'Father'—she hesitated, searching for words. 'These things you say—this plan staggers my comprehension, but if, as you tell me, it is possible, if it should come to pass, would it not be—treason?'
She waited unhappily for his answer, fearful that he might be angry and yet impelled by a half-forgotten memory: 'All these lands will be part of America. We shall stretch from one ocean to the other, a mighty nation, unified, of one tongue. Does this mean nothing to you?' It had meant nothing then, submerged as she had been by her despairing love. But now she remembered the quiet thrill in Merne's voice.
'My dear,' said Aaron, shrugging impatiently, 'I cannot undertake to say what our fair Republic may consider treason; that is an clastic word. I've told you a dozen times that they have title to far more land than can be administered. That has been one of Jefferson's many grievous errors. In any case, I speak not only of the Western States, I speak of Mexico——'
He rose suddenly and, encircling her chin with his hand, raised her head so that he might look into her troubled eyes. 'Where is that faith in me and my destiny which you have so often proclaimed?'
His nostrils dilated, his whole person seemed to expand. His gaze grew incandescent, exerting on her a hypnotic power.
'Look, Theodosia!' He turned her head and pointed through the drawing-room window. On a table before the window stood a small plaster bust of Bonaparte. 'He is to be crowned Emperor in a few weeks,' said Aaron softly. 'Do you dare to doubt that I am at least equal to that little Corsican peasant?'
He waited, watching, holding her thus, until he saw in her transparent face that all other emotions had been subdued, leaving only an awed conviction. He was profoundly sincere, and yet as always a portion of him held aloof, savoring the dramatic perfection of this moment. Here on this remote plantation porch he had created for her a vision, as he had for many others, the shimmering gold seduction of a crown.
'We, too, shall be royal, my Theo,' he added, very low. 'Now you believe, don't you?'
'I believe that you can do anything,' she whispered—'anything.'
His hand dropped. He turned abruptly from her, began to pace the porch as though to ease his body of its fierce energy.
'You must help,' he said presently.
'Yes, of course. How can I?'
'Joseph. The plan must be carefully presented to him. He will be part of it. '
Her heart sank. Dazzled as she was by her faith, she was not so blinded as to think Joseph would be convinced.
'He loves you,' said Aaron. 'Sooner or later he will do as you wish.'
A thought struck him, and he frowned. 'Though since I have been here, I've been troubled. I have fancied that there was a cloud between you. You do not seem in complete sympathy. And I notice that you no longer share a bedroom. I trust this has no special significance.'
Hot color flooded up into her hair. 'I have not always felt very well of late, as you know, and I—I——'
'Ah, then it was not his idea,' said Aaron, relieved. 'I feared that he had perhaps heard something of your—your interest in Captain Lewis.'
She gasped, shrinking back against the chair. 'I don't know what you mean.'
'My dear child, you need not play the ostrich with me. I'm not so stupid as you seem to think. There was unfortunately some gossip in Washington after you left. Nothing important, and I do not accuse you of infidelity, so you needn't look as though I were throwing stones at you. I simply wondered whether Joseph had conceived any inconvenient ideas.'
She sat very still. A hot current of pain ran through her. Aaron's knowledge, partial though it was, his cynical acceptance, the mention of gossip: these were ugly things: desecration. And yet, after all, no outside thing could really penetrate the shrine. That was a room in her heart to which no one but Merne had the key: not even Aaron.
'Joseph knows nothing,' she said at last quietly. 'And it was over a year ago.'
A year without word. During it she had seldom dared to think of Merne. Only sometimes in the twilight or that hazy hour between sleeping and waking she saw his face.
'Naturally it has been a year,' said Aaron sharply, 'since Lewis left last July for the West.'
'Is there—have you heard any news?'
In spite of herself her voice betrayed her, and Aaron was annoyed. 'Only that the expedition left St. Louis last spring and was at once swallowed up into the wilderness.'
