CHAPTER XV.
FORT PUTNAM.
"I am going to Fort Putnam this afternoon, with Mr. Thorold," Iannounced to Mrs. Sandford, after dinner.
"Who is Mr. Thorold?"
"One of the cadets."
"One of the cadets! So it has got hold of you at last, Daisy!"
"What, Mrs. Sandford?"
"But Fort Putnam? My dearest child, it is very hot!"
"Oh, yes, ma'am--I don't mind it."
"Well, I am very glad, if you don't," said Mrs. Sandford. "And I amvery glad Grant has taken himself off to the White Lakes. He gavenobody else any chance. It will do you a world of good."
"What will?" I asked, wondering.
"Amusement, dear--amusement. Something a great deal better thanGrant's 'elogies and 'ologies. Now this would never have happened ifhe had been at home."
I did not understand her, but then I knew she did not understand thepursuits she so slighted; and it was beyond my powers to enlightenher. So I did not try.
Mr. Thorold was punctual, and so was I; and we set forth at fiveo'clock, I at least was happy as it was possible to be. Warm it was,yet; we went slowly down the road, in shadow and sunshine; tasting thepleasantness, it seems to me, of every tree, and feeling the sweetnessof each breath; in that slight exhilaration of spirits which losesnothing and forgets nothing. At least I have a good memory for suchtimes. There was a little excitement, no doubt, about going this walkwith a cadet and a stranger, which helped the whole effect.
I made use of my opportunity to gain a great deal of information whichDr. Sandford could not give. I wanted to understand the meaning and theuse of many things I saw about the Point. Batteries and fortificationswere a mysterious jumble to me; shells were a horrible novelty; the wholeart and trade of a soldier, something well worth studying, but difficultto see as a reasonable whole. The adaptation of parts to an end, I couldperceive; the end itself puzzled me.
"Yet there has always been fighting," said my companion.
"Yes," I assented.
"Then we must be ready for it."
But I was not prepared in this case with my answer.
"Suppose we were unjustly attacked?" said Mr. Thorold; and I thoughtevery one of the gilt buttons on his grey jacket repelled the idea ofa peaceable composition.
"I don't know," said I, pondering. "Why should the rule be differentfor nations and for individual people?"
"What is your rule for individual people?" he asked, laughing, andlooking down at me, as he held the gate open. I can see the look andthe attitude now.
"It is not _my_ rule," I said.
"_The_ rule, then. What should a man do, Miss Randolph, when he isunjustly attacked?"
I felt I was on very untenable ground, talking to a soldier. If I wasright, what was the use of his grey coat, or of West Point itself? Wewere mounting the little steep pitch beyond the gate, where the roadturns; and I waited till I got upon level footing. Then catching abright inquisitive glance of the hazel eyes, I summoned up my courageand spoke.
"I have no rule but the Bible, Mr. Thorold."
"The Bible! What does the Bible say? It tells us of a great deal offighting."
"Of bad men."
"Yes, but the Jews were commanded to fight, were they not?"
"To punish bad men. But we have got another rule since that."
"What is it?"
"If any man smite thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other also."
"Is it possible you think the Bible means that literally?" he said.
"Do you think it would say what it did not mean?"
"But try it by the moral effect; what sort of a fellow would a man bewho did so, Miss Randolph?"
"I think he would be fine!" I said; for I was thinking of One who,"when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, hethreatened not." But I could not tell all my thought to Mr. Thorold;no more than I could to Dr. Sandford.
"And would you have him stand by and see another injured?" mycompanion asked. "Wouldn't you have him fight in such a case?"
I had not considered that question. I was silent.
"Suppose he sees wrong done; wrong that a few well-planted blows, orshots, if you like--shots are but well-directed blows," he said,smiling--"wrong that a few well-planted blows would prevent. Supposesomebody were to attack you now, for instance; ought I not to fightfor it?"
"I should like to have you," I said.
