As for Sappha, she went swiftly upstairs to her room. Her heart was as light as it had been heavy. She sat down, she arose, she rubbed her palms with pleasure, she sighed, she smiled, and her eyes were full of love’s own light as she whispered softly, “Leonard! Leonard! Leonard! Oh, my dear one!”
Thus does grief favour all who bear the gift of tears.
CHAPTER SEVEN
_The Incident of Marriage_
The interview so important to Leonard’s love affairs, and so eagerly desired by him, did not come as he had planned it should come. He had intended to speak to the judge when Mrs. Bloommaert was present and Sappha not far away, for he counted very largely on their personal influence for a favourable answer to his request. But one morning as he was passing the house the judge, who was sitting by the window, saw him; and by a friendly, familiar gesture, invited him to an interview.
“You see, Mr. Murray,” he said cheerfully, “I have fallen behind in all city news. Sit an hour and tell me what is going on.” And he held the young man’s hand and looked with pleasure into his frank, handsome countenance.
“Well, judge, De Witt Clinton is sure to be re-elected mayor.”
“Yes, yes; the majority of the council are Federalists.”
“I think the war party are equally in his favour.”
“No doubt, he has been a good mayor. Any war news?”
“There is a report that the _Constitution_ captured the British war frigate _Java_ about last Christmas Day. I believe the report, for it came by the privateer _Tartar_, Captain King.”
“I wish we could have any such news from the Niagara frontier. Nothing but disaster comes that way. The government has requested my son Peter to go there and assist Brown with the building of the lake fleet. I wonder if it will accomplish anything.”
“All it is intended to accomplish, judge. We must give the men up there time and opportunity. Before summer is over we shall hear from them.”
They then began a conversation upon the defences of New York, and Leonard described the work going forward on Hendrick’s reef, and at Navesink. “There are more than eight hundred Jersey Blues on the heights,” he said, “and the telegraph on the Highlands is ready to work. General Izard is an active and zealous officer.”
Having exhausted this subject, the judge suddenly became personal, and with an abruptness that startled Leonard, asked:
“How are you spending these fine winter days, Mr. Murray? Tell me, if my question is not an intrusive one.”
“Indeed, sir, I consider it a great honour. And advice from you, at this time, would be of more service than you can imagine.”
“If you will take it; but most people ask advice only that it may confirm them in the thing they have already resolved to do.”
“I will ask your advice, sir. It cannot but be better than my own opinion.” Then Leonard explained his intention with regard to the study of the law regulating real estate, and Judge Bloommaert listened with attention and evident satisfaction.
“It will be a good thing for you to do, Mr. Murray,” he answered, when Leonard ceased speaking. “You ought not to be idle, even if you can afford it; and this study will not only employ your time, it will eventually save you much money. Go and see Mr. Vanderlyn. Perhaps he may let you read with him. No one knows more about real estate.”
“I have been told, sir, that Mr. Burr is the greatest authority on that subject.”
“Mr. Burr is out of consideration.”
“I confess, sir, that I have already considered him.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“Not definitely.”
“Mr. Murray, if you sit in Mr. Burr’s office, you will soon share his opinions. And in such case, I should be compelled to forbid you the society of myself and family. You cannot touch pitch and not be defiled.”
He spoke with rising anger, and Leonard answered as softly as possible:
“Judge, I ask your advice in this matter. I have already told you I would take it. Can we not talk of Mr. Burr as reasonably as of the war and our defences? I am open to conviction, and free to confess that I do not see what Mr. Burr has done to merit the ostracism he is receiving from certain parties. I suppose it is one of the accidents of his fate, a paradox--and life is full of paradoxes.”
“Mr. Burr’s ostracism is no accident, it is his own act. The man has committed a crime, and the interpretation thereof is written on everything he does.”
“You mean his duel with Mr. Hamilton? Sir, if Mr. Hamilton had killed Mr. Burr, would the Federalists have considered it a crime?”