No doubt he's dead, thought Aaron with satisfaction. The subject displeased him excessively. She had twice, under the influence of this lanky captain, both startled and disappointed him. It should never happen again. He would sec to it that there was no further meeting—ever, if by some unlucky chance neither the Indians nor the wild beasts nor the manifold dangers of such a journey did not neatly dispose of the problem.
In the meantime he exerted his usual skill at forgetting the unpleasant and effaced the matter from his mind. There were topics of vital importance to be discussed.
Gampy, just then tiring of his game, raced up on the porch and clambered on his grandfather's lap. 'See watch,' he demanded, tugging at the gold repeater in Aaron's pocket. 'See tick-tick'. Aaron presented it to him, and laughed as the child held it to his ear with an expression of infantile rapture. 'Pretty watch, nice big gold watch,' he crooned.
Aaron twisted the soft curls and pinched the plump little cheek. 'I'm glad to see that he speaks plainly. Have you taught him to read yet?'
Theo started. For once she found it hard to follow her father's mercurial changes of mood. He played now with the child, joggling him up and down, poking a teasing finger into the delighted Gampy's ribs, as though the child's amusement were the only consideration in the world.
'Well, can he read?' repeated Aaron. 'And I trust you and Eleanore are teaching him French.'
'Oh, Father! He is only two,' she protested.
Aaron stilled the child's laughter with a smiling headshake. 'That's enough now, sir. You will play something quieter. We'll go down on the lawn and I'll build you a castle with your stones.—He is none too young to be learning the proper habits of study and application,' he added to Theo. 'He is a precocious child and will do us great credit if you arc not too lazy to teach him. '
'Castle, castle, castle!' shrieked Gampy, tugging at Aaron's hand. 'Make castle for Gampy.'
Aaron smiled and lifted the child high in his arms. 'I shall make a castle for Gampy,' he said, with emphasis; 'not this little play one down here, but a shining palace big enough for Gampy to live in.'
' And Mama, too?' said the child, interested.
'And Mama, too. And Father and I. But you must be a good boy and learn your letters. More than that, my little Gampy, you must learn how to be a prince.'
'Prince,' repeated the child obediently, wriggling.
'It means nothing to him now,' said Aaron to Theo, 'and even you, child that you are, cannot yet comprehend the future that is in store for you. But you will. For destiny,' he added softly, 'can be carved into whatsoever shape we wish if the tool be whetted by indomitable purpose.'
He left her then, allowing the delighted child to lead him down on the lawn. She watched them together, seeing the tender understanding with which he entered into the little boy's world and Gampy's adoring response.
Yes, she thought, he's right. He is always right. What dearer destiny can there be for me or Gampy than to follow where he leads? He is already so far above other men that how can I doubt that the outer world must at last recognize it?
Her course became clear. All other relationships faded or changed. Even with Meme there had been questions, uncertainty. But her love for Aaron permitted no question. It simply existed, as much a part of her as her hands. Life could give her no more precious gift than the happiness of being his daughter.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
AFTER all, it took only two days to win Joseph over to the cause: two days of Aaron's restrained eloquence that hinted at far more than it told. But he was, as he had expected to be, immeasurably helped by
Theodosia, who, secure in the knowledge of her husband's character, expatiated on the magnificence of their certain elevation.
He was to be Prince Consort and command wealth that staggered the imagination. The fabulous mines of Mexico would be theirs; rivers of jeweled gold were to be poured out to them by the grateful people. What were the paltry thousands which he wrested from the rice fields compared to this?
And when at first Joseph, sullen and shaking his bewildered head, remained obdurate, Theo wept: wept sincerely from disappointment and frustration, because the plan had now become hers too; she believed in it with every fiber of her body, and it was inconceivable that her husband should be so dense, so pedestrian.
Gradually he allowed himself to be impressed by the distinguished names tossed him by Aaron, names which Aaron truthfully assured him had promised backing.
'For war with Spain is inevitable,' said Aaron, 'and the instant it breaks out, we must be ready.'
'There may be some truth in what you say,' Joseph admitted grudgingly.
Theo and her father permitted themselves one quick mutual glance of satisfaction.
