Chapter IX: What Jack DID

THEO returned to the library, where she had left Posie-Cossie, and again taking him in her lap, she resigned herself to a long, dreamy evening. Once or twice she sighed, "Poor Jack! Poor Jack! Oh, Posie-Cossie! Poor, dear old Jack!"

And Posie-Cossie would respond by thrusting his nose in her hand, or by giving a little half-whine, as if he understood.

"Oh, if Mr. Smith were only here!" thought Theo, as she went to her room for the night.

But Mr. Smith was not to be at home until the next evening, and meanwhile, Theo contented herself as best she could.

In the morning Fan and Jamie made their appearance, full of excitement over an account they had received of Theo's action of the day before.

"Oh, Miss Theo, a man saw you driving the wagon; it was just splendid!" exclaimed Fan. "How I should love to have done it! We heard all about it; one of the men from here told us. We asked him, and made him tell us all about it; and mamma said it was a little extreme, but a very generous deed. She had to say that, though I don't believe she wanted to; but I just looked at her and asked her if she were a Christian. I have to do that with mamma once in a while, especially after she has just been to see Leonore. We think it was magnificent, Jamie and I," and Fan tossed back her hair in her old way, and looked with admiring eyes at Theo.

"We missed you awfully," said Jamie. "We were so disappointed."

"And we didn't have a bit good time," continued Fan.

"Oh, yes, we had a bit," interrupted Jamie.

"Well, so we did. We found a fairy place, all so cunning, and mossy, and toadstoolly, and mysterious, we did so want to show it to you. And the supper was good. We were sorry you were not there then."

"I was very sorry, too," said Theo; "but I knew there would be quite a company, so I felt I should not be missed so very much."

"Felix didn't miss you," Fan informed her, bluntly, and a little triumphantly, since she resented her elder brother's efforts at appropriating Theo's society. "He sat and looked at Miss Wallace, so," giving a languishing and sidelong look in imitation of her brother's. "And she looked, so, at him," opening her eyes very wide, and then shutting them slowly as she turned her head. "Then they went off walking, and she screamed every time she saw a dead branch, and went teetering over the rocks, so Felix would have to help her. Oh, she is silly; and she kept saying, 'Oh, Mr. Parkhurst, isn't it perfect!' while she teetered, and then she'd slip a little bit, and he'd catch her hand, and then she'd scream a little. And that is the way they kept it up, till it made me fairly ill."

And Fan, with her usual vehemence, fanned herself with her hat till she seemed in danger of breaking it to pieces. "I hope I shall never be so utterly foolish. Do you believe I shall?" she asked.

Fan was irrepressible, and Theo had to laugh as she responded, "No, I do not; not that kind of foolish."

"Now, Miss Fairy Apple-Blossom, that's not kind of you. How do you think I will be foolish?"

"You will be much more apt to sulk and flout and flounce, if matters do not go to suit you, princess," replied Theo.

Fan scowled.

"Now, now," warned Theo, "you mustn't be half blind and half deaf, you know."

So Fan laughed and shook off her frown, and the day went peacefully by till evening brought the carriage for the return of Theo's little visitors, and also brought Mr. Smith.

"Well!" was his exclamation. "I didn't expect to see you till to-morrow. What brought you over? Did you get tired of Parkhurst Castle?"

Theo explained as well as she could that Tommy had been hurt, and that she felt it would be better for her to remain at Lyndehurst than to return to Mrs. Parkhurst's while there seemed any danger of a complication in Tommy's case. She made no mention of the active part she had taken in bringing Tommy home, nor did she speak of Mr. Felix, though later Mr. Smith heard the account from Mrs. Barton with much satisfaction.

"And, oh, Mr. Smith," exclaimed Theo, "I have had news of Jack. Did you know he was in Texas? Think of it,—a cowboy! I wish you could have seen the man who came here. And, oh, poor Jack is ill! And—isn't it dreadful? Did you know?"

"I heard something," Mr. Smith acknowledged. "I knew he had left Florida. A bad season finished his engagement there, and he started out to another place."

"And," said Theo, in distress, "that dreadful-looking man, smelling of whiskey, and wearing a bright green neck-tie and a glass pin with a chain to it, that dreadful man is Jack's partner,—his 'pal,' he said. Do you suppose Jack has become like that? Do you suppose he says, 'I done it,' and 'I seen it,' and 'I wouldn't have went,' and 'I would have came,' and those dreadful things? Do you suppose association could ever make him careless? And think of our Jack wearing such clothes. It makes me utterly disgusted."

Just then, Mr. Smith caught sight of Felix Parkhurst coming up the walk, limitlessly attired in clothes of the latest make, and the old man turned and went into the house, leaving Theo to meet her guest.

