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diff --git a/old/12104-8.txt b/old/12104-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52181b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12104-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11291 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ethelyn's Mistake, by Mary Jane Holmes + +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: Ethelyn's Mistake + +Author: Mary Jane Holmes + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12104] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHELYN'S MISTAKE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Charlie Kirschner and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +ETHELYN'S + +MISTAKE + + +BY + +MRS. MARY J. HOLMES + +AUTHOR OF "MILDRED; OR, THE CHILD OF ADOPTION," "MISS +MC'DONALD," "TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE," "ENGLISH +ORPHANS," "EDITH LYLE'S SECRET," "THE +LEIGHTON HOMESTEAD," "MILLBANK; +OR, ROGER IRVING'S WARD," ETC. + + + + +MARY J. HOLMES SERIES + + +UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME +By MARY J. HOLMES + + +Aikenside. +Bad Hugh. +Cousin Maude. +Darkness and Daylight. +Dora Deane. +Edith Lyle's Secret. +English Orphans, The. +Ethelyn's Mistake. +Family Pride. +Homestead on the Hillside, The. +Hugh Worthington. +Leighton Homestead, The. +Lena Rivers. +Maggie Miller. +Marion Grey. +Meadow Brook. +Mildred; or, The Child of Adoption. +Millbank; or, Roger +Irving's Ward. +Miss McDonald. +Rector of St. Marks, The. +Rosamond. +Rose Mather. +Tempest and Sunshine. + + +_Price, postpaid, 50c. each, or any three +books for $1.25_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. ETHELYN. + II. THE VAN BUREN SET. + III. RICHARD MARKHAM. + IV. THE BRIDAL. + V. THE HONEYMOON. + VI. MRS. MARKHAM'S WAYS. + VII. GETTING HOME. + VIII. ANDY. + IX. DINNER, AND AFTER IT. + X. FIRST DAYS IN OLNEY. + XI. CALLS AND VISITING. + XII. SOCIETY. + XIII. GOING TO WASHINGTON. + XIV. THE FIRST DAY OF RICHARD'S ABSENCE. + XV. ANDY TRIES TO FIND THE ROOT OF THE MATTER. + XVI. WASHINGTON. + XVII. RICHARD'S HEIR. + XVIII. DAYS OF CONVALESCENCE. + XIX. COMING TO A CRISIS. + XX. THE CRISIS. + XXI. THE RESULT. + XXII. ETHIE'S LETTERS. + XXIII. THE DESERTED HUSBAND. + XXIV. THE INVESTIGATION. + XXV. IN CHICOPEE. + XXVI. WATCHING AND WAITING. + XXVII. AFFAIRS AT OLNEY. + XXVIII. THE GOVERNOR. + XXIX. AFTER YEARS OF WAITING. + XXX. ETHIE'S SIC. + XXXI. MRS. DR. VAN BUREN. + XXXII. CLIFTON. + XXXIII. THE OCCUPANT OF NO. 102. + XXXIV. IN RICHARD'S ROOM. + XXXV. MRS. PETER PRY TAKES A PACK. + XXXVI. IN DAVENPORT. + XXXVII. AT HOME. +XXXVIII. RICHARD AND ETHELYN. + XXXIX. RECONCILIATION. + + + + +ETHELYN'S MISTAKE + +CHAPTER I + +ETHELYN + +There was a sweet odor of clover blossoms in the early morning air, and +the dew stood in great drops upon the summer flowers, and dropped from +the foliage of the elm trees which skirted the village common. There was +a cloud of mist upon the meadows, and the windings of the river could be +distinctly traced by the white fog which curled above it. But the fog +and the mists were rolling away as the warm June sun came over the +eastern hills, and here and there signs of life were visible in the +little New England town of Chicopee, where our story opens. The +mechanics who worked in the large shoe-shop halfway down Cottage Row had +been up an hour or more, while the hissing of the steam which carried +the huge manufactory had been heard since the first robin peeped from +its nest in the alders down by the running brook; but higher up, on +Bellevue Street, where the old inhabitants lived, everything was quiet, +and the loamy road, moist and damp with the dews of the previous night, +was as yet unbroken by the foot of man or rut of passing wheel. + +The people who lived there, the Mumfords, and the Beechers, and the +Grangers, and the Thorns, did not strictly belong to the working class. +They held stocks in railroads, and mortgages on farms, and so could +afford to sleep after the shrill whistle from the manufactory had +wakened the echoes of the distant hills and sounded across the waters +of Pordunk Pond. Only one dwelling here showed signs of life, and that +the large square building, shaded in front with elms and ornamented at +the side with a luxuriant queen of the prairie, whose blossoms were +turning their blushing faces to the rising sun. This was the Bigelow +house, the joint property of Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, née Sophia Bigelow, who +lived in Boston, and her sister, Miss Barbara Bigelow, the quaintest and +kindest-hearted woman who ever bore the sobriquet of an old maid, and +was aunt to everybody. She was awake long before the whistle sounded +across the river and along the meadow lands, where some of the workmen +lived, and just as the robin, whose nest for four summers had been under +the eaves where neither boy nor cat could reach it, brought the first +worm to its clamorous young, she pushed the fringed curtain from her +open window, and with her broad frilled cap still on her head, stood for +a moment looking out upon the morning as it crept up the eastern sky. +"She will have a nice day for her wedding. May her future life be as +fair," Aunt Barbara whispered softly, then kneeling before the window +with her head bowed upon the sill, she prayed earnestly for God's +blessing on the bridal to take place that night beneath her roof, and +upon the young girl who had been both a care and a comfort since the +Christmas morning eighteen years before, when her half-sister Julia had +come home to die, bringing with her the little Ethelyn, then but two +years old. + +Aunt Barbara's prayers were always to the point. She said what she had +to say in the fewest possible words, wasting no time in repetition, and +on this occasion she was briefer than usual, for the good woman had many +things upon her mind this morning. First, there was Betty to rouse and +get into a state of locomotion, a good half hour's work, as Aunt Barbara +knew from a three years' experience. There was the "sponge" put to rise +the previous night. She must see if that had risen, and with her own +hands mold the snowy breakfast rolls which Ethelyn liked so much. There +were the chambers to be inspected a second time, to ascertain if +everything was in its place, and dinner to be prepared for the "Van +Buren set" expected up from Boston, while last, though far from least, +there was Ethelyn herself to waken when the clock should chime the hour +of six, and this was a pleasure which good Aunt Barbara would not for +the world have foregone. Every morning for the last sixteen years, when +Ethelyn was at home, she had gone to the pleasant, airy chamber where +her darling slept, and bending over her had kissed her fair, glowing +cheek, and so called her back from the dreamless slumber which otherwise +might have been prolonged to an indefinite time, for Ethelyn did not +believe in the maxim, "Early to bed and early to rise," and always +begged for a little more indulgence, even after the brown eyes unclosed +and flashed forth a responsive greeting to the motherly face bending +above them. + +This morning, however, it was not needful that Aunt Barbara should waken +her, for long before the robin sang, or the white-fringed curtain had +been pushed aside from Aunt Barbara's window, she was awake, and the +brown eyes, which had in them a strange expression for a bride's eyes to +wear, had scanned the eastern horizon wistfully, aye, drearily it may +be, to see if it were morning, and when the clock in the kitchen struck +four, the quivering lip had whispered, oh, so sadly, "Sixteen hours +more, only sixteen," and with a little shiver the bed-clothes had been +drawn more closely around the plump shoulders, and the troubled face had +nestled down among the pillows to smother the sigh which never ought to +have come from a maiden's lips upon her wedding day. The chamber of the +bride-elect was a pleasant one, large and airy and high, with windows +looking out upon the Chicopee hills, and from which Ethelyn had many a +time watched the fading of the purplish twilight as, girl-like, she +speculated upon the future and wondered what it might have in store for +her. One leaf of the great book had been turned and lay open to her +view, but she shrank away from what was written there, and wished so +much that the record were otherwise. Upon the walls of Ethelyn's chamber +many pictures were hung, some in water colors, which she had done +herself in the happy schooldays which now seemed so far away, and some +in oil, mementos also of those days. Pictures, too, there were of +people, one of dear Aunt Barbara, whose kindly face was the first to +smile on Ethelyn when she woke, and whose patient, watchful eyes seemed +to keep guard over her while she slept. Besides Aunt Barbara's picture +there was another one, a fair, boyish face, with a look not wholly +unlike Ethelyn, herself, save that it lacked the firmness and decision +which were so apparent in the proud curve of her lip and the flash of +her brown eyes. Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with something feminine in +every feature, it seemed preposterous that the original could ever make +a young girl's heart ache as Ethelyn Grant's was aching that June +morning, when, taking the small oval frame from the wall, she kissed it +passionately, and then thrust it away into the bureau drawer, which held +other relics than the oval frame. It was, in fact, the grave of +Ethelyn's buried hopes--the tomb she had sworn never to unlock again; +but now, as her fingers lingered a moment amid the mementos of the years +when, in her girlish ignorance, she had been so happy, she felt her +resolution giving way, and sitting down upon the floor, with her long +hair unfastened and falling loosely about her, she bowed her head over +buried treasures, and dropped into their grave the bitterest tears she +had ever shed. Then, as there swept over her some better impulse, +whispering of the wrong she was doing to her promised husband, she said: + +"I will not leave them here to madden me again some other day. I will +burn them, every one." + +There were matches within her reach, while the little fireplace was not +far away, and, sitting just where she was, Ethelyn Grant burned one +after another, letters and notes, some directed in schoolboy style, and +others showing a manlier hand, as the dates grew more recent and the +envelopes bore a more modern and fashionable look. Over one, the +freshest and the last, Ethelyn lingered a moment, her eyes growing dark +with passion, and her lips twitching nervously as she read: + +"BOSTON, April-- + +"Dear Ethie: I reckon mother is right, after all. She generally is, you +know, so we may as well be resigned, and believe it wicked for cousins +to marry each other. Of course I can never like Nettie as I have liked +you, and I feel a twinge every time I remember the dear old times. But +what must be must, and there's no use fretting. Do you remember old +Colonel Markham's nephew from out West--the one who wore the short pants +and the rusty crape on his hat when he visited his uncle, in Chicopee, +some years ago? I mean the chap who helped you over the fence the time +you stole the colonel's apples. He has become a member of Congress, and +quite a big gun for the West, at least, mother thinks. He called on her +to-day with a message from Mrs. Woodhull, but I did not see him. He goes +up to Chicopee to-morrow, I believe. He is looking for a wife, they say, +and mother thinks it would be a good match for you, as you could go to +Washington next winter and queen it over them all. But don't, Ethie, +don't for thunder's sake! It fairly makes me faint to think of you +belonging to another, even though you may never belong to me. Yours +always, Frank." + +There was a dark, defiant look in Ethelyn's face as she applied the +match to this letter, and then watched it blacken and crisp upon the +hearth. How well she remembered the day when she received it--the dark, +dismal April day, when the rain which dropped so fast from the leaden +clouds, seemed weeping for her, who could not weep then, so complete was +her humiliation, so utter her desolation. That was not quite three +months ago, and so much had happened since then as the result of that +M.C.'s visit to Chicopee. He was there again, this morning, an inmate of +the great yellow house, with the large, old-fashioned brass knocker, +and, by just putting aside her curtain, Ethelyn could see the very +window of the chamber where he slept. But Ethelyn had other matters in +hand, and if she thought at all of that window whose shutters were +rarely opened except when Colonel Markham had, as now, an honored +guest, it was with a faint shudder of terror, and she went on destroying +mementos which were only a mockery of the past. One little note, the +first ever received from Frank, after a, memorable morning in the +huckleberry hills, she could not burn. It was only a line, and, if read +by a stranger, would convey no particular meaning; so she laid it aside +with the lock of light, soft hair, which clung to her fingers with a +kind of caressing touch, and brought to her hot eyelids a mist which +cooled their feverish heat. And now nothing remained of the treasures +but a tiny tortoise-shell box, where, in its bed of pink cotton, lay a +little ring, with "Ethie" marked upon it. It was too small for the +finger it once encircled, for Ethel was but a child when first she wore +it. Her hands were larger; plumper, now, and it would not pass the +second joint of her finger, though she exerted all her strength to push +it on, taking a kind of savage delight in the pain it caused her, and +feeling that she was thus revenging herself on someone, she hardly knew +or cared whom. At last, however, with a quick, jerking motion she drew +it off, and covering her face with her hands, moaned bitterly: + +"It hurts! it hurts! just as the bonds hurt which are closing around my +heart. Oh! Frank, Frank, it was cruel to serve me so." + +There was a step in the hall below. Aunt Barbara was coming to waken +Ethelyn, and, with a spring, the young girl bounded to her feet, swept +her hands twice across her face, and, shedding back from her forehead +her wealth of bright brown hair, laughingly confronted the good woman, +who, in the same breath, expressed her surprise that her niece was once +up without being called, and her wonder at the peculiar odor pervading +the apartment. + +"Smells if all the old newspapers in the barrel up garret had been burnt +at once," she said; but the fireplace, which lay in shadow, told no +tales, and Aunt Barbara never suspected the pain tugging at the heart of +the girl, whose cheeks glowed with an unnatural red as she dashed hot +water over neck, and arms, and face, playfully plashing a few large +drops upon her aunt's white apron, and asking if there was not an old +adage, "Blessed is the bride the sun shines on." "If so, I must be +greatly blessed," she said, pushing open the eastern shutter, and +letting in a flood of yellow sunlight. + +"The day bids fair to be a scorcher. I hope it will grow cool this +evening. A crowded party is so terrible when one feels hot and +uncomfortable, and the millers and horn-bugs come in so thickly, and I +always get so red in the face. Please, auntie, you twist up my hair in a +flat knot--no matter how. I don't seem to have any strength in my arms +this morning, and my head is all in a whirl. It must be the weather," +and, with a long, panting breath, Ethelyn sank, half fainting, into a +chair, while her frightened aunt ran for water, and camphor, and +cologne, hoping Ethelyn was not coming down with fever, or any other +dire complaint, on this her wedding day. + +"It is the weather, most likely, and the awful amount of sewing you've +done these last few weeks," said Aunt Barbara; and Ethelyn suffered her +to think so, though she herself had a far different theory with regard +to that almost fainting fit, which served as an excuse for her unusual +pallor, for her listless apathy, and her want of appetite, even for the +flaky rolls, and the delicious strawberries, and thick, yellow cream +which Aunt Barbara put before her. + +She was not hungry, she said, as she turned over the berries with her +spoon, and pecked at the snowy rolls. By and by she might want +something, perhaps, and then Betty would make her a slice of toast to +stay her stomach till the late dinner they were to have on Aunt Van +Buren's account--that lady always professing to be greatly shocked at +the early dinners in Chicopee, and generally managing, during her visits +home, to change entirely the ways and customs of Aunt Barbara Bigelow's +well-ordered household. + +"I wish she was not coming, or anybody else. Getting married is a bore!" +Ethelyn exclaimed, while Aunt Barbara looked curiously enough at her, +wondering, for the first time, if the girl's heart were really in this +marriage, which for weeks had been agitating the feminine portion of +Chicopee, and for which so great preparations had been made. + +Wholly honest and truthful and sincere herself, Aunt Barbara seldom +suspected wrong in others, and so when Ethelyn, one April night, after a +drive around the road which encircles Pordunk Pond, came to her and +said, "Congratulate me, auntie, I am to be Mrs. Judge Markham," she had +believed all was well, and that as sister Sophia Van Buren, of Boston, +had so often averred, there was not, nor ever had been, anything serious +between dandyish Frank, Mrs. Van Buren's only son, who parted his curly +hair in the middle, and the high-spirited, impulsive Ethelyn, whose eyes +shone like stars as she told of her engagement, and whose hand was icy +cold as she held it up to the lamp-light to show the large diamond which +flashed from the fourth finger as proof of what she said. The stone +itself was of the first water, but the setting was old, so old that a +connoisseur in such matters might wonder why Judge Markham had chosen +such a ring as the seal of his betrothal. Ethelyn knew why, and the +softest, kindliest feeling she had experienced for her promised husband +was awakened when he told her of the fair young sister whose name was +Daisy, and who for many years had slept on the Western prairie beneath +the blossoms whose name she bore. This young girl, loving God with all +her soul, loved too all the beautiful things he had made, and rejoiced +in them as so much given her to enjoy. Brought up in the far West, where +the tastes of the people were simpler than those of our Eastern +neighbors, it was strange, he said, how strong a passion she possessed +for gems and precious stones, especially the diamond. To have for her +own a ring like one she once saw upon a grand Chicago lady was her great +ambition, and knowing this the brother hoarded carefully his own +earnings, until enough was saved to buy the coveted ring, which he +brought to his young sister on her fourteenth birthday. But death even +then had cast its shadow around her, and the slender fingers soon grew +too small for the ring, which she nevertheless kept constantly by her, +admiring its brilliancy, and flashing it in the sunlight for the sake of +the rainbow hues it gave. And when, at last, she lay dying in her +brother's arms, with her golden head upon his breast, she had given back +the ring, and said, "I am going, Richard, where there are far more +beautiful things than this: 'for eye hath not seen, neither hath it +entered into the heart of man, the things prepared for those who love +Him,' and I do love Him, brother, oh! so much, and feel His arms around +me now as sensibly as I feel yours. His will stay after yours are +removed, and I am done with earth; but keep the ring, Brother Dick, and +when in after years you love some pure young girl as well as you love +me, only different--some girl who will prize such things, and is worthy +of it--give it to her, and tell her it was Daisy's; tell her for me, and +that I bade her love you, as you deserve to be loved." + +All this Richard Markham had said to Ethelyn as they stood for a few +minutes upon the beach of the pond, with its waters breaking softly upon +the sands at their feet, and the young spring moon shining down upon +them like Daisy's eyes, as the brother described them when they last +looked on him. There was a picture of Daisy in their best room at home, +an oil painting made by a traveling artist, Richard said, and some day +Ethelyn would see it, for she had promised to be his wife, and the +engagement ring--Daisy's ring--was on her finger, sparkling in the +moonbeam, just as it used to sparkle when the dead girl held it in the +light. It was a superb diamond--even Frank, with all his fastidiousness, +would admit that, Ethelyn thought, her mind more, alas! on Frank and his +opinion than on what her lover was saying to her, of his believing that +she was pure and good as Daisy could have desired, that Daisy would +approve his choice, if she only knew, as perhaps she did; he could not +help feeling that she was there with them, looking into their +hearts--that the silvery light resting so calmly on the silent water was +the halo of her invisible presence blessing their betrothal. This was a +good deal for Richard Markham to say, for he was not given to poetry, or +sentiment, or imagery, but Ethelyn's face and Ethelyn's eyes had played +strange antics with the staid, matter-of-fact man of Western Iowa, and +stirred his blood as it had never been stirred before. He did fancy his +angel-sister was there; but when he said so to Ethelyn she started with +a shiver, and asked to be driven home, for she did not care to have even +dead eyes looking into her heart, where the fires of passion were +surging and swelling, like some hidden volcano, struggling to be free. +She knew she was doing wrong--knew she was not the pure maiden whom +Daisy would have chosen--was not worthy to be the bride of Daisy's +brother; but she must do something or die, and as she did not care to +die, she pledged her hand with no heart in it, and hushing the voice of +conscience clamoring so loudly against what she was doing, walked back +across the yellow sand, beneath the spring moonlight, to where the +carriage waited, and, in comparative silence, was driven to Aunt +Barbara's gate. + +This was the history of the ring, and here, as well as elsewhere, we may +tell Ethelyn's history up to the time when, on her bridal day, she sat +with Aunt Barbara at the breakfast table, idly playing with her spoon +and occasionally sipping the fragrant coffee. The child of Aunt +Barbara's half-sister, she inherited none of the so-called Bigelow +estate which had come to the two daughters, Aunt Barbara and Aunt +Sophia, from their mother's family. But the Bigelow blood of which Aunt +Sophy Van Buren was so proud was in her veins, and so to this aunt she +was an object of interest, and even value, though not enough so to +warrant that lady in taking her for her own when, eighteen years before +our story opens, her mother, Mrs. Julia Bigelow Grant, had died. This +task devolved on Aunt Barbara, whose great motherly heart opened at once +to the little orphan who had never felt a mother's loss, so faithful and +true had Aunt Barbara been to her trust. Partly because she did not wish +to seem more selfish than her sister, and partly because she really +liked the bright, handsome child who made Aunt Barbara's home so cheery, +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren of Boston, insisted upon superintending the little +Ethelyn's education, and so, when only twelve years of age, Ethelyn was +taken from the old brick house under the elms, which Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +of Boston despised as the "district school where Tom, Dick, and Harry +congregated," and transplanted to the highly select and very expensive +school taught by Madame--, in plain sight of Beacon Street and Boston +Common. And so, as Ethelyn increased in stature, she grew also in wisdom +and knowledge, both of books and manners, and the style of the great +world around her. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's house was the resort both of the +fashionable and literary people, with a sprinkling of the religious, for +the great lady affected everything which could effect her interest. +Naturally generous, her name was conspicuous on all subscription lists +and charitable associations, while the lady herself owned a pew in---- +Church, where she was a regular attendant, together with her only son, +Frank, who was taught to kneel and respond in the right places and bow +in the creed, and then, after church, required to give a synopsis of the +sermon, by way of proving that his mind had not been running off after +the dancing school he attended during the week, under his mother's +watchful supervision. Mrs. Van Buren meant to be a model mother, and +bring up her boy as a model man, and so she gave him every possible +advantage of books and teachers, while far in the future floated the +possibility that she might some day reign at the White House, not as the +President's wife--this could not be, she knew, for the man who had made +her Mrs. Dr. Van Buren of Boston slept in the shadow of a very tall +monument out at Mount Auburn, and the turf was growing fresh and green +over his head. So if she went to Washington, as she fondly hoped she +might, it would be as the President's mother; but when examination after +examination found Frank at the foot of his class, and teacher after +teacher said he could not learn, she gave up the presidential chair, and +contenting herself with a seat in Congress, asked that great pains +should be taken to bring out the talent for debate and speech-making +which she was sure Frank possessed; but when even this failed, and +nineteen times out of twenty Frank could get no farther than "My name +is Norval, on the Grampian Hills," she yielded the M.C. too, and set +herself to make him a gentleman, polished, refined, and cultivated--one, +in short, who was au fait with all that fashionable society required; +and here she succeeded better. Frank was perfectly at home on the +dancing floor or in the saloons of gaiety, or the establishment of a +fashionable tailor, so that when Ethelyn, at twelve, went down to +Boston, she found her tall, slender, light-haired cousin of sixteen a +perfect dandy, with a capability and a disposition to criticise and +laugh at whatever there was of gaucherie in her country manners and +country dress. In some things the two were of mutual benefit to each +other. Ethelyn, who could conquer any lesson however difficult, helped +thick-headed, indolent Frank in his studies, translating his hard +passages in Virgil, working out his problems in mathematics, and even +writing, or at least revising and correcting, his compositions, while he +in return gave her lessons in etiquette as practiced by the Boston +girls, teaching her how to polka a waltz gracefully, so he would not be +ashamed to introduce her as his cousin, he said, at the children's +parties which they attended together. It was not strange that Frank Van +Buren should admire a girl as bright and piquant and pretty as his +cousin Ethelyn, but it was strange that she should idolize him, bearing +patiently with all his criticisms, trying hard to please him, and +feeling more than repaid for her exertions by a word of praise or +commendation from her exacting teacher, who, viewing her at first as a +poor relation, was inclined to be exacting, if not overbearing, in his +demands. But as time passed on all this was changed, and the +well-developed girl of fifteen, whom so many noticed and admired, would +no longer be patronized by the young man Frank, who, finding himself in +danger of being snubbed, as he termed Ethelyn's grand way of putting him +down, suddenly awoke to the fact that he loved his high-spirited cousin, +and he told her so one hazy day, when they were in Chicopee, and had +wandered up to a ledge of rocks in the huckleberry hills which +overlooked the town. + +"They might as well make a sure thing of it," he said, in his off-hand +way. "If she liked him and he liked her, they would clinch the bargain +at once, even if they were so young." And so, when they went down the +hill back to the shadow of the elm trees, where Mrs. Dr. Van Buren sat +cooling herself and reading "Vanity Fair," there was a tiny ring on +Ethelyn's finger, and she had pledged herself to be Frank's wife some +day in the future. + +Frank had promised to tell his mother, for Ethelyn would have no +concealment; and so, holding up her hand and pointing to the ring, he +said, more in jest than earnest: + +"Look, mother, Ethie and I are engaged. If you have any objections, +state them now, or ever after hold your peace." + +He did not think proper to explain either to his mother or Ethie that +this was his second serious entanglement, and that the ring had been +bought before for a pretty milliner girl, at least six years his senior, +whose acquaintance he had made at Nahant the summer previous, and whom +he had forgotten when he learned that to her taste his mother was +indebted for the stylish bonnet she sported every season. Frank +generally had some love affair in hand--it was a part of his nature; and +as he was not always careful in his choice, the mother had occasionally +felt a twinge of fear lest, after all her care, some terrible +mésalliance should be thrust upon her by her susceptible son. So she +listened graciously to the news of his betrothal--nay, she was pleased +with it, as for the time being it would divert his mind and keep him out +of mischief. That he would eventually marry Ethelyn was impossible, for +his bride must be rich; but Ethelyn answered the purpose now, and could +easily be disposed of when other and better game appeared. So the +scheming woman smiled, and said "it was not well for cousins to marry +and even if it were, they were both too young to know their minds, and +would do well to keep their engagement a secret for a time," and then +returned to Becky Sharp, while Frank went to sleep upon the lounge, and +Ethelyn stole off upstairs to dream over her happiness, which was as +real to her as such a thing could well be to an impulsive, womanly girl +of fifteen summers. She, at least, was in earnest, and as time passed on +Frank seemed to be in earnest, too, devoting himself wholly to his +cousin, whose influence over him was so great that he was fast becoming +what Aunt Barbara called a man, while his mother began again to have +visions of a seat in Congress, and brilliant speeches, which would find +their way to Boston and be read and admired in the circles in which +she moved. + +And so the days and years wore on until Frank was a man of +twenty-four--a third-rate practitioner, too, whose sign, "Frank Van +Buren, Attorney-at-law," etc., looked very fresh and respectable in +front of the office on Washington Street, and Frank himself began to +have thoughts of claiming Ethelyn's promise and having a home of his +own. He would not live with his mother, he said; it was more independent +to be alone; and then, from some things he had discovered in his +bride-elect, he had an uneasy feeling that possibly the brown of +Ethelyn's eyes might not wholly harmonize with the gray of his mother's, +"for Ethie was spunky as the old Nick," he argued with himself, while +"for perversity and self-conceit his mother could not be beaten." It was +better they should keep up two households, his mother seeing to both, +and if need be, supplying the wants of both. To do Frank justice, he had +some very correct notions with regard to domestic happiness, and had he +been poor and dependent upon his own exertions he might have been an +average husband; at least he would have gotten on well with Ethelyn, +whose stronger nature would have upheld his and been like a supporting +prop to a feeble timber. As it was, he drew many pleasing pictures of +the home which was to be his and Ethie's. Now it was in the city, near +to his mother's and Mrs. General Tophevie, his mother's intimate friend, +whose house was the open sesame to the crême de la crême of Boston +society; but oftener it was a rose-embowered cottage, of easy access to +the city, where he could have Ethie all to himself when his day's labor +was over, and where the skies would not be brighter than Ethie's eyes +as she welcomed him home at night, leaning over the gate in the pale +buff muslin he liked so much, with rosebuds in her hair. + +He had seen her thus so often in fancy, that the picture had become a +reality, and refused to be erased at once from the mental canvas, when, +in January, Miss Nettie Hudson, niece to Mrs. General Tophevie, came +from Philadelphia, and at once took prestige of everything on the +strength of the one hundred thousand dollars of which she was sole +heiress. The Hudson blood was a mixture of blacksmith's and shoemaker's, +and peddler's too, it was said; but that was far back in the past. The +Hudsons of the present day scarcely knew whether peddler were spelled +with two d's or one. They bought their shoes at the most fashionable +shops, and could, if they chose, have their horses shod with gold, and +so the handsome Nettie reigned supreme as belle. The moment Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren saw her, she recognized her daughter-in-law, the future Mrs. +Frank, and Ethie's fate was sealed. There had been times when Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren thought it possible that Ethelyn might, after all, be the most +favored of women, the wife of her son. These times were at Saratoga, and +Newport, and Nahant, where Ethelyn Grant was more sought after than any +young lady there, and where the proud woman herself took pride in +talking of "my niece," hinting once, when Ethelyn's star was at its +height, of a childish affaire du coeur between the young lady and her +son, and insinuating that it might yet amount to something. She changed +her mind when Nettie came with her one hundred thousand dollars, and +showed a willingness to be admired by Frank. That childish affaire du +coeur was a very childish affair, indeed; she never gave it a moment's +thought herself--she greatly doubted if Frank had ever been in earnest, +and if Ethelyn had led him into an entanglement, she would not, of +course, hold him to his promise if he wished to be released. He must +have a rich wife to support him in his refined tastes and luxurious +habits, for her own fortune was not so great as many supposed. She might +need it all herself, as she was far from being old, and then again it +was wicked for cousins to marry each other. It did not matter if the +mothers were only half-sisters; there was the same blood in the veins of +each, and it would not do at all, even if Ethelyn's affections were +enlisted, which Mrs. Van Buren greatly doubted. + +This was what Mrs. Dr. Van Buren said to Ethelyn, after a stormy +interview with Frank, who had at first sworn roundly that he would not +give Ethie up, then had thanked his mother not to meddle with his +business, then bidden her "go to thunder," and finally, between a cry +and a blubber, said he should always like Ethie best if he married a +hundred Netties. This was in the morning, and the afternoon train had +carried Mrs. Dr. Van Buren to Chicopee, where Ethelyn's glowing face +flashed a bright welcome when she came, but was white and pallid as the +face of a corpse when the voluminous skirts of Mrs. Van Buren's poplin +dress passed through the gate next day and disappeared in the direction +of the depot. Aunt Barbara was not at home--she had gone to visit a +friend in Albany; and so Ethelyn met and fought with her pain alone, +stifling it as best she could, and succeeding so well that Aunt Barbara, +on her return, never suspected the fierce storm which Ethelyn had passed +through during her absence, or dreamed how anxiously the young girl +watched and waited for some word from Frank which should say that he was +ready to defy his mother, and abide by his first promise. But no such +letter came, and at last, when she could bear the suspense no longer, +Ethelyn wrote herself to her recreant lover, asking if it were really so +that hereafter their lives lay apart from each other. If such was his +wish, she was content, she said, and Frank Van Buren, who could not +detect the air of superb scorn which breathed in every line of that +letter, felt somehow aggrieved that "Ethie should take it so easy," and +relieved too, that with her he should have no trouble, as he had +anticipated. He was getting used to Nettie, and getting to like her, +too, for her manner toward him was far more agreeable than Ethie's +brusque way of manifesting her impatience at his lack of manliness. It +was inexplicable how Ethie could care for one so greatly her inferior, +both mentally and physically, but it would seem that she loved him all +the more for the very weakness which made her nature a necessity of his, +and the bitterest pang she had ever felt came with the answer which +Frank sent back to her letter, and which the reader has seen. + + * * * * * + +It was all over now, settled, finished, and two days after she hunted up +Aunt Barbara's spectacles for her, and then sat very quiet while the old +lady read Aunt Sophia's letter, announcing Frank's engagement with Miss +Nettie Hudson, of Philadelphia. Aunt Barbara knew of Ethelyn's +engagement with Frank, but like her sister at the time of its +occurrence, she had esteemed it mere child's play. Later, however, as +she saw how they clung to each other, she had thought it possible that +something might come of it, but as Ethelyn was wholly reticent on that +subject, it had never been mentioned between them. When, however, the +news of Frank's second engagement came, Aunt Barbara looked over her +spectacles straight at the girl, who, for any sign she gave, might have +been a block of marble, so rigid was every muscle of her face, and even +the tone of her voice as she said: + +"I am glad Aunt Sophia is suited. Frank will be pleased with anything." + +"She does not care for him and I am glad, for he is not half smart +enough for her," was Aunt Barbara's mental comment, as she laid the +letter by for a second reading, and then told her niece, as the last +item of news, that old Captain Markham's nephew had come, and they were +making a great ado over him now that he was a member of Congress, and a +Judge, too. They had asked the Howells and Grangers and the Carters +there to tea for the next day, she said, adding that she and Ethelyn +were also invited. "They want to be polite to him," old Mrs. Markham +said. Aunt Barbara continued, "but for my part, if I were he, I should +not care much for politeness that comes so late. I remember when he was +here ten years ago, on such a matter, and they fairly acted as if they +were ashamed of him then; but titles make a difference. He's an +Honorable now, and the old Captain is mighty proud of him." + +What Aunt Barbara had said was strictly true, for there had been a time +when proud old Captain Markham ignored his brother's family living on +the far prairies of the West; but when the eldest son, Richard, called +for him, had become a growing man, as boys out West are apt to do, +rising from justice of the peace to a member of the State Legislature, +then to a judgeship, and finally to a seat in Congress, and all before +he was quite thirty-two, the Captain's tactics changed, and a most +cordial letter, addressed to "My dear nephew," and signed "Your +affectionate uncle," was sent to Washington, urging a visit from the +young man ere he returned to Iowa. + +And that was how Richard Markham, M.C., came to be in Chicopee at the +precise time when Ethelyn's heart was bleeding at every pore, and ready +to seize upon any new excitement which would divert it from its pain. +She remembered well the time he had once before visited Chicopee. She +was a little girl of ten, fleeing across the meadow-land from a maddened +cow, when a tall, athletic young man had come to her rescue, standing +between her and danger, helping her over the fence, picking up the apron +full of apples which she had been purloining from the Captain's orchard, +and even pinning together a huge rent made in her dress by catching it +upon a protruding splint as she sprang to the ground. She was too much +frightened to know whether he had been wholly graceful in his endeavors +to serve her, and too thankful for her escape to think that possibly her +torn dress was the result of his rather awkward handling. She remembered +only the dark, handsome face which bent so near to hers, the brown, +curly head actually bumping against her own, as he stooped to gather the +stolen apples. She remembered, too, the kindly voice which asked if "her +aunt would scold," while the large, red hands pinned together the +unsightly seam, and she liked the Westerner, as the people of Chicopee +called the stranger who had recently come among them. Frank was in +Chicopee then, fishing on the river, when her mishaps occurred; and once +after that, when walking with him, she had met Richard Markham, who +bowed modestly and passed on, never taking his hands from his pockets +where they were planted so firmly, and never touching his hat as Frank +said a gentleman would have done. + +"Isn't he handsome?" Ethelyn had asked, and Frank had answered, "Looks +well enough, though anybody with half an eye would know he was a codger +from the West. His pants are a great deal too short; and look at his +coat--at least three years behind the fashion; and such a hat, with that +rusty old band of crape around it. Wonder if he is in mourning for his +grandmother. Oh, my! we boys would hoot him in Boston. He's what I +call a gawky." + +That settled it with Ethelyn. If fourteen-year-old Frank Van Buren, +whose pants and coats and neckties and hats were always the latest make, +said that Richard Markham was a gawky, he was one, and henceforth during +his stay in Chicopee, the Western young man was regarded by Ethelyn with +a feeling akin to pity for his benighted condition. Aunt Barbara's pew +was very near to Captain Markham's, and Richard, who was not much of a +churchman, and as often as any way lounged upon the faded damask +curtains, instead of standing up, often met Ethelyn's brown eyes fixed +curiously upon him, but never dreamed that she regarded him as a species +of heathen, whom it would be a pious act to Christianize. Richard rarely +thought of himself at all, or if he did, it was with a feeling that he +"was well enough "; that if his mother and "the neighbors" were +satisfied with him, as he knew they were, he ought to be satisfied with +himself. So he had no suspicion of the severe criticism passed upon him +by the little girl who read the service so womanly, he thought, eating +caraway and lozenges between times, and whose face he carried in memory +back to his prairie home, associating her always with the graceful +dark-brown heifer bearing so strong a resemblance to the cow which had +so frightened Ethelyn on the day of his first introduction to her. + +But he forgot her in the excitement which followed, when he began to +grow rapidly, as only Western men can grow, and we doubt if she had been +in his mind for years until her name was mentioned by Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren, who saw in him a most eligible match for her niece. He was well +connected--own nephew to Captain Markham, and first cousin to Mrs. +Senator Woodhull, of New York, who kept a suite of servants for herself +and husband, and had the finest turn-out in the Park. Yes, he would do +nicely for Ethelyn and by way of quieting her conscience, which kept +whispering that she had not been altogether just to her niece, Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren packed her trunk and took the train for Chicopee the very day +of Mrs. Captain Markham's tea party. + +Ethelyn was going, and she looked very pretty in her dark-green silk, +with the bit of soft, rich lace at the throat and the scarlet ribbon in +her hair. She was not dressed for effect. She cared very little, in +fact, what impression she made upon the Western Judge, though she did +wonder if, as a Judge, he was much improved from the raw young man whom +Frank had called a "gawky." He was standing with his elbow upon the +mantel talking to Susie Granger, when Ethelyn entered Mrs. Markham's +parlor; one foot was carelessly crossed over the other, so that only the +toe of the boot touched the carpet, while his hand grasped his large +handkerchief rather awkwardly. He was not at ease with the ladies; he +had never been very much accustomed to their society. He did not know +what to say to them, and Susie's saucy black eyes and sprightly manner +evidently embarrassed and abashed him. That vocabulary of small talk so +prevalent in society, and a limited knowledge of which is rather +necessary to one's getting on well with everybody, were unknown to him, +and he was casting about for some way to escape from his companion, when +Ethelyn was introduced, and his mind went back to the stolen apples and +the torn dress which he had pinned together. + +Judge Markham was a tall, finely formed man, with deep hazel eyes, which +could be very stern or very soft in their expression, just as his mood +happened to be. But the chief attraction of his face was his smile, +which changed his entire expression, making him very handsome, as +Ethelyn thought, when he stood for a moment holding her hand between +both his broad palms and chatting familiarly with her as with an old +acquaintance. He could talk to her better than to Susie Granger, for +Ethie, though neither very deep nor learned, was fond of books and +tolerably well versed in the current literature of the day. Besides +that, she had a faculty of seeming to know more than she really did and +so the impression left upon the Judge's mind, when the little party was +over and he had returned from escorting Ethelyn to her door, was that +Miss Grant was far superior to any girl he had ever met since Daisy +died, and like the Judge in Whittier's "Maud Muller," he whistled +snatches of an old love tune he had not whistled in years, as he went +slowly back to his uncle's, and thought strange thoughts for him, the +grave old bachelor who had said he should never marry. He was not +looking for a wife, as rumor intimated, but he dreamed of Ethelyn Grant +that night, and called upon her the next day, and the next, until the +village began to gossip, and Mrs. Dr. Van Buren was in an ecstasy of +delight, talking openly of the delightful time her niece would have in +Washington the next winter, and predicting for her a brilliant career as +reigning belle, and even hinting the possibility of her taking a house +so as to entertain her Boston friends. + +And Ethelyn herself had many and varied feelings on the subject, the +strangest of which was a perverse desire to let Frank know that she did +not care--that her heart was not broken by his desertion, and that there +were those who prized her even if he did not. She had criticised Judge +Markham very severely. She had weighed him in the balance with Frank, +and found him sadly, wanting in all those little points which she +considered as marks of culture and good breeding. He was not a ladies' +man; he was even worse than that, for he was sometimes positively rude +and ungentlemanly, as she thought, when he would open a gate or a door +and pass through it first himself instead of holding it deferentially +for her, as Frank would have done. He did not know how to swing his +cane, or touch his hat, or even bow as Frank Van Buren did; while the +cut of his coat, if not six, was at least two years behind the times, +and he did not seem to know it either. All these things Ethelyn wrote +against him; but the account was more than balanced by the seat in +Congress, the anticipated winter in Washington, the great wealth he was +said to possess, the high estimation in which she knew he was held, and +the keen pang of disappointment from which she was suffering. This last +really did the most to turn the scale in Richard's favor, for, like many +a poor, deluded girl, she fancied that marrying another was the surest +way to forget a past which it was not pleasant to remember. She +respected Judge Markham highly, and knew that in everything pertaining +to a noble manhood he was worth a dozen Franks, even if he never had +been to dancing school, and did not obsequiously pick up the +handkerchief which she purposely dropped to see what he would do. And +so, when Aunt Sophia had gone back to the city, and Judge Markham was in +a few days to return to his Western home, she rode with him around the +Pond, and when she came back the dead Daisy's ring was upon her finger +and she was a promised wife. A dozen times since then she had been +tempted to write to Richard Markham, asking to be released from her +engagement; for, bad as she has thus far appeared to the reader, there +were many noble traits in her character, and she shrank from wronging +the man of whom she knew she was not worthy. + +But the deference paid her as Mrs. Judge Markham-elect, the delight of +Aunt Sophia, the approbation of Aunt Barbara, the letter of +congratulation sent her by Mrs. Senator Woodhull, Richard's cousin, and +more than all, Frank's discomfiture, as evinced by the complaining note +he sent her, prevailed to keep her to her promise, and the bridegroom, +when he came in June to claim her hand, little guessed how heavy was the +heart which lay in the bosom of the young girl so passively suffering +his caresses, but whose lips never moved in response to the kiss he +pressed upon them. + +She was very shy, he thought--more so, even, than when he saw her last; +but he loved her just as well, and never suspected that, when on the +first evening of his arrival he sat with his arm around her, wondering a +little what made her so silent, she was burning with mortification +because the coat he wore was the very same she had criticised last +spring, hoping in her heart of hearts that long before he came to her +again it might find its proper place, either in the sewing society or +with some Jewish vender of old clothes. Yet here it was again, and her +head was resting against it, while her heart beat almost audibly, and +her voice was even petulant in its tone as she answered her lover's +questions. Ethelyn was making a terrible mistake, and she knew it, +hating herself for her duplicity, and vaguely hoping that something +would happen to save her from the fate she so much dreaded. But nothing +did happen, and it was now too late to retract herself. The bridal +trousseau was prepared under Mrs. Van Buren's supervision, the bridal +guests were bidden, the bridal tour was planned, the bridegroom had +arrived, and she would keep her word if she died in the attempt. + +And so we find her on her bridal morning wishing nobody was coming, and +denouncing getting married "a bore," while Aunt Barbara looked at her in +surprise, wondering if everything were right. In spite of her ill humor, +she was very handsome that morning in her white cambric wrapper, with +just a little color in her cheeks and her heavy hair pushed back in +behind her ears and twisted under the silk net. Ethelyn cared little for +her looks--at least not then; by and by she might, when it was time for +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren to arrive with Frank and Nettie Hudson, whom she had +never seen. She should want to look her very best then, but now it did +not matter, even if her bridegroom was distant not an eighth of a mile, +and would in all probability be coming in ere long. She wished he would +stay away--she would rather not see him till night; and she experienced +a feeling of relief when, about nine o'clock, Mrs. Markham's maid +brought her a little note which read as follows: + +"DARLING ETHIE: + +"You must not think it strange if I do not come to you this morning, for +I am suffering from one of my blinding headaches, and can scarcely see +to write you this. I shall be better by night. Yours lovingly, + +"RICHARD MARKHAM." + +Ethelyn was sitting upon the piazza steps, arranging a bouquet, when the +note was brought to her; and as it was some trouble to put all the roses +from her lap, she sent the girl for a pencil, and on the back of the +note wrote hastily: + +"It does not matter, as you would only be in the way, and I have +something of a headache, too. + +"E. GRANT." + +"Take this back to Judge Markham," she said to the girl, and then +resumed her bouquet-making, wondering if every bride-elect were as +wretched as herself, or if to any other maiden of twenty the world had +ever looked so desolate and dreary, as it did to her this morning. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VAN BUREN SET + +Captain Markham's carryall, which Jake, the hired man, had brushed up +wonderfully for the occasion, had gone over to West Chicopee after the +party from Boston--Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, with Frank, and his betrothed, +Miss Nettie Hudson, from Philadelphia. Others had been invited from the +city, but one after another their regrets had come to Ethelyn, who would +gladly have excused the entire set, Aunt Van Buren, Frank and all, +though she confessed to herself a great deal of curiosity with regard to +Miss Nettie, whom she had never seen; neither had she met Frank since +the dissolution of their engagement, for though she had been in Boston, +where most of her dresses were made, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had wisely +arranged that Frank should be absent from home. She was herself not +willing to risk a meeting between him and Ethelyn until matters were too +well adjusted to admit of a change, for Frank had more than once shown +signs of rebellion. He was in a more quiescent state now, having made up +his mind that what could not be cured must be endured, and as he had +sensibility enough to feel very keenly the awkwardness of meeting +Ethelyn under present circumstances, and as Miss Nettie was really very +fond of him, and he, after a fashion, was fond of her, he was in the +best of spirits when he stepped from the train at West Chicopee and +handed his mother and Nettie into the spacious carryall of which he had +made fun as a country ark, while they rode slowly toward Aunt Barbara +Bigelow's. Everything was in readiness for them. The large north chamber +was aired and swept and dusted, and only little bars of light came +through the closed shutters, and the room looked very cool and nice, +with its fresh muslin curtains looped back with blue, its carpet of the +same cool shade, its pretty chestnut furniture, its snowbank of a bed, +and the tasteful bouquets which Ethelyn had arranged--Ethelyn, who +lingered longer in this room than the other one across the hall, the +bridal chamber, where the ribbons which held the curtains were white, +and the polished marble of the bureau and washstand, sent a shiver +through her veins whenever she looked in there. She was in her own cozy +chamber now, and the silken hair, which in the early morning had been +twisted under her net, was bound in heavy braids about her head, while a +pearl comb held it in its place, and a half-opened rose was fastened +just behind her ear. She had hesitated some time in her choice of a +dress, vacillating between a pale buff, which Frank had always admired, +and a delicate blue muslin, in which Judge Markham had once said she +looked so pretty. The blue had won the day, for Ethelyn felt that she +owed some concession to the man whose kind note she had treated so +cavalierly that morning, and so she wore the blue for him, feeling glad +of the faint, sick feeling which kept the blood from rushing too hotly +to her face, and made her fairer and paler than her wont. She knew that +she was very handsome when her toilet was made, and that was one secret +of the assurance with which she went forward to meet Nettie Hudson when +at last the carryall stopped before the gate. + +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren was tired, and hot, and dusty, and as she was always +a little cross when in this condition, she merely kissed Ethelyn once, +and shaking hands with Aunt Barbara, went directly to the north chamber, +asking that a cup of tea might be made for her dinner instead of the +coffee whose fragrant odor met her olfactories as she stepped into the +house. First, however, she introduced Nettie, who after glancing at +Ethelyn, turned her eyes wonderingly upon Frank, thinking his greeting +of his cousin rather more demonstrative than was exactly becoming even +if they were cousins, and had been, as Mrs. Dr. Van Buren affirmed, just +like brother and sister. That was no reason why Frank should have wound +his arm around her waist, and kept it there, while he kissed her twice, +and brought such a bright color to her cheeks. Miss Nettie cared just +enough for Frank Van Buren to be jealous of him. She wanted all his +attentions herself, and so the little blonde was in something of a pet +as she followed on into the house, and twisted her hat strings into a +hard knot, which Frank had to disentangle for her, just as he had to +kiss away the wrinkle which had gathered on her forehead. She was a +beautiful little creature, scarcely larger than a child of twelve, with +a pleading, helpless look in her large, blue eyes which seemed to be +saying: "Look at me; speak to me, won't you?--notice me a little." + +She was just the one to be made a tool of; and Ethelyn readily saw that +she had been as clay in Mrs. Van Buren's skillful hands. + +"Pretty, very pretty, but decidedly a nonentity and a baby," was +Ethelyn's mental comment, and she felt something like contempt for +Frank, who, after loving and leaning on her, could so easily turn to +weak little Nettie Hudson. + +At the sight of Frank and the sound of his voice, she had felt all the +olden feeling rushing back to her heart; but when, after Nettie had +followed Mrs. Van Buren to her chamber, and she stood for a moment alone +with him, he felt constrained to say something, and stammered out, "It's +deuced mean, Ethie, to serve you so, and mother ought to be indicted. I +hope you don't care much," all her pride and womanliness was roused and +she answered promptly: "Of course, I don't care; do you think I would +wish to marry Judge Markham if I were not all over that childish affair? +You have not seen him yet. He is a splendid man." + +Ethelyn felt better after paying this tribute to Richard Markham, and +she liked him better, too, now that she had spoken for him, but Frank's +reply, "Yes, mother told me so, but said there was a good deal of your +Westernism about him yet," jarred on her feelings as she plucked the +roses growing at the end of the piazza and crushed them, thorns and all, +in her hands, feeling the smart less than the dull, heavy throbbing at +her heart. Frank did not seem to her just as he used to be; he was the +same polished dandy as of old, and just as careful to perform every +little act of gallantry, but the something lacking which she had always +felt to a certain extent was more perceptible now, and to herself she +accused him of having degenerated since he had passed from her +influence. She never dreamed of charging it to her interviews with Judge +Markham, whose topics of conversation were so widely different from +Frank's. She was not generous enough to concede anything in his favor, +though she felt glad that Frank was not quite the same he had been--it +would make the evening bridal before her easier to bear; and Ethelyn's +eyes were brighter and her smiles more frequent as she sat down to +dinner and answered Mrs. Van Buren's question: "Where is the Judge that +he does not dine with us?" + +"Sick, is he?" Mrs. Van Buren said, when told of his headache, while +Frank remarked, "Sick of his bargain, maybe," laughing loudly at his own +joke, while the others laughed in unison; and so the dinner passed off +without that stiffness which Ethelyn had so much dreaded. + +After it was over, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren felt better, and began to talk of +the "Judge," and to ask if Ethelyn knew whether they would board or keep +house in Washington the coming winter. Ethelyn did not know. She had +never mentioned Washington to Richard Markham, and he had never guessed +how much that prospective season at the capital had to do with her +decision. That it would be hers to enjoy she had no shadow of doubt, but +as she felt then she did not particularly care to keep up a household +for the sake of entertaining her aunt, and possibly Frank and his wife, +so she replied that she presumed "they should board, as it would be the +short session--if he was re-elected they might consider the house." + +"There may be a still higher honor in store for him than a re-election," +Mrs. Van Buren said, and then proceeded to speak of a letter which she +had received from a lady in Camden, who had once lived in Boston, and +who had written congratulating her old friend upon her niece's good +fortune. "There was no young man more popular in that section of the +country than Judge Markham," she said, "and there had been serious talk +of nominating him for governor. Some, however, thought him too young, +and so they were waiting for a few years when he would undoubtedly be +elected to the highest office in the State." + +This piece of intelligence had greatly increased Mrs. Van Buren's +respect for the lady-elect of Iowa's future governor, and she gave the +item of news with a great deal of satisfaction, but did not tell that +her correspondent had added, "It is a pity, though, that he does not +know more of the usages of good society. Ethelyn is so refined and +sensitive that she will be often shocked, no doubt, with the manners of +the husband and his family." + +This clause had troubled Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. She really liked Ethelyn, +and now that she was out of Frank's way she liked her very much, and +would do a good deal to serve her. She did not wish her to be unhappy, +as she feared she might be from the sundry rumors which had reached her +concerning that home out West, whither she was going. So, when, after +dinner, they were alone for a few moments, she endeavored to impress +upon her niece the importance of having an establishment of her own as +soon as possible. + +"It is not well for sons' wives to live with the mother," she said. "She +did not mean that Nettie should live with her; and Ethelyn should at +once insist upon a separate home; then, if she should see any little +thing in her husband's manners which needed correcting, she could do it +so much better away from his mother. I do not say that there is anything +wrong in his manners," she continued, as she saw how painfully red +Ethelyn was getting, "but it is quite natural there should be, living +West as he does. You cannot expect prairie people to be as refined as +Bostonians are; but you must polish him, dear. You know how; you have +had Frank for a model so long; and even if he does not improve, people +overlook a great deal in a member of Congress, and will overlook more in +a governor, so don't feel badly, darling," and Mrs. Van Buren kissed +tenderly the poor girl, before whom all the dreary loneliness of the +future had arisen like a mountain, and whose heart even at that late +hour would fain have drawn back if possible. + +But when, by the way of soothing her, Mrs. Van Buren talked of the +winter in Washington, and the honors which would always be accorded to +her as the wife of an M.C., and then dwelt upon the possibility of her +one day writing herself governor's lady, Ethelyn's girlish ambition was +roused, and her vanity flattered, so that the chances were that even +Frank would have been put aside for the future greatness, had he been +offered to her. + +It was five o'clock now, in the afternoon, nearly time for the bridal +toilet to commence, and Mrs. Van Buren began to wonder "why the Judge +had not appeared." He was better of his headache and up and around, the +maid had reported, when at four she brought over the remainder of Mrs. +Captain Markham's silver, which had not been sent in the morning, and +then went back for extra napkins. There was no need to tell Ethelyn that +"he was up and around," for she had known it ever since a certain +shutter had been opened, and a man in his shirt-sleeves had appeared +before the window and thrown water from the wash bowl upon the lilac +bushes below. Ethelyn knew very well that old Mrs. Markham's servants +were spoiled, that her domestic arrangements were not of the best kind, +and that probably there was no receptacle for the dirty water except the +ground; but she did not consider this, or reflect that aside from all +other considerations the act was wholly like a man; she only thought it +like him, Judge Markham, and feelings of shame and mortification, such +as no woman likes to entertain with regard to her husband, began to rise +and swell in her heart. In the excitement of her toilet, however, she +forgot everything, even the ceremony for which she was dressing, and +which came to her with a shiver when a bridesmaid announced that Captain +Markham's carriage had just left his yard with a gentleman in it. + +Judge Markham was on his way to his bridal. + + + +CHAPTER III + +RICHARD MARKHAM + +He preferred to be called Richard by his friends and Mr. Markham by +strangers--not that he was insensible to the prestige which the title of +Judge or Honorable gave him, but he was a plain, matter-of-fact man, who +had not been lifted off his balance, or grown dizzy by the rapidity with +which he had risen in public favor. At home he was simply Dick to his +three burly brothers, who were at once so proud and fond of him, while +his practical, unpretending mother called him Richard, feeling, however, +that it was very proper for the neighbors to give him the title of +Judge. Of Mrs. Markham we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, so now +we will only say that she saw no fault in her gifted son, and she was +ready to do battle with anyone who should suggest the existence of a +fault. Richard's wishes had never been thwarted, but rather deferred to +by the entire family, and, as a natural consequence, he had come to +believe that his habits and opinions were as nearly correct as they well +could be. He had never mingled much in society--he was not fond of it; +and the "quilting bees" and "sugar pulls" and "apple parings" which had +prevailed in his neighborhood were not at all to his taste. He greatly +preferred his books to the gayest of frolics, and thus he early earned +for himself the sobriquet of "the old bachelor who hated girls"; all but +Abigail Jones, the shoemaker's daughter, whose black eyes and bright red +cheeks had proved too much for the grave, sober Richard. His first act +of gallantry was performed for her, and even after he grew to be Judge +his former companions never wearied of telling how, on the occasion of +his first going home with the fair Abigail Jones from spelling school, +he had kept at a respectful distance from her, and when the lights from +her father's window became visible he remarked that "he guessed she +would not be afraid to go the rest of the way alone," and abruptly +bidding her good-night, ran back as fast as he could run. Whether this +story were true or not, he was very shy of the girls, though the +dark-eyed Abigail exerted over him so strong an influence that, at the +early age of twenty he had asked her to be his wife, and she had +answered yes, while his mother sanctioned the match, for she had known +the Joneses in Vermont, and knew them for honest, thrifty people, whose +daughter would make a faithful, economical wife for any man. But death +came in to separate the lovers, and Abigail's cheeks grew redder still, +and her eyes were strangely bright as the fever burned in her veins, +until at last when the Indian-summer sun was shining down upon the +prairies, they buried her one day beneath the late summer flowers, and +the almost boy-widower wore upon his hat the band of crape which Ethelyn +remembered as looking so rusty when, the year following, he came to +Chicopee. Richard Markham believed that he had loved Abigail truly when +she died, but he knew now that she was not the one he would have chosen +in his mature manhood. She was suitable for him, perhaps, as he was when +he lost her, but not as he was now, and it was long since he had ceased +to visit her grave, or think of her with the feelings of sad regret +which used to come over him when, at night, he lay awake listening to +the moaning of the wind as it swept over the prairies, or watching the +glittering stars, and wondering if she had found a home beyond them with +Daisy, his only sister. There was nothing false about Richard Markham, +and when he stood with Ethelyn upon the shore of Pordunk Pond, and asked +her to be his wife, he told her of Abigail Jones, who had been two years +older than himself, and to whom he was once engaged. + +"But I did not give her Daisy's ring," he said; and he spoke very +reverently as he continued, "Abigail was a good, sensible girl, and even +if she hears what I am saying she will pardon me when I tell you that it +did not seem to me that diamonds were befitting such as she; Daisy, I am +sure, had a different kind of person in view when she made me keep the +ring for the maiden who would prize such things, and who was worthy of +it. Abigail was worthy, but there was not a fitness in giving it to her, +neither would she have prized it; so I kept it in its little box with a +curl of Daisy's hair. Had she become my wife, I might eventually have +given it to her, but she died, and it was well. She would not have +satisfied me now, and I should--" + +He was going to add "should not have been what I am," but that would +have savored too much of pride, and possibly of disrespect for the dead; +so he checked himself, and while his rare, pleasant smile broke all over +his beaming face, and his hazel eyes grew soft and tender in their +expression, he said: "You, Ethelyn, seem to me the one Daisy would have +chosen for a sister. You are quiet, and gentle, and pure like her, and I +am so glad of the Providence which led me to Chicopee. They said I was +looking for a wife, but I had no such idea. I never thought to marry +until I met you that afternoon when you wore the pretty delaine, with +the red ribbon in your hair. Do you remember it, Ethelyn?" + +Ethelyn did not answer him at once. She was looking far off upon the +water, where the moonlight lay sleeping, and revolving in her mind the +expediency of being equally truthful with her future husband, and saying +to him, "I, too, have loved, and been promised to another." She knew +she ought to tell him this and she would, perhaps, have done so, for +Ethie meant to be honest, and her heart was touched and softened by +Richard's tender love for his sister; but when he was so unfortunate as +to call the green silk which Madame--, in Boston, had made, a pretty +delaine, and her scarlet velvet band a "red ribbon," her heart hardened, +and her secret remained untold, while her proud lip half curled in scorn +at the thought of Abigail Jones, who once stood, perhaps, as she was +standing, with her hand on Richard Markham's and the kiss of betrothal +wet upon her forehead. Ah, Ethie, there was this difference: Abigail had +kissed her lover back, and her great black eyes had looked straight into +his with an eager, blissful joy, as she promised to be his wife, and +when he wound his arm around her, she had leaned up to the bashful +youth, encouraging his caresses, while you--gave back no answering +caress, and shook lightly off the arm laid across your neck. Possibly +Richard thought of the difference, but if he did he imputed Ethelyn's +cold impassiveness to her modest, retiring nature, so different from +Abigail's. It was hardly fair to compare the two girls, they were so +wholly unlike, for Abigail had been a plain, simple-hearted, buxom +country girl of the West, whose world was all contained within the +limits of the neighborhood where she lived, while Ethie was a +high-spirited, petted, impulsive creature, knowing but little of such +people as Abigail Jones, and wholly unfitted to cope with any world +outside that to which she had been accustomed. But love is blind, and so +was Richard; for with his whole heart he did love Ethelyn Grant; and, +notwithstanding his habits of thirty years, she could then have molded +him to her will, had she tried, by the simple process of love. But, +alas! there was no answering throb in her heart when she felt the touch +of his hand or his breath upon her cheek. She was only conscious of a +desire to avoid his caress, if possible, while, as the days went by, she +felt a growing disgust for "Abigail Jones," whose family, she gathered +from her lover, lived near to, and were quite familiar with, his mother. + +In happy ignorance of her real feelings, so well did she dissemble +them, and so proper and ladylike was her deportment, Richard bade her +good-by early in May, and went back to his Western home, writing to her +often, but not such letters, it must be confessed, as were calculated to +win a maiden's heart, or keep it after it was won. If he was awkward at +love-making, and only allowed himself to be occasionally surprised into +flashes of tenderness, he was still more awkward in letter-writing; and +Ethelyn always indulged in a headache, or a fit of blues, after +receiving one of his short, practical letters, which gave but little +sign of the strong, deep affection he cherished for her. Those were hard +days for Ethelyn--the days which intervened between her lover's bidding +her adieu and his return to claim her hand--and only her deeply wounded +pride, and her great desire for a change of scene and a winter in +Washington, kept her from asking a release from the engagement she knew +never ought to have been. Aside, however, from all this, there was some +gratification in knowing that she was an object of envy to Susie Graham, +and Anna Thorn, and Carrie Bell, either of whom would gladly have taken +her place as bride-elect of an M.C., while proud old Captain Markham's +frequent mention of "my nephew in Congress, ahem!" and Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren's constant exultation over the "splendid match," helped to keep up +the glamour of excitement, so that her promise had never been revoked, +and now he was there to claim it. He had not gone at once to Miss +Bigelow's on his arrival in Chicopee, for the day was hot and sultry, +and he was very tired with his forty-eight hours' constant travel, and +so he had rested a while in his chamber, which looked toward Ethelyn's, +and then sat upon the piazza with his uncle till the heat of the day was +past, and the round red moon was showing itself above the eastern hills +as the sun disappeared in the west. Then, in his new linen coat, cut and +made by Mrs. Jones, mother to Abigail, deceased, he had started for the +dwelling of his betrothed. Ethelyn had seen him as he came from the +depot in Captain Markham's carriage, and her cheek had crimsoned, and +then grown pale at sight of the ancient-looking hair trunk swinging +behind the carriage, all unconscious of the indignation it was exciting, +or of the vast difference between itself and the two huge Saratoga +trunks standing in Aunt Barbara Bigelow's upper hall, and looking so +clean and nice in their fresh coverings. Poor Ethelyn! That hair trunk, +which had done its owner such good service in his journeys to and from +Washington, and which the mother had packed with so much care, never +dreaming how very, very far it was behind the times, brought the hot +blood in torrents to her face, and made the white hands clasp each other +spasmodically, as she thought "Had I known of that hair trunk, I would +certainly have told him no." + +Even Abigail Jones, the shoemaker's daughter, faded into insignificance +before this indignity, and it was long before Ethelyn could recover her +composure or her pulse resume its regular beat. She was in no haste to +see him; but such is the inconsistency of perverse girlhood that, +because he delayed his coming, she felt annoyed and piqued, and was half +tempted to have a headache and go to bed, and so not see him at all. But +he was coming at last, linen coat and all; and Susie Graham, who had +stopped for a moment by the gate to speak with Ethelyn, pronounced him +"a magnificent-looking fellow," and said to Ethelyn, "I should think you +would feel so proud." + +Susie did not observe the linen coat, or if she had, she most likely +thought it a very sensible arrangement for a day when the thermometer +stood no degrees in the shade; but Susie was not Boston finished. She +had been educated at Mount Holyoke, which made a difference, Ethelyn +thought. Still, Susie's comment did much towards reconciling her to the +linen coat; and, as Richard Markham came up the street, she did feel a +thrill of pride and even pleasure, for he had a splendid figure and +carried himself like a prince, while his fine face beamed all over with +that joyous, happy expression which comes only from a kind, true heart, +as he drew near the house and his eye caught the flutter of a white robe +through the open door. Ethelyn was very pretty in her cool, cambric +dress, with a bunch of sweet English violets in her hair; and at sight +of her the man usually so grave and quiet, and undemonstrative with +those of the opposite sex, felt all his reserve give way, and there was +a world of tenderness in his voice and a misty look in his eye, as he +bent over her, giving her the second kiss he had ever given to her, and +asking, "How is my darling to-night?" + +She did not take his arm from her neck this time--he had a right to keep +it there--and she suffered the caress, feeling no greater inconvenience +than that his big hand was very warm and pressed a little too hard +sometimes upon her shoulders. He spoke to her of the errand on which he +had come, and the great, warm hand pressed more heavily as he said, "It +seems to me all a dream that in a few days you will be my own Ethie, my +wife, from whom I need not be parted"; and then he spoke of his mother +and his three brothers, James, and John, and Anderson, or Andy, as he +was called. Each of these had sent kindly messages to Richard's +bride--the mother saying she should be glad to have a daughter in her +home, and the three brothers promising to love their new sister so much +as to make "old Dick" jealous, if possible. + +These messages "old Dick" delivered, but wisely refrained from telling +how his mother feared he had not chosen wisely, that a young lady with +Boston notions was not the wife to make a Western man very happy. +Neither did he tell her of an interview he had with Mrs. Jones, who had +always evinced a motherly care over him since her daughter's death, and +to whom he had dutifully communicated the news of his intended marriage. +It was not what Mrs. Jones had expected. She had watched Richard's +upward progress with all the pride of a mother-in-law, lamenting often +to Mrs. Markham that poor Abigail could not have lived to share his +greatness, and during the term of his judgeship, when he stayed mostly +in Camden, the county seat, she had, on the occasion of her going to +town with butter and eggs, and chickens, taken a mournful pleasure in +perambulating the streets, and selecting the house where Abigail might, +perhaps, have resided, and where she could have had her cup of young +hyson after the fatigue of the day, instead of eating her dry lunch of +cheese and fried cakes in the rather comfortless depot, while waiting +for the train. Richard's long-continued bachelorhood had given her +peculiar pleasure, inasmuch as it betokened a continual remembrance of +her daughter; and as her youngest child, the blooming Melinda, who was +as like the departed Abigail as sisters ever are to each other ripened +into womanhood, and the grave Richard spoke oftener to her than to the +other maidens of the prairie village, she began to speculate upon what +might possibly be, and refused the loan of her brass kettle to the +neighbor whose husband did not vote for Richard when he ran for member +of Congress. Melinda, too, had her little ambitions, her silent hopes +and aspirations, and even her vague longings for a winter in Washington, +As the Markham house and the Jones house were distant from each other +only half a mile, she was a frequent visitor of Richard's mother, always +assisting when there was more work than usual on hand and on the +occasion of Richard's first going to Washington ironing his shirts and +packing them herself in the square hair trunk which had called forth +Ethelyn's ire. Though she did not remember much about "Abby," she knew +that, had she lived, Richard would have been her brother; and somehow he +seemed to her just like one now, she said to Mrs. Markham, as she hemmed +his pocket handkerchiefs, working his initials in the corner with pink +floss, and upon the last and best, the one which had cost sixty-two and +a half cents, venturing to weave her own hair, which was long, and +glossy, and black, as Abigail's had been. Several times a week during +Richard's absence, she visited Mrs. Markham, inquiring always after "the +Judge," and making herself so agreeable and useful, too, in +clear-starching and doing up Mrs. Markham's caps, and in giving receipts +for sundry new and economical dishes, that the good woman herself +frequently doubted if Richard could do better than take the black-eyed +Melinda; and when he told her of Ethelyn Grant, she experienced a +feeling of disappointment and regret, doubting much if a Boston girl, +with Boston notions, would make her as happy as the plainer Melinda, who +knew all her ways. Something of this she said to her son, omitting, of +course, that part of her thoughts which referred to Melinda. With Mrs. +Jones, however, it was different. In her surprise and disappointment she +let fall some remarks which opened Richard's eyes a little, and made him +look at her half amused and half sorry, as, suspending her employment of +paring apples for the dinner pie she put the corner of her apron to her +eyes, and "hoped the new bride would not have many airs, and would put +up with his mother's ways. + +"You," and here the apron and hand with the knife in it came down from +her eyes--"you'll excuse me, Richard, for speaking so plain, but you +seem like my own boy, and I can't help it. Your mother is the best and +cleverest woman in the world, but she has some peculiarities which a +Boston girl may not put up with, not being used to them as Melin--I +mean, as poor Abigail was." + +It was the first time it had ever occurred to Richard that his mother +had peculiarities, and even now he did not know what they were. Taking +her all in all, she was as nearly perfect, he thought, as a woman well +could be, and on his way home from his interview with Mrs. Jones he +pondered in his mind what she could mean, and then wondered if for the +asking he could have taken Melinda Jones to the fireside where he was +going to install Ethelyn Grant. There was a comical smile about his +mouth as he thought how little either Melinda or Abigail would suit him +now; and then, by way of making amends for what seemed disrespect to the +dead, he went round to the sunken grave where Abigail had slept for so +many years, and stood again just where he had stood that day when he +fancied the light from his heart had gone out forever. But he could not +bring back the olden feeling, or wish that Abigail had lived. + +"She is happy now--happier than I could have made her. It is better as +it is," he said, as he walked away to Daisy's grave, where his tears +dropped just as they always did when he stood by the sod which covered +the fairest, brightest, purest being he had ever known, except +his Ethie. + +She was just as pure and gentle and good as blue-eyed Daisy had been, +and on the manly face turned so wistfully to the eastward there was a +world of love and tenderness for the Ethie who, alas, did not deserve it +then, and to whom a few weeks later he gave his mother's kindly message. +Then, remembering what Mrs. Jones had said, he felt in duty bound +to add: + +"Mother has some peculiarities, I believe most old people have; but I +trust to your good sense to humor them as much as possible. She has had +her own way a long time, and though you will virtually be mistress of +the house, inasmuch as it belongs to me, it will be better for mother to +take the lead, as heretofore." + +There was a curl on Ethelyn's lip as she received her first lesson with +regard to her behavior as daughter-in-law; but she made no reply, not +even to ask what the peculiarities were which she was to humor. She +really did not care what they were, as she fully intended having an +establishment of her own in the thriving prairie village, just half a +mile from her husband's home. She should probably spend a few weeks with +Mrs. Markham, senior, whom she fancied a tall, stately woman, wearing +heavy black silk dresses and thread lace caps on great occasions, and +having always on hand some fine lamb's-wool knitting work when she sat +in the parlor where Daisy's picture hung. Ethelyn could not tell why it +was that she always saw Richard's mother thus, unless it were what Mrs. +Captain Markham once said with regard to her Western sister-in-law, +sending to Boston for a black silk which cost three dollars per yard--a +great price for those days--and for two yards of handsome thread lace, +which she, the Mrs. Captain, had run all over the city to get, "John's +wife was so particular to have it just the pattern and width she +described in her letter." + +This was Richard's mother as Ethelyn saw her, while the house on the +prairie, which she knew had been built within a few years, presented a +very respectable appearance to her mind's eye, being large, and +fashioned something after the new house across the Common, which had a +bay window at the side, and a kind of cupola on the roof. It would be +quite possible to spend a few weeks comfortably there, especially as she +would have the Washington gayeties in prospect, but in the spring, when, +after a winter of dissipation she returned to the prairies, she should +go to her own home, either in Olney or Camden; the latter, perhaps, as +Richard could as well live there as elsewhere. This was Ethelyn's plan, +but she kept it to herself, and changing the conversation from Richard's +mother and her peculiarities, she talked instead of the places they were +to visit--Quebec and Montreal, the seaside and the mountains, and lastly +that great Babel of fashion, Saratoga, for which place several of her +dresses had been expressly made. + +Ethelyn had planned this trip herself, and Richard, though knowing how +awfully he should be bored before the summer was over, had assented to +all that she proposed, secretly hoping the while that the last days of +August would find him safe at home in Olney among his books, his horses, +and his farming pursuits. He was very tired that night, and he did not +tarry longer than ten, though a word from Ethelyn would have kept him +for hours at her side, so intoxicated was he with her beauty, and so +quiet and happy he felt with her; but the word was not spoken, and he +left her standing on the piazza, where he could see the gleaming of her +white robes when he looked back, as he more than once did ere reaching +his uncle's door. + +The next three days passed rapidly, bringing at last the eventful one +for which all others were made, it seemed to him, as he looked out upon +the early, dewy morning, thinking how pleasant it was there in that +quiet New England town, and trying to fight back the unwelcome headache +which finally drove him back to his bed, from which he wrote the little +note to Ethelyn, who might think strange at his non-appearance when he +had been accustomed to go to her immediately after breakfast. He never +dreamed of the relief it was to her not to have him come, as he lay +flushed and heated upon his pillow, the veins upon his forehead +swelling with their pressure of hot blood, and his ear strained to catch +the first sound of the servant's returning step. Ethelyn would either +come herself to see him, or send some cheerful message, he was sure. +How, then, was he disappointed to find his own note returned, with the +assurance that "it did not matter, as he would only be in the way." + +Several times he read it over, trying to extract some comfort from it, +and finding it at last in the fact that Ethelyn had a headache, too. +This was the reason for her seeming indifference; and in wishing himself +able to go to her, Richard forgot in part his own pain, and fell into a +quiet sleep, which did him untold good. It was three o'clock when at +last he rose, knowing pretty well all that had been doing during the +hours of his seclusion in the darkened room. The "Van Buren set" had +come, and he overheard Mrs. Markham's Esther saying to Aunt Barbara's +Betsy, when she came for the silver cake-basket, that "Mr. Frank seemed +in mighty fine spirits, considering all the flirtations he used to have +with Miss Ethelyn." + +This was the first intimation Richard had received of a flirtation, and +even now it did not strike him unpleasantly. They were cousins, he +reflected, and as such had undoubtedly been very familiar with each +other. It was natural, and nothing for which he need care. He did not +care, either, as he deliberately began to make his wedding toilet, +thinking himself, when it was completed, that he was looking unusually +well in the entire new suit which his cousin, Mrs. Woodhull, had +insisted upon his getting in New York, when on his way home in April he +had gone that way and told her of his approaching marriage. It was a +splendid suit, made after the most approved style, and costing a sum +which he had kept secret from his mother, who, nevertheless, guessed +somewhere near the truth, and thought the Olney tailor would have suited +him quite as well at a quarter the price, or even Mrs. Jones, who, +having been a tailoress when a young girl in Vermont, still kept up her +profession to a limited extent, retaining her "press-board" and "goose," +and the mammoth shears which had cut Richard's linen coat after a +Chicago pattern of not the most recent date Richard thought very little +about his personal appearance--too little, in fact--but he felt a glow +of satisfaction now as he contemplated himself in the glass, feeling +only that Ethelyn would be pleased to see him thus. + +And Ethelyn was pleased. She had half expected the old coat of she did +not know how many years' make, and there was a fierce pang of pain in +her heart as she imagined Frank's cool criticisms, and saw, in fancy, +the contrast between the two men. So when Judge Markham alighted at the +gate, and from her window she took in at a glance his tout ensemble, the +revulsion of feeling was so great that the glad tears sprang to her +eyes, and a brighter, happier look broke over her face than had been +there for many weeks. She was not present when Frank was introduced to +him; but when next she met her cousin, he said to her, in his usual +off-hand way, "I say, Ethie, he is pretty well got up for a Westerner. +But for his eyes and teeth I should never have known him for the chap +who wore short pants and stove-pipe hat with the butternut-colored +crape. Who was he in mourning for anyway?" + +It was too bad to be reminded of Abigail Jones, just as she was +beginning to feel more comfortable; but Ethelyn bore it very well, and +laughingly answered, "For his sweetheart, I dare say," her cheeks +flushing very red as Frank whispered slyly, "You are even, then, on +that score." + +No man of any delicacy of feeling or true refinement would have made +this allusion to the past, with his first love within a few hours of her +bridal, and his own betrothed standing near. But Frank had neither +delicacy of feeling nor genuine refinement, and he even felt a secret +gratification in seeing the blood mount to Ethelyn's cheeks as he thus +referred to the past. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BRIDAL + +There was a great deal of sincere and tender interest in Richard's +manner when, in reply to his inquiries for Ethelyn's headache, Aunt +Barbara told him of the almost fainting fit in the morning and her +belief that Ethelyn was not as strong this summer as she used to be. + +"The mountain air will do her good, I trust," casting wistful glances up +the stairs and toward the door of the chamber, where girlish voices were +heard, Nettie Hudson and Susie Granger chatting gayly and uttering +exclamations of delight as they arranged and adjusted Ethelyn's +bridal robes. + +Once during the period of his judgeship Richard had attended a large and +fashionable bridal party, but when, on his return to Olney, Melinda +Jones questioned him with regard to the dresses of the bride and the +guests, he found himself utterly unable to give either fabric, fashion, +or even color, so little attention had he given to the subject. He never +noticed such things, he said, but he believed some of the dresses were +made of something flimsy, for he could see through them, and he knew +they were very long, for he had stepped on some half dozen. And this was +all the information the inquisitive Melinda could obtain. Dress was of +little consequence, he thought, so it was clean and whole. + +This was his theory; but when, as the twilight deepened on the Chicopee +hills, and the lamps were lighted in Aunt Barbara's parlors, and old +Captain Markham began to wonder "why the plague the folks did not come," +as he stalked up and down the piazza in all the pride and pomposity of +one who felt himself to all intents and purposes the village aristocrat, +and when the mysterious door of Ethie's room, which had been closed so +long, was opened, and the bridegroom told that he might go in, he +started in surprise at the beautiful tableau presented to his view as he +stepped across the threshold. As was natural, he fancied that never +before had he seen three young girls so perfectly beautiful as the three +before him--Ethie, and Susie, and Nettie. + +As a matter of course, he gave the preference to Ethelyn, who was very, +very lovely in her bridal robes, with the orange wreath resting like a +coronet upon her marble brow. There were pearls upon her fair neck and +pearls upon her arms, the gift of Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, who had waited +till the very last, hoping the Judge would have forethought enough to +buy them himself. But the Judge had not. He knew something of diamonds, +for they had been Daisy's favorites; but pearls were novelties to him, +and Ethelyn's pale cheeks would have burned crimson had she known that +he was thinking "how becoming those white beads were to her." + +Poor, ignorant Richard! He will know more by and by of what constitutes +a fashionable lady's toilet; but now he is in blissful ignorance of +minutiae, and sees only the tout ensemble, which he pronounces perfect. +He was half afraid of her, though, she seemed so cold, so passive, so +silent, and when in the same breath Susie Granger asks if he ever saw +anyone so lovely as Ethelyn and bids him kiss her quick, he starts and +hesitates, and finally kisses Susie instead. He might, perhaps, have +done the same with Ethelyn if she had not stepped backward to avoid it, +her long train sweeping across the hearth where that morning she had +knelt in such utter desolation, and where now was lying a bit of +blackened paper, which the housemaid's broom had not found when, early +in the day, the room was swept and dusted. So Ethelyn's white satin +brushed against the gossamer thing, which floated upward for a moment, +and then settled back upon the heavy, shining folds. It was Richard who +saw it first, and Richard's hand which brushed away the skeleton of +Frank's letter from the skirts of his bride, leaving a soiled, yellowish +stain, which Susie Granger loudly deplored, while Ethelyn only drew her +drapery around her, saying coldly, that "it did not matter in the least. +She would as soon have it there as not." + +It was meet, she thought, that the purity of her bridal garments should +be tarnished; for was not her heart all stained, and black, and crisp +with cruel deception? That little incident, however, affected her +strangely, bringing back so vividly the scene on the ledge of rocks +beneath the New England laurels, where Frank had sat beside her and +poured words of boyish passion into her ear. There was for a moment a +pitiful look of anguish in her eyes as they went out into the summer +night toward the huckleberry hills, where lay that ledge of massy rock, +and then come back to the realities about her. Frank saw the look of +pain, and it awoke in his own breast an answering throb as he wondered +if, after all, Ethie would not have preferred that he were standing by +her instead of the grave Judge, fitting on his gloves with an +awkwardness which said that such articles were comparative strangers to +his large, red hands. + +It was time now to go down. The guests had all arrived, the clergyman +was waiting, and Captain Markham had grown very red in the face with his +impatience, which his wife tried in vain to quiet. If at this last +moment there arose in Ethelyn's bosom any wild impulse to break away +from the dreadful scene, and rush out into the darkness which lay so +softly upon the hills, she put it aside, with the thought, "too late +now--forever too late"; and taking the arm which Richard offered her, +she went mechanically down the staircase into the large parlor where the +wedding guests were assembled. Surely, surely, she did not know what she +was doing, or realize the solemn words: "I charge and require you both, +as ye shall answer at the great day, when the secrets of all hearts +shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment why ye may +not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it, for +be ye well assured," and so forth. She did not even hear them; for the +numb, dead feeling which crept over her, chilling her blood, and making +her hand, which Richard took in his while he fitted the wedding ring, so +cold and clammy to the touch, that Richard felt tempted to hold and +chafe it in his own warm, broad palms; but that was not in accordance +with the ceremony, and so he let it fall, wondering that Ethelyn could +be so cold when the sweat was standing in great drops upon his own face, +and moistening his wavy hair, which clustered in short, thick curls +around his brow, making him look so handsome, as more than one maiden +thought, envying Ethelyn her good fortune, and marveling at the pallor +of her lips and the rigidity of her form. + +The ceremony was ended, and Ethelyn Grant was Mrs. Richard Markham; but +the new name brought no blushes to her cheek, nor yet the kiss her +husband gave her, nor the congratulations of the guests, nor Aunt +Barbara's tears, which dropped upon the forehead of her darling as the +good woman bent over her and thought how she had lost her; but when +Frank Van Buren stooped down to touch her lips the sluggish blood +quickened and a thrill went through and through her veins, sending the +bright color to her cheeks, which burned as with a hectic flush. Frank +saw the power he held, but to his credit he did not then exult; he only +felt that it was finished, that Ethie was gone past his recall; and for +the first time in his life he experienced a genuine pang of desolation, +such as he had never felt before, and he fought hard to master his +emotions while he watched the bride receiving the bridal guests. Another +than Frank was watching her, too--Mrs. Dr. Van Buren--who at one time +feared lest Ethelyn should faint, and who, as soon as an opportunity +offered, whispered to her niece, "Do, Ethie, put some animation in your +manner or people will think you an unwilling bride." + +For a moment a gleam of anger flashed from the eyes which looked +unflinchingly into Mrs. Van Buren's, and the pale lips quivered with +passion. But Ethelyn had too much pride to admit of her letting the +people know what she was suffering, and so with great effort she rallied +her fainting spirits, and twice ere the evening was at a close her merry +laugh was heard even above Susie Granger's, as a knot of her gay +companions gathered round her with their merry jokes and gay repartees. + +Susie Granger was in her happiest mood, and her lively spirits seemed to +pervade the whole party. Now that he knew her better, Richard was more +at ease with her, and returned her playful sallies until even Ethelyn +wondered to see him so funny. He never once forgot her, however, as was +evinced by the loving glances he bent upon her, and by his hovering +constantly at her side, as if afraid to lose her. + +Once, when they were standing together and Frank was near to them, +Richard laid his hand upon Ethelyn's shoulder which the cut of the +wedding dress left bare. It was a very beautiful neck--white, and plump, +and soft--and Richard's hand pressed somewhat heavily; but with a shiver +Ethelyn drew herself away, and Frank, who was watching her, fancied he +saw the flesh creep backward from the touch. Perhaps it was a feeling of +pity, and perhaps it was a mean desire to test his own influence over +her, which prompted him carelessly to take her hand to inspect the +wedding-ring. It was only her hand, but as Frank held it in his own, he +felt it growing warm and flushed, while the color deepened on Ethelyn's +cheeks, and then died suddenly away at Frank's characteristic remark, +spoken for her ear alone, "You feel like thunder, Ethie, and so do I." + +The speech did Ethelyn good. No matter how she felt, it was not Frank's +place to speak to her thus. She was now a wife, and she meant to be true +to her marriage vow, both in look and deed; so, with an impatient +gesture, she flung aside Frank's hand, repelling him fiercely with the +reply, "You are mistaken, sir--at least, so far as I am concerned." + +After that she stayed more with Richard, and once, of her own accord, +she put her arm in his and stood half leaning against him with both +hands clasped together, while he held the bouquet which Mrs. Senator +Woodhull had sent by express from New York. It is true that Richard +smelled and breathed upon the flowers oftener than was desirable; and +once Ethelyn saw him extracting leaves from the very choicest blossoms; +but on the whole he did very well, considering that it was the first +time he had ever held a lady's bouquet in such an expensive holder. + +As Ethelyn had predicted, the evening was hot and sultry; but the bugs +and beetles and millers she had dreaded did not come in to annoy her, +and when, as the clock struck twelve, the company dispersed, they were +sincere in their assertions of having passed a delightful evening, and +many were the good wishes expressed for Mrs. Judge Markham's happiness +as the guests took their way to their respective homes. + +An hour later and the lights had disappeared from Miss Barbara Bigelow's +windows, and the summer stars looked down upon the quiet house where +that strange bridal had been. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HONEYMOON + +From Mrs. Senator Woodhull's elegant house--where Mrs. Judge Markham had +been petted, and flattered, and caressed, and Mr. Judge Markham had been +adroitly tutored and trained without the least effect--the newly wedded +pair went on to Quebec and Montreal, and thence to the White Mountains, +where Ethelyn's handsome traveling dress was ruined and Richard's linen +coat, so obnoxious to his bride, was torn past repair and laid away in +one of Ethelyn's trunks, with the remark that "Mother could mend it for +Andy, who always took his brother's cast-off clothes." The hair trunk +had been left in Chicopee, and so Ethelyn had not that to vex her. + +Noticed everywhere, and admired by all whom she met, the first part of +her wedding trip was not as irksome as she had feared it might be. +Pleased, as a boy, with his young bride, Richard was all attention, and +Ethelyn had only to express a wish to have it gratified, so that casual +lookers-on would have pronounced her supremely happy. And Ethelyn's +heart did not ache one-half so hard as on that terrible day of her +bridal. In the railway car, on the crowded steamboat, or at the large +hotels, where all were entire strangers, she forgot to watch and +criticise her husband, and if any dereliction from etiquette did occur, +he yielded so readily to her suggestion that to him seemed an easy task. +The habits of years, however, are not so easily broken, and by the time +Saratoga was reached, Richard's patience began to give way beneath +Ethelyn's multifarious exactions and the ennui consequent upon his +traveling about so long. Still he did pretty well for him, growing very +red in the face with his efforts to draw on gloves a size too small, and +feeling excessively hot and uncomfortable in his coat, which he wore +even in the retirement of his own room, where he desired so much to +indulge in the cool luxury of shirt-sleeves--a suggestion which Ethelyn +heard with horror, openly exclaiming against the glaring vulgarity, and +asking, a little contemptuously, if that were the way he had been +accustomed to do at home. + +"Why, yes," he answered. "Out West upon the prairies we go in for +comfort, and don't mind so small a matter as shirt-sleeves on a +sweltering August day." + +"Please do not use such expressions as sweltering and go in--they do not +sound well," Ethelyn rejoined. "And now I think of it, I wish you would +talk more to the ladies in the parlor. You hardly spoke to Mrs. Cameron +last evening, and she directed most of her conversation to you, too. I +was afraid she would either think that you were rude, or else that you +did not know what to say." + +"She hit it right, if she came to the latter conclusion," Richard said, +good-humoredly, "for the fact is, Ethie, I don't know what to say to +such women as she. I am not a ladies' man, and it's no use trying to +make me over. You can't teach old dogs new tricks." + +Ethie fairly groaned as she clasped her bracelets upon her arms and +shook down the folds of her blue silk; then after a moment she +continued: "You can talk to me, and why not to others?" + +"You are my wife, Ethie, and I love you, which makes a heap of +difference," Richard said, and winding his arms around Ethie's waist he +drew her face toward his own and kissed it affectionately. + +They had been three days at Saratoga when this little scene occurred +and their room was one of those miserable little apartments in the +Ainsworth block which look out upon nothing but a patch of weeds and the +rear of a church. Ethelyn did not like it at all, and liked it the less +because she felt that to some extent her husband was to blame. He ought +to have written and engaged rooms beforehand--Aunt Van Buren always did, +and Mrs. Col. Tophevie, and everybody who understood the ins and outs of +fashionable life. But Richard did not understand them. He believed in +taking what was offered to him without making a fuss, he said. He had +never been to Saratoga before, and he secretly hoped he should never +come again, for he did not enjoy those close, hot rooms and worm-eaten +furniture any better than Ethelyn did, but he accepted it with a better +grace, saying, when he first entered it, that "he could put up with +'most anything, though to be sure it was hotter than an oven." + +His mode of expressing himself had never suited Ethelyn. Particular, and +even elegant in her choice of language, it grated upon her sensitive +ear, and forgetting that she had all her life heard similar expressions +in Chicopee, she charged it to the West, and Iowa was blamed for the +faults of her son more than she deserved. At Saratoga, where they met +many of her acquaintances, all of whom were anxious to see the +fastidious Ethelyn's husband, it seemed to her that he was more remiss +than ever in those little things which make up the finished gentleman, +while his peculiar expressions sometimes made every nerve quiver with +pain. The consequence of this was that Ethelyn became a very little +cross, as Richard thought, though she had never so openly attacked him +as on that day, the third after their arrival, when to her horror he +took off his coat, preparatory to a little comfort, while she was +dressing for dinner. At Ethelyn's request, however, he put it on again, +saying as he did so, that he was "sweating like a butcher," which remark +called out his wife's contemptuous inquiries concerning his habits at +home. Richard was still too much in love with his young wife to feel +very greatly irritated. In word and deed she had done her duty toward +him thus far, and he had nothing to complain of. It is true she was very +quiet and passive, and undemonstrative, never giving him back any caress +as he had seen wives do. But then he was not very demonstrative himself, +and so he excused it the more readily in her, and loved her all the +same. It amused him that a girl of twenty should presume to criticise +him, a man of thirty-two, a Judge, and a member of Congress, to whom the +Olney people paid such deference, and he bore with her at first just as +a mother would bear with the little child which assumed a +superiority over her. + +This afternoon, however, when she said so much to him, he was conscious +of a very little irritation, for he was naturally high-spirited. But he +put the feeling down, and gayly kissed his six-weeks bride, who, touched +with his forbearance, kissed him back again, and suffered him to hold +her cool face a moment between his hot, moist hands, while he bent +over her. + +She did respect him in spite of his vulgarism; nor was she unconscious +of the position which, as his wife, she held. It was very pleasant to +hear people say of her when she passed by: + +"That is Mrs. Judge Markham, of Iowa--her husband is a member of +Congress." + +Very pleasant, too, to meet with his friends, other M. C.'s, who paid +her deference on his account. Had they stayed away from Saratoga all +might have been well; but alas, they were there, and so was all of +Ethelyn's world--the Tophevies, the Hales, the Hungerfords and Van +Burens, with Nettie Hudson, opening her great blue eyes at Richard's +mistakes and asking Frank in Ethelyn's hearing, "if that Judge Markham's +manners were not a little outré." + +They certainly were outré, there was no denying it, and Ethelyn's blood +tingled to her finger tips as she wondered if it would always be so. It +is a pitiable thing for a wife to blush for her husband, to watch +constantly lest he depart from those little points of etiquette which +women catch intuitively, but which some of our most learned men fail to +learn in a lifetime. And here they greatly err, for no man, however well +versed he may be in science and literature, is well educated, or well +balanced, or excusable, if he neglects the little things which good +breeding and common politeness require of him, and Richard was somewhat +to be blamed. It did not follow because his faults had never been +pointed out to him that they did not exist, or that others did not +observe them besides his wife. Ethelyn, to be sure, was more deeply +interested than anyone else, and felt his mistakes more keenly, while at +the same time she was over-fastidious, and had not the happiest faculty +for correcting him. She did not love him well enough to be very careful +of wounding him, but the patience and good humor with which he received +her reprimand that hot August afternoon, when the thermometer was one +hundred in the shade, and any man would have been excusable for +retorting upon his wife who lectured him, awoke a throb of something +nearer akin to love than anything she had felt since the night when she +stood upon the sandy beach and heard the story of Daisy. + +Richard was going to do better. He would wear his coat all the time, +both day and night, if Ethelyn said so, He would not lean his elbow on +the table while waiting for dessert, as he had more than once been +guilty of doing; he would not help himself to a dish before passing it +to the ladies near him; he would talk to Mrs. Cameron in the evening, +and would try not to be so absorbed in his own thoughts as to pay no +attention when Mrs. Tophevie was addressing herself directly to him; he +would laugh in the right place, and, when spoken to, would answer in +something besides monosyllables; he would try to keep his hands out of +his pockets and his handkerchief out of his hand, or at least he would +not "snap it," as Ethie said he had done on the first evening of his +arrival at Saratoga. In short, he promised a complete reformation, even +saying that if Ethelyn would select some person who was an fait in those +matters in which he was so remiss, he would watch and copy that man to +the letter. Would she name someone? And Ethelyn named her cousin Frank, +while Richard felt a flush of something like resentment that he should +be required to imitate a person whom in his secret heart he despised as +dandyish, and weak, and silly, and "namby-pamby," as he would probably +have expressed it if he had not forsworn slang phrases of every kind. +But Richard had pledged his word, and meant to keep it; and so it was to +all appearances a very happy and loving couple which, when the dinner +gong sounded, walked into the dining room with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's set, +Ethelyn's handsome blue silk sweeping far behind her, and her white bare +arm just touching the coat-sleeve of her husband, who was not insensible +to the impression made by the beautiful woman at his side. + +There were no lectures that night, for Richard had done his best, +talking at least twenty times with both Mrs. Cameron and Mrs. Colonel +Tophevie, whom he found more agreeable than he had supposed. Then he had +held Ethelyn's white cloak upon his arm, and stood patiently against the +wall, while up at the United States she danced set after set--first, the +Lancers, with young Lieutenant Gray, then a polka with John Tophevie, +and lastly, a waltz with Frank Van Buren, who whirled his fair partner +about the room with a velocity which made Richard dizzy and awoke sundry +thoughts not wholly complimentary to that doubtful dance, the waltz. +Richard did not dance himself, at least not latterly. In his younger +days, when he and Abigail Jones attended the quilting-frolics together +and the "paring bees," he had with other young men, tried his feet at +Scotch reels, French fours, "The Cheat," and the "Twin Sisters," with +occasionally a cotillion, but he was not accomplished in the art. Even +the Olney girls called him awkward, preferring almost anyone else for a +partner, and so he abandoned the floor and cultivated his head rather +than his heels. He liked to see dancing, and at first it was rather +pleasant watching Ethelyn's lithe figure gliding gracefully through the +intricate movements of the Lancers; but when it came to the waltz, he +was not so sure about it, and he wondered if it were necessary for Frank +Van Buren to clasp her as tightly about the waist as he did, or for her +to lean so languidly upon his shoulder. + +Richard was not naturally jealous--certainly not of Frank Van Buren; but +he would rather his wife should not waltz with him or any other man, and +so he said to her, asking this concession on her part in return for all +he had promised to attempt; and to Ethelyn's credit we record that she +yielded to her husband's wishes, and, greatly to Frank's surprise, +declined the waltz which he had proposed the following evening. But she +made amends in other dances, keeping poor Richard waiting for her night +after night, until he actually fell asleep and dreamed of the log cabin +on the prairie, where he had once danced a quadrille with Abigail Jones +to the tune of Money-musk, as played by the Plympton brothers--the one +on a cracked violin, and the other on an accordion. + +A tap of Mrs. Tophevie's fan brought him back to consciousness, and he +was almost guilty of a sigh as the log cabin faded from his vision, with +the Plymptons and Abigail Jones, leaving instead that heated ballroom, +with its trained orchestra, its bevy of fair young girls, its score of +white-kidded dandies with wasp-like waists and perfumed locks, and Ethie +smiling in their midst. + +Saratoga did not agree with Richard. He grew sick first of the water; +then of the fare; then of the daily routine of fashionable follies; then +of the people; and then, oh! so sick of the petty lectures which Ethelyn +gradually resumed as he failed in his attempts to imitate Frank Van +Buren and appear perfectly at ease in everybody's presence. Saratoga was +a "confounded bore," he said, and though he called himself a brute, and +a savage, and a heathen, he was only very glad when toward the last of +August Ethelyn became so seriously indisposed as to make a longer stay +in Saratoga impossible. Newport, of course, was given up, and Ethelyn's +desire was to go back to Chicopee and lie down again in the dear old +room which had been hers from childhood. Aunt Barbara's toast, Aunt +Barbara's tea, and Aunt Barbara's nursing, would soon bring her all +right again, she said; but in this she was mistaken, for although the +toast, and the tea, and the nursing each came in its turn, the September +flowers had faded, and the trees on the Chicopee hills were beginning to +flaunt their bright October robes ere she recovered from the low, +nervous fever, induced by the mental and bodily excitement through which +she had passed during the last three or four months. + +Although he knew it was necessary that he should be at home if he would +transact any business before the opening of his next session in +Washington, Richard put aside all thoughts of self, and nursed his wife +with a devotedness which awakened her liveliest gratitude. + +Richard was not awkward in the sick-room. It seemed to be his special +providence, and as he had once nursed and cared for Daisy and the baby +brother who died, so he now cared for Ethelyn, until she began to miss +him when he left her side, and to listen for his returning step when he +went out for an hour or so to smoke and talk politics with his uncle, +Captain Markham. With Mrs. Dr. Van Buren and Frank and the fashionable +world all away, Richard's faults were not so perceptible, and Ethelyn +even began to look forward with considerable interest to the time when +she should be able to start for her Western home, about which she had +built many delusive castles. Her piano had already been sent on in +advance, she saying to Susie Granger, who came in while it was being +boxed, that as they were not to keep house till spring she should not +take furniture now. Possibly they could find what they needed in +Chicago; if not, they could order from Boston. + +Richard, who overheard this remark, wondered what it meant, for he had +not the most remote idea of separating himself from his mother. She was +very essential to his happiness; and he was hardly willing to confess to +himself how much during the last summer he had missed her. She had a way +of petting him and deferring to his judgment and making him feel that +Richard Markham was a very nice kind of man, far different from +Ethelyn's criticisms, which had sometimes led him seriously to inquire +whether he were a fool or not. No, he could not live apart from his +mother--he was firm upon that point; but there was time enough to say so +when the subject should be broached to him. So he went on nailing down +the cover to the pine box, and thinking as he nailed what a nice kitchen +cupboard the box would make when once it was safely landed at his home +in the prairie, and wondering, too, how his mother--who was not very +fond of music--would bear the sound of the piano and if Ethie would be +willing for Melinda Jones to practice upon it. He knew Melinda had taken +lessons at Camden, where she had been to school, and he had heard her +express a wish that someone nearer than the village had an instrument, +as she should soon forget all she had learned. Somehow Melinda was a +good deal in Richard's mind, and when a button was missing from his +shirts, or his toes came through his socks--as was often the case at +Saratoga--he found himself thinking of the way Melinda had of helping +"fix his things" when he was going from home, and of hearing his mother +say what a handy girl she was, and what a thrifty, careful wife she +would make. He meant nothing derogatory to Ethelyn in these +reminiscences; he would not have exchanged her for a thousand Melindas, +even if he had to pin his shirt bosoms together and go barefoot all his +life. But Melinda kept recurring to his mind much as if she had been his +sister, and he thought it would be but a simple act of gratitude for all +she had done for him to give her the use of the piano for at least one +hour each day. + +In blissful ignorance of all that was meditated against her, Ethelyn saw +her piano taken away from the sitting room, where it would never stand +again, and saw the tears which rolled down Aunt Barbara's faded cheeks +as she, too, watched its going, and tried to fill up the vacancy it left +by moving a chair and a table and a footstool into the gap. Those were +hard days for Aunt Barbara, harder than for Ethelyn, who liked the +excitement of traveling, and was almost glad when the crisp October +morning came on which she was to say good-by to the home which was hers +no longer. Her two huge trunks stood in the hall, together with the +square hair trunk which held Richard's wardrobe, and the three tin cans +of peaches Mrs. Captain Markham was sending to her sister-in-law, with +the injunction to be sure and get that particular patent for cans if she +wished her fruit to keep. In addition to these, an immense box had been +forwarded by express, containing, besides Ethelyn's wearing apparel, +many little ornaments and pictures and brackets, which, during the +winter, might perhaps adorn the walls of the parlor where Daisy's +picture hung, and where, Richard had said, was also an oil-painting of +Niagara, omitting to add that it was the handiwork of Melinda Jones, +that young lady having dabbled in paints as well as music during her two +terms schooling at Camden. Tucked away in various parts of the box were +also sundry presents, which, at Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's suggestion, Ethelyn +had bought for her husband's family. For James, who, she had heard +Richard say, was an inveterate smoker, there was a handsome velvet +smoking-cap which, having been bought at Saratoga, had cost an enormous +sum; for John, an expensive pair of elaborately wrought slippers had +been selected; but when it came to Anderson, as Ethelyn persisted in +calling the brother whom Richard always spoke of as Andy, she felt a +little perplexed as to what would be appropriate. Richard had talked +very little of him--so little, in fact, that she knew nothing whatever +of his tastes, except from the scrap of conversation she once +accidentally overheard when the old captain was talking to Richard of +his brothers. + +"Does Andy like busts as well as ever?" the captain had asked, but +Richard's reply was lost as Ethelyn walked on. + +Still, she had heard enough to give her some inkling with regard to the +mysterious Andy. Probably he was more refined than either James or +John--at all events, he was evidently fond of statuary, and his tastes +should be gratified. Accordingly, Boston was ransacked by Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren for an exquisite head of Schiller, done in marble, and costing +thirty dollars. Richard did not see it. The presents were a secret from +him, all except the handsome point-lace coiffure which Aunt Barbara +sent to Mrs. Markham, together with a letter which she had sat up till +midnight to write, and in which she had touchingly commended her darling +to the new mother's care and consideration. + +"You will find my Ethie in some respects a spoiled child--[she wrote] +but it is more my fault than hers. I have loved her so much, and petted +her so much, that I have doubt if she knows what a harsh word or cross +look means. She has been carefully and delicately brought up, but has +repaid me well for all my pains by her tender love. Please, dear Mrs. +Markham, be very, very kind to her, and you will greatly oblige, your +most obedient servant, + +"BARBARA BIGELOW. + +"P.S. I dare say your ways out West are not exactly like our ways at the +East, and Ethie may not fall in with them at once, perhaps never with +some of them, but I am sure she will do what is right, as she is a +sensible girl. Again, yours with regret, B.B." + +The writing of this letter was not perhaps the wisest thing Aunt Barbara +could have done, but she was incited to it by what her sister Sophia +told her of the rumors concerning Mrs. Markham, and her own fears lest +Ethelyn should not be as comfortable with the new mother-in-law as was +wholly desirable. To Richard himself she had said that she presumed that +his mother's ways were not like Ethie's--old people were different from +young ones--the world had improved since their day, and instead of +trying to bring young folks altogether to their modes of thinking, it +was well for both to yield something. That was the third time Richard +had heard his mother's ways alluded to; first by Mrs. Jones, who called +them queer; second, by Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, who, for Ethie's sake had +also dropped a word of caution, hinting that his mother's ways might +possibly be a little peculiar; and lastly by good Aunt Barbara, who +signalized them as different from Ethelyn's. + +What did it mean, and why had he never discovered anything amiss in his +mother? He trusted that Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Van Buren, and Aunt Barbara +were mistaken. On the whole, he knew they were; and even if they were +not his mother could not do wrong to Ethie, while Ethie would, of +course, be willing to conform to any request made by a person so much +older than herself as his mother was. So Richard dismissed that subject +from his mind, and Ethelyn--having never heard it agitated, except that +time when, with Mrs. Jones on his mind, Richard had thought proper to +suggest the propriety of her humoring his mother--felt no fears of Mrs. +Markham, senior, whom she still associated in her mind with heavy black +silk, gold-bowed spectacles, handsome lace and fleecy crochet-work. + +The October morning was clear and crisp and frosty, and the sun had not +yet shown itself above the eastern hills, when Captain Markham's +carryall drove to Aunt Barbara's gate, followed by the long +democratic-wagon which was to take the baggage. Ethelyn's spoiled +traveling dress had been replaced by a handsome poplin, which was made +in the extreme of fashion, and fitted her admirably, as did every +portion of her dress, from her jaunty hat and dotted lace veil to the +Alexandre kids and fancy little gaiters which encased her feet and +hands. She was prettier even than on her bridal day, Richard thought, as +he kissed away the tears which dropped so fast even after the last +good-by had been said to poor Aunt Barbara, who watched the flutter of +Ethie's veil and ribbons as far as they could be seen, and then in the +secrecy of her own room knelt and prayed that God would bless and keep +her darling, and make her happy in the new home to which she was going. + +It was very quiet and lonely in the Bigelow house that day, Aunt Barbara +walking softly and speaking slowly, as if the form of someone dead had +been borne from her side, while on the bed, which the housemaid Betty +had made so plump and round there was a cavity made by Aunt Barbara's +head, which hid itself there many times as the good woman went +repeatedly to God with the pain gnawing so at her heart. But in the +evening, when a cheerful wood fire was kindled on the hearth of her +pleasant sitting room, while Mrs. Captain Markham came in with her +knitting work, to sit until the Captain called for her on his return +from the meeting where he was to oppose with all his might the building +of a new schoolhouse, to pay for which he would be heavily taxed, she +felt better, and could talk composedly of the travelers, who by that +time were nearing Rochester, where they would spend the night. + +Although very anxious to reach home, Richard had promised that Ethelyn +should only travel through the day, as she was not as strong as before +her illness. And to this promise he adhered, so that it was near the +middle of the afternoon of the fifth day that the last change was made, +and they took the train that would in two hours' time deposit them at +Olney. At Camden, the county seat, they waited for a few moments. There +was always a crowd of people here going out to different parts of the +country, and as one after another came into the car Richard seemed to +know them all, while the cordial and rather noisy greeting which they +gave "the Judge" struck Ethelyn a little oddly--it was so different from +the quiet, undemonstrative manner to which she had been accustomed. With +at least a dozen men in shaggy overcoats and slouched hats she shook +hands with a tolerably good grace, but when there appeared a tall, lank, +bearded young giant of a fellow, with a dare-devil expression in his +black eyes and a stain of tobacco about his mouth, she drew back, and to +his hearty "How are ye, Miss Markham? Considerable tuckered out, I +reckon?" she merely responded with a cool bow and a haughty stare, +intended to put down the young man, whom Richard introduced as "Tim +Jones," and who, taking a seat directly in front of her, poured forth a +volley of conversation, calling Richard sometimes "Dick," sometimes +"Markham," but oftener "Squire," as he had learned to do when Richard +was justice of the peace in Olney. Melinda, too, or "Melind," was +mentioned as having been over to the "Squire's house helping the old +lady to fix up a little," and then Ethelyn knew that the "savage" was +no other than brother to Abigail Jones, deceased. The discovery was not +a pleasant one, and did not tend to smooth her ruffled spirits or lessen +the feeling of contempt for Western people in general, and Richard's +friends in particular, which had been growing in her heart ever since +the Eastern world was left behind and she had been fairly launched upon +the great prairies of the Mississippi Valley. Richard was a prince +compared with the specimens she had seen, though she did wonder that he +should be so familiar with them, calling them by their first names, and +even bandying jokes with the terrible Tim Jones spitting his tobacco +juice all over the car floor and laughing so loudly at all the "Squire" +said. It was almost too dreadful to endure, and Ethelyn's head was +beginning to ache frightfully when the long train came to a pause, and +the conductor, who also knew Judge Markham, and called him "Dick," +screamed through the open door "O-l-ney!" + +Ethelyn was at home at last. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MRS. MARKHAM'S WAYS + +They were very peculiar, and no one knew this better than Mrs. Jones and +her daughter Melinda, sister and mother to the deceased Abigail and the +redoubtable Tim. Naturally bright and quick-witted, Melinda caught +readily at any new improvement, and the consequence was that the Jones +house bore unmistakable signs of having in it a grown-up daughter whose +new ideas of things kept the old ideas from rusting. After Melinda came +home from boarding-school the Joneses did not set the table in the +kitchen close to the hissing cook stove, but in the pleasant dining +room, where there gradually came to be crocheted tidies on the backs of +the rocking-chairs, and crayon sketches on the wall, and a pot of +geraniums in the window, with a canary bird singing in his cage near by. +At first, Mrs. Markham, who felt a greater interest in the Joneses than +in any other family--Mrs. Jones being the only woman in the circle of +her acquaintance to whom she would lend her copper boiler--looked a +little askance at these "new-fangled notions," wondering how "Miss Jones +expected to keep the flies out of her house if she had all the doors +a-flyin' three times a day," and fearing lest Melinda was getting +"stuck-up notions in her head, which would make her fit for nothing." + +But when she found there were no more flies buzzing in Farmer Jones' +kitchen than in her own, and that Melinda worked as much as ever, and +was just as willing to lend a helping hand when there was need of haste +at the Markham house, her anxiety subsided, and the Joneses were welcome +to eat wherever they chose, or even to have to wait upon the table, when +there was company, the little black boy Pete, whom Tim had bought at a +slave auction in New Orleans, whither he had gone on a flatboat +expedition two or three years before. But she never thought of +introducing any of Melinda's notions into her own household. She "could +not fuss" to keep so many rooms clean. If in winter time she kept a fire +in the front room, where in one corner her own bed was curtained off, +and if in summer she always sat there when her work was done, it was all +that could be required of her, and was just as they used to do at her +father's, in Vermont, thirty years ago. Her kitchen was larger than Mrs. +Jones', which was rather uncomfortable on a hot day when there was +washing to be done; the odor of the soap-suds was a little sickening +then, she admitted, but in her kitchen it was different; she had had an +eye to comfort when they were building, and had seen that the kitchen +was the largest, airiest, lightest room in the house, with four windows, +two outside doors, and a fireplace, where, although they had a stove, +she dearly loved to cook just as her mother had done in Vermont, and +where hung an old-fashioned crane, with iron hooks suspended from it. +Here she washed, and ironed, and ate, and performed her ablutions in the +bright tin basin which stood in the sink near to the pail, with the +gourd swinging in the top, and wiped her face on the rolling towel and +combed her hair before the clock, which served the double purpose of +looking-glass and timepiece. When company came--and Mrs. Markham was not +inhospitable--the east room, where the bed stood, was opened; and if the +company, as was sometimes the case, chanced to be Richard's friends, she +used the west room across the hall, where the chocolate-colored paper +and Daisy's picture hung, and where, upon the high mantel, there was a +plaster image of little Samuel, and two plaster vases filled with +colored fruit. The carpet was a very pretty Brussels, but it did not +quite cover the floor on either side. It was a small pattern, and on +this account had been offered a shilling cheaper a yard, and so the +economical Mrs. Markham had bought it, intending to eke out the +deficiency with drugget of a corresponding shade; but the merchant did +not bring the drugget, and the carpet was put down, and time went on, +and the strips of painted board were still uncovered, save by the +straight row of haircloth chairs, which stood upon one side, and the +old-fashioned sofa, which had cost fifty dollars, and ought to last at +least as many years. There was a Boston rocker, and a center table, with +the family Bible on it, and a volume of Scott's Commentaries, and +frosted candlesticks on the mantel and two sperm candles in them, with +colored paper, pink and green, all fancifully notched and put around +them, and a bureau in the corner, which held the boys' Sunday shirts and +Mrs. Markham's black silk dress, with Daisy's clothes in the bottom +drawer, and the silver plate taken from her coffin. There was a +gilt-framed looking-glass on the wall, and blue paper curtains at the +windows, which were further ornamented with muslin drapery. This was the +great room--the parlor--where Daisy had died, and which, on that +account, was a kind of sacred place to those who held the memory of that +sweet, little prairie blossom as the dearest memory of their lives. Had +she lived, with her naturally refined tastes, and her nicety of +perceptions, there was no guessing what that farmhouse might have been, +for a young girl makes a deal of difference in any family. But she died, +and so the house, which when she died, was not quite finished, remained +much as it was--a large, square building, minus blinds, with a wide +hall in the center opening in front upon a broad piazza, and opening +back upon a stoop, the side entrance to the kitchen. There was a picket +fence in front; but the yard was bare of ornament, if we except the +lilac bushes under the parlor windows, the red peony in the corner, and +the clumps of violets and daisies, which grew in what was intended for +borders to the walk, from the front gate to the door. Sometimes the +summer showed here a growth of marigolds, with sweet peas and china +asters, for Andy was fond of flowers, and when he had leisure he did a +little floral gardening; but this year, owing to Richard's absence, +there had been more to do on the farm, consequently the ornamental had +been neglected, and the late autumn flowers which, in honor of Ethelyn's +arrival, were standing in vases on the center table and the mantel, were +contributed by Melinda Jones, who had been very busy in other portions +of the house working for the bride. + +She could do this now without a single pang of jealousy, for she was a +sensible girl, and after a night and a day of heaviness, and a vague +sense of disappointment, she had sung as merrily as ever, and no one was +more interested in the arrival of Richard's bride than she, from the +time when Richard started eastward for her. Between herself and her +mother there had been a long, confidential conversation, touching Mrs. +Markham's ways and the best means of circumventing them, so that the new +wife might not be utterly crushed with homesickness and surprise when +she first arrived. No one could manage Mrs. Markham as well as Melinda, +and it was owing to her influence wholly that the large, pleasant +chamber, which had been Richard's ever since he became a growing man, +was renovated and improved until it presented a very inviting +appearance. The rag carpet which for years had done duty, and bore many +traces of Richard's muddy boots, had been exchanged for a new +ingrain--not very pretty in design, or very stylish either, but +possessing the merit of being fresh and clean. To get the carpet Melinda +had labored assiduously, and had enlisted all three of the brothers, +James, and John, and Andy in the cause before the economical mother +consented to the purchase. The rag carpet, if cleaned and mended, was as +good as ever, she insisted; and even if it were not, she could put on +one that had not seen so much actual service. It was Andy who finally +decided her to indulge in the extravagance urged by Melinda Jones. There +were reasons why Andy was very near to his mother's heart, and when he +offered to sell his brown pony, which he loved as he did his eyes, his +mother yielded the point, and taking with her both Mrs. Jones and +Melinda, went to Camden, and sat two mortal hours upon rolls of +carpeting while she decided which to take. + +Mrs. Markham was not stingy with regard to her table; that was always +loaded with the choicest of everything, while many a poor family blessed +her as an angel. But the articles she ate were mostly the products of +their large, well-cultivated farm; they did not cost money directly out +of her hand, and it was the money she disliked parting with, so she +talked and dickered, and beat the Camden merchant down five cents on a +yard, and made him cut it a little short, to save a waste, and made him +throw in the thread and binding and swear when she was gone, wondering +who "the stingy old woman was." And yet the very day after her return +from Camden "the stingy old woman" had sent to her minister a loaf of +bread and a pail of butter, and to a poor sick woman, who lived in a +leaky cabin off in the prairie, a nice, warm blanket for her bed, with a +basket of delicacies to tempt her capricious appetite. + +In due time the carpet had been made, Melinda Jones sewing up three of +the seams, while Andy, who knew how to use the needle almost as well as +a girl, claimed the privilege of sewing at least half a seam on the new +sister's carpet. Adjoining Richard's chamber was a little room where +Mrs. Markham's flour and meal and corn were kept, but which, with a +little fitting up, would answer nicely for a bedroom, and after an +amount of engineering, which would have done credit to the general of an +army, Melinda succeeded in coaxing Mrs. Markham to move her barrels and +bags, and give up the room for Ethelyn's bed, which looked very nice and +inviting, notwithstanding that the pillows were small, and the bedstead +a high poster, which had been in use for twenty years. Mrs. Markham knew +all about the boxes, as she called them. There was one in Mrs. Jones' +front chamber, but she had never bought one, for what then would she do +with her old ones--"with them laced cords," so greatly preferable to the +hard slats, which nearly broke her back the night she slept on some at a +friend's house in Olney. + +Richard was fond of books, and had collected from time to time a +well-selected library, which was the only ornament in his room when +Melinda first took it in hand; but when she had finished her work--when +the carpet was down, and the neat, white shades were up at the windows; +when the books which used to be on the floor and table, and chairs, and +mantel, and window sills, and anywhere, were neatly arranged in the very +respectable shelves which Andy made and James had painted; when the +little sewing chair designed for Ethelyn was put before one window, and +Richard's arm-chair before the other, and the drab lounge was drawn a +little into the room, and the bureau stood corner-ways, with a bottle of +cologne upon it, which John had bought, and a pot of pomade Andy had +made, and two little pink and white mats Melinda had crocheted, the room +was very presentable. Great, womanish Andy was sure Ethelyn would be +pleased, and rubbed his hands jubilantly over the result of his labors, +while Melinda was certainly pardonable for feeling that in return for +what she had done for Richard's wife she might venture to suggest that +the huge box, marked piano, which for ten days had been standing on the +front piazza, be opened and the piano set up, so that she could try its +tone. This box had cost Andy a world of trouble, keeping him awake +nights, and taking him from his bed more than once, as he fancied he +heard a mysterious sound, and feared someone might be stealing the +ponderous thing, which it took four men to lift. With the utmost +alacrity he helped in the unpacking, nearly bursting a blood-vessel as +he tugged at the heaviest end, and then running to the village with all +his speed, to borrow Mrs. Crandall's piano key, which, fortunately, +fitted Ethelyn's, so that Melinda Jones was soon seated in state, and +running her fingers over the superb five-hundred dollar instrument, +Ethelyn's gift from Aunt Barbara on her nineteenth birthday. + +Melinda's fingers were strained and cut with carpet thread, and pricked +with carpet tacks, and red with washing dishes, but they moved nimbly +over the keys, striking out with a will the few tunes she had learned +during her two quarters' instruction. She had acquired a great deal of +knowledge in a short time, for she was passionately fond of music, and +every spare moment had been devoted to it, so that she had mastered the +scales with innumerable exercises, besides learning several pieces, of +which Money-musk was one. This she now played with a sprightliness and +energy which brought Andy to his feet, while the cowhides moved to the +stirring music in a fashion which would have utterly confounded poor +Ethelyn could she have seen them. But Ethelyn was miles and miles away. +She was not coming for a week or more, and in that time Andy tried his +hand at Yankee Doodle, playing with one finger, and succeeding far +beyond his most sanguine expectations. Andy was delighted with the +piano, and so was Eunice, the hired girl, who left her ironing and her +dishes, standing with wiping towel or flatiron in hand, humming an +accompaniment to Andy's playing, and sometimes helping to find the +proper key to touch next. + +Eunice was not an Irish girl, nor a German, nor a Scotch, but a +full-blooded American, and "just as good as her employers," with whom +she always ate and sat. It was not Mrs. Markham's custom to keep a girl +the year round, but when she did it was Eunice Plympton, the daughter of +the drunken fiddler who earned his livelihood by playing for the dances +the young people of Olney sometimes got up. He was anticipating quite a +windfall from the infair it was confidently expected would be given by +Mrs. Markham in honor of her son's marriage; and Eunice herself had +washed and starched and ironed the white waist she intended to wear on +the same occasion. Of course she knew she would have to wait and tend +and do the running, she said to Melinda, to whom she confided her +thoughts, but after the supper was over she surely might have one little +dance, if with nobody but Andy. + +This was Eunice, and she had been with Mrs. Markham during the past +summer; but her time was drawing to a close. All the heavy work was +over, the harvests were gathered in, the soap was made, the cleaning +done, the house made ready for Richard's wife, and it was the +understanding that when that lady came and was somewhat domesticated, +Miss Eunice was to leave. There was not much to do in the winter, Mrs. +Markham said, and with Richard's wife's help she should get along. Alas! +how little Ethelyn was prepared for the home which awaited her, and for +the really good woman, who, on the afternoon of her son's arrival, saw +into the oven the young turkey which Andy had been feeding for so very +long with a view to this very day, and then helped Eunice set the table +for the expected guests. + +It did occur to Mrs. Markham that there might be a great propriety in +Eunice's waiting for once, inasmuch as there were plates to change, and +custard pie and minced, and pudding, to be brought upon the table, for +they were having a great dinner, but the good woman did not dare hint at +such a thing, so the seven plates were put upon the table, and the china +cups brought from the little cupboard at the side of the chimney, and +the silver teapot, which was a family heirloom, and had been given Mrs. +Markham by her mother, was brought also and rubbed up with what Eunice +called a "shammy," and the pickles, and preserves, and honey, and cheese +and jellies, and the white raised biscuits and fresh brown bread, and +shredded cabbage and cranberry sauce, with golden butter, and pitchers +of cream, were all arranged according to Eunice's ideas. The turkey was +browning nicely, the vegetables were cooking upon the stove, the odor of +silver-skinned onions pervading the entire house. Eunice was grinding +the coffee, and the clock said it wanted but half an hour of car-time, +when Mrs. Markham finally left the kitchen and proceeded to make +her toilet. + +Eunice's had been made some time ago, and the large-sized hoop she wore +had already upset a pail and dragged a griddle from the stove hearth, +greatly to the discomfiture of Mrs. Markham, who did not fancy hoops, +though she wore a small one this afternoon under her clean and +stiffly-starched dress of purple calico. St. Paul would have made her an +exception in his restrictions with regard to women's apparel, for +neither gold nor silver ornaments, nor braided hair, found any tolerance +in her. She followed St. Paul strictly, except at such times as the good +people in the Methodist church at the east end of the village held a +protracted meeting, when she deviated so far from his injunction as to +speak her mind and tell her experience. + +She was a good and conscientious woman, practicing what she preached, +and believing more in the inner than the outer adorning; but she looked +very neat this afternoon in her purple calico, with a motherly white +apron tied around her waist, and her soft, silvery hair combed smoothly +back from her forehead and twisted in a knot behind, about the size of a +half dollar. This knot however, was hidden by the headdress which +Melinda had made from bits of black lace and purple ribbon, and which, +though not at all like Aunt Barbara's Boston caps, was still very +respectable, and even tasteful-looking. Almost too tasteful, Mrs. +Markham thought, as she glanced at the tiny artificial flower tucked in +among the bows of ribbon. But Mrs. Markham did not remove the flower, +for it was a daisy, and it made her think of the Daisy who died fourteen +years ago, and who, had she lived till now, would have been +twenty-eight. + +"A married woman, most likely, and I might have been grandmother," Mrs. +Markham sighed, and then, as she heard in fancy the patter of little +feet at her side, and saw before her little faces with a look like Daisy +in them, her thoughts went softly out to Richard's bride, through whom +this coveted blessing might come to her quiet household, and her heart +throbbed with a quick sudden yearning for the young daughter-in-law, +now just alighting at the Olney station, for the Eastern train had come, +and James was there with the democrat-wagon to meet it. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GETTING HOME + +Olney was a thriving, busy little town, numbering five hundred +inhabitants or thereabouts. It had its groceries, its dry goods stores, +and its two houses for public worship--the Methodist and +Presbyterian--while every other Sunday a little band of Episcopalians +met for their own service in what was called the Village Hall, where, +during week days, a small, select school was frequently taught by some +Yankee schoolmistress. It had its post office, too; and there was also +talk of a bank after the railroad came that way, and roused the people +to a state of still greater activity. On the whole, it was a pretty +town, though different from Chicopee, where the houses slept so +aristocratically under the shadow of the old elms, which had been +growing there since the day when our national independence was declared. + +At home Ethelyn's pride had all been centered in Boston, and she had +sometimes thought a little contemptuously of Chicopee and its +surroundings; but the farther she traveled west the higher Chicopee rose +in her estimation, until she found herself comparing every prairie +village with that rural town among the hills, which seemed to give it +dignity, and made it so greatly superior to the dead levels of which she +was getting so weary. She had admired the rolling prairies at first, +but, tired and jaded with her long journey, nothing looked well to her +now--nothing was like Chicopee--certainly not Olney, where the dwellings +looked so new and the streets were minus sidewalks. + +Ethelyn had a good view of it as the train approached it and even caught +a passing glimpse of the white house in the distance which Richard +pointed out as home, his face lighting up with all the pleasure of a +schoolboy as he saw the old familiar waymarks and felt that he was +home at last. + +Dropping her veil over her face Ethelyn arose to follow her husband, who +in his eagerness to grasp the hand of the tall, burly young man he had +seen from the window, forgot to carry her shawl and her satchel, which +last being upon the car-rack, she tugged at it with all her strength, +and was about crying with vexation at Richard's thoughtlessness, when +Tim Jones, who while rolling his quid of tobacco in his great mouth, had +watched her furtively, wondering how she and Melind would get along, +gallantly came to her aid, and taking the satchel down kept it upon +his arm. + +"Take care of that air step. Better let me help you out. Dick is so +tickled to see Jim that he even forgets his wife, I swan!" Tim said, +offering to assist her from the train; but with a feeling of disgust too +deep to be expressed, Ethelyn declined the offer and turned away from +him to meet the curious gaze of the young man whom Richard presented as +brother James. + +He was younger than his brother by half a dozen years, but he looked +quite as old, if not older. His face and hands were sunburnt and brown, +his clothes were coarse, his pants were tucked into his tall, muddy +boots, and he held in his hands the whip with which he had driven the +shining bays, pricking up their ears behind the depot and eyeing askance +the train just beginning to move away. The Markhams were all +good-looking, and James was not an exception. The Olney girls called him +very handsome, when on Sunday he came to church in his best clothes and +led the Methodist choir; but Ethelyn only thought him rough, and coarse, +and vulgar, and when he bent down to kiss her she drew back haughtily. + +"Ethelyn!" Richard said, in the low, peculiar tone, which she had almost +unconsciously learned to fear, just as she did the dark expression which +his hazel eyes assumed as he said the single word "Ethelyn!" + +She was afraid of Richard when he looked and spoke that way, and putting +up her lip, she permitted the kiss which the warm-hearted James gave to +her. He was naturally more demonstrative than his brother, and more +susceptible, too; a pretty face would always set his heart to beating +and call out all the gallantry of his nature. Wholly unsophisticated, he +never dreamed of the gulf there was between him and the new sister, whom +he thought so beautiful--loving her at once, because she was so pretty, +and because she was the wife of Dick, their household idol. He was more +of a ladies' man than Richard, and when on their way to the +democratic-wagon they came to a patch of mud, through which Ethelyn's +skirts were trailing, he playfully lifted her in his strong arms, and +set her down upon the wagon-box, saying, as he adjusted her skirts: "We +can't have that pretty dress spoiled, the very first day, with +Iowa mud." + +All this time Tim Jones had been dutifully holding the satchel, which he +now deposited at Ethelyn's feet, and then, at James' invitation, he +sprang into the hinder part of the wagon-box, and sitting down, let his +long limbs dangle over the backboard, while James sat partly in +Richard's lap and partly in Ethelyn's. It had been decided that the +democrat must come down again for the baggage; and so, three on a seat, +with Tim Jones holding on behind, Ethelyn was driven through the town, +while face after face looked at her from the windows of the different +dwellings, and comment after comment was made upon her pretty little +round hat, with its jaunty feather, which style had not then penetrated +so far west as Olney. Rumors there were of the Eastern ladies wearing +hats which made them look at least ten years younger than their actual +age; but Ethelyn was the first to carry the fashion to Olney, and she +was pronounced very stylish, and very girlish, too, by those who watched +her curiously from behind their curtains and blinds. + +It was the close of a chill October day, and a bank of angry clouds hung +darkly in the western sky, while the autumn wind blew across the +prairie; but colder, blacker, chillier far than prairie winds, or +threatening clouds, or autumnal day was the shadow resting on Ethelyn's +heart, and making her almost cry out with loneliness and homesickness, +as they drew near the house where the blue paper curtains were hanging +before the windows and Eunice Plympton's face was pressed against the +pane. The daisies and violets and summer grass were withered and dead, +and the naked branches of the lilac bush brushed against the house with +a mournful, rasping sound, which reminded her of the tall sign-post in +Chicopee, which used to creak so in the winter wind, and keep her Aunt +Barbara awake. To the right of the house, and a little in the rear, were +several large, square corn-cribs, and behind these an inclosure in which +numerous cattle, and horses, and pigs were industriously feeding, while +the cobs, stripped, and soiled, and muddy, were scattered everywhere. +Ethelyn took it all in at a glance, exclaiming, in a smothered voice, as +the wagon turned into the lane which led to the side door, "Not here, +Richard; surely, not here!" + +But Richard, if he heard her, did not heed her. He could not comprehend +her utter desolation and crushing disappointment. Her imaginings of his +home had never been anything like this reality, and for a moment she +felt as if in a kind of horrible nightmare, from which she struggled +to awake. + +"Oh! if it were only a dream," she thought; but it was no dream, though +as Richard himself lifted her carefully from the wagon, and deposited +her upon the side stoop, there came a mist before her eyes, and for an +instant sense and feeling forsook her; but only for an instant, for the +hall door was thrown open, and Richard's mother came out to greet her +son and welcome her new daughter. + +But alas for Ethelyn's visions of heavy silk and costly lace! How they +vanished before this woman in purple calico, with ruffles of the same +standing up about the throat, and the cotton lace coiffure upon her +head! She was very glad to see her boy and wound both her arms around +his neck, but she was afraid of Ethelyn. She, too, had had her ideal, +but it was not like this proud-looking beauty, dressed so stylishly, +and, as it seemed to her so extravagantly, with her long, full skirt of +handsome poplin trailing so far behind her, and her basque fitting her +graceful figure so admirably. Neither did the hat, rolled so jauntily on +the sides, and giving her a coquettish appearance, escape her notice, +nor the fact that the dotted veil was not removed from the white face, +even after Richard had put the little, plump hand in hers, and said: + +"This, mother, is Ethie, my wife. I hope you will love each other for my +sake." + +In her joy at seeing her pet boy again, Mrs. Markham would have done a +great deal for his sake, but she could not "kiss a veil," as she +afterwards said to Melinda Jones, when she reached the point where she +talked straight out about her daughter-in-law. No, she could not kiss a +veil, and so she only held and pressed Ethelyn's hand, and leading her +into the house, told her she was very welcome, and bade her come to the +fire and take off her things, and asked if she was not tired, and cold +and hungry. + +And Ethelyn tried to answer, but the great lumps were swelling in her +throat, and so keen a pain was tugging at her heart that when at last, +astonished at her silence, Richard said, "What is the matter, Ethie--why +don't you answer mother?" she burst out in a pitiful cry: + +"Oh, Richard, I can't, I can't; please take me back to Aunt Barbara." + +This was the crisis, the concentration of all she had been suffering for +the last hour, and it touched Mrs. Markham's heart, for she remembered +just how wretched she had been when she first landed at the rude log +cabin which was so long her Western home, and turning to Richard, she +said, in an aside: + +"She is homesick, poor child, as it's natural she should be at first. +She'll be better by and by, so don't think strange of it. She seems +very young." + +In referring to her youth, Mrs. Markham meant nothing derogatory to her +daughter-in-law, though Ethelyn did strike her as very young, in her +pretty hat with her heavy hair low in her neck. She was finding an +excuse for her crying, and did not mean that Ethelyn should hear. But +she did hear, and the hot tears were dashed aside at once. She was too +proud to be petted or patronized by Mrs. Markham, or apologized for by +her, so she dried her eyes, and lifting her head, said proudly: + +"I am tired to-night, and my head is aching so hard that I lost my +self-control. I beg you will excuse me. Richard knows me too well to +need an excuse." + +A born duchess could not have assumed a loftier air, and in some +perplexity Mrs. Markham glanced from her to Richard, as if asking what +to do next. Fortunately for all parties, Andy just then came in with his +brother John, who approached his new sister with some little hesitation. +He had heard Tim Jones' verdict, "Stuck up as the old Nick," while even +cautious James had admitted his fears that Dick had made a mistake, and +taken a wife who would never fit their ways. And this was why John had +been so late with his welcome. He had crept up the back stairs, and +donned his best necktie, and changed his heavy boots for a pair of +shoes, which left exposed to view a portion of his blue yarn socks. He +had before changed his coat and vest, and tied on a handkerchief, but it +was not his best; not the satin cravat, with the pretty bow Melinda +Jones had made, and in which was stuck a rather fanciful pin he wore on +great occasions. He was all right now, and he shook hands with his new +sister, and asked if she were pretty well, and told her she was welcome, +and then stepped back for Andy, who had been making his toilet when the +bride arrived, and so was late with his congratulations. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ANDY + +Andy was a character in his way. A fall from his horse upon the ground +had injured his head when he was a boy, and since that time he had been +what his mother called a little queer, while the neighbors spoke of him +as simple Andy, or Mrs. Markham's half-wit, who did the work of a girl +and knit all his own socks. He was next to Richard in point of age, but +he looked younger than either of his brothers, for his face was round +and fair, and smooth as any girl's. It is true that every Sunday of his +life he made a great parade with lather and shaving-cup, standing before +the glass in his shirt-sleeves, just as the other boys did, and +flourishing his razor around his white throat and beardless face, to the +amusement of anyone who chanced to see him for the first time. + +In his younger days, when the tavern at the Cross Roads was just opened, +Andy had been a sore trial to both mother and brothers, and many a +night, when the rain and sleet were driving across the prairies, Richard +had left the warm fireside and gone out in the storm after the erring +Andy, who had more than once been found by the roadside, with his hat +jammed into every conceivable shape, his face scratched, and a tell-tale +smell about his breath which contradicted his assertion "that somebody +had knocked him down." + +Andy had been intemperate, and greatly given to what the old Captain in +Chicopee had designated as "busts"; but since the time when the church +missionary, young Mr. Townsend, had come to Olney, and held his first +service in the log schoolhouse, Andy had ceased to frequent the Cross +Roads tavern, and Richard went no more in the autumnal storms to look +for his wayward brother. There was something in the beautiful simplicity +of the church service which went straight to Andy's heart, and more than +all, there was something in Mr. Townsend's voice, and manner, and face, +which touched a responsive chord in the breast of the boyish Andy, and +when at last the bishop came to that section of Iowa, his hands were +first laid in blessing on the bowed head of Andy, who knelt to receive +the rite of confirmation in the presence of a large concourse of people, +to most of whom the service and ceremony were entirely new. + +While rejoicing and thanking God for the change, which she felt was +wholly sincere, Mrs. Markham had deeply deplored the pertinacity with +which Andy had clung to his resolve to join "Mr. Townsend's church or +none." She did not doubt Mr. Townsend's piety or Andy's either, but she +doubted the Episcopalians generally because they did not require more +than God himself requires, and it hurt her sore that Andy should go with +them rather than to her church across the brook, where Father Aberdeen +preached every Sunday against the pride, and pomp, and worldliness +generally of his Episcopal brethren. Andy believed in Mr. Townsend, and +in time he came to believe heart and soul in the church doctrines as +taught by him, and the beautiful consistency of his daily life was to +his mother like a constant and powerful argument in favor of the church +to which he belonged, while to his brothers it was a powerful argument +in favor of the religion he professed. + +That Andy Markham was a Christian no one doubted. It showed itself in +every act of his life; it shone in his beaming, good-natured face, and +made itself heard in the touching pathos of his voice, when he repeated +aloud in his room the prayers of his church, saying to his mother, when +she objected that his prayers were made up beforehand: "And for the +land's sake, ain't the sams and hims, which are nothing but prayers set +to music, made up beforehand? A pretty muss you'd have of it if +everybody should strike out for himself, a singin' his own words just as +they popped into his head." + +Mrs. Markham was not convinced, but she let Andy alone after that, +simply remarking that "the prayer-book would not always answer the +purpose; there would come a time when just what he wanted was +not there." + +Andy was willing to wait till that time came, trusting to Mr. Townsend +to find for him some way of escape; and so the matter dropped, and he +was free to read his prayers as much as he pleased. He had heard from +Richard that his new sister was of his way of thinking--that though not +a member of the church except by baptism, she was an Episcopalian, and +would be married by that form. + +It was strange how Andy's great, warm heart went out toward Ethelyn +after that. He was sure to like her; and on the evening of the bridal, +when the clock struck nine, he had taken his tallow candle to his room, +and opening his prayer-book at the marriage ceremony, had read it +carefully through, even to the saying: "I, Richard, take thee, Ethelyn," +etc., kneeling at the proper time, and after he was through even +venturing to improvise a prayer of his own, in which he asked, not that +Ethelyn might be happy with his brother--there was no doubt on that +point, for Richard was perfect in his estimation--but that "old Dick" +might be happy with her--that he, Andy, might do his whole duty by her, +and that, if it was right to ask it, she might bring him something from +that famous Boston, which seemed to him like a kind of paradise, and +also that she need not at once discover that he did not know as much as +"old Dick." + +This was Andy's prayer, which he had confessed to Mr. Townsend; and now, +all shaven and shorn, with his best Sunday coat and a large bandanna in +his hand, he came in to greet his sister. It needed but a glance for +Ethelyn to know the truth, for Andy's face told what he was; but there +was something so kind in his expression and so winning in his voice, as +he called her "Sister Ethie," that she unbent to him as she had unbent +to no one else; and when he stooped to kiss her, she did not draw back +as she had from James and John, but promptly put up her lips, and only +winced a very little at the second loud, hearty smack which Andy gave +her, his great mouth leaving a wet spot on her cheek, which she wiped +away with her handkerchief. + +Richard had dreaded the meeting between his polished wife and his simple +brother more than anything else, and several times he had tried to +prepare Ethelyn for it, but he could not bring himself to say, "Andy is +foolish"; for when he tried to do it Andy's pleading face came up before +him just as it looked on the morning of his departure from home in June, +when Andy had said to him: "Don't tell her what a shaller critter I am. +Let her find it out by her learning." + +So Richard had said nothing particular of Andy, and now he watched him +anxiously, to see the impression he was making, and, as he saw Ethelyn's +manner, marveling greatly at this new phase in her disposition. She did +not feel half so desolate after seeing Andy, and she let him hold her +hand, which he stroked softly, admiring its whiteness, and evidently +comparing it with his own. All the Markhams had large hands and feet, +just as they were all good-looking. Even Andy had his points of beauty, +for his soft brown hair was handsomer, if possible, than Richard's, and +more luxuriant, while many a city dandy might have coveted his white, +even teeth, and his dark eyes were very placid and gentle in their +expression. + +"Little sister" he called Ethelyn, who though not very short in stature, +seemed to him so much younger than he had expected Dick's wife to be +that he applied the term "little" as he would to anything which he +wished to pet. + +Ethelyn's hat was laid aside by this time, and the basquine, too, which +Andy thought the prettiest coat he had ever seen, and which Eunice, who +was bidden to carry Ethelyn's things away, tried on before the glass in +Ethelyn's chamber, as she did also the hat, deciding that Melinda Jones +could make her something like them out of a gray skirt she had at home +and one of Tim's palm-leaf hats. