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Introduction to
LINEAR PROGRAMMING
with MATLAB®
Introduction to
LINEAR PROGRAMMING
with MATLAB®
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
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Foreword vii
Preface ix
List of Figures xi
1 Introduction 1
2.1 Vector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Linear Equations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4 Matrix Inversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3 MATLAB 21
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.2 Basic Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.3 Basic Operations in MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.4 Selection Statements and Loop Statements . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.5 User-Defined Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.6 MATLAB Functions Defined in This Book . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.7 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2 Simple Examples of Linear Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.3 Convex Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.4 Graphical Solution of Linear Programming Problem . . . . . 52
4.5 Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
v
vi Contents
7 Duality 175
Bibliography 309
Index 311
Foreword
vii
viii Foreword
Sy-Ming Guu
Professor,
Graduate Institute of Business and Management
Dean, College of Management,
Chang Gung University,
Taoyuan, Taiwan
Ph.D. in Operations Research,
Stanford University
Preface
ix
x Preface
xi
List of Tables
xiii
Chapter 1
Introduction
1
2 Introduction to LINEAR PROGRAMMING with MATLAB R
2.1 Vector
An n vector is a column array of n numbers, denoted as
a1
a2
a= ... .
(2.1)
an
The number ai is called the ith component of the vector a. For
1
example, a = 2 is a column vector of size n = 3. Similarly, an
−3
n vector is a row vector of n numbers as
a = a1 a2 . . . an . (2.2)
For example, a = 1 2 −3 is a row vector of size n=3. We
denote R as the set of real numbers and Rn is the set of col-
umn or row n-vectors with real components. We can say Rn as
n-dimensional real vector space. We can denote the vectors by
lowercase letters such as a, b, c, etc. The components of a ∈ Rn
are denoted as a1 , a2 , . . . , an .
The transpose (denoted as T ) of a given column vector (2.1) is a
row vector (2.2). Therefore, we can write
T
a1
a2
. = a1 a2 . . . an .
..
an
5
6 Introduction to LINEAR PROGRAMMING with MATLAB R
a1
T a2
a1 a2 . . . an =
... ,
an
that is
a1
a2
aT =
... .
an
Note that the set of all row vectors forms a vector space called
“row space”, similarly the set of all column vectors forms a vector
space called “column space”.
A vector space V is a collection of vectors, which is closed under
the operations of addition of two vectors a, b ∈ V , and multiplica-
tion by a scalar, α ∈ R, then the following properties hold:
1. Commutativity of vector addition: for vectors a, b ∈ V
a + b = b + a.
Definition
2.2 (Linearly Dependent). A set of the vectors S =
a1 , a2 , . . . , ak is said to be linearly dependent if there exists co-
efficients αi ∈ R, where i = 1, 2, . . . , k not all of which are zero
such that α1 a1 + α2 a2 + · · · + αk ak = 0.
1 1
Example 2.2. Show that the vectors a1 = 2 , a2 = −1, and
1 2
3
a3 = 3 are linearly dependent.
4
The vectors a1 , a2 , a3 are linearly dependent because 2a1 + a2 −
a3 = 0, where αi 6= 0, i.e., α1 = 2, α2 = 1, and α3 = −1.
Theorem 2.1. A set of vectors a1 , a2 , . . . , ak is linearly depen-
dent if and only if one of the vectors ai from the set is a linear
combination of the remaining vectors.
Proof. Using definition (2.2), since a1 , a2 , . . . , an is linearly de-
pendent, there exists coefficients αi ∈ R, not all zero such that
α1 a1 + · · · + αi ai + · · · + αk ak = 0. (2.3)
2.2 Matrix
A matrix is a rectangular array of numbers, commonly denoted
by uppercase bold letters (e.g., A,B, etc.). A matrix with m rows
and n columns is called an m × n matrix, and we write
a11 a12 . . . a1n
a21 a22 . . . a2n
A= ... .. .. .. .
. . .
am1 am2 . . . amn
The real number, aij , located in the ith row and j th column is called
the (i, j)th entry. We can think of A in terms of its n columns, each
of which is a column vector in Rm . Alternatively, we can think of
A in terms of its m rows, each of which is a row n-vector. The
transpose of matrix A, denoted as AT , is the n × m matrix.
a11 a21 . . . am1
a12 a22 . . . am2
AT =
... .. . . .. .
. . .
a1n a2n . . . amn
We see that columns of A are the rows of AT and vice versa.
Note that the symbol Rm×n denotes the set of m × n matrices
whose entries are real numbers. We treat column vectors in Rn as
elements of Rn×1 . Similarly, we treat row n-vectors as elements of
R1×n .
A = [a1 , a2 , . . . , an ].
Consider the m × n matrix
a11 a21 . . . am1
a12 a22 . . . am2
A=
... .. ... .. .
. .
a1n a2n . . . amn
We can apply elementary row operations in the matrix A to get
the matrix in reduced form.
2x + 6y = −11,
6x + 20y − 6z = − 3,
6y − 18z = − 1.
R2 → R2 − 3R1
2 6 0 −11
0 2 −6 30
0 6 −18 −1
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
"Oh, Sambo! Indeed I'm sorry! How hungry you must be! Come, I'll
make Chloe give you some of our dinner to-day."
Sambo's big eyes opened wide and he slowly shook his head. "Had
somf'n, Miss Debby. D' wan' no mo'."