“Mr. Hamilton’s case is out of our jurisdiction. It is gone to a higher court.”
“Is not that special pleading, judge?”
“It will do for the case.”
“Hamilton had publicly called Burr unprincipled, dangerous, despicable, an American Cataline--oh, many other derogatory epithets! Would not Mr. Burr have been generally held as despicable if he had not defended his good name?”
“By killing his defamer?”
“Well, sir, how else could he have done it?”
“In politics men call each other all sorts of ill names. They even invent new ones for their opponent. And though in Paradise the lion will lie down with the lamb, in Paradise they will not have to submit their rival political views to general elections. Say that Mr. Hamilton was vituperative--it was a war of words. Mr. Burr Had a tongue and a pen, as well as Mr. Hamilton. If Mr. Hamilton had insulted Mr. Burr’s wife, or run off with his daughter, there might have been some excuse for a bloody settlement, but words, words, words, the tongue or the pen would have answered them.”
“Then, judge, you do not approve of the duel?”
“I do not. But I think that Mr. Burr’s fatal mistake will eventually put duelling as much out as witchcraft. We shall probably also have strong repressive laws against it.”
“Yet as long as public opinion respects duelling, no repressive law will be as strong as public opinion. We are as moral and intelligent now as any people can be, yet the duel is not obsolete, nor has Mr. Burr’s ostracism been a deterrent.”
“I know that. Last year two men quarrelled about an umbrella in the hall of Scudder’s Museum, and the next day one of them shot the other dead. Nine out of ten people called the dead man a fool for his pains. Mr. Murray, the duel has become perilously close to the ridiculous. Men may talk about blowing out brains for an angry word, but the majority quietly laugh at the absurdity. Such conduct is totally unworthy of American common sense. For no man of intelligence would fight a duel if he remembered that he would render himself liable to form the text for an article in _The Morning Chronicle_. To be treated either with its satire or its morality would be equally depressing--it would make him intensely ridiculous in any case. But we shall never give up duelling on moral and intelligent grounds.”
“Then on what other grounds?”
“The class duellists come from are the brainless class; and if the custom was strictly confined by this class to their fellows, it would be one of the most innocent of their amusements. We must make duelling ridiculous, for when mockery and satire are constant about any subject, you may know that thing is dead, and its shell only remains.”
“But, judge, if a man’s honour is assailed----”
“If we were all Hotspurs, Mr. Murray, and ready to plunge into the deep and pluck honour by the locks, we might count on sympathy; but when the majority think with Falstaff, that ‘honour is a mere scutcheon’ we get a chill, until we remember the divine law. For after all, sir, the Decalogue remains as a finality. Look up the sixth clause of that code.”
“There is nothing to add to it, sir.”
“Not on moral and intellectual grounds. Socially, you may remember the homely proverb which advises ‘Go with good men, and you will be counted one of them.’ Go with Mr. Burr, and you will be counted with him; held at the same price--nay, you will be only one of Mr. Burr’s satellites. If you want really to study law----”
“No, sir. I give up the idea. I have said sufficient to Mr. Burr to wound him if I go elsewhere. And just because he is down at present, I will not give him a coward’s kick.”
“There is no occasion to do so. It is not a chargeable thing to salute civilly. But Mr. Burr’s affairs are none of your profit, therefore why make them your peril?”
“I thank you for your good advice, judge.”
“Then take it.”
“I will, sir.”
“Now having interfered with your intention, I am bound to offer you something in its place. It is this: I can get you active employment with Gouverneur Morris, Simeon De Witt, and John Rutherford, who are busy yet in perfecting their plans for the streets of the future New York. I should not wonder if they map out the whole island. In fact, they have already provided space for a greater population than is collected on any spot this side of China. I cannot say I like their mathematical arrangement; they are making a city idealised after Euclid--straight, stiff, wearisome, without character or expression.”
“But it will be a most convenient arrangement. I would carry the plan out, even north of Harlem Flat.”
“There will be no houses there for centuries to come.”