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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10780-0.txt b/10780-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d76c3f --- /dev/null +++ b/10780-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4675 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10780 *** + + ONLY AN INCIDENT + + BY GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD + + 1883 + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER + + I. JOPPA + + II. PHEBE + + III. GERALD + + IV. MRS. UPJOHN'S ENTERTAINMENT + + V. FRIENDS + + VI. THE PICNIC + + VII. TRIED AS BY FIRE + + VIII. GERALD OBEYS ORDERS + + IX. JOPPA'S MINISTRATIONS TO THE SICK + + X. AN APOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + XI. "MY SON DICK" + + XII. WHY DO SUMMER ROSES FADE? + + XIII. JOPPA'S TRIAL + + XIV. PHEBE'S GOOD-BY + + XV. ONLY AN INCIDENT + + + + +TO +GRACE HILL AND EDWIN C. LITCHFIELD. + +TO HER FOR WHOSE DEAR SAKE THE STORY WAS PENNED, ALTHOUGH HER EYES HAVE +NEVER REST UPON ITS PAGES, AND TO HIM WHOSE TENDER WATCH OVER ITS GROWTH +HAS BEEN ITS VITAL INSPIRATION--TO THE TWO WHO ARE BUT ONE FOREVER IN THE +HEART OF THEIR DAUGHTER, THIS LITTLE FIRST BOOK IS MOST LOVINGLY +INSCRIBED. + + + + +ONLY AN INCODENT + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JOPPA. + + +Joppa was the very centre of all things. That was the opening clause in +the creed of every well-educated and right-thinking Joppite. +Geographically, however, it was not the centre of any thing, being +considerably off from the great lines of railway travel, but possessing +two little independent branch roads of its own, that connected it with +all the world, or rather that connected all the world with it. For though +there were larger places than Joppa even in the county in which it +condescended to find itself, and though New York, and Philadelphia, and +even Boston, were undeniably larger, as its inhabitants reluctantly +admitted when hard pressed, yet they were unanimous in agreeing, +nevertheless, that the sun rose and set wholly and entirely for the +benefit of their one little aristocratic community. + +Yes; the world was created for Joppa, that the Joppites might live, move, +and have their being with as much convenience and as little trouble as +possible. Bethany, a considerable town near by, was built to be its +shopping emporium; Galilee, a little farther off, to accommodate its art +needs; Morocco, a more considerable town still farther off, to be the +birthplace of those ancestors who were so unfortunate as to come into the +world before there was any Joppa to be born in. Even New York was erected +mainly to furnish it with a place of comfortable resort once a year, when +it transplanted itself there bodily in a clan, consoling itself for its +temporary aberration of body by visiting exclusively and diligently back +and forth among its own people, and conforming life in all particulars as +far as possible to home rules, still doing when in New York, not as the +New Yorkers but as the Joppites did, and never for a moment abandoning +its proud position as the one only place in the world worth living in. + +There certainly was much to say in favor of Joppa. In the first place, +it was remarkably salubrious. Its inhabitants died only of old +age,--seldom even of that,--or of diseases contracted wholly in other +localities. Measles had indeed been known to break out there once in the +sacred person of the President of the village, but had been promptly +suppressed; besides, it was universally conceded that being in his second +childhood he should be considered liable. The last epidemic of small-pox +even had swept by them harmless. Only two old and extremely ugly women +took it, whereas Bethany and Upper Jordan were decimated. So Joppa was +decidedly healthy, for one thing. For another, it was moral. There had +not been a murder heard of in ever so long, or a forgery, and the last +midnight burglar was such a nice, simple fellow that he did not know real +silver when he saw it, and ran off with the plated ware instead. And +Joppa was not only moral, but religious; went to church no end of times +on Sundays, and kept as many of the commandments as it conveniently +could. It had four churches: one Methodist, frequented exclusively by the +plebeians; one Baptist, of a mixed congregation; one Presbyterian, where +three fourths of the best people went; and one Episcopal, which the best +quarter of the best people attended, and which among the Presbyterians +was popularly supposed to be, if not exactly the entrance to the infernal +regions, yet certainly only one short step removed from it. And added to +all these good traits, Joppa was a beautiful place. There were a few +common, ugly little houses in it, of course, but they were all tucked +away out of sight at one end, constituting what was known as "the +village," while the real Joppa meant in the thoughts of the inhabitants +only the West End so to speak, where was a series of pretty villas and +commodious mansions running along a broad, handsome street, and +stretching for quite a distance along the border of the lake. For, oh! +best of all, Joppa had a lake. To speak of Joppa in the presence of a +Joppite, and not in the same breath to mention the lake with an +appreciative adjective, was to make as irrevocable a mistake as to be in +conversation with a poet and forget to quote from his latest poem; for +next to their wives, their dinners, and their ease, the Joppites loved +their beautiful little lake. And they had cause thus to love it, for +apart from its exquisite charm as the main feature of their landscape, it +gave them a substantial reason for existence. What could they have done +with their _dolce far niente_ lives, but for the fishing and rowing and +sailing and bathing and sliding and skating which it afforded them in +turn? It was all they had to keep them from settling down into a Rip Van +Winkle sleep, this dear little restless lake, that coaxed them out of +their land-torpor, and forced them occasionally to lend a manly hand to a +manly pursuit. For there was this distinguishing peculiarity about Joppa, +that no one in it seemed to need to work, or to have any manner of +business whatever. Its society, outside of the village, was formed wholly +of cultivated, refined, wealthy people, who had nothing in the world to +do, but idly to eat and drink up the riches of the previous generation. +It is a widely admitted truth, that one generation always gathers for +another, never for itself, and that the generation which is thus +generously gathered for, is invariably found willing to sacrifice without +a murmur any latent duty to harvest on its own account, consenting to +live out its life softly upon the hard-earned savings of its +predecessors, without regard to posterity, and calling itself "gentlemen" +where its fathers were content to be known as "men." + +So this was Joppa, a place mighty in its own conceit, and high too in the +estimate of others, to whom it was becoming known as the gayest and the +prettiest of all dear little summer resorts; and thither strangers were +beginning to flock in considerable numbers each year, made warmly welcome +by the Joppites as an occasion for breaking out into an unending round of +parties and picnics and dinners and lunches and teas, and even breakfasts +when there was not room to crowd in any thing else. The summer was one +continual whirl from beginning to end. There were visitors and visits; +there was giving and receiving; there were flirtations and rumors of +flirtations; there was everything the human heart could desire in the way +of friendly hospitality and liveliest entertainment. Saratoga might be +well enough, and Newport would do in its way; but for solid perfection, +said the Joppites, there was no place in the world quite like Joppa. + +But unknown to itself, Joppa nursed one apostate in its midst, one +unavowed but benighted little heretic, who so far from sharing these +sentiments and offering up nightly thanksgiving that despite her great +unworthiness she had been suffered to be born in Joppa, made it one of +her most fervent and reiterated petitions that she might not always have +to live there; that some time, if she were very good and very patient, it +might be granted her to go. She was so weary of it all: of the busy +idleness and the idle business, of the unthinking gayety and the gay +thoughtlessness, and of the nothingness that made up its all. She wanted, +she did not exactly know what, only something different; and to go, she +did not quite know where, only somewhere else. But she had been born in +Joppa, (quite without her permission,) and in Joppa she had lived for all +of twenty-four healthful, tranquil, uneventful years, spending +semi-occasional winters in New York, and, unlike all other Joppites, +returning always more and more discontented with her native place. Who +could ever have expected such treason in the heart of dear little Phebe +Lane? Of course it would not have mattered much had it been suspected, +since it was only Phebe Lane after all who entertained it,--little Phebe +Lane, whose ancestors, though good and well-born enough, did not hail +from Morocco, and who lived, not in the West End proper, but only on the +borders of it, in a street where one could not get so much as a side peep +at the lake. It was not a pretty house either where she lived. It was +square and clumsy and without any originality, and, moreover, faced plump +on the street, so that one could look right into its parlor and +sitting-room windows as one strolled along the wooden sidewalks. And +people were in the habit of looking in that way a good deal. Nothing was +ever going on in there that could not bear this sudden outside +inspection, and it was the shortest way to call Phebe when she was wanted +for any thing of a sudden,--to bear a fourth hand at whist, or to stone +raisins for Mrs. Adams the day before her luncheon, or to run on an +errand down town for some lazy body who preferred other people's legs to +her own for locomotion, or to relieve some wearied host in the +entertainment of his dull guest, or to help in some way or other, here, +there, and yonder. She was just the one to be called upon, of course, for +she was just the one who was always on hand, and always ready to go. She +never had any thing to keep her at home. Her father had long been dead, +and she lived alone with her step-mother and step-aunt in the house which +was left her by her mother, but in which the present Mrs. Lane still +ruled absolute, as she did when she first came into it in Phebe's +childish days. Mrs. Lane was strong and energetic and commonplace; and +she ran the little house from garret to cellar with a thoroughness that +left Phebe no part whatever to take in it, while the remainder of her +energy she devoted to nursing her invalid sister, Miss Lydia, a little +weak, complaining creature, who had had not only every ill that flesh is +heir to, but a great many ills besides that she was firmly persuaded no +other flesh had ever inherited, and who stood in an awe of her sister +Sophia only equalled by her intense admiration of her. + +So what was there for Phebe to do? She was fond of music, and whistled +like a bird, but she had no piano and did not know one note from +another; and she did not care for books, which was fortunate, as their +wee library, all told, did not count a hundred volumes, most of which, +too, were Miss Lydia's, and were as weak and wishy-washy as that poor +little woman herself. And she did not care for sewing, though she made +nearly all her own clothes, besides attending at any number of +impromptu Dorcas meetings, where the needy were the unskilled rich +instead of the helpless poor, so that of course her labor did not count +at all as a virtue, since it was not doing good, but only obliging a +friend. And she did not care for parties, though she generally went and +was always asked, being such a help as regarded wall-flowers, while +none of the young girls dreaded her as a rival, it being a well known +fact that Phebe Lane, general favorite though she was, somehow or other +never "took" with the men, or at least not sufficiently to damage any +other enterprising girl's prospects. Why this was so, was hard to say. +Phebe was pretty, and lovable, and sweet tempered. If she was not +sparkling or witty, neither was she sarcastic; and bright enough she +was certainly, though not intellectual, and though she talked little +save with a few. It was strange. True as steel, possessed of that keen +sense of justice and honor so strangely lacking in many women, with a +passionate capability for love and devotion and self-sacrifice beyond +power of fathoming, and above all with a clinging womanly nature that +yearned for affection as a flower longs for light, she was yet the only +girl out of all her set who had never had any especial attention. +Perhaps it was because she was no flirt. Bell Masters said no girl +could get along who did not flirt. Perhaps because in her excessive +truthfulness she was sometimes blunt and almost brusque; it is +dreadfully out of place not to be able to lie a little at times. Even +Mrs. Upjohn, the female lay-head of the Presbyterians, who was a +walking Decalogue, her every sentence being a law beginning with Thou +shalt not, admitted practically, if not theoretically, that without +risk of damnation it was possible to swerve occasionally from a too +rigid Yea and Nay. Perhaps,--ah, well, there is no use in exhausting +the perhapses. The fact remained. Of girl-friends she had plenty, and +of men-friends she had plenty; but of lovers she had none. + +And this was why when the Rev. Mr. Denham Halloway was called to the +vacant parish of St. Joseph's and fell down in its maidenly midst like a +meteor from an unexplored heaven,--a young, handsome divine, in every way +marriageable, though still unmarried, and in every way attractive, though +still to the best of hope and belief unattracted,--this was why no girl +of them all thought her own chances lessened in the least when he and +Phebe became such friends. No one gossiped. No one ah-ah'd, or oh-oh'd. +No one thought twice about it. What difference could it make? If it had +been anybody else now! But it was only Phebe Lane. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +PHEBE. + + +"Miss Phebe!" + +"Oh, Mr. Halloway!" + +"Hush. Don't let them know I'm here. I couldn't help peeping in as I went +by. You look done up." + +"I am." + +"What's going on?" + +"Come in and see." + +"Heaven forbid! Gracious! Mrs. Upjohn will think that's a swear. +Don't look this way, Miss Phebe. They'll discover me. What's Mr. +Hardcastle saying?" + +"The world is very evil." + +"'The times are waxing late.' Why doesn't he add that and go?" + +"He never goes. He only comes." + +"What is Mrs. Upjohn so wrought up about?" + +"She caught one of her Sunday-school boys breaking Sunday." + +"How?" + +"Eating apples." + +"Horrible! Where?" + +"Up in a tree." + +"Whose tree?" + +"That's where the unpardonable comes in. Her tree." + +"Poor boy; what a mistake! What are you doing with that hideous silk +stocking?" + +"Picking up dropped stitches." + +"Whose stitches? Yours?" + +"Mrs. Hardcastle's." + +"Don't aid and abet her in creating that monstrosity. It's participation +in crime. It's worse than eating apples up a tree. Do you always have +such a crowd here in the morning?" + +"Always." + +"How long have they been here?" + +"Nearly two hours." + +"What do they come for?" + +"Habit." + +"Miss Lydia's asleep." + +"Habit too." + +"What shall you do when you are done with that odious stocking?" + +"Sort crewels for Mrs. Upjohn." + +"And then?" + +"Iron out my dress for the party." + +"Oh, at Mrs. Anthony's? Who'll be there?" + +"Everybody who has dropped in here this morning." + +"Who else?" + +"Those who dropped in yesterday." + +"But what will you do to make it party-like?" + +"Simper. Aren't you coming too?" + +"Not if you think it would do for me to say that I held party-going wrong +for a clergyman. Could I? I might win over Mrs. Upjohn to the Church by +so holy a statement." + +"You had better take to round-dancing instead, then, to keep her +out of it." + +"Miss Phebe, is it possible you are severe on poor Mrs. Upjohn?" + +"Very possible." + +"As your pastor I must admonish you. Don't be. Besides, it's safer to +keep on her blind side." + +"She hasn't any." + +"Unhappy woman! What a blaze of moral light she must live in! But I +ought to have been in my study an hour ago. I must tear myself away. I +wish you all ill-luck possible with those stitches." + +"Ah, is that you, Mr. Halloway? I was wondering what kept Phebe so long +in the window. Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, sir. Pray, come in." And +having, by a turn of his slow old head, discovered the young man standing +just outside the window, Mr. Hardcastle came pompously forward, waving +his hand in a grand way he had, that seemed to bespeak him always the +proprietor, no matter in whose house he chanced to be. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hardcastle, not this morning. I was just telling Miss +Phebe I ought to be at work. Good-morning, Mrs. Lane. Good-morning, Mrs. +Upjohn--Mrs. Hardcastle--Miss Delano--Miss Brooks." + +And with a cheery bow to each individual head, craning itself forward to +have a look at the unusual young man who had work to do, the Rev. Mr. +Halloway walked off to his rectory, which was directly opposite, giving a +merry glance back at Phebe from the other side of the street. Phebe was +still smiling as she went with the stocking to its owner. + +"Thank you, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, taking it from her without +looking. "Oh, my child, how could you be so careless! You have let me +pull out one of the needles. Well--well." + +Phebe took the work silently back, and sat herself down on a stool to +remedy the mischief. + +"A nice young fellow enough," remarked Mr. Hardcastle, +condescendingly, returning to the group of ladies. "But he'll never +set the river on fire." + +"No need he should, is there?" said Mrs. Upjohn, looking up sharply from +her embroidery. She always contradicted, if only for argument's sake, so +that even her assents usually took a negative form. "It's enough if he's +able to put out a fire in _that_ Church. It doesn't take much of a man, I +understand, to fill an Episcopalian pulpit." (Nobody had ever yet been +able to teach the good dame the difference between Episcopal and +Episcopalian, and she preferred the undivided use of the latter word.) +"Any thing will go down with them." + +"Yes, my dear Mrs. Upjohn. It's undeniably a poor Church, a poor Church, +and I hope we may all live to witness its downfall. It must have been a +hard day for you, Mrs. Lane, when Phebe went over to it. I never forgave +old Mr. White for receiving her into it; I never did, indeed." + +Phebe only smiled. + +"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, biting off a thread. "Phebe may go where she +likes, for all me, so long as only she goes. Baptist I was bred, and +Baptist I'll be buried; but it's with churches as with teas, I say. One's +as good as another, but people may take green, or black, or mixed, as +best agrees with their stomachs." + +"That's a very dangerous doctrine," said Mrs. Upjohn. "Push it a little +further, and you'll have babes and sucklings living on beef, and their +elders dining on pap." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mrs. Lane again. "If they like it, what's the odds?" + +"He-he!" snickered Miss Brooks. + +"Well, now," resumed Mr. Hardcastle, "it stands to reason children should +learn to like what their elders have liked before them. That's the only +decent and Christian way of living. And as I said to my son,--to my Dick, +you know" (Mr. Hardcastle had a son of whom he always spoke as if sole +owner of him, and indeed solely responsible for his being),--"'Dick,' I +said, when he spoke disrespectfully of Mr. Webb's prayers,--and Mr. Webb +is a powerful prayer-maker, to be sure,--'Dick,' I said, 'church is like +physic, and the more you don't like it, the more good it does you. And if +you think Mr. Webb's prayers are too long, it's a sign that for your +soul's salvation they ought to be longer.' And I said--" + +Mrs. Lane knew by long experience that now or never was the time to stop +Mr. Hardcastle. Once fairly started on the subject of his supposed advice +to Dick on any given occasion, there was no arresting his eloquence. She +started up abruptly from her sewing-machine with her mouth full of pins, +emptying them into her hand as she went. "Those ginger-cookies--" she +mumbled as she passed Mr. Hardcastle. "They ought to be done by this." + +A promissory fragrance caught the old gentleman's nostrils as she opened +the door, dispelling sterner thoughts. "Ah," he said, sniffing the air +with evident approbation, "I was about going, but I don't mind if I stay +and try a few. Your make, Phebe?" + +"No," answered Phebe, shortly, moving just out of reach of the bland old +hand, which stretched itself out to chuck her under the chin, and was +left patting the air with infinite benevolence "mother made them." + +"All wrong," commented Mrs. Upjohn. "All wrong. You should not leave your +mother any work that you could spare her. One of the first things I +taught our Maria" (Mrs. Upjohn in Mr. Hardcastle's presence always said +_our_ Maria with great distinctness),--"one of the first things I taught +her was, that it was her privilege to save me in every thing. I don't +believe in idleness for girls. Aren't you ready yet to attend to these +crewels, Phebe? Miss Brooks is snarling them terribly." + +"Phebe's really a very good girl in her way though," remarked Mrs. +Hardcastle, indulgently, from her easy chair. "I will testify that she +can make quite eatable cake at a pinch." + +Phebe secretly thought Mrs. Hardcastle ought to know. She remembered her +once spoiling a new-made company loaf by slashing into it without so much +as a by-your-leave. + +"That was very nice cake Miss Lynch gave us last night," piped in +Miss Delano. + +"Too much citron," pronounced Mrs. Upjohn, decisively. "You should never +overload your cake with citron. It turns it out heavy, as sure as there's +a sun in the heavens." + +"There isn't any to-day; it's cloudy," Phebe could not help putting in, +demurely, but no one paid any attention, except that Mrs. Upjohn turned +on her an unworded expression of: "If I say so, it is so whether or no." + +An animated debate on cake followed, in the middle of which Mrs. Lane +reappeared with a trayful of cookies hot from the oven; and two more +callers came in, Bell Masters and Dick Hardcastle, which last first woke +up Miss Lydia with a boisterous kiss, frightening the poor soul half to +death by assuring her she had been snoring so that he heard her way down +street, and then devoted himself to the cookies with a good-will and +large capacity that filled one with compassionate feelings toward his +mother's larder. With these new and younger elements the talk varied a +little. They discussed last night's party, the supper, the dresses, the +people, and then the probabilities of to-night's party, the people, the +dresses, the supper. And then Dick made a sensation by saying right out, +that he had just met Mr. Upjohn on Main Street with Mrs. Bruce, holding a +parasol gallantly over her head. And everybody looked at once at Mrs. +Upjohn, and then back at the graceless Dick, and an awful silence +succeeded, broken by Mrs. Upjohn's reaching out her hand and saying in +the tone of a Miss Cushman on the stage: "Dick, dear, I'll take another +cookie." If Mr. Upjohn chose to walk down town shielding women's +complexions for them, why in the world should she trouble herself about +it, beyond making sure that he did not by mistake take her parasol for +the kindly office? And so the talk went on, people coming and people +going, and Mrs. Lane did up a whole basketful of work undisturbed, and +Phebe inwardly chafed and fumed and longed for dinner-time, that at last +the ceaseless, aimless chatter might come to an end. + +She went to the party that night, because in Joppa everybody had to go +when asked. To refuse was considered tantamount to an open declaration of +war, unless in case of illness, and then it almost required a doctor's +certificate to get one off. It was a good law and ensured the suppers +being disposed of. There was no dancing to-night, it being an understood +thing that when Mrs. Upjohn was asked there should be none or she would +not come; but there was music. Bell Masters had a very nice contralto +voice, and was always willing to sing, thus sure of securing one of +Joppa's few young gentlemen to stand by and turn over her leaves; she +thoughtfully took her music on that account, giving out that she could +not play without notes. Phebe had been doing her best all unconsciously +to herself to help her hosts entertain, but when the singing began she +stole away to the nearly empty piazza, and stood leaning by the window, +enjoying the cool air and softly whistling an accompaniment to the song; +and there Mr. Halloway found her. She looked up at him and smiled as he +joined her, but went on with her low, sweet whistling all the same. + +"I like that better than the singing," he said, when at last it came to +an end with the music. + +"You ought not to, Mr. Halloway. Don't you know it's very unlady-like to +whistle? Mrs. Upjohn puts Maria to bed for it." + +"Dear me. I must take care she doesn't ever catch _me_ at it. Ah! the +dress has ironed nicely, hasn't it? Would you mind standing out a little +from the shadow?" + +Phebe moved a step forward into the stream of light that shot across the +piazza from the open window, and stood so, looking up at him out of her +soft white muslin draperies and white ribbons, not a ray of color about +her anywhere, like a very material and sweet little ghost. + +"Yes, you look very nice, very nice indeed," he said, after a grave +inspection that took in every detail of face and figure. A young, +innocent face it was, with soft brown hair as bright and as fine as silk, +all turned back from a low forehead, around which it grew in the very +prettiest way in the world, and gathered in loose braids in the neck; and +she had such a fresh, clear complexion, and such honest, loving, gray +eyes, and such a round, girlish figure,--how was it people never made +more of her prettiness? + +"I think you look nicer than any one here," Mr. Halloway added, in +thorough conviction. "You must be an adept in ironing." Phebe laughed +softly in pure pleasure. It was so new to have such pretty things said to +her. "Would it be very wrong to slip away together for a rest?" he +continued, leading her a little farther along. "Let us sit down on the +steps here and recruit. I have talked my throat hoarse to each of the +very deafest old ladies in turn,--I suppose they came here purposely to +be screeched at,--and I saw you working valiantly among the old men. What +a place this is for longevity!" + +"You are finding out its characteristics by degrees, I see." + +"Yes, am I not?" said he, with his pleasant laugh. "I know intimately +every member of my parish and every member of every other parish by this +time from sheer hearsay. Each house I visit gives me no end of valuable +and minute information about all the other houses. I am waiting to come +out with a rousing sermon against gossip, till I shall have gained all +possible enlightenment and help from it. I mustn't kill my goose that +lays the golden eggs before I have all the eggs I want, must I?" + +"And knowing us all so well, what do you think of Joppa as a whole?" +asked Phebe, curiously. "You always say it is too soon to judge, but +surely you must really know by this time." + +He did not answer for a moment, then turned to her very seriously. "I +think," he said slowly, "it is a place that needs a much older, a much +better, and a much wiser man than I am to be among its leaders in any +sense. It is not at all what I thought it would be when I accepted the +trust. It is beyond me. But since the Bishop sent me here, I mean to stay +and do my best." + +"How will you begin?" + +"I will begin with you," he answered, lightly, with a smile that lit up +all his face, the moment's seriousness quite gone. "You were my first +friend, and I ought to take you first in hand, ought I not? I am going +to do you a great deal of good." + +"How?" + +"I'm going to teach you to love books." + +"You can't." + +"Yes, I can. You don't know books, that is all. I intend to introduce you +to each other. I have some so interesting you can't help liking them, and +you'll find yourself crying for more before you know it. I am going to +bring them over to you. You shall have something better to do than fill +up all your mornings with promoting stockings of exasperating colors, and +listening to tales of Sabbath-breakers. Just wait and see. I am going to +metamorphose you." + +"Oh, I wish you would!" sighed Phebe, clasping her hands and speaking so +earnestly that he looked at her in surprise. "I am so sick of myself. I +do want to be something better than I am. I am so dreadfully +common-place. I amount to so little. I know so little. I can do so +little. And there is no one here who cares to help me to any thing +better. I don't know enough even to know how to improve myself. But I do +want to. Will you help me, Mr. Halloway? Will you really help me?" She +positively had tears shining in her eyes. + +Mr. Halloway leaned forward and gently took her hand. "Am I not here for +that?" he asked. "Here purposely to help you and all who need me in any +way? Will it not be my greatest pleasure to do so, as well as my best and +truest work? You may be sure, Miss Phebe, I will do all I can for you, +with God's help." + +"Rather damp for you to be sitting there without a shawl, isn't it, +my child?" + +It was only Mrs. Anthony's friendly voice, as that lady passed +hurriedly by, intent on hospitable duties, but Phebe started guiltily. +What right had she to be out here with Mr. Halloway, keeping him from +the other girls, when she ought, of course, to be in the parlors seeing +that the old ladies got their ice-cream safely? "I'll go right in," she +said, rising hastily; but Mr. Halloway drew her hand through his arm to +detain her. + +"Why? Because it is damp?" + +"No; because I ought not to be selfish, ought to go back and help." + +"Ah," said he, "I am getting new lights every moment. Then you don't go +to parties just to enjoy yourself?" + +She opened wide, serious eyes. "Oh, no." He smiled down at her very +kindly, "You shall go right away," he said, releasing her. "I will not +keep you another instant from dear Mr. Hardcastle and that nice Mrs. +Upjohn. But before you go let me tell you, Miss Phebe, that, if only in +view of your latest confession, I do not think you commonplace at all!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GERALD. + + +It was another article of the Joppian creed, that there was no such thing +possible as a purely Platonic friendship between a young man and a young +woman; there must always be "something in it": either a mitten for him, +or a disappointment for her, or wedding-cake for all--generally and +preferably, of course, the wedding-cake;--and belonging to such +friendship as lawfully as a tail belongs to a comet, was a great, +wide-spreading area of gossip. It was only in the case of Phebe Lane that +this universal and common-sense rule had its one particular and +unreasonable exception; and it was acting upon a speedily acquired +knowledge of this by-law, that Mr. Halloway boldly pursued his plan for +metamorphosing his young friend, right under the open eyes and ears of +the Joppites. He lived so near that it was the most natural thing in the +world for him to stop for a moment's chat, as every one else did, either +inside or outside of the window as he went by; and as he was always sure +of meeting others, call when he would, it certainly never could have been +asserted of him that he went there only to see Phebe. Indeed, he often +scarcely spoke with her at all when he so dropped in, and yet out of +these frequent and informal meetings an intimacy had sprung up between +them such as Phebe at least had never known before. She submitted herself +to him docilely, reading his books patiently even when they bored her +unutterably, as not seldom happened, and endeavoring to form her opinion +straitly upon his on all intellectual questions, recognizing her own +fallibility with a humility that at once touched and charmed him. Real +humility is rare enough the world over, but nowhere is it less +conspicuously apparent than among the flourishing virtues of Joppa; and +it was not long before this fact was discovered by Denham Halloway, who, +with all his gayety and light-heartedness, was a keen and discriminating +observer of character. He was one of those interesting people whom all +other people interest; one of those who derive their peculiar charm more +from what they find in you than from what they show you of themselves, +though one might be ashamed to confess the truth so baldly. These are the +people who, without any especial gift of either mind or person, wheedle +your secrets out of you before you know it, possessing all your trust and +your liking before they have given any real evidence of deserving your +confidence, and yet, somehow or other, though rarely either great or +talented, or even heroically good, never for one moment abusing it. Such +characters are not at all unusual, yet are generally accounted so; one of +their chief qualities, according to their friends, being that they are so +unlike everybody else. But Phebe certainly had never met any one at all +like Mr. Halloway, and she was soon of the settled conviction that she +should never meet any one quite like him again. He was true to his +promise to help her; (he never made a promise that he did not honestly +try to keep;) and he applied himself to the by no means thankless task +with the good-humored directness and energy that characterized all his +actions. There was quite a number of young girls in his parish, more +proportionately than in the others. Bell Masters and Amy Duckworth had +long been hovering on its borders, and the advent of so young and +prepossessing a rector had instantly removed their last scruples as to +infant baptism, and settled forever their doubts as to the apostolic +succession. They had come in at once. It was even whispered that Maria +Upjohn had in an incautious moment confessed that she preferred the +litany to Mr. Webb's spontaneous effusions, and had been summarily sat +upon by her mother, whose Bible contained an eleventh commandment +curiously omitted from the twentieth chapter of Exodus in other versions, +and reading: "Thou shalt not become an Episcopalian, and if possible, +thou shalt not be born one." Then there were Nellie Atterbury, and Janet +Mudge, and Polly and Mattie Dexter; there certainly was no lack of active +young teachers for the Sunday-school, and Phebe was well content to +remain passively aside, as of old. But, as Mrs. Lane remarked, there were +no drones allowed in Mr. Halloway's hive, and before long Phebe found +herself insensibly drawn in to be one of the workers too, with any +amount of business growing upon her hands, and herself, under this new +and wise guidance, becoming more and more capable for it every day. + +"A new broom sweeps clean," remarked Mrs. Upjohn, contemptuously, as she +heard of the stir and life in St. Joseph's heretofore-dull little parish. +"For my part, I would rather have Mr. White back--if he weren't dead. He +was a good, sensible old man, who knew his place, and was contented to +let his Church simmer in the background, where it belongs. _He_ didn't go +flaunting his white gown in people's faces every Saint's day he could +trump up, let alone the Wednesday and Friday services. Who's Mr. +Halloway? What does anybody know about him beyond that the Bishop +recommended him, as if a Bishop must know what's what better than other +people, forsooth! Don't tell me!" said Mrs. Upjohn, in unutterable scorn. +"He's a new broom, and he's raising a big dust, and I would liefer have +Mr. White back and let the dust lie,--that's all!" + +But the Joppites were far from sharing Mrs. Upjohn's sentiments. Mr. +Halloway did, it is true, belong to the wrong Church, but there was a +strong suspicion among them that neither had this man sinned, nor his +parents, that he was born to so grievous a fate. It was rather his +misfortune. And as for the rest, he was thoroughly a gentleman; was +excellently well educated; and was, moreover, comely to look upon, and +eminently agreeable in his bearing. No; Joppa was far from begrudging Mr. +White his departure to the land of the blessed. It was time the good old +man went to his reward, they said. + +And as to Mrs. Whittridge, Mr. Halloway's sister, who kept house for him +at the rectory, through all the length and the breadth of Joppa there +were no two opinions with regard to her. She was a woman of about fifty, +enough older than her brother to have been his mother, and she seemed +indeed to cherish almost a mother's idolatrous affection for him. She had +lost her husband many years before, and had been left with considerable +fortune and no family besides this one brother. So much information, +after repeated and unabashedly point-blank questions, had the Joppites +succeeded in extracting from Mr. Halloway, who with all his apparent +frankness was the most difficult person in the world ever to be brought +to talk of himself and his own affairs. But just to see Mrs. Whittridge, +with her sweet face and perfect manners, was to recognize her at once for +a gentlewoman in every sense of the word, while to be in her society, if +but for ten minutes, was to come very nearly to loving her. The Joppites +saw but one fault in her; she did not and would not visit. All who sought +her out were made more than welcome; but whether from the extreme +delicacy of her health, which rendered visiting a burden, or because of +her widow's dress of deepest mourning, which she had never laid aside, it +came to be an accepted thing that she went nowhere. It was a great +disappointment in Joppa; nevertheless it was impossible to harbor +ill-will toward this lovely, high-bred lady, who drew all hearts to +herself by the very way she had of seeming never to think of herself at +all. She won Phebe Lane's affection at once and forever with almost her +first words, spoken in the low, clear, sweet tones that sounded always +like Sunday-night's music. + +"Do you know, Mr. Halloway," Phebe said to him one day, "I think it does +me more good only to hear your sister's voice than to listen to the very +best sermon ever preached." + +"Miss Phebe," he rejoined, with a merry twinkle in his brown eyes, "if +you propagate that doctrine largely, I am a ruined man. I must hold you +over to eternal secrecy. But as regards the fact,--there is my hand,--I +am quite of your way of thinking! I am persuaded an angel's voice got +into Soeur Angélique by mistake." Mrs. Whittridge's baptismal name was +Angelica, but to her brother she had always been "Soeur Angélique" and +nothing else. + +"Yes, and an angel's soul too," said Phebe. + +"Even that," replied Mr. Halloway. "She is all and more than you can +possibly imagine that she is. But I positively forbid your putting her up +on a pedestal and worshipping her. In the first place, too great a sense +of her own holiness might mar her present admirable but purely earthly +management of our little household, thus seriously interfering with my +comforts. And in the second place, I feel it my duty to warn you from a +habit of canonization, which, if too extensively indulged in, will +inevitably warp your powers of frank and right judgment." + +Phebe laughed, but did not forget. + +One afternoon, some time later, she was at the rectory, whither she had +gone, at Mrs. Whittridge's request, to explain a new and intricate +embroidery stitch. They were upstairs in that lady's charming little +sitting-room, Phebe on a low stool by her friend's side, and Halloway had +just come in from a round of parochial visits and joined them there. + +"Mrs. Whittridge," said Phebe, suddenly, "do you think it is possible to +care too much for one's friends? Mr. Halloway says one can. I know he +means that I do." + +Mrs. Whittridge laid her hand caressingly on the girl's bonny brown hair. +"How can I judge, my child? I do not even know who your friends are." + +"Who are they, in fact?" said Denham, drawing up a chair and seating +himself in front of the group by the table. "Oh, Miss Phebe is friends +with the entire village in a way. They all call her 'Phebe,' and keep +accurate track of her birthdays, from Dick Hardcastle up. And I am sure +she hasn't an enemy in the world. But there is this remarkable feature in +the case, that you could go over the entire population of Joppa by name +without eliciting a single thrill of enthusiasm from this really +enthusiastic young lady." + +"I cannot help it," Phebe murmured, a little shamefacedly. "I bore them, +and they bore me." + +"That's a point in your education I am going to take up later," remarked +Mr. Halloway, cheerfully. "The art of not being bored by people. Once +acquired, the other, that of not boring them, follows of itself. Society +hangs on it." + +"I wish you would teach me that right away," said Phebe, earnestly. "I +believe I need that more than any thing else." + +"Well, I will, immediately,--after supper, that is. I am exhausted now +with ministerial duties. You have asked Miss Phebe to tea have you not, +Soeur Angélique? You cannot stay? Oh, but of course you must." + +"Of course she will," said Mrs. Whittridge, with her tender smile. +"Phebe only lives to give pleasure to others. Now tell me something about +your friends. Who are they?" + +"I haven't any here. Mr. Halloway is quite right," answered Phebe, +locking her hands over one of Mrs. Whittridge's. "Not real, real friends. +As a child I had ever so many, and Bell Masters and I quite grew up +together, but somehow we have all grown away from each other, and--oh, I +don't know!--it seems as if there wasn't any thing in the girls here. Not +that there's more in me. They are brighter and better than I in every +way, but we don't get on together; they don't seem to have any thing to +give me, any thing they can help me to. I can't get at them. Oh! Mr. +Halloway is quite right. In all Joppa I haven't a single friend--except +just you and him." + +"We are indeed your friends," said Mrs. Whittridge. "You need never +doubt that." + +The girl turned and threw her arms impulsively around the other's neck. +"Oh, no, no!" she said. "I could not doubt it. I know it. I _feel_ it! +Oh, you can't guess what it is to me to know it! I have so little in my +life to make it grow to any thing, and I want so much! And you can give +me all I want--all, all; and it makes me so happy when I think of +it,--that I have got you and can have all I want!" + +"And is this frantic outburst meant exclusively for Soeur Angélique?" +asked Denham. "I am green with unutterable jealousy. I thought I was your +friend too, Miss Phebe." + +Phebe still knelt with her arms around Mrs. Whittridge, but she looked up +at him with her frank, loving eyes and smiled. "You know I meant you +both," she said softly. + +An almost irresistible impulse came over the young man to lay his hand, +as his sister had done, on the soft, bright-brown hair. Clergymen are but +human after all. He bent forward, but only lifted one of his sister's +thin white hands and held it a moment between his. "We must both do our +best by this foolish little girl who trusts us so frankly with her +friendship, must we not, Soeur Angélique?" he said gravely. + +"I for one am very glad to assume the trust," said Mrs. Whittridge. + +"And won't you ever tire of me? ever? ever?" asked the girl. + +"Not ever." + +"You won't ever be tired helping me, or tired of having me come to you +for help, or tired of my loving you?" + +"Where is your faith gone, my child?" + +Phebe drew a deep sigh of content. "I am just as happy as can be," she +said. "I don't want any thing else now in the world except just Gerald." + +"Ah, Gerald again. I expected that," said Mr. Halloway, raising his +eyebrows humorously. + +"Gerald? Pray, who is Gerald?" inquired Mrs. Whittridge. + +Her brother lifted his hands in mock amazement. "Is it possible you know +Miss Phebe so long and need ask who Gerald is? I will tell you. Gerald is +perfection individualized. Gerald has all the qualities, mental, +physical, and spiritual, that it is possible to compress into the limited +compass of even an overgrown human frame. Gerald, you must know, is +intellectual to a degree, beautiful as an archangel, adorable as--as you, +Soeur Angélique, and clever--almost--as myself." + +Phebe clapped her hands and nodded, "Yes, yes, all that!" + +"I can tell you all about Gerald," continued Halloway. "I have heard of +nothing else since I came. Gerald, my dear sister, is Miss Phebe's idol; +I rather think she says her prayers before Gerald's picture every night." + +"Oh, please!" cried Phebe. + +"But who is this Gerald?" asked Mrs. Whittridge. "Does he live here?" + +"No, Soeur Angélique, and by the way he is not he at all, but she, and +will be known in history as Miss Geraldine Vernor. She lives in New York, +rolls in wealth, and is one of a large family of whom she is the +sun-flower. Let me give you her portrait as I have it from fragmentary +but copious descriptions. She is, I should say, five feet eleven and +three quarter inches in height--don't shake your head, Miss Phebe,--and +slender in disproportion. She has the feet of a Chinese, the hands of a +baby, and the strength of a Jupiter Ammon. She has hair six yards long +and blacker than Egyptian darkness. She has a forehead so low it rests +upon her eyebrows, which, by the way, have been ruled straight across +the immeasurable breadth of it with a T square. She has eyes bluer one +minute than the grotto at Capri, greener the next than grass in June, +grayer the next than a November day, and so on in turn through all the +prismatic colors. Her eyelashes are only not quite so long as her hair. +She has a mouth which would strike you as large,--it is five and a half +inches across,--but when she speaks, and you hear the combined wisdom of +Solomon, and Plato, and Socrates, and Solon, and the rest of the ancients +(not to mention the moderns), falling from her lips, your only wonder is +that her mouth keeps within its present limits. Her nose--Miss Phebe, can +it be? Is it possible you have left out her nose? Soeur Angélique, I am +forced to the melancholy conclusion that Gerald has none. Miss Phebe +would never have omitted mentioning it." + +"You may make all the fun of her and of me that you like," said Phebe, +half provoked. "But there is not anybody else in the world like Gerald +Vernor. Wait till you see her. You will say then that I was right, only +that I did not say enough." + +"You shan't tease her, Denham. Tell me, Phebe, where did you know this +friend so well?" + +"Three years ago, when she spent a summer here, I saw a great deal of +her,--oh, it made it such a happy summer, knowing her!--and I have +corresponded with her ever since." + +"Without meeting her again?" + +"Oh, no. I saw her twice last summer. I went to the train both times to +see her as she passed through." + +"But our trains don't pass through; they stop here." + +"Yes, I know; but I went to Galilee to meet her as she passed +through there." + +"Would she have gone as far as that to meet you, Miss Phebe?" + +"That is very different, Mr. Halloway," answered Phebe, simply. "I am not +worth going so far for. Besides, I don't expect people ever to do as much +for me as I would for them." + +"Denham, you are cruel," said Mrs. Whittridge. "Phebe, my child, your +love for your friend is to me sufficient proof that she must be lovely. I +know I should love her too." + +Phebe looked at her gratefully. "Oh, you would,--you would indeed! +You could not help it. You would admire her so much. There is so +much in her." + +"Ah, yes, I forgot," interrupted Denham, "I did not finish my portrait. +This marvellous being is an athlete. She can ride any Bucephalus +produced, and rather prefers to do so bareback. She is a Michael Angelo +at painting, and has represented striking scenes from his 'Last Judgment' +on a set of after-dinner coffee cups. She drives, she skates, she swims, +she rows, she sails, has a thorough knowledge of business, and is up in +stocks, is femininely masculine and masculinely feminine, scorns novels, +and can order a dinner, is a churchwoman, and dresses always in the +latest style. Is there any thing else, Miss Phebe?" + +"Only one thing else that I think you have rather forgotten, Mr. +Halloway: I love her and she is my friend." + +"Miss Phebe," cried the young man in instant contrition, "have I hurt +you? Have I been thoughtless enough for that with my foolish fun? You +know I did not mean it. Will you forgive me?" He held out his hand. + +Phebe hesitated. "Will you not make fun of her any more? And will you +like her if she comes? You know she may come here this summer; there is +just a chance of it. Will you promise?" + +"I can safely promise to like any one whom you like, I know, Miss Phebe. +Soeur Angélique, make this stubborn child give me her hand. It is not +fitting that I crave absolution so abjectly." + +"You are two silly children together," said Soeur Angélique, rising and +laughing. "You may settle your quarrels as you can while I order tea." + +"Miss Phebe, have I really vexed you so much?" asked the young man, +earnestly, as his sister left the room. "You must know I would not do +that for the world." + +"I don't think you could hurt or vex me in any way," said Phebe, +"excepting only through Gerald. For you don't know how I love her, Mr. +Halloway. I love her with all my heart and soul, I think, oh, +more--almost more--than any one else in the world." + +"I know you do," he answered. "It is a love to envy her." Phebe was still +looking up at him from her low stool, her face raised as if in appeal. +She always looked very young for her years, and now she seemed not more +than a child of sixteen in the waning light. He could not help it this +time; he laid his hand very lightly for one briefest instant on her +pretty hair. "But you will not be less friends with me because I like +_you_ best?" + +"I will not ever be less friends with you," Phebe replied, soberly. "I +don't change so." + +"No," he said; "I know you do not. Nor do I." + +And then he moved away from her, and began telling an irresistibly comic +story about a call he had made on a poor woman that afternoon (he could +not for the life of him help seeing the ludicrous side of every thing), +and from one subject they passed to another, and when Soeur Angélique +summoned them to tea, she found her reverend brother standing in the +middle of the room in the full swing of a chorus from "The Pirates," with +Phebe whistling the liveliest possible accompaniment, and both of them +gesticulating wildly. He stopped with a laugh as his sister appeared in +the door-way. + +"Don't be shocked, Soeur Angélique. I shut the window lest Mrs. Upjohn +should chance to go by and hear me. She would telegraph the Bishop. I am +only resting. It wore me out working for Miss Phebe's pardon. No; wait a +moment, Soeur Angélique. Don't let's go to tea instantly. I would rather +quiet down a little before I go in and say grace." He took up a chance +book from the table, and turning to the window to catch the light, read a +few lines to himself, then threw it down, and came forward with a smile. +"There, I am ready now. Take my arm, Soeur Angélique. Miss Phebe, will +you come, please?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MRS. UPJOHN'S ENTERTAINMENT. + + +Mrs. Upjohn was going to give an entertainment. She was about to open the +hospitable doors of the great house upon the hill, which seemed to have +chosen that pre-eminence that it might the better overlook the morals of +its neighbors. Joppa held its breath in charmed suspense. The question +was not, Will I be asked? that was affirmatively settled for every +West-End Joppite of party-going years; nor was it, What shall I wear? +which was determined once for all at the beginning of the season; but, +What will be done with me when I get there? For to go to Mrs. Upjohn's +was not the simple thing that it sounded. She wished it to be distinctly +understood that she did not ask people to her house for their amusement, +but for their moral and spiritual improvement; any one could be amused +anywhere, but _she_ wished to show her guests that there were pleasanter +things than pleasure to be had even in social gatherings, and to teach +them to hunger and thirst after better than meat and drink, while at the +same time she took pains always to provide a repast as superior to the +general run as her sentiments, quite atoning to the Joppites for the +spiritual accompaniments to her feast by its material and solid +magnificence, which lingered appetizingly in their memories long after +they had settled their consequent doctors' bills. Yes, the Joppites were +not asked to Mrs. Upjohn's to eat and drink only, or merely to have a +good time, with whatever ulterior intentions of so doing they may have +gone thither. They were asked for a purpose,--a purpose which it was vain +to guess, and impossible to escape. Go they must, and be improved they +must, _bon gré mal gré_, and enjoy themselves they would if they could. + +So there were mingled feelings abroad when Mrs. Upjohn's neatly written +invitations found their way into each of the West-End houses, embracing +natives and strangers alike in their all-hospitable sweep, and even +creeping into some outlying less aristocratic quarters, where confusion +worse confounded, in the shape of refurbishing and making over, followed +agonizingly in their wake. The invitations were indited by Miss Maria +Upjohn, it being an opportunity to improve that young lady's handwriting +which her mother could not have conscientiously suffered to pass, and +stated that Mr. and Mrs. Reuben O. Upjohn requested the honor of your +company on Thursday, July 14th, punctually at four o'clock. R.S.V.P. +Joppa immediately R.S.V.P.'d that it would feel flattered to present +itself at that hour, and then looked anxiously around and asked itself +"What will it be this time?" The day dawned, and still the great question +agitated public minds unsolved. + +"There isn't a word to be coaxed or threatened out of Maria," said Bell +Masters. "I believe it's something too awful to tell. Mr. De Forest, +can't you hazard a guess?" + +Mr. Ogden De Forest was lazily strolling past the Masters' front steps, +where a knot of girls had gathered after a game of lawn tennis, and were +imbibing largely of lemonade, which was being fabricated on the spot, +according to demand, by Phebe and Janet Mudge. The spoons stopped +clinking in the various glasses as Bell thus audaciously called out to +the gentleman. He was not a Joppite by either birth or education; indeed, +he had but lately arrived on his first visit as a summer guest, and was +hardly known to anybody personally as yet, though there was not a girl in +the place but was already perfectly well aware of his existence, and had +placed him instantly as "one of the very swellest of the swells." He was +a short, dark, well-dressed man, and so exceedingly handsome that every +feminine heart secretly acknowledged that only to have the right to bow +to him would be a joy and pride indescribable. And here was Bell, who had +accidentally been introduced to him the day before, calling to him as +unceremoniously as if he were Dick Hardcastle or Jake Dexter. He turned +at her voice and paused at the gate, lifting his hat. "I beg you pardon, +Miss Masters, you called me?" + +"Yes," said Bell. "Have some lemonade?" + +"No, thanks." + +"Come in." + +"Thanks, not this morning. I shall see you later at Mrs. Upjohn's, +I suppose." + +"Yes, you'll see us all later," said Miss Bell, fishing out a lemon-seed +from her goblet. "We shall have on different dresses, and you'll be +offering us lemonade instead of our offering it to you. Take a good look +at us so as to see how much prettier we are now than we shall be then." + +Mr. De Forest obeyed literally, staring tranquilly and critically at each +in turn, his glance returning slowly to the young lady of the house. +"Unless you introduce me to your friends I shall not be able to tell them +so," he replied, in the slow, deliberate voice that seemed always to have +a ring of suppressed sarcasm in it, no matter what he said. + +"Then I'll certainly not introduce you," said Bell, composedly, with a +saucy shot at him from her handsome black eyes. "And so I'll be the only +girl to get the compliment. Phebe, more sugar, please." + +"I will endeavor to work one up between now and then regardless of cost. +Four o'clock, I believe. What is it to be? A dance?" + +"Holy Moses! at Mrs. Upjohn's!" + +"Oh, she doesn't go in for that kind of thing? A card-party, then?" + +"Great heavens! Mr. De Forest, are you mad? I don't doubt she struggles +with herself over every visiting card that she uses,--and +playing-cards--!" + +"Theatricals, then?" + +Bell gave a positive howl. "Theatricals! Hear him, girls!" + +"We hear well enough. You don't give us a chance to do any thing but +listen," said Amy Duckworth, pointedly. + +"My dear, you'll converse all the more brilliantly this afternoon for a +brief period of silence now," said Bell, sweetly. "Mr. De Forest, you are +not happy in your guesses." + +"I have exhausted them, unless it is to be a _musicale_." + +"No. That's what we are going to have to-morrow ourselves. I sing, +you know." + +"Do you? Well, a garden party perhaps?" + +"That's what the Ripleys are going to have Thursday." + +"Then, so far as I can see, there is nothing left for it to be except a +failure," said De Forest, lifting his arms off the gate. "And, in view of +so much coming dissipation, I feel constrained to retire and seek a +little preparatory repose. Good-morning, Miss Masters." + +"How hateful not to introduce him, Bell! And when he distinctly asked +you to! How abominably mean of you! How selfish, how horrid! _I_ +wouldn't have done so," broke out in an indignant chorus, as the +gentleman walked off. + +"Do you think I would be such a goose as to go shares in the handsomest +man Joppa ever laid eyes on, so long as I can keep him to myself?" said +Bell, honestly. "Fish for yourselves, girls. The sea is open to all, and +you may each land another as good." + +Phebe's lip curled very disdainfully. What a fuss to make over a man, and +how Bell had changed in the last few years! + +"Well, keep him, if you can, but I'll be even with you yet," said Amy, +with an ominous smile. "And what luck! Here comes Mr. Moulton now, and I +know him and you don't, and I'll pay you off on the spot. Good-morning, +Mr. Moulton." + +The young gentleman stopped, in his turn, at the gate as Amy +spoke to him. + +"Oh, Miss Duckworth, I was on my way to call on you." + +"I will go home with you in a minute," said Amy, graciously. "I wouldn't +miss your call for any thing. But first let me introduce you to my +friends. Miss Mudge, Mr. Moulton,--Miss Lane, the Misses Dexter. You +will meet us all again at Mrs. Upjohn's. Of course, you are going?" + +"Certainly, now I am told that I shall meet you there, and if you will +promise that I shan't be called upon to do any thing remarkable. I have +heard alarming reports." + +"That is out of anyone's power to promise," replied Miss Duckworth. "No +genius is safe from her." + +"Amy, love," broke in Bell, with infinite gentleness of tone and manner, +"you have forgotten to present your friend to me, and I cannot be so +impolite as to leave him standing outside my own gate. I am Miss Masters, +Mr. Moulton. Pray excuse the informality, and come in to share our +lemonade." + +Mr. Moulton, nothing loath, accordingly came in, took his glass, and sat +himself just where Bell directed, on a step at her feet. Amy colored, and +there was a subdued titter somewhere in the background, and Bell calmly +resumed the reins of the conversation. "No, there is no knowing what we +shall be put through this afternoon. One time when Mrs. Upjohn had got us +all safely inside her doors, she divided us smartly into two classes, set +herself in the middle, and announced that we were there for a spelling +bee. We shouldn't say we hadn't learned something at her house. And upon +my word we did learn something. Never before or since have I heard such +merciless words as she dealt us out. My hair stands on end still when I +recollect the horrors I underwent that day." + +"I'll smuggle in a dictionary," declared Mr. Moulton. "I'll be +ready for her." + +"No use. She never runs twice in the same groove. It's only sure not to +be a spelling bee this time." + +"When we last went there it turned out to be a French _soirée_," said one +of the Misses Dexter, "and she announced that there would be a penny's +fine collected at the end of the evening for each English word spoken." + +"Proceeds to go to a lately imported poor family," added the sister +Dexter. "There was quite a sum raised, and the head of the family +decamped with it two days after, for Heaven knows where, leaving his wife +and infants on Mrs. Upjohn's hands poorer than ever." + +But Mrs. Upjohn's entertainment proved to be neither orthographic nor +linguistic. The guests arrived punctually as bidden, and their hostess, +clad in her most splendid attire, received them with her most gracious +manner. There was nothing to foretell the fate that awaited them. Her +tall, awkward daughter stood nervously by her side. Mr. Upjohn, too, kept +there valiantly for a time, then his round, ample figure and jolly face +disappeared somewhere, under chaperonage of Mrs. Bruce, his latest +admiration. But no one ever thought of Mr. Upjohn as the host, any way; +beseemed rather to be a sort of favored guest in his own parlor; and his +place was more than made good by Mr. Hardcastle, who, standing in the +centre of the room, exactly as he always stood in the centre of +everybody's room on such an occasion, appeared himself to be quite master +of ceremonies, from the grand way in which he stepped forward to meet +each guest and hope he or she "would make out to enjoy it." The rooms +filled rapidly, and before long Mrs. Upjohn turned from the door and +stood an instant reviewing her guests with the triumphant mien of a +victorious general. Then she advanced solemnly to the middle of the room, +displacing Mr. Hardcastle, who graciously made way and waved his hand to +signify to her his permission to proceed. + +"My friends," said the great lady, with her deep, positive voice, drawing +her imposing figure to its fullest height, "as you know, it is never _my_ +way to give parties. I leave that for the rest of you to do. When I ask +you to my house, it is with a higher motive than to make a few hours lie +less heavily on your hands." + +"Dear soul!" muttered Dick Hardcastle to his crony, Jake. "Nobody could +have the conscience to charge her with ever having lightened them to us." + +"And therefore," continued the lady, gazing around upon her victims with +a benignant smile, "without further prelude, I will inform you for what +object I have asked you to honor me with your presence this afternoon." + +She paused, and a cold chill ran through the company. What would she do? +Would she open on them with the Westminster Catechism this time, or set +them to shelling peas for some poor man's dinner, or would she examine +them in the multiplication table? A few had run it hastily over before +leaving home to make sure that they were ready for such an emergency. + +"I had thought first," Mrs. Upjohn proceeded, "of a series of games as +instructive as delightful, games of history and geography, and one +particularly of astronomy, which I am persuaded would be very helpful. It +brought out the nature of the spectroscope in a remarkably clear and +intelligent light, and after a few rounds I am sure none of us could ever +again have forgotten those elusive figures relative to the distances and +proportions of the planets. However, that must be for another time. For +today I thought it would be a pleasure as well as a benefit to us all to +learn something about a gifted and noble person who, I am surprised to +find, is not so well known in Joppa as she should be, and whom, I am +convinced, we should all be infinitely the better and happier for +knowing. I have, therefore, persuaded Mr. Webb, with whose powers as a +reader long years of acquaintanceship have so pleasantly familiarized us, +to read to us this afternoon extracts from the 'Life and Letters of the +Baroness Bunsen.'" + +"Good Lord!" ejaculated Dick beneath his breath, "who's that?" + +"Hush," whispered Jake. "I've got a novel of Miss Braddon's in my +pocket. I thought it might come in handy. That'll help us through till +feed time." + +"You are all familiar with the name, of course," pursued Mrs. Upjohn, +smiling graciously around the dismayed circle of her guests. "The book +has been in the library this long time past, and observing with regret +that only its first fifty pages had been cut, I caught at this invaluable +opportunity to make you further acquainted with it." + +Mr. Webb now came forward, a thick, green-bound volume in his hand, and a +look on his face as if he were about to open the proceedings with a +prayer, but Mrs. Upjohn held up her hand. + +"One moment, please, before we begin. We ladies are so unaccustomed to +sitting with idle hands, even when listening to so absorbing a theme as +the virtues of this truly excellent Christian wife and mother, that I +thought it would be a kindness to ourselves to provide some simple work +which should occupy our fingers and at the same time be in itself a +worthy object of industry. Maria, my dear." + +The silence in the room was appalling; one could almost hear the shiver +of apprehension running down the silk-and muslin-clad backs. The sign was +given, however, by the docile Maria, and immediately two enormous baskets +were brought in: one, the smaller, containing every possible implement +for unlimited sewing by unlimited hands; the other, of alarming +dimensions, filled to overflowing with shapeless and questionable +garments of a canton-flannel coarse, so yellow, so indestructible, so +altogether unwearable and hideous, that had it been branded "charity" in +flaming letters, its object could not have been more plainly designated. +Mrs. Upjohn lifted the top article and unfolded it lovingly. It was a +night-dress, atoning in lavishness of material for deficiency in grace of +make, and would have been a loose fit for the wife of the giant Chang. + +"These, ladies," she said, "as you will have guessed, are for the winter +wear of our parish poor. Though you are not all so fortunate as to belong +to our church, still I feel there is not one of you here but will be more +than glad to help forward so blessed a charity as clothing the naked" +(Mrs. Upjohn, in view of the nature of the garments, spoke even more +literally than she intended), "who none the less need your ministrations +whether you worship with us or apart. Maria, my child, Bell, Phebe, +Mattie, will you kindly distribute the work among the ladies? There is +another basket ready outside if the supply gives out. Dick, I would like +you to carry around the thimbles. Jake, here are the needles and the +spools and the scissors. If I may be permitted, ladies, I would suggest +that we should all begin with the button-holes." + +Nothing but the thought of the recompense in the coming supper could +have sustained Mrs. Upjohn's doomed guests in the prospect before them. +Extracts from Baroness Bunsen, and buttonholes in canton-flannel charity +nightgowns, and a hot July afternoon, made a sum of misery that was +almost too great a tax upon even Joppian amiability. + +"I say it's a shame!" cried Bell Masters, in unconcealed wrath. "The idea +of springing such a trap on us! Let Mrs. Upjohn's parish sew for its own +poor, _I_ won't crease my fresh dress holding that great, thick lump on +my lap all the afternoon. I'm not going to be swindled into helping in +this fashion." + +"Oh, yes you are," said Mr. Halloway, bubbling over with suppressed +merriment at the intense fun of it all. "There isn't one of you here who +will refuse. I never knew any thing so delightful and novel in my whole +life. This condensed combination, in one afternoon party of charity, +literature, and indigestion is masterly. Miss Mudge, here is a seat for +you right by Miss Masters. Miss Phebe, let me find you a chair." + +And in a few moments, simply, it seemed, by the natural law of +gravitation, without any engineering whatever, Mrs. Upjohn's guests had +resolved themselves into two distinct parties, the elders all in the +drawing-room, the younger ones in the parlor across the hall, too far off +from Mr. Webb for their gay whispering to disturb that worthy as he +boldly plunged headlong at his work, to do or die written on every +feature of his thin, long face. + +"So this is what the party turned out, Miss Masters, is it?" said +Moulton, pulling his moustache as he stood up beside her. "A first-class +Dorcas society." + +"Charity covereth a multitude of sins," said Bell, crossly, giving a +vindictive snap with her scissors, "but it won't begin to cover the +enormity of Mrs. Upjohn's transgressions on this occasion. You gentlemen +must be very devoted to atone to us for the button-holes. There's Mr. De +Forest standing in the other room looking as if he wished he were dead. +Go and bring him here." + +Thus summoned, Mr. De Forest came leisurely enough, looking, if possible, +a little more languid and blasé than he did in the morning. Bell +instantly made a place for him on the sofa by her side. + +"Thanks, I would rather stand. I can take it all in better." + +"Well?" asked Bell, after a pause, looking saucily up at him. "Was I +right this morning? Didn't we look prettier then?" + +"Infinitely." + +Bell colored rather angrily, and Phebe laughed outright. Mr. De Forest +favored her with a stare, chewed the end of his side-whiskers +reflectively a moment, then deliberately walked over to her. "Miss Lane, +I believe." + +Phebe bowed, but somewhat stiffly. + +"Excuse me," continued De Forest, imperturbably. "There doesn't seem +to be any one to introduce us, and we know perfectly well who we each +are, you know, and I wanted to ask about a mutual friend of +ours,--Miss Vernor." + +Phebe brightened and softened instantly. "Oh!" she exclaimed, dropping +her work, "you know her? you have seen her? lately?" + +"I know her, yes, quite well. I saw her some weeks since. I understood +then that there was a little talk of her coming up here this summer. One +of those fearful children, Olly, or Hal, or some one of the superfluous +young ones, was a little off condition,--not very well, you know,--and +the doctor said he mustn't go with the rest to the sea-shore, and she +mentioned bringing him up here to recruit. I heard her mention your name, +too, and didn't know but you might have heard something of it." + +"I have, I have!" cried Phebe, her face all aglow, "She _is_ coming,--she +and Olly. She is going to stay with me. I wrote and begged her to." + +"Ah, that will be very pleasant for you. Do you expect her soon?" + +"To-morrow." + +"Ah!" Mr. De Forest ruminated silently a moment. "She'll be bored to +death up here, won't she?" he asked, presently. + +"Then she can go home again," replied Phebe, shortly. + +"True, true," said her companion, thoughtfully. "I forgot that. And she +probably will. It would be like her to go if it bored her." + +"Only there's Olly," said Phebe, grimly, the light fading out of her +face a little. "She'll have to stay for him." + +"Oh, no. She can put him to board somewhere and leave him. Miss Vernor +doesn't concern herself overmuch with the young ones. They are an awful +nuisance to her." + +"She does every thing for them. You can't know her," said Phebe, +indignantly. "Did you say you knew her well, Mr. De Forest?" + +"I don't remember just what I said, Miss Lane, but it would have been the +truth if I did, and I generally speak the truth when it's equally +convenient. Yes, I do know Miss Vernor _very_ well, and I have worsted +her in a great many arguments,--you know her argumentative turn, perhaps? +If you will allow me, I will do myself the honor of calling upon her when +she comes,--and upon yourself, if I may have the pleasure." + +"Not if you come with the intention of putting Gerald out of conceit with +Joppa. I want her to stay a long, long time." + +"Don't be afraid, Miss Lane. I'll do my best to help keep her here, so +long, at least, as I stay myself. '_Aprés celà le déluge_.'" + +"I don't speak French." + +"Ah? No? I regret it. You might have assisted me in my genders. I am +never altogether sure of them." + +"Mr. De Forest," called Bell, imperatively, from the other side of the +room, displeased at the defalcation of her knight, "I want to introduce +you to Miss Mudge." + +Miss Mudge tried to make Bell understand by frantic pantomime that she +hadn't meant just now,--any time would do,--but Bell chose it should be +just now; and slightly lifting his eyebrows, Mr. De Forest took his +handsome person slowly back to Bell to make an almost impertinently +indifferent bow to the new claimant upon him. + +Mr. Halloway had been standing near Phebe, too near not to overhear the +conversation, and he turned to her now quickly. + +"So this accounts for your beaming face," he said in a low tone, as he +took a seat just back of her in the window niche. "The mysterious Gerald +_is_ really coming, then. I wondered what had happened as soon as I saw +you. Why did you not tell me?" + +"I was only waiting till I had the chance," she answered, all the +brightness coming back into her bonny face as she smiled up at him. + +"Do you think I could keep any thing so nice from you for long? It seems +to make every thing nicer when you know it too. She is coming +to-morrow,--only think,--to-morrow,--just twenty-one hours more now. I +can hardly wait!" + +"It will be a great happiness to her, surely, to see you again," +said Denham. + +"That's what she writes in her letter. At least she says: 'I shall be +glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear' Isn't that nice? 'Phebe, my dear,' +she says. That is a great deal for Gerald to say." + +"Is it? But I believe some young ladies are less effusive with their pens +than with their tongues." + +"It isn't Gerald's nature ever to be effusive. But oh, I'm so glad she's +coming! I only got her letter last night. See, doesn't she write a nice +hand?" And cautiously, lest any one else should see too, Phebe slipped an +envelope into Denham's hand. He bent back behind the lace curtains to +inspect it. + +"Do you generally carry about your letters in your pocket, Miss Phebe?" + +"No, only Gerald's. I love so always to have something of hers near me. +Isn't it a nice hand?" + +Halloway looked silently at the upright, angular, large script. "It's +legible, certainly." + +"But you don't like it?" + +"Miss Phebe, I am torn between conflicting truth and politeness. It is +like a man's hand, if I must say something." + +"And so are her letters like a man's. Read it and see. Oh, she wouldn't +mind! There is nothing in it, and yet somehow it seems just like Gerald. +Do read it. Oh, I want you to. Please, please do." + +And led half by curiosity, half by the eagerness in Phebe's pretty face, +Denham opened the letter and read, Phebe glancing over it with him as if +she couldn't bear to lose sight of it an instant. + +"DEAR PHEBE," so ran the letter, "your favor of 9th inst. rec. I +had no idea of intruding ourselves upon you when I asked you to look +up rooms, but as you seem really to want us"--("seem!" whispered +Phebe, putting her finger on the word with a pout)--"I can only say +we shall be very glad to come to you. You may look for Olly and +myself Friday, July 15th, by the P.M. train. Olly isn't really ill, only +run down. He is as horrid a little bear as ever. All are well, and +started last week for Narragansett Pier. I shall rejoice to get away +from the art school and guilds, which keep on even in this intemperate +weather, and I shall be glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear," +(Phebe looked up triumphantly in Denham's face as she reached the +words.) "Remember me to Mrs. Lane and Miss--, I can't think +of her name,--Aunt Lydia, I mean. + +"Sincerely yours + +"GERALDINE VERNOR, + +"P.S.--Olly only drinks milk." + +Phebe took back the letter and folded it up. "Well?" she said. + +"Well?" said Denham, looking at her and smiling. + +"It's just like her," declared Phebe. "It's so downright and to the +point. Gerald never wastes words." + +"You said it was like a man's letter," said Denham. "But I must beg leave +to differ with you there. I don't think it is at all such a letter as _I_ +would have written you, for instance." + +"Of course not. It wouldn't be proper for you to say 'Phebe, my dear,' as +Gerald does. Yours would have to be a very dignified, pastoral letter." + +"Yes, addressed to 'My Lamb,' which you couldn't object to in a pastoral +letter of course, and which sounds nearly as affectionate, blaming you +for having caused me to lose the valuable information I might have gained +about the Baroness Bunsen. I never got much farther than her birth in +that famous history. I see poor Miss Delano casting longing glances in +here. I'll smuggle her in among you young people." + +He departed on his errand of mercy, and soon had the timid little old +maid in the more congenial atmosphere of the parlor, where little by +little, though in a very stealthy and underhand way, the talk grew more +general, and the restraint slackened more and more, until sewing and +reading were both forgotten and the fun became fast and furious, +culminating in the sudden appearance of Jake Dexter dressed up as an +ancient and altogether unlovely old woman, whom Dick Hardcastle presented +in a stage whisper as "Baroness Bunsen in the closing chapter," and who +forthwith proceeded to act out in dumb show the various events of that +admirable woman's life, as judiciously and sonorously touched upon by Mr. +Webb in the drawing-room opposite. Jake was a born actor, and having +"done up" the Baroness, he proceeded to "do up" several other noted +historical characters, not omitting a few less celebrated contemporaries +of his own, each representation better and truer to life than the last; +and winding up with snatching away their work from the young ladies' not +unwilling hands, and piling it in heaps on the floor around him, he sat +himself in the middle with an armful hugged close and an air of comically +mingled resignation and opulence, and announced himself as "a photo from +life of ye destitute poor of Joppa." + +Mrs. Upjohn may have had suspicions that all was not going on precisely +as she had planned in that other half of her domains which she had +surrendered to Maria's feeble guardianship, but it certainly could not +be laid to her blame if young people would amuse themselves even at her +house. If they wilfully persisted in neglecting the means of grace she +had conscientiously provided for them, so much the worse for them, not +for her; and if Mr. Upjohn found the contemplation of Mrs. Bruce's +profile, and her occasional smiles at him as she bent over her ugly +work, not sufficient of an indemnity for his enforced silence, and +chose to sneak over to the young people's side and enjoy himself too, +as an inopportune and hearty guffaw from thence testified just at the +wrong moment, when Mr. Webb had reached the culminating point of the +Baroness' death, and was drawing tears from the ladies' eyes by the +irresistible pathos of his voice,--why, Mrs. Upjohn owned in her heart +that it was only what might be expected of him, and that she couldn't +help that either. + +So at last the reading came to an end. Everybody said it had been +unprecedentedly delightful, and they should never forget that dear +Baroness so long as they lived, and they thought Mrs. Upjohn herself +might have sat for the original of the biography, so identical were her +virtues with those of the departed saint, and so exactly did she resemble +her in every particular except just in the outward circumstances of her +life. And Mrs. Upjohn modestly entreated them to desist drawing so +unworthy a comparison, and said it was an example of a life they should +each and all do well to imitate so far as in them lay, and then she went +about collecting the nightgowns, and (oh, cruellest of all!) inspecting +the button-holes. It was an excellent day's work, she reported, fanning +herself vigorously, and Miss Brooks, as champion button-hole-maker, +having made three more than any one else, should have the post of honor +and be taken in to supper by Mr. Upjohn, who was routed out from the +parlor for the purpose, very red in the face, and still convulsed with +laughter. Mrs. Bruce may have suspected this to be designed as a neat way +of cutting her out, but there is no knowing to what lengths a flippant +widow's imagination will not go, and any way Mr. Upjohn quite atoned +afterward for any temporary neglect, by paying her the most assiduous +attentions right in the face of his wife, who apparently did not care a +straw, and only thought her husband a little more foolish than usual. Did +not everybody know that it was only Mr. Upjohn's way, and that it did not +mean any thing? + +And so the doors were thrown open, supper was announced, and Joppa, as it +swarmed around the loaded tables, felt that its hour of merited reward +was come; and Mr. Hardcastle, when at last he could eat and drink no +more, stood up and pronounced, in the name of the united assembly, that +Mrs. Upjohn's entertainment had been a very, very great success, as all +that dear Mrs. Upjohn undertook always was sure to be, and particularly +those devilled crabs were unapproachable for perfection. Nobody could +make him believe that even the Baroness Bunsen with all her learning +could ever have spiced them better. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FRIENDS. + + +Several days later, as Mr. Halloway was leaving the rectory one +afternoon, he saw Phebe standing in her door-way, and crossed to +speak to her. + +"Alone?" he asked, smiling. "I supposed that now you would never be +without a shadow." + +"Gerald is up-stairs dressing. She is going to ride with Mr. De Forest. +He has been to see her twice already, and you have not called yet." There +was the faintest possible reproach in her voice and in her eyes. + +"I have been really busy the last few days, Miss Phebe. You may know +there is always some desperate reason when I am long absent. But here I +am now. Shall I send in my card for Miss Vernor? Must I do it up in New +York or Joppa style?" + +Phebe laughed. "Never mind the card, Gerald will be down soon. It is +nearly time, and she is always so punctual. What is it, Olly, dear?" + +An ugly little boy, with a pale, pinched face and impish eyes, was +pulling smartly at her dress. + +"I say, Pheeb, can I have a cookie?" + +"Does Gerald let you have cookies between meals, Olly?" + +"Yes," answered Olly, unhesitatingly. "Always." + +"What's that?" broke in an unexpected voice behind,--a clear, +ringing, decided voice. "I will not have you tell such lies, Olly! +Why will you do it!" + +"I'll have the cookie anyhow," said Olly, starting on a run. "Pheeb said +I could, and this is Pheeb's house, and I will." + +"And you won't," said the voice, sharply. There was a scuffle, a rush, +the sound of a smart box on the ear, a sudden childish howl, and Olly +fled back to Phebe and buried his face in her dress. Phebe folded her +arms protectingly around him, and looked up appealingly at the tall, +slender figure approaching. + +"Oh, Gerald, must you?" + +"Phebe, I can't have you spoil that boy so. I won't have him a liar and a +gourmand; he's bad enough without that. Olly, stop bawling this moment." + +"I won't," screamed Olly. "You hurt me, you did, and if I can't have a +cookie I'll cry just as loud as ever I can; so there!" + +"Then you'll cry in the house and not on the front steps. I won't have +it. Come in immediately." + +And holding up her habit with one hand, the young lady reached out with +the other,--a very small and white but determined-looking little hand +Denham noticed (from where he stood he could not see her face)--and +wrenching the child by no means gently away from Phebe, she dragged him +with her toward the parlor. + +"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" cried Olly, vociferously, doing +battle valiantly with hands and feet as he went. "I hate you every day +worse than ever!" + +"Hate me all you like," said Gerald, with utmost coolness and disdain. "I +leave you perfectly free in that direction, but you shan't tell lies or +disobey me. Now stay in there and be still." + +And closing the door on the sobbing culprit, she came slowly back to +Phebe, still scowling and pressing her lips firmly together as she drew +on her gauntlets. "Little wretch!" she muttered. + +"Gerald, please," said Phebe, flushing scarlet with mortification, "here +is Mr. Halloway. I want to introduce him to you." + +Gerald stopped abruptly and looked up. She had not seen him before. A +fleet, faint color tinged her clear cheeks an instant, but there was no +other sign of embarrassment or annoyance as her dark blue eyes met his +with the singularly penetrating gaze with which they looked out on all +the world. There was no denying it. With her clear-cut, aristocratic +face, and her slim, straight figure, stately perhaps rather than +graceful, and a trifle haughty in its unbending erectness, Gerald Vernor +was very, very handsome. + +"I am happy to meet you at last, Miss Vernor," said Denham, with his +pleasant smile. "But you are no stranger to me, I assure you. Miss Phebe +made us all friends of yours long since." + +Gerald's brows contracted. "Phebe is very kind," she said, with quite +the opposite from gratitude in her voice, "but I hate to be talked about +beforehand. One starts on a false basis from the first. Besides, it gives +every one else the advantage over one." + +"To be sure," replied Denham, "we cannot expect you to know us as +well from hearsay. It would be too much to hope that Miss Phebe +should have had as much to say for any of the rest of us." He turned +laughingly to Phebe as he spoke, and she looked at him with eyes full +of implicit faith. + +"No," she said, simply; "I haven't told Gerald any thing about you, only +your name. She will find it all out for herself so much better than I can +tell her." + +"I am afraid I am not very good at finding people out," remarked Gerald, +bluntly, "unless I am extraordinarily interested in them--" + +"Which I imagine you generally are not," interrupted Denham. + +"True," she answered, smiling a little, "which I generally am not; I am +content with a very superficial knowledge. The world is crowded so full, +where could one stop who set out to know thoroughly all he met?" + +"It is a bitter thought that you will never know more of me than just the +color of my beard," said Denham, reflectively, "but if such is your habit +I suppose I must resign myself to it. Now, I am exactly the reverse from +you; I am always extraordinarily interested in everybody." + +"Ah, because as a clergyman you must be." + +"No; simply because it happens to be my nature. One has one's individual +characteristics, you know, quite independently of one's profession." + +"Yes, in other professions; but in yours--" + +"But we are men first, Miss Vernor, afterward clergymen. Why may we not +keep our distinct idiosyncrasies, even in our clerical uniform?" + +Gerald slashed her dress gently with her riding whip. "It seems to me as +if you should all be clergymen first and men afterward, fitting +yourselves to the profession rather than the profession to you; and so by +all confessedly following one pattern, you would be necessarily drawn +into a greater similitude with each other than any other class of men. +Ah, here is Mr. De Forest at last." + +"At last?" repeated that gentleman as he joined the group, or rather +paused just beyond it, surveying Gerald with a critical glance which +seemed to take in accurately at one swift sweep every least detail of her +dress. "My watch stands at the minute, Miss Vernor." + +"And here come the horses," added Phebe. + +"Not much to boast of," said De Forest, turning the severe criticism of +his look upon the animals as the boy brought them up. "I wouldn't let you +be seen in Central Park with them. However, they are the best Joppa can +do for us. They are not very good-natured brutes either, but I believe +you look to a horse's hoofs rather than his head." + +"I do, decidedly," laughed Gerald, as De Forest raised her deftly to the +saddle and arranged bridle and girths to her liking, turning to tighten +his own before mounting, and kicking away a small dog that had run up to +sniff at his heels. + +"What did you bring along this ugly little beast of yours for, Jim? I +abhor curs." + +"Tain't none of mine, Mister," said the stable-boy, grinning. "It's +one of them street dogs that ain't nobody's." And he in his turn gave +a push to the puppy, while Gerald leaned down and hit at it lightly +with her whip. + +"Get away, my friend. There isn't room both for you and for us here," she +said, turning her horse toward it playfully as the little creature slunk +aside. In another instant her horse kicked violently, there was a single +sharp yelp, and the dog lay motionless in the road. + +"Hi!" exclaimed Jim, quite in accents of admiration, as he ran up and +bent over the poor thing. "That was a good un! Right on the head! He +won't trouble any other genelman again, I'm thinking." + +"What!" cried Gerald, sharply. "You don't mean the dog is dead?" + +"Don't I?" said the boy, moving a little aside so that she should see. +"That was a neat un and no mistake." + +Gerald looked down with a cry of horror; then suddenly sprang from her +horse and caught up the poor little limp animal in her arms. + +"Take away the horse," she said to the boy, imperiously. "I shall not +ride to-day." + +"But, Miss Vernor!" expostulated De Forest, "for heaven's sake don't +take it so to heart. It's unfortunate, of course, but no one is to blame. +Do put the thing down. It's dead. You can't do any thing more for it." + +"I know it," said Gerald. "I did all I could; I killed him. But you'll +have to excuse me, Mr. De Forest, I can't ride." + +De Forest caught her by the arm impatiently, as she turned from him. +"What nonsense, Miss Vernor! What _is_ the good of playing tragedy queen +over a dead dog? I'll have him buried in a silver coffin if you like and +raise a memorial to his inestimable virtues, but in the name of all that +is sensible, do get on the horse again and let us have our ride." + +"Not to-day," replied Gerald. "I could not. It is impossible." She +looked up at him, holding the little victim pressed close in her arms, +utterly regardless of its rough and grimy coat. Her eyes were swimming +with tears. + +"As you decide, of course," said De Forest, sulkily, releasing her, and +tossing his bridle to the boy. "Here you, Sim, or Tim, or Jim, or +whatever you are, take away the horses, and as you value your tip, mind +you don't have any more dogs around the next time I want you." + +Gerald turned away without another word, gathering up her dress as she +best could, and went into the house. Olly, who had witnessed the whole +proceeding enchantedly from the window, ran to meet her. "I say, let's +see him. My, ain't he dirty! Is he dead? just as dead as he can be?" + +"Yes," answered his sister, very gently; "the poor thing is quite dead. +Come and help me bury him decently somewhere. No, Phebe, stay there. I +wish it. Don't let us have any more fuss about it, please." + +De Forest lifted his hat and turned to leave as Gerald disappeared. "Pray +don't let me detain you from the interesting ceremony, Miss Lane," he +said, with his most cynical and mocking voice; "Miss Vernor as +high-priestess will be worth a full audience. Good-morning." + +"Gerald wouldn't like it if I went to her when she said not; I must +stay here," said Phebe turning her distressed face to Halloway, who had +stood a silent spectator of it all. "Oh, I'm so sorry it happened! +Isn't it too bad?" + +"It certainly is,--for the dog." + +"She won't get over it for ever so long, and it wasn't really her fault. +She was only in fun when she turned her horse that way. Gerald is very +tender-hearted." + +"I see she is,--toward dogs." + +"Mr. Halloway, you don't like her!" + +"Miss Phebe, I am madly in love with her." + +"Don't laugh at me, please. Isn't she handsome?" + +"Well, I couldn't judge of the length of her hair." + +"Nonsense, tell me what you really think of her." + +Denham pondered a moment. "I think all sorts of things," he answered +presently, with an amused laugh. "She is so contradictory she'll fit +almost any opinion, and the worst I can say of her is that she'll never +concern herself in the least to find out what my opinion may be." + +"Ah," said Phebe, softly, "just wait. You don't either of you know each +other yet!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PICNIC. + + +Gerald's and Olly's visit was quite an event in the quiet Lane household. +Olly flagrantly broke every existing custom in it with the sublime +autocracy of childhood, and regained his health at the cost of the peace +of mind of every individual with whom he came in contact, from nervous +Miss Lydia down to the protesting servants; while Gerald was one of those +intense personalities whose influence seems to recreate the entire +atmosphere about them at once, go where they will. Poor Miss Lydia was +afraid of her quick speech and brusque ways and decided opinions, and +spent more hours than usual upstairs alone in her own little room, and +wore her best cap whenever she appeared below, as a sort of mute appeal +to the young lady's indulgence. But Gerald, in her robust health, had no +sympathy whatever with invalids as a class, and for "chronic nerves" she +had an absolute contempt, unmitigated by even the best cap's gay ribbons. +"It's altogether a matter of will," she asserted. "People needn't be ill +if they are only resolved not to be so." + +"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, who had chanced to overhear; and there was a +trifle more tenderness than usual in her manner when she went up later to +put the mid-day cup of beef-tea into her sister's thin hands, and stood +looking compassionately down at her. "Nothing is easier than to insist +that a thing is so and so, just because there's no way to prove that it +isn't so." + +"How you do always talk in proverbs, Sister Sophy!" said Miss Lydia, +admiringly. "I only wish Solomon could have heard you. I do believe he +would have put some of them in." + +"He would have been far too busy taking down Mrs. Upjohn's fine speeches +to mind _me_," grunted Mrs. Lane. "And I never did think much of Solomon, +anyway. He was too much of a Mormon with his hundred wives and that. Want +any thing else, Lyddy?" + +"No, thank you. The house is very nice and still this morning. There's +a picnic up at the Dexter's farm, isn't there? I suppose they've all +gone to it." + +"Of course. Who ever heard of a picnic unless Phebe went along to do all +the fussing and mussing that everybody else shirks? Don't tell _me_ +there's any fun in a picnic,--going off in the woods like that, to do for +yourself what you'd sell the clothes off your back to have somebody else +do for you at home, and eating all kinds of heathenish messes with your +fingers because you've forgotten the forks. But what people like let them +have. They'll get experience out of it if nothing better. And of course +Phebe had to go." + +True enough, Phebe was as essential to any picnic as the feast, though +much less obtrusively so, and Gerald watched her friend's quiet +helpfulness with lazy interest. She herself was stretched at ease on the +clean, fresh grass under some glorious old trees. The place chosen was a +lovely spot at the head of the lake; the drive there had been long and +hot, and now she lay enjoying to the full the refreshment of the shadow +and the breeze, and the perfection both of the view and of her immediate +surroundings. Bell Masters sat near her, having discovered that she was +generally surest of Mr. De Forest's company when in Gerald's +neighborhood. Nor had she been mistaken this time. He had openly +abandoned the greedy band of berry-pickers, and the artistic knot of +sketchers, and the noisy body of pleasure-seekers, who were paddling +frivolously around the shores of the lake and screaming with causeless +laughter, as soon as he found that Gerald did not intend attaching +herself to any of them but had struck out the new and independent line of +doing absolutely nothing at all. Halloway had been helping industriously +with the fire, but he came toward the group under the trees when his +services seemed no longer required. + +"You look most invitingly comfortable," he said, fanning himself with his +hat. "We must try to coax Miss Phebe here for a rest." + +"Pray don't," said De Forest, lifting a lazy hand with an air of finding +even that motion too great an effort. "At least not till the coffee is +well under way. I tasted a cup of her make yesterday. Don't call her off. +We are all benefiting in a manner by her absence." + +"I can make good coffee too, when I choose," said Bell, biting at the +rim of her straw hat. + +De Forest contemplated her with new interest. "Ah, can you. 'Tis a gift +of the gods given to few. And when do you choose, may I ask? Apparently +not to-day." + +"'Tisn't my picnic." + +"Oh! Is it Miss Lane's?" + +"One would say it was, from the way she slaves for it," remarked Gerald. + +"Why don't you help too?" asked De Forest, breaking off blades of grass +and flinging them out singly upon the air. + +"For Miss Masters' excellent reason: it is not my picnic." + +"You contribute your valuable aid solely to your own undertakings then?" + +"Why am I called upon to contribute it to any other?" + +"'Tis a problem for philosophers. But for argument's sake, let us say for +the good of humanity at large, and of the Dexters in particular." + +"I am not bound to the Dexters by any obligation that I can see to help +them carry out their entertainment. If they are not equal to it, they +should not give it." + +"Nothing Quixotic about you, is there?" said De Forest, looking at her +quizzically. + +"Nothing whatever," replied Gerald, easily. "Why should there be? Let +every one look out for himself." + +"And if some can't?" + +"That is no business of mine. It's simply my business to make sure that I +can look after myself." + +"What an outrageously frank exposure of a universally concealed +sentiment! Mr. Halloway is scandalized. He is thinking how he can fit a +scorching text to it to wither you with next Sunday." + +"No; here is a sermon ready made on the spot," said Denham, as Phebe came +slowly toward them. "Miss Lane in herself is a sufficient illustration of +the opposite doctrine." + +"Prove it," answered Gerald, shrugging her shoulders. "Prove that Phebe, +who toils for everybody, is any happier than I, who only follow my +inclination." + +"You certainly look vastly the more comfortable at present," said De +Forest, looking from Gerald's cool cheeks and unruffled muslin flounces +to Phebe's flushed face and tumbled cambric. "You are a practical +embodiment of the beauty and expediency of selfishness." + +"What are you talking about?" asked Phebe, coming up and leaning wearily +against a tree. + +"About you and Miss Vernor," explained Bell. "Which of you is happier? +_I_ should say Miss Vernor decidedly." + +A loving look came into Phebe's eyes, as she glanced down at Gerald. + +"Miss Vernor, _of course_", she said, with a very tender inflection of +voice. "Being what she is, how can she help being the happier?" + +"Virtue advocating vice," said De Forest. "Mr. Halloway, your sermon is a +dead failure,--as a sermon." + +"By no means," answered Denham, smiling. "I don't expect to convert +you in a single lesson. Will you not sit down with us, Miss Phebe? You +look tired." + +"Not just yet, thank you." + +"And why not?" asked Gerald. + +"I want to see a little after Miss Delano first. She's off there all +alone hunting for ferns." + +"Well," persisted Gerald, "what of it? Are you fonder of her society than +ours, that you must run after her?" + +"I am not fonder of any one's society than of yours, Gerald." + +"But are you fond of that tiresome creature at all? Confess it; doesn't +she bore you to death with her interminable grasshopper chatter?" + +Phebe glanced at Halloway, and laughed a little as she moved away. +"Oh, I am learning by degrees not to be bored by people,--not even by +Miss Delano." + +"Now, will any one explain why she should wish to teach herself _not_ to +know a bore from a Christian?" exclaimed Gerald, impatiently. "It is +quite beyond me." + +"But do you really never talk to anybody unless you want to, Miss +Vernor?" asked Bell, disagreeably conscious that Gerald had not +voluntarily addressed her once that morning. + +"Never," replied Gerald, staring out at the lake. + +"Don't you ever do any thing you don't want to, because you ought to?" + +"I don't always see the ought. For instance, why should I put myself out +to entertain Miss Delano as Phebe does?" + +"I don't know," muttered Bell. "I wouldn't, I am sure. She is +mortally dull." + +"One might imagine reasons for the self-sacrifice, I suppose," said De +Forest, making a languid snatch at a butterfly fluttering near. "The +possibility, we will say, that it might please the gentle old babbler +to come under the condescension of your notice. How would that do for +a motive?" + +"Why should I want to please her?" insisted Gerald, removing a hideous +beetle from her dress with all possible care lest she should hurt it. "I +don't want to. I don't care for her, nor she for me. Why should I put +myself out for her? What claim has she on me that I should displease +myself to please her?" + +"Let us see," said Denham, ruminatingly. "Miss Delano's pleasure against +Miss Vernor's displeasure, or _vice versa, Miss Vernor's pleasure against +Miss Delano's displeasure. Yes; the balance of pleasure remains quite +the same whichever lady has it. Apart from principle, the logic is +unanswerable." + +"It is admirable," commented De Forest. "I always did like logic so much +better than moral philosophy. Hello, what's the matter now?" + +There was a wail of distress somewhere in the distance. + +Gerald turned her shapely head and listened a moment. "It's only Olly," +she said, composedly. "I recognize the cry. He isn't hurt. Oh, you +needn't go, Mr. Halloway; Olly never comes to any harm. He's only +quarrelling with some one." + +De Forest raised himself on his elbow to listen, while Halloway walked +off in the direction of the outburst. "There are possibilities lurking in +picnics, you know," he remarked, resuming his recumbent position, "mad +bulls, and rabbit traps, and fine chances for a drown now and then. But I +suppose we needn't trouble ourselves, Mr. Halloway'll see to it. Besides, +Olly bears the charmed life of the wicked. Miss Masters, I hope you +remember to give daily thanks that you haven't any small brothers." + +"I do devoutly give thanks that I haven't any sisters," said Bell, with +an unaffectionate glance toward Gerald. "I should hate them." + +And so the desultory talk rambled on, the little group growing larger by +degrees as the approaching luncheon hour brought back the stragglers, and +with them Olly, trotting contentedly along, clinging to Halloway's hand, +meek as any lamb. + +"What were you doing when you cried out so a little while ago?" asked +Gerald, going up to the child. + +Olly looked at her with instant defiance in his eyes. "I hurt my foot." + +"You know perfectly well you can't deceive me, Olly. Tell me the truth. +What mischief were you at?" + +"I tell you I hurt my foot, and it hurt like mischief, and that's all the +mischief there was. I wish it had been _your_ foot, and I wouldn't have +cried a bit." + +Halloway was turning aside, but Gerald appealed to him. "Is he telling +the truth?" + +"Yes," answered Denham, dryly. "He was racing with the Anthony boys and +fell, but, as you see, he's right enough now." + +"Ya-ah!" said Olly, and leered into her face with brotherly disrespect. +"I'll tell you a lie next time if you'd rather. Ya-ah!" + +Gerald looked as if she were going to shake him on the spot, and to +prevent any such catastrophe Denham suddenly seized the little fellow and +put him through a number of acrobatic feats in breathless succession, +till he was fairly hustled into good temper and everybody around was +laughing, even Gerald. Jake Dexter was instantly incited to display some +marvellous limber-jointed powers of his own, and had just demonstrated to +the assembled company, to his and their entire satisfaction, that the +impossible is after all sometimes possible, when luncheon was announced +by the ringing of a cow-bell, and a gay onslaught upon the usual picnic +table, rich in luxuries and poor in necessities, superseded for the nonce +all less material forms of amusement. + +Later in the afternoon Halloway wandered off from the rest for one of the +solitary strolls that he preferred to companionship as being less +lonely,--a feeling often experienced when fate and not choice appoints +one's comrades,--and returning leisurely along the banks of the lake, +he came upon a little group of picnickers, and stopped unperceived beyond +them, to enjoy for a while that comfortable sense of being in the world +yet out of it, which is the birthright of all spectatorship. Gerald and +Phebe were skipping stones, thoroughly absorbed in energetic enjoyment of +the simple game; their two contrasting figures, Gerald dark and tall and +slim, and Phebe so round and fair and supple, making a pretty-enough +picture for any artist. Olly, little Maggie Dexter, and an assortment of +sturdy urchins known throughout Joppa only as the Anthony boys, were +dancing and chattering aimlessly around, and near by was drawn up a +clumsy old boat where Phebe had made a comfortable niche for Miss Delano, +who every day at about this hour was afflicted with a remarkable disorder +which had grown upon her wholly of late years, and whose symptoms, so far +as she was willing to admit them, consisted of a painful heaviness of the +eyelids, a weakness in the nape of the neck, and an irresistible tendency +to retire for a brief season within herself. A little farther off still, +having taken fortune at the flood and secured De Forest at last, Bell +Masters was embarked on another kind of craft, a thorough-going, +fully-freighted flirtation, all sails set; and through the trees were +glimpses of lazily moving figures beyond, generally in twos and twos, +following some occult rule of common division peculiar to picnics. By +degrees the children wandered off up the bank, and presently there came a +shout, followed by an evident squabble. Phebe looked around uneasily. +Gerald kept on with her sport. + +"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven times, Phebe. Now do better +than that." + +At this juncture little Maggie ran up, her pretty brown eyes wide and her +red lips quivering. "Oh! Miss Vernor, Olly shan't do it, shall he? Do say +he shan't!" + +"Do what?" asked Gerald, pausing in the act of searching for +another pebble. + +"Put it in the water to swim like a duck. It isn't a duck, it's a little, +little young bird he's found in a nest, and it can't swim, it can't +hardly fly. Oh, don't let him!" + +"Let him!" echoed Gerald sharply. She sprang toward the children with a +bound, almost lifting Olly off his feet as she drew him back from the +water's edge. "You cruel boy!" she cried. "Give it to me directly." + +"I won't!" answered Olly, trying to shake himself free from her grasp. +"It's mine, I found it." + +But the small hands held him in a grip as strong as a man's, and in +another moment Gerald had taken the poor little half-feathered creature +from him, and bidden Maggie restore it carefully to its nest. + +"It's mine! It's mine! I'll have it back!" shouted Olly, angrily, after +the little girl. + +Gerald took hold of him by the shoulders and turned him round toward her. +There was a great deal of hatred for the sin, and not overmuch love for +the sinner, in her face, as she looked down at him. "If you dare touch +that bird again, Olly, I'll find a punishment for you that you will not +soon forget, do you hear?" + +A hidden thought of revenge for the spoiled sport came into Olly's mind. +He twisted himself away from his sister with a little grunt, and stood +peevishly playing a moment with a couple of marbles; then suddenly +darting aside, seized the boat in which Miss Delano was established, +still struggling, but more feebly, with the mysterious trouble that held +her in thrall; and with a strength with which one would hardly have +credited his slight form, he pushed it off into the water. There was, of +course, not a particle of real danger for Miss Delano, even though this +chanced to be the only boat at that point, and she was no oarswoman; but +the poor little old lady, thus suddenly roused from the strange +hallucinations (as she called them) which were the most marked feature of +her complaint, and finding herself afloat upon the unstable deep, +instantly supposed that her last hour was come. She sprang up, too +terrified to scream, with a look of deadly horror in her face, and then +sank again all in a heap in the bottom of the boat. Olly gave a fiendish +laugh, but before any one else could move to the rescue, Gerald, with one +fierce, unutterable look at her brother, and no thought but how soonest +to end Miss Delano's speechless agony, quick as a flash, caught hold of +an overhanging bough and swung herself on to a rock quite far out in the +water, and thence, with a light, bold spring, landed safely in the middle +of the boat as it drifted past. + +"All right, Miss Delano," she said, briskly, seating herself and laying +hold of the oars with accustomed hands; "I'm a born sailor, and we'll +have a little row first before we go back." + +Had an angel visibly descended from heaven to assume the helm, Miss +Delano could not have been more grateful and overcome. "Oh, my dear, my +dear!" she said, and, in the intensity of her relief, began to cry a +little softly. Gerald pretended not to notice her emotion (she was very +awkward as a comforter, and as shy before tears as a man), and rowed +around for a while in utter silence; and then feeling that conversation +might aid in quieting her companion's unnecessarily excited nerves she +began abruptly charging her with questions as one loads a gun with +cartridges, dropping down one after another with cruel directness into +the harmless vacancy of Miss Delano's brain. How many inhabitants had +Joppa in precise figures? what was the height of those farther hills to +the left? upon what system was the village-school governed? what was the +mineral nature of the soil? what was the fastest time ever made by that +bay mare of Mr. Upjohn's with the white hind foot? etc. etc., etc., on +all which points poor Miss Delano could only assure her timidly: "I don't +know, dear; it would be well if I did," and relapsed into an alarmed and +most uncharacteristic silence. + +Phebe stood watching the boat as Gerald rowed off, then, as if +recollecting some neglected duty, turned suddenly, and found herself face +to face with Mr. Halloway. + +"No farther," he said, playfully barring her passage. + +"Oh, but I must! I want to find Olly and talk him into a better frame of +mind before Gerald comes back." + +"Leave Olly to me, please. I am a perfect child-tamer, and guarantee to +exorcise his seven evil spirits in less than no time. Meanwhile, sit you +down and rest." + +"Oh, I don't need rest. If you'll undertake Olly I'll help put back the +lunch things. Picnics are quite like the Biblical feasts: five loaves and +two fishes somehow always make twelve basketfuls to take up." + +"And you are always a true disciple at the feast, Miss Phebe, intent only +upon ministering to others." + +Phebe laughed her own peculiarly light-hearted, gay laugh. "That is a +much prettier way of putting it than Gerald's. She says I make myself +maid-of-all-work." + +"Miss Gerald, of course, doesn't approve of such service." + +"But you do. So I needn't mind her blame." + +"But I shall blame too, Miss Phebe, when you overdo yourself. I don't see +why others' recreation need be all work for you. Let each take his share +of both the pleasure and the toil." + +"But you see this _is_ my share, Mr. Halloway, because I can't help in +any better way. I don't know enough to entertain people's guests just by +talking to them, as Gerald does. You forget how dull I am." + +"So I do," said Denham, gravely. "I forget it all the time. Indeed, the +forgetfulness has quite become chronic. Now I'll find Olly, and we'll all +go at the dishes together and make a game of it." + +Certainly Denham Halloway must have possessed some secret charm in his +management of children, for by the time Gerald turned her boat to the +shore, he stood at the bank to meet them, with Olly by his side, as +amiable a little fellow as any Sunday-school-book hero ever born. + +"I am glad your sail turned out such a success, Miss Delano," said +Halloway, cheerily, as he lifted the little old lady carefully out on to +the pebbles. "You have been envied of us all. But here is a little boy +come to tell you all the same how sorry he is that he gave you such a +fright. Olly, my lad, I think Miss Delano looks as if she had forgiven +you through and through." + +"Oh, indeed, indeed yes," answered Miss Delano, hurriedly. "It was +only my silly way of being scared, particularly when I'm roused up so +sudden out of one of those turns of mine. And it's all right, my dear, +all right." + +"But I'm sorry, real and honest," declared Olly, stoutly, looking +squarely in Miss Delano's kindly face. "And I didn't mean to scare you." + +"You meant it for a revenge on me, I suppose," said Gerald, in a low, +harsh voice. She took hold of his arm as she spoke. "Give me those +marbles of yours." + +Olly looked at her, hesitated, and then reluctantly produced three very +handsome agates from some outlying storehouse of his jacket. + +"I bought you six," said Gerald. "Where are the rest?" + +"I lost one," answered Olly, sullenly. "It fell down a hole." + +"Then give me the other two." + +Olly obeyed still more reluctantly, fixing great, anxious eyes upon his +treasures as he laid them, each one more slowly than the last, in his +sister's hand. + +"There," said Gerald. "Perhaps this will teach you to behave better +another time. I shall not buy you any more this summer." She flung out +her hand suddenly, and the five pretty stones fell with a splash far out +in the lake and disappeared forever, five little cruel sets of circles +instantly beginning to widen and widen over their graves in a perfect +mockery of roundness. Olly gave one sharp cry, and then stood +stock-still, a bitterly hard look coming over his face; those marbles had +been very, very dear to his heart. Halloway put his arm tenderly around +the little fellow, and drew him close in a very sympathetic way. + +"Olly," he said, gently, "you know you deserved some punishment, but now +that your sister has punished you, I am sure she will forgive you too, as +Miss Delano has done, if you only ask her." + +Olly buried his face in his friend's coat, and burst into a fit of +heart-broken tears. "I don't want her to forgive me," he sobbed. "I only +want my agates,--my pretty, pretty agates!" + +"Surely you will forgive him?" pleaded Halloway, looking up at Gerald +over Olly's head, and holding out one of the boy's hands in his own. "He +was really penitent when you came up. Let me ask for him." + +Gerald moved a step away, ignoring the hand. "Certainly, if you wish it," +she said, coldly. + +Halloway bent and kissed Olly's flushed face. "Do you hear, my boy? It is +all right now, and there is Maggie calling you to swing her. Don't forget +you promised to make me a visit at the rectory to-morrow." + +Olly threw his arms around Denham's knees and gave him a convulsive hug. +"I like you though you _are_ a minister," he said, through his tears. "I +just wish you were my sister!" And then he went slowly off to Maggie, and +Denham and Gerald stood silently where he had left them. Gerald was the +first to speak. + +"You think I am hard on Olly. I see it in your face." + +"I do think," replied Denham, slowly, with a faint smile curving his +well-cut lips, "that perhaps it might be happier for Olly if you would +try to consider him less in the light of a boy, and more as--as only a +little animal. You are so tender-hearted and pitiful toward animals." + +Gerald flushed angrily. "I like plain speaking best. You think I am hard +on him. Why don't you say so?" + +"I will if you prefer it. I do think so." + +"Thanks. Is there any thing else you would like to say to me in your +capacity as clergyman before we join the others?" + +"Yes, if I may really venture so far. Your hat is quite crooked." + +Gerald straightened it without a smile. "Thanks again. Anything else?" + +"Absolutely nothing." He turned to escort her back, but Gerald stood +still, frowning out at the lake. + +"You don't know Olly," she said, curtly. + +"Maybe not, but I know childish nature pretty well, perhaps because +I love it." + +"Ah! I don't love it. It isn't lovable to me. It is all nonsense to call +it the age of innocence. It is vice in embryo instead of in full leaf, +that is all." + +"But that is an inestimable gain of itself. A little of a bad thing is +surely much better than a great deal of it. For my part I confess to a +great partiality for children. There is something pathetic to me in the +little faults and tempers that irritate us now chiefly because they clash +against our own weaknesses, and yet on the right guidance of which lies +the whole making or marring of the child's life." + +"Doesn't guidance include punishment?" + +"Yes, it includes it. But it does not consist of it." + +Gerald still stood half turned from him, frowning out over the placid +blue water. "Ah," she said, "it chiefly consists of good example and that +sort of thing, I suppose." + +"I think it consists chiefly of love," said Halloway, simply. + +Gerald made no answer at first, then turned and looked at him almost +defiantly. Her changeable eyes seemed black as she raised them to his. +"Would you have thrown Olly's marbles into the lake?" + +"No," replied Halloway, looking steadily back at her. + +"Then you would have been very foolish," said Gerald, haughtily. "It was +the only way to touch him. I was quite right to do it." + +"You should be the best judge of your actions, Miss Vernor." + +Gerald bowed without answer, and moved past him like an offended duchess. +Halloway stood looking after her with an amused sparkle in his eyes. +"Miss Geraldine Vernor," he said to himself, "with all your beauty and +your reputed accomplishments and intellect, you would yet do well to take +a few lessons of my little friend Phebe Lane." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TRIED AS BY FIRE. + + +"Gerald, what are you thinking of?" + +"I was wondering how soon you would let us have the lamp." + +"I'll get it immediately, if you like, but it's so pleasant talking in +the twilight. I could spend hours contentedly sitting here so with you." + +"How reprehensibly idle!" + +"No, I should be learning something all the time. You have always +something to teach me. Or if you didn't feel like talking, I could just +sit still and hold your hand and not need any thing more." + +Gerald put her hand instinctively out of reach. "I beg you won't try it. +I hate having my hand held." + +"Yes, I know you do. You hate being kissed, too. You hate being admired +and made a fuss over. I don't suppose any thing would induce you to let +me call you a pet name. O Gerald, I do wish you liked being loved!" + +"But I do like it well enough. Of course every one likes being cared for +and all that sort of thing. It's only the gushing and spooning and +sentimentalizing that I can't endure. I never could, even as a child." + +Phebe sat suddenly upright, away from Gerald. Perhaps even the mute +caress of her attitude jarred upon her friend. "To me the half of being +loved would be the being told so," she said. "I should never weary of +hearing it said over and over again." + +"Bah!" ejaculated Gerald, "it would make me sick!" She got up as if the +very thought were too much for her, and going to the window stood still +there looking out. Phebe followed her with her eyes. + +"I am afraid you are fated to be deadly sick all your life through, +Gerald. What _will_ you do with your lovers?" + +"Dismiss them." + +"All?" + +"All but one." + +"What will you do with him?" + +"Marry him, of course. That is what he will be there for, won't it? I +expect to marry some one some time. Marriage makes a woman's life fuller +and freer, though not necessarily happier. I want to get all into my life +that I can." + +"I wonder whom you will marry," mused Phebe, where she sat curled up on +the sofa. "I wonder what he could be like. Gerald, how I should like to +see you in love!" + +"You won't see it," replied Gerald. "No one will ever see it. It +wouldn't be my way to make a display of the insanity, supposing, that +is, that I have it." + +"I hope at least you will show it to _him_." + +"Not overmuch even to _him_. He'll have to take it on faith. I haven't +the faintest intention of informing any one of the state of my affections +a dozen times a day. Once for all ought to be sufficient with the +declaration, as it is with the marriage vow." + +Phebe puckered up her forehead. "Ah, how different we are! If I am ever +engaged to any one I shall want to keep telling him all the time how much +I love him, for fear he wouldn't guess it." + +"You will bore him to death then." + +"I suppose I shall," replied Phebe, dejectedly. "I don't suppose any +one living wants to be loved so much as I would want to love him. I +couldn't be cool and deliberate and wise at loving as you would be. I +should have to do it with my whole heart and just give myself up to it +for good and all." + +"That's the story-book way of loving," said Gerald. "I don't believe in +it for real life. Blind adoration doesn't do either the lover or the +loved any good. There should be sense in one's emotions as well as in +one's opinions." + +Phebe was silent a moment or two. "You are so self-possessed, and so +self-controlled, Gerald," she said at last. "It must be very nice to have +one's self so perfectly in command as you have. And yet I don't know. I +think it would be rather nice too to find one's self suddenly under the +power of some one a great deal better and stronger and wiser than one's +self, who compelled one to love him, not because one would, but just +because one could not help it." + +The girls were alone in the sitting-room, Mrs. Lane having gone out to a +neighbor's, taking Olly with her, and Miss Lydia not having yet appeared +for her usual hour downstairs. It was a few days after the picnic, and +was one of those suddenly cool August evenings that sometimes drop down +so unexpectedly upon the summer heat, and a wood-fire lay upon the hearth +ready to light at the invalid's coming. Phebe too sprang from the sofa as +she spoke, as if her words had evoked too vivid a picture, and kneeling +down by the hearth, applied a match. The bright flame leaped swiftly up +and filled all the room with a flickering golden glow. Gerald turned in +the window to watch it. How quickly it had flushed Phebe's cheeks, and +how soft her eyes looked in its light! + +"It's downright cruelty to spoil our first cool evening with a fire, +Phebe, but I'll forgive you, it makes you look so pretty," she said, +quite unconscious of her beauty as she stood against the dark background +of the curtain in picturesque stateliness, her dress of soft cream-white +cloth falling in clinging folds about her, and her clear pale face turned +dreamily toward the light, which gleamed out in fitful reflection from +the heavy gold ornaments at her throat and wrists. + +"Ah, you do not see yourself!" murmured Phebe, looking adoringly back at +her. "No one else could look pretty to you if you did." + +"How foolish!" said Gerald, scornfully. "Pray don't let us begin bandying +compliments back and forth. That's next worse to eternally discussing +love. Why it is that two girls seem never able to talk together half an +hour without lugging in that threadbare subject as if it were the one +most important thing in the world, I don't understand." + +"Well, isn't love the most important thing,--to women?" asked Phebe, +sitting down on the floor to nurse the fire, her thin muslin making a +little ripple of pretty lightness around her. + +"No, it isn't," replied Gerald. "It may be to some few perhaps, but +certainly not to all women. It isn't to me. It's one thing; not every +thing; and not even the best thing. Knowledge is better, and goodness is +better, and to come down to purely personal blessings, health is better, +and so is common-sense better, and in the long run there are dozens of +things infinitely better worth having and better worth aiming for. It's a +good enough thing to have in addition, but as to its being the sum and +substance, the Alpha and Omega, of any sensible woman's life, that's all +foolishness. Let's have done with it and order in the lights. I want to +get at Euclid again. It will never do for that conceited Yale brother of +mine to get ahead of me. Shall I call to Nancy?" + +"No use. The servants are out. Wait a moment till the fire is well +started, and I'll bring in the lamp." + +"The servants are out?" repeated Gerald. "Both? At the same time? Is that +the way you keep house in Joppa?" + +"Oh, they like running out together, and we never want any thing in the +evenings, you know. The front door always stands ajar, and visitors let +themselves in." + +"And you make your own fires and bring in your own oily lamps; or do your +evening guests assist you perhaps in lieu of the servants?" + +"But we don't generally have fires," laughed Phebe, greatly amused at +Gerald's disgust. "Only to-night it would be too chilly for Aunt Lydia +here without one. I feel cool too. I was not so sensible as you, and put +on too thin a dress. Isn't it a pretty blaze? Wait just till I throw on +another log. How it snaps and crackles!" + +"Take your time," said Gerald, turning back to the window. "But what +a way to manage! Why should you hire servants, if you do their work +for them?" + +Phebe only laughed, and a little shower of sparks flew over her from the +hearth as if the fire laughed too. + +"It's being needlessly indulgent," pursued Gerald. "One can give servants +proper liberties without making one's self a slave to their caprices. If +you yield to them in one instance because it chances to be convenient, +they'll certainly exact it of you another time when it is not convenient. +Gracious heavens! Phebe, what is it?" + +There was a sudden outburst of light behind her, and a sharp scream of +mingled terror and pain, and she turned to find Phebe standing the centre +of a pillar of fire. Her light dress had ignited from the flying sparks, +and the devouring flames seemed to burst forth in a hundred places at +once and rush exultantly together. Phebe gave another wild cry and +started for the door in that blind agony of despair which seems to hasten +people at such times to their doom, as if by aimless flight they could +escape the awful demon who possesses them. Too horror-stricken to utter a +sound, Gerald sprang at her, and seizing her with fearless hands, forced +the poor struggling girl by main strength down on to the floor. No one +near to help! No water at hand! Not so much as a rug or a shawl to throw +over her and stifle the flames! Yes! there was the table-cover, heavy and +thick, as if created for this very life-service. Gerald tore it +off,--books, boxes, china cups, and glass vases crashing to the ground +together,--and flinging it over Phebe, threw herself on top of it, +pressing it close in every direction with hands and limbs, and smothering +the flames resolutely beneath it. It was but a moment, though a moment of +lifetime horror, and all was over. There was only the fire on the hearth +hissing and leaping as if in anger at its defeated design. + +"Phebe!" whispered Gerald, hoarsely; "Phebe!" + +Phebe had ceased to struggle, and lay perfectly motionless, apparently +scarcely breathing, but she opened her eyes and smiled faintly as Gerald +called her. The fright and the pain had taken her speech away. She could +not find it at once. But the smile gave new hope and energy to Gerald. + +"Never mind talking," she exclaimed, springing briskly to her feet. +"If you are only alive it's all right. Don't attempt to stir. I'll get +some one." + +"Aunt Lydia--don't let her know," Phebe managed to gasp. + +"No, no, of all people!" cried Gerald. She paused an instant. Not a +servant in the house! whom was she to summon? A vague idea seized her of +running into the street and catching hold of the first passer, when at +the moment the door opened, and Mr. Halloway appeared on the threshold. + +"Is there any one at home? Shall I come in, please?" called the bright, +cheery voice. + +"Mr. Halloway! oh, thank Heaven!" And seizing him by the arm, Gerald +dragged him over to where Phebe lay. "Help me to take her up-stairs to +her room." + +Denham staggered back unutterably shocked and horrified as he recognized +the prostrate form at his feet, the fire-light playing mockingly over it +and revealing the white face and loosened hair. For the instant he +thought her dead. He caught his breath and put his hand up over his eyes. +"My God! what has happened?" + +"Her dress took fire--she is burned, no, not badly I am sure, but let us +get her up-stairs without losing time. Quick!" + +Denham put Gerald aside almost roughly, and stooping down lifted Phebe +tenderly in his arms. She moaned as he touched her, but smiled up at him +as she had done at Gerald. + +"Do I hurt you, dear?" he asked, with infinite pity and tenderness in his +voice. "I will be as gentle as I can. Poor child! poor child!" + +"Let me help you," said Gerald. "The stairs are steep and I am +very strong." + +She came nearer, but he shook his head. "I need no help." + +"This way, then," said Gerald, shortly. "And don't speak. Miss Lydia +mustn't know." + +She led the way to Phebe's room, and he followed slowly, laying his +burden carefully down on the bed and arranging the pillows under her head +with all of a woman's gentleness of touch. + +"Now go for the doctor," ordered Gerald, turning to the bureau to light +the candles. "Dr. Dennis. If he is out, Dr. Harrison. Only find some one +immediately." + +Denham lingered an instant, bending down over the bed. + +"I thought we had lost you to-night, Phebe," he said, so low the words +were but just audible. "God be thanked if only that you are still here!" +And stooping nearer yet he added: "We could not let you go, dear child." + +Gerald came anxiously back to the bedside as he left the room. "Are you +in much pain now?" she asked, lifting off the heavy braid that lay across +Phebe's bosom like a great rope of loosely twisted silk. "You do not +think you are badly hurt, do you, dear?" + +Phebe looked up at her, smiling strangely. + +"Oh, Gerald," she whispered, while two big tears rolled slowly down on to +the pillow, "I wish I might die to-night! I don't think I can ever be so +happy again!" + +"Nonsense!" said Gerald, with utmost sternness. "Don't talk about dying. +I won't allow it." And then she suddenly put down her head beside +Phebe's, and burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +GERALD OBEYS ORDERS. + + +In an incredibly short time Denham brought back not only Dr. Dennis, whom +he had caught just setting out for a stolen game of whist with Mr. +Upjohn, during the absence of that gentleman's wife at prayer-meeting, +but also Soeur Angélique, whose mere presence in a sick-room was more +than half the cure. And then he sat in the dark, disordered room below, +impatiently enough, anxiously waiting for news from Phebe. The time +seemed to him interminable before at last the door opened, and Gerald +entered, bearing a lamp. The vivid light, flung so full upon her, showed +traces of passionate weeping; and her white dress all scorched and burned +and hopelessly ruined, with the rich lace hanging in shreds from the +sleeves, made her a startling contrast indeed to the usually calm, +self-possessed, perfectly-dressed Gerald Vernor. + +Denham sprang forward to take the heavy lamp from her. "How is +she, please?" + +Gerald started. "What, you here?" + +"Did you think I could leave till I knew?" + +"Oh, of course not, I had forgotten you. I was only thinking of Phebe." + +"But how is she?" + +"Better. She is burned about the shoulders and a little on the arms, but +not seriously, and nothing that will disfigure. It is so fortunate. The +doctor is still with her, but she is much easier now, and there is +nothing to fear." + +"Ah, what a relief! It seemed as if I should never hear. She is really in +no danger then?" + +"None." + +"Thank God! As you came in you looked so distressed I feared--" + +"When it was all over and there was nothing to cry about, I cried," +interrupted Gerald. "Women are always fools. I'll except Mrs. Whittridge, +however. She has been the greatest comfort to Phebe." + +"It is Soeur Angélique's characteristic privilege always to be a comfort, +I believe," answered Denham, recovering his light-heartedness in a +flash. "Might I inquire if you have any especial object with this lamp? +Shall I do any thing particularly with it?" + +"Let it down, please--anywhere. I remembered the room was dark, and ran +down to put it to rights before Mrs. Lane should comeback. Her orderly +soul would have a spasm if she came upon it suddenly like this." + +"It was well I had no light," said Denham, looking around him. "It would +have frightened even me. Shan't I call some one?" + +"It's the ridiculous fashion of the house to suppose it never needs +servants at this hour. There's not one within reach." + +"You must let me help you then. Is this the table-cover?" + +"Thanks. I am afraid the fire has done for it, but we can't help that. +Pull it a little farther to your side, please. Farther still. That's too +far. So. That's right. Now the lamp here. Now the books. Cover up the +holes with them." + +"Ah, Miss Lydia's pet cup! and her little favorite statuette!" + +"Hideous things! I'm glad they're smashed." + +"Will you equally enjoy imparting to her the fact of their loss?" + +"Somebody else may do that. I had my share telling her about Phebe." + +"I suppose she was terribly shocked, poor old soul. I don't wonder." + +"She had an instant attack of hysterics, and I _did_ wonder," rejoined +Gerald, tartly. "But as I told you, women are always fools, and nervous +women the worst ones, I haven't any patience with them. I was vexed +enough with her for keeping me from Phebe. I don't believe she was ever +hurried so out of an attack before." + +"I'm afraid there's need of a broom or something here, Miss Vernor. This +vase is in a thousand pieces." + +Gerald seized the hearth-brush and was on her knees by him in a moment. +"The lamp, please, Mr. Halloway. Set it on the floor an instant." + +Denham moved it as desired, and stood looking down at her as she began +deftly brushing up the scattered bits. + +"Miss Vernor!" he suddenly exclaimed in a shocked voice. The bright +light, falling broadly across her hands, showed two great angry-red +blotches just above one of the delicate wrists. He stooped and laid +masterful hold of the long handle of the brush. + +"Well?" she said, stopping perforce and looking up in surprise. +"What is it?" + +"Your arm--you are burned, badly burned." + +Gerald made a little sound of contempt for all reply. + +"It should be dressed at once. How it must pain you!" + +Gerald looked at her arm reflectively. "I haven't had time to feel," she +said, vainly trying to pull her sleeve over it. "It will make an ugly +scar, won't it? I shall have to abandon elbow sleeves. Now please let go +the brush." + +"Miss Vernor, why should you be so cruel to yourself? Do go up to the +doctor at once!" + +"And take him away from Phebe? I will not. It won't hurt any more now +than it has done already. I must ask you to let me have the brush, Mr. +Halloway. I am losing time." + +Halloway relinquished it without speaking, and went quietly out of the +room, and Gerald unconcernedly resumed her work, scarcely pausing to +wonder where he had gone or what he intended. He returned just as she had +finished, and lifting the lamp back to the table, called to her: "Will +you come here, please?" + +"What in the world have you there?" she inquired, coming up to him in +sheer curiosity. + +"Soap. I found the way to the kitchen, you see. I had to bring the water +in this tin thing. I didn't know where to look for a cup." + +"Pray what is it for?" + +"For you. Soap is good for burns. Will you let me take your hand, +please?" + +Gerald put the wounded member behind her. "Thank you. I neither require +nor desire assistance." + +"Pardon me, you do require it, and if you refuse to see the doctor--" + +"Is that any reason why I should resort to you--and kitchen soap?" + +"I grant it is a very homely remedy, Miss Vernor, but it is an excellent +one and the only one I know." + +"I daresay. It is one more than I know of." + +"You will not try it?" + +"No." + +"Perhaps you are afraid of the pain attending the dressing?" + +It was a masterly stroke. Gerald gave him one look of intense scorn, +almost of anger, and immediately reached out her hand. "I am afraid of +nothing--not even of your lack of skill." + +Denham took her hand without further ceremony, and holding it firmly, +pushed back the hanging lace from her arm and began rubbing the soap over +the burns, without so much as a word of pity for the pain he knew he was +giving her. She winced involuntarily at the first touch, but set her +teeth tightly lest she should cry out. It hurt her cruelly. "I was not +aware before that the custody of souls extended to that of the temples +they inhabit," she said, when she could command herself sufficiently to +assume a supreme indifference of tone. "You believe in purely household +remedies, I see." + +"I believe always in doing what I can with what means I have. One moment +more, please. I am not quite through." + +Gerald held out her hand again. "Perhaps you had better try sandstone on +it this time, or a little burning oil." + +Halloway did not answer, but hastily tearing his handkerchief into +strips, bound the arm as closely as he could. "There," he said, surveying +the bandages critically, and inwardly well pleased with his success; "at +least that will do till you can see the doctor." + +"Are you sure you are quite through now?" asked Gerald, in mock +submission. "You don't think it necessary to put the arm in a splint, or +to fasten weights to it, or to amputate the first joint of the thumb?" + +"I am sorry to say that is all I know how to do for you, Miss Vernor." + +"Then I will go back to Miss Lydia. By the way, would you recommend soap +also for hysterics?" + +"Applied with a close bandage over the mouth? Certainly, it will be both +effectual and immediate." + +"Thank you. Good-night." + +"Will you not shake hands with me?" + +Gerald turned as she was moving off and held out her hand, more as a +queen might have extended it in motion of dismissal than as friend to +friend. Denham took it between both his. "Before you go, I want to thank +you in the name of all Miss Phebe's friends," he said, earnestly. "You +have saved her life to-night, and at the risk of your own." + +"The table-cloth was her savior, not I," returned Gerald, lightly, but +with a softened voice. "And anyway, is it not quite thanks enough only to +know that Phebe is safe? Now good-night in earnest." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JOPPA'S MINISTRATIONS TO THE SICK. + + +All news, good, bad, and indifferent, flies equally fast in Joppa; and +had there been a town-crier deputed for the purpose, Phebe's accident +could not have sooner become a household tale in even the most distant +districts of the place. After a contradiction of the first rumor, +reporting her burned to a crisp and only recognizable by a ring of her +mother's on her left hand,--which ring by-the-way she never wore,--and +after a contradiction in due course of the second rumor, reporting Gerald +to be lying in the agonies of death and Phebe to have escaped without a +hair singed, followed a period of dire uncertainty, when nobody knew what +to believe, and felt only an obstinate conviction that everybody else had +got it entirely wrong. But at last the story straightened itself out into +something bearing a family resemblance to actual facts, and then Joppa +settled itself resolutely down to doing its duty. My duty toward my sick +neighbor in Joppa consists in calling twice a day, if not oftener, at his +house; in inquiring after his condition down to minutest and most sacred +details; in knowing accurately how many hours he slept last night, and +what he ate for breakfast, and what is paid the sick-nurse, and if it +includes her washing. My second duty toward my sick neighbor is to bring +him something to eat, on the supposition that "outside things taste +differently;" or something to look at; or, if nothing better, at least +something to refuse. My third and last duty toward my neighbor,--the well +neighbor who possesses the sick one,--is to narrate every somewhat +similar case on record, with all its circumstances and the ultimate +career of the sufferer; to prescribe remedies as infallible as the Pope; +to disapprove wholly, and on the best grounds, of those in actual use; to +offer every assistance in and out of my power; and to say at leaving that +I _hope_ it may all turn out well, but that _I_ should have called in the +other doctor. Joppa had learned by heart its duty toward its neighbor +from its earliest, stammering infancy, and it adhered strictly to the +path therein marked out. It inquired after Phebe diligently; it +thoroughly mastered all possible intricacies of her case; it made her +gifts digestible and indigestible; and it said that, by all odds, it was +Dr. Harrison who should have attended her from the first. Dr. Dennis took +very good care of her, nevertheless, and it was not long before he +pronounced that all she needed was quiet and rest to complete the cure. + +"We shall have her out of bed in a few days now, Mrs. Lane; in a week or +so perhaps," he said, as he passed out at the front door where Mrs. Lane +was standing talking with Mrs. Hardcastle. "She is doing very well, as +well as I could wish. All she needs is rest. Keep her perfectly quiet." +And the doctor bowed himself off, first politely inquiring of Mrs. +Hardcastle after her husband's gout and her own dyspepsia. + +"He is a fair-spoken man, certainly, very," said Mrs. Hardcastle, "though +I won't say that I shouldn't prefer Dr. Harrison in the long run as +surest to bring his patient through. I think I'll just go up with this +myself to Phebe, Mrs. Lane. I suppose she's longing for visitors by now, +poor soul!" + +"Well, I dare say. You know her room,--just at the head of the stairs. Go +right up, and I'll step out to market." + +"Now, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, rustling into Phebe's room, "I +thought I would come up and have a look at you myself to make sure how +you were. No, don't move. You do look pale, but that's all. Glad to see +your pretty face isn't harmed. Why, I heard one whole side of it was +about burned off. I've brought you some wine-jelly, my dear." + +"She had a lot yesterday, Pheeb did," said Olly, who was curled up with a +geography in a corner of the room and furtively cutting Europe out of the +maps. "She doesn't need any more." + +"Oh, but this is some of my own make. This is quite different from +anybody else's," declared Mrs. Hardcastle. "Phebe remembers _my_ jelly of +old, don't you, dear?" + +Phebe smiled faintly. All she remembered at the moment was being +invariably requested by the good lady to come and make it for her +whenever she gave a party. + +"I thought I heard talking and so I ventured to come up too," said a +timid voice, and Miss Delano tiptoed softly in. "Phebe, my dear child, my +dear child!" and the soft-hearted little old maid stooped to kiss Phebe's +pale cheek, and straightway began to whimper. + +"Come, none of that," said Mrs. Upjohn's peremptory tones, as that lady +swept into the little room, seeming to fill it all to overflowing. "I met +the doctor just now and he said Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet. +Don't let's have any weeping over her. She wants cheering up, and she +isn't quite dead yet, you know, though really the evening before last, +Phebe, I heard that you weren't expected to live the night through." + +"How ridiculous!" said Gerald, impatiently. "Miss Delano, will you +have a chair?" + +"Thank you, no, dear. I'll just sit here on the bed," said the +little old dame, humbly, anxious not to make any one any trouble. "O +Phebe, my dear!" + +Phebe smiled at her affectionately, and Mrs. Hardcastle, who was on the +point of leaving when Mrs. Upjohn came in, sat down again to ask that +lady about the character of a servant whom she had just engaged. + +"I thought I should have died when I heard it," said Miss Delano, patting +Phebe's cheek. "Poor dear, poor dear! And they say you won't ever be able +to walk again!" + +"Who says that?" asked Phebe, laughing. "I shall be a terrible +disappointment to them." + +"'Tain't her legs at all; it's her shoulders," said Olly, as he emerged +from his corner, chewing Europe into a pasteboard bull. "What have you +got in that paper?" + +"Oh, the blessed child, and I was forgetting it. My dear, it's just a +little sponge-cake I made free to bring you, it turned out so light. +Don't you think you could eat a bit perhaps?" + +"My, but it looks good!" said Olly, approaching a hungry finger and +poking at it softly. "I'll get a knife." + +"I hope you don't allow any such trash as that about, Miss Vernor," said +Mrs. Upjohn, sharply, in the middle of her discussion of Jane's demerits. +"Phebe ought to be exceedingly careful what she eats for a great while +to come. It's doubtful, indeed, whether her stomach ever recovers its +tone after such a shock. I knew one woman who died just of the shock +alone some two months after precisely such an accident as this, when +everybody thought she had got well, and Phebe must be _very_ careful. Her +appetite is not to be tempted, but guided." + +"Well, ladies, I must be going," announced Mrs. Hardcastle, rising. "You +really think I am safe, then, in engaging her, Mrs. Upjohn?" But just +then Mrs. Dexter came in with two of her daughters, and Mrs. Hardcastle +sat down again. + +"There was no one downstairs, and as the doctor says Phebe is so much +better, we thought we might just come up," said the new comer. "Why, +Phebe, you are as blooming as a rose, and I understood you had lost all +your pretty hair. I've brought you some grapes, my dear, and a jar of +extra fine brandy peaches, and little Maggie insisted on sending some +molasses candy she had just made." + +"Well, well, I did look for more sense from _you_," said Mrs. Upjohn, +tapping Mrs. Dexter rather smartly on the shoulder. "Where'll you sit? +Oh, on the bed. Yes, Phebe's had a narrow escape, and one she'll likely +bear the marks of to her dying day. Let it be a warning to you, young +ladies, to be prepared. There's no knowing how soon some one of you may +not be carried off in the same way,--just as you are dressed for a dance, +maybe." Her tone implied that death could not overtake them at a more +sinful moment. + +"Hullo, up there! I say!" shouted a voice in the hall below, +"how's Phebe?" + +"Oh, it's Dick!" cried the Dexter girls in a breath. "You can't come +up, Dick." + +"Ain't a-going to. But a fellow can speak, can't he, without his body +a-following his voice? How's Phebe?" + +"She's splendid." + +"What's the doctor say?" + +"He says she only needs to be kept perfectly quiet." + +"Hooray!" said Dick, and apparently executed a war-dance on the +oil-cloth, while Olly profited by the general hubbub created by the +entrance of two more ladies, to satisfactorily investigate the +sponge-cake. + +"Why, quite a levee, isn't it, Phebe?" said one of the last arrivals, +looking in vain for a chair, and forced to seat herself on a low table, +accidentally upsetting Phebe's medicines as she did so. + +"Yes, altogether too much of one," said Gerald, knitting her brows as she +rescued a bottle just in time, and darted an angry glance around the +crowded room. "Phebe isn't at all equal to it yet." + +"You are right, Miss Vernor," agreed Mrs. Upjohn, drawing out her +tatting from her pocket, and settling herself at it with an answering +frown. "There are quite too many here. Some people never know when to +stay away." + +"Oh, there's Bell. I hear her voice," called Mattie, running to look over +the banisters. "She's got both Mr. De Forest and Mr. Moulton with her." + +There was a sound of many voices below, a giggling, a rush for the +stairs, and a playful scuffle. + +"It's me" (Bell's voice); "Dick won't let me pass." + +"Me is Bell" (Dick's voice); "she wouldn't pass if she could. Too many +fellows down here for her to want to leave 'em. Send us down a girl or +two from up there, can't you?" + +A girl or two, however, apparently appeared from outside, greetings were +called up to Phebe, offerings of flowers and delicacies transmitted _via_ +Dick on the stairs to Olly at the top (who took toll by the way), and the +liveliest kind of a time went on. It was quite like a party, Dick shouted +up, only that there was no ice-cream and a singular scarcity of girls. + +"It's a shame," said Mrs. Upjohn, severely, in her chair, while Gerald +held her peace, too wrathful to speak, and conscious of her inability to +mend matters. "I should think people might have sense enough not to crowd +all the air out of a sick-room in this fashion." + +"It's exceedingly inconsiderate of them, I am sure," answered Mrs. +Hardcastle, drawing a sofa cushion behind her back. "She ought to be +so quiet." + +"Phebe!" shouted Dick. "Here's the parson. He wants to know if you're +dead yet. Shan't I send him up? It will be all right, you know, quite +the thing. He's a parson, and wears a gown on Sundays." + +"Dick, Dick!" screamed his mother. "Was there ever such a lad!" + +"He's coming. Get ready for him. Have out your Prayer-books," +called Dick. + +Phebe flushed crimson, and looked imploringly at Gerald. An indignant +murmur ran through the room. Mrs. Upjohn drew herself up to her severest +height. "What shameless impertinence! How dare he intrude!" A shout of +unholy laughter downstairs followed Dick's sally. + +"Mr. Halloway isn't there at all," cried Olly, his fine, clear-voice +pitched high above the rest, "He only asked about Pheeb at the door, and +went right off." + +"Well, he left this for her with his compliments, and this, and this," +called Dick, rummaging in his pockets, and tossing up an apple, and then +a hickory nut, and last a good-sized and dangerously ripe tomato. Olly +caught them dexterously with a yell of delight, and was immediately +rushed at by three of the nearest ladies and ordered not to make a noise, +for Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet. + +"Such doings would never be permitted a moment if she had only been in +Dr. Harrison's hands," said Mrs. Upjohn, in denunciatory tones. "He would +have forbidden her to see any one. It is scandalous." + +"It is outrageous," added Mrs. Hardcastle. "Most inconsiderate." + +"Ah, I can't get over it that it isn't your legs, poor dear!" murmured +Miss Delano, still plaintively overcome. "And you will walk, after all?" + +"Dr. Dennis is an excellent physician," said Mrs. Dexter, somewhat +defiantly. It was impossible not to enter the lists against Mrs. Upjohn. +This last lady was immediately up in arms, and a heated discussion as to +the respective skill of the two practitioners took place, everybody +gradually taking sides with one or the other of the leaders, and +forgetting both poor exhausted Phebe and the noise downstairs, which +finally culminated in a rousing lullaby led by Bell, and lustily seconded +by half a dozen others: + +"Slumber on, Phebe dear; +Do not hear us fellows sigh!" + +The song, however, suddenly stopped in the midst. Some one seemed +speaking very low and softly, and neither the chorus nor the laughter nor +the tumult was resumed. Phebe drew a deep breath. Was relief really +coming at last? Yes. Soeur Angélique stood in the door-way. + +"Will you excuse me, ladies," she said, in that soft, irresistible voice +of hers, as she laid aside bonnet and shawl in a quiet, business-like +way. "I came to relieve Miss Vernor and play nurse for a while, and I +think Phebe looks as if she needed a little sleep. If you will kindly +take leave of her, I will darken the room at once." + +She stood so evidently waiting for them to go, that in a few moments they +all found themselves somehow or other outside the door, with Gerald +politely escorting them down-stairs, and Olly dancing joyously ahead, +crying that Mr. Halloway had sent for him to the rectory. Left mistress +of the situation, Mrs. Whittridge proceeded to draw down the shades, +straighten the chairs, smooth the bedclothes and rearrange the pillows, +all with the noiseless, graceful movements peculiar to her. Then she drew +a low chair up to the bedside, and laid her cool hand soothingly on +Phebe's forehead. A great peace seemed suddenly to fill the room. + +"Now, my darling, you must sleep. Between them they have quite +worn you out." + +"Who told you I needed you?" asked Phebe, drawing the gentle hand down to +her lips. "How did you happen to come just when I wanted you so?" + +"Denham sent me over," answered Soeur Angélique. "He thought perhaps I +could make it a little quieter for you." + +"Ah," murmured Phebe. A faint tinge crept up into her white cheeks. +She turned her head away and closed her eyes. "I knew it was he who +sent you." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AN APOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. + + +It was some days after Phebe's accident before Halloway saw Gerald again. +She was generally upstairs when he called, or driving or sailing with De +Forest, who was in daily attendance upon her, paying her persistent, +blasé devotion. She was in the parlor one evening, however, sitting with +De Forest near the door, when Denham came in, but he merely bowed to her +and passed on to the other end of the room, where Mrs. Lane was seated +with Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle. Mr. Hardcastle rose at once to receive him. +"Ah, good-evening, good-evening. Pray take a seat. I am delighted to see +you. I suppose you came to ask after our little invalid. Sad accident, +sir; sad accident, very. It has kept us most anxious and busy seeing +after her. But she is doing nicely now. We shall have her about again +before we know it." He spoke as if her recovery were altogether due to +himself, for the regularity with which he had fulfilled his neighborly +duties toward her, and he paused and looked at Halloway for a recognition +of the same. + +"It will be a bright day for us all when we have her among us once more," +Halloway said in answer to the look. "You must tell her how much we miss +her, Mrs. Lane." + +"Ah, that we do," murmured Mrs. Hardcastle. "My knitting has been at a +standstill ever since the poor dear child's misfortune. I have been so +thankful her hands were spared. There's always some cause for gratitude +in every evil, after all." + +"That's one way of looking at it," said Mrs. Lane, turning up the lamp +and drawing her work-basket nearer. "The Lord make us thankful for all +our mercies, but a misfortune's a misfortune, and I don't know as we're +called upon to look at it as any thing else. Won't you sit down, Mr. +Halloway?" + +"Thank you, not this evening. It is nearly time for service. I only +wanted to know that Miss Phebe was doing well." + +Mr. Hardcastle rose again to bow off the guest. "Sorry you can't stay, +sir. In spite of our difference of faith,--and how great it is I am in +hopes you will appreciate some day when you have come to see the errors +of the way you are walking in,--in spite of our material differences, I +say, you are always very welcome at any time. But pray don't let us +detain you from what you deem your duty." + +"Mr. Halloway, a moment, please," said Gerald, rising as he was going by. +He stopped, and she came toward him holding out her hand. "I want to +thank you for your kindness of the other night. I believe I was +ungrateful and perhaps rude at the time, and I have not seen you since to +apologize." + +"Pray do not speak of it!" said Denham, flushing a little as he took her +hand. "There was no occasion whatever for gratitude, and therefore no +possible lack of it. I trust you are quite well now." + +"There _was_ occasion for gratitude," persisted Gerald, "or at least for +an acknowledgment of your kindness, and it is because I am ashamed of my +remissness that I take this first opportunity to thank you." + +"You embarrass me," said Denham, laughingly. "I am not at all accustomed +to having public restitution made me in this manner, and especially for +purely imaginary slights. But may I not be permitted now--as a sort of +reward if you will--to inquire if you have quite recovered?" + +"At least I have sufficiently recovered to retract my disbelief in +kitchen soap, and--and in your skill," she added, with a little +visible effort. + +"You honor us above our deserts,--the soap and me," answered Denham, +playfully. "I don't know how deleteriously it may affect the soap, but as +for me I feel myself growing alarmingly conceited. So good-night." + +"What a very elaborate apology," said De Forest, as Denham went out. "If +the offence were at all proportionate, I tremble to think of the enormity +of your crime; or is it because he is a Reverend, that you demean +yourself so humbly before him?" + +Halloway was still hunting for his hat in the hall, and could scarcely +help overhearing De Forest's remark and Gerald's answer. + +"I demean myself before nobody in seeking to make amends for a previous +neglect. The humiliation is in the misconduct, not in the confession of +it; and whether I owed the apology to Mr. Halloway or to a beggar in the +street, I should have made it quite the same, not at all for sake of his +pardon, but simply for sake of clearing my own conscience." + +"Not at all for sake of my pardon," said Denham, as he strode on toward +the church, with the uncomfortable sensation of having been an +involuntary eavesdropper. "It is fortunate that my conceit was only +veneered on." + +The following Sunday Gerald was in church both morning and evening, +sitting in Phebe's accustomed place. She was one of those noticeable +presences impossible to overlook, and as Denham mounted into the pulpit +he felt as if he were preaching solely to her, or rather as if hers were +the only criticism he feared in all the friendly congregation. He was +annoyed that he should feel so, and quite conscious at the same time that +he was far from doing his best, and once or twice he caught a flash in +the serious eyes fastened on his face, that seemed to say she knew this +last fact too, and was impatient with him for it. What excuse had any +one, in Gerald's eyes, for not doing his best always? De Forest was with +her in the evening, and as Halloway came out of the vestry after service, +he found himself directly behind them. + +"He's not a mighty orator," De Forest was saying with his cynical drawl. +"I doubt if he is destined to be one of the pillars or even one of the +cushions of the church." + +"He was not doing his best to-night," answered Gerald. + +"Thank you," said Halloway, coming quickly to her side, anxious to +avoid further eavesdropping. "Thank you--I mean for thinking I might +do better." + +"That is not much to be grateful for, I am afraid," replied Gerald, +"since it implies, you know, that you have not done well." + +"I hope you like uncompromising truth, Mr. Halloway," said De Forest, +leaning forward to look at him across Gerald. "It's the only kind Miss +Vernor deals in." + +"I prefer it infinitely to the most flattering falsehood imaginable," +answered Denham. + +"I believe clergymen are usually the last people to hear the truth about +themselves," continued Gerald. "Their position at the head of a +community, pre-supposes their capability for the office, and naturally +places them outside of the criticism of those under their immediate +charge, who are nevertheless just the ones best qualified to judge them. +But of course scholars may not teach the teacher." + +"What an invaluable opening for you who are _not_ one of Mr. Halloway's +flock," said De Forest, "to undertake to remedy the deficiency, and to be +in yourself a whole critical public to him, a licensed _Free Press_ as it +were, pointing out all his errors with the most unhesitating frankness +and unsparing perspicuity!" + +"Do you think your love of truth would hold out long under such a crucial +test?" asked Gerald, turning quite seriously to Denham. The moonlight +shone full on her clear-cut, cameo-like face. Her eyes, with their +shadowy fringe, looked deeper and blacker than midnight. It did not seem +possible that truth spoken by her could be any thing but beautiful too. +Denham smiled down at her seriousness. + +"Try me." + +"Well, then, it seems to me you do not often enough try to do your best. +You are contented to do well, and not ambitious to do better. You are +quite satisfied, so I think, if your sermons are good enough to please +generally, instead of seeking to raise your standard all the time by hard +effort toward improvement, and I doubt, therefore, if at the end of a +year your sermons will show any marked change from what they are to-day. +Am I too hard?" + +"You are very just," answered Denham, pleasantly, though the blood +mounted to his face. "You have found out my weak spot. I confess I am not +ambitious. I aspire to no greatness of any kind." + +"You have discovered the secret of contentment," said De Forest, with +effusive approbation. "I am glad to have met you, Mr. Halloway. You are +the one happy man I know." + +"The secret of contentment?" repeated Gerald. "Say rather the principle +of all stagnation, mental and spiritual. Not to aspire to become greater +than one _can_ be is to fall short of becoming all that one _may_ be; to +be satisfied with one's powers is to dwarf them hopelessly." + +"A powerful argument against conceit," reflected De Forest. "Still, upon +my word, I think I would as lief be conceited in every pore as eternally +in a state of dissatisfaction with myself about every thing." + +"It is well, above all, I think, to have a just appreciation of one's own +powers or lack of powers," said Denham, slowly. "Ambition, without the +corresponding strength to gratify it, is a cruel taskmaster." + +"How can you tell, till you have tried, that there is no corresponding +strength?" asked Gerald, turning full upon him again. How marvellously +expressive her face was, with its earnest eyes and mobile mouth! "If I +were a man,--and great heavens! how I wish I were one!--I would create +the strength if it were not there of itself. I would force myself upward. +I would never rest till I had become something more than nature +originally made me." + +"Then Heaven be thanked, who has spared us the monstrosity you would have +developed into under the harrowing circumstances of a reversal of your +sex," said De Forest, devoutly. + +"I was always glad you were a woman. Now I am positively aglow with +gratitude for it." + +Denham was silent. They had reached Mrs. Lane's now, and Gerald and her +cavalier paused. + +"I have not hurt you, Mr. Halloway, have I?" said Gerald, more gently. "I +know I sometimes speak strongly where I am least qualified to do so." + +"A very womanly trait," put in De Forest. "Don't apologize for your one +redeeming weakness." + +"No, you have not hurt me," said Denham, in a low voice. "I hope you have +done me good." And without adding even a good-night or a message for +Phebe, he lifted his hat and crossed over to the rectory. His sister was +not there as he entered her sitting-room, and throwing himself down on +the sofa, clasped his hands over his forehead and stared thoughtfully up +at the ceiling. She had been sitting with Phebe while the Lane household +went to its various churches, Phebe was tired, in consequence of the +entire population of Joppa having run in to ask after her between +services "on their way home," and she was not talking much. But only to +look up and smile into Soeur Angélique's sweet face was pleasure enough +for the girl, and she lay very quietly, holding a rose that Denham had +sent her over by his sister, and feeling supremely contented. + +"How would you like me to read to you?" asked Mrs. Whittridge at last, +taking up a book. "Shall I try it?" + +"No, thank you. I am afraid my thoughts would be louder than your words, +and I should be listening to them and losing what you are saying." + +"And, pray, what are these remarkably noisy thoughts?" asked the lady. +"Let me listen and hear them too." + +"I don't think I could say just what they are," replied Phebe, dreamily. +"They are running through my head more like indistinct music than like +real thoughts. And I never was clever at saying things, you know. But, +oh! I do feel very happy." + +"You look so," said Soeur Angélique, tenderly. "You poor little one, is +it just the getting well again that makes you so?" + +Phebe flushed ever so slightly. "I don't know just what it is," she +answered, lifting the rose to her face. "Perhaps it is only the listening +to that indistinct music. It seems to have put all my soul in tune. Oh, +dear Mrs. Whittridge, what a beautiful world this is, when only there are +no discords in one's own heart!" + +A day or two went by, and Phebe, though rapidly convalescing, was still a +prisoner to her room. + +"You're missing a lot of fun," said Bell Masters, sympathetically, as she +bustled in to see her one morning, and sat down by the window, pushing +back the curtain so that she could look out into the street and nod to +passers as she talked. "There's no end going on. Dear me, it's a shame to +come to you empty-handed, Phebe. I had two or three rosebuds for +you,--beauties they were too,--but the fact is I gave them away piecemeal +as I came along, and I haven't one left. It seemed as if I met every man +there was this morning. How soon do you think you'll be out again?" + +"I don't know," answered Phebe, pushing a box of bonbons within reach of +Bell's easy-going fingers. "I think I might go down-stairs now, but Dr. +Dennis won't let me." + +"Too bad. You'll miss Dick's coming of age, won't you? There are to +be high doings. Mr. Hardcastle is too mysterious and pompous to live. +One can't get any thing out of him but just 'My son Dick doesn't come +of age but once' (as if we thought it was a yearly occurrence), 'and +we don't celebrate it but once.' But I got hold of Dick privately and +wheedled it out of him in less than no time with a piece of soft +gingerbread. It's to be something _stunning_. His father wanted to do it +up in English style, dinner to the tenantry, and all that sort of thing, +only unluckily there wasn't any tenantry, and he had to abandon the +benevolent role and take to a jollier one. He won't show off as well, but +we'll have a deal more fun. It's to be a sort of royal picnic, but in the +evening, mind,--wasn't that a brilliant idea for the old gentleman? We +are all to go up in boats, and there are to be great rafts with blazing +torches, and a supper in the woods grander than any of Mrs. Upjohn's, and +bonfires, and the band from Galilee, and bouquets for the ladies, and I +don't know what not, and best of all, unlimited opportunities for +flirting. It's to be _the_ affair of this and every other season past or +future. It's a crying shame you can't go." + +"Oh! how I wish I could!" sighed poor Phebe. + +"I made pa give me a new dress for it," continued Bell, leaning forward +to pick off the biggest grapes from a bunch on the table. "I mean to look +just too-too. Mr. De Forest is going to row me up. I don't know exactly +how I made him ask me, but I did. It's such a triumph to get him away +from Miss Vernor for once, though I suspect I'll have to pay for it by +doing more than half the rowing myself. I don't suppose he would exert +his precious self to pull an oar more than five minutes at a time. Amy +tried her best to get Mr. Halloway, and so did the Dexters. The way those +girls run after him is a caution even to me; but they didn't get him. +He's monstrously clever in keeping out of people's clutches. I gave him +up long ago as a bad job. Well, good-by, Phebe. Awfully sorry you can't +go. Everybody'll be there, and it's to be the biggest lark out." + +During the few days that intervened before Dick's birthday, little else +was talked of anywhere than Mr. Hardcastle's party, which was never +spoken of, by the way, as Mrs. Hardcastle's party, though upon that good +lady devolved the onus of the weighty preparations. It seemed purely Mr. +Hardcastle's affair, just as every thing did in which he was in any way +concerned. Impromptu meetings were held at every house in turn to discuss +the coming event, and the latest bits of information regarding it were +retailed with embellishments proportionate to the imagination of the +accidental narrator. Not a soul in Joppa but knew every proposed feature +of the entertainment better than the hosts themselves. The old people +said it would be damp and rheumatic and would certainly be the death of +them. The young people said it would be divine, and quite worth dying +for. The people who were neither old nor young said nobody could tell how +it would be till after it was over, and they felt it their duty to go to +look after the others. The day came, brilliantly clear and soft and +warm: such a day, in short, as Mr. Hardcastle had felt to be his due, and +had expected of the elements all along as the one token of regard in +their power to accord him, and he accepted his friends' congratulations +upon it with a grave bow which seemed to say: "I ordered it so. Pray, did +you suppose I had forgotten to attend to the weather?" The sun set in a +cloudless heaven; the evening star hung quivering over the green-topped +hills; the twilight dropped noiseless and fragrant over earth and water, +and the long-dreamed-of moment had arrived at last. + +"Just let me have one more look at you, Gerald, before you start," said +Phebe, wistfully. "Oh, how beautiful you look! Nobody's dresses ever fit +like yours, and that great dark-red hat and feather,--I thought I should +not like it,--but it makes a perfect picture of you." + +"For pity's sake do stop!" begged Gerald. "You know of all things I hate +compliments. Where's that boy Olly?" + +"He's coming to me later. I promised to make up to him for his not going +to the party, poor little fellow." + +"Phebe, dear," said Gerald, suddenly stooping to give her one of her +rare kisses, "I cannot bear to leave you all alone so. That miserable +Miss Lydia and Olly aren't any sort of company. Let me stay with you. I +had a great deal rather." + +"Oh, no, no, no!" cried Phebe, almost pushing her toward the door. "I +don't mind a bit being left, and I wouldn't have you stay for anything. +How lovely of you to propose it! You are an angel, Gerald, even though +you don't like being told so, Good-by. And--Gerald,"--she had followed +her friend out into the hall, and stood leaning against the +banisters,--"Gerald, dear, will you tell Mr. Halloway I am going +down-stairs to-morrow?" + +Halloway was to be Gerald's escort that evening, and stood waiting for +her now in the hall below, and looking up at sound of Phebe's voice, he +gave an exclamation of surprise and pleasure, and immediately sprang up +the stairs. + +"Miss Phebe!" he said, taking both her hands in his. "How glad I am to +see you once more!" + +Phebe shrank back from him with a little cry of dismay. Ah! when does +ever any thing happen exactly as we plan it shall? She had pictured this +meeting to herself over and over again during the long days of her +seclusion,--just what he would say and what she would say, and just how +she would dress on that first day when she went down-stairs. She meant +to look so particularly nice on that first day! And now to be caught in +her plain little gray flannel wrapper with its simple red trimmings, her +hair all loose and mussy, and even her very oldest slippers on,--and +with Gerald standing beside her in her rich, dainty, becoming attire as +if to make the contrast all the more painfully striking! Poor little +Cinderella Phebe! She looked up at Denham almost ready to cry, and said +never a word. + +"It has been such a long, long time!" he said, still holding her hands. +"I do not know how we have made out to spare you." + +"We shall not have to spare her much longer," said Gerald. "She is coming +down-stairs to-morrow." + +And then Halloway dropped Phebe's hands, and turning to Gerald, held out +a hand to her. + +"Forgive me for not even noticing you, Miss Vernor. At first I could +only see Miss Phebe." + +"Doesn't Gerald look nice?" asked Phebe, trying to choke back the +uncomfortable lump rising so unreasonably in her throat. Halloway moved +back a little and looked at Gerald, who stood fastening her long glove, +utterly unconscious or unheedful of his scrutiny. The light in the niche +at the head of the stairs threw its full glow over both her and Phebe. + +"Yes," he answered, quietly, after an imperceptible pause, and, as he +turned back to Phebe, it seemed to her that his eyes glanced over her +with a suddenly awakened consciousness of the wrapper and the tumbled +hair and even of the little worn-out slippers. "You look pale," he said, +kindly. "I know I am wrong to keep you standing here just because it is +so pleasant to see you again. And it is easier to say good-by, knowing I +have only till to-morrow to wait now. _A demain_." + +"Good-night," murmured Phebe, without looking up; "good-night, Gerald." +And then she turned quickly into her room, and closed the door, and stood +stock-still behind it, holding her breath and listening intently till +she heard the front door close upon them and the last echo of their +footsteps die away in the street outside. Then she flung herself face +downward upon the bed and cried miserably to herself out of sheer +disappointment. Why did it have to be all so very, very different from +her dream? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"MY SON DICK." + + +Never had there been a more perfect night than that whereon Dick +Hardcastle's coming of age was celebrated. Only enough wind stirred to +toy softly with the gay little pennons streaming from the many boats +winding their way to the rendezvous, and to throw dancing shadows of +light upon the water from the torches at their prow. All along the banks +of the lake, where high hills shut out the moonlight and bound the shore +in an almost Egyptian darkness, rafts were stationed at intervals, +blazing with colored lights. The sound of distant music floated far down +upon the air, mingled with the swish of steady oars and laughter and +happy voices as the occupants of the various boats called out merrily to +each other across the water, or here and there broke into light-hearted +song. Denham's boat glided stilly along through all this carnival-like +revelry. Gerald was not in a mood for talking, and he felt little +inclined to disturb her. It was companionship enough merely to glance at +her ever and anon as she sat silently in the stern, the red ropes of the +tiller drawn loosely around her slender waist like a silken girdle. He +wondered idly what she was thinking of. Her broad hat threw too deep a +shadow for him to see her face save when they neared one of the beacon +rafts; then it was suddenly in brilliant illumination, and it was +impossible not to watch for these moments of revelation, which lit her up +to such rare beauty. He fancied he could almost see her thoughts as there +flashed across her face some new, swift expression more speaking than +words,--now a noble thought, he was sure; now an odd fancy, now a serious +meditative mood, that held her every sense and faculty in thrall at once. +Through all her revery she never forgot her duty with the rudder, though +she quite forgot her oarsman. She made no effort whatever toward his +entertainment, and he felt sure that he could do no more toward hers than +simply not to obtrude himself upon her. Were there many, he wondered, +even among her chosen friends (in whose ranks he could not count +himself), who would have enjoyed this silent sail with her so much as he? +They neared the destined spot all too soon for him, and Gerald at last +roused herself. + +"Are we there now? I had no idea it was so far." + +"It is not far enough," answered Denham, resting a moment on his +oars as he looked around. "Nothing surely can be devised, even in +this pleasure-ingenious society, so enjoyable as I have found our +evening sail." + +"Why do you go to the party at all then?" asked Gerald, abruptly. "It +isn't compulsory, is it? After you land me, are you not at liberty to row +off if you prefer?" + +"Ah, but I don't prefer," Halloway said gayly, resuming his oars. "I +expect to be very greatly entertained there too. There is almost +always something to be got out of every thing, and anyway I +particularly like parties." + +"I hate them." + +"Yes, because you do not care for people. I like them just because I do +care for people, and parties are but people collectively instead of +individually, you know." + +By this time Denham had shot the boat up to the landing, where the hosts +of the evening stood ready to receive them. Dick was in a wild state of +boyish hilarity, profiting by the novelty of his exalted position as hero +of the evening, boldly to take a kiss from every pretty girl in +succession as he swung her to the shore. "It's my right, to-night, you +know, or if it isn't, I'm major now and can make laws for myself," he +explained complacently to any expostulatory subject; and Mr. Hardcastle +rubbed his soft, plump hands, and added: "Never you mind, never you mind, +my dear; every dog must have his day, and this is Dick's day. And after +all it's my son Dick, you know, and that makes it all right. He doesn't +need any other guaranty than that he's my son, I'm sure, and seeing I'm +Dick's papa, my dear, why I'll just make bold to follow suit." + +But Dick would as soon have thought of offering to kiss the polar star as +Gerald, and she was suffered to pass on unmolested to Mrs. Hardcastle, +who stood just beyond, looking fagged and jaded, and as if she were +heartily thankful that in all his life Dick could never come of age +again. One of the next arrivals was Bell Masters, very fine in her new +dress, but flushed and overheated to an unbecoming degree. She rowed up +smartly, shipped her oars in true nautical fashion, sprang from the boat, +and held out her hand to her companion with a hardly repressed sneer: +"Pray allow me to assist you, Mr. De Forest." + +That gentleman got up leisurely from his cushioned seat in the stern, and +came forward cool and comfortable to an enviable degree. "Thanks," he +said, with even a little more drawl than usual as he took her proffered +hand. "This boat _is_ a little teetery. You are uncommonly kind, and +quite a champion oarswoman." + +"You ought to be a judge of my powers by this time certainly," said Bell, +snappishly. She had rowed the entire distance from Joppa unaided. + +"Yes, I flatter myself that I am. People can always judge best of what +they don't do themselves. And I will say that you do row +well--uncommonly well--for a woman. I don't know a girl, except Miss +Vernor, fit to pull stroke oar to you. Ah, Mr. Hardcastle, what an +adorable evening you have provided for us! Mr. Dick Hardcastle, permit me +to congratulate you upon attaining your majority, than which, believe me, +there is but one greater blessing in the world--that of minority. I see +you have not yet abandoned all the privileges of the latter, however," he +added, as Dick caught Bell round the waist and gave her a sounding salute +on the cheek. "That is an alleviation it seems unfair to monopolize." + +Bell laughed and boxed Dick's ears, whereupon he speedily kissed her +again, and Mr. Hardcastle chuckled and pulled one of the long, light +braids hanging over her back. Bell's blonde hair, with her black eyes, +was her strong point, and she invariably dressed it à la Kenwigs when she +wore a hat. None of Miss Bell's lights ran any danger of ever being +hidden under a bushel. + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Mr. Hardcastle. "It's all right. It's only Dick, you +know, my son Dick; and bless my heart, the boy's good taste too. He +inherited it." + +"Take my arm or let me take yours," muttered De Forest to Bell as Mr. +Hardcastle turned away, "and do let's get through it with his good +lady. Do you suppose she'll kiss me? Get her to make it easy for me, +won't you?" + +"Where now?" asked Bell, undecidedly, after the due politenesses with the +hostess had been exchanged. The woods were fairly ablaze with bonfires +and hanging lanterns, making a strangely brilliant and fantastic scene. +Here and there rugs were spread out on the grass for the older people to +congregate upon in gossiping groups, while the young ones had speedily +converted a large, smooth spot of lawn into an impromptu dancing-ground, +and were whirling merrily away to the music of the band, in the very face +of the scandalized Mrs. Upjohn. This last field of action was the first +to attract Bell's quick eye. "Oh, come," she said. "Of course you dance?" + +De Forest gave a shudder. "My dear young lady! no sane man ever dances. +But pray do not let me detain you. Where your heart is, there would your +feet be also." He dropped her arm as he spoke. Bell shrugged her +shoulders and put her arm back in his. + +"'Tisn't fair to abandon you so soon after bringing you here. There's +Janet Mudge" (hastily selected as the plainest girl present and the +farthest from Gerald, toward whom De Forest's steps were manifestly +directing themselves); "let's go and speak to her." + +"On the contrary, let us avoid her by every means in our power," said De +Forest, imperturbably, walking Bell off in the opposite direction. "I +never choose pearls when I may have diamonds. There's Miss Vernor. We'll +go and speak with her." + +"But I don't want to," objected Bell, crossly. "I am not at all as fond +of Miss Vernor as you are." + +"Naturally not," answered De Forest, pursuing his way undisturbed. "Men +always like girls better than girls do. I appreciate your feelings. But +she's got that good-looking young minister with her. You like him. All +feminine souls incline to clergymen next to officers. Buttons first; then +surplices." + +"Thirdly, For(r)esters, I suppose," suggested Bell, saucily. + +"Undoubtedly," assented her companion. "Miss Vernor, your humble +servant." His glance, as it invaribly did when they met, seemed to make +swift, approbative note of every smallest particular of her appearance. +"Mr. Halloway, here is a young lady who has just openly informed me that +she prefers you to me, so I suppose I must resign her to you with what +grace I can. Don't you think, Miss Vernor, you might try to divert my +mind from dwelling too cruelly on Miss Masters' defalcation by showing me +what Mr. Hardcastle's grand intellect has devised for my entertainment? +That bonfire yonder has a sort of cannibalistic look about it suggestive +of dancing negroes and unmentionable feasts behind the flames. Shall we +inspect it nearer?" And he marched Gerald deliberately away, scarcely +remembering to bow to Bell. Still, to be left with Mr. Halloway was by no +means an unenviable fate, and Bell, like the wise girl she was, proceeded +to make the most of it without delay, and paraded her prey wherever she +chose, finding him much more tractable than her last companion, and not +in the least dictatorial as to the direction he went in. + +That out-door evening party was long remembered as one of the most novel +and successful entertainments ever given in Joppa. Even Mrs. Upjohn +admitted it to be very well, very well indeed, all but the dancing, for +which, however, Mr. Hardcastle apologized to her handsomely as a quite +unexpected ebullition of youthful spirits which in his soul he was far +from countenancing, and upon which she resolutely turned her back all the +evening, so at least not to be an eye-witness of the indecorum. Of +course, therefore, she knew nothing whatever about it when Mr. Upjohn +toward the end of the evening, actually allowed himself to be decoyed +into the gay whirl by one of the youngest and most daring of the girls, +and galloped clumsily around like a sportive and giddy elephant set free +for the first time in its native jungle, and finding it very much to its +liking. His daughter Maria, faithfully at her mother's side, sat with one +ear grudgingly lent to the prosy heaviness of Mr. Webb's light talk, and +her whole face turned longingly toward the spot where the happy sinners +were gyrating, and, seeing her father there, her round eyes grew rounder +than ever, as she watched in breathless alarm lest the earth should open +under his feet in instant retribution. Gracious, if ma should turn her +head! But there are some wrongs it is best to ignore altogether, where +prevention is hopeless, and Mrs. Upjohn, like many another good woman, +always knew when not to see. So she persistently did not see now, and Mr. +Upjohn spun away to his heart's content (prudently keeping in the +remotest corner of the sward, to be sure), winking at Maria every now and +then in the highest glee, and once absolutely signing to her to sneak +over to him and try a turn too. + +And then came supper-time, and such a supper, setting all confectioners +and doctors at defiance at once! Mr. Upjohn, red and perspiring, and +remarking how curiously hot the bonfires made the woods at night, waited +on his wife with gallant solicitude, lest she should leave a single dish +untasted. Mrs. Bruce had left town the day before, and in the absence of +any new admiration he always fell back with perfect content upon his old +allegiance. Mrs. Upjohn received his devotion as calmly as his +intermittent neglects, and only raised her eyebrows when he stooped to +whisper, "My love, you're the most handsomely dressed woman here!" which +was strictly true as regarded the materials of her attire, and +unblushingly false as regarded the blending of them. Dick had been in his +element all the evening. He had had a serio-comic flirtation with every +girl in turn. He had cut out Jake Dexter with Nellie Atterbury, and made +it up to his friend by offering him a lock of Bell's hair, which he had +surreptitiously cut from her hanging braids, and which Jake wore pinned +in his button hole as a trophy for the rest of the evening, to the +immense scandal of everybody. But with the supper-hour Dick's spirits +ebbed. He knew, poor fellow, what Fate held in store. His father intended +making a few remarks over him, as a sort of substitute for his defrauded +speech to the non-existing tenantry. + +"Stand by me, Jake, there's a man!" whispered Dick, forlornly, to +his crony. + +"I will, Dick, like a woman!" Jake responded, tenderly, and the two stood +together just at Mr. Hardcastle's elbow, as that worthy advanced to a +central spot between the bonfires, cleared his throat ominously, and +pirouetted solemnly around, holding up his hand to attract general +attention. + +"My friends," began Mr. Hardcastle, swelling with the importance of the +moment to even more than his usual rotundity, "this has been a day of +days to me. All of you who are parents will appreciate my feelings of +mingled pride and humility,--of pride and humility," repeated Mr. +Hardcastle, pleased with the antithesis, and swaying gently back and +forth, "as I stand here before you with my son, the boy whom I have +watched over from his cradle up with an unsleeping eye, and whose tender +feet"--Dick here stooped over to inspect those honest, able members. Jake +did the same with evident disapproval of them. Mr. Hardcastle raised his +voice--"whose tender feet I have endeavored from his youth up, so far as +lay in my limited power, to guide in the way that I hope he may never +depart from. This boy I now present to you, friends, a man,--this boy who +has grown up among you, whom you all know, and whom I hope you all harbor +some kindly feeling for,--this boy,"--he put out his hand to draw him +forward, Dick gave Jake a gentle push toward the hand and vanished, and +Mr. Hardcastle, quite unconscious of the manoeuvre, drew the grinning +Jake solemnly up to him, and casting around a look of triumph which +seemed to say: Do better than this, friends, if you can, placed his hand +on Jake's shoulder with his grandest air, and continued, sonorously,--"my +son, ladies and gentlemen,--my son Dick." + +There was a moment's pause of consternation among the guests and a +suppressed scream from the defrauded Mother Dexter. Mr. Hardcastle +slowly turned his radiant face toward his supposed son, and immediately +dropped his hand and exclaimed, in entirely altered and most natural +tones of amazement: "Well, I never! How in the world did _you_ get here, +Jake Dexter?" + +A shout instantly went up all round; even Mr. Hardcastle himself was +overcome with the ludicrousness of the mistake, and further solemnity +being impossible, a signal was given, and from a barge far out on the +water a score of rockets shot hissing into the air, announcing the +beginning of fireworks. A brilliant display of these followed, closing +the evening's entertainment, and immediately afterward a large raft was +towed up to the landing, and the whole merry party embarked and returned +to Joppa together, the band following on another boat and treating them +to music all the way. Halloway stood near Gerald in the crowd, but he did +not attempt to join her until the raft reached the pier and was made +fast. Then he quietly went to her and offered his arm. De Forest stepped +up at the same moment. "Miss Vernor, will you condescend to accept of my +valuable escort home?" + +"I beg your pardon," interrupted Denham, "I am Miss Vernor's escort +to-night." + +De Forest stood still. "I did not know it was a return-ticket +arrangement." + +"It was," answered Denham, decidedly. "You can hardly expect me to +relinquish my rights." + +"I should say your rights depended wholly on Miss Vernor's choice. Fair +lady, two hearts and four arms are at your immediate disposal. If you +could make up your volatile mind to determine between them--" + +"There can be no question of choice," said Gerald, quietly. "I accepted +Mr. Halloway's escort yesterday; so good-night." + +"You leave me a blighted being," said De Forest. "For the peace of my +soul, let me ascribe your decision to a love of justice rather than of +individual. _Au revoir_." + +Halloway drew Gerald's hand through his arm with a very comfortable +feeling of possession, and they walked on some time in silence. "Are you +tired?" he asked at last. + +"No--yes. Parties always tire me, and life in Joppa consists of parties. +Do you always go?" + +"Oh, always!" + +"Your mental constitution must be robust to stand such a steady +strain upon it." + +"The shepherd must keep by his sheep, you know," laughed Denham. + +"I thought the shepherd was to lead the sheep, not to be led by them. +Don't you hope to inspire them with a love for better things? I +fancied the province of a clergyman was to improve people--not just to +preach to them." + +A shadow crossed Denham's face. "There are many of them more fitted to +improve me than I them," he said, humbly. "How would you have me begin?" + +"With making Mr. Hardcastle less offensively pompous, and Mrs. Hardcastle +less tedious, and Mrs. Upjohn less dogmatic, and Mrs. Anthony more +sincere, and Miss Delano less namby-pamby,--in short, by taking a little +of the superficiality and narrow-mindedness and provinciality out of the +place if possible." + +Denham tossed back his head with a light laugh. "Ah, how you relieve my +mind! Most of those whom you have so scathingly described belong to other +congregations, and are therefore beyond my jurisdiction." + +"Do you really feel so? Are you so like a physician?" asked Gerald, +quickly. "Do you seek to do good only to those who pay for the care you +give them? Is not your mission with all with whom you are thrown?" + +"The days of single-handed combat against the world are over," answered +Denham. "You cripple a man by giving him too wide a field of action." + +"I would not take less than the widest were I a man!" exclaimed +Gerald, proudly. + +"Would you be a clergyman?" + +"No. I have no talent for writing. I could not preach." + +"Nay, I think you an admirable preacher," said Denham, gently, without +the faintest tinge of sarcasm in either tone or look. Gerald glanced at +him quickly and flushed slightly. + +"I am too dogmatic myself," she said, biting her lip and turning away her +head. "I should not be so hard on Mrs. Upjohn." + +"You do not intend to be hard on any one." + +"But to be just is to seem hard," said Gerald. + +"It is a divine prerogative to know just how far to temper justice with +mercy," Denham answered. "I suppose none of us can hope to attain to +perfect knowledge; but if there must be error, I would for myself rather +err in excess of mercy than of justice." + +"In other words, between two evils you would choose the least," Gerald +replied. "That is the common way of getting out of the difficulty. But it +seems to me like compromising with evil. There ought to be always some +third, wholly right, way out of every dilemma, if only one sought +earnestly enough." She spoke more as if to herself than to him. + +"Then perhaps," said Denham, pleasantly, "we may hope that you will in +time light upon the very kindliest and rightest way combined of judging +not only abstract subjects, but also the not altogether unworthy +inhabitants of even this little place of Joppa." + +"Oh, Joppa!" cried Gerald, all the impatience instantly coming back to +her face and voice. As instantly too she frowned in self-conviction, and +turned almost contritely to Denham. "You see, Mr. Halloway, I shall have +to bring my own character first to that future Day of Judgment, and to be +very careful that I do _not_ err on your side,--in being too merciful." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WHY DO SUMMER ROSES FADE? + + +A few more days slipped by, easily and swiftly, as all days did in +Joppa. The famous party was discussed and re-discussed down to its +minutest details. Mrs. Hardcastle recovered from her subsequent attack +of neuralgia. Mr. Hardcastle, who went from house to house, gathering +compliments as an assessor levies taxes, completed the round of the +village and began again. Mrs. Upjohn asked for and obtained the recipe +of a certain dish, the like of which had never before been seen in +Joppa, and the Joppites commended her boldness in asking and condemned +Mrs. Hardcastle's weakness in giving. The report that Mr. Upjohn had +apostatized from the Presbyterian Church, disapproving of its tenets as +regarded waltzing, was duly started, denied, violently adopted, and as +violently exploded. The statements that Jake Dexter was engaged to +Nellie Atterbury, that Bell Masters had offered herself to Mr. Halloway +and been declined with thanks, and that Gerald's hat had been imported +from Paris two days before, were also duly aired and evaporated. It had, +moreover, by this time become a town fact, that it was Bell Masters and +_not_ Janet Mudge whom Halloway had rowed to the party, and that he had +walked home with Mrs. Lane. Miss Brooks overheard him taking leave of +her at her door, and fancied--but was not sure--that she told him to +change his boots lest his feet should be damp. Everybody had also found +out beyond discussion or doubt that De Forest was Gerald's escort home +on that occasion, but that the engagement between them was broken off. +It was definitely known that he had said he was a blighted being, and +should shortly take a return ticket to New York. Everybody said it was a +shame, when they were so manifestly cut out for each other. In fact, +every thing had been found out about every thing. The evening had been +talked threadbare, and, alas, there was nothing else to talk about. +Phebe's reappearance downstairs, unscarred and bonnie as ever, was +become an old story long since, and Dr. Dennis' treatment of the case +was now admitted to have been the very best possible next to what Dr. +Harrison's treatment would have been, though by all means, it was +decided, Dr. Dennis and _not_ Dr. Harrison should have been called in +when Mr. Brown, the grocer, fell ill of a fever. Poor Joppa was indeed +fairly talked out. It had to settle down upon the fever and Mr. Brown +for lack of any thing else. It was really almost a godsend when Mrs. +Brown took the fever too, for it gave Joppa just twice as much to talk +about, and everybody said it was somebody's duty to see that the poor +souls had right advice in the matter. Jabez Brown, Jr., carried on the +business in his father's stead, and measured out his sugars and teas at +so much advice the pound, and did a thriving business, but the poor old +father died all the same. He was a respectable, honest man, and all his +customers attended his funeral in the most neighborly way in the world, +with a grim look upon their sympathetic countenances of "I told you so. +It should have been Dr. Dennis." + +Yes, to all but Phebe, her illness and long imprisonment and her return +to matter-of-fact life downstairs, was a tame-enough story now. But to +her it was as the opening chapter of a new history. Life seemed changed +and strange to her when she stepped back into it, and took up again the +duties and labors that she had laid by only so lately. Had she dreamed +herself into another world, or why was it so hard to put herself back +into the place she had stepped out of? Everybody about her was the same; +nothing had really changed in any way, and certainly she had not. Neither +had Gerald. Neither had Mr. Halloway. What had she expected? What was it +she had vaguely looked forward to? What was it that was so different? + +"Pray, what are you thinking of?" Denham asked suddenly one day, turning +to her with his bright, sweet smile. "You have been quiet for very long." + +"So have you been quiet," returned Phebe. "I do not think I have been any +less talkative than you." + +"Perhaps not," said Denham. "We are leaving Soeur Angélique and Miss +Vernor to have a regular tête-à -tête of it, are we not? But you evade my +question in a very unbecoming way, Miss Phebe. Tell me, what were you +thinking of?" + +"I don't quite know," answered Phebe, slowly. "But I think I was wishing +for impossibilities,--for things that can't possibly happen, just because +it would be so nice if they could." + +"Ah," said Halloway, dreamily. "That is a very bad habit, a frightfully +unsatisfactory, delusive, and, indeed, an altogether pernicious habit, +Miss Phebe. It takes the taste out of every thing solid, and leaves one +an appetite only for indigestible sweets. I must correct you of it. I +will, just as soon, that is, as I have broken myself of it. Will you wait +till I have taken myself in hand?" + +They were together sitting in a little recess of the rectory parlor, +while Mrs. Whittridge and Gerald were talking at the farther end of the +room. Soeur Angélique had invited the two girls to tea, and Halloway, +when he came in from his study, seated himself at once by Phebe, though +after his warm greeting and self-congratulations upon having her back +in her old haunts, he had fallen into quite an unusual silence. Phebe +was looking very sweet and fresh that afternoon. All the care that she +had meant to devote to her toilet upon the occasion of her first meeting +with Halloway, she had expended in dressing herself for this visit to +the rectory. Never had her shining hair been braided so glossily, or +coaxed into waving more prettily about her forehead; never had the +simple etceteras of her dress been more studiously selected and more +carefully put together. Looking in the glass when all was done, she had +been fain to confess that she really did look nice for once, though she +reproached herself immediately afterward in severest terms for the +unpardonable vanity of the thought, and made a little grimace at her own +image to effectually dispel the illusion. What could it ever matter how +she looked? And particularly how could it matter when Gerald was +by,--Gerald, who possessed that rare and enviable gift of always looking +her best? So Phebe put the subject of her looks entirely away from her +mind, and leaned back on the sofa, her hands folded idly in her lap, +feeling perfectly content with the passing moment, and asking nothing +from the future but that it might be always "now." What more could she +want? The room held her three dearest friends in the world,--Gerald, +Soeur Angélique, and Mr. Halloway;--of course one should always put +ladies before gentlemen even only in thought. How handsome Gerald looked +as she stood with her head slightly bent forward, listening to Mrs. +Whittridge. If Gerald did not choose to listen, no one could ever force +her to lend an ear. But when she did so choose, she listened with her +whole mind, and was lost to all else. Phebe smiled with quiet amusement +at her friend's intensity in every thing, and turned with the smile on +her face to Halloway. He was not smiling at all, but he too was looking +fixedly at Gerald. + +"It has been lovely having her here, but how we shall miss her, shall we +not, when she goes?" said Phebe, softly. + +"Goes?" repeated Halloway, blankly. "It is scarcely September yet." + +"What, have you not heard?" exclaimed Phebe. "Do you not know? Gerald has +been sent for. She and Olly go back next Thursday." + +"Thursday?" echoed Halloway, in a sort of stunned way. "So soon? Going +for good? Thursday?" + +What closely guarded secret did the loving gray eyes, fastened upon him, +read in the swift, uncontrollable look that flashed suddenly across his +face, like the lightning that leaps out of the dark by night, laying all +earth bare in one brief, vivid glimpse? He was so taken by surprise as to +be completely off guard. It was but an instant, and with a start he +recovered himself. + +"I had not heard your news," he said, with perfect quiet, reaching out to +the table for an uncut magazine, and proceeding leisurely to open its +pages. "I suppose it is a sign that summer is over when the birds begin +to fly home." + +Phebe did not answer immediately. In that one short moment, all her face +had changed also. As by the stroke of a wand, its brightness and sweet +content had given place to an expression of unutterable weariness. She +got up and went to the window, standing with her back to Halloway. + +"We had our first cold night that evening of my accident," she +said, with an effort to speak very calmly. "I think the summer really +ended then." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +JOPPA'S TRIAL. + + +It was the night before Gerald's departure, and a number of people +strayed into Mrs. Lane's parlor to bid the fair traveller god-speed. She +had not been at all a popular guest, but that was no reason why Joppa +should lack in any possible courtesy toward her, little as she +appreciated the magnanimity of its conduct. + +"Very sorry to lose you, very," said Mr. Hardcastle, taking her hand in +the soft, warm grasp that Gerald so particularly detested. "But maybe +it's as well you are going. Joppa isn't the place it used to be. Here's +Mr. Anthony's got the fever to-night, and there's a poor family down in +the village as have all got it, Dennis says; and I noticed that little +Nellie Atterbury had monstrous red cheeks when Dick and I passed her +to-night, and indeed I crossed the street to avoid her in case she might +be going to have the fever too. Where one has a family one has duties +one would never feel for one's self. So I say, my dear, it's as well +you're going, if only on account of that boy of yours. We must all learn +early to sacrifice ourselves for our children." + +"Olly isn't my child," said Gerald, twisting her handkerchief around her +hand to efface the remembrance of Mr. Hardcastle's touch. + +"Hey? Ah, yes, to be sure, he's your brother; but it's all one. You stand +in the light of a parent to him just now, my dear." He was actually going +to pat Gerald paternally on the shoulder, but she moved abruptly aside, +and he pulled Olly's ear instead. It was necessary to do something with +his outstretched hand before drawing it back. Olly was playing +cat's-cradle with the good-natured Mr. Upjohn, and merely kicked out at +his caresser, as a warning that he was not to be interrupted. + +"Fine spirited boy," muttered Mr. Upjohn under his breath. "Very fine. +Will make a man some day." + +"Not so big as you, though, I won't be when I'm a man," declared Olly. +"You're too fat." + +"Now just hear him!" exclaimed Mr. Upjohn, shaking all over with +corpulent mirth. "Maybe you would rather be like Mr. Webb then?" + +"No, I wouldn't neither," retorted Olly, nothing deterred by that +gentleman's presence from a frank exposure of his sentiments. "He's too +lean. He's leaner than any thing. He's just like the blade of my +pocket-knife with clothes on. Oh, crickey!" + +It was conveniently discovered at this crisis that it was Olly's bedtime, +and he was with some difficulty conveyed from the parlor, followed by an +angry glare from Gerald and a severely truthful comment from Mrs. Upjohn. +De Forest outstayed the rest of the leave-takers. Phebe thought it hard, +when she so wanted to have Gerald all to herself on this last evening; +and she wondered too that Halloway had not come to say good-by. He came +in, however, at last, flushed and tired, apologizing for the lateness of +his call, saying he had been sent for by two of his parishioners who were +also down with the fever. + +"It looks something like an epidemic," remarked Gerald. "I am really +rather glad we are going." + +"You have no ambition to remain and turn Florence Nightingale then?" +asked De Forest. + +"Not in the slightest. It is a role I am eminently unfitted for. I detest +sick people." + +"Not always, I think, Gerald," said Phebe, with a grateful glance, which +Gerald returned with one of real though undemonstrative tenderness. + +"Your case was very different, Phebe." + +"I should think it would be extremely difficult to detest Miss Phebe +under even the must aggravating circumstances," said Halloway, smiling +frankly at her. "Hallo, who is this?" + +It was Olly, bootless and coatless, whom the sound of Halloway's voice +had brought down from the midst of his slow preparations for bed, to bid +his friend good-by, and who sprang upon him with a rush of suffocating +affection. + +"What would Mrs. Upjohn say!" drawled De Forest. + +Gerald rose at once to send off the child with a reprimand, and +remained standing after he had gone. De Forest rose too and slowly came +toward her. + +"I suppose I had better leave you to follow Olly up-stairs. I wish you +to be fresh to entertain me during to-morrow's tedious journey." + +"What, do you go back to-morrow too?" asked Gerald, in surprise. "I +thought you were to stay till next week." + +"I am afraid of the fever," pronounced De Forest with great gravity, his +handsome eyes fastened on her face. "I am running away from it. I don't +think it safe to stay another day in the place." + +Gerald colored a little,--not at his words, but his look. "Then I suppose +I need not bid you good-by," she said, turning away. She seemed almost +embarrassed. "Good-night." + +"Oh, but Gerald,--Mr. Halloway, you must say good-by to him you know," +said Phebe, distressed. + +"Surely. I forgot," replied Gerald, with uncomplimentary sincerity. She +turned back, the faint shade of confusion quite disappearing. "Good-by, +Mr. Halloway. I wish you success in finding all the Nightingales that you +may require." + +"Thank you," answered Denham, shortly. "Good-by." + +Phebe glanced up at him quickly. She noticed a shade of bitterness in +his voice for the first time. He said nothing more, and dropped Gerald's +hand almost immediately. De Forest bent forward and raised it. "Am I to +be defrauded of a good-night, Miss Vernor, simply because it is not my +good-by? _Au revoir_." + +It seemed to Phebe that he held Gerald's hand an instant longer when she +would have withdrawn it, and that she permitted or at least did not +resent it, and before releasing it he stooped and touched her fingers +lightly with his lips. "_Au revoir_," he said again. + +Halloway turned abruptly to Phebe. "Good-night." He spoke almost +brusquely, and went directly away, without offering his hand or looking +at any of them again. + +Phebe followed Gerald into her room when the two girls went up-stairs, +and sat watching her friend's quick movements as she completed some last +arrangements for the journey. It was strangely unlike Phebe not to offer +to help her, but somehow Gerald looked so strong and able and +self-sufficient, and she herself felt so tired and weak to-night. + +"How quiet you are!" said Gerald, folding a soft shawl smoothly over the +top of a tray. "Haven't you any last message to give me? Isn't there any +thing you would like me to do for you in New York?" + +"Nothing, thank you." + +"You are sure? Well, now I am through and mustn't keep you up longer. You +have all been exceedingly kind, Phebe, both to myself and that +troublesome Olly. I appreciate it, even though I don't say as much about +it as perhaps some would." + +"Have you really enjoyed it here, Gerald? Have you been happy? Will you +miss us a little--just a little--when you are gone?" + +"I shall miss _you_, child, of course. You constitute Joppa to me, you +know. And indeed I have enjoyed it here very much, and it has done Olly a +world of good. Good-night, dear." + +Phebe had her arms about her friend at once, clasping her close. "O +Gerald, Gerald, I think it is almost better to have no friends at all, +it is so hard--so cruelly hard--to part with them, and--and to lose +them! O Gerald!" + +"Parting with them isn't losing them, you foolish sentimentalist," +returned Gerald, gently unclasping Phebe's arms. "Now go to bed. You look +worn out." + +"Just tell me once first, Gerald, that you love me. I haven't many to +love me. I need all your love." + +"Of course I love you," said Gerald. "You know it without my saying so. +And don't talk so foolishly. I never knew a girl with more friends. Now +good-night." + +Phebe kissed her very quietly, and then crept into Olly's room, and sat +down on his bed. "Olly, dear," she murmured, "are you asleep?" + +The little fellow sprang up and flung his arms closely around her neck, +embracing collar, ruffles, and ribbon in one all-comprehensive +destruction. + +"Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" whispered Phebe, half +laughing and half crying, as she strained him to her heart. "Oh, Olly +dear, I do want some one just to say so!" + +"I do, I do, I do, and I do!" said Olly, with a bear's hug at each +assertion. "Blest if I don't. That's what Mr. Upjohn said when I asked +him if he didn't want some taffy. 'Blest if I don't.' I guess it's a +swear, 'cause he said I mustn't tell Mrs. Upjohn he said so, not to the +longest day I lived. The longest day won't come now till next year, the +twenty-first of June. That's the longest day, ain't it? Mr. Halloway +taught me that. My, don't he know a lot! I'm going to be like him when +I'm a man. That's who I'm going to be like. And I'm going to love you +always. He loves you too, doesn't he, Pheeb?" + +"No, dear," answered Phebe, still laughing and crying together, and +rocking gently back and forth with the boy in her arms; "he doesn't at +all. There doesn't any body really love me, I think, but just you. But +you do, don't you, dear?" + +"Bet on it!" said Olly, with forcible vulgarity. + +"God bless you," said Phebe, very softly, as she put the boy back in the +bed, and laid her wet cheek on his. "God bless you now and always." + +"Forever and ever, amen," whispered Olly back, with an impression that +Phebe was saying her prayers over him. "And oh, I say, Pheeb, can't you +let us have some of that jelly cake with raisins in it, to take with us +for luncheon to-morrow?" + +And Phebe promised she would, and laughed and went away feeling, somehow, +a little comforted. + +And so Gerald and Olly and De Forest all disappeared from the scene +together, and shortly after the Dexters went to Morocco on a visit, and +the Masters adjourned to Bethany to do their fall shopping; and there +were whisperings around that something was wrong; there was more and more +talk of the fever; of how it ought to be checked, and why it had not been +checked, and what would be the dire consequences if it were not checked. +The summer guests all slipped quietly away, leaving Joppa alone to its +growing trouble. Every day brought some new case, sometimes a death, and +people began to look suspiciously at each other in the streets and to +avoid each other on the flimsiest pretexts. Miss Lydia cried helplessly +in her room and said she was sure she should take it and die of it. Mr. +Hardcastle found he was too busy at home to have time for neighborly +visits, and went around the block rather than pass a door where he saw +the doctor's gig. When one has a family, one owes it duties that should +not be neglected. Mrs. Upjohn declared the panic to be ridiculous. _She_ +shouldn't be scared away by a red flag, like a crow from a cornfield. +There had never been a case of typhoid known in Joppa, and places were +like people, they never broke out with diseases that were not already in +their constitutions. It was all arrant nonsense. However, she was +perfectly willing that Maria should make that proposed visit to her aunt +in Boston if she liked, and it was quite proper that Mr. Upjohn, in the +character of gallant father, should escort her there; the girl couldn't +go alone. So every day saw some new flight from the village. The doctors +began to look overworked and very grave, and Mr. Hardcastle appeared less +and less outside his gates, and took to walking always in the middle of +the streets, whence he could wave a salutation to his passing friends +without stopping to speak to them. Dick said he'd like to see the fever +catch _him_, and pursued the rough tenor of his ways fearlessly as of +old, though he assured his anxious father that it was wholly because +Nellie Atterbury lived in the healthiest quarter of the town, that he +spent so much of his time at her house. There was no use denying or +qualifying it. An epidemic of typhoid fever had stolen upon Joppa as a +thief in the night, and there was no knowing what house it would not +enter next, to rob it of its dearest and best. + +Through all this slowly increasing alarm, Phebe Lane had been living as +in a dream. It was as if she found herself back in that old life before +she knew Halloway, when people bored her, and when there seemed nothing +worth doing or worth looking forward to, though the days were so full of +duties. She had been at the rectory but once since Gerald left, and that +was to the Bible-class, and when Mrs. Whittridge had tried to detain her +afterward, she had pleaded some pressing business at home, though +chancing to look out of her window a little later, Soeur Angélique was +almost sure that through the closed shutters in Phebe's room, she saw a +dim shadow of the girl's head laid down listlessly on her folded arms on +the sill. But when the epidemic reached its height, Phebe seemed +suddenly to awaken from her languor and rouse herself to action. Here was +something worth doing at last. Once more her soft, sweet whistling +sounded bird-like through the house. The spring came back to her step, +the brightness to her eyes, and more than the old tenderness to her +voice, as she went from one shunned sick-room to another like a living +sunbeam, bringing the freshness of a May morning with her, and seeming +always to come solely for her own pure pleasure. And when poor motherless +Janet Mudge was struck down too with the dreaded disease, and had no one +but servants to care for her, her own aunt, who lived in Joppa, being +afraid to so much as go to the house to ask after her, it seemed +perfectly natural to everybody that Phebe Lane, who had no cares at home +and no one really dependent upon her, should quietly install herself as +Janet's nurse. It was a very proper and natural thing for Phebe to do, +everybody said, and thought no more about it. It was so manifestly a duty +sent direct from Heaven, labelled "For Phebe Lane." + +"I met Dr. Dennis to-day," said Halloway one afternoon, coming into his +sister's room and throwing himself wearily down on the sofa. "He says +Janet Mudge is better,--is really going to get well." + +Soeur Angélique put aside her work and came to sit by the sofa and stroke +her boy's head. If the doctors were overworked and spent, so too was he. +The hour of trial had not found him wanting. His unambitious, simple +spirit, that sought no wider duty than merely to fulfil the moment's call +as he best could, met and conquered a stress of work that would have +disheartened many a bolder hero. He never thought of it in the light of +duty at all. There was nothing heroic or high-minded about it. It was +simply what in the nature of things he was bound to do. Wherever he was +wanted he went, and because where he went he brought such sunny cheer, +and such sympathetic help, and such bright, kindly ways, he was wanted +everywhere; not only those of his own parish, but those of the other +churches too came to look to Mr. Halloway as the one whose visit helped +them the most in any season of trial. Among the poor he was held a +ministering angel, and supplemented by Soeur Angélique as an unseen +force, often proved one in truth, while his bright face did them more +good, they said, than a power of sermons; and no one ever thought the +less of him because he seemed so much more the friend than the pastor, +and did no preaching at all. + +"So Janet is better," said Soeur Angélique, toying caressingly with the +wavy brown hair tossed over his forehead. "Now I hope we shall see more +of our Phebe again. What a little heroine she is!" + +"A perfectly unconscious one," answered Halloway, lazily submitting +himself to the fondling hand. "She thinks it the most matter-of-fact +thing in the world that she should play Sister of Charity to other +people's sick, and never expect so much as a thank-you from them." + +"She is a lovely character," said Mrs. Whittridge, warmly. + +"She is indeed," assented her brother. "A rare character. She is one in a +thousand." + +"I cannot but compare her sometimes with her friend, Gerald Vernor," +continued Mrs. Whittridge. "And despite Miss Vernor's beauty and her +power, which makes itself felt even by me, still it is always to Phebe's +advantage." + +Halloway got up and began slowly pacing the room, with an odd smile upon +his lips. "Always to Phebe's advantage," he repeated. "Yes, she is by far +the more amiable, the more unselfish, the more lovable, the better worth +loving of the two. She is all heart. She is brimming over with affection, +and must speak it or die, while Gerald is colder than stone,--than ice. +She is so cold she burns. She reminds one of stars in mid-winter, of +icicles in the moonlight, of any thing eminently frigid and brilliant and +remote. I daresay, despite all her beauty and her talent and even with +her wealth thrown in, she will have comparatively few lovers, yet those +few will be truer to her through all her coldness and her disfavor than +the lovers of many a sweeter girl. Did I say Phebe was one in a thousand? +Well Miss Vernor is one in nine hundred and ninety-nine,--or one in ten +thousand,--I don't know which." + +"You said Phebe was the better worth loving of the two," said Mrs. +Whittridge, coming to walk up and down the room with him and clasping +her hands over his arm. "I used to think,--I fancied you cared for the +child,--that you would care for her." + +Denham stood still and faced his sister very gravely, "I was growing to +care for her, Soeur Angélique," he said. "I believe I would have loved +her if,--if Gerald Vernor had not come here when she did." + +"Oh, Denham!" + +"Yes, Soeur Angélique. It is a humiliating confession, is it not, that +one has wilfully thrown away something that perhaps one might have had, +for something that one knows one can never have? It is sheerest folly. +And to do it with one's eyes open is the maddest folly of all. Gerald +Vernor is as indifferent to me as it is possible for one human creature +to be to another. I hold no more place in her thoughts than had I never +existed. And yet, Soeur Angélique, I am fool enough,--or helpless +enough,--whichever you please, to love her. I love her not for what she +is to me, but for what she is in herself, for what she really is, rather +than for what she seems,--for the strength and the heroism of her heart, +which I see through all the glaring, commonplace faults, which she is at +no pains to hide. Or perhaps I only love her because it was meant that I +should. Be it as it may, I do love her, and as passionately, as entirely, +and as hopelessly as it is possible for man to love." + +"O Denham, Denham, my boy!" + +Denham laid his hand lightly on his sister's lips. "Now we have had a +sufficiency of heroics for once, indeed for always," he said, with a +wholly altered voice. "Life has enough of solemnity in it and in spare, +without our adding aught to it. We will not speak of this again, if you +please. Folly is always best forgotten. But Soeur Angélique, if you +imagine me to be a blighted being, if you think I walk the floor in the +dead of night, tearing my hair and calling on all the stars to witness +the unearthly gloom in my racked bosom, you are utterly mistaken. I do +nothing of the kind. I am not blighted at all. My damask cheek is not +going to be preyed upon, nor shall I take to an excess of tobacco and +poetry. I have made a mistake, but I mean to sing over it,--not weep over +it,--and to become a stronger and better man, if possible, for having +been so weak a one." + +"And Phebe?" said Soeur Angélique. Great tears stood in her eyes. +"I hoped--" + +Denham placed both hands on his sister's shoulders. "Soeur Angélique, you +must bury those hopes in the grave. Loving Gerald Vernor, never, now, or +in the future, shall I have one word of love for any other woman. But for +her, I should have come perhaps to love Phebe with this same love; +perhaps,--who knows?--Phebe might so have loved me. As it is--Soeur +Angélique you know what I am. You know if I am likely to deceive myself. +Gerald Vernor has changed my life for always. What might have been, now +can never be." + +He stood still a moment, looking full at her. It was wonderful how +resolute and firm and yet brave and gentle too those merry brown eyes of +his could become. Soeur Angélique sighed and shook her head softly. He +stooped and kissed her, then turned away saying: "Now that chapter has +been read through to the end. Woe be to him who turns back the page! And +it is time I went to call on poor Widow Brown." + +Soeur Angélique stood in the window as a moment later he passed by. He +kissed his hand to her with a gay smile and went on. But she still stood +there with the tears welling and welling in her eyes till they fell +gently over upon her cheeks. She did not heed them, she was so busy with +her thoughts. "Poor Phebe," she said softly to herself. "My poor little +Phebe! But perhaps,--with time--" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PHEBE'S GOOD-BY. + + +When was it Phebe first fell ill? No one knew. Mr. Hardcastle had kept +cautiously out of her way this long time past, but nobody else suspected +that the brilliant cheeks and eyes which shone like stars were telltales +of a hidden fire burning her life away. The fever was abating in the +village. The doctors declared the epidemic virtually over, and mutually +congratulated each other upon the success of their measures. Mr. +Hardcastle returned to the sidewalks; Mr. Upjohn brought back Maria; Miss +Lydia said death had spared her this once, but next time it would be her +turn to go; Mrs. Lane said she needn't make her will yet for all that; +and everybody said how very much worse the fever would have been in any +less peculiarly healthy spot than Joppa. How was it that at the very +last, when there was no reason at all, when she had been apparently so +perfectly well all along, Phebe Lane should suddenly take to her bed? Not +only one doctor was called in, but both, and when they saw her they said +the fever had been running a long time already, and then they looked very +grave and shook their heads. She did not seem so ill. Most of their +patients had had far more aggravated symptoms yet still they shook their +heads as they looked at her, and murmured something about lack of +vitality, a general giving way, a complete want of will power, etc. +People looked at each other aghast. Was it possible that little Phebe +Lane was really going to die? Nobody really believed it could be, +excepting only Soeur Angélique. "Oh, my darling, my darling!" she cried +out when she first heard of it, and then she instantly went over and +installed herself in Phebe's room. And there she sat the slow days +through, waiting and waiting with a breaking heart. Phebe suffered very +little. She lay generally perfectly still, too weak to move, too weak to +care to speak. People came and went noiselessly below, but no one was +admitted to her room save her step-mother and Mrs. Whittridge. Mrs. Lane +watched her with growing anxiety. The fever was so slight, why did she +not rally from it? How was it credible she could fail so rapidly and so +causelessly? And Mrs. Whittridge sat by with despair in her heart. + +One day, late in the afternoon, as she sat so watching, Phebe suddenly +opened her eyes. "Will you call him, please? I hear him." + +"Who? Denham?" asked Soeur Angélique, with quick intuition. A finer +ear than hers had caught the light step and low voice in the narrow +hall below. + +"Yes, Denham," said Phebe, softly. "Denham. I want to see him." + +It pleased her to say his name so. She said it to herself over and over +beneath her breath, while waiting for him to come. It was but a moment, +and he was kneeling by the bedside, holding both her hands in his. She +looked up in his face and smiled, and said his name again, lower still. + +"Denham." + +"Yes, Phebe--yes, dear," he answered, too moved to say more. + +"I only wanted to say good-by," she continued, her eyes full of a love +unutterable that not even the shadow of coming death could wholly darken. +"Will you kiss me good-by please, this once, good-by--for always?" + +A faint, soft flush crept up over her white face, and he bent down and +kissed her gently, as one would kiss the Madonna of a shrine. + +"Phebe," he whispered, "not for always only for a time, dear--good-by." + +"Yes," she said, with a glad smile lighting up all her sweet, pure face. +"Only for a time." + +And them, still holding her hands tightly clasped in his, Denham bent +down his head upon them and prayed. + +The sunset came and faded, and the twilight came and went, giving place +to the solemn stillness of the enduring night. The stars shone clear and +still. Not a breath stirred. In his study Denham knelt alone, praying for +a dear and lovely life, praying against hope, against belief--against all +but faith. He did not know what time it was--it seemed as if it might be +morning---when at last the door opened and Soeur Angélique came in. He +got up and stood waiting, too agitated to speak. What news could she +bring him but the one? She came slowly up to him, then gave a little +gasp, and flinging her arms around his neck, burst into tears. + +"O Denham, Denham, all is over! Phebe is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ONLY AN INCIDENT. + + +The morning sun was streaming brilliantly in through the richly curtained +windows of a handsome New York dwelling. Mr. and Mrs. De Forest were +about sitting down to breakfast, which waited for them ready served, and +which indeed had been so waiting for some minutes. The butler coughed +behind his hand as a discreet reminder of his presence, and so indirectly +of the cooling dishes. The gentleman looked up from his easy-chair by the +fire and yawned. + +"My dear, I've been up so long I think it's getting bedtime again." + +"Just one moment, Ogden," answered the lady, from her desk. "I must send +off this note by the first mail." + +"Any thing important?" + +"Yes. I will not be put on that new committee. They _must_ find some one +else. My time is too full." + +De Forest rose and stood with his back to the fire, looking complacently +at his wife. "What an odd sensation it must be--having one's time too +full! It's an experience I'm willing always to delegate to some one else. +Doesn't it feel rather like too tight shoes?" + +Gerald laughed as she passed her husband to her seat at the table, and he +stood still watching her as she began pouring coffee. It was always a +pleasure to watch her. The butler drew out the gentleman's chair firmly. +It was time his master took his seat with his lady. There was too much of +this dilly-dallying. De Forest came lazily forward and seated himself. + +"Any news?" asked Gerald. + +"None whatever. It's a swindle to pay three cents for the _Herald_ in +such monotonous times. I was reduced to searching in your church paper to +see if by any chance something new had gotten lost in there." + +"I hope you found it." + +"I didn't. Not so much even as the death of someone I knew to cheer me. +There would have been variety at least in that. By the way, though, I +did see a familiar name among the personals,--just a notice that the Rev. +Denham Halloway had accepted a call to some church or other in some place +or other. He was quite a friend of yours, wasn't he, that summer before +we were married, when we were all in that odious little Joppa together? +How bored I was there!" + +"Denham Halloway," repeated Gerald, musingly. "Denham Halloway. Why, I +don't believe I have thought of him since. But he was never any especial +friend of mine, you know." + +"Ah, there was somebody else who managed to engross a great deal of your +time and most of your thoughts that summer, was there not, my dear, while +nobody but myself was bold enough to suppose that any impression had been +made on that frigid heart of yours? Well, I was perfectly fair. I left +your friend, Phebe, for Halloway." + +"Poor little Phebe!" said Gerald, with softened eyes. "How long ago it +all seems. Poor dear little Phebe! I have never wanted to hear of Joppa +since her death. I feel as if she had given her life for it. Yes; I +don't suppose I have thought twice of Denham Halloway since." + +Ah, so it was! That brief summer meeting, which had had so potent an +influence on the lives of those other two, had in her life been only +an incident. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Only an Incident, by Grace Denio Litchfield + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10780 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac93310 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10780 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10780) diff --git a/old/10780-8.txt b/old/10780-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bba0bf3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10780-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5098 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Only an Incident, by Grace Denio Litchfield + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Only an Incident + +Author: Grace Denio Litchfield + +Release Date: January 22, 2004 [EBook #10780] +[Last updated: July 12, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY AN INCIDENT *** + + + + +Produced by Afra Ullah, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + ONLY AN INCIDENT + + BY GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD + + 1883 + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER + + I. JOPPA + + II. PHEBE + + III. GERALD + + IV. MRS. UPJOHN'S ENTERTAINMENT + + V. FRIENDS + + VI. THE PICNIC + + VII. TRIED AS BY FIRE + + VIII. GERALD OBEYS ORDERS + + IX. JOPPA'S MINISTRATIONS TO THE SICK + + X. AN APOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + XI. "MY SON DICK" + + XII. WHY DO SUMMER ROSES FADE? + + XIII. JOPPA'S TRIAL + + XIV. PHEBE'S GOOD-BY + + XV. ONLY AN INCIDENT + + + + +TO +GRACE HILL AND EDWIN C. LITCHFIELD. + +TO HER FOR WHOSE DEAR SAKE THE STORY WAS PENNED, ALTHOUGH HER EYES HAVE +NEVER REST UPON ITS PAGES, AND TO HIM WHOSE TENDER WATCH OVER ITS GROWTH +HAS BEEN ITS VITAL INSPIRATION--TO THE TWO WHO ARE BUT ONE FOREVER IN THE +HEART OF THEIR DAUGHTER, THIS LITTLE FIRST BOOK IS MOST LOVINGLY +INSCRIBED. + + + + +ONLY AN INCODENT + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JOPPA. + + +Joppa was the very centre of all things. That was the opening clause in +the creed of every well-educated and right-thinking Joppite. +Geographically, however, it was not the centre of any thing, being +considerably off from the great lines of railway travel, but possessing +two little independent branch roads of its own, that connected it with +all the world, or rather that connected all the world with it. For though +there were larger places than Joppa even in the county in which it +condescended to find itself, and though New York, and Philadelphia, and +even Boston, were undeniably larger, as its inhabitants reluctantly +admitted when hard pressed, yet they were unanimous in agreeing, +nevertheless, that the sun rose and set wholly and entirely for the +benefit of their one little aristocratic community. + +Yes; the world was created for Joppa, that the Joppites might live, move, +and have their being with as much convenience and as little trouble as +possible. Bethany, a considerable town near by, was built to be its +shopping emporium; Galilee, a little farther off, to accommodate its art +needs; Morocco, a more considerable town still farther off, to be the +birthplace of those ancestors who were so unfortunate as to come into the +world before there was any Joppa to be born in. Even New York was erected +mainly to furnish it with a place of comfortable resort once a year, when +it transplanted itself there bodily in a clan, consoling itself for its +temporary aberration of body by visiting exclusively and diligently back +and forth among its own people, and conforming life in all particulars as +far as possible to home rules, still doing when in New York, not as the +New Yorkers but as the Joppites did, and never for a moment abandoning +its proud position as the one only place in the world worth living in. + +There certainly was much to say in favor of Joppa. In the first place, +it was remarkably salubrious. Its inhabitants died only of old +age,--seldom even of that,--or of diseases contracted wholly in other +localities. Measles had indeed been known to break out there once in the +sacred person of the President of the village, but had been promptly +suppressed; besides, it was universally conceded that being in his second +childhood he should be considered liable. The last epidemic of small-pox +even had swept by them harmless. Only two old and extremely ugly women +took it, whereas Bethany and Upper Jordan were decimated. So Joppa was +decidedly healthy, for one thing. For another, it was moral. There had +not been a murder heard of in ever so long, or a forgery, and the last +midnight burglar was such a nice, simple fellow that he did not know real +silver when he saw it, and ran off with the plated ware instead. And +Joppa was not only moral, but religious; went to church no end of times +on Sundays, and kept as many of the commandments as it conveniently +could. It had four churches: one Methodist, frequented exclusively by the +plebeians; one Baptist, of a mixed congregation; one Presbyterian, where +three fourths of the best people went; and one Episcopal, which the best +quarter of the best people attended, and which among the Presbyterians +was popularly supposed to be, if not exactly the entrance to the infernal +regions, yet certainly only one short step removed from it. And added to +all these good traits, Joppa was a beautiful place. There were a few +common, ugly little houses in it, of course, but they were all tucked +away out of sight at one end, constituting what was known as "the +village," while the real Joppa meant in the thoughts of the inhabitants +only the West End so to speak, where was a series of pretty villas and +commodious mansions running along a broad, handsome street, and +stretching for quite a distance along the border of the lake. For, oh! +best of all, Joppa had a lake. To speak of Joppa in the presence of a +Joppite, and not in the same breath to mention the lake with an +appreciative adjective, was to make as irrevocable a mistake as to be in +conversation with a poet and forget to quote from his latest poem; for +next to their wives, their dinners, and their ease, the Joppites loved +their beautiful little lake. And they had cause thus to love it, for +apart from its exquisite charm as the main feature of their landscape, it +gave them a substantial reason for existence. What could they have done +with their _dolce far niente_ lives, but for the fishing and rowing and +sailing and bathing and sliding and skating which it afforded them in +turn? It was all they had to keep them from settling down into a Rip Van +Winkle sleep, this dear little restless lake, that coaxed them out of +their land-torpor, and forced them occasionally to lend a manly hand to a +manly pursuit. For there was this distinguishing peculiarity about Joppa, +that no one in it seemed to need to work, or to have any manner of +business whatever. Its society, outside of the village, was formed wholly +of cultivated, refined, wealthy people, who had nothing in the world to +do, but idly to eat and drink up the riches of the previous generation. +It is a widely admitted truth, that one generation always gathers for +another, never for itself, and that the generation which is thus +generously gathered for, is invariably found willing to sacrifice without +a murmur any latent duty to harvest on its own account, consenting to +live out its life softly upon the hard-earned savings of its +predecessors, without regard to posterity, and calling itself "gentlemen" +where its fathers were content to be known as "men." + +So this was Joppa, a place mighty in its own conceit, and high too in the +estimate of others, to whom it was becoming known as the gayest and the +prettiest of all dear little summer resorts; and thither strangers were +beginning to flock in considerable numbers each year, made warmly welcome +by the Joppites as an occasion for breaking out into an unending round of +parties and picnics and dinners and lunches and teas, and even breakfasts +when there was not room to crowd in any thing else. The summer was one +continual whirl from beginning to end. There were visitors and visits; +there was giving and receiving; there were flirtations and rumors of +flirtations; there was everything the human heart could desire in the way +of friendly hospitality and liveliest entertainment. Saratoga might be +well enough, and Newport would do in its way; but for solid perfection, +said the Joppites, there was no place in the world quite like Joppa. + +But unknown to itself, Joppa nursed one apostate in its midst, one +unavowed but benighted little heretic, who so far from sharing these +sentiments and offering up nightly thanksgiving that despite her great +unworthiness she had been suffered to be born in Joppa, made it one of +her most fervent and reiterated petitions that she might not always have +to live there; that some time, if she were very good and very patient, it +might be granted her to go. She was so weary of it all: of the busy +idleness and the idle business, of the unthinking gayety and the gay +thoughtlessness, and of the nothingness that made up its all. She wanted, +she did not exactly know what, only something different; and to go, she +did not quite know where, only somewhere else. But she had been born in +Joppa, (quite without her permission,) and in Joppa she had lived for all +of twenty-four healthful, tranquil, uneventful years, spending +semi-occasional winters in New York, and, unlike all other Joppites, +returning always more and more discontented with her native place. Who +could ever have expected such treason in the heart of dear little Phebe +Lane? Of course it would not have mattered much had it been suspected, +since it was only Phebe Lane after all who entertained it,--little Phebe +Lane, whose ancestors, though good and well-born enough, did not hail +from Morocco, and who lived, not in the West End proper, but only on the +borders of it, in a street where one could not get so much as a side peep +at the lake. It was not a pretty house either where she lived. It was +square and clumsy and without any originality, and, moreover, faced plump +on the street, so that one could look right into its parlor and +sitting-room windows as one strolled along the wooden sidewalks. And +people were in the habit of looking in that way a good deal. Nothing was +ever going on in there that could not bear this sudden outside +inspection, and it was the shortest way to call Phebe when she was wanted +for any thing of a sudden,--to bear a fourth hand at whist, or to stone +raisins for Mrs. Adams the day before her luncheon, or to run on an +errand down town for some lazy body who preferred other people's legs to +her own for locomotion, or to relieve some wearied host in the +entertainment of his dull guest, or to help in some way or other, here, +there, and yonder. She was just the one to be called upon, of course, for +she was just the one who was always on hand, and always ready to go. She +never had any thing to keep her at home. Her father had long been dead, +and she lived alone with her step-mother and step-aunt in the house which +was left her by her mother, but in which the present Mrs. Lane still +ruled absolute, as she did when she first came into it in Phebe's +childish days. Mrs. Lane was strong and energetic and commonplace; and +she ran the little house from garret to cellar with a thoroughness that +left Phebe no part whatever to take in it, while the remainder of her +energy she devoted to nursing her invalid sister, Miss Lydia, a little +weak, complaining creature, who had had not only every ill that flesh is +heir to, but a great many ills besides that she was firmly persuaded no +other flesh had ever inherited, and who stood in an awe of her sister +Sophia only equalled by her intense admiration of her. + +So what was there for Phebe to do? She was fond of music, and whistled +like a bird, but she had no piano and did not know one note from +another; and she did not care for books, which was fortunate, as their +wee library, all told, did not count a hundred volumes, most of which, +too, were Miss Lydia's, and were as weak and wishy-washy as that poor +little woman herself. And she did not care for sewing, though she made +nearly all her own clothes, besides attending at any number of +impromptu Dorcas meetings, where the needy were the unskilled rich +instead of the helpless poor, so that of course her labor did not count +at all as a virtue, since it was not doing good, but only obliging a +friend. And she did not care for parties, though she generally went and +was always asked, being such a help as regarded wall-flowers, while +none of the young girls dreaded her as a rival, it being a well known +fact that Phebe Lane, general favorite though she was, somehow or other +never "took" with the men, or at least not sufficiently to damage any +other enterprising girl's prospects. Why this was so, was hard to say. +Phebe was pretty, and lovable, and sweet tempered. If she was not +sparkling or witty, neither was she sarcastic; and bright enough she +was certainly, though not intellectual, and though she talked little +save with a few. It was strange. True as steel, possessed of that keen +sense of justice and honor so strangely lacking in many women, with a +passionate capability for love and devotion and self-sacrifice beyond +power of fathoming, and above all with a clinging womanly nature that +yearned for affection as a flower longs for light, she was yet the only +girl out of all her set who had never had any especial attention. +Perhaps it was because she was no flirt. Bell Masters said no girl +could get along who did not flirt. Perhaps because in her excessive +truthfulness she was sometimes blunt and almost brusque; it is +dreadfully out of place not to be able to lie a little at times. Even +Mrs. Upjohn, the female lay-head of the Presbyterians, who was a +walking Decalogue, her every sentence being a law beginning with Thou +shalt not, admitted practically, if not theoretically, that without +risk of damnation it was possible to swerve occasionally from a too +rigid Yea and Nay. Perhaps,--ah, well, there is no use in exhausting +the perhapses. The fact remained. Of girl-friends she had plenty, and +of men-friends she had plenty; but of lovers she had none. + +And this was why when the Rev. Mr. Denham Halloway was called to the +vacant parish of St. Joseph's and fell down in its maidenly midst like a +meteor from an unexplored heaven,--a young, handsome divine, in every way +marriageable, though still unmarried, and in every way attractive, though +still to the best of hope and belief unattracted,--this was why no girl +of them all thought her own chances lessened in the least when he and +Phebe became such friends. No one gossiped. No one ah-ah'd, or oh-oh'd. +No one thought twice about it. What difference could it make? If it had +been anybody else now! But it was only Phebe Lane. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +PHEBE. + + +"Miss Phebe!" + +"Oh, Mr. Halloway!" + +"Hush. Don't let them know I'm here. I couldn't help peeping in as I went +by. You look done up." + +"I am." + +"What's going on?" + +"Come in and see." + +"Heaven forbid! Gracious! Mrs. Upjohn will think that's a swear. +Don't look this way, Miss Phebe. They'll discover me. What's Mr. +Hardcastle saying?" + +"The world is very evil." + +"'The times are waxing late.' Why doesn't he add that and go?" + +"He never goes. He only comes." + +"What is Mrs. Upjohn so wrought up about?" + +"She caught one of her Sunday-school boys breaking Sunday." + +"How?" + +"Eating apples." + +"Horrible! Where?" + +"Up in a tree." + +"Whose tree?" + +"That's where the unpardonable comes in. Her tree." + +"Poor boy; what a mistake! What are you doing with that hideous silk +stocking?" + +"Picking up dropped stitches." + +"Whose stitches? Yours?" + +"Mrs. Hardcastle's." + +"Don't aid and abet her in creating that monstrosity. It's participation +in crime. It's worse than eating apples up a tree. Do you always have +such a crowd here in the morning?" + +"Always." + +"How long have they been here?" + +"Nearly two hours." + +"What do they come for?" + +"Habit." + +"Miss Lydia's asleep." + +"Habit too." + +"What shall you do when you are done with that odious stocking?" + +"Sort crewels for Mrs. Upjohn." + +"And then?" + +"Iron out my dress for the party." + +"Oh, at Mrs. Anthony's? Who'll be there?" + +"Everybody who has dropped in here this morning." + +"Who else?" + +"Those who dropped in yesterday." + +"But what will you do to make it party-like?" + +"Simper. Aren't you coming too?" + +"Not if you think it would do for me to say that I held party-going wrong +for a clergyman. Could I? I might win over Mrs. Upjohn to the Church by +so holy a statement." + +"You had better take to round-dancing instead, then, to keep her +out of it." + +"Miss Phebe, is it possible you are severe on poor Mrs. Upjohn?" + +"Very possible." + +"As your pastor I must admonish you. Don't be. Besides, it's safer to +keep on her blind side." + +"She hasn't any." + +"Unhappy woman! What a blaze of moral light she must live in! But I +ought to have been in my study an hour ago. I must tear myself away. I +wish you all ill-luck possible with those stitches." + +"Ah, is that you, Mr. Halloway? I was wondering what kept Phebe so long +in the window. Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, sir. Pray, come in." And +having, by a turn of his slow old head, discovered the young man standing +just outside the window, Mr. Hardcastle came pompously forward, waving +his hand in a grand way he had, that seemed to bespeak him always the +proprietor, no matter in whose house he chanced to be. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hardcastle, not this morning. I was just telling Miss +Phebe I ought to be at work. Good-morning, Mrs. Lane. Good-morning, Mrs. +Upjohn--Mrs. Hardcastle--Miss Delano--Miss Brooks." + +And with a cheery bow to each individual head, craning itself forward to +have a look at the unusual young man who had work to do, the Rev. Mr. +Halloway walked off to his rectory, which was directly opposite, giving a +merry glance back at Phebe from the other side of the street. Phebe was +still smiling as she went with the stocking to its owner. + +"Thank you, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, taking it from her without +looking. "Oh, my child, how could you be so careless! You have let me +pull out one of the needles. Well--well." + +Phebe took the work silently back, and sat herself down on a stool to +remedy the mischief. + +"A nice young fellow enough," remarked Mr. Hardcastle, +condescendingly, returning to the group of ladies. "But he'll never +set the river on fire." + +"No need he should, is there?" said Mrs. Upjohn, looking up sharply from +her embroidery. She always contradicted, if only for argument's sake, so +that even her assents usually took a negative form. "It's enough if he's +able to put out a fire in _that_ Church. It doesn't take much of a man, I +understand, to fill an Episcopalian pulpit." (Nobody had ever yet been +able to teach the good dame the difference between Episcopal and +Episcopalian, and she preferred the undivided use of the latter word.) +"Any thing will go down with them." + +"Yes, my dear Mrs. Upjohn. It's undeniably a poor Church, a poor Church, +and I hope we may all live to witness its downfall. It must have been a +hard day for you, Mrs. Lane, when Phebe went over to it. I never forgave +old Mr. White for receiving her into it; I never did, indeed." + +Phebe only smiled. + +"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, biting off a thread. "Phebe may go where she +likes, for all me, so long as only she goes. Baptist I was bred, and +Baptist I'll be buried; but it's with churches as with teas, I say. One's +as good as another, but people may take green, or black, or mixed, as +best agrees with their stomachs." + +"That's a very dangerous doctrine," said Mrs. Upjohn. "Push it a little +further, and you'll have babes and sucklings living on beef, and their +elders dining on pap." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mrs. Lane again. "If they like it, what's the odds?" + +"He-he!" snickered Miss Brooks. + +"Well, now," resumed Mr. Hardcastle, "it stands to reason children should +learn to like what their elders have liked before them. That's the only +decent and Christian way of living. And as I said to my son,--to my Dick, +you know" (Mr. Hardcastle had a son of whom he always spoke as if sole +owner of him, and indeed solely responsible for his being),--"'Dick,' I +said, when he spoke disrespectfully of Mr. Webb's prayers,--and Mr. Webb +is a powerful prayer-maker, to be sure,--'Dick,' I said, 'church is like +physic, and the more you don't like it, the more good it does you. And if +you think Mr. Webb's prayers are too long, it's a sign that for your +soul's salvation they ought to be longer.' And I said--" + +Mrs. Lane knew by long experience that now or never was the time to stop +Mr. Hardcastle. Once fairly started on the subject of his supposed advice +to Dick on any given occasion, there was no arresting his eloquence. She +started up abruptly from her sewing-machine with her mouth full of pins, +emptying them into her hand as she went. "Those ginger-cookies--" she +mumbled as she passed Mr. Hardcastle. "They ought to be done by this." + +A promissory fragrance caught the old gentleman's nostrils as she opened +the door, dispelling sterner thoughts. "Ah," he said, sniffing the air +with evident approbation, "I was about going, but I don't mind if I stay +and try a few. Your make, Phebe?" + +"No," answered Phebe, shortly, moving just out of reach of the bland old +hand, which stretched itself out to chuck her under the chin, and was +left patting the air with infinite benevolence "mother made them." + +"All wrong," commented Mrs. Upjohn. "All wrong. You should not leave your +mother any work that you could spare her. One of the first things I +taught our Maria" (Mrs. Upjohn in Mr. Hardcastle's presence always said +_our_ Maria with great distinctness),--"one of the first things I taught +her was, that it was her privilege to save me in every thing. I don't +believe in idleness for girls. Aren't you ready yet to attend to these +crewels, Phebe? Miss Brooks is snarling them terribly." + +"Phebe's really a very good girl in her way though," remarked Mrs. +Hardcastle, indulgently, from her easy chair. "I will testify that she +can make quite eatable cake at a pinch." + +Phebe secretly thought Mrs. Hardcastle ought to know. She remembered her +once spoiling a new-made company loaf by slashing into it without so much +as a by-your-leave. + +"That was very nice cake Miss Lynch gave us last night," piped in +Miss Delano. + +"Too much citron," pronounced Mrs. Upjohn, decisively. "You should never +overload your cake with citron. It turns it out heavy, as sure as there's +a sun in the heavens." + +"There isn't any to-day; it's cloudy," Phebe could not help putting in, +demurely, but no one paid any attention, except that Mrs. Upjohn turned +on her an unworded expression of: "If I say so, it is so whether or no." + +An animated debate on cake followed, in the middle of which Mrs. Lane +reappeared with a trayful of cookies hot from the oven; and two more +callers came in, Bell Masters and Dick Hardcastle, which last first woke +up Miss Lydia with a boisterous kiss, frightening the poor soul half to +death by assuring her she had been snoring so that he heard her way down +street, and then devoted himself to the cookies with a good-will and +large capacity that filled one with compassionate feelings toward his +mother's larder. With these new and younger elements the talk varied a +little. They discussed last night's party, the supper, the dresses, the +people, and then the probabilities of to-night's party, the people, the +dresses, the supper. And then Dick made a sensation by saying right out, +that he had just met Mr. Upjohn on Main Street with Mrs. Bruce, holding a +parasol gallantly over her head. And everybody looked at once at Mrs. +Upjohn, and then back at the graceless Dick, and an awful silence +succeeded, broken by Mrs. Upjohn's reaching out her hand and saying in +the tone of a Miss Cushman on the stage: "Dick, dear, I'll take another +cookie." If Mr. Upjohn chose to walk down town shielding women's +complexions for them, why in the world should she trouble herself about +it, beyond making sure that he did not by mistake take her parasol for +the kindly office? And so the talk went on, people coming and people +going, and Mrs. Lane did up a whole basketful of work undisturbed, and +Phebe inwardly chafed and fumed and longed for dinner-time, that at last +the ceaseless, aimless chatter might come to an end. + +She went to the party that night, because in Joppa everybody had to go +when asked. To refuse was considered tantamount to an open declaration of +war, unless in case of illness, and then it almost required a doctor's +certificate to get one off. It was a good law and ensured the suppers +being disposed of. There was no dancing to-night, it being an understood +thing that when Mrs. Upjohn was asked there should be none or she would +not come; but there was music. Bell Masters had a very nice contralto +voice, and was always willing to sing, thus sure of securing one of +Joppa's few young gentlemen to stand by and turn over her leaves; she +thoughtfully took her music on that account, giving out that she could +not play without notes. Phebe had been doing her best all unconsciously +to herself to help her hosts entertain, but when the singing began she +stole away to the nearly empty piazza, and stood leaning by the window, +enjoying the cool air and softly whistling an accompaniment to the song; +and there Mr. Halloway found her. She looked up at him and smiled as he +joined her, but went on with her low, sweet whistling all the same. + +"I like that better than the singing," he said, when at last it came to +an end with the music. + +"You ought not to, Mr. Halloway. Don't you know it's very unlady-like to +whistle? Mrs. Upjohn puts Maria to bed for it." + +"Dear me. I must take care she doesn't ever catch _me_ at it. Ah! the +dress has ironed nicely, hasn't it? Would you mind standing out a little +from the shadow?" + +Phebe moved a step forward into the stream of light that shot across the +piazza from the open window, and stood so, looking up at him out of her +soft white muslin draperies and white ribbons, not a ray of color about +her anywhere, like a very material and sweet little ghost. + +"Yes, you look very nice, very nice indeed," he said, after a grave +inspection that took in every detail of face and figure. A young, +innocent face it was, with soft brown hair as bright and as fine as silk, +all turned back from a low forehead, around which it grew in the very +prettiest way in the world, and gathered in loose braids in the neck; and +she had such a fresh, clear complexion, and such honest, loving, gray +eyes, and such a round, girlish figure,--how was it people never made +more of her prettiness? + +"I think you look nicer than any one here," Mr. Halloway added, in +thorough conviction. "You must be an adept in ironing." Phebe laughed +softly in pure pleasure. It was so new to have such pretty things said to +her. "Would it be very wrong to slip away together for a rest?" he +continued, leading her a little farther along. "Let us sit down on the +steps here and recruit. I have talked my throat hoarse to each of the +very deafest old ladies in turn,--I suppose they came here purposely to +be screeched at,--and I saw you working valiantly among the old men. What +a place this is for longevity!" + +"You are finding out its characteristics by degrees, I see." + +"Yes, am I not?" said he, with his pleasant laugh. "I know intimately +every member of my parish and every member of every other parish by this +time from sheer hearsay. Each house I visit gives me no end of valuable +and minute information about all the other houses. I am waiting to come +out with a rousing sermon against gossip, till I shall have gained all +possible enlightenment and help from it. I mustn't kill my goose that +lays the golden eggs before I have all the eggs I want, must I?" + +"And knowing us all so well, what do you think of Joppa as a whole?" +asked Phebe, curiously. "You always say it is too soon to judge, but +surely you must really know by this time." + +He did not answer for a moment, then turned to her very seriously. "I +think," he said slowly, "it is a place that needs a much older, a much +better, and a much wiser man than I am to be among its leaders in any +sense. It is not at all what I thought it would be when I accepted the +trust. It is beyond me. But since the Bishop sent me here, I mean to stay +and do my best." + +"How will you begin?" + +"I will begin with you," he answered, lightly, with a smile that lit up +all his face, the moment's seriousness quite gone. "You were my first +friend, and I ought to take you first in hand, ought I not? I am going +to do you a great deal of good." + +"How?" + +"I'm going to teach you to love books." + +"You can't." + +"Yes, I can. You don't know books, that is all. I intend to introduce you +to each other. I have some so interesting you can't help liking them, and +you'll find yourself crying for more before you know it. I am going to +bring them over to you. You shall have something better to do than fill +up all your mornings with promoting stockings of exasperating colors, and +listening to tales of Sabbath-breakers. Just wait and see. I am going to +metamorphose you." + +"Oh, I wish you would!" sighed Phebe, clasping her hands and speaking so +earnestly that he looked at her in surprise. "I am so sick of myself. I +do want to be something better than I am. I am so dreadfully +common-place. I amount to so little. I know so little. I can do so +little. And there is no one here who cares to help me to any thing +better. I don't know enough even to know how to improve myself. But I do +want to. Will you help me, Mr. Halloway? Will you really help me?" She +positively had tears shining in her eyes. + +Mr. Halloway leaned forward and gently took her hand. "Am I not here for +that?" he asked. "Here purposely to help you and all who need me in any +way? Will it not be my greatest pleasure to do so, as well as my best and +truest work? You may be sure, Miss Phebe, I will do all I can for you, +with God's help." + +"Rather damp for you to be sitting there without a shawl, isn't it, +my child?" + +It was only Mrs. Anthony's friendly voice, as that lady passed +hurriedly by, intent on hospitable duties, but Phebe started guiltily. +What right had she to be out here with Mr. Halloway, keeping him from +the other girls, when she ought, of course, to be in the parlors seeing +that the old ladies got their ice-cream safely? "I'll go right in," she +said, rising hastily; but Mr. Halloway drew her hand through his arm to +detain her. + +"Why? Because it is damp?" + +"No; because I ought not to be selfish, ought to go back and help." + +"Ah," said he, "I am getting new lights every moment. Then you don't go +to parties just to enjoy yourself?" + +She opened wide, serious eyes. "Oh, no." He smiled down at her very +kindly, "You shall go right away," he said, releasing her. "I will not +keep you another instant from dear Mr. Hardcastle and that nice Mrs. +Upjohn. But before you go let me tell you, Miss Phebe, that, if only in +view of your latest confession, I do not think you commonplace at all!