Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1907 — THE CONQUEST of CANAAN [ARTICLE]

THE CONQUEST of CANAAN

By BOOTH TARKINGTON, Author of “Cherry." “Monsieur Beaueaire," Etc.

SYNOPSIS OF PRBVtOUS CHAPTERS. Chapter I—Eugene Bantry, a Canaan (Ind.,) young man, who has been eaat to college, returns home and astounds the natives by the gorgeousnrss of his raiment. H|s stepbrother. Joe Loudin. is characterized by the ■sea male gowipvwtin daily assemble at the National House for argument as the good for nothing associate of doubtful characters. II Eugene's appearance has a pronounced effect upon Mamie Pike, whose father, Judge Pike, is the wealthiest and most prominent citizen of Canaan. Joe worships Mamie from ■far. Eugene interferes in a snow fight between Joe and his hoidenish and very poor girl friend, Ariel Taber, who Is worsted. Ariel hotly resents the interference and slaps Eugene, who sends her home. Ill—Ariel, unbecomingly attired, attends Mamie Pike s ball. IV—Joe. concealed behind some plants on the Pike veranda, watches hungrily for a glimpse of Minnie. Ariel is ignored by most of the guests. Ariel discovers Joe, aut shortly afterward, learning that her uncle, Jonas Tabor. has died suddenly, leaves. The Daily Tocsin oi the next day tells of Joe's discovery on the Pike veranda and of his pursuit ■nd escape therefrom. It also refers to wounds in the head of himself and of Norbert Flitcroft, who detected him. Jqe retires to the “Beach," a low resort kept by his friend, Mike Sheehan, who dresses nis wound. .VI Joe leaves Mike’s place. He visits Ariel Tabor, who, by the death of her Uncle Jonas, baa become rich. She wishes Joe to accompany her and her grandfather to Paris. Joe refuses and leaves Canaan to avoid arrest for the trouble at Judge Pike’s, Vll—Joe is heard from two years later as a ticket seller for a side show. Eugene Bantry also meets him seven years later In a low resort in New York, but wisely refrains from advertising it. VIII-Joe returns to Canaan a full-fledged lawyer. Even his father ignores kim. and he is refused accommodations at the National bouse. IX—Joe is welcomed at the “Bench, ’’ and "Happy Fear.” one of Joe’s admirers, •eriously assualts Nashville Cory, a detractor. At the end of Happy’s term In prison he visits Joe, who now has a law office on the square, with a living room adjoining. Joe has a large practice, principally among the lower classes, and Is frequently attacked by the Tocsin. Joe begins, in his lonliness, to yield to the seductions ot the bottle. Bantry's engagment to Mamie Pike is announced. Bantry is now associate editor of the Tocsin, owned by Judge Pike X—Joe awakens after a "bad night” with the words, “Remember, across the Main street bridge at noon," ringing in his ears. He goes there and is presently joined by the most beautifully dressed girl he has ever seen. Xl—She turns out to be Ariel Tabor, arrived in Canaan the night before from her long sojourn in Paris. She has seen Joe as she alighted from the train and, realizing his condition, had escorted him home after exacting from him a promise to meet her the next day (Sunday) across the Main street bridge at noon. Joe learns that Ariel is stopping at Judge Pike's home, the judge having entire charge of her money, etc. XII— Eugene Bantry, although engaged to Mamie, is much smitten with Ariel’s charms. Judge Pike tries his usual blustering tactics with Ariel, but subsides When she tells him that she shall ask him to turn over the care of her estate to Joe Louden. Xlll—Ariel holds a sort of Informal reception at Judge Plke'sand learns that the “tough element” is talking of running Joe for mayor.