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +DINNER, AND AFTER IT + +Eunice had not fully seen the stranger, and so, when dinner was +announced and Richard led her out, with Andy hovering at her side, she +stood ready to be introduced, with the little speech she had been +rehearsing about "I hope to see you well," etc., trembling on the tip of +her tongue. But her plans were seriously disarranged. Six months before +Richard would have presented her himself, as a matter of course; but he +had learned some things since then, and he tried not to see his mother's +meaning as she glanced from him to Eunice and then to Ethelyn, whose +proud, dignified bearing awed and abashed even her. Eunice, however, had +been made quite too much of to be wholly ignored now, and Mrs. Markham +felt compelled to say, "Ethelyn, this--ah, this is--Eunice--Eunice +Plympton." + +That Eunice Plympton was the hired girl Ethelyn did not for a moment +dream; but that she was coarse and vulgar, like the rest of Richard's +family, she at once decided, and if she bowed at all it was not +perceptible to Eunice, who mentally resolved "to go home in the morning +if such a proud minx was to live there." + +Mrs. Markham saw the gathering storm, and Richard knew by the drop of +her chin that Ethelyn had not made a good impression. How could she with +that proud cold look, which never for an instant left her face, but +rather deepened in its expression as the dinner proceeded, and one after +the other Mrs. Markham and Eunice left the table in quest of something +that was missing, while Andy himself, being nearest the kitchen, went to +bring a pitcher of hot water for Ethelyn's coffee, lifting the kettle +with the skirt of his coat, and snapping his fingers, which were +slightly burned with the scalding steam. From the position she occupied +at the table Ethelyn saw the whole performance, and had it been in any +other house she would have smiled at Andy's grotesque appearance as he +converted his coat skirts into a holder; but now it only sent a colder +chill to her heart as she reflected that these were Richard's people and +this was Richard's home. Sadly and vividly there arose before her +visions of dear Aunt Barbara's household, where Betty served so quietly +and where, except that they were upon a smaller scale, everything was as +well and properly managed as in Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's family. It was +several hours since she had tasted food, but she could scarcely swallow +a morsel for the terrible homesick feeling swelling in her throat. She +knew the viands before her were as nicely cooked as even Aunt Barbara or +Betty could have cooked them--so much she conceded to Mrs. Markham and +Eunice; but had her life depended upon it she could not have eaten them +and the plate which James had filled so plentifully scarcely diminished +at all. She did pick a little with her fork at the white, tender turkey, +and tried to drink her coffee, but the pain in her head and the pain at +her heart were both too great to allow of her doing more, and Mrs. +Markham and Eunice both felt a growing contempt for a dainty thing who +could not eat the dinner they had been at so much pains to prepare. + +Ethelyn knew their opinion of her as well as if it had been expressed in +words; but they were so very far beneath her that whatsoever they might +think was not of the slightest consequence. They were a vulgar, ignorant +set, the whole of them, she mentally decided, as she watched their +manners at table, noticing how James and John poured their coffee into +their saucers, blowing it until it was cool, while Richard, feeling more +freedom now that he was again under his mother's wing, used his knife +altogether, even to eating jelly with it. Ethelyn was disgusted, and +once, as Richard's well-filled knife was moving toward his mouth, she +gently touched his foot with her own; but if he understood her he did +not heed her, and went quietly on with his dinner. Indeed, it might be +truly said of him that "Richard was himself again," for his whole manner +was that of a petted child, which, having returned to the mother who +spoiled it, had cast off the restraint under which for a time it had +been laboring. Richard was hungry, and would have enjoyed his dinner +hugely but for the cold, silent woman beside him, who, he knew, was +watching and criticising all he did; but somehow at home he did not care +so much for her criticisms as when alone with her at fashionable hotels +or with fashionable people. Here he was supreme, and none had ever +disputed his will. Perhaps if Ethelyn had known all that was in his +heart she might have changed her tactics and tried to have been more +conciliatory on that first evening of her arrival at his home. But +Ethelyn did not know--she only felt that she was homesick and +wretched--and pleading a headache, from which she was really suffering, +she asked to go to her room as soon as dinner was over. + +It was very pleasant up there, for a cheerful wood fire was blazing on +the hearth, and a rocking-chair drawn up before it, with a footstool +which Andy had made and Melinda covered, while the bed in the little +room adjoining looked so fresh, and clean, and inviting, that with a +great sigh of relief, as the door closed between her and the "dreadful +people below," Ethelyn threw herself upon it, and burying her face in +the soft pillows, tried to smother the sobs which, nevertheless, smote +heavily upon Richard's ear when he came in, and drove from him all +thoughts of the little lecture he had been intending to give Ethelyn +touching her deportment toward his folks. It would only be a fair +return, he reflected, for all the Caudles he had listened to so +patiently, and duly strengthened for his task by his mother's remark to +James, accidentally overheard, "Altogether too fine a lady for us. I +wonder what Richard was thinking of," he mounted the stairs resolved at +least to talk with Ethie and ask her to do better. + +Richard could be very stern when he tried, and the hazel of his eye was +darker than usual, and the wrinkle between his eyebrows was deeper as he +thus meditated harm against his offending wife. But the sight of the +crushed form lying so helplessly upon the bed and crying in such a +grieved, heart-sick way, drove all thoughts of discipline from his mind. +He could not add one iota to her misery. She might be cold, and proud, +and even rude to his family, as she unquestionably had been, but she was +still Ethie, his young wife, whom he loved so dearly; and bending over +her, he smoothed the silken bands of her beautiful hair and said to her +softly, "What is it, darling? Anything worse than homesickness? Has +anyone injured you?" + +No one had injured her. On the contrary, all had met, or tried to meet +her with kindness, which she had thrust back upon them. Ethelyn knew +this as well as anyone, and Mrs. Markham, washing her dishes below +stairs, and occasionally wiping her eyes with the corner of the check +apron as she thought how all her trouble had been thrown away upon a +proud, ungrateful girl, could not think less of Ethie than Ethie thought +of herself, upstairs sobbing among the pillows. The family were ignorant +and ill bred, as she counted ignorance and ill breeding; but they did +mean to be kind to her, and she hated herself for her ingratitude in not +at least seeming pleased with their endeavors to please her. Added to +this was a vague remembrance of a certain look seen in Richard's eye--a +look which made her uneasy as she thought, "What if he should hate +me, too?" + +Richard was all Ethelyn had to cling to now. She respected, if she did +not love him, and when she heard his step upon the stairs, her heart, +for an instant, throbbed with dread lest he was coming to chide her as +she deserved. When, then, he bent so kindly over her, and spoke to her +so tenderly, all her better nature went out toward him in a sudden gush +of something akin to love, and lifting her head, she laid it upon his +bosom, and drawing his arm around her neck, held it there with a sense +of protection, while she said: "No one has injured me; but, oh, I am so +homesick, and they are all so different, and my head aches so hard." + +He knew she was homesick and it was natural that she should be; and he +knew, too, that, as she said, they were "so different," and though on +this point he could not fully appreciate her feelings he was sorry for +her, and he soothed her aching head, and kissed her forehead, and told +her she was tired; she would feel better by and by, and get accustomed +to their ways, and when, as he said this, he felt the shiver with which +she repelled the assertion, he repressed his inclination to tell her +that she could at least conceal her aversion to whatever was +disagreeable, and kissing her again, bade her lie down and try to sleep, +as that would help her sooner than anything else, unless it were a cup +of sage tea, such as his mother used to make for him when his head was +aching. Should he send Eunice up with a cup? + +"No; oh, no," and Ethelyn's voice expressed the disgust she felt for the +young lady with red streamers in her hair, who had stared so at her and +called her husband Richard. + +Ethelyn had not yet defined Eunice's position in the family--whether it +was that of cousin, or niece, or companion--and now that Richard had +suggested her, she said to him: + +"Who is this Eunice that seems so familiar?" + +Richard hesitated a little and then replied: + +"She is the girl who works for mother when we need help." + +"Not a hired girl--surely not a hired girl!" and Ethelyn opened her +brown eyes wide with surprise and indignation, wondering aloud what Aunt +Sophia or Aunt Barbara would say if they knew she had eaten with and +been introduced to a hired girl. + +Richard did not say, "Aunt Sophia or Aunt Barbara be hanged, or +be--anything," but he thought it, just as he thought Ethelyn's ideas +particular and over-nice. Eunice Plympton was a respectable, trusty +girl, and he believed in doing well for those who did well for him; but +that was no time to argue the point, and so he sat still and listened to +Ethelyn's complaint that Eunice had called him Richard, and would +undoubtedly on the morrow address her as Ethelyn. Richard thought not, +but changed his mind when, fifteen minutes later, he descended to the +kitchen and heard Eunice asking Andy if he did not think "Ethelyn looked +like the Methodist minister's new wife." + +This was an offense which even Richard could not suffer to pass +unrebuked, and sending Andy out on some pretext or other, he said that +to Eunice Plympton which made her more careful as to what she called his +wife, but he did it so kindly that she could not be offended with him, +though she was strengthened in her opinion that "Miss Ethelyn was a +stuck-up, an upstart, and a hateful. Supposin' she had been waited on +all her life, and brought up delicately, as Richard said, that was no +reason why she need feel so big, and above speaking to a poor girl when +she was introduced." She guessed that "Eunice Plympton was fully as +respectable and quite as much thought on by the neighbors, if she didn't +wear a frock coat and a man's hat with a green feather stuck in it." + +This was the substance of Eunice's soliloquy, as she cleaned the +potatoes for the morrow's breakfast, and laid the kindlings by the +stove, ready for the morning fire. Still Eunice was not a bad-hearted +girl, and when Andy, who heard her mutterings, put in a plea for +Ethelyn, who he said "had never been so far away from home before, and +whose head was aching enough to split," she began to relent, and +proposed, of her own accord, to take up to the great lady a foot-bath +together with hot water for her head. + +It was so long since Richard had been at home, and there was so much to +hear of what had happened during his absence that instead of going back +to Ethelyn he yielded to his mother's wish that he should stay with her, +and sitting down in his arm-chair by the blazing fire, he found it so +pleasant to be flattered and caressed and deferred to again, that he was +in some danger of forgetting the young wife who was thus left to the +tender mercies of Andy and Eunice Plympton. Andy had caught eagerly at +Eunice's suggestion of the foot-bath, and offered to carry it up +himself, while Eunice followed with her towels and basin of hot water. +It never occurred to either of them to knock for admittance, and Ethelyn +was obliged to endure their presence, which she did at first with a +shadow on her brow; but when Andy asked so pleadingly that she try the +hot water, and Eunice joined her entreaties with his, Ethelyn consented, +and lay very quiet while Eunice Plympton bathed the aching head and +smoothed the long, bright hair, which both she and Andy admired so much, +for Andy, when he found that Ethelyn declined the foot-bath, concluded +to remain a while, and sitting down before the fire, he scrutinized the +form and features of his new sister, and made remarks upon the luxuriant +tresses which Eunice combed so carefully. + +It was something to have the homage of even such subjects as these, and +Ethelyn's heart grew softer as the pain gradually subsided beneath +Eunice's mesmeric touch, so that she answered graciously the questions +propounded by her as to whether that sack, or great-coat, or whatever it +was called, which she wore around her, was the very last style, how much +it took to cut it, and if Miss Markham had the pattern. On being told +that "Miss Markham" had not the pattern, Eunice presumed Melinda Jones +could cut one, and then, while the cooled water was heating on the coals +which Andy raked out upon the hearth, Eunice asked if she might just try +on the "vasquine" and let Miss Markham see how she looked in it. + +For a moment Ethelyn hesitated, but Eunice had been so kind, and +proffered her request so timidly, that she could not well refuse, and +gave a faint assent. But she was spared the trial of seeing her basquine +strained over Eunice's buxom figure by the entrance of Richard, who came +to say that Melinda Jones was in the parlor below. In spite of all Tim +had said about madam's airs, and his advice that "Melinda should keep +away," that young lady had ventured upon a call, thinking her intimacy +with the family would excuse any unseemly haste, and thinking, too, it +may be, that possibly Mrs. Richard Markham would be glad to know there +was someone in Olney more like the people to whom she had been +accustomed than Mrs. Markham, senior, and her handmaid, Eunice Plympton. +Melinda's toilet had been made with direct reference to what Mrs. +Ethelyn would think of it, and she was looking very well indeed in her +gray dress and sack, with plain straw hat and green ribbons, which +harmonized well with her high-colored cheeks. But Melinda's pains had +been for naught, just as Richard feared, when she asked if "Mrs. +Markham" was too tired to see her. + +Richard was glad to see Melinda, and Melinda was glad to see Richard--so +glad that she gave him a hearty kiss, prefacing the act with the remark, +"I can kiss you, now you are a married man." + +Richard liked the kiss, and liked Melinda's frank, open manner, which +had in it nothing Van Burenish, as he secretly termed the studied +elegance of Mrs. Richard Markham's style. Melinda was natural, and he +promptly kissed her back, feeling that in doing so he was guilty of +nothing wrong, for he would have done the same had Ethelyn been present. +She had a terrible headache, he said, in answer to Melinda's inquiry, +and perhaps she did not feel able to come down. He would see. + +The hot water and Eunice's bathing had done Ethelyn good, and, with the +exception that she was very pale, she looked bright and handsome, as she +lay upon the pillows, with her loose hair forming a dark, glossy frame +about her face. + +"You are better, Ethie," Richard said, bending over her, and playfully +lifting her heavy hair. "Eunice has done you good. She's not so bad, +after all." + +"Eunice is well enough in her place," was Ethelyn's reply; and then +there was a pause, while Richard wondered how he should introduce +Melinda Jones. + +Perhaps it was vain in him, but he really fancied that the name of Jones +was distasteful to Ethelyn, just as the Van Buren name would have been +more distasteful to him than it already was had he known of Frank's love +affair. And to a certain extent he was right. Ethelyn did dislike to +hear of the Joneses, whom she heartily despised, and her brow grew +cloudy at once when Richard said, bunglingly, and as if it were not at +all what he had come up to say: "Oh, don't you remember hearing me speak +of Melinda Jones, whom I hoped you would like? She is very kind to +mother--we all think a great deal of her; and though she knows it is +rather soon to call, she has come in for a few minutes, and would like +to see you. I should be so glad if you would go down, for it will +gratify her, I know, and I really think we owe her something--she has +always been so kind." + +But Ethelyn was too tired, and her head ached too hard to see visitors, +she said; and besides that, "Miss Jones ought to have known that it was +not proper to call so soon. None but a very intimate friend could +presume upon such a thing." + +"And Melinda is an intimate friend," Richard answered, a little warmly, +as he left his wife, and went back to Melinda with the message, that +"some time she should be happy to make Miss Jones' acquaintance, but +to-night she really must be excused, as she was too tired to come down." + +All this time Andy had been standing with his back to the fire, his +coat-skirts taken up in his arms, his light, soft hat on his head, and +his ears taking in all that was transpiring. Andy regarded his stylish +sister-in-law as a very choice gem, which was not to be handled too +roughly, but he was not afraid of her; he was seldom afraid of anybody, +and when Richard was gone, he walked boldly up to Ethelyn and said: + +"I don't want to be meddlesome, but 'pears to me if you'd spoke out your +feelings to Dick, you'd said, 'Tell Melinda Jones I don't want to see +her, neither to-night nor any time.' Mebby I'm mistaken, but honest, do +you want to see Melinda?" + +There was something so straightforward in his manner that, without being +the least offended, Ethelyn replied: + +"No, I do not. I am sure I should not like her if she at all resembles +her brother^ that terrible Timothy." + +Andy did not know that there was anything so very terrible about Tim. He +liked him, because he gave him such nice chews of tobacco, and was +always so ready to lend a helping hand in hog-killing time, or when a +horse was sick; neither had he ever heard him called Timothy before, and +the name sounded oddly, but he classed it with the fine ways of his new +sister, who called him Anderson, though he so much wished she wouldn't. +It sounded as if she did not like him; but he said nothing on that +subject now--he merely adhered to the Jones question, and without +defending Tim, replied: + +"Gals are never much like their brothers, I reckon. They are softer, and +finer, and neater; leastways our Daisy was as different from us as +different could be, and Melinda is different from Tim. She's been to +Camden high-school, and has got a book that she talks French out of; and +didn't you ever see that piece she wrote about Mr. Baldwin's boy, who +fell from the top of the church when it was building, and was crushed to +death? It was printed, all in rhyme, in the Camden _Sentinel_, and Jim +has a copy of it in his wallet, 'long with a lock of Melinda's hair. I +tell you she's a team." + +Andy was warming up with his subject, and finding Ethelyn a good +listener, he continued: + +"I want you to like her, and I b'lieve you orter, for if it hadn't been +for her this room wouldn't of been fixed up as 'tis. Melinda coaxed +mother to buy the carpet, and the curtings, and to put your bed in +there. Why, that was the meal room, where you be, and we used to keep +beans there, too; but Melinda stuck to it till mother moved the chest +and the bags, and then we got some paint, and me and the boys and +Melinda painted, and worked, hopin' all the time that you'd be pleased, +as I guess you be. We wanted to have you like us." + +And simple-hearted Andy drew near to Ethelyn, who was softened more by +what he said than she could have been by her husband's most urgent +appeal. The thought of the people to whom she had been so cold, and even +rude, working and planning for her comfort, touched a very tender chord, +and had Richard then proffered his request for her to go down, it is +very possible she might have done so; but it was too late now, and after +Andy left her she lay pondering what he had said and listening to the +sound of voices which came up to her from the parlor directly beneath +her room where James, and John, and Andy, and the mother, with Melinda, +and Eunice, were talking to Richard, who was conscious of a greater +feeling of content, sitting there in their midst again, than he had +known in many a day. Melinda had been more than disappointed at Mrs. +Richard's non-appearance, for aside from a curiosity to see the great +lady, there was a desire to be able to report that she seen her to other +females equally curious, whom she would next day meet at church. It +would have added somewhat to her self-complacency as well as importance +in their eyes, could she have quoted Mrs. Richard's sayings, and, +described Mrs. Richard's dress, the very first day after her arrival. It +would look as if the intimacy, which many predicted would end with Mrs. +Ethelyn's coming, was only cemented the stronger; but no such honor was +in store for her. Ethelyn declined coming down, and with a good-humored +smile Melinda said she was quite excusable; and then, untying her +bonnet, she laid it aside, just as she did the indescribable air of +stiffness she had worn while expecting Mrs. Richard. + +How merrily they all laughed and chatted together! and how handsome +James' eyes grew as they rested admiringly upon the sprightly girl, who +perfectly conscious of his gaze, never looked at him, but confined her +attention wholly to Richard, until Andy asked "if they could not have a +bit of a tune." + +Then, for the first time, Richard discovered that Ethelyn's piano had +been unpacked, and was now standing between the south windows, directly +under Daisy's picture. It was open, too, and the sheet of music upon the +rack told that it had been used. Richard did not care for himself, but +he was afraid of what Ethelyn might say, and wondered greatly why she +had not spoken of the liberty they had taken. + +Ethelyn had not observed the piano; or if she did she had paid no +attention to it. Accustomed as she had always been to seeing one in the +room, she would have missed its absence more than she noticed its +presence. But when, as she lay half dozing and thinking of Aunt Barbara, +the old familiar air of "Money-musk," played with a most energetic hand, +came to her ear, she started, for she knew the tone of her own +instrument--knew, too, that Melinda Jones' hands were sweeping the +keys--and all that Melinda Jones had done for her comfort was forgotten +in the deep resentment which heated her blood and flushed her cheek as +she listened to "Old Zip Coon," which followed "Money-musk," a shuffling +sound of feet telling that somebody's boots were keeping time after a +very unorthodox fashion. Next came a song--"Old Folks at Home"--and in +spite of her resentment Ethelyn found herself listening intently as +James' rich, deep bass, and John's clear tenor, and Andy's alto joined +in the chorus with Melinda's full soprano. The Markham boys were noted +for their fine voices; and even Richard had once assisted at a public +concert; but to-night he did not sing--his thoughts were too intent upon +the wife upstairs and what she might be thinking of the performance, and +he was glad when the piano was closed and Melinda Jones had gone. + +It was later than he supposed, and the clock pointed to almost eleven +when he at last said good-night to his mother and went, with a +half-guilty feeling, to his room. But there were no chidings in store +for him; for, wearied with her journey and soothed by the music, Ethelyn +had forgotten all her cares and lay quietly sleeping, with one hand +beneath her cheek and the other resting outside the white counterpane. +Ethie was very pretty in her sleep, and the proud, restless look about +her mouth was gone, leaving an expression more like a child's than like +a girl of twenty. And Richard, looking at her, felt supremely happy that +she was his, forgetting all of the past which had been unpleasant, and +thinking only that he was blessed above his fellow mortals that he could +call the beautiful girl before him his Ethelyn--his wife. + + + +CHAPTER X + +FIRST DAYS IN OLNEY + +There were a great many vacant seats in the Methodist church the morning +following Ethelyn's arrival, while Mr. Townsend was surprised at the +size of his congregation. It was generally known that Mrs. Judge Markham +was an Episcopalian, and as she would of course patronize the Village +Hall, the young people of Olney were there en masse, eager to see the +new bride. But their curiosity was not gratified. Ethelyn was too tired +to go out, Andy said, when questioned on the subject, while Eunice +Plympton, who was also of Andy's faith, and an attendant of the Village +Hall, added the very valuable piece of information that "Miss Markham's +breakfast had been taken to her, and that when she [Eunice] came away +she was still in bed, or at all events had not yet made her appearance +below." This, together with Eunice's assertion that she was handsome, +and Tim Jones' testimony that she was "mighty stuck-up, but awful neat," +was all the disappointed Olneyites knew of Mrs. Richard Markham, who, as +Eunice reported, had breakfasted in bed, and was still lying there when +the one bell in Olney rang out its summons for church. She did not +pretend to be sick--only tired and languid, and indisposed for any +exertion; and then it was much nicer taking her breakfast from the +little tray covered with the snowy towel which Richard brought her, than +it was to go down stairs and encounter "all those dreadful people," as +she mentally styled Richard's family; so she begged for indulgence this +once, and Richard could not refuse her request, and so excused her to +his mother, who said nothing, but whose face wore an expression which +Richard did not like. + +Always strong and healthy herself, Mrs. Markham had but little charity +for nervous, delicate people, and she devoutly hoped that Richard's wife +would not prove to be one of that sort. When the dishes were washed, and +the floor swept, and the broom hung up in its place, and the sleeves of +the brown, dotted calico rolled down, she went herself to see Ethelyn, +her quick eye noticing the elaborate night-gown, with its dainty tucks +and expensive embroidery, and her thoughts at once leaping forward to +ironing day, with the wonder who was to do up such finery. "Of course, +though, she'll see to such things herself," was her mental conclusion, +and then she proceeded to question Ethelyn as to what was the matter, +and where she felt the worst. A person who did not come down to +breakfast must either be sick or very babyish and notional, and as +Ethelyn did not pretend to much indisposition, the good woman naturally +concluded that she was "hypoey," and pitied her boy accordingly. + +Ethelyn readily guessed the opinion her mother-in-law was forming of +her, and could hardly steady her voice sufficiently to answer her +questions or repress her tears, which gushed forth the moment Mrs. +Markham had left the room, and she was alone with Richard. Poor Richard! +it was a novel position in which he found himself--that of mediator +between his mother and his wife; but he succeeded very well, soothing +and caressing the latter, until when, at three o'clock in the afternoon, +the bountiful dinner was ready, he had the pleasure of taking her +downstairs, looking very beautiful in her handsome black silk, and the +pink coral ornaments Aunt Barbara had given her. There was nothing gaudy +about her dress; it was in perfect taste, and very plain too, as she +thought, even if it was trimmed with lace and bugles. But she could not +help feeling it was out of keeping when James, and John, and Eunice +stared so at her, and Mrs. Markham asked her if she hadn't better tie on +an apron for fear she might get grease or something on her. With ready +alacrity Eunice, who fancied her young mistress looked like a queen, +forgetting in her admiration that she had ever thought her proud, ran +for her own clean, white apron, which she offered to the lady. + +But Ethelyn declined it, saying, "My napkin is all that I shall +require." + +Mrs. Markham, and Eunice, and Andy glanced at each other. Napkins were a +luxury in which Mrs. Markham had never indulged. She knew they were +common in almost every family of her acquaintance; but she did not see +of what use they were, except to make more washing, and as her standard +of things was the standard of thirty years back she was not easily +convinced; and even Melinda Jones had failed on the napkin question. +Ethelyn had been too much excited to observe their absence the previous +night, and she now spoke in all sincerity, never dreaming that there was +not such an article in the house. But there was a small square towel of +the finest linen, and sacred to the memory of Daisy, who had hemmed it +herself and worked her name in the corner. It was lying in the drawer, +now, with her white cambric dress, and, at a whispered word from her +mistress, Eunice brought it out and laid it in Ethelyn's lap, while +Richard's face grew crimson as he began to think that possibly his +mother might be a very little behind the times in her household +arrangements. + +Ethelyn's appetite had improved since the previous night, and she did +ample justice to the well-cooked dinner; but her spirits were ruffled +again when, on returning to her room an hour or so after dinner, she +found it in the same disorderly condition in which she had left it. +Ethelyn had never taken charge of her own room, for at Aunt Barbara's +Betty had esteemed it a privilege to wait upon her young mistress, while +Aunt Van Buren would have been horror-stricken at the idea of any one of +her guests making their own bed. Mrs. Markham, on the contrary, could +hardly conceive of a lady too fine to do that service herself, and +Eunice was not the least to blame for omitting to do what she had never +been told was her duty to do. A few words from Richard, however, and the +promise of an extra quarter per week made that matter all right, and +neither Betty nor Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's trained chambermaid, Mag, had +ever entered into the clearing-up process with greater zeal than did +Eunice when once she knew that Richard expected it of her. She was +naturally kind-hearted, and though Ethelyn's lofty ways annoyed her +somewhat, her admiration for the beautiful woman and her elegant +wardrobe was unbounded, and she felt a pride in waiting upon her which +she would once have thought impossible to feel in anything pertaining to +her duties as a servant. + +The following morning brought with it the opening of the box where the +family presents were; but Ethelyn did not feel as much interest in them +now as when they were purchased. She knew how out of place they were, +and fully appreciated the puzzled expression on James' face when he saw +the blue velvet smoking cap. It did not harmonize with the common clay +pipe he always smoked on Sunday, and much less with the coarse cob thing +she saw him take from the kitchen mantel that morning just after he left +the breakfast table and had donned the blue frock he wore upon the farm. +He did not know what the fanciful-tasseled thing was for; but he +reflected that Melinda, who had been to boarding school, could enlighten +him, and he thanked his pretty sister with a good deal of gentlemanly +grace. He was naturally more observing than Richard, and with the same +advantages would have polished sooner. Though a little afraid of +Ethelyn, there was something in her refined, cultivated manners very +pleasing to him, and his soft eyes looked down upon her kindly as he +took the cap and carried it to his room, laying it carefully away in the +drawer where his Sunday shirts, and collars, and "dancing pumps," and +fishing tackle, and paper of chewing tobacco were. + +Meanwhile, John, who was even more shy of Ethelyn than James, had been +made the recipient of the elegantly embroidered slippers, which +presented so marked a contrast to his heavy cowhides, and were three +sizes too small for his mammoth feet. Ethelyn saw the discrepancy at +once, and the effort it was for John to keep from laughing outright, as +he took the dainty things into which he could but little more than +thrust his toes. + +"You did not know what a Goliath I was, nor what stogies I wore; but I +thank you all the same," John said, and with burning blushes Ethelyn +turned next to her beautiful Schiller--the exquisite little bust--which +Andy, in his simplicity mistook for a big doll, feeling a little +affronted that Ethelyn should suppose him childish enough to care for +such toys. + +But when Richard, who stood looking on, explained to his weak brother +what it was, saying that people of cultivation prized such things as +these, and that some time he would read to him of the great German poet, +Andy felt better, and accepted his big doll with a very good grace. + +The coiffure came next, Mrs. Markham saying she was much obliged, and +Eunice asking if it was a half-handkerchief, to be worn about the neck. + +Taken individually and collectively, the presents were a failure--all +but the pretty collar and ribbon-bow, which, as an afterthought, Ethelyn +gave to Eunice, whose delight knew no bounds. This was something she +could appreciate, while Ethelyn's gifts to the others had been far +beyond them, and but for the good feeling they manifested might as well +have been withheld. Ethelyn felt this heavily, and it did not tend to +lessen the bitter disappointment which had been gnawing in her heart +ever since she had reached her Western home. Everything was different +from what she had pictured it in her mind--everything but Daisy's face, +which, from its black-walnut frame above her piano, seemed to look so +lovingly down upon her. It was a sweet, refined face, and the soft eyes +of blue were more beautiful than anything Ethelyn had ever seen. She +did not wonder that every member of that family looked upon their lost +Daisy as the household angel, lowering their voices when they spoke of +her, and even retarding their footsteps when they passed near her +picture. She did wonder, however, that they were not more like what +Daisy would have been, judging from the expression of her face and all +Richard had said of her. + +Between Mrs. Markham and Ethelyn there was from the first a mutual +feeling of antagonism, and it was in no degree lessened by Aunt +Barbara's letter, which Mrs. Markham read three times on Sunday, and +then on Monday very foolishly talked it up with Eunice, whom she treated +with a degree of familiarity wholly unaccountable to Ethelyn. + +"What did that Miss Bigelow take her for that she must ask her to be +kind to Ethelyn? Of course she should do her duty, and she guessed her +ways were not so very different from other people's, either," and the +good woman gave an extra twist to the tablecloth she was wringing, and +shaking it out rather fiercely, tossed it into the huge clothes-basket +standing near. + +The wash was unusually large that day and as the unpacking of the box +had taken up some time, the clock was striking two just as the last +clothespin was fastened in its place, and the last brown towel hung upon +the currant bushes. It was Mrs. Markham's weakness that her wash should +be fluttering in the wind before that of Mrs. Jones, which could be +plainly seen from her kitchen window. But to-day Mrs. Jones was ahead, +and Melinda's pink sun-bonnet was visible in the little back-yard as +early as eleven, at which time the Markham garments had just commenced +to boil. The bride had brought with her a great deal of extra work, and +what with waiting breakfast for her until the coffee was cold and the +baked potatoes "all soggy," and then cleaning up the litter of "that +box," Mrs. Markham was dreadfully behind with her Monday's work. And it +did not tend to improve her temper to know that the cause of all her +discomposure was "playing lady" in a handsome cashmere morning gown, +with heavy tassels knotted at her side, while she was bending over the +washtub in a faded calico pinned about her waist, and disclosing the +quilt patched with many colors, and the black yarn stockings footed with +coarse white. Not that Mrs. Markham cared especially for the difference +between her dress and Ethelyn's--neither did she expect Ethelyn to +"help" that day--but she might at least have offered to wipe the dinner +dishes, she thought. It would have shown her good will at all events. +But instead of that she had returned to her room the moment dinner was +over, and Eunice, who went to hunt for a missing sock of Richard's, +reported that she was lying on the lounge with a story book in her hand. + +"Shiffless," was the word Mrs. Markham wanted to use, but she repressed +it, for she would not talk openly against Richard's wife so soon after +her arrival, though she did make some invidious remarks concerning the +handsome underclothes, wondering "what folks were thinking of to put so +much work where it was never seen. Puffs, and embroidery, and lace, and, +I vum, if the ruffles ain't tucked too," she continued, in a despairing +voice, hoping Ethelyn knew "how to iron such filagree herself, for the +mercy knew she didn't." + +Now these same puffs, and embroidery, and ruffles, and tucks had excited +Eunice's liveliest admiration, and her fingers fairly itched to see how +they would look hanging on the clothes bars after passing through her +hands. That Ethelyn could touch them she never once dreamed. Her +instincts were truer than Mrs. Markham's and it struck her as perfectly +proper that one like Ethelyn should sit still while others served, and +to her mistress' remarks as to the ironing, she hastened to reply: "I'd +a heap sight rather do them up than to iron the boys' coarse shirts and +pantaloons. Don't you mind the summer I was at Camden working for Miss +Avery, who lived next door to Miss Judge Miller, from New York? She had +just such things as these, and I used to go in sometimes and watch Katy +iron 'em, so I b'lieve I can do it myself. Anyways, I want to try." + +Fears that Eunice might rebel had been uppermost in Mrs. Markham's mind +when she saw the pile of elegant clothes, for she had a suspicion that +Mrs. Ethelyn would keep as much aloof from the ironing-board as she did +from the dish-washing; but if Eunice was willing and even glad of the +opportunity, why, that made a difference, and the good woman began to +feel so much better that by the time the last article was on the line, +the kitchen floor cleared up, and the basin of water heating on the +stove for her own ablutions, she was quite amiably disposed toward her +grand daughter-in-law, who had not made her appearance since dinner. +Ethelyn liked staying in her chamber better than anywhere else, and it +was especially pleasant there to-day, for Eunice had taken great pains +to make it so, sweeping, and dusting and putting to rights, and patting +the pillows and cushions just as she remembered seeing Melinda do, and +then, after the collar and ribbon had been given to her, going down on +her hands and knees before the fire to wash the hearth with milk, which +gave to the red bricks a polished, shining appearance, and added much to +the cheerfulness of the room. Ethelyn had commended her pleasantly, and, +in the seventh heaven of delight, Eunice had returned to her washing, +taking greater pains than ever with the dainty puffs and frills, and +putting in a stitch where one was needed. + +It was very evident that Eunice admired Ethelyn, and Ethelyn in return +began to appreciate Eunice; and when, after dinner, she went to her +room, and, wearied with her unpacking, lay down upon the lounge, she +felt happier than she had since her first sight of Olney. It was +pleasant up there, and the room looked very pretty with the brackets and +ornaments, and pictures she had hung there instead of in the parlor, and +she decided within herself that though disappointed in every respect, +she could be quite comfortable for the few weeks which must intervene +before she went to Washington. She should spend most of the time in the +retirement of her room, mingling as little as possible with the family, +and keeping at a respectful distance from her mother-in-law, whom she +liked less than any of Richard's relations. + +"I trust the Olney people will not think it their duty to call," she +thought. "I suppose I shall have to endure the Joneses for Abigail's +sake. Melinda certainly has some taste; possibly I may like her," and +while cogitating upon Melinda Jones and the expected gayeties in +Washington, she fell asleep; nor did Richard's step arouse her, when, +about three o'clock, he came in from the village in quest of some law +documents he wished to see. + +Frank Van Buren would probably have kissed her as she lay there sleeping +so quietly; but Richard was in a great hurry. He had plunged at once +into business. Once there were forty men waiting to see and consult "the +Squire," whose reputation for honesty and ability was very great, and +whose simple assertion carried more weight than the roundest oath of +some lawyers, sworn upon the biggest Bible in Olney. Waylaid at every +corner, and plied with numberless questions, he had hardly found an +opportunity to come home to dinner, and now he had no time to waste in +love-making. He saw Ethelyn, however, and felt that his room had never +been as pleasant as it was with her there in it, albeit her coming was +the cause of his books and papers being disturbed and tossed about and +moved where he had much trouble to find them. He felt glad, too, that +she was out of his mother's way, and feeling that all was well, he found +his papers and hurried off to the village again, while Ethelyn slept on +till Eunice Plympton came up to say that "Miss Jones and Melinda were +both in the parlor and wanted her to come down." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CALLS AND VISITING + +Mrs. Jones had risen earlier than usual that Monday morning, and felt +not a little elated when she saw her long line of snowy linen swinging +in the wind before that of her neighbor, whom she excused on the score +of Richard's wife. But when twelve o'clock, and even one o'clock struck, +and still the back yard gave no sign, she began to wonder "if any of +'em could be sick"; and never was flag of truce watched for more +anxiously than she watched for something which should tell that it was +all well at Sister Markham's. + +The sign appeared at last, and with her fears quieted, Mrs. Jones +pursued the even tenor of her way until everything was done and her +little kitchen was as shining as soap and sand and scrubbing brush could +make it. Perhaps it was washing the patchwork quilt which Abigail had +pieced that brought the deceased so strongly to Mrs. Jones' mind, and +made her so curious to see Abigail's successor. Whatever it was, Mrs. +Jones was very anxious for a sight of Ethelyn; and when her work was +done she donned her alpaca dress, and tying on her black silk apron, +announced her intention of "running into Mrs. Markham's just a minute. +Would Melinda like to go along?" + +Melinda had been once to no purpose, and she had inwardly resolved to +wait a while before calling again; but she felt that she would rather be +with her mother at her first interview with Ethelyn, for she knew she +could cover up some defects by her glibber and more correct manner of +conversing. So she signified her assent, but did not wear her best +bonnet as she had on Saturday night. This was only a run in, she said, +never dreaming that, "for fear of what might happen if she was urged to +stay to tea," her mother had deposited in her capacious pocket the +shirt-sleeve of unbleached cotton she was making for Tim. + +And so about four o'clock the twain started for the house of Mrs. +Markham, who saw them coming and welcomed them warmly. She was always +glad to see Mrs. Jones, and she was doubly glad to-day, for it seemed to +her that some trouble had come upon her which made neighborly sympathy +and neighborly intercourse more desirable than ever. Added to this, +there was in her heart an unconfessed pride in Ethelyn and a desire to +show her off. "Miss Jones was not going to stir home a step till after +supper," she said, as that lady demurred at laying off her bonnet. "She +had got to stay and see Richard; besides that, they were going to have +waffles and honey, with warm gingerbread." + +Nobody who had once tested them, could withstand Mrs. Markham's waffles +and gingerbread. Mrs. Jones certainly could not; and when Eunice went up +for Ethelyn, that worthy woman was rocking back and forth in a low +rocking-chair, her brass thimble on her finger and Tim's shirt-sleeve in +progress of making; while Melinda, in her pretty brown merino and white +collar, with her black hair shining like satin, sat in another +rocking-chair, working at the bit of tatting she chanced to have in her +pocket. Ethelyn did not care to go down; it was like stepping into +another sphere leaving her own society for that of the Joneses; but +there was no alternative, and with a yawn she started up and began +smoothing her hair. + +"This wrapper is well enough," she said, more to herself, than Eunice, +who was still standing by the door looking at her. + +Eunice did not think the wrapper well enough. It was pretty, she knew, +but not as pretty as the dresses she had seen hanging in Ethelyn's +closet when she arranged the room that morning; so she said, +hesitatingly: "I wish you wouldn't wear that down. You were so handsome +yesterday in the black gown, with them red earrings and pin, and your +hair brushed up, so." + +Ethelyn liked to look well, even here in Olney, and so the wrapper was +laid aside, the beautiful brown hair was wound in heavy coils about the +back of the head, and brushed back from her white forehead after a +fashion which made her look still younger and more girlish than she was. +A pretty plaid silk, with trimmings of blue, was chosen for to-day, +Eunice going nearly wild over the short jaunty basque, laced at the +sides and the back. Eunice had offered to stay and assist at her young +mistress' toilet, and as Ethelyn was not unaccustomed to the office of +waiting-maid, she accepted Eunice's offer, finding, to her surprise, +that the coarse red fingers, which that day had washed and starched her +linen, were not unhandy even among the paraphernalia of a Boston +lady's toilet. + +"You do look beautiful," Eunice said, standing back to admire Ethelyn, +when at last she was dressed. "I have thought Melinda Jones handsome, +but she can't hold a candle to you, nor nobody else I ever seen, except +Miss Judge Miller, in Camden. She do act some like you, with her gown +dragglin' behind her half a yard." + +Thus flattered and complimented, Ethelyn shook out her skirts, which +"draggled half a yard behind," and went downstairs to where Mrs. Jones +sat working on Timothy's shirt, and Melinda was crocheting, while Mrs. +Markham, senior, clean and neat, and stiff in her starched, purple +calico, sat putting a patch on a fearfully large hole in the knee of +Andy's pants. As Ethelyn swept into the room there fell a hush upon the +inmates, and Mrs. Jones was almost guilty of an exclamation of surprise. +She had expected something fine, she said--something different from the +Olney quality--but she was not prepared for anything as grand and +queenly as Ethelyn, when she sailed into the room, with her embroidered +handkerchief held so gracefully in her hands, and in response to Mrs. +Markham's introduction, bowed so very low, and slowly, too, her lips +scarcely moving at all, and her eyes bent on the ground. Mrs. Jones +actually ran the needle she was sewing with under her thumb in her +sudden start, while Melinda's crocheting dropped into her lap. She, too, +was surprised, though not as much as her mother. She, like Eunice, had +seen Mrs. Judge Miller, from New York, whose bridal trousseau was +imported from Paris, and whose wardrobe was the wonder of Camden. And +Ethelyn was very much like her, only younger and prettier. + +"Very pretty," Melinda thought, while Mrs. Jones fell to comparing her, +mentally, with the deceased Abigail; wondering how Richard, if he had +ever loved the one, could have fancied the other, they were so unlike. + +Of course, the mother's heart gave to Abigail the preference for all +that was good and womanly, and worthy of Richard Markham; but Ethelyn +bore off the palm for style, and beauty, too. + +"Handsome as a doll, but awfully proud," Mrs. Jones decided, during the +interval in which she squeezed her wounded thumb, and got the needle +again in motion upon Timothy's shirt-sleeve. + +Ethelyn was not greatly disappointed in Mrs. Jones and her daughter; the +mother especially was much like what she had imagined her to be, while +Melinda was rather prettier--rather more like the Chicopee girls than +she expected. There was a look on her face like Susie Granger, and the +kindly expression of her black eyes made Ethelyn excuse her for wearing +a magenta bow, while her cheeks were something the same hue. They were +very stiff at first, Mrs. Jones saying nothing at all, and Melinda only +venturing upon common-place inquiries--as to how Ethelyn bore her +journey, if she was ever in that part of the country before, and how she +thought she should like the West. This last question Ethelyn could not +answer directly. + +"It was very different from New England," she said, "but she was +prepared for that, and hoped she should not get very homesick during the +few weeks which would elapse before she went to Washington." + +At this point Mrs. Markham stopped her patching and looked inquiringly +at Ethelyn. It was the first she had heard about Ethelyn's going to +Washington; indeed, she had understood that Richard's wife was to keep +her company during the winter, a prospect which since Ethelyn's arrival +had not looked so pleasing to her as it did before. How in the world +they should get on together without Richard, she did not know, and if +she consulted merely her own comfort she would have bidden Ethelyn go. +But there were other things to be considered--there was the great +expense it would be for Richard to have his wife with him. Heretofore he +had saved a good share of his salary, but with Ethelyn it would be money +out of his pocket all the time; besides that, there were reasons why it +was not proper for Ethelyn to go; her best place was at home. + +Thus reasoned Mrs. Markham, and when next her needle resumed its work on +Andy's patch, Ethelyn's fate with regard to Washington was decided, for +as thought the mother on that point, so eventually would think the son, +who deferred so much to her judgment. He came in after a little, looking +so well and handsome that Ethelyn felt proud of him, and had he then +laid his hand upon her shoulder, or put his arm around her waist, as he +sometimes did when they were alone, she would not have shaken it off, as +was her usual custom. Indeed, such is the perversity of human nature, +and so many contradictions are there in it, that Ethelyn rather wished +he would pay her some little attention. She could not forget Abigail, +with Abigail's mother and sister sitting there before her, and she +wanted them to see how fond her husband was of her, hoping thus to prove +how impossible it was that Abigail could ever have been to him what she +was. But Richard was shy in the presence of others, and would sooner +have put his arm around Melinda than around his wife, for fear he should +be thought silly. He was very proud of her, though, and felt a thrill of +satisfaction in seeing how superior, both in look and manner, she was to +Melinda Jones, whose buxom, healthy face grew almost coarse and homely +from comparison with Ethelyn's. + +As Ethelyn's toilet had occupied some time, it was five when she made +her appearance in the parlor, consequently she had not long to wait ere +the announcement of supper broke up the tediousness she endured from +that first call, or visit. The waffles and the gingerbread were all they +had promised to be, and the supper passed off quietly, with the +exception of a mishap of poor, awkward Andy, who tipped his plate of hot +cakes and honey into his lap, and then in his sudden spring backward, +threw a part of the plate's contents upon Ethelyn's shining silk. This +was the direst calamity of all, and sent poor Andy from the table so +heart-broken and disconsolate that he did not return again, and Eunice +found him sitting on the wood-house steps, wiping away with his +coat-sleeve the great tears which rolled down his womanish face. + +"Ethelyn never would like him again," he said, calling himself "a great +blundering fool, who never ought to eat at the same table with +civilized folks." + +But when Ethelyn, who heard from Eunice of Andy's distress, went out to +see him, assuring him that but little damage had been done, that soft +water and magnesia would make the dress all right again, he brightened +up, and was ready to hold Mr. Harrington's horse when, after dark, that +gentleman drove over from Olney with his wife and sister to call on Mrs. +Richard. It would almost seem that Ethelyn held a reception that +evening, for more than the Harringtons knocked at the front door, and +were admitted by the smiling Eunice. It was rather early to call, the +Olneyites knew, but there on the prairie they were not hampered with +many of Mrs. Grundy's rules, and so curious to see the "Boston lady," +several of the young people had agreed together between the Sunday +services to call at Mrs. Markham's the following night. They were +well-meaning, kind-hearted people, and would any one of them gone far +out of their way to serve either Richard or his young wife; but they +were not Eastern bred, and feeling somewhat awed by Ethelyn's cold, +frigid manner, they appeared shy and awkward--all except Will Parsons, +the young M.D. of Olney, who joked, and talked and laughed so loudly, +that even Richard wondered he had never before observed how noisy Dr. +Parsons was, while Andy, who was learning to read Ethelyn's face, tried +once or twice, by pulling the doctor's coat-skirts and giving him a +warning glance, to quiet him down a little. But the doctor took no +hints, and kept on with his fun, finding a splendid coadjutor in the +"terrible Tim Jones," who himself came over to call on Dick and +his woman. + +Tim was rigged out in his best, with a bright red cravat tied around his +neck, and instead of his muddy boots with his pants tucked in the tops, +he wore coarse shoes tied with strings and flirted his yellow silk +handkerchief for the entire evening. It was dreadful to Ethelyn, for she +could see nothing agreeable in Richard's friends; indeed, their presence +was scarcely bearable, and the proud look on her face was so apparent +that the guests felt more or less ill at ease, while Richard was nearer +being angry with Ethelyn than he had ever been. Will Parsons and Tim +Jones seemed exceptions to the rest of the company, especially the +latter, who, if he noticed Ethelyn's evident contempt, was determined +to ignore it, and make himself excessively familiar. + +As yet, the open piano had been untouched, no one having the courage to +ask Ethelyn to play; but Tim was fond of music, and unhesitatingly +seating himself upon the stool, thrust one hand in his pocket, and with +the other struck the keys at random, trying to make out a few bars of +"Hail, Columbia!" Then turning to Ethelyn he said, with a good-humored +nod, "Come, old lady, give us something good." + +Ethelyn's eyes flashed fire, while others of the guests looked their +astonishment at Tim, who knew he had done something, but could not for +the life of him tell what. + +"Old lady" was a favorite title with him. He called his mother so, and +Melinda, and Eunice Plympton, and Maria Moorehouse, whose eyes he +thought so bright, and whom he always saw home from meeting on Sunday +nights; and so it never occurred to him that this was his offense. But +Melinda knew, and her red cheeks burned scarlet as she tried to cover +her brother's blunder by modestly urging Ethelyn to favor them with +some music. + +Of all the Western people whom she had seen, Ethelyn liked Melinda the +best. She had thought her rather familiar, and after the Olneyites came +in and put her more at her ease, she fancied her a little flippant and +forward; but, in all she did or said, there was so much genuine +sincerity and frankness, that Ethelyn could not dislike her as she had +thought she should dislike a sister of Abigail Jones and the terrible +Tim. She had not touched her piano since her arrival, for fear of the +homesickness which its familiar tones might awaken, and when she saw +Tim's big red hands fingering the keys, in her resentment at the +desecration she said to herself that she never would touch it again; but +when in a low aside Melinda added to her entreaties: "Please, Mrs. +Markham, don't mind Tim--he means well enough, and would not be rude for +the world, if he knew it," she began to give way, and it scarcely needed +Richard's imperative, "Ethelyn," to bring her to her feet. No one +offered to conduct her to the piano--not even Richard, who sat just +where he was; while Tim, in his haste to vacate the music stool, +precipitated it to the floor, and got his leather shoes entangled in +Ethelyn's skirts. + +Tim, and Will Parsons, and Andy all hastened to pick up the stool, +knocking their heads together, and raising a laugh in which Ethelyn +could not join. Thoroughly disgusted and sick at heart, she felt much as +the Jewish maidens must have felt when required to give a song. Her harp +was indeed upon the willows hung, and her heart was turning sadly toward +her far-off Jerusalem as she sat down and tried to think what she should +play to suit her audience. Suddenly it occurred to her to suit herself +rather than her hearers, and her snowy fingers--from which flashed +Daisy's diamond and a superb emerald--swept the keys with a masterly +grace and skill. Ethelyn was perfectly at home at the piano, and dashing +off into a brilliant and difficult overture, she held her hearers for a +few minutes astonished both at her execution and the sounds she made. To +the most of them, however, the sounds were meaningless; their tastes had +not yet been cultivated up to Ethelyn's style. They wanted something +familiar--something they had heard before; and when the fine performance +was ended terrible Tim electrified her with the characteristic +exclamation: "That was mighty fine, no doubt, for them that understand +such; but, now, for land's sake, give us a tune." + +Ethelyn was horror-stricken. She had cast her pearls before swine; and +with a haughty stare at the offending Timothy, she left the stool, and +walking back to her former seat, said: + +"I leave the tunes to your sister, who, I believe, plays sometimes." + +Somewhat crestfallen, but by no means browbeaten, Tim insisted that +Melinda should give them a jig; and, so, crimsoning with shame and +confusion, Melinda took the vacant stool and played her brother a +tune--a rollicking, galloping tune, which everybody knew, and which set +the feet to keeping time, and finally brought Tim and Andy to the floor +for a dance. But Melinda declined playing for a cotillion which her +brother proposed, and so the dancing arrangement came to naught, +greatly to the delight of Ethelyn, who could only keep back her tears by +looking up at the sweet face of Daisy smiling down upon her from the +wall. That was the only redeeming point in that whole assembly, she +thought. She would not even except Richard then, so intense was her +disappointment and so bitter her regret for the mistake she made when +she promised to go where her heart could never be. + +It was nine o'clock when the company dispersed. Each of the ladies +cordially invited Ethelyn to call as soon as convenient, and Mrs. +Harrington, a lady of some cultivation, whose husband was the village +merchant, saying encouragingly to her, as she held her hand a moment, +"Our Western manners seem strange to you, I dare say; but we are a +well-meaning people, and you will get accustomed to us by and by." + +She never should--no, never, thought Ethelyn, as she went up to her +room, tired and homesick, and disheartened with this, her first +introduction to the Olney people. It was a very cross wife that slept at +Richard's side that night, and the opinion expressed of the Olneyites +was anything but complimentary to the taste of one who had known them +all his life and liked them so well. But Richard was getting accustomed +to such things. Lectures did not move him now as they had at first, and +overcome with fatigue from his day's work and the evening's excitement, +he fell asleep, while Ethelyn was enlarging upon the merits of the +terrible Tim, who had addressed her as "old lady" and asked her to +"play a tune." + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SOCIETY + +In the course of two weeks all the people in Olney called upon Ethelyn, +who would gladly have refused herself to them all. But after the morning +when Andy stood outside the door of her room, wringing his hands in +great distress at the tone of Richard's voice, and Ethelyn stayed in bed +all day with the headache, and was nursed by Eunice and Melinda, Ethelyn +did better, and was at least polite to those who called. She had said +she would not see them, and Richard had said she should; and as he +usually made people do as he liked, Ethelyn was forced to submit, but +cried herself sick. It was very desolate and lonely upstairs that day, +for Richard was busy in town, and the wind swept against the windows +with a mournful, moaning sound, which made Ethelyn think of dear old +Chicopee, and the lofty elms through whose swaying branches the same +October wind was probably sighing on this autumnal day. But, oh! how +vast the difference, she thought; for what would have been music if +heard at home among the New England hills, was agony here upon the +Western prairie. + +Ethelyn was very wretched and hailed with delight the presence of +Melinda Jones, who came in the afternoon, bringing a basket of delicious +apples and a lemon tart she had made herself. Melinda was very sorry for +Ethelyn, and her face said as much as she stood by her side and laid her +hand softly upon the throbbing temples, pitying her so much, for she +guessed just how homesick she was there with Mrs. Markham, whose ways +had never seemed so peculiar, even to her, as since Ethelyn's arrival. +"And still," she thought, "I do not see how she can be so very unhappy, +in any circumstances, with a husband like Richard." But here Melinda +made a mistake; for though Ethelyn respected her husband, and had +learned to miss him when he was gone, and the day whose close was not to +bring him back would have been very long, she did not love him as a +husband should be loved; and so there was nothing to fall back upon when +other props gave way. + +Wholly unsuspicious, Melinda sat down beside her, offering to brush her +hair, and while she brushed and combed, and braided, and admired the +glossy brown locks, she talked on the subject she thought most +acceptable to the young wife's ear--of Richard, and the great popularity +he had achieved, not only in his own county, but in neighboring ones, +where he stood head and shoulders above his fellows. There was talk once +of making him governor, she said, but some thought him too young. +Lately, however, she had heard that the subject was again agitated, +adding that her father and Tim both thought it more than probable that +the next election would take him to the gubernatorial mansion. + +"Tim would work like a hero for Richard," she said. "He almost idolizes +him, and when he was up for Judge Tim's exertions alone procured for him +a hundred extra votes. Tim is a rough, half-savage fellow, but he has +the kindest of hearts, and is very popular with a certain class of men +who could not be reached by one more polished and cultivated." + +So much Melinda said, by way of excusing Tim's vulgarities; and then, +with the utmost tact, she led the conversation back to Richard and the +governorship, hinting that Ethelyn could do much toward securing that +office for her husband. A little attention, which cost nothing, would go +a great ways, she said; and it was sometimes worth one's while to make +an effort, even if they did not feel like it. More than one rumor had +reached Melinda's ear touching the pride of Dick Markham's wife--a pride +which the Olney people felt keenly, and it the more keenly knowing that +they had helped to give her husband a name; they had made him Judge, and +sent him to Congress, and would like to make him governor, knowing well +that that no office, however high, would change him from the plain, +unpretending man, who, even in the Senate Chamber, would shake drunken +Ike Plympton's hand, and slap Tim Jones on the back if need be. They +liked their Dick, who had been a boy among them, and they thought it +only fair that his wife should unbend a little, and not freeze them so +with her lofty ways. + +"She'll kick the whole thing over if she goes on so," Tim had said to +his father, in Melinda's hearing, and so, like a true friend to Richard, +Melinda determined to try and prevent the proud little feet from doing +so much mischief. + +Nor was she unsuccessful. Ethelyn saw the drift of the conversation, and +though for an instant her cheek crimsoned with resentment that she +should be talked at by Melinda Jones, she was the better for the +talking, and the Olney people, when next they come in contact with her, +changed their minds with regard to her being so very proud. She was +homesick at first, and that was the cause of her coldness, they said, +excusing her in their kind hearts, and admiring her as something far +superior to themselves. Even Tim Jones got now and then a pleasant word, +for Ethelyn had not forgotten the hundred extra votes. She would have +repelled the insinuation that she was courting favor or that hopes of +the future governorship for Richard had anything to do with her changed +demeanor. She despised such things in others; but Ethelyn was human, and +it is just possible that had there been nothing in expectancy she would +not have submitted with so good a grace to the familiarities with which +she so constantly came in contact. At home she was cold and proud as +ever, for between her mother-in-law and herself there was no affinity, +and they kept as far apart as possible, Ethelyn staying mostly in her +room, and Mrs. Markham, senior, staying in the kitchen, where Eunice +Plympton still remained. + +Mrs. Markham had fully expected that Eunice would go home within a few +days after Ethelyn's arrival; but when the days passed on, Ethelyn +showed no inclination for a nearer acquaintance with the kitchen--"never +even offering to wipe the teacups on washing days," as Mrs. Markham +complained to James, and John, and Andy--the good woman began to +manifest some anxiety on the subject, and finally went to Richard to +know if "he expected to keep a hired girl all winter or was Ethelyn +going to do some light chores." + +Richard really did not know; but after a visit to his room, where Ethie +sat reading in her handsome crimson wrapper, with the velvet trimmings, +he decided that she could "not do chores," and Eunice must remain. It +was on this occasion that Washington was broached, Mrs. Markham +repeating what she heard Ethelyn saying to Melinda, and asking Richard +if he contemplated such a piece of extravagance as taking his wife to +Washington would be. In Richard's estimation there were other and +weightier reasons why Ethelyn should remain quietly at home that winter. +He did not especially mind the expense she might be to him, and he owned +to a weak desire to see her queen it over all the reigning belles, as he +was certain she would. Unbiased by his mother, and urged by Ethelyn, he +would probably have yielded in her favor; but the mother was first in +the field, and so she won the day, and Ethie's disappointment was a +settled thing. But Ethie did not know it, as Richard wisely refrained +from being the first to speak of the matter. That she was going to +Washington Ethelyn had no doubt, and this made her intercourse with the +Olneyites far more endurable. Some of them she found pleasant, +cultivated people--especially Mr. Townsend, the clergyman, who, after +the Sunday on which she appeared at the Village Hall in her blue silk +and elegant basquine, came to see her, and seemed so much like an old +friend when she found that he had met at Clifton, in New York, some of +her acquaintances. It was easy to be polite to him, and to the people +from Camden, who hearing much of Judge Markham's pretty bride, came to +call upon her--Judge Miller and his wife, with Marcia Fenton and Miss +Ella Backus, both belles and blondes, and both some-bodies, according to +Ethelyn's definition of that word. She liked these people, and Richard +found no trouble in getting her to return their calls. She would gladly +have stayed in Camden altogether, and once laughingly pointed out to +Richard a large, vacant lot, adjoining Mr. Fenton's, where she would +like to have her new house built. + +There was a decided improvement in Ethelyn; nor did her old perversity +of temper manifest itself very strongly until one morning, three weeks +after her arrival in Olney, when Richard suggested to her the propriety +of his mother's giving them a party, or infair, as he called it. The +people expected it, he said; they would be disappointed without it, and, +indeed, he felt it was something he owed them for all their kindness to +him. Then Ethelyn rebelled--stoutly, stubbornly rebelled--but Richard +carried the point, and two days after the farmhouse was in a state of +dire confusion, wholly unlike the quiet which reigned there usually. +Melinda Jones was there all the time, while Mrs. Jones was back and +forth, and a few of the Olney ladies dropped in with suggestions and +offers of assistance. It was to be a grand affair--so far, at least, as +numbers were concerned--for everybody was invited, from Mr. Townsend and +the other clergy, down to Cecy Doane, who did dressmaking and tailoring +from house to house. The Markhams were very democratic in their +feelings, and it showed itself in the guests bidden to the party. They +were invited from Camden as well--Mr. and Mrs. Miller, with Marcia +Fenton and Ella Backus; and after the two young ladies had come over to +ascertain how large an affair it was to be, so as to know what to wear, +Ethelyn began to take some little interest in it herself and to give the +benefit of her own experience in such matters. But having a party in +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's handsome house, where the servants were all so well +trained, and everything necessary was so easy of access, or even having +a party at Aunt Barbara's, was a very different thing from having one +here under the supervision of Mrs. Markham, whose ideas were so many +years back, and who objected to nearly everything which Ethelyn +suggested. But by dint of perseverance on Melinda's part her scruples +were finally overcome; so that when the night of the party arrived the +house presented a very respectable appearance, with its lamps of +kerosene, and the sperm candles flaming on the mantels in the parlor, +and the tallow candles smoking in the kitchen. + +Mrs. Markham's bed had been removed from the sitting room, and the +carpet taken from the floor, for they were going to dance, and Eunice's +mother had been working hard all day to keep her liege lord away from +the Cross Roads tavern so that he might be presentable at night, and +capable of performing his part, together with his eldest son, who played +the flute. She was out in the kitchen now, very large and important with +the office of head waiter, her hoops in everybody's way, and her face +radiant with satisfaction, as she talked to Mrs. Markham about what we +better do. The table was laid in the kitchen and loaded with all the +substantials, besides many delicacies which Melinda and Ethelyn had +concocted; for the latter had even put her hands to the work, and +manufactured two large dishes of Charlotte Russe, with pretty molds of +blanc-mange, which Eunice persisted in calling "corn-starch puddin', +with the yallers of eggs left out," There were trifles, and tarts, and +jellies, and sweetmeats, with raised biscuits by the hundred, and loaves +on loaves of frosted cake; while out in the woodshed, wedged in a tub of +ice, was a huge tin pail, over which James, and John, and Andy, and even +Richard had sat, by turns, stirring the freezing mass. Mrs. Jones' +little colored boy, who knew better how to wait on company than any +person there, came over in his clean jacket, and out on the doorstep was +eating chestnuts and whistling Dixie, as he looked down the road to see +if anybody was coming. Melinda Jones had gone home to dress, feeling +more like going to bed than making merry at a party, as she looped up +her black braids of hair and donned her white muslin dress with the +scarlet ribbons. Melinda was very tired, for a good share of the work +had fallen upon her--or rather she had assumed it--and her cheeks and +hands were redder than usual when, about seven o'clock, Tim drove her +over to Mrs. Markham's, and then went to the village after the dozen or +more of girls whom he had promised "to see to the doin's." + +But Melinda looked very pretty--at least James Markham thought so--when +she stood up on tiptoe to tie his cravat in a better-looking bow than +he had done. Since the night when Richard first told her of Ethelyn, it +had more than once occurred to Melinda that possibly she might yet bear +the name of Markham, for her woman nature was quick to see that James, +at least, paid her the homage which Richard had withheld. But Melinda's +mind was not yet made up, and as she was too honest to encourage hopes +which might never be fulfilled, she would not even look up into the +handsome eyes resting so admiringly upon her as she tied the bow of the +cravat and felt James' breath upon her burning cheeks. She did, however, +promise to dance the first set with him, and then she ran upstairs to +see if Ethelyn needed her. But Eunice had been before her, and Ethelyn's +toilet was made. + +Had this party been at Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's, in Boston, Ethelyn would +have worn her beautiful white satin with the fleecy lace; but here it +would be out of place, she thought, and so she left it pinned up in +towels at the bottom of her trunk, and chose a delicate lavender, +trimmed with white appliqué. Lavender was not the most becoming color +Ethelyn could wear, but she looked very handsome in it, with the soft +pearls upon her neck and arms. Richard thought her dress too low, while +modest Andy averted his eyes, lest he should do wrong in looking upon +the beautiful round neck and shoulders which so greatly shocked his +mother. "It was ridiculous and disgraceful for respectable wimmen folks +to dress like that," she said to Melinda Jones, who spoke up for +Ethelyn, saying the dress was like that of all fashionable ladies, and +in fact was not as low as Mrs. Judge Miller wore to a reception when +Melinda was at school in Camden. + +Mrs. Markham "did not care for Miss Miller, nor forty more like her. +Ethelyn looked ridickerlous, showing her shoulderblades, with that sharp +point running down her back, and her skirts moppin' the floor for half a +yard behind." + +Any superfluity of length in Ethelyn's skirts was more than +counterbalanced by Mrs. Markham's, who this night wore the heavy black +silk which her sister-in-law had matched in Boston ten years before. Of +course it was too narrow and too short, and too flat in front, Andy +said, admiring Ethelyn far more than he did his mother, even though the +latter wore the coiffure which Aunt Barbara had sent her, and a big +collar made from the thread lace which Mrs. Captain Markham, of +Chicopee, had also matched in Boston. Ethelyn was perfect, Andy thought, +and he hovered constantly near her, noticing how she carried her hands, +and her handkerchief, and her fan, and thinking Richard must be +perfectly happy in the possession of such a gem. + +But Richard was not happy--at least not that night--for, with Mrs. +Miller, and Marcia Fenton, and Ella Backus before her mind, Ethelyn had +lectured him again on etiquette, and Richard did not bear lecturing here +as well as at Saratoga. There it was comparatively easy to make him +believe he did not know anything which he ought to know; but at home, +where the old meed of praise and deference was awarded to him, where his +word was law and gospel, and he was Judge Markham, the potentate of the +town, Ethelyn's criticisms were not palatable, and he hinted that he was +old enough to take care of himself without quite so much dictation. +Then, when he saw a tear on Ethelyn's eyelashes, he would have put his +arm around her and kissed it away, if she had not kept him back, telling +him he would muss her dress. Still he was not insensible to her pretty +looks, and felt very proud of her, as she stood at his side and shook +the hands of the arriving guests. + +By eight o'clock the Olneyites had assembled in full force; but it was +not until the train came in and brought the élite from Camden that the +party was fairly commenced. There was a hush when the three ladies with +veils on their heads went up the stairs, and a greater hush when they +came down again--Mrs. Judge Miller, splendid in green moire-antique, +with diamonds in her ears, while Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus figured +in white tarletan, one with trimmings of blue, the other with trimmings +of pink, and both with waists so much lower than Ethelyn's that Mrs. +Markham thought the latter very decent by comparison. + +It took the ladies a few minutes to inspect the cut of Mrs. Miller's +dress, and the style of hair worn by Marcia and Ella, whose heads had +been under a hairdresser's hands, and were curiosities to some of the +Olneyites. But all stiffness vanished with the sound of Jerry Plympton's +fiddle, and the girls on the west side of the room began to look at the +boys on the opposite side, who were straightening their collars and +glancing at their "pumps." + +Ethelyn did not intend to dance, but when Judge Miller politely offered +to lead her to the floor, saying, as he guessed her thoughts, "Remember +the old adage, 'among the Romans, and so forth,'" she involuntarily +assented, and even found herself leading the first cotillion to the +sound of Jerry Plympton's fiddle. Mrs. Miller was dancing, too, as were +both Marcia and Ella, and that in a measure reconciled her to what she +was doing. They knew something of the lancers there on the prairie, and +terrible Tim Jones offered to call off "if Miss Markham would dance with +him and kind of keep him goin' straight." + +Tim had laid a wager with a companion as rough as himself, that he would +dance with the proud beauty, and this was the way he took to win the +bet. The ruse succeeded, too, Richard's eyes and low-toned "Ethelyn!" +availing more than aught else to drive Ethelyn to the floor with the +dreadful Tim, who interlarded his directions with little asides of his +own, such as "Go it, Jim," "Cut her down there, Tom," "Hurry up +your cakes." + +Ethelyn could have screamed out with disgust, and the moment the set was +over she said to Richard, "I shall not dance again to-night." + +And she kept her word, until toward the close of the party when poor +Andy, who had been so unfortunate as to find everybody engaged or too +tired, came up to her as she was playing an accompaniment to Jerry's +"Money-musk," and with a most doleful expression, said to her, timidly: + +"Please, sister Ethie, dance just once with me; none of the girls wants +to, and I hain't been in a figger to-night." + +Ethelyn could not resist Andy, whose face was perfectly radiant as he +led her to the floor, and bumped his head against hers in bowing to her. +Eunice was in the same set--her partner the terrible Tim--who cracked +jokes and threw his feet about in the most astounding fashion. And +Ethelyn bore it all, feeling that by being there with such people she +had fallen from the pedestal on which Ethelyn Grant once stood. Her +lavender dress was stepped upon, and her point appliqué caught and torn +by the big pin Andy had upon his coat cuff. Taken as a whole, that party +was the most dreadful of anything Ethelyn had endured and she could have +cried for joy when the last guest had said good-night, and she was at +liberty to lay her aching head upon her pillow. + +Four days after there was a large and fashionable party at Mrs. Judge +Miller's, in Camden, and Ethelyn went over in the cars, taking Eunice +with her as dressing-maid, and stopping at the Stafford House. That +night she wore her bridal robes, receiving so much attention that her +head was nearly turned with flattery. She could dance with the young men +of Camden, and flirt with them, too--especially with Harry Clifford, +who, she found, had been in college with Frank Van Buren. Harry Clifford +was a fast young man, but pleasant to talk with for a while and Ethelyn +found him very agreeable, saving that his mention of Frank made her +heart throb unpleasantly; for she fancied he might know something of +that page of her past life which she had concealed from Richard. Nor +were her fears without foundation, for once when they were standing +together near her husband, Harry said: + +"It seems so strange that you are the Ethie about whom Frank used to +talk so much, and a lock of whose hair he kept so sacred. I remember I +tried to buy a part of it from him, but could not succeed until once, +when his funds from home failed to come, and he was so hard up, as we +used to say, that he actually sold, or rather pawned, half of the +shining tress for the sum of five dollars. As the pawn was never +redeemed, I have the hair now, but never expected to meet with its fair +owner, who needs not to be told that the tress is tenfold more valuable +since I have met her, and know her to be the wife of our esteemed +Member," and young Clifford bowed toward Richard, whose face wore a +perplexed, dissatisfied expression. + +He did not fancy Harry Clifford much, and he certainly did not care to +hear that he had in his possession a lock of Ethelyn's hair, while the +allusions to Frank Van Buren were anything but agreeable to him. Neither +did he like Ethelyn's painful blushes, and her evident desire for Harry +to stop. It looked as if the hair business meant more than he would like +to suppose. Naturally bright and quick, young Clifford detected +Richard's thoughts, and directly began to wonder if there were not +something somewhere which Judge Markham did not understand. + +"I mean to find out," he thought, and watching an opportunity, when +Ethelyn was comparatively alone, he crossed to her side and said in a +low tone, "Excuse me, Mrs. Markham. If in my illusions to Frank Van +Buren I touched a subject which has never been discussed between +yourself and your husband, I meant no harm, I assure you." + +Instead of rebuking the impertinent young man, Ethelyn turned very red, +and stammered out something about its being of no consequence; and so +Harry Clifford held the secret which she had kept so carefully from +Richard, and that party in Camden was made the stepping-stone to much of +the wretchedness that afterward came to our heroine. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +GOING TO WASHINGTON + +Richard's trunk was ready for Washington. His twelve shirts, which +Eunice had ironed so nicely, were packed away with his collars and new +yarn socks, and his wedding suit, which he was carrying as a mere matter +of form, for he knew he should not need it during his three months' +absence. He should not go into society, he thought, or even attend +levees, with his heart as sore and heavy as it was on this, his last day +at home. Ethelyn was not going with him. She knew it now, and never did +the face of a six-months wife look harder or stonier than hers as she +stayed all day in her room, paying no heed whatever to Richard, and +leaving entirely to Eunice and her mother-in-law those little things +which most wives would have been delighted to do for their husbands' +comfort. Ethelyn was very unhappy, very angry, and very bitterly +disappointed. The fact that she was not going to Washington had fallen +upon her like a thunderbolt, paralyzing her, as it were, so that after +the first great shock was over she seemed like some benumbed creature +bereft of care, or feeling, or interest in anything. + +She had remained in Camden the most of the day following Mrs. Judge +Miller's party, and had done a little shopping with Marcia Fenton and +Ella Backus, to whom she spoke of her winter in Washington as a matter +of course, saying what she had to say in Richard's presence, and never +dreaming that he was only waiting for a fitting opportunity to demolish +her castles entirely. Perhaps if Ethelyn had talked Washington openly to +her husband when she was first married, and before his mother had gained +his ear, her chances for a winter at the capital would have been far +greater than they were now. But she had only taken it for granted that +she was going, and supposed that Richard understood it just as she did. +She had asked him several times where he intended to board and why he +did not secure rooms at Willard's, but Richard's non-committal replies +had given her no cue to her impending fate. On the night of her return +from Camden, as she stood by her dressing bureau, folding away her +point-lace handkerchief, she had casually remarked, "I shall not use +that again till I use it in Washington. Will it be very gay there +this winter?" + +Richard was leaning his elbow upon the mantel, looking thoughtfully into +the fire, and for a moment he did not answer. He hated to demolish +Ethie's castles, but it could not be helped. Once it had seemed very +possible that she would go with him to Washington, but that was before +his mother had talked to him upon the subject. Since then the fiat had +gone forth, and thinking this the time to declare it, Richard said at +last, "Put down your finery, Ethelyn, and come stand by me while I say +something to you." + +His voice and manner startled Ethelyn, but did not prepare her for what +followed after she had "dropped her finery" and was standing by +her husband. + +"Ethelyn," he began, and his eyes did not move from the blazing fire, +"it is time we came to an understanding about Washington. I have talked +with mother, whose age certainly entitles her opinion to some +consideration, and she thinks that for you to go to Washington this +winter would not only be improper, but also endanger your life; +consequently, I hope you will readily see the propriety of remaining +quietly at home where mother can care for you, and see that you are not +at all imprudent. It would break my heart if anything happened to my +darling wife, or--" he finished the sentence in a whisper, for he was +not yet accustomed to speaking of the great hope he had in expectancy. + +He was looking at Ethelyn now, and the expression of her face startled +and terrified him, it was so strange and terrible. + +"Not go to Washington!" and her livid lips quivered with passion, while +her eyes burned like coals of fire. "I stay here all this long, dreary +winter with your mother! Never, Richard, never! I'll die before I'll do +that. It is all--" she did not finish the sentence, for she would not +say, "It is all I married you for"; she was too much afraid of Richard +for that, and so she hesitated, but looked at him intently to see if he +was in earnest. + +She knew he was at last--knew that neither tears, nor reproaches, nor +bitter scorn could avail to carry her point, for she tried them all, +even to violent hysterics, which brought Mrs. Markham, senior, into the +field and made the matter ten times worse. Had she stayed away Richard +might have yielded, for he was frightened at the storm he had invoked; +but Richard was passive in his mother's hands, and listened complacently +while in stronger, plainer language than he had used she repeated in +substance all he had said about the impropriety of Ethelyn's mingling +with the gay throng at Washington. Immodesty, Mrs. Markham called it, +with sundry reflections upon the time when she was young, and what young +married women did then. And while she talked poor Ethelyn lay upon the +lounge writhing with pain and passion, wishing that she could die, and +feeling in her heart that she hated the entire Markham race, from +Richard down to the innocent Andy, who heard of the quarrel going on +between his mother and Ethelyn, and crept cautiously to the door of +their room, wishing so much that he could mediate between them. + +But this was a matter beyond Andy's ken. He could not even find a +petition in his prayer-book suited to that occasion. Mr. Townsend had +assured him that it would meet every emergency; but for once Mr. +Townsend was at fault, for with the sound of Ethelyn's angry voice +ringing in his ears, Andy lighted his tallow candle and creeping up to +his chamber knelt down by his wooden chair and sought among the general +prayers for one suited "to a man and his wife quarreling." There was a +prayer for the President, a prayer for the clergy, a prayer for +Congress, a prayer for rain, a prayer for the sick, a prayer for people +going to sea and people going to be hanged, but there was nothing for +the point at issue, unless he took the prayer to be used in time of war +and tumults, and that he thought would never answer, inasmuch as he did +not really know who was the enemy from which he would be delivered. It +was hard to decide against Ethelyn and still harder to decide against +"Dick," and so with his brains all in a muddle Andy concluded to take +the prayer "for all sorts and conditions of men," speaking very low and +earnestly when he asked that all "who were distressed in mind, body, or +estate, might be comforted and relieved according to their several +necessities." This surely covered the ground to a very considerable +extent; or if it did not, the fervent "Good Lord, deliver us," with +which Andy finished his devotions, did, and the simple-hearted, trusting +man arose from his knees comforted and relieved, even if Richard and +Ethelyn were not. + +With them the trouble continued, for Ethelyn kept her bed next day, +refusing to see anyone and only answering Richard in monosyllables when +he addressed himself directly to her. Once he bent over her and said, +"Ethelyn, tell me truly--is it your desire to be with me, your dread of +separation from me, which makes you so averse to be left behind?" + +There was that in his voice which said that if this were the case he +might be induced to reconsider. But though sorely tempted to do it, +Ethelyn would not tell a falsehood for the sake of Washington; so she +made no reply, and Richard drew from her silence any inference he +pleased. He was very wretched those last days, for he could not forget +the look of Ethelyn's eye or the sound of her voice when, as she finally +gave up the contest, she said to him with quivering nostrils and steady +tones, "You may leave me here, Richard, but remember this: not one word +or line will I write to you while you are gone. I mean what I say. I +shall abide by my decision." + +It would be dreadful not to hear a word from Ethie during all the dreary +winter, and Richard hoped she would recall her words; but Ethelyn was +too sorely wounded to do that. She must reach Richard somehow, and this +was the way to do it. She did not come downstairs again after it was +settled. She was sick, she said, and kept her room, seeing no one but +Richard and Eunice, who three times a day brought up her nicely cooked +meals and looked curiously at her as she deposited her tray upon the +stand and quietly left the room. Mrs. Markham did not go up at all, for +Ethelyn charged her disappointment directly to her mother-in-law, and +had asked that she be kept away; and so, 'mid passion and tears and +bitterness, the week went by and brought the day when Richard was +to leave. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FIRST DAY OF RICHARD'S ABSENCE + +The gray light of a November morning was breaking over the prairies when +Richard stooped down to kiss his wife, who did not think it worth her +while to rise so early even to see him off. She felt that she had been +unjustly dealt with, and up to the very last maintained the same cold, +icy manner so painful to Richard, who would fain have won from her one +smile to cheer him in his absence. But the smile was not given, though +the lips which Richard touched did move a little, and he tried to +believe it was a kiss they meant to give. Only the day before Ethie had +heard from Aunt Van Buren that Frank was to be married at Christmas, +when they would all go on to Washington, where they confidently expected +to meet Ethelyn. With a kind of grim satisfaction Ethelyn showed this to +her husband, hoping to awaken in him some remorse for his cruelty to +her, if, indeed, he was capable of remorse, which she doubted. She did +not know him, for if possible he suffered more than she did, though in a +different way. It hurt him to leave her there alone feeling as she did. +He hated to go without her, carrying only in his mind the memory of the +white, rigid face which had not smiled on him for so long. He wanted her +to seem interested in something, for her cold apathy of manner puzzled +and alarmed him; so remembering her aunt's letter on the morning of his +departure, he spoke of it to her and said, "What shall I tell Mrs. Van +Buren for you? I shall probably see more or less of them." + +"Tell nothing; prisoners send no messages," was Ethelyn's reply; and in +the dim gray of the morning the two faces looked a moment at each other +with such thoughts and passions written upon them as were pitiable +to behold. + +But when Richard was fairly gone, when the tones of his voice bidding +his family good-by had ceased, and Ethelyn sat leaning on her elbow and +listening to the sound of the wheels which carried him away, such a +feeling of utter desolation and loneliness swept over her that, burying +her face in the pillows, she wept bitterer tears of remorse and regret +than she had ever wept before. + +That day was a long and dreary one to all the members of the prairie +farmhouse. It was lonely there the first day of Richard's absence, but +now it was drearier than ever; and with a harsh, forbidding look upon +her face, Mrs. Markham went about her work, leaving Ethelyn entirely +alone. She did not believe her daughter-in-law was any sicker than +herself. "It was only airs," she thought, when at noon Ethelyn declined +the boiled beef and cabbage, saying just the odor of it made her sick. +"Nothing but airs and ugliness," she persisted in saying to herself, as +she prepared a slice of nice cream toast with a soft-boiled egg and cup +of fragrant black tea. Ethie did not refuse this, and was even gracious +enough to thank her mother-in-law for her extra trouble, but she did it +in such a queenly as well as injured kind of way, that Mrs. Markham felt +more aggrieved than ever, and, for a good woman, who sometimes spoke in +meeting, slammed the door considerably hard as she left the room and +went back to her kitchen, where the table had been laid ever since +Ethelyn took to eating upstairs. So long as she ate with the family Mrs. +Markham felt rather obliged to take her meals in the front room, but it +made a deal more work, and she was glad to return to her olden ways once +more. Eunice was gone off on an errand, and so she felt at liberty to +speak her mind freely to her boys as they gathered around the table. + +"It is sheer ugliness," she said, "which keeps her cooped up there to be +waited on. She is no more sick than the dog; but law, I couldn't make +Richard b'lieve it." + +"Mother, you surely did not go to Richard with complaints of his wife," +and James looked reproachfully across the table at his mother, who +replied: "I told him what I thought, for I wa'n't going to have him +miserable all the time thinking how sick she was, but I might as well +have talked to the wind, for any good it did. He even seemed +putcherky, too." + +"I should be more than putcherky if you were to talk to me against my +wife if I had one," James retorted, thinking of Melinda and the way she +sang that solo in the choir the day before. + +It was a little strange that James and John and Andy all took Ethelyn's +part against their mother, and even against Richard, who they thought +might have taken her with him. + +"It would not have hurt her any more than fretting herself to death at +home. No, nor half so much; and she must feel like a cat in a strange +garret there alone with them." + +It was John who said this--quiet John, who talked so little, and annoyed +Ethelyn so much by coming to the table in his blue frock, with his pants +tucked in his boots and his curly hair standing every way. Though very +much afraid of his grand sister-in-law, he admired her beyond +everything, and kept the slippers she brought him safely put away with a +lock of Daisy's hair and a letter written him by the young girl whose +grave was close beside Daisy's in the Olney cemetery. John had had his +romance and buried it with his heroine, since which time he had said but +little to womankind, though never was there a truer heart than that +which beat beneath the homespun frock Ethelyn so despised. Richard had +bidden him to be kind to Ethie, and John had said he would; and after +that promise was given had the farmhouse been on fire the sturdy fellow +would have periled life and limb to save her for Dick. To James, too, +Richard had spoken a word for Ethie, and to Andy also; so that there +were left to her four champions in his absence--for Eunice had had her +charge, with promises of a new dress if faithful to her trust; and thus +there was no one against poor Ethelyn saving the mother-in-law, who made +that first dinner after Richard's absence so uncomfortable that John +left the table without touching the boiled Indian pudding, of which he +was so fond, while James rather curtly asked what there was to be gained +by spitting out so about Ethelyn, and Andy listened in silence, thinking +how, by and by, when all the chores were done, he would take a basket of +kindlings up for Ethie's fire, and if she asked him to sit down, he +would do so and try and come to the root of the matter, and see if he +could not do something to make things a little better. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANDY TRIES TO FIND THE ROOT OF THE MATTER + +Ethelyn was very sick with a nervous headache, and so Andy did not go in +with his kindlings that night, but put the basket near the door, where +Eunice would find it in the morning. It was a part of Richard's bargain +with Eunice that Ethie should always have a bright, warm fire to dress +by, and the first thing Ethelyn heard as she unclosed her eyes was the +sound of Eunice blowing the coals and kindlings into a blaze as she +knelt upon the hearth, with her cheeks and eyes extended to their utmost +capacity. It was a very dreary awakening, and Ethelyn sighed as she +looked from her window out upon the far-stretching prairie, where the +first snows of the season were falling. There were but few objects to +break up the monotonous level, and the mottled November sky frowned +gloomily and coldly down upon her. Down in the back-yard James and John +were feeding the cattle; the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the +cows came to her ear as she turned with a shiver from the window. How +could she stay there all that long, dreary winter--there where there +was not an individual who had a thought or taste in common with her own? +She could not stay, she decided, and then as the question arose, "Where +will you go?" the utter hopelessness and helplessness of her position +rushed over her with so much force that she sank down upon the lounge +which Eunice had drawn to the fire, and when the latter came up with +breakfast she found her young mistress crying in a heart-broken, +despairing kind of way, which touched her heart at once. + +Eunice knew but little of the trouble with regard to Washington. Mrs. +Markham had been discreet enough to keep that from her; and so she +naturally ascribed Ethie's tears to grief at parting with her husband, +and tried in her homely way to comfort her. Three months were not very +long; and they would pass 'most before you thought, she said, adding +that she heard Jim say the night before that as soon as he got his gray +colts broken he was going to take his sister all over the country and +cheer her up a little. + +Ethie's heart was too full to permit her to reply, and Eunice soon left +her alone, reporting downstairs how white and sick she was looking. To +Mrs. Markham's credit we record that with a view to please her +daughter-in-law, a fire was that afternoon made in the parlor, and +Ethelyn solicited to come down, Mrs. Markham, who carried the +invitation, urging that a change would do her good, as it was not always +good to stay in one place. But Ethelyn preferred the solitude of her own +chamber, and though she thanked her mother-in-law for her +thoughtfulness, she declined going down, and Mrs. Markham had made her +fire for nothing. Not even Melinda came to enjoy it, for she was in +Camden, visiting a schoolmate; and so the day passed drearily enough +with all, and the autumnal night shut down again darker, gloomier than +ever, as it seemed to Ethelyn. She had seen no one but Mrs. Markham and +Eunice since Richard went away, and she was wondering what had become of +Andy, when she heard his shuffling tread upon the stairs, and a moment +after, his round shining face appeared, asking if he might come in. +Andy wore his best clothes on this occasion, for an idea had somehow +been lodged in his brain that Ethelyn liked a person well dressed, and +he was much pleased with himself in his short coat and shorter pants, +and the buff and white cotton cravat tied in a hard knot around his +sharp, standing collar, which almost cut the bottom of his ears. + +"I wished to see you," he said, taking a chair directly in front of +Ethelyn and tipping back against the wall. "I wanted to come before, but +was afraid you didn't care to have me. I've got something for you now, +though--somethin' good for sore eyes. Guess what 'tis?" + +And Andy began fumbling in his pocket for the something which was to +cheer Ethelyn, as he hoped. + +"Look a-here. A letter from old Dick, writ the very first day. That's +what I call real courtin' like," and Andy gave to Ethelyn the letter +which John had brought from the office and which the detention of a +train at Stafford for four hours had afforded Richard an opportunity +to write. + +It was only a few lines, meant for her alone, but Ethelyn's cheek didn't +redden as she read them, or her eyes brighten one whit. Richard was +well, she said, explaining to Andy the reason for his writing, and then +she put the letter away, while Andy sat looking at her, wondering what +he should say next. He had come up to comfort her, but found it hard to +begin. Ethie was looking very pale, and there were dark rings around her +eyes, showing that she suffered, even if Mrs. Markham did assert there +was nothing ailed her but spleen. + +At last Andy blurted out: "I am sorry for you, Ethelyn, for I know it +must be bad to have your man go off and leave you all alone, when you +wanted to go with him. Jim and John and me talked it up to-day when we +was out to work, and we think you orto have gone with Dick. It must be +lonesome staying here, and you only six months married. I wish, and the +boys wishes, we could do something to chirk you up." + +With the exception of what Eunice had said, these were the first words +of sympathy Ethelyn had heard, and her tears flowed at once, while her +slight form shook with such a tempest of sobs that Andy was alarmed, +and getting down on his knees beside her, begged of her to tell him what +was the matter. Had he hurt her feelings? he was such a blunderin' +critter, he never knew the right thing to say, and if she liked he'd go +straight off downstairs. + +"No, Anderson," Ethelyn said, "you have not hurt my feelings, and I do +not wish you to go, but, oh, I am so wretched and so disappointed, too!" + +"About goin' to Washington, you mean?" Andy asked, resuming his chair, +and his attitude of earnest inquiry, while Ethelyn, forgetting all her +reserve, replied: "Yes, I mean that and everything else. It has been +nothing but disappointment ever since I left Chicopee, and I sometimes +wish I had died before I promised to go away from dear Aunt Barbara's, +where I was so happy." + +"What made you promise, then? I suppose, though, it was because you +loved Dick so much," simple-minded Andy said, trying to remember if +there was not a passage somewhere which read, "For this cause shall a +man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain +shall be one flesh." + +Ethelyn would not wound Andy by telling him how little love had had to +do with her unhappy marriage, and she remained silent for a moment, +while Andy continued, "Be you disappointed here--with us, I mean, and +the fixins?" + +"Yes, Anderson, terribly disappointed. Nothing is as I supposed. Richard +never told me what I was to expect," Ethelyn replied, without stopping +to consider what she was saying. + +For a moment Andy looked intently at her, as if trying to make out her +meaning. Then, as it in part dawned upon him, he said sorrowfully: +"Sister Ethie, if it's me you mean, I was more to blame than Dick, for I +asked him not to tell you I was--a--a--wall, I once heard Miss Captain +Simmons say I was Widder Markham's fool," and Andy's chin quivered as he +went on: "I ain't a fool exactly, for I don't drool or slobber like Tom +Brown the idiot, but I have a soft spot in my head, and I didn't want +you to know it, for fear you wouldn't like me. Daisy did, though, and +Daisy knew what I was and called me 'dear Andy,' and kissed me when +she died." + +Andy was crying softly now, and Ethelyn was crying with him. The hard +feeling at her heart was giving way, and she could have put her arms +around this childish man, who after a moment continued: "Dick said he +wouldn't tell you, so you must forgive him for that. You've found me +out, I s'pose. You know I ain't like Jim, nor John, and I can't hold a +candle to old Dick, but sometimes I've hope you liked me a little, even +if you do keep calling me Anderson. I wish you wouldn't; seems as if +folks think more of me when they say 'Andy' to me." + +"Oh, Andy, dear Andy," Ethelyn exclaimed: "I do like you so much--like +you best of all. I did not mean you when I said I was disappointed." + +"Who, then?" Andy asked, in his straightforward way. "Is it mother? She +is odd, I guess, though I never thought on't till you came here. Yes, +mother is some queer, but she is good; and onct when I had the typhoid +and lay like a log, I heard her pray for 'her poor dear boy Andy'; +that's what she called me, as lovin' like as if I wasn't a fool, or +somethin' nigh it." + +Ethelyn did not wish to leave upon his mind the impression that his +mother had everything to do with her wretchedness, and so cautiously as +she could she tried to explain to him the difference between the habits +and customs of Chicopee and Olney. Warming up with her theme as she +progressed, she said more than she intended, and succeeded in driving +into Andy's brain a vague idea that his family were not up to her +standard, but were in fact a long way behind the times. Andy was in a +dilemma; he wanted to help Ethelyn and did not know how. Suddenly, +however, his face brightened, and he asked, "Do you belong to +the church?" + +"Yes," was Ethelyn's reply. + +"You do!" Andy repeated in some surprise, and Ethelyn replied, "Not the +way you mean, perhaps; but when I was a baby I was baptized in the +church and thus became a member." + +"So you never had the Bishop's hands upon your head, and done what the +Saviour told us to do to remember him by?" + +Ethelyn shook her head, and Andy went on: "Oh, what a pity, when he is +such a good Saviour, and would know just how to help you, now you are so +sorry-like and homesick, and disappointed. If you had him you could tell +him all about it and he would comfort you. He helped me, you don't know +how much, and I was dreadful bad once. I used to get drunk, +Ethie--drunker'n a fool, and come hiccuppin' home with my clothes all +tore and my hat smashed into nothin'." + +Andy's face was scarlet as he confessed to his past misdeeds, but +without the least hesitation he went on: "Mr. Townsend found me one day +in the ditch, and helped me up and got me into his room and prayed over +me and talked to me, and never let me off from that time till the +Saviour took me up, and now it's better than three years since I tasted +a drop. I don't taste it even at the sacrament, for fear what the taste +might do, and I used to hold my nose to keep shut of the smell. Mr. +Townsend knows I don't touch it, and God knows, too, and thinks I'm +right, I'm sure, and gives me to drink of his precious blood just the +same, for I feel light as air when I come from the altar. If religion +could make me, a fool and a drunkard, happy, it would do sights for you +who know so much. Try it, Ethie, won't you?" + +Andy was getting in earnest now, and Ethelyn could not meet the glance +of his honest, pleading eyes. + +"I can't be good, Andy," she replied; "I shouldn't know how to begin or +what to do." + +"Seems to me I could tell you a few things," Andy said. "God didn't want +you to go to Washington for some wise purpose or other, and so he put it +into Dick's heart to leave you at home. Now, instead of crying about +that I'd make the best of it and be as happy as I could be here. I know +we ain't starched up folks like them in Boston, but we like you, all of +us--leastwise Jim and John and me do--and I don't mean to come to the +table in my shirt-sleeves any more, if that will suit you, and I won't +blow my tea in my sasser, nor sop my bread in the platter; though if +you are all done and there's a lot of nice gravy left, you won't mind +it, will you, Ethelyn?--for I do love gravy." + +Ethelyn had been more particular than she meant to be with her reasons +for her disappointment, and in enumerating the bad habits to which she +said Western people were addicted, she had included the points upon +which Andy had seized so readily. He had never been told before that his +manners were entirely what they ought not to be; he could hardly see it +so now, but if it would please Ethie he would try to refrain, he said, +asking that when she saw him doing anything very outlandish, she would +remind him of it and tell him what was right. + +"I think folks is always happier," he continued, "when they forgit to +please themselves and try to suit others, even if they can't see any +sense in it." + +Andy did not exactly mean this as a rebuke, but it had the effect of one +and set Ethelyn thinking. Such genuine simplicity and frankness could +not be lost upon her, and long after Andy had left her and gone to his +room, where he sought in his prayer-book for something just suited to +her case, she sat pondering all he had said, and upon the faith which +could make even simple Andy so lovable and good. + +"He has improved his one talent far more than I have my five or ten," +she said, while regrets for her own past misdeeds began to fill her +bosom, with a wish that she might in some degree atone for them. + +Perhaps it was the resolution formed that night, and perhaps it was the +answer to Andy's prayer that God would have mercy upon Ethie and incline +her and his mother to pull together better, which sent Ethelyn down to +breakfast the next morning and kept her below stairs a good portion of +the day, and made her accept James' invitation to ride with him in the +afternoon. Then when it was night again, and she saw Eunice carrying +through the hall a smoking firebrand, which she knew was designed for +the parlor fire, she changed her mind about staying alone upstairs with +the books she had commenced to read, but brought instead the white, +fleecy cloud she was knitting, and sat with the family, who had never +seen her more gracious or amiable, and wondered what had happened. Andy +thought he knew; he had prayed for Ethie, not only the previous night, +but that morning before he left his room, and also during the day--once +in the barn upon a rick of hay and once behind the smoke-house. + +Andy always looked for direct answers to his prayers, and believing he +had received one his face was radiant with content and satisfaction, +when after supper he brushed and wet his hair and plastered it down upon +his forehead, and changed his boots for a lighter pair of Richard's, and +then sat down before the parlor fire with the yarn sock he was knitting +for himself. Ethelyn had never seen him engaged in this feminine +employment before, and she felt a strong disposition to laugh, but +fearing to wound him, repressed her smiles and seemed not to look at him +as he worked industriously on the heel, turning and shaping it better +than she could have done. It was not often that Ethelyn had favored the +family with music, but she did so that night, playing and singing pieces +which she knew were familiar to them, and only feeling a momentary pang +of resentment when, at the close of "Yankee Doodle," with variations, +quiet John remarked that Melinda herself could not go ahead of that! +Melinda's style of music was evidently preferable to her own, but she +swallowed the insult and sang "Lily Dale," at the request of Andy, who, +thinking the while of dear little Daisy, wiped his eyes with the leg of +his sock, while a tear trickled down his mother's cheek and dropped +into her lap. + +"I thought Melinda Jones wanted to practice on the pianner," Eunice +said, after Ethelyn was done playing; "I heard her saying so one day and +wondering if Miss Markham would be willin'." + +Ethelyn was in a mood then to assent to most anything, and she expressed +her entire approbation, saying even that she would gladly give Melinda +any assistance in her power. Ethelyn had been hard and cold and proud so +long that she scarcely knew herself in this new phase of character, and +the family did not know her, either. But they appreciated it fully, and +James' eyes were very bright and sparkling when, in imitation of Andy, +he bade his sister good-night, thinking, as she left the room how +beautiful she was and how pleased Melinda would be, and hoping she would +find it convenient to practice there evenings, as that would render an +escort home absolutely necessary, unless "Terrible Tim" came for her. + +Ethelyn had not changed her mind when Melinda came home next day, and as +a matter of course called at the Markhams' in the evening. But Ethelyn's +offer had come a little too late--Melinda was going to Washington to +spend the winter! A bachelor brother of her mother's, living among the +mountains of Vermont, had been elected Member of Congress in the place +of the regular member, who had resigned, and as the uncle was wealthy +and generous, and had certain pleasant reminiscences of a visit to Iowa +when a little black-eyed girl had been so agreeable to him, he had +written for her to join him in Washington, promising to defray all +expenses and sending on a draft for two hundred dollars, with which she +was to procure whatever she deemed necessary for her winter's outfit. +Melinda's star was in the ascendant, and Ethelyn felt a pang of +something like envy as she thought how differently Melinda's winter +would pass from her own, while James trembled for the effect Washington +might have upon the girl who walked so slowly with him along the beaten +path between his house and her father's, and whose eyes, as she bade him +good-night, were little less bright than the stars shining down upon +her. Would she come back like Ethelyn? He hoped not, for there would +then be an end to all fond dreams he had been dreaming. She would +despise his homely ways and look for somebody higher than plain Jim +Markham in his cowhide boots. James was sorry to have Melinda go, and +Ethelyn was sorry, too. It seemed as if she was to be left alone, for +two days after Melinda's return, Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus came out +from Camden to call, and communicated the news that they, too, were +going on to Washington, together with Mrs. Judge Miller, whose father +was a United States Senator. It was terrible to be thus left behind, +and Ethelyn's heart grew harder against her husband for dooming her to +such a fate. Every week James, or John, or Andy brought from the post a +letter in Richard's handwriting, directed to Mrs. Richard Markham, and +once in two weeks Andy carried a letter to the post directed in +Ethelyn's handwriting to "Richard Markham, M.C.," but Andy never +suspected that the dainty little envelope, with a Boston mark upon it, +inclosed only a blank sheet of paper! Ethelyn had affirmed so solemnly +that she would not write to her husband that she half feared to break +her vow; and, besides that, she could not forgive him for having left +her behind, while Marcia, Ella, and Melinda were enjoying themselves so +much. She knew she was doing wrong, and not a night of her life did she +go to her lonely bed that there did not creep over her a sensation of +fear as she thought, "What if I should die while I am so bad?" + +At home, in Chicopee, she used always to go through with a form of +prayer, but she could not do that now for the something which rose up +between her and Heaven, smothering the words upon her lips, and so in +this dreadful condition she lived on day after day, growing more, and +more desolately and lonely, and wondering sadly if life would always be +as dreary and aimless as it was now. And while she pondered thus, Andy +prayed on and practiced his lessons in good manners, provoking the mirth +of the whole family by his ludicrous attempts to be polite, and feeling +sometimes tempted to give the matter up. Andy was everything to Ethelyn, +and once when her conscience was smiting her more than usual with regard +to the blanks, she said to him abruptly: "if you had made a wicked vow, +which would you do--keep it or break it, and so tell a falsehood?" + +Andy was not much of a lawyer, he said, but "he thought he knew some +scripter right to the pint," and taking his well-worn Bible he found and +read the parable of the two sons commanded to work in their +father's vineyard. + +"If the Saviour commended the one who said he wouldn't and then went and +did it, I think there can be no harm in your breaking a wicked vow: +leastways I should do it." + +This was Andy's advice, and that night, long after the family were in +bed, a light was shining in Ethelyn's chamber, where she sat writing to +her husband, and as if Andy's spirit were pervading hers, she softened, +as she wrote and asked forgiveness for all the past which she had made +so wretched. She was going to do better, she said, and when her husband +came home she would try to make him happy. + +"But, oh, Richard," she wrote, "please take me away from here to Camden, +or Olney, or anywhere--so I can begin anew to be the wife I ought to be. +I was never worthy of you, Richard. I deceived you from the first, and +if I could summon the courage I would tell you about it." + +This letter which would have done so much good, was never finished, for +when the morning came there were troubled faces at the prairie +farmhouse--Mrs. Markham looking very anxious and Eunice very scared, +James going for the doctor and Andy for Mrs. Jones, while up in Ethie's +room, where the curtains were drawn so closely before the windows, life +and death were struggling for the mastery, and each in a measure coming +off triumphant. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WASHINGTON + +Richard had not been very happy in Washington. He led too quiet and +secluded a life, his companions said, advising him to go out more, and +jocosely telling him that he was pining for his young wife and growing +quite an old man. When Melinda Jones came, Richard brightened a little, +for there was always a sense of comfort and rest in Melinda's presence, +and Richard spent much of his leisure in her society, accompanying her +to concerts and occasionally to a levee, and taking pains to show her +whatever he thought would interest her. It was pleasant to have a lady +with him sometimes, and he wished so much it had been practicable for +Ethelyn to have come. "Poor Ethie," he called her to himself, pitying +her because, vain man that he was, he thought her so lonely without him. +This was at first, and before he had received in reply to his letter +that dreadful blank, which sent such a chill to his heart, making him +cold, and faint, and sick, as he began to realize what it was in a +woman's power to do. He had occasionally thought of Ethelyn's threat, +not to write him a line, and felt very uncomfortable as he recalled the +expression of her eyes when she made it. But he did not believe she was +in earnest. She surely could not hold out against the letter he wrote, +telling how he missed her every moment, and how, if it had been at all +advisable, he would have taken her with him. He did not know Ethelyn, +and so was not prepared for the bitter disappointment in store for him +when the dainty little envelope was put into his hand. It was her +handwriting--so much he knew; and there lingered about the missive faint +traces of the sweet perfume he remembered as pervading everything she +wore or used. Ethelyn had not kept her vow; and with a throb of joy +Richard tore open the envelope and removed the delicate tinted sheet +inside. But the hand of the strong man shook and his heart grew heavy as +lead when he turned the sheet thrice over, seeking in vain for some line +or word, or syllable or sign. But there was none. Ethelyn had kept her +vow, and Richard felt for a moment as if all the world were as +completely a blank as that bit of gilt-edged paper he crumpled so +helplessly in his hand. Anon, however, hope whispered that she would +write next time; she could not hold out thus all winter; and so Richard +wrote again with the same success, until at last he expected nothing, +and people said of him that he was growing old, while even Melinda +noticed his altered appearance, and how fast his brown hair was turning +gray. Melinda was in one sense his good angel. She brought him news from +home and Ethelyn, telling for one thing of Ethie's offer to teach her +music during the winter; and for another, of Ethie's long drives upon +the prairie, sometimes with James, sometimes with John, but oftenest +with Andy, to whom she seemed to cling as to a very dear brother. + +This news did Richard good, showing a better side of Ethie's character +than the one presented to him. She was not cold and proud to the family +at home; even his mother, who wrote to him once or twice, spoke kindly +of her, while James warmly applauded her, and Andy wrote a letter, +wonderful in composition, and full of nothing but Ethelyn, who made +their home so pleasant with her music, and songs, and pretty face. There +was some comfort in this^ and so Richard bore his burden in silence, and +no one ever dreamed that the letters he received with tolerable +regularity were only blank, fulfillments of a hasty vow. + +With Christmas came the Van Buren set from Boston--Aunt Sophia, with +Frank, and his girlish bride, who soon became a belle, flirting with +every man who offered his attentions, while Frank was in no way behind +in his flirtations with the other sex. Plain, matter-of-fact Melinda +Jones was among the first to claim his notice after he learned that she +was niece of the man who drove such splendid blacks and kept so handsome +a suite of rooms at Willard's; but Melinda was more than his match, and +snubbed him so unmercifully that he gave her up, and sneered at her as +"that old-maidish girl from the West." Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had been +profuse in her inquiries after Ethelyn, and loud in her regrets at her +absence. She had also tried to patronize both Richard and Melinda, +taking the latter with her to the theater and to a reception, and trying +to cultivate her for the sake of poor Ethie, who was obliged to +associate with her and people like her. Melinda, however, did not need +Mrs. Van Buren's patronage. Her uncle was a man of wealth and mark, who +stood high in Washington, where he had been before. His niece could not +lack attention, and ere the season was over the two rival belles at +Washington were Mrs. Frank Van Buren, from Boston, and Miss Melinda +Jones, from Iowa. + +But prosperity did not spoil Melinda, and James Markham's chances were +quite as good when, dressed in pink silk, with camelias in her hair, she +entertained some half-dozen judges and M.C.'s as when in brown delaine +and magenta ribbons she danced a quadrille at some "quilting bee out +West." She saw the difference, however, between men of cultivation and +those who had none, and began to understand the cause of Ethelyn's cold, +proud looks when surrounded by Richard's family. She began also silently +to watch and criticise Richard, comparing him with other men of equal +brain, and thinking how, if she were his wife, she would go to work to +correct his manners. Possibly, too, thoughts of James, in his blue frock +and cowhide boots, occasionally intruded themselves upon her mind; but +if so, they did not greatly disturb her equanimity, for, let what might +happen, Melinda felt herself equal to the emergency--whether it were to +put down Frank Van Buren and the whole race of impudent puppies like +him, or polish rough James Markham if need be. How she hated Frank Van +Buren when she saw his neglect of his young wife, whose money was all he +seemed to care for; and how utterly she loathed and despised him after +the night, when, at a party given by one of Washington's magnates, he +stood beside her for half an hour and talked confidently to her of +Ethelyn, whom, he hinted, he could have married if he would. + +"Why didn't you, then?" and Melinda turned sharply upon him, with a look +in her black eyes which made him wince as he replied: "Family +interference--must have money, you know! But, zounds! don't I pity +her!--tied to that clown, whom--" + +Frank did not finish the sentence, for Melinda's eyes fairly blazed with +anger as she cut him short with "Excuse me, Mr. Van Buren; I can't +listen to such abuse of one whom I esteem as highly as I do Judge +Markham. Why, sir, he is head and shoulders above you, in sense and +intellect and everything which makes a man," and with a haughty bow, +Melinda swept away, leaving the shamefaced Frank alone in his +discomfiture. + +"I'd like to kick myself if I could, though I told nothing but the +truth. Ethie did want me confoundedly, and I would have married her if +she hadn't been poor as a church mouse," Frank muttered to himself, +standing in the deep recess of the window, and all unconscious that just +outside upon the balcony was a silent, motionless form, which had heard +every word of his conversation with Melinda, and his soliloquy +afterward. + +Richard Markham had come to this party just to please Melinda, but he +did not enjoy it. If Ethie had been there he might; but he could not +forget the blank that day received, or the letter from James, which said +that Ethelyn was not looking as well as usual, and had the morning +previously asked him to turn back before they had ridden more than two +miles. He could not be happy with that upon his mind, and so he stole +from the gay scene out upon the balcony, where he stood watching the +quiet stars and thinking of Ethelyn, when his ear had caught by the +mention of her name. + +He had not thought before who the couple were standing so near to him, +but he knew now it was Melinda and Frank Van Buren, and became an +involuntary listener to the conversation which ensued. There was a +clenching of his fist, a shutting together of his teeth, and an impulse +to knock the boasting Frank Van Buren down; and then, as the past +flashed before him, with the thought that possibly Frank spoke the truth +and Ethelyn had loved him, there swept over him such a sense of anguish +and desolation that he forgot all else in his own wretchedness. It had +never occurred to him that Ethelyn married him while all the time she +loved another--that perhaps she loved that other still--and the very +possibility of it drove him nearly wild. + +He was missed from the party, but no one could tell when he left, for no +one saw him as he sprang down into the garden, and taking refuge in the +paths where the shades were the deepest, escaped unobserved into the +street, and so back to his own room, where he went over all the past +and recalled every little act of affection on Ethelyn's part, weighed it +in the balance with proofs that she did not care for him and never had. +So much did Richard love his wife and so anxious was he to find her +guiltless that he magnified every virtue and excused every error until +the verdict rendered was in her favor, and Frank alone was the +delinquent--Frank, the vain, conceited coxcomb, who thought because a +woman was civil to him that she must needs wish to marry him; Frank, the +wretch who had presumed to pity his cousin, and called her husband a +clown! How Richard's fingers tingled with a desire to thrash the +insulting rascal; and how, in spite of the verdict, his heart ached with +a dull, heavy fear lest it might be true in part, that Ethie had once +felt for Frank something deeper than what girls usually feel for their +first cousins. + +"And supposing she has?" Richard's generous nature asked. "Supposing she +did love this Frank once on a time well enough to marry him? She surely +was all over that love before she promised to be my wife, else she had +not promised; and so the only point where she is at fault was in +concealing from me the fact that she had loved another first. I was +honest with her. I told her of Abigail, and it was very hard to do it, +for I felt that the proud girl's spirit rebelled against such as Abigail +was years ago. It would have been so easy, then, for Ethelyn to have +confessed to me, if she had a confession to make; though how she could +ever care for such a jackanapes as that baboon of a Frank is more than I +can tell." + +Richard was waxing warm against Frank Van Buren, whom he despised so +heartily that he put upon his shoulders all the blame concerning +Ethelyn, if blame there were. He would so like to think her innocent, +and he tried so hard to do it, that he succeeded in part, though +frequently as the days passed on, and he sat at his post in the House, +listening to some tiresome speech, or took his solitary walk toward +Arlington Heights, a pang of something like jealousy and dread that all +had not been open and fair between himself and his wife cut like a +knife through his heart, and almost stopped his breath. The short +session was wearing to a close, and he was glad of it, for he longed to +be home again with Ethelyn, even if he were doomed to meet the same +coldness which those terrible blanks had brought him. Anything was +preferable to the life he led, and though he grew pale as ashes and his +limbs quivered like a reed when, toward the latter part of February, he +received a telegram to come home at once, as Ethelyn was very sick, he +hailed the news as a message of deliverance, whereby he could escape +from hated Washington a few days sooner. He hardly knew when or how the +idea occurred to him that Aunt Barbara's presence would be more +acceptable in that house, where he guessed what had happened; but occur +to him it did; and Aunt Barbara, sitting by her winter fire and thinking +of Ethelyn, was startled terribly by the missive which bade her join +Richard Markham at Albany, on the morrow, and go with him to Iowa, where +Ethie lay so ill. A pilgrimage to Mecca would scarcely have looked more +formidable to the good woman than this sudden trip to Iowa; but where +her duty was concerned she did not hesitate, and when at noon of the +next day the New York train came up the river, the first thing Richard +saw as he walked rapidly toward the Central Depot at Albany was Aunt +Barbara's bonnet protruding from the car window and Aunt Barbara's hand +making frantic passes and gestures to attract his notice. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RICHARD'S HEIR + +For one whole week the windows of Ethelyn's room were darkened as dark +as Mrs. Markham's heavy shawl and a patchwork quilt could make them. The +doctor rode to and from the farmhouse, looking more and more concerned +each time he came from the sick-room. Mrs. Jones was over almost every +hour, or if she did not come Tim was sent to inquire, his voice very low +and subdued as he asked, "How is she now?" while James' voice was lower +and sadder still as he answered, "There is no change." Up and down the +stairs Mrs. Markham trod softly, wishing that she had never harbored an +unkind thought against the pale-faced girl lying so unconscious of all +they were doing for her. In the kitchen below, with a scared look upon +her face, Eunice washed and wiped her dishes, and wondered if Richard +would get home in time for the funeral, and if he would order from +Camden a metallic coffin such as Minnie Dayton had been buried in; and +Eunice's tears fell like rain as she thought how terrible it was to die +so young, and unprepared, too, as she heard Mrs. Markham say to the +Methodist clergyman when he came over to offer consolation. + +Yes, Ethelyn was unprepared for the fearful change which seemed so near, +and of all the household none felt this more keenly than Andy, whose +tears soaked through and through the leaf of the prayer-book, where was +printed the petition for the sick, and who improvised many a touching +prayer himself, kneeling by the wooden chair where God had so often met +and blessed him. + +"Don't let Ethie die, Good Father, don't let her die; at least not till +she is ready, and Dick is here to see her--poor old Dick, who loves her +so much. Please spare her for him, and take me in her place. I'm good +for nothing, only I do hope I'm ready, and Ethie ain't; so spare her and +take me in her place." + +This was one of Andy's prayers--generous, unselfish Andy--who would have +died for Ethelyn, and who had been in such exquisite distress since the +night when Eunice first found Ethelyn moaning in her room, with her +letter to Richard lying unfinished before her. No one had read that +letter--the Markhams were too honorable for that--and it had been put +away in the portfolio, while undivided attention was given to Ethelyn. +She had been unconscious nearly all the time, saying once when Mrs. +Markham asked, "Shall we send for Richard?" "Send for Aunt Barbara; +please send for Aunt Barbara." + +This was the third day of Ethelyn's danger, and on the sixth there came +a change. The shawl was pinned back from the window, admitting light +enough for the watchers by the bedside to see if the sufferer still +breathed. Life was not extinct, and Mrs. Markham's lips moved with a +prayer of thanksgiving when Mrs. Jones pointed to a tiny drop of +moisture beneath the tangled hair. Ethelyn would live, the doctor said, +but down in the parlor on the sofa where Daisy had lain was a little +lifeless form with a troubled look upon its face, showing that it had +fought for its life. Prone upon the floor beside it sat Andy, whispering +to the little one and weeping for "poor old Dick, who would mourn for +his lost boy." + +Andy was very sorry, and to one who saw him that day, and, ignorant of +the circumstances, asked what was the matter that he looked so solemn, +he answered sadly, "I have just lost my little uncle that I wanted to +stand sponsor for. He only lived a day," and Andy's tears flowed afresh +as he thought of all he had lost with the child whose life numbered +scarcely twenty-four hours in all. But that was enough to warrant its +being now among the spirits of the Redeemed, and heaven seemed fairer, +more desirable to Andy than it had done before. His father was there +with Daisy and his baby uncle, as he persisted in calling Ethelyn's dead +boy until James told him better, and pointed out the ludicrousness of +the mistake. To Ethelyn Andy was tender as a mother, when at last they +let him see her, and his lips left marks upon her forehead and cheek. +She was perfectly conscious now, and when told they had sent for +Richard, manifested a good deal of interest, and asked when he would +probably be there. They were expecting him every train; but ere he came +the fever, which seemed for a time to have abated, returned with double +force and Ethelyn knew nothing of the kisses Richard pressed upon her +lips, or the tears Aunt Barbara shed over her poor darling. + +There were anxious hearts and troubled faces in the farmhouse that day, +for Death was brooding there again, and they who watched his shadow +darkening around them spoke only in whispers, as they obeyed the +physician's orders. When Richard first came in Mrs. Markham wound her +arm around his neck, and said, "I am so sorry for you, my poor boy," +while the three sons, one after another, had grasped their brother's +hand in token of sympathy, and that was all that had passed between them +of greeting. For the rest of the day, Richard had sat constantly by +Ethelyn, watching the changes of her face, and listening to her as she +raved in snatches, now of himself, and the time he saved her from the +maddened cow, and now of Frank and the huckleberries, which she said +were ripening on the Chicopee hills. When she talked of this Richard +held his breath, and once, as he leaned forward so as not to lose a +word, he caught Aunt Barbara regarding him intently, her wrinkled cheek +flushing as she met his eye and guessed what was in his mind. If Richard +had needed any confirmation of his suspicions, that look on transparent +Aunt Barbara's face would have confirmed them. There had been something +between Ethelyn and Frank Van Buren more than a cousinly liking, and +Richard's heart throbbed powerfully as he sat by the tossing, restless +Ethelyn, moaning on about the huckleberry hills, and the ledge of rocks +where the wild laurels grew. This pain he did not try to analyze; he +only said to himself that he felt no bitterness toward Ethelyn. She was +too near to death's dark tide for that. She was Ethie--his darling--the +mother of the child that had been buried from sight before he came. +Perhaps she did not love him, and never would; but he had loved her, oh! +so much, and if he lost her he would be wretched indeed. And so, +forgiving all the past of which he knew, and trying to forgive all he +did not know, he sat by her till the sun went down, and his mother came +for the twentieth time, urging him to eat. He had not tasted food that +day, and faint for the want of it he followed her to where the table had +been set, and supper prepared with a direct reference to his +particular taste. + +He felt better and stronger when supper was over, and listened eagerly +while Andy and Eunice, who had been the last with Ethelyn before her +sudden illness, recounted every incident as minutely and reverently as +if speaking of the dead. Especially did he hang on what Andy said with +reference to her questioning him about the breaking of a wicked vow, and +when Eunice added her mite to the effect that, getting up for some +camphor for an aching tooth, she had heard a groan from Ethelyn's room, +and had found her mistress bending over a half-finished letter, which +she "reckoned" was to him, and had laid away in the portfolio, he waited +for no more, but hurried upstairs to the little bookcase where Eunice +had put the treasure--for it was a countless treasure, that unfinished +letter, which he read with the great tears rolling down his cheeks, and +his heart growing tenfold softer and warmer toward the writer, who +confessed to having wronged him, and wished so much that she dare tell +him all. What was it she had to tell? Would he ever know? he asked +himself, as he put the letter back where he found it. Yes, she would +surely tell him, if she lived, as live she must. She was dearer to him +now than she had ever been, and the lips unused to prayer, save as a +form, prayed most earnestly that Ethie might be spared. Then, as there +flashed upon him a sense of the inconsistency there was in keeping aloof +from God all his life, and going to him only when danger threatened, he +bowed his head in very shame, and the prayer died on his lips. But Andy +always prayed--at least he had for many years; and so the wise strong +brother sought the simple weaker one, and asked him to do what he had +not power to do. + +Andy's swollen eyes and haggard face bore testimony to his sorrow, and +his voice was very low and earnest, as he replied: "Brother Dick, I'm +prayin' all the time. I've said that prayer for the sick until I've worn +it threadbare, and now every breath I draw has in it the petition, 'We +beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.' There's nothing in that about +Ethie, it's true; but God knows I mean her, and will hear me all +the same." + +There was a touching simplicity in Andy's faith, which went to the heart +of Richard, making him feel of how little avail was knowledge or wisdom +or position if there was lacking the one thing needful, which Andy so +surely possessed. That night was a long, wearisome one at the farmhouse; +but when the morning broke hope and joy came with it, for Ethelyn was +better, and in the brown eyes, which unclosed so languidly, there was a +look of consciousness, which deepened into a look of surprise and joyful +recognition as they rested upon Aunt Barbara. + +"Is this Chicopee? Am I home? Oh, Aunt Barbara, I am so glad! you can't +guess how glad, or know how tired and sorry your poor Ethie has been," +came brokenly from the pale lips, as Ethelyn moved nearer to Aunt +Barbara and laid her head upon the motherly bosom, where it had so often +lain in the dear old Chicopee days. + +She did not notice Richard, or seem to know that she was elsewhere than +in Chicopee, back in the old home, and Richard's pulse throbbed quickly +as he saw the flush come over Ethie's face, and the look of pain creep +into her eyes, when a voice broke the illusion and told her she was +still in Olney, with him and the mother-in-law leaning over the bed-rail +saying, "Speak to her, Richard." + +"Ethie, don't you know me, too?--I came with Aunt Barbara." + +That was what he said, as he bent over her, seeking to take in his own +one of the feverish little hands locked so fast in those of Aunt +Barbara. She did know then, and remember, and her lip quivered in a +grieved, disappointed way as she said, "Yes, Richard, I know now. I am +not at home, I'm here;" and the intonation of the voice as it uttered +the word "here," spoke volumes, and told Aunt Barbara just how homesick +and weary and wretched her darling had been here. She must not talk +much, the physician said, and so with one hand in Richard's and one in +Aunt Barbara's she fell away to sleep again, while the family stole out +to their usual avocations, Mrs. Markham and Eunice to their baking, +James and John to their work upon the farm, and Andy to his Bethel in +the wood-house chamber, where he repeated: "Blessed be the Lord God of +Israel who has visited and redeemed his people," and added at the +conclusion the Gloria Patri, which he thought suitable for the occasion. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DAYS OF CONVALESCENCE + +They were very pleasant to Ethelyn, for with Aunt Barbara anticipating +every want, and talking of Chicopee; she could not be very weary. It was +pleasant, too, having Richard home again, and Ethie was very soft and +kind and amiable toward him; but she did not tell him of the letter she +had commenced, or hint at the confession he longed to hear. It would +have been comparatively easy to write it, but with him there where she +could look into his face and watch the dark expression which was sure to +come into his eyes, it was hard to tell him that Frank Van Buren had +held the first place in her affections, if indeed he did not hold it +now. She was not certain yet, though she hoped and tried to believe that +Frank was nothing more than cousin now. He surely ought not to be, with +Nettie calling him her husband, while she too was a wife. But so subtle +was the poison which that unfortunate attachment had infused into her +veins that she could not tell whether her nature was cleared of it or +not, and so, though she asked forgiveness for having so literally kept +her vow, and said that she did commence a letter to him, she kept back +the most important part of all. It was better to wait, she thought, +until she could truly say, "I loved Frank Van Buren once, but now I love +you far better than ever I did him." + +Had she guessed how much Richard knew, and how the knowledge was +rankling in his bosom, she might have done differently. But she took the +course she thought the best, and the perfect understanding Richard had +so ardently hoped for was not then arrived at. For a time, however, +there seemed to be perfect peace between them, and could Richard have +forgotten Frank Van Buren's words or even those of Ethie herself when +her fever was on, he would have been supremely happy. But to forget was +impossible, and he often found himself wondering how much of Frank's +assertion was true, and if Ethelyn would ever be as open and honest +with him as he had tried to be with her. She did not get well very fast, +and the color came slowly back into her lips and cheeks. She was far +happier than she had been before since she first came to Olney. She +could not say that she loved her husband as a true wife ought to love a +man like Richard Markham, but she found a pleasure in his society which +she had never experienced before, while Aunt Barbara's presence was a +constant source of joy. That good woman had prolonged her stay far +beyond what she had thought it possible when she left Chicopee. She +could not tear herself away, when Ethie pleaded so earnestly for her to +remain a little longer, and so, wholly impervious to the hints which +Mrs. Markham occasionally threw out, that her services were no longer +needed as nurse to Ethelyn, she stayed on week after week, seeing far +more than she seemed to see, and making up her mind pretty accurately +with regard to the prospect of Ethie's happiness, if she remained an +inmate of her husband's family. + +Aunt Barbara and Mrs. Markham did not harmonize at all. At first, when +Ethie was so sick, everything had been merged in the one absorbing +thought of her danger, and even the knowledge accidentally obtained that +Richard had paid Miss Bigelow's fare out there and would pay it back, +had failed to produce more than a passing pang in the bosom of the +close, calculating, economical Mrs. Markham; but when the danger was +past, it kept recurring again and again, with very unpleasant +distinctness, that Aunt Barbara was an expense they could well do +without. Nobody could quarrel with Aunt Barbara--she was so mild, and +gentle, and peaceable--and Mrs. Markham did not quarrel with her, but +she thought about her all the time, and fretted over her, and remembered +the letter she had written about her ways and her being good to Ethie, +and wondered what she was there for, and why she did not go home, and +asked her what time they generally cleaned house in Chicopee, and if she +dared trust her cleaning with Betty. Aunt Barbara was a great annoyance, +and she complained to Eunice and Mrs. Jones, and Melinda, who had +returned from Washington, that she was spoiling Ethelyn, babying her +so, and making her think herself so much weaker than she was. + +"Mercy knew," she said, that in her day, when she was young and having +children, she did not hug the bed forever. She had something else to do, +and was up and around in a fortnight at the most. Her table wasn't +loaded down with oranges and figs, and the things they called banannys, +which fairly made her sick at her stomach. Nobody was carryin' her up +glasses of milk-punch, and lemonade, and cups of tea, at all hours of +the day. She was glad of anything, and got well the faster for it. +Needn't tell her!--it would do Ethelyn good to stir around and take the +air, instead of staying cooped up in her room, complaining that it is +hot and close there in the bedroom. "It's airy enough out doors," and +with a most aggrieved look on her face, Mrs. Markham put into the oven +the pan of soda biscuit she had been making, and then proceeded to lay +the cloth for tea. + +Eunice had been home for a day or two with a felon on her thumb, and +thus a greater proportion of the work had fallen upon Mrs. Markham, +which to some degree accounted for her ill-humor. Mrs. Jones and Melinda +were spending the afternoon with her, but the latter was up in Ethie's +room. Melinda had always a good many ideas of her own, and she had +brought with her several new ones from Washington and New York, where +she had stayed for four weeks at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. But Melinda, +though greatly improved in appearance, was not one whit spoiled. In +manner, and the fit of her dress, she was more like Ethelyn and Mrs. +Judge Miller, of Camden, than she once had been, and at first James was +a little afraid of her, she puffed her hair so high, and wore her gowns +so long, while his mother, looking at the stylish hat and fashionable +sack which she brought back from Gotham, said her head was turned, and +she was altogether too fine for Olney. But when, on the next rainy +Sunday, she rode to church in her father's lumber wagon, holding the +blue cotton umbrella over her last year's straw and waterproof--and when +arrived at the church she suffered James to help her to alight, jumping +over the muddy wheel, and then going straight to her accustomed seat in +the choir, which had missed her strong voice so much--the son changed +his mind, and said she was the same as ever; while after the day when +she found Mrs. Markham making soap out behind the corn-house, and +good-humoredly offered to watch it and stir it while that lady went into +the house to see to the corn pudding, which Eunice was sure to spoil if +left to her own ingenuity, the mother, too, changed her mind, and wished +Richard had been so lucky as to have fixed his choice on Melinda. But +James was far from wishing a thing which would so seriously have +interfered with his hopes and wishes. He was very glad that Richard's +preference had fallen where it did, and his cheery whistle was heard +almost constantly, and after Tim Jones told, in his blunt way, how +"Melind was tryin' to train him, and make him more like them dandies at +the big tavern in New York," he, too, began to amend, and taking Richard +for his pattern, imitated him, until he found that simple, loving Andy, +in his anxiety to please Ethelyn, had seized upon more points of +etiquette than Richard ever knew existed, and then he copied Andy, +having this in his favor: that whatever he did himself was done with a +certain grace inherent in his nature, whereas Andy's attempts were +awkward in the extreme. + +Melinda saw the visible improvement in James, and imputing it rather to +Ethelyn's influence than her own, was thus saved from any embarrassment +she might have experienced had she known to a certainty how large a +share of James Markham's thoughts and affections she possessed. She was +frequently at the farmhouse; but had not made what her mother called a +visit until the afternoon when Mrs. Markham gave her opinion so freely +of Aunt Barbara's petting and its effect on Ethelyn. + +From the first introduction Aunt Barbara had liked the practical, +straightforward Melinda, in whom she found a powerful ally whenever any +new idea was suggested with regard to Ethelyn. To her Aunt Barbara had +confided her belief that it was not well for Ethelyn to stay there any +longer--that she and Richard both would be better by themselves; an +opinion which Melinda heartily indorsed, and straightway set herself at +work to form some plan whereby Aunt Barbara's idea might be carried out. + +Melinda was not a meddlesome girl, but she did like to help manage other +people's business, doing it so well, and evincing so little selfishness +in her consideration for others, that when once she had taken charge of +a person's affairs she was pretty sure to have the privilege again. When +Richard ran for justice of the peace, and she was a little girl, she had +refused to speak to three other little girls who flaunted the colors of +the opposition candidate; and when he was nominated first for Judge and +then as member for the district, she had worked for him quite as +zealously as Tim himself, and through her more than one vote, which +otherwise might have been lost, was cast in his favor. As she had worked +for him, so she now worked for Ethelyn, approaching Richard very +adroitly and managing so skillfully that when at last, on the occasion +of her visit to his mother's, Aunt Barbara asked him, in her presence +and Ethelyn's, if he had never thought it would be well both for himself +and wife to live somewhere else than there at home, he never dreamed +that he was echoing the very ideas Melinda had instilled into his mind +by promptly replying that "he had recently thought seriously of a +change," and then asked Ethie where she would like to live--in Olney or +in Camden. + +"Not Olney--no, not Olney!" Ethelyn gasped, thinking how near that was +to her mother-in-law, and shrinking from the espionage to which she +would surely be subjected. + +Her preference was Davenport, but to this Richard would not listen. +Indeed, he began to feel sorry that he had admitted a willingness to +change at all, for the old home was very dear to him, and he thought he +would never leave it. But he stood committed now, and Melinda followed +him up so dexterously, that in less than half an hour it was arranged +that early in June Ethelyn should have a home in Camden--either a house +of her own, or a suite of rooms at the Stafford House, just which she +preferred. She chose the latter, and, womanlike, began at once in fancy +to furnish and arrange the handsome apartments which looked out upon +Camden Park, and which Melinda said were at present unoccupied. Melinda +knew, for only two days before she had been to Camden with her brother +Tim and dined at the Stafford House, and heard her neighbor on her right +inquire of his vis-à-vis how long since General Martin left the second +floor of the new wing, and who occupied it now. This was a mere happen +so, but Melinda was one of those to whom the right thing was always +happening, the desired information always coming; and if she did +contrive to ascertain the price charged for the rooms, it was only +because she understood that one of the Markham peculiarities was being a +little close, and wished to be armed at every point. + +Richard had no idea that Melinda was managing him, or that anyone was +managing him. He thought himself that Camden might be a pleasant place +to live; as an ex-Judge and M.C. he could get business anywhere; and +though he preferred Olney, inasmuch as it was home, he would, if Ethelyn +liked, try Camden for a while. It is true the price of the rooms, which +Melinda casually named, was enormous, but, then, Ethelyn's health and +happiness were above any moneyed consideration; and so, while Mrs. +Markham below made and molded the soda biscuit, and talked about +dreading the hot weather if "Ethelyn was going to be weakly," Aunt +Barbara, and Melinda, and Richard settled a matter which made her eyes +open wide with astonishment when, after the exit of the Joneses and the +doing up of her work, it was revealed to her. Of course, she charged it +all to Aunt Barbara, wishing that good woman as many miles away as +intervened between Olney and Chicopee. Had the young people been going +to keep house, she would have been more reconciled, for in that case +much of what they consumed would have been the product of the farm; but +to board, to take rooms at the Stafford House where Ethelyn would have +nothing in the world to do but to dress and gossip, was abominable. Then +when she heard of the price she opposed the plan with so much energy +that, but for Aunt Barbara and Melinda Jones, Richard might have +succumbed; but the majority ruled, and Ethelyn's eyes grew brighter, and +her thin cheeks rounder, with the sure hope of leaving a place where she +had been so unhappy. She should miss Melinda Jones; and though she would +be near Mrs. Miller, and Marcia Fenton, and Ella Backus, they could not +be to her all Melinda had been, while Andy--Ethelyn felt the lumps +rising in her throat whenever she thought of him and the burst of tears +with which he had heard that she was going away. + +"I can't help thinkin' it's for the wuss," he said, wiping his smooth +face with the cuff of his coat-sleeve. "Something will happen as the +result of your goin' there. I feel it in my bones." + +Were Andy's words prophetic? Would something happen, if they went to +Camden, which would not have happened had they remained in Olney? +Ethelyn did not ask herself the question. She was too supremely happy, +and if she thought at all, it was of how she could best accelerate her +departure from the lonely farmhouse. + +When Mrs. Markham found that they were really going, that nothing she +could say would be of any avail, she gave up the contest, and, +mother-like, set herself at work planning for their comfort, or rather +for Richard's comfort. It was for him that the best and newest +featherbed, weighing thirty pounds and a half to a feather, was aired +and sunned three days upon the kitchen roof, the good woman little +dreaming that if the thirty-pounder was used at all, it would do duty +under the hair mattress Ethelyn meant to have. They were to furnish +their own rooms, and whatever expense Mrs. Markham could save her boy +she meant to do. There was the carpet in their chamber--they could have +that; for after they were gone it was not likely the room would be used, +and the old rag one would answer. They could have the curtains, too, if +they liked, with the table and the chairs. Left to himself and his +mother's guidance, Richard would undoubtedly have taken to Camden such a +promiscuous outfit as would have made even a truckman smile; but there +were three women leagued against him, and so draft after draft was drawn +from his funds in the Camden bank until the rooms were furnished; and +one bright morning in early June, a week after Aunt Barbara started for +Chicopee, Ethie bid her husband's family good-by, and turning her back +upon Olney, turned also the first leaf of her life's history in +the West. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +COMING TO A CRISIS + +Richard was not happy in his new home; it did not fit him like the old. +He missed his mother's petting; he missed the society of his plain, +outspoken brothers; he missed his freedom from restraint, and he missed +the deference so universally paid to him in Olney, where he was the only +lion. In Camden there were many to divide the honors with him; and +though he was perhaps unconscious of it, he had been first so long that +to be one of many firsts was not altogether agreeable. With the new home +and new associates more like those to which she had been accustomed, +Ethelyn had resumed her training process, which was not now borne as +patiently as in the halcyon days of the honeymoon, when most things wore +the couleur de rose and were right because they came from the pretty +young bride. Richard chafed under the criticisms to which he was so +frequently subjected, and if he improved on them in the least it was not +perceptible to Ethlyn, who had just cause to blush for the careless +habits of her husband--habits which even Melinda observed, when in +August she spent a week with Ethelyn, and then formed one of a party +which went for a pleasure trip to St. Paul and Minnehaha. From this +excursion, which lasted for two weeks, Richard returned to Camden in +anything but an amiable frame of mind. Ethelyn had not pleased him at +all, notwithstanding that she had been unquestionably the reigning belle +of the party--the one whose hand was claimed in every dance, and whose +company was sought in every ride and picnic. Marcia Fenton and Ella +Backus faded into nothingness when she was near, and they laughingly +complained to Richard that his wife had stolen all their beaux away, and +they wished he would make her do better. + +"I wish I could," was his reply, spoken not playfully, but moodily, just +as he felt at the time. + +He was not an adept in concealing his feelings, which generally showed +themselves upon his face, or were betrayed in the tones of his voice, +and when he spoke as he did of his wife the two young girls glanced +curiously at each other, wondering if it where possible that the grave +Judge was jealous. If charged with jealousy Richard would have denied +it, though he did not care to have Ethelyn so much in Harry Clifford's +society. Richard knew nothing definite against Harry, except that he +would occasionally drink more than was wholly in accordance with a +steady and safe locomotion of his body; and once since they had been at +the Stafford House, where he also boarded, the young lawyer had been +invisible for three entire days. "Sick with a cold" was his excuse when +he appeared again at the table, with haggard face and bloodshot eyes; +but in the parlor, and halls, and private rooms, there where whispers of +soiled clothes and jammed hats, and the servants bribed to keep the +secret that young lawyer Clifford's boots were carried dangling up to +No. 94 at a very late hour of the night on which he professed to have +taken his cold. After this, pretty Marcia Fenton, who, before Ethelyn +came to town, had ridden oftenest after the black horses owned by Harry, +tossed her curls when he came near, and arched her eyebrows in a manner +rather distasteful to the young man; while Ella Backus turned her back +upon him, and in his hearing gave frequent lectures on intemperance and +its loathsomeness. Ethelyn, on the contrary, made no difference in her +demeanor toward him. She cared nothing for him either way, except that +his polite attentions and delicate deference to her tastes and opinions +were complimentary and flattering, and so she saw no reason why she +should shun him because he had fallen once. It might make him worse, and +she should stand by him as an act of philanthropy, she said to Richard +when he asked her what she saw to admire in that drunken Clifford. + +Richard had no idea that Ethelyn cared in the least for Harry Clifford; +he knew she did not, though she sometimes singled him out as one whose +manners in society her husband would do well to imitate. Of the two +young men, Harry Clifford and Frank Van Buren, who had been suggested to +him as copies, Richard preferred the former, and wished he could feel as +easy with regard to Frank as he was with regard to Harry. He had never +forgotten that fragment of conversation overheard in Washington, and as +time went on it haunted him more and more. He had given up expecting any +confession from Ethelyn, though at first he was constantly expecting it, +and laying little snares by way of hints and reminders; but Ethelyn had +evidently changed her mind, and if there was a past which Richard ought +to have known, he would now probably remain in ignorance of it, unless +some chance revealed it. It would have been far better if Richard had +tried to banish all thoughts of Frank Van Buren from his mind and taken +Ethelyn as he found her; but Richard was a man, and so, manlike, he +hugged the skeleton which he in part had dragged into his home, and +petted it, and kept it constantly in sight, instead of thrusting it out +from the chamber of his heart, and barring the door against it. Frank's +name was never mentioned between them, but Richard fancied that always +after the receipt of Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letters Ethelyn was a little +sad, and more disposed to find fault with him, and he sometimes wished +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren might never write to them again. There was one of her +letters awaiting Ethelyn after her return from Minnesota, and she read +it standing under the chandelier, with Richard lying upon the couch near +by, watching her curiously. There was something in the letter which +disturbed her evidently, for her face flushed, and her lips shut firmly +together, as they usually did when she was agitated. Richard already +read Aunt Barbara's letters, and heretofore he had been welcome to Mrs. +Van Buren's, a privilege of which he seldom availed himself, for he +found nothing interesting in her talk of parties, and operas and +fashions, and the last new color of dress goods, and style of +wearing the hair. + +"It was too much twaddle for him," he had said in reply to Ethelyn's +questions as to whether he would like to see what Aunt Van Buren +had written. + +Now, however, she did not offer to show him the letter, but crumpled it +nervously in her pocket, and going to her piano, began to play +dashingly, rapidly, as was her custom when excited. She did not know +that Richard was listening to her, much less watching her, as he lay in +the shadow, wondering what that letter contained, and wishing so much +that he knew. Ethelyn was tired that night, and after the first heat of +her excitement had been thrown off in a spirited schottische, she closed +her piano, and coming to the couch where Richard was lying, sat down by +his side, and after waiting a moment in silence, asked "of what he was +thinking." + +There was something peculiar in the tone of her voice--something almost +beseeching, as if she either wanted sympathy, or encouragement for the +performance of some good act. But Richard did not so understand her. He +was, to tell the truth, a very little cross, as men, and women, too, are +apt to be when tired with sight-seeing and dissipation. He had been away +from his business three whole weeks, traveling with a party for not one +member of which, with the exception of his wife, Melinda, Marcia, and +Ella, did he care a straw. + +Hotel life at St. Paul he regarded as a bore, second only to life at +Saratoga. The falls of Minnehaha "was a very pretty little stream," he +thought, but what people could see about it go into such ecstasies as +Ethelyn, and even Melinda did, he could not tell. Perhaps if Harry +Clifford had not formed a part of every scene where Ethelyn was the +prominent figure, he might have judged differently. But Harry had been +greatly in his way, and Richard did not like it any more than he liked +Ethelyn's flirting so much with him, and leaving him, her husband, to +look about for himself. He had shown, too, that he did not like it to +Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus who probably thought him a bear, as +perhaps he was. On the whole, Richard was very uncomfortable in his +mind, and Aunt Van Buren's letter did not tend in the least to improve +his temper; so when Ethelyn asked him of what he was thinking, and +accompanied her question with a stroke of her hand upon his hair, he +answered her, "Nothing much, except that I am tired and sleepy." + +The touch upon his hair he had felt to his finger tips, for Ethelyn +seldom caressed him even as much as this; but he was in too moody a +frame of mind to respond as he would once have done. His manner was not +very encouraging, but, as if she had nerved herself to some painful +duty, Ethelyn persisted, and said to him next: "You have not seen Aunt +Van Buren's letter. Shall I read you what she says?" + +Every nerve in Richard's body had been quivering with curiosity to see +that letter, but now, when the coveted privilege was within his reach, +he refused it; and, little dreaming of all he was throwing aside, +answered indifferently: "No, I don't know that I care to hear it. I +hardly think it will pay. Where are they now?" + +"At Saratoga," Ethelyn replied; but her voice was not the same which had +addressed Richard first; there was a coldness, a constraint in it now, +as if her good resolution had been thrown back upon her and frozen up +the impulse prompting her to the right. + +Richard had had his chance with Ethelyn and lost it. But he did not know +it, or guess how sorry and disappointed she was when at last she left +him and retired to her sleeping-room. There was a window open in the +parlor, and as the wind was rising with a sound of rain, Richard went to +close it ere following his wife. The window was near to the piano and as +he shut it something rattled at his feet. It was the crumpled letter, +which Ethelyn had accidentally drawn from her dress pocket with the +handkerchief she held in her hand when she sat down by Richard. He knew +it was that letter, and his first thought was to carry it to Ethelyn; +then, as he remembered her offer to read it to him, he said, "Surely +there can be no harm in reading it for myself. A man has a right to know +what is in a letter to his wife." + +Thus reasoning, he sat down by the side light as far away from the +bedroom door as possible and commenced Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letter. They +were stopping at the United States, and there was nothing particular at +first, except her usual remarks of the people and what they wore; but on +the third page Richard's eye caught Frank's name, and skipping all else, +leaped eagerly forward to what the writer was saying of her son. His +conduct evidently did not please his mother; neither did the conduct of +Nettie, who was too insipid for anything, the lady wrote, adding that +she was not half so bright and pretty as when she was first married, but +had the headache and kept her own room most of the time, and was looking +so faded and worn that Frank was really ashamed of her. + +"You know how he likes brilliant, sparkling girls," she wrote, "and of +course he has no patience with Nettie's fancied ailments. I can't say +that I altogether sympathize with her myself; and, dear Ethie, I must +acknowledge that it has more than once occurred to me that I did very +wrong to meddle with Frank's first love affair. He would be far happier +now if it had been suffered to go on, for I suspect he has never +entirely gotten over it; but it is too late now for regrets. Nettie is +his wife, and he must make the best of it." + +Then followed what seemed the secret of the Van Buren discomfort. The +bank in which most of Nettie's fortune was deposited had failed, leaving +her with only the scanty income of five hundred dollars a year, a sum +not sufficient to buy clothes, Mrs. Van Buren said. But Richard did not +notice this--his mind was only intent upon Frank's first love affair, +which ought to have gone on. He did not ask himself whether, in case it +had gone on, Ethelyn would have been there, so near to him that her soft +breathing came distinctly to his ear. He knew she would not; there had +been something between her and Frank Van Buren, he was convinced beyond +a doubt, and the fiercest pang he had ever known was that which came to +him when he sat with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letter in his hand, wondering +why Ethie had withheld the knowledge of it from him, and if she had +outlived the love which her aunt regretted as having come to naught. +Then, as the more generous part of his nature began to seek excuses for +her, he asked himself why she offered to read the letter if she had +really been concerned in Frank's first love affair, and hope whispered +that possibly she was not the heroine of that romance. There was comfort +in that thought: and Richard would have been comforted if jealousy had +not suggested how easy it was for her to skip the part relating to +Nettie and Frank, and thus leave him as much in the dark as ever. Yes, +that was undoubtedly her intention. While seeming to be so open and +honest, she would have deceived him all the more. This was what Richard +decided, and his heart grew very hard against the young wife, who looked +so innocent and pretty in her quiet sleep, when at last he sought his +pillow and lay down by her side. + +He was very moody and silent for days after that, and even his clients +detected an irritability in his manner which they had never seen before. +"There was nothing ailed him," he said to Ethelyn, when she asked what +was the matter, and accused him of being positively cross. She was very +gay; Camden society suited her; and as the season advanced, and the +festivities grew more and more frequent, she was seldom at home more +than one or two evenings in the week, while the day was given either to +the arrangement of dress or taking of necessary rest, so that her +husband saw comparatively little of her, except for the moment when she +always came to him with hood and white cloak in hand to ask him how she +looked, before going to the carriage waiting at the door. Never in her +girlish days had she been so beautiful as she was now, but Richard +seldom told her so, though he felt the magic influence of her brilliant +beauty, and did not wonder that she was the reigning belle. He seldom +accompanied her himself. Parties, and receptions, and concerts, were +bores, he said; and at first he had raised objections to her going +without him. But after motherly Mrs. Harris, who boarded in the next +block, and was never happier than when chaperoning someone, offered to +see to her and take her under the same wing which had sheltered six +fine and now well-married daughters, Richard made no further objections. +He did not wish to be thought a domestic tyrant; he did not wish to seem +jealous, and so he would wrap Ethie's cloak around her, and taking her +himself to Mrs. Harris' carriage, would give that lady sundry charges +concerning her, bidding her see that she did not dance till wholly +wearied out, and asking her to bring her home earlier than the previous +night. Then, returning to his solitary rooms, he would sit nursing the +demon which might so easily have been thrust aside. Ethie was not +insensible to his kindness in allowing her to follow the bent of her own +inclinations, even when it was so contrary to his own, and for his sake +she did many things she might not otherwise have done. She snubbed Harry +Clifford and the whole set of dandies like him, so that, though they +danced, and talked, and laughed with her, they never crossed a certain +line of propriety which she had drawn between them. She was very +circumspect; she tried at first in various ways to atone to Richard for +her long absence from him, telling him whatever she thought would +interest him, and sometimes, when she found him waiting for her, and +looking so tired and sleepy, playfully chiding him for sitting up for +her, and telling him that though it was kind in him to do so, she +preferred that he should not. This was early in the season; but after +the day when Mrs. Markham, senior, came over from Olney to spend the +day, and "blow Richard's wife up," as she expressed it, everything was +changed, and Ethelyn stayed out as late as she liked without any +concessions to Richard. Mrs. Markham, senior, had heard strange stories +of Ethelyn's proceedings--"going to parties night after night, with her +dress shamefully low, and going to plays and concerts bareheaded, with +flowers and streamers in her hair, besides wearing a mask, and +pretending she was Queen Hortense." + +"A pretty critter to be," Mrs. Markham had said to the kind neighbor who +had returned from Camden and was giving her the particulars in full of +Ethelyn's misdoings. "Yes, a pretty critter to be! If I was goin' to +turn myself into somebody else I'd take a decent woman. I wonder at +Richard's lettin' her; but, law! he is so blind and she so headstrong!" + +And the good woman groaned over this proof of depravity as she +questioned her visitor further with regard to Ethie's departures +from duty. + +"And he don't go with her much, you say," she continued, feeling more +aggrieved than ever when she heard that on the occasion of Ethie's +personating Hortense, Richard had also appeared as a knight of the +sixteenth century, and borne his part so well that Ethelyn herself did +not recognize him until the mask was removed. + +Mrs. Markham could not suffer such high-handed wickedness to go +unrebuked, and taking as a peace offering, in case matters assumed a +serious aspect, a pot of gooseberry jam and a ball of head cheese, she +started for Camden the very next day. + +Ethelyn did not expect her, but she received her kindly, and knowing how +she hated a public table, had dinner served in her own room, and then, +without showing the least impatience, waited a full hour for Richard to +come in from the court-house, where an important suit was pending. Mrs. +Markham was to return to Olney that night, and as there was no time to +lose, she brought the conversation round to the "stories" she had heard, +and little by little laid on the lash till Ethelyn's temper was roused, +and she asked her mother-in-law to say out what she had to say at once, +and not skirt round it so long. Then came the whole list of misdemeanors +which Mrs. Markham thought "perfectly ridiculous," asking her son how he +"could put up with such work." + +Richard wisely forbore taking either side; nor was it necessary that he +should speak for Ethie. She was fully competent to fight her own battle, +and she fought it with a will, telling her mother-in-law that she should +attend as many parties as she pleased and wear as many masks. She did +not give up her liberty of action when she married. She was young yet, +and should enjoy herself if she chose, and in her own way. + +This was all the satisfaction Mrs. Markham could get, and supremely +pitying "her poor boy," whom she mentally decided was "henpecked," she +took the cars back to Olney, saying to Richard, who accompanied her to +the train, "I am sorry for you from the bottom of my heart. It would be +better if you had stayed with me." + +Richard liked his mother's good opinion, but as he walked back to the +hotel he could not help feeling that a mother's interference between man +and wife was never very discreet, and he wished the good woman had +stayed at home. If he had said so to Ethelyn, when on his return to his +rooms he found her weeping passionately, there might have come a better +understanding between them, and she probably would have stayed with him +that evening instead of attending the whist party given by Mrs. Miller. +But he had fully determined to keep silent, and when Ethelyn asked if +she was often to be subjected to such insults, he did not reply. He went +with her, however, to Mrs. Miller's, and knowing nothing of cards, +almost fell asleep while waiting for her, and playing backgammon with +another fellow-sufferer, who had married a young wife and was there +on duty. + +Mrs. Markham, senior, did not go to Camden again, and when Christmas +came, and with it an invitation for Richard and his wife to dine at the +farmhouse on the turkey Andy had fattened for the occasion, Ethelyn +peremptorily declined; and as Richard would not go without her, Mrs. +Jones and Melinda had their seats at table, and Mrs. Markham wished for +the hundredth time that Richard's preference had fallen on the latter +young lady instead of "that headstrong piece who would be his ruin." + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE CRISIS + +It was the Tuesday before Lent. The gay season was drawing to a close, +for Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Miller, who led the fashionable world of Camden +before Ethelyn's introduction to it, were the highest kind of +church-women, and while neglecting the weightier matters of the law +were strict to bring their tithes of mint, and anise, and cummin. They +were going to wear sackcloth and ashes for forty days and stay at home, +unless, as Mrs. Miller said to Ethelyn, they met occasionally in each +other's house for a quiet game of whist or euchre. There could be no +harm in that, particularly if they abstained on Fridays, as of course +they should. Mr. Bartow himself could not find fault with so simple a +recreation, even if he did try so hard to show what his views were with +regard to keeping the Lenten fast. Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Howard intended +to be very regular at the morning service, hoping that the odor of +sanctity with which they would thus be permeated would in some way atone +for the absence of genuine heart-religion and last them for the +remainder of the year. First, however, and as a means of helping her in +her intended seclusion from the world, Mrs. Howard was to give the +largest party of the season--a sort of carnival, from which the revelers +were expected to retire the moment the silvery-voiced clock on her +mantel struck the hour of twelve and ushered in the dawn of Lent. It was +to be a masquerade, for the Camdenites had almost gone mad on that +fashion which Ethelyn had the credit of introducing into their midst; +that is, she was the first to propose a masquerade early in the season, +telling what she had seen and giving the benefit of her larger +experience in such matters. + +It was a fashion which took wonderfully with the people, for the +curiosity and interest attaching to the characters was just suited to +the restless, eager temperament of the Camdenites, and they entered into +it with heart and soul, ransacking boxes and barrels and worm-eaten +chests, scouring the country far and near and even sending as far as +Davenport and Rock Island for the necessary costumes. Andy himself had +been asked by Harry Clifford to lend his Sunday suit, that young scamp +intending to personate some raw New England Yankee; and that was how +Mrs. Markham, senior, first came to hear of the proceedings which, to +one of her rigid views, savored strongly of the pit, especially after +she heard one of the parties described by an eye-witness, who mentioned +among other characters his Satanic Majesty, as enacted by Harry +Clifford, who would fain have appeared next in Andy's clothes! No wonder +the good woman was enraged and took the next train for Camden, giving +her son and daughter a piece of her mind and winding up her discourse +with: "And they say you have the very de'il himself, with hoofs and +horns. I think you might have left him alone, for I reckon he was there +fast enough if you could not see him." + +Ethelyn had not approved of Harry Clifford's choice, and with others had +denounced his taste as bad; but she enjoyed the masquerades generally, +and for this last and most elaborate of all she had made great +preparations. Richard had not opposed her joining it, but he did wince a +little when he found she was to personate Mary, Queen of Scots, wishing +that she would not always select persons of questionable character, like +Hortense and Scotland's ill-fated queen. But Ethie had decided upon her +role without consulting him, and so he walked over piles of +ancient-looking finery and got his boots tangled in the golden wig which +Ethie had hunted up, and told her he should be glad when it was over, +and wished mentally that it might be Lent the year around, and was +persuaded into saying he would go to the party himself, not as a masker, +but in his own proper person as Richard Markham, the grave and dignified +Judge whom the people respected so highly. Ethie was glad he was going. +She would always rather have him with her, if possible; and the genuine +satisfaction she evinced when he said he would accompany her did much +toward reconciling him to the affair about which so much was being said +in Camden. When, however, he came in to supper on Tuesday night +complaining of a severe headache, and saying he wished he could remain +quietly at home, inasmuch as he was to start early the next morning for +St. Louis, where he had business to transact, Ethelyn said to him: "If +you are sick, of course I will not compel you to go. Mr. and Mrs. Miller +will look after me." + +She meant this kindly, for she saw that he was looking pale and +haggard, and Richard took it so then; but afterward her words became so +many scorpions stinging him into fury. It would seem as if every box, +and drawer, and bag, had been overturned, and the contents brought to +light, for ribbons, and flowers, and laces were scattered about in wild +confusion, while on the carpet, near the drawer where Ethie's little +mother-of-pearl box was kept, lay a tiny note, which had inadvertently +been dropped from its hiding-place when Ethie opened the box in quest of +something which was wanted for Queen Mary's outfit. Richard saw the note +just as he saw the other litter, but paid no attention to it then, and +after supper was over went out as usual for his evening paper. + +Gathered about the door of the office was a group of young men, all his +acquaintances, and all talking together upon some theme which seemed to +excite them greatly. + +"Too bad to make such a fool of himself," one said, while another added, +"He ought to have known better than to order champagne, when he knows +what a beast a few drops will make of him, and he had a first-class +character for to-night, too." + +Richard was never greatly interested in gossip of any kind, but +something impelled him now to ask of whom they were talking. + +"Of Hal Clifford," was the reply. "A friend of his came last night to +Moore's Hotel, where Hal boards, and wishing to do the generous host Hal +ordered champagne and claret for supper, in his room, and got drunker +than a fool. It always lasts him a day or two, so he is gone up for +to-night." + +Richard had no time to waste in words upon Harry Clifford, and after +hearing the story started for his boarding-place. His route lay past the +Moore House and as he reached it the door opened and Harry came reeling +down the steps. He was just drunk enough to be sociable, and spying +Richard by the light of the lamppost he hurried to his side, and taking +his arm in the confidential manner he always assumed when intoxicated, +he began talking in a half-foolish, half-rational way, very disgusting +to Richard, who tried vainly to shake him off. Harry was not to be +baffled, and with a stammer and a hiccough he began: "I say--a--now, old +chap, don't be so fast to get rid of a cove. Wife waiting for you, I +suppose. Deuced fine woman. Envy you; I do, 'pon honor, and so does +somebody else. D'ye know her old beau that she used to be engaged to, +is here?" + +"Who? What do you mean?" Richard asked, turning sharply upon his +companion, who continued: + +"Why, Frank Van Buren. Cousin, you know; was chum with me in college, so +I know all about it. Don't you remember my putting it to her that first +time I met her at Mrs. Miller's? Mistrusted by her blushing there was +more than I supposed; and so there was. He told me all about it +last night." + +Richard did not try now to shake off his comrade. There seemed to be a +spell upon him, and although he longed to thrash the impudent young man, +saying such things of Ethelyn, he held his peace, with the exception of +the single question: + +"Frank Van Buren in town? Where is he stopping?" + +"Up at Moore's. Came last night; and between you and me, Judge, I took a +little too much. Makes my head feel like a tub. Sorry for Frank. He and +his wife ain't congenial, besides she's lost her money that Frank +married her for. Serves him right for being so mean to Mrs. Markham, and +I told him so when he opened his heart clear to the breast-bone and told +me all about it; how his mother broke it up about the time you were down +there; and, Markham, you don't mind my telling you, as an old friend, +how he said she went to the altar with a heavier heart than she would +have carried to her coffin. Quite a hifalutin speech for Frank, who used +to be at the foot of his class." + +Richard grew faint and cold as death, feeling one moment an impulse to +knock young Clifford down, and the next a burning desire to hear the +worst, if, indeed, he had not already heard it. He would not question +Harry; but he would listen to all he had to say, and so kept quiet, +waiting for the rest. Harry was just enough beside himself to take a +malicious kind of satisfaction in inflicting pain upon Richard, as he +was sure he was doing. He knew Judge Markham despised him, and though, +when sober, he would have shrunk from so mean a revenge, he could say +anything now, and so went on: + +"She has not seen him yet, but will to-night, for he is going. I got him +invited as my friend. She knows he is here. He sent her a note this +morning. Pity I can't go, too; but I can't, for you see, I know how +drunk I am. Here we part, do we?" and Harry loosed his hold of Richard's +arm as they reached the corner of the street. + +Wholly stunned by what he had heard, Richard kept on his way, but not +toward the Stafford House. He could not face Ethelyn yet. He was not +determined what course to pursue, and so he wandered on in the darkness, +through street after street, while the wintry wind blew cold and chill +about him; but he did not heed it, or feel the keen, cutting blast. His +blood was at a boiling heat, and the great drops of sweat were rolling +down his face, as, with head and shoulders bent like an aged man, he +walked rapidly on, revolving all he had heard, and occasionally +whispering to himself, "She carried a heavier heart to the altar than +she would have taken to her coffin." + +"Yes, I believe it now. I remember how white she was, and how her hand +trembled when I took it in mine. Oh! Ethie, Ethie, I did not deserve +this from you." + +Resentment--hard, unrelenting resentment--was beginning to take the +place of the deep pain he had at first experienced, and it needed but +the sight of Mrs. Miller's windows, blazing with light, to change the +usually quiet, undemonstrative man into a demon. + +"She is to meet him here to-night, it seems, and perhaps talk over her +blighted life. Never, no, never, so long as bolts and bars have the +power to hold her. She shall not disgrace herself, for with all her +faults she is my wife, and I have loved her so much. Oh, Ethie, I love +you still," and the wretched man leaned against a post as he sent forth +this despairing cry for the Ethie who he felt was lost forever. + +Every little incident which could tend to prove that what Harry had said +was true came to his mind; the conversation overheard in Washington +between Frank and Melinda, Ethelyn's unfinished letter, to which she had +never referred, and the clause in Aunt Van Buren's letter relating to +Frank's first love affair. He could not any longer put the truth aside +with specious arguments, for it stood out in all its naked deformity, +making him cower and shrink before it. It was a very different man who +went up the stairs of the Stafford House to room No--from the man who +two hours before had gone down them, and Ethelyn would hardly have known +him for her husband had she been there to meet him. Wondering much at +his long absence, she had at last gone on with her dressing, and then, +as he still did not appear, she had stepped for a moment to the room of +a friend, who was sick, and had asked to see her when she was ready. +Richard saw that she was out, and sinking into the first chair, his eyes +fell upon the note lying near the bureau drawer. The room had partially +been put to rights, but this had escaped Ethie's notice, and Richard +picked it up, glowering with rage, and almost foaming at the mouth when, +in the single word, "Ethie," on the back, he recognized Frank Van +Buren's writing! + +He had it then--the note which his rival had sent, apprising his wife of +his presence in town, and he would read it, too. He had no scruples +about that, and his fingers tingled to his elbows as he opened the note, +never observing how yellow and worn it looked, or that it was not dated. +He had no doubt of its identity, and his face grew purple with passion +as he read: + +"MY OWN DARLING ETHIE: Don't fail to be there to-night, and, if +possible, leave the 'old maid' at home, and come alone. We shall have so +much better time. Your devoted, + +"FRANK." + +Words could not express Richard's emotions as he held that note in his +shaking hand, and gazed at the words, "My own darling Ethie." Quiet men +like Richard Markham are terrible when roused; and Richard was terrible +in his anger, as he sat like a block of stone, contemplating the proof +of his wife's unfaithfulness. He called it by that hard name, grating +his teeth together as he thought of her going by appointment to meet +Frank Van Buren, who had called him an "old maid," and planned to have +him left behind if possible. Then, as he recalled what Ethelyn had said +about his remaining at home if he were ill, he leaped to his feet, and +an oath quivered on his lips at her duplicity. + +"False in every respect," he muttered, "and I trusted her so much." + +It never occurred to him that the note was a strange one for what he +imagined it to portend, Frank merely charging Ethelyn to be present at +the party, without even announcing his arrival or giving any explanation +for his sudden appearance in Camden. Richard was too much excited to +reason upon anything, and stood leaning upon the piano, with his livid +face turned toward the door, when Ethie made her appearance, looking +very pretty and piquant in her Mary Stuart guise. She held her mask in +her hand, but when she caught a glimpse of him she hastily adjusted it, +and springing forward, "Where were you so long? I began to think you +were never coming. We shall be among the very last. How do I look as +Mary? Am I pretty enough to make an old maid like Elizabeth jealous +of me?" + +Had anything been wanting to perfect Richard's wrath, that allusion to +an "old maid" would have done it. It was the drop in the brimming +bucket, and Richard exploded at once, hurling such language at Ethelyn's +head that, white and scared, and panting for breath, she put up both her +hands to ward off the storm, and asked what it all meant. Richard had +locked the door, the only entrance to their room, and stooping over +Ethelyn he hissed into her ear his meaning, telling her all he had heard +from Harry Clifford, and asking if it were true. Ere Ethelyn could reply +there was a knock at the door, and a servant's voice called out, +"Carriage waiting for Mrs. Markham." + +It was the carriage sent by Mrs. Miller for Ethelyn, and quick as +thought Richard stepped to the door, and unlocking it, said hastily, +"Give Mrs. Miller Mrs. Markham's compliments, and say she cannot be +present to-night. Tell her she regrets it exceedingly"; and Richard's +voice was very bitter and sarcastic in its tone as he closed the door +upon the astonished waiter; and relocking it, he returned again to +Ethelyn, who had risen to her feet, and with a different expression upon +her face from the white, scared look it had worn at first, stood +confronting him fearlessly now, and even defiantly, for this bold step +had roused her from her apathy; and in a fierce whisper, which, +nevertheless, was as clear and distinct as the loudest tones could have +been; she asked, "Am I to understand that I am a prisoner here in my own +room? It is your intention to keep me from the party?" + +"It is," and with his back against the door, as if doubly to bar her +egress, Richard regarded her gloomily, while he charged her with the +special reason why she wished to go. "It was to meet Frank Van Buren, +your former lover," he said, asking if she could deny it. + +For a moment Ethelyn stood irresolute, mentally going over all that +would be said if she stayed from Mrs. Miller's, where she was to be the +prominent one, and calculating her strength to stem the tide of wonder +and conjecture as to her absence which was sure to follow. She could not +meet it, she decided; she must go, at all hazards, even if, to achieve +her purpose, she made some concessions to the man who had denounced her +so harshly, and used such language as is not easily forgotten. + +"Richard," she began, and her eyes had a strange glittering light in +them, "with regard to the past I shall say nothing now, but that Frank +was here in Camden I had not the slightest knowledge till I heard it +from you. Believe me, Richard, and let me go. My absence will seem very +strange, and cause a great deal of remark. Another time I may explain +what would best have been explained before." + +The light in her eyes was softer now, and her voice full of entreaty; +for Ethie felt almost as if pleading for her life. But she might as well +have talked to the wall for any good results it produced. Richard was +moved from his lofty height of wrath and vindictiveness, but he did not +believe her. How could he, with the fatal note in his hand, and the +memory of the degrading epithet it contained, and which Ethie, too, had +used against him, still ringing in his ears? The virgin queen of England +was never more stony and inexorable with regard to the unfortunate Mary +than was Richard toward his wife, and the expression of his face froze +all the better emotions rising in Ethie's heart, as she felt that in a +measure she was reaping a just retribution for her long deception. + +"I do not believe you, madam," Richard said; "and if I were inclined to +do so, this note, which Harry said was sent to you, and which I found +upon the floor, would tell me better," and tossing into her lap the +soiled bit of paper, accomplishing so much harm, he continued: "There is +my proof; that in conjunction with the name of opprobrium, which you +remember you insinuatingly used, asking if you were pretty enough to +make the old maid, Elizabeth, jealous. You are pretty enough, madam; but +it is an accursed beauty which would attract to itself men of Frank Van +Buren's stamp." + +Richard could not get over that epithet. He would have forgiven the +other sin almost as soon as this, and his face was very dark and stern +as he watched Ethelyn reading the little note. She knew in a moment what +it was, and the suddenness of its appearance before her turned her white +and faint. It brought back so vividly the day when she received it--six +or seven years ago, the lazy September day, when the Chicopee hills wore +the purplish light of early autumn, and the air was full of golden +sunshine. It was a few weeks after the childish betrothal among the +huckleberry hills, and Frank had come up to spend a week with a boy +friend of his, who lived across the river. There was to be an exhibition +in the white schoolhouse, in the river district, and Frank had written, +urging her to come, and asking that Aunt Barbara should be left +behind--"the old maid," he sometimes called her to his cousin, thinking +it sounded smart and manlike. Aunt Barbara had stayed at home from +choice, sending her niece in charge of Susie Granger's mother; but the +long walk home, after the exercises were over, the lingering, loitering +walk across the causeway, where the fog was riding so damply, the +stopping on the bridge, and looking down into the deep, dark water, +where the stars were reflected so brightly, the slow climbing of the +depot hill, and the long talk by the gate beneath the elms, whose long +arms began to drop great drops of dew on Ethie's head ere the interview +was ended--all this had been experienced with Frank, whose arm was +around the young girl's waist, and whose hand was clasping hers, as with +boyish pride and a laughable effort to seem manly, he talked of "our +engagement," and even leaped forward in fancy to the time "when we +are married." + +All this came back to Ethelyn, and she seemed to feel again the breath +of the September night, and see through the clustering branches the +flashing light waiting for her in the dear old room in Chicopee. She +forgot for a moment the stern, dark face watching her so jealously, and +so hardening toward her as he saw how pale she grew, and heard her +exclamation of surprise when she first recognized the note, and +remembered that in turning over the contents of the ebony box she must +have dropped it upon the floor. + +"Do you still deny all knowledge of Frank's presence in town?" Richard +asked, and his voice recalled Ethelyn from the long ago back to the +present time. + +He was waiting for her answer; but Ethie had none to give. Her hot, +imperious temper was in the ascendant now. She was a prisoner for the +night; her own husband was the jailer, who she felt was unjust to her, +and she would make no explanations, at least not then. He might think +what he liked or draw any inference he pleased from her silence. And so +she made him no reply, except to crush into her pocket the paper which +she should have burned on that morning when, crouching on the +hearthstone at home, she destroyed all other traces of a past which +ought never to have been. He could not make her speak, and his words of +reproach might as well have been given to the winds as to that cold, +statue-like woman, who mechanically laid aside the fanciful costume in +which she was arrayed, doing everything with a deliberation and +coolness more exasperating to Richard than open defiance would have +been. A second knock at the door, and another servant appeared, saying, +apologetically, that the note he held in his hand had been left at the +office for Mrs. Markham early in the morning, but forgotten till now. + +"Give it to me, if you please. It is mine," Ethelyn said, and something +in her voice and manner kept Richard quiet while she took the offered +note and went back to the chandelier where, with a compressed lip and +burning cheek, she read the genuine note sent by Frank. + + * * * * * + +"Dear cousin," he wrote, "business for a Boston firm has brought me to +Camden, where they have had debt standing out. Through the influence of +Harry Clifford, who was a college chum of mine, I have an invitation to +Mrs. Miller's, where I hope to meet yourself and husband. I should call +to-day, but I know just how busy you must be with your costume, which I +suppose you wish to keep incog., even from me. I shall know you, though, +at once. See if I do not. Wishing to be remembered to the Judge, I am, +yours truly, + +"FRANK VAN BUREN." + + * * * * * + +This is what Ethelyn read, knowing, as she read, that it would make +matters right between herself and husband--at least so far as an +appointment was concerned; but she would not show it to him then. She +was too angry, too much aggrieved, to admit of any attempts on her part +for a reconciliation; so she put that note with the other, and then went +quietly on arranging her things in their proper places. Then, when this +was done, she sat down by the window and peering out into the wintry +darkness watched the many lights and moving figures in Mrs. Miller's +house, which could be distinctly seen from the hotel. Richard still +intended to take the early train for St. Louis, and so he retired at +last, but Ethelyn sat where she was until the carriages taking the +revelers home had passed, and the lights were out in Mrs. Miller's +windows, and the bell of St. John's had ushered in the second hour of +the fast. Not then did she join her husband, but lay down upon the +sofa, where he found her when at six o'clock he came from his broken, +feverish sleep, to say his parting words. He had contemplated the +propriety of giving up his trip and remaining at home while Frank Van +Buren was in town, but this he could not very well do. + +"I will leave her to herself," he thought, "trusting that what has +passed will deter her from any further improprieties." + +Something like this he said to her when, in the gray dawn, he stood +before her, equipped for his journey; but Ethelyn did not respond, and +with her cold, dead silence weighing more upon him than bitter +reproaches would have done, Richard left her and took his way through +the chill, snowy morning to the depot, little dreaming as he went of +when and how he and Ethelyn would meet again. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE RESULT + +The bell in the tower of St. John's pealed forth its summons to the +house of prayer, and one by one, singly or in groups, the worshipers +went up to keep this first solemn day of Lent--true, sincere worshipers, +many of them, who came to weep, and pray, and acknowledge their past +misdeeds; while others came from habit, and because it was the fashion, +their pale, haggard faces and heavy eyes telling plainly of the last +night's dissipation, which had continued till the first hour of the +morning. Mrs. Howard was there, and Mrs. Miller, too, both glancing +inquiringly at Judge Markham's pew and then wonderingly at each other. +Ethelyn was not there. She had breakfast in her room after Richard left, +and when that was over had gone mechanically to her closet and drawers +and commenced sorting her clothes--hanging away the gayest, most +expensive dresses, and laying across chairs and upon the bed the more +serviceable ones, such as might properly be worn on ordinary occasions. +Why she did this she had not yet clearly defined, and when, after her +wardrobe was divided, and she brought out the heavy traveling trunk, +made for her in Boston, she was not quite certain what she meant to do. +She had been sorely wounded, and, as she thought, without just cause. +She knew she was to blame for not having told Richard of Frank before +she became his wife, but of the things with which he had so severely +charged her she was guiltless, and every nerve quivered and throbbed +with passion and resentment as she recalled the scene of the previous +night, going over again with the cruel words Richard had uttered in his +jealous anger, and then burning with shame and indignation as she +thought of being locked in her room, and kept from attending the +masquerade, where her absence must have excited so much wonder. + +"What did they say, and what can I tell them when we meet?" she thought, +just as Mrs. Howard's voice was heard in the upper hall. + +Church was out, and several of the more intimate of Ethie's friends had +stopped at the Stafford House to inquire into so strange a proceeding. + +"Come to see if you were sick, or what, that you disappointed me so. I +was vexed enough, I assure you," Mrs. Miller said, looking curiously +enough at Ethelyn, whose face was white as ashes, save where a crimson +spot burned on her cheeks, and whose lips were firmly pressed together. + +She did not know what to say, and when pressed to give a reason +stammered out: + +"Judge Markham wished me to stay with him, and as an obedient wife I +stayed." + +With ready tact the ladies saw that something was wrong, and kindly +forbore further remarks, except to tell what a grand affair it was, and +how much she was missed. But Ethie detected in their manner an unspoken +sympathy or pity, which exasperated and humiliated her more than open +words would have done. Heretofore she had been the envy of the entire +set, and it wounded her deeply to fall from that pedestal to the level +of ordinary people. She was no longer the young wife, whose husband +petted and humored her so much, but the wife whose husband was jealous +and tyrannical, and even abusive, where language was concerned, and she +could not rid herself of the suspicion that her lady friends knew more +than they professed to know, and was heartily glad when they took their +departure and left her again alone. + +There was another knock at her door, and a servant handed in a card +bearing Frank Van Buren's name. He was in the office, the waiter said. +Should he show the gentleman up? + +Ethie hesitated a moment, and then taking her pencil wrote upon the back +of the card, "I am too busy to see you to-day." + +The servant left the room, and Ethelyn went back to where her clothes +were scattered about and the great trunk was standing open. She did not +care to see Frank Van Buren now. He was the direct cause of every sorrow +she had known, and bitter feelings were swelling in her heart in place +of the softer emotions she had once experienced toward him. He was +nothing to her now. Slowly but gradually the flame had been dying out, +until Richard had nothing to dread from him, and he was never nearer to +winning his wife's entire devotion than on that fatal night when, by his +jealousy and rashness, he built so broad a gulf between them. + +"It is impossible that we should ever live together again, after all +that has transpired," Ethelyn said, as she stood beside her trunk and +involuntarily folded up a garment and laid it on the bottom. + +She had reached a decision, and her face grew whiter, stonier, as she +made haste to act upon it. Every article which Richard had bought was +laid aside and put away in the drawers and bureaus she would never see +again. These were not numerous, for her bridal trousseau had been so +extensive that but few demands had been made upon her husband's purse +for dress, and Ethelyn felt glad that it was so. It did not take long to +put them away, or very long to pack the trunk, and then Ethie sat down +to think "what next?" + +Only a few days before a Mr. Bailey, who boarded in the house, and +whose daughter was taking music lessons, had tried to purchase her +piano, telling her that so fine a player as herself ought to have one +with a longer keyboard. Ethie had thought so herself, wishing sometimes +that she had a larger instrument, which was better adapted to the +present style of music, but she could not bring herself to part with +Aunt Barbara's present. Now, however, the case was different. Money she +must have, and as she scorned to take it from the bank, where her check +was always honored, she would sell her piano. It was hers to do with as +she liked, and when Mr. Bailey passed her door at dinner time he was +asked to step in and reconsider the matter. She had changed her mind, +she said. She was willing to sell it now; there was such a superb affair +down at Shumway's Music Room. Had Mr. Bailey seen it? + +Ethie's voice was not quite steady, for she was not accustomed to +deception of this kind, and the first step was hard. But Mr. Bailey was +not at all suspicious, and concluded the bargain at once; and two hours +later Ethie's piano was standing between the south windows of Mrs. +Bailey's apartment, and Ethie, in her own room, was counting a roll of +three hundred dollars, and deciding how far it would go. + +"There's my pearls," she said, "if worst comes to worst I can sell them +and my diamond ring." + +She did not mean Daisy's ring. She would not barter that, or take it +with her, either. Daisy never intended it for a runaway wife, and +Ethelyn must leave it where Richard would find it when he came back and +found her gone. And then as Ethie in her anger exulted over Richard's +surprise and possible sorrow when he found himself deserted, some demon +from the pit whispered in her ear, "Give him back the wedding ring. +Leave that for him, too, and so remove every tie which once bound you +to him." + +It was hard to put off Daisy's ring, and Ethelyn paused and reflected as +the clear stone seemed to reflect the fair, innocent face hanging on the +walls at Olney. But Ethie argued that she had no right to it, and so the +dead girl's ring was laid aside, and then the trembling fingers +fluttered about the plain gold band bearing the date of her marriage. +But when she essayed to remove that, too, blood-red circles danced +before her eyes, and such a terror seized her that her hands dropped +powerless into her lap and the ring remained in its place. + +It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and the cars for Olney left at +seven. She was going that way as far as Milford, where she could take +another route to the East. She would thus throw Richard off the track if +he tried to follow her, and also avoid immediate remark in the hotel. +They would think it quite natural that in her husband's absence she +should go for a few days to Olney, she reasoned; and they did think so +in the office when at six she asked that her trunk be taken to the +station. Her rooms were all in order. She had made them so herself, +sweeping and dusting, and even leaving Richard's dressing-gown and +slippers by the chair where he usually sat the evenings he was at home. +The vacancy left by the piano would strike him at once, she knew, and so +she moved a tall bookcase up there, and put a sofa where the bookcase +had been, and a large chair where the sofa had been, and pushed the +center table into the large chair's place; and then her work was +done--the last she would ever do in that room, or for Richard either. +The last of everything is sad, and Ethie felt a thrill of pain as she +whispered to herself, "It is the last, last time," and then thought of +the outer world which lay all unknown before her. She would not allow +herself to think, lest her courage should give way, and tried, by +dwelling continually upon Richard's cruel words, to steel her heart +against the good impulses which were beginning to suggest that what she +was doing might not, after all, be the wisest course. What would the +world say?--and dear Aunt Barbara, too? How it would wring her heart +when she heard the end to which her darling had come! And Andy--simple, +conscientious, praying Andy--Ethie's heart came up in her throat when +she thought of him and his grief at her desertion. + +"I will write to Andy," she said. "I will tell him how thoughts of him +almost deterred me from my purpose," and opening her little writing +desk, which Richard gave her at Christmas, she took up her pen and held +it poised a moment, while something said: "Write to Richard, too. Surely +you can do so much for him. You can tell him the truth at last, and let +him know how he misjudged you." + +And so the name which Ethie first wrote down upon the paper was not +"Dear Brother Andy," but simply that of "Richard." + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ETHIE'S LETTERS + +"Stafford House, Feb.--, + +"Five o'clock in the afternoon. + +"RICHARD: I am going away from you forever, and When you recall the +words you spoke to me last night, and the deep humiliation you put upon +me, you will readily understand that I go because we cannot live +together any longer as man and wife. You said things to me, Richard, +which women find hard to forgive, and which they never can forget. I did +not deserve that you should treat me so, for, bad as I may have been in +other respects, I am innocent of the worst thing you alleged against me, +and which seemed to excite you so much. Until I heard it from you, I did +not know Frank Van Buren was within a thousand miles of Camden. The note +from him which I leave with this letter, and which you will remember was +brought to the door by a servant, who said it had been mislaid and +forgotten, will prove that I tell you truly. The other note which you +found, and which must have fallen from the box where I kept it, was +written years ago, when I was almost a little girl, with no thought that +I ever could be the humbled, wretched creature I am now. + +"Let me tell you all about it, Richard--how I happened to be engaged to +Frank, and how wounded and sore and sorry I was when you came the second +time to Chicopee, and asked me to be your wife." + +Then followed the whole story of Ethelyn's first love. Nothing was +concealed, nothing kept back. Even the dreariness of the day when Aunt +Van Buren came up from Boston and broke poor Ethie's heart, was +described and dwelt upon with that particularity which shows how the +lights, and shadows, and sunshine, and storms which mark certain events +in one's history will impress themselves upon one's mind, as parts of +the great joy or sorrow which can never be forgotten. Then she spoke of +meeting Richard, and the train of circumstances which finally led to +their betrothal. + +"I wanted to tell you about Frank that night, on the shore of the pond, +when you told me of Abigail, and twice I made up my mind to do so, but +something rose up to prevent it, and after that it was very hard to +do so." + +She did not tell him how she at first shrank away from his caresses with +a loathing which made her flesh creep, but she confessed that she did +not love him, even when taking the marriage vow. + +"But I meant to be true to you, Richard. I meant to be a good wife, and +never let you know how I felt. You were different from Frank; different +from most men whom I had met, and you did annoy me so at times. You will +tell me I was foolish to lay so much stress on little things, and so, +perhaps, I was; but little things, rather than big, make up the sum of +human happiness, and, besides, I was too young to fully understand how +any amount of talent and brain could atone for absence of culture of +manner. Then, too, I was so disappointed in your home and family. You +know how unlike they are to my own, but you can never know how terrible +it was to me who had formed so different an estimate of them. I suppose +you will say I did not try to assimilate, and perhaps I did not. How +could I, when to be like them was the thing I dreaded most of all? I do +believe they tried to be kind, especially your brothers, and I shall +ever be grateful to them for their attempt to please and interest me +during that dreadful winter I spent alone, with you in Washington. You +did wrong, Richard, not to take me with you, when I wanted so much to +go. I know that, after what happened, you and your mother think you were +fully justified in what you did; but, Richard, you are mistaken. The +very means you took to avert a catastrophe hastened it instead. The +cruel disappointment and terrible homesickness which I endured hastened +our baby's birth, and cost its little life. Had it lived, Richard, I +should have been a better woman from what I am now. It would have been +something for me to love, and oh, my heart did ache so for an object on +which to fasten. I did not love you when I became your wife, but I was +learning to do so. When you came home from Washington I was so glad to +see you, and I used to listen for your step when you went to Olney and +it was time for you to return. Just in proportion as I was drawn toward +you, Frank fell in my estimation, and I wanted to tell you all about it, +and begin anew. I was going to do so in that letter commenced the night +I was taken so ill, and two or three times afterwards I thought I would +do it. Do you remember that night of our return from St. Paul? I found a +letter from Aunt Van Buren, and asked if you would like to hear it. You +seemed so indifferent and amost cross about it, that the good angel left +me, and your chance was lost again. There was something in that letter +about Frank and me--something which would have called forth questions +from you, and I meant to explain if you would let me. Think, Richard. +You will remember the night. You lay upon the sofa, and I sat down +beside you, and smoothed your hair. I was nearer to loving you then than +I ever was before; but you put me off, and the impulse did not come +again--that is, the impulse of confession. A little more consideration +on your part for what you call my airs and high notions would have won +me to you, for I am not insensible to your many sterling virtues, and I +do believe that you did love me once. But all that is over now. I made a +great mistake when I came to you, and perhaps I am making a greater one +in going from you. But I think not. We are better apart, especially +after the indignities of last night. Where I am going it does not +matter to you. Pursuit will be useless, inasmuch as I shall have the +start of a week. Neither do I think you will search for me much. You +will he happier without me, and it is better that I should go. You will +give the accompanying note to Andy. Dear Andy, my heart aches to its +very core when I think of him, and know that his grief for me will be +genuine. I leave you Daisy's ring. I am not worthy to keep that, so I +give it back. I wish I could make you free from me entirely, if that +should be your wish. Perhaps some time you will be, and then when I am +nothing to you save a sad memory, you will think better of me than +you do now. + +"Good-by, Richard. We shall probably never meet again. Good-by. + +"ETHIE." + +She did not stop to read what she had written. There was not time for +that, and taking a fresh sheet, she wrote: + +"DEAR, DARLING ANDY: If all the world were as good, and kind, and true +as you, I should not be writing this letter, with my arrangements made +for flight. Richard will tell you why I go. It would take me too long. I +have been very unhappy here, though none of my wretchedness has been +caused by you. Dear Andy, if I could tell you how much I love you, and +how sorry I am to fall in your opinion, as I surely shall when you hear +what has happened. Do not hate me, Andy, and sometimes when you pray, +remember Ethie, won't you? She needs your prayers so much, for she +cannot pray herself. I do not want to be wholly bad--do not want to be +lost forever; and I have faith that God will hear you. The beautiful +consistency of your everyday life and simple trust, have been powerful +sermons to me, convincing me that there is a reality in the religion you +profess. Go on, Andy, as you have begun, and may the God whom I am not +worthy to name, bless you, and keep you, and give you every possible +good. In fancy I wind my arms around your neck, and kiss your dear, kind +face, as, with scalding tears, I write you good-by. + +"Farewell, Andy, darling Andy, farewell." + +Ethelyn had not wept before, but now, as Andy rose up before her with +the thought that she should see him no more, her tears poured like rain, +and blotted the sheet on which she had written to him. It hurt her more, +if possible, to lose his respect than that of any other person, and for +a half-instant she wavered in the decision. But it was too late now. The +piano was sold and delivered, and if she tarried she had no special +excuse to offer for its sale. She must carry out her plan, even though +it proved the greatest mistake of her life. So the letters were directed +and put, with Daisy's ring, in the little drawer of the bureau, where +Richard would be sure to find them when he came back. Perhaps, as Ethie +put them there, she thought how they might be the means of a +reconciliation; that Richard, after reading her note, would move heaven +and earth to find her, and having done so, would thenceforth be her +willing slave; possibly, too, remembering the harsh things he had so +recently said to her, she exulted a little as she saw him coming back to +his deserted home, and finding his domestic altar laid low in the dust. +But if this was so she gave no sign, and though her face was deathly +pale, her nerves were steady and her voice calm, as she gave orders +concerning her baggage, and then when it was time, turned the key upon +her room, and left it with the clerk, to whom she said: + +"I shall not be back until my husband returns." + +She was going to Olney, of course--going to see his folks, the landlady +said, when she heard Mrs. Markham had gone; and so no wonder was created +among the female boarders, except that Ethelyn had not said good-by to a +single one of them. She was not equal to that. Her great desire was to +escape unseen, and with a veil drawn closely over her face, she sat in +the darkest corner of the ladies' room, waiting impatiently for the +arrival of the train, and glancing furtively at the people around her. +Groups of men were walking up and down upon the platform without, and +among them Frank Van Buren. On his way to the cars he had called again +at the Stafford House, and learned that Mrs. Markham was out. + +"I'll see her when I return," he thought, and so went his way to the +train, which would take him to his next point of destination. + +Never once dreaming how near he was to her, Ethie drew her veil and furs +more closely around her, and turning her face to the frosty window, +gazed drearily out into the wintry darkness as they sped swiftly on. She +hardly knew where she was going or what she could do when she was there. +She was conscious only of the fact that she was breaking away from +scenes and associations which had been so distasteful to her--that she +was leaving a husband who had been abusive to her, and she verily +believed she had just cause for going. The world might not see it so, +perhaps, but she did not care for the world. She was striking out a path +of her own, and with her heart as sore and full of anger as it then was, +she felt able to cope with any difficulty, so that her freedom was +achieved. They were skirting across the prairie now; and the lights of +Olney were in sight. Perhaps she could see the farmhouse, and rubbing, +with her warm palm, the moisture from the window-pane, she looked +wistfully out in the direction of Richard's home. Yes, there it was, and +a light shining from the sitting-room window, as if they expected her. +But Ethie was not going there, and with something like a sigh as she +thought of Andy so near, yet separated so widely from her, she turned +from the window and rested her tired head upon her hands while they +stayed at Olney. It was only a moment they stopped, but to Ethie it +seemed an age, and her heart almost stopped its beating when she heard +the voice of Terrible Tim just outside the car. He was not coming in, as +she found after a moment of breathless waiting; he was only speaking to +an acquaintance, who stepped inside and took a seat by the stove, just +as the train plunged again into the darkness, leaving behind a fiery +track to mark its progress across the level prairie. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DESERTED HUSBAND + +Richard had been very successful in St. Louis. The business which took +him there had been more than satisfactorily arranged. He had collected a +thousand-dollar debt he never expected to get, and had been everywhere +treated with the utmost deference and consideration, as a man whose +worth was known and appreciated. But Richard was ill at ease, and his +face wore a sad, gloomy expression, which many remarked, wondering what +could be the nature of the care so evidently preying upon him. Do what +he might, he could not forget the white, stony face which had looked at +him so strangely in the gray morning, nor shut out the icy tones in +which Ethie had last spoken to him. Besides this, Richard was thinking +of all he had said to her in the heat of passion, and wishing he could +recall it in part at least. He was very indignant, very angry still, for +he believed her guilty of planning to meet Frank Van Buren at the party +and leave him at home, while his heart beat with keen throbs of pain +when he remembered that Ethie's first love was not given to him--that +she would have gone to her grave more willingly than she went with him +to the altar; but he need not have been so harsh with her--that was no +way to make her love him. Kindness must win her back should she ever be +won, and impatient to be reconciled, if reconciliation were now +possible, Richard chafed at the necessary delays which kept him a day +longer in St. Louis than he had at first intended. + +Ethie had been gone just a week when he at last found himself in the +train which would take him back to Camden. First, however, he must stop +at Olney; the case was imperative--and so he stepped from the train one +snowy afternoon when the February light shone cold and blue upon the +little town and the farmhouse beyond. His brothers were feeding their +flocks and herds in the rear yard to the east; but they came at once to +greet him, and ask after his welfare. The light snow which had fallen +that day was lying upon the front door-steps undisturbed by any track, +so Richard entered at the side. Mrs. Markham was dipping candles, and +the faint, sickly odor of the hot melted tallow, which filled Richard's +olfactories as he came in, was never forgotten, but remembered as part +and parcel of that terrible day which would have a place in his memory +so long as being lasted. Every little thing was impressed upon his mind, +and came up afterward with vivid distinctness whenever he thought of +that wretched time. There was a bit of oilcloth on the floor near to the +dripping candles, and he saw the spots of tallow which had dropped and +dried upon it--saw, too, his mother's short red gown and blue woolen +stockings, as she got up to meet him, and smelled the cabbage cooking on +the stove, for they were having a late dinner that day--the boys' +favorite, and what Mrs. Markham designated as a "dish of biled vittles." + +Richard had seen his mother dip candles before--nay, had sometimes +assisted at the dipping. He had seen her short striped gown and blue +woolen stockings, and smelled the cooking cabbage, but they never struck +him with so great a sense of discomfort as they did to-day when he +stood, hat in hand, wondering why home seemed so cheerless. It was as if +the shadow of the great shock awaiting him had already fallen upon him, +oppressing him with a weight he could not well shake off. He had no +thought that any harm had come to Ethie, and yet his first question was +for her. Had his mother heard from her while he was away, or did she +know if she was well? + +Mrs. Markham's under jaw dropped, in the way peculiar to her when at all +irritated, but she did not answer at once; she waited a moment, while +she held the rod poised over the iron kettle, and with her forefinger +deliberately separated any of the eight candles which showed a +disposition to stick together; then depositing them upon the frame and +taking up another rod, she said: + +"Miss Plympton was down to Camden three or four days ago, and she said +Ann Merrills, the chambermaid at the Stafford House, told her Ethelyn +had come to Olney to stay with us while you was away; but she must have +gone somewhere else, as we have not seen her here. Gone to visit that +Miss Amsden, most likely, that lives over the creek." + +"What makes you think she has gone there?" Richard asked, with a sudden +spasm of fear, for which he could not account, and which was not in any +wise diminished by his mother's reply: "Ann said she took the six +o'clock train for Olney, and as Miss Amsden lives beyond us, it's likely +she went there, and is home by this time." + +Richard accepted this supposition, but it was far from reassuring him. +The load he had felt when he first came into the kitchen was pressing +more and more heavily, and he wished that he had gone straight on +instead of stopping at Olney. But now there was nothing to do but to +wait with what patience he could command until the next train came and +carried him to Camden. + +It was nine o'clock when he reached there, and a stiff northeaster was +blowing down the streets with gusts of sleet and rain, but he did not +think of it as he hurried on toward the Stafford House, with that +undefined dread growing stronger and stronger as he drew near. He did +not know what he feared, nor why he feared it. He should find Ethie +there, he said. She surely had returned from her visit by this time; he +should see the lights from the windows shining out upon the park, just +as he had seen them many other nights when hastening back to Ethie. He +would take the shortest route down that dark, narrow alley, and so gain +a moment of time. The alley was traversed at last, also the square, and +he turned the corner of the street where stood the Stafford House. +Halting for an instant, he strained his eyes to see if he were mistaken, +or was there no light in the window, no sign that Ethie was there. There +were lights below, and lights above, but the second floor was dark, the +shutters closed, and all about them a look of silence and desertion, +which quickened Richard's footsteps to a run. Up the private staircase +he went, and through the narrow hall, till he reached his door and found +it locked. Ethie was surely gone. She had not expected him so soon. +Mrs. Amsden had urged her to stay, and she had stayed. This was what +Richard said, as he went down to the office for the key, which the clerk +handed him, with the remark: "Mrs. Markham went to Olney the very day +you left. I thought perhaps you would stop there and bring her home." + +Richard did not reply, but hurried back to the darkened room, where +everything was in order; even Ethie's work-box was in its usual place +upon the little table, and Ethie's chair was standing near; but +something was missing--something besides Ethie--and its absence made the +room look bare and strange as the gas-light fell upon it. The piano was +gone or moved. It must be the latter, and Richard looked for it in every +corner, even searching in the bedroom and opening the closet door, as if +so ponderous a thing could have been hidden there! It was gone, and so +was Ethie's trunk, and some of Ethie's clothes, for he looked to see, +and then mechanically went out into the hall, just as Mr. Bailey came +upstairs and saw him. + +"Ho, Judge! is that you? Glad to see you back. Have been lonesome with +you and your wife both away. Do you know of the trade we made--she and +I--the very day you left? She offered me her piano for three hundred +dollars, and I took her up at once. A fine instrument, that, but a +little too small for her. Answers very well for Angeline. It's all +right, isn't it?" the talkative man continued, as he saw the blank +expression on Richard's face and construed it into disapprobation of +the bargain. + +"Yes, all right, of course. It was her piano, not mine," Richard said +huskily. Then feeling the necessity of a little duplicity, he said, +"Mrs. Markham went the same day I did, I believe?" + +"Really, now, I don't know whether 'twas that day or the next," Mr. +Bailey replied, showing that what was so important to Richard had as yet +made but little impression upon him. "No, I can't say which day it was; +but here's Hal Clifford--he'll know," and Mr. Bailey stepped aside as +Harry came up the hall. + +He had been to call upon a friend who occupied the floor above, and +seeing Richard came forward to speak to him, the look of shame upon his +face showing that he had not forgotten the circumstances under which +they had last met. As Harry came in Mr. Bailey disappeared, and so the +two men were alone when Richard asked, "Do you know what day Mrs. +Markham left Camden?" + +Richard tried to be natural. But Harry was not deceived. There was +something afloat--something which had some connection with his foolish, +drunken talk and Ethie's non-appearance at the masquerade. Blaming +himself for what he remembered to have said, he would not now willingly +annoy Richard, and he answered, indifferently: "She went the same day +you did; that is, she left here on the six o'clock train. I know, for I +called in the evening and found her gone." + +"Was she going to Olney?" + +Richard's lips asked this rather than his will, and Harry replied, "I +suppose so. Isn't she there?" + +It was an impudent question, but prompted purely by curiosity, and +Richard involuntarily answered, "She has not been there at all." + +For several seconds the two men regarded each other intently, one +longing so much to ask a certain question, and the other reading that +question in the wistful, anxious eyes bent so earnestly upon him. + +"He left in that same train, and took the same route, too." + +Harry said this, and Richard staggered forward, till he leaned upon the +door-post while his face was ashy pale. Harry had disliked Richard +Markham, whom he knew so strongly disapproved of his conduct; but he +pitied him now and tried to comfort him. + +"It cannot be they went together. I saw no indications of such an +intention on the part of Frank. I hardly think he saw her, either. He +was going to--, he said, and should be back in a few days. Maybe she is +somewhere." + +Yes, maybe she was somewhere, but so long as Richard did not know where, +it was poor comfort for him. One thing, however, he could do--he could +save her good name until the matter was further investigated; and +pulling Harry after him into his room, he sat down by the cold, dark +stove, over which he crouched shiveringly, while he said, "Ethie has +gone to visit a friend, most likely--a Mrs. Amsden, who lives in the +direction of Olney. So please, for her sake, do not say either now or +ever who went on the train with her." + +"You have my word as a gentleman that I will not," Harry replied; "and +as no one but myself ever knew that they were cousins and acquaintances, +their names need not be mentioned together, even if she never returns." + +"But she will--she will come back, Ethie will. She has only gone to Mrs. +Amsden's," Richard replied, his teeth chattering and his voice betraying +all the fear and anguish he tried so hard to hide. + +Harry saw how cold he seemed, and with his own hands built a quick wood +fire, and then asked: + +"Shall I leave you alone, or would you prefer me to stay?" + +"Yes, stay. I do not like being here alone, though Ethie will come back. +She's only gone to visit Mrs. Amsden," and Richard whispered the words, +"gone to visit Mrs. Amsden." + +It is pitiful to see a strong man cut down so suddenly, and every nerve +of Harry's throbbed in sympathy as he sat watching the deserted husband +walking up and down the room, now holding his cold fingers to the fire +and now saying to himself: "She has only gone to Mrs. Amsden's. She will +be back to-morrow." + +At last the clock struck eleven, and then Richard roused from his +lethargy and said: "The next train for Olney passes at twelve. I am +going there, Harry--going after Ethie. You'll see her coming back +to-morrow." + +Richard hardly knew why he was going back to Olney, unless it were from +a wish to be near his own kith and kin in this hour of sorrow. He knew +that Ethie had gone, and the Mrs. Amsden ruse was thrown out for the +benefit of Harry, who, frightened at the expression of Richard's face, +did not dare to leave him alone until he saw him safely on board the +train, which an hour later dropped him upon the slippery platform in +Olney, and then went speeding on in the same direction Ethie once +had gone. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Markham's candles were finished, and in straight even rows were +laid away in the candle-box, the good woman finding to her great +satisfaction that there were just ten dozen besides the slim little +thing she had burned during the evening, and which, with a long, crisp +snuff, like the steeple of a church, was now standing on the chair by +her bed. The hash was chopped ready for breakfast, the coffee was +prepared, and the kindlings were lying near the stove, where, too, were +hanging to dry Andy's stockings, which he had that day wet through. They +had sat up later than usual at the farmhouse that night, for Melinda and +her mother had been over there, and the boys had made molasses candy, +and "stuck up" every dish and spoon, as Mrs. Markham said. Tim had come +after his mother and sister, and as he had a good deal to say, the clock +struck eleven before the guests departed, and Andy buttoned the door of +the woodshed and put the nail over the window by the sink. Mrs. Markham +had no suspicion of the trial in store for her, but for some cause she +felt restless and nervous, and even scary, as she expressed it herself. +"Worked too hard, I guess," she thought, as she tied on her +high-crowned, broad-frilled nightcap, and then as a last chore, wound +the clock before stepping into bed. + +It was nearly midnight, and for some little time she lay awake listening +to the wind as it swept past the house, or screamed through the key-hole +of the door. But she did not hear the night train when it thundered +through the town; nor the gate as it swung back upon its hinges; nor the +swift step coming up the walk; nor the tap upon her window until it was +repeated, and Richard's voice called faintly, "Mother, mother, let +me in!" + +Andy, who was as good as a watch-dog, was awake by this time, and with +his window open was looking down at the supposed burglar, while his hand +felt for some missile to hurl at the trespasser's head. With a start, +Mr. Markham awoke, and, springing up, listened till the voice said +again, "Mother, mother, it's I; let me in!" + +The Japan candlestick Andy had secured was dropped in a trice, and +adjusting his trousers as he descended the stairs, he reached the door +simultaneously with his mother, and pulling Richard into the hall, asked +why he was there, and what had happened. Richard did not know for +certain that anything had happened. "Ethie was most probably with Mrs. +Amsden. She would be home to-morrow," and Andy felt how his brother +leaned against him and his hand pressed upon his shoulders as he went to +the stove, and crouched down before it just as he had done in Camden. +The candle was lighted, and its dim light fell upon that strange group +gathered there at midnight, and looking into each other's faces with a +wistful questioning as to what it all portended. + +"It is very cold; make more fire," Richard said, shivering, as the sleet +came driving against the window; and in an instant all the morning +kindlings were thrust into the stove, which roared and crackled, and +hissed, and diffused a sense of warmth and comfort through the +shadowy room. + +"What is it, Richard? What makes you so white and queer?" his mother +asked, trying to pull on her stockings, and in her trepidation jamming +her toes into the heel, and drawing her shoe over the bungle thus made +at the bottom of her foot. + +"Ethie was not there, and has not been since the night I left. She sold +her piano, and took the money, and her trunk, and her clothes, and went +to visit Mrs. Amsden." + +This was Richard's explanation, which Andy thought a mighty funny reason +for his brother's coming at midnight, and frightening them so terribly. +But his mother saw things differently. She knew there was something +underlying all this--something which would require all her skill and +energy to meet--and her face was almost as white as Richard's as she +asked, "Why do you think she has gone to Mrs. Amsden's?" + +"You told me so, didn't you?" and Richard looked up at her in a +bewildered, helpless way, which showed that all he knew upon the Amsden +question was what she had said herself, and that was hardly enough to +warrant a conclusion of any kind. + +"Was there any reason why Ethelyn should go away?" she asked next, and +Richard's head dropped, and his eyes were cast down in shame, as +he replied: + +"Yes; we--quar--. We differed, I mean, the night before I went away, and +I kept her from the masquerade, I would not let her go. I locked the +door, and now she has gone--gone to Mrs. Amsden's." + +He persisted in saying that, as if he would fain make himself believe it +against his better judgment. + +"What is it all about? What does it mean?" Andy asked in great +perplexity; and his mother answered for Richard: + +"It means just this, as far as I can see: Ethelyn has got mad at Richard +for keepin' her in, which he or'to have done long ago, and so, with her +awful temper she has run away." + +Mrs. Markham had defined it at last--had put into words the terrible +thing which had happened, the disgrace which she saw coming upon them; +and with this definition of it she, too, defined her own position with +regard to Ethelyn, and stood bristling all over with anger and +resentment, and ready to do battle for her son against the entire world. + +"Mother! mother!" Andy gasped, and his face was whiter than Richard's. +"It is not true. Ethie never went and done that--never! Did she, Dick? +Tell me! Speak! Has Ethie run away?" + +Andy was down on one knee now, and looking into Richard's face with a +look which would almost have brought Ethie back could she have seen it. +Andy had faith in her, and Richard clung to him rather than to the +mother in denouncing her so bitterly. + +"I don't know, Andy," he said, "I hope not. I think not. She must have +gone to Mrs. Amsden's. We will wait till morning and see." + +The sound of voices had aroused both James and John, who, half-dressed, +came down to inquire what had happened, and why Dick was there at that +unseemly hour of the night. James' face was very pale as he listened, +and when his mother spoke of the disgrace which would come upon them +all, his hard fists were clenched for a moment, while he thought of +Melinda, and wondered if with her it would make any difference. Both +James and John had liked Ethelyn, and as the temper about which their +mother talked so much had never been exhibited to them, they were +inclined even now to take her part, and cautious John suggested that it +might not be so bad as his mother feared. To be sure, he didn't know how +hard Dick and Ethie might have spatted it, or what had gone before; but +anyway his advice would be to wait and see if she was not really at Mrs. +Amsden's, or somewhere else. Richard let them manage it for him. He was +powerless to act then, and stunned and silent he sat shivering by the +stove, which they made red-hot with the blocks of wood they put in, +hoping thus to warm him. There was no more sleep at the farmhouse that +night, though James and John went back to bed, and Andy, too, crept up +to his lonely room; but not to sleep. His heart was too full for that, +and kneeling by his wooden chair, he prayed for Ethie--that she had not +run away, but might be at Mrs. Amsden's, where he was going for her +himself the moment the morning broke. He had claimed this privilege, and +his mother had granted it, knowing that many allowances would be made +for whatever Andy might say, and feeling that, on this account, he would +do better than either of his brothers. Richard, of course, could not go. +He scarcely had strength to move, and did not look up from his stooping +posture by the stove, when, at day-dawn, Andy drew on his butternut +overcoat, and tying a thick comforter about his neck, started for +Mrs. Amsden's. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE INVESTIGATION + +Richard knew she was not there--at least all the probabilities were +against it; and still he clung to the vague hope that Andy would bring +him some good news, and his thoughts went after the brother whose every +breath was a prayer, as he galloped over the snowy ground toward Mrs. +Amsden's. They were early risers there, and notwithstanding the sun was +just coming up the eastern sky, the family were at breakfast when Andy's +horse stopped before their gate, and Andy himself knocked at their door +for admission. Andy's faith was great--so great that, in answer to his +petitions, he fully expected to see Ethie herself at the table, when the +door was opened, and he caught a view of the occupants of the dining +room; but no Ethie was there, nor had been, as they said, in answer to +his eager questionings. + +"What made you think she was here? When did she go away? Was she +intending to visit me?" Mrs. Amsden asked. + +But Andy, while praying that Ethie might be there, had also asked that +if she were not, "he needn't make a fool of himself, nor let the cat out +of the bag," and he didn't; he merely replied: + +"She left home a few days ago. Dick was in St. Louis, and it was +lonesome stayin' alone. I'll find her, most likely, as she is +somewhere else." + +Andy was in his saddle now, and his fleet steed fled swiftly along +toward home, where they waited so anxiously for him, Richard tottering +to the window so as to read his fate in Andy's tell-tale face. + +"She is not there. I knew she was not. She has gone with that villain." + +Richard did not mean to say that last. It dropped from him mechanically, +and in an instant his mother seized upon it, demanding what he meant, +and who was the villain referred to. Richard tried to put her off, but +she would know what he meant, and so to her and his three brothers he +told as little as he could and make any kind of a story, and as he +talked his heart hardened toward Ethie, who had done him this wrong. It +seemed a great deal worse when put into words, and the whole expression +of Richard's face was changed when he had finished speaking, while he +was conscious of feeling much as he did that night when he denounced +Ethie so terribly to her face. "Had it been a man, or half a man, or +anybody besides that contemptible puppy, it would not seem so bad; but +to forsake me for him!" Richard said, while the great ridges deepened in +his forehead, and a hard, black look crept into his eyes, and about the +corners of his mouth. He was terrible in his anger, which grew upon him +until even his mother stood appalled at the fearful expression of +his face. + +"He would do nothing to call her back," he said, when James suggested +the propriety of trying in a quiet way to ascertain where she had gone. +"She had chosen her own path to ruin, and she might tread it for all of +him. He would not put forth a hand to save her and if she came back, he +never could forgive her." + +Richard was walking up and down the room, white with rage, as he said +this, and Andy, cowering in a corner, was looking on and listening. He +did not speak until Richard declared his incapacity for forgiving Ethie, +when he started up, and confronting the angry man, said to him +rebukingly: + +"Hold there, old Dick! You have gone a leetle too far. If God can +forgive you and me all them things we've done, which he knows about, and +other folks don't, you can, or or'to forgive sister Ethie, let her sin +be what it may. Ethie was young, Dick, and childlike, and so pretty, +too, and I 'most know you aggravated her some, if you talked to her as +you feel now; and then, too, Dick, and mother, and all of you, I don't +care who says it, or thinks it, it's a big lie! Ethie never went off +with a man--never! I know she didn't. She wasn't that kind. I'll swear +to it in the court. I won't hear anybody say that about her. I'll fight +'em, first, even if 'twas my own kin who did it!" And in his +excitement, Andy began to shove back his wrist-bands from his strong +wrists, as if challenging someone to the fight he had threatened. + +Andy was splendid in his defense of Ethie, and both James and John +stepped up beside him, showing their adhesion to the cause he pleaded so +well. Ethie might have ran away, but she had surely gone alone, they +said, and their advice was that Richard should follow her as soon as +possible. But Richard would not listen to such a proposition now, and +quietly aided and abetted by his mother, he declared his intention of +"letting her alone." She had chosen her course, he said, and she must +abide by it. "If she has gone with that villain"--and Richard ground his +teeth together--"she can never again come back to me. If she has not +gone with him, and chooses to return, I do not say the door is shut +against her." + +Richard seemed very determined and unrelenting, and, knowing how useless +it was to reason with him when in so stern a mood, his brothers gave up +the contest, Andy thinking within himself how many, many times a day he +should pray for Ethie that she might come back again. Richard would not +return to Camden that day, he said. He could not face his acquaintance +there until the first shock was over and they were a little accustomed +to thinking of the calamity which had fallen upon him. So he remained +with his mother, sitting near the window which looked out upon the +railroad track over which Ethie had gone. What his thoughts were none +could fathom, save as they were expressed by the dark, troubled +expression of his face, which showed how much he suffered. Perhaps he +blamed himself as he went over again the incidents of that fatal night +when he kept Ethelyn from the masquerade; but if he did, no one was the +wiser for it, and so the first long day wore on, and the night fell +again upon the inmates of the farmhouse. The darkness was terrible to +Richard, for it shut out from his view that strip of road which seemed +to him a part of Ethie. She had been there last, and possibly looked up +at the old home--her first home after her marriage; possibly, too, she +had thought of him. She surely did, if, as Andy believed, she was alone +in her flight. If not alone, he wanted no thoughts of hers, and +Richard's hands were clenched as he moved from the darkening window, and +took his seat behind the stove, where he sat the entire evening, like +some statue of despair, brooding over his ruined hopes. + +The next day brought the Joneses--Melinda and Tim--the latter of whom +had heard from Mrs. Amsden's son of Andy's strange errand there. There +was something in the wind, and Melinda came to learn what it was. Always +communicative to the Jones family, Mrs. Markham told the story without +reserve, not even omitting the Van Buren part, but asking as a +precaution that Melinda would not spread a story which would bring +disgrace on them. Melinda was shocked, astonished, and confounded, but +she did not believe in Frank Van Buren. Ethie never went with +him--never. She, like Andy, would swear to that, and she said as much to +Richard, taking Ethie's side as strongly as she could, without casting +too much blame on him. And Richard felt better, hearing Ethie upheld and +spoken for, even if it were so much against himself. Melinda was still +his good angel, while Ethie, too, had just cause for thanking the kind +girl who stood by her so bravely, and even made the mother-in-law less +harsh in her expression. + +There was a letter for Richard that night, from Harry Clifford, who +wrote as follows: + +"I do not know whether you found your wife at Mrs. Amsden's or not, but +I take the liberty of telling you that Frank Van Buren has returned, and +solemnly affirms that if Mrs. Markham was on board the train which left +here on the 17th, he did not know it. Neither did he see her at all when +in Camden. He called on his way to the depot that night, and was told +she was out. Excuse my writing you this. If your wife has not come back, +it will remove a painful doubt, and if she has, please burn and forget +it. Yours, + +"H. CLIFFORD." + +"Thank Heaven for that!" was Richard's exclamation as in the first +revulsion of feeling he sprang from his chair, while every feature of +his face was irradiated with joy. + +"What is it, Dick? Is Ethie found? I knew she would be. I've prayed for +it fifty times to-day, and I had faith that God would hear," Andy said, +the great tears rolling down his smooth, round face as he gave vent +to his joy. + +But Andy's faith was to be put to a stronger test, and his countenance +fell a little when Richard explained the nature of the letter. Ethie was +not found; she was only proved innocent of the terrible thing Richard +had feared for her, and in being proven innocent, she was for a moment +almost wholly restored to his favor. She would come back some time. She +could not mean to leave him forever. She was only doing it for a scare, +and to punish him for what he did that night. He deserved punishment, +too, he thought, for he was pretty hard on her, and as he surely had +been punished in all he had suffered during the last forty-eight hours, +he would, when she came back, call everything even between them, and +begin anew. + +This was Richard's reasoning; and that night he slept soundly, dreaming +that Ethie had returned, and on her knees was suing for his forgiveness, +while her voice was broken with tears and choking sobs. As a man and +husband who had been deserted, it was his duty to remain impassive a few +moments, while Ethie atoned fully for her misdeeds: then he would +forgive her, and so he waited an instant, and while he waited he woke to +find only Andy, with whom he was sleeping, kneeling by the bedside, with +the wintry moonlight falling on his upturned face, as he prayed for the +dear sister Ethie, whose steps had "mewandered" so far away. + +"Don't let any harm come to her; don't let anybody look at her for bad, +but keep her--keep her--keep her in safety, and send her back to poor +old Dick and me, and make Dick use her better than I 'most know he has, +for he's got the Markham temper in him, and everybody knows what +that is." + +This was Andy's prayer, taken from no book or printed form, but the +outpouring of his simple, honest heart, and Richard heard it, wincing a +little as Andy thus made confession for him of his own sins; but he did +not pray himself, though he was glad of Andy's prayers, and placed great +hopes upon them. God would hear Andy, and if he did not send Ethie back +at once, he would surely keep her from harm. + +The next day Richard went back to Camden. Melinda Jones had suggested +that possibly Ethie left a letter, or note, which would explain her +absence, and Richard caught at it eagerly, wondering he had not thought +of it before, and feeling very impatient to be off, even though he +dreaded to meet some of his old friends, and be questioned as to the +whereabouts of his wife. He did not know that the story of his desertion +was already there--Mrs. Amsden having gone to town with her mite, which, +added to the sale of the piano, Ethie's protracted absence, Richard's +return to Olney at midnight, and Harry Clifford's serious and mysterious +manner, were enough to set the town in motion. Various opinions were +expressed, and, what was very strange, so popular were both Richard and +Ethelyn that everybody disliked blaming either, and so but few unkind +remarks had as yet been made, and those by people who had been jealous +or envious of Ethelyn's high position. No one knew a whisper of Frank +Van Buren, for Harry kept his promise well, and no worse motive was +ascribed to Ethie's desertion than want of perfect congeniality with her +husband. Thus they were not foes, but friends, who welcomed Richard back +to Camden, watching him curiously, and wishing so much to ask where Mrs. +Markham was. That she was not with him, was certain, for only Andy +came--Andy, who held his head so high, and looked round so defiantly, as +he kept close to Richard's side on the way to the hotel. It was very +dreary going up the old, familiar staircase into the quiet hall, and +along to the door of the silent room, which seemed drearier than on that +night when he first came back to it and found Ethie gone. There were +ashes now upon the stove-hearth where Hal Clifford had kindled the fire, +and the two chairs they had occupied were standing just where they had +left them. The gas had not been properly turned off, and a dead, sickly +odor filled the room, making Andy heave as he hastened to open the +window, and admit the fresh, pure air. + +"Seems as it did the day Daisy died," Andy said, his eyes filling with +tears. + +To Richard it was far worse than the day Daisy died, for he had then the +memory of her last loving words in his ear, and the feeling of her +clinging kiss upon his lips, while now the memories of the lost one were +only bitter and sad in the extreme. + +"Melinda suggested a letter or something. Where do you suppose she would +put it if there were one?" Richard asked in a helpless, appealing way, +as he sank into a chair and looked wistfully around the room. + +He had been very bold and strong in the cars and in the street; but +here, in the deserted room, where Ethie used to be, and where something +said she would never be again, he was weak as a girl, and leaned wholly +upon Andy, who seemed to feel how much was depending upon him, and so +kept up a cheery aspect while he kindled a fresh fire and cleared the +ashes from the hearth by blowing them off upon the oilcloth; then, as +the warmth began to make itself felt and the cold to diminish, he +answered Richard's query. + +"In her draw, most likely; mother mostly puts her traps there." So, to +the "draw" they went--the very one where Daisy's ring was lying; and +Richard saw that first, knowing now for sure that Ethelyn had fled. + +He knew so before, but this made it more certain--more dreadful, too, +for it showed a determination never to return. + +"It was Daisy's, you know," he said to Andy, who, at his side, was not +looking at the ring, but beyond it, to the two letters, his own and +Richard's, both of which he seized with a low cry, for he, too, was sure +of Ethie's flight. + +"See, Dick, there's one for you and one for me," he exclaimed, and his +face grew very red as he tore open his own note and began to devour the +contents, whispering the words, and breaking down entirely amid a storm +of sobs and tears as he read: + +"DEAR ANDY: I wish I could tell you how much I love you, and how sorry I +am to fall in your good opinion, as I surely shall when you hear what +has happened. Do not hate me, Andy; and sometimes, when you pray, +remember Ethie, won't you?" + +He could get no farther than this, and with a great cry he buried his +face in his hands and sobbed: "Yes, Ethie, I will, I will; but oh, what +is it? What made you go? Why did she, Dick?" and he turned to his +brother, who, with lightning rapidity, was reading Ethelyn's long +letter. He did not doubt a word she said, and when the letter was +finished he put it passively in Andy's hand, and then, with a bitter +groan, laid his throbbing head upon the cushion of the lounge where he +was sitting. There were no tears in his eyes--nothing but blood-red +circles floating before them; while the aching balls seemed starting +from their sockets with the pressure of pain. He had had his chance with +Ethie and lost it; and though, as yet, he saw but dimly where he had +been to blame, where he had made a mistake, he endured for the time all +he was capable of enduring, and if revenge had been her object, Ethie +had more than her desire. + +Andy was stunned for a moment, and sat staring blankly at the motionless +figure of his brother; then, as the terrible calamity began to impress +itself fully upon him, intense pity for Richard became uppermost in his +mind, and stooping over the crushed man, he laid his arm across his +neck, and, tender as a sorrowing, loving mother, kissed and fondled the +damp brown hair, and dropped great tears upon it, and murmured words of +sympathy, incoherent at first, for the anguish choking his own +utterance, but gradually gathering force and sound as his quivering lips +kept trying to articulate: "Dick, poor old Dick, dear old Dick, don't +keep so still and look so white and stony. She'll come back again, Ethie +will. I feel it, I feel it, I know it, I shall pray for her every hour +until she comes. Prayer will reach her where nothing else can find her. +Poor Dick, I am so sorry. Don't look at me so; you scare me. Try to cry; +try to make a fuss; try to do anything rather than that dreadful look. +Lay your head on me, so," and lifting up the bowed head, which offered +no resistance, Andy laid it gently on his arm, and smoothing back the +hair from the pallid forehead, went on: "Now cry, old boy, cry with all +your might;" and with his hand Andy brushed away the scalding tears +which began to fall like rain from Richard's eyes. + +"Better so, a great deal better than the other way. Don't hold up till +you've had it out," he kept repeating, while Richard wept, until the +fountain was dry and the tears refused to flow. + +"I've been a brute, Andy," he said, when at last he could speak. "The +fault was all my own. I did not understand her in the least. I ought +never to have married her. She was not of my make at all." + +Andy would hear nothing derogatory of Richard any more than of Ethelyn, +and he answered promptly: "But, Dick, Ethie was some to blame. She +didn't or'to marry you feelin' as she did. That was where the +wrong began." + +This was the most and the worst Andy ever said against Ethelyn, and he +repented of that the moment the words were out of his mouth. It was mean +to speak ill of the absent, especially when the absent one was Ethie, +who had written, "In fancy I put my arms around your neck and kiss your +dear, kind face." Andy deemed himself a monster of ingratitude when he +recalled these lines and remembered that of her who penned them he had +said, "She was some to blame." He took it all back to himself, and tried +to exonerate Ethie entirely, though it was hard work to do so where he +saw how broken, and stunned, and crushed his brother was, and how little +he realized what was passing around him. + +"He don't know much more than I do," was Andy's mental comment, when to +his question, "What shall we do next?" Richard replied, in a maudlin +kind of way, "Yes, that is a very proper course. I leave it entirely +to you." + +Andy felt that a great deal was depending upon himself, and he tried to +meet the emergency. Seeing how Richard continued to shiver, and how cold +he was, he persuaded him to lie down upon the bed, and piling the +blankets upon him, made such a fire as he said to himself, "would roast +a common ox"; then, when Hal Clifford came to the door and knocked, he +kept him out, with that "Dick had been broke of his rest, and was tryin' +to make it up." + +But this state of things could not last long. Richard was growing ill, +and talking so strangely withal, that Andy began to feel the necessity +of having somebody there beside himself; "some of the wimmen folks, who +knew what to do, for I'm no better than a settin' hen," he said. + +Very naturally his thoughts turned to his mother as the proper person to +come, "though Melinda Jones was the properest of the two. There was snap +to her, and she would not go to pitchin' in to Ethie." + +Accordingly, the next mail carried to Melinda Jones a note from Andy, +which was as follows: + +"MISS MELINDA JONES: Dear Madam--We found the letters Ethie writ, one to +me, and one to Dick, and Dick's was too much for him. He lies like a +punk of wood, makin' a moanin' noise, and talkin' such queer things, +that I guess you or somebody or'to come and see to him a little. I send +to you because there's no nonsense about you, and you are made of the +right kind of stuff. + +"Yours to command, + +"ANDERSON MARKHAM, ESQ." + +This note Melinda carried straight to Mrs. Markham, and as the result, +four hours later both the mother and Melinda were on the road to Camden, +where Melinda's services were needed to stem the tide of wonder and +gossip, which had set in when it began to be known that Ethelyn was +gone, and Richard was lying sick in his room, tended only by Andy, who +would admit no one, not even the doctor, who, when urged by Harry +Clifford, came to offer his services. + +"He wasn't goin' to let in a lot of curious critters to hear what Dick +was talkin'," he said to his mother and Melinda, his haggard face +showing how much he had endured in keeping them at bay, and answering +through the key-hole their numerous inquiries. + +Richard did not have a fever, as was feared at first; but for several +days he kept his bed, and during that time his mother and Melinda stayed +by him, nursing him most assiduously, but never once speaking to each +other of Ethelyn. Both had read her letter, for Mrs. Markham never +thought of withholding it from Melinda, who, knowing that she ought not +to have seen it, wisely resolved to keep to herself the knowledge of its +contents. So, when she was asked, as she was repeatedly, "Why Mrs. +Markham had gone away," she answered evasively, or not at all, and +finding that nothing could be obtained from her, the people at last left +her in quiet and turned to their own resources, which furnished various +reasons for the desertion. They knew it was a desertion now, and hearing +how sick and broken Richard was, popular opinion was in his favor +mostly, though many a kind and wistful thought went after the fair young +wife, who had been a belle in their midst, and a general favorite, too. +Where was she now, and what was she doing, these many days, while the +winter crept on into spring, and the March winds blew raw and chill +against the windows of the chamber where Richard battled with the +sickness which he finally overcame, so that by the third week of Ethie's +absence he was up again and able to go in quest of her, if so be she +might be found and won to the love she never returned. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +IN CHICOPEE + +They were having a late dinner at Aunt Barbara's, a four o'clock dinner +of roast fowls with onions and tomatoes, and the little round table was +nicely arranged with the silver and china and damask for two, while in +the grate the fire was blazing brightly and on the hearth, the tabby cat +was purring out her appreciation of the comfort and good cheer. But Aunt +Barbara's heart was far too sorry and sad to care for her surroundings, +or think how pleasant and cozy that little dining room looked to one who +did not know of the grim skeleton which had walked in there that very +day along with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, of Boston. That lady had come up on +the morning train and in her rustling black silk with velvet trimmings, +and lace barb hanging from her head, she sat before the fire with a look +of deep dejection and thoughtfulness upon her face, as if she too recked +little of the creature comforts around her. Aunt Barbara knew nothing of +her coming, and was taken by surprise when the village hack stopped at +the door, and Sister Sophia's sable furs and beaver cloak alighted. That +something was the matter she suspected from her sister's face the moment +that lady removed her veil and gave the usual dignified kiss of +greeting. Things had gone wrong again with Frank and Nettie, most +likely, she thought, for she was not ignorant, of the misunderstandings +and misery arising from that unfortunate marriage, and she had about +made up her mind to tell her sister just where the fault lay. She would +not spare Frank any longer, but would give him his just deserts. She +never dreamed that the trouble this time concerned Ethie, her own +darling, the child whom she had loved so well, and pitied, and thought +of so much since the time she left her out West with "those +Philistines," as she designated Richard's family. She had not heard from +her for some time, but, in the last letter received, Ethie had written +in a very cheerful strain, and told how gay and pleasant it was in +Camden that winter. Surely nothing had befallen her, and the good woman +stood aghast when Mrs. Dr. Van Buren abruptly asked if Ethelyn was not +there, or had been there lately, or heard from either. What did it +portend? Had harm come upon Ethie? And a shadow broke the placid surface +of the sweet old face as Aunt Barbara put these questions, first to +herself, and then to Mrs. Van Buren, who rapidly explained that Ethelyn +had left her husband, and gone, no one knew whither. + +"I hoped she might be here, and came up to see," Mrs. Van Buren +concluded; while Aunt Barbara steadied herself against the great +bookcase in the corner, and wondered if she was going out of her senses, +or had she heard aright, and was it her sister Van Buren sitting there +before her, and saying such dreadful things. + +She could not tell if it were real until Tabby sprang with a purring, +caressing sound, upon her shoulder, and rubbed her soft sides against +her cap. That made it real, and brought the color back to her wrinkled +face, but brought, also, a look of horror into her blue eyes, which +sought Mrs. Van Buren's with an eager, and yet terribly anxious glance. +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren understood the look. Its semblance had been on her +own face for an instant when she first heard the news, and now she +hastened to dispossess her sister's mind of any such suspicion. + +"No, Barbara; Frank did not go with her, or even see her when in Camden. +He is not quite so bad as that, I hope." + +The mother nature was in the ascendant, and for a moment resented the +suspicion against her son, even though that suspicion had been in her +own mind when Frank returned from Camden with the news of Ethie's +flight. That he had had something to do with it was her first fear, +until convinced to the contrary; and now she blamed Aunt Barbara for +harboring the same thought. As soon as possible she told all she had +heard from Frank, and then went on with her invectives against the +Markhams generally, and Richard in particular, and her endless surmises +as to where Ethelyn had gone, and what was the final cause of her going. + +For a time Aunt Barbara turned a deaf ear to what she was saying, +thinking only of Ethie, gone; Ethie, driven to such strait, that she +must either run away or die; Ethie, the little brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked, +willful, imperious girl, whom she loved so much for the very willful +imperiousness which always went hand in hand with such pretty fits of +penitence, and sorrow, and remorse for the misdeed, that not to love her +was impossible. Where was she now, and why had she not come at once to +the dear old home, where she would have been so welcome until such time +as matters could be adjusted on a more amicable basis? + +For Aunt Barbara, though in taking Ethie's side altogether, had no +thought that the separation should be final. She had chosen a life of +celibacy because she preferred it, and found it a very smooth and +pleasant one, especially after Ethie came and brought the sunshine of +joyous childhood to her quiet home; but "those whom God had joined +together" were bound to continue so, she firmly believed; and had Ethie +come to her with her tale of sorrow, she would have listened kindly to +it, poured in the balm of sympathy and love, and then, if possible, +restored her to her husband. Of all this she thought during the few +minutes Mrs. Dr. Van Buren talked, and she sat passive in her chair, +where she had dropped, with her dumpy little hands lying so helplessly +in her lap, and her cap all awry, as Tabby had made it when purring and +rubbing against it. + +"Then, you have not seen her, or heard a word?" Mrs. Van Buren asked; +and in a kind of uncertain way, as if she wondered what they were +talking about, Aunt Barbara replied: + +"No, I have not seen her, and I don't know, I am sure, what made the +child go off without letting us know." + +"She was driven to it by the pack of heathens around her," Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren retorted, feeling a good deal guilty herself for having been +instrumental in bringing about this unhappy match, and in proportion as +she felt guilty, seizing with avidity any other offered cause for +Ethie's wretchedness. "I've heard even more about them than you told +me," she went on to say. "There was Mrs. Ellis, whose cousin lives in +Olney--she says the mother is the most peculiar and old-fashioned woman +imaginable; actually wears blue yarn stockings, footed with black, makes +her own candles, and sleeps in the kitchen." + +With regard to the candles Aunt Barbara did not know; the sleeping in +the kitchen she denied, and the footed stockings she admitted; saying, +however, those she saw were black, rather than blue. Black or blue, it +was all the same to Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, whose feet seldom came in +contact with anything heavier than silk or the softest of lamb's wool; +and, had there been wanting other evidence of Mrs. Markham's vulgarity, +the stocking question would have settled the matter with her. + +"Poor Ethie!" she sighed, as she drew her seat to the fire, and asked +what they ought to do. + +Aunt Barbara did not know. She was too much bewildered to think of +anything just then, and after ordering the four o'clock dinner, which, +she knew, would suit her sister's habits better than an earlier one, +she, too, sat quietly down by the fire with her knitting lying idly in +her lap, and her eyes looking dreamily through the frosty panes off upon +the snowy hills where Ethelyn used to play. Occasionally, in reply to +some question of her sister's, she would tell what she herself saw in +that prairie home, and then look up amazed at the exasperating effect it +seemed to have upon Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. That lady was terrible incensed +against the whole Markham race, for through them she had been touched on +a tender point. Ethie's desertion of her husband would not be wholly +excused by the world; there was odium attaching to such a step, however +great the provocation, and the disgrace was what Mrs. Van Buren would +feel most keenly. That a Bigelow should do so was very humiliating; and, +by way of fortifying herself with reasons for the step, she slandered +and abused the Markhams until they would hardly have recognized the +remotest relationship between themselves and the "terrible creatures" +whom the great lady from Boston dissected so mercilessly that afternoon +in Chicopee. + +It was nearly four o'clock now, and the dinner was almost ready. Aunt +Barbara had dropped her knitting upon the floor, where the ball was at +once claimed as the lawful prey of Tabby, who rolled, and kicked, and +tangled the yarn in a perfect abandon of feline delight. Mrs. Van Buren +having exhausted herself, if not her topic, sat rocking quietly, and +occasionally giving little sniffs of inquiry as to whether the tomatoes +were really burned or not. If they were, there were still the +silver-skinned onions left; and, as Mrs. Van Buren was one who thought a +great deal of what she ate, she was anticipating her dinner with a keen +relish, and wishing Barbara and Betty would hurry, when a buggy stopped +before the door, and, with a start of disagreeable surprise, she +recognized Richard Markham coming through the gate, and up the walk to +the front door. He was looking very pale and worn, for to the effects of +his recent illness were added traces of his rapid, fatiguing journey, +and he almost staggered as he came into the room. It was not in kind +Aunt Barbara's nature to feel resentment toward him then, and she went +to him at once, as she would have gone to Ethie, and, taking his hand in +hers, said softly: + +"My poor boy! We have heard of your trouble. Have you found her yet? Do +you know where she is?" + +There was a look of anguish and disappointment in Richard's eyes as he +replied: + +"I thought--I hoped I might find her here." + +"And that is the reason of your waiting so long before coming?" Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren put in sharply. + +It was three weeks now since Ethie's flight, and her husband had shown +himself in no hurry to seek her, she reasoned; but Richard's reply, "I +was away a week before I knew it, and I have been very sick since then," +mollified her somewhat, though she sat back in her chair very stiff and +very straight, eyeing him askance, and longing to pounce upon him and +tell him what she thought. First, however, she must have her dinner. The +tea would be spoiled if they waited longer; and when Aunt Barbara began +to question Richard, she suggested that they wait till after dinner, +when they would all be fresher and stronger. So dinner was brought in, +and Richard, as he took his seat at the nicely-laid table, where +everything was served with so much care, did think of the difference +between Ethie's early surroundings and those to which he had introduced +her when he took her to his mother's house. He was beginning to think of +those things now; Ethie's letter had opened his eyes somewhat, and Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren would open them more before she let him go. She was +greatly refreshed with her dinner. The tomatoes had not been burned; the +fowls were roasted to a most delicate brown; the currant jelly was just +the right consistency; the pickled peaches were delicious, and the tea +could not have been better. On the whole, Mrs. Van Buren was satisfied, +and able to cope with a dozen men as crushed, and sore, and despondent +as Richard seemed. She had scanned him very closely, deciding that so +far as dress was concerned, he had improved since she saw him last. It +is true, his collar was not all the style, and his necktie was too wide, +and his coat sleeves too small, and his boots too rusty, and his vest +too much soiled; but she made allowance for the circumstances, and his +hasty journey, and so excused his tout ensemble. She had resumed her +seat by the fire, sitting where she could look the culprit directly in +the face; while good Aunt Barbara occupied the middle position, and, +with her fat, soft hands shaking terribly, tried to pick up the stitches +Tabby had pulled out. That personage, too, had had her chicken wing out +in the woodshed, and, knowing nothing of Ethie's grievances, had mounted +into Richard's lap, where she lay, slowly blinking and occasionally +purring a little, as Richard now and then passed his hand over her +soft fur. + +"Now tell us: Why did Ethelyn go away?--that is, what reason did she +give?" + +It was Mrs. Dr. Van Buren who asked this question, her voice betokening +that nothing which Richard could offer as an excuse would be received. +They must have Ethie's reason or none. Richard would far rather Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren had been in Boston, or Paris, or Guinea, than there in +Chicopee, staring so coolly at him; but as her being there was something +he could not help, he accepted it as a part of the train of calamities +closing so fast about him, and answered, respectfully: + +"It was no one thing which made her go, but the culmination of many. +There was a mistake on my part. I thought her guilty when she was not, +and charged her with it in a passion, saying things I would give much to +recall. This was one night, and she went the next, before her temper had +time to cool. You know she was a little hasty herself at times." + +"Perhaps so, though her temper never troubled me any. On the whole, I +think her temper amiable and mild in disposition as people generally +are," Mrs. Van Buren replied, forgetting, or choosing to forget, the +many occasions on which even she had shrunk from the fire which blazed +in Ethie's eyes when that young lady was fully roused. + +But Aunt Barbara had either more conscience or a better memory, and in a +manner half apologetic for her interference, she said: "Yes, Sophia, +Richard is right. Ethie had a temper--at least she was very decided. +Don't you remember when she broke the cut glass fruit dish, because she +could not have any more pineapple?" + +"Barbara!" Mrs. Dr. Van Buren exclaimed, her voice indicating her +surprise that her sister should so far forget herself as to reveal any +secrets of the family, and especially any which could be brought to bear +upon Ethelyn. + +Aunt Barbara felt the implied rebuke, and while her sweet, old face +crimsoned with mortification, she said: "Truth is truth, Sophia. Ethie +is as dear to me as to you, but she was high-tempered, and did break the +big fruit bowl, and then denied herself sweetmeats of all kinds, and +even went without sugar in her coffee and butter on her bread until she +had saved enough to buy another in its place. Ethie was generous and +noble after it was all over, if she was a little hot at times. That's +what I was going to say when you stopped me so sudden." + +Aunt Barbara looked a little aggrieved at being caught up so quickly by +her sister, who continued: "She was a Bigelow, and everybody knows what +kind of blood that is. She was too sensitive, and had too nice a +perception of what was proper to be thrown among"--heathen, she was +going to add, but something in Aunt Barbara's blue eyes kept her in +check, and so she abruptly turned to Richard and asked, "Did she leave +no message, no reason why she went?" + +Richard could have boasted his Markham blood had he chosen, and the +white heats to which that was capable of being roused; but he was too +utterly broken to feel more than a passing flash of resentment for +anything which had yet been said, and after a moment's thought, during +which he was considering the propriety of showing Mrs. Van Buren what +Ethie had written of Frank, he held the letter to her, saying, "She left +this. Read it if you like. It's a part of my punishment, I suppose, that +her friends should know all." + +With a stately bow Mrs. Van Buren took the letter and hastily read it +through, her lip quivering a little and her eyelids growing moist as +Ethie described the dreariness of that dreadful day when "Aunt Van Buren +came up from Boston and broke her heart." And as she read how much poor +Ethie had loved Frank, the cold, proud woman would have given all she +had if the past could be undone and Ethie restored to her just as she +was that summer nine years ago, when she came from the huckleberry hills +and stood beneath the maples. With a strange obtuseness peculiar to some +people who have seen their dearest plans come to naught, she failed to +ascribe the trouble to herself, but charged it all to Richard. He was +the one in fault; and by the time the letter was finished the Bigelow +blood was at a boiling pitch, and for a polished lady, Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren, of Boston, raised her voice pretty high as she asked: "Did you +presume, sir, to think that my son--mine--a married man--would make an +appointment with Ethie, a married woman? You must have a strange +misconception of the manner in which he was brought up! But it is all of +a piece with the rest of your abominable treatment of Ethelyn. I wonder +the poor girl stayed with you as long as she did. Think of it, Barbara! +Accused her of going to meet Frank by appointment, and then locked her +up to keep her at home, and she a Bigelow!" + +This was the first inkling Aunt Barbara had of what was in the letter. +She was, however, certain that Frank was in some way involved in the +matter, and anxious to know the worst, she said, beseechingly: + +"Tell me something, do. I can't read it, for my eyes are dim-like +to-night." + +They were full of unshed tears--the kind old eyes, which did not grow +one whit sterner or colder as Mrs. Van Buren explained, to some extent, +what was in the letter; reading a little, telling a little, and skipping +a little where Frank was especially concerned, until Aunt Barbara had a +pretty correct idea of the whole. Matters had been worse than she +supposed, Ethie more unhappy, and knowing her as she did, she was not +surprised that at the last she ran away; but she did not say so--she +merely sat grieved and helpless, while her sister took up the cudgels in +Ethelyn's defense, and, attacking Richard at every point, left him no +quarter at all. She did not pretend that Ethie was faultless or perfect, +she said, but surely, if mortal ever had just provocation for leaving +her husband, she had. + +"Her marriage was a great mistake," she said; "and I must say, Mr. +Markham, that you did very wrong to take her where you did without a +word of preparation. You ought to have told her what she was to expect; +then, if she chose to go, very well. But neither she nor I had any idea +of the reality; and the change must have been terrible to her. For my +part, I can conceive of nothing worse than to be obliged to live with +people whom even sister Barbara called 'Hottentots,' when she came home +from Iowa." + +"Not Hottentots," mildly interposed Aunt Barbara. "Philistines was what +I called them, Sophia; and in doing so; I did not mean all of them, +you know." + +"Well, Philistines, then, if that's a better word than Hottentots, +which I doubt," Mrs. Van Buren retorted sharply. + +Aunt Barbara's evident wish to smooth matters irritated her to say more +than she might otherwise have done, and she went on: + +"I know you made exceptions, but if my memory serves me right, your +opinion of Ethie's mother-in-law was not very complimentary to that +lady. A man has no business to take his wife to live with his mother +when he knows how different they are." + +"But I did not know," Richard said; "that is, I had never thought much +of the things which tried Ethie. Mother was always a good mother to me, +and I did not suppose she was so very different from other women." + +"You certainly must be very obtuse, then," Mrs. Van Buren replied: "for, +if all accounts which I hear are true, your mother is not the person to +make a daughter-in-law happy. Neither, it seems, did you do what you +could to please her. You annoyed her terribly with your codger-like +ways, if I may be allowed that term. You made but little effort to +improve, thinking, no doubt, that it was all nonsense and foolishness; +that it was just as well to wear your hat in church, and sit with your +boots on top of the stove, as any other way." + +"I never wore my hat in church!" Richard exclaimed, with more warmth +than he had before evinced. + +"I don't suppose you did do that particular thing, but you were guilty +of other low-bred habits which grated just as harshly as that. You +thought because you were a judge and an M.C., and had the reputation of +possessing brains, that it did not matter how you demeaned yourself; and +there you were mistaken. The manners of a gentleman would sit ten times +more gracefully upon you because you had brains. No one likes a boor, +and no man of your ability has any business to be a clown. Even if you +were not taught it at home, you could learn from observation, and it was +your duty to do so. Instead of that, you took it for granted you were +right because no one had ever suggested that you were wrong, while your +mother had petted you to death. I have not the honor of her +acquaintance, but I must say I consider her a very remarkable person, +even for a Western woman." + +"My mother was born East," Richard suggested, and Mrs. Van Buren +continued: + +"Certainly; but that does not help the matter. It rather makes it worse, +for of all disagreeable people, a Western Yankee is, I think, the most +disagreeable. Such an one never improves, but adheres strictly to the +customs of their native place, no matter how many years have passed +since they lived there, or how great the march of improvement may have +been. In these days of railroads and telegraphs there is no reason why +your mother should not be up to the times. Her neighbors are, it seems, +and I have met quite as cultivated people from beyond the Rocky +Mountains as I have even seen in Boston." + +This was a great admission for Mrs. Van Buren, who verily believed there +was nothing worth her consideration out of Boston unless it were a few +families in the immediate vicinity of Fifth Avenue and Madison Square. +She was bent upon making Richard uncomfortable, and could at the moment +think of no better way of doing it than contrasting his mother's "way" +with those of her neighbors. Occasionally Aunt Barbara put her feeble +oar into the surging tide, hoping to check, even if she could not subdue +the angry waters; but she might as well have kept silent save that +Richard understood and appreciated her efforts to spare him as much as +possible. Mrs. Van Buren was not to be stopped, and at last, when she +had pretty fully set before Richard his own and his mother's +delinquencies, she turned fiercely on her sister, demanding if she had +not said "so and so" with regard to Ethie's home in the West. Thus +straitened, Aunt Barbara replied: + +"Things did strike me a little odd at Ethie's, and I don't well see how +she could be very happy there. Mrs. Markham is queer--the queerest +woman, if I must say it, that I ever saw, though I guess there's a good +many like her up in Vermont, where she was raised, and if the truth was +known, right here in Chicopee, too; and I wouldn't wonder if there were +some queer ones in Boston. The place don't make the difference; it's the +way the folks act." + +This she said in defense of the West generally. There were quite as nice +people there as anywhere, and she believed Mrs. Markham meant to be kind +to Ethie; surely Richard did, only he did not understand her. It was +very wrong to lock her up, and then it was wrong in Ethie to marry him, +feeling as she did. "It was all wrong every way, but the heaviest +punishment for the wrong had fallen on poor Ethie, gone, nobody +knew where." + +It was not in nature for Aunt Barbara to say so much without crying, and +her tears were dropping fast into her motherly lap, where Tabby was now +lying. Mrs. Van Buren was greatly irritated that her sister did not +render her more assistance, and as a failure in that quarter called for +greater exertions on her own part, she returned again to the charge, and +wound up with sweeping denunciations against the whole Markham family. + +"The idea of taking a young girl there, and trying to bend her to your +ways of thinking--to debar her from all the refinements to which she had +been accustomed, and give her for associates an ignorant mother-in-law +and a half-witted brother." + +Richard had borne a great deal from Mrs. Van Buren, and borne it +patiently, too, as something which he deserved. He had seen himself torn +to atoms, until he would never have recognized any one of the dissected +members as parts of the Honorable Judge he once thought himself to be. +He had heard his mother and her "ways" denounced as utterly repugnant to +any person of decency, while James and John, under the head of "other +vulgar appendages to the husband," had had a share in the general +sifting down, and through it all he had kept quiet, with only an +occasional demur or explanation; but when it came to Andy, the great, +honest, true-hearted Andy, he could bear it no longer, and the Bigelow +blood succumbed to the fiery gleam in Richard's eyes as he started to +his feet, exclaiming: + +"Mrs. Van Buren, you must stop, for were you a hundred times a woman, I +would not listen to one word of abuse against my brother Andy. So long +as it was myself and my mother, I did not mind; but every hair of Andy's +head is sacred to us who know him, and I would take his part against the +world, were it only for the sake of Ethie, who loved him so much, and +whom he idolized. He would die for Ethie this very night, if need +be--aye, die for you too, perhaps, if you were suffering and his life +could bring relief. You don't know Andy, or you would know why we held +him as dear as we do the memory of our darling Daisy; and when you taunt +me with my half-witted brother, you hurt me as much as you would to tear +my dead sister from her grave, and expose her dear face to the gaze of +brutal men. No, Mrs. Van Buren, say what you like of me, but never again +sneer at my brother Andy." + +Richard paused, panting for breath, while Mrs. Van Buren looked at him +with entirely new sensations from what she had before experienced. There +was some delicacy of feeling in his nature, after all--something which +recoiled from her unwomanly attack upon his weak-minded brother--and she +respected him at that moment, if she had never done so before. Something +like shame, too, she felt for her cruel taunt, which had both roused and +wounded him, and she would gladly have recalled all she said of Andy if +she could, for she remembered now what Aunt Barbara had told her of his +kindness and the strong attachment there was between the simple man and +Ethie. Mrs. Van Buren could be generous if she tried; and as this seemed +a time for the trial, she did attempt to apologize, saying her zeal for +Ethie had carried her too far; that she hoped Richard would excuse what +she had said of Andy--she had no intention of wounding him on +that point. + +And Richard accepted the apology, but his face did not again assume the +cowed, broken expression it had worn at first. There was a compression +about the mouth, a firm shutting together of the teeth, and a dark look +in the bloodshot eyes, which warned Mrs. Van Buren not to repeat much of +what she had said. It would not now be received as it was at first. +Richard would do much to bring Ethie back--he would submit to any +humiliation, and bear anything for himself, but he would never again +listen quietly while his mother and family were so thoroughly abused. +Mrs. Van Buren felt this intuitively, and knowing that what she said had +made an impression, and would after a time be acted upon, perhaps, she +changed her tactics, and became quite as conciliating as Aunt Barbara +herself, talking and consulting with Richard as to the best course to be +pursued with regard to finding Ethie, and succeeding, in part, in +removing from his face the expression it had put on when Andy was the +subject of her maledictions. + +Richard had a great dread of meeting his uncle, the old colonel, in his +present trouble, and he was not quite sure whether he should go there or +not. At least, he should not to-night; and when the clock struck eleven, +he arose to retire. + +"The room at the head of the stairs. I had a fire made for you in +there," Aunt Barbara said, as she handed him the lamp. + +Richard hesitated a moment, and then asked, "Does anyone occupy Ethie's +old room? Seems to me I would rather go there. It would be somehow bring +her nearer to me." + +So to Ethie's old room he went, Aunt Barbara lamenting that he would +find it so cold and comfortless, but feeling an increased kindliness +toward him for this proof of love for her darling. + +"There's a great deal of good about that man, after all," she said to +her sister, when, after he was gone to his room, they sat together +around their hearth and talked the matter over afresh; and then, as she +took off and carefully smoothed her little round puffs of false hair, +and adjusted her nightcap in its place, she said, timidly, "You were +rather hard on him, Sophia, at times." + +It needed but this for Mrs. Van Buren to explode again and charge her +sister with saying too little rather than too much. "One would think you +blamed Ethie entirely, or at least that you were indifferent to her +happiness," she said, removing her lace barb, and unfastening the heavy +switch bound about her head. "I was surprised at you, Barbara, I must +say. After all your pretended affection for Ethelyn, I did expect you +would be willing to do as much as to speak for her, at least." + +This was too much for poor Aunt Barbara, and without any attempt at +justification, except that her sister in her attack upon Richard had +left her nothing to say, she cried quietly and sorrowfully, as she +folded up her white apron and made other necessary preparations for the +night. That she should be accused of not caring for Ethie, of not +speaking for her, wounded her in a tender point; and long after Mrs. Van +Buren had gone to the front chamber, where she always slept, Aunt +Barbara was on her knees by the rocking chair, praying earnestly for +Ethie, and then still kneeling there, with her face on the cushion, +sobbing softly, "God knows how much I love her. There's nothing of +personal comfort I would not sacrifice to bring her back; but when a man +was feeling as bad as he could, what was the use of making him +feel worse?" + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +WATCHING AND WAITING + +The pink and white blossoms of the apple trees by the pump in Aunt +Barbara's back yard were dropping their snowy petals upon the clean, +bright grass, and the frogs in the meadows were croaking their sad +music, when Richard Markham came again to Chicopee. He had started for +home the morning after his memorable interview with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, +and to Aunt Barbara had fallen the task of telling her troubles to the +colonel's family, asking that the affair be kept as quiet as possible, +inasmuch as Ethie might soon be found, and matters between her and +Richard be made right. Every day, after the mail came from the West, the +colonel rang at Aunt Barbara's door and asked solemnly, "if there was +any news"--good news, he meant--and Aunt Barbara always shook her head, +while her face grew thinner, and her round, straight figure began to get +a stoop and a look of greater age than the family Bible would warrant. + +Ethelyn had not been heard from, and search as he would, Richard could +find no trace of her whatever. She had effectually covered her tracks, +so that not even a clew to her whereabouts was found. No one had seen +her, or any person like her, and the suspense and anxiety of those +three--Richard, Aunt Barbara, and Andy--who loved her so well, was +getting to be terrible, when there came to Andy a letter--a letter in +the dear, familiar handwriting. A few lines only, and they read: + +"NEW YORK, May--. + +"MY DARLING ANDY: I know you have not forgotten me, and I am +superstitious enough to fancy that you are with me in spirit constantly. +I do not know why I am writing this to you, but something impels me to +do it, and tell you that I am well. I cannot say happy yet, for the +sundering of every earthly relation made too deep a wound for me not to +feel the pain for months and may be for years. I have employment, +though--constant employment--that helps me to bear, and keeps me from +dwelling too much upon the past. + +"Andy, I want you to tell Richard that in thinking over my married life +I see many places where I did very wrong and tried him terribly. I am +sorry for that, and hope he will forgive me. I wish I had never crossed +his path and left so dark a shadow on his life. + +"Tell your mother that I know now I did not try to make her like me. +Perhaps I could not if I had; but I might at least have tried. I am +sorry I troubled her so much. + +"Tell Melinda Jones, and James and John, that I remember all their +kindness, and thank them so much. And Eunice, too. She was good to me, +always. And oh! Andy, please get word somehow to dear Aunt Barbara that +her lost Ethie is well, and so sorry to give her pain, as I know I do. I +would write to her myself, but I am afraid she blames me for going away +and bringing a kind of disgrace upon her and Aunt Van Buren. I cannot +say yet I am sorry for the step I took, and, until I am sorry I cannot +write to Aunt Barbara. But you must tell her for me how much I love her, +and how every night of my life I dream I am back in the dear old home +under the maples, and see upon the hills the swelling buds and leaves of +spring. Tell her not to forget me, and be sure that wherever I am or +whatever may befall me, she will be remembered as the dearest, most +precious memory of my life. Next to her Andy, you come; my darling Andy, +who was always so kind to me when my heart was aching so hard. + +"Good-by, Andy, good-by." + +This was the letter which Andy read with streaming eyes, while around +him, on tiptoe, to look over his and each other's shoulders, stood the +entire family, all anxious and eager to know what the runaway had +written. It was a very conciliatory letter, and it left a sadly pleasant +impression on those who read it, making even the mother wipe her eyes +with the corner of her apron as she washed her supper dishes in the sink +and whispered to herself, "She didn't trouble me so very much more than +I did her. I might have done different, too." + +Richard made no comment whatever, but, like Andy, he conned the letter +over and over until he knew it by heart, especially the part referring +to himself. She had cast a shadow upon his life, but she was very dear +to him for all that, and he would gladly have taken back the substance, +had that been possible. This letter Richard carried to Aunt Barbara, +whom he found sitting in her pleasant porch, with the May moonlight +falling upon her face, and her eyes wearing the look of one who is +constantly expecting something which never comes. And Aunt Barbara was +expecting Ethie. It could not be that a young girl like her would stay +away for long. She might return at any time, and every morning the good +woman said to herself, "She will be here to-day;" every night, "She will +come home to-morrow." The letter, however, did not warrant such a +conclusion There was no talk of coming back, but the postmark, "New +York," told where she was, and that was something gained. They could +surely find her now, Aunt Barbara said, and she and Richard talked long +together about what he was going to do, for he was on his way then to +the great city. + +"Bring her to me at once. It is my privilege to have her first," Aunt +Barbara said, next morning, as she bade Richard good-by, and then began +to watch and wait for tidings which never came. + +Richard could not find Ethelyn, or any trace of her, and after a +protracted search of six long weeks, he went back to his Iowa home, +sick, worn out, and discouraged. Aunt Barbara roused herself for action. +"Men were good for nothing to hunt. They could not find a thing if it +was right before their face and eyes. It took a woman; and she was going +to see what she could do," she said to Mrs. Van Buren, who was up at the +homestead for a few days, and who looked aghast at her sister's +proposition, that she should accompany her, and help her hunt up Ethie. + +"Was Barbara crazy, that she thought of going to New York in this hot +weather, when the smallpox, and the dysentery, and the plague, and mercy +knew what was there? Besides that, how did Barbara intend to manage? +What was she going to do?" + +Barbara hardly knew herself how she should manage, or what she should +do. "Providence would direct," she said, though to be sure she had an +idea. Ethie had written that she had found employment, and what was more +probable than to suppose that the employment was giving music lessons, +for which she was well qualified, or teaching in some gentleman's +family. Taking this as her basis, Aunt Barbara intended to inquire for +every governess and teacher in the city, besides watching every house +where such an appendage would be likely to be found. Still her great +hope was in the street and the Park. She should surely meet Ethie there +some day--at least she would try the effect of her plan; and she went +quietly on with her preparations, while Mrs. Van Buren tried to dissuade +her from a scheme which seemed so foolish and utterly impracticable. + +"Suppose Ethie was a governess, the family most likely would be out of +town at that season; and what good would it do for Aunt Barbara to risk +her life and health in the crowded city?" + +This view of the matter was rather dampening to Aunt Barbara's zeal; but +trusting that Providence would interfere in her behalf, she still +insisted that she should go, and again expressed a wish that Sophia +would go with her. "It would not be so lonesome, and would look better, +too," she said, "while you know more of city ways than I do, and would +not get imposed upon." + +Mrs. Van Buren could go far beyond her sister in abusing Richard, but +when it came to a sacrifice of her own comfort and pleasure, she held +back. Nothing could induce her to go to New York. She preferred the cool +seaside, where she was to join a party of Boston élite. Her dresses were +made, her room engaged, and she must go, she said, urging that Nettie's +health required the change--Nettie, who had given to her husband a +sickly, puny child, which lived just long enough to warrant a grand +funeral, and then was laid to rest under the shadow of the Van Buren +monument, out in pleasant Mount Auburn. + +So Mrs. Van Buren went back to Boston, while Aunt Barbara gave all +needful directions to Betty with regard to the management of the house, +and the garden, and plants, and cellar door, which must be shut nights, +and the spot on the roof which sometimes leaked when it rained, and the +burdocks and dandelions which must be dug up, and the grass which Uncle +Billy Thompson must cut once in two weeks, and the old cat, Tabby, and +the young cat, Jim, who had come to the door in a storm, and was now the +pet of the house, and the canary bird, and the yeast, and look in the +vinegar barrel to see that all was right, and be sure and scald the +milk-pans, and turn them up in the sun for an hour, and keep the doors +locked, and the silver up in the scuttle-hole; and if she heard the rat +which baffled and tormented them so long, get some poison and kill it, +but not on any account let it get in the cistern; and keep the +door-steps clean, and the stoop, and once in a while sweep the low roof +at the back of the house, and not sit up late nights, or sleep very long +in the morning; and inasmuch as there would be so little to do, she +might as well finish up all her new sewing, and make the pile of sheets +and pillow-cases which had been cut out since March. These were Aunt +Barbara's directions, which Betty, nothing appalled, promised to heed, +telling her mistress not to worry an atom, as things should be attended +to, even better than if she were at home to see to them herself. + +Aunt Barbara knew she could trust old Betty, and so, after getting +herself vaccinated in both arms, as a precaution against the smallpox, +and procuring various disinfecting agents, and having underpockets put +in all her dresses, by way of eluding pickpockets, the good woman +started one hot July morning on her mission in search of Ethie. But, +alas, finding Ethie, or anyone, in New York, was like "hunting for a +needle in a hay mow," as Aunt Barbara began to think after she had been +for four weeks or more an inmate of an uptown boarding house, +recommended as first-class, but terrible to Aunt Barbara, from the +contrast it presented to her own clean, roomy home beneath the maple +trees, which came up to her so vividly, with all its delicious coolness +and fragrance, and blossoming shrubs, and newly cut grass, with the dew +sparkling like diamonds upon it. + +Aunt Barbara was terribly homesick from the first, but she would not +give up; so day after day she traversed one street after another, +looking wistfully in every face she met for the one she sought, +questioning children playing in the parks and squares as to whether they +knew any teacher by the name of Markham or Grant, ringing the door-bells +of every pretentious-looking house and putting the same question to the +servants, until the bombazine dress and black Stella shawl, and brown +Neapolitan hat, and old-fashioned lace veil, and large sun umbrella +became pretty well known in various parts of New York, while the owner +thereof grew to be a suspicious character, whom servants watched from +the basement and ladies from the parlor windows, and children shunned on +the sidewalk, while even the police were cautioned with regard to the +strange woman who went up and down day after day, sometimes in stages, +sometimes in cars, but oftener on foot, staring at everyone she met, +especially if they chanced to be young or pretty, and had any children +near them. Once down near Washington Square, as she was hurrying toward +a group of children, in the center of which stood a figure much like +Ethie's, a tall man in the blue uniform accosted her, inquiring into her +reasons for wandering about so constantly. + +Aunt Barbara's honest face, which she turned full toward the officer, +was a sufficient voucher for her with the simple, straightforward +explanation which she made to the effect that her niece had left home +some time ago--run away, in fact--and she was hunting for her here in +New York, where her letter was dated. "But it's wearisome work for an +old woman like me, walking all over New York, as I have," Aunt Barbara +said, and her lip began to quiver as she sat down upon one of the seats +in the square, and looked helplessly up at the policeman. She was not +afraid of him, nor of the five others of the craft who knew her by +sight, and stopped to hear what she had to say. She never dreamed that +they could suspect her of wrong, and they did not when they heard her +story, and saw the truthful, motherly face. Perhaps they could help her, +they said, and they asked the name of the runaway. + +At first Aunt Barbara refused to give it, wishing to spare Ethie this +notoriety; but she finally yielded so far as to say, "She might call +herself either Markham or Grant," and that was all they could get from +her; but after that day the bombazine dress, and black Stella shawl, and +large sun umbrella were safe from the surveillance of the police, save +as each had a kindly care for the owner, and an interest in the object +of her search. + +The light-fingered gentry, however, were not as chary of her. The sweet, +motherly face, and wistful, pleading, timid eyes, did not deter them in +the least. On the contrary, they saw in the bombazine and Stella shawl a +fine field for their operations; and twice, on returning to her boarding +house, the good soul was horrified to find her purse was missing, +notwithstanding that she had kept her hand upon her pocket every +instant, except once, when the man who looked like a minister had kindly +opened the car window for her, and she had gathered up her dress to make +more room for him at her side, and once when she got entangled in a +crowd, and had to hold on to her shawl to keep it on her shoulders. Ten +dollars was the entire sum purloined, so the villains did not make much +out of her, Aunt Barbara reflected with a good deal of complacency; but +when they stole her gold-bowed glasses from her pocket, and adroitly +snatched from her hand the parcel containing the dress she had bought +for Betty at Stewart's, she began to look upon herself as specially +marked by a gang of thieves for one on whom to commit their +depredations; and when at last a fire broke out in the very block where +she was boarding, and she, with others was driven from her bed at +midnight, with her bombazine only half on, and her hoops left behind, +she made up her mind that the fates were against her, and wrote to Betty +that she was coming home, following her letter in the next train so that +both reached Chicopee the same day, the very last day of summer. + +It was sooner than Betty expected her, but the clean, cool house, +peeping out from the dense shadows of the maples, looked like a paradise +to the tired, dusty woman, who rode down the street in the village hack +and surprised Betty sitting in the back door cutting off corn to dry and +talking to Uncle Billy, whose scythe lay on the grass while he drank +from the gourd swimming on top of the water-pail. + +Betty was glad to see her mistress, and lamented that she did not know +of her coming, so as to have a nice hot cup of tea ready, with a +delicate morsel of something. Aunt Barbara was satisfied to be home on +any terms, though her nose did go up a little, and something which +sounded like "P-shew!" dropped from her lips as she entered the dark +sitting room, where the odor was not the best in the world. + +"It's the rat, ma'am, I think," Betty said, opening both blinds and +windows. "I put the pizen for him as you said, and all I could do he +would die in the wall. It ain't as bad as it has been, and I've got some +stuff here to kill it, though I think it smells worse than the rat +himself," and Betty held her nose as she pointed out to her mistress the +saucer of chloride of lime which, at Mrs. Col. Markham's suggestion, she +had put in the sitting room. + +Aside from the rat in the wall, things were mostly as Aunt Barbara could +wish them to be. The vinegar had made beautifully. There was fresh +yeast, brewed the day before, in the jug. The milk-pans were bright and +sweet; the cellar door was fastened; the garden was looking its best; +the silver was all up the scuttle-hole, Betty climbing up and risking +her neck every morning to see if it were safe; the stoop and steps were +scrubbed, the roof was swept, and both the cats, Tabby and Jim, were so +fat that they could scarcely walk as they came up to greet their +mistress. Only two mishaps Betty had to relate. Jim had eaten up the +canary bird, and she had broken the kitchen tongs. She had also failed +to accomplish as much sewing as she had hoped to do, and the pile of +work was not greatly diminished. + +"There is so many steps to take when a body is alone, and with you gone +I was more particular," she said, by way of apology, as she confessed to +the rat, and the canary bird, and the kitchen tongs, and the small +amount of sewing she had done. + +These were all the points wherein she had been remiss, and Aunt Barbara +was content, and even happy, as she laid aside her Stella shawl and +brown Neapolitan, and out in her pleasant dining room sat down to the +hasty meal which Betty improvised, of bread and butter, Dutch cheese, +baked apples, and huckleberry pie, with a cup of delicious tea, such as +Aunt Barbara did not believe the people of New York had ever tasted. +Most certainly those who were fortunate enough to board at first-class +boarding-houses had not; and as she sipped her favorite beverage with +Tabby on her dress and the criminal Tim in her lap, his head +occasionally peering over the table, she felt comforted and rested, and +thankful for her cozy home, albeit it lay like a heavy weight upon her +that her trouble had been for nothing, and no tidings of Ethie had +been obtained. + +She wrote to Richard the next day, of her unsuccessful search, and asked +what they should do next. + +"We can do nothing but wait and hope," Richard wrote in reply, but Aunt +Barbara added to it, "we can pray;" and so all through the autumn, when +the soft, hazy days which Ethie had loved so well kept the lost one +forever in mind, Aunt Barbara waited and hoped, and prayed and watched +for Ethie's coming home, feeling always a sensation of expectancy when +the Western whistle sounded and the Western train went thundering +through the town; and when the hack came up from the depot and did not +stop at her door, she said to herself, "She would walk up, maybe," and +then waiting again she would watch from her window and look far up the +quiet street, where the leaves of crimson and gold were lying upon the +walk. No Ethie was to be seen. Then as the days grew shorter and the +nights fell earlier upon the Chicopee hills, and the bleak winds blew +across the meadow, and the waters of the river looked blue and dark and +cold in the November light, she said: "She will be here sure by +Christmas. She always liked that day best," and her fingers were busy +with the lamb's wool stockings she was knitting for her darling. + +"It won't be much," she said to Betty, "but it will show she is not +forgotten;" and so the stocking grew, and was shaped from a half-worn +pair which Ethelyn used to wear, and on which Aunt Barbara's tears +dropped as she thought of the dear little feet, now wandered so far +away, which the stockings used to cover. + +Christmas came, and Susie Granger sang of Bethlehem in the old stone +church, and other fingers than Ethie's swept the organ keys, and the +Christmas tree was set up, and the presents were hung upon the boughs, +and the names were called, and Aunt Barbara was there, but the +lamb's-wool stockings were at home in the bureau drawer; there was no +one to wear them, no one to take them from the tree, if they had been +put there; Ethie had not come. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +AFFAIRS AT OLNEY + +Richard could not stay in Camden, where everything reminded him so much +of Ethelyn, and at his mother's earnest solicitations he went back to +Olney, taking with him all the better articles of furniture which Ethie +had herself selected, and which converted the plain farmhouse into quite +a palace, as both Andy and his mother thought. The latter did not object +to them in the least, and was even conscious of a feeling of pride and +satisfaction when her neighbors came in to admire, and some of them to +envy her the handsome surroundings. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's lesson, though +a very bitter one, was doing Richard good, especially as it was adroitly +followed up by Melinda Jones, who, on the strength of her now being his +sister-elect, took the liberty of saying to him some pretty plain things +with regard to his former intercourse with Ethie. + +James had finally nerved himself to the point of asking Melinda if she +could be happy with such a homespun fellow as himself, and Melinda had +answered that she thought she could, hinting that it was possible for +him to overcome much which was homespun about him. + +"I do not expect you to leave off your heavy boots or your coarse frock +when your work requires you to wear them," she said, stealing her hand +into his in a caressing kind of way; "but a man can be a gentleman in +any dress." + +James promised to do his best, and with Melinda Jones for a teacher, had +no fear of his success. And so, some time in August, when the summer +work at the Jones' was nearly done, Melinda came to the farmhouse and +was duly installed as mistress of the chamber which James and John had +occupied--the latter removing his Sunday clothes, and rifle, and fishing +lines, and tobacco, and the slippers Ethie had given him, into Andy's +room, which he shared with his brother. Mrs. Markham, senior, got on +better with Melinda than she had with Ethelyn; Melinda knew exactly how +to manage her, and, indeed, how to manage the entire household, from +Richard down to Andy, who, though extremely kind and attentive to her, +never loved her as he did Ethelyn. + +"She was a nice, good girl," he said, "but couldn't hold a candle to +Ethie. She was too dark complected, and had altogether too thumpin' feet +and ankles, besides wearin' wrinkly stockings." + +That was Andy's criticism, confided to his brother John, around whose +grave mouth there was a faint glimmer of a smile, as he gave a hitch to +his suspender and replied, "I guess her stockin's do wrinkle some." + +A few of Melinda's ways Mrs. Markham designated as high-flown, but one +by one her prejudices gave way as Melinda gained upon her step by step, +until at last Ethelyn would hardly have recognized the well-ordered +household, so different from what she had known it. + +"The boys" no longer came to the table in their shirt-sleeves, for +Melinda always had their coats in sight, just where it was handy to put +them on, and the trousers were slipped down over the boots while the +boys ate, and the soft brown Markham hair always looked smooth and +shining, and Mrs. Markham tidied herself a little before coming to the +table, no matter how heavy her work, and never but once was she guilty +of sitting down to her dinner in her pasteboard sun-bonnet, giving as an +excuse that her "hair was at sixes and sevens." She remembered seeing +her mother do this fifty years before, and she had clung to the habit as +one which must be right because they used to do so in Vermont. +Gradually, too, there came to be napkins for tea, and James' Christmas +present to his wife was a set of silver forks, while John contributed a +dozen individual salts, and Andy bought a silver bell, to call he did +not know whom, only it looked pretty on the table, and he wanted it +there every meal, ringing it himself sometimes when anything was needed, +and himself answering the call. On the whole, the Markhams were getting +to be "dreadfully stuck up," Eunice Plympton's mother said, while Eunice +doubted if she should like living there now as well as in the days of +Ethelyn. She had been a born lady, and Eunice conceded everything to +her; but, "to see the airs that Melinda Jones put on" was a little too +much for Eunice's democratic blood, and she and her mother made many +invidious remarks concerning "Mrs. Jim Markham," who wore such heavy +silk to church, and sported such handsome furs. One hundred and fifty +dollars the cape alone had cost, it was rumored, and when, to this +Richard added a dark, rich muff to match, others than Eunice looked +enviously at Mrs. James, who to all intents and purposes, was the same +frank, outspoken person that she was when she wore a plain scarf around +her neck, and rode to church in her father's lumber wagon instead of the +handsome turn-out James had bought since his marriage. Nothing could +spoil Melinda, and though she became quite the fashion in Olney, and was +frequently invited to Camden to meet the élite of the town, she was up +just as early on Monday mornings as when she lived at home, and her +young, strong arms saved Mrs. Markham more work than Eunice's had done. +She would not dip candles, she said, nor burn them, either, except as a +matter of convenience to carry around the house; and so the tallows gave +way to kerosene, and as Melinda liked a great deal of light, the house +was sometimes illuminated so brilliantly that poor Mrs. Markham had +either to shade her eyes with her hands, or turn her back to the lamp. +She never thought of opposing Melinda; that would have done no good; and +she succumbed with the rest to the will which was ruling them so +effectually and so well. + +Some very plain talks Melinda had with Richard with regard to Ethelyn; +and Richard, when he saw how anxious James was to please his wife, even +in little things which he had once thought of no consequence, regretted +so much that his own course had not been different with Ethelyn. "Poor, +dear Ethie," he called her to himself, as he sat alone at night in the +room where she used to be. At first he had freely talked of her with his +family. That was when, like Aunt Barbara, they were expecting her back, +or rather expecting constantly to hear from her through Aunt Barbara. +She would go to Chicopee first, they felt assured, and then Aunt Barbara +would write, and Richard would start at once. How many castles he built +to that second bringing her home, where Melinda made everything so +pleasant, and where she could be happy for a little time, when they +would go where she liked--it did not matter where. Richard was willing +for anything, only he did want her to stay a little time at the +farmhouse, just to see how they had improved, and to learn that his +mother could be kind if she tried. She meant to be so if Ethelyn ever +came back, for she had said as much to him on the receipt of Ethie's +message, sent in Andy's letter, and her tears had fallen fast as she +confessed to not always having felt or acted right toward the young +girl. With Melinda the ruling spirit they would have made it very +pleasant for Ethelyn, and they waited for her so anxiously all through +the autumnal days till early winter snow covered the prairies, and the +frost was on the window panes, and the wind howled dismally past the +door, just as it did one year ago, when Ethelyn went away. But, alas no +Ethie came, or tidings of her either, and Richard ceased to speak of her +at last, and his face wore so sad a look whenever she was mentioned that +the family stopped talking of her; or, if they spoke her name, it was as +they spoke of Daisy, or of one that was dead. + +For a time Richard kept up a correspondence with Aunt Barbara; but that, +too, gradually ceased, and as his uncle, the old colonel, died in the +spring, and the widow went to her friends in Philadelphia, he seemed to +be cut off from any connections with Chicopee, and but for the sad, +harassing memory of what had been, he was to all intents and purposes +the same grave, silent bachelor as of yore, following the bent of his +own inclinations, coming and going as he liked, sought after by those +who wished for an honest man to transact their business, and growing +gradually more and more popular with the people of his own and the +adjoining counties. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE GOVERNOR + +They were to elect a new one in Iowa, and there were rumors afloat that +Richard Markham would be the man chosen by his party. There had been +similar rumors once before, but Mrs. Markham had regarded them as +mythical, never dreaming that such an honor could be in store for her +boy. Now, however, matters began to look a little serious. Crowds of men +came frequently to the farmhouse and were closeted with Richard. Tim +Jones rode up and down the country, electioneering for "Dick." Hal +Clifford, in Camden, contributed his influence, though he belonged to +the other party. Others, too, of Harry's way of thinking, cast aside +political differences and "went in," as they said, for the best man--one +whom they knew to be honest and upright, like Judge Markham. Each in +their own way--James and John, and Andy and Melinda--worked for Richard, +who was frequently absent from home for several days, sometimes taking +the stump himself, but oftener remaining quiet while others presented +his cause. Search as they might, his opponents could find nothing +against him, except that sad affair with his wife, who, one paper said, +"had been put out of the way when she became troublesome," hinting at +every possible atrocity on the husband's part, and dilating most +pathetically upon the injured, innocent, and beautiful young wife. Then +with a face as pale as ashes, Richard made his "great speech" in Camden +court-house, asking that the whole matter be dropped at once, and saying +that he would far rather live a life of obloquy than have the name, more +dear to him than the names of our loved dead, bandied about from lip to +lip and made the subject for newspaper paragraphs. They knew Richard in +Camden, and they knew Ethelyn, too, liking both so well, that the result +of that speech was to increase Richard's popularity tenfold, and to +carry in his favor the entire town. + +The day of election was a most exciting one, especially in Olney, where +Richard had lived from boyhood. It was something for a little town like +this to furnish the governor, the Olneyites thought, and though, for +party's sake, there were some opponents, the majority went for Richard, +and Tim Jones showed his zeal by drinking with so many that at night he +stopped at the farmhouse, insisting that he had reached home, and should +stay there, "for all of Melind," and hurrahing so loud for +"Richud--Mark-um--Square," that he woke up the little blue-eyed boy +which for six weeks had been the pride and pet and darling of the +household. + +Andy's tactics were different. He had voted in the morning, and prayed +the rest of the day, that if it were right, "old Dick might lick the +whole of 'em," adding the petition that "he need not be stuck up if he +was governor," and that Ethie might come back to share his greatness. +Others than Andy were thinking of Ethelyn that day, for not the faintest +echo of a huzza reached Richard's ears that did not bring with it +regretful thoughts of her. And when at last success was certain, and, +flushed with triumph, he stood receiving the congratulations of his +friends, and the Olney bell was ringing in honor of the new governor, +and bonfires were lighted in the streets, the same little boys who had +screamed themselves hoarse for the other candidates, stealing barrels +and dry-goods boxes to feed the flames with quite as much alacrity as +their opponents, there was not a throb of his heart which did not go out +after the lost one, with a yearning desire to bring her back, and, by +giving her the highest position in the State, atone in part for all +which had been wrong. But Ethie was very, very far away--further than he +dreamed--and strain ear and eye as she might, she could not see the +lurid blaze which lit up the prairie till the tall grass grew red in +the ruddy glow, or hear the deafening shouts which rent the sky for the +new Governor Markham, elected by an overwhelming majority. Oh, how +lonely Richard felt even in the first moments of his success! And how he +longed to get away from all the noise and din which greeted him at every +step, and be alone again, as since Ethie went away he had chosen to be +so much of his time. Melinda guessed at his feelings in part, and when +he came home at last, looking so pale and tired, she pitied him, and +showed her pity by letting him alone; and when supper was ready, sending +his tea to his room, whither he had gone as soon as his mother had +unwound her arms from his neck, and told him how glad she was. + +These were also days of triumph for Melinda, for it was soon known that +she was to be the lady of the governor's mansion, and the knowledge gave +her a fresh accession of dignity among her friends. It was human that +Melinda should feel her good fortune a little, and perhaps she did. Andy +thought so, and prayed silently against the pomps and vanities of the +world, especially after her new purple silk was sent home, with the +handsome velvet cloak and crimson morning gown. These had been made in +Camden, a thing which gave mortal offense to Miss Henry, the Olney +dressmaker, who wondered "what Melinda Jones was that she should put on +such airs, and try to imitate Mrs. Richard Markham." They had expected +such things from Ethelyn, and thought it perfectly right. She was born +to it, they said; but for Melinda, whom all remembered as wearing a red +woolen gown when a little girl, "for her to set up so steep was another +matter." But when Melinda ordered a blue merino, and a flannel wrapper, +and a blue silk, and a white cloak for baby, made at Miss Henry's, and +told that functionary just how her purple was trimmed, and even offered +to show it to her, the lady changed her mind, and quoted "Mrs. James +Markham's" wardrobe for months afterward. + +Richard, and James, and Melinda, and baby, and Eunice Plympton as baby's +nurse, all went to Des Moines, and left the house so lonely that Andy +lay flat upon the floor and cried, and his mother's face wore the look +of one who had just returned from burying their dead. It was something, +however, to be the mother and brother of a governor, and a comfort to +get letters from the absent ones, to hear of Richard's immense +popularity, and the very graceful manner in which Melinda discharged her +duties. But to see their names in print, to find something about +Governor Markham in almost every paper--that was best of all, and Andy +spent half his time in cutting out and saving every little scrap +pertaining to the "governor's family," and what they did at Des Moines. +Andy was laid up with rheumatism toward spring; but Tim Jones used to +bring him the papers, rolling his quid of tobacco rapidly from side to +side as he pointed to the paragraphs so interesting to both. Tim hardly +knew whether himself, or Richard, or Melinda, was the governor. On the +whole, he gave the preference to "Melind," after the governor's levee, +at which she had appeared in "royal purple, with ostrich feathers in her +hair," and was described in the Camden _Leader_ as the "elegant and +accomplished Mrs. James Markham, who had received the guests with so +much dignity and grace." + +"Ain't Melind a brick? and only to think how she used to milk the cows, +and I once chased her with a garter snake," Tim said, reading the +article aloud to Andy, who, while assenting that she was a brick, and +according all due credit to her for what she was, and what she did, +never for a moment forgot Ethelyn. + +She would have done so much better, and looked so much neater, +especially her shoes! Andy could not quite forgive Melinda's big feet +and ankles, especially as his contempt for such appendages was +constantly kept in mind by the sight of the little half-worn slippers +which Ethie had left in her closet when she moved to Camden, and which, +now that she was gone, he kept as something almost as sacred as Daisy's +hair, admiring the dainty rosettes and small high heels more than he +admired the whole of Melinda's wardrobe when spread upon the bed, and +tables, and chairs, preparatory to packing it for Des Moines. Richard, +too, remembered Ethelyn, and never did Melinda stand at his side in any +gay saloon that he did not see in her place a brown-eyed, brown-haired +woman who would have moved a very queen among the people. Ethelyn was +never forgotten, whether in the capitol, or the street, or at home, or +awake, or asleep. Ethie's face and Ethie's form were everywhere, and if +earnest, longing thoughts could have availed to bring her back, she +would have come, whether across the rolling sea, or afar from the +trackless desert. But they could not reach her, Ethie did not come, and +the term of Richard's governorship glided away, and he declined a +re-election, and went back to Olney, looking ten years older than when +he left it, with an habitual expression of sadness on his face, which +even strangers noticed, wondering what was the heart trouble which was +aging him so fast, and turning his brown hair gray. + +For a time the stillness and quiet of Olney were very acceptable to him, +and then he began to long for more excitement--something to divert his +mind from the harrowing fear, daily growing more and more certain, that +Ethie would never come back. It was four years since she went away, and +nothing had been heard from her since the letter sent to Andy from New +York. "Dead," he said to himself many a time, and but for the dread of +the hereafter, he, too, would gladly have lain down in the graveyard +where Daisy was sleeping so quietly. With Andy it was different. Ethie +was not dead--he knew she was not--and some time she would surely come +back, There was comfort in Andy's strong assurance, and Richard always +felt better after a talk with his hopeful brother. Perhaps she would +come back, and if so he must have a place worthy of her, he said, one +day, to Melinda, who seized the opportunity to unfold a plan she had +long been cogitating. During the two years spent in Des Moines, James +had devoted himself to the study of law, preferring it to his farming, +and now he was looking out for a good locality where to settle and +practice his profession. + +"Let's go together somewhere and build a house," Melinda said. "You know +Ethie's taste. You can fashion it as you think she would like it, and +meantime we will live with you and see to you a little. You need some +looking after," and Melinda laid her hand half pityingly upon the bowed +head of her brother-in-law, who, but for her strong, upholding +influence, and Andy's cheering faith, would have sunk ere this into +hopeless despondency. + +Melinda was a fine specimen of true womanhood. She had met many highly +cultivated people at Des Moines and other towns, where, as the +governor's sister-in-law, she had spent more or less of the last two +years, and as nothing ever escaped her notice, she had improved +wonderfully, until even Mrs. Van Buren, of Boston, would have been proud +of her acquaintance. She had known sorrow, too; for in the cemetery at +Des Moines she had left her little blue-eyed baby boy when only six +months old, and her mother's heart had ached to its very core, until +there came another child, a little girl, this time, whom they had +christened "Ethelyn Grant," and who, on this account, was quite as dear +to Richard as to either of its parents. Richard was happier with that +little brown-haired girl than with anyone else, and when Melinda +suggested they should go together somewhere, he assented readily, +mentioning Davenport as a place where Ethelyn had many times said she +would like to live. Now, as ever, Melinda's was the active, ruling +voice, and almost before Richard knew it, he was in Davenport and +bargaining for a vacant lot which overlooked the river and much of the +country beyond. Davenport suited them all, and by September, Melinda, +who had spent the summer with her mother, was located at a hotel and +making herself very useful to Richard with her suggestions with regard +to the palatial mansion he was building. + +There was nothing in Davenport like the "governor's house," and the +people watched it curiously as it went rapidly up. There was a suite of +rooms which they called Ethelyn's, and to the arrangement and adorning +of these Richard gave his whole attention, sparing nothing which could +make them beautiful and attractive, and lavishing so much expense upon +them that strangers came to inspect and comment upon them, wondering why +he took so much pains, and guessing, as people will, that he was +contemplating a second marriage as soon as a divorce could be obtained +from his runaway wife. + +The house was finished at last, and Richard took possession, installing +Melinda as housekeeper, and feeling how happy he should be if only Ethie +were there. Somehow he expected her now. Andy's prayers would certainly +be answered even if his own were not, for he, too, had begun to pray, +feeling, at times, that God was slow to hear, as weeks and weeks went by +and still Ethie did not come. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and +the weary waiting told upon his bodily health, which began to fail so +rapidly that people said "Governor Markham was going into a decline," +and the physicians urged a change of air, and Mr. Townsend, who came in +May for a day at Davenport, recommended him strongly to try what Clifton +Springs, in Western New York, could do for him--the Clifton, whose +healing waters and wonderful power to cure were famed from the shores of +the Atlantic to the Californian hills. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AFTER YEARS OF WAITING + +The weather in Chicopee that spring was as capricious as the smiles of +the most spoiled coquette could ever be. The first days of April were +warm, and balmy, and placid, without a cloud upon the sky or a token of +storm in the air. The crocuses and daffodils showed their heads in the +little borders by Aunt Barbara's door, and Uncle Billy Thompson sowed +the good woman a bed of lettuce, and peas, and onions, which came up +apace, and were the envy of the neighbors. Taking advantage of the +warmth and the sunshine, and Uncle Billy's being there to whip her +carpets, Aunt Barbara even began her house cleaning, commencing at the +chambers first--the rooms which since the last "reign of terror," had +only been used when a clergyman spent Sunday there, and when Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren was up for a few days from Boston, with Nettie and the new +girl baby, which, like Melinda's, bore the name of Ethelyn. Still they +must be renovated, and cleaned, and scrubbed, lest some luckless moth +were hiding there, or some fly-speck perchance had fallen upon the +glossy paint. Aunt Barbara was not an untidy house-cleaner--one who +tosses the whole house into chaos, and simultaneous with the china from +the closet, brings up a basket of bottles from the cellar to be washed +and rinsed. She took one room at a time, settling as she went along, so +that her house never was in that state of dire confusion which so many +houses present every fall and spring. Her house was not hard to clean, +and the chambers were soon done, except Ethie's own room, where Aunt +Barbara lingered longest, turning the pretty ingrain carpet the +brightest side up, rubbing the furniture with polish, putting a bit of +paint upon the window sills where it was getting worn, and once +revolving the propriety of hanging new paper upon the wall. But that, +she reasoned, would be needless expense. Since the night Richard spent +there, five years ago, no one had slept there, and no one should sleep +there, either, till Ethie came back again. + +"Till Ethie comes again." Aunt Barbara rarely said that now, for with +each fleeting year the chance for Ethie's coming grew less and less, +until now she seldom spoke of it to Betty, the only person to whom she +ever talked of Ethie. Even with her she was usually very reticent, +unless something brought the wanderer to mind more vividly than usual. +Cleaning her room was such an occasion, and sitting down upon the floor, +while she darned a hole in the carpet which the turning had brought to +view, Aunt Barbara spoke of her darling, and the time when, a little +toddling thing of two years old, she first came to the homestead, and +was laid in that very room, and "on that very pillow," Aunt Barbara +said, seeing again the round hollow left by the little brown head when +the child awoke and stretched its fat arms toward her. + +"Julia, her mother, died in that bed," Aunt Barbara went on, "and Ethie +always slept there after that. Well put on the sheets marked with her +name, Betty, and the ruffled pillow-cases. I want it to seem as if she +were here," and Aunt Barbara's chin quivered, and her eyes grew moist, +as her fat, creasy hands smoothed and patted the plump pillows, and +tucked in the white spread, and picked up a feather, and moved a chair, +and shut the blinds, and dropped the curtains, and then she went softly +out and shut the door behind her. + +Two weeks from that day, the soft, bland air was full of sleet, and +snow, and rain, which beat down the poor daffies on the borders, and +pelted the onions, and lettuce, and peas which Uncle Billy had planted, +and dashed against the closed windows of Ethie's room, and came in under +the door of the kitchen, and through the bit of leaky roof in the dining +room, while the heavy northeaster which swept over the Chicopee hills +screamed fiercely at Betty peering curiously out to see if it was going +to be any kind of drying for the clothes she had put out early in the +day, and then, as if bent on a mischievous frolic took from the line and +carried far down the street, Aunt Barbara's short night-gown with the +patch upon the sleeve. On the whole it was a bleak, raw, stormy day, and +when the night shut down, the snow lay several inches deep upon the +half-frozen ground, making the walking execrable, and giving to the +whole village that dirty, comfortless appearance which a storm in April +always does. It was pleasant, though, in Aunt Barbara's sitting room. It +was always pleasant there, and it seemed doubly so to-night from the +contrast presented to the world without by the white-washed ceiling, the +newly whipped carpet, the clean, white curtains, and the fire blazing on +the hearth, where two huge red apples were roasting. This was a favorite +custom of Aunt Barbara's, roasting apples in the evening. She used to do +it when Ethie was at home, for Ethie enjoyed it quite as much as she +did, and when the red cheeks burst, and the white frothy pulp came +oozing out, she used, as a little girl, to clap her hands and cry, "The +apples begin to bleed, auntie! the apples begin to bleed!" + +Aunt Barbara never roasted them now that she did not remember her +darling, and many times she put one down for Ethie, feeing that the +"make believe" was better than nothing at all. There was one for +to-night, and Aunt Barbara sat watching it as it simmered and sputtered, +and finally burst with the heat, "bleeding," just as her heart was +bleeding for the runaway whose feet had wandered so long. It was after +nine, and Betty had gone to bed, so that Aunt Barbara was there alone, +with the big Bible in her lap. She had been reading the parable of the +Prodigal, and though she would not liken Ethie to him, she sighed +softly, "If she would only come, we would kill the fatted calf." Then, +thoughtfully, she turned the leaves of the Good Book one by one, till +she found the "Births," and read in a low whisper, "Ethelyn Adelaide, +Born," and so forth. Then her eye moved on to where the marriage of +Ethelyn Adelaide with Richard Markham, of Iowa, had been recorded; and +then she turned to the last of "Deaths," wondering if, unseen by her, +Ethie's name had been added to the list. The last name visible to mortal +eye was that of Julia, wife of William Grant, who had died at the age of +twenty-five. + +"Just as old as Ethie is, if living," Aunt Barbara whispered, and the +tears which blotted the name of Julia Grant were given to Ethie rather +than the young half-sister who had been so much of a stranger. + +Suddenly, as Aunt Barbara sat there, with her Bible in her lap, there +was heard the distant rumbling of the New York express, as it came +rolling across the plains from West Chicopee. Then as the roar became +more muffled as it moved under the hill, a shrill whistle echoed on the +night air, and half the people of Chicopee who were awake said to each +other, "The train is stopping. Somebody has come from New York." It was +not often that the New York express stopped at Chicopee, and when it +did, it was made a matter of comment. To-night, however, it was too +dark, and stormy, and late for anyone to see who had come; and guessing +it was some of the Lewises, who now lived in Col. Markham's old house, +the people, one by one, went to their beds, until nearly every light in +Chicopee was extinguished save the one shining out into the darkness +from the room where Aunt Barbara sat, with thoughts of Ethie in her +heart. And up the steep hill, from the station, through the snow, a +girlish figure toiled--the white, thin face looking wistfully down the +maple-lined street when the corner by the common was turned, and the +pallid lips whispering softly, "I wonder if she will know me?" + +There were flecks of snow upon the face and on the smooth brown hair and +travel-soiled dress; clogs of snow, too, upon the tired feet--the little +feet Andy had admired so much; but the traveler kept on bravely, till +the friendly light shone out beneath the maples, and then she paused, +and leaning for a moment against the fence, sobbed aloud, but not sadly +or bitterly. She was too near home for that--too near the darling Aunt +Barbara, who did not hear gate or door unclose, or the step in the dark +hall. But when the knob of the sitting room door moved, she heard it, +and, without turning her head, called out, "What is it, Betty? I thought +you in bed an hour ago." + +The supposed Betty did not reply, but stood a brief instant taking in +every feature in the room, from the two apples roasting on the hearth to +the little woman sitting with her fingers on the page where possibly +Ethie's death ought to be recorded. Aunt Barbara was waiting for Betty +to answer, and she turned her head at last, just as a low, rapid step +glided across the floor, and a voice, which thrilled every vain, first +with a sudden fear, and then with a joy unspeakable, said, "Aunt +Barbara, it's I. It's Ethie, come back to you again. Is she +welcome here?" + +Was she welcome? Answer, the low cry, and gasping sob, and outstretched +arms, which held the wanderer in so loving an embrace, while a rain of +tears fell upon the dear head from which the bonnet had fallen back as +Ethelyn sank upon her knees before Aunt Barbara. Neither could talk much +for a few moments. Certainly not Aunt Barbara, who sat bewildered and +stupefied while Ethelyn, more composed, removed her hat, and cloak, and +overshoes, and shook out the folds of her damp dress; and then drawing a +little covered stool to Aunt Barbara's side, sat down upon it, and +leaning her elbows on Aunt Barbara's lap, looked up in her face, with +the old, mischievous, winning smile, and said, "Auntie, have you +forgiven your Ethie for running away?" + +Then it began to seem real again--began to seem as if the last six years +were blotted out, and things restored to what they were when Ethie was +wont to sit at her aunt's feet as she was sitting now. There was this +difference, however; the bright, round, rosy face, which used to look so +flushed, and eager, and radiant, and assured, was changed, and the one +confronting Aunt Barbara now was pale, and thin, and worn, and there +were lines across the brow, and the eyes were heavy and tired, and a +little uncertain and anxious in their expression as they scanned the +sweet old face above them. Aunt Barbara saw it all, and this, if nothing +else, would have brought entire pardon even had she been inclined to +withhold it, which she was not. Ethie was back again, and that was +enough for her. She would not chide or blame her ever so little, and her +warm, loving hands took the thin white face and held it while she kissed +the parted lips, the blue-veined forehead, and the hollow cheeks, +whispering: "My own darling. I am so glad to have you back. I have been +so sad without you, and mourned for you so much, fearing you were dead. +Where has my darling been that none of us could find you?" + +"Did you hunt, Aunt Barbara? Did you really hunt for me?" + +And something of Ethie's old self leaped into her eyes and flushed into +her cheeks as she asked the question. + +"Yes, darling. All the spring and all the summer long, and on into the +fall, and then I gave it up." + +"Were you alone, auntie? That is, did nobody help you hunt?" was +Ethelyn's next query; and Richard would have read much hope for him in +the eagerness of the eyes, which waited for Aunt Barbara's answer, and +which dropped so shyly upon the carpet when Aunt Barbara said, "Alone, +child? No; he did all he could--Richard did--but we could get no clew." + +Ethelyn could not tell her story until she had been made easy on several +important points, and smoothing the folds of Aunt Barbara's dress, and +still looking beseechingly into her face, she said, "and Richard +hunted, too. Was he sorry, auntie? Did he care because I went away?" + +"Care? Of course he did. It almost broke his heart, and wasted him to a +skeleton. You did wrong, Ethie, to go and stay so long. Richard did not +deserve it." + +It was the first word of censure Aunt Barbara had uttered, and Ethelyn +felt it keenly, as was evinced by her quivering lip and trembling voice, +as she said: "Don't auntie, don't you scold me, please. I can bear it +better from anyone else. I want you to stand by me. I know I was hasty +and did very wrong. I've said so a thousand times; but I was so unhappy +and wretched at first, and at the last he made me so angry with his +unjust accusations." + +"Yes; he told me all, and showed me the letter you left. I know the +whole," Aunt Barbara said, while Ethelyn continued: + +"Where is he now? How long since you heard from him?" + +"It is two years or more. He wrote the last letter. I'm a bad +correspondent, you know, and as I had no good news to write, I did not +think it worth while to bother him. I don't know where he is since he +quit being governor." + +There was a sudden lifting of Ethie's head, a quick arching of her +eyebrows, which told that the governor part was news to her. Then she +asked, quietly, "Has he been governor?" + +"Yes, Governor of Iowa; and James' wife lived with him. She was Melinda +Jones." + +"Yes, yes," and Ethie's foot beat the carpet thoughtfully, while her +eyes were cast-down, and the great tears gathered slowly in the +long-fringed lids, then they fell in perfect showers, and laying her +head in Aunt Barbara's lap she sobbed piteously. + +Perhaps she was thinking of all she had thrown away, and weeping that +another had taken the post she would have been so proud to fill. Aunt +Barbara did not know, and she kept smoothing the bowed head until it was +lifted up again, and the tears were dried in Ethie's eyes, where there +was not the same hopeful expression there had been at first when she +heard of Richard's hunting for her. Some doubt or fear had crossed her +mind, and her hands were folded together in a hopeless kind of way as, +at Aunt Barbara's urgent request, she began the story of her wanderings. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +ETHIE'S STORY + +"You say you read my letter, auntie; and if you did, you know nearly all +that made me go away. I do not remember now just what was in it, but I +know it was very concise, and plain, and literal; for I was angry when I +wrote it, and would not spare Richard a bit. But, oh! I had been so +tired and so wretched. You can't guess half how wretched I was at the +farmhouse first, where they were all so different, and where one of the +greatest terrors was lest I should get used to it and so be more like +them. I mean Richard's mother, auntie. I liked the others--they were +kind and good; especially Andy. Oh, Andy! dear old Andy! I have thought +of him so much during the last five years, and bad as I am I have prayed +every night that he would not forget me. + +"Aunt Barbara, I did not love Richard, and that was my great mistake. I +ought not to have married him, but I was so sore and unhappy then that +any change was a relief. I do not see now how I ever could have loved +Frank; but I did, or thought I did, and was constantly contrasting +Richard with him and making myself more miserable. If I had loved +Richard things would have been so much easier to bear. I was beginning +to love him, and life was so much pleasanter, when he got so angry about +Frank and charged me with those dreadful things, driving me frantic and +making me feel as if I hated him and could do much to worry him. Don't +look so shocked. I know how wicked it was, and sometimes I fear God +never can forgive me; but I did not think of him then. I forgot +everything but myself and my trouble, and so I went away, going first to +----, so as to mislead Richard, and then turning straight back to +New York. + +"Do you remember Abby Jackson, who was at school in Boston, and who once +spent a week with me here? She married, and lives in New York, and +believes in women's rights and wears the Bloomer dress. She would take +my part, I said, and I went at once to her house and told her all I had +done, and asked if I could stay until I found employment. Aunt Barbara, +this is a queer world, and there are queer people in it. I thought I was +sure of Abby, she used to protest so strongly against the tyranny of +men, and say she should like nothing better than protecting females who +were asserting their own rights. I was asserting mine, and I went to her +for sympathy. She was glad to see me at first, and petted and fondled me +just as she used to do at school. She was five years older than I, and +so I looked up to her. But when I told my story her manner changed, and +it really seemed as if she looked upon me as a suspicious person who had +done something terrible. She advocated women's rights as strongly as +ever, but could not advise me to continue in my present course. It would +bring odium upon me, sure. A woman separated from her husband was always +pointed at, no matter what cause she had for the separation. It was all +wrong, she urged, that public opinion should be thus, and ere long she +trusted there would be a change. Till then I would do well to return to +Iowa and make it up with Richard. That was what she said, and it made me +very angry, so that I was resolved to leave her the next day; but I was +sick in the morning, and sick some weeks following, so that I could not +leave her house. + +"She nursed me carefully and tried to be kind, but I could see that my +being there was a great annoyance to her. Her husband had an aunt--a +rich, eccentric old lady--who came sometimes to see me, and seemed +interested in me. Forgive me, auntie, if it was wrong. I dropped the +name of Markham and took yours, asking Abby to call me simply Miss +Bigelow to her friends. Her husband knew my real name, but to all others +I was Adelaide Bigelow. Old Mrs. Plum did not know I was married, for +Abby was as anxious to keep the secret as I was myself. She was going +abroad, the rich aunt, and being a nervous invalid, she wanted some +young, handy person as traveling companion. So when I was better Abby +asked if I was still resolved not to go home, and on learning that I +was, she spoke of Mrs. Plum, and asked if I would go. I caught at it +eagerly, and in May I was sailing over the sea to France. I wrote a few +lines to Andy before I went, and I wanted to write to you, but I fancied +you must be vexed and mortified, and I would not trouble you. + +"Mrs. Plum was very nervous, and capricious, and exacting, and my life +with her was not altogether an easy one. At first, before we were +accustomed to each other, it was terrible. I suppose I have a high +temper. She thought so, and yet she could not do without me, for she was +lame in her arms, and unable to help herself readily; besides that, I +spoke the French language well enough to make myself understood, and so +was necessary to her. There were many excellent traits of character +about her, and after a time I liked her very much, while she seemed to +think of me as a willful but rather 'nicish' kind of a daughter. She +took me everywhere, even into Russia and Palestine; but the last two +years of our stay abroad were spent in Southern France, where the days +were one long bright summer dream, and I should have been so happy if +the past had been forgotten." + +"And did you hear nothing from us in all that time?" Aunt Barbara asked, +and Ethelyn replied: "Nothing from Richard, no; and nothing direct from +you. I requested as a favor that Mrs. Plum should order the Boston +_Traveller_ and Springfield _Republican_ to be sent to her address in +Paris, which we made our headquarters. I knew you took both these +papers, and if anything happened to you, it would appear in their +columns. I saw the death of Col. Markham, and after that I used to grow +so faint and cold, for fear I might find yours. I came across a New York +paper, too, and saw that Aunt Van Buren had arrived at the Fifth Avenue +Hotel, knowing then that she was just as gay as ever. Richard's name I +never saw; neither did Abby know anything about him.. I called at her +house yesterday. She has seven children now--five born since I went +away--and her women's rights have given place to theories with regard to +soothing syrups and baby-jumpers, and the best means of keeping one +child quiet while she dresses the other. Mrs. Plum died six weeks +ago--died in Paris; and, auntie, I was kind to her in her last sickness, +bearing everything, and finding my reward in her deep gratitude, +expressed not only in words, but in a most tangible form. She made her +will, and left me ten thousand dollars. So you see I am not poor nor +dependent. I told her my story, too--told her the whole as it was; and +she made me promise to come back, to you at least, if not to Richard. +Going to him would depend upon whether he wanted me, I said. Do you +think he has forgotten me?" + +Again the eager, anxious expression crept into Ethie's eyes, which grew +very soft, and even dewy, as Aunt Barbara replied, "Forgotten you? No. I +never saw a man feel as he did when he first came here, and Sophia +talked to him so, as he sat there in that very willow chair." + +Involuntarily Ethie's hand rested itself on the chair where Richard had +sat, and Ethie's face crimsoned where Aunt Barbara asked: + +"Do you love Richard now?" + +"I cannot tell. I only know that I have dreamed of him so many, many +times, and thought it would be such perfect rest to put my tired head in +his lap, as I never did put it. When I was on the ocean, coming home, +there was a fearful storm, and I prayed so earnestly to live till I +could hear him say that he forgave me for all the trouble I have caused +him. I might not love him if I were to see him again just as he used to +be. Sometimes I think I should not, but I would try. Write to him, +auntie, please, and tell him I am here, but nothing more. Don't say I +want to see him, or that I am changed from the willful, high-tempered +Ethie who made him so unhappy, for perhaps I am not." + +A while then they talked of Aunt Van Buren, and Frank, and Nettie, and +Susie Granger, who was married to a missionary and gone to heathen +lands; and the clock was striking one before Aunt Barbara lighted her +darling up to the old room, and kissing her good-night, went back to +weep glad tears of joy in the rocking-chair by the hearth, and to thank +her Heavenly Father for sending home her long lost Ethelyn. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +MRS. DR. VAN BUREN + +She was always tossing up just when she was not wanted, Ethie used to +say in the olden days, when she saw the great lady alighting at the gate +in time to interfere with and spoil some favorite project arranged for +the day, and she certainly felt it, if she did not say it, when, on the +morning following her arrival in Chicopee she heard Betty exclaim, "If +there ain't Miss Van Buren! I wonder what sent her here!" + +Ethie wondered so, too, and drawing the blanket closer around her +shoulders (for she had taken advantage of her fatigue and languor to lie +very late in bed) she wished her aunt had stayed in Boston, for a little +time at least. + +It had been very delightful, waking up in the dear old room and seeing +Betty's kind face bending over her--Betty, who had heard of her young +mistress' return with a gush of glad tears, and then at once bethought +herself as to what there was nice for the wanderer to eat. Just as she +used to do when Ethie was a young lady at home, Betty had carried her +pan of coals and kindlings into the chamber where Ethie was lying, and +kneeling on the hearth had made the cheerfulest of fires, while Ethie, +with half-closed eyes, watched her dreamily, thinking how nice it was to +be cared for again, and conscious only of a vague feeling of delicious +rest and quiet, which grew almost into positive happiness as she counted +the days it would take for Aunt Barbara's letter to go to Iowa and for +Richard to answer it in person, as he surely would if all which Aunt +Barbara had said was true. + +Ethie did not quite know if she loved him. She had thought of him so +much during the last two years, and now, when he seemed so near, she +longed to see him again--to hear his voice and look into his eyes. They +were handsome eyes as she remembered them; kindly and pleasant, too--at +least they had been so to her, save on that dreadful night, the memory +of which always made her shiver and grow faint. It seemed a dream now--a +far-off, unhappy dream--which she would fain forget just as she wanted +Richard to forget her foibles and give her another chance. She had +bidden Aunt Barbara write to say she was there, and so after the +tempting breakfast, which had been served in her room, and which she had +eaten sitting up in bed, because Betty insisted that it should be +so--and she was glad to be petted and humored and made into a +comfortable invalid--Aunt Barbara brought her writing materials into the +room, and bidding Ethie lie still and rest herself, began the letter +to Richard. + +But only the date and name were written, when Betty, coming in with a +few geranium leaves and a white fuchsia which she had purloined from her +mistress' house plants, announced Mrs. Van Buren's arrival, and the +pleasant morning was at an end. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had come up from +Boston to borrow money from her sister for the liquidation of certain +debts contracted by her son, and which she had not the ready means to +meet. Aunt Barbara had accommodated her once or twice before, saying to +her as she signed the check, "That money in the bank was put there for +Ethie, but no one knows if she will ever need it, so it may as well do +somebody some good." + +It had done good by relieving Mrs. Van Buren of a load of harassing +care, for money was not as plenty with her as formerly, and now she +wanted more. She was looking rather old and worn, and her cloak was last +year's fashion, but good enough for Chicopee, she reflected, as she +hurried into the house and stamped the muddy, melting snow from +her feet. + +Utter amazement seemed the prevailing sensation in her mind when she +learned that Ethelyn had returned, and then her selfishness began to +suggest that possibly Barbara's funds, saved for Ethie, might not now be +as accessible for Frank. She was glad, though, to see her niece, but +professed herself shocked at her altered appearance. + +"Upon my word, I would not have recognized you," she said, sitting down +upon the bed and looking Ethie fully in the face. + +Aunt Barbara, thinking her sister might like to have Ethie alone for a +little, had purposely left the room, and so Mrs. Van Buren was free to +say what she pleased. She had felt a good deal of irritation toward +Ethie for some time past. In fact, ever since Richard became governor, +she had blamed her niece for running away from the honor which might +have been hers. As aunt to the governor's lady, she, too, would have +come in for a share of the éclat; and so, as she smoothed out the folds +of her stone-colored merino, she felt as if she had been sorely +aggrieved by that thin, white-faced woman, who really did not greatly +resemble the rosy, bright-faced Ethelyn to whom Frank Van Buren had once +talked love among the Chicopee hills. + +"No, I don't believe I should have known you," Mrs. Van Buren continued. +"What have you been about to fade you so?" + +Few women like to hear that they have faded, even if they know it to be +true, and Ethie's cheek flushed a little as she asked, with a smile, "Am +I really such a fright?" + +"Why, no, not a fright! No one with the Bigelow features can ever be +that. But you are changed; and so I am sure Richard would think. He +liked beautiful girls. You know he has been governor?" + +Ethie nodded, and Mrs. Van Buren continued: "You lost a great deal, +Ethelyn, when you went away; and I must say that, though, of course, you +had great provocation, you did a very foolish thing leaving your husband +as you did, and involving us all, to a certain extent, in disgrace." + +It was the first direct intimation Ethie had received that her family +had suffered from mortification on her account. She had felt that they +must, and knew that she deserved some censure; but as kind Aunt Barbara +had withheld it, she was not quite willing to hear it from Mrs. Van +Buren, and for an instant her eyes flashed, and a hot reply trembled on +her lips; but she restrained herself and merely said: "I am sorry if I +disgraced you, Aunt Sophia. I was very unhappy at the time," + +"Certainly; I understand that, but the world does not; and if it did, it +forgot all when your husband became governor. He was greatly honored and +esteemed, I hear from a friend who spent a few weeks at Des Moines, and +everybody was so sorry for him." + +"Did they talk of me?" Ethie asked, repenting the next minute that she +had been at all curious in the matter. + +Mrs. Van Buren, bent upon annoying her, replied, "Some, yes; and knowing +the governor as they did, it is natural they should blame you more than +him. There was a rumor of his getting a divorce, but my friends did not +believe it and neither do I, though divorces are easy to get out West. +Have you written to him? Are you not 'most afraid he will think you came +back because he has been governor?" + +"Aunt Sophia!" and Ethie looked very much like her former self, as she +started from her pillow and confronted her interlocutor. "He cannot +think so. I never knew he had been governor until I heard it from Aunt +Barbara last night. I came back for no honors, no object. My work was +taken from me; I had nothing more to do, and I was so tired, and sick, +and weary, and longed so much for home. Don't begrudge it to me, Aunt +Sophia, that I came to see Aunt Barbara once more. I won't stay long in +anybody's way; and if--if he likes, Richard--can--get--that--divorce--as +soon as he pleases." + +The last came gaspingly, and showed the real state of Ethie's feelings. +In all the five long years of her absence the possibility that Richard +would seek to separate himself from her had never crossed her mind. She +had looked upon his love for her as something too strong to be +shaken--as the great rock in whose shadow she could rest whenever she +so desired. At first, when the tide of angry passion was raging at her +heart, she had said she never should desire it, that her strength was +sufficient to stand alone against the world; but as the weary weeks and +months crept on, and her anger had had time to cool, and she had learned +better to know the meaning of "standing alone in the world," and +thoughts of Richard's many acts of love and kindness kept recurring to +her mind, she had come gradually to see that the one object in the +future to which she was looking forward was a return to Aunt Barbara and +a possible reconciliation with her husband. The first she had achieved, +and the second seemed so close within her grasp, a thing so easy of +success, that in her secret heart she had exulted that, after all, she +was not to be more sorely punished than she had been--that she could not +have been so very much in fault, or Providence would have placed greater +obstacles in the way of restoration to all that now seemed desirable. +But Ethie's path back to peace and quiet was not to be free from thorns, +and for a few minutes she writhed in pain, as she thought how possible, +and even probable, it was that Richard should seek to be free from one +who had troubled him so much. Life looked very dreary to Ethelyn that +moment--drearier than it ever had before--but she was far too proud to +betray her real feelings to her aunt, who, touched by the look of +anguish on her niece's face, began to change her tactics, and say how +glad she was to have her darling back under any circumstances, and so +she presumed Richard would be. She knew he would, in fact; and if she +were Ethie, she should write to him at once, apprising him of her +return, but not making too many concessions.--Men could not bear them, +and it was better always to hold a stiff rein, or there was danger of a +collision. She might as well have talked to the winds, for all that +Ethie heard or cared. She was thinking of Richard, and the possibility +that she might not be welcome to him now. If so, nothing could tempt her +to intrude herself upon him. At all events, she would not make the first +advances. She would let Richard find out that she was there through some +other source than Aunt Barbara, who should not now write the letter. It +would look too much like begging him to take her back. This was Ethie's +decision, from which she could not be moved; and when, next day, Mrs. +Van Buren went back to Boston with the check for $1,000 which Aunt +Barbara had given her, she was pledged not to communicate with Richard +Markham in any way, while Aunt Barbara was held to the same promise. + +"He will find it out somehow. I prefer that he should act unbiased by +anything we can do," Ethelyn said to Aunt Barbara. "He might feel +obliged to come if you wrote to him that I was here, and if he came, the +sight of me so changed might shock him as it did Aunt Van Buren. She +verily thought me a fright," and Ethie tried to smile as she recalled +her Aunt Sophia's evident surprise at her looks. + +The change troubled Ethie more than she cared to confess. Nor did the +villagers' remarks, when they came in to see her, tend to soothe her +ruffled feelings. Pale, and thin, and languid, she moved about the house +and yard like a mere shadow of her former self, having, or seeming to +have, no object in life, and worrying Aunt Barbara so greatly that the +good woman began at last seriously to inquire what was best to do. +Suddenly, like an inspiration, there came to her a thought of Clifton, +the famous water-cure in Western New York, where health, both of body +and soul, had been found by so many thousands. And Ethie caught eagerly +at the proposition, accepting it on one condition--she would not go +there as Mrs. Markham, where the name might be recognized. She had been +Miss Bigelow abroad, she would be Miss Bigelow again; and so Aunt +Barbara yielded, mentally asking pardon for the deception to which she +felt she was a party, and when, two weeks after, the clerk at Clifton +water-cure looked over his list to see what rooms were engaged, and to +whom, he found "Miss Adelaide Bigelow, of Massachusetts," put down for +No. 101, while "Governor Markham of Iowa," was down for No. 102. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +CLIFTON + +They were very full at Clifton that summer, for the new building was not +completed, and every available point was taken, from narrow, contracted +No. 94 in the upper hall down to more spacious No. 8 on the lower floor, +where the dampness, and noise, and mold, and smell of coal and cooking, +and lower bathrooms were. "A very, very quiet place, with only a few +invalids too weak and languid, and too much absorbed in themselves and +their 'complaints' to note or care for their neighbors; a place where +one lives almost as much excluded from the world as if immured within +convent walls; a place where dress and fashion and distinction were +unknown, save as something existing afar off, where the turmoil and +excitement of life were going on." This was Ethelyn's idea of Clifton; +and when, at four o'clock, on a bright June afternoon, the heavily laden +train stopped before the little brown station, and "Clifton" was shouted +in her ears, she looked out with a bewildered kind of feeling upon the +crowd of gayly dressed people congregated upon the platform. Heads were +uncovered, and hair frizzled, and curled, and braided, and puffed, and +arranged in every conceivable shape, showing that even to that "quiet +town" the hairdresser's craft had penetrated. Expanded crinoline, with +light, fleecy robes, and ribbons, and laces, and flowers, was there +assembled, with bright, eager, healthful faces, and snowy hands wafting +kisses to some departed friend, and then turning to greet some new +arrival. There were no traces of sickness, no token of disease among the +smiling crowd, and Ethelyn almost feared she had made a mistake and +alighted at the wrong place, as she gave her checks to John, and then +taking her seat in the omnibus, sat waiting and listening to the lively +sallies and playful remarks around her. Nobody spoke to her, nobody +stared at her, nobody seemed to think of her; and for that she was +thankful, as she sat with her veil drawn closely over her face, looking +out upon the not very pretentious dwellings they were passing. The +scenery around Clifton is charming, and to the worn, weary invalid +escaping from the noise and heat and bustle of the busy city, there +seems to come a rest and a quiet, from the sunlight which falls upon the +hills, to the cool, moist meadow lands where the ferns and mosses grow, +and where the rippling of the sulphur brook gives out constantly a +soothing, pleasant kind of music. But for the architecture of the town +not very much can be said; and Ethie, who had longed to get away from +Chicopee, where everybody knew her story, and all looked curiously at +her, confessed to a feeling of homesickness as her eyes fell upon the +blacksmith shop, the dressmaker's sign, the grocery on the corner, where +were sold various articles of food forbidden by doctor and nurse; the +schoolhouse to the right, where a group of noisy children played, and +the little church further on, where the Methodist people worshiped. She +did not see the "Cottage" then, with its flowers and vines, and nicely +shaven lawn, for her back was to it; nor the handsome grounds, where the +shadows from the tall trees fall so softly upon the velvet grass; and +the winding graveled walks, which intersect each other and give an +impression of greater space than a closer investigation will warrant. + +"I can't stay here," was Ethie's thought, as it had been the thought of +many others, when, like her, they first step into the matted hall and +meet the wet, damp odor, as of sheets just washed, which seems to be +inseparable from that part of the building. + +But that was the first day, and before she had met the kindness and +sympathy of those whose business it is to care for the patients, or felt +the influences for good, the tendency to all the better impulses of our +nature, which seems to pervade the very atmosphere of Clifton. Ethie +felt this influence very soon, and her second letter to Aunt Barbara was +filled with praise of Clifton, where she had made so many friends, in +spite of her evident desire to avoid society and stay by herself. She +had passed through the usual ordeal attending the advent of every new +face, especially if that face be a little out of the common order of +faces. She had been inspected in the dining room, and bathroom, and +chapel, both when she went in and when she went out. She had been talked +up and criticised from the way she wore her hair to the hang of her +skirts, which here, as well as in Olney, trailed the floor with a sweep +unmistakably aristocratic and stamped her as somebody. The sacque and +hat brought from Paris had been copied by three or four, and pronounced +distingué, but ugly by as many more, while Mrs. Peter Pry, of whom there +are always one or two at every watering-place, had set herself +industriously at work to pry into her antecedents to find out just who +and what Miss Bigelow was. As the result of this research, it had been +ascertained that the young lady was remotely connected with the Bigelows +of Boston, and had something of her own--that she had spent several +years abroad, and could speak both French and German with perfect ease; +that she had been at the top of Mont Blanc, and passed part of a winter +at St. Petersburg, and seen a crocodile in the river Nile, and a Moslem +burying-ground in Constantinople, and had the cholera at Milan, the +varioloid at Rome, and was marked between the eyes and on the chin, and +was twenty-five years old, and did not wear false hair, nor use Laird's +Liquid Pearl, as was at first suspected from the clearness of her +complexion, and did wear crimping pins at night, and pay Annie, the +bath-girl, extra for bringing up the morning bath, and was more +interested in the chapel exercises when the great Head Center was there, +and bought cream every morning of Mrs. King, and sat up at night long +after the gas was turned off, and was there at Clifton for spine in the +back and head difficulties generally. These few items, together with the +surmise that she had had some great trouble--a disappointment, most +likely, which affected her health--were all Mrs. Pry could learn, and +she detailed them to anyone who would listen, until Ethelyn's history, +from the Pry point of view, was pretty generally known and the most made +of every good quality and virtue. + +The Mrs. Pry of this summer was not ill-natured; she was simply +curious; and as she generally said more good than evil of people, she +was generally liked and tolerated by all. She was not a fashionable +woman, nor an educated woman, though very popular with her neighbors at +home, and she was there for numbness and swollen knees; and, having knit +socks for four years for the soldiers, she now knit stockings for the +soldiers' orphans, and took a dash every morning and screamed loud +enough to be heard at the depot when she took it, and had a pack every +afternoon, and corked her right ear with cotton, which she always took +out when in a pack, so as to hear whatever might be said in the hall, +her open ventilator being the medium of sound. This was Mrs. Peter Pry, +drawn from no one in particular, but a fair exponent of characters found +in other places than Clifton Springs. Rooming on the same floor with +Ethelyn, whom she greatly admired, the good woman persisted until she +overcame the stranger's shyness, and succeeded in establishing, first, a +bowing, then a speaking, and finally, a calling acquaintance between +them--the calls, however, being mostly upon one side, and that the +prying one. + +Ethie had been at Clifton for three or four weeks, and the dimensions of +No. 101 did not seem half so circumscribed, as at first. On the whole, +she was contented, especially after the man who snored, and the woman +who wore squeaky boots, and talked in her sleep, vacated No. 102, the +large, airy, pleasant room adjoining her own. There was no one in it now +but Mary, the chambermaid, who said it was soon to be occupied by a sick +gentleman, adding that she believed he had the consumption, and hoped +his cough would not fret Miss Bigelow. Ethie hoped so too. Nervousness, +and, indeed, diseases of all kinds, seemed to develop rapidly at +Clifton, where one has nothing to do but to watch each new symptom, and +report to physician or nurse, and Ethie was not an exception. She was +very nervous, and she found herself dreading the arrival of the sick +man, wondering if his coughing would keep her awake nights, and if the +light from her candle shining out into the darkened hall would annoy +and worry him, as it had worried the woman opposite, who complained that +she could not rest with that glimmer on the wall, showing that somebody +was up, who, might at any moment make a noise. That he was a person of +consequence she readily guessed, for an extra pair of pillows was taken +in, and the rocking-chair possessed of two whole arms, and No. 109, also +vacant just then, was rifled of its round stand and footstool, and Mrs. +Pry reported that Dr. F---- himself had been up to see that all was +comfortable, and Miss Clark had ordered a better set of springs, with a +new hair mattress, and somebody had put a bouquet of flowers in the room +and hung a muslin curtain at the window. + +"A big-bug, most likely," Mrs. Peter Pry said, when, after her pack, she +brought her knitting for a few moments into Ethelyn's room and wondered +who the man could be. + +Ethelyn did not care particularly who he was, provided he did not cough +nights and keep her awake, in which case she should feel constrained to +change her room, an alternative she did not care to contemplate, as she +had become more attached to No. 101 than she had at first supposed +possible. Ethelyn was very anxious that day, and, had she believed in +presentiments, she would have thought that something was about to befall +her, so heavy was the gloom weighing upon her spirits, and so dark the +future seemed. She was going to have a headache, she feared, and as a +means of throwing it off, she started, after ten, for a walk to Rocky +Run, a distance of a mile or more. It was a cool, hazy July afternoon, +such as always carried Ethie back to Chicopee and the days of her happy +girlhood, when her heart was not so heavy and sad as it was now. With +thoughts of Chicopee came also thoughts of Richard, and Ethie's eyes +were moist with tears as she looked wistfully toward the setting sun and +wondered if he ever thought of her now or had forgotten her, and was the +story true of his seeking for a divorce. That rumor had troubled Ethie +greatly, and was the reason why she did not improve as the physician +hoped she would when she first came to Clifton. Sitting down upon the +bridge across the creek, she bowed her head in her hands and went over +again all the dreadful past, blaming herself now more than she did +Richard, and wishing that much could be undone of all that had +transpired to make her what she was, and while she sat there the Western +train appeared in view, and, mechanically rising to her feet, Ethie +turned her steps back toward the Cure, standing aside to let the long +train go by, and feeling, when it passed her, a strange, sudden throb, +as if it were fraught with more than ordinary interest to her. Usually, +that Western train, the distant roll of whose wheels and the echo of +whose scream quickened so many hearts waiting for news from home, had no +special interest for her. It never brought her a letter. Her name was +never called in the exciting distribution which took place in the parlor +or on the long piazza after the eight-o'clock mail had arrived, and so +she seldom heeded it; but to-night there was a difference, and she +watched the long line curiously until it passed the corner by the old +brown farmhouse and disappeared from view. It had left the station long +ere she reached the Cure, for she had walked slowly, and lights were +shining from the different rooms, and there was a sound of singing in +the parlor, and the party of croquet players had come up from the lawn, +and ladies were hurrying toward the bathroom, when she came in and +climbed the three flights of stairs which led to the fourth floor. There +was a light shining through the ventilator of No. 102, the door was +partly ajar, and the doctor was there, asking some questions of the tall +figure, whose outline Ethelyn dimly descried as she went into her room. +There was more talking after a little--more going in and out, while Mary +Ann brought up some supper on a tray, and John brought up a traveling +trunk much larger than himself, and then, without Mrs. Pry's assurance, +Ethie knew that the occupant of No. 102 had arrived. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE OCCUPANT OF NO. 102 + +He did not cough, but he seemed to be a restless spirit, for Ethie heard +him pacing up and down his room long after the gas was turned off and +her own candle was extinguished. Once, too, she heard a long-drawn sigh, +or groan, which made her start suddenly, for something in the tone +carried her to Olney and the house on the prairie. It was late that +night ere she slept, and when next morning she awoke, the nervous +headache, which had threatened her the previous night, was upon her in +full force, and kept her for nearly the entire day confined to her bed. +Mrs. Pry was spending the day in Phelps, and with this source of +information cut off, Ethelyn heard nothing of No. 102, further than the +chambermaid's casual remark that "the gentleman was quite an invalid, +and for the present was to take his meals and baths in his room to avoid +so much going up and down stairs." + +Who he was Ethelyn did not know or care, though twice she awoke from a +feverish sleep with the impression that she had heard Richard speaking +to her; but it was only Jim, the bath man, talking in the next room, and +she laid her throbbing head again upon her pillow, while her new +neighbor dreamed in turn of her and woke with the strange fancy that she +was near him. Ethie's head was better that night; so much better that +she dressed herself and went down to the parlor in time to hear the +calling of the letters as the Western mail was distributed. Usually she +felt but little interest in the affair further than watching the eager, +anxious faces bending near the boy, and the looks of joy or +disappointment which followed failure and success. To-night, however, it +was different. She was not expecting a letter herself. Nobody wrote to +her but Aunt Barbara, whose letters came in the morning, but she was +conscious of a strange feeling of expectancy, and taking a step toward +the table around which the excited group were congregated, she stood +leaning against the column while name after name was called. First the +letters, a score or two, and then the papers, matters of less account, +but still snatched eagerly by those who could get nothing better. There +was a paper for Mrs. More-house, and Mrs. Stone, and Mrs. Wilson, and +Mrs. Turner, while Mr. Danforth had half a dozen or less, and then Perry +paused a moment over a new name--one which had never before been called +in the parlor at Clifton: + +"Richard Markham, Esq." + +The name rang out loud and clear, and Ethie grasped the pillar tightly +to keep herself from falling. She did not hear Mr. Danforth explaining +that it was "Governor Markham from Iowa, who came the night before." She +did not know, either, how she left the parlor, for the next thing of +which she was perfectly conscious was the fact that she was hurrying up +the stairs and through the unfinished halls toward her own room, casting +frightened glances around, and almost shrieking with excitement when +through the open door of No. 102 she heard Dr. Hayes speaking to +someone, and in the voice which answered recognized her husband. + +He was there, then, next to her, separated by only a thin partition--the +husband whom she had not seen for five long years, whom she had +voluntarily left, resolving never to go back to him again, was there, +where, just by crossing a single threshold, she could fall at his feet +and sue for the forgiveness she had made up her mind to crave should she +ever see him again. Dr. Hayes' next call was upon her, and he found her +fainting upon the floor, where she had fallen in the excitement of the +shock she had experienced. + +"It was a headache," she said, when questioned as to the cause of the +sudden attack; but her eyes had in them a frightened, startled look, for +which the doctor could not account. + +There was something about her case which puzzled and perplexed him. "She +needed perfect quiet, but must not be left alone," he said, and so all +that night Richard, who was very wakeful, watched the light shining out +into the hall from the room next to his own, and heard occasionally a +murmur of low voices as the nurse put some question to Ethie, who +answered always in whispers, while her eyes turned furtively toward No. +102, as if fearful that its occupant would hear and know how near she +was. For three whole days her door was locked against all intruders, for +the headache and nervous excitement did not abate one whit. How could +they, when every sound from No. 102, every footfall on the floor, every +tone of Richard's voice speaking to servant or physician, quickened the +rapid beats and sent the hot blood throbbing fiercely through the temple +veins and down along the neck? At Clifton they are accustomed to every +phase of nervousness, from spasms at the creaking of a board to the +stumbling upstairs of the fireman in the early winter morning, and once +when Ethie shuddered and turned her head aside at the sound of Richard's +step, the attendant said to the physician: + +"It's the gentleman's boots, I think, which make her nervous." + +There was a deprecating gesture on Ethie's part, but it passed +unnoticed, and when next the doctor went to visit Richard he said, in a +half-apologetic way, that the young lady in the next room was suffering +from a violent headache, which was aggravated by every sound, even the +squeak of a boot--would Governor Markham greatly object to wearing +slippers for a while? Dr. Hayes was sorry to trouble him, but "if they +would effect a cure they must keep their patients quiet, and guard +against everything tending to increase nervous irritation." + +Governor Markham would do anything in his power for the young lady, and +he asked some questions concerning her. Had he annoyed her much? Was she +very ill? And what was her name? + +"Bigelow," he repeated after Dr. Hayes, thinking of Aunt Barbara in +Chicopee, and thinking of Ethelyn, too, but never dreaming how near she +was to him. + +He had come to Clifton at the earnest solicitation of some of his +friends, who had for themselves tested the healing properties of the +water, but he had little faith that anything could cure so long as the +pain was so heavy at his heart. It had not lessened one jot with the +lapse of years. On the contrary, it seemed harder and harder to bear, as +the months went by and brought no news of Ethie. Oh, how he wanted her +back again, even if she came as willful and imperious as she used to be +at times, when the high spirit was roused to its utmost, and even if she +had no love for him, as she had once averred. He could make her love him +now, he said: he knew just where he had erred; and many a time in dreams +he had strained the wayward Ethie to his bosom in the fond caress which +from its very force should impart to her some faint sensation of joy. He +had stroked her beautiful brown hair, and caressed her smooth round +cheek, and pressed her little hands, and made her listen to him till the +dark eyes flashed into his own with something of the tenderness he felt +for her. Then, with a start, he had awakened to find it all a dream, and +only darkness around him. Ethie was not there. The arms which had held +her so lovingly were empty. The pillow where her dear head had lain was +untouched, and he was alone as of old. Even that handsome house he had +built for her had ceased to interest him, for Ethie did not come back to +enjoy it. She would never come now, he said, and he built many fancies +as to what her end had been, and where her grave could be. Here at +Clifton he had thought of her continually, but not that she was alive. +Andy's faith in her return was as strong as ever, but Richard's had all +died out. Ethie was dead, and when asked by Dr. Hayes if he had a wife, +he answered sadly: + +"I had one, but I lost her." + +He had no thought of deception, or how soon the story would circulate +through the house that he was a widower, and so he, as ex-governor of +Iowa, and a man just in his prime, became an object of speculative +interest to every marriageable woman there. He had no thought, no care +for the ladies, though for the Miss Bigelow, whom his boots annoyed, he +did feel a passing interest, and Ethie, whose ears seemed doubly sharp, +heard him in his closet adjusting the thin-soled slippers, which made no +sound upon the carpet. She heard him, too, as he moved his water +pitcher, and knew he was doing it so quietly for her. The idea of being +cared for by him, even if he did not know who she was, was very soothing +and pleasant, and she fell into a quiet sleep, which lasted several +hours, while Richard, on the other side of the wall, scarcely moved, so +fearful was he of worrying the young lady. + +Ethie's headache spent itself at last, and she awoke at the close of the +third day, free from pain, but very weak and languid, and wholly unequal +to the task of entertaining Mrs. Peter Pry, who had been so distressed +on her account, and was so delighted with a chance to see and talk with +her again. Ethie knew she meant to be kind, and believed she was sincere +in her professions of friendship. At another time she might have been +glad to see her; but now, when she guessed what the theme of +conversation would be, she felt a thrill of terror as the good woman +came in, knitting in hand, and announced her intention of sitting +through the chapel exercises. She was not going to prayer meeting that +night, she said, for Dr. Foster was absent, and they were always stupid +when he was away. She could not understand all Mr.---- said, his words +were so learned, while the man who talked so long, and never came to the +point, was insufferable in hot weather, so she remained away, and came +to see her friend, who, she supposed, knew that she had a governor for +next-door neighbor--Governor Markham from Iowa--and a widower, too, as +Dr. Hayes had said, when she asked why his wife was not there with him. + +"A widower!" and Ethie looked up so inquiringly that Mrs. Pry, mistaking +the nature of her sudden interest, went on more flippantly. "Yes, and a +splendid looking man, too, if he wasn't sick. I saw him in the chapel +this morning--the only time he has been there--and sat where I had a +good view of his face. They say he is very rich, and has one of the +handsomest places in Davenport." + +"Does he live in Davenport?" Ethie asked, in some surprise, and Mrs. Pry +replied: + +"Yes; and that Miss Owens, from New York, is setting her cap for him +already. She met him in Washington, a few years ago, and the minute +chapel exercises were over, she and her mother made up to him at once. +I'm glad there's somebody good enough for them to notice. If there's a +person I dislike it's that Susan Owens and her mother. I do hope she'll +find a husband. It's what she's here for, everybody says." + +Mrs. Peter had dropped a stitch while animadverting against Miss Susan +Owens, from New York, and stopped a moment while she picked it up. It +would be difficult to describe Ethelyn's emotions as she heard her own +husband talked of as something marketable, which others than Susan Owens +might covet. He was evidently the lion of the season. It was something +to have a governor of Richard's reputation in the house, and the guests +made the most of it, wishing he would join them in the parlor or on the +piazza, and regretting that he stayed so constantly in his room. Many +attempts were made to draw him out, Mrs. and Miss Owens, on the strength +of their acquaintance in Washington, venturing to call upon him, and +advising him to take more exercise. Miss Owens' voice was loud and +clear, and Ethie heard it distinctly as the young lady talked and +laughed with Richard, the hot blood coursing rapidly through her veins, +and the first genuine pangs of jealousy she had ever felt creeping into +her heart as she guessed what might possibly be in Miss Owens' mind. +Many times she resolved to make herself known to him; but uncertainty as +to how she might be received, and the remembrance of what Mrs. Van Buren +had said with regard to the divorce, held her back; and so, with only a +thin partition between them, and within sound of each other's footsteps, +the husband and wife, so long estranged from each other, lived on, day +after day, Richard spending most of his time in his room, and Ethelyn +managing so adroitly when she came in and went out, that she never saw +so much as his shadow upon the floor, and knew not whether he was +greatly changed or not. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +IN RICHARD'S ROOM + +Richard had been sick for a week or more. As is frequently the case, the +baths did not agree with him at first, and Mrs. Pry reported to Ethelyn +that the governor was confined to his bed, and saw no one but the doctor +and nurses, not even "that bold Miss Owens, who had actually sent to +Geneva for a bouquet, which she sent to his room with her compliments." +This Mrs. Pry knew to be a fact, and the highly scandalized woman +repeated the story to Ethelyn, who scarcely heard what she was saying +for the many turbulent emotions swelling at her heart. That Richard +should be sick so near to her, his wife--that other hands than hers +should tend his pillow and minister to his wants--seemed not as it +should be; and when she recalled the love and tender care which had been +so manifest that time when he came home from Washington and found her so +very ill, the wish grew strong within her to do something for him. But +what to do--that was the perplexing question. She dared not go openly to +him, until assured that she was wanted; and so there was nothing left +but to imitate Miss Owens and adorn his room with flowers. Surely she +had a right to do so much, and still her cheek crimsoned like some young +girl's as she gathered together the choicest flowers the little town +afforded, and arranging them into a most tasteful bouquet, sent them in +to Richard, vaguely hoping that at least in the cluster of double pinks, +which had been Richard's favorite, there might be hidden some mesmeric +power or psychological influence which should speak to the sick man of +the wayward Ethie who had troubled him so much. + +Richard was sitting up in bed when Mary brought the bouquet, saying, +Miss Bigelow sent it, thinking it might cheer him a bit. Should she put +it in the tumbler near Miss Owens'? + +Miss Owens had sent a pretty vase with hers, but Ethie's was simply tied +with a bit of ribbon she had worn about her neck. And Richard took it +in his hand, an exclamation escaping him as he saw and smelled the +fragrant pinks, whose perfume carried him first to Olney and Andy's +weedy beds in the front yard, and then to Chicopee, where in Aunt +Barbara's pretty garden, a large plant of them had been growing when he +went after his bride. A high wind had blown them down upon the walk, and +he had come upon Ethie one day trying to tie them up. He had plucked a +few, he remembered, telling Ethie they were his favorites for perfume, +while the red peony was his favorite for beauty. There had been a +comical gleam in her brown eyes which he now knew was born of contempt +for his taste with regard to flowers. Red peonies were not the rarest of +blossoms--Melinda had taught him that when he suggested having them in +his conservatory; but surely no one could object to these waxen, +feathery pinks, whose odor was so delicious. Miss Bigelow liked them, +else she had never sent them to him. And he kept the bouquet in his +hand, admiring its arrangement, inhaling the sweet perfume of the +delicate pinks and heliotrope, and speculating upon the kind of person +Miss Bigelow must be to have thought so much of him. He could account +for Miss Owens' gift--the hot-house blossoms, which had not moved him +one-half so much as did this bunch of pinks. She had known him +before--had met him in Washington; he had been polite to her on one or +two occasions, and it was natural that she should wish to be civil, at +least while he was sick. But the lady in No. 101--the Miss Bigelow for +whom he had discarded his boots and trodden on tiptoe half the time +since his arrival--why she should care for him he could not guess; and +finally deciding that it was a part of Clifton, where everybody was so +kind, he put the bouquet in the tumbler Mary had brought and placed it +on the stand beside him. He was very restless that night, and Ethie +heard the watchman at his door twice asking if he wanted anything. + +"Nothing," was the reply, and the voice, heard distinctly in the +stillness of the night, was so faint and sad that Ethie hid her face in +her pillow and sobbed bitterly, while the intense longing to see him +grew so strong within her that by morning the resolution was taken to +risk everything for the sake of looking upon him again. + +He did not require an attendant at night--he preferred being alone, she +had ascertained; and she knew that his door was constantly left open for +the admission of fresh air. The watchman only came into the hall once an +hour or thereabouts, and while Richard slept it would be comparatively +easy for her to steal into his room. Fortune seemed to favor her, for +when at nine the doctor, as usual, came up to pay his round visits, she +heard him say, "I will leave you something which never fails to make one +sleep," and after two hours had passed she knew by the regular breathing +which, standing on the threshold of her room, she could distinctly hear, +that Richard was sleeping soundly. The watchman had just made the tour +of that hall, and the faint glimmer of his lantern was disappearing down +the stairs. It would be an hour before he came back again, and now, if +ever, was her time. There was a great throb of fear at her heart, a +trembling of every joint, a choking sensation in her throat, a shrinking +back from what might probably be the result of that midnight visit; and +then, nerving herself for the effort, she stepped out into the hall and +listened. Everything was quiet, and every room was darkened, save by the +moon, which, at its full, was pouring a flood of light through the +southern window at the end of the hall and seemed to beckon her on. She +was standing now at Richard's door, opened wide enough to admit her, and +so she made no noise as she stepped cautiously across the threshold and +stood within the chamber. The window faced the east, and the inside +blinds were opened wide, making Ethelyn remember how annoyed she used to +be at that propensity of Richard's to roll up every curtain and open +every shutter so as to make the room light and airy. It was light now +almost as day, for the moonlight lay upon the floor in a great sheet of +silver, and showed her plainly the form and features of the sick man +upon the bed. She knew he was asleep, and with a beating heart she drew +near to him, and stood for a moment looking down upon the face she had +not seen since that wintry morning five years before, when in the dim +twilight, it had bent wistfully over her, as if the lips would fain have +asked forgiveness for the angry words and deeds of the previous night. +That face was pale now, and thin, and the soft brown hair was streaked +with gray, making Richard look older than he was. He had suffered, and +the suffering had left its marks upon him so indisputably that Ethie +could have cried out with pain to see how changed he was. + +"Poor Richard," she whispered softly, and kneeling by the bedside she +laid her hot cheek as near as she dared to the white, wasted hand +resting outside the counterpane. + +She did not think what the result of waking him might be. She did not +especially care. She was his wife, let what would happen--his erring but +repentant Ethie. She had a right to be there with him, and so at last +she took his thin hand between her own, and caressed it tenderly. Then +Richard moved, and moaning in his deep sleep seemed to have a vague +consciousness that someone was with him. Perhaps it was the nurse who +had been with him at night on one or two occasions; but the slumber into +which he had fallen was too deep to be easily broken. Something he +murmured about the medicine, and Ethie's hand held it to his lips, and +Ethie's arm was passed beneath his pillow as she lifted up his head +while he swallowed it. Then, without unclosing his eyes, he lay back +upon his pillow again, while Ethie stood over him until the glimmer of +the watchman's lamp passed down the hall a second time, and disappeared +around the corner. The watchman had stopped at Richard's door to listen, +and then Ethie had experienced a spasm of terror at the possibility of +being discovered; but with the receding footsteps her fears left her, +and she waited a half-hour longer, while Richard in his dreams talked of +bygone days--speaking of Olney, and then of Daisy and herself. Dead, +both of them, he seemed to think; and Ethie's pulse throbbed with a +strange feeling of joy as she heard herself called his poor darling, +whom he wanted back again. She was satisfied now. He had not forgotten +her, or even thought to separate himself from her, as Aunt Van Buren +hinted. He was true to her yet, and she had acted foolishly in keeping +aloof from him so long. But she would be foolish no longer. To-morrow he +should know everything. If he would only awaken she would tell him now, +and take the consequences. But Richard did not waken, and at last, with +a noiseless step, she glided back to her own chamber. She would write to +Richard, she decided. She could talk to him better on paper, and, then, +if he did not care to receive her, they would both be spared much +embarrassment. + +Ethie's door was locked all the next morning, for she was writing to her +husband a long, humble letter, in which all the blame was taken upon +herself, inasmuch as she had made the great mistake of marrying without +love. "But I do love you now, Richard," she said; "love you truly, too, +else I should never be writing this to you, and asking you to take me +back and try if I cannot make you happy." + +It was a good deal for Ethie to confess that she had been so much in +fault; but she did it honestly, and when the letter was finished she +felt as if all that had been wrong and bitter in the past was swept +away, and a new era in her life had begun. She would wait till night, +she said--wait till all was again quiet in the hall and in the +sick-room, and then when the boy came around with the mail, as he was +sure to do, she would hand her letter to him, and bid him leave it in +Governor Markham's room. The rest she could not picture to herself; but +she waited impatiently for the long August day to draw to its close, +joining the guests in the parlor by way of passing the time, and +appearing so bright and gay that those who had thought her proud and +cold, and reticent, wondered at the brightness of her face and the glad, +eager expression of her eyes. She was pretty, after all, they thought, +and even Miss Owens, from New York, tried to be very gracious, speaking +to her of Governor Markham, whose room adjoined hers, and asking if she +had seen him. About him Ethie did not care to talk, and, making some +excuse to get away, left the room without hearing a whisper of the +story which was going the rounds of the Cure, and which Miss Owens was +rather desirous of communicating to someone who, like herself, would be +likely to believe it a falsehood. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +MRS. PETER PRY TAKES A PACK + +Mrs. Pry was in a pack, a whole pack, too, which left nothing free but +her head, and even that was bandaged in a wet napkin, so that the good +woman was in a condition of great helplessness, and nervously counted +the moments which must elapse ere Annie, the bath girl, would come to +her relief. Now, as was always the case when in a pack, her ears were +uncorked and turned toward the door, which she had purposely left ajar, +so as not to lose a word, in case any of the ladies came down to that +end of the hall and stood by the window while they talked together. They +were there now, some half a dozen or more, and they were talking eagerly +of the last fresh piece of news brought by Mrs. Carter and daughter, who +had arrived from Iowa the day before, and for lack of accommodations at +the Cure had gone to the hotel. Both were old patients, and well known +in Clifton and so they had spent most of the day at the Cure, hunting up +old acquaintances and making new ones. Being something of lion-seekers, +they had asked at the office who was there worth knowing, the young +lady's face wearing a very important air as she glanced round upon the +guests, and remarked, "How different they seemed from those charming +people from Boston and New York whom we met here last summer!" + +It did not appear as if there was a single lion there this season, +whether moneyed, literary, or notorious; and Miss Annie Carter thought +it very doubtful whether they should remain or go on to Saratoga, as all +the while she had wished to do. In great distress good Mrs. Leigh racked +her brain to think who the notables were, and finally bethought herself +of Governor Markham, whose name acted like magic upon the newcomers. + +"Governor Markham here? Strange, I never thought of Clifton when I heard +that he was going East for his health. How is he? Does he improve? It is +quite desirable that he should do so, if all reports are true;" and Mrs. +Carter looked very wise and knowing upon the group which gathered around +her, anxious to hear all she had to tell of Governor Markham. + +She did not pretend that she knew him herself, as she lived some +distance from Davenport; but she had heard a great deal about him and +his handsome house; and Annie, her daughter, who was visiting in +Davenport, had been all over it after it was finished. Such a beautiful +suite of rooms as he had fitted up for his bride; they were the envy and +wonder of both Davenport and Rock Island, too. + +"His bride! We did not know he had one. He passes for a widower here," +several voices echoed in chorus, and then Mrs. Carter began the story +which had come to her through a dozen mediums, and which circulated +rapidly through the house, but had not reached Mrs. Pry up to the time +when, with her blanket and patchwork quilt she had brought from New +Hampshire, she lay reposing in her pack, with her ears turned toward the +door and ventilator, ready to catch the faintest breath of gossip. + +She heard a great deal that afternoon, for the ladies at the end of the +hall did not speak very low, and when at last she was released from her +bandages and had made her afternoon toilet, she hastened round to Miss +Bigelow's to report what she had heard. Tired with her vigils of the +previous night, Ethie was lying down, but she bade Mrs. Pry come in, and +then kept very quiet while the good woman proceeded to ask if she had +heard the news. Ethie had not, but her heart stood still while her +visitor, speaking in a whisper, asked if she was sure Governor Markham +could not hear. That the news concerned herself Ethelyn was sure, and +she was glad that her face was in a measure concealed from view as she +listened to the story. + +Governor Markham's wife was not dead, as they had supposed. She was a +shameless creature, who eight or ten years before eloped with a man a +great deal younger than herself. She was very beautiful, people said, +and very fascinating, and the governor worshiped the ground she trod +upon. He took her going off very hard at first, and for years scarcely +held up his head. But lately he had seemed different, and had been more +favorable to a divorce, as advised by his friends. This, however, was +after he met Miss Sallie Morton, whose father was a millionaire in +Chicago, and whose pretty face had captivated the grave governor. To get +the divorce was a very easy matter there in the West, and the governor +was now free to marry again. As Miss Morton preferred Davenport to any +other place in Iowa, he had built him a magnificent house upon a bluff, +finishing it elegantly, and taking untold pains with the suite of rooms +intended for his bride. As Miss Sallie objected to marrying him while he +was so much of an invalid, he had come to Clifton, hoping to reestablish +his health so as to bring home his wife in the autumn, for which event +great preparations were making in the family of Miss Sallie. + +This was the story as told by Mrs. Pry, and considering that it had only +come to her through eight or ten different persons, she repeated the +substance of it pretty accurately, and then stopped for Ethie's comment. +But Ethie had nothing to say, and when, surprised at her silence, Mrs. +Pry asked if she believed it at all, there was still no reply, for +Ethelyn had fainted. The reaction was too great from the bright +anticipations of the hour before, to the crushing blow which had fallen +so suddenly upon her hopes. That a patient at Clifton should faint was +not an uncommon thing. Mrs. Pry had often felt like it herself when just +out of a pack, or a hot sulphur bath, and so Ethie's faint excited no +suspicion in her mind. She was fearful, though, that Miss Bigelow had +not heard all the story, but Ethie assured her that she had, and then +added that if left to herself she might possibly sleep, as that was what +she needed. So Mrs. Pry departed, and Ethie was alone with the terrible +calamity which had come upon her. She had been at the Water Cure long +enough to know that not more than half of what she heard was true, and +this story she knew was false in the parts pertaining to herself and her +desertion of her husband. She had never heard before that she was +suspected of having had an associate in the flight, and her cheeks +crimsoned at the idea, while she wondered if Richard had ever thought +that of her. Not at first, she knew, else he had never sought for her so +zealously as Aunt Barbara had intimated; but latterly, as he had heard +no tidings from her, he might have surmised something of the kind, and +that was the secret of the divorce. + +"Oh, Richard! Richard!" she murmured, with her hands pressed tightly +over her lips, so as to smother all sound, "I felt so sure of your love. +You were so different from me. I am punished more than I can bear." + +If she had never known before, Ethie knew now, how much she really loved +her husband, and how the hope of eventually returning to him had been +the day-star of her life. Had she heard that he was lying dead in the +next room, she would have gone to him at once, and claiming him as hers, +would have found some comfort in weeping sadly over him, and kissing his +cold lips, but now it did indeed seem more than she could bear. She did +not doubt the story of the divorce, or greatly disbelieve in the other +wife. It was natural that many should seek to win his love now that he +had risen so high, and she supposed it was natural that he should wish +for another companion. Perhaps he believed her dead, and Ethie's heart +gave one great throb of joy as she thought of going in to him, and by +her bodily presence contradict that belief, and possibly win him from +his purpose. But Ethie was too proud for that, and her next feeling was +one of exultation that she had not permitted Aunt Barbara to write, or +herself taken any measures for communicating with him. He should never +know how near she had been to him, or guess ever so remotely of the +anguish she was enduring, as, only a few feet removed from him, she +suffered, in part, all the pain and sorrow she had brought upon him. +Then, as she remembered the new house fitted for the bride, she said: + +"I must see that house. I must know just what is in store for my rival. +No one knows me in Davenport. Richard is not at home, and there is no +chance for my being recognized." + +With this decision came a vague feeling akin to hope that possibly the +story was false--that after all there was no rival, no divorce. At all +events, she should know for a certainty by going to Davenport; and with +every nerve stretched to its utmost tension, Ethie arose from her bed +and packed her trunk quietly and quickly, and then going to the office, +surprised the clerk with the announcement that she wished to leave on +the ten-o'clock train. She had received news which made her going so +suddenly imperative, she said to him, and to the physician, whom she +called upon next, and whose strong arguments against her leaving that +night almost overcame her. But Ethie's will conquered at last, and when +the train from the East came in she stood upon the platform at the +station, her white face closely veiled, and her heart throbbing with the +vague doubts which began to assail her as to whether she were really +doing a wise and prudent thing in going out alone and unprotected to the +home she had no right to enter, and where she was not wanted. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +IN DAVENPORT + +Hot, and dusty, and tired, and sick, and utterly hopeless and wretched, +Ethie looked drearily out from the windows of her room at the hotel, +whither she had gone on her first arrival in Davenport. Her head seemed +bursting as she stood tying her bonnet before the mirror, and drawing on +her gloves, she glanced wistfully at the inviting-looking bed, feeling +strongly tempted to lie down there among the pillows and wait till she +was rested before she went out in that broiling August sun upon her +strange errand. But a haunting presentiment of what the dizziness and +pain in her head and temples portended urged her to do quickly what she +had to do; so with another gulp of the ice water she had ordered, and +which only for a moment cooled her feverish heat, she went from her room +into the hall, where the boy was waiting to show her the way to "the +governor's house." He knew just where it was. Everybody knew in +Davenport, and the chambermaid to whom Ethie had put some questions, had +volunteered the information that the governor had gone East for his +health, and the house, she believed, was shut up--not shut so that she +could not effect an entrance to it. She would find her way through every +obstacle, Ethie thought, wondering vaguely at the strength which kept +her up and made her feel equal to most anything as she followed her +conductor through street after street, onward and onward, up the hill, +where the long windows and turrets of a most elegant mansion were +visible. When asked at the hotel if she would not have a carriage, she +had replied that she preferred to walk, feeling that in this way she +should expend some of the fierce excitement consuming her like an inward +fire. It had not abated one whit when at last the house was reached, and +dismissing her guide she stood a moment upon the steps, leaning her +throbbing head against the door post, and summoning courage to ring the +bell. Never before had she felt so much like an intruder, or so widely +separated from her husband, as during the moment she stood at the +threshold of her home, hesitating whether to ring or go away and give +the matter up. She could not go away now that she had come so far, she +finally decided. She must go in and see the place where Richard lived, +and so, at last, she gave the silver knob a pull, which reverberated +through the entire house, and brought Hannah, the housemaid, in a trice +to see who was there. + +"Is Governor Markham at home?" Ethie asked, as the girl waited for her +to say something. + +Governor Markham was East, and the folks all gone, the girl replied, +staring a little suspiciously at the stranger who without invitation, +had advanced into the hall, and even showed a disposition to make +herself further at home by walking into the drawing room, the door of +which was slightly ajar. + +"My name is Markham. I am a relative of the governor. I am from the +East," Ethelyn volunteered, as she saw the girl expected some +explanation. + +Had Hannah known more of Ethelyn, she might have suspected something; +but she had not been long in the family, and coming, as she did, from +St. Louis, the story of her master's wife was rather mythical to her +than otherwise. That there was once a Mrs. Markham, who, for beauty, and +style, and grandeur, was far superior to Mrs. James, the present +mistress of the establishment, she had heard vague rumors; while only +that morning when dusting and airing Richard's room, she had stopped her +work a moment to admire the handsome picture which Richard had had +painted, from a photograph of Ethie, taken when she was only seventeen. +It was a beautiful, girlish face, and the brown eyes were bright and +soft, and full of eagerness and joy; while the rounded cheeks and +pouting lips were not much like the pale thin woman who now stood in the +marbled hall, claiming to be a relative of the family. Hannah never +dreamed who it was; but, accustomed to treat with respect everything +pertaining to the governor, she opened the door of the little +reception-room, and asked the lady to go in. + +"I'll send you Mrs. Dobson the housekeeper," she said; and Ethie heard +her shuffling tread as she disappeared through the hall and down the +stairs to the regions where Mrs. Dobson reigned. + +Ethelyn was a little afraid of that dignitary; something in the +atmosphere of the house made her afraid of everything, inspiring her as +it did with the feeling that she had no business there--that she was a +trespasser, a spy, whom Mrs. Dobson would be justified in turning from +the door. But Mrs. Dobson meditated no such act. She was a quiet, +inoffensive, unsuspicious, personage, believing wholly in Governor +Markham and everything pertaining to him. She was canning fruit when +Hannah came with the message that some of the governor's kin had come +from the East, and remembering to have heard that Richard once had an +uncle somewhere in Massachusetts, she had no doubt that this was a +daughter of the old gentleman and a cousin of Richard's, especially as +Hannah described the stranger as youngish and tolerably good-looking. +She had no thought that it was the runaway wife, of whom she knew more +than Hannah, else she would surely have dropped the Spencer jar she was +filling and burned her fingers worse than she did, trying to crowd in +the refractory cover, which persisted in tipping up sideways and all +ways but the right way. + +"Some of his kin. Pity they are gone. What shall we do with her?" she +said, as she finally pushed the cover to its place and blew the thumb +she had burned badly. + +"Maybe she don't mean to stay long; she didn't bring no baggage," Hannah +said, and thus reassured, Mrs. Dobson rolled down her sleeves and tying +on a clean apron, started for the reception-room, where Ethie sat like +one stupefied, or one who walks in a dream from which he tries in +vain to waken. + +This house, as far as she could judge, was not like that home on the +prairie where her first married days were spent. Everything here was +luxurious and grand and in such perfect taste. It seemed a princely +home, and Ethie experienced more than one bitter pang of regret that by +her own act she had in all probability cut herself off from any part or +lot in this earthly paradise. + +"I deserve it, but it is very hard to bear," she thought, just as Mrs. +Dobson appeared and bowing respectfully, began: + +"Hannah tells me you are kin to the governor's folks,--his cousin, I +reckon--and I am so sorry they are all, gone, and will be yet for some +weeks. The governor is at a water cure down East--strange you didn't +hear of it--and t'other Mr. Markham has gone with his wife to Olney, +and St. Paul, and dear knows where. Too bad, ain't it? But maybe you'll +stay a day or two and rest? We'll make you as comfortable as we can. You +look about beat out," and Mrs. Dobson came nearer to Ethelyn, whose face +and lips were white as ashes, and whose eyes looked almost black with +her excitement. + +She was very tired. The rapid journey, made without rest or food +either, save the cup of tea and cracker she tried to swallow, was +beginning to tell upon her, and while Mrs. Dobson was speaking she felt +stealing over her the giddiness which she knew was a precursor +to fainting. + +"I am tired and heated," she gasped. "I could not sleep at the hotel or +eat, either. I will stay a day and rest, if you please. Rich--Governor +Markham will not care; I was traveling this way, and thought I would +call. I have heard so much about his house." + +She felt constrained to say this by way of explanation, and Mrs. Dobson +accepted it all, warming up at once on the subject of the house--that +was her weak point; while to show strangers through the handsome rooms +was her delight. No opportunity to do this had for some time been +presented, and the good woman's face glowed with the pleasure she +anticipated from showing the governor's cousin his house and grounds. +But first the lady must have some dinner, and bidding her lay aside her +bonnet and shawl and make herself at home, she hurried back to the +kitchen and dispatched Hannah for the tender lamb-chop she was going to +broil, as that was something easily cooked, and the poor girl seemed so +tired and feeble. + +"She looks like the Markhams, or like somebody I've seen," she said, +never dreaming of finding the familiar resemblance to "somebody she had +seen" in the picture hanging in Richard's room. + +What she would have done had she known who the stranger was is doubtful. +Fortunately she did not know; but being hospitably inclined, and feeling +anxious to show the governor's Eastern relatives how grand and nice they +were, she broiled the tender lamb, and made the fragrant coffee, and +laid the table in the cozy breakfast-room, and put on the little silver +set, and then conducted her visitor out to dinner, helping her herself, +and leaving the room with the injunction to ring if she wanted anything, +as Hannah was within hearing. Terribly bewildered and puzzled with +regard to her own identity, Ethie sat down to Richard's table, in +Richard's house, and partook of Richard's food, with a strange feeling +of quiet, and a constantly increasing sensation of numbness and +bewilderment. Access to the house had been easier than she fancied; but +she could not help feeling that she had no right to be there, no claim +on Richard's hospitality. Certainly she had none, if what she had heard +at Clifton were true. But was it? There was some doubt creeping into her +mind, though why Richard should wish to build so large and so fine a +house just for himself alone she could not understand. She never guessed +how every part of that dwelling had been planned with a direct reference +to her and her tastes; that not a curtain, or a carpet, or a picture had +been purchased without Melinda's having said she believed Ethie would +approve it. Every stone, and plank and tack, and nail had in it a +thought of the Ethie whose coming back had been speculated upon and +planned in so many different ways, but never in this way--never just as +it had finally occurred, with Richard gone, and no one there to welcome +her, save the servants in the kitchen, who, while she ate her solitary +dinner, feeling more desolate and wretched than she had ever before felt +in her life, wondered who she was, and how far they ought to go with +their attentions and civilities. They were not suspicious, but took her +for what she professed to be--a Markham, and a near connection of the +governor; and as that stamped her somebody, they were inclined to be +very civil, feeling sure that Mrs. James would heartily approve their +course. She had rung no bell for Hannah; but they knew her dinner was +over, for they heard her as she went back into the reception-room, where +Mrs. Dobson ere long joined her, and asked if she would like to see +the house. + +"It's the only thing we can amuse you with, unless you are fond of +music. Maybe you are," and Mrs. Dobson led the way to a little +music-room, where, in the recess of a bow window a closed piano +was standing. + +At first Ethelyn did not observe it closely; but when the housekeeper +opened it, and pushing back the heavy drapery, disclosed it fully to +view, Ethie started forward with a sudden cry of wonder and surprise, +while her face was deathly pale, and the fingers which came down with a +crash upon the keys shook violently, for she knew it was her old +instrument standing there before her--the one she had sold to procure +money for her flight. Richard must have bought it back; for her sake, +too, or rather for the sake of what she once was to him, not what +she was now. + +"Play, won't you?" Mrs. Dobson said. But Ethie could not then have +touched a note. The faintest tone of that instrument would have maddened +her and she turned away from it with a shudder, while the rather +talkative Mrs. Dobson continued: "It's an old piano, I believe, that +belonged to the first Mrs. Markham. There's to be a new one bought for +the other Mrs. Markham, I heard them say." + +Ethie's hands were tightly locked together now, and her teeth shut so +tightly over her lips that the thin skin was broken, and a drop of blood +showed upon the pale surface; but in so doing she kept back a cry of +anguish which leaped up from her heart at Mrs. Dobson's words. The +"first Mrs. Markham," that was herself, while the "other Mrs. Markham" +meant, of course, her rival--the bride about whom she had heard at +Clifton. She did not think of Melinda as being a part of that household, +"and the other Mrs. Markham," for whom the new piano was to be +purchased--she thought of nothing but herself, and her own +blighted hopes. + +"Does the governor know for certain that his first wife is dead?" she +asked, at last, and Mrs. Dobson replied: + +"He believes so, yes. It's five years since he heard a word. Of course +she's dead. She must have been a pretty creature. Her picture is in the +governor's room. Come, I will show it to you." + +Mrs. Dobson had left her glasses in the kitchen, so she did not notice +the white, stony face, so startling in its expression, as her visitor +followed her on up the broad staircase into the spacious hall above, and +on still further, till they came to the door of Richard's room, which +Hannah had left open. Then for a moment Ethelyn hesitated. It seemed +almost like a sacrilege for her feet to tread the floor of that private +room, for her breath to taint the atmosphere of a spot where the new +wife would come. But Mrs. Dobson led her on until she stood in the +center of Richard's room, surrounded by the unmistakable paraphernalia +of a man, with so many things around her to remind her of the past. +Surely, this was her own furniture; the very articles he had chosen for +the room in Camden. It was kind in Richard to keep and bring them here, +where everything was so much more elegant--kind, too, in him to redeem +her piano. It showed that for a time, at least, he had remembered her; +but alas! he had forgotten her now, when she wanted his love so much. +There were great blurring tears in her eyes, and she could not +distinctly see the picture on the walk which Mrs. Dobson said was the +first Mrs. Markham, asking if she was not a beauty. + +"Rather pretty, yes," Ethie said, making a great effort to speak +naturally, and adding after a moment: "I suppose it will be taken down +when the other Mrs. Markham comes." + +In Mrs. Dobson's mind the other Mrs. Markham only meant Melinda, and she +replied: + +"Why should it? She knows it is here. She knew the other lady and liked +her, too." + +"She knew me? Who can it be?" Ethie asked herself, remembering that the +name she had heard at Clifton was a strange one to her. + +"This, now, is the very handsomest part of the whole house," Mrs. Dobson +said, throwing open a door which led from Richard's room into a suite of +apartments which, to Ethie's bewildered gaze, seemed more like fairyland +than anything real she had ever seen. "This the governor fitted up +expressly for his wife and I'm told he spent more money here than in all +the upper rooms. Did you ever see handsomer lace? He sent to New York +for them," she said, lifting up one of the exquisitely wrought curtains +festooned across the arch which divided the boudoir from the large +sleeping room beyond. "This I call the bridal chamber," she continued, +stepping into the room where everything was so pure and white. "But, +bless me, I forgot that I put on a lot of bottles to heat: I'll venture +they are every one of them shivered to atoms. Hannah is so careless. +Excuse me, will you, and entertain yourself a while. I reckon you can +find your way back to the parlor." + +Ethelyn wanted nothing so much as to be left alone and free to indulge +in the emotions which were fast getting the mastery of her. Covering her +face with her hands, as the door closed after Mrs. Dobson, she sat for a +moment bereft of the power to think or feel. Then, as things became more +real, as great throbs of heat and pain went tearing through her temples, +she remembered that she was in Richard's house, up in the room which +Mrs. Dobson had termed the bridal chamber, the apartments which had been +fitted up for Richard's bride, whoever she might be. + +"I never counted on this," she whispered, as she paced up and down the +range of rooms, from the little parlor or boudoir to the dressing room +beyond the bedroom, and the little conservatory at the side, where the +choicest of plants were in blossom, and where the dampness was so cool +to her burning brow. + +It did not strike her as strange that Richard should have thought of all +this, nor did she wonder whose taste had aided him in making such a +home. She did not wonder at anything except at herself, who had missed +so much and fallen into such depths of woe. + +"Oh, Richard!" she sighed, as she went back to the bridal chamber. "You +would pity me now, and forgive me, too, if you knew what I am suffering +here in your home, which can never, never be mine!" + +She was standing now near the low window, taking in the effect of her +surroundings, from the white ground carpet covered with brilliant +bouquets, to the unrumpled, snowy bed which looked so deliciously cool +and inviting and seemed beckoning the poor, tired woman to its embrace. +And Ethie yielded at last to the silent invitation, forgetting +everything save how tired, and sorry, and fever-smitten she was, and how +heavy her swollen eyelids were with tears unshed, and the many nights +she had not slept. Ethie's cheeks were turning crimson, and her pulse +throbbing rapidly as, loosing her long, beautiful hair, which of all her +girlish beauty remained unimpaired, and putting off her little gaiters, +she lay down upon the snowy bed, and pressing her aching head upon the +pillows, whispered softly to her other self--the Ethelyn Grant she used +to know in Chicopee, when a little twelve-year-old girl she fled from +the maddened cow and met the tall young man from the West. + +"Governor Markham they call him now," she said, "and I am Mrs. +Governor," and a wild laugh broke the stillness of the rooms kept so +sacred until now. + +In the hall below Hannah overheard the laugh, and mounting the stairs +cast one frightened glance into the chamber where a tossing, moaning +figure lay upon the bed, with masses of brown hair falling about the +face and floating over the pillows. + +Good Mrs. Dobson dropped one of the jars she was filling when Hannah +came with her strange tale, and leaving the scalding mass of pulp and +juice upon the floor, she hastened up the stairs, and with as stern a +voice as it was possible for her to assume, demanded of Ethelyn what she +was doing there. But Ethie only whispered on to herself of divorces, and +governors' wives-elect, and bridal chambers where she could rest so +nicely. Mrs. Dobson and Mrs. Dobson's ire were nothing to her, and the +good woman's wrath changed to pity as she met the bright, restless eyes, +and felt the burning hands which she held for a moment in her own. It +was a pretty little hand--soft and white and small almost as a child's. +There was a ring upon the left hand, too; a marriage ring, Mrs. Dobson +guessed, wondering now more than ever who the stranger was that had thus +boldly taker possession of a room where none but the family ever came. + +"She is married, it would seem," she said to Hannah, and then, as +Richard's name dropped from Ethelyn's lips, she looked curiously at the +flushed face so ghastly white, save where spots of crimson colored the +cheeks, and at the mass of hair which Ethie had pushed up and off from +the forehead it seemed to oppress with its weight. + +"Go, bring me some ice-water from the cellar," Mrs. Dobson said to +Hannah, who hurried away on the errand, while the housekeeper, left to +herself, bent nearer to Ethelyn and closely scrutinized her face; then +stepping to Richard's room, she examined the picture on the wall, where +the hair was brushed back and the lips were parted like the lips and +hair in that other room where the stranger was. + +Mrs. Dobson was a good deal alarmed--"set back," as she afterward +expressed it when telling the story to Melinda--and her knees fairly +knocked together as she returned to the sick-room, and bending again +over the stranger asked, "Is your name Ethelyn?" + +For an instant there was a look of consciousness in the brown eyes, and +Ethie whispered faintly: + +"Don't tell him. Don't send me away. Let me stay here and die; it won't +be long, and this pillow is so nice." + +She was wandering again, and satisfied that her surmises were correct, +Mrs. Dobson lifted her gently up, and to the great surprise of Hannah, +who had returned with the ice, began removing the heavy dress and the +skirts so much in the way. + +"Bring some of Mrs. Markham's night-clothes, and ask me no questions," +she said to the astonished girl, who silently obeyed her, and then +assisted while Ethelyn was arrayed in Melinda's night-gown and made more +comfortable and easy than she could be in her own tight-fitting dress. + +"Take this to the telegraph office," was Mrs. Dobson's next order, after +she had been a few moments in the library, and Hannah obeyed, reading +as she ran: + + "DAVENPORT, August--. + "To MRS. JAMES MARKHAM, Olney: + + "There's a strange woman sick here. Please come + home. "ELINOR DOBSON." + +The way was open for the dispatch, and in less than half an hour the +operator at Olney was writing out the message which would take Melinda +back to Davenport as fast as steam could carry her. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +AT HOME + +Mrs. James Markham had spent a few weeks with a party of Davenport +friends in St. Paul and vicinity, but she was now at home in Olney with +her mother, whom she helped with the ironing that morning, showing a +quickness and dexterity in the doing up of Tim's shirts and best table +linen which proved that, although a "mighty fine lady," as some of the +Olneyites termed her, she had neither forgotten nor was above working in +the kitchen when the occasion required. The day's ironing was over now, +and refreshed with a bath and a half-hour's sleep after it, she sat +under the shadow of the tall trees, arrayed in her white marseilles, +which, being gored, made her look, as unsophisticated Andy thought, most +too slim and flat. Andy himself was over at the Joneses that afternoon, +and, down upon all fours, was playing bear with baby Ethelyn, who +shouted and screamed with delight at the antics of her childish uncle. +Mrs. James was not contemplating a return to Davenport for three or four +weeks; indeed, ever since the letter received from Clifton with regard +to Richard's sickness, she had been seriously meditating a flying visit +to the invalid, who she knew would be glad to see her. It must be very +desolate for him there alone, she said; and then her thoughts went after +the wanderer whom they had long since ceased to talk about, much less +than to expect back again. Melinda was sadly thinking of her, and +speculating as to what her fate had been, when down the road from the +village came the little messenger boy, who always made one's heart beat +so fast when he handed out his missive. He had one now, and he brought +it to Melinda, who, thinking of her husband, gone to Denver City, felt +a thrill of fear lest something had befallen him. But no; the dispatch +came from Davenport, from Mrs. Dobson herself, and read that a strange +woman lay very sick in the house. + +"A strange woman," that was all, but it made Melinda's heart leap up +into her throat at the bare possibility as to who the strange woman +might be. Andy was standing by her now reading the message, and Melinda +knew by the flush upon his face, and the drops of perspiration which +started out so suddenly around his mouth, that he, too, shared her +suspicions. But not a word was spoken by either upon the subject +agitating them so powerfully. Melinda only said, "I must go home at +once--in the next train if possible," while Andy rejoined, "I am going +with you." + +Melinda knew why he was going, and when at last they were on the way, +the sight of his honest-speaking face, glowing all over with eagerness +and joyful anticipations, kept her own spirits up, and made what she so +greatly hoped for seem absolutely certain. It was morning when they +arrived, and were driven rapidly through the streets toward home. The +house seemed very quiet; every window and shutter, so far as they could +see, was closed, and both experienced a terrible fear lest "the strange +woman" was gone. They could not wait for Hannah to open the door, and so +they went round to the basement, surprising Mrs. Dobson as she bent over +the fire, stirring the basin of gruel she was preparing for her patient. +"The strange woman" was not gone. She was raving mad, Mrs. Dobson said, +and talked the queerest things. "I've had the doctor, just as I knew you +would have done, had you been here," she said, "and he pronounced it +brain fever, brought on by fatigue, and some great excitement or +worriment. 'Pears like she thought she was divorced, or somebody was +divorced, for she was talking about it, and showing the ring on her +fourth finger. I hope Governor Markham won't mind it. 'Twas none of my +doings. She went there herself, and I first found her in the bed in that +room where nobody ever slept--the bride's room, I call it, you know." + +"Is she there?" Melinda asked, in amazement, while Andy, who had been +standing near the door which led up to the next floor, disappeared up +the stairs, leaving the women alone. + +He knew the way to the room designated, and went hurrying on until he +reached the door, and there he paused, his flesh creeping with the +intensity of his excitement, and his whole being pervaded with a +crushing sense of eager expectancy. He had not put into words what or +whom he expected to find on the other side of the door he hardly dared +to open. He only knew he should be terribly disappointed if his +conjectures proved wrong, and a smothered prayer rose to his lips, "God +grant it may be the she I mean." + +The she he meant was sleeping now. The brown head which rolled so +restlessly all night was lying quietly upon the pillows, the burning +cheek resting upon one hand, and the mass of long, bright hair tucked +back under one of Mrs. Dobson's own nightcaps, that lady having sought +in vain for such an article among her mistress' wardrobe. She did not +hear Andy as he stepped softly across the floor to the bedside. Bending +cautiously above her, he hesitated a moment, while a great throb of +disappointment ran through his veins. Surely that was not Ethie, with +the hollow cheeks and the disfiguring frill around her face, giving her +more the look of the new and stylish nurse Melinda had got from +Chicago--the woman who wore a cap in place of a bonnet, and jabbered +half the time in some foreign tongue, which Melinda said was French. The +room was very dark, and Andy pushed back a blind, letting in such a +flood of light that the sleeper started, and moaned, and turned herself +upon the pillow, while with a gasping, sobbing cry, Andy fell upon his +knees, and with clasped hands and streaming eyes, exclaimed: + +"I thank Thee, Father of mercies, more than I can tell, for it is +Ethie--it is Ethie--it is Ethie, our own darling Ethie, come back to us +again; and now, dear Lord, bring old Dick home at once, and let us have +a time of it." + +Ethie's eyes were opened and fixed inquiringly upon Andy. Something in +his voice and manner must have penetrated through the mists of delirium +clouding her brain, for the glimmer of a smile played round her lips, +and her hands moved slowly toward him; then they went back again to her +throat and tugged at the nightcap strings which good Mrs. Dobson had +tied in a hard knot by way of keeping the cap upon the refractory head. +Ethie did not fancy the cap any more than Andy, who, guessing her +wishes, lent his own assistance to the untying of the strings. + +"You don't like the pesky thing on your head, making you look so like a +scarecrow, do you?" he said gently, as with a jerk he broke the strings +and then threw the discarded cap upon the floor. + +Ethie seemed to know him for a moment, and, "Kiss me, Andy," came feebly +from her lips. Winding his arms about her, Andy did kiss her many times, +while his tears dropped upon her face and moistened the long hair, +which, relieved from its confinement, fell in dark masses about her +face, making her look more like the Ethelyn of old than she had +at first. + +"Was there a divorce?" she whispered, and Andy, in great perplexity, was +wondering what she meant, when Melinda's step came along the hall, and +Melinda entered the room together with Mrs. Dobson. + +"It's she--herself! It's our own Ethie!" Andy exclaimed, standing back a +little from the bed, but still holding the feverish hand which had +grasped his so firmly, as if in that touch alone was rest and security. + +"I thought so," and with a satisfied nod Mrs. Dobson put down her bowl +of gruel and went down to communicate the startling news to Hannah, who +nearly lost her senses in the first moment of surprise. + +"Do you know me, Ethie?" Melinda asked, but in the bright, rolling eyes +there was no ray of reason; only the lip quivered slightly, and Ethie +said so sadly, so beseechingly, "Don't send me away, when I am so tired +and sorry." + +She seemed to have a vague idea where she was and who was with her, +clinging closer to Andy, as if surest of him, and once when he bent +over her, she suddenly wound her arms around his neck and whispered, +"Don't leave me--it's nice to know you are with me; and don't let them +put that dreadful thing on my head again. Aunt Van Buren said I was a +fright. Will Richard think so, too?" + +This was the only time she mentioned her husband, though she talked of +Clifton and Mrs. Pry, and the story of the divorce, and the dear little +chapel where she said God always came, bidding Andy kneel down and pray +just as they were doing there when the summer day drew to a close. + +"We must send for Dick," Andy said; "but don't let's tell the whole; +let's leave something to his imagination;" and so the telegram which +went to Governor Markham read simply: "Come home immediately. Don't wait +for a single train." + +Richard had heard of Miss Bigelow's sudden departure, and had been +surprised to find how much he missed the light footsteps and the +rustling sound which had come from No. 101. He was a good deal +interested in Miss Bigelow, and when Mary told him of her leaving so +unexpectedly and appearing so excited, there had for a moment flashed +over him the wild thought, "Could it be?" No, it could not, he said; but +he questioned Mary as to the appearance of the lady in No. 101. "Was she +very handsome, with full, rosy cheeks, and eyes of chestnut brown?" + +"She was rather pretty," Mary said; "but her face was thin and pale, and +her eyes, she guessed, were black." + +It was not Ethie, then--Richard had never believed it was--but he felt +sorry that she was gone, whoever she might be, and Clifton was not so +pleasant to him now as it had been at first. He was much better, and had +been once to the chapel, when up the three flights of stairs Perry came +and along the hall till he stopped at Room No. 102. There was a telegram +for Richard, who took it with trembling hands and read it with a blur +before his eyes and something at his heart like a blow, but which was +born of a sudden hope that, after many days and months and years of +waiting, God had deigned to be merciful. But only for a brief moment did +this hope buoy him up. It could not be, he said; and yet, as he made his +hasty preparations for his journey, he found the possibility constantly +recurring to his mind, while the nearer he came to Davenport the more +probable it seemed, and the more impatient he grew at every little +delay. There were several upon the road, and once, only fifty miles from +home, there was a detention of four hours. But the long train moved at +last, and just as the sun was setting the cars stopped in the Davenport +depot, and as the passengers alighted the loungers whispered to each +other, "Governor Markham has come home." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +RICHARD AND ETHELYN + +Arrived at Davenport, and so near his home that he could discern its +roofs and chimneys, the hope which had kept Richard up all through his +rapid journey began to give way, and he hardly knew what or whom he +expected to find, as he went up the steps to his house and rang the door +bell. Certainly not Andy--he had not thought of him--and his pulse +quickened with a feeling of eagerness and hope renewed when he caught +sight of his brother's beaming face and felt the pressure of his broad +hand. In his delight Andy kissed his brother two or three times during +the interval it took to get him through the hall into the reception +room, where they were alone. Arrived there, Andy fell to capering across +the floor, while Richard looked on, puzzled to decide whether his weak +brother had gone wholly daft or not. Recollecting himself at last, and +assuming a more sober attitude, Andy came close to him and whispered: + +"Dick, you ought to be thankful, so thankful and glad that God has been +kind at last and heard our prayers, just as I always told you he would. +Guess who is upstairs, ravin' crazy by spells, and quiet as a Maltese +kitten the rest of the time? I'll bet, though, you'll never guess, it +is so strange? Try, now--who do you think it is?" + +"Ethelyn," came in a whisper from Richard's lips, and rather +crestfallen, the simple Andy said, "Somebody told you, I know; but you +are right. Ethie is here--came when we all was gone--said she was a +connection of yourn, and so Miss Dobson let her in, and treated her up, +and showed her the house, and left her in them rooms you fixed a purpose +for her. You see Miss Dobson had some truck she was canning, and she +stayed downstairs so long that when she went back she found Ethie had +taken possession of that bed where nobody ever slept, and was burnin' up +with fever and talkin' the queerest kind of talk about divorces, and all +that, and there was something in her face made Miss Dobson mistrust who +she was, and she telegraphed for Melinda and me--or rather for +Melinda--and I came out with her, for I knew in a minit who the strange +woman was. But she won't know you, Dick. She don't know me, though she +lays her head on my arm and snugs up to me awful neat. Will you go now +to see her?" + +The question was superfluous, for Richard was halfway up the stairs, +followed close by Andy, who went with him to the door of Ethie's room, +and then stood back, thinking it best for Richard to go in alone. + +Ethelyn was asleep, and Melinda sat watching her. She knew it was +Richard who came in, for she had heard his voice in the hall, and +greeting him quickly, arose and left the room, whispering: "If she +wakes, don't startle her. Probably she will not know you." + +Then she went out, and Richard was alone with the wife he had not seen +for more than five weary years. It was very dark in the room, and it +took him a moment to accustom himself to the light enough to discover +the figure lying so still before him, the pale eyelids closed, and the +long eyelashes resting upon the crimson cheek. The lips and forehead +were very white, but the rest of the face was purple with fever, and as +that gave the cheeks a fuller, rounder look, she did not at first seem +greatly changed, but looked much as she did the time he came from +Washington and found her so low. The long hair which Andy would not have +confined in a cap was pushed back from her brow, and lay in tangled +masses upon the pillow, while her hands were folded one within the other +and rested outside the covering. And Richard touched her hands +first--the little, soft, white hands he used to think so pretty, and +which he now kissed so softly as he knelt by the bedside and tried to +look closely into Ethie's face. + +"My poor, sick darling, God knows how glad I am to have you back," he +murmured, and his tears dropped like rain upon the hands he pressed so +gently. Then softly caressing the pale forehead, his fingers threaded +the mass of tangled hair, and his lips touched the hot, burning ones +which quivered for a moment, and then said, brokenly: + +"A dream--all a dream. I've had it so many times." + +She was waking, and Richard drew back a step or two, while the bright, +restless eyes moved round the room as if in quest of someone. + +"It's very dark," she said, and turning one of the shutters Richard came +back and stood just where the light would fall upon his face as it +did on hers. + +He saw now how changed she was; but she was none the less dear to him +for that, and he spoke to her very tenderly: + +"Ethie, darling, don't you know me? I am Richard, your husband, and I am +so glad to get you back." + +There did seem to be a moment's consciousness, for there crept into the +eyes a startled, anxious look as they scanned Richard's face; then the +lip quivered again, and Ethie said pleadingly: + +"Don't send me away. I am so tired, and the road was so long. I thought +I would never get here. Let me stay. I shall not be bad any more." + +Then, unmindful of consequences, Richard gathered her in his arms, and +held her there an instant in a passionate embrace, which left her pale +and panting, but seemed to reassure her, for when he would have laid her +back upon the pillow, she said to him, "No, not there--on your arm--so. +Yes, that's nice," and an expression of intense satisfaction stole into +her face as she nestled her head close to Richard's bosom, and, closing +her eyes, seemed to sleep again. And Richard held her thus, forgetting +his own fatigue, and refusing to give up his post either to Andy or +Melinda, both of whom ventured in at last, and tried to make him take +some refreshment and rest. + +"I am not hungry," he said, "and it is rest enough to be with Ethelyn." + +Much he wondered where she had come from, and Melinda repeated all +Ethelyn had said which would throw any light upon the subject. + +"She has talked of the Nile, and St. Petersburg, and the Hellespont, and +the ship which was bringing her to Richard, and of Chicopee, but it was +difficult telling how much was real," Melinda said, adding, "She talked +of Clifton, too; and were it possible, I should say she came direct from +there, but that could not be. You would have known if she had been +there. What was the number of your room?" + +"102," Richard replied, a new revelation dawning upon him, while Melinda +rejoined: + +"That is the number she talks about--that and 101. Can it be that she +was there?" + +Richard was certain of it. The Miss Bigelow who had interested him so +much lay there in his arms, his own wife, who was, if possible, tenfold +dearer to him now than when he first held her as his bride. He knew she +was very sick, but she would not die, he said to himself. God had not +restored her to him just to take her away again, and make his desolation +more desolate. Ethie would live. And surely if love, and nursing, and +tender care were of any avail to save the life which at times seemed +fluttering on the very verge of the grave, Ethelyn would live. Nothing +was spared which could avail to save her, and even the physician, who +had all along done what he could, seemed to redouble his efforts when he +ascertained who his patient was. + +Great was the surprise, and numerous the remarks and surmises of the +citizens, when it was whispered abroad that the strange woman lying so +sick in the governor's house was no other than the governor's wife, +about whom the people had speculated so much. Nor was it long ere the +news went to Camden, stirring up the people there, and bringing Mrs. +Miller at once to Davenport, where she stayed at a hotel until such time +as she could be admitted to Ethelyn's presence. + +Mrs. Markham, senior, was washing windows when Tim Jones brought her the +letter bearing the Davenport postmark. Melinda had purposely abstained +from writing home until Richard came; and so the letter was in his +handwriting, which his mother recognized at once. + +"Why, it's from Richard!" she exclaimed. "I thought he wouldn't stay +long at Clifton. I never did believe in swashin' all the time. A bath in +the tin washbasin does me very well," and the good woman wiped her +window leisurely, and even put it back and fastened the side-slat in its +place before she sat down to see what Richard had written. + +Tim knew what he had written, for in his hat was another letter from +Melinda, for his mother, which he had opened, his feet going off into a +kind of double shuffle as he read that Ethelyn had returned. She had +been very cold and proud to him; but he had admired her greatly, and +remembered her with none but kindly feelings. He was a little anxious to +know what Mrs. Markham would say, but as she was in no hurry to open her +letter, and he was in a hurry to tell his mother the good news, he bade +her good-morning, and mounting his horse, galloped away toward home. + +"I hope he's told who the critter was that was took sick in the house," +Mrs. Markham said, as she adjusted her glasses and broke the seal. + +Mrs. Markham had never fainted in her life, but she came very near it +that morning, feeling some as she would if the Daisy, dead, so long, had +suddenly walked into the room and taken a seat beside her. + +"I am glad for Dick," she said. "I never saw a man change as he has, +pinin' for her. I mean to be good to her, if I can," and Mrs. Markham's +sun-bonnet was bent low over Richard's letter, on which there were +traces of tears when the head was lifted up again. "I must let John +know, I never can stand it till dinner time," she said, and a shrill +blast from the tin horn, used to bring her sons to dinner, went echoing +across the prairie to the lot where John was working. + +It was not a single blast, but peal upon peal, a loud, prolonged sound, +which startled John greatly, especially as he knew by the sun that it +could not be twelve o'clock. + +"Blows as if somebody was in a fit," he said, as he took long and rapid +strides toward the farmhouse. + +His mother met him in the lane, letter in hand, and her face white with +excitement as she said below her breath: + +"John, John, oh! John, she's come. She's there at Richard's--sick with +the fever, and crazy; and Richard is so glad. Read what he says." + +She did not say who had come, but John knew, and his eyes were dim with +tears as he took the letter from his mother's hand, and read it, walking +beside her to the house. + +"I presume they doctor her that silly fashion, with little pills the +size of a small pin head. Melinda is so set in her way. She ought to +have some good French brandy if they want to save her. I'd better go +myself and see to it," Mrs. Markham said, after they had reached the +house, and John, at her request, had read the letter aloud. + +John did not quite fancy his mother's going, particularly as Richard had +said nothing about it, but Mrs. Markham was determined. + +"It was a good way to make it up with Ethelyn, to be there when she come +to," she thought, and so, leaving her house-cleaning to itself, and John +to his bread and milk, of which he never tired, she packed a little +traveling bag, and taking with her a bottle of brandy, started on the +next train for Davenport, where she had never been. + +Aunt Barbara was not cleaning house. She was cutting dried caraway seed +in the garden, and thinking of Ethie, wondering why she did not write, +and hoping that when she did she would say that she had talked with +Richard, and made the matter up. Ever since hearing that he was at +Clifton, in the next room to Ethie, Aunt Barbara had counted upon a +speedy reconciliation, and done many things with a direct reference to +that reconciliation. The best chamber was kept constantly aired, with +bouquets of flowers in it, in case the happy pair, "as good as just +married," should come suddenly upon her. Ethie's favorite loaf cake was +constantly kept on hand, and when Betty suggested that they should let +Uncle Billy cut down that caraway seed, "and heave it away," the good +soul objected, thinking there was no telling what would happen, and it +was well enough to save such things as anise and caraway. So, in her big +cape bonnet, she was cutting her branches of herbs, when Charlie Howard +looked over the garden gate with "Got a letter for you." + +"It ain't from her. It's from--why, it's from Richard, and he is in +Davenport," Aunt Barbara exclaimed, as she sat down in a garden chair to +read the letter which was not from Ethie. + +Richard did not say directly to her that she must come, but Aunt Barbara +felt an innate conviction that her presence would not be disagreeable, +even if Ethie lived, while "if she died," and Aunt Barbara's heart gave +a great throb as she thought it, "if Ethie died she must be there," and +so her trunk was packed for the third time in Ethie's behalf, and the +next day's train from Boston carried the good woman on her way to +Davenport. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +RECONCILIATION + +There had been a succession of rainy days in Davenport--dark, rainy +days, which added to the gloom hanging over that house where they +watched so intently by Ethie's side, trembling lest the life they prayed +for so earnestly might go out at any moment, so high the fever ran, and +so wild and restless the patient grew. The friends were all there +now--James, and John, and Andy, and Aunt Barbara, with Mrs. Markham, +senior, who, at first, felt a little worried, lest her son should be +eaten out of house and home, especially as Melinda manifested no +disposition to stint the table of any of their accustomed luxuries. As +housekeeper, Mrs. Dobson was a little inclined at first to stand in awe +of the governor's mother, and so offered no remonstrance when the tea +grounds from supper were carefully saved to be boiled up for breakfast, +as both Melinda and Aunt Barbara preferred tea to coffee, but when it +came to a mackerel and a half for seven people, and four of them men, +Mrs. Dobson demurred, and Melinda's opinion in requisition, the result +was that three fishes, instead of one and a half smoked upon the +breakfast table next morning, together with toast and mutton-chops. +After that Mrs. Markham gave up the contest with a groan, saying, "they +might go to destruction their own way, for all of her." + +Where Ethelyn was concerned, however, she showed no stint. Nothing was +too good for her, no expense too great, and next to Richard and Andy, +she seemed more anxious, more interested than anyone for the sick girl +who lay so insensible of all that was passing around her, save at brief +intervals when she seemed for an instant to realize where she was, for +her eyes would flash about the room with a frightened, startled look, +and then seek Richard's face with a wistful, pleading expression, as if +asking not to cast her off, not to send her back into the dreary world +where she had wandered so long alone. The sight of so many seemed to +worry her, for she often talked of the crowd at the Clifton depot, +saying they took her breath away; and once, drawing Andy's face down to +her, she whispered to him, "Send them back to the Cure, all but his +royal highness"--pointing to Richard--"and Anna, the prophetess, she +can stay." + +This was Aunt Barbara, to whom Ethelyn clung as a child to its mother, +missing her the moment she left the room, and growing quiet as soon as +she returned. It was the same with Richard. She seemed to know when he +quitted her side, and her eyes watched the door eagerly till he came +back to her again. At the doctor's suggestion, all were at last banished +from the sick-room except Aunt Barbara, and Richard, and Nick Bottom, as +she persisted in calling poor Andy, who was terribly perplexed to know +whether he was complimented or not, and who eventually took to studying +Shakspere to find out who Bottom was. Those were trying days to Richard, +who rarely left Ethie's bedside, except when it was absolutely +necessary. She was more quiet with him, and would sometimes sleep for +hours upon his arm, with one hand clasped in Aunt Barbara's, and the +other held by Andy. At other times, when the fever was on, no arm +availed to hold her as she tossed from side to side, talking of things +at which a stranger would have marveled, and which made Richard's heart +ache to its very core. At times she was a girl in Chicopee, and all the +past as connected with Frank Van Buren was lived over again; then she +would talk of Richard, and shudder as she recalled the dreary, dreadful +day when the honeysuckles were in blossom, and he came to make her +his wife. + +"It was wrong, all wrong. I did not love him then," she said, "nor +afterward, on the prairie, nor anywhere, until I went away, and found +what it was to live without him." + +"And do you love him now?" Richard asked her once when he sat alone with +her. + +There was no hesitancy on her part, no waiting to make up an answer. It +was ready on her lips, "Yes, oh, yes!" and the weak arms lifted +themselves up and were wound around his neck with a pressure almost +stifling. How much of this was real Richard could not tell, but he +accepted it as such, and waited impatiently for the day when the full +light of reason should return and Ethie be restored to him. There was +but little of her past life which he did not learn from her ravings, and +so there was less for her to tell him when at last the fever abated, and +his eyes met hers with a knowing, rational expression. Andy was alone +with her when the change first came. The rain, which had fallen so +steadily, was over, and out upon the river the sunlight was softly +falling. At Andy's earnest entreaty, Richard had gone for a little +exercise in the open air, and was walking slowly up and down the broad +piazza, while Aunt Barbara slept, and Andy kept his vigils by Ethelyn. +She, too, was sleeping quietly, and Andy saw the great drops of +perspiration standing upon her brow and beneath her hair. He knew it was +a good omen, and on his knees by the bedside, with his face in his +hands, he prayed aloud, thanking God for restoring Ethelyn to them, and +asking that they might all be taught just how to make her happy. A faint +sound between a moan and a sob roused him and, looking up, he saw the +great tears rolling down Ethie's cheeks, while her lips moved as if they +would speak to him. + +"Andy, dear old Andy! is it you, and are you glad to have me back?" she +said, and then all Andy's pent-up feelings found vent in a storm of +tears and passionate protestations of love and tenderness for his +darling sister. + +She remembered how she came there, and seemed to understand why Andy was +there, too; but the rest was a little confused. Was Aunt Barbara there, +or had she only dreamed it? + +"Aunt Barbara is here," Andy said, and then, with the same frightened, +anxious look her face had so often worn during her illness, Ethie said: +"Somebody else has sat by me and held my head and hands, and kissed me! +Andy, tell me--was that Richard?--and did he kiss me, and is he glad +to find me?" + +She was gazing fixedly at Andy, who replied: "Yes, Dick is here. He's +glad to have you back. He's kissed you more than forty times. He don't +remember nothing.'' + +"And the divorce, Andy--is the story true, and am I not his wife?" + +"I never heard of no divorce, only what you said about one in your +tantrums. Dick would as soon have cut off his head as got such a thing," +Andy replied. + +Ethelyn knew she could rely on what Andy said, and a heartfelt "Thank +God! It is more than I deserve!" fell from her lips, just as a step was +heard in the hall. + +"That's Dick,--he's coming," Andy whispered, and hastily withdrawing he +left the two alone together. + +It was more than an hour before even Aunt Barbara ventured into the +room, and when she did she knew by the joy written on Richard's face and +the deep peace shining in Ethie's eyes that the reconciliation had been +complete and perfect. Every error had been confessed, every fault +forgiven, and the husband and wife stood ready now to begin the world +anew, with perfect love for and confidence in each other. Ethie had +acknowledged all her faults, the greatest of which was the giving her +hand to one from whom she withheld her heart. + +"But you have that now," she said. "I can truly say that I love you far +betten than ever frank Van Buren was loved, and I know you to be worthy, +too. I have been so wicked, Richard,--so wilful and impatient,--that I +wonder you have not learned to hate my very name. I may be wilful still. +My old hot temper is not all subdued, though I hope I am a better woman +than I used to be when I cared for nothing but myself. God has been so +good to me who have forgotten Him so long; but we will serve Him +together now." + +As Ethie talked she had nestled closer and closer to her husband, whose +arms encircled her form and whose face bent itself down to hers, while a +rain of tears fell upon her hair and forehead as the strong man,--the +grave Judge and the honored Governor,--confessed where he, too, had been +in fault, and craving his young wife's pardon, ascribed also to God the +praise for bringing them both to feel their dependence on Him, as well +as to see this day, the happiest of their lives. + +Gradually, as she could bear it, the family came in one by one to see +her, Mrs. Markham, Sen., waiting till the very last, and refusing to go +until Ethelyn had expressed a wish to see her. + +"I was pretty hard on her, I s'pose, and it would not be strange if she +laid it up against me," she said to Melinda; but Ethie had nothing +against her now. + +The deep waters through which she had passed had obliterated all traces +of bitterness toward anyone, and when her mother-in-law came in she +feebly extended her hand and whispered: "I'm too tired, mother, to talk +much, but kiss me once for the sake of what we are going to be to +each other." + +Mrs. Markham was not naturally a bad or a hard woman, either. She was +only unfortunate that her ideas had run in one rut so long without any +jolt to throw them out. Circumstances had greatly softened her, and +Ethie's words touched her deeply. + +"I was mighty mean to you sometimes, Ethelyn, and I've been sorry for +it," she said, as she stooped to kiss her daughter-in-law, and then +hurried from the room, "Only to think, she called me mother," she said +to Melinda, to whom she reported the particulars of her interview with +Ethelyn--"me, who had been meaner than dirt to her--called me mother, +when I used to mistrust her she didn't think any more of me than if I'd +been an old squaw. I shan't forget it right away." + +Perhaps the sweetest, most joyful tears Ethelyn shed that day were those +which came to her eyes when they brought her Ethelyn, her namesake, the +little three-year-old, who pushed her brown curls back from her baby +face with such a womanly air, and said: + +"I'se glad to see Aunt Ethie. I prays for her ever' night. Uncle Andy +told me so. I loves you, Aunt Ethie." + +She was a beautiful little creature, and her innocent prattle and +engaging manners did much toward bringing the color back to Ethie's +cheeks and the brightness to her eyes. Those days of convalescence were +blissful ones, for now there was no shadow of a cloud resting on the +domestic horizon. Between husband and wife there was perfect love, and +in his newly born happiness, Richard forgot the ailments which had sent +him an invalid to Clifton, while Ethie, surrounded by every luxury which +love could devise or money procure, and made each hour to feel how dear +she was to those from whom she had been so long estranged, grew fresh, +and young, and pretty again; so that when, early in December, Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren came to Davenport to see her niece, she found her more +beautiful far than she had been in her early girlhood, when the boyish +Frank had paid his court to her. Poor little Nettie was dead. Her life +had literally been worried out of her; and during those September days, +when Ethelyn was watched and tended so carefully, she had turned herself +wearily upon her pillow, and just as the clock was striking the hour of +midnight, asked of the attendant: + +"Has Frank come yet?" + +"Not yet. Do you want anything?" + +"No, nothing. Is mother here?" + +"She was tired out, and has gone to her room to rest. Shall I call her?" + +"No, no matter. Is Ethie in her crib? Please bring her here. Never mind +if you do wake her. 'Tis the last time." + +And so the little sleeping child was brought to the dying mother, who +would fain feel that something she had loved was near her in the last +hour of loneliness and anguish she would ever know. Sorrow, +disappointment, and cruel neglect had been her lot ever since she became +a wife, but at the last these had purified and made her better, and led +her to the Saviour's feet, where she laid the little child she held so +closely to her bosom, dropping her tears upon its face and pressing her +farewell kiss upon its lips. Then she put it from her, and bidding the +servant remove the light, which made her eyes ache so, turned again upon +her pillow, and folding her little, white, wasted hands upon her bosom, +said softly the prayer the Saviour taught, and then glided as softly +down the river whose tide is never backward toward the shores of time. + + * * * * * + +About one Frank came home from the young men's association which he +attended so often, his head fuller of champagne and brandy than it was +of sense, and every good feeling blunted with dissipation. But the +Nettie whose pale face had been to him so constant a reproach was gone +forever, and only the lifeless form was left of what he once called his +wife. She was buried in Mount Auburn, and they made her a grander +funeral than they had given to her first-born, and then the household +want on the same as ever until Mrs. Van Buren conceived the idea of +visiting her niece, Mrs. Gov. Markham, and taking her grandchild with +her. For the sake of the name she was sure the little girl would be +welcome, as well as for the sake of the dead mother. And she was +welcome, more so even than the stately aunt, whose deep mourning robes +seemed to throw a kind of shadowy gloom over the house which she found +so handsome, and elegant, and perfectly kept that she would willingly +have spent the entire winter there. She was not invited to do this, and +some time in January she went back to her home, looking out on Boston +Common, but not until she had eaten a Christmas dinner with Mrs. +Markham, senior, at whose house the whole family were assembled on +that occasion. + +There was much good cheer and merriment there, and Ethie, in her rich +crimson silk which Richard had surprised her with, was the queen of all, +her wishes deferred to, and her tastes consulted with a delicacy and +deference which no one could fail to observe. And Eunice Plympton was +there, too, waiting upon the table with Andy, who insisted upon standing +at the back of Ethie's chair, just as he had seen the waiters do in +Camden, and would have his mother ring the silver bell when anything was +wanted. It was a happy family reunion, and a meet harbinger of the +peaceful days in store for our heroine--days which came and went so +fast, until winter melted into spring, and the spring budded into +blushing summer, and the summer faded into the golden autumn, and the +autumn floated with feathery snowflakes into the chilly winter and +December came again, bringing another meeting of the Markhams. But this +time it was at the governor's house in Davenport, and another was added +to the number--a pretty little waxen thing, which all through the +elaborate dinner slept quietly in its crib, and then in the evening, +when the gas was lighted in the parlors, and Mr. Townsend was there in +his gown, behaved most admirably, and lay very still in its father +Richard's arms, until it was transferred from his to those of the +clergyman, who in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost +baptized it "Daisy Adelaide Grant." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ethelyn's Mistake, by Mary Jane Holmes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHELYN'S MISTAKE *** + +***** This file should be named 12104-8.txt or 12104-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/1/0/12104/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Charlie Kirschner and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Ethelyn's Mistake + +Author: Mary Jane Holmes + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12104] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHELYN'S MISTAKE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Charlie Kirschner and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1>ETHELYN'S<br> +MISTAKE</h1> +<br> +<h4>BY</h4> +<h2>MRS. MARY J. HOLMES</h2> +<h5>AUTHOR OF "MILDRED; OR, THE CHILD OF ADOPTION," "MISS<br> +MC'DONALD," "TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE," "ENGLISH<br> +ORPHANS," "EDITH LYLE'S SECRET," "THE<br> +LEIGHTON HOMESTEAD," "MILLBANK;<br> +OR, ROGER IRVING'S WARD," ETC.</h5> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2>MARY J. HOLMES SERIES</h2> +<br> +<center><b>UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME<br> +By MARY J. HOLMES</b><br> +<br> +<table width="60%" summary="Both columns list books by the author"> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Aikenside.</td> +<td>Lena Rivers.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Bad Hugh.</td> +<td>Maggie Miller.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Cousin Maude.</td> +<td>Marion Grey.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Darkness and Daylight.</td> +<td>Meadow Brook.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Dora Deane.</td> +<td>Mildred; or, The Child of Adoption.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Edith Lyle's Secret.</td> +<td>Millbank; or, Roger Irving's Ward.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>English Orphans, The.</td> +<td>Miss McDonald.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Ethelyn's Mistake.</td> +<td>Rector of St. Marks, The.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Family Pride.</td> +<td>Rosamond.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Homestead on the Hillside, The.</td> +<td>Rose Mather.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Hugh Worthington.</td> +<td>Tempest and Sunshine.</td> +</tr> +<tr align="center"> +<td>Leighton Homestead, The.</td> +<td> </td> +</tr> +</table> +<br> +<i>Price, postpaid, 50c. each, or any three books for +$1.25</i></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<blockquote><b>CHAPTER</b><br> +<br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I. ETHELYN.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">II. THE VAN BUREN SET.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">III. RICHARD MARKHAM.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV. THE BRIDAL.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">V. THE HONEYMOON.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI. MRS. MARKHAM'S WAYS.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII. GETTING HOME.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII. ANDY.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX. DINNER, AND AFTER IT.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">X. FIRST DAYS IN OLNEY.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI. CALLS AND VISITING.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII. SOCIETY.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII. GOING TO WASHINGTON.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">XIV. THE FIRST DAY OF RICHARD'S +ABSENCE.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">XV. ANDY TRIES TO FIND THE ROOT OF THE +MATTER.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">XVI. WASHINGTON.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">XVII. RICHARD'S HEIR.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">XVIII. DAYS OF CONVALESCENCE.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">XIX. COMING TO A CRISIS.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">XX. THE CRISIS.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">XXI. THE RESULT.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">XXII. ETHIE'S LETTERS.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">XXIII. THE DESERTED HUSBAND.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">XXIV. THE INVESTIGATION.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">XXV. IN CHICOPEE.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">XXVI. WATCHING AND WAITING.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">XXVII. AFFAIRS AT OLNEY.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">XXVIII. THE GOVERNOR.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">XXIX. AFTER YEARS OF WAITING.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">XXX. ETHIE'S STORY.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">XXXI. MRS. DR. VAN BUREN.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">XXXII. CLIFTON.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII">XXXIII. THE OCCUPANT OF NO. 102.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV">XXXIV. IN RICHARD'S ROOM.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV">XXXV. MRS. PETER PRY TAKES A PACK.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI">XXXVI. IN DAVENPORT.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII">XXXVII. AT HOME.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII">XXXVIII. RICHARD AND ETHELYN.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIX">XXXIX. RECONCILIATION.</a></blockquote> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2>ETHELYN'S MISTAKE</h2> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> +<h3>ETHELYN</h3> +<br> +<p>There was a sweet odor of clover blossoms in the early morning +air, and the dew stood in great drops upon the summer flowers, and +dropped from the foliage of the elm trees which skirted the village +common. There was a cloud of mist upon the meadows, and the +windings of the river could be distinctly traced by the white fog +which curled above it. But the fog and the mists were rolling away +as the warm June sun came over the eastern hills, and here and +there signs of life were visible in the little New England town of +Chicopee, where our story opens. The mechanics who worked in the +large shoe-shop halfway down Cottage Row had been up an hour or +more, while the hissing of the steam which carried the huge +manufactory had been heard since the first robin peeped from its +nest in the alders down by the running brook; but higher up, on +Bellevue Street, where the old inhabitants lived, everything was +quiet, and the loamy road, moist and damp with the dews of the +previous night, was as yet unbroken by the foot of man or rut of +passing wheel.</p> +<p>The people who lived there, the Mumfords, and the Beechers, and +the Grangers, and the Thorns, did not strictly belong to the +working class. They held stocks in railroads, and mortgages on +farms, and so could afford to sleep after the shrill whistle from +the manufactory had wakened the echoes of the distant hills and +sounded across the waters of Pordunk Pond. Only one dwelling here +showed signs of life, and that the large square building, shaded in +front with elms and ornamented at the side with a luxuriant queen +of the prairie, whose blossoms were turning their blushing faces to +the rising sun. This was the Bigelow house, the joint property of +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, née Sophia Bigelow, who lived in Boston, +and her sister, Miss Barbara Bigelow, the quaintest and +kindest-hearted woman who ever bore the sobriquet of an old maid, +and was aunt to everybody. She was awake long before the whistle +sounded across the river and along the meadow lands, where some of +the workmen lived, and just as the robin, whose nest for four +summers had been under the eaves where neither boy nor cat could +reach it, brought the first worm to its clamorous young, she pushed +the fringed curtain from her open window, and with her broad +frilled cap still on her head, stood for a moment looking out upon +the morning as it crept up the eastern sky. "She will have a nice +day for her wedding. May her future life be as fair," Aunt Barbara +whispered softly, then kneeling before the window with her head +bowed upon the sill, she prayed earnestly for God's blessing on the +bridal to take place that night beneath her roof, and upon the +young girl who had been both a care and a comfort since the +Christmas morning eighteen years before, when her half-sister Julia +had come home to die, bringing with her the little Ethelyn, then +but two years old.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara's prayers were always to the point. She said what +she had to say in the fewest possible words, wasting no time in +repetition, and on this occasion she was briefer than usual, for +the good woman had many things upon her mind this morning. First, +there was Betty to rouse and get into a state of locomotion, a good +half hour's work, as Aunt Barbara knew from a three years' +experience. There was the "sponge" put to rise the previous night. +She must see if that had risen, and with her own hands mold the +snowy breakfast rolls which Ethelyn liked so much. There were the +chambers to be inspected a second time, to ascertain if everything +was in its place, and dinner to be prepared for the "Van Buren set" +expected up from Boston, while last, though far from least, there +was Ethelyn herself to waken when the clock should chime the hour +of six, and this was a pleasure which good Aunt Barbara would not +for the world have foregone. Every morning for the last sixteen +years, when Ethelyn was at home, she had gone to the pleasant, airy +chamber where her darling slept, and bending over her had kissed +her fair, glowing cheek, and so called her back from the dreamless +slumber which otherwise might have been prolonged to an indefinite +time, for Ethelyn did not believe in the maxim, "Early to bed and +early to rise," and always begged for a little more indulgence, +even after the brown eyes unclosed and flashed forth a responsive +greeting to the motherly face bending above them.</p> +<p>This morning, however, it was not needful that Aunt Barbara +should waken her, for long before the robin sang, or the +white-fringed curtain had been pushed aside from Aunt Barbara's +window, she was awake, and the brown eyes, which had in them a +strange expression for a bride's eyes to wear, had scanned the +eastern horizon wistfully, aye, drearily it may be, to see if it +were morning, and when the clock in the kitchen struck four, the +quivering lip had whispered, oh, so sadly, "Sixteen hours more, +only sixteen," and with a little shiver the bed-clothes had been +drawn more closely around the plump shoulders, and the troubled +face had nestled down among the pillows to smother the sigh which +never ought to have come from a maiden's lips upon her wedding day. +The chamber of the bride-elect was a pleasant one, large and airy +and high, with windows looking out upon the Chicopee hills, and +from which Ethelyn had many a time watched the fading of the +purplish twilight as, girl-like, she speculated upon the future and +wondered what it might have in store for her. One leaf of the great +book had been turned and lay open to her view, but she shrank away +from what was written there, and wished so much that the record +were otherwise. Upon the walls of Ethelyn's chamber many pictures +were hung, some in water colors, which she had done herself in the +happy schooldays which now seemed so far away, and some in oil, +mementos also of those days. Pictures, too, there were of people, +one of dear Aunt Barbara, whose kindly face was the first to smile +on Ethelyn when she woke, and whose patient, watchful eyes seemed +to keep guard over her while she slept. Besides Aunt Barbara's +picture there was another one, a fair, boyish face, with a look not +wholly unlike Ethelyn, herself, save that it lacked the firmness +and decision which were so apparent in the proud curve of her lip +and the flash of her brown eyes. Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with +something feminine in every feature, it seemed preposterous that +the original could ever make a young girl's heart ache as Ethelyn +Grant's was aching that June morning, when, taking the small oval +frame from the wall, she kissed it passionately, and then thrust it +away into the bureau drawer, which held other relics than the oval +frame. It was, in fact, the grave of Ethelyn's buried hopes--the +tomb she had sworn never to unlock again; but now, as her fingers +lingered a moment amid the mementos of the years when, in her +girlish ignorance, she had been so happy, she felt her resolution +giving way, and sitting down upon the floor, with her long hair +unfastened and falling loosely about her, she bowed her head over +buried treasures, and dropped into their grave the bitterest tears +she had ever shed. Then, as there swept over her some better +impulse, whispering of the wrong she was doing to her promised +husband, she said:</p> +<p>"I will not leave them here to madden me again some other day. I +will burn them, every one."</p> +<p>There were matches within her reach, while the little fireplace +was not far away, and, sitting just where she was, Ethelyn Grant +burned one after another, letters and notes, some directed in +schoolboy style, and others showing a manlier hand, as the dates +grew more recent and the envelopes bore a more modern and +fashionable look. Over one, the freshest and the last, Ethelyn +lingered a moment, her eyes growing dark with passion, and her lips +twitching nervously as she read:</p> +<p>"BOSTON, April--</p> +<p>"Dear Ethie: I reckon mother is right, after all. She generally +is, you know, so we may as well be resigned, and believe it wicked +for cousins to marry each other. Of course I can never like Nettie +as I have liked you, and I feel a twinge every time I remember the +dear old times. But what must be must, and there's no use fretting. +Do you remember old Colonel Markham's nephew from out West--the one +who wore the short pants and the rusty crape on his hat when he +visited his uncle, in Chicopee, some years ago? I mean the chap who +helped you over the fence the time you stole the colonel's apples. +He has become a member of Congress, and quite a big gun for the +West, at least, mother thinks. He called on her to-day with a +message from Mrs. Woodhull, but I did not see him. He goes up to +Chicopee to-morrow, I believe. He is looking for a wife, they say, +and mother thinks it would be a good match for you, as you could go +to Washington next winter and queen it over them all. But don't, +Ethie, don't for thunder's sake! It fairly makes me faint to think +of you belonging to another, even though you may never belong to +me. Yours always, Frank."</p> +<p>There was a dark, defiant look in Ethelyn's face as she applied +the match to this letter, and then watched it blacken and crisp +upon the hearth. How well she remembered the day when she received +it--the dark, dismal April day, when the rain which dropped so fast +from the leaden clouds, seemed weeping for her, who could not weep +then, so complete was her humiliation, so utter her desolation. +That was not quite three months ago, and so much had happened since +then as the result of that M.C.'s visit to Chicopee. He was there +again, this morning, an inmate of the great yellow house, with the +large, old-fashioned brass knocker, and, by just putting aside her +curtain, Ethelyn could see the very window of the chamber where he +slept. But Ethelyn had other matters in hand, and if she thought at +all of that window whose shutters were rarely opened except when +Colonel Markham had, as now, an honored guest, it was with a faint +shudder of terror, and she went on destroying mementos which were +only a mockery of the past. One little note, the first ever +received from Frank, after a, memorable morning in the huckleberry +hills, she could not burn. It was only a line, and, if read by a +stranger, would convey no particular meaning; so she laid it aside +with the lock of light, soft hair, which clung to her fingers with +a kind of caressing touch, and brought to her hot eyelids a mist +which cooled their feverish heat. And now nothing remained of the +treasures but a tiny tortoise-shell box, where, in its bed of pink +cotton, lay a little ring, with "Ethie" marked upon it. It was too +small for the finger it once encircled, for Ethel was but a child +when first she wore it. Her hands were larger; plumper, now, and it +would not pass the second joint of her finger, though she exerted +all her strength to push it on, taking a kind of savage delight in +the pain it caused her, and feeling that she was thus revenging +herself on someone, she hardly knew or cared whom. At last, +however, with a quick, jerking motion she drew it off, and covering +her face with her hands, moaned bitterly:</p> +<p>"It hurts! it hurts! just as the bonds hurt which are closing +around my heart. Oh! Frank, Frank, it was cruel to serve me +so."</p> +<p>There was a step in the hall below. Aunt Barbara was coming to +waken Ethelyn, and, with a spring, the young girl bounded to her +feet, swept her hands twice across her face, and, shedding back +from her forehead her wealth of bright brown hair, laughingly +confronted the good woman, who, in the same breath, expressed her +surprise that her niece was once up without being called, and her +wonder at the peculiar odor pervading the apartment.</p> +<p>"Smells if all the old newspapers in the barrel up garret had +been burnt at once," she said; but the fireplace, which lay in +shadow, told no tales, and Aunt Barbara never suspected the pain +tugging at the heart of the girl, whose cheeks glowed with an +unnatural red as she dashed hot water over neck, and arms, and +face, playfully plashing a few large drops upon her aunt's white +apron, and asking if there was not an old adage, "Blessed is the +bride the sun shines on." "If so, I must be greatly blessed," she +said, pushing open the eastern shutter, and letting in a flood of +yellow sunlight.</p> +<p>"The day bids fair to be a scorcher. I hope it will grow cool +this evening. A crowded party is so terrible when one feels hot and +uncomfortable, and the millers and horn-bugs come in so thickly, +and I always get so red in the face. Please, auntie, you twist up +my hair in a flat knot--no matter how. I don't seem to have any +strength in my arms this morning, and my head is all in a whirl. It +must be the weather," and, with a long, panting breath, Ethelyn +sank, half fainting, into a chair, while her frightened aunt ran +for water, and camphor, and cologne, hoping Ethelyn was not coming +down with fever, or any other dire complaint, on this her wedding +day.</p> +<p>"It is the weather, most likely, and the awful amount of sewing +you've done these last few weeks," said Aunt Barbara; and Ethelyn +suffered her to think so, though she herself had a far different +theory with regard to that almost fainting fit, which served as an +excuse for her unusual pallor, for her listless apathy, and her +want of appetite, even for the flaky rolls, and the delicious +strawberries, and thick, yellow cream which Aunt Barbara put before +her.</p> +<p>She was not hungry, she said, as she turned over the berries +with her spoon, and pecked at the snowy rolls. By and by she might +want something, perhaps, and then Betty would make her a slice of +toast to stay her stomach till the late dinner they were to have on +Aunt Van Buren's account--that lady always professing to be greatly +shocked at the early dinners in Chicopee, and generally managing, +during her visits home, to change entirely the ways and customs of +Aunt Barbara Bigelow's well-ordered household.</p> +<p>"I wish she was not coming, or anybody else. Getting married is +a bore!" Ethelyn exclaimed, while Aunt Barbara looked curiously +enough at her, wondering, for the first time, if the girl's heart +were really in this marriage, which for weeks had been agitating +the feminine portion of Chicopee, and for which so great +preparations had been made.</p> +<p>Wholly honest and truthful and sincere herself, Aunt Barbara +seldom suspected wrong in others, and so when Ethelyn, one April +night, after a drive around the road which encircles Pordunk Pond, +came to her and said, "Congratulate me, auntie, I am to be Mrs. +Judge Markham," she had believed all was well, and that as sister +Sophia Van Buren, of Boston, had so often averred, there was not, +nor ever had been, anything serious between dandyish Frank, Mrs. +Van Buren's only son, who parted his curly hair in the middle, and +the high-spirited, impulsive Ethelyn, whose eyes shone like stars +as she told of her engagement, and whose hand was icy cold as she +held it up to the lamp-light to show the large diamond which +flashed from the fourth finger as proof of what she said. The stone +itself was of the first water, but the setting was old, so old that +a connoisseur in such matters might wonder why Judge Markham had +chosen such a ring as the seal of his betrothal. Ethelyn knew why, +and the softest, kindliest feeling she had experienced for her +promised husband was awakened when he told her of the fair young +sister whose name was Daisy, and who for many years had slept on +the Western prairie beneath the blossoms whose name she bore. This +young girl, loving God with all her soul, loved too all the +beautiful things he had made, and rejoiced in them as so much given +her to enjoy. Brought up in the far West, where the tastes of the +people were simpler than those of our Eastern neighbors, it was +strange, he said, how strong a passion she possessed for gems and +precious stones, especially the diamond. To have for her own a ring +like one she once saw upon a grand Chicago lady was her great +ambition, and knowing this the brother hoarded carefully his own +earnings, until enough was saved to buy the coveted ring, which he +brought to his young sister on her fourteenth birthday. But death +even then had cast its shadow around her, and the slender fingers +soon grew too small for the ring, which she nevertheless kept +constantly by her, admiring its brilliancy, and flashing it in the +sunlight for the sake of the rainbow hues it gave. And when, at +last, she lay dying in her brother's arms, with her golden head +upon his breast, she had given back the ring, and said, "I am +going, Richard, where there are far more beautiful things than +this: 'for eye hath not seen, neither hath it entered into the +heart of man, the things prepared for those who love Him,' and I do +love Him, brother, oh! so much, and feel His arms around me now as +sensibly as I feel yours. His will stay after yours are removed, +and I am done with earth; but keep the ring, Brother Dick, and when +in after years you love some pure young girl as well as you love +me, only different--some girl who will prize such things, and is +worthy of it--give it to her, and tell her it was Daisy's; tell her +for me, and that I bade her love you, as you deserve to be +loved."</p> +<p>All this Richard Markham had said to Ethelyn as they stood for a +few minutes upon the beach of the pond, with its waters breaking +softly upon the sands at their feet, and the young spring moon +shining down upon them like Daisy's eyes, as the brother described +them when they last looked on him. There was a picture of Daisy in +their best room at home, an oil painting made by a traveling +artist, Richard said, and some day Ethelyn would see it, for she +had promised to be his wife, and the engagement ring--Daisy's +ring--was on her finger, sparkling in the moonbeam, just as it used +to sparkle when the dead girl held it in the light. It was a superb +diamond--even Frank, with all his fastidiousness, would admit that, +Ethelyn thought, her mind more, alas! on Frank and his opinion than +on what her lover was saying to her, of his believing that she was +pure and good as Daisy could have desired, that Daisy would approve +his choice, if she only knew, as perhaps she did; he could not help +feeling that she was there with them, looking into their +hearts--that the silvery light resting so calmly on the silent +water was the halo of her invisible presence blessing their +betrothal. This was a good deal for Richard Markham to say, for he +was not given to poetry, or sentiment, or imagery, but Ethelyn's +face and Ethelyn's eyes had played strange antics with the staid, +matter-of-fact man of Western Iowa, and stirred his blood as it had +never been stirred before. He did fancy his angel-sister was there; +but when he said so to Ethelyn she started with a shiver, and asked +to be driven home, for she did not care to have even dead eyes +looking into her heart, where the fires of passion were surging and +swelling, like some hidden volcano, struggling to be free. She knew +she was doing wrong--knew she was not the pure maiden whom Daisy +would have chosen--was not worthy to be the bride of Daisy's +brother; but she must do something or die, and as she did not care +to die, she pledged her hand with no heart in it, and hushing the +voice of conscience clamoring so loudly against what she was doing, +walked back across the yellow sand, beneath the spring moonlight, +to where the carriage waited, and, in comparative silence, was +driven to Aunt Barbara's gate.</p> +<p>This was the history of the ring, and here, as well as +elsewhere, we may tell Ethelyn's history up to the time when, on +her bridal day, she sat with Aunt Barbara at the breakfast table, +idly playing with her spoon and occasionally sipping the fragrant +coffee. The child of Aunt Barbara's half-sister, she inherited none +of the so-called Bigelow estate which had come to the two +daughters, Aunt Barbara and Aunt Sophia, from their mother's +family. But the Bigelow blood of which Aunt Sophy Van Buren was so +proud was in her veins, and so to this aunt she was an object of +interest, and even value, though not enough so to warrant that lady +in taking her for her own when, eighteen years before our story +opens, her mother, Mrs. Julia Bigelow Grant, had died. This task +devolved on Aunt Barbara, whose great motherly heart opened at once +to the little orphan who had never felt a mother's loss, so +faithful and true had Aunt Barbara been to her trust. Partly +because she did not wish to seem more selfish than her sister, and +partly because she really liked the bright, handsome child who made +Aunt Barbara's home so cheery, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren of Boston, +insisted upon superintending the little Ethelyn's education, and +so, when only twelve years of age, Ethelyn was taken from the old +brick house under the elms, which Mrs. Dr. Van Buren of Boston +despised as the "district school where Tom, Dick, and Harry +congregated," and transplanted to the highly select and very +expensive school taught by Madame--, in plain sight of Beacon +Street and Boston Common. And so, as Ethelyn increased in stature, +she grew also in wisdom and knowledge, both of books and manners, +and the style of the great world around her. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's +house was the resort both of the fashionable and literary people, +with a sprinkling of the religious, for the great lady affected +everything which could effect her interest. Naturally generous, her +name was conspicuous on all subscription lists and charitable +associations, while the lady herself owned a pew in ---- Church, +where she was a regular attendant, together with her only son, +Frank, who was taught to kneel and respond in the right places and +bow in the creed, and then, after church, required to give a +synopsis of the sermon, by way of proving that his mind had not +been running off after the dancing school he attended during the +week, under his mother's watchful supervision. Mrs. Van Buren meant +to be a model mother, and bring up her boy as a model man, and so +she gave him every possible advantage of books and teachers, while +far in the future floated the possibility that she might some day +reign at the White House, not as the President's wife--this could +not be, she knew, for the man who had made her Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +of Boston slept in the shadow of a very tall monument out at Mount +Auburn, and the turf was growing fresh and green over his head. So +if she went to Washington, as she fondly hoped she might, it would +be as the President's mother; but when examination after +examination found Frank at the foot of his class, and teacher after +teacher said he could not learn, she gave up the presidential +chair, and contenting herself with a seat in Congress, asked that +great pains should be taken to bring out the talent for debate and +speech-making which she was sure Frank possessed; but when even +this failed, and nineteen times out of twenty Frank could get no +farther than "My name is Norval, on the Grampian Hills," she +yielded the M.C. too, and set herself to make him a gentleman, +polished, refined, and cultivated--one, in short, who was au fait +with all that fashionable society required; and here she succeeded +better. Frank was perfectly at home on the dancing floor or in the +saloons of gaiety, or the establishment of a fashionable tailor, so +that when Ethelyn, at twelve, went down to Boston, she found her +tall, slender, light-haired cousin of sixteen a perfect dandy, with +a capability and a disposition to criticise and laugh at whatever +there was of gaucherie in her country manners and country dress. In +some things the two were of mutual benefit to each other. Ethelyn, +who could conquer any lesson however difficult, helped +thick-headed, indolent Frank in his studies, translating his hard +passages in Virgil, working out his problems in mathematics, and +even writing, or at least revising and correcting, his +compositions, while he in return gave her lessons in etiquette as +practiced by the Boston girls, teaching her how to polka a waltz +gracefully, so he would not be ashamed to introduce her as his +cousin, he said, at the children's parties which they attended +together. It was not strange that Frank Van Buren should admire a +girl as bright and piquant and pretty as his cousin Ethelyn, but it +was strange that she should idolize him, bearing patiently with all +his criticisms, trying hard to please him, and feeling more than +repaid for her exertions by a word of praise or commendation from +her exacting teacher, who, viewing her at first as a poor relation, +was inclined to be exacting, if not overbearing, in his demands. +But as time passed on all this was changed, and the well-developed +girl of fifteen, whom so many noticed and admired, would no longer +be patronized by the young man Frank, who, finding himself in +danger of being snubbed, as he termed Ethelyn's grand way of +putting him down, suddenly awoke to the fact that he loved his +high-spirited cousin, and he told her so one hazy day, when they +were in Chicopee, and had wandered up to a ledge of rocks in the +huckleberry hills which overlooked the town.</p> +<p>"They might as well make a sure thing of it," he said, in his +off-hand way. "If she liked him and he liked her, they would clinch +the bargain at once, even if they were so young." And so, when they +went down the hill back to the shadow of the elm trees, where Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren sat cooling herself and reading "Vanity Fair," there +was a tiny ring on Ethelyn's finger, and she had pledged herself to +be Frank's wife some day in the future.</p> +<p>Frank had promised to tell his mother, for Ethelyn would have no +concealment; and so, holding up her hand and pointing to the ring, +he said, more in jest than earnest:</p> +<p>"Look, mother, Ethie and I are engaged. If you have any +objections, state them now, or ever after hold your peace."</p> +<p>He did not think proper to explain either to his mother or Ethie +that this was his second serious entanglement, and that the ring +had been bought before for a pretty milliner girl, at least six +years his senior, whose acquaintance he had made at Nahant the +summer previous, and whom he had forgotten when he learned that to +her taste his mother was indebted for the stylish bonnet she +sported every season. Frank generally had some love affair in +hand--it was a part of his nature; and as he was not always careful +in his choice, the mother had occasionally felt a twinge of fear +lest, after all her care, some terrible mésalliance should +be thrust upon her by her susceptible son. So she listened +graciously to the news of his betrothal--nay, she was pleased with +it, as for the time being it would divert his mind and keep him out +of mischief. That he would eventually marry Ethelyn was impossible, +for his bride must be rich; but Ethelyn answered the purpose now, +and could easily be disposed of when other and better game +appeared. So the scheming woman smiled, and said "it was not well +for cousins to marry and even if it were, they were both too young +to know their minds, and would do well to keep their engagement a +secret for a time," and then returned to Becky Sharp, while Frank +went to sleep upon the lounge, and Ethelyn stole off upstairs to +dream over her happiness, which was as real to her as such a thing +could well be to an impulsive, womanly girl of fifteen summers. +She, at least, was in earnest, and as time passed on Frank seemed +to be in earnest, too, devoting himself wholly to his cousin, whose +influence over him was so great that he was fast becoming what Aunt +Barbara called a man, while his mother began again to have visions +of a seat in Congress, and brilliant speeches, which would find +their way to Boston and be read and admired in the circles in which +she moved.</p> +<p>And so the days and years wore on until Frank was a man of +twenty-four--a third-rate practitioner, too, whose sign, "Frank Van +Buren, Attorney-at-law," etc., looked very fresh and respectable in +front of the office on Washington Street, and Frank himself began +to have thoughts of claiming Ethelyn's promise and having a home of +his own. He would not live with his mother, he said; it was more +independent to be alone; and then, from some things he had +discovered in his bride-elect, he had an uneasy feeling that +possibly the brown of Ethelyn's eyes might not wholly harmonize +with the gray of his mother's, "for Ethie was spunky as the old +Nick," he argued with himself, while "for perversity and +self-conceit his mother could not be beaten." It was better they +should keep up two households, his mother seeing to both, and if +need be, supplying the wants of both. To do Frank justice, he had +some very correct notions with regard to domestic happiness, and +had he been poor and dependent upon his own exertions he might have +been an average husband; at least he would have gotten on well with +Ethelyn, whose stronger nature would have upheld his and been like +a supporting prop to a feeble timber. As it was, he drew many +pleasing pictures of the home which was to be his and Ethie's. Now +it was in the city, near to his mother's and Mrs. General Tophevie, +his mother's intimate friend, whose house was the open sesame to +the crême de la crême of Boston society; but oftener it +was a rose-embowered cottage, of easy access to the city, where he +could have Ethie all to himself when his day's labor was over, and +where the skies would not be brighter than Ethie's eyes as she +welcomed him home at night, leaning over the gate in the pale buff +muslin he liked so much, with rosebuds in her hair.</p> +<p>He had seen her thus so often in fancy, that the picture had +become a reality, and refused to be erased at once from the mental +canvas, when, in January, Miss Nettie Hudson, niece to Mrs. General +Tophevie, came from Philadelphia, and at once took prestige of +everything on the strength of the one hundred thousand dollars of +which she was sole heiress. The Hudson blood was a mixture of +blacksmith's and shoemaker's, and peddler's too, it was said; but +that was far back in the past. The Hudsons of the present day +scarcely knew whether peddler were spelled with two d's or one. +They bought their shoes at the most fashionable shops, and could, +if they chose, have their horses shod with gold, and so the +handsome Nettie reigned supreme as belle. The moment Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren saw her, she recognized her daughter-in-law, the future Mrs. +Frank, and Ethie's fate was sealed. There had been times when Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren thought it possible that Ethelyn might, after all, be +the most favored of women, the wife of her son. These times were at +Saratoga, and Newport, and Nahant, where Ethelyn Grant was more +sought after than any young lady there, and where the proud woman +herself took pride in talking of "my niece," hinting once, when +Ethelyn's star was at its height, of a childish affaire du coeur +between the young lady and her son, and insinuating that it might +yet amount to something. She changed her mind when Nettie came with +her one hundred thousand dollars, and showed a willingness to be +admired by Frank. That childish affaire du coeur was a very +childish affair, indeed; she never gave it a moment's thought +herself--she greatly doubted if Frank had ever been in earnest, and +if Ethelyn had led him into an entanglement, she would not, of +course, hold him to his promise if he wished to be released. He +must have a rich wife to support him in his refined tastes and +luxurious habits, for her own fortune was not so great as many +supposed. She might need it all herself, as she was far from being +old, and then again it was wicked for cousins to marry each other. +It did not matter if the mothers were only half-sisters; there was +the same blood in the veins of each, and it would not do at all, +even if Ethelyn's affections were enlisted, which Mrs. Van Buren +greatly doubted.</p> +<p>This was what Mrs. Dr. Van Buren said to Ethelyn, after a stormy +interview with Frank, who had at first sworn roundly that he would +not give Ethie up, then had thanked his mother not to meddle with +his business, then bidden her "go to thunder," and finally, between +a cry and a blubber, said he should always like Ethie best if he +married a hundred Netties. This was in the morning, and the +afternoon train had carried Mrs. Dr. Van Buren to Chicopee, where +Ethelyn's glowing face flashed a bright welcome when she came, but +was white and pallid as the face of a corpse when the voluminous +skirts of Mrs. Van Buren's poplin dress passed through the gate +next day and disappeared in the direction of the depot. Aunt +Barbara was not at home--she had gone to visit a friend in Albany; +and so Ethelyn met and fought with her pain alone, stifling it as +best she could, and succeeding so well that Aunt Barbara, on her +return, never suspected the fierce storm which Ethelyn had passed +through during her absence, or dreamed how anxiously the young girl +watched and waited for some word from Frank which should say that +he was ready to defy his mother, and abide by his first promise. +But no such letter came, and at last, when she could bear the +suspense no longer, Ethelyn wrote herself to her recreant lover, +asking if it were really so that hereafter their lives lay apart +from each other. If such was his wish, she was content, she said, +and Frank Van Buren, who could not detect the air of superb scorn +which breathed in every line of that letter, felt somehow aggrieved +that "Ethie should take it so easy," and relieved too, that with +her he should have no trouble, as he had anticipated. He was +getting used to Nettie, and getting to like her, too, for her +manner toward him was far more agreeable than Ethie's brusque way +of manifesting her impatience at his lack of manliness. It was +inexplicable how Ethie could care for one so greatly her inferior, +both mentally and physically, but it would seem that she loved him +all the more for the very weakness which made her nature a +necessity of his, and the bitterest pang she had ever felt came +with the answer which Frank sent back to her letter, and which the +reader has seen.</p> +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<p>It was all over now, settled, finished, and two days after she +hunted up Aunt Barbara's spectacles for her, and then sat very +quiet while the old lady read Aunt Sophia's letter, announcing +Frank's engagement with Miss Nettie Hudson, of Philadelphia. Aunt +Barbara knew of Ethelyn's engagement with Frank, but like her +sister at the time of its occurrence, she had esteemed it mere +child's play. Later, however, as she saw how they clung to each +other, she had thought it possible that something might come of it, +but as Ethelyn was wholly reticent on that subject, it had never +been mentioned between them. When, however, the news of Frank's +second engagement came, Aunt Barbara looked over her spectacles +straight at the girl, who, for any sign she gave, might have been a +block of marble, so rigid was every muscle of her face, and even +the tone of her voice as she said:</p> +<p>"I am glad Aunt Sophia is suited. Frank will be pleased with +anything."</p> +<p>"She does not care for him and I am glad, for he is not half +smart enough for her," was Aunt Barbara's mental comment, as she +laid the letter by for a second reading, and then told her niece, +as the last item of news, that old Captain Markham's nephew had +come, and they were making a great ado over him now that he was a +member of Congress, and a Judge, too. They had asked the Howells +and Grangers and the Carters there to tea for the next day, she +said, adding that she and Ethelyn were also invited. "They want to +be polite to him," old Mrs. Markham said. Aunt Barbara continued, +"but for my part, if I were he, I should not care much for +politeness that comes so late. I remember when he was here ten +years ago, on such a matter, and they fairly acted as if they were +ashamed of him then; but titles make a difference. He's an +Honorable now, and the old Captain is mighty proud of him."</p> +<p>What Aunt Barbara had said was strictly true, for there had been +a time when proud old Captain Markham ignored his brother's family +living on the far prairies of the West; but when the eldest son, +Richard, called for him, had become a growing man, as boys out West +are apt to do, rising from justice of the peace to a member of the +State Legislature, then to a judgeship, and finally to a seat in +Congress, and all before he was quite thirty-two, the Captain's +tactics changed, and a most cordial letter, addressed to "My dear +nephew," and signed "Your affectionate uncle," was sent to +Washington, urging a visit from the young man ere he returned to +Iowa.</p> +<p>And that was how Richard Markham, M.C., came to be in Chicopee +at the precise time when Ethelyn's heart was bleeding at every +pore, and ready to seize upon any new excitement which would divert +it from its pain. She remembered well the time he had once before +visited Chicopee. She was a little girl of ten, fleeing across the +meadow-land from a maddened cow, when a tall, athletic young man +had come to her rescue, standing between her and danger, helping +her over the fence, picking up the apron full of apples which she +had been purloining from the Captain's orchard, and even pinning +together a huge rent made in her dress by catching it upon a +protruding splint as she sprang to the ground. She was too much +frightened to know whether he had been wholly graceful in his +endeavors to serve her, and too thankful for her escape to think +that possibly her torn dress was the result of his rather awkward +handling. She remembered only the dark, handsome face which bent so +near to hers, the brown, curly head actually bumping against her +own, as he stooped to gather the stolen apples. She remembered, +too, the kindly voice which asked if "her aunt would scold," while +the large, red hands pinned together the unsightly seam, and she +liked the Westerner, as the people of Chicopee called the stranger +who had recently come among them. Frank was in Chicopee then, +fishing on the river, when her mishaps occurred; and once after +that, when walking with him, she had met Richard Markham, who bowed +modestly and passed on, never taking his hands from his pockets +where they were planted so firmly, and never touching his hat as +Frank said a gentleman would have done.</p> +<p>"Isn't he handsome?" Ethelyn had asked, and Frank had answered, +"Looks well enough, though anybody with half an eye would know he +was a codger from the West. His pants are a great deal too short; +and look at his coat--at least three years behind the fashion; and +such a hat, with that rusty old band of crape around it. Wonder if +he is in mourning for his grandmother. Oh, my! we boys would hoot +him in Boston. He's what I call a gawky."</p> +<p>That settled it with Ethelyn. If fourteen-year-old Frank Van +Buren, whose pants and coats and neckties and hats were always the +latest make, said that Richard Markham was a gawky, he was one, and +henceforth during his stay in Chicopee, the Western young man was +regarded by Ethelyn with a feeling akin to pity for his benighted +condition. Aunt Barbara's pew was very near to Captain Markham's, +and Richard, who was not much of a churchman, and as often as any +way lounged upon the faded damask curtains, instead of standing up, +often met Ethelyn's brown eyes fixed curiously upon him, but never +dreamed that she regarded him as a species of heathen, whom it +would be a pious act to Christianize. Richard rarely thought of +himself at all, or if he did, it was with a feeling that he "was +well enough "; that if his mother and "the neighbors" were +satisfied with him, as he knew they were, he ought to be satisfied +with himself. So he had no suspicion of the severe criticism passed +upon him by the little girl who read the service so womanly, he +thought, eating caraway and lozenges between times, and whose face +he carried in memory back to his prairie home, associating her +always with the graceful dark-brown heifer bearing so strong a +resemblance to the cow which had so frightened Ethelyn on the day +of his first introduction to her.</p> +<p>But he forgot her in the excitement which followed, when he +began to grow rapidly, as only Western men can grow, and we doubt +if she had been in his mind for years until her name was mentioned +by Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, who saw in him a most eligible match for her +niece. He was well connected--own nephew to Captain Markham, and +first cousin to Mrs. Senator Woodhull, of New York, who kept a +suite of servants for herself and husband, and had the finest +turn-out in the Park. Yes, he would do nicely for Ethelyn and by +way of quieting her conscience, which kept whispering that she had +not been altogether just to her niece, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren packed +her trunk and took the train for Chicopee the very day of Mrs. +Captain Markham's tea party.</p> +<p>Ethelyn was going, and she looked very pretty in her dark-green +silk, with the bit of soft, rich lace at the throat and the scarlet +ribbon in her hair. She was not dressed for effect. She cared very +little, in fact, what impression she made upon the Western Judge, +though she did wonder if, as a Judge, he was much improved from the +raw young man whom Frank had called a "gawky." He was standing with +his elbow upon the mantel talking to Susie Granger, when Ethelyn +entered Mrs. Markham's parlor; one foot was carelessly crossed over +the other, so that only the toe of the boot touched the carpet, +while his hand grasped his large handkerchief rather awkwardly. He +was not at ease with the ladies; he had never been very much +accustomed to their society. He did not know what to say to them, +and Susie's saucy black eyes and sprightly manner evidently +embarrassed and abashed him. That vocabulary of small talk so +prevalent in society, and a limited knowledge of which is rather +necessary to one's getting on well with everybody, were unknown to +him, and he was casting about for some way to escape from his +companion, when Ethelyn was introduced, and his mind went back to +the stolen apples and the torn dress which he had pinned +together.</p> +<p>Judge Markham was a tall, finely formed man, with deep hazel +eyes, which could be very stern or very soft in their expression, +just as his mood happened to be. But the chief attraction of his +face was his smile, which changed his entire expression, making him +very handsome, as Ethelyn thought, when he stood for a moment +holding her hand between both his broad palms and chatting +familiarly with her as with an old acquaintance. He could talk to +her better than to Susie Granger, for Ethie, though neither very +deep nor learned, was fond of books and tolerably well versed in +the current literature of the day. Besides that, she had a faculty +of seeming to know more than she really did and so the impression +left upon the Judge's mind, when the little party was over and he +had returned from escorting Ethelyn to her door, was that Miss +Grant was far superior to any girl he had ever met since Daisy +died, and like the Judge in Whittier's "Maud Muller," he whistled +snatches of an old love tune he had not whistled in years, as he +went slowly back to his uncle's, and thought strange thoughts for +him, the grave old bachelor who had said he should never marry. He +was not looking for a wife, as rumor intimated, but he dreamed of +Ethelyn Grant that night, and called upon her the next day, and the +next, until the village began to gossip, and Mrs. Dr. Van Buren was +in an ecstasy of delight, talking openly of the delightful time her +niece would have in Washington the next winter, and predicting for +her a brilliant career as reigning belle, and even hinting the +possibility of her taking a house so as to entertain her Boston +friends.</p> +<p>And Ethelyn herself had many and varied feelings on the subject, +the strangest of which was a perverse desire to let Frank know that +she did not care--that her heart was not broken by his desertion, +and that there were those who prized her even if he did not. She +had criticised Judge Markham very severely. She had weighed him in +the balance with Frank, and found him sadly, wanting in all those +little points which she considered as marks of culture and good +breeding. He was not a ladies' man; he was even worse than that, +for he was sometimes positively rude and ungentlemanly, as she +thought, when he would open a gate or a door and pass through it +first himself instead of holding it deferentially for her, as Frank +would have done. He did not know how to swing his cane, or touch +his hat, or even bow as Frank Van Buren did; while the cut of his +coat, if not six, was at least two years behind the times, and he +did not seem to know it either. All these things Ethelyn wrote +against him; but the account was more than balanced by the seat in +Congress, the anticipated winter in Washington, the great wealth he +was said to possess, the high estimation in which she knew he was +held, and the keen pang of disappointment from which she was +suffering. This last really did the most to turn the scale in +Richard's favor, for, like many a poor, deluded girl, she fancied +that marrying another was the surest way to forget a past which it +was not pleasant to remember. She respected Judge Markham highly, +and knew that in everything pertaining to a noble manhood he was +worth a dozen Franks, even if he never had been to dancing school, +and did not obsequiously pick up the handkerchief which she +purposely dropped to see what he would do. And so, when Aunt Sophia +had gone back to the city, and Judge Markham was in a few days to +return to his Western home, she rode with him around the Pond, and +when she came back the dead Daisy's ring was upon her finger and +she was a promised wife. A dozen times since then she had been +tempted to write to Richard Markham, asking to be released from her +engagement; for, bad as she has thus far appeared to the reader, +there were many noble traits in her character, and she shrank from +wronging the man of whom she knew she was not worthy.</p> +<p>But the deference paid her as Mrs. Judge Markham-elect, the +delight of Aunt Sophia, the approbation of Aunt Barbara, the letter +of congratulation sent her by Mrs. Senator Woodhull, Richard's +cousin, and more than all, Frank's discomfiture, as evinced by the +complaining note he sent her, prevailed to keep her to her promise, +and the bridegroom, when he came in June to claim her hand, little +guessed how heavy was the heart which lay in the bosom of the young +girl so passively suffering his caresses, but whose lips never +moved in response to the kiss he pressed upon them.</p> +<p>She was very shy, he thought--more so, even, than when he saw +her last; but he loved her just as well, and never suspected that, +when on the first evening of his arrival he sat with his arm around +her, wondering a little what made her so silent, she was burning +with mortification because the coat he wore was the very same she +had criticised last spring, hoping in her heart of hearts that long +before he came to her again it might find its proper place, either +in the sewing society or with some Jewish vender of old clothes. +Yet here it was again, and her head was resting against it, while +her heart beat almost audibly, and her voice was even petulant in +its tone as she answered her lover's questions. Ethelyn was making +a terrible mistake, and she knew it, hating herself for her +duplicity, and vaguely hoping that something would happen to save +her from the fate she so much dreaded. But nothing did happen, and +it was now too late to retract herself. The bridal trousseau was +prepared under Mrs. Van Buren's supervision, the bridal guests were +bidden, the bridal tour was planned, the bridegroom had arrived, +and she would keep her word if she died in the attempt.</p> +<p>And so we find her on her bridal morning wishing nobody was +coming, and denouncing getting married "a bore," while Aunt Barbara +looked at her in surprise, wondering if everything were right. In +spite of her ill humor, she was very handsome that morning in her +white cambric wrapper, with just a little color in her cheeks and +her heavy hair pushed back in behind her ears and twisted under the +silk net. Ethelyn cared little for her looks--at least not then; by +and by she might, when it was time for Mrs. Dr. Van Buren to arrive +with Frank and Nettie Hudson, whom she had never seen. She should +want to look her very best then, but now it did not matter, even if +her bridegroom was distant not an eighth of a mile, and would in +all probability be coming in ere long. She wished he would stay +away--she would rather not see him till night; and she experienced +a feeling of relief when, about nine o'clock, Mrs. Markham's maid +brought her a little note which read as follows:</p> +<p>"DARLING ETHIE:</p> +<p>"You must not think it strange if I do not come to you this +morning, for I am suffering from one of my blinding headaches, and +can scarcely see to write you this. I shall be better by night. +Yours lovingly,</p> +<p>"RICHARD MARKHAM."</p> +<p>Ethelyn was sitting upon the piazza steps, arranging a bouquet, +when the note was brought to her; and as it was some trouble to put +all the roses from her lap, she sent the girl for a pencil, and on +the back of the note wrote hastily:</p> +<p>"It does not matter, as you would only be in the way, and I have +something of a headache, too.</p> +<p>"E. GRANT."</p> +<p>"Take this back to Judge Markham," she said to the girl, and +then resumed her bouquet-making, wondering if every bride-elect +were as wretched as herself, or if to any other maiden of twenty +the world had ever looked so desolate and dreary, as it did to her +this morning.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> +<h3>THE VAN BUREN SET</h3> +<br> +<p>Captain Markham's carryall, which Jake, the hired man, had +brushed up wonderfully for the occasion, had gone over to West +Chicopee after the party from Boston--Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, with +Frank, and his betrothed, Miss Nettie Hudson, from Philadelphia. +Others had been invited from the city, but one after another their +regrets had come to Ethelyn, who would gladly have excused the +entire set, Aunt Van Buren, Frank and all, though she confessed to +herself a great deal of curiosity with regard to Miss Nettie, whom +she had never seen; neither had she met Frank since the dissolution +of their engagement, for though she had been in Boston, where most +of her dresses were made, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had wisely arranged +that Frank should be absent from home. She was herself not willing +to risk a meeting between him and Ethelyn until matters were too +well adjusted to admit of a change, for Frank had more than once +shown signs of rebellion. He was in a more quiescent state now, +having made up his mind that what could not be cured must be +endured, and as he had sensibility enough to feel very keenly the +awkwardness of meeting Ethelyn under present circumstances, and as +Miss Nettie was really very fond of him, and he, after a fashion, +was fond of her, he was in the best of spirits when he stepped from +the train at West Chicopee and handed his mother and Nettie into +the spacious carryall of which he had made fun as a country ark, +while they rode slowly toward Aunt Barbara Bigelow's. Everything +was in readiness for them. The large north chamber was aired and +swept and dusted, and only little bars of light came through the +closed shutters, and the room looked very cool and nice, with its +fresh muslin curtains looped back with blue, its carpet of the same +cool shade, its pretty chestnut furniture, its snowbank of a bed, +and the tasteful bouquets which Ethelyn had arranged--Ethelyn, who +lingered longer in this room than the other one across the hall, +the bridal chamber, where the ribbons which held the curtains were +white, and the polished marble of the bureau and washstand, sent a +shiver through her veins whenever she looked in there. She was in +her own cozy chamber now, and the silken hair, which in the early +morning had been twisted under her net, was bound in heavy braids +about her head, while a pearl comb held it in its place, and a +half-opened rose was fastened just behind her ear. She had +hesitated some time in her choice of a dress, vacillating between a +pale buff, which Frank had always admired, and a delicate blue +muslin, in which Judge Markham had once said she looked so pretty. +The blue had won the day, for Ethelyn felt that she owed some +concession to the man whose kind note she had treated so cavalierly +that morning, and so she wore the blue for him, feeling glad of the +faint, sick feeling which kept the blood from rushing too hotly to +her face, and made her fairer and paler than her wont. She knew +that she was very handsome when her toilet was made, and that was +one secret of the assurance with which she went forward to meet +Nettie Hudson when at last the carryall stopped before the +gate.</p> +<p>Mrs. Dr. Van Buren was tired, and hot, and dusty, and as she was +always a little cross when in this condition, she merely kissed +Ethelyn once, and shaking hands with Aunt Barbara, went directly to +the north chamber, asking that a cup of tea might be made for her +dinner instead of the coffee whose fragrant odor met her +olfactories as she stepped into the house. First, however, she +introduced Nettie, who after glancing at Ethelyn, turned her eyes +wonderingly upon Frank, thinking his greeting of his cousin rather +more demonstrative than was exactly becoming even if they were +cousins, and had been, as Mrs. Dr. Van Buren affirmed, just like +brother and sister. That was no reason why Frank should have wound +his arm around her waist, and kept it there, while he kissed her +twice, and brought such a bright color to her cheeks. Miss Nettie +cared just enough for Frank Van Buren to be jealous of him. She +wanted all his attentions herself, and so the little blonde was in +something of a pet as she followed on into the house, and twisted +her hat strings into a hard knot, which Frank had to disentangle +for her, just as he had to kiss away the wrinkle which had gathered +on her forehead. She was a beautiful little creature, scarcely +larger than a child of twelve, with a pleading, helpless look in +her large, blue eyes which seemed to be saying: "Look at me; speak +to me, won't you?--notice me a little."</p> +<p>She was just the one to be made a tool of; and Ethelyn readily +saw that she had been as clay in Mrs. Van Buren's skillful +hands.</p> +<p>"Pretty, very pretty, but decidedly a nonentity and a baby," was +Ethelyn's mental comment, and she felt something like contempt for +Frank, who, after loving and leaning on her, could so easily turn +to weak little Nettie Hudson.</p> +<p>At the sight of Frank and the sound of his voice, she had felt +all the olden feeling rushing back to her heart; but when, after +Nettie had followed Mrs. Van Buren to her chamber, and she stood +for a moment alone with him, he felt constrained to say something, +and stammered out, "It's deuced mean, Ethie, to serve you so, and +mother ought to be indicted. I hope you don't care much," all her +pride and womanliness was roused and she answered promptly: "Of +course, I don't care; do you think I would wish to marry Judge +Markham if I were not all over that childish affair? You have not +seen him yet. He is a splendid man."</p> +<p>Ethelyn felt better after paying this tribute to Richard +Markham, and she liked him better, too, now that she had spoken for +him, but Frank's reply, "Yes, mother told me so, but said there was +a good deal of your Westernism about him yet," jarred on her +feelings as she plucked the roses growing at the end of the piazza +and crushed them, thorns and all, in her hands, feeling the smart +less than the dull, heavy throbbing at her heart. Frank did not +seem to her just as he used to be; he was the same polished dandy +as of old, and just as careful to perform every little act of +gallantry, but the something lacking which she had always felt to a +certain extent was more perceptible now, and to herself she accused +him of having degenerated since he had passed from her influence. +She never dreamed of charging it to her interviews with Judge +Markham, whose topics of conversation were so widely different from +Frank's. She was not generous enough to concede anything in his +favor, though she felt glad that Frank was not quite the same he +had been--it would make the evening bridal before her easier to +bear; and Ethelyn's eyes were brighter and her smiles more frequent +as she sat down to dinner and answered Mrs. Van Buren's question: +"Where is the Judge that he does not dine with us?"</p> +<p>"Sick, is he?" Mrs. Van Buren said, when told of his headache, +while Frank remarked, "Sick of his bargain, maybe," laughing loudly +at his own joke, while the others laughed in unison; and so the +dinner passed off without that stiffness which Ethelyn had so much +dreaded.</p> +<p>After it was over, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren felt better, and began to +talk of the "Judge," and to ask if Ethelyn knew whether they would +board or keep house in Washington the coming winter. Ethelyn did +not know. She had never mentioned Washington to Richard Markham, +and he had never guessed how much that prospective season at the +capital had to do with her decision. That it would be hers to enjoy +she had no shadow of doubt, but as she felt then she did not +particularly care to keep up a household for the sake of +entertaining her aunt, and possibly Frank and his wife, so she +replied that she presumed "they should board, as it would be the +short session--if he was re-elected they might consider the +house."</p> +<p>"There may be a still higher honor in store for him than a +re-election," Mrs. Van Buren said, and then proceeded to speak of a +letter which she had received from a lady in Camden, who had once +lived in Boston, and who had written congratulating her old friend +upon her niece's good fortune. "There was no young man more popular +in that section of the country than Judge Markham," she said, "and +there had been serious talk of nominating him for governor. Some, +however, thought him too young, and so they were waiting for a few +years when he would undoubtedly be elected to the highest office in +the State."