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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/11561-0.txt b/11561-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eef9ada --- /dev/null +++ b/11561-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8012 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11561 *** + +PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL + +FROM THE EXPERIENCE BOOK OF A COMMUTER'S WIFE + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +1903 + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I ON THE ADVANTAGE OF TWINS + + CHAPTER II MISS LAVINIA'S LETTERS TO BARBARA + + CHAPTER III MARTIN CORTRIGHT'S LETTERS + + CHAPTER IV WHEN BARBARA GOES TO TOWN + + CHAPTER V FEBRUARY VIOLETS + + CHAPTER VI ENTER A MAN + + CHAPTER VII SYLVIA LATHAM + + CHAPTER VIII THE SWEATING OF THE CORN + + CHAPTER IX A WAYSIDE COMEDY + + CHAPTER X THE WHIRL BEGINS + + CHAPTER XI REARRANGED FAMILIES + + CHAPTER XII HIS MOTHER + + CHAPTER XIII GOSSIP AND THE BUG HUNTERS + + CHAPTER XIV THE OASIS + + + + +I + +ON THE ADVANTAGE OF TWINS + + +_February 2_. Candlemas and mild, gray weather. If the woodchuck stirs +up his banked life-fire and ventures forth, he will not see his shadow, +and must straightway arrange with winter for a rebate in our favour. +To-day, however, it seems like the very dawn of winter, and as if the +cloud brooms were abroad gathering snow from remote and chilly corners +of the sky. + +Six years ago I began the planting of my garden, and at the same time my +girlish habit of journal keeping veered into the making of a "Garden +Boke," to be a reversible signal, crying danger in face of forgotten +mistakes, then turning to give back glints of summer sunshine when read +in the attic of winter days and blue Mondays. Now once again I am in the +attic, writing. Not in a garden diary, but in my "Social Experience Boke" +this time, for it is "human warious," and its first volume, already +filled out, is lying in the old desk. Martin Cortright said, one stormy +day last autumn when he was sitting in the corner I have loaned him of my +precious attic retreat, that, owing to the incursion of the Bluff Colony +of New Yorkers, which we had been discussing, I should call this second +volume "People of the Whirlpool," because--ah, but I must wait and hunt +among my papers for his very words as I wrote them down. + +My desk needs cleaning out and rearranging, for the dust flies up as I +rummage among the papers and letters that are a blending of past, +present, and future. All my pet pens are rusty, and must be replaced from +the box of stubs, for a stub pen assists one to straightforward, truthful +expression, while a fine point suggests evasion, polite equivocation, or +thin ideas. Even Lavinia Dorman's letters, whose cream-white envelopes, +with a curlicue monogram on the flap, quite cover the litter below, have +been, if possible, more satisfactory since she has adopted a fountain +stub that Evan gave her at Christmas. + +There are many other things in the desk now beside the hickory-nut beads +and old papers. Little whiffs of subtle fragrance call me backward +through time faster than thought, and make me pinch myself to be sure +that I am awake, like the little old woman with the cutabout petticoats, +who was sure that if she was herself, her little dog would know her,--but +then he _didn't!_ + +I am awake and surely myself, yet my old dog is not near to recognize me. +This ring of rough, reddish hair, tied with a cigar ribbon and lying atop +the beads, was Bluff's best tail curl. Dear, happy, brave-hearted Bluff +with the human eyes; after an honourable life of fifteen years he stole +off to the happy hunting grounds of perpetual open season, quail and +rabbit, two years ago at beginning of winter, as quietly as he used to +slip out the back door and away to the fields on the first fall morning +that brings the hunting fever. For a long while not only I, but neither +father nor Evan could speak of him, it hurt so. Yet by a blessed +dispensation a good dog lives on in his race, and may be renewed (I +prefer that word to _replaced_) after a season, in a way in which our +best human friends may not be, so that we do not lack dogs. Lark is +senior now, and Timothy Saunders's sheep dog, The Orphan, is also a +veteran; the foxhounds are in their prime, while Martha Corkle, as we +shall always call her, is raising a promising pair of collie pups. + +Beside the curl, and covering mother's diaries, lies a square white +volume, the first part of my "Experience Boke" before mentioned, and upon +it two queer fat little pairs of bronze kid shoes, buttonless and much +worn on the toes, telling a tale of feet that dragged and ankles that +wobbled through inexperience in walking. Ah yes! I'm quite awake and the +same Barbara, though looking over a wider and eye-opening horizon, having +had three rows of candles, ten in a row, around my last birthday cake and +one extra in the middle, which extravagance has constrained the family to +use lopsided, tearful, pink candles ever since. + +And the two pairs of feet that first touched good earth so hesitatingly +with those crumpled shoes are now standing firmly in wool-lined rubber +boots topped by brown corduroy trousers, upon the winter slat walk that +leads to the tool house, while their owners, touched by the swish of the +Whirlpool that has recently drawn this peaceful town into its eddies, are +busy trying to turn their patrol wagon, that for a year has led a most +conservative existence as a hay wain and a stage-coach dragged by a +curiously assorted team of dogs and goat, into the semblance of some +weird sort of autocart, by the aid of bits of old garden hose, cast-away +bicycle gearing, a watering-pot, and an oil lantern. + +I have wondered for a week past what yeast was working in their brains. +Of course, the seven-year-old Vanderveer boy on the Bluffs had an +electric runabout for a Christmas gift, also a man to run it! Corney +Delaney, as Evan named the majestic gray goat--of firm disposition +blended with a keen sense of humour--that father gave the boys last +spring and who has been their best beloved ever since, has for many days +been left in duress with the calves in the stack-yard, where the all-day +diet of cornstalks is fatally bulging his once straight-fronted figure. + +In fact, it is the doings of these two pairs of precious feet, with the +bodies, heads, and arms that belong to them, that have caused the dust to +gather in my desk, and the "Garden Boke," though not the garden, which is +more of a joy than ever, to be suspended and take a different form. +Flesh-and-blood books that write themselves are so compelling and +absorbing that one often wonders at the existence of any other kind, and, +feeling this strongly, yet I turn to paper pages as silent confidants. +Why? Heredity and its understudy, Habit, the two _h_'s that control both +the making of solitary tartlets as well as family pies. + +So the last entry in the "Garden Boke" was made a week before the day +recorded in the white book with the cherubs' heads painted on it that +underlies the shoes. + +It seems both strange and significant to me now that this book chanced to +be given me by Lavinia Dorman, mother's school friend and bridesmaid, a +spinster of fifty-five, and was really the beginning of the transfer of +her friendship to me, the only woman friendship that I have ever had, and +its quality has that fragrant pungence that comes from sweet herbs, that +of all garden odours are the most lasting. + +I suppose that it is one of the strongest human habits to write down the +very things that one is least likely to forget, and _vice-versa;_ for +certainly I shall never forget the date and double record on that first +fair page beneath the illuminated word _Born_,--yet I often steal up here +to peep at it,--and live the intervening five years backward for pure +joy. January 10, 189-, Richard Russell------ and John Evan------. + +Every time I read the names anew I wonder what I should have done if +there had been a single name upon the page. I must then have chosen +between naming him for father _or_ Evan--an impossibility; for even if +the names had been combined, whose should I have put first? + +No, the twins are in every way an advantage. To Evan, in providing him at +once with a commuted family sufficient for his means; to father, among +other reasons, by giving him the pleasure of saying, to friends who felt +it necessary to visit him in the privacy of his study and be +apologetically sympathetic, "I have observed that the first editions of +very important books are frequently in two volumes," sending them away +wondering what he really meant; to me by saving the rack of argument, the +form of evil I most detest, and to their own chubby selves no less, in +that neither one has been handicapped for a single day by the +disadvantage of being an only child! + +It doubtless seems very odd for me to feel this last to be a +disadvantage, being myself an only child, and always a happy one, sharing +with mother all the space in father's big heart. But this is because God +has been very good to me, leaving me safe in the shelter of the home +nest. Suppose it had been otherwise and I had been forced to face the +world, how it would have hurt, for individual love is cruelly precious +sometimes, and an "onliest" cannot in the very nature of things be as +unselfish and adaptable as one of many. + +I was selfish even when the twins came. I was so glad that they were +men-children. I could not bear to think of other woman hands ministering +to father and Evan, and I rejoiced in the promise of two more champions. +I often wonder how mother felt when I was born and what she thought. +Was she glad or disappointed? I wish that she had left written words to +guide me, if ever so few,--they would mean so much now; and let me know +if in her day social things surprised and troubled her as for the first +time they now stir me, and therefore belong to all awakening motherhood. +Her diaries were a blending of simple household happenings and garden +lore, nothing more; for when I was five years old and her son came, he +stayed but a few short hours and then stole her away with him. + +I wonder if my boys, when they are grown and begin to realize woman, will +care to look into this book of mine, and read in and between the lines of +its jumble of scraps and letters what their mother thought of them, and +how things appeared to her in the days of their babyhood. Perhaps; who +knows? At present, being but five years old, they are centred in whatever +thing the particular day brings forth, and but that they are leashed fast +by an almost prenatal and unconscious affection, they are as unlike in +disposition, temperament, and colouring as they are alike in feature. +Richard is dark, like father and me, very quiet, except in the matter of +affection, in which he is clingingly demonstrative, slow to receive +impressions, but withal tenacious. He clearly inherits father's medical +instinct of preserving life, and the very thought of suffering on the +part of man or beast arouses him to action. When he was only a little +over three years old, I found him carefully mending some windfall robins' +eggs, cracked by their tumble, with bits of rubber sticking-plaster, then +putting them hopefully back into the nest, with an admonition to the +anxious parents to "sit very still and don't stwatch." While last summer +he unfortunately saw a chicken decapitated over at the farm barn, and, in +Martha Corkle's language, "the way he wound a bit o' paper round its poor +neck to stop its bleedin' went straight to my stummick, so it did, Mrs. +Evan;" for be it said here that Martha has fulfilled my wildest +expectations, and whereas, as queen of the kitchen, she was a trifle +unexpected and uncomfortable, as Mrs. Timothy Saunders, now comfortably +settled in the new cottage above the stable at the north corner of the +hayland, she is a veritable guardian angel, ready to swoop down with +strong wings at a moment's notice, in sickness or health, day or night, +and seize the nursery helm. + +It is owing to her that I have never been obliged to have a nursemaid +under my feet or tagging after the boys, to the ruin of their +independence. For the first few years Effie, whose fiery locks have not +yet found their affinity, helped me, but now merely sees to buttons, +strings, and darns. + +I found out long ago that those who get the best return from their flower +gardens were those who kept no gardeners, and it is the same way with the +child garden; those who are too overbusy, irresponsible, ignorant, or +rich to do without the orthodox nurse, never can know precisely what they +lose. To watch a baby untrammelled with clothes, dimple, glow, and expand +in its bath, is in an intense personal degree like watching, early of a +June morning, the first opening bud of a rose that you have coaxed and +raised from a mere cutting. You hoped and believed that it would be fair +and beautiful, but ah, what a glorious surprise it is! + +And so it is at the other end of day, when sleep comes over the garden +and all the flowers that have been basking in sun vigour relax and their +colours are subdued, blended by the brush of darkness, and the night wind +steals new perfumes from them, and wings of all but a few night birds +have ceased to cleave the air. As you walk among the flowers and touch +them, or throw back the casement and look out, you read new meanings +everywhere. In the white cribs in the alcove the same change comes, +bright eyes, hair, cheeks, and lips lie blended in the shadow, the only +sound is the even breath of night, and when you press your lips behind +the ear where a curl curves and neck and garments meet, there comes a +little fragrance born of sweet flesh and new flannel, and the only motion +is that of the half-open hand that seems to recognize and closes about +your fingers as a vine to its trellis, or as a sleeping bird clings to +its perch. + +A gardener or a nurse is equally a door between one and these silent +pleasures, for who would not steal up now and then from a troubled +dream to satisfy with sight and touch that the babes are really there +and all is well? + + * * * * * + +Richard has a clinging way even in sleep, and his speech, though very +direct for his age, is soft and cooing; he says "mother" in a lingering +tone that might belong to a girl, and there are what are called feminine +traits in him. + +Ian (to save confusion, we called him from the first by the pretty Scotch +equivalent of Evan's first name) is of a wholly masculine mould, and like +his father in light hair, gray eyes, and determination. His very speech +is quick and staccato, his tendency is to overcome, to fight rather than +assuage, though he is the champion of everything he loves. From the time +he could form distinct sounds he has called me Barbara, and no amount of +reasoning will make him do otherwise, while the imitation of his father's +pronunciation of the word goes to my heart. + +Recently, now that he is fully able to comprehend, Evan took him quietly +on his knee and told him that he must say "mother" and that he was not +respectful to me. He thought a few minutes, as if reasoning with himself, +and then the big gray eyes filled with tears, a very rare occurrence, as +he seemed to feel that he could not yield, and he said, trying very hard +to steady his voice, "Favver, I truly can't, I _think it _muvver_ inside, +but you and I, we must _say it_ Barbara," and I confess that my heart +leaped with joy, and I begged Evan to let the matter end here. To be +called, if it so may be, by one name from the beginning to the end of +life by the only true lovers that can never be rivals, is bliss enough +for any woman. + +Equally resolved, but in a thing of minor importance, is Ian about his +headgear. As a baby of three, when he first tasted the liberty of going +out of garden bounds daily into the daisy field beyond the wild walk, +while Richard clung to his protecting baby sunbonnet, Ian spurned head +covering of any kind, and blinked away at the sun through his tangled +curls whenever he had the chance, in primitive directness until his +cheeks glowed like burnished copper; and his present compromise is a +little cap worn visor backward. + +When the twins were very young, people were most funny in the way in +which they seemed to think it necessary to feel carefully about to make +sure whether condolence or congratulations were in order. The Severely +Protestant was greatly agitated, as, being himself the possessor of an +overflowing quiverful, his position was difficult. After making sure +which was the right side of the fence, and placing himself on it, he +tugged painfully at his starved red beard, and made an elaborate address +ending in a parallel,--the idea of the complete Bible being in two +volumes, the Old and New Testament, each being so necessary to the other, +and so inseparable, that they were only comparable to twins! + +Father and Evan were present at the time,--I dared not look at +either,--and as soon as we were again alone, the room shook with +laughter, until Martha Corkle, who was then in temporary residence, +popped in to be sure that I was not being unduly agitated. + +"The Old and New Testament, I wonder which is which?" gasped father, +going upstairs to look at the uninteresting if promising woolly bundles +by light of this startling suggestion. + +Now, however, the joke has developed a serious side, as their two +characters, though in no wise precocious, have become distinctive. Ian +represents the Old, primitive and direct, the "sword of the Lord and +Gideon" type, while Richard is the New, the reconciler and peacemaker. + + * * * * * + +The various congratulations that the twins were boys, from my standpoint +I took as a matter of course, even though I had always heard that boys +gave the most worry and girls were referred to among our friends and +neighbours as the greatest comforts in a home unless they did something +decidedly unusual, fitting into nooks, and often taking up and bearing +burdens the brothers left behind. But when many people who had either +daughters or nieces of their own, and might be said to be in that mystic +ring called "Society," congratulated me pointedly about the boys, I began +to ponder about the matter mother-wise. Then, three years ago the New +York Colony seized upon the broad acres along the Bluffs, and dotted two +miles with the elaborate stone and brick houses they call cottages; not +for permanent summer homes (the very rich, the spenders, have no homes), +but merely hotels in series. These, for the spring and fall between +seasons and week-end parties and golfing, men and girls gay in red and +green coats, replaced the wild flowers in the shorn outlying fields. I +watched these girls, and, beginning to understand, wondered if I had +grown old before my time, or if I were too young to comprehend their +point of view, for, to their strange enlightenment I was practically as +yet unborn. + +Lavinia Dorman says caustically that I really belong with her in the +middle of the last century, and she, born to what father says was really +the best society and privilege of New York life, like his college chum +Martin Cortright, is now swept quite aside by the swirl. + +"Yes, dear child," she insists (how different this use of the word +sounds from when the Lady of the Bluffs uses the universal "my dear" +impartially to mistress and maid, shopgirl and guest), "you not only +belong to the last century, but as far back in it as myself, and I am +fifty-five, full measure. + +"The new idea among the richer and consequently more privileged classes +is, that girls are to be fitted not only to go out into the world and +shine in different ways unknown to their grandmothers, but to be +superior to home, which of necessity unfits them for a return trip if the +excursion is unsuccessful. + +"What with high ideas, high rents, and higher education, the home myth is +speedily following Santa Claus out of female education, and, argue as one +may, New York is the social pace-maker 'East of the Rockies,' as the free +delivery furniture companies advertise. I congratulate you anew that the +twins are boys!" + +I laughed to myself over Miss Lavinia's letter; she is always so +deliciously in earnest and so perturbed over any change in the social +ways of her dearly beloved New York, that I'm wondering how she finds it, +on her return after two years or more abroad (she was becoming agitated +before she left), and whether she will ask me down for another of those +quaint little visits, where she so faithfully tours me through the shops +and a few select teas, when, to wind it up, Evan buys opera box seats so +that she may have the satisfaction of having her hair dressed, wearing +her point lace bertha and aigret, and showing us who is who, and the +remainder who are not. For she is well born, intricately related to the +original weavers of the social cobweb, and knows every one by name and +sight; but has found lately, I judge, that this knowledge unbacked by +money is no longer a social power that carries beyond mixed tea and +charity entertainments. Never mind, Lavinia Dorman is a dear! Ah, if she +would only come out here, and return my many little visits by a long +stay, and act as a key to the riddle the Whirlpool people are to me. But +of course she will not; for she frankly detests the country,--that is, +except Newport and Staten Island,--is wedded even in summer to her trim +back-yard that looks like a picture in a seed catalogue, and, like a +faithful spouse, declines to leave it or Josephus for more than a few +days. Josephus is a large, sleek, black cat, a fence-top sphinx, who sits +all day in summer wearing a silver collar, watching the sparrows and the +neighbourhood's wash with impartial interest, while at night he goes on +excursions of his own to a stable down a crooked street in "Greenwich +Village," where they still keep pigeons. Some day he won't come back! + +Yet Martin Cortright, the Bookworm, was a pavement worshipper too, and he +came last fall for over a Sunday to wake father up; for I believe men +sometimes need the society of others of their own age and past, as much +as children need childlife, and Martin stayed a month, and is promising +to return next spring. I wonder if the Sylvia Latham who has been +travelling with Miss Lavinia is any kin of the Lathams who are building +the great colonial home above the Jenks-Smiths. I have never seen any of +the family except Mrs. Latham, a tall, colourless blonde, who reminds one +of a handsome unlit lamp. She seems to be superintending the work by +coming up now and then, and I met her at the butcher's where she was +buying sweetbreads--"a trifle for luncheon." Accusation No. 1, against +the Whirlpoolers: Since their advent sweetbreads have risen from two +pairs for a quarter, and "thank you kindly for taking them off our +hands," to fifty cents to a dollar a "set." We no longer care for +sweetbreads! + + * * * * * + +I was therefore amused, but no longer surprised, at the exaggerated way +in which the childless Lady of the Bluffs,--her step-daughter having ten +years back made a foolish foreign marriage,--gave me her views upon the +drawbacks of the daughters of her world, when she made me, on her return +from a European trip, a visit upon the twins' first birthday,--bearing, +with her usually reckless generosity, a pair of costly gold apostle +spoons, as she said, "to cut their teeth on." I admired, but frugally +popped them into the applewood treasure chests that father has had made +for the boys from the "mother tree," that was finally laid low by a +tornado the winter of their birth and is now succeeded by a younger one +of Richard's choice. + +"My dear woman," she gasped, turning my face toward the light and +dropping into a chair at the same time, "how well you look; not a bit +upset by the double dose and sitting up nights and all that. But then, +maybe, they sleep and you haven't; for it's always the unexpected and +unusual that happens in your case, as this proves. But then, they are +boys, and that's everything nowadays, the way society's going, especially +to people like you, whose husband's trade, though pretty, is too open and +above-board to be a well-paying one, and yet you're thoroughbreds +underneath." (Poor vulgar soul, she didn't in the least realize how I +might take her stricture any more than she saw my desire to laugh.) + +"Of course here and there a girl in society does turn out well and rides +an elephant or a coronet,--of course I mean wears a coronet,--though ten +to one it jams the hairpins into her head, but mostly daughters are +regular hornets,--that is, if you're ambitious and mean to keep in +society. Of course you're not in it, and, being comfortably poor, so to +speak, might be content to see your girls marry their best chance, even +if it wasn't worth much a year, and settle down to babies and minding +their own business; but then they mightn't agree to that, and where would +you and Evan be? + +"This nice old house and garden of yours wouldn't hold 'em after they got +through with dolls, and some girls don't even have any doll-days now. It +would be town and travel and change, and you haven't got the price of +that between you all, and to keep this going, too. You'd have to go to +N'York, for a couple of months at least, to a hotel, and what would that +Evan of yours do trailing round to dances? For you're not built for it, +though I did once think you'd be a go in society with that innocent-wise +way, and your nose in the air, when you don't like people, would pass for +family pride. I'd wager soon, in a few years, he'd stop picking +boutonnières in the garden every morning and sailing down to that 8:15 +train as cool as if he owned time, if those boys were girls! Though if +Jenks-Smith gets the Bluff Colony he's planned under way next spring, +there'll soon be some riding and golfing men hereabouts that'll shake +things up a bit,--bridge whist, poker, and perhaps red and black to help +out in the between-seasons." (I little thought then what this colony and +shaking would come to mean.) + +"Money or not, it's hard lines with daughters now--work and poor pay for +the mothers mostly. You know that Mrs. Townley that used to visit me? He +was a banker and very rich; died four years ago, and left his wife with +one son, who lived west, and five daughters, four that travelled in pairs +and an odd one,--all well fixed and living in a big house in one of those +swell streets, east of the park, where never less than ten in help are +kept. Well, if you'll believe it, she's living alone with a pet dog and a +companion, except in summer, when the Chicago son and his wife and babies +make her a good visit down at North East, the only home comfort she has. + +"All the girls married to foreigners? Not a blessed one. Two were bookish +and called literary, but not enough to break out into anything; they +didn't agree with society (had impossible foreheads that ran nearly back +to their necks, and thin hair); they went to college just to get the name +of it and to kill time, but when they got through they didn't rub along +well at home; called taking an interest in the house beneath them and the +pair that liked society frivolous; so they took a flat (I mean +apartment--a flat is when it's less than a hundred a month and only has +one bathroom), and set up for bachelor girls. The younger pair did +society for a while, and poor Mrs. Townley chaperoned round after them, +as befitted her duty and position, and had gorgeous Worth gowns, all lace +and jets, that I do believe shortened her breath, until one night in a +slippery music-room she walked up the back of a polar bear rug, fell off +his head, and had an awful coast on the floor, that racked her knee so +that she could stay at home without causing remark, which she cheerfully +did. The two youngest girls were pretty, but they were snobs, and carried +their money on their sleeves in such plain sight that they were too +suspicious, and seemed to expect every man that said 'good evening' was +waiting to grab it. So they weren't popular, and started off for Europe +to study art and music. Of course when they came back they had a lot of +lingo about the art atmosphere and all that; home was a misfit and +impossible, so they went to live in a swell studio with two maids and a +Jap butler in costume, and do really give bang-up musicals, with paid +talent of course. I went to one. + +"That left Georgie, the odd one, who was the eldest, with poor Mrs. +Townley. By this time the old lady was kind of broken-spirited, and +worried a good deal as to why all her girls left her,--'she'd always +tried to do her duty,'--and all that. This discouraged Georgie; she got +blue and nervous, had indigestion, and, mistaking it for religion, +vamoosed into a high-church retreat. And I call it mighty hard lines for +the old lady." + +I thought "too much money," but I didn't say it, for this brutally direct +but well-meaning woman could not imagine such a thing, and she continued: +"Yet Mrs. Townley had a soft snap compared to some, for she was in the +right set at the start, with both feet well up on the ladder, and didn't +have to climb; but Heaven help those with daughters who have thin purses +and have to stretch a long neck and keep it stiff, so, in a crowd at +least, nobody'll notice their feet are dangling and haven't any hold. + +"Ah, but this isn't the worst yet; that's the clever 'new daughter' kind +that sticks by her ma, who was herself once a particular housekeeper, and +takes charge of her long before there's any need; regulates her clothes +and her food and her callers, drags her around Europe to rheumatism +doctors, and pushes her into mud baths; jerks her south in winter and +north in summer, for her 'health and amusement,' so she needn't grow +narrow, when all the poor soul needs and asks is to be let stay in her +nice old-fashioned country house, and have the village children in to +make flannel petticoats; entertain the bishop when he comes to confirm, +with a clerical dinner the same as she used to; spoil a lot of +grandchildren, of which there aren't any; and once in a while to be +allowed to go into the pantry between meals, when the butler isn't +looking, and eat something out of the refrigerator with her fingers to +make sure she's got them! + +"No, my dear, rather than that, I choose the lap dog and poor relation, +who is generally too dejected to object to anything. Besides, lap dogs +are much better now than in the days when the choice lay only between +sore-eyed white poodles and pugs. Boston bulls are such darlings that for +companions they beat half the people one knows!" + +I am doubly glad that the twins are boys! Well, so be it, for women do +often frighten me and I misunderstand them, but men are so easy to +comprehend and love. While now, when Richard and Ian puzzle me, all I +need to do is to point to father and Evan, and say, "Look! ask them, for +they can tell you all you need to know!" + + * * * * * + +Almost sunset, the boys climbing up stairs, and Effie bringing a letter? +Yes, and from Lavinia Dorman, pages and pages--the dear soul! I must wait +for a light. What is this?--she wishes to see me--will make me a long +visit--in May--if I like--has no longer the conscience to ask me to leave +the twins to come to her--boys of their age need so much care--then +something about Josephus! Yes, Sylvia Latham is the daughter of the new +house on the Bluffs, etc. You blessed twins! here is another advantage I +owe to you--at last a promised visit from Lavinia Dorman! + +Ah, as I push my book into the desk the reason for its title turns up +before me, worded in Martin Cortright's precise language:-- + +"Everything, my dear Barbara, has a precedent in history or the basis of +it. It is well known that the Indian tribes have taken their distinctive +names chiefly from geographical features, and these often in turn control +the pace of the people. The name for the island since called New +Amsterdam and York was Mon-ah-tan-uk, a phrase descriptive of the rushing +waters of Hell Gate that separated them from their Long Island +neighbours, the inhabitants themselves being called by these neighbours +Mon-ah-tans, _anglice_ Manhattans, literally, _People of the Whirlpool_, +a title which, even though the termagant humour of the waters be abated, +it beseems me as aptly fits them at this day." + + + + +II + +MISS LAVINIA'S LETTERS TO BARBARA + + +NEW YORK, "GREENWICH VILLAGE," January 20, 19--. + +"So you are glad that I have returned? I wish that I could say so also, +in your hearty tone of conviction. Every day of the two years that I have +been scattering myself about Europe I have wished myself at home in the +house where I was born, and have wandered through the rooms in my dreams; +yet now that I am here, I find that I was mixing the past impossibly with +the present, in a way common to those over fifty. Yes, you see I no +longer pretend, wear unsuitable headgear, and blink obliviously at my age +as I did in those trying later forties. I not only face it squarely, but +exaggerate it, for it is so much more comfortable to have people say +'Fifty-five! Is it possible?' + +"By the way, do you know that you and I share a distinction in common? We +are both living in the houses where we were born, for the reason that we +wish to and not because we cannot help ourselves. Since I have been away +it appears that every one I know, of my own age, has made a change of +some sort, and joined the two streams that are flowing steadily upward, +east and west of the Park; while the people who were neither my financial +nor social equals thirty years ago are dividing the year into quarters, +with a house for each. A few months in town, a few of hotel life for +'rest' in the south, then a 'between-season' residence near by, seaside +next, mountains in early autumn, and the 'between-season' again before +the winter cruise through the Whirlpool. + +"I like that name that your Martin Cortright gives to New York. Before I +went abroad I should have resented it bitterly, but the two months since +my return have convinced me of its truth, which I have fought against for +many years; for even the most staid of us who, either of choice or +necessity, give the social vortex a wide berth, cannot escape from the +unrest of it, or sight of the wreckage it from time to time gives forth. +It is strange that I have not met this Cortright, or never even knew that +he shared your father's admiration of your mother, though owing to our +school tie we were like sisters. Yet it was like her to regret and hold +sacred any pain she might have caused, no matter how unwillingly. Did his +elder sister marry _a_ Schuyler, though not one of _the_ well-known +branch, and did he as a boy live in one of those houses on the west side +of Lafayette Place that were later turned into an hotel? + +"The worst of it all appears to me to be that the increase of wealth in +the upper class is exterminating the home idea, to which I cling, single +woman as I am; and consequently the middle classes, as blind copyists, +also are tending to throw it over. + +"The rich, having no particular reason for remaining in any particular +place until they become attached to it, live in half a dozen houses, +which seems to have a deteriorating effect upon their domesticity; just +as the Sultan, with fifty wives that may be dropped or replaced according +to will, cannot prize them as does the husband of only one. + +"Your letters are so full of questions and wonderments about ways in your +mother's day, that they set me rambling in the backwoods of the sixties, +when women were sending their lovers to the Civil War, and then bravely +sitting down and rolling their own hearts up with the bandages with which +they busied their fingers. I suppose you are wondering if I lost a lover +in those days, or why I have not married, as I am in no wise opposed to +the institution, but consider it quite necessary to happiness. The truth +is, I never saw but two men whose tastes so harmonized with mine that I +considered them possible as companions, and when I first met them neither +was eligible, one being my own father and the other yours! I shall have +to list your queries, to be answered deliberately, write my letters in +sections, day by day, and send them off packet-wise, like the +correspondence of the time of two-shilling post and hand messengers. To +begin with, I will pick out the three easiest:-- + +"1. What is it in particular that has so upset me on my home-coming? + +"2. Do I think that I could break through my habits sufficiently to make +you a real country visit this spring or early summer, before the +mosquitoes come? (Confessing with your altogether out-of-date frankness +that there are mosquitoes, a word usually dropped from the vocabulary +of commuters and their wives, even though they live in Staten Island or +New Jersey.) + +"3. Is the Sylvia Latham, to whom I have been a friendly chaperon during +my recent travels, related to the Lathams who are building the finest +house on the Bluffs? You have never seen the head of the house, but his +initials are S.J.; he is said to be a power in Wall Street, and the +family consists of a son and daughter, neither of whom has yet appeared, +although the house is quite ready for occupancy. + +"(My German teacher has arrived.)" + + * * * * * + +"January 22d. + +"1. Why am I upset? For several reasons, some of which have been clouding +the horizon for many years, others crashing up like a thunder-storm. + +"I have for a long time past noticed a certain apathy in the social +atmosphere of the little circle that formed my world. I gave up any +pretensions to general New York society after my father's death, which +came at a time when the social centre was splitting into several cliques; +distances increased, New Year's calling ceased, going to the country for +even midwinter holidays came in vogue, and cosmopolitanism finally +overcame the neighbourhood community interest of my girlhood. People +stopped making evening calls uninvited; you no longer knew who lived in +the street or even next house, save by accident; the cosey row of private +dwellings opposite turned to lodging houses and sometimes worse; friends +who had not seen me for a few months seemed surprised to find me living +in the same place. When I began to go about again, one day Cordelia +Martin (she was a Bleecker--your father will remember her) met me in the +street and asked me to come in the next evening informally to dinner and +meet her sister, an army officer's wife, who would be there _en route_ +from one post to another, and have an old-time game of whist. + +"I went, glad to see old friends, and anticipating a pleasant evening. I +wore a new soft black satin gown slightly V in front, some of my best +lace, and my pearl ornaments; I even wondered if the latter were in good +taste at a family dinner. You know I never dwell much upon attire, but it +is sometimes necessary when it is in a way epoch making. + +"A butler had supplanted Cordelia's usual cordial waitress; he presented +a tray for the card that I had not brought and said 'second story front.' +This seemed strange to me, as Cordelia herself had always come to the +stairway to greet me when the door opened. + +"The 'second story front' had been done over into a picturesque but +useless boudoir, a wood floor polished like glass was dotted by white fur +islands; the rich velvet carpets, put down a few years before, had in +fact disappeared from the entire house. A maid, anything but cordial, +removed my wrap, looking me and it over very deliberately as she did so. +I wondered if by mistake I had been bidden to a grand function--no, there +were no visible signs of other guests. + +"Not a word was spoken, so I made my way down to where the library +living-room had been, not a little curious to see what would come next. +Thick portières covered the doorway, and by them stood the butler, who +asked my name. Really, for a moment I could not remember it, I was so +startled at this sudden ceremony in the house of a friend, of such long +standing that I had jumped rope on the sidewalk with her, making +occasional trips arm-in-arm around the corner to Taffy John's little shop +for molasses peppermints and 'blubber rubbers.' + +"My hesitation seemed to add to the distrust that my appearance had in +some way created. The butler also swept me from head to foot with his +critical stare, and at the same moment I became internally aware that I +had forgotten to remove my arctic over-boots. Never mind, my gown was +long, I would curl up my toes, but return to the dressing-room in full +sight of that man, I whose forbears had outbowled Peter Stuyvesant, and, +I fear, outdrunk him--never! Then the portières flew apart, and facing +a glare of bilious-hued electric light, I heard the shouted announcement +of 'Miss Doormat' as I stumbled over a tiger rug into the room. I believe +the fellow did it on purpose. However, it was very funny, and my +rubber-soled arctics probably prevented my either coasting straight +across into the open fireplace, or having a nasty fall, while the laugh +that the announcement created on the part of my host, Archie Martin, +saved me from an awkward moment, for from a sort of gilt throne-like +arrangement at one side of the hearth, arrayed in brocaded satin gowns +cut very low and very long, heads crimped to a crisp, and fastened to +meagre shoulders by jewelled collars, the whole topped by a group of +three 'Prince of Wales' feathers, Cordelia and her sister came forward +two steps to greet me. + +"Of course, I thought to myself, they are going to a ball later on. I +naturally made no comment, and we went in to dinner. The dining room was +very cold, as extensions usually are, and the ladies presently had white +fur capes brought to cover their exposure, while I, sitting in the +draught from the butler's pantry, was grateful for my arctics. The meal +was more pretentious than edible,--a strange commentary upon many +delightful little four or at most five course affairs I had eaten in the +same room. I soon found that there was no ball in prospect, also that +Cordelia and her sister seemed ill at ease, while Archie had a look of +suppressed mischief on his face, which in spite of warning signals broke +forth as soon as, the coffee being served, the butler left. + +"One great comfort about men is that they do not take easily to being +unnatural. Archie and I, having been brought up like brother and sister +from the time we went to a little mixed school over in old Clinton Hall, +were always on cordial terms. + +"'Well, Lavvy,' he began, 'I see you're surprised at the change of base +here, and _I'm_ going to let you in on the ground floor, if Cordelia +won't. You see, Janet (she's not in town to-night, by the way) is coming +out next month, and we are getting in training for what her mother thinks +is her duty toward her, or else what they both think is their duty to +society, or something else equally uncomfortable.' + +"'Archie!' remonstrated Cordelia, but he good-naturedly ignored her and +continued: 'Now I want Janet to have a jolly winter and marry a good +fellow when the time comes, but as we've got the nicest sort of friends, +educated and all that, who have travelled along with us, as you have, +from the beginning, why should we change our habits and feathers and try +to fly for a different roost?' + +"'Archibald,' said Cordelia, in such a tone that she was not to be +gainsaid, 'Lavinia, as a woman of the world, will understand what you +refuse to: that it is very important that our daughter should have the +surroundings that are now customary to the social set with whom she has +been educated, and into which, if she is to be happy, she must marry. If +she is to meet the right people, she must be rightly presented. All her +set wear low gowns at dinner, whether guests are present or not, just as +much as men wear their evening dress at night and their business suits in +the morning. That we have kept up our old-fogy habits so long has nothing +to do with the present question.' + +"'Except that I have to strain my purse to bring up everything else to +suit the clothes, as naturally gaslight, a leg of mutton, and two +vegetables do not make a good foreground to bare shoulders and a white +vest! And I'd rather fund the cash as a nest-egg for Jenny.' + +"'Archie, you are too absurd!' snapped Cordelia, yet more than half +inclined to laugh; for she used to be the jolliest woman in the world +before the spray of the Whirlpool got into her eyes. + +"'As to meeting suitable people to marry, and all that rubbish,' pursued +Archie, relentlessly, 'I was considered fairly eligible in my time, and +did you meet me at any of the dances you went to, or at the Assemblies at +Fourteenth Street Delmonico's that were the swell thing in those days? +No; I pulled you out of an old Broadway stage that had lost a wheel and +keeled over into a pile of snow opposite father's office, when you were +practically standing on your head. You didn't fuss, and I got to know you +better in five minutes than any one could in five years of this rotten +fuss and feathers.' + +"'That was purely accidental, and I wish you wouldn't mention it so +often,' said Cordelia, flushing; and so the conversation, at first +playful, gradually working toward a painful dispute, went on, until my +faithful Lucy came to escort me home, without our having our game of +whist, that excuse for intelligent and silent companionship." + + * * * * * + +"January 25th. + +"I dwelt on that little dinner episode, my dear Barbara, because in it +you will find an answer to several questions I read between your lines. +Since my return I find that practically all my old friends have flown to +what Archie Martin called 'a different roost,' or else failing, or having +no desire so to do, have left the city altogether, leaving me very +lonely. Not only those with daughters to bring out, but many of my +spinster contemporaries are listed with the buds at balls and dinner +dances, and their gowns and jewels described. Ah, what a fatal memory for +ages one has in regard to schoolmates! Josephine Ponsonby was but one +class behind us, and she is dancing away yet. + +"The middle-aged French women who now, as always, hold their own in +public life have better tact, and make the cultivation of some +intellectual quality or political scheme at least the excuse for holding +their salons, and not the mere excuse of rivalry in money spending. + +"I find the very vocabulary altered--for _rest_ read _change_, for +_sleep_ read _stimulation_, etc, _ad infin_. + +"Born a clergyman's daughter of the old regime, I was always obliged to +be more conservative than was really natural to my temperament; even so, +I find myself at middle life with comfortable means (owing to that bit of +rock and mud of grandma's on the old Bloomingdale road that father +persistently kept through thick and thin), either obliged to compromise +myself, alter my dress and habits, go to luncheons where the prelude is a +cocktail, and the after entertainment to play cards for money, contract +bronchitis by buzzing at afternoon teas, make a vocation of charity, +or--stay by myself,--these being the only forms of amusement left open, +and none offering the intimate form of social intercourse I need. + +"I did mission schools and parish visiting pretty thoroughly and +conscientiously during forty years of my life,--on my return an +ecclesiastical, also, as well as a social shock awaited me. St. Jacob's +has been made a free church, and my special department has been given in +charge of two newly adopted Deaconesses, 'both for the betterment of +parish work and reaching of the poor.' So be it, but Heaven help those +who are neither rich nor poor enough to be of consequence and yet are +spiritually hungry. + +"The church system is necessarily reduced to mathematics. The rector has +office hours, so have the curates, and they will 'cheerfully come in +response to any call.' It was pleasant to have one's pastor drop in now +and then in a sympathetic sort of way, pleasant to have a chance to ask +his advice without formally sending for him as if you wished to be prayed +over! But everything has grown so big and mechanical that there is not +time. The clergy in many high places are emancipating themselves from the +Bible and preaching politics, history, fiction, local sensation, and what +not, or lauding in print the moral qualities of a drama in which the +friendship between Mary Magdalene and Judas Iscariot is dwelt on and the +latter adjudged a patriot. I don't like it, and I don't like hurrying to +church that I may secure my seat in the corner of our once family pew, +where as a child I loved to think that the light that shone across my +face from a particular star in one of the stained-glass windows was a +special message to me. It all hurts, and I do not deny that I am bitter. +Those in charge of gathering in new souls should take heed how they +ignore or trample on the old crop! + +"So I attend to my household duties, marketing, take my exercise, and +keep up my French and German; but when evening comes, no one rings the +bell except some intoxicated person looking for one of the lodging houses +opposite, and the silence is positively asphyxiating--if they would only +play an accordion in the kitchen I should be grateful. I'm really +thinking of offering the maids a piano and refreshments if they will give +an 'at home' once a week, as the only men in the neighbourhood seem to be +the butchers and grocery clerks and the police. There is an inordinate +banging going on in the rear of the house, and I must break off to see +what it _is_." + + * * * * * + +"January 3th. + +"MY DEAR CHILD:-- + +"Your second question, regarding visiting you the coming season, was +answering itself the other day when I was writing. Life here, except in +winter, is becoming impossible to me. I have lost not only Josephus, but +my back yard! The stable where they keep the pigeons has changed hands. +Yes, you were right,--he did haunt the place, the postman says; and I +suppose they did not understand that he was merely playful, and not +hungry, or who he was, else maybe he was too careless about sitting on +the side fence by the street. I _could_ replace Josephus, but not the +yard,--there are no more back yards to be had; their decadence is +complete. I've closed my eyes for years to the ash heap my neighbour on +the right kept in hers; also to the cast-off teeth that came over from +the 'painless' dentist's on the left. + +"When the great tenement flat ran up on the north, where I could, not so +long ago, see the masts of the shipping in the Hudson, I sighed, and +prayed that the tins and bottles that I gathered up each morning might +not single me out when I was tying up my vines in the moonlight of early +summer nights. + +"Josephus resented these missiles, however, and his foolish habit of +sitting on the low side fence under the ailantus tree then began. Next, I +was obliged to give up growing roses, because, as you know, they are +fresh-air lovers; and so much air and light was cut off by the high +building that they yielded only leaves and worms. Still I struggled, and +adapted myself to new conditions, and grew more of the stronger summer +bedding plants. + +"Five days ago I heard a banging and pounding. Only that morning Lucy had +been told that the low, rambling carpenter's shop, that occupied a double +lot along the 'street to the southwest, had been sold, and we anxiously +waited developments. We were spared long suspense; for, on hearing the +noise, and going to the little tea-room extension where I keep my winter +plants, I saw a horde of men rapidly demolishing the shop, under +directions of a superintendent, who was absolutely sitting on top of my +honeysuckle trellis. After swallowing six times,--a trick father once +taught me to cure explosive speech,--I went down and asked him if he +could tell me to what use the lot was to be put. He replied: 'My job is +only to clean it up; but the plans call for a twelve-story +structure,--warehouse, I guess. But you needn't fret; it's to be +fireproof.' + +"'Fireproof! What do I care?' I cried, gazing around my poor garden--or +rather I must have fairly snorted, for he looked down quickly and took in +the situation at a glance, gave a whistle and added: 'I see, you'll be +planted in; but, marm, that's what's got to happen in a pushing city--it +don't stop even for graveyards, but just plants 'em in.' + +"My afternoon sun gone. Not for one minute in the day will its light rest +on my garden, and _finis_ is already written on it, and I see it an arid +mud bank. I wonder if you can realize, you open-air Barbara, with your +garden and fields and all space around you, how a city-bred woman, to +whom crowds are more vital than nature, still loves her back yard. I had +a cockney nature calendar planted in mine, that began with a bunch of +snowdrops, ran through hot poppy days, and ended in a glow of +chrysanthemums, but all the while I worked among these I felt the breath +of civilization about me and the solid pavement under my feet. + +"I believe that every woman primarily has concealed in the three rounded +corners of her heart, waiting development, love of home, love of +children, and love of nature, and my nature love has yet only developed +to the size of a back yard. + +"Yes, I will come to visit you at Oaklands gladly, though it's a poor +compliment under the circumstances. The mother of twins should be gone +_to_; but tremble! you may never get rid of me, for I may supplant Martha +Corkle, the miraculous, in spoiling the boys." + + * * * * * + +"February 1st. + +"One more question to answer and this budget of letters will go to the +post with at least four stamps on it, for since you have yoked me to a +stub pen and begged me not to criss-cross the sheets, my bills for stamps +and stationery have increased. + +"Sylvia Latham _is_ the daughter of your Bluff people. Her father's name +is Sylvester Johns Latham, and he is a Wall Street broker and promoter, +with a deal of money, and ability for pulling the wires, but not much +liked socially, I should judge,--that is, outside of a certain +commercial group. + +"Mrs. Latham was, at the time of her marriage, a pretty southern girl, +Vivian Carhart, with only a face for a fortune. In a way she is a +beautiful woman now, has quite a social following, a gift for +entertaining, and, I judge, unbounded vanity and ambition. + +"Quite recently some apparently valueless western land, belonging to her +people, has developed fabulous ore, and they say that she is now more +opulent than her husband. + +"They were pewholders at St. Jacob's for many years, until three +seasons ago, when they moved from a side street near Washington Square +to 'Millionaire Row,' on the east side of the Park. There are two +children, Sylvia, the younger, and a son, Carhart, a fine-looking blond +fellow when I knew him, but who got into some bad scrape the year after +he left college,--a gambling debt, I think, that his father repudiated, +and sent him to try ranch life in the West. There was a good deal of +talk at the time, and it was said that the boy fell into bad company at +his mother's own card table, and that it has caused a chilliness +between Mr. and Mrs. Latham. + +"However it may be, Sylvia, who is an unspoiled girl of the frank and +intellectual type, tall, and radiant with warm-hearted health, was kept +much away at boarding-school for three years, and then went to college +for a special two years' course in literature. She had barely returned +home when her mother, hearing that I was going abroad, asked me to take +Sylvia with me, as she was deficient in languages, which would be a +drawback to her social career. + +"It seemed a trifle strange to me, as she was then nineteen, an age when +most girls of her class are brought out, and had been away for +practically five years. But I took her gladly, and she has been a most +lovable companion and friend. She called me Aunt, to overcome the formal +Miss, and I wish she were my daughter. I'm only wondering if her high, +unworldly standpoint, absorbed from wise teachers, and the halo that she +has constructed from imagination and desire about her parents during the +years of her separation from them, will not embarrass them a little, now +that she is at home for good. + +"By the way, we met in England last spring a young sub-professor, Horace +Bradford, a most unusual young man for nowadays, but of old New England +stock. He was one of Sylvia's literature instructors at Rockcliffe +College, and he joined our party during the month we spent in the +Shakespeare country. It was his first trip, and, I take it, earned by +great self-sacrifice; and his scholarly yet boyish enthusiasm added +hugely to our enjoyment. + +"He spoke constantly of his mother. Do you know her? She lives on the old +place, which was a farm of the better class, I take it, his father having +been the local judge, tax collector, and general consulting factotum of +his county. It is at Pine Ridge Centre, which, if I remember rightly, is +not far from your town. I should like you to know him. + +"I have only seen Sylvia twice since our return, but she lunches with me +to-morrow. You and she should be fast friends, for she is of your ilk; +and if this happens, I shall not regret the advent of the Whirlpool +Colony in your beloved Oaklands as much as I do now. + +"I am really beginning to look forward to my country visit, and am glad +to see that some 'advance season' tops are spinning on the pavement in +front of the house, and a game of marbles is in progress in my front yard +itself, safe from the annoying skirts of passers-by. For you should know, +dear Madam Pan, that marbles and tops are the city's first spring sign. + +"By the way, I am sure that Horace Bradford and Sylvia are keeping up a +literary correspondence. They are perfectly suited to each other for any +and every grade of friendship, yet from her family standpoint no one +could be more unwelcome. He has no social backing; his mother is a +religious little country woman, who doubtless says 'riz' and 'reckon,' +and he only has what he can earn by mental effort. But this is neither +here nor there, and I'm sure you and I will have an interesting summer +croon in spite of your qualms and resentment of the moneyed +invasion.--Not another word, Lucy is waiting to take this to the +post-box. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LAVINIA DORMAN. + +"P. S.--Josephus has just come back! Lean, and singed by hot ashes, I +judge. I dread the shock to him when he knows about the yard!" + + + + +III + +MARTIN CORTRIGHT'S LETTERS TO BARBARA AND DOCTOR RICHARD RUSSELL + + +"December 10, 19--. + +"MY DEAR BARBARA:-- + +"You have often asked me to write you something of myself, my youth, but +where shall I begin? + +"I sometimes think that I must have been born facing backward, and a +fatality has kept me walking in that direction ever since, so wide a +space there seems to be to-day between myself and those whose age shows +them to be my contemporaries. + +"My father, being a man of solid position both in commerce and society, +and having a far greater admiration for men of art and letters than would +have been tolerated by his wholly commercial Knickerbocker forbears, I, +his youngest child and only son, grew up to man's estate among the set of +contemporaries that formed his world, men of literary and social parts, +whose like I may safely say, for none will contradict, are unknown to the +rising generation of New Yorkers; for not only have types changed, but +also the circumstances and appreciations under which the development of +those types was possible. + +"In my nineteenth year events occurred that altered the entire course of +my life, for not only did the almost fatal accident and illness that laid +me low bar my study of a profession, but it rendered me at the same time, +though I did not then realize it, that most unfortunate of beings, the +semi-dependent son of parents whose overzeal to preserve a boy's life +that is precious, causes them to deprive him of the untrammelled manhood +that alone makes the life worth living. + +"I always had a bent for research, a passion for following the history of +my country and city to its fountain heads. I devoured old books, +journals, and the precious documents to which my father had ready access, +that passed from the attic treasure chests of the old houses in decline +to the keeping of the Historical Society. As a lad I besought every gray +head at my father's table to tell me a story, so what more natural, under +the circumstances, than that my father should make me free of his +library, and say: 'I do not expect or desire you to earn your living; I +can provide for you. Here are companions, follow your inclinations, live +your own life, and do not be troubled by outside affairs.' At first I +was too broken in health and disappointed in ambition to rebel, then +inertia became a habit. + +"As my health unexpectedly improved and energy moved me to reassert +myself and step out, a soft hand was laid on mine--the hand of my mother, +invalided at my birth, retired at forty from a world where she had shone +by force of beauty and wit--and a gentle voice would say: 'Stay with me, +my son, my baby. Oh, bear with me a little longer. If you only knew the +comfort it is to feel that you are in the house, to hear your voice. You +will pen a history some day that will bring you fame, and you will read +it to me here--we two, all alone in my chamber, before the world hears +it.' So I stayed on. How mother love often blinds the eyes to its own +selfishness. + +"That fatal twentieth year, the time of my overthrow, brought me one good +gift, your father's friendship. It was a strange chance, that meeting, +and it was my love of hearing of past events and the questions concerning +them that brought it about. Has your father ever told you of it? + +"Likely not, for his life work has been the good physician's, to bring +forth and keep alive, and mine the antiquarian's, dreaming and groping +among ruins for doubtful treasure of fallen walls. + +"My mother came of English, not Knickerbocker stock like my father, +though both belong distinctly to New York; and female education being in +a somewhat chaotic state between the old regime and new, her parents, +desirous of having her receive the genteel polish of courtly manners, +music, and dancing, sent her, when about fifteen, to Mrs. Rowson's +school, then located at Hollis Street, Boston. The fame of this school +had travelled far and wide, for not only had the preceptress in her +youth, as Susanna Haswell, been governess to the children of the +beautiful Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, one of the most accomplished +women of her day, and profited by her fine taste, but her own high morals +and literary gifts made her tutorship a much sought privilege. + +"While there my mother met the little New England girl who was long +afterward to become your grandmother. She had also come to study music, +for which she had a talent. My mother related to me, when I was a little +lad and used to burrow in her carved oak treasure chest and beg for +stories of the articles it contained, many fascinating tales of those two +school years, a pretty colour coming to her cheeks as she told of the +dances learned together, pas-de-deux and minuet, from old 'Doctor' +Shaffer, who was at the time second violin of the Boston Theatre, as +well as authority in the correct methods of bowing and courtesying for +gentlewomen. Your grandmother married first, and the letter telling of it +was stored away with others in the oak chest. + +"Some months before the steamboat accident that shattered my nerves, and +preceded the long illness, I was browsing at a bookstall, on my way up +from college homeward, when I came across a copy of Charlotte Temple--one +of the dozen later editions--printed in New York by one R. Hobbs, in +1827, its distinguishing interest lying in a frontispiece depicting +Charlotte's flight from Portsmouth. + +"The story had long been a familiar one, and I, in common with others of +many times my age and judgment, had lingered before the slab that bears +her name in the graveyard of old Trinity, and sometimes laid a flower on +it for sympathy's sake, as I have done many times since. + +"On my return home I showed the little book to my mother, and as she held +it in her hinds and read a word here and there, she too began to journey +backward to her school days, and asked my father to bring out her +treasure chest, and from it she took her school relics,--a tattered +ribbon watch-guard fastened by a flat gold buckle that Mrs. Rowson had +given her as a reward for good conduct, and a package of letters. She +spent an hour reading these, and old ties strengthened as she read. I can +see her now as she sat bolstered by pillows in her reclining chair, a +writing tray upon her knees, penning a long letter. + +"A few months afterward, as I lay in my bed too weak even to stir, your +father stood there, looking across the footboard at me,--the answer to +that letter. Your father, tall and strong of body and brain, a Harvard +graduate drawn to New York to study medicine at the College of Physicians +and Surgeons. His eyes of strengthening manly pity looked into mine and +drew me slowly back to life with them. + +"His long absence as surgeon in the Civil War, the settling down as a +country doctor, and even loving the same woman, has not separated us. +Never more than a few months passed but our thoughts met on paper, or our +hands clasped. His solicitude in a large measure restored my health, so +that at sixty-three, physically, I can hold my own with any man of my +age, and to-day I walk my ten miles with less ado than many younger men. +Because of my intense dislike of the modern means of street +transportation, I have kept on walking ever since the time that your +father and I footed it from Washington Park to Van Cortlandt Manor, +through the muskrat marshes whereon the park plaza now stands, up +through the wilds of the future Central Park, McGowan's Pass, and +northwestward across the Harlem to our destination. He will recollect. We +were two days picking our way in going and two days on the return, for we +scorned the 'bus route, and that was only in the later fifties. Never +mind, if we ever do get back to small clothes and silk stockings, Martin +Cortright can show a rounded calf, if he has been esteemed little more +than a crawling bookworm these many years. + +"Methinks I hear you yawn and crumple these sheets together in your hand, +saying: 'What ails the man--is he grown doity? I thought he was +contented, even if sluggishly serene.' + +"And so he was, as one grown used to numbness, until last summer one +Mistress Barbara visited the man-snail in his shell and exorcised him to +come forth for an outing, to feed among fresh green leaves and breathe +the perfume of flowers and young lives. When lo and behold, on the +snail's return, the shell had grown too small! + +"Faithfully, + +"M. C." + + * * * * * + +(To R. R.) + +"December 22, 19--. + +"So social change has also cast its shadow across even your country +pathway, dear Hippocrates? I wish it had spared you, but I feared as much +when I heard that your peaceful town had been invaded by an advance guard +of those same People of the Whirlpool who keep the social life of their +own city in a ferment. + +"You ask what is the matter, what the cause of the increasing +restlessness that appears on every side, driving the conservative +thinking class of moderate means to seek home shelter beyond city limits, +and drawing the rest into a swirl that, sooner or later, either casts +them forth as wrecks or sucks them wholly down. + +"The question is difficult of answer, but there are two things that are +potent causes of the third. Money too quickly earned, or rather won, +causes an unwise expansion, and a fictitious prosperity that has degraded +the life standard. Except in exclusively academic circles, the man is +gauged by his power of financial purchase and control, and the dollar is +his hall mark. He is forced to buy, not win, his way. Of course, if +pedigree and private character correspond in quantity, so much the +better, but their importance is strictly held in abeyance. + +"Even in the legendary classic shades of learning, the cold pressure of +the golden thumb crowds down and chills penniless brains. All students do +not have equal _chance_ and equal _rights_. How can they, when the +exclusiveness of many fraternities is not by intellectual gauge or the +capability for comradeship, but the power to pay high dues and spend +lavishly. Of later years, in several conspicuous cases, even the choice +of college officials of high control has been guided rather by their +capacity as financiers than for ripened and inspiring scholarship. + +"Then, too, the rack of constant change is detrimental to the finer grade +of civic sentiment. It would seem that the Island's significant Indian +name was wrought into its physical construction like the curse that kept +the Jew of fable a wanderer. Periodically the city is rent and upheaved +in unison with the surrounding changes of tide. Here one does not need to +live out his threescore years and ten to see the city of his youth slip +away from him. Even his Alma Mater packs her trunks and moves about too +rapidly to foster the undying loyal home spirit among her sons--my +college has lived in three houses since my freshman year. How I envy the +sons of Harvard, Yale, and all the rest who can go back, and, feeling at +least a scrap of the old campus turf beneath their feet, close their eyes +and be young again for one brief minute. Is not this the reason why so +many of Columbia's sons, in spite of the magnificent opportunities she +offers, send _their_ sons elsewhere, because they realize the value of +associations they have missed, and recognize the Whirlpool's +changefulness? + +"What would be the feelings of an Oxford man, on returning from his life +struggle in India or Australia, to visit his old haunts, if he found, as +a sign of vaunted progress, the Bodleian Library turned into an +apartment house! + +"The primal difference between civilized men and the nameless savage is +love of home, and the powerful races are those in whom this instinct is +the strongest. Such fealty is _not_ born in the shifting almost +tent-dwellers of Manhattan. + +"It was in the late seventies, the winter before his passing, that one +mild night I walked home from a meeting of the Goethe Club in company +with the poet Bryant. He and my father had been stanch comrades, and many +a time had I studied his Homeric head silhouetted by firelight on our +library wall. As we crossed the Park front going from Fifth Avenue east +to west, he paused, and leaning on his cane gazed skyward, where the +outlines of some buildings, in process of construction on Fifty-ninth +Street, and then considered high, stood out against the sky. "'Poor New +York,' he said, half to himself, half to me, 'created and yet cramped by +force of her watery boundaries, where shall her sons and daughters find +safe dwelling-places? They have covered the ground with their +habitations, and even now they are climbing into the sky.' And he went on +leaving his question unanswered. + + * * * * * + +"A caller interrupted me yesterday, a most persistent fellow and a +dangerous one to the purse of the tyro collector of Americana, though not +to me. He was a man of some pretence to classic education, and +superficially versed in lore of title, date, and _editio princeps_. He +had half a dozen prints of rarity and value had they not been forgeries, +and a book ... that I had long sought after in its original form, but the +only copy I had seen for many years when put up at auction lacked the +title page and fully half a dozen leaves, besides having some other +defects. Would you believe it, Dick, this copy was that from the auction, +its defects repaired, its missing leaves replaced by careful forgery, and +what is more, I know the vender was aware of the deceit. But he will sell +it to some young moneyed sprig who will not know. + +"I was angry, Dick, very angry, and yet all this is a trivial part of +what we have a long time been discussing. The sudden glint of wealth in +certain quarters has changed the aspect of even book collecting, that +once most individual of occupations, and syndicated it. + +"Once a book collection was the natural accumulation, more or less +perfect according to purse and opportunity, of one following a certain +line of thought, and bore the stamp of individuality; but as these +bibliophiles of the old regime pass away, the ranks are recruited by men +to whom money is of no account, whose competition forces irrational +prices and creates false values. Methinks I see the finish of the small +collectors like ourselves. Meanwhile, just so much intellectual pleasure +is wrested from the modern scholar of small means who dares not make +beginning. I do not like it, Dick, indeed I do not. + +"But we were discussing domesticity, I think, when this wretch rang the +bell. The restlessness I speak of as born of undisciplined bigness, of +moneyed magnitude, is visible everywhere, and more so in the hours of +relaxation than those of business. + +"We have acquired the knowledge of many arts in these late years, and we +needed it; but we have lost one that is irreparable--sociality. There is +no longer time to know oneself, how then shall we know our neighbours? + +"The verb _to entertain_ has largely driven the verb _to enjoy_ from the +social page. It is not too extreme, I think, to say the home and +playhouse have changed places. Many conservative people that I know turn +to the theatre as the only safe means of relaxation and enjoyment within +their reach, the stress and penalty of criticism in entertaining modern +company being unbearable to them. + +"To the bachelor who, like myself, has a modest hearthstone, yet no hand +but his own to stir the fire, the dinner tables of his married friends +and his clubs have been supposed to replace, in a measure at least, the +need of family ties. Once they did this as far as such things may, but +the easy sociality of the family board has almost ceased, and the +average club has so expanded that it savours more of hotel freedom than +home cosiness. + +"I am not a misanthrope or a woman hater, as you know, yet from what I +gather I fear that, in the upper middle class at least, it is the women +who are responsible for this increased formality that most men naturally +would avoid. Led by personal ambition, or that of young daughters, they +seek to maintain a standard just enough beyond their easy grasp to feel +ill at ease, if not humiliated, to be caught off guard. I remember once +when I was a mere boy hearing my father say in a sorrowing tone to my +eldest sister, who was giving fugitive reasons for not being able to +array herself quickly for some festivity for which the invitation had +been delayed, yet to which she longed to go: 'Wherever woman enters +socially, then complications begin that are wholly of her own making. I +warrant before Eve had finished her fig-leaf petticoat she was bothering +Adam to know if he thought there could be another woman anywhere who had +a garment of rarer leaves than her own.' + +"The clubs do somewhat better, being under male management, but those +among them that ranked as so conservative that membership was the hall +mark of intellectual acquirements and stamped a man as either author, +artist, or amateur of letters and the fine arts, have had their doors +pushed open by many of those who wish to wear in public the name of +being without good right, and so the little groups of kindred spirits +have broken away, the authors in one direction, the followers of the +drama to habitations of their own, artists who are too independent to be +overborne by money in another, and thus the splitting spirit increases +until it vanishes in a maze of cliques and coteries. The names may stand +on the lists, the faces are absent, and one must wander through half a +dozen clubs to really meet the aggregation of thinkers and workers of +the grade who gathered in the snug corners of the Century's old club +house in East Fifteenth Street when we were young fellows, and my father +secured us cards for an occasional monthly meeting as the greatest +favour he could do us. + +"Come down if you can, take a holiday, or rather night, and go with me to +the January meeting, and we will also stroll among some of our old +haunts. You may perhaps realize, what I cannot altogether explain, the +reason why I feel almost a stranger though at home." + + * * * * * + +(To DR. R. R.) + +"January 10, 19--. + +"Could not get away, you conscientious old Medicus, because of the +strange accidents and holiday doings of the Whirlpool Colony at +the Bluffs! + +"Well, well! I read your last with infinite amusement. You are in a fair +way to have enlightenment borne in upon you without leaving your surgery, +or at least travelling farther than your substantial gig will take you. + +"Meanwhile I have had what should be a crushing blow to my vanity, and in +analyzing it I've made an important discovery. One night last week I was +sitting quietly in the card room at the Dibdin Club, awaiting my whist +mates (for here at least one may be reasonably sure of finding a group +with bibliographic interests in common, and the pleasures of a +non-commercial game of cards), when I heard a voice, one of a group +outside, belonging to a wholesome, smooth-faced young fellow, with good +tastes and instincts, say:-- + +"'I don't know what happened to the old boy when he took that unheard-of +vacation of his last fall, or where he went, but one thing's very sure, +since his return Cortright's grown _pudgy_ and he's waked bang up. Wonder +if he's finished that Colonial History, that's to be his monument, he's +been working on all his life, or if he's fallen in love?' + +"'If he'd fall in love, he might stand more chance of finishing his +history,' replied a graybeard friend in deep didactic tones; 'he has +material in plenty, but no vital stimulus for focussing his work.' + +"I gave an unpremeditated laugh that dwindled to a chuckle, as if it were +produced by a choking process. Two heads appeared a second at the doorway +of the room they had thought empty, and then vanished! + +"When I came home I sat a long while before my den fireplace thinking. +They were right in two things, though not in the falling in love--that +was done thirty-five years ago once and for all. I wondered if I had +grown _pudgy_, dreadful word; _stout_ carries a certain dignity, but +pudgy suggests bunchy, wabbling flesh. I've noticed my gloves go on +lingeringly, clinging at the joints, but I read that to mean rheumatism! + +"That night I stood before the mirror and studied my face as I unbuttoned +my vest and loosened my shirt band at the neck. Suddenly I experienced +great relief. For several months past I have felt a strange asphyxiation +and a vertigo sensation when wearing formal clothes of any kind, enjoying +complete comfort only in the loose neckcloth and wrapper of my private +hours. I had thought of asking medical advice, but having acquired a +distrust of general physic in my youth, and hoping you might come down, I +put it off. + +"Unfasten your own top button, and now prepare to laugh--Martin Cortright +is not threatened with apoplexy or heart failure, he's grown _pudgy_, and +his clothes are all too small! Yet but for that boy's good-tempered +ridicule he might not have discovered it. + +"Think of it, Richard! I, whom my mother considered interesting and of +somewhat distinguished mien, owing to my pallor and slim stature! A +pudgy worm belongs to chestnuts, not to books. A pudgy antiquarian is a +thing unheard of since monastic days, when annal making was not deemed +out of place if mingled with the rotund jollity of a Friar Tuck. You +must bear half the blame, for it must be the butter habit that your +Martha Corkle's fresh churned pats inoculated me with, for I always +detested the stuff before. + +"Graybeard's stricture, however, struck a deeper chord--'He has material +in plenty for his book, but no vital stimulus.' This, too, is deeply +true, and I have felt it vaguely so for some time, but no more realized +it than I did my pudginess. + +"No matter how much material one collects, if the vitalizing spirit is +not there, no matter how realistically the stage may be set if the actors +are mere dummies. The only use of the past is to illuminate and sustain +the present. + +"Your own home life and work, the honest questions of little Richard and +Ian waken me from a long sleep, I believe, and set me thinking. What is +a man remembered by the longest? Brain work, memorial building, or heart +touching? Do you recollect once meeting old Moore--Clement Clark +Moore--at my father's? He was a profound scholar in Greek and Hebrew +lexicology, and gave what was once his country house and garden in old +Chelsea Village to the theological seminary of his professorship. How +many people remember this, or his scholarship? But before that old +rooftree was laid low, he wrote beneath it, quite offhand, a little +poem, 'The Night Before Christmas,' that blends with childhood's dreams +anew each Christmas Eve--a few short verses holding more vitality than +all his learning. + +"If my book ever takes body, my friend, it will be under your roof, where +you and yours can vitalize it. This is no fishing for invitations--we +know each other too frankly well for that. What I wish to do is to come +into your neighbourhood next springtime, without encroaching on your +hospitality, and work some hours every day in the library, or that corner +of her charmed attic that Barbara has shared with me. It is bewitching. +Upon my word, I do not wonder that she sees the world rose-colour as she +looks upon it from that window. I, too, had long reveries there, in which +experience and tradition mixed themselves so cleverly that for the time I +could not tell whether it was my father or myself who had sometimes +proudly escorted the lovely Carroll sisters upon their afternoon +promenade down Broadway, from Prince Street to the Bowling Green, each +leading her pet greyhound by a ribbon leash, or which of us it was that, +in seeking to recapture an escaping hound, was upset by it in the mud, to +the audible delight of some rivals in a 'bus and his own discomfiture, +being rendered thereby unseemly for the beauty's further company." + + * * * * * + +"January 20, 19--. + +"Thank you, dear Richard, for your brotherly letter. I make no +protestations, for I know your invitation would not be given if you felt +my presence would in any way be a drawback or impose care on any member +of your household, and the four little hearts that Barbara drew, with her +own, Evan's, and the boys' initials in them, are seals upon the +invitation. + +"Do not deplore, however, the lack of nearness of my haunts in Astor and +Lenox libraries. Times are changed, and the new order condemns me to sit +here if I read, there if I take out pencil and pad to copy--the red tape +distracts me. The old Historical Society alone remains in comfortable +confusion, and that is soon to move upward half a day's walk. + +"But, as it chances, you have collected many of the volumes that are +necessary to me, and I will use them freely, for some day, friend of +mine, my books will be joined to yours, and also feel the touch of little +Richard's and Ian's fingers, and of their sons, also, I hope. + +"I declare, I'm growing childishly expectant and impatient for spring, +like Barbara with her packages of flower seeds. + +"You ask if I ever remember meeting one Lavinia Dorman. I think I used to +see her with a bevy of girls from Miss Black's school, who used sometimes +to attend lectures at the Historical Society rooms, and had an unlimited +appetite for the chocolate and sandwiches that were served below in the +'tombs' afterward, which appetite I may have helped to appease, for you +know father was always a sort of mine host at those functions. + +"The girls must have all been eight or ten years my junior, and you know +how a fellow of twenty-three or four regards giggling schoolgirls--they +seem quite like kittens to him. + +"Stop, was she one of the older girls, the special friend of--Barbara's +mother? If so, I remember her face, though she did not walk in the school +procession with the other 'convicts,' as the boys called them; but I was +never presented. + +"I'm sending a small birthday token to the boys--a little printing-press. +Richard showed no small skill in setting the letters of my rubber stamp. +It is some days late, but that will separate it from the glut of the +Christmas market. Ask Evan to notify me if he and Barbara go to town. + +"Gratefully, + +"M. C." + + + + +IV + +WHEN BARBARA GOES TO TOWN + + +_March_ 4. I like to go to a plain people's play, where the spectators +groan and hiss the villain. It is a wholesome sort of clearing house +where one may be freed from pent-up emotion under cover of other people's +tears and smiles; the smiles triumphing at the end, which always winds up +with a sudden recoil, leaving the nerves in a healthy thrill. I believe +that I can only comprehend the primal emotions and what is called in +intellectual jargon mental dissipation, and the problem play, in its many +phases, appeals to me even less than crude physical dissipation. + +We have seen a drama of the people played quite recently, having been to +New York to spend part of a "midwinter" week's vacation, which father +insisted that Evan should take between two rather complex and +eye-straining pieces of work. Speaking by the almanac, it wasn't +midwinter at all, but pre-spring, which, in spite of lengthening _days_, +is the only uncompromisingly disagreeable season in the country--the time +when measles usually invades the village school, the dogs come slinking +in guiltily to the fire, pasted with frozen mud, the boys have snuffle +colds, in spite of father's precautions, and I grow desperate and flout +the jonquils in my window garden, it seems so very long since summer, and +longer yet to real budding spring. We arrived at home last night in the +wildest snowstorm of the season, and this morning Evan, having smoothed +out his mental wrinkles by means of our mild city diversions, is now +filling his lungs and straightening his shoulders by building a wonderful +snow fort for the boys. Presently I shall go down to help them bombard +him in it, and try to persuade them that it will last longer if they do +not squeeze the snowballs too hard, for Evan has prohibited "baking" +altogether. + +The "baking" of snowballs consists of making up quite a batch at once, +then dipping them in water and leaving them out until they are hard as +rocks, and really wicked missiles. + +The process, unknown in polite circles here, though practised by the +factory town "muskrats," was taught my babies by the Vanderveer boy +during the Christmas holidays, which, being snowy and bright, drew the +colony to the Bluffs for coasting, skating, etc., giving father such a +river of senseless accidents to wade through that he threatens to absent +himself and take refuge with Martin Cortright in his Irving Place den for +holiday week next year. Father has ridden many a night when the roads +would not admit of wheeling, without thought of complaint, to the +charcoal camp to tend a new mother, a baby, or a woodchopper suddenly +stricken with pneumonia, that is so common a disease among men living as +these do on poor food, in tiny close cabins, and continually getting +checks of perspiration in the variable climate. During the holidays he +was called to the Bluffs in the middle of two consecutive nights, first +to the Vanderveers, and requested to "drug" the second assistant butler, +who was wildly drunk, and being a recent acquisition had been brought to +officiate at the house party without due trial, "so that he wouldn't be +used up the next day," and then to the Ponsonby's, where the family had +evidently not yet gone to bed. Here he found that the patient, a visiting +school friend of one of the daughters, from up the state, and evidently +not used to the whirl of the pool, had skated all day, and, kept going by +unaccustomed stimulants, taken half from ignorance, half from bravado, +had danced the evening through at the club house, and then collapsed. Her +hostess, careless through familiarity with it, had given her a dose of +one of the chloral mixtures "to let her have a good night's sleep"; but +instead it had sent her into hysterics, and she was calling wildly for +her mother to come and take her home. Father returned from both visits +fairly white with rage. Not at the unfortunates themselves, be it said, +but at the cool nonchalance of those who summoned him. + +The butler's was a common enough case. That of the young girl moved him +to pity, and then indignation, as he sifted, out the cause of the attack, +in order to treat her intelligently. This questioning Mrs. Ponsonby +resented most emphatically, telling him "to attend to his business and +not treat ladies as if they were criminals." This to a man of father's +professional ability, and one of over sixty years of age in the bargain. + +"Madam," said he, "you _are_ a criminal; for to my thinking all +preventable illness, such as this, is a crime. Leave the room, and when I +have soothed this poor child I will go home; and remember, do not send +for me again; it will be useless." + +Never a word did he say of the matter at home, though I read part in his +face; but the Ponsonby's housekeeper, a countrywoman of Martha Corkle's, +took the news to her, adding "and the missus stepped lively too, she +did; only, law's sakes, by next mornin' she'd forgot all about it, and, +we being short-handed, wanted me to go down with James and get the Doctor +up to spray her throat for a hoarseness, and I remindin' her what he'd +said, she laughed and answered, 'He had a bear's manners,' but to go tell +him she'd pay him city prices, and she bet that would mend him and them!" + +I took good care not to repeat this to father, for he would be wounded. +He is beginning to see that they use him as a sort of ambulance surgeon, +but he does not yet understand the absolute money insolence of these +people to those not of their "set," whom they consider socially or +financially beneath them, and I hope he never may. He is so full of good +will to all men, so pitiful toward weakness and sin, and has kept his +faith in human nature through thirty-five years' practice in a factory +town, hospital wards, charcoal camp, and among the odd characters of the +scattering hillsides, that it would be an undying shame to have it +shattered by the very people that the others regard with hopeless envy. + +Shame on you, Barbara, but you are growing bitter. Yes, I know you do +not yourself mind left-handed snubs and remarks about your being +"comfortably poor," but you won't have that splendid old father of yours +put upon and sneezed at, with cigarette sneezes, too. You should realize +that they don't know any better, also that presently they may become +dreadfully bored after the manner of degenerates and move away from the +Bluffs, and then companionable, commuting, or summer resident people will +have a chance to buy their houses. + +Shrewd Martha Corkle foresaw the probable outcome the day that the +foundation-stone for the first cottage was laid, even before our +prettiest flower-hedged lane was shorn and torn up to make it into a +macadam road, in order to shorten the time, for motor vehicles, between +the Bluffs and the station by possibly three minutes. Not that the people +were obliged to be on time for early trains, for they are mostly the +reapers of other people's sowing; but to men of a certain calibre, born +for activity, the feeling that, simply for the pleasure of it, they can +wait until the very latest moment and still get there, is an amusement +savouring of both chance and power. + +"Yes, Mrs. Evan," said Martha, with as much of a sniff as she felt +compatible with her dignity, "I knows colernies of folks not born to or +loving the soil, but just trying to get something temporary out o' it in +the way o' pleasure, as rabbits, or mayhap bad smelling water for the +rheumatics. (It was the waters Lunnon swells came for down on the old +estate.) To my thinkin' these pleasure colernies is bad things; they +settles as senseless as a swarm of bees, just because their leader's lit +there first; and when they've buzzed themselves out and moved on, like as +not some sillies as has come gapin' too close is bit fatal or poisoned +for life." + +Well-a-day! Evan says that I take things to heart that belong to the head +alone, while father says that, to his mind, feeling is much more of a +need to-day than logic; so what can I do but still stumble along +according to feeling. + +A shout from beneath the window, then a soft snowball on it, the signal +that the fort is finished,--yes, and the old Christmas tree stuck up top +as a standard. Richard has built a queer-looking snow man with red knobs +all over his chest and stomach, while Ian has achieved several most +curious looking things with carrot horns,--whatever are they? Father has +just driven in, and is laughing heartily, and Evan is waving to me. + + * * * * * + +Calm reigns again. The fort has surrendered, the final charge having been +led by Corney Delaney. We've had hot milk all around, father has retired +to the study to decipher a complicated letter from Aunt Lot, Evan has +taken the boys into the den for a drawing lesson, and the mystery of the +snow man is solved. + +We do not intend to have the boys learn any regular lessons before +another fall, but for the last two years I have managed that they +should sit still and be occupied with something every morning, so that +they may learn how to keep quiet without its being a strain,--shelling +peas, cutting papers for jelly pots, stringing popcorn for the hospital +Christmas tree, seeding raisins with a dozen for pay at the end--this +latter is an heroic feat when it is accomplished without drawing the +pay on the instalment plan--and many other little tasks, varied +according to season. + +Ian has a quick eye and comprehension, and he is extremely colour +sensitive, but healthily ignorant of book learning, while Richard, how we +do not know, has learned to read in a fashion of his own, not seeming yet +to separate letters or words, but "swallowing the sense in lumps," as +Martha puts it. + +Yesterday, before our return, the weather being threatening, and the +boys, keyed for mischief, clamouring and uneasy, very much as birds and +animals are before a storm, father invited them to spend the afternoon +with him in the study, and Martha Corkle, who mounts guard during my +brief holidays, saw that their paws were scrubbed, and then relaxed her +vigilance, joining Evan in the sewing room. + +After many three-cornered discussions as to what liberty was to be +allowed the boys in study and den, we decided that when they learned to +respect books in the handling they should be free to browse as they +pleased; the curiosities, rarities, and special professional literature, +being behind glass doors, could easily be protected by lock and key. +Father's theory is that if you want children to love books, no barriers +must be interposed from the beginning, and that being so much with us the +boys will only understand what is suited to their age, and therefore the +harmful will pass them by. I was never shut from the library shelves, or +mysteries made about the plain-spoken literature of other days, in spite +of Aunt Lot's fuming. I did not understand it, so it did not tempt, and +as I look back, I realize that the book of life was spread before me +wisely and gradually, father turning page after page, then passing the +task to Evan, so that I never had a shock or disillusionment. + +I wonder if mother had lived if I should think differently, and be more +apprehensive about the boys, womanwise? I think not; for I am a +sun-loving Pagan all through, really born far back in an overlooked +corner of Eden, and I prefer the forceful father influence that teaches +one _to overcome_ rather than the mother cult which is _to bear_, for so +much is cumbrously borne in self-glorified martyrdom by women of their +own volition. + +I know that I am very primitive in my instincts and emotions; so are the +boys, and that keeps us close, or so close, together. + +Of course illustrated books are now the chief attraction to them in the +library, and yesterday, when father went there with the boys, he supplied +Ian, as usual, with "The Uncivilized Races of Man," which always opens of +itself at the Mumbo Jumbo picture, and as a great treat for Richard, took +down the three quarto volumes of Audubon's "Quadrupeds," and ranged them +on a low stand with a stool in front of it. Then, being tired after a +hard morning's work, he drew his big leather chair near the, fire, put on +an extra log, and proceeded to--meditate. You will doubtless notice +that when father or husband close their eyes, sitting in comfortable +chairs by the fire, they are always meditating, and never sleeping, +little nosey protestations to the contrary. + +Father's meditations must have been long and deep, for when he was +startled from them by the breaking in two of the hickory log, a gory +spectacle met his eyes. + +Richard was sitting on the hearth rug, which he had carefully covered +with newspapers; these, as well as his hands and face, were stained a +deep crimson, while with a stout silver fruit-knife he was hacking pieces +from a great pulpy red mass before him. + +Checking an exclamation of horror father started forward, to meet +Richard's cheerful, frank gaze and the request, as he dug away +persistently, to "Please wait one minute more, dranpa. I've got the heart +all done, that big floppy piece is lungs, an' I've most made the liver. +Not the good kind that goes wif curly bacon, but a nasty one like what we +wear inside." + +Then spying a medical chart with coloured pictures that was propped up +against the wood box, father found the clew, and comprehended that +Richard was giving himself a practical lesson in anatomy by trying to +carve these organs from a huge mangel wurzel beet that he had rolled in +from the root cellar. Did father scold him for mess-making, or laugh at +his attempt that had little shape except in his own baby brain? + +No, neither; he carefully closed the door against Martha's possible +entrance, seriously and respectfully put the precious objects on a plate, +to which he gave a place of honour on the mantel shelf, and after +removing as far as possible all traces of beet from face and hands in his +sacred office lavatory, he took Richard with him into the depths of the +great chair and told the happy child his favourite rigmarole, all about +the "three gentlemen of high degree," who do our housework for us. How +the lungs, who are Siamese twins, called to the heart to pump them up +some blood to air, because they were almost out of work, and how the big +lazy liver lay on one side and groaned because he had drunk too much +coffee for breakfast, and had a headache,--until Richard really felt that +he had achieved something. So the first thing this morning he set about +making a snow man, that he might put the beet vitals in their proper +places, nearly convulsing father by their location. Though, as he told +me, they were accurate, compared to the ideas of many trained nurses with +whom he had come in contact. + +But where was Ian during the beet carving? Father quite forgot him +until, Richard falling asleep in his arms, he arose to tuck him up on +the sofa. A sound of the slow turning of large pages guided him to the +corner by the bay window where some bookcases, standing back to back, +made a sort of alcove. There was Ian, flat upon his stomach, while +before him the "Wandering Jew" legend, with the Doré pictures, lay open +at the final scene--The Last Judgment--where the Jew, his journey over, +looks up at the angels coming to greet him, while little devils pull +vainly at his tattered boots. It was not the Jew or the angels, however, +that held Ian's attention, and whose outlines he was tracing with his +forefinger, but the devils, one big fellow with cows' horns and wings +drooping like those of a moulting crow, and a bevy of imps with young +horns and curly tails who were pulling a half-buried body toward the +fiery pit by its hair. + +Father explained the pictures in brief, and closed the book as quickly as +possible, thinking the boy might be frightened in his dreams by the +demons. But no, Ian was fascinated, not frightened. He would have liked +the pygmies to come and play with him, and he turned to father with a +sigh, saying, "They're bully pullers, dranpop. I guess if they and me +pulled against Corney Delaney we could get him over the line all right," +one of the boys' favourite pastimes being to play tug-of-war with the +goat, the rope being fastened to its horns, but Corney was always +conqueror. + +Neither did Ian forget the imps quickly, as some children do their +impressions, but strove to model them this morning, making round snow +bodies, carrot horns, corncob legs, and funny celery tails; the result +being positively startling and "overmuch like witch brats," as Effie +declared, with bulging eyes. + +They unfortunately did not perish with the fort, for Richard doesn't like +them; but are now huddled in a group under the old Christmas tree, where +Lark is barking at them. + + * * * * * + +I started to record our visit to Lavinia Dorman, but my "human +documents," printed on vellum, came between, and I would not miss a word +they have to say for the "Mechlinia Albertus Magnus," which father says +is the rarest book in the world, though Evan disputes his preference, and +Martin Cortright would doubtless prefer the first edition of Denton's +"New York." + +In past times, when we have visited Miss Lavinia, we have been fairly +meek and decorous guests, following the programme that she planned with +such infinite attention to detail that free will was impossible, and we +often felt like paper dolls. + +We had read her lament on the death of sociability and back yards with +many a smile, and a sigh also, for to one born in the pool, every ripple +that stirs it must be of importance, and it is impossible for outsiders +to urge her to step out of the eddies altogether and begin anew, for New +Yorkitis seems to be not only a rarely curable disease to those who have +it, but an hereditary one as well. + +As usual, Evan came to the rescue, as we sat in the den the night before +our departure. "Let us turn tables on Miss Lavinia this time and take her +to see our New York," he said, "since we are all quite tired of hers. Do +you remember the time when we went to town to buy the trappings for the +boys' first tree and were detained until Christmas morning by the delay +of a cable I had to wait for? After dinner Christmas Eve we coaxed Miss +Lavinia out with us and bought half a bushel of jolly little toys from +street fakirs to take home, and then boarded an elevated train and rode +about the city until after midnight, in and out the downtown streets and +along the outskirts, to see all the poor people's Christmas trees in the +second stories of tenements, cheap flats, and over little shops. How she +enjoyed it, and said that she never dreamed that tenement people could be +so happy; and she finally waxed so enthusiastic that she gave a silver +half dollar each to four little newsboys crouching over the steam on a +grating in Twenty-third Street, and when they cheered her and a policeman +came along, we told the dear old soul that he evidently thought her a +suspicious character, a counterfeiter at the very least. And she always +spoke afterward with bated breath on the dangers of the streets late at +night, and her narrow escape from arrest. We came to New York unsated and +without responsibilities to push us, and looked from the outside in. + +"No, Barbara, you did better than you knew that day six years ago, when +we sat in the Somerset garden, and you persuaded me to become a commuter +and let you plant a garden, promising never to talk about servants, and +you've kept your word. I was dubious then, but now--if you only knew the +tragedies I've seen among men of my means and aims these last few years, +the struggle to be in the swim, or rather the backwater of it. The +disappointment, the debt and despair, the pink teas and blue dinners +given in cramped flats, the good fellows afraid to say no to wives whose +hearts are set on being thought 'in it,' and the wives, haggard and +hollow-eyed because the husbands wish to keep the pace by joining clubs +that are supposedly the hall-marks of the millionnaire. New York is the +best place for doing everything in but three--to be born in, to live in, +and to die in." + +"So you wish us to play bachelor girl and man for a few days, and herd +Miss Lavinia about, which I suppose is the pith of these heroics of +yours," I said, rather astonished, for Evan seldom preaches. "I never +knew that you were such an anti-whirlpooler before, and I've at times +felt selfish about keeping you at the old home, though not since the boys +came, it's so healthy for them, bless them. Now I feel quite relieved," +and I arranged a little crisp curl that will break loose in spite of +persistent wetting, for men always seem to discourage curly hair, father +keeping his shorn like a prize-fighter. This curl softens the rigour of +Evan's horseshoe scowl, and when I fix it gives him a chance to put his +arm around my waist, which is the only satisfactory way of discussing +plans for a pleasure trip. + +We arrived in town duly a little before dinner time. It is one of Evan's +comfortable travelling habits, this always arriving at a new place at the +end of day, so as to get the bearings and be adjusted when we awake next +morning. To arrive in the morning, when paying a visit especially, is +reversing the natural order of things; you are absent-minded until lunch, +sleepy all the afternoon, dyspeptic at dinner, when, like as not, some +one you have wholly forgotten or hoped to is asked to meet you. If the +theatre follows, you recuperate, but if it is cards (of which I must have +a prenatal hatred, it is so intense) with the apology, "I thought you +might be tired and prefer a cosey game of whist to going out," you trump +your partner's tricks, lead the short suits and mix clubs and spades with +equal oblivion, and, finally, going to bed, leave a bad impression behind +that causes your hostess to say, strictly to herself, if she is +charitable, "How Barbara has deteriorated; she used to be a good talker, +but then, poor dear, living in the country is _so_ narrowing." + +Of course if you merely go away to spend the day it is different; you +generally keep on the move and go home to recover from it. And how men +usually hate staying in other people's houses, no matter how wide they +keep their doors open or how hospitably inclined they may be themselves. +They seem to be self-conscious, and are constrained to alter their +ordinary habits, which makes them miserable and feel as if they had given +up their free will and identity. There are only two places that I ever +dream of taking Evan, and Lavinia Dorman's is one of them. + +When we had made ourselves smart for dinner and joined Miss Lavinia by +the fire in her tiny library, we read by her hair that she was evidently +intending to stay at home that evening, for her head has its nodes like +the moon. She has naturally pretty, soft wavy hair, with now and then a +silver streak running through it. I have often seen Lucy when she brushes +it out at night. But because there is a dash of white in the front as if +a powder puff had rested there a moment by accident, it is screwed into a +little knob and covered with skilfully made yet perfectly apparent +frontlets to represent the different styles of hair-dressing affected by +women of abundant locks. + +No. 1, worn at breakfast, is the most reasonable. It is quite plain, +slightly waved, and has a few stray hairs carelessly curved where it +joins the forehead. No. 2 is for rainy weather; the curls are fuzzy and +evidently baked in; it requires a durable veil to keep it in +countenance. Evan calls it the "rasher of bacon front." No. 3 is for +calling and all entertainments where the bonnet stays on; it has a baby +bang edge a trifle curled and a substantial cushion atop to hold the hat +pins; while No. 4, the one she wore on our arrival, is an elaborate +evening toupie with a pompadour rolling over on itself and drooping +slightly over one eye while it melts into a butterfly bow and handful of +puffs on the crown that in turn end in a single curl behind. + +We had a dainty little dinner, grape fruit, clear soup, smelts, wild +duck, salad, fruit, and coffee, and it was daintily served, for Miss +Lavinia always keeps a good cook and remembers our dislike of the various +forms of hash known as entrées. + +The coffee was placed on a low mahogany stand by the library fire, and +Miss Lavinia herself handed Evan a quaint little silver lamp by which to +light his cigar, for she has all the cosmopolitan instincts of a woman +who not only knows the world but had heard her father discuss tobacco, +and really enjoyed the soothing fragrance of a good cigar. + +As soon as we were settled and poor singed Josephus had tiptoed in by +the fire, evidently trying to make up for his shabby coat by the +profundity of his purr, Evan set forth his scheme to our hostess. We +were to lodge and breakfast with her, but after that she was to play our +way, and be at our disposal morning, afternoon, and evening, at +luncheon, dinner, and supper, and the game was to be the old-fashioned +one of "follow the leader!" + +At first Miss Lavinia hesitated regretfully, it seemed so +inhospitable,--she had thought to take us to several parlour concerts. +Mrs. Vanderdonk, she that was a De Leyster, was going to throw open her +picture gallery for charity, which would give us an opportunity to see +her new house. In fact the undertow of the Whirlpool was still pulling at +her ankles, even though she had freed her head, and it seemed impossible +to her that there could be any New York other than the one she knew. + +Finally her almost girlish vitality asserted itself, and bargaining that +we should allow her one evening to have Sylvia Latham to dinner, she +surrendered. + +"Then we will begin at once by going to the theatre," said Evan, jumping +up and looking at the clock, which pointed at a few minutes of eight. + +"Have you tickets? Isn't this a little sudden?" asked Miss Lavinia with a +little gasp, evidently remembering that her hair was arranged for the +house only. + +"No, I have no tickets, but Barbara and I always go in this way, and if +we cannot get in at one place we try another, for usually some good seats +are returned from the outside ticket offices a few minutes before the +play begins. The downtown theatres open the earliest, so we can start +near by and work our way upward, if necessary." + +To my surprise in five minutes Miss Lavinia was ready, and we sallied +forth, Evan sandwiched between us. As the old Dorman house is in the +northeastern corner of what was far away Greenwich Village,--at the +time-the Bouerie was a blooming orchard, and is meshed in by a curious +jumble of thoroughfares, that must have originally either followed the +tracks of wandering cattle or worthy citizens who had lost their +bearings, for Waverley Place comes to an untimely end in West Eleventh +Street, and Fourth Street collides with Horatio and is headed off by +Thirteenth Street before it has a chance even to catch a glimpse of the +river,--a few steps brought us into Fourteenth Street, where naming +gas-jets announced that the play of "Jim Bludso" might be seen. + +"Dear me!" ejaculated Miss Lavinia, "do people still go to this theatre? +The last time I came here it was in the seventies to see Mrs. Rousby as +Rosalind." + +When we took our seats the play, founded, as the bill informed us, +upon one of the Pike County Ballads, had begun, and Miss Lavinia soon +became absorbed. + +It is a great deal to be surrounded by an audience all thoroughly in the +mood to be swayed by the emotion of the piece, plain people, perhaps, but +solidly honest. Directly in front sat a young couple; the girl, in a +fresh white silk waist, wore so fat and new a wedding ring upon her +ungloved hand, which the man held in a tight grip, that I surmised that +this trip into stageland was perhaps their humble wedding journey, from +which they would return to "rooms" made ready by jubilant relatives, eat +a wonderful supper, and begin life. + +The next couple were not so entirely _en rapport_. The girl, who wore +a gorgeous garnet engagement ring, also very new, merely rested her +hand on her lover's coat sleeve where she could see the light play +upon the stones. + +When, after the first act, in answer to hearty rounds of applause, varied +with whistles and shouts from the gallery, the characters stepped +forward, not in the unnatural string usual in more genteel play-houses, +where victor and vanquished join hands and bow, but one by one, each +being greeted by cheers, hisses, or groans, according to the part, and +when the villain appeared I found myself groaning with the rest, and +though Evan laughed, I know he understood. + +After it was over, as we went out into the night, Evan headed toward +Sixth Avenue instead of homeward. + +"May I ask where we are going now?" said Miss Lavinia, meekly. She had +really enjoyed the play, and I know I heard her sniff once or twice at +the proper time, though of course I pretended not to. + +"Going?" echoed Evan. "Only around the corner to get three fries in a +box, with the usual pickle and cracker trimmings, there being no +restaurant close by that you would care for; then we will carry them home +and have a little supper in the pantry, if your Lucy has not locked up +the forks and taken the key to bed. If she has, we can use wooden +toothpicks." + +At first Miss Lavinia seemed to feel guilty at the idea of disturbing +Lucy's immaculate pantry at such an hour; but liberty is highly +infectious. She had spent the evening out without previous intent; the +next step was to feel that her soul was her own on her return. She +unlocked the forks, Evan unpacked the upstairs ice-chest for the dog's +head bass that wise women always have when they expect visiting +Englishmen, even though they are transplanted and acclimated ones, and +she ate the oysters, still steaming from their original package, with +great satisfaction. After we had finished Miss Lavinia bravely declared +her independence of Lucy. The happy don't-care feeling produced by +broiled oysters and bass on a cold night is a perfect revelation to +people used to after-theatre suppers composed of complications, sticky +sweets, and champagne. + +When we had finished I thought for a moment that she showed a desire to +conceal the invasion by washing the dishes, but she put it aside, and we +all went upstairs together. + +A little shopping being in order, Evan took himself off in the morning, +leaving Miss Lavinia and me to prowl, after we had promised to meet him +at a downtown restaurant at one. + +Little boys are delightful things to shop for,--there is no matching this +and that, no getting a yard too much or too little, everything is +substantial and straight away, and all you have to do when the bundles +are sent home by express is to strengthen the sewing on of buttons and +reinforce the seats and knees of everyday pantikins from the inside. + +We strolled about slowly, and at half past one were quite ready to sit +still and not only eat our lunch but watch business mankind eat his. If +any one wishes to feel the clutch and motive power of the Whirlpool let +him go to the Mazarin any time between twelve-thirty and two o'clock. The +streets themselves are surging with men, all hurrying first in one +direction, then another, until it seems as if there either must be a fire +somewhere, or else a riot afoot. The doors of the restaurant open and +shut incessantly, corks pop, knives and forks rattle, everything is being +served from a sandwich and a glass of beer to an elaborate repast with a +wine to every course, while through and above it all the stress of +business is felt. Of course the great financiers usually have luncheon +served in their offices, to save them from the crowd; besides, it might +give common humanity a chance to scrutinize their countenances, and +perchance read what they thought upon some question of moment, for it +sometimes seems as if the eye of the New York journalist has X-ray power. +On the other hand, the humbler grade, with less of either time or money +to spare, go to the "quick lunch" counters and "dime-in-the-slot" +sandwich concerns; yet Evan says that the gathering at the Mazarin is +fairly representative. + +Miss Lavinia was bewildered. Her downtown visits to her broker's office +were always made in a cab, with Lucy to stay in it as a preventative of +the driver's taking a sly glass or a thief snatching her lap-robe--she +never uses public carriage rugs. She clung to the obsolete idea that Wall +Street was no place for women, and saw, as in a dream, the daintily +dressed stenographers, bookkeepers, and confidential clerks mingling with +the trousered ranks in the street, not to mention the damsels in tidy +shirtwaists, with carefully undulated hair and pointed, polished finger +nails, who were lunching at near-by tables, sometimes seemingly with +their employers as well as with other male or female friends. + +"I wonder how much of all this is bad for uptown home life?" Miss Lavinia +queried, gazing around the room; but as she did not address either of us +in particular, we did not answer, as we did not know,--who does? + +A spare half-hour before closing time we gave to the Stock Exchange, and +it was quite enough, for some one was short on something, and pandemonium +reigned. As we stood on the corner of Rector Street and Broadway, +hesitating whether to take surface or elevated cars, faint strains of +organ music from Trinity attracted us. + +"Service or choir practice; let us go in a few moments," said Evan, to +whom the organ is a voice that never fails to draw. We took seats far +back, and lost ourselves among the shadows. A special service was in +progress, the music half Gregorian, and the congregation was too +scattered to mar the feeling that we had slipped suddenly out of the +material world. The shadows of the sparrows outside flitted upward on the +stained glass windows, until it seemed as if the great chords had broken +free and taking form were trying to escape. + +Now and then the door would open softly and unaccustomed figures slip in +and linger in the open space behind the pews. Aliens, newly landed and +wandering about in the vicinity of their water-front lodging-houses, +music and a church appealed to their loneliness. Some stood, heads bowed, +and some knelt in prayer and crossed themselves on leaving; one woman, +lugging a great bundle tied in a blue cloth, a baby on her arm and +another clinging to her skirts, put down her load, bedded the baby upon +it, and began to tell her beads. + +The service ended, and the people scattered, but the organist played on, +and the boy choir regathered, but less formally. + +"What is it?" we asked of the verger, who was preparing to close +the doors. + +"There will be a funeral of one of the oldest members of the +congregation to-morrow, and they are about to go through the music of +the office." + +Suddenly a rich bass voice, strong in conviction, trumpeted forth--"I am +the resurrection and the life!" And only a stone's throw away jingled the +money market of the western world. The temple and the table of the money +changers keep step as of old. Ah, wonderful New York! + + * * * * * + +The afternoon was clear staccato and mild withal, and the sun, almost at +setting, lingered above orange and dim cloud banks at the end of the +vista Broadway made. + +"Are you tired? Can you walk half a dozen blocks?" asked Evan of Miss +Lavinia, as we came out. + +"No, quite the reverse; I think that I am electrified," she +replied briskly. + +"Then we will go to Battery Park," he said, turning south. + +"Battery Park, where all the immigrants and roughs congregate! What an +idea! We shall catch smallpox or have our pockets picked!" + +"Have you ever _been_ there?" persisted Evan. + +"Yes, once, I think, when steamship passengers lathed at the barge +office, and of course I've seen it often in going to Staten Island to +visit Cousin Lucretia." + +Evan's only reply was to keep on walking. We did not cross the "bowling +green," but swung to the right toward Pier I, and took the path between +old Castle Garden and the sea wall at the point where one of the fire +patrol boats was resting, steam up and hose nozzles pointed, lance +couchant wise. + +Ah, what a picture! No wonder Miss Lavinia adjusted her glasses quickly +(she is blindly nearsighted), caught her breath, and clung to Evan's arm +as the fresh sea breeze coming up from the Narrows wheeled her about. +Before us Staten Island divided the water left and right, while between +it and the Long Island shore, just leaving quarantine and dwarfing the +smaller craft, an ocean liner, glistening with ice, was coming on in +majestic haste. All about little tugs puffed and snorted, and freighters +passed crosswise, parting the floating ice and churning it with their +paddles, scarcely disturbing the gulls, that flew so close above the +water that their wings touched, or floated at leisure. + +The sun that had been gilding everything from masthead to floating spar +gathered in its forces, and for one moment seemed to rest upon Liberty's +torch, throwing the statue into clear relief, and then dropped rapidly +behind the river's night-cloud bank, and presently lights began to +glimmer far and near, the night breath rose from the water, and the +wave-cradled gulls slept. + +"Do you like our New York?" asked Evan, turning to go. + +"Don't speak," whispered Miss Lavinia, hanging back. + +But we were no sooner on the elevated train than she found use for her +tongue, for whose feet should I stumble over on entering, quite big feet +too, or rather shoes, for the size of the man, but Martin Cortright's, +and of course he was duly presented to Miss Lavinia. + + + + +V + +FEBRUARY VIOLETS + + +That night Miss Lavinia was forced to ask "for time for 'forty winks'" +before she could even think of dinner, and Evan and I sat them out in the +deep, hospitable chairs by the library fire. We were not tired, simply +held in check; country vitality shut off from certain ways for six months +is not quickly exhausted, but, on the other hand, when it is spent, it +takes several months to recuperate. + +The first night that I leave home for these little excursions I have a +sense of virtue and simmering self-congratulation. I feel that I am doing +a sensible thing in making a break from what the theorists call "the +narrowing evenness of domestic existence." Of course it is a good thing +for me to leave father and the boys, and see and hear something new to +take back report of to them; it is better for them to be taught +appreciation of me by absence; change is beneficial to every one, etc., +etc., and all that jargon. + +The second night I am still true to the theory, but am convinced that to +the highly imaginative, a city day and its doings may appear like the +Biblical idea of eternity--reversed--"a thousand years." The third +night I am painfully sure of this, and if I remain away over a fourth, +which is very rare, I cast the whole theory out to the winds of +scepticism, and am so restless and disagreeable that Evan usually +suggests that I take a morning train home and do not wait for him, which +is exactly the responsibility that I wish him to assume, thus saving me +from absolute surrender. + +We always have a good time on our outings, and yet after each the +pleasure of return grows keener, so that occasionally Evan remonstrates +and says: "Sometimes I cannot understand your attitude; you appear to +enjoy every moment keenly, and yet when you go home you act as if you had +mercifully escaped from a prison that necessitated going through a sort +of thanksgiving ceremony. It seems very irrational." + +But when I ask him if it would be more rational to be sorry to come home, +he does not answer,--at least not in words. + +"Where do we dine to-night?" I asked Evan, as he was giving unmistakable +signs of "meditation," and I heard by the footsteps overhead that Miss +Lavinia was stirring. + +"At the Art and Nature Club. You can dress as much or as little as you +please, and we can get a table in a cosey corner, and afterward sit about +upstairs for an hour, for there will be music to-night. I have asked +Martin Cortright to join us. It has its interesting side, this--a +transplanted Englishman married to a country girl introducing old +bred-in-the-bone New Yorkers to New Manhattan." + +When I go to town my costuming consists merely in change of waists, as +street and public conveyances alike are a perpetual menace to one's best +petticoats, so in a few moments we were on our way uptown. + +We did not tell Miss Lavinia where we were going until we were almost +there, and she was quite upset, as dining at the two or three hotels and +other places affected by the Whirlpoolers implies a careful and special +toilet to run the gantlet of society reporters, for every one is somebody +in one sense, though in another "nobody is really any one." + +She was reassured, however, the moment that she drew her high-backed oak +chair up to the table that Evan had reserved in a little alcove near the +fireplace. Before the oysters arrived, and Martin Cortright appeared to +fill the fourth seat, she had completely relaxed, and was beaming at the +brass jugs and pottery beakers ranged along a shelf above the dark +wainscot, and at the general company, while the warmth from the fire logs +gave her really a very pretty colour, and she began to question Martin as +to who all these people, indicating the rapidly filling-up tables, were. +But Martin gazed serenely about and confessed he did not know. + +The people came singly, or in twos and threes, men and women together or +alone, a fact at which Miss Lavinia greatly marvelled. Greetings were +exchanged, and there was much visiting from table to table, as if the +footing was that of a private house. + +"Nice-looking people," said Miss Lavinia, meditatively scrutinizing the +room through her lorgnette without a trace of snobbery in her voice or +attitude, yet I was aware that she was mentally drawing herself apart. +"Some of them quite unusual, but there is not a face here that I ever saw +in society. Are they members of the Club? Where do they come from? Where +do they live?" + +Evan's lips shut together a moment before he answered, and I saw a +certain steely gleam in his eye that I always regarded as a danger +signal. + +"Perhaps they might ask the same questions about you," he answered; +"though they are not likely to, their world is so much broader. They are +men and women chiefly having an inspiration, an art or craft, or some +vital reason for living besides the mere fact that it has become a habit. +They are none of them rich enough to be disagreeable or feel that they +own the right to trample on their fellows. They all live either in or +near New York, as best suits their means, vocations, and temperaments. +Men and women together, they represent, as well as a gathering can, the +hopeful spirit of our New York of New Manhattan that does not grovel to +mere money power." + +Miss Lavinia seemed a little abashed, but Martin Cortright, who had been +a silent observer until now, said: "It surprises me to see fraternity of +this sort in the midst of so many institutions of specialized +exclusiveness and the decadence of clubs, that used to be veritable +brotherhoods, by unwise expansion. I like the general atmosphere, it +seems cheerful and, if one may blend the terms, conservatively Bohemian." + +"Come upstairs before the music begins, so that we can get comfortably +settled in the background, that I may tell you who some of these +'unknown-to-Whirlpool-society' people are. You may be surprised," said +Evan to Miss Lavinia, who had by this time finished her coffee. + +The rooms were cheerful with artistic simplicity. The piano had been +moved from the lounging room into the picture gallery opposite to where a +fine stained glass window was exhibited, backed by electric lights. + +We stowed ourselves away in a deep seat, shaped something like an +old-fashioned school form, backed and cushioned with leather, to watch +the audience gather. Every phase of dress was present, from the ball gown +to the rainy weather skirt, and enough of each grade to keep one another +in countenance. About half the men wore evening suits, but those who did +not were completely at their ease. + +There was no regular ushering to seats, but every one was placed +easily and naturally. Evan, who had Miss Lavinia in charge, was +alert, and rather, it seemed to me, on the defensive; but though +Martin asked questions, he was comfortably soothing, and seemed to +take in much at a glance. + +That short man with the fine head, white hair and beard, aquiline nose, +and intense eyes is not only a poet, but the first American critic of +pure literature. He lives out of town, but comes to the city daily for a +certain stimulus. The petite woman with the pretty colour who has crossed +the room to speak to him is the best known writer of New England romance. +That shy-looking fellow standing against the curtain at your right, with +the brown mustache and broad forehead, is the New England sculptor whose +forcible creations are known everywhere, yet he is almost shrinkingly +modest, and he never, it seems, even in thought, has broken the +injunction of "Let another praise thee, not thine own lips." + +Half a dozen promising painters are standing in the doorway talking to a +young woman who, beginning with newspaper work, has stepped suddenly into +a niche of fiction. The tall, loose-jointed man at the left of the group, +the editor of a conservative monthly, has for his vis-à -vis the artist +who has had so much to do with the redemption of American architecture +and decoration from the mongrel period of the middle century. Another +night you may not see a single one of these faces, but another set, yet +equally interesting. + +Meanwhile Martin Cortright had discovered a man, a financier and also a +book collector of prominence, who was reputed to have a complete set of +some early records that he had long wished to consult; he had never found +a suitable time for meeting him, as the man, owing to having been +oftentime the prey of both unscrupulous dealers and parasitic friends, +was esteemed difficult. + +Infected by the freedom of his surroundings, Martin plucked up courage +and spoke to him, the result being an interchange of cards, book talk, +and an invitation to visit the library. + +Then the music began, and lasted not above an hour, with breathing and +chatting intervals, followed by claret cup and lemonade. A pleasant +evening's recreation, with no opportunity of accumulating the material +for either mental or physical headache. + +The night air was very soft, but of that delusive quality that in +February portends snow, and not the return of bluebirds, as the +uninitiated might expect. Miss Lavinia was fascinated by the lights and +motion of Herald Square, and at her suggestion, it being but a little +past ten, we strolled homeward down Broadway instead of taking a car. Her +delight at the crowd of promenaders, the picturesque florists' shops, and +the general buzz of night life was almost pathetic. Her after-dark +experience having been to get to and from specified places as quickly as +possible with Lucy for escort, solicitous when in a street car lest they +should pass their destination, and trembling even more when in a cab lest +the driver should have committed the variable and expansive crime of +"taking something." She bought a "ten o'clock edition" of the _Telegram_, +some of "Match Mary's" wares, that perennially middle-aged woman who +haunts the theatre region, and suggested that we have ice-cream soda at a +particularly glittering drug store, but this desire was switched into hot +bouillon by Evan, who retains the Englishman's dislike of chilling his +internals. + +New York is really a fine city by night, that is, in parts at least, and +yet it is very strange how comparatively few of the rank and file of its +inhabitants walk abroad to see the spectacle. + +By lamplight the scars and wounds of subways appear less vivid, and the +perpetual skeleton of the skyscraper merges in its background. The +occasional good bit of architecture steps out boldly from the surrounding +shadows of daylight discouragement. City life does not seem to be such an +exhausting struggle, and even the "misery wagons," as I always call +ambulances to myself, look less dreary with the blinking light fore and +aft, for you cannot go far in New York without feeling the pitying thrill +of their gongs. + +After the brightness of Broadway the side streets seemed cavernous. As we +turned westward and crossed Sixth Avenue a dark figure, outlined full +length against the blazing window of a corner liquor saloon, lined with +mirrors, in some way fixed my attention. It was a woman's figure, slight, +and a little crouching. The hat was gay and set on puffy hair, the jacket +brave with lace, but the skirt was frayed where it lapped the pavement, +and the boot that was pushed from beneath it, as if to steady a swaying +frame, was thin and broken. I do not know why I looked back after I had +passed, but as I did so, I saw the girl, for she was little more, pull a +scrap of chamois from a little bag she carried and quickly rub rouge upon +her hollow cheeks, using the saloon mirror for a toilet glass. But when I +saw the face itself I stopped short, giving Evan's arm such a tug that he +also turned. + +The woman was Jennie, the Oakland baker's only daughter, who had no lack +of country beaus, but was flattered by the attentions of one of the +Jenks-Smith's butlers, whose irreproachable manners of the +count-in-disguise variety made the native youths appear indeed uncouth. +She grew discontented, thought it beneath her social position to help her +mother in the shop, and went to town to work in a store, it was said +until her wedding, which was to be that autumn. Father worried over her +and tried to advise, but to no purpose. This was more than two years ago. +The butler left the Jenks-Smith's, and we heard that he was a married +man, with a family who had come to look him up. + +Jennie's mother said she had a fine place in a store, and showed us, from +time to time, presents the girl had sent her, so thus to find the truth +was a shock indeed. Not but what all women who are grown must bear upon +them the weight of the general knowledge of evil, but it is none the +less awful to come face to face on a street corner with one who was the +pretty village girl, whom you last saw standing behind the neat counter +with a pitcher of honeysuckles at her elbow as she filled a bag with +sugar cookies for your clamouring babies. + + * * * * * + +I suppose that I must have exclaimed aloud, for Jennie started back and +saw us, then dropped her bag and began to grope about for it as if she +was in a dream. + +"Can't we do something?" I whispered to Evan, but he only gravely +shook his head. + +"Give her this for the boys' sake," I begged, fumbling in his change +pocket and finding a bill there. "Tell her it's home money from the +Doctor's daughter--and--to go home--or--buy--a--pair of shoes." + +At first I thought she was not going to take it; but having found her bag +she straightened herself a moment, and without looking at Evan gave me a +glance, half defiant, half beseeching, grasped the money almost fiercely, +and scuttled away in the darkness, and I found that I was crying. But +Evan understood,--he always does,--and I hope that if the boys read this +little book fifteen or twenty years hence, that they will also. + +[Illustration: FEBRUARY VIOLETS.] + +As we reached the door the first snowflakes fell. Poor Jennie! + + * * * * * + +The third day of our stay began in country quiet. In fact we did not wake +up until eight; everything was snowbound, and even the occasional horse +cars that pass the front of the house had ceased their primitive +tinkling. The milkman did not come, neither did the long crispy French +rolls, a New York breakfast institution for which the commuters +confessedly have no substitute, and it was after nine before breakfast +was served. + +Evan, who had disappeared, returned at the right moment with his +newspaper and two bulky tissue paper bundles all powdered with snow, one +of which he gave to Miss Lavinia, the other to me. I knew their contents +the moment I set eyes on them, and yet it was none the less a +heart-warming surprise. + +Down in a near-by market is a little florist's shop, so small that one +might pass twenty times without noticing it; the man, a local authority, +who has kept it for years, makes a specialty of the great long-stemmed +single violets, whose fleeting fragrance no words may express. They call +them Californias now, but they are evidently the opulent kin of those +sturdy, dark-eyed Russian violets of my mother's garden, and as they mean +more than any other flower to me, Evan always brings them to me when I +come to town. This morning he trudged out in the snow, hardly thinking +this man would have any, but by mere chance the grower, suspecting snow, +brought in his crop the night before, and in spite of the storm I had the +first morning breath of these flowers of a day. + +Miss Lavinia sniffed and sighed, and then buried her aristocratic, but +rather chilly, nose in the mass. "I feel like a young girl with her first +bouquet," she said presently. + +"Ah, how good it is to be given something with a meaning. Most people +think that to be able to buy what they wish, within reason, is perfect +happiness, but it isn't. Barbara, you and this man of yours quite +unsettle me and shake my pet theories. You show sides of things in my own +birthplace that I never dreamed of looking up, and you convince me, when +I am on the wane, that married friendship is the only thing worth living +for. It's too bad of you, but fortunately for me the notion passes off +after you have gone away," and Miss Lavinia, after loving her violets a +bit longer, put them in a chubby jug of richly chased old silver. After +breakfast we tried to coax her to bundle up and come with us to +Washington Square to see the crystal trees in all their beauty; but that +was too unorthodox a feat. To plough through snow in rubber boots in the +very heart of the city was entirely too radical a move. She knew people +about the square, and I suppose did not wish to be seen by them, so she +was obliged to content herself with sight of the snow draperies and ice +jewels that decked the trees and shrubs of the doomed back yard. + +Even though the storm called a halt in our plans for Miss Lavinia, +Evan and I had a little errand of our own, our annual pilgrimage to +see the auction room where we first met that February afternoon. The +room is not there now, to be sure, but we go to see it all the same, +and have our little thrill and buy something near the place to take +home to the boys, and we shall continue to come each year unless +public improvement causes the thoroughfare itself to be hung up in the +sky, which is quite possible. + +Then Evan went down town, and I returned to lunch with Miss Lavinia, for, +if possible, we were to call on Sylvia Latham and ask her to dinner on +the morrow, the last day of our stay. Miss Lavinia proposed to invite +Sylvia to spend the night also, that we might become acquainted upon a +basis less formal than a mere dinner. + +Shortly after three o'clock we started in a coupé with two stout horses +driven by a man above suspicion of having "taken anything," at least at +the start. It is a curious fact that eight or ten inches of damp snow +can so nearly paralyze the transportation facilities of a city like New +York, but such is the case. The elevated rails become slippery, the +wheels will not grip, and the entire wheel traffic of the streets +betakes itself to the tracks of the surface lines, where trolley, truck, +and private carriage all move along solemnly in a strange procession, +like a funeral I once saw outside of Paris, where the hearse was +followed by two finely draped carriages, then by the business wagon of +the deceased, filled with employees, the draperies on this arranged so +as not to disturb the sign,--he kept a pâtisserie,--while a donkey cart, +belonging to the market garden that supplied the deceased with +vegetables, brought up the rear. + +In the middle and lower parts of New York the streets and their life +dominate the houses; on the east side of the park the houses dominate the +streets, and the flunkies, whose duty it is either to let you in or +preferably to keep you out of these houses, control the entire +situation. I may in the course of time come to respect or even like some +of these mariners of the Whirlpool, but as a class their servants are +wholly and unendurably objectionable, and the sum of all that is most +aggravating. + +The house faced the park. A carpet was spread down the steps, but we +could not conjecture if it was an ordinary custom in bad weather, or if +some function was afoot. Evidently the latter, as I had barely touched +the bell when the door flew open. Two liveried attendants were within, +one turned the door knob and the other presented his tray for the cards, +while in the distance a third, wearing the dress of a butler or +majordomo, stood by closed portières. + +We had asked for Mrs. and Miss Latham, and evidently the combination +caused confusion. No. 1 remained by the front door, No. 2, after a +moment's hesitation, motioned us to seats near the fireplace in the great +reception hall, a room by itself, wainscoted with carved oak, that also +formed the banisters and the railing of a sort of balcony above, while +the walls were hung with rich-hued tapestries, whose colours were +revealed by quaint shield-shaped electroliers of gilded glass. Man No. 3 +disappeared within the portières bearing our cards. In a moment he +reappeared, drew them apart, and stood aside as his mistress swept out, +the same cold blond woman I had seen in the market, but now most +exquisitely clad in a pale gray gown of crêpe embroidered with silver +fern fronds and held at the neck by a deep collar of splendid pearls, +pearl rings alone upon her hands, in her hair a spray of silver mistletoe +with pearls for berries. She made an exquisite picture as she advanced +swiftly to meet us, a half smile on her lips and one pink-tipped hand +extended. I love to look at beautiful women, yet the sight of her gave me +a sort of Undine shiver. + +"Dear Miss Dorman, so glad to see you, and Mrs. Evan of Oaklands also. I +have seen, but never met you, I believe," she said, giving us her hand in +turn. "I must ask you to the library, (Perkins, Miss Sylvia," she said in +an aside to No. 2, who immediately vanished upstairs,) "and then excuse +myself regretfully, for this is my afternoon for 'bridge,' as Monty Bell +and a friend or two of his are good enough to promise to come and give us +hints. Monty is so useful, you know, and so good-natured. I think you +knew his mother, didn't you, Miss Lavinia? No, Sylvia is not to play; she +is not up enough for 'bridge.' I wish you could persuade her to take +lessons and an interest in the game, for when Lent begins she will be +horribly bored, for there will be a game somewhere every day, and +sometimes two and three, and she will be quite out of it, which is very +ill-advised for a girl in her first winter, and especially when she +starts as late as Sylvia. I'm afraid that I shall have to take her south +to wake her up, and that is not in my schedule this season, I've so much +to oversee at my Oaklands cottage. + +"It is a very cold afternoon for you to have come so far, dear Miss +Lavinia; a cup of tea or something? No? Ah, here comes Sylvia, and I know +you will forgive me for going," and Mrs. Latham glided away with a glance +toward the stairs. She evidently was in a desperate hurry to return to +her guests, and yet she spoke slowly, with that delightful southern +deliberation that suits women with pretty mouths so well, and still as I +felt her eyes upon me I knew that to move her in any way against her own +will would be impossible, and that she could never love anything but +herself, and never would. + +I did not look at Miss Lavinia in the brief moment before Sylvia entered, +for we were both too well bred to criticise a woman in her own house, +even with our eyes, which had they met would have been inevitable. + +At first Sylvia only saw Miss Lavinia, and gathered her into her arms +spontaneously, as if she were the elder, as she was by far the bigger of +the two. Then seeing me, the cards not having been sent up, she +hesitated a moment, colouring shyly, as a girl of sixteen might, and then +straightway greeted me without embarrassment. As we laid aside our wraps +and seated ourselves in a sort of cosey corner nook deep with pillows, +and fur rugs nestling about the feet, I drew my first comfortable breath +since entering, and as Miss Lavinia naturally took the lead in the +conversation, giving her invitation for the next night, I had ample time +to study Sylvia. She was fine looking rather than handsome, a warm +brunette with copper glints threading her brown hair, thick curved +lashes, big brown eyes, a good straight nose, and a decidedly humorous, +but not small mouth, with lips that curled back from even teeth, while +her whole face was punctuated and made winningly feminine by a deep +dimple in the chin and a couple of vagrant ones that played about her +mouth corners when she spoke, as she always did, looking directly at one. + +Her hands were long and well shaped, not small, but competent looking, a +great contrast to her mother's, as well as to Miss Lavinia's, that could +slip easily into a five-and-a-half glove. She wore a graceful afternoon +gown of pale blue with lace butterflies on the blouse and skirt, held in +at waist and neck by enamelled butterfly buckles. She moved gracefully, +and had a strong individuality, a warmth of nature that contrasted +keenly with the statuesque perfection of her mother, and I fell to +wondering what her father was like, and if she resembled him. + +"Not yet, not until late spring," I heard her say in answer to Miss +Lavinia's question as to whether her father had returned from his +Japan tour. + +"He is detained by railway business in San Francisco, and cannot go +farther north to settle it until winter breaks. I've written him to ask +leave to join him and perhaps stop awhile at Los Angeles and go up to see +my brother on his Wyoming ranch in May. I do so hope he will let me. I've +tried to coax mamma to go too, she has had such a wearing life this +winter in trying to make it pleasant for me and introduce me to her +friends. I wish I could tell her exactly how much I should prefer to be +more alone with her. I do not want her to think me ungrateful, but to go +out with her to father and pay dear old Carthy a visit would be simply +splendid." + +Then turning to me she said, I thought with a little quiver in her +voice, "They tell me you live with your father, Mrs. Evan--even though +you are married, and I have not seen mine for more than two years, only +think of it!" + +Whereat my heart went out to her, and I prayed mentally that her father +might have a broad warm shoulder to pillow her head and a ready ear to +hear her confidences, for the perfectly rounded neck and shell ear of +the mother playing cards in the next room would never give harbour or +heed, I knew. + +Sylvia was as pleased as a child at the idea of coming down to spend the +night, stipulating that if it was still cold she should be allowed to +make taffy and put it on the shed to harden, saying, with a pout: "At +school and college there was always somewhere that I could mess with +sticky things and cook, but here it is impossible, though mamma says I +shall have an outdoor tea-room at the Oaklands all to myself, and give +chafing-dish parties, for they are quite the thing. 'The thing' is my +boogy man, I'm afraid. If what you wish to do, no matter how silly, +agrees with it, it's all right, but if it doesn't, all the wisdom of +Solomon won't prevail against those two words." + +Man No. 2 at this juncture came in and presented a florist's box and +envelope in a tray, saying, _sotto voce,_ as he did so, "Shall I hopen it +and arrange them, miss, or will you wear them?" for, as the result of +lavish entertaining and many hothouses as well as friends, flowers +showered upon the Latham house at all hours, and both library and hall +were almost too fragrant. Sylvia glanced at the note, saying, "I will +wear them," to the man, handed the card to Miss Lavinia, her face +flushing with pleasure, while No. 2 extracted a modest bunch of +California violets from the paper, handed them to his young mistress, and +retired with the box on his tray. + +The name on the card was Horace Bradford, the pencilled address +University Club, on the reverse were the words, "May I give myself the +pleasure of calling to-morrow night? These February violets are in +remembrance of a May ducking. Am in town for two days only on college +business." + +"The day that he rowed us on the Avon and reached too far up the bank to +pick you wild violets and the boat shot ahead and he fell into the +water," laughed Miss Lavinia, as pleased as Sylvia at the recollection. + +"But I am going to you to-morrow evening," said Sylvia, ruefully at +thought of missing a friend, but quite heart-free, as Miss Lavinia saw. + +"Let me take the card, and I will ask him to dinner also," said the +dear, comfortable, prim soul, who was still bubbling over with love of +youth, "and Barbara shall ask her adopted uncle Cortright to keep the +number even." + +Time, it seems, had flown rapidly. She had barely slipped the card in +her case when the door opened and No. 3 approached solemnly and +whispered, "Mrs. Latham requests, Miss, as how you will come and pour +tea, likewise bringing the ladies, if _still here_!" How those words +_still here_ smote the silence. + +We immediately huddled on our wraps, anxious to be gone and spare Sylvia +possible embarrassment, in spite of her protestations. As No. 2 led the +way to the door a gentleman crossed the hall from the card-room and +greeted Sylvia with easy familiarity. He was about forty, a rather +colourless blonde, with clean shaven face of the type so commonly seen +now that it might belong equally either to footman or master. His eyes +had a slantwise expression, but his dress was immaculate. + +Strolling carelessly by the girl's side I heard him say, "I came to see +if you needed coaxing; some of the ladies are green over their losses, so +have a care for your eyes." Then he laughed at the wide-eyed look of +wonder she gave him as he begged a violet for his coat. + +But Sylvia drew herself up, full an inch above him, and replied, +decidedly, but with perfect good nature, "No, those violets are a message +from Shakespeare,--one does not give such away." + +"That is Monty Bell," said Miss Lavinia, tragically, as soon as the +door closed. + +"Is there anything the matter with him except that his colouring is like +a summer squash?" I asked. + +"He's been divorced by his wife, and it was her mother that was my +friend, not his, as Mrs. Latham hinted. I know the story; it makes me +shiver to see him near Sylvia." Then Miss Lavinia drew into a shell, in +which she remained until we reached home. + +Meanwhile, as we drove in silence, I remembered that Richard's rubber +boots leaked, and I wondered if Martha Corkle would discover it, or if he +was paddling about getting his feet wet and bringing on a sore throat. +But when I got home Evan said he had sent the boots to the bicycle tire +mender's the morning I came away. It was the third night of my stay, and +he would not have known what to make of it if I had not raised some sort +of a ghost. + + * * * * * + +The sidewalks being clear, we dined at the Laurent, giving Miss Lavinia +a resurrection of French cooking, manners, women, ogling, ventilation, +wine, and music. Then we took her, on the way home, to see some horrible +wax figures, listen to a good Hungarian band, and nearly put her eyes +out with a cinematograph show of the Coronation and Indian Durbar. +Finishing up by brewing French chocolate in the pantry and stirring it +with stick bread, and our guest, in her own house, went to bed fairly +giggling in Gallic gayety, declaring that she felt as if she had spent +the evening on the Paris boulevards, that she liked our New York, and +felt ten years younger. + + + + +VI + +ENTER A MAN + + +If I weather my fourth day in town I am apt to grow a trifle waspish, +even though I may not be goaded to the stinging point. This is especially +the case if, as on this recent visit, I am obliged to do any shopping for +myself. Personally, I prefer the rapid transit shopping of ordering by +mail, it avoids so many complications. Having made up your mind what you +need, or perhaps, to speak more truthfully, what you want, for one can +hardly be quite content with mere necessities until one grows either so +old or shapeless that everything is equally unbecoming, samples are +forthcoming, from which an intelligent selection can be made without the +demoralizing effect of glib salespeople upon one's judgment. + +I know my own shortcomings by heart, and I should never have +deliberately walked into temptation yesterday morning if Lavinia Dorman +had not said that she wished my advice. Last year I went with the +intention of buying substantial blue serge for an outing gown, and was +led astray by some gayly flowered muslins. I have a weakness for gay +colours, especially red. These when made up Evan pronounced "extremely +pretty--in the abstract"--which is his way of saying that a thing is +either unsuitable or very unbecoming. When I went to father, hoping for +consolation, he was even less charitable, remarking that he thought now +long lines were more suitable and graceful for me than bunches and +bowknots. True, the boys admired the most thickly flowered gown +immensely for a few minutes, Richard bringing me a posy to match for my +hair, while Ian walked about me in silence which he broke suddenly with +the trenchant remark--"Barbara, I think your dwess would be prettier if +it was weeded some!" + +All of which is of course perfectly true. I have not been growing +thinner all these six years, but this morning, in stooping over one of +the cold frames to see how the plants within had weathered the storm, it +came quite as a shock to me to feel that, like Martin Cortright, I am +getting stout and in the way of myself when I bend, like an impediment +in a door hinge. + +However, as Miss Lavinia desired guidance in buying some real country +clothes, I felt it my duty to give it. She is already making elaborate +preparations for her visit to me. It seems strange, that simplicity is +apparently one of the most laborious things in the world to those +unaccustomed to it, yet so it is. + +She is about to make her initial venture in shirtwaists, and she +approaches them with as much caution as if she were experimenting with +tights and trunks. The poor little seamstress who is officiating has, to +my certain knowledge, tried one waist on five times, because, as Miss +Lavinia does not "feel it," she thinks it cannot fit properly. + +Never mind, she will get over all that, of course. The plan that she has +formed of spending five or six months in the real country must appear +somewhat in the light of a revolution to her, and the preparation of a +special uniform and munitions for the campaign a necessary precaution. +Her present plan is to come to me for May, then, if the life suits her, +she will either take a small house that one of our farmer neighbours +often rents for the summer months, or else, together with her maid, Lucy, +board at one of the hill farms. + +I have told her plainly (for what is friendship worth if one may not be +frank) that if after trial we agree with each other, I hope she will +stay with us all the season; but as for her maid, I myself will supply +her place, if need be, and Effie do her mending, for I could not have +Lucy come. + +Perhaps it may be very narrow and provincial, but to harbour other +people's servants seems to me like inviting contagion and subjecting +one's kitchen to all the evils of boarding house atmosphere. + +I used to think last summer, when I saw the arrival of various men and +maids belonging to guests of the Bluff Colony, that I should feel much +more at ease in the presence of royalty, and that I could probably +entertain Queen Alexandra at dinner with less shock to her nerves and +traditions than one of these ladies' maids or gentlemen's gentlemen. + +Martha Corkle expresses her opinion freely upon this subject, and I must +confess to being a willing listener, for she does not gossip, she +portrays, and often with a masterly touch. The woes of her countrywoman, +the Ponsonby's housekeeper, often stir her to the quick. The Ponsonby +household is perhaps one of the most "difficult" on the Bluffs, because +its members are of widely divergent ages. The three Ponsonby girls range +from six to twenty-two, with a college freshman son second from the +beginning, while Josephine, sister of the head of the family, though +quite Miss Lavinia's age, is the gayest of the gay, and almost outdoes +her good-naturedly giddy sister-in-law. + +"It's just hawful, Mrs. Evan," Martha said one day, when, judging by the +contents of the station 'bus and baggage wagon, almost the entire +Ponsonby house staff must have left at a swoop; "my eyes fairly bleeds +for poor Mrs. Maggs" (the housekeeper), "that they do. 'Twas bad enough +in the old country, where we knew our places, even though some was +ambitioned to get out of them; but here it's like blind man's buff, and +enough to turn a body giddy. Mrs. Maggs hasn't a sittin' room of her own +where she and the butler and the nurse can have their tea in peace or +entertain guests, but she sets two tables in the servants' hall, and a +pretty time she has of it. + +"The kitchen maid and the laundress's assistant wait on the first table; +but one day when, the maid of one of Miss Ponsonby's friends comin' down +over late, she was served _with_ instead o' _by_ them, she gave Mrs. +Maggs the 'orriblest settin' down, as not knowin' her business in puttin' +a lady's lady with servants' servants, the same which Mrs. Maggs does +know perfectly (accidents bein' unpreventable), bein' child of Lord +Peacock's steward and his head nurse, and swallowin' it all in with her +mother's milk, so to speak, not borrowin' it second hand as some of the +great folks on the Bluffs themselves do from their servants, not feelin' +sure of the kerrect thing, yet desirin' so to do. Mrs. Maggs, poor body, +she has more mess with that servants' hall first table than with all the +big dinners the master gives. + +"'Mrs. Corkle,' says she, bein' used to that name, besides Corkle bein' +kin to her husband, 'what I sets before my own household, as it were, +they leaves or they eats, it's one to me; but company's got to be handled +different, be it upstairs or down, for the name of the 'ouse, but when +Mr. Jollie, the French valet that comes here frequent with the master's +partner, wants dripped coffee and the fat scraped clean from his chop +shank, else the flavour's spoiled for him, and Bruce the mistress' +brother's man wants boiled coffee, and thick fat left on his breakfast +ham, what stands between my poor 'ead and a h'assleyum? that's what I +wants to know. Three cooks I've had this very season, it really bein' the +duty of the first kitchen maid to cook for the servants' hall; but if a +cook is suited to a kitchen maid, as is most important, she'll stand by +her. No, Martha Corkle, wages is 'igh, no doubt,--fortunes to what they +were when we were gells,--but not 'igh for the worry; and bein' in +service ain't what it were.'" + +Then I knew that Martha, even as her bosom heaves over her friend's +grievances, was also sighing with content at thought of Timothy Saunders +and her own lot; and I recalled the Lady of the Bluffs' passing remark, +and felt that I am only beginning to realize the deliciousness of +"comfortable poverty." + + * * * * * + +Miss Lavinia and I spent some time browsing among the shops, finally +bringing up at an old conservative dry goods concern in Broadway, the +most satisfactory place to shop in New York, because there is never a +crowd, and the salesmen, many of them grown gray in the service, take an +Old World interest in their wares and in you. + +While I was trying to convince Miss Lavinia as to the need of the +serviceable, she was equally determined to decoy me toward the frivolous; +and I yielded, I may say fell, to the extent of buying a white crêpey +sort of pattern gown that had an open work white lilac pattern +embroidered on it. It certainly was very lovely, and it is nice to have a +really good gown in reserve, even if a plainer one that will stand +hugging, sticky fingers, and dogs' damp noses is more truly enjoyable. + +N.B.