This grave courtesy caused a strong, deep flush to spread itself under the rouge which unevenly covered the woman’s cheeks as she bowed elaborately In return. Then furtively, during a protracted silence, she took stock of the new comer from the tip of her white suede shoes to the filmy lace and pink roses upon her wide white hat, and the sidelong gaze lingered marvelTngly upon the quiet, delicate hands, slender and finely expressive, in their white gloves. Her own hands, unlike the lady’s, began to fidget confusedly, and, the silence continuing, she coughed , several times to effect the preface required by her sense of fitness before she felt It proper to observe, with a polite titter:. “Mr. Louden seems to be a good while cornin’.” “Have you been waiting very long?’’ asked the lady. “Ever since 6 o’clock!’’ “Yes,’’ said the other, “that Is very long.” “Yes, ma’am. It cert’nly is.” The Ice thus broken, she felt free to use her eyes more directly and. after a long, frank stare, exclaimed: “Why, you must be Miss Ariel Tabor. ain’t you?” “Yes”—Ariel touched one of the roses upon Joe’s desk with her finger tips—“l am Miss Tabor." “Well, excuse me fer asking; I’m sure It ain’t any business of mine.” said the other, remembering the manners due one lady from another. “But I thought It must be. I expect," she added, with loud, inconsequent laughter. “there’s not many In Canaan ain’t heard you’ve come back.” She paused, laughed again, nervously, and again, less loudly, to take off the edge of her abruptness, gradually tittering herself down to a pause, to fill which she put forth. “Right nice weather we be’n havin’.” ' “Yes,” said Ariel. “It was rainy first of last week though. I don’t mind rain so much”— this with more laughter—“l stay in the house when It rains. Some people don't know enough to, they say. You’ve heard that saying, ain’t you, Miss Tabor?” “Yes.” t 'J “Well, I tell you." she exclaimed noisily, “there’s plenty ladles and gen’lemen in this town that’s like that". Her laughter did not cease. It became louder and shriller. It bad been until now a mere lubrication of the conversation, helping to make her easier in Miss Tabor’s presence, but as It increased in shrillness she seemed to be losing control of herself, as if her laughter were getting away with her. She was not far from hysteria when she stopped with a gasp, and she sat up straight in her chair, white and rigid. •’There!” she said listening intently. “Ain’t that him?” Steps sounded upon the pavement below, paused for a second at the foot of the stairs; there was | a snap of a match, then the steps sounded again, retreating. She sank back la her chair limply. “It was only some one stoppin* to light his cigar in the entry. It wasn’t Joe Louden’s , “You know his step?” Ariel’s eyes

were bent upon the woman wonderingly. “I'd know it tonight," wag the answer, delivered with a sharp and painful giggle. “I got plenty reason to.” Arie) did not respond. She leaned a little closer to the roses upon the desk, letting them touch her face and breathing deeply of their fragrance to neutralize a perfume which pervaded the room, an odor as heavy and cheapsweet as the face of the woman who had saturated her handkerchief with it. a scent which went with her perfectly and made her unhappily definite; suited to her clumsily dyed hair, to her soiled white shoes, to the hot red hat smothered in plumage, to the restless stub fingered hands, to the fat, plated rings, of which she wore a great quantity, though, surprisingly enough, the large diamonds in her ears were pure and of a very clear water. It was she who broke the silence once more. “Well,” she drawled, coughing genteelly at the same time, "better late than never, as the saying is. 1 wonder who it is gits up all them comical sayings?” Apparently she had no genuine desire for light upon this mystery as she continued immediately: “I have a gen’leman friend that’s always giftin' ’em off. ‘Well,’ he says, ‘the best of friends must part,’ and ‘Thou strikesti me to the heart’—all kinds of cracks like that. He’s real comical. And yet,” she went on in an altered voice, “I don’t like him much. I’d be glad if I’d never seen him.” The change of tone was so marked that Ariel looked at her keenly, to find herself surprised * Into pitying this strange client of Joe’s, for tears had sprung to the woman’s eyes and slid along the lids, where she tried vainly to restrain them. Her face had altered, too. like her voice, haggard lines suddenly appearing about the eyes and mouth as if they had just been penciled there—the truth issuing from beneath her pinchbeck simulations like a tragic mask revealed by the displacement of a tawdry covering. “I expect you think I’m real foolish,” she said, “but I be’n waitin’ so awful long, and I got a good deal of worry on my mind till I see Mr. Louden.” “I am sorry.” Ariel turned from the roses and faced her and the heavy perfume. “I hope he will come soon.” “I hope so," said the other. “It’s something to do with me that keeps him away, and the longer he is the more it scares me.” She shivered and set her teeth together. “It's kind of hard waitin’. I cert’nly got my share of troubles.” “Don’t you think that Mr. Louden will be able to take care of them for you?” “Oh, I hope so, Miss Tabor! If he can’t, nobody can." She was crying openly now, wiping her eyes with her musk soaked handkerchief. “We had to send fer him yesterday afternoon”— “To come to Beaver Beach, do you mean?” asked Ariel, leaning forward. “Yes, ma’am. It all begun out there—leastways it begun before that with me. It was all my fault. I deserve all that’s cornin’ to me, I guess. I done wrong! I done wrong! I’d oughtn’t never to of went out there yesterday.” She checked herself sharply, bui after a moment’s pause continued, encouraged by the grave kindliness of the delicate face in the shadow of the wide white hat. “I oughtn’t to of went,” she repeated. “Oh, I reckon I’ll never, never learn enough to keep out o’ trouble, even when I see 1F cornin’! But that gen’leman friend of mine—Mr. Nashville Cory’s his name—he kind o’ coaxed me into it, and he’s right comical when he’s with ladies, and he’s good company, and he says, ’Claudine, we’ll dance the light fantastic,’ he says, and I kind o’ wanted something cheerful. I’d be’n workin’ steady quite a spell, and it looked like he wanted to show me a good time, so I went, and that’s what started it” Now that she hud begun she babbled on with her story, at times incoherently, full of excuses made to herself more than to Ariel, pitifully endeavoring to convince herself that the responsibility for the muddle she had made was not hers. “Mr. Cory told me my husband was drinkin' and wouldn’t know- about it, and, ‘Besides.’ he says, ‘what’s the odds?’ Of course 1 knowed there was. trouble between him and Mr. Fear—that’s my husband —a good while ago, when Mr. Fear up and laid him out. That was before me and Mr. Fear got married; I hadn’t even be’n to Canaan then; I was on the - stage. I was on the stage quite awhile In Chicago before I got acquainted with my busband.” “You were on the stage?” Ariel exclaimed Involuntarily. “Yes, ma’am—livin’ pitchers at Goldberg’s’ rat’skeller, and amunchoor nights I nearly always done a sketch with a gen’leman friend. That’s the way I met Mr. Fear. He seemed to be real struck with me right away, and soon as I got through my turn he ast me to order whatever I wanted. He’s always gen’lemanllke when he ain’t had too much, and even then he runy, vurry seldom acks rough unless he’s jealous. That was the trouble yesterday. I never would of gone to the Beach If I’d dreamed what was coinin’! Whan we sot there I saw Mike—-