When Aaron departed, he carried with him Joseph's assurance that he would produce fifty thousand dollars whenever it might be needed.
Aaron went from the Oaks to Statesburgh and visited Natalie. He sounded out her husband, but, on finding the atmosphere unsympathetic, abandoned the subject so deftly that Thomas Sumter was unaware that he had been approached.
Then Aaron returned to Washington, where his high office protected his person from arrest, as it did in all States except New York and New Jersey. In these the murder charges still held. He finished out his term with a kind of dignified flourish that confounded his enemies. He presided over the trial for impeachment of one Judge Chase and did so, said a more sympathetic newspaper, 'with the dignity and impartiality of an angel, but with the rigor of a devil.'
The day after the conclusion of this trial, he took formal leave of the Senate and made a speech so moving, so skillfully compounded of pathos and courage that many of the senators were moved to tears.
Public opinion was softening; there were now many to think that he had been unjustly used. He might have settled in any State below the Delaware, but he had no longer the slightest interest in the East. During his forced journey to the South, Richmond Hill had been seized by his creditors and sold to John Jacob Astor for twenty-five thousand dollars. This sum did not begin to liquidate Aaron's obligations, so that the debtor's prison awaited him in New York as well as the murder charge. The West, however, beckoned—the West and the dream of empire.
Aaron set forth on his trip across the Alleghenies, then down the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans. As he traveled, his enthusiasm increased. The country was ripe for 'X'—the sublime glittering project. In every town and hamlet, in the lonely settlers' cabins, he found new adherents. He wrote to Theo constantly, using their private cipher, and she, relegated to the eternal feminine rôle of marking time and waiting for news, rejoiced at each report.
How trivial now seemed her past concern with the Alstons! What matter now their approval or disapproval ! Buoyed by the certainty that she would soon be quit of them and deprived of her northern trip by Aaron's absence, she managed to find some pleasure in the planter's unchanging schedule. In the spring and fall one stayed on the plantation; summer—Debordieu Island. In the winter—Charleston for the prescribed round of festivity, the Saint Cecilia Musicals in January, soirées at the home of the Pinckneys or Rutledges, return hospitality at her own house on Church Street. February brought Race Week and the climax of Charleston excitement. The planters gathered from all over the Carolinas to enter horses, to lay bets, and to cheer wildly at the success of their favorites. Theo sat in the Alston box near Colonel William, who during this period was reduced to a pulp of quivering nerves. He oscillated between the paddock and the grandstand, alternately wringing his hands and cursing the jockeys, or trembling with triumph and shouting encouragement. Theo continued unable to care very much about the outcome, but she managed to hide this and to show a creditable degree of the enthusiasm which was expected of her.
For the theater she did not have to feign enthusiasm. And though she privately thought both the productions and the actors far inferior to those in New York, she admired the graceful pseudo-Greek building on New Street with its white-and-silver interior, which set off the ladies' gowns to such advantage. Here she laughed or thrilled with the others to the drama of Gustavus Vassa, The Mountaineers, and Blue Beard or Feminine Curiosity, forgetting for a little while even the delicious consciousness of 'X.'
She and Joseph did not often discuss the project. There was little that she knew tangibly to discuss, and he was often absent from her in Columbia, where the House had appointed him its Speaker. It made her happy, however, to know that she might mention it to him. It would have been a weighty secret to carry alone, and the knowledge brought them closer together.
Sooner or later she knew that Aaron would summon her to a more active part in the project, and she waited with what patience she could, devouring his letters and training Gampy for his exalted rôle to the best of her abilities, in view of her son's extremely tender years.
She unearthed an exiled Spaniard in Charleston and began Spanish lessons with him, for the French and smattering of German and Italian which she already possessed would be of scant use in Mexico.
The call came at last, in the spring of 1806. 'This time I wish you to accompany me on my trip to the West,' Aaron wrote her, 'and come alone for the present. Joseph and Gampy may follow later, if all goes as I expect. Prepare yourself to endure some hardships, and I want no mournful complaints about them. You will be surfeited with luxury in time.'