</p> +<p>This piece of intelligence had greatly increased Mrs. Van +Buren's respect for the lady-elect of Iowa's future governor, and +she gave the item of news with a great deal of satisfaction, but +did not tell that her correspondent had added, "It is a pity, +though, that he does not know more of the usages of good society. +Ethelyn is so refined and sensitive that she will be often shocked, +no doubt, with the manners of the husband and his family."</p> +<p>This clause had troubled Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. She really liked +Ethelyn, and now that she was out of Frank's way she liked her very +much, and would do a good deal to serve her. She did not wish her +to be unhappy, as she feared she might be from the sundry rumors +which had reached her concerning that home out West, whither she +was going. So, when, after dinner, they were alone for a few +moments, she endeavored to impress upon her niece the importance of +having an establishment of her own as soon as possible.</p> +<p>"It is not well for sons' wives to live with the mother," she +said. "She did not mean that Nettie should live with her; and +Ethelyn should at once insist upon a separate home; then, if she +should see any little thing in her husband's manners which needed +correcting, she could do it so much better away from his mother. I +do not say that there is anything wrong in his manners," she +continued, as she saw how painfully red Ethelyn was getting, "but +it is quite natural there should be, living West as he does. You +cannot expect prairie people to be as refined as Bostonians are; +but you must polish him, dear. You know how; you have had Frank for +a model so long; and even if he does not improve, people overlook a +great deal in a member of Congress, and will overlook more in a +governor, so don't feel badly, darling," and Mrs. Van Buren kissed +tenderly the poor girl, before whom all the dreary loneliness of +the future had arisen like a mountain, and whose heart even at that +late hour would fain have drawn back if possible.</p> +<p>But when, by the way of soothing her, Mrs. Van Buren talked of +the winter in Washington, and the honors which would always be +accorded to her as the wife of an M.C., and then dwelt upon the +possibility of her one day writing herself governor's lady, +Ethelyn's girlish ambition was roused, and her vanity flattered, so +that the chances were that even Frank would have been put aside for +the future greatness, had he been offered to her.</p> +<p>It was five o'clock now, in the afternoon, nearly time for the +bridal toilet to commence, and Mrs. Van Buren began to wonder "why +the Judge had not appeared." He was better of his headache and up +and around, the maid had reported, when at four she brought over +the remainder of Mrs. Captain Markham's silver, which had not been +sent in the morning, and then went back for extra napkins. There +was no need to tell Ethelyn that "he was up and around," for she +had known it ever since a certain shutter had been opened, and a +man in his shirt-sleeves had appeared before the window and thrown +water from the wash bowl upon the lilac bushes below. Ethelyn knew +very well that old Mrs. Markham's servants were spoiled, that her +domestic arrangements were not of the best kind, and that probably +there was no receptacle for the dirty water except the ground; but +she did not consider this, or reflect that aside from all other +considerations the act was wholly like a man; she only thought it +like him, Judge Markham, and feelings of shame and mortification, +such as no woman likes to entertain with regard to her husband, +began to rise and swell in her heart. In the excitement of her +toilet, however, she forgot everything, even the ceremony for which +she was dressing, and which came to her with a shiver when a +bridesmaid announced that Captain Markham's carriage had just left +his yard with a gentleman in it.</p> +<p>Judge Markham was on his way to his bridal.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> +<h3>RICHARD MARKHAM</h3> +<br> +<p>He preferred to be called Richard by his friends and Mr. Markham +by strangers--not that he was insensible to the prestige which the +title of Judge or Honorable gave him, but he was a plain, +matter-of-fact man, who had not been lifted off his balance, or +grown dizzy by the rapidity with which he had risen in public +favor. At home he was simply Dick to his three burly brothers, who +were at once so proud and fond of him, while his practical, +unpretending mother called him Richard, feeling, however, that it +was very proper for the neighbors to give him the title of Judge. +Of Mrs. Markham we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, so now +we will only say that she saw no fault in her gifted son, and she +was ready to do battle with anyone who should suggest the existence +of a fault. Richard's wishes had never been thwarted, but rather +deferred to by the entire family, and, as a natural consequence, he +had come to believe that his habits and opinions were as nearly +correct as they well could be. He had never mingled much in +society--he was not fond of it; and the "quilting bees" and "sugar +pulls" and "apple parings" which had prevailed in his neighborhood +were not at all to his taste. He greatly preferred his books to the +gayest of frolics, and thus he early earned for himself the +sobriquet of "the old bachelor who hated girls"; all but Abigail +Jones, the shoemaker's daughter, whose black eyes and bright red +cheeks had proved too much for the grave, sober Richard. His first +act of gallantry was performed for her, and even after he grew to +be Judge his former companions never wearied of telling how, on the +occasion of his first going home with the fair Abigail Jones from +spelling school, he had kept at a respectful distance from her, and +when the lights from her father's window became visible he remarked +that "he guessed she would not be afraid to go the rest of the way +alone," and abruptly bidding her good-night, ran back as fast as he +could run. Whether this story were true or not, he was very shy of +the girls, though the dark-eyed Abigail exerted over him so strong +an influence that, at the early age of twenty he had asked her to +be his wife, and she had answered yes, while his mother sanctioned +the match, for she had known the Joneses in Vermont, and knew them +for honest, thrifty people, whose daughter would make a faithful, +economical wife for any man. But death came in to separate the +lovers, and Abigail's cheeks grew redder still, and her eyes were +strangely bright as the fever burned in her veins, until at last +when the Indian-summer sun was shining down upon the prairies, they +buried her one day beneath the late summer flowers, and the almost +boy-widower wore upon his hat the band of crape which Ethelyn +remembered as looking so rusty when, the year following, he came to +Chicopee. Richard Markham believed that he had loved Abigail truly +when she died, but he knew now that she was not the one he would +have chosen in his mature manhood. She was suitable for him, +perhaps, as he was when he lost her, but not as he was now, and it +was long since he had ceased to visit her grave, or think of her +with the feelings of sad regret which used to come over him when, +at night, he lay awake listening to the moaning of the wind as it +swept over the prairies, or watching the glittering stars, and +wondering if she had found a home beyond them with Daisy, his only +sister. There was nothing false about Richard Markham, and when he +stood with Ethelyn upon the shore of Pordunk Pond, and asked her to +be his wife, he told her of Abigail Jones, who had been two years +older than himself, and to whom he was once engaged.</p> +<p>"But I did not give her Daisy's ring," he said; and he spoke +very reverently as he continued, "Abigail was a good, sensible +girl, and even if she hears what I am saying she will pardon me +when I tell you that it did not seem to me that diamonds were +befitting such as she; Daisy, I am sure, had a different kind of +person in view when she made me keep the ring for the maiden who +would prize such things, and who was worthy of it. Abigail was +worthy, but there was not a fitness in giving it to her, neither +would she have prized it; so I kept it in its little box with a +curl of Daisy's hair. Had she become my wife, I might eventually +have given it to her, but she died, and it was well. She would not +have satisfied me now, and I should--"</p> +<p>He was going to add "should not have been what I am," but that +would have savored too much of pride, and possibly of disrespect +for the dead; so he checked himself, and while his rare, pleasant +smile broke all over his beaming face, and his hazel eyes grew soft +and tender in their expression, he said: "You, Ethelyn, seem to me +the one Daisy would have chosen for a sister. You are quiet, and +gentle, and pure like her, and I am so glad of the Providence which +led me to Chicopee. They said I was looking for a wife, but I had +no such idea. I never thought to marry until I met you that +afternoon when you wore the pretty delaine, with the red ribbon in +your hair. Do you remember it, Ethelyn?"</p> +<p>Ethelyn did not answer him at once. She was looking far off upon +the water, where the moonlight lay sleeping, and revolving in her +mind the expediency of being equally truthful with her future +husband, and saying to him, "I, too, have loved, and been promised +to another." She knew she ought to tell him this and she would, +perhaps, have done so, for Ethie meant to be honest, and her heart +was touched and softened by Richard's tender love for his sister; +but when he was so unfortunate as to call the green silk which +Madame--, in Boston, had made, a pretty delaine, and her scarlet +velvet band a "red ribbon," her heart hardened, and her secret +remained untold, while her proud lip half curled in scorn at the +thought of Abigail Jones, who once stood, perhaps, as she was +standing, with her hand on Richard Markham's and the kiss of +betrothal wet upon her forehead. Ah, Ethie, there was this +difference: Abigail had kissed her lover back, and her great black +eyes had looked straight into his with an eager, blissful joy, as +she promised to be his wife, and when he wound his arm around her, +she had leaned up to the bashful youth, encouraging his caresses, +while you--gave back no answering caress, and shook lightly off the +arm laid across your neck. Possibly Richard thought of the +difference, but if he did he imputed Ethelyn's cold impassiveness +to her modest, retiring nature, so different from Abigail's. It was +hardly fair to compare the two girls, they were so wholly unlike, +for Abigail had been a plain, simple-hearted, buxom country girl of +the West, whose world was all contained within the limits of the +neighborhood where she lived, while Ethie was a high-spirited, +petted, impulsive creature, knowing but little of such people as +Abigail Jones, and wholly unfitted to cope with any world outside +that to which she had been accustomed. But love is blind, and so +was Richard; for with his whole heart he did love Ethelyn Grant; +and, notwithstanding his habits of thirty years, she could then +have molded him to her will, had she tried, by the simple process +of love. But, alas! there was no answering throb in her heart when +she felt the touch of his hand or his breath upon her cheek. She +was only conscious of a desire to avoid his caress, if possible, +while, as the days went by, she felt a growing disgust for "Abigail +Jones," whose family, she gathered from her lover, lived near to, +and were quite familiar with, his mother.</p> +<p>In happy ignorance of her real feelings, so well did she +dissemble them, and so proper and ladylike was her deportment, +Richard bade her good-by early in May, and went back to his Western +home, writing to her often, but not such letters, it must be +confessed, as were calculated to win a maiden's heart, or keep it +after it was won. If he was awkward at love-making, and only +allowed himself to be occasionally surprised into flashes of +tenderness, he was still more awkward in letter-writing; and +Ethelyn always indulged in a headache, or a fit of blues, after +receiving one of his short, practical letters, which gave but +little sign of the strong, deep affection he cherished for her. +Those were hard days for Ethelyn--the days which intervened between +her lover's bidding her adieu and his return to claim her hand--and +only her deeply wounded pride, and her great desire for a change of +scene and a winter in Washington, kept her from asking a release +from the engagement she knew never ought to have been. Aside, +however, from all this, there was some gratification in knowing +that she was an object of envy to Susie Graham, and Anna Thorn, and +Carrie Bell, either of whom would gladly have taken her place as +bride-elect of an M.C., while proud old Captain Markham's frequent +mention of "my nephew in Congress, ahem!" and Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's +constant exultation over the "splendid match," helped to keep up +the glamour of excitement, so that her promise had never been +revoked, and now he was there to claim it. He had not gone at once +to Miss Bigelow's on his arrival in Chicopee, for the day was hot +and sultry, and he was very tired with his forty-eight hours' +constant travel, and so he had rested a while in his chamber, which +looked toward Ethelyn's, and then sat upon the piazza with his +uncle till the heat of the day was past, and the round red moon was +showing itself above the eastern hills as the sun disappeared in +the west. Then, in his new linen coat, cut and made by Mrs. Jones, +mother to Abigail, deceased, he had started for the dwelling of his +betrothed. Ethelyn had seen him as he came from the depot in +Captain Markham's carriage, and her cheek had crimsoned, and then +grown pale at sight of the ancient-looking hair trunk swinging +behind the carriage, all unconscious of the indignation it was +exciting, or of the vast difference between itself and the two huge +Saratoga trunks standing in Aunt Barbara Bigelow's upper hall, and +looking so clean and nice in their fresh coverings. Poor Ethelyn! +That hair trunk, which had done its owner such good service in his +journeys to and from Washington, and which the mother had packed +with so much care, never dreaming how very, very far it was behind +the times, brought the hot blood in torrents to her face, and made +the white hands clasp each other spasmodically, as she thought "Had +I known of that hair trunk, I would certainly have told him +no."</p> +<p>Even Abigail Jones, the shoemaker's daughter, faded into +insignificance before this indignity, and it was long before +Ethelyn could recover her composure or her pulse resume its regular +beat. She was in no haste to see him; but such is the inconsistency +of perverse girlhood that, because he delayed his coming, she felt +annoyed and piqued, and was half tempted to have a headache and go +to bed, and so not see him at all. But he was coming at last, linen +coat and all; and Susie Graham, who had stopped for a moment by the +gate to speak with Ethelyn, pronounced him "a magnificent-looking +fellow," and said to Ethelyn, "I should think you would feel so +proud."</p> +<p>Susie did not observe the linen coat, or if she had, she most +likely thought it a very sensible arrangement for a day when the +thermometer stood no degrees in the shade; but Susie was not Boston +finished. She had been educated at Mount Holyoke, which made a +difference, Ethelyn thought. Still, Susie's comment did much +towards reconciling her to the linen coat; and, as Richard Markham +came up the street, she did feel a thrill of pride and even +pleasure, for he had a splendid figure and carried himself like a +prince, while his fine face beamed all over with that joyous, happy +expression which comes only from a kind, true heart, as he drew +near the house and his eye caught the flutter of a white robe +through the open door. Ethelyn was very pretty in her cool, cambric +dress, with a bunch of sweet English violets in her hair; and at +sight of her the man usually so grave and quiet, and +undemonstrative with those of the opposite sex, felt all his +reserve give way, and there was a world of tenderness in his voice +and a misty look in his eye, as he bent over her, giving her the +second kiss he had ever given to her, and asking, "How is my +darling to-night?"</p> +<p>She did not take his arm from her neck this time--he had a right +to keep it there--and she suffered the caress, feeling no greater +inconvenience than that his big hand was very warm and pressed a +little too hard sometimes upon her shoulders. He spoke to her of +the errand on which he had come, and the great, warm hand pressed +more heavily as he said, "It seems to me all a dream that in a few +days you will be my own Ethie, my wife, from whom I need not be +parted"; and then he spoke of his mother and his three brothers, +James, and John, and Anderson, or Andy, as he was called. Each of +these had sent kindly messages to Richard's bride--the mother +saying she should be glad to have a daughter in her home, and the +three brothers promising to love their new sister so much as to +make "old Dick" jealous, if possible.</p> +<p>These messages "old Dick" delivered, but wisely refrained from +telling how his mother feared he had not chosen wisely, that a +young lady with Boston notions was not the wife to make a Western +man very happy. Neither did he tell her of an interview he had with +Mrs. Jones, who had always evinced a motherly care over him since +her daughter's death, and to whom he had dutifully communicated the +news of his intended marriage. It was not what Mrs. Jones had +expected. She had watched Richard's upward progress with all the +pride of a mother-in-law, lamenting often to Mrs. Markham that poor +Abigail could not have lived to share his greatness, and during the +term of his judgeship, when he stayed mostly in Camden, the county +seat, she had, on the occasion of her going to town with butter and +eggs, and chickens, taken a mournful pleasure in perambulating the +streets, and selecting the house where Abigail might, perhaps, have +resided, and where she could have had her cup of young hyson after +the fatigue of the day, instead of eating her dry lunch of cheese +and fried cakes in the rather comfortless depot, while waiting for +the train. Richard's long-continued bachelorhood had given her +peculiar pleasure, inasmuch as it betokened a continual remembrance +of her daughter; and as her youngest child, the blooming Melinda, +who was as like the departed Abigail as sisters ever are to each +other ripened into womanhood, and the grave Richard spoke oftener +to her than to the other maidens of the prairie village, she began +to speculate upon what might possibly be, and refused the loan of +her brass kettle to the neighbor whose husband did not vote for +Richard when he ran for member of Congress. Melinda, too, had her +little ambitions, her silent hopes and aspirations, and even her +vague longings for a winter in Washington, As the Markham house and +the Jones house were distant from each other only half a mile, she +was a frequent visitor of Richard's mother, always assisting when +there was more work than usual on hand and on the occasion of +Richard's first going to Washington ironing his shirts and packing +them herself in the square hair trunk which had called forth +Ethelyn's ire. Though she did not remember much about "Abby," she +knew that, had she lived, Richard would have been her brother; and +somehow he seemed to her just like one now, she said to Mrs. +Markham, as she hemmed his pocket handkerchiefs, working his +initials in the corner with pink floss, and upon the last and best, +the one which had cost sixty-two and a half cents, venturing to +weave her own hair, which was long, and glossy, and black, as +Abigail's had been. Several times a week during Richard's absence, +she visited Mrs. Markham, inquiring always after "the Judge," and +making herself so agreeable and useful, too, in clear-starching and +doing up Mrs. Markham's caps, and in giving receipts for sundry new +and economical dishes, that the good woman herself frequently +doubted if Richard could do better than take the black-eyed +Melinda; and when he told her of Ethelyn Grant, she experienced a +feeling of disappointment and regret, doubting much if a Boston +girl, with Boston notions, would make her as happy as the plainer +Melinda, who knew all her ways. Something of this she said to her +son, omitting, of course, that part of her thoughts which referred +to Melinda. With Mrs. Jones, however, it was different. In her +surprise and disappointment she let fall some remarks which opened +Richard's eyes a little, and made him look at her half amused and +half sorry, as, suspending her employment of paring apples for the +dinner pie she put the corner of her apron to her eyes, and "hoped +the new bride would not have many airs, and would put up with his +mother's ways.</p> +<p>"You," and here the apron and hand with the knife in it came +down from her eyes--"you'll excuse me, Richard, for speaking so +plain, but you seem like my own boy, and I can't help it. Your +mother is the best and cleverest woman in the world, but she has +some peculiarities which a Boston girl may not put up with, not +being used to them as Melin--I mean, as poor Abigail was."</p> +<p>It was the first time it had ever occurred to Richard that his +mother had peculiarities, and even now he did not know what they +were. Taking her all in all, she was as nearly perfect, he thought, +as a woman well could be, and on his way home from his interview +with Mrs. Jones he pondered in his mind what she could mean, and +then wondered if for the asking he could have taken Melinda Jones +to the fireside where he was going to install Ethelyn Grant. There +was a comical smile about his mouth as he thought how little either +Melinda or Abigail would suit him now; and then, by way of making +amends for what seemed disrespect to the dead, he went round to the +sunken grave where Abigail had slept for so many years, and stood +again just where he had stood that day when he fancied the light +from his heart had gone out forever. But he could not bring back +the olden feeling, or wish that Abigail had lived.</p> +<p>"She is happy now--happier than I could have made her. It is +better as it is," he said, as he walked away to Daisy's grave, +where his tears dropped just as they always did when he stood by +the sod which covered the fairest, brightest, purest being he had +ever known, except his Ethie.</p> +<p>She was just as pure and gentle and good as blue-eyed Daisy had +been, and on the manly face turned so wistfully to the eastward +there was a world of love and tenderness for the Ethie who, alas, +did not deserve it then, and to whom a few weeks later he gave his +mother's kindly message. Then, remembering what Mrs. Jones had +said, he felt in duty bound to add:</p> +<p>"Mother has some peculiarities, I believe most old people have; +but I trust to your good sense to humor them as much as possible. +She has had her own way a long time, and though you will virtually +be mistress of the house, inasmuch as it belongs to me, it will be +better for mother to take the lead, as heretofore."</p> +<p>There was a curl on Ethelyn's lip as she received her first +lesson with regard to her behavior as daughter-in-law; but she made +no reply, not even to ask what the peculiarities were which she was +to humor. She really did not care what they were, as she fully +intended having an establishment of her own in the thriving prairie +village, just half a mile from her husband's home. She should +probably spend a few weeks with Mrs. Markham, senior, whom she +fancied a tall, stately woman, wearing heavy black silk dresses and +thread lace caps on great occasions, and having always on hand some +fine lamb's-wool knitting work when she sat in the parlor where +Daisy's picture hung. Ethelyn could not tell why it was that she +always saw Richard's mother thus, unless it were what Mrs. Captain +Markham once said with regard to her Western sister-in-law, sending +to Boston for a black silk which cost three dollars per yard--a +great price for those days--and for two yards of handsome thread +lace, which she, the Mrs. Captain, had run all over the city to +get, "John's wife was so particular to have it just the pattern and +width she described in her letter."</p> +<p>This was Richard's mother as Ethelyn saw her, while the house on +the prairie, which she knew had been built within a few years, +presented a very respectable appearance to her mind's eye, being +large, and fashioned something after the new house across the +Common, which had a bay window at the side, and a kind of cupola on +the roof. It would be quite possible to spend a few weeks +comfortably there, especially as she would have the Washington +gayeties in prospect, but in the spring, when, after a winter of +dissipation she returned to the prairies, she should go to her own +home, either in Olney or Camden; the latter, perhaps, as Richard +could as well live there as elsewhere. This was Ethelyn's plan, but +she kept it to herself, and changing the conversation from +Richard's mother and her peculiarities, she talked instead of the +places they were to visit--Quebec and Montreal, the seaside and the +mountains, and lastly that great Babel of fashion, Saratoga, for +which place several of her dresses had been expressly made.</p> +<p>Ethelyn had planned this trip herself, and Richard, though +knowing how awfully he should be bored before the summer was over, +had assented to all that she proposed, secretly hoping the while +that the last days of August would find him safe at home in Olney +among his books, his horses, and his farming pursuits. He was very +tired that night, and he did not tarry longer than ten, though a +word from Ethelyn would have kept him for hours at her side, so +intoxicated was he with her beauty, and so quiet and happy he felt +with her; but the word was not spoken, and he left her standing on +the piazza, where he could see the gleaming of her white robes when +he looked back, as he more than once did ere reaching his uncle's +door.</p> +<p>The next three days passed rapidly, bringing at last the +eventful one for which all others were made, it seemed to him, as +he looked out upon the early, dewy morning, thinking how pleasant +it was there in that quiet New England town, and trying to fight +back the unwelcome headache which finally drove him back to his +bed, from which he wrote the little note to Ethelyn, who might +think strange at his non-appearance when he had been accustomed to +go to her immediately after breakfast. He never dreamed of the +relief it was to her not to have him come, as he lay flushed and +heated upon his pillow, the veins upon his forehead swelling with +their pressure of hot blood, and his ear strained to catch the +first sound of the servant's returning step. Ethelyn would either +come herself to see him, or send some cheerful message, he was +sure. How, then, was he disappointed to find his own note returned, +with the assurance that "it did not matter, as he would only be in +the way."</p> +<p>Several times he read it over, trying to extract some comfort +from it, and finding it at last in the fact that Ethelyn had a +headache, too. This was the reason for her seeming indifference; +and in wishing himself able to go to her, Richard forgot in part +his own pain, and fell into a quiet sleep, which did him untold +good. It was three o'clock when at last he rose, knowing pretty +well all that had been doing during the hours of his seclusion in +the darkened room. The "Van Buren set" had come, and he overheard +Mrs. Markham's Esther saying to Aunt Barbara's Betsy, when she came +for the silver cake-basket, that "Mr. Frank seemed in mighty fine +spirits, considering all the flirtations he used to have with Miss +Ethelyn."</p> +<p>This was the first intimation Richard had received of a +flirtation, and even now it did not strike him unpleasantly. They +were cousins, he reflected, and as such had undoubtedly been very +familiar with each other. It was natural, and nothing for which he +need care. He did not care, either, as he deliberately began to +make his wedding toilet, thinking himself, when it was completed, +that he was looking unusually well in the entire new suit which his +cousin, Mrs. Woodhull, had insisted upon his getting in New York, +when on his way home in April he had gone that way and told her of +his approaching marriage. It was a splendid suit, made after the +most approved style, and costing a sum which he had kept secret +from his mother, who, nevertheless, guessed somewhere near the +truth, and thought the Olney tailor would have suited him quite as +well at a quarter the price, or even Mrs. Jones, who, having been a +tailoress when a young girl in Vermont, still kept up her +profession to a limited extent, retaining her "press-board" and +"goose," and the mammoth shears which had cut Richard's linen coat +after a Chicago pattern of not the most recent date Richard thought +very little about his personal appearance--too little, in fact--but +he felt a glow of satisfaction now as he contemplated himself in +the glass, feeling only that Ethelyn would be pleased to see him +thus.</p> +<p>And Ethelyn was pleased. She had half expected the old coat of +she did not know how many years' make, and there was a fierce pang +of pain in her heart as she imagined Frank's cool criticisms, and +saw, in fancy, the contrast between the two men. So when Judge +Markham alighted at the gate, and from her window she took in at a +glance his tout ensemble, the revulsion of feeling was so great +that the glad tears sprang to her eyes, and a brighter, happier +look broke over her face than had been there for many weeks. She +was not present when Frank was introduced to him; but when next she +met her cousin, he said to her, in his usual off-hand way, "I say, +Ethie, he is pretty well got up for a Westerner. But for his eyes +and teeth I should never have known him for the chap who wore short +pants and stove-pipe hat with the butternut-colored crape. Who was +he in mourning for anyway?"</p> +<p>It was too bad to be reminded of Abigail Jones, just as she was +beginning to feel more comfortable; but Ethelyn bore it very well, +and laughingly answered, "For his sweetheart, I dare say," her +cheeks flushing very red as Frank whispered slyly, "You are even, +then, on that score."</p> +<p>No man of any delicacy of feeling or true refinement would have +made this allusion to the past, with his first love within a few +hours of her bridal, and his own betrothed standing near. But Frank +had neither delicacy of feeling nor genuine refinement, and he even +felt a secret gratification in seeing the blood mount to Ethelyn's +cheeks as he thus referred to the past.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<h3>THE BRIDAL</h3> +<br> +<p>There was a great deal of sincere and tender interest in +Richard's manner when, in reply to his inquiries for Ethelyn's +headache, Aunt Barbara told him of the almost fainting fit in the +morning and her belief that Ethelyn was not as strong this summer +as she used to be.</p> +<p>"The mountain air will do her good, I trust," casting wistful +glances up the stairs and toward the door of the chamber, where +girlish voices were heard, Nettie Hudson and Susie Granger chatting +gayly and uttering exclamations of delight as they arranged and +adjusted Ethelyn's bridal robes.</p> +<p>Once during the period of his judgeship Richard had attended a +large and fashionable bridal party, but when, on his return to +Olney, Melinda Jones questioned him with regard to the dresses of +the bride and the guests, he found himself utterly unable to give +either fabric, fashion, or even color, so little attention had he +given to the subject. He never noticed such things, he said, but he +believed some of the dresses were made of something flimsy, for he +could see through them, and he knew they were very long, for he had +stepped on some half dozen. And this was all the information the +inquisitive Melinda could obtain. Dress was of little consequence, +he thought, so it was clean and whole.</p> +<p>This was his theory; but when, as the twilight deepened on the +Chicopee hills, and the lamps were lighted in Aunt Barbara's +parlors, and old Captain Markham began to wonder "why the plague +the folks did not come," as he stalked up and down the piazza in +all the pride and pomposity of one who felt himself to all intents +and purposes the village aristocrat, and when the mysterious door +of Ethie's room, which had been closed so long, was opened, and the +bridegroom told that he might go in, he started in surprise at the +beautiful tableau presented to his view as he stepped across the +threshold. As was natural, he fancied that never before had he seen +three young girls so perfectly beautiful as the three before +him--Ethie, and Susie, and Nettie.</p> +<p>As a matter of course, he gave the preference to Ethelyn, who +was very, very lovely in her bridal robes, with the orange wreath +resting like a coronet upon her marble brow. There were pearls upon +her fair neck and pearls upon her arms, the gift of Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren, who had waited till the very last, hoping the Judge would +have forethought enough to buy them himself. But the Judge had not. +He knew something of diamonds, for they had been Daisy's favorites; +but pearls were novelties to him, and Ethelyn's pale cheeks would +have burned crimson had she known that he was thinking "how +becoming those white beads were to her."</p> +<p>Poor, ignorant Richard! He will know more by and by of what +constitutes a fashionable lady's toilet; but now he is in blissful +ignorance of minutiae, and sees only the tout ensemble, which he +pronounces perfect. He was half afraid of her, though, she seemed +so cold, so passive, so silent, and when in the same breath Susie +Granger asks if he ever saw anyone so lovely as Ethelyn and bids +him kiss her quick, he starts and hesitates, and finally kisses +Susie instead. He might, perhaps, have done the same with Ethelyn +if she had not stepped backward to avoid it, her long train +sweeping across the hearth where that morning she had knelt in such +utter desolation, and where now was lying a bit of blackened paper, +which the housemaid's broom had not found when, early in the day, +the room was swept and dusted. So Ethelyn's white satin brushed +against the gossamer thing, which floated upward for a moment, and +then settled back upon the heavy, shining folds. It was Richard who +saw it first, and Richard's hand which brushed away the skeleton of +Frank's letter from the skirts of his bride, leaving a soiled, +yellowish stain, which Susie Granger loudly deplored, while Ethelyn +only drew her drapery around her, saying coldly, that "it did not +matter in the least. She would as soon have it there as not."</p> +<p>It was meet, she thought, that the purity of her bridal garments +should be tarnished; for was not her heart all stained, and black, +and crisp with cruel deception? That little incident, however, +affected her strangely, bringing back so vividly the scene on the +ledge of rocks beneath the New England laurels, where Frank had sat +beside her and poured words of boyish passion into her ear. There +was for a moment a pitiful look of anguish in her eyes as they went +out into the summer night toward the huckleberry hills, where lay +that ledge of massy rock, and then come back to the realities about +her. Frank saw the look of pain, and it awoke in his own breast an +answering throb as he wondered if, after all, Ethie would not have +preferred that he were standing by her instead of the grave Judge, +fitting on his gloves with an awkwardness which said that such +articles were comparative strangers to his large, red hands.</p> +<p>It was time now to go down. The guests had all arrived, the +clergyman was waiting, and Captain Markham had grown very red in +the face with his impatience, which his wife tried in vain to +quiet. If at this last moment there arose in Ethelyn's bosom any +wild impulse to break away from the dreadful scene, and rush out +into the darkness which lay so softly upon the hills, she put it +aside, with the thought, "too late now--forever too late"; and +taking the arm which Richard offered her, she went mechanically +down the staircase into the large parlor where the wedding guests +were assembled. Surely, surely, she did not know what she was +doing, or realize the solemn words: "I charge and require you both, +as ye shall answer at the great day, when the secrets of all hearts +shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment why +ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now +confess it, for be ye well assured," and so forth. She did not even +hear them; for the numb, dead feeling which crept over her, +chilling her blood, and making her hand, which Richard took in his +while he fitted the wedding ring, so cold and clammy to the touch, +that Richard felt tempted to hold and chafe it in his own warm, +broad palms; but that was not in accordance with the ceremony, and +so he let it fall, wondering that Ethelyn could be so cold when the +sweat was standing in great drops upon his own face, and moistening +his wavy hair, which clustered in short, thick curls around his +brow, making him look so handsome, as more than one maiden thought, +envying Ethelyn her good fortune, and marveling at the pallor of +her lips and the rigidity of her form.</p> +<p>The ceremony was ended, and Ethelyn Grant was Mrs. Richard +Markham; but the new name brought no blushes to her cheek, nor yet +the kiss her husband gave her, nor the congratulations of the +guests, nor Aunt Barbara's tears, which dropped upon the forehead +of her darling as the good woman bent over her and thought how she +had lost her; but when Frank Van Buren stooped down to touch her +lips the sluggish blood quickened and a thrill went through and +through her veins, sending the bright color to her cheeks, which +burned as with a hectic flush. Frank saw the power he held, but to +his credit he did not then exult; he only felt that it was +finished, that Ethie was gone past his recall; and for the first +time in his life he experienced a genuine pang of desolation, such +as he had never felt before, and he fought hard to master his +emotions while he watched the bride receiving the bridal guests. +Another than Frank was watching her, too-- Mrs. Dr. Van Buren--who +at one time feared lest Ethelyn should faint, and who, as soon as +an opportunity offered, whispered to her niece, "Do, Ethie, put +some animation in your manner or people will think you an unwilling +bride."</p> +<p>For a moment a gleam of anger flashed from the eyes which looked +unflinchingly into Mrs. Van Buren's, and the pale lips quivered +with passion. But Ethelyn had too much pride to admit of her +letting the people know what she was suffering, and so with great +effort she rallied her fainting spirits, and twice ere the evening +was at a close her merry laugh was heard even above Susie +Granger's, as a knot of her gay companions gathered round her with +their merry jokes and gay repartees.</p> +<p>Susie Granger was in her happiest mood, and her lively spirits +seemed to pervade the whole party. Now that he knew her better, +Richard was more at ease with her, and returned her playful sallies +until even Ethelyn wondered to see him so funny. He never once +forgot her, however, as was evinced by the loving glances he bent +upon her, and by his hovering constantly at her side, as if afraid +to lose her.</p> +<p>Once, when they were standing together and Frank was near to +them, Richard laid his hand upon Ethelyn's shoulder which the cut +of the wedding dress left bare. It was a very beautiful +neck--white, and plump, and soft--and Richard's hand pressed +somewhat heavily; but with a shiver Ethelyn drew herself away, and +Frank, who was watching her, fancied he saw the flesh creep +backward from the touch. Perhaps it was a feeling of pity, and +perhaps it was a mean desire to test his own influence over her, +which prompted him carelessly to take her hand to inspect the +wedding-ring. It was only her hand, but as Frank held it in his +own, he felt it growing warm and flushed, while the color deepened +on Ethelyn's cheeks, and then died suddenly away at Frank's +characteristic remark, spoken for her ear alone, "You feel like +thunder, Ethie, and so do I."</p> +<p>The speech did Ethelyn good. No matter how she felt, it was not +Frank's place to speak to her thus. She was now a wife, and she +meant to be true to her marriage vow, both in look and deed; so, +with an impatient gesture, she flung aside Frank's hand, repelling +him fiercely with the reply, "You are mistaken, sir--at least, so +far as I am concerned."</p> +<p>After that she stayed more with Richard, and once, of her own +accord, she put her arm in his and stood half leaning against him +with both hands clasped together, while he held the bouquet which +Mrs. Senator Woodhull had sent by express from New York. It is true +that Richard smelled and breathed upon the flowers oftener than was +desirable; and once Ethelyn saw him extracting leaves from the very +choicest blossoms; but on the whole he did very well, considering +that it was the first time he had ever held a lady's bouquet in +such an expensive holder.</p> +<p>As Ethelyn had predicted, the evening was hot and sultry; but +the bugs and beetles and millers she had dreaded did not come in to +annoy her, and when, as the clock struck twelve, the company +dispersed, they were sincere in their assertions of having passed a +delightful evening, and many were the good wishes expressed for +Mrs. Judge Markham's happiness as the guests took their way to +their respective homes.</p> +<p>An hour later and the lights had disappeared from Miss Barbara +Bigelow's windows, and the summer stars looked down upon the quiet +house where that strange bridal had been.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> +<h3>THE HONEYMOON</h3> +<br> +<p>From Mrs. Senator Woodhull's elegant house--where Mrs. Judge +Markham had been petted, and flattered, and caressed, and Mr. Judge +Markham had been adroitly tutored and trained without the least +effect--the newly wedded pair went on to Quebec and Montreal, and +thence to the White Mountains, where Ethelyn's handsome traveling +dress was ruined and Richard's linen coat, so obnoxious to his +bride, was torn past repair and laid away in one of Ethelyn's +trunks, with the remark that "Mother could mend it for Andy, who +always took his brother's cast-off clothes." The hair trunk had +been left in Chicopee, and so Ethelyn had not that to vex her.</p> +<p>Noticed everywhere, and admired by all whom she met, the first +part of her wedding trip was not as irksome as she had feared it +might be. Pleased, as a boy, with his young bride, Richard was all +attention, and Ethelyn had only to express a wish to have it +gratified, so that casual lookers-on would have pronounced her +supremely happy. And Ethelyn's heart did not ache one-half so hard +as on that terrible day of her bridal. In the railway car, on the +crowded steamboat, or at the large hotels, where all were entire +strangers, she forgot to watch and criticise her husband, and if +any dereliction from etiquette did occur, he yielded so readily to +her suggestion that to him seemed an easy task. The habits of +years, however, are not so easily broken, and by the time Saratoga +was reached, Richard's patience began to give way beneath Ethelyn's +multifarious exactions and the ennui consequent upon his traveling +about so long. Still he did pretty well for him, growing very red +in the face with his efforts to draw on gloves a size too small, +and feeling excessively hot and uncomfortable in his coat, which he +wore even in the retirement of his own room, where he desired so +much to indulge in the cool luxury of shirt-sleeves--a suggestion +which Ethelyn heard with horror, openly exclaiming against the +glaring vulgarity, and asking, a little contemptuously, if that +were the way he had been accustomed to do at home.</p> +<p>"Why, yes," he answered. "Out West upon the prairies we go in +for comfort, and don't mind so small a matter as shirt-sleeves on a +sweltering August day."</p> +<p>"Please do not use such expressions as sweltering and go +in--they do not sound well," Ethelyn rejoined. "And now I think of +it, I wish you would talk more to the ladies in the parlor. You +hardly spoke to Mrs. Cameron last evening, and she directed most of +her conversation to you, too. I was afraid she would either think +that you were rude, or else that you did not know what to say."</p> +<p>"She hit it right, if she came to the latter conclusion," +Richard said, good-humoredly, "for the fact is, Ethie, I don't know +what to say to such women as she. I am not a ladies' man, and it's +no use trying to make me over. You can't teach old dogs new +tricks."</p> +<p>Ethie fairly groaned as she clasped her bracelets upon her arms +and shook down the folds of her blue silk; then after a moment she +continued: "You can talk to me, and why not to others?"</p> +<p>"You are my wife, Ethie, and I love you, which makes a heap of +difference," Richard said, and winding his arms around Ethie's +waist he drew her face toward his own and kissed it +affectionately.</p> +<p>They had been three days at Saratoga when this little scene +occurred and their room was one of those miserable little +apartments in the Ainsworth block which look out upon nothing but a +patch of weeds and the rear of a church. Ethelyn did not like it at +all, and liked it the less because she felt that to some extent her +husband was to blame. He ought to have written and engaged rooms +beforehand--Aunt Van Buren always did, and Mrs. Col. Tophevie, and +everybody who understood the ins and outs of fashionable life. But +Richard did not understand them. He believed in taking what was +offered to him without making a fuss, he said. He had never been to +Saratoga before, and he secretly hoped he should never come again, +for he did not enjoy those close, hot rooms and worm-eaten +furniture any better than Ethelyn did, but he accepted it with a +better grace, saying, when he first entered it, that "he could put +up with 'most anything, though to be sure it was hotter than an +oven."</p> +<p>His mode of expressing himself had never suited Ethelyn. +Particular, and even elegant in her choice of language, it grated +upon her sensitive ear, and forgetting that she had all her life +heard similar expressions in Chicopee, she charged it to the West, +and Iowa was blamed for the faults of her son more than she +deserved. At Saratoga, where they met many of her acquaintances, +all of whom were anxious to see the fastidious Ethelyn's husband, +it seemed to her that he was more remiss than ever in those little +things which make up the finished gentleman, while his peculiar +expressions sometimes made every nerve quiver with pain. The +consequence of this was that Ethelyn became a very little cross, as +Richard thought, though she had never so openly attacked him as on +that day, the third after their arrival, when to her horror he took +off his coat, preparatory to a little comfort, while she was +dressing for dinner. At Ethelyn's request, however, he put it on +again, saying as he did so, that he was "sweating like a butcher," +which remark called out his wife's contemptuous inquiries +concerning his habits at home. Richard was still too much in love +with his young wife to feel very greatly irritated. In word and +deed she had done her duty toward him thus far, and he had nothing +to complain of. It is true she was very quiet and passive, and +undemonstrative, never giving him back any caress as he had seen +wives do. But then he was not very demonstrative himself, and so he +excused it the more readily in her, and loved her all the same. It +amused him that a girl of twenty should presume to criticise him, a +man of thirty-two, a Judge, and a member of Congress, to whom the +Olney people paid such deference, and he bore with her at first +just as a mother would bear with the little child which assumed a +superiority over her.</p> +<p>This afternoon, however, when she said so much to him, he was +conscious of a very little irritation, for he was naturally +high-spirited. But he put the feeling down, and gayly kissed his +six-weeks bride, who, touched with his forbearance, kissed him back +again, and suffered him to hold her cool face a moment between his +hot, moist hands, while he bent over her.</p> +<p>She did respect him in spite of his vulgarism; nor was she +unconscious of the position which, as his wife, she held. It was +very pleasant to hear people say of her when she passed by:</p> +<p>"That is Mrs. Judge Markham, of Iowa--her husband is a member of +Congress."</p> +<p>Very pleasant, too, to meet with his friends, other M. C.'s, who +paid her deference on his account. Had they stayed away from +Saratoga all might have been well; but alas, they were there, and +so was all of Ethelyn's world--the Tophevies, the Hales, the +Hungerfords and Van Burens, with Nettie Hudson, opening her great +blue eyes at Richard's mistakes and asking Frank in Ethelyn's +hearing, "if that Judge Markham's manners were not a little +outré."</p> +<p>They certainly were outré, there was no denying it, and +Ethelyn's blood tingled to her finger tips as she wondered if it +would always be so. It is a pitiable thing for a wife to blush for +her husband, to watch constantly lest he depart from those little +points of etiquette which women catch intuitively, but which some +of our most learned men fail to learn in a lifetime. And here they +greatly err, for no man, however well versed he may be in science +and literature, is well educated, or well balanced, or excusable, +if he neglects the little things which good breeding and common +politeness require of him, and Richard was somewhat to be blamed. +It did not follow because his faults had never been pointed out to +him that they did not exist, or that others did not observe them +besides his wife. Ethelyn, to be sure, was more deeply interested +than anyone else, and felt his mistakes more keenly, while at the +same time she was over-fastidious, and had not the happiest faculty +for correcting him. She did not love him well enough to be very +careful of wounding him, but the patience and good humor with which +he received her reprimand that hot August afternoon, when the +thermometer was one hundred in the shade, and any man would have +been excusable for retorting upon his wife who lectured him, awoke +a throb of something nearer akin to love than anything she had felt +since the night when she stood upon the sandy beach and heard the +story of Daisy.</p> +<p>Richard was going to do better. He would wear his coat all the +time, both day and night, if Ethelyn said so, He would not lean his +elbow on the table while waiting for dessert, as he had more than +once been guilty of doing; he would not help himself to a dish +before passing it to the ladies near him; he would talk to Mrs. +Cameron in the evening, and would try not to be so absorbed in his +own thoughts as to pay no attention when Mrs. Tophevie was +addressing herself directly to him; he would laugh in the right +place, and, when spoken to, would answer in something besides +monosyllables; he would try to keep his hands out of his pockets +and his handkerchief out of his hand, or at least he would not +"snap it," as Ethie said he had done on the first evening of his +arrival at Saratoga. In short, he promised a complete reformation, +even saying that if Ethelyn would select some person who was an +fait in those matters in which he was so remiss, he would watch and +copy that man to the letter. Would she name someone? And Ethelyn +named her cousin Frank, while Richard felt a flush of something +like resentment that he should be required to imitate a person whom +in his secret heart he despised as dandyish, and weak, and silly, +and "namby-pamby," as he would probably have expressed it if he had +not forsworn slang phrases of every kind. But Richard had pledged +his word, and meant to keep it; and so it was to all appearances a +very happy and loving couple which, when the dinner gong sounded, +walked into the dining room with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's set, +Ethelyn's handsome blue silk sweeping far behind her, and her white +bare arm just touching the coat-sleeve of her husband, who was not +insensible to the impression made by the beautiful woman at his +side.</p> +<p>There were no lectures that night, for Richard had done his +best, talking at least twenty times with both Mrs. Cameron and Mrs. +Colonel Tophevie, whom he found more agreeable than he had +supposed. Then he had held Ethelyn's white cloak upon his arm, and +stood patiently against the wall, while up at the United States she +danced set after set--first, the Lancers, with young Lieutenant +Gray, then a polka with John Tophevie, and lastly, a waltz with +Frank Van Buren, who whirled his fair partner about the room with a +velocity which made Richard dizzy and awoke sundry thoughts not +wholly complimentary to that doubtful dance, the waltz. Richard did +not dance himself, at least not latterly. In his younger days, when +he and Abigail Jones attended the quilting-frolics together and the +"paring bees," he had with other young men, tried his feet at +Scotch reels, French fours, "The Cheat," and the "Twin Sisters," +with occasionally a cotillion, but he was not accomplished in the +art. Even the Olney girls called him awkward, preferring almost +anyone else for a partner, and so he abandoned the floor and +cultivated his head rather than his heels. He liked to see dancing, +and at first it was rather pleasant watching Ethelyn's lithe figure +gliding gracefully through the intricate movements of the Lancers; +but when it came to the waltz, he was not so sure about it, and he +wondered if it were necessary for Frank Van Buren to clasp her as +tightly about the waist as he did, or for her to lean so languidly +upon his shoulder.</p> +<p>Richard was not naturally jealous--certainly not of Frank Van +Buren; but he would rather his wife should not waltz with him or +any other man, and so he said to her, asking this concession on her +part in return for all he had promised to attempt; and to Ethelyn's +credit we record that she yielded to her husband's wishes, and, +greatly to Frank's surprise, declined the waltz which he had +proposed the following evening. But she made amends in other +dances, keeping poor Richard waiting for her night after night, +until he actually fell asleep and dreamed of the log cabin on the +prairie, where he had once danced a quadrille with Abigail Jones to +the tune of Money-musk, as played by the Plympton brothers--the one +on a cracked violin, and the other on an accordion.</p> +<p>A tap of Mrs. Tophevie's fan brought him back to consciousness, +and he was almost guilty of a sigh as the log cabin faded from his +vision, with the Plymptons and Abigail Jones, leaving instead that +heated ballroom, with its trained orchestra, its bevy of fair young +girls, its score of white-kidded dandies with wasp-like waists and +perfumed locks, and Ethie smiling in their midst.</p> +<p>Saratoga did not agree with Richard. He grew sick first of the +water; then of the fare; then of the daily routine of fashionable +follies; then of the people; and then, oh! so sick of the petty +lectures which Ethelyn gradually resumed as he failed in his +attempts to imitate Frank Van Buren and appear perfectly at ease in +everybody's presence. Saratoga was a "confounded bore," he said, +and though he called himself a brute, and a savage, and a heathen, +he was only very glad when toward the last of August Ethelyn became +so seriously indisposed as to make a longer stay in Saratoga +impossible. Newport, of course, was given up, and Ethelyn's desire +was to go back to Chicopee and lie down again in the dear old room +which had been hers from childhood. Aunt Barbara's toast, Aunt +Barbara's tea, and Aunt Barbara's nursing, would soon bring her all +right again, she said; but in this she was mistaken, for although +the toast, and the tea, and the nursing each came in its turn, the +September flowers had faded, and the trees on the Chicopee hills +were beginning to flaunt their bright October robes ere she +recovered from the low, nervous fever, induced by the mental and +bodily excitement through which she had passed during the last +three or four months.</p> +<p>Although he knew it was necessary that he should be at home if +he would transact any business before the opening of his next +session in Washington, Richard put aside all thoughts of self, and +nursed his wife with a devotedness which awakened her liveliest +gratitude.</p> +<p>Richard was not awkward in the sick-room. It seemed to be his +special providence, and as he had once nursed and cared for Daisy +and the baby brother who died, so he now cared for Ethelyn, until +she began to miss him when he left her side, and to listen for his +returning step when he went out for an hour or so to smoke and talk +politics with his uncle, Captain Markham. With Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +and Frank and the fashionable world all away, Richard's faults were +not so perceptible, and Ethelyn even began to look forward with +considerable interest to the time when she should be able to start +for her Western home, about which she had built many delusive +castles. Her piano had already been sent on in advance, she saying +to Susie Granger, who came in while it was being boxed, that as +they were not to keep house till spring she should not take +furniture now. Possibly they could find what they needed in +Chicago; if not, they could order from Boston.</p> +<p>Richard, who overheard this remark, wondered what it meant, for +he had not the most remote idea of separating himself from his +mother. She was very essential to his happiness; and he was hardly +willing to confess to himself how much during the last summer he +had missed her. She had a way of petting him and deferring to his +judgment and making him feel that Richard Markham was a very nice +kind of man, far different from Ethelyn's criticisms, which had +sometimes led him seriously to inquire whether he were a fool or +not. No, he could not live apart from his mother--he was firm upon +that point; but there was time enough to say so when the subject +should be broached to him. So he went on nailing down the cover to +the pine box, and thinking as he nailed what a nice kitchen +cupboard the box would make when once it was safely landed at his +home in the prairie, and wondering, too, how his mother--who was +not very fond of music--would bear the sound of the piano and if +Ethie would be willing for Melinda Jones to practice upon it. He +knew Melinda had taken lessons at Camden, where she had been to +school, and he had heard her express a wish that someone nearer +than the village had an instrument, as she should soon forget all +she had learned. Somehow Melinda was a good deal in Richard's mind, +and when a button was missing from his shirts, or his toes came +through his socks--as was often the case at Saratoga--he found +himself thinking of the way Melinda had of helping "fix his things" +when he was going from home, and of hearing his mother say what a +handy girl she was, and what a thrifty, careful wife she would +make. He meant nothing derogatory to Ethelyn in these +reminiscences; he would not have exchanged her for a thousand +Melindas, even if he had to pin his shirt bosoms together and go +barefoot all his life. But Melinda kept recurring to his mind much +as if she had been his sister, and he thought it would be but a +simple act of gratitude for all she had done for him to give her +the use of the piano for at least one hour each day.</p> +<p>In blissful ignorance of all that was meditated against her, +Ethelyn saw her piano taken away from the sitting room, where it +would never stand again, and saw the tears which rolled down Aunt +Barbara's faded cheeks as she, too, watched its going, and tried to +fill up the vacancy it left by moving a chair and a table and a +footstool into the gap. Those were hard days for Aunt Barbara, +harder than for Ethelyn, who liked the excitement of traveling, and +was almost glad when the crisp October morning came on which she +was to say good-by to the home which was hers no longer. Her two +huge trunks stood in the hall, together with the square hair trunk +which held Richard's wardrobe, and the three tin cans of peaches +Mrs. Captain Markham was sending to her sister-in-law, with the +injunction to be sure and get that particular patent for cans if +she wished her fruit to keep. In addition to these, an immense box +had been forwarded by express, containing, besides Ethelyn's +wearing apparel, many little ornaments and pictures and brackets, +which, during the winter, might perhaps adorn the walls of the +parlor where Daisy's picture hung, and where, Richard had said, was +also an oil-painting of Niagara, omitting to add that it was the +handiwork of Melinda Jones, that young lady having dabbled in +paints as well as music during her two terms schooling at Camden. +Tucked away in various parts of the box were also sundry presents, +which, at Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's suggestion, Ethelyn had bought for +her husband's family. For James, who, she had heard Richard say, +was an inveterate smoker, there was a handsome velvet smoking-cap +which, having been bought at Saratoga, had cost an enormous sum; +for John, an expensive pair of elaborately wrought slippers had +been selected; but when it came to Anderson, as Ethelyn persisted +in calling the brother whom Richard always spoke of as Andy, she +felt a little perplexed as to what would be appropriate. Richard +had talked very little of him--so little, in fact, that she knew +nothing whatever of his tastes, except from the scrap of +conversation she once accidentally overheard when the old captain +was talking to Richard of his brothers.</p> +<p>"Does Andy like busts as well as ever?" the captain had asked, +but Richard's reply was lost as Ethelyn walked on.</p> +<p>Still, she had heard enough to give her some inkling with regard +to the mysterious Andy. Probably he was more refined than either +James or John--at all events, he was evidently fond of statuary, +and his tastes should be gratified. Accordingly, Boston was +ransacked by Mrs. Dr. Van Buren for an exquisite head of Schiller, +done in marble, and costing thirty dollars. Richard did not see it. +The presents were a secret from him, all except the handsome +point-lace coiffure which Aunt Barbara sent to Mrs. Markham, +together with a letter which she had sat up till midnight to write, +and in which she had touchingly commended her darling to the new +mother's care and consideration.</p> +<p>"You will find my Ethie in some respects a spoiled child--[she +wrote] but it is more my fault than hers. I have loved her so much, +and petted her so much, that I have doubt if she knows what a harsh +word or cross look means. She has been carefully and delicately +brought up, but has repaid me well for all my pains by her tender +love. Please, dear Mrs. Markham, be very, very kind to her, and you +will greatly oblige, your most obedient servant,</p> +<p>"BARBARA BIGELOW.</p> +<p>"P.S. I dare say your ways out West are not exactly like our +ways at the East, and Ethie may not fall in with them at once, +perhaps never with some of them, but I am sure she will do what is +right, as she is a sensible girl. Again, yours with regret, +B.B."</p> +<p>The writing of this letter was not perhaps the wisest thing Aunt +Barbara could have done, but she was incited to it by what her +sister Sophia told her of the rumors concerning Mrs. Markham, and +her own fears lest Ethelyn should not be as comfortable with the +new mother-in-law as was wholly desirable. To Richard himself she +had said that she presumed that his mother's ways were not like +Ethie's--old people were different from young ones--the world had +improved since their day, and instead of trying to bring young +folks altogether to their modes of thinking, it was well for both +to yield something. That was the third time Richard had heard his +mother's ways alluded to; first by Mrs. Jones, who called them +queer; second, by Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, who, for Ethie's sake had +also dropped a word of caution, hinting that his mother's ways +might possibly be a little peculiar; and lastly by good Aunt +Barbara, who signalized them as different from Ethelyn's.</p> +<p>What did it mean, and why had he never discovered anything amiss +in his mother? He trusted that Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Van Buren, and +Aunt Barbara were mistaken. On the whole, he knew they were; and +even if they were not his mother could not do wrong to Ethie, while +Ethie would, of course, be willing to conform to any request made +by a person so much older than herself as his mother was. So +Richard dismissed that subject from his mind, and Ethelyn--having +never heard it agitated, except that time when, with Mrs. Jones on +his mind, Richard had thought proper to suggest the propriety of +her humoring his mother--felt no fears of Mrs. Markham, senior, +whom she still associated in her mind with heavy black silk, +gold-bowed spectacles, handsome lace and fleecy crochet-work.</p> +<p>The October morning was clear and crisp and frosty, and the sun +had not yet shown itself above the eastern hills, when Captain +Markham's carryall drove to Aunt Barbara's gate, followed by the +long democratic-wagon which was to take the baggage. Ethelyn's +spoiled traveling dress had been replaced by a handsome poplin, +which was made in the extreme of fashion, and fitted her admirably, +as did every portion of her dress, from her jaunty hat and dotted +lace veil to the Alexandre kids and fancy little gaiters which +encased her feet and hands. She was prettier even than on her +bridal day, Richard thought, as he kissed away the tears which +dropped so fast even after the last good-by had been said to poor +Aunt Barbara, who watched the flutter of Ethie's veil and ribbons +as far as they could be seen, and then in the secrecy of her own +room knelt and prayed that God would bless and keep her darling, +and make her happy in the new home to which she was going.</p> +<p>It was very quiet and lonely in the Bigelow house that day, Aunt +Barbara walking softly and speaking slowly, as if the form of +someone dead had been borne from her side, while on the bed, which +the housemaid Betty had made so plump and round there was a cavity +made by Aunt Barbara's head, which hid itself there many times as +the good woman went repeatedly to God with the pain gnawing so at +her heart. But in the evening, when a cheerful wood fire was +kindled on the hearth of her pleasant sitting room, while Mrs. +Captain Markham came in with her knitting work, to sit until the +Captain called for her on his return from the meeting where he was +to oppose with all his might the building of a new schoolhouse, to +pay for which he would be heavily taxed, she felt better, and could +talk composedly of the travelers, who by that time were nearing +Rochester, where they would spend the night.</p> +<p>Although very anxious to reach home, Richard had promised that +Ethelyn should only travel through the day, as she was not as +strong as before her illness. And to this promise he adhered, so +that it was near the middle of the afternoon of the fifth day that +the last change was made, and they took the train that would in two +hours' time deposit them at Olney. At Camden, the county seat, they +waited for a few moments. There was always a crowd of people here +going out to different parts of the country, and as one after +another came into the car Richard seemed to know them all, while +the cordial and rather noisy greeting which they gave "the Judge" +struck Ethelyn a little oddly--it was so different from the quiet, +undemonstrative manner to which she had been accustomed. With at +least a dozen men in shaggy overcoats and slouched hats she shook +hands with a tolerably good grace, but when there appeared a tall, +lank, bearded young giant of a fellow, with a dare-devil expression +in his black eyes and a stain of tobacco about his mouth, she drew +back, and to his hearty "How are ye, Miss Markham? Considerable +tuckered out, I reckon?" she merely responded with a cool bow and a +haughty stare, intended to put down the young man, whom Richard +introduced as "Tim Jones," and who, taking a seat directly in front +of her, poured forth a volley of conversation, calling Richard +sometimes "Dick," sometimes "Markham," but oftener "Squire," as he +had learned to do when Richard was justice of the peace in Olney. +Melinda, too, or "Melind," was mentioned as having been over to the +"Squire's house helping the old lady to fix up a little," and then +Ethelyn knew that the "savage" was no other than brother to Abigail +Jones, deceased. The discovery was not a pleasant one, and did not +tend to smooth her ruffled spirits or lessen the feeling of +contempt for Western people in general, and Richard's friends in +particular, which had been growing in her heart ever since the +Eastern world was left behind and she had been fairly launched upon +the great prairies of the Mississippi Valley. Richard was a prince +compared with the specimens she had seen, though she did wonder +that he should be so familiar with them, calling them by their +first names, and even bandying jokes with the terrible Tim Jones +spitting his tobacco juice all over the car floor and laughing so +loudly at all the "Squire" said. It was almost too dreadful to +endure, and Ethelyn's head was beginning to ache frightfully when +the long train came to a pause, and the conductor, who also knew +Judge Markham, and called him "Dick," screamed through the open +door "O-l-ney!"</p> +<p>Ethelyn was at home at last.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<h3>MRS. MARKHAM'S WAYS</h3> +<br> +<p>They were very peculiar, and no one knew this better than Mrs. +Jones and her daughter Melinda, sister and mother to the deceased +Abigail and the redoubtable Tim. Naturally bright and quick-witted, +Melinda caught readily at any new improvement, and the consequence +was that the Jones house bore unmistakable signs of having in it a +grown-up daughter whose new ideas of things kept the old ideas from +rusting. After Melinda came home from boarding-school the Joneses +did not set the table in the kitchen close to the hissing cook +stove, but in the pleasant dining room, where there gradually came +to be crocheted tidies on the backs of the rocking-chairs, and +crayon sketches on the wall, and a pot of geraniums in the window, +with a canary bird singing in his cage near by. At first, Mrs. +Markham, who felt a greater interest in the Joneses than in any +other family--Mrs. Jones being the only woman in the circle of her +acquaintance to whom she would lend her copper boiler--looked a +little askance at these "new-fangled notions," wondering how "Miss +Jones expected to keep the flies out of her house if she had all +the doors a-flyin' three times a day," and fearing lest Melinda was +getting "stuck-up notions in her head, which would make her fit for +nothing."</p> +<p>But when she found there were no more flies buzzing in Farmer +Jones' kitchen than in her own, and that Melinda worked as much as +ever, and was just as willing to lend a helping hand when there was +need of haste at the Markham house, her anxiety subsided, and the +Joneses were welcome to eat wherever they chose, or even to have to +wait upon the table, when there was company, the little black boy +Pete, whom Tim had bought at a slave auction in New Orleans, +whither he had gone on a flatboat expedition two or three years +before. But she never thought of introducing any of Melinda's +notions into her own household. She "could not fuss" to keep so +many rooms clean. If in winter time she kept a fire in the front +room, where in one corner her own bed was curtained off, and if in +summer she always sat there when her work was done, it was all that +could be required of her, and was just as they used to do at her +father's, in Vermont, thirty years ago. Her kitchen was larger than +Mrs. Jones', which was rather uncomfortable on a hot day when there +was washing to be done; the odor of the soap-suds was a little +sickening then, she admitted, but in her kitchen it was different; +she had had an eye to comfort when they were building, and had seen +that the kitchen was the largest, airiest, lightest room in the +house, with four windows, two outside doors, and a fireplace, +where, although they had a stove, she dearly loved to cook just as +her mother had done in Vermont, and where hung an old-fashioned +crane, with iron hooks suspended from it. Here she washed, and +ironed, and ate, and performed her ablutions in the bright tin +basin which stood in the sink near to the pail, with the gourd +swinging in the top, and wiped her face on the rolling towel and +combed her hair before the clock, which served the double purpose +of looking-glass and timepiece. When company came--and Mrs. Markham +was not inhospitable--the east room, where the bed stood, was +opened; and if the company, as was sometimes the case, chanced to +be Richard's friends, she used the west room across the hall, where +the chocolate-colored paper and Daisy's picture hung, and where, +upon the high mantel, there was a plaster image of little Samuel, +and two plaster vases filled with colored fruit. The carpet was a +very pretty Brussels, but it did not quite cover the floor on +either side. It was a small pattern, and on this account had been +offered a shilling cheaper a yard, and so the economical Mrs. +Markham had bought it, intending to eke out the deficiency with +drugget of a corresponding shade; but the merchant did not bring +the drugget, and the carpet was put down, and time went on, and the +strips of painted board were still uncovered, save by the straight +row of haircloth chairs, which stood upon one side, and the +old-fashioned sofa, which had cost fifty dollars, and ought to last +at least as many years. There was a Boston rocker, and a center +table, with the family Bible on it, and a volume of Scott's +Commentaries, and frosted candlesticks on the mantel and two sperm +candles in them, with colored paper, pink and green, all fancifully +notched and put around them, and a bureau in the corner, which held +the boys' Sunday shirts and Mrs. Markham's black silk dress, with +Daisy's clothes in the bottom drawer, and the silver plate taken +from her coffin. There was a gilt-framed looking-glass on the wall, +and blue paper curtains at the windows, which were further +ornamented with muslin drapery. This was the great room--the +parlor--where Daisy had died, and which, on that account, was a +kind of sacred place to those who held the memory of that sweet, +little prairie blossom as the dearest memory of their lives. Had +she lived, with her naturally refined tastes, and her nicety of +perceptions, there was no guessing what that farmhouse might have +been, for a young girl makes a deal of difference in any family. +But she died, and so the house, which when she died, was not quite +finished, remained much as it was--a large, square building, minus +blinds, with a wide hall in the center opening in front upon a +broad piazza, and opening back upon a stoop, the side entrance to +the kitchen. There was a picket fence in front; but the yard was +bare of ornament, if we except the lilac bushes under the parlor +windows, the red peony in the corner, and the clumps of violets and +daisies, which grew in what was intended for borders to the walk, +from the front gate to the door. Sometimes the summer showed here a +growth of marigolds, with sweet peas and china asters, for Andy was +fond of flowers, and when he had leisure he did a little floral +gardening; but this year, owing to Richard's absence, there had +been more to do on the farm, consequently the ornamental had been +neglected, and the late autumn flowers which, in honor of Ethelyn's +arrival, were standing in vases on the center table and the mantel, +were contributed by Melinda Jones, who had been very busy in other +portions of the house working for the bride.</p> +<p>She could do this now without a single pang of jealousy, for she +was a sensible girl, and after a night and a day of heaviness, and +a vague sense of disappointment, she had sung as merrily as ever, +and no one was more interested in the arrival of Richard's bride +than she, from the time when Richard started eastward for her. +Between herself and her mother there had been a long, confidential +conversation, touching Mrs. Markham's ways and the best means of +circumventing them, so that the new wife might not be utterly +crushed with homesickness and surprise when she first arrived. No +one could manage Mrs. Markham as well as Melinda, and it was owing +to her influence wholly that the large, pleasant chamber, which had +been Richard's ever since he became a growing man, was renovated +and improved until it presented a very inviting appearance. The rag +carpet which for years had done duty, and bore many traces of +Richard's muddy boots, had been exchanged for a new ingrain--not +very pretty in design, or very stylish either, but possessing the +merit of being fresh and clean. To get the carpet Melinda had +labored assiduously, and had enlisted all three of the brothers, +James, and John, and Andy in the cause before the economical mother +consented to the purchase. The rag carpet, if cleaned and mended, +was as good as ever, she insisted; and even if it were not, she +could put on one that had not seen so much actual service. It was +Andy who finally decided her to indulge in the extravagance urged +by Melinda Jones. There were reasons why Andy was very near to his +mother's heart, and when he offered to sell his brown pony, which +he loved as he did his eyes, his mother yielded the point, and +taking with her both Mrs. Jones and Melinda, went to Camden, and +sat two mortal hours upon rolls of carpeting while she decided +which to take.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham was not stingy with regard to her table; that was +always loaded with the choicest of everything, while many a poor +family blessed her as an angel. But the articles she ate were +mostly the products of their large, well-cultivated farm; they did +not cost money directly out of her hand, and it was the money she +disliked parting with, so she talked and dickered, and beat the +Camden merchant down five cents on a yard, and made him cut it a +little short, to save a waste, and made him throw in the thread and +binding and swear when she was gone, wondering who "the stingy old +woman was." And yet the very day after her return from Camden "the +stingy old woman" had sent to her minister a loaf of bread and a +pail of butter, and to a poor sick woman, who lived in a leaky +cabin off in the prairie, a nice, warm blanket for her bed, with a +basket of delicacies to tempt her capricious appetite.</p> +<p>In due time the carpet had been made, Melinda Jones sewing up +three of the seams, while Andy, who knew how to use the needle +almost as well as a girl, claimed the privilege of sewing at least +half a seam on the new sister's carpet. Adjoining Richard's chamber +was a little room where Mrs. Markham's flour and meal and corn were +kept, but which, with a little fitting up, would answer nicely for +a bedroom, and after an amount of engineering, which would have +done credit to the general of an army, Melinda succeeded in coaxing +Mrs. Markham to move her barrels and bags, and give up the room for +Ethelyn's bed, which looked very nice and inviting, notwithstanding +that the pillows were small, and the bedstead a high poster, which +had been in use for twenty years. Mrs. Markham knew all about the +boxes, as she called them. There was one in Mrs. Jones' front +chamber, but she had never bought one, for what then would she do +with her old ones--"with them laced cords," so greatly preferable +to the hard slats, which nearly broke her back the night she slept +on some at a friend's house in Olney.</p> +<p>Richard was fond of books, and had collected from time to time a +well-selected library, which was the only ornament in his room when +Melinda first took it in hand; but when she had finished her +work--when the carpet was down, and the neat, white shades were up +at the windows; when the books which used to be on the floor and +table, and chairs, and mantel, and window sills, and anywhere, were +neatly arranged in the very respectable shelves which Andy made and +James had painted; when the little sewing chair designed for +Ethelyn was put before one window, and Richard's arm-chair before +the other, and the drab lounge was drawn a little into the room, +and the bureau stood corner-ways, with a bottle of cologne upon it, +which John had bought, and a pot of pomade Andy had made, and two +little pink and white mats Melinda had crocheted, the room was very +presentable. Great, womanish Andy was sure Ethelyn would be +pleased, and rubbed his hands jubilantly over the result of his +labors, while Melinda was certainly pardonable for feeling that in +return for what she had done for Richard's wife she might venture +to suggest that the huge box, marked piano, which for ten days had +been standing on the front piazza, be opened and the piano set up, +so that she could try its tone. This box had cost Andy a world of +trouble, keeping him awake nights, and taking him from his bed more +than once, as he fancied he heard a mysterious sound, and feared +someone might be stealing the ponderous thing, which it took four +men to lift. With the utmost alacrity he helped in the unpacking, +nearly bursting a blood-vessel as he tugged at the heaviest end, +and then running to the village with all his speed, to borrow Mrs. +Crandall's piano key, which, fortunately, fitted Ethelyn's, so that +Melinda Jones was soon seated in state, and running her fingers +over the superb five-hundred dollar instrument, Ethelyn's gift from +Aunt Barbara on her nineteenth birthday.</p> +<p>Melinda's fingers were strained and cut with carpet thread, and +pricked with carpet tacks, and red with washing dishes, but they +moved nimbly over the keys, striking out with a will the few tunes +she had learned during her two quarters' instruction. She had +acquired a great deal of knowledge in a short time, for she was +passionately fond of music, and every spare moment had been devoted +to it, so that she had mastered the scales with innumerable +exercises, besides learning several pieces, of which Money-musk was +one. This she now played with a sprightliness and energy which +brought Andy to his feet, while the cowhides moved to the stirring +music in a fashion which would have utterly confounded poor Ethelyn +could she have seen them. But Ethelyn was miles and miles away. She +was not coming for a week or more, and in that time Andy tried his +hand at Yankee Doodle, playing with one finger, and succeeding far +beyond his most sanguine expectations. Andy was delighted with the +piano, and so was Eunice, the hired girl, who left her ironing and +her dishes, standing with wiping towel or flatiron in hand, humming +an accompaniment to Andy's playing, and sometimes helping to find +the proper key to touch next.</p> +<p>Eunice was not an Irish girl, nor a German, nor a Scotch, but a +full-blooded American, and "just as good as her employers," with +whom she always ate and sat. It was not Mrs. Markham's custom to +keep a girl the year round, but when she did it was Eunice +Plympton, the daughter of the drunken fiddler who earned his +livelihood by playing for the dances the young people of Olney +sometimes got up. He was anticipating quite a windfall from the +infair it was confidently expected would be given by Mrs. Markham +in honor of her son's marriage; and Eunice herself had washed and +starched and ironed the white waist she intended to wear on the +same occasion. Of course she knew she would have to wait and tend +and do the running, she said to Melinda, to whom she confided her +thoughts, but after the supper was over she surely might have one +little dance, if with nobody but Andy.</p> +<p>This was Eunice, and she had been with Mrs. Markham during the +past summer; but her time was drawing to a close. All the heavy +work was over, the harvests were gathered in, the soap was made, +the cleaning done, the house made ready for Richard's wife, and it +was the understanding that when that lady came and was somewhat +domesticated, Miss Eunice was to leave. There was not much to do in +the winter, Mrs. Markham said, and with Richard's wife's help she +should get along. Alas! how little Ethelyn was prepared for the +home which awaited her, and for the really good woman, who, on the +afternoon of her son's arrival, saw into the oven the young turkey +which Andy had been feeding for so very long with a view to this +very day, and then helped Eunice set the table for the expected +guests.</p> +<p>It did occur to Mrs. Markham that there might be a great +propriety in Eunice's waiting for once, inasmuch as there were +plates to change, and custard pie and minced, and pudding, to be +brought upon the table, for they were having a great dinner, but +the good woman did not dare hint at such a thing, so the seven +plates were put upon the table, and the china cups brought from the +little cupboard at the side of the chimney, and the silver teapot, +which was a family heirloom, and had been given Mrs. Markham by her +mother, was brought also and rubbed up with what Eunice called a +"shammy," and the pickles, and preserves, and honey, and cheese and +jellies, and the white raised biscuits and fresh brown bread, and +shredded cabbage and cranberry sauce, with golden butter, and +pitchers of cream, were all arranged according to Eunice's ideas. +The turkey was browning nicely, the vegetables were cooking upon +the stove, the odor of silver-skinned onions pervading the entire +house. Eunice was grinding the coffee, and the clock said it wanted +but half an hour of car-time, when Mrs. Markham finally left the +kitchen and proceeded to make her toilet.</p> +<p>Eunice's had been made some time ago, and the large-sized hoop +she wore had already upset a pail and dragged a griddle from the +stove hearth, greatly to the discomfiture of Mrs. Markham, who did +not fancy hoops, though she wore a small one this afternoon under +her clean and stiffly-starched dress of purple calico. St. Paul +would have made her an exception in his restrictions with regard to +women's apparel, for neither gold nor silver ornaments, nor braided +hair, found any tolerance in her. She followed St. Paul strictly, +except at such times as the good people in the Methodist church at +the east end of the village held a protracted meeting, when she +deviated so far from his injunction as to speak her mind and tell +her experience.</p> +<p>She was a good and conscientious woman, practicing what she +preached, and believing more in the inner than the outer adorning; +but she looked very neat this afternoon in her purple calico, with +a motherly white apron tied around her waist, and her soft, silvery +hair combed smoothly back from her forehead and twisted in a knot +behind, about the size of a half dollar. This knot however, was +hidden by the headdress which Melinda had made from bits of black +lace and purple ribbon, and which, though not at all like Aunt +Barbara's Boston caps, was still very respectable, and even +tasteful-looking. Almost too tasteful, Mrs. Markham thought, as she +glanced at the tiny artificial flower tucked in among the bows of +ribbon. But Mrs. Markham did not remove the flower, for it was a +daisy, and it made her think of the Daisy who died fourteen years +ago, and who, had she lived till now, would have been +twenty-eight.</p> +<p>"A married woman, most likely, and I might have been +grandmother," Mrs. Markham sighed, and then, as she heard in fancy +the patter of little feet at her side, and saw before her little +faces with a look like Daisy in them, her thoughts went softly out +to Richard's bride, through whom this coveted blessing might come +to her quiet household, and her heart throbbed with a quick sudden +yearning for the young daughter-in-law, now just alighting at the +Olney station, for the Eastern train had come, and James was there +with the democrat-wagon to meet it.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<h3>GETTING HOME</h3> +<br> +<p>Olney was a thriving, busy little town, numbering five hundred +inhabitants or thereabouts. It had its groceries, its dry goods +stores, and its two houses for public worship--the Methodist and +Presbyterian--while every other Sunday a little band of +Episcopalians met for their own service in what was called the +Village Hall, where, during week days, a small, select school was +frequently taught by some Yankee schoolmistress. It had its post +office, too; and there was also talk of a bank after the railroad +came that way, and roused the people to a state of still greater +activity. On the whole, it was a pretty town, though different from +Chicopee, where the houses slept so aristocratically under the +shadow of the old elms, which had been growing there since the day +when our national independence was declared.</p> +<p>At home Ethelyn's pride had all been centered in Boston, and she +had sometimes thought a little contemptuously of Chicopee and its +surroundings; but the farther she traveled west the higher Chicopee +rose in her estimation, until she found herself comparing every +prairie village with that rural town among the hills, which seemed +to give it dignity, and made it so greatly superior to the dead +levels of which she was getting so weary. She had admired the +rolling prairies at first, but, tired and jaded with her long +journey, nothing looked well to her now--nothing was like +Chicopee--certainly not Olney, where the dwellings looked so new +and the streets were minus sidewalks.</p> +<p>Ethelyn had a good view of it as the train approached it and +even caught a passing glimpse of the white house in the distance +which Richard pointed out as home, his face lighting up with all +the pleasure of a schoolboy as he saw the old familiar waymarks and +felt that he was home at last.</p> +<p>Dropping her veil over her face Ethelyn arose to follow her +husband, who in his eagerness to grasp the hand of the tall, burly +young man he had seen from the window, forgot to carry her shawl +and her satchel, which last being upon the car-rack, she tugged at +it with all her strength, and was about crying with vexation at +Richard's thoughtlessness, when Tim Jones, who while rolling his +quid of tobacco in his great mouth, had watched her furtively, +wondering how she and Melind would get along, gallantly came to her +aid, and taking the satchel down kept it upon his arm.</p> +<p>"Take care of that air step. Better let me help you out. Dick is +so tickled to see Jim that he even forgets his wife, I swan!" Tim +said, offering to assist her from the train; but with a feeling of +disgust too deep to be expressed, Ethelyn declined the offer and +turned away from him to meet the curious gaze of the young man whom +Richard presented as brother James.</p> +<p>He was younger than his brother by half a dozen years, but he +looked quite as old, if not older. His face and hands were sunburnt +and brown, his clothes were coarse, his pants were tucked into his +tall, muddy boots, and he held in his hands the whip with which he +had driven the shining bays, pricking up their ears behind the +depot and eyeing askance the train just beginning to move away. The +Markhams were all good-looking, and James was not an exception. The +Olney girls called him very handsome, when on Sunday he came to +church in his best clothes and led the Methodist choir; but Ethelyn +only thought him rough, and coarse, and vulgar, and when he bent +down to kiss her she drew back haughtily.</p> +<p>"Ethelyn!" Richard said, in the low, peculiar tone, which she +had almost unconsciously learned to fear, just as she did the dark +expression which his hazel eyes assumed as he said the single word +"Ethelyn!"</p> +<p>She was afraid of Richard when he looked and spoke that way, and +putting up her lip, she permitted the kiss which the warm-hearted +James gave to her. He was naturally more demonstrative than his +brother, and more susceptible, too; a pretty face would always set +his heart to beating and call out all the gallantry of his nature. +Wholly unsophisticated, he never dreamed of the gulf there was +between him and the new sister, whom he thought so +beautiful--loving her at once, because she was so pretty, and +because she was the wife of Dick, their household idol. He was more +of a ladies' man than Richard, and when on their way to the +democratic-wagon they came to a patch of mud, through which +Ethelyn's skirts were trailing, he playfully lifted her in his +strong arms, and set her down upon the wagon-box, saying, as he +adjusted her skirts: "We can't have that pretty dress spoiled, the +very first day, with Iowa mud."</p> +<p>All this time Tim Jones had been dutifully holding the satchel, +which he now deposited at Ethelyn's feet, and then, at James' +invitation, he sprang into the hinder part of the wagon-box, and +sitting down, let his long limbs dangle over the backboard, while +James sat partly in Richard's lap and partly in Ethelyn's. It had +been decided that the democrat must come down again for the +baggage; and so, three on a seat, with Tim Jones holding on behind, +Ethelyn was driven through the town, while face after face looked +at her from the windows of the different dwellings, and comment +after comment was made upon her pretty little round hat, with its +jaunty feather, which style had not then penetrated so far west as +Olney. Rumors there were of the Eastern ladies wearing hats which +made them look at least ten years younger than their actual age; +but Ethelyn was the first to carry the fashion to Olney, and she +was pronounced very stylish, and very girlish, too, by those who +watched her curiously from behind their curtains and blinds.</p> +<p>It was the close of a chill October day, and a bank of angry +clouds hung darkly in the western sky, while the autumn wind blew +across the prairie; but colder, blacker, chillier far than prairie +winds, or threatening clouds, or autumnal day was the shadow +resting on Ethelyn's heart, and making her almost cry out with +loneliness and homesickness, as they drew near the house where the +blue paper curtains were hanging before the windows and Eunice +Plympton's face was pressed against the pane. The daisies and +violets and summer grass were withered and dead, and the naked +branches of the lilac bush brushed against the house with a +mournful, rasping sound, which reminded her of the tall sign-post +in Chicopee, which used to creak so in the winter wind, and keep +her Aunt Barbara awake. To the right of the house, and a little in +the rear, were several large, square corn-cribs, and behind these +an inclosure in which numerous cattle, and horses, and pigs were +industriously feeding, while the cobs, stripped, and soiled, and +muddy, were scattered everywhere. Ethelyn took it all in at a +glance, exclaiming, in a smothered voice, as the wagon turned into +the lane which led to the side door, "Not here, Richard; surely, +not here!"</p> +<p>But Richard, if he heard her, did not heed her. He could not +comprehend her utter desolation and crushing disappointment. Her +imaginings of his home had never been anything like this reality, +and for a moment she felt as if in a kind of horrible nightmare, +from which she struggled to awake.</p> +<p>"Oh! if it were only a dream," she thought; but it was no dream, +though as Richard himself lifted her carefully from the wagon, and +deposited her upon the side stoop, there came a mist before her +eyes, and for an instant sense and feeling forsook her; but only +for an instant, for the hall door was thrown open, and Richard's +mother came out to greet her son and welcome her new daughter.</p> +<p>But alas for Ethelyn's visions of heavy silk and costly lace! +How they vanished before this woman in purple calico, with ruffles +of the same standing up about the throat, and the cotton lace +coiffure upon her head! She was very glad to see her boy and wound +both her arms around his neck, but she was afraid of Ethelyn. She, +too, had had her ideal, but it was not like this proud-looking +beauty, dressed so stylishly, and, as it seemed to her so +extravagantly, with her long, full skirt of handsome poplin +trailing so far behind her, and her basque fitting her graceful +figure so admirably. Neither did the hat, rolled so jauntily on the +sides, and giving her a coquettish appearance, escape her notice, +nor the fact that the dotted veil was not removed from the white +face, even after Richard had put the little, plump hand in hers, +and said:</p> +<p>"This, mother, is Ethie, my wife. I hope you will love each +other for my sake."</p> +<p>In her joy at seeing her pet boy again, Mrs. Markham would have +done a great deal for his sake, but she could not "kiss a veil," as +she afterwards said to Melinda Jones, when she reached the point +where she talked straight out about her daughter-in-law. No, she +could not kiss a veil, and so she only held and pressed Ethelyn's +hand, and leading her into the house, told her she was very +welcome, and bade her come to the fire and take off her things, and +asked if she was not tired, and cold and hungry.</p> +<p>And Ethelyn tried to answer, but the great lumps were swelling +in her throat, and so keen a pain was tugging at her heart that +when at last, astonished at her silence, Richard said, "What is the +matter, Ethie--why don't you answer mother?" she burst out in a +pitiful cry:</p> +<p>"Oh, Richard, I can't, I can't; please take me back to Aunt +Barbara."</p> +<p>This was the crisis, the concentration of all she had been +suffering for the last hour, and it touched Mrs. Markham's heart, +for she remembered just how wretched she had been when she first +landed at the rude log cabin which was so long her Western home, +and turning to Richard, she said, in an aside:</p> +<p>"She is homesick, poor child, as it's natural she should be at +first. She'll be better by and by, so don't think strange of it. +She seems very young."</p> +<p>In referring to her youth, Mrs. Markham meant nothing derogatory +to her daughter-in-law, though Ethelyn did strike her as very +young, in her pretty hat with her heavy hair low in her neck. She +was finding an excuse for her crying, and did not mean that Ethelyn +should hear. But she did hear, and the hot tears were dashed aside +at once. She was too proud to be petted or patronized by Mrs. +Markham, or apologized for by her, so she dried her eyes, and +lifting her head, said proudly:</p> +<p>"I am tired to-night, and my head is aching so hard that I lost +my self-control. I beg you will excuse me. Richard knows me too +well to need an excuse."</p> +<p>A born duchess could not have assumed a loftier air, and in some +perplexity Mrs. Markham glanced from her to Richard, as if asking +what to do next. Fortunately for all parties, Andy just then came +in with his brother John, who approached his new sister with some +little hesitation. He had heard Tim Jones' verdict, "Stuck up as +the old Nick," while even cautious James had admitted his fears +that Dick had made a mistake, and taken a wife who would never fit +their ways. And this was why John had been so late with his +welcome. He had crept up the back stairs, and donned his best +necktie, and changed his heavy boots for a pair of shoes, which +left exposed to view a portion of his blue yarn socks. He had +before changed his coat and vest, and tied on a handkerchief, but +it was not his best; not the satin cravat, with the pretty bow +Melinda Jones had made, and in which was stuck a rather fanciful +pin he wore on great occasions. He was all right now, and he shook +hands with his new sister, and asked if she were pretty well, and +told her she was welcome, and then stepped back for Andy, who had +been making his toilet when the bride arrived, and so was late with +his congratulations.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<h3>ANDY</h3> +<br> +<p>Andy was a character in his way. A fall from his horse upon the +ground had injured his head when he was a boy, and since that time +he had been what his mother called a little queer, while the +neighbors spoke of him as simple Andy, or Mrs. Markham's half-wit, +who did the work of a girl and knit all his own socks. He was next +to Richard in point of age, but he looked younger than either of +his brothers, for his face was round and fair, and smooth as any +girl's. It is true that every Sunday of his life he made a great +parade with lather and shaving-cup, standing before the glass in +his shirt-sleeves, just as the other boys did, and flourishing his +razor around his white throat and beardless face, to the amusement +of anyone who chanced to see him for the first time.</p> +<p>In his younger days, when the tavern at the Cross Roads was just +opened, Andy had been a sore trial to both mother and brothers, and +many a night, when the rain and sleet were driving across the +prairies, Richard had left the warm fireside and gone out in the +storm after the erring Andy, who had more than once been found by +the roadside, with his hat jammed into every conceivable shape, his +face scratched, and a tell-tale smell about his breath which +contradicted his assertion "that somebody had knocked him +down."</p> +<p>Andy had been intemperate, and greatly given to what the old +Captain in Chicopee had designated as "busts"; but since the time +when the church missionary, young Mr. Townsend, had come to Olney, +and held his first service in the log schoolhouse, Andy had ceased +to frequent the Cross Roads tavern, and Richard went no more in the +autumnal storms to look for his wayward brother. There was +something in the beautiful simplicity of the church service which +went straight to Andy's heart, and more than all, there was +something in Mr. Townsend's voice, and manner, and face, which +touched a responsive chord in the breast of the boyish Andy, and +when at last the bishop came to that section of Iowa, his hands +were first laid in blessing on the bowed head of Andy, who knelt to +receive the rite of confirmation in the presence of a large +concourse of people, to most of whom the service and ceremony were +entirely new.</p> +<p>While rejoicing and thanking God for the change, which she felt +was wholly sincere, Mrs. Markham had deeply deplored the +pertinacity with which Andy had clung to his resolve to join "Mr. +Townsend's church or none." She did not doubt Mr. Townsend's piety +or Andy's either, but she doubted the Episcopalians generally +because they did not require more than God himself requires, and it +hurt her sore that Andy should go with them rather than to her +church across the brook, where Father Aberdeen preached every +Sunday against the pride, and pomp, and worldliness generally of +his Episcopal brethren. Andy believed in Mr. Townsend, and in time +he came to believe heart and soul in the church doctrines as taught +by him, and the beautiful consistency of his daily life was to his +mother like a constant and powerful argument in favor of the church +to which he belonged, while to his brothers it was a powerful +argument in favor of the religion he professed.</p> +<p>That Andy Markham was a Christian no one doubted. It showed +itself in every act of his life; it shone in his beaming, +good-natured face, and made itself heard in the touching pathos of +his voice, when he repeated aloud in his room the prayers of his +church, saying to his mother, when she objected that his prayers +were made up beforehand: "And for the land's sake, ain't the sams +and hims, which are nothing but prayers set to music, made up +beforehand? A pretty muss you'd have of it if everybody should +strike out for himself, a singin' his own words just as they popped +into his head."</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham was not convinced, but she let Andy alone after +that, simply remarking that "the prayer-book would not always +answer the purpose; there would come a time when just what he +wanted was not there."</p> +<p>Andy was willing to wait till that time came, trusting to Mr. +Townsend to find for him some way of escape; and so the matter +dropped, and he was free to read his prayers as much as he pleased. +He had heard from Richard that his new sister was of his way of +thinking--that though not a member of the church except by baptism, +she was an Episcopalian, and would be married by that form.</p> +<p>It was strange how Andy's great, warm heart went out toward +Ethelyn after that. He was sure to like her; and on the evening of +the bridal, when the clock struck nine, he had taken his tallow +candle to his room, and opening his prayer-book at the marriage +ceremony, had read it carefully through, even to the saying: "I, +Richard, take thee, Ethelyn," etc., kneeling at the proper time, +and after he was through even venturing to improvise a prayer of +his own, in which he asked, not that Ethelyn might be happy with +his brother--there was no doubt on that point, for Richard was +perfect in his estimation--but that "old Dick" might be happy with +her--that he, Andy, might do his whole duty by her, and that, if it +was right to ask it, she might bring him something from that famous +Boston, which seemed to him like a kind of paradise, and also that +she need not at once discover that he did not know as much as "old +Dick."</p> +<p>This was Andy's prayer, which he had confessed to Mr. Townsend; +and now, all shaven and shorn, with his best Sunday coat and a +large bandanna in his hand, he came in to greet his sister. It +needed but a glance for Ethelyn to know the truth, for Andy's face +told what he was; but there was something so kind in his expression +and so winning in his voice, as he called her "Sister Ethie," that +she unbent to him as she had unbent to no one else; and when he +stooped to kiss her, she did not draw back as she had from James +and John, but promptly put up her lips, and only winced a very +little at the second loud, hearty smack which Andy gave her, his +great mouth leaving a wet spot on her cheek, which she wiped away +with her handkerchief.</p> +<p>Richard had dreaded the meeting between his polished wife and +his simple brother more than anything else, and several times he +had tried to prepare Ethelyn for it, but he could not bring himself +to say, "Andy is foolish"; for when he tried to do it Andy's +pleading face came up before him just as it looked on the morning +of his departure from home in June, when Andy had said to him: +"Don't tell her what a shaller critter I am. Let her find it out by +her learning."</p> +<p>So Richard had said nothing particular of Andy, and now he +watched him anxiously, to see the impression he was making, and, as +he saw Ethelyn's manner, marveling greatly at this new phase in her +disposition. She did not feel half so desolate after seeing Andy, +and she let him hold her hand, which he stroked softly, admiring +its whiteness, and evidently comparing it with his own. All the +Markhams had large hands and feet, just as they were all +good-looking. Even Andy had his points of beauty, for his soft +brown hair was handsomer, if possible, than Richard's, and more +luxuriant, while many a city dandy might have coveted his white, +even teeth, and his dark eyes were very placid and gentle in their +expression.</p> +<p>"Little sister" he called Ethelyn, who though not very short in +stature, seemed to him so much younger than he had expected Dick's +wife to be that he applied the term "little" as he would to +anything which he wished to pet.</p> +<p>Ethelyn's hat was laid aside by this time, and the basquine, +too, which Andy thought the prettiest coat he had ever seen, and +which Eunice, who was bidden to carry Ethelyn's things away, tried +on before the glass in Ethelyn's chamber, as she did also the hat, +deciding that Melinda Jones could make her something like them out +of a gray skirt she had at home and one of Tim's palm-leaf +hats.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<h3>DINNER, AND AFTER IT</h3> +<br> +<p>Eunice had not fully seen the stranger, and so, when dinner was +announced and Richard led her out, with Andy hovering at her side, +she stood ready to be introduced, with the little speech she had +been rehearsing about "I hope to see you well," etc., trembling on +the tip of her tongue. But her plans were seriously disarranged. +Six months before Richard would have presented her himself, as a +matter of course; but he had learned some things since then, and he +tried not to see his mother's meaning as she glanced from him to +Eunice and then to Ethelyn, whose proud, dignified bearing awed and +abashed even her. Eunice, however, had been made quite too much of +to be wholly ignored now, and Mrs. Markham felt compelled to say, +"Ethelyn, this--ah, this is--Eunice--Eunice Plympton."</p> +<p>That Eunice Plympton was the hired girl Ethelyn did not for a +moment dream; but that she was coarse and vulgar, like the rest of +Richard's family, she at once decided, and if she bowed at all it +was not perceptible to Eunice, who mentally resolved "to go home in +the morning if such a proud minx was to live there."</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham saw the gathering storm, and Richard knew by the +drop of her chin that Ethelyn had not made a good impression. How +could she with that proud cold look, which never for an instant +left her face, but rather deepened in its expression as the dinner +proceeded, and one after the other Mrs. Markham and Eunice left the +table in quest of something that was missing, while Andy himself, +being nearest the kitchen, went to bring a pitcher of hot water for +Ethelyn's coffee, lifting the kettle with the skirt of his coat, +and snapping his fingers, which were slightly burned with the +scalding steam. From the position she occupied at the table Ethelyn +saw the whole performance, and had it been in any other house she +would have smiled at Andy's grotesque appearance as he converted +his coat skirts into a holder; but now it only sent a colder chill +to her heart as she reflected that these were Richard's people and +this was Richard's home. Sadly and vividly there arose before her +visions of dear Aunt Barbara's household, where Betty served so +quietly and where, except that they were upon a smaller scale, +everything was as well and properly managed as in Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren's family. It was several hours since she had tasted food, but +she could scarcely swallow a morsel for the terrible homesick +feeling swelling in her throat. She knew the viands before her were +as nicely cooked as even Aunt Barbara or Betty could have cooked +them--so much she conceded to Mrs. Markham and Eunice; but had her +life depended upon it she could not have eaten them and the plate +which James had filled so plentifully scarcely diminished at all. +She did pick a little with her fork at the white, tender turkey, +and tried to drink her coffee, but the pain in her head and the +pain at her heart were both too great to allow of her doing more, +and Mrs. Markham and Eunice both felt a growing contempt for a +dainty thing who could not eat the dinner they had been at so much +pains to prepare.</p> +<p>Ethelyn knew their opinion of her as well as if it had been +expressed in words; but they were so very far beneath her that +whatsoever they might think was not of the slightest consequence. +They were a vulgar, ignorant set, the whole of them, she mentally +decided, as she watched their manners at table, noticing how James +and John poured their coffee into their saucers, blowing it until +it was cool, while Richard, feeling more freedom now that he was +again under his mother's wing, used his knife altogether, even to +eating jelly with it. Ethelyn was disgusted, and once, as Richard's +well-filled knife was moving toward his mouth, she gently touched +his foot with her own; but if he understood her he did not heed +her, and went quietly on with his dinner. Indeed, it might be truly +said of him that "Richard was himself again," for his whole manner +was that of a petted child, which, having returned to the mother +who spoiled it, had cast off the restraint under which for a time +it had been laboring. Richard was hungry, and would have enjoyed +his dinner hugely but for the cold, silent woman beside him, who, +he knew, was watching and criticising all he did; but somehow at +home he did not care so much for her criticisms as when alone with +her at fashionable hotels or with fashionable people. Here he was +supreme, and none had ever disputed his will. Perhaps if Ethelyn +had known all that was in his heart she might have changed her +tactics and tried to have been more conciliatory on that first +evening of her arrival at his home. But Ethelyn did not know--she +only felt that she was homesick and wretched--and pleading a +headache, from which she was really suffering, she asked to go to +her room as soon as dinner was over.</p> +<p>It was very pleasant up there, for a cheerful wood fire was +blazing on the hearth, and a rocking-chair drawn up before it, with +a footstool which Andy had made and Melinda covered, while the bed +in the little room adjoining looked so fresh, and clean, and +inviting, that with a great sigh of relief, as the door closed +between her and the "dreadful people below," Ethelyn threw herself +upon it, and burying her face in the soft pillows, tried to smother +the sobs which, nevertheless, smote heavily upon Richard's ear when +he came in, and drove from him all thoughts of the little lecture +he had been intending to give Ethelyn touching her deportment +toward his folks. It would only be a fair return, he reflected, for +all the Caudles he had listened to so patiently, and duly +strengthened for his task by his mother's remark to James, +accidentally overheard, "Altogether too fine a lady for us. I +wonder what Richard was thinking of," he mounted the stairs +resolved at least to talk with Ethie and ask her to do better.</p> +<p>Richard could be very stern when he tried, and the hazel of his +eye was darker than usual, and the wrinkle between his eyebrows was +deeper as he thus meditated harm against his offending wife. But +the sight of the crushed form lying so helplessly upon the bed and +crying in such a grieved, heart-sick way, drove all thoughts of +discipline from his mind. He could not add one iota to her misery. +She might be cold, and proud, and even rude to his family, as she +unquestionably had been, but she was still Ethie, his young wife, +whom he loved so dearly; and bending over her, he smoothed the +silken bands of her beautiful hair and said to her softly, "What is +it, darling? Anything worse than homesickness? Has anyone injured +you?"</p> +<p>No one had injured her. On the contrary, all had met, or tried +to meet her with kindness, which she had thrust back upon them. +Ethelyn knew this as well as anyone, and Mrs. Markham, washing her +dishes below stairs, and occasionally wiping her eyes with the +corner of the check apron as she thought how all her trouble had +been thrown away upon a proud, ungrateful girl, could not think +less of Ethie than Ethie thought of herself, upstairs sobbing among +the pillows. The family were ignorant and ill bred, as she counted +ignorance and ill breeding; but they did mean to be kind to her, +and she hated herself for her ingratitude in not at least seeming +pleased with their endeavors to please her. Added to this was a +vague remembrance of a certain look seen in Richard's eye--a look +which made her uneasy as she thought, "What if he should hate me, +too?"</p> +<p>Richard was all Ethelyn had to cling to now. She respected, if +she did not love him, and when she heard his step upon the stairs, +her heart, for an instant, throbbed with dread lest he was coming +to chide her as she deserved. When, then, he bent so kindly over +her, and spoke to her so tenderly, all her better nature went out +toward him in a sudden gush of something akin to love, and lifting +her head, she laid it upon his bosom, and drawing his arm around +her neck, held it there with a sense of protection, while she said: +"No one has injured me; but, oh, I am so homesick, and they are all +so different, and my head aches so hard."</p> +<p>He knew she was homesick and it was natural that she should be; +and he knew, too, that, as she said, they were "so different," and +though on this point he could not fully appreciate her feelings he +was sorry for her, and he soothed her aching head, and kissed her +forehead, and told her she was tired; she would feel better by and +by, and get accustomed to their ways, and when, as he said this, he +felt the shiver with which she repelled the assertion, he repressed +his inclination to tell her that she could at least conceal her +aversion to whatever was disagreeable, and kissing her again, bade +her lie down and try to sleep, as that would help her sooner than +anything else, unless it were a cup of sage tea, such as his mother +used to make for him when his head was aching. Should he send +Eunice up with a cup?</p> +<p>"No; oh, no," and Ethelyn's voice expressed the disgust she felt +for the young lady with red streamers in her hair, who had stared +so at her and called her husband Richard.</p> +<p>Ethelyn had not yet defined Eunice's position in the +family--whether it was that of cousin, or niece, or companion--and +now that Richard had suggested her, she said to him:</p> +<p>"Who is this Eunice that seems so familiar?"</p> +<p>Richard hesitated a little and then replied:</p> +<p>"She is the girl who works for mother when we need help."</p> +<p>"Not a hired girl--surely not a hired girl!" and Ethelyn opened +her brown eyes wide with surprise and indignation, wondering aloud +what Aunt Sophia or Aunt Barbara would say if they knew she had +eaten with and been introduced to a hired girl.</p> +<p>Richard did not say, "Aunt Sophia or Aunt Barbara be hanged, or +be--anything," but he thought it, just as he thought Ethelyn's +ideas particular and over-nice. Eunice Plympton was a respectable, +trusty girl, and he believed in doing well for those who did well +for him; but that was no time to argue the point, and so he sat +still and listened to Ethelyn's complaint that Eunice had called +him Richard, and would undoubtedly on the morrow address her as +Ethelyn. Richard thought not, but changed his mind when, fifteen +minutes later, he descended to the kitchen and heard Eunice asking +Andy if he did not think "Ethelyn looked like the Methodist +minister's new wife."</p> +<p>This was an offense which even Richard could not suffer to pass +unrebuked, and sending Andy out on some pretext or other, he said +that to Eunice Plympton which made her more careful as to what she +called his wife, but he did it so kindly that she could not be +offended with him, though she was strengthened in her opinion that +"Miss Ethelyn was a stuck-up, an upstart, and a hateful. Supposin' +she had been waited on all her life, and brought up delicately, as +Richard said, that was no reason why she need feel so big, and +above speaking to a poor girl when she was introduced." She guessed +that "Eunice Plympton was fully as respectable and quite as much +thought on by the neighbors, if she didn't wear a frock coat and a +man's hat with a green feather stuck in it."</p> +<p>This was the substance of Eunice's soliloquy, as she cleaned the +potatoes for the morrow's breakfast, and laid the kindlings by the +stove, ready for the morning fire. Still Eunice was not a +bad-hearted girl, and when Andy, who heard her mutterings, put in a +plea for Ethelyn, who he said "had never been so far away from home +before, and whose head was aching enough to split," she began to +relent, and proposed, of her own accord, to take up to the great +lady a foot-bath together with hot water for her head.</p> +<p>It was so long since Richard had been at home, and there was so +much to hear of what had happened during his absence that instead +of going back to Ethelyn he yielded to his mother's wish that he +should stay with her, and sitting down in his arm-chair by the +blazing fire, he found it so pleasant to be flattered and caressed +and deferred to again, that he was in some danger of forgetting the +young wife who was thus left to the tender mercies of Andy and +Eunice Plympton. Andy had caught eagerly at Eunice's suggestion of +the foot-bath, and offered to carry it up himself, while Eunice +followed with her towels and basin of hot water. It never occurred +to either of them to knock for admittance, and Ethelyn was obliged +to endure their presence, which she did at first with a shadow on +her brow; but when Andy asked so pleadingly that she try the hot +water, and Eunice joined her entreaties with his, Ethelyn +consented, and lay very quiet while Eunice Plympton bathed the +aching head and smoothed the long, bright hair, which both she and +Andy admired so much, for Andy, when he found that Ethelyn declined +the foot-bath, concluded to remain a while, and sitting down before +the fire, he scrutinized the form and features of his new sister, +and made remarks upon the luxuriant tresses which Eunice combed so +carefully.</p> +<p>It was something to have the homage of even such subjects as +these, and Ethelyn's heart grew softer as the pain gradually +subsided beneath Eunice's mesmeric touch, so that she answered +graciously the questions propounded by her as to whether that sack, +or great-coat, or whatever it was called, which she wore around +her, was the very last style, how much it took to cut it, and if +Miss Markham had the pattern. On being told that "Miss Markham" had +not the pattern, Eunice presumed Melinda Jones could cut one, and +then, while the cooled water was heating on the coals which Andy +raked out upon the hearth, Eunice asked if she might just try on +the "vasquine" and let Miss Markham see how she looked in it.</p> +<p>For a moment Ethelyn hesitated, but Eunice had been so kind, and +proffered her request so timidly, that she could not well refuse, +and gave a faint assent. But she was spared the trial of seeing her +basquine strained over Eunice's buxom figure by the entrance of +Richard, who came to say that Melinda Jones was in the parlor +below. In spite of all Tim had said about madam's airs, and his +advice that "Melinda should keep away," that young lady had +ventured upon a call, thinking her intimacy with the family would +excuse any unseemly haste, and thinking, too, it may be, that +possibly Mrs. Richard Markham would be glad to know there was +someone in Olney more like the people to whom she had been +accustomed than Mrs. Markham, senior, and her handmaid, Eunice +Plympton. Melinda's toilet had been made with direct reference to +what Mrs. Ethelyn would think of it, and she was looking very well +indeed in her gray dress and sack, with plain straw hat and green +ribbons, which harmonized well with her high-colored cheeks. But +Melinda's pains had been for naught, just as Richard feared, when +she asked if "Mrs. Markham" was too tired to see her.</p> +<p>Richard was glad to see Melinda, and Melinda was glad to see +Richard--so glad that she gave him a hearty kiss, prefacing the act +with the remark, "I can kiss you, now you are a married man."</p> +<p>Richard liked the kiss, and liked Melinda's frank, open manner, +which had in it nothing Van Burenish, as he secretly termed the +studied elegance of Mrs. Richard Markham's style. Melinda was +natural, and he promptly kissed her back, feeling that in doing so +he was guilty of nothing wrong, for he would have done the same had +Ethelyn been present. She had a terrible headache, he said, in +answer to Melinda's inquiry, and perhaps she did not feel able to +come down. He would see.</p> +<p>The hot water and Eunice's bathing had done Ethelyn good, and, +with the exception that she was very pale, she looked bright and +handsome, as she lay upon the pillows, with her loose hair forming +a dark, glossy frame about her face.</p> +<p>"You are better, Ethie," Richard said, bending over her, and +playfully lifting her heavy hair. "Eunice has done you good. She's +not so bad, after all."</p> +<p>"Eunice is well enough in her place," was Ethelyn's reply; and +then there was a pause, while Richard wondered how he should +introduce Melinda Jones.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was vain in him, but he really fancied that the name +of Jones was distasteful to Ethelyn, just as the Van Buren name +would have been more distasteful to him than it already was had he +known of Frank's love affair. And to a certain extent he was right. +Ethelyn did dislike to hear of the Joneses, whom she heartily +despised, and her brow grew cloudy at once when Richard said, +bunglingly, and as if it were not at all what he had come up to +say: "Oh, don't you remember hearing me speak of Melinda Jones, +whom I hoped you would like? She is very kind to mother--we all +think a great deal of her; and though she knows it is rather soon +to call, she has come in for a few minutes, and would like to see +you. I should be so glad if you would go down, for it will gratify +her, I know, and I really think we owe her something--she has +always been so kind."</p> +<p>But Ethelyn was too tired, and her head ached too hard to see +visitors, she said; and besides that, "Miss Jones ought to have +known that it was not proper to call so soon. None but a very +intimate friend could presume upon such a thing."</p> +<p>"And Melinda is an intimate friend," Richard answered, a little +warmly, as he left his wife, and went back to Melinda with the +message, that "some time she should be happy to make Miss Jones' +acquaintance, but to-night she really must be excused, as she was +too tired to come down."</p> +<p>All this time Andy had been standing with his back to the fire, +his coat-skirts taken up in his arms, his light, soft hat on his +head, and his ears taking in all that was transpiring. Andy +regarded his stylish sister-in-law as a very choice gem, which was +not to be handled too roughly, but he was not afraid of her; he was +seldom afraid of anybody, and when Richard was gone, he walked +boldly up to Ethelyn and said:</p> +<p>"I don't want to be meddlesome, but 'pears to me if you'd spoke +out your feelings to Dick, you'd said, 'Tell Melinda Jones I don't +want to see her, neither to-night nor any time.' Mebby I'm +mistaken, but honest, do you want to see Melinda?"</p> +<p>There was something so straightforward in his manner that, +without being the least offended, Ethelyn replied:</p> +<p>"No, I do not. I am sure I should not like her if she at all +resembles her brother^ that terrible Timothy."</p> +<p>Andy did not know that there was anything so very terrible about +Tim. He liked him, because he gave him such nice chews of tobacco, +and was always so ready to lend a helping hand in hog-killing time, +or when a horse was sick; neither had he ever heard him called +Timothy before, and the name sounded oddly, but he classed it with +the fine ways of his new sister, who called him Anderson, though he +so much wished she wouldn't. It sounded as if she did not like him; +but he said nothing on that subject now--he merely adhered to the +Jones question, and without defending Tim, replied:</p> +<p>"Gals are never much like their brothers, I reckon. They are +softer, and finer, and neater; leastways our Daisy was as different +from us as different could be, and Melinda is different from Tim. +She's been to Camden high-school, and has got a book that she talks +French out of; and didn't you ever see that piece she wrote about +Mr. Baldwin's boy, who fell from the top of the church when it was +building, and was crushed to death? It was printed, all in rhyme, +in the Camden <i>Sentinel</i>, and Jim has a copy of it in his +wallet, 'long with a lock of Melinda's hair. I tell you she's a +team."</p> +<p>Andy was warming up with his subject, and finding Ethelyn a good +listener, he continued:</p> +<p>"I want you to like her, and I b'lieve you orter, for if it +hadn't been for her this room wouldn't of been fixed up as 'tis. +Melinda coaxed mother to buy the carpet, and the curtings, and to +put your bed in there. Why, that was the meal room, where you be, +and we used to keep beans there, too; but Melinda stuck to it till +mother moved the chest and the bags, and then we got some paint, +and me and the boys and Melinda painted, and worked, hopin' all the +time that you'd be pleased, as I guess you be. We wanted to have +you like us."</p> +<p>And simple-hearted Andy drew near to Ethelyn, who was softened +more by what he said than she could have been by her husband's most +urgent appeal. The thought of the people to whom she had been so +cold, and even rude, working and planning for her comfort, touched +a very tender chord, and had Richard then proffered his request for +her to go down, it is very possible she might have done so; but it +was too late now, and after Andy left her she lay pondering what he +had said and listening to the sound of voices which came up to her +from the parlor directly beneath her room where James, and John, +and Andy, and the mother, with Melinda, and Eunice, were talking to +Richard, who was conscious of a greater feeling of content, sitting +there in their midst again, than he had known in many a day. +Melinda had been more than disappointed at Mrs. Richard's +non-appearance, for aside from a curiosity to see the great lady, +there was a desire to be able to report that she seen her to other +females equally curious, whom she would next day meet at church. It +would have added somewhat to her self-complacency as well as +importance in their eyes, could she have quoted Mrs. Richard's +sayings, and, described Mrs. Richard's dress, the very first day +after her arrival. It would look as if the intimacy, which many +predicted would end with Mrs. Ethelyn's coming, was only cemented +the stronger; but no such honor was in store for her. Ethelyn +declined coming down, and with a good-humored smile Melinda said +she was quite excusable; and then, untying her bonnet, she laid it +aside, just as she did the indescribable air of stiffness she had +worn while expecting Mrs. Richard.</p> +<p>How merrily they all laughed and chatted together! and how +handsome James' eyes grew as they rested admiringly upon the +sprightly girl, who perfectly conscious of his gaze, never looked +at him, but confined her attention wholly to Richard, until Andy +asked "if they could not have a bit of a tune."</p> +<p>Then, for the first time, Richard discovered that Ethelyn's +piano had been unpacked, and was now standing between the south +windows, directly under Daisy's picture. It was open, too, and the +sheet of music upon the rack told that it had been used. Richard +did not care for himself, but he was afraid of what Ethelyn might +say, and wondered greatly why she had not spoken of the liberty +they had taken.</p> +<p>Ethelyn had not observed the piano; or if she did she had paid +no attention to it. Accustomed as she had always been to seeing one +in the room, she would have missed its absence more than she +noticed its presence. But when, as she lay half dozing and thinking +of Aunt Barbara, the old familiar air of "Money-musk," played with +a most energetic hand, came to her ear, she started, for she knew +the tone of her own instrument--knew, too, that Melinda Jones' +hands were sweeping the keys--and all that Melinda Jones had done +for her comfort was forgotten in the deep resentment which heated +her blood and flushed her cheek as she listened to "Old Zip Coon," +which followed "Money-musk," a shuffling sound of feet telling that +somebody's boots were keeping time after a very unorthodox fashion. +Next came a song--"Old Folks at Home"--and in spite of her +resentment Ethelyn found herself listening intently as James' rich, +deep bass, and John's clear tenor, and Andy's alto joined in the +chorus with Melinda's full soprano. The Markham boys were noted for +their fine voices; and even Richard had once assisted at a public +concert; but to-night he did not sing--his thoughts were too intent +upon the wife upstairs and what she might be thinking of the +performance, and he was glad when the piano was closed and Melinda +Jones had gone.</p> +<p>It was later than he supposed, and the clock pointed to almost +eleven when he at last said good-night to his mother and went, with +a half-guilty feeling, to his room. But there were no chidings in +store for him; for, wearied with her journey and soothed by the +music, Ethelyn had forgotten all her cares and lay quietly +sleeping, with one hand beneath her cheek and the other resting +outside the white counterpane. Ethie was very pretty in her sleep, +and the proud, restless look about her mouth was gone, leaving an +expression more like a child's than like a girl of twenty. And +Richard, looking at her, felt supremely happy that she was his, +forgetting all of the past which had been unpleasant, and thinking +only that he was blessed above his fellow mortals that he could +call the beautiful girl before him his Ethelyn--his wife.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> +<h3>FIRST DAYS IN OLNEY</h3> +<br> +<p>There were a great many vacant seats in the Methodist church the +morning following Ethelyn's arrival, while Mr. Townsend was +surprised at the size of his congregation. It was generally known +that Mrs. Judge Markham was an Episcopalian, and as she would of +course patronize the Village Hall, the young people of Olney were +there en masse, eager to see the new bride. But their curiosity was +not gratified. Ethelyn was too tired to go out, Andy said, when +questioned on the subject, while Eunice Plympton, who was also of +Andy's faith, and an attendant of the Village Hall, added the very +valuable piece of information that "Miss Markham's breakfast had +been taken to her, and that when she [Eunice] came away she was +still in bed, or at all events had not yet made her appearance +below." This, together with Eunice's assertion that she was +handsome, and Tim Jones' testimony that she was "mighty stuck-up, +but awful neat," was all the disappointed Olneyites knew of Mrs. +Richard Markham, who, as Eunice reported, had breakfasted in bed, +and was still lying there when the one bell in Olney rang out its +summons for church. She did not pretend to be sick--only tired and +languid, and indisposed for any exertion; and then it was much +nicer taking her breakfast from the little tray covered with the +snowy towel which Richard brought her, than it was to go down +stairs and encounter "all those dreadful people," as she mentally +styled Richard's family; so she begged for indulgence this once, +and Richard could not refuse her request, and so excused her to his +mother, who said nothing, but whose face wore an expression which +Richard did not like.</p> +<p>Always strong and healthy herself, Mrs. Markham had but little +charity for nervous, delicate people, and she devoutly hoped that +Richard's wife would not prove to be one of that sort. When the +dishes were washed, and the floor swept, and the broom hung up in +its place, and the sleeves of the brown, dotted calico rolled down, +she went herself to see Ethelyn, her quick eye noticing the +elaborate night-gown, with its dainty tucks and expensive +embroidery, and her thoughts at once leaping forward to ironing +day, with the wonder who was to do up such finery. "Of course, +though, she'll see to such things herself," was her mental +conclusion, and then she proceeded to question Ethelyn as to what +was the matter, and where she felt the worst. A person who did not +come down to breakfast must either be sick or very babyish and +notional, and as Ethelyn did not pretend to much indisposition, the +good woman naturally concluded that she was "hypoey," and pitied +her boy accordingly.</p> +<p>Ethelyn readily guessed the opinion her mother-in-law was +forming of her, and could hardly steady her voice sufficiently to +answer her questions or repress her tears, which gushed forth the +moment Mrs. Markham had left the room, and she was alone with +Richard. Poor Richard! it was a novel position in which he found +himself--that of mediator between his mother and his wife; but he +succeeded very well, soothing and caressing the latter, until when, +at three o'clock in the afternoon, the bountiful dinner was ready, +he had the pleasure of taking her downstairs, looking very +beautiful in her handsome black silk, and the pink coral ornaments +Aunt Barbara had given her. There was nothing gaudy about her +dress; it was in perfect taste, and very plain too, as she thought, +even if it was trimmed with lace and bugles. But she could not help +feeling it was out of keeping when James, and John, and Eunice +stared so at her, and Mrs. Markham asked her if she hadn't better +tie on an apron for fear she might get grease or something on her. +With ready alacrity Eunice, who fancied her young mistress looked +like a queen, forgetting in her admiration that she had ever +thought her proud, ran for her own clean, white apron, which she +offered to the lady.</p> +<p>But Ethelyn declined it, saying, "My napkin is all that I shall +require."</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham, and Eunice, and Andy glanced at each other. +Napkins were a luxury in which Mrs. Markham had never indulged. She +knew they were common in almost every family of her acquaintance; +but she did not see of what use they were, except to make more +washing, and as her standard of things was the standard of thirty +years back she was not easily convinced; and even Melinda Jones had +failed on the napkin question. Ethelyn had been too much excited to +observe their absence the previous night, and she now spoke in all +sincerity, never dreaming that there was not such an article in the +house. But there was a small square towel of the finest linen, and +sacred to the memory of Daisy, who had hemmed it herself and worked +her name in the corner. It was lying in the drawer, now, with her +white cambric dress, and, at a whispered word from her mistress, +Eunice brought it out and laid it in Ethelyn's lap, while Richard's +face grew crimson as he began to think that possibly his mother +might be a very little behind the times in her household +arrangements.</p> +<p>Ethelyn's appetite had improved since the previous night, and +she did ample justice to the well-cooked dinner; but her spirits +were ruffled again when, on returning to her room an hour or so +after dinner, she found it in the same disorderly condition in +which she had left it. Ethelyn had never taken charge of her own +room, for at Aunt Barbara's Betty had esteemed it a privilege to +wait upon her young mistress, while Aunt Van Buren would have been +horror-stricken at the idea of any one of her guests making their +own bed. Mrs. Markham, on the contrary, could hardly conceive of a +lady too fine to do that service herself, and Eunice was not the +least to blame for omitting to do what she had never been told was +her duty to do. A few words from Richard, however, and the promise +of an extra quarter per week made that matter all right, and +neither Betty nor Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's trained chambermaid, Mag, +had ever entered into the clearing-up process with greater zeal +than did Eunice when once she knew that Richard expected it of her. +She was naturally kind-hearted, and though Ethelyn's lofty ways +annoyed her somewhat, her admiration for the beautiful woman and +her elegant wardrobe was unbounded, and she felt a pride in waiting +upon her which she would once have thought impossible to feel in +anything pertaining to her duties as a servant.</p> +<p>The following morning brought with it the opening of the box +where the family presents were; but Ethelyn did not feel as much +interest in them now as when they were purchased. She knew how out +of place they were, and fully appreciated the puzzled expression on +James' face when he saw the blue velvet smoking cap. It did not +harmonize with the common clay pipe he always smoked on Sunday, and +much less with the coarse cob thing she saw him take from the +kitchen mantel that morning just after he left the breakfast table +and had donned the blue frock he wore upon the farm. He did not +know what the fanciful-tasseled thing was for; but he reflected +that Melinda, who had been to boarding school, could enlighten him, +and he thanked his pretty sister with a good deal of gentlemanly +grace. He was naturally more observing than Richard, and with the +same advantages would have polished sooner. Though a little afraid +of Ethelyn, there was something in her refined, cultivated manners +very pleasing to him, and his soft eyes looked down upon her kindly +as he took the cap and carried it to his room, laying it carefully +away in the drawer where his Sunday shirts, and collars, and +"dancing pumps," and fishing tackle, and paper of chewing tobacco +were.</p> +<p>Meanwhile, John, who was even more shy of Ethelyn than James, +had been made the recipient of the elegantly embroidered slippers, +which presented so marked a contrast to his heavy cowhides, and +were three sizes too small for his mammoth feet. Ethelyn saw the +discrepancy at once, and the effort it was for John to keep from +laughing outright, as he took the dainty things into which he could +but little more than thrust his toes.</p> +<p>"You did not know what a Goliath I was, nor what stogies I wore; +but I thank you all the same," John said, and with burning blushes +Ethelyn turned next to her beautiful Schiller--the exquisite little +bust--which Andy, in his simplicity mistook for a big doll, feeling +a little affronted that Ethelyn should suppose him childish enough +to care for such toys.</p> +<p>But when Richard, who stood looking on, explained to his weak +brother what it was, saying that people of cultivation prized such +things as these, and that some time he would read to him of the +great German poet, Andy felt better, and accepted his big doll with +a very good grace.</p> +<p>The coiffure came next, Mrs. Markham saying she was much +obliged, and Eunice asking if it was a half-handkerchief, to be +worn about the neck.</p> +<p>Taken individually and collectively, the presents were a +failure--all but the pretty collar and ribbon-bow, which, as an +afterthought, Ethelyn gave to Eunice, whose delight knew no bounds. +This was something she could appreciate, while Ethelyn's gifts to +the others had been far beyond them, and but for the good feeling +they manifested might as well have been withheld. Ethelyn felt this +heavily, and it did not tend to lessen the bitter disappointment +which had been gnawing in her heart ever since she had reached her +Western home. Everything was different from what she had pictured +it in her mind--everything but Daisy's face, which, from its +black-walnut frame above her piano, seemed to look so lovingly down +upon her. It was a sweet, refined face, and the soft eyes of blue +were more beautiful than anything Ethelyn had ever seen. She did +not wonder that every member of that family looked upon their lost +Daisy as the household angel, lowering their voices when they spoke +of her, and even retarding their footsteps when they passed near +her picture. She did wonder, however, that they were not more like +what Daisy would have been, judging from the expression of her face +and all Richard had said of her.</p> +<p>Between Mrs. Markham and Ethelyn there was from the first a +mutual feeling of antagonism, and it was in no degree lessened by +Aunt Barbara's letter, which Mrs. Markham read three times on +Sunday, and then on Monday very foolishly talked it up with Eunice, +whom she treated with a degree of familiarity wholly unaccountable +to Ethelyn.</p> +<p>"What did that Miss Bigelow take her for that she must ask her +to be kind to Ethelyn? Of course she should do her duty, and she +guessed her ways were not so very different from other people's, +either," and the good woman gave an extra twist to the tablecloth +she was wringing, and shaking it out rather fiercely, tossed it +into the huge clothes-basket standing near.</p> +<p>The wash was unusually large that day and as the unpacking of +the box had taken up some time, the clock was striking two just as +the last clothespin was fastened in its place, and the last brown +towel hung upon the currant bushes. It was Mrs. Markham's weakness +that her wash should be fluttering in the wind before that of Mrs. +Jones, which could be plainly seen from her kitchen window. But +to-day Mrs. Jones was ahead, and Melinda's pink sun-bonnet was +visible in the little back-yard as early as eleven, at which time +the Markham garments had just commenced to boil. The bride had +brought with her a great deal of extra work, and what with waiting +breakfast for her until the coffee was cold and the baked potatoes +"all soggy," and then cleaning up the litter of "that box," Mrs. +Markham was dreadfully behind with her Monday's work. And it did +not tend to improve her temper to know that the cause of all her +discomposure was "playing lady" in a handsome cashmere morning +gown, with heavy tassels knotted at her side, while she was bending +over the washtub in a faded calico pinned about her waist, and +disclosing the quilt patched with many colors, and the black yarn +stockings footed with coarse white. Not that Mrs. Markham cared +especially for the difference between her dress and +Ethelyn's--neither did she expect Ethelyn to "help" that day--but +she might at least have offered to wipe the dinner dishes, she +thought. It would have shown her good will at all events. But +instead of that she had returned to her room the moment dinner was +over, and Eunice, who went to hunt for a missing sock of Richard's, +reported that she was lying on the lounge with a story book in her +hand.</p> +<p>"Shiffless," was the word Mrs. Markham wanted to use, but she +repressed it, for she would not talk openly against Richard's wife +so soon after her arrival, though she did make some invidious +remarks concerning the handsome underclothes, wondering "what folks +were thinking of to put so much work where it was never seen. +Puffs, and embroidery, and lace, and, I vum, if the ruffles ain't +tucked too," she continued, in a despairing voice, hoping Ethelyn +knew "how to iron such filagree herself, for the mercy knew she +didn't."</p> +<p>Now these same puffs, and embroidery, and ruffles, and tucks had +excited Eunice's liveliest admiration, and her fingers fairly +itched to see how they would look hanging on the clothes bars after +passing through her hands. That Ethelyn could touch them she never +once dreamed. Her instincts were truer than Mrs. Markham's and it +struck her as perfectly proper that one like Ethelyn should sit +still while others served, and to her mistress' remarks as to the +ironing, she hastened to reply: "I'd a heap sight rather do them up +than to iron the boys' coarse shirts and pantaloons. Don't you mind +the summer I was at Camden working for Miss Avery, who lived next +door to Miss Judge Miller, from New York? She had just such things +as these, and I used to go in sometimes and watch Katy iron 'em, so +I b'lieve I can do it myself. Anyways, I want to try."</p> +<p>Fears that Eunice might rebel had been uppermost in Mrs. +Markham's mind when she saw the pile of elegant clothes, for she +had a suspicion that Mrs. Ethelyn would keep as much aloof from the +ironing-board as she did from the dish-washing; but if Eunice was +willing and even glad of the opportunity, why, that made a +difference, and the good woman began to feel so much better that by +the time the last article was on the line, the kitchen floor +cleared up, and the basin of water heating on the stove for her own +ablutions, she was quite amiably disposed toward her grand +daughter-in-law, who had not made her appearance since dinner. +Ethelyn liked staying in her chamber better than anywhere else, and +it was especially pleasant there to-day, for Eunice had taken great +pains to make it so, sweeping, and dusting and putting to rights, +and patting the pillows and cushions just as she remembered seeing +Melinda do, and then, after the collar and ribbon had been given to +her, going down on her hands and knees before the fire to wash the +hearth with milk, which gave to the red bricks a polished, shining +appearance, and added much to the cheerfulness of the room. Ethelyn +had commended her pleasantly, and, in the seventh heaven of +delight, Eunice had returned to her washing, taking greater pains +than ever with the dainty puffs and frills, and putting in a stitch +where one was needed.</p> +<p>It was very evident that Eunice admired Ethelyn, and Ethelyn in +return began to appreciate Eunice; and when, after dinner, she went +to her room, and, wearied with her unpacking, lay down upon the +lounge, she felt happier than she had since her first sight of +Olney. It was pleasant up there, and the room looked very pretty +with the brackets and ornaments, and pictures she had hung there +instead of in the parlor, and she decided within herself that +though disappointed in every respect, she could be quite +comfortable for the few weeks which must intervene before she went +to Washington. She should spend most of the time in the retirement +of her room, mingling as little as possible with the family, and +keeping at a respectful distance from her mother-in-law, whom she +liked less than any of Richard's relations.</p> +<p>"I trust the Olney people will not think it their duty to call," +she thought. "I suppose I shall have to endure the Joneses for +Abigail's sake. Melinda certainly has some taste; possibly I may +like her," and while cogitating upon Melinda Jones and the expected +gayeties in Washington, she fell asleep; nor did Richard's step +arouse her, when, about three o'clock, he came in from the village +in quest of some law documents he wished to see.</p> +<p>Frank Van Buren would probably have kissed her as she lay there +sleeping so quietly; but Richard was in a great hurry. He had +plunged at once into business. Once there were forty men waiting to +see and consult "the Squire," whose reputation for honesty and +ability was very great, and whose simple assertion carried more +weight than the roundest oath of some lawyers, sworn upon the +biggest Bible in Olney. Waylaid at every corner, and plied with +numberless questions, he had hardly found an opportunity to come +home to dinner, and now he had no time to waste in love-making. He +saw Ethelyn, however, and felt that his room had never been as +pleasant as it was with her there in it, albeit her coming was the +cause of his books and papers being disturbed and tossed about and +moved where he had much trouble to find them. He felt glad, too, +that she was out of his mother's way, and feeling that all was +well, he found his papers and hurried off to the village again, +while Ethelyn slept on till Eunice Plympton came up to say that +"Miss Jones and Melinda were both in the parlor and wanted her to +come down."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<h3>CALLS AND VISITING</h3> +<br> +<p>Mrs. Jones had risen earlier than usual that Monday morning, and +felt not a little elated when she saw her long line of snowy linen +swinging in the wind before that of her neighbor, whom she excused +on the score of Richard's wife. But when twelve o'clock, and even +one o'clock struck, and still the back yard gave no sign, she began +to wonder "if any of 'em could be sick"; and never was flag of +truce watched for more anxiously than she watched for something +which should tell that it was all well at Sister Markham's.</p> +<p>The sign appeared at last, and with her fears quieted, Mrs. +Jones pursued the even tenor of her way until everything was done +and her little kitchen was as shining as soap and sand and +scrubbing brush could make it. Perhaps it was washing the patchwork +quilt which Abigail had pieced that brought the deceased so +strongly to Mrs. Jones' mind, and made her so curious to see +Abigail's successor. Whatever it was, Mrs. Jones was very anxious +for a sight of Ethelyn; and when her work was done she donned her +alpaca dress, and tying on her black silk apron, announced her +intention of "running into Mrs. Markham's just a minute. Would +Melinda like to go along?"</p> +<p>Melinda had been once to no purpose, and she had inwardly +resolved to wait a while before calling again; but she felt that +she would rather be with her mother at her first interview with +Ethelyn, for she knew she could cover up some defects by her +glibber and more correct manner of conversing. So she signified her +assent, but did not wear her best bonnet as she had on Saturday +night. This was only a run in, she said, never dreaming that, "for +fear of what might happen if she was urged to stay to tea," her +mother had deposited in her capacious pocket the shirt-sleeve of +unbleached cotton she was making for Tim.</p> +<p>And so about four o'clock the twain started for the house of +Mrs. Markham, who saw them coming and welcomed them warmly. She was +always glad to see Mrs. Jones, and she was doubly glad to-day, for +it seemed to her that some trouble had come upon her which made +neighborly sympathy and neighborly intercourse more desirable than +ever. Added to this, there was in her heart an unconfessed pride in +Ethelyn and a desire to show her off. "Miss Jones was not going to +stir home a step till after supper," she said, as that lady +demurred at laying off her bonnet. "She had got to stay and see +Richard; besides that, they were going to have waffles and honey, +with warm gingerbread."</p> +<p>Nobody who had once tested them, could withstand Mrs. Markham's +waffles and gingerbread. Mrs. Jones certainly could not; and when +Eunice went up for Ethelyn, that worthy woman was rocking back and +forth in a low rocking-chair, her brass thimble on her finger and +Tim's shirt-sleeve in progress of making; while Melinda, in her +pretty brown merino and white collar, with her black hair shining +like satin, sat in another rocking-chair, working at the bit of +tatting she chanced to have in her pocket. Ethelyn did not care to +go down; it was like stepping into another sphere leaving her own +society for that of the Joneses; but there was no alternative, and +with a yawn she started up and began smoothing her hair.</p> +<p>"This wrapper is well enough," she said, more to herself, than +Eunice, who was still standing by the door looking at her.</p> +<p>Eunice did not think the wrapper well enough. It was pretty, she +knew, but not as pretty as the dresses she had seen hanging in +Ethelyn's closet when she arranged the room that morning; so she +said, hesitatingly: "I wish you wouldn't wear that down. You were +so handsome yesterday in the black gown, with them red earrings and +pin, and your hair brushed up, so."</p> +<p>Ethelyn liked to look well, even here in Olney, and so the +wrapper was laid aside, the beautiful brown hair was wound in heavy +coils about the back of the head, and brushed back from her white +forehead after a fashion which made her look still younger and more +girlish than she was. A pretty plaid silk, with trimmings of blue, +was chosen for to-day, Eunice going nearly wild over the short +jaunty basque, laced at the sides and the back. Eunice had offered +to stay and assist at her young mistress' toilet, and as Ethelyn +was not unaccustomed to the office of waiting-maid, she accepted +Eunice's offer, finding, to her surprise, that the coarse red +fingers, which that day had washed and starched her linen, were not +unhandy even among the paraphernalia of a Boston lady's toilet.</p> +<p>"You do look beautiful," Eunice said, standing back to admire +Ethelyn, when at last she was dressed. "I have thought Melinda +Jones handsome, but she can't hold a candle to you, nor nobody else +I ever seen, except Miss Judge Miller, in Camden. She do act some +like you, with her gown dragglin' behind her half a yard."</p> +<p>Thus flattered and complimented, Ethelyn shook out her skirts, +which "draggled half a yard behind," and went downstairs to where +Mrs. Jones sat working on Timothy's shirt, and Melinda was +crocheting, while Mrs. Markham, senior, clean and neat, and stiff +in her starched, purple calico, sat putting a patch on a fearfully +large hole in the knee of Andy's pants. As Ethelyn swept into the +room there fell a hush upon the inmates, and Mrs. Jones was almost +guilty of an exclamation of surprise. She had expected something +fine, she said--something different from the Olney quality--but she +was not prepared for anything as grand and queenly as Ethelyn, when +she sailed into the room, with her embroidered handkerchief held so +gracefully in her hands, and in response to Mrs. Markham's +introduction, bowed so very low, and slowly, too, her lips scarcely +moving at all, and her eyes bent on the ground. Mrs. Jones actually +ran the needle she was sewing with under her thumb in her sudden +start, while Melinda's crocheting dropped into her lap. She, too, +was surprised, though not as much as her mother. She, like Eunice, +had seen Mrs. Judge Miller, from New York, whose bridal trousseau +was imported from Paris, and whose wardrobe was the wonder of +Camden. And Ethelyn was very much like her, only younger and +prettier.</p> +<p>"Very pretty," Melinda thought, while Mrs. Jones fell to +comparing her, mentally, with the deceased Abigail; wondering how +Richard, if he had ever loved the one, could have fancied the +other, they were so unlike.</p> +<p>Of course, the mother's heart gave to Abigail the preference for +all that was good and womanly, and worthy of Richard Markham; but +Ethelyn bore off the palm for style, and beauty, too.</p> +<p>"Handsome as a doll, but awfully proud," Mrs. Jones decided, +during the interval in which she squeezed her wounded thumb, and +got the needle again in motion upon Timothy's shirt-sleeve.</p> +<p>Ethelyn was not greatly disappointed in Mrs. Jones and her +daughter; the mother especially was much like what she had imagined +her to be, while Melinda was rather prettier--rather more like the +Chicopee girls than she expected. There was a look on her face like +Susie Granger, and the kindly expression of her black eyes made +Ethelyn excuse her for wearing a magenta bow, while her cheeks were +something the same hue. They were very stiff at first, Mrs. Jones +saying nothing at all, and Melinda only venturing upon common-place +inquiries--as to how Ethelyn bore her journey, if she was ever in +that part of the country before, and how she thought she should +like the West. This last question Ethelyn could not answer +directly.</p> +<p>"It was very different from New England," she said, "but she was +prepared for that, and hoped she should not get very homesick +during the few weeks which would elapse before she went to +Washington."</p> +<p>At this point Mrs. Markham stopped her patching and looked +inquiringly at Ethelyn. It was the first she had heard about +Ethelyn's going to Washington; indeed, she had understood that +Richard's wife was to keep her company during the winter, a +prospect which since Ethelyn's arrival had not looked so pleasing +to her as it did before. How in the world they should get on +together without Richard, she did not know, and if she consulted +merely her own comfort she would have bidden Ethelyn go. But there +were other things to be considered--there was the great expense it +would be for Richard to have his wife with him. Heretofore he had +saved a good share of his salary, but with Ethelyn it would be +money out of his pocket all the time; besides that, there were +reasons why it was not proper for Ethelyn to go; her best place was +at home.</p> +<p>Thus reasoned Mrs. Markham, and when next her needle resumed its +work on Andy's patch, Ethelyn's fate with regard to Washington was +decided, for as thought the mother on that point, so eventually +would think the son, who deferred so much to her judgment. He came +in after a little, looking so well and handsome that Ethelyn felt +proud of him, and had he then laid his hand upon her shoulder, or +put his arm around her waist, as he sometimes did when they were +alone, she would not have shaken it off, as was her usual custom. +Indeed, such is the perversity of human nature, and so many +contradictions are there in it, that Ethelyn rather wished he would +pay her some little attention. She could not forget Abigail, with +Abigail's mother and sister sitting there before her, and she +wanted them to see how fond her husband was of her, hoping thus to +prove how impossible it was that Abigail could ever have been to +him what she was. But Richard was shy in the presence of others, +and would sooner have put his arm around Melinda than around his +wife, for fear he should be thought silly. He was very proud of +her, though, and felt a thrill of satisfaction in seeing how +superior, both in look and manner, she was to Melinda Jones, whose +buxom, healthy face grew almost coarse and homely from comparison +with Ethelyn's.</p> +<p>As Ethelyn's toilet had occupied some time, it was five when she +made her appearance in the parlor, consequently she had not long to +wait ere the announcement of supper broke up the tediousness she +endured from that first call, or visit. The waffles and the +gingerbread were all they had promised to be, and the supper passed +off quietly, with the exception of a mishap of poor, awkward Andy, +who tipped his plate of hot cakes and honey into his lap, and then +in his sudden spring backward, threw a part of the plate's contents +upon Ethelyn's shining silk. This was the direst calamity of all, +and sent poor Andy from the table so heart-broken and disconsolate +that he did not return again, and Eunice found him sitting on the +wood-house steps, wiping away with his coat-sleeve the great tears +which rolled down his womanish face.</p> +<p>"Ethelyn never would like him again," he said, calling himself +"a great blundering fool, who never ought to eat at the same table +with civilized folks."</p> +<p>But when Ethelyn, who heard from Eunice of Andy's distress, went +out to see him, assuring him that but little damage had been done, +that soft water and magnesia would make the dress all right again, +he brightened up, and was ready to hold Mr. Harrington's horse +when, after dark, that gentleman drove over from Olney with his +wife and sister to call on Mrs. Richard. It would almost seem that +Ethelyn held a reception that evening, for more than the +Harringtons knocked at the front door, and were admitted by the +smiling Eunice. It was rather early to call, the Olneyites knew, +but there on the prairie they were not hampered with many of Mrs. +Grundy's rules, and so curious to see the "Boston lady," several of +the young people had agreed together between the Sunday services to +call at Mrs. Markham's the following night. They were well-meaning, +kind-hearted people, and would any one of them gone far out of +their way to serve either Richard or his young wife; but they were +not Eastern bred, and feeling somewhat awed by Ethelyn's cold, +frigid manner, they appeared shy and awkward--all except Will +Parsons, the young M.D. of Olney, who joked, and talked and laughed +so loudly, that even Richard wondered he had never before observed +how noisy Dr. Parsons was, while Andy, who was learning to read +Ethelyn's face, tried once or twice, by pulling the doctor's +coat-skirts and giving him a warning glance, to quiet him down a +little. But the doctor took no hints, and kept on with his fun, +finding a splendid coadjutor in the "terrible Tim Jones," who +himself came over to call on Dick and his woman.</p> +<p>Tim was rigged out in his best, with a bright red cravat tied +around his neck, and instead of his muddy boots with his pants +tucked in the tops, he wore coarse shoes tied with strings and +flirted his yellow silk handkerchief for the entire evening. It was +dreadful to Ethelyn, for she could see nothing agreeable in +Richard's friends; indeed, their presence was scarcely bearable, +and the proud look on her face was so apparent that the guests felt +more or less ill at ease, while Richard was nearer being angry with +Ethelyn than he had ever been. Will Parsons and Tim Jones seemed +exceptions to the rest of the company, especially the latter, who, +if he noticed Ethelyn's evident contempt, was determined to ignore +it, and make himself excessively familiar.</p> +<p>As yet, the open piano had been untouched, no one having the +courage to ask Ethelyn to play; but Tim was fond of music, and +unhesitatingly seating himself upon the stool, thrust one hand in +his pocket, and with the other struck the keys at random, trying to +make out a few bars of "Hail, Columbia!" Then turning to Ethelyn he +said, with a good-humored nod, "Come, old lady, give us something +good."</p> +<p>Ethelyn's eyes flashed fire, while others of the guests looked +their astonishment at Tim, who knew he had done something, but +could not for the life of him tell what.</p> +<p>"Old lady" was a favorite title with him. He called his mother +so, and Melinda, and Eunice Plympton, and Maria Moorehouse, whose +eyes he thought so bright, and whom he always saw home from meeting +on Sunday nights; and so it never occurred to him that this was his +offense. But Melinda knew, and her red cheeks burned scarlet as she +tried to cover her brother's blunder by modestly urging Ethelyn to +favor them with some music.</p> +<p>Of all the Western people whom she had seen, Ethelyn liked +Melinda the best. She had thought her rather familiar, and after +the Olneyites came in and put her more at her ease, she fancied her +a little flippant and forward; but, in all she did or said, there +was so much genuine sincerity and frankness, that Ethelyn could not +dislike her as she had thought she should dislike a sister of +Abigail Jones and the terrible Tim. She had not touched her piano +since her arrival, for fear of the homesickness which its familiar +tones might awaken, and when she saw Tim's big red hands fingering +the keys, in her resentment at the desecration she said to herself +that she never would touch it again; but when in a low aside +Melinda added to her entreaties: "Please, Mrs. Markham, don't mind +Tim--he means well enough, and would not be rude for the world, if +he knew it," she began to give way, and it scarcely needed +Richard's imperative, "Ethelyn," to bring her to her feet. No one +offered to conduct her to the piano--not even Richard, who sat just +where he was; while Tim, in his haste to vacate the music stool, +precipitated it to the floor, and got his leather shoes entangled +in Ethelyn's skirts.</p> +<p>Tim, and Will Parsons, and Andy all hastened to pick up the +stool, knocking their heads together, and raising a laugh in which +Ethelyn could not join. Thoroughly disgusted and sick at heart, she +felt much as the Jewish maidens must have felt when required to +give a song. Her harp was indeed upon the willows hung, and her +heart was turning sadly toward her far-off Jerusalem as she sat +down and tried to think what she should play to suit her audience. +Suddenly it occurred to her to suit herself rather than her +hearers, and her snowy fingers--from which flashed Daisy's diamond +and a superb emerald--swept the keys with a masterly grace and +skill. Ethelyn was perfectly at home at the piano, and dashing off +into a brilliant and difficult overture, she held her hearers for a +few minutes astonished both at her execution and the sounds she +made. To the most of them, however, the sounds were meaningless; +their tastes had not yet been cultivated up to Ethelyn's style. +They wanted something familiar--something they had heard before; +and when the fine performance was ended terrible Tim electrified +her with the characteristic exclamation: "That was mighty fine, no +doubt, for them that understand such; but, now, for land's sake, +give us a tune."</p> +<p>Ethelyn was horror-stricken. She had cast her pearls before +swine; and with a haughty stare at the offending Timothy, she left +the stool, and walking back to her former seat, said:</p> +<p>"I leave the tunes to your sister, who, I believe, plays +sometimes."</p> +<p>Somewhat crestfallen, but by no means browbeaten, Tim insisted +that Melinda should give them a jig; and, so, crimsoning with shame +and confusion, Melinda took the vacant stool and played her brother +a tune--a rollicking, galloping tune, which everybody knew, and +which set the feet to keeping time, and finally brought Tim and +Andy to the floor for a dance. But Melinda declined playing for a +cotillion which her brother proposed, and so the dancing +arrangement came to naught, greatly to the delight of Ethelyn, who +could only keep back her tears by looking up at the sweet face of +Daisy smiling down upon her from the wall. That was the only +redeeming point in that whole assembly, she thought. She would not +even except Richard then, so intense was her disappointment and so +bitter her regret for the mistake she made when she promised to go +where her heart could never be.</p> +<p>It was nine o'clock when the company dispersed. Each of the +ladies cordially invited Ethelyn to call as soon as convenient, and +Mrs. Harrington, a lady of some cultivation, whose husband was the +village merchant, saying encouragingly to her, as she held her hand +a moment, "Our Western manners seem strange to you, I dare say; but +we are a well-meaning people, and you will get accustomed to us by +and by."</p> +<p>She never should--no, never, thought Ethelyn, as she went up to +her room, tired and homesick, and disheartened with this, her first +introduction to the Olney people. It was a very cross wife that +slept at Richard's side that night, and the opinion expressed of +the Olneyites was anything but complimentary to the taste of one +who had known them all his life and liked them so well. But Richard +was getting accustomed to such things. Lectures did not move him +now as they had at first, and overcome with fatigue from his day's +work and the evening's excitement, he fell asleep, while Ethelyn +was enlarging upon the merits of the terrible Tim, who had +addressed her as "old lady" and asked her to "play a tune."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<h3>SOCIETY</h3> +<br> +<p>In the course of two weeks all the people in Olney called upon +Ethelyn, who would gladly have refused herself to them all. But +after the morning when Andy stood outside the door of her room, +wringing his hands in great distress at the tone of Richard's +voice, and Ethelyn stayed in bed all day with the headache, and was +nursed by Eunice and Melinda, Ethelyn did better, and was at least +polite to those who called. She had said she would not see them, +and Richard had said she should; and as he usually made people do +as he liked, Ethelyn was forced to submit, but cried herself sick. +It was very desolate and lonely upstairs that day, for Richard was +busy in town, and the wind swept against the windows with a +mournful, moaning sound, which made Ethelyn think of dear old +Chicopee, and the lofty elms through whose swaying branches the +same October wind was probably sighing on this autumnal day. But, +oh! how vast the difference, she thought; for what would have been +music if heard at home among the New England hills, was agony here +upon the Western prairie.</p> +<p>Ethelyn was very wretched and hailed with delight the presence +of Melinda Jones, who came in the afternoon, bringing a basket of +delicious apples and a lemon tart she had made herself. Melinda was +very sorry for Ethelyn, and her face said as much as she stood by +her side and laid her hand softly upon the throbbing temples, +pitying her so much, for she guessed just how homesick she was +there with Mrs. Markham, whose ways had never seemed so peculiar, +even to her, as since Ethelyn's arrival. "And still," she thought, +"I do not see how she can be so very unhappy, in any circumstances, +with a husband like Richard." But here Melinda made a mistake; for +though Ethelyn respected her husband, and had learned to miss him +when he was gone, and the day whose close was not to bring him back +would have been very long, she did not love him as a husband should +be loved; and so there was nothing to fall back upon when other +props gave way.</p> +<p>Wholly unsuspicious, Melinda sat down beside her, offering to +brush her hair, and while she brushed and combed, and braided, and +admired the glossy brown locks, she talked on the subject she +thought most acceptable to the young wife's ear--of Richard, and +the great popularity he had achieved, not only in his own county, +but in neighboring ones, where he stood head and shoulders above +his fellows. There was talk once of making him governor, she said, +but some thought him too young. Lately, however, she had heard that +the subject was again agitated, adding that her father and Tim both +thought it more than probable that the next election would take him +to the gubernatorial mansion.</p> +<p>"Tim would work like a hero for Richard," she said. "He almost +idolizes him, and when he was up for Judge Tim's exertions alone +procured for him a hundred extra votes. Tim is a rough, half-savage +fellow, but he has the kindest of hearts, and is very popular with +a certain class of men who could not be reached by one more +polished and cultivated."</p> +<p>So much Melinda said, by way of excusing Tim's vulgarities; and +then, with the utmost tact, she led the conversation back to +Richard and the governorship, hinting that Ethelyn could do much +toward securing that office for her husband. A little attention, +which cost nothing, would go a great ways, she said; and it was +sometimes worth one's while to make an effort, even if they did not +feel like it. More than one rumor had reached Melinda's ear +touching the pride of Dick Markham's wife--a pride which the Olney +people felt keenly, and it the more keenly knowing that they had +helped to give her husband a name; they had made him Judge, and +sent him to Congress, and would like to make him governor, knowing +well that that no office, however high, would change him from the +plain, unpretending man, who, even in the Senate Chamber, would +shake drunken Ike Plympton's hand, and slap Tim Jones on the back +if need be. They liked their Dick, who had been a boy among them, +and they thought it only fair that his wife should unbend a little, +and not freeze them so with her lofty ways.</p> +<p>"She'll kick the whole thing over if she goes on so," Tim had +said to his father, in Melinda's hearing, and so, like a true +friend to Richard, Melinda determined to try and prevent the proud +little feet from doing so much mischief.</p> +<p>Nor was she unsuccessful. Ethelyn saw the drift of the +conversation, and though for an instant her cheek crimsoned with +resentment that she should be talked at by Melinda Jones, she was +the better for the talking, and the Olney people, when next they +come in contact with her, changed their minds with regard to her +being so very proud. She was homesick at first, and that was the +cause of her coldness, they said, excusing her in their kind +hearts, and admiring her as something far superior to themselves. +Even Tim Jones got now and then a pleasant word, for Ethelyn had +not forgotten the hundred extra votes. She would have repelled the +insinuation that she was courting favor or that hopes of the future +governorship for Richard had anything to do with her changed +demeanor. She despised such things in others; but Ethelyn was +human, and it is just possible that had there been nothing in +expectancy she would not have submitted with so good a grace to the +familiarities with which she so constantly came in contact. At home +she was cold and proud as ever, for between her mother-in-law and +herself there was no affinity, and they kept as far apart as +possible, Ethelyn staying mostly in her room, and Mrs. Markham, +senior, staying in the kitchen, where Eunice Plympton still +remained.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham had fully expected that Eunice would go home within +a few days after Ethelyn's arrival; but when the days passed on, +Ethelyn showed no inclination for a nearer acquaintance with the +kitchen--"never even offering to wipe the teacups on washing days," +as Mrs. Markham complained to James, and John, and Andy--the good +woman began to manifest some anxiety on the subject, and finally +went to Richard to know if "he expected to keep a hired girl all +winter or was Ethelyn going to do some light chores."</p> +<p>Richard really did not know; but after a visit to his room, +where Ethie sat reading in her handsome crimson wrapper, with the +velvet trimmings, he decided that she could "not do chores," and +Eunice must remain. It was on this occasion that Washington was +broached, Mrs. Markham repeating what she heard Ethelyn saying to +Melinda, and asking Richard if he contemplated such a piece of +extravagance as taking his wife to Washington would be. In +Richard's estimation there were other and weightier reasons why +Ethelyn should remain quietly at home that winter. He did not +especially mind the expense she might be to him, and he owned to a +weak desire to see her queen it over all the reigning belles, as he +was certain she would. Unbiased by his mother, and urged by +Ethelyn, he would probably have yielded in her favor; but the +mother was first in the field, and so she won the day, and Ethie's +disappointment was a settled thing. But Ethie did not know it, as +Richard wisely refrained from being the first to speak of the +matter. That she was going to Washington Ethelyn had no doubt, and +this made her intercourse with the Olneyites far more endurable. +Some of them she found pleasant, cultivated people--especially Mr. +Townsend, the clergyman, who, after the Sunday on which she +appeared at the Village Hall in her blue silk and elegant basquine, +came to see her, and seemed so much like an old friend when she +found that he had met at Clifton, in New York, some of her +acquaintances. It was easy to be polite to him, and to the people +from Camden, who hearing much of Judge Markham's pretty bride, came +to call upon her--Judge Miller and his wife, with Marcia Fenton and +Miss Ella Backus, both belles and blondes, and both some-bodies, +according to Ethelyn's definition of that word. She liked these +people, and Richard found no trouble in getting her to return their +calls. She would gladly have stayed in Camden altogether, and once +laughingly pointed out to Richard a large, vacant lot, adjoining +Mr. Fenton's, where she would like to have her new house built.