--I must get over apologizing to myself when I buy respectable +clothes. It savours too much of Aunt Lot's old habit of saying, every +time she bought a best gown, and I remonstrated with her for the colour +(it was always black in those days; since she's married the Reverend +Jabez she's taken to greens), "When I consider that a black dress would +be suitable to be buried in, it seems less like a vain luxury." + +We were admiring the dainty muslins, but only in the "abstract," when I +looked up, conscious that some one was coming directly toward us, and saw +Sylvia Latham crossing the shop from the door, her rapid, swinging gait +bringing her to us before short-sighted Miss Lavinia had a chance to +raise her lorgnette. + +Sylvia was genuinely glad to see us, and she expressed it both by look +and speech, without the slightest symptom of gush, yet with the confiding +manner of one who craves companionship. I had, in fact, noticed the same +thing during our call the afternoon before. + +"Well, and what are we buying to-day?" asked Miss Lavinia, clearing her +voice by a little caressing sound halfway between a purr and a cluck, and +patting the hand that lingered affectionately on hers. + +"I really--don't--know," answered Sylvia, smiling at her own hesitation. +"Mamma says that if I do not get my clothes together before people begin +to come back from the South, I shall be nowhere, so she took me with +her to Mme. Couteaux's this morning. Mamma goes there because she says +it saves so much trouble. Madame keeps a list of every article her +customers have, and supplies everything, even down to under linen and +hosiery, so she has made for mamma a plan of exactly what she would need +for next season, and after having received her permission, will at once +begin to carry it out. Of course the clothes will be very beautiful and +harmonious, and mamma has so much on her hands, now that father is +away,--the new cottage at Oaklands is being furnished, and me to +initiate in the way I'm supposed to go,--that it certainly simplifies +matters for her. + +"Me? Ah, I do not like the system at all, or Madame Couteaux either, and +the feeling is mutual, I assure you. Without waiting to be asked, even, +she looked me over from head to foot and said that my lines are very bad, +that I curve in and out at the wrong places, that I must begin at once by +wearing higher heels to throw me forward! + +"At first I was indignant, and then the ludicrous climbed uppermost, and +I laughed, whereat Madame looked positively shocked, and even mamma +seemed aghast and murmured something apologetic about my having been at +boarding-school in the country, and at college, where I had ridden +horseback without proper instruction, which had injured my figure. Only +imagine, Aunt Lavinia, those glorious gallops among the Rockcliffe Hills +hurting one's body in any way! But then, I suppose body and figure are +wholly different things; at any rate, Madame Couteaux gave a shrug, as if +shedding all responsibility for my future from her fat shoulders, and so, +while mamma is there, I am taking a run out in the cold world of raw +material and observing for myself. + +"Of course I shall make mistakes, but I have had everything done for me +to such an extent, during the last four months, that I really must make a +point of picking and choosing for once. I've had a mad desire since the +last storm to stir up the pools in the gutters with my best shoes, as the +happy little children do with their rubber boots. How I shall enjoy it +when we go to Oaklands, and there is really something to _do_ instead of +merely being amused. + +"By the way, Mrs. Evan, won't you and Miss Lavinia join us at luncheon? +We are to have it somewhere downtown, to-day,--the Waldorf, I +believe,--as mamma expects to spend most of the afternoon at the +decorators, to see the designs for the Oaklands hangings and furniture, +and," glancing at the big clock, between the lifts, as Miss Lavinia made +her last purchase, "it's high time for me to go and pick her up." + +Having a feeling that possibly mamma might not be so cordial, in addition +to being due at home for more shirtwaist fittings, Miss Lavinia declined, +and reminding Sylvia that dinner would be at the old-fashioned hour of +half-past six, we drifted out the door together, Sylvia going toward +Fifth Avenue, while we turned the corner and sauntered down Broadway, +pausing at every attractive window. + +Miss Lavinia's short-sightedness caused her to bump into a man, who was +intently gazing, from the height of six feet, at jewelled bugs, displayed +in the window of a dealer in Oriental wares. + +The man, thinking himself to blame, raised his hat in apology, glancing +casually down as he did so, whereupon the hat remained off, and he and +Miss Lavinia grasped hands with sudden enthusiasm, followed by a medley +of questions and answers, so that before she remembered me, and turned to +introduce the stranger, I knew that it was Horace Bradford himself. A +strange, but positive, fact about New York is that one may at one time be +in it but a few hours and run across half the people of one's +acquaintance, gathered from all parts of the country, and at another, +wander about for weeks without seeing a familiar face. + +I liked Bradford from the moment I shook hands with him. There is so much +in the mere touching of hands. His neither crushed as if to compel, nor +flopped equivocally, but said, as it enclosed yours in its bigness, "I am +here, command me." + +Broadway, during shopping hours, is not an ideal place for the +interchange of either ideas, or more, even, than the merest +courtesies; but after thanking Miss Lavinia for the dinner invitation, +to which he had just sent the answer, and inquiring for Sylvia Latham, +as he walked beside us for a block or two, it was very evident that he +had something on his mind that he wished to say, and did not know how +to compass the matter. + +As he talked to Miss Lavinia in jerky monosyllables,--the only speech +that the noise made possible,--I had a chance to look at him. He did not +possess a single feature of classic proportions, and yet he was a +handsome man, owing to the illumination of his face. Brown, introspective +eyes, with a merry way of shutting; heavy, dark hair and brows, and a few +thoughtful lines here and there; mustache pulled down at the corners, as +if by the unconscious weight of a nervously strong hand; and a firm jaw, +but not squared to the point that suggests the dominance of the +physical. He wore a dark gray Inverness coat, evidently one of the fruits +of his English tour, and a well-proportioned soft felt hat, set on +firmly, the crown creased in the precise way necessary to justify the +city use of the article by a man of thirty. He seemed to be in excellent, +almost boyish spirits, and so natural and wholesome withal, that I am +sure I should not feel at all embarrassed at finding myself alone with +him on a desert island. This is one of my pet similes of approval. + +Finally he blurted out: "Miss Lavinia, I do so wish your advice upon a +strictly woman's matter; one, however, that is of great importance to me. +I shall have to take the night express back, and this is the only time I +have left. Would you--could we go in somewhere, do you think, and have +something while I explain?" + +Miss Lavinia looked dubious as to whether his invitation might mean +drinks, man fashion, or luncheon. But as at that moment we reached the +chief New York residence of well-born ice cream soda, for which I always +hanker, in spite of snow and slush, much to Evan's disgust, I relieved +the situation by plunging in, saying that I was even more thirsty in +winter than in summer. Whereat Miss Lavinia shivered, but cheerfully +resigned herself to hot chocolate. "The matter in point is," continued +Bradford, feeling boyishly of one of the blocks of ice that decorated the +counter to find if it was real, and speaking directly to Miss Lavinia, +"I've had a great happiness come into my life this last week; something +that I did not expect to happen for years. My chief has retired, and I +have been promoted. I will not take your time to go selfishly into +details now. I can tell you to-night, if you care to hear. I cannot go +home until the Easter holidays, and so I want to send something to my +mother by way of celebration. Would you select it for me?" and the big +fellow swept the shop with an indefinite sort of gaze, as if buying candy +for the universe would but feebly express his feelings. + +"Certainly I will," replied Miss Lavinia, warming at once;--"but what +kind of something?" + +"I think,"--hesitating a trifle,--"a very good gown, and an ornament of +some kind." + +"Would she not prefer choosing the gown herself? People's tastes differ +so much about clothing," ventured Miss Lavinia, willing, even anxious, to +help the man, yet shrinking from the possibility of feminine criticism. + +"No, I think not; that is, it doesn't work well. Beforetimes I've often +written her to buy some little finery to wear for my sake, but my gift +has generally been turned into flannels for poor children or to restock +the chickenyard of some unfortunate neighbour whose fowls have all died +of gapes. While if I send her the articles themselves, she will prize and +wear them, even if the gown was a horse blanket and the ornament a +Plymouth Rock rooster to wear on her head. You know how mothers are about +buying things for themselves, don't you, Mrs. Evan?" he said, turning to +me, that I need not consider myself excluded from the conversation. + +"I have no mother, but I have two little sons," I answered. + +"Ah, then you will know as soon as they grow old enough to wish to buy +things for you," and somehow the soda water flew up my nose, and I had to +grope for my handkerchief. + +Miss Lavinia evidently did not like to ask Mrs. Bradford's age, so she +evaded it by asking, "Does your mother wear colours or black, Mr. +Bradford?" + +"She has worn black ever since my father died; for the last ten years, in +fact. I wish I could persuade her to adopt something that looks more +cheerful, for she is the very essence of cheerfulness herself. Do you +think this would be a good time to give a sort of hint by choosing a +coloured gown,--a handsome blue silk, for instance?" "I know precisely +how you feel," said Miss Lavinia, laying her hand upon his sleeve +sympathetically, "men never like mourning; but still I advise you not to +try the experiment or force the change. A brocaded black silk gown, with +a pretty lace fichu to soften it about the shoulders, and a simple pin to +hold it together at the neck,--how would that suit you?" As she spoke she +waved her dainty hands about so expressively in a way of her own that I +could seem to see the folds of the material drape themselves. + +"That is it! You have exactly the idea that I could not formulate. How +clever women are!" he exclaimed, and for a minute I really thought he was +going to hug Miss Lavinia. + +"One other favour. Will you buy these things for me? I always feel so out +of place and cowardly in the women's shops where such things are sold. +Will $100 be enough, think you?" he added a trifle anxiously, I thought, +as he drew a small envelope from a compartment of his letter book, where +it had evidently been stowed away for this special purpose. + +"Yes, I can manage nicely with it," replied Miss Lavinia, cheerfully; +"and now you must leave us at once, so that we can do this shopping, and +not be too late for luncheon. Remember, dinner to-night at 6:30." "One +thing more," he said, as we turned to leave, "I shall not now have time +to present my respects to Miss Latham's mother as I intended; do you +think that she will hold me very rude? I remember that Miss Sylvia once +said her mother was very particular in matters of etiquette,--about her +going out unchaperoned and all that,--and should not wish her to feel +slighted." Miss Lavinia assured him very dryly that he need not worry +upon that score, that no notice would be taken of the omission. Not +saying, however, that in all probability he was entirely unconsidered, +ranked as a tutor and little better than a governess by the elder woman, +even if Sylvia had spoken of him as her instructor. + +So, after holding open the heavy doors for us, he strode off down town, +the bright smile still lingering about his eyes, while we retraced our +steps to the shop we had visited early that morning, and then down +again to a jeweller's. The result was a dress pattern of soft black +silk, brocaded with a small leafy design, a graceful lace-edged, muslin +fichu, and an onyx bar pin upon which three butterflies were outlined +by tiny pearls. + +"Isn't he a dear fellow?" asked Miss Lavinia, apparently of a big gray +truck horse that blocked the way as we waited at the last crossing before +reaching home. And I replied, "He certainly is," with rash but +unshakable feminine conviction. + + + + +VII + +SYLVIA LATHAM + + +Sylvia came that afternoon well before dark, a trim footman following +from the brougham with her suitcase and an enormous box of forced early +spring flowers, hyacinths, narcissi, tulips, English primroses, +lilies-of-the-valley, white lilacs, and some yellow wands of Forsythia, +"with Mrs. Latham's compliments to Miss Dorman." + +"What luxury!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia, turning out the flowers upon the +table in the tea room where she kept her window garden, "and how pale and +spindling my poor posies look in comparison. Are these from the Bluffs?" + +"Oh no, from Newport," replied Sylvia. "There is to be no glass at the +Bluffs, only an outdoor garden, mamma says, that will not be too much +trouble to keep up. Mrs. Jenks-Smith was dining at the house last night, +and told me what a lovely garden you have, Mrs. Evan, and I thought +perhaps, if we do not go to California to meet father, but go to Oaklands +early in April, you might be good enough to come up and talk my garden +over with me. The landscape architect has, I believe, made a plan for the +beds and walks about the house, but I am to have an acre or two of +ground on the opposite side of the highway quite to myself. + +"Oh, please don't squeeze those tulips into the tight high vases, Aunt +Lavinia," she said, going behind that lady and giving her a hug with one +arm, while she rescued the tulips with the other hand; for Miss Lavinia, +feeling hurried and embarrassed by the quantity of flowers, was jumbling +them at random into very unsuitable receptacles. + +"May I arrange the dinner table," Sylvia begged, "like a Dutch garden, +with a path all around, beds in the corners, and those dear little silver +jugs and the candlesticks for a bower in the middle? + +"A month ago," she continued, as she surveyed the table at a glance and +began to work with charming enthusiasm, "mamma was giving a very +particular dinner. She had told the gardener to send on all the flowers +that could possibly be cut, so that there were four great hampers full; +but owing to some mistake Darley, the florist, who always comes to +decorate the rooms, did not appear. We telephoned, and the men flew +about, but he could not be found, and mamma was fairly pale with anxiety, +as Mrs. Center, who gives the swell dinner dances, was to dine with her +for the first time, and it was important to make an impression, so that +_I_ might be invited to one or possibly more of these affairs, and so +receive a sort of social hall mark, without which, it seems, no young New +York woman is complete. I didn't know the whole of the reason then, to be +sure, or very possibly I should not have worked so hard. Still, poor +mamma is so in earnest about all these little intricacies, and thinks +them so important to my happiness and fate, or something else she has in +view, that I am trying not to undeceive her until the winter is over." + +Sylvia spoke with careless gayety, which was to my mind somehow belied by +the expression of her eyes. + +"I asked Perkins to get out the Dutch silver, toys and all, that mamma +has been collecting ever since I can remember, and bring down a long +narrow mirror in a plain silver frame that backs my mantel shelf. Then I +begged mother to go for her beauty sleep and let me wrestle with the +flowers, also to be sure to wear her new Van Dyck gown to dinner. + +"This was not according to her plan, but she went perforce. I knew that +she felt extremely dubious, and, trembling at my rashness, I set at work +to make a Dutch flower garden, with the mirror for a canal down the +centre. Perkins and his understudies, Potts and Parker, stood watching me +with grim faces, exchanging glances that seemed to question my sanity +when I told Parker to go out to the corner where I had seen workmen that +afternoon dump a load of little white pebbles, such as are used in +repairing the paving, and bring me in a large basketful. But when the +garden was finished, with the addition of the little Delft windmills I +brought home, and the family of Dutch peasant dolls that we bought at the +Antwerp fair, Perkins was absolutely moved to express his approval." + +"What effect did the garden have upon the dance invitations?" asked Miss +Lavinia, highly amused, and also more eager to hear of the doings of +society than she would care to confess. + +"Excellent! Mrs. Center asked mother who her decorator was, and said she +should certainly employ him; which, it seems, was a compliment so rare +that it was equivalent to the falling of the whole social sky at my feet, +Mr. Bell said, who let the secret out. I was invited to the last two of +the series,--for they come to a conspicuous stop and turn into theatre +parties when Lent begins,--and I really enjoyed myself, the only drawback +being that so few of the really tall and steady men care for dancing. +Most of my partners were very short, and loitered so, that I felt +top-heavy, and it reminded me of play-days, when I used to practise +waltzing with the library fire tongs. I dislike long elaborate +dinners, though mamma delights in them, and says one may observe so much +that is useful, but I do like to dance with a partner who moves, and not +simply progresses in languid ripples, for dancing is one of the few +indoor things that one is allowed to do for oneself. + +"Now, Aunt Lavinia, you see the garden is all growing and blowing, and +there are only enough tulips left for the Rookwood jars in the library," +Sylvia said, stepping back to look at the table, "and a few for us to +wear. Lilies-of-the-valley for you, pink tulips for you, Mrs. Evan,--they +will soon close, and look like pointed rosebuds,--yellow daffies to match +my gown, and you must choose for the two men I do not know. I'll take a +tuft of these primroses for Mr. Bradford, and play they grew wild. We +always joked him about these flowers at college until 'The Primrose' came +to be his nickname among ourselves. Why? + +"One day when he was lecturing to us on Wordsworth, and reading +examples of different styles and metres, he finished a rather +sentimental phrase with + +"'A primrose by a river's brim +A yellow primrose was to him +And it was nothing more.' + +"Suddenly, the disparity between the bigness of the reader and the +slimness of the verse overcame me, and catching his eye, I laughed aloud. +Of course, the entire class followed in a chorus, which he, catching the +point, joined heartily. It sounds silly now, but it seemed very funny at +the time; and it is such little points that make events at school, and +even at college." + +"Mr. Bradford told me some news this morning," said Miss Lavinia, walking +admiringly about the table as she spoke. "He is Professor Bradford, of +the University, not merely the women's college now, or rather will be at +the beginning of the next term." + +"That is pleasant news. I wonder how old Professor Jameson happened to +step out, and why none of the Rockcliffe girls have written me about it." + +"He did not tell me any details; said that they would keep until +to-night. We met him in the street this morning, immediately after we +left you," and Miss Lavinia gave a brief account of our shopping. + +"That sounds quite like him. All his air castles seemed to be built about +his mother and the old farm at Pine Ridge. He has often told me how easy +it would be to get back the house to the colonial style, with wide +fireplaces, that it was originally, and he always had longings to be in a +position to coax his mother to come to Northbridge for the winter, and +keep a little apartment for him. Perhaps he will be able to do both now." + +Sylvia spoke with keen but quite impersonal interest, and looking at her +I began to wonder if here might not, after all, be the comrade type of +woman in whose existence I never before believed,--feminine, +sympathetic, buoyant, yet capable of absolutely rational and unemotional +friendship with a man within ten years of her own age. But after all it +is common enough to find the first half of such a friendship, it is the +unit that is difficult; and I had then had no opportunity of seeing the +two together. + +We went upstairs together, and lingered by the fire in Miss Lavinia's +sitting room before going to make ready for dinner. The thaw of the +morning was again locked by ice, and it was quite a nippy night for the +season. I, revelled mentally in the fact that my dinner waist was crimson +in colour, and abbreviated only in the way of elbow sleeves, and the +pretty low corn-coloured crêpe bodice that I saw Lucy unpacking from +Sylvia's suit case quite made me shiver. + +The only light in Miss Lavinia's den, other than the fire, was a low +lamp, with a soft-hued amber shade, so that the room seemed to draw close +about one like protecting arms, country fashion, instead of seeking to +turn one out, which is the feeling that so many of the stately apartments +in the great city houses give me. + +When I am indoors I want space to move and breathe in, of course, but I +like to feel intrenched; and only when I open the door and step outside, +do I wish to give myself up to space, for Nature is the only one who +really knows how to handle vastness without overdoing it. + +As we sat there in silence I watched the play of firelight on +Sylvia's face, and the same thought seemed to cross it as she closed +her eyes and nestled back in Miss Lavinia's funny little fat sewing +chair, that was like a squab done in upholstery. Then, as the clock +struck six, she started, rubbed her eyes, and crossed the hall to her +room half in a dream. + +"She is as like her Grandmother Latham when I first saw her, as a girl +of twenty-one can be like a woman of fifty," said Miss Lavinia, from the +lounge close at my elbow. "Not in colouring or feature, but in poise +and gesture. The Lathams were of Massachusetts stock, and have, I +imagine, a good deal of the Plymouth Rock mixture in their back-bones. +Her father has the reputation, in fact, of being all rock, if not quite +of the Plymouth variety. Well, I think she will need it, poor child; +that is, if any of the rumours that are beginning to float in the air +settle to the ground." + +"Meaning what?" I asked, half unconsciously, and paying little heed, +for I then realized that the daily letter from father had not arrived; +and Lucy at that moment came in, lit the lamps, and began to rattle +the hair-brushes in Miss Lavinia's bedroom, which I took as a signal +for me to leave. + +The door-bell rang. It was Evan; but before I met him halfway on the +stairs, he called up: "I telephoned home an hour ago, and they are all +well. The storm held over last night there. Father says it was the most +showy snow they have had for years, and he was delayed in getting his +letter to the post." + +"Is that all?" I asked, as I got down far enough to rest my hands on his +shoulders. + +"Yes; the wires buzzed badly and did not encourage gossip. Ah!" (this +with an effort to appear as if it was an afterthought), "I told him I +thought that you would not wait for me tomorrow, but probably go home on +the 9:30. Not that I really committed you to it if you have other plans!" + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright appeared some five minutes before Horace Bradford. As it +chanced, when the latter came in the door Sylvia was on the stairs, so +that her greeting and hearty handshake were given looking down at him, +and she waited in the hall, in a perfectly unembarrassed way, as a matter +of course, while he freed himself from his heavy coat. His glance at the +tall girl, who came down from the darkness above, in her shimmering gown, +with golden daffies in her hair and on her breast, like a beam of +wholesome sunshine, was full of honest, personal admiration. If it had +been otherwise I should have been disappointed in the man's completeness. +Then, looking at them from out of the library shadows, I wondered what he +would have thought if his entry had been at the Latham home instead of at +Miss Lavinia's, how he would have passed the ordeal of Perkins, Potts, +and Parker, and if his spontaneity would have been marred by the +formality. + +Perhaps he would have been oblivious. Some men have the happy gift of +not being annoyed by things that are thorns in the flesh to otherwise +quite independent women. Father, however, is always amused by flunkies, +and treats them as an expected part of the show; even as the jovial +Autocrat did when, at a grand London house, "it took full six men in red +satin knee-breeches" to admit him and his companion. + +Bradford did not wear an evening suit; neither did he deem apology +necessary. If he thought of the matter at all, which I doubt, he +evidently considered that he was among friends, who would make whatever +excuses were necessary from the circumstances of his hurried trip. + +Then we went in to the dining-room, Miss Lavinia leading with Martin +Cortright, as the most recent acquaintance, and therefore formal guest, +the rest of us following in a group. Miss Lavinia, of course, took the +head of the table, Evan opposite, and the two men, Cortright on her right +and Bradford on her left, making Sylvia and me vis-à -vis. + +The men appropriated their buttonhole flowers naturally. Martin smiled at +my choice for him, which was a small, but chubby, red and yellow, +uncompromising Dutch tulip, far too stout to be able to follow its family +habit of night closing, except to contract itself slightly. Evan +caressed his lilies-of-the-valley lightly with his finger-tips as he +fastened them in place, but Bradford broke into a boyish laugh, and then +blushed to the eyes, when he saw the tiny bunch of primroses, saying: +"You have a long memory, Miss Sylvia, yet mine is longer. May I have a +sprig of that, too?" and he reached over a big-boned hand to where the +greenhouse-bred wands of yellow Forsythia were laid in a formal pattern +bordering the paths. "That is the first flower that I remember. A great +bush of it used to grow in a protected spot almost against the kitchen +window at home; and when I see a bit of it in a strange place, for a +minute I collapse into the little chap in outrageous gathered trousers, +who used to reach out the window for the top twigs, that blossomed +earliest, so as to be the first to carry 'yellow bells' to school for a +teacher that I used to think was Venus and Minerva rolled in one. I saw +her in Boston the other day, and the Venus hallucination is shattered, +but the yellow bells look just the same, proving--" + +"That every prospect pleases +And man (or woman) alone is vile," + +interpolated Evan. + +Grape fruit, with a dash of sherry, or the more wholesome sloe-gin, is +Miss Lavinia's compromise with the before-dinner cocktail of society, +that is really very awakening to both brain and digestion; and before the +quaint silver soup tureen had disappeared, even Martin Cortright had not +only come wholly out of his shell, but might have been said to have +fairly perched on top of it, before starting on a reminiscent career with +his hostess, beginning at one of the monthly meetings of the Historical +Society; for though Martin's past belonged more to the "Second Avenue" +faction of the old east side, and Miss Lavinia to the west, among the +environs of what had once been Greenwich and Chelsea villages, they had +trodden the same paths, though not at the same time. While Sylvia and the +"Professor," as she at once began to call him, picked up the web of the +college loom that takes in threads of silk, wool, and cotton, and mixing +or separating them at random, turns out garments of complete fashion and +pattern, or misfits full of false starts or dropped stitches that not +only hamper the wearers, but sometimes their families, for life. All that +Evan and I had to do was to maintain a sympathetic silence, kept by +occasional ejaculations and murmurs from growing so profound as to cause +a draught at our corner of the table. "Yes, we used to go there +regularly," I heard Miss Lavinia say; "when we were girls Eleanor +(Barbara's mother) and I attended the same school--Miss Black's,--Eleanor +being a boarding and I a day pupil and a clergyman's daughter also, +which, in those days, was considered a sort of patent of respectability. +Miss Black used to allow her to spend the shorter holidays with me and go +to those historical lectures as a matter of course. We never publicly +mentioned the fact that Eleanor also liked to come to my house to get +thoroughly warmed and take a bath, as one of Miss Black's principles of +education was that feminine propriety and cold rooms were synonymous, and +the long room with a glass roof, sacred to bathing, was known as the +'refrigerator'; but those atrocities that were committed in the name of +education have fortunately been stopped by education itself. I don't +think that either of us paid much attention to the lectures; the main +thing was to get out and go somewhere; yet I don't think any other later +good times were as breathlessly fascinating. + +"Mother seldom went, the hermetically sealed, air-proof architecture of +the place not agreeing with her; so father, Eleanor, and I used to walk +over, crossing the head of Washington Square, until, as we passed St. +Mark's Church and reached the steps of the building, we often headed a +procession as sedate and serious as if going to Sunday meeting, for there +were fewer places to go in those days. Once within, we usually crept well +up front, for my father was one of the executive committee who sat in the +row of chairs immediately facing the platform, and to be near him added +several inches to my stature and importance, at least in my own +estimation. Then, too, there was always the awesome and fascinating +possibility that one of these honourable personages might fall audibly +asleep, or slip from his chair in a moment of relaxation. Such events had +been known to occur. In fact, my father's habit of settling down until +his neck rested upon the low chair back, made the slipping accident a +perpetual possibility in his case. + +"Then, when the meeting was called to order, and the minutes read with +many h-hems and clearings of the throat, and the various motions put to +vote with the mumbled 'All-in-favour-of-the-motion-will-please-signify- +by-saying-Ay! Contrary-minded-no-the-motion-is-accepted!' that some one +would only say 'No' was our perpetual wish, and we even once meditated +doing it ourselves, but could not decide which should take the risk. + +"Another one of our amusements was to give odd names to the dignitaries +who presided. One with lurching gait, erectile whiskers, and blinking +eyes we called 'The Owl'; while another, a handsome old man of the +'Signer' type, pink-cheeked, deep eyed, with a fine aquiline nose, we +named 'The Eagle.'" + +"Oh, I know whom you mean, exactly!" cried Martin, throwing back his head +and laughing as heartily as Bradford might; "and 'The Owl' was supposed +to have intentions of perpetuating his name by leaving the society money +enough for a new building, but he didn't. But then, he doubtless +inherited his thrift from the worthy ancestors of the ilk of those men +who utilized trousers for a land measure. Do you also remember the +discussions that followed the reading of paper or lecture? Sometimes +quite heated ones too, if the remarks had ventured to even graze the +historical bunions that afflicted the feet of many old families." + +"No, I think we were too anxious to have the meeting declared adjourned +to heed such things. How we stretched ourselves; the physical oppression +that had been settling for an hour or two lifting suddenly as we got on +our feet and felt that we might speak in our natural voices. + +"Then father would say, 'You may go upstairs and examine the curiosities +before joining us in the basement,' and we would go up timidly and +inspect the Egyptian mummy. I wonder how he felt last year when there was +a reception in the hall and a band broke the long stillness with 'The Gay +Tomtit.' Was ever such chocolate or such sandwiches served in equally +sepulchral surroundings as in the long room below stairs. I remember +wondering if the early Christians ever lunched in the catacombs, and how +they felt; and I should not have been surprised if Lazarus himself had +appeared in one of the archways trailing his graveclothes after him, so +strong was the spell of the mummy upon us. + +"It seems really very odd that you were one of those polite young men who +used sometimes to pass the plates of sandwiches to us where we stayed +hidden in a corner so that the parental eye need not see how many we +consumed." + +Thus did Martin Cortright and Miss Lavinia meet on common ground and +drift into easy friendship which it would have taken years of +conventional intercourse to accomplish, while opposite, the talk between +Sylvia and Bradford dwelt upon the new professorship and Sylvia's +roommate of two years, who, instead of being able to remain and finish +the course which was to fit her for gaining nominal independence through +teaching, had been obliged to go home and take charge, owing to her +mother's illness. + +"Yes, Professor Jameson's decision to give all his time to outside +literary work was very sudden," I heard Bradford say. "I thought that it +might happen two or three years hence; but to find myself now not only in +possession of a salary of four thousand dollars a year (hardly a fortune +in New York, I suppose), but also freed this season from being tied at +Northbridge to teach in the summer school, and able to be at home in +peace and quiet and get together my little book of the 'Country of the +English Poets,' seems to me almost unbelievable." + +"I have been wondering how the book was coming on, for you never wrote of +it," answered Sylvia. "I have been trying all winter, without success, to +arrange my photographs in scrap-books with merely names and dates. But +though, as I look back over the four months, everything has been done for +me, even to the buttoning of my gloves, while I've seemingly done nothing +for any one, I've barely had a moment that I could call my own." + +"I do not think that it is strange, after having been away practically +for six years, that family life and your friends should absorb you. +Doubtless you will have time now that Lent has come," said Bradford, +smiling. "Of course we country Congregationalists do not treat the +season as you Anglican Catholics do, and I've often thought it rather a +pity. It must be good to have a stated time and season for stopping and +sitting down to look at oneself. I picked up one of your New York church +papers in the library the other day, and was fairly surprised at the +number of services and the scope of the movement and the work of the +church in general." + +Sylvia looked at him for a moment with an odd expression in her eyes, as +if questioning the sincerity of his remarks, and then answered, I thought +a little sadly: "I'm afraid it is very much like other things we read of +in the papers, half truth, half fiction; the churches and the services +are there, and the good earnest people, too--but as for our stopping! Ah, +Mr. Bradford, I can hardly expect to make you understand how it is, for I +cannot myself. It was all so different before I went to boarding school, +and we lived down in the house in Waverley Place where I was born. The +people of mamma's world do not stop; we simply whirl to a slightly +different tune. It's like waltzing one way around a ballroom until you +are quite dizzy, and then reversing,--there is no sitting down to rest, +that is, unless it is to play cards." + +"Yet whist is a restful game in itself," said Bradford, cheerfully; "an +evening of whist, with even fairly intelligent partners, I've always +found a great smoother-out of nerves and wrinkles." + +"They do not play it that way here," answered Sylvia, laughing, in spite +of herself, at his quiet assumption. "It's 'bridge' for money or +expensive prizes; and compared to the excitement it causes, the +tarantella is a sitting-down dance. I'm too stupid with cards to take the +risk of playing; even mamma does not advise it yet, though she wishes to +have me coached. So I shall have some time to myself after all, for my +defect puts me out of three Lenten card clubs to which mamma belongs, two +of which meet at our house. That leaves only two sewing classes, three +Lenten theatre clubs (one for lunch and matinée and two for dinner and +the evening), and Mr. Bell's cake-walk club, that practises with a +teacher at our house on Monday evenings. The club is to have a +semi-public performance at the Waldorf for charity, in Easter week, and +as the tickets are to be ten dollars each, they expect to make a great +deal of money. So you see there is very little time allowed us to sit +down and look at ourselves." + +"I cannot excuse cake-walking off the stage, among civilized people," +interpolated Miss Lavinia, catching the word but not the connection, and +realizing that, as hostess, she had inconsiderately lost the thread of +the conversation. "It appeals to me as the expression of physical +exuberance of a lower race, and for people of our grade of intelligence +to imitate it is certainly lowering! The more successfully it is carried +out the worse it is!" + +Miss Lavinia spoke so fiercely that everybody laughed but Sylvia, who +coloured painfully, and Horace Bradford deftly changed the subject in the +lull that followed. + + * * * * * + +The men did not care to be left alone with their cigars and coffee, so we +lingered in the dining-room. Suddenly a shrieking whistle sounded in the +street, and the rapid clatter of hoofs made us listen, while Evan rushed +to the door, seizing his hat on the way. + +"Only the fire engines," said Miss Lavinia; "you would soon be used to +them if you lived here; the engine house is almost around the corner." + +"Don't you ever go after them?" I asked, without thinking, because +to Evan and me going to fires is one of the standard attractions of +our New York. + +"Barbara, child, don't be absurd. What should I do traipsing after +an engine?" + +"Yet a good fire is a very exciting spectacle. I once had the habit of +going," said Martin Cortright, emerging from a cloud of cigar smoke. "I +remember when Barnum's Museum was burned my father and I ran to the fire +together and stayed out, practically, all night." + +More whistling and a fresh galloping of hoofs indicated that there was a +second call, and the engines from up town were answering. I began to tap +my feet restlessly, and Miss Lavinia noticed it. + +"Don't hesitate to go if you wish to," she said. At the same moment Evan +dashed back, calling: "It's a fire on the river front, a lumber yard; +plenty of work ahead, with little danger and a wonderful spectacle. Why +can we not all go to see it, for it's only half a dozen blocks away? +Bundle up, though, it's bitterly cold." + +Horace Bradford sprang to his feet and Sylvia was halfway upstairs and +fairly out of her evening gown when Miss Lavinia made up her mind to go +also, Evan's words having the infection of a stampede. + +"Don't forget the apples," I called to Evan as I followed my hostess. + +"The shops and stands are closed, I'm afraid," he called back from the +stoop where he was waiting; "perhaps Miss Lavinia has some in the house." + +"Apples, yes, plenty; but for mercy's sake what for? You surely aren't +thinking of pelting the fire out with them!" she gasped, hurrying +downstairs and struggling to disentangle her eyeglasses from her bonnet +strings; a complication that was always happening at crucial moments, +such as picking out change in an elevated railway station, and thereby +blocking the crowd. + +"No, apples to feed the fire horses; Barbara always does," Evan answered, +dashing down the basement stairs to the kitchen, and returning quickly +with a medley of apples and soup vegetables in a dish-towel bundle, +leaving the solemn cook speechlessly astonished. + +Then we started off, Evan leading the way, and the procession straggling +after in Indian file; for the back streets were not well shovelled, and +to go two abreast meant that one foot of each was on a side hill. Evan +fairly dragged me along. Sylvia and Bradford, being fleet of foot, had no +difficulty in following, but Martin and Miss Lavinia had rather a bumpy +time of it. Still, as pretty much all the uncrippled inhabitants of the +district were going the same way, our flight was not conspicuous. + +It was, as Evan had promised, a glorious fire! Long before we reached +the Hudson the sky rayed and flamed with all the smokeless change of the +Northern Lights. Once there, Evan piloted us through the densely packed +crowd to the side string-piece of a pier, Miss Lavinia giving little +shrieks the while, and begging not to be pushed into the water. + +From this point the great stacks of lumber that made the giant bonfire +could be seen at the two points, from land and water side, where the +fire-boats were shooting streams from their well-aimed nozzles. + +As usual, after running the steam-pumping engines as close as desirable +to the flames, the horses were detached, blanketed, and tied up safe from +harm, and we found a group of three great intelligent iron-gray beauties +close behind us, who accepted the contents of the dish-towel with almost +human appreciation, while a queer, wise, brown dog, an engine mascot, who +was perched on the back of the middle horse, shared the petting with a +politely matter-of-fact air. + +"It is wonderful! I only wish I could see a little better," murmured Miss +Lavinia, who was short, and buried in the crowd. + +"Why not stand on this barrel?" suggested Bradford, holding out his +hand. + +"It's full of garbage and ashes," she objected. + +"Never mind that, they are frozen hard," replied Bradford, poking the +mass practically. + +Three pairs of hands tugged and boosted, and lo! Miss Lavinia was safely +perched; and as there were more barrels Sylvia and I quickly followed +suit, and we soon all became spellbound at the dramatic contrasts, for +every now and again a fresh pile of Georgia pine would be devoured by the +flames, the sudden flare coming like a noiseless explosion, making the +air fragrantly resinous, while at the same time the outer boundaries of +the doomed lumber yard were being draped with a fantastic ice fabric from +the water that froze as it fell. + +As to the firemen! don't talk to me of the bygone bravery of the +crusaders and the lords of feudal times, who spent their lives in the +sport of encamping outside of fortresses, at whose walls they +occasionally butted with rams, lances, and strong language, leaving their +wives and children in badly drained and draughty castles. If any one +wishes to see brave men and true, simply come to a fire with Evan and me +in our New York. + +We might have stood there on our garbage pedestals half the night if +Horace Bradford had not remembered that he must catch the midnight +express, glanced at his watch, found that it was already nearly half-past +ten, and realized that he had left his grip at Miss Lavinia's. +Consequently we dismounted and pushed our way home. + +As we were half groping our way up ill-lighted West Tenth Street Martin +Cortright paused suddenly and, after looking about, remarked: "This is +certainly a most interesting locality. That building opposite, which has +long been a brewery, was once, in part at least, the first city or +State's Prison. How often criminals must have traversed this very route +we are following, on their way to Washington Square to be hanged. For you +know that place, of later years esteemed so select, was once not only the +site of Potter's Field, but of the city gallows as well!" + +No one, however, joined more heartily than he in the merriment that his +inapropos reminiscence caused, and we reached home in a good humour that +effectually kept off the cold. + +"Did you succeed in buying the gown?" Horace Bradford asked Miss Lavinia, +as he stood in the hall making his farewells. + +"Oh, yes, I had almost forgotten. Here is the package only waiting for +your approval to be tied," and she led the way to the library. + +Bradford touched the articles with his big fingers, as lovingly as if he +were smoothing his mother's hair, or her hand. + +"They are exactly right," he said heartily, turning and grasping Miss +Lavinia's hand, as he looked straight into her eyes with an expression of +mingled gratitude and satisfaction. "She will thank you herself, when we +all meet next summer," and with a happy look at Sylvia, who had come to +the library to see the gifts, and was leaning on the table, he grasped +bag and parcel, shook hands all round, and hurried away. + +"What do you think?" I asked Evan, as we closed our bedroom door. + +"Of what?" he answered, with the occasional obtuseness that will overtake +the best of men. + +"Of Sylvia and Bradford, of course. Are they in love, do you think?" + +"I rather think that _he_ is," Evan answered, slowly, as if bringing +his mind from afar, "but that he doesn't know it, and I hope he may +stay in ignorance, for it will do him no good, for I am sure that she +is not, at least with Bradford. She is drifting about in the Whirlpool +now. She has not 'found herself' in any way, as yet. She seems a +charming girl, but I warn you, Barbara, don't think you scent romance, +and try to put a finger in this pie! Your knowledge of complex human +nature isn't nearly as big as your heart, and the Latham set are wholly +beyond your ken and comprehension." Then Evan, declining to argue the +matter, went promptly to sleep. + +Not so Sylvia. When Miss Lavinia went to her room to see if the girl was +comfortable and have a little go-to-bed chat by the fire, she found her +stretched upon the bed; her head hidden between the pillows, in a vain +effort to stifle her passionate sobbing. + +"What is it, my child?" she asked, truly distressed. "Are you tired, or +have you taken cold, or what?" + +"No, nothing like that," she whispered, keeping her face hidden and +jerking out disjointed sentences, "but I can't do anything for anybody. +No one really depends on me for anything. Helen Baker must leave college, +because they need her _at home_,--just think, _need her_! Isn't that +happiness? And Mr. Bradford is so joyful over his new salary, thinks it +is a fortune, and with being able to buy those things for his +mother,--father has sent me more money during the four months I've been +back, so I may feel independent, he says, than the Professor will earn in +a year. Independent? deserted is a better word! I hardly know my own +parents, I find, and they expect nothing from me, even my companionship. + +"Before I went away to school, if mamma was ill, I used to carry up her +breakfast, and brush her hair; now she treats me almost like a +stranger,--dislikes my going to her room at odd times. I hardly ever see +her, she is always so busy, and if I beg to be with her, as I did once, +she says I do not understand her duty to society. + +"People should not have children and then send them away to school until +they feel like strangers, and their homes drift so far away that they do +not know them when they come back,--and there's poor Carthy out west all +alone, after the plans we made to be together. It is all so different +from what I expected. Why does not father come home, or mother seem to +mind that he stays away? What is the matter, Aunt Lavinia? Is mamma +hiding something, or is the fault all mine?" + +Miss Lavinia closed the door, and soothed the excited girl, talking to +her for an hour, and in fact slept on the lounge, and did not return to +her own room until morning. She was surprised at the storm in a clear +sky, but not at the cause. Miss Lavinia was keenly observant, and from +two years' daily intercourse, she knew Sylvia's nature thoroughly. For +some reasons, she wished with all her heart that Sylvia was in love with +Horace Bradford, and at the same time feared for it; but before the poor +girl fell asleep, she was convinced that such was not the case, and that +the trouble that was already rising well up from her horizon was +something far more complicated. + + + + +VIII + +THE SWEATING OF THE CORN + + +_April_ 14. Every one who has led, even in a partial degree, the life +outdoors, must recognize his kinship with the soil. It was the first +recorded fact of race history embodied in the Old Testament allegory of +the creation, and it would seem from the beginning that nations have been +strong or weak, as they acknowledged or sought to suppress it. + +I read a deeper meaning in my garden book as the boys' human calendar +runs parallel with it, and I can see month by month and day by day that +it is truly the touch of Nature that makes kindred of us all--the throb +of the human heart and not the touch of learning or the arts. + +Everything grows restless as spring comes on--animate, and what is called +inanimate, nature. March is the trying month of indecision, the +tug-of-war between winter and spring, pulling us first one way and then +the other, the victory often being, until the final moment, on the side +of winter. Then comes a languid period of inaction, and a swift recovery. +When the world finally throws off frost bondage, sun and the earth call, +while humanity, indoors and out, in city tenement as well as in +farmhouse, hears the voice, even though its words are meaningless, and +grows restless. + +Lavinia Dorman writes that she is feeling tired and low-spirited, the +doctor has advised a tonic, and she misses the change of planting her +back-yard garden. Down in the streets the tenement children are swarming +in the sunny spots, and dancing to the hand-organs. I saw them early last +week when I was in town for a few hours. + +In one of the downtown parks the youngsters were fairly rolling in the +dirt, and rubbing their cheeks on the scanty grass as they furtively +scooped up handfuls of cement-like soil to make mud pies, in spite of the +big policeman, who, I like to think, was sympathetically blind. + +The same impulse stirs my boys, even though they have all outdoors around +them. They have suddenly left their house toys and outdoor games alike to +fairly burrow in the soil. The heap of beach sand and pebbles that was +carted from the shore and left under an old shed for their amusement, has +lost its charm. They go across the road and claw the fresh earth from an +exposed bank, using fingers instead of their little rakes and spades, +and decorate the moist brown "pies" they make with dandelion ornaments. + +A few days ago the Vanderveer boy came down to play with them, +accompanied by an English head nurse of tyrannical mien, and an +assortment of coats and wraps. The poor little chap had been ailing half +the winter, it seems, with indigestion and various aches, until the +doctor told his mother that she must take him to the country and try a +change, as he feared the trouble was chronic appendicitis; so the entire +establishment has arrived to stay until the Newport season, and the boy's +every movement is watched, weighed, and discussed. + +The nurse, having tucked him up in a big chair in the sun on the porch, +with the boys for company, and in charge of father, who was looking at +him with a pitying and critical medical eye, said she would leave him for +half an hour while she went up the lane to see Martha Corkle. A few +moments after, as I glanced across the road, I saw my boys burrowing away +at their dirt bank, and their guest with them. I flew downstairs to call +him in, fearing for the consequences, but father, who was watching the +proceedings from the porch, laid a detaining hand upon me, saying: "His +mother has consulted me about the child, and really sent him down here +that I may look him over, and I am doing it, in my own fashion. I've no +idea the trouble is appendicitis, though it might be driven that way. I +read it as a plain case of suppressed boyhood. + +"He doesn't know how to play, or run naturally without falling; he's +afraid to sit down in the dirt--no wonder with those starched linen +clothes; and he keeps looking about for the nurse, first over one +shoulder and then over the other, like a hunted thing. Evidently they +have weighed his food, measured his exercise, and bought his amusements; +his only free will and vent is to get in a temper. They give him no +chance to sweat off his irritation, only to fume; while that shaking, +snorting teakettle of an automobile they bowl him about in, puts the +final touch to his nervousness." + +Then I sat down by father and watched the three boys together, while +Richard was preventing his guest from pounding a toad with a stone +because it preferred to hop away instead of being made into a dirt pie, +and I saw the truth of what he said. The seven-year-old child who went to +riding school, dancing school, and a military drill, did not know how to +express his emotions in play, and frozen snowballs and other cruelty was +his distorted idea of amusement. Poor rich boy, sad little only son, he +was not allowed the freedom to respond to the voice of nature even as the +tenement children that dance in the streets to the hand-organs or stir +the mud in the gutter with their bare toes. It is not the tenement +children of New York who are to be pitied; it is those that are being +fitted to keep the places, in the unstable and frail crafts of the +Whirlpool, that their parents are either striving to seize or struggling +to reserve for them. + +At the end of half an hour the boys came back to the porch, all three +delightfully and completely dirty, and clamouring that they were hungry. +The English tyrant not appearing, I took them into the house and, after a +washing of hands and faces, gave the boys the usual eleven o'clock lunch +of milk and simple cookies to take out in the sun to eat. As they were +thus engaged the tyrant appeared on the horizon, horror written in every +feature, and a volley of correction evidently taking shape on her lips, +while an ugly look of cowed defiance spread itself over the child's face +as he caught sight of her. + +There was no scene, however. Father said in the most offhand way, as if +being obeyed was a matter of course, "Go back and tell your mistress that +I am carrying out her request, and that after luncheon I will send the +boy safely home, with a written message." + +"But his medicines, his hour's rest alone in the dark, his special +food,--the medical man in New York said--" protested the woman, +completely taken aback. + +"You heard my message?" said father, cheerfully, and that was all. + +"What are you going to advise?" I asked, as in the middle of the +afternoon father came from his office, where he had given the lad a +thorough inspection. + +"Simply to turn him loose in light woollen clothes, give him companions +of his age, and let him alone." + +"Can't you word it differently?" I asked. + +"Why, is not that fairly direct?" he replied, looking surprised; "and +surely the direct method is almost always the best." + +"I think this is the one case where it is not, dear old Daddy. In fact, +if you are destined, as I see that you are, to pick up and tie the +threads of ravelled health in the Bluff Colony, you will have to become +more complicated, at least in speech, accustomed as they are to a series +of specialists, and having importance attached to the very key in which a +sneeze is pitched. + +"Those few words would savour to the Whirlpoolers of lack of proper +respect and consideration. You must give a name to both ailment and cure +if you expect to be obeyed. Call the case a 'serious one of physical +suppression,' and the remedy the 'fresh earth cure,' to be taken only in +light woollen clothes, tell them to report progress to you every other +day, and you gain the boy his liberty." + +Father laughed heartily, and his nose twitched in a curious way it has +when he is secretly amused and convinced against his will; but I think he +took my advice, at least in part, for the next morning Papa Vanderveer +drove down in the brake, announcing in a shout that "De Peyster slept all +night without waking up and crying, for the first time in months," +adding, "And, Dr. Russell, if you've got anything further in this liberty +line to suggest, even to getting rid of the Duchess, now's your time. +'The Duchess?' Ah, she is that confounded head nurse woman that Maria +will keep so that things may be done properly, until the poor kid's +nearly been done for, I say. The Ponsonbys are crazy to get the woman to +break in their youngest girl and keep her down and from growing up until +they marry the others off; so Maria could part with her in the light of a +favour to them, don't you see, without spilling blood. Peysey'll have to +have some sort of a chaser, though, or Maria'll not hear of it." + +Mr. Vanderveer glowed all over with delight when father condemned the +automobile as a nerve racker, and suggested that a young man of the +companionable tutor order, who could either play games, fish, and drive +with the boy and his chums, or at times leave him wholly alone, according +to need, would be a good substitute for a woman who viewed life as a +school of don'ts, and had either wholly outlived her youth, or else had +most unpleasant recollections of it. + +"I've got my innings at last," he said. "You're the first doctor I've had +who hasn't sided with Maria and shut me out until pay day." + +"I wonder why spring is such a restless season," I said half to myself +and half to father, as I sat on the porch half an hour later, trying to +focus my mind on writing to Lavinia Dorman, while father, lounging on the +steps opposite, was busy reading his mail. + +"One would think we might be content merely to throw off winter and look +and enjoy, but no, every one is restless,--birds, fourfoots, and humans. +Lavinia Dorman writes that Sylvia Latham has just started for California +to see her brother, and she expects to bring her father back with her. +The boys disappeared mysteriously in the direction of Martha Corkle's +immediately after breakfast, Evan went reluctantly to the train, +declaring that it seemed impossible to sit still long enough to reach the +city, you are twisting about and shuffling your feet, looking far oftener +at the river woods than at your letters, and as for myself, it seems as +if I must go over yonder and seize Bertel's spade and show him how to dig +those seed beds more rapidly, so that I can begin to plant and kneel down +and get close to the ground. Yesterday when the boys came in with very +earthy faces, and I questioned them, I found that they had stuck their +precious noses in their mud pies, essaying to play mole and burrow +literally." + +"It is the same mystery as the sweating of the corn," replied father, +gathering his letters in a heap and tossing them into a chair with a +gesture of impatience; "none of us may escape, even though we do not +understand it. + +"It was years ago that I first heard the legend from an old farmer of the +corn belt, who, longing for a sight of salt water, had drifted eastward +into one of the little hill farms beyond the charcoal camp. He had been +bedridden nearly all winter, but uncomplainingly, his wife and +daughter-in-law caring for him, and it was not until the early part of +May, when all the world was growing green, that he began to mend and at +the same time groan at his confinement. + +"I tried to cheer him up, telling him that the worst was over, and that +he soon would be about again, and he replied: ''Tain't me that's doin' of +it, Doctor, hit's the sweatin' of the corn. You know everywhere in May +folks be plantin' corn, the time bein' the sign that frost is over and +done with.' I nodded assent, and he continued: 'Now naterally there's +lots of corn in ear and shelled and ground to meal that isn't planted, +and along as when the kernels in the ground begins to swell and sprout, +this other corn knows it and begins to heave and sweat, and if it isn't +handled careful-like, and taken in the air and cooled, it'll take on all +sorts of moulds and musts, and like as not turn useless. I holds it's +just the same with folks,--when springtime comes they fetch up restless +and need the air and turning out to sweeten in the sun until they settle +down again, else their naturs turn sour, pisen'us, and unwholesome, +breedin' worms like sweated corn!' + +"Since then I've heard it here and there in other words, but always the +same motive, the old miller holding it all fact and no legend at all, +saying that if he can keep his surplus corn from sweating and well aired +through May and June, he never fears for it in the damper, more potent +August heat. One thing is certain, that in my practice in countryside, +village, and town, if strange doings break out and restless +discontentment arises, it is never in winter, when I should expect +partial torpidity to breed unrest, but in the pushing season of renewal, +and, as the old man terms it, 'corn sweating.'" + + * * * * * + +A little later I was going toward the garden when father called after me +to say that he was soon starting for a long trip, quite up to Pine Ridge, +and that if I cared to go, taking a lunch for both, it might give me a +chance to "turn and sweeten" in the sun and cure my restlessness with +natural motion. + +Go? Of course my heart leaped at the very thought, because, in spite of +the boys, those long drives with father have grown more precious as they +grow more rare. But where were the twins? They had disappeared under my +very eyes; of a surety they must be at Martha's, but my conscience smote +me when, on glancing at the clock, I saw that it was two hours since they +left the breakfast table in their brand-new sailor suits, with the +intention of showing them to her. + +No, they were not at Martha's, and she came hurrying back with me, a very +clucking hen of alarm. Timothy Saunders, who had by that time brought +round the horses in the stanhope, ventured the opinion that they might be +below, paddling in the duck pond, as all the village children gathered +there at the first warm weather, "jest fer all the world like gnats the +sun's drawd oot." + +They were not there! Father had disappeared to make some preparations +for the drive, and so I asked Timothy to drive with me along the +highway toward the village. I did not feel exactly worried, but then +one never knows. + +We had gone half a mile perhaps, vainly questioning every one, when I +spied two small figures coming across a field from the east, where the +ground fell lower and lower for a mile or so until it reached salt water. + +"There be the lads!" shouted Timothy Saunders, as if I had been a +hundred yards away, and deaf at that; but the noise meant joy, so it was +welcome. "My, but they're fagged and tattered well to boot!" And so they +were; but they struggled along, hand in hand, waving cheerfully when +they caught sight of me, and finally crept through the pasture bars by +which I was waiting, and enveloped me with faint, weary hugs. Then I +noticed that they wore no hats, their fresh suits were grimy with a gray +dust like cement, the knees of their stockings and underwear were worn +completely through to red, scratched skin, and the tips entirely scraped +from their shoes. + +I gathered them into the gig, and sought the explanation as we drove +homeward, Timothy hurried by the vision of tearful Martha, whom he had +seen with the tail of his eye dodge into the kitchen, her apron over her +head, as he turned out the gate. + +"We've been playing we was moles," said Ian, in answer to the first +question as to where they had been. "Yesterday we tried to do it wif +our own noses, but we couldn't, 'cause it hurt, and we wanted to go +ever so far." + +"So we went down to where those big round stone pipes are in the long +hole," said Richard, picking up the story as Ian paused. (Workmen had +been laying large cement sewer pipes from the foot of the Bluffs, a third +of a mile toward the marshes, but were not working that day, owing to +lack of material.) "They made nice mole holes, so I crawled right in, and +for a little it was bully fun." + +"Oh Richard, Richard, what made you?" I cried, holding him so tight that +he squirmed away. "Suppose the other end had been closed, and you had +smothered in there, and mother had never found you?" for the ghastly +possibility made my knees quake. + +"Oh no, mother," he pleaded, taking my face between his grimy hands and +looking straight in my eyes, "it wasn't a dark hole. I could see it light +out 'way at the other end, and it didn't look so vely far as it was to +crawl it. And after a little I'd have liked to back out, only--only, +well, you see, I couldn't." + +"Why not?" I asked, and, as he did not answer, I again saw a vision of +two little forms wedged in the pipes. + +"That _why_ was 'cause _I_ was in behind, and I _wouldn't_ back, and so +Dick couldn't," said Ian. "You see, Barbara, I really, truly had to be a +mole and get very far away, not to stay, only just for fun, you know," he +added, as he saw signs of tears in his brother's eyes, and began to feel +the smarting in his own bruised knees. + +One blessed thing about Ian, even though he is sometimes passionate and +stubborn, and will probably have lots of trouble with himself by and by, +there isn't a drop of sneaky cur blood in him, which is the only trait +that need make a mother tremble. + +What should I do, punish, or act as I longed to, coddle the boys and +comfort the poor knees? True, I had not forbidden them to crawl through +the sewer pipes, because the idea of their doing it had never occurred to +me, so they could not be said to have exactly disobeyed; but, on the +other hand, there was an unwritten law that they must not go off the +place without my permission, and the torn stockings furnished a hint. + +"Mother is going away for all day with grandfather," I said slowly, as I +examined their knees. "Even though I never told you not to do it, if you +had stopped to think, you would have known it was wrong to crawl through +the pipes." + +"But, Barbara," argued Ian, as we reached the porch, "it wasn't us that +crawled, it was moles, and they just digs right ahead and turns up the +ground and flowers and everything, and never thinks things, do they, +grandpop?" + +"Martha will take you in," I said, steadying my voice with difficulty, +"and bathe your knees and let you rest a while before she dresses you +again. Martha, please put away those stockings for me to mend when I +return; I cannot ask Effie to darn such holes for two little moles; she +is only engaged to sew for boys." + +"But, mother, you don't like to sew stockings; it makes you tight in your +chest. I heard you tell father so," objected Richard, while Ian's face +quivered and reddened, and he pounded his fists together, saying to +himself, "Barbara shall _not_ sit in the house and mend moles' +stockings. I won't let her," showing that they were both touched in a +tender spot. + +Father only laughed when they went in, and said: "I'm glad you didn't do +anything more than that to the little chaps, daughter; it's only a bit of +boy life and impulse working in them, after all; their natural way of +cooling the 'sweating of the corn.'" Then we drove away through the lanes +draped with birch tassels and willow wands, while bloodroot and +marshmarigold kept pace in the runnels, and I heard the twitter of the +first barn-swallow of the year. + +As we drove along we talked or were silent without apology and according +to mood; and as father outlined his route to me, I resolved that I would +call upon Horace Bradford's mother, for our way lay in that direction. + +Many things filled father's mind aside from the beauty of the perfect +April day, that held even the proper suggestion of hidden showers behind +the curtain of hazy sunshine. The sweating of the human corn that came +under father's eye was not always to be cured by air and sun, or rather, +those who turned uneasily would not accept the cure. + +The germ of unrest is busy in the village this spring. Not that it is +wholly new, for unrest is wherever people congregate. But this year the +key is altered somewhat. The sight of careless ease, life without +labour, and a constant change of pleasures, that obtain in the Bluff +Colony, is working harm. True, the people can always read of this life in +book and paper, but to come in direct contact is another thing. Father +said the other day that he wished that conservative country places that +had lived respected and respectable lives for years could have the power +to socially quarantine all newcomers before they were allowed to purchase +land and set a pace that lured the young cityward at any cost. I, too, +realize that the striving in certain quarters is no longer for home and +love and happy times, but for something new, even if it is merely for the +sake of change, and that this infection of social unrest is quickly +spreading downward from the Bluffs, touching the surface of our little +community, if not yet troubling its depths. + +The leading merchant's daughter, Cora Blackburn, fresh from a college +course that was a strain upon the family means, finds that she has built +a wall four years wide between herself and her family; henceforth life +here is a vacuum,--she is misunderstood, and is advertising for an +opportunity to go to New York and the independence of a dreary back third +or fourth story hall bedroom. But, as she said the other day, putting on +what Evan calls her "capability-for-better-things" air, "One's scope is +so limited here, and one never can tell whom one may meet in New York," +which is, of course, perfectly true. + +It was only last night that father returned from the hospital, distressed +and perplexed, and called me into the office. A young woman of +twenty-two, that I know very well, of a plain middle-class family over in +town, had, it seems, sent her name for admission to the training-school +for nurses. Father, in his friendly way, stopped at the house on his way +home to talk with her about the matter, and found from a little sister, +who was washing dishes, that the mother of the family was ill and being +cared for by a neighbour. Presently, down tripped the candidate for +nursing, well dressed, well shod, and with pink, polished finger nails. + +Father, wondering why she did not care for her mother, asked his usual +questions: "What leads you to wish to take up nursing? Are you interested +in medicine, and fond of caring for the sick? For you should be, to enter +such an exacting life." She seemed to misunderstand him altogether and +take his inquiry for prying. She coloured, bit her lip, then lost her +head and blurted out: "Interested in the sick! Of course not. Who could +be, for they are always so aggravating. I don't mean to stay so very long +at it, but it's a good chance to go into some swell family, and maybe +marry and get into society." + +[Illustration: His Mother] + +Poor father was fairly in a rage at the girl's idea of what he deems a +sacred calling, and it was not until Richard had kissed him from the end +of his nose up over his short thick gray hair, and down again to the +tickle place in his neck, that he calmed down. Unless my instinct fails +me, he will have his social experience considerably widened during the +coming season, even if his trustful nature is not strengthened. + +Father had made three calls, and we had eaten our luncheon by the +wayside, unhooking the horses, and baiting them by a low bridge rail that +sloped into the bushes, where they could eat and drink at leisure, before +we reached Pine Ridge. Once there, he dropped me at the Bradford farm, +while he drove westward, along the Ridge, to a consultation with the +local doctor over a complicated broken leg that would not knit. + +As I closed the neat white picket gate behind me, and walked slowly +toward the porch, a blaze of yellow on the south side of the red brick +house drew my attention. It was the Forsythia, the great bush of "yellow +bells," of which Horace Bradford had spoken as blooming in advance of any +in the neighbourhood, and for a moment I felt as if I were walking into +the pages of a story-book. + +I wielded the heavy brass knocker on the half-door, with diamond-paned +glass top, and paused to look off to where the flower and fruit garden +sloped south and west. Presently, as no one answered the knock, I peered +through the glass, into an open square, that was evidently both hall and +sitting room. In one corner was a chimney place, in which a log burned +lazily, opposite a broad, low window, its shelves filled with flower +pots, near which, in a harp-backed chair, an old lady sat sewing. She +wore a simple black gown, with a small shawl thrown across her shoulders, +and her hair, clear steel colour and white, was held in a loose knot by +an old-fashioned shell comb. In spite of the droop and lines of age (for +Horace Bradford's mother must have been quite seventy), the nose had a +fine, strong Roman curve, and the brow a thoughtful width. + +What was she thinking of as she sat there alone, this bright April +afternoon, shaping a garment, with a smile hovering about her lips? Her +son's promotion and bright prospects, perhaps. + +I looked across at the old mahogany chest of drawers behind her, to see +if I could recognize any of the framed photographs that stood there. +One, evidently copied from a daguerrotype, was of a curly-haired girl, +about fourteen, probably the daughter who died years ago, and another, +close at her elbow, was of a lanky boy of eight or ten, wearing a broad +straw hat, and grasping a fishing pole, probably Horace, as a child, but +there was nowhere to be seen the photograph of him in cap, gown, and hood +that stood on Miss Lavinia's chimney shelf. + +Then as Mrs. Bradford folded her hands over her work, and gazed through +the plants and window, at some far-away thought, I felt like a detective, +spying upon her, and hastily knocked again. + +This time she heard at once, and coming quickly to the door, admitted +me, with a cordial smile and a hearty grasp of the hand that reminded +me of her son, and was totally unlike the clammy and noncommittal touch +of so many of the country folk, bred evidently of their general habit +of caution. + +"You are Mrs. Evan, the Doctor's daughter. I know your father well, +though I have never met you face to face since you were a little girl." + +Then the conversation drifted easily along to Miss Lavinia, and my +meeting with Horace, his professorship, the prospect of his being at home +all summer, and to the different changes in the community, especially +that wrought by the colony at the Bluffs, which were really the halfway +mark between Oaklands and Pine Ridge. + +Mrs. Bradford saw the purely commercial and cheerful side of the matter; +as yet, few of the new places were well equipped with gardens,--it had +opened a good market for the farmers on the Ridge, and they were no +longer obliged to take their eggs, fruit, poultry, and butter into town. + +In spite of a certain reticence, she was eager to know the names of all +the newcomers; but when I mentioned Mrs. Latham, saying that she was the +mother of Sylvia, one of her son's pupils, and described the beauty of +their place, I thought that she gave a little start, and that I heard her +speak the initials S. L. under her breath; but when I looked up, I could +detect nothing but a slight quiver of the eyelids. + +Then we went out into the garden, arm in arm, for Mrs. Bradford's footing +seemed insecure upon the cobbled walk, and she turned to me at once as +naturally as if I were a neighbour's daughter. Together we grew +enthusiastic over the tufts of white violets, early hyacinths, and +narcissi, or equally so over the mere buds of things. For it is the +rotary promise that is the inspiration of a garden; it is this that +lures us on from year to year, and softens the sharp punctuation of +birthdays. + +Was there anything in her garden that I had not? She would be so pleased +to exchange plants with me, and had I any of the new cactus Dahlias, and +so on, until we reached the walk's end, and turned about under a veteran +cherry tree that showered us with its almond-scented petals. + +Then Mrs. Bradford relaxed completely, and pulling down a branch, buried +her face in the blossoms, drawing long breaths. + +"I've kept away from the garden all day," she said, "because I had some +sewing to finish, so those unfortunate Hornblower children might begin +the spring term at school to-morrow; and when I once smell the cherry +flowers, my very bones ache to be out doors, and I'm not good for a thing +but to potter about the garden from now on, until the strawberries show +red, and everything settles down for summer. It's always been the same, +since I was a little girl, and used to watch the cherry blooms up through +the top sash of the schoolhouse windows, when they had screened the lower +part to keep us from idling, and it's lasted all through my married life. +The Squire and I always went on a May picnic by ourselves, until the +year he died, though the neighbours all reckoned us feeble-minded." + +The "Sweating of the Corn," I almost said aloud. + +"I've reasoned with myself every spring all through the between years, +until now I've made up my mind it's something that's meant to be, and I'm +going to give in to it. Sit down here under the trees, my dear, and +Esther Nichols will bring us some tea and fresh cider cake. Yes, I see +that you look surprised to have afternoon tea offered on Pine Ridge, but +I got the habit from the English grandmother that reared me, and I've +always counted it a better hospitality than the customary home-made +cordials and syrups that, between ourselves, make one stomach-sick. Yes, +there comes Esther now; she always knows my wants. She and her husband +are distant cousins of the Bradfords, and my helpers indoors and out, for +I am too old to manage farm hands, especially now that they are mostly +Slavs, and it makes Horace feel happier to have kinsfolk here than if I +trusted to transient service." + +So we sipped the well-made breakfast tea beneath the cherry blossoms as I +told her about my boys and Miss Lavinia's expected visit. When father +called for me I left reluctantly, feeling as if nobody need be without a +family, when one becomes necessary, for in addition to an aunt in Lavinia +Dorman I had found a sort of spirit grandmother there in the remote and +peaceful highlands,--a woman at once simple and restful, yet withal +having no narrowness or crudity to cramp or jar. + +It was nearly five o'clock when we turned into the highway west of the +Bluffs. We had gone but a few rods when a great clanking of chains and +jar of wheels sounded behind. As I stretched out to see what was coming, +a horn sounded merrily. + +"A coaching party," said father. "I will turn out of the road, for there +is a treacherous pitch on the other side, and for me to let them topple +into the ditch might be profitable, but hardly professional." + +We had barely turned into low bushes when the stage came alongside. The +horses dropped back to a walk, as they passed, for it was a decided up +grade for thirty yards, so that we had a good chance to view both +equipage and occupants. To my surprise I saw that the coach was the +Jenks-Smith's. I did not know they had returned from the trip abroad +where they had been making their annual visit to repair the finances of +their son-in-law. + +Monty Bell was driving, with Mrs. Jenks-Smith at his side. The robust +Lady of the Bluffs, evidently having some difficulty in keeping her +balance, was clutching the side bar desperately. She was dressed in +bright-figured hues from top to toe, her filmy hat had lurched over one +eye, and all together she looked like a Chinese lantern, or a balloon +inflated for its rise but entangled in its moorings. + +Jenks-Smith sat behind, with Mrs. Latham and a very pretty young girl as +seatmates, while behind them came a giggling bevy of young people and the +grooms,--Sylvia being of course absent. + +Mrs. Latham was clad in pale violet embroidered with iris in deeper +tones, her wide hat was irreproachably poised, her veil draped +gracefully, her white parasol, also embroidered with iris, held at as +becoming an angle, and her corsage violets as fresh as if she was but +starting out, while in fact the party must have driven up from New York +since morning. + +They did not even glance at the gray horses which had been drawn aside to +give them right of way, much less acknowledge the courtesy, but clanked +by in a cloud of misty April dust. + +"What a contrast between his mother and hers," I said unconsciously, +half aloud. + +"Which? Whose? I did not quite catch the connection of that remark," +said father, turning toward me with his quizzical expression, for a +standing joke of both father and Evan was to thus trip me up when I +uttered fragmentary sentences, as was frequently the case, taking it for +granted, they said, that they either dreamed the connection or could +read my thoughts. + +"I meant what a great contrast there is between Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. +Latham," I explained, at once realizing that there was really no sense in +the comparison outside of my own irrepressibly romantic imagination, even +before father said:-- + +"And why, pray, should they not be different? Under the circumstances +it would be very strange if they were not. And where does the _his_ and +_her_ come in? Barbara, child, I think you are 'dreaming pussy +willows,' as you used to say you did in springtime, when you were a +very little girl." + + * * * * * + +The boys were having their supper in the hall when I arrived home, for, +warm as the days are, it grows cool toward night until we are past +middle May. + +The scraped knees were still knobby with bandages, but the lads were in +good spirits, and seemed to have some secret with Martha that involved a +deal of whispering and some chuckling. After the traces of bread and +butter were all wiped away, they came hobbling up (for the poor knees +were sadly stiff and lame), and wedged themselves, one on each side of +me, in the window seat of the den, where I was watching for the smoke of +Evan's train, my signal for going down the road. Ah, how I always miss +the sight of the curling smoke and the little confidential walk in the +dark winter days! + +There was some mystery afoot, I could see, for Martha hovered about the +fireplace, asking if a few sticks wouldn't temper the night air, to which +I readily assented, yet still she did not go, and the boys kept the hands +close against their blouse fronts. + +Suddenly Ian threw his arms about my neck and bent my head close to his, +saying, in his abrupt voice of command, "Barbara must not stay indoors +tomorrow and be sad and mend the moles' stockings." + +"Yes, Barbara must," I answered firmly, feeling, yet much dreading, the +necessity of the coming collision. + +"No, she can't," said Ian, trying to look stern, but breaking into little +twinkling smiles at the mouth corners. "She can't, because the moles' +stockings haven't any more got holes!" and he pulled something from his +blouse and spread it in my lap, Richard doing likewise. + +There were two stockings mended, fearfully and wonderfully, to be sure, +and quite unwearable, but still legally mended. + +"I don't understand," I said, while the boys, seeing my puzzled +expression, clapped their hands and hopped painfully about as well as +they were able. + +Then Martha Corkle emerged from the background and explained: "The boys +they felt most terrible in their minds, Mrs. Evan, soon after you'd went +(their sore knees, I think, also keepin' them in sight of their doings), +and they begged me, Mrs. Evan, wouldn't I mend the stockings, which I +would most cheerfully, only takin' the same as not to be your idea, mum. +So I says, says I, somebody havin' to be punished, your ma's goin' to do +it to take the punishment herself, that is, in lest you do it your own +selves instead. So, says I, I'll mend one stocking of each if you do the +other, Mrs. Evan, and no disrespect intended. + +"I borried Effie's embroidery rings and set the two holes for them and +run them in one way, leavin' them the fillin' to do, which they have, +sittin' the whole afternoon at it most perseverin'." + +"Richard did his one stitch, but I did mine four stitch; it ate up the +hole quicker, and it's more different," quoth Ian, waving his stocking, +into the knee of which he had managed to introduce a sort of +kindergarten weaving pattern. + +"But mine looks more like Martha's, doesn't it, mother?" pleaded patient +Richard, who, though the threads were drawn and gathered, had kept to the +regular one up and one down throughout. + +Then the signal of the smoke arose against the opal of the twilight sky, +and we went out hand in hand, all three happy, to meet our breadwinner. + +Late that night, when all the household slept, I added a little package +to my treasures in the attic desk,--two long stockings with queer darned +knees,--and upon the paper band that bound them is written a date and +"The Sweating of the Corn." + + + + +IX + +A WAYSIDE COMEDY + + +_May 5th_. Madame Etiquette has entered this peaceful village. Not, +however, as the court lady of the old French regime, but travelling in +the wake of the Whirlpoolers under dubious aliases, being sometimes +called Good Form and at other The Correct Thing. At present she is having +a hand-to-hand encounter with New England Prejudice, a once stalwart old +lady of firm will, but now considerably weakened by age and the incessant +arguing of her great-grandchildren. + +The result of the conflict is quite uncertain, for actually even the +Sunday question hangs in the balance; while the spectacle is most amusing +to the outsider and embarrassing to the referees. + +Father, seeing through medical eyes, regards the matter merely in the +light of a mild epidemic. Evan is rather sarcastic; he much preferred +garden quiet and smoking his evening pipe to the tune of soothing +conversation concerning the rural days' doings, to the reflex anxiety of +settling social problems. In these, lo and behold, I find myself +unwillingly involved, for one New England habit has not been +abandoned--that of consulting the wife of minister and doctor, even if +holes are afterward picked in the result, and in this case a daughter +stands in the wife's place. + +The beginning was two years back, when the Bluff colony began to be an, +object of speculation, followed in turn by censure, envy, and finally +aspiration that has developed this spring into an outbreak of emulation. + +Ever since I can remember, social life has moved along quite smoothly +hereabout, the doings being regulated by the age and purses of the +participants. The householders who went to the city for a few winter +months were a little more precise in their entertaining than the born and +bred country folk. As they commonly dined at night, they asked people to +dinner rather than to supper, which is the country meal of state. But +lawn parties, picnics, and clambakes at the shore were pretty much on the +same scale, those who could afford it having music and employing a +caterer, while those who could not made no secret of the cause, and felt +neither jealous nor humiliated. A wagon load of neighbourly young people +might go on a day's excursion uncriticised, without thought of dragging a +mother or aunt in their wake as chaperon. In fact, though no one is more +particular than father in matters of real propriety, I cannot remember +being formally chaperoned in my life or of suffering a shadow of +annoyance for the lack. + +Weddings were always home affairs among the strictly country folk, by +common consent and custom, no matter to what denomination the people +belonged. Those with contracted houses went quietly to parsonage or +rectory with a few near friends; others were married at the bride's home, +the ceremony followed by more or less merrymaking. A church wedding was +regarded as so great a strain upon the families that the young people had +no right to ask it, even if they so desired. + +That has passed, at least for the time being, and all eyes are fixed upon +the movements of the Bluff people, and many feet are stumbling along in +their supposed footsteps. It would be really funny if it were not half +pitiful. The dear simple folk are so terribly in earnest that they do not +see that they are losing their own individuality and gaining nothing to +replace it. + +The Whirlpoolers, though only here for the between seasons, are +constantly entertaining among themselves, and hardly a day passes but a +coaching party drives up from town with week-end golfers for whom a dance +is given, or stops _en route_ to the Berkshires or some farther point. A +few outsiders are sometimes asked to the more general of these +festivities, friends of city friends who have places hereabout, the +clergy and their wives, and, alas, the Doctor's daughter; but +society-colonies do not intend associating with the-natives except purely +for their own convenience, and when they do, pay no heed to the code they +enforce among themselves. + +It is not harsh judgment in me, I feel sure, when I say that Evan would +not be asked so often to the Bluffs to dinner if he were not a well-known +landscape architect whose advice has a commercial value. They always +manage to obtain enough of it in the guise of after-dinner conversation +and the discussion of garden plans to make him more than earn his fare. +For the Whirlpoolers are very thrifty, the richer the more so, especially +those of Dutch trading blood, and they are not above stopping father on +the road, engaging in easy converse, praising the boys, and then asking +his opinion about a supposititious case, rather than send for him in the +regular way and pay his modest fee. + +In fact, Mrs. Ponsonby asked me to a luncheon last autumn, and it +quickly transpired afterward, that she had an open trap for sale suitable +for one horse; she knew that Evan was looking for such a vehicle for me, +and suggested that I might like this one. + +A bulky and curious correspondence grew up around the transaction, and +the letters are now lying in my desk marked "Mrs. Ponsonby, and the road +cart." Finally I took the vehicle out on a trial trip. I noticed that it +had a peculiar gait, and stopping at the blacksmith's, called him to +examine the running gear. He gave one look and burst into a guffaw: "Land +alive, Mrs. Evan, that's Missis Ponsonby's cart, that stood so long in +the city stable, with the wheels on, that they're off the circle and no +good. I told her she'd have to get new ones; but her coachman allowed +she'd sell it to some Jay. You ain't bought it, hev yer?" + +Good-natured Mrs. Jenks-Smith, the pioneer of the Bluffs, was the +first one to throw open her grounds, when completed, for an afternoon +and evening reception, with all the accompaniments of music, electric +lit fountains, and unlimited refreshments. Everybody went, and +satisfaction reigned for the time; but when another season it was +found that she had no intention of returning calls, great +disappointment was felt. Others in turn exhibited their grounds for +the benefit of the different churches, while the Ponsonbys gave a lawn +party for the orphan asylum, and considering that they had done their +duty, straightway forgot the village. + +The village did not forget; it had observed and has begun to put in +practice. The first symptom was noticed by Evan. Last summer several +family horses of respectable mien and Roman noses appeared with their +tails banged. Not docked, mind you, but squared-off as closely as might +be without resorting to cruelty; while their venerable heads, +accustomed to turn freely and look their drivers in the face +reproachfully if kept standing too long, were held in place by overdraw +checks. At the same time the driver's seat in the buggy or runabout was +raised from beneath so as to tilt the occupant forward into an almost +standing posture. This worked well enough in an open wagon, but in a +buggy the view was apt to be cut off by the hood, if the driving lady +(it was always a woman) was tall. + +The second sign was when Mrs. Barton--a widow of some sixty odd years, +with some pretensions to breeding, but who had been virtually driven from +several villages where she had located since her widowhood, owing to +inaccuracy of speech, beside which the words of the Village Liar and the +Emporium were quite harmless--contracted inflammatory rheumatism by +chaperoning her daughters' shore party and first wetting her lower half +in clamming and then the upper _via_ a thunder shower. The five "Barton +girls" range from twenty-five to forty, and are so mentally and +physically unattractive and maladroit that it would be impossible to +regard them as in any danger if they went unattended to the uttermost +parts of the earth. On this particular occasion the party consisted of +two dozen people, ranging from twenty to fifty, which it would seem +afforded ample protection. + +To be chaperoned was the swell thing, however, and chaperoned the "Barton +girls" would be. + +"I cannot compete with multi-millionnaires," said Mrs. Barton, lowering +her voice, when father, on being called in, asked if she had not been +rather rash at her age to go wading in cold water for clams; "but as a +woman of the world I must do all that I can to follow the customs of good +society, and give my daughters protection from even a breath that might +affect their reputations." + +The drawling tone was such a good imitation of Mrs. Ponsonby's that +father could barely control his laughter, especially as she continued: "I +also feel that I owe it to the neighbourhood to do all in my power to +put a stop to buggy riding, the vulgar recreation of the unmarried. Of +course all cannot afford suitable traps and grooms to attend them, but +good form should be maintained at all hazards, and mothers should not +begrudge taking trouble." + +Father said that the vision of shy young folks driving miserably along +the country lanes on Sunday afternoons in the family carryall, with mamma +seated in the middle of the back seat, rose so ludicrously before him +that he was obliged to beat a retreat, promising to send a special remedy +for the rheumatism by Timothy Saunders. + +All winter I have noticed that great local interest has been taken in the +fashion journals that treat of house decoration and etiquette, and on one +occasion, when making a call at one of our most comfortable farms, I +found the worthy Deacon's wife poring over an ornamental volume, entitled +"Hints to those about to enter Society." + +After she had welcomed me and asked me to "lay off" my things, she +hesitated a moment, and then, opening the book where her fat finger was +keeping the place, she laid it on my lap, saying in a whisper: "Would you +tell me if that is true, Mrs. Evan? Lurella says you hobnob some with the +Bluff folks, and I wanted to make sure before we break it to pa." + +The sentence to which she pointed read, "No gentleman will ever come +to the table without a collar, or be seen on porch or street in his +shirt sleeves." Here, indeed, was a difficulty and a difference. How +should I explain? + +I compromised feebly and advised her not to worry the Deacon about what +the Bluff people did or the book said, for it need not apply to the Cross +Roads farmers. + +"I'm reel glad you don't hold it necessary fer pa," she said with a sigh +of relief; "he'd take it so hard, eatin' gettin' him all het up anyhow. +Now between ourselves, Mrs. Evan, don't you think writ out manners is +terrible confusin' and contradictin'? I wouldn't hev Lurella hear me say +so, she's so set on keepin' up with things, but she's over to town this +afternoon. + +"I've been readin' for myself some, and observin' too. The Bluff folks +that plays grass hockey, all over what was Bijah Woods's farm, men and +girls both, has their sleeves pushed up as if they were going at a day's +wash, and their collars open and hanging to the hind button, which to my +mind looks shiftlesser than doin' without. I do hear also that those same +girls when they git in to dinner takes off their waists altogether and +sets down to eat all stripped off to a scrap of an underbody. That's +true, for pa saw it when he was takin' cream over to Ponsonby's; the +windows was open on the piazza, and he couldn't refrain from peekin', +though I hope you'll not repeat. Of course they may feel dreadful sweaty +after chasin' round in the sun all day, though I wouldn't hold such +sudden coolin' wholesome; but why if women so doin' should they insist on +men folks wearin' collars, say I?" + +I told the dear soul that I had never quite been able to understand the +_reason why_ of many of these things, and that my ways were also quite +different from those of the Bluff people; for though father and Evan had +been brought up to wear collars, I had never yet stripped to my underbody +at dinner time. + +Thus emboldened, she beckoned me mysteriously toward the best parlour, +saying as she went, "Lurella seen the picture of a Turkey room in the +pattern book, and as she's goin' to have a social this spring, she's +fixed a corner of it into our north room." + +When the light was let in I beheld a "cosey corner" composed of a very +hard divan covered with a broché shawl, and piled high with pillows of +various hues, while a bamboo fishing-pole fastened crosswise between the +top of the window frames held a sort of beaded string drapery that hung +to the floor in front, and was gathered to the ceiling, in the corner, +with a red rosette. On close examination I found, to my surprise, that +the trailers were made of strings of "Job's Tears," the seed of a sort of +ornamental maize, the thought of the labour that the thing had involved +fairly making my eyes ache. + +"That is a very pretty shawl," I remarked, as no other truthful word of +commendation seemed possible. + +"Yes, it is handsome, and I miss it dreadful. You see, it belonged to +pa's mother, and I calkerlated to wear it a lifetime for winter best, but +the fashion papers do say shawls are out of it, and this is the only use +for them, which Lurella holds. I can't ever take the same comfert in a +bindin' sack, noway; and pa, he's that riled about the shawl bein' used +to set on, I daren't leave the door open. Says the whole thing's a 'poke +hole,' and the curt'in recollects him of 'strings of spinnin' +caterpillars,' and 'no beau that's worth his shoes won't ever get caught +in no such trap,' which is most tryin' to Lurella, so I hev to act +pleased, and smooth things over best I can." + +Well-a-day, it is always easier to answer the riddles that puzzle others, +rather than those that confront ourselves. + +Fully a year ago Mrs. Jenks-Smith gave me a well-meaning hint that it is +not "good form" for me to allow father or Evan to smoke while we drive +or walk in public together. The very next night we three happened to be +dining, why I don't know, at the most socially advanced house on the +Bluffs. When the moment came for the midway pause in the rotation of +foods, that we might tamp down and make secure what we had already eaten +by the aid of Roman punch, the gentlemen very nearly discounted the +effort, as far as I was concerned at least, by smoking cigarettes, +leaning easily back in their chairs, and with no more than a vague "by +your leave," to the ladies. What was more, there was a peculiarly +sickening sweet odour to the smoke that father afterward told me was +because the tobacco was tinctured with opium. Yet it is "bad form" for +Evan and father to smoke in my society, out in the road or street under +the big generous roof of the sky. Dear little boys, I wonder what the +custom will be when you are grown, and read your mother's social +experience book? + + * * * * * + +The present crisis to be faced is in the form of a wedding,--an +apple-blossom wedding, to take place in St. Peter's Church. I have +been made a confident in the matter from the very beginning of the +wayside comedy which led to it; but I wish it understood that I am +not responsible for the list of invited guests, or the details of +the ceremony, which have been laboriously compiled from many +sources, any more than I shall be for the heartburnings that are +sure to follow in its wake. + + * * * * * + +One morning early last summer Fannie Penney was driving home from town, +with a rather lopsided load of groceries on the back of the buckboard. +Fanny did not enjoy these weekly trips for groceries, but she did not +rebel, as her sisters did; and though she had aspirations, they had not +developed as quickly in her as in the others, for she was considered +already an old maid (a state that in the country, strangely enough, sets +in long before it does in the city, often beginning quite at noonday) at +the time the Bluff colony began to attract attention. + +The Penney family live in a plain but substantial house on the main road, +a little way north of the village, where Mr. Penney combines farming, a +blacksmith's shop, and a small line of groceries, for the benefit of his +family. Up to the present time this family has jogged along at a fairly +comfortable pace, only one daughter, the youngest, Mollie, having so far +escaped from the traditional female employments of the region as to spend +a season in New York, supplementing the grammar school education by a +course in elocution, with Delsarte accompaniments. When she returned she +gave her old friends to understand that she was thoroughly misunderstood +by her family; also, that she was now to be called Marie and preferably +Miss, hinted that she was soon going on a professional tour, and +condescendingly agreed to give a free recital at a Sunday-school +entertainment. At this she startled the community by reciting the +sleep-walking scene from Lady Macbeth, clad in a lace-trimmed Empire +nightgown, red slippers with high heels, whitened face, wild hair, and, +of course, the candlestick, with such terrible effect that the mothers of +the infant class had difficulty in getting their progeny to stay in bed +in the dark for some weeks to come. The pastor considered that, under the +circumstances, she gave the words "out damned spot" undue emphasis, while +the "Watch-out Committee" of the S. C. E. failed entirely to agree as to +what gave the nightgown a decided pink tint, opinions greatly varying. +Some insisted that it was flesh, while the pastor's wife, knowing the +flavour of persecution, firmly insisted that it was merely a pink cambric +slip, as was most right and proper. But her charity was immediately +discounted by Mrs. Barton, who said that likely it was pink lining, for +Marie's flesh was yellow, and not pink. + +However, this event was soon forgotten in the greater interest that +gathered about Fannie Penney's return ride from town. + +It seems that soon after Fannie left the town limits and was jogging +along the turnpike, the big roan horse of all work began to stumble, then +grew lame forward, and finally came to a standstill. + +Fannie got out, examined his feet, soon found that not only had he cast a +shoe, but in doing so had managed to step on a nail and drive it into his +frog. With the good judgment of a farrier's daughter, she promptly +unharnessed him. Looking about and seeing cows grazing in a neighbouring +pasture, she led him slowly to the side of the road, let down the bars +and turned him loose, where he immediately showed his appreciation of the +situation by lying down and nibbling at the grass within reach. + +So far so good, but when Fannie began to consider the possibility of +walking home, with the chance of being picked up on the road by some one, +and getting her father to come and remove the nail, the load of groceries +loomed up before her. Not only did they represent considerable money +value, country reckoning, and there was no house within half a mile +either way, but some of the articles, such as lard, were in danger of +being ruined by the hot sun; so Fannie walked along the road, searching +the dust for the lost shoe, seeing no way out of her dilemma unless some +one should come by. + +She did not find the shoe, but soon a cloud of dust from the town side +told of an approaching team, and she went to the shade of the only +near-by tree and waited. + +A moment later, the team coming up proved to be a freshly painted +runabout, drawn by a fine bay horse in trim harness, driven by the +average stable boy; while beside him sat a smooth-faced, keen-eyed man, +rather under middle age, dressed in a spotless light suit, tan shoes, +lilac shirt, opalesque tie, finished above by a Panama hat pinched into +many dimples. + +He was evidently a man of quick action, for he saw the girl and horseless +wagon at a glance, touched the reins, stopped the horse, and jumped out +before Fannie could think, taking off his hat and saying:-- + +"Lady in distress, runaway horse, lucky not to have upset load--can I be +of any use?" all in one breath. + +Fannie had never read Dickens, so that no comparison with the speech of +Alfred Jingle arose to make her distrustful, which was unnecessary, and +the bowing figure appeared to her the perfection of up-to-date manly +elegance. Could it--yes, it must be a guest on the way to the Bluffs. + +She blushingly explained the complication, feeling almost ashamed to +mention her fears as to the melting lard, it seemed so insignificant in +such a presence; but he quickly reassured her by going to the wagon, +pulling it energetically under the tree, and spreading the linen lap-robe +over the goods, the effort causing streams of perspiration to alter the +stately appearance of a three-inch high collar. Next he sprang over the +fence into the field, found that the nail was too firmly wedged to be +drawn from the horse's hoof with either fingers or a wagon wrench, and +returned to the road again. + +"Now, may I ask where you live?" he said, dusting himself off with +vigorous flips of a large Yale blue silk handkerchief. + +Fannie told him, and her name, also, and ventured to ask that, if he was +going through Oaklands, he would be good enough to tell her uncle, who +kept the livery stable, to send out for her. + +"I guess we can better that," he said, smiling genially. "I'm going to +Oaklands to meet my trunk and stop over a day. I'll leave the boy here +with your goods, drive you in, pick up your father, he returns with this +horse, brings tools, fixes up his own, boy takes rig back to town, your +father drives goods home, see?" + +Fannie saw that the arrangements were unanswerably suitable; also, that +to carry them out she must take a drive with the unknown, a drive of +necessity to be sure, yet one that she could safely call romantic, +especially as, when he turned to help her into the runabout, he picked up +a horseshoe that lay in the bottom and gave it to her, saying, "It's +yours; I found it half a mile back; I never pass a horseshoe, never can +tell when it'll bring luck." + +Before they had gone very far her dream of his being a guest on his way +to the Bluffs was shattered by his saying: "I've got the advantage of +you--know your name, you don't know mine. That's not fair. 'Aim to be +fair' 's my motto, even if I don't chance to hit it," and he pulled out a +bulky wallet and held it toward her with one hand, that she might help +herself to one of the cards with which it was filled. + +Her hand touched his; she blushed so that her freckles were veiled for +the moment as she read, half aloud: "L. Middleton--with Frank Brothers. +Dealers in first-class canned goods," the New York address being in the +corner. The feeling of disappointment only lasted for a moment, for was +not a travelling man, as the drummer is always called in country towns, +a person of experience and knowledge of the world, as well as being not +infrequently shrouded in mystery? As she pondered on the card, wondering +if she dared put it in her pocket, he said in a matter-of-fact way, +again extending the wallet: "Don't hesitate, take the deck, may come +handy, father like to keep goods in stock some time. That's my regular; +carry a side line too, perfumes and an A1 hair restorer. Got all my +samples at Oaklands depot. You mind stopping there on the way? Want to +get fresh collar." + +No, of course Fannie would not mind; this last request fixed her +companion firmly in her esteem. Any other man of her acquaintance would +have removed his collar and proceeded without one, never giving the +matter a thought; in fact, she had been momentarily expecting that this +would happen. Now she would have the bliss of taking him home in all the +perfection of his toilet as she first beheld him. + +From that moment she grew more conversational, and his utterance became +less jerky, until, when they finally drove up back of the long red brick +railway station at Oaklands, a little before noon, she had not only given +him a synopsis of local history, but was, in her excitement, vainly +trying to recollect what day of the week it was, so that she might judge +of the dinner probabilities at home, also if it would be safe to ask him +to stay. Fortunately remembering that she saw her father beheading +chickens the night before, which guaranteed a substantial meal, she +decided it was an absolute duty. + +As L. Middleton emerged from the baggage room in a fresh collar, even +higher than the other, he threw an ornamental bottle of violet water into +Fannie's lap to keep company with the horseshoe. Immediately Hope arose +at the combination, and Settled under the left folds of Fannie's pink +shirt waist; for Middleton seems a distinguished name to one who has been +called Penney for twenty-eight years, and romance had never died in the +heart under the pink waist for the reason that it was only at this moment +being born. + +On arriving at home, Fate continued to prove kind. Mrs. Penney was +inspired to ask the guest to "stop to dinner," without any hints or +gesticulations being necessary, which might have marred the first +impression. Not only did the chickens appear at the table, where no +canned food was present, but there was a deep cherry pie as well, which +was eaten with peculiar relish by the commercial traveller, accustomed to +the awful fare of New England country hotels, where he was often obliged +to use his own samples to fill gaps. He gazed about at the comfortable +kitchen, and won Mamma Penney by praising the food and saying that he was +raised on a farm. Father Penney took a hasty bite in the buttery, and +soon disappeared to rescue his goods from the highway. He was always +considered something of a drawback to the matrimonial prospects of his +daughters; for, as his nose indicated, he had a firm, not to say +combative, disposition, and frequently insisted upon having not only the +last but the first word upon every subject, so that Fannie regarded his +going in the light of a special providence. + +After dinner the three other Penney sisters all tried their best to be +agreeable, Marie donning a clinging blue gown and walking up and down the +piazza watering plants at this unusual hour of the day for his particular +benefit, a performance which caused L. Middleton to ask, "Say, did you +ever do a vaudeville turn?" And Marie, not knowing whether to take the +remark as a criticism or a compliment, preferred to take the latter view +and answer in languid tones,-- + +"No, but I have acted, and I've been seriously advised to go on +the stage." + +In the middle of the afternoon, the load of groceries having arrived +safely, Fannie's "hero" took his leave, Papa Penney driving him to the +village inn, where he was to unpack his samples. + +For a while L. Middleton was a standard topic of conversation among the +girls. They wondered for what L. stood. Fannie guessed Louis, Marie +spitefully suggested that it might be Lucifer, and that was why he didn't +spell it out. Then as he seemed about fading from the horizon, he +reappeared suddenly one crisp October morning, just starting on his +eastern fall route, he said, and invited Fanny to go to the County Fair. + +Again a period of silence followed. The sisters remarked that most +travelling men were swindlers, etc., but Fannie persistently put violet +water on the handkerchief that she tucked under her pillow every night, +until, as winter set in, the supply failed. + +Then an idea came to her, she took the horseshoe from where it had been +hanging over her door, covered its dinginess with two coats of gold +paint, cut the legend, "Sweet Violets," together with the embossed +flowers, from the label on the perfume bottle, and pasted them on the +horseshoe, which she further ornamented with an enormous ribbon bow, and +despatched it secretly to L. Middleton by express a few days before +Christmas. + +At New Year's a box arrived for Fannie. It contained a gold pin in the +shape of a horseshoe, in addition to a large, heart-shaped candy box +filled with such chocolates that each was as a foretaste of celestial +bliss to Fannie, who now thought she might fairly assume airs of +importance. + +Half a dozen letters went rapidly back and forth, and then the proposal +bounded along as unexpectedly as every other detail of the courtship. +There was very little sentiment of expression about it, but he was in +earnest and gave references as to his respectability, etc., much as if he +were applying for a business position, and ended by asking her at which +end of his route she preferred to live, New York, or Portland, Maine, and +if in New York, would she prefer Brooklyn or Harlem? + +Fannie quickly decided upon Harlem, for, as Marie said, "There one only +need give the street name and number, while very few people yet realize +that Brooklyn really is in New York." + +This important matter settled, the Penney girls arose in their might upon +the wings of ambition. There should be a church wedding. + +Now the Penneys were, as all their forbears had been, Congregationalists; +but that church had no middle aisle, besides, as there was no giving away +of the bride in the service, there was little chance for pomp and +ceremony. It was discovered that the groom's parents had been +Episcopalians, and though he was liberal to the degree of indifference +upon such matters, it was decided that to have the wedding in St. Peter's +would be a delicate compliment to him. + +All the spring the village dressmaker has been at work upon the gowns of +bride and of bridesmaids, of whom there are to be six, and now the cards +are out and the groom's name also, the L at the last moment having been +found to stand for Liberty. If they had consulted the groom, he would +have decried all fuss, for Fannie's chief attraction was that he thought +her an unspoiled, simple-minded country girl. + +The hour was originally set for the morning, but as Fannie saw in her +fashion paper that freckled people often developed a peculiarly charming +complexion when seen by lamplight, the time was changed to eight at +night, in spite of the complications it caused. + +A week before the invitations were issued Fannie came to see me and after +some preamble said: "Mrs. Evan, I want my wedding to be good form, and +I'd like to do the swell thing all through. Now the _Parlour Journal_ +says that the front pews that are divided off by a white ribbon should be +for the bride's folks on one side of the aisle and the groom's on the +other. Mr. Middleton hasn't any people near by enough to come, so I +thought I'd have the Bluff folks sit on that side." + +"The Bluff people?" I queried, in amazement. "You surely aren't going to +invite them? Do you know any of them?" + +"Well, not intimately, but Mrs. Ponsonby has been to the house for eggs, +and Mrs. Latham's horse dropped a shoe last week and father set it, and +the Vanderveer boy's pony ran away into our front yard the other day, so +I don't feel as if they were strangers and to be left out. Oh, Mrs. Evan, +if they'd only come and wear some of their fine clothes to light up the +church, it would be in the papers, the _Bee_ and the _Week's News_ over +town maybe, and give me such a start! For you know I'm to live in New +York, and as I've never left home before, it would be so pleasant to know +somebody there!" + +I almost made up my mind to try to put things before her in their true +light, and save her from disappointment, but then I realized that I was +too near her own age. Ah, if Lavinia Dorman had only been here that day +she could possibly have advised Fannie without giving offence. + + * * * * * + +_May 16th._ The wedding is over. Shall I ever forget it? The rain and +cool weather of the past ten days kept back the apple blossoms, so that +the supply for decorating the church was poor and the blossoms +themselves only half open and water-soaked. Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who always +hears everything, knowing of the dilemma, in the goodness of her heart +sent some baskets of hothouse flowers, but the girls and men who were +decorating did not know how to handle them effectively, for Fannie, still +clinging to sentiment, had gilded nearly a barrel of old horseshoes, +which were tied with white ribbon to every available place, being +especially prominent on the doors of the reserved pews. + +Late in the afternoon a fine mist set in with clouds of fog, which, if it +got into the church, I knew would completely conceal the glimmer of the +oil lamps. It seems that Papa Penney was not told until an hour before +the ceremony that he was to walk up the aisle with the bride on his arm +and give her away. This he flatly refused to do. He considered it enough +of an affliction to have the wedding in church at all, and it was not +until his wife had given her first exhibition of fainting, and Fannie had +cried her eyes red, that he apparently yielded. + +We arrived at the church at about ten minutes to eight, father and Evan +having been persuaded to come in recognition of good neighbourhood +feeling. The back part of the church was well filled, but the space +above the ribbon was painfully empty. The glimmering lamps did little +more than reveal the gloom, and the horseshoes gave a strange +racing-stable effect. + +We tried to spread ourselves out as much as possible to fill up, and +presently the Ponsonby girls entered with some friends, seemingly +astonished at being seated within the barrier, for they had never seen +their cards of invitation, and had come as a sort of lark to kill time on +a wet evening. + +The ushers wandered dismally up and down, stretching their hands +nervously as if unused to gloves. Presently they fell back, and the +organ, in the hands of an amateur performer and an inadequate blower, +began to chirp and hoot merrily, by which we knew the bridal party was +about to appear. + +The ushers came first, divided, and disappeared successfully in the +shadows, on either side of the chancel steps. A long wait and then Marie +Penney followed, walking alone, as maid of honour; she had insisted upon +having plenty of room, as she said so few people walked well that they +spoiled her gait. Next came the six bridesmaids on a gallop, then Papa +Penney and the bride. He walked along at a jog trot, and he looked +furtively about as if for a loophole of escape. As for poor Mrs. Penney, +instead of being seated in the front pew before the procession entered, +she was entirely forgotten in the excitement, and stood trembling near +the door, until some one drew her into a seat in neighbourly sympathy. + +The clergyman stood waiting, the bridesmaids grouped themselves behind +papa, so that there was no retreat, but where was the groom and the best +man? One, two, three minutes passed, but no sign. He had been directed to +the vestry door as the bridal party drove up. Could he suddenly have +changed his mind, and disappeared? + +The silence was awful, the Ponsonby girls giggled aloud, and finally got +into such gales of laughter that I was ashamed. The organ had dropped +into the customary groaning undertone that is meant, I suppose, to give +courage to the nervous and weak-voiced during the responses. + + * * * * * + +Outside the church, in the rear, two men in evening dress might have been +seen blundering about in the dark, vainly trying to find an open door, +for besides the door to the vestry there were three others close +together, one opening into the little chantry, one the Sunday-school +room, and one into the cellar. They battered and pulled and beat to no +purpose, until a mighty pound forced one in, and the two men found +themselves flying down a flight of steps, and landing in a heap of coal. + +Dazed, and not a little bruised, the groom struck a match, and looked +about; the best man had sprained his ankle, and said so in language +unbefitting the location, but Liberty Middleton arose superior to the +coal. Judging by the music that the ceremony had begun, he told his +crippled friend to sit still until he came back for him, and, by lighting +a series of wax matches, found his way back to the front door of the +church, and strode up the aisle dishevelled, and with a smutty forehead, +just as Papa Penney had succeeded in breaking through the bridesmaids, +dragging Fannie with him. A sigh of relief arose. The couple stepped +forward and the ceremony began. When, however, the giving away time came, +it was found that Papa Penney had retreated to a pew, from which he could +not be dislodged. Another hitch was only averted by the groom turning +pleasantly toward his father-in-law, and saying, with a wave of his hand, +"It's all right, don't trouble to move; you said 'I do,' I think; the +Parson understands." The ceremony was ended without further complication. +When Fannie walked out upon the arm of the self-possessed Liberty, I +thought that the travelling man had the makings of a hero in him after +all. It afterward transpired that the hapless best man, left in the coal +cellar, and not missed until the party was halfway home, had only +wrenched his ankle, and made his escape to the village tavern for +consolation, proving that even commercial travellers may be upset by a +fashionable wedding ceremony. + + + + +X + +THE WHIRL BEGINS + + +_May 30_. The People of the Whirlpool have come to the Bluffs, and the +swirl and spray has, in a measure, followed them. I had well-nigh +written, "are settled at the Bluffs," but the Whirlpoolers are perpetual +migrants, unlike the feathered birds of passage never absolutely settling +anywhere even for the nesting season, sometimes even taking to the water +by preference, at the time, of all others, when home is most loved and +cherished by the "comfortably poor." + +The houses, nominally closed since the holidays, have been reopened, one +by one, ever since the general return from the south in April, after +which season, Mrs. Jenks-Smith assures me, it is bad form to be seen in +New York on Sunday. + +This fiat, however, does not prevent members of almost every family from +spending several days a week in the city, thus protecting themselves +against the possible monotony of home living by lunching and dining, +either singly or in informal groups, at the public restaurants. + +Father has always held the theory that ladies should dress +inconspicuously in the public streets and hostelries, and for a woman to +do otherwise, he considered, was to prove that she had no claim upon +gentility. Evan used to go so far as to say that the only people who +display their fine clothes in hotels are those who have no homes in which +to wear them. + +Dear, innocent provincials, the Whirlpoolers have changed all that, and +given the custom their hall mark that stamps it vogue. In fact, in +glancing at the papers, by the light of our Bluff Colony, which, after +all, is but a single current of the pool that whirls in the shape of the +letter S, it seems to me that a new field has been opened for the society +journalist--the reporting of the gowns worn at the restaurants in the +"between seasons." + +One evening, a few weeks ago, Evan and I went, by request, to one of the +most celebrated of these resorts to call upon some friends of his, a +bride and groom, then passing through the city. We were directed where to +find them in the corridor--midway would have been a better term. We found +them, and many others beside! + +"Where do these people come from?" I whispered to Evan, looking down the +row of women of all ages and, if expression may indicate, all grades, +who, dressed and undressed in lavish opulence, were lolling about, much +as if expecting a call to go upon the stage and take part in some +spectacle, but that the clothes and jewels were too magnificent to be +stage properties. + +"Brewers' wives from the west, and unknown quantities; people who come to +New York to see and be seen," he answered carelessly; but almost as he +spoke his words were checked by the entrance of an equally gorgeous +group, composed of those who Lavinia Dorman had assured us were among the +most conservative of our new neighbours, all talking aloud, as if to an +audience, as they literally swept into the dining room, where Mrs. Center +was already seated. To be sure, the clothes, in their cases, were worn +with a difference,--the ease of habit,--but to all outward appearance the +distinction began and ended there. Ah me! to think of having such things +cross the horizon in May, when, unless one is forced to be miserable, one +must be inexpressibly happy. + +I have been working all the month in my garden, as of old, or trying to, +at least, but upon the principle that no member of a community can either +live or die wholly to, or by, himself, I here missed the untrammelled +liberty of yore. Not that I care if I am detected collarless, in a brown +holland apron, with earthy fingers, and sometimes even a smutty nose, but +the Whirlpoolers, unable to regard the work as serious, do not hesitate +to interrupt, if nothing more. + +Imagine the assurance of the twenty-two-year-old Ponsonby girl, who came +dashing up all of a fume last Saturday morning, when I was comfortably +seated on the old tea tray, transplanting a flat of my best ostrich +plume asters, and begging me, her mother being away, to chaperon her to +a ball game, in a town not far off up the railroad, with harmless, +pink-eyed Teddy Tice, one of her brother's college mates. It seems that +if she could have driven up and taken a groom it would have been good +form, but there was some complication about the horses, and to go by +rail unchaperoned, even though surrounded by a earful of people, was not +to be thought of. I pointed to the asters that must be set out and +covered before the sun was high, but she couldn't understand, and went +off in a huff. + +What a disagreeable word chaperon is at best, and what a thankless +vocation the unlisted, active, and very irregular verb 'to chaperon' +implies. I quite agree with Johnson, who denounced the term as affected, +for certainly its application is, though Lavinia Dorman says it is the +natural effect of a definite cause, and that it is quite necessary from +the point of view of the quarter where it most obtains. + +Monday morning I was again interrupted in my garden operations by a +Whirlpooler, but the reason was quite different. The twins have gardens +of their own, which are as individual and distinctive as their two +selves. Richard delights in straight rows, well patted down between, and +treats the small seeds that he plants with a sort of paternal patience. +Ian disdains any seed smaller than a nasturtium or bean, whose growth is +soon apparent, and has collected a motley assortment of bulbs, roots, and +plants, without regard to size or season, and bordered his patch with +onion sets for Corney Delaney's express benefit, the goat having a Gallic +taste for highly flavoured morsels. Both boys are fairly patient with +their own gardening operations, but their joy is to "help" me by handing +tools, watering plants, and squirting insecticides, in my society and +under my direction. + +Of course I could do it all much quicker by myself, and it has hampered +me this spring, for last season they were too irresponsible to more than +play work a few minutes at a time. + +Now I have come to the conclusion that it is their right to learn by +helping me, and that it is the denial of companionship, either from +selfishness or some absurd educational theory, that weakens the force of +home ties later on. + +I have been frequently lectured by those older, but more especially "new +mothers" younger than I, about staying with the boys at bedtime until +they grow drowsy. "The baby is put to bed, and if he cries I pay no +attention; it is only temper, not pain, for he stops the minute I speak +to him," they say. I feel the blood rush to my face and the sting to my +tongue always when I hear this. + +Not pain, not temper, but the unconscious yearning for companionship, for +mother-love, is oftener the motive of the pitiful cry. Why should it be +denied? The mother bird broods her young in the nest at twilight, and the +father bird sings a lullaby to both. The kittens luxuriously sup +themselves to sleep with the warm mother flesh responding to their +seeking paws. In wild life I know not an animal who does not in some way +soothe her young to sleep. Why should the human child, the son of man, be +forced to live without the dream memories that linger about happy +sleeping times? What can the vaunted discipline give to replace them? It +is then, as they grow, and speech forms on their lips, that little +confessions come out and wrongs are naturally righted through +confidence, before they can sprout and grow. + +I was not quite five when I last watched mother sowing her flower seeds, +and yet I remember to this day the way in which she did it, and so when +it came time to give my bed of summer roses its first bath of whale oil, +soap, and water, and the boys gave whoops of joy when they saw Bertel +wheel out the tub and I appeared with the shining brass syringe, I +resolved to let them have the questionable delight of administering the +shower bath, even if it took all day. + +I have appropriated a long strip of rich, deep soil for these tender +roses, quite away from the formal garden and across the path from the new +strawberry bed, which by the necessity of rotation has worked its way +from the vegetable garden to the open spot under the bank wall by the +stable where the hotbeds congregate. This wall breaks the sweep of the +wind, and so both our tender roses and strawberries are of the earliest, +the fruit already being well set and large. + +It was the middle of the morning. The work was progressing finely, +without more than the usual amount of slop and misdirected effort, when a +violent tooting from the direction of the highway caused me to stop, and +Ian dropped the squirter that I had newly filled for his turn, upon the +grass border, while he and Richard scurried toward the gateway to see +what was the matter, for the sound was like the screech of an automobile +horn in distress. It was! + +A streak of dark red and a glitter of brass flashed in between the gate +posts, grazing them, and barely escaping an upset, and then came plunging +toward me. I screamed to the boys, who seemed to me directly in the path +of the _Thing_, which in another moment I recognized as an automobile of +the battering-ram variety, belonging to Harvey Somers, Gwendolen Burton's +fiancé, which for the past week had been the terror of father's steady +old gray horses, owing to its constitutional eccentricities. + +Mr. Somers was handling it single-handed, and though he was coming at a +reckless speed, I expected that he would swing back of the house and come +to one of the dramatic sudden stops, on the verge of an accident, for +which he is famous. So he did, but not on the driveway! + +The _Thing_ gave a lurch and veered toward the barn, spitting like a +cageful of tiger cats. Somers was pushing the lever and gripping the +brake with all his athletic might, but to no purpose. The children, who, +wild with excitement, had by this time sought the safety of the open barn +door, seemed a second time to be in the monster's path. + +Another lurch! Surely man and machine would be dashed to bits against +the substantial stable wall! + +Then the _Thing_ changed its course, and showing a ray of flustered +intelligence, made a mighty leap off the bank wall and landed hub deep in +the soft, friable soil of the new strawberry bed, where, after one +convulsive effort, some part of its anatomy blew up with the triple +report of a rapid-fire gun, and after having relieved itself of a cloud +of steam, it settled down peacefully, as if a strawberry bed was the +place of all others it preferred for a noonday nap. + +Harvey Somers was shot with a left-handed twirl directly into one of the +hotbed frames, from which the sash was pushed back, and landed in a +doubled-up position, amid a tearing sound and the crash of broken glass. +Meanwhile, the boys, frightened at the cloud of steam, yelled "Fire!" at +the top of their lungs. + +As I flew to help him, I could for the instant think of nothing but the +Lizard Bill's assisted progress up the chimney and into the cucumber +frame, but as a rather faint voice said, "Not you; kindly call the +Doctor," my mirth changed to alarm, which was not lessened when Timothy +Saunders, hearing the uproar and the cry of fire, arriving too late to +grasp the situation with his slow Scotch brain, and seeing me leaning +over the plant frame, picked up the squirt and deluged the unfortunate +man with whale-oil spray! + +Coughing and choking, Mr. Somers finally sat up, but did not offer to do +more, wiped his eyes, and said to me in most delightful and courteous +tones, "Would you be so good as to allow your man to bring me either a +bath robe or a mackintosh?" + +I was at once relieved, for I knew that the lacerations were of trousers +and not flesh, and at the same time I saw that the crash of glass was +caused merely by the toppling backward of the sash, also that all my +young heliotrope plants that were in the frame where the chauffeur +reposed were hopelessly ruined. + +Timothy brought out Evan's bath gown, and in a few moments Mr. Somers was +himself again, and after surveying the scene of the disaster, he +approached me with a charming bow, and drawing a crumpled note from his +pocket said:-- + +"I promised Bertie Chatterton to give you this invitation for his studio +tea to-morrow, in person, and I fear that I have rather overshot my +promise. Best way to get that brute up will be from the bank wall,--will +damage your fruit less. I will have a derrick sent up to-morrow, or if +possible this afternoon. I'm awfully sorry, Mrs. Evan, but I think you'll +bear me witness that the accident was quite out of my control. May I beg +the favour of a trap home? I'm a trifle shaken up, that's all." And as if +the accident were an everyday affair, he departed without fuss and having +steadied my nerves by his entire self-control. + +As I stood by the gateway pondering upon the matter and the easy manners +of this Whirlpooler, Mrs. Jenks-Smith drove past. She had met Mr. Somers, +and as her curiosity was piqued by his strange attire, she stopped to see +if I could furnish a clew. She says, by the way, that he is not a New +Yorker, but from Boston, and that his father is an English Honourable and +his mother a Frenchwoman. + +A gang of men with a sort of wrecking machine hired from the railroad +company removed the _Thing_ next day, and towed it off, but of course the +strawberries were half ruined; next a man from the florist's in town came +with directions to repair all damage to turf and replace the smashed +plants. Yet that is not all--the sense of peace and protection that I had +when working in my garden has had a shock. In spite of the inhospitable +air it gives the place, I think we must keep the gates closed. + +Why was Jenks-Smith inspired to start a land-boom here and fate allowed +to make fashion smile on it, when we were so uneventfully happy, so +twinfully content? + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright arrived on Wednesday, and is safely ensconced with +Martha and Timothy Saunders, who could give him the couple of plainly +furnished rooms he desired, and breakfast at any hour. For a man of no +hours (which usually means he never breakfasts before nine) to forgather +cheerfully at a commuter's table at 7:15 A.M. is a trial to him, and a +second breakfast is apt to cause a cloud in Madam C.'s domestic horizon. +Therefore, father allowed Martin to do as he suggested, live at the farm +cottage and work here in the library or attic den, as suits his +convenience. In this way he feels quite independent, has motive for +exercise in walking to and fro, and as he is always welcome to dine with +us, can mix his portion of solitude and society in the exact proportion +of his taste, even as his well-shaped fingers carefully blend the tobacco +for his outdoor pipe. + +Dear old fellow, he seems so happy and bubbling over with good temper at +having overstepped the tyranny of habit, that I shall almost expect to +see his gray hairs turn brown again as the wintry pelt of the weasel does +in spring. + +If the Vanderveer boy is diagnosed as a case of "suppressed boyhood," +then Martin Cortright's only ailment should be dubbed "suppressed youth!" + +He was to have come earlier in the month, but a singular circumstance +prevented. The old-time gentlewoman, at whose house in Irving Place he +has had his apartments so long that a change seemed impossible, died, and +he was obliged not only to move, but put his precious belongings in +storage until he can place himself suitably once more. So that his plan +of coming here bridges the break, and seems quite providential. + +He and father walk up and down the garden together after dinner, smoking +and chatting, and it does me good to see dear daddy with one of his +old-time friends. I think I am only now realizing what he, with his +sociable disposition, gave up in all those years before Evan came, that I +should not be alone, and that he might be all in all to me. + +It was quite cool yesterday. We had hearth fires all through the house, +and Martin, rearranging some reference books for his own convenience in +the little room that is an annex to father's library, wore his skull cap +and Chinese silk dressing gown, which gave him an antique air quite at +variance with his clear skin and eyes. + +Lavinia Dorman had been due all the week, but worry with the workmen who +are building in the rear of her house detained her, and she telegraphed +me that she would take the morning express, and asked me to meet her over +in town. So I drove in myself, dropping father at the hospital on the +way, but on reaching the station the train brought me no passenger. + +I returned home, hoping to be in time for our way train, thinking I had +mistaken her message, and missed it; but the postmistress,--for every +strange face is noticed in town,--told me that the lady who visited me +two weeks ago walked up from the ten o'clock train; that she had a new +bonnet and "moved right spry," and asked if she was a relative of mine. +"An aunt, maybe, and was the pleasant new gentleman an uncle, and did he +write a newspaper? She thought maybe he did because he was so particular +about his mail." I said something about their being adopted relations, +and hurried home. + +The boys were industriously digging dandelions on the side lawn. I +inconsistently let the dear, cheery flowers grow and bloom their fill in +the early season, when they lie close to the sward, but when they begin +to stretch awkward, rubbery necks, and gape about as if to see where they +might best shake out their seed puffs, they must be routed. Do it as +thoroughly as possible, enough always remain to repay my cruelty with a +shower of golden coin the next spring. Bertel spends all his spare time +on the other bits of grass, but the side lawn is the boys' plunder, +where, by patiently working each day at grubbing out the roots at +twenty-five cents a hundred, they expect, before the dandelion season is +over, to amass wealth enough to buy an alluring red goat harness trimmed +with bells that is on exhibition at the harness shop in town, for Corney +Delaney. Yes, they said, Aunt Lavinia had just come, but she said they +need not stop, for she could go in by herself. + +There was no one in the hall, sitting room, den, or upstairs, neither had +Effie seen any person enter. Thinking I heard voices in the direction of +father's office, I went there and through to the library "annex," where +an unexpected picture met my gaze. Martin Cortright, the precise, in +stocking feet, skull cap, and dressing gown, perched on top of the +step-ladder, was clutching a book in one hand, within the other he held +Miss Lavinia's slender fingers in greeting, while his face had a curious +expression of surprise, pleasure, and a wild desire to regain his +slippers that were down on the floor, a combination that made him look +extremely foolish as well as "pudgy." + +Up to that moment, Miss Lavinia, who cannot distinguish a face three +feet away without her lorgnette, thought she was speaking to father. +Under cover of our mutual hilarity, I led her back to a seat in the +study, so that Martin might recover his wits, coat, and slippers at the +same time, for Miss Lavinia had stumbled over the latter and sent them +coasting in different directions. + +Yes, the postmistress was right, Lavinia Dorman had a new bonnet. Not the +customary conservative but monotonous upholstered affair of jet and lace, +but a handful of pink roses in a tulle nest, held on by wisps of tulle +instead of ribbons. + +"Hortense, who has made bonnets for years, said this was more appropriate +for the country, and would show dirt less than black,--and even went so +far as to suggest omitting the strings altogether," she said in rather +flurried tones, as a few moments later we went upstairs, and I removed +the pins that held the confection in place, and commented upon its +prettiness. + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright stayed to dinner, and afterward he, Miss Lavinia, +father, and Evan sat down to a "real old-fashioned," serious game of +whist! Of all things, to the fifth wheel, who is out of it, would not be +in if she could, cannot learn, and prefers jackstraws to card games of +any sort, an evening of serious whist is the most aggravating. They were +too well matched to even enliven matters by squabbling or casting +venomous glances at each other. Evan played with Martin Cortright, whose +system he was absorbed in mastering, and he never spoke a word, and +barely looked up. This, too, when he had been away for several days on a +business trip. It was moonlight, and I wanted him to see the new iris +that were in bloom along the wild walk, dilate upon the game of leap-frog +that the automobile played, and--well--there is a great deal to say when +Evan has been away that cannot be thought of indoors or be spoken +hurriedly in the concise, compact, public terms in which one orders a +meal. Conversation is only in part made of words, its subtilties are +largely composed of touch and silence. + +I myself, being wholly responsible for the present whist combination, of +course could say nothing except to myself and the moon. What a hoard of +personal reminiscences and heart to heart confessions the simpering old +thing must have stored away behind her placid countenance. It is a wonder +that no enterprising journal has syndicated her memoirs by wireless +telegraphy for the exclusive use of their Sunday issue. + +I resolved that I must wait awhile, and then if this silence lasted many +evenings, I must hunt up a game of cards that takes only two. How could I +get out of the room without appearing to be in a huff or bored? Ah! a +wordless excuse; a slight noise upstairs. Ian sometimes walks in his +sleep. I go up and sit in my window and look out through the diamond +panes at the garden. Ian stirs and mutters something about a drink. I +hasten to get it, and he, gripping the glass with his teeth, swallows +eagerly, with a clicking noise in his throat. + +"Is your throat sore?" I ask apprehensively. He opens his eyes, realizes +where he is, nestles his head into my neck and whispers,-- + +"Not zactly lumpy sore, Barbara, just crusty, 'cause I made--lots of +dandelion curls wif my tongue to-day, and they're--velly--sour," and with +a satisfied yawn he rolled back on his pillow, into the funny +spread-eagle attitude peculiar to himself, but Richard slept peacefully +on like a picture child, cheek on hand, and the other little +dandelion-stained paw above the sheet. + +(N.B.--When one's husband and father together take to serious whist of a +moonlight night in spring, twins are not only an advantage but a +necessity.) + +I have searched the encyclopedia for the description of an intellectual +game of cards, arranged as a duet, and found one. It is piquet! Now I +can wait developments peacefully, for are there not also in reserve +chess, checkers, backgammon, and--jackstraws? + + * * * * * + +_June_ 2. A gentle summer shower at sunset after a perfect day has filled +the world with fragrance and song, for do the birds ever sing so +perfectly with such serene full-noted ecstasy as after the rains of May +and June? Or is it the clearness of the air after the rain that transmits +each note in full, prisoning nothing of its value? + +To-night I am unhappy. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, and perplexed is +the better word, and it is only in pages of my social experience book +that the cause can be given. + +Friday was Peysey Vanderveer's eighth birthday, and it has been +celebrated by a party on a scale of magnificence that to my mind would +have been suitable for the only son of royalty. + +Though the invitations fortunately were only given two days in advance, +Richard and Ian were agog over the matter to the extent of muttering in +their sleep, and getting up this morning before eight, in order, if +possible, to make the hour of three come quicker, and to be sure to be +ready in time. + +When the invitation was brought by Mr. Vanderveer in person, he asked if +Lavinia Dorman and I would not like to come up also and see the children +play, adding that I need feel no responsibility about the boys, as he was +going to be at home and give himself up to seeing that the "kids" had a +jolly time, and got into no scrapes. + +We agreed that it would be amusing to go up with the children, stay a +little while to be sure that they could adapt themselves, and then leave; +for if there is anything dampening to the ardour of children at play it +is a group of elders with minds divided between admiration and +correction, punctuating unwise remarks upon beauty and cleverness with +"Maud, you are overheated." "Tommy, don't! Use your handkerchief!" +"Billy, your stocking is coming down!" "Reggie, you must wait, girls +should be helped first." + +The boys certainly looked comfortably and humanly handsome in their white +cheviot sailor suits, loose blue ties, black stockings and pumps. They +really are good-looking children. Lavinia Dorman, who is candour itself, +says so. I suppose people think that my opinion does not count, and that +I should consider them perfect if they were of the human chipmunk +variety. But I am sure I am not prejudiced, for I do _not_ think them +perfect, only well made and promising, thus having the two first +requisites of all young animals. + +When we arrived at the Vanderveers a little late, owing to the fact of +father's having been obliged to use our horse for a hurry call, the party +had "gathered," to use an old-fashioned expression, and I saw that +Richard and Ian were by several years the youngest of the group of thirty +or more, the others ranging from eight to thirteen or fourteen. + +The house and grounds were decorated wherever decoration was possible. +Though it was wholly a daylight affair, Japanese lanterns hung by +festoons of handsome ribbon from verandas, trees, and around the new +pergola, the marble columns of which, in the absence of vines, were wound +with ribbons and roofed with bright flags, to form a tent for the +collation. In an arbour decorated in a like manner, an Hungarian +orchestra in uniform, much in vogue, Miss Lavinia says, for New York +dinner dances, was playing ragtime, while a dozen smart traps and road +carts filled with exquisitely dressed women lining the driveway around +the sunken tennis court, indicated that a matched game was to take place. + +Yes, after every one had exchanged greetings, Miss Lavinia, meeting +several friends who not only treated her with something akin to homage, +but were unfeignedly pleased to see her, the guests divided, a dozen of +the elder girls and boys going toward the tennis court, where Monty Bell +seemed to be acting as general manager. I afterward discovered that two +prizes for doubles and two for singles were to be played for, not pretty +trifles suitable for children, but jewellery, belt buckles of gold and +silver, gold sleeve links, and a loving cup. + +Meanwhile Mr. Vanderveer took charge of the younger group and led them +through the garden to where some young spruce trees hid the wall. Here a +surprise awaited them in the shape of two of the largest of the growing +trees festooned with ribbons and laden with strange fruit in the shape of +coloured toy balloons that bobbed about and tugged at their moorings as +if anxious to escape. + +On each balloon a number was painted in white. A wide ribbon was +stretched barrierwise across the walk about fifteen feet from the trees, +and near it were several large baskets, one full of bows and dart-pointed +arrows, and the other heaped with expensive toys and bonbon boxes of +painted satin, for prizes, each article being numbered. + +"Step up, ladies and gentlemen. Stand in line by the ribbon and take your +turn at the most unique shooting match ever seen in this county,--one at +a time,--and whoever points the arrow at anything but the balloons is +ruled out," rattled Mr. Vanderveer, after the manner of a fakir at a +country fair, and beaming with pleasure. For Evan says that outside of +business dealings he has the reputation of being the most good-natured +and generous of men, and that to invent ways to lavish money upon his son +and his friends is almost as keen a pleasure to him as to promote schemes +for winning it. + +Mr. Vanderveer picked up a bow and dart to illustrate the game, aimed at +a balloon, the arrow glanced off, but at the second shot the balloon went +pop and shrivelled away with the whistle of escaping gas and shouts of +applause from both children and their elders. + +Feeling assured that my boys were quite at their ease and not likely to +balk and act like wild rabbits, as is sometimes the case with children +when they find themselves among strangers, and seeing nothing that they +would be likely to fall out of or into, except a great bowl of lemonade +arranged in a bower that represented a well, we came away, Lavinia Dorman +sniffing in the spectacle like a veteran war-horse scenting powder, and +enjoying the gayety, as I myself should have done heartily if it had not +been for the boys. + +I was not worried about their clothes, their taking cold, or sticking +the darts into their fingers, but I was beginning to realize the +responsibility of consequences. What would the effect of this fête be +upon the birthday parties of our village community, where a dish of +mottoes, a home-made frosted sponge cake, and a freezer of ice cream +(possibly, but not always) from town, eaten out-of-doors, meant bliss. + +I suppose it is only the comfortably poor who have to think of +consequences, the uncomfortably rich think they can afford not to, +and tired of mere possession, they must express their wealth audibly +at any cost. + + * * * * * + +Richard and Ian came home about half past six, driven by Timothy +Saunders, who was in a sulky mood. When I asked him, by way of cheerful +conversation, if the Vanderveer grounds did not look pretty, and if he +had heard the band (he is very fond of music), he fairly glowered at me +as he used in his bachelor days, before Martha's energetic affection had +mellowed him, and he began to jerk out texts, his dialect growing more +impossible each moment, so that the only words that I caught were +"scarlet weemen--Philistines--wrath--mammon o' the unriteous," etc., +until I seized the boys and fled into the porch, because when Timothy +Saunders is wrathful, and quotes scripture as a means of expressing it, +some one must fly, and it is never Timothy. + +The boys, however, were jubilant, and began at once to unwrap the various +bundles they were hugging, prizes, it seemed, for every game they played, +that represented enough plunder to deck a small Christmas tree. After +these had been duly admired, with some misgivings on my part, Ian jumped +up suddenly, clapping his hand to his pocket, and coming close, so that +he could rest upon my knee, he began pulling out shining new dimes and +quarters, until his hands, moist and trembling with excitement, could +hold no more, and he poured the coins into my lap. + +"Count them please, Barbara, vely quick, 'cause I can't say so many," he +begged, standing with his curly head a little on one side, and his eyes +flashing with eagerness. + +Wondering what new form of extravagance it was, I counted, "One, two, +three dollars and a half." + +"Then we can go and buy the red harness for Corney to-morrow, without +bothering to dig up any more dandies, 'cause Dick's got some too," he +fairly shouted. "It was all bully fun, but that swizzle game where the +marble ran round was the bestest of all, only some numbers it sat on took +the pennies and some gave them back," and he indicated something flying +round in a circle as he capered about. Ian's slightest gestures, like his +father's, are very realistic, and I turned sick as I realized the game by +which the silver had been won was probably roulette! Could it be +possible? How had Mr. Vanderveer dared? No, there must be some mistake. + +At that instant my attention was attracted by Richard, who, after +unpacking his toys, had curled up in a deep piazza chair, where he sat +without saying a word, but looking flushed and heavy-eyed. + +"Do you feel sick? Perhaps you ate too much cream, and then ran too fast. +Come and let mother feel of your hands," I said. His hands were cold and +his head burning. + +"It wasn't the cweam," he replied finally, as if not quite sure what was +the matter, "it was the lemonade with the bitter currant jelly in it +that made the cweam and all swell up,--and I guess it's going to spill +pretty soon." + +"Lemonade with bitter jelly in it?" queried father, coming out, "what +sort of a mess have they given him?" Father stooped, smelled his breath, +saying, "Astringent wine of some sort, unless my nose fails me. Did you +have any, Ian?" + +"Not pink, only yellow. I was all full up by then." + +"When?" + +"Why, when the big boys caught some of us and said we must drink pink +lemonade to make us grow quick." + +Father gave me a keen glance of intelligence, and I took the boys +upstairs, where Richard's trouble soon righted itself, and, early as it +was, they went quickly to sleep with the precious money under their +pillows, fatigue conquering even their excitement. + +Evan came home rather late, and at dinner we talked of other things. As +far back as I remember anything, I can hear father's voice saying alike +to Aunt Lot, myself, or a complaining servant, "The family board is +sacred; meals are not the time for disagreeables." + +Immediately after dinner, and before I had a chance to tell Evan, Mrs. +Jenks-Smith stopped on her way home from a drive, the Whirlpoolers not +dining until eight, to ask father if she might take some friends in to +see the hospital to-morrow, an appeal having been recently made for new +bedding, etc., saying: "We're going to have smashing strawberries and +roses this year; they'll come on before the crowd moves along in July, +and we might as well shake up a fête for the hospital as anything else, +as we're bound to keep moving. + +"Were you up at Vanderveers this afternoon? Oh, yes, to be sure, I saw +you going down hill as I drove in. Quite a chic affair for a little +between-season place like this; but after all, it's the people, not the +place, that make the pace, isn't it, Miss Dorman? And a swell New Yorker +can leave a wake that'll show the way anywhere. + +"You don't look happy, though, Mrs. Evan. The boys ate too much? No? +Roulette a little too high for you? + +"Well, my dear, I half agree with you. I think things were a little too +stiff this afternoon for such youngsters; but Vandy is such a liberal +fellow he couldn't do enough,--nor tell when to stop,--actually lugged up +half a dozen bags of new silver and dealt it to the kids in handfuls. +Harm? Why, he didn't see any, I dare say. He wasn't robbing anybody; +besides, I'll bet Monty Bell put him up to it. I know how you feel, +though. I wouldn't play for money myself, if I'd young boys; but as I +haven't, it doesn't matter, and one must be amused. That's the way Mrs. +Latham jogged poor Carthy off and began the gap with her husband. Latham +gambles on change, of course, but drew the line at his house. Didn't know +it? You poor innocent, you're as bad as Sylvia herself. Why, yes, they're +as good as divorced, by mutual agreement, though; he's kept away all of +two years. I expect that they will announce it any time now. + +"Won't let the boys keep the money? Don't be silly now and make a fuss; +change it to bills and put it on the church plate; that's what all the +really conscientious women always do with their Lenten winnings +anyway,--that is, when they can afford it. + +"I'll allow, though, they didn't manage the drinks well this afternoon. +The lemonade was for the youngsters, and their spread was in the pergola; +the next age had claret cup in the tea house back of the tennis court, +and there was also a spread there with champagne cup for the elders. + +"Claret cup? Oh, yes, nowadays you insult a boy over twelve if you offer +him lemonade. But the trouble was, the big boys tumbled to the champagne +cup, got hold of a bowl of it, grew excited, and fed the youngsters with +the claret stuff, and made a lot of them sick. Your Richard one of them? +I see,--I don't wonder you're put out, my dear, indeed I don't. I should +be too, that is, if it mattered; but one person disapproving won't turn +the wheel the other way, it only means to lose your own footing." So +saying, the Lady of the Bluffs rustled away, promising to call for father +in her 'bus in the morning. + +"Is this true?" asked Evan, presently, and I had never seen his eyes look +so steely cold. + +"Yes, I'm afraid so," I answered, meeting his gaze. + +"Where is the money?" + +"Under their pillows; they expect to buy the red goat harness to-morrow." + +"It's a crying shame, the whole thing. The poor little babies!" + +"What shall I do?" + +"You? Nothing. I shall return the money. This is my business; man to +man. As a woman you inevitably must be emotional and make a doubtful +issue of it. You mother the boys well, God knows; this is my chance to +father them." + +"But the money,--shall I get it now?" + +"No, in the morning; they will bring it to me, and I will make them +understand, as far as babies may. In one way, I fear, we are unwittingly +somewhat to blame ourselves. Every one who is drawn toward a social and +financial class a little beyond his depth, and yields, though feeling the +danger, is unwise. I think, sweetheart, this commuter, his wife, and +babies had better be content to wade in safe shallows and not go within +touch of the Whirlpool current." + +Then Evan and I went and stood silently by the two white beds, and now he +is walking up and down in the garden smoking quietly, while I am writing +up here, and unhappy because I think of to-morrow and the boys' +disappointment about the little red harness. + + + + +XI + +REARRANGED FAMILIES + + +_June_ 10. Sylvia Latham has returned alone. Her father came with her as +far as Chicago, where, having business that would detain him for perhaps +ten days, and warm weather having set in, he insisted that Sylvia should +at once proceed eastward. At least that is what Miss Lavinia tells me; +but she has suddenly turned quite reticent in everything that concerns +the Lathams, which, together with Mrs. Jenks-Smith's random remarks, have +inevitably set me to thinking. + +I had hoped to form a pleasant friendship with Sylvia, for though I have +only met her two or three times, I feel as if I really knew her; but +there will be little chance now, as they go on to Newport the first of +July, and the continual procession of house parties, for golf, tennis, +etc., at the Bluffs, even though they are called informal, necessarily +stand in the way of intimate neighbourly relations between us. Monty Bell +has been dividing his week ends between the Ponsonby, Vanderveer, and +Jenks-Smith households, yet he always is in the foreground when I have +been to see Sylvia, even though I have tried to slip in between times in +the morning. + +I do not like this Monty Bell; he seems to be merely an eater of dinners +and a cajoler of dames, such superficial chivalry of speech as he +exhibits being only one of the many expedients that gain him the title of +"socially indispensable" that the Whirlpoolers accord him. + +Personally anything but attractive, he seems able to organize and control +others in a most singular way. Perhaps it is because he has a genius for +taking pains and planning successful entertainments for his friends, even +to the minutest detail, and giving them the subtle distinction of both +originality and finish, without troubling their givers to think for +themselves. Miss Lavinia-says that he has the entree of the two or three +very exclusive New York houses that have never yet opened their doors to +Mrs. Latham and several more aspiring Whirlpoolers, Mrs. Jenks-Smith +having penetrated the sacred precincts, only by right of having been +presented at the English Court in the last reign through the influence of +her stepdaughter, who married a poverty-stricken title. + +"I don't know what it all amounts to," said the outspoken Lady of +the Bluffs on her return, "except that I'm in it now with both feet, +which is little enough pay for the trouble I took and the money +Jenks-Smith put out. + +"Our son-in-law? No, he's not exactly English, he's Irish, blood of the +old kings, they say; but all the good it does him is, that he can wear +his hat with a feather in it, or else his shoes, I can never remember +which, in the presence of royalty, when if it wasn't for good American +money he'd have neither one or the other. + +"Money? Oh yes, that's all they want of us over there; we've no cause to +stick up our noses and think it's ourselves. We know, Jenks-Smith and I, +for haven't we been financial mother and father in law to a pair of them +for ten years? Jenks-Smith was smart, though; he wouldn't give a lump sum +down, but makes them an allowance, and we go over every year or so and +bail them out of some sort of a mess to boot, have the plumbing fixed up, +and start the children all over with new clothes. That's what we're doing +when the papers say, 'Mr. and Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who went to Carlsbad for +the waters, are now in Ireland, being entertained in regal style by their +daughter and son-in-law at Bally-whack House.'" + +Miss Lavinia says with a shiver that whoever marries Monty Bell, and it +is absolutely necessary for him to make a wealthy connection in the +immediate future, will have all New York doors open to her, and that, as +Mrs. Latham is leaving no stone unturned in order to become a social +leader, a marriage between Sylvia and Mr. Bell would secure her the +complete prestige necessary to her ambition, while rearranged families +are so common and often the results of such trivial causes, that the fact +of the man's having a lovely wife and two children living abroad does not +militate against him in the least. It all seems ghastly, this living life +as if it was a race track, where to reach the social goal is the only +thought, no matter how, or over or through what wreckage, or in what +company the race is to be won. + +Since her return Sylvia has looked pale and seemed less buoyant. She is +much disappointed because her plan of going to Rockcliffe to see her +class graduate cannot be carried out. Miss Lavinia had promised to go +with her, and the poor child was looking forward to a week of girlish +pleasure among the friends with whom she had spent two years, when, lo +and behold! the rose and strawberry festival, that the Lady of the Bluffs +had stirred up for the benefit of the hospital, assumed such huge +proportions that the entire colony became involved, and the dates +conflicting, it was impossible for Sylvia to leave home without entirely +tipping over her mother's plans. + +The places on the north side of the Bluff road are to be thrown open, +grand-chain fashion, each contributing something by way of entertainment, +games, a merry-go-round brought with great expense from the city, fortune +telling, a miniature show of pet animals, and an amateur circus, being a +few of the many attractions offered. + +The spectators are to pay a fee and enter by the Ponsonbys', the first +place on the south, and gradually work their way up to the Jenks-Smiths', +where the rose garden and an elaborate refreshment booth will be reached. +The Latham garden is too new to make any showing, but Mrs. Latham, who +has been much in New York of late, promises something novel in the way of +a tea room in her great reception hall, while Mrs. Jenks-Smith insisted +that Sylvia should have charge of her rose booth, saying: "Your name's +suitable for the business, you'll look well in a simple hat and baggy +mull gown, such as artists always want to put on the people they paint, +and I must positively have some one who'll stay by me and see that things +are not torn to bits, for all the rest of the girls will slide off with +the first pair of trousers that comes along. Anyway, you don't match the +little Ponsonby and Chatfield minxes that your mother has chosen for her +six Geisha girls, for you are a head taller than the bunch." + +Nothing is talked of now but this fête. Of course it will help the +hospital, even though ten times the amount is being spent upon the +preparation than any sum that can possibly be made for the charity; but +it pleases the people to spend. Father says that the Whirlpoolers are +already bored; that they have used up the place, for the time being, and +if it were not for this festival, the Bluffs would be deserted for +Newport and Long Island long before July. + +Social ambition has even infected our rector's jolly little wife, who has +never felt able or called upon to entertain in any but the most informal +way. After hearing the report of a clerical luncheon in New York, where +the clergyman sat at the foot of his own table with a miniature +shepherd's crook before him, and the favour beside the plate of each +female guest consisted of a woolly lamb, she, not to be outdone, +immediately imperilled the possibility of a new winter gown by inviting +all the non-resident members of the congregation to lunch, and serving +the ice cream in a toy Noah's Ark, while the animals from it were grouped +about a large dish of water, to form an appropriate decoration in the +centre of the table, and sugar doves at each plate held leaves in their +mouths, upon which the name of the guest was neatly pricked with a pin. + + * * * * * + +Lavinia Dorman has decided to stay with me and do without her maid, +rather than take a cottage, or board, for we find that we do not wear on +each other in the least. We never plan for one another, or interfere in +any way, and each takes it for granted that if the other desires +assistance of any sort, she will ask for it. + +Miss Lavinia pokes about the garden at her own sweet will. I gather the +flowers,--I could not give that up to any one,--and she takes charge of +arranging them in the house. She is very fond of doing fancy work, I am +not, so that her offer to re-cover the sofa cushions in den, study, and +library comes in the light of a household benefaction. + +Besides this, she has a very good effect upon the boys, and without being +at all fussy, she is instilling their absorbent minds quite unconsciously +with some little bits of the quaint good breeding of other days that they +will never forget. They love to go to town with her, one of her first +stipulations being that if I chose to include her in some of our long +drives, well and good, otherwise she wished the liberty of telephoning +the stable for horse and man, whenever she pleased, without my troubling +myself about her movements. + +Meanwhile, I really think that this living in the midst of a family +without losing her independence is making Lavinia Dorman grow backwards +toward youth. She has bought an outing hat without strings, trimmed with +fluffy white, she takes her work out under the trees in a basket, and +has given up tying her head in a thin and a thick veil every time she +drives out. If she could learn to sit comfortably back and lounge a +trifle, and if a friendly magpie would only chance along and steal her +stock of fronts, for a nest, so that she would be obliged to show her +own lovely hair that shades like oxidized silver, the transformation +would be complete. + +Martin Cortright also is developing mental energy. He always had +considerable physical vim, as I found the Sunday after he first came, +when he accompanied Evan upon one of his long walks, and was not used up +by it. He has stopped fumbling with reference books and shuffling bits of +paper by the hour, and writes industriously every day by the west window +of the attic, where he can refresh himself by looking out of the window +at the garden, or across at the passers on the highway. I was afraid that +he might wish to read the results nightly to either father or Evan, but +no, he keeps them safely under lock and key in a great teacher's desk +that he bought second hand over in town. He stays to dine with us two or +three nights a week, but he has grown flexible, and our meals are very +merry ones. Laugh softly to yourself, Experience Book, and flutter your +leaves just a bit as I write, that of their own volition, Miss Lavinia +and Martin have drifted from whist to piquet, as by natural transition, +and Evan is free for garden saunterings once more. + + * * * * * + +_June_ 25. Yesterday was the day of the festival, and it was neither +sultry, foggy, nor brought to a sudden stop by a thunder shower, as so +often happens at this season. + +By half past two in the afternoon the country teams could be seen winding +Bluff ward by all the various roads, and before three, the hour at which +the gates were to be opened, every available hitching place was occupied, +and the line of vehicles extended well up one of the back lanes that was +bounded by a convenient rail fence. + +Horace Bradford arrived home at Pine Ridge night before last. He had +expected to see Sylvia and Miss Lavinia at Rockcliffe. Missing them, and +not knowing the cause of their change of plan, very naturally his first +thought was to drive down to Oak-lands and make a double call. On taking +up the local paper he saw the announcement of the rose festival set forth +in ornamental type, which gave him a key to the situation, so that the +substantial, if not ornamental, farm buggy, drawn by a young horse with +plenty of free-gaited country go but no "manners," was one of the first +to reach the Bluffs, Horace innocently hoping to have a few moments with +Sylvia before the festivities began. He therefore inquired his way to the +Latham house direct, instead of going into the fair grounds by way of the +Ponsonbys', and encountered Perkins, Potts, and Parker, who were on guard +at the door, as well as two footmen who stood by the steps with straw +wheel guards ready to assist people from their traps, and two grooms in +silk-sleeved buff jackets, who waited to take charge of the horses of the +men who were expected to ride over from a neighbouring social settlement. + +The outdoor group seemed to be in doubt how to proceed. Bradford had all +the ease of bearing that they instinctively felt belonged to a gentleman, +but his turnout was beyond the pale, and the grooms hesitated to give it +the shelter of the perfectly equipped stable. + +Perkins, however, did not hesitate, and before Bradford could open his +lips, came through the doors that were fastened wide open, and, with a +wave of his hand said, in freezing tones, "You've come in the wrong way; +the entrance gate and ticket booth is below, as the sign shows." + +"I wish to see Miss Latham," said Bradford, handing his card, and at +the same time with difficulty suppressing a violent desire to knock +the man down. + +"Not at home," replied immovable Perkins, vouchsafing no further +information. + +"Then take my card to Mrs. Latham," thundered Bradford, nettled by his +slip in not asking for both at the first instance, and; as the man still +hesitated, he strode past him through the porch and into the hall. + +As Perkins disappeared through one of the many doorways, Bradford stood +still for a moment before his eyes focussed to the change of light. The +pillars of the hall that supported the balcony corridor of the second +story were wreathed with light green vines, delicate green draperies +screened the windows, the pale light coming from many Japanese lanterns +and exquisitely shaded bronze lamps rather than outside. Half a dozen +little arbours were formed by large Japanese umbrellas, under which tea +tables were placed, and the sweet air of the summer afternoon was +changed and made suffocatingly heavy by burning incense. + +Of course all this paraphernalia belonged to the festival, and yet +Bradford was not prepared to find Sylvia living in such daily state as +the other surroundings implied. He knew that she belonged to a prosperous +family, but his entrance to what he supposed would be, as the name +implied, a country cottage, was a decided shock to him. + +He had been drawn irresistibly toward Sylvia almost from their meeting +in the lecture room several years before, but he could hardly allow +himself the luxury of day dreams then, and it was not until his +promotion had seemed to him to place him upon a safe footing, that he +had paused long enough to realize how completely she was woven into all +his thoughts of the future. Now, as he waited there, a broad gulf, not a +crossable river, seemed to stretch before him, not alone financial but +ethical,--a sweeping troublous torrent, the force of which he could +neither stem nor even explain to himself,--verily the surging of the +Whirlpool at his feet. + +Babbling girlish voices waked him from his revery, and half a dozen young +figures, disguised in handsomely embroidered Japanese costumes and +headgear, their eyes given the typical almond-shaped and upward slant by +means of paint and pencil, came down the stairs, followed a moment later +by a taller figure in still richer robes, and so carefully made up by +powder and paint that at a distance she looked but little older than the +girls. Coming toward Bradford with an expression of playful inquiry, she +said: "Is this Mr. Bradford? I am Mrs. Latham. Did you wish to see me? +I've only a moment to spare, for at three o'clock I lose my identity and +become a Geisha girl." + +Bradford was embarrassed for a moment, even quite disconcerted. Why +should he have taken it for granted that Sylvia had spoken of him, and +that he should be known to her mother? But such was the case, and he felt +bitterly humbled. + +"I was one of Miss Latham's instructors at Rockcliffe two years ago. I +have returned now to spend the vacation with my mother, whom perhaps you +know, at Pine Ridge, and finding that you have come to live +here--I--ventured to call." If poor Bradford had desired to be stiff and +uninterestingly didactic, he could not have succeeded better. + +"Ah, yes--Rockcliffe--Sylvia was there for a couple of years, and will +doubtless be glad to hear of the place. I myself never approved of +college life for girls, it makes them so superior and offish when they +return to society. Even two years abroad have not put Sylvia completely +at her ease among us again. + +"We do not live here; this is merely a between-season roost, and we leave +again next week, so I have not met your mother. The only one of the name +I recollect is an old country egg woman back somewhere in the hills +toward Pine Ridge. You will find Sylvia at Mrs. Jenks-Smith's, just +above, at the rose booth. Pardon me if I leave you now, I have so much on +my hands this afternoon." + +Thus dismissed, Bradford went out into the light again. He noticed for +the first time that his horse and buggy, standing unheeded where he left +them, looked strangely out of date, and as he went down the steps, the +horse turned his head, and recognizing him, gave a joyful whinny that +caused the grooms to grin. He could feel the colour rising to his very +eyes, and for a moment he determined to go home without making any +further effort to find Sylvia, and he felt grateful that his mother had +declined his invitation to come with him to the festival. + +His mother, "the egg-woman"! What would she have thought of Sylvia's +mother thus painted and transformed in the name of charity? He +experienced a thrill of relief at the escape. + +As he found himself on the free highway once more, he faltered. He would +see how Sylvia bore herself in the new surroundings before he put it all +behind him. This time he found a bit of shade and a fence rail for the +too friendly nag, and entering the Jenks-Smith grounds afoot, followed +the crowd that was gathering. + +The rose garden of five years' well-trained growth was extremely +beautiful, while the pergola that separated it from the formal garden of +the fountain, and at the same time served as a gateway to it, was +utilized as the booth where roses and fanciful boxes of giant +strawberries were to be sold. + +Bradford, standing at a little distance, under an archway, scanned the +faces of the smart married women who bustled about canvassing, and the +young girls who carelessly gathered the sumptuous roses into bouquets for +the buyers, making a great fuss over the thorns as they did so. Then one +tall, white-clad figure arrested his attention. It was Sylvia. She +handled the flowers lovingly, and was bestowing patient attention upon a +country woman, to whom these pampered roses were a revelation, and who +wished a bouquet made up of samples, one of each variety, and not a mass +all of a colour like the bunches that were arranged in the great baskets. + +As Sylvia held the bouquet up for the woman's approval, adding a bud +here and there, pausing to breathe its fragrance herself before handing +it to the purchaser, Horace's courage came back. She was plainly not a +part of the vortex that surrounded her. Circumstances at present seemed +to stand between. He could not even venture a guess if she ever gave him +other than a friendly thought; but a feeling came over him as he stood in +the deep shade, that some day she might be lonely and need steadfast +friendship, and then the opportunity to serve her would give him the +right to question. + +Now thoroughly master of himself, he went toward her, and was rewarded by +a greeting of unfeigned pleasure, a few moments of general talk, and a +big bunch of roses for his mother. + +"No, you shall not buy these. I am sending them to your mother with my +love, to beg pardon for Miss Lavinia and myself, for we've been trying to +go to Pine Ridge all the week; but this affair has kept me spinning like +a top, and when I do stop I expect to fall over with weariness. I was +_so_ sorry about Rockcliffe Commencement. Some day, perhaps, mamma will +have finished bringing me out, and then I can crawl in again where it is +quiet, and live. Ah, you went to the house and saw her, and she said we +were going away next week? I did not know it, but we flit about so one +can never tell. I've half a mind to be rebellious and ask to be left here +with Lavinia Dorman for guardian, I'm so tired of change. Yes, I enjoyed +my flying trip to the West, in a way, though father only came as far as +Chicago with me, but I expect him to-morrow." + +Then the crowd surged along, peering, staring, and feeling, so that it +would have blocked the way conspicuously if Bradford had lingered longer. +As he vanished, Monty Bell sauntered up, and, entering the booth, took +his place by Sylvia. Under pretext of good-naturedly saving her fingers +from thorns by tying the bouquets for her, kept by her side all the +afternoon, and when a lull came at tea time, strolled with her toward the +refreshment tent, where he coaxed her to sit down to rest in one of the +little recesses that lined the garden wall, where she would be free from +the crowd while he brought her some supper. + +This she did the more readily because she was really tired, almost to the +point of faintness, and even felt grateful when Mr. Bell returned with +some dainty food, and sat beside her to hold her plate. She was so used +to seeing him about at all hours, making himself generally useful, that +the little attentions he continually showered upon her never held a +fragment of personality in her eyes. + +Now, however, something familiar in his manner jarred upon her and put +her strangely on her guard. One of the man's peculiarities was that he +had a hypnotic manner, and presently, almost before she could really +understand what he was about, he had put his arm around her and was +making an easy, take-it-all-for-granted declaration of love. + +For an instant she could not believe her ears, and then his tightening +clasp brought realization. Tearing herself away, and dropping her plate +with a crash, she faced him with white face and blazing eyes, saying but +one word--"Stop!" in so commanding a tone that even his fluency faltered, +and he paused in exceeding amaze at the result of what he had supposed +any woman of his set would esteem an honour, much more this strange girl +whose mother was engaged so systematically in securing a place at the +ladder top. + +"If I had understood that your casual politeness to me and usefulness to +my mother meant insult such as this, we should have checked it long ago." + +"Insult?" ejaculated Monty Bell, looking over his shoulder, apprehensive +lest some one should be within ear-shot, for to be an object of ridicule +was the greatest evil that could come to him. "You don't understand. I +want you to marry me." + +"Insult, most certainly! What else do you call it for a man with two +little daughters, and divorced by his wife for his own unforgivable +fault, to ask any woman to marry him! Yes, I know, you see. Lavinia +Dorman is a friend of Mrs. Bell!" + +"The devil!" muttered the man, still looking about uneasily, under the +gaze of her uncompromising accusation. In some way the directness of her +words made him feel uncomfortable for the moment, but he quickly +recovered, changed his tactics, and burying his hands in his pockets, +assumed his usually jaunty air, while half a smile, half a sneer, crossed +his face as he said lightly: "What a droll, Puritan spitfire we are, +aren't we? As if rearranged families were not a thing of daily happening. +Don't feel called upon to kick up a rumpus, it isn't necessary; besides, +take a tip from me, _your mother won't like it!