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About The morning Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1899-1930 | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1907)
IUNOAY, MARCH 24, 10OT. THE NQtlEST sf CANAAN ! By BOOTH TARKINGTON, Author of "Chtrry." "MontUur Beiucalre." Etc. MCIIT., IB03. BY HARPER V BROTHERS CHAPTER IIL HE door which Ariel bad enter ed opened upon a narrow hall, nud tluwu tlil she no to her um itaaalflff with fill" y mm unu twi, I'"" r' verted, the entrance to the broad, low celllnged chamber that had serveu Bogcr Tabor as a atudlo for almost fifty years. He waa sitting there wow. Id a hopeless aud disconsolate attitude, with Itla back toward the double doora. which were open, and had been open lure their hinges bad begun to give way. when Ariel waa a child.. Hear ing her atep, be callod her name, but did not turn, and, receiving no anawer. alghed faintly aa he heard her own door closo upon her. Then aa hi eyes wandered about the many canvaaea which leaned against the dingy walla he alghed again. Usu ally they Bhowed their brown backs, but today he had turned them all to face outward. Twilight, sunset moon light (tho courthouse In moonlight), dawn, morning, noon (Main atreet at noon), high aumtner, first spring, red autumn, midwinter, all were there, II iiA.it.! .totalled, worked to a smooth- neea like a glaie and all lovingly done with unthinkable labor. IN., m tima tho old man got up, went to bla easel near a window and. .it.in. .rln hniran natlently to work upon one of these fallnres-a portrait In oil of a savage old lady, which he waa Anna from a Dbotogranh. The expression of the mouth aud the ahape of the nose had not pleased her de ecendanta and the bencflclarlea under tho will, and It was upon me iumc hA.a futures that Boiier labored. He leaned far forward, with his face holding his brushes after the Speucerlan fashion, working .tii thrnuch the afternoon and when the light grew dimmer, leaning closer to his canvas to see. vyubu u bad become almost dark in the room he Ht a student lamp with a green in otiaria nd niaelntr It upon a ta- ble beside him, continued to paint a pint's vnica tnterruDted him at last "It's quitting time,, grandfather," she a . 1 M called gently from tne doorway dvoiuu THE MORNING Ho sunk IikcU In his chair, cmwelmn for tho first time of how tired he had grown. "I tiupi'oNi so." be said, "though it seemed to me 1 was Just getting my band In. ills eyes lirijsiiti'iu'ii for a moment. "1 declare..-1 bellcvo I've caught It a great 'deal better. Come and look, Ariel. Doesn't It seem to ton that I'm cettlim It? Those pearly shadows In the flesh" ' "I'm sure of It Those people ought to be very proud to have It" Sho came to him quietly, took the pn lotto ami brashes from bis hands and began to clean them, standing In the shadow be bind blm. "It's too good for them." "No." lie murmured lu return. "You can do much better yourself. Your sketches show It." "No, nor' she protested quickly. "Yes. they do. and 1 wondered If It was ouly because you were young. But those I did when I was young are al most tho same hh the ones I paint now. 1 haven't learned much. There, hasnt been any one to show tne. And you can't learn from print, never! Yet I've irrown In whut I. see grown so that the world Is full of beauty to me that I never dreamed of seeing wnen I hoirnn. But I cunt Dalnt It I cant get It on the eanvns.s Ah, I think J might have unowu now, to u i uaum hnd to teach myself, if I could only have aeen how some of the other fel lows did their "work. If I'd ever saved money to get away from Canaan If 1 could have gone away from It and come back knowing bow to paint it If I could have got to Farts, for just one month! Paris for just one jnonth!" "Perhaps we will. Ton cant tell what may happen." It was Vways ber reply to this cry of bis. "You're young, you're young." He smiled Indulgently. "What were you doing all this afternoon, chlldr "In my room, trying to make over mamma's wedding dress for toalght" "Tonight?" "Mamie Pike Invited me to a dance at their house." "Very well. I'm glad you're goltg to be gay," be sold, not seeing the faintly ASTORIAN, ASTORIA, OREGON. "lU! '-i,:llll,'-,i!'ii V'-""" t '"'r 'j'.'