A STRANGE, SAD COMEDY
A STRANGE, SAD COMEDY
BY
MOLLY ELLIOT SEAWELL
AUTHOR OF “THE SPRIGHTLY ROMANCE OF MARSAC,” “CHILDREN OF
DESTINY,” “MAID MARIAN AND OTHER STORIES”
“LITTLE JARVIS,” ETC.
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1896
Copyright, 1892, by
Godey Publishing Co.
Copyright, 1896, by
The Century Co.
All rights reserved
THE DE VINNE PRESS.
A STRANGE, SAD COMEDY
A STRANGE, SAD COMEDY
I
ONE sunny November day, in 1864,Colonel Archibald Corbin sat placidlyreading “The Spectator” in theshabby old library at Corbin Hall, in Virginia.The Colonel had a fine, pale old face, cleanshaven, except for a bristly, white mustache,and his white hair, which was rather long,was combed back in the fashion of the dayswhen Bulwer’s heroes set the style for hair-dressing.The Colonel—who was no morea colonel than he was a cheese-box—had aninvincible placidity, which could not be disturbedby wars or rumors of wars. He hadcome into the world in a calm and judicialframe of mind, and meant to go through itand out of it calmly and judicially, in spiteof rude shocks and upheavals.
Everything about Colonel Corbin hadreached the stage of genteel shabbiness—a[2]shabbiness which is the exclusive mark ofgentlemen. His dignified frock-coat waswhite about the seams with much brushing,and the tall, old-fashioned “stock” which supportedhis chin was neatly but obviouslymended. The furniture in the room was asarchaic as the Colonel’s coat and stock. Asquare of rag carpet covered the floor; therehad been a Brussels carpet once, but that hadlong since gone to the hospital at Richmond—andthe knob of the Colonel’s gold-headed canehad gone into the collection-plate at churchsome months before. For, as the Colonelsaid, with a sort of grandiose modesty—“Ican give but little, sir, in these disjointedtimes. But when I do give, I give like a gentleman,sir.”
There had been a time, not long before that,when he had been compelled to “realize,” asthe Virginians euphemistically express it, uponsomething that could be converted into cash.This was when it became necessary to bringthe body of his only son, who had been killedearly in the war, back to Corbin Hall—andlikewise to bring the dead man’s twelve-year-olddaughter from the far South, where hermother had quickly followed her father across[3]the gulf. Even in that sad extremity, the Colo