter, nearly inaudible at first,grew into a general snicker throughout the room.
They were laughing at her! There was no mistake about that. Kate shrankback as though she had been struck; while the radiance faded from herface, and it turned as white as the wall at her back.
What was the matter? What had she done? Wasn't she all right? she askedherself, while her heart gave a great throb of fear. She gripped thebannister while her panic-stricken eyes sought Hughie in the crowdedoffice. Where was he? Did he mean to leave her alone? It seemed minutesthat she stood there, though it was only one at most.
In spite of his worldly air and social ease, Disston was only a boyafter all, with a boy's keen sensitiveness to ridicule, and this ordealwas something outside the experience of his nineteen years. The worst hehad expected was that she would be frumpish, or old-fashioned, orcommonplace like these other women standing about, but it had notoccurred to him that she might be conspicuously grotesque.
There was a moment of uncertainty which seemed as long to the boy as itdid to Kate, and then the chivalry of his good southern blood respondedgallantly to the appeal in her eyes. His dark face was dyed with theblood that rushed to the roots of his hair, and his forehead was dampwith the moisture of embarrassment, but he rose from his seat and wentto meet her with a welcoming smile.
"Oh, Hughie!" she gasped tremulously in gratitude and relief as she ranrather than walked down the remaining stairs.
The grinning crowd parted to let them pass as, self-conscious andstiffly erect, they walked the length of the office towards the diningroom. Figuratively speaking, Prouty stood on tip-toe to see what sort ofreception they would meet
from the receiving line. It was tacitlyunderstood that lesser social lights would take their cue from them.
Of its kind, it was as thrilling a moment as Prouty had experienced.Mrs. Myron Neifkins had recognized Kate immediately and passed the wordalong to Mrs. Pantin who, although a comparative stranger, had beenproperly supplied with information as to the community's undesirables."Mormon Joe's Kate," the daughter of the notorious Jezebel of the SandCoulee Roadhouse, naturally was included in the list.
Hugh, who had met these ladies previously and found them as amiable asany one could wish--particularly Mrs. Pantin, who had regarded him assomebody to cultivate because of his connection with the exclusiveToomeys of the Scissor Ranch--now had something of the sensation of aperson who had stepped into the frigid atmosphere of a cold storageplant.
Mrs. Pantin's eyes had all the warm friendliness of two blue china knobsand her thin lips were closed until her mouth looked merely a vividscratch. Yet, somehow, the boy managed to say with his manner ofdeferential courtesy:
"Mrs. Pantin, do you know Miss Prentice?"
Ordinarily, a part of Mrs. Pantin's society manner was a vivaciouschirp, but now she said coldly between her teeth:
"I haven't that pleasure." She gave Kate her extreme finger tips withsuch obvious reluctance that the action was an affront.
Disston glanced at Mrs. Sudds in the hope of finding friendliness. Thatlady had drawn herself up like an outraged tragedy queen. No one wouldhave dreamed, seeing Mrs. Sudds at the moment with her air of royalhauteur, that in bygone days she had had her own troubles making twelvedollars a week as a stenographer.
His glance passed on to Mrs. Neifkins, who was picking at a French knotin a spasm of nervousness lest Kate betray the fact that they had met.
Disston was aware that Mrs. Neifkins knew Kate and his lip curled at hercowardice. He raised his head haughtily; he would not subject hispartner to further rebuffs.
"Come on, Katie," he said, curtly, and they passed into the dining room.
The girl's cheeks were flaming as they sat down on the chairs rangedagainst the wall.
"Hughie," her fingers were like ice as she clasped them together in herlap. "What's the matter? Do I look--queer?"
He answered shortly:
"You're all right."
They sat watching the crowd file in. Suddenly Hughie exclaimed inobvious relief:
"There's Teeters, and Maggie Taylor and her mother! Wait here--I'llbring them over."
He went up to them with assurance, for their friendliness andhospitality had been marked upon the several occasions that he hadaccompanied Teeters, who always had some transparent excuse for stoppingat their ranch.
Mrs. Taylor, with her backwoods' conceit and large patronizing manner,had been especially amusing to Hughie, but now in this uncomfortablesituation she looked like a haven in a storm as he saw her towering bynearly half a head above the tallest in the crowd.
It was Mrs. Taylor's proud boast that she came of a race of giants. Evenupon ordinary occasions she bore a rather remarkable resemblance to amountain sheep, but to-night the likeness was further increased by agrizzled bunch of frizzled hair that stood out on either temple likeembryo horns. Mrs. Taylor looked, as it were, "in the velvet." She worea brown sateen basque secured at the throat by a brooch consisting of alock of hair under glass. It was observed, also, that for the eveningshe had removed the string which she commonly wore around her two largeand widely separated front teeth, and which were being drawn together bythis means at about the rate the earth is cooling off.
Mrs. Taylor dated events from the time "Mr. Taylor was taken," thoughthere was always room for doubt as to whether Mr. Taylor was "taken" orquite deliberately went.
Miss Maggie was tall and sallow and was anticipating matrimony with anardor that had made the maiden one of the country's stock jokes, sincethe sharer of it seemed to be of secondary importance to the fact. Allher spare change and waking hours were spent buying and embroideringlinen for the "hope chest" that spoke of her determined confidence inthe realization of her ambition.