-l'-- "I don't think I'll bo very gay," she answered. "I don't know why I go Nobody ever auks m to dance." "Why not?" he asked, with an old man's astonishment. "I don't know. Perhaps It's because I don't dresi very well." Then, as he rtifld a sorrowful gesture, she cut h!ra Off before he could speuk. "Ob, ,t isn't altogether because we're ioor. It's more I don't know how to wear what I've got, the way sonic girls do. 1 never cared much and well, I'm not worrying. Kovter. And I think I've done a good dtrnl with mamma's dress. It's a very grand dress." I wouder I never thought or wearlug It until to day. I may bo"-8he laughed and blushed-' I may be the belle of the ballwho knows!" "You'll want me to walk over with tou and come for you afterward. I ex port." "Only to take me. It may be late when I come away-lf a good many should ask me to dance for once. Of course I could come home alone. But Joo Loudon Is oiug to sort of hang around outside. m) he'll meet me at the gate and see mo sate home." "Oh."' he exclaimed blaukly. "Isn't It all right?" "I think I'd better come for you," be answered gently. "The truth Is, I-I think you'd better not be with Joe Louden a great deal." "Why?" "Well, ho doesn't seem a vicious boy to me, but I'm afraid he's getting rather a bad name, my dear." "He'a not getting one." she said gravely. "He's already got one. He's had a bad name In Canaan for a long ... , m , -. while It grew la the first place out of sbabblnesa aud mischief, but It did grow, and If people keep on giving him a bad name the time will come when he'll live up to It He's not any worse than I am, and I guess my own name lan't too good-for a girl. And yet, so far, there's nothlug against him except his bad name." "I'm afraid there Is," said Roger. "It doesu't look very well for a young man of his age to be doing no better than delivering papers." "It gives him time to study law," she answered quickly. "If he clerked all day In u store he couldn't." "I didn't know he was studying now. r thniiorht I'd heard that he was lu a lawyer's office for a tew weens insi year and was turned out for setting lira to It With a pipe - "It was an accident," she interposed "But some Dretty Important papers re burned, and after that none of the other lawyers would hava aim. 'L'ft But he n 41daMTt?LStt ZZ Hlfl ooid and lie's lmr;lit some books of his own." "Well, perhaps." he assented, "but they say he pirn' les and drinks and that last week Jude I'ike threatened to have him arrested for throwing dice with some negroes hehinil the judge's stable." "What of It V I'm ubjut tho only nice person in town that will hare anything to do with him and nobody except you thinks I'm very nice!" "Ariel! Ariel!" "I know nil ':;!t his gambling with darkles," ' she cxit'nned excitedly, her voice rising, "and I know that ho goes to saloons and that he's an intimate frieud of half the riffraff in town. Aud I know the reason for It, too, because he's told me. lie wants to know them, to understand tht'iu. uud he says some day they'll make him a power, and theu he can help them!" The old man laughed helplessly. "But 1 can't let him brlns you home, my dear." ' She came to him slowly and laid her hands upon his shoulders. Grandfa ther and granddaughter were nearly of the same height, and she looked squarely Into his eyes. "Then you must say It Is because you want to come for me, not because I mustn't come with Joe." "But 1 think It Is a little because you mustn't come with Joe," he answered, "especially from the Tikes'. Don't yon see that it mightn't be well for Joe himself If the Judge should happen to see him? I understand he warned the boy to keep away from the neighbor hood entirely or he would have hla locked up for dice throwing. The judge Is a very InSuential man, you I uu, null US UL-IU1 IU1UCU J m h9 fa lrrltab,eM know, and as determined In matters "Oh, If you put It on that ground," the girl replied, her eyes softening. "I think you'd better come for me your elf.'.' "Very well, 1 put It on that ground," he returned, smiling upon her. "Then I'll send Joe word and "get upper," sho said, kissing him. , It wns the Wupper hour not only for them, but everywhere In Canaan, ana tie cold Rlr of the streets bore up and down and around corners 4he smell of things frying. The dining room win dows of all the houses threw bright patches on the snow of the side yards. .The windows of other rooms, except , y.o(je 6rth(J kitcnen3i were dark, for , mlQ of placo wns puritanical ', .u-iti u ti.incra nml the irnod , hoU8ck ers dig )Uted cvcry record of Lt ... ... . . iww . o . . housekeeper In , d ttrlfu i Kth f w hon8eB ,n I Canaan that evening which showed the family were at supper. It was proof of the agitation caused by the arrival' of Eugene that she rorgot to turn out the gas In her parlor and in the chamber she called a library on her way to the evening moal. Joe escaned ns soon as he could. though not before the count of his lat er sins had been set before Eugene la detail, in mass and In all of their depth, breadth and thickness, nis father spoke but once after uodding heavily to con-. firm all points of Mrs. Loudens re cital. 