that the gen’leman that runs the Beach—lookin’ at my company and me kind of anxious, and pretty soon he got me away from Mr. Cory and told me what’s what Seems tills Cory only wanted me to go with him to make my husband mad, and he’d took good care that Mr. Fear heard I’d be there with him. An’ he’d be’n bangin’ around me every time he struck town jest to make Mr. Fear mad—the fresh thing! You see, be wanted to make my husband start something again, this Mr. Cory did, and be was fixed for it” “I don’t understand," said Ariel. "It’s this way: If Mr. Fear attacked Mr. Cory, why. Mr. Cory could shoot him down and claim self defense. You see, it would be easy for Mr. Cory, because Mr. Fear nearly killed him when they had their first trouble, and that would give Mr. Cory a good excuse to shoot if Mr. Fear jest only pushed him. That’s the way it is with the law. Mr. Cory could wipe out their old score and git off scot free.” “Surely not!” “Yes, ma’am, that’s the way it would be. And when Mike told me that Mr. Cpry had got me out there jest to provoke my husband I went straight up to him and begun to give him a piece of my mind. I didn’t talk loud, because I never was one to make a disturbance and start trouble the way some do, and right while I was talkin’ we both see my husband pass the window. Mr. Cory give a kind of yelling laugh and put his arm round me jest as Mr. Fear come in the door. And then it all happened so quick that you could hardly tell what was goin’ on. Mr. Fear, we found afterward, had promised Mr. Louden that he wouldn’t come out there, but he took too much—you could see that by the look of him—and tergot his promise—fergot everything but me and Cory, I guess.

“He come right up to us, where I was tryin’ to git away from Cory’s arm—it was the left one he bad around me and the other behind his back—and neither of ’em said a word. Cory kept on laughin’ loud as he could, and Mr. Fear struck him in the mouth. He’s little, but he can bit awful hard, and Mr. Cory let out a screech, and I see his gun go off right in Mr. Fear's face, I thought, but it wasn’t. It only scorched him. Most of the other gen’lemen had run, but Mike made a dive and managed to knock the gun to one side jest barely In time. Then Mike and three or four others that come out from behind things separated ’em, both of ’em fightin’ to git at each other. They locked Mr. Cory up In Mike’s room and took Mr. Fear over to where they hitch the horses. Then Mike sent fer Mr. Louden to come out to talk to my husband and take care of him—he’s the only one can do anything with him when he’s like that—but before Mr. Louden could git there Mr. Fear broke loose and run through a cornfield and got away—at least they couldn't find him. And Mr. Cory jumped through a window and slid down Into one of Mike’s boats, so they’d both gone. When Mr. Louden come he only stayed long enough to hear what had happen- . ed and started out to find Happy—that’s my husband. He’s bound to keep them apart, but he hasn’t found Mr. Fear yet or he’d be here." Ariel had sunk back in her chair. “Why should your husband hide?” she asked in a low voice.

“Waitin’ fer his chance at Cory,” the woman answered huskily. “I expect he’s afraid the cops are after him, too, on account of the trouble, and he doesn’t want to git locked up till he's met Cory again. They ain’t after him, but he may not know it They haven’t heard of the trouble, I reckon, or they’d of run Cory in. He's around town today, drinkin’ heavy, and I guess he’s lookin’ fer Mr. Fear about as hard as Mr. Louden is.” She tose to her feet, lifted her coarse hands and dropped them despairingly. :*Oh, I’m scared!" she said. “Mr. Fear’s be’n mighty good to me.” * A slow and tired footstep was heard upon the stairs, and Joe’s dog ran into the room droopingly, wagged his tail with no energy and crept under the desk. Mrs. Fear wheeled toward the door and stood, rigid, her hands clinched tight, her whole body still except her breast, which rose and fell with her tumultuous breathing. She could not wait tili the laggard step reached the landing. “Mr. Loudon!” she called suddenly.