With his words came the sound of the dinner-horn from the quarters. He
turned. "Goin' home," he said, wearily, trudging out of the room; while the
girl, wondering who had fed him, proceeded to restore order in her
immaculate little domain. When she had finished the doctor reappeared.
"Yes, sir, at once, when this sleeve is down." She pulled at the short
elbow-sleeve which she had pushed to the shoulder to be rid of its ruffles.
The creature lay upon the bed of grass blinking nonchalantly, after a
luncheon of milk.
"Perfectly well, eh? Note, Deborah, that the action of the atropine is
already retarded half an hour beyond its time. Most interesting, on my
word!"
Dinner was gone through with tediously, and at three o'clock the entire
family, with the guests, sat upon the portico, drowsy with heat and the effort
of talking. The doctor, perceiving Deborah's growing impatience, was about
to dare Madam Trevor's high displeasure by carrying her off to the still-room
to watch their cat, when suddenly around the corner of the east wing dashed
a negro, hysterical with fear.
"Blessed Ma'y be praised! Docto' Ca'l, come quick! Sambo's dyin'! Gib
him somf'n fo' he go off, fo' Christ's sake!"
Before the last words were spoken the doctor had jumped from the
porch, and the rest of the party rose anxiously.
Madam Trevor had run into the house to get an apron for her gown, and
Deborah, seizing the opportunity, flew across the portico, leaped down on
the east side, and caught up with the doctor.
"I shall come, too," she said. And Carroll's silence gave consent.
The cabin in which Sambo and his parents lived was on the northeastern
corner of the quarters, and, as the doctor, with his conductor and Deborah,
approached it, a group of negro women about its door hailed them with
expressions of relief and praise. Not heeding the pious ejaculations, the three
passed into the tiny hut, where, upon the mattress in a corner, covered with
tattered blankets, lay Sambo. Beside him, her apron over her head, sat the
mother, Chloe, rocking to and fro in absolute terror.
Carroll knelt at once beside the mattress and glanced sharply into the
child's face. Sambo was lying deathly still, breathing heavily, his eyes wide
open, his black skin dripping with sweat. The doctor felt the child's pulse,
opened his mouth, and gave a sharp exclamation as he perceived the tongue
to be heavily coated with a thick, grayish matter.
"Sit here, Deborah, and hold his hands. He'll not be quiet long."
Deborah took her place at the child's head and clasped the little burning
hands in her own, while Carroll, in a low voice, began to question Chloe.
Sambo noticed Deborah, and smiled faintly as she leaned over him. In a
moment more a swift spasm of agony passed over the small features, and he
uttered a guttural cry of pain. Carroll ran to his side, while the colored
woman, wringing her hands, sank helplessly on the floor. The paroxysm was
violent. The child's body twisted and writhed. He rolled over and over upon
the bed, moaning like an animal, or shrieking in a delirium of torture.
Deborah, very pale, and Carroll, silent and stern, held him so as to prevent as
much exhaustion of strength as was possible. When he began to grow more
quiet, Madam Trevor came in, looking angrily at her cousin, who, however,
scarcely saw her.
"It is possible that you do not need me, doctor," she said, in her most
offended tone.
Carroll paid small attention to her manner. "If you will send out some old
linen, pepper, mustard, and salt from the house, it will be all that we can use.
To be frank," he added, in a low tone, "there is little hope now."
Madam Trevor looked aghast, and her manner softened instantly. "Little
hope! What do you mean? What shall we do?"
"What I ask, if you please. Linen, salt, mustard, and pepper. Chloe, you
must heat some water in the kettle there." And Carroll turned about again as
Madam Trevor, without another word, hurried out of the cabin on her errand.
"What was it, Sambo? Have you eaten anything? What have you done?"
she asked, caressingly.
Sambo, panting from weakness, answered, just audibly: "Done eat nuf 'n
't all but mushrooms you picked 's mo'n wiv Mas' Frenchman. You say dey
good fo' dinne'."
"My God!"
"What is it?" asked the doctor, quickly, seeing her face grow gray.
Deborah was not long there. When she was sure her hope had been
realized, she turned to the cupboard, snatched a bottle from its shelf, and ran
at full speed out of the room and back towards the cabin. Upon the bed
Sambo's body lay now outstretched, quiet save for an occasional little quiver
of the muscles, and over it Madam Trevor, with grave tenderness, and Dr.
Carroll, with hopeless skill, worked. Some hot gin had been forced down the
child's throat, and across him were spread linen cloths soaked in water so
near to boiling that they had scalded Chloe's hands; yet Sambo paid no
attention either to them or to the mixture with which they were rubbing his
limbs. When Deborah returned, Carroll left off chafing the little black arms
and went to her where she stood by the door.
Carroll shook his head. "He is passing into the coma now. That is the
end."
"Of your own making, Deborah?" came Madam Trevor's sharp voice.
"No, Miss Deb'. You ain' goin' give Sambo nuf'n from still-house."
"Dr. Carroll!" There was a desperate appeal in her tone, and the man
came instantly to her aid.
"Listen, Chloe! Unless your child in some way gets the help that I cannot
give, he must die. He is poisoned, as I supposed, fatally. Miss Deborah
believes that she can save his life. You cannot let him die without the
attempt."
The colored woman paid no attention to the words, and still menacingly
barred the way. A new idea was taking possession of her: that Deborah had
poisoned the boy. Carroll, who was watching her narrowly, saw the sudden
squaring of her shoulders, darted quickly in front of her and seized her about
the body just as she had been about to fling herself upon the girl. Deborah,
keyed to the highest pitch, watched her opportunity, slipped like a cat around
to the bedside, raised Sambo's head upon her arm, and, to Madam Trevor's
terror, pressed her fingers on the child's throat, and forced him to swallow
the contents of the cup. At once he was seized with a violent coughing fit.