She joined Aaron in Philadelphia, having left the Waccamaw with a heart fast beating with hope. Perhaps she need never see it again. Somewhere in the West a new home must be waiting, prelude to the magnificent one she would eventually inhabit. This hope lightened her parting from the baby; he would be well tended by Eleanore; and 'It won't be for long, darling,' she assured the solemn child. 'Your papa shall bring you to me soon.'
Eleanore came into the room on this sentence and exclaimed: 'Nom de Dieu, Madame, what do you mean by that? You arc not going to drag lc petit across those horrible mountains! The savages will massacre him and me too. I do not go.'
'Oh, yes, you will, my good Eleanore,' said Theo, laughing. 'You would not let Gampy move one foot without you, I know. You don't realize what is waiting for us all out there: a golden future. Ah, I can't tell you, but you must trust me'. 'Pfoui!' snorted Eleanore rudely. 'There is no future out there, nozzing but log cabins and savages and wolves.'
Theo hugged her and laughed again. 'You will see.'
Aaron had warned her of hardships, and she was cheerfully prepared to accept them. But in his company the journey did not seem unduly rigorous. True, there were many days on horseback, and he traveled fast; still, at the end of them he always contrived to find remarkably comfortable lodgings at houses he had visited the year before. And at Pittsburgh a commodious flatboat awaited them. It was more like a floating ark than anything else, containing as it did four rooms, glass windows, and a fireplace.
When Theo expressed her surprise and delight, her father laughed. 'Wait until you see Blennerhassett's Island; that will really amaze you.'
While they floated down the Ohio, he told her something of the eccentric and wealthy Irishman who had built for himself a palace in the wilderness. Harman Blennerhassett and his wife were won over heart and soul to the cause, 'As indeed is the whole West,' added Aaron with satisfaction. General Wilkinson had promised to provide troops, General Andrew Jackson in Nashville was sympathetic, Jonathan Dayton and Daniel Clark were loyal supporters; and in New Orleans, gateway to Mexico, Aaron had piled triumph on triumph, winning over not only the French and Spanish elements, but the Catholic Church as well.
He had not, of course, presented exactly the same aims to each dif
ferent group. There were many facets to the project: the colonization of the Bastrop lands on the Washita River suited some, the most timid; the disaffection and union of the Western Territory suited others; while only a very few had the vision and discretion to be trusted with knowledge of the ultimate goal, the liberation of Mexico from Spanish rule.
The Blennerhassetts were amongst the elect.
A thousand miles from civilization, sixteen miles from Marietta—still a rude frontier village—this enterprising Irishman had metamorphosed his hundred-and-forty-acre island into an elaborate estate that was part pleasure garden, part imitation of an English manor house, and part pure fantasy.
The virgin forest had been hewn and clipped into tortured figures. There were circles and mazes and arbors. There were artificial pools and several unsuccessful fountains where Blennerhassett's knowledge of physics had not been quite equal to his ambition. He had imported grass seed and fruit trees from England, and around an incredible expanse of lawn, peach, apricot, and pear trees stood as background to a formal garden.
In the center of the island he had built himself a twenty-two-room mansion which was actually three houses connected by covered porticoes. It was furnished, as Theo later discovered, with a luxurious abandon which far eclipsed Richmond Hill in its heyday. This creation had cost him sixty thousand dollars, not counting the purchase of the army of slaves whose unremitting labor had made his dream concrete.
As the Burr houseboat tied up to a wooden dock at the Ohio River island, Theo was even more amazed than Aaron had prophesied. The dock had been carved and painted into the semblance of a huge recumbent lion. And behind this monstrosity, upon a species of white-graveled plaza, there milled a horde of waving, cheering negroes. When Theo and Aaron descended the gangplank to a strip of red carpeting which had been laid across the lion and stretched into the distance toward the house, the negroes raised their right arms in a salute, then with obviously rehearsed precision pelted the arrivals with roses and daisies.