</p> +<p>There was a decided improvement in Ethelyn; nor did her old +perversity of temper manifest itself very strongly until one +morning, three weeks after her arrival in Olney, when Richard +suggested to her the propriety of his mother's giving them a party, +or infair, as he called it. The people expected it, he said; they +would be disappointed without it, and, indeed, he felt it was +something he owed them for all their kindness to him. Then Ethelyn +rebelled--stoutly, stubbornly rebelled--but Richard carried the +point, and two days after the farmhouse was in a state of dire +confusion, wholly unlike the quiet which reigned there usually. +Melinda Jones was there all the time, while Mrs. Jones was back and +forth, and a few of the Olney ladies dropped in with suggestions +and offers of assistance. It was to be a grand affair--so far, at +least, as numbers were concerned--for everybody was invited, from +Mr. Townsend and the other clergy, down to Cecy Doane, who did +dressmaking and tailoring from house to house. The Markhams were +very democratic in their feelings, and it showed itself in the +guests bidden to the party. They were invited from Camden as +well--Mr. and Mrs. Miller, with Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus; and +after the two young ladies had come over to ascertain how large an +affair it was to be, so as to know what to wear, Ethelyn began to +take some little interest in it herself and to give the benefit of +her own experience in such matters. But having a party in Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren's handsome house, where the servants were all so well +trained, and everything necessary was so easy of access, or even +having a party at Aunt Barbara's, was a very different thing from +having one here under the supervision of Mrs. Markham, whose ideas +were so many years back, and who objected to nearly everything +which Ethelyn suggested. But by dint of perseverance on Melinda's +part her scruples were finally overcome; so that when the night of +the party arrived the house presented a very respectable +appearance, with its lamps of kerosene, and the sperm candles +flaming on the mantels in the parlor, and the tallow candles +smoking in the kitchen.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham's bed had been removed from the sitting room, and +the carpet taken from the floor, for they were going to dance, and +Eunice's mother had been working hard all day to keep her liege +lord away from the Cross Roads tavern so that he might be +presentable at night, and capable of performing his part, together +with his eldest son, who played the flute. She was out in the +kitchen now, very large and important with the office of head +waiter, her hoops in everybody's way, and her face radiant with +satisfaction, as she talked to Mrs. Markham about what we better +do. The table was laid in the kitchen and loaded with all the +substantials, besides many delicacies which Melinda and Ethelyn had +concocted; for the latter had even put her hands to the work, and +manufactured two large dishes of Charlotte Russe, with pretty molds +of blanc-mange, which Eunice persisted in calling "corn-starch +puddin', with the yallers of eggs left out," There were trifles, +and tarts, and jellies, and sweetmeats, with raised biscuits by the +hundred, and loaves on loaves of frosted cake; while out in the +woodshed, wedged in a tub of ice, was a huge tin pail, over which +James, and John, and Andy, and even Richard had sat, by turns, +stirring the freezing mass. Mrs. Jones' little colored boy, who +knew better how to wait on company than any person there, came over +in his clean jacket, and out on the doorstep was eating chestnuts +and whistling Dixie, as he looked down the road to see if anybody +was coming. Melinda Jones had gone home to dress, feeling more like +going to bed than making merry at a party, as she looped up her +black braids of hair and donned her white muslin dress with the +scarlet ribbons. Melinda was very tired, for a good share of the +work had fallen upon her--or rather she had assumed it--and her +cheeks and hands were redder than usual when, about seven o'clock, +Tim drove her over to Mrs. Markham's, and then went to the village +after the dozen or more of girls whom he had promised "to see to +the doin's."</p> +<p>But Melinda looked very pretty--at least James Markham thought +so--when she stood up on tiptoe to tie his cravat in a +better-looking bow than he had done. Since the night when Richard +first told her of Ethelyn, it had more than once occurred to +Melinda that possibly she might yet bear the name of Markham, for +her woman nature was quick to see that James, at least, paid her +the homage which Richard had withheld. But Melinda's mind was not +yet made up, and as she was too honest to encourage hopes which +might never be fulfilled, she would not even look up into the +handsome eyes resting so admiringly upon her as she tied the bow of +the cravat and felt James' breath upon her burning cheeks. She did, +however, promise to dance the first set with him, and then she ran +upstairs to see if Ethelyn needed her. But Eunice had been before +her, and Ethelyn's toilet was made.</p> +<p>Had this party been at Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's, in Boston, Ethelyn +would have worn her beautiful white satin with the fleecy lace; but +here it would be out of place, she thought, and so she left it +pinned up in towels at the bottom of her trunk, and chose a +delicate lavender, trimmed with white appliqué. Lavender was +not the most becoming color Ethelyn could wear, but she looked very +handsome in it, with the soft pearls upon her neck and arms. +Richard thought her dress too low, while modest Andy averted his +eyes, lest he should do wrong in looking upon the beautiful round +neck and shoulders which so greatly shocked his mother. "It was +ridiculous and disgraceful for respectable wimmen folks to dress +like that," she said to Melinda Jones, who spoke up for Ethelyn, +saying the dress was like that of all fashionable ladies, and in +fact was not as low as Mrs. Judge Miller wore to a reception when +Melinda was at school in Camden.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham "did not care for Miss Miller, nor forty more like +her. Ethelyn looked ridickerlous, showing her shoulderblades, with +that sharp point running down her back, and her skirts moppin' the +floor for half a yard behind."</p> +<p>Any superfluity of length in Ethelyn's skirts was more than +counterbalanced by Mrs. Markham's, who this night wore the heavy +black silk which her sister-in-law had matched in Boston ten years +before. Of course it was too narrow and too short, and too flat in +front, Andy said, admiring Ethelyn far more than he did his mother, +even though the latter wore the coiffure which Aunt Barbara had +sent her, and a big collar made from the thread lace which Mrs. +Captain Markham, of Chicopee, had also matched in Boston. Ethelyn +was perfect, Andy thought, and he hovered constantly near her, +noticing how she carried her hands, and her handkerchief, and her +fan, and thinking Richard must be perfectly happy in the possession +of such a gem.</p> +<p>But Richard was not happy--at least not that night--for, with +Mrs. Miller, and Marcia Fenton, and Ella Backus before her mind, +Ethelyn had lectured him again on etiquette, and Richard did not +bear lecturing here as well as at Saratoga. There it was +comparatively easy to make him believe he did not know anything +which he ought to know; but at home, where the old meed of praise +and deference was awarded to him, where his word was law and +gospel, and he was Judge Markham, the potentate of the town, +Ethelyn's criticisms were not palatable, and he hinted that he was +old enough to take care of himself without quite so much dictation. +Then, when he saw a tear on Ethelyn's eyelashes, he would have put +his arm around her and kissed it away, if she had not kept him +back, telling him he would muss her dress. Still he was not +insensible to her pretty looks, and felt very proud of her, as she +stood at his side and shook the hands of the arriving guests.</p> +<p>By eight o'clock the Olneyites had assembled in full force; but +it was not until the train came in and brought the élite +from Camden that the party was fairly commenced. There was a hush +when the three ladies with veils on their heads went up the stairs, +and a greater hush when they came down again--Mrs. Judge Miller, +splendid in green moire-antique, with diamonds in her ears, while +Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus figured in white tarletan, one with +trimmings of blue, the other with trimmings of pink, and both with +waists so much lower than Ethelyn's that Mrs. Markham thought the +latter very decent by comparison.</p> +<p>It took the ladies a few minutes to inspect the cut of Mrs. +Miller's dress, and the style of hair worn by Marcia and Ella, +whose heads had been under a hairdresser's hands, and were +curiosities to some of the Olneyites. But all stiffness vanished +with the sound of Jerry Plympton's fiddle, and the girls on the +west side of the room began to look at the boys on the opposite +side, who were straightening their collars and glancing at their +"pumps."</p> +<p>Ethelyn did not intend to dance, but when Judge Miller politely +offered to lead her to the floor, saying, as he guessed her +thoughts, "Remember the old adage, 'among the Romans, and so +forth,'" she involuntarily assented, and even found herself leading +the first cotillion to the sound of Jerry Plympton's fiddle. Mrs. +Miller was dancing, too, as were both Marcia and Ella, and that in +a measure reconciled her to what she was doing. They knew something +of the lancers there on the prairie, and terrible Tim Jones offered +to call off "if Miss Markham would dance with him and kind of keep +him goin' straight."</p> +<p>Tim had laid a wager with a companion as rough as himself, that +he would dance with the proud beauty, and this was the way he took +to win the bet. The ruse succeeded, too, Richard's eyes and +low-toned "Ethelyn!" availing more than aught else to drive Ethelyn +to the floor with the dreadful Tim, who interlarded his directions +with little asides of his own, such as "Go it, Jim," "Cut her down +there, Tom," "Hurry up your cakes."</p> +<p>Ethelyn could have screamed out with disgust, and the moment the +set was over she said to Richard, "I shall not dance again +to-night."</p> +<p>And she kept her word, until toward the close of the party when +poor Andy, who had been so unfortunate as to find everybody engaged +or too tired, came up to her as she was playing an accompaniment to +Jerry's "Money-musk," and with a most doleful expression, said to +her, timidly:</p> +<p>"Please, sister Ethie, dance just once with me; none of the +girls wants to, and I hain't been in a figger to-night."</p> +<p>Ethelyn could not resist Andy, whose face was perfectly radiant +as he led her to the floor, and bumped his head against hers in +bowing to her. Eunice was in the same set--her partner the terrible +Tim--who cracked jokes and threw his feet about in the most +astounding fashion. And Ethelyn bore it all, feeling that by being +there with such people she had fallen from the pedestal on which +Ethelyn Grant once stood. Her lavender dress was stepped upon, and +her point appliqué caught and torn by the big pin Andy had +upon his coat cuff. Taken as a whole, that party was the most +dreadful of anything Ethelyn had endured and she could have cried +for joy when the last guest had said good-night, and she was at +liberty to lay her aching head upon her pillow.</p> +<p>Four days after there was a large and fashionable party at Mrs. +Judge Miller's, in Camden, and Ethelyn went over in the cars, +taking Eunice with her as dressing-maid, and stopping at the +Stafford House. That night she wore her bridal robes, receiving so +much attention that her head was nearly turned with flattery. She +could dance with the young men of Camden, and flirt with them, +too--especially with Harry Clifford, who, she found, had been in +college with Frank Van Buren. Harry Clifford was a fast young man, +but pleasant to talk with for a while and Ethelyn found him very +agreeable, saving that his mention of Frank made her heart throb +unpleasantly; for she fancied he might know something of that page +of her past life which she had concealed from Richard. Nor were her +fears without foundation, for once when they were standing together +near her husband, Harry said:</p> +<p>"It seems so strange that you are the Ethie about whom Frank +used to talk so much, and a lock of whose hair he kept so sacred. I +remember I tried to buy a part of it from him, but could not +succeed until once, when his funds from home failed to come, and he +was so hard up, as we used to say, that he actually sold, or rather +pawned, half of the shining tress for the sum of five dollars. As +the pawn was never redeemed, I have the hair now, but never +expected to meet with its fair owner, who needs not to be told that +the tress is tenfold more valuable since I have met her, and know +her to be the wife of our esteemed Member," and young Clifford +bowed toward Richard, whose face wore a perplexed, dissatisfied +expression.</p> +<p>He did not fancy Harry Clifford much, and he certainly did not +care to hear that he had in his possession a lock of Ethelyn's +hair, while the allusions to Frank Van Buren were anything but +agreeable to him. Neither did he like Ethelyn's painful blushes, +and her evident desire for Harry to stop. It looked as if the hair +business meant more than he would like to suppose. Naturally bright +and quick, young Clifford detected Richard's thoughts, and directly +began to wonder if there were not something somewhere which Judge +Markham did not understand.</p> +<p>"I mean to find out," he thought, and watching an opportunity, +when Ethelyn was comparatively alone, he crossed to her side and +said in a low tone, "Excuse me, Mrs. Markham. If in my illusions to +Frank Van Buren I touched a subject which has never been discussed +between yourself and your husband, I meant no harm, I assure +you."</p> +<p>Instead of rebuking the impertinent young man, Ethelyn turned +very red, and stammered out something about its being of no +consequence; and so Harry Clifford held the secret which she had +kept so carefully from Richard, and that party in Camden was made +the stepping-stone to much of the wretchedness that afterward came +to our heroine.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<h3>GOING TO WASHINGTON</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard's trunk was ready for Washington. His twelve shirts, +which Eunice had ironed so nicely, were packed away with his +collars and new yarn socks, and his wedding suit, which he was +carrying as a mere matter of form, for he knew he should not need +it during his three months' absence. He should not go into society, +he thought, or even attend levees, with his heart as sore and heavy +as it was on this, his last day at home. Ethelyn was not going with +him. She knew it now, and never did the face of a six-months wife +look harder or stonier than hers as she stayed all day in her room, +paying no heed whatever to Richard, and leaving entirely to Eunice +and her mother-in-law those little things which most wives would +have been delighted to do for their husbands' comfort. Ethelyn was +very unhappy, very angry, and very bitterly disappointed. The fact +that she was not going to Washington had fallen upon her like a +thunderbolt, paralyzing her, as it were, so that after the first +great shock was over she seemed like some benumbed creature bereft +of care, or feeling, or interest in anything.</p> +<p>She had remained in Camden the most of the day following Mrs. +Judge Miller's party, and had done a little shopping with Marcia +Fenton and Ella Backus, to whom she spoke of her winter in +Washington as a matter of course, saying what she had to say in +Richard's presence, and never dreaming that he was only waiting for +a fitting opportunity to demolish her castles entirely. Perhaps if +Ethelyn had talked Washington openly to her husband when she was +first married, and before his mother had gained his ear, her +chances for a winter at the capital would have been far greater +than they were now. But she had only taken it for granted that she +was going, and supposed that Richard understood it just as she did. +She had asked him several times where he intended to board and why +he did not secure rooms at Willard's, but Richard's non-committal +replies had given her no cue to her impending fate. On the night of +her return from Camden, as she stood by her dressing bureau, +folding away her point-lace handkerchief, she had casually +remarked, "I shall not use that again till I use it in Washington. +Will it be very gay there this winter?"</p> +<p>Richard was leaning his elbow upon the mantel, looking +thoughtfully into the fire, and for a moment he did not answer. He +hated to demolish Ethie's castles, but it could not be helped. Once +it had seemed very possible that she would go with him to +Washington, but that was before his mother had talked to him upon +the subject. Since then the fiat had gone forth, and thinking this +the time to declare it, Richard said at last, "Put down your +finery, Ethelyn, and come stand by me while I say something to +you."</p> +<p>His voice and manner startled Ethelyn, but did not prepare her +for what followed after she had "dropped her finery" and was +standing by her husband.</p> +<p>"Ethelyn," he began, and his eyes did not move from the blazing +fire, "it is time we came to an understanding about Washington. I +have talked with mother, whose age certainly entitles her opinion +to some consideration, and she thinks that for you to go to +Washington this winter would not only be improper, but also +endanger your life; consequently, I hope you will readily see the +propriety of remaining quietly at home where mother can care for +you, and see that you are not at all imprudent. It would break my +heart if anything happened to my darling wife, or--" he finished +the sentence in a whisper, for he was not yet accustomed to +speaking of the great hope he had in expectancy.</p> +<p>He was looking at Ethelyn now, and the expression of her face +startled and terrified him, it was so strange and terrible.</p> +<p>"Not go to Washington!" and her livid lips quivered with +passion, while her eyes burned like coals of fire. "I stay here all +this long, dreary winter with your mother! Never, Richard, never! +I'll die before I'll do that. It is all--" she did not finish the +sentence, for she would not say, "It is all I married you for"; she +was too much afraid of Richard for that, and so she hesitated, but +looked at him intently to see if he was in earnest.</p> +<p>She knew he was at last--knew that neither tears, nor +reproaches, nor bitter scorn could avail to carry her point, for +she tried them all, even to violent hysterics, which brought Mrs. +Markham, senior, into the field and made the matter ten times +worse. Had she stayed away Richard might have yielded, for he was +frightened at the storm he had invoked; but Richard was passive in +his mother's hands, and listened complacently while in stronger, +plainer language than he had used she repeated in substance all he +had said about the impropriety of Ethelyn's mingling with the gay +throng at Washington. Immodesty, Mrs. Markham called it, with +sundry reflections upon the time when she was young, and what young +married women did then. And while she talked poor Ethelyn lay upon +the lounge writhing with pain and passion, wishing that she could +die, and feeling in her heart that she hated the entire Markham +race, from Richard down to the innocent Andy, who heard of the +quarrel going on between his mother and Ethelyn, and crept +cautiously to the door of their room, wishing so much that he could +mediate between them.</p> +<p>But this was a matter beyond Andy's ken. He could not even find +a petition in his prayer-book suited to that occasion. Mr. Townsend +had assured him that it would meet every emergency; but for once +Mr. Townsend was at fault, for with the sound of Ethelyn's angry +voice ringing in his ears, Andy lighted his tallow candle and +creeping up to his chamber knelt down by his wooden chair and +sought among the general prayers for one suited "to a man and his +wife quarreling." There was a prayer for the President, a prayer +for the clergy, a prayer for Congress, a prayer for rain, a prayer +for the sick, a prayer for people going to sea and people going to +be hanged, but there was nothing for the point at issue, unless he +took the prayer to be used in time of war and tumults, and that he +thought would never answer, inasmuch as he did not really know who +was the enemy from which he would be delivered. It was hard to +decide against Ethelyn and still harder to decide against "Dick," +and so with his brains all in a muddle Andy concluded to take the +prayer "for all sorts and conditions of men," speaking very low and +earnestly when he asked that all "who were distressed in mind, +body, or estate, might be comforted and relieved according to their +several necessities." This surely covered the ground to a very +considerable extent; or if it did not, the fervent "Good Lord, +deliver us," with which Andy finished his devotions, did, and the +simple-hearted, trusting man arose from his knees comforted and +relieved, even if Richard and Ethelyn were not.</p> +<p>With them the trouble continued, for Ethelyn kept her bed next +day, refusing to see anyone and only answering Richard in +monosyllables when he addressed himself directly to her. Once he +bent over her and said, "Ethelyn, tell me truly--is it your desire +to be with me, your dread of separation from me, which makes you so +averse to be left behind?"</p> +<p>There was that in his voice which said that if this were the +case he might be induced to reconsider. But though sorely tempted +to do it, Ethelyn would not tell a falsehood for the sake of +Washington; so she made no reply, and Richard drew from her silence +any inference he pleased. He was very wretched those last days, for +he could not forget the look of Ethelyn's eye or the sound of her +voice when, as she finally gave up the contest, she said to him +with quivering nostrils and steady tones, "You may leave me here, +Richard, but remember this: not one word or line will I write to +you while you are gone. I mean what I say. I shall abide by my +decision."</p> +<p>It would be dreadful not to hear a word from Ethie during all +the dreary winter, and Richard hoped she would recall her words; +but Ethelyn was too sorely wounded to do that. She must reach +Richard somehow, and this was the way to do it. She did not come +downstairs again after it was settled. She was sick, she said, and +kept her room, seeing no one but Richard and Eunice, who three +times a day brought up her nicely cooked meals and looked curiously +at her as she deposited her tray upon the stand and quietly left +the room. Mrs. Markham did not go up at all, for Ethelyn charged +her disappointment directly to her mother-in-law, and had asked +that she be kept away; and so, 'mid passion and tears and +bitterness, the week went by and brought the day when Richard was +to leave.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<h3>THE FIRST DAY OF RICHARD'S ABSENCE</h3> +<br> +<p>The gray light of a November morning was breaking over the +prairies when Richard stooped down to kiss his wife, who did not +think it worth her while to rise so early even to see him off. She +felt that she had been unjustly dealt with, and up to the very last +maintained the same cold, icy manner so painful to Richard, who +would fain have won from her one smile to cheer him in his absence. +But the smile was not given, though the lips which Richard touched +did move a little, and he tried to believe it was a kiss they meant +to give. Only the day before Ethie had heard from Aunt Van Buren +that Frank was to be married at Christmas, when they would all go +on to Washington, where they confidently expected to meet Ethelyn. +With a kind of grim satisfaction Ethelyn showed this to her +husband, hoping to awaken in him some remorse for his cruelty to +her, if, indeed, he was capable of remorse, which she doubted. She +did not know him, for if possible he suffered more than she did, +though in a different way. It hurt him to leave her there alone +feeling as she did. He hated to go without her, carrying only in +his mind the memory of the white, rigid face which had not smiled +on him for so long. He wanted her to seem interested in something, +for her cold apathy of manner puzzled and alarmed him; so +remembering her aunt's letter on the morning of his departure, he +spoke of it to her and said, "What shall I tell Mrs. Van Buren for +you? I shall probably see more or less of them."</p> +<p>"Tell nothing; prisoners send no messages," was Ethelyn's reply; +and in the dim gray of the morning the two faces looked a moment at +each other with such thoughts and passions written upon them as +were pitiable to behold.</p> +<p>But when Richard was fairly gone, when the tones of his voice +bidding his family good-by had ceased, and Ethelyn sat leaning on +her elbow and listening to the sound of the wheels which carried +him away, such a feeling of utter desolation and loneliness swept +over her that, burying her face in the pillows, she wept bitterer +tears of remorse and regret than she had ever wept before.</p> +<p>That day was a long and dreary one to all the members of the +prairie farmhouse. It was lonely there the first day of Richard's +absence, but now it was drearier than ever; and with a harsh, +forbidding look upon her face, Mrs. Markham went about her work, +leaving Ethelyn entirely alone. She did not believe her +daughter-in-law was any sicker than herself. "It was only airs," +she thought, when at noon Ethelyn declined the boiled beef and +cabbage, saying just the odor of it made her sick. "Nothing but +airs and ugliness," she persisted in saying to herself, as she +prepared a slice of nice cream toast with a soft-boiled egg and cup +of fragrant black tea. Ethie did not refuse this, and was even +gracious enough to thank her mother-in-law for her extra trouble, +but she did it in such a queenly as well as injured kind of way, +that Mrs. Markham felt more aggrieved than ever, and, for a good +woman, who sometimes spoke in meeting, slammed the door +considerably hard as she left the room and went back to her +kitchen, where the table had been laid ever since Ethelyn took to +eating upstairs. So long as she ate with the family Mrs. Markham +felt rather obliged to take her meals in the front room, but it +made a deal more work, and she was glad to return to her olden ways +once more. Eunice was gone off on an errand, and so she felt at +liberty to speak her mind freely to her boys as they gathered +around the table.</p> +<p>"It is sheer ugliness," she said, "which keeps her cooped up +there to be waited on. She is no more sick than the dog; but law, I +couldn't make Richard b'lieve it."</p> +<p>"Mother, you surely did not go to Richard with complaints of his +wife," and James looked reproachfully across the table at his +mother, who replied: "I told him what I thought, for I wa'n't going +to have him miserable all the time thinking how sick she was, but I +might as well have talked to the wind, for any good it did. He even +seemed putcherky, too."</p> +<p>"I should be more than putcherky if you were to talk to me +against my wife if I had one," James retorted, thinking of Melinda +and the way she sang that solo in the choir the day before.</p> +<p>It was a little strange that James and John and Andy all took +Ethelyn's part against their mother, and even against Richard, who +they thought might have taken her with him.</p> +<p>"It would not have hurt her any more than fretting herself to +death at home. No, nor half so much; and she must feel like a cat +in a strange garret there alone with them."</p> +<p>It was John who said this--quiet John, who talked so little, and +annoyed Ethelyn so much by coming to the table in his blue frock, +with his pants tucked in his boots and his curly hair standing +every way. Though very much afraid of his grand sister-in-law, he +admired her beyond everything, and kept the slippers she brought +him safely put away with a lock of Daisy's hair and a letter +written him by the young girl whose grave was close beside Daisy's +in the Olney cemetery. John had had his romance and buried it with +his heroine, since which time he had said but little to womankind, +though never was there a truer heart than that which beat beneath +the homespun frock Ethelyn so despised. Richard had bidden him to +be kind to Ethie, and John had said he would; and after that +promise was given had the farmhouse been on fire the sturdy fellow +would have periled life and limb to save her for Dick. To James, +too, Richard had spoken a word for Ethie, and to Andy also; so that +there were left to her four champions in his absence--for Eunice +had had her charge, with promises of a new dress if faithful to her +trust; and thus there was no one against poor Ethelyn saving the +mother-in-law, who made that first dinner after Richard's absence +so uncomfortable that John left the table without touching the +boiled Indian pudding, of which he was so fond, while James rather +curtly asked what there was to be gained by spitting out so about +Ethelyn, and Andy listened in silence, thinking how, by and by, +when all the chores were done, he would take a basket of kindlings +up for Ethie's fire, and if she asked him to sit down, he would do +so and try and come to the root of the matter, and see if he could +not do something to make things a little better.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<h3>ANDY TRIES TO FIND THE ROOT OF THE MATTER</h3> +<br> +<p>Ethelyn was very sick with a nervous headache, and so Andy did +not go in with his kindlings that night, but put the basket near +the door, where Eunice would find it in the morning. It was a part +of Richard's bargain with Eunice that Ethie should always have a +bright, warm fire to dress by, and the first thing Ethelyn heard as +she unclosed her eyes was the sound of Eunice blowing the coals and +kindlings into a blaze as she knelt upon the hearth, with her +cheeks and eyes extended to their utmost capacity. It was a very +dreary awakening, and Ethelyn sighed as she looked from her window +out upon the far-stretching prairie, where the first snows of the +season were falling. There were but few objects to break up the +monotonous level, and the mottled November sky frowned gloomily and +coldly down upon her. Down in the back-yard James and John were +feeding the cattle; the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the +cows came to her ear as she turned with a shiver from the window. +How could she stay there all that long, dreary winter--there where +there was not an individual who had a thought or taste in common +with her own? She could not stay, she decided, and then as the +question arose, "Where will you go?" the utter hopelessness and +helplessness of her position rushed over her with so much force +that she sank down upon the lounge which Eunice had drawn to the +fire, and when the latter came up with breakfast she found her +young mistress crying in a heart-broken, despairing kind of way, +which touched her heart at once.</p> +<p>Eunice knew but little of the trouble with regard to Washington. +Mrs. Markham had been discreet enough to keep that from her; and so +she naturally ascribed Ethie's tears to grief at parting with her +husband, and tried in her homely way to comfort her. Three months +were not very long; and they would pass 'most before you thought, +she said, adding that she heard Jim say the night before that as +soon as he got his gray colts broken he was going to take his +sister all over the country and cheer her up a little.</p> +<p>Ethie's heart was too full to permit her to reply, and Eunice +soon left her alone, reporting downstairs how white and sick she +was looking. To Mrs. Markham's credit we record that with a view to +please her daughter-in-law, a fire was that afternoon made in the +parlor, and Ethelyn solicited to come down, Mrs. Markham, who +carried the invitation, urging that a change would do her good, as +it was not always good to stay in one place. But Ethelyn preferred +the solitude of her own chamber, and though she thanked her +mother-in-law for her thoughtfulness, she declined going down, and +Mrs. Markham had made her fire for nothing. Not even Melinda came +to enjoy it, for she was in Camden, visiting a schoolmate; and so +the day passed drearily enough with all, and the autumnal night +shut down again darker, gloomier than ever, as it seemed to +Ethelyn. She had seen no one but Mrs. Markham and Eunice since +Richard went away, and she was wondering what had become of Andy, +when she heard his shuffling tread upon the stairs, and a moment +after, his round shining face appeared, asking if he might come in. +Andy wore his best clothes on this occasion, for an idea had +somehow been lodged in his brain that Ethelyn liked a person well +dressed, and he was much pleased with himself in his short coat and +shorter pants, and the buff and white cotton cravat tied in a hard +knot around his sharp, standing collar, which almost cut the bottom +of his ears.</p> +<p>"I wished to see you," he said, taking a chair directly in front +of Ethelyn and tipping back against the wall. "I wanted to come +before, but was afraid you didn't care to have me. I've got +something for you now, though--somethin' good for sore eyes. Guess +what 'tis?"</p> +<p>And Andy began fumbling in his pocket for the something which +was to cheer Ethelyn, as he hoped.</p> +<p>"Look a-here. A letter from old Dick, writ the very first day. +That's what I call real courtin' like," and Andy gave to Ethelyn +the letter which John had brought from the office and which the +detention of a train at Stafford for four hours had afforded +Richard an opportunity to write.</p> +<p>It was only a few lines, meant for her alone, but Ethelyn's +cheek didn't redden as she read them, or her eyes brighten one +whit. Richard was well, she said, explaining to Andy the reason for +his writing, and then she put the letter away, while Andy sat +looking at her, wondering what he should say next. He had come up +to comfort her, but found it hard to begin. Ethie was looking very +pale, and there were dark rings around her eyes, showing that she +suffered, even if Mrs. Markham did assert there was nothing ailed +her but spleen.</p> +<p>At last Andy blurted out: "I am sorry for you, Ethelyn, for I +know it must be bad to have your man go off and leave you all +alone, when you wanted to go with him. Jim and John and me talked +it up to-day when we was out to work, and we think you orto have +gone with Dick. It must be lonesome staying here, and you only six +months married. I wish, and the boys wishes, we could do something +to chirk you up."</p> +<p>With the exception of what Eunice had said, these were the first +words of sympathy Ethelyn had heard, and her tears flowed at once, +while her slight form shook with such a tempest of sobs that Andy +was alarmed, and getting down on his knees beside her, begged of +her to tell him what was the matter. Had he hurt her feelings? he +was such a blunderin' critter, he never knew the right thing to +say, and if she liked he'd go straight off downstairs.</p> +<p>"No, Anderson," Ethelyn said, "you have not hurt my feelings, +and I do not wish you to go, but, oh, I am so wretched and so +disappointed, too!"</p> +<p>"About goin' to Washington, you mean?" Andy asked, resuming his +chair, and his attitude of earnest inquiry, while Ethelyn, +forgetting all her reserve, replied: "Yes, I mean that and +everything else. It has been nothing but disappointment ever since +I left Chicopee, and I sometimes wish I had died before I promised +to go away from dear Aunt Barbara's, where I was so happy."</p> +<p>"What made you promise, then? I suppose, though, it was because +you loved Dick so much," simple-minded Andy said, trying to +remember if there was not a passage somewhere which read, "For this +cause shall a man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, +and they twain shall be one flesh."</p> +<p>Ethelyn would not wound Andy by telling him how little love had +had to do with her unhappy marriage, and she remained silent for a +moment, while Andy continued, "Be you disappointed here--with us, I +mean, and the fixins?"</p> +<p>"Yes, Anderson, terribly disappointed. Nothing is as I supposed. +Richard never told me what I was to expect," Ethelyn replied, +without stopping to consider what she was saying.</p> +<p>For a moment Andy looked intently at her, as if trying to make +out her meaning. Then, as it in part dawned upon him, he said +sorrowfully: "Sister Ethie, if it's me you mean, I was more to +blame than Dick, for I asked him not to tell you I was--a--a--wall, +I once heard Miss Captain Simmons say I was Widder Markham's fool," +and Andy's chin quivered as he went on: "I ain't a fool exactly, +for I don't drool or slobber like Tom Brown the idiot, but I have a +soft spot in my head, and I didn't want you to know it, for fear +you wouldn't like me. Daisy did, though, and Daisy knew what I was +and called me 'dear Andy,' and kissed me when she died."</p> +<p>Andy was crying softly now, and Ethelyn was crying with him. The +hard feeling at her heart was giving way, and she could have put +her arms around this childish man, who after a moment continued: +"Dick said he wouldn't tell you, so you must forgive him for that. +You've found me out, I s'pose. You know I ain't like Jim, nor John, +and I can't hold a candle to old Dick, but sometimes I've hope you +liked me a little, even if you do keep calling me Anderson. I wish +you wouldn't; seems as if folks think more of me when they say +'Andy' to me."</p> +<p>"Oh, Andy, dear Andy," Ethelyn exclaimed: "I do like you so +much--like you best of all. I did not mean you when I said I was +disappointed."</p> +<p>"Who, then?" Andy asked, in his straightforward way. "Is it +mother? She is odd, I guess, though I never thought on't till you +came here. Yes, mother is some queer, but she is good; and onct +when I had the typhoid and lay like a log, I heard her pray for +'her poor dear boy Andy'; that's what she called me, as lovin' like +as if I wasn't a fool, or somethin' nigh it."</p> +<p>Ethelyn did not wish to leave upon his mind the impression that +his mother had everything to do with her wretchedness, and so +cautiously as she could she tried to explain to him the difference +between the habits and customs of Chicopee and Olney. Warming up +with her theme as she progressed, she said more than she intended, +and succeeded in driving into Andy's brain a vague idea that his +family were not up to her standard, but were in fact a long way +behind the times. Andy was in a dilemma; he wanted to help Ethelyn +and did not know how. Suddenly, however, his face brightened, and +he asked, "Do you belong to the church?"</p> +<p>"Yes," was Ethelyn's reply.</p> +<p>"You do!" Andy repeated in some surprise, and Ethelyn replied, +"Not the way you mean, perhaps; but when I was a baby I was +baptized in the church and thus became a member."</p> +<p>"So you never had the Bishop's hands upon your head, and done +what the Saviour told us to do to remember him by?"</p> +<p>Ethelyn shook her head, and Andy went on: "Oh, what a pity, when +he is such a good Saviour, and would know just how to help you, now +you are so sorry-like and homesick, and disappointed. If you had +him you could tell him all about it and he would comfort you. He +helped me, you don't know how much, and I was dreadful bad once. I +used to get drunk, Ethie--drunker'n a fool, and come hiccuppin' +home with my clothes all tore and my hat smashed into nothin'."</p> +<p>Andy's face was scarlet as he confessed to his past misdeeds, +but without the least hesitation he went on: "Mr. Townsend found me +one day in the ditch, and helped me up and got me into his room and +prayed over me and talked to me, and never let me off from that +time till the Saviour took me up, and now it's better than three +years since I tasted a drop. I don't taste it even at the +sacrament, for fear what the taste might do, and I used to hold my +nose to keep shut of the smell. Mr. Townsend knows I don't touch +it, and God knows, too, and thinks I'm right, I'm sure, and gives +me to drink of his precious blood just the same, for I feel light +as air when I come from the altar. If religion could make me, a +fool and a drunkard, happy, it would do sights for you who know so +much. Try it, Ethie, won't you?"</p> +<p>Andy was getting in earnest now, and Ethelyn could not meet the +glance of his honest, pleading eyes.</p> +<p>"I can't be good, Andy," she replied; "I shouldn't know how to +begin or what to do."</p> +<p>"Seems to me I could tell you a few things," Andy said. "God +didn't want you to go to Washington for some wise purpose or other, +and so he put it into Dick's heart to leave you at home. Now, +instead of crying about that I'd make the best of it and be as +happy as I could be here. I know we ain't starched up folks like +them in Boston, but we like you, all of us--leastwise Jim and John +and me do--and I don't mean to come to the table in my +shirt-sleeves any more, if that will suit you, and I won't blow my +tea in my sasser, nor sop my bread in the platter; though if you +are all done and there's a lot of nice gravy left, you won't mind +it, will you, Ethelyn?--for I do love gravy."</p> +<p>Ethelyn had been more particular than she meant to be with her +reasons for her disappointment, and in enumerating the bad habits +to which she said Western people were addicted, she had included +the points upon which Andy had seized so readily. He had never been +told before that his manners were entirely what they ought not to +be; he could hardly see it so now, but if it would please Ethie he +would try to refrain, he said, asking that when she saw him doing +anything very outlandish, she would remind him of it and tell him +what was right.</p> +<p>"I think folks is always happier," he continued, "when they +forgit to please themselves and try to suit others, even if they +can't see any sense in it."</p> +<p>Andy did not exactly mean this as a rebuke, but it had the +effect of one and set Ethelyn thinking. Such genuine simplicity and +frankness could not be lost upon her, and long after Andy had left +her and gone to his room, where he sought in his prayer-book for +something just suited to her case, she sat pondering all he had +said, and upon the faith which could make even simple Andy so +lovable and good.</p> +<p>"He has improved his one talent far more than I have my five or +ten," she said, while regrets for her own past misdeeds began to +fill her bosom, with a wish that she might in some degree atone for +them.</p> +<p>Perhaps it was the resolution formed that night, and perhaps it +was the answer to Andy's prayer that God would have mercy upon +Ethie and incline her and his mother to pull together better, which +sent Ethelyn down to breakfast the next morning and kept her below +stairs a good portion of the day, and made her accept James' +invitation to ride with him in the afternoon. Then when it was +night again, and she saw Eunice carrying through the hall a smoking +firebrand, which she knew was designed for the parlor fire, she +changed her mind about staying alone upstairs with the books she +had commenced to read, but brought instead the white, fleecy cloud +she was knitting, and sat with the family, who had never seen her +more gracious or amiable, and wondered what had happened. Andy +thought he knew; he had prayed for Ethie, not only the previous +night, but that morning before he left his room, and also during +the day--once in the barn upon a rick of hay and once behind the +smoke-house.</p> +<p>Andy always looked for direct answers to his prayers, and +believing he had received one his face was radiant with content and +satisfaction, when after supper he brushed and wet his hair and +plastered it down upon his forehead, and changed his boots for a +lighter pair of Richard's, and then sat down before the parlor fire +with the yarn sock he was knitting for himself. Ethelyn had never +seen him engaged in this feminine employment before, and she felt a +strong disposition to laugh, but fearing to wound him, repressed +her smiles and seemed not to look at him as he worked industriously +on the heel, turning and shaping it better than she could have +done. It was not often that Ethelyn had favored the family with +music, but she did so that night, playing and singing pieces which +she knew were familiar to them, and only feeling a momentary pang +of resentment when, at the close of "Yankee Doodle," with +variations, quiet John remarked that Melinda herself could not go +ahead of that! Melinda's style of music was evidently preferable to +her own, but she swallowed the insult and sang "Lily Dale," at the +request of Andy, who, thinking the while of dear little Daisy, +wiped his eyes with the leg of his sock, while a tear trickled down +his mother's cheek and dropped into her lap.</p> +<p>"I thought Melinda Jones wanted to practice on the pianner," +Eunice said, after Ethelyn was done playing; "I heard her saying so +one day and wondering if Miss Markham would be willin'."</p> +<p>Ethelyn was in a mood then to assent to most anything, and she +expressed her entire approbation, saying even that she would gladly +give Melinda any assistance in her power. Ethelyn had been hard and +cold and proud so long that she scarcely knew herself in this new +phase of character, and the family did not know her, either. But +they appreciated it fully, and James' eyes were very bright and +sparkling when, in imitation of Andy, he bade his sister +good-night, thinking, as she left the room how beautiful she was +and how pleased Melinda would be, and hoping she would find it +convenient to practice there evenings, as that would render an +escort home absolutely necessary, unless "Terrible Tim" came for +her.</p> +<p>Ethelyn had not changed her mind when Melinda came home next +day, and as a matter of course called at the Markhams' in the +evening. But Ethelyn's offer had come a little too late--Melinda +was going to Washington to spend the winter! A bachelor brother of +her mother's, living among the mountains of Vermont, had been +elected Member of Congress in the place of the regular member, who +had resigned, and as the uncle was wealthy and generous, and had +certain pleasant reminiscences of a visit to Iowa when a little +black-eyed girl had been so agreeable to him, he had written for +her to join him in Washington, promising to defray all expenses and +sending on a draft for two hundred dollars, with which she was to +procure whatever she deemed necessary for her winter's outfit. +Melinda's star was in the ascendant, and Ethelyn felt a pang of +something like envy as she thought how differently Melinda's winter +would pass from her own, while James trembled for the effect +Washington might have upon the girl who walked so slowly with him +along the beaten path between his house and her father's, and whose +eyes, as she bade him good-night, were little less bright than the +stars shining down upon her. Would she come back like Ethelyn? He +hoped not, for there would then be an end to all fond dreams he had +been dreaming. She would despise his homely ways and look for +somebody higher than plain Jim Markham in his cowhide boots. James +was sorry to have Melinda go, and Ethelyn was sorry, too. It seemed +as if she was to be left alone, for two days after Melinda's +return, Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus came out from Camden to call, +and communicated the news that they, too, were going on to +Washington, together with Mrs. Judge Miller, whose father was a +United States Senator. It was terrible to be thus left behind, and +Ethelyn's heart grew harder against her husband for dooming her to +such a fate. Every week James, or John, or Andy brought from the +post a letter in Richard's handwriting, directed to Mrs. Richard +Markham, and once in two weeks Andy carried a letter to the post +directed in Ethelyn's handwriting to "Richard Markham, M.C.," but +Andy never suspected that the dainty little envelope, with a Boston +mark upon it, inclosed only a blank sheet of paper! Ethelyn had +affirmed so solemnly that she would not write to her husband that +she half feared to break her vow; and, besides that, she could not +forgive him for having left her behind, while Marcia, Ella, and +Melinda were enjoying themselves so much. She knew she was doing +wrong, and not a night of her life did she go to her lonely bed +that there did not creep over her a sensation of fear as she +thought, "What if I should die while I am so bad?"</p> +<p>At home, in Chicopee, she used always to go through with a form +of prayer, but she could not do that now for the something which +rose up between her and Heaven, smothering the words upon her lips, +and so in this dreadful condition she lived on day after day, +growing more, and more desolately and lonely, and wondering sadly +if life would always be as dreary and aimless as it was now. And +while she pondered thus, Andy prayed on and practiced his lessons +in good manners, provoking the mirth of the whole family by his +ludicrous attempts to be polite, and feeling sometimes tempted to +give the matter up. Andy was everything to Ethelyn, and once when +her conscience was smiting her more than usual with regard to the +blanks, she said to him abruptly: "if you had made a wicked vow, +which would you do--keep it or break it, and so tell a +falsehood?"</p> +<p>Andy was not much of a lawyer, he said, but "he thought he knew +some scripter right to the pint," and taking his well-worn Bible he +found and read the parable of the two sons commanded to work in +their father's vineyard.</p> +<p>"If the Saviour commended the one who said he wouldn't and then +went and did it, I think there can be no harm in your breaking a +wicked vow: leastways I should do it."</p> +<p>This was Andy's advice, and that night, long after the family +were in bed, a light was shining in Ethelyn's chamber, where she +sat writing to her husband, and as if Andy's spirit were pervading +hers, she softened, as she wrote and asked forgiveness for all the +past which she had made so wretched. She was going to do better, +she said, and when her husband came home she would try to make him +happy.</p> +<p>"But, oh, Richard," she wrote, "please take me away from here to +Camden, or Olney, or anywhere--so I can begin anew to be the wife I +ought to be. I was never worthy of you, Richard. I deceived you +from the first, and if I could summon the courage I would tell you +about it."</p> +<p>This letter which would have done so much good, was never +finished, for when the morning came there were troubled faces at +the prairie farmhouse--Mrs. Markham looking very anxious and Eunice +very scared, James going for the doctor and Andy for Mrs. Jones, +while up in Ethie's room, where the curtains were drawn so closely +before the windows, life and death were struggling for the mastery, +and each in a measure coming off triumphant.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<h3>WASHINGTON</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard had not been very happy in Washington. He led too quiet +and secluded a life, his companions said, advising him to go out +more, and jocosely telling him that he was pining for his young +wife and growing quite an old man. When Melinda Jones came, Richard +brightened a little, for there was always a sense of comfort and +rest in Melinda's presence, and Richard spent much of his leisure +in her society, accompanying her to concerts and occasionally to a +levee, and taking pains to show her whatever he thought would +interest her. It was pleasant to have a lady with him sometimes, +and he wished so much it had been practicable for Ethelyn to have +come. "Poor Ethie," he called her to himself, pitying her because, +vain man that he was, he thought her so lonely without him. This +was at first, and before he had received in reply to his letter +that dreadful blank, which sent such a chill to his heart, making +him cold, and faint, and sick, as he began to realize what it was +in a woman's power to do. He had occasionally thought of Ethelyn's +threat, not to write him a line, and felt very uncomfortable as he +recalled the expression of her eyes when she made it. But he did +not believe she was in earnest. She surely could not hold out +against the letter he wrote, telling how he missed her every +moment, and how, if it had been at all advisable, he would have +taken her with him. He did not know Ethelyn, and so was not +prepared for the bitter disappointment in store for him when the +dainty little envelope was put into his hand. It was her +handwriting--so much he knew; and there lingered about the missive +faint traces of the sweet perfume he remembered as pervading +everything she wore or used. Ethelyn had not kept her vow; and with +a throb of joy Richard tore open the envelope and removed the +delicate tinted sheet inside. But the hand of the strong man shook +and his heart grew heavy as lead when he turned the sheet thrice +over, seeking in vain for some line or word, or syllable or sign. +But there was none. Ethelyn had kept her vow, and Richard felt for +a moment as if all the world were as completely a blank as that bit +of gilt-edged paper he crumpled so helplessly in his hand. Anon, +however, hope whispered that she would write next time; she could +not hold out thus all winter; and so Richard wrote again with the +same success, until at last he expected nothing, and people said of +him that he was growing old, while even Melinda noticed his altered +appearance, and how fast his brown hair was turning gray. Melinda +was in one sense his good angel. She brought him news from home and +Ethelyn, telling for one thing of Ethie's offer to teach her music +during the winter; and for another, of Ethie's long drives upon the +prairie, sometimes with James, sometimes with John, but oftenest +with Andy, to whom she seemed to cling as to a very dear +brother.</p> +<p>This news did Richard good, showing a better side of Ethie's +character than the one presented to him. She was not cold and proud +to the family at home; even his mother, who wrote to him once or +twice, spoke kindly of her, while James warmly applauded her, and +Andy wrote a letter, wonderful in composition, and full of nothing +but Ethelyn, who made their home so pleasant with her music, and +songs, and pretty face. There was some comfort in this^ and so +Richard bore his burden in silence, and no one ever dreamed that +the letters he received with tolerable regularity were only blank, +fulfillments of a hasty vow.</p> +<p>With Christmas came the Van Buren set from Boston--Aunt Sophia, +with Frank, and his girlish bride, who soon became a belle, +flirting with every man who offered his attentions, while Frank was +in no way behind in his flirtations with the other sex. Plain, +matter-of-fact Melinda Jones was among the first to claim his +notice after he learned that she was niece of the man who drove +such splendid blacks and kept so handsome a suite of rooms at +Willard's; but Melinda was more than his match, and snubbed him so +unmercifully that he gave her up, and sneered at her as "that +old-maidish girl from the West." Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had been +profuse in her inquiries after Ethelyn, and loud in her regrets at +her absence. She had also tried to patronize both Richard and +Melinda, taking the latter with her to the theater and to a +reception, and trying to cultivate her for the sake of poor Ethie, +who was obliged to associate with her and people like her. Melinda, +however, did not need Mrs. Van Buren's patronage. Her uncle was a +man of wealth and mark, who stood high in Washington, where he had +been before. His niece could not lack attention, and ere the season +was over the two rival belles at Washington were Mrs. Frank Van +Buren, from Boston, and Miss Melinda Jones, from Iowa.</p> +<p>But prosperity did not spoil Melinda, and James Markham's +chances were quite as good when, dressed in pink silk, with +camelias in her hair, she entertained some half-dozen judges and +M.C.'s as when in brown delaine and magenta ribbons she danced a +quadrille at some "quilting bee out West." She saw the difference, +however, between men of cultivation and those who had none, and +began to understand the cause of Ethelyn's cold, proud looks when +surrounded by Richard's family. She began also silently to watch +and criticise Richard, comparing him with other men of equal brain, +and thinking how, if she were his wife, she would go to work to +correct his manners. Possibly, too, thoughts of James, in his blue +frock and cowhide boots, occasionally intruded themselves upon her +mind; but if so, they did not greatly disturb her equanimity, for, +let what might happen, Melinda felt herself equal to the +emergency--whether it were to put down Frank Van Buren and the +whole race of impudent puppies like him, or polish rough James +Markham if need be. How she hated Frank Van Buren when she saw his +neglect of his young wife, whose money was all he seemed to care +for; and how utterly she loathed and despised him after the night, +when, at a party given by one of Washington's magnates, he stood +beside her for half an hour and talked confidently to her of +Ethelyn, whom, he hinted, he could have married if he would.</p> +<p>"Why didn't you, then?" and Melinda turned sharply upon him, +with a look in her black eyes which made him wince as he replied: +"Family interference--must have money, you know! But, zounds! don't +I pity her!--tied to that clown, whom--"</p> +<p>Frank did not finish the sentence, for Melinda's eyes fairly +blazed with anger as she cut him short with "Excuse me, Mr. Van +Buren; I can't listen to such abuse of one whom I esteem as highly +as I do Judge Markham. Why, sir, he is head and shoulders above +you, in sense and intellect and everything which makes a man," and +with a haughty bow, Melinda swept away, leaving the shamefaced +Frank alone in his discomfiture.</p> +<p>"I'd like to kick myself if I could, though I told nothing but +the truth. Ethie did want me confoundedly, and I would have married +her if she hadn't been poor as a church mouse," Frank muttered to +himself, standing in the deep recess of the window, and all +unconscious that just outside upon the balcony was a silent, +motionless form, which had heard every word of his conversation +with Melinda, and his soliloquy afterward.</p> +<p>Richard Markham had come to this party just to please Melinda, +but he did not enjoy it. If Ethie had been there he might; but he +could not forget the blank that day received, or the letter from +James, which said that Ethelyn was not looking as well as usual, +and had the morning previously asked him to turn back before they +had ridden more than two miles. He could not be happy with that +upon his mind, and so he stole from the gay scene out upon the +balcony, where he stood watching the quiet stars and thinking of +Ethelyn, when his ear had caught by the mention of her name.</p> +<p>He had not thought before who the couple were standing so near +to him, but he knew now it was Melinda and Frank Van Buren, and +became an involuntary listener to the conversation which ensued. +There was a clenching of his fist, a shutting together of his +teeth, and an impulse to knock the boasting Frank Van Buren down; +and then, as the past flashed before him, with the thought that +possibly Frank spoke the truth and Ethelyn had loved him, there +swept over him such a sense of anguish and desolation that he +forgot all else in his own wretchedness. It had never occurred to +him that Ethelyn married him while all the time she loved +another--that perhaps she loved that other still--and the very +possibility of it drove him nearly wild.</p> +<p>He was missed from the party, but no one could tell when he +left, for no one saw him as he sprang down into the garden, and +taking refuge in the paths where the shades were the deepest, +escaped unobserved into the street, and so back to his own room, +where he went over all the past and recalled every little act of +affection on Ethelyn's part, weighed it in the balance with proofs +that she did not care for him and never had. So much did Richard +love his wife and so anxious was he to find her guiltless that he +magnified every virtue and excused every error until the verdict +rendered was in her favor, and Frank alone was the +delinquent--Frank, the vain, conceited coxcomb, who thought because +a woman was civil to him that she must needs wish to marry him; +Frank, the wretch who had presumed to pity his cousin, and called +her husband a clown! How Richard's fingers tingled with a desire to +thrash the insulting rascal; and how, in spite of the verdict, his +heart ached with a dull, heavy fear lest it might be true in part, +that Ethie had once felt for Frank something deeper than what girls +usually feel for their first cousins.</p> +<p>"And supposing she has?" Richard's generous nature asked. +"Supposing she did love this Frank once on a time well enough to +marry him? She surely was all over that love before she promised to +be my wife, else she had not promised; and so the only point where +she is at fault was in concealing from me the fact that she had +loved another first. I was honest with her. I told her of Abigail, +and it was very hard to do it, for I felt that the proud girl's +spirit rebelled against such as Abigail was years ago. It would +have been so easy, then, for Ethelyn to have confessed to me, if +she had a confession to make; though how she could ever care for +such a jackanapes as that baboon of a Frank is more than I can +tell."</p> +<p>Richard was waxing warm against Frank Van Buren, whom he +despised so heartily that he put upon his shoulders all the blame +concerning Ethelyn, if blame there were. He would so like to think +her innocent, and he tried so hard to do it, that he succeeded in +part, though frequently as the days passed on, and he sat at his +post in the House, listening to some tiresome speech, or took his +solitary walk toward Arlington Heights, a pang of something like +jealousy and dread that all had not been open and fair between +himself and his wife cut like a knife through his heart, and almost +stopped his breath. The short session was wearing to a close, and +he was glad of it, for he longed to be home again with Ethelyn, +even if he were doomed to meet the same coldness which those +terrible blanks had brought him. Anything was preferable to the +life he led, and though he grew pale as ashes and his limbs +quivered like a reed when, toward the latter part of February, he +received a telegram to come home at once, as Ethelyn was very sick, +he hailed the news as a message of deliverance, whereby he could +escape from hated Washington a few days sooner. He hardly knew when +or how the idea occurred to him that Aunt Barbara's presence would +be more acceptable in that house, where he guessed what had +happened; but occur to him it did; and Aunt Barbara, sitting by her +winter fire and thinking of Ethelyn, was startled terribly by the +missive which bade her join Richard Markham at Albany, on the +morrow, and go with him to Iowa, where Ethie lay so ill. A +pilgrimage to Mecca would scarcely have looked more formidable to +the good woman than this sudden trip to Iowa; but where her duty +was concerned she did not hesitate, and when at noon of the next +day the New York train came up the river, the first thing Richard +saw as he walked rapidly toward the Central Depot at Albany was +Aunt Barbara's bonnet protruding from the car window and Aunt +Barbara's hand making frantic passes and gestures to attract his +notice.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<h3>RICHARD'S HEIR</h3> +<br> +<p>For one whole week the windows of Ethelyn's room were darkened +as dark as Mrs. Markham's heavy shawl and a patchwork quilt could +make them. The doctor rode to and from the farmhouse, looking more +and more concerned each time he came from the sick-room. Mrs. Jones +was over almost every hour, or if she did not come Tim was sent to +inquire, his voice very low and subdued as he asked, "How is she +now?" while James' voice was lower and sadder still as he answered, +"There is no change." Up and down the stairs Mrs. Markham trod +softly, wishing that she had never harbored an unkind thought +against the pale-faced girl lying so unconscious of all they were +doing for her. In the kitchen below, with a scared look upon her +face, Eunice washed and wiped her dishes, and wondered if Richard +would get home in time for the funeral, and if he would order from +Camden a metallic coffin such as Minnie Dayton had been buried in; +and Eunice's tears fell like rain as she thought how terrible it +was to die so young, and unprepared, too, as she heard Mrs. Markham +say to the Methodist clergyman when he came over to offer +consolation.</p> +<p>Yes, Ethelyn was unprepared for the fearful change which seemed +so near, and of all the household none felt this more keenly than +Andy, whose tears soaked through and through the leaf of the +prayer-book, where was printed the petition for the sick, and who +improvised many a touching prayer himself, kneeling by the wooden +chair where God had so often met and blessed him.</p> +<p>"Don't let Ethie die, Good Father, don't let her die; at least +not till she is ready, and Dick is here to see her--poor old Dick, +who loves her so much. Please spare her for him, and take me in her +place. I'm good for nothing, only I do hope I'm ready, and Ethie +ain't; so spare her and take me in her place."</p> +<p>This was one of Andy's prayers--generous, unselfish Andy--who +would have died for Ethelyn, and who had been in such exquisite +distress since the night when Eunice first found Ethelyn moaning in +her room, with her letter to Richard lying unfinished before her. +No one had read that letter--the Markhams were too honorable for +that--and it had been put away in the portfolio, while undivided +attention was given to Ethelyn. She had been unconscious nearly all +the time, saying once when Mrs. Markham asked, "Shall we send for +Richard?" "Send for Aunt Barbara; please send for Aunt +Barbara."</p> +<p>This was the third day of Ethelyn's danger, and on the sixth +there came a change. The shawl was pinned back from the window, +admitting light enough for the watchers by the bedside to see if +the sufferer still breathed. Life was not extinct, and Mrs. +Markham's lips moved with a prayer of thanksgiving when Mrs. Jones +pointed to a tiny drop of moisture beneath the tangled hair. +Ethelyn would live, the doctor said, but down in the parlor on the +sofa where Daisy had lain was a little lifeless form with a +troubled look upon its face, showing that it had fought for its +life. Prone upon the floor beside it sat Andy, whispering to the +little one and weeping for "poor old Dick, who would mourn for his +lost boy."</p> +<p>Andy was very sorry, and to one who saw him that day, and, +ignorant of the circumstances, asked what was the matter that he +looked so solemn, he answered sadly, "I have just lost my little +uncle that I wanted to stand sponsor for. He only lived a day," and +Andy's tears flowed afresh as he thought of all he had lost with +the child whose life numbered scarcely twenty-four hours in all. +But that was enough to warrant its being now among the spirits of +the Redeemed, and heaven seemed fairer, more desirable to Andy than +it had done before. His father was there with Daisy and his baby +uncle, as he persisted in calling Ethelyn's dead boy until James +told him better, and pointed out the ludicrousness of the mistake. +To Ethelyn Andy was tender as a mother, when at last they let him +see her, and his lips left marks upon her forehead and cheek. She +was perfectly conscious now, and when told they had sent for +Richard, manifested a good deal of interest, and asked when he +would probably be there. They were expecting him every train; but +ere he came the fever, which seemed for a time to have abated, +returned with double force and Ethelyn knew nothing of the kisses +Richard pressed upon her lips, or the tears Aunt Barbara shed over +her poor darling.</p> +<p>There were anxious hearts and troubled faces in the farmhouse +that day, for Death was brooding there again, and they who watched +his shadow darkening around them spoke only in whispers, as they +obeyed the physician's orders. When Richard first came in Mrs. +Markham wound her arm around his neck, and said, "I am so sorry for +you, my poor boy," while the three sons, one after another, had +grasped their brother's hand in token of sympathy, and that was all +that had passed between them of greeting. For the rest of the day, +Richard had sat constantly by Ethelyn, watching the changes of her +face, and listening to her as she raved in snatches, now of +himself, and the time he saved her from the maddened cow, and now +of Frank and the huckleberries, which she said were ripening on the +Chicopee hills. When she talked of this Richard held his breath, +and once, as he leaned forward so as not to lose a word, he caught +Aunt Barbara regarding him intently, her wrinkled cheek flushing as +she met his eye and guessed what was in his mind. If Richard had +needed any confirmation of his suspicions, that look on transparent +Aunt Barbara's face would have confirmed them. There had been +something between Ethelyn and Frank Van Buren more than a cousinly +liking, and Richard's heart throbbed powerfully as he sat by the +tossing, restless Ethelyn, moaning on about the huckleberry hills, +and the ledge of rocks where the wild laurels grew. This pain he +did not try to analyze; he only said to himself that he felt no +bitterness toward Ethelyn. She was too near to death's dark tide +for that. She was Ethie--his darling--the mother of the child that +had been buried from sight before he came. Perhaps she did not love +him, and never would; but he had loved her, oh! so much, and if he +lost her he would be wretched indeed. And so, forgiving all the +past of which he knew, and trying to forgive all he did not know, +he sat by her till the sun went down, and his mother came for the +twentieth time, urging him to eat. He had not tasted food that day, +and faint for the want of it he followed her to where the table had +been set, and supper prepared with a direct reference to his +particular taste.</p> +<p>He felt better and stronger when supper was over, and listened +eagerly while Andy and Eunice, who had been the last with Ethelyn +before her sudden illness, recounted every incident as minutely and +reverently as if speaking of the dead. Especially did he hang on +what Andy said with reference to her questioning him about the +breaking of a wicked vow, and when Eunice added her mite to the +effect that, getting up for some camphor for an aching tooth, she +had heard a groan from Ethelyn's room, and had found her mistress +bending over a half-finished letter, which she "reckoned" was to +him, and had laid away in the portfolio, he waited for no more, but +hurried upstairs to the little bookcase where Eunice had put the +treasure--for it was a countless treasure, that unfinished letter, +which he read with the great tears rolling down his cheeks, and his +heart growing tenfold softer and warmer toward the writer, who +confessed to having wronged him, and wished so much that she dare +tell him all. What was it she had to tell? Would he ever know? he +asked himself, as he put the letter back where he found it. Yes, +she would surely tell him, if she lived, as live she must. She was +dearer to him now than she had ever been, and the lips unused to +prayer, save as a form, prayed most earnestly that Ethie might be +spared. Then, as there flashed upon him a sense of the +inconsistency there was in keeping aloof from God all his life, and +going to him only when danger threatened, he bowed his head in very +shame, and the prayer died on his lips. But Andy always prayed--at +least he had for many years; and so the wise strong brother sought +the simple weaker one, and asked him to do what he had not power to +do.</p> +<p>Andy's swollen eyes and haggard face bore testimony to his +sorrow, and his voice was very low and earnest, as he replied: +"Brother Dick, I'm prayin' all the time. I've said that prayer for +the sick until I've worn it threadbare, and now every breath I draw +has in it the petition, 'We beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.' +There's nothing in that about Ethie, it's true; but God knows I +mean her, and will hear me all the same."</p> +<p>There was a touching simplicity in Andy's faith, which went to +the heart of Richard, making him feel of how little avail was +knowledge or wisdom or position if there was lacking the one thing +needful, which Andy so surely possessed. That night was a long, +wearisome one at the farmhouse; but when the morning broke hope and +joy came with it, for Ethelyn was better, and in the brown eyes, +which unclosed so languidly, there was a look of consciousness, +which deepened into a look of surprise and joyful recognition as +they rested upon Aunt Barbara.</p> +<p>"Is this Chicopee? Am I home? Oh, Aunt Barbara, I am so glad! +you can't guess how glad, or know how tired and sorry your poor +Ethie has been," came brokenly from the pale lips, as Ethelyn moved +nearer to Aunt Barbara and laid her head upon the motherly bosom, +where it had so often lain in the dear old Chicopee days.</p> +<p>She did not notice Richard, or seem to know that she was +elsewhere than in Chicopee, back in the old home, and Richard's +pulse throbbed quickly as he saw the flush come over Ethie's face, +and the look of pain creep into her eyes, when a voice broke the +illusion and told her she was still in Olney, with him and the +mother-in-law leaning over the bed-rail saying, "Speak to her, +Richard."</p> +<p>"Ethie, don't you know me, too?--I came with Aunt Barbara."</p> +<p>That was what he said, as he bent over her, seeking to take in +his own one of the feverish little hands locked so fast in those of +Aunt Barbara. She did know then, and remember, and her lip quivered +in a grieved, disappointed way as she said, "Yes, Richard, I know +now. I am not at home, I'm here;" and the intonation of the voice +as it uttered the word "here," spoke volumes, and told Aunt Barbara +just how homesick and weary and wretched her darling had been here. +She must not talk much, the physician said, and so with one hand in +Richard's and one in Aunt Barbara's she fell away to sleep again, +while the family stole out to their usual avocations, Mrs. Markham +and Eunice to their baking, James and John to their work upon the +farm, and Andy to his Bethel in the wood-house chamber, where he +repeated: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who has visited and +redeemed his people," and added at the conclusion the Gloria Patri, +which he thought suitable for the occasion.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<h3>DAYS OF CONVALESCENCE</h3> +<br> +<p>They were very pleasant to Ethelyn, for with Aunt Barbara +anticipating every want, and talking of Chicopee; she could not be +very weary. It was pleasant, too, having Richard home again, and +Ethie was very soft and kind and amiable toward him; but she did +not tell him of the letter she had commenced, or hint at the +confession he longed to hear. It would have been comparatively easy +to write it, but with him there where she could look into his face +and watch the dark expression which was sure to come into his eyes, +it was hard to tell him that Frank Van Buren had held the first +place in her affections, if indeed he did not hold it now. She was +not certain yet, though she hoped and tried to believe that Frank +was nothing more than cousin now. He surely ought not to be, with +Nettie calling him her husband, while she too was a wife. But so +subtle was the poison which that unfortunate attachment had infused +into her veins that she could not tell whether her nature was +cleared of it or not, and so, though she asked forgiveness for +having so literally kept her vow, and said that she did commence a +letter to him, she kept back the most important part of all. It was +better to wait, she thought, until she could truly say, "I loved +Frank Van Buren once, but now I love you far better than ever I did +him."</p> +<p>Had she guessed how much Richard knew, and how the knowledge was +rankling in his bosom, she might have done differently. But she +took the course she thought the best, and the perfect understanding +Richard had so ardently hoped for was not then arrived at. For a +time, however, there seemed to be perfect peace between them, and +could Richard have forgotten Frank Van Buren's words or even those +of Ethie herself when her fever was on, he would have been +supremely happy. But to forget was impossible, and he often found +himself wondering how much of Frank's assertion was true, and if +Ethelyn would ever be as open and honest with him as he had tried +to be with her. She did not get well very fast, and the color came +slowly back into her lips and cheeks. She was far happier than she +had been before since she first came to Olney. She could not say +that she loved her husband as a true wife ought to love a man like +Richard Markham, but she found a pleasure in his society which she +had never experienced before, while Aunt Barbara's presence was a +constant source of joy. That good woman had prolonged her stay far +beyond what she had thought it possible when she left Chicopee. She +could not tear herself away, when Ethie pleaded so earnestly for +her to remain a little longer, and so, wholly impervious to the +hints which Mrs. Markham occasionally threw out, that her services +were no longer needed as nurse to Ethelyn, she stayed on week after +week, seeing far more than she seemed to see, and making up her +mind pretty accurately with regard to the prospect of Ethie's +happiness, if she remained an inmate of her husband's family.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara and Mrs. Markham did not harmonize at all. At +first, when Ethie was so sick, everything had been merged in the +one absorbing thought of her danger, and even the knowledge +accidentally obtained that Richard had paid Miss Bigelow's fare out +there and would pay it back, had failed to produce more than a +passing pang in the bosom of the close, calculating, economical +Mrs. Markham; but when the danger was past, it kept recurring again +and again, with very unpleasant distinctness, that Aunt Barbara was +an expense they could well do without. Nobody could quarrel with +Aunt Barbara--she was so mild, and gentle, and peaceable--and Mrs. +Markham did not quarrel with her, but she thought about her all the +time, and fretted over her, and remembered the letter she had +written about her ways and her being good to Ethie, and wondered +what she was there for, and why she did not go home, and asked her +what time they generally cleaned house in Chicopee, and if she +dared trust her cleaning with Betty. Aunt Barbara was a great +annoyance, and she complained to Eunice and Mrs. Jones, and +Melinda, who had returned from Washington, that she was spoiling +Ethelyn, babying her so, and making her think herself so much +weaker than she was.</p> +<p>"Mercy knew," she said, that in her day, when she was young and +having children, she did not hug the bed forever. She had something +else to do, and was up and around in a fortnight at the most. Her +table wasn't loaded down with oranges and figs, and the things they +called banannys, which fairly made her sick at her stomach. Nobody +was carryin' her up glasses of milk-punch, and lemonade, and cups +of tea, at all hours of the day. She was glad of anything, and got +well the faster for it. Needn't tell her!--it would do Ethelyn good +to stir around and take the air, instead of staying cooped up in +her room, complaining that it is hot and close there in the +bedroom. "It's airy enough out doors," and with a most aggrieved +look on her face, Mrs. Markham put into the oven the pan of soda +biscuit she had been making, and then proceeded to lay the cloth +for tea.</p> +<p>Eunice had been home for a day or two with a felon on her thumb, +and thus a greater proportion of the work had fallen upon Mrs. +Markham, which to some degree accounted for her ill-humor. Mrs. +Jones and Melinda were spending the afternoon with her, but the +latter was up in Ethie's room. Melinda had always a good many ideas +of her own, and she had brought with her several new ones from +Washington and New York, where she had stayed for four weeks at the +Fifth Avenue Hotel. But Melinda, though greatly improved in +appearance, was not one whit spoiled. In manner, and the fit of her +dress, she was more like Ethelyn and Mrs. Judge Miller, of Camden, +than she once had been, and at first James was a little afraid of +her, she puffed her hair so high, and wore her gowns so long, while +his mother, looking at the stylish hat and fashionable sack which +she brought back from Gotham, said her head was turned, and she was +altogether too fine for Olney. But when, on the next rainy Sunday, +she rode to church in her father's lumber wagon, holding the blue +cotton umbrella over her last year's straw and waterproof--and when +arrived at the church she suffered James to help her to alight, +jumping over the muddy wheel, and then going straight to her +accustomed seat in the choir, which had missed her strong voice so +much--the son changed his mind, and said she was the same as ever; +while after the day when she found Mrs. Markham making soap out +behind the corn-house, and good-humoredly offered to watch it and +stir it while that lady went into the house to see to the corn +pudding, which Eunice was sure to spoil if left to her own +ingenuity, the mother, too, changed her mind, and wished Richard +had been so lucky as to have fixed his choice on Melinda. But James +was far from wishing a thing which would so seriously have +interfered with his hopes and wishes. He was very glad that +Richard's preference had fallen where it did, and his cheery +whistle was heard almost constantly, and after Tim Jones told, in +his blunt way, how "Melind was tryin' to train him, and make him +more like them dandies at the big tavern in New York," he, too, +began to amend, and taking Richard for his pattern, imitated him, +until he found that simple, loving Andy, in his anxiety to please +Ethelyn, had seized upon more points of etiquette than Richard ever +knew existed, and then he copied Andy, having this in his favor: +that whatever he did himself was done with a certain grace inherent +in his nature, whereas Andy's attempts were awkward in the +extreme.</p> +<p>Melinda saw the visible improvement in James, and imputing it +rather to Ethelyn's influence than her own, was thus saved from any +embarrassment she might have experienced had she known to a +certainty how large a share of James Markham's thoughts and +affections she possessed. She was frequently at the farmhouse; but +had not made what her mother called a visit until the afternoon +when Mrs. Markham gave her opinion so freely of Aunt Barbara's +petting and its effect on Ethelyn.</p> +<p>From the first introduction Aunt Barbara had liked the +practical, straightforward Melinda, in whom she found a powerful +ally whenever any new idea was suggested with regard to Ethelyn. To +her Aunt Barbara had confided her belief that it was not well for +Ethelyn to stay there any longer--that she and Richard both would +be better by themselves; an opinion which Melinda heartily +indorsed, and straightway set herself at work to form some plan +whereby Aunt Barbara's idea might be carried out.</p> +<p>Melinda was not a meddlesome girl, but she did like to help +manage other people's business, doing it so well, and evincing so +little selfishness in her consideration for others, that when once +she had taken charge of a person's affairs she was pretty sure to +have the privilege again. When Richard ran for justice of the +peace, and she was a little girl, she had refused to speak to three +other little girls who flaunted the colors of the opposition +candidate; and when he was nominated first for Judge and then as +member for the district, she had worked for him quite as zealously +as Tim himself, and through her more than one vote, which otherwise +might have been lost, was cast in his favor. As she had worked for +him, so she now worked for Ethelyn, approaching Richard very +adroitly and managing so skillfully that when at last, on the +occasion of her visit to his mother's, Aunt Barbara asked him, in +her presence and Ethelyn's, if he had never thought it would be +well both for himself and wife to live somewhere else than there at +home, he never dreamed that he was echoing the very ideas Melinda +had instilled into his mind by promptly replying that "he had +recently thought seriously of a change," and then asked Ethie where +she would like to live--in Olney or in Camden.</p> +<p>"Not Olney--no, not Olney!" Ethelyn gasped, thinking how near +that was to her mother-in-law, and shrinking from the espionage to +which she would surely be subjected.</p> +<p>Her preference was Davenport, but to this Richard would not +listen. Indeed, he began to feel sorry that he had admitted a +willingness to change at all, for the old home was very dear to +him, and he thought he would never leave it. But he stood committed +now, and Melinda followed him up so dexterously, that in less than +half an hour it was arranged that early in June Ethelyn should have +a home in Camden--either a house of her own, or a suite of rooms at +the Stafford House, just which she preferred. She chose the latter, +and, womanlike, began at once in fancy to furnish and arrange the +handsome apartments which looked out upon Camden Park, and which +Melinda said were at present unoccupied. Melinda knew, for only two +days before she had been to Camden with her brother Tim and dined +at the Stafford House, and heard her neighbor on her right inquire +of his vis-à-vis how long since General Martin left the +second floor of the new wing, and who occupied it now. This was a +mere happen so, but Melinda was one of those to whom the right +thing was always happening, the desired information always coming; +and if she did contrive to ascertain the price charged for the +rooms, it was only because she understood that one of the Markham +peculiarities was being a little close, and wished to be armed at +every point.</p> +<p>Richard had no idea that Melinda was managing him, or that +anyone was managing him. He thought himself that Camden might be a +pleasant place to live; as an ex-Judge and M.C. he could get +business anywhere; and though he preferred Olney, inasmuch as it +was home, he would, if Ethelyn liked, try Camden for a while. It is +true the price of the rooms, which Melinda casually named, was +enormous, but, then, Ethelyn's health and happiness were above any +moneyed consideration; and so, while Mrs. Markham below made and +molded the soda biscuit, and talked about dreading the hot weather +if "Ethelyn was going to be weakly," Aunt Barbara, and Melinda, and +Richard settled a matter which made her eyes open wide with +astonishment when, after the exit of the Joneses and the doing up +of her work, it was revealed to her. Of course, she charged it all +to Aunt Barbara, wishing that good woman as many miles away as +intervened between Olney and Chicopee. Had the young people been +going to keep house, she would have been more reconciled, for in +that case much of what they consumed would have been the product of +the farm; but to board, to take rooms at the Stafford House where +Ethelyn would have nothing in the world to do but to dress and +gossip, was abominable. Then when she heard of the price she +opposed the plan with so much energy that, but for Aunt Barbara and +Melinda Jones, Richard might have succumbed; but the majority +ruled, and Ethelyn's eyes grew brighter, and her thin cheeks +rounder, with the sure hope of leaving a place where she had been +so unhappy. She should miss Melinda Jones; and though she would be +near Mrs. Miller, and Marcia Fenton, and Ella Backus, they could +not be to her all Melinda had been, while Andy--Ethelyn felt the +lumps rising in her throat whenever she thought of him and the +burst of tears with which he had heard that she was going away.</p> +<p>"I can't help thinkin' it's for the wuss," he said, wiping his +smooth face with the cuff of his coat-sleeve. "Something will +happen as the result of your goin' there. I feel it in my +bones."</p> +<p>Were Andy's words prophetic? Would something happen, if they +went to Camden, which would not have happened had they remained in +Olney? Ethelyn did not ask herself the question. She was too +supremely happy, and if she thought at all, it was of how she could +best accelerate her departure from the lonely farmhouse.</p> +<p>When Mrs. Markham found that they were really going, that +nothing she could say would be of any avail, she gave up the +contest, and, mother-like, set herself at work planning for their +comfort, or rather for Richard's comfort. It was for him that the +best and newest featherbed, weighing thirty pounds and a half to a +feather, was aired and sunned three days upon the kitchen roof, the +good woman little dreaming that if the thirty-pounder was used at +all, it would do duty under the hair mattress Ethelyn meant to +have. They were to furnish their own rooms, and whatever expense +Mrs. Markham could save her boy she meant to do. There was the +carpet in their chamber--they could have that; for after they were +gone it was not likely the room would be used, and the old rag one +would answer. They could have the curtains, too, if they liked, +with the table and the chairs. Left to himself and his mother's +guidance, Richard would undoubtedly have taken to Camden such a +promiscuous outfit as would have made even a truckman smile; but +there were three women leagued against him, and so draft after +draft was drawn from his funds in the Camden bank until the rooms +were furnished; and one bright morning in early June, a week after +Aunt Barbara started for Chicopee, Ethie bid her husband's family +good-by, and turning her back upon Olney, turned also the first +leaf of her life's history in the West.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> +<h3>COMING TO A CRISIS</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard was not happy in his new home; it did not fit him like +the old. He missed his mother's petting; he missed the society of +his plain, outspoken brothers; he missed his freedom from +restraint, and he missed the deference so universally paid to him +in Olney, where he was the only lion. In Camden there were many to +divide the honors with him; and though he was perhaps unconscious +of it, he had been first so long that to be one of many firsts was +not altogether agreeable. With the new home and new associates more +like those to which she had been accustomed, Ethelyn had resumed +her training process, which was not now borne as patiently as in +the halcyon days of the honeymoon, when most things wore the +couleur de rose and were right because they came from the pretty +young bride. Richard chafed under the criticisms to which he was so +frequently subjected, and if he improved on them in the least it +was not perceptible to Ethlyn, who had just cause to blush for the +careless habits of her husband--habits which even Melinda observed, +when in August she spent a week with Ethelyn, and then formed one +of a party which went for a pleasure trip to St. Paul and +Minnehaha. From this excursion, which lasted for two weeks, Richard +returned to Camden in anything but an amiable frame of mind. +Ethelyn had not pleased him at all, notwithstanding that she had +been unquestionably the reigning belle of the party--the one whose +hand was claimed in every dance, and whose company was sought in +every ride and picnic. Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus faded into +nothingness when she was near, and they laughingly complained to +Richard that his wife had stolen all their beaux away, and they +wished he would make her do better.</p> +<p>"I wish I could," was his reply, spoken not playfully, but +moodily, just as he felt at the time.</p> +<p>He was not an adept in concealing his feelings, which generally +showed themselves upon his face, or were betrayed in the tones of +his voice, and when he spoke as he did of his wife the two young +girls glanced curiously at each other, wondering if it where +possible that the grave Judge was jealous. If charged with jealousy +Richard would have denied it, though he did not care to have +Ethelyn so much in Harry Clifford's society. Richard knew nothing +definite against Harry, except that he would occasionally drink +more than was wholly in accordance with a steady and safe +locomotion of his body; and once since they had been at the +Stafford House, where he also boarded, the young lawyer had been +invisible for three entire days. "Sick with a cold" was his excuse +when he appeared again at the table, with haggard face and +bloodshot eyes; but in the parlor, and halls, and private rooms, +there where whispers of soiled clothes and jammed hats, and the +servants bribed to keep the secret that young lawyer Clifford's +boots were carried dangling up to No. 94 at a very late hour of the +night on which he professed to have taken his cold. After this, +pretty Marcia Fenton, who, before Ethelyn came to town, had ridden +oftenest after the black horses owned by Harry, tossed her curls +when he came near, and arched her eyebrows in a manner rather +distasteful to the young man; while Ella Backus turned her back +upon him, and in his hearing gave frequent lectures on intemperance +and its loathsomeness. Ethelyn, on the contrary, made no difference +in her demeanor toward him. She cared nothing for him either way, +except that his polite attentions and delicate deference to her +tastes and opinions were complimentary and flattering, and so she +saw no reason why she should shun him because he had fallen once. +It might make him worse, and she should stand by him as an act of +philanthropy, she said to Richard when he asked her what she saw to +admire in that drunken Clifford.</p> +<p>Richard had no idea that Ethelyn cared in the least for Harry +Clifford; he knew she did not, though she sometimes singled him out +as one whose manners in society her husband would do well to +imitate. Of the two young men, Harry Clifford and Frank Van Buren, +who had been suggested to him as copies, Richard preferred the +former, and wished he could feel as easy with regard to Frank as he +was with regard to Harry. He had never forgotten that fragment of +conversation overheard in Washington, and as time went on it +haunted him more and more. He had given up expecting any confession +from Ethelyn, though at first he was constantly expecting it, and +laying little snares by way of hints and reminders; but Ethelyn had +evidently changed her mind, and if there was a past which Richard +ought to have known, he would now probably remain in ignorance of +it, unless some chance revealed it. It would have been far better +if Richard had tried to banish all thoughts of Frank Van Buren from +his mind and taken Ethelyn as he found her; but Richard was a man, +and so, manlike, he hugged the skeleton which he in part had +dragged into his home, and petted it, and kept it constantly in +sight, instead of thrusting it out from the chamber of his heart, +and barring the door against it. Frank's name was never mentioned +between them, but Richard fancied that always after the receipt of +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letters Ethelyn was a little sad, and more +disposed to find fault with him, and he sometimes wished Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren might never write to them again. There was one of her +letters awaiting Ethelyn after her return from Minnesota, and she +read it standing under the chandelier, with Richard lying upon the +couch near by, watching her curiously. There was something in the +letter which disturbed her evidently, for her face flushed, and her +lips shut firmly together, as they usually did when she was +agitated. Richard already read Aunt Barbara's letters, and +heretofore he had been welcome to Mrs. Van Buren's, a privilege of +which he seldom availed himself, for he found nothing interesting +in her talk of parties, and operas and fashions, and the last new +color of dress goods, and style of wearing the hair.</p> +<p>"It was too much twaddle for him," he had said in reply to +Ethelyn's questions as to whether he would like to see what Aunt +Van Buren had written.</p> +<p>Now, however, she did not offer to show him the letter, but +crumpled it nervously in her pocket, and going to her piano, began +to play dashingly, rapidly, as was her custom when excited. She did +not know that Richard was listening to her, much less watching her, +as he lay in the shadow, wondering what that letter contained, and +wishing so much that he knew. Ethelyn was tired that night, and +after the first heat of her excitement had been thrown off in a +spirited schottische, she closed her piano, and coming to the couch +where Richard was lying, sat down by his side, and after waiting a +moment in silence, asked "of what he was thinking."</p> +<p>There was something peculiar in the tone of her voice--something +almost beseeching, as if she either wanted sympathy, or +encouragement for the performance of some good act. But Richard did +not so understand her. He was, to tell the truth, a very little +cross, as men, and women, too, are apt to be when tired with +sight-seeing and dissipation. He had been away from his business +three whole weeks, traveling with a party for not one member of +which, with the exception of his wife, Melinda, Marcia, and Ella, +did he care a straw.</p> +<p>Hotel life at St. Paul he regarded as a bore, second only to +life at Saratoga. The falls of Minnehaha "was a very pretty little +stream," he thought, but what people could see about it go into +such ecstasies as Ethelyn, and even Melinda did, he could not tell. +Perhaps if Harry Clifford had not formed a part of every scene +where Ethelyn was the prominent figure, he might have judged +differently. But Harry had been greatly in his way, and Richard did +not like it any more than he liked Ethelyn's flirting so much with +him, and leaving him, her husband, to look about for himself. He +had shown, too, that he did not like it to Marcia Fenton and Ella +Backus who probably thought him a bear, as perhaps he was. On the +whole, Richard was very uncomfortable in his mind, and Aunt Van +Buren's letter did not tend in the least to improve his temper; so +when Ethelyn asked him of what he was thinking, and accompanied her +question with a stroke of her hand upon his hair, he answered her, +"Nothing much, except that I am tired and sleepy."</p> +<p>The touch upon his hair he had felt to his finger tips, for +Ethelyn seldom caressed him even as much as this; but he was in too +moody a frame of mind to respond as he would once have done. His +manner was not very encouraging, but, as if she had nerved herself +to some painful duty, Ethelyn persisted, and said to him next: "You +have not seen Aunt Van Buren's letter. Shall I read you what she +says?"</p> +<p>Every nerve in Richard's body had been quivering with curiosity +to see that letter, but now, when the coveted privilege was within +his reach, he refused it; and, little dreaming of all he was +throwing aside, answered indifferently: "No, I don't know that I +care to hear it. I hardly think it will pay. Where are they +now?"</p> +<p>"At Saratoga," Ethelyn replied; but her voice was not the same +which had addressed Richard first; there was a coldness, a +constraint in it now, as if her good resolution had been thrown +back upon her and frozen up the impulse prompting her to the +right.</p> +<p>Richard had had his chance with Ethelyn and lost it. But he did +not know it, or guess how sorry and disappointed she was when at +last she left him and retired to her sleeping-room. There was a +window open in the parlor, and as the wind was rising with a sound +of rain, Richard went to close it ere following his wife. The +window was near to the piano and as he shut it something rattled at +his feet. It was the crumpled letter, which Ethelyn had +accidentally drawn from her dress pocket with the handkerchief she +held in her hand when she sat down by Richard. He knew it was that +letter, and his first thought was to carry it to Ethelyn; then, as +he remembered her offer to read it to him, he said, "Surely there +can be no harm in reading it for myself. A man has a right to know +what is in a letter to his wife."</p> +<p>Thus reasoning, he sat down by the side light as far away from +the bedroom door as possible and commenced Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's +letter. They were stopping at the United States, and there was +nothing particular at first, except her usual remarks of the people +and what they wore; but on the third page Richard's eye caught +Frank's name, and skipping all else, leaped eagerly forward to what +the writer was saying of her son. His conduct evidently did not +please his mother; neither did the conduct of Nettie, who was too +insipid for anything, the lady wrote, adding that she was not half +so bright and pretty as when she was first married, but had the +headache and kept her own room most of the time, and was looking so +faded and worn that Frank was really ashamed of her.</p> +<p>"You know how he likes brilliant, sparkling girls," she wrote, +"and of course he has no patience with Nettie's fancied ailments. I +can't say that I altogether sympathize with her myself; and, dear +Ethie, I must acknowledge that it has more than once occurred to me +that I did very wrong to meddle with Frank's first love affair. He +would be far happier now if it had been suffered to go on, for I +suspect he has never entirely gotten over it; but it is too late +now for regrets. Nettie is his wife, and he must make the best of +it."</p> +<p>Then followed what seemed the secret of the Van Buren +discomfort. The bank in which most of Nettie's fortune was +deposited had failed, leaving her with only the scanty income of +five hundred dollars a year, a sum not sufficient to buy clothes, +Mrs. Van Buren said. But Richard did not notice this--his mind was +only intent upon Frank's first love affair, which ought to have +gone on. He did not ask himself whether, in case it had gone on, +Ethelyn would have been there, so near to him that her soft +breathing came distinctly to his ear. He knew she would not; there +had been something between her and Frank Van Buren, he was +convinced beyond a doubt, and the fiercest pang he had ever known +was that which came to him when he sat with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's +letter in his hand, wondering why Ethie had withheld the knowledge +of it from him, and if she had outlived the love which her aunt +regretted as having come to naught. Then, as the more generous part +of his nature began to seek excuses for her, he asked himself why +she offered to read the letter if she had really been concerned in +Frank's first love affair, and hope whispered that possibly she was +not the heroine of that romance. There was comfort in that thought: +and Richard would have been comforted if jealousy had not suggested +how easy it was for her to skip the part relating to Nettie and +Frank, and thus leave him as much in the dark as ever. Yes, that +was undoubtedly her intention. While seeming to be so open and +honest, she would have deceived him all the more. This was what +Richard decided, and his heart grew very hard against the young +wife, who looked so innocent and pretty in her quiet sleep, when at +last he sought his pillow and lay down by her side.</p> +<p>He was very moody and silent for days after that, and even his +clients detected an irritability in his manner which they had never +seen before. "There was nothing ailed him," he said to Ethelyn, +when she asked what was the matter, and accused him of being +positively cross. She was very gay; Camden society suited her; and +as the season advanced, and the festivities grew more and more +frequent, she was seldom at home more than one or two evenings in +the week, while the day was given either to the arrangement of +dress or taking of necessary rest, so that her husband saw +comparatively little of her, except for the moment when she always +came to him with hood and white cloak in hand to ask him how she +looked, before going to the carriage waiting at the door. Never in +her girlish days had she been so beautiful as she was now, but +Richard seldom told her so, though he felt the magic influence of +her brilliant beauty, and did not wonder that she was the reigning +belle. He seldom accompanied her himself. Parties, and receptions, +and concerts, were bores, he said; and at first he had raised +objections to her going without him. But after motherly Mrs. +Harris, who boarded in the next block, and was never happier than +when chaperoning someone, offered to see to her and take her under +the same wing which had sheltered six fine and now well-married +daughters, Richard made no further objections. He did not wish to +be thought a domestic tyrant; he did not wish to seem jealous, and +so he would wrap Ethie's cloak around her, and taking her himself +to Mrs. Harris' carriage, would give that lady sundry charges +concerning her, bidding her see that she did not dance till wholly +wearied out, and asking her to bring her home earlier than the +previous night. Then, returning to his solitary rooms, he would sit +nursing the demon which might so easily have been thrust aside. +Ethie was not insensible to his kindness in allowing her to follow +the bent of her own inclinations, even when it was so contrary to +his own, and for his sake she did many things she might not +otherwise have done. She snubbed Harry Clifford and the whole set +of dandies like him, so that, though they danced, and talked, and +laughed with her, they never crossed a certain line of propriety +which she had drawn between them. She was very circumspect; she +tried at first in various ways to atone to Richard for her long +absence from him, telling him whatever she thought would interest +him, and sometimes, when she found him waiting for her, and looking +so tired and sleepy, playfully chiding him for sitting up for her, +and telling him that though it was kind in him to do so, she +preferred that he should not. This was early in the season; but +after the day when Mrs. Markham, senior, came over from Olney to +spend the day, and "blow Richard's wife up," as she expressed it, +everything was changed, and Ethelyn stayed out as late as she liked +without any concessions to Richard. Mrs. Markham, senior, had heard +strange stories of Ethelyn's proceedings--"going to parties night +after night, with her dress shamefully low, and going to plays and +concerts bareheaded, with flowers and streamers in her hair, +besides wearing a mask, and pretending she was Queen Hortense."</p> +<p>"A pretty critter to be," Mrs. Markham had said to the kind +neighbor who had returned from Camden and was giving her the +particulars in full of Ethelyn's misdoings. "Yes, a pretty critter +to be! If I was goin' to turn myself into somebody else I'd take a +decent woman. I wonder at Richard's lettin' her; but, law! he is so +blind and she so headstrong!"</p> +<p>And the good woman groaned over this proof of depravity as she +questioned her visitor further with regard to Ethie's departures +from duty.</p> +<p>"And he don't go with her much, you say," she continued, feeling +more aggrieved than ever when she heard that on the occasion of +Ethie's personating Hortense, Richard had also appeared as a knight +of the sixteenth century, and borne his part so well that Ethelyn +herself did not recognize him until the mask was removed.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham could not suffer such high-handed wickedness to go +unrebuked, and taking as a peace offering, in case matters assumed +a serious aspect, a pot of gooseberry jam and a ball of head +cheese, she started for Camden the very next day.</p> +<p>Ethelyn did not expect her, but she received her kindly, and +knowing how she hated a public table, had dinner served in her own +room, and then, without showing the least impatience, waited a full +hour for Richard to come in from the court-house, where an +important suit was pending. Mrs. Markham was to return to Olney +that night, and as there was no time to lose, she brought the +conversation round to the "stories" she had heard, and little by +little laid on the lash till Ethelyn's temper was roused, and she +asked her mother-in-law to say out what she had to say at once, and +not skirt round it so long. Then came the whole list of +misdemeanors which Mrs. Markham thought "perfectly ridiculous," +asking her son how he "could put up with such work."</p> +<p>Richard wisely forbore taking either side; nor was it necessary +that he should speak for Ethie. She was fully competent to fight +her own battle, and she fought it with a will, telling her +mother-in-law that she should attend as many parties as she pleased +and wear as many masks. She did not give up her liberty of action +when she married. She was young yet, and should enjoy herself if +she chose, and in her own way.</p> +<p>This was all the satisfaction Mrs. Markham could get, and +supremely pitying "her poor boy," whom she mentally decided was +"henpecked," she took the cars back to Olney, saying to Richard, +who accompanied her to the train, "I am sorry for you from the +bottom of my heart. It would be better if you had stayed with +me."</p> +<p>Richard liked his mother's good opinion, but as he walked back +to the hotel he could not help feeling that a mother's interference +between man and wife was never very discreet, and he wished the +good woman had stayed at home. If he had said so to Ethelyn, when +on his return to his rooms he found her weeping passionately, there +might have come a better understanding between them, and she +probably would have stayed with him that evening instead of +attending the whist party given by Mrs. Miller. But he had fully +determined to keep silent, and when Ethelyn asked if she was often +to be subjected to such insults, he did not reply. He went with +her, however, to Mrs. Miller's, and knowing nothing of cards, +almost fell asleep while waiting for her, and playing backgammon +with another fellow-sufferer, who had married a young wife and was +there on duty.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham, senior, did not go to Camden again, and when +Christmas came, and with it an invitation for Richard and his wife +to dine at the farmhouse on the turkey Andy had fattened for the +occasion, Ethelyn peremptorily declined; and as Richard would not +go without her, Mrs. Jones and Melinda had their seats at table, +and Mrs. Markham wished for the hundredth time that Richard's +preference had fallen on the latter young lady instead of "that +headstrong piece who would be his ruin."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<h3>THE CRISIS</h3> +<br> +<p>It was the Tuesday before Lent. The gay season was drawing to a +close, for Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Miller, who led the fashionable +world of Camden before Ethelyn's introduction to it, were the +highest kind of church-women, and while neglecting the weightier +matters of the law were strict to bring their tithes of mint, and +anise, and cummin. They were going to wear sackcloth and ashes for +forty days and stay at home, unless, as Mrs. Miller said to +Ethelyn, they met occasionally in each other's house for a quiet +game of whist or euchre. There could be no harm in that, +particularly if they abstained on Fridays, as of course they +should. Mr. Bartow himself could not find fault with so simple a +recreation, even if he did try so hard to show what his views were +with regard to keeping the Lenten fast. Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Howard +intended to be very regular at the morning service, hoping that the +odor of sanctity with which they would thus be permeated would in +some way atone for the absence of genuine heart-religion and last +them for the remainder of the year. First, however, and as a means +of helping her in her intended seclusion from the world, Mrs. +Howard was to give the largest party of the season--a sort of +carnival, from which the revelers were expected to retire the +moment the silvery-voiced clock on her mantel struck the hour of +twelve and ushered in the dawn of Lent. It was to be a masquerade, +for the Camdenites had almost gone mad on that fashion which +Ethelyn had the credit of introducing into their midst; that is, +she was the first to propose a masquerade early in the season, +telling what she had seen and giving the benefit of her larger +experience in such matters.</p> +<p>It was a fashion which took wonderfully with the people, for the +curiosity and interest attaching to the characters was just suited +to the restless, eager temperament of the Camdenites, and they +entered into it with heart and soul, ransacking boxes and barrels +and worm-eaten chests, scouring the country far and near and even +sending as far as Davenport and Rock Island for the necessary +costumes. Andy himself had been asked by Harry Clifford to lend his +Sunday suit, that young scamp intending to personate some raw New +England Yankee; and that was how Mrs. Markham, senior, first came +to hear of the proceedings which, to one of her rigid views, +savored strongly of the pit, especially after she heard one of the +parties described by an eye-witness, who mentioned among other +characters his Satanic Majesty, as enacted by Harry Clifford, who +would fain have appeared next in Andy's clothes! No wonder the good +woman was enraged and took the next train for Camden, giving her +son and daughter a piece of her mind and winding up her discourse +with: "And they say you have the very de'il himself, with hoofs and +horns. I think you might have left him alone, for I reckon he was +there fast enough if you could not see him."</p> +<p>Ethelyn had not approved of Harry Clifford's choice, and with +others had denounced his taste as bad; but she enjoyed the +masquerades generally, and for this last and most elaborate of all +she had made great preparations. Richard had not opposed her +joining it, but he did wince a little when he found she was to +personate Mary, Queen of Scots, wishing that she would not always +select persons of questionable character, like Hortense and +Scotland's ill-fated queen. But Ethie had decided upon her role +without consulting him, and so he walked over piles of +ancient-looking finery and got his boots tangled in the golden wig +which Ethie had hunted up, and told her he should be glad when it +was over, and wished mentally that it might be Lent the year +around, and was persuaded into saying he would go to the party +himself, not as a masker, but in his own proper person as Richard +Markham, the grave and dignified Judge whom the people respected so +highly. Ethie was glad he was going. She would always rather have +him with her, if possible; and the genuine satisfaction she evinced +when he said he would accompany her did much toward reconciling him +to the affair about which so much was being said in Camden. When, +however, he came in to supper on Tuesday night complaining of a +severe headache, and saying he wished he could remain quietly at +home, inasmuch as he was to start early the next morning for St. +Louis, where he had business to transact, Ethelyn said to him: "If +you are sick, of course I will not compel you to go. Mr. and Mrs. +Miller will look after me."</p> +<p>She meant this kindly, for she saw that he was looking pale and +haggard, and Richard took it so then; but afterward her words +became so many scorpions stinging him into fury. It would seem as +if every box, and drawer, and bag, had been overturned, and the +contents brought to light, for ribbons, and flowers, and laces were +scattered about in wild confusion, while on the carpet, near the +drawer where Ethie's little mother-of-pearl box was kept, lay a +tiny note, which had inadvertently been dropped from its +hiding-place when Ethie opened the box in quest of something which +was wanted for Queen Mary's outfit. Richard saw the note just as he +saw the other litter, but paid no attention to it then, and after +supper was over went out as usual for his evening paper.</p> +<p>Gathered about the door of the office was a group of young men, +all his acquaintances, and all talking together upon some theme +which seemed to excite them greatly.</p> +<p>"Too bad to make such a fool of himself," one said, while +another added, "He ought to have known better than to order +champagne, when he knows what a beast a few drops will make of him, +and he had a first-class character for to-night, too."</p> +<p>Richard was never greatly interested in gossip of any kind, but +something impelled him now to ask of whom they were talking.</p> +<p>"Of Hal Clifford," was the reply. "A friend of his came last +night to Moore's Hotel, where Hal boards, and wishing to do the +generous host Hal ordered champagne and claret for supper, in his +room, and got drunker than a fool. It always lasts him a day or +two, so he is gone up for to-night."</p> +<p>Richard had no time to waste in words upon Harry Clifford, and +after hearing the story started for his boarding-place. His route +lay past the Moore House and as he reached it the door opened and +Harry came reeling down the steps. He was just drunk enough to be +sociable, and spying Richard by the light of the lamppost he +hurried to his side, and taking his arm in the confidential manner +he always assumed when intoxicated, he began talking in a +half-foolish, half-rational way, very disgusting to Richard, who +tried vainly to shake him off. Harry was not to be baffled, and +with a stammer and a hiccough he began: "I say--a--now, old chap, +don't be so fast to get rid of a cove. Wife waiting for you, I +suppose. Deuced fine woman. Envy you; I do, 'pon honor, and so does +somebody else. D'ye know her old beau that she used to be engaged +to, is here?"</p> +<p>"Who? What do you mean?" Richard asked, turning sharply upon his +companion, who continued:</p> +<p>"Why, Frank Van Buren. Cousin, you know; was chum with me in +college, so I know all about it. Don't you remember my putting it +to her that first time I met her at Mrs. Miller's? Mistrusted by +her blushing there was more than I supposed; and so there was. He +told me all about it last night."</p> +<p>Richard did not try now to shake off his comrade. There seemed +to be a spell upon him, and although he longed to thrash the +impudent young man, saying such things of Ethelyn, he held his +peace, with the exception of the single question:</p> +<p>"Frank Van Buren in town? Where is he stopping?"</p> +<p>"Up at Moore's. Came last night; and between you and me, Judge, +I took a little too much. Makes my head feel like a tub. Sorry for +Frank. He and his wife ain't congenial, besides she's lost her +money that Frank married her for. Serves him right for being so +mean to Mrs. Markham, and I told him so when he opened his heart +clear to the breast-bone and told me all about it; how his mother +broke it up about the time you were down there; and, Markham, you +don't mind my telling you, as an old friend, how he said she went +to the altar with a heavier heart than she would have carried to +her coffin. Quite a hifalutin speech for Frank, who used to be at +the foot of his class."</p> +<p>Richard grew faint and cold as death, feeling one moment an +impulse to knock young Clifford down, and the next a burning desire +to hear the worst, if, indeed, he had not already heard it. He +would not question Harry; but he would listen to all he had to say, +and so kept quiet, waiting for the rest. Harry was just enough +beside himself to take a malicious kind of satisfaction in +inflicting pain upon Richard, as he was sure he was doing. He knew +Judge Markham despised him, and though, when sober, he would have +shrunk from so mean a revenge, he could say anything now, and so +went on:</p> +<p>"She has not seen him yet, but will to-night, for he is going. I +got him invited as my friend. She knows he is here. He sent her a +note this morning. Pity I can't go, too; but I can't, for you see, +I know how drunk I am. Here we part, do we?" and Harry loosed his +hold of Richard's arm as they reached the corner of the street.</p> +<p>Wholly stunned by what he had heard, Richard kept on his way, +but not toward the Stafford House. He could not face Ethelyn yet. +He was not determined what course to pursue, and so he wandered on +in the darkness, through street after street, while the wintry wind +blew cold and chill about him; but he did not heed it, or feel the +keen, cutting blast. His blood was at a boiling heat, and the great +drops of sweat were rolling down his face, as, with head and +shoulders bent like an aged man, he walked rapidly on, revolving +all he had heard, and occasionally whispering to himself, "She +carried a heavier heart to the altar than she would have taken to +her coffin."</p> +<p>"Yes, I believe it now. I remember how white she was, and how +her hand trembled when I took it in mine. Oh! Ethie, Ethie, I did +not deserve this from you."</p> +<p>Resentment--hard, unrelenting resentment--was beginning to take +the place of the deep pain he had at first experienced, and it +needed but the sight of Mrs. Miller's windows, blazing with light, +to change the usually quiet, undemonstrative man into a demon.</p> +<p>"She is to meet him here to-night, it seems, and perhaps talk +over her blighted life. Never, no, never, so long as bolts and bars +have the power to hold her. She shall not disgrace herself, for +with all her faults she is my wife, and I have loved her so much. +Oh, Ethie, I love you still," and the wretched man leaned against a +post as he sent forth this despairing cry for the Ethie who he felt +was lost forever.</p> +<p>Every little incident which could tend to prove that what Harry +had said was true came to his mind; the conversation overheard in +Washington between Frank and Melinda, Ethelyn's unfinished letter, +to which she had never referred, and the clause in Aunt Van Buren's +letter relating to Frank's first love affair. He could not any +longer put the truth aside with specious arguments, for it stood +out in all its naked deformity, making him cower and shrink before +it. It was a very different man who went up the stairs of the +Stafford House to room No-- from the man who two hours before had +gone down them, and Ethelyn would hardly have known him for her +husband had she been there to meet him. Wondering much at his long +absence, she had at last gone on with her dressing, and then, as he +still did not appear, she had stepped for a moment to the room of a +friend, who was sick, and had asked to see her when she was ready. +Richard saw that she was out, and sinking into the first chair, his +eyes fell upon the note lying near the bureau drawer. The room had +partially been put to rights, but this had escaped Ethie's notice, +and Richard picked it up, glowering with rage, and almost foaming +at the mouth when, in the single word, "Ethie," on the back, he +recognized Frank Van Buren's writing!</p> +<p>He had it then--the note which his rival had sent, apprising his +wife of his presence in town, and he would read it, too. He had no +scruples about that, and his fingers tingled to his elbows as he +opened the note, never observing how yellow and worn it looked, or +that it was not dated. He had no doubt of its identity, and his +face grew purple with passion as he read:</p> +<p>"MY OWN DARLING ETHIE: Don't fail to be there to-night, and, if +possible, leave the 'old maid' at home, and come alone. We shall +have so much better time. Your devoted,</p> +<p>"FRANK."</p> +<p>Words could not express Richard's emotions as he held that note +in his shaking hand, and gazed at the words, "My own darling +Ethie." Quiet men like Richard Markham are terrible when roused; +and Richard was terrible in his anger, as he sat like a block of +stone, contemplating the proof of his wife's unfaithfulness. He +called it by that hard name, grating his teeth together as he +thought of her going by appointment to meet Frank Van Buren, who +had called him an "old maid," and planned to have him left behind +if possible. Then, as he recalled what Ethelyn had said about his +remaining at home if he were ill, he leaped to his feet, and an +oath quivered on his lips at her duplicity.</p> +<p>"False in every respect," he muttered, "and I trusted her so +much."</p> +<p>It never occurred to him that the note was a strange one for +what he imagined it to portend, Frank merely charging Ethelyn to be +present at the party, without even announcing his arrival or giving +any explanation for his sudden appearance in Camden. Richard was +too much excited to reason upon anything, and stood leaning upon +the piano, with his livid face turned toward the door, when Ethie +made her appearance, looking very pretty and piquant in her Mary +Stuart guise. She held her mask in her hand, but when she caught a +glimpse of him she hastily adjusted it, and springing forward, +"Where were you so long? I began to think you were never coming. We +shall be among the very last. How do I look as Mary? Am I pretty +enough to make an old maid like Elizabeth jealous of me?"</p> +<p>Had anything been wanting to perfect Richard's wrath, that +allusion to an "old maid" would have done it. It was the drop in +the brimming bucket, and Richard exploded at once, hurling such +language at Ethelyn's head that, white and scared, and panting for +breath, she put up both her hands to ward off the storm, and asked +what it all meant. Richard had locked the door, the only entrance +to their room, and stooping over Ethelyn he hissed into her ear his +meaning, telling her all he had heard from Harry Clifford, and +asking if it were true. Ere Ethelyn could reply there was a knock +at the door, and a servant's voice called out, "Carriage waiting +for Mrs. Markham."</p> +<p>It was the carriage sent by Mrs. Miller for Ethelyn, and quick +as thought Richard stepped to the door, and unlocking it, said +hastily, "Give Mrs. Miller Mrs. Markham's compliments, and say she +cannot be present to-night. Tell her she regrets it exceedingly"; +and Richard's voice was very bitter and sarcastic in its tone as he +closed the door upon the astonished waiter; and relocking it, he +returned again to Ethelyn, who had risen to her feet, and with a +different expression upon her face from the white, scared look it +had worn at first, stood confronting him fearlessly now, and even +defiantly, for this bold step had roused her from her apathy; and +in a fierce whisper, which, nevertheless, was as clear and distinct +as the loudest tones could have been; she asked, "Am I to +understand that I am a prisoner here in my own room? It is your +intention to keep me from the party?"</p> +<p>"It is," and with his back against the door, as if doubly to bar +her egress, Richard regarded her gloomily, while he charged her +with the special reason why she wished to go. "It was to meet Frank +Van Buren, your former lover," he said, asking if she could deny +it.</p> +<p>For a moment Ethelyn stood irresolute, mentally going over all +that would be said if she stayed from Mrs. Miller's, where she was +to be the prominent one, and calculating her strength to stem the +tide of wonder and conjecture as to her absence which was sure to +follow. She could not meet it, she decided; she must go, at all +hazards, even if, to achieve her purpose, she made some concessions +to the man who had denounced her so harshly, and used such language +as is not easily forgotten.</p> +<p>"Richard," she began, and her eyes had a strange glittering +light in them, "with regard to the past I shall say nothing now, +but that Frank was here in Camden I had not the slightest knowledge +till I heard it from you. Believe me, Richard, and let me go. My +absence will seem very strange, and cause a great deal of remark. +Another time I may explain what would best have been explained +before."</p> +<p>The light in her eyes was softer now, and her voice full of +entreaty; for Ethie felt almost as if pleading for her life. But +she might as well have talked to the wall for any good results it +produced. Richard was moved from his lofty height of wrath and +vindictiveness, but he did not believe her. How could he, with the +fatal note in his hand, and the memory of the degrading epithet it +contained, and which Ethie, too, had used against him, still +ringing in his ears? The virgin queen of England was never more +stony and inexorable with regard to the unfortunate Mary than was +Richard toward his wife, and the expression of his face froze all +the better emotions rising in Ethie's heart, as she felt that in a +measure she was reaping a just retribution for her long +deception.</p> +<p>"I do not believe you, madam," Richard said; "and if I were +inclined to do so, this note, which Harry said was sent to you, and +which I found upon the floor, would tell me better," and tossing +into her lap the soiled bit of paper, accomplishing so much harm, +he continued: "There is my proof; that in conjunction with the name +of opprobrium, which you remember you insinuatingly used, asking if +you were pretty enough to make the old maid, Elizabeth, jealous. +You are pretty enough, madam; but it is an accursed beauty which +would attract to itself men of Frank Van Buren's stamp."</p> +<p>Richard could not get over that epithet. He would have forgiven +the other sin almost as soon as this, and his face was very dark +and stern as he watched Ethelyn reading the little note. She knew +in a moment what it was, and the suddenness of its appearance +before her turned her white and faint. It brought back so vividly +the day when she received it--six or seven years ago, the lazy +September day, when the Chicopee hills wore the purplish light of +early autumn, and the air was full of golden sunshine. It was a few +weeks after the childish betrothal among the huckleberry hills, and +Frank had come up to spend a week with a boy friend of his, who +lived across the river. There was to be an exhibition in the white +schoolhouse, in the river district, and Frank had written, urging +her to come, and asking that Aunt Barbara should be left +behind--"the old maid," he sometimes called her to his cousin, +thinking it sounded smart and manlike. Aunt Barbara had stayed at +home from choice, sending her niece in charge of Susie Granger's +mother; but the long walk home, after the exercises were over, the +lingering, loitering walk across the causeway, where the fog was +riding so damply, the stopping on the bridge, and looking down into +the deep, dark water, where the stars were reflected so brightly, +the slow climbing of the depot hill, and the long talk by the gate +beneath the elms, whose long arms began to drop great drops of dew +on Ethie's head ere the interview was ended--all this had been +experienced with Frank, whose arm was around the young girl's +waist, and whose hand was clasping hers, as with boyish pride and a +laughable effort to seem manly, he talked of "our engagement," and +even leaped forward in fancy to the time "when we are married."</p> +<p>All this came back to Ethelyn, and she seemed to feel again the +breath of the September night, and see through the clustering +branches the flashing light waiting for her in the dear old room in +Chicopee. She forgot for a moment the stern, dark face watching her +so jealously, and so hardening toward her as he saw how pale she +grew, and heard her exclamation of surprise when she first +recognized the note, and remembered that in turning over the +contents of the ebony box she must have dropped it upon the +floor.</p> +<p>"Do you still deny all knowledge of Frank's presence in town?" +Richard asked, and his voice recalled Ethelyn from the long ago +back to the present time.</p> +<p>He was waiting for her answer; but Ethie had none to give. Her +hot, imperious temper was in the ascendant now. She was a prisoner +for the night; her own husband was the jailer, who she felt was +unjust to her, and she would make no explanations, at least not +then. He might think what he liked or draw any inference he pleased +from her silence. And so she made him no reply, except to crush +into her pocket the paper which she should have burned on that +morning when, crouching on the hearthstone at home, she destroyed +all other traces of a past which ought never to have been. He could +not make her speak, and his words of reproach might as well have +been given to the winds as to that cold, statue-like woman, who +mechanically laid aside the fanciful costume in which she was +arrayed, doing everything with a deliberation and coolness more +exasperating to Richard than open defiance would have been. A +second knock at the door, and another servant appeared, saying, +apologetically, that the note he held in his hand had been left at +the office for Mrs. Markham early in the morning, but forgotten +till now.</p> +<p>"Give it to me, if you please. It is mine," Ethelyn said, and +something in her voice and manner kept Richard quiet while she took +the offered note and went back to the chandelier where, with a +compressed lip and burning cheek, she read the genuine note sent by +Frank.</p> +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<p>"Dear cousin," he wrote, "business for a Boston firm has brought +me to Camden, where they have had debt standing out. Through the +influence of Harry Clifford, who was a college chum of mine, I have +an invitation to Mrs. Miller's, where I hope to meet yourself and +husband. I should call to-day, but I know just how busy you must be +with your costume, which I suppose you wish to keep incog., even +from me. I shall know you, though, at once. See if I do not. +Wishing to be remembered to the Judge, I am, yours truly,</p> +<p>"FRANK VAN BUREN."</p> +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<p>This is what Ethelyn read, knowing, as she read, that it would +make matters right between herself and husband--at least so far as +an appointment was concerned; but she would not show it to him +then. She was too angry, too much aggrieved, to admit of any +attempts on her part for a reconciliation; so she put that note +with the other, and then went quietly on arranging her things in +their proper places. Then, when this was done, she sat down by the +window and peering out into the wintry darkness watched the many +lights and moving figures in Mrs. Miller's house, which could be +distinctly seen from the hotel. Richard still intended to take the +early train for St. Louis, and so he retired at last, but Ethelyn +sat where she was until the carriages taking the revelers home had +passed, and the lights were out in Mrs. Miller's windows, and the +bell of St. John's had ushered in the second hour of the fast. Not +then did she join her husband, but lay down upon the sofa, where he +found her when at six o'clock he came from his broken, feverish +sleep, to say his parting words. He had contemplated the propriety +of giving up his trip and remaining at home while Frank Van Buren +was in town, but this he could not very well do.</p> +<p>"I will leave her to herself," he thought, "trusting that what +has passed will deter her from any further improprieties."</p> +<p>Something like this he said to her when, in the gray dawn, he +stood before her, equipped for his journey; but Ethelyn did not +respond, and with her cold, dead silence weighing more upon him +than bitter reproaches would have done, Richard left her and took +his way through the chill, snowy morning to the depot, little +dreaming as he went of when and how he and Ethelyn would meet +again.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<h3>THE RESULT</h3> +<br> +<p>The bell in the tower of St. John's pealed forth its summons to +the house of prayer, and one by one, singly or in groups, the +worshipers went up to keep this first solemn day of Lent--true, +sincere worshipers, many of them, who came to weep, and pray, and +acknowledge their past misdeeds; while others came from habit, and +because it was the fashion, their pale, haggard faces and heavy +eyes telling plainly of the last night's dissipation, which had +continued till the first hour of the morning. Mrs. Howard was +there, and Mrs. Miller, too, both glancing inquiringly at Judge +Markham's pew and then wonderingly at each other. Ethelyn was not +there. She had breakfast in her room after Richard left, and when +that was over had gone mechanically to her closet and drawers and +commenced sorting her clothes--hanging away the gayest, most +expensive dresses, and laying across chairs and upon the bed the +more serviceable ones, such as might properly be worn on ordinary +occasions. Why she did this she had not yet clearly defined, and +when, after her wardrobe was divided, and she brought out the heavy +traveling trunk, made for her in Boston, she was not quite certain +what she meant to do. She had been sorely wounded, and, as she +thought, without just cause. She knew she was to blame for not +having told Richard of Frank before she became his wife, but of the +things with which he had so severely charged her she was guiltless, +and every nerve quivered and throbbed with passion and resentment +as she recalled the scene of the previous night, going over again +with the cruel words Richard had uttered in his jealous anger, and +then burning with shame and indignation as she thought of being +locked in her room, and kept from attending the masquerade, where +her absence must have excited so much wonder.</p> +<p>"What did they say, and what can I tell them when we meet?" she +thought, just as Mrs. Howard's voice was heard in the upper +hall.</p> +<p>Church was out, and several of the more intimate of Ethie's +friends had stopped at the Stafford House to inquire into so +strange a proceeding.</p> +<p>"Come to see if you were sick, or what, that you disappointed me +so. I was vexed enough, I assure you," Mrs. Miller said, looking +curiously enough at Ethelyn, whose face was white as ashes, save +where a crimson spot burned on her cheeks, and whose lips were +firmly pressed together.</p> +<p>She did not know what to say, and when pressed to give a reason +stammered out:</p> +<p>"Judge Markham wished me to stay with him, and as an obedient +wife I stayed."</p> +<p>With ready tact the ladies saw that something was wrong, and +kindly forbore further remarks, except to tell what a grand affair +it was, and how much she was missed. But Ethie detected in their +manner an unspoken sympathy or pity, which exasperated and +humiliated her more than open words would have done. Heretofore she +had been the envy of the entire set, and it wounded her deeply to +fall from that pedestal to the level of ordinary people. She was no +longer the young wife, whose husband petted and humored her so +much, but the wife whose husband was jealous and tyrannical, and +even abusive, where language was concerned, and she could not rid +herself of the suspicion that her lady friends knew more than they +professed to know, and was heartily glad when they took their +departure and left her again alone.</p> +<p>There was another knock at her door, and a servant handed in a +card bearing Frank Van Buren's name. He was in the office, the +waiter said. Should he show the gentleman up?</p> +<p>Ethie hesitated a moment, and then taking her pencil wrote upon +the back of the card, "I am too busy to see you to-day."</p> +<p>The servant left the room, and Ethelyn went back to where her +clothes were scattered about and the great trunk was standing open. +She did not care to see Frank Van Buren now. He was the direct +cause of every sorrow she had known, and bitter feelings were +swelling in her heart in place of the softer emotions she had once +experienced toward him. He was nothing to her now. Slowly but +gradually the flame had been dying out, until Richard had nothing +to dread from him, and he was never nearer to winning his wife's +entire devotion than on that fatal night when, by his jealousy and +rashness, he built so broad a gulf between them.</p> +<p>"It is impossible that we should ever live together again, after +all that has transpired," Ethelyn said, as she stood beside her +trunk and involuntarily folded up a garment and laid it on the +bottom.</p> +<p>She had reached a decision, and her face grew whiter, stonier, +as she made haste to act upon it. Every article which Richard had +bought was laid aside and put away in the drawers and bureaus she +would never see again. These were not numerous, for her bridal +trousseau had been so extensive that but few demands had been made +upon her husband's purse for dress, and Ethelyn felt glad that it +was so. It did not take long to put them away, or very long to pack +the trunk, and then Ethie sat down to think "what next?"</p> +<p>Only a few days before a Mr. Bailey, who boarded in the house, +and whose daughter was taking music lessons, had tried to purchase +her piano, telling her that so fine a player as herself ought to +have one with a longer keyboard. Ethie had thought so herself, +wishing sometimes that she had a larger instrument, which was +better adapted to the present style of music, but she could not +bring herself to part with Aunt Barbara's present. Now, however, +the case was different. Money she must have, and as she scorned to +take it from the bank, where her check was always honored, she +would sell her piano. It was hers to do with as she liked, and when +Mr. Bailey passed her door at dinner time he was asked to step in +and reconsider the matter. She had changed her mind, she said. She +was willing to sell it now; there was such a superb affair down at +Shumway's Music Room. Had Mr. Bailey seen it?</p> +<p>Ethie's voice was not quite steady, for she was not accustomed +to deception of this kind, and the first step was hard. But Mr. +Bailey was not at all suspicious, and concluded the bargain at +once; and two hours later Ethie's piano was standing between the +south windows of Mrs. Bailey's apartment, and Ethie, in her own +room, was counting a roll of three hundred dollars, and deciding +how far it would go.</p> +<p>"There's my pearls," she said, "if worst comes to worst I can +sell them and my diamond ring."</p> +<p>She did not mean Daisy's ring. She would not barter that, or +take it with her, either. Daisy never intended it for a runaway +wife, and Ethelyn must leave it where Richard would find it when he +came back and found her gone. And then as Ethie in her anger +exulted over Richard's surprise and possible sorrow when he found +himself deserted, some demon from the pit whispered in her ear, +"Give him back the wedding ring. Leave that for him, too, and so +remove every tie which once bound you to him."</p> +<p>It was hard to put off Daisy's ring, and Ethelyn paused and +reflected as the clear stone seemed to reflect the fair, innocent +face hanging on the walls at Olney. But Ethie argued that she had +no right to it, and so the dead girl's ring was laid aside, and +then the trembling fingers fluttered about the plain gold band +bearing the date of her marriage. But when she essayed to remove +that, too, blood-red circles danced before her eyes, and such a +terror seized her that her hands dropped powerless into her lap and +the ring remained in its place.</p> +<p>It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and the cars for Olney +left at seven. She was going that way as far as Milford, where she +could take another route to the East. She would thus throw Richard +off the track if he tried to follow her, and also avoid immediate +remark in the hotel. They would think it quite natural that in her +husband's absence she should go for a few days to Olney, she +reasoned; and they did think so in the office when at six she asked +that her trunk be taken to the station. Her rooms were all in +order. She had made them so herself, sweeping and dusting, and even +leaving Richard's dressing-gown and slippers by the chair where he +usually sat the evenings he was at home. The vacancy left by the +piano would strike him at once, she knew, and so she moved a tall +bookcase up there, and put a sofa where the bookcase had been, and +a large chair where the sofa had been, and pushed the center table +into the large chair's place; and then her work was done--the last +she would ever do in that room, or for Richard either. The last of +everything is sad, and Ethie felt a thrill of pain as she whispered +to herself, "It is the last, last time," and then thought of the +outer world which lay all unknown before her. She would not allow +herself to think, lest her courage should give way, and tried, by +dwelling continually upon Richard's cruel words, to steel her heart +against the good impulses which were beginning to suggest that what +she was doing might not, after all, be the wisest course. What +would the world say?--and dear Aunt Barbara, too? How it would +wring her heart when she heard the end to which her darling had +come! And Andy--simple, conscientious, praying Andy--Ethie's heart +came up in her throat when she thought of him and his grief at her +desertion.</p> +<p>"I will write to Andy," she said. "I will tell him how thoughts +of him almost deterred me from my purpose," and opening her little +writing desk, which Richard gave her at Christmas, she took up her +pen and held it poised a moment, while something said: "Write to +Richard, too. Surely you can do so much for him. You can tell him +the truth at last, and let him know how he misjudged you."</p> +<p>And so the name which Ethie first wrote down upon the paper was +not "Dear Brother Andy," but simply that of "Richard."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<h3>ETHIE'S LETTERS</h3> +<br> +<p>"Stafford House, Feb.--,</p> +<p>"Five o'clock in the afternoon.</p> +<p>"RICHARD: I am going away from you forever, and When you recall +the words you spoke to me last night, and the deep humiliation you +put upon me, you will readily understand that I go because we +cannot live together any longer as man and wife. You said things to +me, Richard, which women find hard to forgive, and which they never +can forget. I did not deserve that you should treat me so, for, bad +as I may have been in other respects, I am innocent of the worst +thing you alleged against me, and which seemed to excite you so +much. Until I heard it from you, I did not know Frank Van Buren was +within a thousand miles of Camden. The note from him which I leave +with this letter, and which you will remember was brought to the +door by a servant, who said it had been mislaid and forgotten, will +prove that I tell you truly. The other note which you found, and +which must have fallen from the box where I kept it, was written +years ago, when I was almost a little girl, with no thought that I +ever could be the humbled, wretched creature I am now.</p> +<p>"Let me tell you all about it, Richard--how I happened to be +engaged to Frank, and how wounded and sore and sorry I was when you +came the second time to Chicopee, and asked me to be your +wife."</p> +<p>Then followed the whole story of Ethelyn's first love. Nothing +was concealed, nothing kept back. Even the dreariness of the day +when Aunt Van Buren came up from Boston and broke poor Ethie's +heart, was described and dwelt upon with that particularity which +shows how the lights, and shadows, and sunshine, and storms which +mark certain events in one's history will impress themselves upon +one's mind, as parts of the great joy or sorrow which can never be +forgotten. Then she spoke of meeting Richard, and the train of +circumstances which finally led to their betrothal.</p> +<p>"I wanted to tell you about Frank that night, on the shore of +the pond, when you told me of Abigail, and twice I made up my mind +to do so, but something rose up to prevent it, and after that it +was very hard to do so."</p> +<p>She did not tell him how she at first shrank away from his +caresses with a loathing which made her flesh creep, but she +confessed that she did not love him, even when taking the marriage +vow.</p> +<p>"But I meant to be true to you, Richard. I meant to be a good +wife, and never let you know how I felt. You were different from +Frank; different from most men whom I had met, and you did annoy me +so at times. You will tell me I was foolish to lay so much stress +on little things, and so, perhaps, I was; but little things, rather +than big, make up the sum of human happiness, and, besides, I was +too young to fully understand how any amount of talent and brain +could atone for absence of culture of manner. Then, too, I was so +disappointed in your home and family. You know how unlike they are +to my own, but you can never know how terrible it was to me who had +formed so different an estimate of them. I suppose you will say I +did not try to assimilate, and perhaps I did not. How could I, when +to be like them was the thing I dreaded most of all? I do believe +they tried to be kind, especially your brothers, and I shall ever +be grateful to them for their attempt to please and interest me +during that dreadful winter I spent alone, with you in Washington. +You did wrong, Richard, not to take me with you, when I wanted so +much to go. I know that, after what happened, you and your mother +think you were fully justified in what you did; but, Richard, you +are mistaken. The very means you took to avert a catastrophe +hastened it instead. The cruel disappointment and terrible +homesickness which I endured hastened our baby's birth, and cost +its little life. Had it lived, Richard, I should have been a better +woman from what I am now. It would have been something for me to +love, and oh, my heart did ache so for an object on which to +fasten. I did not love you when I became your wife, but I was +learning to do so. When you came home from Washington I was so glad +to see you, and I used to listen for your step when you went to +Olney and it was time for you to return. Just in proportion as I +was drawn toward you, Frank fell in my estimation, and I wanted to +tell you all about it, and begin anew. I was going to do so in that +letter commenced the night I was taken so ill, and two or three +times afterwards I thought I would do it. Do you remember that +night of our return from St. Paul? I found a letter from Aunt Van +Buren, and asked if you would like to hear it. You seemed so +indifferent and amost cross about it, that the good angel left me, +and your chance was lost again. There was something in that letter +about Frank and me--something which would have called forth +questions from you, and I meant to explain if you would let me. +Think, Richard. You will remember the night. You lay upon the sofa, +and I sat down beside you, and smoothed your hair. I was nearer to +loving you then than I ever was before; but you put me off, and the +impulse did not come again--that is, the impulse of confession. A +little more consideration on your part for what you call my airs +and high notions would have won me to you, for I am not insensible +to your many sterling virtues, and I do believe that you did love +me once. But all that is over now. I made a great mistake when I +came to you, and perhaps I am making a greater one in going from +you. But I think not. We are better apart, especially after the +indignities of last night. Where I am going it does not matter to +you. Pursuit will be useless, inasmuch as I shall have the start of +a week. Neither do I think you will search for me much. You will he +happier without me, and it is better that I should go. You will +give the accompanying note to Andy. Dear Andy, my heart aches to +its very core when I think of him, and know that his grief for me +will be genuine. I leave you Daisy's ring. I am not worthy to keep +that, so I give it back. I wish I could make you free from me +entirely, if that should be your wish. Perhaps some time you will +be, and then when I am nothing to you save a sad memory, you will +think better of me than you do now.</p> +<p>"Good-by, Richard. We shall probably never meet again. +Good-by.</p> +<p>"ETHIE."</p> +<p>She did not stop to read what she had written. There was not +time for that, and taking a fresh sheet, she wrote:</p> +<p>"DEAR, DARLING ANDY: If all the world were as good, and kind, +and true as you, I should not be writing this letter, with my +arrangements made for flight. Richard will tell you why I go. It +would take me too long. I have been very unhappy here, though none +of my wretchedness has been caused by you. Dear Andy, if I could +tell you how much I love you, and how sorry I am to fall in your +opinion, as I surely shall when you hear what has happened. Do not +hate me, Andy, and sometimes when you pray, remember Ethie, won't +you? She needs your prayers so much, for she cannot pray herself. I +do not want to be wholly bad--do not want to be lost forever; and I +have faith that God will hear you. The beautiful consistency of +your everyday life and simple trust, have been powerful sermons to +me, convincing me that there is a reality in the religion you +profess. Go on, Andy, as you have begun, and may the God whom I am +not worthy to name, bless you, and keep you, and give you every +possible good. In fancy I wind my arms around your neck, and kiss +your dear, kind face, as, with scalding tears, I write you +good-by.</p> +<p>"Farewell, Andy, darling Andy, farewell."</p> +<p>Ethelyn had not wept before, but now, as Andy rose up before her +with the thought that she should see him no more, her tears poured +like rain, and blotted the sheet on which she had written to him. +It hurt her more, if possible, to lose his respect than that of any +other person, and for a half-instant she wavered in the decision. +But it was too late now. The piano was sold and delivered, and if +she tarried she had no special excuse to offer for its sale. She +must carry out her plan, even though it proved the greatest mistake +of her life. So the letters were directed and put, with Daisy's +ring, in the little drawer of the bureau, where Richard would be +sure to find them when he came back. Perhaps, as Ethie put them +there, she thought how they might be the means of a reconciliation; +that Richard, after reading her note, would move heaven and earth +to find her, and having done so, would thenceforth be her willing +slave; possibly, too, remembering the harsh things he had so +recently said to her, she exulted a little as she saw him coming +back to his deserted home, and finding his domestic altar laid low +in the dust. But if this was so she gave no sign, and though her +face was deathly pale, her nerves were steady and her voice calm, +as she gave orders concerning her baggage, and then when it was +time, turned the key upon her room, and left it with the clerk, to +whom she said:</p> +<p>"I shall not be back until my husband returns."</p> +<p>She was going to Olney, of course--going to see his folks, the +landlady said, when she heard Mrs. Markham had gone; and so no +wonder was created among the female boarders, except that Ethelyn +had not said good-by to a single one of them. She was not equal to +that. Her great desire was to escape unseen, and with a veil drawn +closely over her face, she sat in the darkest corner of the ladies' +room, waiting impatiently for the arrival of the train, and +glancing furtively at the people around her. Groups of men were +walking up and down upon the platform without, and among them Frank +Van Buren. On his way to the cars he had called again at the +Stafford House, and learned that Mrs. Markham was out.</p> +<p>"I'll see her when I return," he thought, and so went his way to +the train, which would take him to his next point of +destination.</p> +<p>Never once dreaming how near he was to her, Ethie drew her veil +and furs more closely around her, and turning her face to the +frosty window, gazed drearily out into the wintry darkness as they +sped swiftly on. She hardly knew where she was going or what she +could do when she was there. She was conscious only of the fact +that she was breaking away from scenes and associations which had +been so distasteful to her--that she was leaving a husband who had +been abusive to her, and she verily believed she had just cause for +going. The world might not see it so, perhaps, but she did not care +for the world. She was striking out a path of her own, and with her +heart as sore and full of anger as it then was, she felt able to +cope with any difficulty, so that her freedom was achieved. They +were skirting across the prairie now; and the lights of Olney were +in sight. Perhaps she could see the farmhouse, and rubbing, with +her warm palm, the moisture from the window-pane, she looked +wistfully out in the direction of Richard's home. Yes, there it +was, and a light shining from the sitting-room window, as if they +expected her. But Ethie was not going there, and with something +like a sigh as she thought of Andy so near, yet separated so widely +from her, she turned from the window and rested her tired head upon +her hands while they stayed at Olney. It was only a moment they +stopped, but to Ethie it seemed an age, and her heart almost +stopped its beating when she heard the voice of Terrible Tim just +outside the car. He was not coming in, as she found after a moment +of breathless waiting; he was only speaking to an acquaintance, who +stepped inside and took a seat by the stove, just as the train +plunged again into the darkness, leaving behind a fiery track to +mark its progress across the level prairie.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<h3>THE DESERTED HUSBAND</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard had been very successful in St. Louis. The business +which took him there had been more than satisfactorily arranged. He +had collected a thousand-dollar debt he never expected to get, and +had been everywhere treated with the utmost deference and +consideration, as a man whose worth was known and appreciated. But +Richard was ill at ease, and his face wore a sad, gloomy +expression, which many remarked, wondering what could be the nature +of the care so evidently preying upon him. Do what he might, he +could not forget the white, stony face which had looked at him so +strangely in the gray morning, nor shut out the icy tones in which +Ethie had last spoken to him. Besides this, Richard was thinking of +all he had said to her in the heat of passion, and wishing he could +recall it in part at least. He was very indignant, very angry +still, for he believed her guilty of planning to meet Frank Van +Buren at the party and leave him at home, while his heart beat with +keen throbs of pain when he remembered that Ethie's first love was +not given to him--that she would have gone to her grave more +willingly than she went with him to the altar; but he need not have +been so harsh with her--that was no way to make her love him. +Kindness must win her back should she ever be won, and impatient to +be reconciled, if reconciliation were now possible, Richard chafed +at the necessary delays which kept him a day longer in St. Louis +than he had at first intended.</p> +<p>Ethie had been gone just a week when he at last found himself in +the train which would take him back to Camden. First, however, he +must stop at Olney; the case was imperative--and so he stepped from +the train one snowy afternoon when the February light shone cold +and blue upon the little town and the farmhouse beyond. His +brothers were feeding their flocks and herds in the rear yard to +the east; but they came at once to greet him, and ask after his +welfare. The light snow which had fallen that day was lying upon +the front door-steps undisturbed by any track, so Richard entered +at the side. Mrs. Markham was dipping candles, and the faint, +sickly odor of the hot melted tallow, which filled Richard's +olfactories as he came in, was never forgotten, but remembered as +part and parcel of that terrible day which would have a place in +his memory so long as being lasted. Every little thing was +impressed upon his mind, and came up afterward with vivid +distinctness whenever he thought of that wretched time. There was a +bit of oilcloth on the floor near to the dripping candles, and he +saw the spots of tallow which had dropped and dried upon it--saw, +too, his mother's short red gown and blue woolen stockings, as she +got up to meet him, and smelled the cabbage cooking on the stove, +for they were having a late dinner that day--the boys' favorite, +and what Mrs. Markham designated as a "dish of biled vittles."</p> +<p>Richard had seen his mother dip candles before--nay, had +sometimes assisted at the dipping. He had seen her short striped +gown and blue woolen stockings, and smelled the cooking cabbage, +but they never struck him with so great a sense of discomfort as +they did to-day when he stood, hat in hand, wondering why home +seemed so cheerless. It was as if the shadow of the great shock +awaiting him had already fallen upon him, oppressing him with a +weight he could not well shake off. He had no thought that any harm +had come to Ethie, and yet his first question was for her. Had his +mother heard from her while he was away, or did she know if she was +well?</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham's under jaw dropped, in the way peculiar to her +when at all irritated, but she did not answer at once; she waited a +moment, while she held the rod poised over the iron kettle, and +with her forefinger deliberately separated any of the eight candles +which showed a disposition to stick together; then depositing them +upon the frame and taking up another rod, she said:</p> +<p>"Miss Plympton was down to Camden three or four days ago, and +she said Ann Merrills, the chambermaid at the Stafford House, told +her Ethelyn had come to Olney to stay with us while you was away; +but she must have gone somewhere else, as we have not seen her +here. Gone to visit that Miss Amsden, most likely, that lives over +the creek."</p> +<p>"What makes you think she has gone there?" Richard asked, with a +sudden spasm of fear, for which he could not account, and which was +not in any wise diminished by his mother's reply: "Ann said she +took the six o'clock train for Olney, and as Miss Amsden lives +beyond us, it's likely she went there, and is home by this +time."</p> +<p>Richard accepted this supposition, but it was far from +reassuring him. The load he had felt when he first came into the +kitchen was pressing more and more heavily, and he wished that he +had gone straight on instead of stopping at Olney. But now there +was nothing to do but to wait with what patience he could command +until the next train came and carried him to Camden.</p> +<p>It was nine o'clock when he reached there, and a stiff +northeaster was blowing down the streets with gusts of sleet and +rain, but he did not think of it as he hurried on toward the +Stafford House, with that undefined dread growing stronger and +stronger as he drew near. He did not know what he feared, nor why +he feared it. He should find Ethie there, he said. She surely had +returned from her visit by this time; he should see the lights from +the windows shining out upon the park, just as he had seen them +many other nights when hastening back to Ethie. He would take the +shortest route down that dark, narrow alley, and so gain a moment +of time. The alley was traversed at last, also the square, and he +turned the corner of the street where stood the Stafford House. +Halting for an instant, he strained his eyes to see if he were +mistaken, or was there no light in the window, no sign that Ethie +was there. There were lights below, and lights above, but the +second floor was dark, the shutters closed, and all about them a +look of silence and desertion, which quickened Richard's footsteps +to a run. Up the private staircase he went, and through the narrow +hall, till he reached his door and found it locked. Ethie was +surely gone. She had not expected him so soon. Mrs. Amsden had +urged her to stay, and she had stayed. This was what Richard said, +as he went down to the office for the key, which the clerk handed +him, with the remark: "Mrs. Markham went to Olney the very day you +left. I thought perhaps you would stop there and bring her +home."</p> +<p>Richard did not reply, but hurried back to the darkened room, +where everything was in order; even Ethie's work-box was in its +usual place upon the little table, and Ethie's chair was standing +near; but something was missing--something besides Ethie--and its +absence made the room look bare and strange as the gas-light fell +upon it. The piano was gone or moved. It must be the latter, and +Richard looked for it in every corner, even searching in the +bedroom and opening the closet door, as if so ponderous a thing +could have been hidden there! It was gone, and so was Ethie's +trunk, and some of Ethie's clothes, for he looked to see, and then +mechanically went out into the hall, just as Mr. Bailey came +upstairs and saw him.</p> +<p>"Ho, Judge! is that you? Glad to see you back. Have been +lonesome with you and your wife both away. Do you know of the trade +we made--she and I--the very day you left? She offered me her piano +for three hundred dollars, and I took her up at once. A fine +instrument, that, but a little too small for her. Answers very well +for Angeline. It's all right, isn't it?" the talkative man +continued, as he saw the blank expression on Richard's face and +construed it into disapprobation of the bargain.</p> +<p>"Yes, all right, of course. It was her piano, not mine," Richard +said huskily. Then feeling the necessity of a little duplicity, he +said, "Mrs. Markham went the same day I did, I believe?"</p> +<p>"Really, now, I don't know whether 'twas that day or the next," +Mr. Bailey replied, showing that what was so important to Richard +had as yet made but little impression upon him. "No, I can't say +which day it was; but here's Hal Clifford--he'll know," and Mr. +Bailey stepped aside as Harry came up the hall.</p> +<p>He had been to call upon a friend who occupied the floor above, +and seeing Richard came forward to speak to him, the look of shame +upon his face showing that he had not forgotten the circumstances +under which they had last met. As Harry came in Mr. Bailey +disappeared, and so the two men were alone when Richard asked, "Do +you know what day Mrs. Markham left Camden?"</p> +<p>Richard tried to be natural. But Harry was not deceived. There +was something afloat--something which had some connection with his +foolish, drunken talk and Ethie's non-appearance at the masquerade. +Blaming himself for what he remembered to have said, he would not +now willingly annoy Richard, and he answered, indifferently: "She +went the same day you did; that is, she left here on the six +o'clock train. I know, for I called in the evening and found her +gone."</p> +<p>"Was she going to Olney?"</p> +<p>Richard's lips asked this rather than his will, and Harry +replied, "I suppose so. Isn't she there?"</p> +<p>It was an impudent question, but prompted purely by curiosity, +and Richard involuntarily answered, "She has not been there at +all."</p> +<p>For several seconds the two men regarded each other intently, +one longing so much to ask a certain question, and the other +reading that question in the wistful, anxious eyes bent so +earnestly upon him.</p> +<p>"He left in that same train, and took the same route, too."</p> +<p>Harry said this, and Richard staggered forward, till he leaned +upon the door-post while his face was ashy pale. Harry had disliked +Richard Markham, whom he knew so strongly disapproved of his +conduct; but he pitied him now and tried to comfort him.</p> +<p>"It cannot be they went together. I saw no indications of such +an intention on the part of Frank. I hardly think he saw her, +either. He was going to--, he said, and should be back in a few +days. Maybe she is somewhere."</p> +<p>Yes, maybe she was somewhere, but so long as Richard did not +know where, it was poor comfort for him. One thing, however, he +could do--he could save her good name until the matter was further +investigated; and pulling Harry after him into his room, he sat +down by the cold, dark stove, over which he crouched shiveringly, +while he said, "Ethie has gone to visit a friend, most likely--a +Mrs. Amsden, who lives in the direction of Olney. So please, for +her sake, do not say either now or ever who went on the train with +her."</p> +<p>"You have my word as a gentleman that I will not," Harry +replied; "and as no one but myself ever knew that they were cousins +and acquaintances, their names need not be mentioned together, even +if she never returns."</p> +<p>"But she will--she will come back, Ethie will. She has only gone +to Mrs. Amsden's," Richard replied, his teeth chattering and his +voice betraying all the fear and anguish he tried so hard to +hide.</p> +<p>Harry saw how cold he seemed, and with his own hands built a +quick wood fire, and then asked:</p> +<p>"Shall I leave you alone, or would you prefer me to stay?"</p> +<p>"Yes, stay. I do not like being here alone, though Ethie will +come back. She's only gone to visit Mrs. Amsden," and Richard +whispered the words, "gone to visit Mrs. Amsden."</p> +<p>It is pitiful to see a strong man cut down so suddenly, and +every nerve of Harry's throbbed in sympathy as he sat watching the +deserted husband walking up and down the room, now holding his cold +fingers to the fire and now saying to himself: "She has only gone +to Mrs. Amsden's. She will be back to-morrow."</p> +<p>At last the clock struck eleven, and then Richard roused from +his lethargy and said: "The next train for Olney passes at twelve. +I am going there, Harry--going after Ethie. You'll see her coming +back to-morrow."</p> +<p>Richard hardly knew why he was going back to Olney, unless it +were from a wish to be near his own kith and kin in this hour of +sorrow. He knew that Ethie had gone, and the Mrs. Amsden ruse was +thrown out for the benefit of Harry, who, frightened at the +expression of Richard's face, did not dare to leave him alone until +he saw him safely on board the train, which an hour later dropped +him upon the slippery platform in Olney, and then went speeding on +in the same direction Ethie once had gone.</p> +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<p>Mrs. Markham's candles were finished, and in straight even rows +were laid away in the candle-box, the good woman finding to her +great satisfaction that there were just ten dozen besides the slim +little thing she had burned during the evening, and which, with a +long, crisp snuff, like the steeple of a church, was now standing +on the chair by her bed. The hash was chopped ready for breakfast, +the coffee was prepared, and the kindlings were lying near the +stove, where, too, were hanging to dry Andy's stockings, which he +had that day wet through. They had sat up later than usual at the +farmhouse that night, for Melinda and her mother had been over +there, and the boys had made molasses candy, and "stuck up" every +dish and spoon, as Mrs. Markham said. Tim had come after his mother +and sister, and as he had a good deal to say, the clock struck +eleven before the guests departed, and Andy buttoned the door of +the woodshed and put the nail over the window by the sink. Mrs. +Markham had no suspicion of the trial in store for her, but for +some cause she felt restless and nervous, and even scary, as she +expressed it herself. "Worked too hard, I guess," she thought, as +she tied on her high-crowned, broad-frilled nightcap, and then as a +last chore, wound the clock before stepping into bed.</p> +<p>It was nearly midnight, and for some little time she lay awake +listening to the wind as it swept past the house, or screamed +through the key-hole of the door. But she did not hear the night +train when it thundered through the town; nor the gate as it swung +back upon its hinges; nor the swift step coming up the walk; nor +the tap upon her window until it was repeated, and Richard's voice +called faintly, "Mother, mother, let me in!"</p> +<p>Andy, who was as good as a watch-dog, was awake by this time, +and with his window open was looking down at the supposed burglar, +while his hand felt for some missile to hurl at the trespasser's +head. With a start, Mr. Markham awoke, and, springing up, listened +till the voice said again, "Mother, mother, it's I; let me in!"</p> +<p>The Japan candlestick Andy had secured was dropped in a trice, +and adjusting his trousers as he descended the stairs, he reached +the door simultaneously with his mother, and pulling Richard into +the hall, asked why he was there, and what had happened. Richard +did not know for certain that anything had happened. "Ethie was +most probably with Mrs. Amsden. She would be home to-morrow," and +Andy felt how his brother leaned against him and his hand pressed +upon his shoulders as he went to the stove, and crouched down +before it just as he had done in Camden. The candle was lighted, +and its dim light fell upon that strange group gathered there at +midnight, and looking into each other's faces with a wistful +questioning as to what it all portended.</p> +<p>"It is very cold; make more fire," Richard said, shivering, as +the sleet came driving against the window; and in an instant all +the morning kindlings were thrust into the stove, which roared and +crackled, and hissed, and diffused a sense of warmth and comfort +through the shadowy room.</p> +<p>"What is it, Richard? What makes you so white and queer?" his +mother asked, trying to pull on her stockings, and in her +trepidation jamming her toes into the heel, and drawing her shoe +over the bungle thus made at the bottom of her foot.</p> +<p>"Ethie was not there, and has not been since the night I left. +She sold her piano, and took the money, and her trunk, and her +clothes, and went to visit Mrs. Amsden."</p> +<p>This was Richard's explanation, which Andy thought a mighty +funny reason for his brother's coming at midnight, and frightening +them so terribly. But his mother saw things differently. She knew +there was something underlying all this--something which would +require all her skill and energy to meet--and her face was almost +as white as Richard's as she asked, "Why do you think she has gone +to Mrs. Amsden's?"</p> +<p>"You told me so, didn't you?" and Richard looked up at her in a +bewildered, helpless way, which showed that all he knew upon the +Amsden question was what she had said herself, and that was hardly +enough to warrant a conclusion of any kind.</p> +<p>"Was there any reason why Ethelyn should go away?" she asked +next, and Richard's head dropped, and his eyes were cast down in +shame, as he replied:</p> +<p>"Yes; we--quar--. We differed, I mean, the night before I went +away, and I kept her from the masquerade, I would not let her go. I +locked the door, and now she has gone--gone to Mrs. Amsden's."</p> +<p>He persisted in saying that, as if he would fain make himself +believe it against his better judgment.</p> +<p>"What is it all about? What does it mean?" Andy asked in great +perplexity; and his mother answered for Richard:</p> +<p>"It means just this, as far as I can see: Ethelyn has got mad at +Richard for keepin' her in, which he or'to have done long ago, and +so, with her awful temper she has run away."</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham had defined it at last--had put into words the +terrible thing which had happened, the disgrace which she saw +coming upon them; and with this definition of it she, too, defined +her own position with regard to Ethelyn, and stood bristling all +over with anger and resentment, and ready to do battle for her son +against the entire world.</p> +<p>"Mother! mother!" Andy gasped, and his face was whiter than +Richard's. "It is not true. Ethie never went and done that--never! +Did she, Dick? Tell me! Speak! Has Ethie run away?"</p> +<p>Andy was down on one knee now, and looking into Richard's face +with a look which would almost have brought Ethie back could she +have seen it. Andy had faith in her, and Richard clung to him +rather than to the mother in denouncing her so bitterly.</p> +<p>"I don't know, Andy," he said, "I hope not. I think not. She +must have gone to Mrs. Amsden's. We will wait till morning and +see."