_ If you are through with +that cup, I will take the things back," and nonchalantly shying the bits +of the broken plate into the bushes, he went toward the refreshment tent, +saying to his host, Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who was inquiring for Sylvia: "Yes, +she is yonder in the second arbour. I've taken her some tea, for she's +quite done up; that beastly overland trip home was too much for her in +the first hot weather." + +Consequently the warm-hearted Lady of the Bluffs was naturally prepared +to find Sylvia sick and faint, and urged sending her home, where she +could slip in and get to bed unobserved, which was the one thing that the +girl most desired. Also this shrewd lady was wise enough to give no sign, +even though she drew her conclusions, when on turning to leave the arbour +she saw a bit of the broken plate lying on the ground at the opposite +side near where a point of the rustic work had torn a shred from Sylvia's +mull drapery as she had pulled herself away. + + * * * * * + +By the time that Sylvia had gained her room the warm twilight sky had +been transformed to a silver lake by the moon, but she neither enjoyed +its beauty nor heard the music that was beginning to come from the rose +garden above, as well as the tea room below stairs. She sat by the +window, deaf to all outside things, with only one thought in her mind; +she would gladly have buried the occurrence of the arbour, if it were +possible, but as it was, she must tell her mother, as now, that his +motive was made plain, Monty Bell, as a matter of course, could no longer +come to the house. Finally she went to bed and slept from sheer +exhaustion, never for a moment doubting that her mother would take her +view of the matter. Presently the French maid crept in and closed the +blinds, wondering why Mademoiselle often seemed to take pleasure so +sadly, and appeared older than Madame, her mother, and then, feeling at +liberty, hurried down gayly to dance on the back porch with the loitering +gentlemen's gentlemen who gathered there. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Latham slept late the next morning, and at eleven o'clock had only +finished looking over her mail without yet touching her breakfast, when, +without waiting for an answer to her knock, Sylvia entered. Her mother +looked up in some surprise, for she did not encourage running in and out +at all hours, or any of the usual intimacies between a mother and grown +daughter who are companions. In fact she did not even ask Sylvia to sit +down, or if she was ill, though her pallor was very apparent, but merely +raised questioning eyebrows, saying, "What is it?" as she turned her +attention to some legal-looking documents in her lace-decked lap. + +Chilled to the heart Sylvia seated herself in a low chair by her mother, +so that she need not raise her voice, and twisting her hands nervously, +told what had happened in as few words as possible, much as if she had +repeated them over and over until they were learned like a lesson. + +Mrs. Latham's cold gray eyes at first snapped viciously, and then grew +big with wonder as Sylvia ended by saying, "I should never have spoken of +this to any one, and tried to forget, but you would think it strange that +Mr. Bell should stop coming here--and--" + +"Think it strange?" said Mrs. Latham, speaking harshly and rapidly, a +thing she rarely did. "Do you know what I think of you? That you are the +most absolute little fool I ever imagined. You not only refuse a man who +could make your social position secure, but rant and get into tantrums +over the compliment he pays you, and call it an 'insult,' exactly as your +canting grandmother Latham might have done. I've no patience with you; +and if you think that this nonsense of yours shuts the door in Monty +Bell's face, you are wholly mistaken. + +"While we are upon this subject of divorce that seems to shock you so, I +may as well tell you what you will not see for yourself, and your father +appears to have been too mealy-mouthed to explain,--we have agreed to +separate. No need of your getting tragic, there are no public +recriminations on either side, no vulgar infidelity or common +quarrelling, everything quite amicable, I assure you. Simply we find our +tastes totally different, and have done so for several years. Mr. +Latham's ambitions are wholly financial, mine are social. He repelled and +ignored my best friends, and as we are in every way independent of each +other, he has been wise enough to avoid possible and annoying +complications by standing out of my way and making it easy for me to +legalize the arrangement and readjust myself completely to new +conditions." + +"But what of Carthy and me?" gasped Sylvia, in a voice so choked and +hollow that the older woman hesitated, but for a single instant only. +"Have neither you nor father thought of us? Where do we belong? Where is +our home? Can people who have once loved each other forget their children +and throw them off so? Does God allow it? You must have cared for father +once, for I remember when I was a little girl you told me that you called +me Sylvia, to have my name as nearly like father's--Sylvester--as +possible. Have you forgotten it all, that you can do this thing, when you +say in the same breath that father has done no evil?" + +"Don't be tragic, Sylvia, and rake up things that have nothing to do with +the matter. As to your brother, it was your father's foolish severity +about a card debt, and insisting upon placing him away from me, that is +primarily responsible for the divorce, not any wish of mine to exile +Carthy. And you ask where your home is, as if I had turned you out, when +you have just refused an offer that any unmarried society woman, who can +afford it, would clutch." + +Sylvia sat silent, looking blindly before her. Her mother waited a +moment, as if expecting some reply, and then continued: "Now that the +matter is virtually settled, I suppose in a few days the papers will +save me the trouble of announcing it. Under the circumstances, I shall +rent the Newport house for the season, as I have had several good +offers, and go abroad for two or three months on the continent, so that +before my return the town house will be redecorated and everything will +be readjusted for a successful winter. You had better take a few days +before deciding what to do. You can, of course, come with me, if you are +not sick of travel, or go to your father, who is ready to make you a +handsome allowance; though you will find that awkward at present, as he +is moving about so much. If you choose to feel aggrieved just now, you +might persuade your dear, prim Miss Dorman to either stay here with you +or take that little furnished house that is to rent on the lower road, +if you prefer that form of discomfort they call simplicity. You needn't +decide now; take time," she added genially, as if she was doing all that +could be asked. + +When she ceased speaking, Sylvia, with bowed head, rose and quickly +left the room. + +Then Mrs. Latham gave a sigh of relief that the interview was over, threw +the papers into a bureau drawer, called to the maid, who had been all the +while listening in the dressing room, to prepare to arrange her hair, +and, taking the chances that Sylvia would keep her room, at least for +some hours, wrote a hasty note to Monty Bell, inviting him to luncheon. + +Meanwhile, Sylvia, instead of going to her room to cry, took her hat and +crept out into the lane that led to the woods. She must be quite away by +herself and gain time to think. This was a terrible sort of grief that +could neither be kept secret nor halved by sympathy, but must be worn in +the full glare of day. Her heart condemned her mother wholly, and she +understood why her father kept the silence of shame,--to whom could she +turn? As she gained the woods, and throwing herself down on a soft bed of +hemlock needles, closed her dry, burning eyes, two people seemed to stand +side by side and look at her pityingly,--Lavinia Dorman and Horace +Bradford,--and mentally she turned toward one and shrank from the other. +In Miss Lavinia she saw her only refuge, but between herself and Horace +the shadow of his upright mother seemed to intervene. What could they +think of her mother playing at Geisha girl in her own home at the very +hour of its wreck? + + + + +XII + +HIS MOTHER + + +_July_ 1. It was several days after the festival before the news of the +Latham divorce was made definitely public by a paragraph under the +heading of "Society News," in one of the New York papers, though of +course the rumour had crept into every house on the Bluffs, by way of the +back stairs. + +Miss Lavinia was greatly distressed, and yet did not know exactly how to +act in the matter; for though Mrs. Latham was seen driving by, as usual, +Sylvia made no sign. + +We may read of such cases often enough, and yet when the blow falls in +the immediate neighbourhood, one must feel the reflex of the shock. While +sympathy for Sylvia keeps the thing ever present, like a weight upon the +chest, I find myself wondering if anything could have been done to avert +the disaster, and we all rove about in a half unsettled condition. Half a +dozen times a day Lavinia Dorman starts up with the determination of +calling upon Sylvia, but this morning decided upon writing her a letter +instead, and having sent it up by Timothy Saunders, is now sitting out in +the arbour, while Martin Cortright is reading to her from his manuscript; +but her attention is for the first time divided, and she is continually +glancing up the road as if expecting a summons,--a state of things that +causes an expression of mild surprise and disappointment to cross +Martin's countenance at her random and inapropos criticisms. I see that +in my recent confusion I have forgotten to record the fact that Miss +Lavinia has fallen into the rôle of critic for Martin's book, and that +for the last ten days, as a matter of course, he reads to her every +afternoon the result of his morning's work, finding, as he says, that her +power of condensation is of the greatest help in enabling him to +eliminate much of the needless detail of his subject that blocked him, +and to concentrate his vitality upon the rest. + +This all looks promising, to my romantic mind; for the beginning of all +kinds of affection, physical, mental, and spiritual, that are huddled +together in varying proportions as component parts of love, has its +origin in dependence. Father declares independence, selfishness, and +aloofness to be the trinity of hell. Now Martin Cortright has come to +depend upon Lavinia Dorman's opinion, and she is beginning not only to +realize and enjoy his dependence, but to aid and abet it. Is not this +symptomatic? + +When I approach father upon the Latham affair, he says that he thinks the +rupture was inevitable from the point of view and conditions that +existed. He feels, from the evidence that long experience with the inner +life of households has given him, that though a thoughtless woman may be +brought to realize, and a woman with really bad inherited instincts +reclaimed, through love, the wholly selfish woman of Mrs. Latham's type +remains immovable to word of God or man, and is unreachable, save through +the social code of the class that forms her world, and this code +sanctions both the marriage and the divorce of convenience, and receives +the results equally with open arms. + +As to the effect upon Sylvia, father exhibits much concern, and no +little anxiety, for he has read her as a nature in some respects old for +her twenty-one years, and in others, the side of the feminine, wholly +young and unawakened, so that this jar, he thinks, comes at a most +critical moment. + +He has a pretty theory that the untroubled heart of a young girl is like +a vessel full of the fresh spring sap of the sugar maple that is being +freed by slow fire from its crudities and condensed to tangible form. +When a certain point is reached, it is ready to crystallize about the +first object that stirs it ever so lightly, irrespective of its quality: +this is first love. But if the condensing process is lingering, no jar +disturbing it prematurely until, as it reaches perfection, the vital +touch suddenly reaches its depths, then comes real love, perfected at +first sight, clinging everlastingly to the object, love that endures by +its own strength, not by mere force of habit; and this love belongs only +to the heart's springtime, before full consciousness has made it +speculative. + + * * * * * + +When Horace Bradford drove homeward the afternoon of the fête, he was in +a brown study, having no realization of time or place until the wise +horse turned in at the barnyard gate, and after standing a moment by his +usual hitching post, looked over his shoulder and gave a whinny to +attract his master's attention. Then Horace started up, shook off his +lethargy, and hurried to the porch, where his mother stood waiting, to +give her the roses, and Sylvia's message. + +Mrs. Bradford was, for one of her reserve, almost childishly eager to +hear of the experiences of the afternoon, and was prepared to sit down +comfortably on the porch and have her son give a full account of it; but +instead, he gave her a few rather incoherent details, and leaving her +standing with the splendid roses held close to her face, very much in +Sylvia's own attitude, he hurried up to his room, where she could hear +him moving about as if unpacking his things, and opening and shutting +drawers nervously. + +"Never mind," she said softly to herself, "he will tell me all about her +when he is ready. Meanwhile, I'll wait, and not get in his way,--that is +what mothers are for." But by some strange impulse she loosened the +string that bound the roses, and placed them in one of her few treasures, +a silver bowl, in the centre of the supper table, and going to her +bedchamber, which was, country fashion, back of the sitting room, arrayed +herself in Horace's gifts,--the silk gown and fichu, with the onyx bar +and butterflies to fasten it,--and then returned to the porch to watch +the twilight gently veil sunset. + +Upstairs, Horace unpacked his trunks in a rebellious mood. In the morning +he had felt in the proper sense self-sufficient and contented,--the +position, which a few months before he thought perhaps ten years ahead of +him, had suddenly dropped at his feet, and he felt a natural elation, +though it stopped quite short of self-conceit. He could afford to relax +the grip with which he had been holding himself in check, and face the +knowledge that he loved Sylvia; while the fact that fate had brought her +to summer in his vicinity seemed but another proof that fortune was +smiling upon him. + +Now everything, though outwardly the same, was changed by the new point +of view, which he realized that he had already tried to conceal from his +mother, by his scanty account of the festival. He had been suddenly +confronted by conditions that he never expected to meet outside of the +pages of fiction, and felt himself utterly unable to combat them. Under +the present circumstances even neighbourly friendship with Sylvia would +be difficult. It was not that Mrs. Latham had overawed him in the least, +but she had raised in him so fierce and blinding a resentment by her only +half unconscious reference to his mother, that he resolved that under no +circumstances should she run the risk of being equally rebuffed. He would +protect her from a possible intercourse, where she could not be expected, +at her age, to hold her own, at no matter what cost to himself. + +"Egg woman!" Was it not his mother's pride and endeavour, her thrift and +courage to carry on the great farm alone, and the price of such things as +those very eggs, that had carried through his dying father's wish, and +sent him to college, thus giving him his chance in the world? No regret +at the fact, no false pride, dawned on him even for a second. All his +rage was that such a woman as Sylvia's mother should have the power to +stir him so, and then his love for Sylvia herself, intensified by pity +for the unknown trouble that he sensed rather than read in her face, cut +into him like a wound. He felt as if he must pick her up in his strong +arms and bear her away from all those clamouring people; and then the +realization both of his inability and ignorance of her own attitude fell +upon him like a chill, for she had never written or said a word to him +that might not have passed between any two college friends. Such thoughts +occupied him, until finally, as often fortunately happens in our mental +crises, a humdrum, domestic voice, the supper bell, called him, and +leaving his garments strewn about the room, he went downstairs. + +His mother was still sitting in the porch, and he became at once +conscious of a change in her appearance. As she looked up in pleased +expectancy, he recognized the cause, and his sternness vanished +instantly, as he said, "How fine we look to-night," and half sitting on +the little foot-bench beside her, and half kneeling, he touched the soft +lace, and gently kissed the withered cheek whose blood was still not so +far from the surface but that it could return in answer to the caress, +while she looked yearningly into the eyes that even now were hardly on a +level with hers, as if searching for the cause of what might be troubling +him. Yet she only said, as they rose and went indoors, "I put on your +gifts for you, at our first supper together," adding with an +unconsciousness that made Horace smile in spite of himself,--"besides, I +shouldn't wonder if some of the neighbours might drop in to see us, for +it must have got about by this time that you've come home; the mail +carrier saw you drive out this morning, I'm quite sure." + +Neighbours did call; some from pure friendliness, others to see if +"Horace acted set up by his new callin' and fortune," and still others, +who had been to the Bluffs that afternoon, to tell of the wonders of the +festival, their praise or condemnation varying according to age, until +Mrs. Bradford was at a loss whether to think the affair a spectacle of +fairyland or a vision of the bottomless pit, and Horace was in torment +lest he should be appealed to for an opinion, which he was presently. +"What did he think of the tea room? Was Mrs. Latham painted? Was she +Sylvia's mother, or step-mother, and if she was the former, didn't she +act dreadful giddy for the mother of grown children? And didn't he think +Sylvia was just sweet, so different from the rest, and sort of sad, as +if she had a step-mother, as people said, and was sat on?" The questioner +being the very woman for whom Sylvia had taken such pains in selecting +the bouquet of specimen roses, who proved to be the new wife of a +neighbour whom Horace had not met. + +It seemed to Horace that his mother purposely looked away from him as he +tried to pull himself together, and answer nonchalantly that he believed +that Mrs. Latham was Sylvia's own mother, though she did appear very +young, and that of course she was acting the part of a Geisha girl, a +tea-seller, which would account for her sprightly manner, etc., +unconsciously putting what he wished in the place of what he knew, adding +with a heartiness that almost made his voice tremble that Miss Sylvia +certainly did seem different, and as if she was no kin of her mother's. + +"I guess, then, likely it isn't her step-mother, but that she's worried +in her mind about her beau," continued the loquacious woman, pleased at +having such a large audience for her news. "I heard some folks say,--when +I was waitin' about for my cream, and havin' a good look at all the +millionnaires, which they didn't mind, but seemed to expect, the same +bein' fair enough, seein' as it's what I paid to go in for,--that the +man they call Mr. Bell, that's been hangin' around the Bluffs since +spring, is courtin' her steady, but she can't seem to make up her mind. +Thinks I to myself, I don't wonder, for I've had a good look at him, and +he's well over forty, and though he dresses fine, from his eyes I +wouldn't trust him, if he was a pedler, even to weigh out my rags and +change 'em for tin, without I'd shook the scales well first. The same +folks was sayin' that he's a grass widower, anyway, and I shouldn't think +her folks would put up with that, fixed as they be, yet they do say," and +here her voice dropped mysteriously, "that Mrs. Latham's a kind of grass +widder herself, for her husband hasn't turned up in all the year she's +been here, and nobody's so much as seen his name to a check." + +At this point Mrs. Bradford made an effort to turn the conversation into +other channels; for friendly as she always was with her neighbours of all +degrees, she never allowed unkind gossip in her house, and only a +newcomer would have ventured upon it. As it was, the loquacious one felt +the rebuke in the air, and made hasty adieus on the plea of having to set +bread, leaving the rest to talk to their host of themselves, their +pleasure at his return, and the local interests of Pine Ridge. + +When they had all gone, Horace locked the back door, after filling an +old yellow and bronze glazed pitcher, which bric-à -brac hunters would +have struggled for, at the well, as he had done every night during his +boyhood, he left it on the hall table, and going out the front way to the +garden, walked up and down the long straight walk, between the sweet peas +and rose bushes, for more than an hour, until, having fought to no +conclusion the battle into which a new foe had entered, he returned to +the house and went noiselessly to his room. + +Here, in place of the confusion he had left, quiet and order reigned. All +his clothes were laid away in their old places. He had but to reach his +hand inside the closet, the door of which hesitated before opening in its +familiar way, to find his night gear; the sheets were turned down at the +exact angle, and the pillows arranged one crosswise, one upright, as he +liked them,--his mother's remembering touch was upon everything. + +He undressed without striking a light, and lay down, only to look +wakefully out at the dark lattice of tree branches against the moonlit +sky. Presently a step sounded on the stairs and paused at his partly open +door. He raised himself on his elbow, and peering through the crack saw +his mother standing there in night-dress and short sack, shading the +candle with her hand as she used when he was a little chap, to make sure +that he was safe asleep and had not perhaps crept out the window to go +coon hunting with the bigger boys,--a proceeding his father always winked +at, but which she feared would lead him to overdo and get a fever. + +"I'm here, mother," he said cheerfully. + +"Are you quite comfortable, Horace? Is there nothing that you want?" + +He hesitated a moment, and then said frankly, "Yes and no, mother." + +"Is it anything that I can do for you?" she asked, coming into the room +and smoothing his hair as she spoke. + +"Ah, that is the _no_ of it, and the hard part," he answered, capturing +the hand and holding it tight between his own. + +"And the hard part for your old mother too, when the one thing comes +that she cannot give or do. Whatever it is, don't shut me out from it, +Horace,--that is, unless you must," and tucking the light summer quilt in +Under the pillow by one of his hands, she kissed his forehead and went +away. + +Horace Bradford must have slept, for his next consciousness was of the +fresh wind and light of morning, and as he drew his cramped hand from +under his pillow, something soft and filmy came with it,--a woman's +handkerchief edged with lace. + +For a minute he held it in surprise, and then began to search the +corners for the marking. There it was, two embroidered initials, S.L. +Where had it dropped from? Who had put it there? Was it a message or an +accident? Yet it was both and neither. His mother had found the dainty +thing in the package from New York that held the gown and ornaments, +where it had dropped from Sylvia's waist that night, four months before, +when she stood leaning on Miss Lavinia Dorman's table, as the parcel was +being tied. + +Mrs. Bradford had pondered over it silently until, the day when I went to +see her and chanced to mention Sylvia Latham's name, its identity flashed +upon her; and when gropingly she came to associate this name with +something that troubled Horace, obliterating self and mother jealousy, +she tucked the bit of linen underneath his pillow, with an undefined +idea, knowing nothing, in the hope that it might comfort him. And so it +did; for even when he learned the manner of its coming, he put it in his +letter case as a reminder not to despair but wait. + + * * * * * + +When a week had passed and the matter of the divorce had been well aired, +discussed, and was no longer a novelty to her neighbours on the Bluffs, +Mrs. Latham's plan of soon closing her cottage and transferring the +servants to Newport, with the exception of the stable men and a couple of +caretakers, was announced, as she was going abroad for the baths. The +same day Lavinia Dorman received an urgent note from Sylvia, asking her +"when and where she could see her alone, if, as she thought likely, she +did not feel inclined to come to the house." The tone of the brief note +showed that Sylvia felt the whole matter to be a keen disgrace that not +only compromised herself but her friends. + +Of course Miss Lavinia went, and would have gone even if she had to +combat Mrs. Latham, for whom she asked courteously at the door; but that +lady, for some reason, did not choose to appear and run the gantlet, and +sent an elaborate message about a sick headache by the now somewhat +crestfallen Perkins. Presently Sylvia slipped into the morning room, and +crouching by Miss Lavinia, buried her face in her friend's lap, the +tension at last giving way, and it was some time before she grew quiet +enough to talk coherently, and tell her plan, which is this: she wishes +Miss Lavinia to take the Alton cottage (which is furnished) at the foot +of the Bluffs, for the rest of the season, and live there with her. Then +as soon as Mrs. Latham has gone, and the poor girl has steadied herself, +her father, to whom she has already written, will come, and what she will +do in the autumn will be arranged. Everything is as yet vague; but one +thing she has decided for herself--under no circumstances will she again +live with her mother, and she is now staying quietly in the house and +taking her meals in her room, in order to give the scandalmongers and +gossips as little material as possible. + +Lavinia Dorman, who readily consented to do as she asked, says that +Sylvia is brave and heartbroken at the same time, that all her girlish +spontaneity has gone, and she is like a statue. + +I am so sorry to have Miss Lavinia go, even a few hundred yards down the +road, it has seemed so good to have an older woman in the house to whom I +can say, "Would you, or wouldn't you?" Martin is also quite upset, and +has stopped writing and begun fumbling and pulling the reference books +about again; but Miss Lavinia says that she is not going to give up the +afternoon reading, for she thinks the history is a work of importance not +to be slighted, and that Sylvia will doubtless take up her own reading +and practising after a time; that while she herself has willingly +consented to chaperon her, she does not intend to give up her own +freedom, nor would it be good for Sylvia if she did. + +Yesterday morning Miss Lavinia received a letter from Sylvester Latham, +thanking her for the offer of temporary protection for his daughter, and +telling her, in curt business terms, meant to be affable, to name her own +price for the office. + +I have never before seen the ladylike Lavinia Dorman so completely and +ungovernably angry. I could do nothing with her, and last evening it took +the united efforts of Martin, father, and Evan to convince her that it +was not a real affront. Poor Mr. Latham, he has not yet gotten beyond +money valuation of friendship; but then it is probably because he has had +no chance. Perhaps--but no, life is too serious just now in that quarter +for me to allow myself remotely pleasant perhapses. + +Miss Lavinia was too agitated to play piquet to-night, so she and Martin +sat in the porch where the light from the hall lamp was sufficient to +enable them to play a couple of games of backgammon, to steady her +nerves, she said; and presently, as the dice ceased rattling, Evan gave +me a nudge of intelligence, and looking over I found that they had +reversed the board and were playing "Give away" with checkers. + +"After this, what?" I whispered to Evan. + +"Jackstraws," he answered, shaking with silent laughter. + + * * * * * + +Horace Bradford turned his mind for the next few days to the many things +about the place that needed his attention, resolving that he would let a +week or so elapse before making any further attempt to see Sylvia, and in +that time hoped to find Miss Lavinia at home, and from her possibly +receive some light upon the gossip about Mr. Bell, as well as news of +Sylvia herself. + +The sinking-fund for repairs and rebuilding the house that he and his +mother had been accumulating ever since he had made his own way, he found +to be in a healthy condition. A new hay barn and poultry house was to be +put up at once; and, as soon as practicable, his wish of many years, to +restore the brick house, that had been marred by "lean-tos" in the wrong +places, to its colonial simplicity, could be at least begun. + +Every day until two or three o'clock in the afternoon he gave to these +affairs, and then he went to his books. But here again he met with a +strange surprise, a new sensation,--he could neither fix his mind upon +writing, nor take in what he read; the letters were as meaningless as +fly specks on the pages. After a day or two he gave up the attempt. He +had worked too closely during the last term, he thought; his sight did +not register on his brain,--he had heard of such cases; he would rest a +week or so. + +Then every afternoon he walked over the Ridge to the little river in the +valley, carrying a book in his pocket, and his fishing-rod as a sort of +excuse, and poling an old flatboat down-stream to a shady spot under the +trees, propped his rod in place, where by a miracle he occasionally +caught a perch or bass, sat looking idly into the water, the brim of an +old felt hat turned down about his eyes. One day, near the week's end, as +he was lounging thus, his eye was attracted by a headline in a bit of +newspaper in which he had wrapped his bait box to save his pocket. It was +a semi-local paper from town, one that his mother took, but which they +seldom either of them read, and the date was three days back. He turned +it over idly, pausing as he did so to pull up the line which was being +jerked violently, but only by a mud eel. Why did he return again to the +scrap of paper when he had freed his hook? His eyes caught strange words, +and his hands began to tremble as he read. It was the condensed report of +the Latham divorce that was now going the rounds of the journals. + +He paused a moment, then folded the paper, put it in his pocket, poled +the boat with vigorous strokes to the landing-place, and strode through +the woods and across the cornfields homeward, his heart beating +tumultuously until he seemed almost to be struggling with suffocation. + +He stopped at the barn and harnessed a horse to the old buggy, passing by +the new one that he had recently ordered from town, and then went into +the house, where, taking off his slouchy fishing clothes, he put on the +same ceremonious afternoon wear that he would have worn at Northbridge if +going to call, put Sylvia's handkerchief in his inner pocket, and went in +search of his mother. + +He found her in the kitchen, tying the covers upon countless jars of +currant jam. She looked surprised to see him back at such an hour, +but said nothing, as Esther Nichols was close by, employed in wiping +off the jars. + +"I'm going over to Oaklands for a drive," he said, handing her the scrap +of newspaper with a gesture that meant silence. + +"Shall I wait supper for you, or will you be late?" she said, touching +his hand with a gesture almost of entreaty. + +"I may be late, but--yes, you may wait supper," he replied, looking back +at her in going out, as if he wanted to carry the picture well forward in +his mind, against any forgetfulness. + +The miles between Pine Ridge and the Bluffs seemed endless. He had at +first intended to go to Oaklands village to see Miss Lavinia and gather +such tidings as he could of the calamity that had overtaken Sylvia; for +he never for a moment questioned but that the girl, who had been +entirely straightforward, even in days of college pranks, should so +regard the matter. But as he drove along, and the very fact that he was +moving toward a definite end calmed him and clarified his judgment, he +resolved to go directly to Sylvia herself. He would certainly do this +if he had seen the announcement of her parents' deaths; then why not +now, when their love that gave her birth was officially and publicly +declared extinct? + +He drove through the wide gateway and left his horse standing by a stone +pillar outside the porte-cochère,--the beast would stand anywhere if +there was a bar or post for him to look at,--and walked up the steps with +the air of one who is not to be gainsaid. + +"Not at home," replied the singsong voice of Perkins, in answer to +Bradford's demand for Miss Latham, Potts and Parker having already gone +to open the Newport house for the renter, as a staff of servants was let +with it, and then he added, as if conferring a favour, "and Mrs. Latham +has gone on the coach to the station to meet some guests, the last 'ouse +party before she sails." + +"Before she sails," thought Bradford, numbly. Sylvia was going? Could he +believe the man? Should he go through the formality of leaving a card +that she might not get? No, he would go home and write a letter. + +Sylvia kept the house until late in the afternoon, these days. Then she +slipped out by the servants' stairway, and through the garden, to walk in +the wood lane that ran northward, joining the two parallel highroads; for +her healthy body needed air, and she knew that if she did not have it, +she could not control herself to keep peaceful silence for even the few +days that remained. So it chanced this afternoon that she was walking to +and fro in the quiet lane where the ferns crept down quite to the grassy +wheel tracks, when Perkins said those repellent words, "Not at home." + +As Bradford turned out the gate and noticed that the sun was already +setting, he thought to save time by cutting through the almost unused +lane to the turnpike that led directly to Pine Ridge. He had driven but +halfway across, when a flutter of light garments a little way ahead +attracted him. Could it be? Yes, it was Sylvia, in truth, and at the +moment that he recognized her and sprang to the ground she heard the +approaching hoofs and turned. For a full minute neither spoke nor moved, +then going quickly to her and stretching out both hands, he said, his +heart breaking through his voice, "I have been to see you. I did not know +until to-day." + +She gave her hands, and in another moment his strong arms held her fast +and unresisting--the purifying friendship of those unconscious years +crystallized and perfected at love's first touch. + +They said but very little as they walked up and down the lane together, +for half an hour; but as the shadows lengthened, the thought came equally +to both--"What should they do next? How could they part, and yet how stay +together?" Horace, with man's barbarian directness, would have liked to +bear her home to safety and his mother; but the shadow of usage and her +mother stood between, for in spite of the hollow mockery of it all, +Sylvia was still of her household. + +"I must take you home," he said at last, "and to-morrow I will come--all +shall be arranged." + +"To-night," she whispered, clasping his arm in nervous terror. "Come +back with me and tell her to-night; then I shall feel sure, and not +as if it was not real. And when you have told her,--before whoever +may be there, remember,--go home; do not stop to listen to anything +she may say." + +They drove slowly back, and went up the steps to the house, from which +voices and laughter came, hand in hand, like two children; but they were +children no longer when they crossed the threshold and saw Monty Bell in +the group that loitered with Mrs. Latham in the reception hall, waiting +for dinner to be announced. + +Sylvia's thin gown was wet with dew, her hair was tossed about, her eyes +big with excitement, and a red spot burned in each cheek in startling +contrast to her pallor--all of which gave her a wild and unusual beauty +that absolutely startled as well as shocked her mother, letting her think +for a second that Sylvia was going to make a scene, had gone mad, +perhaps, and run away, and that the tall man holding her by the hand had +found her and brought her home. + +Taking a few hasty steps forward, and dreading anything disagreeably +tragic, she said: "Mr. Bradford, I believe. What is it? What has +happened?" + +"Only this, that Miss Sylvia has promised to be my wife, and that, as her +mother, we have come to tell you of it before I go home to tell my own." +Horace Bradford drew himself up to every inch of his full height as he +spoke, bowed to Mrs. Latham, then led Sylvia to the foot of the stairs, +saying, "Until to-morrow," and walked quietly out of the house. + +No one spoke. Then Mrs. Latham, choking with rage, feeling herself +helplessly at bay (Sylvia was of age, and she could not even assume +authority under the circumstances), collapsed on a divan in modified +hysterics, and Monty Bell, completely thunderstruck, finally broke the +silence by his characteristic exclamation, "I'll be damned!" + + * * * * * + +After their belated supper, when Esther Nichols had gone over to a +neighbour's, Horace, sitting by his mother's side, out in the +honeysuckled porch, where the sphinx moths whirred like humming-birds of +night, holding her hands in his, told her all. And she, stifling the +mother pain that, like a birth pang, expected yet dreaded, must come at +first when the other woman, no matter how welcome, steps between, folded +his hands close, as if she held him again a baby in her arms, and said, +smiling through vague tears, "To-morrow we will go together to her, my +blessed son." + +"I cannot ask you to do that; there are reasons--I will bring Sylvia to +you later, when her mother has gone," he answered hastily, resolving that +he would do anything to shield her self-respect from the possible shock +of meeting that other mother. + +"Horace, you forget yourself, and your father too," she said almost +sternly. "I am country bred, but still I know the world's ways. Your +father's wife will go first to greet her who will be yours; you need not +fear for me," and he sat silent. + +That next afternoon, when Horace's first and last love met, they looked +into each other's hearts and saw the same image there, while Mrs. Latham +lay on the lounge in her room, raging within, that again her tongue had +failed her in her own house, and realizing that, woman of the world as +she aimed to be, the "egg woman" had rendered her helpless by mere force +of homely courtesy. Presently she rose, and railing and scolding the +bewildered maid, sent a message to New York to transfer her passage, if +possible, to an earlier steamer. + + + + +XIII + +GOSSIP AND THE BUG HUNTERS + + +_July_ 18. It is such a deadly sin to marry outside of the limited set +that is socially registered, that I now understand why many of the +Whirlpoolers are mentally inbred, almost to the vanishing point, so that +they have lost the capacity of thinking for themselves, and must +necessarily follow a leader. + +Sylvia Latham's engagement to Horace Bradford has caused a much greater +sensation than her mother's divorce. To be sure, every one who has met +Horace, not only fails to find anything objectionable about him, but +accords him great powers of attraction; yet they declare in the same +breath that the affair will not do for a precedent, and deplore its +radical influence. + +To-day we have settled down to midsummer quiet and to a period of silence +after much talking. The Bluffs are quite deserted except by a bevy of +children left with governesses while their parents are yachting or in +Europe, and the servants in charge of the various houses. But a trail of +discontent is left behind, for these servants, by their conspicuous +idleness, are having a very demoralizing effect upon the help in the +plain houses hereabout, who are necessarily expected to do more work for +lower wages. + +I am fully realizing, also, that the excitement of living other people's +lives, which we cannot control, through sympathetic imagination, is even +more wearing than meeting one's own responsibilities. A certain amount of +separateness--I use the word in an entirely opposite meaning to that of +aloofness--is, I find, necessary to every member of our household, and +this chance for intimacy with oneself is a luxury denied to those who +live all their lives taking joy and sorrow equally in a crowd. + +Even the boys, young as they are, recognize it unconsciously, and have +separate tree lairs, and neither may enter the other's, without going +through some mysterious and wonderful ceremony and sign language, by +which permission is asked and granted. + +There are often days when father sits in his study with closed door or +drives over the hills without desire for even the boys as companions. +This need not signify that he is either ill or worried,--it is simply the +need of separateness. The same thing applies to Evan when he sometimes +slips out through the garden at night, without word or sign, and is only +traceable by the beacon his cigar point makes, as he moves among the +trees, until this also vanishes, while my attic corner and the seat at +the end of the wild walk offer me similar relief. + +At least the attic did until Martin Cortright, at my own invitation, +established a rival lair at the opposite end. I did not think that it +would matter, the presence of this quiet man barricaded by his books and +papers, but it does, because the charm of isolation is destroyed. I would +not have done otherwise, however; I have all outdoors, and he will have +returned to New York to find winter quarters, and arrange for the +publication of the first volume of his history when autumn and shut-in +time draws near. + +Mrs. Latham sailed last week, and Sylvia is now in New York visiting her +father at his hotel and arranging her future plans. To-morrow she +returns, and together with Lavinia Dorman goes to the Alton cottage +until late August or early September, when her wedding is expected to +take place. + +At the last moment Mrs. Latham changed her plan of leaving the Bluff +cottage in the charge of servants, had all her personal belongings moved +away, and offered the place for sale. + +"Yes, my dear," said Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who, being a sort of honorary +stewardess of the Colony, usually remains a full week after the +breaking-up time, and frequently runs in to report progress, "she's not +coming back; being divorced she doesn't need to claim residence here. The +place is so convenient to town, too, but I can't really blame +her,--though of course I'm glad poor Sylvia's to be happy in her own way, +and all that, for it's plain to be seen with one eye she's too slow to go +her mother's pace--you couldn't expect Vivvy Latham, over all the hurdles +but one, and almost at the end of the race, to relish her daughter's +mother-in-law being in the egg trade in the very neighbourhood. + +"At first everybody thought that the Bradfords, mother and son, would +probably give up work and float on Sylvester J. Latham's money, for they +say (to spite Vivvy, most likely) he took to Horace Bradford at the +first, for what did the young fellow do but go straight to town and look +Sylvester up, and make a clean breast of it before the gossips could even +twist their tongues around the affair. + +"Sylvester thought he could handle Bradford to suit himself, move him to +New York, jam him into business, cut up the farm in house lots, +reorganize his affairs, and declare a dividend out of him for his own +benefit, as he does with lame railroads,--but not a bit of it! + +"'With what you may choose to do for Sylvia personally, it would be +selfish for me to interfere; but our way of living can only be planned +upon the basis of what I earn,' said Horace, looking Mr. Latham in the +face, and he's a big man too,--Sylvia gets her height from him. + +"It rather knocked Sylvester out, because it was a kind of spunk he'd +never met, and he told Jenks-Smith about it. Thought they didn't speak? +Oh yes, they're thick again, just now, over some kind of a deal. + +"Did you know Jenks-Smith had bought Vivvy's house here? Yes, the deed +was passed the day she sailed. We've got to keep the Bluffs select, you +know, and if the house was put on the market, goodness knows who might +buy it, just to get in with us. + +"Mr. Latham had an idea of taking it and giving it to Sylvia, but they +wouldn't have that either,--are just fixing up the old house a bit, and +going to summer at the farm, while the old lady will keep on selling eggs +the same as ever. Not but what she's a thoroughbred all right, though in +a cheap stable. I was down at Vivvy's the day she came to call on Sylvia! +Just as quiet and cool, except that her hands in the openwork silk mits +shook, as if her son was a duke. I thought there would be a lively row, +and I wished myself out of it, but Vivvy hadn't a chance to strike out +until the old lady got up to go, then she only said: 'You must not +understand that I approve of Sylvia's folly, or in any way give my +consent to this rash engagement. I cannot prevent it, that is all.' + +"The old lady's eyes flashed, and I thought, now for it; but she only +looked Vivvy through and through, and said very clearly: 'Most brides are +better for their mother's blessing, but under the circumstances I think +we prefer to do without it.'" + +Well-meaning Lady of the Bluffs, I'm really acquiring a sort of affection +for her in spite of her crudity. If all the Whirlpoolers were like her, +the pool might be a noisy torrent, but never a dangerous one. + + * * * * * + +This is Lavinia Dorman's last day with me, and I know she is really sorry +to go, in spite of a sort of pleasurable responsibility and excitement +she feels in managing Sylvia's affairs for a time. + +She waked up with a bad headache--a rare thing for her--and after +breakfast seemed so forlorn and blue that I coaxed her into my room and +petted her for a while, almost as I would one of the children; and as she +no longer conceals the fact of the false front from me, I took it off, +brushed and brushed her lovely hair until it grew supple and alive, and +began to glisten, and the pain gradually slipped through it into the air; +then I drew it up cushionwise from her forehead and coiled it loosely on +top, and she, declaring that my fingers had a magic touch, spent the rest +of the morning at my desk in writing letters. + +The lovable woman who has no one specially to love her is a common +tragedy of everyday life. Strangely enough it more often draws +ridicule than sympathy, and it seems to be always considered the +woman's own fault, instead of a combination of circumstances, woven +often of self-sacrifice, mistaken duty, and the studied suppression of +natural emotions. + +I think that both Miss Lavinia and Martin Cortright dread the going back +to their old existence, and yet I am not sure that either of them would +consent to change it in any way, in spite of their growlings at the +modern conditions of life in New York. They have learned to lean upon the +very restrictions that cramp them, until the idea of cutting free seems +as impossible as for the bulky woman to sever the stay-lace that at once +suffocates and supports her. + +Martin Cortright stayed to luncheon to-day. Not that it is an unusual +occurrence, but he wished to have a long afternoon to finish reading a +certain portion of his manuscript to Miss Lavinia before her flitting in +the morning. + +We were seated at the table when she came in hurriedly, apologizing for +being late, saying that she had become so absorbed in finishing her +letters that she did not realize that it was even noon. I did not look at +her particularly until a few moments later, when Martin, after fussing +with his bread a good deal, looked up and said, with a charming smile, +"What a very becoming gown you have on to-day, Miss Lavinia." + +"Yes," said father, "I was thinking precisely the same thing myself, so +you see that in spite of our condemning your sex for paying so much +attention to clothes, we men are the first to note the result of them." + +Miss Lavinia looked puzzled. She was too much the politic woman of the +world to say that the dimity gown was the same one that she had worn for +the two or three days previous; besides, the fact would have cast a doubt +upon their judgment, and she was particular in all such little details of +good breeding; so she parried the compliment deftly, and straightway fell +to pondering as to what circumstance the remark might refer. Glancing +toward the open window, she caught a reflection of herself where the +glass, backed by the dark green curtain, made a mirror. She had forgotten +to rearrange her hair, and her burnished silver-shot locks remained +rolled back lightly from her white forehead without the ugly, concealing +front! I rejoiced inwardly, for the spontaneous tribute to the +improvement by those two dear, stupid, discriminating men, has settled +the fronts in a way in which no arguments of mine could, for to-night she +came to dinner not only with her own emancipated hair, but wearing a bit +of red geranium stuck fetchingly in the puff. + + * * * * * + +_August_ 1. Sylvia has returned, and Miss Lavinia has gone to her, Lucy +and the portly cook having arrived from New York last night, in company +with Josephus, confined in a large hamper borrowed from the fishmonger, +in the top of which a ventilator had been introduced. Josephus was +naturally indignant when first let out, and switched his tail in wrath, +declining to recognize his mistress, and starting to explore the house +like an evil spirit. This morning I found him calmly perched on our +woodshed roof, gazing wickedly at the boys' banty chickens in the coop +below. I predict that he gets into trouble, unless his silver collar, +like a badge of aristocracy, protects him. But what can you expect of a +misguided Whirlpool cat, whose only conception of a bird is a dusty +street sparrow, when he meets face to face the delicious and whetting +elusiveness of a banty chick or a young robin. + +Poor Sylvia is nervously tired out, and the month's rest will be a real +boon. Her plans are quite settled, and there is nothing for her to do but +rest until the time comes to carry them out. She and Horace are to be +married the last week in August, so that they will have time for a +Canadian trip before College begins and they return to settle down in a +scrap of a house in Northbridge. + +August seems to be considered an unusual month for a wedding; but it +suits the circumstances, and as Sylvia has decided to be married quite +privately here at Oaklands, for her own sake, as well as for Mrs. +Bradford's convenience, she wisely wishes to have it over before the +possible return of the Whirlpoolers. + +Horace had hoped that his mother would join them in Northbridge, but +she said "No," very firmly, adding, with a quaint, twinkling smile, +"Horace, nobody ever loved each other closer than your father and I, +but there were times in the beginning when ever so well meaning a third +finger in our pie would have spoiled the baking. Best leave old mother +on the farm until by and by, when she can't tell a fresh egg from a +bad one any longer." + +So Horace comes down twice a week to visit Sylvia, and Miss Lavinia often +drives to Pine Ridge with her and leaves her for a day, so that Mrs. +Bradford may share the pleasant woman's talk of linen for table and bed, +and other details of a bridal outfit. + +We all missed Miss Lavinia when she left, that is, all but the boys, and +they hailed the change with joy, as giving them another house to roam in +and out of. How much of the joy of childhood that we so envy comes from +their freedom from prejudice, the ability they have for adapting +themselves. + +Martin was so distrait for a time that father absolutely ventured to +tease him a little, whereupon he turned stoutly about and declared: "I +have never denied the inspiration and value of congenial female society, +and the mere fact that circumstances have shut me from it so much of late +years makes me all the more appreciative of present privileges. Oh, Dick, +old friend, isn't it some credit to a man who has lived backward almost +from his birth, if, after he's sixty, he realizes it and tries to catch +up with the present? It seems to me as if the best things had always +been just within my grasp, only to slip away again, through unforeseen +circumstances, and my ill luck reminds me of a story and picture in a +comic paper that the boys were chuckling over last night. It was of a +well-intentioned beetle who fattened a nice green caterpillar for its +family's thanksgiving dinner, and the thing went and spun itself into a +cocoon the night before!" + +Martin Cortright at times verges on the pathetic, but always cures +himself by his appreciation of his own limitations before he reaches the +bore stage. He too is taking a short vacation from work, or rather I +should say that he has developed industry in a new direction and become +absorbed in entomology, to the extent of waging war on the tent +caterpillars that are disfiguring both the orchards and the wild cherry +trees of the highways with their untidy filmy nests, leaving the foliage +prematurely brown and sere, from their ravages. Yesterday, in driving +home from Pine Ridge with Sylvia, we noticed that even the wood edges had +the appearance of being scorched by fire, and many of the old orchards +where we go in May for apple blossoms are wrecks meshed in the +treacherous slimy webs. + +Martin's methods are regular and very simple, but he goes about his task +each day as if the matter was a marvel of military strategy. First he +puts a book ostentatiously in one pocket and a flask of alcohol in the +other. Next he takes his torch, consisting of a piece of sponge wired to +an old rake handle, which he keeps on the back stoop, and makes sure that +it is tight and secure, finally searching me out to say that in case he +meets Miss Lavinia, have I any message for her. + +Why he does not keep his outfit up at Martha's I do not know; perhaps +because of Timothy's keen tongue. + +Miss Lavinia, after her morning housekeeping is over, takes her work bag +to the narrow cottage porch and apparently gives herself up to the task +of making pin-cushions for Sylvia or embroidering initials on napery. +Suddenly she will get up, say that her feet are falling asleep and that +she needs a walk to restore her circulation. Will Sylvia go with her? +Sylvia, after pretending to consider, thinks not, making some excuse of +its being too warm or that she expects Horace that day. Presently two +prim people walking in opposite directions meet and, taking the same +path, may be seen any morning along the less frequented roads and orchard +paths, sometimes repairing the torch that has a constant tendency to lose +its head, sometimes watching the destruction by fire of an unusually +wicked worm city, and frequently with their heads stuck into some +suspicious bush, where they appear to be watching invisible things with +breathless interest. + +[Illustration: The Bug Hunters.] + +Father and I chanced upon them when thus employed the other morning. +Martin turned about and in the most serious manner began to dilate upon +the peculiarities of worms in general and particular, as well as of the +appropriateness of their study by the book collector, as the score and a +half insects that injure books and their bindings are not worms at all, +having none of the characteristics of the veritable book worm _Sitodrepa +panicea_, to all of which Miss Lavinia listened with devout attention. + +"What makes them act so?" I said, half to myself, as we drove on, and +father stopped shaking with laughter. "There isn't the slightest reason +why they should not go to walk together; why do they manoeuvre with all +the transparency of ostriches?" + +"It's another manifestation of suppressed youth," said father, wiping his +eyes, "upon the principle that the boy would rather slip out of the +window to go coasting at night than ask leave and walk out publicly, and +that when a young girl begins to grow romantic, she often takes infinite +pains to go round the back way to meet some one who is quite welcome at +the front door. When young folks have not had a chance to do these +things, and the motive for them lies dormant, heaven alone knows how or +when it will break loose." + +Others, however, have observed, and the "Bug Hunters" has now come to be +the local nickname of these two most respectable middle-aged people with +ancestors. + +Josephus, who has been leading a sporting life for many days, or rather +nights, has at last returned minus his long tail with which he used to +express his displeasure in such magnificent sweeps. Miss Lavinia is in +tears, and wishes to have a reward offered for the apprehension of the +doer of the deed. + +Evan says that if she does, and thus acknowledges the cat as hers, she +may be deluged with bills for poultry, as he has been hearing weird tales +on the train, such as are often current among commuters who are not +zoologists, of a great black lynx that has been invading chicken coops +and killing for pleasure, as his victims are usually left on the ground. +Thus has country freedom corrupted the manners of a polite cat, and at +the same time a hay knife (probably) has rendered him tailless. + + * * * * * + +_August_ 20. Summer is at high tide. How I dread its ebbing; yet even now +the hastening nights are giving warning. Evan has been taking a +vacation, and we have spent many days, we four, following the northward +windings of the river in a wide, comfortable boat and lunching in the +woods. We are pagans these days, basking in the sun, cooling in the +shade, and living a whole life between sunrise and sunset. The boys are +showing unconscious kinship with wood things, and getting a wholesome +touch of the earth in their thoughts. + +I am sure that the mind often needs a vacation more than the body, and +yet the condition of change that bears the name of rest frequently merely +gives the head fresh work. + +How far away the Whirlpool and its people seem as we sit perhaps on one +of the many tiny river islands enjoying this time separateness, not as +individuals, but as a family, for the whirl of the pool is tiresome even +to watch. I have felt old these last three months, and I suppose it is a +still further carrying out of the allegory and penalty of eating the +fruit of the tree of knowledge; only the discipline does seem a little +hard when, having no desire either to pluck or taste the apple, one +stands actually away with hands safely behind back, and yet has the fruit +absolutely thrust between unwilling lips. + +Even the feathered things about us are in this mood; their family life +is over, the companionship of fall travel has not begun, and the woods +are full of moulting birds choosing this separateness in preparation for +the tension of new flight and its perils. Everything, in short, in wild +nature has its corresponding note in our own humanity,--the sweating of +the corn, the moulting of the bird, the contraction of the earth by +frost, all have a kindred season or experience in the heart. + +Then, too, the August nights--so heavy with the intensity of sleep that +is akin to sleeplessness, broken by peremptory thunder voices and +searching lightning, or again enveloped by moonlight that floods the +room--shut out the world until, kneeling in its tide between the little +white beds, I can feel the refrain of that hymn of mother's that father +taught me long ago to say to myself in the night when she had gone away +from sight and I was lonely:-- + +"Father, on thy heart I lean +When the world comes not between." + + * * * * * + +_August_ 30. Sylvia and Horace were married under sunshine yesterday in +the little chantry of the church that is used in winter and for week-day +services. To-day the cold northeasterly storm has come, under cover of +which August so often disappears and September enters the marshes upon +the wings of low-flying plovers, to the discordant call of the first +waterfowl of the return migration. + +Mr. Latham came to the wedding. In fact, he has been here several times +during the month. He is a well-built man, under sixty, dark and taciturn, +and would be handsome but for the hard expression of his face. + +His attitude toward the world has seemed to be one of perpetual parry and +self-defence; of course he may have good reason for this distrust, or, as +Evan says, he may have brought the necessity upon himself by his constant +severity of attack on others. Yesterday I partly changed my mind about +him. He evidently once had tender feelings, but, from what cause who can +say, they have in some way been compressed and frozen until they exist +only as hurts. + +Sylvia was married in bridal white. She had wished to wear a travelling +gown and go away from the chantry door, but Miss Lavinia argued her out +of the notion, saying, "Horace has the right to a pretty bride, even if +you do not care." It would have taken but very little, after the strain +of the last two months, to make Sylvia morbid and old beyond her years, +her one thought seeming to be to get away from the surroundings of the +past year and begin to live anew. + +Our group, and a dozen friends of the Bradfords, including some from +Northbridge who belonged to both, filled the little chapel which Horace, +Martin, and Evan had trimmed with flowers wholly from our garden. At the +last moment, Mrs. Jenks-Smith, whom we thought abroad, dashed up in a +depot hack, perspiring and radiant, her smart gown having a most peculiar +and unnatural looking promontory on the chest. "No, my dear, I'm not in +Carlsbad. Jenks-Smith was called back on business, and I sniffed the +wedding in the air and hooked on,--only arrived last night. _Have_ you +seen the papers? Hush, I'll tell you later," and her voice sank into an +awed whisper, and she gave a startled look as the bride entered on her +father's arm, with Ian and Richard as her only attendants. Having heard +so much talk of marrying and of weddings, they had asked Sylvia to let +them be "bridesmaids," and it seemed she really wanted them. Their faces +were solemn to the verge of comedy as they walked hand in hand before +her, their feet in brand-new pumps, keeping step and pointing out +carefully, while their evident satisfaction brought a smile like a ray of +belated sunshine to the face of the serious bride. + +I watched Mr. Latham, usually so immovable, during the ceremony as he +stepped back from the altar into the shadows, when he left Sylvia finally +with Horace. His shoulders lost their squareness, his head drooped; but +when I saw that it was to hide the tears that filled his eyes, I looked +away. Father says he has seen this type of man, contracted by +money-getting, hardened by selfish misunderstanding, recover himself, +soften, and grow young again at the transforming touch of grandchildren. +Who knows, Sylvia may find her childhood's father again some day. + +When we went back to the cottage for luncheon, the bump in Mrs. +Jenks-Smith's corsage was removed, and proved to be a gift for +Sylvia,--a thick leather case, holding a rich neck ornament of diamonds, +a sort of collar with pendants, for the Lady of the Bluffs is nothing if +not generous. + +"I got it in this way without paying a cent of duty," she said in a stage +whisper to Miss Lavinia and me in the hall, as she struggled to release +the box, wrenching off a waist hook or two as she did so. + +"Jenks-Smith said it didn't look natural, and I'd surely be spotted, but +I said I'd like to see mere hired men try to tell a lady how stout or how +thin she had a right to be. Almost too gorgeous for a professor's wife? +Not a bit; Miss Lavinia, you're not advanced. Nobody knows nowadays, at +the launching, how anybody's going to turn out,--whether they'll sink or +float,--and diamonds are an all-right cargo, anyway. If she moves up, she +can wear 'em, if she slumps, she can sell 'em, and if she just drifts +along on the level, she can look at 'em once in a time. No, my dear, +diamonds are a consolation that no woman can afford to miss." + +Considering her usual careless good nature, it seemed to me that Mrs. +Jenks-Smith was very fussy during the luncheon, ill at ease, and +strangely anxious to hurry the departure of Sylvia and Horace. The +guests, all but ourselves, left first, then Mr. Latham, who went upstairs +to take leave of his daughter alone. When Sylvia finally came down, her +colour had returned and she looked her radiant self again as she kissed +Miss Lavinia and Mrs. Bradford, and went down the steps holding Horace, +not by the arm, but clinging to his hand. + +As the carriage disappeared around the bend of the road, and as we +stood looking at one another, feeling for a second the reaction and the +sense of an empty house that always follows the going of a bride, the +Lady of the Bluffs sank into a deep chair exclaiming, "Thank the Lord, +they've gone!" + +"Why, what is it? Are you ill?" cried father, who was just leaving, +coming quickly to her side. + +"It's this. I wanted to get her started north ahead of it. When she comes +back she won't care so much," she replied incoherently, pulling a scrap +of a morning newspaper from her card-case and holding it out at random +for the nearest one to take. Father caught it from her hand, and going +to the window, read aloud in slow, precisive accents of astonishment:-- + +"AN EVENT OF INTEREST TO NEW YORK SOCIETY. + +"(SPECIAL CABLE TO NEW YORK HERALD.) + +"LONDON, Aug. 29.--Yesterday the marriage took place of Montgomery Bell +to Mrs. Vivian Latham, both of New York. The wedding, at the registrar's +and quite informal, was followed by a breakfast given the couple by +Mrs. Center--who chanced, with several other intimates of the American +colony, to be in the city en route to the German baths,--at her apartment +which she always keeps in readiness for occupancy. Mr. Bell, who is a +member of all the best clubs, is known socially as the 'Indispensable.' +Mr. and Mrs. Bell will return to New York in November and open their +magnificent house at Central Park East with a series of the delightful +entertainments which they both so well know how to render unique." + + + + +XIV + +THE OASIS + + +_September_ 8. Three lowering days of wind and rain, and Summer, after a +feigned departure, has returned to complete her task of perfecting. + +She does this year after year--the marvel is that we are ever deceived; +but after all, what is it but the conflict between arbitrary and natural +law? The almanac-maker says that on the first day of September autumn is +due. Nature, the orbit-maker, proclaims it summer until, the month +three-quarters old, the equinox is crossed. Nature is always right, and +after the usual breezy argument sends Summer, her garments a bit +storm-tattered, perchance, back to her own. + +The ill wind that dashed the tall auratum lilies in the garden to the +ground, stripped the clinging fingers of the sweet peas from their +trellis, and decapitated the heavy-headed dahlias, has blown me good, +held me indoors awhile, sent me to my attic confessional once more, with +conscience for priest, and the twins for acolytes, though they presently +turned catechists with an entirely new series of questions. + +When I have not opened my desk or my garden book for some time, and the +planting season, be it of spring or of autumn, as now, overtakes me +unawares, I am always newly convinced that gardening is the truly +religious life, for it implies a continual preparation for the future, a +treading in the straight and narrow path that painful experience alone +can mark, an absorption beyond compare, and the continual exercise of +hope and love, but above all, of entire childlike faith. + +When the time had come in the creative evolution for the stamping of the +perfected animal with the Divine image that forever separates him from +all previous types, it was no wonder that God set man, in whom the +perpetual struggle between the body and soul was to take place, in a +garden for his education. + + * * * * * + +Recently the boys have been absorbed in their little printing press, +which they have established in my attic corner, the present working +motive having come from the card announcing Sylvia's marriage to the +world in general, according to Mr. Latham's desire. Richard secured one +of these and busied himself an entire morning in setting it in type, for +the first time in his experience getting the capitals and small letters +in their proper places. The result was so praiseworthy that Evan hunted +up a large box of ornamental cards for them in town, and for two days +they have been "filling orders" for every one in the household. + +I print the names they wish to copy very distinctly in big letters. +Richard does the type-setting, which is altogether too slow work for Ian, +who, as pressman, does the inking and printing, and in the process has +actually learned his tardy letters. As to the distributing and cleaning +of the type, I find a little assistance is gratefully accepted, even by +patient Richard, whose dear little pointed fingers by this time have +become tired, and fumble. + +To-day, having exhausted the simple family names, they have tried +combinations and experiments with the words Mr., Mrs., and Miss, much +to their own amusement, "_Miss_ Timothy Saunders" being considered a +huge joke. + +Suddenly Ian looked up with one of his most compelling, whimsical smiles, +and said, "Barbara, grandpop's Mrs. was grandma, and she's in heaven, but +where is Mrs. Uncle Martin?" + +Rather startled, I said that I didn't know,--that there had never been +any Mrs. Uncle Martin. + +"Why not?" persisted Ian, an answer that is simply an acknowledgment of +ignorance never being accepted by a child. Before I could think Richard +chirped out: "But Aunt Lavinia hasn't any Mr. for her card neiver, and +Martha, she said the other day that there was a Mr. and a Mrs. for +everybody, only sometimes they couldn't find each other for ever so long. +She told that to Effie, and I heard her." + +A short pause, and then Ian jumped up, clapping his hands with joy, as +the solution of the problem flashed across him. + +"I know what's happened, Barbara; maybe Uncle Martin's Mrs. and Aunt +Lavinia's Mr. has gone and got lost together, and some day they'll find +it out and bring each ovver back! Do you think they will, so we can have +some more weddings and pink ice cream, and couldn't we hurry up and help +find them? I guess we better print him some Mrs. cards so as in case." + +I had drifted into gardening work on paper again, and I believe I said +that he had better ask Uncle Martin what he thought about the matter, and +at that moment the bell rang for luncheon. + +The ringing of bells for meals in this house is what Lavinia Dorman +calls "a relic of barbarism," that she greatly deplores; but as I tell +her, our family gathers from so many points of the compass that if the +maid announced the meals, she would have to be gifted with the instinct +of a chaser of strayed freight cars. + +Ian's queries have brought up a subject that has deluded and eluded my +hopes all summer, and has finally ended in the people that I hoped would +drift through the doorway of one of my most substantial air castles +refusing so to do, or else being too blind to see the open door. + +Martin and Lavinia are the best possible friends, have been constantly in +each other's society, see from nearly the same point of view, and both +agree and disagree upon the same subjects, but they have not settled the +question of loneliness of living as I hoped, by making the companionship +permanent, _via_ matrimony. + +Of course, I did not expect them to fall in love exactly as Evan and I or +Horace and Sylvia did--that belongs to spring and summer; still, I +thought that when they started worm-hunting together, and played checkers +every evening, that they were beginning to find each other mutually +indispensable, at least. + +But no. Martin stored away his papers in the old desk, and went to New +York a week ago to see several suites of bachelor apartments that had +been offered him. + +He writes this morning that he has found one to his liking, and will +return to-night, if he may, and stay over to-morrow to pack his things. +Meanwhile Miss Lavinia has sent her maids to clean and open her house in +"Greenwich Village," and will go home on Monday, spending her final +Sunday with me. Josephus went with the maids; the country had a +demoralizing effect upon him. + +Miss Lavinia has been agitating moving uptown, several of her friends at +the Bluffs insisting that an apartment near the Park is much more +suitable for her than the little house so far from the social centre, +saying it is no wonder she is lonely and out of things; but yesterday she +told me that she had abandoned the idea of change, and had sent orders to +have her old back yard garden dismantled and the whole plot paved, as it +was now only a suitable place for drying clothes. Also that she had +written to ask her father's cousin Lydia, whose Staten Island home had +been built in by progress, very much like her own garden, to come to pass +the winter with her; and, lest she should repent of so rash an act, she +had given the letter to Evan before the ink was fairly dry, as he passed +the cottage on the way to the train, that he might post it in the city. + +One consolation remains to me in the wreck of my romantic hopes for +her--Miss Lavinia has liked our neighbourhood so well that she has taken +the Alton cottage that she now occupies on a three years' lease, and +intends living here from May to October. The rambling garden is full of +old-time, hardy plants and roses, and oh, what good times we shall have +together there next spring, for of course she will stop with me when she +is getting things in order, and I can spare her enough roots and cuttings +to fill every spare inch of ground,--so, with Sylvia at Pine Ridge, what +more can I ask? The strain and hubbub of the Bluffs seems to be quite +vanishing from the foreground and merging with the horizon. + +That reminds me that the people are drifting back quite rapidly now. The +golfers are afield again Sundays, and all talk of introducing fox hunting +with tame foxes; but they will have to learn the land, with its dips and +rocks, better first, or there will be a pretty crop of cracked crowns for +father. At present, I think that New England Prejudice will soon however +get the upper hand here, and tighten her hold of the reins that seemed +slipping from her grasp, which is well, for she has long borne aloft the +only standard of national morality whose code is not a sliding scale. + + * * * * * + +_September_ 9. Martin came back to-night. As he entered the house with +Evan I positively did not know him, for he has shaved off his mustache +and queer little pussy-cat whiskers, and with them has gone his +"pudgyness." He is really a very fine-looking man, and his features are +developed by the shaving process in an unexpected way. He seems so wide +awake, too, and alive to everything that passes, that I could see that +father, who came from the office to greet him, had difficulty in +restraining his surprise, but he contented himself by asking:-- + +"How did you fare with the publishers? Did you fall among thieves or +among friends?" + +"That is equivalent to asking if my book has been accepted, as it is only +when work is refused that we call the mediums through which we seek to +reach the public hard names. Yes, the fate of my book is soon told; it +has found its place, and is to be fully illustrated as well, though it +will take me many months to collect the unique material they desire; this +insures me a busy winter, for which I am not only prepared but eager. + +"I wish I could as easily tell you what this summer here has done for me, +Dick," and he leaned over the chair in which father had seated himself +and laid his arm affectionately across his shoulder. "I think in asking +me here you rescued me from as dangerous a condition of mental apathy as +when you stood by my bed so many years ago." + +"Don't thank me," said father, leaning back and looking up at him, "thank +God's sunshine, work, the babies here, and why not woman's society +also,--you used to appreciate that, too, eh, Martin, old man? Give +everybody his, or rather her, due." + +"Yes," I heard him answer, as if pondering the matter, while I fled +discreetly upstairs at this juncture, "you doubtless are right; Lavinia +Dorman's criticisms have been of infinite value in ridding my work of a +litter of words that encumbered the spirit and purpose of it. She is +direct and to the point, and yet withal most sympathetic. I had thought +of dedicating the book to her in some private way, for really we are +joint heirs, as it were, in so many traditions and habits of old New +York, that it would not seem strained or inappropriate." + +"On the contrary, I think it most suitable, and I would not go to any +great pains to hide the compliment of the dedication under a bushel of +disguise either, if I were you. The Lydia Languish age of abnormal +privacy and distorted, unhealthy sensibility has fortunately passed. +Nowadays women like men to be direct, outspoken, definite, where they are +concerned." + +"Do you think so?" asked Martin, in real surprise. "I feared possibly +that it might annoy her." + +"I know so--annoy her, fudge!" was father's comment. + + * * * * * + +When we went in to dinner, Miss Lavinia at once noticed the change in +Martin's appearance, and said, in a spirit of mischief which of course I +alone noticed:-- + +"Back from the city, and with new clothes, too,--how very smart and +becoming they are." + +But poor Martin was quite guileless, and looking down at his coat in a +puzzled way, as if to make doubly sure, replied, "No, it cannot be my +clothes, for they are the same." Then, brightening, as the possible +reason occurred to him: "Perhaps it may be my shaven face; you see, the +barber made an error in the trimming of my decorations yesterday, and he +thought it better to take them entirely off and have them grow afresh, +but I had not thought of the matter in the light of an improvement." + +"But it is one, most decidedly," continued Miss Lavinia, nodding brightly +across at him, while father, who now realized the change he could not +locate, cried:-- + +"Don't let them grow again, my boy. You look ten years younger, at the +very least, which you know at our age is not to be despised!" + +Then we all grew hilarious, and talked together like a lot of school +children, and when the boys came in to dessert, as usual, they also were +infectiously boisterous over the catching of some bass in the river where +Timothy Saunders had taken them that afternoon as a special treat. They +clamoured and begged so for Uncle Martin to stop over the next day for +fishing and have one more good time with them, that he, feeling flattered +almost to the point of embarrassment, yielded upon Evan's suggesting +that, instead of going by the eight o'clock morning train as he intended, +he could wait for one late in the evening, which would get him to town +before eleven. For Martin was to move into his new bachelor apartments +the following morning. + +The three men lingered long at the table, smoking, the talk punctuated by +long periods of silence, each regretting in his own way the present +terminating of the summer intercourse, and yet, I fancy, realizing that +it had lasted exactly the safe length of time. To be able to adapt +oneself temporarily to the presence of outsiders in a house is a healthy +habit, but to adjust a family to do it permanently is to lose what can +never be regained. Miss Lavinia and I agreed upon that long ago, and for +this reason I am very much surprised that she has asked her cousin Lydia +to spend the winter, with a view of making the arrangement permanent. + +The boys brought some of their games downstairs, and succeeded in adding +half an hour to their bedtime by coaxing Aunt Lavinia to play with them, +until I finally had to almost carry them to bed, they grew so suddenly +sleepy from their day's fishing. + +When I returned below stairs after the boys were asleep, father had gone +to the village, Evan was walking up and down outside, all the windows and +doors were open again, and the sultry air answered the katydids' cry for +"Some-more-heat, some-more-heat." + +Miss Lavinia was still in the hall, sitting on the lower step of the +stairs, for the boys had been using the broad landing that made a turn at +the top of the three steps as a place to play their games. Martin stood +leaning on the newel post, and from the few words I heard I knew that he +was telling her about the proposed dedication, so I went out and joined +Evan, for it seems as though we had had little leisure outdoors together +of late, and as if it was time to make it up as best we might. + +Then, once again, as we crossed the streak of light that streamed like a +narrow moon path from the doorway, Evan paused and nodded his head toward +the hall. I turned--there sat Miss Lavinia and Martin Cortright on the +stairs, playing with the boys'--jack-straws! + +"After this, what?" I asked, in my mirth leaning backward on Evan's +supporting arm. + +"To be pat, it ought to be the deluge," chuckled Evan; "but as these are +prosy times, it simply means the end has been reached, and that to-morrow +they will put away mild summer madness, and return to the Whirlpool to +paddle about decorously as of yore." + +I find that I am not the only person who is disappointed at the absence +of matrimonial intentions between Martin and Miss Lavinia. The +postmistress told me yesterday that she's been expecting to hear of a +second wedding any day, as when one took place it always meant three, +though she couldn't "fetch the third couple together, even in her mind's +eye," which I have found to be usually a capacious and well filled optic. + +Mrs. Barton also stopped Martha Corkle on the road, and said with an +insinuating sneer, "She'd always supposed that the gentleman from New +York who lodged with her was making up to the proud old maid at the +Doctor's, but as he evidently wasn't going to, she'd advise Mrs. Evan to +watch out, as Miss Lavinia, doubtless being disappointed, might set her +cap for the Doctor himself, and then the Lord knows what would happen, +men being so easily flattered and trapped." + +Martha was indignant, and I must say very rude, for she snapped back: "I +wonder at that same bein' your holdin', Mrs. Barton, bein' as you've five +maid daughters that's not so by their desirin', folks do say as knows." + +Mud throwers should be careful to wear gloves,--their ammunition +is sticky. + + * * * * * + +_September_ 10. This morning father and I were obliged to go to town upon +some hospital business, and as we had to remain there for luncheon, or +perhaps longer, we took the train instead of driving over, leaving +Lavinia to pack, so that she might have a free Saturday to drive with me +to bid Mrs. Bradford good-by, and learn the latest news of Sylvia and +Horace. Meanwhile the boys were to go fishing with Martin, who is as +careful of them as possible, taking their lunch with them. + +They did not have good luck, however, and growing restless and tired of +fishing without catching, Martin brought them home by three o'clock, and +as both he and Miss Lavinia had finished their preparations for leaving, +they went out to the seat by the rose arbour to enjoy what was left of +the glorious afternoon, for it has been one of those days that come in +dreams, so perfect that one knows it cannot last. + +"I hope that I shall not lose all track of you this winter," said Miss +Lavinia. "Of course you will be busy, but you might spare a lonely woman +an evening now and then for piquet, or whist if Evan or the Doctor should +come to town." + +"Lose track of you, Miss Lavinia,--how could that be possible?" queried +Martin in mild-eyed astonishment. "You know there will be a second volume +of the book for you to read and criticise, besides all the illustrations +to discuss. No, I hoped that you could spare me two definite evenings +every week, at least until the work is in press, though I suppose that is +asking a great deal of a woman having so many friends, and places to go." + +"If you could see the way I spend my evenings alone, you would not +hesitate. Of course I do dine out once in a time, and people come to me, +but between times--I envy even Josephus, who can have social enjoyment +any time by merely scratching on the door and running along the palings +to the neighbours." + +"I am glad, for I decided upon taking the Washington Square rooms, +instead of moving up nearer the Clubs as my friends advised, because I +thought it would be so much more convenient if, in proof correcting, I +should require to consult you hastily." + +Miss Lavinia felt a pleasurable flush rising to her cheeks, when it was +chilled by the memory of her invitation to her cousin Lydia. Why had she +given it? Then the realization that a third party would be unwelcome to +her made the flush return and deepen. + + * * * * * + +"Uncle Martin, where is your Mrs.? Barbara said I'd have to ask you +'cause she didn't know," suddenly asked Ian's voice, so close behind +them that they both started. He had been up in the attic to get some of +his precious cards, one of which he now held in front of Martin +Cortright's gaze. + +"My Mrs.! Why, what do you mean?" he asked in uncomprehending +astonishment, taking the boy on his knee; but when the little scamp had +explained, the stupidest person in the world could not plead ignorance. + +"And," Ian continued, "Dick and me thought that p'r'aps if your Mrs. and +Aunt Lavinia's Mr. had got lost together we could find them for you, and +then there'd be two more weddings with pink ice cream. We're going to +look this afternoon, and we're going to ask Martha to help us, 'cause she +found her Mr. after he'd been lost a great while, Effie says." + +"And he was right here in the place, too," chimed in Richard, "only he +didn't seem to see her, so p'r'aps yours aren't far off, and we might get +them in time to have the wedding to-night before you go. Wouldn't you +like to be in a wedding, Aunt Lavinia?" + +"Mercy no, child, I'm too old!" she ejaculated, now as red as a +Jacqueminot rose, while the boys ran off in the direction of Martha's, to +ask her where it was best to begin this important quest, the prize for +which was pink ice cream. + +Miss Lavinia did not look up for a moment, and when she did she found +Martin's eyes fastened on her face, and in them a strange +enlightenment that shook her like an electric bolt, as he arose and +stood before her, saying:-- + +"You need never be old. Some prefer June strawberries and others +September peaches, that is all. When once in June I thought to gather the +strawberries, I found they belonged to another, for I loved your friend, +who was Barbara's mother." + +"And I loved your friend, who is Barbara's father," Miss Lavinia said, +rising and facing him. + +"As they married each other, why may not we? I know now why my work has +prospered this summer and why life seems good again. Ian's little fancy +shows me the truth." + +"Our Mr. and Mrs. were not far off, then," said she, laying her hand on +his, while she looked into his face with one of those rare smiles of +unreserved confidence that makes Lavinia Dorman more fascinating than +half the younger women that I know. + +After a moment of romance they waked up to the fact of the present and +its comical aspect; the boys' talk of weddings brought that necessary +episode quickly before them. + +"May I tell the Doctor when he returns? Shall we tell them all?" asked +Martin, eagerly, and Miss Lavinia sat suddenly down again and realized +that she still was in the world of responsibilities. + +"I think I would rather wait and do it all at once, after--after the pink +ice-cream," she said, as he laughed at her hesitation over the word. "I +don't like keeping it from Barbara, but I'm so tired of talk and fuss and +feathers and Mrs. Grundy." "Then let us get it quietly over next week, +or tomorrow, if you say, unless you wish time to feel sure, or perhaps to +think it over," said Martin, with enthusiasm. + +"Time to think it over!" cried Miss Lavinia, springing lightly to her +feet. "No, I'm sure I don't wish to think, I want to act--to do things my +own way and give no one a chance to speak until it is done. What have I +been doing all my life but thinking, and waiting for it to be a +convenient and suitable time for me to do this or that, wondering what +others will think if I do or don't; thinking that the disagreeable was +duty, often simply because it was disagreeable. Surely you have been +hampered by this perpetual thinking too, and watching the thumb of custom +to see if it pointed up or down. No, I'm done with it. We've agreed to be +married, so why not this very afternoon, and have the wedding over before +you go, as the boys suggested?" + +"The best possible idea, though I should have hardly dared suggest it," +said Martin, tramping to and fro in excitement. "How shall we manage? Go +down here to the rectory?" + +"I would rather go over to town," said Miss Lavinia, beginning, in +spite of herself, to realize difficulties. "We do not know who might +drop in here." + +"Very well," said Martin, decisively, looking at his watch. "I have it! +Timothy is off to-day; I will harness the grays to the stanhope, as we +can't wait to send to the stable, and we will drive over the back way by +the Ridge and be home again by dinner time. The rector of All Saints' was +a classmate of mine, and I met him again only the other day, so we shall +have no trouble there." + +"Are you sure you can harness the horses properly?" asked Miss Lavinia, +with characteristic caution, and then smiling at herself, as Martin +hurried off to the stable. + + * * * * * + +In less than twenty minutes the sober gray horses turned out of the +stable yard and up the road upon the most remarkable trip of their +career. Nothing strange was noticeable about the turnout, except that the +traces hung a trifle loose, and that the occupants sat unusually far back +under the hood for so pleasant an afternoon. That is, until after they +had passed Martha's house in the lane and turned into the unfrequented +back highway, then they both leaned forward, gave a sigh of relief, and, +looking at each other, laughed aloud. + +"Do you realize that we are eloping, like runaway school children?" said +Miss Lavinia, "we two hitherto sober-minded Knickerbockers?" + +"I realize that I like what we are doing very much, whatever it may be +called," replied Martin, "and that it is very considerate of you to spare +me and do it in this way. The conventional affair is very hard on a man +of my years, all of whose contemporaries are either bald or rheumatic; +besides, now I think of it, it is merely carrying out the ever-present +precedent. My father's great-great-grand father and mother eloped in +1689 from Staten Island to the Bouerie, and the boat upset when they +were going back." + +"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia, "I hope we shall not upset! I +wonder if the wheels are on securely. I thought I heard something rattle. +There it is again." + +As they reached the bottom of the long hill, Martin let the reins hang +loose on the horses' necks and, lowering the hood, looked back to see if +he could find the cause of the jolting sound, accompanied by panting, as +of a dog running. Then he gave an exclamation of impatience, and pulled +the horses up short, for there, alternately running and lifting up their +feet and swinging, were the twins, clinging to the back of the gig! + +Miss Lavinia gave a cry of dismay. "Where did you come from, and where +are you going?" she questioned rather sharply. "We went to Martha's, you +know," said Ian, as if his errand had been one of such importance that it +was impossible she should forget it, "and she wasn't there, so we thought +we'd just look for those people we said about, by ourselves. But we +couldn't find anybody, only a shiny black snake by the road, and he +rubber-necked at us and spit some 'fore he ran away. Then we saw +grandpop's horses coming, and when you went by we hooked on, and--" + +"'Cause we thought if you was looking for those people and found them, +then we'd be there for the pink ice cream," added Richard, cheerfully, +supplementing Ian's story when his breath gave out. + +"I suppose we must turn around and take them home," said Miss Lavinia, +with a sigh. + +"Not a bit of it. Let them come with us; it is too late to turn back, +unless," he added, with a ring of mock humility in his tone, "you have +changed your mind and wish time to think. As for me, I've turned my back +on even thinking whether they will be missed or who will worry. + +"Scramble in, boys, and curl up here in front. You are just in time; two +of these people you were searching for are going to be married this +afternoon. We are going to the wedding, and you shall be best men," and +the boys settled down, chuckling and whispering, but presently Ian +looked up, as light dawned, and cried: "I spy! It's you, Uncle Martin, +and Aunt Lavinia is your Mrs., only you couldn't find her all summer till +to-day," and he hugged his friend around the legs, which were all he +could reach, but Richard leaned backward until his head rested on Miss +Lavinia's knees, and he reached up his cooing lips to be kissed. + +The rest of the ride to town was uneventful, except that when they +reached the outskirts they met Jenks-Smith's coach loaded with Whirlpool +people, but the Lady of the Bluffs saw nothing strange in the +combination, and merely shook her parasol at them, calling, "I'm sorry to +hear you're flitting, just when it's getting lively again, too!" + +Fortunately the rector of All Saints' was at home, likewise the requisite +number of his family, for witnesses. Then it transpired that the couple +had never thought of the ring, and while Martin went out to buy one, Miss +Lavinia was left sitting on the edge of a very stiff sofa with a boy on +either side of her, with the Rectory family drawn up opposite like an +opposing force, which did not encourage easy conversation. + +However, the agony was soon over, and the bride and groom left, +Martin giving his old classmate, to whom the world had been +penurious, a hand-shake that, when examined by the breathless family +a few moments later, was found to yield at least a new parlour +carpet, an easy-chair for the Rector's bent back, and a new clerical +suit to cover his gaunt frame. + +"Now comes the pink ice cream," sang Ian, dancing a-tiptoe as they +reached the street; and there being but one good restaurant in town, on +the high street, next to the saddler's shop where the red goat harness +was still displayed, the party drove there, and the pink ice cream was +eaten, good and full measure thereof, while on their way out the coveted +goat harness found itself being taken from the window to be packed away +under the seat of the gig. + + * * * * * + +It was almost dinner time when father and I returned to-night, and the +boys were squeezed together in a chair on the piazza, close to Miss +Lavinia, while Martin sat near by on the balustrade. The boys were in a +great state of giggles, and kept clapping their hands to their mouths as +if they feared something would escape. I hurried upstairs, not wishing to +make dinner late, as I knew Martin expected to take the nine o'clock +train, just as father came in saying that Timothy had returned, and that +he found the horses in a wonderful sweat, and feared they were sick, as +they hadn't been out all day. + +By this time we were in the hall and walking toward the dining room. +Martin stopped short, as if to say something, and then changed his mind, +while a bumping at the pantry door attracted the attention of us all. + +Out came Ian, a portion of the goat harness on his head and shoulders, +followed by Richard, around whose neck the reins were fastened, and +between them they carried the great heavy silver tea-tray only used on +state occasions. In the centre of it rested a pink sofa pillow, upon +which some small, flat object like a note was lying. + +They came straight across the hall, halting in front of me, and saying +earnestly, "We didn't ask for the harness, but Uncle Martin says that +people always give their best mens presents." I looked at him for a +second, not understanding, then Evan, with a curious twinkle in his eye, +strode across, whispering to me, "The Deluge," as he picked up the card +and read aloud, "Mr. and Mrs. Martin Cortright!" It was the card that +Richard had printed several days before and carried in strange company in +his warm, mussy little pocket ever since. + +There was tense silence, and then a shout, as Martin took his wife's hand +that wore the wedding ring and laid it on mine; then he and father +fairly hugged each other, for father did not forget those long-ago days +of the strawberries that Martin could not gather. + +When the excitement had subsided and dinner was over, Martha and Tim, to +whom the horse matter had been explained, came over to offer their +congratulations,--at least Martha did. Timothy merely grinned, and, to +the best of my belief, winked slyly at Martin, as much as to say, "We may +be long in knowing our minds, but when we men are ready, the weemen fair +tumble over us." + +"Indeed, mum, but I wish you joy, and that he'll lead you as easy a life +as Tim'thy here does me, 'deed I do, and _no_ disrespeck intended," was +Martha's parting sentence; and then our wonder as to whether Martin was +going to town, or what, was cut short by his rising, looking at his +watch, and saying in the most matter-of-fact way to Lavinia: "Is your bag +ready? You know we leave in an hour." + +"Does Lucy expect you?" I ventured to ask. + +"Oh no, I shall not trouble her until the day appointed. We shall go to +the Manhattan, I think." + +"How about your cousin Lydia?" asked father, who could not resist a +chance to tease. + +"I forgot all about her!" exclaimed poor Lavinia, clasping her hands +tragically and looking really conscience-stricken. "And I," said Evan, +who had suddenly jumped up and rammed his hand into his side pocket, +"forgot to post your letter to her!" + + * * * * * + +_October_ 31. We have all been to New York to visit the runaway +Cortrights, as Evan calls them, now that they are settled, and it is +pleasant to see that so much belated happiness is possible. The fate of +Lavinia's house is definitely arranged; they will remain in "Greenwich +Village," in spite of all advice to move up in town. The defunct back +yard is being covered by an extension that will give Martin a fine +library, with a side window and a scrap of balcony, while the ailantus +tree is left, that bob-tailed Josephus may not be deprived of the feline +pleasures of the street or his original way of reaching it over the side +fence; and the flower garden that was, will be the foundation of a garden +of books under the kindly doctrine of compensation. + +Above is to be a large guest room for Sylvia and Horace, or Evan and me, +so that there will be room in plenty when by and by we bring the boys to +see our New York. + +Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who has formed a sincere attachment to Lavinia +Cortright, did all in her power to persuade her to be her neighbour up in +town, offering a charming house at a bargain and many advantages. +Finally becoming piqued at the refusal, she said:-- + +"Why will you be so stupid? Don't you know that this out-of-the-way +street is in the social desert?" + +"It may be in a desert, as you say," said Lavinia, gently, "but we mean +at least to make it an oasis for our friends who are weary of the +whirling of the pool." + + * * * * * + +We stood looking at the boys as they slept tonight. Strange thoughts will +crop up at times most unexpectedly. Horns blowing on the highway +proclaimed the late arrival of a coaching party at the Bluffs. "Would you +like to have money if you could, and go about the world when and where +you please?" I asked Evan, but he, shaking his head, drew me towards him, +answering my question with another-- + +"Would you, or why do you ask?" + +I never thought that Mrs. Jenks-Smith's stricture would turn to a +prayer upon my lips, but before I knew it I whispered, "God keep us +comfortably poor." + +Then Ian, feeling our presence, raised himself in sleepy leisure, and +nestling his cheek against my dress said, "Barbara, _please_ give Ian a +drink of water." + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11561 *** 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..e019114 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11561 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11561) diff --git a/old/11561-8.txt b/old/11561-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..82adaf6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11561-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8438 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, People of the Whirlpool , by Mabel Osgood +Wright + + +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: People of the Whirlpool + +Author: Mabel Osgood Wright + +Release Date: March 13, 2004 [eBook #11561] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL *** + + +E-text prepared by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL + +FROM THE EXPERIENCE BOOK OF A COMMUTER'S WIFE + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +1903 + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I ON THE ADVANTAGE OF TWINS + + CHAPTER II MISS LAVINIA'S LETTERS TO BARBARA + + CHAPTER III MARTIN CORTRIGHT'S LETTERS + + CHAPTER IV WHEN BARBARA GOES TO TOWN + + CHAPTER V FEBRUARY VIOLETS + + CHAPTER VI ENTER A MAN + + CHAPTER VII SYLVIA LATHAM + + CHAPTER VIII THE SWEATING OF THE CORN + + CHAPTER IX A WAYSIDE COMEDY + + CHAPTER X THE WHIRL BEGINS + + CHAPTER XI REARRANGED FAMILIES + + CHAPTER XII HIS MOTHER + + CHAPTER XIII GOSSIP AND THE BUG HUNTERS + + CHAPTER XIV THE OASIS + + + + +I + +ON THE ADVANTAGE OF TWINS + + +_February 2_. Candlemas and mild, gray weather. If the woodchuck stirs +up his banked life-fire and ventures forth, he will not see his shadow, +and must straightway arrange with winter for a rebate in our favour. +To-day, however, it seems like the very dawn of winter, and as if the +cloud brooms were abroad gathering snow from remote and chilly corners +of the sky. + +Six years ago I began the planting of my garden, and at the same time my +girlish habit of journal keeping veered into the making of a "Garden +Boke," to be a reversible signal, crying danger in face of forgotten +mistakes, then turning to give back glints of summer sunshine when read +in the attic of winter days and blue Mondays. Now once again I am in the +attic, writing. Not in a garden diary, but in my "Social Experience Boke" +this time, for it is "human warious," and its first volume, already +filled out, is lying in the old desk. Martin Cortright said, one stormy +day last autumn when he was sitting in the corner I have loaned him of my +precious attic retreat, that, owing to the incursion of the Bluff Colony +of New Yorkers, which we had been discussing, I should call this second +volume "People of the Whirlpool," because--ah, but I must wait and hunt +among my papers for his very words as I wrote them down. + +My desk needs cleaning out and rearranging, for the dust flies up as I +rummage among the papers and letters that are a blending of past, +present, and future. All my pet pens are rusty, and must be replaced from +the box of stubs, for a stub pen assists one to straightforward, truthful +expression, while a fine point suggests evasion, polite equivocation, or +thin ideas. Even Lavinia Dorman's letters, whose cream-white envelopes, +with a curlicue monogram on the flap, quite cover the litter below, have +been, if possible, more satisfactory since she has adopted a fountain +stub that Evan gave her at Christmas. + +There are many other things in the desk now beside the hickory-nut beads +and old papers. Little whiffs of subtle fragrance call me backward +through time faster than thought, and make me pinch myself to be sure +that I am awake, like the little old woman with the cutabout petticoats, +who was sure that if she was herself, her little dog would know her,--but +then he _didn't!_ + +I am awake and surely myself, yet my old dog is not near to recognize me. +This ring of rough, reddish hair, tied with a cigar ribbon and lying atop +the beads, was Bluff's best tail curl. Dear, happy, brave-hearted Bluff +with the human eyes; after an honourable life of fifteen years he stole +off to the happy hunting grounds of perpetual open season, quail and +rabbit, two years ago at beginning of winter, as quietly as he used to +slip out the back door and away to the fields on the first fall morning +that brings the hunting fever. For a long while not only I, but neither +father nor Evan could speak of him, it hurt so. Yet by a blessed +dispensation a good dog lives on in his race, and may be renewed (I +prefer that word to _replaced_) after a season, in a way in which our +best human friends may not be, so that we do not lack dogs. Lark is +senior now, and Timothy Saunders's sheep dog, The Orphan, is also a +veteran; the foxhounds are in their prime, while Martha Corkle, as we +shall always call her, is raising a promising pair of collie pups. + +Beside the curl, and covering mother's diaries, lies a square white +volume, the first part of my "Experience Boke" before mentioned, and upon +it two queer fat little pairs of bronze kid shoes, buttonless and much +worn on the toes, telling a tale of feet that dragged and ankles that +wobbled through inexperience in walking. Ah yes! I'm quite awake and the +same Barbara, though looking over a wider and eye-opening horizon, having +had three rows of candles, ten in a row, around my last birthday cake and +one extra in the middle, which extravagance has constrained the family to +use lopsided, tearful, pink candles ever since. + +And the two pairs of feet that first touched good earth so hesitatingly +with those crumpled shoes are now standing firmly in wool-lined rubber +boots topped by brown corduroy trousers, upon the winter slat walk that +leads to the tool house, while their owners, touched by the swish of the +Whirlpool that has recently drawn this peaceful town into its eddies, are +busy trying to turn their patrol wagon, that for a year has led a most +conservative existence as a hay wain and a stage-coach dragged by a +curiously assorted team of dogs and goat, into the semblance of some +weird sort of autocart, by the aid of bits of old garden hose, cast-away +bicycle gearing, a watering-pot, and an oil lantern. + +I have wondered for a week past what yeast was working in their brains. +Of course, the seven-year-old Vanderveer boy on the Bluffs had an +electric runabout for a Christmas gift, also a man to run it! Corney +Delaney, as Evan named the majestic gray goat--of firm disposition +blended with a keen sense of humour--that father gave the boys last +spring and who has been their best beloved ever since, has for many days +been left in duress with the calves in the stack-yard, where the all-day +diet of cornstalks is fatally bulging his once straight-fronted figure. + +In fact, it is the doings of these two pairs of precious feet, with the +bodies, heads, and arms that belong to them, that have caused the dust to +gather in my desk, and the "Garden Boke," though not the garden, which is +more of a joy than ever, to be suspended and take a different form. +Flesh-and-blood books that write themselves are so compelling and +absorbing that one often wonders at the existence of any other kind, and, +feeling this strongly, yet I turn to paper pages as silent confidants. +Why? Heredity and its understudy, Habit, the two _h_'s that control both +the making of solitary tartlets as well as family pies. + +So the last entry in the "Garden Boke" was made a week before the day +recorded in the white book with the cherubs' heads painted on it that +underlies the shoes. + +It seems both strange and significant to me now that this book chanced to +be given me by Lavinia Dorman, mother's school friend and bridesmaid, a +spinster of fifty-five, and was really the beginning of the transfer of +her friendship to me, the only woman friendship that I have ever had, and +its quality has that fragrant pungence that comes from sweet herbs, that +of all garden odours are the most lasting. + +I suppose that it is one of the strongest human habits to write down the +very things that one is least likely to forget, and _vice-versa;_ for +certainly I shall never forget the date and double record on that first +fair page beneath the illuminated word _Born_,--yet I often steal up here +to peep at it,--and live the intervening five years backward for pure +joy. January 10, 189-, Richard Russell------ and John Evan------. + +Every time I read the names anew I wonder what I should have done if +there had been a single name upon the page. I must then have chosen +between naming him for father _or_ Evan--an impossibility; for even if +the names had been combined, whose should I have put first? + +No, the twins are in every way an advantage. To Evan, in providing him at +once with a commuted family sufficient for his means; to father, among +other reasons, by giving him the pleasure of saying, to friends who felt +it necessary to visit him in the privacy of his study and be +apologetically sympathetic, "I have observed that the first editions of +very important books are frequently in two volumes," sending them away +wondering what he really meant; to me by saving the rack of argument, the +form of evil I most detest, and to their own chubby selves no less, in +that neither one has been handicapped for a single day by the +disadvantage of being an only child! + +It doubtless seems very odd for me to feel this last to be a +disadvantage, being myself an only child, and always a happy one, sharing +with mother all the space in father's big heart. But this is because God +has been very good to me, leaving me safe in the shelter of the home +nest. Suppose it had been otherwise and I had been forced to face the +world, how it would have hurt, for individual love is cruelly precious +sometimes, and an "onliest" cannot in the very nature of things be as +unselfish and adaptable as one of many. + +I was selfish even when the twins came. I was so glad that they were +men-children. I could not bear to think of other woman hands ministering +to father and Evan, and I rejoiced in the promise of two more champions. +I often wonder how mother felt when I was born and what she thought. +Was she glad or disappointed? I wish that she had left written words to +guide me, if ever so few,--they would mean so much now; and let me know +if in her day social things surprised and troubled her as for the first +time they now stir me, and therefore belong to all awakening motherhood. +Her diaries were a blending of simple household happenings and garden +lore, nothing more; for when I was five years old and her son came, he +stayed but a few short hours and then stole her away with him. + +I wonder if my boys, when they are grown and begin to realize woman, will +care to look into this book of mine, and read in and between the lines of +its jumble of scraps and letters what their mother thought of them, and +how things appeared to her in the days of their babyhood. Perhaps; who +knows? At present, being but five years old, they are centred in whatever +thing the particular day brings forth, and but that they are leashed fast +by an almost prenatal and unconscious affection, they are as unlike in +disposition, temperament, and colouring as they are alike in feature. +Richard is dark, like father and me, very quiet, except in the matter of +affection, in which he is clingingly demonstrative, slow to receive +impressions, but withal tenacious. He clearly inherits father's medical +instinct of preserving life, and the very thought of suffering on the +part of man or beast arouses him to action. When he was only a little +over three years old, I found him carefully mending some windfall robins' +eggs, cracked by their tumble, with bits of rubber sticking-plaster, then +putting them hopefully back into the nest, with an admonition to the +anxious parents to "sit very still and don't stwatch." While last summer +he unfortunately saw a chicken decapitated over at the farm barn, and, in +Martha Corkle's language, "the way he wound a bit o' paper round its poor +neck to stop its bleedin' went straight to my stummick, so it did, Mrs. +Evan;" for be it said here that Martha has fulfilled my wildest +expectations, and whereas, as queen of the kitchen, she was a trifle +unexpected and uncomfortable, as Mrs. Timothy Saunders, now comfortably +settled in the new cottage above the stable at the north corner of the +hayland, she is a veritable guardian angel, ready to swoop down with +strong wings at a moment's notice, in sickness or health, day or night, +and seize the nursery helm. + +It is owing to her that I have never been obliged to have a nursemaid +under my feet or tagging after the boys, to the ruin of their +independence. For the first few years Effie, whose fiery locks have not +yet found their affinity, helped me, but now merely sees to buttons, +strings, and darns. + +I found out long ago that those who get the best return from their flower +gardens were those who kept no gardeners, and it is the same way with the +child garden; those who are too overbusy, irresponsible, ignorant, or +rich to do without the orthodox nurse, never can know precisely what they +lose. To watch a baby untrammelled with clothes, dimple, glow, and expand +in its bath, is in an intense personal degree like watching, early of a +June morning, the first opening bud of a rose that you have coaxed and +raised from a mere cutting. You hoped and believed that it would be fair +and beautiful, but ah, what a glorious surprise it is! + +And so it is at the other end of day, when sleep comes over the garden +and all the flowers that have been basking in sun vigour relax and their +colours are subdued, blended by the brush of darkness, and the night wind +steals new perfumes from them, and wings of all but a few night birds +have ceased to cleave the air. As you walk among the flowers and touch +them, or throw back the casement and look out, you read new meanings +everywhere. In the white cribs in the alcove the same change comes, +bright eyes, hair, cheeks, and lips lie blended in the shadow, the only +sound is the even breath of night, and when you press your lips behind +the ear where a curl curves and neck and garments meet, there comes a +little fragrance born of sweet flesh and new flannel, and the only motion +is that of the half-open hand that seems to recognize and closes about +your fingers as a vine to its trellis, or as a sleeping bird clings to +its perch. + +A gardener or a nurse is equally a door between one and these silent +pleasures, for who would not steal up now and then from a troubled +dream to satisfy with sight and touch that the babes are really there +and all is well? + + * * * * * + +Richard has a clinging way even in sleep, and his speech, though very +direct for his age, is soft and cooing; he says "mother" in a lingering +tone that might belong to a girl, and there are what are called feminine +traits in him. + +Ian (to save confusion, we called him from the first by the pretty Scotch +equivalent of Evan's first name) is of a wholly masculine mould, and like +his father in light hair, gray eyes, and determination. His very speech +is quick and staccato, his tendency is to overcome, to fight rather than +assuage, though he is the champion of everything he loves. From the time +he could form distinct sounds he has called me Barbara, and no amount of +reasoning will make him do otherwise, while the imitation of his father's +pronunciation of the word goes to my heart. + +Recently, now that he is fully able to comprehend, Evan took him quietly +on his knee and told him that he must say "mother" and that he was not +respectful to me. He thought a few minutes, as if reasoning with himself, +and then the big gray eyes filled with tears, a very rare occurrence, as +he seemed to feel that he could not yield, and he said, trying very hard +to steady his voice, "Favver, I truly can't, I _think it _muvver_ inside, +but you and I, we must _say it_ Barbara," and I confess that my heart +leaped with joy, and I begged Evan to let the matter end here. To be +called, if it so may be, by one name from the beginning to the end of +life by the only true lovers that can never be rivals, is bliss enough +for any woman. + +Equally resolved, but in a thing of minor importance, is Ian about his +headgear. As a baby of three, when he first tasted the liberty of going +out of garden bounds daily into the daisy field beyond the wild walk, +while Richard clung to his protecting baby sunbonnet, Ian spurned head +covering of any kind, and blinked away at the sun through his tangled +curls whenever he had the chance, in primitive directness until his +cheeks glowed like burnished copper; and his present compromise is a +little cap worn visor backward. + +When the twins were very young, people were most funny in the way in +which they seemed to think it necessary to feel carefully about to make +sure whether condolence or congratulations were in order. The Severely +Protestant was greatly agitated, as, being himself the possessor of an +overflowing quiverful, his position was difficult. After making sure +which was the right side of the fence, and placing himself on it, he +tugged painfully at his starved red beard, and made an elaborate address +ending in a parallel,--the idea of the complete Bible being in two +volumes, the Old and New Testament, each being so necessary to the other, +and so inseparable, that they were only comparable to twins! + +Father and Evan were present at the time,--I dared not look at +either,--and as soon as we were again alone, the room shook with +laughter, until Martha Corkle, who was then in temporary residence, +popped in to be sure that I was not being unduly agitated. + +"The Old and New Testament, I wonder which is which?" gasped father, +going upstairs to look at the uninteresting if promising woolly bundles +by light of this startling suggestion. + +Now, however, the joke has developed a serious side, as their two +characters, though in no wise precocious, have become distinctive. Ian +represents the Old, primitive and direct, the "sword of the Lord and +Gideon" type, while Richard is the New, the reconciler and peacemaker. + + * * * * * + +The various congratulations that the twins were boys, from my standpoint +I took as a matter of course, even though I had always heard that boys +gave the most worry and girls were referred to among our friends and +neighbours as the greatest comforts in a home unless they did something +decidedly unusual, fitting into nooks, and often taking up and bearing +burdens the brothers left behind. But when many people who had either +daughters or nieces of their own, and might be said to be in that mystic +ring called "Society," congratulated me pointedly about the boys, I began +to ponder about the matter mother-wise. Then, three years ago the New +York Colony seized upon the broad acres along the Bluffs, and dotted two +miles with the elaborate stone and brick houses they call cottages; not +for permanent summer homes (the very rich, the spenders, have no homes), +but merely hotels in series. These, for the spring and fall between +seasons and week-end parties and golfing, men and girls gay in red and +green coats, replaced the wild flowers in the shorn outlying fields. I +watched these girls, and, beginning to understand, wondered if I had +grown old before my time, or if I were too young to comprehend their +point of view, for, to their strange enlightenment I was practically as +yet unborn. + +Lavinia Dorman says caustically that I really belong with her in the +middle of the last century, and she, born to what father says was really +the best society and privilege of New York life, like his college chum +Martin Cortright, is now swept quite aside by the swirl. + +"Yes, dear child," she insists (how different this use of the word +sounds from when the Lady of the Bluffs uses the universal "my dear" +impartially to mistress and maid, shopgirl and guest), "you not only +belong to the last century, but as far back in it as myself, and I am +fifty-five, full measure. + +"The new idea among the richer and consequently more privileged classes +is, that girls are to be fitted not only to go out into the world and +shine in different ways unknown to their grandmothers, but to be +superior to home, which of necessity unfits them for a return trip if the +excursion is unsuccessful. + +"What with high ideas, high rents, and higher education, the home myth is +speedily following Santa Claus out of female education, and, argue as one +may, New York is the social pace-maker 'East of the Rockies,' as the free +delivery furniture companies advertise. I congratulate you anew that the +twins are boys!" + +I laughed to myself over Miss Lavinia's letter; she is always so +deliciously in earnest and so perturbed over any change in the social +ways of her dearly beloved New York, that I'm wondering how she finds it, +on her return after two years or more abroad (she was becoming agitated +before she left), and whether she will ask me down for another of those +quaint little visits, where she so faithfully tours me through the shops +and a few select teas, when, to wind it up, Evan buys opera box seats so +that she may have the satisfaction of having her hair dressed, wearing +her point lace bertha and aigret, and showing us who is who, and the +remainder who are not. For she is well born, intricately related to the +original weavers of the social cobweb, and knows every one by name and +sight; but has found lately, I judge, that this knowledge unbacked by +money is no longer a social power that carries beyond mixed tea and +charity entertainments. Never mind, Lavinia Dorman is a dear! Ah, if she +would only come out here, and return my many little visits by a long +stay, and act as a key to the riddle the Whirlpool people are to me. But +of course she will not; for she frankly detests the country,--that is, +except Newport and Staten Island,--is wedded even in summer to her trim +back-yard that looks like a picture in a seed catalogue, and, like a +faithful spouse, declines to leave it or Josephus for more than a few +days. Josephus is a large, sleek, black cat, a fence-top sphinx, who sits +all day in summer wearing a silver collar, watching the sparrows and the +neighbourhood's wash with impartial interest, while at night he goes on +excursions of his own to a stable down a crooked street in "Greenwich +Village," where they still keep pigeons. Some day he won't come back! + +Yet Martin Cortright, the Bookworm, was a pavement worshipper too, and he +came last fall for over a Sunday to wake father up; for I believe men +sometimes need the society of others of their own age and past, as much +as children need childlife, and Martin stayed a month, and is promising +to return next spring. I wonder if the Sylvia Latham who has been +travelling with Miss Lavinia is any kin of the Lathams who are building +the great colonial home above the Jenks-Smiths. I have never seen any of +the family except Mrs. Latham, a tall, colourless blonde, who reminds one +of a handsome unlit lamp. She seems to be superintending the work by +coming up now and then, and I met her at the butcher's where she was +buying sweetbreads--"a trifle for luncheon." Accusation No. 1, against +the Whirlpoolers: Since their advent sweetbreads have risen from two +pairs for a quarter, and "thank you kindly for taking them off our +hands," to fifty cents to a dollar a "set." We no longer care for +sweetbreads! + + * * * * * + +I was therefore amused, but no longer surprised, at the exaggerated way +in which the childless Lady of the Bluffs,--her step-daughter having ten +years back made a foolish foreign marriage,--gave me her views upon the +drawbacks of the daughters of her world, when she made me, on her return +from a European trip, a visit upon the twins' first birthday,--bearing, +with her usually reckless generosity, a pair of costly gold apostle +spoons, as she said, "to cut their teeth on." I admired, but frugally +popped them into the applewood treasure chests that father has had made +for the boys from the "mother tree," that was finally laid low by a +tornado the winter of their birth and is now succeeded by a younger one +of Richard's choice. + +"My dear woman," she gasped, turning my face toward the light and +dropping into a chair at the same time, "how well you look; not a bit +upset by the double dose and sitting up nights and all that. But then, +maybe, they sleep and you haven't; for it's always the unexpected and +unusual that happens in your case, as this proves. But then, they are +boys, and that's everything nowadays, the way society's going, especially +to people like you, whose husband's trade, though pretty, is too open and +above-board to be a well-paying one, and yet you're thoroughbreds +underneath." (Poor vulgar soul, she didn't in the least realize how I +might take her stricture any more than she saw my desire to laugh.) + +"Of course here and there a girl in society does turn out well and rides +an elephant or a coronet,--of course I mean wears a coronet,--though ten +to one it jams the hairpins into her head, but mostly daughters are +regular hornets,--that is, if you're ambitious and mean to keep in +society. Of course you're not in it, and, being comfortably poor, so to +speak, might be content to see your girls marry their best chance, even +if it wasn't worth much a year, and settle down to babies and minding +their own business; but then they mightn't agree to that, and where would +you and Evan be? + +"This nice old house and garden of yours wouldn't hold 'em after they got +through with dolls, and some girls don't even have any doll-days now. It +would be town and travel and change, and you haven't got the price of +that between you all, and to keep this going, too. You'd have to go to +N'York, for a couple of months at least, to a hotel, and what would that +Evan of yours do trailing round to dances? For you're not built for it, +though I did once think you'd be a go in society with that innocent-wise +way, and your nose in the air, when you don't like people, would pass for +family pride. I'd wager soon, in a few years, he'd stop picking +boutonnières in the garden every morning and sailing down to that 8:15 +train as cool as if he owned time, if those boys were girls! Though if +Jenks-Smith gets the Bluff Colony he's planned under way next spring, +there'll soon be some riding and golfing men hereabouts that'll shake +things up a bit,--bridge whist, poker, and perhaps red and black to help +out in the between-seasons." (I little thought then what this colony and +shaking would come to mean.) + +"Money or not, it's hard lines with daughters now--work and poor pay for +the mothers mostly. You know that Mrs. Townley that used to visit me? He +was a banker and very rich; died four years ago, and left his wife with +one son, who lived west, and five daughters, four that travelled in pairs +and an odd one,--all well fixed and living in a big house in one of those +swell streets, east of the park, where never less than ten in help are +kept. Well, if you'll believe it, she's living alone with a pet dog and a +companion, except in summer, when the Chicago son and his wife and babies +make her a good visit down at North East, the only home comfort she has. + +"All the girls married to foreigners? Not a blessed one. Two were bookish +and called literary, but not enough to break out into anything; they +didn't agree with society (had impossible foreheads that ran nearly back +to their necks, and thin hair); they went to college just to get the name +of it and to kill time, but when they got through they didn't rub along +well at home; called taking an interest in the house beneath them and the +pair that liked society frivolous; so they took a flat (I mean +apartment--a flat is when it's less than a hundred a month and only has +one bathroom), and set up for bachelor girls. The younger pair did +society for a while, and poor Mrs. Townley chaperoned round after them, +as befitted her duty and position, and had gorgeous Worth gowns, all lace +and jets, that I do believe shortened her breath, until one night in a +slippery music-room she walked up the back of a polar bear rug, fell off +his head, and had an awful coast on the floor, that racked her knee so +that she could stay at home without causing remark, which she cheerfully +did. The two youngest girls were pretty, but they were snobs, and carried +their money on their sleeves in such plain sight that they were too +suspicious, and seemed to expect every man that said 'good evening' was +waiting to grab it. So they weren't popular, and started off for Europe +to study art and music. Of course when they came back they had a lot of +lingo about the art atmosphere and all that; home was a misfit and +impossible, so they went to live in a swell studio with two maids and a +Jap butler in costume, and do really give bang-up musicals, with paid +talent of course. I went to one. + +"That left Georgie, the odd one, who was the eldest, with poor Mrs. +Townley. By this time the old lady was kind of broken-spirited, and +worried a good deal as to why all her girls left her,--'she'd always +tried to do her duty,'--and all that. This discouraged Georgie; she got +blue and nervous, had indigestion, and, mistaking it for religion, +vamoosed into a high-church retreat. And I call it mighty hard lines for +the old lady." + +I thought "too much money," but I didn't say it, for this brutally direct +but well-meaning woman could not imagine such a thing, and she continued: +"Yet Mrs. Townley had a soft snap compared to some, for she was in the +right set at the start, with both feet well up on the ladder, and didn't +have to climb; but Heaven help those with daughters who have thin purses +and have to stretch a long neck and keep it stiff, so, in a crowd at +least, nobody'll notice their feet are dangling and haven't any hold. + +"Ah, but this isn't the worst yet; that's the clever 'new daughter' kind +that sticks by her ma, who was herself once a particular housekeeper, and +takes charge of her long before there's any need; regulates her clothes +and her food and her callers, drags her around Europe to rheumatism +doctors, and pushes her into mud baths; jerks her south in winter and +north in summer, for her 'health and amusement,' so she needn't grow +narrow, when all the poor soul needs and asks is to be let stay in her +nice old-fashioned country house, and have the village children in to +make flannel petticoats; entertain the bishop when he comes to confirm, +with a clerical dinner the same as she used to; spoil a lot of +grandchildren, of which there aren't any; and once in a while to be +allowed to go into the pantry between meals, when the butler isn't +looking, and eat something out of the refrigerator with her fingers to +make sure she's got them! + +"No, my dear, rather than that, I choose the lap dog and poor relation, +who is generally too dejected to object to anything. Besides, lap dogs +are much better now than in the days when the choice lay only between +sore-eyed white poodles and pugs. Boston bulls are such darlings that for +companions they beat half the people one knows!" + +I am doubly glad that the twins are boys! Well, so be it, for women do +often frighten me and I misunderstand them, but men are so easy to +comprehend and love. While now, when Richard and Ian puzzle me, all I +need to do is to point to father and Evan, and say, "Look! ask them, for +they can tell you all you need to know!" + + * * * * * + +Almost sunset, the boys climbing up stairs, and Effie bringing a letter? +Yes, and from Lavinia Dorman, pages and pages--the dear soul! I must wait +for a light. What is this?--she wishes to see me--will make me a long +visit--in May--if I like--has no longer the conscience to ask me to leave +the twins to come to her--boys of their age need so much care--then +something about Josephus! Yes, Sylvia Latham is the daughter of the new +house on the Bluffs, etc. You blessed twins! here is another advantage I +owe to you--at last a promised visit from Lavinia Dorman! + +Ah, as I push my book into the desk the reason for its title turns up +before me, worded in Martin Cortright's precise language:-- + +"Everything, my dear Barbara, has a precedent in history or the basis of +it. It is well known that the Indian tribes have taken their distinctive +names chiefly from geographical features, and these often in turn control +the pace of the people. The name for the island since called New +Amsterdam and York was Mon-ah-tan-uk, a phrase descriptive of the rushing +waters of Hell Gate that separated them from their Long Island +neighbours, the inhabitants themselves being called by these neighbours +Mon-ah-tans, _anglice_ Manhattans, literally, _People of the Whirlpool_, +a title which, even though the termagant humour of the waters be abated, +it beseems me as aptly fits them at this day." + + + + +II + +MISS LAVINIA'S LETTERS TO BARBARA + + +NEW YORK, "GREENWICH VILLAGE," January 20, 19--. + +"So you are glad that I have returned? I wish that I could say so also, +in your hearty tone of conviction. Every day of the two years that I have +been scattering myself about Europe I have wished myself at home in the +house where I was born, and have wandered through the rooms in my dreams; +yet now that I am here, I find that I was mixing the past impossibly with +the present, in a way common to those over fifty. Yes, you see I no +longer pretend, wear unsuitable headgear, and blink obliviously at my age +as I did in those trying later forties. I not only face it squarely, but +exaggerate it, for it is so much more comfortable to have people say +'Fifty-five! Is it possible?' + +"By the way, do you know that you and I share a distinction in common? We +are both living in the houses where we were born, for the reason that we +wish to and not because we cannot help ourselves. Since I have been away +it appears that every one I know, of my own age, has made a change of +some sort, and joined the two streams that are flowing steadily upward, +east and west of the Park; while the people who were neither my financial +nor social equals thirty years ago are dividing the year into quarters, +with a house for each. A few months in town, a few of hotel life for +'rest' in the south, then a 'between-season' residence near by, seaside +next, mountains in early autumn, and the 'between-season' again before +the winter cruise through the Whirlpool. + +"I like that name that your Martin Cortright gives to New York. Before I +went abroad I should have resented it bitterly, but the two months since +my return have convinced me of its truth, which I have fought against for +many years; for even the most staid of us who, either of choice or +necessity, give the social vortex a wide berth, cannot escape from the +unrest of it, or sight of the wreckage it from time to time gives forth. +It is strange that I have not met this Cortright, or never even knew that +he shared your father's admiration of your mother, though owing to our +school tie we were like sisters. Yet it was like her to regret and hold +sacred any pain she might have caused, no matter how unwillingly. Did his +elder sister marry _a_ Schuyler, though not one of _the_ well-known +branch, and did he as a boy live in one of those houses on the west side +of Lafayette Place that were later turned into an hotel? + +"The worst of it all appears to me to be that the increase of wealth in +the upper class is exterminating the home idea, to which I cling, single +woman as I am; and consequently the middle classes, as blind copyists, +also are tending to throw it over. + +"The rich, having no particular reason for remaining in any particular +place until they become attached to it, live in half a dozen houses, +which seems to have a deteriorating effect upon their domesticity; just +as the Sultan, with fifty wives that may be dropped or replaced according +to will, cannot prize them as does the husband of only one. + +"Your letters are so full of questions and wonderments about ways in your +mother's day, that they set me rambling in the backwoods of the sixties, +when women were sending their lovers to the Civil War, and then bravely +sitting down and rolling their own hearts up with the bandages with which +they busied their fingers. I suppose you are wondering if I lost a lover +in those days, or why I have not married, as I am in no wise opposed to +the institution, but consider it quite necessary to happiness. The truth +is, I never saw but two men whose tastes so harmonized with mine that I +considered them possible as companions, and when I first met them neither +was eligible, one being my own father and the other yours! I shall have +to list your queries, to be answered deliberately, write my letters in +sections, day by day, and send them off packet-wise, like the +correspondence of the time of two-shilling post and hand messengers. To +begin with, I will pick out the three easiest:-- + +"1. What is it in particular that has so upset me on my home-coming? + +"2. Do I think that I could break through my habits sufficiently to make +you a real country visit this spring or early summer, before the +mosquitoes come? (Confessing with your altogether out-of-date frankness +that there are mosquitoes, a word usually dropped from the vocabulary +of commuters and their wives, even though they live in Staten Island or +New Jersey.) + +"3. Is the Sylvia Latham, to whom I have been a friendly chaperon during +my recent travels, related to the Lathams who are building the finest +house on the Bluffs? You have never seen the head of the house, but his +initials are S.J.; he is said to be a power in Wall Street, and the +family consists of a son and daughter, neither of whom has yet appeared, +although the house is quite ready for occupancy. + +"(My German teacher has arrived.)" + + * * * * * + +"January 22d. + +"1. Why am I upset? For several reasons, some of which have been clouding +the horizon for many years, others crashing up like a thunder-storm. + +"I have for a long time past noticed a certain apathy in the social +atmosphere of the little circle that formed my world. I gave up any +pretensions to general New York society after my father's death, which +came at a time when the social centre was splitting into several cliques; +distances increased, New Year's calling ceased, going to the country for +even midwinter holidays came in vogue, and cosmopolitanism finally +overcame the neighbourhood community interest of my girlhood. People +stopped making evening calls uninvited; you no longer knew who lived in +the street or even next house, save by accident; the cosey row of private +dwellings opposite turned to lodging houses and sometimes worse; friends +who had not seen me for a few months seemed surprised to find me living +in the same place. When I began to go about again, one day Cordelia +Martin (she was a Bleecker--your father will remember her) met me in the +street and asked me to come in the next evening informally to dinner and +meet her sister, an army officer's wife, who would be there _en route_ +from one post to another, and have an old-time game of whist. + +"I went, glad to see old friends, and anticipating a pleasant evening. I +wore a new soft black satin gown slightly V in front, some of my best +lace, and my pearl ornaments; I even wondered if the latter were in good +taste at a family dinner. You know I never dwell much upon attire, but it +is sometimes necessary when it is in a way epoch making. + +"A butler had supplanted Cordelia's usual cordial waitress; he presented +a tray for the card that I had not brought and said 'second story front.' +This seemed strange to me, as Cordelia herself had always come to the +stairway to greet me when the door opened. + +"The 'second story front' had been done over into a picturesque but +useless boudoir, a wood floor polished like glass was dotted by white fur +islands; the rich velvet carpets, put down a few years before, had in +fact disappeared from the entire house. A maid, anything but cordial, +removed my wrap, looking me and it over very deliberately as she did so. +I wondered if by mistake I had been bidden to a grand function--no, there +were no visible signs of other guests. + +"Not a word was spoken, so I made my way down to where the library +living-room had been, not a little curious to see what would come next. +Thick portières covered the doorway, and by them stood the butler, who +asked my name. Really, for a moment I could not remember it, I was so +startled at this sudden ceremony in the house of a friend, of such long +standing that I had jumped rope on the sidewalk with her, making +occasional trips arm-in-arm around the corner to Taffy John's little shop +for molasses peppermints and 'blubber rubbers.' + +"My hesitation seemed to add to the distrust that my appearance had in +some way created. The butler also swept me from head to foot with his +critical stare, and at the same moment I became internally aware that I +had forgotten to remove my arctic over-boots. Never mind, my gown was +long, I would curl up my toes, but return to the dressing-room in full +sight of that man, I whose forbears had outbowled Peter Stuyvesant, and, +I fear, outdrunk him--never! Then the portières flew apart, and facing +a glare of bilious-hued electric light, I heard the shouted announcement +of 'Miss Doormat' as I stumbled over a tiger rug into the room. I believe +the fellow did it on purpose. However, it was very funny, and my +rubber-soled arctics probably prevented my either coasting straight +across into the open fireplace, or having a nasty fall, while the laugh +that the announcement created on the part of my host, Archie Martin, +saved me from an awkward moment, for from a sort of gilt throne-like +arrangement at one side of the hearth, arrayed in brocaded satin gowns +cut very low and very long, heads crimped to a crisp, and fastened to +meagre shoulders by jewelled collars, the whole topped by a group of +three 'Prince of Wales' feathers, Cordelia and her sister came forward +two steps to greet me. + +"Of course, I thought to myself, they are going to a ball later on. I +naturally made no comment, and we went in to dinner. The dining room was +very cold, as extensions usually are, and the ladies presently had white +fur capes brought to cover their exposure, while I, sitting in the +draught from the butler's pantry, was grateful for my arctics. The meal +was more pretentious than edible,--a strange commentary upon many +delightful little four or at most five course affairs I had eaten in the +same room. I soon found that there was no ball in prospect, also that +Cordelia and her sister seemed ill at ease, while Archie had a look of +suppressed mischief on his face, which in spite of warning signals broke +forth as soon as, the coffee being served, the butler left. + +"One great comfort about men is that they do not take easily to being +unnatural. Archie and I, having been brought up like brother and sister +from the time we went to a little mixed school over in old Clinton Hall, +were always on cordial terms. + +"'Well, Lavvy,' he began, 'I see you're surprised at the change of base +here, and _I'm_ going to let you in on the ground floor, if Cordelia +won't. You see, Janet (she's not in town to-night, by the way) is coming +out next month, and we are getting in training for what her mother thinks +is her duty toward her, or else what they both think is their duty to +society, or something else equally uncomfortable.' + +"'Archie!' remonstrated Cordelia, but he good-naturedly ignored her and +continued: 'Now I want Janet to have a jolly winter and marry a good +fellow when the time comes, but as we've got the nicest sort of friends, +educated and all that, who have travelled along with us, as you have, +from the beginning, why should we change our habits and feathers and try +to fly for a different roost?' + +"'Archibald,' said Cordelia, in such a tone that she was not to be +gainsaid, 'Lavinia, as a woman of the world, will understand what you +refuse to: that it is very important that our daughter should have the +surroundings that are now customary to the social set with whom she has +been educated, and into which, if she is to be happy, she must marry. If +she is to meet the right people, she must be rightly presented. All her +set wear low gowns at dinner, whether guests are present or not, just as +much as men wear their evening dress at night and their business suits in +the morning. That we have kept up our old-fogy habits so long has nothing +to do with the present question.' + +"'Except that I have to strain my purse to bring up everything else to +suit the clothes, as naturally gaslight, a leg of mutton, and two +vegetables do not make a good foreground to bare shoulders and a white +vest! And I'd rather fund the cash as a nest-egg for Jenny.' + +"'Archie, you are too absurd!' snapped Cordelia, yet more than half +inclined to laugh; for she used to be the jolliest woman in the world +before the spray of the Whirlpool got into her eyes. + +"'As to meeting suitable people to marry, and all that rubbish,' pursued +Archie, relentlessly, 'I was considered fairly eligible in my time, and +did you meet me at any of the dances you went to, or at the Assemblies at +Fourteenth Street Delmonico's that were the swell thing in those days? +No; I pulled you out of an old Broadway stage that had lost a wheel and +keeled over into a pile of snow opposite father's office, when you were +practically standing on your head. You didn't fuss, and I got to know you +better in five minutes than any one could in five years of this rotten +fuss and feathers.' + +"'That was purely accidental, and I wish you wouldn't mention it so +often,' said Cordelia, flushing; and so the conversation, at first +playful, gradually working toward a painful dispute, went on, until my +faithful Lucy came to escort me home, without our having our game of +whist, that excuse for intelligent and silent companionship." + + * * * * * + +"January 25th. + +"I dwelt on that little dinner episode, my dear Barbara, because in it +you will find an answer to several questions I read between your lines. +Since my return I find that practically all my old friends have flown to +what Archie Martin called 'a different roost,' or else failing, or having +no desire so to do, have left the city altogether, leaving me very +lonely. Not only those with daughters to bring out, but many of my +spinster contemporaries are listed with the buds at balls and dinner +dances, and their gowns and jewels described. Ah, what a fatal memory for +ages one has in regard to schoolmates! Josephine Ponsonby was but one +class behind us, and she is dancing away yet. + +"The middle-aged French women who now, as always, hold their own in +public life have better tact, and make the cultivation of some +intellectual quality or political scheme at least the excuse for holding +their salons, and not the mere excuse of rivalry in money spending. + +"I find the very vocabulary altered--for _rest_ read _change_, for +_sleep_ read _stimulation_, etc, _ad infin_. + +"Born a clergyman's daughter of the old regime, I was always obliged to +be more conservative than was really natural to my temperament; even so, +I find myself at middle life with comfortable means (owing to that bit of +rock and mud of grandma's on the old Bloomingdale road that father +persistently kept through thick and thin), either obliged to compromise +myself, alter my dress and habits, go to luncheons where the prelude is a +cocktail, and the after entertainment to play cards for money, contract +bronchitis by buzzing at afternoon teas, make a vocation of charity, +or--stay by myself,--these being the only forms of amusement left open, +and none offering the intimate form of social intercourse I need. + +"I did mission schools and parish visiting pretty thoroughly and +conscientiously during forty years of my life,--on my return an +ecclesiastical, also, as well as a social shock awaited me. St. Jacob's +has been made a free church, and my special department has been given in +charge of two newly adopted Deaconesses, 'both for the betterment of +parish work and reaching of the poor.' So be it, but Heaven help those +who are neither rich nor poor enough to be of consequence and yet are +spiritually hungry. + +"The church system is necessarily reduced to mathematics. The rector has +office hours, so have the curates, and they will 'cheerfully come in +response to any call.' It was pleasant to have one's pastor drop in now +and then in a sympathetic sort of way, pleasant to have a chance to ask +his advice without formally sending for him as if you wished to be prayed +over! But everything has grown so big and mechanical that there is not +time. The clergy in many high places are emancipating themselves from the +Bible and preaching politics, history, fiction, local sensation, and what +not, or lauding in print the moral qualities of a drama in which the +friendship between Mary Magdalene and Judas Iscariot is dwelt on and the +latter adjudged a patriot. I don't like it, and I don't like hurrying to +church that I may secure my seat in the corner of our once family pew, +where as a child I loved to think that the light that shone across my +face from a particular star in one of the stained-glass windows was a +special message to me. It all hurts, and I do not deny that I am bitter. +Those in charge of gathering in new souls should take heed how they +ignore or trample on the old crop! + +"So I attend to my household duties, marketing, take my exercise, and +keep up my French and German; but when evening comes, no one rings the +bell except some intoxicated person looking for one of the lodging houses +opposite, and the silence is positively asphyxiating--if they would only +play an accordion in the kitchen I should be grateful. I'm really +thinking of offering the maids a piano and refreshments if they will give +an 'at home' once a week, as the only men in the neighbourhood seem to be +the butchers and grocery clerks and the police. There is an inordinate +banging going on in the rear of the house, and I must break off to see +what it _is_." + + * * * * * + +"January 3th. + +"MY DEAR CHILD:-- + +"Your second question, regarding visiting you the coming season, was +answering itself the other day when I was writing. Life here, except in +winter, is becoming impossible to me. I have lost not only Josephus, but +my back yard! The stable where they keep the pigeons has changed hands. +Yes, you were right,--he did haunt the place, the postman says; and I +suppose they did not understand that he was merely playful, and not +hungry, or who he was, else maybe he was too careless about sitting on +the side fence by the street. I _could_ replace Josephus, but not the +yard,--there are no more back yards to be had; their decadence is +complete. I've closed my eyes for years to the ash heap my neighbour on +the right kept in hers; also to the cast-off teeth that came over from +the 'painless' dentist's on the left. + +"When the great tenement flat ran up on the north, where I could, not so +long ago, see the masts of the shipping in the Hudson, I sighed, and +prayed that the tins and bottles that I gathered up each morning might +not single me out when I was tying up my vines in the moonlight of early +summer nights. + +"Josephus resented these missiles, however, and his foolish habit of +sitting on the low side fence under the ailantus tree then began. Next, I +was obliged to give up growing roses, because, as you know, they are +fresh-air lovers; and so much air and light was cut off by the high +building that they yielded only leaves and worms. Still I struggled, and +adapted myself to new conditions, and grew more of the stronger summer +bedding plants. + +"Five days ago I heard a banging and pounding. Only that morning Lucy had +been told that the low, rambling carpenter's shop, that occupied a double +lot along the 'street to the southwest, had been sold, and we anxiously +waited developments. We were spared long suspense; for, on hearing the +noise, and going to the little tea-room extension where I keep my winter +plants, I saw a horde of men rapidly demolishing the shop, under +directions of a superintendent, who was absolutely sitting on top of my +honeysuckle trellis. After swallowing six times,--a trick father once +taught me to cure explosive speech,--I went down and asked him if he +could tell me to what use the lot was to be put. He replied: 'My job is +only to clean it up; but the plans call for a twelve-story +structure,--warehouse, I guess. But you needn't fret; it's to be +fireproof.' + +"'Fireproof! What do I care?' I cried, gazing around my poor garden--or +rather I must have fairly snorted, for he looked down quickly and took in +the situation at a glance, gave a whistle and added: 'I see, you'll be +planted in; but, marm, that's what's got to happen in a pushing city--it +don't stop even for graveyards, but just plants 'em in.' + +"My afternoon sun gone. Not for one minute in the day will its light rest +on my garden, and _finis_ is already written on it, and I see it an arid +mud bank. I wonder if you can realize, you open-air Barbara, with your +garden and fields and all space around you, how a city-bred woman, to +whom crowds are more vital than nature, still loves her back yard. I had +a cockney nature calendar planted in mine, that began with a bunch of +snowdrops, ran through hot poppy days, and ended in a glow of +chrysanthemums, but all the while I worked among these I felt the breath +of civilization about me and the solid pavement under my feet. + +"I believe that every woman primarily has concealed in the three rounded +corners of her heart, waiting development, love of home, love of +children, and love of nature, and my nature love has yet only developed +to the size of a back yard. + +"Yes, I will come to visit you at Oaklands gladly, though it's a poor +compliment under the circumstances. The mother of twins should be gone +_to_; but tremble! you may never get rid of me, for I may supplant Martha +Corkle, the miraculous, in spoiling the boys." + + * * * * * + +"February 1st. + +"One more question to answer and this budget of letters will go to the +post with at least four stamps on it, for since you have yoked me to a +stub pen and begged me not to criss-cross the sheets, my bills for stamps +and stationery have increased. + +"Sylvia Latham _is_ the daughter of your Bluff people. Her father's name +is Sylvester Johns Latham, and he is a Wall Street broker and promoter, +with a deal of money, and ability for pulling the wires, but not much +liked socially, I should judge,--that is, outside of a certain +commercial group. + +"Mrs. Latham was, at the time of her marriage, a pretty southern girl, +Vivian Carhart, with only a face for a fortune. In a way she is a +beautiful woman now, has quite a social following, a gift for +entertaining, and, I judge, unbounded vanity and ambition. + +"Quite recently some apparently valueless western land, belonging to her +people, has developed fabulous ore, and they say that she is now more +opulent than her husband. + +"They were pewholders at St. Jacob's for many years, until three +seasons ago, when they moved from a side street near Washington Square +to 'Millionaire Row,' on the east side of the Park. There are two +children, Sylvia, the younger, and a son, Carhart, a fine-looking blond +fellow when I knew him, but who got into some bad scrape the year after +he left college,--a gambling debt, I think, that his father repudiated, +and sent him to try ranch life in the West. There was a good deal of +talk at the time, and it was said that the boy fell into bad company at +his mother's own card table, and that it has caused a chilliness +between Mr. and Mrs. Latham. + +"However it may be, Sylvia, who is an unspoiled girl of the frank and +intellectual type, tall, and radiant with warm-hearted health, was kept +much away at boarding-school for three years, and then went to college +for a special two years' course in literature. She had barely returned +home when her mother, hearing that I was going abroad, asked me to take +Sylvia with me, as she was deficient in languages, which would be a +drawback to her social career. + +"It seemed a trifle strange to me, as she was then nineteen, an age when +most girls of her class are brought out, and had been away for +practically five years. But I took her gladly, and she has been a most +lovable companion and friend. She called me Aunt, to overcome the formal +Miss, and I wish she were my daughter. I'm only wondering if her high, +unworldly standpoint, absorbed from wise teachers, and the halo that she +has constructed from imagination and desire about her parents during the +years of her separation from them, will not embarrass them a little, now +that she is at home for good. + +"By the way, we met in England last spring a young sub-professor, Horace +Bradford, a most unusual young man for nowadays, but of old New England +stock. He was one of Sylvia's literature instructors at Rockcliffe +College, and he joined our party during the month we spent in the +Shakespeare country. It was his first trip, and, I take it, earned by +great self-sacrifice; and his scholarly yet boyish enthusiasm added +hugely to our enjoyment. + +"He spoke constantly of his mother. Do you know her? She lives on the old +place, which was a farm of the better class, I take it, his father having +been the local judge, tax collector, and general consulting factotum of +his county. It is at Pine Ridge Centre, which, if I remember rightly, is +not far from your town. I should like you to know him. + +"I have only seen Sylvia twice since our return, but she lunches with me +to-morrow. You and she should be fast friends, for she is of your ilk; +and if this happens, I shall not regret the advent of the Whirlpool +Colony in your beloved Oaklands as much as I do now. + +"I am really beginning to look forward to my country visit, and am glad +to see that some 'advance season' tops are spinning on the pavement in +front of the house, and a game of marbles is in progress in my front yard +itself, safe from the annoying skirts of passers-by. For you should know, +dear Madam Pan, that marbles and tops are the city's first spring sign. + +"By the way, I am sure that Horace Bradford and Sylvia are keeping up a +literary correspondence. They are perfectly suited to each other for any +and every grade of friendship, yet from her family standpoint no one +could be more unwelcome. He has no social backing; his mother is a +religious little country woman, who doubtless says 'riz' and 'reckon,' +and he only has what he can earn by mental effort. But this is neither +here nor there, and I'm sure you and I will have an interesting summer +croon in spite of your qualms and resentment of the moneyed +invasion.