Deborah lifted him upright at once, pressed her hands upon his temples and
the back of his neck, and kept him from that retching which would have
been fatal to her experiment.
Meantime Carroll had forced Chloe, screaming and struggling, from the
cabin, and, after calling Thompson to keep order in the group outside, he
closed and barred the door. Madam Trevor then rose from her place.
And, with these words, Antoinette Trevor rose in strong anger, shook out
her flounces, unfastened the door for herself, and, without more ado, left the
cabin and the dying child alone to the care of the doctor and his mad
protégée.
"The cat—"
"Lives."
Deborah set her teeth. "We—I will save him," she said, with slow
precision. "Or else—they will bury me with him."
Madam Trevor, upon her return to the house, said not a word of the scene
in the cabin. It was a relief to her to find that de Mailly had tactfully
departed and that the family was alone. Lucy and Virginia beset her with
questions, for the child was a pet with them all. It was something of a shock,
then, when their mother turned upon them, saying sharply: "Sambo will die,"
and forthwith retired to her own room. The girls looked at each other for a
long moment in amazement, and then Lucy cried quickly:
Virginia would have assented, but her brother shook his head.
"Deborah and the doctor both are there. If you are needed, you will be
sent for. Otherwise I forbid you to go."
And so the Trevor family lived dismally through the afternoon, waiting
for the supper-hour, when the watchers would appear. But Adam blew the
horn in vain. No word came from the cabin, and Madam Trevor, burning
with curiosity and anxiety, flatly refused to send any one to ask news of the
child.
The sun set, and dusk deepened to evening. Candles were lighted in the
sitting-room, but Vincent alone made any pretence of reading. The three
women moved about restlessly, the girls not daring, and their mother
unwilling to speak on the subject which occupied all their thoughts. The
silence had become unbearable, and Vincent at last started to put away his
book, with a resolve to go to the quarters, when the door flew open and Dr.
Carroll strode into the room, carrying Deborah's body in his arms. He laid
her down upon the brocaded sofa, while the girls rushed to her side.
"She fainted as we came across the yard," explained the doctor, wearily.
"Sambo will live. The girl saved his life. She is a genius, madam; and—
for God's sake, get me a glass of wine!"
CHAPTER VI
Claude's Memories
Deborah recovered from her afternoon over Sambo's sick-bed far less
rapidly than the small negro did from the effects of his remarkable breakfast.
In fact, three days after that upon which he had substituted the fly agaric for
hoe-cake, he was running about the plantation as usual, only with a new and
useful working knowledge concerning vermilion-colored fungi. With
beautiful impartiality he sought the still-room on the afternoon of the first
day that he left the cabin. He found its door locked, and presently discovered
that Miss Deb was to be seen nowhere about the grounds. On making
peremptory inquiries, he was informed, much to his disgust, that his play-
fellow was ill in bed, without amanita for cause, and that he might not dream
of such a thing as seeing her. Thereupon, retiring to the still-house door-step,
young Sambo lifted up his voice and wept, though he got no consolation
from the process.
Strictly speaking, Deborah was not in bed. She was too restless to remain
long in any one place, but she felt no desire to leave the house. What care
she needed, and a little more, was lavished on her by Madam Trevor, her
cousins, and the slaves. Nevertheless, she was very wretched. She could not
understand her continual weariness and her impatience with the familiar
scenes of everyday life. She suffered inexpressibly with the mid-day heat,
and shivered with cold through the mild nights. "Nerves" were to her
unnecessary and incomprehensible things, and her disgust with herself was
none the less exasperating because it was unreasonable. Dr. Carroll,
however, was wiser than she. A week after Sambo's affair he heard of her
condition and went out to her at once. His prescription pleased the whole
family, with the exception, perhaps, of Sir Charles. He proposed taking her
back with him to Annapolis, to spend ten days under his own hospitable
roof, with his two sisters to take care of her, and young Charles for company.
Permission for the visit was granted on the asking, and, upon the next
afternoon, Deborah set out in the family coach, with the doctor on horseback
as outrider. The only regret that she felt on leaving was, oddly enough, the
parting from Sir Charles. His attentions to her during the past week had been
remarkably delicate. Madam Trevor herself could hardly have objected to
them. Through long hours he had sat near her while she lay upon a sofa,
generally with Lucy or Virginia, or both, beside her, recounting little stories
of his own or his comrades' adventures; describing London and London life;
stopping when he saw that his voice tired her; fanning her, perhaps, in
silence; arranging the tray that held her meals on the stand beside her; and
only once in a long, long time looking into her wandering eyes with an
expression that would set her to thinking of grave and far-off things. Thus
she left the plantation, feeling a new and not unpleasant regret at losing the
companionship which had almost made her illness worth the having.
Dr. Carroll's sisters, Mistress Lettice and little Frances Appleby, awaited
their guest with solicitation. The coach that held her arrived at their door just
at tea-time, and Deborah was smiling with pleasure when the doctor lifted
her out and carried her bodily up the walk and into the house, with St.
Quentin on one side, his son on the other, and the little old maids smiling
together in the doorway. The young lady then refused absolutely to retire,
but sat up to tea, partook of some of Miriam Vawse's raspberry conserve, and
afterwards lay upon the sofa in the parlor with an unexpressed hope in her
heart that Claude might come.