</p> +<p>The sound of voices had aroused both James and John, who, +half-dressed, came down to inquire what had happened, and why Dick +was there at that unseemly hour of the night. James' face was very +pale as he listened, and when his mother spoke of the disgrace +which would come upon them all, his hard fists were clenched for a +moment, while he thought of Melinda, and wondered if with her it +would make any difference. Both James and John had liked Ethelyn, +and as the temper about which their mother talked so much had never +been exhibited to them, they were inclined even now to take her +part, and cautious John suggested that it might not be so bad as +his mother feared. To be sure, he didn't know how hard Dick and +Ethie might have spatted it, or what had gone before; but anyway +his advice would be to wait and see if she was not really at Mrs. +Amsden's, or somewhere else. Richard let them manage it for him. He +was powerless to act then, and stunned and silent he sat shivering +by the stove, which they made red-hot with the blocks of wood they +put in, hoping thus to warm him. There was no more sleep at the +farmhouse that night, though James and John went back to bed, and +Andy, too, crept up to his lonely room; but not to sleep. His heart +was too full for that, and kneeling by his wooden chair, he prayed +for Ethie--that she had not run away, but might be at Mrs. +Amsden's, where he was going for her himself the moment the morning +broke. He had claimed this privilege, and his mother had granted +it, knowing that many allowances would be made for whatever Andy +might say, and feeling that, on this account, he would do better +than either of his brothers. Richard, of course, could not go. He +scarcely had strength to move, and did not look up from his +stooping posture by the stove, when, at day-dawn, Andy drew on his +butternut overcoat, and tying a thick comforter about his neck, +started for Mrs. Amsden's.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +<h3>THE INVESTIGATION</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard knew she was not there--at least all the probabilities +were against it; and still he clung to the vague hope that Andy +would bring him some good news, and his thoughts went after the +brother whose every breath was a prayer, as he galloped over the +snowy ground toward Mrs. Amsden's. They were early risers there, +and notwithstanding the sun was just coming up the eastern sky, the +family were at breakfast when Andy's horse stopped before their +gate, and Andy himself knocked at their door for admission. Andy's +faith was great--so great that, in answer to his petitions, he +fully expected to see Ethie herself at the table, when the door was +opened, and he caught a view of the occupants of the dining room; +but no Ethie was there, nor had been, as they said, in answer to +his eager questionings.</p> +<p>"What made you think she was here? When did she go away? Was she +intending to visit me?" Mrs. Amsden asked.</p> +<p>But Andy, while praying that Ethie might be there, had also +asked that if she were not, "he needn't make a fool of himself, nor +let the cat out of the bag," and he didn't; he merely replied:</p> +<p>"She left home a few days ago. Dick was in St. Louis, and it was +lonesome stayin' alone. I'll find her, most likely, as she is +somewhere else."</p> +<p>Andy was in his saddle now, and his fleet steed fled swiftly +along toward home, where they waited so anxiously for him, Richard +tottering to the window so as to read his fate in Andy's tell-tale +face.</p> +<p>"She is not there. I knew she was not. She has gone with that +villain."</p> +<p>Richard did not mean to say that last. It dropped from him +mechanically, and in an instant his mother seized upon it, +demanding what he meant, and who was the villain referred to. +Richard tried to put her off, but she would know what he meant, and +so to her and his three brothers he told as little as he could and +make any kind of a story, and as he talked his heart hardened +toward Ethie, who had done him this wrong. It seemed a great deal +worse when put into words, and the whole expression of Richard's +face was changed when he had finished speaking, while he was +conscious of feeling much as he did that night when he denounced +Ethie so terribly to her face. "Had it been a man, or half a man, +or anybody besides that contemptible puppy, it would not seem so +bad; but to forsake me for him!" Richard said, while the great +ridges deepened in his forehead, and a hard, black look crept into +his eyes, and about the corners of his mouth. He was terrible in +his anger, which grew upon him until even his mother stood appalled +at the fearful expression of his face.</p> +<p>"He would do nothing to call her back," he said, when James +suggested the propriety of trying in a quiet way to ascertain where +she had gone. "She had chosen her own path to ruin, and she might +tread it for all of him. He would not put forth a hand to save her +and if she came back, he never could forgive her."</p> +<p>Richard was walking up and down the room, white with rage, as he +said this, and Andy, cowering in a corner, was looking on and +listening. He did not speak until Richard declared his incapacity +for forgiving Ethie, when he started up, and confronting the angry +man, said to him rebukingly:</p> +<p>"Hold there, old Dick! You have gone a leetle too far. If God +can forgive you and me all them things we've done, which he knows +about, and other folks don't, you can, or or'to forgive sister +Ethie, let her sin be what it may. Ethie was young, Dick, and +childlike, and so pretty, too, and I 'most know you aggravated her +some, if you talked to her as you feel now; and then, too, Dick, +and mother, and all of you, I don't care who says it, or thinks it, +it's a big lie! Ethie never went off with a man--never! I know she +didn't. She wasn't that kind. I'll swear to it in the court. I +won't hear anybody say that about her. I'll fight 'em, first, even +if 'twas my own kin who did it!" And in his excitement, Andy began +to shove back his wrist-bands from his strong wrists, as if +challenging someone to the fight he had threatened.</p> +<p>Andy was splendid in his defense of Ethie, and both James and +John stepped up beside him, showing their adhesion to the cause he +pleaded so well. Ethie might have ran away, but she had surely gone +alone, they said, and their advice was that Richard should follow +her as soon as possible. But Richard would not listen to such a +proposition now, and quietly aided and abetted by his mother, he +declared his intention of "letting her alone." She had chosen her +course, he said, and she must abide by it. "If she has gone with +that villain"--and Richard ground his teeth together--"she can +never again come back to me. If she has not gone with him, and +chooses to return, I do not say the door is shut against her."</p> +<p>Richard seemed very determined and unrelenting, and, knowing how +useless it was to reason with him when in so stern a mood, his +brothers gave up the contest, Andy thinking within himself how +many, many times a day he should pray for Ethie that she might come +back again. Richard would not return to Camden that day, he said. +He could not face his acquaintance there until the first shock was +over and they were a little accustomed to thinking of the calamity +which had fallen upon him. So he remained with his mother, sitting +near the window which looked out upon the railroad track over which +Ethie had gone. What his thoughts were none could fathom, save as +they were expressed by the dark, troubled expression of his face, +which showed how much he suffered. Perhaps he blamed himself as he +went over again the incidents of that fatal night when he kept +Ethelyn from the masquerade; but if he did, no one was the wiser +for it, and so the first long day wore on, and the night fell again +upon the inmates of the farmhouse. The darkness was terrible to +Richard, for it shut out from his view that strip of road which +seemed to him a part of Ethie. She had been there last, and +possibly looked up at the old home--her first home after her +marriage; possibly, too, she had thought of him. She surely did, +if, as Andy believed, she was alone in her flight. If not alone, he +wanted no thoughts of hers, and Richard's hands were clenched as he +moved from the darkening window, and took his seat behind the +stove, where he sat the entire evening, like some statue of +despair, brooding over his ruined hopes.</p> +<p>The next day brought the Joneses--Melinda and Tim--the latter of +whom had heard from Mrs. Amsden's son of Andy's strange errand +there. There was something in the wind, and Melinda came to learn +what it was. Always communicative to the Jones family, Mrs. Markham +told the story without reserve, not even omitting the Van Buren +part, but asking as a precaution that Melinda would not spread a +story which would bring disgrace on them. Melinda was shocked, +astonished, and confounded, but she did not believe in Frank Van +Buren. Ethie never went with him--never. She, like Andy, would +swear to that, and she said as much to Richard, taking Ethie's side +as strongly as she could, without casting too much blame on him. +And Richard felt better, hearing Ethie upheld and spoken for, even +if it were so much against himself. Melinda was still his good +angel, while Ethie, too, had just cause for thanking the kind girl +who stood by her so bravely, and even made the mother-in-law less +harsh in her expression.</p> +<p>There was a letter for Richard that night, from Harry Clifford, +who wrote as follows:</p> +<p>"I do not know whether you found your wife at Mrs. Amsden's or +not, but I take the liberty of telling you that Frank Van Buren has +returned, and solemnly affirms that if Mrs. Markham was on board +the train which left here on the 17th, he did not know it. Neither +did he see her at all when in Camden. He called on his way to the +depot that night, and was told she was out. Excuse my writing you +this. If your wife has not come back, it will remove a painful +doubt, and if she has, please burn and forget it. Yours,</p> +<p>"H. CLIFFORD."</p> +<p>"Thank Heaven for that!" was Richard's exclamation as in the +first revulsion of feeling he sprang from his chair, while every +feature of his face was irradiated with joy.</p> +<p>"What is it, Dick? Is Ethie found? I knew she would be. I've +prayed for it fifty times to-day, and I had faith that God would +hear," Andy said, the great tears rolling down his smooth, round +face as he gave vent to his joy.</p> +<p>But Andy's faith was to be put to a stronger test, and his +countenance fell a little when Richard explained the nature of the +letter. Ethie was not found; she was only proved innocent of the +terrible thing Richard had feared for her, and in being proven +innocent, she was for a moment almost wholly restored to his favor. +She would come back some time. She could not mean to leave him +forever. She was only doing it for a scare, and to punish him for +what he did that night. He deserved punishment, too, he thought, +for he was pretty hard on her, and as he surely had been punished +in all he had suffered during the last forty-eight hours, he would, +when she came back, call everything even between them, and begin +anew.</p> +<p>This was Richard's reasoning; and that night he slept soundly, +dreaming that Ethie had returned, and on her knees was suing for +his forgiveness, while her voice was broken with tears and choking +sobs. As a man and husband who had been deserted, it was his duty +to remain impassive a few moments, while Ethie atoned fully for her +misdeeds: then he would forgive her, and so he waited an instant, +and while he waited he woke to find only Andy, with whom he was +sleeping, kneeling by the bedside, with the wintry moonlight +falling on his upturned face, as he prayed for the dear sister +Ethie, whose steps had "mewandered" so far away.</p> +<p>"Don't let any harm come to her; don't let anybody look at her +for bad, but keep her--keep her--keep her in safety, and send her +back to poor old Dick and me, and make Dick use her better than I +'most know he has, for he's got the Markham temper in him, and +everybody knows what that is."</p> +<p>This was Andy's prayer, taken from no book or printed form, but +the outpouring of his simple, honest heart, and Richard heard it, +wincing a little as Andy thus made confession for him of his own +sins; but he did not pray himself, though he was glad of Andy's +prayers, and placed great hopes upon them. God would hear Andy, and +if he did not send Ethie back at once, he would surely keep her +from harm.</p> +<p>The next day Richard went back to Camden. Melinda Jones had +suggested that possibly Ethie left a letter, or note, which would +explain her absence, and Richard caught at it eagerly, wondering he +had not thought of it before, and feeling very impatient to be off, +even though he dreaded to meet some of his old friends, and be +questioned as to the whereabouts of his wife. He did not know that +the story of his desertion was already there--Mrs. Amsden having +gone to town with her mite, which, added to the sale of the piano, +Ethie's protracted absence, Richard's return to Olney at midnight, +and Harry Clifford's serious and mysterious manner, were enough to +set the town in motion. Various opinions were expressed, and, what +was very strange, so popular were both Richard and Ethelyn that +everybody disliked blaming either, and so but few unkind remarks +had as yet been made, and those by people who had been jealous or +envious of Ethelyn's high position. No one knew a whisper of Frank +Van Buren, for Harry kept his promise well, and no worse motive was +ascribed to Ethie's desertion than want of perfect congeniality +with her husband. Thus they were not foes, but friends, who +welcomed Richard back to Camden, watching him curiously, and +wishing so much to ask where Mrs. Markham was. That she was not +with him, was certain, for only Andy came--Andy, who held his head +so high, and looked round so defiantly, as he kept close to +Richard's side on the way to the hotel. It was very dreary going up +the old, familiar staircase into the quiet hall, and along to the +door of the silent room, which seemed drearier than on that night +when he first came back to it and found Ethie gone. There were +ashes now upon the stove-hearth where Hal Clifford had kindled the +fire, and the two chairs they had occupied were standing just where +they had left them. The gas had not been properly turned off, and a +dead, sickly odor filled the room, making Andy heave as he hastened +to open the window, and admit the fresh, pure air.</p> +<p>"Seems as it did the day Daisy died," Andy said, his eyes +filling with tears.</p> +<p>To Richard it was far worse than the day Daisy died, for he had +then the memory of her last loving words in his ear, and the +feeling of her clinging kiss upon his lips, while now the memories +of the lost one were only bitter and sad in the extreme.</p> +<p>"Melinda suggested a letter or something. Where do you suppose +she would put it if there were one?" Richard asked in a helpless, +appealing way, as he sank into a chair and looked wistfully around +the room.</p> +<p>He had been very bold and strong in the cars and in the street; +but here, in the deserted room, where Ethie used to be, and where +something said she would never be again, he was weak as a girl, and +leaned wholly upon Andy, who seemed to feel how much was depending +upon him, and so kept up a cheery aspect while he kindled a fresh +fire and cleared the ashes from the hearth by blowing them off upon +the oilcloth; then, as the warmth began to make itself felt and the +cold to diminish, he answered Richard's query.</p> +<p>"In her draw, most likely; mother mostly puts her traps there." +So, to the "draw" they went--the very one where Daisy's ring was +lying; and Richard saw that first, knowing now for sure that +Ethelyn had fled.</p> +<p>He knew so before, but this made it more certain--more dreadful, +too, for it showed a determination never to return.</p> +<p>"It was Daisy's, you know," he said to Andy, who, at his side, +was not looking at the ring, but beyond it, to the two letters, his +own and Richard's, both of which he seized with a low cry, for he, +too, was sure of Ethie's flight.</p> +<p>"See, Dick, there's one for you and one for me," he exclaimed, +and his face grew very red as he tore open his own note and began +to devour the contents, whispering the words, and breaking down +entirely amid a storm of sobs and tears as he read:</p> +<p>"DEAR ANDY: I wish I could tell you how much I love you, and how +sorry I am to fall in your good opinion, as I surely shall when you +hear what has happened. Do not hate me, Andy; and sometimes, when +you pray, remember Ethie, won't you?"</p> +<p>He could get no farther than this, and with a great cry he +buried his face in his hands and sobbed: "Yes, Ethie, I will, I +will; but oh, what is it? What made you go? Why did she, Dick?" and +he turned to his brother, who, with lightning rapidity, was reading +Ethelyn's long letter. He did not doubt a word she said, and when +the letter was finished he put it passively in Andy's hand, and +then, with a bitter groan, laid his throbbing head upon the cushion +of the lounge where he was sitting. There were no tears in his +eyes--nothing but blood-red circles floating before them; while the +aching balls seemed starting from their sockets with the pressure +of pain. He had had his chance with Ethie and lost it; and though, +as yet, he saw but dimly where he had been to blame, where he had +made a mistake, he endured for the time all he was capable of +enduring, and if revenge had been her object, Ethie had more than +her desire.</p> +<p>Andy was stunned for a moment, and sat staring blankly at the +motionless figure of his brother; then, as the terrible calamity +began to impress itself fully upon him, intense pity for Richard +became uppermost in his mind, and stooping over the crushed man, he +laid his arm across his neck, and, tender as a sorrowing, loving +mother, kissed and fondled the damp brown hair, and dropped great +tears upon it, and murmured words of sympathy, incoherent at first, +for the anguish choking his own utterance, but gradually gathering +force and sound as his quivering lips kept trying to articulate: +"Dick, poor old Dick, dear old Dick, don't keep so still and look +so white and stony. She'll come back again, Ethie will. I feel it, +I feel it, I know it, I shall pray for her every hour until she +comes. Prayer will reach her where nothing else can find her. Poor +Dick, I am so sorry. Don't look at me so; you scare me. Try to cry; +try to make a fuss; try to do anything rather than that dreadful +look. Lay your head on me, so," and lifting up the bowed head, +which offered no resistance, Andy laid it gently on his arm, and +smoothing back the hair from the pallid forehead, went on: "Now +cry, old boy, cry with all your might;" and with his hand Andy +brushed away the scalding tears which began to fall like rain from +Richard's eyes.</p> +<p>"Better so, a great deal better than the other way. Don't hold +up till you've had it out," he kept repeating, while Richard wept, +until the fountain was dry and the tears refused to flow.</p> +<p>"I've been a brute, Andy," he said, when at last he could speak. +"The fault was all my own. I did not understand her in the least. I +ought never to have married her. She was not of my make at +all."</p> +<p>Andy would hear nothing derogatory of Richard any more than of +Ethelyn, and he answered promptly: "But, Dick, Ethie was some to +blame. She didn't or'to marry you feelin' as she did. That was +where the wrong began."</p> +<p>This was the most and the worst Andy ever said against Ethelyn, +and he repented of that the moment the words were out of his mouth. +It was mean to speak ill of the absent, especially when the absent +one was Ethie, who had written, "In fancy I put my arms around your +neck and kiss your dear, kind face." Andy deemed himself a monster +of ingratitude when he recalled these lines and remembered that of +her who penned them he had said, "She was some to blame." He took +it all back to himself, and tried to exonerate Ethie entirely, +though it was hard work to do so where he saw how broken, and +stunned, and crushed his brother was, and how little he realized +what was passing around him.</p> +<p>"He don't know much more than I do," was Andy's mental comment, +when to his question, "What shall we do next?" Richard replied, in +a maudlin kind of way, "Yes, that is a very proper course. I leave +it entirely to you."</p> +<p>Andy felt that a great deal was depending upon himself, and he +tried to meet the emergency. Seeing how Richard continued to +shiver, and how cold he was, he persuaded him to lie down upon the +bed, and piling the blankets upon him, made such a fire as he said +to himself, "would roast a common ox"; then, when Hal Clifford came +to the door and knocked, he kept him out, with that "Dick had been +broke of his rest, and was tryin' to make it up."</p> +<p>But this state of things could not last long. Richard was +growing ill, and talking so strangely withal, that Andy began to +feel the necessity of having somebody there beside himself; "some +of the wimmen folks, who knew what to do, for I'm no better than a +settin' hen," he said.</p> +<p>Very naturally his thoughts turned to his mother as the proper +person to come, "though Melinda Jones was the properest of the two. +There was snap to her, and she would not go to pitchin' in to +Ethie."</p> +<p>Accordingly, the next mail carried to Melinda Jones a note from +Andy, which was as follows:</p> +<p>"MISS MELINDA JONES: Dear Madam--We found the letters Ethie +writ, one to me, and one to Dick, and Dick's was too much for him. +He lies like a punk of wood, makin' a moanin' noise, and talkin' +such queer things, that I guess you or somebody or'to come and see +to him a little. I send to you because there's no nonsense about +you, and you are made of the right kind of stuff.</p> +<p>"Yours to command,</p> +<p>"ANDERSON MARKHAM, ESQ."</p> +<p>This note Melinda carried straight to Mrs. Markham, and as the +result, four hours later both the mother and Melinda were on the +road to Camden, where Melinda's services were needed to stem the +tide of wonder and gossip, which had set in when it began to be +known that Ethelyn was gone, and Richard was lying sick in his +room, tended only by Andy, who would admit no one, not even the +doctor, who, when urged by Harry Clifford, came to offer his +services.</p> +<p>"He wasn't goin' to let in a lot of curious critters to hear +what Dick was talkin'," he said to his mother and Melinda, his +haggard face showing how much he had endured in keeping them at +bay, and answering through the key-hole their numerous +inquiries.</p> +<p>Richard did not have a fever, as was feared at first; but for +several days he kept his bed, and during that time his mother and +Melinda stayed by him, nursing him most assiduously, but never once +speaking to each other of Ethelyn. Both had read her letter, for +Mrs. Markham never thought of withholding it from Melinda, who, +knowing that she ought not to have seen it, wisely resolved to keep +to herself the knowledge of its contents. So, when she was asked, +as she was repeatedly, "Why Mrs. Markham had gone away," she +answered evasively, or not at all, and finding that nothing could +be obtained from her, the people at last left her in quiet and +turned to their own resources, which furnished various reasons for +the desertion. They knew it was a desertion now, and hearing how +sick and broken Richard was, popular opinion was in his favor +mostly, though many a kind and wistful thought went after the fair +young wife, who had been a belle in their midst, and a general +favorite, too. Where was she now, and what was she doing, these +many days, while the winter crept on into spring, and the March +winds blew raw and chill against the windows of the chamber where +Richard battled with the sickness which he finally overcame, so +that by the third week of Ethie's absence he was up again and able +to go in quest of her, if so be she might be found and won to the +love she never returned.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> +<h3>IN CHICOPEE</h3> +<br> +<p>They were having a late dinner at Aunt Barbara's, a four o'clock +dinner of roast fowls with onions and tomatoes, and the little +round table was nicely arranged with the silver and china and +damask for two, while in the grate the fire was blazing brightly +and on the hearth, the tabby cat was purring out her appreciation +of the comfort and good cheer. But Aunt Barbara's heart was far too +sorry and sad to care for her surroundings, or think how pleasant +and cozy that little dining room looked to one who did not know of +the grim skeleton which had walked in there that very day along +with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, of Boston. That lady had come up on the +morning train and in her rustling black silk with velvet trimmings, +and lace barb hanging from her head, she sat before the fire with a +look of deep dejection and thoughtfulness upon her face, as if she +too recked little of the creature comforts around her. Aunt Barbara +knew nothing of her coming, and was taken by surprise when the +village hack stopped at the door, and Sister Sophia's sable furs +and beaver cloak alighted. That something was the matter she +suspected from her sister's face the moment that lady removed her +veil and gave the usual dignified kiss of greeting. Things had gone +wrong again with Frank and Nettie, most likely, she thought, for +she was not ignorant, of the misunderstandings and misery arising +from that unfortunate marriage, and she had about made up her mind +to tell her sister just where the fault lay. She would not spare +Frank any longer, but would give him his just deserts. She never +dreamed that the trouble this time concerned Ethie, her own +darling, the child whom she had loved so well, and pitied, and +thought of so much since the time she left her out West with "those +Philistines," as she designated Richard's family. She had not heard +from her for some time, but, in the last letter received, Ethie had +written in a very cheerful strain, and told how gay and pleasant it +was in Camden that winter. Surely nothing had befallen her, and the +good woman stood aghast when Mrs. Dr. Van Buren abruptly asked if +Ethelyn was not there, or had been there lately, or heard from +either. What did it portend? Had harm come upon Ethie? And a shadow +broke the placid surface of the sweet old face as Aunt Barbara put +these questions, first to herself, and then to Mrs. Van Buren, who +rapidly explained that Ethelyn had left her husband, and gone, no +one knew whither.</p> +<p>"I hoped she might be here, and came up to see," Mrs. Van Buren +concluded; while Aunt Barbara steadied herself against the great +bookcase in the corner, and wondered if she was going out of her +senses, or had she heard aright, and was it her sister Van Buren +sitting there before her, and saying such dreadful things.</p> +<p>She could not tell if it were real until Tabby sprang with a +purring, caressing sound, upon her shoulder, and rubbed her soft +sides against her cap. That made it real, and brought the color +back to her wrinkled face, but brought, also, a look of horror into +her blue eyes, which sought Mrs. Van Buren's with an eager, and yet +terribly anxious glance. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren understood the look. +Its semblance had been on her own face for an instant when she +first heard the news, and now she hastened to dispossess her +sister's mind of any such suspicion.</p> +<p>"No, Barbara; Frank did not go with her, or even see her when in +Camden. He is not quite so bad as that, I hope."</p> +<p>The mother nature was in the ascendant, and for a moment +resented the suspicion against her son, even though that suspicion +had been in her own mind when Frank returned from Camden with the +news of Ethie's flight. That he had had something to do with it was +her first fear, until convinced to the contrary; and now she blamed +Aunt Barbara for harboring the same thought. As soon as possible +she told all she had heard from Frank, and then went on with her +invectives against the Markhams generally, and Richard in +particular, and her endless surmises as to where Ethelyn had gone, +and what was the final cause of her going.</p> +<p>For a time Aunt Barbara turned a deaf ear to what she was +saying, thinking only of Ethie, gone; Ethie, driven to such strait, +that she must either run away or die; Ethie, the little brown-eyed, +rosy-cheeked, willful, imperious girl, whom she loved so much for +the very willful imperiousness which always went hand in hand with +such pretty fits of penitence, and sorrow, and remorse for the +misdeed, that not to love her was impossible. Where was she now, +and why had she not come at once to the dear old home, where she +would have been so welcome until such time as matters could be +adjusted on a more amicable basis?</p> +<p>For Aunt Barbara, though in taking Ethie's side altogether, had +no thought that the separation should be final. She had chosen a +life of celibacy because she preferred it, and found it a very +smooth and pleasant one, especially after Ethie came and brought +the sunshine of joyous childhood to her quiet home; but "those whom +God had joined together" were bound to continue so, she firmly +believed; and had Ethie come to her with her tale of sorrow, she +would have listened kindly to it, poured in the balm of sympathy +and love, and then, if possible, restored her to her husband. Of +all this she thought during the few minutes Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +talked, and she sat passive in her chair, where she had dropped, +with her dumpy little hands lying so helplessly in her lap, and her +cap all awry, as Tabby had made it when purring and rubbing against +it.</p> +<p>"Then, you have not seen her, or heard a word?" Mrs. Van Buren +asked; and in a kind of uncertain way, as if she wondered what they +were talking about, Aunt Barbara replied:</p> +<p>"No, I have not seen her, and I don't know, I am sure, what made +the child go off without letting us know."</p> +<p>"She was driven to it by the pack of heathens around her," Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren retorted, feeling a good deal guilty herself for +having been instrumental in bringing about this unhappy match, and +in proportion as she felt guilty, seizing with avidity any other +offered cause for Ethie's wretchedness. "I've heard even more about +them than you told me," she went on to say. "There was Mrs. Ellis, +whose cousin lives in Olney--she says the mother is the most +peculiar and old-fashioned woman imaginable; actually wears blue +yarn stockings, footed with black, makes her own candles, and +sleeps in the kitchen."</p> +<p>With regard to the candles Aunt Barbara did not know; the +sleeping in the kitchen she denied, and the footed stockings she +admitted; saying, however, those she saw were black, rather than +blue. Black or blue, it was all the same to Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, +whose feet seldom came in contact with anything heavier than silk +or the softest of lamb's wool; and, had there been wanting other +evidence of Mrs. Markham's vulgarity, the stocking question would +have settled the matter with her.</p> +<p>"Poor Ethie!" she sighed, as she drew her seat to the fire, and +asked what they ought to do.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara did not know. She was too much bewildered to think +of anything just then, and after ordering the four o'clock dinner, +which, she knew, would suit her sister's habits better than an +earlier one, she, too, sat quietly down by the fire with her +knitting lying idly in her lap, and her eyes looking dreamily +through the frosty panes off upon the snowy hills where Ethelyn +used to play. Occasionally, in reply to some question of her +sister's, she would tell what she herself saw in that prairie home, +and then look up amazed at the exasperating effect it seemed to +have upon Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. That lady was terrible incensed +against the whole Markham race, for through them she had been +touched on a tender point. Ethie's desertion of her husband would +not be wholly excused by the world; there was odium attaching to +such a step, however great the provocation, and the disgrace was +what Mrs. Van Buren would feel most keenly. That a Bigelow should +do so was very humiliating; and, by way of fortifying herself with +reasons for the step, she slandered and abused the Markhams until +they would hardly have recognized the remotest relationship between +themselves and the "terrible creatures" whom the great lady from +Boston dissected so mercilessly that afternoon in Chicopee.</p> +<p>It was nearly four o'clock now, and the dinner was almost ready. +Aunt Barbara had dropped her knitting upon the floor, where the +ball was at once claimed as the lawful prey of Tabby, who rolled, +and kicked, and tangled the yarn in a perfect abandon of feline +delight. Mrs. Van Buren having exhausted herself, if not her topic, +sat rocking quietly, and occasionally giving little sniffs of +inquiry as to whether the tomatoes were really burned or not. If +they were, there were still the silver-skinned onions left; and, as +Mrs. Van Buren was one who thought a great deal of what she ate, +she was anticipating her dinner with a keen relish, and wishing +Barbara and Betty would hurry, when a buggy stopped before the +door, and, with a start of disagreeable surprise, she recognized +Richard Markham coming through the gate, and up the walk to the +front door. He was looking very pale and worn, for to the effects +of his recent illness were added traces of his rapid, fatiguing +journey, and he almost staggered as he came into the room. It was +not in kind Aunt Barbara's nature to feel resentment toward him +then, and she went to him at once, as she would have gone to Ethie, +and, taking his hand in hers, said softly:</p> +<p>"My poor boy! We have heard of your trouble. Have you found her +yet? Do you know where she is?"</p> +<p>There was a look of anguish and disappointment in Richard's eyes +as he replied:</p> +<p>"I thought--I hoped I might find her here."</p> +<p>"And that is the reason of your waiting so long before coming?" +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren put in sharply.</p> +<p>It was three weeks now since Ethie's flight, and her husband had +shown himself in no hurry to seek her, she reasoned; but Richard's +reply, "I was away a week before I knew it, and I have been very +sick since then," mollified her somewhat, though she sat back in +her chair very stiff and very straight, eyeing him askance, and +longing to pounce upon him and tell him what she thought. First, +however, she must have her dinner. The tea would be spoiled if they +waited longer; and when Aunt Barbara began to question Richard, she +suggested that they wait till after dinner, when they would all be +fresher and stronger. So dinner was brought in, and Richard, as he +took his seat at the nicely-laid table, where everything was served +with so much care, did think of the difference between Ethie's +early surroundings and those to which he had introduced her when he +took her to his mother's house. He was beginning to think of those +things now; Ethie's letter had opened his eyes somewhat, and Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren would open them more before she let him go. She was +greatly refreshed with her dinner. The tomatoes had not been +burned; the fowls were roasted to a most delicate brown; the +currant jelly was just the right consistency; the pickled peaches +were delicious, and the tea could not have been better. On the +whole, Mrs. Van Buren was satisfied, and able to cope with a dozen +men as crushed, and sore, and despondent as Richard seemed. She had +scanned him very closely, deciding that so far as dress was +concerned, he had improved since she saw him last. It is true, his +collar was not all the style, and his necktie was too wide, and his +coat sleeves too small, and his boots too rusty, and his vest too +much soiled; but she made allowance for the circumstances, and his +hasty journey, and so excused his tout ensemble. She had resumed +her seat by the fire, sitting where she could look the culprit +directly in the face; while good Aunt Barbara occupied the middle +position, and, with her fat, soft hands shaking terribly, tried to +pick up the stitches Tabby had pulled out. That personage, too, had +had her chicken wing out in the woodshed, and, knowing nothing of +Ethie's grievances, had mounted into Richard's lap, where she lay, +slowly blinking and occasionally purring a little, as Richard now +and then passed his hand over her soft fur.</p> +<p>"Now tell us: Why did Ethelyn go away?--that is, what reason did +she give?"</p> +<p>It was Mrs. Dr. Van Buren who asked this question, her voice +betokening that nothing which Richard could offer as an excuse +would be received. They must have Ethie's reason or none. Richard +would far rather Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had been in Boston, or Paris, +or Guinea, than there in Chicopee, staring so coolly at him; but as +her being there was something he could not help, he accepted it as +a part of the train of calamities closing so fast about him, and +answered, respectfully:</p> +<p>"It was no one thing which made her go, but the culmination of +many. There was a mistake on my part. I thought her guilty when she +was not, and charged her with it in a passion, saying things I +would give much to recall. This was one night, and she went the +next, before her temper had time to cool. You know she was a little +hasty herself at times."</p> +<p>"Perhaps so, though her temper never troubled me any. On the +whole, I think her temper amiable and mild in disposition as people +generally are," Mrs. Van Buren replied, forgetting, or choosing to +forget, the many occasions on which even she had shrunk from the +fire which blazed in Ethie's eyes when that young lady was fully +roused.</p> +<p>But Aunt Barbara had either more conscience or a better memory, +and in a manner half apologetic for her interference, she said: +"Yes, Sophia, Richard is right. Ethie had a temper--at least she +was very decided. Don't you remember when she broke the cut glass +fruit dish, because she could not have any more pineapple?"</p> +<p>"Barbara!" Mrs. Dr. Van Buren exclaimed, her voice indicating +her surprise that her sister should so far forget herself as to +reveal any secrets of the family, and especially any which could be +brought to bear upon Ethelyn.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara felt the implied rebuke, and while her sweet, old +face crimsoned with mortification, she said: "Truth is truth, +Sophia. Ethie is as dear to me as to you, but she was +high-tempered, and did break the big fruit bowl, and then denied +herself sweetmeats of all kinds, and even went without sugar in her +coffee and butter on her bread until she had saved enough to buy +another in its place. Ethie was generous and noble after it was all +over, if she was a little hot at times. That's what I was going to +say when you stopped me so sudden."</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara looked a little aggrieved at being caught up so +quickly by her sister, who continued: "She was a Bigelow, and +everybody knows what kind of blood that is. She was too sensitive, +and had too nice a perception of what was proper to be thrown +among"--heathen, she was going to add, but something in Aunt +Barbara's blue eyes kept her in check, and so she abruptly turned +to Richard and asked, "Did she leave no message, no reason why she +went?"</p> +<p>Richard could have boasted his Markham blood had he chosen, and +the white heats to which that was capable of being roused; but he +was too utterly broken to feel more than a passing flash of +resentment for anything which had yet been said, and after a +moment's thought, during which he was considering the propriety of +showing Mrs. Van Buren what Ethie had written of Frank, he held the +letter to her, saying, "She left this. Read it if you like. It's a +part of my punishment, I suppose, that her friends should know +all."</p> +<p>With a stately bow Mrs. Van Buren took the letter and hastily +read it through, her lip quivering a little and her eyelids growing +moist as Ethie described the dreariness of that dreadful day when +"Aunt Van Buren came up from Boston and broke her heart." And as +she read how much poor Ethie had loved Frank, the cold, proud woman +would have given all she had if the past could be undone and Ethie +restored to her just as she was that summer nine years ago, when +she came from the huckleberry hills and stood beneath the maples. +With a strange obtuseness peculiar to some people who have seen +their dearest plans come to naught, she failed to ascribe the +trouble to herself, but charged it all to Richard. He was the one +in fault; and by the time the letter was finished the Bigelow blood +was at a boiling pitch, and for a polished lady, Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren, of Boston, raised her voice pretty high as she asked: "Did +you presume, sir, to think that my son--mine--a married man--would +make an appointment with Ethie, a married woman? You must have a +strange misconception of the manner in which he was brought up! But +it is all of a piece with the rest of your abominable treatment of +Ethelyn. I wonder the poor girl stayed with you as long as she did. +Think of it, Barbara! Accused her of going to meet Frank by +appointment, and then locked her up to keep her at home, and she a +Bigelow!"</p> +<p>This was the first inkling Aunt Barbara had of what was in the +letter. She was, however, certain that Frank was in some way +involved in the matter, and anxious to know the worst, she said, +beseechingly:</p> +<p>"Tell me something, do. I can't read it, for my eyes are +dim-like to-night."</p> +<p>They were full of unshed tears--the kind old eyes, which did not +grow one whit sterner or colder as Mrs. Van Buren explained, to +some extent, what was in the letter; reading a little, telling a +little, and skipping a little where Frank was especially concerned, +until Aunt Barbara had a pretty correct idea of the whole. Matters +had been worse than she supposed, Ethie more unhappy, and knowing +her as she did, she was not surprised that at the last she ran +away; but she did not say so--she merely sat grieved and helpless, +while her sister took up the cudgels in Ethelyn's defense, and, +attacking Richard at every point, left him no quarter at all. She +did not pretend that Ethie was faultless or perfect, she said, but +surely, if mortal ever had just provocation for leaving her +husband, she had.</p> +<p>"Her marriage was a great mistake," she said; "and I must say, +Mr. Markham, that you did very wrong to take her where you did +without a word of preparation. You ought to have told her what she +was to expect; then, if she chose to go, very well. But neither she +nor I had any idea of the reality; and the change must have been +terrible to her. For my part, I can conceive of nothing worse than +to be obliged to live with people whom even sister Barbara called +'Hottentots,' when she came home from Iowa."</p> +<p>"Not Hottentots," mildly interposed Aunt Barbara. "Philistines +was what I called them, Sophia; and in doing so; I did not mean all +of them, you know."</p> +<p>"Well, Philistines, then, if that's a better word than +Hottentots, which I doubt," Mrs. Van Buren retorted sharply.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara's evident wish to smooth matters irritated her to +say more than she might otherwise have done, and she went on:</p> +<p>"I know you made exceptions, but if my memory serves me right, +your opinion of Ethie's mother-in-law was not very complimentary to +that lady. A man has no business to take his wife to live with his +mother when he knows how different they are."</p> +<p>"But I did not know," Richard said; "that is, I had never +thought much of the things which tried Ethie. Mother was always a +good mother to me, and I did not suppose she was so very different +from other women."</p> +<p>"You certainly must be very obtuse, then," Mrs. Van Buren +replied: "for, if all accounts which I hear are true, your mother +is not the person to make a daughter-in-law happy. Neither, it +seems, did you do what you could to please her. You annoyed her +terribly with your codger-like ways, if I may be allowed that term. +You made but little effort to improve, thinking, no doubt, that it +was all nonsense and foolishness; that it was just as well to wear +your hat in church, and sit with your boots on top of the stove, as +any other way."</p> +<p>"I never wore my hat in church!" Richard exclaimed, with more +warmth than he had before evinced.</p> +<p>"I don't suppose you did do that particular thing, but you were +guilty of other low-bred habits which grated just as harshly as +that. You thought because you were a judge and an M.C., and had the +reputation of possessing brains, that it did not matter how you +demeaned yourself; and there you were mistaken. The manners of a +gentleman would sit ten times more gracefully upon you because you +had brains. No one likes a boor, and no man of your ability has any +business to be a clown. Even if you were not taught it at home, you +could learn from observation, and it was your duty to do so. +Instead of that, you took it for granted you were right because no +one had ever suggested that you were wrong, while your mother had +petted you to death. I have not the honor of her acquaintance, but +I must say I consider her a very remarkable person, even for a +Western woman."</p> +<p>"My mother was born East," Richard suggested, and Mrs. Van Buren +continued:</p> +<p>"Certainly; but that does not help the matter. It rather makes +it worse, for of all disagreeable people, a Western Yankee is, I +think, the most disagreeable. Such an one never improves, but +adheres strictly to the customs of their native place, no matter +how many years have passed since they lived there, or how great the +march of improvement may have been. In these days of railroads and +telegraphs there is no reason why your mother should not be up to +the times. Her neighbors are, it seems, and I have met quite as +cultivated people from beyond the Rocky Mountains as I have even +seen in Boston."</p> +<p>This was a great admission for Mrs. Van Buren, who verily +believed there was nothing worth her consideration out of Boston +unless it were a few families in the immediate vicinity of Fifth +Avenue and Madison Square. She was bent upon making Richard +uncomfortable, and could at the moment think of no better way of +doing it than contrasting his mother's "way" with those of her +neighbors. Occasionally Aunt Barbara put her feeble oar into the +surging tide, hoping to check, even if she could not subdue the +angry waters; but she might as well have kept silent save that +Richard understood and appreciated her efforts to spare him as much +as possible. Mrs. Van Buren was not to be stopped, and at last, +when she had pretty fully set before Richard his own and his +mother's delinquencies, she turned fiercely on her sister, +demanding if she had not said "so and so" with regard to Ethie's +home in the West. Thus straitened, Aunt Barbara replied:</p> +<p>"Things did strike me a little odd at Ethie's, and I don't well +see how she could be very happy there. Mrs. Markham is queer--the +queerest woman, if I must say it, that I ever saw, though I guess +there's a good many like her up in Vermont, where she was raised, +and if the truth was known, right here in Chicopee, too; and I +wouldn't wonder if there were some queer ones in Boston. The place +don't make the difference; it's the way the folks act."</p> +<p>This she said in defense of the West generally. There were quite +as nice people there as anywhere, and she believed Mrs. Markham +meant to be kind to Ethie; surely Richard did, only he did not +understand her. It was very wrong to lock her up, and then it was +wrong in Ethie to marry him, feeling as she did. "It was all wrong +every way, but the heaviest punishment for the wrong had fallen on +poor Ethie, gone, nobody knew where."</p> +<p>It was not in nature for Aunt Barbara to say so much without +crying, and her tears were dropping fast into her motherly lap, +where Tabby was now lying. Mrs. Van Buren was greatly irritated +that her sister did not render her more assistance, and as a +failure in that quarter called for greater exertions on her own +part, she returned again to the charge, and wound up with sweeping +denunciations against the whole Markham family.</p> +<p>"The idea of taking a young girl there, and trying to bend her +to your ways of thinking--to debar her from all the refinements to +which she had been accustomed, and give her for associates an +ignorant mother-in-law and a half-witted brother."</p> +<p>Richard had borne a great deal from Mrs. Van Buren, and borne it +patiently, too, as something which he deserved. He had seen himself +torn to atoms, until he would never have recognized any one of the +dissected members as parts of the Honorable Judge he once thought +himself to be. He had heard his mother and her "ways" denounced as +utterly repugnant to any person of decency, while James and John, +under the head of "other vulgar appendages to the husband," had had +a share in the general sifting down, and through it all he had kept +quiet, with only an occasional demur or explanation; but when it +came to Andy, the great, honest, true-hearted Andy, he could bear +it no longer, and the Bigelow blood succumbed to the fiery gleam in +Richard's eyes as he started to his feet, exclaiming:</p> +<p>"Mrs. Van Buren, you must stop, for were you a hundred times a +woman, I would not listen to one word of abuse against my brother +Andy. So long as it was myself and my mother, I did not mind; but +every hair of Andy's head is sacred to us who know him, and I would +take his part against the world, were it only for the sake of +Ethie, who loved him so much, and whom he idolized. He would die +for Ethie this very night, if need be--aye, die for you too, +perhaps, if you were suffering and his life could bring relief. You +don't know Andy, or you would know why we held him as dear as we do +the memory of our darling Daisy; and when you taunt me with my +half-witted brother, you hurt me as much as you would to tear my +dead sister from her grave, and expose her dear face to the gaze of +brutal men. No, Mrs. Van Buren, say what you like of me, but never +again sneer at my brother Andy."</p> +<p>Richard paused, panting for breath, while Mrs. Van Buren looked +at him with entirely new sensations from what she had before +experienced. There was some delicacy of feeling in his nature, +after all--something which recoiled from her unwomanly attack upon +his weak-minded brother--and she respected him at that moment, if +she had never done so before. Something like shame, too, she felt +for her cruel taunt, which had both roused and wounded him, and she +would gladly have recalled all she said of Andy if she could, for +she remembered now what Aunt Barbara had told her of his kindness +and the strong attachment there was between the simple man and +Ethie. Mrs. Van Buren could be generous if she tried; and as this +seemed a time for the trial, she did attempt to apologize, saying +her zeal for Ethie had carried her too far; that she hoped Richard +would excuse what she had said of Andy--she had no intention of +wounding him on that point.</p> +<p>And Richard accepted the apology, but his face did not again +assume the cowed, broken expression it had worn at first. There was +a compression about the mouth, a firm shutting together of the +teeth, and a dark look in the bloodshot eyes, which warned Mrs. Van +Buren not to repeat much of what she had said. It would not now be +received as it was at first. Richard would do much to bring Ethie +back--he would submit to any humiliation, and bear anything for +himself, but he would never again listen quietly while his mother +and family were so thoroughly abused. Mrs. Van Buren felt this +intuitively, and knowing that what she said had made an impression, +and would after a time be acted upon, perhaps, she changed her +tactics, and became quite as conciliating as Aunt Barbara herself, +talking and consulting with Richard as to the best course to be +pursued with regard to finding Ethie, and succeeding, in part, in +removing from his face the expression it had put on when Andy was +the subject of her maledictions.</p> +<p>Richard had a great dread of meeting his uncle, the old colonel, +in his present trouble, and he was not quite sure whether he should +go there or not. At least, he should not to-night; and when the +clock struck eleven, he arose to retire.</p> +<p>"The room at the head of the stairs. I had a fire made for you +in there," Aunt Barbara said, as she handed him the lamp.</p> +<p>Richard hesitated a moment, and then asked, "Does anyone occupy +Ethie's old room? Seems to me I would rather go there. It would be +somehow bring her nearer to me."</p> +<p>So to Ethie's old room he went, Aunt Barbara lamenting that he +would find it so cold and comfortless, but feeling an increased +kindliness toward him for this proof of love for her darling.</p> +<p>"There's a great deal of good about that man, after all," she +said to her sister, when, after he was gone to his room, they sat +together around their hearth and talked the matter over afresh; and +then, as she took off and carefully smoothed her little round puffs +of false hair, and adjusted her nightcap in its place, she said, +timidly, "You were rather hard on him, Sophia, at times."</p> +<p>It needed but this for Mrs. Van Buren to explode again and +charge her sister with saying too little rather than too much. "One +would think you blamed Ethie entirely, or at least that you were +indifferent to her happiness," she said, removing her lace barb, +and unfastening the heavy switch bound about her head. "I was +surprised at you, Barbara, I must say. After all your pretended +affection for Ethelyn, I did expect you would be willing to do as +much as to speak for her, at least."</p> +<p>This was too much for poor Aunt Barbara, and without any attempt +at justification, except that her sister in her attack upon Richard +had left her nothing to say, she cried quietly and sorrowfully, as +she folded up her white apron and made other necessary preparations +for the night. That she should be accused of not caring for Ethie, +of not speaking for her, wounded her in a tender point; and long +after Mrs. Van Buren had gone to the front chamber, where she +always slept, Aunt Barbara was on her knees by the rocking chair, +praying earnestly for Ethie, and then still kneeling there, with +her face on the cushion, sobbing softly, "God knows how much I love +her. There's nothing of personal comfort I would not sacrifice to +bring her back; but when a man was feeling as bad as he could, what +was the use of making him feel worse?"</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +<h3>WATCHING AND WAITING</h3> +<br> +<p>The pink and white blossoms of the apple trees by the pump in +Aunt Barbara's back yard were dropping their snowy petals upon the +clean, bright grass, and the frogs in the meadows were croaking +their sad music, when Richard Markham came again to Chicopee. He +had started for home the morning after his memorable interview with +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, and to Aunt Barbara had fallen the task of +telling her troubles to the colonel's family, asking that the +affair be kept as quiet as possible, inasmuch as Ethie might soon +be found, and matters between her and Richard be made right. Every +day, after the mail came from the West, the colonel rang at Aunt +Barbara's door and asked solemnly, "if there was any news"--good +news, he meant--and Aunt Barbara always shook her head, while her +face grew thinner, and her round, straight figure began to get a +stoop and a look of greater age than the family Bible would +warrant.</p> +<p>Ethelyn had not been heard from, and search as he would, Richard +could find no trace of her whatever. She had effectually covered +her tracks, so that not even a clew to her whereabouts was found. +No one had seen her, or any person like her, and the suspense and +anxiety of those three--Richard, Aunt Barbara, and Andy--who loved +her so well, was getting to be terrible, when there came to Andy a +letter--a letter in the dear, familiar handwriting. A few lines +only, and they read:</p> +<p>"NEW YORK, May--.</p> +<p>"MY DARLING ANDY: I know you have not forgotten me, and I am +superstitious enough to fancy that you are with me in spirit +constantly. I do not know why I am writing this to you, but +something impels me to do it, and tell you that I am well. I cannot +say happy yet, for the sundering of every earthly relation made too +deep a wound for me not to feel the pain for months and may be for +years. I have employment, though--constant employment--that helps +me to bear, and keeps me from dwelling too much upon the past.</p> +<p>"Andy, I want you to tell Richard that in thinking over my +married life I see many places where I did very wrong and tried him +terribly. I am sorry for that, and hope he will forgive me. I wish +I had never crossed his path and left so dark a shadow on his +life.</p> +<p>"Tell your mother that I know now I did not try to make her like +me. Perhaps I could not if I had; but I might at least have tried. +I am sorry I troubled her so much.</p> +<p>"Tell Melinda Jones, and James and John, that I remember all +their kindness, and thank them so much. And Eunice, too. She was +good to me, always. And oh! Andy, please get word somehow to dear +Aunt Barbara that her lost Ethie is well, and so sorry to give her +pain, as I know I do. I would write to her myself, but I am afraid +she blames me for going away and bringing a kind of disgrace upon +her and Aunt Van Buren. I cannot say yet I am sorry for the step I +took, and, until I am sorry I cannot write to Aunt Barbara. But you +must tell her for me how much I love her, and how every night of my +life I dream I am back in the dear old home under the maples, and +see upon the hills the swelling buds and leaves of spring. Tell her +not to forget me, and be sure that wherever I am or whatever may +befall me, she will be remembered as the dearest, most precious +memory of my life. Next to her Andy, you come; my darling Andy, who +was always so kind to me when my heart was aching so hard.</p> +<p>"Good-by, Andy, good-by."</p> +<p>This was the letter which Andy read with streaming eyes, while +around him, on tiptoe, to look over his and each other's shoulders, +stood the entire family, all anxious and eager to know what the +runaway had written. It was a very conciliatory letter, and it left +a sadly pleasant impression on those who read it, making even the +mother wipe her eyes with the corner of her apron as she washed her +supper dishes in the sink and whispered to herself, "She didn't +trouble me so very much more than I did her. I might have done +different, too."</p> +<p>Richard made no comment whatever, but, like Andy, he conned the +letter over and over until he knew it by heart, especially the part +referring to himself. She had cast a shadow upon his life, but she +was very dear to him for all that, and he would gladly have taken +back the substance, had that been possible. This letter Richard +carried to Aunt Barbara, whom he found sitting in her pleasant +porch, with the May moonlight falling upon her face, and her eyes +wearing the look of one who is constantly expecting something which +never comes. And Aunt Barbara was expecting Ethie. It could not be +that a young girl like her would stay away for long. She might +return at any time, and every morning the good woman said to +herself, "She will be here to-day;" every night, "She will come +home to-morrow." The letter, however, did not warrant such a +conclusion There was no talk of coming back, but the postmark, "New +York," told where she was, and that was something gained. They +could surely find her now, Aunt Barbara said, and she and Richard +talked long together about what he was going to do, for he was on +his way then to the great city.</p> +<p>"Bring her to me at once. It is my privilege to have her first," +Aunt Barbara said, next morning, as she bade Richard good-by, and +then began to watch and wait for tidings which never came.</p> +<p>Richard could not find Ethelyn, or any trace of her, and after a +protracted search of six long weeks, he went back to his Iowa home, +sick, worn out, and discouraged. Aunt Barbara roused herself for +action. "Men were good for nothing to hunt. They could not find a +thing if it was right before their face and eyes. It took a woman; +and she was going to see what she could do," she said to Mrs. Van +Buren, who was up at the homestead for a few days, and who looked +aghast at her sister's proposition, that she should accompany her, +and help her hunt up Ethie.</p> +<p>"Was Barbara crazy, that she thought of going to New York in +this hot weather, when the smallpox, and the dysentery, and the +plague, and mercy knew what was there? Besides that, how did +Barbara intend to manage? What was she going to do?"</p> +<p>Barbara hardly knew herself how she should manage, or what she +should do. "Providence would direct," she said, though to be sure +she had an idea. Ethie had written that she had found employment, +and what was more probable than to suppose that the employment was +giving music lessons, for which she was well qualified, or teaching +in some gentleman's family. Taking this as her basis, Aunt Barbara +intended to inquire for every governess and teacher in the city, +besides watching every house where such an appendage would be +likely to be found. Still her great hope was in the street and the +Park. She should surely meet Ethie there some day--at least she +would try the effect of her plan; and she went quietly on with her +preparations, while Mrs. Van Buren tried to dissuade her from a +scheme which seemed so foolish and utterly impracticable.</p> +<p>"Suppose Ethie was a governess, the family most likely would be +out of town at that season; and what good would it do for Aunt +Barbara to risk her life and health in the crowded city?"</p> +<p>This view of the matter was rather dampening to Aunt Barbara's +zeal; but trusting that Providence would interfere in her behalf, +she still insisted that she should go, and again expressed a wish +that Sophia would go with her. "It would not be so lonesome, and +would look better, too," she said, "while you know more of city +ways than I do, and would not get imposed upon."</p> +<p>Mrs. Van Buren could go far beyond her sister in abusing +Richard, but when it came to a sacrifice of her own comfort and +pleasure, she held back. Nothing could induce her to go to New +York. She preferred the cool seaside, where she was to join a party +of Boston élite. Her dresses were made, her room engaged, +and she must go, she said, urging that Nettie's health required the +change--Nettie, who had given to her husband a sickly, puny child, +which lived just long enough to warrant a grand funeral, and then +was laid to rest under the shadow of the Van Buren monument, out in +pleasant Mount Auburn.</p> +<p>So Mrs. Van Buren went back to Boston, while Aunt Barbara gave +all needful directions to Betty with regard to the management of +the house, and the garden, and plants, and cellar door, which must +be shut nights, and the spot on the roof which sometimes leaked +when it rained, and the burdocks and dandelions which must be dug +up, and the grass which Uncle Billy Thompson must cut once in two +weeks, and the old cat, Tabby, and the young cat, Jim, who had come +to the door in a storm, and was now the pet of the house, and the +canary bird, and the yeast, and look in the vinegar barrel to see +that all was right, and be sure and scald the milk-pans, and turn +them up in the sun for an hour, and keep the doors locked, and the +silver up in the scuttle-hole; and if she heard the rat which +baffled and tormented them so long, get some poison and kill it, +but not on any account let it get in the cistern; and keep the +door-steps clean, and the stoop, and once in a while sweep the low +roof at the back of the house, and not sit up late nights, or sleep +very long in the morning; and inasmuch as there would be so little +to do, she might as well finish up all her new sewing, and make the +pile of sheets and pillow-cases which had been cut out since March. +These were Aunt Barbara's directions, which Betty, nothing +appalled, promised to heed, telling her mistress not to worry an +atom, as things should be attended to, even better than if she were +at home to see to them herself.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara knew she could trust old Betty, and so, after +getting herself vaccinated in both arms, as a precaution against +the smallpox, and procuring various disinfecting agents, and having +underpockets put in all her dresses, by way of eluding pickpockets, +the good woman started one hot July morning on her mission in +search of Ethie. But, alas, finding Ethie, or anyone, in New York, +was like "hunting for a needle in a hay mow," as Aunt Barbara began +to think after she had been for four weeks or more an inmate of an +uptown boarding house, recommended as first-class, but terrible to +Aunt Barbara, from the contrast it presented to her own clean, +roomy home beneath the maple trees, which came up to her so +vividly, with all its delicious coolness and fragrance, and +blossoming shrubs, and newly cut grass, with the dew sparkling like +diamonds upon it.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara was terribly homesick from the first, but she would +not give up; so day after day she traversed one street after +another, looking wistfully in every face she met for the one she +sought, questioning children playing in the parks and squares as to +whether they knew any teacher by the name of Markham or Grant, +ringing the door-bells of every pretentious-looking house and +putting the same question to the servants, until the bombazine +dress and black Stella shawl, and brown Neapolitan hat, and +old-fashioned lace veil, and large sun umbrella became pretty well +known in various parts of New York, while the owner thereof grew to +be a suspicious character, whom servants watched from the basement +and ladies from the parlor windows, and children shunned on the +sidewalk, while even the police were cautioned with regard to the +strange woman who went up and down day after day, sometimes in +stages, sometimes in cars, but oftener on foot, staring at everyone +she met, especially if they chanced to be young or pretty, and had +any children near them. Once down near Washington Square, as she +was hurrying toward a group of children, in the center of which +stood a figure much like Ethie's, a tall man in the blue uniform +accosted her, inquiring into her reasons for wandering about so +constantly.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara's honest face, which she turned full toward the +officer, was a sufficient voucher for her with the simple, +straightforward explanation which she made to the effect that her +niece had left home some time ago--run away, in fact--and she was +hunting for her here in New York, where her letter was dated. "But +it's wearisome work for an old woman like me, walking all over New +York, as I have," Aunt Barbara said, and her lip began to quiver as +she sat down upon one of the seats in the square, and looked +helplessly up at the policeman. She was not afraid of him, nor of +the five others of the craft who knew her by sight, and stopped to +hear what she had to say. She never dreamed that they could suspect +her of wrong, and they did not when they heard her story, and saw +the truthful, motherly face. Perhaps they could help her, they +said, and they asked the name of the runaway.</p> +<p>At first Aunt Barbara refused to give it, wishing to spare Ethie +this notoriety; but she finally yielded so far as to say, "She +might call herself either Markham or Grant," and that was all they +could get from her; but after that day the bombazine dress, and +black Stella shawl, and large sun umbrella were safe from the +surveillance of the police, save as each had a kindly care for the +owner, and an interest in the object of her search.</p> +<p>The light-fingered gentry, however, were not as chary of her. +The sweet, motherly face, and wistful, pleading, timid eyes, did +not deter them in the least. On the contrary, they saw in the +bombazine and Stella shawl a fine field for their operations; and +twice, on returning to her boarding house, the good soul was +horrified to find her purse was missing, notwithstanding that she +had kept her hand upon her pocket every instant, except once, when +the man who looked like a minister had kindly opened the car window +for her, and she had gathered up her dress to make more room for +him at her side, and once when she got entangled in a crowd, and +had to hold on to her shawl to keep it on her shoulders. Ten +dollars was the entire sum purloined, so the villains did not make +much out of her, Aunt Barbara reflected with a good deal of +complacency; but when they stole her gold-bowed glasses from her +pocket, and adroitly snatched from her hand the parcel containing +the dress she had bought for Betty at Stewart's, she began to look +upon herself as specially marked by a gang of thieves for one on +whom to commit their depredations; and when at last a fire broke +out in the very block where she was boarding, and she, with others +was driven from her bed at midnight, with her bombazine only half +on, and her hoops left behind, she made up her mind that the fates +were against her, and wrote to Betty that she was coming home, +following her letter in the next train so that both reached +Chicopee the same day, the very last day of summer.</p> +<p>It was sooner than Betty expected her, but the clean, cool +house, peeping out from the dense shadows of the maples, looked +like a paradise to the tired, dusty woman, who rode down the street +in the village hack and surprised Betty sitting in the back door +cutting off corn to dry and talking to Uncle Billy, whose scythe +lay on the grass while he drank from the gourd swimming on top of +the water-pail.</p> +<p>Betty was glad to see her mistress, and lamented that she did +not know of her coming, so as to have a nice hot cup of tea ready, +with a delicate morsel of something. Aunt Barbara was satisfied to +be home on any terms, though her nose did go up a little, and +something which sounded like "P-shew!" dropped from her lips as she +entered the dark sitting room, where the odor was not the best in +the world.</p> +<p>"It's the rat, ma'am, I think," Betty said, opening both blinds +and windows. "I put the pizen for him as you said, and all I could +do he would die in the wall. It ain't as bad as it has been, and +I've got some stuff here to kill it, though I think it smells worse +than the rat himself," and Betty held her nose as she pointed out +to her mistress the saucer of chloride of lime which, at Mrs. Col. +Markham's suggestion, she had put in the sitting room.</p> +<p>Aside from the rat in the wall, things were mostly as Aunt +Barbara could wish them to be. The vinegar had made beautifully. +There was fresh yeast, brewed the day before, in the jug. The +milk-pans were bright and sweet; the cellar door was fastened; the +garden was looking its best; the silver was all up the +scuttle-hole, Betty climbing up and risking her neck every morning +to see if it were safe; the stoop and steps were scrubbed, the roof +was swept, and both the cats, Tabby and Jim, were so fat that they +could scarcely walk as they came up to greet their mistress. Only +two mishaps Betty had to relate. Jim had eaten up the canary bird, +and she had broken the kitchen tongs. She had also failed to +accomplish as much sewing as she had hoped to do, and the pile of +work was not greatly diminished.</p> +<p>"There is so many steps to take when a body is alone, and with +you gone I was more particular," she said, by way of apology, as +she confessed to the rat, and the canary bird, and the kitchen +tongs, and the small amount of sewing she had done.</p> +<p>These were all the points wherein she had been remiss, and Aunt +Barbara was content, and even happy, as she laid aside her Stella +shawl and brown Neapolitan, and out in her pleasant dining room sat +down to the hasty meal which Betty improvised, of bread and butter, +Dutch cheese, baked apples, and huckleberry pie, with a cup of +delicious tea, such as Aunt Barbara did not believe the people of +New York had ever tasted. Most certainly those who were fortunate +enough to board at first-class boarding-houses had not; and as she +sipped her favorite beverage with Tabby on her dress and the +criminal Tim in her lap, his head occasionally peering over the +table, she felt comforted and rested, and thankful for her cozy +home, albeit it lay like a heavy weight upon her that her trouble +had been for nothing, and no tidings of Ethie had been +obtained.</p> +<p>She wrote to Richard the next day, of her unsuccessful search, +and asked what they should do next.</p> +<p>"We can do nothing but wait and hope," Richard wrote in reply, +but Aunt Barbara added to it, "we can pray;" and so all through the +autumn, when the soft, hazy days which Ethie had loved so well kept +the lost one forever in mind, Aunt Barbara waited and hoped, and +prayed and watched for Ethie's coming home, feeling always a +sensation of expectancy when the Western whistle sounded and the +Western train went thundering through the town; and when the hack +came up from the depot and did not stop at her door, she said to +herself, "She would walk up, maybe," and then waiting again she +would watch from her window and look far up the quiet street, where +the leaves of crimson and gold were lying upon the walk. No Ethie +was to be seen. Then as the days grew shorter and the nights fell +earlier upon the Chicopee hills, and the bleak winds blew across +the meadow, and the waters of the river looked blue and dark and +cold in the November light, she said: "She will be here sure by +Christmas. She always liked that day best," and her fingers were +busy with the lamb's wool stockings she was knitting for her +darling.</p> +<p>"It won't be much," she said to Betty, "but it will show she is +not forgotten;" and so the stocking grew, and was shaped from a +half-worn pair which Ethelyn used to wear, and on which Aunt +Barbara's tears dropped as she thought of the dear little feet, now +wandered so far away, which the stockings used to cover.</p> +<p>Christmas came, and Susie Granger sang of Bethlehem in the old +stone church, and other fingers than Ethie's swept the organ keys, +and the Christmas tree was set up, and the presents were hung upon +the boughs, and the names were called, and Aunt Barbara was there, +but the lamb's-wool stockings were at home in the bureau drawer; +there was no one to wear them, no one to take them from the tree, +if they had been put there; Ethie had not come.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +<h3>AFFAIRS AT OLNEY</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard could not stay in Camden, where everything reminded him +so much of Ethelyn, and at his mother's earnest solicitations he +went back to Olney, taking with him all the better articles of +furniture which Ethie had herself selected, and which converted the +plain farmhouse into quite a palace, as both Andy and his mother +thought. The latter did not object to them in the least, and was +even conscious of a feeling of pride and satisfaction when her +neighbors came in to admire, and some of them to envy her the +handsome surroundings. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's lesson, though a very +bitter one, was doing Richard good, especially as it was adroitly +followed up by Melinda Jones, who, on the strength of her now being +his sister-elect, took the liberty of saying to him some pretty +plain things with regard to his former intercourse with Ethie.</p> +<p>James had finally nerved himself to the point of asking Melinda +if she could be happy with such a homespun fellow as himself, and +Melinda had answered that she thought she could, hinting that it +was possible for him to overcome much which was homespun about +him.</p> +<p>"I do not expect you to leave off your heavy boots or your +coarse frock when your work requires you to wear them," she said, +stealing her hand into his in a caressing kind of way; "but a man +can be a gentleman in any dress."</p> +<p>James promised to do his best, and with Melinda Jones for a +teacher, had no fear of his success. And so, some time in August, +when the summer work at the Jones' was nearly done, Melinda came to +the farmhouse and was duly installed as mistress of the chamber +which James and John had occupied--the latter removing his Sunday +clothes, and rifle, and fishing lines, and tobacco, and the +slippers Ethie had given him, into Andy's room, which he shared +with his brother. Mrs. Markham, senior, got on better with Melinda +than she had with Ethelyn; Melinda knew exactly how to manage her, +and, indeed, how to manage the entire household, from Richard down +to Andy, who, though extremely kind and attentive to her, never +loved her as he did Ethelyn.</p> +<p>"She was a nice, good girl," he said, "but couldn't hold a +candle to Ethie. She was too dark complected, and had altogether +too thumpin' feet and ankles, besides wearin' wrinkly +stockings."</p> +<p>That was Andy's criticism, confided to his brother John, around +whose grave mouth there was a faint glimmer of a smile, as he gave +a hitch to his suspender and replied, "I guess her stockin's do +wrinkle some."</p> +<p>A few of Melinda's ways Mrs. Markham designated as high-flown, +but one by one her prejudices gave way as Melinda gained upon her +step by step, until at last Ethelyn would hardly have recognized +the well-ordered household, so different from what she had known +it.</p> +<p>"The boys" no longer came to the table in their shirt-sleeves, +for Melinda always had their coats in sight, just where it was +handy to put them on, and the trousers were slipped down over the +boots while the boys ate, and the soft brown Markham hair always +looked smooth and shining, and Mrs. Markham tidied herself a little +before coming to the table, no matter how heavy her work, and never +but once was she guilty of sitting down to her dinner in her +pasteboard sun-bonnet, giving as an excuse that her "hair was at +sixes and sevens." She remembered seeing her mother do this fifty +years before, and she had clung to the habit as one which must be +right because they used to do so in Vermont. Gradually, too, there +came to be napkins for tea, and James' Christmas present to his +wife was a set of silver forks, while John contributed a dozen +individual salts, and Andy bought a silver bell, to call he did not +know whom, only it looked pretty on the table, and he wanted it +there every meal, ringing it himself sometimes when anything was +needed, and himself answering the call. On the whole, the Markhams +were getting to be "dreadfully stuck up," Eunice Plympton's mother +said, while Eunice doubted if she should like living there now as +well as in the days of Ethelyn. She had been a born lady, and +Eunice conceded everything to her; but, "to see the airs that +Melinda Jones put on" was a little too much for Eunice's democratic +blood, and she and her mother made many invidious remarks +concerning "Mrs. Jim Markham," who wore such heavy silk to church, +and sported such handsome furs. One hundred and fifty dollars the +cape alone had cost, it was rumored, and when, to this Richard +added a dark, rich muff to match, others than Eunice looked +enviously at Mrs. James, who to all intents and purposes, was the +same frank, outspoken person that she was when she wore a plain +scarf around her neck, and rode to church in her father's lumber +wagon instead of the handsome turn-out James had bought since his +marriage. Nothing could spoil Melinda, and though she became quite +the fashion in Olney, and was frequently invited to Camden to meet +the élite of the town, she was up just as early on Monday +mornings as when she lived at home, and her young, strong arms +saved Mrs. Markham more work than Eunice's had done. She would not +dip candles, she said, nor burn them, either, except as a matter of +convenience to carry around the house; and so the tallows gave way +to kerosene, and as Melinda liked a great deal of light, the house +was sometimes illuminated so brilliantly that poor Mrs. Markham had +either to shade her eyes with her hands, or turn her back to the +lamp. She never thought of opposing Melinda; that would have done +no good; and she succumbed with the rest to the will which was +ruling them so effectually and so well.</p> +<p>Some very plain talks Melinda had with Richard with regard to +Ethelyn; and Richard, when he saw how anxious James was to please +his wife, even in little things which he had once thought of no +consequence, regretted so much that his own course had not been +different with Ethelyn. "Poor, dear Ethie," he called her to +himself, as he sat alone at night in the room where she used to be. +At first he had freely talked of her with his family. That was +when, like Aunt Barbara, they were expecting her back, or rather +expecting constantly to hear from her through Aunt Barbara. She +would go to Chicopee first, they felt assured, and then Aunt +Barbara would write, and Richard would start at once. How many +castles he built to that second bringing her home, where Melinda +made everything so pleasant, and where she could be happy for a +little time, when they would go where she liked--it did not matter +where. Richard was willing for anything, only he did want her to +stay a little time at the farmhouse, just to see how they had +improved, and to learn that his mother could be kind if she tried. +She meant to be so if Ethelyn ever came back, for she had said as +much to him on the receipt of Ethie's message, sent in Andy's +letter, and her tears had fallen fast as she confessed to not +always having felt or acted right toward the young girl. With +Melinda the ruling spirit they would have made it very pleasant for +Ethelyn, and they waited for her so anxiously all through the +autumnal days till early winter snow covered the prairies, and the +frost was on the window panes, and the wind howled dismally past +the door, just as it did one year ago, when Ethelyn went away. But, +alas no Ethie came, or tidings of her either, and Richard ceased to +speak of her at last, and his face wore so sad a look whenever she +was mentioned that the family stopped talking of her; or, if they +spoke her name, it was as they spoke of Daisy, or of one that was +dead.</p> +<p>For a time Richard kept up a correspondence with Aunt Barbara; +but that, too, gradually ceased, and as his uncle, the old colonel, +died in the spring, and the widow went to her friends in +Philadelphia, he seemed to be cut off from any connections with +Chicopee, and but for the sad, harassing memory of what had been, +he was to all intents and purposes the same grave, silent bachelor +as of yore, following the bent of his own inclinations, coming and +going as he liked, sought after by those who wished for an honest +man to transact their business, and growing gradually more and more +popular with the people of his own and the adjoining counties.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +<h3>THE GOVERNOR</h3> +<br> +<p>They were to elect a new one in Iowa, and there were rumors +afloat that Richard Markham would be the man chosen by his party. +There had been similar rumors once before, but Mrs. Markham had +regarded them as mythical, never dreaming that such an honor could +be in store for her boy. Now, however, matters began to look a +little serious. Crowds of men came frequently to the farmhouse and +were closeted with Richard. Tim Jones rode up and down the country, +electioneering for "Dick." Hal Clifford, in Camden, contributed his +influence, though he belonged to the other party. Others, too, of +Harry's way of thinking, cast aside political differences and "went +in," as they said, for the best man--one whom they knew to be +honest and upright, like Judge Markham. Each in their own +way--James and John, and Andy and Melinda--worked for Richard, who +was frequently absent from home for several days, sometimes taking +the stump himself, but oftener remaining quiet while others +presented his cause. Search as they might, his opponents could find +nothing against him, except that sad affair with his wife, who, one +paper said, "had been put out of the way when she became +troublesome," hinting at every possible atrocity on the husband's +part, and dilating most pathetically upon the injured, innocent, +and beautiful young wife. Then with a face as pale as ashes, +Richard made his "great speech" in Camden court-house, asking that +the whole matter be dropped at once, and saying that he would far +rather live a life of obloquy than have the name, more dear to him +than the names of our loved dead, bandied about from lip to lip and +made the subject for newspaper paragraphs. They knew Richard in +Camden, and they knew Ethelyn, too, liking both so well, that the +result of that speech was to increase Richard's popularity tenfold, +and to carry in his favor the entire town.</p> +<p>The day of election was a most exciting one, especially in +Olney, where Richard had lived from boyhood. It was something for a +little town like this to furnish the governor, the Olneyites +thought, and though, for party's sake, there were some opponents, +the majority went for Richard, and Tim Jones showed his zeal by +drinking with so many that at night he stopped at the farmhouse, +insisting that he had reached home, and should stay there, "for all +of Melind," and hurrahing so loud for "Richud--Mark-um--Square," +that he woke up the little blue-eyed boy which for six weeks had +been the pride and pet and darling of the household.</p> +<p>Andy's tactics were different. He had voted in the morning, and +prayed the rest of the day, that if it were right, "old Dick might +lick the whole of 'em," adding the petition that "he need not be +stuck up if he was governor," and that Ethie might come back to +share his greatness. Others than Andy were thinking of Ethelyn that +day, for not the faintest echo of a huzza reached Richard's ears +that did not bring with it regretful thoughts of her. And when at +last success was certain, and, flushed with triumph, he stood +receiving the congratulations of his friends, and the Olney bell +was ringing in honor of the new governor, and bonfires were lighted +in the streets, the same little boys who had screamed themselves +hoarse for the other candidates, stealing barrels and dry-goods +boxes to feed the flames with quite as much alacrity as their +opponents, there was not a throb of his heart which did not go out +after the lost one, with a yearning desire to bring her back, and, +by giving her the highest position in the State, atone in part for +all which had been wrong. But Ethie was very, very far +away--further than he dreamed--and strain ear and eye as she might, +she could not see the lurid blaze which lit up the prairie till the +tall grass grew red in the ruddy glow, or hear the deafening shouts +which rent the sky for the new Governor Markham, elected by an +overwhelming majority. Oh, how lonely Richard felt even in the +first moments of his success! And how he longed to get away from +all the noise and din which greeted him at every step, and be alone +again, as since Ethie went away he had chosen to be so much of his +time. Melinda guessed at his feelings in part, and when he came +home at last, looking so pale and tired, she pitied him, and showed +her pity by letting him alone; and when supper was ready, sending +his tea to his room, whither he had gone as soon as his mother had +unwound her arms from his neck, and told him how glad she was.</p> +<p>These were also days of triumph for Melinda, for it was soon +known that she was to be the lady of the governor's mansion, and +the knowledge gave her a fresh accession of dignity among her +friends. It was human that Melinda should feel her good fortune a +little, and perhaps she did. Andy thought so, and prayed silently +against the pomps and vanities of the world, especially after her +new purple silk was sent home, with the handsome velvet cloak and +crimson morning gown. These had been made in Camden, a thing which +gave mortal offense to Miss Henry, the Olney dressmaker, who +wondered "what Melinda Jones was that she should put on such airs, +and try to imitate Mrs. Richard Markham." They had expected such +things from Ethelyn, and thought it perfectly right. She was born +to it, they said; but for Melinda, whom all remembered as wearing a +red woolen gown when a little girl, "for her to set up so steep was +another matter." But when Melinda ordered a blue merino, and a +flannel wrapper, and a blue silk, and a white cloak for baby, made +at Miss Henry's, and told that functionary just how her purple was +trimmed, and even offered to show it to her, the lady changed her +mind, and quoted "Mrs. James Markham's" wardrobe for months +afterward.</p> +<p>Richard, and James, and Melinda, and baby, and Eunice Plympton +as baby's nurse, all went to Des Moines, and left the house so +lonely that Andy lay flat upon the floor and cried, and his +mother's face wore the look of one who had just returned from +burying their dead. It was something, however, to be the mother and +brother of a governor, and a comfort to get letters from the absent +ones, to hear of Richard's immense popularity, and the very +graceful manner in which Melinda discharged her duties. But to see +their names in print, to find something about Governor Markham in +almost every paper--that was best of all, and Andy spent half his +time in cutting out and saving every little scrap pertaining to the +"governor's family," and what they did at Des Moines. Andy was laid +up with rheumatism toward spring; but Tim Jones used to bring him +the papers, rolling his quid of tobacco rapidly from side to side +as he pointed to the paragraphs so interesting to both. Tim hardly +knew whether himself, or Richard, or Melinda, was the governor. On +the whole, he gave the preference to "Melind," after the governor's +levee, at which she had appeared in "royal purple, with ostrich +feathers in her hair," and was described in the Camden +<i>Leader</i> as the "elegant and accomplished Mrs. James Markham, +who had received the guests with so much dignity and grace."</p> +<p>"Ain't Melind a brick? and only to think how she used to milk +the cows, and I once chased her with a garter snake," Tim said, +reading the article aloud to Andy, who, while assenting that she +was a brick, and according all due credit to her for what she was, +and what she did, never for a moment forgot Ethelyn.</p> +<p>She would have done so much better, and looked so much neater, +especially her shoes! Andy could not quite forgive Melinda's big +feet and ankles, especially as his contempt for such appendages was +constantly kept in mind by the sight of the little half-worn +slippers which Ethie had left in her closet when she moved to +Camden, and which, now that she was gone, he kept as something +almost as sacred as Daisy's hair, admiring the dainty rosettes and +small high heels more than he admired the whole of Melinda's +wardrobe when spread upon the bed, and tables, and chairs, +preparatory to packing it for Des Moines. Richard, too, remembered +Ethelyn, and never did Melinda stand at his side in any gay saloon +that he did not see in her place a brown-eyed, brown-haired woman +who would have moved a very queen among the people. Ethelyn was +never forgotten, whether in the capitol, or the street, or at home, +or awake, or asleep. Ethie's face and Ethie's form were everywhere, +and if earnest, longing thoughts could have availed to bring her +back, she would have come, whether across the rolling sea, or afar +from the trackless desert. But they could not reach her, Ethie did +not come, and the term of Richard's governorship glided away, and +he declined a re-election, and went back to Olney, looking ten +years older than when he left it, with an habitual expression of +sadness on his face, which even strangers noticed, wondering what +was the heart trouble which was aging him so fast, and turning his +brown hair gray.</p> +<p>For a time the stillness and quiet of Olney were very acceptable +to him, and then he began to long for more excitement--something to +divert his mind from the harrowing fear, daily growing more and +more certain, that Ethie would never come back. It was four years +since she went away, and nothing had been heard from her since the +letter sent to Andy from New York. "Dead," he said to himself many +a time, and but for the dread of the hereafter, he, too, would +gladly have lain down in the graveyard where Daisy was sleeping so +quietly. With Andy it was different. Ethie was not dead--he knew +she was not--and some time she would surely come back, There was +comfort in Andy's strong assurance, and Richard always felt better +after a talk with his hopeful brother. Perhaps she would come back, +and if so he must have a place worthy of her, he said, one day, to +Melinda, who seized the opportunity to unfold a plan she had long +been cogitating. During the two years spent in Des Moines, James +had devoted himself to the study of law, preferring it to his +farming, and now he was looking out for a good locality where to +settle and practice his profession.</p> +<p>"Let's go together somewhere and build a house," Melinda said. +"You know Ethie's taste. You can fashion it as you think she would +like it, and meantime we will live with you and see to you a +little. You need some looking after," and Melinda laid her hand +half pityingly upon the bowed head of her brother-in-law, who, but +for her strong, upholding influence, and Andy's cheering faith, +would have sunk ere this into hopeless despondency.</p> +<p>Melinda was a fine specimen of true womanhood. She had met many +highly cultivated people at Des Moines and other towns, where, as +the governor's sister-in-law, she had spent more or less of the +last two years, and as nothing ever escaped her notice, she had +improved wonderfully, until even Mrs. Van Buren, of Boston, would +have been proud of her acquaintance. She had known sorrow, too; for +in the cemetery at Des Moines she had left her little blue-eyed +baby boy when only six months old, and her mother's heart had ached +to its very core, until there came another child, a little girl, +this time, whom they had christened "Ethelyn Grant," and who, on +this account, was quite as dear to Richard as to either of its +parents. Richard was happier with that little brown-haired girl +than with anyone else, and when Melinda suggested they should go +together somewhere, he assented readily, mentioning Davenport as a +place where Ethelyn had many times said she would like to live. +Now, as ever, Melinda's was the active, ruling voice, and almost +before Richard knew it, he was in Davenport and bargaining for a +vacant lot which overlooked the river and much of the country +beyond. Davenport suited them all, and by September, Melinda, who +had spent the summer with her mother, was located at a hotel and +making herself very useful to Richard with her suggestions with +regard to the palatial mansion he was building.</p> +<p>There was nothing in Davenport like the "governor's house," and +the people watched it curiously as it went rapidly up. There was a +suite of rooms which they called Ethelyn's, and to the arrangement +and adorning of these Richard gave his whole attention, sparing +nothing which could make them beautiful and attractive, and +lavishing so much expense upon them that strangers came to inspect +and comment upon them, wondering why he took so much pains, and +guessing, as people will, that he was contemplating a second +marriage as soon as a divorce could be obtained from his runaway +wife.</p> +<p>The house was finished at last, and Richard took possession, +installing Melinda as housekeeper, and feeling how happy he should +be if only Ethie were there. Somehow he expected her now. Andy's +prayers would certainly be answered even if his own were not, for +he, too, had begun to pray, feeling, at times, that God was slow to +hear, as weeks and weeks went by and still Ethie did not come. +"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and the weary waiting told +upon his bodily health, which began to fail so rapidly that people +said "Governor Markham was going into a decline," and the +physicians urged a change of air, and Mr. Townsend, who came in May +for a day at Davenport, recommended him strongly to try what +Clifton Springs, in Western New York, could do for him--the +Clifton, whose healing waters and wonderful power to cure were +famed from the shores of the Atlantic to the Californian hills.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +<h3>AFTER YEARS OF WAITING</h3> +<br> +<p>The weather in Chicopee that spring was as capricious as the +smiles of the most spoiled coquette could ever be. The first days +of April were warm, and balmy, and placid, without a cloud upon the +sky or a token of storm in the air. The crocuses and daffodils +showed their heads in the little borders by Aunt Barbara's door, +and Uncle Billy Thompson sowed the good woman a bed of lettuce, and +peas, and onions, which came up apace, and were the envy of the +neighbors. Taking advantage of the warmth and the sunshine, and +Uncle Billy's being there to whip her carpets, Aunt Barbara even +began her house cleaning, commencing at the chambers first--the +rooms which since the last "reign of terror," had only been used +when a clergyman spent Sunday there, and when Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +was up for a few days from Boston, with Nettie and the new girl +baby, which, like Melinda's, bore the name of Ethelyn. Still they +must be renovated, and cleaned, and scrubbed, lest some luckless +moth were hiding there, or some fly-speck perchance had fallen upon +the glossy paint. Aunt Barbara was not an untidy house-cleaner--one +who tosses the whole house into chaos, and simultaneous with the +china from the closet, brings up a basket of bottles from the +cellar to be washed and rinsed. She took one room at a time, +settling as she went along, so that her house never was in that +state of dire confusion which so many houses present every fall and +spring. Her house was not hard to clean, and the chambers were soon +done, except Ethie's own room, where Aunt Barbara lingered longest, +turning the pretty ingrain carpet the brightest side up, rubbing +the furniture with polish, putting a bit of paint upon the window +sills where it was getting worn, and once revolving the propriety +of hanging new paper upon the wall. But that, she reasoned, would +be needless expense. Since the night Richard spent there, five +years ago, no one had slept there, and no one should sleep there, +either, till Ethie came back again.</p> +<p>"Till Ethie comes again." Aunt Barbara rarely said that now, for +with each fleeting year the chance for Ethie's coming grew less and +less, until now she seldom spoke of it to Betty, the only person to +whom she ever talked of Ethie. Even with her she was usually very +reticent, unless something brought the wanderer to mind more +vividly than usual. Cleaning her room was such an occasion, and +sitting down upon the floor, while she darned a hole in the carpet +which the turning had brought to view, Aunt Barbara spoke of her +darling, and the time when, a little toddling thing of two years +old, she first came to the homestead, and was laid in that very +room, and "on that very pillow," Aunt Barbara said, seeing again +the round hollow left by the little brown head when the child awoke +and stretched its fat arms toward her.</p> +<p>"Julia, her mother, died in that bed," Aunt Barbara went on, +"and Ethie always slept there after that. Well put on the sheets +marked with her name, Betty, and the ruffled pillow-cases. I want +it to seem as if she were here," and Aunt Barbara's chin quivered, +and her eyes grew moist, as her fat, creasy hands smoothed and +patted the plump pillows, and tucked in the white spread, and +picked up a feather, and moved a chair, and shut the blinds, and +dropped the curtains, and then she went softly out and shut the +door behind her.</p> +<p>Two weeks from that day, the soft, bland air was full of sleet, +and snow, and rain, which beat down the poor daffies on the +borders, and pelted the onions, and lettuce, and peas which Uncle +Billy had planted, and dashed against the closed windows of Ethie's +room, and came in under the door of the kitchen, and through the +bit of leaky roof in the dining room, while the heavy northeaster +which swept over the Chicopee hills screamed fiercely at Betty +peering curiously out to see if it was going to be any kind of +drying for the clothes she had put out early in the day, and then, +as if bent on a mischievous frolic took from the line and carried +far down the street, Aunt Barbara's short night-gown with the patch +upon the sleeve. On the whole it was a bleak, raw, stormy day, and +when the night shut down, the snow lay several inches deep upon the +half-frozen ground, making the walking execrable, and giving to the +whole village that dirty, comfortless appearance which a storm in +April always does. It was pleasant, though, in Aunt Barbara's +sitting room. It was always pleasant there, and it seemed doubly so +to-night from the contrast presented to the world without by the +white-washed ceiling, the newly whipped carpet, the clean, white +curtains, and the fire blazing on the hearth, where two huge red +apples were roasting. This was a favorite custom of Aunt Barbara's, +roasting apples in the evening. She used to do it when Ethie was at +home, for Ethie enjoyed it quite as much as she did, and when the +red cheeks burst, and the white frothy pulp came oozing out, she +used, as a little girl, to clap her hands and cry, "The apples +begin to bleed, auntie! the apples begin to bleed!"</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara never roasted them now that she did not remember +her darling, and many times she put one down for Ethie, feeing that +the "make believe" was better than nothing at all. There was one +for to-night, and Aunt Barbara sat watching it as it simmered and +sputtered, and finally burst with the heat, "bleeding," just as her +heart was bleeding for the runaway whose feet had wandered so long. +It was after nine, and Betty had gone to bed, so that Aunt Barbara +was there alone, with the big Bible in her lap. She had been +reading the parable of the Prodigal, and though she would not liken +Ethie to him, she sighed softly, "If she would only come, we would +kill the fatted calf." Then, thoughtfully, she turned the leaves of +the Good Book one by one, till she found the "Births," and read in +a low whisper, "Ethelyn Adelaide, Born," and so forth. Then her eye +moved on to where the marriage of Ethelyn Adelaide with Richard +Markham, of Iowa, had been recorded; and then she turned to the +last of "Deaths," wondering if, unseen by her, Ethie's name had +been added to the list. The last name visible to mortal eye was +that of Julia, wife of William Grant, who had died at the age of +twenty-five.</p> +<p>"Just as old as Ethie is, if living," Aunt Barbara whispered, +and the tears which blotted the name of Julia Grant were given to +Ethie rather than the young half-sister who had been so much of a +stranger.</p> +<p>Suddenly, as Aunt Barbara sat there, with her Bible in her lap, +there was heard the distant rumbling of the New York express, as it +came rolling across the plains from West Chicopee. Then as the roar +became more muffled as it moved under the hill, a shrill whistle +echoed on the night air, and half the people of Chicopee who were +awake said to each other, "The train is stopping. Somebody has come +from New York." It was not often that the New York express stopped +at Chicopee, and when it did, it was made a matter of comment. +To-night, however, it was too dark, and stormy, and late for anyone +to see who had come; and guessing it was some of the Lewises, who +now lived in Col. Markham's old house, the people, one by one, went +to their beds, until nearly every light in Chicopee was +extinguished save the one shining out into the darkness from the +room where Aunt Barbara sat, with thoughts of Ethie in her heart. +And up the steep hill, from the station, through the snow, a +girlish figure toiled--the white, thin face looking wistfully down +the maple-lined street when the corner by the common was turned, +and the pallid lips whispering softly, "I wonder if she will know +me?"</p> +<p>There were flecks of snow upon the face and on the smooth brown +hair and travel-soiled dress; clogs of snow, too, upon the tired +feet--the little feet Andy had admired so much; but the traveler +kept on bravely, till the friendly light shone out beneath the +maples, and then she paused, and leaning for a moment against the +fence, sobbed aloud, but not sadly or bitterly. She was too near +home for that--too near the darling Aunt Barbara, who did not hear +gate or door unclose, or the step in the dark hall. But when the +knob of the sitting room door moved, she heard it, and, without +turning her head, called out, "What is it, Betty? I thought you in +bed an hour ago."</p> +<p>The supposed Betty did not reply, but stood a brief instant +taking in every feature in the room, from the two apples roasting +on the hearth to the little woman sitting with her fingers on the +page where possibly Ethie's death ought to be recorded. Aunt +Barbara was waiting for Betty to answer, and she turned her head at +last, just as a low, rapid step glided across the floor, and a +voice, which thrilled every vain, first with a sudden fear, and +then with a joy unspeakable, said, "Aunt Barbara, it's I. It's +Ethie, come back to you again. Is she welcome here?"</p> +<p>Was she welcome? Answer, the low cry, and gasping sob, and +outstretched arms, which held the wanderer in so loving an embrace, +while a rain of tears fell upon the dear head from which the bonnet +had fallen back as Ethelyn sank upon her knees before Aunt Barbara. +Neither could talk much for a few moments. Certainly not Aunt +Barbara, who sat bewildered and stupefied while Ethelyn, more +composed, removed her hat, and cloak, and overshoes, and shook out +the folds of her damp dress; and then drawing a little covered +stool to Aunt Barbara's side, sat down upon it, and leaning her +elbows on Aunt Barbara's lap, looked up in her face, with the old, +mischievous, winning smile, and said, "Auntie, have you forgiven +your Ethie for running away?"</p> +<p>Then it began to seem real again--began to seem as if the last +six years were blotted out, and things restored to what they were +when Ethie was wont to sit at her aunt's feet as she was sitting +now. There was this difference, however; the bright, round, rosy +face, which used to look so flushed, and eager, and radiant, and +assured, was changed, and the one confronting Aunt Barbara now was +pale, and thin, and worn, and there were lines across the brow, and +the eyes were heavy and tired, and a little uncertain and anxious +in their expression as they scanned the sweet old face above them. +Aunt Barbara saw it all, and this, if nothing else, would have +brought entire pardon even had she been inclined to withhold it, +which she was not. Ethie was back again, and that was enough for +her. She would not chide or blame her ever so little, and her warm, +loving hands took the thin white face and held it while she kissed +the parted lips, the blue-veined forehead, and the hollow cheeks, +whispering: "My own darling. I am so glad to have you back. I have +been so sad without you, and mourned for you so much, fearing you +were dead. Where has my darling been that none of us could find +you?"</p> +<p>"Did you hunt, Aunt Barbara? Did you really hunt for me?"</p> +<p>And something of Ethie's old self leaped into her eyes and +flushed into her cheeks as she asked the question.</p> +<p>"Yes, darling. All the spring and all the summer long, and on +into the fall, and then I gave it up."</p> +<p>"Were you alone, auntie? That is, did nobody help you hunt?" was +Ethelyn's next query; and Richard would have read much hope for him +in the eagerness of the eyes, which waited for Aunt Barbara's +answer, and which dropped so shyly upon the carpet when Aunt +Barbara said, "Alone, child? No; he did all he could--Richard +did--but we could get no clew."</p> +<p>Ethelyn could not tell her story until she had been made easy on +several important points, and smoothing the folds of Aunt Barbara's +dress, and still looking beseechingly into her face, she said, "and +Richard hunted, too. Was he sorry, auntie? Did he care because I +went away?"</p> +<p>"Care? Of course he did. It almost broke his heart, and wasted +him to a skeleton. You did wrong, Ethie, to go and stay so long. +Richard did not deserve it."</p> +<p>It was the first word of censure Aunt Barbara had uttered, and +Ethelyn felt it keenly, as was evinced by her quivering lip and +trembling voice, as she said: "Don't auntie, don't you scold me, +please. I can bear it better from anyone else. I want you to stand +by me. I know I was hasty and did very wrong. I've said so a +thousand times; but I was so unhappy and wretched at first, and at +the last he made me so angry with his unjust accusations."</p> +<p>"Yes; he told me all, and showed me the letter you left. I know +the whole," Aunt Barbara said, while Ethelyn continued:</p> +<p>"Where is he now? How long since you heard from him?"</p> +<p>"It is two years or more. He wrote the last letter. I'm a bad +correspondent, you know, and as I had no good news to write, I did +not think it worth while to bother him. I don't know where he is +since he quit being governor."</p> +<p>There was a sudden lifting of Ethie's head, a quick arching of +her eyebrows, which told that the governor part was news to her. +Then she asked, quietly, "Has he been governor?"</p> +<p>"Yes, Governor of Iowa; and James' wife lived with him. She was +Melinda Jones."</p> +<p>"Yes, yes," and Ethie's foot beat the carpet thoughtfully, while +her eyes were cast-down, and the great tears gathered slowly in the +long-fringed lids, then they fell in perfect showers, and laying +her head in Aunt Barbara's lap she sobbed piteously.</p> +<p>Perhaps she was thinking of all she had thrown away, and weeping +that another had taken the post she would have been so proud to +fill. Aunt Barbara did not know, and she kept smoothing the bowed +head until it was lifted up again, and the tears were dried in +Ethie's eyes, where there was not the same hopeful expression there +had been at first when she heard of Richard's hunting for her. Some +doubt or fear had crossed her mind, and her hands were folded +together in a hopeless kind of way as, at Aunt Barbara's urgent +request, she began the story of her wanderings.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> +<h3>ETHIE'S STORY</h3> +<br> +<p>"You say you read my letter, auntie; and if you did, you know +nearly all that made me go away. I do not remember now just what +was in it, but I know it was very concise, and plain, and literal; +for I was angry when I wrote it, and would not spare Richard a bit. +But, oh! I had been so tired and so wretched. You can't guess half +how wretched I was at the farmhouse first, where they were all so +different, and where one of the greatest terrors was lest I should +get used to it and so be more like them. I mean Richard's mother, +auntie. I liked the others--they were kind and good; especially +Andy. Oh, Andy! dear old Andy! I have thought of him so much during +the last five years, and bad as I am I have prayed every night that +he would not forget me.</p> +<p>"Aunt Barbara, I did not love Richard, and that was my great +mistake. I ought not to have married him, but I was so sore and +unhappy then that any change was a relief. I do not see now how I +ever could have loved Frank; but I did, or thought I did, and was +constantly contrasting Richard with him and making myself more +miserable. If I had loved Richard things would have been so much +easier to bear. I was beginning to love him, and life was so much +pleasanter, when he got so angry about Frank and charged me with +those dreadful things, driving me frantic and making me feel as if +I hated him and could do much to worry him. Don't look so shocked. +I know how wicked it was, and sometimes I fear God never can +forgive me; but I did not think of him then. I forgot everything +but myself and my trouble, and so I went away, going first to ----, +so as to mislead Richard, and then turning straight back to New +York.</p> +<p>"Do you remember Abby Jackson, who was at school in Boston, and +who once spent a week with me here? She married, and lives in New +York, and believes in women's rights and wears the Bloomer dress. +She would take my part, I said, and I went at once to her house and +told her all I had done, and asked if I could stay until I found +employment. Aunt Barbara, this is a queer world, and there are +queer people in it. I thought I was sure of Abby, she used to +protest so strongly against the tyranny of men, and say she should +like nothing better than protecting females who were asserting +their own rights. I was asserting mine, and I went to her for +sympathy. She was glad to see me at first, and petted and fondled +me just as she used to do at school. She was five years older than +I, and so I looked up to her. But when I told my story her manner +changed, and it really seemed as if she looked upon me as a +suspicious person who had done something terrible. She advocated +women's rights as strongly as ever, but could not advise me to +continue in my present course. It would bring odium upon me, sure. +A woman separated from her husband was always pointed at, no matter +what cause she had for the separation. It was all wrong, she urged, +that public opinion should be thus, and ere long she trusted there +would be a change. Till then I would do well to return to Iowa and +make it up with Richard. That was what she said, and it made me +very angry, so that I was resolved to leave her the next day; but I +was sick in the morning, and sick some weeks following, so that I +could not leave her house.</p> +<p>"She nursed me carefully and tried to be kind, but I could see +that my being there was a great annoyance to her. Her husband had +an aunt--a rich, eccentric old lady--who came sometimes to see me, +and seemed interested in me. Forgive me, auntie, if it was wrong. I +dropped the name of Markham and took yours, asking Abby to call me +simply Miss Bigelow to her friends. Her husband knew my real name, +but to all others I was Adelaide Bigelow. Old Mrs. Plum did not +know I was married, for Abby was as anxious to keep the secret as I +was myself. She was going abroad, the rich aunt, and being a +nervous invalid, she wanted some young, handy person as traveling +companion. So when I was better Abby asked if I was still resolved +not to go home, and on learning that I was, she spoke of Mrs. Plum, +and asked if I would go. I caught at it eagerly, and in May I was +sailing over the sea to France. I wrote a few lines to Andy before +I went, and I wanted to write to you, but I fancied you must be +vexed and mortified, and I would not trouble you.</p> +<p>"Mrs. Plum was very nervous, and capricious, and exacting, and +my life with her was not altogether an easy one. At first, before +we were accustomed to each other, it was terrible. I suppose I have +a high temper. She thought so, and yet she could not do without me, +for she was lame in her arms, and unable to help herself readily; +besides that, I spoke the French language well enough to make +myself understood, and so was necessary to her. There were many +excellent traits of character about her, and after a time I liked +her very much, while she seemed to think of me as a willful but +rather 'nicish' kind of a daughter. She took me everywhere, even +into Russia and Palestine; but the last two years of our stay +abroad were spent in Southern France, where the days were one long +bright summer dream, and I should have been so happy if the past +had been forgotten."</p> +<p>"And did you hear nothing from us in all that time?" Aunt +Barbara asked, and Ethelyn replied: "Nothing from Richard, no; and +nothing direct from you. I requested as a favor that Mrs. Plum +should order the Boston <i>Traveller</i> and Springfield +<i>Republican</i> to be sent to her address in Paris, which we made +our headquarters. I knew you took both these papers, and if +anything happened to you, it would appear in their columns. I saw +the death of Col. Markham, and after that I used to grow so faint +and cold, for fear I might find yours. I came across a New York +paper, too, and saw that Aunt Van Buren had arrived at the Fifth +Avenue Hotel, knowing then that she was just as gay as ever. +Richard's name I never saw; neither did Abby know anything about +him.. I called at her house yesterday. She has seven children +now--five born since I went away--and her women's rights have given +place to theories with regard to soothing syrups and baby-jumpers, +and the best means of keeping one child quiet while she dresses the +other. Mrs. Plum died six weeks ago--died in Paris; and, auntie, I +was kind to her in her last sickness, bearing everything, and +finding my reward in her deep gratitude, expressed not only in +words, but in a most tangible form. She made her will, and left me +ten thousand dollars. So you see I am not poor nor dependent. I +told her my story, too--told her the whole as it was; and she made +me promise to come back, to you at least, if not to Richard. Going +to him would depend upon whether he wanted me, I said. Do you think +he has forgotten me?"</p> +<p>Again the eager, anxious expression crept into Ethie's eyes, +which grew very soft, and even dewy, as Aunt Barbara replied, +"Forgotten you? No. I never saw a man feel as he did when he first +came here, and Sophia talked to him so, as he sat there in that +very willow chair."</p> +<p>Involuntarily Ethie's hand rested itself on the chair where +Richard had sat, and Ethie's face crimsoned where Aunt Barbara +asked:</p> +<p>"Do you love Richard now?"</p> +<p>"I cannot tell. I only know that I have dreamed of him so many, +many times, and thought it would be such perfect rest to put my +tired head in his lap, as I never did put it. When I was on the +ocean, coming home, there was a fearful storm, and I prayed so +earnestly to live till I could hear him say that he forgave me for +all the trouble I have caused him. I might not love him if I were +to see him again just as he used to be. Sometimes I think I should +not, but I would try. Write to him, auntie, please, and tell him I +am here, but nothing more. Don't say I want to see him, or that I +am changed from the willful, high-tempered Ethie who made him so +unhappy, for perhaps I am not."</p> +<p>A while then they talked of Aunt Van Buren, and Frank, and +Nettie, and Susie Granger, who was married to a missionary and gone +to heathen lands; and the clock was striking one before Aunt +Barbara lighted her darling up to the old room, and kissing her +good-night, went back to weep glad tears of joy in the +rocking-chair by the hearth, and to thank her Heavenly Father for +sending home her long lost Ethelyn.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> +<h3>MRS. DR. VAN BUREN</h3> +<br> +<p>She was always tossing up just when she was not wanted, Ethie +used to say in the olden days, when she saw the great lady +alighting at the gate in time to interfere with and spoil some +favorite project arranged for the day, and she certainly felt it, +if she did not say it, when, on the morning following her arrival +in Chicopee she heard Betty exclaim, "If there ain't Miss Van +Buren! I wonder what sent her here!"</p> +<p>Ethie wondered so, too, and drawing the blanket closer around +her shoulders (for she had taken advantage of her fatigue and +languor to lie very late in bed) she wished her aunt had stayed in +Boston, for a little time at least.</p> +<p>It had been very delightful, waking up in the dear old room and +seeing Betty's kind face bending over her--Betty, who had heard of +her young mistress' return with a gush of glad tears, and then at +once bethought herself as to what there was nice for the wanderer +to eat. Just as she used to do when Ethie was a young lady at home, +Betty had carried her pan of coals and kindlings into the chamber +where Ethie was lying, and kneeling on the hearth had made the +cheerfulest of fires, while Ethie, with half-closed eyes, watched +her dreamily, thinking how nice it was to be cared for again, and +conscious only of a vague feeling of delicious rest and quiet, +which grew almost into positive happiness as she counted the days +it would take for Aunt Barbara's letter to go to Iowa and for +Richard to answer it in person, as he surely would if all which +Aunt Barbara had said was true.</p> +<p>Ethie did not quite know if she loved him. She had thought of +him so much during the last two years, and now, when he seemed so +near, she longed to see him again--to hear his voice and look into +his eyes. They were handsome eyes as she remembered them; kindly +and pleasant, too--at least they had been so to her, save on that +dreadful night, the memory of which always made her shiver and grow +faint. It seemed a dream now--a far-off, unhappy dream--which she +would fain forget just as she wanted Richard to forget her foibles +and give her another chance. She had bidden Aunt Barbara write to +say she was there, and so after the tempting breakfast, which had +been served in her room, and which she had eaten sitting up in bed, +because Betty insisted that it should be so--and she was glad to be +petted and humored and made into a comfortable invalid--Aunt +Barbara brought her writing materials into the room, and bidding +Ethie lie still and rest herself, began the letter to Richard.</p> +<p>But only the date and name were written, when Betty, coming in +with a few geranium leaves and a white fuchsia which she had +purloined from her mistress' house plants, announced Mrs. Van +Buren's arrival, and the pleasant morning was at an end. Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren had come up from Boston to borrow money from her sister +for the liquidation of certain debts contracted by her son, and +which she had not the ready means to meet. Aunt Barbara had +accommodated her once or twice before, saying to her as she signed +the check, "That money in the bank was put there for Ethie, but no +one knows if she will ever need it, so it may as well do somebody +some good."</p> +<p>It had done good by relieving Mrs. Van Buren of a load of +harassing care, for money was not as plenty with her as formerly, +and now she wanted more. She was looking rather old and worn, and +her cloak was last year's fashion, but good enough for Chicopee, +she reflected, as she hurried into the house and stamped the muddy, +melting snow from her feet.</p> +<p>Utter amazement seemed the prevailing sensation in her mind when +she learned that Ethelyn had returned, and then her selfishness +began to suggest that possibly Barbara's funds, saved for Ethie, +might not now be as accessible for Frank. She was glad, though, to +see her niece, but professed herself shocked at her altered +appearance.</p> +<p>"Upon my word, I would not have recognized you," she said, +sitting down upon the bed and looking Ethie fully in the face.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara, thinking her sister might like to have Ethie alone +for a little, had purposely left the room, and so Mrs. Van Buren +was free to say what she pleased. She had felt a good deal of +irritation toward Ethie for some time past. In fact, ever since +Richard became governor, she had blamed her niece for running away +from the honor which might have been hers. As aunt to the +governor's lady, she, too, would have come in for a share of the +éclat; and so, as she smoothed out the folds of her +stone-colored merino, she felt as if she had been sorely aggrieved +by that thin, white-faced woman, who really did not greatly +resemble the rosy, bright-faced Ethelyn to whom Frank Van Buren had +once talked love among the Chicopee hills.</p> +<p>"No, I don't believe I should have known you," Mrs. Van Buren +continued. "What have you been about to fade you so?"</p> +<p>Few women like to hear that they have faded, even if they know +it to be true, and Ethie's cheek flushed a little as she asked, +with a smile, "Am I really such a fright?"</p> +<p>"Why, no, not a fright! No one with the Bigelow features can +ever be that. But you are changed; and so I am sure Richard would +think. He liked beautiful girls. You know he has been +governor?"</p> +<p>Ethie nodded, and Mrs. Van Buren continued: "You lost a great +deal, Ethelyn, when you went away; and I must say that, though, of +course, you had great provocation, you did a very foolish thing +leaving your husband as you did, and involving us all, to a certain +extent, in disgrace."</p> +<p>It was the first direct intimation Ethie had received that her +family had suffered from mortification on her account. She had felt +that they must, and knew that she deserved some censure; but as +kind Aunt Barbara had withheld it, she was not quite willing to +hear it from Mrs. Van Buren, and for an instant her eyes flashed, +and a hot reply trembled on her lips; but she restrained herself +and merely said: "I am sorry if I disgraced you, Aunt Sophia. I was +very unhappy at the time,"</p> +<p>"Certainly; I understand that, but the world does not; and if it +did, it forgot all when your husband became governor. He was +greatly honored and esteemed, I hear from a friend who spent a few +weeks at Des Moines, and everybody was so sorry for him."</p> +<p>"Did they talk of me?" Ethie asked, repenting the next minute +that she had been at all curious in the matter.</p> +<p>Mrs. Van Buren, bent upon annoying her, replied, "Some, yes; and +knowing the governor as they did, it is natural they should blame +you more than him. There was a rumor of his getting a divorce, but +my friends did not believe it and neither do I, though divorces are +easy to get out West. Have you written to him? Are you not 'most +afraid he will think you came back because he has been +governor?"</p> +<p>"Aunt Sophia!" and Ethie looked very much like her former self, +as she started from her pillow and confronted her interlocutor. "He +cannot think so. I never knew he had been governor until I heard it +from Aunt Barbara last night. I came back for no honors, no object. +My work was taken from me; I had nothing more to do, and I was so +tired, and sick, and weary, and longed so much for home. Don't +begrudge it to me, Aunt Sophia, that I came to see Aunt Barbara +once more. I won't stay long in anybody's way; and if--if he likes, +Richard--can--get--that--divorce--as soon as he pleases."</p> +<p>The last came gaspingly, and showed the real state of Ethie's +feelings. In all the five long years of her absence the possibility +that Richard would seek to separate himself from her had never +crossed her mind. She had looked upon his love for her as something +too strong to be shaken--as the great rock in whose shadow she +could rest whenever she so desired. At first, when the tide of +angry passion was raging at her heart, she had said she never +should desire it, that her strength was sufficient to stand alone +against the world; but as the weary weeks and months crept on, and +her anger had had time to cool, and she had learned better to know +the meaning of "standing alone in the world," and thoughts of +Richard's many acts of love and kindness kept recurring to her +mind, she had come gradually to see that the one object in the +future to which she was looking forward was a return to Aunt +Barbara and a possible reconciliation with her husband. The first +she had achieved, and the second seemed so close within her grasp, +a thing so easy of success, that in her secret heart she had +exulted that, after all, she was not to be more sorely punished +than she had been--that she could not have been so very much in +fault, or Providence would have placed greater obstacles in the way +of restoration to all that now seemed desirable. But Ethie's path +back to peace and quiet was not to be free from thorns, and for a +few minutes she writhed in pain, as she thought how possible, and +even probable, it was that Richard should seek to be free from one +who had troubled him so much. Life looked very dreary to Ethelyn +that moment--drearier than it ever had before--but she was far too +proud to betray her real feelings to her aunt, who, touched by the +look of anguish on her niece's face, began to change her tactics, +and say how glad she was to have her darling back under any +circumstances, and so she presumed Richard would be. She knew he +would, in fact; and if she were Ethie, she should write to him at +once, apprising him of her return, but not making too many +concessions.--Men could not bear them, and it was better always to +hold a stiff rein, or there was danger of a collision. She might as +well have talked to the winds, for all that Ethie heard or cared. +She was thinking of Richard, and the possibility that she might not +be welcome to him now. If so, nothing could tempt her to intrude +herself upon him. At all events, she would not make the first +advances. She would let Richard find out that she was there through +some other source than Aunt Barbara, who should not now write the +letter. It would look too much like begging him to take her back. +This was Ethie's decision, from which she could not be moved; and +when, next day, Mrs. Van Buren went back to Boston with the check +for $1,000 which Aunt Barbara had given her, she was pledged not to +communicate with Richard Markham in any way, while Aunt Barbara was +held to the same promise.</p> +<p>"He will find it out somehow. I prefer that he should act +unbiased by anything we can do," Ethelyn said to Aunt Barbara. "He +might feel obliged to come if you wrote to him that I was here, and +if he came, the sight of me so changed might shock him as it did +Aunt Van Buren. She verily thought me a fright," and Ethie tried to +smile as she recalled her Aunt Sophia's evident surprise at her +looks.</p> +<p>The change troubled Ethie more than she cared to confess. Nor +did the villagers' remarks, when they came in to see her, tend to +soothe her ruffled feelings. Pale, and thin, and languid, she moved +about the house and yard like a mere shadow of her former self, +having, or seeming to have, no object in life, and worrying Aunt +Barbara so greatly that the good woman began at last seriously to +inquire what was best to do. Suddenly, like an inspiration, there +came to her a thought of Clifton, the famous water-cure in Western +New York, where health, both of body and soul, had been found by so +many thousands. And Ethie caught eagerly at the proposition, +accepting it on one condition--she would not go there as Mrs. +Markham, where the name might be recognized. She had been Miss +Bigelow abroad, she would be Miss Bigelow again; and so Aunt +Barbara yielded, mentally asking pardon for the deception to which +she felt she was a party, and when, two weeks after, the clerk at +Clifton water-cure looked over his list to see what rooms were +engaged, and to whom, he found "Miss Adelaide Bigelow, of +Massachusetts," put down for No. 101, while "Governor Markham of +Iowa," was down for No. 102.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> +<h3>CLIFTON</h3> +<br> +<p>They were very full at Clifton that summer, for the new building +was not completed, and every available point was taken, from +narrow, contracted No. 94 in the upper hall down to more spacious +No. 8 on the lower floor, where the dampness, and noise, and mold, +and smell of coal and cooking, and lower bathrooms were. "A very, +very quiet place, with only a few invalids too weak and languid, +and too much absorbed in themselves and their 'complaints' to note +or care for their neighbors; a place where one lives almost as much +excluded from the world as if immured within convent walls; a place +where dress and fashion and distinction were unknown, save as +something existing afar off, where the turmoil and excitement of +life were going on." This was Ethelyn's idea of Clifton; and when, +at four o'clock, on a bright June afternoon, the heavily laden +train stopped before the little brown station, and "Clifton" was +shouted in her ears, she looked out with a bewildered kind of +feeling upon the crowd of gayly dressed people congregated upon the +platform. Heads were uncovered, and hair frizzled, and curled, and +braided, and puffed, and arranged in every conceivable shape, +showing that even to that "quiet town" the hairdresser's craft had +penetrated. Expanded crinoline, with light, fleecy robes, and +ribbons, and laces, and flowers, was there assembled, with bright, +eager, healthful faces, and snowy hands wafting kisses to some +departed friend, and then turning to greet some new arrival. There +were no traces of sickness, no token of disease among the smiling +crowd, and Ethelyn almost feared she had made a mistake and +alighted at the wrong place, as she gave her checks to John, and +then taking her seat in the omnibus, sat waiting and listening to +the lively sallies and playful remarks around her. Nobody spoke to +her, nobody stared at her, nobody seemed to think of her; and for +that she was thankful, as she sat with her veil drawn closely over +her face, looking out upon the not very pretentious dwellings they +were passing. The scenery around Clifton is charming, and to the +worn, weary invalid escaping from the noise and heat and bustle of +the busy city, there seems to come a rest and a quiet, from the +sunlight which falls upon the hills, to the cool, moist meadow +lands where the ferns and mosses grow, and where the rippling of +the sulphur brook gives out constantly a soothing, pleasant kind of +music. But for the architecture of the town not very much can be +said; and Ethie, who had longed to get away from Chicopee, where +everybody knew her story, and all looked curiously at her, +confessed to a feeling of homesickness as her eyes fell upon the +blacksmith shop, the dressmaker's sign, the grocery on the corner, +where were sold various articles of food forbidden by doctor and +nurse; the schoolhouse to the right, where a group of noisy +children played, and the little church further on, where the +Methodist people worshiped. She did not see the "Cottage" then, +with its flowers and vines, and nicely shaven lawn, for her back +was to it; nor the handsome grounds, where the shadows from the +tall trees fall so softly upon the velvet grass; and the winding +graveled walks, which intersect each other and give an impression +of greater space than a closer investigation will warrant.</p> +<p>"I can't stay here," was Ethie's thought, as it had been the +thought of many others, when, like her, they first step into the +matted hall and meet the wet, damp odor, as of sheets just washed, +which seems to be inseparable from that part of the building.</p> +<p>But that was the first day, and before she had met the kindness +and sympathy of those whose business it is to care for the +patients, or felt the influences for good, the tendency to all the +better impulses of our nature, which seems to pervade the very +atmosphere of Clifton. Ethie felt this influence very soon, and her +second letter to Aunt Barbara was filled with praise of Clifton, +where she had made so many friends, in spite of her evident desire +to avoid society and stay by herself. She had passed through the +usual ordeal attending the advent of every new face, especially if +that face be a little out of the common order of faces. She had +been inspected in the dining room, and bathroom, and chapel, both +when she went in and when she went out. She had been talked up and +criticised from the way she wore her hair to the hang of her +skirts, which here, as well as in Olney, trailed the floor with a +sweep unmistakably aristocratic and stamped her as somebody. The +sacque and hat brought from Paris had been copied by three or four, +and pronounced distingué, but ugly by as many more, while +Mrs. Peter Pry, of whom there are always one or two at every +watering-place, had set herself industriously at work to pry into +her antecedents to find out just who and what Miss Bigelow was. As +the result of this research, it had been ascertained that the young +lady was remotely connected with the Bigelows of Boston, and had +something of her own--that she had spent several years abroad, and +could speak both French and German with perfect ease; that she had +been at the top of Mont Blanc, and passed part of a winter at St. +Petersburg, and seen a crocodile in the river Nile, and a Moslem +burying-ground in Constantinople, and had the cholera at Milan, the +varioloid at Rome, and was marked between the eyes and on the chin, +and was twenty-five years old, and did not wear false hair, nor use +Laird's Liquid Pearl, as was at first suspected from the clearness +of her complexion, and did wear crimping pins at night, and pay +Annie, the bath-girl, extra for bringing up the morning bath, and +was more interested in the chapel exercises when the great Head +Center was there, and bought cream every morning of Mrs. King, and +sat up at night long after the gas was turned off, and was there at +Clifton for spine in the back and head difficulties generally. +These few items, together with the surmise that she had had some +great trouble--a disappointment, most likely, which affected her +health--were all Mrs. Pry could learn, and she detailed them to +anyone who would listen, until Ethelyn's history, from the Pry +point of view, was pretty generally known and the most made of +every good quality and virtue.</p> +<p>The Mrs. Pry of this summer was not ill-natured; she was simply +curious; and as she generally said more good than evil of people, +she was generally liked and tolerated by all. She was not a +fashionable woman, nor an educated woman, though very popular with +her neighbors at home, and she was there for numbness and swollen +knees; and, having knit socks for four years for the soldiers, she +now knit stockings for the soldiers' orphans, and took a dash every +morning and screamed loud enough to be heard at the depot when she +took it, and had a pack every afternoon, and corked her right ear +with cotton, which she always took out when in a pack, so as to +hear whatever might be said in the hall, her open ventilator being +the medium of sound. This was Mrs. Peter Pry, drawn from no one in +particular, but a fair exponent of characters found in other places +than Clifton Springs. Rooming on the same floor with Ethelyn, whom +she greatly admired, the good woman persisted until she overcame +the stranger's shyness, and succeeded in establishing, first, a +bowing, then a speaking, and finally, a calling acquaintance +between them--the calls, however, being mostly upon one side, and +that the prying one.</p> +<p>Ethie had been at Clifton for three or four weeks, and the +dimensions of No. 101 did not seem half so circumscribed, as at +first. On the whole, she was contented, especially after the man +who snored, and the woman who wore squeaky boots, and talked in her +sleep, vacated No. 102, the large, airy, pleasant room adjoining +her own. There was no one in it now but Mary, the chambermaid, who +said it was soon to be occupied by a sick gentleman, adding that +she believed he had the consumption, and hoped his cough would not +fret Miss Bigelow. Ethie hoped so too. Nervousness, and, indeed, +diseases of all kinds, seemed to develop rapidly at Clifton, where +one has nothing to do but to watch each new symptom, and report to +physician or nurse, and Ethie was not an exception. She was very +nervous, and she found herself dreading the arrival of the sick +man, wondering if his coughing would keep her awake nights, and if +the light from her candle shining out into the darkened hall would +annoy and worry him, as it had worried the woman opposite, who +complained that she could not rest with that glimmer on the wall, +showing that somebody was up, who, might at any moment make a +noise. That he was a person of consequence she readily guessed, for +an extra pair of pillows was taken in, and the rocking-chair +possessed of two whole arms, and No. 109, also vacant just then, +was rifled of its round stand and footstool, and Mrs. Pry reported +that Dr. F---- himself had been up to see that all was comfortable, +and Miss Clark had ordered a better set of springs, with a new hair +mattress, and somebody had put a bouquet of flowers in the room and +hung a muslin curtain at the window.</p> +<p>"A big-bug, most likely," Mrs. Peter Pry said, when, after her +pack, she brought her knitting for a few moments into Ethelyn's +room and wondered who the man could be.</p> +<p>Ethelyn did not care particularly who he was, provided he did +not cough nights and keep her awake, in which case she should feel +constrained to change her room, an alternative she did not care to +contemplate, as she had become more attached to No. 101 than she +had at first supposed possible. Ethelyn was very anxious that day, +and, had she believed in presentiments, she would have thought that +something was about to befall her, so heavy was the gloom weighing +upon her spirits, and so dark the future seemed. She was going to +have a headache, she feared, and as a means of throwing it off, she +started, after ten, for a walk to Rocky Run, a distance of a mile +or more. It was a cool, hazy July afternoon, such as always carried +Ethie back to Chicopee and the days of her happy girlhood, when her +heart was not so heavy and sad as it was now. With thoughts of +Chicopee came also thoughts of Richard, and Ethie's eyes were moist +with tears as she looked wistfully toward the setting sun and +wondered if he ever thought of her now or had forgotten her, and +was the story true of his seeking for a divorce. That rumor had +troubled Ethie greatly, and was the reason why she did not improve +as the physician hoped she would when she first came to Clifton. +Sitting down upon the bridge across the creek, she bowed her head +in her hands and went over again all the dreadful past, blaming +herself now more than she did Richard, and wishing that much could +be undone of all that had transpired to make her what she was, and +while she sat there the Western train appeared in view, and, +mechanically rising to her feet, Ethie turned her steps back toward +the Cure, standing aside to let the long train go by, and feeling, +when it passed her, a strange, sudden throb, as if it were fraught +with more than ordinary interest to her. Usually, that Western +train, the distant roll of whose wheels and the echo of whose +scream quickened so many hearts waiting for news from home, had no +special interest for her. It never brought her a letter. Her name +was never called in the exciting distribution which took place in +the parlor or on the long piazza after the eight-o'clock mail had +arrived, and so she seldom heeded it; but to-night there was a +difference, and she watched the long line curiously until it passed +the corner by the old brown farmhouse and disappeared from view. It +had left the station long ere she reached the Cure, for she had +walked slowly, and lights were shining from the different rooms, +and there was a sound of singing in the parlor, and the party of +croquet players had come up from the lawn, and ladies were hurrying +toward the bathroom, when she came in and climbed the three flights +of stairs which led to the fourth floor. There was a light shining +through the ventilator of No. 102, the door was partly ajar, and +the doctor was there, asking some questions of the tall figure, +whose outline Ethelyn dimly descried as she went into her room. +There was more talking after a little--more going in and out, while +Mary Ann brought up some supper on a tray, and John brought up a +traveling trunk much larger than himself, and then, without Mrs. +Pry's assurance, Ethie knew that the occupant of No. 102 had +arrived.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> +<h3>THE OCCUPANT OF NO. 102</h3> +<br> +<p>He did not cough, but he seemed to be a restless spirit, for +Ethie heard him pacing up and down his room long after the gas was +turned off and her own candle was extinguished. Once, too, she +heard a long-drawn sigh, or groan, which made her start suddenly, +for something in the tone carried her to Olney and the house on the +prairie. It was late that night ere she slept, and when next +morning she awoke, the nervous headache, which had threatened her +the previous night, was upon her in full force, and kept her for +nearly the entire day confined to her bed. Mrs. Pry was spending +the day in Phelps, and with this source of information cut off, +Ethelyn heard nothing of No. 102, further than the chambermaid's +casual remark that "the gentleman was quite an invalid, and for the +present was to take his meals and baths in his room to avoid so +much going up and down stairs."</p> +<p>Who he was Ethelyn did not know or care, though twice she awoke +from a feverish sleep with the impression that she had heard +Richard speaking to her; but it was only Jim, the bath man, talking +in the next room, and she laid her throbbing head again upon her +pillow, while her new neighbor dreamed in turn of her and woke with +the strange fancy that she was near him. Ethie's head was better +that night; so much better that she dressed herself and went down +to the parlor in time to hear the calling of the letters as the +Western mail was distributed. Usually she felt but little interest +in the affair further than watching the eager, anxious faces +bending near the boy, and the looks of joy or disappointment which +followed failure and success. To-night, however, it was different. +She was not expecting a letter herself. Nobody wrote to her but +Aunt Barbara, whose letters came in the morning, but she was +conscious of a strange feeling of expectancy, and taking a step +toward the table around which the excited group were congregated, +she stood leaning against the column while name after name was +called. First the letters, a score or two, and then the papers, +matters of less account, but still snatched eagerly by those who +could get nothing better. There was a paper for Mrs. More-house, +and Mrs. Stone, and Mrs. Wilson, and Mrs. Turner, while Mr. +Danforth had half a dozen or less, and then Perry paused a moment +over a new name--one which had never before been called in the +parlor at Clifton:</p> +<p>"Richard Markham, Esq."</p> +<p>The name rang out loud and clear, and Ethie grasped the pillar +tightly to keep herself from falling. She did not hear Mr. Danforth +explaining that it was "Governor Markham from Iowa, who came the +night before." She did not know, either, how she left the parlor, +for the next thing of which she was perfectly conscious was the +fact that she was hurrying up the stairs and through the unfinished +halls toward her own room, casting frightened glances around, and +almost shrieking with excitement when through the open door of No. +102 she heard Dr. Hayes speaking to someone, and in the voice which +answered recognized her husband.</p> +<p>He was there, then, next to her, separated by only a thin +partition--the husband whom she had not seen for five long years, +whom she had voluntarily left, resolving never to go back to him +again, was there, where, just by crossing a single threshold, she +could fall at his feet and sue for the forgiveness she had made up +her mind to crave should she ever see him again. Dr. Hayes' next +call was upon her, and he found her fainting upon the floor, where +she had fallen in the excitement of the shock she had +experienced.</p> +<p>"It was a headache," she said, when questioned as to the cause +of the sudden attack; but her eyes had in them a frightened, +startled look, for which the doctor could not account.</p> +<p>There was something about her case which puzzled and perplexed +him. "She needed perfect quiet, but must not be left alone," he +said, and so all that night Richard, who was very wakeful, watched +the light shining out into the hall from the room next to his own, +and heard occasionally a murmur of low voices as the nurse put some +question to Ethie, who answered always in whispers, while her eyes +turned furtively toward No. 102, as if fearful that its occupant +would hear and know how near she was. For three whole days her door +was locked against all intruders, for the headache and nervous +excitement did not abate one whit. How could they, when every sound +from No. 102, every footfall on the floor, every tone of Richard's +voice speaking to servant or physician, quickened the rapid beats +and sent the hot blood throbbing fiercely through the temple veins +and down along the neck? At Clifton they are accustomed to every +phase of nervousness, from spasms at the creaking of a board to the +stumbling upstairs of the fireman in the early winter morning, and +once when Ethie shuddered and turned her head aside at the sound of +Richard's step, the attendant said to the physician:</p> +<p>"It's the gentleman's boots, I think, which make her +nervous."</p> +<p>There was a deprecating gesture on Ethie's part, but it passed +unnoticed, and when next the doctor went to visit Richard he said, +in a half-apologetic way, that the young lady in the next room was +suffering from a violent headache, which was aggravated by every +sound, even the squeak of a boot--would Governor Markham greatly +object to wearing slippers for a while? Dr. Hayes was sorry to +trouble him, but "if they would effect a cure they must keep their +patients quiet, and guard against everything tending to increase +nervous irritation."</p> +<p>Governor Markham would do anything in his power for the young +lady, and he asked some questions concerning her. Had he annoyed +her much? Was she very ill? And what was her name?</p> +<p>"Bigelow," he repeated after Dr. Hayes, thinking of Aunt Barbara +in Chicopee, and thinking of Ethelyn, too, but never dreaming how +near she was to him.</p> +<p>He had come to Clifton at the earnest solicitation of some of +his friends, who had for themselves tested the healing properties +of the water, but he had little faith that anything could cure so +long as the pain was so heavy at his heart. It had not lessened one +jot with the lapse of years. On the contrary, it seemed harder and +harder to bear, as the months went by and brought no news of Ethie. +Oh, how he wanted her back again, even if she came as willful and +imperious as she used to be at times, when the high spirit was +roused to its utmost, and even if she had no love for him, as she +had once averred. He could make her love him now, he said: he knew +just where he had erred; and many a time in dreams he had strained +the wayward Ethie to his bosom in the fond caress which from its +very force should impart to her some faint sensation of joy. He had +stroked her beautiful brown hair, and caressed her smooth round +cheek, and pressed her little hands, and made her listen to him +till the dark eyes flashed into his own with something of the +tenderness he felt for her. Then, with a start, he had awakened to +find it all a dream, and only darkness around him. Ethie was not +there. The arms which had held her so lovingly were empty. The +pillow where her dear head had lain was untouched, and he was alone +as of old. Even that handsome house he had built for her had ceased +to interest him, for Ethie did not come back to enjoy it. She would +never come now, he said, and he built many fancies as to what her +end had been, and where her grave could be. Here at Clifton he had +thought of her continually, but not that she was alive. Andy's +faith in her return was as strong as ever, but Richard's had all +died out. Ethie was dead, and when asked by Dr. Hayes if he had a +wife, he answered sadly:</p> +<p>"I had one, but I lost her."</p> +<p>He had no thought of deception, or how soon the story would +circulate through the house that he was a widower, and so he, as +ex-governor of Iowa, and a man just in his prime, became an object +of speculative interest to every marriageable woman there. He had +no thought, no care for the ladies, though for the Miss Bigelow, +whom his boots annoyed, he did feel a passing interest, and Ethie, +whose ears seemed doubly sharp, heard him in his closet adjusting +the thin-soled slippers, which made no sound upon the carpet. She +heard him, too, as he moved his water pitcher, and knew he was +doing it so quietly for her. The idea of being cared for by him, +even if he did not know who she was, was very soothing and +pleasant, and she fell into a quiet sleep, which lasted several +hours, while Richard, on the other side of the wall, scarcely +moved, so fearful was he of worrying the young lady.</p> +<p>Ethie's headache spent itself at last, and she awoke at the +close of the third day, free from pain, but very weak and languid, +and wholly unequal to the task of entertaining Mrs. Peter Pry, who +had been so distressed on her account, and was so delighted with a +chance to see and talk with her again. Ethie knew she meant to be +kind, and believed she was sincere in her professions of +friendship. At another time she might have been glad to see her; +but now, when she guessed what the theme of conversation would be, +she felt a thrill of terror as the good woman came in, knitting in +hand, and announced her intention of sitting through the chapel +exercises. She was not going to prayer meeting that night, she +said, for Dr. Foster was absent, and they were always stupid when +he was away. She could not understand all Mr.---- said, his words +were so learned, while the man who talked so long, and never came +to the point, was insufferable in hot weather, so she remained +away, and came to see her friend, who, she supposed, knew that she +had a governor for next-door neighbor--Governor Markham from +Iowa--and a widower, too, as Dr. Hayes had said, when she asked why +his wife was not there with him.</p> +<p>"A widower!" and Ethie looked up so inquiringly that Mrs. Pry, +mistaking the nature of her sudden interest, went on more +flippantly. "Yes, and a splendid looking man, too, if he wasn't +sick. I saw him in the chapel this morning--the only time he has +been there--and sat where I had a good view of his face. They say +he is very rich, and has one of the handsomest places in +Davenport."</p> +<p>"Does he live in Davenport?" Ethie asked, in some surprise, and +Mrs. Pry replied:</p> +<p>"Yes; and that Miss Owens, from New York, is setting her cap for +him already. She met him in Washington, a few years ago, and the +minute chapel exercises were over, she and her mother made up to +him at once. I'm glad there's somebody good enough for them to +notice. If there's a person I dislike it's that Susan Owens and her +mother. I do hope she'll find a husband. It's what she's here for, +everybody says."</p> +<p>Mrs. Peter had dropped a stitch while animadverting against Miss +Susan Owens, from New York, and stopped a moment while she picked +it up. It would be difficult to describe Ethelyn's emotions as she +heard her own husband talked of as something marketable, which +others than Susan Owens might covet. He was evidently the lion of +the season. It was something to have a governor of Richard's +reputation in the house, and the guests made the most of it, +wishing he would join them in the parlor or on the piazza, and +regretting that he stayed so constantly in his room. Many attempts +were made to draw him out, Mrs. and Miss Owens, on the strength of +their acquaintance in Washington, venturing to call upon him, and +advising him to take more exercise. Miss Owens' voice was loud and +clear, and Ethie heard it distinctly as the young lady talked and +laughed with Richard, the hot blood coursing rapidly through her +veins, and the first genuine pangs of jealousy she had ever felt +creeping into her heart as she guessed what might possibly be in +Miss Owens' mind. Many times she resolved to make herself known to +him; but uncertainty as to how she might be received, and the +remembrance of what Mrs. Van Buren had said with regard to the +divorce, held her back; and so, with only a thin partition between +them, and within sound of each other's footsteps, the husband and +wife, so long estranged from each other, lived on, day after day, +Richard spending most of his time in his room, and Ethelyn managing +so adroitly when she came in and went out, that she never saw so +much as his shadow upon the floor, and knew not whether he was +greatly changed or not.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> +<h3>IN RICHARD'S ROOM</h3> +<br> +<p>Richard had been sick for a week or more. As is frequently the +case, the baths did not agree with him at first, and Mrs. Pry +reported to Ethelyn that the governor was confined to his bed, and +saw no one but the doctor and nurses, not even "that bold Miss +Owens, who had actually sent to Geneva for a bouquet, which she +sent to his room with her compliments." This Mrs. Pry knew to be a +fact, and the highly scandalized woman repeated the story to +Ethelyn, who scarcely heard what she was saying for the many +turbulent emotions swelling at her heart. That Richard should be +sick so near to her, his wife--that other hands than hers should +tend his pillow and minister to his wants--seemed not as it should +be; and when she recalled the love and tender care which had been +so manifest that time when he came home from Washington and found +her so very ill, the wish grew strong within her to do something +for him. But what to do--that was the perplexing question. She +dared not go openly to him, until assured that she was wanted; and +so there was nothing left but to imitate Miss Owens and adorn his +room with flowers. Surely she had a right to do so much, and still +her cheek crimsoned like some young girl's as she gathered together +the choicest flowers the little town afforded, and arranging them +into a most tasteful bouquet, sent them in to Richard, vaguely +hoping that at least in the cluster of double pinks, which had been +Richard's favorite, there might be hidden some mesmeric power or +psychological influence which should speak to the sick man of the +wayward Ethie who had troubled him so much.</p> +<p>Richard was sitting up in bed when Mary brought the bouquet, +saying, Miss Bigelow sent it, thinking it might cheer him a bit. +Should she put it in the tumbler near Miss Owens'?</p> +<p>Miss Owens had sent a pretty vase with hers, but Ethie's was +simply tied with a bit of ribbon she had worn about her neck. And +Richard took it in his hand, an exclamation escaping him as he saw +and smelled the fragrant pinks, whose perfume carried him first to +Olney and Andy's weedy beds in the front yard, and then to +Chicopee, where in Aunt Barbara's pretty garden, a large plant of +them had been growing when he went after his bride. A high wind had +blown them down upon the walk, and he had come upon Ethie one day +trying to tie them up. He had plucked a few, he remembered, telling +Ethie they were his favorites for perfume, while the red peony was +his favorite for beauty. There had been a comical gleam in her +brown eyes which he now knew was born of contempt for his taste +with regard to flowers. Red peonies were not the rarest of +blossoms--Melinda had taught him that when he suggested having them +in his conservatory; but surely no one could object to these waxen, +feathery pinks, whose odor was so delicious. Miss Bigelow liked +them, else she had never sent them to him. And he kept the bouquet +in his hand, admiring its arrangement, inhaling the sweet perfume +of the delicate pinks and heliotrope, and speculating upon the kind +of person Miss Bigelow must be to have thought so much of him. He +could account for Miss Owens' gift--the hot-house blossoms, which +had not moved him one-half so much as did this bunch of pinks. She +had known him before--had met him in Washington; he had been polite +to her on one or two occasions, and it was natural that she should +wish to be civil, at least while he was sick. But the lady in No. +101--the Miss Bigelow for whom he had discarded his boots and +trodden on tiptoe half the time since his arrival--why she should +care for him he could not guess; and finally deciding that it was a +part of Clifton, where everybody was so kind, he put the bouquet in +the tumbler Mary had brought and placed it on the stand beside him. +He was very restless that night, and Ethie heard the watchman at +his door twice asking if he wanted anything.</p> +<p>"Nothing," was the reply, and the voice, heard distinctly in the +stillness of the night, was so faint and sad that Ethie hid her +face in her pillow and sobbed bitterly, while the intense longing +to see him grew so strong within her that by morning the resolution +was taken to risk everything for the sake of looking upon him +again.</p> +<p>He did not require an attendant at night--he preferred being +alone, she had ascertained; and she knew that his door was +constantly left open for the admission of fresh air. The watchman +only came into the hall once an hour or thereabouts, and while +Richard slept it would be comparatively easy for her to steal into +his room. Fortune seemed to favor her, for when at nine the doctor, +as usual, came up to pay his round visits, she heard him say, "I +will leave you something which never fails to make one sleep," and +after two hours had passed she knew by the regular breathing which, +standing on the threshold of her room, she could distinctly hear, +that Richard was sleeping soundly. The watchman had just made the +tour of that hall, and the faint glimmer of his lantern was +disappearing down the stairs. It would be an hour before he came +back again, and now, if ever, was her time. There was a great throb +of fear at her heart, a trembling of every joint, a choking +sensation in her throat, a shrinking back from what might probably +be the result of that midnight visit; and then, nerving herself for +the effort, she stepped out into the hall and listened. Everything +was quiet, and every room was darkened, save by the moon, which, at +its full, was pouring a flood of light through the southern window +at the end of the hall and seemed to beckon her on. She was +standing now at Richard's door, opened wide enough to admit her, +and so she made no noise as she stepped cautiously across the +threshold and stood within the chamber. The window faced the east, +and the inside blinds were opened wide, making Ethelyn remember how +annoyed she used to be at that propensity of Richard's to roll up +every curtain and open every shutter so as to make the room light +and airy. It was light now almost as day, for the moonlight lay +upon the floor in a great sheet of silver, and showed her plainly +the form and features of the sick man upon the bed. She knew he was +asleep, and with a beating heart she drew near to him, and stood +for a moment looking down upon the face she had not seen since that +wintry morning five years before, when in the dim twilight, it had +bent wistfully over her, as if the lips would fain have asked +forgiveness for the angry words and deeds of the previous night. +That face was pale now, and thin, and the soft brown hair was +streaked with gray, making Richard look older than he was. He had +suffered, and the suffering had left its marks upon him so +indisputably that Ethie could have cried out with pain to see how +changed he was.</p> +<p>"Poor Richard," she whispered softly, and kneeling by the +bedside she laid her hot cheek as near as she dared to the white, +wasted hand resting outside the counterpane.</p> +<p>She did not think what the result of waking him might be. She +did not especially care. She was his wife, let what would +happen--his erring but repentant Ethie. She had a right to be there +with him, and so at last she took his thin hand between her own, +and caressed it tenderly. Then Richard moved, and moaning in his +deep sleep seemed to have a vague consciousness that someone was +with him. Perhaps it was the nurse who had been with him at night +on one or two occasions; but the slumber into which he had fallen +was too deep to be easily broken. Something he murmured about the +medicine, and Ethie's hand held it to his lips, and Ethie's arm was +passed beneath his pillow as she lifted up his head while he +swallowed it. Then, without unclosing his eyes, he lay back upon +his pillow again, while Ethie stood over him until the glimmer of +the watchman's lamp passed down the hall a second time, and +disappeared around the corner. The watchman had stopped at +Richard's door to listen, and then Ethie had experienced a spasm of +terror at the possibility of being discovered; but with the +receding footsteps her fears left her, and she waited a half-hour +longer, while Richard in his dreams talked of bygone days--speaking +of Olney, and then of Daisy and herself. Dead, both of them, he +seemed to think; and Ethie's pulse throbbed with a strange feeling +of joy as she heard herself called his poor darling, whom he wanted +back again. She was satisfied now. He had not forgotten her, or +even thought to separate himself from her, as Aunt Van Buren +hinted. He was true to her yet, and she had acted foolishly in +keeping aloof from him so long. But she would be foolish no longer. +To-morrow he should know everything. If he would only awaken she +would tell him now, and take the consequences. But Richard did not +waken, and at last, with a noiseless step, she glided back to her +own chamber. She would write to Richard, she decided. She could +talk to him better on paper, and, then, if he did not care to +receive her, they would both be spared much embarrassment.</p> +<p>Ethie's door was locked all the next morning, for she was +writing to her husband a long, humble letter, in which all the +blame was taken upon herself, inasmuch as she had made the great +mistake of marrying without love. "But I do love you now, Richard," +she said; "love you truly, too, else I should never be writing this +to you, and asking you to take me back and try if I cannot make you +happy."</p> +<p>It was a good deal for Ethie to confess that she had been so +much in fault; but she did it honestly, and when the letter was +finished she felt as if all that had been wrong and bitter in the +past was swept away, and a new era in her life had begun. She would +wait till night, she said--wait till all was again quiet in the +hall and in the sick-room, and then when the boy came around with +the mail, as he was sure to do, she would hand her letter to him, +and bid him leave it in Governor Markham's room. The rest she could +not picture to herself; but she waited impatiently for the long +August day to draw to its close, joining the guests in the parlor +by way of passing the time, and appearing so bright and gay that +those who had thought her proud and cold, and reticent, wondered at +the brightness of her face and the glad, eager expression of her +eyes. She was pretty, after all, they thought, and even Miss Owens, +from New York, tried to be very gracious, speaking to her of +Governor Markham, whose room adjoined hers, and asking if she had +seen him. About him Ethie did not care to talk, and, making some +excuse to get away, left the room without hearing a whisper of the +story which was going the rounds of the Cure, and which Miss Owens +was rather desirous of communicating to someone who, like herself, +would be likely to believe it a falsehood.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> +<h3>MRS. PETER PRY TAKES A PACK</h3> +<br> +<p>Mrs. Pry was in a pack, a whole pack, too, which left nothing +free but her head, and even that was bandaged in a wet napkin, so +that the good woman was in a condition of great helplessness, and +nervously counted the moments which must elapse ere Annie, the bath +girl, would come to her relief. Now, as was always the case when in +a pack, her ears were uncorked and turned toward the door, which +she had purposely left ajar, so as not to lose a word, in case any +of the ladies came down to that end of the hall and stood by the +window while they talked together. They were there now, some half a +dozen or more, and they were talking eagerly of the last fresh +piece of news brought by Mrs. Carter and daughter, who had arrived +from Iowa the day before, and for lack of accommodations at the +Cure had gone to the hotel. Both were old patients, and well known +in Clifton and so they had spent most of the day at the Cure, +hunting up old acquaintances and making new ones. Being something +of lion-seekers, they had asked at the office who was there worth +knowing, the young lady's face wearing a very important air as she +glanced round upon the guests, and remarked, "How different they +seemed from those charming people from Boston and New York whom we +met here last summer!"</p> +<p>It did not appear as if there was a single lion there this +season, whether moneyed, literary, or notorious; and Miss Annie +Carter thought it very doubtful whether they should remain or go on +to Saratoga, as all the while she had wished to do. In great +distress good Mrs. Leigh racked her brain to think who the notables +were, and finally bethought herself of Governor Markham, whose name +acted like magic upon the newcomers.</p> +<p>"Governor Markham here? Strange, I never thought of Clifton when +I heard that he was going East for his health. How is he? Does he +improve? It is quite desirable that he should do so, if all reports +are true;" and Mrs. Carter looked very wise and knowing upon the +group which gathered around her, anxious to hear all she had to +tell of Governor Markham.</p> +<p>She did not pretend that she knew him herself, as she lived some +distance from Davenport; but she had heard a great deal about him +and his handsome house; and Annie, her daughter, who was visiting +in Davenport, had been all over it after it was finished. Such a +beautiful suite of rooms as he had fitted up for his bride; they +were the envy and wonder of both Davenport and Rock Island, +too.</p> +<p>"His bride! We did not know he had one. He passes for a widower +here," several voices echoed in chorus, and then Mrs. Carter began +the story which had come to her through a dozen mediums, and which +circulated rapidly through the house, but had not reached Mrs. Pry +up to the time when, with her blanket and patchwork quilt she had +brought from New Hampshire, she lay reposing in her pack, with her +ears turned toward the door and ventilator, ready to catch the +faintest breath of gossip.</p> +<p>She heard a great deal that afternoon, for the ladies at the end +of the hall did not speak very low, and when at last she was +released from her bandages and had made her afternoon toilet, she +hastened round to Miss Bigelow's to report what she had heard. +Tired with her vigils of the previous night, Ethie was lying down, +but she bade Mrs. Pry come in, and then kept very quiet while the +good woman proceeded to ask if she had heard the news. Ethie had +not, but her heart stood still while her visitor, speaking in a +whisper, asked if she was sure Governor Markham could not hear. +That the news concerned herself Ethelyn was sure, and she was glad +that her face was in a measure concealed from view as she listened +to the story.</p> +<p>Governor Markham's wife was not dead, as they had supposed. She +was a shameless creature, who eight or ten years before eloped with +a man a great deal younger than herself. She was very beautiful, +people said, and very fascinating, and the governor worshiped the +ground she trod upon. He took her going off very hard at first, and +for years scarcely held up his head. But lately he had seemed +different, and had been more favorable to a divorce, as advised by +his friends. This, however, was after he met Miss Sallie Morton, +whose father was a millionaire in Chicago, and whose pretty face +had captivated the grave governor. To get the divorce was a very +easy matter there in the West, and the governor was now free to +marry again. As Miss Morton preferred Davenport to any other place +in Iowa, he had built him a magnificent house upon a bluff, +finishing it elegantly, and taking untold pains with the suite of +rooms intended for his bride. As Miss Sallie objected to marrying +him while he was so much of an invalid, he had come to Clifton, +hoping to reestablish his health so as to bring home his wife in +the autumn, for which event great preparations were making in the +family of Miss Sallie.</p> +<p>This was the story as told by Mrs. Pry, and considering that it +had only come to her through eight or ten different persons, she +repeated the substance of it pretty accurately, and then stopped +for Ethie's comment. But Ethie had nothing to say, and when, +surprised at her silence, Mrs. Pry asked if she believed it at all, +there was still no reply, for Ethelyn had fainted. The reaction was +too great from the bright anticipations of the hour before, to the +crushing blow which had fallen so suddenly upon her hopes. That a +patient at Clifton should faint was not an uncommon thing. Mrs. Pry +had often felt like it herself when just out of a pack, or a hot +sulphur bath, and so Ethie's faint excited no suspicion in her +mind. She was fearful, though, that Miss Bigelow had not heard all +the story, but Ethie assured her that she had, and then added that +if left to herself she might possibly sleep, as that was what she +needed. So Mrs. Pry departed, and Ethie was alone with the terrible +calamity which had come upon her. She had been at the Water Cure +long enough to know that not more than half of what she heard was +true, and this story she knew was false in the parts pertaining to +herself and her desertion of her husband. She had never heard +before that she was suspected of having had an associate in the +flight, and her cheeks crimsoned at the idea, while she wondered if +Richard had ever thought that of her. Not at first, she knew, else +he had never sought for her so zealously as Aunt Barbara had +intimated; but latterly, as he had heard no tidings from her, he +might have surmised something of the kind, and that was the secret +of the divorce.</p> +<p>"Oh, Richard! Richard!" she murmured, with her hands pressed +tightly over her lips, so as to smother all sound, "I felt so sure +of your love. You were so different from me. I am punished more +than I can bear."</p> +<p>If she had never known before, Ethie knew now, how much she +really loved her husband, and how the hope of eventually returning +to him had been the day-star of her life. Had she heard that he was +lying dead in the next room, she would have gone to him at once, +and claiming him as hers, would have found some comfort in weeping +sadly over him, and kissing his cold lips, but now it did indeed +seem more than she could bear. She did not doubt the story of the +divorce, or greatly disbelieve in the other wife. It was natural +that many should seek to win his love now that he had risen so +high, and she supposed it was natural that he should wish for +another companion. Perhaps he believed her dead, and Ethie's heart +gave one great throb of joy as she thought of going in to him, and +by her bodily presence contradict that belief, and possibly win him +from his purpose. But Ethie was too proud for that, and her next +feeling was one of exultation that she had not permitted Aunt +Barbara to write, or herself taken any measures for communicating +with him. He should never know how near she had been to him, or +guess ever so remotely of the anguish she was enduring, as, only a +few feet removed from him, she suffered, in part, all the pain and +sorrow she had brought upon him. Then, as she remembered the new +house fitted for the bride, she said:</p> +<p>"I must see that house. I must know just what is in store for my +rival. No one knows me in Davenport. Richard is not at home, and +there is no chance for my being recognized."</p> +<p>With this decision came a vague feeling akin to hope that +possibly the story was false--that after all there was no rival, no +divorce. At all events, she should know for a certainty by going to +Davenport; and with every nerve stretched to its utmost tension, +Ethie arose from her bed and packed her trunk quietly and quickly, +and then going to the office, surprised the clerk with the +announcement that she wished to leave on the ten-o'clock train. She +had received news which made her going so suddenly imperative, she +said to him, and to the physician, whom she called upon next, and +whose strong arguments against her leaving that night almost +overcame her. But Ethie's will conquered at last, and when the +train from the East came in she stood upon the platform at the +station, her white face closely veiled, and her heart throbbing +with the vague doubts which began to assail her as to whether she +were really doing a wise and prudent thing in going out alone and +unprotected to the home she had no right to enter, and where she +was not wanted.