Southern States -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
They went together, as far as the County Road, Judith and Mrs. Morrison
driving and Baird and Garvin riding beside them. There the two men
turned into the extension of the Westmore Road that skirted the Mine
Banks, the shortest way to the Post-Road, leaving Judith and Mrs.
Morrison to go by the more roundabout way; the disused Mine Banks Road
was possible only to riders.
Judith reached from the buggy to shake hands with Baird, and there was
the same sweetness in her voice as there had been when she parted from
him the night before. "You must come to see us very soon, Mr. Baird. I
shall expect you," and her eyes said, "Welcome you."
And Garvin's voice also had a kinder note when he parted with her, as if
he had his worn nerves under better control. "I'll be back for dinner,
Judy."
"Be sure you are," she returned brightly.
"Poor Judith!" Garvin said, as he and Baird rode on. "She has the world
on her shoulders--or, rather, the Westmore family--and it's something of
a weight, I assure you." He sighed impatiently and looked up at the
looming conglomeration of sear undergrowth and trees and bald red
patches which they were approaching. "Ever been up there?" he asked.
"No, but I'm going."
"Well, don't go without a guide--there are some ugly pitfalls about....
That was a steep broad hill once, dug down and muddled into what it is
by the picks and shovels of English convicts. If all that's said is
true, they fared worse under my great-great-grandfather's rule than the
niggers did. It's not easy to make slaves of Englishmen.... For the last
hundred years it's been simply a game warren. There are caves and
underground passages and ore-pits full of water up there, and some soft
little hollows, too, where the pines and cedars have grown up. I know
every inch of it. It always fascinated me, but there are some of our
family who couldn't be driven to set foot in the place, and there's not
a nigger in the county will go near it. And that's a good thing--keeps
it free of pests." He laughed shortly. "Lord! I've slept off more than
one drunk up there--and played with a girl there, too, on occasion, and
only the moon the wiser for it." He spoke steadily, carelessly, but with
an undercurrent of feeling.
Edward's exclamation still rang in Baird's ears. Garvin had not been
drunk the night before; that he knew. When he and Judith went down to
the terraces Garvin was dancing with Priscilla Copeley, and with an air
of enjoyment.
Baird studied him closely. Garvin was riding with face lifted, and it
brought his profile into relief, bold brow, haughty nose and lip,
beautifully modeled chin. The lines about his eyes suggested both
weariness and sadness, the curled lip measureless disgust and
discontent; a thoroughly unhappy man--if he was any judge of
physiognomy. And again Baird felt sorry for him; there was something
radically wrong with him.
Garvin's face changed suddenly. "Look there!" he exclaimed. "By jove!
Any one would say it was a bear."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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