"Come!" he said, laughing, and stretching out his hand to shake mine,"I see you will let me keep my profession, after all. And why shouldnot a nation do, on a larger scale, what a man may do?"
"Why it may," I said.
"Then West Point is justified."
"But very few wars in the world are conducted on that principle," Isaid.
"Very few. In fact I do not at this moment recollect the instances.But you would allow a man, or a nation, to fight in self-defence,would not you?"
I pondered the matter. "I suppose he has a right to protect his life,"I said. "But, 'if a man smite thee on the cheek,' _that_ does nottouch life."
"What would you think of a man," said my companion, gravely, "whoshould suffer some one to give him such a blow, without taking anynotice of it?"
"If he did it because he was _afraid_," I said, "of course I shouldn'tlike that. But if he did it to obey the Bible, I should think it wasnoble. The Bible says, 'it is glory to pass by a transgression.'"
"But suppose he was afraid of being thought afraid?"
I looked at my companion, and felt instinctively sure that neitherthis nor my first supposed case would ever be true of him. Further, Ifelt sure that no one would ever be hardy enough to give the supposedoccasion. I can hardly tell how I knew; it was by some of thoseindescribable natural signs. We were slowly mounting the hill; and inevery powerful, lithe movement, in the very set of his shoulders andhead, and as well in the sparkle of the bright eye which looked roundat me, I read the tokens of a spirit which I thought neither had knownnor ever would know the sort of indignity he had described. He wastalking for talk's sake. But while I looked, the sparkle of the eyegrew very merry.
"You are judging me, Miss Randolph," he said. "Judge me gently."
"No, indeed," I said. "I was thinking that you are not speaking fromexperience."
"I am not better than you think me," he said, laughing, and shakinghis head. And the laugh was so full of merriment that it infected me.I saw he was very much amused; I thought he was a little interested,too. "You know," he went on, "my education has been unfavourable. Ihave fought for a smaller matter than that you judge insufficient."
"Did it do any good?" I asked.
He laughed again: picked up a stone and threw it into the midst of athick tree to dislodge something--I did not see what; and finallylooked round at me with the most genial amusement and good naturemixed. I knew he was interested now.
"I don't know how much good it did to anybody but myself," he said."It comforted me--at the time. Afterwards I remember thinking it washardly worth while. But if a fellow should suffer an insult, as yousay, and not take any notice of it, what do you suppose would becomeof him in the corps--or in the world either?"
"He would be a noble man, all the same," I said.
"But people like to be well thought of by their friends and society."
"I know that."
"He would be sent to Coventry unmitigatedly."
"I cannot help it, Mr. Thorold," I said. "If anybody does wrongbecause he is afraid of the consequences of doing right, he is anothersort of a coward--that is all."
Mr. Thorold laughed, and catching my hand as we came to a turn in theroad where the woods fell away right and left, brought me quick roundthe angle, without letting me go to the edge of the bank to get theview.
"You must not look till you get to the top," he said.
"What an odd road!" I remarked. "It just goes by zigzags."
"The only way to get up at all, without travelling round the hill.That is, for horses."
It
was steep enough for foot wayfarers, but the road was exceedingcomfortable that day. We were under the shade of trees all the way;and talk never lagged. Mr. Thorold was infinitely pleasant to me; aswell as unlike any one of all my former acquaintances. There was awealth of life in him that delighted my quieter nature; an amount ofanimal spirits that were just a constant little impetus to me; andfrom the first I got an impression of strength, such as weakness lovesto have near. Bodily strength he had also, in perfection; but I meannow the firm, self-reliant nature, quick at resources, ready to act asto decide, and full of the power that has its spring and magazine incharacter alone. So, enjoying each other, we went slowly up thezigzags of the hill, very steep in places, and very rough to the foot;but the last pitch was smoother, and there the grey old bulwarks ofthe ruined fortification faced down upon us, just above.