--Not another word, Lucy is waiting to take this to the +post-box. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LAVINIA DORMAN. + +"P. S.--Josephus has just come back! Lean, and singed by hot ashes, I +judge. I dread the shock to him when he knows about the yard!" + + + + +III + +MARTIN CORTRIGHT'S LETTERS TO BARBARA AND DOCTOR RICHARD RUSSELL + + +"December 10, 19--. + +"MY DEAR BARBARA:-- + +"You have often asked me to write you something of myself, my youth, but +where shall I begin? + +"I sometimes think that I must have been born facing backward, and a +fatality has kept me walking in that direction ever since, so wide a +space there seems to be to-day between myself and those whose age shows +them to be my contemporaries. + +"My father, being a man of solid position both in commerce and society, +and having a far greater admiration for men of art and letters than would +have been tolerated by his wholly commercial Knickerbocker forbears, I, +his youngest child and only son, grew up to man's estate among the set of +contemporaries that formed his world, men of literary and social parts, +whose like I may safely say, for none will contradict, are unknown to the +rising generation of New Yorkers; for not only have types changed, but +also the circumstances and appreciations under which the development of +those types was possible. + +"In my nineteenth year events occurred that altered the entire course of +my life, for not only did the almost fatal accident and illness that laid +me low bar my study of a profession, but it rendered me at the same time, +though I did not then realize it, that most unfortunate of beings, the +semi-dependent son of parents whose overzeal to preserve a boy's life +that is precious, causes them to deprive him of the untrammelled manhood +that alone makes the life worth living. + +"I always had a bent for research, a passion for following the history of +my country and city to its fountain heads. I devoured old books, +journals, and the precious documents to which my father had ready access, +that passed from the attic treasure chests of the old houses in decline +to the keeping of the Historical Society. As a lad I besought every gray +head at my father's table to tell me a story, so what more natural, under +the circumstances, than that my father should make me free of his +library, and say: 'I do not expect or desire you to earn your living; I +can provide for you. Here are companions, follow your inclinations, live +your own life, and do not be troubled by outside affairs.' At first I +was too broken in health and disappointed in ambition to rebel, then +inertia became a habit. + +"As my health unexpectedly improved and energy moved me to reassert +myself and step out, a soft hand was laid on mine--the hand of my mother, +invalided at my birth, retired at forty from a world where she had shone +by force of beauty and wit--and a gentle voice would say: 'Stay with me, +my son, my baby. Oh, bear with me a little longer. If you only knew the +comfort it is to feel that you are in the house, to hear your voice. You +will pen a history some day that will bring you fame, and you will read +it to me here--we two, all alone in my chamber, before the world hears +it.' So I stayed on. How mother love often blinds the eyes to its own +selfishness. + +"That fatal twentieth year, the time of my overthrow, brought me one good +gift, your father's friendship. It was a strange chance, that meeting, +and it was my love of hearing of past events and the questions concerning +them that brought it about. Has your father ever told you of it? + +"Likely not, for his life work has been the good physician's, to bring +forth and keep alive, and mine the antiquarian's, dreaming and groping +among ruins for doubtful treasure of fallen walls. + +"My mother came of English, not Knickerbocker stock like my father, +though both belong distinctly to New York; and female education being in +a somewhat chaotic state between the old regime and new, her parents, +desirous of having her receive the genteel polish of courtly manners, +music, and dancing, sent her, when about fifteen, to Mrs. Rowson's +school, then located at Hollis Street, Boston. The fame of this school +had travelled far and wide, for not only had the preceptress in her +youth, as Susanna Haswell, been governess to the children of the +beautiful Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, one of the most accomplished +women of her day, and profited by her fine taste, but her own high morals +and literary gifts made her tutorship a much sought privilege. + +"While there my mother met the little New England girl who was long +afterward to become your grandmother. She had also come to study music, +for which she had a talent. My mother related to me, when I was a little +lad and used to burrow in her carved oak treasure chest and beg for +stories of the articles it contained, many fascinating tales of those two +school years, a pretty colour coming to her cheeks as she told of the +dances learned together, pas-de-deux and minuet, from old 'Doctor' +Shaffer, who was at the time second violin of the Boston Theatre, as +well as authority in the correct methods of bowing and courtesying for +gentlewomen. Your grandmother married first, and the letter telling of it +was stored away with others in the oak chest. + +"Some months before the steamboat accident that shattered my nerves, and +preceded the long illness, I was browsing at a bookstall, on my way up +from college homeward, when I came across a copy of Charlotte Temple--one +of the dozen later editions--printed in New York by one R. Hobbs, in +1827, its distinguishing interest lying in a frontispiece depicting +Charlotte's flight from Portsmouth. + +"The story had long been a familiar one, and I, in common with others of +many times my age and judgment, had lingered before the slab that bears +her name in the graveyard of old Trinity, and sometimes laid a flower on +it for sympathy's sake, as I have done many times since. + +"On my return home I showed the little book to my mother, and as she held +it in her hinds and read a word here and there, she too began to journey +backward to her school days, and asked my father to bring out her +treasure chest, and from it she took her school relics,--a tattered +ribbon watch-guard fastened by a flat gold buckle that Mrs. Rowson had +given her as a reward for good conduct, and a package of letters. She +spent an hour reading these, and old ties strengthened as she read. I can +see her now as she sat bolstered by pillows in her reclining chair, a +writing tray upon her knees, penning a long letter. + +"A few months afterward, as I lay in my bed too weak even to stir, your +father stood there, looking across the footboard at me,--the answer to +that letter. Your father, tall and strong of body and brain, a Harvard +graduate drawn to New York to study medicine at the College of Physicians +and Surgeons. His eyes of strengthening manly pity looked into mine and +drew me slowly back to life with them. + +"His long absence as surgeon in the Civil War, the settling down as a +country doctor, and even loving the same woman, has not separated us. +Never more than a few months passed but our thoughts met on paper, or our +hands clasped. His solicitude in a large measure restored my health, so +that at sixty-three, physically, I can hold my own with any man of my +age, and to-day I walk my ten miles with less ado than many younger men. +Because of my intense dislike of the modern means of street +transportation, I have kept on walking ever since the time that your +father and I footed it from Washington Park to Van Cortlandt Manor, +through the muskrat marshes whereon the park plaza now stands, up +through the wilds of the future Central Park, McGowan's Pass, and +northwestward across the Harlem to our destination. He will recollect. We +were two days picking our way in going and two days on the return, for we +scorned the 'bus route, and that was only in the later fifties. Never +mind, if we ever do get back to small clothes and silk stockings, Martin +Cortright can show a rounded calf, if he has been esteemed little more +than a crawling bookworm these many years. + +"Methinks I hear you yawn and crumple these sheets together in your hand, +saying: 'What ails the man--is he grown doity? I thought he was +contented, even if sluggishly serene.' + +"And so he was, as one grown used to numbness, until last summer one +Mistress Barbara visited the man-snail in his shell and exorcised him to +come forth for an outing, to feed among fresh green leaves and breathe +the perfume of flowers and young lives. When lo and behold, on the +snail's return, the shell had grown too small! + +"Faithfully, + +"M. C." + + * * * * * + +(To R. R.) + +"December 22, 19--. + +"So social change has also cast its shadow across even your country +pathway, dear Hippocrates? I wish it had spared you, but I feared as much +when I heard that your peaceful town had been invaded by an advance guard +of those same People of the Whirlpool who keep the social life of their +own city in a ferment. + +"You ask what is the matter, what the cause of the increasing +restlessness that appears on every side, driving the conservative +thinking class of moderate means to seek home shelter beyond city limits, +and drawing the rest into a swirl that, sooner or later, either casts +them forth as wrecks or sucks them wholly down. + +"The question is difficult of answer, but there are two things that are +potent causes of the third. Money too quickly earned, or rather won, +causes an unwise expansion, and a fictitious prosperity that has degraded +the life standard. Except in exclusively academic circles, the man is +gauged by his power of financial purchase and control, and the dollar is +his hall mark. He is forced to buy, not win, his way. Of course, if +pedigree and private character correspond in quantity, so much the +better, but their importance is strictly held in abeyance. + +"Even in the legendary classic shades of learning, the cold pressure of +the golden thumb crowds down and chills penniless brains. All students do +not have equal _chance_ and equal _rights_. How can they, when the +exclusiveness of many fraternities is not by intellectual gauge or the +capability for comradeship, but the power to pay high dues and spend +lavishly. Of later years, in several conspicuous cases, even the choice +of college officials of high control has been guided rather by their +capacity as financiers than for ripened and inspiring scholarship. + +"Then, too, the rack of constant change is detrimental to the finer grade +of civic sentiment. It would seem that the Island's significant Indian +name was wrought into its physical construction like the curse that kept +the Jew of fable a wanderer. Periodically the city is rent and upheaved +in unison with the surrounding changes of tide. Here one does not need to +live out his threescore years and ten to see the city of his youth slip +away from him. Even his Alma Mater packs her trunks and moves about too +rapidly to foster the undying loyal home spirit among her sons--my +college has lived in three houses since my freshman year. How I envy the +sons of Harvard, Yale, and all the rest who can go back, and, feeling at +least a scrap of the old campus turf beneath their feet, close their eyes +and be young again for one brief minute. Is not this the reason why so +many of Columbia's sons, in spite of the magnificent opportunities she +offers, send _their_ sons elsewhere, because they realize the value of +associations they have missed, and recognize the Whirlpool's +changefulness? + +"What would be the feelings of an Oxford man, on returning from his life +struggle in India or Australia, to visit his old haunts, if he found, as +a sign of vaunted progress, the Bodleian Library turned into an +apartment house! + +"The primal difference between civilized men and the nameless savage is +love of home, and the powerful races are those in whom this instinct is +the strongest. Such fealty is _not_ born in the shifting almost +tent-dwellers of Manhattan. + +"It was in the late seventies, the winter before his passing, that one +mild night I walked home from a meeting of the Goethe Club in company +with the poet Bryant. He and my father had been stanch comrades, and many +a time had I studied his Homeric head silhouetted by firelight on our +library wall. As we crossed the Park front going from Fifth Avenue east +to west, he paused, and leaning on his cane gazed skyward, where the +outlines of some buildings, in process of construction on Fifty-ninth +Street, and then considered high, stood out against the sky. "'Poor New +York,' he said, half to himself, half to me, 'created and yet cramped by +force of her watery boundaries, where shall her sons and daughters find +safe dwelling-places? They have covered the ground with their +habitations, and even now they are climbing into the sky.' And he went on +leaving his question unanswered. + + * * * * * + +"A caller interrupted me yesterday, a most persistent fellow and a +dangerous one to the purse of the tyro collector of Americana, though not +to me. He was a man of some pretence to classic education, and +superficially versed in lore of title, date, and _editio princeps_. He +had half a dozen prints of rarity and value had they not been forgeries, +and a book ... that I had long sought after in its original form, but the +only copy I had seen for many years when put up at auction lacked the +title page and fully half a dozen leaves, besides having some other +defects. Would you believe it, Dick, this copy was that from the auction, +its defects repaired, its missing leaves replaced by careful forgery, and +what is more, I know the vender was aware of the deceit. But he will sell +it to some young moneyed sprig who will not know. + +"I was angry, Dick, very angry, and yet all this is a trivial part of +what we have a long time been discussing. The sudden glint of wealth in +certain quarters has changed the aspect of even book collecting, that +once most individual of occupations, and syndicated it. + +"Once a book collection was the natural accumulation, more or less +perfect according to purse and opportunity, of one following a certain +line of thought, and bore the stamp of individuality; but as these +bibliophiles of the old regime pass away, the ranks are recruited by men +to whom money is of no account, whose competition forces irrational +prices and creates false values. Methinks I see the finish of the small +collectors like ourselves. Meanwhile, just so much intellectual pleasure +is wrested from the modern scholar of small means who dares not make +beginning. I do not like it, Dick, indeed I do not. + +"But we were discussing domesticity, I think, when this wretch rang the +bell. The restlessness I speak of as born of undisciplined bigness, of +moneyed magnitude, is visible everywhere, and more so in the hours of +relaxation than those of business. + +"We have acquired the knowledge of many arts in these late years, and we +needed it; but we have lost one that is irreparable--sociality. There is +no longer time to know oneself, how then shall we know our neighbours? + +"The verb _to entertain_ has largely driven the verb _to enjoy_ from the +social page. It is not too extreme, I think, to say the home and +playhouse have changed places. Many conservative people that I know turn +to the theatre as the only safe means of relaxation and enjoyment within +their reach, the stress and penalty of criticism in entertaining modern +company being unbearable to them. + +"To the bachelor who, like myself, has a modest hearthstone, yet no hand +but his own to stir the fire, the dinner tables of his married friends +and his clubs have been supposed to replace, in a measure at least, the +need of family ties. Once they did this as far as such things may, but +the easy sociality of the family board has almost ceased, and the +average club has so expanded that it savours more of hotel freedom than +home cosiness. + +"I am not a misanthrope or a woman hater, as you know, yet from what I +gather I fear that, in the upper middle class at least, it is the women +who are responsible for this increased formality that most men naturally +would avoid. Led by personal ambition, or that of young daughters, they +seek to maintain a standard just enough beyond their easy grasp to feel +ill at ease, if not humiliated, to be caught off guard. I remember once +when I was a mere boy hearing my father say in a sorrowing tone to my +eldest sister, who was giving fugitive reasons for not being able to +array herself quickly for some festivity for which the invitation had +been delayed, yet to which she longed to go: 'Wherever woman enters +socially, then complications begin that are wholly of her own making. I +warrant before Eve had finished her fig-leaf petticoat she was bothering +Adam to know if he thought there could be another woman anywhere who had +a garment of rarer leaves than her own.' + +"The clubs do somewhat better, being under male management, but those +among them that ranked as so conservative that membership was the hall +mark of intellectual acquirements and stamped a man as either author, +artist, or amateur of letters and the fine arts, have had their doors +pushed open by many of those who wish to wear in public the name of +being without good right, and so the little groups of kindred spirits +have broken away, the authors in one direction, the followers of the +drama to habitations of their own, artists who are too independent to be +overborne by money in another, and thus the splitting spirit increases +until it vanishes in a maze of cliques and coteries. The names may stand +on the lists, the faces are absent, and one must wander through half a +dozen clubs to really meet the aggregation of thinkers and workers of +the grade who gathered in the snug corners of the Century's old club +house in East Fifteenth Street when we were young fellows, and my father +secured us cards for an occasional monthly meeting as the greatest +favour he could do us. + +"Come down if you can, take a holiday, or rather night, and go with me to +the January meeting, and we will also stroll among some of our old +haunts. You may perhaps realize, what I cannot altogether explain, the +reason why I feel almost a stranger though at home." + + * * * * * + +(To DR. R. R.) + +"January 10, 19--. + +"Could not get away, you conscientious old Medicus, because of the +strange accidents and holiday doings of the Whirlpool Colony at +the Bluffs! + +"Well, well! I read your last with infinite amusement. You are in a fair +way to have enlightenment borne in upon you without leaving your surgery, +or at least travelling farther than your substantial gig will take you. + +"Meanwhile I have had what should be a crushing blow to my vanity, and in +analyzing it I've made an important discovery. One night last week I was +sitting quietly in the card room at the Dibdin Club, awaiting my whist +mates (for here at least one may be reasonably sure of finding a group +with bibliographic interests in common, and the pleasures of a +non-commercial game of cards), when I heard a voice, one of a group +outside, belonging to a wholesome, smooth-faced young fellow, with good +tastes and instincts, say:-- + +"'I don't know what happened to the old boy when he took that unheard-of +vacation of his last fall, or where he went, but one thing's very sure, +since his return Cortright's grown _pudgy_ and he's waked bang up. Wonder +if he's finished that Colonial History, that's to be his monument, he's +been working on all his life, or if he's fallen in love?' + +"'If he'd fall in love, he might stand more chance of finishing his +history,' replied a graybeard friend in deep didactic tones; 'he has +material in plenty, but no vital stimulus for focussing his work.' + +"I gave an unpremeditated laugh that dwindled to a chuckle, as if it were +produced by a choking process. Two heads appeared a second at the doorway +of the room they had thought empty, and then vanished! + +"When I came home I sat a long while before my den fireplace thinking. +They were right in two things, though not in the falling in love--that +was done thirty-five years ago once and for all. I wondered if I had +grown _pudgy_, dreadful word; _stout_ carries a certain dignity, but +pudgy suggests bunchy, wabbling flesh. I've noticed my gloves go on +lingeringly, clinging at the joints, but I read that to mean rheumatism! + +"That night I stood before the mirror and studied my face as I unbuttoned +my vest and loosened my shirt band at the neck. Suddenly I experienced +great relief. For several months past I have felt a strange asphyxiation +and a vertigo sensation when wearing formal clothes of any kind, enjoying +complete comfort only in the loose neckcloth and wrapper of my private +hours. I had thought of asking medical advice, but having acquired a +distrust of general physic in my youth, and hoping you might come down, I +put it off. + +"Unfasten your own top button, and now prepare to laugh--Martin Cortright +is not threatened with apoplexy or heart failure, he's grown _pudgy_, and +his clothes are all too small! Yet but for that boy's good-tempered +ridicule he might not have discovered it. + +"Think of it, Richard! I, whom my mother considered interesting and of +somewhat distinguished mien, owing to my pallor and slim stature! A +pudgy worm belongs to chestnuts, not to books. A pudgy antiquarian is a +thing unheard of since monastic days, when annal making was not deemed +out of place if mingled with the rotund jollity of a Friar Tuck. You +must bear half the blame, for it must be the butter habit that your +Martha Corkle's fresh churned pats inoculated me with, for I always +detested the stuff before. + +"Graybeard's stricture, however, struck a deeper chord--'He has material +in plenty for his book, but no vital stimulus.' This, too, is deeply +true, and I have felt it vaguely so for some time, but no more realized +it than I did my pudginess. + +"No matter how much material one collects, if the vitalizing spirit is +not there, no matter how realistically the stage may be set if the actors +are mere dummies. The only use of the past is to illuminate and sustain +the present. + +"Your own home life and work, the honest questions of little Richard and +Ian waken me from a long sleep, I believe, and set me thinking. What is +a man remembered by the longest? Brain work, memorial building, or heart +touching? Do you recollect once meeting old Moore--Clement Clark +Moore--at my father's? He was a profound scholar in Greek and Hebrew +lexicology, and gave what was once his country house and garden in old +Chelsea Village to the theological seminary of his professorship. How +many people remember this, or his scholarship? But before that old +rooftree was laid low, he wrote beneath it, quite offhand, a little +poem, 'The Night Before Christmas,' that blends with childhood's dreams +anew each Christmas Eve--a few short verses holding more vitality than +all his learning. + +"If my book ever takes body, my friend, it will be under your roof, where +you and yours can vitalize it. This is no fishing for invitations--we +know each other too frankly well for that. What I wish to do is to come +into your neighbourhood next springtime, without encroaching on your +hospitality, and work some hours every day in the library, or that corner +of her charmed attic that Barbara has shared with me. It is bewitching. +Upon my word, I do not wonder that she sees the world rose-colour as she +looks upon it from that window. I, too, had long reveries there, in which +experience and tradition mixed themselves so cleverly that for the time I +could not tell whether it was my father or myself who had sometimes +proudly escorted the lovely Carroll sisters upon their afternoon +promenade down Broadway, from Prince Street to the Bowling Green, each +leading her pet greyhound by a ribbon leash, or which of us it was that, +in seeking to recapture an escaping hound, was upset by it in the mud, to +the audible delight of some rivals in a 'bus and his own discomfiture, +being rendered thereby unseemly for the beauty's further company." + + * * * * * + +"January 20, 19--. + +"Thank you, dear Richard, for your brotherly letter. I make no +protestations, for I know your invitation would not be given if you felt +my presence would in any way be a drawback or impose care on any member +of your household, and the four little hearts that Barbara drew, with her +own, Evan's, and the boys' initials in them, are seals upon the +invitation. + +"Do not deplore, however, the lack of nearness of my haunts in Astor and +Lenox libraries. Times are changed, and the new order condemns me to sit +here if I read, there if I take out pencil and pad to copy--the red tape +distracts me. The old Historical Society alone remains in comfortable +confusion, and that is soon to move upward half a day's walk. + +"But, as it chances, you have collected many of the volumes that are +necessary to me, and I will use them freely, for some day, friend of +mine, my books will be joined to yours, and also feel the touch of little +Richard's and Ian's fingers, and of their sons, also, I hope. + +"I declare, I'm growing childishly expectant and impatient for spring, +like Barbara with her packages of flower seeds. + +"You ask if I ever remember meeting one Lavinia Dorman. I think I used to +see her with a bevy of girls from Miss Black's school, who used sometimes +to attend lectures at the Historical Society rooms, and had an unlimited +appetite for the chocolate and sandwiches that were served below in the +'tombs' afterward, which appetite I may have helped to appease, for you +know father was always a sort of mine host at those functions. + +"The girls must have all been eight or ten years my junior, and you know +how a fellow of twenty-three or four regards giggling schoolgirls--they +seem quite like kittens to him. + +"Stop, was she one of the older girls, the special friend of--Barbara's +mother? If so, I remember her face, though she did not walk in the school +procession with the other 'convicts,' as the boys called them; but I was +never presented. + +"I'm sending a small birthday token to the boys--a little printing-press. +Richard showed no small skill in setting the letters of my rubber stamp. +It is some days late, but that will separate it from the glut of the +Christmas market. Ask Evan to notify me if he and Barbara go to town. + +"Gratefully, + +"M. C." + + + + +IV + +WHEN BARBARA GOES TO TOWN + + +_March_ 4. I like to go to a plain people's play, where the spectators +groan and hiss the villain. It is a wholesome sort of clearing house +where one may be freed from pent-up emotion under cover of other people's +tears and smiles; the smiles triumphing at the end, which always winds up +with a sudden recoil, leaving the nerves in a healthy thrill. I believe +that I can only comprehend the primal emotions and what is called in +intellectual jargon mental dissipation, and the problem play, in its many +phases, appeals to me even less than crude physical dissipation. + +We have seen a drama of the people played quite recently, having been to +New York to spend part of a "midwinter" week's vacation, which father +insisted that Evan should take between two rather complex and +eye-straining pieces of work. Speaking by the almanac, it wasn't +midwinter at all, but pre-spring, which, in spite of lengthening _days_, +is the only uncompromisingly disagreeable season in the country--the time +when measles usually invades the village school, the dogs come slinking +in guiltily to the fire, pasted with frozen mud, the boys have snuffle +colds, in spite of father's precautions, and I grow desperate and flout +the jonquils in my window garden, it seems so very long since summer, and +longer yet to real budding spring. We arrived at home last night in the +wildest snowstorm of the season, and this morning Evan, having smoothed +out his mental wrinkles by means of our mild city diversions, is now +filling his lungs and straightening his shoulders by building a wonderful +snow fort for the boys. Presently I shall go down to help them bombard +him in it, and try to persuade them that it will last longer if they do +not squeeze the snowballs too hard, for Evan has prohibited "baking" +altogether. + +The "baking" of snowballs consists of making up quite a batch at once, +then dipping them in water and leaving them out until they are hard as +rocks, and really wicked missiles. + +The process, unknown in polite circles here, though practised by the +factory town "muskrats," was taught my babies by the Vanderveer boy +during the Christmas holidays, which, being snowy and bright, drew the +colony to the Bluffs for coasting, skating, etc., giving father such a +river of senseless accidents to wade through that he threatens to absent +himself and take refuge with Martin Cortright in his Irving Place den for +holiday week next year. Father has ridden many a night when the roads +would not admit of wheeling, without thought of complaint, to the +charcoal camp to tend a new mother, a baby, or a woodchopper suddenly +stricken with pneumonia, that is so common a disease among men living as +these do on poor food, in tiny close cabins, and continually getting +checks of perspiration in the variable climate. During the holidays he +was called to the Bluffs in the middle of two consecutive nights, first +to the Vanderveers, and requested to "drug" the second assistant butler, +who was wildly drunk, and being a recent acquisition had been brought to +officiate at the house party without due trial, "so that he wouldn't be +used up the next day," and then to the Ponsonby's, where the family had +evidently not yet gone to bed. Here he found that the patient, a visiting +school friend of one of the daughters, from up the state, and evidently +not used to the whirl of the pool, had skated all day, and, kept going by +unaccustomed stimulants, taken half from ignorance, half from bravado, +had danced the evening through at the club house, and then collapsed. Her +hostess, careless through familiarity with it, had given her a dose of +one of the chloral mixtures "to let her have a good night's sleep"; but +instead it had sent her into hysterics, and she was calling wildly for +her mother to come and take her home. Father returned from both visits +fairly white with rage. Not at the unfortunates themselves, be it said, +but at the cool nonchalance of those who summoned him. + +The butler's was a common enough case. That of the young girl moved him +to pity, and then indignation, as he sifted, out the cause of the attack, +in order to treat her intelligently. This questioning Mrs. Ponsonby +resented most emphatically, telling him "to attend to his business and +not treat ladies as if they were criminals." This to a man of father's +professional ability, and one of over sixty years of age in the bargain. + +"Madam," said he, "you _are_ a criminal; for to my thinking all +preventable illness, such as this, is a crime. Leave the room, and when I +have soothed this poor child I will go home; and remember, do not send +for me again; it will be useless." + +Never a word did he say of the matter at home, though I read part in his +face; but the Ponsonby's housekeeper, a countrywoman of Martha Corkle's, +took the news to her, adding "and the missus stepped lively too, she +did; only, law's sakes, by next mornin' she'd forgot all about it, and, +we being short-handed, wanted me to go down with James and get the Doctor +up to spray her throat for a hoarseness, and I remindin' her what he'd +said, she laughed and answered, 'He had a bear's manners,' but to go tell +him she'd pay him city prices, and she bet that would mend him and them!" + +I took good care not to repeat this to father, for he would be wounded. +He is beginning to see that they use him as a sort of ambulance surgeon, +but he does not yet understand the absolute money insolence of these +people to those not of their "set," whom they consider socially or +financially beneath them, and I hope he never may. He is so full of good +will to all men, so pitiful toward weakness and sin, and has kept his +faith in human nature through thirty-five years' practice in a factory +town, hospital wards, charcoal camp, and among the odd characters of the +scattering hillsides, that it would be an undying shame to have it +shattered by the very people that the others regard with hopeless envy. + +Shame on you, Barbara, but you are growing bitter. Yes, I know you do +not yourself mind left-handed snubs and remarks about your being +"comfortably poor," but you won't have that splendid old father of yours +put upon and sneezed at, with cigarette sneezes, too. You should realize +that they don't know any better, also that presently they may become +dreadfully bored after the manner of degenerates and move away from the +Bluffs, and then companionable, commuting, or summer resident people will +have a chance to buy their houses. + +Shrewd Martha Corkle foresaw the probable outcome the day that the +foundation-stone for the first cottage was laid, even before our +prettiest flower-hedged lane was shorn and torn up to make it into a +macadam road, in order to shorten the time, for motor vehicles, between +the Bluffs and the station by possibly three minutes. Not that the people +were obliged to be on time for early trains, for they are mostly the +reapers of other people's sowing; but to men of a certain calibre, born +for activity, the feeling that, simply for the pleasure of it, they can +wait until the very latest moment and still get there, is an amusement +savouring of both chance and power. + +"Yes, Mrs. Evan," said Martha, with as much of a sniff as she felt +compatible with her dignity, "I knows colernies of folks not born to or +loving the soil, but just trying to get something temporary out o' it in +the way o' pleasure, as rabbits, or mayhap bad smelling water for the +rheumatics. (It was the waters Lunnon swells came for down on the old +estate.) To my thinkin' these pleasure colernies is bad things; they +settles as senseless as a swarm of bees, just because their leader's lit +there first; and when they've buzzed themselves out and moved on, like as +not some sillies as has come gapin' too close is bit fatal or poisoned +for life." + +Well-a-day! Evan says that I take things to heart that belong to the head +alone, while father says that, to his mind, feeling is much more of a +need to-day than logic; so what can I do but still stumble along +according to feeling. + +A shout from beneath the window, then a soft snowball on it, the signal +that the fort is finished,--yes, and the old Christmas tree stuck up top +as a standard. Richard has built a queer-looking snow man with red knobs +all over his chest and stomach, while Ian has achieved several most +curious looking things with carrot horns,--whatever are they? Father has +just driven in, and is laughing heartily, and Evan is waving to me. + + * * * * * + +Calm reigns again. The fort has surrendered, the final charge having been +led by Corney Delaney. We've had hot milk all around, father has retired +to the study to decipher a complicated letter from Aunt Lot, Evan has +taken the boys into the den for a drawing lesson, and the mystery of the +snow man is solved. + +We do not intend to have the boys learn any regular lessons before +another fall, but for the last two years I have managed that they +should sit still and be occupied with something every morning, so that +they may learn how to keep quiet without its being a strain,--shelling +peas, cutting papers for jelly pots, stringing popcorn for the hospital +Christmas tree, seeding raisins with a dozen for pay at the end--this +latter is an heroic feat when it is accomplished without drawing the +pay on the instalment plan--and many other little tasks, varied +according to season. + +Ian has a quick eye and comprehension, and he is extremely colour +sensitive, but healthily ignorant of book learning, while Richard, how we +do not know, has learned to read in a fashion of his own, not seeming yet +to separate letters or words, but "swallowing the sense in lumps," as +Martha puts it. + +Yesterday, before our return, the weather being threatening, and the +boys, keyed for mischief, clamouring and uneasy, very much as birds and +animals are before a storm, father invited them to spend the afternoon +with him in the study, and Martha Corkle, who mounts guard during my +brief holidays, saw that their paws were scrubbed, and then relaxed her +vigilance, joining Evan in the sewing room. + +After many three-cornered discussions as to what liberty was to be +allowed the boys in study and den, we decided that when they learned to +respect books in the handling they should be free to browse as they +pleased; the curiosities, rarities, and special professional literature, +being behind glass doors, could easily be protected by lock and key. +Father's theory is that if you want children to love books, no barriers +must be interposed from the beginning, and that being so much with us the +boys will only understand what is suited to their age, and therefore the +harmful will pass them by. I was never shut from the library shelves, or +mysteries made about the plain-spoken literature of other days, in spite +of Aunt Lot's fuming. I did not understand it, so it did not tempt, and +as I look back, I realize that the book of life was spread before me +wisely and gradually, father turning page after page, then passing the +task to Evan, so that I never had a shock or disillusionment. + +I wonder if mother had lived if I should think differently, and be more +apprehensive about the boys, womanwise? I think not; for I am a +sun-loving Pagan all through, really born far back in an overlooked +corner of Eden, and I prefer the forceful father influence that teaches +one _to overcome_ rather than the mother cult which is _to bear_, for so +much is cumbrously borne in self-glorified martyrdom by women of their +own volition. + +I know that I am very primitive in my instincts and emotions; so are the +boys, and that keeps us close, or so close, together. + +Of course illustrated books are now the chief attraction to them in the +library, and yesterday, when father went there with the boys, he supplied +Ian, as usual, with "The Uncivilized Races of Man," which always opens of +itself at the Mumbo Jumbo picture, and as a great treat for Richard, took +down the three quarto volumes of Audubon's "Quadrupeds," and ranged them +on a low stand with a stool in front of it. Then, being tired after a +hard morning's work, he drew his big leather chair near the, fire, put on +an extra log, and proceeded to--meditate. You will doubtless notice +that when father or husband close their eyes, sitting in comfortable +chairs by the fire, they are always meditating, and never sleeping, +little nosey protestations to the contrary. + +Father's meditations must have been long and deep, for when he was +startled from them by the breaking in two of the hickory log, a gory +spectacle met his eyes. + +Richard was sitting on the hearth rug, which he had carefully covered +with newspapers; these, as well as his hands and face, were stained a +deep crimson, while with a stout silver fruit-knife he was hacking pieces +from a great pulpy red mass before him. + +Checking an exclamation of horror father started forward, to meet +Richard's cheerful, frank gaze and the request, as he dug away +persistently, to "Please wait one minute more, dranpa. I've got the heart +all done, that big floppy piece is lungs, an' I've most made the liver. +Not the good kind that goes wif curly bacon, but a nasty one like what we +wear inside." + +Then spying a medical chart with coloured pictures that was propped up +against the wood box, father found the clew, and comprehended that +Richard was giving himself a practical lesson in anatomy by trying to +carve these organs from a huge mangel wurzel beet that he had rolled in +from the root cellar. Did father scold him for mess-making, or laugh at +his attempt that had little shape except in his own baby brain? + +No, neither; he carefully closed the door against Martha's possible +entrance, seriously and respectfully put the precious objects on a plate, +to which he gave a place of honour on the mantel shelf, and after +removing as far as possible all traces of beet from face and hands in his +sacred office lavatory, he took Richard with him into the depths of the +great chair and told the happy child his favourite rigmarole, all about +the "three gentlemen of high degree," who do our housework for us. How +the lungs, who are Siamese twins, called to the heart to pump them up +some blood to air, because they were almost out of work, and how the big +lazy liver lay on one side and groaned because he had drunk too much +coffee for breakfast, and had a headache,--until Richard really felt that +he had achieved something. So the first thing this morning he set about +making a snow man, that he might put the beet vitals in their proper +places, nearly convulsing father by their location. Though, as he told +me, they were accurate, compared to the ideas of many trained nurses with +whom he had come in contact. + +But where was Ian during the beet carving? Father quite forgot him +until, Richard falling asleep in his arms, he arose to tuck him up on +the sofa. A sound of the slow turning of large pages guided him to the +corner by the bay window where some bookcases, standing back to back, +made a sort of alcove. There was Ian, flat upon his stomach, while +before him the "Wandering Jew" legend, with the Doré pictures, lay open +at the final scene--The Last Judgment--where the Jew, his journey over, +looks up at the angels coming to greet him, while little devils pull +vainly at his tattered boots. It was not the Jew or the angels, however, +that held Ian's attention, and whose outlines he was tracing with his +forefinger, but the devils, one big fellow with cows' horns and wings +drooping like those of a moulting crow, and a bevy of imps with young +horns and curly tails who were pulling a half-buried body toward the +fiery pit by its hair. + +Father explained the pictures in brief, and closed the book as quickly as +possible, thinking the boy might be frightened in his dreams by the +demons. But no, Ian was fascinated, not frightened. He would have liked +the pygmies to come and play with him, and he turned to father with a +sigh, saying, "They're bully pullers, dranpop. I guess if they and me +pulled against Corney Delaney we could get him over the line all right," +one of the boys' favourite pastimes being to play tug-of-war with the +goat, the rope being fastened to its horns, but Corney was always +conqueror. + +Neither did Ian forget the imps quickly, as some children do their +impressions, but strove to model them this morning, making round snow +bodies, carrot horns, corncob legs, and funny celery tails; the result +being positively startling and "overmuch like witch brats," as Effie +declared, with bulging eyes. + +They unfortunately did not perish with the fort, for Richard doesn't like +them; but are now huddled in a group under the old Christmas tree, where +Lark is barking at them. + + * * * * * + +I started to record our visit to Lavinia Dorman, but my "human +documents," printed on vellum, came between, and I would not miss a word +they have to say for the "Mechlinia Albertus Magnus," which father says +is the rarest book in the world, though Evan disputes his preference, and +Martin Cortright would doubtless prefer the first edition of Denton's +"New York." + +In past times, when we have visited Miss Lavinia, we have been fairly +meek and decorous guests, following the programme that she planned with +such infinite attention to detail that free will was impossible, and we +often felt like paper dolls. + +We had read her lament on the death of sociability and back yards with +many a smile, and a sigh also, for to one born in the pool, every ripple +that stirs it must be of importance, and it is impossible for outsiders +to urge her to step out of the eddies altogether and begin anew, for New +Yorkitis seems to be not only a rarely curable disease to those who have +it, but an hereditary one as well. + +As usual, Evan came to the rescue, as we sat in the den the night before +our departure. "Let us turn tables on Miss Lavinia this time and take her +to see our New York," he said, "since we are all quite tired of hers. Do +you remember the time when we went to town to buy the trappings for the +boys' first tree and were detained until Christmas morning by the delay +of a cable I had to wait for? After dinner Christmas Eve we coaxed Miss +Lavinia out with us and bought half a bushel of jolly little toys from +street fakirs to take home, and then boarded an elevated train and rode +about the city until after midnight, in and out the downtown streets and +along the outskirts, to see all the poor people's Christmas trees in the +second stories of tenements, cheap flats, and over little shops. How she +enjoyed it, and said that she never dreamed that tenement people could be +so happy; and she finally waxed so enthusiastic that she gave a silver +half dollar each to four little newsboys crouching over the steam on a +grating in Twenty-third Street, and when they cheered her and a policeman +came along, we told the dear old soul that he evidently thought her a +suspicious character, a counterfeiter at the very least. And she always +spoke afterward with bated breath on the dangers of the streets late at +night, and her narrow escape from arrest. We came to New York unsated and +without responsibilities to push us, and looked from the outside in. + +"No, Barbara, you did better than you knew that day six years ago, when +we sat in the Somerset garden, and you persuaded me to become a commuter +and let you plant a garden, promising never to talk about servants, and +you've kept your word. I was dubious then, but now--if you only knew the +tragedies I've seen among men of my means and aims these last few years, +the struggle to be in the swim, or rather the backwater of it. The +disappointment, the debt and despair, the pink teas and blue dinners +given in cramped flats, the good fellows afraid to say no to wives whose +hearts are set on being thought 'in it,' and the wives, haggard and +hollow-eyed because the husbands wish to keep the pace by joining clubs +that are supposedly the hall-marks of the millionnaire. New York is the +best place for doing everything in but three--to be born in, to live in, +and to die in." + +"So you wish us to play bachelor girl and man for a few days, and herd +Miss Lavinia about, which I suppose is the pith of these heroics of +yours," I said, rather astonished, for Evan seldom preaches. "I never +knew that you were such an anti-whirlpooler before, and I've at times +felt selfish about keeping you at the old home, though not since the boys +came, it's so healthy for them, bless them. Now I feel quite relieved," +and I arranged a little crisp curl that will break loose in spite of +persistent wetting, for men always seem to discourage curly hair, father +keeping his shorn like a prize-fighter. This curl softens the rigour of +Evan's horseshoe scowl, and when I fix it gives him a chance to put his +arm around my waist, which is the only satisfactory way of discussing +plans for a pleasure trip. + +We arrived in town duly a little before dinner time. It is one of Evan's +comfortable travelling habits, this always arriving at a new place at the +end of day, so as to get the bearings and be adjusted when we awake next +morning. To arrive in the morning, when paying a visit especially, is +reversing the natural order of things; you are absent-minded until lunch, +sleepy all the afternoon, dyspeptic at dinner, when, like as not, some +one you have wholly forgotten or hoped to is asked to meet you. If the +theatre follows, you recuperate, but if it is cards (of which I must have +a prenatal hatred, it is so intense) with the apology, "I thought you +might be tired and prefer a cosey game of whist to going out," you trump +your partner's tricks, lead the short suits and mix clubs and spades with +equal oblivion, and, finally, going to bed, leave a bad impression behind +that causes your hostess to say, strictly to herself, if she is +charitable, "How Barbara has deteriorated; she used to be a good talker, +but then, poor dear, living in the country is _so_ narrowing." + +Of course if you merely go away to spend the day it is different; you +generally keep on the move and go home to recover from it. And how men +usually hate staying in other people's houses, no matter how wide they +keep their doors open or how hospitably inclined they may be themselves. +They seem to be self-conscious, and are constrained to alter their +ordinary habits, which makes them miserable and feel as if they had given +up their free will and identity. There are only two places that I ever +dream of taking Evan, and Lavinia Dorman's is one of them. + +When we had made ourselves smart for dinner and joined Miss Lavinia by +the fire in her tiny library, we read by her hair that she was evidently +intending to stay at home that evening, for her head has its nodes like +the moon. She has naturally pretty, soft wavy hair, with now and then a +silver streak running through it. I have often seen Lucy when she brushes +it out at night. But because there is a dash of white in the front as if +a powder puff had rested there a moment by accident, it is screwed into a +little knob and covered with skilfully made yet perfectly apparent +frontlets to represent the different styles of hair-dressing affected by +women of abundant locks. + +No. 1, worn at breakfast, is the most reasonable. It is quite plain, +slightly waved, and has a few stray hairs carelessly curved where it +joins the forehead. No. 2 is for rainy weather; the curls are fuzzy and +evidently baked in; it requires a durable veil to keep it in +countenance. Evan calls it the "rasher of bacon front." No. 3 is for +calling and all entertainments where the bonnet stays on; it has a baby +bang edge a trifle curled and a substantial cushion atop to hold the hat +pins; while No. 4, the one she wore on our arrival, is an elaborate +evening toupie with a pompadour rolling over on itself and drooping +slightly over one eye while it melts into a butterfly bow and handful of +puffs on the crown that in turn end in a single curl behind. + +We had a dainty little dinner, grape fruit, clear soup, smelts, wild +duck, salad, fruit, and coffee, and it was daintily served, for Miss +Lavinia always keeps a good cook and remembers our dislike of the various +forms of hash known as entrées. + +The coffee was placed on a low mahogany stand by the library fire, and +Miss Lavinia herself handed Evan a quaint little silver lamp by which to +light his cigar, for she has all the cosmopolitan instincts of a woman +who not only knows the world but had heard her father discuss tobacco, +and really enjoyed the soothing fragrance of a good cigar. + +As soon as we were settled and poor singed Josephus had tiptoed in by +the fire, evidently trying to make up for his shabby coat by the +profundity of his purr, Evan set forth his scheme to our hostess. We +were to lodge and breakfast with her, but after that she was to play our +way, and be at our disposal morning, afternoon, and evening, at +luncheon, dinner, and supper, and the game was to be the old-fashioned +one of "follow the leader!" + +At first Miss Lavinia hesitated regretfully, it seemed so +inhospitable,--she had thought to take us to several parlour concerts. +Mrs. Vanderdonk, she that was a De Leyster, was going to throw open her +picture gallery for charity, which would give us an opportunity to see +her new house. In fact the undertow of the Whirlpool was still pulling at +her ankles, even though she had freed her head, and it seemed impossible +to her that there could be any New York other than the one she knew. + +Finally her almost girlish vitality asserted itself, and bargaining that +we should allow her one evening to have Sylvia Latham to dinner, she +surrendered. + +"Then we will begin at once by going to the theatre," said Evan, jumping +up and looking at the clock, which pointed at a few minutes of eight. + +"Have you tickets? Isn't this a little sudden?" asked Miss Lavinia with a +little gasp, evidently remembering that her hair was arranged for the +house only. + +"No, I have no tickets, but Barbara and I always go in this way, and if +we cannot get in at one place we try another, for usually some good seats +are returned from the outside ticket offices a few minutes before the +play begins. The downtown theatres open the earliest, so we can start +near by and work our way upward, if necessary." + +To my surprise in five minutes Miss Lavinia was ready, and we sallied +forth, Evan sandwiched between us. As the old Dorman house is in the +northeastern corner of what was far away Greenwich Village,--at the +time-the Bouerie was a blooming orchard, and is meshed in by a curious +jumble of thoroughfares, that must have originally either followed the +tracks of wandering cattle or worthy citizens who had lost their +bearings, for Waverley Place comes to an untimely end in West Eleventh +Street, and Fourth Street collides with Horatio and is headed off by +Thirteenth Street before it has a chance even to catch a glimpse of the +river,--a few steps brought us into Fourteenth Street, where naming +gas-jets announced that the play of "Jim Bludso" might be seen. + +"Dear me!" ejaculated Miss Lavinia, "do people still go to this theatre? +The last time I came here it was in the seventies to see Mrs. Rousby as +Rosalind." + +When we took our seats the play, founded, as the bill informed us, +upon one of the Pike County Ballads, had begun, and Miss Lavinia soon +became absorbed. + +It is a great deal to be surrounded by an audience all thoroughly in the +mood to be swayed by the emotion of the piece, plain people, perhaps, but +solidly honest. Directly in front sat a young couple; the girl, in a +fresh white silk waist, wore so fat and new a wedding ring upon her +ungloved hand, which the man held in a tight grip, that I surmised that +this trip into stageland was perhaps their humble wedding journey, from +which they would return to "rooms" made ready by jubilant relatives, eat +a wonderful supper, and begin life. + +The next couple were not so entirely _en rapport_. The girl, who wore +a gorgeous garnet engagement ring, also very new, merely rested her +hand on her lover's coat sleeve where she could see the light play +upon the stones. + +When, after the first act, in answer to hearty rounds of applause, varied +with whistles and shouts from the gallery, the characters stepped +forward, not in the unnatural string usual in more genteel play-houses, +where victor and vanquished join hands and bow, but one by one, each +being greeted by cheers, hisses, or groans, according to the part, and +when the villain appeared I found myself groaning with the rest, and +though Evan laughed, I know he understood. + +After it was over, as we went out into the night, Evan headed toward +Sixth Avenue instead of homeward. + +"May I ask where we are going now?" said Miss Lavinia, meekly. She had +really enjoyed the play, and I know I heard her sniff once or twice at +the proper time, though of course I pretended not to. + +"Going?" echoed Evan. "Only around the corner to get three fries in a +box, with the usual pickle and cracker trimmings, there being no +restaurant close by that you would care for; then we will carry them home +and have a little supper in the pantry, if your Lucy has not locked up +the forks and taken the key to bed. If she has, we can use wooden +toothpicks." + +At first Miss Lavinia seemed to feel guilty at the idea of disturbing +Lucy's immaculate pantry at such an hour; but liberty is highly +infectious. She had spent the evening out without previous intent; the +next step was to feel that her soul was her own on her return. She +unlocked the forks, Evan unpacked the upstairs ice-chest for the dog's +head bass that wise women always have when they expect visiting +Englishmen, even though they are transplanted and acclimated ones, and +she ate the oysters, still steaming from their original package, with +great satisfaction. After we had finished Miss Lavinia bravely declared +her independence of Lucy. The happy don't-care feeling produced by +broiled oysters and bass on a cold night is a perfect revelation to +people used to after-theatre suppers composed of complications, sticky +sweets, and champagne. + +When we had finished I thought for a moment that she showed a desire to +conceal the invasion by washing the dishes, but she put it aside, and we +all went upstairs together. + +A little shopping being in order, Evan took himself off in the morning, +leaving Miss Lavinia and me to prowl, after we had promised to meet him +at a downtown restaurant at one. + +Little boys are delightful things to shop for,--there is no matching this +and that, no getting a yard too much or too little, everything is +substantial and straight away, and all you have to do when the bundles +are sent home by express is to strengthen the sewing on of buttons and +reinforce the seats and knees of everyday pantikins from the inside. + +We strolled about slowly, and at half past one were quite ready to sit +still and not only eat our lunch but watch business mankind eat his. If +any one wishes to feel the clutch and motive power of the Whirlpool let +him go to the Mazarin any time between twelve-thirty and two o'clock. The +streets themselves are surging with men, all hurrying first in one +direction, then another, until it seems as if there either must be a fire +somewhere, or else a riot afoot. The doors of the restaurant open and +shut incessantly, corks pop, knives and forks rattle, everything is being +served from a sandwich and a glass of beer to an elaborate repast with a +wine to every course, while through and above it all the stress of +business is felt. Of course the great financiers usually have luncheon +served in their offices, to save them from the crowd; besides, it might +give common humanity a chance to scrutinize their countenances, and +perchance read what they thought upon some question of moment, for it +sometimes seems as if the eye of the New York journalist has X-ray power. +On the other hand, the humbler grade, with less of either time or money +to spare, go to the "quick lunch" counters and "dime-in-the-slot" +sandwich concerns; yet Evan says that the gathering at the Mazarin is +fairly representative. + +Miss Lavinia was bewildered. Her downtown visits to her broker's office +were always made in a cab, with Lucy to stay in it as a preventative of +the driver's taking a sly glass or a thief snatching her lap-robe--she +never uses public carriage rugs. She clung to the obsolete idea that Wall +Street was no place for women, and saw, as in a dream, the daintily +dressed stenographers, bookkeepers, and confidential clerks mingling with +the trousered ranks in the street, not to mention the damsels in tidy +shirtwaists, with carefully undulated hair and pointed, polished finger +nails, who were lunching at near-by tables, sometimes seemingly with +their employers as well as with other male or female friends. + +"I wonder how much of all this is bad for uptown home life?" Miss Lavinia +queried, gazing around the room; but as she did not address either of us +in particular, we did not answer, as we did not know,--who does? + +A spare half-hour before closing time we gave to the Stock Exchange, and +it was quite enough, for some one was short on something, and pandemonium +reigned. As we stood on the corner of Rector Street and Broadway, +hesitating whether to take surface or elevated cars, faint strains of +organ music from Trinity attracted us. + +"Service or choir practice; let us go in a few moments," said Evan, to +whom the organ is a voice that never fails to draw. We took seats far +back, and lost ourselves among the shadows. A special service was in +progress, the music half Gregorian, and the congregation was too +scattered to mar the feeling that we had slipped suddenly out of the +material world. The shadows of the sparrows outside flitted upward on the +stained glass windows, until it seemed as if the great chords had broken +free and taking form were trying to escape. + +Now and then the door would open softly and unaccustomed figures slip in +and linger in the open space behind the pews. Aliens, newly landed and +wandering about in the vicinity of their water-front lodging-houses, +music and a church appealed to their loneliness. Some stood, heads bowed, +and some knelt in prayer and crossed themselves on leaving; one woman, +lugging a great bundle tied in a blue cloth, a baby on her arm and +another clinging to her skirts, put down her load, bedded the baby upon +it, and began to tell her beads. + +The service ended, and the people scattered, but the organist played on, +and the boy choir regathered, but less formally. + +"What is it?" we asked of the verger, who was preparing to close +the doors. + +"There will be a funeral of one of the oldest members of the +congregation to-morrow, and they are about to go through the music of +the office." + +Suddenly a rich bass voice, strong in conviction, trumpeted forth--"I am +the resurrection and the life!" And only a stone's throw away jingled the +money market of the western world. The temple and the table of the money +changers keep step as of old. Ah, wonderful New York! + + * * * * * + +The afternoon was clear staccato and mild withal, and the sun, almost at +setting, lingered above orange and dim cloud banks at the end of the +vista Broadway made. + +"Are you tired? Can you walk half a dozen blocks?" asked Evan of Miss +Lavinia, as we came out. + +"No, quite the reverse; I think that I am electrified," she +replied briskly. + +"Then we will go to Battery Park," he said, turning south. + +"Battery Park, where all the immigrants and roughs congregate! What an +idea! We shall catch smallpox or have our pockets picked!" + +"Have you ever _been_ there?" persisted Evan. + +"Yes, once, I think, when steamship passengers lathed at the barge +office, and of course I've seen it often in going to Staten Island to +visit Cousin Lucretia." + +Evan's only reply was to keep on walking. We did not cross the "bowling +green," but swung to the right toward Pier I, and took the path between +old Castle Garden and the sea wall at the point where one of the fire +patrol boats was resting, steam up and hose nozzles pointed, lance +couchant wise. + +Ah, what a picture! No wonder Miss Lavinia adjusted her glasses quickly +(she is blindly nearsighted), caught her breath, and clung to Evan's arm +as the fresh sea breeze coming up from the Narrows wheeled her about. +Before us Staten Island divided the water left and right, while between +it and the Long Island shore, just leaving quarantine and dwarfing the +smaller craft, an ocean liner, glistening with ice, was coming on in +majestic haste. All about little tugs puffed and snorted, and freighters +passed crosswise, parting the floating ice and churning it with their +paddles, scarcely disturbing the gulls, that flew so close above the +water that their wings touched, or floated at leisure. + +The sun that had been gilding everything from masthead to floating spar +gathered in its forces, and for one moment seemed to rest upon Liberty's +torch, throwing the statue into clear relief, and then dropped rapidly +behind the river's night-cloud bank, and presently lights began to +glimmer far and near, the night breath rose from the water, and the +wave-cradled gulls slept. + +"Do you like our New York?" asked Evan, turning to go. + +"Don't speak," whispered Miss Lavinia, hanging back. + +But we were no sooner on the elevated train than she found use for her +tongue, for whose feet should I stumble over on entering, quite big feet +too, or rather shoes, for the size of the man, but Martin Cortright's, +and of course he was duly presented to Miss Lavinia. + + + + +V + +FEBRUARY VIOLETS + + +That night Miss Lavinia was forced to ask "for time for 'forty winks'" +before she could even think of dinner, and Evan and I sat them out in the +deep, hospitable chairs by the library fire. We were not tired, simply +held in check; country vitality shut off from certain ways for six months +is not quickly exhausted, but, on the other hand, when it is spent, it +takes several months to recuperate. + +The first night that I leave home for these little excursions I have a +sense of virtue and simmering self-congratulation. I feel that I am doing +a sensible thing in making a break from what the theorists call "the +narrowing evenness of domestic existence." Of course it is a good thing +for me to leave father and the boys, and see and hear something new to +take back report of to them; it is better for them to be taught +appreciation of me by absence; change is beneficial to every one, etc., +etc., and all that jargon. + +The second night I am still true to the theory, but am convinced that to +the highly imaginative, a city day and its doings may appear like the +Biblical idea of eternity--reversed--"a thousand years." The third +night I am painfully sure of this, and if I remain away over a fourth, +which is very rare, I cast the whole theory out to the winds of +scepticism, and am so restless and disagreeable that Evan usually +suggests that I take a morning train home and do not wait for him, which +is exactly the responsibility that I wish him to assume, thus saving me +from absolute surrender. + +We always have a good time on our outings, and yet after each the +pleasure of return grows keener, so that occasionally Evan remonstrates +and says: "Sometimes I cannot understand your attitude; you appear to +enjoy every moment keenly, and yet when you go home you act as if you had +mercifully escaped from a prison that necessitated going through a sort +of thanksgiving ceremony. It seems very irrational." + +But when I ask him if it would be more rational to be sorry to come home, +he does not answer,--at least not in words. + +"Where do we dine to-night?" I asked Evan, as he was giving unmistakable +signs of "meditation," and I heard by the footsteps overhead that Miss +Lavinia was stirring. + +"At the Art and Nature Club. You can dress as much or as little as you +please, and we can get a table in a cosey corner, and afterward sit about +upstairs for an hour, for there will be music to-night. I have asked +Martin Cortright to join us. It has its interesting side, this--a +transplanted Englishman married to a country girl introducing old +bred-in-the-bone New Yorkers to New Manhattan." + +When I go to town my costuming consists merely in change of waists, as +street and public conveyances alike are a perpetual menace to one's best +petticoats, so in a few moments we were on our way uptown. + +We did not tell Miss Lavinia where we were going until we were almost +there, and she was quite upset, as dining at the two or three hotels and +other places affected by the Whirlpoolers implies a careful and special +toilet to run the gantlet of society reporters, for every one is somebody +in one sense, though in another "nobody is really any one." + +She was reassured, however, the moment that she drew her high-backed oak +chair up to the table that Evan had reserved in a little alcove near the +fireplace. Before the oysters arrived, and Martin Cortright appeared to +fill the fourth seat, she had completely relaxed, and was beaming at the +brass jugs and pottery beakers ranged along a shelf above the dark +wainscot, and at the general company, while the warmth from the fire logs +gave her really a very pretty colour, and she began to question Martin as +to who all these people, indicating the rapidly filling-up tables, were. +But Martin gazed serenely about and confessed he did not know. + +The people came singly, or in twos and threes, men and women together or +alone, a fact at which Miss Lavinia greatly marvelled. Greetings were +exchanged, and there was much visiting from table to table, as if the +footing was that of a private house. + +"Nice-looking people," said Miss Lavinia, meditatively scrutinizing the +room through her lorgnette without a trace of snobbery in her voice or +attitude, yet I was aware that she was mentally drawing herself apart. +"Some of them quite unusual, but there is not a face here that I ever saw +in society. Are they members of the Club? Where do they come from? Where +do they live?" + +Evan's lips shut together a moment before he answered, and I saw a +certain steely gleam in his eye that I always regarded as a danger +signal. + +"Perhaps they might ask the same questions about you," he answered; +"though they are not likely to, their world is so much broader. They are +men and women chiefly having an inspiration, an art or craft, or some +vital reason for living besides the mere fact that it has become a habit. +They are none of them rich enough to be disagreeable or feel that they +own the right to trample on their fellows. They all live either in or +near New York, as best suits their means, vocations, and temperaments. +Men and women together, they represent, as well as a gathering can, the +hopeful spirit of our New York of New Manhattan that does not grovel to +mere money power." + +Miss Lavinia seemed a little abashed, but Martin Cortright, who had been +a silent observer until now, said: "It surprises me to see fraternity of +this sort in the midst of so many institutions of specialized +exclusiveness and the decadence of clubs, that used to be veritable +brotherhoods, by unwise expansion. I like the general atmosphere, it +seems cheerful and, if one may blend the terms, conservatively Bohemian." + +"Come upstairs before the music begins, so that we can get comfortably +settled in the background, that I may tell you who some of these +'unknown-to-Whirlpool-society' people are. You may be surprised," said +Evan to Miss Lavinia, who had by this time finished her coffee. + +The rooms were cheerful with artistic simplicity. The piano had been +moved from the lounging room into the picture gallery opposite to where a +fine stained glass window was exhibited, backed by electric lights. + +We stowed ourselves away in a deep seat, shaped something like an +old-fashioned school form, backed and cushioned with leather, to watch +the audience gather. Every phase of dress was present, from the ball gown +to the rainy weather skirt, and enough of each grade to keep one another +in countenance. About half the men wore evening suits, but those who did +not were completely at their ease. + +There was no regular ushering to seats, but every one was placed +easily and naturally. Evan, who had Miss Lavinia in charge, was +alert, and rather, it seemed to me, on the defensive; but though +Martin asked questions, he was comfortably soothing, and seemed to +take in much at a glance. + +That short man with the fine head, white hair and beard, aquiline nose, +and intense eyes is not only a poet, but the first American critic of +pure literature. He lives out of town, but comes to the city daily for a +certain stimulus. The petite woman with the pretty colour who has crossed +the room to speak to him is the best known writer of New England romance. +That shy-looking fellow standing against the curtain at your right, with +the brown mustache and broad forehead, is the New England sculptor whose +forcible creations are known everywhere, yet he is almost shrinkingly +modest, and he never, it seems, even in thought, has broken the +injunction of "Let another praise thee, not thine own lips." + +Half a dozen promising painters are standing in the doorway talking to a +young woman who, beginning with newspaper work, has stepped suddenly into +a niche of fiction. The tall, loose-jointed man at the left of the group, +the editor of a conservative monthly, has for his vis-à-vis the artist +who has had so much to do with the redemption of American architecture +and decoration from the mongrel period of the middle century. Another +night you may not see a single one of these faces, but another set, yet +equally interesting. + +Meanwhile Martin Cortright had discovered a man, a financier and also a +book collector of prominence, who was reputed to have a complete set of +some early records that he had long wished to consult; he had never found +a suitable time for meeting him, as the man, owing to having been +oftentime the prey of both unscrupulous dealers and parasitic friends, +was esteemed difficult. + +Infected by the freedom of his surroundings, Martin plucked up courage +and spoke to him, the result being an interchange of cards, book talk, +and an invitation to visit the library. + +Then the music began, and lasted not above an hour, with breathing and +chatting intervals, followed by claret cup and lemonade. A pleasant +evening's recreation, with no opportunity of accumulating the material +for either mental or physical headache. + +The night air was very soft, but of that delusive quality that in +February portends snow, and not the return of bluebirds, as the +uninitiated might expect. Miss Lavinia was fascinated by the lights and +motion of Herald Square, and at her suggestion, it being but a little +past ten, we strolled homeward down Broadway instead of taking a car. Her +delight at the crowd of promenaders, the picturesque florists' shops, and +the general buzz of night life was almost pathetic. Her after-dark +experience having been to get to and from specified places as quickly as +possible with Lucy for escort, solicitous when in a street car lest they +should pass their destination, and trembling even more when in a cab lest +the driver should have committed the variable and expansive crime of +"taking something." She bought a "ten o'clock edition" of the _Telegram_, +some of "Match Mary's" wares, that perennially middle-aged woman who +haunts the theatre region, and suggested that we have ice-cream soda at a +particularly glittering drug store, but this desire was switched into hot +bouillon by Evan, who retains the Englishman's dislike of chilling his +internals. + +New York is really a fine city by night, that is, in parts at least, and +yet it is very strange how comparatively few of the rank and file of its +inhabitants walk abroad to see the spectacle. + +By lamplight the scars and wounds of subways appear less vivid, and the +perpetual skeleton of the skyscraper merges in its background. The +occasional good bit of architecture steps out boldly from the surrounding +shadows of daylight discouragement. City life does not seem to be such an +exhausting struggle, and even the "misery wagons," as I always call +ambulances to myself, look less dreary with the blinking light fore and +aft, for you cannot go far in New York without feeling the pitying thrill +of their gongs. + +After the brightness of Broadway the side streets seemed cavernous. As we +turned westward and crossed Sixth Avenue a dark figure, outlined full +length against the blazing window of a corner liquor saloon, lined with +mirrors, in some way fixed my attention. It was a woman's figure, slight, +and a little crouching. The hat was gay and set on puffy hair, the jacket +brave with lace, but the skirt was frayed where it lapped the pavement, +and the boot that was pushed from beneath it, as if to steady a swaying +frame, was thin and broken. I do not know why I looked back after I had +passed, but as I did so, I saw the girl, for she was little more, pull a +scrap of chamois from a little bag she carried and quickly rub rouge upon +her hollow cheeks, using the saloon mirror for a toilet glass. But when I +saw the face itself I stopped short, giving Evan's arm such a tug that he +also turned. + +The woman was Jennie, the Oakland baker's only daughter, who had no lack +of country beaus, but was flattered by the attentions of one of the +Jenks-Smith's butlers, whose irreproachable manners of the +count-in-disguise variety made the native youths appear indeed uncouth. +She grew discontented, thought it beneath her social position to help her +mother in the shop, and went to town to work in a store, it was said +until her wedding, which was to be that autumn. Father worried over her +and tried to advise, but to no purpose. This was more than two years ago. +The butler left the Jenks-Smith's, and we heard that he was a married +man, with a family who had come to look him up. + +Jennie's mother said she had a fine place in a store, and showed us, from +time to time, presents the girl had sent her, so thus to find the truth +was a shock indeed. Not but what all women who are grown must bear upon +them the weight of the general knowledge of evil, but it is none the +less awful to come face to face on a street corner with one who was the +pretty village girl, whom you last saw standing behind the neat counter +with a pitcher of honeysuckles at her elbow as she filled a bag with +sugar cookies for your clamouring babies. + + * * * * * + +I suppose that I must have exclaimed aloud, for Jennie started back and +saw us, then dropped her bag and began to grope about for it as if she +was in a dream. + +"Can't we do something?" I whispered to Evan, but he only gravely +shook his head. + +"Give her this for the boys' sake," I begged, fumbling in his change +pocket and finding a bill there. "Tell her it's home money from the +Doctor's daughter--and--to go home--or--buy--a--pair of shoes." + +At first I thought she was not going to take it; but having found her bag +she straightened herself a moment, and without looking at Evan gave me a +glance, half defiant, half beseeching, grasped the money almost fiercely, +and scuttled away in the darkness, and I found that I was crying. But +Evan understood,--he always does,--and I hope that if the boys read this +little book fifteen or twenty years hence, that they will also. + +[Illustration: FEBRUARY VIOLETS.] + +As we reached the door the first snowflakes fell. Poor Jennie! + + * * * * * + +The third day of our stay began in country quiet. In fact we did not wake +up until eight; everything was snowbound, and even the occasional horse +cars that pass the front of the house had ceased their primitive +tinkling. The milkman did not come, neither did the long crispy French +rolls, a New York breakfast institution for which the commuters +confessedly have no substitute, and it was after nine before breakfast +was served. + +Evan, who had disappeared, returned at the right moment with his +newspaper and two bulky tissue paper bundles all powdered with snow, one +of which he gave to Miss Lavinia, the other to me. I knew their contents +the moment I set eyes on them, and yet it was none the less a +heart-warming surprise. + +Down in a near-by market is a little florist's shop, so small that one +might pass twenty times without noticing it; the man, a local authority, +who has kept it for years, makes a specialty of the great long-stemmed +single violets, whose fleeting fragrance no words may express. They call +them Californias now, but they are evidently the opulent kin of those +sturdy, dark-eyed Russian violets of my mother's garden, and as they mean +more than any other flower to me, Evan always brings them to me when I +come to town. This morning he trudged out in the snow, hardly thinking +this man would have any, but by mere chance the grower, suspecting snow, +brought in his crop the night before, and in spite of the storm I had the +first morning breath of these flowers of a day. + +Miss Lavinia sniffed and sighed, and then buried her aristocratic, but +rather chilly, nose in the mass. "I feel like a young girl with her first +bouquet," she said presently. + +"Ah, how good it is to be given something with a meaning. Most people +think that to be able to buy what they wish, within reason, is perfect +happiness, but it isn't. Barbara, you and this man of yours quite +unsettle me and shake my pet theories. You show sides of things in my own +birthplace that I never dreamed of looking up, and you convince me, when +I am on the wane, that married friendship is the only thing worth living +for. It's too bad of you, but fortunately for me the notion passes off +after you have gone away," and Miss Lavinia, after loving her violets a +bit longer, put them in a chubby jug of richly chased old silver. After +breakfast we tried to coax her to bundle up and come with us to +Washington Square to see the crystal trees in all their beauty; but that +was too unorthodox a feat. To plough through snow in rubber boots in the +very heart of the city was entirely too radical a move. She knew people +about the square, and I suppose did not wish to be seen by them, so she +was obliged to content herself with sight of the snow draperies and ice +jewels that decked the trees and shrubs of the doomed back yard. + +Even though the storm called a halt in our plans for Miss Lavinia, +Evan and I had a little errand of our own, our annual pilgrimage to +see the auction room where we first met that February afternoon. The +room is not there now, to be sure, but we go to see it all the same, +and have our little thrill and buy something near the place to take +home to the boys, and we shall continue to come each year unless +public improvement causes the thoroughfare itself to be hung up in the +sky, which is quite possible. + +Then Evan went down town, and I returned to lunch with Miss Lavinia, for, +if possible, we were to call on Sylvia Latham and ask her to dinner on +the morrow, the last day of our stay. Miss Lavinia proposed to invite +Sylvia to spend the night also, that we might become acquainted upon a +basis less formal than a mere dinner. + +Shortly after three o'clock we started in a coupé with two stout horses +driven by a man above suspicion of having "taken anything," at least at +the start. It is a curious fact that eight or ten inches of damp snow +can so nearly paralyze the transportation facilities of a city like New +York, but such is the case. The elevated rails become slippery, the +wheels will not grip, and the entire wheel traffic of the streets +betakes itself to the tracks of the surface lines, where trolley, truck, +and private carriage all move along solemnly in a strange procession, +like a funeral I once saw outside of Paris, where the hearse was +followed by two finely draped carriages, then by the business wagon of +the deceased, filled with employees, the draperies on this arranged so +as not to disturb the sign,--he kept a pâtisserie,--while a donkey cart, +belonging to the market garden that supplied the deceased with +vegetables, brought up the rear. + +In the middle and lower parts of New York the streets and their life +dominate the houses; on the east side of the park the houses dominate the +streets, and the flunkies, whose duty it is either to let you in or +preferably to keep you out of these houses, control the entire +situation. I may in the course of time come to respect or even like some +of these mariners of the Whirlpool, but as a class their servants are +wholly and unendurably objectionable, and the sum of all that is most +aggravating. + +The house faced the park. A carpet was spread down the steps, but we +could not conjecture if it was an ordinary custom in bad weather, or if +some function was afoot. Evidently the latter, as I had barely touched +the bell when the door flew open. Two liveried attendants were within, +one turned the door knob and the other presented his tray for the cards, +while in the distance a third, wearing the dress of a butler or +majordomo, stood by closed portières. + +We had asked for Mrs. and Miss Latham, and evidently the combination +caused confusion. No. 1 remained by the front door, No. 2, after a +moment's hesitation, motioned us to seats near the fireplace in the great +reception hall, a room by itself, wainscoted with carved oak, that also +formed the banisters and the railing of a sort of balcony above, while +the walls were hung with rich-hued tapestries, whose colours were +revealed by quaint shield-shaped electroliers of gilded glass. Man No. 3 +disappeared within the portières bearing our cards. In a moment he +reappeared, drew them apart, and stood aside as his mistress swept out, +the same cold blond woman I had seen in the market, but now most +exquisitely clad in a pale gray gown of crêpe embroidered with silver +fern fronds and held at the neck by a deep collar of splendid pearls, +pearl rings alone upon her hands, in her hair a spray of silver mistletoe +with pearls for berries. She made an exquisite picture as she advanced +swiftly to meet us, a half smile on her lips and one pink-tipped hand +extended. I love to look at beautiful women, yet the sight of her gave me +a sort of Undine shiver. + +"Dear Miss Dorman, so glad to see you, and Mrs. Evan of Oaklands also. I +have seen, but never met you, I believe," she said, giving us her hand in +turn. "I must ask you to the library, (Perkins, Miss Sylvia," she said in +an aside to No. 2, who immediately vanished upstairs,) "and then excuse +myself regretfully, for this is my afternoon for 'bridge,' as Monty Bell +and a friend or two of his are good enough to promise to come and give us +hints. Monty is so useful, you know, and so good-natured. I think you +knew his mother, didn't you, Miss Lavinia? No, Sylvia is not to play; she +is not up enough for 'bridge.' I wish you could persuade her to take +lessons and an interest in the game, for when Lent begins she will be +horribly bored, for there will be a game somewhere every day, and +sometimes two and three, and she will be quite out of it, which is very +ill-advised for a girl in her first winter, and especially when she +starts as late as Sylvia. I'm afraid that I shall have to take her south +to wake her up, and that is not in my schedule this season, I've so much +to oversee at my Oaklands cottage. + +"It is a very cold afternoon for you to have come so far, dear Miss +Lavinia; a cup of tea or something? No? Ah, here comes Sylvia, and I know +you will forgive me for going," and Mrs. Latham glided away with a glance +toward the stairs. She evidently was in a desperate hurry to return to +her guests, and yet she spoke slowly, with that delightful southern +deliberation that suits women with pretty mouths so well, and still as I +felt her eyes upon me I knew that to move her in any way against her own +will would be impossible, and that she could never love anything but +herself, and never would. + +I did not look at Miss Lavinia in the brief moment before Sylvia entered, +for we were both too well bred to criticise a woman in her own house, +even with our eyes, which had they met would have been inevitable. + +At first Sylvia only saw Miss Lavinia, and gathered her into her arms +spontaneously, as if she were the elder, as she was by far the bigger of +the two. Then seeing me, the cards not having been sent up, she +hesitated a moment, colouring shyly, as a girl of sixteen might, and then +straightway greeted me without embarrassment. As we laid aside our wraps +and seated ourselves in a sort of cosey corner nook deep with pillows, +and fur rugs nestling about the feet, I drew my first comfortable breath +since entering, and as Miss Lavinia naturally took the lead in the +conversation, giving her invitation for the next night, I had ample time +to study Sylvia. She was fine looking rather than handsome, a warm +brunette with copper glints threading her brown hair, thick curved +lashes, big brown eyes, a good straight nose, and a decidedly humorous, +but not small mouth, with lips that curled back from even teeth, while +her whole face was punctuated and made winningly feminine by a deep +dimple in the chin and a couple of vagrant ones that played about her +mouth corners when she spoke, as she always did, looking directly at one. + +Her hands were long and well shaped, not small, but competent looking, a +great contrast to her mother's, as well as to Miss Lavinia's, that could +slip easily into a five-and-a-half glove. She wore a graceful afternoon +gown of pale blue with lace butterflies on the blouse and skirt, held in +at waist and neck by enamelled butterfly buckles. She moved gracefully, +and had a strong individuality, a warmth of nature that contrasted +keenly with the statuesque perfection of her mother, and I fell to +wondering what her father was like, and if she resembled him. + +"Not yet, not until late spring," I heard her say in answer to Miss +Lavinia's question as to whether her father had returned from his +Japan tour. + +"He is detained by railway business in San Francisco, and cannot go +farther north to settle it until winter breaks. I've written him to ask +leave to join him and perhaps stop awhile at Los Angeles and go up to see +my brother on his Wyoming ranch in May. I do so hope he will let me. I've +tried to coax mamma to go too, she has had such a wearing life this +winter in trying to make it pleasant for me and introduce me to her +friends. I wish I could tell her exactly how much I should prefer to be +more alone with her. I do not want her to think me ungrateful, but to go +out with her to father and pay dear old Carthy a visit would be simply +splendid." + +Then turning to me she said, I thought with a little quiver in her +voice, "They tell me you live with your father, Mrs. Evan--even though +you are married, and I have not seen mine for more than two years, only +think of it!" + +Whereat my heart went out to her, and I prayed mentally that her father +might have a broad warm shoulder to pillow her head and a ready ear to +hear her confidences, for the perfectly rounded neck and shell ear of +the mother playing cards in the next room would never give harbour or +heed, I knew. + +Sylvia was as pleased as a child at the idea of coming down to spend the +night, stipulating that if it was still cold she should be allowed to +make taffy and put it on the shed to harden, saying, with a pout: "At +school and college there was always somewhere that I could mess with +sticky things and cook, but here it is impossible, though mamma says I +shall have an outdoor tea-room at the Oaklands all to myself, and give +chafing-dish parties, for they are quite the thing. 'The thing' is my +boogy man, I'm afraid. If what you wish to do, no matter how silly, +agrees with it, it's all right, but if it doesn't, all the wisdom of +Solomon won't prevail against those two words." + +Man No. 2 at this juncture came in and presented a florist's box and +envelope in a tray, saying, _sotto voce,_ as he did so, "Shall I hopen it +and arrange them, miss, or will you wear them?" for, as the result of +lavish entertaining and many hothouses as well as friends, flowers +showered upon the Latham house at all hours, and both library and hall +were almost too fragrant. Sylvia glanced at the note, saying, "I will +wear them," to the man, handed the card to Miss Lavinia, her face +flushing with pleasure, while No. 2 extracted a modest bunch of +California violets from the paper, handed them to his young mistress, and +retired with the box on his tray. + +The name on the card was Horace Bradford, the pencilled address +University Club, on the reverse were the words, "May I give myself the +pleasure of calling to-morrow night? These February violets are in +remembrance of a May ducking. Am in town for two days only on college +business." + +"The day that he rowed us on the Avon and reached too far up the bank to +pick you wild violets and the boat shot ahead and he fell into the +water," laughed Miss Lavinia, as pleased as Sylvia at the recollection. + +"But I am going to you to-morrow evening," said Sylvia, ruefully at +thought of missing a friend, but quite heart-free, as Miss Lavinia saw. + +"Let me take the card, and I will ask him to dinner also," said the +dear, comfortable, prim soul, who was still bubbling over with love of +youth, "and Barbara shall ask her adopted uncle Cortright to keep the +number even." + +Time, it seems, had flown rapidly. She had barely slipped the card in +her case when the door opened and No. 3 approached solemnly and +whispered, "Mrs. Latham requests, Miss, as how you will come and pour +tea, likewise bringing the ladies, if _still here_!" How those words +_still here_ smote the silence. + +We immediately huddled on our wraps, anxious to be gone and spare Sylvia +possible embarrassment, in spite of her protestations. As No. 2 led the +way to the door a gentleman crossed the hall from the card-room and +greeted Sylvia with easy familiarity. He was about forty, a rather +colourless blonde, with clean shaven face of the type so commonly seen +now that it might belong equally either to footman or master. His eyes +had a slantwise expression, but his dress was immaculate. + +Strolling carelessly by the girl's side I heard him say, "I came to see +if you needed coaxing; some of the ladies are green over their losses, so +have a care for your eyes." Then he laughed at the wide-eyed look of +wonder she gave him as he begged a violet for his coat. + +But Sylvia drew herself up, full an inch above him, and replied, +decidedly, but with perfect good nature, "No, those violets are a message +from Shakespeare,--one does not give such away." + +"That is Monty Bell," said Miss Lavinia, tragically, as soon as the +door closed. + +"Is there anything the matter with him except that his colouring is like +a summer squash?" I asked. + +"He's been divorced by his wife, and it was her mother that was my +friend, not his, as Mrs. Latham hinted. I know the story; it makes me +shiver to see him near Sylvia." Then Miss Lavinia drew into a shell, in +which she remained until we reached home. + +Meanwhile, as we drove in silence, I remembered that Richard's rubber +boots leaked, and I wondered if Martha Corkle would discover it, or if he +was paddling about getting his feet wet and bringing on a sore throat. +But when I got home Evan said he had sent the boots to the bicycle tire +mender's the morning I came away. It was the third night of my stay, and +he would not have known what to make of it if I had not raised some sort +of a ghost. + + * * * * * + +The sidewalks being clear, we dined at the Laurent, giving Miss Lavinia +a resurrection of French cooking, manners, women, ogling, ventilation, +wine, and music. Then we took her, on the way home, to see some horrible +wax figures, listen to a good Hungarian band, and nearly put her eyes +out with a cinematograph show of the Coronation and Indian Durbar. +Finishing up by brewing French chocolate in the pantry and stirring it +with stick bread, and our guest, in her own house, went to bed fairly +giggling in Gallic gayety, declaring that she felt as if she had spent +the evening on the Paris boulevards, that she liked our New York, and +felt ten years younger. + + + + +VI + +ENTER A MAN + + +If I weather my fourth day in town I am apt to grow a trifle waspish, +even though I may not be goaded to the stinging point. This is especially +the case if, as on this recent visit, I am obliged to do any shopping for +myself. Personally, I prefer the rapid transit shopping of ordering by +mail, it avoids so many complications. Having made up your mind what you +need, or perhaps, to speak more truthfully, what you want, for one can +hardly be quite content with mere necessities until one grows either so +old or shapeless that everything is equally unbecoming, samples are +forthcoming, from which an intelligent selection can be made without the +demoralizing effect of glib salespeople upon one's judgment. + +I know my own shortcomings by heart, and I should never have +deliberately walked into temptation yesterday morning if Lavinia Dorman +had not said that she wished my advice. Last year I went with the +intention of buying substantial blue serge for an outing gown, and was +led astray by some gayly flowered muslins. I have a weakness for gay +colours, especially red. These when made up Evan pronounced "extremely +pretty--in the abstract"--which is his way of saying that a thing is +either unsuitable or very unbecoming. When I went to father, hoping for +consolation, he was even less charitable, remarking that he thought now +long lines were more suitable and graceful for me than bunches and +bowknots. True, the boys admired the most thickly flowered gown +immensely for a few minutes, Richard bringing me a posy to match for my +hair, while Ian walked about me in silence which he broke suddenly with +the trenchant remark--"Barbara, I think your dwess would be prettier if +it was weeded some!" + +All of which is of course perfectly true. I have not been growing +thinner all these six years, but this morning, in stooping over one of +the cold frames to see how the plants within had weathered the storm, it +came quite as a shock to me to feel that, like Martin Cortright, I am +getting stout and in the way of myself when I bend, like an impediment +in a door hinge. + +However, as Miss Lavinia desired guidance in buying some real country +clothes, I felt it my duty to give it. She is already making elaborate +preparations for her visit to me. It seems strange, that simplicity is +apparently one of the most laborious things in the world to those +unaccustomed to it, yet so it is. + +She is about to make her initial venture in shirtwaists, and she +approaches them with as much caution as if she were experimenting with +tights and trunks. The poor little seamstress who is officiating has, to +my certain knowledge, tried one waist on five times, because, as Miss +Lavinia does not "feel it," she thinks it cannot fit properly. + +Never mind, she will get over all that, of course. The plan that she has +formed of spending five or six months in the real country must appear +somewhat in the light of a revolution to her, and the preparation of a +special uniform and munitions for the campaign a necessary precaution. +Her present plan is to come to me for May, then, if the life suits her, +she will either take a small house that one of our farmer neighbours +often rents for the summer months, or else, together with her maid, Lucy, +board at one of the hill farms. + +I have told her plainly (for what is friendship worth if one may not be +frank) that if after trial we agree with each other, I hope she will +stay with us all the season; but as for her maid, I myself will supply +her place, if need be, and Effie do her mending, for I could not have +Lucy come. + +Perhaps it may be very narrow and provincial, but to harbour other +people's servants seems to me like inviting contagion and subjecting +one's kitchen to all the evils of boarding house atmosphere. + +I used to think last summer, when I saw the arrival of various men and +maids belonging to guests of the Bluff Colony, that I should feel much +more at ease in the presence of royalty, and that I could probably +entertain Queen Alexandra at dinner with less shock to her nerves and +traditions than one of these ladies' maids or gentlemen's gentlemen. + +Martha Corkle expresses her opinion freely upon this subject, and I must +confess to being a willing listener, for she does not gossip, she +portrays, and often with a masterly touch. The woes of her countrywoman, +the Ponsonby's housekeeper, often stir her to the quick. The Ponsonby +household is perhaps one of the most "difficult" on the Bluffs, because +its members are of widely divergent ages. The three Ponsonby girls range +from six to twenty-two, with a college freshman son second from the +beginning, while Josephine, sister of the head of the family, though +quite Miss Lavinia's age, is the gayest of the gay, and almost outdoes +her good-naturedly giddy sister-in-law. + +"It's just hawful, Mrs. Evan," Martha said one day, when, judging by the +contents of the station 'bus and baggage wagon, almost the entire +Ponsonby house staff must have left at a swoop; "my eyes fairly bleeds +for poor Mrs. Maggs" (the housekeeper), "that they do. 'Twas bad enough +in the old country, where we knew our places, even though some was +ambitioned to get out of them; but here it's like blind man's buff, and +enough to turn a body giddy. Mrs. Maggs hasn't a sittin' room of her own +where she and the butler and the nurse can have their tea in peace or +entertain guests, but she sets two tables in the servants' hall, and a +pretty time she has of it. + +"The kitchen maid and the laundress's assistant wait on the first table; +but one day when, the maid of one of Miss Ponsonby's friends comin' down +over late, she was served _with_ instead o' _by_ them, she gave Mrs. +Maggs the 'orriblest settin' down, as not knowin' her business in puttin' +a lady's lady with servants' servants, the same which Mrs. Maggs does +know perfectly (accidents bein' unpreventable), bein' child of Lord +Peacock's steward and his head nurse, and swallowin' it all in with her +mother's milk, so to speak, not borrowin' it second hand as some of the +great folks on the Bluffs themselves do from their servants, not feelin' +sure of the kerrect thing, yet desirin' so to do. Mrs. Maggs, poor body, +she has more mess with that servants' hall first table than with all the +big dinners the master gives. + +"'Mrs. Corkle,' says she, bein' used to that name, besides Corkle bein' +kin to her husband, 'what I sets before my own household, as it were, +they leaves or they eats, it's one to me; but company's got to be handled +different, be it upstairs or down, for the name of the 'ouse, but when +Mr. Jollie, the French valet that comes here frequent with the master's +partner, wants dripped coffee and the fat scraped clean from his chop +shank, else the flavour's spoiled for him, and Bruce the mistress' +brother's man wants boiled coffee, and thick fat left on his breakfast +ham, what stands between my poor 'ead and a h'assleyum? that's what I +wants to know. Three cooks I've had this very season, it really bein' the +duty of the first kitchen maid to cook for the servants' hall; but if a +cook is suited to a kitchen maid, as is most important, she'll stand by +her. No, Martha Corkle, wages is 'igh, no doubt,--fortunes to what they +were when we were gells,--but not 'igh for the worry; and bein' in +service ain't what it were.'" + +Then I knew that Martha, even as her bosom heaves over her friend's +grievances, was also sighing with content at thought of Timothy Saunders +and her own lot; and I recalled the Lady of the Bluffs' passing remark, +and felt that I am only beginning to realize the deliciousness of +"comfortable poverty." + + * * * * * + +Miss Lavinia and I spent some time browsing among the shops, finally +bringing up at an old conservative dry goods concern in Broadway, the +most satisfactory place to shop in New York, because there is never a +crowd, and the salesmen, many of them grown gray in the service, take an +Old World interest in their wares and in you. + +While I was trying to convince Miss Lavinia as to the need of the +serviceable, she was equally determined to decoy me toward the frivolous; +and I yielded, I may say fell, to the extent of buying a white crêpey +sort of pattern gown that had an open work white lilac pattern +embroidered on it. It certainly was very lovely, and it is nice to have a +really good gown in reserve, even if a plainer one that will stand +hugging, sticky fingers, and dogs' damp noses is more truly enjoyable. + +N.B.--I must get over apologizing to myself when I buy respectable +clothes. It savours too much of Aunt Lot's old habit of saying, every +time she bought a best gown, and I remonstrated with her for the colour +(it was always black in those days; since she's married the Reverend +Jabez she's taken to greens), "When I consider that a black dress would +be suitable to be buried in, it seems less like a vain luxury." + +We were admiring the dainty muslins, but only in the "abstract," when I +looked up, conscious that some one was coming directly toward us, and saw +Sylvia Latham crossing the shop from the door, her rapid, swinging gait +bringing her to us before short-sighted Miss Lavinia had a chance to +raise her lorgnette. + +Sylvia was genuinely glad to see us, and she expressed it both by look +and speech, without the slightest symptom of gush, yet with the confiding +manner of one who craves companionship. I had, in fact, noticed the same +thing during our call the afternoon before. + +"Well, and what are we buying to-day?" asked Miss Lavinia, clearing her +voice by a little caressing sound halfway between a purr and a cluck, and +patting the hand that lingered affectionately on hers. + +"I really--don't--know," answered Sylvia, smiling at her own hesitation. +"Mamma says that if I do not get my clothes together before people begin +to come back from the South, I shall be nowhere, so she took me with +her to Mme. Couteaux's this morning. Mamma goes there because she says +it saves so much trouble. Madame keeps a list of every article her +customers have, and supplies everything, even down to under linen and +hosiery, so she has made for mamma a plan of exactly what she would need +for next season, and after having received her permission, will at once +begin to carry it out. Of course the clothes will be very beautiful and +harmonious, and mamma has so much on her hands, now that father is +away,--the new cottage at Oaklands is being furnished, and me to +initiate in the way I'm supposed to go,--that it certainly simplifies +matters for her. + +"Me? Ah, I do not like the system at all, or Madame Couteaux either, and +the feeling is mutual, I assure you. Without waiting to be asked, even, +she looked me over from head to foot and said that my lines are very bad, +that I curve in and out at the wrong places, that I must begin at once by +wearing higher heels to throw me forward! + +"At first I was indignant, and then the ludicrous climbed uppermost, and +I laughed, whereat Madame looked positively shocked, and even mamma +seemed aghast and murmured something apologetic about my having been at +boarding-school in the country, and at college, where I had ridden +horseback without proper instruction, which had injured my figure. Only +imagine, Aunt Lavinia, those glorious gallops among the Rockcliffe Hills +hurting one's body in any way! But then, I suppose body and figure are +wholly different things; at any rate, Madame Couteaux gave a shrug, as if +shedding all responsibility for my future from her fat shoulders, and so, +while mamma is there, I am taking a run out in the cold world of raw +material and observing for myself. + +"Of course I shall make mistakes, but I have had everything done for me +to such an extent, during the last four months, that I really must make a +point of picking and choosing for once. I've had a mad desire since the +last storm to stir up the pools in the gutters with my best shoes, as the +happy little children do with their rubber boots. How I shall enjoy it +when we go to Oaklands, and there is really something to _do_ instead of +merely being amused. + +"By the way, Mrs. Evan, won't you and Miss Lavinia join us at luncheon? +We are to have it somewhere downtown, to-day,--the Waldorf, I +believe,--as mamma expects to spend most of the afternoon at the +decorators, to see the designs for the Oaklands hangings and furniture, +and," glancing at the big clock, between the lifts, as Miss Lavinia made +her last purchase, "it's high time for me to go and pick her up." + +Having a feeling that possibly mamma might not be so cordial, in addition +to being due at home for more shirtwaist fittings, Miss Lavinia declined, +and reminding Sylvia that dinner would be at the old-fashioned hour of +half-past six, we drifted out the door together, Sylvia going toward +Fifth Avenue, while we turned the corner and sauntered down Broadway, +pausing at every attractive window. + +Miss Lavinia's short-sightedness caused her to bump into a man, who was +intently gazing, from the height of six feet, at jewelled bugs, displayed +in the window of a dealer in Oriental wares. + +The man, thinking himself to blame, raised his hat in apology, glancing +casually down as he did so, whereupon the hat remained off, and he and +Miss Lavinia grasped hands with sudden enthusiasm, followed by a medley +of questions and answers, so that before she remembered me, and turned to +introduce the stranger, I knew that it was Horace Bradford himself. A +strange, but positive, fact about New York is that one may at one time be +in it but a few hours and run across half the people of one's +acquaintance, gathered from all parts of the country, and at another, +wander about for weeks without seeing a familiar face. + +I liked Bradford from the moment I shook hands with him. There is so much +in the mere touching of hands. His neither crushed as if to compel, nor +flopped equivocally, but said, as it enclosed yours in its bigness, "I am +here, command me." + +Broadway, during shopping hours, is not an ideal place for the +interchange of either ideas, or more, even, than the merest +courtesies; but after thanking Miss Lavinia for the dinner invitation, +to which he had just sent the answer, and inquiring for Sylvia Latham, +as he walked beside us for a block or two, it was very evident that he +had something on his mind that he wished to say, and did not know how +to compass the matter. + +As he talked to Miss Lavinia in jerky monosyllables,--the only speech +that the noise made possible,--I had a chance to look at him. He did not +possess a single feature of classic proportions, and yet he was a +handsome man, owing to the illumination of his face. Brown, introspective +eyes, with a merry way of shutting; heavy, dark hair and brows, and a few +thoughtful lines here and there; mustache pulled down at the corners, as +if by the unconscious weight of a nervously strong hand; and a firm jaw, +but not squared to the point that suggests the dominance of the +physical. He wore a dark gray Inverness coat, evidently one of the fruits +of his English tour, and a well-proportioned soft felt hat, set on +firmly, the crown creased in the precise way necessary to justify the +city use of the article by a man of thirty. He seemed to be in excellent, +almost boyish spirits, and so natural and wholesome withal, that I am +sure I should not feel at all embarrassed at finding myself alone with +him on a desert island. This is one of my pet similes of approval. + +Finally he blurted out: "Miss Lavinia, I do so wish your advice upon a +strictly woman's matter; one, however, that is of great importance to me. +I shall have to take the night express back, and this is the only time I +have left. Would you--could we go in somewhere, do you think, and have +something while I explain?" + +Miss Lavinia looked dubious as to whether his invitation might mean +drinks, man fashion, or luncheon. But as at that moment we reached the +chief New York residence of well-born ice cream soda, for which I always +hanker, in spite of snow and slush, much to Evan's disgust, I relieved +the situation by plunging in, saying that I was even more thirsty in +winter than in summer. Whereat Miss Lavinia shivered, but cheerfully +resigned herself to hot chocolate. "The matter in point is," continued +Bradford, feeling boyishly of one of the blocks of ice that decorated the +counter to find if it was real, and speaking directly to Miss Lavinia, +"I've had a great happiness come into my life this last week; something +that I did not expect to happen for years. My chief has retired, and I +have been promoted. I will not take your time to go selfishly into +details now. I can tell you to-night, if you care to hear. I cannot go +home until the Easter holidays, and so I want to send something to my +mother by way of celebration. Would you select it for me?" and the big +fellow swept the shop with an indefinite sort of gaze, as if buying candy +for the universe would but feebly express his feelings. + +"Certainly I will," replied Miss Lavinia, warming at once;--"but what +kind of something?" + +"I think,"--hesitating a trifle,--"a very good gown, and an ornament of +some kind." + +"Would she not prefer choosing the gown herself? People's tastes differ +so much about clothing," ventured Miss Lavinia, willing, even anxious, to +help the man, yet shrinking from the possibility of feminine criticism. + +"No, I think not; that is, it doesn't work well. Beforetimes I've often +written her to buy some little finery to wear for my sake, but my gift +has generally been turned into flannels for poor children or to restock +the chickenyard of some unfortunate neighbour whose fowls have all died +of gapes. While if I send her the articles themselves, she will prize and +wear them, even if the gown was a horse blanket and the ornament a +Plymouth Rock rooster to wear on her head. You know how mothers are about +buying things for themselves, don't you, Mrs. Evan?" he said, turning to +me, that I need not consider myself excluded from the conversation. + +"I have no mother, but I have two little sons," I answered. + +"Ah, then you will know as soon as they grow old enough to wish to buy +things for you," and somehow the soda water flew up my nose, and I had to +grope for my handkerchief. + +Miss Lavinia evidently did not like to ask Mrs. Bradford's age, so she +evaded it by asking, "Does your mother wear colours or black, Mr. +Bradford?" + +"She has worn black ever since my father died; for the last ten years, in +fact. I wish I could persuade her to adopt something that looks more +cheerful, for she is the very essence of cheerfulness herself. Do you +think this would be a good time to give a sort of hint by choosing a +coloured gown,--a handsome blue silk, for instance?" "I know precisely +how you feel," said Miss Lavinia, laying her hand upon his sleeve +sympathetically, "men never like mourning; but still I advise you not to +try the experiment or force the change. A brocaded black silk gown, with +a pretty lace fichu to soften it about the shoulders, and a simple pin to +hold it together at the neck,--how would that suit you?" As she spoke she +waved her dainty hands about so expressively in a way of her own that I +could seem to see the folds of the material drape themselves. + +"That is it! You have exactly the idea that I could not formulate. How +clever women are!" he exclaimed, and for a minute I really thought he was +going to hug Miss Lavinia. + +"One other favour. Will you buy these things for me? I always feel so out +of place and cowardly in the women's shops where such things are sold. +Will $100 be enough, think you?" he added a trifle anxiously, I thought, +as he drew a small envelope from a compartment of his letter book, where +it had evidently been stowed away for this special purpose. + +"Yes, I can manage nicely with it," replied Miss Lavinia, cheerfully; +"and now you must leave us at once, so that we can do this shopping, and +not be too late for luncheon. Remember, dinner to-night at 6:30." "One +thing more," he said, as we turned to leave, "I shall not now have time +to present my respects to Miss Latham's mother as I intended; do you +think that she will hold me very rude? I remember that Miss Sylvia once +said her mother was very particular in matters of etiquette,--about her +going out unchaperoned and all that,--and should not wish her to feel +slighted." Miss Lavinia assured him very dryly that he need not worry +upon that score, that no notice would be taken of the omission. Not +saying, however, that in all probability he was entirely unconsidered, +ranked as a tutor and little better than a governess by the elder woman, +even if Sylvia had spoken of him as her instructor. + +So, after holding open the heavy doors for us, he strode off down town, +the bright smile still lingering about his eyes, while we retraced our +steps to the shop we had visited early that morning, and then down +again to a jeweller's. The result was a dress pattern of soft black +silk, brocaded with a small leafy design, a graceful lace-edged, muslin +fichu, and an onyx bar pin upon which three butterflies were outlined +by tiny pearls. + +"Isn't he a dear fellow?" asked Miss Lavinia, apparently of a big gray +truck horse that blocked the way as we waited at the last crossing before +reaching home. And I replied, "He certainly is," with rash but +unshakable feminine conviction. + + + + +VII + +SYLVIA LATHAM + + +Sylvia came that afternoon well before dark, a trim footman following +from the brougham with her suitcase and an enormous box of forced early +spring flowers, hyacinths, narcissi, tulips, English primroses, +lilies-of-the-valley, white lilacs, and some yellow wands of Forsythia, +"with Mrs. Latham's compliments to Miss Dorman." + +"What luxury!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia, turning out the flowers upon the +table in the tea room where she kept her window garden, "and how pale and +spindling my poor posies look in comparison. Are these from the Bluffs?" + +"Oh no, from Newport," replied Sylvia. "There is to be no glass at the +Bluffs, only an outdoor garden, mamma says, that will not be too much +trouble to keep up. Mrs. Jenks-Smith was dining at the house last night, +and told me what a lovely garden you have, Mrs. Evan, and I thought +perhaps, if we do not go to California to meet father, but go to Oaklands +early in April, you might be good enough to come up and talk my garden +over with me. The landscape architect has, I believe, made a plan for the +beds and walks about the house, but I am to have an acre or two of +ground on the opposite side of the highway quite to myself. + +"Oh, please don't squeeze those tulips into the tight high vases, Aunt +Lavinia," she said, going behind that lady and giving her a hug with one +arm, while she rescued the tulips with the other hand; for Miss Lavinia, +feeling hurried and embarrassed by the quantity of flowers, was jumbling +them at random into very unsuitable receptacles. + +"May I arrange the dinner table," Sylvia begged, "like a Dutch garden, +with a path all around, beds in the corners, and those dear little silver +jugs and the candlesticks for a bower in the middle? + +"A month ago," she continued, as she surveyed the table at a glance and +began to work with charming enthusiasm, "mamma was giving a very +particular dinner. She had told the gardener to send on all the flowers +that could possibly be cut, so that there were four great hampers full; +but owing to some mistake Darley, the florist, who always comes to +decorate the rooms, did not appear. We telephoned, and the men flew +about, but he could not be found, and mamma was fairly pale with anxiety, +as Mrs. Center, who gives the swell dinner dances, was to dine with her +for the first time, and it was important to make an impression, so that +_I_ might be invited to one or possibly more of these affairs, and so +receive a sort of social hall mark, without which, it seems, no young New +York woman is complete. I didn't know the whole of the reason then, to be +sure, or very possibly I should not have worked so hard. Still, poor +mamma is so in earnest about all these little intricacies, and thinks +them so important to my happiness and fate, or something else she has in +view, that I am trying not to undeceive her until the winter is over." + +Sylvia spoke with careless gayety, which was to my mind somehow belied by +the expression of her eyes. + +"I asked Perkins to get out the Dutch silver, toys and all, that mamma +has been collecting ever since I can remember, and bring down a long +narrow mirror in a plain silver frame that backs my mantel shelf. Then I +begged mother to go for her beauty sleep and let me wrestle with the +flowers, also to be sure to wear her new Van Dyck gown to dinner. + +"This was not according to her plan, but she went perforce. I knew that +she felt extremely dubious, and, trembling at my rashness, I set at work +to make a Dutch flower garden, with the mirror for a canal down the +centre. Perkins and his understudies, Potts and Parker, stood watching me +with grim faces, exchanging glances that seemed to question my sanity +when I told Parker to go out to the corner where I had seen workmen that +afternoon dump a load of little white pebbles, such as are used in +repairing the paving, and bring me in a large basketful. But when the +garden was finished, with the addition of the little Delft windmills I +brought home, and the family of Dutch peasant dolls that we bought at the +Antwerp fair, Perkins was absolutely moved to express his approval." + +"What effect did the garden have upon the dance invitations?" asked Miss +Lavinia, highly amused, and also more eager to hear of the doings of +society than she would care to confess. + +"Excellent! Mrs. Center asked mother who her decorator was, and said she +should certainly employ him; which, it seems, was a compliment so rare +that it was equivalent to the falling of the whole social sky at my feet, +Mr. Bell said, who let the secret out. I was invited to the last two of +the series,--for they come to a conspicuous stop and turn into theatre +parties when Lent begins,--and I really enjoyed myself, the only drawback +being that so few of the really tall and steady men care for dancing. +Most of my partners were very short, and loitered so, that I felt +top-heavy, and it reminded me of play-days, when I used to practise +waltzing with the library fire tongs. I dislike long elaborate +dinners, though mamma delights in them, and says one may observe so much +that is useful, but I do like to dance with a partner who moves, and not +simply progresses in languid ripples, for dancing is one of the few +indoor things that one is allowed to do for oneself. + +"Now, Aunt Lavinia, you see the garden is all growing and blowing, and +there are only enough tulips left for the Rookwood jars in the library," +Sylvia said, stepping back to look at the table, "and a few for us to +wear. Lilies-of-the-valley for you, pink tulips for you, Mrs. Evan,--they +will soon close, and look like pointed rosebuds,--yellow daffies to match +my gown, and you must choose for the two men I do not know. I'll take a +tuft of these primroses for Mr. Bradford, and play they grew wild. We +always joked him about these flowers at college until 'The Primrose' came +to be his nickname among ourselves. Why? + +"One day when he was lecturing to us on Wordsworth, and reading +examples of different styles and metres, he finished a rather +sentimental phrase with + +"'A primrose by a river's brim +A yellow primrose was to him +And it was nothing more.' + +"Suddenly, the disparity between the bigness of the reader and the +slimness of the verse overcame me, and catching his eye, I laughed aloud. +Of course, the entire class followed in a chorus, which he, catching the +point, joined heartily. It sounds silly now, but it seemed very funny at +the time; and it is such little points that make events at school, and +even at college." + +"Mr. Bradford told me some news this morning," said Miss Lavinia, walking +admiringly about the table as she spoke. "He is Professor Bradford, of +the University, not merely the women's college now, or rather will be at +the beginning of the next term." + +"That is pleasant news. I wonder how old Professor Jameson happened to +step out, and why none of the Rockcliffe girls have written me about it." + +"He did not tell me any details; said that they would keep until +to-night. We met him in the street this morning, immediately after we +left you," and Miss Lavinia gave a brief account of our shopping. + +"That sounds quite like him. All his air castles seemed to be built about +his mother and the old farm at Pine Ridge. He has often told me how easy +it would be to get back the house to the colonial style, with wide +fireplaces, that it was originally, and he always had longings to be in a +position to coax his mother to come to Northbridge for the winter, and +keep a little apartment for him. Perhaps he will be able to do both now." + +Sylvia spoke with keen but quite impersonal interest, and looking at her +I began to wonder if here might not, after all, be the comrade type of +woman in whose existence I never before believed,--feminine, +sympathetic, buoyant, yet capable of absolutely rational and unemotional +friendship with a man within ten years of her own age. But after all it +is common enough to find the first half of such a friendship, it is the +unit that is difficult; and I had then had no opportunity of seeing the +two together. + +We went upstairs together, and lingered by the fire in Miss Lavinia's +sitting room before going to make ready for dinner. The thaw of the +morning was again locked by ice, and it was quite a nippy night for the +season. I, revelled mentally in the fact that my dinner waist was crimson +in colour, and abbreviated only in the way of elbow sleeves, and the +pretty low corn-coloured crêpe bodice that I saw Lucy unpacking from +Sylvia's suit case quite made me shiver. + +The only light in Miss Lavinia's den, other than the fire, was a low +lamp, with a soft-hued amber shade, so that the room seemed to draw close +about one like protecting arms, country fashion, instead of seeking to +turn one out, which is the feeling that so many of the stately apartments +in the great city houses give me. + +When I am indoors I want space to move and breathe in, of course, but I +like to feel intrenched; and only when I open the door and step outside, +do I wish to give myself up to space, for Nature is the only one who +really knows how to handle vastness without overdoing it. + +As we sat there in silence I watched the play of firelight on +Sylvia's face, and the same thought seemed to cross it as she closed +her eyes and nestled back in Miss Lavinia's funny little fat sewing +chair, that was like a squab done in upholstery. Then, as the clock +struck six, she started, rubbed her eyes, and crossed the hall to her +room half in a dream. + +"She is as like her Grandmother Latham when I first saw her, as a girl +of twenty-one can be like a woman of fifty," said Miss Lavinia, from the +lounge close at my elbow. "Not in colouring or feature, but in poise +and gesture. The Lathams were of Massachusetts stock, and have, I +imagine, a good deal of the Plymouth Rock mixture in their back-bones. +Her father has the reputation, in fact, of being all rock, if not quite +of the Plymouth variety. Well, I think she will need it, poor child; +that is, if any of the rumours that are beginning to float in the air +settle to the ground." + +"Meaning what?" I asked, half unconsciously, and paying little heed, +for I then realized that the daily letter from father had not arrived; +and Lucy at that moment came in, lit the lamps, and began to rattle +the hair-brushes in Miss Lavinia's bedroom, which I took as a signal +for me to leave. + +The door-bell rang. It was Evan; but before I met him halfway on the +stairs, he called up: "I telephoned home an hour ago, and they are all +well. The storm held over last night there. Father says it was the most +showy snow they have had for years, and he was delayed in getting his +letter to the post." + +"Is that all?" I asked, as I got down far enough to rest my hands on his +shoulders. + +"Yes; the wires buzzed badly and did not encourage gossip. Ah!" (this +with an effort to appear as if it was an afterthought), "I told him I +thought that you would not wait for me tomorrow, but probably go home on +the 9:30. Not that I really committed you to it if you have other plans!" + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright appeared some five minutes before Horace Bradford. As it +chanced, when the latter came in the door Sylvia was on the stairs, so +that her greeting and hearty handshake were given looking down at him, +and she waited in the hall, in a perfectly unembarrassed way, as a matter +of course, while he freed himself from his heavy coat. His glance at the +tall girl, who came down from the darkness above, in her shimmering gown, +with golden daffies in her hair and on her breast, like a beam of +wholesome sunshine, was full of honest, personal admiration. If it had +been otherwise I should have been disappointed in the man's completeness. +Then, looking at them from out of the library shadows, I wondered what he +would have thought if his entry had been at the Latham home instead of at +Miss Lavinia's, how he would have passed the ordeal of Perkins, Potts, +and Parker, and if his spontaneity would have been marred by the +formality. + +Perhaps he would have been oblivious. Some men have the happy gift of +not being annoyed by things that are thorns in the flesh to otherwise +quite independent women. Father, however, is always amused by flunkies, +and treats them as an expected part of the show; even as the jovial +Autocrat did when, at a grand London house, "it took full six men in red +satin knee-breeches" to admit him and his companion. + +Bradford did not wear an evening suit; neither did he deem apology +necessary. If he thought of the matter at all, which I doubt, he +evidently considered that he was among friends, who would make whatever +excuses were necessary from the circumstances of his hurried trip. + +Then we went in to the dining-room, Miss Lavinia leading with Martin +Cortright, as the most recent acquaintance, and therefore formal guest, +the rest of us following in a group. Miss Lavinia, of course, took the +head of the table, Evan opposite, and the two men, Cortright on her right +and Bradford on her left, making Sylvia and me vis-à-vis. + +The men appropriated their buttonhole flowers naturally. Martin smiled at +my choice for him, which was a small, but chubby, red and yellow, +uncompromising Dutch tulip, far too stout to be able to follow its family +habit of night closing, except to contract itself slightly. Evan +caressed his lilies-of-the-valley lightly with his finger-tips as he +fastened them in place, but Bradford broke into a boyish laugh, and then +blushed to the eyes, when he saw the tiny bunch of primroses, saying: +"You have a long memory, Miss Sylvia, yet mine is longer. May I have a +sprig of that, too?" and he reached over a big-boned hand to where the +greenhouse-bred wands of yellow Forsythia were laid in a formal pattern +bordering the paths. "That is the first flower that I remember. A great +bush of it used to grow in a protected spot almost against the kitchen +window at home; and when I see a bit of it in a strange place, for a +minute I collapse into the little chap in outrageous gathered trousers, +who used to reach out the window for the top twigs, that blossomed +earliest, so as to be the first to carry 'yellow bells' to school for a +teacher that I used to think was Venus and Minerva rolled in one. I saw +her in Boston the other day, and the Venus hallucination is shattered, +but the yellow bells look just the same, proving--" + +"That every prospect pleases +And man (or woman) alone is vile," + +interpolated Evan. + +Grape fruit, with a dash of sherry, or the more wholesome sloe-gin, is +Miss Lavinia's compromise with the before-dinner cocktail of society, +that is really very awakening to both brain and digestion; and before the +quaint silver soup tureen had disappeared, even Martin Cortright had not +only come wholly out of his shell, but might have been said to have +fairly perched on top of it, before starting on a reminiscent career with +his hostess, beginning at one of the monthly meetings of the Historical +Society; for though Martin's past belonged more to the "Second Avenue" +faction of the old east side, and Miss Lavinia to the west, among the +environs of what had once been Greenwich and Chelsea villages, they had +trodden the same paths, though not at the same time. While Sylvia and the +"Professor," as she at once began to call him, picked up the web of the +college loom that takes in threads of silk, wool, and cotton, and mixing +or separating them at random, turns out garments of complete fashion and +pattern, or misfits full of false starts or dropped stitches that not +only hamper the wearers, but sometimes their families, for life. All that +Evan and I had to do was to maintain a sympathetic silence, kept by +occasional ejaculations and murmurs from growing so profound as to cause +a draught at our corner of the table. "Yes, we used to go there +regularly," I heard Miss Lavinia say; "when we were girls Eleanor +(Barbara's mother) and I attended the same school--Miss Black's,--Eleanor +being a boarding and I a day pupil and a clergyman's daughter also, +which, in those days, was considered a sort of patent of respectability. +Miss Black used to allow her to spend the shorter holidays with me and go +to those historical lectures as a matter of course. We never publicly +mentioned the fact that Eleanor also liked to come to my house to get +thoroughly warmed and take a bath, as one of Miss Black's principles of +education was that feminine propriety and cold rooms were synonymous, and +the long room with a glass roof, sacred to bathing, was known as the +'refrigerator'; but those atrocities that were committed in the name of +education have fortunately been stopped by education itself. I don't +think that either of us paid much attention to the lectures; the main +thing was to get out and go somewhere; yet I don't think any other later +good times were as breathlessly fascinating. + +"Mother seldom went, the hermetically sealed, air-proof architecture of +the place not agreeing with her; so father, Eleanor, and I used to walk +over, crossing the head of Washington Square, until, as we passed St. +Mark's Church and reached the steps of the building, we often headed a +procession as sedate and serious as if going to Sunday meeting, for there +were fewer places to go in those days. Once within, we usually crept well +up front, for my father was one of the executive committee who sat in the +row of chairs immediately facing the platform, and to be near him added +several inches to my stature and importance, at least in my own +estimation. Then, too, there was always the awesome and fascinating +possibility that one of these honourable personages might fall audibly +asleep, or slip from his chair in a moment of relaxation. Such events had +been known to occur. In fact, my father's habit of settling down until +his neck rested upon the low chair back, made the slipping accident a +perpetual possibility in his case. + +"Then, when the meeting was called to order, and the minutes read with +many h-hems and clearings of the throat, and the various motions put to +vote with the mumbled 'All-in-favour-of-the-motion-will-please-signify- +by-saying-Ay! Contrary-minded-no-the-motion-is-accepted!' that some one +would only say 'No' was our perpetual wish, and we even once meditated +doing it ourselves, but could not decide which should take the risk. + +"Another one of our amusements was to give odd names to the dignitaries +who presided. One with lurching gait, erectile whiskers, and blinking +eyes we called 'The Owl'; while another, a handsome old man of the +'Signer' type, pink-cheeked, deep eyed, with a fine aquiline nose, we +named 'The Eagle.'" + +"Oh, I know whom you mean, exactly!" cried Martin, throwing back his head +and laughing as heartily as Bradford might; "and 'The Owl' was supposed +to have intentions of perpetuating his name by leaving the society money +enough for a new building, but he didn't. But then, he doubtless +inherited his thrift from the worthy ancestors of the ilk of those men +who utilized trousers for a land measure. Do you also remember the +discussions that followed the reading of paper or lecture? Sometimes +quite heated ones too, if the remarks had ventured to even graze the +historical bunions that afflicted the feet of many old families." + +"No, I think we were too anxious to have the meeting declared adjourned +to heed such things. How we stretched ourselves; the physical oppression +that had been settling for an hour or two lifting suddenly as we got on +our feet and felt that we might speak in our natural voices. + +"Then father would say, 'You may go upstairs and examine the curiosities +before joining us in the basement,' and we would go up timidly and +inspect the Egyptian mummy. I wonder how he felt last year when there was +a reception in the hall and a band broke the long stillness with 'The Gay +Tomtit.' Was ever such chocolate or such sandwiches served in equally +sepulchral surroundings as in the long room below stairs. I remember +wondering if the early Christians ever lunched in the catacombs, and how +they felt; and I should not have been surprised if Lazarus himself had +appeared in one of the archways trailing his graveclothes after him, so +strong was the spell of the mummy upon us. + +"It seems really very odd that you were one of those polite young men who +used sometimes to pass the plates of sandwiches to us where we stayed +hidden in a corner so that the parental eye need not see how many we +consumed." + +Thus did Martin Cortright and Miss Lavinia meet on common ground and +drift into easy friendship which it would have taken years of +conventional intercourse to accomplish, while opposite, the talk between +Sylvia and Bradford dwelt upon the new professorship and Sylvia's +roommate of two years, who, instead of being able to remain and finish +the course which was to fit her for gaining nominal independence through +teaching, had been obliged to go home and take charge, owing to her +mother's illness. + +"Yes, Professor Jameson's decision to give all his time to outside +literary work was very sudden," I heard Bradford say. "I thought that it +might happen two or three years hence; but to find myself now not only in +possession of a salary of four thousand dollars a year (hardly a fortune +in New York, I suppose), but also freed this season from being tied at +Northbridge to teach in the summer school, and able to be at home in +peace and quiet and get together my little book of the 'Country of the +English Poets,' seems to me almost unbelievable." + +"I have been wondering how the book was coming on, for you never wrote of +it," answered Sylvia. "I have been trying all winter, without success, to +arrange my photographs in scrap-books with merely names and dates. But +though, as I look back over the four months, everything has been done for +me, even to the buttoning of my gloves, while I've seemingly done nothing +for any one, I've barely had a moment that I could call my own." + +"I do not think that it is strange, after having been away practically +for six years, that family life and your friends should absorb you. +Doubtless you will have time now that Lent has come," said Bradford, +smiling. "Of course we country Congregationalists do not treat the +season as you Anglican Catholics do, and I've often thought it rather a +pity. It must be good to have a stated time and season for stopping and +sitting down to look at oneself. I picked up one of your New York church +papers in the library the other day, and was fairly surprised at the +number of services and the scope of the movement and the work of the +church in general." + +Sylvia looked at him for a moment with an odd expression in her eyes, as +if questioning the sincerity of his remarks, and then answered, I thought +a little sadly: "I'm afraid it is very much like other things we read of +in the papers, half truth, half fiction; the churches and the services +are there, and the good earnest people, too--but as for our stopping! Ah, +Mr. Bradford, I can hardly expect to make you understand how it is, for I +cannot myself. It was all so different before I went to boarding school, +and we lived down in the house in Waverley Place where I was born. The +people of mamma's world do not stop; we simply whirl to a slightly +different tune. It's like waltzing one way around a ballroom until you +are quite dizzy, and then reversing,--there is no sitting down to rest, +that is, unless it is to play cards." + +"Yet whist is a restful game in itself," said Bradford, cheerfully; "an +evening of whist, with even fairly intelligent partners, I've always +found a great smoother-out of nerves and wrinkles." + +"They do not play it that way here," answered Sylvia, laughing, in spite +of herself, at his quiet assumption. "It's 'bridge' for money or +expensive prizes; and compared to the excitement it causes, the +tarantella is a sitting-down dance. I'm too stupid with cards to take the +risk of playing; even mamma does not advise it yet, though she wishes to +have me coached. So I shall have some time to myself after all, for my +defect puts me out of three Lenten card clubs to which mamma belongs, two +of which meet at our house. That leaves only two sewing classes, three +Lenten theatre clubs (one for lunch and matinée and two for dinner and +the evening), and Mr. Bell's cake-walk club, that practises with a +teacher at our house on Monday evenings. The club is to have a +semi-public performance at the Waldorf for charity, in Easter week, and +as the tickets are to be ten dollars each, they expect to make a great +deal of money. So you see there is very little time allowed us to sit +down and look at ourselves." + +"I cannot excuse cake-walking off the stage, among civilized people," +interpolated Miss Lavinia, catching the word but not the connection, and +realizing that, as hostess, she had inconsiderately lost the thread of +the conversation. "It appeals to me as the expression of physical +exuberance of a lower race, and for people of our grade of intelligence +to imitate it is certainly lowering! The more successfully it is carried +out the worse it is!" + +Miss Lavinia spoke so fiercely that everybody laughed but Sylvia, who +coloured painfully, and Horace Bradford deftly changed the subject in the +lull that followed. + + * * * * * + +The men did not care to be left alone with their cigars and coffee, so we +lingered in the dining-room. Suddenly a shrieking whistle sounded in the +street, and the rapid clatter of hoofs made us listen, while Evan rushed +to the door, seizing his hat on the way. + +"Only the fire engines," said Miss Lavinia; "you would soon be used to +them if you lived here; the engine house is almost around the corner." + +"Don't you ever go after them?" I asked, without thinking, because +to Evan and me going to fires is one of the standard attractions of +our New York. + +"Barbara, child, don't be absurd. What should I do traipsing after +an engine?" + +"Yet a good fire is a very exciting spectacle. I once had the habit of +going," said Martin Cortright, emerging from a cloud of cigar smoke. "I +remember when Barnum's Museum was burned my father and I ran to the fire +together and stayed out, practically, all night." + +More whistling and a fresh galloping of hoofs indicated that there was a +second call, and the engines from up town were answering. I began to tap +my feet restlessly, and Miss Lavinia noticed it. + +"Don't hesitate to go if you wish to," she said. At the same moment Evan +dashed back, calling: "It's a fire on the river front, a lumber yard; +plenty of work ahead, with little danger and a wonderful spectacle. Why +can we not all go to see it, for it's only half a dozen blocks away? +Bundle up, though, it's bitterly cold." + +Horace Bradford sprang to his feet and Sylvia was halfway upstairs and +fairly out of her evening gown when Miss Lavinia made up her mind to go +also, Evan's words having the infection of a stampede. + +"Don't forget the apples," I called to Evan as I followed my hostess. + +"The shops and stands are closed, I'm afraid," he called back from the +stoop where he was waiting; "perhaps Miss Lavinia has some in the house." + +"Apples, yes, plenty; but for mercy's sake what for? You surely aren't +thinking of pelting the fire out with them!" she gasped, hurrying +downstairs and struggling to disentangle her eyeglasses from her bonnet +strings; a complication that was always happening at crucial moments, +such as picking out change in an elevated railway station, and thereby +blocking the crowd. + +"No, apples to feed the fire horses; Barbara always does," Evan answered, +dashing down the basement stairs to the kitchen, and returning quickly +with a medley of apples and soup vegetables in a dish-towel bundle, +leaving the solemn cook speechlessly astonished. + +Then we started off, Evan leading the way, and the procession straggling +after in Indian file; for the back streets were not well shovelled, and +to go two abreast meant that one foot of each was on a side hill. Evan +fairly dragged me along. Sylvia and Bradford, being fleet of foot, had no +difficulty in following, but Martin and Miss Lavinia had rather a bumpy +time of it. Still, as pretty much all the uncrippled inhabitants of the +district were going the same way, our flight was not conspicuous. + +It was, as Evan had promised, a glorious fire! Long before we reached +the Hudson the sky rayed and flamed with all the smokeless change of the +Northern Lights. Once there, Evan piloted us through the densely packed +crowd to the side string-piece of a pier, Miss Lavinia giving little +shrieks the while, and begging not to be pushed into the water. + +From this point the great stacks of lumber that made the giant bonfire +could be seen at the two points, from land and water side, where the +fire-boats were shooting streams from their well-aimed nozzles. + +As usual, after running the steam-pumping engines as close as desirable +to the flames, the horses were detached, blanketed, and tied up safe from +harm, and we found a group of three great intelligent iron-gray beauties +close behind us, who accepted the contents of the dish-towel with almost +human appreciation, while a queer, wise, brown dog, an engine mascot, who +was perched on the back of the middle horse, shared the petting with a +politely matter-of-fact air. + +"It is wonderful! I only wish I could see a little better," murmured Miss +Lavinia, who was short, and buried in the crowd. + +"Why not stand on this barrel?" suggested Bradford, holding out his +hand. + +"It's full of garbage and ashes," she objected. + +"Never mind that, they are frozen hard," replied Bradford, poking the +mass practically. + +Three pairs of hands tugged and boosted, and lo! Miss Lavinia was safely +perched; and as there were more barrels Sylvia and I quickly followed +suit, and we soon all became spellbound at the dramatic contrasts, for +every now and again a fresh pile of Georgia pine would be devoured by the +flames, the sudden flare coming like a noiseless explosion, making the +air fragrantly resinous, while at the same time the outer boundaries of +the doomed lumber yard were being draped with a fantastic ice fabric from +the water that froze as it fell. + +As to the firemen! don't talk to me of the bygone bravery of the +crusaders and the lords of feudal times, who spent their lives in the +sport of encamping outside of fortresses, at whose walls they +occasionally butted with rams, lances, and strong language, leaving their +wives and children in badly drained and draughty castles. If any one +wishes to see brave men and true, simply come to a fire with Evan and me +in our New York. + +We might have stood there on our garbage pedestals half the night if +Horace Bradford had not remembered that he must catch the midnight +express, glanced at his watch, found that it was already nearly half-past +ten, and realized that he had left his grip at Miss Lavinia's. +Consequently we dismounted and pushed our way home. + +As we were half groping our way up ill-lighted West Tenth Street Martin +Cortright paused suddenly and, after looking about, remarked: "This is +certainly a most interesting locality. That building opposite, which has +long been a brewery, was once, in part at least, the first city or +State's Prison. How often criminals must have traversed this very route +we are following, on their way to Washington Square to be hanged. For you +know that place, of later years esteemed so select, was once not only the +site of Potter's Field, but of the city gallows as well!" + +No one, however, joined more heartily than he in the merriment that his +inapropos reminiscence caused, and we reached home in a good humour that +effectually kept off the cold. + +"Did you succeed in buying the gown?" Horace Bradford asked Miss Lavinia, +as he stood in the hall making his farewells. + +"Oh, yes, I had almost forgotten. Here is the package only waiting for +your approval to be tied," and she led the way to the library. + +Bradford touched the articles with his big fingers, as lovingly as if he +were smoothing his mother's hair, or her hand. + +"They are exactly right," he said heartily, turning and grasping Miss +Lavinia's hand, as he looked straight into her eyes with an expression of +mingled gratitude and satisfaction. "She will thank you herself, when we +all meet next summer," and with a happy look at Sylvia, who had come to +the library to see the gifts, and was leaning on the table, he grasped +bag and parcel, shook hands all round, and hurried away. + +"What do you think?" I asked Evan, as we closed our bedroom door. + +"Of what?" he answered, with the occasional obtuseness that will overtake +the best of men. + +"Of Sylvia and Bradford, of course. Are they in love, do you think?" + +"I rather think that _he_ is," Evan answered, slowly, as if bringing +his mind from afar, "but that he doesn't know it, and I hope he may +stay in ignorance, for it will do him no good, for I am sure that she +is not, at least with Bradford. She is drifting about in the Whirlpool +now. She has not 'found herself' in any way, as yet. She seems a +charming girl, but I warn you, Barbara, don't think you scent romance, +and try to put a finger in this pie! Your knowledge of complex human +nature isn't nearly as big as your heart, and the Latham set are wholly +beyond your ken and comprehension." Then Evan, declining to argue the +matter, went promptly to sleep. + +Not so Sylvia. When Miss Lavinia went to her room to see if the girl was +comfortable and have a little go-to-bed chat by the fire, she found her +stretched upon the bed; her head hidden between the pillows, in a vain +effort to stifle her passionate sobbing. + +"What is it, my child?" she asked, truly distressed. "Are you tired, or +have you taken cold, or what?" + +"No, nothing like that," she whispered, keeping her face hidden and +jerking out disjointed sentences, "but I can't do anything for anybody. +No one really depends on me for anything. Helen Baker must leave college, +because they need her _at home_,--just think, _need her_! Isn't that +happiness? And Mr. Bradford is so joyful over his new salary, thinks it +is a fortune, and with being able to buy those things for his +mother,--father has sent me more money during the four months I've been +back, so I may feel independent, he says, than the Professor will earn in +a year. Independent? deserted is a better word! I hardly know my own +parents, I find, and they expect nothing from me, even my companionship. + +"Before I went away to school, if mamma was ill, I used to carry up her +breakfast, and brush her hair; now she treats me almost like a +stranger,--dislikes my going to her room at odd times. I hardly ever see +her, she is always so busy, and if I beg to be with her, as I did once, +she says I do not understand her duty to society. + +"People should not have children and then send them away to school until +they feel like strangers, and their homes drift so far away that they do +not know them when they come back,--and there's poor Carthy out west all +alone, after the plans we made to be together. It is all so different +from what I expected. Why does not father come home, or mother seem to +mind that he stays away? What is the matter, Aunt Lavinia? Is mamma +hiding something, or is the fault all mine?" + +Miss Lavinia closed the door, and soothed the excited girl, talking to +her for an hour, and in fact slept on the lounge, and did not return to +her own room until morning. She was surprised at the storm in a clear +sky, but not at the cause. Miss Lavinia was keenly observant, and from +two years' daily intercourse, she knew Sylvia's nature thoroughly. For +some reasons, she wished with all her heart that Sylvia was in love with +Horace Bradford, and at the same time feared for it; but before the poor +girl fell asleep, she was convinced that such was not the case, and that +the trouble that was already rising well up from her horizon was +something far more complicated. + + + + +VIII + +THE SWEATING OF THE CORN + + +_April_ 14. Every one who has led, even in a partial degree, the life +outdoors, must recognize his kinship with the soil. It was the first +recorded fact of race history embodied in the Old Testament allegory of +the creation, and it would seem from the beginning that nations have been +strong or weak, as they acknowledged or sought to suppress it. + +I read a deeper meaning in my garden book as the boys' human calendar +runs parallel with it, and I can see month by month and day by day that +it is truly the touch of Nature that makes kindred of us all--the throb +of the human heart and not the touch of learning or the arts. + +Everything grows restless as spring comes on--animate, and what is called +inanimate, nature. March is the trying month of indecision, the +tug-of-war between winter and spring, pulling us first one way and then +the other, the victory often being, until the final moment, on the side +of winter. Then comes a languid period of inaction, and a swift recovery. +When the world finally throws off frost bondage, sun and the earth call, +while humanity, indoors and out, in city tenement as well as in +farmhouse, hears the voice, even though its words are meaningless, and +grows restless. + +Lavinia Dorman writes that she is feeling tired and low-spirited, the +doctor has advised a tonic, and she misses the change of planting her +back-yard garden. Down in the streets the tenement children are swarming +in the sunny spots, and dancing to the hand-organs. I saw them early last +week when I was in town for a few hours. + +In one of the downtown parks the youngsters were fairly rolling in the +dirt, and rubbing their cheeks on the scanty grass as they furtively +scooped up handfuls of cement-like soil to make mud pies, in spite of the +big policeman, who, I like to think, was sympathetically blind. + +The same impulse stirs my boys, even though they have all outdoors around +them. They have suddenly left their house toys and outdoor games alike to +fairly burrow in the soil. The heap of beach sand and pebbles that was +carted from the shore and left under an old shed for their amusement, has +lost its charm. They go across the road and claw the fresh earth from an +exposed bank, using fingers instead of their little rakes and spades, +and decorate the moist brown "pies" they make with dandelion ornaments. + +A few days ago the Vanderveer boy came down to play with them, +accompanied by an English head nurse of tyrannical mien, and an +assortment of coats and wraps. The poor little chap had been ailing half +the winter, it seems, with indigestion and various aches, until the +doctor told his mother that she must take him to the country and try a +change, as he feared the trouble was chronic appendicitis; so the entire +establishment has arrived to stay until the Newport season, and the boy's +every movement is watched, weighed, and discussed. + +The nurse, having tucked him up in a big chair in the sun on the porch, +with the boys for company, and in charge of father, who was looking at +him with a pitying and critical medical eye, said she would leave him for +half an hour while she went up the lane to see Martha Corkle. A few +moments after, as I glanced across the road, I saw my boys burrowing away +at their dirt bank, and their guest with them. I flew downstairs to call +him in, fearing for the consequences, but father, who was watching the +proceedings from the porch, laid a detaining hand upon me, saying: "His +mother has consulted me about the child, and really sent him down here +that I may look him over, and I am doing it, in my own fashion. I've no +idea the trouble is appendicitis, though it might be driven that way. I +read it as a plain case of suppressed boyhood. + +"He doesn't know how to play, or run naturally without falling; he's +afraid to sit down in the dirt--no wonder with those starched linen +clothes; and he keeps looking about for the nurse, first over one +shoulder and then over the other, like a hunted thing. Evidently they +have weighed his food, measured his exercise, and bought his amusements; +his only free will and vent is to get in a temper. They give him no +chance to sweat off his irritation, only to fume; while that shaking, +snorting teakettle of an automobile they bowl him about in, puts the +final touch to his nervousness." + +Then I sat down by father and watched the three boys together, while +Richard was preventing his guest from pounding a toad with a stone +because it preferred to hop away instead of being made into a dirt pie, +and I saw the truth of what he said. The seven-year-old child who went to +riding school, dancing school, and a military drill, did not know how to +express his emotions in play, and frozen snowballs and other cruelty was +his distorted idea of amusement. Poor rich boy, sad little only son, he +was not allowed the freedom to respond to the voice of nature even as the +tenement children that dance in the streets to the hand-organs or stir +the mud in the gutter with their bare toes. It is not the tenement +children of New York who are to be pitied; it is those that are being +fitted to keep the places, in the unstable and frail crafts of the +Whirlpool, that their parents are either striving to seize or struggling +to reserve for them. + +At the end of half an hour the boys came back to the porch, all three +delightfully and completely dirty, and clamouring that they were hungry. +The English tyrant not appearing, I took them into the house and, after a +washing of hands and faces, gave the boys the usual eleven o'clock lunch +of milk and simple cookies to take out in the sun to eat. As they were +thus engaged the tyrant appeared on the horizon, horror written in every +feature, and a volley of correction evidently taking shape on her lips, +while an ugly look of cowed defiance spread itself over the child's face +as he caught sight of her. + +There was no scene, however. Father said in the most offhand way, as if +being obeyed was a matter of course, "Go back and tell your mistress that +I am carrying out her request, and that after luncheon I will send the +boy safely home, with a written message." + +"But his medicines, his hour's rest alone in the dark, his special +food,--the medical man in New York said--" protested the woman, +completely taken aback. + +"You heard my message?" said father, cheerfully, and that was all. + +"What are you going to advise?" I asked, as in the middle of the +afternoon father came from his office, where he had given the lad a +thorough inspection. + +"Simply to turn him loose in light woollen clothes, give him companions +of his age, and let him alone." + +"Can't you word it differently?" I asked. + +"Why, is not that fairly direct?" he replied, looking surprised; "and +surely the direct method is almost always the best." + +"I think this is the one case where it is not, dear old Daddy. In fact, +if you are destined, as I see that you are, to pick up and tie the +threads of ravelled health in the Bluff Colony, you will have to become +more complicated, at least in speech, accustomed as they are to a series +of specialists, and having importance attached to the very key in which a +sneeze is pitched. + +"Those few words would savour to the Whirlpoolers of lack of proper +respect and consideration. You must give a name to both ailment and cure +if you expect to be obeyed. Call the case a 'serious one of physical +suppression,' and the remedy the 'fresh earth cure,' to be taken only in +light woollen clothes, tell them to report progress to you every other +day, and you gain the boy his liberty." + +Father laughed heartily, and his nose twitched in a curious way it has +when he is secretly amused and convinced against his will; but I think he +took my advice, at least in part, for the next morning Papa Vanderveer +drove down in the brake, announcing in a shout that "De Peyster slept all +night without waking up and crying, for the first time in months," +adding, "And, Dr. Russell, if you've got anything further in this liberty +line to suggest, even to getting rid of the Duchess, now's your time. +'The Duchess?' Ah, she is that confounded head nurse woman that Maria +will keep so that things may be done properly, until the poor kid's +nearly been done for, I say. The Ponsonbys are crazy to get the woman to +break in their youngest girl and keep her down and from growing up until +they marry the others off; so Maria could part with her in the light of a +favour to them, don't you see, without spilling blood. Peysey'll have to +have some sort of a chaser, though, or Maria'll not hear of it." + +Mr. Vanderveer glowed all over with delight when father condemned the +automobile as a nerve racker, and suggested that a young man of the +companionable tutor order, who could either play games, fish, and drive +with the boy and his chums, or at times leave him wholly alone, according +to need, would be a good substitute for a woman who viewed life as a +school of don'ts, and had either wholly outlived her youth, or else had +most unpleasant recollections of it. + +"I've got my innings at last," he said. "You're the first doctor I've had +who hasn't sided with Maria and shut me out until pay day." + +"I wonder why spring is such a restless season," I said half to myself +and half to father, as I sat on the porch half an hour later, trying to +focus my mind on writing to Lavinia Dorman, while father, lounging on the +steps opposite, was busy reading his mail. + +"One would think we might be content merely to throw off winter and look +and enjoy, but no, every one is restless,--birds, fourfoots, and humans. +Lavinia Dorman writes that Sylvia Latham has just started for California +to see her brother, and she expects to bring her father back with her. +The boys disappeared mysteriously in the direction of Martha Corkle's +immediately after breakfast, Evan went reluctantly to the train, +declaring that it seemed impossible to sit still long enough to reach the +city, you are twisting about and shuffling your feet, looking far oftener +at the river woods than at your letters, and as for myself, it seems as +if I must go over yonder and seize Bertel's spade and show him how to dig +those seed beds more rapidly, so that I can begin to plant and kneel down +and get close to the ground. Yesterday when the boys came in with very +earthy faces, and I questioned them, I found that they had stuck their +precious noses in their mud pies, essaying to play mole and burrow +literally." + +"It is the same mystery as the sweating of the corn," replied father, +gathering his letters in a heap and tossing them into a chair with a +gesture of impatience; "none of us may escape, even though we do not +understand it. + +"It was years ago that I first heard the legend from an old farmer of the +corn belt, who, longing for a sight of salt water, had drifted eastward +into one of the little hill farms beyond the charcoal camp. He had been +bedridden nearly all winter, but uncomplainingly, his wife and +daughter-in-law caring for him, and it was not until the early part of +May, when all the world was growing green, that he began to mend and at +the same time groan at his confinement. + +"I tried to cheer him up, telling him that the worst was over, and that +he soon would be about again, and he replied: ''Tain't me that's doin' of +it, Doctor, hit's the sweatin' of the corn. You know everywhere in May +folks be plantin' corn, the time bein' the sign that frost is over and +done with.' I nodded assent, and he continued: 'Now naterally there's +lots of corn in ear and shelled and ground to meal that isn't planted, +and along as when the kernels in the ground begins to swell and sprout, +this other corn knows it and begins to heave and sweat, and if it isn't +handled careful-like, and taken in the air and cooled, it'll take on all +sorts of moulds and musts, and like as not turn useless. I holds it's +just the same with folks,--when springtime comes they fetch up restless +and need the air and turning out to sweeten in the sun until they settle +down again, else their naturs turn sour, pisen'us, and unwholesome, +breedin' worms like sweated corn!' + +"Since then I've heard it here and there in other words, but always the +same motive, the old miller holding it all fact and no legend at all, +saying that if he can keep his surplus corn from sweating and well aired +through May and June, he never fears for it in the damper, more potent +August heat. One thing is certain, that in my practice in countryside, +village, and town, if strange doings break out and restless +discontentment arises, it is never in winter, when I should expect +partial torpidity to breed unrest, but in the pushing season of renewal, +and, as the old man terms it, 'corn sweating.'" + + * * * * * + +A little later I was going toward the garden when father called after me +to say that he was soon starting for a long trip, quite up to Pine Ridge, +and that if I cared to go, taking a lunch for both, it might give me a +chance to "turn and sweeten" in the sun and cure my restlessness with +natural motion. + +Go? Of course my heart leaped at the very thought, because, in spite of +the boys, those long drives with father have grown more precious as they +grow more rare. But where were the twins? They