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GERALD. + + +It was another article of the Joppian creed, that there was no such thing +possible as a purely Platonic friendship between a young man and a young +woman; there must always be "something in it": either a mitten for him, +or a disappointment for her, or wedding-cake for all--generally and +preferably, of course, the wedding-cake;--and belonging to such +friendship as lawfully as a tail belongs to a comet, was a great, +wide-spreading area of gossip. It was only in the case of Phebe Lane that +this universal and common-sense rule had its one particular and +unreasonable exception; and it was acting upon a speedily acquired +knowledge of this by-law, that Mr. Halloway boldly pursued his plan for +metamorphosing his young friend, right under the open eyes and ears of +the Joppites. He lived so near that it was the most natural thing in the +world for him to stop for a moment's chat, as every one else did, either +inside or outside of the window as he went by; and as he was always sure +of meeting others, call when he would, it certainly never could have been +asserted of him that he went there only to see Phebe. Indeed, he often +scarcely spoke with her at all when he so dropped in, and yet out of +these frequent and informal meetings an intimacy had sprung up between +them such as Phebe at least had never known before. She submitted herself +to him docilely, reading his books patiently even when they bored her +unutterably, as not seldom happened, and endeavoring to form her opinion +straitly upon his on all intellectual questions, recognizing her own +fallibility with a humility that at once touched and charmed him. Real +humility is rare enough the world over, but nowhere is it less +conspicuously apparent than among the flourishing virtues of Joppa; and +it was not long before this fact was discovered by Denham Halloway, who, +with all his gayety and light-heartedness, was a keen and discriminating +observer of character. He was one of those interesting people whom all +other people interest; one of those who derive their peculiar charm more +from what they find in you than from what they show you of themselves, +though one might be ashamed to confess the truth so baldly. These are the +people who, without any especial gift of either mind or person, wheedle +your secrets out of you before you know it, possessing all your trust and +your liking before they have given any real evidence of deserving your +confidence, and yet, somehow or other, though rarely either great or +talented, or even heroically good, never for one moment abusing it. Such +characters are not at all unusual, yet are generally accounted so; one of +their chief qualities, according to their friends, being that they are so +unlike everybody else. But Phebe certainly had never met any one at all +like Mr. Halloway, and she was soon of the settled conviction that she +should never meet any one quite like him again. He was true to his +promise to help her; (he never made a promise that he did not honestly +try to keep;) and he applied himself to the by no means thankless task +with the good-humored directness and energy that characterized all his +actions. There was quite a number of young girls in his parish, more +proportionately than in the others. Bell Masters and Amy Duckworth had +long been hovering on its borders, and the advent of so young and +prepossessing a rector had instantly removed their last scruples as to +infant baptism, and settled forever their doubts as to the apostolic +succession. They had come in at once. It was even whispered that Maria +Upjohn had in an incautious moment confessed that she preferred the +litany to Mr. Webb's spontaneous effusions, and had been summarily sat +upon by her mother, whose Bible contained an eleventh commandment +curiously omitted from the twentieth chapter of Exodus in other versions, +and reading: "Thou shalt not become an Episcopalian, and if possible, +thou shalt not be born one." Then there were Nellie Atterbury, and Janet +Mudge, and Polly and Mattie Dexter; there certainly was no lack of active +young teachers for the Sunday-school, and Phebe was well content to +remain passively aside, as of old. But, as Mrs. Lane remarked, there were +no drones allowed in Mr. Halloway's hive, and before long Phebe found +herself insensibly drawn in to be one of the workers too, with any +amount of business growing upon her hands, and herself, under this new +and wise guidance, becoming more and more capable for it every day. + +"A new broom sweeps clean," remarked Mrs. Upjohn, contemptuously, as she +heard of the stir and life in St. Joseph's heretofore-dull little parish. +"For my part, I would rather have Mr. White back--if he weren't dead. He +was a good, sensible old man, who knew his place, and was contented to +let his Church simmer in the background, where it belongs. _He_ didn't go +flaunting his white gown in people's faces every Saint's day he could +trump up, let alone the Wednesday and Friday services. Who's Mr. +Halloway? What does anybody know about him beyond that the Bishop +recommended him, as if a Bishop must know what's what better than other +people, forsooth! Don't tell me!" said Mrs. Upjohn, in unutterable scorn. +"He's a new broom, and he's raising a big dust, and I would liefer have +Mr. White back and let the dust lie,--that's all!" + +But the Joppites were far from sharing Mrs. Upjohn's sentiments. Mr. +Halloway did, it is true, belong to the wrong Church, but there was a +strong suspicion among them that neither had this man sinned, nor his +parents, that he was born to so grievous a fate. It was rather his +misfortune. And as for the rest, he was thoroughly a gentleman; was +excellently well educated; and was, moreover, comely to look upon, and +eminently agreeable in his bearing. No; Joppa was far from begrudging Mr. +White his departure to the land of the blessed. It was time the good old +man went to his reward, they said. + +And as to Mrs. Whittridge, Mr. Halloway's sister, who kept house for him +at the rectory, through all the length and the breadth of Joppa there +were no two opinions with regard to her. She was a woman of about fifty, +enough older than her brother to have been his mother, and she seemed +indeed to cherish almost a mother's idolatrous affection for him. She had +lost her husband many years before, and had been left with considerable +fortune and no family besides this one brother. So much information, +after repeated and unabashedly point-blank questions, had the Joppites +succeeded in extracting from Mr. Halloway, who with all his apparent +frankness was the most difficult person in the world ever to be brought +to talk of himself and his own affairs. But just to see Mrs. Whittridge, +with her sweet face and perfect manners, was to recognize her at once for +a gentlewoman in every sense of the word, while to be in her society, if +but for ten minutes, was to come very nearly to loving her. The Joppites +saw but one fault in her; she did not and would not visit. All who sought +her out were made more than welcome; but whether from the extreme +delicacy of her health, which rendered visiting a burden, or because of +her widow's dress of deepest mourning, which she had never laid aside, it +came to be an accepted thing that she went nowhere. It was a great +disappointment in Joppa; nevertheless it was impossible to harbor +ill-will toward this lovely, high-bred lady, who drew all hearts to +herself by the very way she had of seeming never to think of herself at +all. She won Phebe Lane's affection at once and forever with almost her +first words, spoken in the low, clear, sweet tones that sounded always +like Sunday-night's music. + +"Do you know, Mr. Halloway," Phebe said to him one day, "I think it does +me more good only to hear your sister's voice than to listen to the very +best sermon ever preached." + +"Miss Phebe," he rejoined, with a merry twinkle in his brown eyes, "if +you propagate that doctrine largely, I am a ruined man. I must hold you +over to eternal secrecy. But as regards the fact,--there is my hand,--I +am quite of your way of thinking! I am persuaded an angel's voice got +into Soeur Angélique by mistake." Mrs. Whittridge's baptismal name was +Angelica, but to her brother she had always been "Soeur Angélique" and +nothing else. + +"Yes, and an angel's soul too," said Phebe. + +"Even that," replied Mr. Halloway. "She is all and more than you can +possibly imagine that she is. But I positively forbid your putting her up +on a pedestal and worshipping her. In the first place, too great a sense +of her own holiness might mar her present admirable but purely earthly +management of our little household, thus seriously interfering with my +comforts. And in the second place, I feel it my duty to warn you from a +habit of canonization, which, if too extensively indulged in, will +inevitably warp your powers of frank and right judgment." + +Phebe laughed, but did not forget. + +One afternoon, some time later, she was at the rectory, whither she had +gone, at Mrs. Whittridge's request, to explain a new and intricate +embroidery stitch. They were upstairs in that lady's charming little +sitting-room, Phebe on a low stool by her friend's side, and Halloway had +just come in from a round of parochial visits and joined them there. + +"Mrs. Whittridge," said Phebe, suddenly, "do you think it is possible to +care too much for one's friends? Mr. Halloway says one can. I know he +means that I do." + +Mrs. Whittridge laid her hand caressingly on the girl's bonny brown hair. +"How can I judge, my child? I do not even know who your friends are." + +"Who are they, in fact?" said Denham, drawing up a chair and seating +himself in front of the group by the table. "Oh, Miss Phebe is friends +with the entire village in a way. They all call her 'Phebe,' and keep +accurate track of her birthdays, from Dick Hardcastle up. And I am sure +she hasn't an enemy in the world. But there is this remarkable feature in +the case, that you could go over the entire population of Joppa by name +without eliciting a single thrill of enthusiasm from this really +enthusiastic young lady." + +"I cannot help it," Phebe murmured, a little shamefacedly. "I bore them, +and they bore me." + +"That's a point in your education I am going to take up later," remarked +Mr. Halloway, cheerfully. "The art of not being bored by people. Once +acquired, the other, that of not boring them, follows of itself. Society +hangs on it." + +"I wish you would teach me that right away," said Phebe, earnestly. "I +believe I need that more than any thing else." + +"Well, I will, immediately,--after supper, that is. I am exhausted now +with ministerial duties. You have asked Miss Phebe to tea have you not, +Soeur Angélique? You cannot stay? Oh, but of course you must." + +"Of course she will," said Mrs. Whittridge, with her tender smile. +"Phebe only lives to give pleasure to others. Now tell me something about +your friends. Who are they?" + +"I haven't any here. Mr. Halloway is quite right," answered Phebe, +locking her hands over one of Mrs. Whittridge's. "Not real, real friends. +As a child I had ever so many, and Bell Masters and I quite grew up +together, but somehow we have all grown away from each other, and--oh, I +don't know!--it seems as if there wasn't any thing in the girls here. Not +that there's more in me. They are brighter and better than I in every +way, but we don't get on together; they don't seem to have any thing to +give me, any thing they can help me to. I can't get at them. Oh! Mr. +Halloway is quite right. In all Joppa I haven't a single friend--except +just you and him." + +"We are indeed your friends," said Mrs. Whittridge. "You need never +doubt that." + +The girl turned and threw her arms impulsively around the other's neck. +"Oh, no, no!" she said. "I could not doubt it. I know it. I _feel_ it! +Oh, you can't guess what it is to me to know it! I have so little in my +life to make it grow to any thing, and I want so much! And you can give +me all I want--all, all; and it makes me so happy when I think of +it,--that I have got you and can have all I want!" + +"And is this frantic outburst meant exclusively for Soeur Angélique?" +asked Denham. "I am green with unutterable jealousy. I thought I was your +friend too, Miss Phebe." + +Phebe still knelt with her arms around Mrs. Whittridge, but she looked up +at him with her frank, loving eyes and smiled. "You know I meant you +both," she said softly. + +An almost irresistible impulse came over the young man to lay his hand, +as his sister had done, on the soft, bright-brown hair. Clergymen are but +human after all. He bent forward, but only lifted one of his sister's +thin white hands and held it a moment between his. "We must both do our +best by this foolish little girl who trusts us so frankly with her +friendship, must we not, Soeur Angélique?" he said gravely. + +"I for one am very glad to assume the trust," said Mrs. Whittridge. + +"And won't you ever tire of me? ever? ever?" asked the girl. + +"Not ever." + +"You won't ever be tired helping me, or tired of having me come to you +for help, or tired of my loving you?" + +"Where is your faith gone, my child?" + +Phebe drew a deep sigh of content. "I am just as happy as can be," she +said. "I don't want any thing else now in the world except just Gerald." + +"Ah, Gerald again. I expected that," said Mr. Halloway, raising his +eyebrows humorously. + +"Gerald? Pray, who is Gerald?" inquired Mrs. Whittridge. + +Her brother lifted his hands in mock amazement. "Is it possible you know +Miss Phebe so long and need ask who Gerald is? I will tell you. Gerald is +perfection individualized. Gerald has all the qualities, mental, +physical, and spiritual, that it is possible to compress into the limited +compass of even an overgrown human frame. Gerald, you must know, is +intellectual to a degree, beautiful as an archangel, adorable as--as you, +Soeur Angélique, and clever--almost--as myself." + +Phebe clapped her hands and nodded, "Yes, yes, all that!" + +"I can tell you all about Gerald," continued Halloway. "I have heard of +nothing else since I came. Gerald, my dear sister, is Miss Phebe's idol; +I rather think she says her prayers before Gerald's picture every night." + +"Oh, please!" cried Phebe. + +"But who is this Gerald?" asked Mrs. Whittridge. "Does he live here?" + +"No, Soeur Angélique, and by the way he is not he at all, but she, and +will be known in history as Miss Geraldine Vernor. She lives in New York, +rolls in wealth, and is one of a large family of whom she is the +sun-flower. Let me give you her portrait as I have it from fragmentary +but copious descriptions. She is, I should say, five feet eleven and +three quarter inches in height--don't shake your head, Miss Phebe,--and +slender in disproportion. She has the feet of a Chinese, the hands of a +baby, and the strength of a Jupiter Ammon. She has hair six yards long +and blacker than Egyptian darkness. She has a forehead so low it rests +upon her eyebrows, which, by the way, have been ruled straight across +the immeasurable breadth of it with a T square. She has eyes bluer one +minute than the grotto at Capri, greener the next than grass in June, +grayer the next than a November day, and so on in turn through all the +prismatic colors. Her eyelashes are only not quite so long as her hair. +She has a mouth which would strike you as large,--it is five and a half +inches across,--but when she speaks, and you hear the combined wisdom of +Solomon, and Plato, and Socrates, and Solon, and the rest of the ancients +(not to mention the moderns), falling from her lips, your only wonder is +that her mouth keeps within its present limits. Her nose--Miss Phebe, can +it be? Is it possible you have left out her nose? Soeur Angélique, I am +forced to the melancholy conclusion that Gerald has none. Miss Phebe +would never have omitted mentioning it." + +"You may make all the fun of her and of me that you like," said Phebe, +half provoked. "But there is not anybody else in the world like Gerald +Vernor. Wait till you see her. You will say then that I was right, only +that I did not say enough." + +"You shan't tease her, Denham. Tell me, Phebe, where did you know this +friend so well?" + +"Three years ago, when she spent a summer here, I saw a great deal of +her,--oh, it made it such a happy summer, knowing her!--and I have +corresponded with her ever since." + +"Without meeting her again?" + +"Oh, no. I saw her twice last summer. I went to the train both times to +see her as she passed through." + +"But our trains don't pass through; they stop here." + +"Yes, I know; but I went to Galilee to meet her as she passed +through there." + +"Would she have gone as far as that to meet you, Miss Phebe?" + +"That is very different, Mr. Halloway," answered Phebe, simply. "I am not +worth going so far for. Besides, I don't expect people ever to do as much +for me as I would for them." + +"Denham, you are cruel," said Mrs. Whittridge. "Phebe, my child, your +love for your friend is to me sufficient proof that she must be lovely. I +know I should love her too." + +Phebe looked at her gratefully. "Oh, you would,--you would indeed! +You could not help it. You would admire her so much. There is so +much in her." + +"Ah, yes, I forgot," interrupted Denham, "I did not finish my portrait. +This marvellous being is an athlete. She can ride any Bucephalus +produced, and rather prefers to do so bareback. She is a Michael Angelo +at painting, and has represented striking scenes from his 'Last Judgment' +on a set of after-dinner coffee cups. She drives, she skates, she swims, +she rows, she sails, has a thorough knowledge of business, and is up in +stocks, is femininely masculine and masculinely feminine, scorns novels, +and can order a dinner, is a churchwoman, and dresses always in the +latest style. Is there any thing else, Miss Phebe?" + +"Only one thing else that I think you have rather forgotten, Mr. +Halloway: I love her and she is my friend." + +"Miss Phebe," cried the young man in instant contrition, "have I hurt +you? Have I been thoughtless enough for that with my foolish fun? You +know I did not mean it. Will you forgive me?" He held out his hand. + +Phebe hesitated. "Will you not make fun of her any more? And will you +like her if she comes? You know she may come here this summer; there is +just a chance of it. Will you promise?" + +"I can safely promise to like any one whom you like, I know, Miss Phebe. +Soeur Angélique, make this stubborn child give me her hand. It is not +fitting that I crave absolution so abjectly." + +"You are two silly children together," said Soeur Angélique, rising and +laughing. "You may settle your quarrels as you can while I order tea." + +"Miss Phebe, have I really vexed you so much?" asked the young man, +earnestly, as his sister left the room. "You must know I would not do +that for the world." + +"I don't think you could hurt or vex me in any way," said Phebe, +"excepting only through Gerald. For you don't know how I love her, Mr. +Halloway. I love her with all my heart and soul, I think, oh, +more--almost more--than any one else in the world." + +"I know you do," he answered. "It is a love to envy her." Phebe was still +looking up at him from her low stool, her face raised as if in appeal. +She always looked very young for her years, and now she seemed not more +than a child of sixteen in the waning light. He could not help it this +time; he laid his hand very lightly for one briefest instant on her +pretty hair. "But you will not be less friends with me because I like +_you_ best?" + +"I will not ever be less friends with you," Phebe replied, soberly. "I +don't change so." + +"No," he said; "I know you do not. Nor do I." + +And then he moved away from her, and began telling an irresistibly comic +story about a call he had made on a poor woman that afternoon (he could +not for the life of him help seeing the ludicrous side of every thing), +and from one subject they passed to another, and when Soeur Angélique +summoned them to tea, she found her reverend brother standing in the +middle of the room in the full swing of a chorus from "The Pirates," with +Phebe whistling the liveliest possible accompaniment, and both of them +gesticulating wildly. He stopped with a laugh as his sister appeared in +the door-way. + +"Don't be shocked, Soeur Angélique. I shut the window lest Mrs. Upjohn +should chance to go by and hear me. She would telegraph the Bishop. I am +only resting. It wore me out working for Miss Phebe's pardon. No; wait a +moment, Soeur Angélique. Don't let's go to tea instantly. I would rather +quiet down a little before I go in and say grace." He took up a chance +book from the table, and turning to the window to catch the light, read a +few lines to himself, then threw it down, and came forward with a smile. +"There, I am ready now. Take my arm, Soeur Angélique. Miss Phebe, will +you come, please?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MRS. UPJOHN'S ENTERTAINMENT. + + +Mrs. Upjohn was going to give an entertainment. She was about to open the +hospitable doors of the great house upon the hill, which seemed to have +chosen that pre-eminence that it might the better overlook the morals of +its neighbors. Joppa held its breath in charmed suspense. The question +was not, Will I be asked? that was affirmatively settled for every +West-End Joppite of party-going years; nor was it, What shall I wear? +which was determined once for all at the beginning of the season; but, +What will be done with me when I get there? For to go to Mrs. Upjohn's +was not the simple thing that it sounded. She wished it to be distinctly +understood that she did not ask people to her house for their amusement, +but for their moral and spiritual improvement; any one could be amused +anywhere, but _she_ wished to show her guests that there were pleasanter +things than pleasure to be had even in social gatherings, and to teach +them to hunger and thirst after better than meat and drink, while at the +same time she took pains always to provide a repast as superior to the +general run as her sentiments, quite atoning to the Joppites for the +spiritual accompaniments to her feast by its material and solid +magnificence, which lingered appetizingly in their memories long after +they had settled their consequent doctors' bills. Yes, the Joppites were +not asked to Mrs. Upjohn's to eat and drink only, or merely to have a +good time, with whatever ulterior intentions of so doing they may have +gone thither. They were asked for a purpose,--a purpose which it was vain +to guess, and impossible to escape. Go they must, and be improved they +must, _bon gré mal gré_, and enjoy themselves they would if they could. + +So there were mingled feelings abroad when Mrs. Upjohn's neatly written +invitations found their way into each of the West-End houses, embracing +natives and strangers alike in their all-hospitable sweep, and even +creeping into some outlying less aristocratic quarters, where confusion +worse confounded, in the shape of refurbishing and making over, followed +agonizingly in their wake. The invitations were indited by Miss Maria +Upjohn, it being an opportunity to improve that young lady's handwriting +which her mother could not have conscientiously suffered to pass, and +stated that Mr. and Mrs. Reuben O. Upjohn requested the honor of your +company on Thursday, July 14th, punctually at four o'clock. R.S.V.P. +Joppa immediately R.S.V.P.'d that it would feel flattered to present +itself at that hour, and then looked anxiously around and asked itself +"What will it be this time?" The day dawned, and still the great question +agitated public minds unsolved. + +"There isn't a word to be coaxed or threatened out of Maria," said Bell +Masters. "I believe it's something too awful to tell. Mr. De Forest, +can't you hazard a guess?" + +Mr. Ogden De Forest was lazily strolling past the Masters' front steps, +where a knot of girls had gathered after a game of lawn tennis, and were +imbibing largely of lemonade, which was being fabricated on the spot, +according to demand, by Phebe and Janet Mudge. The spoons stopped +clinking in the various glasses as Bell thus audaciously called out to +the gentleman. He was not a Joppite by either birth or education; indeed, +he had but lately arrived on his first visit as a summer guest, and was +hardly known to anybody personally as yet, though there was not a girl in +the place but was already perfectly well aware of his existence, and had +placed him instantly as "one of the very swellest of the swells." He was +a short, dark, well-dressed man, and so exceedingly handsome that every +feminine heart secretly acknowledged that only to have the right to bow +to him would be a joy and pride indescribable. And here was Bell, who had +accidentally been introduced to him the day before, calling to him as +unceremoniously as if he were Dick Hardcastle or Jake Dexter. He turned +at her voice and paused at the gate, lifting his hat. "I beg you pardon, +Miss Masters, you called me?" + +"Yes," said Bell. "Have some lemonade?" + +"No, thanks." + +"Come in." + +"Thanks, not this morning. I shall see you later at Mrs. Upjohn's, +I suppose." + +"Yes, you'll see us all later," said Miss Bell, fishing out a lemon-seed +from her goblet. "We shall have on different dresses, and you'll be +offering us lemonade instead of our offering it to you. Take a good look +at us so as to see how much prettier we are now than we shall be then." + +Mr. De Forest obeyed literally, staring tranquilly and critically at each +in turn, his glance returning slowly to the young lady of the house. +"Unless you introduce me to your friends I shall not be able to tell them +so," he replied, in the slow, deliberate voice that seemed always to have +a ring of suppressed sarcasm in it, no matter what he said. + +"Then I'll certainly not introduce you," said Bell, composedly, with a +saucy shot at him from her handsome black eyes. "And so I'll be the only +girl to get the compliment. Phebe, more sugar, please." + +"I will endeavor to work one up between now and then regardless of cost. +Four o'clock, I believe. What is it to be? A dance?" + +"Holy Moses! at Mrs. Upjohn's!" + +"Oh, she doesn't go in for that kind of thing? A card-party, then?" + +"Great heavens! Mr. De Forest, are you mad? I don't doubt she struggles +with herself over every visiting card that she uses,--and +playing-cards--!" + +"Theatricals, then?" + +Bell gave a positive howl. "Theatricals! Hear him, girls!" + +"We hear well enough. You don't give us a chance to do any thing but +listen," said Amy Duckworth, pointedly. + +"My dear, you'll converse all the more brilliantly this afternoon for a +brief period of silence now," said Bell, sweetly. "Mr. De Forest, you are +not happy in your guesses." + +"I have exhausted them, unless it is to be a _musicale_." + +"No. That's what we are going to have to-morrow ourselves. I sing, +you know." + +"Do you? Well, a garden party perhaps?" + +"That's what the Ripleys are going to have Thursday." + +"Then, so far as I can see, there is nothing left for it to be except a +failure," said De Forest, lifting his arms off the gate. "And, in view of +so much coming dissipation, I feel constrained to retire and seek a +little preparatory repose. Good-morning, Miss Masters." + +"How hateful not to introduce him, Bell! And when he distinctly asked +you to! How abominably mean of you! How selfish, how horrid! _I_ +wouldn't have done so," broke out in an indignant chorus, as the +gentleman walked off. + +"Do you think I would be such a goose as to go shares in the handsomest +man Joppa ever laid eyes on, so long as I can keep him to myself?" said +Bell, honestly. "Fish for yourselves, girls. The sea is open to all, and +you may each land another as good." + +Phebe's lip curled very disdainfully. What a fuss to make over a man, and +how Bell had changed in the last few years! + +"Well, keep him, if you can, but I'll be even with you yet," said Amy, +with an ominous smile. "And what luck! Here comes Mr. Moulton now, and I +know him and you don't, and I'll pay you off on the spot. Good-morning, +Mr. Moulton." + +The young gentleman stopped, in his turn, at the gate as Amy +spoke to him. + +"Oh, Miss Duckworth, I was on my way to call on you." + +"I will go home with you in a minute," said Amy, graciously. "I wouldn't +miss your call for any thing. But first let me introduce you to my +friends. Miss Mudge, Mr. Moulton,--Miss Lane, the Misses Dexter. You +will meet us all again at Mrs. Upjohn's. Of course, you are going?" + +"Certainly, now I am told that I shall meet you there, and if you will +promise that I shan't be called upon to do any thing remarkable. I have +heard alarming reports." + +"That is out of anyone's power to promise," replied Miss Duckworth. "No +genius is safe from her." + +"Amy, love," broke in Bell, with infinite gentleness of tone and manner, +"you have forgotten to present your friend to me, and I cannot be so +impolite as to leave him standing outside my own gate. I am Miss Masters, +Mr. Moulton. Pray excuse the informality, and come in to share our +lemonade." + +Mr. Moulton, nothing loath, accordingly came in, took his glass, and sat +himself just where Bell directed, on a step at her feet. Amy colored, and +there was a subdued titter somewhere in the background, and Bell calmly +resumed the reins of the conversation. "No, there is no knowing what we +shall be put through this afternoon. One time when Mrs. Upjohn had got us +all safely inside her doors, she divided us smartly into two classes, set +herself in the middle, and announced that we were there for a spelling +bee. We shouldn't say we hadn't learned something at her house. And upon +my word we did learn something. Never before or since have I heard such +merciless words as she dealt us out. My hair stands on end still when I +recollect the horrors I underwent that day." + +"I'll smuggle in a dictionary," declared Mr. Moulton. "I'll be +ready for her." + +"No use. She never runs twice in the same groove. It's only sure not to +be a spelling bee this time." + +"When we last went there it turned out to be a French _soirée_," said one +of the Misses Dexter, "and she announced that there would be a penny's +fine collected at the end of the evening for each English word spoken." + +"Proceeds to go to a lately imported poor family," added the sister +Dexter. "There was quite a sum raised, and the head of the family +decamped with it two days after, for Heaven knows where, leaving his wife +and infants on Mrs. Upjohn's hands poorer than ever." + +But Mrs. Upjohn's entertainment proved to be neither orthographic nor +linguistic. The guests arrived punctually as bidden, and their hostess, +clad in her most splendid attire, received them with her most gracious +manner. There was nothing to foretell the fate that awaited them. Her +tall, awkward daughter stood nervously by her side. Mr. Upjohn, too, kept +there valiantly for a time, then his round, ample figure and jolly face +disappeared somewhere, under chaperonage of Mrs. Bruce, his latest +admiration. But no one ever thought of Mr. Upjohn as the host, any way; +beseemed rather to be a sort of favored guest in his own parlor; and his +place was more than made good by Mr. Hardcastle, who, standing in the +centre of the room, exactly as he always stood in the centre of +everybody's room on such an occasion, appeared himself to be quite master +of ceremonies, from the grand way in which he stepped forward to meet +each guest and hope he or she "would make out to enjoy it." The rooms +filled rapidly, and before long Mrs. Upjohn turned from the door and +stood an instant reviewing her guests with the triumphant mien of a +victorious general. Then she advanced solemnly to the middle of the room, +displacing Mr. Hardcastle, who graciously made way and waved his hand to +signify to her his permission to proceed. + +"My friends," said the great lady, with her deep, positive voice, drawing +her imposing figure to its fullest height, "as you know, it is never _my_ +way to give parties. I leave that for the rest of you to do. When I ask +you to my house, it is with a higher motive than to make a few hours lie +less heavily on your hands." + +"Dear soul!" muttered Dick Hardcastle to his crony, Jake. "Nobody could +have the conscience to charge her with ever having lightened them to us." + +"And therefore," continued the lady, gazing around upon her victims with +a benignant smile, "without further prelude, I will inform you for what +object I have asked you to honor me with your presence this afternoon." + +She paused, and a cold chill ran through the company. What would she do? +Would she open on them with the Westminster Catechism this time, or set +them to shelling peas for some poor man's dinner, or would she examine +them in the multiplication table? A few had run it hastily over before +leaving home to make sure that they were ready for such an emergency. + +"I had thought first," Mrs. Upjohn proceeded, "of a series of games as +instructive as delightful, games of history and geography, and one +particularly of astronomy, which I am persuaded would be very helpful. It +brought out the nature of the spectroscope in a remarkably clear and +intelligent light, and after a few rounds I am sure none of us could ever +again have forgotten those elusive figures relative to the distances and +proportions of the planets. However, that must be for another time. For +today I thought it would be a pleasure as well as a benefit to us all to +learn something about a gifted and noble person who, I am surprised to +find, is not so well known in Joppa as she should be, and whom, I am +convinced, we should all be infinitely the better and happier for +knowing. I have, therefore, persuaded Mr. Webb, with whose powers as a +reader long years of acquaintanceship have so pleasantly familiarized us, +to read to us this afternoon extracts from the 'Life and Letters of the +Baroness Bunsen.'" + +"Good Lord!" ejaculated Dick beneath his breath, "who's that?" + +"Hush," whispered Jake. "I've got a novel of Miss Braddon's in my +pocket. I thought it might come in handy. That'll help us through till +feed time." + +"You are all familiar with the name, of course," pursued Mrs. Upjohn, +smiling graciously around the dismayed circle of her guests. "The book +has been in the library this long time past, and observing with regret +that only its first fifty pages had been cut, I caught at this invaluable +opportunity to make you further acquainted with it." + +Mr. Webb now came forward, a thick, green-bound volume in his hand, and a +look on his face as if he were about to open the proceedings with a +prayer, but Mrs. Upjohn held up her hand. + +"One moment, please, before we begin. We ladies are so unaccustomed to +sitting with idle hands, even when listening to so absorbing a theme as +the virtues of this truly excellent Christian wife and mother, that I +thought it would be a kindness to ourselves to provide some simple work +which should occupy our fingers and at the same time be in itself a +worthy object of industry. Maria, my dear." + +The silence in the room was appalling; one could almost hear the shiver +of apprehension running down the silk-and muslin-clad backs. The sign was +given, however, by the docile Maria, and immediately two enormous baskets +were brought in: one, the smaller, containing every possible implement +for unlimited sewing by unlimited hands; the other, of alarming +dimensions, filled to overflowing with shapeless and questionable +garments of a canton-flannel coarse, so yellow, so indestructible, so +altogether unwearable and hideous, that had it been branded "charity" in +flaming letters, its object could not have been more plainly designated. +Mrs. Upjohn lifted the top article and unfolded it lovingly. It was a +night-dress, atoning in lavishness of material for deficiency in grace of +make, and would have been a loose fit for the wife of the giant Chang. + +"These, ladies," she said, "as you will have guessed, are for the winter +wear of our parish poor. Though you are not all so fortunate as to belong +to our church, still I feel there is not one of you here but will be more +than glad to help forward so blessed a charity as clothing the naked" +(Mrs. Upjohn, in view of the nature of the garments, spoke even more +literally than she intended), "who none the less need your ministrations +whether you worship with us or apart. Maria, my child, Bell, Phebe, +Mattie, will you kindly distribute the work among the ladies? There is +another basket ready outside if the supply gives out. Dick, I would like +you to carry around the thimbles. Jake, here are the needles and the +spools and the scissors. If I may be permitted, ladies, I would suggest +that we should all begin with the button-holes." + +Nothing but the thought of the recompense in the coming supper could +have sustained Mrs. Upjohn's doomed guests in the prospect before them. +Extracts from Baroness Bunsen, and buttonholes in canton-flannel charity +nightgowns, and a hot July afternoon, made a sum of misery that was +almost too great a tax upon even Joppian amiability. + +"I say it's a shame!" cried Bell Masters, in unconcealed wrath. "The idea +of springing such a trap on us! Let Mrs. Upjohn's parish sew for its own +poor, _I_ won't crease my fresh dress holding that great, thick lump on +my lap all the afternoon. I'm not going to be swindled into helping in +this fashion." + +"Oh, yes you are," said Mr. Halloway, bubbling over with suppressed +merriment at the intense fun of it all. "There isn't one of you here who +will refuse. I never knew any thing so delightful and novel in my whole +life. This condensed combination, in one afternoon party of charity, +literature, and indigestion is masterly. Miss Mudge, here is a seat for +you right by Miss Masters. Miss Phebe, let me find you a chair." + +And in a few moments, simply, it seemed, by the natural law of +gravitation, without any engineering whatever, Mrs. Upjohn's guests had +resolved themselves into two distinct parties, the elders all in the +drawing-room, the younger ones in the parlor across the hall, too far off +from Mr. Webb for their gay whispering to disturb that worthy as he +boldly plunged headlong at his work, to do or die written on every +feature of his thin, long face. + +"So this is what the party turned out, Miss Masters, is it?" said +Moulton, pulling his moustache as he stood up beside her. "A first-class +Dorcas society." + +"Charity covereth a multitude of sins," said Bell, crossly, giving a +vindictive snap with her scissors, "but it won't begin to cover the +enormity of Mrs. Upjohn's transgressions on this occasion. You gentlemen +must be very devoted to atone to us for the button-holes. There's Mr. De +Forest standing in the other room looking as if he wished he were dead. +Go and bring him here." + +Thus summoned, Mr. De Forest came leisurely enough, looking, if possible, +a little more languid and blasé than he did in the morning. Bell +instantly made a place for him on the sofa by her side. + +"Thanks, I would rather stand. I can take it all in better." + +"Well?" asked Bell, after a pause, looking saucily up at him. "Was I +right this morning? Didn't we look prettier then?" + +"Infinitely." + +Bell colored rather angrily, and Phebe laughed outright. Mr. De Forest +favored her with a stare, chewed the end of his side-whiskers +reflectively a moment, then deliberately walked over to her. "Miss Lane, +I believe." + +Phebe bowed, but somewhat stiffly. + +"Excuse me," continued De Forest, imperturbably. "There doesn't seem +to be any one to introduce us, and we know perfectly well who we each +are, you know, and I wanted to ask about a mutual friend of +ours,--Miss Vernor." + +Phebe brightened and softened instantly. "Oh!" she exclaimed, dropping +her work, "you know her? you have seen her? lately?" + +"I know her, yes, quite well. I saw her some weeks since. I understood +then that there was a little talk of her coming up here this summer. One +of those fearful children, Olly, or Hal, or some one of the superfluous +young ones, was a little off condition,--not very well, you know,--and +the doctor said he mustn't go with the rest to the sea-shore, and she +mentioned bringing him up here to recruit. I heard her mention your name, +too, and didn't know but you might have heard something of it." + +"I have, I have!" cried Phebe, her face all aglow, "She _is_ coming,--she +and Olly. She is going to stay with me. I wrote and begged her to." + +"Ah, that will be very pleasant for you. Do you expect her soon?" + +"To-morrow." + +"Ah!" Mr. De Forest ruminated silently a moment. "She'll be bored to +death up here, won't she?" he asked, presently. + +"Then she can go home again," replied Phebe, shortly. + +"True, true," said her companion, thoughtfully. "I forgot that. And she +probably will. It would be like her to go if it bored her." + +"Only there's Olly," said Phebe, grimly, the light fading out of her +face a little. "She'll have to stay for him." + +"Oh, no. She can put him to board somewhere and leave him. Miss Vernor +doesn't concern herself overmuch with the young ones. They are an awful +nuisance to her." + +"She does every thing for them. You can't know her," said Phebe, +indignantly. "Did you say you knew her well, Mr. De Forest?" + +"I don't remember just what I said, Miss Lane, but it would have been the +truth if I did, and I generally speak the truth when it's equally +convenient. Yes, I do know Miss Vernor _very_ well, and I have worsted +her in a great many arguments,--you know her argumentative turn, perhaps? +If you will allow me, I will do myself the honor of calling upon her when +she comes,--and upon yourself, if I may have the pleasure." + +"Not if you come with the intention of putting Gerald out of conceit with +Joppa. I want her to stay a long, long time." + +"Don't be afraid, Miss Lane. I'll do my best to help keep her here, so +long, at least, as I stay myself. '_Aprés celà le déluge_.'" + +"I don't speak French." + +"Ah? No? I regret it. You might have assisted me in my genders. I am +never altogether sure of them." + +"Mr. De Forest," called Bell, imperatively, from the other side of the +room, displeased at the defalcation of her knight, "I want to introduce +you to Miss Mudge." + +Miss Mudge tried to make Bell understand by frantic pantomime that she +hadn't meant just now,--any time would do,--but Bell chose it should be +just now; and slightly lifting his eyebrows, Mr. De Forest took his +handsome person slowly back to Bell to make an almost impertinently +indifferent bow to the new claimant upon him. + +Mr. Halloway had been standing near Phebe, too near not to overhear the +conversation, and he turned to her now quickly. + +"So this accounts for your beaming face," he said in a low tone, as he +took a seat just back of her in the window niche. "The mysterious Gerald +_is_ really coming, then. I wondered what had happened as soon as I saw +you. Why did you not tell me?" + +"I was only waiting till I had the chance," she answered, all the +brightness coming back into her bonny face as she smiled up at him. + +"Do you think I could keep any thing so nice from you for long? It seems +to make every thing nicer when you know it too. She is coming +to-morrow,--only think,--to-morrow,--just twenty-one hours more now. I +can hardly wait!" + +"It will be a great happiness to her, surely, to see you again," +said Denham. + +"That's what she writes in her letter. At least she says: 'I shall be +glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear' Isn't that nice? 'Phebe, my dear,' +she says. That is a great deal for Gerald to say." + +"Is it? But I believe some young ladies are less effusive with their pens +than with their tongues." + +"It isn't Gerald's nature ever to be effusive. But oh, I'm so glad she's +coming! I only got her letter last night. See, doesn't she write a nice +hand?" And cautiously, lest any one else should see too, Phebe slipped an +envelope into Denham's hand. He bent back behind the lace curtains to +inspect it. + +"Do you generally carry about your letters in your pocket, Miss Phebe?" + +"No, only Gerald's. I love so always to have something of hers near me. +Isn't it a nice hand?" + +Halloway looked silently at the upright, angular, large script. "It's +legible, certainly." + +"But you don't like it?" + +"Miss Phebe, I am torn between conflicting truth and politeness. It is +like a man's hand, if I must say something." + +"And so are her letters like a man's. Read it and see. Oh, she wouldn't +mind! There is nothing in it, and yet somehow it seems just like Gerald. +Do read it. Oh, I want you to. Please, please do." + +And led half by curiosity, half by the eagerness in Phebe's pretty face, +Denham opened the letter and read, Phebe glancing over it with him as if +she couldn't bear to lose sight of it an instant. + +"DEAR PHEBE," so ran the letter, "your favor of 9th inst. rec. I +had no idea of intruding ourselves upon you when I asked you to look +up rooms, but as you seem really to want us"--("seem!" whispered +Phebe, putting her finger on the word with a pout)--"I can only say +we shall be very glad to come to you. You may look for Olly and +myself Friday, July 15th, by the P.M. train. Olly isn't really ill, only +run down. He is as horrid a little bear as ever. All are well, and +started last week for Narragansett Pier. I shall rejoice to get away +from the art school and guilds, which keep on even in this intemperate +weather, and I shall be glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear," +(Phebe looked up triumphantly in Denham's face as she reached the +words.) "Remember me to Mrs. Lane and Miss--, I can't think +of her name,--Aunt Lydia, I mean. + +"Sincerely yours + +"GERALDINE VERNOR, + +"P.S.--Olly only drinks milk." + +Phebe took back the letter and folded it up. "Well?" she said. + +"Well?" said Denham, looking at her and smiling. + +"It's just like her," declared Phebe. "It's so downright and to the +point. Gerald never wastes words." + +"You said it was like a man's letter," said Denham. "But I must beg leave +to differ with you there. I don't think it is at all such a letter as _I_ +would have written you, for instance." + +"Of course not. It wouldn't be proper for you to say 'Phebe, my dear,' as +Gerald does. Yours would have to be a very dignified, pastoral letter." + +"Yes, addressed to 'My Lamb,' which you couldn't object to in a pastoral +letter of course, and which sounds nearly as affectionate, blaming you +for having caused me to lose the valuable information I might have gained +about the Baroness Bunsen. I never got much farther than her birth in +that famous history. I see poor Miss Delano casting longing glances in +here. I'll smuggle her in among you young people." + +He departed on his errand of mercy, and soon had the timid little old +maid in the more congenial atmosphere of the parlor, where little by +little, though in a very stealthy and underhand way, the talk grew more +general, and the restraint slackened more and more, until sewing and +reading were both forgotten and the fun became fast and furious, +culminating in the sudden appearance of Jake Dexter dressed up as an +ancient and altogether unlovely old woman, whom Dick Hardcastle presented +in a stage whisper as "Baroness Bunsen in the closing chapter," and who +forthwith proceeded to act out in dumb show the various events of that +admirable woman's life, as judiciously and sonorously touched upon by Mr. +Webb in the drawing-room opposite. Jake was a born actor, and having +"done up" the Baroness, he proceeded to "do up" several other noted +historical characters, not omitting a few less celebrated contemporaries +of his own, each representation better and truer to life than the last; +and winding up with snatching away their work from the young ladies' not +unwilling hands, and piling it in heaps on the floor around him, he sat +himself in the middle with an armful hugged close and an air of comically +mingled resignation and opulence, and announced himself as "a photo from +life of ye destitute poor of Joppa." + +Mrs. Upjohn may have had suspicions that all was not going on precisely +as she had planned in that other half of her domains which she had +surrendered to Maria's feeble guardianship, but it certainly could not +be laid to her blame if young people would amuse themselves even at her +house. If they wilfully persisted in neglecting the means of grace she +had conscientiously provided for them, so much the worse for them, not +for her; and if Mr. Upjohn found the contemplation of Mrs. Bruce's +profile, and her occasional smiles at him as she bent over her ugly +work, not sufficient of an indemnity for his enforced silence, and +chose to sneak over to the young people's side and enjoy himself too, +as an inopportune and hearty guffaw from thence testified just at the +wrong moment, when Mr. Webb had reached the culminating point of the +Baroness' death, and was drawing tears from the ladies' eyes by the +irresistible pathos of his voice,--why, Mrs. Upjohn owned in her heart +that it was only what might be expected of him, and that she couldn't +help that either. + +So at last the reading came to an end. Everybody said it had been +unprecedentedly delightful, and they should never forget that dear +Baroness so long as they lived, and they thought Mrs. Upjohn herself +might have sat for the original of the biography, so identical were her +virtues with those of the departed saint, and so exactly did she resemble +her in every particular except just in the outward circumstances of her +life. And Mrs. Upjohn modestly entreated them to desist drawing so +unworthy a comparison, and said it was an example of a life they should +each and all do well to imitate so far as in them lay, and then she went +about collecting the nightgowns, and (oh, cruellest of all!) inspecting +the button-holes. It was an excellent day's work, she reported, fanning +herself vigorously, and Miss Brooks, as champion button-hole-maker, +having made three more than any one else, should have the post of honor +and be taken in to supper by Mr. Upjohn, who was routed out from the +parlor for the purpose, very red in the face, and still convulsed with +laughter. Mrs. Bruce may have suspected this to be designed as a neat way +of cutting her out, but there is no knowing to what lengths a flippant +widow's imagination will not go, and any way Mr. Upjohn quite atoned +afterward for any temporary neglect, by paying her the most assiduous +attentions right in the face of his wife, who apparently did not care a +straw, and only thought her husband a little more foolish than usual. Did +not everybody know that it was only Mr. Upjohn's way, and that it did not +mean any thing? + +And so the doors were thrown open, supper was announced, and Joppa, as it +swarmed around the loaded tables, felt that its hour of merited reward +was come; and Mr. Hardcastle, when at last he could eat and drink no +more, stood up and pronounced, in the name of the united assembly, that +Mrs. Upjohn's entertainment had been a very, very great success, as all +that dear Mrs. Upjohn undertook always was sure to be, and particularly +those devilled crabs were unapproachable for perfection. Nobody could +make him believe that even the Baroness Bunsen with all her learning +could ever have spiced them better. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FRIENDS. + + +Several days later, as Mr. Halloway was leaving the rectory one +afternoon, he saw Phebe standing in her door-way, and crossed to +speak to her. + +"Alone?" he asked, smiling. "I supposed that now you would never be +without a shadow." + +"Gerald is up-stairs dressing. She is going to ride with Mr. De Forest. +He has been to see her twice already, and you have not called yet." There +was the faintest possible reproach in her voice and in her eyes. + +"I have been really busy the last few days, Miss Phebe. You may know +there is always some desperate reason when I am long absent. But here I +am now. Shall I send in my card for Miss Vernor? Must I do it up in New +York or Joppa style?" + +Phebe laughed. "Never mind the card, Gerald will be down soon. It is +nearly time, and she is always so punctual. What is it, Olly, dear?" + +An ugly little boy, with a pale, pinched face and impish eyes, was +pulling smartly at her dress. + +"I say, Pheeb, can I have a cookie?" + +"Does Gerald let you have cookies between meals, Olly?" + +"Yes," answered Olly, unhesitatingly. "Always." + +"What's that?" broke in an unexpected voice behind,--a clear, +ringing, decided voice. "I will not have you tell such lies, Olly! +Why will you do it!" + +"I'll have the cookie anyhow," said Olly, starting on a run. "Pheeb said +I could, and this is Pheeb's house, and I will." + +"And you won't," said the voice, sharply. There was a scuffle, a rush, +the sound of a smart box on the ear, a sudden childish howl, and Olly +fled back to Phebe and buried his face in her dress. Phebe folded her +arms protectingly around him, and looked up appealingly at the tall, +slender figure approaching. + +"Oh, Gerald, must you?" + +"Phebe, I can't have you spoil that boy so. I won't have him a liar and a +gourmand; he's bad enough without that. Olly, stop bawling this moment." + +"I won't," screamed Olly. "You hurt me, you did, and if I can't have a +cookie I'll cry just as loud as ever I can; so there!" + +"Then you'll cry in the house and not on the front steps. I won't have +it. Come in immediately." + +And holding up her habit with one hand, the young lady reached out with +the other,--a very small and white but determined-looking little hand +Denham noticed (from where he stood he could not see her face)--and +wrenching the child by no means gently away from Phebe, she dragged him +with her toward the parlor. + +"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" cried Olly, vociferously, doing +battle valiantly with hands and feet as he went. "I hate you every day +worse than ever!" + +"Hate me all you like," said Gerald, with utmost coolness and disdain. "I +leave you perfectly free in that direction, but you shan't tell lies or +disobey me. Now stay in there and be still." + +And closing the door on the sobbing culprit, she came slowly back to +Phebe, still scowling and pressing her lips firmly together as she drew +on her gauntlets. "Little wretch!" she muttered. + +"Gerald, please," said Phebe, flushing scarlet with mortification, "here +is Mr. Halloway. I want to introduce him to you." + +Gerald stopped abruptly and looked up. She had not seen him before. A +fleet, faint color tinged her clear cheeks an instant, but there was no +other sign of embarrassment or annoyance as her dark blue eyes met his +with the singularly penetrating gaze with which they looked out on all +the world. There was no denying it. With her clear-cut, aristocratic +face, and her slim, straight figure, stately perhaps rather than +graceful, and a trifle haughty in its unbending erectness, Gerald Vernor +was very, very handsome. + +"I am happy to meet you at last, Miss Vernor," said Denham, with his +pleasant smile. "But you are no stranger to me, I assure you. Miss Phebe +made us all friends of yours long since." + +Gerald's brows contracted. "Phebe is very kind," she said, with quite +the opposite from gratitude in her voice, "but I hate to be talked about +beforehand. One starts on a false basis from the first. Besides, it gives +every one else the advantage over one." + +"To be sure," replied Denham, "we cannot expect you to know us as +well from hearsay. It would be too much to hope that Miss Phebe +should have had as much to say for any of the rest of us." He turned +laughingly to Phebe as he spoke, and she looked at him with eyes full +of implicit faith. + +"No," she said, simply; "I haven't told Gerald any thing about you, only +your name. She will find it all out for herself so much better than I can +tell her." + +"I am afraid I am not very good at finding people out," remarked Gerald, +bluntly, "unless I am extraordinarily interested in them--" + +"Which I imagine you generally are not," interrupted Denham. + +"True," she answered, smiling a little, "which I generally am not; I am +content with a very superficial knowledge. The world is crowded so full, +where could one stop who set out to know thoroughly all he met?" + +"It is a bitter thought that you will never know more of me than just the +color of my beard," said Denham, reflectively, "but if such is your habit +I suppose I must resign myself to it. Now, I am exactly the reverse from +you; I am always extraordinarily interested in everybody." + +"Ah, because as a clergyman you must be." + +"No; simply because it happens to be my nature. One has one's individual +characteristics, you know, quite independently of one's profession." + +"Yes, in other professions; but in yours--" + +"But we are men first, Miss Vernor, afterward clergymen. Why may we not +keep our distinct idiosyncrasies, even in our clerical uniform?" + +Gerald slashed her dress gently with her riding whip. "It seems to me as +if you should all be clergymen first and men afterward, fitting +yourselves to the profession rather than the profession to you; and so by +all confessedly following one pattern, you would be necessarily drawn +into a greater similitude with each other than any other class of men. +Ah, here is Mr. De Forest at last." + +"At last?" repeated that gentleman as he joined the group, or rather +paused just beyond it, surveying Gerald with a critical glance which +seemed to take in accurately at one swift sweep every least detail of her +dress. "My watch stands at the minute, Miss Vernor." + +"And here come the horses," added Phebe. + +"Not much to boast of," said De Forest, turning the severe criticism of +his look upon the animals as the boy brought them up. "I wouldn't let you +be seen in Central Park with them. However, they are the best Joppa can +do for us. They are not very good-natured brutes either, but I believe +you look to a horse's hoofs rather than his head." + +"I do, decidedly," laughed Gerald, as De Forest raised her deftly to the +saddle and arranged bridle and girths to her liking, turning to tighten +his own before mounting, and kicking away a small dog that had run up to +sniff at his heels. + +"What did you bring along this ugly little beast of yours for, Jim? I +abhor curs." + +"Tain't none of mine, Mister," said the stable-boy, grinning. "It's +one of them street dogs that ain't nobody's." And he in his turn gave +a push to the puppy, while Gerald leaned down and hit at it lightly +with her whip. + +"Get away, my friend. There isn't room both for you and for us here," she +said, turning her horse toward it playfully as the little creature slunk +aside. In another instant her horse kicked violently, there was a single +sharp yelp, and the dog lay motionless in the road. + +"Hi!" exclaimed Jim, quite in accents of admiration, as he ran up and +bent over the poor thing. "That was a good un! Right on the head! He +won't trouble any other genelman again, I'm thinking." + +"What!" cried Gerald, sharply. "You don't mean the dog is dead?" + +"Don't I?" said the boy, moving a little aside so that she should see. +"That was a neat un and no mistake." + +Gerald looked down with a cry of horror; then suddenly sprang from her +horse and caught up the poor little limp animal in her arms. + +"Take away the horse," she said to the boy, imperiously. "I shall not +ride to-day." + +"But, Miss Vernor!" expostulated De Forest, "for heaven's sake don't +take it so to heart. It's unfortunate, of course, but no one is to blame. +Do put the thing down. It's dead. You can't do any thing more for it." + +"I know it," said Gerald. "I did all I could; I killed him. But you'll +have to excuse me, Mr. De Forest, I can't ride." + +De Forest caught her by the arm impatiently, as she turned from him. +"What nonsense, Miss Vernor! What _is_ the good of playing tragedy queen +over a dead dog? I'll have him buried in a silver coffin if you like and +raise a memorial to his inestimable virtues, but in the name of all that +is sensible, do get on the horse again and let us have our ride." + +"Not to-day," replied Gerald. "I could not. It is impossible." She +looked up at him, holding the little victim pressed close in her arms, +utterly regardless of its rough and grimy coat. Her eyes were swimming +with tears. + +"As you decide, of course," said De Forest, sulkily, releasing her, and +tossing his bridle to the boy. "Here you, Sim, or Tim, or Jim, or +whatever you are, take away the horses, and as you value your tip, mind +you don't have any more dogs around the next time I want you." + +Gerald turned away without another word, gathering up her dress as she +best could, and went into the house. Olly, who had witnessed the whole +proceeding enchantedly from the window, ran to meet her. "I say, let's +see him. My, ain't he dirty! Is he dead? just as dead as he can be?" + +"Yes," answered his sister, very gently; "the poor thing is quite dead. +Come and help me bury him decently somewhere. No, Phebe, stay there. I +wish it. Don't let us have any more fuss about it, please." + +De Forest lifted his hat and turned to leave as Gerald disappeared. "Pray +don't let me detain you from the interesting ceremony, Miss Lane," he +said, with his most cynical and mocking voice; "Miss Vernor as +high-priestess will be worth a full audience. Good-morning." + +"Gerald wouldn't like it if I went to her when she said not; I must +stay here," said Phebe turning her distressed face to Halloway, who had +stood a silent spectator of it all. "Oh, I'm so sorry it happened! +Isn't it too bad?" + +"It certainly is,--for the dog." + +"She won't get over it for ever so long, and it wasn't really her fault. +She was only in fun when she turned her horse that way. Gerald is very +tender-hearted." + +"I see she is,--toward dogs." + +"Mr. Halloway, you don't like her!" + +"Miss Phebe, I am madly in love with her." + +"Don't laugh at me, please. Isn't she handsome?" + +"Well, I couldn't judge of the length of her hair." + +"Nonsense, tell me what you really think of her." + +Denham pondered a moment. "I think all sorts of things," he answered +presently, with an amused laugh. "She is so contradictory she'll fit +almost any opinion, and the worst I can say of her is that she'll never +concern herself in the least to find out what my opinion may be." + +"Ah," said Phebe, softly, "just wait. You don't either of you know each +other yet!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PICNIC. + + +Gerald's and Olly's visit was quite an event in the quiet Lane household. +Olly flagrantly broke every existing custom in it with the sublime +autocracy of childhood, and regained his health at the cost of the peace +of mind of every individual with whom he came in contact, from nervous +Miss Lydia down to the protesting servants; while Gerald was one of those +intense personalities whose influence seems to recreate the entire +atmosphere about them at once, go where they will. Poor Miss Lydia was +afraid of her quick speech and brusque ways and decided opinions, and +spent more hours than usual upstairs alone in her own little room, and +wore her best cap whenever she appeared below, as a sort of mute appeal +to the young lady's indulgence. But Gerald, in her robust health, had no +sympathy whatever with invalids as a class, and for "chronic nerves" she +had an absolute contempt, unmitigated by even the best cap's gay ribbons. +"It's altogether a matter of will," she asserted. "People needn't be ill +if they are only resolved not to be so." + +"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, who had chanced to overhear; and there was a +trifle more tenderness than usual in her manner when she went up later to +put the mid-day cup of beef-tea into her sister's thin hands, and stood +looking compassionately down at her. "Nothing is easier than to insist +that a thing is so and so, just because there's no way to prove that it +isn't so." + +"How you do always talk in proverbs, Sister Sophy!" said Miss Lydia, +admiringly. "I only wish Solomon could have heard you. I do believe he +would have put some of them in." + +"He would have been far too busy taking down Mrs. Upjohn's fine speeches +to mind _me_," grunted Mrs. Lane. "And I never did think much of Solomon, +anyway. He was too much of a Mormon with his hundred wives and that. Want +any thing else, Lyddy?" + +"No, thank you. The house is very nice and still this morning. There's +a picnic up at the Dexter's farm, isn't there? I suppose they've all +gone to it." + +"Of course. Who ever heard of a picnic unless Phebe went along to do all +the fussing and mussing that everybody else shirks? Don't tell _me_ +there's any fun in a picnic,--going off in the woods like that, to do for +yourself what you'd sell the clothes off your back to have somebody else +do for you at home, and eating all kinds of heathenish messes with your +fingers because you've forgotten the forks. But what people like let them +have. They'll get experience out of it if nothing better. And of course +Phebe had to go." + +True enough, Phebe was as essential to any picnic as the feast, though +much less obtrusively so, and Gerald watched her friend's quiet +helpfulness with lazy interest. She herself was stretched at ease on the +clean, fresh grass under some glorious old trees. The place chosen was a +lovely spot at the head of the lake; the drive there had been long and +hot, and now she lay enjoying to the full the refreshment of the shadow +and the breeze, and the perfection both of the view and of her immediate +surroundings. Bell Masters sat near her, having discovered that she was +generally surest of Mr. De Forest's company when in Gerald's +neighborhood. Nor had she been mistaken this time. He had openly +abandoned the greedy band of berry-pickers, and the artistic knot of +sketchers, and the noisy body of pleasure-seekers, who were paddling +frivolously around the shores of the lake and screaming with causeless +laughter, as soon as he found that Gerald did not intend attaching +herself to any of them but had struck out the new and independent line of +doing absolutely nothing at all. Halloway had been helping industriously +with the fire, but he came toward the group under the trees when his +services seemed no longer required. + +"You look most invitingly comfortable," he said, fanning himself with his +hat. "We must try to coax Miss Phebe here for a rest." + +"Pray don't," said De Forest, lifting a lazy hand with an air of finding +even that motion too great an effort. "At least not till the coffee is +well under way. I tasted a cup of her make yesterday. Don't call her off. +We are all benefiting in a manner by her absence." + +"I can make good coffee too, when I choose," said Bell, biting at the +rim of her straw hat. + +De Forest contemplated her with new interest. "Ah, can you. 'Tis a gift +of the gods given to few. And when do you choose, may I ask? Apparently +not to-day." + +"'Tisn't my picnic." + +"Oh! Is it Miss Lane's?" + +"One would say it was, from the way she slaves for it," remarked Gerald. + +"Why don't you help too?" asked De Forest, breaking off blades of grass +and flinging them out singly upon the air. + +"For Miss Masters' excellent reason: it is not my picnic." + +"You contribute your valuable aid solely to your own undertakings then?" + +"Why am I called upon to contribute it to any other?" + +"'Tis a problem for philosophers. But for argument's sake, let us say for +the good of humanity at large, and of the Dexters in particular." + +"I am not bound to the Dexters by any obligation that I can see to help +them carry out their entertainment. If they are not equal to it, they +should not give it." + +"Nothing Quixotic about you, is there?" said De Forest, looking at her +quizzically. + +"Nothing whatever," replied Gerald, easily. "Why should there be? Let +every one look out for himself." + +"And if some can't?" + +"That is no business of mine. It's simply my business to make sure that I +can look after myself." + +"What an outrageously frank exposure of a universally concealed +sentiment! Mr. Halloway is scandalized. He is thinking how he can fit a +scorching text to it to wither you with next Sunday." + +"No; here is a sermon ready made on the spot," said Denham, as Phebe came +slowly toward them. "Miss Lane in herself is a sufficient illustration of +the opposite doctrine." + +"Prove it," answered Gerald, shrugging her shoulders. "Prove that Phebe, +who toils for everybody, is any happier than I, who only follow my +inclination." + +"You certainly look vastly the more comfortable at present," said De +Forest, looking from Gerald's cool cheeks and unruffled muslin flounces +to Phebe's flushed face and tumbled cambric. "You are a practical +embodiment of the beauty and expediency of selfishness." + +"What are you talking about?" asked Phebe, coming up and leaning wearily +against a tree. + +"About you and Miss Vernor," explained Bell. "Which of you is happier? +_I_ should say Miss Vernor decidedly." + +A loving look came into Phebe's eyes, as she glanced down at Gerald. + +"Miss Vernor, _of course_", she said, with a very tender inflection of +voice. "Being what she is, how can she help being the happier?" + +"Virtue advocating vice," said De Forest. "Mr. Halloway, your sermon is a +dead failure,--as a sermon." + +"By no means," answered Denham, smiling. "I don't expect to convert +you in a single lesson. Will you not sit down with us, Miss Phebe? You +look tired." + +"Not just yet, thank you." + +"And why not?" asked Gerald. + +"I want to see a little after Miss Delano first. She's off there all +alone hunting for ferns." + +"Well," persisted Gerald, "what of it? Are you fonder of her society than +ours, that you must run after her?" + +"I am not fonder of any one's society than of yours, Gerald." + +"But are you fond of that tiresome creature at all? Confess it; doesn't +she bore you to death with her interminable grasshopper chatter?" + +Phebe glanced at Halloway, and laughed a little as she moved away. +"Oh, I am learning by degrees not to be bored by people,--not even by +Miss Delano." + +"Now, will any one explain why she should wish to teach herself _not_ to +know a bore from a Christian?" exclaimed Gerald, impatiently. "It is +quite beyond me." + +"But do you really never talk to anybody unless you want to, Miss +Vernor?" asked Bell, disagreeably conscious that Gerald had not +voluntarily addressed her once that morning. + +"Never," replied Gerald, staring out at the lake. + +"Don't you ever do any thing you don't want to, because you ought to?" + +"I don't always see the ought. For instance, why should I put myself out +to entertain Miss Delano as Phebe does?" + +"I don't know," muttered Bell. "I wouldn't, I am sure. She is +mortally dull." + +"One might imagine reasons for the self-sacrifice, I suppose," said De +Forest, making a languid snatch at a butterfly fluttering near. "The +possibility, we will say, that it might please the gentle old babbler +to come under the condescension of your notice. How would that do for +a motive?" + +"Why should I want to please her?" insisted Gerald, removing a hideous +beetle from her dress with all possible care lest she should hurt it. "I +don't want to. I don't care for her, nor she for me. Why should I put +myself out for her? What claim has she on me that I should displease +myself to please her?" + +"Let us see," said Denham, ruminatingly. "Miss Delano's pleasure against +Miss Vernor's displeasure, or _vice versa, Miss Vernor's pleasure against +Miss Delano's displeasure. Yes; the balance of pleasure remains quite +the same whichever lady has it. Apart from principle, the logic is +unanswerable." + +"It is admirable," commented De Forest. "I always did like logic so much +better than moral philosophy. Hello, what's the matter now?" + +There was a wail of distress somewhere in the distance. + +Gerald turned her shapely head and listened a moment. "It's only Olly," +she said, composedly. "I recognize the cry. He isn't hurt. Oh, you +needn't go, Mr. Halloway; Olly never comes to any harm. He's only +quarrelling with some one." + +De Forest raised himself on his elbow to listen, while Halloway walked +off in the direction of the outburst. "There are possibilities lurking in +picnics, you know," he remarked, resuming his recumbent position, "mad +bulls, and rabbit traps, and fine chances for a drown now and then. But I +suppose we needn't trouble ourselves, Mr. Halloway'll see to it. Besides, +Olly bears the charmed life of the wicked. Miss Masters, I hope you +remember to give daily thanks that you haven't any small brothers." + +"I do devoutly give thanks that I haven't any sisters," said Bell, with +an unaffectionate glance toward Gerald. "I should hate them." + +And so the desultory talk rambled on, the little group growing larger by +degrees as the approaching luncheon hour brought back the stragglers, and +with them Olly, trotting contentedly along, clinging to Halloway's hand, +meek as any lamb. + +"What were you doing when you cried out so a little while ago?" asked +Gerald, going up to the child. + +Olly looked at her with instant defiance in his eyes. "I hurt my foot." + +"You know perfectly well you can't deceive me, Olly. Tell me the truth. +What mischief were you at?" + +"I tell you I hurt my foot, and it hurt like mischief, and that's all the +mischief there was. I wish it had been _your_ foot, and I wouldn't have +cried a bit." + +Halloway was turning aside, but Gerald appealed to him. "Is he telling +the truth?" + +"Yes," answered Denham, dryly. "He was racing with the Anthony boys and +fell, but, as you see, he's right enough now." + +"Ya-ah!" said Olly, and leered into her face with brotherly disrespect. +"I'll tell you a lie next time if you'd rather. Ya-ah!" + +Gerald looked as if she were going to shake him on the spot, and to +prevent any such catastrophe Denham suddenly seized the little fellow and +put him through a number of acrobatic feats in breathless succession, +till he was fairly hustled into good temper and everybody around was +laughing, even Gerald. Jake Dexter was instantly incited to display some +marvellous limber-jointed powers of his own, and had just demonstrated to +the assembled company, to his and their entire satisfaction, that the +impossible is after all sometimes possible, when luncheon was announced +by the ringing of a cow-bell, and a gay onslaught upon the usual picnic +table, rich in luxuries and poor in necessities, superseded for the nonce +all less material forms of amusement. + +Later in the afternoon Halloway wandered off from the rest for one of the +solitary strolls that he preferred to companionship as being less +lonely,--a feeling often experienced when fate and not choice appoints +one's comrades,--and returning leisurely along the banks of the lake, +he came upon a little group of picnickers, and stopped unperceived beyond +them, to enjoy for a while that comfortable sense of being in the world +yet out of it, which is the birthright of all spectatorship. Gerald and +Phebe were skipping stones, thoroughly absorbed in energetic enjoyment of +the simple game; their two contrasting figures, Gerald dark and tall and +slim, and Phebe so round and fair and supple, making a pretty-enough +picture for any artist. Olly, little Maggie Dexter, and an assortment of +sturdy urchins known throughout Joppa only as the Anthony boys, were +dancing and chattering aimlessly around, and near by was drawn up a +clumsy old boat where Phebe had made a comfortable niche for Miss Delano, +who every day at about this hour was afflicted with a remarkable disorder +which had grown upon her wholly of late years, and whose symptoms, so far +as she was willing to admit them, consisted of a painful heaviness of the +eyelids, a weakness in the nape of the neck, and an irresistible tendency +to retire for a brief season within herself. A little farther off still, +having taken fortune at the flood and secured De Forest at last, Bell +Masters was embarked on another kind of craft, a thorough-going, +fully-freighted flirtation, all sails set; and through the trees were +glimpses of lazily moving figures beyond, generally in twos and twos, +following some occult rule of common division peculiar to picnics. By +degrees the children wandered off up the bank, and presently there came a +shout, followed by an evident squabble. Phebe looked around uneasily. +Gerald kept on with her sport. + +"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven times, Phebe. Now do better +than that." + +At this juncture little Maggie ran up, her pretty brown eyes wide and her +red lips quivering. "Oh! Miss Vernor, Olly shan't do it, shall he? Do say +he shan't!" + +"Do what?" asked Gerald, pausing in the act of searching for +another pebble. + +"Put it in the water to swim like a duck. It isn't a duck, it's a little, +little young bird he's found in a nest, and it can't swim, it can't +hardly fly. Oh, don't let him!" + +"Let him!" echoed Gerald sharply. She sprang toward the children with a +bound, almost lifting Olly off his feet as she drew him back from the +water's edge. "You cruel boy!" she cried. "Give it to me directly." + +"I won't!" answered Olly, trying to shake himself free from her grasp. +"It's mine, I found it." + +But the small hands held him in a grip as strong as a man's, and in +another moment Gerald had taken the poor little half-feathered creature +from him, and bidden Maggie restore it carefully to its nest. + +"It's mine! It's mine! I'll have it back!" shouted Olly, angrily, after +the little girl. + +Gerald took hold of him by the shoulders and turned him round toward her. +There was a great deal of hatred for the sin, and not overmuch love for +the sinner, in her face, as she looked down at him. "If you dare touch +that bird again, Olly, I'll find a punishment for you that you will not +soon forget, do you hear?" + +A hidden thought of revenge for the spoiled sport came into Olly's mind. +He twisted himself away from his sister with a little grunt, and stood +peevishly playing a moment with a couple of marbles; then suddenly +darting aside, seized the boat in which Miss Delano was established, +still struggling, but more feebly, with the mysterious trouble that held +her in thrall; and with a strength with which one would hardly have +credited his slight form, he pushed it off into the water. There was, of +course, not a particle of real danger for Miss Delano, even though this +chanced to be the only boat at that point, and she was no oarswoman; but +the poor little old lady, thus suddenly roused from the strange +hallucinations (as she called them) which were the most marked feature of +her complaint, and finding herself afloat upon the unstable deep, +instantly supposed that her last hour was come. She sprang up, too +terrified to scream, with a look of deadly horror in her face, and then +sank again all in a heap in the bottom of the boat. Olly gave a fiendish +laugh, but before any one else could move to the rescue, Gerald, with one +fierce, unutterable look at her brother, and no thought but how soonest +to end Miss Delano's speechless agony, quick as a flash, caught hold of +an overhanging bough and swung herself on to a rock quite far out in the +water, and thence, with a light, bold spring, landed safely in the middle +of the boat as it drifted past. + +"All right, Miss Delano," she said, briskly, seating herself and laying +hold of the oars with accustomed hands; "I'm a born sailor, and we'll +have a little row first before we go back." + +Had an angel visibly descended from heaven to assume the helm, Miss +Delano could not have been more grateful and overcome. "Oh, my dear, my +dear!" she said, and, in the intensity of her relief, began to cry a +little softly. Gerald pretended not to notice her emotion (she was very +awkward as a comforter, and as shy before tears as a man), and rowed +around for a while in utter silence; and then feeling that conversation +might aid in quieting her companion's unnecessarily excited nerves she +began abruptly charging her with questions as one loads a gun with +cartridges, dropping down one after another with cruel directness into +the harmless vacancy of Miss Delano's brain. How many inhabitants had +Joppa in precise figures? what was the height of those farther hills to +the left? upon what system was the village-school governed? what was the +mineral nature of the soil? what was the fastest time ever made by that +bay mare of Mr. Upjohn's with the white hind foot? etc. etc., etc., on +all which points poor Miss Delano could only assure her timidly: "I don't +know, dear; it would be well if I did," and relapsed into an alarmed and +most uncharacteristic silence. + +Phebe stood watching the boat as Gerald rowed off, then, as if +recollecting some neglected duty, turned suddenly, and found herself face +to face with Mr. Halloway. + +"No farther," he said, playfully barring her passage. + +"Oh, but I must! I want to find Olly and talk him into a better frame of +mind before Gerald comes back." + +"Leave Olly to me, please. I am a perfect child-tamer, and guarantee to +exorcise his seven evil spirits in less than no time. Meanwhile, sit you +down and rest." + +"Oh, I don't need rest. If you'll undertake Olly I'll help put back the +lunch things. Picnics are quite like the Biblical feasts: five loaves and +two fishes somehow always make twelve basketfuls to take up." + +"And you are always a true disciple at the feast, Miss Phebe, intent only +upon ministering to others." + +Phebe laughed her own peculiarly light-hearted, gay laugh. "That is a +much prettier way of putting it than Gerald's. She says I make myself +maid-of-all-work." + +"Miss Gerald, of course, doesn't approve of such service." + +"But you do. So I needn't mind her blame." + +"But I shall blame too, Miss Phebe, when you overdo yourself. I don't see +why others' recreation need be all work for you. Let each take his share +of both the pleasure and the toil." + +"But you see this _is_ my share, Mr. Halloway, because I can't help in +any better way. I don't know enough to entertain people's guests just by +talking to them, as Gerald does. You forget how dull I am." + +"So I do," said Denham, gravely. "I forget it all the time. Indeed, the +forgetfulness has quite become chronic. Now I'll find Olly, and we'll all +go at the dishes together and make a game of it." + +Certainly Denham Halloway must have possessed some secret charm in his +management of children, for by the time Gerald turned her boat to the +shore, he stood at the bank to meet them, with Olly by his side, as +amiable a little fellow as any Sunday-school-book hero ever born. + +"I am glad your sail turned out such a success, Miss Delano," said +Halloway, cheerily, as he lifted the little old lady carefully out on to +the pebbles. "You have been envied of us all. But here is a little boy +come to tell you all the same how sorry he is that he gave you such a +fright. Olly, my lad, I think Miss Delano looks as if she had forgiven +you through and through." + +"Oh, indeed, indeed yes," answered Miss Delano, hurriedly. "It was +only my silly way of being scared, particularly when I'm roused up so +sudden out of one of those turns of mine. And it's all right, my dear, +all right." + +"But I'm sorry, real and honest," declared Olly, stoutly, looking +squarely in Miss Delano's kindly face. "And I didn't mean to scare you." + +"You meant it for a revenge on me, I suppose," said Gerald, in a low, +harsh voice. She took hold of his arm as she spoke. "Give me those +marbles of yours." + +Olly looked at her, hesitated, and then reluctantly produced three very +handsome agates from some outlying storehouse of his jacket. + +"I bought you six," said Gerald. "Where are the rest?" + +"I lost one," answered Olly, sullenly. "It fell down a hole." + +"Then give me the other two." + +Olly obeyed still more reluctantly, fixing great, anxious eyes upon his +treasures as he laid them, each one more slowly than the last, in his +sister's hand. + +"There," said Gerald. "Perhaps this will teach you to behave better +another time. I shall not buy you any more this summer." She flung out +her hand suddenly, and the five pretty stones fell with a splash far out +in the lake and disappeared forever, five little cruel sets of circles +instantly beginning to widen and widen over their graves in a perfect +mockery of roundness. Olly gave one sharp cry, and then stood +stock-still, a bitterly hard look coming over his face; those marbles had +been very, very dear to his heart. Halloway put his arm tenderly around +the little fellow, and drew him close in a very sympathetic way. + +"Olly," he said, gently, "you know you deserved some punishment, but now +that your sister has punished you, I am sure she will forgive you too, as +Miss Delano has done, if you only ask her." + +Olly buried his face in his friend's coat, and burst into a fit of +heart-broken tears. "I don't want her to forgive me," he sobbed. "I only +want my agates,--my pretty, pretty agates!" + +"Surely you will forgive him?" pleaded Halloway, looking up at Gerald +over Olly's head, and holding out one of the boy's hands in his own. "He +was really penitent when you came up. Let me ask for him." + +Gerald moved a step away, ignoring the hand. "Certainly, if you wish it," +she said, coldly. + +Halloway bent and kissed Olly's flushed face. "Do you hear, my boy? It is +all right now, and there is Maggie calling you to swing her. Don't forget +you promised to make me a visit at the rectory to-morrow." + +Olly threw his arms around Denham's knees and gave him a convulsive hug. +"I like you though you _are_ a minister," he said, through his tears. "I +just wish you were my sister!" And then he went slowly off to Maggie, and +Denham and Gerald stood silently where he had left them. Gerald was the +first to speak. + +"You think I am hard on Olly. I see it in your face." + +"I do think," replied Denham, slowly, with a faint smile curving his +well-cut lips, "that perhaps it might be happier for Olly if you would +try to consider him less in the light of a boy, and more as--as only a +little animal. You are so tender-hearted and pitiful toward animals." + +Gerald flushed angrily. "I like plain speaking best. You think I am hard +on him. Why don't you say so?" + +"I will if you prefer it. I do think so." + +"Thanks. Is there any thing else you would like to say to me in your +capacity as clergyman before we join the others?" + +"Yes, if I may really venture so far. Your hat is quite crooked." + +Gerald straightened it without a smile. "Thanks again. Anything else?" + +"Absolutely nothing." He turned to escort her back, but Gerald stood +still, frowning out at the lake. + +"You don't know Olly," she said, curtly. + +"Maybe not, but I know childish nature pretty well, perhaps because +I love it." + +"Ah! I don't love it. It isn't lovable to me. It is all nonsense to call +it the age of innocence. It is vice in embryo instead of in full leaf, +that is all." + +"But that is an inestimable gain of itself. A little of a bad thing is +surely much better than a great deal of it. For my part I confess to a +great partiality for children. There is something pathetic to me in the +little faults and tempers that irritate us now chiefly because they clash +against our own weaknesses, and yet on the right guidance of which lies +the whole making or marring of the child's life." + +"Doesn't guidance include punishment?" + +"Yes, it includes it. But it does not consist of it." + +Gerald still stood half turned from him, frowning out over the placid +blue water. "Ah," she said, "it chiefly consists of good example and that +sort of thing, I suppose." + +"I think it consists chiefly of love," said Halloway, simply. + +Gerald made no answer at first, then turned and looked at him almost +defiantly. Her changeable eyes seemed black as she raised them to his. +"Would you have thrown Olly's marbles into the lake?" + +"No," replied Halloway, looking steadily back at her. + +"Then you would have been very foolish," said Gerald, haughtily. "It was +the only way to touch him. I was quite right to do it." + +"You should be the best judge of your actions, Miss Vernor." + +Gerald bowed without answer, and moved past him like an offended duchess. +Halloway stood looking after her with an amused sparkle in his eyes. +"Miss Geraldine Vernor," he said to himself, "with all your beauty and +your reputed accomplishments and intellect, you would yet do well to take +a few lessons of my little friend Phebe Lane." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TRIED AS BY FIRE. + + +"Gerald, what are you thinking of?" + +"I was wondering how soon you would let us have the lamp." + +"I'll get it immediately, if you like, but it's so pleasant talking in +the twilight. I could spend hours contentedly sitting here so with you." + +"How reprehensibly idle!" + +"No, I should be learning something all the time. You have always +something to teach me. Or if you didn't feel like talking, I could just +sit still and hold your hand and not need any thing more." + +Gerald put her hand instinctively out of reach. "I beg you won't try it. +I hate having my hand held." + +"Yes, I know you do. You hate being kissed, too. You hate being admired +and made a fuss over. I don't suppose any thing would induce you to let +me call you a pet name. O Gerald, I do wish you liked being loved!" + +"But I do like it well enough. Of course every one likes being cared for +and all that sort of thing. It's only the gushing and spooning and +sentimentalizing that I can't endure. I never could, even as a child." + +Phebe sat suddenly upright, away from Gerald. Perhaps even the mute +caress of her attitude jarred upon her friend. "To me the half of being +loved would be the being told so," she said. "I should never weary of +hearing it said over and over again." + +"Bah!" ejaculated Gerald, "it would make me sick!" She got up as if the +very thought were too much for her, and going to the window stood still +there looking out. Phebe followed her with her eyes. + +"I am afraid you are fated to be deadly sick all your life through, +Gerald. What _will_ you do with your lovers?" + +"Dismiss them." + +"All?" + +"All but one." + +"What will you do with him?" + +"Marry him, of course. That is what he will be there for, won't it? I +expect to marry some one some time. Marriage makes a woman's life fuller +and freer, though not necessarily happier. I want to get all into my life +that I can." + +"I wonder whom you will marry," mused Phebe, where she sat curled up on +the sofa. "I wonder what he could be like. Gerald, how I should like to +see you in love!" + +"You won't see it," replied Gerald. "No one will ever see it. It +wouldn't be my way to make a display of the insanity, supposing, that +is, that I have it." + +"I hope at least you will show it to _him_." + +"Not overmuch even to _him_. He'll have to take it on faith. I haven't +the faintest intention of informing any one of the state of my affections +a dozen times a day. Once for all ought to be sufficient with the +declaration, as it is with the marriage vow." + +Phebe puckered up her forehead. "Ah, how different we are! If I am ever +engaged to any one I shall want to keep telling him all the time how much +I love him, for fear he wouldn't guess it." + +"You will bore him to death then." + +"I suppose I shall," replied Phebe, dejectedly. "I don't suppose any +one living wants to be loved so much as I would want to love him. I +couldn't be cool and deliberate and wise at loving as you would be. I +should have to do it with my whole heart and just give myself up to it +for good and all." + +"That's the story-book way of loving," said Gerald. "I don't believe in +it for real life. Blind adoration doesn't do either the lover or the +loved any good. There should be sense in one's emotions as well as in +one's opinions." + +Phebe was silent a moment or two. "You are so self-possessed, and so +self-controlled, Gerald," she said at last. "It must be very nice to have +one's self so perfectly in command as you have. And yet I don't know. I +think it would be rather nice too to find one's self suddenly under the +power of some one a great deal better and stronger and wiser than one's +self, who compelled one to love him, not because one would, but just +because one could not help it." + +The girls were alone in the sitting-room, Mrs. Lane having gone out to a +neighbor's, taking Olly with her, and Miss Lydia not having yet appeared +for her usual hour downstairs. It was a few days after the picnic, and +was one of those suddenly cool August evenings that sometimes drop down +so unexpectedly upon the summer heat, and a wood-fire lay upon the hearth +ready to light at the invalid's coming. Phebe too sprang from the sofa as +she spoke, as if her words had evoked too vivid a picture, and kneeling +down by the hearth, applied a match. The bright flame leaped swiftly up +and filled all the room with a flickering golden glow. Gerald turned in +the window to watch it. How quickly it had flushed Phebe's cheeks, and +how soft her eyes looked in its light! + +"It's downright cruelty to spoil our first cool evening with a fire, +Phebe, but I'll forgive you, it makes you look so pretty," she said, +quite unconscious of her beauty as she stood against the dark background +of the curtain in picturesque stateliness, her dress of soft cream-white +cloth falling in clinging folds about her, and her clear pale face turned +dreamily toward the light, which gleamed out in fitful reflection from +the heavy gold ornaments at her throat and wrists. + +"Ah, you do not see yourself!" murmured Phebe, looking adoringly back at +her. "No one else could look pretty to you if you did." + +"How foolish!" said Gerald, scornfully. "Pray don't let us begin bandying +compliments back and forth. That's next worse to eternally discussing +love. Why it is that two girls seem never able to talk together half an +hour without lugging in that threadbare subject as if it were the one +most important thing in the world, I don't understand." + +"Well, isn't love the most important thing,--to women?" asked Phebe, +sitting down on the floor to nurse the fire, her thin muslin making a +little ripple of pretty lightness around her. + +"No, it isn't," replied Gerald. "It may be to some few perhaps, but +certainly not to all women. It isn't to me. It's one thing; not every +thing; and not even the best thing. Knowledge is better, and goodness is +better, and to come down to purely personal blessings, health is better, +and so is common-sense better, and in the long run there are dozens of +things infinitely better worth having and better worth aiming for. It's a +good enough thing to have in addition, but as to its being the sum and +substance, the Alpha and Omega, of any sensible woman's life, that's all +foolishness. Let's have done with it and order in the lights. I want to +get at Euclid again. It will never do for that conceited Yale brother of +mine to get ahead of me. Shall I call to Nancy?" + +"No use. The servants are out. Wait a moment till the fire is well +started, and I'll bring in the lamp." + +"The servants are out?" repeated Gerald. "Both? At the same time? Is that +the way you keep house in Joppa?" + +"Oh, they like running out together, and we never want any thing in the +evenings, you know. The front door always stands ajar, and visitors let +themselves in." + +"And you make your own fires and bring in your own oily lamps; or do your +evening guests assist you perhaps in lieu of the servants?" + +"But we don't generally have fires," laughed Phebe, greatly amused at +Gerald's disgust. "Only to-night it would be too chilly for Aunt Lydia +here without one. I feel cool too. I was not so sensible as you, and put +on too thin a dress. Isn't it a pretty blaze? Wait just till I throw on +another log. How it snaps and crackles!" + +"Take your time," said Gerald, turning back to the window. "But what +a way to manage! Why should you hire servants, if you do their work +for them?" + +Phebe only laughed, and a little shower of sparks flew over her from the +hearth as if the fire laughed too. + +"It's being needlessly indulgent," pursued Gerald. "One can give servants +proper liberties without making one's self a slave to their caprices. If +you yield to them in one instance because it chances to be convenient, +they'll certainly exact it of you another time when it is not convenient. +Gracious heavens! Phebe, what is it?" + +There was a sudden outburst of light behind her, and a sharp scream of +mingled terror and pain, and she turned to find Phebe standing the centre +of a pillar of fire. Her light dress had ignited from the flying sparks, +and the devouring flames seemed to burst forth in a hundred places at +once and rush exultantly together. Phebe gave another wild cry and +started for the door in that blind agony of despair which seems to hasten +people at such times to their doom, as if by aimless flight they could +escape the awful demon who possesses them. Too horror-stricken to utter a +sound, Gerald sprang at her, and seizing her with fearless hands, forced +the poor struggling girl by main strength down on to the floor. No one +near to help! No water at hand! Not so much as a rug or a shawl to throw +over her and stifle the flames! Yes! there was the table-cover, heavy and +thick, as if created for this very life-service. Gerald tore it +off,--books, boxes, china cups, and glass vases crashing to the ground +together,--and flinging it over Phebe, threw herself on top of it, +pressing it close in every direction with hands and limbs, and smothering +the flames resolutely beneath it. It was but a moment, though a moment of +lifetime horror, and all was over. There was only the fire on the hearth +hissing and leaping as if in anger at its defeated design. + +"Phebe!" whispered Gerald, hoarsely; "Phebe!" + +Phebe had ceased to struggle, and lay perfectly motionless, apparently +scarcely breathing, but she opened her eyes and smiled faintly as Gerald +called her. The fright and the pain had taken her speech away. She could +not find it at once. But the smile gave new hope and energy to Gerald. + +"Never mind talking," she exclaimed, springing briskly to her feet. +"If you are only alive it's all right. Don't attempt to stir. I'll get +some one." + +"Aunt Lydia--don't let her know," Phebe managed to gasp. + +"No, no, of all people!" cried Gerald. She paused an instant. Not a +servant in the house! whom was she to summon? A vague idea seized her of +running into the street and catching hold of the first passer, when at +the moment the door opened, and Mr. Halloway appeared on the threshold. + +"Is there any one at home? Shall I come in, please?" called the bright, +cheery voice. + +"Mr. Halloway! oh, thank Heaven!" And seizing him by the arm, Gerald +dragged him over to where Phebe lay. "Help me to take her up-stairs to +her room." + +Denham staggered back unutterably shocked and horrified as he recognized +the prostrate form at his feet, the fire-light playing mockingly over it +and revealing the white face and loosened hair. For the instant he +thought her dead. He caught his breath and put his hand up over his eyes. +"My God! what has happened?" + +"Her dress took fire--she is burned, no, not badly I am sure, but let us +get her up-stairs without losing time. Quick!" + +Denham put Gerald aside almost roughly, and stooping down lifted Phebe +tenderly in his arms. She moaned as he touched her, but smiled up at him +as she had done at Gerald. + +"Do I hurt you, dear?" he asked, with infinite pity and tenderness in his +voice. "I will be as gentle as I can. Poor child! poor child!" + +"Let me help you," said Gerald. "The stairs are steep and I am +very strong." + +She came nearer, but he shook his head. "I need no help." + +"This way, then," said Gerald, shortly. "And don't speak. Miss Lydia +mustn't know." + +She led the way to Phebe's room, and he followed slowly, laying his +burden carefully down on the bed and arranging the pillows under her head +with all of a woman's gentleness of touch. + +"Now go for the doctor," ordered Gerald, turning to the bureau to light +the candles. "Dr. Dennis. If he is out, Dr. Harrison. Only find some one +immediately." + +Denham lingered an instant, bending down over the bed. + +"I thought we had lost you to-night, Phebe," he said, so low the words +were but just audible. "God be thanked if only that you are still here!" +And stooping nearer yet he added: "We could not let you go, dear child." + +Gerald came anxiously back to the bedside as he left the room. "Are you +in much pain now?" she asked, lifting off the heavy braid that lay across +Phebe's bosom like a great rope of loosely twisted silk. "You do not +think you are badly hurt, do you, dear?" + +Phebe looked up at her, smiling strangely. + +"Oh, Gerald," she whispered, while two big tears rolled slowly down on to +the pillow, "I wish I might die to-night! I don't think I can ever be so +happy again!" + +"Nonsense!" said Gerald, with utmost sternness. "Don't talk about dying. +I won't allow it." And then she suddenly put down her head beside +Phebe's, and burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +GERALD OBEYS ORDERS. + + +In an incredibly short time Denham brought back not only Dr. Dennis, whom +he had caught just setting out for a stolen game of whist with Mr. +Upjohn, during the absence of that gentleman's wife at prayer-meeting, +but also Soeur Angélique, whose mere presence in a sick-room was more +than half the cure. And then he sat in the dark, disordered room below, +impatiently enough, anxiously waiting for news from Phebe. The time +seemed to him interminable before at last the door opened, and Gerald +entered, bearing a lamp. The vivid light, flung so full upon her, showed +traces of passionate weeping; and her white dress all scorched and burned +and hopelessly ruined, with the rich lace hanging in shreds from the +sleeves, made her a startling contrast indeed to the usually calm, +self-possessed, perfectly-dressed Gerald Vernor. + +Denham sprang forward to take the heavy lamp from her. "How is +she, please?" + +Gerald started. "What, you here?" + +"Did you think I could leave till I knew?" + +"Oh, of course not, I had forgotten you. I was only thinking of Phebe." + +"But how is she?" + +"Better. She is burned about the shoulders and a little on the arms, but +not seriously, and nothing that will disfigure. It is so fortunate. The +doctor is still with her, but she is much easier now, and there is +nothing to fear." + +"Ah, what a relief! It seemed as if I should never hear. She is really in +no danger then?" + +"None." + +"Thank God! As you came in you looked so distressed I feared--" + +"When it was all over and there was nothing to cry about, I cried," +interrupted Gerald. "Women are always fools. I'll except Mrs. Whittridge, +however. She has been the greatest comfort to Phebe." + +"It is Soeur Angélique's characteristic privilege always to be a comfort, +I believe," answered Denham, recovering his light-heartedness in a +flash. "Might I inquire if you have any especial object with this lamp? +Shall I do any thing particularly with it?" + +"Let it down, please--anywhere. I remembered the room was dark, and ran +down to put it to rights before Mrs. Lane should comeback. Her orderly +soul would have a spasm if she came upon it suddenly like this." + +"It was well I had no light," said Denham, looking around him. "It would +have frightened even me. Shan't I call some one?" + +"It's the ridiculous fashion of the house to suppose it never needs +servants at this hour. There's not one within reach." + +"You must let me help you then. Is this the table-cover?" + +"Thanks. I am afraid the fire has done for it, but we can't help that. +Pull it a little farther to your side, please. Farther still. That's too +far. So. That's right. Now the lamp here. Now the books. Cover up the +holes with them." + +"Ah, Miss Lydia's pet cup! and her little favorite statuette!" + +"Hideous things! I'm glad they're smashed." + +"Will you equally enjoy imparting to her the fact of their loss?" + +"Somebody else may do that. I had my share telling her about Phebe." + +"I suppose she was terribly shocked, poor old soul. I don't wonder." + +"She had an instant attack of hysterics, and I _did_ wonder," rejoined +Gerald, tartly. "But as I told you, women are always fools, and nervous +women the worst ones, I haven't any patience with them. I was vexed +enough with her for keeping me from Phebe. I don't believe she was ever +hurried so out of an attack before." + +"I'm afraid there's need of a broom or something here, Miss Vernor. This +vase is in a thousand pieces." + +Gerald seized the hearth-brush and was on her knees by him in a moment. +"The lamp, please, Mr. Halloway. Set it on the floor an instant." + +Denham moved it as desired, and stood looking down at her as she began +deftly brushing up the scattered bits. + +"Miss Vernor!" he suddenly exclaimed in a shocked voice. The bright +light, falling broadly across her hands, showed two great angry-red +blotches just above one of the delicate wrists. He stooped and laid +masterful hold of the long handle of the brush. + +"Well?" she said, stopping perforce and looking up in surprise. +"What is it?" + +"Your arm--you are burned, badly burned." + +Gerald made a little sound of contempt for all reply. + +"It should be dressed at once. How it must pain you!" + +Gerald looked at her arm reflectively. "I haven't had time to feel," she +said, vainly trying to pull her sleeve over it. "It will make an ugly +scar, won't it? I shall have to abandon elbow sleeves. Now please let go +the brush." + +"Miss Vernor, why should you be so cruel to yourself? Do go up to the +doctor at once!" + +"And take him away from Phebe? I will not. It won't hurt any more now +than it has done already. I must ask you to let me have the brush, Mr. +Halloway. I am losing time." + +Halloway relinquished it without speaking, and went quietly out of the +room, and Gerald unconcernedly resumed her work, scarcely pausing to +wonder where he had gone or what he intended. He returned just as she had +finished, and lifting the lamp back to the table, called to her: "Will +you come here, please?" + +"What in the world have you there?" she inquired, coming up to him in +sheer curiosity. + +"Soap. I found the way to the kitchen, you see. I had to bring the water +in this tin thing. I didn't know where to look for a cup." + +"Pray what is it for?" + +"For you. Soap is good for burns. Will you let me take your hand, +please?" + +Gerald put the wounded member behind her. "Thank you. I neither require +nor desire assistance." + +"Pardon me, you do require it, and if you refuse to see the doctor--" + +"Is that any reason why I should resort to you--and kitchen soap?" + +"I grant it is a very homely remedy, Miss Vernor, but it is an excellent +one and the only one I know." + +"I daresay. It is one more than I know of." + +"You will not try it?" + +"No." + +"Perhaps you are afraid of the pain attending the dressing?" + +It was a masterly stroke. Gerald gave him one look of intense scorn, +almost of anger, and immediately reached out her hand. "I am afraid of +nothing--not even of your lack of skill." + +Denham took her hand without further ceremony, and holding it firmly, +pushed back the hanging lace from her arm and began rubbing the soap over +the burns, without so much as a word of pity for the pain he knew he was +giving her. She winced involuntarily at the first touch, but set her +teeth tightly lest she should cry out. It hurt her cruelly. "I was not +aware before that the custody of souls extended to that of the temples +they inhabit," she said, when she could command herself sufficiently to +assume a supreme indifference of tone. "You believe in purely household +remedies, I see." + +"I believe always in doing what I can with what means I have. One moment +more, please. I am not quite through." + +Gerald held out her hand again. "Perhaps you had better try sandstone on +it this time, or a little burning oil." + +Halloway did not answer, but hastily tearing his handkerchief into +strips, bound the arm as closely as he could. "There," he said, surveying +the bandages critically, and inwardly well pleased with his success; "at +least that will do till you can see the doctor." + +"Are you sure you are quite through now?" asked Gerald, in mock +submission. "You don't think it necessary to put the arm in a splint, or +to fasten weights to it, or to amputate the first joint of the thumb?" + +"I am sorry to say that is all I know how to do for you, Miss Vernor." + +"Then I will go back to Miss Lydia. By the way, would you recommend soap +also for hysterics?" + +"Applied with a close bandage over the mouth? Certainly, it will be both +effectual and immediate." + +"Thank you. Good-night." + +"Will you not shake hands with me?" + +Gerald turned as she was moving off and held out her hand, more as a +queen might have extended it in motion of dismissal than as friend to +friend. Denham took it between both his. "Before you go, I want to thank +you in the name of all Miss Phebe's friends," he said, earnestly. "You +have saved her life to-night, and at the risk of your own." + +"The table-cloth was her savior, not I," returned Gerald, lightly, but +with a softened voice. "And anyway, is it not quite thanks enough only to +know that Phebe is safe? Now good-night in earnest." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JOPPA'S MINISTRATIONS TO THE SICK. + + +All news, good, bad, and indifferent, flies equally fast in Joppa; and +had there been a town-crier deputed for the purpose, Phebe's accident +could not have sooner become a household tale in even the most distant +districts of the place. After a contradiction of the first rumor, +reporting her burned to a crisp and only recognizable by a ring of her +mother's on her left hand,--which ring by-the-way she never wore,--and +after a contradiction in due course of the second rumor, reporting Gerald +to be lying in the agonies of death and Phebe to have escaped without a +hair singed, followed a period of dire uncertainty, when nobody knew what +to believe, and felt only an obstinate conviction that everybody else had +got it entirely wrong. But at last the story straightened itself out into +something bearing a family resemblance to actual facts, and then Joppa +settled itself resolutely down to doing its duty. My duty toward my sick +neighbor in Joppa consists in calling twice a day, if not oftener, at his +house; in inquiring after his condition down to minutest and most sacred +details; in knowing accurately how many hours he slept last night, and +what he ate for breakfast, and what is paid the sick-nurse, and if it +includes her washing. My second duty toward my sick neighbor is to bring +him something to eat, on the supposition that "outside things taste +differently;" or something to look at; or, if nothing better, at least +something to refuse. My third and last duty toward my neighbor,--the well +neighbor who possesses the sick one,--is to narrate every somewhat +similar case on record, with all its circumstances and the ultimate +career of the sufferer; to prescribe remedies as infallible as the Pope; +to disapprove wholly, and on the best grounds, of those in actual use; to +offer every assistance in and out of my power; and to say at leaving that +I _hope_ it may all turn out well, but that _I_ should have called in the +other doctor. Joppa had learned by heart its duty toward its neighbor +from its earliest, stammering infancy, and it adhered strictly to the +path therein marked out. It inquired after Phebe diligently; it +thoroughly mastered all possible intricacies of her case; it made her +gifts digestible and indigestible; and it said that, by all odds, it was +Dr. Harrison who should have attended her from the first. Dr. Dennis took +very good care of her, nevertheless, and it was not long before he +pronounced that all she needed was quiet and rest to complete the cure. + +"We shall have her out of bed in a few days now, Mrs. Lane; in a week or +so perhaps," he said, as he passed out at the front door where Mrs. Lane +was standing talking with Mrs. Hardcastle. "She is doing very well, as +well as I could wish. All she needs is rest. Keep her perfectly quiet." +And the doctor bowed himself off, first politely inquiring of Mrs. +Hardcastle after her husband's gout and her own dyspepsia. + +"He is a fair-spoken man, certainly, very," said Mrs. Hardcastle, "though +I won't say that I shouldn't prefer Dr. Harrison in the long run as +surest to bring his patient through. I think I'll just go up with this +myself to Phebe, Mrs. Lane. I suppose she's longing for visitors by now, +poor soul!" + +"Well, I dare say. You know her room,--just at the head of the stairs. Go +right up, and I'll step out to market." + +"Now, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, rustling into Phebe's room, "I +thought I would come up and have a look at you myself to make sure how +you were. No, don't move. You do look pale, but that's all. Glad to see +your pretty face isn't harmed. Why, I heard one whole side of it was +about burned off. I've brought you some wine-jelly, my dear." + +"She had a lot yesterday, Pheeb did," said Olly, who was curled up with a +geography in a corner of the room and furtively cutting Europe out of the +maps. "She doesn't need any more." + +"Oh, but this is some of my own make. This is quite different from +anybody else's," declared Mrs. Hardcastle. "Phebe remembers _my_ jelly of +old, don't you, dear?" + +Phebe smiled faintly. All she remembered at the moment was being +invariably requested by the good lady to come and make it for her +whenever she gave a party. + +"I thought I heard talking and so I ventured to come up too," said a +timid voice, and Miss Delano tiptoed softly in. "Phebe, my dear child, my +dear child!" and the soft-hearted little old maid stooped to kiss Phebe's +pale cheek, and straightway began to whimper. + +"Come, none of that," said Mrs. Upjohn's peremptory tones, as that lady +swept into the little room, seeming to fill it all to overflowing. "I met +the doctor just now and he said Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet. +Don't let's have any weeping over her. She wants cheering up, and she +isn't quite dead yet, you know, though really the evening before last, +Phebe, I heard that you weren't expected to live the night through." + +"How ridiculous!" said Gerald, impatiently. "Miss Delano, will you +have a chair?" + +"Thank you, no, dear. I'll just sit here on the bed," said the +little old dame, humbly, anxious not to make any one any trouble. "O +Phebe, my dear!" + +Phebe smiled at her affectionately, and Mrs. Hardcastle, who was on the +point of leaving when Mrs. Upjohn came in, sat down again to ask that +lady about the character of a servant whom she had just engaged. + +"I thought I should have died when I heard it," said Miss Delano, patting +Phebe's cheek. "Poor dear, poor dear! And they say you won't ever be able +to walk again!" + +"Who says that?" asked Phebe, laughing. "I shall be a terrible +disappointment to them." + +"'Tain't her legs at all; it's her shoulders," said Olly, as he emerged +from his corner, chewing Europe into a pasteboard bull. "What have you +got in that paper?" + +"Oh, the blessed child, and I was forgetting it. My dear, it's just a +little sponge-cake I made free to bring you, it turned out so light. +Don't you think you could eat a bit perhaps?" + +"My, but it looks good!" said Olly, approaching a hungry finger and +poking at it softly. "I'll get a knife." + +"I hope you don't allow any such trash as that about, Miss Vernor," said +Mrs. Upjohn, sharply, in the middle of her discussion of Jane's demerits. +"Phebe ought to be exceedingly careful what she eats for a great while +to come. It's doubtful, indeed, whether her stomach ever recovers its +tone after such a shock. I knew one woman who died just of the shock +alone some two months after precisely such an accident as this, when +everybody thought she had got well, and Phebe must be _very_ careful. Her +appetite is not to be tempted, but guided." + +"Well, ladies, I must be going," announced Mrs. Hardcastle, rising. "You +really think I am safe, then, in engaging her, Mrs. Upjohn?" But just +then Mrs. Dexter came in with two of her daughters, and Mrs. Hardcastle +sat down again. + +"There was no one downstairs, and as the doctor says Phebe is so much +better, we thought we might just come up," said the new comer. "Why, +Phebe, you are as blooming as a rose, and I understood you had lost all +your pretty hair. I've brought you some grapes, my dear, and a jar of +extra fine brandy peaches, and little Maggie insisted on sending some +molasses candy she had just made." + +"Well, well, I did look for more sense from _you_," said Mrs. Upjohn, +tapping Mrs. Dexter rather smartly on the shoulder. "Where'll you sit? +Oh, on the bed. Yes, Phebe's had a narrow escape, and one she'll likely +bear the marks of to her dying day. Let it be a warning to you, young +ladies, to be prepared. There's no knowing how soon some one of you may +not be carried off in the same way,--just as you are dressed for a dance, +maybe." Her tone implied that death could not overtake them at a more +sinful moment. + +"Hullo, up there! I say!" shouted a voice in the hall below, +"how's Phebe?" + +"Oh, it's Dick!" cried the Dexter girls in a breath. "You can't come +up, Dick." + +"Ain't a-going to. But a fellow can speak, can't he, without his body +a-following his voice? How's Phebe?" + +"She's splendid." + +"What's the doctor say?" + +"He says she only needs to be kept perfectly quiet." + +"Hooray!" said Dick, and apparently executed a war-dance on the +oil-cloth, while Olly profited by the general hubbub created by the +entrance of two more ladies, to satisfactorily investigate the +sponge-cake. + +"Why, quite a levee, isn't it, Phebe?" said one of the last arrivals, +looking in vain for a chair, and forced to seat herself on a low table, +accidentally upsetting Phebe's medicines as she did so. + +"Yes, altogether too much of one," said Gerald, knitting her brows as she +rescued a bottle just in time, and darted an angry glance around the +crowded room. "Phebe isn't at all equal to it yet." + +"You are right, Miss Vernor," agreed Mrs. Upjohn, drawing out her +tatting from her pocket, and settling herself at it with an answering +frown. "There are quite too many here. Some people never know when to +stay away." + +"Oh, there's Bell. I hear her voice," called Mattie, running to look over +the banisters. "She's got both Mr. De Forest and Mr. Moulton with her." + +There was a sound of many voices below, a giggling, a rush for the +stairs, and a playful scuffle. + +"It's me" (Bell's voice); "Dick won't let me pass." + +"Me is Bell" (Dick's voice); "she wouldn't pass if she could. Too many +fellows down here for her to want to leave 'em. Send us down a girl or +two from up there, can't you?" + +A girl or two, however, apparently appeared from outside, greetings were +called up to Phebe, offerings of flowers and delicacies transmitted _via_ +Dick on the stairs to Olly at the top (who took toll by the way), and the +liveliest kind of a time went on. It was quite like a party, Dick shouted +up, only that there was no ice-cream and a singular scarcity of girls. + +"It's a shame," said Mrs. Upjohn, severely, in her chair, while Gerald +held her peace, too wrathful to speak, and conscious of her inability to +mend matters. "I should think people might have sense enough not to crowd +all the air out of a sick-room in this fashion." + +"It's exceedingly inconsiderate of them, I am sure," answered Mrs. +Hardcastle, drawing a sofa cushion behind her back. "She ought to be +so quiet." + +"Phebe!" shouted Dick. "Here's the parson. He wants to know if you're +dead yet. Shan't I send him up? It will be all right, you know, quite +the thing. He's a parson, and wears a gown on Sundays." + +"Dick, Dick!" screamed his mother. "Was there ever such a lad!" + +"He's coming. Get ready for him. Have out your Prayer-books," +called Dick. + +Phebe flushed crimson, and looked imploringly at Gerald. An indignant +murmur ran through the room. Mrs. Upjohn drew herself up to her severest +height. "What shameless impertinence! How dare he intrude!" A shout of +unholy laughter downstairs followed Dick's sally. + +"Mr. Halloway isn't there at all," cried Olly, his fine, clear-voice +pitched high above the rest, "He only asked about Pheeb at the door, and +went right off." + +"Well, he left this for her with his compliments, and this, and this," +called Dick, rummaging in his pockets, and tossing up an apple, and then +a hickory nut, and last a good-sized and dangerously ripe tomato. Olly +caught them dexterously with a yell of delight, and was immediately +rushed at by three of the nearest ladies and ordered not to make a noise, +for Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet. + +"Such doings would never be permitted a moment if she had only been in +Dr. Harrison's hands," said Mrs. Upjohn, in denunciatory tones. "He would +have forbidden her to see any one. It is scandalous." + +"It is outrageous," added Mrs. Hardcastle. "Most inconsiderate." + +"Ah, I can't get over it that it isn't your legs, poor dear!" murmured +Miss Delano, still plaintively overcome. "And you will walk, after all?" + +"Dr. Dennis is an excellent physician," said Mrs. Dexter, somewhat +defiantly. It was impossible not to enter the lists against Mrs. Upjohn. +This last lady was immediately up in arms, and a heated discussion as to +the respective skill of the two practitioners took place, everybody +gradually taking sides with one or the other of the leaders, and +forgetting both poor exhausted Phebe and the noise downstairs, which +finally culminated in a rousing lullaby led by Bell, and lustily seconded +by half a dozen others: + +"Slumber on, Phebe dear; +Do not hear us fellows sigh!" + +The song, however, suddenly stopped in the midst. Some one seemed +speaking very low and softly, and neither the chorus nor the laughter nor +the tumult was resumed. Phebe drew a deep breath. Was relief really +coming at last? Yes. Soeur Angélique stood in the door-way. + +"Will you excuse me, ladies," she said, in that soft, irresistible voice +of hers, as she laid aside bonnet and shawl in a quiet, business-like +way. "I came to relieve Miss Vernor and play nurse for a while, and I +think Phebe looks as if she needed a little sleep. If you will kindly +take leave of her, I will darken the room at once." + +She stood so evidently waiting for them to go, that in a few moments they +all found themselves somehow or other outside the door, with Gerald +politely escorting them down-stairs, and Olly dancing joyously ahead, +crying that Mr. Halloway had sent for him to the rectory. Left mistress +of the situation, Mrs. Whittridge proceeded to draw down the shades, +straighten the chairs, smooth the bedclothes and rearrange the pillows, +all with the noiseless, graceful movements peculiar to her. Then she drew +a low chair up to the bedside, and laid her cool hand soothingly on +Phebe's forehead. A great peace seemed suddenly to fill the room. + +"Now, my darling, you must sleep. Between them they have quite +worn you out." + +"Who told you I needed you?" asked Phebe, drawing the gentle hand down to +her lips. "How did you happen to come just when I wanted you so?" + +"Denham sent me over," answered Soeur Angélique. "He thought perhaps I +could make it a little quieter for you." + +"Ah," murmured Phebe. A faint tinge crept up into her white cheeks. +She turned her head away and closed her eyes. "I knew it was he who +sent you." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AN APOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. + + +It was some days after Phebe's accident before Halloway saw Gerald again. +She was generally upstairs when he called, or driving or sailing with De +Forest, who was in daily attendance upon her, paying her persistent, +blasé devotion. She was in the parlor one evening, however, sitting with +De Forest near the door, when Denham came in, but he merely bowed to her +and passed on to the other end of the room, where Mrs. Lane was seated +with Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle. Mr. Hardcastle rose at once to receive him. +"Ah, good-evening, good-evening. Pray take a seat. I am delighted to see +you. I suppose you came to ask after our little invalid. Sad accident, +sir; sad accident, very. It has kept us most anxious and busy seeing +after her. But she is doing nicely now. We shall have her about again +before we know it." He spoke as if her recovery were altogether due to +himself, for the regularity with which he had fulfilled his neighborly +duties toward her, and he paused and looked at Halloway for a recognition +of the same. + +"It will be a bright day for us all when we have her among us once more," +Halloway said in answer to the look. "You must tell her how much we miss +her, Mrs. Lane." + +"Ah, that we do," murmured Mrs. Hardcastle. "My knitting has been at a +standstill ever since the poor dear child's misfortune. I have been so +thankful her hands were spared. There's always some cause for gratitude +in every evil, after all." + +"That's one way of looking at it," said Mrs. Lane, turning up the lamp +and drawing her work-basket nearer. "The Lord make us thankful for all +our mercies, but a misfortune's a misfortune, and I don't know as we're +called upon to look at it as any thing else. Won't you sit down, Mr. +Halloway?" + +"Thank you, not this evening. It is nearly time for service. I only +wanted to know that Miss Phebe was doing well." + +Mr. Hardcastle rose again to bow off the guest. "Sorry you can't stay, +sir. In spite of our difference of faith,--and how great it is I am in +hopes you will appreciate some day when you have come to see the errors +of the way you are walking in,--in spite of our material differences, I +say, you are always very welcome at any time. But pray don't let us +detain you from what you deem your duty." + +"Mr. Halloway, a moment, please," said Gerald, rising as he was going by. +He stopped, and she came toward him holding out her hand. "I want to +thank you for your kindness of the other night. I believe I was +ungrateful and perhaps rude at the time, and I have not seen you since to +apologize." + +"Pray do not speak of it!" said Denham, flushing a little as he took her +hand. "There was no occasion whatever for gratitude, and therefore no +possible lack of it. I trust you are quite well now." + +"There _was_ occasion for gratitude," persisted Gerald, "or at least for +an acknowledgment of your kindness, and it is because I am ashamed of my +remissness that I take this first opportunity to thank you." + +"You embarrass me," said Denham, laughingly. "I am not at all accustomed +to having public restitution made me in this manner, and especially for +purely imaginary slights. But may I not be permitted now--as a sort of +reward if you will--to inquire if you have quite recovered?" + +"At least I have sufficiently recovered to retract my disbelief in +kitchen soap, and--and in your skill," she added, with a little +visible effort. + +"You honor us above our deserts,--the soap and me," answered Denham, +playfully. "I don't know how deleteriously it may affect the soap, but as +for me I feel myself growing alarmingly conceited. So good-night." + +"What a very elaborate apology," said De Forest, as Denham went out. "If +the offence were at all proportionate, I tremble to think of the enormity +of your crime; or is it because he is a Reverend, that you demean +yourself so humbly before him?" + +Halloway was still hunting for his hat in the hall, and could scarcely +help overhearing De Forest's remark and Gerald's answer. + +"I demean myself before nobody in seeking to make amends for a previous +neglect. The humiliation is in the misconduct, not in the confession of +it; and whether I owed the apology to Mr. Halloway or to a beggar in the +street, I should have made it quite the same, not at all for sake of his +pardon, but simply for sake of clearing my own conscience." + +"Not at all for sake of my pardon," said Denham, as he strode on toward +the church, with the uncomfortable sensation of having been an +involuntary eavesdropper. "It is fortunate that my conceit was only +veneered on." + +The following Sunday Gerald was in church both morning and evening, +sitting in Phebe's accustomed place. She was one of those noticeable +presences impossible to overlook, and as Denham mounted into the pulpit +he felt as if he were preaching solely to her, or rather as if hers were +the only criticism he feared in all the friendly congregation. He was +annoyed that he should feel so, and quite conscious at the same time that +he was far from doing his best, and once or twice he caught a flash in +the serious eyes fastened on his face, that seemed to say she knew this +last fact too, and was impatient with him for it. What excuse had any +one, in Gerald's eyes, for not doing his best always? De Forest was with +her in the evening, and as Halloway came out of the vestry after service, +he found himself directly behind them. + +"He's not a mighty orator," De Forest was saying with his cynical drawl. +"I doubt if he is destined to be one of the pillars or even one of the +cushions of the church." + +"He was not doing his best to-night," answered Gerald. + +"Thank you," said Halloway, coming quickly to her side, anxious to +avoid further eavesdropping. "Thank you--I mean for thinking I might +do better." + +"That is not much to be grateful for, I am afraid," replied Gerald, +"since it implies, you know, that you have not done well." + +"I hope you like uncompromising truth, Mr. Halloway," said De Forest, +leaning forward to look at him across Gerald. "It's the only kind Miss +Vernor deals in." + +"I prefer it infinitely to the most flattering falsehood imaginable," +answered Denham. + +"I believe clergymen are usually the last people to hear the truth about +themselves," continued Gerald. "Their position at the head of a +community, pre-supposes their capability for the office, and naturally +places them outside of the criticism of those under their immediate +charge, who are nevertheless just the ones best qualified to judge them. +But of course scholars may not teach the teacher." + +"What an invaluable opening for you who are _not_ one of Mr. Halloway's +flock," said De Forest, "to undertake to remedy the deficiency, and to be +in yourself a whole critical public to him, a licensed _Free Press_ as it +were, pointing out all his errors with the most unhesitating frankness +and unsparing perspicuity!" + +"Do you think your love of truth would hold out long under such a crucial +test?" asked Gerald, turning quite seriously to Denham. The moonlight +shone full on her clear-cut, cameo-like face. Her eyes, with their +shadowy fringe, looked deeper and blacker than midnight. It did not seem +possible that truth spoken by her could be any thing but beautiful too. +Denham smiled down at her seriousness. + +"Try me." + +"Well, then, it seems to me you do not often enough try to do your best. +You are contented to do well, and not ambitious to do better. You are +quite satisfied, so I think, if your sermons are good enough to please +generally, instead of seeking to raise your standard all the time by hard +effort toward improvement, and I doubt, therefore, if at the end of a +year your sermons will show any marked change from what they are to-day. +Am I too hard?" + +"You are very just," answered Denham, pleasantly, though the blood +mounted to his face. "You have found out my weak spot. I confess I am not +ambitious. I aspire to no greatness of any kind." + +"You have discovered the secret of contentment," said De Forest, with +effusive approbation. "I am glad to have met you, Mr. Halloway. You are +the one happy man I know." + +"The secret of contentment?" repeated Gerald. "Say rather the principle +of all stagnation, mental and spiritual. Not to aspire to become greater +than one _can_ be is to fall short of becoming all that one _may_ be; to +be satisfied with one's powers is to dwarf them hopelessly." + +"A powerful argument against conceit," reflected De Forest. "Still, upon +my word, I think I would as lief be conceited in every pore as eternally +in a state of dissatisfaction with myself about every thing." + +"It is well, above all, I think, to have a just appreciation of one's own +powers or lack of powers," said Denham, slowly. "Ambition, without the +corresponding strength to gratify it, is a cruel taskmaster." + +"How can you tell, till you have tried, that there is no corresponding +strength?" asked Gerald, turning full upon him again. How marvellously +expressive her face was, with its earnest eyes and mobile mouth! "If I +were a man,--and great heavens! how I wish I were one!--I would create +the strength if it were not there of itself. I would force myself upward. +I would never rest till I had become something more than nature +originally made me." + +"Then Heaven be thanked, who has spared us the monstrosity you would have +developed into under the harrowing circumstances of a reversal of your +sex," said De Forest, devoutly. + +"I was always glad you were a woman. Now I am positively aglow with +gratitude for it." + +Denham was silent. They had reached Mrs. Lane's now, and Gerald and her +cavalier paused. + +"I have not hurt you, Mr. Halloway, have I?" said Gerald, more gently. "I +know I sometimes speak strongly where I am least qualified to do so." + +"A very womanly trait," put in De Forest. "Don't apologize for your one +redeeming weakness." + +"No, you have not hurt me," said Denham, in a low voice. "I hope you have +done me good." And without adding even a good-night or a message for +Phebe, he lifted his hat and crossed over to the rectory. His sister was +not there as he entered her sitting-room, and throwing himself down on +the sofa, clasped his hands over his forehead and stared thoughtfully up +at the ceiling. She had been sitting with Phebe while the Lane household +went to its various churches, Phebe was tired, in consequence of the +entire population of Joppa having run in to ask after her between +services "on their way home," and she was not talking much. But only to +look up and smile into Soeur Angélique's sweet face was pleasure enough +for the girl, and she lay very quietly, holding a rose that Denham had +sent her over by his sister, and feeling supremely contented. + +"How would you like me to read to you?" asked Mrs. Whittridge at last, +taking up a book. "Shall I try it?" + +"No, thank you. I am afraid my thoughts would be louder than your words, +and I should be listening to them and losing what you are saying." + +"And, pray, what are these remarkably noisy thoughts?" asked the lady. +"Let me listen and hear them too." + +"I don't think I could say just what they are," replied Phebe, dreamily. +"They are running through my head more like indistinct music than like +real thoughts. And I never was clever at saying things, you know. But, +oh! I do feel very happy." + +"You look so," said Soeur Angélique, tenderly. "You poor little one, is +it just the getting well again that makes you so?" + +Phebe flushed ever so slightly. "I don't know just what it is," she +answered, lifting the rose to her face. "Perhaps it is only the listening +to that indistinct music. It seems to have put all my soul in tune. Oh, +dear Mrs. Whittridge, what a beautiful world this is, when only there are +no discords in one's own heart!" + +A day or two went by, and Phebe, though rapidly convalescing, was still a +prisoner to her room. + +"You're missing a lot of fun," said Bell Masters, sympathetically, as she +bustled in to see her one morning, and sat down by the window, pushing +back the curtain so that she could look out into the street and nod to +passers as she talked. "There's no end going on. Dear me, it's a shame to +come to you empty-handed, Phebe. I had two or three rosebuds for +you,--beauties they were too,--but the fact is I gave them away piecemeal +as I came along, and I haven't one left. It seemed as if I met every man +there was this morning. How soon do you think you'll be out again?" + +"I don't know," answered Phebe, pushing a box of bonbons within reach of +Bell's easy-going fingers. "I think I might go down-stairs now, but Dr. +Dennis won't let me." + +"Too bad. You'll miss Dick's coming of age, won't you? There are to +be high doings. Mr. Hardcastle is too mysterious and pompous to live. +One can't get any thing out of him but just 'My son Dick doesn't come +of age but once' (as if we thought it was a yearly occurrence), 'and +we don't celebrate it but once.' But I got hold of Dick privately and +wheedled it out of him in less than no time with a piece of soft +gingerbread. It's to be something _stunning_. His father wanted to do it +up in English style, dinner to the tenantry, and all that sort of thing, +only unluckily there wasn't any tenantry, and he had to abandon the +benevolent role and take to a jollier one. He won't show off as well, but +we'll have a deal more fun. It's to be a sort of royal picnic, but in the +evening, mind,--wasn't that a brilliant idea for the old gentleman? We +are all to go up in boats, and there are to be great rafts with blazing +torches, and a supper in the woods grander than any of Mrs. Upjohn's, and +bonfires, and the band from Galilee, and bouquets for the ladies, and I +don't know what not, and best of all, unlimited opportunities for +flirting. It's to be _the_ affair of this and every other season past or +future. It's a crying shame you can't go." + +"Oh! how I wish I could!" sighed poor Phebe. + +"I made pa give me a new dress for it," continued Bell, leaning forward +to pick off the biggest grapes from a bunch on the table. "I mean to look +just too-too. Mr. De Forest is going to row me up. I don't know exactly +how I made him ask me, but I did. It's such a triumph to get him away +from Miss Vernor for once, though I suspect I'll have to pay for it by +doing more than half the rowing myself. I don't suppose he would exert +his precious self to pull an oar more than five minutes at a time. Amy +tried her best to get Mr. Halloway, and so did the Dexters. The way those +girls run after him is a caution even to me; but they didn't get him. +He's monstrously clever in keeping out of people's clutches. I gave him +up long ago as a bad job. Well, good-by, Phebe. Awfully sorry you can't +go. Everybody'll be there, and it's to be the biggest lark out." + +During the few days that intervened before Dick's birthday, little else +was talked of anywhere than Mr. Hardcastle's party, which was never +spoken of, by the way, as Mrs. Hardcastle's party, though upon that good +lady devolved the onus of the weighty preparations. It seemed purely Mr. +Hardcastle's affair, just as every thing did in which he was in any way +concerned. Impromptu meetings were held at every house in turn to discuss +the coming event, and the latest bits of information regarding it were +retailed with embellishments proportionate to the imagination of the +accidental narrator. Not a soul in Joppa but knew every proposed feature +of the entertainment better than the hosts themselves. The old people +said it would be damp and rheumatic and would certainly be the death of +them. The young people said it would be divine, and quite worth dying +for. The people who were neither old nor young said nobody could tell how +it would be till after it was over, and they felt it their duty to go to +look after the others. The day came, brilliantly clear and soft and +warm: such a day, in short, as Mr. Hardcastle had felt to be his due, and +had expected of the elements all along as the one token of regard in +their power to accord him, and he accepted his friends' congratulations +upon it with a grave bow which seemed to say: "I ordered it so. Pray, did +you suppose I had forgotten to attend to the weather?" The sun set in a +cloudless heaven; the evening star hung quivering over the green-topped +hills; the twilight dropped noiseless and fragrant over earth and water, +and the long-dreamed-of moment had arrived at last. + +"Just let me have one more look at you, Gerald, before you start," said +Phebe, wistfully. "Oh, how beautiful you look! Nobody's dresses ever fit +like yours, and that great dark-red hat and feather,--I thought I should +not like it,--but it makes a perfect picture of you." + +"For pity's sake do stop!" begged Gerald. "You know of all things I hate +compliments. Where's that boy Olly?" + +"He's coming to me later. I promised to make up to him for his not going +to the party, poor little fellow." + +"Phebe, dear," said Gerald, suddenly stooping to give her one of her +rare kisses, "I cannot bear to leave you all alone so. That miserable +Miss Lydia and Olly aren't any sort of company. Let me stay with you. I +had a great deal rather." + +"Oh, no, no, no!" cried Phebe, almost pushing her toward the door. "I +don't mind a bit being left, and I wouldn't have you stay for anything. +How lovely of you to propose it! You are an angel, Gerald, even though +you don't like being told so, Good-by. And--Gerald,"--she had followed +her friend out into the hall, and stood leaning against the +banisters,--"Gerald, dear, will you tell Mr. Halloway I am going +down-stairs to-morrow?" + +Halloway was to be Gerald's escort that evening, and stood waiting for +her now in the hall below, and looking up at sound of Phebe's voice, he +gave an exclamation of surprise and pleasure, and immediately sprang up +the stairs. + +"Miss Phebe!" he said, taking both her hands in his. "How glad I am to +see you once more!" + +Phebe shrank back from him with a little cry of dismay. Ah! when does +ever any thing happen exactly as we plan it shall? She had pictured this +meeting to herself over and over again during the long days of her +seclusion,--just what he would say and what she would say, and just how +she would dress on that first day when she went down-stairs. She meant +to look so particularly nice on that first day! And now to be caught in +her plain little gray flannel wrapper with its simple red trimmings, her +hair all loose and mussy, and even her very oldest slippers on,--and +with Gerald standing beside her in her rich, dainty, becoming attire as +if to make the contrast all the more painfully striking! Poor little +Cinderella Phebe! She looked up at Denham almost ready to cry, and said +never a word. + +"It has been such a long, long time!" he said, still holding her hands. +"I do not know how we have made out to spare you." + +"We shall not have to spare her much longer," said Gerald. "She is coming +down-stairs to-morrow." + +And then Halloway dropped Phebe's hands, and turning to Gerald, held out +a hand to her. + +"Forgive me for not even noticing you, Miss Vernor. At first I could +only see Miss Phebe." + +"Doesn't Gerald look nice?" asked Phebe, trying to choke back the +uncomfortable lump rising so unreasonably in her throat. Halloway moved +back a little and looked at Gerald, who stood fastening her long glove, +utterly unconscious or unheedful of his scrutiny. The light in the niche +at the head of the stairs threw its full glow over both her and Phebe. + +"Yes," he answered, quietly, after an imperceptible pause, and, as he +turned back to Phebe, it seemed to her that his eyes glanced over her +with a suddenly awakened consciousness of the wrapper and the tumbled +hair and even of the little worn-out slippers. "You look pale," he said, +kindly. "I know I am wrong to keep you standing here just because it is +so pleasant to see you again. And it is easier to say good-by, knowing I +have only till to-morrow to wait now. _A demain_." + +"Good-night," murmured Phebe, without looking up; "good-night, Gerald." +And then she turned quickly into her room, and closed the door, and stood +stock-still behind it, holding her breath and listening intently till +she heard the front door close upon them and the last echo of their +footsteps die away in the street outside. Then she flung herself face +downward upon the bed and cried miserably to herself out of sheer +disappointment. Why did it have to be all so very, very different from +her dream? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"MY SON DICK." + + +Never had there been a more perfect night than that whereon Dick +Hardcastle's coming of age was celebrated. Only enough wind stirred to +toy softly with the gay little pennons streaming from the many boats +winding their way to the rendezvous, and to throw dancing shadows of +light upon the water from the torches at their prow. All along the banks +of the lake, where high hills shut out the moonlight and bound the shore +in an almost Egyptian darkness, rafts were stationed at intervals, +blazing with colored lights. The sound of distant music floated far down +upon the air, mingled with the swish of steady oars and laughter and +happy voices as the occupants of the various boats called out merrily to +each other across the water, or here and there broke into light-hearted +song. Denham's boat glided stilly along through all this carnival-like +revelry. Gerald was not in a mood for talking, and he felt little +inclined to disturb her. It was companionship enough merely to glance at +her ever and anon as she sat silently in the stern, the red ropes of the +tiller drawn loosely around her slender waist like a silken girdle. He +wondered idly what she was thinking of. Her broad hat threw too deep a +shadow for him to see her face save when they neared one of the beacon +rafts; then it was suddenly in brilliant illumination, and it was +impossible not to watch for these moments of revelation, which lit her up +to such rare beauty. He fancied he could almost see her thoughts as there +flashed across her face some new, swift expression more speaking than +words,--now a noble thought, he was sure; now an odd fancy, now a serious +meditative mood, that held her every sense and faculty in thrall at once. +Through all her revery she never forgot her duty with the rudder, though +she quite forgot her oarsman. She made no effort whatever toward his +entertainment, and he felt sure that he could do no more toward hers than +simply not to obtrude himself upon her. Were there many, he wondered, +even among her chosen friends (in whose ranks he could not count +himself), who would have enjoyed this silent sail with her so much as he? +They neared the destined spot all too soon for him, and Gerald at last +roused herself. + +"Are we there now? I had no idea it was so far." + +"It is not far enough," answered Denham, resting a moment on his +oars as he looked around. "Nothing surely can be devised, even in +this pleasure-ingenious society, so enjoyable as I have found our +evening sail." + +"Why do you go to the party at all then?" asked Gerald, abruptly. "It +isn't compulsory, is it? After you land me, are you not at liberty to row +off if you prefer?" + +"Ah, but I don't prefer," Halloway said gayly, resuming his oars. "I +expect to be very greatly entertained there too. There is almost +always something to be got out of every thing, and anyway I +particularly like parties." + +"I hate them." + +"Yes, because you do not care for people. I like them just because I do +care for people, and parties are but people collectively instead of +individually, you know." + +By this time Denham had shot the boat up to the landing, where the hosts +of the evening stood ready to receive them. Dick was in a wild state of +boyish hilarity, profiting by the novelty of his exalted position as hero +of the evening, boldly to take a kiss from every pretty girl in +succession as he swung her to the shore. "It's my right, to-night, you +know, or if it isn't, I'm major now and can make laws for myself," he +explained complacently to any expostulatory subject; and Mr. Hardcastle +rubbed his soft, plump hands, and added: "Never you mind, never you mind, +my dear; every dog must have his day, and this is Dick's day. And after +all it's my son Dick, you know, and that makes it all right. He doesn't +need any other guaranty than that he's my son, I'm sure, and seeing I'm +Dick's papa, my dear, why I'll just make bold to follow suit." + +But Dick would as soon have thought of offering to kiss the polar star as +Gerald, and she was suffered to pass on unmolested to Mrs. Hardcastle, +who stood just beyond, looking fagged and jaded, and as if she were +heartily thankful that in all his life Dick could never come of age +again. One of the next arrivals was Bell Masters, very fine in her new +dress, but flushed and overheated to an unbecoming degree. She rowed up +smartly, shipped her oars in true nautical fashion, sprang from the boat, +and held out her hand to her companion with a hardly repressed sneer: +"Pray allow me to assist you, Mr. De Forest." + +That gentleman got up leisurely from his cushioned seat in the stern, and +came forward cool and comfortable to an enviable degree. "Thanks," he +said, with even a little more drawl than usual as he took her proffered +hand. "This boat _is_ a little teetery. You are uncommonly kind, and +quite a champion oarswoman." + +"You ought to be a judge of my powers by this time certainly," said Bell, +snappishly. She had rowed the entire distance from Joppa unaided. + +"Yes, I flatter myself that I am. People can always judge best of what +they don't do themselves. And I will say that you do row +well--uncommonly well--for a woman. I don't know a girl, except Miss +Vernor, fit to pull stroke oar to you. Ah, Mr. Hardcastle, what an +adorable evening you have provided for us! Mr. Dick Hardcastle, permit me +to congratulate you upon attaining your majority, than which, believe me, +there is but one greater blessing in the world--that of minority. I see +you have not yet abandoned all the privileges of the latter, however," he +added, as Dick caught Bell round the waist and gave her a sounding salute +on the cheek. "That is an alleviation it seems unfair to monopolize." + +Bell laughed and boxed Dick's ears, whereupon he speedily kissed her +again, and Mr. Hardcastle chuckled and pulled one of the long, light +braids hanging over her back. Bell's blonde hair, with her black eyes, +was her strong point, and she invariably dressed it à la Kenwigs when she +wore a hat. None of Miss Bell's lights ran any danger of ever being +hidden under a bushel. + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Mr. Hardcastle. "It's all right. It's only Dick, you +know, my son Dick; and bless my heart, the boy's good taste too. He +inherited it." + +"Take my arm or let me take yours," muttered De Forest to Bell as Mr. +Hardcastle turned away, "and do let's get through it with his good +lady. Do you suppose she'll kiss me? Get her to make it easy for me, +won't you?" + +"Where now?" asked Bell, undecidedly, after the due politenesses with the +hostess had been exchanged. The woods were fairly ablaze with bonfires +and hanging lanterns, making a strangely brilliant and fantastic scene. +Here and there rugs were spread out on the grass for the older people to +congregate upon in gossiping groups, while the young ones had speedily +converted a large, smooth spot of lawn into an impromptu dancing-ground, +and were whirling merrily away to the music of the band, in the very face +of the scandalized Mrs. Upjohn. This last field of action was the first +to attract Bell's quick eye. "Oh, come," she said. "Of course you dance?" + +De Forest gave a shudder. "My dear young lady! no sane man ever dances. +But pray do not let me detain you. Where your heart is, there would your +feet be also." He dropped her arm as he spoke. Bell shrugged her +shoulders and put her arm back in his. + +"'Tisn't fair to abandon you so soon after bringing you here. There's +Janet Mudge" (hastily selected as the plainest girl present and the +farthest from Gerald, toward whom De Forest's steps were manifestly +directing themselves); "let's go and speak to her." + +"On the contrary, let us avoid her by every means in our power," said De +Forest, imperturbably, walking Bell off in the opposite direction. "I +never choose pearls when I may have diamonds. There's Miss Vernor. We'll +go and speak with her." + +"But I don't want to," objected Bell, crossly. "I am not at all as fond +of Miss Vernor as you are." + +"Naturally not," answered De Forest, pursuing his way undisturbed. "Men +always like girls better than girls do. I appreciate your feelings. But +she's got that good-looking young minister with her. You like him. All +feminine souls incline to clergymen next to officers. Buttons first; then +surplices." + +"Thirdly, For(r)esters, I suppose," suggested Bell, saucily. + +"Undoubtedly," assented her companion. "Miss Vernor, your humble +servant." His glance, as it invaribly did when they met, seemed to make +swift, approbative note of every smallest particular of her appearance. +"Mr. Halloway, here is a young lady who has just openly informed me that +she prefers you to me, so I suppose I must resign her to you with what +grace I can. Don't you think, Miss Vernor, you might try to divert my +mind from dwelling too cruelly on Miss Masters' defalcation by showing me +what Mr. Hardcastle's grand intellect has devised for my entertainment? +That bonfire yonder has a sort of cannibalistic look about it suggestive +of dancing negroes and unmentionable feasts behind the flames. Shall we +inspect it nearer?" And he marched Gerald deliberately away, scarcely +remembering to bow to Bell. Still, to be left with Mr. Halloway was by no +means an unenviable fate, and Bell, like the wise girl she was, proceeded +to make the most of it without delay, and paraded her prey wherever she +chose, finding him much more tractable than her last companion, and not +in the least dictatorial as to the direction he went in. + +That out-door evening party was long remembered as one of the most novel +and successful entertainments ever given in Joppa. Even Mrs. Upjohn +admitted it to be very well, very well indeed, all but the dancing, for +which, however, Mr. Hardcastle apologized to her handsomely as a quite +unexpected ebullition of youthful spirits which in his soul he was far +from countenancing, and upon which she resolutely turned her back all the +evening, so at least not to be an eye-witness of the indecorum. Of +course, therefore, she knew nothing whatever about it when Mr. Upjohn +toward the end of the evening, actually allowed himself to be decoyed +into the gay whirl by one of the youngest and most daring of the girls, +and galloped clumsily around like a sportive and giddy elephant set free +for the first time in its native jungle, and finding it very much to its +liking. His daughter Maria, faithfully at her mother's side, sat with one +ear grudgingly lent to the prosy heaviness of Mr. Webb's light talk, and +her whole face turned longingly toward the spot where the happy sinners +were gyrating, and, seeing her father there, her round eyes grew rounder +than ever, as she watched in breathless alarm lest the earth should open +under his feet in instant retribution. Gracious, if ma should turn her +head! But there are some wrongs it is best to ignore altogether, where +prevention is hopeless, and Mrs. Upjohn, like many another good woman, +always knew when not to see. So she persistently did not see now, and Mr. +Upjohn spun away to his heart's content (prudently keeping in the +remotest corner of the sward, to be sure), winking at Maria every now and +then in the highest glee, and once absolutely signing to her to sneak +over to him and try a turn too. + +And then came supper-time, and such a supper, setting all confectioners +and doctors at defiance at once! Mr. Upjohn, red and perspiring, and +remarking how curiously hot the bonfires made the woods at night, waited +on his wife with gallant solicitude, lest she should leave a single dish +untasted. Mrs. Bruce had left town the day before, and in the absence of +any new admiration he always fell back with perfect content upon his old +allegiance. Mrs. Upjohn received his devotion as calmly as his +intermittent neglects, and only raised her eyebrows when he stooped to +whisper, "My love, you're the most handsomely dressed woman here!" which +was strictly true as regarded the materials of her attire, and +unblushingly false as regarded the blending of them. Dick had been in his +element all the evening. He had had a serio-comic flirtation with every +girl in turn. He had cut out Jake Dexter with Nellie Atterbury, and made +it up to his friend by offering him a lock of Bell's hair, which he had +surreptitiously cut from her hanging braids, and which Jake wore pinned +in his button hole as a trophy for the rest of the evening, to the +immense scandal of everybody. But with the supper-hour Dick's spirits +ebbed. He knew, poor fellow, what Fate held in store. His father intended +making a few remarks over him, as a sort of substitute for his defrauded +speech to the non-existing tenantry. + +"Stand by me, Jake, there's a man!" whispered Dick, forlornly, to +his crony. + +"I will, Dick, like a woman!" Jake responded, tenderly, and the two stood +together just at Mr. Hardcastle's elbow, as that worthy advanced to a +central spot between the bonfires, cleared his throat ominously, and +pirouetted solemnly around, holding up his hand to attract general +attention. + +"My friends," began Mr. Hardcastle, swelling with the importance of the +moment to even more than his usual rotundity, "this has been a day of +days to me. All of you who are parents will appreciate my feelings of +mingled pride and humility,--of pride and humility," repeated Mr. +Hardcastle, pleased with the antithesis, and swaying gently back and +forth, "as I stand here before you with my son, the boy whom I have +watched over from his cradle up with an unsleeping eye, and whose tender +feet"--Dick here stooped over to inspect those honest, able members. Jake +did the same with evident disapproval of them. Mr. Hardcastle raised his +voice--"whose tender feet I have endeavored from his youth up, so far as +lay in my limited power, to guide in the way that I hope he may never +depart from. This boy I now present to you, friends, a man,--this boy who +has grown up among you, whom you all know, and whom I hope you all harbor +some kindly feeling for,--this boy,"--he put out his hand to draw him +forward, Dick gave Jake a gentle push toward the hand and vanished, and +Mr. Hardcastle, quite unconscious of the manoeuvre, drew the grinning +Jake solemnly up to him, and casting around a look of triumph which +seemed to say: Do better than this, friends, if you can, placed his hand +on Jake's shoulder with his grandest air, and continued, sonorously,--"my +son, ladies and gentlemen,--my son Dick." + +There was a moment's pause of consternation among the guests and a +suppressed scream from the defrauded Mother Dexter. Mr. Hardcastle +slowly turned his radiant face toward his supposed son, and immediately +dropped his hand and exclaimed, in entirely altered and most natural +tones of amazement: "Well, I never! How in the world did _you_ get here, +Jake Dexter?" + +A shout instantly went up all round; even Mr. Hardcastle himself was +overcome with the ludicrousness of the mistake, and further solemnity +being impossible, a signal was given, and from a barge far out on the +water a score of rockets shot hissing into the air, announcing the +beginning of fireworks. A brilliant display of these followed, closing +the evening's entertainment, and immediately afterward a large raft was +towed up to the landing, and the whole merry party embarked and returned +to Joppa together, the band following on another boat and treating them +to music all the way. Halloway stood near Gerald in the crowd, but he did +not attempt to join her until the raft reached the pier and was made +fast. Then he quietly went to her and offered his arm. De Forest stepped +up at the same moment. "Miss Vernor, will you condescend to accept of my +valuable escort home?" + +"I beg your pardon," interrupted Denham, "I am Miss Vernor's escort +to-night." + +De Forest stood still. "I did not know it was a return-ticket +arrangement." + +"It was," answered Denham, decidedly. "You can hardly expect me to +relinquish my rights." + +"I should say your rights depended wholly on Miss Vernor's choice. Fair +lady, two hearts and four arms are at your immediate disposal. If you +could make up your volatile mind to determine between them--" + +"There can be no question of choice," said Gerald, quietly. "I accepted +Mr. Halloway's escort yesterday; so good-night." + +"You leave me a blighted being," said De Forest. "For the peace of my +soul, let me ascribe your decision to a love of justice rather than of +individual. _Au revoir_." + +Halloway drew Gerald's hand through his arm with a very comfortable +feeling of possession, and they walked on some time in silence. "Are you +tired?" he asked at last. + +"No--yes. Parties always tire me, and life in Joppa consists of parties. +Do you always go?" + +"Oh, always!" + +"Your mental constitution must be robust to stand such a steady +strain upon it." + +"The shepherd must keep by his sheep, you know," laughed Denham. + +"I thought the shepherd was to lead the sheep, not to be led by them. +Don't you hope to inspire them with a love for better things? I +fancied the province of a clergyman was to improve people--not just to +preach to them." + +A shadow crossed Denham's face. "There are many of them more fitted to +improve me than I them," he said, humbly. "How would you have me begin?" + +"With making Mr. Hardcastle less offensively pompous, and Mrs. Hardcastle +less tedious, and Mrs. Upjohn less dogmatic, and Mrs. Anthony more +sincere, and Miss Delano less namby-pamby,--in short, by taking a little +of the superficiality and narrow-mindedness and provinciality out of the +place if possible." + +Denham tossed back his head with a light laugh. "Ah, how you relieve my +mind! Most of those whom you have so scathingly described belong to other +congregations, and are therefore beyond my jurisdiction." + +"Do you really feel so? Are you so like a physician?" asked Gerald, +quickly. "Do you seek to do good only to those who pay for the care you +give them? Is not your mission with all with whom you are thrown?" + +"The days of single-handed combat against the world are over," answered +Denham. "You cripple a man by giving him too wide a field of action." + +"I would not take less than the widest were I a man!" exclaimed +Gerald, proudly. + +"Would you be a clergyman?" + +"No. I have no talent for writing. I could not preach." + +"Nay, I think you an admirable preacher," said Denham, gently, without +the faintest tinge of sarcasm in either tone or look. Gerald glanced at +him quickly and flushed slightly. + +"I am too dogmatic myself," she said, biting her lip and turning away her +head. "I should not be so hard on Mrs. Upjohn." + +"You do not intend to be hard on any one." + +"But to be just is to seem hard," said Gerald. + +"It is a divine prerogative to know just how far to temper justice with +mercy," Denham answered. "I suppose none of us can hope to attain to +perfect knowledge; but if there must be error, I would for myself rather +err in excess of mercy than of justice." + +"In other words, between two evils you would choose the least," Gerald +replied. "That is the common way of getting out of the difficulty. But it +seems to me like compromising with evil. There ought to be always some +third, wholly right, way out of every dilemma, if only one sought +earnestly enough." She spoke more as if to herself than to him. + +"Then perhaps," said Denham, pleasantly, "we may hope that you will in +time light upon the very kindliest and rightest way combined of judging +not only abstract subjects, but also the not altogether unworthy +inhabitants of even this little place of Joppa." + +"Oh, Joppa!" cried Gerald, all the impatience instantly coming back to +her face and voice. As instantly too she frowned in self-conviction, and +turned almost contritely to Denham. "You see, Mr. Halloway, I shall have +to bring my own character first to that future Day of Judgment, and to be +very careful that I do _not_ err on your side,--in being too merciful." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WHY DO SUMMER ROSES FADE? + + +A few more days slipped by, easily and swiftly, as all days did in +Joppa. The famous party was discussed and re-discussed down to its +minutest details. Mrs. Hardcastle recovered from her subsequent attack +of neuralgia. Mr. Hardcastle, who went from house to house, gathering +compliments as an assessor levies taxes, completed the round of the +village and began again. Mrs. Upjohn asked for and obtained the recipe +of a certain dish, the like of which had never before been seen in +Joppa, and the Joppites commended her boldness in asking and condemned +Mrs. Hardcastle's weakness in giving. The report that Mr. Upjohn had +apostatized from the Presbyterian Church, disapproving of its tenets as +regarded waltzing, was duly started, denied, violently adopted, and as +violently exploded. The statements that Jake Dexter was engaged to +Nellie Atterbury, that Bell Masters had offered herself to Mr. Halloway +and been declined with thanks, and that Gerald's hat had been imported +from Paris two days before, were also duly aired and evaporated. It had, +moreover, by this time become a town fact, that it was Bell Masters and +_not_ Janet Mudge whom Halloway had rowed to the party, and that he had +walked home with Mrs. Lane. Miss Brooks overheard him taking leave of +her at her door, and fancied--but was not sure--that she told him to +change his boots lest his feet should be damp. Everybody had also found +out beyond discussion or doubt that De Forest was Gerald's escort home +on that occasion, but that the engagement between them was broken off. +It was definitely known that he had said he was a blighted being, and +should shortly take a return ticket to New York. Everybody said it was a +shame, when they were so manifestly cut out for each other. In fact, +every thing had been found out about every thing. The evening had been +talked threadbare, and, alas, there was nothing else to talk about. +Phebe's reappearance downstairs, unscarred and bonnie as ever, was +become an old story long since, and Dr. Dennis' treatment of the case +was now admitted to have been the very best possible next to what Dr. +Harrison's treatment would have been, though by all means, it was +decided, Dr. Dennis and _not_ Dr. Harrison should have been called in +when Mr. Brown, the grocer, fell ill of a fever. Poor Joppa was indeed +fairly talked out. It had to settle down upon the fever and Mr. Brown +for lack of any thing else. It was really almost a godsend when Mrs. +Brown took the fever too, for it gave Joppa just twice as much to talk +about, and everybody said it was somebody's duty to see that the poor +souls had right advice in the matter. Jabez Brown, Jr., carried on the +business in his father's stead, and measured out his sugars and teas at +so much advice the pound, and did a thriving business, but the poor old +father died all the same. He was a respectable, honest man, and all his +customers attended his funeral in the most neighborly way in the world, +with a grim look upon their sympathetic countenances of "I told you so. +It should have been Dr. Dennis." + +Yes, to all but Phebe, her illness and long imprisonment and her return +to matter-of-fact life downstairs, was a tame-enough story now. But to +her it was as the opening chapter of a new history. Life seemed changed +and strange to her when she stepped back into it, and took up again the +duties and labors that she had laid by only so lately. Had she dreamed +herself into another world, or why was it so hard to put herself back +into the place she had stepped out of? Everybody about her was the same; +nothing had really changed in any way, and certainly she had not. Neither +had Gerald. Neither had Mr. Halloway. What had she expected? What was it +she had vaguely looked forward to? What was it that was so different? + +"Pray, what are you thinking of?" Denham asked suddenly one day, turning +to her with his bright, sweet smile. "You have been quiet for very long." + +"So have you been quiet," returned Phebe. "I do not think I have been any +less talkative than you." + +"Perhaps not," said Denham. "We are leaving Soeur Angélique and Miss +Vernor to have a regular tête-à-tête of it, are we not? But you evade my +question in a very unbecoming way, Miss Phebe. Tell me, what were you +thinking of?" + +"I don't quite know," answered Phebe, slowly. "But I think I was wishing +for impossibilities,--for things that can't possibly happen, just because +it would be so nice if they could." + +"Ah," said Halloway, dreamily. "That is a very bad habit, a frightfully +unsatisfactory, delusive, and, indeed, an altogether pernicious habit, +Miss Phebe. It takes the taste out of every thing solid, and leaves one +an appetite only for indigestible sweets. I must correct you of it. I +will, just as soon, that is, as I have broken myself of it. Will you wait +till I have taken myself in hand?" + +They were together sitting in a little recess of the rectory parlor, +while Mrs. Whittridge and Gerald were talking at the farther end of the +room. Soeur Angélique had invited the two girls to tea, and Halloway, +when he came in from his study, seated himself at once by Phebe, though +after his warm greeting and self-congratulations upon having her back +in her old haunts, he had fallen into quite an unusual silence. Phebe +was looking very sweet and fresh that afternoon. All the care that she +had meant to devote to her toilet upon the occasion of her first meeting +with Halloway, she had expended in dressing herself for this visit to +the rectory. Never had her shining hair been braided so glossily, or +coaxed into waving more prettily about her forehead; never had the +simple etceteras of her dress been more studiously selected and more +carefully put together. Looking in the glass when all was done, she had +been fain to confess that she really did look nice for once, though she +reproached herself immediately afterward in severest terms for the +unpardonable vanity of the thought, and made a little grimace at her own +image to effectually dispel the illusion. What could it ever matter how +she looked? And particularly how could it matter when Gerald was +by,--Gerald, who possessed that rare and enviable gift of always looking +her best? So Phebe put the subject of her looks entirely away from her +mind, and leaned back on the sofa, her hands folded idly in her lap, +feeling perfectly content with the passing moment, and asking nothing +from the future but that it might be always "now." What more could she +want? The room held her three dearest friends in the world,--Gerald, +Soeur Angélique, and Mr. Halloway;--of course one should always put +ladies before gentlemen even only in thought. How handsome Gerald looked +as she stood with her head slightly bent forward, listening to Mrs. +Whittridge. If Gerald did not choose to listen, no one could ever force +her to lend an ear. But when she did so choose, she listened with her +whole mind, and was lost to all else. Phebe smiled with quiet amusement +at her friend's intensity in every thing, and turned with the smile on +her face to Halloway. He was not smiling at all, but he too was looking +fixedly at Gerald. + +"It has been lovely having her here, but how we shall miss her, shall we +not, when she goes?" said Phebe, softly. + +"Goes?" repeated Halloway, blankly. "It is scarcely September yet." + +"What, have you not heard?" exclaimed Phebe. "Do you not know? Gerald has +been sent for. She and Olly go back next Thursday." + +"Thursday?" echoed Halloway, in a sort of stunned way. "So soon? Going +for good? Thursday?" + +What closely guarded secret did the loving gray eyes, fastened upon him, +read in the swift, uncontrollable look that flashed suddenly across his +face, like the lightning that leaps out of the dark by night, laying all +earth bare in one brief, vivid glimpse? He was so taken by surprise as to +be completely off guard. It was but an instant, and with a start he +recovered himself. + +"I had not heard your news," he said, with perfect quiet, reaching out to +the table for an uncut magazine, and proceeding leisurely to open its +pages. "I suppose it is a sign that summer is over when the birds begin +to fly home." + +Phebe did not answer immediately. In that one short moment, all her face +had changed also. As by the stroke of a wand, its brightness and sweet +content had given place to an expression of unutterable weariness. She +got up and went to the window, standing with her back to Halloway. + +"We had our first cold night that evening of my accident," she +said, with an effort to speak very calmly. "I think the summer really +ended then." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +JOPPA'S TRIAL. + + +It was the night before Gerald's departure, and a number of people +strayed into Mrs. Lane's parlor to bid the fair traveller god-speed. She +had not been at all a popular guest, but that was no reason why Joppa +should lack in any possible courtesy toward her, little as she +appreciated the magnanimity of its conduct. + +"Very sorry to lose you, very," said Mr. Hardcastle, taking her hand in +the soft, warm grasp that Gerald so particularly detested. "But maybe +it's as well you are going. Joppa isn't the place it used to be. Here's +Mr. Anthony's got the fever to-night, and there's a poor family down in +the village as have all got it, Dennis says; and I noticed that little +Nellie Atterbury had monstrous red cheeks when Dick and I passed her +to-night, and indeed I crossed the street to avoid her in case she might +be going to have the fever too. Where one has a family one has duties +one would never feel for one's self. So I say, my dear, it's as well +you're going, if only on account of that boy of yours. We must all learn +early to sacrifice ourselves for our children." + +"Olly isn't my child," said Gerald, twisting her handkerchief around her +hand to efface the remembrance of Mr. Hardcastle's touch. + +"Hey? Ah, yes, to be sure, he's your brother; but it's all one. You stand +in the light of a parent to him just now, my dear." He was actually going +to pat Gerald paternally on the shoulder, but she moved abruptly aside, +and he pulled Olly's ear instead. It was necessary to do something with +his outstretched hand before drawing it back. Olly was playing +cat's-cradle with the good-natured Mr. Upjohn, and merely kicked out at +his caresser, as a warning that he was not to be interrupted. + +"Fine spirited boy," muttered Mr. Upjohn under his breath. "Very fine. +Will make a man some day." + +"Not so big as you, though, I won't be when I'm a man," declared Olly. +"You're too fat." + +"Now just hear him!" exclaimed Mr. Upjohn, shaking all over with +corpulent mirth. "Maybe you would rather be like Mr. Webb then?" + +"No, I wouldn't neither," retorted Olly, nothing deterred by that +gentleman's presence from a frank exposure of his sentiments. "He's too +lean. He's leaner than any thing. He's just like the blade of my +pocket-knife with clothes on. Oh, crickey!" + +It was conveniently discovered at this crisis that it was Olly's bedtime, +and he was with some difficulty conveyed from the parlor, followed by an +angry glare from Gerald and a severely truthful comment from Mrs. Upjohn. +De Forest outstayed the rest of the leave-takers. Phebe thought it hard, +when she so wanted to have Gerald all to herself on this last evening; +and she wondered too that Halloway had not come to say good-by. He came +in, however, at last, flushed and tired, apologizing for the lateness of +his call, saying he had been sent for by two of his parishioners who were +also down with the fever. + +"It looks something like an epidemic," remarked Gerald. "I am really +rather glad we are going." + +"You have no ambition to remain and turn Florence Nightingale then?" +asked De Forest. + +"Not in the slightest. It is a role I am eminently unfitted for. I detest +sick people." + +"Not always, I think, Gerald," said Phebe, with a grateful glance, which +Gerald returned with one of real though undemonstrative tenderness. + +"Your case was very different, Phebe." + +"I should think it would be extremely difficult to detest Miss Phebe +under even the must aggravating circumstances," said Halloway, smiling +frankly at her. "Hallo, who is this?" + +It was Olly, bootless and coatless, whom the sound of Halloway's voice +had brought down from the midst of his slow preparations for bed, to bid +his friend good-by, and who sprang upon him with a rush of suffocating +affection. + +"What would Mrs. Upjohn say!" drawled De Forest. + +Gerald rose at once to send off the child with a reprimand, and +remained standing after he had gone. De Forest rose too and slowly came +toward her. + +"I suppose I had better leave you to follow Olly up-stairs. I wish you +to be fresh to entertain me during to-morrow's tedious journey." + +"What, do you go back to-morrow too?" asked Gerald, in surprise. "I +thought you were to stay till next week." + +"I am afraid of the fever," pronounced De Forest with great gravity, his +handsome eyes fastened on her face. "I am running away from it. I don't +think it safe to stay another day in the place." + +Gerald colored a little,--not at his words, but his look. "Then I suppose +I need not bid you good-by," she said, turning away. She seemed almost +embarrassed. "Good-night." + +"Oh, but Gerald,--Mr. Halloway, you must say good-by to him you know," +said Phebe, distressed. + +"Surely. I forgot," replied Gerald, with uncomplimentary sincerity. She +turned back, the faint shade of confusion quite disappearing. "Good-by, +Mr. Halloway. I wish you success in finding all the Nightingales that you +may require." + +"Thank you," answered Denham, shortly. "Good-by." + +Phebe glanced up at him quickly. She noticed a shade of bitterness in +his voice for the first time. He said nothing more, and dropped Gerald's +hand almost immediately. De Forest bent forward and raised it. "Am I to +be defrauded of a good-night, Miss Vernor, simply because it is not my +good-by? _Au revoir_." + +It seemed to Phebe that he held Gerald's hand an instant longer when she +would have withdrawn it, and that she permitted or at least did not +resent it, and before releasing it he stooped and touched her fingers +lightly with his lips. "_Au revoir_," he said again. + +Halloway turned abruptly to Phebe. "Good-night." He spoke almost +brusquely, and went directly away, without offering his hand or looking +at any of them again. + +Phebe followed Gerald into her room when the two girls went up-stairs, +and sat watching her friend's quick movements as she completed some last +arrangements for the journey. It was strangely unlike Phebe not to offer +to help her, but somehow Gerald looked so strong and able and +self-sufficient, and she herself felt so tired and weak to-night. + +"How quiet you are!" said Gerald, folding a soft shawl smoothly over the +top of a tray. "Haven't you any last message to give me? Isn't there any +thing you would like me to do for you in New York?" + +"Nothing, thank you." + +"You are sure? Well, now I am through and mustn't keep you up longer. You +have all been exceedingly kind, Phebe, both to myself and that +troublesome Olly. I appreciate it, even though I don't say as much about +it as perhaps some would." + +"Have you really enjoyed it here, Gerald? Have you been happy? Will you +miss us a little--just a little--when you are gone?" + +"I shall miss _you_, child, of course. You constitute Joppa to me, you +know. And indeed I have enjoyed it here very much, and it has done Olly a +world of good. Good-night, dear." + +Phebe had her arms about her friend at once, clasping her close. "O +Gerald, Gerald, I think it is almost better to have no friends at all, +it is so hard--so cruelly hard--to part with them, and--and to lose +them! O Gerald!" + +"Parting with them isn't losing them, you foolish sentimentalist," +returned Gerald, gently unclasping Phebe's arms. "Now go to bed. You look +worn out." + +"Just tell me once first, Gerald, that you love me. I haven't many to +love me. I need all your love." + +"Of course I love you," said Gerald. "You know it without my saying so. +And don't talk so foolishly. I never knew a girl with more friends. Now +good-night." + +Phebe kissed her very quietly, and then crept into Olly's room, and sat +down on his bed. "Olly, dear," she murmured, "are you asleep?" + +The little fellow sprang up and flung his arms closely around her neck, +embracing collar, ruffles, and ribbon in one all-comprehensive +destruction. + +"Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" whispered Phebe, half +laughing and half crying, as she strained him to her heart. "Oh, Olly +dear, I do want some one just to say so!" + +"I do, I do, I do, and I do!" said Olly, with a bear's hug at each +assertion. "Blest if I don't. That's what Mr. Upjohn said when I asked +him if he didn't want some taffy. 'Blest if I don't.' I guess it's a +swear, 'cause he said I mustn't tell Mrs. Upjohn he said so, not to the +longest day I lived. The longest day won't come now till next year, the +twenty-first of June. That's the longest day, ain't it? Mr. Halloway +taught me that. My, don't he know a lot! I'm going to be like him when +I'm a man. That's who I'm going to be like. And I'm going to love you +always. He loves you too, doesn't he, Pheeb?" + +"No, dear," answered Phebe, still laughing and crying together, and +rocking gently back and forth with the boy in her arms; "he doesn't at +all. There doesn't any body really love me, I think, but just you. But +you do, don't you, dear?" + +"Bet on it!" said Olly, with forcible vulgarity. + +"God bless you," said Phebe, very softly, as she put the boy back in the +bed, and laid her wet cheek on his. "God bless you now and always." + +"Forever and ever, amen," whispered Olly back, with an impression that +Phebe was saying her prayers over him. "And oh, I say, Pheeb, can't you +let us have some of that jelly cake with raisins in it, to take with us +for luncheon to-morrow?" + +And Phebe promised she would, and laughed and went away feeling, somehow, +a little comforted. + +And so Gerald and Olly and De Forest all disappeared from the scene +together, and shortly after the Dexters went to Morocco on a visit, and +the Masters adjourned to Bethany to do their fall shopping; and there +were whisperings around that something was wrong; there was more and more +talk of the fever; of how it ought to be checked, and why it had not been +checked, and what would be the dire consequences if it were not checked. +The summer guests all slipped quietly away, leaving Joppa alone to its +growing trouble. Every day brought some new case, sometimes a death, and +people began to look suspiciously at each other in the streets and to +avoid each other on the flimsiest pretexts. Miss Lydia cried helplessly +in her room and said she was sure she should take it and die of it. Mr. +Hardcastle found he was too busy at home to have time for neighborly +visits, and went around the block rather than pass a door where he saw +the doctor's gig. When one has a family, one owes it duties that should +not be neglected. Mrs. Upjohn declared the panic to be ridiculous. _She_ +shouldn't be scared away by a red flag, like a crow from a cornfield. +There had never been a case of typhoid known in Joppa, and places were +like people, they never broke out with diseases that were not already in +their constitutions. It was all arrant nonsense. However, she was +perfectly willing that Maria should make that proposed visit to her aunt +in Boston if she liked, and it was quite proper that Mr. Upjohn, in the +character of gallant father, should escort her there; the girl couldn't +go alone. So every day saw some new flight from the village. The doctors +began to look overworked and very grave, and Mr. Hardcastle appeared less +and less outside his gates, and took to walking always in the middle of +the streets, whence he could wave a salutation to his passing friends +without stopping to speak to them. Dick said he'd like to see the fever +catch _him_, and pursued the rough tenor of his ways fearlessly as of +old, though he assured his anxious father that it was wholly because +Nellie Atterbury lived in the healthiest quarter of the town, that he +spent so much of his time at her house. There was no use denying or +qualifying it. An epidemic of typhoid fever had stolen upon Joppa as a +thief in the night, and there was no knowing what house it would not +enter next, to rob it of its dearest and best. + +Through all this slowly increasing alarm, Phebe Lane had been living as +in a dream. It was as if she found herself back in that old life before +she knew Halloway, when people bored her, and when there seemed nothing +worth doing or worth looking forward to, though the days were so full of +duties. She had been at the rectory but once since Gerald left, and that +was to the Bible-class, and when Mrs. Whittridge had tried to detain her +afterward, she had pleaded some pressing business at home, though +chancing to look out of her window a little later, Soeur Angélique was +almost sure that through the closed shutters in Phebe's room, she saw a +dim shadow of the girl's head laid down listlessly on her folded arms on +the sill. But when the epidemic reached its height, Phebe seemed +suddenly to awaken from her languor and rouse herself to action. Here was +something worth doing at last. Once more her soft, sweet whistling +sounded bird-like through the house. The spring came back to her step, +the brightness to her eyes, and more than the old tenderness to her +voice, as she went from one shunned sick-room to another like a living +sunbeam, bringing the freshness of a May morning with her, and seeming +always to come solely for her own pure pleasure. And when poor motherless +Janet Mudge was struck down too with the dreaded disease, and had no one +but servants to care for her, her own aunt, who lived in Joppa, being +afraid to so much as go to the house to ask after her, it seemed +perfectly natural to everybody that Phebe Lane, who had no cares at home +and no one really dependent upon her, should quietly install herself as +Janet's nurse. It was a very proper and natural thing for Phebe to do, +everybody said, and thought no more about it. It was so manifestly a duty +sent direct from Heaven, labelled "For Phebe Lane." + +"I met Dr. Dennis to-day," said Halloway one afternoon, coming into his +sister's room and throwing himself wearily down on the sofa. "He says +Janet Mudge is better,--is really going to get well." + +Soeur Angélique put aside her work and came to sit by the sofa and stroke +her boy's head. If the doctors were overworked and spent, so too was he. +The hour of trial had not found him wanting. His unambitious, simple +spirit, that sought no wider duty than merely to fulfil the moment's call +as he best could, met and conquered a stress of work that would have +disheartened many a bolder hero. He never thought of it in the light of +duty at all. There was nothing heroic or high-minded about it. It was +simply what in the nature of things he was bound to do. Wherever he was +wanted he went, and because where he went he brought such sunny cheer, +and such sympathetic help, and such bright, kindly ways, he was wanted +everywhere; not only those of his own parish, but those of the other +churches too came to look to Mr. Halloway as the one whose visit helped +them the most in any season of trial. Among the poor he was held a +ministering angel, and supplemented by Soeur Angélique as an unseen +force, often proved one in truth, while his bright face did them more +good, they said, than a power of sermons; and no one ever thought the +less of him because he seemed so much more the friend than the pastor, +and did no preaching at all. + +"So Janet is better," said Soeur Angélique, toying caressingly with the +wavy brown hair tossed over his forehead. "Now I hope we shall see more +of our Phebe again. What a little heroine she is!" + +"A perfectly unconscious one," answered Halloway, lazily submitting +himself to the fondling hand. "She thinks it the most matter-of-fact +thing in the world that she should play Sister of Charity to other +people's sick, and never expect so much as a thank-you from them." + +"She is a lovely character," said Mrs. Whittridge, warmly. + +"She is indeed," assented her brother. "A rare character. She is one in a +thousand." + +"I cannot but compare her sometimes with her friend, Gerald Vernor," +continued Mrs. Whittridge. "And despite Miss Vernor's beauty and her +power, which makes itself felt even by me, still it is always to Phebe's +advantage." + +Halloway got up and began slowly pacing the room, with an odd smile upon +his lips. "Always to Phebe's advantage," he repeated. "Yes, she is by far +the more amiable, the more unselfish, the more lovable, the better worth +loving of the two. She is all heart. She is brimming over with affection, +and must speak it or die, while Gerald is colder than stone,--than ice. +She is so cold she burns. She reminds one of stars in mid-winter, of +icicles in the moonlight, of any thing eminently frigid and brilliant and +remote. I daresay, despite all her beauty and her talent and even with +her wealth thrown in, she will have comparatively few lovers, yet those +few will be truer to her through all her coldness and her disfavor than +the lovers of many a sweeter girl. Did I say Phebe was one in a thousand? +Well Miss Vernor is one in nine hundred and ninety-nine,--or one in ten +thousand,--I don't know which." + +"You said Phebe was the better worth loving of the two," said Mrs. +Whittridge, coming to walk up and down the room with him and clasping +her hands over his arm. "I used to think,--I fancied you cared for the +child,--that you would care for her." + +Denham stood still and faced his sister very gravely, "I was growing to +care for her, Soeur Angélique," he said. "I believe I would have loved +her if,--if Gerald Vernor had not come here when she did." + +"Oh, Denham!" + +"Yes, Soeur Angélique. It is a humiliating confession, is it not, that +one has wilfully thrown away something that perhaps one might have had, +for something that one knows one can never have? It is sheerest folly. +And to do it with one's eyes open is the maddest folly of all. Gerald +Vernor is as indifferent to me as it is possible for one human creature +to be to another. I hold no more place in her thoughts than had I never +existed. And yet, Soeur Angélique, I am fool enough,--or helpless +enough,--whichever you please, to love her. I love her not for what she +is to me, but for what she is in herself, for what she really is, rather +than for what she seems,--for the strength and the heroism of her heart, +which I see through all the glaring, commonplace faults, which she is at +no pains to hide. Or perhaps I only love her because it was meant that I +should. Be it as it may, I do love her, and as passionately, as entirely, +and as hopelessly as it is possible for man to love." + +"O Denham, Denham, my boy!" + +Denham laid his hand lightly on his sister's lips. "Now we have had a +sufficiency of heroics for once, indeed for always," he said, with a +wholly altered voice. "Life has enough of solemnity in it and in spare, +without our adding aught to it. We will not speak of this again, if you +please. Folly is always best forgotten. But Soeur Angélique, if you +imagine me to be a blighted being, if you think I walk the floor in the +dead of night, tearing my hair and calling on all the stars to witness +the unearthly gloom in my racked bosom, you are utterly mistaken. I do +nothing of the kind. I am not blighted at all. My damask cheek is not +going to be preyed upon, nor shall I take to an excess of tobacco and +poetry. I have made a mistake, but I mean to sing over it,--not weep over +it,--and to become a stronger and better man, if possible, for having +been so weak a one." + +"And Phebe?" said Soeur Angélique. Great tears stood in her eyes. +"I hoped--" + +Denham placed both hands on his sister's shoulders. "Soeur Angélique, you +must bury those hopes in the grave. Loving Gerald Vernor, never, now, or +in the future, shall I have one word of love for any other woman. But for +her, I should have come perhaps to love Phebe with this same love; +perhaps,--who knows?--Phebe might so have loved me. As it is--Soeur +Angélique you know what I am. You know if I am likely to deceive myself. +Gerald Vernor has changed my life for always. What might have been, now +can never be." + +He stood still a moment, looking full at her. It was wonderful how +resolute and firm and yet brave and gentle too those merry brown eyes of +his could become. Soeur Angélique sighed and shook her head softly. He +stooped and kissed her, then turned away saying: "Now that chapter has +been read through to the end. Woe be to him who turns back the page! And +it is time I went to call on poor Widow Brown." + +Soeur Angélique stood in the window as a moment later he passed by. He +kissed his hand to her with a gay smile and went on. But she still stood +there with the tears welling and welling in her eyes till they fell +gently over upon her cheeks. She did not heed them, she was so busy with +her thoughts. "Poor Phebe," she said softly to herself. "My poor little +Phebe! But perhaps,--with time--" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PHEBE'S GOOD-BY. + + +When was it Phebe first fell ill? No one knew. Mr. Hardcastle had kept +cautiously out of her way this long time past, but nobody else suspected +that the brilliant cheeks and eyes which shone like stars were telltales +of a hidden fire burning her life away. The fever was abating in the +village. The doctors declared the epidemic virtually over, and mutually +congratulated each other upon the success of their measures. Mr. +Hardcastle returned to the sidewalks; Mr. Upjohn brought back Maria; Miss +Lydia said death had spared her this once, but next time it would be her +turn to go; Mrs. Lane said she needn't make her will yet for all that; +and everybody said how very much worse the fever would have been in any +less peculiarly healthy spot than Joppa. How was it that at the very +last, when there was no reason at all, when she had been apparently so +perfectly well all along, Phebe Lane should suddenly take to her bed? Not +only one doctor was called in, but both, and when they saw her they said +the fever had been running a long time already, and then they looked very +grave and shook their heads. She did not seem so ill. Most of their +patients had had far more aggravated symptoms yet still they shook their +heads as they looked at her, and murmured something about lack of +vitality, a general giving way, a complete want of will power, etc. +People looked at each other aghast. Was it possible that little Phebe +Lane was really going to die? Nobody really believed it could be, +excepting only Soeur Angélique. "Oh, my darling, my darling!" she cried +out when she first heard of it, and then she instantly went over and +installed herself in Phebe's room. And there she sat the slow days +through, waiting and waiting with a breaking heart. Phebe suffered very +little. She lay generally perfectly still, too weak to move, too weak to +care to speak. People came and went noiselessly below, but no one was +admitted to her room save her step-mother and Mrs. Whittridge. Mrs. Lane +watched her with growing anxiety. The fever was so slight, why did she +not rally from it? How was it credible she could fail so rapidly and so +causelessly? And Mrs. Whittridge sat by with despair in her heart. + +One day, late in the afternoon, as she sat so watching, Phebe suddenly +opened her eyes. "Will you call him, please? I hear him." + +"Who? Denham?" asked Soeur Angélique, with quick intuition. A finer +ear than hers had caught the light step and low voice in the narrow +hall below. + +"Yes, Denham," said Phebe, softly. "Denham. I want to see him." + +It pleased her to say his name so. She said it to herself over and over +beneath her breath, while waiting for him to come. It was but a moment, +and he was kneeling by the bedside, holding both her hands in his. She +looked up in his face and smiled, and said his name again, lower still. + +"Denham." + +"Yes, Phebe--yes, dear," he answered, too moved to say more. + +"I only wanted to say good-by," she continued, her eyes full of a love +unutterable that not even the shadow of coming death could wholly darken. +"Will you kiss me good-by please, this once, good-by--for always?" + +A faint, soft flush crept up over her white face, and he bent down and +kissed her gently, as one would kiss the Madonna of a shrine. + +"Phebe," he whispered, "not for always only for a time, dear--good-by." + +"Yes," she said, with a glad smile lighting up all her sweet, pure face. +"Only for a time." + +And them, still holding her hands tightly clasped in his, Denham bent +down his head upon them and prayed. + +The sunset came and faded, and the twilight came and went, giving place +to the solemn stillness of the enduring night. The stars shone clear and +still. Not a breath stirred. In his study Denham knelt alone, praying for +a dear and lovely life, praying against hope, against belief--against all +but faith. He did not know what time it was--it seemed as if it might be +morning---when at last the door opened and Soeur Angélique came in. He +got up and stood waiting, too agitated to speak. What news could she +bring him but the one? She came slowly up to him, then gave a little +gasp, and flinging her arms around his neck, burst into tears. + +"O Denham, Denham, all is over! Phebe is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ONLY AN INCIDENT. + + +The morning sun was streaming brilliantly in through the richly curtained +windows of a handsome New York dwelling. Mr. and Mrs. De Forest were +about sitting down to breakfast, which waited for them ready served, and +which indeed had been so waiting for some minutes. The butler coughed +behind his hand as a discreet reminder of his presence, and so indirectly +of the cooling dishes. The gentleman looked up from his easy-chair by the +fire and yawned. + +"My dear, I've been up so long I think it's getting bedtime again." + +"Just one moment, Ogden," answered the lady, from her desk. "I must send +off this note by the first mail." + +"Any thing important?" + +"Yes. I will not be put on that new committee. They _must_ find some one +else. My time is too full." + +De Forest rose and stood with his back to the fire, looking complacently +at his wife. "What an odd sensation it must be--having one's time too +full! It's an experience I'm willing always to delegate to some one else. +Doesn't it feel rather like too tight shoes?" + +Gerald laughed as she passed her husband to her seat at the table, and he +stood still watching her as she began pouring coffee. It was always a +pleasure to watch her. The butler drew out the gentleman's chair firmly. +It was time his master took his seat with his lady. There was too much of +this dilly-dallying. De Forest came lazily forward and seated himself. + +"Any news?" asked Gerald. + +"None whatever. It's a swindle to pay three cents for the _Herald_ in +such monotonous times. I was reduced to searching in your church paper to +see if by any chance something new had gotten lost in there." + +"I hope you found it." + +"I didn't. Not so much even as the death of someone I knew to cheer me. +There would have been variety at least in that. By the way, though, I +did see a familiar name among the personals,--just a notice that the Rev. +Denham Halloway had accepted a call to some church or other in some place +or other. He was quite a friend of yours, wasn't he, that summer before +we were married, when we were all in that odious little Joppa together? +How bored I was there!" + +"Denham Halloway," repeated Gerald, musingly. "Denham Halloway. Why, I +don't believe I have thought of him since. But he was never any especial +friend of mine, you know." + +"Ah, there was somebody else who managed to engross a great deal of your +time and most of your thoughts that summer, was there not, my dear, while +nobody but myself was bold enough to suppose that any impression had been +made on that frigid heart of yours? Well, I was perfectly fair. I left +your friend, Phebe, for Halloway." + +"Poor little Phebe!" said Gerald, with softened eyes. "How long ago it +all seems. Poor dear little Phebe! I have never wanted to hear of Joppa +since her death. I feel as if she had given her life for it. Yes; I +don't suppose I have thought twice of Denham Halloway since." + +Ah, so it was! That brief summer meeting, which had had so potent an +influence on the lives of those other two, had in her life been only +an incident. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Only an Incident, by Grace Denio Litchfield + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY AN INCIDENT *** + +***** This file should be named 10780-8.txt or 10780-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/8/10780/ + +Produced by Afra Ullah, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10780-8.zip b/old/10780-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1891dd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10780-8.zip diff --git a/old/10780.txt b/old/10780.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce5ea48 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10780.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5098 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Only an Incident, by Grace Denio Litchfield + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Only an Incident + +Author: Grace Denio Litchfield + +Release Date: January 22, 2004 [EBook #10780] +[Last updated: July 12, 2012] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY AN INCIDENT *** + + + + +Produced by Afra Ullah, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + + + + ONLY AN INCIDENT + + BY GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD + + 1883 + + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER + + I. JOPPA + + II. PHEBE + + III. GERALD + + IV. MRS. UPJOHN'S ENTERTAINMENT + + V. FRIENDS + + VI. THE PICNIC + + VII. TRIED AS BY FIRE + + VIII. GERALD OBEYS ORDERS + + IX. JOPPA'S MINISTRATIONS TO THE SICK + + X. AN APOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES + + XI. "MY SON DICK" + + XII. WHY DO SUMMER ROSES FADE? + + XIII. JOPPA'S TRIAL + + XIV. PHEBE'S GOOD-BY + + XV. ONLY AN INCIDENT + + + + +TO +GRACE HILL AND EDWIN C. LITCHFIELD. + +TO HER FOR WHOSE DEAR SAKE THE STORY WAS PENNED, ALTHOUGH HER EYES HAVE +NEVER REST UPON ITS PAGES, AND TO HIM WHOSE TENDER WATCH OVER ITS GROWTH +HAS BEEN ITS VITAL INSPIRATION--TO THE TWO WHO ARE BUT ONE FOREVER IN THE +HEART OF THEIR DAUGHTER, THIS LITTLE FIRST BOOK IS MOST LOVINGLY +INSCRIBED. + + + + +ONLY AN INCODENT + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +JOPPA. + + +Joppa was the very centre of all things. That was the opening clause in +the creed of every well-educated and right-thinking Joppite. +Geographically, however, it was not the centre of any thing, being +considerably off from the great lines of railway travel, but possessing +two little independent branch roads of its own, that connected it with +all the world, or rather that connected all the world with it. For though +there were larger places than Joppa even in the county in which it +condescended to find itself, and though New York, and Philadelphia, and +even Boston, were undeniably larger, as its inhabitants reluctantly +admitted when hard pressed, yet they were unanimous in agreeing, +nevertheless, that the sun rose and set wholly and entirely for the +benefit of their one little aristocratic community. + +Yes; the world was created for Joppa, that the Joppites might live, move, +and have their being with as much convenience and as little trouble as +possible. Bethany, a considerable town near by, was built to be its +shopping emporium; Galilee, a little farther off, to accommodate its art +needs; Morocco, a more considerable town still farther off, to be the +birthplace of those ancestors who were so unfortunate as to come into the +world before there was any Joppa to be born in. Even New York was erected +mainly to furnish it with a place of comfortable resort once a year, when +it transplanted itself there bodily in a clan, consoling itself for its +temporary aberration of body by visiting exclusively and diligently back +and forth among its own people, and conforming life in all particulars as +far as possible to home rules, still doing when in New York, not as the +New Yorkers but as the Joppites did, and never for a moment abandoning +its proud position as the one only place in the world worth living in. + +There certainly was much to say in favor of Joppa. In the first place, +it was remarkably salubrious. Its inhabitants died only of old +age,--seldom even of that,--or of diseases contracted wholly in other +localities. Measles had indeed been known to break out there once in the +sacred person of the President of the village, but had been promptly +suppressed; besides, it was universally conceded that being in his second +childhood he should be considered liable. The last epidemic of small-pox +even had swept by them harmless. Only two old and extremely ugly women +took it, whereas Bethany and Upper Jordan were decimated. So Joppa was +decidedly healthy, for one thing. For another, it was moral. There had +not been a murder heard of in ever so long, or a forgery, and the last +midnight burglar was such a nice, simple fellow that he did not know real +silver when he saw it, and ran off with the plated ware instead. And +Joppa was not only moral, but religious; went to church no end of times +on Sundays, and kept as many of the commandments as it conveniently +could. It had four churches: one Methodist, frequented exclusively by the +plebeians; one Baptist, of a mixed congregation; one Presbyterian, where +three fourths of the best people went; and one Episcopal, which the best +quarter of the best people attended, and which among the Presbyterians +was popularly supposed to be, if not exactly the entrance to the infernal +regions, yet certainly only one short step removed from it. And added to +all these good traits, Joppa was a beautiful place. There were a few +common, ugly little houses in it, of course, but they were all tucked +away out of sight at one end, constituting what was known as "the +village," while the real Joppa meant in the thoughts of the inhabitants +only the West End so to speak, where was a series of pretty villas and +commodious mansions running along a broad, handsome street, and +stretching for quite a distance along the border of the lake. For, oh! +best of all, Joppa had a lake. To speak of Joppa in the presence of a +Joppite, and not in the same breath to mention the lake with an +appreciative adjective, was to make as irrevocable a mistake as to be in +conversation with a poet and forget to quote from his latest poem; for +next to their wives, their dinners, and their ease, the Joppites loved +their beautiful little lake. And they had cause thus to love it, for +apart from its exquisite charm as the main feature of their landscape, it +gave them a substantial reason for existence. What could they have done +with their _dolce far niente_ lives, but for the fishing and rowing and +sailing and bathing and sliding and skating which it afforded them in +turn? It was all they had to keep them from settling down into a Rip Van +Winkle sleep, this dear little restless lake, that coaxed them out of +their land-torpor, and forced them occasionally to lend a manly hand to a +manly pursuit. For there was this distinguishing peculiarity about Joppa, +that no one in it seemed to need to work, or to have any manner of +business whatever. Its society, outside of the village, was formed wholly +of cultivated, refined, wealthy people, who had nothing in the world to +do, but idly to eat and drink up the riches of the previous generation. +It is a widely admitted truth, that one generation always gathers for +another, never for itself, and that the generation which is thus +generously gathered for, is invariably found willing to sacrifice without +a murmur any latent duty to harvest on its own account, consenting to +live out its life softly upon the hard-earned savings of its +predecessors, without regard to posterity, and calling itself "gentlemen" +where its fathers were content to be known as "men." + +So this was Joppa, a place mighty in its own conceit, and high too in the +estimate of others, to whom it was becoming known as the gayest and the +prettiest of all dear little summer resorts; and thither strangers were +beginning to flock in considerable numbers each year, made warmly welcome +by the Joppites as an occasion for breaking out into an unending round of +parties and picnics and dinners and lunches and teas, and even breakfasts +when there was not room to crowd in any thing else. The summer was one +continual whirl from beginning to end. There were visitors and visits; +there was giving and receiving; there were flirtations and rumors of +flirtations; there was everything the human heart could desire in the way +of friendly hospitality and liveliest entertainment. Saratoga might be +well enough, and Newport would do in its way; but for solid perfection, +said the Joppites, there was no place in the world quite like Joppa. + +But unknown to itself, Joppa nursed one apostate in its midst, one +unavowed but benighted little heretic, who so far from sharing these +sentiments and offering up nightly thanksgiving that despite her great +unworthiness she had been suffered to be born in Joppa, made it one of +her most fervent and reiterated petitions that she might not always have +to live there; that some time, if she were very good and very patient, it +might be granted her to go. She was so weary of it all: of the busy +idleness and the idle business, of the unthinking gayety and the gay +thoughtlessness, and of the nothingness that made up its all. She wanted, +she did not exactly know what, only something different; and to go, she +did not quite know where, only somewhere else. But she had been born in +Joppa, (quite without her permission,) and in Joppa she had lived for all +of twenty-four healthful, tranquil, uneventful years, spending +semi-occasional winters in New York, and, unlike all other Joppites, +returning always more and more discontented with her native place. Who +could ever have expected such treason in the heart of dear little Phebe +Lane? Of course it would not have mattered much had it been suspected, +since it was only Phebe Lane after all who entertained it,--little Phebe +Lane, whose ancestors, though good and well-born enough, did not hail +from Morocco, and who lived, not in the West End proper, but only on the +borders of it, in a street where one could not get so much as a side peep +at the lake. It was not a pretty house either where she lived. It was +square and clumsy and without any originality, and, moreover, faced plump +on the street, so that one could look right into its parlor and +sitting-room windows as one strolled along the wooden sidewalks. And +people were in the habit of looking in that way a good deal. Nothing was +ever going on in there that could not bear this sudden outside +inspection, and it was the shortest way to call Phebe when she was wanted +for any thing of a sudden,--to bear a fourth hand at whist, or to stone +raisins for Mrs. Adams the day before her luncheon, or to run on an +errand down town for some lazy body who preferred other people's legs to +her own for locomotion, or to relieve some wearied host in the +entertainment of his dull guest, or to help in some way or other, here, +there, and yonder. She was just the one to be called upon, of course, for +she was just the one who was always on hand, and always ready to go. She +never had any thing to keep her at home. Her father had long been dead, +and she lived alone with her step-mother and step-aunt in the house which +was left her by her mother, but in which the present Mrs. Lane still +ruled absolute, as she did when she first came into it in Phebe's +childish days. Mrs. Lane was strong and energetic and commonplace; and +she ran the little house from garret to cellar with a thoroughness that +left Phebe no part whatever to take in it, while the remainder of her +energy she devoted to nursing her invalid sister, Miss Lydia, a little +weak, complaining creature, who had had not only every ill that flesh is +heir to, but a great many ills besides that she was firmly persuaded no +other flesh had ever inherited, and who stood in an awe of her sister +Sophia only equalled by her intense admiration of her. + +So what was there for Phebe to do? She was fond of music, and whistled +like a bird, but she had no piano and did not know one note from +another; and she did not care for books, which was fortunate, as their +wee library, all told, did not count a hundred volumes, most of which, +too, were Miss Lydia's, and were as weak and wishy-washy as that poor +little woman herself. And she did not care for sewing, though she made +nearly all her own clothes, besides attending at any number of +impromptu Dorcas meetings, where the needy were the unskilled rich +instead of the helpless poor, so that of course her labor did not count +at all as a virtue, since it was not doing good, but only obliging a +friend. And she did not care for parties, though she generally went and +was always asked, being such a help as regarded wall-flowers, while +none of the young girls dreaded her as a rival, it being a well known +fact that Phebe Lane, general favorite though she was, somehow or other +never "took" with the men, or at least not sufficiently to damage any +other enterprising girl's prospects. Why this was so, was hard to say. +Phebe was pretty, and lovable, and sweet tempered. If she was not +sparkling or witty, neither was she sarcastic; and bright enough she +was certainly, though not intellectual, and though she talked little +save with a few. It was strange. True as steel, possessed of that keen +sense of justice and honor so strangely lacking in many women, with a +passionate capability for love and devotion and self-sacrifice beyond +power of fathoming, and above all with a clinging womanly nature that +yearned for affection as a flower longs for light, she was yet the only +girl out of all her set who had never had any especial attention. +Perhaps it was because she was no flirt. Bell Masters said no girl +could get along who did not flirt. Perhaps because in her excessive +truthfulness she was sometimes blunt and almost brusque; it is +dreadfully out of place not to be able to lie a little at times. Even +Mrs. Upjohn, the female lay-head of the Presbyterians, who was a +walking Decalogue, her every sentence being a law beginning with Thou +shalt not, admitted practically, if not theoretically, that without +risk of damnation it was possible to swerve occasionally from a too +rigid Yea and Nay. Perhaps,--ah, well, there is no use in exhausting +the perhapses. The fact remained. Of girl-friends she had plenty, and +of men-friends she had plenty; but of lovers she had none. + +And this was why when the Rev. Mr. Denham Halloway was called to the +vacant parish of St. Joseph's and fell down in its maidenly midst like a +meteor from an unexplored heaven,--a young, handsome divine, in every way +marriageable, though still unmarried, and in every way attractive, though +still to the best of hope and belief unattracted,--this was why no girl +of them all thought her own chances lessened in the least when he and +Phebe became such friends. No one gossiped. No one ah-ah'd, or oh-oh'd. +No one thought twice about it. What difference could it make? If it had +been anybody else now! But it was only Phebe Lane. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +PHEBE. + + +"Miss Phebe!" + +"Oh, Mr. Halloway!" + +"Hush. Don't let them know I'm here. I couldn't help peeping in as I went +by. You look done up." + +"I am." + +"What's going on?" + +"Come in and see." + +"Heaven forbid! Gracious! Mrs. Upjohn will think that's a swear. +Don't look this way, Miss Phebe. They'll discover me. What's Mr. +Hardcastle saying?" + +"The world is very evil." + +"'The times are waxing late.' Why doesn't he add that and go?" + +"He never goes. He only comes." + +"What is Mrs. Upjohn so wrought up about?" + +"She caught one of her Sunday-school boys breaking Sunday." + +"How?" + +"Eating apples." + +"Horrible! Where?" + +"Up in a tree." + +"Whose tree?" + +"That's where the unpardonable comes in. Her tree." + +"Poor boy; what a mistake! What are you doing with that hideous silk +stocking?" + +"Picking up dropped stitches." + +"Whose stitches? Yours?" + +"Mrs. Hardcastle's." + +"Don't aid and abet her in creating that monstrosity. It's participation +in crime. It's worse than eating apples up a tree. Do you always have +such a crowd here in the morning?" + +"Always." + +"How long have they been here?" + +"Nearly two hours." + +"What do they come for?" + +"Habit." + +"Miss Lydia's asleep." + +"Habit too." + +"What shall you do when you are done with that odious stocking?" + +"Sort crewels for Mrs. Upjohn." + +"And then?" + +"Iron out my dress for the party." + +"Oh, at Mrs. Anthony's? Who'll be there?" + +"Everybody who has dropped in here this morning." + +"Who else?" + +"Those who dropped in yesterday." + +"But what will you do to make it party-like?" + +"Simper. Aren't you coming too?" + +"Not if you think it would do for me to say that I held party-going wrong +for a clergyman. Could I? I might win over Mrs. Upjohn to the Church by +so holy a statement." + +"You had better take to round-dancing instead, then, to keep her +out of it." + +"Miss Phebe, is it possible you are severe on poor Mrs. Upjohn?" + +"Very possible." + +"As your pastor I must admonish you. Don't be. Besides, it's safer to +keep on her blind side." + +"She hasn't any." + +"Unhappy woman! What a blaze of moral light she must live in! But I +ought to have been in my study an hour ago. I must tear myself away. I +wish you all ill-luck possible with those stitches." + +"Ah, is that you, Mr. Halloway? I was wondering what kept Phebe so long +in the window. Good-morning, sir. Good-morning, sir. Pray, come in." And +having, by a turn of his slow old head, discovered the young man standing +just outside the window, Mr. Hardcastle came pompously forward, waving +his hand in a grand way he had, that seemed to bespeak him always the +proprietor, no matter in whose house he chanced to be. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hardcastle, not this morning. I was just telling Miss +Phebe I ought to be at work. Good-morning, Mrs. Lane. Good-morning, Mrs. +Upjohn--Mrs. Hardcastle--Miss Delano--Miss Brooks." + +And with a cheery bow to each individual head, craning itself forward to +have a look at the unusual young man who had work to do, the Rev. Mr. +Halloway walked off to his rectory, which was directly opposite, giving a +merry glance back at Phebe from the other side of the street. Phebe was +still smiling as she went with the stocking to its owner. + +"Thank you, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, taking it from her without +looking. "Oh, my child, how could you be so careless! You have let me +pull out one of the needles. Well--well." + +Phebe took the work silently back, and sat herself down on a stool to +remedy the mischief. + +"A nice young fellow enough," remarked Mr. Hardcastle, +condescendingly, returning to the group of ladies. "But he'll never +set the river on fire." + +"No need he should, is there?" said Mrs. Upjohn, looking up sharply from +her embroidery. She always contradicted, if only for argument's sake, so +that even her assents usually took a negative form. "It's enough if he's +able to put out a fire in _that_ Church. It doesn't take much of a man, I +understand, to fill an Episcopalian pulpit." (Nobody had ever yet been +able to teach the good dame the difference between Episcopal and +Episcopalian, and she preferred the undivided use of the latter word.) +"Any thing will go down with them." + +"Yes, my dear Mrs. Upjohn. It's undeniably a poor Church, a poor Church, +and I hope we may all live to witness its downfall. It must have been a +hard day for you, Mrs. Lane, when Phebe went over to it. I never forgave +old Mr. White for receiving her into it; I never did, indeed." + +Phebe only smiled. + +"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, biting off a thread. "Phebe may go where she +likes, for all me, so long as only she goes. Baptist I was bred, and +Baptist I'll be buried; but it's with churches as with teas, I say. One's +as good as another, but people may take green, or black, or mixed, as +best agrees with their stomachs." + +"That's a very dangerous doctrine," said Mrs. Upjohn. "Push it a little +further, and you'll have babes and sucklings living on beef, and their +elders dining on pap." + +"Humph!" ejaculated Mrs. Lane again. "If they like it, what's the odds?" + +"He-he!" snickered Miss Brooks. + +"Well, now," resumed Mr. Hardcastle, "it stands to reason children should +learn to like what their elders have liked before them. That's the only +decent and Christian way of living. And as I said to my son,--to my Dick, +you know" (Mr. Hardcastle had a son of whom he always spoke as if sole +owner of him, and indeed solely responsible for his being),--"'Dick,' I +said, when he spoke disrespectfully of Mr. Webb's prayers,--and Mr. Webb +is a powerful prayer-maker, to be sure,--'Dick,' I said, 'church is like +physic, and the more you don't like it, the more good it does you. And if +you think Mr. Webb's prayers are too long, it's a sign that for your +soul's salvation they ought to be longer.' And I said--" + +Mrs. Lane knew by long experience that now or never was the time to stop +Mr. Hardcastle. Once fairly started on the subject of his supposed advice +to Dick on any given occasion, there was no arresting his eloquence. She +started up abruptly from her sewing-machine with her mouth full of pins, +emptying them into her hand as she went. "Those ginger-cookies--" she +mumbled as she passed Mr. Hardcastle. "They ought to be done by this." + +A promissory fragrance caught the old gentleman's nostrils as she opened +the door, dispelling sterner thoughts. "Ah," he said, sniffing the air +with evident approbation, "I was about going, but I don't mind if I stay +and try a few. Your make, Phebe?" + +"No," answered Phebe, shortly, moving just out of reach of the bland old +hand, which stretched itself out to chuck her under the chin, and was +left patting the air with infinite benevolence "mother made them." + +"All wrong," commented Mrs. Upjohn. "All wrong. You should not leave your +mother any work that you could spare her. One of the first things I +taught our Maria" (Mrs. Upjohn in Mr. Hardcastle's presence always said +_our_ Maria with great distinctness),--"one of the first things I taught +her was, that it was her privilege to save me in every thing. I don't +believe in idleness for girls. Aren't you ready yet to attend to these +crewels, Phebe? Miss Brooks is snarling them terribly." + +"Phebe's really a very good girl in her way though," remarked Mrs. +Hardcastle, indulgently, from her easy chair. "I will testify that she +can make quite eatable cake at a pinch." + +Phebe secretly thought Mrs. Hardcastle ought to know. She remembered her +once spoiling a new-made company loaf by slashing into it without so much +as a by-your-leave. + +"That was very nice cake Miss Lynch gave us last night," piped in +Miss Delano. + +"Too much citron," pronounced Mrs. Upjohn, decisively. "You should never +overload your cake with citron. It turns it out heavy, as sure as there's +a sun in the heavens." + +"There isn't any to-day; it's cloudy," Phebe could not help putting in, +demurely, but no one paid any attention, except that Mrs. Upjohn turned +on her an unworded expression of: "If I say so, it is so whether or no." + +An animated debate on cake followed, in the middle of which Mrs. Lane +reappeared with a trayful of cookies hot from the oven; and two more +callers came in, Bell Masters and Dick Hardcastle, which last first woke +up Miss Lydia with a boisterous kiss, frightening the poor soul half to +death by assuring her she had been snoring so that he heard her way down +street, and then devoted himself to the cookies with a good-will and +large capacity that filled one with compassionate feelings toward his +mother's larder. With these new and younger elements the talk varied a +little. They discussed last night's party, the supper, the dresses, the +people, and then the probabilities of to-night's party, the people, the +dresses, the supper. And then Dick made a sensation by saying right out, +that he had just met Mr. Upjohn on Main Street with Mrs. Bruce, holding a +parasol gallantly over her head. And everybody looked at once at Mrs. +Upjohn, and then back at the graceless Dick, and an awful silence +succeeded, broken by Mrs. Upjohn's reaching out her hand and saying in +the tone of a Miss Cushman on the stage: "Dick, dear, I'll take another +cookie." If Mr. Upjohn chose to walk down town shielding women's +complexions for them, why in the world should she trouble herself about +it, beyond making sure that he did not by mistake take her parasol for +the kindly office? And so the talk went on, people coming and people +going, and Mrs. Lane did up a whole basketful of work undisturbed, and +Phebe inwardly chafed and fumed and longed for dinner-time, that at last +the ceaseless, aimless chatter might come to an end. + +She went to the party that night, because in Joppa everybody had to go +when asked. To refuse was considered tantamount to an open declaration of +war, unless in case of illness, and then it almost required a doctor's +certificate to get one off. It was a good law and ensured the suppers +being disposed of. There was no dancing to-night, it being an understood +thing that when Mrs. Upjohn was asked there should be none or she would +not come; but there was music. Bell Masters had a very nice contralto +voice, and was always willing to sing, thus sure of securing one of +Joppa's few young gentlemen to stand by and turn over her leaves; she +thoughtfully took her music on that account, giving out that she could +not play without notes. Phebe had been doing her best all unconsciously +to herself to help her hosts entertain, but when the singing began she +stole away to the nearly empty piazza, and stood leaning by the window, +enjoying the cool air and softly whistling an accompaniment to the song; +and there Mr. Halloway found her. She looked up at him and smiled as he +joined her, but went on with her low, sweet whistling all the same. + +"I like that better than the singing," he said, when at last it came to +an end with the music. + +"You ought not to, Mr. Halloway. Don't you know it's very unlady-like to +whistle? Mrs. Upjohn puts Maria to bed for it." + +"Dear me. I must take care she doesn't ever catch _me_ at it. Ah! the +dress has ironed nicely, hasn't it? Would you mind standing out a little +from the shadow?" + +Phebe moved a step forward into the stream of light that shot across the +piazza from the open window, and stood so, looking up at him out of her +soft white muslin draperies and white ribbons, not a ray of color about +her anywhere, like a very material and sweet little ghost. + +"Yes, you look very nice, very nice indeed," he said, after a grave +inspection that took in every detail of face and figure. A young, +innocent face it was, with soft brown hair as bright and as fine as silk, +all turned back from a low forehead, around which it grew in the very +prettiest way in the world, and gathered in loose braids in the neck; and +she had such a fresh, clear complexion, and such honest, loving, gray +eyes, and such a round, girlish figure,--how was it people never made +more of her prettiness? + +"I think you look nicer than any one here," Mr. Halloway added, in +thorough conviction. "You must be an adept in ironing." Phebe laughed +softly in pure pleasure. It was so new to have such pretty things said to +her. "Would it be very wrong to slip away together for a rest?" he +continued, leading her a little farther along. "Let us sit down on the +steps here and recruit. I have talked my throat hoarse to each of the +very deafest old ladies in turn,--I suppose they came here purposely to +be screeched at,--and I saw you working valiantly among the old men. What +a place this is for longevity!" + +"You are finding out its characteristics by degrees, I see." + +"Yes, am I not?" said he, with his pleasant laugh. "I know intimately +every member of my parish and every member of every other parish by this +time from sheer hearsay. Each house I visit gives me no end of valuable +and minute information about all the other houses. I am waiting to come +out with a rousing sermon against gossip, till I shall have gained all +possible enlightenment and help from it. I mustn't kill my goose that +lays the golden eggs before I have all the eggs I want, must I?" + +"And knowing us all so well, what do you think of Joppa as a whole?" +asked Phebe, curiously. "You always say it is too soon to judge, but +surely you must really know by this time." + +He did not answer for a moment, then turned to her very seriously. "I +think," he said slowly, "it is a place that needs a much older, a much +better, and a much wiser man than I am to be among its leaders in any +sense. It is not at all what I thought it would be when I accepted the +trust. It is beyond me. But since the Bishop sent me here, I mean to stay +and do my best." + +"How will you begin?" + +"I will begin with you," he answered, lightly, with a smile that lit up +all his face, the moment's seriousness quite gone. "You were my first +friend, and I ought to take you first in hand, ought I not? I am going +to do you a great deal of good." + +"How?" + +"I'm going to teach you to love books." + +"You can't." + +"Yes, I can. You don't know books, that is all. I intend to introduce you +to each other. I have some so interesting you can't help liking them, and +you'll find yourself crying for more before you know it. I am going to +bring them over to you. You shall have something better to do than fill +up all your mornings with promoting stockings of exasperating colors, and +listening to tales of Sabbath-breakers. Just wait and see. I am going to +metamorphose you." + +"Oh, I wish you would!" sighed Phebe, clasping her hands and speaking so +earnestly that he looked at her in surprise. "I am so sick of myself. I +do want to be something better than I am. I am so dreadfully +common-place. I amount to so little. I know so little. I can do so +little. And there is no one here who cares to help me to any thing +better. I don't know enough even to know how to improve myself. But I do +want to. Will you help me, Mr. Halloway? Will you really help me?" She +positively had tears shining in her eyes. + +Mr. Halloway leaned forward and gently took her hand. "Am I not here for +that?" he asked. "Here purposely to help you and all who need me in any +way? Will it not be my greatest pleasure to do so, as well as my best and +truest work? You may be sure, Miss Phebe, I will do all I can for you, +with God's help." + +"Rather damp for you to be sitting there without a shawl, isn't it, +my child?" + +It was only Mrs. Anthony's friendly voice, as that lady passed +hurriedly by, intent on hospitable duties, but Phebe started guiltily. +What right had she to be out here with Mr. Halloway, keeping him from +the other girls, when she ought, of course, to be in the parlors seeing +that the old ladies got their ice-cream safely? "I'll go right in," she +said, rising hastily; but Mr. Halloway drew her hand through his arm to +detain her. + +"Why? Because it is damp?" + +"No; because I ought not to be selfish, ought to go back and help." + +"Ah," said he, "I am getting new lights every moment. Then you don't go +to parties just to enjoy yourself?" + +She opened wide, serious eyes. "Oh, no." He smiled down at her very +kindly, "You shall go right away," he said, releasing her. "I will not +keep you another instant from dear Mr. Hardcastle and that nice Mrs. +Upjohn. But before you go let me tell you, Miss Phebe, that, if only in +view of your latest confession, I do not think you commonplace at all!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +GERALD. + + +It was another article of the Joppian creed, that there was no such thing +possible as a purely Platonic friendship between a young man and a young +woman; there must always be "something in it": either a mitten for him, +or a disappointment for her, or wedding-cake for all--generally and +preferably, of course, the wedding-cake;--and belonging to such +friendship as lawfully as a tail belongs to a comet, was a great, +wide-spreading area of gossip. It was only in the case of Phebe Lane that +this universal and common-sense rule had its one particular and +unreasonable exception; and it was acting upon a speedily acquired +knowledge of this by-law, that Mr. Halloway boldly pursued his plan for +metamorphosing his young friend, right under the open eyes and ears of +the Joppites. He lived so near that it was the most natural thing in the +world for him to stop for a moment's chat, as every one else did, either +inside or outside of the window as he went by; and as he was always sure +of meeting others, call when he would, it certainly never could have been +asserted of him that he went there only to see Phebe. Indeed, he often +scarcely spoke with her at all when he so dropped in, and yet out of +these frequent and informal meetings an intimacy had sprung up between +them such as Phebe at least had never known before. She submitted herself +to him docilely, reading his books patiently even when they bored her +unutterably, as not seldom happened, and endeavoring to form her opinion +straitly upon his on all intellectual questions, recognizing her own +fallibility with a humility that at once touched and charmed him. Real +humility is rare enough the world over, but nowhere is it less +conspicuously apparent than among the flourishing virtues of Joppa; and +it was not long before this fact was discovered by Denham Halloway, who, +with all his gayety and light-heartedness, was a keen and discriminating +observer of character. He was one of those interesting people whom all +other people interest; one of those who derive their peculiar charm more +from what they find in you than from what they show you of themselves, +though one might be ashamed to confess the truth so baldly. These are the +people who, without any especial gift of either mind or person, wheedle +your secrets out of you before you know it, possessing all your trust and +your liking before they have given any real evidence of deserving your +confidence, and yet, somehow or other, though rarely either great or +talented, or even heroically good, never for one moment abusing it. Such +characters are not at all unusual, yet are generally accounted so; one of +their chief qualities, according to their friends, being that they are so +unlike everybody else. But Phebe certainly had never met any one at all +like Mr. Halloway, and she was soon of the settled conviction that she +should never meet any one quite like him again. He was true to his +promise to help her; (he never made a promise that he did not honestly +try to keep;) and he applied himself to the by no means thankless task +with the good-humored directness and energy that characterized all his +actions. There was quite a number of young girls in his parish, more +proportionately than in the others. Bell Masters and Amy Duckworth had +long been hovering on its borders, and the advent of so young and +prepossessing a rector had instantly removed their last scruples as to +infant baptism, and settled forever their doubts as to the apostolic +succession. They had come in at once. It was even whispered that Maria +Upjohn had in an incautious moment confessed that she preferred the +litany to Mr. Webb's spontaneous effusions, and had been summarily sat +upon by her mother, whose Bible contained an eleventh commandment +curiously omitted from the twentieth chapter of Exodus in other versions, +and reading: "Thou shalt not become an Episcopalian, and if possible, +thou shalt not be born one." Then there were Nellie Atterbury, and Janet +Mudge, and Polly and Mattie Dexter; there certainly was no lack of active +young teachers for the Sunday-school, and Phebe was well content to +remain passively aside, as of old. But, as Mrs. Lane remarked, there were +no drones allowed in Mr. Halloway's hive, and before long Phebe found +herself insensibly drawn in to be one of the workers too, with any +amount of business growing upon her hands, and herself, under this new +and wise guidance, becoming more and more capable for it every day. + +"A new broom sweeps clean," remarked Mrs. Upjohn, contemptuously, as she +heard of the stir and life in St. Joseph's heretofore-dull little parish. +"For my part, I would rather have Mr. White back--if he weren't dead. He +was a good, sensible old man, who knew his place, and was contented to +let his Church simmer in the background, where it belongs. _He_ didn't go +flaunting his white gown in people's faces every Saint's day he could +trump up, let alone the Wednesday and Friday services. Who's Mr. +Halloway? What does anybody know about him beyond that the Bishop +recommended him, as if a Bishop must know what's what better than other +people, forsooth! Don't tell me!" said Mrs. Upjohn, in unutterable scorn. +"He's a new broom, and he's raising a big dust, and I would liefer have +Mr. White back and let the dust lie,--that's all!" + +But the Joppites were far from sharing Mrs. Upjohn's sentiments. Mr. +Halloway did, it is true, belong to the wrong Church, but there was a +strong suspicion among them that neither had this man sinned, nor his +parents, that he was born to so grievous a fate. It was rather his +misfortune. And as for the rest, he was thoroughly a gentleman; was +excellently well educated; and was, moreover, comely to look upon, and +eminently agreeable in his bearing. No; Joppa was far from begrudging Mr. +White his departure to the land of the blessed. It was time the good old +man went to his reward, they said. + +And as to Mrs. Whittridge, Mr. Halloway's sister, who kept house for him +at the rectory, through all the length and the breadth of Joppa there +were no two opinions with regard to her. She was a woman of about fifty, +enough older than her brother to have been his mother, and she seemed +indeed to cherish almost a mother's idolatrous affection for him. She had +lost her husband many years before, and had been left with considerable +fortune and no family besides this one brother. So much information, +after repeated and unabashedly point-blank questions, had the Joppites +succeeded in extracting from Mr. Halloway, who with all his apparent +frankness was the most difficult person in the world ever to be brought +to talk of himself and his own affairs. But just to see Mrs. Whittridge, +with her sweet face and perfect manners, was to recognize her at once for +a gentlewoman in every sense of the word, while to be in her society, if +but for ten minutes, was to come very nearly to loving her. The Joppites +saw but one fault in her; she did not and would not visit. All who sought +her out were made more than welcome; but whether from the extreme +delicacy of her health, which rendered visiting a burden, or because of +her widow's dress of deepest mourning, which she had never laid aside, it +came to be an accepted thing that she went nowhere. It was a great +disappointment in Joppa; nevertheless it was impossible to harbor +ill-will toward this lovely, high-bred lady, who drew all hearts to +herself by the very way she had of seeming never to think of herself at +all. She won Phebe Lane's affection at once and forever with almost her +first words, spoken in the low, clear, sweet tones that sounded always +like Sunday-night's music. + +"Do you know, Mr. Halloway," Phebe said to him one day, "I think it does +me more good only to hear your sister's voice than to listen to the very +best sermon ever preached." + +"Miss Phebe," he rejoined, with a merry twinkle in his brown eyes, "if +you propagate that doctrine largely, I am a ruined man. I must hold you +over to eternal secrecy. But as regards the fact,--there is my hand,--I +am quite of your way of thinking! I am persuaded an angel's voice got +into Soeur Angelique by mistake." Mrs. Whittridge's baptismal name was +Angelica, but to her brother she had always been "Soeur Angelique" and +nothing else. + +"Yes, and an angel's soul too," said Phebe. + +"Even that," replied Mr. Halloway. "She is all and more than you can +possibly imagine that she is. But I positively forbid your putting her up +on a pedestal and worshipping her. In the first place, too great a sense +of her own holiness might mar her present admirable but purely earthly +management of our little household, thus seriously interfering with my +comforts. And in the second place, I feel it my duty to warn you from a +habit of canonization, which, if too extensively indulged in, will +inevitably warp your powers of frank and right judgment." + +Phebe laughed, but did not forget. + +One afternoon, some time later, she was at the rectory, whither she had +gone, at Mrs. Whittridge's request, to explain a new and intricate +embroidery stitch. They were upstairs in that lady's charming little +sitting-room, Phebe on a low stool by her friend's side, and Halloway had +just come in from a round of parochial visits and joined them there. + +"Mrs. Whittridge," said Phebe, suddenly, "do you think it is possible to +care too much for one's friends? Mr. Halloway says one can. I know he +means that I do." + +Mrs. Whittridge laid her hand caressingly on the girl's bonny brown hair. +"How can I judge, my child? I do not even know who your friends are." + +"Who are they, in fact?" said Denham, drawing up a chair and seating +himself in front of the group by the table. "Oh, Miss Phebe is friends +with the entire village in a way. They all call her 'Phebe,' and keep +accurate track of her birthdays, from Dick Hardcastle up. And I am sure +she hasn't an enemy in the world. But there is this remarkable feature in +the case, that you could go over the entire population of Joppa by name +without eliciting a single thrill of enthusiasm from this really +enthusiastic young lady." + +"I cannot help it," Phebe murmured, a little shamefacedly. "I bore them, +and they bore me." + +"That's a point in your education I am going to take up later," remarked +Mr. Halloway, cheerfully. "The art of not being bored by people. Once +acquired, the other, that of not boring them, follows of itself. Society +hangs on it." + +"I wish you would teach me that right away," said Phebe, earnestly. "I +believe I need that more than any thing else." + +"Well, I will, immediately,--after supper, that is. I am exhausted now +with ministerial duties. You have asked Miss Phebe to tea have you not, +Soeur Angelique? You cannot stay? Oh, but of course you must." + +"Of course she will," said Mrs. Whittridge, with her tender smile. +"Phebe only lives to give pleasure to others. Now tell me something about +your friends. Who are they?" + +"I haven't any here. Mr. Halloway is quite right," answered Phebe, +locking her hands over one of Mrs. Whittridge's. "Not real, real friends. +As a child I had ever so many, and Bell Masters and I quite grew up +together, but somehow we have all grown away from each other, and--oh, I +don't know!--it seems as if there wasn't any thing in the girls here. Not +that there's more in me. They are brighter and better than I in every +way, but we don't get on together; they don't seem to have any thing to +give me, any thing they can help me to. I can't get at them. Oh! Mr. +Halloway is quite right. In all Joppa I haven't a single friend--except +just you and him." + +"We are indeed your friends," said Mrs. Whittridge. "You need never +doubt that." + +The girl turned and threw her arms impulsively around the other's neck. +"Oh, no, no!" she said. "I could not doubt it. I know it. I _feel_ it! +Oh, you can't guess what it is to me to know it! I have so little in my +life to make it grow to any thing, and I want so much! And you can give +me all I want--all, all; and it makes me so happy when I think of +it,--that I have got you and can have all I want!" + +"And is this frantic outburst meant exclusively for Soeur Angelique?" +asked Denham. "I am green with unutterable jealousy. I thought I was your +friend too, Miss Phebe." + +Phebe still knelt with her arms around Mrs. Whittridge, but she looked up +at him with her frank, loving eyes and smiled. "You know I meant you +both," she said softly. + +An almost irresistible impulse came over the young man to lay his hand, +as his sister had done, on the soft, bright-brown hair. Clergymen are but +human after all. He bent forward, but only lifted one of his sister's +thin white hands and held it a moment between his. "We must both do our +best by this foolish little girl who trusts us so frankly with her +friendship, must we not, Soeur Angelique?" he said gravely. + +"I for one am very glad to assume the trust," said Mrs. Whittridge. + +"And won't you ever tire of me? ever? ever?" asked the girl. + +"Not ever." + +"You won't ever be tired helping me, or tired of having me come to you +for help, or tired of my loving you?" + +"Where is your faith gone, my child?" + +Phebe drew a deep sigh of content. "I am just as happy as can be," she +said. "I don't want any thing else now in the world except just Gerald." + +"Ah, Gerald again. I expected that," said Mr. Halloway, raising his +eyebrows humorously. + +"Gerald? Pray, who is Gerald?" inquired Mrs. Whittridge. + +Her brother lifted his hands in mock amazement. "Is it possible you know +Miss Phebe so long and need ask who Gerald is? I will tell you. Gerald is +perfection individualized. Gerald has all the qualities, mental, +physical, and spiritual, that it is possible to compress into the limited +compass of even an overgrown human frame. Gerald, you must know, is +intellectual to a degree, beautiful as an archangel, adorable as--as you, +Soeur Angelique, and clever--almost--as myself." + +Phebe clapped her hands and nodded, "Yes, yes, all that!" + +"I can tell you all about Gerald," continued Halloway. "I have heard of +nothing else since I came. Gerald, my dear sister, is Miss Phebe's idol; +I rather think she says her prayers before Gerald's picture every night." + +"Oh, please!" cried Phebe. + +"But who is this Gerald?" asked Mrs. Whittridge. "Does he live here?" + +"No, Soeur Angelique, and by the way he is not he at all, but she, and +will be known in history as Miss Geraldine Vernor. She lives in New York, +rolls in wealth, and is one of a large family of whom she is the +sun-flower. Let me give you her portrait as I have it from fragmentary +but copious descriptions. She is, I should say, five feet eleven and +three quarter inches in height--don't shake your head, Miss Phebe,--and +slender in disproportion. She has the feet of a Chinese, the hands of a +baby, and the strength of a Jupiter Ammon. She has hair six yards long +and blacker than Egyptian darkness. She has a forehead so low it rests +upon her eyebrows, which, by the way, have been ruled straight across +the immeasurable breadth of it with a T square. She has eyes bluer one +minute than the grotto at Capri, greener the next than grass in June, +grayer the next than a November day, and so on in turn through all the +prismatic colors. Her eyelashes are only not quite so long as her hair. +She has a mouth which would strike you as large,--it is five and a half +inches across,--but when she speaks, and you hear the combined wisdom of +Solomon, and Plato, and Socrates, and Solon, and the rest of the ancients +(not to mention the moderns), falling from her lips, your only wonder is +that her mouth keeps within its present limits. Her nose--Miss Phebe, can +it be? Is it possible you have left out her nose? Soeur Angelique, I am +forced to the melancholy conclusion that Gerald has none. Miss Phebe +would never have omitted mentioning it." + +"You may make all the fun of her and of me that you like," said Phebe, +half provoked. "But there is not anybody else in the world like Gerald +Vernor. Wait till you see her. You will say then that I was right, only +that I did not say enough." + +"You shan't tease her, Denham. Tell me, Phebe, where did you know this +friend so well?" + +"Three years ago, when she spent a summer here, I saw a great deal of +her,--oh, it made it such a happy summer, knowing her!