Claude was to have come. Mistress Lettice, when she learned from her
brother that their guest would arrive that afternoon, had sent down a polite
request by young Charles that monsieur would honor them with his presence
in the evening. As politely de Mailly returned thanks for the invitation, gave
no definite reply, but intended to go. Upon that afternoon, however, the Sea-
Gull arrived, after a fair voyage, from Portsmouth; and in her came a long
letter and a consignment of rents from Mailly-Nesle to his cousin. Many
things were happening in France. In March, war with England and Maria
Theresa had been declared, and the French armies prepared for a campaign.
In May came the astounding intelligence that, through the influence of la
Châteauroux, who loved the heroic, Louis would command his forces in
person. A week later it was understood that the favorite was to follow in the
royal train, together with the King's staff, his aides, his chefs, his valet, and
the impedimenta. The letter was dated May 28th. As he read it, Claude's
heart burned; and with the evening, in the bitterness of his memories of the
old life, and in the wretched conjectures that he made as to what was the
French news now, he forgot Deborah. Where was she, Marie Anne, his
cousin? What battles had been fought over the water? Was the fifteenth
Louis still reigning over France? Had not some chance shot struck him, and
with him the third daughter of the de Maillys, down in all their clanging
glory? Did la Châteauroux never now think of the cousin exiled for her, at
her instance? Henri did not say. And Miriam Vawse of the Annapolis inn
wondered that night what news her lodger had received, that he should sit,
stoop-shouldered, over the empty fireplace, and forget that, only two blocks
away, in Dr. Carroll's house, Debby Travis was vainly waiting for him to
come to her.
Claude did remember her next morning, when the sunlight gave matters
a different aspect, and the letter had been shut away in his trunk. So it was
with only half his mind on French battle-fields and a vaguely dreamed-of
Dettingen, that he ate his colonial breakfast; and afterwards, as he left the
ordinary and bent his steps leisurely northward towards Dr. Carroll's house,
his homesickness fled quite away.
The Carrolls' breakfast had ended some time ago (Claude's Versailles
habits of late rising were not yet broken); and Deborah, already bettered by
the change of scene and atmosphere, had come down to the morning meal.
She was now in the doctor's study, leaning back in his great chair, while
young Charles stood moodily facing the window, sulky because she was not
yet well enough to bear a morning on the bay, so obtaining for him a
vacation on plea of hospitality.
"Now I know why you won't mind about me any more. Here's your de
Mailly coming up the walk. Faith, I'll not bear it! You've grown into a fine
lady, Debby, and are no fun nowadays. I'd as soon have Lucy running with
me."
"And you, Charles, are ungentlemanly. If you were anything but a child,
I wouldn't speak to you this sennight."
Claude stood smiling upon the threshold, for he had overheard the last
words of the quarrel. Deborah, her white face flushing a little, held out her
hand. As he bent over it she said, in a much gentler tone than that which she
had been using: "I am really well, only I have nerves. Charles, however, is
using me very ill. He says that nerves are nonsense. Do you think so?"
Deborah looked a little shocked at his first statement and his matter-of-
fact tone when making it; but she said nothing. Presently Father St. Quentin
appeared at the door. After stopping to extend a hearty greeting to de Mailly,
he flung a Latin imperative at poor Charles, who obeyed it with the poorest
possible grace, leaving the room alone to Deborah and the Count. Claude
seated himself near her, and looked at her for a few seconds in silence,
noting a difference in her general expression. She was too languid to be
embarrassed by the pause, but, not caring to return the scrutiny, slightly
turned her head and looked toward the windows.
She glanced towards him now in some surprise. "An apology? For
what?"
"Nay, then I will not make it. I will only tell you that, as the preserver of
a child's life, I must reverence your talent, on which, I confess, I had looked
with ill-timed disapproval."
"So Dr. Carroll told me. I have heard all that you did on that afternoon;
and I, like the doctor, have not words to express my admiration."
"You are very kind. Please—do not let us talk of that. I came here to
forget. Come—would you entertain me, monsieur?"
"Yes—a few. Those who cannot find a husband. But we are supposing
that you would not be there unless some grand seigneur had married you and
carried you away."
"You would dwell in an apartment in—we will say the Rue des
Rossignols—that is the name of a street. Let us see. You sleep in a charming
room hung in white brocade. Your dressing-room will be in pink satin, with
the chairs in tapestry which monsieur would have embroidered for you—"
"Monsieur—a man—embroider!"
"Oh yes. The King himself commanded de Gêvres to teach him stitches a
year ago. He began four sièges at once, I remember, and de Mouhy made an
excellent bon-mot about it. No matter. Your tapestries in apple-green, your
tables in mahogany, and your sets in ivory—or gold? Which?"
"Ivory, I think. Pink satin and ivory would be—oh, most beautiful!" she
replied, cocking her head a little on one side.
"I'm sure I cannot tell," was the demure response; but the girl's face
belied her words. It was aglow with pleasure. "And what is it that you would
do, monsieur? How—how could you have borne it to leave such a life? Did
you really tire of it? Was—"
He rose sharply to his feet, and she broke off at once, astonished and half
frightened at the change in his face. "There are many thorns among the
roses, mademoiselle. Life is not happier there than here. And some day—
some day, perhaps—I will tell you the other side of it; why"—he almost
whispered now, for his throat was dry—"why I left it all."