"Now," said Mr. Thorold, coming on the outside of me to prevent it,"don't look!"--and we turned into the entrance of the fort, betweentwo outstanding walls. Going through, we hurried up a little steeprise, till we got to a smooth spread of grass, sloping gently to alevel with the top of the wall. Where this slope reached its highest,where the parapet (as Mr. Thorold called it) commanded a clear viewfrom the eastern side, there he brought me, and then permitted me tostand still. I do not know how long I stood quite still withoutspeaking.
"Will you sit down?" said my companion; and I found he had spread apocket-handkerchief on the bank for me. The turf in that place wasabout eighteen inches higher than the top of the wall, making a veryconvenient seat. I thought of Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh;but I also thought the most queenly thing I could do was to take theoffered civility, and I sat down. My eyes were bewildered with thebeauty; they turned from one point to another with a sort ofwondering, insatiable enjoyment. There, beneath our feet, lay thelittle level green plain; its roads and trees all before us as in amap, with the lines of building enclosing it on the south and west. Acart and oxen were slowly travelling across the road between thelibrary and the hotel, looking like minute ants dragging a crumbalong. Beyond them was the stretch of brown earth, where the cavalryexercises forbade a blade of grass to show itself. And beyond that,at the farther edge of the plain, the little white camp; its straightrows of tents and the alleys between all clearly marked out. Round allthis the river curved, making a promontory of it; a promontory withfringed banks, and levelled at top, as it seemed, just to receive theMilitary Academy. On the other side the river, a long sweep of gentlehills, coloured in the fair colours of the evening; curving towardsthe north-east into a beautiful circle of soft outlines back of themountain which rose steep and bold at the water's edge. This mountainwas the first of the group I had seen from my hotel window. Houses andchurches nestled in the curve of tableland, under the mountain. Duenorth, the parapet of the fort rising sharply at its northern angle afew feet from where I sat, hindered my full view. Southerly, the hillsswept down, marking the course of the river for many a mile; but againfrom where I sat I could not see how far. With a sigh of pleasure myeye came back to the plain and the white tents.
"Is guard duty very disagreeable?" I asked, thinking of Preston's talkin the morning.
"Why at mid-day, with the thermometer at 90 deg., it is not exactly theamusement one would choose," said Mr. Thorold. "I like it at nightwell enough."
"What do you do?"
"Nothing, but walk up and down, two hours at a time."
"What is the use of it?"
"To keep order, and make sure that nothing goes in or out that has nobusiness to do it."
"And they have to carry their guns," I said.
"Their muskets--yes."
"Are they very heavy?"
"No. Pretty heavy for an arm that is new to it. I never remember Ihave mine."
"Mr. Caxton said," (Mr. Caxton was the cadet who had introduced Mr.Thorold to me)--"Mr. Caxton told Mrs. Sandford that the new cadets aresometimes so exhausted with their tour of duty that they have to becarried off the ground."
Mr. Thorold looked at me, a very keen bright look of his hazel eyes;but he said nothing.
"And he said that the little white boxes at the corners of the camp,were monuments to those who had fallen on duty."
"Just four of them!" said Mr. Thorold, settling his cap down over hisbrows; but then he laughed, and I laughed; how we laughed!
"Don't you want to see the rest of it?" he said, jumping up. I did notknow there was anything more to see. Now however he brought me up onthe high angle of the parapet that had intercepted my view to thenorth. I could hardly get away from there. The full magnificence ofthe mountains in that quarter; the river's course between them, theblue hills of the distant Shawangunk range, and the woody chasmimmediately at my feet, stretching from the height where I stood overto the crest of the Crow's Nest; it took away my breath. I sat downagain, while Mr. Thorold pointed out localities; and did not move,till I had to make way for another party of visitors who were coming.Then Mr. Thorold took me all round the edge of the fort. At the south,we looked down into the woody gorge where Dr. Sandford and I hadhunted for fossil infusoria. From here the long channel of the riverrunning southernly, with its bordering ridge of hills, and above all,the wealth and glory of the woodland and the unheaved rocks before me,were almost as good as the eastern view. The path along the parapetin places was narrow and dizzy; but I did not care for it, and mycompanion went like a chamois. He helped me over the hard places; handin hand we ran down the steep slopes; and as we went we got very wellacquainted. At last we climbed up the crumbling masonry to a smallplatform which commanded the view both east and south.
