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Or if the visitor is disinclined to exertion, he may lounge in the rooms of the hospitable Asheville Club; or he may sit on the sidewalk in front of the hotels, and talk with the colonels and judges and generals and ex-members of Congress, the talk generally drifting to the new commercial and industrial life of the South, and only to politics as it affects these; and he will be pleased, if the conversation takes a reminiscent turn, with the lack of bitterness and the tone of friendliness.
"Sally Carrol," said Clark suddenly, "it a fact that you're engaged?" She looked at him quickly. "Where'd you hear that?" "Sure enough, you engaged?" "'At's a nice question!" "Girl told me you were engaged to a Yankee you met up in Asheville last summer." Sally Carrol sighed. "Never saw such an old town for rumors." "Don't marry a Yankee, Sally Carrol. We need you round here."
"You know, I thought the mountains near Asheville was a bunch o' hills off one side like the Palisades, that you couldn't miss if you tried. I've never been outside of New York since I can remember. I'd love to see real mountains." The last sentence was spoken in a wistful pathos that touched Mary with its irresistible appeal. Her mother instincts responded to it in quick sympathy.
It was a great relief the next morning, on our return, to rise out of the lifeless atmosphere of the Gap into the invigorating air at the Widow Sherrill's, whose country-seat is three hundred feet higher than Asheville.
The easier and common route is by the Ford of Big Ivy, eighteen miles, the first stopping-place; and that was a long ride for the late afternoon when we were in condition to move. The landlord suggested that we take another route, stay that night on Caney River with Big Tom Wilson, only eight miles from Burnsville, cross Mount Mitchell, and go down the valley of the Swannanoa to Asheville.
There was a kind of predetermined and willful gayety about Asheville however, that is apt to be present in a watering-place, and gave to it the melancholy tone that is always present in gay places. We fancied that the lively movement in the streets had an air of unreality.
This was a fine country for any kind of fruit, apples, grapes, pears; it needed a little Northern enterprise to set things going. The travelers were indebted to the Colonel for a delightful noonday rest, and with regret declined his pressing invitation to pass the night with him. The ride down the Swannanoa to Asheville was pleasant, through a cultivated region, over a good road.
He shrugged his shoulder negatively. She laughed with a hint of cool slyness and triumph. "I got it at Asheville," she said. "I went with father when they was a show thar, 'n' the women stayed at the same tavern we was at, 'n' one of 'em tuk up with me 'n' I done somethin' for her carried a letter or two," breaking into the sly, triumphant laugh again, "'n' she giv' me the dress fur pay.
Carroll has gone into the dining-room," the servant told them at the door, and Sydney assumed much cheerfulness as she made her apologies. "I've brought Bob, grandmother. He's been all over everywhere with me this morning. You'll forgive me, Katrina, for leaving you, won't you? Where's Mr. Wendell?" "Not back from Asheville yet." "He went in yesterday," explained Mrs. Carroll to Bob.
And to say the truth, the new element of Southern smartness lacks the trim thrift the North is familiar with; though the visitor who needs relaxation is not disposed to quarrel with the easy-going terms on which life is taken. Asheville, it is needless to say, appeared very gay and stimulating to the riders from the wilderness.
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