Joe’s voice came from the stairway. “It’s all right, Claudine. It’a all fixed up. Don’t worry.” Mrs. Fear gave a thick cry of relief and sank back in her chair as Joe entered the room. He came in shamblingly, with his hand over his eyes as if tijey were very tired and the light hurt them, so that for a moment or two be did not perceive the second visitor. Then he let his hand fall, revealing a face white and woru. “It’s ail right. Claudine.” he repeated. “It’a all right.” He was moving to lay his hat on the desk when his eye caught first the roses, then fell upon Ariel, and he stopped stock still with one arm outstretched, remaining for perhaps ten seconds in that attitude, while she. her lips parted, her eyes lustrous, returned gaze with a look that was as inscrutable as It.was kind. “Yes.” she saM, as If In answer to a question, “I come here twice today.” She nodded slightly toward Mrs. Fear. “I can wait. I am very glad you bring good news.” Joe turned dazedly toward the other. “Claudine.” he said, “you’ve been telling Miss Tabor.” “I cert’nly have!” Mrs. Fear’s expression had cleared, and her tone was cheerful. “I don’t see no harm in that. I’m sure she’s a good friend of yours, Mr. Louden.” Joe glanced at Ariel with a faint,

troubled smile and turned again to Mrs. Fear. * “I've had a long talk with Happy.” “I’m awful glafr. Is be ready to listen to reasou?” she asked with a titter. , “He’s waiting for you.” “Where?” She rose quickly; “Stop," said Joe sharply. “You must be very careful with him”— “Don’t you s'pose I’m goin’ to be?" she interrupted, with a catch in her voice. “Don’t you s’pose I’ve had trouble enough?” “No.” said Joo deliberately and impersonally, “I don’t. Unless you keep remembering to be careful all the time you’ll follow the first Impulse you have, as you did yesterday, and your excuse will be that you never thought any harm would come of it He’s in a queer mood, but he will for give you if you ask him’’— “Well, ain’t that what I want to do?” she exclaimed. ..... “I know, I know,” he said, dropping into the desk chair and passing his hand over his eyes with a gesture of infinite weariness. “But you must be very careful. I hunted for him most of the night and all day. He was trying to keep out of my way because he didn’t want me to find him until he had met this fellow Nashville. Happy is a hard man to come at when be doesn’t care to be found, and be kept shifting from place to place until I ran him down. Then I got him in a corner and told him that you hadn’t meant any barm—which is always true of you, poor woman—and I didn’t leave him till he had promised me to forgive you if you would come and ask him. And you must keep him out of Cory’s way until I can arrange to have him—Cory, I mean—sent out of town. Will you?” “Why, cert’nly,” she answered, smiling. “That Nashville's the vurry last person I ever want to see again—the fresh thing!” Mrs. Fear’s burden had fallen; her relief was perfect, and she beamed vapidly. But Joe marked her renewed Irresponsibility with an anxious eye. “You mustn’t make any mistakes.” he said, rising stiffly with fatigue.

“Not me. I don’t take no more chances,” she responded, tittering happily; “not after yesterday. My. but It’s a load off my shoulders! Ido hate it to have gen’lemen quarreling over me, especially Mr. Fear. I never did like to start anything. I like to see people laugh and be friendly,, and I’m mighty glad it’s all blown over. I kind o’ thought it would all along. Psho!” She burst into genuine, noisy laughter. “I don’t expect either of ’em meant no real harm to each other after they got cooled off a little. If they’d met today they’d probably both run. Now, Mr. Louden, where’s Happy?” Joe went to the door with her. He waited a pioment, perplexed; then his brow cleared, and he said In a low voice: “You know the alley beyond Vent Miller’s poolroom ? Go down the alley till you come to the second gate. Go In, and you’ll see a basement door opening into a little room under Miller’s bar. The door won’t be locked, and Happy’s in there waiting for you. But remember”— “Oh, don’t you worry!” she cut him off loudly. “I know him. Inside of an hour I’ll have him laughin’ over all this. You’ll see!” When she had gone he stood upon the landing looking thoughtfully after her. “Perhaps, after all, that Is the best mood to let her meet him in.” he murmured. Then, with a deep breath, he turned. The heavy perfume had gone, the air was clear and sweet, and Ariel was pressing her face Into the roses again. Aa he saw how like them she was he was shaken with a profound and mysterious sigh, like that which moves in the breast of one who listens in the dark to bls dearest music. Ito bb oontinvbd.]