II
AN EVENING VISIT
Toward evening of the same day, Warwick took
his way down Front Street in the gathering dusk. By the time night had spread its mantle over the earth, he had reached the gate by which he had seen the girl of his morning walk enter the cedar- bordered garden. He stopped at the gate and glanced toward the house, which seemed dark and silent and deserted.
"It's more than likely," he thought, "that they
are in the kitchen. I reckon I'd better try the
back door."
But as he drew cautiously near the corner, he
saw a man's figure outlined in the yellow light
streaming from the open door of a small house
between Front Street and the cooper shop. Wishing, for reasons of his own, to avoid observation, Warwick did not turn the corner, but walked on down Front Street until he reached a point from which he could see, at a long angle, a ray of light proceeding from the kitchen window of the house behind the cedars.
"They are there," he muttered with a sigh of
relief, for he had feared they might be away. "I
suspect I'll have to go to the front door, after all. No one can see me through the trees."
He retraced his steps to the front gate, which
he essayed to open. There was apparently some
defect in the latch, for it refused to work. Warwick
remembered the trick, and with a slight sense
of amusement, pushed his foot under the gate and
gave it a hitch to the left, after which it opened
readily enough. He walked softly up the sanded
path, tiptoed up the steps and across the piazza, and rapped at the front door, not too loudly, lest this too might attract the attention of the man across the street. There was no response to his rap. He put his ear to the door and heard voices within, and the muffled sound of footsteps. After a moment he rapped again, a little louder than before.
There was an instant cessation of the sounds
within. He rapped a third time, to satisfy any
lingering doubt in the minds of those who he felt
sure were listening in some trepidation. A moment
later a ray of light streamed through the
keyhole.
"Who's there?" a woman's voice inquired
somewhat sharply.
"A gentleman," answered Warwick, not holding
it yet time to reveal himself. "Does Mis'
Molly Walden live here?"
"Yes," was the guarded answer. "I'm Mis'
Walden. What's yo'r business?"
"I have a message to you from your son
John."
A key clicked in the lock. The door opened, and
the elder of the two women Warwick had
seen upon the piazza stood in the doorway, peering
curiously and with signs of great excitement into
the face of the stranger.
"You 've got a message from my son, you say?" she asked with tremulous agitation. "Is he sick, or in trouble?"
"No. He's well and doing well, and sends
his love to you, and hopes you've not forgotten
him."
"Fergot him? No, God knows I ain't fergot
him! But come in, sir, an' tell me somethin'
mo' about him."
Warwick went in, and as the woman closed the
door after him, he threw a glance round the room. On the wall, over the mantelpiece, hung a steel engraving of General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and, on the opposite wall, a framed fashion-plate from "Godey's Lady's Book." In the middle of the room an octagonal centre-table with a single leg, terminating in three sprawling feet, held a collection of curiously shaped sea-shells. There was a great haircloth sofa, somewhat the worse for wear, and a well-filled bookcase. The screen standing before the fireplace was covered with Confederate bank-notes of various denominations and designs, in which the heads of Jefferson Davis and other Confederate leaders were conspicuous.
"Imperious Caesar, dead, and turned to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away,"
murmured the young man, as his eye fell upon this
specimen of decorative art.
The woman showed her visitor to a seat. She
then sat down facing him and looked at him closely. "When did you last see my son?" she asked.
"I've never met your son," he replied.
Her face fell. "Then the message comes
through you from somebody else?"
"No, directly from your son."