He looked down into the face that had lost all its glow of pleasure, took
her slight hand, kissed it quietly, and left her alone to think over all that had
been said, to wonder over the uncertain promise of more, and to hope that he
would neither forget nor repent.
The little conversation had taken her mind away from herself and set it in
a new and far-off channel. When Dr. Carroll came back from his walk to the
wharves, he found his little guest with color in her face and animation in her
air. She told him of de Mailly's visit, and Carroll, judging its effect, resolved
that the tonic should be administered often while his patient remained with
him. The result was that, in the following days, Claude de Mailly and
Deborah were thrown constantly together. And during their lively
conversations, or, perhaps, even more so in their desultory ones, there grew
up between them an intimacy more of good-fellowship than anything else,
the spirit of which deceived both Claude and the doctor, though how much
prophecy Deborah might have made concerning it, would be more difficult
to say.
One afternoon, a Friday, and two days before Deborah was to return to
the plantation, while the doctor was at his counting-house near the wharves,
and the two little sisters sat together spinning in the sitting-room, their guest,
panting with the heat inside the house, and wishing also to escape young
Charles, who would presently be relieved from his Horace, sought out her
largest hat and crept out of doors, passing down the street in the direction of
the Vawse inn. She had not seen de Mailly for nearly twenty-four hours, and,
as a consequence, her day was empty. She had small hopes of encountering
him now, but was too restless to remain any longer in the room with the two
old maids and their whirring wheels. She passed the quaintly gabled tavern,
whose door, contrary to custom, was closed. Evidently Miriam was out.
There was no sign of life about the windows. Claude himself was probably
not there. Deborah walked on, disappointedly, as far as the court-house, and,
still not wishing to admit to herself that she had come out simply with the
hope of encountering de Mailly, turned down Green Street and followed it to
the water's edge. The Stewart quay was deserted, and she halted there to look
over the smooth, warm stretch of water. It was very still. The idle swash of
the ripples against the pier was the only sound that reached her ears. The
atmosphere was hazy with heat. It seemed as though it was the very weight
and thickness of the air which gradually formed a solid arch of purple storm-
clouds above the river to the west. Presently the sun was obscured. Still
Deborah stood, heedlessly watching the bay, and breathing slowly in the
stifling heat. Suddenly some one appeared beside her.
Deborah turned her head towards him with a smile of pleasure which she
would have repressed if she could. "Did you fall from the clouds, sir?"
"No. I have myself been wandering by the water this afternoon; and for
the past quarter of an hour I have been watching the gathering storm—and
you. Come, mademoiselle, we must seek shelter—and quickly."
He took her arm as she spoke, and they started together down Hanover
Street to Charles, which ran straight up for five blocks to Gloucester Street
and the Vawse tavern. As they passed the Reynolds ordinary a deafening
clap of thunder broke over them. Deborah shivered, and de Mailly put an
arm about her to help her faster on their way. The street was empty. The heat
had not yet broken, and beads of perspiration stood on their faces as they
went. A long hiss of lightning glided like a snake through the storm-cloud.
The town was almost dark. Deborah had begun to pant, and her companion
could feel the beating of her heart shake her whole frame.
It was with some difficulty that Claude shut and bolted the door in the
face of the wind. When he turned about his companion lay back on a
wooden settle in a state of exhaustion. While the gale howled without and
the thunder crashed down the heavens; he lit a candle with his tinder-box,
brought a glass of strong waters for Deborah, and helped her gently to a
more comfortable chair. He took the hat from her tumbled hair, chafed her
hands till her nails grew pink again, and then stood back regarding her
anxiously.
"Mistress Vawse? John Squire's boy broke a limb falling from a roof, and
she has gone to attend the—what do you say?—setting of it."
"Surely Miss Travis is not afraid with me?" Claude looked at her in hurt
surprise. "I will retire at once to my room. When the rain ceases—"
Both listened as the long, low growl of thunder rolled down the sky and
died away. It was growing darker again. A new storm was rising.
Deborah nodded and leaned back in her own chair. Then there fell a little
silence on the room. The girl's unconscious eyes travelled over de Mailly's
face as he sat regarding the rain-splashed windows; and they found a new
expression, a new paleness, an unusual soberness, upon the clear-cut
features. Unthinkingly, Deborah spoke:
"You are changed to-day, monsieur. I have not seen you so before. Why
are you melancholy?"
He turned towards her quickly. "Yes, I have what we call les papillons
noirs to-day. In some way, Mistress Deborah, 'tis your fault. In these last
days I have said so much to you of my former life, jestingly perhaps, and yet
feeling it, that to-day it has brought me homesickness."
Before his frank look Deborah's eyelids drooped, and presently, with a
little hesitation, she said: "You once told me that some day you would relate
to me why it was that you left your home. Could you not—now?"
"Ah, no!" The exclamation was impetuous. "It is not a story for you,
mademoiselle. An older woman might hear—but to you—"
And so, out of an impulse which he could not have traced to its source,
but which proceeded from a spirit of honesty and true chivalry, Claude
recounted, with the utmost gentleness and delicacy, some of the incidents
which had led to his exile. He said just enough of his cousin to let his
listener decide what his feeling for her had been. And Deborah, oddly
enough, perhaps, shrank from no part of the recital. She forgot herself, and
saw through the eyes of the narrator all that he was describing. In their
recent, half-serious talks on French life, the girl had gained a remarkably
clear idea of what that life must be; and now this story affected her very
differently than it would have done had it been her first glimpse of another
existence. It resembled one of her vague dreams, this sitting alone in the
cloud-darkened room, the feeble candle mingling its beams with the gloomy
daylight; the shadowy figure of the man before her, and his low voice
carrying on its story, seeming to be things very far away. And the fresh rain
pelted on the windows, while the deep monotone of the thunder made a fitful
and fitting accompaniment to the narrative.