'Yoi better use any Influence you've got with your brother," he said to Eu gene, "to make him come to time. I cen't do anything with him. If ne gets In trouble, he needn't come to me! I'll never help him again. I m tired of it!" Joe's movements throughout the ear lier part of that evening are of uncer- Jaln report It Is known that be made a partial payment of 45 cents at a sec ondhand book store for a numoer or oImues. "Grlndstaff on Torts" and some others, which he had negotiated on the Installment system. It Is also believed that he won 28 cents playing seven-up In the little room behind Tnle Farbaeh's bar. but these tntngs are of little Import compared to the established fact that at 11 ociock ne was one of the ball guests at the Pike munnlon. He took no active part In the festivities, nor was he one of the dancers. His was, on the contrary, the role of . a quiet observer. He lay twMied at full length upon the floor of the Inclosed porch one of the strips of canvas was later found to nave dbd i,wwmim1 wedeed between the outer railing and a row of palms In green tubs. It was not to play eavesdropper tnat the uninvited Joe had come. He was not thert to listen, and it is possiwe th.t hA the curtains of other windows afforded him the chance to behold the dance he might not nave nssea ui A.m f Mm niwaant noattlon. ' He uatiQGi? v - " - j had not tht slightest Interest In the whispered coquetries tnat ne neara. h watched only to catch now and then over the shoulders of the dancers a fitful glimpse of a pretty head that flitted across the wlndow-the amber hair of Mamie Pike. He shivered In rti drafts, and the floor of the porch was cement, painful to elbow and knee, the space where ne lay crampea and narrow, but the golden bubbles of her hair, the shimmer of her dainty pink dress and the fluffy ave of her luce scarf aa she crossed ana recrossea In a walta left him apparently In no discontent He watched with partea IIds. his pale cheeks reddening when- avm- those fair ellmnses were his. At laat she came out to the veranda with Eugene and sat upon a little divan, so close to Joe that daring wildly In the shadow, he reached out a trembling hand and let his fingers rest upon the : end of her scarf, which had fallen from her shoulders and touched the floor. She sat with her back to him, as did Eugene. You have changed, I think, since last summer," he heard her say reflec tively. "For the worse, ma cherler' Joe's expression might have been worth see ing when Eugene said "ma cherie," for It was known in the Louden household that Mr. Bantry had failed to pass his examination In the French language. "No," she answered. "But you have seen so much and accomplished so much since then. You have become so polished and so" She paused and then continued: "But perhaps I'd bet ter not say It You might be offended." "No. I want you to say It" he re turned confidently, and his confidence was fully Justified, for she said: "Well, then, I mean that you have- become so thoroughly a man of the world. Now I've said it! Yon are of fended, aren't you?" "Not at all; not at all," replied Mr. Bantry, preventing by a masterful ef fort his pleasure from showing In bis face. "Then I'm glad," she whispered, and Joe saw his stepbrother touch ber hand, but she rose quickly. "There's the music," she cried happily. "If a a waits, and if s yours." Joe heard her little high heels tap ping gayly toward the window, follow ed by the heavier tread of Eugene, but he did not watch them go. , Be lay on his back, with the hand that had touched Mamie's scarf press ed across his closed eyes. The music of the waits was of the old fashioned swingingly sorrowful tort, and It would be hard to say how long it was after that before he could bear the air played without a recurrence of the bitterness of that moment The rhythmical pathos of the Tlollna was In such accord with a faint sound of weeping which he heard near Mm presently that for a little while be be lieved this sound to be part of the mu sic and part of himself. Then It be came more distinct, and he raised him self on one elbow to look about Very close to him, sitting upon the divan In the shadow, was a girl wear tog a dress of beautiful silk. She was crying softly, her face In her hands. (Continued Next Sunday.) 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