Look at those dreadful things on the wall.You have of course supposed them to be portraits of his ancestors, earls of Rossmore.Well, they are not.They are chromos of distinguished Americans--all moderns; but he has carried them back a thousand years by re-labeling them.Andrew Jackson there, is doing what he can to be the late American earl; and the newest treasure in the collection is supposed to be the young English heir--I mean the idiot with the crape; but in truth it's a shoemaker, and not Lord Berkeley at all.""Are you sure?"
"Why of course I am.He wouldn't look like that.""Why?"
"Because his conduct in his last moments, when the fire was sweeping around him shows that he was a man.It shows that he was a fine, high-souled young creature."
Tracy was strongly moved by these compliments, and it seemed to him that the girl's lovely lips took on anew loveliness when they were delivering them.He said, softly:
"It is a pity he could not know what a gracious impression his behavior was going to leave with the dearest and sweetest stranger in the land of--""Oh, I almost loved him! Why, I think of him every day.He is always floating about in my mind."Tracy felt that this was a little more than was necessary.He was conscious of the sting of jealousy.He said:
"It is quite right to think of him--at least now and then--that is, at intervals--in perhaps an admiring way--but it seems to me that--""Howard Tracy, are you jealous of that dead man?"He was ashamed--and at the same time not ashamed.He was jealous--and at the same time he was not jealous.In a sense the dead man was himself;in that case compliments and affection lavished upon that corpse went into his own till and were clear profit.But in another sense the dead man was not himself; and in that case all compliments and affection lavished there were wasted, and a sufficient basis for jealousy.A tiff was the result of the dispute between the two.Then they made it up, and were more loving than ever.As an affectionate clincher of the reconciliation, Sally declared that she had now banished Lord Berkeley from her mind; and added, "And in order to make sure that he shall never make trouble between us again, I will teach myself to detest that name and all that have ever borne it or ever shall bear it."This inflicted another pang, and Tracy was minded to ask her to modify that a little just on general principles, and as practice in not overdoing a good thing--perhaps he might better leave things as they were and not risk bringing on another tiff.He got away from that particular, and sought less tender ground for conversation.
"I suppose you disapprove wholly of aristocracies and nobilities, now that you have renounced your title and your father's earldom.""Real ones? Oh, dear no--but I've thrown aside our sham one for good."This answer fell just at the right time and just in the right place, to save the poor unstable young man from changing his political complexion once more.He had been on the point of beginning to totter again, but this prop shored him up and kept him from floundering back into democracy and re-renouncing aristocracy.So he went home glad that he had asked the fortunate question.The girl would accept a little thing like a genuine earldom, she was merely prejudiced against the brummagem article.
Yes, he could have his girl and have his earldom, too: that question was a fortunate stroke.
Sally went to bed happy, too; and remained happy, deliriously happy, for nearly two hours; but at last, just as she was sinking into a contented and luxurious unconsciousness, the shady devil who lives and lurks and hides and watches inside of human beings and is always waiting for a chance to do the proprietor a malicious damage, whispered to her soul and said, "That question had a harmless look, but what was back of it? --what was the secret motive of it? --what suggested it?"The shady devil had knifed her, and could retire, now, and take a rest;the wound would attend to business for him.And it did.
Why should Howard Tracy ask that question? If he was not trying to marry her for the sake of her rank, what should suggest that question to him?
Didn't he plainly look gratified when she said her objections to aristocracy had their limitations? Ah, he is after that earldom, that gilded sham--it isn't poor me he wants.
So she argued, in anguish and tears.Then she argued the opposite theory, but made a weak, poor business of it, and lost the case.She kept the arguing up, one side and then the other, the rest of the night, and at last fell asleep at dawn; fell in the fire at dawn, one may say;for that kind of sleep resembles fire, and one comes out of it with his brain baked and his physical forces fried out of him.