had disappeared under my +very eyes; of a surety they must be at Martha's, but my conscience smote +me when, on glancing at the clock, I saw that it was two hours since they +left the breakfast table in their brand-new sailor suits, with the +intention of showing them to her. + +No, they were not at Martha's, and she came hurrying back with me, a very +clucking hen of alarm. Timothy Saunders, who had by that time brought +round the horses in the stanhope, ventured the opinion that they might be +below, paddling in the duck pond, as all the village children gathered +there at the first warm weather, "jest fer all the world like gnats the +sun's drawd oot." + +They were not there! Father had disappeared to make some preparations +for the drive, and so I asked Timothy to drive with me along the +highway toward the village. I did not feel exactly worried, but then +one never knows. + +We had gone half a mile perhaps, vainly questioning every one, when I +spied two small figures coming across a field from the east, where the +ground fell lower and lower for a mile or so until it reached salt water. + +"There be the lads!" shouted Timothy Saunders, as if I had been a +hundred yards away, and deaf at that; but the noise meant joy, so it was +welcome. "My, but they're fagged and tattered well to boot!" And so they +were; but they struggled along, hand in hand, waving cheerfully when +they caught sight of me, and finally crept through the pasture bars by +which I was waiting, and enveloped me with faint, weary hugs. Then I +noticed that they wore no hats, their fresh suits were grimy with a gray +dust like cement, the knees of their stockings and underwear were worn +completely through to red, scratched skin, and the tips entirely scraped +from their shoes. + +I gathered them into the gig, and sought the explanation as we drove +homeward, Timothy hurried by the vision of tearful Martha, whom he had +seen with the tail of his eye dodge into the kitchen, her apron over her +head, as he turned out the gate. + +"We've been playing we was moles," said Ian, in answer to the first +question as to where they had been. "Yesterday we tried to do it wif +our own noses, but we couldn't, 'cause it hurt, and we wanted to go +ever so far." + +"So we went down to where those big round stone pipes are in the long +hole," said Richard, picking up the story as Ian paused. (Workmen had +been laying large cement sewer pipes from the foot of the Bluffs, a third +of a mile toward the marshes, but were not working that day, owing to +lack of material.) "They made nice mole holes, so I crawled right in, and +for a little it was bully fun." + +"Oh Richard, Richard, what made you?" I cried, holding him so tight that +he squirmed away. "Suppose the other end had been closed, and you had +smothered in there, and mother had never found you?" for the ghastly +possibility made my knees quake. + +"Oh no, mother," he pleaded, taking my face between his grimy hands and +looking straight in my eyes, "it wasn't a dark hole. I could see it light +out 'way at the other end, and it didn't look so vely far as it was to +crawl it. And after a little I'd have liked to back out, only--only, +well, you see, I couldn't." + +"Why not?" I asked, and, as he did not answer, I again saw a vision of +two little forms wedged in the pipes. + +"That _why_ was 'cause _I_ was in behind, and I _wouldn't_ back, and so +Dick couldn't," said Ian. "You see, Barbara, I really, truly had to be a +mole and get very far away, not to stay, only just for fun, you know," he +added, as he saw signs of tears in his brother's eyes, and began to feel +the smarting in his own bruised knees. + +One blessed thing about Ian, even though he is sometimes passionate and +stubborn, and will probably have lots of trouble with himself by and by, +there isn't a drop of sneaky cur blood in him, which is the only trait +that need make a mother tremble. + +What should I do, punish, or act as I longed to, coddle the boys and +comfort the poor knees? True, I had not forbidden them to crawl through +the sewer pipes, because the idea of their doing it had never occurred to +me, so they could not be said to have exactly disobeyed; but, on the +other hand, there was an unwritten law that they must not go off the +place without my permission, and the torn stockings furnished a hint. + +"Mother is going away for all day with grandfather," I said slowly, as I +examined their knees. "Even though I never told you not to do it, if you +had stopped to think, you would have known it was wrong to crawl through +the pipes." + +"But, Barbara," argued Ian, as we reached the porch, "it wasn't us that +crawled, it was moles, and they just digs right ahead and turns up the +ground and flowers and everything, and never thinks things, do they, +grandpop?" + +"Martha will take you in," I said, steadying my voice with difficulty, +"and bathe your knees and let you rest a while before she dresses you +again. Martha, please put away those stockings for me to mend when I +return; I cannot ask Effie to darn such holes for two little moles; she +is only engaged to sew for boys." + +"But, mother, you don't like to sew stockings; it makes you tight in your +chest. I heard you tell father so," objected Richard, while Ian's face +quivered and reddened, and he pounded his fists together, saying to +himself, "Barbara shall _not_ sit in the house and mend moles' +stockings. I won't let her," showing that they were both touched in a +tender spot. + +Father only laughed when they went in, and said: "I'm glad you didn't do +anything more than that to the little chaps, daughter; it's only a bit of +boy life and impulse working in them, after all; their natural way of +cooling the 'sweating of the corn.'" Then we drove away through the lanes +draped with birch tassels and willow wands, while bloodroot and +marshmarigold kept pace in the runnels, and I heard the twitter of the +first barn-swallow of the year. + +As we drove along we talked or were silent without apology and according +to mood; and as father outlined his route to me, I resolved that I would +call upon Horace Bradford's mother, for our way lay in that direction. + +Many things filled father's mind aside from the beauty of the perfect +April day, that held even the proper suggestion of hidden showers behind +the curtain of hazy sunshine. The sweating of the human corn that came +under father's eye was not always to be cured by air and sun, or rather, +those who turned uneasily would not accept the cure. + +The germ of unrest is busy in the village this spring. Not that it is +wholly new, for unrest is wherever people congregate. But this year the +key is altered somewhat. The sight of careless ease, life without +labour, and a constant change of pleasures, that obtain in the Bluff +Colony, is working harm. True, the people can always read of this life in +book and paper, but to come in direct contact is another thing. Father +said the other day that he wished that conservative country places that +had lived respected and respectable lives for years could have the power +to socially quarantine all newcomers before they were allowed to purchase +land and set a pace that lured the young cityward at any cost. I, too, +realize that the striving in certain quarters is no longer for home and +love and happy times, but for something new, even if it is merely for the +sake of change, and that this infection of social unrest is quickly +spreading downward from the Bluffs, touching the surface of our little +community, if not yet troubling its depths. + +The leading merchant's daughter, Cora Blackburn, fresh from a college +course that was a strain upon the family means, finds that she has built +a wall four years wide between herself and her family; henceforth life +here is a vacuum,--she is misunderstood, and is advertising for an +opportunity to go to New York and the independence of a dreary back third +or fourth story hall bedroom. But, as she said the other day, putting on +what Evan calls her "capability-for-better-things" air, "One's scope is +so limited here, and one never can tell whom one may meet in New York," +which is, of course, perfectly true. + +It was only last night that father returned from the hospital, distressed +and perplexed, and called me into the office. A young woman of +twenty-two, that I know very well, of a plain middle-class family over in +town, had, it seems, sent her name for admission to the training-school +for nurses. Father, in his friendly way, stopped at the house on his way +home to talk with her about the matter, and found from a little sister, +who was washing dishes, that the mother of the family was ill and being +cared for by a neighbour. Presently, down tripped the candidate for +nursing, well dressed, well shod, and with pink, polished finger nails. + +Father, wondering why she did not care for her mother, asked his usual +questions: "What leads you to wish to take up nursing? Are you interested +in medicine, and fond of caring for the sick? For you should be, to enter +such an exacting life." She seemed to misunderstand him altogether and +take his inquiry for prying. She coloured, bit her lip, then lost her +head and blurted out: "Interested in the sick! Of course not. Who could +be, for they are always so aggravating. I don't mean to stay so very long +at it, but it's a good chance to go into some swell family, and maybe +marry and get into society." + +[Illustration: His Mother] + +Poor father was fairly in a rage at the girl's idea of what he deems a +sacred calling, and it was not until Richard had kissed him from the end +of his nose up over his short thick gray hair, and down again to the +tickle place in his neck, that he calmed down. Unless my instinct fails +me, he will have his social experience considerably widened during the +coming season, even if his trustful nature is not strengthened. + +Father had made three calls, and we had eaten our luncheon by the +wayside, unhooking the horses, and baiting them by a low bridge rail that +sloped into the bushes, where they could eat and drink at leisure, before +we reached Pine Ridge. Once there, he dropped me at the Bradford farm, +while he drove westward, along the Ridge, to a consultation with the +local doctor over a complicated broken leg that would not knit. + +As I closed the neat white picket gate behind me, and walked slowly +toward the porch, a blaze of yellow on the south side of the red brick +house drew my attention. It was the Forsythia, the great bush of "yellow +bells," of which Horace Bradford had spoken as blooming in advance of any +in the neighbourhood, and for a moment I felt as if I were walking into +the pages of a story-book. + +I wielded the heavy brass knocker on the half-door, with diamond-paned +glass top, and paused to look off to where the flower and fruit garden +sloped south and west. Presently, as no one answered the knock, I peered +through the glass, into an open square, that was evidently both hall and +sitting room. In one corner was a chimney place, in which a log burned +lazily, opposite a broad, low window, its shelves filled with flower +pots, near which, in a harp-backed chair, an old lady sat sewing. She +wore a simple black gown, with a small shawl thrown across her shoulders, +and her hair, clear steel colour and white, was held in a loose knot by +an old-fashioned shell comb. In spite of the droop and lines of age (for +Horace Bradford's mother must have been quite seventy), the nose had a +fine, strong Roman curve, and the brow a thoughtful width. + +What was she thinking of as she sat there alone, this bright April +afternoon, shaping a garment, with a smile hovering about her lips? Her +son's promotion and bright prospects, perhaps. + +I looked across at the old mahogany chest of drawers behind her, to see +if I could recognize any of the framed photographs that stood there. +One, evidently copied from a daguerrotype, was of a curly-haired girl, +about fourteen, probably the daughter who died years ago, and another, +close at her elbow, was of a lanky boy of eight or ten, wearing a broad +straw hat, and grasping a fishing pole, probably Horace, as a child, but +there was nowhere to be seen the photograph of him in cap, gown, and hood +that stood on Miss Lavinia's chimney shelf. + +Then as Mrs. Bradford folded her hands over her work, and gazed through +the plants and window, at some far-away thought, I felt like a detective, +spying upon her, and hastily knocked again. + +This time she heard at once, and coming quickly to the door, admitted +me, with a cordial smile and a hearty grasp of the hand that reminded +me of her son, and was totally unlike the clammy and noncommittal touch +of so many of the country folk, bred evidently of their general habit +of caution. + +"You are Mrs. Evan, the Doctor's daughter. I know your father well, +though I have never met you face to face since you were a little girl." + +Then the conversation drifted easily along to Miss Lavinia, and my +meeting with Horace, his professorship, the prospect of his being at home +all summer, and to the different changes in the community, especially +that wrought by the colony at the Bluffs, which were really the halfway +mark between Oaklands and Pine Ridge. + +Mrs. Bradford saw the purely commercial and cheerful side of the matter; +as yet, few of the new places were well equipped with gardens,--it had +opened a good market for the farmers on the Ridge, and they were no +longer obliged to take their eggs, fruit, poultry, and butter into town. + +In spite of a certain reticence, she was eager to know the names of all +the newcomers; but when I mentioned Mrs. Latham, saying that she was the +mother of Sylvia, one of her son's pupils, and described the beauty of +their place, I thought that she gave a little start, and that I heard her +speak the initials S. L. under her breath; but when I looked up, I could +detect nothing but a slight quiver of the eyelids. + +Then we went out into the garden, arm in arm, for Mrs. Bradford's footing +seemed insecure upon the cobbled walk, and she turned to me at once as +naturally as if I were a neighbour's daughter. Together we grew +enthusiastic over the tufts of white violets, early hyacinths, and +narcissi, or equally so over the mere buds of things. For it is the +rotary promise that is the inspiration of a garden; it is this that +lures us on from year to year, and softens the sharp punctuation of +birthdays. + +Was there anything in her garden that I had not? She would be so pleased +to exchange plants with me, and had I any of the new cactus Dahlias, and +so on, until we reached the walk's end, and turned about under a veteran +cherry tree that showered us with its almond-scented petals. + +Then Mrs. Bradford relaxed completely, and pulling down a branch, buried +her face in the blossoms, drawing long breaths. + +"I've kept away from the garden all day," she said, "because I had some +sewing to finish, so those unfortunate Hornblower children might begin +the spring term at school to-morrow; and when I once smell the cherry +flowers, my very bones ache to be out doors, and I'm not good for a thing +but to potter about the garden from now on, until the strawberries show +red, and everything settles down for summer. It's always been the same, +since I was a little girl, and used to watch the cherry blooms up through +the top sash of the schoolhouse windows, when they had screened the lower +part to keep us from idling, and it's lasted all through my married life. +The Squire and I always went on a May picnic by ourselves, until the +year he died, though the neighbours all reckoned us feeble-minded." + +The "Sweating of the Corn," I almost said aloud. + +"I've reasoned with myself every spring all through the between years, +until now I've made up my mind it's something that's meant to be, and I'm +going to give in to it. Sit down here under the trees, my dear, and +Esther Nichols will bring us some tea and fresh cider cake. Yes, I see +that you look surprised to have afternoon tea offered on Pine Ridge, but +I got the habit from the English grandmother that reared me, and I've +always counted it a better hospitality than the customary home-made +cordials and syrups that, between ourselves, make one stomach-sick. Yes, +there comes Esther now; she always knows my wants. She and her husband +are distant cousins of the Bradfords, and my helpers indoors and out, for +I am too old to manage farm hands, especially now that they are mostly +Slavs, and it makes Horace feel happier to have kinsfolk here than if I +trusted to transient service." + +So we sipped the well-made breakfast tea beneath the cherry blossoms as I +told her about my boys and Miss Lavinia's expected visit. When father +called for me I left reluctantly, feeling as if nobody need be without a +family, when one becomes necessary, for in addition to an aunt in Lavinia +Dorman I had found a sort of spirit grandmother there in the remote and +peaceful highlands,--a woman at once simple and restful, yet withal +having no narrowness or crudity to cramp or jar. + +It was nearly five o'clock when we turned into the highway west of the +Bluffs. We had gone but a few rods when a great clanking of chains and +jar of wheels sounded behind. As I stretched out to see what was coming, +a horn sounded merrily. + +"A coaching party," said father. "I will turn out of the road, for there +is a treacherous pitch on the other side, and for me to let them topple +into the ditch might be profitable, but hardly professional." + +We had barely turned into low bushes when the stage came alongside. The +horses dropped back to a walk, as they passed, for it was a decided up +grade for thirty yards, so that we had a good chance to view both +equipage and occupants. To my surprise I saw that the coach was the +Jenks-Smith's. I did not know they had returned from the trip abroad +where they had been making their annual visit to repair the finances of +their son-in-law. + +Monty Bell was driving, with Mrs. Jenks-Smith at his side. The robust +Lady of the Bluffs, evidently having some difficulty in keeping her +balance, was clutching the side bar desperately. She was dressed in +bright-figured hues from top to toe, her filmy hat had lurched over one +eye, and all together she looked like a Chinese lantern, or a balloon +inflated for its rise but entangled in its moorings. + +Jenks-Smith sat behind, with Mrs. Latham and a very pretty young girl as +seatmates, while behind them came a giggling bevy of young people and the +grooms,--Sylvia being of course absent. + +Mrs. Latham was clad in pale violet embroidered with iris in deeper +tones, her wide hat was irreproachably poised, her veil draped +gracefully, her white parasol, also embroidered with iris, held at as +becoming an angle, and her corsage violets as fresh as if she was but +starting out, while in fact the party must have driven up from New York +since morning. + +They did not even glance at the gray horses which had been drawn aside to +give them right of way, much less acknowledge the courtesy, but clanked +by in a cloud of misty April dust. + +"What a contrast between his mother and hers," I said unconsciously, +half aloud. + +"Which? Whose? I did not quite catch the connection of that remark," +said father, turning toward me with his quizzical expression, for a +standing joke of both father and Evan was to thus trip me up when I +uttered fragmentary sentences, as was frequently the case, taking it for +granted, they said, that they either dreamed the connection or could +read my thoughts. + +"I meant what a great contrast there is between Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. +Latham," I explained, at once realizing that there was really no sense in +the comparison outside of my own irrepressibly romantic imagination, even +before father said:-- + +"And why, pray, should they not be different? Under the circumstances +it would be very strange if they were not. And where does the _his_ and +_her_ come in? Barbara, child, I think you are 'dreaming pussy +willows,' as you used to say you did in springtime, when you were a +very little girl." + + * * * * * + +The boys were having their supper in the hall when I arrived home, for, +warm as the days are, it grows cool toward night until we are past +middle May. + +The scraped knees were still knobby with bandages, but the lads were in +good spirits, and seemed to have some secret with Martha that involved a +deal of whispering and some chuckling. After the traces of bread and +butter were all wiped away, they came hobbling up (for the poor knees +were sadly stiff and lame), and wedged themselves, one on each side of +me, in the window seat of the den, where I was watching for the smoke of +Evan's train, my signal for going down the road. Ah, how I always miss +the sight of the curling smoke and the little confidential walk in the +dark winter days! + +There was some mystery afoot, I could see, for Martha hovered about the +fireplace, asking if a few sticks wouldn't temper the night air, to which +I readily assented, yet still she did not go, and the boys kept the hands +close against their blouse fronts. + +Suddenly Ian threw his arms about my neck and bent my head close to his, +saying, in his abrupt voice of command, "Barbara must not stay indoors +tomorrow and be sad and mend the moles' stockings." + +"Yes, Barbara must," I answered firmly, feeling, yet much dreading, the +necessity of the coming collision. + +"No, she can't," said Ian, trying to look stern, but breaking into little +twinkling smiles at the mouth corners. "She can't, because the moles' +stockings haven't any more got holes!" and he pulled something from his +blouse and spread it in my lap, Richard doing likewise. + +There were two stockings mended, fearfully and wonderfully, to be sure, +and quite unwearable, but still legally mended. + +"I don't understand," I said, while the boys, seeing my puzzled +expression, clapped their hands and hopped painfully about as well as +they were able. + +Then Martha Corkle emerged from the background and explained: "The boys +they felt most terrible in their minds, Mrs. Evan, soon after you'd went +(their sore knees, I think, also keepin' them in sight of their doings), +and they begged me, Mrs. Evan, wouldn't I mend the stockings, which I +would most cheerfully, only takin' the same as not to be your idea, mum. +So I says, says I, somebody havin' to be punished, your ma's goin' to do +it to take the punishment herself, that is, in lest you do it your own +selves instead. So, says I, I'll mend one stocking of each if you do the +other, Mrs. Evan, and no disrespect intended. + +"I borried Effie's embroidery rings and set the two holes for them and +run them in one way, leavin' them the fillin' to do, which they have, +sittin' the whole afternoon at it most perseverin'." + +"Richard did his one stitch, but I did mine four stitch; it ate up the +hole quicker, and it's more different," quoth Ian, waving his stocking, +into the knee of which he had managed to introduce a sort of +kindergarten weaving pattern. + +"But mine looks more like Martha's, doesn't it, mother?" pleaded patient +Richard, who, though the threads were drawn and gathered, had kept to the +regular one up and one down throughout. + +Then the signal of the smoke arose against the opal of the twilight sky, +and we went out hand in hand, all three happy, to meet our breadwinner. + +Late that night, when all the household slept, I added a little package +to my treasures in the attic desk,--two long stockings with queer darned +knees,--and upon the paper band that bound them is written a date and +"The Sweating of the Corn." + + + + +IX + +A WAYSIDE COMEDY + + +_May 5th_. Madame Etiquette has entered this peaceful village. Not, +however, as the court lady of the old French regime, but travelling in +the wake of the Whirlpoolers under dubious aliases, being sometimes +called Good Form and at other The Correct Thing. At present she is having +a hand-to-hand encounter with New England Prejudice, a once stalwart old +lady of firm will, but now considerably weakened by age and the incessant +arguing of her great-grandchildren. + +The result of the conflict is quite uncertain, for actually even the +Sunday question hangs in the balance; while the spectacle is most amusing +to the outsider and embarrassing to the referees. + +Father, seeing through medical eyes, regards the matter merely in the +light of a mild epidemic. Evan is rather sarcastic; he much preferred +garden quiet and smoking his evening pipe to the tune of soothing +conversation concerning the rural days' doings, to the reflex anxiety of +settling social problems. In these, lo and behold, I find myself +unwillingly involved, for one New England habit has not been +abandoned--that of consulting the wife of minister and doctor, even if +holes are afterward picked in the result, and in this case a daughter +stands in the wife's place. + +The beginning was two years back, when the Bluff colony began to be an, +object of speculation, followed in turn by censure, envy, and finally +aspiration that has developed this spring into an outbreak of emulation. + +Ever since I can remember, social life has moved along quite smoothly +hereabout, the doings being regulated by the age and purses of the +participants. The householders who went to the city for a few winter +months were a little more precise in their entertaining than the born and +bred country folk. As they commonly dined at night, they asked people to +dinner rather than to supper, which is the country meal of state. But +lawn parties, picnics, and clambakes at the shore were pretty much on the +same scale, those who could afford it having music and employing a +caterer, while those who could not made no secret of the cause, and felt +neither jealous nor humiliated. A wagon load of neighbourly young people +might go on a day's excursion uncriticised, without thought of dragging a +mother or aunt in their wake as chaperon. In fact, though no one is more +particular than father in matters of real propriety, I cannot remember +being formally chaperoned in my life or of suffering a shadow of +annoyance for the lack. + +Weddings were always home affairs among the strictly country folk, by +common consent and custom, no matter to what denomination the people +belonged. Those with contracted houses went quietly to parsonage or +rectory with a few near friends; others were married at the bride's home, +the ceremony followed by more or less merrymaking. A church wedding was +regarded as so great a strain upon the families that the young people had +no right to ask it, even if they so desired. + +That has passed, at least for the time being, and all eyes are fixed upon +the movements of the Bluff people, and many feet are stumbling along in +their supposed footsteps. It would be really funny if it were not half +pitiful. The dear simple folk are so terribly in earnest that they do not +see that they are losing their own individuality and gaining nothing to +replace it. + +The Whirlpoolers, though only here for the between seasons, are +constantly entertaining among themselves, and hardly a day passes but a +coaching party drives up from town with week-end golfers for whom a dance +is given, or stops _en route_ to the Berkshires or some farther point. A +few outsiders are sometimes asked to the more general of these +festivities, friends of city friends who have places hereabout, the +clergy and their wives, and, alas, the Doctor's daughter; but +society-colonies do not intend associating with the-natives except purely +for their own convenience, and when they do, pay no heed to the code they +enforce among themselves. + +It is not harsh judgment in me, I feel sure, when I say that Evan would +not be asked so often to the Bluffs to dinner if he were not a well-known +landscape architect whose advice has a commercial value. They always +manage to obtain enough of it in the guise of after-dinner conversation +and the discussion of garden plans to make him more than earn his fare. +For the Whirlpoolers are very thrifty, the richer the more so, especially +those of Dutch trading blood, and they are not above stopping father on +the road, engaging in easy converse, praising the boys, and then asking +his opinion about a supposititious case, rather than send for him in the +regular way and pay his modest fee. + +In fact, Mrs. Ponsonby asked me to a luncheon last autumn, and it +quickly transpired afterward, that she had an open trap for sale suitable +for one horse; she knew that Evan was looking for such a vehicle for me, +and suggested that I might like this one. + +A bulky and curious correspondence grew up around the transaction, and +the letters are now lying in my desk marked "Mrs. Ponsonby, and the road +cart." Finally I took the vehicle out on a trial trip. I noticed that it +had a peculiar gait, and stopping at the blacksmith's, called him to +examine the running gear. He gave one look and burst into a guffaw: "Land +alive, Mrs. Evan, that's Missis Ponsonby's cart, that stood so long in +the city stable, with the wheels on, that they're off the circle and no +good. I told her she'd have to get new ones; but her coachman allowed +she'd sell it to some Jay. You ain't bought it, hev yer?" + +Good-natured Mrs. Jenks-Smith, the pioneer of the Bluffs, was the +first one to throw open her grounds, when completed, for an afternoon +and evening reception, with all the accompaniments of music, electric +lit fountains, and unlimited refreshments. Everybody went, and +satisfaction reigned for the time; but when another season it was +found that she had no intention of returning calls, great +disappointment was felt. Others in turn exhibited their grounds for +the benefit of the different churches, while the Ponsonbys gave a lawn +party for the orphan asylum, and considering that they had done their +duty, straightway forgot the village. + +The village did not forget; it had observed and has begun to put in +practice. The first symptom was noticed by Evan. Last summer several +family horses of respectable mien and Roman noses appeared with their +tails banged. Not docked, mind you, but squared-off as closely as might +be without resorting to cruelty; while their venerable heads, +accustomed to turn freely and look their drivers in the face +reproachfully if kept standing too long, were held in place by overdraw +checks. At the same time the driver's seat in the buggy or runabout was +raised from beneath so as to tilt the occupant forward into an almost +standing posture. This worked well enough in an open wagon, but in a +buggy the view was apt to be cut off by the hood, if the driving lady +(it was always a woman) was tall. + +The second sign was when Mrs. Barton--a widow of some sixty odd years, +with some pretensions to breeding, but who had been virtually driven from +several villages where she had located since her widowhood, owing to +inaccuracy of speech, beside which the words of the Village Liar and the +Emporium were quite harmless--contracted inflammatory rheumatism by +chaperoning her daughters' shore party and first wetting her lower half +in clamming and then the upper _via_ a thunder shower. The five "Barton +girls" range from twenty-five to forty, and are so mentally and +physically unattractive and maladroit that it would be impossible to +regard them as in any danger if they went unattended to the uttermost +parts of the earth. On this particular occasion the party consisted of +two dozen people, ranging from twenty to fifty, which it would seem +afforded ample protection. + +To be chaperoned was the swell thing, however, and chaperoned the "Barton +girls" would be. + +"I cannot compete with multi-millionnaires," said Mrs. Barton, lowering +her voice, when father, on being called in, asked if she had not been +rather rash at her age to go wading in cold water for clams; "but as a +woman of the world I must do all that I can to follow the customs of good +society, and give my daughters protection from even a breath that might +affect their reputations." + +The drawling tone was such a good imitation of Mrs. Ponsonby's that +father could barely control his laughter, especially as she continued: "I +also feel that I owe it to the neighbourhood to do all in my power to +put a stop to buggy riding, the vulgar recreation of the unmarried. Of +course all cannot afford suitable traps and grooms to attend them, but +good form should be maintained at all hazards, and mothers should not +begrudge taking trouble." + +Father said that the vision of shy young folks driving miserably along +the country lanes on Sunday afternoons in the family carryall, with mamma +seated in the middle of the back seat, rose so ludicrously before him +that he was obliged to beat a retreat, promising to send a special remedy +for the rheumatism by Timothy Saunders. + +All winter I have noticed that great local interest has been taken in the +fashion journals that treat of house decoration and etiquette, and on one +occasion, when making a call at one of our most comfortable farms, I +found the worthy Deacon's wife poring over an ornamental volume, entitled +"Hints to those about to enter Society." + +After she had welcomed me and asked me to "lay off" my things, she +hesitated a moment, and then, opening the book where her fat finger was +keeping the place, she laid it on my lap, saying in a whisper: "Would you +tell me if that is true, Mrs. Evan? Lurella says you hobnob some with the +Bluff folks, and I wanted to make sure before we break it to pa." + +The sentence to which she pointed read, "No gentleman will ever come +to the table without a collar, or be seen on porch or street in his +shirt sleeves." Here, indeed, was a difficulty and a difference. How +should I explain? + +I compromised feebly and advised her not to worry the Deacon about what +the Bluff people did or the book said, for it need not apply to the Cross +Roads farmers. + +"I'm reel glad you don't hold it necessary fer pa," she said with a sigh +of relief; "he'd take it so hard, eatin' gettin' him all het up anyhow. +Now between ourselves, Mrs. Evan, don't you think writ out manners is +terrible confusin' and contradictin'? I wouldn't hev Lurella hear me say +so, she's so set on keepin' up with things, but she's over to town this +afternoon. + +"I've been readin' for myself some, and observin' too. The Bluff folks +that plays grass hockey, all over what was Bijah Woods's farm, men and +girls both, has their sleeves pushed up as if they were going at a day's +wash, and their collars open and hanging to the hind button, which to my +mind looks shiftlesser than doin' without. I do hear also that those same +girls when they git in to dinner takes off their waists altogether and +sets down to eat all stripped off to a scrap of an underbody. That's +true, for pa saw it when he was takin' cream over to Ponsonby's; the +windows was open on the piazza, and he couldn't refrain from peekin', +though I hope you'll not repeat. Of course they may feel dreadful sweaty +after chasin' round in the sun all day, though I wouldn't hold such +sudden coolin' wholesome; but why if women so doin' should they insist on +men folks wearin' collars, say I?" + +I told the dear soul that I had never quite been able to understand the +_reason why_ of many of these things, and that my ways were also quite +different from those of the Bluff people; for though father and Evan had +been brought up to wear collars, I had never yet stripped to my underbody +at dinner time. + +Thus emboldened, she beckoned me mysteriously toward the best parlour, +saying as she went, "Lurella seen the picture of a Turkey room in the +pattern book, and as she's goin' to have a social this spring, she's +fixed a corner of it into our north room." + +When the light was let in I beheld a "cosey corner" composed of a very +hard divan covered with a broché shawl, and piled high with pillows of +various hues, while a bamboo fishing-pole fastened crosswise between the +top of the window frames held a sort of beaded string drapery that hung +to the floor in front, and was gathered to the ceiling, in the corner, +with a red rosette. On close examination I found, to my surprise, that +the trailers were made of strings of "Job's Tears," the seed of a sort of +ornamental maize, the thought of the labour that the thing had involved +fairly making my eyes ache. + +"That is a very pretty shawl," I remarked, as no other truthful word of +commendation seemed possible. + +"Yes, it is handsome, and I miss it dreadful. You see, it belonged to +pa's mother, and I calkerlated to wear it a lifetime for winter best, but +the fashion papers do say shawls are out of it, and this is the only use +for them, which Lurella holds. I can't ever take the same comfert in a +bindin' sack, noway; and pa, he's that riled about the shawl bein' used +to set on, I daren't leave the door open. Says the whole thing's a 'poke +hole,' and the curt'in recollects him of 'strings of spinnin' +caterpillars,' and 'no beau that's worth his shoes won't ever get caught +in no such trap,' which is most tryin' to Lurella, so I hev to act +pleased, and smooth things over best I can." + +Well-a-day, it is always easier to answer the riddles that puzzle others, +rather than those that confront ourselves. + +Fully a year ago Mrs. Jenks-Smith gave me a well-meaning hint that it is +not "good form" for me to allow father or Evan to smoke while we drive +or walk in public together. The very next night we three happened to be +dining, why I don't know, at the most socially advanced house on the +Bluffs. When the moment came for the midway pause in the rotation of +foods, that we might tamp down and make secure what we had already eaten +by the aid of Roman punch, the gentlemen very nearly discounted the +effort, as far as I was concerned at least, by smoking cigarettes, +leaning easily back in their chairs, and with no more than a vague "by +your leave," to the ladies. What was more, there was a peculiarly +sickening sweet odour to the smoke that father afterward told me was +because the tobacco was tinctured with opium. Yet it is "bad form" for +Evan and father to smoke in my society, out in the road or street under +the big generous roof of the sky. Dear little boys, I wonder what the +custom will be when you are grown, and read your mother's social +experience book? + + * * * * * + +The present crisis to be faced is in the form of a wedding,--an +apple-blossom wedding, to take place in St. Peter's Church. I have +been made a confident in the matter from the very beginning of the +wayside comedy which led to it; but I wish it understood that I am +not responsible for the list of invited guests, or the details of +the ceremony, which have been laboriously compiled from many +sources, any more than I shall be for the heartburnings that are +sure to follow in its wake. + + * * * * * + +One morning early last summer Fannie Penney was driving home from town, +with a rather lopsided load of groceries on the back of the buckboard. +Fanny did not enjoy these weekly trips for groceries, but she did not +rebel, as her sisters did; and though she had aspirations, they had not +developed as quickly in her as in the others, for she was considered +already an old maid (a state that in the country, strangely enough, sets +in long before it does in the city, often beginning quite at noonday) at +the time the Bluff colony began to attract attention. + +The Penney family live in a plain but substantial house on the main road, +a little way north of the village, where Mr. Penney combines farming, a +blacksmith's shop, and a small line of groceries, for the benefit of his +family. Up to the present time this family has jogged along at a fairly +comfortable pace, only one daughter, the youngest, Mollie, having so far +escaped from the traditional female employments of the region as to spend +a season in New York, supplementing the grammar school education by a +course in elocution, with Delsarte accompaniments. When she returned she +gave her old friends to understand that she was thoroughly misunderstood +by her family; also, that she was now to be called Marie and preferably +Miss, hinted that she was soon going on a professional tour, and +condescendingly agreed to give a free recital at a Sunday-school +entertainment. At this she startled the community by reciting the +sleep-walking scene from Lady Macbeth, clad in a lace-trimmed Empire +nightgown, red slippers with high heels, whitened face, wild hair, and, +of course, the candlestick, with such terrible effect that the mothers of +the infant class had difficulty in getting their progeny to stay in bed +in the dark for some weeks to come. The pastor considered that, under the +circumstances, she gave the words "out damned spot" undue emphasis, while +the "Watch-out Committee" of the S. C. E. failed entirely to agree as to +what gave the nightgown a decided pink tint, opinions greatly varying. +Some insisted that it was flesh, while the pastor's wife, knowing the +flavour of persecution, firmly insisted that it was merely a pink cambric +slip, as was most right and proper. But her charity was immediately +discounted by Mrs. Barton, who said that likely it was pink lining, for +Marie's flesh was yellow, and not pink. + +However, this event was soon forgotten in the greater interest that +gathered about Fannie Penney's return ride from town. + +It seems that soon after Fannie left the town limits and was jogging +along the turnpike, the big roan horse of all work began to stumble, then +grew lame forward, and finally came to a standstill. + +Fannie got out, examined his feet, soon found that not only had he cast a +shoe, but in doing so had managed to step on a nail and drive it into his +frog. With the good judgment of a farrier's daughter, she promptly +unharnessed him. Looking about and seeing cows grazing in a neighbouring +pasture, she led him slowly to the side of the road, let down the bars +and turned him loose, where he immediately showed his appreciation of the +situation by lying down and nibbling at the grass within reach. + +So far so good, but when Fannie began to consider the possibility of +walking home, with the chance of being picked up on the road by some one, +and getting her father to come and remove the nail, the load of groceries +loomed up before her. Not only did they represent considerable money +value, country reckoning, and there was no house within half a mile +either way, but some of the articles, such as lard, were in danger of +being ruined by the hot sun; so Fannie walked along the road, searching +the dust for the lost shoe, seeing no way out of her dilemma unless some +one should come by. + +She did not find the shoe, but soon a cloud of dust from the town side +told of an approaching team, and she went to the shade of the only +near-by tree and waited. + +A moment later, the team coming up proved to be a freshly painted +runabout, drawn by a fine bay horse in trim harness, driven by the +average stable boy; while beside him sat a smooth-faced, keen-eyed man, +rather under middle age, dressed in a spotless light suit, tan shoes, +lilac shirt, opalesque tie, finished above by a Panama hat pinched into +many dimples. + +He was evidently a man of quick action, for he saw the girl and horseless +wagon at a glance, touched the reins, stopped the horse, and jumped out +before Fannie could think, taking off his hat and saying:-- + +"Lady in distress, runaway horse, lucky not to have upset load--can I be +of any use?" all in one breath. + +Fannie had never read Dickens, so that no comparison with the speech of +Alfred Jingle arose to make her distrustful, which was unnecessary, and +the bowing figure appeared to her the perfection of up-to-date manly +elegance. Could it--yes, it must be a guest on the way to the Bluffs. + +She blushingly explained the complication, feeling almost ashamed to +mention her fears as to the melting lard, it seemed so insignificant in +such a presence; but he quickly reassured her by going to the wagon, +pulling it energetically under the tree, and spreading the linen lap-robe +over the goods, the effort causing streams of perspiration to alter the +stately appearance of a three-inch high collar. Next he sprang over the +fence into the field, found that the nail was too firmly wedged to be +drawn from the horse's hoof with either fingers or a wagon wrench, and +returned to the road again. + +"Now, may I ask where you live?" he said, dusting himself off with +vigorous flips of a large Yale blue silk handkerchief. + +Fannie told him, and her name, also, and ventured to ask that, if he was +going through Oaklands, he would be good enough to tell her uncle, who +kept the livery stable, to send out for her. + +"I guess we can better that," he said, smiling genially. "I'm going to +Oaklands to meet my trunk and stop over a day. I'll leave the boy here +with your goods, drive you in, pick up your father, he returns with this +horse, brings tools, fixes up his own, boy takes rig back to town, your +father drives goods home, see?" + +Fannie saw that the arrangements were unanswerably suitable; also, that +to carry them out she must take a drive with the unknown, a drive of +necessity to be sure, yet one that she could safely call romantic, +especially as, when he turned to help her into the runabout, he picked up +a horseshoe that lay in the bottom and gave it to her, saying, "It's +yours; I found it half a mile back; I never pass a horseshoe, never can +tell when it'll bring luck." + +Before they had gone very far her dream of his being a guest on his way +to the Bluffs was shattered by his saying: "I've got the advantage of +you--know your name, you don't know mine. That's not fair. 'Aim to be +fair' 's my motto, even if I don't chance to hit it," and he pulled out a +bulky wallet and held it toward her with one hand, that she might help +herself to one of the cards with which it was filled. + +Her hand touched his; she blushed so that her freckles were veiled for +the moment as she read, half aloud: "L. Middleton--with Frank Brothers. +Dealers in first-class canned goods," the New York address being in the +corner. The feeling of disappointment only lasted for a moment, for was +not a travelling man, as the drummer is always called in country towns, +a person of experience and knowledge of the world, as well as being not +infrequently shrouded in mystery? As she pondered on the card, wondering +if she dared put it in her pocket, he said in a matter-of-fact way, +again extending the wallet: "Don't hesitate, take the deck, may come +handy, father like to keep goods in stock some time. That's my regular; +carry a side line too, perfumes and an A1 hair restorer. Got all my +samples at Oaklands depot. You mind stopping there on the way? Want to +get fresh collar." + +No, of course Fannie would not mind; this last request fixed her +companion firmly in her esteem. Any other man of her acquaintance would +have removed his collar and proceeded without one, never giving the +matter a thought; in fact, she had been momentarily expecting that this +would happen. Now she would have the bliss of taking him home in all the +perfection of his toilet as she first beheld him. + +From that moment she grew more conversational, and his utterance became +less jerky, until, when they finally drove up back of the long red brick +railway station at Oaklands, a little before noon, she had not only given +him a synopsis of local history, but was, in her excitement, vainly +trying to recollect what day of the week it was, so that she might judge +of the dinner probabilities at home, also if it would be safe to ask him +to stay. Fortunately remembering that she saw her father beheading +chickens the night before, which guaranteed a substantial meal, she +decided it was an absolute duty. + +As L. Middleton emerged from the baggage room in a fresh collar, even +higher than the other, he threw an ornamental bottle of violet water into +Fannie's lap to keep company with the horseshoe. Immediately Hope arose +at the combination, and Settled under the left folds of Fannie's pink +shirt waist; for Middleton seems a distinguished name to one who has been +called Penney for twenty-eight years, and romance had never died in the +heart under the pink waist for the reason that it was only at this moment +being born. + +On arriving at home, Fate continued to prove kind. Mrs. Penney was +inspired to ask the guest to "stop to dinner," without any hints or +gesticulations being necessary, which might have marred the first +impression. Not only did the chickens appear at the table, where no +canned food was present, but there was a deep cherry pie as well, which +was eaten with peculiar relish by the commercial traveller, accustomed to +the awful fare of New England country hotels, where he was often obliged +to use his own samples to fill gaps. He gazed about at the comfortable +kitchen, and won Mamma Penney by praising the food and saying that he was +raised on a farm. Father Penney took a hasty bite in the buttery, and +soon disappeared to rescue his goods from the highway. He was always +considered something of a drawback to the matrimonial prospects of his +daughters; for, as his nose indicated, he had a firm, not to say +combative, disposition, and frequently insisted upon having not only the +last but the first word upon every subject, so that Fannie regarded his +going in the light of a special providence. + +After dinner the three other Penney sisters all tried their best to be +agreeable, Marie donning a clinging blue gown and walking up and down the +piazza watering plants at this unusual hour of the day for his particular +benefit, a performance which caused L. Middleton to ask, "Say, did you +ever do a vaudeville turn?" And Marie, not knowing whether to take the +remark as a criticism or a compliment, preferred to take the latter view +and answer in languid tones,-- + +"No, but I have acted, and I've been seriously advised to go on +the stage." + +In the middle of the afternoon, the load of groceries having arrived +safely, Fannie's "hero" took his leave, Papa Penney driving him to the +village inn, where he was to unpack his samples. + +For a while L. Middleton was a standard topic of conversation among the +girls. They wondered for what L. stood. Fannie guessed Louis, Marie +spitefully suggested that it might be Lucifer, and that was why he didn't +spell it out. Then as he seemed about fading from the horizon, he +reappeared suddenly one crisp October morning, just starting on his +eastern fall route, he said, and invited Fanny to go to the County Fair. + +Again a period of silence followed. The sisters remarked that most +travelling men were swindlers, etc., but Fannie persistently put violet +water on the handkerchief that she tucked under her pillow every night, +until, as winter set in, the supply failed. + +Then an idea came to her, she took the horseshoe from where it had been +hanging over her door, covered its dinginess with two coats of gold +paint, cut the legend, "Sweet Violets," together with the embossed +flowers, from the label on the perfume bottle, and pasted them on the +horseshoe, which she further ornamented with an enormous ribbon bow, and +despatched it secretly to L. Middleton by express a few days before +Christmas. + +At New Year's a box arrived for Fannie. It contained a gold pin in the +shape of a horseshoe, in addition to a large, heart-shaped candy box +filled with such chocolates that each was as a foretaste of celestial +bliss to Fannie, who now thought she might fairly assume airs of +importance. + +Half a dozen letters went rapidly back and forth, and then the proposal +bounded along as unexpectedly as every other detail of the courtship. +There was very little sentiment of expression about it, but he was in +earnest and gave references as to his respectability, etc., much as if he +were applying for a business position, and ended by asking her at which +end of his route she preferred to live, New York, or Portland, Maine, and +if in New York, would she prefer Brooklyn or Harlem? + +Fannie quickly decided upon Harlem, for, as Marie said, "There one only +need give the street name and number, while very few people yet realize +that Brooklyn really is in New York." + +This important matter settled, the Penney girls arose in their might upon +the wings of ambition. There should be a church wedding. + +Now the Penneys were, as all their forbears had been, Congregationalists; +but that church had no middle aisle, besides, as there was no giving away +of the bride in the service, there was little chance for pomp and +ceremony. It was discovered that the groom's parents had been +Episcopalians, and though he was liberal to the degree of indifference +upon such matters, it was decided that to have the wedding in St. Peter's +would be a delicate compliment to him. + +All the spring the village dressmaker has been at work upon the gowns of +bride and of bridesmaids, of whom there are to be six, and now the cards +are out and the groom's name also, the L at the last moment having been +found to stand for Liberty. If they had consulted the groom, he would +have decried all fuss, for Fannie's chief attraction was that he thought +her an unspoiled, simple-minded country girl. + +The hour was originally set for the morning, but as Fannie saw in her +fashion paper that freckled people often developed a peculiarly charming +complexion when seen by lamplight, the time was changed to eight at +night, in spite of the complications it caused. + +A week before the invitations were issued Fannie came to see me and after +some preamble said: "Mrs. Evan, I want my wedding to be good form, and +I'd like to do the swell thing all through. Now the _Parlour Journal_ +says that the front pews that are divided off by a white ribbon should be +for the bride's folks on one side of the aisle and the groom's on the +other. Mr. Middleton hasn't any people near by enough to come, so I +thought I'd have the Bluff folks sit on that side." + +"The Bluff people?" I queried, in amazement. "You surely aren't going to +invite them? Do you know any of them?" + +"Well, not intimately, but Mrs. Ponsonby has been to the house for eggs, +and Mrs. Latham's horse dropped a shoe last week and father set it, and +the Vanderveer boy's pony ran away into our front yard the other day, so +I don't feel as if they were strangers and to be left out. Oh, Mrs. Evan, +if they'd only come and wear some of their fine clothes to light up the +church, it would be in the papers, the _Bee_ and the _Week's News_ over +town maybe, and give me such a start! For you know I'm to live in New +York, and as I've never left home before, it would be so pleasant to know +somebody there!" + +I almost made up my mind to try to put things before her in their true +light, and save her from disappointment, but then I realized that I was +too near her own age. Ah, if Lavinia Dorman had only been here that day +she could possibly have advised Fannie without giving offence. + + * * * * * + +_May 16th._ The wedding is over. Shall I ever forget it? The rain and +cool weather of the past ten days kept back the apple blossoms, so that +the supply for decorating the church was poor and the blossoms +themselves only half open and water-soaked. Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who always +hears everything, knowing of the dilemma, in the goodness of her heart +sent some baskets of hothouse flowers, but the girls and men who were +decorating did not know how to handle them effectively, for Fannie, still +clinging to sentiment, had gilded nearly a barrel of old horseshoes, +which were tied with white ribbon to every available place, being +especially prominent on the doors of the reserved pews. + +Late in the afternoon a fine mist set in with clouds of fog, which, if it +got into the church, I knew would completely conceal the glimmer of the +oil lamps. It seems that Papa Penney was not told until an hour before +the ceremony that he was to walk up the aisle with the bride on his arm +and give her away. This he flatly refused to do. He considered it enough +of an affliction to have the wedding in church at all, and it was not +until his wife had given her first exhibition of fainting, and Fannie had +cried her eyes red, that he apparently yielded. + +We arrived at the church at about ten minutes to eight, father and Evan +having been persuaded to come in recognition of good neighbourhood +feeling. The back part of the church was well filled, but the space +above the ribbon was painfully empty. The glimmering lamps did little +more than reveal the gloom, and the horseshoes gave a strange +racing-stable effect. + +We tried to spread ourselves out as much as possible to fill up, and +presently the Ponsonby girls entered with some friends, seemingly +astonished at being seated within the barrier, for they had never seen +their cards of invitation, and had come as a sort of lark to kill time on +a wet evening. + +The ushers wandered dismally up and down, stretching their hands +nervously as if unused to gloves. Presently they fell back, and the +organ, in the hands of an amateur performer and an inadequate blower, +began to chirp and hoot merrily, by which we knew the bridal party was +about to appear. + +The ushers came first, divided, and disappeared successfully in the +shadows, on either side of the chancel steps. A long wait and then Marie +Penney followed, walking alone, as maid of honour; she had insisted upon +having plenty of room, as she said so few people walked well that they +spoiled her gait. Next came the six bridesmaids on a gallop, then Papa +Penney and the bride. He walked along at a jog trot, and he looked +furtively about as if for a loophole of escape. As for poor Mrs. Penney, +instead of being seated in the front pew before the procession entered, +she was entirely forgotten in the excitement, and stood trembling near +the door, until some one drew her into a seat in neighbourly sympathy. + +The clergyman stood waiting, the bridesmaids grouped themselves behind +papa, so that there was no retreat, but where was the groom and the best +man? One, two, three minutes passed, but no sign. He had been directed to +the vestry door as the bridal party drove up. Could he suddenly have +changed his mind, and disappeared? + +The silence was awful, the Ponsonby girls giggled aloud, and finally got +into such gales of laughter that I was ashamed. The organ had dropped +into the customary groaning undertone that is meant, I suppose, to give +courage to the nervous and weak-voiced during the responses. + + * * * * * + +Outside the church, in the rear, two men in evening dress might have been +seen blundering about in the dark, vainly trying to find an open door, +for besides the door to the vestry there were three others close +together, one opening into the little chantry, one the Sunday-school +room, and one into the cellar. They battered and pulled and beat to no +purpose, until a mighty pound forced one in, and the two men found +themselves flying down a flight of steps, and landing in a heap of coal. + +Dazed, and not a little bruised, the groom struck a match, and looked +about; the best man had sprained his ankle, and said so in language +unbefitting the location, but Liberty Middleton arose superior to the +coal. Judging by the music that the ceremony had begun, he told his +crippled friend to sit still until he came back for him, and, by lighting +a series of wax matches, found his way back to the front door of the +church, and strode up the aisle dishevelled, and with a smutty forehead, +just as Papa Penney had succeeded in breaking through the bridesmaids, +dragging Fannie with him. A sigh of relief arose. The couple stepped +forward and the ceremony began. When, however, the giving away time came, +it was found that Papa Penney had retreated to a pew, from which he could +not be dislodged. Another hitch was only averted by the groom turning +pleasantly toward his father-in-law, and saying, with a wave of his hand, +"It's all right, don't trouble to move; you said 'I do,' I think; the +Parson understands." The ceremony was ended without further complication. +When Fannie walked out upon the arm of the self-possessed Liberty, I +thought that the travelling man had the makings of a hero in him after +all. It afterward transpired that the hapless best man, left in the coal +cellar, and not missed until the party was halfway home, had only +wrenched his ankle, and made his escape to the village tavern for +consolation, proving that even commercial travellers may be upset by a +fashionable wedding ceremony. + + + + +X + +THE WHIRL BEGINS + + +_May 30_. The People of the Whirlpool have come to the Bluffs, and the +swirl and spray has, in a measure, followed them. I had well-nigh +written, "are settled at the Bluffs," but the Whirlpoolers are perpetual +migrants, unlike the feathered birds of passage never absolutely settling +anywhere even for the nesting season, sometimes even taking to the water +by preference, at the time, of all others, when home is most loved and +cherished by the "comfortably poor." + +The houses, nominally closed since the holidays, have been reopened, one +by one, ever since the general return from the south in April, after +which season, Mrs. Jenks-Smith assures me, it is bad form to be seen in +New York on Sunday. + +This fiat, however, does not prevent members of almost every family from +spending several days a week in the city, thus protecting themselves +against the possible monotony of home living by lunching and dining, +either singly or in informal groups, at the public restaurants. + +Father has always held the theory that ladies should dress +inconspicuously in the public streets and hostelries, and for a woman to +do otherwise, he considered, was to prove that she had no claim upon +gentility. Evan used to go so far as to say that the only people who +display their fine clothes in hotels are those who have no homes in which +to wear them. + +Dear, innocent provincials, the Whirlpoolers have changed all that, and +given the custom their hall mark that stamps it vogue. In fact, in +glancing at the papers, by the light of our Bluff Colony, which, after +all, is but a single current of the pool that whirls in the shape of the +letter S, it seems to me that a new field has been opened for the society +journalist--the reporting of the gowns worn at the restaurants in the +"between seasons." + +One evening, a few weeks ago, Evan and I went, by request, to one of the +most celebrated of these resorts to call upon some friends of his, a +bride and groom, then passing through the city. We were directed where to +find them in the corridor--midway would have been a better term. We found +them, and many others beside! + +"Where do these people come from?" I whispered to Evan, looking down the +row of women of all ages and, if expression may indicate, all grades, +who, dressed and undressed in lavish opulence, were lolling about, much +as if expecting a call to go upon the stage and take part in some +spectacle, but that the clothes and jewels were too magnificent to be +stage properties. + +"Brewers' wives from the west, and unknown quantities; people who come to +New York to see and be seen," he answered carelessly; but almost as he +spoke his words were checked by the entrance of an equally gorgeous +group, composed of those who Lavinia Dorman had assured us were among the +most conservative of our new neighbours, all talking aloud, as if to an +audience, as they literally swept into the dining room, where Mrs. Center +was already seated. To be sure, the clothes, in their cases, were worn +with a difference,--the ease of habit,--but to all outward appearance the +distinction began and ended there. Ah me! to think of having such things +cross the horizon in May, when, unless one is forced to be miserable, one +must be inexpressibly happy. + +I have been working all the month in my garden, as of old, or trying to, +at least, but upon the principle that no member of a community can either +live or die wholly to, or by, himself, I here missed the untrammelled +liberty of yore. Not that I care if I am detected collarless, in a brown +holland apron, with earthy fingers, and sometimes even a smutty nose, but +the Whirlpoolers, unable to regard the work as serious, do not hesitate +to interrupt, if nothing more. + +Imagine the assurance of the twenty-two-year-old Ponsonby girl, who came +dashing up all of a fume last Saturday morning, when I was comfortably +seated on the old tea tray, transplanting a flat of my best ostrich +plume asters, and begging me, her mother being away, to chaperon her to +a ball game, in a town not far off up the railroad, with harmless, +pink-eyed Teddy Tice, one of her brother's college mates. It seems that +if she could have driven up and taken a groom it would have been good +form, but there was some complication about the horses, and to go by +rail unchaperoned, even though surrounded by a earful of people, was not +to be thought of. I pointed to the asters that must be set out and +covered before the sun was high, but she couldn't understand, and went +off in a huff. + +What a disagreeable word chaperon is at best, and what a thankless +vocation the unlisted, active, and very irregular verb 'to chaperon' +implies. I quite agree with Johnson, who denounced the term as affected, +for certainly its application is, though Lavinia Dorman says it is the +natural effect of a definite cause, and that it is quite necessary from +the point of view of the quarter where it most obtains. + +Monday morning I was again interrupted in my garden operations by a +Whirlpooler, but the reason was quite different. The twins have gardens +of their own, which are as individual and distinctive as their two +selves. Richard delights in straight rows, well patted down between, and +treats the small seeds that he plants with a sort of paternal patience. +Ian disdains any seed smaller than a nasturtium or bean, whose growth is +soon apparent, and has collected a motley assortment of bulbs, roots, and +plants, without regard to size or season, and bordered his patch with +onion sets for Corney Delaney's express benefit, the goat having a Gallic +taste for highly flavoured morsels. Both boys are fairly patient with +their own gardening operations, but their joy is to "help" me by handing +tools, watering plants, and squirting insecticides, in my society and +under my direction. + +Of course I could do it all much quicker by myself, and it has hampered +me this spring, for last season they were too irresponsible to more than +play work a few minutes at a time. + +Now I have come to the conclusion that it is their right to learn by +helping me, and that it is the denial of companionship, either from +selfishness or some absurd educational theory, that weakens the force of +home ties later on. + +I have been frequently lectured by those older, but more especially "new +mothers" younger than I, about staying with the boys at bedtime until +they grow drowsy. "The baby is put to bed, and if he cries I pay no +attention; it is only temper, not pain, for he stops the minute I speak +to him," they say. I feel the blood rush to my face and the sting to my +tongue always when I hear this. + +Not pain, not temper, but the unconscious yearning for companionship, for +mother-love, is oftener the motive of the pitiful cry. Why should it be +denied? The mother bird broods her young in the nest at twilight, and the +father bird sings a lullaby to both. The kittens luxuriously sup +themselves to sleep with the warm mother flesh responding to their +seeking paws. In wild life I know not an animal who does not in some way +soothe her young to sleep. Why should the human child, the son of man, be +forced to live without the dream memories that linger about happy +sleeping times? What can the vaunted discipline give to replace them? It +is then, as they grow, and speech forms on their lips, that little +confessions come out and wrongs are naturally righted through +confidence, before they can sprout and grow. + +I was not quite five when I last watched mother sowing her flower seeds, +and yet I remember to this day the way in which she did it, and so when +it came time to give my bed of summer roses its first bath of whale oil, +soap, and water, and the boys gave whoops of joy when they saw Bertel +wheel out the tub and I appeared with the shining brass syringe, I +resolved to let them have the questionable delight of administering the +shower bath, even if it took all day. + +I have appropriated a long strip of rich, deep soil for these tender +roses, quite away from the formal garden and across the path from the new +strawberry bed, which by the necessity of rotation has worked its way +from the vegetable garden to the open spot under the bank wall by the +stable where the hotbeds congregate. This wall breaks the sweep of the +wind, and so both our tender roses and strawberries are of the earliest, +the fruit already being well set and large. + +It was the middle of the morning. The work was progressing finely, +without more than the usual amount of slop and misdirected effort, when a +violent tooting from the direction of the highway caused me to stop, and +Ian dropped the squirter that I had newly filled for his turn, upon the +grass border, while he and Richard scurried toward the gateway to see +what was the matter, for the sound was like the screech of an automobile +horn in distress. It was! + +A streak of dark red and a glitter of brass flashed in between the gate +posts, grazing them, and barely escaping an upset, and then came plunging +toward me. I screamed to the boys, who seemed to me directly in the path +of the _Thing_, which in another moment I recognized as an automobile of +the battering-ram variety, belonging to Harvey Somers, Gwendolen Burton's +fiancé, which for the past week had been the terror of father's steady +old gray horses, owing to its constitutional eccentricities. + +Mr. Somers was handling it single-handed, and though he was coming at a +reckless speed, I expected that he would swing back of the house and come +to one of the dramatic sudden stops, on the verge of an accident, for +which he is famous. So he did, but not on the driveway! + +The _Thing_ gave a lurch and veered toward the barn, spitting like a +cageful of tiger cats. Somers was pushing the lever and gripping the +brake with all his athletic might, but to no purpose. The children, who, +wild with excitement, had by this time sought the safety of the open barn +door, seemed a second time to be in the monster's path. + +Another lurch! Surely man and machine would be dashed to bits against +the substantial stable wall! + +Then the _Thing_ changed its course, and showing a ray of flustered +intelligence, made a mighty leap off the bank wall and landed hub deep in +the soft, friable soil of the new strawberry bed, where, after one +convulsive effort, some part of its anatomy blew up with the triple +report of a rapid-fire gun, and after having relieved itself of a cloud +of steam, it settled down peacefully, as if a strawberry bed was the +place of all others it preferred for a noonday nap. + +Harvey Somers was shot with a left-handed twirl directly into one of the +hotbed frames, from which the sash was pushed back, and landed in a +doubled-up position, amid a tearing sound and the crash of broken glass. +Meanwhile, the boys, frightened at the cloud of steam, yelled "Fire!" at +the top of their lungs. + +As I flew to help him, I could for the instant think of nothing but the +Lizard Bill's assisted progress up the chimney and into the cucumber +frame, but as a rather faint voice said, "Not you; kindly call the +Doctor," my mirth changed to alarm, which was not lessened when Timothy +Saunders, hearing the uproar and the cry of fire, arriving too late to +grasp the situation with his slow Scotch brain, and seeing me leaning +over the plant frame, picked up the squirt and deluged the unfortunate +man with whale-oil spray! + +Coughing and choking, Mr. Somers finally sat up, but did not offer to do +more, wiped his eyes, and said to me in most delightful and courteous +tones, "Would you be so good as to allow your man to bring me either a +bath robe or a mackintosh?" + +I was at once relieved, for I knew that the lacerations were of trousers +and not flesh, and at the same time I saw that the crash of glass was +caused merely by the toppling backward of the sash, also that all my +young heliotrope plants that were in the frame where the chauffeur +reposed were hopelessly ruined. + +Timothy brought out Evan's bath gown, and in a few moments Mr. Somers was +himself again, and after surveying the scene of the disaster, he +approached me with a charming bow, and drawing a crumpled note from his +pocket said:-- + +"I promised Bertie Chatterton to give you this invitation for his studio +tea to-morrow, in person, and I fear that I have rather overshot my +promise. Best way to get that brute up will be from the bank wall,--will +damage your fruit less. I will have a derrick sent up to-morrow, or if +possible this afternoon. I'm awfully sorry, Mrs. Evan, but I think you'll +bear me witness that the accident was quite out of my control. May I beg +the favour of a trap home? I'm a trifle shaken up, that's all." And as if +the accident were an everyday affair, he departed without fuss and having +steadied my nerves by his entire self-control. + +As I stood by the gateway pondering upon the matter and the easy manners +of this Whirlpooler, Mrs. Jenks-Smith drove past. She had met Mr. Somers, +and as her curiosity was piqued by his strange attire, she stopped to see +if I could furnish a clew. She says, by the way, that he is not a New +Yorker, but from Boston, and that his father is an English Honourable and +his mother a Frenchwoman. + +A gang of men with a sort of wrecking machine hired from the railroad +company removed the _Thing_ next day, and towed it off, but of course the +strawberries were half ruined; next a man from the florist's in town came +with directions to repair all damage to turf and replace the smashed +plants. Yet that is not all--the sense of peace and protection that I had +when working in my garden has had a shock. In spite of the inhospitable +air it gives the place, I think we must keep the gates closed. + +Why was Jenks-Smith inspired to start a land-boom here and fate allowed +to make fashion smile on it, when we were so uneventfully happy, so +twinfully content? + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright arrived on Wednesday, and is safely ensconced with +Martha and Timothy Saunders, who could give him the couple of plainly +furnished rooms he desired, and breakfast at any hour. For a man of no +hours (which usually means he never breakfasts before nine) to forgather +cheerfully at a commuter's table at 7:15 A.M. is a trial to him, and a +second breakfast is apt to cause a cloud in Madam C.'s domestic horizon. +Therefore, father allowed Martin to do as he suggested, live at the farm +cottage and work here in the library or attic den, as suits his +convenience. In this way he feels quite independent, has motive for +exercise in walking to and fro, and as he is always welcome to dine with +us, can mix his portion of solitude and society in the exact proportion +of his taste, even as his well-shaped fingers carefully blend the tobacco +for his outdoor pipe. + +Dear old fellow, he seems so happy and bubbling over with good temper at +having overstepped the tyranny of habit, that I shall almost expect to +see his gray hairs turn brown again as the wintry pelt of the weasel does +in spring. + +If the Vanderveer boy is diagnosed as a case of "suppressed boyhood," +then Martin Cortright's only ailment should be dubbed "suppressed youth!" + +He was to have come earlier in the month, but a singular circumstance +prevented. The old-time gentlewoman, at whose house in Irving Place he +has had his apartments so long that a change seemed impossible, died, and +he was obliged not only to move, but put his precious belongings in +storage until he can place himself suitably once more. So that his plan +of coming here bridges the break, and seems quite providential. + +He and father walk up and down the garden together after dinner, smoking +and chatting, and it does me good to see dear daddy with one of his +old-time friends. I think I am only now realizing what he, with his +sociable disposition, gave up in all those years before Evan came, that I +should not be alone, and that he might be all in all to me. + +It was quite cool yesterday. We had hearth fires all through the house, +and Martin, rearranging some reference books for his own convenience in +the little room that is an annex to father's library, wore his skull cap +and Chinese silk dressing gown, which gave him an antique air quite at +variance with his clear skin and eyes. + +Lavinia Dorman had been due all the week, but worry with the workmen who +are building in the rear of her house detained her, and she telegraphed +me that she would take the morning express, and asked me to meet her over +in town. So I drove in myself, dropping father at the hospital on the +way, but on reaching the station the train brought me no passenger. + +I returned home, hoping to be in time for our way train, thinking I had +mistaken her message, and missed it; but the postmistress,--for every +strange face is noticed in town,--told me that the lady who visited me +two weeks ago walked up from the ten o'clock train; that she had a new +bonnet and "moved right spry," and asked if she was a relative of mine. +"An aunt, maybe, and was the pleasant new gentleman an uncle, and did he +write a newspaper? She thought maybe he did because he was so particular +about his mail." I said something about their being adopted relations, +and hurried home. + +The boys were industriously digging dandelions on the side lawn. I +inconsistently let the dear, cheery flowers grow and bloom their fill in +the early season, when they lie close to the sward, but when they begin +to stretch awkward, rubbery necks, and gape about as if to see where they +might best shake out their seed puffs, they must be routed. Do it as +thoroughly as possible, enough always remain to repay my cruelty with a +shower of golden coin the next spring. Bertel spends all his spare time +on the other bits of grass, but the side lawn is the boys' plunder, +where, by patiently working each day at grubbing out the roots at +twenty-five cents a hundred, they expect, before the dandelion season is +over, to amass wealth enough to buy an alluring red goat harness trimmed +with bells that is on exhibition at the harness shop in town, for Corney +Delaney. Yes, they said, Aunt Lavinia had just come, but she said they +need not stop, for she could go in by herself. + +There was no one in the hall, sitting room, den, or upstairs, neither had +Effie seen any person enter. Thinking I heard voices in the direction of +father's office, I went there and through to the library "annex," where +an unexpected picture met my gaze. Martin Cortright, the precise, in +stocking feet, skull cap, and dressing gown, perched on top of the +step-ladder, was clutching a book in one hand, within the other he held +Miss Lavinia's slender fingers in greeting, while his face had a curious +expression of surprise, pleasure, and a wild desire to regain his +slippers that were down on the floor, a combination that made him look +extremely foolish as well as "pudgy." + +Up to that moment, Miss Lavinia, who cannot distinguish a face three +feet away without her lorgnette, thought she was speaking to father. +Under cover of our mutual hilarity, I led her back to a seat in the +study, so that Martin might recover his wits, coat, and slippers at the +same time, for Miss Lavinia had stumbled over the latter and sent them +coasting in different directions. + +Yes, the postmistress was right, Lavinia Dorman had a new bonnet. Not the +customary conservative but monotonous upholstered affair of jet and lace, +but a handful of pink roses in a tulle nest, held on by wisps of tulle +instead of ribbons. + +"Hortense, who has made bonnets for years, said this was more appropriate +for the country, and would show dirt less than black,--and even went so +far as to suggest omitting the strings altogether," she said in rather +flurried tones, as a few moments later we went upstairs, and I removed +the pins that held the confection in place, and commented upon its +prettiness. + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright stayed to dinner, and afterward he, Miss Lavinia, +father, and Evan sat down to a "real old-fashioned," serious game of +whist! Of all things, to the fifth wheel, who is out of it, would not be +in if she could, cannot learn, and prefers jackstraws to card games of +any sort, an evening of serious whist is the most aggravating. They were +too well matched to even enliven matters by squabbling or casting +venomous glances at each other. Evan played with Martin Cortright, whose +system he was absorbed in mastering, and he never spoke a word, and +barely looked up. This, too, when he had been away for several days on a +business trip. It was moonlight, and I wanted him to see the new iris +that were in bloom along the wild walk, dilate upon the game of leap-frog +that the automobile played, and--well--there is a great deal to say when +Evan has been away that cannot be thought of indoors or be spoken +hurriedly in the concise, compact, public terms in which one orders a +meal. Conversation is only in part made of words, its subtilties are +largely composed of touch and silence. + +I myself, being wholly responsible for the present whist combination, of +course could say nothing except to myself and the moon. What a hoard of +personal reminiscences and heart to heart confessions the simpering old +thing must have stored away behind her placid countenance. It is a wonder +that no enterprising journal has syndicated her memoirs by wireless +telegraphy for the exclusive use of their Sunday issue. + +I resolved that I must wait awhile, and then if this silence lasted many +evenings, I must hunt up a game of cards that takes only two. How could I +get out of the room without appearing to be in a huff or bored? Ah! a +wordless excuse; a slight noise upstairs. Ian sometimes walks in his +sleep. I go up and sit in my window and look out through the diamond +panes at the garden. Ian stirs and mutters something about a drink. I +hasten to get it, and he, gripping the glass with his teeth, swallows +eagerly, with a clicking noise in his throat. + +"Is your throat sore?" I ask apprehensively. He opens his eyes, realizes +where he is, nestles his head into my neck and whispers,-- + +"Not zactly lumpy sore, Barbara, just crusty, 'cause I made--lots of +dandelion curls wif my tongue to-day, and they're--velly--sour," and with +a satisfied yawn he rolled back on his pillow, into the funny +spread-eagle attitude peculiar to himself, but Richard slept peacefully +on like a picture child, cheek on hand, and the other little +dandelion-stained paw above the sheet. + +(N.B.--When one's husband and father together take to serious whist of a +moonlight night in spring, twins are not only an advantage but a +necessity.) + +I have searched the encyclopedia for the description of an intellectual +game of cards, arranged as a duet, and found one. It is piquet! Now I +can wait developments peacefully, for are there not also in reserve +chess, checkers, backgammon, and--jackstraws? + + * * * * * + +_June_ 2. A gentle summer shower at sunset after a perfect day has filled +the world with fragrance and song, for do the birds ever sing so +perfectly with such serene full-noted ecstasy as after the rains of May +and June? Or is it the clearness of the air after the rain that transmits +each note in full, prisoning nothing of its value? + +To-night I am unhappy. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, and perplexed is +the better word, and it is only in pages of my social experience book +that the cause can be given. + +Friday was Peysey Vanderveer's eighth birthday, and it has been +celebrated by a party on a scale of magnificence that to my mind would +have been suitable for the only son of royalty. + +Though the invitations fortunately were only given two days in advance, +Richard and Ian were agog over the matter to the extent of muttering in +their sleep, and getting up this morning before eight, in order, if +possible, to make the hour of three come quicker, and to be sure to be +ready in time. + +When the invitation was brought by Mr. Vanderveer in person, he asked if +Lavinia Dorman and I would not like to come up also and see the children +play, adding that I need feel no responsibility about the boys, as he was +going to be at home and give himself up to seeing that the "kids" had a +jolly time, and got into no scrapes. + +We agreed that it would be amusing to go up with the children, stay a +little while to be sure that they could adapt themselves, and then leave; +for if there is anything dampening to the ardour of children at play it +is a group of elders with minds divided between admiration and +correction, punctuating unwise remarks upon beauty and cleverness with +"Maud, you are overheated." "Tommy, don't! Use your handkerchief!" +"Billy, your stocking is coming down!" "Reggie, you must wait, girls +should be helped first." + +The boys certainly looked comfortably and humanly handsome in their white +cheviot sailor suits, loose blue ties, black stockings and pumps. They +really are good-looking children. Lavinia Dorman, who is candour itself, +says so. I suppose people think that my opinion does not count, and that +I should consider them perfect if they were of the human chipmunk +variety. But I am sure I am not prejudiced, for I do _not_ think them +perfect, only well made and promising, thus having the two first +requisites of all young animals. + +When we arrived at the Vanderveers a little late, owing to the fact of +father's having been obliged to use our horse for a hurry call, the party +had "gathered," to use an old-fashioned expression, and I saw that +Richard and Ian were by several years the youngest of the group of thirty +or more, the others ranging from eight to thirteen or fourteen. + +The house and grounds were decorated wherever decoration was possible. +Though it was wholly a daylight affair, Japanese lanterns hung by +festoons of handsome ribbon from verandas, trees, and around the new +pergola, the marble columns of which, in the absence of vines, were wound +with ribbons and roofed with bright flags, to form a tent for the +collation. In an arbour decorated in a like manner, an Hungarian +orchestra in uniform, much in vogue, Miss Lavinia says, for New York +dinner dances, was playing ragtime, while a dozen smart traps and road +carts filled with exquisitely dressed women lining the driveway around +the sunken tennis court, indicated that a matched game was to take place. + +Yes, after every one had exchanged greetings, Miss Lavinia, meeting +several friends who not only treated her with something akin to homage, +but were unfeignedly pleased to see her, the guests divided, a dozen of +the elder girls and boys going toward the tennis court, where Monty Bell +seemed to be acting as general manager. I afterward discovered that two +prizes for doubles and two for singles were to be played for, not pretty +trifles suitable for children, but jewellery, belt buckles of gold and +silver, gold sleeve links, and a loving cup. + +Meanwhile Mr. Vanderveer took charge of the younger group and led them +through the garden to where some young spruce trees hid the wall. Here a +surprise awaited them in the shape of two of the largest of the growing +trees festooned with ribbons and laden with strange fruit in the shape of +coloured toy balloons that bobbed about and tugged at their moorings as +if anxious to escape. + +On each balloon a number was painted in white. A wide ribbon was +stretched barrierwise across the walk about fifteen feet from the trees, +and near it were several large baskets, one full of bows and dart-pointed +arrows, and the other heaped with expensive toys and bonbon boxes of +painted satin, for prizes, each article being numbered. + +"Step up, ladies and gentlemen. Stand in line by the ribbon and take your +turn at the most unique shooting match ever seen in this county,--one at +a time,--and whoever points the arrow at anything but the balloons is +ruled out," rattled Mr. Vanderveer, after the manner of a fakir at a +country fair, and beaming with pleasure. For Evan says that outside of +business dealings he has the reputation of being the most good-natured +and generous of men, and that to invent ways to lavish money upon his son +and his friends is almost as keen a pleasure to him as to promote schemes +for winning it. + +Mr. Vanderveer picked up a bow and dart to illustrate the game, aimed at +a balloon, the arrow glanced off, but at the second shot the balloon went +pop and shrivelled away with the whistle of escaping gas and shouts of +applause from both children and their elders. + +Feeling assured that my boys were quite at their ease and not likely to +balk and act like wild rabbits, as is sometimes the case with children +when they find themselves among strangers, and seeing nothing that they +would be likely to fall out of or into, except a great bowl of lemonade +arranged in a bower that represented a well, we came away, Lavinia Dorman +sniffing in the spectacle like a veteran war-horse scenting powder, and +enjoying the gayety, as I myself should have done heartily if it had not +been for the boys. + +I was not worried about their clothes, their taking cold, or sticking +the darts into their fingers, but I was beginning to realize the +responsibility of consequences. What would the effect of this fête be +upon the birthday parties of our village community, where a dish of +mottoes, a home-made frosted sponge cake, and a freezer of ice cream +(possibly, but not always) from town, eaten out-of-doors, meant bliss. + +I suppose it is only the comfortably poor who have to think of +consequences, the uncomfortably rich think they can afford not to, +and tired of mere possession, they must express their wealth audibly +at any cost. + + * * * * * + +Richard and Ian came home about half past six, driven by Timothy +Saunders, who was in a sulky mood. When I asked him, by way of cheerful +conversation, if the Vanderveer grounds did not look pretty, and if he +had heard the band (he is very fond of music), he fairly glowered at me +as he used in his bachelor days, before Martha's energetic affection had +mellowed him, and he began to jerk out texts, his dialect growing more +impossible each moment, so that the only words that I caught were +"scarlet weemen--Philistines--wrath--mammon o' the unriteous," etc., +until I seized the boys and fled into the porch, because when Timothy +Saunders is wrathful, and quotes scripture as a means of expressing it, +some one must fly, and it is never Timothy. + +The boys, however, were jubilant, and began at once to unwrap the various +bundles they were hugging, prizes, it seemed, for every game they played, +that represented enough plunder to deck a small Christmas tree. After +these had been duly admired, with some misgivings on my part, Ian jumped +up suddenly, clapping his hand to his pocket, and coming close, so that +he could rest upon my knee, he began pulling out shining new dimes and +quarters, until his hands, moist and trembling with excitement, could +hold no more, and he poured the coins into my lap. + +"Count them please, Barbara, vely quick, 'cause I can't say so many," he +begged, standing with his curly head a little on one side, and his eyes +flashing with eagerness. + +Wondering what new form of extravagance it was, I counted, "One, two, +three dollars and a half." + +"Then we can go and buy the red harness for Corney to-morrow, without +bothering to dig up any more dandies, 'cause Dick's got some too," he +fairly shouted. "It was all bully fun, but that swizzle game where the +marble ran round was the bestest of all, only some numbers it sat on took +the pennies and some gave them back," and he indicated something flying +round in a circle as he capered about. Ian's slightest gestures, like his +father's, are very realistic, and I turned sick as I realized the game by +which the silver had been won was probably roulette! Could it be +possible? How had Mr. Vanderveer dared? No, there must be some mistake. + +At that instant my attention was attracted by Richard, who, after +unpacking his toys, had curled up in a deep piazza chair, where he sat +without saying a word, but looking flushed and heavy-eyed. + +"Do you feel sick? Perhaps you ate too much cream, and then ran too fast. +Come and let mother feel of your hands," I said. His hands were cold and +his head burning. + +"It wasn't the cweam," he replied finally, as if not quite sure what was +the matter, "it was the lemonade with the bitter currant jelly in it +that made the cweam and all swell up,--and I guess it's going to spill +pretty soon." + +"Lemonade with bitter jelly in it?" queried father, coming out, "what +sort of a mess have they given him?" Father stooped, smelled his breath, +saying, "Astringent wine of some sort, unless my nose fails me. Did you +have any, Ian?" + +"Not pink, only yellow. I was all full up by then." + +"When?" + +"Why, when the big boys caught some of us and said we must drink pink +lemonade to make us grow quick." + +Father gave me a keen glance of intelligence, and I took the boys +upstairs, where Richard's trouble soon righted itself, and, early as it +was, they went quickly to sleep with the precious money under their +pillows, fatigue conquering even their excitement. + +Evan came home rather late, and at dinner we talked of other things. As +far back as I remember anything, I can hear father's voice saying alike +to Aunt Lot, myself, or a complaining servant, "The family board is +sacred; meals are not the time for disagreeables." + +Immediately after dinner, and before I had a chance to tell Evan, Mrs. +Jenks-Smith stopped on her way home from a drive, the Whirlpoolers not +dining until eight, to ask father if she might take some friends in to +see the hospital to-morrow, an appeal having been recently made for new +bedding, etc., saying: "We're going to have smashing strawberries and +roses this year; they'll come on before the crowd moves along in July, +and we might as well shake up a fête for the hospital as anything else, +as we're bound to keep moving. + +"Were you up at Vanderveers this afternoon? Oh, yes, to be sure, I saw +you going down hill as I drove in. Quite a chic affair for a little +between-season place like this; but after all, it's the people, not the +place, that make the pace, isn't it, Miss Dorman? And a swell New Yorker +can leave a wake that'll show the way anywhere. + +"You don't look happy, though, Mrs. Evan. The boys ate too much? No? +Roulette a little too high for you? + +"Well, my dear, I half agree with you. I think things were a little too +stiff this afternoon for such youngsters; but Vandy is such a liberal +fellow he couldn't do enough,--nor tell when to stop,--actually lugged up +half a dozen bags of new silver and dealt it to the kids in handfuls. +Harm? Why, he didn't see any, I dare say. He wasn't robbing anybody; +besides, I'll bet Monty Bell put him up to it. I know how you feel, +though. I wouldn't play for money myself, if I'd young boys; but as I +haven't, it doesn't matter, and one must be amused. That's the way Mrs. +Latham jogged poor Carthy off and began the gap with her husband. Latham +gambles on change, of course, but drew the line at his house. Didn't know +it? You poor innocent, you're as bad as Sylvia herself. Why, yes, they're +as good as divorced, by mutual agreement, though; he's kept away all of +two years. I expect that they will announce it any time now. + +"Won't let the boys keep the money? Don't be silly now and make a fuss; +change it to bills and put it on the church plate; that's what all the +really conscientious women always do with their Lenten winnings +anyway,--that is, when they can afford it. + +"I'll allow, though, they didn't manage the drinks well this afternoon. +The lemonade was for the youngsters, and their spread was in the pergola; +the next age had claret cup in the tea house back of the tennis court, +and there was also a spread there with champagne cup for the elders. + +"Claret cup? Oh, yes, nowadays you insult a boy over twelve if you offer +him lemonade. But the trouble was, the big boys tumbled to the champagne +cup, got hold of a bowl of it, grew excited, and fed the youngsters with +the claret stuff, and made a lot of them sick. Your Richard one of them? +I see,--I don't wonder you're put out, my dear, indeed I don't. I should +be too, that is, if it mattered; but one person disapproving won't turn +the wheel the other way, it only means to lose your own footing." So +saying, the Lady of the Bluffs rustled away, promising to call for father +in her 'bus in the morning. + +"Is this true?" asked Evan, presently, and I had never seen his eyes look +so steely cold. + +"Yes, I'm afraid so," I answered, meeting his gaze. + +"Where is the money?" + +"Under their pillows; they expect to buy the red goat harness to-morrow." + +"It's a crying shame, the whole thing. The poor little babies!" + +"What shall I do?" + +"You? Nothing. I shall return the money. This is my business; man to +man. As a woman you inevitably must be emotional and make a doubtful +issue of it. You mother the boys well, God knows; this is my chance to +father them." + +"But the money,--shall I get it now?" + +"No, in the morning; they will bring it to me, and I will make them +understand, as far as babies may. In one way, I fear, we are unwittingly +somewhat to blame ourselves. Every one who is drawn toward a social and +financial class a little beyond his depth, and yields, though feeling the +danger, is unwise. I think, sweetheart, this commuter, his wife, and +babies had better be content to wade in safe shallows and not go within +touch of the Whirlpool current." + +Then Evan and I went and stood silently by the two white beds, and now he +is walking up and down in the garden smoking quietly, while I am writing +up here, and unhappy because I think of to-morrow and the boys' +disappointment about the little red harness. + + + + +XI + +REARRANGED FAMILIES + + +_June_ 10. Sylvia Latham has returned alone. Her father came with her as +far as Chicago, where, having business that would detain him for perhaps +ten days, and warm weather having set in, he insisted that Sylvia should +at once proceed eastward. At least that is what Miss Lavinia tells me; +but she has suddenly turned quite reticent in everything that concerns +the Lathams, which, together with Mrs. Jenks-Smith's random remarks, have +inevitably set me to thinking. + +I had hoped to form a pleasant friendship with Sylvia, for though I have +only met her two or three times, I feel as if I really knew her; but +there will be little chance now, as they go on to Newport the first of +July, and the continual procession of house parties, for golf, tennis, +etc., at the Bluffs, even though they are called informal, necessarily +stand in the way of intimate neighbourly relations between us. Monty Bell +has been dividing his week ends between the Ponsonby, Vanderveer, and +Jenks-Smith households, yet he always is in the foreground when I have +been to see Sylvia, even though I have tried to slip in between times in +the morning. + +I do not like this Monty Bell; he seems to be merely an eater of dinners +and a cajoler of dames, such superficial chivalry of speech as he +exhibits being only one of the many expedients that gain him the title of +"socially indispensable" that the Whirlpoolers accord him. + +Personally anything but attractive, he seems able to organize and control +others in a most singular way. Perhaps it is because he has a genius for +taking pains and planning successful entertainments for his friends, even +to the minutest detail, and giving them the subtle distinction of both +originality and finish, without troubling their givers to think for +themselves. Miss Lavinia-says that he has the entree of the two or three +very exclusive New York houses that have never yet opened their doors to +Mrs. Latham and several more aspiring Whirlpoolers, Mrs. Jenks-Smith +having penetrated the sacred precincts, only by right of having been +presented at the English Court in the last reign through the influence of +her stepdaughter, who married a poverty-stricken title. + +"I don't know what it all amounts to," said the outspoken Lady of +the Bluffs on her return, "except that I'm in it now with both feet, +which is little enough pay for the trouble I took and the money +Jenks-Smith put out. + +"Our son-in-law? No, he's not exactly English, he's Irish, blood of the +old kings, they say; but all the good it does him is, that he can wear +his hat with a feather in it, or else his shoes, I can never remember +which, in the presence of royalty, when if it wasn't for good American +money he'd have neither one or the other. + +"Money? Oh yes, that's all they want of us over there; we've no cause to +stick up our noses and think it's ourselves. We know, Jenks-Smith and I, +for haven't we been financial mother and father in law to a pair of them +for ten years? Jenks-Smith was smart, though; he wouldn't give a lump sum +down, but makes them an allowance, and we go over every year or so and +bail them out of some sort of a mess to boot, have the plumbing fixed up, +and start the children all over with new clothes. That's what we're doing +when the papers say, 'Mr. and Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who went to Carlsbad for +the waters, are now in Ireland, being entertained in regal style by their +daughter and son-in-law at Bally-whack House.'" + +Miss Lavinia says with a shiver that whoever marries Monty Bell, and it +is absolutely necessary for him to make a wealthy connection in the +immediate future, will have all New York doors open to her, and that, as +Mrs. Latham is leaving no stone unturned in order to become a social +leader, a marriage between Sylvia and Mr. Bell would secure her the +complete prestige necessary to her ambition, while rearranged families +are so common and often the results of such trivial causes, that the fact +of the man's having a lovely wife and two children living abroad does not +militate against him in the least. It all seems ghastly, this living life +as if it was a race track, where to reach the social goal is the only +thought, no matter how, or over or through what wreckage, or in what +company the race is to be won. + +Since her return Sylvia has looked pale and seemed less buoyant. She is +much disappointed because her plan of going to Rockcliffe to see her +class graduate cannot be carried out. Miss Lavinia had promised to go +with her, and the poor child was looking forward to a week of girlish +pleasure among the friends with whom she had spent two years, when, lo +and behold! the rose and strawberry festival, that the Lady of the Bluffs +had stirred up for the benefit of the hospital, assumed such huge +proportions that the entire colony became involved, and the dates +conflicting, it was impossible for Sylvia to leave home without entirely +tipping over her mother's plans. + +The places on the north side of the Bluff road are to be thrown open, +grand-chain fashion, each contributing something by way of entertainment, +games, a merry-go-round brought with great expense from the city, fortune +telling, a miniature show of pet animals, and an amateur circus, being a +few of the many attractions offered. + +The spectators are to pay a fee and enter by the Ponsonbys', the first +place on the south, and gradually work their way up to the Jenks-Smiths', +where the rose garden and an elaborate refreshment booth will be reached. +The Latham garden is too new to make any showing, but Mrs. Latham, who +has been much in New York of late, promises something novel in the way of +a tea room in her great reception hall, while Mrs. Jenks-Smith insisted +that Sylvia should have charge of her rose booth, saying: "Your name's +suitable for the business, you'll look well in a simple hat and baggy +mull gown, such as artists always want to put on the people they paint, +and I must positively have some one who'll stay by me and see that things +are not torn to bits, for all the rest of the girls will slide off with +the first pair of trousers that comes along. Anyway, you don't match the +little Ponsonby and Chatfield minxes that your mother has chosen for her +six Geisha girls, for you are a head taller than the bunch." + +Nothing is talked of now but this fête. Of course it will help the +hospital, even though ten times the amount is being spent upon the +preparation than any sum that can possibly be made for the charity; but +it pleases the people to spend. Father says that the Whirlpoolers are +already bored; that they have used up the place, for the time being, and +if it were not for this festival, the Bluffs would be deserted for +Newport and Long Island long before July. + +Social ambition has even infected our rector's jolly little wife, who has +never felt able or called upon to entertain in any but the most informal +way. After hearing the report of a clerical luncheon in New York, where +the clergyman sat at the foot of his own table with a miniature +shepherd's crook before him, and the favour beside the plate of each +female guest consisted of a woolly lamb, she, not to be outdone, +immediately imperilled the possibility of a new winter gown by inviting +all the non-resident members of the congregation to lunch, and serving +the ice cream in a toy Noah's Ark, while the animals from it were grouped +about a large dish of water, to form an appropriate decoration in the +centre of the table, and sugar doves at each plate held leaves in their +mouths, upon which the name of the guest was neatly pricked with a pin. + + * * * * * + +Lavinia Dorman has decided to stay with me and do without her maid, +rather than take a cottage, or board, for we find that we do not wear on +each other in the least. We never plan for one another, or interfere in +any way, and each takes it for granted that if the other desires +assistance of any sort, she will ask for it. + +Miss Lavinia pokes about the garden at her own sweet will. I gather the +flowers,--I could not give that up to any one,--and she takes charge of +arranging them in the house. She is very fond of doing fancy work, I am +not, so that her offer to re-cover the sofa cushions in den, study, and +library comes in the light of a household benefaction. + +Besides this, she has a very good effect upon the boys, and without being +at all fussy, she is instilling their absorbent minds quite unconsciously +with some little bits of the quaint good breeding of other days that they +will never forget. They love to go to town with her, one of her first +stipulations being that if I chose to include her in some of our long +drives, well and good, otherwise she wished the liberty of telephoning +the stable for horse and man, whenever she pleased, without my troubling +myself about her movements. + +Meanwhile, I really think that this living in the midst of a family +without losing her independence is making Lavinia Dorman grow backwards +toward youth. She has bought an outing hat without strings, trimmed with +fluffy white, she takes her work out under the trees in a basket, and +has given up tying her head in a thin and a thick veil every time she +drives out. If she could learn to sit comfortably back and lounge a +trifle, and if a friendly magpie would only chance along and steal her +stock of fronts, for a nest, so that she would be obliged to show her +own lovely hair that shades like oxidized silver, the transformation +would be complete. + +Martin Cortright also is developing mental energy. He always had +considerable physical vim, as I found the Sunday after he first came, +when he accompanied Evan upon one of his long walks, and was not used up +by it. He has stopped fumbling with reference books and shuffling bits of +paper by the hour, and writes industriously every day by the west window +of the attic, where he can refresh himself by looking out of the window +at the garden, or across at the passers on the highway. I was afraid that +he might wish to read the results nightly to either father or Evan, but +no, he keeps them safely under lock and key in a great teacher's desk +that he bought second hand over in town. He stays to dine with us two or +three nights a week, but he has grown flexible, and our meals are very +merry ones. Laugh softly to yourself, Experience Book, and flutter your +leaves just a bit as I write, that of their own volition, Miss Lavinia +and Martin have drifted from whist to piquet, as by natural transition, +and Evan is free for garden saunterings once more. + + * * * * * + +_June_ 25. Yesterday was the day of the festival, and it was neither +sultry, foggy, nor brought to a sudden stop by a thunder shower, as so +often happens at this season. + +By half past two in the afternoon the country teams could be seen winding +Bluff ward by all the various roads, and before three, the hour at which +the gates were to be opened, every available hitching place was occupied, +and the line of vehicles extended well up one of the back lanes that was +bounded by a convenient rail fence. + +Horace Bradford arrived home at Pine Ridge night before last. He had +expected to see Sylvia and Miss Lavinia at Rockcliffe. Missing them, and +not knowing the cause of their change of plan, very naturally his first +thought was to drive down to Oak-lands and make a double call. On taking +up the local paper he saw the announcement of the rose festival set forth +in ornamental type, which gave him a key to the situation, so that the +substantial, if not ornamental, farm buggy, drawn by a young horse with +plenty of free-gaited country go but no "manners," was one of the first +to reach the Bluffs, Horace innocently hoping to have a few moments with +Sylvia before the festivities began. He therefore inquired his way to the +Latham house direct, instead of going into the fair grounds by way of the +Ponsonbys', and encountered Perkins, Potts, and Parker, who were on guard +at the door, as well as two footmen who stood by the steps with straw +wheel guards ready to assist people from their traps, and two grooms in +silk-sleeved buff jackets, who waited to take charge of the horses of the +men who were expected to ride over from a neighbouring social settlement. + +The outdoor group seemed to be in doubt how to proceed. Bradford had all +the ease of bearing that they instinctively felt belonged to a gentleman, +but his turnout was beyond the pale, and the grooms hesitated to give it +the shelter of the perfectly equipped stable. + +Perkins, however, did not hesitate, and before Bradford could open his +lips, came through the doors that were fastened wide open, and, with a +wave of his hand said, in freezing tones, "You've come in the wrong way; +the entrance gate and ticket booth is below, as the sign shows." + +"I wish to see Miss Latham," said Bradford, handing his card, and at +the same time with difficulty suppressing a violent desire to knock +the man down. + +"Not at home," replied immovable Perkins, vouchsafing no further +information. + +"Then take my card to Mrs. Latham," thundered Bradford, nettled by his +slip in not asking for both at the first instance, and; as the man still +hesitated, he strode past him through the porch and into the hall. + +As Perkins disappeared through one of the many doorways, Bradford stood +still for a moment before his eyes focussed to the change of light. The +pillars of the hall that supported the balcony corridor of the second +story were wreathed with light green vines, delicate green draperies +screened the windows, the pale light coming from many Japanese lanterns +and exquisitely shaded bronze lamps rather than outside. Half a dozen +little arbours were formed by large Japanese umbrellas, under which tea +tables were placed, and the sweet air of the summer afternoon was +changed and made suffocatingly heavy by burning incense. + +Of course all this paraphernalia belonged to the festival, and yet +Bradford was not prepared to find Sylvia living in such daily state as +the other surroundings implied. He knew that she belonged to a prosperous +family, but his entrance to what he supposed would be, as the name +implied, a country cottage, was a decided shock to him. + +He had been drawn irresistibly toward Sylvia almost from their meeting +in the lecture room several years before, but he could hardly allow +himself the luxury of day dreams then, and it was not until his +promotion had seemed to him to place him upon a safe footing, that he +had paused long enough to realize how completely she was woven into all +his thoughts of the future. Now, as he waited there, a broad gulf, not a +crossable river, seemed to stretch before him, not alone financial but +ethical,--a sweeping troublous torrent, the force of which he could +neither stem nor even explain to himself,--verily the surging of the +Whirlpool at his feet. + +Babbling girlish voices waked him from his revery, and half a dozen young +figures, disguised in handsomely embroidered Japanese costumes and +headgear, their eyes given the typical almond-shaped and upward slant by +means of paint and pencil, came down the stairs, followed a moment later +by a taller figure in still richer robes, and so carefully made up by +powder and paint that at a distance she looked but little older than the +girls. Coming toward Bradford with an expression of playful inquiry, she +said: "Is this Mr. Bradford? I am Mrs. Latham. Did you wish to see me? +I've only a moment to spare, for at three o'clock I lose my identity and +become a Geisha girl." + +Bradford was embarrassed for a moment, even quite disconcerted. Why +should he have taken it for granted that Sylvia had spoken of him, and +that he should be known to her mother? But such was the case, and he felt +bitterly humbled. + +"I was one of Miss Latham's instructors at Rockcliffe two years ago. I +have returned now to spend the vacation with my mother, whom perhaps you +know, at Pine Ridge, and finding that you have come to live +here--I--ventured to call." If poor Bradford had desired to be stiff and +uninterestingly didactic, he could not have succeeded better. + +"Ah, yes--Rockcliffe--Sylvia was there for a couple of years, and will +doubtless be glad to hear of the place. I myself never approved of +college life for girls, it makes them so superior and offish when they +return to society. Even two years abroad have not put Sylvia completely +at her ease among us again. + +"We do not live here; this is merely a between-season roost, and we leave +again next week, so I have not met your mother. The only one of the name +I recollect is an old country egg woman back somewhere in the hills +toward Pine Ridge. You will find Sylvia at Mrs. Jenks-Smith's, just +above, at the rose booth. Pardon me if I leave you now, I have so much on +my hands this afternoon." + +Thus dismissed, Bradford went out into the light again. He noticed for +the first time that his horse and buggy, standing unheeded where he left +them, looked strangely out of date, and as he went down the steps, the +horse turned his head, and recognizing him, gave a joyful whinny that +caused the grooms to grin. He could feel the colour rising to his very +eyes, and for a moment he determined to go home without making any +further effort to find Sylvia, and he felt grateful that his mother had +declined his invitation to come with him to the festival. + +His mother, "the egg-woman"! What would she have thought of Sylvia's +mother thus painted and transformed in the name of charity? He +experienced a thrill of relief at the escape. + +As he found himself on the free highway once more, he faltered. He would +see how Sylvia bore herself in the new surroundings before he put it all +behind him. This time he found a bit of shade and a fence rail for the +too friendly nag, and entering the Jenks-Smith grounds afoot, followed +the crowd that was gathering. + +The rose garden of five years' well-trained growth was extremely +beautiful, while the pergola that separated it from the formal garden of +the fountain, and at the same time served as a gateway to it, was +utilized as the booth where roses and fanciful boxes of giant +strawberries were to be sold. + +Bradford, standing at a little distance, under an archway, scanned the +faces of the smart married women who bustled about canvassing, and the +young girls who carelessly gathered the sumptuous roses into bouquets for +the buyers, making a great fuss over the thorns as they did so. Then one +tall, white-clad figure arrested his attention. It was Sylvia. She +handled the flowers lovingly, and was bestowing patient attention upon a +country woman, to whom these pampered roses were a revelation, and who +wished a bouquet made up of samples, one of each variety, and not a mass +all of a colour like the bunches that were arranged in the great baskets. + +As Sylvia held the bouquet up for the woman's approval, adding a bud +here and there, pausing to breathe its fragrance herself before handing +it to the purchaser, Horace's courage came back. She was plainly not a +part of the vortex that surrounded her. Circumstances at present seemed +to stand between. He could not even venture a guess if she ever gave him +other than a friendly thought; but a feeling came over him as he stood in +the deep shade, that some day she might be lonely and need steadfast +friendship, and then the opportunity to serve her would give him the +right to question. + +Now thoroughly master of himself, he went toward her, and was rewarded by +a greeting of unfeigned pleasure, a few moments of general talk, and a +big bunch of roses for his mother. + +"No, you shall not buy these. I am sending them to your mother with my +love, to beg pardon for Miss Lavinia and myself, for we've been trying to +go to Pine Ridge all the week; but this affair has kept me spinning like +a top, and when I do stop I expect to fall over with weariness. I was +_so_ sorry about Rockcliffe Commencement. Some day, perhaps, mamma will +have finished bringing me out, and then I can crawl in again where it is +quiet, and live. Ah, you went to the house and saw her, and she said we +were going away next week? I did not know it, but we flit about so one +can never tell. I've half a mind to be rebellious and ask to be left here +with Lavinia Dorman for guardian, I'm so tired of change. Yes, I enjoyed +my flying trip to the West, in a way, though father only came as far as +Chicago with me, but I expect him to-morrow." + +Then the crowd surged along, peering, staring, and feeling, so that it +would have blocked the way conspicuously if Bradford had lingered longer. +As he vanished, Monty Bell sauntered up, and, entering the booth, took +his place by Sylvia. Under pretext of good-naturedly saving her fingers +from thorns by tying the bouquets for her, kept by her side all the +afternoon, and when a lull came at tea time, strolled with her toward the +refreshment tent, where he coaxed her to sit down to rest in one of the +little recesses that lined the garden wall, where she would be free from +the crowd while he brought her some supper. + +This she did the more readily because she was really tired, almost to the +point of faintness, and even felt grateful when Mr. Bell returned with +some dainty food, and sat beside her to hold her plate. She was so used +to seeing him about at all hours, making himself generally useful, that +the little attentions he continually showered upon her never held a +fragment of personality in her eyes. + +Now, however, something familiar in his manner jarred upon her and put +her strangely on her guard. One of the man's peculiarities was that he +had a hypnotic manner, and presently, almost before she could really +understand what he was about, he had put his arm around her and was +making an easy, take-it-all-for-granted declaration of love. + +For an instant she could not believe her ears, and then his tightening +clasp brought realization. Tearing herself away, and dropping her plate +with a crash, she faced him with white face and blazing eyes, saying but +one word--"Stop!" in so commanding a tone that even his fluency faltered, +and he paused in exceeding amaze at the result of what he had supposed +any woman of his set would esteem an honour, much more this strange girl +whose mother was engaged so systematically in securing a place at the +ladder top. + +"If I had understood that your casual politeness to me and usefulness to +my mother meant insult such as this, we should have checked it long ago." + +"Insult?" ejaculated Monty Bell, looking over his shoulder, apprehensive +lest some one should be within ear-shot, for to be an object of ridicule +was the greatest evil that could come to him. "You don't understand. I +want you to marry me." + +"Insult, most certainly! What else do you call it for a man with two +little daughters, and divorced by his wife for his own unforgivable +fault, to ask any woman to marry him! Yes, I know, you see. Lavinia +Dorman is a friend of Mrs. Bell!" + +"The devil!" muttered the man, still looking about uneasily, under the +gaze of her uncompromising accusation. In some way the directness of her +words made him feel uncomfortable for the moment, but he quickly +recovered, changed his tactics, and burying his hands in his pockets, +assumed his usually jaunty air, while half a smile, half a sneer, crossed +his face as he said lightly: "What a droll, Puritan spitfire we are, +aren't we? As if rearranged families were not a thing of daily happening. +Don't feel called upon to kick up a rumpus, it isn't necessary; besides, +take a tip from me, _your mother won't like it!_ If you are through with +that cup, I will take the things back," and nonchalantly shying the bits +of the broken plate into the bushes, he went toward the refreshment tent, +saying to his host, Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who was inquiring for Sylvia: "Yes, +she is yonder in the second arbour. I've taken her some tea, for she's +quite done up; that beastly overland trip home was too much for her in +the first hot weather." + +Consequently the warm-hearted Lady of the Bluffs was naturally prepared +to find Sylvia sick and faint, and urged sending her home, where she +could slip in and get to bed unobserved, which was the one thing that the +girl most desired. Also this shrewd lady was wise enough to give no sign, +even though she drew her conclusions, when on turning to leave the arbour +she saw a bit of the broken plate lying on the ground at the opposite +side near where a point of the rustic work had torn a shred from Sylvia's +mull drapery as she had pulled herself away. + + * * * * * + +By the time that Sylvia had gained her room the warm twilight sky had +been transformed to a silver lake by the moon, but she neither enjoyed +its beauty nor heard the music that was beginning to come from the rose +garden above, as well as the tea room below stairs. She sat by the +window, deaf to all outside things, with only one thought in her mind; +she would gladly have buried the occurrence of the arbour, if it were +possible, but as it was, she must tell her mother, as now, that his +motive was made plain, Monty Bell, as a matter of course, could no longer +come to the house. Finally she went to bed and slept from sheer +exhaustion, never for a moment doubting that her mother would take her +view of the matter. Presently the French maid crept in and closed the +blinds, wondering why Mademoiselle often seemed to take pleasure so +sadly, and appeared older than Madame, her mother, and then, feeling at +liberty, hurried down gayly to dance on the back porch with the loitering +gentlemen's gentlemen who gathered there. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Latham slept late the next morning, and at eleven o'clock had only +finished looking over her mail without yet touching her breakfast, when, +without waiting for an answer to her knock, Sylvia entered. Her mother +looked up in some surprise, for she did not encourage running in and out +at all hours, or any of the usual intimacies between a mother and grown +daughter who are companions. In fact she did not even ask Sylvia to sit +down, or if she was ill, though her pallor was very apparent, but merely +raised questioning eyebrows, saying, "What is it?" as she turned her +attention to some legal-looking documents in her lace-decked lap. + +Chilled to the heart Sylvia seated herself in a low chair by her mother, +so that she need not raise her voice, and twisting her hands nervously, +told what had happened in as few words as possible, much as if she had +repeated them over and over until they were learned like a lesson. + +Mrs. Latham's cold gray eyes at first snapped viciously, and then grew +big with wonder as Sylvia ended by saying, "I should never have spoken of +this to any one, and tried to forget, but you would think it strange that +Mr. Bell should stop coming here--and--" + +"Think it strange?" said Mrs. Latham, speaking harshly and rapidly, a +thing she rarely did. "Do you know what I think of you? That you are the +most absolute little fool I ever imagined. You not only refuse a man who +could make your social position secure, but rant and get into tantrums +over the compliment he pays you, and call it an 'insult,' exactly as your +canting grandmother Latham might have done. I've no patience with you; +and if you think that this nonsense of yours shuts the door in Monty +Bell's face, you are wholly mistaken. + +"While we are upon this subject of divorce that seems to shock you so, I +may as well tell you what you will not see for yourself, and your father +appears to have been too mealy-mouthed to explain,--we have agreed to +separate. No need of your getting tragic, there are no public +recriminations on either side, no vulgar infidelity or common +quarrelling, everything quite amicable, I assure you. Simply we find our +tastes totally different, and have done so for several years. Mr. +Latham's ambitions are wholly financial, mine are social. He repelled and +ignored my best friends, and as we are in every way independent of each +other, he has been wise enough to avoid possible and annoying +complications by standing out of my way and making it easy for me to +legalize the arrangement and readjust myself completely to new +conditions." + +"But what of Carthy and me?" gasped Sylvia, in a voice so choked and +hollow that the older woman hesitated, but for a single instant only. +"Have neither you nor father thought of us? Where do we belong? Where is +our home? Can people who have once loved each other forget their children +and throw them off so? Does God allow it? You must have cared for father +once, for I remember when I was a little girl you told me that you called +me Sylvia, to have my name as nearly like father's--Sylvester--as +possible. Have you forgotten it all, that you can do this thing, when you +say in the same breath that father has done no evil?" + +"Don't be tragic, Sylvia, and rake up things that have nothing to do with +the matter. As to your brother, it was your father's foolish severity +about a card debt, and insisting upon placing him away from me, that is +primarily responsible for the divorce, not any wish of mine to exile +Carthy. And you ask where your home is, as if I had turned you out, when +you have just refused an offer that any unmarried society woman, who can +afford it, would clutch." + +Sylvia sat silent, looking blindly before her. Her mother waited a +moment, as if expecting some reply, and then continued: "Now that the +matter is virtually settled, I suppose in a few days the papers will +save me the trouble of announcing it. Under the circumstances, I shall +rent the Newport house for the season, as I have had several good +offers, and go abroad for two or three months on the continent, so that +before my return the town house will be redecorated and everything will +be readjusted for a successful winter. You had better take a few days +before deciding what to do. You can, of course, come with me, if you are +not sick of travel, or go to your father, who is ready to make you a +handsome allowance; though you will find that awkward at present, as he +is moving about so much. If you choose to feel aggrieved just now, you +might persuade your dear, prim Miss Dorman to either stay here with you +or take that little furnished house that is to rent on the lower road, +if you prefer that form of discomfort they call simplicity. You needn't +decide now; take time," she added genially, as if she was doing all that +could be asked. + +When she ceased speaking, Sylvia, with bowed head, rose and quickly +left the room. + +Then Mrs. Latham gave a sigh of relief that the interview was over, threw +the papers into a bureau drawer, called to the maid, who had been all the +while listening in the dressing room, to prepare to arrange her hair, +and, taking the chances that Sylvia would keep her room, at least for +some hours, wrote a hasty note to Monty Bell, inviting him to luncheon. + +Meanwhile, Sylvia, instead of going to her room to cry, took her hat and +crept out into the lane that led to the woods. She must be quite away by +herself and gain time to think. This was a terrible sort of grief that +could neither be kept secret nor halved by sympathy, but must be worn in +the full glare of day. Her heart condemned her mother wholly, and she +understood why her father kept the silence of shame,--to whom could she +turn? As she gained the woods, and throwing herself down on a soft bed of +hemlock needles, closed her dry, burning eyes, two people seemed to stand +side by side and look at her pityingly,--Lavinia Dorman and Horace +Bradford,--and mentally she turned toward one and shrank from the other. +In Miss Lavinia she saw her only refuge, but between herself and Horace +the shadow of his upright mother seemed to intervene. What could they +think of her mother playing at Geisha girl in her own home at the very +hour of its wreck? + + + + +XII + +HIS MOTHER + + +_July_ 1. It was several days after the festival before the news of the +Latham divorce was made definitely public by a paragraph under the +heading of "Society News," in one of the New York papers, though of +course the rumour had crept into every house on the Bluffs, by way of the +back stairs. + +Miss Lavinia was greatly distressed, and yet did not know exactly how to +act in the matter; for though Mrs. Latham was seen driving by, as usual, +Sylvia made no sign. + +We may read of such cases often enough, and yet when the blow falls in +the immediate neighbourhood, one must feel the reflex of the shock. While +sympathy for Sylvia keeps the thing ever present, like a weight upon the +chest, I find myself wondering if anything could have been done to avert +the disaster, and we all rove about in a half unsettled condition. Half a +dozen times a day Lavinia Dorman starts up with the determination of +calling upon Sylvia, but this morning decided upon writing her a letter +instead, and having sent it up by Timothy Saunders, is now sitting out in +the arbour, while Martin Cortright is reading to her from his manuscript; +but her attention is for the first time divided, and she is continually +glancing up the road as if expecting a summons,--a state of things that +causes an expression of mild surprise and disappointment to cross +Martin's countenance at her random and inapropos criticisms. I see that +in my recent confusion I have forgotten to record the fact that Miss +Lavinia has fallen into the rôle of critic for Martin's book, and that +for the last ten days, as a matter of course, he reads to her every +afternoon the result of his morning's work, finding, as he says, that her +power of condensation is of the greatest help in enabling him to +eliminate much of the needless detail of his subject that blocked him, +and to concentrate his vitality upon the rest. + +This all looks promising, to my romantic mind; for the beginning of all +kinds of affection, physical, mental, and spiritual, that are huddled +together in varying proportions as component parts of love, has its +origin in dependence. Father declares independence, selfishness, and +aloofness to be the trinity of hell. Now Martin Cortright has come to +depend upon Lavinia Dorman's opinion, and she is beginning not only to +realize and enjoy his dependence, but to aid and abet it. Is not this +symptomatic? + +When I approach father upon the Latham affair, he says that he thinks the +rupture was inevitable from the point of view and conditions that +existed. He feels, from the evidence that long experience with the inner +life of households has given him, that though a thoughtless woman may be +brought to realize, and a woman with really bad inherited instincts +reclaimed, through love, the wholly selfish woman of Mrs. Latham's type +remains immovable to word of God or man, and is unreachable, save through +the social code of the class that forms her world, and this code +sanctions both the marriage and the divorce of convenience, and receives +the results equally with open arms. + +As to the effect upon Sylvia, father exhibits much concern, and no +little anxiety, for he has read her as a nature in some respects old for +her twenty-one years, and in others, the side of the feminine, wholly +young and unawakened, so that this jar, he thinks, comes at a most +critical moment. + +He has a pretty theory that the untroubled heart of a young girl is like +a vessel full of the fresh spring sap of the sugar maple that is being +freed by slow fire from its crudities and condensed to tangible form. +When a certain point is reached, it is ready to crystallize about the +first object that stirs it ever so lightly, irrespective of its quality: +this is first love. But if the condensing process is lingering, no jar +disturbing it prematurely until, as it reaches perfection, the vital +touch suddenly reaches its depths, then comes real love, perfected at +first sight, clinging everlastingly to the object, love that endures by +its own strength, not by mere force of habit; and this love belongs only +to the heart's springtime, before full consciousness has made it +speculative. + + * * * * * + +When Horace Bradford drove homeward the afternoon of the fête, he was in +a brown study, having no realization of time or place until the wise +horse turned in at the barnyard gate, and after standing a moment by his +usual hitching post, looked over his shoulder and gave a whinny to +attract his master's attention. Then Horace started up, shook off his +lethargy, and hurried to the porch, where his mother stood waiting, to +give her the roses, and Sylvia's message. + +Mrs. Bradford was, for one of her reserve, almost childishly eager to +hear of the experiences of the afternoon, and was prepared to sit down +comfortably on the porch and have her son give a full account of it; but +instead, he gave her a few rather incoherent details, and leaving her +standing with the splendid roses held close to her face, very much in +Sylvia's own attitude, he hurried up to his room, where she could hear +him moving about as if unpacking his things, and opening and shutting +drawers nervously. + +"Never mind," she said softly to herself, "he will tell me all about her +when he is ready. Meanwhile, I'll wait, and not get in his way,--that is +what mothers are for." But by some strange impulse she loosened the +string that bound the roses, and placed them in one of her few treasures, +a silver bowl, in the centre of the supper table, and going to her +bedchamber, which was, country fashion, back of the sitting room, arrayed +herself in Horace's gifts,--the silk gown and fichu, with the onyx bar +and butterflies to fasten it,--and then returned to the porch to watch +the twilight gently veil sunset. + +Upstairs, Horace unpacked his trunks in a rebellious mood. In the morning +he had felt in the proper sense self-sufficient and contented,--the +position, which a few months before he thought perhaps ten years ahead of +him, had suddenly dropped at his feet, and he felt a natural elation, +though it stopped quite short of self-conceit. He could afford to relax +the grip with which he had been holding himself in check, and face the +knowledge that he loved Sylvia; while the fact that fate had brought her +to summer in his vicinity seemed but another proof that fortune was +smiling upon him. + +Now everything, though outwardly the same, was changed by the new point +of view, which he realized that he had already tried to conceal from his +mother, by his scanty account of the festival. He had been suddenly +confronted by conditions that he never expected to meet outside of the +pages of fiction, and felt himself utterly unable to combat them. Under +the present circumstances even neighbourly friendship with Sylvia would +be difficult. It was not that Mrs. Latham had overawed him in the least, +but she had raised in him so fierce and blinding a resentment by her only +half unconscious reference to his mother, that he resolved that under no +circumstances should she run the risk of being equally rebuffed. He would +protect her from a possible intercourse, where she could not be expected, +at her age, to hold her own, at no matter what cost to himself. + +"Egg woman!" Was it not his mother's pride and endeavour, her thrift and +courage to carry on the great farm alone, and the price of such things as +those very eggs, that had carried through his dying father's wish, and +sent him to college, thus giving him his chance in the world? No regret +at the fact, no false pride, dawned on him even for a second. All his +rage was that such a woman as Sylvia's mother should have the power to +stir him so, and then his love for Sylvia herself, intensified by pity +for the unknown trouble that he sensed rather than read in her face, cut +into him like a wound. He felt as if he must pick her up in his strong +arms and bear her away from all those clamouring people; and then the +realization both of his inability and ignorance of her own attitude fell +upon him like a chill, for she had never written or said a word to him +that might not have passed between any two college friends. Such thoughts +occupied him, until finally, as often fortunately happens in our mental +crises, a humdrum, domestic voice, the supper bell, called him, and +leaving his garments strewn about the room, he went downstairs. + +His mother was still sitting in the porch, and he became at once +conscious of a change in her appearance. As she looked up in pleased +expectancy, he recognized the cause, and his sternness vanished +instantly, as he said, "How fine we look to-night," and half sitting on +the little foot-bench beside her, and half kneeling, he touched the soft +lace, and gently kissed the withered cheek whose blood was still not so +far from the surface but that it could return in answer to the caress, +while she looked yearningly into the eyes that even now were hardly on a +level with hers, as if searching for the cause of what might be troubling +him. Yet she only said, as they rose and went indoors, "I put on your +gifts for you, at our first supper together," adding with an +unconsciousness that made Horace smile in spite of himself,--"besides, I +shouldn't wonder if some of the neighbours might drop in to see us, for +it must have got about by this time that you've come home; the mail +carrier saw you drive out this morning, I'm quite sure." + +Neighbours did call; some from pure friendliness, others to see if +"Horace acted set up by his new callin' and fortune," and still others, +who had been to the Bluffs that afternoon, to tell of the wonders of the +festival, their praise or condemnation varying according to age, until +Mrs. Bradford was at a loss whether to think the affair a spectacle of +fairyland or a vision of the bottomless pit, and Horace was in torment +lest he should be appealed to for an opinion, which he was presently. +"What did he think of the tea room? Was Mrs. Latham painted? Was she +Sylvia's mother, or step-mother, and if she was the former, didn't she +act dreadful giddy for the mother of grown children? And didn't he think +Sylvia was just sweet, so different from the rest, and sort of sad, as +if she had a step-mother, as people said, and was sat on?" The questioner +being the very woman for whom Sylvia had taken such pains in selecting +the bouquet of specimen roses, who proved to be the new wife of a +neighbour whom Horace had not met. + +It seemed to Horace that his mother purposely looked away from him as he +tried to pull himself together, and answer nonchalantly that he believed +that Mrs. Latham was Sylvia's own mother, though she did appear very +young, and that of course she was acting the part of a Geisha girl, a +tea-seller, which would account for her sprightly manner, etc., +unconsciously putting what he wished in the place of what he knew, adding +with a heartiness that almost made his voice tremble that Miss Sylvia +certainly did seem different, and as if she was no kin of her mother's. + +"I guess, then, likely it isn't her step-mother, but that she's worried +in her mind about her beau," continued the loquacious woman, pleased at +having such a large audience for her news. "I heard some folks say,--when +I was waitin' about for my cream, and havin' a good look at all the +millionnaires, which they didn't mind, but seemed to expect, the same +bein' fair enough, seein' as it's what I paid to go in for,--that the +man they call Mr. Bell, that's been hangin' around the Bluffs since +spring, is courtin' her steady, but she can't seem to make up her mind. +Thinks I to myself, I don't wonder, for I've had a good look at him, and +he's well over forty, and though he dresses fine, from his eyes I +wouldn't trust him, if he was a pedler, even to weigh out my rags and +change 'em for tin, without I'd shook the scales well first. The same +folks was sayin' that he's a grass widower, anyway, and I shouldn't think +her folks would put up with that, fixed as they be, yet they do say," and +here her voice dropped mysteriously, "that Mrs. Latham's a kind of grass +widder herself, for her husband hasn't turned up in all the year she's +been here, and nobody's so much as seen his name to a check." + +At this point Mrs. Bradford made an effort to turn the conversation into +other channels; for friendly as she always was with her neighbours of all +degrees, she never allowed unkind gossip in her house, and only a +newcomer would have ventured upon it. As it was, the loquacious one felt +the rebuke in the air, and made hasty adieus on the plea of having to set +bread, leaving the rest to talk to their host of themselves, their +pleasure at his return, and the local interests of Pine Ridge. + +When they had all gone, Horace locked the back door, after filling an +old yellow and bronze glazed pitcher, which bric-à-brac hunters would +have struggled for, at the well, as he had done every night during his +boyhood, he left it on the hall table, and going out the front way to the +garden, walked up and down the long straight walk, between the sweet peas +and rose bushes, for more than an hour, until, having fought to no +conclusion the battle into which a new foe had entered, he returned to +the house and went noiselessly to his room. + +Here, in place of the confusion he had left, quiet and order reigned. All +his clothes were laid away in their old places. He had but to reach his +hand inside the closet, the door of which hesitated before opening in its +familiar way, to find his night gear; the sheets were turned down at the +exact angle, and the pillows arranged one crosswise, one upright, as he +liked them,--his mother's remembering touch was upon everything. + +He undressed without striking a light, and lay down, only to look +wakefully out at the dark lattice of tree branches against the moonlit +sky. Presently a step sounded on the stairs and paused at his partly open +door. He raised himself on his elbow, and peering through the crack saw +his mother standing there in night-dress and short sack, shading the +candle with her hand as she used when he was a little chap, to make sure +that he was safe asleep and had not perhaps crept out the window to go +coon hunting with the bigger boys,--a proceeding his father always winked +at, but which she feared would lead him to overdo and get a fever. + +"I'm here, mother," he said cheerfully. + +"Are you quite comfortable, Horace? Is there nothing that you want?" + +He hesitated a moment, and then said frankly, "Yes and no, mother." + +"Is it anything that I can do for you?" she asked, coming into the room +and smoothing his hair as she spoke. + +"Ah, that is the _no_ of it, and the hard part," he answered, capturing +the hand and holding it tight between his own. + +"And the hard part for your old mother too, when the one thing comes +that she cannot give or do. Whatever it is, don't shut me out from it, +Horace,--that is, unless you must," and tucking the light summer quilt in +Under the pillow by one of his hands, she kissed his forehead and went +away. + +Horace Bradford must have slept, for his next consciousness was of the +fresh wind and light of morning, and as he drew his cramped hand from +under his pillow, something soft and filmy came with it,--a woman's +handkerchief edged with lace. + +For a minute he held it in surprise, and then began to search the +corners for the marking. There it was, two embroidered initials, S.L. +Where had it dropped from? Who had put it there? Was it a message or an +accident? Yet it was both and neither. His mother had found the dainty +thing in the package from New York that held the gown and ornaments, +where it had dropped from Sylvia's waist that night, four months before, +when she stood leaning on Miss Lavinia Dorman's table, as the parcel was +being tied. + +Mrs. Bradford had pondered over it silently until, the day when I went to +see her and chanced to mention Sylvia Latham's name, its identity flashed +upon her; and when gropingly she came to associate this name with +something that troubled Horace, obliterating self and mother jealousy, +she tucked the bit of linen underneath his pillow, with an undefined +idea, knowing nothing, in the hope that it might comfort him. And so it +did; for even when he learned the manner of its coming, he put it in his +letter case as a reminder not to despair but wait. + + * * * * * + +When a week had passed and the matter of the divorce had been well aired, +discussed, and was no longer a novelty to her neighbours on the Bluffs, +Mrs. Latham's plan of soon closing her cottage and transferring the +servants to Newport, with the exception of the stable men and a couple of +caretakers, was announced, as she was going abroad for the baths. The +same day Lavinia Dorman received an urgent note from Sylvia, asking her +"when and where she could see her alone, if, as she thought likely, she +did not feel inclined to come to the house." The tone of the brief note +showed that Sylvia felt the whole matter to be a keen disgrace that not +only compromised herself but her friends. + +Of course Miss Lavinia went, and would have gone even if she had to +combat Mrs. Latham, for whom she asked courteously at the door; but that +lady, for some reason, did not choose to appear and run the gantlet, and +sent an elaborate message about a sick headache by the now somewhat +crestfallen Perkins. Presently Sylvia slipped into the morning room, and +crouching by Miss Lavinia, buried her face in her friend's lap, the +tension at last giving way, and it was some time before she grew quiet +enough to talk coherently, and tell her plan, which is this: she wishes +Miss Lavinia to take the Alton cottage (which is furnished) at the foot +of the Bluffs, for the rest of the season, and live there with her. Then +as soon as Mrs. Latham has gone, and the poor girl has steadied herself, +her father, to whom she has already written, will come, and what she will +do in the autumn will be arranged. Everything is as yet vague; but one +thing she has decided for herself--under no circumstances will she again +live with her mother, and she is now staying quietly in the house and +taking her meals in her room, in order to give the scandalmongers and +gossips as little material as possible. + +Lavinia Dorman, who readily consented to do as she asked, says that +Sylvia is brave and heartbroken at the same time, that all her girlish +spontaneity has gone, and she is like a statue. + +I am so sorry to have Miss Lavinia go, even a few hundred yards down the +road, it has seemed so good to have an older woman in the house to whom I +can say, "Would you, or wouldn't you?" Martin is also quite upset, and +has stopped writing and begun fumbling and pulling the reference books +about again; but Miss Lavinia says that she is not going to give up the +afternoon reading, for she thinks the history is a work of importance not +to be slighted, and that Sylvia will doubtless take up her own reading +and practising after a time; that while she herself has willingly +consented to chaperon her, she does not intend to give up her own +freedom, nor would it be good for Sylvia if she did. + +Yesterday morning Miss Lavinia received a letter from Sylvester Latham, +thanking her for the offer of temporary protection for his daughter, and +telling her, in curt business terms, meant to be affable, to name her own +price for the office. + +I have never before seen the ladylike Lavinia Dorman so completely and +ungovernably angry. I could do nothing with her, and last evening it took +the united efforts of Martin, father, and Evan to convince her that it +was not a real affront. Poor Mr. Latham, he has not yet gotten beyond +money valuation of friendship; but then it is probably because he has had +no chance. Perhaps--but no, life is too serious just now in that quarter +for me to allow myself remotely pleasant perhapses. + +Miss Lavinia was too agitated to play piquet to-night, so she and Martin +sat in the porch where the light from the hall lamp was sufficient to +enable them to play a couple of games of backgammon, to steady her +nerves, she said; and presently, as the dice ceased rattling, Evan gave +me a nudge of intelligence, and looking over I found that they had +reversed the board and were playing "Give away" with checkers. + +"After this, what?" I whispered to Evan. + +"Jackstraws," he answered, shaking with silent laughter. + + * * * * * + +Horace Bradford turned his mind for the next few days to the many things +about the place that needed his attention, resolving that he would let a +week or so elapse before making any further attempt to see Sylvia, and in +that time hoped to find Miss Lavinia at home, and from her possibly +receive some light upon the gossip about Mr. Bell, as well as news of +Sylvia herself. + +The sinking-fund for repairs and rebuilding the house that he and his +mother had been accumulating ever since he had made his own way, he found +to be in a healthy condition. A new hay barn and poultry house was to be +put up at once; and, as soon as practicable, his wish of many years, to +restore the brick house, that had been marred by "lean-tos" in the wrong +places, to its colonial simplicity, could be at least begun. + +Every day until two or three o'clock in the afternoon he gave to these +affairs, and then he went to his books. But here again he met with a +strange surprise, a new sensation,--he could neither fix his mind upon +writing, nor take in what he read; the letters were as meaningless as +fly specks on the pages. After a day or two he gave up the attempt. He +had worked too closely during the last term, he thought; his sight did +not register on his brain,--he had heard of such cases; he would rest a +week or so. + +Then every afternoon he walked over the Ridge to the little river in the +valley, carrying a book in his pocket, and his fishing-rod as a sort of +excuse, and poling an old flatboat down-stream to a shady spot under the +trees, propped his rod in place, where by a miracle he occasionally +caught a perch or bass, sat looking idly into the water, the brim of an +old felt hat turned down about his eyes. One day, near the week's end, as +he was lounging thus, his eye was attracted by a headline in a bit of +newspaper in which he had wrapped his bait box to save his pocket. It was +a semi-local paper from town, one that his mother took, but which they +seldom either of them read, and the date was three days back. He turned +it over idly, pausing as he did so to pull up the line which was being +jerked violently, but only by a mud eel. Why did he return again to the +scrap of paper when he had freed his hook? His eyes caught strange words, +and his hands began to tremble as he read. It was the condensed report of +the Latham divorce that was now going the rounds of the journals. + +He paused a moment, then folded the paper, put it in his pocket, poled +the boat with vigorous strokes to the landing-place, and strode through +the woods and across the cornfields homeward, his heart beating +tumultuously until he seemed almost to be struggling with suffocation. + +He stopped at the barn and harnessed a horse to the old buggy, passing by +the new one that he had recently ordered from town, and then went into +the house, where, taking off his slouchy fishing clothes, he put on the +same ceremonious afternoon wear that he would have worn at Northbridge if +going to call, put Sylvia's handkerchief in his inner pocket, and went in +search of his mother. + +He found her in the kitchen, tying the covers upon countless jars of +currant jam. She looked surprised to see him back at such an hour, +but said nothing, as Esther Nichols was close by, employed in wiping +off the jars. + +"I'm going over to Oaklands for a drive," he said, handing her the scrap +of newspaper with a gesture that meant silence. + +"Shall I wait supper for you, or will you be late?" she said, touching +his hand with a gesture almost of entreaty. + +"I may be late, but--yes, you may wait supper," he replied, looking back +at her in going out, as if he wanted to carry the picture well forward in +his mind, against any forgetfulness. + +The miles between Pine Ridge and the Bluffs seemed endless. He had at +first intended to go to Oaklands village to see Miss Lavinia and gather +such tidings as he could of the calamity that had overtaken Sylvia; for +he never for a moment questioned but that the girl, who had been +entirely straightforward, even in days of college pranks, should so +regard the matter. But as he drove along, and the very fact that he was +moving toward a definite end calmed him and clarified his judgment, he +resolved to go directly to Sylvia herself. He would certainly do this +if he had seen the announcement of her parents' deaths; then why not +now, when their love that gave her birth was officially and publicly +declared extinct? + +He drove through the wide gateway and left his horse standing by a stone +pillar outside the porte-cochère,--the beast would stand anywhere if +there was a bar or post for him to look at,--and walked up the steps with +the air of one who is not to be gainsaid. + +"Not at home," replied the singsong voice of Perkins, in answer to +Bradford's demand for Miss Latham, Potts and Parker having already gone +to open the Newport house for the renter, as a staff of servants was let +with it, and then he added, as if conferring a favour, "and Mrs. Latham +has gone on the coach to the station to meet some guests, the last 'ouse +party before she sails." + +"Before she sails," thought Bradford, numbly. Sylvia was going? Could he +believe the man? Should he go through the formality of leaving a card +that she might not get? No, he would go home and write a letter. + +Sylvia kept the house until late in the afternoon, these days. Then she +slipped out by the servants' stairway, and through the garden, to walk in +the wood lane that ran northward, joining the two parallel highroads; for +her healthy body needed air, and she knew that if she did not have it, +she could not control herself to keep peaceful silence for even the few +days that remained. So it chanced this afternoon that she was walking to +and fro in the quiet lane where the ferns crept down quite to the grassy +wheel tracks, when Perkins said those repellent words, "Not at home." + +As Bradford turned out the gate and noticed that the sun was already +setting, he thought to save time by cutting through the almost unused +lane to the turnpike that led directly to Pine Ridge. He had driven but +halfway across, when a flutter of light garments a little way ahead +attracted him. Could it be? Yes, it was Sylvia, in truth, and at the +moment that he recognized her and sprang to the ground she heard the +approaching hoofs and turned. For a full minute neither spoke nor moved, +then going quickly to her and stretching out both hands, he said, his +heart breaking through his voice, "I have been to see you. I did not know +until to-day." + +She gave her hands, and in another moment his strong arms held her fast +and unresisting--the purifying friendship of those unconscious years +crystallized and perfected at love's first touch. + +They said but very little as they walked up and down the lane together, +for half an hour; but as the shadows lengthened, the thought came equally +to both--"What should they do next? How could they part, and yet how stay +together?" Horace, with man's barbarian directness, would have liked to +bear her home to safety and his mother; but the shadow of usage and her +mother stood between, for in spite of the hollow mockery of it all, +Sylvia was still of her household. + +"I must take you home," he said at last, "and to-morrow I will come--all +shall be arranged." + +"To-night," she whispered, clasping his arm in nervous terror. "Come +back with me and tell her to-night; then I shall feel sure, and not +as if it was not real. And when you have told her,--before whoever +may be there, remember,--go home; do not stop to listen to anything +she may say." + +They drove slowly back, and went up the steps to the house, from which +voices and laughter came, hand in hand, like two children; but they were +children no longer when they crossed the threshold and saw Monty Bell in +the group that loitered with Mrs. Latham in the reception hall, waiting +for dinner to be announced. + +Sylvia's thin gown was wet with dew, her hair was tossed about, her eyes +big with excitement, and a red spot burned in each cheek in startling +contrast to her pallor--all of which gave her a wild and unusual beauty +that absolutely startled as well as shocked her mother, letting her think +for a second that Sylvia was going to make a scene, had gone mad, +perhaps, and run away, and that the tall man holding her by the hand had +found her and brought her home. + +Taking a few hasty steps forward, and dreading anything disagreeably +tragic, she said: "Mr. Bradford, I believe. What is it? What has +happened?" + +"Only this, that Miss Sylvia has promised to be my wife, and that, as her +mother, we have come to tell you of it before I go home to tell my own." +Horace Bradford drew himself up to every inch of his full height as he +spoke, bowed to Mrs. Latham, then led Sylvia to the foot of the stairs, +saying, "Until to-morrow," and walked quietly out of the house. + +No one spoke. Then Mrs. Latham, choking with rage, feeling herself +helplessly at bay (Sylvia was of age, and she could not even assume +authority under the circumstances), collapsed on a divan in modified +hysterics, and Monty Bell, completely thunderstruck, finally broke the +silence by his characteristic exclamation, "I'll be damned!" + + * * * * * + +After their belated supper, when Esther Nichols had gone over to a +neighbour's, Horace, sitting by his mother's side, out in the +honeysuckled porch, where the sphinx moths whirred like humming-birds of +night, holding her hands in his, told her all. And she, stifling the +mother pain that, like a birth pang, expected yet dreaded, must come at +first when the other woman, no matter how welcome, steps between, folded +his hands close, as if she held him again a baby in her arms, and said, +smiling through vague tears, "To-morrow we will go together to her, my +blessed son." + +"I cannot ask you to do that; there are reasons--I will bring Sylvia to +you later, when her mother has gone," he answered hastily, resolving that +he would do anything to shield her self-respect from the possible shock +of meeting that other mother. + +"Horace, you forget yourself, and your father too," she said almost +sternly. "I am country bred, but still I know the world's ways. Your +father's wife will go first to greet her who will be yours; you need not +fear for me," and he sat silent. + +That next afternoon, when Horace's first and last love met, they looked +into each other's hearts and saw the same image there, while Mrs. Latham +lay on the lounge in her room, raging within, that again her tongue had +failed her in her own house, and realizing that, woman of the world as +she aimed to be, the "egg woman" had rendered her helpless by mere force +of homely courtesy. Presently she rose, and railing and scolding the +bewildered maid, sent a message to New York to transfer her passage, if +possible, to an earlier steamer. + + + + +XIII + +GOSSIP AND THE BUG HUNTERS + + +_July_ 18. It is such a deadly sin to marry outside of the limited set +that is socially registered, that I now understand why many of the +Whirlpoolers are mentally inbred, almost to the vanishing point, so that +they have lost the capacity of thinking for themselves, and must +necessarily follow a leader. + +Sylvia Latham's engagement to Horace Bradford has caused a much greater +sensation than her mother's divorce. To be sure, every one who has met +Horace, not only fails to find anything objectionable about him, but +accords him great powers of attraction; yet they declare in the same +breath that the affair will not do for a precedent, and deplore its +radical influence. + +To-day we have settled down to midsummer quiet and to a period of silence +after much talking. The Bluffs are quite deserted except by a bevy of +children left with governesses while their parents are yachting or in +Europe, and the servants in charge of the various houses. But a trail of +discontent is left behind, for these servants, by their conspicuous +idleness, are having a very demoralizing effect upon the help in the +plain houses hereabout, who are necessarily expected to do more work for +lower wages. + +I am fully realizing, also, that the excitement of living other people's +lives, which we cannot control, through sympathetic imagination, is even +more wearing than meeting one's own responsibilities. A certain amount of +separateness--I use the word in an entirely opposite meaning to that of +aloofness--is, I find, necessary to every member of our household, and +this chance for intimacy with oneself is a luxury denied to those who +live all their lives taking joy and sorrow equally in a crowd. + +Even the boys, young as they are, recognize it unconsciously, and have +separate tree lairs, and neither may enter the other's, without going +through some mysterious and wonderful ceremony and sign language, by +which permission is asked and granted. + +There are often days when father sits in his study with closed door or +drives over the hills without desire for even the boys as companions. +This need not signify that he is either ill or worried,--it is simply the +need of separateness. The same thing applies to Evan when he sometimes +slips out through the garden at night, without word or sign, and is only +traceable by the beacon his cigar point makes, as he moves among the +trees, until this also vanishes, while my attic corner and the seat at +the end of the wild walk offer me similar relief. + +At least the attic did until Martin Cortright, at my own invitation, +established a rival lair at the opposite end. I did not think that it +would matter, the presence of this quiet man barricaded by his books and +papers, but it does, because the charm of isolation is destroyed. I would +not have done otherwise, however; I have all outdoors, and he will have +returned to New York to find winter quarters, and arrange for the +publication of the first volume of his history when autumn and shut-in +time draws near. + +Mrs. Latham sailed last week, and Sylvia is now in New York visiting her +father at his hotel and arranging her future plans. To-morrow she +returns, and together with Lavinia Dorman goes to the Alton cottage +until late August or early September, when her wedding is expected to +take place. + +At the last moment Mrs. Latham changed her plan of leaving the Bluff +cottage in the charge of servants, had all her personal belongings moved +away, and offered the place for sale. + +"Yes, my dear," said Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who, being a sort of honorary +stewardess of the Colony, usually remains a full week after the +breaking-up time, and frequently runs in to report progress, "she's not +coming back; being divorced she doesn't need to claim residence here. The +place is so convenient to town, too, but I can't really blame +her,--though of course I'm glad poor Sylvia's to be happy in her own way, +and all that, for it's plain to be seen with one eye she's too slow to go +her mother's pace--you couldn't expect Vivvy Latham, over all the hurdles +but one, and almost at the end of the race, to relish her daughter's +mother-in-law being in the egg trade in the very neighbourhood. + +"At first everybody thought that the Bradfords, mother and son, would +probably give up work and float on Sylvester J. Latham's money, for they +say (to spite Vivvy, most likely) he took to Horace Bradford at the +first, for what did the young fellow do but go straight to town and look +Sylvester up, and make a clean breast of it before the gossips could even +twist their tongues around the affair. + +"Sylvester thought he could handle Bradford to suit himself, move him to +New York, jam him into business, cut up the farm in house lots, +reorganize his affairs, and declare a dividend out of him for his own +benefit, as he does with lame railroads,--but not a bit of it! + +"'With what you may choose to do for Sylvia personally, it would be +selfish for me to interfere; but our way of living can only be planned +upon the basis of what I earn,' said Horace, looking Mr. Latham in the +face, and he's a big man too,--Sylvia gets her height from him. + +"It rather knocked Sylvester out, because it was a kind of spunk he'd +never met, and he told Jenks-Smith about it. Thought they didn't speak? +Oh yes, they're thick again, just now, over some kind of a deal. + +"Did you know Jenks-Smith had bought Vivvy's house here? Yes, the deed +was passed the day she sailed. We've got to keep the Bluffs select, you +know, and if the house was put on the market, goodness knows who might +buy it, just to get in with us. + +"Mr. Latham had an idea of taking it and giving it to Sylvia, but they +wouldn't have that either,--are just fixing up the old house a bit, and +going to summer at the farm, while the old lady will keep on selling eggs +the same as ever. Not but what she's a thoroughbred all right, though in +a cheap stable. I was down at Vivvy's the day she came to call on Sylvia! +Just as quiet and cool, except that her hands in the openwork silk mits +shook, as if her son was a duke. I thought there would be a lively row, +and I wished myself out of it, but Vivvy hadn't a chance to strike out +until the old lady got up to go, then she only said: 'You must not +understand that I approve of Sylvia's folly, or in any way give my +consent to this rash engagement. I cannot prevent it, that is all.' + +"The old lady's eyes flashed, and I thought, now for it; but she only +looked Vivvy through and through, and said very clearly: 'Most brides are +better for their mother's blessing, but under the circumstances I think +we prefer to do without it.'" + +Well-meaning Lady of the Bluffs, I'm really acquiring a sort of affection +for her in spite of her crudity. If all the Whirlpoolers were like her, +the pool might be a noisy torrent, but never a dangerous one. + + * * * * * + +This is Lavinia Dorman's last day with me, and I know she is really sorry +to go, in spite of a sort of pleasurable responsibility and excitement +she feels in managing Sylvia's affairs for a time. + +She waked up with a bad headache--a rare thing for her--and after +breakfast seemed so forlorn and blue that I coaxed her into my room and +petted her for a while, almost as I would one of the children; and as she +no longer conceals the fact of the false front from me, I took it off, +brushed and brushed her lovely hair until it grew supple and alive, and +began to glisten, and the pain gradually slipped through it into the air; +then I drew it up cushionwise from her forehead and coiled it loosely on +top, and she, declaring that my fingers had a magic touch, spent the rest +of the morning at my desk in writing letters. + +The lovable woman who has no one specially to love her is a common +tragedy of everyday life. Strangely enough it more often draws +ridicule than sympathy, and it seems to be always considered the +woman's own fault, instead of a combination of circumstances, woven +often of self-sacrifice, mistaken duty, and the studied suppression of +natural emotions. + +I think that both Miss Lavinia and Martin Cortright dread the going back +to their old existence, and yet I am not sure that either of them would +consent to change it in any way, in spite of their growlings at the +modern conditions of life in New York. They have learned to lean upon the +very restrictions that cramp them, until the idea of cutting free seems +as impossible as for the bulky woman to sever the stay-lace that at once +suffocates and supports her. + +Martin Cortright stayed to luncheon to-day. Not that it is an unusual +occurrence, but he wished to have a long afternoon to finish reading a +certain portion of his manuscript to Miss Lavinia before her flitting in +the morning. + +We were seated at the table when she came in hurriedly, apologizing for +being late, saying that she had become so absorbed in finishing her +letters that she did not realize that it was even noon. I did not look at +her particularly until a few moments later, when Martin, after fussing +with his bread a good deal, looked up and said, with a charming smile, +"What a very becoming gown you have on to-day, Miss Lavinia." + +"Yes," said father, "I was thinking precisely the same thing myself, so +you see that in spite of our condemning your sex for paying so much +attention to clothes, we men are the first to note the result of them." + +Miss Lavinia looked puzzled. She was too much the politic woman of the +world to say that the dimity gown was the same one that she had worn for +the two or three days previous; besides, the fact would have cast a doubt +upon their judgment, and she was particular in all such little details of +good breeding; so she parried the compliment deftly, and straightway fell +to pondering as to what circumstance the remark might refer. Glancing +toward the open window, she caught a reflection of herself where the +glass, backed by the dark green curtain, made a mirror. She had forgotten +to rearrange her hair, and her burnished silver-shot locks remained +rolled back lightly from her white forehead without the ugly, concealing +front! I rejoiced inwardly, for the spontaneous tribute to the +improvement by those two dear, stupid, discriminating men, has settled +the fronts in a way in which no arguments of mine could, for to-night she +came to dinner not only with her own emancipated hair, but wearing a bit +of red geranium stuck fetchingly in the puff. + + * * * * * + +_August_ 1. Sylvia has returned, and Miss Lavinia has gone to her, Lucy +and the portly cook having arrived from New York last night, in company +with Josephus, confined in a large hamper borrowed from the fishmonger, +in the top of which a ventilator had been introduced. Josephus was +naturally indignant when first let out, and switched his tail in wrath, +declining to recognize his mistress, and starting to explore the house +like an evil spirit. This morning I found him calmly perched on our +woodshed roof, gazing wickedly at the boys' banty chickens in the coop +below. I predict that he gets into trouble, unless his silver collar, +like a badge of aristocracy, protects him. But what can you expect of a +misguided Whirlpool cat, whose only conception of a bird is a dusty +street sparrow, when he meets face to face the delicious and whetting +elusiveness of a banty chick or a young robin. + +Poor Sylvia is nervously tired out, and the month's rest will be a real +boon. Her plans are quite settled, and there is nothing for her to do but +rest until the time comes to carry them out. She and Horace are to be +married the last week in August, so that they will have time for a +Canadian trip before College begins and they return to settle down in a +scrap of a house in Northbridge. + +August seems to be considered an unusual month for a wedding; but it +suits the circumstances, and as Sylvia has decided to be married quite +privately here at Oaklands, for her own sake, as well as for Mrs. +Bradford's convenience, she wisely wishes to have it over before the +possible return of the Whirlpoolers. + +Horace had hoped that his mother would join them in Northbridge, but +she said "No," very firmly, adding, with a quaint, twinkling smile, +"Horace, nobody ever loved each other closer than your father and I, +but there were times in the beginning when ever so well meaning a third +finger in our pie would have spoiled the baking. Best leave old mother +on the farm until by and by, when she can't tell a fresh egg from a +bad one any longer." + +So Horace comes down twice a week to visit Sylvia, and Miss Lavinia often +drives to Pine Ridge with her and leaves her for a day, so that Mrs. +Bradford may share the pleasant woman's talk of linen for table and bed, +and other details of a bridal outfit. + +We all missed Miss Lavinia when she left, that is, all but the boys, and +they hailed the change with joy, as giving them another house to roam in +and out of. How much of the joy of childhood that we so envy comes from +their freedom from prejudice, the ability they have for adapting +themselves. + +Martin was so distrait for a time that father absolutely ventured to +tease him a little, whereupon he turned stoutly about and declared: "I +have never denied the inspiration and value of congenial female society, +and the mere fact that circumstances have shut me from it so much of late +years makes me all the more appreciative of present privileges. Oh, Dick, +old friend, isn't it some credit to a man who has lived backward almost +from his birth, if, after he's sixty, he realizes it and tries to catch +up with the present? It seems to me as if the best things had always +been just within my grasp, only to slip away again, through unforeseen +circumstances, and my ill luck reminds me of a story and picture in a +comic paper that the boys were chuckling over last night. It was of a +well-intentioned beetle who fattened a nice green caterpillar for its +family's thanksgiving dinner, and the thing went and spun itself into a +cocoon the night before!" + +Martin Cortright at times verges on the pathetic, but always cures +himself by his appreciation of his own limitations before he reaches the +bore stage. He too is taking a short vacation from work, or rather I +should say that he has developed industry in a new direction and become +absorbed in entomology, to the extent of waging war on the tent +caterpillars that are disfiguring both the orchards and the wild cherry +trees of the highways with their untidy filmy nests, leaving the foliage +prematurely brown and sere, from their ravages. Yesterday, in driving +home from Pine Ridge with Sylvia, we noticed that even the wood edges had +the appearance of being scorched by fire, and many of the old orchards +where we go in May for apple blossoms are wrecks meshed in the +treacherous slimy webs. + +Martin's methods are regular and very simple, but he goes about his task +each day as if the matter was a marvel of military strategy. First he +puts a book ostentatiously in one pocket and a flask of alcohol in the +other. Next he takes his torch, consisting of a piece of sponge wired to +an old rake handle, which he keeps on the back stoop, and makes sure that +it is tight and secure, finally searching me out to say that in case he +meets Miss Lavinia, have I any message for her. + +Why he does not keep his outfit up at Martha's I do not know; perhaps +because of Timothy's keen tongue. + +Miss Lavinia, after her morning housekeeping is over, takes her work bag +to the narrow cottage porch and apparently gives herself up to the task +of making pin-cushions for Sylvia or embroidering initials on napery. +Suddenly she will get up, say that her feet are falling asleep and that +she needs a walk to restore her circulation. Will Sylvia go with her? +Sylvia, after pretending to consider, thinks not, making some excuse of +its being too warm or that she expects Horace that day. Presently two +prim people walking in opposite directions meet and, taking the same +path, may be seen any morning along the less frequented roads and orchard +paths, sometimes repairing the torch that has a constant tendency to lose +its head, sometimes watching the destruction by fire of an unusually +wicked worm city, and frequently with their heads stuck into some +suspicious bush, where they appear to be watching invisible things with +breathless interest. + +[Illustration: The Bug Hunters.] + +Father and I chanced upon them when thus employed the other morning. +Martin turned about and in the most serious manner began to dilate upon +the peculiarities of worms in general and particular, as well as of the +appropriateness of their study by the book collector, as the score and a +half insects that injure books and their bindings are not worms at all, +having none of the characteristics of the veritable book worm _Sitodrepa +panicea_, to all of which Miss Lavinia listened with devout attention. + +"What makes them act so?" I said, half to myself, as we drove on, and +father stopped shaking with laughter. "There isn't the slightest reason +why they should not go to walk together; why do they manoeuvre with all +the transparency of ostriches?" + +"It's another manifestation of suppressed youth," said father, wiping his +eyes, "upon the principle that the boy would rather slip out of the +window to go coasting at night than ask leave and walk out publicly, and +that when a young girl begins to grow romantic, she often takes infinite +pains to go round the back way to meet some one who is quite welcome at +the front door. When young folks have not had a chance to do these +things, and the motive for them lies dormant, heaven alone knows how or +when it will break loose." + +Others, however, have observed, and the "Bug Hunters" has now come to be +the local nickname of these two most respectable middle-aged people with +ancestors. + +Josephus, who has been leading a sporting life for many days, or rather +nights, has at last returned minus his long tail with which he used to +express his displeasure in such magnificent sweeps. Miss Lavinia is in +tears, and wishes to have a reward offered for the apprehension of the +doer of the deed. + +Evan says that if she does, and thus acknowledges the cat as hers, she +may be deluged with bills for poultry, as he has been hearing weird tales +on the train, such as are often current among commuters who are not +zoologists, of a great black lynx that has been invading chicken coops +and killing for pleasure, as his victims are usually left on the ground. +Thus has country freedom corrupted the manners of a polite cat, and at +the same time a hay knife (probably) has rendered him tailless. + + * * * * * + +_August_ 20. Summer is at high tide. How I dread its ebbing; yet even now +the hastening nights are giving warning. Evan has been taking a +vacation, and we have spent many days, we four, following the northward +windings of the river in a wide, comfortable boat and lunching in the +woods. We are pagans these days, basking in the sun, cooling in the +shade, and living a whole life between sunrise and sunset. The boys are +showing unconscious kinship with wood things, and getting a wholesome +touch of the earth in their thoughts. + +I am sure that the mind often needs a vacation more than the body, and +yet the condition of change that bears the name of rest frequently merely +gives the head fresh work. + +How far away the Whirlpool and its people seem as we sit perhaps on one +of the many tiny river islands enjoying this time separateness, not as +individuals, but as a family, for the whirl of the pool is tiresome even +to watch. I have felt old these last three months, and I suppose it is a +still further carrying out of the allegory and penalty of eating the +fruit of the tree of knowledge; only the discipline does seem a little +hard when, having no desire either to pluck or taste the apple, one +stands actually away with hands safely behind back, and yet has the fruit +absolutely thrust between unwilling lips. + +Even the feathered things about us are in this mood; their family life +is over, the companionship of fall travel has not begun, and the woods +are full of moulting birds choosing this separateness in preparation for +the tension of new flight and its perils. Everything, in short, in wild +nature has its corresponding note in our own humanity,--the sweating of +the corn, the moulting of the bird, the contraction of the earth by +frost, all have a kindred season or experience in the heart. + +Then, too, the August nights--so heavy with the intensity of sleep that +is akin to sleeplessness, broken by peremptory thunder voices and +searching lightning, or again enveloped by moonlight that floods the +room--shut out the world until, kneeling in its tide between the little +white beds, I can feel the refrain of that hymn of mother's that father +taught me long ago to say to myself in the night when she had gone away +from sight and I was lonely:-- + +"Father, on thy heart I lean +When the world comes not between." + + * * * * * + +_August_ 30. Sylvia and Horace were married under sunshine yesterday in +the little chantry of the church that is used in winter and for week-day +services. To-day the cold northeasterly storm has come, under cover of +which August so often disappears and September enters the marshes upon +the wings of low-flying plovers, to the discordant call of the first +waterfowl of the return migration. + +Mr. Latham came to the wedding. In fact, he has been here several times +during the month. He is a well-built man, under sixty, dark and taciturn, +and would be handsome but for the hard expression of his face. + +His attitude toward the world has seemed to be one of perpetual parry and +self-defence; of course he may have good reason for this distrust, or, as +Evan says, he may have brought the necessity upon himself by his constant +severity of attack on others. Yesterday I partly changed my mind about +him. He evidently once had tender feelings, but, from what cause who can +say, they have in some way been compressed and frozen until they exist +only as hurts. + +Sylvia was married in bridal white. She had wished to wear a travelling +gown and go away from the chantry door, but Miss Lavinia argued her out +of the notion, saying, "Horace has the right to a pretty bride, even if +you do not care." It would have taken but very little, after the strain +of the last two months, to make Sylvia morbid and old beyond her years, +her one thought seeming to be to get away from the surroundings of the +past year and begin to live anew. + +Our group, and a dozen friends of the Bradfords, including some from +Northbridge who belonged to both, filled the little chapel which Horace, +Martin, and Evan had trimmed with flowers wholly from our garden. At the +last moment, Mrs. Jenks-Smith, whom we thought abroad, dashed up in a +depot hack, perspiring and radiant, her smart gown having a most peculiar +and unnatural looking promontory on the chest. "No, my dear, I'm not in +Carlsbad. Jenks-Smith was called back on business, and I sniffed the +wedding in the air and hooked on,--only arrived last night. _Have_ you +seen the papers? Hush, I'll tell you later," and her voice sank into an +awed whisper, and she gave a startled look as the bride entered on her +father's arm, with Ian and Richard as her only attendants. Having heard +so much talk of marrying and of weddings, they had asked Sylvia to let +them be "bridesmaids," and it seemed she really wanted them. Their faces +were solemn to the verge of comedy as they walked hand in hand before +her, their feet in brand-new pumps, keeping step and pointing out +carefully, while their evident satisfaction brought a smile like a ray of +belated sunshine to the face of the serious bride. + +I watched Mr. Latham, usually so immovable, during the ceremony as he +stepped back from the altar into the shadows, when he left Sylvia finally +with Horace. His shoulders lost their squareness, his head drooped; but +when I saw that it was to hide the tears that filled his eyes, I looked +away. Father says he has seen this type of man, contracted by +money-getting, hardened by selfish misunderstanding, recover himself, +soften, and grow young again at the transforming touch of grandchildren. +Who knows, Sylvia may find her childhood's father again some day. + +When we went back to the cottage for luncheon, the bump in Mrs. +Jenks-Smith's corsage was removed, and proved to be a gift for +Sylvia,--a thick leather case, holding a rich neck ornament of diamonds, +a sort of collar with pendants, for the Lady of the Bluffs is nothing if +not generous. + +"I got it in this way without paying a cent of duty," she said in a stage +whisper to Miss Lavinia and me in the hall, as she struggled to release +the box, wrenching off a waist hook or two as she did so. + +"Jenks-Smith said it didn't look natural, and I'd surely be spotted, but +I said I'd like to see mere hired men try to tell a lady how stout or how +thin she had a right to be. Almost too gorgeous for a professor's wife? +Not a bit; Miss Lavinia, you're not advanced. Nobody knows nowadays, at +the launching, how anybody's going to turn out,--whether they'll sink or +float,--and diamonds are an all-right cargo, anyway. If she moves up, she +can wear 'em, if she slumps, she can sell 'em, and if she just drifts +along on the level, she can look at 'em once in a time. No, my dear, +diamonds are a consolation that no woman can afford to miss." + +Considering her usual careless good nature, it seemed to me that Mrs. +Jenks-Smith was very fussy during the luncheon, ill at ease, and +strangely anxious to hurry the departure of Sylvia and Horace. The +guests, all but ourselves, left first, then Mr. Latham, who went upstairs +to take leave of his daughter alone. When Sylvia finally came down, her +colour had returned and she looked her radiant self again as she kissed +Miss Lavinia and Mrs. Bradford, and went down the steps holding Horace, +not by the arm, but clinging to his hand. + +As the carriage disappeared around the bend of the road, and as we +stood looking at one another, feeling for a second the reaction and the +sense of an empty house that always follows the going of a bride, the +Lady of the Bluffs sank into a deep chair exclaiming, "Thank the Lord, +they've gone!" + +"Why, what is it? Are you ill?" cried father, who was just leaving, +coming quickly to her side. + +"It's this. I wanted to get her started north ahead of it. When she comes +back she won't care so much," she replied incoherently, pulling a scrap +of a morning newspaper from her card-case and holding it out at random +for the nearest one to take. Father caught it from her hand, and going +to the window, read aloud in slow, precisive accents of astonishment:-- + +"AN EVENT OF INTEREST TO NEW YORK SOCIETY. + +"(SPECIAL CABLE TO NEW YORK HERALD.) + +"LONDON, Aug. 29.