Mr. Felix had thought better of it, and had come over, since there was nothing better to do. He offered a perfunctory sympathy, and entreated Theo to return and finish her visit. But Theo could not be persuaded, and at the end of half an hour, her visitor took his leave, when Theo flew back to the Colonel.

"So you're utterly disgusted, are you?" he said, looking her over. "I grant you John Allen and Felix Parkhurst don't resemble each other much," he continued, with a sarcastic smile.

Theo threw up her head haughtily. "We will not discuss Mr. Parkhurst, if you please," she returned.

"We'll discuss John Allen, then," replied Mr. Smith, looking very fierce. "How old is Jack?"

"He is—let me see—he is about a year older than Archie. He must be about twenty-four."

"And you are—nineteen?"

"Twenty, last month. Please don't be disagreeable, Colonel."

"Because I ask how old you are? Like a woman."

"Now, now, that is the way you used to talk when I first knew you. Don't be cross and snappish, Colonel. I do want to discuss Jack."

"Well, miss, I am going to tell you something. Jack is not quite a pauper. Before his father died, he placed in my hands twenty thousand dollars, with the understanding that it was to go to Jack when he was twenty-five, provided every summer during his college life he entered his uncle's counting-room and gave his attention to business."

Theo was listening attentively.

"For every summer that he refused to work there," continued Mr. Smith, "he forfeited five thousand dollars."

"Oh!" exclaimed Theo.

"Yes," nodded Mr. Smith. Then he went on: "Jack only knew of the terms upon which he inherited the amount I mentioned, which, compared to the rest of his fortune, seemed small, but he did not know I held it in trust for him. He thought his uncle had control of that as well as of his other affairs. I think his father wanted to provide against any contingency, and felt that a little attention given to business would be good for Jack, and that in case of events turning out as they have done, the boy would have something—"

"And—oh, Colonel," interrupted Theo, "wait a minute. It was for Archie he gave up that summer. Did you know? Oh, how wicked of me never to have seen it!"

"How could you see it?"

"I ought to have known there was something. Indeed, I did suspect, so did Archie, but we could never get a word from Jack that would explain it. Archie wanted so much to finish his college course, and so Jack gave up his own position to him and never hinted at it. Oh, how noble he is!"

The Colonel smiled a grim smile.

"And we have robbed him of five thousand dollars, and he is sick and needy. Oh, Colonel!"

"You forget he does not get the money till he is twenty-five."

"I know; but it is just the same, and part of it went to pay Archie's salary that summer, no doubt. Oh, Colonel!"

"There! Don't get so excited, child. Not a word to Archie, do you hear? Respect Jack's secret for his sake. It gave him the greatest pleasure in the world, and his money has been turned over so it will amount to nearly twenty thousand dollars when he gets it. That is our secret, Theo. I trust you, girl, but I wanted you to know."

"I will keep it faithfully, Colonel. Thank you for trusting me. But what are you going to do about Jack now?" she added, wistfully, her lips trembling.

"A little knocking about will not hurt him; he has always had too much money. He'll never go wrong."

"But," said Theo, in distress, returning to a picture presented to her mental vision of Jack, the cowboy, "suppose he should come back and eat with his knife, and do horrid things of that kind?"

"He'll soon get over that, if he does. Archie will cure him of any bad habits. But that is all sheer nonsense; a gentleman is not going to forget his gentlemanly instincts in a year, and I am not afraid of any lack of principle in John Allen. His faults are only skin deep."

"Then you will let him stay where he is?"

"For the present. I shall write to him immediately; so don't worry. He'd better stay awhile."

And Mr. Smith shot a swift look at Theo's troubled face.

"But he is ill and miserable."

"He is better, and the out-door life is good for him; he'd better be there. I am not heartless, Theo," he added, more gently. "I am thinking of Jack's best good."

"Couldn't you—couldn't you find something for him here?" questioned Theo.

"Perhaps I could. But I have a plan in view, when it is developed, I shall send for Jack. Meanwhile, there is no use in his spending his time in some small position. He'll do better, eventually, for having to fight his way a little longer."

And Theo could say no more on that subject. But before she left the room, she paused a moment, and then she went up to the Colonel.

"I will tell you something, too," she whispered: "I despise Felix Parkhurst."

And then she fled, without looking to see how the Colonel took this communication.

"Oh, Jack! Oh, Jack!" said the girl, as she sat by her window that night. "I have been so horrid to you, so stubborn and perverse, and you have been so good to me! I knew it all the time, but I wouldn't give in, just because I knew I ought to. Oh, I didn't half appreciate you, Jack, and now I can't forgive myself."