"How could you go to see her? I should not have done so."
While the girl looked at the glove for the second time, de Mailly picked
up his letter of exile, and sat smoothing it on his knee. Then he asked,
unthinkingly: "This letter from the King—will you read it?"
She held out her hand and took the small, worn paper with its red-brown
seal and the arms of France upon it. Regarding the fine, crabbed writing, she
said, with a faint smile: "I do not easily read French, monsieur."
She nodded once more, and he, taking the missive from her hand, cleared
his throat and began, with a little effort:
Claude passed his hand over his brow. Then he lifted the letter again and
continued: "'—and begs further to add that when monsieur shall desire to
present Madame la Comtesse his wife to their Majesties at Versailles, his
return to his present abode will be most pleasing to
"'LOUIS R.'
At the close of the last line Claude looked up, apprehensively. Deborah
was very white, and there was an unusual brightness in her eyes. He could
not catch her glance. Her head drooped, and presently she covered her face
with her hands. He sprang up, impetuously.
He spoke rather incoherently. Perhaps the girl did not even understand
him. At any rate, after a moment, she lifted her head with a dignity that
Claude did not know. "I thank you, M. de Mailly, for telling me the story as I
asked." There was a little, wretched pause, and then she added, more faintly:
"See, the storm is nearly over. I must go back now—to the doctor's house."
CHAPTER VII
The Pearls
Another week went by, and Deborah, quite recovered from her slight
illness, bade Dr. Carroll and his sisters good-bye and returned, on a Sunday
afternoon, to the Trevor place. It was then about the 1st of August, and
certain rumors relative to the reception of the returning commissioners from
Lancaster, rumors dearly exciting to the feminine heart, began to radiate
from the gubernatorial palace and to spread throughout the country-side. For
once in its long existence rumor spoke truth. Upon the 6th day of August
were issued elaborate cards ("tickets," they called them then) of invitation
for a Governor's ball to be given upon the evening of the 21st to the
returning officials. With the delivery of these cards a thrill of excitement and
anticipation pulsated through all Anne Arundel County, even running a little
way over its irregular borders; and innumerable were the earnest
conversations through town and country houses as to costumes suitable for
such an occasion. Great hopes, that sank often to despair, were entertained of
the arrival of the Baltimore, with her usual cargo of vain and delightful
things. It was calculated with the nicest discrimination that she might reach
port, provided the winds were amiable to an impossible degree, as early as
the 15th. Then the weather of the West Atlantic was watched with supreme
interest. It certainly was all that could be desired. Nevertheless, the 15th
came and went without the Baltimore, and there was wailing on both sides of
the Severn. In time the interest in the ship's arrival came to surpass its object;
though, indeed, Betty Pritchard voiced many another's feeling when she one
day cried out, wofully:
"If the Baltimore doesn't come in, I'll have no pink taffeta for a petticoat
to my satin overdress. If I don't have the petticoat, I won't go to the ball; and
if I don't go to the ball, I shall die!"
One of the most anxious watchers for the arrival of the ship was, oddly
enough, Madam Trevor. Her anxiety concerning it quite passed the
comprehension of her daughters, who had not a suspicion of what was in
their mother's mind. Vincent knew more, but had never seen fit to talk to his
sister on the subject of the pearls which were to form Virginia Trevor's
ornaments on the day that she married Sir Charles. It was tacitly understood
between young Trevor and his mother that he should speak to his cousin on
the arrival of the jewels, and it was madam's ambition to be able to spread
the news of Virginia's engagement at the much-talked-of ball.
The Baltimore was a considerate ship, and her captain the favorite of all
sea-going men in Annapolis. Neither lost a reputation this time, for, on the
20th of August, at ten o'clock in the morning, the Baltimore cast anchor in
the lower piers, and Annapolis womanhood sighed with relief. It was but
seven o'clock on the evening of the same day, and the Trevor family sat at
supper in the glass room, watching the twilight deepen over the scented
garden, when Pompey hastily entered to announce the unexpected arrival of
young Charles Carroll.
"An' he say Baltimo'e 's heah, Mis' Trev'," he added, eagerly, glad to be
the first with the news.
Madam Trevor rose with a light in her face as the doctor's son came
merrily in. Having saluted each member of the party, he advanced to the
mistress of the house, paused for an instant to take on an air of heavy
responsibility, and finally produced, from the pockets of his new cloth coat,
two packages, wrapped in paper and tied with cord, the one square and flat,
the other five inches thick and also square.
Virginia, surprised, but unmoved, lifted the covers from the cases. In
one, upon a green satin lining, reposed a necklace of round, softly shining
pearls, set in gold, with a pendant of pear-shaped pearls and sapphires. The
other case contained a hair ornament, also of pearls, pink and black, in two
even rows, surmounted by a delicate scroll-work of the smaller stones, that
shone in the dusk with exquisite beauty.
Virginia drew a deep sigh of admiration. Lucy cried out with delight; and
Madam Trevor and the gentlemen, looking on in high interest, did not notice
Deborah, who sat silent, eager, with her great eyes fixed in unwinking
fascination on the perfect gems.
"Put them on, Virginia," cried young Charles, and there was a murmur of
approval.
