the terraces, mercifully, possibly tactfully, were deserted. julia greeted warmly the old man who had served for so many years as butler and coachman, then announced curtly that she had a headache, and kept her eyes closed as the lean old horses crawled through charles town and up the mountain. she was still very angry with tay, but, on the whole, more so with herself. why hadn’t she rushed into his arms and been happy for a few moments? and what did she really intend to do? she had not the least idea. he had an amazing faculty for getting his own way. he would manage to see her, and what would be the outcome? was there anything he would stop at? it were more than human not to feel a thrill of excitement.
her anger passed, and she wondered if she should not steal out and meet him that very night. why not? why not? hadn’t she her right to live? she forgave tay promptly for this last and most reckless proof of his love for her. lightly as he had dismissed the fact, she knew that he had made heavy sacrifices in turning his back on california at this critical moment. his party might declare him a traitor and cast him out. he deserved his reward. all the romance in her nature leaped into sudden and vivid life. to her nevis was the most beautiful spot on earth. to live a few intense weeks—what a memory?—
but she opened her eyes as if under the impact of a cold shower. the carriage had entered the grounds about the house. here, in these beautiful wild spaces of tropic tree and shrub and flaming color, france had once followed her about, striving to kiss her. here he had kissed her the day he had been forced to leave her for the ship, immediately after the marriage ceremony. his menacing shadow seemed to detach itself as on that awful night in the plantation of white lodge. her life with him rose and overwhelmed her. she sat up with a gasp. no romance on nevis for her!
“are you thinkin’ of the meetin’ with your mother?” asked mrs. winstone. “fanny and i’ll leave the field clear. she’s probably in the living-room.”
julia descended slowly, and glanced through the window before entering. mrs. edis was sewing by the lamp on the table; the tropic night had descended with a rush. she was a little more bowed than formerly, perhaps a trifle pallid. but her hair was still almost black. time might have forgotten and passed her by.
as julia opened the door, she lifted her deep piercing eyes, seized her stick, and rose to her feet. her hand trembled, but not her voice.
“i am glad to see you, julia,” she said, in her grand manner. “but the steamer must have been ahead of time.”
she presented her gnarled cheek to be kissed, but julia, who had suffered many emotions that day, burst into tears and flung herself into her mother’s arms.
“oh, do say you are glad to see me. i am so miserable, so worried. oh, please do!”
mrs. edis patted her head, but her voice remained dry.
“you have been long coming, but you must know how glad i am to see you once more before i die. your trouble must be grave indeed! you have been in trouble before.”
mrs. edis’s tones would have dried any fountain. they also expressed suspicion. julia took out her pocket-handkerchief.
“forgive me. it isn’t worth speaking of. i am only tired. of course we are all, we women, in a sea of difficulties?—”
“not a word of that, if you please.” mrs. edis sat down; the glistening heavy brows that captain dundas had once compared to lizards, met over her flashing eyes. “you must make up your mind not to mention that disgusting subject while you are in my house. if that is your trouble, you will have every opportunity to forget it!”
“i came to forget everything but you and nevis and fanny. now give me another kiss, and i’ll go and make myself presentable. i don’t want you to find me too much changed.”
“maria told me that you had changed very little, and i thought you looked quite pretty before you reddened your eyes. run along and i will order dinner.”
at the table mrs. edis betrayed a little of the joy she felt at the return of her prodigal, by talking far more than her wont. she told julia the gossip of the islands, mostly mortuary, as all the old women of her own generation had died; but although she anathematized bath house and the idle rheumatics it would bring to nevis, she permitted herself to express hope regarding the future of the islands. she went to her room immediately after the meal finished, but it was long before julia could enjoy the seclusion of her own. fanny, who barely opened her mouth before her grandmother, burst into speech the moment that august presence was withdrawn, and julia for quite three hours was obliged to answer her questions regarding the great world of london, when not sympathizing with the dynamic maiden’s hatred of life on nevis.
“good heaven!” she thought. “that i ever could have imagined a girl of eighteen interesting!”
she locked herself in her own room at last, but not to sleep. her homecoming had proved a bitter disappointment. fanny she might have forgiven, for all girls were more or less alike, wrapped up in themselves, happy in the delusion of their supreme importance. but her mother! she had always remembered her as the most wonderful of her sex, a tower of strength, no matter how hard, a superwoman isolated on a rock in the caribbean sea. what was she, after all, but an obstinate old woman? was she to find strength in no one but herself? well, why not? hadn’t it been her cherished ideal to stand alone?
but what, in heaven’s name, was she to do with tay?
the rooms opened upon a corridor, but her window was only a few feet above the large garden in front of the house. she unlatched the jalousie and sprang to the ground. here she could decide his fate without sentiment, for here was the shadow of france. but the shadow had departed and ignored her summons. the renaissance of old impressions is fleeting. it rarely comes twice, and never at command. and nevis and all things on it were changed! only one of the old servants, denny, was alive. she had visited the outbuildings before dinner, eager for familiar faces. the girls of her youth were fat old women. there were many of them, and the pic’nies swarmed as of yore. the court, no doubt, was still full of color by day, but everything was orderly and clean; there were few of the old evidences of congenital laziness. fanny, for all her romantic notions, was an admirable overseer—and a tyrant. since this duty had been thrust upon her by her inexorable grandparent, she would use it as an outlet for her energies; and julia suspected that she found a decided gratification in ruling her subjects with an iron hand.
the white cloud on nevis had slipped down the mountain, enveloping it in a fine white mist. the garden was full of enchanting shapes, of heavy intoxicating odors. where was tay? why had he not come to shake her jalousie? she longed to find him hiding under one of the heavy trees. but he was probably asleep at bath house; and his temporary quiescence inspired her reason with gratitude. for the first time she feared him. he had come to nevis for no such indefinite object as an episodical romance. he meant to take her with him when he left, possibly to forge the strongest of all bonds in the earlier phases of love. this thought made her angry once more, roused the subtle antagonism of sex. if it came to an actual contest of strength, here was her chance to prove to him what the years and much else had made of her.
she went to bed, and her thoughts turned contritely to fanny. was she really disappointed in this girl who seemed to be the embodiment of soulless, unimaginative, brutal youth? or might not she still find her so interesting as a study, and companion, that the old fond image would be undeplored? the last, no doubt. she had been just as soulless, and her true imagination as unawakened. she went to sleep determined to love fanny whatever befell.