The sense of having wronged any one was bitter indeed to Theo, whose inclinations were all towards kindliness and gentleness, and who shrank from inflicting the smallest injury upon any one, even an enemy. And now her self-reproach was very keen.

"Dear, good, thoughtful Jack!" she repeated. "And Jack's song, 'Ich liebe dich,' he sang it all the time, that man said, and I never gave him a thought while he was suffering. Oh, poor Jack! Dear, constant Jack! Oh, Jack, I want to see you, I do, I do." So her thoughts ran.

And then she arose from her place by the window, turned up the light, and deliberately looking in the glass, made a most contemptuous and scornful face at herself.

"The idea of Jack being in Texas," said Archie, when he was told of Jack's whereabouts. "The dear old proud chap! I wish I could be there to nurse him. No wonder we didn't hear from him. Bless his dear old heart! Isn't that just like him? He was afraid we would worry if we knew he was ill, so he wouldn't send any word till he could say he was better. How I should like to have been able to see him through that illness. I knew he hadn't given us up. He is the last one to forget a friend, and we'll have him back with us yet. Mr. Smith promises that."

"Do you suppose he will have changed much?" asked Theo.

"Changed! No; what makes you think so? Jack could never be anything but Jack."

"I don't mean his character. I mean his looks, his appearance. Oh, you know what I mean. Do you suppose he will look trampy, like that dreadful man who brought us word of Jack?"

"Look here, Theo," responded Archie. "If that isn't just like you. You always were the most top-lofty person. Suppose he should look a trifle rough; it will only be 'clothes,' not the man. What's that Burns says?

"'What tho' on homely fare we dine,
Wear hodden gray and a' that,
Gie fools their silks and knaves their wine,
A man's a man for a' that.'

"I've no doubt—what's his name? Jim Downs? Isn't that the name of Jack's partner?—I've no doubt he's a good, honest soul, who would do more for a friend than many a 'fool in silk.'"

"Oh, I know," replied Theo; "but one doesn't like to notice a lack of polish in one's intimate friends."

"Just like you girls. Some diked out dudish insipidity takes for more than real solid worth."

"Now, Archie, that is not so. You know perfectly well no one is more particular than yourself about behavior, and if a man or a girl is even a little ill-bred, you are the first to notice it."

"Do you mean to insinuate that Jack is ill-bred? There never was a truer gentleman in the world, but you'd rather have some dancing dandy, some society jay, all show and no wit."

"You know better. No one despises a brainless fop more than I do, but I do like a man to know how to conduct himself in the drawing-room."

"And doesn't Jack?"

"I never said he didn't."

"Well, what are you pitching into dear old Jack for? You never would do him justice, and now he's ill and away off there among strangers. I think you ought to be ashamed of yourself." Archie was getting himself worked up into a fine rage.

"I suppose it would suit you exactly to go down there and live among bowie knives and lynch laws," retorted Theo. "You'd better go." And she left the room in a high dudgeon.

And it is quite likely her late gentle feelings towards Jack would have taken a backward turn, in consequence of Archie's berating, had she not come across Mrs. Tucker one day on the pier.

"Why," exclaimed this lady, catching sight of Theo, "are you down here? I haven't seen you for years, not since I was married. You knew I married Albert Tucker, didn't you? Oh, of course. Mamma wrote me that you were all at Lyndehurst. What you all can see in that disagreeable Mr. Smith I never could imagine; but, of course, we haven't all the same tastes."

Theo inwardly thought not, as she remembered Mr. Tucker.

"And what has become of your friend Jack Allen?" asked Mrs. Tucker.

"We have not seen him for some time," replied Theo.

"Oh, no, I suppose not. I remember now, he lost all his money."

"I cannot imagine why that should make any difference in our friendship," returned Theo, exasperated. "Jack—Mr. Allen has not been in this part of the country for some months."

"Is that so? Well, of course it would be very foolish for you to throw yourself away on a poor man. He was rather good-looking, as I remember. But as that is all he has now to recommend him, I think you were quite wise to send him off."

Theo could have shaken her. As Leonore Parkhurst, Mrs. Tucker had always aroused Theo's antagonism, and had ascribed motives to the girl's actions of which she had never dreamed, always assuming that Theo's standards were quite worldly, and her defence of high principles all for effect. So, although she was Jamie's sister, Theo did not care for a longer interview, but after a few commonplaces, left the spot where Mrs. Tucker was standing.

"Dear old Jack!" thought Theo, indignantly, as she took her way to the place where she had left Nannie standing. "Only your good looks to recommend you, indeed! As if there were ever a nobler, sweeter, truer nature in all the world!"

And Theo set her teeth together then and there, coming to a determination which neither time nor circumstance could alter.