grandfathers had scalped Indians.Music was made for them by descendants, it might well be, of Romulus, of Messalina, of Benvenuto Cellini, and, around behind the house, waiting to serve the dancers with light food and drink, lounged and gossiped grandchildren of the Congo, only a generation or so removed from dances for which a chance stranger furnished both the occasion and the refreshments.Such, in brief, was Mr.
Parcher's peculiar view of what constituted the romantic element.
And upon another subject preoccupying both Mr.Parcher and William, their two views, though again founded upon one thought, had no real congeniality.The preoccupying subject was the imminence of Miss Pratt's departure;--neither Mr.Parcher nor William forgot it for an instant.No matter what else played upon the surface of their attention, each kept saying to himself, underneath: ``This is the last night--the last night! Miss Pratt is going away--going away to-morrow!''
Mr.Parcher's expression was peaceful.It was more peaceful than it had been for a long time.
In fact, he wore the look of a man who had been through the mill but now contemplated a restful and health-restoring vacation.For there are people in this world who have no respect for the memory of Ponce de Leon, and Mr.Parcher had come to be of their number.The elimination of William from his evenings had lightened the burden; nevertheless, Mr.Parcher would have stated freely and openly to any responsible party that a yearning for the renewal of his youth had not been intensified by his daughter's having as a visitor, all summer long, a howling belle of eighteen who talked baby-talk even at breakfast and spread her suitors all over the small house--and its one veranda--from eight in the morning until hours of the night long after their mothers (in Mr.Parcher's opinion) should have sent their fathers to march them home.Upon Mr.Parcher's optimism the effect of so much unavoidable observation of young love had been fatal; he declared repeatedly that his faith in the human race was about gone.Furthermore, his physical constitution had proved pathetically vulnerable to nightly quartets, quintets, and even octets, on the porch below his bedchamber window, so that he was wont to tell his wife that never, never could he expect to be again the man he had been in the spring before Miss Pratt came to visit May.And, referring to conversations which he almost continuously overheard, perforce, Mr.
Parcher said that if this was the way HE talked at that age, he would far prefer to drown in an ordinary fountain, and be dead and done with it, than to bathe in Ponce de Leon's.
Altogether, the summer had been a severe one;
he doubted that he could have survived much more of it.And now that it was virtually over, at last, he was so resigned to the departure of his daughter's lovely little friend that he felt no regret for the splurge with which her visit was closing.Nay, to speed the parting guest--such was his lavish mood--twice and thrice over would he have paid for the lights, the flowers, the music, the sandwiches, the coffee, the chicken salad, the cake, the lemonade-punch, and the ice-cream.
Thus did the one thought divide itself between William and Mr.Parcher, keeping itself deep and pure under all their other thoughts.
