Sally Dows Page 5

obediently flung aside his coat and followed his activehostess through the French window to the platform outside. Above them awooden ledge or cornice, projecting several inches, ran the whole lengthof the building. It was on this that Miss Sally had evidently found afoothold while she was nailing up a trellis-work of laths between it andthe windows of the second floor. Courtland found the ladder, mountedto the ledge, followed by the young girl, who smilingly waived hisproffered hand to help her up, and the two gravely set to work. But inthe intervals of hammering and tying up the vines Miss Sally's tonguewas not idle. Her talk was as fresh, as quaint, as original as herself,and yet so practical and to the purpose of Courtland's visit as toexcuse his delight in it and her own fascinating propinquity. Whethershe stopped to take a nail from between her pretty lips when she spoketo him, or whether holding on perilously with one hand to the trelliswhile she gesticulated with the hammer, pointing out the divisions ofthe plantation from her coign of vantage, he thought she was as clearand convincing to his intellect as she was distracting to his senses.

  She told him how the war had broken up their old home in Pineville,sending her father to serve in the Confederate councils of Richmond,and leaving her aunt and herself to manage the property alone; how theestate had been devastated, the house destroyed, and how they hadbarely time to remove a few valuables; how, although SHE had always beenopposed to secession and the war, she had not gone North, preferring tostay with her people, and take with them the punishment of the folly shehad foreseen. How after the war and her father's death she and her aunthad determined to "reconstruct THEMSELVES" after their own fashion onthis bit of property, which had survived their fortunes because it hadalways been considered valueless and unprofitable for negro labor. Howat first they had undergone serious difficulty, through the incompetenceand ignorance of the freed laborer, and the equal apathy and prejudiceof their neighbors. How they had gradually succeeded with the adoptionof new methods and ideas that she herself had conceived, which she nowbriefly and clearly stated. Courtland listened with a new, breathless,and almost superstitious interest: they were HIS OWN THEORIES--perfectedand demonstrated!

  "But you must have had capital for this?"

  Ah, yes! that was where they were fortunate. There were some Frenchcousins with whom she had once stayed in Paris, who advanced enough tostock the estate. There were some English friends of her father's, oldblockade runners, who had taken shares, provided them with more capital,and imported some skilled laborers and a kind of steward or agent torepresent them. But they were getting on, and perhaps it was better fortheir reputation with their neighbors that they had not been BEHOLDEN tothe "No'th." Seeing a cloud pass over Courtland's face, the young ladyadded with an affected sigh, and the first touch of feminine coquetrywhich had invaded their wholesome camaraderie:--

  "Yo' ought to have found us out BEFORE, co'nnle."

  For an impulsive moment Courtland felt like telling her then and therethe story of his romantic quest; but the reflection that they werestanding on a narrow ledge with no room for the emotions, and that MissSally had just put a nail in her mouth and a start might be dangerous,checked him. To this may be added a new jealousy of her previousexperiences, which he had not felt before. Nevertheless, he managed tosay with some effusion:--

  "But I hope we are not too late NOW. I think my principals are quiteready and able to buy up any English or French investor now or to come."

  "Yo' might try yo' hand on that one," said Miss Sally, pointing to ayoung fellow who had just emerged from the office and was crossing thecourtyard. "He's the English agent."

  He was square-shouldered and round-headed, fresh and clean looking inhis white flannels, but with an air of being utterly distinct and aliento everything around him, and mentally and morally irreconcilable to it.As he passed the house he glanced shyly at it; his eye brightened andhis manner became self-conscious as he caught sight of the young girl,but changed again when he saw her companion. Courtland likewise wasconscious of a certain uneasiness; it was one thing to be helping MissSally ALONE, but certainly another thing to be doing so under the eyeof a stranger; and I am afraid that he met the stony observation of theEnglishman with an equally cold stare. Miss Sally alone retained herlanguid ease and self-possession. She called out, "Wait a moment, Mr.Champney," slipped lightly down the ladder, and leaning against it withone foot on its lowest rung awaited his approach.

