because of the odd channel in which his thoughts were running, maltham had the still[80] odder fancy for an instant that the young girl who entered the room was the dead ulrica of whom the major had spoken—"a queen, and of a line of queens." and even when this thought had passed—so quickly that it was gone before he had risen to his feet to greet her—the impression of her queenliness remained. for this living woman bearing a dead name might have been aslauga herself: so tall and stately was she, and so fair with that cold beauty of the north of which the soul is fire. instinctively he felt the fire, and knew that it still slumbered—and knew, too, that in the fulness of time, being awakened, it would glow with a consuming splendour in her dark eyes.
all this went in a flash through his mind before the major said: "pehmit me, mr. maltham, to present yo' to my daughteh, miss ulrica ashley." and added: "mr. maltham was passing, ulrica, and did me the honeh to accept my invitation to come in."
she put down the pitcher of water and gave maltham her hand. "it was very kind of you, sir," she said gravely. "we do not have many visitors, and my father gets lonely with only me. it was very kind of you, sir, indeed."[81] she spoke with a certain precision, and with a very slight accent—so slight that maltham did not immediately notice it. what he did notice, with her first words, was the curiously thrilling quality of her low-pitched and very rich voice.
"and don't you get lonely too?" he asked.
"why no," she answered with a little air of surprise. and speaking slowly, as though she were working the matter out in her mind, she added: "with me it is different, you see. i was born here on the point and i love it. and then i have the house to look after. and i have my boat. and i can talk with the neighbours—though i do not often care to. father cannot talk with them, because he does not know swedish as i do. when he wants company he has to go all the way up to town. you see, it is not the same with us at all." and then, as though she had explained the matter sufficiently, she turned to the major and asked: "do you want anything more, father?"
"nothing mo', my child—except that an extra place is to be set at table. mr. maltham will dine with us, of co'se."
at this maltham protested a little; but pres[82]ently yielded to ulrica's, "you will be doing a real kindness to father if you will stay, mr. maltham," backed by the major's peremptory: "yo' ah my prisoneh, suh, and in eutaw castle we don't permit ouah prisonehs to stahve!" the matter being thus settled, ulrica made a little formal bow and left the room.
"the wateh is at youah sehvice, suh," said the major as the door closed behind her. "i beg that yo' will dilute youah liquoh to youah liking. heah's to youah very good health, suh—and to ouah betteh acquaintance." he drank his whiskey appreciatively, and as he set down his empty glass continued: "may i ask, suh, if yo' ah living in duluth, oh mehly passing through? i ventuah to ask because a resident of this town sca'cely would be likely to come down on the point at this time of yeah."
"i began to be a resident only day before yesterday," maltham answered. "i've come to take charge here of our steamers—the sunrise line."
"the sunrise line!" repeated the major in a very eager tone. "the biggest transpo'tation line on the lakes. the line of which that great capitalist mr. john l. maltham is president.[83] and to think, suh, that i did not recognize youah name!"
"john l. maltham is my father," the young man said.
"why, of co'se, of co'se! i might have had the sense to know that as soon as i looked at youah cahd. this is a most fo'tunate meeting, mr. maltham—most fo'tunate for both of us. i shall not on this occasion, when yo' ah my guest, enteh into a discussion of business mattehs. but at an eahly day i shall have the honeh to lay befo' yo' convincing reasons why youah tehminal docks should be established heah on the point—which a beneficent providence cleahly intended to be the shipping centeh of this metropolis—and prefehrably, suh, as the meahest glance at a chaht of the bay will demonstrate, heah on my land. yo' will have the first choice of the wha'ves which i have projected; and i may even say, suh, that any altehrations which will affo'd mo' convenient accommodations to youah vessels still ah possible. yes, suh, the matteh has not gone so fah but that any reasonable changes which yo' may desiah may yet be made."
remembering the sedgy swamps beside which he had passed that morning, maltham was[84] satisfied that the major's concluding statement was well within the bounds of truth. but he was not prepared to meet off-hand so radical a proposition, and while he was fumbling in his mind for some sort of non-committal answer the major went on again.
"it is not fo' myself, suh," he said, "that i desiah to realize this magnificent undehtaking. living heah costs little, and what i get from renting my land to camping pahties and fo' picnics gives me all i need. and i'm an old man, anyway, and whetheh i die rich oh pore don't matteh. it's fo' my daughteh's sake that i seek wealth, suh, not fo' my own. that deah child of mine is heh sainted motheh oveh again, mr. maltham—except that heh motheh's eyes weh blue. that is the only diffehrence. and beside heh looks she has identically the same sweet natuah, suh—the same exquisite goodness and beauty of haht. when my great loss came to me," the major's voice broke badly, "it was my love fo' that deah child kept me alive. it breaks my haht, suh, to think of dying and leaving heh heah alone and pore."
maltham had got to his bearings by this time and was able to frame a reasonably diplo[85]matic reply. "well, perhaps we'd better not go into the matter to-day," he said. "you see, our line has traffic agreements with the n. p. and the northwestern that must hold for the present, anyway. and then i've only just taken charge, you know, and i must look around a little before i do anything at all. but i might write to my father to come up here when he can, and then he and you could have a talk."
the major's look of eager cheerfulness faded at the beginning of this cooling rejoinder, but he brightened again at its end. "a talk with youah fatheh, suh," he answered, "would suit me down to the ground-flo'. an oppo'tunity to discuss this great matteh info'mally with a great capitalist has been what i've most desiahed fo' yeahs. but i beg youah pahdon, suh. i am fo'getting the sacred duties of hospitality. pehmit me to fill youah glass."
it seemed to pain him that his guest refused this invitation; but, finding him obdurate, he kept the sacred duties of hospitality in working order by exercising them freely upon himself. "heah's to the glorious futuah of minnesotah point, suh!" he said as he raised his glass—and it was obvious that he would be off again[86] upon the exploitation of his hopelessly impossible project as soon as he put it down. greatly to maltham's relief, the door opened at that juncture and ulrica entered to call them to dinner; and he was still more relieved, when they were seated at table, by finding that his host dropped business matters and left the glorious future of minnesota point hanging in the air.
at his own table, indeed, the major was quite at his best. he told good stories of his army life, and of his adventurous wanderings which ended when he struck duluth just at the beginning of its first "boom"; and very entertaining was what he had to tell of that metropolis in its embryotic days.
but good though the major's stories were, maltham found still more interesting the major's daughter—who spoke but little, and who seemed to be quite lost at times in her own thoughts. as he sat slightly turned toward her father he could feel her eyes fixed upon him; and more than once, facing about suddenly, he met her look full. when this happened she was not disconcerted, nor did she immediately look away from him—and he found himself thrilled curiously by her deeply intent gaze.[87] yet the very frankness of it gave it a quality that was not precisely flattering. he had the feeling that she was studying him in much the same spirit that she would have studied some strange creature that she might have come across in her walks in the woods. when he tried to bring her into the talk he did not succeed; but this was mainly because the major invariably cut in before he could get beyond a direct question and a direct reply. only once—when her father made some reference to her love for sailing—was her reserve, which was not shyness, a little broken; and the few words that she spoke before the major broke in again were spoken so very eagerly that maltham resolved to bring her back to that subject when he could get the chance. knowing something of the ways of women, he knew that to set her to talking about anything in which she was profoundly interested would lower her guard at all points—and so would enable him to come in touch with her thoughts. he wanted to get at her thoughts. he was sure that they were not of a commonplace kind.