"What is this place for?" I asked.
"To plant guns on."
"They could not reach to the river, could they?"
"Much further--the guns of nowadays."
"And the old vaults under here--I saw them as we passed by,--were theyprisons, places for prisoners?"
"A sort of involuntary prisoners," said Mr. Thorold. "They are onlycasemates; prisons for our own men occasionally, when shot and shellmight be flying too thick; hiding-places, in short. Would you like togo to the laboratory some day, where we learn to make different kindsof shot, and fire-works and such things?"
"Oh, very much! But, Mr. Thorold, Mr. Caxton told me that Andre wasconfined in one of these places under here; he said his name waswritten upon the stones in a dark corner, and that I would find it."
Mr. Thorold looked at me, with an expression of such contained funthat I understood it at once; and we had another laugh together. Ibegan to wonder whether every one that wore a uniform of grey andwhite with gilt buttons made it his amusement to play upon theignorance of uninitiated people; but on reflection I could not thinkMr. Thorold had done so. I resolved to be careful how I trusted therest of the cadets, even Preston; and indeed my companion remarkedthat I had better not believe anything I heard without asking him. Weran down and inspected the casemates; and then took our seats againfor one last look on the eastern parapet. The river and hills weregrowing lovely in cooler lights; shadow was stealing over the plain.
"Shall I see you to-morrow evening?" my companion asked suddenly.
"To-morrow evening?" I said. "I don't know. I suppose we shall be athome."
"Then I shall _not_ see you. I meant, at the hop."
"The hop?" I repeated. "What is that?"
"The cadets' hop. During the encampment we have a hop three times aweek--a cotillion party. I hope you will be there. Haven't youreceived an invitation?"
"I think not," I said. "I have heard nothing about it."
"I will see that that is set right," Mr. Thorold remarked. "And now,do you know we must go down?--that is, _I_ must; and I do not think Ican leave you here."
"Oh, you have to be on parade!" I exclaimed, starting up; "and it isalmost time!"
It was indeed, and though my companion put his own concerns in thebackground very politely, I would be hurried. We ran down the hill,Mr. Thorold's hand helping me over the rough way and securing me fromstumbling.
In very few minutes we were again at the gate and enteredupon the post limits. And there were the band, in dark column, justcoming up from below the hill.
We walked the rest of the way in orderly fashion enough, till we gotto the hotel gate; there Mr. Thorold touched his cap and left me, ona run, for the camp. I watched till I saw he got there in time, andthen went slowly in; feeling that a great piece of pleasure was over.
I had had a great many pieces of pleasure in my life, but rarely a_companion_. Dr. Sandford, Miss Cardigan, my dear Capt. Drummond, wereall much in advance of my own age; my servants were my servants, atMagnolia; and Preston had never associated with me on just the footingof equality. I went upstairs thinking that I should like to see agreat deal more of Mr. Thorold.
Mrs. Sandford was on the piazza when I came down, and alone; everybodywas gone to parade. She gave me a little billet.
"Well, my dear Daisy!--are you walked to death? Certainly, West Pointagrees with you! What a colour! And what a change! You are not thesame creature that we brought away from New York. Well, was it worthgoing for, all the way to see that old ruin? My dear! I wish yourfather and mother could see you."
I stood still, wishing they could.
"There is more pleasure for you," Mrs. Sandford went on.
"What is this, ma'am?"
"An invitation. The cadets have little parties for dancing, it seems,three times a week, in summer; poor fellows! it is all the recreationthey get, I suspect; and of course, they want all the ladies that canbe drummed up, to help them to dance. It's quite a charity, they tellme. I expect I shall have to dance myself."