  "I reckoned yo' might be passing by," she said, as he came forward."Co'nnle Courtland," with an explanatory wave of the hammer towards hercompanion, who remained erect and slightly stiffened on the cornice,"is no relation to those figures along the frieze of the Redlands CourtHouse, but a No'th'n officer, a friend of Major Reed's, who's come downhere to look after So'th'n property for some No'th'n capitalists. Mr.Champney," she continued, turning and lifting her eyes to Courtland asshe indicated Champney with her hammer, "when he isn't talking English,seeing English, thinking English, dressing English, and wondering whyGod didn't make everything English, is trying to do the same forHIS folks. Mr. Champney, Co'nnle Courtland. Co'nnle Courtland, Mr.Champney!" The two men bowed formally. "And now, Co'nnle, if yo'llcome down, Mr. Champney will show yo' round the fahm. When yo' 've gotthrough yo'll find me here at work."

  Courtland would have preferred, and half looked for her companyand commentary on this round of inspection, but he concealed hisdisappointment and descended. It did not exactly please him thatChampney seemed relieved, and appeared to accept him as a bona fidestranger who could not possibly interfere with any confidentialrelations that he might have with Miss Sally. Nevertheless, he met theEnglishman's offer to accompany him with polite gratitude, and they leftthe house together.

  In less than an hour they returned. It had not even taken that time forCourtland to discover that the real improvements and the new methodshad originated with Miss Sally; that she was virtually the controllinginfluence there, and that she was probably retarded rather than assistedby the old-fashioned and traditional conservatism of the company ofwhich Champney was steward. It was equally plain, however, that theyoung fellow was dimly conscious of this, and was frankly communicativeabout it.

  "You see, over there they work things in a different way, and, by Jove!they can't understand that there is any other, don't you know? They'realways wigging me as if I could help it, although I've tried to explainthe nigger business, and all that, don't you know? They want Miss Dowsto refer her plans to me, and expect me to report on them, and thenthey'll submit them to the Board and wait for its decision. Fancy MissDows doing that! But, by Jove! they can't conceive of her AT ALL overthere, don't you know?"

  "Which Miss Dows do you mean?" asked Courtland dryly.

  "Miss Sally, of course," said the young fellow briskly. "SHE manageseverything--her aunt included. She can make those niggers work when noone else can, a word or smile from her is enough. She can make termswith dealers and contractors--her own terms, too--when they won't lookat MY figures. By Jove! she even gets points out of those travelingagents and inventors, don't you know, who come along the road withpatents and samples. She got one of those lightning-rod and wire-fencemen to show her how to put up an arbor for her trailing roses. Why, whenI first saw YOU up on the cornice, I thought you were some other chapthat she'd asked--don't you know--that is, at first, of course!--youknow what I mean--ha, by Jove!--before we were introduced, don't youknow."

  "I think I OFFERED to help Miss Dows," said Courtland with a quicknessthat he at once regretted.

  "So did HE, don't you know? Miss Sally does not ASK anybody. Don't yousee? a fellow don't like to stand by and see a young lady like her doingsuch work." Vaguely aware of some infelicity in his speech, he awkwardlyturned the subject: "I don't think I shall stay here long, myself."

  "You expect to return to England?" asked Courtland.

  "Oh, no! But I shall go out of the company's service and try my ownhand. There's a good bit of land about three miles from here that's inthe market, and I think I could make something out of it. A fellow ough
tto settle down and be his own master," he answered tentatively, "eh?"

  "But how will Miss Dows be able to spare you?" asked Courtland, uneasilyconscious that he was assuming an indifference.

  "Oh, I'm not much use to her, don't you know--at least not HERE. ButI might, if I had my own land and if we were neighbors. I told you SHEruns the place, no matter who's here, or whose money is invested."

  "I presume you are speaking now of young Miss Dows?" said Courtlanddryly.

  "Miss Sally--of course--always," said