Lilith, who had been standing by her husband at a little distance, lost in
admiration, nudged old Adam.
Virginia, with a little smile, took up the necklace, and her mother clasped
it about her slender throat. Then the tiara was set and pinned upon her
powdered curls, and Adam, coming forward with a candle in each hand, held
the lights up before her.
"'Ginny, you must wear them to the ball!" cried Lucy, ecstatically.
Virginia had no time to reply, for her mother gently interposed: "They
are not Virginia's yet, Lucy. She shall wear them on her wedding-day."
"I shall never wear them, then," was on her tongue to say; but her brother
interrupted.
"Charlie," he said, addressing his cousin, "come down to the river with
me and see the moon rise. It's in the full to-night."
"No, Lucy; I need you here," interposed her mother, much annoyed with
Vincent's want of tact.
An hour later Madam Trevor sat alone in the great hall. Young Charles
and the three girls, one by one, had gone to their various rooms, and the
mother was waiting alone for the return of her son and her nephew. She was
unaccountably anxious over the result of the interview, though indeed there
was not one reason which her nephew could, in honor, conjure up, whereby
he might refuse to marry Virginia Trevor. It was with the understanding of a
some-time marriage that he had come to America with Vincent months
before, and because the matter had been so long silently understood, it
should not have been hard for him to hear it finally discussed. Thus, many
times over, Virginia's mother argued in the candle-light, while she waited.
And still, into the midst of her most unanswerable conclusion, would creep a
doubt, a suspicion that she would not voice, the name of one whom she tried
in vain to put from her mind. It was Deborah. Deborah Travis and Charles
Fairfield? Absurd! And yet—madam could see the face of the girl as it had
been that evening when Vincent and his cousin left the room. She could see
the ironical light in the gray-blue eyes, the scornful curl of the red mouth, the
unconscious insolence of the long, natural curl that fell, powderless, down
her shoulder to the muslin ruffles at her elbow. Madam Trevor had a measure
of justice in her, and she gave Deborah her due, admitting to herself that
Virginia, in all her stateliness, with the pearls upon her, would never have
tempted man to half the desperation that might be raised within him over this
other silent creature, half child, half woman, of madam's own generation.
The clock on the wall ticked ten and went on again. At a quarter after,
Trevor and Fairfield came in from the moonlight to the hall. Fairfield was
very pale. Vincent's face was calm and unreadable. Sir Charles, seeing his
aunt expectant, went over to her, lifted her passive hand to his lips, bowed,
and left the room to retire to his own. When he was gone madam turned a
puzzled and anxious face towards her son, who stood still, narrowly
scrutinizing a portrait on the opposite wall.
Vincent shrugged his shoulders. "He said nothing at all. He informed me,
when I spoke, that he did himself the honor formally to ask of me the hand
of my elder sister. I accepted the offer. After that we walked about. I suppose
you will make the engagement public at the ball on Wednesday. I'm deucedly
tired to-night. Permit me to wish that you will sleep well."
With great relief at her heart the mother gently kissed her son, and then,
as he departed with his candle, she blew out all but one of those remaining in
the hall, and with that lighted herself to her rooms in the eastern wing.
Deborah also was awake. Rather, the moonlight, creeping along the
pillow to her face, had roused her, by slow degrees, from a half waking
dream. Alone, in the silent, enchanted night, with no disturbing day-thoughts
to banish the lingering visions of sleep, the dream stayed and grew to be a
fantasy of reality. She rose from her bed and moved slowly towards her open
windows, through which the bluish silver moonlight flowed, changing the
room into a misty-veiled fairy place. Below, outside the window, lay the
dreaming rose-garden. The lazily floating odor of full-blown flowers came
up to her, as incense on its way to a higher heaven. Beyond this lay the deep-
shadowed wood, with here and there a high, feathery tree-top waving to the
stars. The rippling plash of the river played a low accompaniment to the
night hymns of the myriad creatures singing through the country-side. Far
beyond the garden, rising like two cloud-shadows through the luminous
night, were the great tobacco barns. Slave-cabins, still-house, kitchen, well-
sweep, all were changed, by the mysterious power of night, to things of
natural beauty. And Deborah was changed. Her dreams had been of courts
and palaces, of dimly resplendent royal figures, among which she, and
Charles Fairfield, and Claude de Mailly moved in inexplicable near-
relationship. She, Deborah Travis, had just been crowned Queen of all
Europe by the hand of Majesty, with her cousin Virginia's pearls. Now, in the
waking dream, Deborah could not turn her thoughts from those same softly
shining things that Virginia was to wear upon her wedding-day.
Presently, with this single image in her mind, Deborah found herself
outside her room, and creeping, in her white garment, with naked feet, down,
down the stairs, past Sir Charles's door, through the deserted, moonlit living-
rooms, with their misplaced furniture and the scattered articles of a day
waiting for dawn and Lilith to be put straight. She passed across the sitting-
room, down the east passage, and, finally, in at the doorway of Madam
Trevor's dressing-room. Once inside Deborah halted. Madam Trevor's
garments lay, neatly folded, upon a chair. The door to the bedchamber
beyond was half closed. From within came the light sound of regular
breathing. Deborah smiled, and turned to the great black chest of drawers
beside the window. Here also the moonlight illumined her way. She opened
the top drawer noiselessly. Within, on a bed of lavender, lay the two morocco
cases for which she had come. She took them up, left the drawer open, and
glided quietly away again.