I looked at the note, and stood mute, thinking what I should do. Eversince Mr. Thorold had mentioned it, up on the hill, the question had beenrecurring to me. I had never been to a party in my life, since mychildish days at Melbourne. Aunt Gary's parties at Magnolia had been ofa different kind from this; not assemblies of young people. At Mme.Ricard's I had taken dancing lessons, at my mother's order; and in herdrawing room I had danced quadrilles and waltzes with my schoolfellows;but Mme. Ricard was very particular, and nobody else was ever admitted. Ihardly knew what it was to which I was now invited. To dance with thecadets! I knew only three of them; however, I supposed that I might dancewith those three. I had an impression that amusements of this kind wererather found in the houses of the gay than the sober-minded; but this waspeculiar, to help the cadets' dance, Mrs. Sandford said. I thought Mr.Thorold wished I would come. I wondered Preston had not mentioned it. He,I knew, was very fond of dancing. I mused till the people came back fromparade and we were called to tea; but all my musings went no further. Idid not decide _not_ to go.
"Now, Daisy," said Mrs. Sandford the next morning, "if you are goingto the hop to-night, I don't intend to have you out in the sun burningyourself up. It will be terribly hot; and you must keep quiet. I am sothankful Grant is away! he would have you all through the woods,hunting for nobody knows what, and bringing you home scorched."
"Dear Mrs. Sandford," I said, "I can dance just as well, if I _am_burnt."
"That's a delusion, Daisy. You are a woman, after all, my dear--or youwill be; and you may as well submit to the responsibility. And you maynot know it, but you have a wonderfully fine skin, my dear; it alwaysputs me in mind of fresh cream."
"Cream is yellow," I said.
"Not all the cream that ever _I_ saw," said Mrs. Sandford. "Daisy, youneed not laugh. You will be a queen, my dear, when you cease to be achild. What are you going to wear to-night?"
"I don't know, ma'am; anything cool, I suppose."
"It won't matter much," Mrs. Sandford repeated.
But yet I found she cared, and it did matter, when it came to thedressing-time. However she was satisfied with one of the embroideredmuslins my mother had sent me from Paris.
I think I see myself now, seated in the omnibus and trundling over theplain to the cadets' dancing-rooms. The very hot, still July nightseems round me again. Lights were twinkling in the camp, and acrossthe plain in the houses of the professors and officers; lights abovein the sky too, myriads of them, mocking the tapers that go out sosoon. I was happy with a little flutter of expectation; quietlyenjoying meanwhile the novel loveliness of all about me, along withthe old familiar beauty of the abiding stars and dark blue sky. It wasa five minutes of great enjoyment. But all natural beauty vanishedfrom my thoughts when the omnibus drew up at the door of the AcademicBuilding. I was entering on something untried.
At first sight, when we went into the room, it burst upon me that it wasvery pretty. The room was dressed with flags,--and evergreens,--and withuniforms; and undoubtedly there is charm in colour, and a gilt button anda gold strap do light up the otherwise sombre and heavy figures of ourWestern masculine costume. The white and rosy and blue draperies andscarfs that were floating around the forms of the ladies, were met andset off by the grey and white of the cadets and the heavier dark blue ofthe officers. I never anywhere else saw so pretty gatherings. I stoodquite enchanted with the pleasure of the eye; till to my startledastonishment, Capt. Percival came up and asked me to dance with him. Ihad not expected to dance with anybody except Preston, and Mr. Thorold,and perhaps Mr. Caxton. Mr. Thorold came up before the dance began, and Ipresented him to Mrs. Sandford. He asked me for the first dance, then forthe second. And there was no more time for anything, for the dancingbegan.
I had always liked dancing at school. Here the music was far betterand the scene infinitely prettier; it was very pleasant, I thought.That is, when Capt. Percival did not talk; for he talked nothings. Idid not know how to answer him. Of course it had been very hot to-day;and the rooms were very full; and there were a good many people at thehotel. I had nothing but an insipid affirmative to give to thesepropositions. Then said Capt. Percival insinuatingly--
"You are from the South?"