--and I have +corresponded with her ever since." + +"Without meeting her again?" + +"Oh, no. I saw her twice last summer. I went to the train both times to +see her as she passed through." + +"But our trains don't pass through; they stop here." + +"Yes, I know; but I went to Galilee to meet her as she passed +through there." + +"Would she have gone as far as that to meet you, Miss Phebe?" + +"That is very different, Mr. Halloway," answered Phebe, simply. "I am not +worth going so far for. Besides, I don't expect people ever to do as much +for me as I would for them." + +"Denham, you are cruel," said Mrs. Whittridge. "Phebe, my child, your +love for your friend is to me sufficient proof that she must be lovely. I +know I should love her too." + +Phebe looked at her gratefully. "Oh, you would,--you would indeed! +You could not help it. You would admire her so much. There is so +much in her." + +"Ah, yes, I forgot," interrupted Denham, "I did not finish my portrait. +This marvellous being is an athlete. She can ride any Bucephalus +produced, and rather prefers to do so bareback. She is a Michael Angelo +at painting, and has represented striking scenes from his 'Last Judgment' +on a set of after-dinner coffee cups. She drives, she skates, she swims, +she rows, she sails, has a thorough knowledge of business, and is up in +stocks, is femininely masculine and masculinely feminine, scorns novels, +and can order a dinner, is a churchwoman, and dresses always in the +latest style. Is there any thing else, Miss Phebe?" + +"Only one thing else that I think you have rather forgotten, Mr. +Halloway: I love her and she is my friend." + +"Miss Phebe," cried the young man in instant contrition, "have I hurt +you? Have I been thoughtless enough for that with my foolish fun? You +know I did not mean it. Will you forgive me?" He held out his hand. + +Phebe hesitated. "Will you not make fun of her any more? And will you +like her if she comes? You know she may come here this summer; there is +just a chance of it. Will you promise?" + +"I can safely promise to like any one whom you like, I know, Miss Phebe. +Soeur Angelique, make this stubborn child give me her hand. It is not +fitting that I crave absolution so abjectly." + +"You are two silly children together," said Soeur Angelique, rising and +laughing. "You may settle your quarrels as you can while I order tea." + +"Miss Phebe, have I really vexed you so much?" asked the young man, +earnestly, as his sister left the room. "You must know I would not do +that for the world." + +"I don't think you could hurt or vex me in any way," said Phebe, +"excepting only through Gerald. For you don't know how I love her, Mr. +Halloway. I love her with all my heart and soul, I think, oh, +more--almost more--than any one else in the world." + +"I know you do," he answered. "It is a love to envy her." Phebe was still +looking up at him from her low stool, her face raised as if in appeal. +She always looked very young for her years, and now she seemed not more +than a child of sixteen in the waning light. He could not help it this +time; he laid his hand very lightly for one briefest instant on her +pretty hair. "But you will not be less friends with me because I like +_you_ best?" + +"I will not ever be less friends with you," Phebe replied, soberly. "I +don't change so." + +"No," he said; "I know you do not. Nor do I." + +And then he moved away from her, and began telling an irresistibly comic +story about a call he had made on a poor woman that afternoon (he could +not for the life of him help seeing the ludicrous side of every thing), +and from one subject they passed to another, and when Soeur Angelique +summoned them to tea, she found her reverend brother standing in the +middle of the room in the full swing of a chorus from "The Pirates," with +Phebe whistling the liveliest possible accompaniment, and both of them +gesticulating wildly. He stopped with a laugh as his sister appeared in +the door-way. + +"Don't be shocked, Soeur Angelique. I shut the window lest Mrs. Upjohn +should chance to go by and hear me. She would telegraph the Bishop. I am +only resting. It wore me out working for Miss Phebe's pardon. No; wait a +moment, Soeur Angelique. Don't let's go to tea instantly. I would rather +quiet down a little before I go in and say grace." He took up a chance +book from the table, and turning to the window to catch the light, read a +few lines to himself, then threw it down, and came forward with a smile. +"There, I am ready now. Take my arm, Soeur Angelique. Miss Phebe, will +you come, please?" + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +MRS. UPJOHN'S ENTERTAINMENT. + + +Mrs. Upjohn was going to give an entertainment. She was about to open the +hospitable doors of the great house upon the hill, which seemed to have +chosen that pre-eminence that it might the better overlook the morals of +its neighbors. Joppa held its breath in charmed suspense. The question +was not, Will I be asked? that was affirmatively settled for every +West-End Joppite of party-going years; nor was it, What shall I wear? +which was determined once for all at the beginning of the season; but, +What will be done with me when I get there? For to go to Mrs. Upjohn's +was not the simple thing that it sounded. She wished it to be distinctly +understood that she did not ask people to her house for their amusement, +but for their moral and spiritual improvement; any one could be amused +anywhere, but _she_ wished to show her guests that there were pleasanter +things than pleasure to be had even in social gatherings, and to teach +them to hunger and thirst after better than meat and drink, while at the +same time she took pains always to provide a repast as superior to the +general run as her sentiments, quite atoning to the Joppites for the +spiritual accompaniments to her feast by its material and solid +magnificence, which lingered appetizingly in their memories long after +they had settled their consequent doctors' bills. Yes, the Joppites were +not asked to Mrs. Upjohn's to eat and drink only, or merely to have a +good time, with whatever ulterior intentions of so doing they may have +gone thither. They were asked for a purpose,--a purpose which it was vain +to guess, and impossible to escape. Go they must, and be improved they +must, _bon gre mal gre_, and enjoy themselves they would if they could. + +So there were mingled feelings abroad when Mrs. Upjohn's neatly written +invitations found their way into each of the West-End houses, embracing +natives and strangers alike in their all-hospitable sweep, and even +creeping into some outlying less aristocratic quarters, where confusion +worse confounded, in the shape of refurbishing and making over, followed +agonizingly in their wake. The invitations were indited by Miss Maria +Upjohn, it being an opportunity to improve that young lady's handwriting +which her mother could not have conscientiously suffered to pass, and +stated that Mr. and Mrs. Reuben O. Upjohn requested the honor of your +company on Thursday, July 14th, punctually at four o'clock. R.S.V.P. +Joppa immediately R.S.V.P.'d that it would feel flattered to present +itself at that hour, and then looked anxiously around and asked itself +"What will it be this time?" The day dawned, and still the great question +agitated public minds unsolved. + +"There isn't a word to be coaxed or threatened out of Maria," said Bell +Masters. "I believe it's something too awful to tell. Mr. De Forest, +can't you hazard a guess?" + +Mr. Ogden De Forest was lazily strolling past the Masters' front steps, +where a knot of girls had gathered after a game of lawn tennis, and were +imbibing largely of lemonade, which was being fabricated on the spot, +according to demand, by Phebe and Janet Mudge. The spoons stopped +clinking in the various glasses as Bell thus audaciously called out to +the gentleman. He was not a Joppite by either birth or education; indeed, +he had but lately arrived on his first visit as a summer guest, and was +hardly known to anybody personally as yet, though there was not a girl in +the place but was already perfectly well aware of his existence, and had +placed him instantly as "one of the very swellest of the swells." He was +a short, dark, well-dressed man, and so exceedingly handsome that every +feminine heart secretly acknowledged that only to have the right to bow +to him would be a joy and pride indescribable. And here was Bell, who had +accidentally been introduced to him the day before, calling to him as +unceremoniously as if he were Dick Hardcastle or Jake Dexter. He turned +at her voice and paused at the gate, lifting his hat. "I beg you pardon, +Miss Masters, you called me?" + +"Yes," said Bell. "Have some lemonade?" + +"No, thanks." + +"Come in." + +"Thanks, not this morning. I shall see you later at Mrs. Upjohn's, +I suppose." + +"Yes, you'll see us all later," said Miss Bell, fishing out a lemon-seed +from her goblet. "We shall have on different dresses, and you'll be +offering us lemonade instead of our offering it to you. Take a good look +at us so as to see how much prettier we are now than we shall be then." + +Mr. De Forest obeyed literally, staring tranquilly and critically at each +in turn, his glance returning slowly to the young lady of the house. +"Unless you introduce me to your friends I shall not be able to tell them +so," he replied, in the slow, deliberate voice that seemed always to have +a ring of suppressed sarcasm in it, no matter what he said. + +"Then I'll certainly not introduce you," said Bell, composedly, with a +saucy shot at him from her handsome black eyes. "And so I'll be the only +girl to get the compliment. Phebe, more sugar, please." + +"I will endeavor to work one up between now and then regardless of cost. +Four o'clock, I believe. What is it to be? A dance?" + +"Holy Moses! at Mrs. Upjohn's!" + +"Oh, she doesn't go in for that kind of thing? A card-party, then?" + +"Great heavens! Mr. De Forest, are you mad? I don't doubt she struggles +with herself over every visiting card that she uses,--and +playing-cards--!" + +"Theatricals, then?" + +Bell gave a positive howl. "Theatricals! Hear him, girls!" + +"We hear well enough. You don't give us a chance to do any thing but +listen," said Amy Duckworth, pointedly. + +"My dear, you'll converse all the more brilliantly this afternoon for a +brief period of silence now," said Bell, sweetly. "Mr. De Forest, you are +not happy in your guesses." + +"I have exhausted them, unless it is to be a _musicale_." + +"No. That's what we are going to have to-morrow ourselves. I sing, +you know." + +"Do you? Well, a garden party perhaps?" + +"That's what the Ripleys are going to have Thursday." + +"Then, so far as I can see, there is nothing left for it to be except a +failure," said De Forest, lifting his arms off the gate. "And, in view of +so much coming dissipation, I feel constrained to retire and seek a +little preparatory repose. Good-morning, Miss Masters." + +"How hateful not to introduce him, Bell! And when he distinctly asked +you to! How abominably mean of you! How selfish, how horrid! _I_ +wouldn't have done so," broke out in an indignant chorus, as the +gentleman walked off. + +"Do you think I would be such a goose as to go shares in the handsomest +man Joppa ever laid eyes on, so long as I can keep him to myself?" said +Bell, honestly. "Fish for yourselves, girls. The sea is open to all, and +you may each land another as good." + +Phebe's lip curled very disdainfully. What a fuss to make over a man, and +how Bell had changed in the last few years! + +"Well, keep him, if you can, but I'll be even with you yet," said Amy, +with an ominous smile. "And what luck! Here comes Mr. Moulton now, and I +know him and you don't, and I'll pay you off on the spot. Good-morning, +Mr. Moulton." + +The young gentleman stopped, in his turn, at the gate as Amy +spoke to him. + +"Oh, Miss Duckworth, I was on my way to call on you." + +"I will go home with you in a minute," said Amy, graciously. "I wouldn't +miss your call for any thing. But first let me introduce you to my +friends. Miss Mudge, Mr. Moulton,--Miss Lane, the Misses Dexter. You +will meet us all again at Mrs. Upjohn's. Of course, you are going?" + +"Certainly, now I am told that I shall meet you there, and if you will +promise that I shan't be called upon to do any thing remarkable. I have +heard alarming reports." + +"That is out of anyone's power to promise," replied Miss Duckworth. "No +genius is safe from her." + +"Amy, love," broke in Bell, with infinite gentleness of tone and manner, +"you have forgotten to present your friend to me, and I cannot be so +impolite as to leave him standing outside my own gate. I am Miss Masters, +Mr. Moulton. Pray excuse the informality, and come in to share our +lemonade." + +Mr. Moulton, nothing loath, accordingly came in, took his glass, and sat +himself just where Bell directed, on a step at her feet. Amy colored, and +there was a subdued titter somewhere in the background, and Bell calmly +resumed the reins of the conversation. "No, there is no knowing what we +shall be put through this afternoon. One time when Mrs. Upjohn had got us +all safely inside her doors, she divided us smartly into two classes, set +herself in the middle, and announced that we were there for a spelling +bee. We shouldn't say we hadn't learned something at her house. And upon +my word we did learn something. Never before or since have I heard such +merciless words as she dealt us out. My hair stands on end still when I +recollect the horrors I underwent that day." + +"I'll smuggle in a dictionary," declared Mr. Moulton. "I'll be +ready for her." + +"No use. She never runs twice in the same groove. It's only sure not to +be a spelling bee this time." + +"When we last went there it turned out to be a French _soiree_," said one +of the Misses Dexter, "and she announced that there would be a penny's +fine collected at the end of the evening for each English word spoken." + +"Proceeds to go to a lately imported poor family," added the sister +Dexter. "There was quite a sum raised, and the head of the family +decamped with it two days after, for Heaven knows where, leaving his wife +and infants on Mrs. Upjohn's hands poorer than ever." + +But Mrs. Upjohn's entertainment proved to be neither orthographic nor +linguistic. The guests arrived punctually as bidden, and their hostess, +clad in her most splendid attire, received them with her most gracious +manner. There was nothing to foretell the fate that awaited them. Her +tall, awkward daughter stood nervously by her side. Mr. Upjohn, too, kept +there valiantly for a time, then his round, ample figure and jolly face +disappeared somewhere, under chaperonage of Mrs. Bruce, his latest +admiration. But no one ever thought of Mr. Upjohn as the host, any way; +beseemed rather to be a sort of favored guest in his own parlor; and his +place was more than made good by Mr. Hardcastle, who, standing in the +centre of the room, exactly as he always stood in the centre of +everybody's room on such an occasion, appeared himself to be quite master +of ceremonies, from the grand way in which he stepped forward to meet +each guest and hope he or she "would make out to enjoy it." The rooms +filled rapidly, and before long Mrs. Upjohn turned from the door and +stood an instant reviewing her guests with the triumphant mien of a +victorious general. Then she advanced solemnly to the middle of the room, +displacing Mr. Hardcastle, who graciously made way and waved his hand to +signify to her his permission to proceed. + +"My friends," said the great lady, with her deep, positive voice, drawing +her imposing figure to its fullest height, "as you know, it is never _my_ +way to give parties. I leave that for the rest of you to do. When I ask +you to my house, it is with a higher motive than to make a few hours lie +less heavily on your hands." + +"Dear soul!" muttered Dick Hardcastle to his crony, Jake. "Nobody could +have the conscience to charge her with ever having lightened them to us." + +"And therefore," continued the lady, gazing around upon her victims with +a benignant smile, "without further prelude, I will inform you for what +object I have asked you to honor me with your presence this afternoon." + +She paused, and a cold chill ran through the company. What would she do? +Would she open on them with the Westminster Catechism this time, or set +them to shelling peas for some poor man's dinner, or would she examine +them in the multiplication table? A few had run it hastily over before +leaving home to make sure that they were ready for such an emergency. + +"I had thought first," Mrs. Upjohn proceeded, "of a series of games as +instructive as delightful, games of history and geography, and one +particularly of astronomy, which I am persuaded would be very helpful. It +brought out the nature of the spectroscope in a remarkably clear and +intelligent light, and after a few rounds I am sure none of us could ever +again have forgotten those elusive figures relative to the distances and +proportions of the planets. However, that must be for another time. For +today I thought it would be a pleasure as well as a benefit to us all to +learn something about a gifted and noble person who, I am surprised to +find, is not so well known in Joppa as she should be, and whom, I am +convinced, we should all be infinitely the better and happier for +knowing. I have, therefore, persuaded Mr. Webb, with whose powers as a +reader long years of acquaintanceship have so pleasantly familiarized us, +to read to us this afternoon extracts from the 'Life and Letters of the +Baroness Bunsen.'" + +"Good Lord!" ejaculated Dick beneath his breath, "who's that?" + +"Hush," whispered Jake. "I've got a novel of Miss Braddon's in my +pocket. I thought it might come in handy. That'll help us through till +feed time." + +"You are all familiar with the name, of course," pursued Mrs. Upjohn, +smiling graciously around the dismayed circle of her guests. "The book +has been in the library this long time past, and observing with regret +that only its first fifty pages had been cut, I caught at this invaluable +opportunity to make you further acquainted with it." + +Mr. Webb now came forward, a thick, green-bound volume in his hand, and a +look on his face as if he were about to open the proceedings with a +prayer, but Mrs. Upjohn held up her hand. + +"One moment, please, before we begin. We ladies are so unaccustomed to +sitting with idle hands, even when listening to so absorbing a theme as +the virtues of this truly excellent Christian wife and mother, that I +thought it would be a kindness to ourselves to provide some simple work +which should occupy our fingers and at the same time be in itself a +worthy object of industry. Maria, my dear." + +The silence in the room was appalling; one could almost hear the shiver +of apprehension running down the silk-and muslin-clad backs. The sign was +given, however, by the docile Maria, and immediately two enormous baskets +were brought in: one, the smaller, containing every possible implement +for unlimited sewing by unlimited hands; the other, of alarming +dimensions, filled to overflowing with shapeless and questionable +garments of a canton-flannel coarse, so yellow, so indestructible, so +altogether unwearable and hideous, that had it been branded "charity" in +flaming letters, its object could not have been more plainly designated. +Mrs. Upjohn lifted the top article and unfolded it lovingly. It was a +night-dress, atoning in lavishness of material for deficiency in grace of +make, and would have been a loose fit for the wife of the giant Chang. + +"These, ladies," she said, "as you will have guessed, are for the winter +wear of our parish poor. Though you are not all so fortunate as to belong +to our church, still I feel there is not one of you here but will be more +than glad to help forward so blessed a charity as clothing the naked" +(Mrs. Upjohn, in view of the nature of the garments, spoke even more +literally than she intended), "who none the less need your ministrations +whether you worship with us or apart. Maria, my child, Bell, Phebe, +Mattie, will you kindly distribute the work among the ladies? There is +another basket ready outside if the supply gives out. Dick, I would like +you to carry around the thimbles. Jake, here are the needles and the +spools and the scissors. If I may be permitted, ladies, I would suggest +that we should all begin with the button-holes." + +Nothing but the thought of the recompense in the coming supper could +have sustained Mrs. Upjohn's doomed guests in the prospect before them. +Extracts from Baroness Bunsen, and buttonholes in canton-flannel charity +nightgowns, and a hot July afternoon, made a sum of misery that was +almost too great a tax upon even Joppian amiability. + +"I say it's a shame!" cried Bell Masters, in unconcealed wrath. "The idea +of springing such a trap on us! Let Mrs. Upjohn's parish sew for its own +poor, _I_ won't crease my fresh dress holding that great, thick lump on +my lap all the afternoon. I'm not going to be swindled into helping in +this fashion." + +"Oh, yes you are," said Mr. Halloway, bubbling over with suppressed +merriment at the intense fun of it all. "There isn't one of you here who +will refuse. I never knew any thing so delightful and novel in my whole +life. This condensed combination, in one afternoon party of charity, +literature, and indigestion is masterly. Miss Mudge, here is a seat for +you right by Miss Masters. Miss Phebe, let me find you a chair." + +And in a few moments, simply, it seemed, by the natural law of +gravitation, without any engineering whatever, Mrs. Upjohn's guests had +resolved themselves into two distinct parties, the elders all in the +drawing-room, the younger ones in the parlor across the hall, too far off +from Mr. Webb for their gay whispering to disturb that worthy as he +boldly plunged headlong at his work, to do or die written on every +feature of his thin, long face. + +"So this is what the party turned out, Miss Masters, is it?" said +Moulton, pulling his moustache as he stood up beside her. "A first-class +Dorcas society." + +"Charity covereth a multitude of sins," said Bell, crossly, giving a +vindictive snap with her scissors, "but it won't begin to cover the +enormity of Mrs. Upjohn's transgressions on this occasion. You gentlemen +must be very devoted to atone to us for the button-holes. There's Mr. De +Forest standing in the other room looking as if he wished he were dead. +Go and bring him here." + +Thus summoned, Mr. De Forest came leisurely enough, looking, if possible, +a little more languid and blase than he did in the morning. Bell +instantly made a place for him on the sofa by her side. + +"Thanks, I would rather stand. I can take it all in better." + +"Well?" asked Bell, after a pause, looking saucily up at him. "Was I +right this morning? Didn't we look prettier then?" + +"Infinitely." + +Bell colored rather angrily, and Phebe laughed outright. Mr. De Forest +favored her with a stare, chewed the end of his side-whiskers +reflectively a moment, then deliberately walked over to her. "Miss Lane, +I believe." + +Phebe bowed, but somewhat stiffly. + +"Excuse me," continued De Forest, imperturbably. "There doesn't seem +to be any one to introduce us, and we know perfectly well who we each +are, you know, and I wanted to ask about a mutual friend of +ours,--Miss Vernor." + +Phebe brightened and softened instantly. "Oh!" she exclaimed, dropping +her work, "you know her? you have seen her? lately?" + +"I know her, yes, quite well. I saw her some weeks since. I understood +then that there was a little talk of her coming up here this summer. One +of those fearful children, Olly, or Hal, or some one of the superfluous +young ones, was a little off condition,--not very well, you know,--and +the doctor said he mustn't go with the rest to the sea-shore, and she +mentioned bringing him up here to recruit. I heard her mention your name, +too, and didn't know but you might have heard something of it." + +"I have, I have!" cried Phebe, her face all aglow, "She _is_ coming,--she +and Olly. She is going to stay with me. I wrote and begged her to." + +"Ah, that will be very pleasant for you. Do you expect her soon?" + +"To-morrow." + +"Ah!" Mr. De Forest ruminated silently a moment. "She'll be bored to +death up here, won't she?" he asked, presently. + +"Then she can go home again," replied Phebe, shortly. + +"True, true," said her companion, thoughtfully. "I forgot that. And she +probably will. It would be like her to go if it bored her." + +"Only there's Olly," said Phebe, grimly, the light fading out of her +face a little. "She'll have to stay for him." + +"Oh, no. She can put him to board somewhere and leave him. Miss Vernor +doesn't concern herself overmuch with the young ones. They are an awful +nuisance to her." + +"She does every thing for them. You can't know her," said Phebe, +indignantly. "Did you say you knew her well, Mr. De Forest?" + +"I don't remember just what I said, Miss Lane, but it would have been the +truth if I did, and I generally speak the truth when it's equally +convenient. Yes, I do know Miss Vernor _very_ well, and I have worsted +her in a great many arguments,--you know her argumentative turn, perhaps? +If you will allow me, I will do myself the honor of calling upon her when +she comes,--and upon yourself, if I may have the pleasure." + +"Not if you come with the intention of putting Gerald out of conceit with +Joppa. I want her to stay a long, long time." + +"Don't be afraid, Miss Lane. I'll do my best to help keep her here, so +long, at least, as I stay myself. '_Apres cela le deluge_.'" + +"I don't speak French." + +"Ah? No? I regret it. You might have assisted me in my genders. I am +never altogether sure of them." + +"Mr. De Forest," called Bell, imperatively, from the other side of the +room, displeased at the defalcation of her knight, "I want to introduce +you to Miss Mudge." + +Miss Mudge tried to make Bell understand by frantic pantomime that she +hadn't meant just now,--any time would do,--but Bell chose it should be +just now; and slightly lifting his eyebrows, Mr. De Forest took his +handsome person slowly back to Bell to make an almost impertinently +indifferent bow to the new claimant upon him. + +Mr. Halloway had been standing near Phebe, too near not to overhear the +conversation, and he turned to her now quickly. + +"So this accounts for your beaming face," he said in a low tone, as he +took a seat just back of her in the window niche. "The mysterious Gerald +_is_ really coming, then. I wondered what had happened as soon as I saw +you. Why did you not tell me?" + +"I was only waiting till I had the chance," she answered, all the +brightness coming back into her bonny face as she smiled up at him. + +"Do you think I could keep any thing so nice from you for long? It seems +to make every thing nicer when you know it too. She is coming +to-morrow,--only think,--to-morrow,--just twenty-one hours more now. I +can hardly wait!" + +"It will be a great happiness to her, surely, to see you again," +said Denham. + +"That's what she writes in her letter. At least she says: 'I shall be +glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear' Isn't that nice? 'Phebe, my dear,' +she says. That is a great deal for Gerald to say." + +"Is it? But I believe some young ladies are less effusive with their pens +than with their tongues." + +"It isn't Gerald's nature ever to be effusive. But oh, I'm so glad she's +coming! I only got her letter last night. See, doesn't she write a nice +hand?" And cautiously, lest any one else should see too, Phebe slipped an +envelope into Denham's hand. He bent back behind the lace curtains to +inspect it. + +"Do you generally carry about your letters in your pocket, Miss Phebe?" + +"No, only Gerald's. I love so always to have something of hers near me. +Isn't it a nice hand?" + +Halloway looked silently at the upright, angular, large script. "It's +legible, certainly." + +"But you don't like it?" + +"Miss Phebe, I am torn between conflicting truth and politeness. It is +like a man's hand, if I must say something." + +"And so are her letters like a man's. Read it and see. Oh, she wouldn't +mind! There is nothing in it, and yet somehow it seems just like Gerald. +Do read it. Oh, I want you to. Please, please do." + +And led half by curiosity, half by the eagerness in Phebe's pretty face, +Denham opened the letter and read, Phebe glancing over it with him as if +she couldn't bear to lose sight of it an instant. + +"DEAR PHEBE," so ran the letter, "your favor of 9th inst. rec. I +had no idea of intruding ourselves upon you when I asked you to look +up rooms, but as you seem really to want us"--("seem!" whispered +Phebe, putting her finger on the word with a pout)--"I can only say +we shall be very glad to come to you. You may look for Olly and +myself Friday, July 15th, by the P.M. train. Olly isn't really ill, only +run down. He is as horrid a little bear as ever. All are well, and +started last week for Narragansett Pier. I shall rejoice to get away +from the art school and guilds, which keep on even in this intemperate +weather, and I shall be glad to see you again, Phebe, my dear," +(Phebe looked up triumphantly in Denham's face as she reached the +words.) "Remember me to Mrs. Lane and Miss--, I can't think +of her name,--Aunt Lydia, I mean. + +"Sincerely yours + +"GERALDINE VERNOR, + +"P.S.--Olly only drinks milk." + +Phebe took back the letter and folded it up. "Well?" she said. + +"Well?" said Denham, looking at her and smiling. + +"It's just like her," declared Phebe. "It's so downright and to the +point. Gerald never wastes words." + +"You said it was like a man's letter," said Denham. "But I must beg leave +to differ with you there. I don't think it is at all such a letter as _I_ +would have written you, for instance." + +"Of course not. It wouldn't be proper for you to say 'Phebe, my dear,' as +Gerald does. Yours would have to be a very dignified, pastoral letter." + +"Yes, addressed to 'My Lamb,' which you couldn't object to in a pastoral +letter of course, and which sounds nearly as affectionate, blaming you +for having caused me to lose the valuable information I might have gained +about the Baroness Bunsen. I never got much farther than her birth in +that famous history. I see poor Miss Delano casting longing glances in +here. I'll smuggle her in among you young people." + +He departed on his errand of mercy, and soon had the timid little old +maid in the more congenial atmosphere of the parlor, where little by +little, though in a very stealthy and underhand way, the talk grew more +general, and the restraint slackened more and more, until sewing and +reading were both forgotten and the fun became fast and furious, +culminating in the sudden appearance of Jake Dexter dressed up as an +ancient and altogether unlovely old woman, whom Dick Hardcastle presented +in a stage whisper as "Baroness Bunsen in the closing chapter," and who +forthwith proceeded to act out in dumb show the various events of that +admirable woman's life, as judiciously and sonorously touched upon by Mr. +Webb in the drawing-room opposite. Jake was a born actor, and having +"done up" the Baroness, he proceeded to "do up" several other noted +historical characters, not omitting a few less celebrated contemporaries +of his own, each representation better and truer to life than the last; +and winding up with snatching away their work from the young ladies' not +unwilling hands, and piling it in heaps on the floor around him, he sat +himself in the middle with an armful hugged close and an air of comically +mingled resignation and opulence, and announced himself as "a photo from +life of ye destitute poor of Joppa." + +Mrs. Upjohn may have had suspicions that all was not going on precisely +as she had planned in that other half of her domains which she had +surrendered to Maria's feeble guardianship, but it certainly could not +be laid to her blame if young people would amuse themselves even at her +house. If they wilfully persisted in neglecting the means of grace she +had conscientiously provided for them, so much the worse for them, not +for her; and if Mr. Upjohn found the contemplation of Mrs. Bruce's +profile, and her occasional smiles at him as she bent over her ugly +work, not sufficient of an indemnity for his enforced silence, and +chose to sneak over to the young people's side and enjoy himself too, +as an inopportune and hearty guffaw from thence testified just at the +wrong moment, when Mr. Webb had reached the culminating point of the +Baroness' death, and was drawing tears from the ladies' eyes by the +irresistible pathos of his voice,--why, Mrs. Upjohn owned in her heart +that it was only what might be expected of him, and that she couldn't +help that either. + +So at last the reading came to an end. Everybody said it had been +unprecedentedly delightful, and they should never forget that dear +Baroness so long as they lived, and they thought Mrs. Upjohn herself +might have sat for the original of the biography, so identical were her +virtues with those of the departed saint, and so exactly did she resemble +her in every particular except just in the outward circumstances of her +life. And Mrs. Upjohn modestly entreated them to desist drawing so +unworthy a comparison, and said it was an example of a life they should +each and all do well to imitate so far as in them lay, and then she went +about collecting the nightgowns, and (oh, cruellest of all!) inspecting +the button-holes. It was an excellent day's work, she reported, fanning +herself vigorously, and Miss Brooks, as champion button-hole-maker, +having made three more than any one else, should have the post of honor +and be taken in to supper by Mr. Upjohn, who was routed out from the +parlor for the purpose, very red in the face, and still convulsed with +laughter. Mrs. Bruce may have suspected this to be designed as a neat way +of cutting her out, but there is no knowing to what lengths a flippant +widow's imagination will not go, and any way Mr. Upjohn quite atoned +afterward for any temporary neglect, by paying her the most assiduous +attentions right in the face of his wife, who apparently did not care a +straw, and only thought her husband a little more foolish than usual. Did +not everybody know that it was only Mr. Upjohn's way, and that it did not +mean any thing? + +And so the doors were thrown open, supper was announced, and Joppa, as it +swarmed around the loaded tables, felt that its hour of merited reward +was come; and Mr. Hardcastle, when at last he could eat and drink no +more, stood up and pronounced, in the name of the united assembly, that +Mrs. Upjohn's entertainment had been a very, very great success, as all +that dear Mrs. Upjohn undertook always was sure to be, and particularly +those devilled crabs were unapproachable for perfection. Nobody could +make him believe that even the Baroness Bunsen with all her learning +could ever have spiced them better. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +FRIENDS. + + +Several days later, as Mr. Halloway was leaving the rectory one +afternoon, he saw Phebe standing in her door-way, and crossed to +speak to her. + +"Alone?" he asked, smiling. "I supposed that now you would never be +without a shadow." + +"Gerald is up-stairs dressing. She is going to ride with Mr. De Forest. +He has been to see her twice already, and you have not called yet." There +was the faintest possible reproach in her voice and in her eyes. + +"I have been really busy the last few days, Miss Phebe. You may know +there is always some desperate reason when I am long absent. But here I +am now. Shall I send in my card for Miss Vernor? Must I do it up in New +York or Joppa style?" + +Phebe laughed. "Never mind the card, Gerald will be down soon. It is +nearly time, and she is always so punctual. What is it, Olly, dear?" + +An ugly little boy, with a pale, pinched face and impish eyes, was +pulling smartly at her dress. + +"I say, Pheeb, can I have a cookie?" + +"Does Gerald let you have cookies between meals, Olly?" + +"Yes," answered Olly, unhesitatingly. "Always." + +"What's that?" broke in an unexpected voice behind,--a clear, +ringing, decided voice. "I will not have you tell such lies, Olly! +Why will you do it!" + +"I'll have the cookie anyhow," said Olly, starting on a run. "Pheeb said +I could, and this is Pheeb's house, and I will." + +"And you won't," said the voice, sharply. There was a scuffle, a rush, +the sound of a smart box on the ear, a sudden childish howl, and Olly +fled back to Phebe and buried his face in her dress. Phebe folded her +arms protectingly around him, and looked up appealingly at the tall, +slender figure approaching. + +"Oh, Gerald, must you?" + +"Phebe, I can't have you spoil that boy so. I won't have him a liar and a +gourmand; he's bad enough without that. Olly, stop bawling this moment." + +"I won't," screamed Olly. "You hurt me, you did, and if I can't have a +cookie I'll cry just as loud as ever I can; so there!" + +"Then you'll cry in the house and not on the front steps. I won't have +it. Come in immediately." + +And holding up her habit with one hand, the young lady reached out with +the other,--a very small and white but determined-looking little hand +Denham noticed (from where he stood he could not see her face)--and +wrenching the child by no means gently away from Phebe, she dragged him +with her toward the parlor. + +"I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!" cried Olly, vociferously, doing +battle valiantly with hands and feet as he went. "I hate you every day +worse than ever!" + +"Hate me all you like," said Gerald, with utmost coolness and disdain. "I +leave you perfectly free in that direction, but you shan't tell lies or +disobey me. Now stay in there and be still." + +And closing the door on the sobbing culprit, she came slowly back to +Phebe, still scowling and pressing her lips firmly together as she drew +on her gauntlets. "Little wretch!" she muttered. + +"Gerald, please," said Phebe, flushing scarlet with mortification, "here +is Mr. Halloway. I want to introduce him to you." + +Gerald stopped abruptly and looked up. She had not seen him before. A +fleet, faint color tinged her clear cheeks an instant, but there was no +other sign of embarrassment or annoyance as her dark blue eyes met his +with the singularly penetrating gaze with which they looked out on all +the world. There was no denying it. With her clear-cut, aristocratic +face, and her slim, straight figure, stately perhaps rather than +graceful, and a trifle haughty in its unbending erectness, Gerald Vernor +was very, very handsome. + +"I am happy to meet you at last, Miss Vernor," said Denham, with his +pleasant smile. "But you are no stranger to me, I assure you. Miss Phebe +made us all friends of yours long since." + +Gerald's brows contracted. "Phebe is very kind," she said, with quite +the opposite from gratitude in her voice, "but I hate to be talked about +beforehand. One starts on a false basis from the first. Besides, it gives +every one else the advantage over one." + +"To be sure," replied Denham, "we cannot expect you to know us as +well from hearsay. It would be too much to hope that Miss Phebe +should have had as much to say for any of the rest of us." He turned +laughingly to Phebe as he spoke, and she looked at him with eyes full +of implicit faith. + +"No," she said, simply; "I haven't told Gerald any thing about you, only +your name. She will find it all out for herself so much better than I can +tell her." + +"I am afraid I am not very good at finding people out," remarked Gerald, +bluntly, "unless I am extraordinarily interested in them--" + +"Which I imagine you generally are not," interrupted Denham. + +"True," she answered, smiling a little, "which I generally am not; I am +content with a very superficial knowledge. The world is crowded so full, +where could one stop who set out to know thoroughly all he met?" + +"It is a bitter thought that you will never know more of me than just the +color of my beard," said Denham, reflectively, "but if such is your habit +I suppose I must resign myself to it. Now, I am exactly the reverse from +you; I am always extraordinarily interested in everybody." + +"Ah, because as a clergyman you must be." + +"No; simply because it happens to be my nature. One has one's individual +characteristics, you know, quite independently of one's profession." + +"Yes, in other professions; but in yours--" + +"But we are men first, Miss Vernor, afterward clergymen. Why may we not +keep our distinct idiosyncrasies, even in our clerical uniform?" + +Gerald slashed her dress gently with her riding whip. "It seems to me as +if you should all be clergymen first and men afterward, fitting +yourselves to the profession rather than the profession to you; and so by +all confessedly following one pattern, you would be necessarily drawn +into a greater similitude with each other than any other class of men. +Ah, here is Mr. De Forest at last." + +"At last?" repeated that gentleman as he joined the group, or rather +paused just beyond it, surveying Gerald with a critical glance which +seemed to take in accurately at one swift sweep every least detail of her +dress. "My watch stands at the minute, Miss Vernor." + +"And here come the horses," added Phebe. + +"Not much to boast of," said De Forest, turning the severe criticism of +his look upon the animals as the boy brought them up. "I wouldn't let you +be seen in Central Park with them. However, they are the best Joppa can +do for us. They are not very good-natured brutes either, but I believe +you look to a horse's hoofs rather than his head." + +"I do, decidedly," laughed Gerald, as De Forest raised her deftly to the +saddle and arranged bridle and girths to her liking, turning to tighten +his own before mounting, and kicking away a small dog that had run up to +sniff at his heels. + +"What did you bring along this ugly little beast of yours for, Jim? I +abhor curs." + +"Tain't none of mine, Mister," said the stable-boy, grinning. "It's +one of them street dogs that ain't nobody's." And he in his turn gave +a push to the puppy, while Gerald leaned down and hit at it lightly +with her whip. + +"Get away, my friend. There isn't room both for you and for us here," she +said, turning her horse toward it playfully as the little creature slunk +aside. In another instant her horse kicked violently, there was a single +sharp yelp, and the dog lay motionless in the road. + +"Hi!" exclaimed Jim, quite in accents of admiration, as he ran up and +bent over the poor thing. "That was a good un! Right on the head! He +won't trouble any other genelman again, I'm thinking." + +"What!" cried Gerald, sharply. "You don't mean the dog is dead?" + +"Don't I?" said the boy, moving a little aside so that she should see. +"That was a neat un and no mistake." + +Gerald looked down with a cry of horror; then suddenly sprang from her +horse and caught up the poor little limp animal in her arms. + +"Take away the horse," she said to the boy, imperiously. "I shall not +ride to-day." + +"But, Miss Vernor!" expostulated De Forest, "for heaven's sake don't +take it so to heart. It's unfortunate, of course, but no one is to blame. +Do put the thing down. It's dead. You can't do any thing more for it." + +"I know it," said Gerald. "I did all I could; I killed him. But you'll +have to excuse me, Mr. De Forest, I can't ride." + +De Forest caught her by the arm impatiently, as she turned from him. +"What nonsense, Miss Vernor! What _is_ the good of playing tragedy queen +over a dead dog? I'll have him buried in a silver coffin if you like and +raise a memorial to his inestimable virtues, but in the name of all that +is sensible, do get on the horse again and let us have our ride." + +"Not to-day," replied Gerald. "I could not. It is impossible." She +looked up at him, holding the little victim pressed close in her arms, +utterly regardless of its rough and grimy coat. Her eyes were swimming +with tears. + +"As you decide, of course," said De Forest, sulkily, releasing her, and +tossing his bridle to the boy. "Here you, Sim, or Tim, or Jim, or +whatever you are, take away the horses, and as you value your tip, mind +you don't have any more dogs around the next time I want you." + +Gerald turned away without another word, gathering up her dress as she +best could, and went into the house. Olly, who had witnessed the whole +proceeding enchantedly from the window, ran to meet her. "I say, let's +see him. My, ain't he dirty! Is he dead? just as dead as he can be?" + +"Yes," answered his sister, very gently; "the poor thing is quite dead. +Come and help me bury him decently somewhere. No, Phebe, stay there. I +wish it. Don't let us have any more fuss about it, please." + +De Forest lifted his hat and turned to leave as Gerald disappeared. "Pray +don't let me detain you from the interesting ceremony, Miss Lane," he +said, with his most cynical and mocking voice; "Miss Vernor as +high-priestess will be worth a full audience. Good-morning." + +"Gerald wouldn't like it if I went to her when she said not; I must +stay here," said Phebe turning her distressed face to Halloway, who had +stood a silent spectator of it all. "Oh, I'm so sorry it happened! +Isn't it too bad?" + +"It certainly is,--for the dog." + +"She won't get over it for ever so long, and it wasn't really her fault. +She was only in fun when she turned her horse that way. Gerald is very +tender-hearted." + +"I see she is,--toward dogs." + +"Mr. Halloway, you don't like her!" + +"Miss Phebe, I am madly in love with her." + +"Don't laugh at me, please. Isn't she handsome?" + +"Well, I couldn't judge of the length of her hair." + +"Nonsense, tell me what you really think of her." + +Denham pondered a moment. "I think all sorts of things," he answered +presently, with an amused laugh. "She is so contradictory she'll fit +almost any opinion, and the worst I can say of her is that she'll never +concern herself in the least to find out what my opinion may be." + +"Ah," said Phebe, softly, "just wait. You don't either of you know each +other yet!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE PICNIC. + + +Gerald's and Olly's visit was quite an event in the quiet Lane household. +Olly flagrantly broke every existing custom in it with the sublime +autocracy of childhood, and regained his health at the cost of the peace +of mind of every individual with whom he came in contact, from nervous +Miss Lydia down to the protesting servants; while Gerald was one of those +intense personalities whose influence seems to recreate the entire +atmosphere about them at once, go where they will. Poor Miss Lydia was +afraid of her quick speech and brusque ways and decided opinions, and +spent more hours than usual upstairs alone in her own little room, and +wore her best cap whenever she appeared below, as a sort of mute appeal +to the young lady's indulgence. But Gerald, in her robust health, had no +sympathy whatever with invalids as a class, and for "chronic nerves" she +had an absolute contempt, unmitigated by even the best cap's gay ribbons. +"It's altogether a matter of will," she asserted. "People needn't be ill +if they are only resolved not to be so." + +"Humph!" said Mrs. Lane, who had chanced to overhear; and there was a +trifle more tenderness than usual in her manner when she went up later to +put the mid-day cup of beef-tea into her sister's thin hands, and stood +looking compassionately down at her. "Nothing is easier than to insist +that a thing is so and so, just because there's no way to prove that it +isn't so." + +"How you do always talk in proverbs, Sister Sophy!" said Miss Lydia, +admiringly. "I only wish Solomon could have heard you. I do believe he +would have put some of them in." + +"He would have been far too busy taking down Mrs. Upjohn's fine speeches +to mind _me_," grunted Mrs. Lane. "And I never did think much of Solomon, +anyway. He was too much of a Mormon with his hundred wives and that. Want +any thing else, Lyddy?" + +"No, thank you. The house is very nice and still this morning. There's +a picnic up at the Dexter's farm, isn't there? I suppose they've all +gone to it." + +"Of course. Who ever heard of a picnic unless Phebe went along to do all +the fussing and mussing that everybody else shirks? Don't tell _me_ +there's any fun in a picnic,--going off in the woods like that, to do for +yourself what you'd sell the clothes off your back to have somebody else +do for you at home, and eating all kinds of heathenish messes with your +fingers because you've forgotten the forks. But what people like let them +have. They'll get experience out of it if nothing better. And of course +Phebe had to go." + +True enough, Phebe was as essential to any picnic as the feast, though +much less obtrusively so, and Gerald watched her friend's quiet +helpfulness with lazy interest. She herself was stretched at ease on the +clean, fresh grass under some glorious old trees. The place chosen was a +lovely spot at the head of the lake; the drive there had been long and +hot, and now she lay enjoying to the full the refreshment of the shadow +and the breeze, and the perfection both of the view and of her immediate +surroundings. Bell Masters sat near her, having discovered that she was +generally surest of Mr. De Forest's company when in Gerald's +neighborhood. Nor had she been mistaken this time. He had openly +abandoned the greedy band of berry-pickers, and the artistic knot of +sketchers, and the noisy body of pleasure-seekers, who were paddling +frivolously around the shores of the lake and screaming with causeless +laughter, as soon as he found that Gerald did not intend attaching +herself to any of them but had struck out the new and independent line of +doing absolutely nothing at all. Halloway had been helping industriously +with the fire, but he came toward the group under the trees when his +services seemed no longer required. + +"You look most invitingly comfortable," he said, fanning himself with his +hat. "We must try to coax Miss Phebe here for a rest." + +"Pray don't," said De Forest, lifting a lazy hand with an air of finding +even that motion too great an effort. "At least not till the coffee is +well under way. I tasted a cup of her make yesterday. Don't call her off. +We are all benefiting in a manner by her absence." + +"I can make good coffee too, when I choose," said Bell, biting at the +rim of her straw hat. + +De Forest contemplated her with new interest. "Ah, can you. 'Tis a gift +of the gods given to few. And when do you choose, may I ask? Apparently +not to-day." + +"'Tisn't my picnic." + +"Oh! Is it Miss Lane's?" + +"One would say it was, from the way she slaves for it," remarked Gerald. + +"Why don't you help too?" asked De Forest, breaking off blades of grass +and flinging them out singly upon the air. + +"For Miss Masters' excellent reason: it is not my picnic." + +"You contribute your valuable aid solely to your own undertakings then?" + +"Why am I called upon to contribute it to any other?" + +"'Tis a problem for philosophers. But for argument's sake, let us say for +the good of humanity at large, and of the Dexters in particular." + +"I am not bound to the Dexters by any obligation that I can see to help +them carry out their entertainment. If they are not equal to it, they +should not give it." + +"Nothing Quixotic about you, is there?" said De Forest, looking at her +quizzically. + +"Nothing whatever," replied Gerald, easily. "Why should there be? Let +every one look out for himself." + +"And if some can't?" + +"That is no business of mine. It's simply my business to make sure that I +can look after myself." + +"What an outrageously frank exposure of a universally concealed +sentiment! Mr. Halloway is scandalized. He is thinking how he can fit a +scorching text to it to wither you with next Sunday." + +"No; here is a sermon ready made on the spot," said Denham, as Phebe came +slowly toward them. "Miss Lane in herself is a sufficient illustration of +the opposite doctrine." + +"Prove it," answered Gerald, shrugging her shoulders. "Prove that Phebe, +who toils for everybody, is any happier than I, who only follow my +inclination." + +"You certainly look vastly the more comfortable at present," said De +Forest, looking from Gerald's cool cheeks and unruffled muslin flounces +to Phebe's flushed face and tumbled cambric. "You are a practical +embodiment of the beauty and expediency of selfishness." + +"What are you talking about?" asked Phebe, coming up and leaning wearily +against a tree. + +"About you and Miss Vernor," explained Bell. "Which of you is happier? +_I_ should say Miss Vernor decidedly." + +A loving look came into Phebe's eyes, as she glanced down at Gerald. + +"Miss Vernor, _of course_", she said, with a very tender inflection of +voice. "Being what she is, how can she help being the happier?" + +"Virtue advocating vice," said De Forest. "Mr. Halloway, your sermon is a +dead failure,--as a sermon." + +"By no means," answered Denham, smiling. "I don't expect to convert +you in a single lesson. Will you not sit down with us, Miss Phebe? You +look tired." + +"Not just yet, thank you." + +"And why not?" asked Gerald. + +"I want to see a little after Miss Delano first. She's off there all +alone hunting for ferns." + +"Well," persisted Gerald, "what of it? Are you fonder of her society than +ours, that you must run after her?" + +"I am not fonder of any one's society than of yours, Gerald." + +"But are you fond of that tiresome creature at all? Confess it; doesn't +she bore you to death with her interminable grasshopper chatter?" + +Phebe glanced at Halloway, and laughed a little as she moved away. +"Oh, I am learning by degrees not to be bored by people,--not even by +Miss Delano." + +"Now, will any one explain why she should wish to teach herself _not_ to +know a bore from a Christian?" exclaimed Gerald, impatiently. "It is +quite beyond me." + +"But do you really never talk to anybody unless you want to, Miss +Vernor?" asked Bell, disagreeably conscious that Gerald had not +voluntarily addressed her once that morning. + +"Never," replied Gerald, staring out at the lake. + +"Don't you ever do any thing you don't want to, because you ought to?" + +"I don't always see the ought. For instance, why should I put myself out +to entertain Miss Delano as Phebe does?" + +"I don't know," muttered Bell. "I wouldn't, I am sure. She is +mortally dull." + +"One might imagine reasons for the self-sacrifice, I suppose," said De +Forest, making a languid snatch at a butterfly fluttering near. "The +possibility, we will say, that it might please the gentle old babbler +to come under the condescension of your notice. How would that do for +a motive?" + +"Why should I want to please her?" insisted Gerald, removing a hideous +beetle from her dress with all possible care lest she should hurt it. "I +don't want to. I don't care for her, nor she for me. Why should I put +myself out for her? What claim has she on me that I should displease +myself to please her?" + +"Let us see," said Denham, ruminatingly. "Miss Delano's pleasure against +Miss Vernor's displeasure, or _vice versa, Miss Vernor's pleasure against +Miss Delano's displeasure. Yes; the balance of pleasure remains quite +the same whichever lady has it. Apart from principle, the logic is +unanswerable." + +"It is admirable," commented De Forest. "I always did like logic so much +better than moral philosophy. Hello, what's the matter now?" + +There was a wail of distress somewhere in the distance. + +Gerald turned her shapely head and listened a moment. "It's only Olly," +she said, composedly. "I recognize the cry. He isn't hurt. Oh, you +needn't go, Mr. Halloway; Olly never comes to any harm. He's only +quarrelling with some one." + +De Forest raised himself on his elbow to listen, while Halloway walked +off in the direction of the outburst. "There are possibilities lurking in +picnics, you know," he remarked, resuming his recumbent position, "mad +bulls, and rabbit traps, and fine chances for a drown now and then. But I +suppose we needn't trouble ourselves, Mr. Halloway'll see to it. Besides, +Olly bears the charmed life of the wicked. Miss Masters, I hope you +remember to give daily thanks that you haven't any small brothers." + +"I do devoutly give thanks that I haven't any sisters," said Bell, with +an unaffectionate glance toward Gerald. "I should hate them." + +And so the desultory talk rambled on, the little group growing larger by +degrees as the approaching luncheon hour brought back the stragglers, and +with them Olly, trotting contentedly along, clinging to Halloway's hand, +meek as any lamb. + +"What were you doing when you cried out so a little while ago?" asked +Gerald, going up to the child. + +Olly looked at her with instant defiance in his eyes. "I hurt my foot." + +"You know perfectly well you can't deceive me, Olly. Tell me the truth. +What mischief were you at?" + +"I tell you I hurt my foot, and it hurt like mischief, and that's all the +mischief there was. I wish it had been _your_ foot, and I wouldn't have +cried a bit." + +Halloway was turning aside, but Gerald appealed to him. "Is he telling +the truth?" + +"Yes," answered Denham, dryly. "He was racing with the Anthony boys and +fell, but, as you see, he's right enough now." + +"Ya-ah!" said Olly, and leered into her face with brotherly disrespect. +"I'll tell you a lie next time if you'd rather. Ya-ah!" + +Gerald looked as if she were going to shake him on the spot, and to +prevent any such catastrophe Denham suddenly seized the little fellow and +put him through a number of acrobatic feats in breathless succession, +till he was fairly hustled into good temper and everybody around was +laughing, even Gerald. Jake Dexter was instantly incited to display some +marvellous limber-jointed powers of his own, and had just demonstrated to +the assembled company, to his and their entire satisfaction, that the +impossible is after all sometimes possible, when luncheon was announced +by the ringing of a cow-bell, and a gay onslaught upon the usual picnic +table, rich in luxuries and poor in necessities, superseded for the nonce +all less material forms of amusement. + +Later in the afternoon Halloway wandered off from the rest for one of the +solitary strolls that he preferred to companionship as being less +lonely,--a feeling often experienced when fate and not choice appoints +one's comrades,--and returning leisurely along the banks of the lake, +he came upon a little group of picnickers, and stopped unperceived beyond +them, to enjoy for a while that comfortable sense of being in the world +yet out of it, which is the birthright of all spectatorship. Gerald and +Phebe were skipping stones, thoroughly absorbed in energetic enjoyment of +the simple game; their two contrasting figures, Gerald dark and tall and +slim, and Phebe so round and fair and supple, making a pretty-enough +picture for any artist. Olly, little Maggie Dexter, and an assortment of +sturdy urchins known throughout Joppa only as the Anthony boys, were +dancing and chattering aimlessly around, and near by was drawn up a +clumsy old boat where Phebe had made a comfortable niche for Miss Delano, +who every day at about this hour was afflicted with a remarkable disorder +which had grown upon her wholly of late years, and whose symptoms, so far +as she was willing to admit them, consisted of a painful heaviness of the +eyelids, a weakness in the nape of the neck, and an irresistible tendency +to retire for a brief season within herself. A little farther off still, +having taken fortune at the flood and secured De Forest at last, Bell +Masters was embarked on another kind of craft, a thorough-going, +fully-freighted flirtation, all sails set; and through the trees were +glimpses of lazily moving figures beyond, generally in twos and twos, +following some occult rule of common division peculiar to picnics. By +degrees the children wandered off up the bank, and presently there came a +shout, followed by an evident squabble. Phebe looked around uneasily. +Gerald kept on with her sport. + +"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven times, Phebe. Now do better +than that." + +At this juncture little Maggie ran up, her pretty brown eyes wide and her +red lips quivering. "Oh! Miss Vernor, Olly shan't do it, shall he? Do say +he shan't!" + +"Do what?" asked Gerald, pausing in the act of searching for +another pebble. + +"Put it in the water to swim like a duck. It isn't a duck, it's a little, +little young bird he's found in a nest, and it can't swim, it can't +hardly fly. Oh, don't let him!" + +"Let him!" echoed Gerald sharply. She sprang toward the children with a +bound, almost lifting Olly off his feet as she drew him back from the +water's edge. "You cruel boy!" she cried. "Give it to me directly." + +"I won't!" answered Olly, trying to shake himself free from her grasp. +"It's mine, I found it." + +But the small hands held him in a grip as strong as a man's, and in +another moment Gerald had taken the poor little half-feathered creature +from him, and bidden Maggie restore it carefully to its nest. + +"It's mine! It's mine! I'll have it back!" shouted Olly, angrily, after +the little girl. + +Gerald took hold of him by the shoulders and turned him round toward her. +There was a great deal of hatred for the sin, and not overmuch love for +the sinner, in her face, as she looked down at him. "If you dare touch +that bird again, Olly, I'll find a punishment for you that you will not +soon forget, do you hear?" + +A hidden thought of revenge for the spoiled sport came into Olly's mind. +He twisted himself away from his sister with a little grunt, and stood +peevishly playing a moment with a couple of marbles; then suddenly +darting aside, seized the boat in which Miss Delano was established, +still struggling, but more feebly, with the mysterious trouble that held +her in thrall; and with a strength with which one would hardly have +credited his slight form, he pushed it off into the water. There was, of +course, not a particle of real danger for Miss Delano, even though this +chanced to be the only boat at that point, and she was no oarswoman; but +the poor little old lady, thus suddenly roused from the strange +hallucinations (as she called them) which were the most marked feature of +her complaint, and finding herself afloat upon the unstable deep, +instantly supposed that her last hour was come. She sprang up, too +terrified to scream, with a look of deadly horror in her face, and then +sank again all in a heap in the bottom of the boat. Olly gave a fiendish +laugh, but before any one else could move to the rescue, Gerald, with one +fierce, unutterable look at her brother, and no thought but how soonest +to end Miss Delano's speechless agony, quick as a flash, caught hold of +an overhanging bough and swung herself on to a rock quite far out in the +water, and thence, with a light, bold spring, landed safely in the middle +of the boat as it drifted past. + +"All right, Miss Delano," she said, briskly, seating herself and laying +hold of the oars with accustomed hands; "I'm a born sailor, and we'll +have a little row first before we go back." + +Had an angel visibly descended from heaven to assume the helm, Miss +Delano could not have been more grateful and overcome. "Oh, my dear, my +dear!" she said, and, in the intensity of her relief, began to cry a +little softly. Gerald pretended not to notice her emotion (she was very +awkward as a comforter, and as shy before tears as a man), and rowed +around for a while in utter silence; and then feeling that conversation +might aid in quieting her companion's unnecessarily excited nerves she +began abruptly charging her with questions as one loads a gun with +cartridges, dropping down one after another with cruel directness into +the harmless vacancy of Miss Delano's brain. How many inhabitants had +Joppa in precise figures? what was the height of those farther hills to +the left? upon what system was the village-school governed? what was the +mineral nature of the soil? what was the fastest time ever made by that +bay mare of Mr. Upjohn's with the white hind foot? etc. etc., etc., on +all which points poor Miss Delano could only assure her timidly: "I don't +know, dear; it would be well if I did," and relapsed into an alarmed and +most uncharacteristic silence. + +Phebe stood watching the boat as Gerald rowed off, then, as if +recollecting some neglected duty, turned suddenly, and found herself face +to face with Mr. Halloway. + +"No farther," he said, playfully barring her passage. + +"Oh, but I must! I want to find Olly and talk him into a better frame of +mind before Gerald comes back." + +"Leave Olly to me, please. I am a perfect child-tamer, and guarantee to +exorcise his seven evil spirits in less than no time. Meanwhile, sit you +down and rest." + +"Oh, I don't need rest. If you'll undertake Olly I'll help put back the +lunch things. Picnics are quite like the Biblical feasts: five loaves and +two fishes somehow always make twelve basketfuls to take up." + +"And you are always a true disciple at the feast, Miss Phebe, intent only +upon ministering to others." + +Phebe laughed her own peculiarly light-hearted, gay laugh. "That is a +much prettier way of putting it than Gerald's. She says I make myself +maid-of-all-work." + +"Miss Gerald, of course, doesn't approve of such service." + +"But you do. So I needn't mind her blame." + +"But I shall blame too, Miss Phebe, when you overdo yourself. I don't see +why others' recreation need be all work for you. Let each take his share +of both the pleasure and the toil." + +"But you see this _is_ my share, Mr. Halloway, because I can't help in +any better way. I don't know enough to entertain people's guests just by +talking to them, as Gerald does. You forget how dull I am." + +"So I do," said Denham, gravely. "I forget it all the time. Indeed, the +forgetfulness has quite become chronic. Now I'll find Olly, and we'll all +go at the dishes together and make a game of it." + +Certainly Denham Halloway must have possessed some secret charm in his +management of children, for by the time Gerald turned her boat to the +shore, he stood at the bank to meet them, with Olly by his side, as +amiable a little fellow as any Sunday-school-book hero ever born. + +"I am glad your sail turned out such a success, Miss Delano," said +Halloway, cheerily, as he lifted the little old lady carefully out on to +the pebbles. "You have been envied of us all. But here is a little boy +come to tell you all the same how sorry he is that he gave you such a +fright. Olly, my lad, I think Miss Delano looks as if she had forgiven +you through and through." + +"Oh, indeed, indeed yes," answered Miss Delano, hurriedly. "It was +only my silly way of being scared, particularly when I'm roused up so +sudden out of one of those turns of mine. And it's all right, my dear, +all right." + +"But I'm sorry, real and honest," declared Olly, stoutly, looking +squarely in Miss Delano's kindly face. "And I didn't mean to scare you." + +"You meant it for a revenge on me, I suppose," said Gerald, in a low, +harsh voice. She took hold of his arm as she spoke. "Give me those +marbles of yours." + +Olly looked at her, hesitated, and then reluctantly produced three very +handsome agates from some outlying storehouse of his jacket. + +"I bought you six," said Gerald. "Where are the rest?" + +"I lost one," answered Olly, sullenly. "It fell down a hole." + +"Then give me the other two." + +Olly obeyed still more reluctantly, fixing great, anxious eyes upon his +treasures as he laid them, each one more slowly than the last, in his +sister's hand. + +"There," said Gerald. "Perhaps this will teach you to behave better +another time. I shall not buy you any more this summer." She flung out +her hand suddenly, and the five pretty stones fell with a splash far out +in the lake and disappeared forever, five little cruel sets of circles +instantly beginning to widen and widen over their graves in a perfect +mockery of roundness. Olly gave one sharp cry, and then stood +stock-still, a bitterly hard look coming over his face; those marbles had +been very, very dear to his heart. Halloway put his arm tenderly around +the little fellow, and drew him close in a very sympathetic way. + +"Olly," he said, gently, "you know you deserved some punishment, but now +that your sister has punished you, I am sure she will forgive you too, as +Miss Delano has done, if you only ask her." + +Olly buried his face in his friend's coat, and burst into a fit of +heart-broken tears. "I don't want her to forgive me," he sobbed. "I only +want my agates,--my pretty, pretty agates!" + +"Surely you will forgive him?" pleaded Halloway, looking up at Gerald +over Olly's head, and holding out one of the boy's hands in his own. "He +was really penitent when you came up. Let me ask for him." + +Gerald moved a step away, ignoring the hand. "Certainly, if you wish it," +she said, coldly. + +Halloway bent and kissed Olly's flushed face. "Do you hear, my boy? It is +all right now, and there is Maggie calling you to swing her. Don't forget +you promised to make me a visit at the rectory to-morrow." + +Olly threw his arms around Denham's knees and gave him a convulsive hug. +"I like you though you _are_ a minister," he said, through his tears. "I +just wish you were my sister!" And then he went slowly off to Maggie, and +Denham and Gerald stood silently where he had left them. Gerald was the +first to speak. + +"You think I am hard on Olly. I see it in your face." + +"I do think," replied Denham, slowly, with a faint smile curving his +well-cut lips, "that perhaps it might be happier for Olly if you would +try to consider him less in the light of a boy, and more as--as only a +little animal. You are so tender-hearted and pitiful toward animals." + +Gerald flushed angrily. "I like plain speaking best. You think I am hard +on him. Why don't you say so?" + +"I will if you prefer it. I do think so." + +"Thanks. Is there any thing else you would like to say to me in your +capacity as clergyman before we join the others?" + +"Yes, if I may really venture so far. Your hat is quite crooked." + +Gerald straightened it without a smile. "Thanks again. Anything else?" + +"Absolutely nothing." He turned to escort her back, but Gerald stood +still, frowning out at the lake. + +"You don't know Olly," she said, curtly. + +"Maybe not, but I know childish nature pretty well, perhaps because +I love it." + +"Ah! I don't love it. It isn't lovable to me. It is all nonsense to call +it the age of innocence. It is vice in embryo instead of in full leaf, +that is all." + +"But that is an inestimable gain of itself. A little of a bad thing is +surely much better than a great deal of it. For my part I confess to a +great partiality for children. There is something pathetic to me in the +little faults and tempers that irritate us now chiefly because they clash +against our own weaknesses, and yet on the right guidance of which lies +the whole making or marring of the child's life." + +"Doesn't guidance include punishment?" + +"Yes, it includes it. But it does not consist of it." + +Gerald still stood half turned from him, frowning out over the placid +blue water. "Ah," she said, "it chiefly consists of good example and that +sort of thing, I suppose." + +"I think it consists chiefly of love," said Halloway, simply. + +Gerald made no answer at first, then turned and looked at him almost +defiantly. Her changeable eyes seemed black as she raised them to his. +"Would you have thrown Olly's marbles into the lake?" + +"No," replied Halloway, looking steadily back at her. + +"Then you would have been very foolish," said Gerald, haughtily. "It was +the only way to touch him. I was quite right to do it." + +"You should be the best judge of your actions, Miss Vernor." + +Gerald bowed without answer, and moved past him like an offended duchess. +Halloway stood looking after her with an amused sparkle in his eyes. +"Miss Geraldine Vernor," he said to himself, "with all your beauty and +your reputed accomplishments and intellect, you would yet do well to take +a few lessons of my little friend Phebe Lane." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TRIED AS BY FIRE. + + +"Gerald, what are you thinking of?" + +"I was wondering how soon you would let us have the lamp." + +"I'll get it immediately, if you like, but it's so pleasant talking in +the twilight. I could spend hours contentedly sitting here so with you." + +"How reprehensibly idle!" + +"No, I should be learning something all the time. You have always +something to teach me. Or if you didn't feel like talking, I could just +sit still and hold your hand and not need any thing more." + +Gerald put her hand instinctively out of reach. "I beg you won't try it. +I hate having my hand held." + +"Yes, I know you do. You hate being kissed, too. You hate being admired +and made a fuss over. I don't suppose any thing would induce you to let +me call you a pet name. O Gerald, I do wish you liked being loved!" + +"But I do like it well enough. Of course every one likes being cared for +and all that sort of thing. It's only the gushing and spooning and +sentimentalizing that I can't endure. I never could, even as a child." + +Phebe sat suddenly upright, away from Gerald. Perhaps even the mute +caress of her attitude jarred upon her friend. "To me the half of being +loved would be the being told so," she said. "I should never weary of +hearing it said over and over again." + +"Bah!" ejaculated Gerald, "it would make me sick!" She got up as if the +very thought were too much for her, and going to the window stood still +there looking out. Phebe followed her with her eyes. + +"I am afraid you are fated to be deadly sick all your life through, +Gerald. What _will_ you do with your lovers?" + +"Dismiss them." + +"All?" + +"All but one." + +"What will you do with him?" + +"Marry him, of course. That is what he will be there for, won't it? I +expect to marry some one some time. Marriage makes a woman's life fuller +and freer, though not necessarily happier. I want to get all into my life +that I can." + +"I wonder whom you will marry," mused Phebe, where she sat curled up on +the sofa. "I wonder what he could be like. Gerald, how I should like to +see you in love!" + +"You won't see it," replied Gerald. "No one will ever see it. It +wouldn't be my way to make a display of the insanity, supposing, that +is, that I have it." + +"I hope at least you will show it to _him_." + +"Not overmuch even to _him_. He'll have to take it on faith. I haven't +the faintest intention of informing any one of the state of my affections +a dozen times a day. Once for all ought to be sufficient with the +declaration, as it is with the marriage vow." + +Phebe puckered up her forehead. "Ah, how different we are! If I am ever +engaged to any one I shall want to keep telling him all the time how much +I love him, for fear he wouldn't guess it." + +"You will bore him to death then." + +"I suppose I shall," replied Phebe, dejectedly. "I don't suppose any +one living wants to be loved so much as I would want to love him. I +couldn't be cool and deliberate and wise at loving as you would be. I +should have to do it with my whole heart and just give myself up to it +for good and all." + +"That's the story-book way of loving," said Gerald. "I don't believe in +it for real life. Blind adoration doesn't do either the lover or the +loved any good. There should be sense in one's emotions as well as in +one's opinions." + +Phebe was silent a moment or two. "You are so self-possessed, and so +self-controlled, Gerald," she said at last. "It must be very nice to have +one's self so perfectly in command as you have. And yet I don't know. I +think it would be rather nice too to find one's self suddenly under the +power of some one a great deal better and stronger and wiser than one's +self, who compelled one to love him, not because one would, but just +because one could not help it." + +The girls were alone in the sitting-room, Mrs. Lane having gone out to a +neighbor's, taking Olly with her, and Miss Lydia not having yet appeared +for her usual hour downstairs. It was a few days after the picnic, and +was one of those suddenly cool August evenings that sometimes drop down +so unexpectedly upon the summer heat, and a wood-fire lay upon the hearth +ready to light at the invalid's coming. Phebe too sprang from the sofa as +she spoke, as if her words had evoked too vivid a picture, and kneeling +down by the hearth, applied a match. The bright flame leaped swiftly up +and filled all the room with a flickering golden glow. Gerald turned in +the window to watch it. How quickly it had flushed Phebe's cheeks, and +how soft her eyes looked in its light! + +"It's downright cruelty to spoil our first cool evening with a fire, +Phebe, but I'll forgive you, it makes you look so pretty," she said, +quite unconscious of her beauty as she stood against the dark background +of the curtain in picturesque stateliness, her dress of soft cream-white +cloth falling in clinging folds about her, and her clear pale face turned +dreamily toward the light, which gleamed out in fitful reflection from +the heavy gold ornaments at her throat and wrists. + +"Ah, you do not see yourself!" murmured Phebe, looking adoringly back at +her. "No one else could look pretty to you if you did." + +"How foolish!" said Gerald, scornfully. "Pray don't let us begin bandying +compliments back and forth. That's next worse to eternally discussing +love. Why it is that two girls seem never able to talk together half an +hour without lugging in that threadbare subject as if it were the one +most important thing in the world, I don't understand." + +"Well, isn't love the most important thing,--to women?" asked Phebe, +sitting down on the floor to nurse the fire, her thin muslin making a +little ripple of pretty lightness around her. + +"No, it isn't," replied Gerald. "It may be to some few perhaps, but +certainly not to all women. It isn't to me. It's one thing; not every +thing; and not even the best thing. Knowledge is better, and goodness is +better, and to come down to purely personal blessings, health is better, +and so is common-sense better, and in the long run there are dozens of +things infinitely better worth having and better worth aiming for. It's a +good enough thing to have in addition, but as to its being the sum and +substance, the Alpha and Omega, of any sensible woman's life, that's all +foolishness. Let's have done with it and order in the lights. I want to +get at Euclid again. It will never do for that conceited Yale brother of +mine to get ahead of me. Shall I call to Nancy?" + +"No use. The servants are out. Wait a moment till the fire is well +started, and I'll bring in the lamp." + +"The servants are out?" repeated Gerald. "Both? At the same time? Is that +the way you keep house in Joppa?" + +"Oh, they like running out together, and we never want any thing in the +evenings, you know. The front door always stands ajar, and visitors let +themselves in." + +"And you make your own fires and bring in your own oily lamps; or do your +evening guests assist you perhaps in lieu of the servants?" + +"But we don't generally have fires," laughed Phebe, greatly amused at +Gerald's disgust. "Only to-night it would be too chilly for Aunt Lydia +here without one. I feel cool too. I was not so sensible as you, and put +on too thin a dress. Isn't it a pretty blaze? Wait just till I throw on +another log. How it snaps and crackles!" + +"Take your time," said Gerald, turning back to the window. "But what +a way to manage! Why should you hire servants, if you do their work +for them?" + +Phebe only laughed, and a little shower of sparks flew over her from the +hearth as if the fire laughed too. + +"It's being needlessly indulgent," pursued Gerald. "One can give servants +proper liberties without making one's self a slave to their caprices. If +you yield to them in one instance because it chances to be convenient, +they'll certainly exact it of you another time when it is not convenient. +Gracious heavens! Phebe, what is it?" + +There was a sudden outburst of light behind her, and a sharp scream of +mingled terror and pain, and she turned to find Phebe standing the centre +of a pillar of fire. Her light dress had ignited from the flying sparks, +and the devouring flames seemed to burst forth in a hundred places at +once and rush exultantly together. Phebe gave another wild cry and +started for the door in that blind agony of despair which seems to hasten +people at such times to their doom, as if by aimless flight they could +escape the awful demon who possesses them. Too horror-stricken to utter a +sound, Gerald sprang at her, and seizing her with fearless hands, forced +the poor struggling girl by main strength down on to the floor. No one +near to help! No water at hand! Not so much as a rug or a shawl to throw +over her and stifle the flames! Yes! there was the table-cover, heavy and +thick, as if created for this very life-service. Gerald tore it +off,--books, boxes, china cups, and glass vases crashing to the ground +together,--and flinging it over Phebe, threw herself on top of it, +pressing it close in every direction with hands and limbs, and smothering +the flames resolutely beneath it. It was but a moment, though a moment of +lifetime horror, and all was over. There was only the fire on the hearth +hissing and leaping as if in anger at its defeated design. + +"Phebe!" whispered Gerald, hoarsely; "Phebe!" + +Phebe had ceased to struggle, and lay perfectly motionless, apparently +scarcely breathing, but she opened her eyes and smiled faintly as Gerald +called her. The fright and the pain had taken her speech away. She could +not find it at once. But the smile gave new hope and energy to Gerald. + +"Never mind talking," she exclaimed, springing briskly to her feet. +"If you are only alive it's all right. Don't attempt to stir. I'll get +some one." + +"Aunt Lydia--don't let her know," Phebe managed to gasp. + +"No, no, of all people!" cried Gerald. She paused an instant. Not a +servant in the house! whom was she to summon? A vague idea seized her of +running into the street and catching hold of the first passer, when at +the moment the door opened, and Mr. Halloway appeared on the threshold. + +"Is there any one at home? Shall I come in, please?" called the bright, +cheery voice. + +"Mr. Halloway! oh, thank Heaven!" And seizing him by the arm, Gerald +dragged him over to where Phebe lay. "Help me to take her up-stairs to +her room." + +Denham staggered back unutterably shocked and horrified as he recognized +the prostrate form at his feet, the fire-light playing mockingly over it +and revealing the white face and loosened hair. For the instant he +thought her dead. He caught his breath and put his hand up over his eyes. +"My God! what has happened?" + +"Her dress took fire--she is burned, no, not badly I am sure, but let us +get her up-stairs without losing time. Quick!" + +Denham put Gerald aside almost roughly, and stooping down lifted Phebe +tenderly in his arms. She moaned as he touched her, but smiled up at him +as she had done at Gerald. + +"Do I hurt you, dear?" he asked, with infinite pity and tenderness in his +voice. "I will be as gentle as I can. Poor child! poor child!" + +"Let me help you," said Gerald. "The stairs are steep and I am +very strong." + +She came nearer, but he shook his head. "I need no help." + +"This way, then," said Gerald, shortly. "And don't speak. Miss Lydia +mustn't know." + +She led the way to Phebe's room, and he followed slowly, laying his +burden carefully down on the bed and arranging the pillows under her head +with all of a woman's gentleness of touch. + +"Now go for the doctor," ordered Gerald, turning to the bureau to light +the candles. "Dr. Dennis. If he is out, Dr. Harrison. Only find some one +immediately." + +Denham lingered an instant, bending down over the bed. + +"I thought we had lost you to-night, Phebe," he said, so low the words +were but just audible. "God be thanked if only that you are still here!" +And stooping nearer yet he added: "We could not let you go, dear child." + +Gerald came anxiously back to the bedside as he left the room. "Are you +in much pain now?" she asked, lifting off the heavy braid that lay across +Phebe's bosom like a great rope of loosely twisted silk. "You do not +think you are badly hurt, do you, dear?" + +Phebe looked up at her, smiling strangely. + +"Oh, Gerald," she whispered, while two big tears rolled slowly down on to +the pillow, "I wish I might die to-night! I don't think I can ever be so +happy again!" + +"Nonsense!" said Gerald, with utmost sternness. "Don't talk about dying. +I won't allow it." And then she suddenly put down her head beside +Phebe's, and burst into tears. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +GERALD OBEYS ORDERS. + + +In an incredibly short time Denham brought back not only Dr. Dennis, whom +he had caught just setting out for a stolen game of whist with Mr. +Upjohn, during the absence of that gentleman's wife at prayer-meeting, +but also Soeur Angelique, whose mere presence in a sick-room was more +than half the cure. And then he sat in the dark, disordered room below, +impatiently enough, anxiously waiting for news from Phebe. The time +seemed to him interminable before at last the door opened, and Gerald +entered, bearing a lamp. The vivid light, flung so full upon her, showed +traces of passionate weeping; and her white dress all scorched and burned +and hopelessly ruined, with the rich lace hanging in shreds from the +sleeves, made her a startling contrast indeed to the usually calm, +self-possessed, perfectly-dressed Gerald Vernor. + +Denham sprang forward to take the heavy lamp from her. "How is +she, please?" + +Gerald started. "What, you here?" + +"Did you think I could leave till I knew?" + +"Oh, of course not, I had forgotten you. I was only thinking of Phebe." + +"But how is she?" + +"Better. She is burned about the shoulders and a little on the arms, but +not seriously, and nothing that will disfigure. It is so fortunate. The +doctor is still with her, but she is much easier now, and there is +nothing to fear." + +"Ah, what a relief! It seemed as if I should never hear. She is really in +no danger then?" + +"None." + +"Thank God! As you came in you looked so distressed I feared--" + +"When it was all over and there was nothing to cry about, I cried," +interrupted Gerald. "Women are always fools. I'll except Mrs. Whittridge, +however. She has been the greatest comfort to Phebe." + +"It is Soeur Angelique's characteristic privilege always to be a comfort, +I believe," answered Denham, recovering his light-heartedness in a +flash. "Might I inquire if you have any especial object with this lamp? +Shall I do any thing particularly with it?" + +"Let it down, please--anywhere. I remembered the room was dark, and ran +down to put it to rights before Mrs. Lane should comeback. Her orderly +soul would have a spasm if she came upon it suddenly like this." + +"It was well I had no light," said Denham, looking around him. "It would +have frightened even me. Shan't I call some one?" + +"It's the ridiculous fashion of the house to suppose it never needs +servants at this hour. There's not one within reach." + +"You must let me help you then. Is this the table-cover?" + +"Thanks. I am afraid the fire has done for it, but we can't help that. +Pull it a little farther to your side, please. Farther still. That's too +far. So. That's right. Now the lamp here. Now the books. Cover up the +holes with them." + +"Ah, Miss Lydia's pet cup! and her little favorite statuette!" + +"Hideous things! I'm glad they're smashed." + +"Will you equally enjoy imparting to her the fact of their loss?" + +"Somebody else may do that. I had my share telling her about Phebe." + +"I suppose she was terribly shocked, poor old soul. I don't wonder." + +"She had an instant attack of hysterics, and I _did_ wonder," rejoined +Gerald, tartly. "But as I told you, women are always fools, and nervous +women the worst ones, I haven't any patience with them. I was vexed +enough with her for keeping me from Phebe. I don't believe she was ever +hurried so out of an attack before." + +"I'm afraid there's need of a broom or something here, Miss Vernor. This +vase is in a thousand pieces." + +Gerald seized the hearth-brush and was on her knees by him in a moment. +"The lamp, please, Mr. Halloway. Set it on the floor an instant." + +Denham moved it as desired, and stood looking down at her as she began +deftly brushing up the scattered bits. + +"Miss Vernor!" he suddenly exclaimed in a shocked voice. The bright +light, falling broadly across her hands, showed two great angry-red +blotches just above one of the delicate wrists. He stooped and laid +masterful hold of the long handle of the brush. + +"Well?" she said, stopping perforce and looking up in surprise. +"What is it?" + +"Your arm--you are burned, badly burned." + +Gerald made a little sound of contempt for all reply. + +"It should be dressed at once. How it must pain you!" + +Gerald looked at her arm reflectively. "I haven't had time to feel," she +said, vainly trying to pull her sleeve over it. "It will make an ugly +scar, won't it? I shall have to abandon elbow sleeves. Now please let go +the brush." + +"Miss Vernor, why should you be so cruel to yourself? Do go up to the +doctor at once!" + +"And take him away from Phebe? I will not. It won't hurt any more now +than it has done already. I must ask you to let me have the brush, Mr. +Halloway. I am losing time." + +Halloway relinquished it without speaking, and went quietly out of the +room, and Gerald unconcernedly resumed her work, scarcely pausing to +wonder where he had gone or what he intended. He returned just as she had +finished, and lifting the lamp back to the table, called to her: "Will +you come here, please?" + +"What in the world have you there?" she inquired, coming up to him in +sheer curiosity. + +"Soap. I found the way to the kitchen, you see. I had to bring the water +in this tin thing. I didn't know where to look for a cup." + +"Pray what is it for?" + +"For you. Soap is good for burns. Will you let me take your hand, +please?" + +Gerald put the wounded member behind her. "Thank you. I neither require +nor desire assistance." + +"Pardon me, you do require it, and if you refuse to see the doctor--" + +"Is that any reason why I should resort to you--and kitchen soap?" + +"I grant it is a very homely remedy, Miss Vernor, but it is an excellent +one and the only one I know." + +"I daresay. It is one more than I know of." + +"You will not try it?" + +"No." + +"Perhaps you are afraid of the pain attending the dressing?" + +It was a masterly stroke. Gerald gave him one look of intense scorn, +almost of anger, and immediately reached out her hand. "I am afraid of +nothing--not even of your lack of skill." + +Denham took her hand without further ceremony, and holding it firmly, +pushed back the hanging lace from her arm and began rubbing the soap over +the burns, without so much as a word of pity for the pain he knew he was +giving her. She winced involuntarily at the first touch, but set her +teeth tightly lest she should cry out. It hurt her cruelly. "I was not +aware before that the custody of souls extended to that of the temples +they inhabit," she said, when she could command herself sufficiently to +assume a supreme indifference of tone. "You believe in purely household +remedies, I see." + +"I believe always in doing what I can with what means I have. One moment +more, please. I am not quite through." + +Gerald held out her hand again. "Perhaps you had better try sandstone on +it this time, or a little burning oil." + +Halloway did not answer, but hastily tearing his handkerchief into +strips, bound the arm as closely as he could. "There," he said, surveying +the bandages critically, and inwardly well pleased with his success; "at +least that will do till you can see the doctor." + +"Are you sure you are quite through now?" asked Gerald, in mock +submission. "You don't think it necessary to put the arm in a splint, or +to fasten weights to it, or to amputate the first joint of the thumb?" + +"I am sorry to say that is all I know how to do for you, Miss Vernor." + +"Then I will go back to Miss Lydia. By the way, would you recommend soap +also for hysterics?" + +"Applied with a close bandage over the mouth? Certainly, it will be both +effectual and immediate." + +"Thank you. Good-night." + +"Will you not shake hands with me?" + +Gerald turned as she was moving off and held out her hand, more as a +queen might have extended it in motion of dismissal than as friend to +friend. Denham took it between both his. "Before you go, I want to thank +you in the name of all Miss Phebe's friends," he said, earnestly. "You +have saved her life to-night, and at the risk of your own." + +"The table-cloth was her savior, not I," returned Gerald, lightly, but +with a softened voice. "And anyway, is it not quite thanks enough only to +know that Phebe is safe? Now good-night in earnest." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +JOPPA'S MINISTRATIONS TO THE SICK. + + +All news, good, bad, and indifferent, flies equally fast in Joppa; and +had there been a town-crier deputed for the purpose, Phebe's accident +could not have sooner become a household tale in even the most distant +districts of the place. After a contradiction of the first rumor, +reporting her burned to a crisp and only recognizable by a ring of her +mother's on her left hand,--which ring by-the-way she never wore,--and +after a contradiction in due course of the second rumor, reporting Gerald +to be lying in the agonies of death and Phebe to have escaped without a +hair singed, followed a period of dire uncertainty, when nobody knew what +to believe, and felt only an obstinate conviction that everybody else had +got it entirely wrong. But at last the story straightened itself out into +something bearing a family resemblance to actual facts, and then Joppa +settled itself resolutely down to doing its duty. My duty toward my sick +neighbor in Joppa consists in calling twice a day, if not oftener, at his +house; in inquiring after his condition down to minutest and most sacred +details; in knowing accurately how many hours he slept last night, and +what he ate for breakfast, and what is paid the sick-nurse, and if it +includes her washing. My second duty toward my sick neighbor is to bring +him something to eat, on the supposition that "outside things taste +differently;" or something to look at; or, if nothing better, at least +something to refuse. My third and last duty toward my neighbor,--the well +neighbor who possesses the sick one,--is to narrate every somewhat +similar case on record, with all its circumstances and the ultimate +career of the sufferer; to prescribe remedies as infallible as the Pope; +to disapprove wholly, and on the best grounds, of those in actual use; to +offer every assistance in and out of my power; and to say at leaving that +I _hope_ it may all turn out well, but that _I_ should have called in the +other doctor. Joppa had learned by heart its duty toward its neighbor +from its earliest, stammering infancy, and it adhered strictly to the +path therein marked out. It inquired after Phebe diligently; it +thoroughly mastered all possible intricacies of her case; it made her +gifts digestible and indigestible; and it said that, by all odds, it was +Dr. Harrison who should have attended her from the first. Dr. Dennis took +very good care of her, nevertheless, and it was not long before he +pronounced that all she needed was quiet and rest to complete the cure. + +"We shall have her out of bed in a few days now, Mrs. Lane; in a week or +so perhaps," he said, as he passed out at the front door where Mrs. Lane +was standing talking with Mrs. Hardcastle. "She is doing very well, as +well as I could wish. All she needs is rest. Keep her perfectly quiet." +And the doctor bowed himself off, first politely inquiring of Mrs. +Hardcastle after her husband's gout and her own dyspepsia. + +"He is a fair-spoken man, certainly, very," said Mrs. Hardcastle, "though +I won't say that I shouldn't prefer Dr. Harrison in the long run as +surest to bring his patient through. I think I'll just go up with this +myself to Phebe, Mrs. Lane. I suppose she's longing for visitors by now, +poor soul!" + +"Well, I dare say. You know her room,--just at the head of the stairs. Go +right up, and I'll step out to market." + +"Now, my dear," said Mrs. Hardcastle, rustling into Phebe's room, "I +thought I would come up and have a look at you myself to make sure how +you were. No, don't move. You do look pale, but that's all. Glad to see +your pretty face isn't harmed. Why, I heard one whole side of it was +about burned off. I've brought you some wine-jelly, my dear." + +"She had a lot yesterday, Pheeb did," said Olly, who was curled up with a +geography in a corner of the room and furtively cutting Europe out of the +maps. "She doesn't need any more." + +"Oh, but this is some of my own make. This is quite different from +anybody else's," declared Mrs. Hardcastle. "Phebe remembers _my_ jelly of +old, don't you, dear?" + +Phebe smiled faintly. All she remembered at the moment was being +invariably requested by the good lady to come and make it for her +whenever she gave a party. + +"I thought I heard talking and so I ventured to come up too," said a +timid voice, and Miss Delano tiptoed softly in. "Phebe, my dear child, my +dear child!" and the soft-hearted little old maid stooped to kiss Phebe's +pale cheek, and straightway began to whimper. + +"Come, none of that," said Mrs. Upjohn's peremptory tones, as that lady +swept into the little room, seeming to fill it all to overflowing. "I met +the doctor just now and he said Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet. +Don't let's have any weeping over her. She wants cheering up, and she +isn't quite dead yet, you know, though really the evening before last, +Phebe, I heard that you weren't expected to live the night through." + +"How ridiculous!" said Gerald, impatiently. "Miss Delano, will you +have a chair?" + +"Thank you, no, dear. I'll just sit here on the bed," said the +little old dame, humbly, anxious not to make any one any trouble. "O +Phebe, my dear!" + +Phebe smiled at her affectionately, and Mrs. Hardcastle, who was on the +point of leaving when Mrs. Upjohn came in, sat down again to ask that +lady about the character of a servant whom she had just engaged. + +"I thought I should have died when I heard it," said Miss Delano, patting +Phebe's cheek. "Poor dear, poor dear! And they say you won't ever be able +to walk again!" + +"Who says that?" asked Phebe, laughing. "I shall be a terrible +disappointment to them." + +"'Tain't her legs at all; it's her shoulders," said Olly, as he emerged +from his corner, chewing Europe into a pasteboard bull. "What have you +got in that paper?" + +"Oh, the blessed child, and I was forgetting it. My dear, it's just a +little sponge-cake I made free to bring you, it turned out so light. +Don't you think you could eat a bit perhaps?" + +"My, but it looks good!" said Olly, approaching a hungry finger and +poking at it softly. "I'll get a knife." + +"I hope you don't allow any such trash as that about, Miss Vernor," said +Mrs. Upjohn, sharply, in the middle of her discussion of Jane's demerits. +"Phebe ought to be exceedingly careful what she eats for a great while +to come. It's doubtful, indeed, whether her stomach ever recovers its +tone after such a shock. I knew one woman who died just of the shock +alone some two months after precisely such an accident as this, when +everybody thought she had got well, and Phebe must be _very_ careful. Her +appetite is not to be tempted, but guided." + +"Well, ladies, I must be going," announced Mrs. Hardcastle, rising. "You +really think I am safe, then, in engaging her, Mrs. Upjohn?" But just +then Mrs. Dexter came in with two of her daughters, and Mrs. Hardcastle +sat down again. + +"There was no one downstairs, and as the doctor says Phebe is so much +better, we thought we might just come up," said the new comer. "Why, +Phebe, you are as blooming as a rose, and I understood you had lost all +your pretty hair. I've brought you some grapes, my dear, and a jar of +extra fine brandy peaches, and little Maggie insisted on sending some +molasses candy she had just made." + +"Well, well, I did look for more sense from _you_," said Mrs. Upjohn, +tapping Mrs. Dexter rather smartly on the shoulder. "Where'll you sit? +Oh, on the bed. Yes, Phebe's had a narrow escape, and one she'll likely +bear the marks of to her dying day. Let it be a warning to you, young +ladies, to be prepared. There's no knowing how soon some one of you may +not be carried off in the same way,--just as you are dressed for a dance, +maybe." Her tone implied that death could not overtake them at a more +sinful moment. + +"Hullo, up there! I say!" shouted a voice in the hall below, +"how's Phebe?" + +"Oh, it's Dick!" cried the Dexter girls in a breath. "You can't come +up, Dick." + +"Ain't a-going to. But a fellow can speak, can't he, without his body +a-following his voice? How's Phebe?" + +"She's splendid." + +"What's the doctor say?" + +"He says she only needs to be kept perfectly quiet." + +"Hooray!" said Dick, and apparently executed a war-dance on the +oil-cloth, while Olly profited by the general hubbub created by the +entrance of two more ladies, to satisfactorily investigate the +sponge-cake. + +"Why, quite a levee, isn't it, Phebe?" said one of the last arrivals, +looking in vain for a chair, and forced to seat herself on a low table, +accidentally upsetting Phebe's medicines as she did so. + +"Yes, altogether too much of one," said Gerald, knitting her brows as she +rescued a bottle just in time, and darted an angry glance around the +crowded room. "Phebe isn't at all equal to it yet." + +"You are right, Miss Vernor," agreed Mrs. Upjohn, drawing out her +tatting from her pocket, and settling herself at it with an answering +frown. "There are quite too many here. Some people never know when to +stay away." + +"Oh, there's Bell. I hear her voice," called Mattie, running to look over +the banisters. "She's got both Mr. De Forest and Mr. Moulton with her." + +There was a sound of many voices below, a giggling, a rush for the +stairs, and a playful scuffle. + +"It's me" (Bell's voice); "Dick won't let me pass." + +"Me is Bell" (Dick's voice); "she wouldn't pass if she could. Too many +fellows down here for her to want to leave 'em. Send us down a girl or +two from up there, can't you?" + +A girl or two, however, apparently appeared from outside, greetings were +called up to Phebe, offerings of flowers and delicacies transmitted _via_ +Dick on the stairs to Olly at the top (who took toll by the way), and the +liveliest kind of a time went on. It was quite like a party, Dick shouted +up, only that there was no ice-cream and a singular scarcity of girls. + +"It's a shame," said Mrs. Upjohn, severely, in her chair, while Gerald +held her peace, too wrathful to speak, and conscious of her inability to +mend matters. "I should think people might have sense enough not to crowd +all the air out of a sick-room in this fashion." + +"It's exceedingly inconsiderate of them, I am sure," answered Mrs. +Hardcastle, drawing a sofa cushion behind her back. "She ought to be +so quiet." + +"Phebe!" shouted Dick. "Here's the parson. He wants to know if you're +dead yet. Shan't I send him up? It will be all right, you know, quite +the thing. He's a parson, and wears a gown on Sundays." + +"Dick, Dick!" screamed his mother. "Was there ever such a lad!" + +"He's coming. Get ready for him. Have out your Prayer-books," +called Dick. + +Phebe flushed crimson, and looked imploringly at Gerald. An indignant +murmur ran through the room. Mrs. Upjohn drew herself up to her severest +height. "What shameless impertinence! How dare he intrude!" A shout of +unholy laughter downstairs followed Dick's sally. + +"Mr. Halloway isn't there at all," cried Olly, his fine, clear-voice +pitched high above the rest, "He only asked about Pheeb at the door, and +went right off." + +"Well, he left this for her with his compliments, and this, and this," +called Dick, rummaging in his pockets, and tossing up an apple, and then +a hickory nut, and last a good-sized and dangerously ripe tomato. Olly +caught them dexterously with a yell of delight, and was immediately +rushed at by three of the nearest ladies and ordered not to make a noise, +for Phebe was to be kept perfectly quiet. + +"Such doings would never be permitted a moment if she had only been in +Dr. Harrison's hands," said Mrs. Upjohn, in denunciatory tones. "He would +have forbidden her to see any one. It is scandalous." + +"It is outrageous," added Mrs. Hardcastle. "Most inconsiderate." + +"Ah, I can't get over it that it isn't your legs, poor dear!" murmured +Miss Delano, still plaintively overcome. "And you will walk, after all?" + +"Dr. Dennis is an excellent physician," said Mrs. Dexter, somewhat +defiantly. It was impossible not to enter the lists against Mrs. Upjohn. +This last lady was immediately up in arms, and a heated discussion as to +the respective skill of the two practitioners took place, everybody +gradually taking sides with one or the other of the leaders, and +forgetting both poor exhausted Phebe and the noise downstairs, which +finally culminated in a rousing lullaby led by Bell, and lustily seconded +by half a dozen others: + +"Slumber on, Phebe dear; +Do not hear us fellows sigh!" + +The song, however, suddenly stopped in the midst. Some one seemed +speaking very low and softly, and neither the chorus nor the laughter nor +the tumult was resumed. Phebe drew a deep breath. Was relief really +coming at last? Yes. Soeur Angelique stood in the door-way. + +"Will you excuse me, ladies," she said, in that soft, irresistible voice +of hers, as she laid aside bonnet and shawl in a quiet, business-like +way. "I came to relieve Miss Vernor and play nurse for a while, and I +think Phebe looks as if she needed a little sleep. If you will kindly +take leave of her, I will darken the room at once." + +She stood so evidently waiting for them to go, that in a few moments they +all found themselves somehow or other outside the door, with Gerald +politely escorting them down-stairs, and Olly dancing joyously ahead, +crying that Mr. Halloway had sent for him to the rectory. Left mistress +of the situation, Mrs. Whittridge proceeded to draw down the shades, +straighten the chairs, smooth the bedclothes and rearrange the pillows, +all with the noiseless, graceful movements peculiar to her. Then she drew +a low chair up to the bedside, and laid her cool hand soothingly on +Phebe's forehead. A great peace seemed suddenly to fill the room. + +"Now, my darling, you must sleep. Between them they have quite +worn you out." + +"Who told you I needed you?" asked Phebe, drawing the gentle hand down to +her lips. "How did you happen to come just when I wanted you so?" + +"Denham sent me over," answered Soeur Angelique. "He thought perhaps I +could make it a little quieter for you." + +"Ah," murmured Phebe. A faint tinge crept up into her white cheeks. +She turned her head away and closed her eyes. "I knew it was he who +sent you." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +AN APOLOGY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. + + +It was some days after Phebe's accident before Halloway saw Gerald again. +She was generally upstairs when he called, or driving or sailing with De +Forest, who was in daily attendance upon her, paying her persistent, +blase devotion. She was in the parlor one evening, however, sitting with +De Forest near the door, when Denham came in, but he merely bowed to her +and passed on to the other end of the room, where Mrs. Lane was seated +with Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle. Mr. Hardcastle rose at once to receive him. +"Ah, good-evening, good-evening. Pray take a seat. I am delighted to see +you. I suppose you came to ask after our little invalid. Sad accident, +sir; sad accident, very. It has kept us most anxious and busy seeing +after her. But she is doing nicely now. We shall have her about again +before we know it." He spoke as if her recovery were altogether due to +himself, for the regularity with which he had fulfilled his neighborly +duties toward her, and he paused and looked at Halloway for a recognition +of the same. + +"It will be a bright day for us all when we have her among us once more," +Halloway said in answer to the look. "You must tell her how much we miss +her, Mrs. Lane." + +"Ah, that we do," murmured Mrs. Hardcastle. "My knitting has been at a +standstill ever since the poor dear child's misfortune. I have been so +thankful her hands were spared. There's always some cause for gratitude +in every evil, after all." + +"That's one way of looking at it," said Mrs. Lane, turning up the lamp +and drawing her work-basket nearer. "The Lord make us thankful for all +our mercies, but a misfortune's a misfortune, and I don't know as we're +called upon to look at it as any thing else. Won't you sit down, Mr. +Halloway?" + +"Thank you, not this evening. It is nearly time for service. I only +wanted to know that Miss Phebe was doing well." + +Mr. Hardcastle rose again to bow off the guest. "Sorry you can't stay, +sir. In spite of our difference of faith,--and how great it is I am in +hopes you will appreciate some day when you have come to see the errors +of the way you are walking in,--in spite of our material differences, I +say, you are always very welcome at any time. But pray don't let us +detain you from what you deem your duty." + +"Mr. Halloway, a moment, please," said Gerald, rising as he was going by. +He stopped, and she came toward him holding out her hand. "I want to +thank you for your kindness of the other night. I believe I was +ungrateful and perhaps rude at the time, and I have not seen you since to +apologize." + +"Pray do not speak of it!" said Denham, flushing a little as he took her +hand. "There was no occasion whatever for gratitude, and therefore no +possible lack of it. I trust you are quite well now." + +"There _was_ occasion for gratitude," persisted Gerald, "or at least for +an acknowledgment of your kindness, and it is because I am ashamed of my +remissness that I take this first opportunity to thank you." + +"You embarrass me," said Denham, laughingly. "I am not at all accustomed +to having public restitution made me in this manner, and especially for +purely imaginary slights. But may I not be permitted now--as a sort of +reward if you will--to inquire if you have quite recovered?" + +"At least I have sufficiently recovered to retract my disbelief in +kitchen soap, and--and in your skill," she added, with a little +visible effort. + +"You honor us above our deserts,--the soap and me," answered Denham, +playfully. "I don't know how deleteriously it may affect the soap, but as +for me I feel myself growing alarmingly conceited. So good-night." + +"What a very elaborate apology," said De Forest, as Denham went out. "If +the offence were at all proportionate, I tremble to think of the enormity +of your crime; or is it because he is a Reverend, that you demean +yourself so humbly before him?" + +Halloway was still hunting for his hat in the hall, and could scarcely +help overhearing De Forest's remark and Gerald's answer. + +"I demean myself before nobody in seeking to make amends for a previous +neglect. The humiliation is in the misconduct, not in the confession of +it; and whether I owed the apology to Mr. Halloway or to a beggar in the +street, I should have made it quite the same, not at all for sake of his +pardon, but simply for sake of clearing my own conscience." + +"Not at all for sake of my pardon," said Denham, as he strode on toward +the church, with the uncomfortable sensation of having been an +involuntary eavesdropper. "It is fortunate that my conceit was only +veneered on." + +The following Sunday Gerald was in church both morning and evening, +sitting in Phebe's accustomed place. She was one of those noticeable +presences impossible to overlook, and as Denham mounted into the pulpit +he felt as if he were preaching solely to her, or rather as if hers were +the only criticism he feared in all the friendly congregation. He was +annoyed that he should feel so, and quite conscious at the same time that +he was far from doing his best, and once or twice he caught a flash in +the serious eyes fastened on his face, that seemed to say she knew this +last fact too, and was impatient with him for it. What excuse had any +one, in Gerald's eyes, for not doing his best always? De Forest was with +her in the evening, and as Halloway came out of the vestry after service, +he found himself directly behind them. + +"He's not a mighty orator," De Forest was saying with his cynical drawl. +"I doubt if he is destined to be one of the pillars or even one of the +cushions of the church." + +"He was not doing his best to-night," answered Gerald. + +"Thank you," said Halloway, coming quickly to her side, anxious to +avoid further eavesdropping. "Thank you--I mean for thinking I might +do better." + +"That is not much to be grateful for, I am afraid," replied Gerald, +"since it implies, you know, that you have not done well." + +"I hope you like uncompromising truth, Mr. Halloway," said De Forest, +leaning forward to look at him across Gerald. "It's the only kind Miss +Vernor deals in." + +"I prefer it infinitely to the most flattering falsehood imaginable," +answered Denham. + +"I believe clergymen are usually the last people to hear the truth about +themselves," continued Gerald. "Their position at the head of a +community, pre-supposes their capability for the office, and naturally +places them outside of the criticism of those under their immediate +charge, who are nevertheless just the ones best qualified to judge them. +But of course scholars may not teach the teacher." + +"What an invaluable opening for you who are _not_ one of Mr. Halloway's +flock," said De Forest, "to undertake to remedy the deficiency, and to be +in yourself a whole critical public to him, a licensed _Free Press_ as it +were, pointing out all his errors with the most unhesitating frankness +and unsparing perspicuity!" + +"Do you think your love of truth would hold out long under such a crucial +test?" asked Gerald, turning quite seriously to Denham. The moonlight +shone full on her clear-cut, cameo-like face. Her eyes, with their +shadowy fringe, looked deeper and blacker than midnight. It did not seem +possible that truth spoken by her could be any thing but beautiful too. +Denham smiled down at her seriousness. + +"Try me." + +"Well, then, it seems to me you do not often enough try to do your best. +You are contented to do well, and not ambitious to do better. You are +quite satisfied, so I think, if your sermons are good enough to please +generally, instead of seeking to raise your standard all the time by hard +effort toward improvement, and I doubt, therefore, if at the end of a +year your sermons will show any marked change from what they are to-day. +Am I too hard?" + +"You are very just," answered Denham, pleasantly, though the blood +mounted to his face. "You have found out my weak spot. I confess I am not +ambitious. I aspire to no greatness of any kind." + +"You have discovered the secret of contentment," said De Forest, with +effusive approbation. "I am glad to have met you, Mr. Halloway. You are +the one happy man I know." + +"The secret of contentment?" repeated Gerald. "Say rather the principle +of all stagnation, mental and spiritual. Not to aspire to become greater +than one _can_ be is to fall short of becoming all that one _may_ be; to +be satisfied with one's powers is to dwarf them hopelessly." + +"A powerful argument against conceit," reflected De Forest. "Still, upon +my word, I think I would as lief be conceited in every pore as eternally +in a state of dissatisfaction with myself about every thing." + +"It is well, above all, I think, to have a just appreciation of one's own +powers or lack of powers," said Denham, slowly. "Ambition, without the +corresponding strength to gratify it, is a cruel taskmaster." + +"How can you tell, till you have tried, that there is no corresponding +strength?" asked Gerald, turning full upon him again. How marvellously +expressive her face was, with its earnest eyes and mobile mouth! "If I +were a man,--and great heavens! how I wish I were one!--I would create +the strength if it were not there of itself. I would force myself upward. +I would never rest till I had become something more than nature +originally made me." + +"Then Heaven be thanked, who has spared us the monstrosity you would have +developed into under the harrowing circumstances of a reversal of your +sex," said De Forest, devoutly. + +"I was always glad you were a woman. Now I am positively aglow with +gratitude for it." + +Denham was silent. They had reached Mrs. Lane's now, and Gerald and her +cavalier paused. + +"I have not hurt you, Mr. Halloway, have I?" said Gerald, more gently. "I +know I sometimes speak strongly where I am least qualified to do so." + +"A very womanly trait," put in De Forest. "Don't apologize for your one +redeeming weakness." + +"No, you have not hurt me," said Denham, in a low voice. "I hope you have +done me good." And without adding even a good-night or a message for +Phebe, he lifted his hat and crossed over to the rectory. His sister was +not there as he entered her sitting-room, and throwing himself down on +the sofa, clasped his hands over his forehead and stared thoughtfully up +at the ceiling. She had been sitting with Phebe while the Lane household +went to its various churches, Phebe was tired, in consequence of the +entire population of Joppa having run in to ask after her between +services "on their way home," and she was not talking much. But only to +look up and smile into Soeur Angelique's sweet face was pleasure enough +for the girl, and she lay very quietly, holding a rose that Denham had +sent her over by his sister, and feeling supremely contented. + +"How would you like me to read to you?" asked Mrs. Whittridge at last, +taking up a book. "Shall I try it?" + +"No, thank you. I am afraid my thoughts would be louder than your words, +and I should be listening to them and losing what you are saying." + +"And, pray, what are these remarkably noisy thoughts?" asked the lady. +"Let me listen and hear them too." + +"I don't think I could say just what they are," replied Phebe, dreamily. +"They are running through my head more like indistinct music than like +real thoughts. And I never was clever at saying things, you know. But, +oh! I do feel very happy." + +"You look so," said Soeur Angelique, tenderly. "You poor little one, is +it just the getting well again that makes you so?" + +Phebe flushed ever so slightly. "I don't know just what it is," she +answered, lifting the rose to her face. "Perhaps it is only the listening +to that indistinct music. It seems to have put all my soul in tune. Oh, +dear Mrs. Whittridge, what a beautiful world this is, when only there are +no discords in one's own heart!" + +A day or two went by, and Phebe, though rapidly convalescing, was still a +prisoner to her room. + +"You're missing a lot of fun," said Bell Masters, sympathetically, as she +bustled in to see her one morning, and sat down by the window, pushing +back the curtain so that she could look out into the street and nod to +passers as she talked. "There's no end going on. Dear me, it's a shame to +come to you empty-handed, Phebe. I had two or three rosebuds for +you,--beauties they were too,--but the fact is I gave them away piecemeal +as I came along, and I haven't one left. It seemed as if I met every man +there was this morning. How soon do you think you'll be out again?" + +"I don't know," answered Phebe, pushing a box of bonbons within reach of +Bell's easy-going fingers. "I think I might go down-stairs now, but Dr. +Dennis won't let me." + +"Too bad. You'll miss Dick's coming of age, won't you? There are to +be high doings. Mr. Hardcastle is too mysterious and pompous to live. +One can't get any thing out of him but just 'My son Dick doesn't come +of age but once' (as if we thought it was a yearly occurrence), 'and +we don't celebrate it but once.' But I got hold of Dick privately and +wheedled it out of him in less than no time with a piece of soft +gingerbread. It's to be something _stunning_. His father wanted to do it +up in English style, dinner to the tenantry, and all that sort of thing, +only unluckily there wasn't any tenantry, and he had to abandon the +benevolent role and take to a jollier one. He won't show off as well, but +we'll have a deal more fun. It's to be a sort of royal picnic, but in the +evening, mind,--wasn't that a brilliant idea for the old gentleman? We +are all to go up in boats, and there are to be great rafts with blazing +torches, and a supper in the woods grander than any of Mrs. Upjohn's, and +bonfires, and the band from Galilee, and bouquets for the ladies, and I +don't know what not, and best of all, unlimited opportunities for +flirting. It's to be _the_ affair of this and every other season past or +future. It's a crying shame you can't go." + +"Oh! how I wish I could!" sighed poor Phebe. + +"I made pa give me a new dress for it," continued Bell, leaning forward +to pick off the biggest grapes from a bunch on the table. "I mean to look +just too-too. Mr. De Forest is going to row me up. I don't know exactly +how I made him ask me, but I did. It's such a triumph to get him away +from Miss Vernor for once, though I suspect I'll have to pay for it by +doing more than half the rowing myself. I don't suppose he would exert +his precious self to pull an oar more than five minutes at a time. Amy +tried her best to get Mr. Halloway, and so did the Dexters. The way those +girls run after him is a caution even to me; but they didn't get him. +He's monstrously clever in keeping out of people's clutches. I gave him +up long ago as a bad job. Well, good-by, Phebe. Awfully sorry you can't +go. Everybody'll be there, and it's to be the biggest lark out." + +During the few days that intervened before Dick's birthday, little else +was talked of anywhere than Mr. Hardcastle's party, which was never +spoken of, by the way, as Mrs. Hardcastle's party, though upon that good +lady devolved the onus of the weighty preparations. It seemed purely Mr. +Hardcastle's affair, just as every thing did in which he was in any way +concerned. Impromptu meetings were held at every house in turn to discuss +the coming event, and the latest bits of information regarding it were +retailed with embellishments proportionate to the imagination of the +accidental narrator. Not a soul in Joppa but knew every proposed feature +of the entertainment better than the hosts themselves. The old people +said it would be damp and rheumatic and would certainly be the death of +them. The young people said it would be divine, and quite worth dying +for. The people who were neither old nor young said nobody could tell how +it would be till after it was over, and they felt it their duty to go to +look after the others. The day came, brilliantly clear and soft and +warm: such a day, in short, as Mr. Hardcastle had felt to be his due, and +had expected of the elements all along as the one token of regard in +their power to accord him, and he accepted his friends' congratulations +upon it with a grave bow which seemed to say: "I ordered it so. Pray, did +you suppose I had forgotten to attend to the weather?" The sun set in a +cloudless heaven; the evening star hung quivering over the green-topped +hills; the twilight dropped noiseless and fragrant over earth and water, +and the long-dreamed-of moment had arrived at last. + +"Just let me have one more look at you, Gerald, before you start," said +Phebe, wistfully. "Oh, how beautiful you look! Nobody's dresses ever fit +like yours, and that great dark-red hat and feather,--I thought I should +not like it,--but it makes a perfect picture of you." + +"For pity's sake do stop!" begged Gerald. "You know of all things I hate +compliments. Where's that boy Olly?" + +"He's coming to me later. I promised to make up to him for his not going +to the party, poor little fellow." + +"Phebe, dear," said Gerald, suddenly stooping to give her one of her +rare kisses, "I cannot bear to leave you all alone so. That miserable +Miss Lydia and Olly aren't any sort of company. Let me stay with you. I +had a great deal rather." + +"Oh, no, no, no!" cried Phebe, almost pushing her toward the door. "I +don't mind a bit being left, and I wouldn't have you stay for anything. +How lovely of you to propose it! You are an angel, Gerald, even though +you don't like being told so, Good-by. And--Gerald,"--she had followed +her friend out into the hall, and stood leaning against the +banisters,--"Gerald, dear, will you tell Mr. Halloway I am going +down-stairs to-morrow?" + +Halloway was to be Gerald's escort that evening, and stood waiting for +her now in the hall below, and looking up at sound of Phebe's voice, he +gave an exclamation of surprise and pleasure, and immediately sprang up +the stairs. + +"Miss Phebe!" he said, taking both her hands in his. "How glad I am to +see you once more!" + +Phebe shrank back from him with a little cry of dismay. Ah! when does +ever any thing happen exactly as we plan it shall? She had pictured this +meeting to herself over and over again during the long days of her +seclusion,--just what he would say and what she would say, and just how +she would dress on that first day when she went down-stairs. She meant +to look so particularly nice on that first day! And now to be caught in +her plain little gray flannel wrapper with its simple red trimmings, her +hair all loose and mussy, and even her very oldest slippers on,--and +with Gerald standing beside her in her rich, dainty, becoming attire as +if to make the contrast all the more painfully striking! Poor little +Cinderella Phebe! She looked up at Denham almost ready to cry, and said +never a word. + +"It has been such a long, long time!" he said, still holding her hands. +"I do not know how we have made out to spare you." + +"We shall not have to spare her much longer," said Gerald. "She is coming +down-stairs to-morrow." + +And then Halloway dropped Phebe's hands, and turning to Gerald, held out +a hand to her. + +"Forgive me for not even noticing you, Miss Vernor. At first I could +only see Miss Phebe." + +"Doesn't Gerald look nice?" asked Phebe, trying to choke back the +uncomfortable lump rising so unreasonably in her throat. Halloway moved +back a little and looked at Gerald, who stood fastening her long glove, +utterly unconscious or unheedful of his scrutiny. The light in the niche +at the head of the stairs threw its full glow over both her and Phebe. + +"Yes," he answered, quietly, after an imperceptible pause, and, as he +turned back to Phebe, it seemed to her that his eyes glanced over her +with a suddenly awakened consciousness of the wrapper and the tumbled +hair and even of the little worn-out slippers. "You look pale," he said, +kindly. "I know I am wrong to keep you standing here just because it is +so pleasant to see you again. And it is easier to say good-by, knowing I +have only till to-morrow to wait now. _A demain_." + +"Good-night," murmured Phebe, without looking up; "good-night, Gerald." +And then she turned quickly into her room, and closed the door, and stood +stock-still behind it, holding her breath and listening intently till +she heard the front door close upon them and the last echo of their +footsteps die away in the street outside. Then she flung herself face +downward upon the bed and cried miserably to herself out of sheer +disappointment. Why did it have to be all so very, very different from +her dream? + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"MY SON DICK." + + +Never had there been a more perfect night than that whereon Dick +Hardcastle's coming of age was celebrated. Only enough wind stirred to +toy softly with the gay little pennons streaming from the many boats +winding their way to the rendezvous, and to throw dancing shadows of +light upon the water from the torches at their prow. All along the banks +of the lake, where high hills shut out the moonlight and bound the shore +in an almost Egyptian darkness, rafts were stationed at intervals, +blazing with colored lights. The sound of distant music floated far down +upon the air, mingled with the swish of steady oars and laughter and +happy voices as the occupants of the various boats called out merrily to +each other across the water, or here and there broke into light-hearted +song. Denham's boat glided stilly along through all this carnival-like +revelry. Gerald was not in a mood for talking, and he felt little +inclined to disturb her. It was companionship enough merely to glance at +her ever and anon as she sat silently in the stern, the red ropes of the +tiller drawn loosely around her slender waist like a silken girdle. He +wondered idly what she was thinking of. Her broad hat threw too deep a +shadow for him to see her face save when they neared one of the beacon +rafts; then it was suddenly in brilliant illumination, and it was +impossible not to watch for these moments of revelation, which lit her up +to such rare beauty. He fancied he could almost see her thoughts as there +flashed across her face some new, swift expression more speaking than +words,--now a noble thought, he was sure; now an odd fancy, now a serious +meditative mood, that held her every sense and faculty in thrall at once. +Through all her revery she never forgot her duty with the rudder, though +she quite forgot her oarsman. She made no effort whatever toward his +entertainment, and he felt sure that he could do no more toward hers than +simply not to obtrude himself upon her. Were there many, he wondered, +even among her chosen friends (in whose ranks he could not count +himself), who would have enjoyed this silent sail with her so much as he? +They neared the destined spot all too soon for him, and Gerald at last +roused herself. + +"Are we there now? I had no idea it was so far." + +"It is not far enough," answered Denham, resting a moment on his +oars as he looked around. "Nothing surely can be devised, even in +this pleasure-ingenious society, so enjoyable as I have found our +evening sail." + +"Why do you go to the party at all then?" asked Gerald, abruptly. "It +isn't compulsory, is it? After you land me, are you not at liberty to row +off if you prefer?" + +"Ah, but I don't prefer," Halloway said gayly, resuming his oars. "I +expect to be very greatly entertained there too. There is almost +always something to be got out of every thing, and anyway I +particularly like parties." + +"I hate them." + +"Yes, because you do not care for people. I like them just because I do +care for people, and parties are but people collectively instead of +individually, you know." + +By this time Denham had shot the boat up to the landing, where the hosts +of the evening stood ready to receive them. Dick was in a wild state of +boyish hilarity, profiting by the novelty of his exalted position as hero +of the evening, boldly to take a kiss from every pretty girl in +succession as he swung her to the shore. "It's my right, to-night, you +know, or if it isn't, I'm major now and can make laws for myself," he +explained complacently to any expostulatory subject; and Mr. Hardcastle +rubbed his soft, plump hands, and added: "Never you mind, never you mind, +my dear; every dog must have his day, and this is Dick's day. And after +all it's my son Dick, you know, and that makes it all right. He doesn't +need any other guaranty than that he's my son, I'm sure, and seeing I'm +Dick's papa, my dear, why I'll just make bold to follow suit." + +But Dick would as soon have thought of offering to kiss the polar star as +Gerald, and she was suffered to pass on unmolested to Mrs. Hardcastle, +who stood just beyond, looking fagged and jaded, and as if she were +heartily thankful that in all his life Dick could never come of age +again. One of the next arrivals was Bell Masters, very fine in her new +dress, but flushed and overheated to an unbecoming degree. She rowed up +smartly, shipped her oars in true nautical fashion, sprang from the boat, +and held out her hand to her companion with a hardly repressed sneer: +"Pray allow me to assist you, Mr. De Forest." + +That gentleman got up leisurely from his cushioned seat in the stern, and +came forward cool and comfortable to an enviable degree. "Thanks," he +said, with even a little more drawl than usual as he took her proffered +hand. "This boat _is_ a little teetery. You are uncommonly kind, and +quite a champion oarswoman." + +"You ought to be a judge of my powers by this time certainly," said Bell, +snappishly. She had rowed the entire distance from Joppa unaided. + +"Yes, I flatter myself that I am. People can always judge best of what +they don't do themselves. And I will say that you do row +well--uncommonly well--for a woman. I don't know a girl, except Miss +Vernor, fit to pull stroke oar to you. Ah, Mr. Hardcastle, what an +adorable evening you have provided for us! Mr. Dick Hardcastle, permit me +to congratulate you upon attaining your majority, than which, believe me, +there is but one greater blessing in the world--that of minority. I see +you have not yet abandoned all the privileges of the latter, however," he +added, as Dick caught Bell round the waist and gave her a sounding salute +on the cheek. "That is an alleviation it seems unfair to monopolize." + +Bell laughed and boxed Dick's ears, whereupon he speedily kissed her +again, and Mr. Hardcastle chuckled and pulled one of the long, light +braids hanging over her back. Bell's blonde hair, with her black eyes, +was her strong point, and she invariably dressed it a la Kenwigs when she +wore a hat. None of Miss Bell's lights ran any danger of ever being +hidden under a bushel. + +"Ha, ha!" laughed Mr. Hardcastle. "It's all right. It's only Dick, you +know, my son Dick; and bless my heart, the boy's good taste too. He +inherited it." + +"Take my arm or let me take yours," muttered De Forest to Bell as Mr. +Hardcastle turned away, "and do let's get through it with his good +lady. Do you suppose she'll kiss me? Get her to make it easy for me, +won't you?" + +"Where now?" asked Bell, undecidedly, after the due politenesses with the +hostess had been exchanged. The woods were fairly ablaze with bonfires +and hanging lanterns, making a strangely brilliant and fantastic scene. +Here and there rugs were spread out on the grass for the older people to +congregate upon in gossiping groups, while the young ones had speedily +converted a large, smooth spot of lawn into an impromptu dancing-ground, +and were whirling merrily away to the music of the band, in the very face +of the scandalized Mrs. Upjohn. This last field of action was the first +to attract Bell's quick eye. "Oh, come," she said. "Of course you dance?" + +De Forest gave a shudder. "My dear young lady! no sane man ever dances. +But pray do not let me detain you. Where your heart is, there would your +feet be also." He dropped her arm as he spoke. Bell shrugged her +shoulders and put her arm back in his. + +"'Tisn't fair to abandon you so soon after bringing you here. There's +Janet Mudge" (hastily selected as the plainest girl present and the +farthest from Gerald, toward whom De Forest's steps were manifestly +directing themselves); "let's go and speak to her." + +"On the contrary, let us avoid her by every means in our power," said De +Forest, imperturbably, walking Bell off in the opposite direction. "I +never choose pearls when I may have diamonds. There's Miss Vernor. We'll +go and speak with her." + +"But I don't want to," objected Bell, crossly. "I am not at all as fond +of Miss Vernor as you are." + +"Naturally not," answered De Forest, pursuing his way undisturbed. "Men +always like girls better than girls do. I appreciate your feelings. But +she's got that good-looking young minister with her. You like him. All +feminine souls incline to clergymen next to officers. Buttons first; then +surplices." + +"Thirdly, For(r)esters, I suppose," suggested Bell, saucily. + +"Undoubtedly," assented her companion. "Miss Vernor, your humble +servant." His glance, as it invaribly did when they met, seemed to make +swift, approbative note of every smallest particular of her appearance. +"Mr. Halloway, here is a young lady who has just openly informed me that +she prefers you to me, so I suppose I must resign her to you with what +grace I can. Don't you think, Miss Vernor, you might try to divert my +mind from dwelling too cruelly on Miss Masters' defalcation by showing me +what Mr. Hardcastle's grand intellect has devised for my entertainment? +That bonfire yonder has a sort of cannibalistic look about it suggestive +of dancing negroes and unmentionable feasts behind the flames. Shall we +inspect it nearer?" And he marched Gerald deliberately away, scarcely +remembering to bow to Bell. Still, to be left with Mr. Halloway was by no +means an unenviable fate, and Bell, like the wise girl she was, proceeded +to make the most of it without delay, and paraded her prey wherever she +chose, finding him much more tractable than her last companion, and not +in the least dictatorial as to the direction he went in. + +That out-door evening party was long remembered as one of the most novel +and successful entertainments ever given in Joppa. Even Mrs. Upjohn +admitted it to be very well, very well indeed, all but the dancing, for +which, however, Mr. Hardcastle apologized to her handsomely as a quite +unexpected ebullition of youthful spirits which in his soul he was far +from countenancing, and upon which she resolutely turned her back all the +evening, so at least not to be an eye-witness of the indecorum. Of +course, therefore, she knew nothing whatever about it when Mr. Upjohn +toward the end of the evening, actually allowed himself to be decoyed +into the gay whirl by one of the youngest and most daring of the girls, +and galloped clumsily around like a sportive and giddy elephant set free +for the first time in its native jungle, and finding it very much to its +liking. His daughter Maria, faithfully at her mother's side, sat with one +ear grudgingly lent to the prosy heaviness of Mr. Webb's light talk, and +her whole face turned longingly toward the spot where the happy sinners +were gyrating, and, seeing her father there, her round eyes grew rounder +than ever, as she watched in breathless alarm lest the earth should open +under his feet in instant retribution. Gracious, if ma should turn her +head! But there are some wrongs it is best to ignore altogether, where +prevention is hopeless, and Mrs. Upjohn, like many another good woman, +always knew when not to see. So she persistently did not see now, and Mr. +Upjohn spun away to his heart's content (prudently keeping in the +remotest corner of the sward, to be sure), winking at Maria every now and +then in the highest glee, and once absolutely signing to her to sneak +over to him and try a turn too. + +And then came supper-time, and such a supper, setting all confectioners +and doctors at defiance at once! Mr. Upjohn, red and perspiring, and +remarking how curiously hot the bonfires made the woods at night, waited +on his wife with gallant solicitude, lest she should leave a single dish +untasted. Mrs. Bruce had left town the day before, and in the absence of +any new admiration he always fell back with perfect content upon his old +allegiance. Mrs. Upjohn received his devotion as calmly as his +intermittent neglects, and only raised her eyebrows when he stooped to +whisper, "My love, you're the most handsomely dressed woman here!" which +was strictly true as regarded the materials of her attire, and +unblushingly false as regarded the blending of them. Dick had been in his +element all the evening. He had had a serio-comic flirtation with every +girl in turn. He had cut out Jake Dexter with Nellie Atterbury, and made +it up to his friend by offering him a lock of Bell's hair, which he had +surreptitiously cut from her hanging braids, and which Jake wore pinned +in his button hole as a trophy for the rest of the evening, to the +immense scandal of everybody. But with the supper-hour Dick's spirits +ebbed. He knew, poor fellow, what Fate held in store. His father intended +making a few remarks over him, as a sort of substitute for his defrauded +speech to the non-existing tenantry. + +"Stand by me, Jake, there's a man!" whispered Dick, forlornly, to +his crony. + +"I will, Dick, like a woman!" Jake responded, tenderly, and the two stood +together just at Mr. Hardcastle's elbow, as that worthy advanced to a +central spot between the bonfires, cleared his throat ominously, and +pirouetted solemnly around, holding up his hand to attract general +attention. + +"My friends," began Mr. Hardcastle, swelling with the importance of the +moment to even more than his usual rotundity, "this has been a day of +days to me. All of you who are parents will appreciate my feelings of +mingled pride and humility,--of pride and humility," repeated Mr. +Hardcastle, pleased with the antithesis, and swaying gently back and +forth, "as I stand here before you with my son, the boy whom I have +watched over from his cradle up with an unsleeping eye, and whose tender +feet"--Dick here stooped over to inspect those honest, able members. Jake +did the same with evident disapproval of them. Mr. Hardcastle raised his +voice--"whose tender feet I have endeavored from his youth up, so far as +lay in my limited power, to guide in the way that I hope he may never +depart from. This boy I now present to you, friends, a man,--this boy who +has grown up among you, whom you all know, and whom I hope you all harbor +some kindly feeling for,--this boy,"--he put out his hand to draw him +forward, Dick gave Jake a gentle push toward the hand and vanished, and +Mr. Hardcastle, quite unconscious of the manoeuvre, drew the grinning +Jake solemnly up to him, and casting around a look of triumph which +seemed to say: Do better than this, friends, if you can, placed his hand +on Jake's shoulder with his grandest air, and continued, sonorously,--"my +son, ladies and gentlemen,--my son Dick." + +There was a moment's pause of consternation among the guests and a +suppressed scream from the defrauded Mother Dexter. Mr. Hardcastle +slowly turned his radiant face toward his supposed son, and immediately +dropped his hand and exclaimed, in entirely altered and most natural +tones of amazement: "Well, I never! How in the world did _you_ get here, +Jake Dexter?" + +A shout instantly went up all round; even Mr. Hardcastle himself was +overcome with the ludicrousness of the mistake, and further solemnity +being impossible, a signal was given, and from a barge far out on the +water a score of rockets shot hissing into the air, announcing the +beginning of fireworks. A brilliant display of these followed, closing +the evening's entertainment, and immediately afterward a large raft was +towed up to the landing, and the whole merry party embarked and returned +to Joppa together, the band following on another boat and treating them +to music all the way. Halloway stood near Gerald in the crowd, but he did +not attempt to join her until the raft reached the pier and was made +fast. Then he quietly went to her and offered his arm. De Forest stepped +up at the same moment. "Miss Vernor, will you condescend to accept of my +valuable escort home?" + +"I beg your pardon," interrupted Denham, "I am Miss Vernor's escort +to-night." + +De Forest stood still. "I did not know it was a return-ticket +arrangement." + +"It was," answered Denham, decidedly. "You can hardly expect me to +relinquish my rights." + +"I should say your rights depended wholly on Miss Vernor's choice. Fair +lady, two hearts and four arms are at your immediate disposal. If you +could make up your volatile mind to determine between them--" + +"There can be no question of choice," said Gerald, quietly. "I accepted +Mr. Halloway's escort yesterday; so good-night." + +"You leave me a blighted being," said De Forest. "For the peace of my +soul, let me ascribe your decision to a love of justice rather than of +individual. _Au revoir_." + +Halloway drew Gerald's hand through his arm with a very comfortable +feeling of possession, and they walked on some time in silence. "Are you +tired?" he asked at last. + +"No--yes. Parties always tire me, and life in Joppa consists of parties. +Do you always go?" + +"Oh, always!" + +"Your mental constitution must be robust to stand such a steady +strain upon it." + +"The shepherd must keep by his sheep, you know," laughed Denham. + +"I thought the shepherd was to lead the sheep, not to be led by them. +Don't you hope to inspire them with a love for better things? I +fancied the province of a clergyman was to improve people--not just to +preach to them." + +A shadow crossed Denham's face. "There are many of them more fitted to +improve me than I them," he said, humbly. "How would you have me begin?" + +"With making Mr. Hardcastle less offensively pompous, and Mrs. Hardcastle +less tedious, and Mrs. Upjohn less dogmatic, and Mrs. Anthony more +sincere, and Miss Delano less namby-pamby,--in short, by taking a little +of the superficiality and narrow-mindedness and provinciality out of the +place if possible." + +Denham tossed back his head with a light laugh. "Ah, how you relieve my +mind! Most of those whom you have so scathingly described belong to other +congregations, and are therefore beyond my jurisdiction." + +"Do you really feel so? Are you so like a physician?" asked Gerald, +quickly. "Do you seek to do good only to those who pay for the care you +give them? Is not your mission with all with whom you are thrown?" + +"The days of single-handed combat against the world are over," answered +Denham. "You cripple a man by giving him too wide a field of action." + +"I would not take less than the widest were I a man!" exclaimed +Gerald, proudly. + +"Would you be a clergyman?" + +"No. I have no talent for writing. I could not preach." + +"Nay, I think you an admirable preacher," said Denham, gently, without +the faintest tinge of sarcasm in either tone or look. Gerald glanced at +him quickly and flushed slightly. + +"I am too dogmatic myself," she said, biting her lip and turning away her +head. "I should not be so hard on Mrs. Upjohn." + +"You do not intend to be hard on any one." + +"But to be just is to seem hard," said Gerald. + +"It is a divine prerogative to know just how far to temper justice with +mercy," Denham answered. "I suppose none of us can hope to attain to +perfect knowledge; but if there must be error, I would for myself rather +err in excess of mercy than of justice." + +"In other words, between two evils you would choose the least," Gerald +replied. "That is the common way of getting out of the difficulty. But it +seems to me like compromising with evil. There ought to be always some +third, wholly right, way out of every dilemma, if only one sought +earnestly enough." She spoke more as if to herself than to him. + +"Then perhaps," said Denham, pleasantly, "we may hope that you will in +time light upon the very kindliest and rightest way combined of judging +not only abstract subjects, but also the not altogether unworthy +inhabitants of even this little place of Joppa." + +"Oh, Joppa!" cried Gerald, all the impatience instantly coming back to +her face and voice. As instantly too she frowned in self-conviction, and +turned almost contritely to Denham. "You see, Mr. Halloway, I shall have +to bring my own character first to that future Day of Judgment, and to be +very careful that I do _not_ err on your side,--in being too merciful." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +WHY DO SUMMER ROSES FADE? + + +A few more days slipped by, easily and swiftly, as all days did in +Joppa. The famous party was discussed and re-discussed down to its +minutest details. Mrs. Hardcastle recovered from her subsequent attack +of neuralgia. Mr. Hardcastle, who went from house to house, gathering +compliments as an assessor levies taxes, completed the round of the +village and began again. Mrs. Upjohn asked for and obtained the recipe +of a certain dish, the like of which had never before been seen in +Joppa, and the Joppites commended her boldness in asking and condemned +Mrs. Hardcastle's weakness in giving. The report that Mr. Upjohn had +apostatized from the Presbyterian Church, disapproving of its tenets as +regarded waltzing, was duly started, denied, violently adopted, and as +violently exploded. The statements that Jake Dexter was engaged to +Nellie Atterbury, that Bell Masters had offered herself to Mr. Halloway +and been declined with thanks, and that Gerald's hat had been imported +from Paris two days before, were also duly aired and evaporated. It had, +moreover, by this time become a town fact, that it was Bell Masters and +_not_ Janet Mudge whom Halloway had rowed to the party, and that he had +walked home with Mrs. Lane. Miss Brooks overheard him taking leave of +her at her door, and fancied--but was not sure--that she told him to +change his boots lest his feet should be damp. Everybody had also found +out beyond discussion or doubt that De Forest was Gerald's escort home +on that occasion, but that the engagement between them was broken off. +It was definitely known that he had said he was a blighted being, and +should shortly take a return ticket to New York. Everybody said it was a +shame, when they were so manifestly cut out for each other. In fact, +every thing had been found out about every thing. The evening had been +talked threadbare, and, alas, there was nothing else to talk about. +Phebe's reappearance downstairs, unscarred and bonnie as ever, was +become an old story long since, and Dr. Dennis' treatment of the case +was now admitted to have been the very best possible next to what Dr. +Harrison's treatment would have been, though by all means, it was +decided, Dr. Dennis and _not_ Dr. Harrison should have been called in +when Mr. Brown, the grocer, fell ill of a fever. Poor Joppa was indeed +fairly talked out. It had to settle down upon the fever and Mr. Brown +for lack of any thing else. It was really almost a godsend when Mrs. +Brown took the fever too, for it gave Joppa just twice as much to talk +about, and everybody said it was somebody's duty to see that the poor +souls had right advice in the matter. Jabez Brown, Jr., carried on the +business in his father's stead, and measured out his sugars and teas at +so much advice the pound, and did a thriving business, but the poor old +father died all the same. He was a respectable, honest man, and all his +customers attended his funeral in the most neighborly way in the world, +with a grim look upon their sympathetic countenances of "I told you so. +It should have been Dr. Dennis." + +Yes, to all but Phebe, her illness and long imprisonment and her return +to matter-of-fact life downstairs, was a tame-enough story now. But to +her it was as the opening chapter of a new history. Life seemed changed +and strange to her when she stepped back into it, and took up again the +duties and labors that she had laid by only so lately. Had she dreamed +herself into another world, or why was it so hard to put herself back +into the place she had stepped out of? Everybody about her was the same; +nothing had really changed in any way, and certainly she had not. Neither +had Gerald. Neither had Mr. Halloway. What had she expected? What was it +she had vaguely looked forward to? What was it that was so different? + +"Pray, what are you thinking of?" Denham asked suddenly one day, turning +to her with his bright, sweet smile. "You have been quiet for very long." + +"So have you been quiet," returned Phebe. "I do not think I have been any +less talkative than you." + +"Perhaps not," said Denham. "We are leaving Soeur Angelique and Miss +Vernor to have a regular tete-a-tete of it, are we not? But you evade my +question in a very unbecoming way, Miss Phebe. Tell me, what were you +thinking of?" + +"I don't quite know," answered Phebe, slowly. "But I think I was wishing +for impossibilities,--for things that can't possibly happen, just because +it would be so nice if they could." + +"Ah," said Halloway, dreamily. "That is a very bad habit, a frightfully +unsatisfactory, delusive, and, indeed, an altogether pernicious habit, +Miss Phebe. It takes the taste out of every thing solid, and leaves one +an appetite only for indigestible sweets. I must correct you of it. I +will, just as soon, that is, as I have broken myself of it. Will you wait +till I have taken myself in hand?" + +They were together sitting in a little recess of the rectory parlor, +while Mrs. Whittridge and Gerald were talking at the farther end of the +room. Soeur Angelique had invited the two girls to tea, and Halloway, +when he came in from his study, seated himself at once by Phebe, though +after his warm greeting and self-congratulations upon having her back +in her old haunts, he had fallen into quite an unusual silence. Phebe +was looking very sweet and fresh that afternoon. All the care that she +had meant to devote to her toilet upon the occasion of her first meeting +with Halloway, she had expended in dressing herself for this visit to +the rectory. Never had her shining hair been braided so glossily, or +coaxed into waving more prettily about her forehead; never had the +simple etceteras of her dress been more studiously selected and more +carefully put together. Looking in the glass when all was done, she had +been fain to confess that she really did look nice for once, though she +reproached herself immediately afterward in severest terms for the +unpardonable vanity of the thought, and made a little grimace at her own +image to effectually dispel the illusion. What could it ever matter how +she looked? And particularly how could it matter when Gerald was +by,--Gerald, who possessed that rare and enviable gift of always looking +her best? So Phebe put the subject of her looks entirely away from her +mind, and leaned back on the sofa, her hands folded idly in her lap, +feeling perfectly content with the passing moment, and asking nothing +from the future but that it might be always "now." What more could she +want? The room held her three dearest friends in the world,--Gerald, +Soeur Angelique, and Mr. Halloway;--of course one should always put +ladies before gentlemen even only in thought. How handsome Gerald looked +as she stood with her head slightly bent forward, listening to Mrs. +Whittridge. If Gerald did not choose to listen, no one could ever force +her to lend an ear. But when she did so choose, she listened with her +whole mind, and was lost to all else. Phebe smiled with quiet amusement +at her friend's intensity in every thing, and turned with the smile on +her face to Halloway. He was not smiling at all, but he too was looking +fixedly at Gerald. + +"It has been lovely having her here, but how we shall miss her, shall we +not, when she goes?" said Phebe, softly. + +"Goes?" repeated Halloway, blankly. "It is scarcely September yet." + +"What, have you not heard?" exclaimed Phebe. "Do you not know? Gerald has +been sent for. She and Olly go back next Thursday." + +"Thursday?" echoed Halloway, in a sort of stunned way. "So soon? Going +for good? Thursday?" + +What closely guarded secret did the loving gray eyes, fastened upon him, +read in the swift, uncontrollable look that flashed suddenly across his +face, like the lightning that leaps out of the dark by night, laying all +earth bare in one brief, vivid glimpse? He was so taken by surprise as to +be completely off guard. It was but an instant, and with a start he +recovered himself. + +"I had not heard your news," he said, with perfect quiet, reaching out to +the table for an uncut magazine, and proceeding leisurely to open its +pages. "I suppose it is a sign that summer is over when the birds begin +to fly home." + +Phebe did not answer immediately. In that one short moment, all her face +had changed also. As by the stroke of a wand, its brightness and sweet +content had given place to an expression of unutterable weariness. She +got up and went to the window, standing with her back to Halloway. + +"We had our first cold night that evening of my accident," she +said, with an effort to speak very calmly. "I think the summer really +ended then." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +JOPPA'S TRIAL. + + +It was the night before Gerald's departure, and a number of people +strayed into Mrs. Lane's parlor to bid the fair traveller god-speed. She +had not been at all a popular guest, but that was no reason why Joppa +should lack in any possible courtesy toward her, little as she +appreciated the magnanimity of its conduct. + +"Very sorry to lose you, very," said Mr. Hardcastle, taking her hand in +the soft, warm grasp that Gerald so particularly detested. "But maybe +it's as well you are going. Joppa isn't the place it used to be. Here's +Mr. Anthony's got the fever to-night, and there's a poor family down in +the village as have all got it, Dennis says; and I noticed that little +Nellie Atterbury had monstrous red cheeks when Dick and I passed her +to-night, and indeed I crossed the street to avoid her in case she might +be going to have the fever too. Where one has a family one has duties +one would never feel for one's self. So I say, my dear, it's as well +you're going, if only on account of that boy of yours. We must all learn +early to sacrifice ourselves for our children." + +"Olly isn't my child," said Gerald, twisting her handkerchief around her +hand to efface the remembrance of Mr. Hardcastle's touch. + +"Hey? Ah, yes, to be sure, he's your brother; but it's all one. You stand +in the light of a parent to him just now, my dear." He was actually going +to pat Gerald paternally on the shoulder, but she moved abruptly aside, +and he pulled Olly's ear instead. It was necessary to do something with +his outstretched hand before drawing it back. Olly was playing +cat's-cradle with the good-natured Mr. Upjohn, and merely kicked out at +his caresser, as a warning that he was not to be interrupted. + +"Fine spirited boy," muttered Mr. Upjohn under his breath. "Very fine. +Will make a man some day." + +"Not so big as you, though, I won't be when I'm a man," declared Olly. +"You're too fat." + +"Now just hear him!" exclaimed Mr. Upjohn, shaking all over with +corpulent mirth. "Maybe you would rather be like Mr. Webb then?" + +"No, I wouldn't neither," retorted Olly, nothing deterred by that +gentleman's presence from a frank exposure of his sentiments. "He's too +lean. He's leaner than any thing. He's just like the blade of my +pocket-knife with clothes on. Oh, crickey!" + +It was conveniently discovered at this crisis that it was Olly's bedtime, +and he was with some difficulty conveyed from the parlor, followed by an +angry glare from Gerald and a severely truthful comment from Mrs. Upjohn. +De Forest outstayed the rest of the leave-takers. Phebe thought it hard, +when she so wanted to have Gerald all to herself on this last evening; +and she wondered too that Halloway had not come to say good-by. He came +in, however, at last, flushed and tired, apologizing for the lateness of +his call, saying he had been sent for by two of his parishioners who were +also down with the fever. + +"It looks something like an epidemic," remarked Gerald. "I am really +rather glad we are going." + +"You have no ambition to remain and turn Florence Nightingale then?" +asked De Forest. + +"Not in the slightest. It is a role I am eminently unfitted for. I detest +sick people." + +"Not always, I think, Gerald," said Phebe, with a grateful glance, which +Gerald returned with one of real though undemonstrative tenderness. + +"Your case was very different, Phebe." + +"I should think it would be extremely difficult to detest Miss Phebe +under even the must aggravating circumstances," said Halloway, smiling +frankly at her. "Hallo, who is this?" + +It was Olly, bootless and coatless, whom the sound of Halloway's voice +had brought down from the midst of his slow preparations for bed, to bid +his friend good-by, and who sprang upon him with a rush of suffocating +affection. + +"What would Mrs. Upjohn say!" drawled De Forest. + +Gerald rose at once to send off the child with a reprimand, and +remained standing after he had gone. De Forest rose too and slowly came +toward her. + +"I suppose I had better leave you to follow Olly up-stairs. I wish you +to be fresh to entertain me during to-morrow's tedious journey." + +"What, do you go back to-morrow too?" asked Gerald, in surprise. "I +thought you were to stay till next week." + +"I am afraid of the fever," pronounced De Forest with great gravity, his +handsome eyes fastened on her face. "I am running away from it. I don't +think it safe to stay another day in the place." + +Gerald colored a little,--not at his words, but his look. "Then I suppose +I need not bid you good-by," she said, turning away. She seemed almost +embarrassed. "Good-night." + +"Oh, but Gerald,--Mr. Halloway, you must say good-by to him you know," +said Phebe, distressed. + +"Surely. I forgot," replied Gerald, with uncomplimentary sincerity. She +turned back, the faint shade of confusion quite disappearing. "Good-by, +Mr. Halloway. I wish you success in finding all the Nightingales that you +may require." + +"Thank you," answered Denham, shortly. "Good-by." + +Phebe glanced up at him quickly. She noticed a shade of bitterness in +his voice for the first time. He said nothing more, and dropped Gerald's +hand almost immediately. De Forest bent forward and raised it. "Am I to +be defrauded of a good-night, Miss Vernor, simply because it is not my +good-by? _Au revoir_." + +It seemed to Phebe that he held Gerald's hand an instant longer when she +would have withdrawn it, and that she permitted or at least did not +resent it, and before releasing it he stooped and touched her fingers +lightly with his lips. "_Au revoir_," he said again. + +Halloway turned abruptly to Phebe. "Good-night." He spoke almost +brusquely, and went directly away, without offering his hand or looking +at any of them again. + +Phebe followed Gerald into her room when the two girls went up-stairs, +and sat watching her friend's quick movements as she completed some last +arrangements for the journey. It was strangely unlike Phebe not to offer +to help her, but somehow Gerald looked so strong and able and +self-sufficient, and she herself felt so tired and weak to-night. + +"How quiet you are!" said Gerald, folding a soft shawl smoothly over the +top of a tray. "Haven't you any last message to give me? Isn't there any +thing you would like me to do for you in New York?" + +"Nothing, thank you." + +"You are sure? Well, now I am through and mustn't keep you up longer. You +have all been exceedingly kind, Phebe, both to myself and that +troublesome Olly. I appreciate it, even though I don't say as much about +it as perhaps some would." + +"Have you really enjoyed it here, Gerald? Have you been happy? Will you +miss us a little--just a little--when you are gone?" + +"I shall miss _you_, child, of course. You constitute Joppa to me, you +know. And indeed I have enjoyed it here very much, and it has done Olly a +world of good. Good-night, dear." + +Phebe had her arms about her friend at once, clasping her close. "O +Gerald, Gerald, I think it is almost better to have no friends at all, +it is so hard--so cruelly hard--to part with them, and--and to lose +them! O Gerald!" + +"Parting with them isn't losing them, you foolish sentimentalist," +returned Gerald, gently unclasping Phebe's arms. "Now go to bed. You look +worn out." + +"Just tell me once first, Gerald, that you love me. I haven't many to +love me. I need all your love." + +"Of course I love you," said Gerald. "You know it without my saying so. +And don't talk so foolishly. I never knew a girl with more friends. Now +good-night." + +Phebe kissed her very quietly, and then crept into Olly's room, and sat +down on his bed. "Olly, dear," she murmured, "are you asleep?" + +The little fellow sprang up and flung his arms closely around her neck, +embracing collar, ruffles, and ribbon in one all-comprehensive +destruction. + +"Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" whispered Phebe, half +laughing and half crying, as she strained him to her heart. "Oh, Olly +dear, I do want some one just to say so!" + +"I do, I do, I do, and I do!" said Olly, with a bear's hug at each +assertion. "Blest if I don't. That's what Mr. Upjohn said when I asked +him if he didn't want some taffy. 'Blest if I don't.' I guess it's a +swear, 'cause he said I mustn't tell Mrs. Upjohn he said so, not to the +longest day I lived. The longest day won't come now till next year, the +twenty-first of June. That's the longest day, ain't it? Mr. Halloway +taught me that. My, don't he know a lot! I'm going to be like him when +I'm a man. That's who I'm going to be like. And I'm going to love you +always. He loves you too, doesn't he, Pheeb?" + +"No, dear," answered Phebe, still laughing and crying together, and +rocking gently back and forth with the boy in her arms; "he doesn't at +all. There doesn't any body really love me, I think, but just you. But +you do, don't you, dear?" + +"Bet on it!" said Olly, with forcible vulgarity. + +"God bless you," said Phebe, very softly, as she put the boy back in the +bed, and laid her wet cheek on his. "God bless you now and always." + +"Forever and ever, amen," whispered Olly back, with an impression that +Phebe was saying her prayers over him. "And oh, I say, Pheeb, can't you +let us have some of that jelly cake with raisins in it, to take with us +for luncheon to-morrow?" + +And Phebe promised she would, and laughed and went away feeling, somehow, +a little comforted. + +And so Gerald and Olly and De Forest all disappeared from the scene +together, and shortly after the Dexters went to Morocco on a visit, and +the Masters adjourned to Bethany to do their fall shopping; and there +were whisperings around that something was wrong; there was more and more +talk of the fever; of how it ought to be checked, and why it had not been +checked, and what would be the dire consequences if it were not checked. +The summer guests all slipped quietly away, leaving Joppa alone to its +growing trouble. Every day brought some new case, sometimes a death, and +people began to look suspiciously at each other in the streets and to +avoid each other on the flimsiest pretexts. Miss Lydia cried helplessly +in her room and said she was sure she should take it and die of it. Mr. +Hardcastle found he was too busy at home to have time for neighborly +visits, and went around the block rather than pass a door where he saw +the doctor's gig. When one has a family, one owes it duties that should +not be neglected. Mrs. Upjohn declared the panic to be ridiculous. _She_ +shouldn't be scared away by a red flag, like a crow from a cornfield. +There had never been a case of typhoid known in Joppa, and places were +like people, they never broke out with diseases that were not already in +their constitutions. It was all arrant nonsense. However, she was +perfectly willing that Maria should make that proposed visit to her aunt +in Boston if she liked, and it was quite proper that Mr. Upjohn, in the +character of gallant father, should escort her there; the girl couldn't +go alone. So every day saw some new flight from the village. The doctors +began to look overworked and very grave, and Mr. Hardcastle appeared less +and less outside his gates, and took to walking always in the middle of +the streets, whence he could wave a salutation to his passing friends +without stopping to speak to them. Dick said he'd like to see the fever +catch _him_, and pursued the rough tenor of his ways fearlessly as of +old, though he assured his anxious father that it was wholly because +Nellie Atterbury lived in the healthiest quarter of the town, that he +spent so much of his time at her house. There was no use denying or +qualifying it. An epidemic of typhoid fever had stolen upon Joppa as a +thief in the night, and there was no knowing what house it would not +enter next, to rob it of its dearest and best. + +Through all this slowly increasing alarm, Phebe Lane had been living as +in a dream. It was as if she found herself back in that old life before +she knew Halloway, when people bored her, and when there seemed nothing +worth doing or worth looking forward to, though the days were so full of +duties. She had been at the rectory but once since Gerald left, and that +was to the Bible-class, and when Mrs. Whittridge had tried to detain her +afterward, she had pleaded some pressing business at home, though +chancing to look out of her window a little later, Soeur Angelique was +almost sure that through the closed shutters in Phebe's room, she saw a +dim shadow of the girl's head laid down listlessly on her folded arms on +the sill. But when the epidemic reached its height, Phebe seemed +suddenly to awaken from her languor and rouse herself to action. Here was +something worth doing at last. Once more her soft, sweet whistling +sounded bird-like through the house. The spring came back to her step, +the brightness to her eyes, and more than the old tenderness to her +voice, as she went from one shunned sick-room to another like a living +sunbeam, bringing the freshness of a May morning with her, and seeming +always to come solely for her own pure pleasure. And when poor motherless +Janet Mudge was struck down too with the dreaded disease, and had no one +but servants to care for her, her own aunt, who lived in Joppa, being +afraid to so much as go to the house to ask after her, it seemed +perfectly natural to everybody that Phebe Lane, who had no cares at home +and no one really dependent upon her, should quietly install herself as +Janet's nurse. It was a very proper and natural thing for Phebe to do, +everybody said, and thought no more about it. It was so manifestly a duty +sent direct from Heaven, labelled "For Phebe Lane." + +"I met Dr. Dennis to-day," said Halloway one afternoon, coming into his +sister's room and throwing himself wearily down on the sofa. "He says +Janet Mudge is better,--is really going to get well." + +Soeur Angelique put aside her work and came to sit by the sofa and stroke +her boy's head. If the doctors were overworked and spent, so too was he. +The hour of trial had not found him wanting. His unambitious, simple +spirit, that sought no wider duty than merely to fulfil the moment's call +as he best could, met and conquered a stress of work that would have +disheartened many a bolder hero. He never thought of it in the light of +duty at all. There was nothing heroic or high-minded about it. It was +simply what in the nature of things he was bound to do. Wherever he was +wanted he went, and because where he went he brought such sunny cheer, +and such sympathetic help, and such bright, kindly ways, he was wanted +everywhere; not only those of his own parish, but those of the other +churches too came to look to Mr. Halloway as the one whose visit helped +them the most in any season of trial. Among the poor he was held a +ministering angel, and supplemented by Soeur Angelique as an unseen +force, often proved one in truth, while his bright face did them more +good, they said, than a power of sermons; and no one ever thought the +less of him because he seemed so much more the friend than the pastor, +and did no preaching at all. + +"So Janet is better," said Soeur Angelique, toying caressingly with the +wavy brown hair tossed over his forehead. "Now I hope we shall see more +of our Phebe again. What a little heroine she is!" + +"A perfectly unconscious one," answered Halloway, lazily submitting +himself to the fondling hand. "She thinks it the most matter-of-fact +thing in the world that she should play Sister of Charity to other +people's sick, and never expect so much as a thank-you from them." + +"She is a lovely character," said Mrs. Whittridge, warmly. + +"She is indeed," assented her brother. "A rare character. She is one in a +thousand." + +"I cannot but compare her sometimes with her friend, Gerald Vernor," +continued Mrs. Whittridge. "And despite Miss Vernor's beauty and her +power, which makes itself felt even by me, still it is always to Phebe's +advantage." + +Halloway got up and began slowly pacing the room, with an odd smile upon +his lips. "Always to Phebe's advantage," he repeated. "Yes, she is by far +the more amiable, the more unselfish, the more lovable, the better worth +loving of the two. She is all heart. She is brimming over with affection, +and must speak it or die, while Gerald is colder than stone,--than ice. +She is so cold she burns. She reminds one of stars in mid-winter, of +icicles in the moonlight, of any thing eminently frigid and brilliant and +remote. I daresay, despite all her beauty and her talent and even with +her wealth thrown in, she will have comparatively few lovers, yet those +few will be truer to her through all her coldness and her disfavor than +the lovers of many a sweeter girl. Did I say Phebe was one in a thousand? +Well Miss Vernor is one in nine hundred and ninety-nine,--or one in ten +thousand,--I don't know which." + +"You said Phebe was the better worth loving of the two," said Mrs. +Whittridge, coming to walk up and down the room with him and clasping +her hands over his arm. "I used to think,--I fancied you cared for the +child,--that you would care for her." + +Denham stood still and faced his sister very gravely, "I was growing to +care for her, Soeur Angelique," he said. "I believe I would have loved +her if,--if Gerald Vernor had not come here when she did." + +"Oh, Denham!" + +"Yes, Soeur Angelique. It is a humiliating confession, is it not, that +one has wilfully thrown away something that perhaps one might have had, +for something that one knows one can never have? It is sheerest folly. +And to do it with one's eyes open is the maddest folly of all. Gerald +Vernor is as indifferent to me as it is possible for one human creature +to be to another. I hold no more place in her thoughts than had I never +existed. And yet, Soeur Angelique, I am fool enough,--or helpless +enough,--whichever you please, to love her. I love her not for what she +is to me, but for what she is in herself, for what she really is, rather +than for what she seems,--for the strength and the heroism of her heart, +which I see through all the glaring, commonplace faults, which she is at +no pains to hide. Or perhaps I only love her because it was meant that I +should. Be it as it may, I do love her, and as passionately, as entirely, +and as hopelessly as it is possible for man to love." + +"O Denham, Denham, my boy!" + +Denham laid his hand lightly on his sister's lips. "Now we have had a +sufficiency of heroics for once, indeed for always," he said, with a +wholly altered voice. "Life has enough of solemnity in it and in spare, +without our adding aught to it. We will not speak of this again, if you +please. Folly is always best forgotten. But Soeur Angelique, if you +imagine me to be a blighted being, if you think I walk the floor in the +dead of night, tearing my hair and calling on all the stars to witness +the unearthly gloom in my racked bosom, you are utterly mistaken. I do +nothing of the kind. I am not blighted at all. My damask cheek is not +going to be preyed upon, nor shall I take to an excess of tobacco and +poetry. I have made a mistake, but I mean to sing over it,--not weep over +it,--and to become a stronger and better man, if possible, for having +been so weak a one." + +"And Phebe?" said Soeur Angelique. Great tears stood in her eyes. +"I hoped--" + +Denham placed both hands on his sister's shoulders. "Soeur Angelique, you +must bury those hopes in the grave. Loving Gerald Vernor, never, now, or +in the future, shall I have one word of love for any other woman. But for +her, I should have come perhaps to love Phebe with this same love; +perhaps,--who knows?--Phebe might so have loved me. As it is--Soeur +Angelique you know what I am. You know if I am likely to deceive myself. +Gerald Vernor has changed my life for always. What might have been, now +can never be." + +He stood still a moment, looking full at her. It was wonderful how +resolute and firm and yet brave and gentle too those merry brown eyes of +his could become. Soeur Angelique sighed and shook her head softly. He +stooped and kissed her, then turned away saying: "Now that chapter has +been read through to the end. Woe be to him who turns back the page! And +it is time I went to call on poor Widow Brown." + +Soeur Angelique stood in the window as a moment later he passed by. He +kissed his hand to her with a gay smile and went on. But she still stood +there with the tears welling and welling in her eyes till they fell +gently over upon her cheeks. She did not heed them, she was so busy with +her thoughts. "Poor Phebe," she said softly to herself. "My poor little +Phebe! But perhaps,--with time--" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +PHEBE'S GOOD-BY. + + +When was it Phebe first fell ill? No one knew. Mr. Hardcastle had kept +cautiously out of her way this long time past, but nobody else suspected +that the brilliant cheeks and eyes which shone like stars were telltales +of a hidden fire burning her life away. The fever was abating in the +village. The doctors declared the epidemic virtually over, and mutually +congratulated each other upon the success of their measures. Mr. +Hardcastle returned to the sidewalks; Mr. Upjohn brought back Maria; Miss +Lydia said death had spared her this once, but next time it would be her +turn to go; Mrs. Lane said she needn't make her will yet for all that; +and everybody said how very much worse the fever would have been in any +less peculiarly healthy spot than Joppa. How was it that at the very +last, when there was no reason at all, when she had been apparently so +perfectly well all along, Phebe Lane should suddenly take to her bed? Not +only one doctor was called in, but both, and when they saw her they said +the fever had been running a long time already, and then they looked very +grave and shook their heads. She did not seem so ill. Most of their +patients had had far more aggravated symptoms yet still they shook their +heads as they looked at her, and murmured something about lack of +vitality, a general giving way, a complete want of will power, etc. +People looked at each other aghast. Was it possible that little Phebe +Lane was really going to die? Nobody really believed it could be, +excepting only Soeur Angelique. "Oh, my darling, my darling!" she cried +out when she first heard of it, and then she instantly went over and +installed herself in Phebe's room. And there she sat the slow days +through, waiting and waiting with a breaking heart. Phebe suffered very +little. She lay generally perfectly still, too weak to move, too weak to +care to speak. People came and went noiselessly below, but no one was +admitted to her room save her step-mother and Mrs. Whittridge. Mrs. Lane +watched her with growing anxiety. The fever was so slight, why did she +not rally from it? How was it credible she could fail so rapidly and so +causelessly? And Mrs. Whittridge sat by with despair in her heart. + +One day, late in the afternoon, as she sat so watching, Phebe suddenly +opened her eyes. "Will you call him, please? I hear him." + +"Who? Denham?" asked Soeur Angelique, with quick intuition. A finer +ear than hers had caught the light step and low voice in the narrow +hall below. + +"Yes, Denham," said Phebe, softly. "Denham. I want to see him." + +It pleased her to say his name so. She said it to herself over and over +beneath her breath, while waiting for him to come. It was but a moment, +and he was kneeling by the bedside, holding both her hands in his. She +looked up in his face and smiled, and said his name again, lower still. + +"Denham." + +"Yes, Phebe--yes, dear," he answered, too moved to say more. + +"I only wanted to say good-by," she continued, her eyes full of a love +unutterable that not even the shadow of coming death could wholly darken. +"Will you kiss me good-by please, this once, good-by--for always?" + +A faint, soft flush crept up over her white face, and he bent down and +kissed her gently, as one would kiss the Madonna of a shrine. + +"Phebe," he whispered, "not for always only for a time, dear--good-by." + +"Yes," she said, with a glad smile lighting up all her sweet, pure face. +"Only for a time." + +And them, still holding her hands tightly clasped in his, Denham bent +down his head upon them and prayed. + +The sunset came and faded, and the twilight came and went, giving place +to the solemn stillness of the enduring night. The stars shone clear and +still. Not a breath stirred. In his study Denham knelt alone, praying for +a dear and lovely life, praying against hope, against belief--against all +but faith. He did not know what time it was--it seemed as if it might be +morning---when at last the door opened and Soeur Angelique came in. He +got up and stood waiting, too agitated to speak. What news could she +bring him but the one? She came slowly up to him, then gave a little +gasp, and flinging her arms around his neck, burst into tears. + +"O Denham, Denham, all is over! Phebe is dead!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ONLY AN INCIDENT. + + +The morning sun was streaming brilliantly in through the richly curtained +windows of a handsome New York dwelling. Mr. and Mrs. De Forest were +about sitting down to breakfast, which waited for them ready served, and +which indeed had been so waiting for some minutes. The butler coughed +behind his hand as a discreet reminder of his presence, and so indirectly +of the cooling dishes. The gentleman looked up from his easy-chair by the +fire and yawned. + +"My dear, I've been up so long I think it's getting bedtime again." + +"Just one moment, Ogden," answered the lady, from her desk. "I must send +off this note by the first mail." + +"Any thing important?" + +"Yes. I will not be put on that new committee. They _must_ find some one +else. My time is too full." + +De Forest rose and stood with his back to the fire, looking complacently +at his wife. "What an odd sensation it must be--having one's time too +full! It's an experience I'm willing always to delegate to some one else. +Doesn't it feel rather like too tight shoes?" + +Gerald laughed as she passed her husband to her seat at the table, and he +stood still watching her as she began pouring coffee. It was always a +pleasure to watch her. The butler drew out the gentleman's chair firmly. +It was time his master took his seat with his lady. There was too much of +this dilly-dallying. De Forest came lazily forward and seated himself. + +"Any news?" asked Gerald. + +"None whatever. It's a swindle to pay three cents for the _Herald_ in +such monotonous times. I was reduced to searching in your church paper to +see if by any chance something new had gotten lost in there." + +"I hope you found it." + +"I didn't. Not so much even as the death of someone I knew to cheer me. +There would have been variety at least in that. By the way, though, I +did see a familiar name among the personals,--just a notice that the Rev. +Denham Halloway had accepted a call to some church or other in some place +or other. He was quite a friend of yours, wasn't he, that summer before +we were married, when we were all in that odious little Joppa together? +How bored I was there!" + +"Denham Halloway," repeated Gerald, musingly. "Denham Halloway. Why, I +don't believe I have thought of him since. But he was never any especial +friend of mine, you know." + +"Ah, there was somebody else who managed to engross a great deal of your +time and most of your thoughts that summer, was there not, my dear, while +nobody but myself was bold enough to suppose that any impression had been +made on that frigid heart of yours? Well, I was perfectly fair. I left +your friend, Phebe, for Halloway." + +"Poor little Phebe!" said Gerald, with softened eyes. "How long ago it +all seems. Poor dear little Phebe! I have never wanted to hear of Joppa +since her death. I feel as if she had given her life for it. Yes; I +don't suppose I have thought twice of Denham Halloway since." + +Ah, so it was! That brief summer meeting, which had had so potent an +influence on the lives of those other two, had in her life been only +an incident. + +THE END. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Only an Incident, by Grace Denio Litchfield + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ONLY AN INCIDENT *** + +***** This file should be named 10780.txt or 10780.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/8/10780/ + +Produced by Afra Ullah, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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