Meg, of Valencia Part 1

Meg, of Valencia.

by Myra Williams Jarrell.

CHAPTER I.

"What's in a name?"

When Mr. Robert Spencer was annoyed, he made it known by pacing the floor with his hands under his coat-tails. When he was pleased, he quickened the pace, and his hands caused his coat-tails to stand out in a most jaunty and undignified manner. He was pacing up and down a handsomely furnished room, one bright May morning, with annoyance visibly depicted in every line of his coat-tails.

The other occupant of the room, his sister, was watching him with an expression half amused, half sad. They were much alike, both sandy in coloring, and both wearing the same humorous, half-quizzical smile, which in her was saddened by the loss her deep mourning indicated. She had never been a handsome woman, but she possessed an attractiveness far greater than that of mere outward beauty.

Suddenly her brother paused in front of her and began explosively: "I tell you it's tommy-rot. And it's all because you wouldn't call him Bob! How the deuce do you expect a boy you have called 'Robert' for twenty-five years, to have any worldly sense?"

"Wait a minute, Bob," interrupted his sister, quietly; "how could I be expected to call such a splendid boy anything else? 'Bob,' for him, would have been nothing short of sacrilege,-no offense meant, my dear brother."

"Don't mention it," he growled; "but I protest that you can make or mar a boy by a name. You called him 'Robert.' What was the result?"

"Very fine, I call it."

Unheeding the interruption, he continued in a mocking voice: "Lacy dresses which he never tore, wax dolls, kittens, and long curls. Now that just naturally led up to books, study, church!"

"That is a combination few people object to, Bob," his sister gently interpolated.

"If taken in moderation, my dear Stella,-in homeopathic doses. Your boy went on the principle by which some people govern their medicine-taking, that if a little is good, much is better."

He paused for her reply, but as she was evidently waiting for the close of his harangue, he continued: "Now, look here. Suppose you had called him 'Bob.' There would have been no long curls or doll-rags for him. It would have been baseball, marbles, fresh air, boy friends. And now, hang it all, look at him now!"

Mrs. Malloy sat up with dignity, and asked, "Well, what of him now?"

"That's just it," he sputtered. "If he wasn't so handsome, manly, honest and lovable, I wouldn't care; but to think of all those virtues being shut up in a monastery, makes me wish I were a profane man, so I could ease my mind by swearing."

Mrs. Malloy had become very white, and she made no answer. Her brother glanced at her, and added softly, dropping into a chair by her side: "It's all because he was brought up in that Faith. I don't see how you could do it, Stella."

"You forget," she answered sadly; "it was John's religion, and it was understood that he should do that if he were so inclined."

"But John never meant for you to be left alone in the world. He wouldn't have wanted the boy to leave you, if he had known."

"Perhaps not," she said with white lips, "but I would not lay one straw in the way, or stand between my boy and what he considers his duty."

"Duty be-," vociferated Mr. Spencer. "I beg your pardon, Stella,-it almost slipped out. But can't the young whelp see where his duty is?

Now, don't be angry, Stella. Do you think I wouldn't whale any other man within an inch of his life if he called the boy that?"

"Nothing is gained by discussing it," Mrs. Malloy wearily replied, "and I insist that you say nothing to Robert on the subject. His mind is quite made up, quite. He believes it to be his father's wish. He does not know but that it is mine, though it is, as you say, not my faith."

"'He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow,'" quoted Mr.

Spencer, softly.

"To say anything to him would make him very unhappy, but would not alter his decision."

"Perhaps some way may yet be found," he ventured.

"I am sure nothing would change him. You see, he has had this idea ever since he was a mere child. It has grown with him. It is so interwoven with the very fibres of his being that it could not be uprooted. No, no, Bob, it will have to stand. If I can bear it, surely you can."

"If _you_ can bear it," he answered. "Oh, yes, you can bear it. You will wave your handkerchief and smile as the gates close upon him, and then you'll come home and die of a broken heart!"

"Don't,-don't," she begged, piteously.

"Forgive me, Stella; I didn't mean to hurt you so. But I've a scheme to stop this foolishness and make you happy, and the boy, too."

She shook her head hopelessly, but her brother patted her on the shoulder and said, "But yes, I say. Will you be a party to it?"

For one moment her eyes flashed up with a look of hope, then it died out as she said slowly, "I cannot conspire against my boy and what I know to be his earnest desire."

"Well, don't," was the brusque reply. "Your co-operation isn't necessary anyway. But you and Robert will come next week to visit me as you promised, won't you?"

After Mrs. Malloy nodded in reply, he walked out of the room with his coat-tails expressing satisfaction.

He had not been gone long when the door was gently opened, and a young man entered. Coming up to Mrs. Malloy, he stooped and kissed her on the forehead. The look of pa.s.sionate adoration she gave him was not surprising, for he was undeniably good to gaze upon. He was tall, well formed and athletic in build, with the fresh coloring, the warm, honest gray eyes, clear-cut features and rippling dark hair of a long race of Celtic ancestors. His brow was frank and n.o.ble, his smile charming.

There was nothing about him to suggest the parochial calling he was about to adopt. He looked merely a healthy, wholesome, happy and unusually handsome young fellow.

"Always cheerful, little mother," he said, balancing himself on the arm of her chair, and meeting her smile with tender, earnest eyes. "That thought makes me very happy, for I know you are never lonely, and will not mope after I am gone, as some mothers would."

Her face blanched; with teeth shut hard together, she pressed her face against his sleeve until she could control her voice, and finally answered: "No, I was never given to moping, my son. But to be irrelevant, I promised Uncle Bob that we would go to Valencia next week and stay with him through the summer."

"That will be jolly; I think I would enjoy one good old spree of that sort before-"

"Let's go out and find Uncle Bob," said his mother quickly.

CHAPTER II.

"And both were young and one was beautiful."

Valencia was a western town, with about forty thousand inhabitants who believed in and were immeasurably proud of the place. There were no factories, and there was no great value in real estate, since the wild boom of the early eighties, which made and broke so many western towns; but it was quite a railroad center, one of the princ.i.p.al western roads having headquarters there. Amus.e.m.e.nt there was none, save band concerts twice a week in summer, and an occasional show in the opera house in winter.

The town had perhaps more than a fair allotment of that cla.s.s of people who find fault with everything, from the price of ice to the sparsity of amus.e.m.e.nts. It was said, also, to be no more free from public officials with itching palms, than other cities of its size.

Saloons were supposed to be unknown in Valencia, in accordance with the laws of the State, and it did truly present a clean, moral aspect to the casual observer.

Valencia was essentially a "home" town, with its wide streets, its many trees, comfortable homes and green lawns, and it was much beloved by its inhabitants, who, if they moved away, inevitably moved back again, with untiring loyalty.

Robert Spencer had been borne into the town on the tide of prosperity that had carried so many into it in 1882, and he was one of the barnacles who had remained, firmly fastened, when the tide receded, taking with it a few of the industries that had sprung up like mushrooms during the boom. He had had a competence when he drifted into Valencia, which by judicious investment had increased until he was independently rich.

The first few years of his life there had been uneasy ones, for he had to be constantly on the alert to avoid matrimony, so many were the enticements thrown out to land him. He was unquestionably the biggest fish in the pond, and the hooks had been baited for him repeatedly, but he had not bitten.