I had nothing but an insipid assent again.
"I was sure of it," he said. "I could not be mistaken."
I wondered how he knew, but it did not suit me to ask him; and wedanced on again till the dance came to an end. I was glad when it did.In a minute more I was standing by Mrs. Sandford and introduced toCapt. Boulanger, who also asked me to dance, and engaged me for thenext but one; and then Mr. Caxton brought up one of his brother cadetsand presented him, and _he_ asked me, and looked disappointed when forboth the next dances I was obliged to refuse him. I was quite gladwhen Mr. Thorold came and carried me off. The second quadrille wentbetter than the first; and I was enjoying myself unfeignedly, when ina pause of the dance I remarked to my partner that there seemed to beplenty of ladies here to-night.
"Plenty," he said. "It is very kind of them. What then?"
"Only--" I said--"so many people came and asked me to dance in the fewminutes I stood by Mrs. Sandford, and one of them looked quitedisappointed that he could not have me."
I was met by a look of the keenest inquiry, followed instantly andsuperseded by another flash of expression. I could not comprehend itat the time. The eyes, which had startled me by their steely gleam,softened wonderfully with what looked like nothing so much asreverence, along with some other expression which I could neither readat the moment nor fathom afterwards.
Both looks were gone before I could ask him what they meant, orperhaps I should have asked; for I was beginning to feel very much atmy ease with Mr. Thorold. I trusted him.
"Did he want you for this dance?" was all he said.
"For this, and for the next," I answered.
"Both gone! Well, may I have the third, and so disappoint somebodyelse?" he said, laughing.
If I did not talk much with Mr. Thorold in intervals of dancing, atleast we did not talk nonsense. In the next pause he remarked that hesaw I was fond of this amusement.
"I think I like everything," I told him.
"Are the hills better than this?" he whispered.
"Oh, yes!" I said. "Don't you think so?"
He smiled, and said "truly he did." "You have been over the Flirtationwalk, of course?" he added.
"I do not know which it is."
He smiled again, that quick illuminating smile, which seemed tosparkle in his hazel eyes; and nodded his head a little.
"I had the pleasure to see you there, very early one morning."
"Oh, is that it?" I said. "I have been down that way from the hotelvery often."
"That way leads to it. You were upon it, where you were sitting. Youhave not been through it yet? May I show it to you some day?To-morrow?"
I agreed joyfully; and then asked who were certain of the cadets whomI saw about the room, with rosettes of ribbon and long streamers onthe breast of their grey coats?
"Those are the Managers," said my companion. "You will see enough ofthem. It is their duty to introduce poor fellows who want partners."
I did not see much of them, however, that evening. As soon as I wasreleased from that dance, Capt. Percival brought up Capt. Lascelles;and somebody else, Mr. Sandford, I believe, introduced Lt. Vaux, andMajor Fairbairn; and Major Pitt was another, I believe. And Col.Walruss brought up his son, who was in the corps of cadets. They allwanted to dance with me; so it was lucky Mr. Thorold had secured hissecond dance, or I could not have given it to him. I went over andover again the same succession of topics, in the intervals of standingstill. How the day had been warm, and the evening kept up itscharacter; the hotels were full now; the cadets well off to have somany ladies; dancing a pleasant pastime, and West Point a nice place.I got so accustomed to the remarks I might expect, that my mouth wasready with an assenting "yes" before the speaker began. But thetalking was a small part of the business, after all; and the eveningwent merrily for me, till on a sudden a shrill piercing summons ofdrum and fife, rolling as it were into our very ears, put a stop toproceedings. Midway in the movement the dancers stopped; there was ahurried bow and curtsey, and an instant scattering of all thegrey-coated part of the assembly. The "hop" was over. We went home inthe warm moonlight, I thinking that I had had a very nice time, andglad that Mr. Thorold was coming to take me to walk to-morrow.