Once more in her own room the girl opened the cases and placed them
on her dressing-table, their priceless contents all unveiled. Then she went to
her own chest of drawers, and took from one of them the dress that she was
to wear two nights later at the Governor's ball, a petticoat of stiff, white
satin, and an overdress of China crepe, of the color of apple-blossoms, a
thing that clung lovingly to her lithe figure, and vied in softness of tone with
her neck and arms. These things she put on, with rapid, careless precision;
and then, her fingers grown a little colder, she lifted the pearl necklace from
its satin bed and clasped it about her warm throat. Afterwards she sat down
on a low chair before the dressing-table, with its dim mirror, and took the
tiara from the other box, placing it over her rebellious, silky curls.
"Ah, Claude, Claude, how was it, that thy cousin looked?" she murmured
indistinctly, with a vague smile at her thought.
The dreamy, languorous eyes that knew not all they beheld, gazed at the
reflected image of her face. How beautifully the young head in its coronet
was poised upon the pearl-wreathed neck! Was it a new Deborah sprung to
life here, in this August midnight? Was it only a momentary madness that
should not be told, this carrying out of a dim vision? What was it that
Deborah murmured to her mirror? What did she say to the shadowy throngs
of courtiers that pressed about her chair? Was ever la Châteauroux more
regal, more gracious? Were ever Comtesse de Mailly, and poor little Pauline
Félicité, Marie Anne's predecessors, more gay, more delicately glowing, than
this other, of alien race?
From the heap of her finery Deborah sought out a painted fan, and, with
this finishing touch of coquetry, she began walking up and down her tiny
room, pausing now and then at the window, for the night would not be
disregarded, waving the fan with an air inimitable and unacquired, seeing
herself thus in the Orangerie of Versailles, or on one of the Paris boulevards
as crowded with fashion and gallantry upon a Sunday afternoon. After a little
she grew tired, and her mind dropped its imaginings. She seated herself
beside the window, and, unclasping the necklace, took it off and held the
jewels up in the moonlight, pressing their soft smoothness to her cheek,
where the pendant drops hung like falling tears.
Suddenly, upon the perfect stillness around her, broke a sound. Slow
stealthy footsteps were crossing the floor of the spinning-room just outside.
Deborah grew cold with instant terror. She heard a hand placed upon her
door, and then came a voice, soft, well known, through the stillness:
"Deborah—Deborah!"
It was the lightest of whispers, but every accent fell distinctly on the
girl's terrified ears. Moving noiselessly in her bare feet, she carried the
necklace to the bureau, took the ornament from her head, and laid each piece
in its case. Then, running across the floor, she knelt in her ball-dress, at the
door, grasping its handle firmly.
The girl breathed fast, but made not a sound. Only her hand tightened
upon the handle, and her figure stiffened with determination.
Then silence fell between the two, separated by three inches of board and
Deborah's will, there in the August night. There was no one to know that he
was there. Vincent, and Lucy, and young Charles Carroll, sound sleepers all
of them, were in the body of the house; and Virginia was above her mother
in the far eastern wing. The muscles in Deborah's body grew more rigid, and
desperately she held herself against the door. But Fairfield was making no
effort to enter. It should be only with her own consent that he would do that.
She shut her eyes and pressed her forehead against her arm. There was a
silence, breathless, endless, terrifying to the girl in the room. Then her
weight of fear was lifted. The footsteps slowly retreated from her door, out
of the spinning-room, down the stairs, and entered into the room below her
own. She sank weakly to her knees, and a breath like a sob shook her slight
frame. She was intensely sleepy now. For very weariness, it was hard to
realize the crisis through which she had passed. But there was a task still
before her, and one at which she trembled. Rising unsteadily, too wise to
give herself time to think, she took the jewel-cases from her toilet-table,
opened her door, crept out, and down the stairs, and passed stealthily back to
madam's dressing-room. The room, the drawer, were as she had left them.
Replacing Virginia's pearls in their bed of lavender, she pushed the drawer
to, inch by inch, till it was closed. Three minutes later she had once more
crossed the threshold of her own room. And while the pale moon set and the
day dawned in crimson and turquoise over the distant Chesapeake, Deborah
slept dreamlessly—Claude, and the Versailles pageants, and Charles
Fairfield's strange madness all lost to her for the moment under the spell of
the great blessing of youth.
Matters were different with Sir Charles, below. No sleep had the dusky
dawn, with its liquid bird-warblings and its fresh day-odor, for him. He was
thinking of what he had done—and of what he should do. The impulse that
had driven him to go to the room above was past now. He knew only that he
had forfeited her very tolerance of him; and the thought quickened his half-
generated love into a sudden, fervid life that swayed his senses and fired his
brain to plots and plans of unwise daring. At six o'clock he was dressed, and
sat him down to wait for Deborah's waking. It was an endless hour, and day
had begun over the whole plantation before he heard her cross the floor over
his head, and knew that his waiting was bounded at last.
Deborah was half dressed before the sudden memory of the past night
flashed over her. Then her hands dropped to her sides, and she sat still for a
little, thinking. How should she meet Charles Fairfield before them all—or,
worse yet, if possible, alone? How could he meet her? Had she done
anything wrong? No. What he had done was not her concern. And
thereupon, with a lighter heart, but doubt still in her face, she finished
dressing, set her room to rights—for she was immaculately neat—and
started away without seeming reluctance. She was going downstairs, her
thoughts centred on the breakfast-room as the place of ordeal. The door at
the stair-foot opened; Sir Charles came out of his room and stood below her,
barring the way.
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