--Yesterday the marriage took place of Montgomery Bell +to Mrs. Vivian Latham, both of New York. The wedding, at the registrar's +and quite informal, was followed by a breakfast given the couple by +Mrs. Center--who chanced, with several other intimates of the American +colony, to be in the city en route to the German baths,--at her apartment +which she always keeps in readiness for occupancy. Mr. Bell, who is a +member of all the best clubs, is known socially as the 'Indispensable.' +Mr. and Mrs. Bell will return to New York in November and open their +magnificent house at Central Park East with a series of the delightful +entertainments which they both so well know how to render unique." + + + + +XIV + +THE OASIS + + +_September_ 8. Three lowering days of wind and rain, and Summer, after a +feigned departure, has returned to complete her task of perfecting. + +She does this year after year--the marvel is that we are ever deceived; +but after all, what is it but the conflict between arbitrary and natural +law? The almanac-maker says that on the first day of September autumn is +due. Nature, the orbit-maker, proclaims it summer until, the month +three-quarters old, the equinox is crossed. Nature is always right, and +after the usual breezy argument sends Summer, her garments a bit +storm-tattered, perchance, back to her own. + +The ill wind that dashed the tall auratum lilies in the garden to the +ground, stripped the clinging fingers of the sweet peas from their +trellis, and decapitated the heavy-headed dahlias, has blown me good, +held me indoors awhile, sent me to my attic confessional once more, with +conscience for priest, and the twins for acolytes, though they presently +turned catechists with an entirely new series of questions. + +When I have not opened my desk or my garden book for some time, and the +planting season, be it of spring or of autumn, as now, overtakes me +unawares, I am always newly convinced that gardening is the truly +religious life, for it implies a continual preparation for the future, a +treading in the straight and narrow path that painful experience alone +can mark, an absorption beyond compare, and the continual exercise of +hope and love, but above all, of entire childlike faith. + +When the time had come in the creative evolution for the stamping of the +perfected animal with the Divine image that forever separates him from +all previous types, it was no wonder that God set man, in whom the +perpetual struggle between the body and soul was to take place, in a +garden for his education. + + * * * * * + +Recently the boys have been absorbed in their little printing press, +which they have established in my attic corner, the present working +motive having come from the card announcing Sylvia's marriage to the +world in general, according to Mr. Latham's desire. Richard secured one +of these and busied himself an entire morning in setting it in type, for +the first time in his experience getting the capitals and small letters +in their proper places. The result was so praiseworthy that Evan hunted +up a large box of ornamental cards for them in town, and for two days +they have been "filling orders" for every one in the household. + +I print the names they wish to copy very distinctly in big letters. +Richard does the type-setting, which is altogether too slow work for Ian, +who, as pressman, does the inking and printing, and in the process has +actually learned his tardy letters. As to the distributing and cleaning +of the type, I find a little assistance is gratefully accepted, even by +patient Richard, whose dear little pointed fingers by this time have +become tired, and fumble. + +To-day, having exhausted the simple family names, they have tried +combinations and experiments with the words Mr., Mrs., and Miss, much +to their own amusement, "_Miss_ Timothy Saunders" being considered a +huge joke. + +Suddenly Ian looked up with one of his most compelling, whimsical smiles, +and said, "Barbara, grandpop's Mrs. was grandma, and she's in heaven, but +where is Mrs. Uncle Martin?" + +Rather startled, I said that I didn't know,--that there had never been +any Mrs. Uncle Martin. + +"Why not?" persisted Ian, an answer that is simply an acknowledgment of +ignorance never being accepted by a child. Before I could think Richard +chirped out: "But Aunt Lavinia hasn't any Mr. for her card neiver, and +Martha, she said the other day that there was a Mr. and a Mrs. for +everybody, only sometimes they couldn't find each other for ever so long. +She told that to Effie, and I heard her." + +A short pause, and then Ian jumped up, clapping his hands with joy, as +the solution of the problem flashed across him. + +"I know what's happened, Barbara; maybe Uncle Martin's Mrs. and Aunt +Lavinia's Mr. has gone and got lost together, and some day they'll find +it out and bring each ovver back! Do you think they will, so we can have +some more weddings and pink ice cream, and couldn't we hurry up and help +find them? I guess we better print him some Mrs. cards so as in case." + +I had drifted into gardening work on paper again, and I believe I said +that he had better ask Uncle Martin what he thought about the matter, and +at that moment the bell rang for luncheon. + +The ringing of bells for meals in this house is what Lavinia Dorman +calls "a relic of barbarism," that she greatly deplores; but as I tell +her, our family gathers from so many points of the compass that if the +maid announced the meals, she would have to be gifted with the instinct +of a chaser of strayed freight cars. + +Ian's queries have brought up a subject that has deluded and eluded my +hopes all summer, and has finally ended in the people that I hoped would +drift through the doorway of one of my most substantial air castles +refusing so to do, or else being too blind to see the open door. + +Martin and Lavinia are the best possible friends, have been constantly in +each other's society, see from nearly the same point of view, and both +agree and disagree upon the same subjects, but they have not settled the +question of loneliness of living as I hoped, by making the companionship +permanent, _via_ matrimony. + +Of course, I did not expect them to fall in love exactly as Evan and I or +Horace and Sylvia did--that belongs to spring and summer; still, I +thought that when they started worm-hunting together, and played checkers +every evening, that they were beginning to find each other mutually +indispensable, at least. + +But no. Martin stored away his papers in the old desk, and went to New +York a week ago to see several suites of bachelor apartments that had +been offered him. + +He writes this morning that he has found one to his liking, and will +return to-night, if he may, and stay over to-morrow to pack his things. +Meanwhile Miss Lavinia has sent her maids to clean and open her house in +"Greenwich Village," and will go home on Monday, spending her final +Sunday with me. Josephus went with the maids; the country had a +demoralizing effect upon him. + +Miss Lavinia has been agitating moving uptown, several of her friends at +the Bluffs insisting that an apartment near the Park is much more +suitable for her than the little house so far from the social centre, +saying it is no wonder she is lonely and out of things; but yesterday she +told me that she had abandoned the idea of change, and had sent orders to +have her old back yard garden dismantled and the whole plot paved, as it +was now only a suitable place for drying clothes. Also that she had +written to ask her father's cousin Lydia, whose Staten Island home had +been built in by progress, very much like her own garden, to come to pass +the winter with her; and, lest she should repent of so rash an act, she +had given the letter to Evan before the ink was fairly dry, as he passed +the cottage on the way to the train, that he might post it in the city. + +One consolation remains to me in the wreck of my romantic hopes for +her--Miss Lavinia has liked our neighbourhood so well that she has taken +the Alton cottage that she now occupies on a three years' lease, and +intends living here from May to October. The rambling garden is full of +old-time, hardy plants and roses, and oh, what good times we shall have +together there next spring, for of course she will stop with me when she +is getting things in order, and I can spare her enough roots and cuttings +to fill every spare inch of ground,--so, with Sylvia at Pine Ridge, what +more can I ask? The strain and hubbub of the Bluffs seems to be quite +vanishing from the foreground and merging with the horizon. + +That reminds me that the people are drifting back quite rapidly now. The +golfers are afield again Sundays, and all talk of introducing fox hunting +with tame foxes; but they will have to learn the land, with its dips and +rocks, better first, or there will be a pretty crop of cracked crowns for +father. At present, I think that New England Prejudice will soon however +get the upper hand here, and tighten her hold of the reins that seemed +slipping from her grasp, which is well, for she has long borne aloft the +only standard of national morality whose code is not a sliding scale. + + * * * * * + +_September_ 9. Martin came back to-night. As he entered the house with +Evan I positively did not know him, for he has shaved off his mustache +and queer little pussy-cat whiskers, and with them has gone his +"pudgyness." He is really a very fine-looking man, and his features are +developed by the shaving process in an unexpected way. He seems so wide +awake, too, and alive to everything that passes, that I could see that +father, who came from the office to greet him, had difficulty in +restraining his surprise, but he contented himself by asking:-- + +"How did you fare with the publishers? Did you fall among thieves or +among friends?" + +"That is equivalent to asking if my book has been accepted, as it is only +when work is refused that we call the mediums through which we seek to +reach the public hard names. Yes, the fate of my book is soon told; it +has found its place, and is to be fully illustrated as well, though it +will take me many months to collect the unique material they desire; this +insures me a busy winter, for which I am not only prepared but eager. + +"I wish I could as easily tell you what this summer here has done for me, +Dick," and he leaned over the chair in which father had seated himself +and laid his arm affectionately across his shoulder. "I think in asking +me here you rescued me from as dangerous a condition of mental apathy as +when you stood by my bed so many years ago." + +"Don't thank me," said father, leaning back and looking up at him, "thank +God's sunshine, work, the babies here, and why not woman's society +also,--you used to appreciate that, too, eh, Martin, old man? Give +everybody his, or rather her, due." + +"Yes," I heard him answer, as if pondering the matter, while I fled +discreetly upstairs at this juncture, "you doubtless are right; Lavinia +Dorman's criticisms have been of infinite value in ridding my work of a +litter of words that encumbered the spirit and purpose of it. She is +direct and to the point, and yet withal most sympathetic. I had thought +of dedicating the book to her in some private way, for really we are +joint heirs, as it were, in so many traditions and habits of old New +York, that it would not seem strained or inappropriate." + +"On the contrary, I think it most suitable, and I would not go to any +great pains to hide the compliment of the dedication under a bushel of +disguise either, if I were you. The Lydia Languish age of abnormal +privacy and distorted, unhealthy sensibility has fortunately passed. +Nowadays women like men to be direct, outspoken, definite, where they are +concerned." + +"Do you think so?" asked Martin, in real surprise. "I feared possibly +that it might annoy her." + +"I know so--annoy her, fudge!" was father's comment. + + * * * * * + +When we went in to dinner, Miss Lavinia at once noticed the change in +Martin's appearance, and said, in a spirit of mischief which of course I +alone noticed:-- + +"Back from the city, and with new clothes, too,--how very smart and +becoming they are." + +But poor Martin was quite guileless, and looking down at his coat in a +puzzled way, as if to make doubly sure, replied, "No, it cannot be my +clothes, for they are the same." Then, brightening, as the possible +reason occurred to him: "Perhaps it may be my shaven face; you see, the +barber made an error in the trimming of my decorations yesterday, and he +thought it better to take them entirely off and have them grow afresh, +but I had not thought of the matter in the light of an improvement." + +"But it is one, most decidedly," continued Miss Lavinia, nodding brightly +across at him, while father, who now realized the change he could not +locate, cried:-- + +"Don't let them grow again, my boy. You look ten years younger, at the +very least, which you know at our age is not to be despised!" + +Then we all grew hilarious, and talked together like a lot of school +children, and when the boys came in to dessert, as usual, they also were +infectiously boisterous over the catching of some bass in the river where +Timothy Saunders had taken them that afternoon as a special treat. They +clamoured and begged so for Uncle Martin to stop over the next day for +fishing and have one more good time with them, that he, feeling flattered +almost to the point of embarrassment, yielded upon Evan's suggesting +that, instead of going by the eight o'clock morning train as he intended, +he could wait for one late in the evening, which would get him to town +before eleven. For Martin was to move into his new bachelor apartments +the following morning. + +The three men lingered long at the table, smoking, the talk punctuated by +long periods of silence, each regretting in his own way the present +terminating of the summer intercourse, and yet, I fancy, realizing that +it had lasted exactly the safe length of time. To be able to adapt +oneself temporarily to the presence of outsiders in a house is a healthy +habit, but to adjust a family to do it permanently is to lose what can +never be regained. Miss Lavinia and I agreed upon that long ago, and for +this reason I am very much surprised that she has asked her cousin Lydia +to spend the winter, with a view of making the arrangement permanent. + +The boys brought some of their games downstairs, and succeeded in adding +half an hour to their bedtime by coaxing Aunt Lavinia to play with them, +until I finally had to almost carry them to bed, they grew so suddenly +sleepy from their day's fishing. + +When I returned below stairs after the boys were asleep, father had gone +to the village, Evan was walking up and down outside, all the windows and +doors were open again, and the sultry air answered the katydids' cry for +"Some-more-heat, some-more-heat." + +Miss Lavinia was still in the hall, sitting on the lower step of the +stairs, for the boys had been using the broad landing that made a turn at +the top of the three steps as a place to play their games. Martin stood +leaning on the newel post, and from the few words I heard I knew that he +was telling her about the proposed dedication, so I went out and joined +Evan, for it seems as though we had had little leisure outdoors together +of late, and as if it was time to make it up as best we might. + +Then, once again, as we crossed the streak of light that streamed like a +narrow moon path from the doorway, Evan paused and nodded his head toward +the hall. I turned--there sat Miss Lavinia and Martin Cortright on the +stairs, playing with the boys'--jack-straws! + +"After this, what?" I asked, in my mirth leaning backward on Evan's +supporting arm. + +"To be pat, it ought to be the deluge," chuckled Evan; "but as these are +prosy times, it simply means the end has been reached, and that to-morrow +they will put away mild summer madness, and return to the Whirlpool to +paddle about decorously as of yore." + +I find that I am not the only person who is disappointed at the absence +of matrimonial intentions between Martin and Miss Lavinia. The +postmistress told me yesterday that she's been expecting to hear of a +second wedding any day, as when one took place it always meant three, +though she couldn't "fetch the third couple together, even in her mind's +eye," which I have found to be usually a capacious and well filled optic. + +Mrs. Barton also stopped Martha Corkle on the road, and said with an +insinuating sneer, "She'd always supposed that the gentleman from New +York who lodged with her was making up to the proud old maid at the +Doctor's, but as he evidently wasn't going to, she'd advise Mrs. Evan to +watch out, as Miss Lavinia, doubtless being disappointed, might set her +cap for the Doctor himself, and then the Lord knows what would happen, +men being so easily flattered and trapped." + +Martha was indignant, and I must say very rude, for she snapped back: "I +wonder at that same bein' your holdin', Mrs. Barton, bein' as you've five +maid daughters that's not so by their desirin', folks do say as knows." + +Mud throwers should be careful to wear gloves,--their ammunition +is sticky. + + * * * * * + +_September_ 10. This morning father and I were obliged to go to town upon +some hospital business, and as we had to remain there for luncheon, or +perhaps longer, we took the train instead of driving over, leaving +Lavinia to pack, so that she might have a free Saturday to drive with me +to bid Mrs. Bradford good-by, and learn the latest news of Sylvia and +Horace. Meanwhile the boys were to go fishing with Martin, who is as +careful of them as possible, taking their lunch with them. + +They did not have good luck, however, and growing restless and tired of +fishing without catching, Martin brought them home by three o'clock, and +as both he and Miss Lavinia had finished their preparations for leaving, +they went out to the seat by the rose arbour to enjoy what was left of +the glorious afternoon, for it has been one of those days that come in +dreams, so perfect that one knows it cannot last. + +"I hope that I shall not lose all track of you this winter," said Miss +Lavinia. "Of course you will be busy, but you might spare a lonely woman +an evening now and then for piquet, or whist if Evan or the Doctor should +come to town." + +"Lose track of you, Miss Lavinia,--how could that be possible?" queried +Martin in mild-eyed astonishment. "You know there will be a second volume +of the book for you to read and criticise, besides all the illustrations +to discuss. No, I hoped that you could spare me two definite evenings +every week, at least until the work is in press, though I suppose that is +asking a great deal of a woman having so many friends, and places to go." + +"If you could see the way I spend my evenings alone, you would not +hesitate. Of course I do dine out once in a time, and people come to me, +but between times--I envy even Josephus, who can have social enjoyment +any time by merely scratching on the door and running along the palings +to the neighbours." + +"I am glad, for I decided upon taking the Washington Square rooms, +instead of moving up nearer the Clubs as my friends advised, because I +thought it would be so much more convenient if, in proof correcting, I +should require to consult you hastily." + +Miss Lavinia felt a pleasurable flush rising to her cheeks, when it was +chilled by the memory of her invitation to her cousin Lydia. Why had she +given it? Then the realization that a third party would be unwelcome to +her made the flush return and deepen. + + * * * * * + +"Uncle Martin, where is your Mrs.? Barbara said I'd have to ask you +'cause she didn't know," suddenly asked Ian's voice, so close behind +them that they both started. He had been up in the attic to get some of +his precious cards, one of which he now held in front of Martin +Cortright's gaze. + +"My Mrs.! Why, what do you mean?" he asked in uncomprehending +astonishment, taking the boy on his knee; but when the little scamp had +explained, the stupidest person in the world could not plead ignorance. + +"And," Ian continued, "Dick and me thought that p'r'aps if your Mrs. and +Aunt Lavinia's Mr. had got lost together we could find them for you, and +then there'd be two more weddings with pink ice cream. We're going to +look this afternoon, and we're going to ask Martha to help us, 'cause she +found her Mr. after he'd been lost a great while, Effie says." + +"And he was right here in the place, too," chimed in Richard, "only he +didn't seem to see her, so p'r'aps yours aren't far off, and we might get +them in time to have the wedding to-night before you go. Wouldn't you +like to be in a wedding, Aunt Lavinia?" + +"Mercy no, child, I'm too old!" she ejaculated, now as red as a +Jacqueminot rose, while the boys ran off in the direction of Martha's, to +ask her where it was best to begin this important quest, the prize for +which was pink ice cream. + +Miss Lavinia did not look up for a moment, and when she did she found +Martin's eyes fastened on her face, and in them a strange +enlightenment that shook her like an electric bolt, as he arose and +stood before her, saying:-- + +"You need never be old. Some prefer June strawberries and others +September peaches, that is all. When once in June I thought to gather the +strawberries, I found they belonged to another, for I loved your friend, +who was Barbara's mother." + +"And I loved your friend, who is Barbara's father," Miss Lavinia said, +rising and facing him. + +"As they married each other, why may not we? I know now why my work has +prospered this summer and why life seems good again. Ian's little fancy +shows me the truth." + +"Our Mr. and Mrs. were not far off, then," said she, laying her hand on +his, while she looked into his face with one of those rare smiles of +unreserved confidence that makes Lavinia Dorman more fascinating than +half the younger women that I know. + +After a moment of romance they waked up to the fact of the present and +its comical aspect; the boys' talk of weddings brought that necessary +episode quickly before them. + +"May I tell the Doctor when he returns? Shall we tell them all?" asked +Martin, eagerly, and Miss Lavinia sat suddenly down again and realized +that she still was in the world of responsibilities. + +"I think I would rather wait and do it all at once, after--after the pink +ice-cream," she said, as he laughed at her hesitation over the word. "I +don't like keeping it from Barbara, but I'm so tired of talk and fuss and +feathers and Mrs. Grundy." "Then let us get it quietly over next week, +or tomorrow, if you say, unless you wish time to feel sure, or perhaps to +think it over," said Martin, with enthusiasm. + +"Time to think it over!" cried Miss Lavinia, springing lightly to her +feet. "No, I'm sure I don't wish to think, I want to act--to do things my +own way and give no one a chance to speak until it is done. What have I +been doing all my life but thinking, and waiting for it to be a +convenient and suitable time for me to do this or that, wondering what +others will think if I do or don't; thinking that the disagreeable was +duty, often simply because it was disagreeable. Surely you have been +hampered by this perpetual thinking too, and watching the thumb of custom +to see if it pointed up or down. No, I'm done with it. We've agreed to be +married, so why not this very afternoon, and have the wedding over before +you go, as the boys suggested?" + +"The best possible idea, though I should have hardly dared suggest it," +said Martin, tramping to and fro in excitement. "How shall we manage? Go +down here to the rectory?" + +"I would rather go over to town," said Miss Lavinia, beginning, in +spite of herself, to realize difficulties. "We do not know who might +drop in here." + +"Very well," said Martin, decisively, looking at his watch. "I have it! +Timothy is off to-day; I will harness the grays to the stanhope, as we +can't wait to send to the stable, and we will drive over the back way by +the Ridge and be home again by dinner time. The rector of All Saints' was +a classmate of mine, and I met him again only the other day, so we shall +have no trouble there." + +"Are you sure you can harness the horses properly?" asked Miss Lavinia, +with characteristic caution, and then smiling at herself, as Martin +hurried off to the stable. + + * * * * * + +In less than twenty minutes the sober gray horses turned out of the +stable yard and up the road upon the most remarkable trip of their +career. Nothing strange was noticeable about the turnout, except that the +traces hung a trifle loose, and that the occupants sat unusually far back +under the hood for so pleasant an afternoon. That is, until after they +had passed Martha's house in the lane and turned into the unfrequented +back highway, then they both leaned forward, gave a sigh of relief, and, +looking at each other, laughed aloud. + +"Do you realize that we are eloping, like runaway school children?" said +Miss Lavinia, "we two hitherto sober-minded Knickerbockers?" + +"I realize that I like what we are doing very much, whatever it may be +called," replied Martin, "and that it is very considerate of you to spare +me and do it in this way. The conventional affair is very hard on a man +of my years, all of whose contemporaries are either bald or rheumatic; +besides, now I think of it, it is merely carrying out the ever-present +precedent. My father's great-great-grand father and mother eloped in +1689 from Staten Island to the Bouerie, and the boat upset when they +were going back." + +"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia, "I hope we shall not upset! I +wonder if the wheels are on securely. I thought I heard something rattle. +There it is again." + +As they reached the bottom of the long hill, Martin let the reins hang +loose on the horses' necks and, lowering the hood, looked back to see if +he could find the cause of the jolting sound, accompanied by panting, as +of a dog running. Then he gave an exclamation of impatience, and pulled +the horses up short, for there, alternately running and lifting up their +feet and swinging, were the twins, clinging to the back of the gig! + +Miss Lavinia gave a cry of dismay. "Where did you come from, and where +are you going?" she questioned rather sharply. "We went to Martha's, you +know," said Ian, as if his errand had been one of such importance that it +was impossible she should forget it, "and she wasn't there, so we thought +we'd just look for those people we said about, by ourselves. But we +couldn't find anybody, only a shiny black snake by the road, and he +rubber-necked at us and spit some 'fore he ran away. Then we saw +grandpop's horses coming, and when you went by we hooked on, and--" + +"'Cause we thought if you was looking for those people and found them, +then we'd be there for the pink ice cream," added Richard, cheerfully, +supplementing Ian's story when his breath gave out. + +"I suppose we must turn around and take them home," said Miss Lavinia, +with a sigh. + +"Not a bit of it. Let them come with us; it is too late to turn back, +unless," he added, with a ring of mock humility in his tone, "you have +changed your mind and wish time to think. As for me, I've turned my back +on even thinking whether they will be missed or who will worry. + +"Scramble in, boys, and curl up here in front. You are just in time; two +of these people you were searching for are going to be married this +afternoon. We are going to the wedding, and you shall be best men," and +the boys settled down, chuckling and whispering, but presently Ian +looked up, as light dawned, and cried: "I spy! It's you, Uncle Martin, +and Aunt Lavinia is your Mrs., only you couldn't find her all summer till +to-day," and he hugged his friend around the legs, which were all he +could reach, but Richard leaned backward until his head rested on Miss +Lavinia's knees, and he reached up his cooing lips to be kissed. + +The rest of the ride to town was uneventful, except that when they +reached the outskirts they met Jenks-Smith's coach loaded with Whirlpool +people, but the Lady of the Bluffs saw nothing strange in the +combination, and merely shook her parasol at them, calling, "I'm sorry to +hear you're flitting, just when it's getting lively again, too!" + +Fortunately the rector of All Saints' was at home, likewise the requisite +number of his family, for witnesses. Then it transpired that the couple +had never thought of the ring, and while Martin went out to buy one, Miss +Lavinia was left sitting on the edge of a very stiff sofa with a boy on +either side of her, with the Rectory family drawn up opposite like an +opposing force, which did not encourage easy conversation. + +However, the agony was soon over, and the bride and groom left, +Martin giving his old classmate, to whom the world had been +penurious, a hand-shake that, when examined by the breathless family +a few moments later, was found to yield at least a new parlour +carpet, an easy-chair for the Rector's bent back, and a new clerical +suit to cover his gaunt frame. + +"Now comes the pink ice cream," sang Ian, dancing a-tiptoe as they +reached the street; and there being but one good restaurant in town, on +the high street, next to the saddler's shop where the red goat harness +was still displayed, the party drove there, and the pink ice cream was +eaten, good and full measure thereof, while on their way out the coveted +goat harness found itself being taken from the window to be packed away +under the seat of the gig. + + * * * * * + +It was almost dinner time when father and I returned to-night, and the +boys were squeezed together in a chair on the piazza, close to Miss +Lavinia, while Martin sat near by on the balustrade. The boys were in a +great state of giggles, and kept clapping their hands to their mouths as +if they feared something would escape. I hurried upstairs, not wishing to +make dinner late, as I knew Martin expected to take the nine o'clock +train, just as father came in saying that Timothy had returned, and that +he found the horses in a wonderful sweat, and feared they were sick, as +they hadn't been out all day. + +By this time we were in the hall and walking toward the dining room. +Martin stopped short, as if to say something, and then changed his mind, +while a bumping at the pantry door attracted the attention of us all. + +Out came Ian, a portion of the goat harness on his head and shoulders, +followed by Richard, around whose neck the reins were fastened, and +between them they carried the great heavy silver tea-tray only used on +state occasions. In the centre of it rested a pink sofa pillow, upon +which some small, flat object like a note was lying. + +They came straight across the hall, halting in front of me, and saying +earnestly, "We didn't ask for the harness, but Uncle Martin says that +people always give their best mens presents." I looked at him for a +second, not understanding, then Evan, with a curious twinkle in his eye, +strode across, whispering to me, "The Deluge," as he picked up the card +and read aloud, "Mr. and Mrs. Martin Cortright!" It was the card that +Richard had printed several days before and carried in strange company in +his warm, mussy little pocket ever since. + +There was tense silence, and then a shout, as Martin took his wife's hand +that wore the wedding ring and laid it on mine; then he and father +fairly hugged each other, for father did not forget those long-ago days +of the strawberries that Martin could not gather. + +When the excitement had subsided and dinner was over, Martha and Tim, to +whom the horse matter had been explained, came over to offer their +congratulations,--at least Martha did. Timothy merely grinned, and, to +the best of my belief, winked slyly at Martin, as much as to say, "We may +be long in knowing our minds, but when we men are ready, the weemen fair +tumble over us." + +"Indeed, mum, but I wish you joy, and that he'll lead you as easy a life +as Tim'thy here does me, 'deed I do, and _no_ disrespeck intended," was +Martha's parting sentence; and then our wonder as to whether Martin was +going to town, or what, was cut short by his rising, looking at his +watch, and saying in the most matter-of-fact way to Lavinia: "Is your bag +ready? You know we leave in an hour." + +"Does Lucy expect you?" I ventured to ask. + +"Oh no, I shall not trouble her until the day appointed. We shall go to +the Manhattan, I think." + +"How about your cousin Lydia?" asked father, who could not resist a +chance to tease. + +"I forgot all about her!" exclaimed poor Lavinia, clasping her hands +tragically and looking really conscience-stricken. "And I," said Evan, +who had suddenly jumped up and rammed his hand into his side pocket, +"forgot to post your letter to her!" + + * * * * * + +_October_ 31. We have all been to New York to visit the runaway +Cortrights, as Evan calls them, now that they are settled, and it is +pleasant to see that so much belated happiness is possible. The fate of +Lavinia's house is definitely arranged; they will remain in "Greenwich +Village," in spite of all advice to move up in town. The defunct back +yard is being covered by an extension that will give Martin a fine +library, with a side window and a scrap of balcony, while the ailantus +tree is left, that bob-tailed Josephus may not be deprived of the feline +pleasures of the street or his original way of reaching it over the side +fence; and the flower garden that was, will be the foundation of a garden +of books under the kindly doctrine of compensation. + +Above is to be a large guest room for Sylvia and Horace, or Evan and me, +so that there will be room in plenty when by and by we bring the boys to +see our New York. + +Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who has formed a sincere attachment to Lavinia +Cortright, did all in her power to persuade her to be her neighbour up in +town, offering a charming house at a bargain and many advantages. +Finally becoming piqued at the refusal, she said:-- + +"Why will you be so stupid? Don't you know that this out-of-the-way +street is in the social desert?" + +"It may be in a desert, as you say," said Lavinia, gently, "but we mean +at least to make it an oasis for our friends who are weary of the +whirling of the pool." + + * * * * * + +We stood looking at the boys as they slept tonight. Strange thoughts will +crop up at times most unexpectedly. Horns blowing on the highway +proclaimed the late arrival of a coaching party at the Bluffs. "Would you +like to have money if you could, and go about the world when and where +you please?" I asked Evan, but he, shaking his head, drew me towards him, +answering my question with another-- + +"Would you, or why do you ask?" + +I never thought that Mrs. Jenks-Smith's stricture would turn to a +prayer upon my lips, but before I knew it I whispered, "God keep us +comfortably poor." + +Then Ian, feeling our presence, raised himself in sleepy leisure, and +nestling his cheek against my dress said, "Barbara, _please_ give Ian a +drink of water." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL *** + + +******* This file should be named 11561-8.txt or 11561-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/5/6/11561 + + +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 + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** diff --git a/old/11561-8.zip b/old/11561-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebd2a3d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11561-8.zip diff --git a/old/11561.txt b/old/11561.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..065cfde --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11561.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8438 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, People of the Whirlpool , by Mabel Osgood +Wright + + +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: People of the Whirlpool + +Author: Mabel Osgood Wright + +Release Date: March 13, 2004 [eBook #11561] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL *** + + +E-text prepared by Kevin Handy, Dave Maddock, Mary Meehan, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL + +FROM THE EXPERIENCE BOOK OF A COMMUTER'S WIFE + +BY MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT + +1903 + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I ON THE ADVANTAGE OF TWINS + + CHAPTER II MISS LAVINIA'S LETTERS TO BARBARA + + CHAPTER III MARTIN CORTRIGHT'S LETTERS + + CHAPTER IV WHEN BARBARA GOES TO TOWN + + CHAPTER V FEBRUARY VIOLETS + + CHAPTER VI ENTER A MAN + + CHAPTER VII SYLVIA LATHAM + + CHAPTER VIII THE SWEATING OF THE CORN + + CHAPTER IX A WAYSIDE COMEDY + + CHAPTER X THE WHIRL BEGINS + + CHAPTER XI REARRANGED FAMILIES + + CHAPTER XII HIS MOTHER + + CHAPTER XIII GOSSIP AND THE BUG HUNTERS + + CHAPTER XIV THE OASIS + + + + +I + +ON THE ADVANTAGE OF TWINS + + +_February 2_. Candlemas and mild, gray weather. If the woodchuck stirs +up his banked life-fire and ventures forth, he will not see his shadow, +and must straightway arrange with winter for a rebate in our favour. +To-day, however, it seems like the very dawn of winter, and as if the +cloud brooms were abroad gathering snow from remote and chilly corners +of the sky. + +Six years ago I began the planting of my garden, and at the same time my +girlish habit of journal keeping veered into the making of a "Garden +Boke," to be a reversible signal, crying danger in face of forgotten +mistakes, then turning to give back glints of summer sunshine when read +in the attic of winter days and blue Mondays. Now once again I am in the +attic, writing. Not in a garden diary, but in my "Social Experience Boke" +this time, for it is "human warious," and its first volume, already +filled out, is lying in the old desk. Martin Cortright said, one stormy +day last autumn when he was sitting in the corner I have loaned him of my +precious attic retreat, that, owing to the incursion of the Bluff Colony +of New Yorkers, which we had been discussing, I should call this second +volume "People of the Whirlpool," because--ah, but I must wait and hunt +among my papers for his very words as I wrote them down. + +My desk needs cleaning out and rearranging, for the dust flies up as I +rummage among the papers and letters that are a blending of past, +present, and future. All my pet pens are rusty, and must be replaced from +the box of stubs, for a stub pen assists one to straightforward, truthful +expression, while a fine point suggests evasion, polite equivocation, or +thin ideas. Even Lavinia Dorman's letters, whose cream-white envelopes, +with a curlicue monogram on the flap, quite cover the litter below, have +been, if possible, more satisfactory since she has adopted a fountain +stub that Evan gave her at Christmas. + +There are many other things in the desk now beside the hickory-nut beads +and old papers. Little whiffs of subtle fragrance call me backward +through time faster than thought, and make me pinch myself to be sure +that I am awake, like the little old woman with the cutabout petticoats, +who was sure that if she was herself, her little dog would know her,--but +then he _didn't!_ + +I am awake and surely myself, yet my old dog is not near to recognize me. +This ring of rough, reddish hair, tied with a cigar ribbon and lying atop +the beads, was Bluff's best tail curl. Dear, happy, brave-hearted Bluff +with the human eyes; after an honourable life of fifteen years he stole +off to the happy hunting grounds of perpetual open season, quail and +rabbit, two years ago at beginning of winter, as quietly as he used to +slip out the back door and away to the fields on the first fall morning +that brings the hunting fever. For a long while not only I, but neither +father nor Evan could speak of him, it hurt so. Yet by a blessed +dispensation a good dog lives on in his race, and may be renewed (I +prefer that word to _replaced_) after a season, in a way in which our +best human friends may not be, so that we do not lack dogs. Lark is +senior now, and Timothy Saunders's sheep dog, The Orphan, is also a +veteran; the foxhounds are in their prime, while Martha Corkle, as we +shall always call her, is raising a promising pair of collie pups. + +Beside the curl, and covering mother's diaries, lies a square white +volume, the first part of my "Experience Boke" before mentioned, and upon +it two queer fat little pairs of bronze kid shoes, buttonless and much +worn on the toes, telling a tale of feet that dragged and ankles that +wobbled through inexperience in walking. Ah yes! I'm quite awake and the +same Barbara, though looking over a wider and eye-opening horizon, having +had three rows of candles, ten in a row, around my last birthday cake and +one extra in the middle, which extravagance has constrained the family to +use lopsided, tearful, pink candles ever since. + +And the two pairs of feet that first touched good earth so hesitatingly +with those crumpled shoes are now standing firmly in wool-lined rubber +boots topped by brown corduroy trousers, upon the winter slat walk that +leads to the tool house, while their owners, touched by the swish of the +Whirlpool that has recently drawn this peaceful town into its eddies, are +busy trying to turn their patrol wagon, that for a year has led a most +conservative existence as a hay wain and a stage-coach dragged by a +curiously assorted team of dogs and goat, into the semblance of some +weird sort of autocart, by the aid of bits of old garden hose, cast-away +bicycle gearing, a watering-pot, and an oil lantern. + +I have wondered for a week past what yeast was working in their brains. +Of course, the seven-year-old Vanderveer boy on the Bluffs had an +electric runabout for a Christmas gift, also a man to run it! Corney +Delaney, as Evan named the majestic gray goat--of firm disposition +blended with a keen sense of humour--that father gave the boys last +spring and who has been their best beloved ever since, has for many days +been left in duress with the calves in the stack-yard, where the all-day +diet of cornstalks is fatally bulging his once straight-fronted figure. + +In fact, it is the doings of these two pairs of precious feet, with the +bodies, heads, and arms that belong to them, that have caused the dust to +gather in my desk, and the "Garden Boke," though not the garden, which is +more of a joy than ever, to be suspended and take a different form. +Flesh-and-blood books that write themselves are so compelling and +absorbing that one often wonders at the existence of any other kind, and, +feeling this strongly, yet I turn to paper pages as silent confidants. +Why? Heredity and its understudy, Habit, the two _h_'s that control both +the making of solitary tartlets as well as family pies. + +So the last entry in the "Garden Boke" was made a week before the day +recorded in the white book with the cherubs' heads painted on it that +underlies the shoes. + +It seems both strange and significant to me now that this book chanced to +be given me by Lavinia Dorman, mother's school friend and bridesmaid, a +spinster of fifty-five, and was really the beginning of the transfer of +her friendship to me, the only woman friendship that I have ever had, and +its quality has that fragrant pungence that comes from sweet herbs, that +of all garden odours are the most lasting. + +I suppose that it is one of the strongest human habits to write down the +very things that one is least likely to forget, and _vice-versa;_ for +certainly I shall never forget the date and double record on that first +fair page beneath the illuminated word _Born_,--yet I often steal up here +to peep at it,--and live the intervening five years backward for pure +joy. January 10, 189-, Richard Russell------ and John Evan------. + +Every time I read the names anew I wonder what I should have done if +there had been a single name upon the page. I must then have chosen +between naming him for father _or_ Evan--an impossibility; for even if +the names had been combined, whose should I have put first? + +No, the twins are in every way an advantage. To Evan, in providing him at +once with a commuted family sufficient for his means; to father, among +other reasons, by giving him the pleasure of saying, to friends who felt +it necessary to visit him in the privacy of his study and be +apologetically sympathetic, "I have observed that the first editions of +very important books are frequently in two volumes," sending them away +wondering what he really meant; to me by saving the rack of argument, the +form of evil I most detest, and to their own chubby selves no less, in +that neither one has been handicapped for a single day by the +disadvantage of being an only child! + +It doubtless seems very odd for me to feel this last to be a +disadvantage, being myself an only child, and always a happy one, sharing +with mother all the space in father's big heart. But this is because God +has been very good to me, leaving me safe in the shelter of the home +nest. Suppose it had been otherwise and I had been forced to face the +world, how it would have hurt, for individual love is cruelly precious +sometimes, and an "onliest" cannot in the very nature of things be as +unselfish and adaptable as one of many. + +I was selfish even when the twins came. I was so glad that they were +men-children. I could not bear to think of other woman hands ministering +to father and Evan, and I rejoiced in the promise of two more champions. +I often wonder how mother felt when I was born and what she thought. +Was she glad or disappointed? I wish that she had left written words to +guide me, if ever so few,--they would mean so much now; and let me know +if in her day social things surprised and troubled her as for the first +time they now stir me, and therefore belong to all awakening motherhood. +Her diaries were a blending of simple household happenings and garden +lore, nothing more; for when I was five years old and her son came, he +stayed but a few short hours and then stole her away with him. + +I wonder if my boys, when they are grown and begin to realize woman, will +care to look into this book of mine, and read in and between the lines of +its jumble of scraps and letters what their mother thought of them, and +how things appeared to her in the days of their babyhood. Perhaps; who +knows? At present, being but five years old, they are centred in whatever +thing the particular day brings forth, and but that they are leashed fast +by an almost prenatal and unconscious affection, they are as unlike in +disposition, temperament, and colouring as they are alike in feature. +Richard is dark, like father and me, very quiet, except in the matter of +affection, in which he is clingingly demonstrative, slow to receive +impressions, but withal tenacious. He clearly inherits father's medical +instinct of preserving life, and the very thought of suffering on the +part of man or beast arouses him to action. When he was only a little +over three years old, I found him carefully mending some windfall robins' +eggs, cracked by their tumble, with bits of rubber sticking-plaster, then +putting them hopefully back into the nest, with an admonition to the +anxious parents to "sit very still and don't stwatch." While last summer +he unfortunately saw a chicken decapitated over at the farm barn, and, in +Martha Corkle's language, "the way he wound a bit o' paper round its poor +neck to stop its bleedin' went straight to my stummick, so it did, Mrs. +Evan;" for be it said here that Martha has fulfilled my wildest +expectations, and whereas, as queen of the kitchen, she was a trifle +unexpected and uncomfortable, as Mrs. Timothy Saunders, now comfortably +settled in the new cottage above the stable at the north corner of the +hayland, she is a veritable guardian angel, ready to swoop down with +strong wings at a moment's notice, in sickness or health, day or night, +and seize the nursery helm. + +It is owing to her that I have never been obliged to have a nursemaid +under my feet or tagging after the boys, to the ruin of their +independence. For the first few years Effie, whose fiery locks have not +yet found their affinity, helped me, but now merely sees to buttons, +strings, and darns. + +I found out long ago that those who get the best return from their flower +gardens were those who kept no gardeners, and it is the same way with the +child garden; those who are too overbusy, irresponsible, ignorant, or +rich to do without the orthodox nurse, never can know precisely what they +lose. To watch a baby untrammelled with clothes, dimple, glow, and expand +in its bath, is in an intense personal degree like watching, early of a +June morning, the first opening bud of a rose that you have coaxed and +raised from a mere cutting. You hoped and believed that it would be fair +and beautiful, but ah, what a glorious surprise it is! + +And so it is at the other end of day, when sleep comes over the garden +and all the flowers that have been basking in sun vigour relax and their +colours are subdued, blended by the brush of darkness, and the night wind +steals new perfumes from them, and wings of all but a few night birds +have ceased to cleave the air. As you walk among the flowers and touch +them, or throw back the casement and look out, you read new meanings +everywhere. In the white cribs in the alcove the same change comes, +bright eyes, hair, cheeks, and lips lie blended in the shadow, the only +sound is the even breath of night, and when you press your lips behind +the ear where a curl curves and neck and garments meet, there comes a +little fragrance born of sweet flesh and new flannel, and the only motion +is that of the half-open hand that seems to recognize and closes about +your fingers as a vine to its trellis, or as a sleeping bird clings to +its perch. + +A gardener or a nurse is equally a door between one and these silent +pleasures, for who would not steal up now and then from a troubled +dream to satisfy with sight and touch that the babes are really there +and all is well? + + * * * * * + +Richard has a clinging way even in sleep, and his speech, though very +direct for his age, is soft and cooing; he says "mother" in a lingering +tone that might belong to a girl, and there are what are called feminine +traits in him. + +Ian (to save confusion, we called him from the first by the pretty Scotch +equivalent of Evan's first name) is of a wholly masculine mould, and like +his father in light hair, gray eyes, and determination. His very speech +is quick and staccato, his tendency is to overcome, to fight rather than +assuage, though he is the champion of everything he loves. From the time +he could form distinct sounds he has called me Barbara, and no amount of +reasoning will make him do otherwise, while the imitation of his father's +pronunciation of the word goes to my heart. + +Recently, now that he is fully able to comprehend, Evan took him quietly +on his knee and told him that he must say "mother" and that he was not +respectful to me. He thought a few minutes, as if reasoning with himself, +and then the big gray eyes filled with tears, a very rare occurrence, as +he seemed to feel that he could not yield, and he said, trying very hard +to steady his voice, "Favver, I truly can't, I _think it _muvver_ inside, +but you and I, we must _say it_ Barbara," and I confess that my heart +leaped with joy, and I begged Evan to let the matter end here. To be +called, if it so may be, by one name from the beginning to the end of +life by the only true lovers that can never be rivals, is bliss enough +for any woman. + +Equally resolved, but in a thing of minor importance, is Ian about his +headgear. As a baby of three, when he first tasted the liberty of going +out of garden bounds daily into the daisy field beyond the wild walk, +while Richard clung to his protecting baby sunbonnet, Ian spurned head +covering of any kind, and blinked away at the sun through his tangled +curls whenever he had the chance, in primitive directness until his +cheeks glowed like burnished copper; and his present compromise is a +little cap worn visor backward. + +When the twins were very young, people were most funny in the way in +which they seemed to think it necessary to feel carefully about to make +sure whether condolence or congratulations were in order. The Severely +Protestant was greatly agitated, as, being himself the possessor of an +overflowing quiverful, his position was difficult. After making sure +which was the right side of the fence, and placing himself on it, he +tugged painfully at his starved red beard, and made an elaborate address +ending in a parallel,--the idea of the complete Bible being in two +volumes, the Old and New Testament, each being so necessary to the other, +and so inseparable, that they were only comparable to twins! + +Father and Evan were present at the time,--I dared not look at +either,--and as soon as we were again alone, the room shook with +laughter, until Martha Corkle, who was then in temporary residence, +popped in to be sure that I was not being unduly agitated. + +"The Old and New Testament, I wonder which is which?" gasped father, +going upstairs to look at the uninteresting if promising woolly bundles +by light of this startling suggestion. + +Now, however, the joke has developed a serious side, as their two +characters, though in no wise precocious, have become distinctive. Ian +represents the Old, primitive and direct, the "sword of the Lord and +Gideon" type, while Richard is the New, the reconciler and peacemaker. + + * * * * * + +The various congratulations that the twins were boys, from my standpoint +I took as a matter of course, even though I had always heard that boys +gave the most worry and girls were referred to among our friends and +neighbours as the greatest comforts in a home unless they did something +decidedly unusual, fitting into nooks, and often taking up and bearing +burdens the brothers left behind. But when many people who had either +daughters or nieces of their own, and might be said to be in that mystic +ring called "Society," congratulated me pointedly about the boys, I began +to ponder about the matter mother-wise. Then, three years ago the New +York Colony seized upon the broad acres along the Bluffs, and dotted two +miles with the elaborate stone and brick houses they call cottages; not +for permanent summer homes (the very rich, the spenders, have no homes), +but merely hotels in series. These, for the spring and fall between +seasons and week-end parties and golfing, men and girls gay in red and +green coats, replaced the wild flowers in the shorn outlying fields. I +watched these girls, and, beginning to understand, wondered if I had +grown old before my time, or if I were too young to comprehend their +point of view, for, to their strange enlightenment I was practically as +yet unborn. + +Lavinia Dorman says caustically that I really belong with her in the +middle of the last century, and she, born to what father says was really +the best society and privilege of New York life, like his college chum +Martin Cortright, is now swept quite aside by the swirl. + +"Yes, dear child," she insists (how different this use of the word +sounds from when the Lady of the Bluffs uses the universal "my dear" +impartially to mistress and maid, shopgirl and guest), "you not only +belong to the last century, but as far back in it as myself, and I am +fifty-five, full measure. + +"The new idea among the richer and consequently more privileged classes +is, that girls are to be fitted not only to go out into the world and +shine in different ways unknown to their grandmothers, but to be +superior to home, which of necessity unfits them for a return trip if the +excursion is unsuccessful. + +"What with high ideas, high rents, and higher education, the home myth is +speedily following Santa Claus out of female education, and, argue as one +may, New York is the social pace-maker 'East of the Rockies,' as the free +delivery furniture companies advertise. I congratulate you anew that the +twins are boys!" + +I laughed to myself over Miss Lavinia's letter; she is always so +deliciously in earnest and so perturbed over any change in the social +ways of her dearly beloved New York, that I'm wondering how she finds it, +on her return after two years or more abroad (she was becoming agitated +before she left), and whether she will ask me down for another of those +quaint little visits, where she so faithfully tours me through the shops +and a few select teas, when, to wind it up, Evan buys opera box seats so +that she may have the satisfaction of having her hair dressed, wearing +her point lace bertha and aigret, and showing us who is who, and the +remainder who are not. For she is well born, intricately related to the +original weavers of the social cobweb, and knows every one by name and +sight; but has found lately, I judge, that this knowledge unbacked by +money is no longer a social power that carries beyond mixed tea and +charity entertainments. Never mind, Lavinia Dorman is a dear! Ah, if she +would only come out here, and return my many little visits by a long +stay, and act as a key to the riddle the Whirlpool people are to me. But +of course she will not; for she frankly detests the country,--that is, +except Newport and Staten Island,--is wedded even in summer to her trim +back-yard that looks like a picture in a seed catalogue, and, like a +faithful spouse, declines to leave it or Josephus for more than a few +days. Josephus is a large, sleek, black cat, a fence-top sphinx, who sits +all day in summer wearing a silver collar, watching the sparrows and the +neighbourhood's wash with impartial interest, while at night he goes on +excursions of his own to a stable down a crooked street in "Greenwich +Village," where they still keep pigeons. Some day he won't come back! + +Yet Martin Cortright, the Bookworm, was a pavement worshipper too, and he +came last fall for over a Sunday to wake father up; for I believe men +sometimes need the society of others of their own age and past, as much +as children need childlife, and Martin stayed a month, and is promising +to return next spring. I wonder if the Sylvia Latham who has been +travelling with Miss Lavinia is any kin of the Lathams who are building +the great colonial home above the Jenks-Smiths. I have never seen any of +the family except Mrs. Latham, a tall, colourless blonde, who reminds one +of a handsome unlit lamp. She seems to be superintending the work by +coming up now and then, and I met her at the butcher's where she was +buying sweetbreads--"a trifle for luncheon." Accusation No. 1, against +the Whirlpoolers: Since their advent sweetbreads have risen from two +pairs for a quarter, and "thank you kindly for taking them off our +hands," to fifty cents to a dollar a "set." We no longer care for +sweetbreads! + + * * * * * + +I was therefore amused, but no longer surprised, at the exaggerated way +in which the childless Lady of the Bluffs,--her step-daughter having ten +years back made a foolish foreign marriage,--gave me her views upon the +drawbacks of the daughters of her world, when she made me, on her return +from a European trip, a visit upon the twins' first birthday,--bearing, +with her usually reckless generosity, a pair of costly gold apostle +spoons, as she said, "to cut their teeth on." I admired, but frugally +popped them into the applewood treasure chests that father has had made +for the boys from the "mother tree," that was finally laid low by a +tornado the winter of their birth and is now succeeded by a younger one +of Richard's choice. + +"My dear woman," she gasped, turning my face toward the light and +dropping into a chair at the same time, "how well you look; not a bit +upset by the double dose and sitting up nights and all that. But then, +maybe, they sleep and you haven't; for it's always the unexpected and +unusual that happens in your case, as this proves. But then, they are +boys, and that's everything nowadays, the way society's going, especially +to people like you, whose husband's trade, though pretty, is too open and +above-board to be a well-paying one, and yet you're thoroughbreds +underneath." (Poor vulgar soul, she didn't in the least realize how I +might take her stricture any more than she saw my desire to laugh.) + +"Of course here and there a girl in society does turn out well and rides +an elephant or a coronet,--of course I mean wears a coronet,--though ten +to one it jams the hairpins into her head, but mostly daughters are +regular hornets,--that is, if you're ambitious and mean to keep in +society. Of course you're not in it, and, being comfortably poor, so to +speak, might be content to see your girls marry their best chance, even +if it wasn't worth much a year, and settle down to babies and minding +their own business; but then they mightn't agree to that, and where would +you and Evan be? + +"This nice old house and garden of yours wouldn't hold 'em after they got +through with dolls, and some girls don't even have any doll-days now. It +would be town and travel and change, and you haven't got the price of +that between you all, and to keep this going, too. You'd have to go to +N'York, for a couple of months at least, to a hotel, and what would that +Evan of yours do trailing round to dances? For you're not built for it, +though I did once think you'd be a go in society with that innocent-wise +way, and your nose in the air, when you don't like people, would pass for +family pride. I'd wager soon, in a few years, he'd stop picking +boutonnieres in the garden every morning and sailing down to that 8:15 +train as cool as if he owned time, if those boys were girls! Though if +Jenks-Smith gets the Bluff Colony he's planned under way next spring, +there'll soon be some riding and golfing men hereabouts that'll shake +things up a bit,--bridge whist, poker, and perhaps red and black to help +out in the between-seasons." (I little thought then what this colony and +shaking would come to mean.) + +"Money or not, it's hard lines with daughters now--work and poor pay for +the mothers mostly. You know that Mrs. Townley that used to visit me? He +was a banker and very rich; died four years ago, and left his wife with +one son, who lived west, and five daughters, four that travelled in pairs +and an odd one,--all well fixed and living in a big house in one of those +swell streets, east of the park, where never less than ten in help are +kept. Well, if you'll believe it, she's living alone with a pet dog and a +companion, except in summer, when the Chicago son and his wife and babies +make her a good visit down at North East, the only home comfort she has. + +"All the girls married to foreigners? Not a blessed one. Two were bookish +and called literary, but not enough to break out into anything; they +didn't agree with society (had impossible foreheads that ran nearly back +to their necks, and thin hair); they went to college just to get the name +of it and to kill time, but when they got through they didn't rub along +well at home; called taking an interest in the house beneath them and the +pair that liked society frivolous; so they took a flat (I mean +apartment--a flat is when it's less than a hundred a month and only has +one bathroom), and set up for bachelor girls. The younger pair did +society for a while, and poor Mrs. Townley chaperoned round after them, +as befitted her duty and position, and had gorgeous Worth gowns, all lace +and jets, that I do believe shortened her breath, until one night in a +slippery music-room she walked up the back of a polar bear rug, fell off +his head, and had an awful coast on the floor, that racked her knee so +that she could stay at home without causing remark, which she cheerfully +did. The two youngest girls were pretty, but they were snobs, and carried +their money on their sleeves in such plain sight that they were too +suspicious, and seemed to expect every man that said 'good evening' was +waiting to grab it. So they weren't popular, and started off for Europe +to study art and music. Of course when they came back they had a lot of +lingo about the art atmosphere and all that; home was a misfit and +impossible, so they went to live in a swell studio with two maids and a +Jap butler in costume, and do really give bang-up musicals, with paid +talent of course. I went to one. + +"That left Georgie, the odd one, who was the eldest, with poor Mrs. +Townley. By this time the old lady was kind of broken-spirited, and +worried a good deal as to why all her girls left her,--'she'd always +tried to do her duty,'--and all that. This discouraged Georgie; she got +blue and nervous, had indigestion, and, mistaking it for religion, +vamoosed into a high-church retreat. And I call it mighty hard lines for +the old lady." + +I thought "too much money," but I didn't say it, for this brutally direct +but well-meaning woman could not imagine such a thing, and she continued: +"Yet Mrs. Townley had a soft snap compared to some, for she was in the +right set at the start, with both feet well up on the ladder, and didn't +have to climb; but Heaven help those with daughters who have thin purses +and have to stretch a long neck and keep it stiff, so, in a crowd at +least, nobody'll notice their feet are dangling and haven't any hold. + +"Ah, but this isn't the worst yet; that's the clever 'new daughter' kind +that sticks by her ma, who was herself once a particular housekeeper, and +takes charge of her long before there's any need; regulates her clothes +and her food and her callers, drags her around Europe to rheumatism +doctors, and pushes her into mud baths; jerks her south in winter and +north in summer, for her 'health and amusement,' so she needn't grow +narrow, when all the poor soul needs and asks is to be let stay in her +nice old-fashioned country house, and have the village children in to +make flannel petticoats; entertain the bishop when he comes to confirm, +with a clerical dinner the same as she used to; spoil a lot of +grandchildren, of which there aren't any; and once in a while to be +allowed to go into the pantry between meals, when the butler isn't +looking, and eat something out of the refrigerator with her fingers to +make sure she's got them! + +"No, my dear, rather than that, I choose the lap dog and poor relation, +who is generally too dejected to object to anything. Besides, lap dogs +are much better now than in the days when the choice lay only between +sore-eyed white poodles and pugs. Boston bulls are such darlings that for +companions they beat half the people one knows!" + +I am doubly glad that the twins are boys! Well, so be it, for women do +often frighten me and I misunderstand them, but men are so easy to +comprehend and love. While now, when Richard and Ian puzzle me, all I +need to do is to point to father and Evan, and say, "Look! ask them, for +they can tell you all you need to know!" + + * * * * * + +Almost sunset, the boys climbing up stairs, and Effie bringing a letter? +Yes, and from Lavinia Dorman, pages and pages--the dear soul! I must wait +for a light. What is this?--she wishes to see me--will make me a long +visit--in May--if I like--has no longer the conscience to ask me to leave +the twins to come to her--boys of their age need so much care--then +something about Josephus! Yes, Sylvia Latham is the daughter of the new +house on the Bluffs, etc. You blessed twins! here is another advantage I +owe to you--at last a promised visit from Lavinia Dorman! + +Ah, as I push my book into the desk the reason for its title turns up +before me, worded in Martin Cortright's precise language:-- + +"Everything, my dear Barbara, has a precedent in history or the basis of +it. It is well known that the Indian tribes have taken their distinctive +names chiefly from geographical features, and these often in turn control +the pace of the people. The name for the island since called New +Amsterdam and York was Mon-ah-tan-uk, a phrase descriptive of the rushing +waters of Hell Gate that separated them from their Long Island +neighbours, the inhabitants themselves being called by these neighbours +Mon-ah-tans, _anglice_ Manhattans, literally, _People of the Whirlpool_, +a title which, even though the termagant humour of the waters be abated, +it beseems me as aptly fits them at this day." + + + + +II + +MISS LAVINIA'S LETTERS TO BARBARA + + +NEW YORK, "GREENWICH VILLAGE," January 20, 19--. + +"So you are glad that I have returned? I wish that I could say so also, +in your hearty tone of conviction. Every day of the two years that I have +been scattering myself about Europe I have wished myself at home in the +house where I was born, and have wandered through the rooms in my dreams; +yet now that I am here, I find that I was mixing the past impossibly with +the present, in a way common to those over fifty. Yes, you see I no +longer pretend, wear unsuitable headgear, and blink obliviously at my age +as I did in those trying later forties. I not only face it squarely, but +exaggerate it, for it is so much more comfortable to have people say +'Fifty-five! Is it possible?' + +"By the way, do you know that you and I share a distinction in common? We +are both living in the houses where we were born, for the reason that we +wish to and not because we cannot help ourselves. Since I have been away +it appears that every one I know, of my own age, has made a change of +some sort, and joined the two streams that are flowing steadily upward, +east and west of the Park; while the people who were neither my financial +nor social equals thirty years ago are dividing the year into quarters, +with a house for each. A few months in town, a few of hotel life for +'rest' in the south, then a 'between-season' residence near by, seaside +next, mountains in early autumn, and the 'between-season' again before +the winter cruise through the Whirlpool. + +"I like that name that your Martin Cortright gives to New York. Before I +went abroad I should have resented it bitterly, but the two months since +my return have convinced me of its truth, which I have fought against for +many years; for even the most staid of us who, either of choice or +necessity, give the social vortex a wide berth, cannot escape from the +unrest of it, or sight of the wreckage it from time to time gives forth. +It is strange that I have not met this Cortright, or never even knew that +he shared your father's admiration of your mother, though owing to our +school tie we were like sisters. Yet it was like her to regret and hold +sacred any pain she might have caused, no matter how unwillingly. Did his +elder sister marry _a_ Schuyler, though not one of _the_ well-known +branch, and did he as a boy live in one of those houses on the west side +of Lafayette Place that were later turned into an hotel? + +"The worst of it all appears to me to be that the increase of wealth in +the upper class is exterminating the home idea, to which I cling, single +woman as I am; and consequently the middle classes, as blind copyists, +also are tending to throw it over. + +"The rich, having no particular reason for remaining in any particular +place until they become attached to it, live in half a dozen houses, +which seems to have a deteriorating effect upon their domesticity; just +as the Sultan, with fifty wives that may be dropped or replaced according +to will, cannot prize them as does the husband of only one. + +"Your letters are so full of questions and wonderments about ways in your +mother's day, that they set me rambling in the backwoods of the sixties, +when women were sending their lovers to the Civil War, and then bravely +sitting down and rolling their own hearts up with the bandages with which +they busied their fingers. I suppose you are wondering if I lost a lover +in those days, or why I have not married, as I am in no wise opposed to +the institution, but consider it quite necessary to happiness. The truth +is, I never saw but two men whose tastes so harmonized with mine that I +considered them possible as companions, and when I first met them neither +was eligible, one being my own father and the other yours! I shall have +to list your queries, to be answered deliberately, write my letters in +sections, day by day, and send them off packet-wise, like the +correspondence of the time of two-shilling post and hand messengers. To +begin with, I will pick out the three easiest:-- + +"1. What is it in particular that has so upset me on my home-coming? + +"2. Do I think that I could break through my habits sufficiently to make +you a real country visit this spring or early summer, before the +mosquitoes come? (Confessing with your altogether out-of-date frankness +that there are mosquitoes, a word usually dropped from the vocabulary +of commuters and their wives, even though they live in Staten Island or +New Jersey.) + +"3. Is the Sylvia Latham, to whom I have been a friendly chaperon during +my recent travels, related to the Lathams who are building the finest +house on the Bluffs? You have never seen the head of the house, but his +initials are S.J.; he is said to be a power in Wall Street, and the +family consists of a son and daughter, neither of whom has yet appeared, +although the house is quite ready for occupancy. + +"(My German teacher has arrived.)" + + * * * * * + +"January 22d. + +"1. Why am I upset? For several reasons, some of which have been clouding +the horizon for many years, others crashing up like a thunder-storm. + +"I have for a long time past noticed a certain apathy in the social +atmosphere of the little circle that formed my world. I gave up any +pretensions to general New York society after my father's death, which +came at a time when the social centre was splitting into several cliques; +distances increased, New Year's calling ceased, going to the country for +even midwinter holidays came in vogue, and cosmopolitanism finally +overcame the neighbourhood community interest of my girlhood. People +stopped making evening calls uninvited; you no longer knew who lived in +the street or even next house, save by accident; the cosey row of private +dwellings opposite turned to lodging houses and sometimes worse; friends +who had not seen me for a few months seemed surprised to find me living +in the same place. When I began to go about again, one day Cordelia +Martin (she was a Bleecker--your father will remember her) met me in the +street and asked me to come in the next evening informally to dinner and +meet her sister, an army officer's wife, who would be there _en route_ +from one post to another, and have an old-time game of whist. + +"I went, glad to see old friends, and anticipating a pleasant evening. I +wore a new soft black satin gown slightly V in front, some of my best +lace, and my pearl ornaments; I even wondered if the latter were in good +taste at a family dinner. You know I never dwell much upon attire, but it +is sometimes necessary when it is in a way epoch making. + +"A butler had supplanted Cordelia's usual cordial waitress; he presented +a tray for the card that I had not brought and said 'second story front.' +This seemed strange to me, as Cordelia herself had always come to the +stairway to greet me when the door opened. + +"The 'second story front' had been done over into a picturesque but +useless boudoir, a wood floor polished like glass was dotted by white fur +islands; the rich velvet carpets, put down a few years before, had in +fact disappeared from the entire house. A maid, anything but cordial, +removed my wrap, looking me and it over very deliberately as she did so. +I wondered if by mistake I had been bidden to a grand function--no, there +were no visible signs of other guests. + +"Not a word was spoken, so I made my way down to where the library +living-room had been, not a little curious to see what would come next. +Thick portieres covered the doorway, and by them stood the butler, who +asked my name. Really, for a moment I could not remember it, I was so +startled at this sudden ceremony in the house of a friend, of such long +standing that I had jumped rope on the sidewalk with her, making +occasional trips arm-in-arm around the corner to Taffy John's little shop +for molasses peppermints and 'blubber rubbers.' + +"My hesitation seemed to add to the distrust that my appearance had in +some way created. The butler also swept me from head to foot with his +critical stare, and at the same moment I became internally aware that I +had forgotten to remove my arctic over-boots. Never mind, my gown was +long, I would curl up my toes, but return to the dressing-room in full +sight of that man, I whose forbears had outbowled Peter Stuyvesant, and, +I fear, outdrunk him--never! Then the portieres flew apart, and facing +a glare of bilious-hued electric light, I heard the shouted announcement +of 'Miss Doormat' as I stumbled over a tiger rug into the room. I believe +the fellow did it on purpose. However, it was very funny, and my +rubber-soled arctics probably prevented my either coasting straight +across into the open fireplace, or having a nasty fall, while the laugh +that the announcement created on the part of my host, Archie Martin, +saved me from an awkward moment, for from a sort of gilt throne-like +arrangement at one side of the hearth, arrayed in brocaded satin gowns +cut very low and very long, heads crimped to a crisp, and fastened to +meagre shoulders by jewelled collars, the whole topped by a group of +three 'Prince of Wales' feathers, Cordelia and her sister came forward +two steps to greet me. + +"Of course, I thought to myself, they are going to a ball later on. I +naturally made no comment, and we went in to dinner. The dining room was +very cold, as extensions usually are, and the ladies presently had white +fur capes brought to cover their exposure, while I, sitting in the +draught from the butler's pantry, was grateful for my arctics. The meal +was more pretentious than edible,--a strange commentary upon many +delightful little four or at most five course affairs I had eaten in the +same room. I soon found that there was no ball in prospect, also that +Cordelia and her sister seemed ill at ease, while Archie had a look of +suppressed mischief on his face, which in spite of warning signals broke +forth as soon as, the coffee being served, the butler left. + +"One great comfort about men is that they do not take easily to being +unnatural. Archie and I, having been brought up like brother and sister +from the time we went to a little mixed school over in old Clinton Hall, +were always on cordial terms. + +"'Well, Lavvy,' he began, 'I see you're surprised at the change of base +here, and _I'm_ going to let you in on the ground floor, if Cordelia +won't. You see, Janet (she's not in town to-night, by the way) is coming +out next month, and we are getting in training for what her mother thinks +is her duty toward her, or else what they both think is their duty to +society, or something else equally uncomfortable.' + +"'Archie!' remonstrated Cordelia, but he good-naturedly ignored her and +continued: 'Now I want Janet to have a jolly winter and marry a good +fellow when the time comes, but as we've got the nicest sort of friends, +educated and all that, who have travelled along with us, as you have, +from the beginning, why should we change our habits and feathers and try +to fly for a different roost?' + +"'Archibald,' said Cordelia, in such a tone that she was not to be +gainsaid, 'Lavinia, as a woman of the world, will understand what you +refuse to: that it is very important that our daughter should have the +surroundings that are now customary to the social set with whom she has +been educated, and into which, if she is to be happy, she must marry. If +she is to meet the right people, she must be rightly presented. All her +set wear low gowns at dinner, whether guests are present or not, just as +much as men wear their evening dress at night and their business suits in +the morning. That we have kept up our old-fogy habits so long has nothing +to do with the present question.' + +"'Except that I have to strain my purse to bring up everything else to +suit the clothes, as naturally gaslight, a leg of mutton, and two +vegetables do not make a good foreground to bare shoulders and a white +vest! And I'd rather fund the cash as a nest-egg for Jenny.' + +"'Archie, you are too absurd!' snapped Cordelia, yet more than half +inclined to laugh; for she used to be the jolliest woman in the world +before the spray of the Whirlpool got into her eyes. + +"'As to meeting suitable people to marry, and all that rubbish,' pursued +Archie, relentlessly, 'I was considered fairly eligible in my time, and +did you meet me at any of the dances you went to, or at the Assemblies at +Fourteenth Street Delmonico's that were the swell thing in those days? +No; I pulled you out of an old Broadway stage that had lost a wheel and +keeled over into a pile of snow opposite father's office, when you were +practically standing on your head. You didn't fuss, and I got to know you +better in five minutes than any one could in five years of this rotten +fuss and feathers.' + +"'That was purely accidental, and I wish you wouldn't mention it so +often,' said Cordelia, flushing; and so the conversation, at first +playful, gradually working toward a painful dispute, went on, until my +faithful Lucy came to escort me home, without our having our game of +whist, that excuse for intelligent and silent companionship." + + * * * * * + +"January 25th. + +"I dwelt on that little dinner episode, my dear Barbara, because in it +you will find an answer to several questions I read between your lines. +Since my return I find that practically all my old friends have flown to +what Archie Martin called 'a different roost,' or else failing, or having +no desire so to do, have left the city altogether, leaving me very +lonely. Not only those with daughters to bring out, but many of my +spinster contemporaries are listed with the buds at balls and dinner +dances, and their gowns and jewels described. Ah, what a fatal memory for +ages one has in regard to schoolmates! Josephine Ponsonby was but one +class behind us, and she is dancing away yet. + +"The middle-aged French women who now, as always, hold their own in +public life have better tact, and make the cultivation of some +intellectual quality or political scheme at least the excuse for holding +their salons, and not the mere excuse of rivalry in money spending. + +"I find the very vocabulary altered--for _rest_ read _change_, for +_sleep_ read _stimulation_, etc, _ad infin_. + +"Born a clergyman's daughter of the old regime, I was always obliged to +be more conservative than was really natural to my temperament; even so, +I find myself at middle life with comfortable means (owing to that bit of +rock and mud of grandma's on the old Bloomingdale road that father +persistently kept through thick and thin), either obliged to compromise +myself, alter my dress and habits, go to luncheons where the prelude is a +cocktail, and the after entertainment to play cards for money, contract +bronchitis by buzzing at afternoon teas, make a vocation of charity, +or--stay by myself,--these being the only forms of amusement left open, +and none offering the intimate form of social intercourse I need. + +"I did mission schools and parish visiting pretty thoroughly and +conscientiously during forty years of my life,--on my return an +ecclesiastical, also, as well as a social shock awaited me. St. Jacob's +has been made a free church, and my special department has been given in +charge of two newly adopted Deaconesses, 'both for the betterment of +parish work and reaching of the poor.' So be it, but Heaven help those +who are neither rich nor poor enough to be of consequence and yet are +spiritually hungry. + +"The church system is necessarily reduced to mathematics. The rector has +office hours, so have the curates, and they will 'cheerfully come in +response to any call.' It was pleasant to have one's pastor drop in now +and then in a sympathetic sort of way, pleasant to have a chance to ask +his advice without formally sending for him as if you wished to be prayed +over! But everything has grown so big and mechanical that there is not +time. The clergy in many high places are emancipating themselves from the +Bible and preaching politics, history, fiction, local sensation, and what +not, or lauding in print the moral qualities of a drama in which the +friendship between Mary Magdalene and Judas Iscariot is dwelt on and the +latter adjudged a patriot. I don't like it, and I don't like hurrying to +church that I may secure my seat in the corner of our once family pew, +where as a child I loved to think that the light that shone across my +face from a particular star in one of the stained-glass windows was a +special message to me. It all hurts, and I do not deny that I am bitter. +Those in charge of gathering in new souls should take heed how they +ignore or trample on the old crop! + +"So I attend to my household duties, marketing, take my exercise, and +keep up my French and German; but when evening comes, no one rings the +bell except some intoxicated person looking for one of the lodging houses +opposite, and the silence is positively asphyxiating--if they would only +play an accordion in the kitchen I should be grateful. I'm really +thinking of offering the maids a piano and refreshments if they will give +an 'at home' once a week, as the only men in the neighbourhood seem to be +the butchers and grocery clerks and the police. There is an inordinate +banging going on in the rear of the house, and I must break off to see +what it _is_." + + * * * * * + +"January 3th. + +"MY DEAR CHILD:-- + +"Your second question, regarding visiting you the coming season, was +answering itself the other day when I was writing. Life here, except in +winter, is becoming impossible to me. I have lost not only Josephus, but +my back yard! The stable where they keep the pigeons has changed hands. +Yes, you were right,--he did haunt the place, the postman says; and I +suppose they did not understand that he was merely playful, and not +hungry, or who he was, else maybe he was too careless about sitting on +the side fence by the street. I _could_ replace Josephus, but not the +yard,--there are no more back yards to be had; their decadence is +complete. I've closed my eyes for years to the ash heap my neighbour on +the right kept in hers; also to the cast-off teeth that came over from +the 'painless' dentist's on the left. + +"When the great tenement flat ran up on the north, where I could, not so +long ago, see the masts of the shipping in the Hudson, I sighed, and +prayed that the tins and bottles that I gathered up each morning might +not single me out when I was tying up my vines in the moonlight of early +summer nights. + +"Josephus resented these missiles, however, and his foolish habit of +sitting on the low side fence under the ailantus tree then began. Next, I +was obliged to give up growing roses, because, as you know, they are +fresh-air lovers; and so much air and light was cut off by the high +building that they yielded only leaves and worms. Still I struggled, and +adapted myself to new conditions, and grew more of the stronger summer +bedding plants. + +"Five days ago I heard a banging and pounding. Only that morning Lucy had +been told that the low, rambling carpenter's shop, that occupied a double +lot along the 'street to the southwest, had been sold, and we anxiously +waited developments. We were spared long suspense; for, on hearing the +noise, and going to the little tea-room extension where I keep my winter +plants, I saw a horde of men rapidly demolishing the shop, under +directions of a superintendent, who was absolutely sitting on top of my +honeysuckle trellis. After swallowing six times,--a trick father once +taught me to cure explosive speech,--I went down and asked him if he +could tell me to what use the lot was to be put. He replied: 'My job is +only to clean it up; but the plans call for a twelve-story +structure,--warehouse, I guess. But you needn't fret; it's to be +fireproof.' + +"'Fireproof! What do I care?' I cried, gazing around my poor garden--or +rather I must have fairly snorted, for he looked down quickly and took in +the situation at a glance, gave a whistle and added: 'I see, you'll be +planted in; but, marm, that's what's got to happen in a pushing city--it +don't stop even for graveyards, but just plants 'em in.' + +"My afternoon sun gone. Not for one minute in the day will its light rest +on my garden, and _finis_ is already written on it, and I see it an arid +mud bank. I wonder if you can realize, you open-air Barbara, with your +garden and fields and all space around you, how a city-bred woman, to +whom crowds are more vital than nature, still loves her back yard. I had +a cockney nature calendar planted in mine, that began with a bunch of +snowdrops, ran through hot poppy days, and ended in a glow of +chrysanthemums, but all the while I worked among these I felt the breath +of civilization about me and the solid pavement under my feet. + +"I believe that every woman primarily has concealed in the three rounded +corners of her heart, waiting development, love of home, love of +children, and love of nature, and my nature love has yet only developed +to the size of a back yard. + +"Yes, I will come to visit you at Oaklands gladly, though it's a poor +compliment under the circumstances. The mother of twins should be gone +_to_; but tremble! you may never get rid of me, for I may supplant Martha +Corkle, the miraculous, in spoiling the boys." + + * * * * * + +"February 1st. + +"One more question to answer and this budget of letters will go to the +post with at least four stamps on it, for since you have yoked me to a +stub pen and begged me not to criss-cross the sheets, my bills for stamps +and stationery have increased. + +"Sylvia Latham _is_ the daughter of your Bluff people. Her father's name +is Sylvester Johns Latham, and he is a Wall Street broker and promoter, +with a deal of money, and ability for pulling the wires, but not much +liked socially, I should judge,--that is, outside of a certain +commercial group. + +"Mrs. Latham was, at the time of her marriage, a pretty southern girl, +Vivian Carhart, with only a face for a fortune. In a way she is a +beautiful woman now, has quite a social following, a gift for +entertaining, and, I judge, unbounded vanity and ambition. + +"Quite recently some apparently valueless western land, belonging to her +people, has developed fabulous ore, and they say that she is now more +opulent than her husband. + +"They were pewholders at St. Jacob's for many years, until three +seasons ago, when they moved from a side street near Washington Square +to 'Millionaire Row,' on the east side of the Park. There are two +children, Sylvia, the younger, and a son, Carhart, a fine-looking blond +fellow when I knew him, but who got into some bad scrape the year after +he left college,--a gambling debt, I think, that his father repudiated, +and sent him to try ranch life in the West. There was a good deal of +talk at the time, and it was said that the boy fell into bad company at +his mother's own card table, and that it has caused a chilliness +between Mr. and Mrs. Latham. + +"However it may be, Sylvia, who is an unspoiled girl of the frank and +intellectual type, tall, and radiant with warm-hearted health, was kept +much away at boarding-school for three years, and then went to college +for a special two years' course in literature. She had barely returned +home when her mother, hearing that I was going abroad, asked me to take +Sylvia with me, as she was deficient in languages, which would be a +drawback to her social career. + +"It seemed a trifle strange to me, as she was then nineteen, an age when +most girls of her class are brought out, and had been away for +practically five years. But I took her gladly, and she has been a most +lovable companion and friend. She called me Aunt, to overcome the formal +Miss, and I wish she were my daughter. I'm only wondering if her high, +unworldly standpoint, absorbed from wise teachers, and the halo that she +has constructed from imagination and desire about her parents during the +years of her separation from them, will not embarrass them a little, now +that she is at home for good. + +"By the way, we met in England last spring a young sub-professor, Horace +Bradford, a most unusual young man for nowadays, but of old New England +stock. He was one of Sylvia's literature instructors at Rockcliffe +College, and he joined our party during the month we spent in the +Shakespeare country. It was his first trip, and, I take it, earned by +great self-sacrifice; and his scholarly yet boyish enthusiasm added +hugely to our enjoyment. + +"He spoke constantly of his mother. Do you know her? She lives on the old +place, which was a farm of the better class, I take it, his father having +been the local judge, tax collector, and general consulting factotum of +his county. It is at Pine Ridge Centre, which, if I remember rightly, is +not far from your town. I should like you to know him. + +"I have only seen Sylvia twice since our return, but she lunches with me +to-morrow. You and she should be fast friends, for she is of your ilk; +and if this happens, I shall not regret the advent of the Whirlpool +Colony in your beloved Oaklands as much as I do now. + +"I am really beginning to look forward to my country visit, and am glad +to see that some 'advance season' tops are spinning on the pavement in +front of the house, and a game of marbles is in progress in my front yard +itself, safe from the annoying skirts of passers-by. For you should know, +dear Madam Pan, that marbles and tops are the city's first spring sign. + +"By the way, I am sure that Horace Bradford and Sylvia are keeping up a +literary correspondence. They are perfectly suited to each other for any +and every grade of friendship, yet from her family standpoint no one +could be more unwelcome. He has no social backing; his mother is a +religious little country woman, who doubtless says 'riz' and 'reckon,' +and he only has what he can earn by mental effort. But this is neither +here nor there, and I'm sure you and I will have an interesting summer +croon in spite of your qualms and resentment of the moneyed +invasion.--Not another word, Lucy is waiting to take this to the +post-box. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LAVINIA DORMAN. + +"P. S.--Josephus has just come back! Lean, and singed by hot ashes, I +judge. I dread the shock to him when he knows about the yard!" + + + + +III + +MARTIN CORTRIGHT'S LETTERS TO BARBARA AND DOCTOR RICHARD RUSSELL + + +"December 10, 19--. + +"MY DEAR BARBARA:-- + +"You have often asked me to write you something of myself, my youth, but +where shall I begin? + +"I sometimes think that I must have been born facing backward, and a +fatality has kept me walking in that direction ever since, so wide a +space there seems to be to-day between myself and those whose age shows +them to be my contemporaries. + +"My father, being a man of solid position both in commerce and society, +and having a far greater admiration for men of art and letters than would +have been tolerated by his wholly commercial Knickerbocker forbears, I, +his youngest child and only son, grew up to man's estate among the set of +contemporaries that formed his world, men of literary and social parts, +whose like I may safely say, for none will contradict, are unknown to the +rising generation of New Yorkers; for not only have types changed, but +also the circumstances and appreciations under which the development of +those types was possible. + +"In my nineteenth year events occurred that altered the entire course of +my life, for not only did the almost fatal accident and illness that laid +me low bar my study of a profession, but it rendered me at the same time, +though I did not then realize it, that most unfortunate of beings, the +semi-dependent son of parents whose overzeal to preserve a boy's life +that is precious, causes them to deprive him of the untrammelled manhood +that alone makes the life worth living. + +"I always had a bent for research, a passion for following the history of +my country and city to its fountain heads. I devoured old books, +journals, and the precious documents to which my father had ready access, +that passed from the attic treasure chests of the old houses in decline +to the keeping of the Historical Society. As a lad I besought every gray +head at my father's table to tell me a story, so what more natural, under +the circumstances, than that my father should make me free of his +library, and say: 'I do not expect or desire you to earn your living; I +can provide for you. Here are companions, follow your inclinations, live +your own life, and do not be troubled by outside affairs.' At first I +was too broken in health and disappointed in ambition to rebel, then +inertia became a habit. + +"As my health unexpectedly improved and energy moved me to reassert +myself and step out, a soft hand was laid on mine--the hand of my mother, +invalided at my birth, retired at forty from a world where she had shone +by force of beauty and wit--and a gentle voice would say: 'Stay with me, +my son, my baby. Oh, bear with me a little longer. If you only knew the +comfort it is to feel that you are in the house, to hear your voice. You +will pen a history some day that will bring you fame, and you will read +it to me here--we two, all alone in my chamber, before the world hears +it.' So I stayed on. How mother love often blinds the eyes to its own +selfishness. + +"That fatal twentieth year, the time of my overthrow, brought me one good +gift, your father's friendship. It was a strange chance, that meeting, +and it was my love of hearing of past events and the questions concerning +them that brought it about. Has your father ever told you of it? + +"Likely not, for his life work has been the good physician's, to bring +forth and keep alive, and mine the antiquarian's, dreaming and groping +among ruins for doubtful treasure of fallen walls. + +"My mother came of English, not Knickerbocker stock like my father, +though both belong distinctly to New York; and female education being in +a somewhat chaotic state between the old regime and new, her parents, +desirous of having her receive the genteel polish of courtly manners, +music, and dancing, sent her, when about fifteen, to Mrs. Rowson's +school, then located at Hollis Street, Boston. The fame of this school +had travelled far and wide, for not only had the preceptress in her +youth, as Susanna Haswell, been governess to the children of the +beautiful Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, one of the most accomplished +women of her day, and profited by her fine taste, but her own high morals +and literary gifts made her tutorship a much sought privilege. + +"While there my mother met the little New England girl who was long +afterward to become your grandmother. She had also come to study music, +for which she had a talent. My mother related to me, when I was a little +lad and used to burrow in her carved oak treasure chest and beg for +stories of the articles it contained, many fascinating tales of those two +school years, a pretty colour coming to her cheeks as she told of the +dances learned together, pas-de-deux and minuet, from old 'Doctor' +Shaffer, who was at the time second violin of the Boston Theatre, as +well as authority in the correct methods of bowing and courtesying for +gentlewomen. Your grandmother married first, and the letter telling of it +was stored away with others in the oak chest. + +"Some months before the steamboat accident that shattered my nerves, and +preceded the long illness, I was browsing at a bookstall, on my way up +from college homeward, when I came across a copy of Charlotte Temple--one +of the dozen later editions--printed in New York by one R. Hobbs, in +1827, its distinguishing interest lying in a frontispiece depicting +Charlotte's flight from Portsmouth. + +"The story had long been a familiar one, and I, in common with others of +many times my age and judgment, had lingered before the slab that bears +her name in the graveyard of old Trinity, and sometimes laid a flower on +it for sympathy's sake, as I have done many times since. + +"On my return home I showed the little book to my mother, and as she held +it in her hinds and read a word here and there, she too began to journey +backward to her school days, and asked my father to bring out her +treasure chest, and from it she took her school relics,--a tattered +ribbon watch-guard fastened by a flat gold buckle that Mrs. Rowson had +given her as a reward for good conduct, and a package of letters. She +spent an hour reading these, and old ties strengthened as she read. I can +see her now as she sat bolstered by pillows in her reclining chair, a +writing tray upon her knees, penning a long letter. + +"A few months afterward, as I lay in my bed too weak even to stir, your +father stood there, looking across the footboard at me,--the answer to +that letter. Your father, tall and strong of body and brain, a Harvard +graduate drawn to New York to study medicine at the College of Physicians +and Surgeons. His eyes of strengthening manly pity looked into mine and +drew me slowly back to life with them. + +"His long absence as surgeon in the Civil War, the settling down as a +country doctor, and even loving the same woman, has not separated us. +Never more than a few months passed but our thoughts met on paper, or our +hands clasped. His solicitude in a large measure restored my health, so +that at sixty-three, physically, I can hold my own with any man of my +age, and to-day I walk my ten miles with less ado than many younger men. +Because of my intense dislike of the modern means of street +transportation, I have kept on walking ever since the time that your +father and I footed it from Washington Park to Van Cortlandt Manor, +through the muskrat marshes whereon the park plaza now stands, up +through the wilds of the future Central Park, McGowan's Pass, and +northwestward across the Harlem to our destination. He will recollect. We +were two days picking our way in going and two days on the return, for we +scorned the 'bus route, and that was only in the later fifties. Never +mind, if we ever do get back to small clothes and silk stockings, Martin +Cortright can show a rounded calf, if he has been esteemed little more +than a crawling bookworm these many years. + +"Methinks I hear you yawn and crumple these sheets together in your hand, +saying: 'What ails the man--is he grown doity? I thought he was +contented, even if sluggishly serene.' + +"And so he was, as one grown used to numbness, until last summer one +Mistress Barbara visited the man-snail in his shell and exorcised him to +come forth for an outing, to feed among fresh green leaves and breathe +the perfume of flowers and young lives. When lo and behold, on the +snail's return, the shell had grown too small! + +"Faithfully, + +"M. C." + + * * * * * + +(To R. R.) + +"December 22, 19--. + +"So social change has also cast its shadow across even your country +pathway, dear Hippocrates? I wish it had spared you, but I feared as much +when I heard that your peaceful town had been invaded by an advance guard +of those same People of the Whirlpool who keep the social life of their +own city in a ferment. + +"You ask what is the matter, what the cause of the increasing +restlessness that appears on every side, driving the conservative +thinking class of moderate means to seek home shelter beyond city limits, +and drawing the rest into a swirl that, sooner or later, either casts +them forth as wrecks or sucks them wholly down. + +"The question is difficult of answer, but there are two things that are +potent causes of the third. Money too quickly earned, or rather won, +causes an unwise expansion, and a fictitious prosperity that has degraded +the life standard. Except in exclusively academic circles, the man is +gauged by his power of financial purchase and control, and the dollar is +his hall mark. He is forced to buy, not win, his way. Of course, if +pedigree and private character correspond in quantity, so much the +better, but their importance is strictly held in abeyance. + +"Even in the legendary classic shades of learning, the cold pressure of +the golden thumb crowds down and chills penniless brains. All students do +not have equal _chance_ and equal _rights_. How can they, when the +exclusiveness of many fraternities is not by intellectual gauge or the +capability for comradeship, but the power to pay high dues and spend +lavishly. Of later years, in several conspicuous cases, even the choice +of college officials of high control has been guided rather by their +capacity as financiers than for ripened and inspiring scholarship. + +"Then, too, the rack of constant change is detrimental to the finer grade +of civic sentiment. It would seem that the Island's significant Indian +name was wrought into its physical construction like the curse that kept +the Jew of fable a wanderer. Periodically the city is rent and upheaved +in unison with the surrounding changes of tide. Here one does not need to +live out his threescore years and ten to see the city of his youth slip +away from him. Even his Alma Mater packs her trunks and moves about too +rapidly to foster the undying loyal home spirit among her sons--my +college has lived in three houses since my freshman year. How I envy the +sons of Harvard, Yale, and all the rest who can go back, and, feeling at +least a scrap of the old campus turf beneath their feet, close their eyes +and be young again for one brief minute. Is not this the reason why so +many of Columbia's sons, in spite of the magnificent opportunities she +offers, send _their_ sons elsewhere, because they realize the value of +associations they have missed, and recognize the Whirlpool's +changefulness? + +"What would be the feelings of an Oxford man, on returning from his life +struggle in India or Australia, to visit his old haunts, if he found, as +a sign of vaunted progress, the Bodleian Library turned into an +apartment house! + +"The primal difference between civilized men and the nameless savage is +love of home, and the powerful races are those in whom this instinct is +the strongest. Such fealty is _not_ born in the shifting almost +tent-dwellers of Manhattan. + +"It was in the late seventies, the winter before his passing, that one +mild night I walked home from a meeting of the Goethe Club in company +with the poet Bryant. He and my father had been stanch comrades, and many +a time had I studied his Homeric head silhouetted by firelight on our +library wall. As we crossed the Park front going from Fifth Avenue east +to west, he paused, and leaning on his cane gazed skyward, where the +outlines of some buildings, in process of construction on Fifty-ninth +Street, and then considered high, stood out against the sky. "'Poor New +York,' he said, half to himself, half to me, 'created and yet cramped by +force of her watery boundaries, where shall her sons and daughters find +safe dwelling-places? They have covered the ground with their +habitations, and even now they are climbing into the sky.' And he went on +leaving his question unanswered. + + * * * * * + +"A caller interrupted me yesterday, a most persistent fellow and a +dangerous one to the purse of the tyro collector of Americana, though not +to me. He was a man of some pretence to classic education, and +superficially versed in lore of title, date, and _editio princeps_. He +had half a dozen prints of rarity and value had they not been forgeries, +and a book ... that I had long sought after in its original form, but the +only copy I had seen for many years when put up at auction lacked the +title page and fully half a dozen leaves, besides having some other +defects. Would you believe it, Dick, this copy was that from the auction, +its defects repaired, its missing leaves replaced by careful forgery, and +what is more, I know the vender was aware of the deceit. But he will sell +it to some young moneyed sprig who will not know. + +"I was angry, Dick, very angry, and yet all this is a trivial part of +what we have a long time been discussing. The sudden glint of wealth in +certain quarters has changed the aspect of even book collecting, that +once most individual of occupations, and syndicated it. + +"Once a book collection was the natural accumulation, more or less +perfect according to purse and opportunity, of one following a certain +line of thought, and bore the stamp of individuality; but as these +bibliophiles of the old regime pass away, the ranks are recruited by men +to whom money is of no account, whose competition forces irrational +prices and creates false values. Methinks I see the finish of the small +collectors like ourselves. Meanwhile, just so much intellectual pleasure +is wrested from the modern scholar of small means who dares not make +beginning. I do not like it, Dick, indeed I do not. + +"But we were discussing domesticity, I think, when this wretch rang the +bell. The restlessness I speak of as born of undisciplined bigness, of +moneyed magnitude, is visible everywhere, and more so in the hours of +relaxation than those of business. + +"We have acquired the knowledge of many arts in these late years, and we +needed it; but we have lost one that is irreparable--sociality. There is +no longer time to know oneself, how then shall we know our neighbours? + +"The verb _to entertain_ has largely driven the verb _to enjoy_ from the +social page. It is not too extreme, I think, to say the home and +playhouse have changed places. Many conservative people that I know turn +to the theatre as the only safe means of relaxation and enjoyment within +their reach, the stress and penalty of criticism in entertaining modern +company being unbearable to them. + +"To the bachelor who, like myself, has a modest hearthstone, yet no hand +but his own to stir the fire, the dinner tables of his married friends +and his clubs have been supposed to replace, in a measure at least, the +need of family ties. Once they did this as far as such things may, but +the easy sociality of the family board has almost ceased, and the +average club has so expanded that it savours more of hotel freedom than +home cosiness. + +"I am not a misanthrope or a woman hater, as you know, yet from what I +gather I fear that, in the upper middle class at least, it is the women +who are responsible for this increased formality that most men naturally +would avoid. Led by personal ambition, or that of young daughters, they +seek to maintain a standard just enough beyond their easy grasp to feel +ill at ease, if not humiliated, to be caught off guard. I remember once +when I was a mere boy hearing my father say in a sorrowing tone to my +eldest sister, who was giving fugitive reasons for not being able to +array herself quickly for some festivity for which the invitation had +been delayed, yet to which she longed to go: 'Wherever woman enters +socially, then complications begin that are wholly of her own making. I +warrant before Eve had finished her fig-leaf petticoat she was bothering +Adam to know if he thought there could be another woman anywhere who had +a garment of rarer leaves than her own.' + +"The clubs do somewhat better, being under male management, but those +among them that ranked as so conservative that membership was the hall +mark of intellectual acquirements and stamped a man as either author, +artist, or amateur of letters and the fine arts, have had their doors +pushed open by many of those who wish to wear in public the name of +being without good right, and so the little groups of kindred spirits +have broken away, the authors in one direction, the followers of the +drama to habitations of their own, artists who are too independent to be +overborne by money in another, and thus the splitting spirit increases +until it vanishes in a maze of cliques and coteries. The names may stand +on the lists, the faces are absent, and one must wander through half a +dozen clubs to really meet the aggregation of thinkers and workers of +the grade who gathered in the snug corners of the Century's old club +house in East Fifteenth Street when we were young fellows, and my father +secured us cards for an occasional monthly meeting as the greatest +favour he could do us. + +"Come down if you can, take a holiday, or rather night, and go with me to +the January meeting, and we will also stroll among some of our old +haunts. You may perhaps realize, what I cannot altogether explain, the +reason why I feel almost a stranger though at home." + + * * * * * + +(To DR. R. R.) + +"January 10, 19--. + +"Could not get away, you conscientious old Medicus, because of the +strange accidents and holiday doings of the Whirlpool Colony at +the Bluffs! + +"Well, well! I read your last with infinite amusement. You are in a fair +way to have enlightenment borne in upon you without leaving your surgery, +or at least travelling farther than your substantial gig will take you. + +"Meanwhile I have had what should be a crushing blow to my vanity, and in +analyzing it I've made an important discovery. One night last week I was +sitting quietly in the card room at the Dibdin Club, awaiting my whist +mates (for here at least one may be reasonably sure of finding a group +with bibliographic interests in common, and the pleasures of a +non-commercial game of cards), when I heard a voice, one of a group +outside, belonging to a wholesome, smooth-faced young fellow, with good +tastes and instincts, say:-- + +"'I don't know what happened to the old boy when he took that unheard-of +vacation of his last fall, or where he went, but one thing's very sure, +since his return Cortright's grown _pudgy_ and he's waked bang up. Wonder +if he's finished that Colonial History, that's to be his monument, he's +been working on all his life, or if he's fallen in love?' + +"'If he'd fall in love, he might stand more chance of finishing his +history,' replied a graybeard friend in deep didactic tones; 'he has +material in plenty, but no vital stimulus for focussing his work.' + +"I gave an unpremeditated laugh that dwindled to a chuckle, as if it were +produced by a choking process. Two heads appeared a second at the doorway +of the room they had thought empty, and then vanished! + +"When I came home I sat a long while before my den fireplace thinking. +They were right in two things, though not in the falling in love--that +was done thirty-five years ago once and for all. I wondered if I had +grown _pudgy_, dreadful word; _stout_ carries a certain dignity, but +pudgy suggests bunchy, wabbling flesh. I've noticed my gloves go on +lingeringly, clinging at the joints, but I read that to mean rheumatism! + +"That night I stood before the mirror and studied my face as I unbuttoned +my vest and loosened my shirt band at the neck. Suddenly I experienced +great relief. For several months past I have felt a strange asphyxiation +and a vertigo sensation when wearing formal clothes of any kind, enjoying +complete comfort only in the loose neckcloth and wrapper of my private +hours. I had thought of asking medical advice, but having acquired a +distrust of general physic in my youth, and hoping you might come down, I +put it off. + +"Unfasten your own top button, and now prepare to laugh--Martin Cortright +is not threatened with apoplexy or heart failure, he's grown _pudgy_, and +his clothes are all too small! Yet but for that boy's good-tempered +ridicule he might not have discovered it. + +"Think of it, Richard! I, whom my mother considered interesting and of +somewhat distinguished mien, owing to my pallor and slim stature! A +pudgy worm belongs to chestnuts, not to books. A pudgy antiquarian is a +thing unheard of since monastic days, when annal making was not deemed +out of place if mingled with the rotund jollity of a Friar Tuck. You +must bear half the blame, for it must be the butter habit that your +Martha Corkle's fresh churned pats inoculated me with, for I always +detested the stuff before. + +"Graybeard's stricture, however, struck a deeper chord--'He has material +in plenty for his book, but no vital stimulus.' This, too, is deeply +true, and I have felt it vaguely so for some time, but no more realized +it than I did my pudginess. + +"No matter how much material one collects, if the vitalizing spirit is +not there, no matter how realistically the stage may be set if the actors +are mere dummies. The only use of the past is to illuminate and sustain +the present. + +"Your own home life and work, the honest questions of little Richard and +Ian waken me from a long sleep, I believe, and set me thinking. What is +a man remembered by the longest? Brain work, memorial building, or heart +touching? Do you recollect once meeting old Moore--Clement Clark +Moore--at my father's? He was a profound scholar in Greek and Hebrew +lexicology, and gave what was once his country house and garden in old +Chelsea Village to the theological seminary of his professorship. How +many people remember this, or his scholarship? But before that old +rooftree was laid low, he wrote beneath it, quite offhand, a little +poem, 'The Night Before Christmas,' that blends with childhood's dreams +anew each Christmas Eve--a few short verses holding more vitality than +all his learning. + +"If my book ever takes body, my friend, it will be under your roof, where +you and yours can vitalize it. This is no fishing for invitations--we +know each other too frankly well for that. What I wish to do is to come +into your neighbourhood next springtime, without encroaching on your +hospitality, and work some hours every day in the library, or that corner +of her charmed attic that Barbara has shared with me. It is bewitching. +Upon my word, I do not wonder that she sees the world rose-colour as she +looks upon it from that window. I, too, had long reveries there, in which +experience and tradition mixed themselves so cleverly that for the time I +could not tell whether it was my father or myself who had sometimes +proudly escorted the lovely Carroll sisters upon their afternoon +promenade down Broadway, from Prince Street to the Bowling Green, each +leading her pet greyhound by a ribbon leash, or which of us it was that, +in seeking to recapture an escaping hound, was upset by it in the mud, to +the audible delight of some rivals in a 'bus and his own discomfiture, +being rendered thereby unseemly for the beauty's further company." + + * * * * * + +"January 20, 19--. + +"Thank you, dear Richard, for your brotherly letter. I make no +protestations, for I know your invitation would not be given if you felt +my presence would in any way be a drawback or impose care on any member +of your household, and the four little hearts that Barbara drew, with her +own, Evan's, and the boys' initials in them, are seals upon the +invitation. + +"Do not deplore, however, the lack of nearness of my haunts in Astor and +Lenox libraries. Times are changed, and the new order condemns me to sit +here if I read, there if I take out pencil and pad to copy--the red tape +distracts me. The old Historical Society alone remains in comfortable +confusion, and that is soon to move upward half a day's walk. + +"But, as it chances, you have collected many of the volumes that are +necessary to me, and I will use them freely, for some day, friend of +mine, my books will be joined to yours, and also feel the touch of little +Richard's and Ian's fingers, and of their sons, also, I hope. + +"I declare, I'm growing childishly expectant and impatient for spring, +like Barbara with her packages of flower seeds. + +"You ask if I ever remember meeting one Lavinia Dorman. I think I used to +see her with a bevy of girls from Miss Black's school, who used sometimes +to attend lectures at the Historical Society rooms, and had an unlimited +appetite for the chocolate and sandwiches that were served below in the +'tombs' afterward, which appetite I may have helped to appease, for you +know father was always a sort of mine host at those functions. + +"The girls must have all been eight or ten years my junior, and you know +how a fellow of twenty-three or four regards giggling schoolgirls--they +seem quite like kittens to him. + +"Stop, was she one of the older girls, the special friend of--Barbara's +mother? If so, I remember her face, though she did not walk in the school +procession with the other 'convicts,' as the boys called them; but I was +never presented. + +"I'm sending a small birthday token to the boys--a little printing-press. +Richard showed no small skill in setting the letters of my rubber stamp. +It is some days late, but that will separate it from the glut of the +Christmas market. Ask Evan to notify me if he and Barbara go to town. + +"Gratefully, + +"M. C." + + + + +IV + +WHEN BARBARA GOES TO TOWN + + +_March_ 4. I like to go to a plain people's play, where the spectators +groan and hiss the villain. It is a wholesome sort of clearing house +where one may be freed from pent-up emotion under cover of other people's +tears and smiles; the smiles triumphing at the end, which always winds up +with a sudden recoil, leaving the nerves in a healthy thrill. I believe +that I can only comprehend the primal emotions and what is called in +intellectual jargon mental dissipation, and the problem play, in its many +phases, appeals to me even less than crude physical dissipation. + +We have seen a drama of the people played quite recently, having been to +New York to spend part of a "midwinter" week's vacation, which father +insisted that Evan should take between two rather complex and +eye-straining pieces of work. Speaking by the almanac, it wasn't +midwinter at all, but pre-spring, which, in spite of lengthening _days_, +is the only uncompromisingly disagreeable season in the country--the time +when measles usually invades the village school, the dogs come slinking +in guiltily to the fire, pasted with frozen mud, the boys have snuffle +colds, in spite of father's precautions, and I grow desperate and flout +the jonquils in my window garden, it seems so very long since summer, and +longer yet to real budding spring. We arrived at home last night in the +wildest snowstorm of the season, and this morning Evan, having smoothed +out his mental wrinkles by means of our mild city diversions, is now +filling his lungs and straightening his shoulders by building a wonderful +snow fort for the boys. Presently I shall go down to help them bombard +him in it, and try to persuade them that it will last longer if they do +not squeeze the snowballs too hard, for Evan has prohibited "baking" +altogether. + +The "baking" of snowballs consists of making up quite a batch at once, +then dipping them in water and leaving them out until they are hard as +rocks, and really wicked missiles. + +The process, unknown in polite circles here, though practised by the +factory town "muskrats," was taught my babies by the Vanderveer boy +during the Christmas holidays, which, being snowy and bright, drew the +colony to the Bluffs for coasting, skating, etc., giving father such a +river of senseless accidents to wade through that he threatens to absent +himself and take refuge with Martin Cortright in his Irving Place den for +holiday week next year. Father has ridden many a night when the roads +would not admit of wheeling, without thought of complaint, to the +charcoal camp to tend a new mother, a baby, or a woodchopper suddenly +stricken with pneumonia, that is so common a disease among men living as +these do on poor food, in tiny close cabins, and continually getting +checks of perspiration in the variable climate. During the holidays he +was called to the Bluffs in the middle of two consecutive nights, first +to the Vanderveers, and requested to "drug" the second assistant butler, +who was wildly drunk, and being a recent acquisition had been brought to +officiate at the house party without due trial, "so that he wouldn't be +used up the next day," and then to the Ponsonby's, where the family had +evidently not yet gone to bed. Here he found that the patient, a visiting +school friend of one of the daughters, from up the state, and evidently +not used to the whirl of the pool, had skated all day, and, kept going by +unaccustomed stimulants, taken half from ignorance, half from bravado, +had danced the evening through at the club house, and then collapsed. Her +hostess, careless through familiarity with it, had given her a dose of +one of the chloral mixtures "to let her have a good night's sleep"; but +instead it had sent her into hysterics, and she was calling wildly for +her mother to come and take her home. Father returned from both visits +fairly white with rage. Not at the unfortunates themselves, be it said, +but at the cool nonchalance of those who summoned him. + +The butler's was a common enough case. That of the young girl moved him +to pity, and then indignation, as he sifted, out the cause of the attack, +in order to treat her intelligently. This questioning Mrs. Ponsonby +resented most emphatically, telling him "to attend to his business and +not treat ladies as if they were criminals." This to a man of father's +professional ability, and one of over sixty years of age in the bargain. + +"Madam," said he, "you _are_ a criminal; for to my thinking all +preventable illness, such as this, is a crime. Leave the room, and when I +have soothed this poor child I will go home; and remember, do not send +for me again; it will be useless." + +Never a word did he say of the matter at home, though I read part in his +face; but the Ponsonby's housekeeper, a countrywoman of Martha Corkle's, +took the news to her, adding "and the missus stepped lively too, she +did; only, law's sakes, by next mornin' she'd forgot all about it, and, +we being short-handed, wanted me to go down with James and get the Doctor +up to spray her throat for a hoarseness, and I remindin' her what he'd +said, she laughed and answered, 'He had a bear's manners,' but to go tell +him she'd pay him city prices, and she bet that would mend him and them!" + +I took good care not to repeat this to father, for he would be wounded. +He is beginning to see that they use him as a sort of ambulance surgeon, +but he does not yet understand the absolute money insolence of these +people to those not of their "set," whom they consider socially or +financially beneath them, and I hope he never may. He is so full of good +will to all men, so pitiful toward weakness and sin, and has kept his +faith in human nature through thirty-five years' practice in a factory +town, hospital wards, charcoal camp, and among the odd characters of the +scattering hillsides, that it would be an undying shame to have it +shattered by the very people that the others regard with hopeless envy. + +Shame on you, Barbara, but you are growing bitter. Yes, I know you do +not yourself mind left-handed snubs and remarks about your being +"comfortably poor," but you won't have that splendid old father of yours +put upon and sneezed at, with cigarette sneezes, too. You should realize +that they don't know any better, also that presently they may become +dreadfully bored after the manner of degenerates and move away from the +Bluffs, and then companionable, commuting, or summer resident people will +have a chance to buy their houses. + +Shrewd Martha Corkle foresaw the probable outcome the day that the +foundation-stone for the first cottage was laid, even before our +prettiest flower-hedged lane was shorn and torn up to make it into a +macadam road, in order to shorten the time, for motor vehicles, between +the Bluffs and the station by possibly three minutes. Not that the people +were obliged to be on time for early trains, for they are mostly the +reapers of other people's sowing; but to men of a certain calibre, born +for activity, the feeling that, simply for the pleasure of it, they can +wait until the very latest moment and still get there, is an amusement +savouring of both chance and power. + +"Yes, Mrs. Evan," said Martha, with as much of a sniff as she felt +compatible with her dignity, "I knows colernies of folks not born to or +loving the soil, but just trying to get something temporary out o' it in +the way o' pleasure, as rabbits, or mayhap bad smelling water for the +rheumatics. (It was the waters Lunnon swells came for down on the old +estate.) To my thinkin' these pleasure colernies is bad things; they +settles as senseless as a swarm of bees, just because their leader's lit +there first; and when they've buzzed themselves out and moved on, like as +not some sillies as has come gapin' too close is bit fatal or poisoned +for life." + +Well-a-day! Evan says that I take things to heart that belong to the head +alone, while father says that, to his mind, feeling is much more of a +need to-day than logic; so what can I do but still stumble along +according to feeling. + +A shout from beneath the window, then a soft snowball on it, the signal +that the fort is finished,--yes, and the old Christmas tree stuck up top +as a standard. Richard has built a queer-looking snow man with red knobs +all over his chest and stomach, while Ian has achieved several most +curious looking things with carrot horns,--whatever are they? Father has +just driven in, and is laughing heartily, and Evan is waving to me. + + * * * * * + +Calm reigns again. The fort has surrendered, the final charge having been +led by Corney Delaney. We've had hot milk all around, father has retired +to the study to decipher a complicated letter from Aunt Lot, Evan has +taken the boys into the den for a drawing lesson, and the mystery of the +snow man is solved. + +We do not intend to have the boys learn any regular lessons before +another fall, but for the last two years I have managed that they +should sit still and be occupied with something every morning, so that +they may learn how to keep quiet without its being a strain,--shelling +peas, cutting papers for jelly pots, stringing popcorn for the hospital +Christmas tree, seeding raisins with a dozen for pay at the end--this +latter is an heroic feat when it is accomplished without drawing the +pay on the instalment plan--and many other little tasks, varied +according to season. + +Ian has a quick eye and comprehension, and he is extremely colour +sensitive, but healthily ignorant of book learning, while Richard, how we +do not know, has learned to read in a fashion of his own, not seeming yet +to separate letters or words, but "swallowing the sense in lumps," as +Martha puts it. + +Yesterday, before our return, the weather being threatening, and the +boys, keyed for mischief, clamouring and uneasy, very much as birds and +animals are before a storm, father invited them to spend the afternoon +with him in the study, and Martha Corkle, who mounts guard during my +brief holidays, saw that their paws were scrubbed, and then relaxed her +vigilance, joining Evan in the sewing room. + +After many three-cornered discussions as to what liberty was to be +allowed the boys in study and den, we decided that when they learned to +respect books in the handling they should be free to browse as they +pleased; the curiosities, rarities, and special professional literature, +being behind glass doors, could easily be protected by lock and key. +Father's theory is that if you want children to love books, no barriers +must be interposed from the beginning, and that being so much with us the +boys will only understand what is suited to their age, and therefore the +harmful will pass them by. I was never shut from the library shelves, or +mysteries made about the plain-spoken literature of other days, in spite +of Aunt Lot's fuming. I did not understand it, so it did not tempt, and +as I look back, I realize that the book of life was spread before me +wisely and gradually, father turning page after page, then passing the +task to Evan, so that I never had a shock or disillusionment. + +I wonder if mother had lived if I should think differently, and be more +apprehensive about the boys, womanwise? I think not; for I am a +sun-loving Pagan all through, really born far back in an overlooked +corner of Eden, and I prefer the forceful father influence that teaches +one _to overcome_ rather than the mother cult which is _to bear_, for so +much is cumbrously borne in self-glorified martyrdom by women of their +own volition. + +I know that I am very primitive in my instincts and emotions; so are the +boys, and that keeps us close, or so close, together. + +Of course illustrated books are now the chief attraction to them in the +library, and yesterday, when father went there with the boys, he supplied +Ian, as usual, with "The Uncivilized Races of Man," which always opens of +itself at the Mumbo Jumbo picture, and as a great treat for Richard, took +down the three quarto volumes of Audubon's "Quadrupeds," and ranged them +on a low stand with a stool in front of it. Then, being tired after a +hard morning's work, he drew his big leather chair near the, fire, put on +an extra log, and proceeded to--meditate. You will doubtless notice +that when father or husband close their eyes, sitting in comfortable +chairs by the fire, they are always meditating, and never sleeping, +little nosey protestations to the contrary. + +Father's meditations must have been long and deep, for when he was +startled from them by the breaking in two of the hickory log, a gory +spectacle met his eyes. + +Richard was sitting on the hearth rug, which he had carefully covered +with newspapers; these, as well as his hands and face, were stained a +deep crimson, while with a stout silver fruit-knife he was hacking pieces +from a great pulpy red mass before him. + +Checking an exclamation of horror father started forward, to meet +Richard's cheerful, frank gaze and the request, as he dug away +persistently, to "Please wait one minute more, dranpa. I've got the heart +all done, that big floppy piece is lungs, an' I've most made the liver. +Not the good kind that goes wif curly bacon, but a nasty one like what we +wear inside." + +Then spying a medical chart with coloured pictures that was propped up +against the wood box, father found the clew, and comprehended that +Richard was giving himself a practical lesson in anatomy by trying to +carve these organs from a huge mangel wurzel beet that he had rolled in +from the root cellar. Did father scold him for mess-making, or laugh at +his attempt that had little shape except in his own baby brain? + +No, neither; he carefully closed the door against Martha's possible +entrance, seriously and respectfully put the precious objects on a plate, +to which he gave a place of honour on the mantel shelf, and after +removing as far as possible all traces of beet from face and hands in his +sacred office lavatory, he took Richard with him into the depths of the +great chair and told the happy child his favourite rigmarole, all about +the "three gentlemen of high degree," who do our housework for us. How +the lungs, who are Siamese twins, called to the heart to pump them up +some blood to air, because they were almost out of work, and how the big +lazy liver lay on one side and groaned because he had drunk too much +coffee for breakfast, and had a headache,--until Richard really felt that +he had achieved something. So the first thing this morning he set about +making a snow man, that he might put the beet vitals in their proper +places, nearly convulsing father by their location. Though, as he told +me, they were accurate, compared to the ideas of many trained nurses with +whom he had come in contact. + +But where was Ian during the beet carving? Father quite forgot him +until, Richard falling asleep in his arms, he arose to tuck him up on +the sofa. A sound of the slow turning of large pages guided him to the +corner by the bay window where some bookcases, standing back to back, +made a sort of alcove. There was Ian, flat upon his stomach, while +before him the "Wandering Jew" legend, with the Dore pictures, lay open +at the final scene--The Last Judgment--where the Jew, his journey over, +looks up at the angels coming to greet him, while little devils pull +vainly at his tattered boots. It was not the Jew or the angels, however, +that held Ian's attention, and whose outlines he was tracing with his +forefinger, but the devils, one big fellow with cows' horns and wings +drooping like those of a moulting crow, and a bevy of imps with young +horns and curly tails who were pulling a half-buried body toward the +fiery pit by its hair. + +Father explained the pictures in brief, and closed the book as quickly as +possible, thinking the boy might be frightened in his dreams by the +demons. But no, Ian was fascinated, not frightened. He would have liked +the pygmies to come and play with him, and he turned to father with a +sigh, saying, "They're bully pullers, dranpop. I guess if they and me +pulled against Corney Delaney we could get him over the line all right," +one of the boys' favourite pastimes being to play tug-of-war with the +goat, the rope being fastened to its horns, but Corney was always +conqueror. + +Neither did Ian forget the imps quickly, as some children do their +impressions, but strove to model them this morning, making round snow +bodies, carrot horns, corncob legs, and funny celery tails; the result +being positively startling and "overmuch like witch brats," as Effie +declared, with bulging eyes. + +They unfortunately did not perish with the fort, for Richard doesn't like +them; but are now huddled in a group under the old Christmas tree, where +Lark is barking at them. + + * * * * * + +I started to record our visit to Lavinia Dorman, but my "human +documents," printed on vellum, came between, and I would not miss a word +they have to say for the "Mechlinia Albertus Magnus," which father says +is the rarest book in the world, though Evan disputes his preference, and +Martin Cortright would doubtless prefer the first edition of Denton's +"New York." + +In past times, when we have visited Miss Lavinia, we have been fairly +meek and decorous guests, following the programme that she planned with +such infinite attention to detail that free will was impossible, and we +often felt like paper dolls. + +We had read her lament on the death of sociability and back yards with +many a smile, and a sigh also, for to one born in the pool, every ripple +that stirs it must be of importance, and it is impossible for outsiders +to urge her to step out of the eddies altogether and begin anew, for New +Yorkitis seems to be not only a rarely curable disease to those who have +it, but an hereditary one as well. + +As usual, Evan came to the rescue, as we sat in the den the night before +our departure. "Let us turn tables on Miss Lavinia this time and take her +to see our New York," he said, "since we are all quite tired of hers. Do +you remember the time when we went to town to buy the trappings for the +boys' first tree and were detained until Christmas morning by the delay +of a cable I had to wait for? After dinner Christmas Eve we coaxed Miss +Lavinia out with us and bought half a bushel of jolly little toys from +street fakirs to take home, and then boarded an elevated train and rode +about the city until after midnight, in and out the downtown streets and +along the outskirts, to see all the poor people's Christmas trees in the +second stories of tenements, cheap flats, and over little shops. How she +enjoyed it, and said that she never dreamed that tenement people could be +so happy; and she finally waxed so enthusiastic that she gave a silver +half dollar each to four little newsboys crouching over the steam on a +grating in Twenty-third Street, and when they cheered her and a policeman +came along, we told the dear old soul that he evidently thought her a +suspicious character, a counterfeiter at the very least. And she always +spoke afterward with bated breath on the dangers of the streets late at +night, and her narrow escape from arrest. We came to New York unsated and +without responsibilities to push us, and looked from the outside in. + +"No, Barbara, you did better than you knew that day six years ago, when +we sat in the Somerset garden, and you persuaded me to become a commuter +and let you plant a garden, promising never to talk about servants, and +you've kept your word. I was dubious then, but now--if you only knew the +tragedies I've seen among men of my means and aims these last few years, +the struggle to be in the swim, or rather the backwater of it. The +disappointment, the debt and despair, the pink teas and blue dinners +given in cramped flats, the good fellows afraid to say no to wives whose +hearts are set on being thought 'in it,' and the wives, haggard and +hollow-eyed because the husbands wish to keep the pace by joining clubs +that are supposedly the hall-marks of the millionnaire. New York is the +best place for doing everything in but three--to be born in, to live in, +and to die in." + +"So you wish us to play bachelor girl and man for a few days, and herd +Miss Lavinia about, which I suppose is the pith of these heroics of +yours," I said, rather astonished, for Evan seldom preaches. "I never +knew that you were such an anti-whirlpooler before, and I've at times +felt selfish about keeping you at the old home, though not since the boys +came, it's so healthy for them, bless them. Now I feel quite relieved," +and I arranged a little crisp curl that will break loose in spite of +persistent wetting, for men always seem to discourage curly hair, father +keeping his shorn like a prize-fighter. This curl softens the rigour of +Evan's horseshoe scowl, and when I fix it gives him a chance to put his +arm around my waist, which is the only satisfactory way of discussing +plans for a pleasure trip. + +We arrived in town duly a little before dinner time. It is one of Evan's +comfortable travelling habits, this always arriving at a new place at the +end of day, so as to get the bearings and be adjusted when we awake next +morning. To arrive in the morning, when paying a visit especially, is +reversing the natural order of things; you are absent-minded until lunch, +sleepy all the afternoon, dyspeptic at dinner, when, like as not, some +one you have wholly forgotten or hoped to is asked to meet you. If the +theatre follows, you recuperate, but if it is cards (of which I must have +a prenatal hatred, it is so intense) with the apology, "I thought you +might be tired and prefer a cosey game of whist to going out," you trump +your partner's tricks, lead the short suits and mix clubs and spades with +equal oblivion, and, finally, going to bed, leave a bad impression behind +that causes your hostess to say, strictly to herself, if she is +charitable, "How Barbara has deteriorated; she used to be a good talker, +but then, poor dear, living in the country is _so_ narrowing." + +Of course if you merely go away to spend the day it is different; you +generally keep on the move and go home to recover from it. And how men +usually hate staying in other people's houses, no matter how wide they +keep their doors open or how hospitably inclined they may be themselves. +They seem to be self-conscious, and are constrained to alter their +ordinary habits, which makes them miserable and feel as if they had given +up their free will and identity. There are only two places that I ever +dream of taking Evan, and Lavinia Dorman's is one of them. + +When we had made ourselves smart for dinner and joined Miss Lavinia by +the fire in her tiny library, we read by her hair that she was evidently +intending to stay at home that evening, for her head has its nodes like +the moon. She has naturally pretty, soft wavy hair, with now and then a +silver streak running through it. I have often seen Lucy when she brushes +it out at night. But because there is a dash of white in the front as if +a powder puff had rested there a moment by accident, it is screwed into a +little knob and covered with skilfully made yet perfectly apparent +frontlets to represent the different styles of hair-dressing affected by +women of abundant locks. + +No. 1, worn at breakfast, is the most reasonable. It is quite plain, +slightly waved, and has a few stray hairs carelessly curved where it +joins the forehead. No. 2 is for rainy weather; the curls are fuzzy and +evidently baked in; it requires a durable veil to keep it in +countenance. Evan calls it the "rasher of bacon front." No. 3 is for +calling and all entertainments where the bonnet stays on; it has a baby +bang edge a trifle curled and a substantial cushion atop to hold the hat +pins; while No. 4, the one she wore on our arrival, is an elaborate +evening toupie with a pompadour rolling over on itself and drooping +slightly over one eye while it melts into a butterfly bow and handful of +puffs on the crown that in turn end in a single curl behind. + +We had a dainty little dinner, grape fruit, clear soup, smelts, wild +duck, salad, fruit, and coffee, and it was daintily served, for Miss +Lavinia always keeps a good cook and remembers our dislike of the various +forms of hash known as entrees. + +The coffee was placed on a low mahogany stand by the library fire, and +Miss Lavinia herself handed Evan a quaint little silver lamp by which to +light his cigar, for she has all the cosmopolitan instincts of a woman +who not only knows the world but had heard her father discuss tobacco, +and really enjoyed the soothing fragrance of a good cigar. + +As soon as we were settled and poor singed Josephus had tiptoed in by +the fire, evidently trying to make up for his shabby coat by the +profundity of his purr, Evan set forth his scheme to our hostess. We +were to lodge and breakfast with her, but after that she was to play our +way, and be at our disposal morning, afternoon, and evening, at +luncheon, dinner, and supper, and the game was to be the old-fashioned +one of "follow the leader!" + +At first Miss Lavinia hesitated regretfully, it seemed so +inhospitable,--she had thought to take us to several parlour concerts. +Mrs. Vanderdonk, she that was a De Leyster, was going to throw open her +picture gallery for charity, which would give us an opportunity to see +her new house. In fact the undertow of the Whirlpool was still pulling at +her ankles, even though she had freed her head, and it seemed impossible +to her that there could be any New York other than the one she knew. + +Finally her almost girlish vitality asserted itself, and bargaining that +we should allow her one evening to have Sylvia Latham to dinner, she +surrendered. + +"Then we will begin at once by going to the theatre," said Evan, jumping +up and looking at the clock, which pointed at a few minutes of eight. + +"Have you tickets? Isn't this a little sudden?" asked Miss Lavinia with a +little gasp, evidently remembering that her hair was arranged for the +house only. + +"No, I have no tickets, but Barbara and I always go in this way, and if +we cannot get in at one place we try another, for usually some good seats +are returned from the outside ticket offices a few minutes before the +play begins. The downtown theatres open the earliest, so we can start +near by and work our way upward, if necessary." + +To my surprise in five minutes Miss Lavinia was ready, and we sallied +forth, Evan sandwiched between us. As the old Dorman house is in the +northeastern corner of what was far away Greenwich Village,--at the +time-the Bouerie was a blooming orchard, and is meshed in by a curious +jumble of thoroughfares, that must have originally either followed the +tracks of wandering cattle or worthy citizens who had lost their +bearings, for Waverley Place comes to an untimely end in West Eleventh +Street, and Fourth