After Lucius went away Bertha said, thoughtfully: "I wish he hadn't told
us that; I can't order him around the way I've been doing."
Haney smiled. "Did ye order him around? I niver chanced to hear ye do
anything but ask him questions. 'Lucius, will ye do this?' 'Lucius,
won't ye do that?'"
Bertha was troubled, and found herself embarrassed by the mulatto's
services. She now perceived sadness beneath the quiet lines of his face
and hard-won culture in the tones of his voice. The essential tragedy of
his defeat grew more poignant to her as she watched him getting the
trunks strapped, surrounded by maids and porters. How could she have
misread his manner? He was performing his duties, not with quiet gusto,
but in the spirit of the trained nurse.
This mountain girl had always regarded Illinois as "the East," but after
a few weeks in New York City she now looked away to Chicago as a Western
town. She was glad to face the sunset sky again, and yet as she wheeled
away to the train she acknowledged a regret. Under the skilful guidance
of Lucius she had seen a great deal of the splendid and furious
Manhattan. She had gazed with unenvious admiration on the palaces of
upper Fifth Avenue and the Park. Together with Haney she had spun up
Riverside Drive, past Grant's Tomb, and on through Washington Heights,
with joy of the far-spreading panorama. She had visited the Battery and
sailed the shining way to Staten Island in silent awe of the ship-filled
bay. She had heard the sunset-guns thunder at Fort Hamilton, and had
threaded the mazes of the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, and each day the
mast-hemmed island widened in grandeur and thickened with threads of
human purpose, making the America she knew very simple, very quiet, and
very remote.
Night by night she had gone to the music-halls and theatres, and her
mind had been powerfully wrought upon by what she had seen and heard. In
all these trips Haney had heroically accompanied his wife, though he
frequently dropped asleep in his seat; and he, too, left the city with
regret, though he said, "Thank God, I'm out of it," as they settled into
their seats in the ferry. "'Tis not the night traffic that wears me
down--I'm used to being on the night shift; 'tis the wild pace Lucius
sets by day. Faith, 'twas the aquarium in the morning and the circus in
the afternoon. Me dreams have been wan long procession of misbegotten
fish, ballet-dancers, dirty monkeys, and big elephants the nights. 'Tis
a great city, but I am ready to return to me peaceful perch above the
faro-board; I think 'twould rest me soul to see a game of craps."
"Why didn't you order Lucius to let up on the sight-seeing business?"
Bertha said.
"And expose me weak knees to me nigger? No, no, Mike."
"I wanted you to let me rummage about alone."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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