Mama looked heartbroken, and came in and sat on Papa's pants draped over a chair, and Papa gave her a drink of water.
Just then the door opened, and Jed came in yawning and smiling.
Mama rose. “Where have you been?”
“On the North River. The Astors were giving a party and Fran had never been on a yacht before. You would have enjoyed it.”
Mama sparked fire from her beautiful eyes. “A fine story! The Astor yacht, indeed!”
Jed said, “Well, you see the young Astor… the family owns a lot of railroad stock… the young one was working his way up to a vice president's job on the line… from the bottom. He started as a freight handler, and I showed him around. We became very good friends.”
“I see,” said Mama. But she didn't. “And he's been after me to send in a bid for railroad ties since he's been in charge of the supply department, and I called him and he said come on over to the pier and… you ill, Mrs. Longstreet?”
“Did Fran have a good time?” asked Mama.
Jed looked worried and sighed. “Well, she danced with Mr. Astor… and she asked him how his mother's pet horse was. Hey, I think Mrs. Longstreet has fainted!”
In the morning Jed went out and bought Fran a speck of pure white carbon and put it on her finger, and they told Mama that they were engaged. Mama was too weak to protest. I do not think my Aunt Fran ever found out that Mrs. Astor didn't keep a pet horse.
Those were the days of long engagements… and Papa and Jed drove around looking for wood lots and the right kind of water. The Billpens came once to our house… a Sunday afternoon… and Mama gave them all watermelon and iced tea, and we played in the grass a game called mumbly peg with pocket knives, and I was cut on the thumb.
The engaged couple sat on the lower steps and fed each other ice cream out of plates. Mama had a headache and went upstairs to lie down. Love had won… but Mama had tried to steer nature, and even if she had failed, she had seen Faust with a colored actor in the start part, and she had almost seen an Astor yacht.
Old Mr. Billpen went back to fighting the railroad, and I used to stay over, and watch the Express come past. That was the real thrill of the Billpens, who didn't have an Aunt Fran to kiss.
This thrill passed, as I shall tell here later, but while it lasted it was a great thrill. The dark, sharp night… the grinding yellow eye, pinning back darkness… spreading ahead and eating up blackness.
And all of us sitting by the Billpen house waiting, watching, enjoying… first the thunder… then the light in the night… to be followed by a row of portholes glowing in the side of a great rushing worm. Then the great eye would pick out the silver ribbons of rails, the bone-white dead trees on the hill above. Then the Big Express would come, hammering steel on steel, the bong bong of good, heavy steel being wheeled and ridden on. Then the Big Express would gather itself and pull itself forward in space and pass us, rushing madly on into the black blanket ahead, knowing the line was direct, with no crossing over the elevated right-of-way that ran through the town. Then it was gone… two red and green eyes winking at us, the smell of coal smoke, the heat of oiled iron and the polish of Pullman cars… and it was over. It was a grand sight, Mr. Billpen said, it was better than seeing a million dollars… Mrs. Billpen said he never saw a million dollars and never would, and Mr. Billpen nodded and said maybe not, but he'd take the Big Express going past. And then the kids would be sent to bed, and I would walk home by the pike, dreaming I was driving the Big Express at a hundred miles an hour, and nothing could stop it!
One night something did.
Six freight cars of stoves had been loaded on the spur above the main lines and left there till morning, when a freight would come past that they could join. It was down grade to the main line, and someone had been careless… there were no blocks under the wheels of the stove cars and the brakes had been wound up, but not tight… and suddenly the six heavy freight cars began to move…. coal stoves were solid cast iron and heavy… and then the six cars gained speed and came roaring down on the main lines… ignoring the closed switch… ignoring the danger they could make by spilling across the four heavy rail lines that the fast trains used…
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