Street collides with Horatio and is headed off by +Thirteenth Street before it has a chance even to catch a glimpse of the +river,--a few steps brought us into Fourteenth Street, where naming +gas-jets announced that the play of "Jim Bludso" might be seen. + +"Dear me!" ejaculated Miss Lavinia, "do people still go to this theatre? +The last time I came here it was in the seventies to see Mrs. Rousby as +Rosalind." + +When we took our seats the play, founded, as the bill informed us, +upon one of the Pike County Ballads, had begun, and Miss Lavinia soon +became absorbed. + +It is a great deal to be surrounded by an audience all thoroughly in the +mood to be swayed by the emotion of the piece, plain people, perhaps, but +solidly honest. Directly in front sat a young couple; the girl, in a +fresh white silk waist, wore so fat and new a wedding ring upon her +ungloved hand, which the man held in a tight grip, that I surmised that +this trip into stageland was perhaps their humble wedding journey, from +which they would return to "rooms" made ready by jubilant relatives, eat +a wonderful supper, and begin life. + +The next couple were not so entirely _en rapport_. The girl, who wore +a gorgeous garnet engagement ring, also very new, merely rested her +hand on her lover's coat sleeve where she could see the light play +upon the stones. + +When, after the first act, in answer to hearty rounds of applause, varied +with whistles and shouts from the gallery, the characters stepped +forward, not in the unnatural string usual in more genteel play-houses, +where victor and vanquished join hands and bow, but one by one, each +being greeted by cheers, hisses, or groans, according to the part, and +when the villain appeared I found myself groaning with the rest, and +though Evan laughed, I know he understood. + +After it was over, as we went out into the night, Evan headed toward +Sixth Avenue instead of homeward. + +"May I ask where we are going now?" said Miss Lavinia, meekly. She had +really enjoyed the play, and I know I heard her sniff once or twice at +the proper time, though of course I pretended not to. + +"Going?" echoed Evan. "Only around the corner to get three fries in a +box, with the usual pickle and cracker trimmings, there being no +restaurant close by that you would care for; then we will carry them home +and have a little supper in the pantry, if your Lucy has not locked up +the forks and taken the key to bed. If she has, we can use wooden +toothpicks." + +At first Miss Lavinia seemed to feel guilty at the idea of disturbing +Lucy's immaculate pantry at such an hour; but liberty is highly +infectious. She had spent the evening out without previous intent; the +next step was to feel that her soul was her own on her return. She +unlocked the forks, Evan unpacked the upstairs ice-chest for the dog's +head bass that wise women always have when they expect visiting +Englishmen, even though they are transplanted and acclimated ones, and +she ate the oysters, still steaming from their original package, with +great satisfaction. After we had finished Miss Lavinia bravely declared +her independence of Lucy. The happy don't-care feeling produced by +broiled oysters and bass on a cold night is a perfect revelation to +people used to after-theatre suppers composed of complications, sticky +sweets, and champagne. + +When we had finished I thought for a moment that she showed a desire to +conceal the invasion by washing the dishes, but she put it aside, and we +all went upstairs together. + +A little shopping being in order, Evan took himself off in the morning, +leaving Miss Lavinia and me to prowl, after we had promised to meet him +at a downtown restaurant at one. + +Little boys are delightful things to shop for,--there is no matching this +and that, no getting a yard too much or too little, everything is +substantial and straight away, and all you have to do when the bundles +are sent home by express is to strengthen the sewing on of buttons and +reinforce the seats and knees of everyday pantikins from the inside. + +We strolled about slowly, and at half past one were quite ready to sit +still and not only eat our lunch but watch business mankind eat his. If +any one wishes to feel the clutch and motive power of the Whirlpool let +him go to the Mazarin any time between twelve-thirty and two o'clock. The +streets themselves are surging with men, all hurrying first in one +direction, then another, until it seems as if there either must be a fire +somewhere, or else a riot afoot. The doors of the restaurant open and +shut incessantly, corks pop, knives and forks rattle, everything is being +served from a sandwich and a glass of beer to an elaborate repast with a +wine to every course, while through and above it all the stress of +business is felt. Of course the great financiers usually have luncheon +served in their offices, to save them from the crowd; besides, it might +give common humanity a chance to scrutinize their countenances, and +perchance read what they thought upon some question of moment, for it +sometimes seems as if the eye of the New York journalist has X-ray power. +On the other hand, the humbler grade, with less of either time or money +to spare, go to the "quick lunch" counters and "dime-in-the-slot" +sandwich concerns; yet Evan says that the gathering at the Mazarin is +fairly representative. + +Miss Lavinia was bewildered. Her downtown visits to her broker's office +were always made in a cab, with Lucy to stay in it as a preventative of +the driver's taking a sly glass or a thief snatching her lap-robe--she +never uses public carriage rugs. She clung to the obsolete idea that Wall +Street was no place for women, and saw, as in a dream, the daintily +dressed stenographers, bookkeepers, and confidential clerks mingling with +the trousered ranks in the street, not to mention the damsels in tidy +shirtwaists, with carefully undulated hair and pointed, polished finger +nails, who were lunching at near-by tables, sometimes seemingly with +their employers as well as with other male or female friends. + +"I wonder how much of all this is bad for uptown home life?" Miss Lavinia +queried, gazing around the room; but as she did not address either of us +in particular, we did not answer, as we did not know,--who does? + +A spare half-hour before closing time we gave to the Stock Exchange, and +it was quite enough, for some one was short on something, and pandemonium +reigned. As we stood on the corner of Rector Street and Broadway, +hesitating whether to take surface or elevated cars, faint strains of +organ music from Trinity attracted us. + +"Service or choir practice; let us go in a few moments," said Evan, to +whom the organ is a voice that never fails to draw. We took seats far +back, and lost ourselves among the shadows. A special service was in +progress, the music half Gregorian, and the congregation was too +scattered to mar the feeling that we had slipped suddenly out of the +material world. The shadows of the sparrows outside flitted upward on the +stained glass windows, until it seemed as if the great chords had broken +free and taking form were trying to escape. + +Now and then the door would open softly and unaccustomed figures slip in +and linger in the open space behind the pews. Aliens, newly landed and +wandering about in the vicinity of their water-front lodging-houses, +music and a church appealed to their loneliness. Some stood, heads bowed, +and some knelt in prayer and crossed themselves on leaving; one woman, +lugging a great bundle tied in a blue cloth, a baby on her arm and +another clinging to her skirts, put down her load, bedded the baby upon +it, and began to tell her beads. + +The service ended, and the people scattered, but the organist played on, +and the boy choir regathered, but less formally. + +"What is it?" we asked of the verger, who was preparing to close +the doors. + +"There will be a funeral of one of the oldest members of the +congregation to-morrow, and they are about to go through the music of +the office." + +Suddenly a rich bass voice, strong in conviction, trumpeted forth--"I am +the resurrection and the life!" And only a stone's throw away jingled the +money market of the western world. The temple and the table of the money +changers keep step as of old. Ah, wonderful New York! + + * * * * * + +The afternoon was clear staccato and mild withal, and the sun, almost at +setting, lingered above orange and dim cloud banks at the end of the +vista Broadway made. + +"Are you tired? Can you walk half a dozen blocks?" asked Evan of Miss +Lavinia, as we came out. + +"No, quite the reverse; I think that I am electrified," she +replied briskly. + +"Then we will go to Battery Park," he said, turning south. + +"Battery Park, where all the immigrants and roughs congregate! What an +idea! We shall catch smallpox or have our pockets picked!" + +"Have you ever _been_ there?" persisted Evan. + +"Yes, once, I think, when steamship passengers lathed at the barge +office, and of course I've seen it often in going to Staten Island to +visit Cousin Lucretia." + +Evan's only reply was to keep on walking. We did not cross the "bowling +green," but swung to the right toward Pier I, and took the path between +old Castle Garden and the sea wall at the point where one of the fire +patrol boats was resting, steam up and hose nozzles pointed, lance +couchant wise. + +Ah, what a picture! No wonder Miss Lavinia adjusted her glasses quickly +(she is blindly nearsighted), caught her breath, and clung to Evan's arm +as the fresh sea breeze coming up from the Narrows wheeled her about. +Before us Staten Island divided the water left and right, while between +it and the Long Island shore, just leaving quarantine and dwarfing the +smaller craft, an ocean liner, glistening with ice, was coming on in +majestic haste. All about little tugs puffed and snorted, and freighters +passed crosswise, parting the floating ice and churning it with their +paddles, scarcely disturbing the gulls, that flew so close above the +water that their wings touched, or floated at leisure. + +The sun that had been gilding everything from masthead to floating spar +gathered in its forces, and for one moment seemed to rest upon Liberty's +torch, throwing the statue into clear relief, and then dropped rapidly +behind the river's night-cloud bank, and presently lights began to +glimmer far and near, the night breath rose from the water, and the +wave-cradled gulls slept. + +"Do you like our New York?" asked Evan, turning to go. + +"Don't speak," whispered Miss Lavinia, hanging back. + +But we were no sooner on the elevated train than she found use for her +tongue, for whose feet should I stumble over on entering, quite big feet +too, or rather shoes, for the size of the man, but Martin Cortright's, +and of course he was duly presented to Miss Lavinia. + + + + +V + +FEBRUARY VIOLETS + + +That night Miss Lavinia was forced to ask "for time for 'forty winks'" +before she could even think of dinner, and Evan and I sat them out in the +deep, hospitable chairs by the library fire. We were not tired, simply +held in check; country vitality shut off from certain ways for six months +is not quickly exhausted, but, on the other hand, when it is spent, it +takes several months to recuperate. + +The first night that I leave home for these little excursions I have a +sense of virtue and simmering self-congratulation. I feel that I am doing +a sensible thing in making a break from what the theorists call "the +narrowing evenness of domestic existence." Of course it is a good thing +for me to leave father and the boys, and see and hear something new to +take back report of to them; it is better for them to be taught +appreciation of me by absence; change is beneficial to every one, etc., +etc., and all that jargon. + +The second night I am still true to the theory, but am convinced that to +the highly imaginative, a city day and its doings may appear like the +Biblical idea of eternity--reversed--"a thousand years." The third +night I am painfully sure of this, and if I remain away over a fourth, +which is very rare, I cast the whole theory out to the winds of +scepticism, and am so restless and disagreeable that Evan usually +suggests that I take a morning train home and do not wait for him, which +is exactly the responsibility that I wish him to assume, thus saving me +from absolute surrender. + +We always have a good time on our outings, and yet after each the +pleasure of return grows keener, so that occasionally Evan remonstrates +and says: "Sometimes I cannot understand your attitude; you appear to +enjoy every moment keenly, and yet when you go home you act as if you had +mercifully escaped from a prison that necessitated going through a sort +of thanksgiving ceremony. It seems very irrational." + +But when I ask him if it would be more rational to be sorry to come home, +he does not answer,--at least not in words. + +"Where do we dine to-night?" I asked Evan, as he was giving unmistakable +signs of "meditation," and I heard by the footsteps overhead that Miss +Lavinia was stirring. + +"At the Art and Nature Club. You can dress as much or as little as you +please, and we can get a table in a cosey corner, and afterward sit about +upstairs for an hour, for there will be music to-night. I have asked +Martin Cortright to join us. It has its interesting side, this--a +transplanted Englishman married to a country girl introducing old +bred-in-the-bone New Yorkers to New Manhattan." + +When I go to town my costuming consists merely in change of waists, as +street and public conveyances alike are a perpetual menace to one's best +petticoats, so in a few moments we were on our way uptown. + +We did not tell Miss Lavinia where we were going until we were almost +there, and she was quite upset, as dining at the two or three hotels and +other places affected by the Whirlpoolers implies a careful and special +toilet to run the gantlet of society reporters, for every one is somebody +in one sense, though in another "nobody is really any one." + +She was reassured, however, the moment that she drew her high-backed oak +chair up to the table that Evan had reserved in a little alcove near the +fireplace. Before the oysters arrived, and Martin Cortright appeared to +fill the fourth seat, she had completely relaxed, and was beaming at the +brass jugs and pottery beakers ranged along a shelf above the dark +wainscot, and at the general company, while the warmth from the fire logs +gave her really a very pretty colour, and she began to question Martin as +to who all these people, indicating the rapidly filling-up tables, were. +But Martin gazed serenely about and confessed he did not know. + +The people came singly, or in twos and threes, men and women together or +alone, a fact at which Miss Lavinia greatly marvelled. Greetings were +exchanged, and there was much visiting from table to table, as if the +footing was that of a private house. + +"Nice-looking people," said Miss Lavinia, meditatively scrutinizing the +room through her lorgnette without a trace of snobbery in her voice or +attitude, yet I was aware that she was mentally drawing herself apart. +"Some of them quite unusual, but there is not a face here that I ever saw +in society. Are they members of the Club? Where do they come from? Where +do they live?" + +Evan's lips shut together a moment before he answered, and I saw a +certain steely gleam in his eye that I always regarded as a danger +signal. + +"Perhaps they might ask the same questions about you," he answered; +"though they are not likely to, their world is so much broader. They are +men and women chiefly having an inspiration, an art or craft, or some +vital reason for living besides the mere fact that it has become a habit. +They are none of them rich enough to be disagreeable or feel that they +own the right to trample on their fellows. They all live either in or +near New York, as best suits their means, vocations, and temperaments. +Men and women together, they represent, as well as a gathering can, the +hopeful spirit of our New York of New Manhattan that does not grovel to +mere money power." + +Miss Lavinia seemed a little abashed, but Martin Cortright, who had been +a silent observer until now, said: "It surprises me to see fraternity of +this sort in the midst of so many institutions of specialized +exclusiveness and the decadence of clubs, that used to be veritable +brotherhoods, by unwise expansion. I like the general atmosphere, it +seems cheerful and, if one may blend the terms, conservatively Bohemian." + +"Come upstairs before the music begins, so that we can get comfortably +settled in the background, that I may tell you who some of these +'unknown-to-Whirlpool-society' people are. You may be surprised," said +Evan to Miss Lavinia, who had by this time finished her coffee. + +The rooms were cheerful with artistic simplicity. The piano had been +moved from the lounging room into the picture gallery opposite to where a +fine stained glass window was exhibited, backed by electric lights. + +We stowed ourselves away in a deep seat, shaped something like an +old-fashioned school form, backed and cushioned with leather, to watch +the audience gather. Every phase of dress was present, from the ball gown +to the rainy weather skirt, and enough of each grade to keep one another +in countenance. About half the men wore evening suits, but those who did +not were completely at their ease. + +There was no regular ushering to seats, but every one was placed +easily and naturally. Evan, who had Miss Lavinia in charge, was +alert, and rather, it seemed to me, on the defensive; but though +Martin asked questions, he was comfortably soothing, and seemed to +take in much at a glance. + +That short man with the fine head, white hair and beard, aquiline nose, +and intense eyes is not only a poet, but the first American critic of +pure literature. He lives out of town, but comes to the city daily for a +certain stimulus. The petite woman with the pretty colour who has crossed +the room to speak to him is the best known writer of New England romance. +That shy-looking fellow standing against the curtain at your right, with +the brown mustache and broad forehead, is the New England sculptor whose +forcible creations are known everywhere, yet he is almost shrinkingly +modest, and he never, it seems, even in thought, has broken the +injunction of "Let another praise thee, not thine own lips." + +Half a dozen promising painters are standing in the doorway talking to a +young woman who, beginning with newspaper work, has stepped suddenly into +a niche of fiction. The tall, loose-jointed man at the left of the group, +the editor of a conservative monthly, has for his vis-a-vis the artist +who has had so much to do with the redemption of American architecture +and decoration from the mongrel period of the middle century. Another +night you may not see a single one of these faces, but another set, yet +equally interesting. + +Meanwhile Martin Cortright had discovered a man, a financier and also a +book collector of prominence, who was reputed to have a complete set of +some early records that he had long wished to consult; he had never found +a suitable time for meeting him, as the man, owing to having been +oftentime the prey of both unscrupulous dealers and parasitic friends, +was esteemed difficult. + +Infected by the freedom of his surroundings, Martin plucked up courage +and spoke to him, the result being an interchange of cards, book talk, +and an invitation to visit the library. + +Then the music began, and lasted not above an hour, with breathing and +chatting intervals, followed by claret cup and lemonade. A pleasant +evening's recreation, with no opportunity of accumulating the material +for either mental or physical headache. + +The night air was very soft, but of that delusive quality that in +February portends snow, and not the return of bluebirds, as the +uninitiated might expect. Miss Lavinia was fascinated by the lights and +motion of Herald Square, and at her suggestion, it being but a little +past ten, we strolled homeward down Broadway instead of taking a car. Her +delight at the crowd of promenaders, the picturesque florists' shops, and +the general buzz of night life was almost pathetic. Her after-dark +experience having been to get to and from specified places as quickly as +possible with Lucy for escort, solicitous when in a street car lest they +should pass their destination, and trembling even more when in a cab lest +the driver should have committed the variable and expansive crime of +"taking something." She bought a "ten o'clock edition" of the _Telegram_, +some of "Match Mary's" wares, that perennially middle-aged woman who +haunts the theatre region, and suggested that we have ice-cream soda at a +particularly glittering drug store, but this desire was switched into hot +bouillon by Evan, who retains the Englishman's dislike of chilling his +internals. + +New York is really a fine city by night, that is, in parts at least, and +yet it is very strange how comparatively few of the rank and file of its +inhabitants walk abroad to see the spectacle. + +By lamplight the scars and wounds of subways appear less vivid, and the +perpetual skeleton of the skyscraper merges in its background. The +occasional good bit of architecture steps out boldly from the surrounding +shadows of daylight discouragement. City life does not seem to be such an +exhausting struggle, and even the "misery wagons," as I always call +ambulances to myself, look less dreary with the blinking light fore and +aft, for you cannot go far in New York without feeling the pitying thrill +of their gongs. + +After the brightness of Broadway the side streets seemed cavernous. As we +turned westward and crossed Sixth Avenue a dark figure, outlined full +length against the blazing window of a corner liquor saloon, lined with +mirrors, in some way fixed my attention. It was a woman's figure, slight, +and a little crouching. The hat was gay and set on puffy hair, the jacket +brave with lace, but the skirt was frayed where it lapped the pavement, +and the boot that was pushed from beneath it, as if to steady a swaying +frame, was thin and broken. I do not know why I looked back after I had +passed, but as I did so, I saw the girl, for she was little more, pull a +scrap of chamois from a little bag she carried and quickly rub rouge upon +her hollow cheeks, using the saloon mirror for a toilet glass. But when I +saw the face itself I stopped short, giving Evan's arm such a tug that he +also turned. + +The woman was Jennie, the Oakland baker's only daughter, who had no lack +of country beaus, but was flattered by the attentions of one of the +Jenks-Smith's butlers, whose irreproachable manners of the +count-in-disguise variety made the native youths appear indeed uncouth. +She grew discontented, thought it beneath her social position to help her +mother in the shop, and went to town to work in a store, it was said +until her wedding, which was to be that autumn. Father worried over her +and tried to advise, but to no purpose. This was more than two years ago. +The butler left the Jenks-Smith's, and we heard that he was a married +man, with a family who had come to look him up. + +Jennie's mother said she had a fine place in a store, and showed us, from +time to time, presents the girl had sent her, so thus to find the truth +was a shock indeed. Not but what all women who are grown must bear upon +them the weight of the general knowledge of evil, but it is none the +less awful to come face to face on a street corner with one who was the +pretty village girl, whom you last saw standing behind the neat counter +with a pitcher of honeysuckles at her elbow as she filled a bag with +sugar cookies for your clamouring babies. + + * * * * * + +I suppose that I must have exclaimed aloud, for Jennie started back and +saw us, then dropped her bag and began to grope about for it as if she +was in a dream. + +"Can't we do something?" I whispered to Evan, but he only gravely +shook his head. + +"Give her this for the boys' sake," I begged, fumbling in his change +pocket and finding a bill there. "Tell her it's home money from the +Doctor's daughter--and--to go home--or--buy--a--pair of shoes." + +At first I thought she was not going to take it; but having found her bag +she straightened herself a moment, and without looking at Evan gave me a +glance, half defiant, half beseeching, grasped the money almost fiercely, +and scuttled away in the darkness, and I found that I was crying. But +Evan understood,--he always does,--and I hope that if the boys read this +little book fifteen or twenty years hence, that they will also. + +[Illustration: FEBRUARY VIOLETS.] + +As we reached the door the first snowflakes fell. Poor Jennie! + + * * * * * + +The third day of our stay began in country quiet. In fact we did not wake +up until eight; everything was snowbound, and even the occasional horse +cars that pass the front of the house had ceased their primitive +tinkling. The milkman did not come, neither did the long crispy French +rolls, a New York breakfast institution for which the commuters +confessedly have no substitute, and it was after nine before breakfast +was served. + +Evan, who had disappeared, returned at the right moment with his +newspaper and two bulky tissue paper bundles all powdered with snow, one +of which he gave to Miss Lavinia, the other to me. I knew their contents +the moment I set eyes on them, and yet it was none the less a +heart-warming surprise. + +Down in a near-by market is a little florist's shop, so small that one +might pass twenty times without noticing it; the man, a local authority, +who has kept it for years, makes a specialty of the great long-stemmed +single violets, whose fleeting fragrance no words may express. They call +them Californias now, but they are evidently the opulent kin of those +sturdy, dark-eyed Russian violets of my mother's garden, and as they mean +more than any other flower to me, Evan always brings them to me when I +come to town. This morning he trudged out in the snow, hardly thinking +this man would have any, but by mere chance the grower, suspecting snow, +brought in his crop the night before, and in spite of the storm I had the +first morning breath of these flowers of a day. + +Miss Lavinia sniffed and sighed, and then buried her aristocratic, but +rather chilly, nose in the mass. "I feel like a young girl with her first +bouquet," she said presently. + +"Ah, how good it is to be given something with a meaning. Most people +think that to be able to buy what they wish, within reason, is perfect +happiness, but it isn't. Barbara, you and this man of yours quite +unsettle me and shake my pet theories. You show sides of things in my own +birthplace that I never dreamed of looking up, and you convince me, when +I am on the wane, that married friendship is the only thing worth living +for. It's too bad of you, but fortunately for me the notion passes off +after you have gone away," and Miss Lavinia, after loving her violets a +bit longer, put them in a chubby jug of richly chased old silver. After +breakfast we tried to coax her to bundle up and come with us to +Washington Square to see the crystal trees in all their beauty; but that +was too unorthodox a feat. To plough through snow in rubber boots in the +very heart of the city was entirely too radical a move. She knew people +about the square, and I suppose did not wish to be seen by them, so she +was obliged to content herself with sight of the snow draperies and ice +jewels that decked the trees and shrubs of the doomed back yard. + +Even though the storm called a halt in our plans for Miss Lavinia, +Evan and I had a little errand of our own, our annual pilgrimage to +see the auction room where we first met that February afternoon. The +room is not there now, to be sure, but we go to see it all the same, +and have our little thrill and buy something near the place to take +home to the boys, and we shall continue to come each year unless +public improvement causes the thoroughfare itself to be hung up in the +sky, which is quite possible. + +Then Evan went down town, and I returned to lunch with Miss Lavinia, for, +if possible, we were to call on Sylvia Latham and ask her to dinner on +the morrow, the last day of our stay. Miss Lavinia proposed to invite +Sylvia to spend the night also, that we might become acquainted upon a +basis less formal than a mere dinner. + +Shortly after three o'clock we started in a coupe with two stout horses +driven by a man above suspicion of having "taken anything," at least at +the start. It is a curious fact that eight or ten inches of damp snow +can so nearly paralyze the transportation facilities of a city like New +York, but such is the case. The elevated rails become slippery, the +wheels will not grip, and the entire wheel traffic of the streets +betakes itself to the tracks of the surface lines, where trolley, truck, +and private carriage all move along solemnly in a strange procession, +like a funeral I once saw outside of Paris, where the hearse was +followed by two finely draped carriages, then by the business wagon of +the deceased, filled with employees, the draperies on this arranged so +as not to disturb the sign,--he kept a patisserie,--while a donkey cart, +belonging to the market garden that supplied the deceased with +vegetables, brought up the rear. + +In the middle and lower parts of New York the streets and their life +dominate the houses; on the east side of the park the houses dominate the +streets, and the flunkies, whose duty it is either to let you in or +preferably to keep you out of these houses, control the entire +situation. I may in the course of time come to respect or even like some +of these mariners of the Whirlpool, but as a class their servants are +wholly and unendurably objectionable, and the sum of all that is most +aggravating. + +The house faced the park. A carpet was spread down the steps, but we +could not conjecture if it was an ordinary custom in bad weather, or if +some function was afoot. Evidently the latter, as I had barely touched +the bell when the door flew open. Two liveried attendants were within, +one turned the door knob and the other presented his tray for the cards, +while in the distance a third, wearing the dress of a butler or +majordomo, stood by closed portieres. + +We had asked for Mrs. and Miss Latham, and evidently the combination +caused confusion. No. 1 remained by the front door, No. 2, after a +moment's hesitation, motioned us to seats near the fireplace in the great +reception hall, a room by itself, wainscoted with carved oak, that also +formed the banisters and the railing of a sort of balcony above, while +the walls were hung with rich-hued tapestries, whose colours were +revealed by quaint shield-shaped electroliers of gilded glass. Man No. 3 +disappeared within the portieres bearing our cards. In a moment he +reappeared, drew them apart, and stood aside as his mistress swept out, +the same cold blond woman I had seen in the market, but now most +exquisitely clad in a pale gray gown of crepe embroidered with silver +fern fronds and held at the neck by a deep collar of splendid pearls, +pearl rings alone upon her hands, in her hair a spray of silver mistletoe +with pearls for berries. She made an exquisite picture as she advanced +swiftly to meet us, a half smile on her lips and one pink-tipped hand +extended. I love to look at beautiful women, yet the sight of her gave me +a sort of Undine shiver. + +"Dear Miss Dorman, so glad to see you, and Mrs. Evan of Oaklands also. I +have seen, but never met you, I believe," she said, giving us her hand in +turn. "I must ask you to the library, (Perkins, Miss Sylvia," she said in +an aside to No. 2, who immediately vanished upstairs,) "and then excuse +myself regretfully, for this is my afternoon for 'bridge,' as Monty Bell +and a friend or two of his are good enough to promise to come and give us +hints. Monty is so useful, you know, and so good-natured. I think you +knew his mother, didn't you, Miss Lavinia? No, Sylvia is not to play; she +is not up enough for 'bridge.' I wish you could persuade her to take +lessons and an interest in the game, for when Lent begins she will be +horribly bored, for there will be a game somewhere every day, and +sometimes two and three, and she will be quite out of it, which is very +ill-advised for a girl in her first winter, and especially when she +starts as late as Sylvia. I'm afraid that I shall have to take her south +to wake her up, and that is not in my schedule this season, I've so much +to oversee at my Oaklands cottage. + +"It is a very cold afternoon for you to have come so far, dear Miss +Lavinia; a cup of tea or something? No? Ah, here comes Sylvia, and I know +you will forgive me for going," and Mrs. Latham glided away with a glance +toward the stairs. She evidently was in a desperate hurry to return to +her guests, and yet she spoke slowly, with that delightful southern +deliberation that suits women with pretty mouths so well, and still as I +felt her eyes upon me I knew that to move her in any way against her own +will would be impossible, and that she could never love anything but +herself, and never would. + +I did not look at Miss Lavinia in the brief moment before Sylvia entered, +for we were both too well bred to criticise a woman in her own house, +even with our eyes, which had they met would have been inevitable. + +At first Sylvia only saw Miss Lavinia, and gathered her into her arms +spontaneously, as if she were the elder, as she was by far the bigger of +the two. Then seeing me, the cards not having been sent up, she +hesitated a moment, colouring shyly, as a girl of sixteen might, and then +straightway greeted me without embarrassment. As we laid aside our wraps +and seated ourselves in a sort of cosey corner nook deep with pillows, +and fur rugs nestling about the feet, I drew my first comfortable breath +since entering, and as Miss Lavinia naturally took the lead in the +conversation, giving her invitation for the next night, I had ample time +to study Sylvia. She was fine looking rather than handsome, a warm +brunette with copper glints threading her brown hair, thick curved +lashes, big brown eyes, a good straight nose, and a decidedly humorous, +but not small mouth, with lips that curled back from even teeth, while +her whole face was punctuated and made winningly feminine by a deep +dimple in the chin and a couple of vagrant ones that played about her +mouth corners when she spoke, as she always did, looking directly at one. + +Her hands were long and well shaped, not small, but competent looking, a +great contrast to her mother's, as well as to Miss Lavinia's, that could +slip easily into a five-and-a-half glove. She wore a graceful afternoon +gown of pale blue with lace butterflies on the blouse and skirt, held in +at waist and neck by enamelled butterfly buckles. She moved gracefully, +and had a strong individuality, a warmth of nature that contrasted +keenly with the statuesque perfection of her mother, and I fell to +wondering what her father was like, and if she resembled him. + +"Not yet, not until late spring," I heard her say in answer to Miss +Lavinia's question as to whether her father had returned from his +Japan tour. + +"He is detained by railway business in San Francisco, and cannot go +farther north to settle it until winter breaks. I've written him to ask +leave to join him and perhaps stop awhile at Los Angeles and go up to see +my brother on his Wyoming ranch in May. I do so hope he will let me. I've +tried to coax mamma to go too, she has had such a wearing life this +winter in trying to make it pleasant for me and introduce me to her +friends. I wish I could tell her exactly how much I should prefer to be +more alone with her. I do not want her to think me ungrateful, but to go +out with her to father and pay dear old Carthy a visit would be simply +splendid." + +Then turning to me she said, I thought with a little quiver in her +voice, "They tell me you live with your father, Mrs. Evan--even though +you are married, and I have not seen mine for more than two years, only +think of it!" + +Whereat my heart went out to her, and I prayed mentally that her father +might have a broad warm shoulder to pillow her head and a ready ear to +hear her confidences, for the perfectly rounded neck and shell ear of +the mother playing cards in the next room would never give harbour or +heed, I knew. + +Sylvia was as pleased as a child at the idea of coming down to spend the +night, stipulating that if it was still cold she should be allowed to +make taffy and put it on the shed to harden, saying, with a pout: "At +school and college there was always somewhere that I could mess with +sticky things and cook, but here it is impossible, though mamma says I +shall have an outdoor tea-room at the Oaklands all to myself, and give +chafing-dish parties, for they are quite the thing. 'The thing' is my +boogy man, I'm afraid. If what you wish to do, no matter how silly, +agrees with it, it's all right, but if it doesn't, all the wisdom of +Solomon won't prevail against those two words." + +Man No. 2 at this juncture came in and presented a florist's box and +envelope in a tray, saying, _sotto voce,_ as he did so, "Shall I hopen it +and arrange them, miss, or will you wear them?" for, as the result of +lavish entertaining and many hothouses as well as friends, flowers +showered upon the Latham house at all hours, and both library and hall +were almost too fragrant. Sylvia glanced at the note, saying, "I will +wear them," to the man, handed the card to Miss Lavinia, her face +flushing with pleasure, while No. 2 extracted a modest bunch of +California violets from the paper, handed them to his young mistress, and +retired with the box on his tray. + +The name on the card was Horace Bradford, the pencilled address +University Club, on the reverse were the words, "May I give myself the +pleasure of calling to-morrow night? These February violets are in +remembrance of a May ducking. Am in town for two days only on college +business." + +"The day that he rowed us on the Avon and reached too far up the bank to +pick you wild violets and the boat shot ahead and he fell into the +water," laughed Miss Lavinia, as pleased as Sylvia at the recollection. + +"But I am going to you to-morrow evening," said Sylvia, ruefully at +thought of missing a friend, but quite heart-free, as Miss Lavinia saw. + +"Let me take the card, and I will ask him to dinner also," said the +dear, comfortable, prim soul, who was still bubbling over with love of +youth, "and Barbara shall ask her adopted uncle Cortright to keep the +number even." + +Time, it seems, had flown rapidly. She had barely slipped the card in +her case when the door opened and No. 3 approached solemnly and +whispered, "Mrs. Latham requests, Miss, as how you will come and pour +tea, likewise bringing the ladies, if _still here_!" How those words +_still here_ smote the silence. + +We immediately huddled on our wraps, anxious to be gone and spare Sylvia +possible embarrassment, in spite of her protestations. As No. 2 led the +way to the door a gentleman crossed the hall from the card-room and +greeted Sylvia with easy familiarity. He was about forty, a rather +colourless blonde, with clean shaven face of the type so commonly seen +now that it might belong equally either to footman or master. His eyes +had a slantwise expression, but his dress was immaculate. + +Strolling carelessly by the girl's side I heard him say, "I came to see +if you needed coaxing; some of the ladies are green over their losses, so +have a care for your eyes." Then he laughed at the wide-eyed look of +wonder she gave him as he begged a violet for his coat. + +But Sylvia drew herself up, full an inch above him, and replied, +decidedly, but with perfect good nature, "No, those violets are a message +from Shakespeare,--one does not give such away." + +"That is Monty Bell," said Miss Lavinia, tragically, as soon as the +door closed. + +"Is there anything the matter with him except that his colouring is like +a summer squash?" I asked. + +"He's been divorced by his wife, and it was her mother that was my +friend, not his, as Mrs. Latham hinted. I know the story; it makes me +shiver to see him near Sylvia." Then Miss Lavinia drew into a shell, in +which she remained until we reached home. + +Meanwhile, as we drove in silence, I remembered that Richard's rubber +boots leaked, and I wondered if Martha Corkle would discover it, or if he +was paddling about getting his feet wet and bringing on a sore throat. +But when I got home Evan said he had sent the boots to the bicycle tire +mender's the morning I came away. It was the third night of my stay, and +he would not have known what to make of it if I had not raised some sort +of a ghost. + + * * * * * + +The sidewalks being clear, we dined at the Laurent, giving Miss Lavinia +a resurrection of French cooking, manners, women, ogling, ventilation, +wine, and music. Then we took her, on the way home, to see some horrible +wax figures, listen to a good Hungarian band, and nearly put her eyes +out with a cinematograph show of the Coronation and Indian Durbar. +Finishing up by brewing French chocolate in the pantry and stirring it +with stick bread, and our guest, in her own house, went to bed fairly +giggling in Gallic gayety, declaring that she felt as if she had spent +the evening on the Paris boulevards, that she liked our New York, and +felt ten years younger. + + + + +VI + +ENTER A MAN + + +If I weather my fourth day in town I am apt to grow a trifle waspish, +even though I may not be goaded to the stinging point. This is especially +the case if, as on this recent visit, I am obliged to do any shopping for +myself. Personally, I prefer the rapid transit shopping of ordering by +mail, it avoids so many complications. Having made up your mind what you +need, or perhaps, to speak more truthfully, what you want, for one can +hardly be quite content with mere necessities until one grows either so +old or shapeless that everything is equally unbecoming, samples are +forthcoming, from which an intelligent selection can be made without the +demoralizing effect of glib salespeople upon one's judgment. + +I know my own shortcomings by heart, and I should never have +deliberately walked into temptation yesterday morning if Lavinia Dorman +had not said that she wished my advice. Last year I went with the +intention of buying substantial blue serge for an outing gown, and was +led astray by some gayly flowered muslins. I have a weakness for gay +colours, especially red. These when made up Evan pronounced "extremely +pretty--in the abstract"--which is his way of saying that a thing is +either unsuitable or very unbecoming. When I went to father, hoping for +consolation, he was even less charitable, remarking that he thought now +long lines were more suitable and graceful for me than bunches and +bowknots. True, the boys admired the most thickly flowered gown +immensely for a few minutes, Richard bringing me a posy to match for my +hair, while Ian walked about me in silence which he broke suddenly with +the trenchant remark--"Barbara, I think your dwess would be prettier if +it was weeded some!" + +All of which is of course perfectly true. I have not been growing +thinner all these six years, but this morning, in stooping over one of +the cold frames to see how the plants within had weathered the storm, it +came quite as a shock to me to feel that, like Martin Cortright, I am +getting stout and in the way of myself when I bend, like an impediment +in a door hinge. + +However, as Miss Lavinia desired guidance in buying some real country +clothes, I felt it my duty to give it. She is already making elaborate +preparations for her visit to me. It seems strange, that simplicity is +apparently one of the most laborious things in the world to those +unaccustomed to it, yet so it is. + +She is about to make her initial venture in shirtwaists, and she +approaches them with as much caution as if she were experimenting with +tights and trunks. The poor little seamstress who is officiating has, to +my certain knowledge, tried one waist on five times, because, as Miss +Lavinia does not "feel it," she thinks it cannot fit properly. + +Never mind, she will get over all that, of course. The plan that she has +formed of spending five or six months in the real country must appear +somewhat in the light of a revolution to her, and the preparation of a +special uniform and munitions for the campaign a necessary precaution. +Her present plan is to come to me for May, then, if the life suits her, +she will either take a small house that one of our farmer neighbours +often rents for the summer months, or else, together with her maid, Lucy, +board at one of the hill farms. + +I have told her plainly (for what is friendship worth if one may not be +frank) that if after trial we agree with each other, I hope she will +stay with us all the season; but as for her maid, I myself will supply +her place, if need be, and Effie do her mending, for I could not have +Lucy come. + +Perhaps it may be very narrow and provincial, but to harbour other +people's servants seems to me like inviting contagion and subjecting +one's kitchen to all the evils of boarding house atmosphere. + +I used to think last summer, when I saw the arrival of various men and +maids belonging to guests of the Bluff Colony, that I should feel much +more at ease in the presence of royalty, and that I could probably +entertain Queen Alexandra at dinner with less shock to her nerves and +traditions than one of these ladies' maids or gentlemen's gentlemen. + +Martha Corkle expresses her opinion freely upon this subject, and I must +confess to being a willing listener, for she does not gossip, she +portrays, and often with a masterly touch. The woes of her countrywoman, +the Ponsonby's housekeeper, often stir her to the quick. The Ponsonby +household is perhaps one of the most "difficult" on the Bluffs, because +its members are of widely divergent ages. The three Ponsonby girls range +from six to twenty-two, with a college freshman son second from the +beginning, while Josephine, sister of the head of the family, though +quite Miss Lavinia's age, is the gayest of the gay, and almost outdoes +her good-naturedly giddy sister-in-law. + +"It's just hawful, Mrs. Evan," Martha said one day, when, judging by the +contents of the station 'bus and baggage wagon, almost the entire +Ponsonby house staff must have left at a swoop; "my eyes fairly bleeds +for poor Mrs. Maggs" (the housekeeper), "that they do. 'Twas bad enough +in the old country, where we knew our places, even though some was +ambitioned to get out of them; but here it's like blind man's buff, and +enough to turn a body giddy. Mrs. Maggs hasn't a sittin' room of her own +where she and the butler and the nurse can have their tea in peace or +entertain guests, but she sets two tables in the servants' hall, and a +pretty time she has of it. + +"The kitchen maid and the laundress's assistant wait on the first table; +but one day when, the maid of one of Miss Ponsonby's friends comin' down +over late, she was served _with_ instead o' _by_ them, she gave Mrs. +Maggs the 'orriblest settin' down, as not knowin' her business in puttin' +a lady's lady with servants' servants, the same which Mrs. Maggs does +know perfectly (accidents bein' unpreventable), bein' child of Lord +Peacock's steward and his head nurse, and swallowin' it all in with her +mother's milk, so to speak, not borrowin' it second hand as some of the +great folks on the Bluffs themselves do from their servants, not feelin' +sure of the kerrect thing, yet desirin' so to do. Mrs. Maggs, poor body, +she has more mess with that servants' hall first table than with all the +big dinners the master gives. + +"'Mrs. Corkle,' says she, bein' used to that name, besides Corkle bein' +kin to her husband, 'what I sets before my own household, as it were, +they leaves or they eats, it's one to me; but company's got to be handled +different, be it upstairs or down, for the name of the 'ouse, but when +Mr. Jollie, the French valet that comes here frequent with the master's +partner, wants dripped coffee and the fat scraped clean from his chop +shank, else the flavour's spoiled for him, and Bruce the mistress' +brother's man wants boiled coffee, and thick fat left on his breakfast +ham, what stands between my poor 'ead and a h'assleyum? that's what I +wants to know. Three cooks I've had this very season, it really bein' the +duty of the first kitchen maid to cook for the servants' hall; but if a +cook is suited to a kitchen maid, as is most important, she'll stand by +her. No, Martha Corkle, wages is 'igh, no doubt,--fortunes to what they +were when we were gells,--but not 'igh for the worry; and bein' in +service ain't what it were.'" + +Then I knew that Martha, even as her bosom heaves over her friend's +grievances, was also sighing with content at thought of Timothy Saunders +and her own lot; and I recalled the Lady of the Bluffs' passing remark, +and felt that I am only beginning to realize the deliciousness of +"comfortable poverty." + + * * * * * + +Miss Lavinia and I spent some time browsing among the shops, finally +bringing up at an old conservative dry goods concern in Broadway, the +most satisfactory place to shop in New York, because there is never a +crowd, and the salesmen, many of them grown gray in the service, take an +Old World interest in their wares and in you. + +While I was trying to convince Miss Lavinia as to the need of the +serviceable, she was equally determined to decoy me toward the frivolous; +and I yielded, I may say fell, to the extent of buying a white crepey +sort of pattern gown that had an open work white lilac pattern +embroidered on it. It certainly was very lovely, and it is nice to have a +really good gown in reserve, even if a plainer one that will stand +hugging, sticky fingers, and dogs' damp noses is more truly enjoyable. + +N.B.--I must get over apologizing to myself when I buy respectable +clothes. It savours too much of Aunt Lot's old habit of saying, every +time she bought a best gown, and I remonstrated with her for the colour +(it was always black in those days; since she's married the Reverend +Jabez she's taken to greens), "When I consider that a black dress would +be suitable to be buried in, it seems less like a vain luxury." + +We were admiring the dainty muslins, but only in the "abstract," when I +looked up, conscious that some one was coming directly toward us, and saw +Sylvia Latham crossing the shop from the door, her rapid, swinging gait +bringing her to us before short-sighted Miss Lavinia had a chance to +raise her lorgnette. + +Sylvia was genuinely glad to see us, and she expressed it both by look +and speech, without the slightest symptom of gush, yet with the confiding +manner of one who craves companionship. I had, in fact, noticed the same +thing during our call the afternoon before. + +"Well, and what are we buying to-day?" asked Miss Lavinia, clearing her +voice by a little caressing sound halfway between a purr and a cluck, and +patting the hand that lingered affectionately on hers. + +"I really--don't--know," answered Sylvia, smiling at her own hesitation. +"Mamma says that if I do not get my clothes together before people begin +to come back from the South, I shall be nowhere, so she took me with +her to Mme. Couteaux's this morning. Mamma goes there because she says +it saves so much trouble. Madame keeps a list of every article her +customers have, and supplies everything, even down to under linen and +hosiery, so she has made for mamma a plan of exactly what she would need +for next season, and after having received her permission, will at once +begin to carry it out. Of course the clothes will be very beautiful and +harmonious, and mamma has so much on her hands, now that father is +away,--the new cottage at Oaklands is being furnished, and me to +initiate in the way I'm supposed to go,--that it certainly simplifies +matters for her. + +"Me? Ah, I do not like the system at all, or Madame Couteaux either, and +the feeling is mutual, I assure you. Without waiting to be asked, even, +she looked me over from head to foot and said that my lines are very bad, +that I curve in and out at the wrong places, that I must begin at once by +wearing higher heels to throw me forward! + +"At first I was indignant, and then the ludicrous climbed uppermost, and +I laughed, whereat Madame looked positively shocked, and even mamma +seemed aghast and murmured something apologetic about my having been at +boarding-school in the country, and at college, where I had ridden +horseback without proper instruction, which had injured my figure. Only +imagine, Aunt Lavinia, those glorious gallops among the Rockcliffe Hills +hurting one's body in any way! But then, I suppose body and figure are +wholly different things; at any rate, Madame Couteaux gave a shrug, as if +shedding all responsibility for my future from her fat shoulders, and so, +while mamma is there, I am taking a run out in the cold world of raw +material and observing for myself. + +"Of course I shall make mistakes, but I have had everything done for me +to such an extent, during the last four months, that I really must make a +point of picking and choosing for once. I've had a mad desire since the +last storm to stir up the pools in the gutters with my best shoes, as the +happy little children do with their rubber boots. How I shall enjoy it +when we go to Oaklands, and there is really something to _do_ instead of +merely being amused. + +"By the way, Mrs. Evan, won't you and Miss Lavinia join us at luncheon? +We are to have it somewhere downtown, to-day,--the Waldorf, I +believe,--as mamma expects to spend most of the afternoon at the +decorators, to see the designs for the Oaklands hangings and furniture, +and," glancing at the big clock, between the lifts, as Miss Lavinia made +her last purchase, "it's high time for me to go and pick her up." + +Having a feeling that possibly mamma might not be so cordial, in addition +to being due at home for more shirtwaist fittings, Miss Lavinia declined, +and reminding Sylvia that dinner would be at the old-fashioned hour of +half-past six, we drifted out the door together, Sylvia going toward +Fifth Avenue, while we turned the corner and sauntered down Broadway, +pausing at every attractive window. + +Miss Lavinia's short-sightedness caused her to bump into a man, who was +intently gazing, from the height of six feet, at jewelled bugs, displayed +in the window of a dealer in Oriental wares. + +The man, thinking himself to blame, raised his hat in apology, glancing +casually down as he did so, whereupon the hat remained off, and he and +Miss Lavinia grasped hands with sudden enthusiasm, followed by a medley +of questions and answers, so that before she remembered me, and turned to +introduce the stranger, I knew that it was Horace Bradford himself. A +strange, but positive, fact about New York is that one may at one time be +in it but a few hours and run across half the people of one's +acquaintance, gathered from all parts of the country, and at another, +wander about for weeks without seeing a familiar face. + +I liked Bradford from the moment I shook hands with him. There is so much +in the mere touching of hands. His neither crushed as if to compel, nor +flopped equivocally, but said, as it enclosed yours in its bigness, "I am +here, command me." + +Broadway, during shopping hours, is not an ideal place for the +interchange of either ideas, or more, even, than the merest +courtesies; but after thanking Miss Lavinia for the dinner invitation, +to which he had just sent the answer, and inquiring for Sylvia Latham, +as he walked beside us for a block or two, it was very evident that he +had something on his mind that he wished to say, and did not know how +to compass the matter. + +As he talked to Miss Lavinia in jerky monosyllables,--the only speech +that the noise made possible,--I had a chance to look at him. He did not +possess a single feature of classic proportions, and yet he was a +handsome man, owing to the illumination of his face. Brown, introspective +eyes, with a merry way of shutting; heavy, dark hair and brows, and a few +thoughtful lines here and there; mustache pulled down at the corners, as +if by the unconscious weight of a nervously strong hand; and a firm jaw, +but not squared to the point that suggests the dominance of the +physical. He wore a dark gray Inverness coat, evidently one of the fruits +of his English tour, and a well-proportioned soft felt hat, set on +firmly, the crown creased in the precise way necessary to justify the +city use of the article by a man of thirty. He seemed to be in excellent, +almost boyish spirits, and so natural and wholesome withal, that I am +sure I should not feel at all embarrassed at finding myself alone with +him on a desert island. This is one of my pet similes of approval. + +Finally he blurted out: "Miss Lavinia, I do so wish your advice upon a +strictly woman's matter; one, however, that is of great importance to me. +I shall have to take the night express back, and this is the only time I +have left. Would you--could we go in somewhere, do you think, and have +something while I explain?" + +Miss Lavinia looked dubious as to whether his invitation might mean +drinks, man fashion, or luncheon. But as at that moment we reached the +chief New York residence of well-born ice cream soda, for which I always +hanker, in spite of snow and slush, much to Evan's disgust, I relieved +the situation by plunging in, saying that I was even more thirsty in +winter than in summer. Whereat Miss Lavinia shivered, but cheerfully +resigned herself to hot chocolate. "The matter in point is," continued +Bradford, feeling boyishly of one of the blocks of ice that decorated the +counter to find if it was real, and speaking directly to Miss Lavinia, +"I've had a great happiness come into my life this last week; something +that I did not expect to happen for years. My chief has retired, and I +have been promoted. I will not take your time to go selfishly into +details now. I can tell you to-night, if you care to hear. I cannot go +home until the Easter holidays, and so I want to send something to my +mother by way of celebration. Would you select it for me?" and the big +fellow swept the shop with an indefinite sort of gaze, as if buying candy +for the universe would but feebly express his feelings. + +"Certainly I will," replied Miss Lavinia, warming at once;--"but what +kind of something?" + +"I think,"--hesitating a trifle,--"a very good gown, and an ornament of +some kind." + +"Would she not prefer choosing the gown herself? People's tastes differ +so much about clothing," ventured Miss Lavinia, willing, even anxious, to +help the man, yet shrinking from the possibility of feminine criticism. + +"No, I think not; that is, it doesn't work well. Beforetimes I've often +written her to buy some little finery to wear for my sake, but my gift +has generally been turned into flannels for poor children or to restock +the chickenyard of some unfortunate neighbour whose fowls have all died +of gapes. While if I send her the articles themselves, she will prize and +wear them, even if the gown was a horse blanket and the ornament a +Plymouth Rock rooster to wear on her head. You know how mothers are about +buying things for themselves, don't you, Mrs. Evan?" he said, turning to +me, that I need not consider myself excluded from the conversation. + +"I have no mother, but I have two little sons," I answered. + +"Ah, then you will know as soon as they grow old enough to wish to buy +things for you," and somehow the soda water flew up my nose, and I had to +grope for my handkerchief. + +Miss Lavinia evidently did not like to ask Mrs. Bradford's age, so she +evaded it by asking, "Does your mother wear colours or black, Mr. +Bradford?" + +"She has worn black ever since my father died; for the last ten years, in +fact. I wish I could persuade her to adopt something that looks more +cheerful, for she is the very essence of cheerfulness herself. Do you +think this would be a good time to give a sort of hint by choosing a +coloured gown,--a handsome blue silk, for instance?" "I know precisely +how you feel," said Miss Lavinia, laying her hand upon his sleeve +sympathetically, "men never like mourning; but still I advise you not to +try the experiment or force the change. A brocaded black silk gown, with +a pretty lace fichu to soften it about the shoulders, and a simple pin to +hold it together at the neck,--how would that suit you?" As she spoke she +waved her dainty hands about so expressively in a way of her own that I +could seem to see the folds of the material drape themselves. + +"That is it! You have exactly the idea that I could not formulate. How +clever women are!" he exclaimed, and for a minute I really thought he was +going to hug Miss Lavinia. + +"One other favour. Will you buy these things for me? I always feel so out +of place and cowardly in the women's shops where such things are sold. +Will $100 be enough, think you?" he added a trifle anxiously, I thought, +as he drew a small envelope from a compartment of his letter book, where +it had evidently been stowed away for this special purpose. + +"Yes, I can manage nicely with it," replied Miss Lavinia, cheerfully; +"and now you must leave us at once, so that we can do this shopping, and +not be too late for luncheon. Remember, dinner to-night at 6:30." "One +thing more," he said, as we turned to leave, "I shall not now have time +to present my respects to Miss Latham's mother as I intended; do you +think that she will hold me very rude? I remember that Miss Sylvia once +said her mother was very particular in matters of etiquette,--about her +going out unchaperoned and all that,--and should not wish her to feel +slighted." Miss Lavinia assured him very dryly that he need not worry +upon that score, that no notice would be taken of the omission. Not +saying, however, that in all probability he was entirely unconsidered, +ranked as a tutor and little better than a governess by the elder woman, +even if Sylvia had spoken of him as her instructor. + +So, after holding open the heavy doors for us, he strode off down town, +the bright smile still lingering about his eyes, while we retraced our +steps to the shop we had visited early that morning, and then down +again to a jeweller's. The result was a dress pattern of soft black +silk, brocaded with a small leafy design, a graceful lace-edged, muslin +fichu, and an onyx bar pin upon which three butterflies were outlined +by tiny pearls. + +"Isn't he a dear fellow?" asked Miss Lavinia, apparently of a big gray +truck horse that blocked the way as we waited at the last crossing before +reaching home. And I replied, "He certainly is," with rash but +unshakable feminine conviction. + + + + +VII + +SYLVIA LATHAM + + +Sylvia came that afternoon well before dark, a trim footman following +from the brougham with her suitcase and an enormous box of forced early +spring flowers, hyacinths, narcissi, tulips, English primroses, +lilies-of-the-valley, white lilacs, and some yellow wands of Forsythia, +"with Mrs. Latham's compliments to Miss Dorman." + +"What luxury!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia, turning out the flowers upon the +table in the tea room where she kept her window garden, "and how pale and +spindling my poor posies look in comparison. Are these from the Bluffs?" + +"Oh no, from Newport," replied Sylvia. "There is to be no glass at the +Bluffs, only an outdoor garden, mamma says, that will not be too much +trouble to keep up. Mrs. Jenks-Smith was dining at the house last night, +and told me what a lovely garden you have, Mrs. Evan, and I thought +perhaps, if we do not go to California to meet father, but go to Oaklands +early in April, you might be good enough to come up and talk my garden +over with me. The landscape architect has, I believe, made a plan for the +beds and walks about the house, but I am to have an acre or two of +ground on the opposite side of the highway quite to myself. + +"Oh, please don't squeeze those tulips into the tight high vases, Aunt +Lavinia," she said, going behind that lady and giving her a hug with one +arm, while she rescued the tulips with the other hand; for Miss Lavinia, +feeling hurried and embarrassed by the quantity of flowers, was jumbling +them at random into very unsuitable receptacles. + +"May I arrange the dinner table," Sylvia begged, "like a Dutch garden, +with a path all around, beds in the corners, and those dear little silver +jugs and the candlesticks for a bower in the middle? + +"A month ago," she continued, as she surveyed the table at a glance and +began to work with charming enthusiasm, "mamma was giving a very +particular dinner. She had told the gardener to send on all the flowers +that could possibly be cut, so that there were four great hampers full; +but owing to some mistake Darley, the florist, who always comes to +decorate the rooms, did not appear. We telephoned, and the men flew +about, but he could not be found, and mamma was fairly pale with anxiety, +as Mrs. Center, who gives the swell dinner dances, was to dine with her +for the first time, and it was important to make an impression, so that +_I_ might be invited to one or possibly more of these affairs, and so +receive a sort of social hall mark, without which, it seems, no young New +York woman is complete. I didn't know the whole of the reason then, to be +sure, or very possibly I should not have worked so hard. Still, poor +mamma is so in earnest about all these little intricacies, and thinks +them so important to my happiness and fate, or something else she has in +view, that I am trying not to undeceive her until the winter is over." + +Sylvia spoke with careless gayety, which was to my mind somehow belied by +the expression of her eyes. + +"I asked Perkins to get out the Dutch silver, toys and all, that mamma +has been collecting ever since I can remember, and bring down a long +narrow mirror in a plain silver frame that backs my mantel shelf. Then I +begged mother to go for her beauty sleep and let me wrestle with the +flowers, also to be sure to wear her new Van Dyck gown to dinner. + +"This was not according to her plan, but she went perforce. I knew that +she felt extremely dubious, and, trembling at my rashness, I set at work +to make a Dutch flower garden, with the mirror for a canal down the +centre. Perkins and his understudies, Potts and Parker, stood watching me +with grim faces, exchanging glances that seemed to question my sanity +when I told Parker to go out to the corner where I had seen workmen that +afternoon dump a load of little white pebbles, such as are used in +repairing the paving, and bring me in a large basketful. But when the +garden was finished, with the addition of the little Delft windmills I +brought home, and the family of Dutch peasant dolls that we bought at the +Antwerp fair, Perkins was absolutely moved to express his approval." + +"What effect did the garden have upon the dance invitations?" asked Miss +Lavinia, highly amused, and also more eager to hear of the doings of +society than she would care to confess. + +"Excellent! Mrs. Center asked mother who her decorator was, and said she +should certainly employ him; which, it seems, was a compliment so rare +that it was equivalent to the falling of the whole social sky at my feet, +Mr. Bell said, who let the secret out. I was invited to the last two of +the series,--for they come to a conspicuous stop and turn into theatre +parties when Lent begins,--and I really enjoyed myself, the only drawback +being that so few of the really tall and steady men care for dancing. +Most of my partners were very short, and loitered so, that I felt +top-heavy, and it reminded me of play-days, when I used to practise +waltzing with the library fire tongs. I dislike long elaborate +dinners, though mamma delights in them, and says one may observe so much +that is useful, but I do like to dance with a partner who moves, and not +simply progresses in languid ripples, for dancing is one of the few +indoor things that one is allowed to do for oneself. + +"Now, Aunt Lavinia, you see the garden is all growing and blowing, and +there are only enough tulips left for the Rookwood jars in the library," +Sylvia said, stepping back to look at the table, "and a few for us to +wear. Lilies-of-the-valley for you, pink tulips for you, Mrs. Evan,--they +will soon close, and look like pointed rosebuds,--yellow daffies to match +my gown, and you must choose for the two men I do not know. I'll take a +tuft of these primroses for Mr. Bradford, and play they grew wild. We +always joked him about these flowers at college until 'The Primrose' came +to be his nickname among ourselves. Why? + +"One day when he was lecturing to us on Wordsworth, and reading +examples of different styles and metres, he finished a rather +sentimental phrase with + +"'A primrose by a river's brim +A yellow primrose was to him +And it was nothing more.' + +"Suddenly, the disparity between the bigness of the reader and the +slimness of the verse overcame me, and catching his eye, I laughed aloud. +Of course, the entire class followed in a chorus, which he, catching the +point, joined heartily. It sounds silly now, but it seemed very funny at +the time; and it is such little points that make events at school, and +even at college." + +"Mr. Bradford told me some news this morning," said Miss Lavinia, walking +admiringly about the table as she spoke. "He is Professor Bradford, of +the University, not merely the women's college now, or rather will be at +the beginning of the next term." + +"That is pleasant news. I wonder how old Professor Jameson happened to +step out, and why none of the Rockcliffe girls have written me about it." + +"He did not tell me any details; said that they would keep until +to-night. We met him in the street this morning, immediately after we +left you," and Miss Lavinia gave a brief account of our shopping. + +"That sounds quite like him. All his air castles seemed to be built about +his mother and the old farm at Pine Ridge. He has often told me how easy +it would be to get back the house to the colonial style, with wide +fireplaces, that it was originally, and he always had longings to be in a +position to coax his mother to come to Northbridge for the winter, and +keep a little apartment for him. Perhaps he will be able to do both now." + +Sylvia spoke with keen but quite impersonal interest, and looking at her +I began to wonder if here might not, after all, be the comrade type of +woman in whose existence I never before believed,--feminine, +sympathetic, buoyant, yet capable of absolutely rational and unemotional +friendship with a man within ten years of her own age. But after all it +is common enough to find the first half of such a friendship, it is the +unit that is difficult; and I had then had no opportunity of seeing the +two together. + +We went upstairs together, and lingered by the fire in Miss Lavinia's +sitting room before going to make ready for dinner. The thaw of the +morning was again locked by ice, and it was quite a nippy night for the +season. I, revelled mentally in the fact that my dinner waist was crimson +in colour, and abbreviated only in the way of elbow sleeves, and the +pretty low corn-coloured crepe bodice that I saw Lucy unpacking from +Sylvia's suit case quite made me shiver. + +The only light in Miss Lavinia's den, other than the fire, was a low +lamp, with a soft-hued amber shade, so that the room seemed to draw close +about one like protecting arms, country fashion, instead of seeking to +turn one out, which is the feeling that so many of the stately apartments +in the great city houses give me. + +When I am indoors I want space to move and breathe in, of course, but I +like to feel intrenched; and only when I open the door and step outside, +do I wish to give myself up to space, for Nature is the only one who +really knows how to handle vastness without overdoing it. + +As we sat there in silence I watched the play of firelight on +Sylvia's face, and the same thought seemed to cross it as she closed +her eyes and nestled back in Miss Lavinia's funny little fat sewing +chair, that was like a squab done in upholstery. Then, as the clock +struck six, she started, rubbed her eyes, and crossed the hall to her +room half in a dream. + +"She is as like her Grandmother Latham when I first saw her, as a girl +of twenty-one can be like a woman of fifty," said Miss Lavinia, from the +lounge close at my elbow. "Not in colouring or feature, but in poise +and gesture. The Lathams were of Massachusetts stock, and have, I +imagine, a good deal of the Plymouth Rock mixture in their back-bones. +Her father has the reputation, in fact, of being all rock, if not quite +of the Plymouth variety. Well, I think she will need it, poor child; +that is, if any of the rumours that are beginning to float in the air +settle to the ground." + +"Meaning what?" I asked, half unconsciously, and paying little heed, +for I then realized that the daily letter from father had not arrived; +and Lucy at that moment came in, lit the lamps, and began to rattle +the hair-brushes in Miss Lavinia's bedroom, which I took as a signal +for me to leave. + +The door-bell rang. It was Evan; but before I met him halfway on the +stairs, he called up: "I telephoned home an hour ago, and they are all +well. The storm held over last night there. Father says it was the most +showy snow they have had for years, and he was delayed in getting his +letter to the post." + +"Is that all?" I asked, as I got down far enough to rest my hands on his +shoulders. + +"Yes; the wires buzzed badly and did not encourage gossip. Ah!" (this +with an effort to appear as if it was an afterthought), "I told him I +thought that you would not wait for me tomorrow, but probably go home on +the 9:30. Not that I really committed you to it if you have other plans!" + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright appeared some five minutes before Horace Bradford. As it +chanced, when the latter came in the door Sylvia was on the stairs, so +that her greeting and hearty handshake were given looking down at him, +and she waited in the hall, in a perfectly unembarrassed way, as a matter +of course, while he freed himself from his heavy coat. His glance at the +tall girl, who came down from the darkness above, in her shimmering gown, +with golden daffies in her hair and on her breast, like a beam of +wholesome sunshine, was full of honest, personal admiration. If it had +been otherwise I should have been disappointed in the man's completeness. +Then, looking at them from out of the library shadows, I wondered what he +would have thought if his entry had been at the Latham home instead of at +Miss Lavinia's, how he would have passed the ordeal of Perkins, Potts, +and Parker, and if his spontaneity would have been marred by the +formality. + +Perhaps he would have been oblivious. Some men have the happy gift of +not being annoyed by things that are thorns in the flesh to otherwise +quite independent women. Father, however, is always amused by flunkies, +and treats them as an expected part of the show; even as the jovial +Autocrat did when, at a grand London house, "it took full six men in red +satin knee-breeches" to admit him and his companion. + +Bradford did not wear an evening suit; neither did he deem apology +necessary. If he thought of the matter at all, which I doubt, he +evidently considered that he was among friends, who would make whatever +excuses were necessary from the circumstances of his hurried trip. + +Then we went in to the dining-room, Miss Lavinia leading with Martin +Cortright, as the most recent acquaintance, and therefore formal guest, +the rest of us following in a group. Miss Lavinia, of course, took the +head of the table, Evan opposite, and the two men, Cortright on her right +and Bradford on her left, making Sylvia and me vis-a-vis. + +The men appropriated their buttonhole flowers naturally. Martin smiled at +my choice for him, which was a small, but chubby, red and yellow, +uncompromising Dutch tulip, far too stout to be able to follow its family +habit of night closing, except to contract itself slightly. Evan +caressed his lilies-of-the-valley lightly with his finger-tips as he +fastened them in place, but Bradford broke into a boyish laugh, and then +blushed to the eyes, when he saw the tiny bunch of primroses, saying: +"You have a long memory, Miss Sylvia, yet mine is longer. May I have a +sprig of that, too?" and he reached over a big-boned hand to where the +greenhouse-bred wands of yellow Forsythia were laid in a formal pattern +bordering the paths. "That is the first flower that I remember. A great +bush of it used to grow in a protected spot almost against the kitchen +window at home; and when I see a bit of it in a strange place, for a +minute I collapse into the little chap in outrageous gathered trousers, +who used to reach out the window for the top twigs, that blossomed +earliest, so as to be the first to carry 'yellow bells' to school for a +teacher that I used to think was Venus and Minerva rolled in one. I saw +her in Boston the other day, and the Venus hallucination is shattered, +but the yellow bells look just the same, proving--" + +"That every prospect pleases +And man (or woman) alone is vile," + +interpolated Evan. + +Grape fruit, with a dash of sherry, or the more wholesome sloe-gin, is +Miss Lavinia's compromise with the before-dinner cocktail of society, +that is really very awakening to both brain and digestion; and before the +quaint silver soup tureen had disappeared, even Martin Cortright had not +only come wholly out of his shell, but might have been said to have +fairly perched on top of it, before starting on a reminiscent career with +his hostess, beginning at one of the monthly meetings of the Historical +Society; for though Martin's past belonged more to the "Second Avenue" +faction of the old east side, and Miss Lavinia to the west, among the +environs of what had once been Greenwich and Chelsea villages, they had +trodden the same paths, though not at the same time. While Sylvia and the +"Professor," as she at once began to call him, picked up the web of the +college loom that takes in threads of silk, wool, and cotton, and mixing +or separating them at random, turns out garments of complete fashion and +pattern, or misfits full of false starts or dropped stitches that not +only hamper the wearers, but sometimes their families, for life. All that +Evan and I had to do was to maintain a sympathetic silence, kept by +occasional ejaculations and murmurs from growing so profound as to cause +a draught at our corner of the table. "Yes, we used to go there +regularly," I heard Miss Lavinia say; "when we were girls Eleanor +(Barbara's mother) and I attended the same school--Miss Black's,--Eleanor +being a boarding and I a day pupil and a clergyman's daughter also, +which, in those days, was considered a sort of patent of respectability. +Miss Black used to allow her to spend the shorter holidays with me and go +to those historical lectures as a matter of course. We never publicly +mentioned the fact that Eleanor also liked to come to my house to get +thoroughly warmed and take a bath, as one of Miss Black's principles of +education was that feminine propriety and cold rooms were synonymous, and +the long room with a glass roof, sacred to bathing, was known as the +'refrigerator'; but those atrocities that were committed in the name of +education have fortunately been stopped by education itself. I don't +think that either of us paid much attention to the lectures; the main +thing was to get out and go somewhere; yet I don't think any other later +good times were as breathlessly fascinating. + +"Mother seldom went, the hermetically sealed, air-proof architecture of +the place not agreeing with her; so father, Eleanor, and I used to walk +over, crossing the head of Washington Square, until, as we passed St. +Mark's Church and reached the steps of the building, we often headed a +procession as sedate and serious as if going to Sunday meeting, for there +were fewer places to go in those days. Once within, we usually crept well +up front, for my father was one of the executive committee who sat in the +row of chairs immediately facing the platform, and to be near him added +several inches to my stature and importance, at least in my own +estimation. Then, too, there was always the awesome and fascinating +possibility that one of these honourable personages might fall audibly +asleep, or slip from his chair in a moment of relaxation. Such events had +been known to occur. In fact, my father's habit of settling down until +his neck rested upon the low chair back, made the slipping accident a +perpetual possibility in his case. + +"Then, when the meeting was called to order, and the minutes read with +many h-hems and clearings of the throat, and the various motions put to +vote with the mumbled 'All-in-favour-of-the-motion-will-please-signify- +by-saying-Ay! Contrary-minded-no-the-motion-is-accepted!' that some one +would only say 'No' was our perpetual wish, and we even once meditated +doing it ourselves, but could not decide which should take the risk. + +"Another one of our amusements was to give odd names to the dignitaries +who presided. One with lurching gait, erectile whiskers, and blinking +eyes we called 'The Owl'; while another, a handsome old man of the +'Signer' type, pink-cheeked, deep eyed, with a fine aquiline nose, we +named 'The Eagle.'" + +"Oh, I know whom you mean, exactly!" cried Martin, throwing back his head +and laughing as heartily as Bradford might; "and 'The Owl' was supposed +to have intentions of perpetuating his name by leaving the society money +enough for a new building, but he didn't. But then, he doubtless +inherited his thrift from the worthy ancestors of the ilk of those men +who utilized trousers for a land measure. Do you also remember the +discussions that followed the reading of paper or lecture? Sometimes +quite heated ones too, if the remarks had ventured to even graze the +historical bunions that afflicted the feet of many old families." + +"No, I think we were too anxious to have the meeting declared adjourned +to heed such things. How we stretched ourselves; the physical oppression +that had been settling for an hour or two lifting suddenly as we got on +our feet and felt that we might speak in our natural voices. + +"Then father would say, 'You may go upstairs and examine the curiosities +before joining us in the basement,' and we would go up timidly and +inspect the Egyptian mummy. I wonder how he felt last year when there was +a reception in the hall and a band broke the long stillness with 'The Gay +Tomtit.' Was ever such chocolate or such sandwiches served in equally +sepulchral surroundings as in the long room below stairs. I remember +wondering if the early Christians ever lunched in the catacombs, and how +they felt; and I should not have been surprised if Lazarus himself had +appeared in one of the archways trailing his graveclothes after him, so +strong was the spell of the mummy upon us. + +"It seems really very odd that you were one of those polite young men who +used sometimes to pass the plates of sandwiches to us where we stayed +hidden in a corner so that the parental eye need not see how many we +consumed." + +Thus did Martin Cortright and Miss Lavinia meet on common ground and +drift into easy friendship which it would have taken years of +conventional intercourse to accomplish, while opposite, the talk between +Sylvia and Bradford dwelt upon the new professorship and Sylvia's +roommate of two years, who, instead of being able to remain and finish +the course which was to fit her for gaining nominal independence through +teaching, had been obliged to go home and take charge, owing to her +mother's illness. + +"Yes, Professor Jameson's decision to give all his time to outside +literary work was very sudden," I heard Bradford say. "I thought that it +might happen two or three years hence; but to find myself now not only in +possession of a salary of four thousand dollars a year (hardly a fortune +in New York, I suppose), but also freed this season from being tied at +Northbridge to teach in the summer school, and able to be at home in +peace and quiet and get together my little book of the 'Country of the +English Poets,' seems to me almost unbelievable." + +"I have been wondering how the book was coming on, for you never wrote of +it," answered Sylvia. "I have been trying all winter, without success, to +arrange my photographs in scrap-books with merely names and dates. But +though, as I look back over the four months, everything has been done for +me, even to the buttoning of my gloves, while I've seemingly done nothing +for any one, I've barely had a moment that I could call my own." + +"I do not think that it is strange, after having been away practically +for six years, that family life and your friends should absorb you. +Doubtless you will have time now that Lent has come," said Bradford, +smiling. "Of course we country Congregationalists do not treat the +season as you Anglican Catholics do, and I've often thought it rather a +pity. It must be good to have a stated time and season for stopping and +sitting down to look at oneself. I picked up one of your New York church +papers in the library the other day, and was fairly surprised at the +number of services and the scope of the movement and the work of the +church in general." + +Sylvia looked at him for a moment with an odd expression in her eyes, as +if questioning the sincerity of his remarks, and then answered, I thought +a little sadly: "I'm afraid it is very much like other things we read of +in the papers, half truth, half fiction; the churches and the services +are there, and the good earnest people, too--but as for our stopping! Ah, +Mr. Bradford, I can hardly expect to make you understand how it is, for I +cannot myself. It was all so different before I went to boarding school, +and we lived down in the house in Waverley Place where I was born. The +people of mamma's world do not stop; we simply whirl to a slightly +different tune. It's like waltzing one way around a ballroom until you +are quite dizzy, and then reversing,--there is no sitting down to rest, +that is, unless it is to play cards." + +"Yet whist is a restful game in itself," said Bradford, cheerfully; "an +evening of whist, with even fairly intelligent partners, I've always +found a great smoother-out of nerves and wrinkles." + +"They do not play it that way here," answered Sylvia, laughing, in spite +of herself, at his quiet assumption. "It's 'bridge' for money or +expensive prizes; and compared to the excitement it causes, the +tarantella is a sitting-down dance. I'm too stupid with cards to take the +risk of playing; even mamma does not advise it yet, though she wishes to +have me coached. So I shall have some time to myself after all, for my +defect puts me out of three Lenten card clubs to which mamma belongs, two +of which meet at our house. That leaves only two sewing classes, three +Lenten theatre clubs (one for lunch and matinee and two for dinner and +the evening), and Mr. Bell's cake-walk club, that practises with a +teacher at our house on Monday evenings. The club is to have a +semi-public performance at the Waldorf for charity, in Easter week, and +as the tickets are to be ten dollars each, they expect to make a great +deal of money. So you see there is very little time allowed us to sit +down and look at ourselves." + +"I cannot excuse cake-walking off the stage, among civilized people," +interpolated Miss Lavinia, catching the word but not the connection, and +realizing that, as hostess, she had inconsiderately lost the thread of +the conversation. "It appeals to me as the expression of physical +exuberance of a lower race, and for people of our grade of intelligence +to imitate it is certainly lowering! The more successfully it is carried +out the worse it is!" + +Miss Lavinia spoke so fiercely that everybody laughed but Sylvia, who +coloured painfully, and Horace Bradford deftly changed the subject in the +lull that followed. + + * * * * * + +The men did not care to be left alone with their cigars and coffee, so we +lingered in the dining-room. Suddenly a shrieking whistle sounded in the +street, and the rapid clatter of hoofs made us listen, while Evan rushed +to the door, seizing his hat on the way. + +"Only the fire engines," said Miss Lavinia; "you would soon be used to +them if you lived here; the engine house is almost around the corner." + +"Don't you ever go after them?" I asked, without thinking, because +to Evan and me going to fires is one of the standard attractions of +our New York. + +"Barbara, child, don't be absurd. What should I do traipsing after +an engine?" + +"Yet a good fire is a very exciting spectacle. I once had the habit of +going," said Martin Cortright, emerging from a cloud of cigar smoke. "I +remember when Barnum's Museum was burned my father and I ran to the fire +together and stayed out, practically, all night." + +More whistling and a fresh galloping of hoofs indicated that there was a +second call, and the engines from up town were answering. I began to tap +my feet restlessly, and Miss Lavinia noticed it. + +"Don't hesitate to go if you wish to," she said. At the same moment Evan +dashed back, calling: "It's a fire on the river front, a lumber yard; +plenty of work ahead, with little danger and a wonderful spectacle. Why +can we not all go to see it, for it's only half a dozen blocks away? +Bundle up, though, it's bitterly cold." + +Horace Bradford sprang to his feet and Sylvia was halfway upstairs and +fairly out of her evening gown when Miss Lavinia made up her mind to go +also, Evan's words having the infection of a stampede. + +"Don't forget the apples," I called to Evan as I followed my hostess. + +"The shops and stands are closed, I'm afraid," he called back from the +stoop where he was waiting; "perhaps Miss Lavinia has some in the house." + +"Apples, yes, plenty; but for mercy's sake what for? You surely aren't +thinking of pelting the fire out with them!" she gasped, hurrying +downstairs and struggling to disentangle her eyeglasses from her bonnet +strings; a complication that was always happening at crucial moments, +such as picking out change in an elevated railway station, and thereby +blocking the crowd. + +"No, apples to feed the fire horses; Barbara always does," Evan answered, +dashing down the basement stairs to the kitchen, and returning quickly +with a medley of apples and soup vegetables in a dish-towel bundle, +leaving the solemn cook speechlessly astonished. + +Then we started off, Evan leading the way, and the procession straggling +after in Indian file; for the back streets were not well shovelled, and +to go two abreast meant that one foot of each was on a side hill. Evan +fairly dragged me along. Sylvia and Bradford, being fleet of foot, had no +difficulty in following, but Martin and Miss Lavinia had rather a bumpy +time of it. Still, as pretty much all the uncrippled inhabitants of the +district were going the same way, our flight was not conspicuous. + +It was, as Evan had promised, a glorious fire! Long before we reached +the Hudson the sky rayed and flamed with all the smokeless change of the +Northern Lights. Once there, Evan piloted us through the densely packed +crowd to the side string-piece of a pier, Miss Lavinia giving little +shrieks the while, and begging not to be pushed into the water. + +From this point the great stacks of lumber that made the giant bonfire +could be seen at the two points, from land and water side, where the +fire-boats were shooting streams from their well-aimed nozzles. + +As usual, after running the steam-pumping engines as close as desirable +to the flames, the horses were detached, blanketed, and tied up safe from +harm, and we found a group of three great intelligent iron-gray beauties +close behind us, who accepted the contents of the dish-towel with almost +human appreciation, while a queer, wise, brown dog, an engine mascot, who +was perched on the back of the middle horse, shared the petting with a +politely matter-of-fact air. + +"It is wonderful! I only wish I could see a little better," murmured Miss +Lavinia, who was short, and buried in the crowd. + +"Why not stand on this barrel?" suggested Bradford, holding out his +hand. + +"It's full of garbage and ashes," she objected. + +"Never mind that, they are frozen hard," replied Bradford, poking the +mass practically. + +Three pairs of hands tugged and boosted, and lo! Miss Lavinia was safely +perched; and as there were more barrels Sylvia and I quickly followed +suit, and we soon all became spellbound at the dramatic contrasts, for +every now and again a fresh pile of Georgia pine would be devoured by the +flames, the sudden flare coming like a noiseless explosion, making the +air fragrantly resinous, while at the same time the outer boundaries of +the doomed lumber yard were being draped with a fantastic ice fabric from +the water that froze as it fell. + +As to the firemen! don't talk to me of the bygone bravery of the +crusaders and the lords of feudal times, who spent their lives in the +sport of encamping outside of fortresses, at whose walls they +occasionally butted with rams, lances, and strong language, leaving their +wives and children in badly drained and draughty castles. If any one +wishes to see brave men and true, simply come to a fire with Evan and me +in our New York. + +We might have stood there on our garbage pedestals half the night if +Horace Bradford had not remembered that he must catch the midnight +express, glanced at his watch, found that it was already nearly half-past +ten, and realized that he had left his grip at Miss Lavinia's. +Consequently we dismounted and pushed our way home. + +As we were half groping our way up ill-lighted West Tenth Street Martin +Cortright paused suddenly and, after looking about, remarked: "This is +certainly a most interesting locality. That building opposite, which has +long been a brewery, was once, in part at least, the first city or +State's Prison. How often criminals must have traversed this very route +we are following, on their way to Washington Square to be hanged. For you +know that place, of later years esteemed so select, was once not only the +site of Potter's Field, but of the city gallows as well!" + +No one, however, joined more heartily than he in the merriment that his +inapropos reminiscence caused, and we reached home in a good humour that +effectually kept off the cold. + +"Did you succeed in buying the gown?" Horace Bradford asked Miss Lavinia, +as he stood in the hall making his farewells. + +"Oh, yes, I had almost forgotten. Here is the package only waiting for +your approval to be tied," and she led the way to the library. + +Bradford touched the articles with his big fingers, as lovingly as if he +were smoothing his mother's hair, or her hand. + +"They are exactly right," he said heartily, turning and grasping Miss +Lavinia's hand, as he looked straight into her eyes with an expression of +mingled gratitude and satisfaction. "She will thank you herself, when we +all meet next summer," and with a happy look at Sylvia, who had come to +the library to see the gifts, and was leaning on the table, he grasped +bag and parcel, shook hands all round, and hurried away. + +"What do you think?" I asked Evan, as we closed our bedroom door. + +"Of what?" he answered, with the occasional obtuseness that will overtake +the best of men. + +"Of Sylvia and Bradford, of course. Are they in love, do you think?" + +"I rather think that _he_ is," Evan answered, slowly, as if bringing +his mind from afar, "but that he doesn't know it, and I hope he may +stay in ignorance, for it will do him no good, for I am sure that she +is not, at least with Bradford. She is drifting about in the Whirlpool +now. She has not 'found herself' in any way, as yet. She seems a +charming girl, but I warn you, Barbara, don't think you scent romance, +and try to put a finger in this pie! Your knowledge of complex human +nature isn't nearly as big as your heart, and the Latham set are wholly +beyond your ken and comprehension." Then Evan, declining to argue the +matter, went promptly to sleep. + +Not so Sylvia. When Miss Lavinia went to her room to see if the girl was +comfortable and have a little go-to-bed chat by the fire, she found her +stretched upon the bed; her head hidden between the pillows, in a vain +effort to stifle her passionate sobbing. + +"What is it, my child?" she asked, truly distressed. "Are you tired, or +have you taken cold, or what?" + +"No, nothing like that," she whispered, keeping her face hidden and +jerking out disjointed sentences, "but I can't do anything for anybody. +No one really depends on me for anything. Helen Baker must leave college, +because they need her _at home_,--just think, _need her_! Isn't that +happiness? And Mr. Bradford is so joyful over his new salary, thinks it +is a fortune, and with being able to buy those things for his +mother,--father has sent me more money during the four months I've been +back, so I may feel independent, he says, than the Professor will earn in +a year. Independent? deserted is a better word! I hardly know my own +parents, I find, and they expect nothing from me, even my companionship. + +"Before I went away to school, if mamma was ill, I used to carry up her +breakfast, and brush her hair; now she treats me almost like a +stranger,--dislikes my going to her room at odd times. I hardly ever see +her, she is always so busy, and if I beg to be with her, as I did once, +she says I do not understand her duty to society. + +"People should not have children and then send them away to school until +they feel like strangers, and their homes drift so far away that they do +not know them when they come back,--and there's poor Carthy out west all +alone, after the plans we made to be together. It is all so different +from what I expected. Why does not father come home, or mother seem to +mind that he stays away? What is the matter, Aunt Lavinia? Is mamma +hiding something, or is the fault all mine?" + +Miss Lavinia closed the door, and soothed the excited girl, talking to +her for an hour, and in fact slept on the lounge, and did not return to +her own room until morning. She was surprised at the storm in a clear +sky, but not at the cause. Miss Lavinia was keenly observant, and from +two years' daily intercourse, she knew Sylvia's nature thoroughly. For +some reasons, she wished with all her heart that Sylvia was in love with +Horace Bradford, and at the same time feared for it; but before the poor +girl fell asleep, she was convinced that such was not the case, and that +the trouble that was already rising well up from her horizon was +something far more complicated. + + + + +VIII + +THE SWEATING OF THE CORN + + +_April_ 14. Every one who has led, even in a partial degree, the life +outdoors, must recognize his kinship with the soil. It was the first +recorded fact of race history embodied in the Old Testament allegory of +the creation, and it would seem from the beginning that nations have been +strong or weak, as they acknowledged or sought to suppress it. + +I read a deeper meaning in my garden book as the boys' human calendar +runs parallel with it, and I can see month by month and day by day that +it is truly the touch of Nature that makes kindred of us all--the throb +of the human heart and not the touch of learning or the arts. + +Everything grows restless as spring comes on--animate, and what is called +inanimate, nature. March is the trying month of indecision, the +tug-of-war between winter and spring, pulling us first one way and then +the other, the victory often being, until the final moment, on the side +of winter. Then comes a languid period of inaction, and a swift recovery. +When the world finally throws off frost bondage, sun and the earth call, +while humanity, indoors and out, in city tenement as well as in +farmhouse, hears the voice, even though its words are meaningless, and +grows restless. + +Lavinia Dorman writes that she is feeling tired and low-spirited, the +doctor has advised a tonic, and she misses the change of planting her +back-yard garden. Down in the streets the tenement children are swarming +in the sunny spots, and dancing to the hand-organs. I saw them early last +week when I was in town for a few hours. + +In one of the downtown parks the youngsters were fairly rolling in the +dirt, and rubbing their cheeks on the scanty grass as they furtively +scooped up handfuls of cement-like soil to make mud pies, in spite of the +big policeman, who, I like to think, was sympathetically blind. + +The same impulse stirs my boys, even though they have all outdoors around +them. They have suddenly left their house toys and outdoor games alike to +fairly burrow in the soil. The heap of beach sand and pebbles that was +carted from the shore and left under an old shed for their amusement, has +lost its charm. They go across the road and claw the fresh earth from an +exposed bank, using fingers instead of their little rakes and spades, +and decorate the moist brown "pies" they make with dandelion ornaments. + +A few days ago the Vanderveer boy came down to play with them, +accompanied by an English head nurse of tyrannical mien, and an +assortment of coats and wraps. The poor little chap had been ailing half +the winter, it seems, with indigestion and various aches, until the +doctor told his mother that she must take him to the country and try a +change, as he feared the trouble was chronic appendicitis; so the entire +establishment has arrived to stay until the Newport season, and the boy's +every movement is watched, weighed, and discussed. + +The nurse, having tucked him up in a big chair in the sun on the porch, +with the boys for company, and in charge of father, who was looking at +him with a pitying and critical medical eye, said she would leave him for +half an hour while she went up the lane to see Martha Corkle. A few +moments after, as I glanced across the road, I saw my boys burrowing away +at their dirt bank, and their guest with them. I flew downstairs to call +him in, fearing for the consequences, but father, who was watching the +proceedings from the porch, laid a detaining hand upon me, saying: "His +mother has consulted me about the child, and really sent him down here +that I may look him over, and I am doing it, in my own fashion. I've no +idea the trouble is appendicitis, though it might be driven that way. I +read it as a plain case of suppressed boyhood. + +"He doesn't know how to play, or run naturally without falling; he's +afraid to sit down in the dirt--no wonder with those starched linen +clothes; and he keeps looking about for the nurse, first over one +shoulder and then over the other, like a hunted thing. Evidently they +have weighed his food, measured his exercise, and bought his amusements; +his only free will and vent is to get in a temper. They give him no +chance to sweat off his irritation, only to fume; while that shaking, +snorting teakettle of an automobile they bowl him about in, puts the +final touch to his nervousness." + +Then I sat down by father and watched the three boys together, while +Richard was preventing his guest from pounding a toad with a stone +because it preferred to hop away instead of being made into a dirt pie, +and I saw the truth of what he said. The seven-year-old child who went to +riding school, dancing school, and a military drill, did not know how to +express his emotions in play, and frozen snowballs and other cruelty was +his distorted idea of amusement. Poor rich boy, sad little only son, he +was not allowed the freedom to respond to the voice of nature even as the +tenement children that dance in the streets to the hand-organs or stir +the mud in the gutter with their bare toes. It is not the tenement +children of New York who are to be pitied; it is those that are being +fitted to keep the places, in the unstable and frail crafts of the +Whirlpool, that their parents are either striving to seize or struggling +to reserve for them. + +At the end of half an hour the boys came back to the porch, all three +delightfully and completely dirty, and clamouring that they were hungry. +The English tyrant not appearing, I took them into the house and, after a +washing of hands and faces, gave the boys the usual eleven o'clock lunch +of milk and simple cookies to take out in the sun to eat. As they were +thus engaged the tyrant appeared on the horizon, horror written in every +feature, and a volley of correction evidently taking shape on her lips, +while an ugly look of cowed defiance spread itself over the child's face +as he caught sight of her. + +There was no scene, however. Father said in the most offhand way, as if +being obeyed was a matter of course, "Go back and tell your mistress that +I am carrying out her request, and that after luncheon I will send the +boy safely home, with a written message." + +"But his medicines, his hour's rest alone in the dark, his special +food,--the medical man in New York said--" protested the woman, +completely taken aback. + +"You heard my message?" said father, cheerfully, and that was all. + +"What are you going to advise?" I asked, as in the middle of the +afternoon father came from his office, where he had given the lad a +thorough inspection. + +"Simply to turn him loose in light woollen clothes, give him companions +of his age, and let him alone." + +"Can't you word it differently?" I asked. + +"Why, is not that fairly direct?" he replied, looking surprised; "and +surely the direct method is almost always the best." + +"I think this is the one case where it is not, dear old Daddy. In fact, +if you are destined, as I see that you are, to pick up and tie the +threads of ravelled health in the Bluff Colony, you will have to become +more complicated, at least in speech, accustomed as they are to a series +of specialists, and having importance attached to the very key in which a +sneeze is pitched. + +"Those few words would savour to the Whirlpoolers of lack of proper +respect and consideration. You must give a name to both ailment and cure +if you expect to be obeyed. Call the case a 'serious one of physical +suppression,' and the remedy the 'fresh earth cure,' to be taken only in +light woollen clothes, tell them to report progress to you every other +day, and you gain the boy his liberty." + +Father laughed heartily, and his nose twitched in a curious way it has +when he is secretly amused and convinced against his will; but I think he +took my advice, at least in part, for the next morning Papa Vanderveer +drove down in the brake, announcing in a shout that "De Peyster slept all +night without waking up and crying, for the first time in months," +adding, "And, Dr. Russell, if you've got anything further in this liberty +line to suggest, even to getting rid of the Duchess, now's your time. +'The Duchess?' Ah, she is that confounded head nurse woman that Maria +will keep so that things may be done properly, until the poor kid's +nearly been done for, I say. The Ponsonbys are crazy to get the woman to +break in their youngest girl and keep her down and from growing up until +they marry the others off; so Maria could part with her in the light of a +favour to them, don't you see, without spilling blood. Peysey'll have to +have some sort of a chaser, though, or Maria'll not hear of it." + +Mr. Vanderveer glowed all over with delight when father condemned the +automobile as a nerve racker, and suggested that a young man of the +companionable tutor order, who could either play games, fish, and drive +with the boy and his chums, or at times leave him wholly alone, according +to need, would be a good substitute for a woman who viewed life as a +school of don'ts, and had either wholly outlived her youth, or else had +most unpleasant recollections of it. + +"I've got my innings at last," he said. "You're the first doctor I've had +who hasn't sided with Maria and shut me out until pay day." + +"I wonder why spring is such a restless season," I said half to myself +and half to father, as I sat on the porch half an hour later, trying to +focus my mind on writing to Lavinia Dorman, while father, lounging on the +steps opposite, was busy reading his mail. + +"One would think we might be content merely to throw off winter and look +and enjoy, but no, every one is restless,--birds, fourfoots, and humans. +Lavinia Dorman writes that Sylvia Latham has just started for California +to see her brother, and she expects to bring her father back with her. +The boys disappeared mysteriously in the direction of Martha Corkle's +immediately after breakfast, Evan went reluctantly to the train, +declaring that it seemed impossible to sit still long enough to reach the +city, you are twisting about and shuffling your feet, looking far oftener +at the river woods than at your letters, and as for myself, it seems as +if I must go over yonder and seize Bertel's spade and show him how to dig +those seed beds more rapidly, so that I can begin to plant and kneel down +and get close to the ground. Yesterday when the boys came in with very +earthy faces, and I questioned them, I found that they had stuck their +precious noses in their mud pies, essaying to play mole and burrow +literally." + +"It is the same mystery as the sweating of the corn," replied father, +gathering his letters in a heap and tossing them into a chair with a +gesture of impatience; "none of us may escape, even though we do not +understand it. + +"It was years ago that I first heard the legend from an old farmer of the +corn belt, who, longing for a sight of salt water, had drifted eastward +into one of the little hill farms beyond the charcoal camp. He had been +bedridden nearly all winter, but uncomplainingly, his wife and +daughter-in-law caring for him, and it was not until the early part of +May, when all the world was growing green, that he began to mend and at +the same time groan at his confinement. + +"I tried to cheer him up, telling him that the worst was over, and that +he soon would be about again, and he replied: ''Tain't me that's doin' of +it, Doctor, hit's the sweatin' of the corn. You know everywhere in May +folks be plantin' corn, the time bein' the sign that frost is over and +done with.' I nodded assent, and he continued: 'Now naterally there's +lots of corn in ear and shelled and ground to meal that isn't planted, +and along as when the kernels in the ground begins to swell and sprout, +this other corn knows it and begins to heave and sweat, and if it isn't +handled careful-like, and taken in the air and cooled, it'll take on all +sorts of moulds and musts, and like as not turn useless. I holds it's +just the same with folks,--when springtime comes they fetch up restless +and need the air and turning out to sweeten in the sun until they settle +down again, else their naturs turn sour, pisen'us, and unwholesome, +breedin' worms like sweated corn!' + +"Since then I've heard it here and there in other words, but always the +same motive, the old miller holding it all fact and no legend at all, +saying that if he can keep his surplus corn from sweating and well aired +through May and June, he never fears for it in the damper, more potent +August heat. One thing is certain, that in my practice in countryside, +village, and town, if strange doings break out and restless +discontentment arises, it is never in winter, when I should expect +partial torpidity to breed unrest, but in the pushing season of renewal, +and, as the old man terms it, 'corn sweating.'" + + * * * * * + +A little later I was going toward the garden when father called after me +to say that he was soon starting for a long trip, quite up to Pine Ridge, +and that if I cared to go, taking a lunch for both, it might give me a +chance to "turn and sweeten" in the sun and cure my restlessness with +natural motion. + +Go? Of course my heart leaped at the very thought, because, in spite of +the boys, those long drives with father have grown more precious as they +grow more rare. But where were the twins? They had disappeared under my +very eyes; of a surety they must be at Martha's, but my conscience smote +me when, on glancing at the clock, I saw that it was two hours since they +left the breakfast table in their brand-new sailor suits, with the +intention of showing them to her. + +No, they were not at Martha's, and she came hurrying back with me, a very +clucking hen of alarm. Timothy Saunders, who had by that time brought +round the horses in the stanhope, ventured the opinion that they might be +below, paddling in the duck pond, as all the village children gathered +there at the first warm weather, "jest fer all the world like gnats the +sun's drawd oot." + +They were not there! Father had disappeared to make some preparations +for the drive, and so I asked Timothy to drive with me along the +highway toward the village. I did not feel exactly worried, but then +one never knows. + +We had gone half a mile perhaps, vainly questioning every one, when I +spied two small figures coming across a field from the east, where the +ground fell lower and lower for a mile or so until it reached salt water. + +"There be the lads!" shouted Timothy Saunders, as if I had been a +hundred yards away, and deaf at that; but the noise meant joy, so it was +welcome. "My, but they're fagged and tattered well to boot!" And so they +were; but they struggled along, hand in hand, waving cheerfully when +they caught sight of me, and finally crept through the pasture bars by +which I was waiting, and enveloped me with faint, weary hugs. Then I +noticed that they wore no hats, their fresh suits were grimy with a gray +dust like cement, the knees of their stockings and underwear were worn +completely through to red, scratched skin, and the tips entirely scraped +from their shoes. + +I gathered them into the gig, and sought the explanation as we drove +homeward, Timothy hurried by the vision of tearful Martha, whom he had +seen with the tail of his eye dodge into the kitchen, her apron over her +head, as he turned out the gate. + +"We've been playing we was moles," said Ian, in answer to the first +question as to where they had been. "Yesterday we tried to do it wif +our own noses, but we couldn't, 'cause it hurt, and we wanted to go +ever so far." + +"So we went down to where those big round stone pipes are in the long +hole," said Richard, picking up the story as Ian paused. (Workmen had +been laying large cement sewer pipes from the foot of the Bluffs, a third +of a mile toward the marshes, but were not working that day, owing to +lack of material.) "They made nice mole holes, so I crawled right in, and +for a little it was bully fun." + +"Oh Richard, Richard, what made you?" I cried, holding him so tight that +he squirmed away. "Suppose the other end had been closed, and you had +smothered in there, and mother had never found you?" for the ghastly +possibility made my knees quake. + +"Oh no, mother," he pleaded, taking my face between his grimy hands and +looking straight in my eyes, "it wasn't a dark hole. I could see it light +out 'way at the other end, and it didn't look so vely far as it was to +crawl it. And after a little I'd have liked to back out, only--only, +well, you see, I couldn't." + +"Why not?" I asked, and, as he did not answer, I again saw a vision of +two little forms wedged in the pipes. + +"That _why_ was 'cause _I_ was in behind, and I _wouldn't_ back, and so +Dick couldn't," said Ian. "You see, Barbara, I really, truly had to be a +mole and get very far away, not to stay, only just for fun, you know," he +added, as he saw signs of tears in his brother's eyes, and began to feel +the smarting in his own bruised knees. + +One blessed thing about Ian, even though he is sometimes passionate and +stubborn, and will probably have lots of trouble with himself by and by, +there isn't a drop of sneaky cur blood in him, which is the only trait +that need make a mother tremble. + +What should I do, punish, or act as I longed to, coddle the boys and +comfort the poor knees? True, I had not forbidden them to crawl through +the sewer pipes, because the idea of their doing it had never occurred to +me, so they could not be said to have exactly disobeyed; but, on the +other hand, there was an unwritten law that they must not go off the +place without my permission, and the torn stockings furnished a hint. + +"Mother is going away for all day with grandfather," I said slowly, as I +examined their knees. "Even though I never told you not to do it, if you +had stopped to think, you would have known it was wrong to crawl through +the pipes." + +"But, Barbara," argued Ian, as we reached the porch, "it wasn't us that +crawled, it was moles, and they just digs right ahead and turns up the +ground and flowers and everything, and never thinks things, do they, +grandpop?" + +"Martha will take you in," I said, steadying my voice with difficulty, +"and bathe your knees and let you rest a while before she dresses you +again. Martha, please put away those stockings for me to mend when I +return; I cannot ask Effie to darn such holes for two little moles; she +is only engaged to sew for boys." + +"But, mother, you don't like to sew stockings; it makes you tight in your +chest. I heard you tell father so," objected Richard, while Ian's face +quivered and reddened, and he pounded his fists together, saying to +himself, "Barbara shall _not_ sit in the house and mend moles' +stockings. I won't let her," showing that they were both touched in a +tender spot. + +Father only laughed when they went in, and said: "I'm glad you didn't do +anything more than that to the little chaps, daughter; it's only a bit of +boy life and impulse working in them, after all; their natural way of +cooling the 'sweating of the corn.'" Then we drove away through the lanes +draped with birch tassels and willow wands, while bloodroot and +marshmarigold kept pace in the runnels, and I heard the twitter of the +first barn-swallow of the year. + +As we drove along we talked or were silent without apology and according +to mood; and as father outlined his route to me, I resolved that I would +call upon Horace Bradford's mother, for our way lay in that direction. + +Many things filled father's mind aside from the beauty of the perfect +April day, that held even the proper suggestion of hidden showers behind +the curtain of hazy sunshine. The sweating of the human corn that came +under father's eye was not always to be cured by air and sun, or rather, +those who turned uneasily would not accept the cure. + +The germ of unrest is busy in the village this spring. Not that it is +wholly new, for unrest is wherever people congregate. But this year the +key is altered somewhat. The sight of careless ease, life without +labour, and a constant change of pleasures, that obtain in the Bluff +Colony, is working harm. True, the people can always read of this life in +book and paper, but to come in direct contact is another thing. Father +said the other day that he wished that conservative country places that +had lived respected and respectable lives for years could have the power +to socially quarantine all newcomers before they were allowed to purchase +land and set a pace that lured the young cityward at any cost. I, too, +realize that the striving in certain quarters is no longer for home and +love and happy times, but for something new, even if it is merely for the +sake of change, and that this infection of social unrest is quickly +spreading downward from the Bluffs, touching the surface of our little +community, if not yet troubling its depths. + +The leading merchant's daughter, Cora Blackburn, fresh from a college +course that was a strain upon the family means, finds that she has built +a wall four years wide between herself and her family; henceforth life +here is a vacuum,--she is misunderstood, and is advertising for an +opportunity to go to New York and the independence of a dreary back third +or fourth story hall bedroom. But, as she said the other day, putting on +what Evan calls her "capability-for-better-things" air, "One's scope is +so limited here, and one never can tell whom one may meet in New York," +which is, of course, perfectly true. + +It was only last night that father returned from the hospital, distressed +and perplexed, and called me into the office. A young woman of +twenty-two, that I know very well, of a plain middle-class family over in +town, had, it seems, sent her name for admission to the training-school +for nurses. Father, in his friendly way, stopped at the house on his way +home to talk with her about the matter, and found from a little sister, +who was washing dishes, that the mother of the family was ill and being +cared for by a neighbour. Presently, down tripped the candidate for +nursing, well dressed, well shod, and with pink, polished finger nails. + +Father, wondering why she did not care for her mother, asked his usual +questions: "What leads you to wish to take up nursing? Are you interested +in medicine, and fond of caring for the sick? For you should be, to enter +such an exacting life." She seemed to misunderstand him altogether and +take his inquiry for prying. She coloured, bit her lip, then lost her +head and blurted out: "Interested in the sick! Of course not. Who could +be, for they are always so aggravating. I don't mean to stay so very long +at it, but it's a good chance to go into some swell family, and maybe +marry and get into society." + +[Illustration: His Mother] + +Poor father was fairly in a rage at the girl's idea of what he deems a +sacred calling, and it was not until Richard had kissed him from the end +of his nose up over his short thick gray hair, and down again to the +tickle place in his neck, that he calmed down. Unless my instinct fails +me, he will have his social experience considerably widened during the +coming season, even if his trustful nature is not strengthened. + +Father had made three calls, and we had eaten our luncheon by the +wayside, unhooking the horses, and baiting them by a low bridge rail that +sloped into the bushes, where they could eat and drink at leisure, before +we reached Pine Ridge. Once there, he dropped me at the Bradford farm, +while he drove westward, along the Ridge, to a consultation with the +local doctor over a complicated broken leg that would not knit. + +As I closed the neat white picket gate behind me, and walked slowly +toward the porch, a blaze of yellow on the south side of the red brick +house drew my attention. It was the Forsythia, the great bush of "yellow +bells," of which Horace Bradford had spoken as blooming in advance of any +in the neighbourhood, and for a moment I felt as if I were walking into +the pages of a story-book. + +I wielded the heavy brass knocker on the half-door, with diamond-paned +glass top, and paused to look off to where the flower and fruit garden +sloped south and west. Presently, as no one answered the knock, I peered +through the glass, into an open square, that was evidently both hall and +sitting room. In one corner was a chimney place, in which a log burned +lazily, opposite a broad, low window, its shelves filled with flower +pots, near which, in a harp-backed chair, an old lady sat sewing. She +wore a simple black gown, with a small shawl thrown across her shoulders, +and her hair, clear steel colour and white, was held in a loose knot by +an old-fashioned shell comb. In spite of the droop and lines of age (for +Horace Bradford's mother must have been quite seventy), the nose had a +fine, strong Roman curve, and the brow a thoughtful width. + +What was she thinking of as she sat there alone, this bright April +afternoon, shaping a garment, with a smile hovering about her lips? Her +son's promotion and bright prospects, perhaps. + +I looked across at the old mahogany chest of drawers behind her, to see +if I could recognize any of the framed photographs that stood there. +One, evidently copied from a daguerrotype, was of a curly-haired girl, +about fourteen, probably the daughter who died years ago, and another, +close at her elbow, was of a lanky boy of eight or ten, wearing a broad +straw hat, and grasping a fishing pole, probably Horace, as a child, but +there was nowhere to be seen the photograph of him in cap, gown, and hood +that stood on Miss Lavinia's chimney shelf. + +Then as Mrs. Bradford folded her hands over her work, and gazed through +the plants and window, at some far-away thought, I felt like a detective, +spying upon her, and hastily knocked again. + +This time she heard at once, and coming quickly to the door, admitted +me, with a cordial smile and a hearty grasp of the hand that reminded +me of her son, and was totally unlike the clammy and noncommittal touch +of so many of the country folk, bred evidently of their general habit +of caution. + +"You are Mrs. Evan, the Doctor's daughter. I know your father well, +though I have never met you face to face since you were a little girl." + +Then the conversation drifted easily along to Miss Lavinia, and my +meeting with Horace, his professorship, the prospect of his being at home +all summer, and to the different changes in the community, especially +that wrought by the colony at the Bluffs, which were really the halfway +mark between Oaklands and Pine Ridge. + +Mrs. Bradford saw the purely commercial and cheerful side of the matter; +as yet, few of the new places were well equipped with gardens,--it had +opened a good market for the farmers on the Ridge, and they were no +longer obliged to take their eggs, fruit, poultry, and butter into town. + +In spite of a certain reticence, she was eager to know the names of all +the newcomers; but when I mentioned Mrs. Latham, saying that she was the +mother of Sylvia, one of her son's pupils, and described the beauty of +their place, I thought that she gave a little start, and that I heard her +speak the initials S. L. under her breath; but when I looked up, I could +detect nothing but a slight quiver of the eyelids. + +Then we went out into the garden, arm in arm, for Mrs. Bradford's footing +seemed insecure upon the cobbled walk, and she turned to me at once as +naturally as if I were a neighbour's daughter. Together we grew +enthusiastic over the tufts of white violets, early hyacinths, and +narcissi, or equally so over the mere buds of things. For it is the +rotary promise that is the inspiration of a garden; it is this that +lures us on from year to year, and softens the sharp punctuation of +birthdays. + +Was there anything in her garden that I had not? She would be so pleased +to exchange plants with me, and had I any of the new cactus Dahlias, and +so on, until we reached the walk's end, and turned about under a veteran +cherry tree that showered us with its almond-scented petals. + +Then Mrs. Bradford relaxed completely, and pulling down a branch, buried +her face in the blossoms, drawing long breaths. + +"I've kept away from the garden all day," she said, "because I had some +sewing to finish, so those unfortunate Hornblower children might begin +the spring term at school to-morrow; and when I once smell the cherry +flowers, my very bones ache to be out doors, and I'm not good for a thing +but to potter about the garden from now on, until the strawberries show +red, and everything settles down for summer. It's always been the same, +since I was a little girl, and used to watch the cherry blooms up through +the top sash of the schoolhouse windows, when they had screened the lower +part to keep us from idling, and it's lasted all through my married life. +The Squire and I always went on a May picnic by ourselves, until the +year he died, though the neighbours all reckoned us feeble-minded." + +The "Sweating of the Corn," I almost said aloud. + +"I've reasoned with myself every spring all through the between years, +until now I've made up my mind it's something that's meant to be, and I'm +going to give in to it. Sit down here under the trees, my dear, and +Esther Nichols will bring us some tea and fresh cider cake. Yes, I see +that you look surprised to have afternoon tea offered on Pine Ridge, but +I got the habit from the English grandmother that reared me, and I've +always counted it a better hospitality than the customary home-made +cordials and syrups that, between ourselves, make one stomach-sick. Yes, +there comes Esther now; she always knows my wants. She and her husband +are distant cousins of the Bradfords, and my helpers indoors and out, for +I am too old to manage farm hands, especially now that they are mostly +Slavs, and it makes Horace feel happier to have kinsfolk here than if I +trusted to transient service." + +So we sipped the well-made breakfast tea beneath the cherry blossoms as I +told her about my boys and Miss Lavinia's expected visit. When father +called for me I left reluctantly, feeling as if nobody need be without a +family, when one becomes necessary, for in addition to an aunt in Lavinia +Dorman I had found a sort of spirit grandmother there in the remote and +peaceful highlands,--a woman at once simple and restful, yet withal +having no narrowness or crudity to cramp or jar. + +It was nearly five o'clock when we turned into the highway west of the +Bluffs. We had gone but a few rods when a great clanking of chains and +jar of wheels sounded behind. As I stretched out to see what was coming, +a horn sounded merrily. + +"A coaching party," said father. "I will turn out of the road, for there +is a treacherous pitch on the other side, and for me to let them topple +into the ditch might be profitable, but hardly professional." + +We had barely turned into low bushes when the stage came alongside. The +horses dropped back to a walk, as they passed, for it was a decided up +grade for thirty yards, so that we had a good chance to view both +equipage and occupants. To my surprise I saw that the coach was the +Jenks-Smith's. I did not know they had returned from the trip abroad +where they had been making their annual visit to repair the finances of +their son-in-law. + +Monty Bell was driving, with Mrs. Jenks-Smith at his side. The robust +Lady of the Bluffs, evidently having some difficulty in keeping her +balance, was clutching the side bar desperately. She was dressed in +bright-figured hues from top to toe, her filmy hat had lurched over one +eye, and all together she looked like a Chinese lantern, or a balloon +inflated for its rise but entangled in its moorings. + +Jenks-Smith sat behind, with Mrs. Latham and a very pretty young girl as +seatmates, while behind them came a giggling bevy of young people and the +grooms,--Sylvia being of course absent. + +Mrs. Latham was clad in pale violet embroidered with iris in deeper +tones, her wide hat was irreproachably poised, her veil draped +gracefully, her white parasol, also embroidered with iris, held at as +becoming an angle, and her corsage violets as fresh as if she was but +starting out, while in fact the party must have driven up from New York +since morning. + +They did not even glance at the gray horses which had been drawn aside to +give them right of way, much less acknowledge the courtesy, but clanked +by in a cloud of misty April dust. + +"What a contrast between his mother and hers," I said unconsciously, +half aloud. + +"Which? Whose? I did not quite catch the connection of that remark," +said father, turning toward me with his quizzical expression, for a +standing joke of both father and Evan was to thus trip me up when I +uttered fragmentary sentences, as was frequently the case, taking it for +granted, they said, that they either dreamed the connection or could +read my thoughts. + +"I meant what a great contrast there is between Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. +Latham," I explained, at once realizing that there was really no sense in +the comparison outside of my own irrepressibly romantic imagination, even +before father said:-- + +"And why, pray, should they not be different? Under the circumstances +it would be very strange if they were not. And where does the _his_ and +_her_ come in? Barbara, child, I think you are 'dreaming pussy +willows,' as you used to say you did in springtime, when you were a +very little girl." + + * * * * * + +The boys were having their supper in the hall when I arrived home, for, +warm as the days are, it grows cool toward night until we are past +middle May. + +The scraped knees were still knobby with bandages, but the lads were in +good spirits, and seemed to have some secret with Martha that involved a +deal of whispering and some chuckling. After the traces of bread and +butter were all wiped away, they came hobbling up (for the poor knees +were sadly stiff and lame), and wedged themselves, one on each side of +me, in the window seat of the den, where I was watching for the smoke of +Evan's train, my signal for going down the road. Ah, how I always miss +the sight of the curling smoke and the little confidential walk in the +dark winter days! + +There was some mystery afoot, I could see, for Martha hovered about the +fireplace, asking if a few sticks wouldn't temper the night air, to which +I readily assented, yet still she did not go, and the boys kept the hands +close against their blouse fronts. + +Suddenly Ian threw his arms about my neck and bent my head close to his, +saying, in his abrupt voice of command, "Barbara must not stay indoors +tomorrow and be sad and mend the moles' stockings." + +"Yes, Barbara must," I answered firmly, feeling, yet much dreading, the +necessity of the coming collision. + +"No, she can't," said Ian, trying to look stern, but breaking into little +twinkling smiles at the mouth corners. "She can't, because the moles' +stockings haven't any more got holes!" and he pulled something from his +blouse and spread it in my lap, Richard doing likewise. + +There were two stockings mended, fearfully and wonderfully, to be sure, +and quite unwearable, but still legally mended. + +"I don't understand," I said, while the boys, seeing my puzzled +expression, clapped their hands and hopped painfully about as well as +they were able. + +Then Martha Corkle emerged from the background and explained: "The boys +they felt most terrible in their minds, Mrs. Evan, soon after you'd went +(their sore knees, I think, also keepin' them in sight of their doings), +and they begged me, Mrs. Evan, wouldn't I mend the stockings, which I +would most cheerfully, only takin' the same as not to be your idea, mum. +So I says, says I, somebody havin' to be punished, your ma's goin' to do +it to take the punishment herself, that is, in lest you do it your own +selves instead. So, says I, I'll mend one stocking of each if you do the +other, Mrs. Evan, and no disrespect intended. + +"I borried Effie's embroidery rings and set the two holes for them and +run them in one way, leavin' them the fillin' to do, which they have, +sittin' the whole afternoon at it most perseverin'." + +"Richard did his one stitch, but I did mine four stitch; it ate up the +hole quicker, and it's more different," quoth Ian, waving his stocking, +into the knee of which he had managed to introduce a sort of +kindergarten weaving pattern. + +"But mine looks more like Martha's, doesn't it, mother?" pleaded patient +Richard, who, though the threads were drawn and gathered, had kept to the +regular one up and one down throughout. + +Then the signal of the smoke arose against the opal of the twilight sky, +and we went out hand in hand, all three happy, to meet our breadwinner. + +Late that night, when all the household slept, I added a little package +to my treasures in the attic desk,--two long stockings with queer darned +knees,--and upon the paper band that bound them is written a date and +"The Sweating of the Corn." + + + + +IX + +A WAYSIDE COMEDY + + +_May 5th_. Madame Etiquette has entered this peaceful village. Not, +however, as the court lady of the old French regime, but travelling in +the wake of the Whirlpoolers under dubious aliases, being sometimes +called Good Form and at other The Correct Thing. At present she is having +a hand-to-hand encounter with New England Prejudice, a once stalwart old +lady of firm will, but now considerably weakened by age and the incessant +arguing of her great-grandchildren. + +The result of the conflict is quite uncertain, for actually even the +Sunday question hangs in the balance; while the spectacle is most amusing +to the outsider and embarrassing to the referees. + +Father, seeing through medical eyes, regards the matter merely in the +light of a mild epidemic. Evan is rather sarcastic; he much preferred +garden quiet and smoking his evening pipe to the tune of soothing +conversation concerning the rural days' doings, to the reflex anxiety of +settling social problems. In these, lo and behold, I find myself +unwillingly involved, for one New England habit has not been +abandoned--that of consulting the wife of minister and doctor, even if +holes are afterward picked in the result, and in this case a daughter +stands in the wife's place. + +The beginning was two years back, when the Bluff colony began to be an, +object of speculation, followed in turn by censure, envy, and finally +aspiration that has developed this spring into an outbreak of emulation. + +Ever since I can remember, social life has moved along quite smoothly +hereabout, the doings being regulated by the age and purses of the +participants. The householders who went to the city for a few winter +months were a little more precise in their entertaining than the born and +bred country folk. As they commonly dined at night, they asked people to +dinner rather than to supper, which is the country meal of state. But +lawn parties, picnics, and clambakes at the shore were pretty much on the +same scale, those who could afford it having music and employing a +caterer, while those who could not made no secret of the cause, and felt +neither jealous nor humiliated. A wagon load of neighbourly young people +might go on a day's excursion uncriticised, without thought of dragging a +mother or aunt in their wake as chaperon. In fact, though no one is more +particular than father in matters of real propriety, I cannot remember +being formally chaperoned in my life or of suffering a shadow of +annoyance for the lack. + +Weddings were always home affairs among the strictly country folk, by +common consent and custom, no matter to what denomination the people +belonged. Those with contracted houses went quietly to parsonage or +rectory with a few near friends; others were married at the bride's home, +the ceremony followed by more or less merrymaking. A church wedding was +regarded as so great a strain upon the families that the young people had +no right to ask it, even if they so desired. + +That has passed, at least for the time being, and all eyes are fixed upon +the movements of the Bluff people, and many feet are stumbling along in +their supposed footsteps. It would be really funny if it were not half +pitiful. The dear simple folk are so terribly in earnest that they do not +see that they are losing their own individuality and gaining nothing to +replace it. + +The Whirlpoolers, though only here for the between seasons, are +constantly entertaining among themselves, and hardly a day passes but a +coaching party drives up from town with week-end golfers for whom a dance +is given, or stops _en route_ to the Berkshires or some farther point. A +few outsiders are sometimes asked to the more general of these +festivities, friends of city friends who have places hereabout, the +clergy and their wives, and, alas, the Doctor's daughter; but +society-colonies do not intend associating with the-natives except purely +for their own convenience, and when they do, pay no heed to the code they +enforce among themselves. + +It is not harsh judgment in me, I feel sure, when I say that Evan would +not be asked so often to the Bluffs to dinner if he were not a well-known +landscape architect whose advice has a commercial value. They always +manage to obtain enough of it in the guise of after-dinner conversation +and the discussion of garden plans to make him more than earn his fare. +For the Whirlpoolers are very thrifty, the richer the more so, especially +those of Dutch trading blood, and they are not above stopping father on +the road, engaging in easy converse, praising the boys, and then asking +his opinion about a supposititious case, rather than send for him in the +regular way and pay his modest fee. + +In fact, Mrs. Ponsonby asked me to a luncheon last autumn, and it +quickly transpired afterward, that she had an open trap for sale suitable +for one horse; she knew that Evan was looking for such a vehicle for me, +and suggested that I might like this one. + +A bulky and curious correspondence grew up around the transaction, and +the letters are now lying in my desk marked "Mrs. Ponsonby, and the road +cart." Finally I took the vehicle out on a trial trip. I noticed that it +had a peculiar gait, and stopping at the blacksmith's, called him to +examine the running gear. He gave one look and burst into a guffaw: "Land +alive, Mrs. Evan, that's Missis Ponsonby's cart, that stood so long in +the city stable, with the wheels on, that they're off the circle and no +good. I told her she'd have to get new ones; but her coachman allowed +she'd sell it to some Jay. You ain't bought it, hev yer?" + +Good-natured Mrs. Jenks-Smith, the pioneer of the Bluffs, was the +first one to throw open her grounds, when completed, for an afternoon +and evening reception, with all the accompaniments of music, electric +lit fountains, and unlimited refreshments. Everybody went, and +satisfaction reigned for the time; but when another season it was +found that she had no intention of returning calls, great +disappointment was felt. Others in turn exhibited their grounds for +the benefit of the different churches, while the Ponsonbys gave a lawn +party for the orphan asylum, and considering that they had done their +duty, straightway forgot the village. + +The village did not forget; it had observed and has begun to put in +practice. The first symptom was noticed by Evan. Last summer several +family horses of respectable mien and Roman noses appeared with their +tails banged. Not docked, mind you, but squared-off as closely as might +be without resorting to cruelty; while their venerable heads, +accustomed to turn freely and look their drivers in the face +reproachfully if kept standing too long, were held in place by overdraw +checks. At the same time the driver's seat in the buggy or runabout was +raised from beneath so as to tilt the occupant forward into an almost +standing posture. This worked well enough in an open wagon, but in a +buggy the view was apt to be cut off by the hood, if the driving lady +(it was always a woman) was tall. + +The second sign was when Mrs. Barton--a widow of some sixty odd years, +with some pretensions to breeding, but who had been virtually driven from +several villages where she had located since her widowhood, owing to +inaccuracy of speech, beside which the words of the Village Liar and the +Emporium were quite harmless--contracted inflammatory rheumatism by +chaperoning her daughters' shore party and first wetting her lower half +in clamming and then the upper _via_ a thunder shower. The five "Barton +girls" range from twenty-five to forty, and are so mentally and +physically unattractive and maladroit that it would be impossible to +regard them as in any danger if they went unattended to the uttermost +parts of the earth. On this particular occasion the party consisted of +two dozen people, ranging from twenty to fifty, which it would seem +afforded ample protection. + +To be chaperoned was the swell thing, however, and chaperoned the "Barton +girls" would be. + +"I cannot compete with multi-millionnaires," said Mrs. Barton, lowering +her voice, when father, on being called in, asked if she had not been +rather rash at her age to go wading in cold water for clams; "but as a +woman of the world I must do all that I can to follow the customs of good +society, and give my daughters protection from even a breath that might +affect their reputations." + +The drawling tone was such a good imitation of Mrs. Ponsonby's that +father could barely control his laughter, especially as she continued: "I +also feel that I owe it to the neighbourhood to do all in my power to +put a stop to buggy riding, the vulgar recreation of the unmarried. Of +course all cannot afford suitable traps and grooms to attend them, but +good form should be maintained at all hazards, and mothers should not +begrudge taking trouble." + +Father said that the vision of shy young folks driving miserably along +the country lanes on Sunday afternoons in the family carryall, with mamma +seated in the middle of the back seat, rose so ludicrously before him +that he was obliged to beat a retreat, promising to send a special remedy +for the rheumatism by Timothy Saunders. + +All winter I have noticed that great local interest has been taken in the +fashion journals that treat of house decoration and etiquette, and on one +occasion, when making a call at one of our most comfortable farms, I +found the worthy Deacon's wife poring over an ornamental volume, entitled +"Hints to those about to enter Society." + +After she had welcomed me and asked me to "lay off" my things, she +hesitated a moment, and then, opening the book where her fat finger was +keeping the place, she laid it on my lap, saying in a whisper: "Would you +tell me if that is true, Mrs. Evan? Lurella says you hobnob some with the +Bluff folks, and I wanted to make sure before we break it to pa." + +The sentence to which she pointed read, "No gentleman will ever come +to the table without a collar, or be seen on porch or street in his +shirt sleeves." Here, indeed, was a difficulty and a difference. How +should I explain? + +I compromised feebly and advised her not to worry the Deacon about what +the Bluff people did or the book said, for it need not apply to the Cross +Roads farmers. + +"I'm reel glad you don't hold it necessary fer pa," she said with a sigh +of relief; "he'd take it so hard, eatin' gettin' him all het up anyhow. +Now between ourselves, Mrs. Evan, don't you think writ out manners is +terrible confusin' and contradictin'? I wouldn't hev Lurella hear me say +so, she's so set on keepin' up with things, but she's over to town this +afternoon. + +"I've been readin' for myself some, and observin' too. The Bluff folks +that plays grass hockey, all over what was Bijah Woods's farm, men and +girls both, has their sleeves pushed up as if they were going at a day's +wash, and their collars open and hanging to the hind button, which to my +mind looks shiftlesser than doin' without. I do hear also that those same +girls when they git in to dinner takes off their waists altogether and +sets down to eat all stripped off to a scrap of an underbody. That's +true, for pa saw it when he was takin' cream over to Ponsonby's; the +windows was open on the piazza, and he couldn't refrain from peekin', +though I hope you'll not repeat. Of course they may feel dreadful sweaty +after chasin' round in the sun all day, though I wouldn't hold such +sudden coolin' wholesome; but why if women so doin' should they insist on +men folks wearin' collars, say I?" + +I told the dear soul that I had never quite been able to understand the +_reason why_ of many of these things, and that my ways were also quite +different from those of the Bluff people; for though father and Evan had +been brought up to wear collars, I had never yet stripped to my underbody +at dinner time. + +Thus emboldened, she beckoned me mysteriously toward the best parlour, +saying as she went, "Lurella seen the picture of a Turkey room in the +pattern book, and as she's goin' to have a social this spring, she's +fixed a corner of it into our north room." + +When the light was let in I beheld a "cosey corner" composed of a very +hard divan covered with a broche shawl, and piled high with pillows of +various hues, while a bamboo fishing-pole fastened crosswise between the +top of the window frames held a sort of beaded string drapery that hung +to the floor in front, and was gathered to the ceiling, in the corner, +with a red rosette. On close examination I found, to my surprise, that +the trailers were made of strings of "Job's Tears," the seed of a sort of +ornamental maize, the thought of the labour that the thing had involved +fairly making my eyes ache. + +"That is a very pretty shawl," I remarked, as no other truthful word of +commendation seemed possible. + +"Yes, it is handsome, and I miss it dreadful. You see, it belonged to +pa's mother, and I calkerlated to wear it a lifetime for winter best, but +the fashion papers do say shawls are out of it, and this is the only use +for them, which Lurella holds. I can't ever take the same comfert in a +bindin' sack, noway; and pa, he's that riled about the shawl bein' used +to set on, I daren't leave the door open. Says the whole thing's a 'poke +hole,' and the curt'in recollects him of 'strings of spinnin' +caterpillars,' and 'no beau that's worth his shoes won't ever get caught +in no such trap,' which is most tryin' to Lurella, so I hev to act +pleased, and smooth things over best I can." + +Well-a-day, it is always easier to answer the riddles that puzzle others, +rather than those that confront ourselves. + +Fully a year ago Mrs. Jenks-Smith gave me a well-meaning hint that it is +not "good form" for me to allow father or Evan to smoke while we drive +or walk in public together. The very next night we three happened to be +dining, why I don't know, at the most socially advanced house on the +Bluffs. When the moment came for the midway pause in the rotation of +foods, that we might tamp down and make secure what we had already eaten +by the aid of Roman punch, the gentlemen very nearly discounted the +effort, as far as I was concerned at least, by smoking cigarettes, +leaning easily back in their chairs, and with no more than a vague "by +your leave," to the ladies. What was more, there was a peculiarly +sickening sweet odour to the smoke that father afterward told me was +because the tobacco was tinctured with opium. Yet it is "bad form" for +Evan and father to smoke in my society, out in the road or street under +the big generous roof of the sky. Dear little boys, I wonder what the +custom will be when you are grown, and read your mother's social +experience book? + + * * * * * + +The present crisis to be faced is in the form of a wedding,--an +apple-blossom wedding, to take place in St. Peter's Church. I have +been made a confident in the matter from the very beginning of the +wayside comedy which led to it; but I wish it understood that I am +not responsible for the list of invited guests, or the details of +the ceremony, which have been laboriously compiled from many +sources, any more than I shall be for the heartburnings that are +sure to follow in its wake. + + * * * * * + +One morning early last summer Fannie Penney was driving home from town, +with a rather lopsided load of groceries on the back of the buckboard. +Fanny did not enjoy these weekly trips for groceries, but she did not +rebel, as her sisters did; and though she had aspirations, they had not +developed as quickly in her as in the others, for she was considered +already an old maid (a state that in the country, strangely enough, sets +in long before it does in the city, often beginning quite at noonday) at +the time the Bluff colony began to attract attention. + +The Penney family live in a plain but substantial house on the main road, +a little way north of the village, where Mr. Penney combines farming, a +blacksmith's shop, and a small line of groceries, for the benefit of his +family. Up to the present time this family has jogged along at a fairly +comfortable pace, only one daughter, the youngest, Mollie, having so far +escaped from the traditional female employments of the region as to spend +a season in New York, supplementing the grammar school education by a +course in elocution, with Delsarte accompaniments. When she returned she +gave her old friends to understand that she was thoroughly misunderstood +by her family; also, that she was now to be called Marie and preferably +Miss, hinted that she was soon going on a professional tour, and +condescendingly agreed to give a free recital at a Sunday-school +entertainment. At this she startled the community by reciting the +sleep-walking scene from Lady Macbeth, clad in a lace-trimmed Empire +nightgown, red slippers with high heels, whitened face, wild hair, and, +of course, the candlestick, with such terrible effect that the mothers of +the infant class had difficulty in getting their progeny to stay in bed +in the dark for some weeks to come. The pastor considered that, under the +circumstances, she gave the words "out damned spot" undue emphasis, while +the "Watch-out Committee" of the S. C. E. failed entirely to agree as to +what gave the nightgown a decided pink tint, opinions greatly varying. +Some insisted that it was flesh, while the pastor's wife, knowing the +flavour of persecution, firmly insisted that it was merely a pink cambric +slip, as was most right and proper. But her charity was immediately +discounted by Mrs. Barton, who said that likely it was pink lining, for +Marie's flesh was yellow, and not pink. + +However, this event was soon forgotten in the greater interest that +gathered about Fannie Penney's return ride from town. + +It seems that soon after Fannie left the town limits and was jogging +along the turnpike, the big roan horse of all work began to stumble, then +grew lame forward, and finally came to a standstill. + +Fannie got out, examined his feet, soon found that not only had he cast a +shoe, but in doing so had managed to step on a nail and drive it into his +frog. With the good judgment of a farrier's daughter, she promptly +unharnessed him. Looking about and seeing cows grazing in a neighbouring +pasture, she led him slowly to the side of the road, let down the bars +and turned him loose, where he immediately showed his appreciation of the +situation by lying down and nibbling at the grass within reach. + +So far so good, but when Fannie began to consider the possibility of +walking home, with the chance of being picked up on the road by some one, +and getting her father to come and remove the nail, the load of groceries +loomed up before her. Not only did they represent considerable money +value, country reckoning, and there was no house within half a mile +either way, but some of the articles, such as lard, were in danger of +being ruined by the hot sun; so Fannie walked along the road, searching +the dust for the lost shoe, seeing no way out of her dilemma unless some +one should come by. + +She did not find the shoe, but soon a cloud of dust from the town side +told of an approaching team, and she went to the shade of the only +near-by tree and waited. + +A moment later, the team coming up proved to be a freshly painted +runabout, drawn by a fine bay horse in trim harness, driven by the +average stable boy; while beside him sat a smooth-faced, keen-eyed man, +rather under middle age, dressed in a spotless light suit, tan shoes, +lilac shirt, opalesque tie, finished above by a Panama hat pinched into +many dimples. + +He was evidently a man of quick action, for he saw the girl and horseless +wagon at a glance, touched the reins, stopped the horse, and jumped out +before Fannie could think, taking off his hat and saying:-- + +"Lady in distress, runaway horse, lucky not to have upset load--can I be +of any use?" all in one breath. + +Fannie had never read Dickens, so that no comparison with the speech of +Alfred Jingle arose to make her distrustful, which was unnecessary, and +the bowing figure appeared to her the perfection of up-to-date manly +elegance. Could it--yes, it must be a guest on the way to the Bluffs. + +She blushingly explained the complication, feeling almost ashamed to +mention her fears as to the melting lard, it seemed so insignificant in +such a presence; but he quickly reassured her by going to the wagon, +pulling it energetically under the tree, and spreading the linen lap-robe +over the goods, the effort causing streams of perspiration to alter the +stately appearance of a three-inch high collar. Next he sprang over the +fence into the field, found that the nail was too firmly wedged to be +drawn from the horse's hoof with either fingers or a wagon wrench, and +returned to the road again. + +"Now, may I ask where you live?" he said, dusting himself off with +vigorous flips of a large Yale blue silk handkerchief. + +Fannie told him, and her name, also, and ventured to ask that, if he was +going through Oaklands, he would be good enough to tell her uncle, who +kept the livery stable, to send out for her. + +"I guess we can better that," he said, smiling genially. "I'm going to +Oaklands to meet my trunk and stop over a day. I'll leave the boy here +with your goods, drive you in, pick up your father, he returns with this +horse, brings tools, fixes up his own, boy takes rig back to town, your +father drives goods home, see?" + +Fannie saw that the arrangements were unanswerably suitable; also, that +to carry them out she must take a drive with the unknown, a drive of +necessity to be sure, yet one that she could safely call romantic, +especially as, when he turned to help her into the runabout, he picked up +a horseshoe that lay in the bottom and gave it to her, saying, "It's +yours; I found it half a mile back; I never pass a horseshoe, never can +tell when it'll bring luck." + +Before they had gone very far her dream of his being a guest on his way +to the Bluffs was shattered by his saying: "I've got the advantage of +you--know your name, you don't know mine. That's not fair. 'Aim to be +fair' 's my motto, even if I don't chance to hit it," and he pulled out a +bulky wallet and held it toward her with one hand, that she might help +herself to one of the cards with which it was filled. + +Her hand touched his; she blushed so that her freckles were veiled for +the moment as she read, half aloud: "L. Middleton--with Frank Brothers. +Dealers in first-class canned goods," the New York address being in the +corner. The feeling of disappointment only lasted for a moment, for was +not a travelling man, as the drummer is always called in country towns, +a person of experience and knowledge of the world, as well as being not +infrequently shrouded in mystery? As she pondered on the card, wondering +if she dared put it in her pocket, he said in a matter-of-fact way, +again extending the wallet: "Don't hesitate, take the deck, may come +handy, father like to keep goods in stock some time. That's my regular; +carry a side line too, perfumes and an A1 hair restorer. Got all my +samples at Oaklands depot. You mind stopping there on the way? Want to +get fresh collar." + +No, of course Fannie would not mind; this last request fixed her +companion firmly in her esteem. Any other man of her acquaintance would +have removed his collar and proceeded without one, never giving the +matter a thought; in fact, she had been momentarily expecting that this +would happen. Now she would have the bliss of taking him home in all the +perfection of his toilet as she first beheld him. + +From that moment she grew more conversational, and his utterance became +less jerky, until, when they finally drove up back of the long red brick +railway station at Oaklands, a little before noon, she had not only given +him a synopsis of local history, but was, in her excitement, vainly +trying to recollect what day of the week it was, so that she might judge +of the dinner probabilities at home, also if it would be safe to ask him +to stay. Fortunately remembering that she saw her father beheading +chickens the night before, which guaranteed a substantial meal, she +decided it was an absolute duty. + +As L. Middleton emerged from the baggage room in a fresh collar, even +higher than the other, he threw an ornamental bottle of violet water into +Fannie's lap to keep company with the horseshoe. Immediately Hope arose +at the combination, and Settled under the left folds of Fannie's pink +shirt waist; for Middleton seems a distinguished name to one who has been +called Penney for twenty-eight years, and romance had never died in the +heart under the pink waist for the reason that it was only at this moment +being born. + +On arriving at home, Fate continued to prove kind. Mrs. Penney was +inspired to ask the guest to "stop to dinner," without any hints or +gesticulations being necessary, which might have marred the first +impression. Not only did the chickens appear at the table, where no +canned food was present, but there was a deep cherry pie as well, which +was eaten with peculiar relish by the commercial traveller, accustomed to +the awful fare of New England country hotels, where he was often obliged +to use his own samples to fill gaps. He gazed about at the comfortable +kitchen, and won Mamma Penney by praising the food and saying that he was +raised on a farm. Father Penney took a hasty bite in the buttery, and +soon disappeared to rescue his goods from the highway. He was always +considered something of a drawback to the matrimonial prospects of his +daughters; for, as his nose indicated, he had a firm, not to say +combative, disposition, and frequently insisted upon having not only the +last but the first word upon every subject, so that Fannie regarded his +going in the light of a special providence. + +After dinner the three other Penney sisters all tried their best to be +agreeable, Marie donning a clinging blue gown and walking up and down the +piazza watering plants at this unusual hour of the day for his particular +benefit, a performance which caused L. Middleton to ask, "Say, did you +ever do a vaudeville turn?" And Marie, not knowing whether to take the +remark as a criticism or a compliment, preferred to take the latter view +and answer in languid tones,-- + +"No, but I have acted, and I've been seriously advised to go on +the stage." + +In the middle of the afternoon, the load of groceries having arrived +safely, Fannie's "hero" took his leave, Papa Penney driving him to the +village inn, where he was to unpack his samples. + +For a while L. Middleton was a standard topic of conversation among the +girls. They wondered for what L. stood. Fannie guessed Louis, Marie +spitefully suggested that it might be Lucifer, and that was why he didn't +spell it out. Then as he seemed about fading from the horizon, he +reappeared suddenly one crisp October morning, just starting on his +eastern fall route, he said, and invited Fanny to go to the County Fair. + +Again a period of silence followed. The sisters remarked that most +travelling men were swindlers, etc., but Fannie persistently put violet +water on the handkerchief that she tucked under her pillow every night, +until, as winter set in, the supply failed. + +Then an idea came to her, she took the horseshoe from where it had been +hanging over her door, covered its dinginess with two coats of gold +paint, cut the legend, "Sweet Violets," together with the embossed +flowers, from the label on the perfume bottle, and pasted them on the +horseshoe, which she further ornamented with an enormous ribbon bow, and +despatched it secretly to L. Middleton by express a few days before +Christmas. + +At New Year's a box arrived for Fannie. It contained a gold pin in the +shape of a horseshoe, in addition to a large, heart-shaped candy box +filled with such chocolates that each was as a foretaste of celestial +bliss to Fannie, who now thought she might fairly assume airs of +importance. + +Half a dozen letters went rapidly back and forth, and then the proposal +bounded along as unexpectedly as every other detail of the courtship. +There was very little sentiment of expression about it, but he was in +earnest and gave references as to his respectability, etc., much as if he +were applying for a business position, and ended by asking her at which +end of his route she preferred to live, New York, or Portland, Maine, and +if in New York, would she prefer Brooklyn or Harlem? + +Fannie quickly decided upon Harlem, for, as Marie said, "There one only +need give the street name and number, while very few people yet realize +that Brooklyn really is in New York." + +This important matter settled, the Penney girls arose in their might upon +the wings of ambition. There should be a church wedding. + +Now the Penneys were, as all their forbears had been, Congregationalists; +but that church had no middle aisle, besides, as there was no giving away +of the bride in the service, there was little chance for pomp and +ceremony. It was discovered that the groom's parents had been +Episcopalians, and though he was liberal to the degree of indifference +upon such matters, it was decided that to have the wedding in St. Peter's +would be a delicate compliment to him. + +All the spring the village dressmaker has been at work upon the gowns of +bride and of bridesmaids, of whom there are to be six, and now the cards +are out and the groom's name also, the L at the last moment having been +found to stand for Liberty. If they had consulted the groom, he would +have decried all fuss, for Fannie's chief attraction was that he thought +her an unspoiled, simple-minded country girl. + +The hour was originally set for the morning, but as Fannie saw in her +fashion paper that freckled people often developed a peculiarly charming +complexion when seen by lamplight, the time was changed to eight at +night, in spite of the complications it caused. + +A week before the invitations were issued Fannie came to see me and after +some preamble said: "Mrs. Evan, I want my wedding to be good form, and +I'd like to do the swell thing all through. Now the _Parlour Journal_ +says that the front pews that are divided off by a white ribbon should be +for the bride's folks on one side of the aisle and the groom's on the +other. Mr. Middleton hasn't any people near by enough to come, so I +thought I'd have the Bluff folks sit on that side." + +"The Bluff people?" I queried, in amazement. "You surely aren't going to +invite them? Do you know any of them?" + +"Well, not intimately, but Mrs. Ponsonby has been to the house for eggs, +and Mrs. Latham's horse dropped a shoe last week and father set it, and +the Vanderveer boy's pony ran away into our front yard the other day, so +I don't feel as if they were strangers and to be left out. Oh, Mrs. Evan, +if they'd only come and wear some of their fine clothes to light up the +church, it would be in the papers, the _Bee_ and the _Week's News_ over +town maybe, and give me such a start! For you know I'm to live in New +York, and as I've never left home before, it would be so pleasant to know +somebody there!" + +I almost made up my mind to try to put things before her in their true +light, and save her from disappointment, but then I realized that I was +too near her own age. Ah, if Lavinia Dorman had only been here that day +she could possibly have advised Fannie without giving offence. + + * * * * * + +_May 16th._ The wedding is over. Shall I ever forget it? The rain and +cool weather of the past ten days kept back the apple blossoms, so that +the supply for decorating the church was poor and the blossoms +themselves only half open and water-soaked. Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who always +hears everything, knowing of the dilemma, in the goodness of her heart +sent some baskets of hothouse flowers, but the girls and men who were +decorating did not know how to handle them effectively, for Fannie, still +clinging to sentiment, had gilded nearly a barrel of old horseshoes, +which were tied with white ribbon to every available place, being +especially prominent on the doors of the reserved pews. + +Late in the afternoon a fine mist set in with clouds of fog, which, if it +got into the church, I knew would completely conceal the glimmer of the +oil lamps. It seems that Papa Penney was not told until an hour before +the ceremony that he was to walk up the aisle with the bride on his arm +and give her away. This he flatly refused to do. He considered it enough +of an affliction to have the wedding in church at all, and it was not +until his wife had given her first exhibition of fainting, and Fannie had +cried her eyes red, that he apparently yielded. + +We arrived at the church at about ten minutes to eight, father and Evan +having been persuaded to come in recognition of good neighbourhood +feeling. The back part of the church was well filled, but the space +above the ribbon was painfully empty. The glimmering lamps did little +more than reveal the gloom, and the horseshoes gave a strange +racing-stable effect. + +We tried to spread ourselves out as much as possible to fill up, and +presently the Ponsonby girls entered with some friends, seemingly +astonished at being seated within the barrier, for they had never seen +their cards of invitation, and had come as a sort of lark to kill time on +a wet evening. + +The ushers wandered dismally up and down, stretching their hands +nervously as if unused to gloves. Presently they fell back, and the +organ, in the hands of an amateur performer and an inadequate blower, +began to chirp and hoot merrily, by which we knew the bridal party was +about to appear. + +The ushers came first, divided, and disappeared successfully in the +shadows, on either side of the chancel steps. A long wait and then Marie +Penney followed, walking alone, as maid of honour; she had insisted upon +having plenty of room, as she said so few people walked well that they +spoiled her gait. Next came the six bridesmaids on a gallop, then Papa +Penney and the bride. He walked along at a jog trot, and he looked +furtively about as if for a loophole of escape. As for poor Mrs. Penney, +instead of being seated in the front pew before the procession entered, +she was entirely forgotten in the excitement, and stood trembling near +the door, until some one drew her into a seat in neighbourly sympathy. + +The clergyman stood waiting, the bridesmaids grouped themselves behind +papa, so that there was no retreat, but where was the groom and the best +man? One, two, three minutes passed, but no sign. He had been directed to +the vestry door as the bridal party drove up. Could he suddenly have +changed his mind, and disappeared? + +The silence was awful, the Ponsonby girls giggled aloud, and finally got +into such gales of laughter that I was ashamed. The organ had dropped +into the customary groaning undertone that is meant, I suppose, to give +courage to the nervous and weak-voiced during the responses. + + * * * * * + +Outside the church, in the rear, two men in evening dress might have been +seen blundering about in the dark, vainly trying to find an open door, +for besides the door to the vestry there were three others close +together, one opening into the little chantry, one the Sunday-school +room, and one into the cellar. They battered and pulled and beat to no +purpose, until a mighty pound forced one in, and the two men found +themselves flying down a flight of steps, and landing in a heap of coal. + +Dazed, and not a little bruised, the groom struck a match, and looked +about; the best man had sprained his ankle, and said so in language +unbefitting the location, but Liberty Middleton arose superior to the +coal. Judging by the music that the ceremony had begun, he told his +crippled friend to sit still until he came back for him, and, by lighting +a series of wax matches, found his way back to the front door of the +church, and strode up the aisle dishevelled, and with a smutty forehead, +just as Papa Penney had succeeded in breaking through the bridesmaids, +dragging Fannie with him. A sigh of relief arose. The couple stepped +forward and the ceremony began. When, however, the giving away time came, +it was found that Papa Penney had retreated to a pew, from which he could +not be dislodged. Another hitch was only averted by the groom turning +pleasantly toward his father-in-law, and saying, with a wave of his hand, +"It's all right, don't trouble to move; you said 'I do,' I think; the +Parson understands." The ceremony was ended without further complication. +When Fannie walked out upon the arm of the self-possessed Liberty, I +thought that the travelling man had the makings of a hero in him after +all. It afterward transpired that the hapless best man, left in the coal +cellar, and not missed until the party was halfway home, had only +wrenched his ankle, and made his escape to the village tavern for +consolation, proving that even commercial travellers may be upset by a +fashionable wedding ceremony. + + + + +X + +THE WHIRL BEGINS + + +_May 30_. The People of the Whirlpool have come to the Bluffs, and the +swirl and spray has, in a measure, followed them. I had well-nigh +written, "are settled at the Bluffs," but the Whirlpoolers are perpetual +migrants, unlike the feathered birds of passage never absolutely settling +anywhere even for the nesting season, sometimes even taking to the water +by preference, at the time, of all others, when home is most loved and +cherished by the "comfortably poor." + +The houses, nominally closed since the holidays, have been reopened, one +by one, ever since the general return from the south in April, after +which season, Mrs. Jenks-Smith assures me, it is bad form to be seen in +New York on Sunday. + +This fiat, however, does not prevent members of almost every family from +spending several days a week in the city, thus protecting themselves +against the possible monotony of home living by lunching and dining, +either singly or in informal groups, at the public restaurants. + +Father has always held the theory that ladies should dress +inconspicuously in the public streets and hostelries, and for a woman to +do otherwise, he considered, was to prove that she had no claim upon +gentility. Evan used to go so far as to say that the only people who +display their fine clothes in hotels are those who have no homes in which +to wear them. + +Dear, innocent provincials, the Whirlpoolers have changed all that, and +given the custom their hall mark that stamps it vogue. In fact, in +glancing at the papers, by the light of our Bluff Colony, which, after +all, is but a single current of the pool that whirls in the shape of the +letter S, it seems to me that a new field has been opened for the society +journalist--the reporting of the gowns worn at the restaurants in the +"between seasons." + +One evening, a few weeks ago, Evan and I went, by request, to one of the +most celebrated of these resorts to call upon some friends of his, a +bride and groom, then passing through the city. We were directed where to +find them in the corridor--midway would have been a better term. We found +them, and many others beside! + +"Where do these people come from?" I whispered to Evan, looking down the +row of women of all ages and, if expression may indicate, all grades, +who, dressed and undressed in lavish opulence, were lolling about, much +as if expecting a call to go upon the stage and take part in some +spectacle, but that the clothes and jewels were too magnificent to be +stage properties. + +"Brewers' wives from the west, and unknown quantities; people who come to +New York to see and be seen," he answered carelessly; but almost as he +spoke his words were checked by the entrance of an equally gorgeous +group, composed of those who Lavinia Dorman had assured us were among the +most conservative of our new neighbours, all talking aloud, as if to an +audience, as they literally swept into the dining room, where Mrs. Center +was already seated. To be sure, the clothes, in their cases, were worn +with a difference,--the ease of habit,--but to all outward appearance the +distinction began and ended there. Ah me! to think of having such things +cross the horizon in May, when, unless one is forced to be miserable, one +must be inexpressibly happy. + +I have been working all the month in my garden, as of old, or trying to, +at least, but upon the principle that no member of a community can either +live or die wholly to, or by, himself, I here missed the untrammelled +liberty of yore. Not that I care if I am detected collarless, in a brown +holland apron, with earthy fingers, and sometimes even a smutty nose, but +the Whirlpoolers, unable to regard the work as serious, do not hesitate +to interrupt, if nothing more. + +Imagine the assurance of the twenty-two-year-old Ponsonby girl, who came +dashing up all of a fume last Saturday morning, when I was comfortably +seated on the old tea tray, transplanting a flat of my best ostrich +plume asters, and begging me, her mother being away, to chaperon her to +a ball game, in a town not far off up the railroad, with harmless, +pink-eyed Teddy Tice, one of her brother's college mates. It seems that +if she could have driven up and taken a groom it would have been good +form, but there was some complication about the horses, and to go by +rail unchaperoned, even though surrounded by a earful of people, was not +to be thought of. I pointed to the asters that must be set out and +covered before the sun was high, but she couldn't understand, and went +off in a huff. + +What a disagreeable word chaperon is at best, and what a thankless +vocation the unlisted, active, and very irregular verb 'to chaperon' +implies. I quite agree with Johnson, who denounced the term as affected, +for certainly its application is, though Lavinia Dorman says it is the +natural effect of a definite cause, and that it is quite necessary from +the point of view of the quarter where it most obtains. + +Monday morning I was again interrupted in my garden operations by a +Whirlpooler, but the reason was quite different. The twins have gardens +of their own, which are as individual and distinctive as their two +selves. Richard delights in straight rows, well patted down between, and +treats the small seeds that he plants with a sort of paternal patience. +Ian disdains any seed smaller than a nasturtium or bean, whose growth is +soon apparent, and has collected a motley assortment of bulbs, roots, and +plants, without regard to size or season, and bordered his patch with +onion sets for Corney Delaney's express benefit, the goat having a Gallic +taste for highly flavoured morsels. Both boys are fairly patient with +their own gardening operations, but their joy is to "help" me by handing +tools, watering plants, and squirting insecticides, in my society and +under my direction. + +Of course I could do it all much quicker by myself, and it has hampered +me this spring, for last season they were too irresponsible to more than +play work a few minutes at a time. + +Now I have come to the conclusion that it is their right to learn by +helping me, and that it is the denial of companionship, either from +selfishness or some absurd educational theory, that weakens the force of +home ties later on. + +I have been frequently lectured by those older, but more especially "new +mothers" younger than I, about staying with the boys at bedtime until +they grow drowsy. "The baby is put to bed, and if he cries I pay no +attention; it is only temper, not pain, for he stops the minute I speak +to him," they say. I feel the blood rush to my face and the sting to my +tongue always when I hear this. + +Not pain, not temper, but the unconscious yearning for companionship, for +mother-love, is oftener the motive of the pitiful cry. Why should it be +denied? The mother bird broods her young in the nest at twilight, and the +father bird sings a lullaby to both. The kittens luxuriously sup +themselves to sleep with the warm mother flesh responding to their +seeking paws. In wild life I know not an animal who does not in some way +soothe her young to sleep. Why should the human child, the son of man, be +forced to live without the dream memories that linger about happy +sleeping times? What can the vaunted discipline give to replace them? It +is then, as they grow, and speech forms on their lips, that little +confessions come out and wrongs are naturally righted through +confidence, before they can sprout and grow. + +I was not quite five when I last watched mother sowing her flower seeds, +and yet I remember to this day the way in which she did it, and so when +it came time to give my bed of summer roses its first bath of whale oil, +soap, and water, and the boys gave whoops of joy when they saw Bertel +wheel out the tub and I appeared with the shining brass syringe, I +resolved to let them have the questionable delight of administering the +shower bath, even if it took all day. + +I have appropriated a long strip of rich, deep soil for these tender +roses, quite away from the formal garden and across the path from the new +strawberry bed, which by the necessity of rotation has worked its way +from the vegetable garden to the open spot under the bank wall by the +stable where the hotbeds congregate. This wall breaks the sweep of the +wind, and so both our tender roses and strawberries are of the earliest, +the fruit already being well set and large. + +It was the middle of the morning. The work was progressing finely, +without more than the usual amount of slop and misdirected effort, when a +violent tooting from the direction of the highway caused me to stop, and +Ian dropped the squirter that I had newly filled for his turn, upon the +grass border, while he and Richard scurried toward the gateway to see +what was the matter, for the sound was like the screech of an automobile +horn in distress. It was! + +A streak of dark red and a glitter of brass flashed in between the gate +posts, grazing them, and barely escaping an upset, and then came plunging +toward me. I screamed to the boys, who seemed to me directly in the path +of the _Thing_, which in another moment I recognized as an automobile of +the battering-ram variety, belonging to Harvey Somers, Gwendolen Burton's +fiance, which for the past week had been the terror of father's steady +old gray horses, owing to its constitutional eccentricities. + +Mr. Somers was handling it single-handed, and though he was coming at a +reckless speed, I expected that he would swing back of the house and come +to one of the dramatic sudden stops, on the verge of an accident, for +which he is famous. So he did, but not on the driveway! + +The _Thing_ gave a lurch and veered toward the barn, spitting like a +cageful of tiger cats. Somers was pushing the lever and gripping the +brake with all his athletic might, but to no purpose. The children, who, +wild with excitement, had by this time sought the safety of the open barn +door, seemed a second time to be in the monster's path. + +Another lurch! Surely man and machine would be dashed to bits against +the substantial stable wall! + +Then the _Thing_ changed its course, and showing a ray of flustered +intelligence, made a mighty leap off the bank wall and landed hub deep in +the soft, friable soil of the new strawberry bed, where, after one +convulsive effort, some part of its anatomy blew up with the triple +report of a rapid-fire gun, and after having relieved itself of a cloud +of steam, it settled down peacefully, as if a strawberry bed was the +place of all others it preferred for a noonday nap. + +Harvey Somers was shot with a left-handed twirl directly into one of the +hotbed frames, from which the sash was pushed back, and landed in a +doubled-up position, amid a tearing sound and the crash of broken glass. +Meanwhile, the boys, frightened at the cloud of steam, yelled "Fire!" at +the top of their lungs. + +As I flew to help him, I could for the instant think of nothing but the +Lizard Bill's assisted progress up the chimney and into the cucumber +frame, but as a rather faint voice said, "Not you; kindly call the +Doctor," my mirth changed to alarm, which was not lessened when Timothy +Saunders, hearing the uproar and the cry of fire, arriving too late to +grasp the situation with his slow Scotch brain, and seeing me leaning +over the plant frame, picked up the squirt and deluged the unfortunate +man with whale-oil spray! + +Coughing and choking, Mr. Somers finally sat up, but did not offer to do +more, wiped his eyes, and said to me in most delightful and courteous +tones, "Would you be so good as to allow your man to bring me either a +bath robe or a mackintosh?" + +I was at once relieved, for I knew that the lacerations were of trousers +and not flesh, and at the same time I saw that the crash of glass was +caused merely by the toppling backward of the sash, also that all my +young heliotrope plants that were in the frame where the chauffeur +reposed were hopelessly ruined. + +Timothy brought out Evan's bath gown, and in a few moments Mr. Somers was +himself again, and after surveying the scene of the disaster, he +approached me with a charming bow, and drawing a crumpled note from his +pocket said:-- + +"I promised Bertie Chatterton to give you this invitation for his studio +tea to-morrow, in person, and I fear that I have rather overshot my +promise. Best way to get that brute up will be from the bank wall,--will +damage your fruit less. I will have a derrick sent up to-morrow, or if +possible this afternoon. I'm awfully sorry, Mrs. Evan, but I think you'll +bear me witness that the accident was quite out of my control. May I beg +the favour of a trap home? I'm a trifle shaken up, that's all." And as if +the accident were an everyday affair, he departed without fuss and having +steadied my nerves by his entire self-control. + +As I stood by the gateway pondering upon the matter and the easy manners +of this Whirlpooler, Mrs. Jenks-Smith drove past. She had met Mr. Somers, +and as her curiosity was piqued by his strange attire, she stopped to see +if I could furnish a clew. She says, by the way, that he is not a New +Yorker, but from Boston, and that his father is an English Honourable and +his mother a Frenchwoman. + +A gang of men with a sort of wrecking machine hired from the railroad +company removed the _Thing_ next day, and towed it off, but of course the +strawberries were half ruined; next a man from the florist's in town came +with directions to repair all damage to turf and replace the smashed +plants. Yet that is not all--the sense of peace and protection that I had +when working in my garden has had a shock. In spite of the inhospitable +air it gives the place, I think we must keep the gates closed. + +Why was Jenks-Smith inspired to start a land-boom here and fate allowed +to make fashion smile on it, when we were so uneventfully happy, so +twinfully content? + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright arrived on Wednesday, and is safely ensconced with +Martha and Timothy Saunders, who could give him the couple of plainly +furnished rooms he desired, and breakfast at any hour. For a man of no +hours (which usually means he never breakfasts before nine) to forgather +cheerfully at a commuter's table at 7:15 A.M. is a trial to him, and a +second breakfast is apt to cause a cloud in Madam C.'s domestic horizon. +Therefore, father allowed Martin to do as he suggested, live at the farm +cottage and work here in the library or attic den, as suits his +convenience. In this way he feels quite independent, has motive for +exercise in walking to and fro, and as he is always welcome to dine with +us, can mix his portion of solitude and society in the exact proportion +of his taste, even as his well-shaped fingers carefully blend the tobacco +for his outdoor pipe. + +Dear old fellow, he seems so happy and bubbling over with good temper at +having overstepped the tyranny of habit, that I shall almost expect to +see his gray hairs turn brown again as the wintry pelt of the weasel does +in spring. + +If the Vanderveer boy is diagnosed as a case of "suppressed boyhood," +then Martin Cortright's only ailment should be dubbed "suppressed youth!" + +He was to have come earlier in the month, but a singular circumstance +prevented. The old-time gentlewoman, at whose house in Irving Place he +has had his apartments so long that a change seemed impossible, died, and +he was obliged not only to move, but put his precious belongings in +storage until he can place himself suitably once more. So that his plan +of coming here bridges the break, and seems quite providential. + +He and father walk up and down the garden together after dinner, smoking +and chatting, and it does me good to see dear daddy with one of his +old-time friends. I think I am only now realizing what he, with his +sociable disposition, gave up in all those years before Evan came, that I +should not be alone, and that he might be all in all to me. + +It was quite cool yesterday. We had hearth fires all through the house, +and Martin, rearranging some reference books for his own convenience in +the little room that is an annex to father's library, wore his skull cap +and Chinese silk dressing gown, which gave him an antique air quite at +variance with his clear skin and eyes. + +Lavinia Dorman had been due all the week, but worry with the workmen who +are building in the rear of her house detained her, and she telegraphed +me that she would take the morning express, and asked me to meet her over +in town. So I drove in myself, dropping father at the hospital on the +way, but on reaching the station the train brought me no passenger. + +I returned home, hoping to be in time for our way train, thinking I had +mistaken her message, and missed it; but the postmistress,--for every +strange face is noticed in town,--told me that the lady who visited me +two weeks ago walked up from the ten o'clock train; that she had a new +bonnet and "moved right spry," and asked if she was a relative of mine. +"An aunt, maybe, and was the pleasant new gentleman an uncle, and did he +write a newspaper? She thought maybe he did because he was so particular +about his mail." I said something about their being adopted relations, +and hurried home. + +The boys were industriously digging dandelions on the side lawn. I +inconsistently let the dear, cheery flowers grow and bloom their fill in +the early season, when they lie close to the sward, but when they begin +to stretch awkward, rubbery necks, and gape about as if to see where they +might best shake out their seed puffs, they must be routed. Do it as +thoroughly as possible, enough always remain to repay my cruelty with a +shower of golden coin the next spring. Bertel spends all his spare time +on the other bits of grass, but the side lawn is the boys' plunder, +where, by patiently working each day at grubbing out the roots at +twenty-five cents a hundred, they expect, before the dandelion season is +over, to amass wealth enough to buy an alluring red goat harness trimmed +with bells that is on exhibition at the harness shop in town, for Corney +Delaney. Yes, they said, Aunt Lavinia had just come, but she said they +need not stop, for she could go in by herself. + +There was no one in the hall, sitting room, den, or upstairs, neither had +Effie seen any person enter. Thinking I heard voices in the direction of +father's office, I went there and through to the library "annex," where +an unexpected picture met my gaze. Martin Cortright, the precise, in +stocking feet, skull cap, and dressing gown, perched on top of the +step-ladder, was clutching a book in one hand, within the other he held +Miss Lavinia's slender fingers in greeting, while his face had a curious +expression of surprise, pleasure, and a wild desire to regain his +slippers that were down on the floor, a combination that made him look +extremely foolish as well as "pudgy." + +Up to that moment, Miss Lavinia, who cannot distinguish a face three +feet away without her lorgnette, thought she was speaking to father. +Under cover of our mutual hilarity, I led her back to a seat in the +study, so that Martin might recover his wits, coat, and slippers at the +same time, for Miss Lavinia had stumbled over the latter and sent them +coasting in different directions. + +Yes, the postmistress was right, Lavinia Dorman had a new bonnet. Not the +customary conservative but monotonous upholstered affair of jet and lace, +but a handful of pink roses in a tulle nest, held on by wisps of tulle +instead of ribbons. + +"Hortense, who has made bonnets for years, said this was more appropriate +for the country, and would show dirt less than black,--and even went so +far as to suggest omitting the strings altogether," she said in rather +flurried tones, as a few moments later we went upstairs, and I removed +the pins that held the confection in place, and commented upon its +prettiness. + + * * * * * + +Martin Cortright stayed to dinner, and afterward he, Miss Lavinia, +father, and Evan sat down to a "real old-fashioned," serious game of +whist! Of all things, to the fifth wheel, who is out of it, would not be +in if she could, cannot learn, and prefers jackstraws to card games of +any sort, an evening of serious whist is the most aggravating. They were +too well matched to even enliven matters by squabbling or casting +venomous glances at each other. Evan played with Martin Cortright, whose +system he was absorbed in mastering, and he never spoke a word, and +barely looked up. This, too, when he had been away for several days on a +business trip. It was moonlight, and I wanted him to see the new iris +that were in bloom along the wild walk, dilate upon the game of leap-frog +that the automobile played, and--well--there is a great deal to say when +Evan has been away that cannot be thought of indoors or be spoken +hurriedly in the concise, compact, public terms in which one orders a +meal. Conversation is only in part made of words, its subtilties are +largely composed of touch and silence. + +I myself, being wholly responsible for the present whist combination, of +course could say nothing except to myself and the moon. What a hoard of +personal reminiscences and heart to heart confessions the simpering old +thing must have stored away behind her placid countenance. It is a wonder +that no enterprising journal has syndicated her memoirs by wireless +telegraphy for the exclusive use of their Sunday issue. + +I resolved that I must wait awhile, and then if this silence lasted many +evenings, I must hunt up a game of cards that takes only two. How could I +get out of the room without appearing to be in a huff or bored? Ah! a +wordless excuse; a slight noise upstairs. Ian sometimes walks in his +sleep. I go up and sit in my window and look out through the diamond +panes at the garden. Ian stirs and mutters something about a drink. I +hasten to get it, and he, gripping the glass with his teeth, swallows +eagerly, with a clicking noise in his throat. + +"Is your throat sore?" I ask apprehensively. He opens his eyes, realizes +where he is, nestles his head into my neck and whispers,-- + +"Not zactly lumpy sore, Barbara, just crusty, 'cause I made--lots of +dandelion curls wif my tongue to-day, and they're--velly--sour," and with +a satisfied yawn he rolled back on his pillow, into the funny +spread-eagle attitude peculiar to himself, but Richard slept peacefully +on like a picture child, cheek on hand, and the other little +dandelion-stained paw above the sheet. + +(N.B.--When one's husband and father together take to serious whist of a +moonlight night in spring, twins are not only an advantage but a +necessity.) + +I have searched the encyclopedia for the description of an intellectual +game of cards, arranged as a duet, and found one. It is piquet! Now I +can wait developments peacefully, for are there not also in reserve +chess, checkers, backgammon, and--jackstraws? + + * * * * * + +_June_ 2. A gentle summer shower at sunset after a perfect day has filled +the world with fragrance and song, for do the birds ever sing so +perfectly with such serene full-noted ecstasy as after the rains of May +and June? Or is it the clearness of the air after the rain that transmits +each note in full, prisoning nothing of its value? + +To-night I am unhappy. Perhaps that is an exaggeration, and perplexed is +the better word, and it is only in pages of my social experience book +that the cause can be given. + +Friday was Peysey Vanderveer's eighth birthday, and it has been +celebrated by a party on a scale of magnificence that to my mind would +have been suitable for the only son of royalty. + +Though the invitations fortunately were only given two days in advance, +Richard and Ian were agog over the matter to the extent of muttering in +their sleep, and getting up this morning before eight, in order, if +possible, to make the hour of three come quicker, and to be sure to be +ready in time. + +When the invitation was brought by Mr. Vanderveer in person, he asked if +Lavinia Dorman and I would not like to come up also and see the children +play, adding that I need feel no responsibility about the boys, as he was +going to be at home and give himself up to seeing that the "kids" had a +jolly time, and got into no scrapes. + +We agreed that it would be amusing to go up with the children, stay a +little while to be sure that they could adapt themselves, and then leave; +for if there is anything dampening to the ardour of children at play it +is a group of elders with minds divided between admiration and +correction, punctuating unwise remarks upon beauty and cleverness with +"Maud, you are overheated." "Tommy, don't! Use your handkerchief!" +"Billy, your stocking is coming down!" "Reggie, you must wait, girls +should be helped first." + +The boys certainly looked comfortably and humanly handsome in their white +cheviot sailor suits, loose blue ties, black stockings and pumps. They +really are good-looking children. Lavinia Dorman, who is candour itself, +says so. I suppose people think that my opinion does not count, and that +I should consider them perfect if they were of the human chipmunk +variety. But I am sure I am not prejudiced, for I do _not_ think them +perfect, only well made and promising, thus having the two first +requisites of all young animals. + +When we arrived at the Vanderveers a little late, owing to the fact of +father's having been obliged to use our horse for a hurry call, the party +had "gathered," to use an old-fashioned expression, and I saw that +Richard and Ian were by several years the youngest of the group of thirty +or more, the others ranging from eight to thirteen or fourteen. + +The house and grounds were decorated wherever decoration was possible. +Though it was wholly a daylight affair, Japanese lanterns hung by +festoons of handsome ribbon from verandas, trees, and around the new +pergola, the marble columns of which, in the absence of vines, were wound +with ribbons and roofed with bright flags, to form a tent for the +collation. In an arbour decorated in a like manner, an Hungarian +orchestra in uniform, much in vogue, Miss Lavinia says, for New York +dinner dances, was playing ragtime, while a dozen smart traps and road +carts filled with exquisitely dressed women lining the driveway around +the sunken tennis court, indicated that a matched game was to take place. + +Yes, after every one had exchanged greetings, Miss Lavinia, meeting +several friends who not only treated her with something akin to homage, +but were unfeignedly pleased to see her, the guests divided, a dozen of +the elder girls and boys going toward the tennis court, where Monty Bell +seemed to be acting as general manager. I afterward discovered that two +prizes for doubles and two for singles were to be played for, not pretty +trifles suitable for children, but jewellery, belt buckles of gold and +silver, gold sleeve links, and a loving cup. + +Meanwhile Mr. Vanderveer took charge of the younger group and led them +through the garden to where some young spruce trees hid the wall. Here a +surprise awaited them in the shape of two of the largest of the growing +trees festooned with ribbons and laden with strange fruit in the shape of +coloured toy balloons that bobbed about and tugged at their moorings as +if anxious to escape. + +On each balloon a number was painted in white. A wide ribbon was +stretched barrierwise across the walk about fifteen feet from the trees, +and near it were several large baskets, one full of bows and dart-pointed +arrows, and the other heaped with expensive toys and bonbon boxes of +painted satin, for prizes, each article being numbered. + +"Step up, ladies and gentlemen. Stand in line by the ribbon and take your +turn at the most unique shooting match ever seen in this county,--one at +a time,--and whoever points the arrow at anything but the balloons is +ruled out," rattled Mr. Vanderveer, after the manner of a fakir at a +country fair, and beaming with pleasure. For Evan says that outside of +business dealings he has the reputation of being the most good-natured +and generous of men, and that to invent ways to lavish money upon his son +and his friends is almost as keen a pleasure to him as to promote schemes +for winning it. + +Mr. Vanderveer picked up a bow and dart to illustrate the game, aimed at +a balloon, the arrow glanced off, but at the second shot the balloon went +pop and shrivelled away with the whistle of escaping gas and shouts of +applause from both children and their elders. + +Feeling assured that my boys were quite at their ease and not likely to +balk and act like wild rabbits, as is sometimes the case with children +when they find themselves among strangers, and seeing nothing that they +would be likely to fall out of or into, except a great bowl of lemonade +arranged in a bower that represented a well, we came away, Lavinia Dorman +sniffing in the spectacle like a veteran war-horse scenting powder, and +enjoying the gayety, as I myself should have done heartily if it had not +been for the boys. + +I was not worried about their clothes, their taking cold, or sticking +the darts into their fingers, but I was beginning to realize the +responsibility of consequences. What would the effect of this fete be +upon the birthday parties of our village community, where a dish of +mottoes, a home-made frosted sponge cake, and a freezer of ice cream +(possibly, but not always) from town, eaten out-of-doors, meant bliss. + +I suppose it is only the comfortably poor who have to think of +consequences, the uncomfortably rich think they can afford not to, +and tired of mere possession, they must express their wealth audibly +at any cost. + + * * * * * + +Richard and Ian came home about half past six, driven by Timothy +Saunders, who was in a sulky mood. When I asked him, by way of cheerful +conversation, if the Vanderveer grounds did not look pretty, and if he +had heard the band (he is very fond of music), he fairly glowered at me +as he used in his bachelor days, before Martha's energetic affection had +mellowed him, and he began to jerk out texts, his dialect growing more +impossible each moment, so that the only words that I caught were +"scarlet weemen--Philistines--wrath--mammon o' the unriteous," etc., +until I seized the boys and fled into the porch, because when Timothy +Saunders is wrathful, and quotes scripture as a means of expressing it, +some one must fly, and it is never Timothy. + +The boys, however, were jubilant, and began at once to unwrap the various +bundles they were hugging, prizes, it seemed, for every game they played, +that represented enough plunder to deck a small Christmas tree. After +these had been duly admired, with some misgivings on my part, Ian jumped +up suddenly, clapping his hand to his pocket, and coming close, so that +he could rest upon my knee, he began pulling out shining new dimes and +quarters, until his hands, moist and trembling with excitement, could +hold no more, and he poured the coins into my lap. + +"Count them please, Barbara, vely quick, 'cause I can't say so many," he +begged, standing with his curly head a little on one side, and his eyes +flashing with eagerness. + +Wondering what new form of extravagance it was, I counted, "One, two, +three dollars and a half." + +"Then we can go and buy the red harness for Corney to-morrow, without +bothering to dig up any more dandies, 'cause Dick's got some too," he +fairly shouted. "It was all bully fun, but that swizzle game where the +marble ran round was the bestest of all, only some numbers it sat on took +the pennies and some gave them back," and he indicated something flying +round in a circle as he capered about. Ian's slightest gestures, like his +father's, are very realistic, and I turned sick as I realized the game by +which the silver had been won was probably roulette! Could it be +possible? How had Mr. Vanderveer dared? No, there must be some mistake. + +At that instant my attention was attracted by Richard, who, after +unpacking his toys, had curled up in a deep piazza chair, where he sat +without saying a word, but looking flushed and heavy-eyed. + +"Do you feel sick? Perhaps you ate too much cream, and then ran too fast. +Come and let mother feel of your hands," I said. His hands were cold and +his head burning. + +"It wasn't the cweam," he replied finally, as if not quite sure what was +the matter, "it was the lemonade with the bitter currant jelly in it +that made the cweam and all swell up,--and I guess it's going to spill +pretty soon." + +"Lemonade with bitter jelly in it?" queried father, coming out, "what +sort of a mess have they given him?" Father stooped, smelled his breath, +saying, "Astringent wine of some sort, unless my nose fails me. Did you +have any, Ian?" + +"Not pink, only yellow. I was all full up by then." + +"When?" + +"Why, when the big boys caught some of us and said we must drink pink +lemonade to make us grow quick." + +Father gave me a keen glance of intelligence, and I took the boys +upstairs, where Richard's trouble soon righted itself, and, early as it +was, they went quickly to sleep with the precious money under their +pillows, fatigue conquering even their excitement. + +Evan came home rather late, and at dinner we talked of other things. As +far back as I remember anything, I can hear father's voice saying alike +to Aunt Lot, myself, or a complaining servant, "The family board is +sacred; meals are not the time for disagreeables." + +Immediately after dinner, and before I had a chance to tell Evan, Mrs. +Jenks-Smith stopped on her way home from a drive, the Whirlpoolers not +dining until eight, to ask father if she might take some friends in to +see the hospital to-morrow, an appeal having been recently made for new +bedding, etc., saying: "We're going to have smashing strawberries and +roses this year; they'll come on before the crowd moves along in July, +and we might as well shake up a fete for the hospital as anything else, +as we're bound to keep moving. + +"Were you up at Vanderveers this afternoon? Oh, yes, to be sure, I saw +you going down hill as I drove in. Quite a chic affair for a little +between-season place like this; but after all, it's the people, not the +place, that make the pace, isn't it, Miss Dorman? And a swell New Yorker +can leave a wake that'll show the way anywhere. + +"You don't look happy, though, Mrs. Evan. The boys ate too much? No? +Roulette a little too high for you? + +"Well, my dear, I half agree with you. I think things were a little too +stiff this afternoon for such youngsters; but Vandy is such a liberal +fellow he couldn't do enough,--nor tell when to stop,--actually lugged up +half a dozen bags of new silver and dealt it to the kids in handfuls. +Harm? Why, he didn't see any, I dare say. He wasn't robbing anybody; +besides, I'll bet Monty Bell put him up to it. I know how you feel, +though. I wouldn't play for money myself, if I'd young boys; but as I +haven't, it doesn't matter, and one must be amused. That's the way Mrs. +Latham jogged poor Carthy off and began the gap with her husband. Latham +gambles on change, of course, but drew the line at his house. Didn't know +it? You poor innocent, you're as bad as Sylvia herself. Why, yes, they're +as good as divorced, by mutual agreement, though; he's kept away all of +two years. I expect that they will announce it any time now. + +"Won't let the boys keep the money? Don't be silly now and make a fuss; +change it to bills and put it on the church plate; that's what all the +really conscientious women always do with their Lenten winnings +anyway,--that is, when they can afford it. + +"I'll allow, though, they didn't manage the drinks well this afternoon. +The lemonade was for the youngsters, and their spread was in the pergola; +the next age had claret cup in the tea house back of the tennis court, +and there was also a spread there with champagne cup for the elders. + +"Claret cup? Oh, yes, nowadays you insult a boy over twelve if you offer +him lemonade. But the trouble was, the big boys tumbled to the champagne +cup, got hold of a bowl of it, grew excited, and fed the youngsters with +the claret stuff, and made a lot of them sick. Your Richard one of them? +I see,--I don't wonder you're put out, my dear, indeed I don't. I should +be too, that is, if it mattered; but one person disapproving won't turn +the wheel the other way, it only means to lose your own footing." So +saying, the Lady of the Bluffs rustled away, promising to call for father +in her 'bus in the morning. + +"Is this true?" asked Evan, presently, and I had never seen his eyes look +so steely cold. + +"Yes, I'm afraid so," I answered, meeting his gaze. + +"Where is the money?" + +"Under their pillows; they expect to buy the red goat harness to-morrow." + +"It's a crying shame, the whole thing. The poor little babies!" + +"What shall I do?" + +"You? Nothing. I shall return the money. This is my business; man to +man. As a woman you inevitably must be emotional and make a doubtful +issue of it. You mother the boys well, God knows; this is my chance to +father them." + +"But the money,--shall I get it now?" + +"No, in the morning; they will bring it to me, and I will make them +understand, as far as babies may. In one way, I fear, we are unwittingly +somewhat to blame ourselves. Every one who is drawn toward a social and +financial class a little beyond his depth, and yields, though feeling the +danger, is unwise. I think, sweetheart, this commuter, his wife, and +babies had better be content to wade in safe shallows and not go within +touch of the Whirlpool current." + +Then Evan and I went and stood silently by the two white beds, and now he +is walking up and down in the garden smoking quietly, while I am writing +up here, and unhappy because I think of to-morrow and the boys' +disappointment about the little red harness. + + + + +XI + +REARRANGED FAMILIES + + +_June_ 10. Sylvia Latham has returned alone. Her father came with her as +far as Chicago, where, having business that would detain him for perhaps +ten days, and warm weather having set in, he insisted that Sylvia should +at once proceed eastward. At least that is what Miss Lavinia tells me; +but she has suddenly turned quite reticent in everything that concerns +the Lathams, which, together with Mrs. Jenks-Smith's random remarks, have +inevitably set me to thinking. + +I had hoped to form a pleasant friendship with Sylvia, for though I have +only met her two or three times, I feel as if I really knew her; but +there will be little chance now, as they go on to Newport the first of +July, and the continual procession of house parties, for golf, tennis, +etc., at the Bluffs, even though they are called informal, necessarily +stand in the way of intimate neighbourly relations between us. Monty Bell +has been dividing his week ends between the Ponsonby, Vanderveer, and +Jenks-Smith households, yet he always is in the foreground when I have +been to see Sylvia, even though I have tried to slip in between times in +the morning. + +I do not like this Monty Bell; he seems to be merely an eater of dinners +and a cajoler of dames, such superficial chivalry of speech as he +exhibits being only one of the many expedients that gain him the title of +"socially indispensable" that the Whirlpoolers accord him. + +Personally anything but attractive, he seems able to organize and control +others in a most singular way. Perhaps it is because he has a genius for +taking pains and planning successful entertainments for his friends, even +to the minutest detail, and giving them the subtle distinction of both +originality and finish, without troubling their givers to think for +themselves. Miss Lavinia-says that he has the entree of the two or three +very exclusive New York houses that have never yet opened their doors to +Mrs. Latham and several more aspiring Whirlpoolers, Mrs. Jenks-Smith +having penetrated the sacred precincts, only by right of having been +presented at the English Court in the last reign through the influence of +her stepdaughter, who married a poverty-stricken title. + +"I don't know what it all amounts to," said the outspoken Lady of +the Bluffs on her return, "except that I'm in it now with both feet, +which is little enough pay for the trouble I took and the money +Jenks-Smith put out. + +"Our son-in-law? No, he's not exactly English, he's Irish, blood of the +old kings, they say; but all the good it does him is, that he can wear +his hat with a feather in it, or else his shoes, I can never remember +which, in the presence of royalty, when if it wasn't for good American +money he'd have neither one or the other. + +"Money? Oh yes, that's all they want of us over there; we've no cause to +stick up our noses and think it's ourselves. We know, Jenks-Smith and I, +for haven't we been financial mother and father in law to a pair of them +for ten years? Jenks-Smith was smart, though; he wouldn't give a lump sum +down, but makes them an allowance, and we go over every year or so and +bail them out of some sort of a mess to boot, have the plumbing fixed up, +and start the children all over with new clothes. That's what we're doing +when the papers say, 'Mr. and Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who went to Carlsbad for +the waters, are now in Ireland, being entertained in regal style by their +daughter and son-in-law at Bally-whack House.'" + +Miss Lavinia says with a shiver that whoever marries Monty Bell, and it +is absolutely necessary for him to make a wealthy connection in the +immediate future, will have all New York doors open to her, and that, as +Mrs. Latham is leaving no stone unturned in order to become a social +leader, a marriage between Sylvia and Mr. Bell would secure her the +complete prestige necessary to her ambition, while rearranged families +are so common and often the results of such trivial causes, that the fact +of the man's having a lovely wife and two children living abroad does not +militate against him in the least. It all seems ghastly, this living life +as if it was a race track, where to reach the social goal is the only +thought, no matter how, or over or through what wreckage, or in what +company the race is to be won. + +Since her return Sylvia has looked pale and seemed less buoyant. She is +much disappointed because her plan of going to Rockcliffe to see her +class graduate cannot be carried out. Miss Lavinia had promised to go +with her, and the poor child was looking forward to a week of girlish +pleasure among the friends with whom she had spent two years, when, lo +and behold! the rose and strawberry festival, that the Lady of the Bluffs +had stirred up for the benefit of the hospital, assumed such huge +proportions that the entire colony became involved, and the dates +conflicting, it was impossible for Sylvia to leave home without entirely +tipping over her mother's plans. + +The places on the north side of the Bluff road are to be thrown open, +grand-chain fashion, each contributing something by way of entertainment, +games, a merry-go-round brought with great expense from the city, fortune +telling, a miniature show of pet animals, and an amateur circus, being a +few of the many attractions offered. + +The spectators are to pay a fee and enter by the Ponsonbys', the first +place on the south, and gradually work their way up to the Jenks-Smiths', +where the rose garden and an elaborate refreshment booth will be reached. +The Latham garden is too new to make any showing, but Mrs. Latham, who +has been much in New York of late, promises something novel in the way of +a tea room in her great reception hall, while Mrs. Jenks-Smith insisted +that Sylvia should have charge of her rose booth, saying: "Your name's +suitable for the business, you'll look well in a simple hat and baggy +mull gown, such as artists always want to put on the people they paint, +and I must positively have some one who'll stay by me and see that things +are not torn to bits, for all the rest of the girls will slide off with +the first pair of trousers that comes along. Anyway, you don't match the +little Ponsonby and Chatfield minxes that your mother has chosen for her +six Geisha girls, for you are a head taller than the bunch." + +Nothing is talked of now but this fete. Of course it will help the +hospital, even though ten times the amount is being spent upon the +preparation than any sum that can possibly be made for the charity; but +it pleases the people to spend. Father says that the Whirlpoolers are +already bored; that they have used up the place, for the time being, and +if it were not for this festival, the Bluffs would be deserted for +Newport and Long Island long before July. + +Social ambition has even infected our rector's jolly little wife, who has +never felt able or called upon to entertain in any but the most informal +way. After hearing the report of a clerical luncheon in New York, where +the clergyman sat at the foot of his own table with a miniature +shepherd's crook before him, and the favour beside the plate of each +female guest consisted of a woolly lamb, she, not to be outdone, +immediately imperilled the possibility of a new winter gown by inviting +all the non-resident members of the congregation to lunch, and serving +the ice cream in a toy Noah's Ark, while the animals from it were grouped +about a large dish of water, to form an appropriate decoration in the +centre of the table, and sugar doves at each plate held leaves in their +mouths, upon which the name of the guest was neatly pricked with a pin. + + * * * * * + +Lavinia Dorman has decided to stay with me and do without her maid, +rather than take a cottage, or board, for we find that we do not wear on +each other in the least. We never plan for one another, or interfere in +any way, and each takes it for granted that if the other desires +assistance of any sort, she will ask for it. + +Miss Lavinia pokes about the garden at her own sweet will. I gather the +flowers,--I could not give that up to any one,--and she takes charge of +arranging them in the house. She is very fond of doing fancy work, I am +not, so that her offer to re-cover the sofa cushions in den, study, and +library comes in the light of a household benefaction. + +Besides this, she has a very good effect upon the boys, and without being +at all fussy, she is instilling their absorbent minds quite unconsciously +with some little bits of the quaint good breeding of other days that they +will never forget. They love to go to town with her, one of her first +stipulations being that if I chose to include her in some of our long +drives, well and good, otherwise she wished the liberty of telephoning +the stable for horse and man, whenever she pleased, without my troubling +myself about her movements. + +Meanwhile, I really think that this living in the midst of a family +without losing her independence is making Lavinia Dorman grow backwards +toward youth. She has bought an outing hat without strings, trimmed with +fluffy white, she takes her work out under the trees in a basket, and +has given up tying her head in a thin and a thick veil every time she +drives out. If she could learn to sit comfortably back and lounge a +trifle, and if a friendly magpie would only chance along and steal her +stock of fronts, for a nest, so that she would be obliged to show her +own lovely hair that shades like oxidized silver, the transformation +would be complete. + +Martin Cortright also is developing mental energy. He always had +considerable physical vim, as I found the Sunday after he first came, +when he accompanied Evan upon one of his long walks, and was not used up +by it. He has stopped fumbling with reference books and shuffling bits of +paper by the hour, and writes industriously every day by the west window +of the attic, where he can refresh himself by looking out of the window +at the garden, or across at the passers on the highway. I was afraid that +he might wish to read the results nightly to either father or Evan, but +no, he keeps them safely under lock and key in a great teacher's desk +that he bought second hand over in town. He stays to dine with us two or +three nights a week, but he has grown flexible, and our meals are very +merry ones. Laugh softly to yourself, Experience Book, and flutter your +leaves just a bit as I write, that of their own volition, Miss Lavinia +and Martin have drifted from whist to piquet, as by natural transition, +and Evan is free for garden saunterings once more. + + * * * * * + +_June_ 25. Yesterday was the day of the festival, and it was neither +sultry, foggy, nor brought to a sudden stop by a thunder shower, as so +often happens at this season. + +By half past two in the afternoon the country teams could be seen winding +Bluff ward by all the various roads, and before three, the hour at which +the gates were to be opened, every available hitching place was occupied, +and the line of vehicles extended well up one of the back lanes that was +bounded by a convenient rail fence. + +Horace Bradford arrived home at Pine Ridge night before last. He had +expected to see Sylvia and Miss Lavinia at Rockcliffe. Missing them, and +not knowing the cause of their change of plan, very naturally his first +thought was to drive down to Oak-lands and make a double call. On taking +up the local paper he saw the announcement of the rose festival set forth +in ornamental type, which gave him a key to the situation, so that the +substantial, if not ornamental, farm buggy, drawn by a young horse with +plenty of free-gaited country go but no "manners," was one of the first +to reach the Bluffs, Horace innocently hoping to have a few moments with +Sylvia before the festivities began. He therefore inquired his way to the +Latham house direct, instead of going into the fair grounds by way of the +Ponsonbys', and encountered Perkins, Potts, and Parker, who were on guard +at the door, as well as two footmen who stood by the steps with straw +wheel guards ready to assist people from their traps, and two grooms in +silk-sleeved buff jackets, who waited to take charge of the horses of the +men who were expected to ride over from a neighbouring social settlement. + +The outdoor group seemed to be in doubt how to proceed. Bradford had all +the ease of bearing that they instinctively felt belonged to a gentleman, +but his turnout was beyond the pale, and the grooms hesitated to give it +the shelter of the perfectly equipped stable. + +Perkins, however, did not hesitate, and before Bradford could open his +lips, came through the doors that were fastened wide open, and, with a +wave of his hand said, in freezing tones, "You've come in the wrong way; +the entrance gate and ticket booth is below, as the sign shows." + +"I wish to see Miss Latham," said Bradford, handing his card, and at +the same time with difficulty suppressing a violent desire to knock +the man down. + +"Not at home," replied immovable Perkins, vouchsafing no further +information. + +"Then take my card to Mrs. Latham," thundered Bradford, nettled by his +slip in not asking for both at the first instance, and; as the man still +hesitated, he strode past him through the porch and into the hall. + +As Perkins disappeared through one of the many doorways, Bradford stood +still for a moment before his eyes focussed to the change of light. The +pillars of the hall that supported the balcony corridor of the second +story were wreathed with light green vines, delicate green draperies +screened the windows, the pale light coming from many Japanese lanterns +and exquisitely shaded bronze lamps rather than outside. Half a dozen +little arbours were formed by large Japanese umbrellas, under which tea +tables were placed, and the sweet air of the summer afternoon was +changed and made suffocatingly heavy by burning incense. + +Of course all this paraphernalia belonged to the festival, and yet +Bradford was not prepared to find Sylvia living in such daily state as +the other surroundings implied. He knew that she belonged to a prosperous +family, but his entrance to what he supposed would be, as the name +implied, a country cottage, was a decided shock to him. + +He had been drawn irresistibly toward Sylvia almost from their meeting +in the lecture room several years before, but he could hardly allow +himself the luxury of day dreams then, and it was not until his +promotion had seemed to him to place him upon a safe footing, that he +had paused long enough to realize how completely she was woven into all +his thoughts of the future. Now, as he waited there, a broad gulf, not a +crossable river, seemed to stretch before him, not alone financial but +ethical,--a sweeping troublous torrent, the force of which he could +neither stem nor even explain to himself,--verily the surging of the +Whirlpool at his feet. + +Babbling girlish voices waked him from his revery, and half a dozen young +figures, disguised in handsomely embroidered Japanese costumes and +headgear, their eyes given the typical almond-shaped and upward slant by +means of paint and pencil, came down the stairs, followed a moment later +by a taller figure in still richer robes, and so carefully made up by +powder and paint that at a distance she looked but little older than the +girls. Coming toward Bradford with an expression of playful inquiry, she +said: "Is this Mr. Bradford? I am Mrs. Latham. Did you wish to see me? +I've only a moment to spare, for at three o'clock I lose my identity and +become a Geisha girl." + +Bradford was embarrassed for a moment, even quite disconcerted. Why +should he have taken it for granted that Sylvia had spoken of him, and +that he should be known to her mother? But such was the case, and he felt +bitterly humbled. + +"I was one of Miss Latham's instructors at Rockcliffe two years ago. I +have returned now to spend the vacation with my mother, whom perhaps you +know, at Pine Ridge, and finding that you have come to live +here--I--ventured to call." If poor Bradford had desired to be stiff and +uninterestingly didactic, he could not have succeeded better. + +"Ah, yes--Rockcliffe--Sylvia was there for a couple of years, and will +doubtless be glad to hear of the place. I myself never approved of +college life for girls, it makes them so superior and offish when they +return to society. Even two years abroad have not put Sylvia completely +at her ease among us again. + +"We do not live here; this is merely a between-season roost, and we leave +again next week, so I have not met your mother. The only one of the name +I recollect is an old country egg woman back somewhere in the hills +toward Pine Ridge. You will find Sylvia at Mrs. Jenks-Smith's, just +above, at the rose booth. Pardon me if I leave you now, I have so much on +my hands this afternoon." + +Thus dismissed, Bradford went out into the light again. He noticed for +the first time that his horse and buggy, standing unheeded where he left +them, looked strangely out of date, and as he went down the steps, the +horse turned his head, and recognizing him, gave a joyful whinny that +caused the grooms to grin. He could feel the colour rising to his very +eyes, and for a moment he determined to go home without making any +further effort to find Sylvia, and he felt grateful that his mother had +declined his invitation to come with him to the festival. + +His mother, "the egg-woman"! What would she have thought of Sylvia's +mother thus painted and transformed in the name of charity? He +experienced a thrill of relief at the escape. + +As he found himself on the free highway once more, he faltered. He would +see how Sylvia bore herself in the new surroundings before he put it all +behind him. This time he found a bit of shade and a fence rail for the +too friendly nag, and entering the Jenks-Smith grounds afoot, followed +the crowd that was gathering. + +The rose garden of five years' well-trained growth was extremely +beautiful, while the pergola that separated it from the formal garden of +the fountain, and at the same time served as a gateway to it, was +utilized as the booth where roses and fanciful boxes of giant +strawberries were to be sold. + +Bradford, standing at a little distance, under an archway, scanned the +faces of the smart married women who bustled about canvassing, and the +young girls who carelessly gathered the sumptuous roses into bouquets for +the buyers, making a great fuss over the thorns as they did so. Then one +tall, white-clad figure arrested his attention. It was Sylvia. She +handled the flowers lovingly, and was bestowing patient attention upon a +country woman, to whom these pampered roses were a revelation, and who +wished a bouquet made up of samples, one of each variety, and not a mass +all of a colour like the bunches that were arranged in the great baskets. + +As Sylvia held the bouquet up for the woman's approval, adding a bud +here and there, pausing to breathe its fragrance herself before handing +it to the purchaser, Horace's courage came back. She was plainly not a +part of the vortex that surrounded her. Circumstances at present seemed +to stand between. He could not even venture a guess if she ever gave him +other than a friendly thought; but a feeling came over him as he stood in +the deep shade, that some day she might be lonely and need steadfast +friendship, and then the opportunity to serve her would give him the +right to question. + +Now thoroughly master of himself, he went toward her, and was rewarded by +a greeting of unfeigned pleasure, a few moments of general talk, and a +big bunch of roses for his mother. + +"No, you shall not buy these. I am sending them to your mother with my +love, to beg pardon for Miss Lavinia and myself, for we've been trying to +go to Pine Ridge all the week; but this affair has kept me spinning like +a top, and when I do stop I expect to fall over with weariness. I was +_so_ sorry about Rockcliffe Commencement. Some day, perhaps, mamma will +have finished bringing me out, and then I can crawl in again where it is +quiet, and live. Ah, you went to the house and saw her, and she said we +were going away next week? I did not know it, but we flit about so one +can never tell. I've half a mind to be rebellious and ask to be left here +with Lavinia Dorman for guardian, I'm so tired of change. Yes, I enjoyed +my flying trip to the West, in a way, though father only came as far as +Chicago with me, but I expect him to-morrow." + +Then the crowd surged along, peering, staring, and feeling, so that it +would have blocked the way conspicuously if Bradford had lingered longer. +As he vanished, Monty Bell sauntered up, and, entering the booth, took +his place by Sylvia. Under pretext of good-naturedly saving her fingers +from thorns by tying the bouquets for her, kept by her side all the +afternoon, and when a lull came at tea time, strolled with her toward the +refreshment tent, where he coaxed her to sit down to rest in one of the +little recesses that lined the garden wall, where she would be free from +the crowd while he brought her some supper. + +This she did the more readily because she was really tired, almost to the +point of faintness, and even felt grateful when Mr. Bell returned with +some dainty food, and sat beside her to hold her plate. She was so used +to seeing him about at all hours, making himself generally useful, that +the little attentions he continually showered upon her never held a +fragment of personality in her eyes. + +Now, however, something familiar in his manner jarred upon her and put +her strangely on her guard. One of the man's peculiarities was that he +had a hypnotic manner, and presently, almost before she could really +understand what he was about, he had put his arm around her and was +making an easy, take-it-all-for-granted declaration of love. + +For an instant she could not believe her ears, and then his tightening +clasp brought realization. Tearing herself away, and dropping her plate +with a crash, she faced him with white face and blazing eyes, saying but +one word--"Stop!" in so commanding a tone that even his fluency faltered, +and he paused in exceeding amaze at the result of what he had supposed +any woman of his set would esteem an honour, much more this strange girl +whose mother was engaged so systematically in securing a place at the +ladder top. + +"If I had understood that your casual politeness to me and usefulness to +my mother meant insult such as this, we should have checked it long ago." + +"Insult?" ejaculated Monty Bell, looking over his shoulder, apprehensive +lest some one should be within ear-shot, for to be an object of ridicule +was the greatest evil that could come to him. "You don't understand. I +want you to marry me." + +"Insult, most certainly! What else do you call it for a man with two +little daughters, and divorced by his wife for his own unforgivable +fault, to ask any woman to marry him! Yes, I know, you see. Lavinia +Dorman is a friend of Mrs. Bell!" + +"The devil!" muttered the man, still looking about uneasily, under the +gaze of her uncompromising accusation. In some way the directness of her +words made him feel uncomfortable for the moment, but he quickly +recovered, changed his tactics, and burying his hands in his pockets, +assumed his usually jaunty air, while half a smile, half a sneer, crossed +his face as he said lightly: "What a droll, Puritan spitfire we are, +aren't we? As if rearranged families were not a thing of daily happening. +Don't feel called upon to kick up a rumpus, it isn't necessary; besides, +take a tip from me, _your mother won't like it!_ If you are through with +that cup, I will take the things back," and nonchalantly shying the bits +of the broken plate into the bushes, he went toward the refreshment tent, +saying to his host, Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who was inquiring for Sylvia: "Yes, +she is yonder in the second arbour. I've taken her some tea, for she's +quite done up; that beastly overland trip home was too much for her in +the first hot weather." + +Consequently the warm-hearted Lady of the Bluffs was naturally prepared +to find Sylvia sick and faint, and urged sending her home, where she +could slip in and get to bed unobserved, which was the one thing that the +girl most desired. Also this shrewd lady was wise enough to give no sign, +even though she drew her conclusions, when on turning to leave the arbour +she saw a bit of the broken plate lying on the ground at the opposite +side near where a point of the rustic work had torn a shred from Sylvia's +mull drapery as she had pulled herself away. + + * * * * * + +By the time that Sylvia had gained her room the warm twilight sky had +been transformed to a silver lake by the moon, but she neither enjoyed +its beauty nor heard the music that was beginning to come from the rose +garden above, as well as the tea room below stairs. She sat by the +window, deaf to all outside things, with only one thought in her mind; +she would gladly have buried the occurrence of the arbour, if it were +possible, but as it was, she must tell her mother, as now, that his +motive was made plain, Monty Bell, as a matter of course, could no longer +come to the house. Finally she went to bed and slept from sheer +exhaustion, never for a moment doubting that her mother would take her +view of the matter. Presently the French maid crept in and closed the +blinds, wondering why Mademoiselle often seemed to take pleasure so +sadly, and appeared older than Madame, her mother, and then, feeling at +liberty, hurried down gayly to dance on the back porch with the loitering +gentlemen's gentlemen who gathered there. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Latham slept late the next morning, and at eleven o'clock had only +finished looking over her mail without yet touching her breakfast, when, +without waiting for an answer to her knock, Sylvia entered. Her mother +looked up in some surprise, for she did not encourage running in and out +at all hours, or any of the usual intimacies between a mother and grown +daughter who are companions. In fact she did not even ask Sylvia to sit +down, or if she was ill, though her pallor was very apparent, but merely +raised questioning eyebrows, saying, "What is it?" as she turned her +attention to some legal-looking documents in her lace-decked lap. + +Chilled to the heart Sylvia seated herself in a low chair by her mother, +so that she need not raise her voice, and twisting her hands nervously, +told what had happened in as few words as possible, much as if she had +repeated them over and over until they were learned like a lesson. + +Mrs. Latham's cold gray eyes at first snapped viciously, and then grew +big with wonder as Sylvia ended by saying, "I should never have spoken of +this to any one, and tried to forget, but you would think it strange that +Mr. Bell should stop coming here--and--" + +"Think it strange?" said Mrs. Latham, speaking harshly and rapidly, a +thing she rarely did. "Do you know what I think of you? That you are the +most absolute little fool I ever imagined. You not only refuse a man who +could make your social position secure, but rant and get into tantrums +over the compliment he pays you, and call it an 'insult,' exactly as your +canting grandmother Latham might have done. I've no patience with you; +and if you think that this nonsense of yours shuts the door in Monty +Bell's face, you are wholly mistaken. + +"While we are upon this subject of divorce that seems to shock you so, I +may as well tell you what you will not see for yourself, and your father +appears to have been too mealy-mouthed to explain,--we have agreed to +separate. No need of your getting tragic, there are no public +recriminations on either side, no vulgar infidelity or common +quarrelling, everything quite amicable, I assure you. Simply we find our +tastes totally different, and have done so for several years. Mr. +Latham's ambitions are wholly financial, mine are social. He repelled and +ignored my best friends, and as we are in every way independent of each +other, he has been wise enough to avoid possible and annoying +complications by standing out of my way and making it easy for me to +legalize the arrangement and readjust myself completely to new +conditions." + +"But what of Carthy and me?" gasped Sylvia, in a voice so choked and +hollow that the older woman hesitated, but for a single instant only. +"Have neither you nor father thought of us? Where do we belong? Where is +our home? Can people who have once loved each other forget their children +and throw them off so? Does God allow it? You must have cared for father +once, for I remember when I was a little girl you told me that you called +me Sylvia, to have my name as nearly like father's--Sylvester--as +possible. Have you forgotten it all, that you can do this thing, when you +say in the same breath that father has done no evil?" + +"Don't be tragic, Sylvia, and rake up things that have nothing to do with +the matter. As to your brother, it was your father's foolish severity +about a card debt, and insisting upon placing him away from me, that is +primarily responsible for the divorce, not any wish of mine to exile +Carthy. And you ask where your home is, as if I had turned you out, when +you have just refused an offer that any unmarried society woman, who can +afford it, would clutch." + +Sylvia sat silent, looking blindly before her. Her mother waited a +moment, as if expecting some reply, and then continued: "Now that the +matter is virtually settled, I suppose in a few days the papers will +save me the trouble of announcing it. Under the circumstances, I shall +rent the Newport house for the season, as I have had several good +offers, and go abroad for two or three months on the continent, so that +before my return the town house will be redecorated and everything will +be readjusted for a successful winter. You had better take a few days +before deciding what to do. You can, of course, come with me, if you are +not sick of travel, or go to your father, who is ready to make you a +handsome allowance; though you will find that awkward at present, as he +is moving about so much. If you choose to feel aggrieved just now, you +might persuade your dear, prim Miss Dorman to either stay here with you +or take that little furnished house that is to rent on the lower road, +if you prefer that form of discomfort they call simplicity. You needn't +decide now; take time," she added genially, as if she was doing all that +could be asked. + +When she ceased speaking, Sylvia, with bowed head, rose and quickly +left the room. + +Then Mrs. Latham gave a sigh of relief that the interview was over, threw +the papers into a bureau drawer, called to the maid, who had been all the +while listening in the dressing room, to prepare to arrange her hair, +and, taking the chances that Sylvia would keep her room, at least for +some hours, wrote a hasty note to Monty Bell, inviting him to luncheon. + +Meanwhile, Sylvia, instead of going to her room to cry, took her hat and +crept out into the lane that led to the woods. She must be quite away by +herself and gain time to think. This was a terrible sort of grief that +could neither be kept secret nor halved by sympathy, but must be worn in +the full glare of day. Her heart condemned her mother wholly, and she +understood why her father kept the silence of shame,--to whom could she +turn? As she gained the woods, and throwing herself down on a soft bed of +hemlock needles, closed her dry, burning eyes, two people seemed to stand +side by side and look at her pityingly,--Lavinia Dorman and Horace +Bradford,--and mentally she turned toward one and shrank from the other. +In Miss Lavinia she saw her only refuge, but between herself and Horace +the shadow of his upright mother seemed to intervene. What could they +think of her mother playing at Geisha girl in her own home at the very +hour of its wreck? + + + + +XII + +HIS MOTHER + + +_July_ 1. It was several days after the festival before the news of the +Latham divorce was made definitely public by a paragraph under the +heading of "Society News," in one of the New York papers, though of +course the rumour had crept into every house on the Bluffs, by way of the +back stairs. + +Miss Lavinia was greatly distressed, and yet did not know exactly how to +act in the matter; for though Mrs. Latham was seen driving by, as usual, +Sylvia made no sign. + +We may read of such cases often enough, and yet when the blow falls in +the immediate neighbourhood, one must feel the reflex of the shock. While +sympathy for Sylvia keeps the thing ever present, like a weight upon the +chest, I find myself wondering if anything could have been done to avert +the disaster, and we all rove about in a half unsettled condition. Half a +dozen times a day Lavinia Dorman starts up with the determination of +calling upon Sylvia, but this morning decided upon writing her a letter +instead, and having sent it up by Timothy Saunders, is now sitting out in +the arbour, while Martin Cortright is reading to her from his manuscript; +but her attention is for the first time divided, and she is continually +glancing up the road as if expecting a summons,--a state of things that +causes an expression of mild surprise and disappointment to cross +Martin's countenance at her random and inapropos criticisms. I see that +in my recent confusion I have forgotten to record the fact that Miss +Lavinia has fallen into the role of critic for Martin's book, and that +for the last ten days, as a matter of course, he reads to her every +afternoon the result of his morning's work, finding, as he says, that her +power of condensation is of the greatest help in enabling him to +eliminate much of the needless detail of his subject that blocked him, +and to concentrate his vitality upon the rest. + +This all looks promising, to my romantic mind; for the beginning of all +kinds of affection, physical, mental, and spiritual, that are huddled +together in varying proportions as component parts of love, has its +origin in dependence. Father declares independence, selfishness, and +aloofness to be the trinity of hell. Now Martin Cortright has come to +depend upon Lavinia Dorman's opinion, and she is beginning not only to +realize and enjoy his dependence, but to aid and abet it. Is not this +symptomatic? + +When I approach father upon the Latham affair, he says that he thinks the +rupture was inevitable from the point of view and conditions that +existed. He feels, from the evidence that long experience with the inner +life of households has given him, that though a thoughtless woman may be +brought to realize, and a woman with really bad inherited instincts +reclaimed, through love, the wholly selfish woman of Mrs. Latham's type +remains immovable to word of God or man, and is unreachable, save through +the social code of the class that forms her world, and this code +sanctions both the marriage and the divorce of convenience, and receives +the results equally with open arms. + +As to the effect upon Sylvia, father exhibits much concern, and no +little anxiety, for he has read her as a nature in some respects old for +her twenty-one years, and in others, the side of the feminine, wholly +young and unawakened, so that this jar, he thinks, comes at a most +critical moment. + +He has a pretty theory that the untroubled heart of a young girl is like +a vessel full of the fresh spring sap of the sugar maple that is being +freed by slow fire from its crudities and condensed to tangible form. +When a certain point is reached, it is ready to crystallize about the +first object that stirs it ever so lightly, irrespective of its quality: +this is first love. But if the condensing process is lingering, no jar +disturbing it prematurely until, as it reaches perfection, the vital +touch suddenly reaches its depths, then comes real love, perfected at +first sight, clinging everlastingly to the object, love that endures by +its own strength, not by mere force of habit; and this love belongs only +to the heart's springtime, before full consciousness has made it +speculative. + + * * * * * + +When Horace Bradford drove homeward the afternoon of the fete, he was in +a brown study, having no realization of time or place until the wise +horse turned in at the barnyard gate, and after standing a moment by his +usual hitching post, looked over his shoulder and gave a whinny to +attract his master's attention. Then Horace started up, shook off his +lethargy, and hurried to the porch, where his mother stood waiting, to +give her the roses, and Sylvia's message. + +Mrs. Bradford was, for one of her reserve, almost childishly eager to +hear of the experiences of the afternoon, and was prepared to sit down +comfortably on the porch and have her son give a full account of it; but +instead, he gave her a few rather incoherent details, and leaving her +standing with the splendid roses held close to her face, very much in +Sylvia's own attitude, he hurried up to his room, where she could hear +him moving about as if unpacking his things, and opening and shutting +drawers nervously. + +"Never mind," she said softly to herself, "he will tell me all about her +when he is ready. Meanwhile, I'll wait, and not get in his way,--that is +what mothers are for." But by some strange impulse she loosened the +string that bound the roses, and placed them in one of her few treasures, +a silver bowl, in the centre of the supper table, and going to her +bedchamber, which was, country fashion, back of the sitting room, arrayed +herself in Horace's gifts,--the silk gown and fichu, with the onyx bar +and butterflies to fasten it,--and then returned to the porch to watch +the twilight gently veil sunset. + +Upstairs, Horace unpacked his trunks in a rebellious mood. In the morning +he had felt in the proper sense self-sufficient and contented,--the +position, which a few months before he thought perhaps ten years ahead of +him, had suddenly dropped at his feet, and he felt a natural elation, +though it stopped quite short of self-conceit. He could afford to relax +the grip with which he had been holding himself in check, and face the +knowledge that he loved Sylvia; while the fact that fate had brought her +to summer in his vicinity seemed but another proof that fortune was +smiling upon him. + +Now everything, though outwardly the same, was changed by the new point +of view, which he realized that he had already tried to conceal from his +mother, by his scanty account of the festival. He had been suddenly +confronted by conditions that he never expected to meet outside of the +pages of fiction, and felt himself utterly unable to combat them. Under +the present circumstances even neighbourly friendship with Sylvia would +be difficult. It was not that Mrs. Latham had overawed him in the least, +but she had raised in him so fierce and blinding a resentment by her only +half unconscious reference to his mother, that he resolved that under no +circumstances should she run the risk of being equally rebuffed. He would +protect her from a possible intercourse, where she could not be expected, +at her age, to hold her own, at no matter what cost to himself. + +"Egg woman!" Was it not his mother's pride and endeavour, her thrift and +courage to carry on the great farm alone, and the price of such things as +those very eggs, that had carried through his dying father's wish, and +sent him to college, thus giving him his chance in the world? No regret +at the fact, no false pride, dawned on him even for a second. All his +rage was that such a woman as Sylvia's mother should have the power to +stir him so, and then his love for Sylvia herself, intensified by pity +for the unknown trouble that he sensed rather than read in her face, cut +into him like a wound. He felt as if he must pick her up in his strong +arms and bear her away from all those clamouring people; and then the +realization both of his inability and ignorance of her own attitude fell +upon him like a chill, for she had never written or said a word to him +that might not have passed between any two college friends. Such thoughts +occupied him, until finally, as often fortunately happens in our mental +crises, a humdrum, domestic voice, the supper bell, called him, and +leaving his garments strewn about the room, he went downstairs. + +His mother was still sitting in the porch, and he became at once +conscious of a change in her appearance. As she looked up in pleased +expectancy, he recognized the cause, and his sternness vanished +instantly, as he said, "How fine we look to-night," and half sitting on +the little foot-bench beside her, and half kneeling, he touched the soft +lace, and gently kissed the withered cheek whose blood was still not so +far from the surface but that it could return in answer to the caress, +while she looked yearningly into the eyes that even now were hardly on a +level with hers, as if searching for the cause of what might be troubling +him. Yet she only said, as they rose and went indoors, "I put on your +gifts for you, at our first supper together," adding with an +unconsciousness that made Horace smile in spite of himself,--"besides, I +shouldn't wonder if some of the neighbours might drop in to see us, for +it must have got about by this time that you've come home; the mail +carrier saw you drive out this morning, I'm quite sure." + +Neighbours did call; some from pure friendliness, others to see if +"Horace acted set up by his new callin' and fortune," and still others, +who had been to the Bluffs that afternoon, to tell of the wonders of the +festival, their praise or condemnation varying according to age, until +Mrs. Bradford was at a loss whether to think the affair a spectacle of +fairyland or a vision of the bottomless pit, and Horace was in torment +lest he should be appealed to for an opinion, which he was presently. +"What did he think of the tea room? Was Mrs. Latham painted? Was she +Sylvia's mother, or step-mother, and if she was the former, didn't she +act dreadful giddy for the mother of grown children? And didn't he think +Sylvia was just sweet, so different from the rest, and sort of sad, as +if she had a step-mother, as people said, and was sat on?" The questioner +being the very woman for whom Sylvia had taken such pains in selecting +the bouquet of specimen roses, who proved to be the new wife of a +neighbour whom Horace had not met. + +It seemed to Horace that his mother purposely looked away from him as he +tried to pull himself together, and answer nonchalantly that he believed +that Mrs. Latham was Sylvia's own mother, though she did appear very +young, and that of course she was acting the part of a Geisha girl, a +tea-seller, which would account for her sprightly manner, etc., +unconsciously putting what he wished in the place of what he knew, adding +with a heartiness that almost made his voice tremble that Miss Sylvia +certainly did seem different, and as if she was no kin of her mother's. + +"I guess, then, likely it isn't her step-mother, but that she's worried +in her mind about her beau," continued the loquacious woman, pleased at +having such a large audience for her news. "I heard some folks say,--when +I was waitin' about for my cream, and havin' a good look at all the +millionnaires, which they didn't mind, but seemed to expect, the same +bein' fair enough, seein' as it's what I paid to go in for,--that the +man they call Mr. Bell, that's been hangin' around the Bluffs since +spring, is courtin' her steady, but she can't seem to make up her mind. +Thinks I to myself, I don't wonder, for I've had a good look at him, and +he's well over forty, and though he dresses fine, from his eyes I +wouldn't trust him, if he was a pedler, even to weigh out my rags and +change 'em for tin, without I'd shook the scales well first. The same +folks was sayin' that he's a grass widower, anyway, and I shouldn't think +her folks would put up with that, fixed as they be, yet they do say," and +here her voice dropped mysteriously, "that Mrs. Latham's a kind of grass +widder herself, for her husband hasn't turned up in all the year she's +been here, and nobody's so much as seen his name to a check." + +At this point Mrs. Bradford made an effort to turn the conversation into +other channels; for friendly as she always was with her neighbours of all +degrees, she never allowed unkind gossip in her house, and only a +newcomer would have ventured upon it. As it was, the loquacious one felt +the rebuke in the air, and made hasty adieus on the plea of having to set +bread, leaving the rest to talk to their host of themselves, their +pleasure at his return, and the local interests of Pine Ridge. + +When they had all gone, Horace locked the back door, after filling an +old yellow and bronze glazed pitcher, which bric-a-brac hunters would +have struggled for, at the well, as he had done every night during his +boyhood, he left it on the hall table, and going out the front way to the +garden, walked up and down the long straight walk, between the sweet peas +and rose bushes, for more than an hour, until, having fought to no +conclusion the battle into which a new foe had entered, he returned to +the house and went noiselessly to his room. + +Here, in place of the confusion he had left, quiet and order reigned. All +his clothes were laid away in their old places. He had but to reach his +hand inside the closet, the door of which hesitated before opening in its +familiar way, to find his night gear; the sheets were turned down at the +exact angle, and the pillows arranged one crosswise, one upright, as he +liked them,--his mother's remembering touch was upon everything. + +He undressed without striking a light, and lay down, only to look +wakefully out at the dark lattice of tree branches against the moonlit +sky. Presently a step sounded on the stairs and paused at his partly open +door. He raised himself on his elbow, and peering through the crack saw +his mother standing there in night-dress and short sack, shading the +candle with her hand as she used when he was a little chap, to make sure +that he was safe asleep and had not perhaps crept out the window to go +coon hunting with the bigger boys,--a proceeding his father always winked +at, but which she feared would lead him to overdo and get a fever. + +"I'm here, mother," he said cheerfully. + +"Are you quite comfortable, Horace? Is there nothing that you want?" + +He hesitated a moment, and then said frankly, "Yes and no, mother." + +"Is it anything that I can do for you?" she asked, coming into the room +and smoothing his hair as she spoke. + +"Ah, that is the _no_ of it, and the hard part," he answered, capturing +the hand and holding it tight between his own. + +"And the hard part for your old mother too, when the one thing comes +that she cannot give or do. Whatever it is, don't shut me out from it, +Horace,--that is, unless you must," and tucking the light summer quilt in +Under the pillow by one of his hands, she kissed his forehead and went +away. + +Horace Bradford must have slept, for his next consciousness was of the +fresh wind and light of morning, and as he drew his cramped hand from +under his pillow, something soft and filmy came with it,--a woman's +handkerchief edged with lace. + +For a minute he held it in surprise, and then began to search the +corners for the marking. There it was, two embroidered initials, S.L. +Where had it dropped from? Who had put it there? Was it a message or an +accident? Yet it was both and neither. His mother had found the dainty +thing in the package from New York that held the gown and ornaments, +where it had dropped from Sylvia's waist that night, four months before, +when she stood leaning on Miss Lavinia Dorman's table, as the parcel was +being tied. + +Mrs. Bradford had pondered over it silently until, the day when I went to +see her and chanced to mention Sylvia Latham's name, its identity flashed +upon her; and when gropingly she came to associate this name with +something that troubled Horace, obliterating self and mother jealousy, +she tucked the bit of linen underneath his pillow, with an undefined +idea, knowing nothing, in the hope that it might comfort him. And so it +did; for even when he learned the manner of its coming, he put it in his +letter case as a reminder not to despair but wait. + + * * * * * + +When a week had passed and the matter of the divorce had been well aired, +discussed, and was no longer a novelty to her neighbours on the Bluffs, +Mrs. Latham's plan of soon closing her cottage and transferring the +servants to Newport, with the exception of the stable men and a couple of +caretakers, was announced, as she was going abroad for the baths. The +same day Lavinia Dorman received an urgent note from Sylvia, asking her +"when and where she could see her alone, if, as she thought likely, she +did not feel inclined to come to the house." The tone of the brief note +showed that Sylvia felt the whole matter to be a keen disgrace that not +only compromised herself but her friends. + +Of course Miss Lavinia went, and would have gone even if she had to +combat Mrs. Latham, for whom she asked courteously at the door; but that +lady, for some reason, did not choose to appear and run the gantlet, and +sent an elaborate message about a sick headache by the now somewhat +crestfallen Perkins. Presently Sylvia slipped into the morning room, and +crouching by Miss Lavinia, buried her face in her friend's lap, the +tension at last giving way, and it was some time before she grew quiet +enough to talk coherently, and tell her plan, which is this: she wishes +Miss Lavinia to take the Alton cottage (which is furnished) at the foot +of the Bluffs, for the rest of the season, and live there with her. Then +as soon as Mrs. Latham has gone, and the poor girl has steadied herself, +her father, to whom she has already written, will come, and what she will +do in the autumn will be arranged. Everything is as yet vague; but one +thing she has decided for herself--under no circumstances will she again +live with her mother, and she is now staying quietly in the house and +taking her meals in her room, in order to give the scandalmongers and +gossips as little material as possible. + +Lavinia Dorman, who readily consented to do as she asked, says that +Sylvia is brave and heartbroken at the same time, that all her girlish +spontaneity has gone, and she is like a statue. + +I am so sorry to have Miss Lavinia go, even a few hundred yards down the +road, it has seemed so good to have an older woman in the house to whom I +can say, "Would you, or wouldn't you?" Martin is also quite upset, and +has stopped writing and begun fumbling and pulling the reference books +about again; but Miss Lavinia says that she is not going to give up the +afternoon reading, for she thinks the history is a work of importance not +to be slighted, and that Sylvia will doubtless take up her own reading +and practising after a time; that while she herself has willingly +consented to chaperon her, she does not intend to give up her own +freedom, nor would it be good for Sylvia if she did. + +Yesterday morning Miss Lavinia received a letter from Sylvester Latham, +thanking her for the offer of temporary protection for his daughter, and +telling her, in curt business terms, meant to be affable, to name her own +price for the office. + +I have never before seen the ladylike Lavinia Dorman so completely and +ungovernably angry. I could do nothing with her, and last evening it took +the united efforts of Martin, father, and Evan to convince her that it +was not a real affront. Poor Mr. Latham, he has not yet gotten beyond +money valuation of friendship; but then it is probably because he has had +no chance. Perhaps--but no, life is too serious just now in that quarter +for me to allow myself remotely pleasant perhapses. + +Miss Lavinia was too agitated to play piquet to-night, so she and Martin +sat in the porch where the light from the hall lamp was sufficient to +enable them to play a couple of games of backgammon, to steady her +nerves, she said; and presently, as the dice ceased rattling, Evan gave +me a nudge of intelligence, and looking over I found that they had +reversed the board and were playing "Give away" with checkers. + +"After this, what?" I whispered to Evan. + +"Jackstraws," he answered, shaking with silent laughter. + + * * * * * + +Horace Bradford turned his mind for the next few days to the many things +about the place that needed his attention, resolving that he would let a +week or so elapse before making any further attempt to see Sylvia, and in +that time hoped to find Miss Lavinia at home, and from her possibly +receive some light upon the gossip about Mr. Bell, as well as news of +Sylvia herself. + +The sinking-fund for repairs and rebuilding the house that he and his +mother had been accumulating ever since he had made his own way, he found +to be in a healthy condition. A new hay barn and poultry house was to be +put up at once; and, as soon as practicable, his wish of many years, to +restore the brick house, that had been marred by "lean-tos" in the wrong +places, to its colonial simplicity, could be at least begun. + +Every day until two or three o'clock in the afternoon he gave to these +affairs, and then he went to his books. But here again he met with a +strange surprise, a new sensation,--he could neither fix his mind upon +writing, nor take in what he read; the letters were as meaningless as +fly specks on the pages. After a day or two he gave up the attempt. He +had worked too closely during the last term, he thought; his sight did +not register on his brain,--he had heard of such cases; he would rest a +week or so. + +Then every afternoon he walked over the Ridge to the little river in the +valley, carrying a book in his pocket, and his fishing-rod as a sort of +excuse, and poling an old flatboat down-stream to a shady spot under the +trees, propped his rod in place, where by a miracle he occasionally +caught a perch or bass, sat looking idly into the water, the brim of an +old felt hat turned down about his eyes. One day, near the week's end, as +he was lounging thus, his eye was attracted by a headline in a bit of +newspaper in which he had wrapped his bait box to save his pocket. It was +a semi-local paper from town, one that his mother took, but which they +seldom either of them read, and the date was three days back. He turned +it over idly, pausing as he did so to pull up the line which was being +jerked violently, but only by a mud eel. Why did he return again to the +scrap of paper when he had freed his hook? His eyes caught strange words, +and his hands began to tremble as he read. It was the condensed report of +the Latham divorce that was now going the rounds of the journals. + +He paused a moment, then folded the paper, put it in his pocket, poled +the boat with vigorous strokes to the landing-place, and strode through +the woods and across the cornfields homeward, his heart beating +tumultuously until he seemed almost to be struggling with suffocation. + +He stopped at the barn and harnessed a horse to the old buggy, passing by +the new one that he had recently ordered from town, and then went into +the house, where, taking off his slouchy fishing clothes, he put on the +same ceremonious afternoon wear that he would have worn at Northbridge if +going to call, put Sylvia's handkerchief in his inner pocket, and went in +search of his mother. + +He found her in the kitchen, tying the covers upon countless jars of +currant jam. She looked surprised to see him back at such an hour, +but said nothing, as Esther Nichols was close by, employed in wiping +off the jars. + +"I'm going over to Oaklands for a drive," he said, handing her the scrap +of newspaper with a gesture that meant silence. + +"Shall I wait supper for you, or will you be late?" she said, touching +his hand with a gesture almost of entreaty. + +"I may be late, but--yes, you may wait supper," he replied, looking back +at her in going out, as if he wanted to carry the picture well forward in +his mind, against any forgetfulness. + +The miles between Pine Ridge and the Bluffs seemed endless. He had at +first intended to go to Oaklands village to see Miss Lavinia and gather +such tidings as he could of the calamity that had overtaken Sylvia; for +he never for a moment questioned but that the girl, who had been +entirely straightforward, even in days of college pranks, should so +regard the matter. But as he drove along, and the very fact that he was +moving toward a definite end calmed him and clarified his judgment, he +resolved to go directly to Sylvia herself. He would certainly do this +if he had seen the announcement of her parents' deaths; then why not +now, when their love that gave her birth was officially and publicly +declared extinct? + +He drove through the wide gateway and left his horse standing by a stone +pillar outside the porte-cochere,--the beast would stand anywhere if +there was a bar or post for him to look at,--and walked up the steps with +the air of one who is not to be gainsaid. + +"Not at home," replied the singsong voice of Perkins, in answer to +Bradford's demand for Miss Latham, Potts and Parker having already gone +to open the Newport house for the renter, as a staff of servants was let +with it, and then he added, as if conferring a favour, "and Mrs. Latham +has gone on the coach to the station to meet some guests, the last 'ouse +party before she sails." + +"Before she sails," thought Bradford, numbly. Sylvia was going? Could he +believe the man? Should he go through the formality of leaving a card +that she might not get? No, he would go home and write a letter. + +Sylvia kept the house until late in the afternoon, these days. Then she +slipped out by the servants' stairway, and through the garden, to walk in +the wood lane that ran northward, joining the two parallel highroads; for +her healthy body needed air, and she knew that if she did not have it, +she could not control herself to keep peaceful silence for even the few +days that remained. So it chanced this afternoon that she was walking to +and fro in the quiet lane where the ferns crept down quite to the grassy +wheel tracks, when Perkins said those repellent words, "Not at home." + +As Bradford turned out the gate and noticed that the sun was already +setting, he thought to save time by cutting through the almost unused +lane to the turnpike that led directly to Pine Ridge. He had driven but +halfway across, when a flutter of light garments a little way ahead +attracted him. Could it be? Yes, it was Sylvia, in truth, and at the +moment that he recognized her and sprang to the ground she heard the +approaching hoofs and turned. For a full minute neither spoke nor moved, +then going quickly to her and stretching out both hands, he said, his +heart breaking through his voice, "I have been to see you. I did not know +until to-day." + +She gave her hands, and in another moment his strong arms held her fast +and unresisting--the purifying friendship of those unconscious years +crystallized and perfected at love's first touch. + +They said but very little as they walked up and down the lane together, +for half an hour; but as the shadows lengthened, the thought came equally +to both--"What should they do next? How could they part, and yet how stay +together?" Horace, with man's barbarian directness, would have liked to +bear her home to safety and his mother; but the shadow of usage and her +mother stood between, for in spite of the hollow mockery of it all, +Sylvia was still of her household. + +"I must take you home," he said at last, "and to-morrow I will come--all +shall be arranged." + +"To-night," she whispered, clasping his arm in nervous terror. "Come +back with me and tell her to-night; then I shall feel sure, and not +as if it was not real. And when you have told her,--before whoever +may be there, remember,--go home; do not stop to listen to anything +she may say." + +They drove slowly back, and went up the steps to the house, from which +voices and laughter came, hand in hand, like two children; but they were +children no longer when they crossed the threshold and saw Monty Bell in +the group that loitered with Mrs. Latham in the reception hall, waiting +for dinner to be announced. + +Sylvia's thin gown was wet with dew, her hair was tossed about, her eyes +big with excitement, and a red spot burned in each cheek in startling +contrast to her pallor--all of which gave her a wild and unusual beauty +that absolutely startled as well as shocked her mother, letting her think +for a second that Sylvia was going to make a scene, had gone mad, +perhaps, and run away, and that the tall man holding her by the hand had +found her and brought her home. + +Taking a few hasty steps forward, and dreading anything disagreeably +tragic, she said: "Mr. Bradford, I believe. What is it? What has +happened?" + +"Only this, that Miss Sylvia has promised to be my wife, and that, as her +mother, we have come to tell you of it before I go home to tell my own." +Horace Bradford drew himself up to every inch of his full height as he +spoke, bowed to Mrs. Latham, then led Sylvia to the foot of the stairs, +saying, "Until to-morrow," and walked quietly out of the house. + +No one spoke. Then Mrs. Latham, choking with rage, feeling herself +helplessly at bay (Sylvia was of age, and she could not even assume +authority under the circumstances), collapsed on a divan in modified +hysterics, and Monty Bell, completely thunderstruck, finally broke the +silence by his characteristic exclamation, "I'll be damned!" + + * * * * * + +After their belated supper, when Esther Nichols had gone over to a +neighbour's, Horace, sitting by his mother's side, out in the +honeysuckled porch, where the sphinx moths whirred like humming-birds of +night, holding her hands in his, told her all. And she, stifling the +mother pain that, like a birth pang, expected yet dreaded, must come at +first when the other woman, no matter how welcome, steps between, folded +his hands close, as if she held him again a baby in her arms, and said, +smiling through vague tears, "To-morrow we will go together to her, my +blessed son." + +"I cannot ask you to do that; there are reasons--I will bring Sylvia to +you later, when her mother has gone," he answered hastily, resolving that +he would do anything to shield her self-respect from the possible shock +of meeting that other mother. + +"Horace, you forget yourself, and your father too," she said almost +sternly. "I am country bred, but still I know the world's ways. Your +father's wife will go first to greet her who will be yours; you need not +fear for me," and he sat silent. + +That next afternoon, when Horace's first and last love met, they looked +into each other's hearts and saw the same image there, while Mrs. Latham +lay on the lounge in her room, raging within, that again her tongue had +failed her in her own house, and realizing that, woman of the world as +she aimed to be, the "egg woman" had rendered her helpless by mere force +of homely courtesy. Presently she rose, and railing and scolding the +bewildered maid, sent a message to New York to transfer her passage, if +possible, to an earlier steamer. + + + + +XIII + +GOSSIP AND THE BUG HUNTERS + + +_July_ 18. It is such a deadly sin to marry outside of the limited set +that is socially registered, that I now understand why many of the +Whirlpoolers are mentally inbred, almost to the vanishing point, so that +they have lost the capacity of thinking for themselves, and must +necessarily follow a leader. + +Sylvia Latham's engagement to Horace Bradford has caused a much greater +sensation than her mother's divorce. To be sure, every one who has met +Horace, not only fails to find anything objectionable about him, but +accords him great powers of attraction; yet they declare in the same +breath that the affair will not do for a precedent, and deplore its +radical influence. + +To-day we have settled down to midsummer quiet and to a period of silence +after much talking. The Bluffs are quite deserted except by a bevy of +children left with governesses while their parents are yachting or in +Europe, and the servants in charge of the various houses. But a trail of +discontent is left behind, for these servants, by their conspicuous +idleness, are having a very demoralizing effect upon the help in the +plain houses hereabout, who are necessarily expected to do more work for +lower wages. + +I am fully realizing, also, that the excitement of living other people's +lives, which we cannot control, through sympathetic imagination, is even +more wearing than meeting one's own responsibilities. A certain amount of +separateness--I use the word in an entirely opposite meaning to that of +aloofness--is, I find, necessary to every member of our household, and +this chance for intimacy with oneself is a luxury denied to those who +live all their lives taking joy and sorrow equally in a crowd. + +Even the boys, young as they are, recognize it unconsciously, and have +separate tree lairs, and neither may enter the other's, without going +through some mysterious and wonderful ceremony and sign language, by +which permission is asked and granted. + +There are often days when father sits in his study with closed door or +drives over the hills without desire for even the boys as companions. +This need not signify that he is either ill or worried,--it is simply the +need of separateness. The same thing applies to Evan when he sometimes +slips out through the garden at night, without word or sign, and is only +traceable by the beacon his cigar point makes, as he moves among the +trees, until this also vanishes, while my attic corner and the seat at +the end of the wild walk offer me similar relief. + +At least the attic did until Martin Cortright, at my own invitation, +established a rival lair at the opposite end. I did not think that it +would matter, the presence of this quiet man barricaded by his books and +papers, but it does, because the charm of isolation is destroyed. I would +not have done otherwise, however; I have all outdoors, and he will have +returned to New York to find winter quarters, and arrange for the +publication of the first volume of his history when autumn and shut-in +time draws near. + +Mrs. Latham sailed last week, and Sylvia is now in New York visiting her +father at his hotel and arranging her future plans. To-morrow she +returns, and together with Lavinia Dorman goes to the Alton cottage +until late August or early September, when her wedding is expected to +take place. + +At the last moment Mrs. Latham changed her plan of leaving the Bluff +cottage in the charge of servants, had all her personal belongings moved +away, and offered the place for sale. + +"Yes, my dear," said Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who, being a sort of honorary +stewardess of the Colony, usually remains a full week after the +breaking-up time, and frequently runs in to report progress, "she's not +coming back; being divorced she doesn't need to claim residence here. The +place is so convenient to town, too, but I can't really blame +her,--though of course I'm glad poor Sylvia's to be happy in her own way, +and all that, for it's plain to be seen with one eye she's too slow to go +her mother's pace--you couldn't expect Vivvy Latham, over all the hurdles +but one, and almost at the end of the race, to relish her daughter's +mother-in-law being in the egg trade in the very neighbourhood. + +"At first everybody thought that the Bradfords, mother and son, would +probably give up work and float on Sylvester J. Latham's money, for they +say (to spite Vivvy, most likely) he took to Horace Bradford at the +first, for what did the young fellow do but go straight to town and look +Sylvester up, and make a clean breast of it before the gossips could even +twist their tongues around the affair. + +"Sylvester thought he could handle Bradford to suit himself, move him to +New York, jam him into business, cut up the farm in house lots, +reorganize his affairs, and declare a dividend out of him for his own +benefit, as he does with lame railroads,--but not a bit of it! + +"'With what you may choose to do for Sylvia personally, it would be +selfish for me to interfere; but our way of living can only be planned +upon the basis of what I earn,' said Horace, looking Mr. Latham in the +face, and he's a big man too,--Sylvia gets her height from him. + +"It rather knocked Sylvester out, because it was a kind of spunk he'd +never met, and he told Jenks-Smith about it. Thought they didn't speak? +Oh yes, they're thick again, just now, over some kind of a deal. + +"Did you know Jenks-Smith had bought Vivvy's house here? Yes, the deed +was passed the day she sailed. We've got to keep the Bluffs select, you +know, and if the house was put on the market, goodness knows who might +buy it, just to get in with us. + +"Mr. Latham had an idea of taking it and giving it to Sylvia, but they +wouldn't have that either,--are just fixing up the old house a bit, and +going to summer at the farm, while the old lady will keep on selling eggs +the same as ever. Not but what she's a thoroughbred all right, though in +a cheap stable. I was down at Vivvy's the day she came to call on Sylvia! +Just as quiet and cool, except that her hands in the openwork silk mits +shook, as if her son was a duke. I thought there would be a lively row, +and I wished myself out of it, but Vivvy hadn't a chance to strike out +until the old lady got up to go, then she only said: 'You must not +understand that I approve of Sylvia's folly, or in any way give my +consent to this rash engagement. I cannot prevent it, that is all.' + +"The old lady's eyes flashed, and I thought, now for it; but she only +looked Vivvy through and through, and said very clearly: 'Most brides are +better for their mother's blessing, but under the circumstances I think +we prefer to do without it.'" + +Well-meaning Lady of the Bluffs, I'm really acquiring a sort of affection +for her in spite of her crudity. If all the Whirlpoolers were like her, +the pool might be a noisy torrent, but never a dangerous one. + + * * * * * + +This is Lavinia Dorman's last day with me, and I know she is really sorry +to go, in spite of a sort of pleasurable responsibility and excitement +she feels in managing Sylvia's affairs for a time. + +She waked up with a bad headache--a rare thing for her--and after +breakfast seemed so forlorn and blue that I coaxed her into my room and +petted her for a while, almost as I would one of the children; and as she +no longer conceals the fact of the false front from me, I took it off, +brushed and brushed her lovely hair until it grew supple and alive, and +began to glisten, and the pain gradually slipped through it into the air; +then I drew it up cushionwise from her forehead and coiled it loosely on +top, and she, declaring that my fingers had a magic touch, spent the rest +of the morning at my desk in writing letters. + +The lovable woman who has no one specially to love her is a common +tragedy of everyday life. Strangely enough it more often draws +ridicule than sympathy, and it seems to be always considered the +woman's own fault, instead of a combination of circumstances, woven +often of self-sacrifice, mistaken duty, and the studied suppression of +natural emotions. + +I think that both Miss Lavinia and Martin Cortright dread the going back +to their old existence, and yet I am not sure that either of them would +consent to change it in any way, in spite of their growlings at the +modern conditions of life in New York. They have learned to lean upon the +very restrictions that cramp them, until the idea of cutting free seems +as impossible as for the bulky woman to sever the stay-lace that at once +suffocates and supports her. + +Martin Cortright stayed to luncheon to-day. Not that it is an unusual +occurrence, but he wished to have a long afternoon to finish reading a +certain portion of his manuscript to Miss Lavinia before her flitting in +the morning. + +We were seated at the table when she came in hurriedly, apologizing for +being late, saying that she had become so absorbed in finishing her +letters that she did not realize that it was even noon. I did not look at +her particularly until a few moments later, when Martin, after fussing +with his bread a good deal, looked up and said, with a charming smile, +"What a very becoming gown you have on to-day, Miss Lavinia." + +"Yes," said father, "I was thinking precisely the same thing myself, so +you see that in spite of our condemning your sex for paying so much +attention to clothes, we men are the first to note the result of them." + +Miss Lavinia looked puzzled. She was too much the politic woman of the +world to say that the dimity gown was the same one that she had worn for +the two or three days previous; besides, the fact would have cast a doubt +upon their judgment, and she was particular in all such little details of +good breeding; so she parried the compliment deftly, and straightway fell +to pondering as to what circumstance the remark might refer. Glancing +toward the open window, she caught a reflection of herself where the +glass, backed by the dark green curtain, made a mirror. She had forgotten +to rearrange her hair, and her burnished silver-shot locks remained +rolled back lightly from her white forehead without the ugly, concealing +front! I rejoiced inwardly, for the spontaneous tribute to the +improvement by those two dear, stupid, discriminating men, has settled +the fronts in a way in which no arguments of mine could, for to-night she +came to dinner not only with her own emancipated hair, but wearing a bit +of red geranium stuck fetchingly in the puff. + + * * * * * + +_August_ 1. Sylvia has returned, and Miss Lavinia has gone to her, Lucy +and the portly cook having arrived from New York last night, in company +with Josephus, confined in a large hamper borrowed from the fishmonger, +in the top of which a ventilator had been introduced. Josephus was +naturally indignant when first let out, and switched his tail in wrath, +declining to recognize his mistress, and starting to explore the house +like an evil spirit. This morning I found him calmly perched on our +woodshed roof, gazing wickedly at the boys' banty chickens in the coop +below. I predict that he gets into trouble, unless his silver collar, +like a badge of aristocracy, protects him. But what can you expect of a +misguided Whirlpool cat, whose only conception of a bird is a dusty +street sparrow, when he meets face to face the delicious and whetting +elusiveness of a banty chick or a young robin. + +Poor Sylvia is nervously tired out, and the month's rest will be a real +boon. Her plans are quite settled, and there is nothing for her to do but +rest until the time comes to carry them out. She and Horace are to be +married the last week in August, so that they will have time for a +Canadian trip before College begins and they return to settle down in a +scrap of a house in Northbridge. + +August seems to be considered an unusual month for a wedding; but it +suits the circumstances, and as Sylvia has decided to be married quite +privately here at Oaklands, for her own sake, as well as for Mrs. +Bradford's convenience, she wisely wishes to have it over before the +possible return of the Whirlpoolers. + +Horace had hoped that his mother would join them in Northbridge, but +she said "No," very firmly, adding, with a quaint, twinkling smile, +"Horace, nobody ever loved each other closer than your father and I, +but there were times in the beginning when ever so well meaning a third +finger in our pie would have spoiled the baking. Best leave old mother +on the farm until by and by, when she can't tell a fresh egg from a +bad one any longer." + +So Horace comes down twice a week to visit Sylvia, and Miss Lavinia often +drives to Pine Ridge with her and leaves her for a day, so that Mrs. +Bradford may share the pleasant woman's talk of linen for table and bed, +and other details of a bridal outfit. + +We all missed Miss Lavinia when she left, that is, all but the boys, and +they hailed the change with joy, as giving them another house to roam in +and out of. How much of the joy of childhood that we so envy comes from +their freedom from prejudice, the ability they have for adapting +themselves. + +Martin was so distrait for a time that father absolutely ventured to +tease him a little, whereupon he turned stoutly about and declared: "I +have never denied the inspiration and value of congenial female society, +and the mere fact that circumstances have shut me from it so much of late +years makes me all the more appreciative of present privileges. Oh, Dick, +old friend, isn't it some credit to a man who has lived backward almost +from his birth, if, after he's sixty, he realizes it and tries to catch +up with the present? It seems to me as if the best things had always +been just within my grasp, only to slip away again, through unforeseen +circumstances, and my ill luck reminds me of a story and picture in a +comic paper that the boys were chuckling over last night. It was of a +well-intentioned beetle who fattened a nice green caterpillar for its +family's thanksgiving dinner, and the thing went and spun itself into a +cocoon the night before!" + +Martin Cortright at times verges on the pathetic, but always cures +himself by his appreciation of his own limitations before he reaches the +bore stage. He too is taking a short vacation from work, or rather I +should say that he has developed industry in a new direction and become +absorbed in entomology, to the extent of waging war on the tent +caterpillars that are disfiguring both the orchards and the wild cherry +trees of the highways with their untidy filmy nests, leaving the foliage +prematurely brown and sere, from their ravages. Yesterday, in driving +home from Pine Ridge with Sylvia, we noticed that even the wood edges had +the appearance of being scorched by fire, and many of the old orchards +where we go in May for apple blossoms are wrecks meshed in the +treacherous slimy webs. + +Martin's methods are regular and very simple, but he goes about his task +each day as if the matter was a marvel of military strategy. First he +puts a book ostentatiously in one pocket and a flask of alcohol in the +other. Next he takes his torch, consisting of a piece of sponge wired to +an old rake handle, which he keeps on the back stoop, and makes sure that +it is tight and secure, finally searching me out to say that in case he +meets Miss Lavinia, have I any message for her. + +Why he does not keep his outfit up at Martha's I do not know; perhaps +because of Timothy's keen tongue. + +Miss Lavinia, after her morning housekeeping is over, takes her work bag +to the narrow cottage porch and apparently gives herself up to the task +of making pin-cushions for Sylvia or embroidering initials on napery. +Suddenly she will get up, say that her feet are falling asleep and that +she needs a walk to restore her circulation. Will Sylvia go with her? +Sylvia, after pretending to consider, thinks not, making some excuse of +its being too warm or that she expects Horace that day. Presently two +prim people walking in opposite directions meet and, taking the same +path, may be seen any morning along the less frequented roads and orchard +paths, sometimes repairing the torch that has a constant tendency to lose +its head, sometimes watching the destruction by fire of an unusually +wicked worm city, and frequently with their heads stuck into some +suspicious bush, where they appear to be watching invisible things with +breathless interest. + +[Illustration: The Bug Hunters.] + +Father and I chanced upon them when thus employed the other morning. +Martin turned about and in the most serious manner began to dilate upon +the peculiarities of worms in general and particular, as well as of the +appropriateness of their study by the book collector, as the score and a +half insects that injure books and their bindings are not worms at all, +having none of the characteristics of the veritable book worm _Sitodrepa +panicea_, to all of which Miss Lavinia listened with devout attention. + +"What makes them act so?" I said, half to myself, as we drove on, and +father stopped shaking with laughter. "There isn't the slightest reason +why they should not go to walk together; why do they manoeuvre with all +the transparency of ostriches?" + +"It's another manifestation of suppressed youth," said father, wiping his +eyes, "upon the principle that the boy would rather slip out of the +window to go coasting at night than ask leave and walk out publicly, and +that when a young girl begins to grow romantic, she often takes infinite +pains to go round the back way to meet some one who is quite welcome at +the front door. When young folks have not had a chance to do these +things, and the motive for them lies dormant, heaven alone knows how or +when it will break loose." + +Others, however, have observed, and the "Bug Hunters" has now come to be +the local nickname of these two most respectable middle-aged people with +ancestors. + +Josephus, who has been leading a sporting life for many days, or rather +nights, has at last returned minus his long tail with which he used to +express his displeasure in such magnificent sweeps. Miss Lavinia is in +tears, and wishes to have a reward offered for the apprehension of the +doer of the deed. + +Evan says that if she does, and thus acknowledges the cat as hers, she +may be deluged with bills for poultry, as he has been hearing weird tales +on the train, such as are often current among commuters who are not +zoologists, of a great black lynx that has been invading chicken coops +and killing for pleasure, as his victims are usually left on the ground. +Thus has country freedom corrupted the manners of a polite cat, and at +the same time a hay knife (probably) has rendered him tailless. + + * * * * * + +_August_ 20. Summer is at high tide. How I dread its ebbing; yet even now +the hastening nights are giving warning. Evan has been taking a +vacation, and we have spent many days, we four, following the northward +windings of the river in a wide, comfortable boat and lunching in the +woods. We are pagans these days, basking in the sun, cooling in the +shade, and living a whole life between sunrise and sunset. The boys are +showing unconscious kinship with wood things, and getting a wholesome +touch of the earth in their thoughts. + +I am sure that the mind often needs a vacation more than the body, and +yet the condition of change that bears the name of rest frequently merely +gives the head fresh work. + +How far away the Whirlpool and its people seem as we sit perhaps on one +of the many tiny river islands enjoying this time separateness, not as +individuals, but as a family, for the whirl of the pool is tiresome even +to watch. I have felt old these last three months, and I suppose it is a +still further carrying out of the allegory and penalty of eating the +fruit of the tree of knowledge; only the discipline does seem a little +hard when, having no desire either to pluck or taste the apple, one +stands actually away with hands safely behind back, and yet has the fruit +absolutely thrust between unwilling lips. + +Even the feathered things about us are in this mood; their family life +is over, the companionship of fall travel has not begun, and the woods +are full of moulting birds choosing this separateness in preparation for +the tension of new flight and its perils. Everything, in short, in wild +nature has its corresponding note in our own humanity,--the sweating of +the corn, the moulting of the bird, the contraction of the earth by +frost, all have a kindred season or experience in the heart. + +Then, too, the August nights--so heavy with the intensity of sleep that +is akin to sleeplessness, broken by peremptory thunder voices and +searching lightning, or again enveloped by moonlight that floods the +room--shut out the world until, kneeling in its tide between the little +white beds, I can feel the refrain of that hymn of mother's that father +taught me long ago to say to myself in the night when she had gone away +from sight and I was lonely:-- + +"Father, on thy heart I lean +When the world comes not between." + + * * * * * + +_August_ 30. Sylvia and Horace were married under sunshine yesterday in +the little chantry of the church that is used in winter and for week-day +services. To-day the cold northeasterly storm has come, under cover of +which August so often disappears and September enters the marshes upon +the wings of low-flying plovers, to the discordant call of the first +waterfowl of the return migration. + +Mr. Latham came to the wedding. In fact, he has been here several times +during the month. He is a well-built man, under sixty, dark and taciturn, +and would be handsome but for the hard expression of his face. + +His attitude toward the world has seemed to be one of perpetual parry and +self-defence; of course he may have good reason for this distrust, or, as +Evan says, he may have brought the necessity upon himself by his constant +severity of attack on others. Yesterday I partly changed my mind about +him. He evidently once had tender feelings, but, from what cause who can +say, they have in some way been compressed and frozen until they exist +only as hurts. + +Sylvia was married in bridal white. She had wished to wear a travelling +gown and go away from the chantry door, but Miss Lavinia argued her out +of the notion, saying, "Horace has the right to a pretty bride, even if +you do not care." It would have taken but very little, after the strain +of the last two months, to make Sylvia morbid and old beyond her years, +her one thought seeming to be to get away from the surroundings of the +past year and begin to live anew. + +Our group, and a dozen friends of the Bradfords, including some from +Northbridge who belonged to both, filled the little chapel which Horace, +Martin, and Evan had trimmed with flowers wholly from our garden. At the +last moment, Mrs. Jenks-Smith, whom we thought abroad, dashed up in a +depot hack, perspiring and radiant, her smart gown having a most peculiar +and unnatural looking promontory on the chest. "No, my dear, I'm not in +Carlsbad. Jenks-Smith was called back on business, and I sniffed the +wedding in the air and hooked on,--only arrived last night. _Have_ you +seen the papers? Hush, I'll tell you later," and her voice sank into an +awed whisper, and she gave a startled look as the bride entered on her +father's arm, with Ian and Richard as her only attendants. Having heard +so much talk of marrying and of weddings, they had asked Sylvia to let +them be "bridesmaids," and it seemed she really wanted them. Their faces +were solemn to the verge of comedy as they walked hand in hand before +her, their feet in brand-new pumps, keeping step and pointing out +carefully, while their evident satisfaction brought a smile like a ray of +belated sunshine to the face of the serious bride. + +I watched Mr. Latham, usually so immovable, during the ceremony as he +stepped back from the altar into the shadows, when he left Sylvia finally +with Horace. His shoulders lost their squareness, his head drooped; but +when I saw that it was to hide the tears that filled his eyes, I looked +away. Father says he has seen this type of man, contracted by +money-getting, hardened by selfish misunderstanding, recover himself, +soften, and grow young again at the transforming touch of grandchildren. +Who knows, Sylvia may find her childhood's father again some day. + +When we went back to the cottage for luncheon, the bump in Mrs. +Jenks-Smith's corsage was removed, and proved to be a gift for +Sylvia,--a thick leather case, holding a rich neck ornament of diamonds, +a sort of collar with pendants, for the Lady of the Bluffs is nothing if +not generous. + +"I got it in this way without paying a cent of duty," she said in a stage +whisper to Miss Lavinia and me in the hall, as she struggled to release +the box, wrenching off a waist hook or two as she did so. + +"Jenks-Smith said it didn't look natural, and I'd surely be spotted, but +I said I'd like to see mere hired men try to tell a lady how stout or how +thin she had a right to be. Almost too gorgeous for a professor's wife? +Not a bit; Miss Lavinia, you're not advanced. Nobody knows nowadays, at +the launching, how anybody's going to turn out,--whether they'll sink or +float,--and diamonds are an all-right cargo, anyway. If she moves up, she +can wear 'em, if she slumps, she can sell 'em, and if she just drifts +along on the level, she can look at 'em once in a time. No, my dear, +diamonds are a consolation that no woman can afford to miss." + +Considering her usual careless good nature, it seemed to me that Mrs. +Jenks-Smith was very fussy during the luncheon, ill at ease, and +strangely anxious to hurry the departure of Sylvia and Horace. The +guests, all but ourselves, left first, then Mr. Latham, who went upstairs +to take leave of his daughter alone. When Sylvia finally came down, her +colour had returned and she looked her radiant self again as she kissed +Miss Lavinia and Mrs. Bradford, and went down the steps holding Horace, +not by the arm, but clinging to his hand. + +As the carriage disappeared around the bend of the road, and as we +stood looking at one another, feeling for a second the reaction and the +sense of an empty house that always follows the going of a bride, the +Lady of the Bluffs sank into a deep chair exclaiming, "Thank the Lord, +they've gone!" + +"Why, what is it? Are you ill?" cried father, who was just leaving, +coming quickly to her side. + +"It's this. I wanted to get her started north ahead of it. When she comes +back she won't care so much," she replied incoherently, pulling a scrap +of a morning newspaper from her card-case and holding it out at random +for the nearest one to take. Father caught it from her hand, and going +to the window, read aloud in slow, precisive accents of astonishment:-- + +"AN EVENT OF INTEREST TO NEW YORK SOCIETY. + +"(SPECIAL CABLE TO NEW YORK HERALD.) + +"LONDON, Aug. 29.--Yesterday the marriage took place of Montgomery Bell +to Mrs. Vivian Latham, both of New York. The wedding, at the registrar's +and quite informal, was followed by a breakfast given the couple by +Mrs. Center--who chanced, with several other intimates of the American +colony, to be in the city en route to the German baths,--at her apartment +which she always keeps in readiness for occupancy. Mr. Bell, who is a +member of all the best clubs, is known socially as the 'Indispensable.' +Mr. and Mrs. Bell will return to New York in November and open their +magnificent house at Central Park East with a series of the delightful +entertainments which they both so well know how to render unique." + + + + +XIV + +THE OASIS + + +_September_ 8. Three lowering days of wind and rain, and Summer, after a +feigned departure, has returned to complete her task of perfecting. + +She does this year after year--the marvel is that we are ever deceived; +but after all, what is it but the conflict between arbitrary and natural +law? The almanac-maker says that on the first day of September autumn is +due. Nature, the orbit-maker, proclaims it summer until, the month +three-quarters old, the equinox is crossed. Nature is always right, and +after the usual breezy argument sends Summer, her garments a bit +storm-tattered, perchance, back to her own. + +The ill wind that dashed the tall auratum lilies in the garden to the +ground, stripped the clinging fingers of the sweet peas from their +trellis, and decapitated the heavy-headed dahlias, has blown me good, +held me indoors awhile, sent me to my attic confessional once more, with +conscience for priest, and the twins for acolytes, though they presently +turned catechists with an entirely new series of questions. + +When I have not opened my desk or my garden book for some time, and the +planting season, be it of spring or of autumn, as now, overtakes me +unawares, I am always newly convinced that gardening is the truly +religious life, for it implies a continual preparation for the future, a +treading in the straight and narrow path that painful experience alone +can mark, an absorption beyond compare, and the continual exercise of +hope and love, but above all, of entire childlike faith. + +When the time had come in the creative evolution for the stamping of the +perfected animal with the Divine image that forever separates him from +all previous types, it was no wonder that God set man, in whom the +perpetual struggle between the body and soul was to take place, in a +garden for his education. + + * * * * * + +Recently the boys have been absorbed in their little printing press, +which they have established in my attic corner, the present working +motive having come from the card announcing Sylvia's marriage to the +world in general, according to Mr. Latham's desire. Richard secured one +of these and busied himself an entire morning in setting it in type, for +the first time in his experience getting the capitals and small letters +in their proper places. The result was so praiseworthy that Evan hunted +up a large box of ornamental cards for them in town, and for two days +they have been "filling orders" for every one in the household. + +I print the names they wish to copy very distinctly in big letters. +Richard does the type-setting, which is altogether too slow work for Ian, +who, as pressman, does the inking and printing, and in the process has +actually learned his tardy letters. As to the distributing and cleaning +of the type, I find a little assistance is gratefully accepted, even by +patient Richard, whose dear little pointed fingers by this time have +become tired, and fumble. + +To-day, having exhausted the simple family names, they have tried +combinations and experiments with the words Mr., Mrs., and Miss, much +to their own amusement, "_Miss_ Timothy Saunders" being considered a +huge joke. + +Suddenly Ian looked up with one of his most compelling, whimsical smiles, +and said, "Barbara, grandpop's Mrs. was grandma, and she's in heaven, but +where is Mrs. Uncle Martin?" + +Rather startled, I said that I didn't know,--that there had never been +any Mrs. Uncle Martin. + +"Why not?" persisted Ian, an answer that is simply an acknowledgment of +ignorance never being accepted by a child. Before I could think Richard +chirped out: "But Aunt Lavinia hasn't any Mr. for her card neiver, and +Martha, she said the other day that there was a Mr. and a Mrs. for +everybody, only sometimes they couldn't find each other for ever so long. +She told that to Effie, and I heard her." + +A short pause, and then Ian jumped up, clapping his hands with joy, as +the solution of the problem flashed across him. + +"I know what's happened, Barbara; maybe Uncle Martin's Mrs. and Aunt +Lavinia's Mr. has gone and got lost together, and some day they'll find +it out and bring each ovver back! Do you think they will, so we can have +some more weddings and pink ice cream, and couldn't we hurry up and help +find them? I guess we better print him some Mrs. cards so as in case." + +I had drifted into gardening work on paper again, and I believe I said +that he had better ask Uncle Martin what he thought about the matter, and +at that moment the bell rang for luncheon. + +The ringing of bells for meals in this house is what Lavinia Dorman +calls "a relic of barbarism," that she greatly deplores; but as I tell +her, our family gathers from so many points of the compass that if the +maid announced the meals, she would have to be gifted with the instinct +of a chaser of strayed freight cars. + +Ian's queries have brought up a subject that has deluded and eluded my +hopes all summer, and has finally ended in the people that I hoped would +drift through the doorway of one of my most substantial air castles +refusing so to do, or else being too blind to see the open door. + +Martin and Lavinia are the best possible friends, have been constantly in +each other's society, see from nearly the same point of view, and both +agree and disagree upon the same subjects, but they have not settled the +question of loneliness of living as I hoped, by making the companionship +permanent, _via_ matrimony. + +Of course, I did not expect them to fall in love exactly as Evan and I or +Horace and Sylvia did--that belongs to spring and summer; still, I +thought that when they started worm-hunting together, and played checkers +every evening, that they were beginning to find each other mutually +indispensable, at least. + +But no. Martin stored away his papers in the old desk, and went to New +York a week ago to see several suites of bachelor apartments that had +been offered him. + +He writes this morning that he has found one to his liking, and will +return to-night, if he may, and stay over to-morrow to pack his things. +Meanwhile Miss Lavinia has sent her maids to clean and open her house in +"Greenwich Village," and will go home on Monday, spending her final +Sunday with me. Josephus went with the maids; the country had a +demoralizing effect upon him. + +Miss Lavinia has been agitating moving uptown, several of her friends at +the Bluffs insisting that an apartment near the Park is much more +suitable for her than the little house so far from the social centre, +saying it is no wonder she is lonely and out of things; but yesterday she +told me that she had abandoned the idea of change, and had sent orders to +have her old back yard garden dismantled and the whole plot paved, as it +was now only a suitable place for drying clothes. Also that she had +written to ask her father's cousin Lydia, whose Staten Island home had +been built in by progress, very much like her own garden, to come to pass +the winter with her; and, lest she should repent of so rash an act, she +had given the letter to Evan before the ink was fairly dry, as he passed +the cottage on the way to the train, that he might post it in the city. + +One consolation remains to me in the wreck of my romantic hopes for +her--Miss Lavinia has liked our neighbourhood so well that she has taken +the Alton cottage that she now occupies on a three years' lease, and +intends living here from May to October. The rambling garden is full of +old-time, hardy plants and roses, and oh, what good times we shall have +together there next spring, for of course she will stop with me when she +is getting things in order, and I can spare her enough roots and cuttings +to fill every spare inch of ground,--so, with Sylvia at Pine Ridge, what +more can I ask? The strain and hubbub of the Bluffs seems to be quite +vanishing from the foreground and merging with the horizon. + +That reminds me that the people are drifting back quite rapidly now. The +golfers are afield again Sundays, and all talk of introducing fox hunting +with tame foxes; but they will have to learn the land, with its dips and +rocks, better first, or there will be a pretty crop of cracked crowns for +father. At present, I think that New England Prejudice will soon however +get the upper hand here, and tighten her hold of the reins that seemed +slipping from her grasp, which is well, for she has long borne aloft the +only standard of national morality whose code is not a sliding scale. + + * * * * * + +_September_ 9. Martin came back to-night. As he entered the house with +Evan I positively did not know him, for he has shaved off his mustache +and queer little pussy-cat whiskers, and with them has gone his +"pudgyness." He is really a very fine-looking man, and his features are +developed by the shaving process in an unexpected way. He seems so wide +awake, too, and alive to everything that passes, that I could see that +father, who came from the office to greet him, had difficulty in +restraining his surprise, but he contented himself by asking:-- + +"How did you fare with the publishers? Did you fall among thieves or +among friends?" + +"That is equivalent to asking if my book has been accepted, as it is only +when work is refused that we call the mediums through which we seek to +reach the public hard names. Yes, the fate of my book is soon told; it +has found its place, and is to be fully illustrated as well, though it +will take me many months to collect the unique material they desire; this +insures me a busy winter, for which I am not only prepared but eager. + +"I wish I could as easily tell you what this summer here has done for me, +Dick," and he leaned over the chair in which father had seated himself +and laid his arm affectionately across his shoulder. "I think in asking +me here you rescued me from as dangerous a condition of mental apathy as +when you stood by my bed so many years ago." + +"Don't thank me," said father, leaning back and looking up at him, "thank +God's sunshine, work, the babies here, and why not woman's society +also,--you used to appreciate that, too, eh, Martin, old man? Give +everybody his, or rather her, due." + +"Yes," I heard him answer, as if pondering the matter, while I fled +discreetly upstairs at this juncture, "you doubtless are right; Lavinia +Dorman's criticisms have been of infinite value in ridding my work of a +litter of words that encumbered the spirit and purpose of it. She is +direct and to the point, and yet withal most sympathetic. I had thought +of dedicating the book to her in some private way, for really we are +joint heirs, as it were, in so many traditions and habits of old New +York, that it would not seem strained or inappropriate." + +"On the contrary, I think it most suitable, and I would not go to any +great pains to hide the compliment of the dedication under a bushel of +disguise either, if I were you. The Lydia Languish age of abnormal +privacy and distorted, unhealthy sensibility has fortunately passed. +Nowadays women like men to be direct, outspoken, definite, where they are +concerned." + +"Do you think so?" asked Martin, in real surprise. "I feared possibly +that it might annoy her." + +"I know so--annoy her, fudge!" was father's comment. + + * * * * * + +When we went in to dinner, Miss Lavinia at once noticed the change in +Martin's appearance, and said, in a spirit of mischief which of course I +alone noticed:-- + +"Back from the city, and with new clothes, too,--how very smart and +becoming they are." + +But poor Martin was quite guileless, and looking down at his coat in a +puzzled way, as if to make doubly sure, replied, "No, it cannot be my +clothes, for they are the same." Then, brightening, as the possible +reason occurred to him: "Perhaps it may be my shaven face; you see, the +barber made an error in the trimming of my decorations yesterday, and he +thought it better to take them entirely off and have them grow afresh, +but I had not thought of the matter in the light of an improvement." + +"But it is one, most decidedly," continued Miss Lavinia, nodding brightly +across at him, while father, who now realized the change he could not +locate, cried:-- + +"Don't let them grow again, my boy. You look ten years younger, at the +very least, which you know at our age is not to be despised!" + +Then we all grew hilarious, and talked together like a lot of school +children, and when the boys came in to dessert, as usual, they also were +infectiously boisterous over the catching of some bass in the river where +Timothy Saunders had taken them that afternoon as a special treat. They +clamoured and begged so for Uncle Martin to stop over the next day for +fishing and have one more good time with them, that he, feeling flattered +almost to the point of embarrassment, yielded upon Evan's suggesting +that, instead of going by the eight o'clock morning train as he intended, +he could wait for one late in the evening, which would get him to town +before eleven. For Martin was to move into his new bachelor apartments +the following morning. + +The three men lingered long at the table, smoking, the talk punctuated by +long periods of silence, each regretting in his own way the present +terminating of the summer intercourse, and yet, I fancy, realizing that +it had lasted exactly the safe length of time. To be able to adapt +oneself temporarily to the presence of outsiders in a house is a healthy +habit, but to adjust a family to do it permanently is to lose what can +never be regained. Miss Lavinia and I agreed upon that long ago, and for +this reason I am very much surprised that she has asked her cousin Lydia +to spend the winter, with a view of making the arrangement permanent. + +The boys brought some of their games downstairs, and succeeded in adding +half an hour to their bedtime by coaxing Aunt Lavinia to play with them, +until I finally had to almost carry them to bed, they grew so suddenly +sleepy from their day's fishing. + +When I returned below stairs after the boys were asleep, father had gone +to the village, Evan was walking up and down outside, all the windows and +doors were open again, and the sultry air answered the katydids' cry for +"Some-more-heat, some-more-heat." + +Miss Lavinia was still in the hall, sitting on the lower step of the +stairs, for the boys had been using the broad landing that made a turn at +the top of the three steps as a place to play their games. Martin stood +leaning on the newel post, and from the few words I heard I knew that he +was telling her about the proposed dedication, so I went out and joined +Evan, for it seems as though we had had little leisure outdoors together +of late, and as if it was time to make it up as best we might. + +Then, once again, as we crossed the streak of light that streamed like a +narrow moon path from the doorway, Evan paused and nodded his head toward +the hall. I turned--there sat Miss Lavinia and Martin Cortright on the +stairs, playing with the boys'--jack-straws! + +"After this, what?" I asked, in my mirth leaning backward on Evan's +supporting arm. + +"To be pat, it ought to be the deluge," chuckled Evan; "but as these are +prosy times, it simply means the end has been reached, and that to-morrow +they will put away mild summer madness, and return to the Whirlpool to +paddle about decorously as of yore." + +I find that I am not the only person who is disappointed at the absence +of matrimonial intentions between Martin and Miss Lavinia. The +postmistress told me yesterday that she's been expecting to hear of a +second wedding any day, as when one took place it always meant three, +though she couldn't "fetch the third couple together, even in her mind's +eye," which I have found to be usually a capacious and well filled optic. + +Mrs. Barton also stopped Martha Corkle on the road, and said with an +insinuating sneer, "She'd always supposed that the gentleman from New +York who lodged with her was making up to the proud old maid at the +Doctor's, but as he evidently wasn't going to, she'd advise Mrs. Evan to +watch out, as Miss Lavinia, doubtless being disappointed, might set her +cap for the Doctor himself, and then the Lord knows what would happen, +men being so easily flattered and trapped." + +Martha was indignant, and I must say very rude, for she snapped back: "I +wonder at that same bein' your holdin', Mrs. Barton, bein' as you've five +maid daughters that's not so by their desirin', folks do say as knows." + +Mud throwers should be careful to wear gloves,--their ammunition +is sticky. + + * * * * * + +_September_ 10. This morning father and I were obliged to go to town upon +some hospital business, and as we had to remain there for luncheon, or +perhaps longer, we took the train instead of driving over, leaving +Lavinia to pack, so that she might have a free Saturday to drive with me +to bid Mrs. Bradford good-by, and learn the latest news of Sylvia and +Horace. Meanwhile the boys were to go fishing with Martin, who is as +careful of them as possible, taking their lunch with them. + +They did not have good luck, however, and growing restless and tired of +fishing without catching, Martin brought them home by three o'clock, and +as both he and Miss Lavinia had finished their preparations for leaving, +they went out to the seat by the rose arbour to enjoy what was left of +the glorious afternoon, for it has been one of those days that come in +dreams, so perfect that one knows it cannot last. + +"I hope that I shall not lose all track of you this winter," said Miss +Lavinia. "Of course you will be busy, but you might spare a lonely woman +an evening now and then for piquet, or whist if Evan or the Doctor should +come to town." + +"Lose track of you, Miss Lavinia,--how could that be possible?" queried +Martin in mild-eyed astonishment. "You know there will be a second volume +of the book for you to read and criticise, besides all the illustrations +to discuss. No, I hoped that you could spare me two definite evenings +every week, at least until the work is in press, though I suppose that is +asking a great deal of a woman having so many friends, and places to go." + +"If you could see the way I spend my evenings alone, you would not +hesitate. Of course I do dine out once in a time, and people come to me, +but between times--I envy even Josephus, who can have social enjoyment +any time by merely scratching on the door and running along the palings +to the neighbours." + +"I am glad, for I decided upon taking the Washington Square rooms, +instead of moving up nearer the Clubs as my friends advised, because I +thought it would be so much more convenient if, in proof correcting, I +should require to consult you hastily." + +Miss Lavinia felt a pleasurable flush rising to her cheeks, when it was +chilled by the memory of her invitation to her cousin Lydia. Why had she +given it? Then the realization that a third party would be unwelcome to +her made the flush return and deepen. + + * * * * * + +"Uncle Martin, where is your Mrs.? Barbara said I'd have to ask you +'cause she didn't know," suddenly asked Ian's voice, so close behind +them that they both started. He had been up in the attic to get some of +his precious cards, one of which he now held in front of Martin +Cortright's gaze. + +"My Mrs.! Why, what do you mean?" he asked in uncomprehending +astonishment, taking the boy on his knee; but when the little scamp had +explained, the stupidest person in the world could not plead ignorance. + +"And," Ian continued, "Dick and me thought that p'r'aps if your Mrs. and +Aunt Lavinia's Mr. had got lost together we could find them for you, and +then there'd be two more weddings with pink ice cream. We're going to +look this afternoon, and we're going to ask Martha to help us, 'cause she +found her Mr. after he'd been lost a great while, Effie says." + +"And he was right here in the place, too," chimed in Richard, "only he +didn't seem to see her, so p'r'aps yours aren't far off, and we might get +them in time to have the wedding to-night before you go. Wouldn't you +like to be in a wedding, Aunt Lavinia?" + +"Mercy no, child, I'm too old!" she ejaculated, now as red as a +Jacqueminot rose, while the boys ran off in the direction of Martha's, to +ask her where it was best to begin this important quest, the prize for +which was pink ice cream. + +Miss Lavinia did not look up for a moment, and when she did she found +Martin's eyes fastened on her face, and in them a strange +enlightenment that shook her like an electric bolt, as he arose and +stood before her, saying:-- + +"You need never be old. Some prefer June strawberries and others +September peaches, that is all. When once in June I thought to gather the +strawberries, I found they belonged to another, for I loved your friend, +who was Barbara's mother." + +"And I loved your friend, who is Barbara's father," Miss Lavinia said, +rising and facing him. + +"As they married each other, why may not we? I know now why my work has +prospered this summer and why life seems good again. Ian's little fancy +shows me the truth." + +"Our Mr. and Mrs. were not far off, then," said she, laying her hand on +his, while she looked into his face with one of those rare smiles of +unreserved confidence that makes Lavinia Dorman more fascinating than +half the younger women that I know. + +After a moment of romance they waked up to the fact of the present and +its comical aspect; the boys' talk of weddings brought that necessary +episode quickly before them. + +"May I tell the Doctor when he returns? Shall we tell them all?" asked +Martin, eagerly, and Miss Lavinia sat suddenly down again and realized +that she still was in the world of responsibilities. + +"I think I would rather wait and do it all at once, after--after the pink +ice-cream," she said, as he laughed at her hesitation over the word. "I +don't like keeping it from Barbara, but I'm so tired of talk and fuss and +feathers and Mrs. Grundy." "Then let us get it quietly over next week, +or tomorrow, if you say, unless you wish time to feel sure, or perhaps to +think it over," said Martin, with enthusiasm. + +"Time to think it over!" cried Miss Lavinia, springing lightly to her +feet. "No, I'm sure I don't wish to think, I want to act--to do things my +own way and give no one a chance to speak until it is done. What have I +been doing all my life but thinking, and waiting for it to be a +convenient and suitable time for me to do this or that, wondering what +others will think if I do or don't; thinking that the disagreeable was +duty, often simply because it was disagreeable. Surely you have been +hampered by this perpetual thinking too, and watching the thumb of custom +to see if it pointed up or down. No, I'm done with it. We've agreed to be +married, so why not this very afternoon, and have the wedding over before +you go, as the boys suggested?" + +"The best possible idea, though I should have hardly dared suggest it," +said Martin, tramping to and fro in excitement. "How shall we manage? Go +down here to the rectory?" + +"I would rather go over to town," said Miss Lavinia, beginning, in +spite of herself, to realize difficulties. "We do not know who might +drop in here." + +"Very well," said Martin, decisively, looking at his watch. "I have it! +Timothy is off to-day; I will harness the grays to the stanhope, as we +can't wait to send to the stable, and we will drive over the back way by +the Ridge and be home again by dinner time. The rector of All Saints' was +a classmate of mine, and I met him again only the other day, so we shall +have no trouble there." + +"Are you sure you can harness the horses properly?" asked Miss Lavinia, +with characteristic caution, and then smiling at herself, as Martin +hurried off to the stable. + + * * * * * + +In less than twenty minutes the sober gray horses turned out of the +stable yard and up the road upon the most remarkable trip of their +career. Nothing strange was noticeable about the turnout, except that the +traces hung a trifle loose, and that the occupants sat unusually far back +under the hood for so pleasant an afternoon. That is, until after they +had passed Martha's house in the lane and turned into the unfrequented +back highway, then they both leaned forward, gave a sigh of relief, and, +looking at each other, laughed aloud. + +"Do you realize that we are eloping, like runaway school children?" said +Miss Lavinia, "we two hitherto sober-minded Knickerbockers?" + +"I realize that I like what we are doing very much, whatever it may be +called," replied Martin, "and that it is very considerate of you to spare +me and do it in this way. The conventional affair is very hard on a man +of my years, all of whose contemporaries are either bald or rheumatic; +besides, now I think of it, it is merely carrying out the ever-present +precedent. My father's great-great-grand father and mother eloped in +1689 from Staten Island to the Bouerie, and the boat upset when they +were going back." + +"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Miss Lavinia, "I hope we shall not upset! I +wonder if the wheels are on securely. I thought I heard something rattle. +There it is again." + +As they reached the bottom of the long hill, Martin let the reins hang +loose on the horses' necks and, lowering the hood, looked back to see if +he could find the cause of the jolting sound, accompanied by panting, as +of a dog running. Then he gave an exclamation of impatience, and pulled +the horses up short, for there, alternately running and lifting up their +feet and swinging, were the twins, clinging to the back of the gig! + +Miss Lavinia gave a cry of dismay. "Where did you come from, and where +are you going?" she questioned rather sharply. "We went to Martha's, you +know," said Ian, as if his errand had been one of such importance that it +was impossible she should forget it, "and she wasn't there, so we thought +we'd just look for those people we said about, by ourselves. But we +couldn't find anybody, only a shiny black snake by the road, and he +rubber-necked at us and spit some 'fore he ran away. Then we saw +grandpop's horses coming, and when you went by we hooked on, and--" + +"'Cause we thought if you was looking for those people and found them, +then we'd be there for the pink ice cream," added Richard, cheerfully, +supplementing Ian's story when his breath gave out. + +"I suppose we must turn around and take them home," said Miss Lavinia, +with a sigh. + +"Not a bit of it. Let them come with us; it is too late to turn back, +unless," he added, with a ring of mock humility in his tone, "you have +changed your mind and wish time to think. As for me, I've turned my back +on even thinking whether they will be missed or who will worry. + +"Scramble in, boys, and curl up here in front. You are just in time; two +of these people you were searching for are going to be married this +afternoon. We are going to the wedding, and you shall be best men," and +the boys settled down, chuckling and whispering, but presently Ian +looked up, as light dawned, and cried: "I spy! It's you, Uncle Martin, +and Aunt Lavinia is your Mrs., only you couldn't find her all summer till +to-day," and he hugged his friend around the legs, which were all he +could reach, but Richard leaned backward until his head rested on Miss +Lavinia's knees, and he reached up his cooing lips to be kissed. + +The rest of the ride to town was uneventful, except that when they +reached the outskirts they met Jenks-Smith's coach loaded with Whirlpool +people, but the Lady of the Bluffs saw nothing strange in the +combination, and merely shook her parasol at them, calling, "I'm sorry to +hear you're flitting, just when it's getting lively again, too!" + +Fortunately the rector of All Saints' was at home, likewise the requisite +number of his family, for witnesses. Then it transpired that the couple +had never thought of the ring, and while Martin went out to buy one, Miss +Lavinia was left sitting on the edge of a very stiff sofa with a boy on +either side of her, with the Rectory family drawn up opposite like an +opposing force, which did not encourage easy conversation. + +However, the agony was soon over, and the bride and groom left, +Martin giving his old classmate, to whom the world had been +penurious, a hand-shake that, when examined by the breathless family +a few moments later, was found to yield at least a new parlour +carpet, an easy-chair for the Rector's bent back, and a new clerical +suit to cover his gaunt frame. + +"Now comes the pink ice cream," sang Ian, dancing a-tiptoe as they +reached the street; and there being but one good restaurant in town, on +the high street, next to the saddler's shop where the red goat harness +was still displayed, the party drove there, and the pink ice cream was +eaten, good and full measure thereof, while on their way out the coveted +goat harness found itself being taken from the window to be packed away +under the seat of the gig. + + * * * * * + +It was almost dinner time when father and I returned to-night, and the +boys were squeezed together in a chair on the piazza, close to Miss +Lavinia, while Martin sat near by on the balustrade. The boys were in a +great state of giggles, and kept clapping their hands to their mouths as +if they feared something would escape. I hurried upstairs, not wishing to +make dinner late, as I knew Martin expected to take the nine o'clock +train, just as father came in saying that Timothy had returned, and that +he found the horses in a wonderful sweat, and feared they were sick, as +they hadn't been out all day. + +By this time we were in the hall and walking toward the dining room. +Martin stopped short, as if to say something, and then changed his mind, +while a bumping at the pantry door attracted the attention of us all. + +Out came Ian, a portion of the goat harness on his head and shoulders, +followed by Richard, around whose neck the reins were fastened, and +between them they carried the great heavy silver tea-tray only used on +state occasions. In the centre of it rested a pink sofa pillow, upon +which some small, flat object like a note was lying. + +They came straight across the hall, halting in front of me, and saying +earnestly, "We didn't ask for the harness, but Uncle Martin says that +people always give their best mens presents." I looked at him for a +second, not understanding, then Evan, with a curious twinkle in his eye, +strode across, whispering to me, "The Deluge," as he picked up the card +and read aloud, "Mr. and Mrs. Martin Cortright!" It was the card that +Richard had printed several days before and carried in strange company in +his warm, mussy little pocket ever since. + +There was tense silence, and then a shout, as Martin took his wife's hand +that wore the wedding ring and laid it on mine; then he and father +fairly hugged each other, for father did not forget those long-ago days +of the strawberries that Martin could not gather. + +When the excitement had subsided and dinner was over, Martha and Tim, to +whom the horse matter had been explained, came over to offer their +congratulations,--at least Martha did. Timothy merely grinned, and, to +the best of my belief, winked slyly at Martin, as much as to say, "We may +be long in knowing our minds, but when we men are ready, the weemen fair +tumble over us." + +"Indeed, mum, but I wish you joy, and that he'll lead you as easy a life +as Tim'thy here does me, 'deed I do, and _no_ disrespeck intended," was +Martha's parting sentence; and then our wonder as to whether Martin was +going to town, or what, was cut short by his rising, looking at his +watch, and saying in the most matter-of-fact way to Lavinia: "Is your bag +ready? You know we leave in an hour." + +"Does Lucy expect you?" I ventured to ask. + +"Oh no, I shall not trouble her until the day appointed. We shall go to +the Manhattan, I think." + +"How about your cousin Lydia?" asked father, who could not resist a +chance to tease. + +"I forgot all about her!" exclaimed poor Lavinia, clasping her hands +tragically and looking really conscience-stricken. "And I," said Evan, +who had suddenly jumped up and rammed his hand into his side pocket, +"forgot to post your letter to her!" + + * * * * * + +_October_ 31. We have all been to New York to visit the runaway +Cortrights, as Evan calls them, now that they are settled, and it is +pleasant to see that so much belated happiness is possible. The fate of +Lavinia's house is definitely arranged; they will remain in "Greenwich +Village," in spite of all advice to move up in town. The defunct back +yard is being covered by an extension that will give Martin a fine +library, with a side window and a scrap of balcony, while the ailantus +tree is left, that bob-tailed Josephus may not be deprived of the feline +pleasures of the street or his original way of reaching it over the side +fence; and the flower garden that was, will be the foundation of a garden +of books under the kindly doctrine of compensation. + +Above is to be a large guest room for Sylvia and Horace, or Evan and me, +so that there will be room in plenty when by and by we bring the boys to +see our New York. + +Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who has formed a sincere attachment to Lavinia +Cortright, did all in her power to persuade her to be her neighbour up in +town, offering a charming house at a bargain and many advantages. +Finally becoming piqued at the refusal, she said:-- + +"Why will you be so stupid? Don't you know that this out-of-the-way +street is in the social desert?" + +"It may be in a desert, as you say," said Lavinia, gently, "but we mean +at least to make it an oasis for our friends who are weary of the +whirling of the pool." + + * * * * * + +We stood looking at the boys as they slept tonight. Strange thoughts will +crop up at times most unexpectedly. Horns blowing on the highway +proclaimed the late arrival of a coaching party at the Bluffs. "Would you +like to have money if you could, and go about the world when and where +you please?" I asked Evan, but he, shaking his head, drew me towards him, +answering my question with another-- + +"Would you, or why do you ask?" + +I never thought that Mrs. Jenks-Smith's stricture would turn to a +prayer upon my lips, but before I knew it I whispered, "God keep us +comfortably poor." + +Then Ian, feeling our presence, raised himself in sleepy leisure, and +nestling his cheek against my dress said, "Barbara, _please_ give Ian a +drink of water." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEOPLE OF THE WHIRLPOOL *** + + +******* This file should be named 11561.txt or 11561.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/5/6/11561 + + +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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