The three greeted Hughie warmly. Miss Maggie flashed her dazzling teeth;Teeters reached out and smote him with his fist between the shoulderblades; Mrs. Taylor laid her hand upon his arm with her large smug airof patronizing friendliness, and, stooping, beamed into his face.
"We were not looking for you here. Did Mr. and Mrs. Toomey come? Are youalone?"
"I brought Katie Prentice--she's sitting over there."
"Oh!" Mrs. Taylor's expression changed.
The boy looked at her pleadingly as he added:
"She has so few pleasures, and she would so like to haveacquaintances--to make friends."
"I dare say," dryly.
"She--she doesn't know any one. Won't you--all come and join us?" Therewas entreaty in the boy's voice.
Mrs. Taylor rose out of her hips until she looked all of seven feet tallto Hughie.
"You must excuse me, Mr. Disston." She hesitated, then added inexplanation: "When we came West I told myself that I must not allowmyself to deteriorate in rough surroundings, and I have made it a rulenever to mingle with any but the best, Mr. Disston. My father,"impressively, "was a prominent undertaker in Philadelphia, and asorganist in a large Methodist church in that city I came in contact withthe best people, so you understand," blandly, "don't you, why Icannot--"
The boy was red to the rim of his ears as he bowed formally to motherand daughter.
"I don't in the least," he replied, coldly.
The pain in Kate's eyes hurt him when he returned to his seat and sheasked.
"They wouldn't come?"
He hesitated, then answered bluntly:
"No."
"H-had we better stay?"
"Yes," he replied, doggedly, "we'll stay."
Their efforts at conversation were not a success, and it was a relief tothem both when Hiram Butefish, as Floor Manager, commanded everybody totake partners for a waltz.
Hughie arose and held out his hands to Kate.
"Hughie, I can't," she protested, shrinking back. "I'm--afraid."
"Yes, you can," determinedly. "Don't let these people think they canfrighten you."
"I'll try because you want me to," she answered, "but it's all gone outof my head, and I know I can't."
"You'll get it directly," as he took her hand. "Just remember and count.One, two, three--now!"
The bystanders tittered as she stumbled. The sound stung the boy like awhip, his black eyes flashed, but he said calmly enough:
"You make too much of it, Katie. Put your mind on the time and count."
She tried once more with no better result. She merely hopped, regardlessof the music.
"I tell you I can't, Hughie," she said, despairingly. "Let's sit down."
"Never mind," soothingly as he acquiesced, "we'll try it again after awhile. The next will very likely be a square dance and I can pilot youthrough that."
"You're so good!"
He looked away to avoid her grateful eyes. What would she say if sheknew the reason he had brought her there? On a bet! He had seen onlywhat appeared to be the humorous side. Hughie's own pride enabled him torealize how deep were the hurts she was trying so pluckily to hide. Butwhy did they treat her so? Even her dreadful get-up seemed scarcely toaccount for it.
The next number, as he surmised, was a square dance.
"Take your pardners fer a quadrille!"
There was a scrambling and a sliding over the floor, accompanied by muchlaughter, to the quickly formed "sets."
"There's a place, Kate--on the side, too, so you have only to watch whatthe others do."
She hesitated, but he could see the longing in her eyes.
He taunted boyishly, "Don't be a 'fraidy cat,'" at which for the firsttime they both laughed with something of naturalness.
Mr. Scales of the Emporium and his plump bookkeeper were there, and thewillowy barber with the stylish operator of the new telephone exchange,while Mr. and Mrs. Neifkins made the
third couple, and Hugh and Katecompleted the set.
There was an exchange of looks as the pair came up. The stylish operatorlifted an eyebrow and drew down the corners of her mouth. The bookkeepersaid, "Well!" with much significance,--but it remained for Mrs. Neifkinsto give the real offense. The expression on her vapid face implied thatshe was aghast at their impudence. Gathering the fullness of her skirtas though to withdraw it from contamination she laid the other hand onher husband's arm:
"There's a place over there, Myron, where we can get in."
"It's nearer the music," said Neifkins with an apologetic grin to theothers.
Those who stayed had something of the air of brazening it out. In vainMr. Butefish called sternly for, "One more couple this way!"
It was Scales of the Emporium who said, finally:
"Looks like we don't dance--might as well sit down."
Every one acted on the suggestion with alacrity save Kate and Hughie.When he turned to her, he saw that she was swallowing hard at the lumpthat was choking her.
"It's on account of me that they act so, Hughie! You stay if you wantto; I'm going."
"Stay here?" he cried in boyish passion. "You're the only lady in theroom so far as I can see! What would I stay for?"
The citizens of Prouty were still deeply impressed by each other'spretensions, as the reputations the majority had left in their "hometowns" had not yet caught up with them. Therefore, being greatlyconcerned about what his neighbor thought of him, no one would havedared be friendly to the ostracized couple even if he had thedisposition.
Kate and Hughie walked out, very erect and looking straight ahead,followed by a feeling of satisfaction that this opportunity hadpresented itself for the new order to show where it stood in the matterof accepting doubtful characters on an equal social footing. It hadproperly vindicated itself of the charge that western society was lax insuch matters. That they had hurt--terribly hurt--another, was of smallimportance.