第24章 Miss Dangerlie's Roses(1)

Henry Floyd was a crank, at least so many people said; a few thought he was a wonderful person: these were mostly children, old women, and people not in the directory, and persons not in the directory do not count for much.He was in fact a singular fellow.

It was all natural enough to him; he was just like what he believed his father had been, his father of whom his mother used to tell him, and whom he remembered so vaguely except when he had suddenly loomed up in his uniform at the head of his company, when they went away on that march from which he had never returned.He meant to be like him, if he was not, and he remembered all that his mother had told him of his gentleness, his high courtesy, his faithfulness, his devotion to duty, his unselfishness.

So it was all natural enough to Floyd to be as he was.But a man can no more tell whether or not he is a crank than he can tell how old he looks.

He was, however, without doubt, different in certain ways from most people.

This his friends admitted.Some said he was old-fashioned;some that he was "old-timey"; some that he was unpractical, the shades of criticism ranging up to those saying he was a fool.

This did not mean intellectually, for none denied his intellect.He drove a virile pen, and had an epigrammatic tongue.He had had a hard time.

He had borne the yoke in his youth.This, we have strong authority for saying, is good for a man; but it leaves its mark upon him.He had been desperately poor.He had not minded that except for his mother, and he had approved of her giving up every cent to meet the old security debts.

It had cut him off from his college education; but he had worked till he was a better scholar than he might have been had he gone to college.

He had kept his mother comfortable as long as she lived, and then had put up a monument over her in the old churchyard, as he had done before to his father's memory.This, everyone said, was foolish, and perhaps it was, for it took him at least two years to pay for them, and he might have laid up the money and got a start, or, as some charitable persons said, it might have been given to the poor.However, the monuments were put up, and on them were epitaphs which recorded at length the virtues of those to whom they were erected, with their descent, and declared that they were Christians and Gentlepeople.Some one said to Floyd that he might have shortened the epitaphs, and have saved something.

"I did not want them shortened," said he.

He had borne the yoke otherwise also.One of the first things he had done after starting in life was to fall in love with a beautiful woman.She was very beautiful and a great belle.Every one said it was sheer nonsense for Henry Floyd to expect her to marry him, as poor as he was, which was natural enough.The only thing was that she led Floyd to believe she was going to marry him when she did not intend to do it, and it cost him a great deal of unhappiness.He never said one word against her, not even when she married a man much older than himself, simply, as everyone said, because he was very rich.If Floyd ever thought that she treated him badly, no one ever knew it, and when finally she left her husband, no one ever ventured to discuss it before Floyd.

Henry Floyd, however, had suffered, -- that everyone could see who had eyes;but only he knew how much.Generally grave and dreamy;when quiet as calm as a dove, as fierce as a hawk when aroused;moving always in an eccentric orbit, which few understood;flashing out now and then gleams which some said were sparks of genius but which most people said were mere eccentricity, he had sunk into a recluse.

He was in this state when he met HER.He always afterward referred to her so.

He was at a reception when he came upon her on a stairway.

A casual word about his life, a smile flashed from her large, dark, luminous eyes, lighting up her face, and Henry Floyd awoke.

She had called him from the dead.It was a case of love at first sight.

From that time he never had a thought for anyone else, least of all for himself.He lived in her and for her.

He blossomed under her sympathy as a tree comes out under the sunshine and soft breath of spring.He grew, he broadened.She was his sun, his breath of life; he worshipped her.Then one day she died -- suddenly --sank down and died as a butterfly might die, chilled by a blast.

With her Henry Floyd buried his youth.For a time people were sympathetic;but they began immediately to speculate about him, then to gossip about him.

It made no difference to him or in him.He was like a man that is dead, who felt no more.One thing about a great sorrow is that it destroys all lesser ones.A man with a crushed body does not feel pinpricks.

Henry Floyd went on his way calmly, doggedly, mechanically.He drifted on and was talked about continually.Gossip would not let him alone, so she did him the honor to connect his name with that of every woman he met.

In fact, there was as much reason to mention all as one.

He was fond of women, and enjoyed them.Women liked him too.

There was a certain gentleness mingled with firmness, a kind of protecting air about him which women admired, and a mystery of impenetrable sadness which women liked.

Every woman who knew him trusted him, and had a right to trust him.

To none was he indifferent, but in none was he interested.

He was simply cut off.A physician who saw him said, "That man is dying of loneliness." This went on for some years.

At last his friends determined to get him back into society.