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> +<h3>IN DAVENPORT</h3> +<br> +<p>Hot, and dusty, and tired, and sick, and utterly hopeless and +wretched, Ethie looked drearily out from the windows of her room at +the hotel, whither she had gone on her first arrival in Davenport. +Her head seemed bursting as she stood tying her bonnet before the +mirror, and drawing on her gloves, she glanced wistfully at the +inviting-looking bed, feeling strongly tempted to lie down there +among the pillows and wait till she was rested before she went out +in that broiling August sun upon her strange errand. But a haunting +presentiment of what the dizziness and pain in her head and temples +portended urged her to do quickly what she had to do; so with +another gulp of the ice water she had ordered, and which only for a +moment cooled her feverish heat, she went from her room into the +hall, where the boy was waiting to show her the way to "the +governor's house." He knew just where it was. Everybody knew in +Davenport, and the chambermaid to whom Ethie had put some +questions, had volunteered the information that the governor had +gone East for his health, and the house, she believed, was shut +up--not shut so that she could not effect an entrance to it. She +would find her way through every obstacle, Ethie thought, wondering +vaguely at the strength which kept her up and made her feel equal +to most anything as she followed her conductor through street after +street, onward and onward, up the hill, where the long windows and +turrets of a most elegant mansion were visible. When asked at the +hotel if she would not have a carriage, she had replied that she +preferred to walk, feeling that in this way she should expend some +of the fierce excitement consuming her like an inward fire. It had +not abated one whit when at last the house was reached, and +dismissing her guide she stood a moment upon the steps, leaning her +throbbing head against the door post, and summoning courage to ring +the bell. Never before had she felt so much like an intruder, or so +widely separated from her husband, as during the moment she stood +at the threshold of her home, hesitating whether to ring or go away +and give the matter up. She could not go away now that she had come +so far, she finally decided. She must go in and see the place where +Richard lived, and so, at last, she gave the silver knob a pull, +which reverberated through the entire house, and brought Hannah, +the housemaid, in a trice to see who was there.</p> +<p>"Is Governor Markham at home?" Ethie asked, as the girl waited +for her to say something.</p> +<p>Governor Markham was East, and the folks all gone, the girl +replied, staring a little suspiciously at the stranger who without +invitation, had advanced into the hall, and even showed a +disposition to make herself further at home by walking into the +drawing room, the door of which was slightly ajar.</p> +<p>"My name is Markham. I am a relative of the governor. I am from +the East," Ethelyn volunteered, as she saw the girl expected some +explanation.</p> +<p>Had Hannah known more of Ethelyn, she might have suspected +something; but she had not been long in the family, and coming, as +she did, from St. Louis, the story of her master's wife was rather +mythical to her than otherwise. That there was once a Mrs. Markham, +who, for beauty, and style, and grandeur, was far superior to Mrs. +James, the present mistress of the establishment, she had heard +vague rumors; while only that morning when dusting and airing +Richard's room, she had stopped her work a moment to admire the +handsome picture which Richard had had painted, from a photograph +of Ethie, taken when she was only seventeen. It was a beautiful, +girlish face, and the brown eyes were bright and soft, and full of +eagerness and joy; while the rounded cheeks and pouting lips were +not much like the pale thin woman who now stood in the marbled +hall, claiming to be a relative of the family. Hannah never dreamed +who it was; but, accustomed to treat with respect everything +pertaining to the governor, she opened the door of the little +reception-room, and asked the lady to go in.</p> +<p>"I'll send you Mrs. Dobson the housekeeper," she said; and Ethie +heard her shuffling tread as she disappeared through the hall and +down the stairs to the regions where Mrs. Dobson reigned.</p> +<p>Ethelyn was a little afraid of that dignitary; something in the +atmosphere of the house made her afraid of everything, inspiring +her as it did with the feeling that she had no business there--that +she was a trespasser, a spy, whom Mrs. Dobson would be justified in +turning from the door. But Mrs. Dobson meditated no such act. She +was a quiet, inoffensive, unsuspicious, personage, believing wholly +in Governor Markham and everything pertaining to him. She was +canning fruit when Hannah came with the message that some of the +governor's kin had come from the East, and remembering to have +heard that Richard once had an uncle somewhere in Massachusetts, +she had no doubt that this was a daughter of the old gentleman and +a cousin of Richard's, especially as Hannah described the stranger +as youngish and tolerably good-looking. She had no thought that it +was the runaway wife, of whom she knew more than Hannah, else she +would surely have dropped the Spencer jar she was filling and +burned her fingers worse than she did, trying to crowd in the +refractory cover, which persisted in tipping up sideways and all +ways but the right way.</p> +<p>"Some of his kin. Pity they are gone. What shall we do with +her?" she said, as she finally pushed the cover to its place and +blew the thumb she had burned badly.</p> +<p>"Maybe she don't mean to stay long; she didn't bring no +baggage," Hannah said, and thus reassured, Mrs. Dobson rolled down +her sleeves and tying on a clean apron, started for the +reception-room, where Ethie sat like one stupefied, or one who +walks in a dream from which he tries in vain to waken.</p> +<p>This house, as far as she could judge, was not like that home on +the prairie where her first married days were spent. Everything +here was luxurious and grand and in such perfect taste. It seemed a +princely home, and Ethie experienced more than one bitter pang of +regret that by her own act she had in all probability cut herself +off from any part or lot in this earthly paradise.</p> +<p>"I deserve it, but it is very hard to bear," she thought, just +as Mrs. Dobson appeared and bowing respectfully, began:</p> +<p>"Hannah tells me you are kin to the governor's folks,--his +cousin, I reckon--and I am so sorry they are all, gone, and will be +yet for some weeks. The governor is at a water cure down +East--strange you didn't hear of it-- and t'other Mr. Markham has +gone with his wife to Olney, and St. Paul, and dear knows where. +Too bad, ain't it? But maybe you'll stay a day or two and rest? +We'll make you as comfortable as we can. You look about beat out," +and Mrs. Dobson came nearer to Ethelyn, whose face and lips were +white as ashes, and whose eyes looked almost black with her +excitement.</p> +<p>She was very tired. The rapid journey, made without rest or food +either, save the cup of tea and cracker she tried to swallow, was +beginning to tell upon her, and while Mrs. Dobson was speaking she +felt stealing over her the giddiness which she knew was a precursor +to fainting.</p> +<p>"I am tired and heated," she gasped. "I could not sleep at the +hotel or eat, either. I will stay a day and rest, if you please. +Rich--Governor Markham will not care; I was traveling this way, and +thought I would call. I have heard so much about his house."</p> +<p>She felt constrained to say this by way of explanation, and Mrs. +Dobson accepted it all, warming up at once on the subject of the +house--that was her weak point; while to show strangers through the +handsome rooms was her delight. No opportunity to do this had for +some time been presented, and the good woman's face glowed with the +pleasure she anticipated from showing the governor's cousin his +house and grounds. But first the lady must have some dinner, and +bidding her lay aside her bonnet and shawl and make herself at +home, she hurried back to the kitchen and dispatched Hannah for the +tender lamb-chop she was going to broil, as that was something +easily cooked, and the poor girl seemed so tired and feeble.</p> +<p>"She looks like the Markhams, or like somebody I've seen," she +said, never dreaming of finding the familiar resemblance to +"somebody she had seen" in the picture hanging in Richard's +room.</p> +<p>What she would have done had she known who the stranger was is +doubtful. Fortunately she did not know; but being hospitably +inclined, and feeling anxious to show the governor's Eastern +relatives how grand and nice they were, she broiled the tender +lamb, and made the fragrant coffee, and laid the table in the cozy +breakfast-room, and put on the little silver set, and then +conducted her visitor out to dinner, helping her herself, and +leaving the room with the injunction to ring if she wanted +anything, as Hannah was within hearing. Terribly bewildered and +puzzled with regard to her own identity, Ethie sat down to +Richard's table, in Richard's house, and partook of Richard's food, +with a strange feeling of quiet, and a constantly increasing +sensation of numbness and bewilderment. Access to the house had +been easier than she fancied; but she could not help feeling that +she had no right to be there, no claim on Richard's hospitality. +Certainly she had none, if what she had heard at Clifton were true. +But was it? There was some doubt creeping into her mind, though why +Richard should wish to build so large and so fine a house just for +himself alone she could not understand. She never guessed how every +part of that dwelling had been planned with a direct reference to +her and her tastes; that not a curtain, or a carpet, or a picture +had been purchased without Melinda's having said she believed Ethie +would approve it. Every stone, and plank and tack, and nail had in +it a thought of the Ethie whose coming back had been speculated +upon and planned in so many different ways, but never in this +way--never just as it had finally occurred, with Richard gone, and +no one there to welcome her, save the servants in the kitchen, who, +while she ate her solitary dinner, feeling more desolate and +wretched than she had ever before felt in her life, wondered who +she was, and how far they ought to go with their attentions and +civilities. They were not suspicious, but took her for what she +professed to be--a Markham, and a near connection of the governor; +and as that stamped her somebody, they were inclined to be very +civil, feeling sure that Mrs. James would heartily approve their +course. She had rung no bell for Hannah; but they knew her dinner +was over, for they heard her as she went back into the +reception-room, where Mrs. Dobson ere long joined her, and asked if +she would like to see the house.</p> +<p>"It's the only thing we can amuse you with, unless you are fond +of music. Maybe you are," and Mrs. Dobson led the way to a little +music-room, where, in the recess of a bow window a closed piano was +standing.</p> +<p>At first Ethelyn did not observe it closely; but when the +housekeeper opened it, and pushing back the heavy drapery, +disclosed it fully to view, Ethie started forward with a sudden cry +of wonder and surprise, while her face was deathly pale, and the +fingers which came down with a crash upon the keys shook violently, +for she knew it was her old instrument standing there before +her--the one she had sold to procure money for her flight. Richard +must have bought it back; for her sake, too, or rather for the sake +of what she once was to him, not what she was now.</p> +<p>"Play, won't you?" Mrs. Dobson said. But Ethie could not then +have touched a note. The faintest tone of that instrument would +have maddened her and she turned away from it with a shudder, while +the rather talkative Mrs. Dobson continued: "It's an old piano, I +believe, that belonged to the first Mrs. Markham. There's to be a +new one bought for the other Mrs. Markham, I heard them say."</p> +<p>Ethie's hands were tightly locked together now, and her teeth +shut so tightly over her lips that the thin skin was broken, and a +drop of blood showed upon the pale surface; but in so doing she +kept back a cry of anguish which leaped up from her heart at Mrs. +Dobson's words. The "first Mrs. Markham," that was herself, while +the "other Mrs. Markham" meant, of course, her rival-- the bride +about whom she had heard at Clifton. She did not think of Melinda +as being a part of that household, "and the other Mrs. Markham," +for whom the new piano was to be purchased--she thought of nothing +but herself, and her own blighted hopes.</p> +<p>"Does the governor know for certain that his first wife is +dead?" she asked, at last, and Mrs. Dobson replied:</p> +<p>"He believes so, yes. It's five years since he heard a word. Of +course she's dead. She must have been a pretty creature. Her +picture is in the governor's room. Come, I will show it to +you."</p> +<p>Mrs. Dobson had left her glasses in the kitchen, so she did not +notice the white, stony face, so startling in its expression, as +her visitor followed her on up the broad staircase into the +spacious hall above, and on still further, till they came to the +door of Richard's room, which Hannah had left open. Then for a +moment Ethelyn hesitated. It seemed almost like a sacrilege for her +feet to tread the floor of that private room, for her breath to +taint the atmosphere of a spot where the new wife would come. But +Mrs. Dobson led her on until she stood in the center of Richard's +room, surrounded by the unmistakable paraphernalia of a man, with +so many things around her to remind her of the past. Surely, this +was her own furniture; the very articles he had chosen for the room +in Camden. It was kind in Richard to keep and bring them here, +where everything was so much more elegant--kind, too, in him to +redeem her piano. It showed that for a time, at least, he had +remembered her; but alas! he had forgotten her now, when she wanted +his love so much. There were great blurring tears in her eyes, and +she could not distinctly see the picture on the walk which Mrs. +Dobson said was the first Mrs. Markham, asking if she was not a +beauty.</p> +<p>"Rather pretty, yes," Ethie said, making a great effort to speak +naturally, and adding after a moment: "I suppose it will be taken +down when the other Mrs. Markham comes."</p> +<p>In Mrs. Dobson's mind the other Mrs. Markham only meant Melinda, +and she replied:</p> +<p>"Why should it? She knows it is here. She knew the other lady +and liked her, too."</p> +<p>"She knew me? Who can it be?" Ethie asked herself, remembering +that the name she had heard at Clifton was a strange one to +her.</p> +<p>"This, now, is the very handsomest part of the whole house," +Mrs. Dobson said, throwing open a door which led from Richard's +room into a suite of apartments which, to Ethie's bewildered gaze, +seemed more like fairyland than anything real she had ever seen. +"This the governor fitted up expressly for his wife and I'm told he +spent more money here than in all the upper rooms. Did you ever see +handsomer lace? He sent to New York for them," she said, lifting up +one of the exquisitely wrought curtains festooned across the arch +which divided the boudoir from the large sleeping room beyond. +"This I call the bridal chamber," she continued, stepping into the +room where everything was so pure and white. "But, bless me, I +forgot that I put on a lot of bottles to heat: I'll venture they +are every one of them shivered to atoms. Hannah is so careless. +Excuse me, will you, and entertain yourself a while. I reckon you +can find your way back to the parlor."</p> +<p>Ethelyn wanted nothing so much as to be left alone and free to +indulge in the emotions which were fast getting the mastery of her. +Covering her face with her hands, as the door closed after Mrs. +Dobson, she sat for a moment bereft of the power to think or feel. +Then, as things became more real, as great throbs of heat and pain +went tearing through her temples, she remembered that she was in +Richard's house, up in the room which Mrs. Dobson had termed the +bridal chamber, the apartments which had been fitted up for +Richard's bride, whoever she might be.</p> +<p>"I never counted on this," she whispered, as she paced up and +down the range of rooms, from the little parlor or boudoir to the +dressing room beyond the bedroom, and the little conservatory at +the side, where the choicest of plants were in blossom, and where +the dampness was so cool to her burning brow.</p> +<p>It did not strike her as strange that Richard should have +thought of all this, nor did she wonder whose taste had aided him +in making such a home. She did not wonder at anything except at +herself, who had missed so much and fallen into such depths of +woe.</p> +<p>"Oh, Richard!" she sighed, as she went back to the bridal +chamber. "You would pity me now, and forgive me, too, if you knew +what I am suffering here in your home, which can never, never be +mine!"</p> +<p>She was standing now near the low window, taking in the effect +of her surroundings, from the white ground carpet covered with +brilliant bouquets, to the unrumpled, snowy bed which looked so +deliciously cool and inviting and seemed beckoning the poor, tired +woman to its embrace. And Ethie yielded at last to the silent +invitation, forgetting everything save how tired, and sorry, and +fever-smitten she was, and how heavy her swollen eyelids were with +tears unshed, and the many nights she had not slept. Ethie's cheeks +were turning crimson, and her pulse throbbing rapidly as, loosing +her long, beautiful hair, which of all her girlish beauty remained +unimpaired, and putting off her little gaiters, she lay down upon +the snowy bed, and pressing her aching head upon the pillows, +whispered softly to her other self--the Ethelyn Grant she used to +know in Chicopee, when a little twelve-year-old girl she fled from +the maddened cow and met the tall young man from the West.</p> +<p>"Governor Markham they call him now," she said, "and I am Mrs. +Governor," and a wild laugh broke the stillness of the rooms kept +so sacred until now.</p> +<p>In the hall below Hannah overheard the laugh, and mounting the +stairs cast one frightened glance into the chamber where a tossing, +moaning figure lay upon the bed, with masses of brown hair falling +about the face and floating over the pillows.</p> +<p>Good Mrs. Dobson dropped one of the jars she was filling when +Hannah came with her strange tale, and leaving the scalding mass of +pulp and juice upon the floor, she hastened up the stairs, and with +as stern a voice as it was possible for her to assume, demanded of +Ethelyn what she was doing there. But Ethie only whispered on to +herself of divorces, and governors' wives-elect, and bridal +chambers where she could rest so nicely. Mrs. Dobson and Mrs. +Dobson's ire were nothing to her, and the good woman's wrath +changed to pity as she met the bright, restless eyes, and felt the +burning hands which she held for a moment in her own. It was a +pretty little hand--soft and white and small almost as a child's. +There was a ring upon the left hand, too; a marriage ring, Mrs. +Dobson guessed, wondering now more than ever who the stranger was +that had thus boldly taker possession of a room where none but the +family ever came.</p> +<p>"She is married, it would seem," she said to Hannah, and then, +as Richard's name dropped from Ethelyn's lips, she looked curiously +at the flushed face so ghastly white, save where spots of crimson +colored the cheeks, and at the mass of hair which Ethie had pushed +up and off from the forehead it seemed to oppress with its +weight.</p> +<p>"Go, bring me some ice-water from the cellar," Mrs. Dobson said +to Hannah, who hurried away on the errand, while the housekeeper, +left to herself, bent nearer to Ethelyn and closely scrutinized her +face; then stepping to Richard's room, she examined the picture on +the wall, where the hair was brushed back and the lips were parted +like the lips and hair in that other room where the stranger +was.</p> +<p>Mrs. Dobson was a good deal alarmed--"set back," as she +afterward expressed it when telling the story to Melinda--and her +knees fairly knocked together as she returned to the sick-room, and +bending again over the stranger asked, "Is your name Ethelyn?"</p> +<p>For an instant there was a look of consciousness in the brown +eyes, and Ethie whispered faintly:</p> +<p>"Don't tell him. Don't send me away. Let me stay here and die; +it won't be long, and this pillow is so nice."</p> +<p>She was wandering again, and satisfied that her surmises were +correct, Mrs. Dobson lifted her gently up, and to the great +surprise of Hannah, who had returned with the ice, began removing +the heavy dress and the skirts so much in the way.</p> +<p>"Bring some of Mrs. Markham's night-clothes, and ask me no +questions," she said to the astonished girl, who silently obeyed +her, and then assisted while Ethelyn was arrayed in Melinda's +night-gown and made more comfortable and easy than she could be in +her own tight-fitting dress.</p> +<p>"Take this to the telegraph office," was Mrs. Dobson's next +order, after she had been a few moments in the library, and Hannah +obeyed, reading as she ran:</p> +<blockquote>"DAVENPORT, August--.<br> +"To MRS. JAMES MARKHAM, Olney:<br> +<br> +"There's a strange woman sick here. Please come home. "ELINOR +DOBSON."</blockquote> +<p>The way was open for the dispatch, and in less than half an hour +the operator at Olney was writing out the message which would take +Melinda back to Davenport as fast as steam could carry her.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> +<h3>AT HOME</h3> +<br> +<p>Mrs. James Markham had spent a few weeks with a party of +Davenport friends in St. Paul and vicinity, but she was now at home +in Olney with her mother, whom she helped with the ironing that +morning, showing a quickness and dexterity in the doing up of Tim's +shirts and best table linen which proved that, although a "mighty +fine lady," as some of the Olneyites termed her, she had neither +forgotten nor was above working in the kitchen when the occasion +required. The day's ironing was over now, and refreshed with a bath +and a half-hour's sleep after it, she sat under the shadow of the +tall trees, arrayed in her white marseilles, which, being gored, +made her look, as unsophisticated Andy thought, most too slim and +flat. Andy himself was over at the Joneses that afternoon, and, +down upon all fours, was playing bear with baby Ethelyn, who +shouted and screamed with delight at the antics of her childish +uncle. Mrs. James was not contemplating a return to Davenport for +three or four weeks; indeed, ever since the letter received from +Clifton with regard to Richard's sickness, she had been seriously +meditating a flying visit to the invalid, who she knew would be +glad to see her. It must be very desolate for him there alone, she +said; and then her thoughts went after the wanderer whom they had +long since ceased to talk about, much less than to expect back +again. Melinda was sadly thinking of her, and speculating as to +what her fate had been, when down the road from the village came +the little messenger boy, who always made one's heart beat so fast +when he handed out his missive. He had one now, and he brought it +to Melinda, who, thinking of her husband, gone to Denver City, felt +a thrill of fear lest something had befallen him. But no; the +dispatch came from Davenport, from Mrs. Dobson herself, and read +that a strange woman lay very sick in the house.</p> +<p>"A strange woman," that was all, but it made Melinda's heart +leap up into her throat at the bare possibility as to who the +strange woman might be. Andy was standing by her now reading the +message, and Melinda knew by the flush upon his face, and the drops +of perspiration which started out so suddenly around his mouth, +that he, too, shared her suspicions. But not a word was spoken by +either upon the subject agitating them so powerfully. Melinda only +said, "I must go home at once--in the next train if possible," +while Andy rejoined, "I am going with you."</p> +<p>Melinda knew why he was going, and when at last they were on the +way, the sight of his honest-speaking face, glowing all over with +eagerness and joyful anticipations, kept her own spirits up, and +made what she so greatly hoped for seem absolutely certain. It was +morning when they arrived, and were driven rapidly through the +streets toward home. The house seemed very quiet; every window and +shutter, so far as they could see, was closed, and both experienced +a terrible fear lest "the strange woman" was gone. They could not +wait for Hannah to open the door, and so they went round to the +basement, surprising Mrs. Dobson as she bent over the fire, +stirring the basin of gruel she was preparing for her patient. "The +strange woman" was not gone. She was raving mad, Mrs. Dobson said, +and talked the queerest things. "I've had the doctor, just as I +knew you would have done, had you been here," she said, "and he +pronounced it brain fever, brought on by fatigue, and some great +excitement or worriment. 'Pears like she thought she was divorced, +or somebody was divorced, for she was talking about it, and showing +the ring on her fourth finger. I hope Governor Markham won't mind +it. 'Twas none of my doings. She went there herself, and I first +found her in the bed in that room where nobody ever slept--the +bride's room, I call it, you know."</p> +<p>"Is she there?" Melinda asked, in amazement, while Andy, who had +been standing near the door which led up to the next floor, +disappeared up the stairs, leaving the women alone.</p> +<p>He knew the way to the room designated, and went hurrying on +until he reached the door, and there he paused, his flesh creeping +with the intensity of his excitement, and his whole being pervaded +with a crushing sense of eager expectancy. He had not put into +words what or whom he expected to find on the other side of the +door he hardly dared to open. He only knew he should be terribly +disappointed if his conjectures proved wrong, and a smothered +prayer rose to his lips, "God grant it may be the she I mean."</p> +<p>The she he meant was sleeping now. The brown head which rolled +so restlessly all night was lying quietly upon the pillows, the +burning cheek resting upon one hand, and the mass of long, bright +hair tucked back under one of Mrs. Dobson's own nightcaps, that +lady having sought in vain for such an article among her mistress' +wardrobe. She did not hear Andy as he stepped softly across the +floor to the bedside. Bending cautiously above her, he hesitated a +moment, while a great throb of disappointment ran through his +veins. Surely that was not Ethie, with the hollow cheeks and the +disfiguring frill around her face, giving her more the look of the +new and stylish nurse Melinda had got from Chicago--the woman who +wore a cap in place of a bonnet, and jabbered half the time in some +foreign tongue, which Melinda said was French. The room was very +dark, and Andy pushed back a blind, letting in such a flood of +light that the sleeper started, and moaned, and turned herself upon +the pillow, while with a gasping, sobbing cry, Andy fell upon his +knees, and with clasped hands and streaming eyes, exclaimed:</p> +<p>"I thank Thee, Father of mercies, more than I can tell, for it +is Ethie--it is Ethie--it is Ethie, our own darling Ethie, come +back to us again; and now, dear Lord, bring old Dick home at once, +and let us have a time of it."</p> +<p>Ethie's eyes were opened and fixed inquiringly upon Andy. +Something in his voice and manner must have penetrated through the +mists of delirium clouding her brain, for the glimmer of a smile +played round her lips, and her hands moved slowly toward him; then +they went back again to her throat and tugged at the nightcap +strings which good Mrs. Dobson had tied in a hard knot by way of +keeping the cap upon the refractory head. Ethie did not fancy the +cap any more than Andy, who, guessing her wishes, lent his own +assistance to the untying of the strings.</p> +<p>"You don't like the pesky thing on your head, making you look so +like a scarecrow, do you?" he said gently, as with a jerk he broke +the strings and then threw the discarded cap upon the floor.</p> +<p>Ethie seemed to know him for a moment, and, "Kiss me, Andy," +came feebly from her lips. Winding his arms about her, Andy did +kiss her many times, while his tears dropped upon her face and +moistened the long hair, which, relieved from its confinement, fell +in dark masses about her face, making her look more like the +Ethelyn of old than she had at first.</p> +<p>"Was there a divorce?" she whispered, and Andy, in great +perplexity, was wondering what she meant, when Melinda's step came +along the hall, and Melinda entered the room together with Mrs. +Dobson.</p> +<p>"It's she--herself! It's our own Ethie!" Andy exclaimed, +standing back a little from the bed, but still holding the feverish +hand which had grasped his so firmly, as if in that touch alone was +rest and security.</p> +<p>"I thought so," and with a satisfied nod Mrs. Dobson put down +her bowl of gruel and went down to communicate the startling news +to Hannah, who nearly lost her senses in the first moment of +surprise.</p> +<p>"Do you know me, Ethie?" Melinda asked, but in the bright, +rolling eyes there was no ray of reason; only the lip quivered +slightly, and Ethie said so sadly, so beseechingly, "Don't send me +away, when I am so tired and sorry."</p> +<p>She seemed to have a vague idea where she was and who was with +her, clinging closer to Andy, as if surest of him, and once when he +bent over her, she suddenly wound her arms around his neck and +whispered, "Don't leave me--it's nice to know you are with me; and +don't let them put that dreadful thing on my head again. Aunt Van +Buren said I was a fright. Will Richard think so, too?"</p> +<p>This was the only time she mentioned her husband, though she +talked of Clifton and Mrs. Pry, and the story of the divorce, and +the dear little chapel where she said God always came, bidding Andy +kneel down and pray just as they were doing there when the summer +day drew to a close.</p> +<p>"We must send for Dick," Andy said; "but don't let's tell the +whole; let's leave something to his imagination;" and so the +telegram which went to Governor Markham read simply: "Come home +immediately. Don't wait for a single train."</p> +<p>Richard had heard of Miss Bigelow's sudden departure, and had +been surprised to find how much he missed the light footsteps and +the rustling sound which had come from No. 101. He was a good deal +interested in Miss Bigelow, and when Mary told him of her leaving +so unexpectedly and appearing so excited, there had for a moment +flashed over him the wild thought, "Could it be?" No, it could not, +he said; but he questioned Mary as to the appearance of the lady in +No. 101. "Was she very handsome, with full, rosy cheeks, and eyes +of chestnut brown?"</p> +<p>"She was rather pretty," Mary said; "but her face was thin and +pale, and her eyes, she guessed, were black."</p> +<p>It was not Ethie, then--Richard had never believed it was--but +he felt sorry that she was gone, whoever she might be, and Clifton +was not so pleasant to him now as it had been at first. He was much +better, and had been once to the chapel, when up the three flights +of stairs Perry came and along the hall till he stopped at Room No. +102. There was a telegram for Richard, who took it with trembling +hands and read it with a blur before his eyes and something at his +heart like a blow, but which was born of a sudden hope that, after +many days and months and years of waiting, God had deigned to be +merciful. But only for a brief moment did this hope buoy him up. It +could not be, he said; and yet, as he made his hasty preparations +for his journey, he found the possibility constantly recurring to +his mind, while the nearer he came to Davenport the more probable +it seemed, and the more impatient he grew at every little delay. +There were several upon the road, and once, only fifty miles from +home, there was a detention of four hours. But the long train moved +at last, and just as the sun was setting the cars stopped in the +Davenport depot, and as the passengers alighted the loungers +whispered to each other, "Governor Markham has come home."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> +<h3>RICHARD AND ETHELYN</h3> +<br> +<p>Arrived at Davenport, and so near his home that he could discern +its roofs and chimneys, the hope which had kept Richard up all +through his rapid journey began to give way, and he hardly knew +what or whom he expected to find, as he went up the steps to his +house and rang the door bell. Certainly not Andy--he had not +thought of him--and his pulse quickened with a feeling of eagerness +and hope renewed when he caught sight of his brother's beaming face +and felt the pressure of his broad hand. In his delight Andy kissed +his brother two or three times during the interval it took to get +him through the hall into the reception room, where they were +alone. Arrived there, Andy fell to capering across the floor, while +Richard looked on, puzzled to decide whether his weak brother had +gone wholly daft or not. Recollecting himself at last, and assuming +a more sober attitude, Andy came close to him and whispered:</p> +<p>"Dick, you ought to be thankful, so thankful and glad that God +has been kind at last and heard our prayers, just as I always told +you he would. Guess who is upstairs, ravin' crazy by spells, and +quiet as a Maltese kitten the rest of the time? I'll bet, though, +you'll never guess, it is so strange? Try, now--who do you think it +is?"</p> +<p>"Ethelyn," came in a whisper from Richard's lips, and rather +crestfallen, the simple Andy said, "Somebody told you, I know; but +you are right. Ethie is here--came when we all was gone--said she +was a connection of yourn, and so Miss Dobson let her in, and +treated her up, and showed her the house, and left her in them +rooms you fixed a purpose for her. You see Miss Dobson had some +truck she was canning, and she stayed downstairs so long that when +she went back she found Ethie had taken possession of that bed +where nobody ever slept, and was burnin' up with fever and talkin' +the queerest kind of talk about divorces, and all that, and there +was something in her face made Miss Dobson mistrust who she was, +and she telegraphed for Melinda and me--or rather for Melinda--and +I came out with her, for I knew in a minit who the strange woman +was. But she won't know you, Dick. She don't know me, though she +lays her head on my arm and snugs up to me awful neat. Will you go +now to see her?"</p> +<p>The question was superfluous, for Richard was halfway up the +stairs, followed close by Andy, who went with him to the door of +Ethie's room, and then stood back, thinking it best for Richard to +go in alone.</p> +<p>Ethelyn was asleep, and Melinda sat watching her. She knew it +was Richard who came in, for she had heard his voice in the hall, +and greeting him quickly, arose and left the room, whispering: "If +she wakes, don't startle her. Probably she will not know you."</p> +<p>Then she went out, and Richard was alone with the wife he had +not seen for more than five weary years. It was very dark in the +room, and it took him a moment to accustom himself to the light +enough to discover the figure lying so still before him, the pale +eyelids closed, and the long eyelashes resting upon the crimson +cheek. The lips and forehead were very white, but the rest of the +face was purple with fever, and as that gave the cheeks a fuller, +rounder look, she did not at first seem greatly changed, but looked +much as she did the time he came from Washington and found her so +low. The long hair which Andy would not have confined in a cap was +pushed back from her brow, and lay in tangled masses upon the +pillow, while her hands were folded one within the other and rested +outside the covering. And Richard touched her hands first--the +little, soft, white hands he used to think so pretty, and which he +now kissed so softly as he knelt by the bedside and tried to look +closely into Ethie's face.</p> +<p>"My poor, sick darling, God knows how glad I am to have you +back," he murmured, and his tears dropped like rain upon the hands +he pressed so gently. Then softly caressing the pale forehead, his +fingers threaded the mass of tangled hair, and his lips touched the +hot, burning ones which quivered for a moment, and then said, +brokenly:</p> +<p>"A dream--all a dream. I've had it so many times."</p> +<p>She was waking, and Richard drew back a step or two, while the +bright, restless eyes moved round the room as if in quest of +someone.</p> +<p>"It's very dark," she said, and turning one of the shutters +Richard came back and stood just where the light would fall upon +his face as it did on hers.</p> +<p>He saw now how changed she was; but she was none the less dear +to him for that, and he spoke to her very tenderly:</p> +<p>"Ethie, darling, don't you know me? I am Richard, your husband, +and I am so glad to get you back."</p> +<p>There did seem to be a moment's consciousness, for there crept +into the eyes a startled, anxious look as they scanned Richard's +face; then the lip quivered again, and Ethie said pleadingly:</p> +<p>"Don't send me away. I am so tired, and the road was so long. I +thought I would never get here. Let me stay. I shall not be bad any +more."</p> +<p>Then, unmindful of consequences, Richard gathered her in his +arms, and held her there an instant in a passionate embrace, which +left her pale and panting, but seemed to reassure her, for when he +would have laid her back upon the pillow, she said to him, "No, not +there--on your arm--so. Yes, that's nice," and an expression of +intense satisfaction stole into her face as she nestled her head +close to Richard's bosom, and, closing her eyes, seemed to sleep +again. And Richard held her thus, forgetting his own fatigue, and +refusing to give up his post either to Andy or Melinda, both of +whom ventured in at last, and tried to make him take some +refreshment and rest.</p> +<p>"I am not hungry," he said, "and it is rest enough to be with +Ethelyn."</p> +<p>Much he wondered where she had come from, and Melinda repeated +all Ethelyn had said which would throw any light upon the +subject.</p> +<p>"She has talked of the Nile, and St. Petersburg, and the +Hellespont, and the ship which was bringing her to Richard, and of +Chicopee, but it was difficult telling how much was real," Melinda +said, adding, "She talked of Clifton, too; and were it possible, I +should say she came direct from there, but that could not be. You +would have known if she had been there. What was the number of your +room?"</p> +<p>"102," Richard replied, a new revelation dawning upon him, while +Melinda rejoined:</p> +<p>"That is the number she talks about--that and 101. Can it be +that she was there?"</p> +<p>Richard was certain of it. The Miss Bigelow who had interested +him so much lay there in his arms, his own wife, who was, if +possible, tenfold dearer to him now than when he first held her as +his bride. He knew she was very sick, but she would not die, he +said to himself. God had not restored her to him just to take her +away again, and make his desolation more desolate. Ethie would +live. And surely if love, and nursing, and tender care were of any +avail to save the life which at times seemed fluttering on the very +verge of the grave, Ethelyn would live. Nothing was spared which +could avail to save her, and even the physician, who had all along +done what he could, seemed to redouble his efforts when he +ascertained who his patient was.</p> +<p>Great was the surprise, and numerous the remarks and surmises of +the citizens, when it was whispered abroad that the strange woman +lying so sick in the governor's house was no other than the +governor's wife, about whom the people had speculated so much. Nor +was it long ere the news went to Camden, stirring up the people +there, and bringing Mrs. Miller at once to Davenport, where she +stayed at a hotel until such time as she could be admitted to +Ethelyn's presence.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham, senior, was washing windows when Tim Jones brought +her the letter bearing the Davenport postmark. Melinda had +purposely abstained from writing home until Richard came; and so +the letter was in his handwriting, which his mother recognized at +once.</p> +<p>"Why, it's from Richard!" she exclaimed. "I thought he wouldn't +stay long at Clifton. I never did believe in swashin' all the time. +A bath in the tin washbasin does me very well," and the good woman +wiped her window leisurely, and even put it back and fastened the +side-slat in its place before she sat down to see what Richard had +written.</p> +<p>Tim knew what he had written, for in his hat was another letter +from Melinda, for his mother, which he had opened, his feet going +off into a kind of double shuffle as he read that Ethelyn had +returned. She had been very cold and proud to him; but he had +admired her greatly, and remembered her with none but kindly +feelings. He was a little anxious to know what Mrs. Markham would +say, but as she was in no hurry to open her letter, and he was in a +hurry to tell his mother the good news, he bade her good-morning, +and mounting his horse, galloped away toward home.</p> +<p>"I hope he's told who the critter was that was took sick in the +house," Mrs. Markham said, as she adjusted her glasses and broke +the seal.</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham had never fainted in her life, but she came very +near it that morning, feeling some as she would if the Daisy, dead, +so long, had suddenly walked into the room and taken a seat beside +her.</p> +<p>"I am glad for Dick," she said. "I never saw a man change as he +has, pinin' for her. I mean to be good to her, if I can," and Mrs. +Markham's sun-bonnet was bent low over Richard's letter, on which +there were traces of tears when the head was lifted up again. "I +must let John know, I never can stand it till dinner time," she +said, and a shrill blast from the tin horn, used to bring her sons +to dinner, went echoing across the prairie to the lot where John +was working.</p> +<p>It was not a single blast, but peal upon peal, a loud, prolonged +sound, which startled John greatly, especially as he knew by the +sun that it could not be twelve o'clock.</p> +<p>"Blows as if somebody was in a fit," he said, as he took long +and rapid strides toward the farmhouse.</p> +<p>His mother met him in the lane, letter in hand, and her face +white with excitement as she said below her breath:</p> +<p>"John, John, oh! John, she's come. She's there at +Richard's--sick with the fever, and crazy; and Richard is so glad. +Read what he says."</p> +<p>She did not say who had come, but John knew, and his eyes were +dim with tears as he took the letter from his mother's hand, and +read it, walking beside her to the house.</p> +<p>"I presume they doctor her that silly fashion, with little pills +the size of a small pin head. Melinda is so set in her way. She +ought to have some good French brandy if they want to save her. I'd +better go myself and see to it," Mrs. Markham said, after they had +reached the house, and John, at her request, had read the letter +aloud.</p> +<p>John did not quite fancy his mother's going, particularly as +Richard had said nothing about it, but Mrs. Markham was +determined.</p> +<p>"It was a good way to make it up with Ethelyn, to be there when +she come to," she thought, and so, leaving her house-cleaning to +itself, and John to his bread and milk, of which he never tired, +she packed a little traveling bag, and taking with her a bottle of +brandy, started on the next train for Davenport, where she had +never been.</p> +<p>Aunt Barbara was not cleaning house. She was cutting dried +caraway seed in the garden, and thinking of Ethie, wondering why +she did not write, and hoping that when she did she would say that +she had talked with Richard, and made the matter up. Ever since +hearing that he was at Clifton, in the next room to Ethie, Aunt +Barbara had counted upon a speedy reconciliation, and done many +things with a direct reference to that reconciliation. The best +chamber was kept constantly aired, with bouquets of flowers in it, +in case the happy pair, "as good as just married," should come +suddenly upon her. Ethie's favorite loaf cake was constantly kept +on hand, and when Betty suggested that they should let Uncle Billy +cut down that caraway seed, "and heave it away," the good soul +objected, thinking there was no telling what would happen, and it +was well enough to save such things as anise and caraway. So, in +her big cape bonnet, she was cutting her branches of herbs, when +Charlie Howard looked over the garden gate with "Got a letter for +you."</p> +<p>"It ain't from her. It's from--why, it's from Richard, and he is +in Davenport," Aunt Barbara exclaimed, as she sat down in a garden +chair to read the letter which was not from Ethie.</p> +<p>Richard did not say directly to her that she must come, but Aunt +Barbara felt an innate conviction that her presence would not be +disagreeable, even if Ethie lived, while "if she died," and Aunt +Barbara's heart gave a great throb as she thought it, "if Ethie +died she must be there," and so her trunk was packed for the third +time in Ethie's behalf, and the next day's train from Boston +carried the good woman on her way to Davenport.</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX</h2> +<h3>RECONCILIATION</h3> +<br> +<p>There had been a succession of rainy days in Davenport--dark, +rainy days, which added to the gloom hanging over that house where +they watched so intently by Ethie's side, trembling lest the life +they prayed for so earnestly might go out at any moment, so high +the fever ran, and so wild and restless the patient grew. The +friends were all there now--James, and John, and Andy, and Aunt +Barbara, with Mrs. Markham, senior, who, at first, felt a little +worried, lest her son should be eaten out of house and home, +especially as Melinda manifested no disposition to stint the table +of any of their accustomed luxuries. As housekeeper, Mrs. Dobson +was a little inclined at first to stand in awe of the governor's +mother, and so offered no remonstrance when the tea grounds from +supper were carefully saved to be boiled up for breakfast, as both +Melinda and Aunt Barbara preferred tea to coffee, but when it came +to a mackerel and a half for seven people, and four of them men, +Mrs. Dobson demurred, and Melinda's opinion in requisition, the +result was that three fishes, instead of one and a half smoked upon +the breakfast table next morning, together with toast and +mutton-chops. After that Mrs. Markham gave up the contest with a +groan, saying, "they might go to destruction their own way, for all +of her."</p> +<p>Where Ethelyn was concerned, however, she showed no stint. +Nothing was too good for her, no expense too great, and next to +Richard and Andy, she seemed more anxious, more interested than +anyone for the sick girl who lay so insensible of all that was +passing around her, save at brief intervals when she seemed for an +instant to realize where she was, for her eyes would flash about +the room with a frightened, startled look, and then seek Richard's +face with a wistful, pleading expression, as if asking not to cast +her off, not to send her back into the dreary world where she had +wandered so long alone. The sight of so many seemed to worry her, +for she often talked of the crowd at the Clifton depot, saying they +took her breath away; and once, drawing Andy's face down to her, +she whispered to him, "Send them back to the Cure, all but his +royal highness"--pointing to Richard--"and Anna, the prophetess, +she can stay."</p> +<p>This was Aunt Barbara, to whom Ethelyn clung as a child to its +mother, missing her the moment she left the room, and growing quiet +as soon as she returned. It was the same with Richard. She seemed +to know when he quitted her side, and her eyes watched the door +eagerly till he came back to her again. At the doctor's suggestion, +all were at last banished from the sick-room except Aunt Barbara, +and Richard, and Nick Bottom, as she persisted in calling poor +Andy, who was terribly perplexed to know whether he was +complimented or not, and who eventually took to studying Shakspere +to find out who Bottom was. Those were trying days to Richard, who +rarely left Ethie's bedside, except when it was absolutely +necessary. She was more quiet with him, and would sometimes sleep +for hours upon his arm, with one hand clasped in Aunt Barbara's, +and the other held by Andy. At other times, when the fever was on, +no arm availed to hold her as she tossed from side to side, talking +of things at which a stranger would have marveled, and which made +Richard's heart ache to its very core. At times she was a girl in +Chicopee, and all the past as connected with Frank Van Buren was +lived over again; then she would talk of Richard, and shudder as +she recalled the dreary, dreadful day when the honeysuckles were in +blossom, and he came to make her his wife.</p> +<p>"It was wrong, all wrong. I did not love him then," she said, +"nor afterward, on the prairie, nor anywhere, until I went away, +and found what it was to live without him."</p> +<p>"And do you love him now?" Richard asked her once when he sat +alone with her.</p> +<p>There was no hesitancy on her part, no waiting to make up an +answer. It was ready on her lips, "Yes, oh, yes!" and the weak arms +lifted themselves up and were wound around his neck with a pressure +almost stifling. How much of this was real Richard could not tell, +but he accepted it as such, and waited impatiently for the day when +the full light of reason should return and Ethie be restored to +him. There was but little of her past life which he did not learn +from her ravings, and so there was less for her to tell him when at +last the fever abated, and his eyes met hers with a knowing, +rational expression. Andy was alone with her when the change first +came. The rain, which had fallen so steadily, was over, and out +upon the river the sunlight was softly falling. At Andy's earnest +entreaty, Richard had gone for a little exercise in the open air, +and was walking slowly up and down the broad piazza, while Aunt +Barbara slept, and Andy kept his vigils by Ethelyn. She, too, was +sleeping quietly, and Andy saw the great drops of perspiration +standing upon her brow and beneath her hair. He knew it was a good +omen, and on his knees by the bedside, with his face in his hands, +he prayed aloud, thanking God for restoring Ethelyn to them, and +asking that they might all be taught just how to make her happy. A +faint sound between a moan and a sob roused him and, looking up, he +saw the great tears rolling down Ethie's cheeks, while her lips +moved as if they would speak to him.</p> +<p>"Andy, dear old Andy! is it you, and are you glad to have me +back?" she said, and then all Andy's pent-up feelings found vent in +a storm of tears and passionate protestations of love and +tenderness for his darling sister.</p> +<p>She remembered how she came there, and seemed to understand why +Andy was there, too; but the rest was a little confused. Was Aunt +Barbara there, or had she only dreamed it?</p> +<p>"Aunt Barbara is here," Andy said, and then, with the same +frightened, anxious look her face had so often worn during her +illness, Ethie said: "Somebody else has sat by me and held my head +and hands, and kissed me! Andy, tell me--was that Richard?--and did +he kiss me, and is he glad to find me?"</p> +<p>She was gazing fixedly at Andy, who replied: "Yes, Dick is here. +He's glad to have you back. He's kissed you more than forty times. +He don't remember nothing.''</p> +<p>"And the divorce, Andy--is the story true, and am I not his +wife?"</p> +<p>"I never heard of no divorce, only what you said about one in +your tantrums. Dick would as soon have cut off his head as got such +a thing," Andy replied.</p> +<p>Ethelyn knew she could rely on what Andy said, and a heartfelt +"Thank God! It is more than I deserve!" fell from her lips, just as +a step was heard in the hall.</p> +<p>"That's Dick,--he's coming," Andy whispered, and hastily +withdrawing he left the two alone together.</p> +<p>It was more than an hour before even Aunt Barbara ventured into +the room, and when she did she knew by the joy written on Richard's +face and the deep peace shining in Ethie's eyes that the +reconciliation had been complete and perfect. Every error had been +confessed, every fault forgiven, and the husband and wife stood +ready now to begin the world anew, with perfect love for and +confidence in each other. Ethie had acknowledged all her faults, +the greatest of which was the giving her hand to one from whom she +withheld her heart.</p> +<p>"But you have that now," she said. "I can truly say that I love +you far betten than ever frank Van Buren was loved, and I know you +to be worthy, too. I have been so wicked, Richard,--so wilful and +impatient,--that I wonder you have not learned to hate my very +name. I may be wilful still. My old hot temper is not all subdued, +though I hope I am a better woman than I used to be when I cared +for nothing but myself. God has been so good to me who have +forgotten Him so long; but we will serve Him together now."</p> +<p>As Ethie talked she had nestled closer and closer to her +husband, whose arms encircled her form and whose face bent itself +down to hers, while a rain of tears fell upon her hair and forehead +as the strong man,--the grave Judge and the honored +Governor,--confessed where he, too, had been in fault, and craving +his young wife's pardon, ascribed also to God the praise for +bringing them both to feel their dependence on Him, as well as to +see this day, the happiest of their lives.</p> +<p>Gradually, as she could bear it, the family came in one by one +to see her, Mrs. Markham, Sen., waiting till the very last, and +refusing to go until Ethelyn had expressed a wish to see her.</p> +<p>"I was pretty hard on her, I s'pose, and it would not be strange +if she laid it up against me," she said to Melinda; but Ethie had +nothing against her now.</p> +<p>The deep waters through which she had passed had obliterated all +traces of bitterness toward anyone, and when her mother-in-law came +in she feebly extended her hand and whispered: "I'm too tired, +mother, to talk much, but kiss me once for the sake of what we are +going to be to each other."</p> +<p>Mrs. Markham was not naturally a bad or a hard woman, either. +She was only unfortunate that her ideas had run in one rut so long +without any jolt to throw them out. Circumstances had greatly +softened her, and Ethie's words touched her deeply.</p> +<p>"I was mighty mean to you sometimes, Ethelyn, and I've been +sorry for it," she said, as she stooped to kiss her +daughter-in-law, and then hurried from the room, "Only to think, +she called me mother," she said to Melinda, to whom she reported +the particulars of her interview with Ethelyn--"me, who had been +meaner than dirt to her--called me mother, when I used to mistrust +her she didn't think any more of me than if I'd been an old squaw. +I shan't forget it right away."</p> +<p>Perhaps the sweetest, most joyful tears Ethelyn shed that day +were those which came to her eyes when they brought her Ethelyn, +her namesake, the little three-year-old, who pushed her brown curls +back from her baby face with such a womanly air, and said:</p> +<p>"I'se glad to see Aunt Ethie. I prays for her ever' night. Uncle +Andy told me so. I loves you, Aunt Ethie."</p> +<p>She was a beautiful little creature, and her innocent prattle +and engaging manners did much toward bringing the color back to +Ethie's cheeks and the brightness to her eyes. Those days of +convalescence were blissful ones, for now there was no shadow of a +cloud resting on the domestic horizon. Between husband and wife +there was perfect love, and in his newly born happiness, Richard +forgot the ailments which had sent him an invalid to Clifton, while +Ethie, surrounded by every luxury which love could devise or money +procure, and made each hour to feel how dear she was to those from +whom she had been so long estranged, grew fresh, and young, and +pretty again; so that when, early in December, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +came to Davenport to see her niece, she found her more beautiful +far than she had been in her early girlhood, when the boyish Frank +had paid his court to her. Poor little Nettie was dead. Her life +had literally been worried out of her; and during those September +days, when Ethelyn was watched and tended so carefully, she had +turned herself wearily upon her pillow, and just as the clock was +striking the hour of midnight, asked of the attendant:</p> +<p>"Has Frank come yet?"</p> +<p>"Not yet. Do you want anything?"</p> +<p>"No, nothing. Is mother here?"</p> +<p>"She was tired out, and has gone to her room to rest. Shall I +call her?"</p> +<p>"No, no matter. Is Ethie in her crib? Please bring her here. +Never mind if you do wake her. 'Tis the last time."</p> +<p>And so the little sleeping child was brought to the dying +mother, who would fain feel that something she had loved was near +her in the last hour of loneliness and anguish she would ever know. +Sorrow, disappointment, and cruel neglect had been her lot ever +since she became a wife, but at the last these had purified and +made her better, and led her to the Saviour's feet, where she laid +the little child she held so closely to her bosom, dropping her +tears upon its face and pressing her farewell kiss upon its lips. +Then she put it from her, and bidding the servant remove the light, +which made her eyes ache so, turned again upon her pillow, and +folding her little, white, wasted hands upon her bosom, said softly +the prayer the Saviour taught, and then glided as softly down the +river whose tide is never backward toward the shores of time.</p> +<hr style="width: 25%;"> +<p>About one Frank came home from the young men's association which +he attended so often, his head fuller of champagne and brandy than +it was of sense, and every good feeling blunted with dissipation. +But the Nettie whose pale face had been to him so constant a +reproach was gone forever, and only the lifeless form was left of +what he once called his wife. She was buried in Mount Auburn, and +they made her a grander funeral than they had given to her +first-born, and then the household want on the same as ever until +Mrs. Van Buren conceived the idea of visiting her niece, Mrs. Gov. +Markham, and taking her grandchild with her. For the sake of the +name she was sure the little girl would be welcome, as well as for +the sake of the dead mother. And she was welcome, more so even than +the stately aunt, whose deep mourning robes seemed to throw a kind +of shadowy gloom over the house which she found so handsome, and +elegant, and perfectly kept that she would willingly have spent the +entire winter there. She was not invited to do this, and some time +in January she went back to her home, looking out on Boston Common, +but not until she had eaten a Christmas dinner with Mrs. Markham, +senior, at whose house the whole family were assembled on that +occasion.</p> +<p>There was much good cheer and merriment there, and Ethie, in her +rich crimson silk which Richard had surprised her with, was the +queen of all, her wishes deferred to, and her tastes consulted with +a delicacy and deference which no one could fail to observe. And +Eunice Plympton was there, too, waiting upon the table with Andy, +who insisted upon standing at the back of Ethie's chair, just as he +had seen the waiters do in Camden, and would have his mother ring +the silver bell when anything was wanted. It was a happy family +reunion, and a meet harbinger of the peaceful days in store for our +heroine--days which came and went so fast, until winter melted into +spring, and the spring budded into blushing summer, and the summer +faded into the golden autumn, and the autumn floated with feathery +snowflakes into the chilly winter and December came again, bringing +another meeting of the Markhams. But this time it was at the +governor's house in Davenport, and another was added to the +number--a pretty little waxen thing, which all through the +elaborate dinner slept quietly in its crib, and then in the +evening, when the gas was lighted in the parlors, and Mr. Townsend +was there in his gown, behaved most admirably, and lay very still +in its father Richard's arms, until it was transferred from his to +those of the clergyman, who in the name of the Father, the Son, and +the Holy Ghost baptized it "Daisy Adelaide Grant."</p> +<br> +<br> +<hr style="width: 35%;"> +<br> +<br> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ethelyn's Mistake, by Mary Jane Holmes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHELYN'S MISTAKE *** + +***** This file should be named 12104-h.htm or 12104-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/1/0/12104/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Charlie Kirschner and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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: Ethelyn's Mistake + +Author: Mary Jane Holmes + +Release Date: April 21, 2004 [EBook #12104] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHELYN'S MISTAKE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Charlie Kirschner and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +ETHELYN'S + +MISTAKE + + +BY + +MRS. MARY J. HOLMES + +AUTHOR OF "MILDRED; OR, THE CHILD OF ADOPTION," "MISS +MC'DONALD," "TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE," "ENGLISH +ORPHANS," "EDITH LYLE'S SECRET," "THE +LEIGHTON HOMESTEAD," "MILLBANK; +OR, ROGER IRVING'S WARD," ETC. + + + + +MARY J. HOLMES SERIES + + +UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME +By MARY J. HOLMES + + +Aikenside. +Bad Hugh. +Cousin Maude. +Darkness and Daylight. +Dora Deane. +Edith Lyle's Secret. +English Orphans, The. +Ethelyn's Mistake. +Family Pride. +Homestead on the Hillside, The. +Hugh Worthington. +Leighton Homestead, The. +Lena Rivers. +Maggie Miller. +Marion Grey. +Meadow Brook. +Mildred; or, The Child of Adoption. +Millbank; or, Roger +Irving's Ward. +Miss McDonald. +Rector of St. Marks, The. +Rosamond. +Rose Mather. +Tempest and Sunshine. + + +_Price, postpaid, 50c. each, or any three +books for $1.25_ + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I. ETHELYN. + II. THE VAN BUREN SET. + III. RICHARD MARKHAM. + IV. THE BRIDAL. + V. THE HONEYMOON. + VI. MRS. MARKHAM'S WAYS. + VII. GETTING HOME. + VIII. ANDY. + IX. DINNER, AND AFTER IT. + X. FIRST DAYS IN OLNEY. + XI. CALLS AND VISITING. + XII. SOCIETY. + XIII. GOING TO WASHINGTON. + XIV. THE FIRST DAY OF RICHARD'S ABSENCE. + XV. ANDY TRIES TO FIND THE ROOT OF THE MATTER. + XVI. WASHINGTON. + XVII. RICHARD'S HEIR. + XVIII. DAYS OF CONVALESCENCE. + XIX. COMING TO A CRISIS. + XX. THE CRISIS. + XXI. THE RESULT. + XXII. ETHIE'S LETTERS. + XXIII. THE DESERTED HUSBAND. + XXIV. THE INVESTIGATION. + XXV. IN CHICOPEE. + XXVI. WATCHING AND WAITING. + XXVII. AFFAIRS AT OLNEY. + XXVIII. THE GOVERNOR. + XXIX. AFTER YEARS OF WAITING. + XXX. ETHIE'S SIC. + XXXI. MRS. DR. VAN BUREN. + XXXII. CLIFTON. + XXXIII. THE OCCUPANT OF NO. 102. + XXXIV. IN RICHARD'S ROOM. + XXXV. MRS. PETER PRY TAKES A PACK. + XXXVI. IN DAVENPORT. + XXXVII. AT HOME. +XXXVIII. RICHARD AND ETHELYN. + XXXIX. RECONCILIATION. + + + + +ETHELYN'S MISTAKE + +CHAPTER I + +ETHELYN + +There was a sweet odor of clover blossoms in the early morning air, and +the dew stood in great drops upon the summer flowers, and dropped from +the foliage of the elm trees which skirted the village common. There was +a cloud of mist upon the meadows, and the windings of the river could be +distinctly traced by the white fog which curled above it. But the fog +and the mists were rolling away as the warm June sun came over the +eastern hills, and here and there signs of life were visible in the +little New England town of Chicopee, where our story opens. The +mechanics who worked in the large shoe-shop halfway down Cottage Row had +been up an hour or more, while the hissing of the steam which carried +the huge manufactory had been heard since the first robin peeped from +its nest in the alders down by the running brook; but higher up, on +Bellevue Street, where the old inhabitants lived, everything was quiet, +and the loamy road, moist and damp with the dews of the previous night, +was as yet unbroken by the foot of man or rut of passing wheel. + +The people who lived there, the Mumfords, and the Beechers, and the +Grangers, and the Thorns, did not strictly belong to the working class. +They held stocks in railroads, and mortgages on farms, and so could +afford to sleep after the shrill whistle from the manufactory had +wakened the echoes of the distant hills and sounded across the waters +of Pordunk Pond. Only one dwelling here showed signs of life, and that +the large square building, shaded in front with elms and ornamented at +the side with a luxuriant queen of the prairie, whose blossoms were +turning their blushing faces to the rising sun. This was the Bigelow +house, the joint property of Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, nee Sophia Bigelow, who +lived in Boston, and her sister, Miss Barbara Bigelow, the quaintest and +kindest-hearted woman who ever bore the sobriquet of an old maid, and +was aunt to everybody. She was awake long before the whistle sounded +across the river and along the meadow lands, where some of the workmen +lived, and just as the robin, whose nest for four summers had been under +the eaves where neither boy nor cat could reach it, brought the first +worm to its clamorous young, she pushed the fringed curtain from her +open window, and with her broad frilled cap still on her head, stood for +a moment looking out upon the morning as it crept up the eastern sky. +"She will have a nice day for her wedding. May her future life be as +fair," Aunt Barbara whispered softly, then kneeling before the window +with her head bowed upon the sill, she prayed earnestly for God's +blessing on the bridal to take place that night beneath her roof, and +upon the young girl who had been both a care and a comfort since the +Christmas morning eighteen years before, when her half-sister Julia had +come home to die, bringing with her the little Ethelyn, then but two +years old. + +Aunt Barbara's prayers were always to the point. She said what she had +to say in the fewest possible words, wasting no time in repetition, and +on this occasion she was briefer than usual, for the good woman had many +things upon her mind this morning. First, there was Betty to rouse and +get into a state of locomotion, a good half hour's work, as Aunt Barbara +knew from a three years' experience. There was the "sponge" put to rise +the previous night. She must see if that had risen, and with her own +hands mold the snowy breakfast rolls which Ethelyn liked so much. There +were the chambers to be inspected a second time, to ascertain if +everything was in its place, and dinner to be prepared for the "Van +Buren set" expected up from Boston, while last, though far from least, +there was Ethelyn herself to waken when the clock should chime the hour +of six, and this was a pleasure which good Aunt Barbara would not for +the world have foregone. Every morning for the last sixteen years, when +Ethelyn was at home, she had gone to the pleasant, airy chamber where +her darling slept, and bending over her had kissed her fair, glowing +cheek, and so called her back from the dreamless slumber which otherwise +might have been prolonged to an indefinite time, for Ethelyn did not +believe in the maxim, "Early to bed and early to rise," and always +begged for a little more indulgence, even after the brown eyes unclosed +and flashed forth a responsive greeting to the motherly face bending +above them. + +This morning, however, it was not needful that Aunt Barbara should waken +her, for long before the robin sang, or the white-fringed curtain had +been pushed aside from Aunt Barbara's window, she was awake, and the +brown eyes, which had in them a strange expression for a bride's eyes to +wear, had scanned the eastern horizon wistfully, aye, drearily it may +be, to see if it were morning, and when the clock in the kitchen struck +four, the quivering lip had whispered, oh, so sadly, "Sixteen hours +more, only sixteen," and with a little shiver the bed-clothes had been +drawn more closely around the plump shoulders, and the troubled face had +nestled down among the pillows to smother the sigh which never ought to +have come from a maiden's lips upon her wedding day. The chamber of the +bride-elect was a pleasant one, large and airy and high, with windows +looking out upon the Chicopee hills, and from which Ethelyn had many a +time watched the fading of the purplish twilight as, girl-like, she +speculated upon the future and wondered what it might have in store for +her. One leaf of the great book had been turned and lay open to her +view, but she shrank away from what was written there, and wished so +much that the record were otherwise. Upon the walls of Ethelyn's chamber +many pictures were hung, some in water colors, which she had done +herself in the happy schooldays which now seemed so far away, and some +in oil, mementos also of those days. Pictures, too, there were of +people, one of dear Aunt Barbara, whose kindly face was the first to +smile on Ethelyn when she woke, and whose patient, watchful eyes seemed +to keep guard over her while she slept. Besides Aunt Barbara's picture +there was another one, a fair, boyish face, with a look not wholly +unlike Ethelyn, herself, save that it lacked the firmness and decision +which were so apparent in the proud curve of her lip and the flash of +her brown eyes. Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with something feminine in +every feature, it seemed preposterous that the original could ever make +a young girl's heart ache as Ethelyn Grant's was aching that June +morning, when, taking the small oval frame from the wall, she kissed it +passionately, and then thrust it away into the bureau drawer, which held +other relics than the oval frame. It was, in fact, the grave of +Ethelyn's buried hopes--the tomb she had sworn never to unlock again; +but now, as her fingers lingered a moment amid the mementos of the years +when, in her girlish ignorance, she had been so happy, she felt her +resolution giving way, and sitting down upon the floor, with her long +hair unfastened and falling loosely about her, she bowed her head over +buried treasures, and dropped into their grave the bitterest tears she +had ever shed. Then, as there swept over her some better impulse, +whispering of the wrong she was doing to her promised husband, she said: + +"I will not leave them here to madden me again some other day. I will +burn them, every one." + +There were matches within her reach, while the little fireplace was not +far away, and, sitting just where she was, Ethelyn Grant burned one +after another, letters and notes, some directed in schoolboy style, and +others showing a manlier hand, as the dates grew more recent and the +envelopes bore a more modern and fashionable look. Over one, the +freshest and the last, Ethelyn lingered a moment, her eyes growing dark +with passion, and her lips twitching nervously as she read: + +"BOSTON, April-- + +"Dear Ethie: I reckon mother is right, after all. She generally is, you +know, so we may as well be resigned, and believe it wicked for cousins +to marry each other. Of course I can never like Nettie as I have liked +you, and I feel a twinge every time I remember the dear old times. But +what must be must, and there's no use fretting. Do you remember old +Colonel Markham's nephew from out West--the one who wore the short pants +and the rusty crape on his hat when he visited his uncle, in Chicopee, +some years ago? I mean the chap who helped you over the fence the time +you stole the colonel's apples. He has become a member of Congress, and +quite a big gun for the West, at least, mother thinks. He called on her +to-day with a message from Mrs. Woodhull, but I did not see him. He goes +up to Chicopee to-morrow, I believe. He is looking for a wife, they say, +and mother thinks it would be a good match for you, as you could go to +Washington next winter and queen it over them all. But don't, Ethie, +don't for thunder's sake! It fairly makes me faint to think of you +belonging to another, even though you may never belong to me. Yours +always, Frank." + +There was a dark, defiant look in Ethelyn's face as she applied the +match to this letter, and then watched it blacken and crisp upon the +hearth. How well she remembered the day when she received it--the dark, +dismal April day, when the rain which dropped so fast from the leaden +clouds, seemed weeping for her, who could not weep then, so complete was +her humiliation, so utter her desolation. That was not quite three +months ago, and so much had happened since then as the result of that +M.C.'s visit to Chicopee. He was there again, this morning, an inmate of +the great yellow house, with the large, old-fashioned brass knocker, +and, by just putting aside her curtain, Ethelyn could see the very +window of the chamber where he slept. But Ethelyn had other matters in +hand, and if she thought at all of that window whose shutters were +rarely opened except when Colonel Markham had, as now, an honored +guest, it was with a faint shudder of terror, and she went on destroying +mementos which were only a mockery of the past. One little note, the +first ever received from Frank, after a, memorable morning in the +huckleberry hills, she could not burn. It was only a line, and, if read +by a stranger, would convey no particular meaning; so she laid it aside +with the lock of light, soft hair, which clung to her fingers with a +kind of caressing touch, and brought to her hot eyelids a mist which +cooled their feverish heat. And now nothing remained of the treasures +but a tiny tortoise-shell box, where, in its bed of pink cotton, lay a +little ring, with "Ethie" marked upon it. It was too small for the +finger it once encircled, for Ethel was but a child when first she wore +it. Her hands were larger; plumper, now, and it would not pass the +second joint of her finger, though she exerted all her strength to push +it on, taking a kind of savage delight in the pain it caused her, and +feeling that she was thus revenging herself on someone, she hardly knew +or cared whom. At last, however, with a quick, jerking motion she drew +it off, and covering her face with her hands, moaned bitterly: + +"It hurts! it hurts! just as the bonds hurt which are closing around my +heart. Oh! Frank, Frank, it was cruel to serve me so." + +There was a step in the hall below. Aunt Barbara was coming to waken +Ethelyn, and, with a spring, the young girl bounded to her feet, swept +her hands twice across her face, and, shedding back from her forehead +her wealth of bright brown hair, laughingly confronted the good woman, +who, in the same breath, expressed her surprise that her niece was once +up without being called, and her wonder at the peculiar odor pervading +the apartment. + +"Smells if all the old newspapers in the barrel up garret had been burnt +at once," she said; but the fireplace, which lay in shadow, told no +tales, and Aunt Barbara never suspected the pain tugging at the heart of +the girl, whose cheeks glowed with an unnatural red as she dashed hot +water over neck, and arms, and face, playfully plashing a few large +drops upon her aunt's white apron, and asking if there was not an old +adage, "Blessed is the bride the sun shines on." "If so, I must be +greatly blessed," she said, pushing open the eastern shutter, and +letting in a flood of yellow sunlight. + +"The day bids fair to be a scorcher. I hope it will grow cool this +evening. A crowded party is so terrible when one feels hot and +uncomfortable, and the millers and horn-bugs come in so thickly, and I +always get so red in the face. Please, auntie, you twist up my hair in a +flat knot--no matter how. I don't seem to have any strength in my arms +this morning, and my head is all in a whirl. It must be the weather," +and, with a long, panting breath, Ethelyn sank, half fainting, into a +chair, while her frightened aunt ran for water, and camphor, and +cologne, hoping Ethelyn was not coming down with fever, or any other +dire complaint, on this her wedding day. + +"It is the weather, most likely, and the awful amount of sewing you've +done these last few weeks," said Aunt Barbara; and Ethelyn suffered her +to think so, though she herself had a far different theory with regard +to that almost fainting fit, which served as an excuse for her unusual +pallor, for her listless apathy, and her want of appetite, even for the +flaky rolls, and the delicious strawberries, and thick, yellow cream +which Aunt Barbara put before her. + +She was not hungry, she said, as she turned over the berries with her +spoon, and pecked at the snowy rolls. By and by she might want +something, perhaps, and then Betty would make her a slice of toast to +stay her stomach till the late dinner they were to have on Aunt Van +Buren's account--that lady always professing to be greatly shocked at +the early dinners in Chicopee, and generally managing, during her visits +home, to change entirely the ways and customs of Aunt Barbara Bigelow's +well-ordered household. + +"I wish she was not coming, or anybody else. Getting married is a bore!" +Ethelyn exclaimed, while Aunt Barbara looked curiously enough at her, +wondering, for the first time, if the girl's heart were really in this +marriage, which for weeks had been agitating the feminine portion of +Chicopee, and for which so great preparations had been made. + +Wholly honest and truthful and sincere herself, Aunt Barbara seldom +suspected wrong in others, and so when Ethelyn, one April night, after a +drive around the road which encircles Pordunk Pond, came to her and +said, "Congratulate me, auntie, I am to be Mrs. Judge Markham," she had +believed all was well, and that as sister Sophia Van Buren, of Boston, +had so often averred, there was not, nor ever had been, anything serious +between dandyish Frank, Mrs. Van Buren's only son, who parted his curly +hair in the middle, and the high-spirited, impulsive Ethelyn, whose eyes +shone like stars as she told of her engagement, and whose hand was icy +cold as she held it up to the lamp-light to show the large diamond which +flashed from the fourth finger as proof of what she said. The stone +itself was of the first water, but the setting was old, so old that a +connoisseur in such matters might wonder why Judge Markham had chosen +such a ring as the seal of his betrothal. Ethelyn knew why, and the +softest, kindliest feeling she had experienced for her promised husband +was awakened when he told her of the fair young sister whose name was +Daisy, and who for many years had slept on the Western prairie beneath +the blossoms whose name she bore. This young girl, loving God with all +her soul, loved too all the beautiful things he had made, and rejoiced +in them as so much given her to enjoy. Brought up in the far West, where +the tastes of the people were simpler than those of our Eastern +neighbors, it was strange, he said, how strong a passion she possessed +for gems and precious stones, especially the diamond. To have for her +own a ring like one she once saw upon a grand Chicago lady was her great +ambition, and knowing this the brother hoarded carefully his own +earnings, until enough was saved to buy the coveted ring, which he +brought to his young sister on her fourteenth birthday. But death even +then had cast its shadow around her, and the slender fingers soon grew +too small for the ring, which she nevertheless kept constantly by her, +admiring its brilliancy, and flashing it in the sunlight for the sake of +the rainbow hues it gave. And when, at last, she lay dying in her +brother's arms, with her golden head upon his breast, she had given back +the ring, and said, "I am going, Richard, where there are far more +beautiful things than this: 'for eye hath not seen, neither hath it +entered into the heart of man, the things prepared for those who love +Him,' and I do love Him, brother, oh! so much, and feel His arms around +me now as sensibly as I feel yours. His will stay after yours are +removed, and I am done with earth; but keep the ring, Brother Dick, and +when in after years you love some pure young girl as well as you love +me, only different--some girl who will prize such things, and is worthy +of it--give it to her, and tell her it was Daisy's; tell her for me, and +that I bade her love you, as you deserve to be loved." + +All this Richard Markham had said to Ethelyn as they stood for a few +minutes upon the beach of the pond, with its waters breaking softly upon +the sands at their feet, and the young spring moon shining down upon +them like Daisy's eyes, as the brother described them when they last +looked on him. There was a picture of Daisy in their best room at home, +an oil painting made by a traveling artist, Richard said, and some day +Ethelyn would see it, for she had promised to be his wife, and the +engagement ring--Daisy's ring--was on her finger, sparkling in the +moonbeam, just as it used to sparkle when the dead girl held it in the +light. It was a superb diamond--even Frank, with all his fastidiousness, +would admit that, Ethelyn thought, her mind more, alas! on Frank and his +opinion than on what her lover was saying to her, of his believing that +she was pure and good as Daisy could have desired, that Daisy would +approve his choice, if she only knew, as perhaps she did; he could not +help feeling that she was there with them, looking into their +hearts--that the silvery light resting so calmly on the silent water was +the halo of her invisible presence blessing their betrothal. This was a +good deal for Richard Markham to say, for he was not given to poetry, or +sentiment, or imagery, but Ethelyn's face and Ethelyn's eyes had played +strange antics with the staid, matter-of-fact man of Western Iowa, and +stirred his blood as it had never been stirred before. He did fancy his +angel-sister was there; but when he said so to Ethelyn she started with +a shiver, and asked to be driven home, for she did not care to have even +dead eyes looking into her heart, where the fires of passion were +surging and swelling, like some hidden volcano, struggling to be free. +She knew she was doing wrong--knew she was not the pure maiden whom +Daisy would have chosen--was not worthy to be the bride of Daisy's +brother; but she must do something or die, and as she did not care to +die, she pledged her hand with no heart in it, and hushing the voice of +conscience clamoring so loudly against what she was doing, walked back +across the yellow sand, beneath the spring moonlight, to where the +carriage waited, and, in comparative silence, was driven to Aunt +Barbara's gate. + +This was the history of the ring, and here, as well as elsewhere, we may +tell Ethelyn's history up to the time when, on her bridal day, she sat +with Aunt Barbara at the breakfast table, idly playing with her spoon +and occasionally sipping the fragrant coffee. The child of Aunt +Barbara's half-sister, she inherited none of the so-called Bigelow +estate which had come to the two daughters, Aunt Barbara and Aunt +Sophia, from their mother's family. But the Bigelow blood of which Aunt +Sophy Van Buren was so proud was in her veins, and so to this aunt she +was an object of interest, and even value, though not enough so to +warrant that lady in taking her for her own when, eighteen years before +our story opens, her mother, Mrs. Julia Bigelow Grant, had died. This +task devolved on Aunt Barbara, whose great motherly heart opened at once +to the little orphan who had never felt a mother's loss, so faithful and +true had Aunt Barbara been to her trust. Partly because she did not wish +to seem more selfish than her sister, and partly because she really +liked the bright, handsome child who made Aunt Barbara's home so cheery, +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren of Boston, insisted upon superintending the little +Ethelyn's education, and so, when only twelve years of age, Ethelyn was +taken from the old brick house under the elms, which Mrs. Dr. Van Buren +of Boston despised as the "district school where Tom, Dick, and Harry +congregated," and transplanted to the highly select and very expensive +school taught by Madame--, in plain sight of Beacon Street and Boston +Common. And so, as Ethelyn increased in stature, she grew also in wisdom +and knowledge, both of books and manners, and the style of the great +world around her. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's house was the resort both of the +fashionable and literary people, with a sprinkling of the religious, for +the great lady affected everything which could effect her interest. +Naturally generous, her name was conspicuous on all subscription lists +and charitable associations, while the lady herself owned a pew in---- +Church, where she was a regular attendant, together with her only son, +Frank, who was taught to kneel and respond in the right places and bow +in the creed, and then, after church, required to give a synopsis of the +sermon, by way of proving that his mind had not been running off after +the dancing school he attended during the week, under his mother's +watchful supervision. Mrs. Van Buren meant to be a model mother, and +bring up her boy as a model man, and so she gave him every possible +advantage of books and teachers, while far in the future floated the +possibility that she might some day reign at the White House, not as the +President's wife--this could not be, she knew, for the man who had made +her Mrs. Dr. Van Buren of Boston slept in the shadow of a very tall +monument out at Mount Auburn, and the turf was growing fresh and green +over his head. So if she went to Washington, as she fondly hoped she +might, it would be as the President's mother; but when examination after +examination found Frank at the foot of his class, and teacher after +teacher said he could not learn, she gave up the presidential chair, and +contenting herself with a seat in Congress, asked that great pains +should be taken to bring out the talent for debate and speech-making +which she was sure Frank possessed; but when even this failed, and +nineteen times out of twenty Frank could get no farther than "My name +is Norval, on the Grampian Hills," she yielded the M.C. too, and set +herself to make him a gentleman, polished, refined, and cultivated--one, +in short, who was au fait with all that fashionable society required; +and here she succeeded better. Frank was perfectly at home on the +dancing floor or in the saloons of gaiety, or the establishment of a +fashionable tailor, so that when Ethelyn, at twelve, went down to +Boston, she found her tall, slender, light-haired cousin of sixteen a +perfect dandy, with a capability and a disposition to criticise and +laugh at whatever there was of gaucherie in her country manners and +country dress. In some things the two were of mutual benefit to each +other. Ethelyn, who could conquer any lesson however difficult, helped +thick-headed, indolent Frank in his studies, translating his hard +passages in Virgil, working out his problems in mathematics, and even +writing, or at least revising and correcting, his compositions, while he +in return gave her lessons in etiquette as practiced by the Boston +girls, teaching her how to polka a waltz gracefully, so he would not be +ashamed to introduce her as his cousin, he said, at the children's +parties which they attended together. It was not strange that Frank Van +Buren should admire a girl as bright and piquant and pretty as his +cousin Ethelyn, but it was strange that she should idolize him, bearing +patiently with all his criticisms, trying hard to please him, and +feeling more than repaid for her exertions by a word of praise or +commendation from her exacting teacher, who, viewing her at first as a +poor relation, was inclined to be exacting, if not overbearing, in his +demands. But as time passed on all this was changed, and the +well-developed girl of fifteen, whom so many noticed and admired, would +no longer be patronized by the young man Frank, who, finding himself in +danger of being snubbed, as he termed Ethelyn's grand way of putting him +down, suddenly awoke to the fact that he loved his high-spirited cousin, +and he told her so one hazy day, when they were in Chicopee, and had +wandered up to a ledge of rocks in the huckleberry hills which +overlooked the town. + +"They might as well make a sure thing of it," he said, in his off-hand +way. "If she liked him and he liked her, they would clinch the bargain +at once, even if they were so young." And so, when they went down the +hill back to the shadow of the elm trees, where Mrs. Dr. Van Buren sat +cooling herself and reading "Vanity Fair," there was a tiny ring on +Ethelyn's finger, and she had pledged herself to be Frank's wife some +day in the future. + +Frank had promised to tell his mother, for Ethelyn would have no +concealment; and so, holding up her hand and pointing to the ring, he +said, more in jest than earnest: + +"Look, mother, Ethie and I are engaged. If you have any objections, +state them now, or ever after hold your peace." + +He did not think proper to explain either to his mother or Ethie that +this was his second serious entanglement, and that the ring had been +bought before for a pretty milliner girl, at least six years his senior, +whose acquaintance he had made at Nahant the summer previous, and whom +he had forgotten when he learned that to her taste his mother was +indebted for the stylish bonnet she sported every season. Frank +generally had some love affair in hand--it was a part of his nature; and +as he was not always careful in his choice, the mother had occasionally +felt a twinge of fear lest, after all her care, some terrible +mesalliance should be thrust upon her by her susceptible son. So she +listened graciously to the news of his betrothal--nay, she was pleased +with it, as for the time being it would divert his mind and keep him out +of mischief. That he would eventually marry Ethelyn was impossible, for +his bride must be rich; but Ethelyn answered the purpose now, and could +easily be disposed of when other and better game appeared. So the +scheming woman smiled, and said "it was not well for cousins to marry +and even if it were, they were both too young to know their minds, and +would do well to keep their engagement a secret for a time," and then +returned to Becky Sharp, while Frank went to sleep upon the lounge, and +Ethelyn stole off upstairs to dream over her happiness, which was as +real to her as such a thing could well be to an impulsive, womanly girl +of fifteen summers. She, at least, was in earnest, and as time passed on +Frank seemed to be in earnest, too, devoting himself wholly to his +cousin, whose influence over him was so great that he was fast becoming +what Aunt Barbara called a man, while his mother began again to have +visions of a seat in Congress, and brilliant speeches, which would find +their way to Boston and be read and admired in the circles in which +she moved. + +And so the days and years wore on until Frank was a man of +twenty-four--a third-rate practitioner, too, whose sign, "Frank Van +Buren, Attorney-at-law," etc., looked very fresh and respectable in +front of the office on Washington Street, and Frank himself began to +have thoughts of claiming Ethelyn's promise and having a home of his +own. He would not live with his mother, he said; it was more independent +to be alone; and then, from some things he had discovered in his +bride-elect, he had an uneasy feeling that possibly the brown of +Ethelyn's eyes might not wholly harmonize with the gray of his mother's, +"for Ethie was spunky as the old Nick," he argued with himself, while +"for perversity and self-conceit his mother could not be beaten." It was +better they should keep up two households, his mother seeing to both, +and if need be, supplying the wants of both. To do Frank justice, he had +some very correct notions with regard to domestic happiness, and had he +been poor and dependent upon his own exertions he might have been an +average husband; at least he would have gotten on well with Ethelyn, +whose stronger nature would have upheld his and been like a supporting +prop to a feeble timber. As it was, he drew many pleasing pictures of +the home which was to be his and Ethie's. Now it was in the city, near +to his mother's and Mrs. General Tophevie, his mother's intimate friend, +whose house was the open sesame to the creme de la creme of Boston +society; but oftener it was a rose-embowered cottage, of easy access to +the city, where he could have Ethie all to himself when his day's labor +was over, and where the skies would not be brighter than Ethie's eyes +as she welcomed him home at night, leaning over the gate in the pale +buff muslin he liked so much, with rosebuds in her hair. + +He had seen her thus so often in fancy, that the picture had become a +reality, and refused to be erased at once from the mental canvas, when, +in January, Miss Nettie Hudson, niece to Mrs. General Tophevie, came +from Philadelphia, and at once took prestige of everything on the +strength of the one hundred thousand dollars of which she was sole +heiress. The Hudson blood was a mixture of blacksmith's and shoemaker's, +and peddler's too, it was said; but that was far back in the past. The +Hudsons of the present day scarcely knew whether peddler were spelled +with two d's or one. They bought their shoes at the most fashionable +shops, and could, if they chose, have their horses shod with gold, and +so the handsome Nettie reigned supreme as belle. The moment Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren saw her, she recognized her daughter-in-law, the future Mrs. +Frank, and Ethie's fate was sealed. There had been times when Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren thought it possible that Ethelyn might, after all, be the most +favored of women, the wife of her son. These times were at Saratoga, and +Newport, and Nahant, where Ethelyn Grant was more sought after than any +young lady there, and where the proud woman herself took pride in +talking of "my niece," hinting once, when Ethelyn's star was at its +height, of a childish affaire du coeur between the young lady and her +son, and insinuating that it might yet amount to something. She changed +her mind when Nettie came with her one hundred thousand dollars, and +showed a willingness to be admired by Frank. That childish affaire du +coeur was a very childish affair, indeed; she never gave it a moment's +thought herself--she greatly doubted if Frank had ever been in earnest, +and if Ethelyn had led him into an entanglement, she would not, of +course, hold him to his promise if he wished to be released. He must +have a rich wife to support him in his refined tastes and luxurious +habits, for her own fortune was not so great as many supposed. She might +need it all herself, as she was far from being old, and then again it +was wicked for cousins to marry each other. It did not matter if the +mothers were only half-sisters; there was the same blood in the veins of +each, and it would not do at all, even if Ethelyn's affections were +enlisted, which Mrs. Van Buren greatly doubted. + +This was what Mrs. Dr. Van Buren said to Ethelyn, after a stormy +interview with Frank, who had at first sworn roundly that he would not +give Ethie up, then had thanked his mother not to meddle with his +business, then bidden her "go to thunder," and finally, between a cry +and a blubber, said he should always like Ethie best if he married a +hundred Netties. This was in the morning, and the afternoon train had +carried Mrs. Dr. Van Buren to Chicopee, where Ethelyn's glowing face +flashed a bright welcome when she came, but was white and pallid as the +face of a corpse when the voluminous skirts of Mrs. Van Buren's poplin +dress passed through the gate next day and disappeared in the direction +of the depot. Aunt Barbara was not at home--she had gone to visit a +friend in Albany; and so Ethelyn met and fought with her pain alone, +stifling it as best she could, and succeeding so well that Aunt Barbara, +on her return, never suspected the fierce storm which Ethelyn had passed +through during her absence, or dreamed how anxiously the young girl +watched and waited for some word from Frank which should say that he was +ready to defy his mother, and abide by his first promise. But no such +letter came, and at last, when she could bear the suspense no longer, +Ethelyn wrote herself to her recreant lover, asking if it were really so +that hereafter their lives lay apart from each other. If such was his +wish, she was content, she said, and Frank Van Buren, who could not +detect the air of superb scorn which breathed in every line of that +letter, felt somehow aggrieved that "Ethie should take it so easy," and +relieved too, that with her he should have no trouble, as he had +anticipated. He was getting used to Nettie, and getting to like her, +too, for her manner toward him was far more agreeable than Ethie's +brusque way of manifesting her impatience at his lack of manliness. It +was inexplicable how Ethie could care for one so greatly her inferior, +both mentally and physically, but it would seem that she loved him all +the more for the very weakness which made her nature a necessity of his, +and the bitterest pang she had ever felt came with the answer which +Frank sent back to her letter, and which the reader has seen. + + * * * * * + +It was all over now, settled, finished, and two days after she hunted up +Aunt Barbara's spectacles for her, and then sat very quiet while the old +lady read Aunt Sophia's letter, announcing Frank's engagement with Miss +Nettie Hudson, of Philadelphia. Aunt Barbara knew of Ethelyn's +engagement with Frank, but like her sister at the time of its +occurrence, she had esteemed it mere child's play. Later, however, as +she saw how they clung to each other, she had thought it possible that +something might come of it, but as Ethelyn was wholly reticent on that +subject, it had never been mentioned between them. When, however, the +news of Frank's second engagement came, Aunt Barbara looked over her +spectacles straight at the girl, who, for any sign she gave, might have +been a block of marble, so rigid was every muscle of her face, and even +the tone of her voice as she said: + +"I am glad Aunt Sophia is suited. Frank will be pleased with anything." + +"She does not care for him and I am glad, for he is not half smart +enough for her," was Aunt Barbara's mental comment, as she laid the +letter by for a second reading, and then told her niece, as the last +item of news, that old Captain Markham's nephew had come, and they were +making a great ado over him now that he was a member of Congress, and a +Judge, too. They had asked the Howells and Grangers and the Carters +there to tea for the next day, she said, adding that she and Ethelyn +were also invited. "They want to be polite to him," old Mrs. Markham +said. Aunt Barbara continued, "but for my part, if I were he, I should +not care much for politeness that comes so late. I remember when he was +here ten years ago, on such a matter, and they fairly acted as if they +were ashamed of him then; but titles make a difference. He's an +Honorable now, and the old Captain is mighty proud of him." + +What Aunt Barbara had said was strictly true, for there had been a time +when proud old Captain Markham ignored his brother's family living on +the far prairies of the West; but when the eldest son, Richard, called +for him, had become a growing man, as boys out West are apt to do, +rising from justice of the peace to a member of the State Legislature, +then to a judgeship, and finally to a seat in Congress, and all before +he was quite thirty-two, the Captain's tactics changed, and a most +cordial letter, addressed to "My dear nephew," and signed "Your +affectionate uncle," was sent to Washington, urging a visit from the +young man ere he returned to Iowa. + +And that was how Richard Markham, M.C., came to be in Chicopee at the +precise time when Ethelyn's heart was bleeding at every pore, and ready +to seize upon any new excitement which would divert it from its pain. +She remembered well the time he had once before visited Chicopee. She +was a little girl of ten, fleeing across the meadow-land from a maddened +cow, when a tall, athletic young man had come to her rescue, standing +between her and danger, helping her over the fence, picking up the apron +full of apples which she had been purloining from the Captain's orchard, +and even pinning together a huge rent made in her dress by catching it +upon a protruding splint as she sprang to the ground. She was too much +frightened to know whether he had been wholly graceful in his endeavors +to serve her, and too thankful for her escape to think that possibly her +torn dress was the result of his rather awkward handling. She remembered +only the dark, handsome face which bent so near to hers, the brown, +curly head actually bumping against her own, as he stooped to gather the +stolen apples. She remembered, too, the kindly voice which asked if "her +aunt would scold," while the large, red hands pinned together the +unsightly seam, and she liked the Westerner, as the people of Chicopee +called the stranger who had recently come among them. Frank was in +Chicopee then, fishing on the river, when her mishaps occurred; and once +after that, when walking with him, she had met Richard Markham, who +bowed modestly and passed on, never taking his hands from his pockets +where they were planted so firmly, and never touching his hat as Frank +said a gentleman would have done. + +"Isn't he handsome?" Ethelyn had asked, and Frank had answered, "Looks +well enough, though anybody with half an eye would know he was a codger +from the West. His pants are a great deal too short; and look at his +coat--at least three years behind the fashion; and such a hat, with that +rusty old band of crape around it. Wonder if he is in mourning for his +grandmother. Oh, my! we boys would hoot him in Boston. He's what I +call a gawky." + +That settled it with Ethelyn. If fourteen-year-old Frank Van Buren, +whose pants and coats and neckties and hats were always the latest make, +said that Richard Markham was a gawky, he was one, and henceforth during +his stay in Chicopee, the Western young man was regarded by Ethelyn with +a feeling akin to pity for his benighted condition. Aunt Barbara's pew +was very near to Captain Markham's, and Richard, who was not much of a +churchman, and as often as any way lounged upon the faded damask +curtains, instead of standing up, often met Ethelyn's brown eyes fixed +curiously upon him, but never dreamed that she regarded him as a species +of heathen, whom it would be a pious act to Christianize. Richard rarely +thought of himself at all, or if he did, it was with a feeling that he +"was well enough "; that if his mother and "the neighbors" were +satisfied with him, as he knew they were, he ought to be satisfied with +himself. So he had no suspicion of the severe criticism passed upon him +by the little girl who read the service so womanly, he thought, eating +caraway and lozenges between times, and whose face he carried in memory +back to his prairie home, associating her always with the graceful +dark-brown heifer bearing so strong a resemblance to the cow which had +so frightened Ethelyn on the day of his first introduction to her. + +But he forgot her in the excitement which followed, when he began to +grow rapidly, as only Western men can grow, and we doubt if she had been +in his mind for years until her name was mentioned by Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren, who saw in him a most eligible match for her niece. He was well +connected--own nephew to Captain Markham, and first cousin to Mrs. +Senator Woodhull, of New York, who kept a suite of servants for herself +and husband, and had the finest turn-out in the Park. Yes, he would do +nicely for Ethelyn and by way of quieting her conscience, which kept +whispering that she had not been altogether just to her niece, Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren packed her trunk and took the train for Chicopee the very day +of Mrs. Captain Markham's tea party. + +Ethelyn was going, and she looked very pretty in her dark-green silk, +with the bit of soft, rich lace at the throat and the scarlet ribbon in +her hair. She was not dressed for effect. She cared very little, in +fact, what impression she made upon the Western Judge, though she did +wonder if, as a Judge, he was much improved from the raw young man whom +Frank had called a "gawky." He was standing with his elbow upon the +mantel talking to Susie Granger, when Ethelyn entered Mrs. Markham's +parlor; one foot was carelessly crossed over the other, so that only the +toe of the boot touched the carpet, while his hand grasped his large +handkerchief rather awkwardly. He was not at ease with the ladies; he +had never been very much accustomed to their society. He did not know +what to say to them, and Susie's saucy black eyes and sprightly manner +evidently embarrassed and abashed him. That vocabulary of small talk so +prevalent in society, and a limited knowledge of which is rather +necessary to one's getting on well with everybody, were unknown to him, +and he was casting about for some way to escape from his companion, when +Ethelyn was introduced, and his mind went back to the stolen apples and +the torn dress which he had pinned together. + +Judge Markham was a tall, finely formed man, with deep hazel eyes, which +could be very stern or very soft in their expression, just as his mood +happened to be. But the chief attraction of his face was his smile, +which changed his entire expression, making him very handsome, as +Ethelyn thought, when he stood for a moment holding her hand between +both his broad palms and chatting familiarly with her as with an old +acquaintance. He could talk to her better than to Susie Granger, for +Ethie, though neither very deep nor learned, was fond of books and +tolerably well versed in the current literature of the day. Besides +that, she had a faculty of seeming to know more than she really did and +so the impression left upon the Judge's mind, when the little party was +over and he had returned from escorting Ethelyn to her door, was that +Miss Grant was far superior to any girl he had ever met since Daisy +died, and like the Judge in Whittier's "Maud Muller," he whistled +snatches of an old love tune he had not whistled in years, as he went +slowly back to his uncle's, and thought strange thoughts for him, the +grave old bachelor who had said he should never marry. He was not +looking for a wife, as rumor intimated, but he dreamed of Ethelyn Grant +that night, and called upon her the next day, and the next, until the +village began to gossip, and Mrs. Dr. Van Buren was in an ecstasy of +delight, talking openly of the delightful time her niece would have in +Washington the next winter, and predicting for her a brilliant career as +reigning belle, and even hinting the possibility of her taking a house +so as to entertain her Boston friends. + +And Ethelyn herself had many and varied feelings on the subject, the +strangest of which was a perverse desire to let Frank know that she did +not care--that her heart was not broken by his desertion, and that there +were those who prized her even if he did not. She had criticised Judge +Markham very severely. She had weighed him in the balance with Frank, +and found him sadly, wanting in all those little points which she +considered as marks of culture and good breeding. He was not a ladies' +man; he was even worse than that, for he was sometimes positively rude +and ungentlemanly, as she thought, when he would open a gate or a door +and pass through it first himself instead of holding it deferentially +for her, as Frank would have done. He did not know how to swing his +cane, or touch his hat, or even bow as Frank Van Buren did; while the +cut of his coat, if not six, was at least two years behind the times, +and he did not seem to know it either. All these things Ethelyn wrote +against him; but the account was more than balanced by the seat in +Congress, the anticipated winter in Washington, the great wealth he was +said to possess, the high estimation in which she knew he was held, and +the keen pang of disappointment from which she was suffering. This last +really did the most to turn the scale in Richard's favor, for, like many +a poor, deluded girl, she fancied that marrying another was the surest +way to forget a past which it was not pleasant to remember. She +respected Judge Markham highly, and knew that in everything pertaining +to a noble manhood he was worth a dozen Franks, even if he never had +been to dancing school, and did not obsequiously pick up the +handkerchief which she purposely dropped to see what he would do. And +so, when Aunt Sophia had gone back to the city, and Judge Markham was in +a few days to return to his Western home, she rode with him around the +Pond, and when she came back the dead Daisy's ring was upon her finger +and she was a promised wife. A dozen times since then she had been +tempted to write to Richard Markham, asking to be released from her +engagement; for, bad as she has thus far appeared to the reader, there +were many noble traits in her character, and she shrank from wronging +the man of whom she knew she was not worthy. + +But the deference paid her as Mrs. Judge Markham-elect, the delight of +Aunt Sophia, the approbation of Aunt Barbara, the letter of +congratulation sent her by Mrs. Senator Woodhull, Richard's cousin, and +more than all, Frank's discomfiture, as evinced by the complaining note +he sent her, prevailed to keep her to her promise, and the bridegroom, +when he came in June to claim her hand, little guessed how heavy was the +heart which lay in the bosom of the young girl so passively suffering +his caresses, but whose lips never moved in response to the kiss he +pressed upon them. + +She was very shy, he thought--more so, even, than when he saw her last; +but he loved her just as well, and never suspected that, when on the +first evening of his arrival he sat with his arm around her, wondering a +little what made her so silent, she was burning with mortification +because the coat he wore was the very same she had criticised last +spring, hoping in her heart of hearts that long before he came to her +again it might find its proper place, either in the sewing society or +with some Jewish vender of old clothes. Yet here it was again, and her +head was resting against it, while her heart beat almost audibly, and +her voice was even petulant in its tone as she answered her lover's +questions. Ethelyn was making a terrible mistake, and she knew it, +hating herself for her duplicity, and vaguely hoping that something +would happen to save her from the fate she so much dreaded. But nothing +did happen, and it was now too late to retract herself. The bridal +trousseau was prepared under Mrs. Van Buren's supervision, the bridal +guests were bidden, the bridal tour was planned, the bridegroom had +arrived, and she would keep her word if she died in the attempt. + +And so we find her on her bridal morning wishing nobody was coming, and +denouncing getting married "a bore," while Aunt Barbara looked at her in +surprise, wondering if everything were right. In spite of her ill humor, +she was very handsome that morning in her white cambric wrapper, with +just a little color in her cheeks and her heavy hair pushed back in +behind her ears and twisted under the silk net. Ethelyn cared little for +her looks--at least not then; by and by she might, when it was time for +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren to arrive with Frank and Nettie Hudson, whom she had +never seen. She should want to look her very best then, but now it did +not matter, even if her bridegroom was distant not an eighth of a mile, +and would in all probability be coming in ere long. She wished he would +stay away--she would rather not see him till night; and she experienced +a feeling of relief when, about nine o'clock, Mrs. Markham's maid +brought her a little note which read as follows: + +"DARLING ETHIE: + +"You must not think it strange if I do not come to you this morning, for +I am suffering from one of my blinding headaches, and can scarcely see +to write you this. I shall be better by night. Yours lovingly, + +"RICHARD MARKHAM." + +Ethelyn was sitting upon the piazza steps, arranging a bouquet, when the +note was brought to her; and as it was some trouble to put all the roses +from her lap, she sent the girl for a pencil, and on the back of the +note wrote hastily: + +"It does not matter, as you would only be in the way, and I have +something of a headache, too. + +"E. GRANT." + +"Take this back to Judge Markham," she said to the girl, and then +resumed her bouquet-making, wondering if every bride-elect were as +wretched as herself, or if to any other maiden of twenty the world had +ever looked so desolate and dreary, as it did to her this morning. + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE VAN BUREN SET + +Captain Markham's carryall, which Jake, the hired man, had brushed up +wonderfully for the occasion, had gone over to West Chicopee after the +party from Boston--Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, with Frank, and his betrothed, +Miss Nettie Hudson, from Philadelphia. Others had been invited from the +city, but one after another their regrets had come to Ethelyn, who would +gladly have excused the entire set, Aunt Van Buren, Frank and all, +though she confessed to herself a great deal of curiosity with regard to +Miss Nettie, whom she had never seen; neither had she met Frank since +the dissolution of their engagement, for though she had been in Boston, +where most of her dresses were made, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had wisely +arranged that Frank should be absent from home. She was herself not +willing to risk a meeting between him and Ethelyn until matters were too +well adjusted to admit of a change, for Frank had more than once shown +signs of rebellion. He was in a more quiescent state now, having made up +his mind that what could not be cured must be endured, and as he had +sensibility enough to feel very keenly the awkwardness of meeting +Ethelyn under present circumstances, and as Miss Nettie was really very +fond of him, and he, after a fashion, was fond of her, he was in the +best of spirits when he stepped from the train at West Chicopee and +handed his mother and Nettie into the spacious carryall of which he had +made fun as a country ark, while they rode slowly toward Aunt Barbara +Bigelow's. Everything was in readiness for them. The large north chamber +was aired and swept and dusted, and only little bars of light came +through the closed shutters, and the room looked very cool and nice, +with its fresh muslin curtains looped back with blue, its carpet of the +same cool shade, its pretty chestnut furniture, its snowbank of a bed, +and the tasteful bouquets which Ethelyn had arranged--Ethelyn, who +lingered longer in this room than the other one across the hall, the +bridal chamber, where the ribbons which held the curtains were white, +and the polished marble of the bureau and washstand, sent a shiver +through her veins whenever she looked in there. She was in her own cozy +chamber now, and the silken hair, which in the early morning had been +twisted under her net, was bound in heavy braids about her head, while a +pearl comb held it in its place, and a half-opened rose was fastened +just behind her ear. She had hesitated some time in her choice of a +dress, vacillating between a pale buff, which Frank had always admired, +and a delicate blue muslin, in which Judge Markham had once said she +looked so pretty. The blue had won the day, for Ethelyn felt that she +owed some concession to the man whose kind note she had treated so +cavalierly that morning, and so she wore the blue for him, feeling glad +of the faint, sick feeling which kept the blood from rushing too hotly +to her face, and made her fairer and paler than her wont. She knew that +she was very handsome when her toilet was made, and that was one secret +of the assurance with which she went forward to meet Nettie Hudson when +at last the carryall stopped before the gate. + +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren was tired, and hot, and dusty, and as she was always +a little cross when in this condition, she merely kissed Ethelyn once, +and shaking hands with Aunt Barbara, went directly to the north chamber, +asking that a cup of tea might be made for her dinner instead of the +coffee whose fragrant odor met her olfactories as she stepped into the +house. First, however, she introduced Nettie, who after glancing at +Ethelyn, turned her eyes wonderingly upon Frank, thinking his greeting +of his cousin rather more demonstrative than was exactly becoming even +if they were cousins, and had been, as Mrs. Dr. Van Buren affirmed, just +like brother and sister. That was no reason why Frank should have wound +his arm around her waist, and kept it there, while he kissed her twice, +and brought such a bright color to her cheeks. Miss Nettie cared just +enough for Frank Van Buren to be jealous of him. She wanted all his +attentions herself, and so the little blonde was in something of a pet +as she followed on into the house, and twisted her hat strings into a +hard knot, which Frank had to disentangle for her, just as he had to +kiss away the wrinkle which had gathered on her forehead. She was a +beautiful little creature, scarcely larger than a child of twelve, with +a pleading, helpless look in her large, blue eyes which seemed to be +saying: "Look at me; speak to me, won't you?--notice me a little." + +She was just the one to be made a tool of; and Ethelyn readily saw that +she had been as clay in Mrs. Van Buren's skillful hands. + +"Pretty, very pretty, but decidedly a nonentity and a baby," was +Ethelyn's mental comment, and she felt something like contempt for +Frank, who, after loving and leaning on her, could so easily turn to +weak little Nettie Hudson. + +At the sight of Frank and the sound of his voice, she had felt all the +olden feeling rushing back to her heart; but when, after Nettie had +followed Mrs. Van Buren to her chamber, and she stood for a moment alone +with him, he felt constrained to say something, and stammered out, "It's +deuced mean, Ethie, to serve you so, and mother ought to be indicted. I +hope you don't care much," all her pride and womanliness was roused and +she answered promptly: "Of course, I don't care; do you think I would +wish to marry Judge Markham if I were not all over that childish affair? +You have not seen him yet. He is a splendid man." + +Ethelyn felt better after paying this tribute to Richard Markham, and +she liked him better, too, now that she had spoken for him, but Frank's +reply, "Yes, mother told me so, but said there was a good deal of your +Westernism about him yet," jarred on her feelings as she plucked the +roses growing at the end of the piazza and crushed them, thorns and all, +in her hands, feeling the smart less than the dull, heavy throbbing at +her heart. Frank did not seem to her just as he used to be; he was the +same polished dandy as of old, and just as careful to perform every +little act of gallantry, but the something lacking which she had always +felt to a certain extent was more perceptible now, and to herself she +accused him of having degenerated since he had passed from her +influence. She never dreamed of charging it to her interviews with Judge +Markham, whose topics of conversation were so widely different from +Frank's. She was not generous enough to concede anything in his favor, +though she felt glad that Frank was not quite the same he had been--it +would make the evening bridal before her easier to bear; and Ethelyn's +eyes were brighter and her smiles more frequent as she sat down to +dinner and answered Mrs. Van Buren's question: "Where is the Judge that +he does not dine with us?" + +"Sick, is he?" Mrs. Van Buren said, when told of his headache, while +Frank remarked, "Sick of his bargain, maybe," laughing loudly at his own +joke, while the others laughed in unison; and so the dinner passed off +without that stiffness which Ethelyn had so much dreaded. + +After it was over, Mrs. Dr. Van Buren felt better, and began to talk of +the "Judge," and to ask if Ethelyn knew whether they would board or keep +house in Washington the coming winter. Ethelyn did not know. She had +never mentioned Washington to Richard Markham, and he had never guessed +how much that prospective season at the capital had to do with her +decision. That it would be hers to enjoy she had no shadow of doubt, but +as she felt then she did not particularly care to keep up a household +for the sake of entertaining her aunt, and possibly Frank and his wife, +so she replied that she presumed "they should board, as it would be the +short session--if he was re-elected they might consider the house." + +"There may be a still higher honor in store for him than a re-election," +Mrs. Van Buren said, and then proceeded to speak of a letter which she +had received from a lady in Camden, who had once lived in Boston, and +who had written congratulating her old friend upon her niece's good +fortune. "There was no young man more popular in that section of the +country than Judge Markham," she said, "and there had been serious talk +of nominating him for governor. Some, however, thought him too young, +and so they were waiting for a few years when he would undoubtedly be +elected to the highest office in the State." + +This piece of intelligence had greatly increased Mrs. Van Buren's +respect for the lady-elect of Iowa's future governor, and she gave the +item of news with a great deal of satisfaction, but did not tell that +her correspondent had added, "It is a pity, though, that he does not +know more of the usages of good society. Ethelyn is so refined and +sensitive that she will be often shocked, no doubt, with the manners of +the husband and his family." + +This clause had troubled Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. She really liked Ethelyn, +and now that she was out of Frank's way she liked her very much, and +would do a good deal to serve her. She did not wish her to be unhappy, +as she feared she might be from the sundry rumors which had reached her +concerning that home out West, whither she was going. So, when, after +dinner, they were alone for a few moments, she endeavored to impress +upon her niece the importance of having an establishment of her own as +soon as possible. + +"It is not well for sons' wives to live with the mother," she said. "She +did not mean that Nettie should live with her; and Ethelyn should at +once insist upon a separate home; then, if she should see any little +thing in her husband's manners which needed correcting, she could do it +so much better away from his mother. I do not say that there is anything +wrong in his manners," she continued, as she saw how painfully red +Ethelyn was getting, "but it is quite natural there should be, living +West as he does. You cannot expect prairie people to be as refined as +Bostonians are; but you must polish him, dear. You know how; you have +had Frank for a model so long; and even if he does not improve, people +overlook a great deal in a member of Congress, and will overlook more in +a governor, so don't feel badly, darling," and Mrs. Van Buren kissed +tenderly the poor girl, before whom all the dreary loneliness of the +future had arisen like a mountain, and whose heart even at that late +hour would fain have drawn back if possible. + +But when, by the way of soothing her, Mrs. Van Buren talked of the +winter in Washington, and the honors which would always be accorded to +her as the wife of an M.C., and then dwelt upon the possibility of her +one day writing herself governor's lady, Ethelyn's girlish ambition was +roused, and her vanity flattered, so that the chances were that even +Frank would have been put aside for the future greatness, had he been +offered to her. + +It was five o'clock now, in the afternoon, nearly time for the bridal +toilet to commence, and Mrs. Van Buren began to wonder "why the Judge +had not appeared." He was better of his headache and up and around, the +maid had reported, when at four she brought over the remainder of Mrs. +Captain Markham's silver, which had not been sent in the morning, and +then went back for extra napkins. There was no need to tell Ethelyn that +"he was up and around," for she had known it ever since a certain +shutter had been opened, and a man in his shirt-sleeves had appeared +before the window and thrown water from the wash bowl upon the lilac +bushes below. Ethelyn knew very well that old Mrs. Markham's servants +were spoiled, that her domestic arrangements were not of the best kind, +and that probably there was no receptacle for the dirty water except the +ground; but she did not consider this, or reflect that aside from all +other considerations the act was wholly like a man; she only thought it +like him, Judge Markham, and feelings of shame and mortification, such +as no woman likes to entertain with regard to her husband, began to rise +and swell in her heart. In the excitement of her toilet, however, she +forgot everything, even the ceremony for which she was dressing, and +which came to her with a shiver when a bridesmaid announced that Captain +Markham's carriage had just left his yard with a gentleman in it. + +Judge Markham was on his way to his bridal. + + + +CHAPTER III + +RICHARD MARKHAM + +He preferred to be called Richard by his friends and Mr. Markham by +strangers--not that he was insensible to the prestige which the title of +Judge or Honorable gave him, but he was a plain, matter-of-fact man, who +had not been lifted off his balance, or grown dizzy by the rapidity with +which he had risen in public favor. At home he was simply Dick to his +three burly brothers, who were at once so proud and fond of him, while +his practical, unpretending mother called him Richard, feeling, however, +that it was very proper for the neighbors to give him the title of +Judge. Of Mrs. Markham we shall have occasion to speak hereafter, so now +we will only say that she saw no fault in her gifted son, and she was +ready to do battle with anyone who should suggest the existence of a +fault. Richard's wishes had never been thwarted, but rather deferred to +by the entire family, and, as a natural consequence, he had come to +believe that his habits and opinions were as nearly correct as they well +could be. He had never mingled much in society--he was not fond of it; +and the "quilting bees" and "sugar pulls" and "apple parings" which had +prevailed in his neighborhood were not at all to his taste. He greatly +preferred his books to the gayest of frolics, and thus he early earned +for himself the sobriquet of "the old bachelor who hated girls"; all but +Abigail Jones, the shoemaker's daughter, whose black eyes and bright red +cheeks had proved too much for the grave, sober Richard. His first act +of gallantry was performed for her, and even after he grew to be Judge +his former companions never wearied of telling how, on the occasion of +his first going home with the fair Abigail Jones from spelling school, +he had kept at a respectful distance from her, and when the lights from +her father's window became visible he remarked that "he guessed she +would not be afraid to go the rest of the way alone," and abruptly +bidding her good-night, ran back as fast as he could run. Whether this +story were true or not, he was very shy of the girls, though the +dark-eyed Abigail exerted over him so strong an influence that, at the +early age of twenty he had asked her to be his wife, and she had +answered yes, while his mother sanctioned the match, for she had known +the Joneses in Vermont, and knew them for honest, thrifty people, whose +daughter would make a faithful, economical wife for any man. But death +came in to separate the lovers, and Abigail's cheeks grew redder still, +and her eyes were strangely bright as the fever burned in her veins, +until at last when the Indian-summer sun was shining down upon the +prairies, they buried her one day beneath the late summer flowers, and +the almost boy-widower wore upon his hat the band of crape which Ethelyn +remembered as looking so rusty when, the year following, he came to +Chicopee. Richard Markham believed that he had loved Abigail truly when +she died, but he knew now that she was not the one he would have chosen +in his mature manhood. She was suitable for him, perhaps, as he was when +he lost her, but not as he was now, and it was long since he had ceased +to visit her grave, or think of her with the feelings of sad regret +which used to come over him when, at night, he lay awake listening to +the moaning of the wind as it swept over the prairies, or watching the +glittering stars, and wondering if she had found a home beyond them with +Daisy, his only sister. There was nothing false about Richard Markham, +and when he stood with Ethelyn upon the shore of Pordunk Pond, and asked +her to be his wife, he told her of Abigail Jones, who had been two years +older than himself, and to whom he was once engaged. + +"But I did not give her Daisy's ring," he said; and he spoke very +reverently as he continued, "Abigail was a good, sensible girl, and even +if she hears what I am saying she will pardon me when I tell you that it +did not seem to me that diamonds were befitting such as she; Daisy, I am +sure, had a different kind of person in view when she made me keep the +ring for the maiden who would prize such things, and who was worthy of +it. Abigail was worthy, but there was not a fitness in giving it to her, +neither would she have prized it; so I kept it in its little box with a +curl of Daisy's hair. Had she become my wife, I might eventually have +given it to her, but she died, and it was well. She would not have +satisfied me now, and I should--" + +He was going to add "should not have been what I am," but that would +have savored too much of pride, and possibly of disrespect for the dead; +so he checked himself, and while his rare, pleasant smile broke all over +his beaming face, and his hazel eyes grew soft and tender in their +expression, he said: "You, Ethelyn, seem to me the one Daisy would have +chosen for a sister. You are quiet, and gentle, and pure like her, and I +am so glad of the Providence which led me to Chicopee. They said I was +looking for a wife, but I had no such idea. I never thought to marry +until I met you that afternoon when you wore the pretty delaine, with +the red ribbon in your hair. Do you remember it, Ethelyn?" + +Ethelyn did not answer him at once. She was looking far off upon the +water, where the moonlight lay sleeping, and revolving in her mind the +expediency of being equally truthful with her future husband, and saying +to him, "I, too, have loved, and been promised to another." She knew +she ought to tell him this and she would, perhaps, have done so, for +Ethie meant to be honest, and her heart was touched and softened by +Richard's tender love for his sister; but when he was so unfortunate as +to call the green silk which Madame--, in Boston, had made, a pretty +delaine, and her scarlet velvet band a "red ribbon," her heart hardened, +and her secret remained untold, while her proud lip half curled in scorn +at the thought of Abigail Jones, who once stood, perhaps, as she was +standing, with her hand on Richard Markham's and the kiss of betrothal +wet upon her forehead. Ah, Ethie, there was this difference: Abigail had +kissed her lover back, and her great black eyes had looked straight into +his with an eager, blissful joy, as she promised to be his wife, and +when he wound his arm around her, she had leaned up to the bashful +youth, encouraging his caresses, while you--gave back no answering +caress, and shook lightly off the arm laid across your neck. Possibly +Richard thought of the difference, but if he did he imputed Ethelyn's +cold impassiveness to her modest, retiring nature, so different from +Abigail's. It was hardly fair to compare the two girls, they were so +wholly unlike, for Abigail had been a plain, simple-hearted, buxom +country girl of the West, whose world was all contained within the +limits of the neighborhood where she lived, while Ethie was a +high-spirited, petted, impulsive creature, knowing but little of such +people as Abigail Jones, and wholly unfitted to cope with any world +outside that to which she had been accustomed. But love is blind, and so +was Richard; for with his whole heart he did love Ethelyn Grant; and, +notwithstanding his habits of thirty years, she could then have molded +him to her will, had she tried, by the simple process of love. But, +alas! there was no answering throb in her heart when she felt the touch +of his hand or his breath upon her cheek. She was only conscious of a +desire to avoid his caress, if possible, while, as the days went by, she +felt a growing disgust for "Abigail Jones," whose family, she gathered +from her lover, lived near to, and were quite familiar with, his mother. + +In happy ignorance of her real feelings, so well did she dissemble +them, and so proper and ladylike was her deportment, Richard bade her +good-by early in May, and went back to his Western home, writing to her +often, but not such letters, it must be confessed, as were calculated to +win a maiden's heart, or keep it after it was won. If he was awkward at +love-making, and only allowed himself to be occasionally surprised into +flashes of tenderness, he was still more awkward in letter-writing; and +Ethelyn always indulged in a headache, or a fit of blues, after +receiving one of his short, practical letters, which gave but little +sign of the strong, deep affection he cherished for her. Those were hard +days for Ethelyn--the days which intervened between her lover's bidding +her adieu and his return to claim her hand--and only her deeply wounded +pride, and her great desire for a change of scene and a winter in +Washington, kept her from asking a release from the engagement she knew +never ought to have been. Aside, however, from all this, there was some +gratification in knowing that she was an object of envy to Susie Graham, +and Anna Thorn, and Carrie Bell, either of whom would gladly have taken +her place as bride-elect of an M.C., while proud old Captain Markham's +frequent mention of "my nephew in Congress, ahem!" and Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren's constant exultation over the "splendid match," helped to keep up +the glamour of excitement, so that her promise had never been revoked, +and now he was there to claim it. He had not gone at once to Miss +Bigelow's on his arrival in Chicopee, for the day was hot and sultry, +and he was very tired with his forty-eight hours' constant travel, and +so he had rested a while in his chamber, which looked toward Ethelyn's, +and then sat upon the piazza with his uncle till the heat of the day was +past, and the round red moon was showing itself above the eastern hills +as the sun disappeared in the west. Then, in his new linen coat, cut and +made by Mrs. Jones, mother to Abigail, deceased, he had started for the +dwelling of his betrothed. Ethelyn had seen him as he came from the +depot in Captain Markham's carriage, and her cheek had crimsoned, and +then grown pale at sight of the ancient-looking hair trunk swinging +behind the carriage, all unconscious of the indignation it was exciting, +or of the vast difference between itself and the two huge Saratoga +trunks standing in Aunt Barbara Bigelow's upper hall, and looking so +clean and nice in their fresh coverings. Poor Ethelyn! That hair trunk, +which had done its owner such good service in his journeys to and from +Washington, and which the mother had packed with so much care, never +dreaming how very, very far it was behind the times, brought the hot +blood in torrents to her face, and made the white hands clasp each other +spasmodically, as she thought "Had I known of that hair trunk, I would +certainly have told him no." + +Even Abigail Jones, the shoemaker's daughter, faded into insignificance +before this indignity, and it was long before Ethelyn could recover her +composure or her pulse resume its regular beat. She was in no haste to +see him; but such is the inconsistency of perverse girlhood that, +because he delayed his coming, she felt annoyed and piqued, and was half +tempted to have a headache and go to bed, and so not see him at all. But +he was coming at last, linen coat and all; and Susie Graham, who had +stopped for a moment by the gate to speak with Ethelyn, pronounced him +"a magnificent-looking fellow," and said to Ethelyn, "I should think you +would feel so proud." + +Susie did not observe the linen coat, or if she had, she most likely +thought it a very sensible arrangement for a day when the thermometer +stood no degrees in the shade; but Susie was not Boston finished. She +had been educated at Mount Holyoke, which made a difference, Ethelyn +thought. Still, Susie's comment did much towards reconciling her to the +linen coat; and, as Richard Markham came up the street, she did feel a +thrill of pride and even pleasure, for he had a splendid figure and +carried himself like a prince, while his fine face beamed all over with +that joyous, happy expression which comes only from a kind, true heart, +as he drew near the house and his eye caught the flutter of a white robe +through the open door. Ethelyn was very pretty in her cool, cambric +dress, with a bunch of sweet English violets in her hair; and at sight +of her the man usually so grave and quiet, and undemonstrative with +those of the opposite sex, felt all his reserve give way, and there was +a world of tenderness in his voice and a misty look in his eye, as he +bent over her, giving her the second kiss he had ever given to her, and +asking, "How is my darling to-night?" + +She did not take his arm from her neck this time--he had a right to keep +it there--and she suffered the caress, feeling no greater inconvenience +than that his big hand was very warm and pressed a little too hard +sometimes upon her shoulders. He spoke to her of the errand on which he +had come, and the great, warm hand pressed more heavily as he said, "It +seems to me all a dream that in a few days you will be my own Ethie, my +wife, from whom I need not be parted"; and then he spoke of his mother +and his three brothers, James, and John, and Anderson, or Andy, as he +was called. Each of these had sent kindly messages to Richard's +bride--the mother saying she should be glad to have a daughter in her +home, and the three brothers promising to love their new sister so much +as to make "old Dick" jealous, if possible. + +These messages "old Dick" delivered, but wisely refrained from telling +how his mother feared he had not chosen wisely, that a young lady with +Boston notions was not the wife to make a Western man very happy. +Neither did he tell her of an interview he had with Mrs. Jones, who had +always evinced a motherly care over him since her daughter's death, and +to whom he had dutifully communicated the news of his intended marriage. +It was not what Mrs. Jones had expected. She had watched Richard's +upward progress with all the pride of a mother-in-law, lamenting often +to Mrs. Markham that poor Abigail could not have lived to share his +greatness, and during the term of his judgeship, when he stayed mostly +in Camden, the county seat, she had, on the occasion of her going to +town with butter and eggs, and chickens, taken a mournful pleasure in +perambulating the streets, and selecting the house where Abigail might, +perhaps, have resided, and where she could have had her cup of young +hyson after the fatigue of the day, instead of eating her dry lunch of +cheese and fried cakes in the rather comfortless depot, while waiting +for the train. Richard's long-continued bachelorhood had given her +peculiar pleasure, inasmuch as it betokened a continual remembrance of +her daughter; and as her youngest child, the blooming Melinda, who was +as like the departed Abigail as sisters ever are to each other ripened +into womanhood, and the grave Richard spoke oftener to her than to the +other maidens of the prairie village, she began to speculate upon what +might possibly be, and refused the loan of her brass kettle to the +neighbor whose husband did not vote for Richard when he ran for member +of Congress. Melinda, too, had her little ambitions, her silent hopes +and aspirations, and even her vague longings for a winter in Washington, +As the Markham house and the Jones house were distant from each other +only half a mile, she was a frequent visitor of Richard's mother, always +assisting when there was more work than usual on hand and on the +occasion of Richard's first going to Washington ironing his shirts and +packing them herself in the square hair trunk which had called forth +Ethelyn's ire. Though she did not remember much about "Abby," she knew +that, had she lived, Richard would have been her brother; and somehow he +seemed to her just like one now, she said to Mrs. Markham, as she hemmed +his pocket handkerchiefs, working his initials in the corner with pink +floss, and upon the last and best, the one which had cost sixty-two and +a half cents, venturing to weave her own hair, which was long, and +glossy, and black, as Abigail's had been. Several times a week during +Richard's absence, she visited Mrs. Markham, inquiring always after "the +Judge," and making herself so agreeable and useful, too, in +clear-starching and doing up Mrs. Markham's caps, and in giving receipts +for sundry new and economical dishes, that the good woman herself +frequently doubted if Richard could do better than take the black-eyed +Melinda; and when he told her of Ethelyn Grant, she experienced a +feeling of disappointment and regret, doubting much if a Boston girl, +with Boston notions, would make her as happy as the plainer Melinda, who +knew all her ways. Something of this she said to her son, omitting, of +course, that part of her thoughts which referred to Melinda. With Mrs. +Jones, however, it was different. In her surprise and disappointment she +let fall some remarks which opened Richard's eyes a little, and made him +look at her half amused and half sorry, as, suspending her employment of +paring apples for the dinner pie she put the corner of her apron to her +eyes, and "hoped the new bride would not have many airs, and would put +up with his mother's ways. + +"You," and here the apron and hand with the knife in it came down from +her eyes--"you'll excuse me, Richard, for speaking so plain, but you +seem like my own boy, and I can't help it. Your mother is the best and +cleverest woman in the world, but she has some peculiarities which a +Boston girl may not put up with, not being used to them as Melin--I +mean, as poor Abigail was." + +It was the first time it had ever occurred to Richard that his mother +had peculiarities, and even now he did not know what they were. Taking +her all in all, she was as nearly perfect, he thought, as a woman well +could be, and on his way home from his interview with Mrs. Jones he +pondered in his mind what she could mean, and then wondered if for the +asking he could have taken Melinda Jones to the fireside where he was +going to install Ethelyn Grant. There was a comical smile about his +mouth as he thought how little either Melinda or Abigail would suit him +now; and then, by way of making amends for what seemed disrespect to the +dead, he went round to the sunken grave where Abigail had slept for so +many years, and stood again just where he had stood that day when he +fancied the light from his heart had gone out forever. But he could not +bring back the olden feeling, or wish that Abigail had lived. + +"She is happy now--happier than I could have made her. It is better as +it is," he said, as he walked away to Daisy's grave, where his tears +dropped just as they always did when he stood by the sod which covered +the fairest, brightest, purest being he had ever known, except +his Ethie. + +She was just as pure and gentle and good as blue-eyed Daisy had been, +and on the manly face turned so wistfully to the eastward there was a +world of love and tenderness for the Ethie who, alas, did not deserve it +then, and to whom a few weeks later he gave his mother's kindly message. +Then, remembering what Mrs. Jones had said, he felt in duty bound +to add: + +"Mother has some peculiarities, I believe most old people have; but I +trust to your good sense to humor them as much as possible. She has had +her own way a long time, and though you will virtually be mistress of +the house, inasmuch as it belongs to me, it will be better for mother to +take the lead, as heretofore." + +There was a curl on Ethelyn's lip as she received her first lesson with +regard to her behavior as daughter-in-law; but she made no reply, not +even to ask what the peculiarities were which she was to humor. She +really did not care what they were, as she fully intended having an +establishment of her own in the thriving prairie village, just half a +mile from her husband's home. She should probably spend a few weeks with +Mrs. Markham, senior, whom she fancied a tall, stately woman, wearing +heavy black silk dresses and thread lace caps on great occasions, and +having always on hand some fine lamb's-wool knitting work when she sat +in the parlor where Daisy's picture hung. Ethelyn could not tell why it +was that she always saw Richard's mother thus, unless it were what Mrs. +Captain Markham once said with regard to her Western sister-in-law, +sending to Boston for a black silk which cost three dollars per yard--a +great price for those days--and for two yards of handsome thread lace, +which she, the Mrs. Captain, had run all over the city to get, "John's +wife was so particular to have it just the pattern and width she +described in her letter." + +This was Richard's mother as Ethelyn saw her, while the house on the +prairie, which she knew had been built within a few years, presented a +very respectable appearance to her mind's eye, being large, and +fashioned something after the new house across the Common, which had a +bay window at the side, and a kind of cupola on the roof. It would be +quite possible to spend a few weeks comfortably there, especially as she +would have the Washington gayeties in prospect, but in the spring, when, +after a winter of dissipation she returned to the prairies, she should +go to her own home, either in Olney or Camden; the latter, perhaps, as +Richard could as well live there as elsewhere. This was Ethelyn's plan, +but she kept it to herself, and changing the conversation from Richard's +mother and her peculiarities, she talked instead of the places they were +to visit--Quebec and Montreal, the seaside and the mountains, and lastly +that great Babel of fashion, Saratoga, for which place several of her +dresses had been expressly made. + +Ethelyn had planned this trip herself, and Richard, though knowing how +awfully he should be bored before the summer was over, had assented to +all that she proposed, secretly hoping the while that the last days of +August would find him safe at home in Olney among his books, his horses, +and his farming pursuits. He was very tired that night, and he did not +tarry longer than ten, though a word from Ethelyn would have kept him +for hours at her side, so intoxicated was he with her beauty, and so +quiet and happy he felt with her; but the word was not spoken, and he +left her standing on the piazza, where he could see the gleaming of her +white robes when he looked back, as he more than once did ere reaching +his uncle's door. + +The next three days passed rapidly, bringing at last the eventful one +for which all others were made, it seemed to him, as he looked out upon +the early, dewy morning, thinking how pleasant it was there in that +quiet New England town, and trying to fight back the unwelcome headache +which finally drove him back to his bed, from which he wrote the little +note to Ethelyn, who might think strange at his non-appearance when he +had been accustomed to go to her immediately after breakfast. He never +dreamed of the relief it was to her not to have him come, as he lay +flushed and heated upon his pillow, the veins upon his forehead +swelling with their pressure of hot blood, and his ear strained to catch +the first sound of the servant's returning step. Ethelyn would either +come herself to see him, or send some cheerful message, he was sure. +How, then, was he disappointed to find his own note returned, with the +assurance that "it did not matter, as he would only be in the way." + +Several times he read it over, trying to extract some comfort from it, +and finding it at last in the fact that Ethelyn had a headache, too. +This was the reason for her seeming indifference; and in wishing himself +able to go to her, Richard forgot in part his own pain, and fell into a +quiet sleep, which did him untold good. It was three o'clock when at +last he rose, knowing pretty well all that had been doing during the +hours of his seclusion in the darkened room. The "Van Buren set" had +come, and he overheard Mrs. Markham's Esther saying to Aunt Barbara's +Betsy, when she came for the silver cake-basket, that "Mr. Frank seemed +in mighty fine spirits, considering all the flirtations he used to have +with Miss Ethelyn." + +This was the first intimation Richard had received of a flirtation, and +even now it did not strike him unpleasantly. They were cousins, he +reflected, and as such had undoubtedly been very familiar with each +other. It was natural, and nothing for which he need care. He did not +care, either, as he deliberately began to make his wedding toilet, +thinking himself, when it was completed, that he was looking unusually +well in the entire new suit which his cousin, Mrs. Woodhull, had +insisted upon his getting in New York, when on his way home in April he +had gone that way and told her of his approaching marriage. It was a +splendid suit, made after the most approved style, and costing a sum +which he had kept secret from his mother, who, nevertheless, guessed +somewhere near the truth, and thought the Olney tailor would have suited +him quite as well at a quarter the price, or even Mrs. Jones, who, +having been a tailoress when a young girl in Vermont, still kept up her +profession to a limited extent, retaining her "press-board" and "goose," +and the mammoth shears which had cut Richard's linen coat after a +Chicago pattern of not the most recent date Richard thought very little +about his personal appearance--too little, in fact--but he felt a glow +of satisfaction now as he contemplated himself in the glass, feeling +only that Ethelyn would be pleased to see him thus. + +And Ethelyn was pleased. She had half expected the old coat of she did +not know how many years' make, and there was a fierce pang of pain in +her heart as she imagined Frank's cool criticisms, and saw, in fancy, +the contrast between the two men. So when Judge Markham alighted at the +gate, and from her window she took in at a glance his tout ensemble, the +revulsion of feeling was so great that the glad tears sprang to her +eyes, and a brighter, happier look broke over her face than had been +there for many weeks. She was not present when Frank was introduced to +him; but when next she met her cousin, he said to her, in his usual +off-hand way, "I say, Ethie, he is pretty well got up for a Westerner. +But for his eyes and teeth I should never have known him for the chap +who wore short pants and stove-pipe hat with the butternut-colored +crape. Who was he in mourning for anyway?" + +It was too bad to be reminded of Abigail Jones, just as she was +beginning to feel more comfortable; but Ethelyn bore it very well, and +laughingly answered, "For his sweetheart, I dare say," her cheeks +flushing very red as Frank whispered slyly, "You are even, then, on +that score." + +No man of any delicacy of feeling or true refinement would have made +this allusion to the past, with his first love within a few hours of her +bridal, and his own betrothed standing near. But Frank had neither +delicacy of feeling nor genuine refinement, and he even felt a secret +gratification in seeing the blood mount to Ethelyn's cheeks as he thus +referred to the past. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE BRIDAL + +There was a great deal of sincere and tender interest in Richard's +manner when, in reply to his inquiries for Ethelyn's headache, Aunt +Barbara told him of the almost fainting fit in the morning and her +belief that Ethelyn was not as strong this summer as she used to be. + +"The mountain air will do her good, I trust," casting wistful glances up +the stairs and toward the door of the chamber, where girlish voices were +heard, Nettie Hudson and Susie Granger chatting gayly and uttering +exclamations of delight as they arranged and adjusted Ethelyn's +bridal robes. + +Once during the period of his judgeship Richard had attended a large and +fashionable bridal party, but when, on his return to Olney, Melinda +Jones questioned him with regard to the dresses of the bride and the +guests, he found himself utterly unable to give either fabric, fashion, +or even color, so little attention had he given to the subject. He never +noticed such things, he said, but he believed some of the dresses were +made of something flimsy, for he could see through them, and he knew +they were very long, for he had stepped on some half dozen. And this was +all the information the inquisitive Melinda could obtain. Dress was of +little consequence, he thought, so it was clean and whole. + +This was his theory; but when, as the twilight deepened on the Chicopee +hills, and the lamps were lighted in Aunt Barbara's parlors, and old +Captain Markham began to wonder "why the plague the folks did not come," +as he stalked up and down the piazza in all the pride and pomposity of +one who felt himself to all intents and purposes the village aristocrat, +and when the mysterious door of Ethie's room, which had been closed so +long, was opened, and the bridegroom told that he might go in, he +started in surprise at the beautiful tableau presented to his view as he +stepped across the threshold. As was natural, he fancied that never +before had he seen three young girls so perfectly beautiful as the three +before him--Ethie, and Susie, and Nettie. + +As a matter of course, he gave the preference to Ethelyn, who was very, +very lovely in her bridal robes, with the orange wreath resting like a +coronet upon her marble brow. There were pearls upon her fair neck and +pearls upon her arms, the gift of Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, who had waited +till the very last, hoping the Judge would have forethought enough to +buy them himself. But the Judge had not. He knew something of diamonds, +for they had been Daisy's favorites; but pearls were novelties to him, +and Ethelyn's pale cheeks would have burned crimson had she known that +he was thinking "how becoming those white beads were to her." + +Poor, ignorant Richard! He will know more by and by of what constitutes +a fashionable lady's toilet; but now he is in blissful ignorance of +minutiae, and sees only the tout ensemble, which he pronounces perfect. +He was half afraid of her, though, she seemed so cold, so passive, so +silent, and when in the same breath Susie Granger asks if he ever saw +anyone so lovely as Ethelyn and bids him kiss her quick, he starts and +hesitates, and finally kisses Susie instead. He might, perhaps, have +done the same with Ethelyn if she had not stepped backward to avoid it, +her long train sweeping across the hearth where that morning she had +knelt in such utter desolation, and where now was lying a bit of +blackened paper, which the housemaid's broom had not found when, early +in the day, the room was swept and dusted. So Ethelyn's white satin +brushed against the gossamer thing, which floated upward for a moment, +and then settled back upon the heavy, shining folds. It was Richard who +saw it first, and Richard's hand which brushed away the skeleton of +Frank's letter from the skirts of his bride, leaving a soiled, yellowish +stain, which Susie Granger loudly deplored, while Ethelyn only drew her +drapery around her, saying coldly, that "it did not matter in the least. +She would as soon have it there as not." + +It was meet, she thought, that the purity of her bridal garments should +be tarnished; for was not her heart all stained, and black, and crisp +with cruel deception? That little incident, however, affected her +strangely, bringing back so vividly the scene on the ledge of rocks +beneath the New England laurels, where Frank had sat beside her and +poured words of boyish passion into her ear. There was for a moment a +pitiful look of anguish in her eyes as they went out into the summer +night toward the huckleberry hills, where lay that ledge of massy rock, +and then come back to the realities about her. Frank saw the look of +pain, and it awoke in his own breast an answering throb as he wondered +if, after all, Ethie would not have preferred that he were standing by +her instead of the grave Judge, fitting on his gloves with an +awkwardness which said that such articles were comparative strangers to +his large, red hands. + +It was time now to go down. The guests had all arrived, the clergyman +was waiting, and Captain Markham had grown very red in the face with his +impatience, which his wife tried in vain to quiet. If at this last +moment there arose in Ethelyn's bosom any wild impulse to break away +from the dreadful scene, and rush out into the darkness which lay so +softly upon the hills, she put it aside, with the thought, "too late +now--forever too late"; and taking the arm which Richard offered her, +she went mechanically down the staircase into the large parlor where the +wedding guests were assembled. Surely, surely, she did not know what she +was doing, or realize the solemn words: "I charge and require you both, +as ye shall answer at the great day, when the secrets of all hearts +shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment why ye may +not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it, for +be ye well assured," and so forth. She did not even hear them; for the +numb, dead feeling which crept over her, chilling her blood, and making +her hand, which Richard took in his while he fitted the wedding ring, so +cold and clammy to the touch, that Richard felt tempted to hold and +chafe it in his own warm, broad palms; but that was not in accordance +with the ceremony, and so he let it fall, wondering that Ethelyn could +be so cold when the sweat was standing in great drops upon his own face, +and moistening his wavy hair, which clustered in short, thick curls +around his brow, making him look so handsome, as more than one maiden +thought, envying Ethelyn her good fortune, and marveling at the pallor +of her lips and the rigidity of her form. + +The ceremony was ended, and Ethelyn Grant was Mrs. Richard Markham; but +the new name brought no blushes to her cheek, nor yet the kiss her +husband gave her, nor the congratulations of the guests, nor Aunt +Barbara's tears, which dropped upon the forehead of her darling as the +good woman bent over her and thought how she had lost her; but when +Frank Van Buren stooped down to touch her lips the sluggish blood +quickened and a thrill went through and through her veins, sending the +bright color to her cheeks, which burned as with a hectic flush. Frank +saw the power he held, but to his credit he did not then exult; he only +felt that it was finished, that Ethie was gone past his recall; and for +the first time in his life he experienced a genuine pang of desolation, +such as he had never felt before, and he fought hard to master his +emotions while he watched the bride receiving the bridal guests. Another +than Frank was watching her, too--Mrs. Dr. Van Buren--who at one time +feared lest Ethelyn should faint, and who, as soon as an opportunity +offered, whispered to her niece, "Do, Ethie, put some animation in your +manner or people will think you an unwilling bride." + +For a moment a gleam of anger flashed from the eyes which looked +unflinchingly into Mrs. Van Buren's, and the pale lips quivered with +passion. But Ethelyn had too much pride to admit of her letting the +people know what she was suffering, and so with great effort she rallied +her fainting spirits, and twice ere the evening was at a close her merry +laugh was heard even above Susie Granger's, as a knot of her gay +companions gathered round her with their merry jokes and gay repartees. + +Susie Granger was in her happiest mood, and her lively spirits seemed to +pervade the whole party. Now that he knew her better, Richard was more +at ease with her, and returned her playful sallies until even Ethelyn +wondered to see him so funny. He never once forgot her, however, as was +evinced by the loving glances he bent upon her, and by his hovering +constantly at her side, as if afraid to lose her. + +Once, when they were standing together and Frank was near to them, +Richard laid his hand upon Ethelyn's shoulder which the cut of the +wedding dress left bare. It was a very beautiful neck--white, and plump, +and soft--and Richard's hand pressed somewhat heavily; but with a shiver +Ethelyn drew herself away, and Frank, who was watching her, fancied he +saw the flesh creep backward from the touch. Perhaps it was a feeling of +pity, and perhaps it was a mean desire to test his own influence over +her, which prompted him carelessly to take her hand to inspect the +wedding-ring. It was only her hand, but as Frank held it in his own, he +felt it growing warm and flushed, while the color deepened on Ethelyn's +cheeks, and then died suddenly away at Frank's characteristic remark, +spoken for her ear alone, "You feel like thunder, Ethie, and so do I." + +The speech did Ethelyn good. No matter how she felt, it was not Frank's +place to speak to her thus. She was now a wife, and she meant to be true +to her marriage vow, both in look and deed; so, with an impatient +gesture, she flung aside Frank's hand, repelling him fiercely with the +reply, "You are mistaken, sir--at least, so far as I am concerned." + +After that she stayed more with Richard, and once, of her own accord, +she put her arm in his and stood half leaning against him with both +hands clasped together, while he held the bouquet which Mrs. Senator +Woodhull had sent by express from New York. It is true that Richard +smelled and breathed upon the flowers oftener than was desirable; and +once Ethelyn saw him extracting leaves from the very choicest blossoms; +but on the whole he did very well, considering that it was the first +time he had ever held a lady's bouquet in such an expensive holder. + +As Ethelyn had predicted, the evening was hot and sultry; but the bugs +and beetles and millers she had dreaded did not come in to annoy her, +and when, as the clock struck twelve, the company dispersed, they were +sincere in their assertions of having passed a delightful evening, and +many were the good wishes expressed for Mrs. Judge Markham's happiness +as the guests took their way to their respective homes. + +An hour later and the lights had disappeared from Miss Barbara Bigelow's +windows, and the summer stars looked down upon the quiet house where +that strange bridal had been. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HONEYMOON + +From Mrs. Senator Woodhull's elegant house--where Mrs. Judge Markham had +been petted, and flattered, and caressed, and Mr. Judge Markham had been +adroitly tutored and trained without the least effect--the newly wedded +pair went on to Quebec and Montreal, and thence to the White Mountains, +where Ethelyn's handsome traveling dress was ruined and Richard's linen +coat, so obnoxious to his bride, was torn past repair and laid away in +one of Ethelyn's trunks, with the remark that "Mother could mend it for +Andy, who always took his brother's cast-off clothes." The hair trunk +had been left in Chicopee, and so Ethelyn had not that to vex her. + +Noticed everywhere, and admired by all whom she met, the first part of +her wedding trip was not as irksome as she had feared it might be. +Pleased, as a boy, with his young bride, Richard was all attention, and +Ethelyn had only to express a wish to have it gratified, so that casual +lookers-on would have pronounced her supremely happy. And Ethelyn's +heart did not ache one-half so hard as on that terrible day of her +bridal. In the railway car, on the crowded steamboat, or at the large +hotels, where all were entire strangers, she forgot to watch and +criticise her husband, and if any dereliction from etiquette did occur, +he yielded so readily to her suggestion that to him seemed an easy task. +The habits of years, however, are not so easily broken, and by the time +Saratoga was reached, Richard's patience began to give way beneath +Ethelyn's multifarious exactions and the ennui consequent upon his +traveling about so long. Still he did pretty well for him, growing very +red in the face with his efforts to draw on gloves a size too small, and +feeling excessively hot and uncomfortable in his coat, which he wore +even in the retirement of his own room, where he desired so much to +indulge in the cool luxury of shirt-sleeves--a suggestion which Ethelyn +heard with horror, openly exclaiming against the glaring vulgarity, and +asking, a little contemptuously, if that were the way he had been +accustomed to do at home. + +"Why, yes," he answered. "Out West upon the prairies we go in for +comfort, and don't mind so small a matter as shirt-sleeves on a +sweltering August day." + +"Please do not use such expressions as sweltering and go in--they do not +sound well," Ethelyn rejoined. "And now I think of it, I wish you would +talk more to the ladies in the parlor. You hardly spoke to Mrs. Cameron +last evening, and she directed most of her conversation to you, too. I +was afraid she would either think that you were rude, or else that you +did not know what to say." + +"She hit it right, if she came to the latter conclusion," Richard said, +good-humoredly, "for the fact is, Ethie, I don't know what to say to +such women as she. I am not a ladies' man, and it's no use trying to +make me over. You can't teach old dogs new tricks." + +Ethie fairly groaned as she clasped her bracelets upon her arms and +shook down the folds of her blue silk; then after a moment she +continued: "You can talk to me, and why not to others?" + +"You are my wife, Ethie, and I love you, which makes a heap of +difference," Richard said, and winding his arms around Ethie's waist he +drew her face toward his own and kissed it affectionately. + +They had been three days at Saratoga when this little scene occurred +and their room was one of those miserable little apartments in the +Ainsworth block which look out upon nothing but a patch of weeds and the +rear of a church. Ethelyn did not like it at all, and liked it the less +because she felt that to some extent her husband was to blame. He ought +to have written and engaged rooms beforehand--Aunt Van Buren always did, +and Mrs. Col. Tophevie, and everybody who understood the ins and outs of +fashionable life. But Richard did not understand them. He believed in +taking what was offered to him without making a fuss, he said. He had +never been to Saratoga before, and he secretly hoped he should never +come again, for he did not enjoy those close, hot rooms and worm-eaten +furniture any better than Ethelyn did, but he accepted it with a better +grace, saying, when he first entered it, that "he could put up with +'most anything, though to be sure it was hotter than an oven." + +His mode of expressing himself had never suited Ethelyn. Particular, and +even elegant in her choice of language, it grated upon her sensitive +ear, and forgetting that she had all her life heard similar expressions +in Chicopee, she charged it to the West, and Iowa was blamed for the +faults of her son more than she deserved. At Saratoga, where they met +many of her acquaintances, all of whom were anxious to see the +fastidious Ethelyn's husband, it seemed to her that he was more remiss +than ever in those little things which make up the finished gentleman, +while his peculiar expressions sometimes made every nerve quiver with +pain. The consequence of this was that Ethelyn became a very little +cross, as Richard thought, though she had never so openly attacked him +as on that day, the third after their arrival, when to her horror he +took off his coat, preparatory to a little comfort, while she was +dressing for dinner. At Ethelyn's request, however, he put it on again, +saying as he did so, that he was "sweating like a butcher," which remark +called out his wife's contemptuous inquiries concerning his habits at +home. Richard was still too much in love with his young wife to feel +very greatly irritated. In word and deed she had done her duty toward +him thus far, and he had nothing to complain of. It is true she was very +quiet and passive, and undemonstrative, never giving him back any caress +as he had seen wives do. But then he was not very demonstrative himself, +and so he excused it the more readily in her, and loved her all the +same. It amused him that a girl of twenty should presume to criticise +him, a man of thirty-two, a Judge, and a member of Congress, to whom the +Olney people paid such deference, and he bore with her at first just as +a mother would bear with the little child which assumed a +superiority over her. + +This afternoon, however, when she said so much to him, he was conscious +of a very little irritation, for he was naturally high-spirited. But he +put the feeling down, and gayly kissed his six-weeks bride, who, touched +with his forbearance, kissed him back again, and suffered him to hold +her cool face a moment between his hot, moist hands, while he bent +over her. + +She did respect him in spite of his vulgarism; nor was she unconscious +of the position which, as his wife, she held. It was very pleasant to +hear people say of her when she passed by: + +"That is Mrs. Judge Markham, of Iowa--her husband is a member of +Congress." + +Very pleasant, too, to meet with his friends, other M. C.'s, who paid +her deference on his account. Had they stayed away from Saratoga all +might have been well; but alas, they were there, and so was all of +Ethelyn's world--the Tophevies, the Hales, the Hungerfords and Van +Burens, with Nettie Hudson, opening her great blue eyes at Richard's +mistakes and asking Frank in Ethelyn's hearing, "if that Judge Markham's +manners were not a little outre." + +They certainly were outre, there was no denying it, and Ethelyn's blood +tingled to her finger tips as she wondered if it would always be so. It +is a pitiable thing for a wife to blush for her husband, to watch +constantly lest he depart from those little points of etiquette which +women catch intuitively, but which some of our most learned men fail to +learn in a lifetime. And here they greatly err, for no man, however well +versed he may be in science and literature, is well educated, or well +balanced, or excusable, if he neglects the little things which good +breeding and common politeness require of him, and Richard was somewhat +to be blamed. It did not follow because his faults had never been +pointed out to him that they did not exist, or that others did not +observe them besides his wife. Ethelyn, to be sure, was more deeply +interested than anyone else, and felt his mistakes more keenly, while at +the same time she was over-fastidious, and had not the happiest faculty +for correcting him. She did not love him well enough to be very careful +of wounding him, but the patience and good humor with which he received +her reprimand that hot August afternoon, when the thermometer was one +hundred in the shade, and any man would have been excusable for +retorting upon his wife who lectured him, awoke a throb of something +nearer akin to love than anything she had felt since the night when she +stood upon the sandy beach and heard the story of Daisy. + +Richard was going to do better. He would wear his coat all the time, +both day and night, if Ethelyn said so, He would not lean his elbow on +the table while waiting for dessert, as he had more than once been +guilty of doing; he would not help himself to a dish before passing it +to the ladies near him; he would talk to Mrs. Cameron in the evening, +and would try not to be so absorbed in his own thoughts as to pay no +attention when Mrs. Tophevie was addressing herself directly to him; he +would laugh in the right place, and, when spoken to, would answer in +something besides monosyllables; he would try to keep his hands out of +his pockets and his handkerchief out of his hand, or at least he would +not "snap it," as Ethie said he had done on the first evening of his +arrival at Saratoga. In short, he promised a complete reformation, even +saying that if Ethelyn would select some person who was an fait in those +matters in which he was so remiss, he would watch and copy that man to +the letter. Would she name someone? And Ethelyn named her cousin Frank, +while Richard felt a flush of something like resentment that he should +be required to imitate a person whom in his secret heart he despised as +dandyish, and weak, and silly, and "namby-pamby," as he would probably +have expressed it if he had not forsworn slang phrases of every kind. +But Richard had pledged his word, and meant to keep it; and so it was to +all appearances a very happy and loving couple which, when the dinner +gong sounded, walked into the dining room with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's set, +Ethelyn's handsome blue silk sweeping far behind her, and her white bare +arm just touching the coat-sleeve of her husband, who was not insensible +to the impression made by the beautiful woman at his side. + +There were no lectures that night, for Richard had done his best, +talking at least twenty times with both Mrs. Cameron and Mrs. Colonel +Tophevie, whom he found more agreeable than he had supposed. Then he had +held Ethelyn's white cloak upon his arm, and stood patiently against the +wall, while up at the United States she danced set after set--first, the +Lancers, with young Lieutenant Gray, then a polka with John Tophevie, +and lastly, a waltz with Frank Van Buren, who whirled his fair partner +about the room with a velocity which made Richard dizzy and awoke sundry +thoughts not wholly complimentary to that doubtful dance, the waltz. +Richard did not dance himself, at least not latterly. In his younger +days, when he and Abigail Jones attended the quilting-frolics together +and the "paring bees," he had with other young men, tried his feet at +Scotch reels, French fours, "The Cheat," and the "Twin Sisters," with +occasionally a cotillion, but he was not accomplished in the art. Even +the Olney girls called him awkward, preferring almost anyone else for a +partner, and so he abandoned the floor and cultivated his head rather +than his heels. He liked to see dancing, and at first it was rather +pleasant watching Ethelyn's lithe figure gliding gracefully through the +intricate movements of the Lancers; but when it came to the waltz, he +was not so sure about it, and he wondered if it were necessary for Frank +Van Buren to clasp her as tightly about the waist as he did, or for her +to lean so languidly upon his shoulder. + +Richard was not naturally jealous--certainly not of Frank Van Buren; but +he would rather his wife should not waltz with him or any other man, and +so he said to her, asking this concession on her part in return for all +he had promised to attempt; and to Ethelyn's credit we record that she +yielded to her husband's wishes, and, greatly to Frank's surprise, +declined the waltz which he had proposed the following evening. But she +made amends in other dances, keeping poor Richard waiting for her night +after night, until he actually fell asleep and dreamed of the log cabin +on the prairie, where he had once danced a quadrille with Abigail Jones +to the tune of Money-musk, as played by the Plympton brothers--the one +on a cracked violin, and the other on an accordion. + +A tap of Mrs. Tophevie's fan brought him back to consciousness, and he +was almost guilty of a sigh as the log cabin faded from his vision, with +the Plymptons and Abigail Jones, leaving instead that heated ballroom, +with its trained orchestra, its bevy of fair young girls, its score of +white-kidded dandies with wasp-like waists and perfumed locks, and Ethie +smiling in their midst. + +Saratoga did not agree with Richard. He grew sick first of the water; +then of the fare; then of the daily routine of fashionable follies; then +of the people; and then, oh! so sick of the petty lectures which Ethelyn +gradually resumed as he failed in his attempts to imitate Frank Van +Buren and appear perfectly at ease in everybody's presence. Saratoga was +a "confounded bore," he said, and though he called himself a brute, and +a savage, and a heathen, he was only very glad when toward the last of +August Ethelyn became so seriously indisposed as to make a longer stay +in Saratoga impossible. Newport, of course, was given up, and Ethelyn's +desire was to go back to Chicopee and lie down again in the dear old +room which had been hers from childhood. Aunt Barbara's toast, Aunt +Barbara's tea, and Aunt Barbara's nursing, would soon bring her all +right again, she said; but in this she was mistaken, for although the +toast, and the tea, and the nursing each came in its turn, the September +flowers had faded, and the trees on the Chicopee hills were beginning to +flaunt their bright October robes ere she recovered from the low, +nervous fever, induced by the mental and bodily excitement through which +she had passed during the last three or four months. + +Although he knew it was necessary that he should be at home if he would +transact any business before the opening of his next session in +Washington, Richard put aside all thoughts of self, and nursed his wife +with a devotedness which awakened her liveliest gratitude. + +Richard was not awkward in the sick-room. It seemed to be his special +providence, and as he had once nursed and cared for Daisy and the baby +brother who died, so he now cared for Ethelyn, until she began to miss +him when he left her side, and to listen for his returning step when he +went out for an hour or so to smoke and talk politics with his uncle, +Captain Markham. With Mrs. Dr. Van Buren and Frank and the fashionable +world all away, Richard's faults were not so perceptible, and Ethelyn +even began to look forward with considerable interest to the time when +she should be able to start for her Western home, about which she had +built many delusive castles. Her piano had already been sent on in +advance, she saying to Susie Granger, who came in while it was being +boxed, that as they were not to keep house till spring she should not +take furniture now. Possibly they could find what they needed in +Chicago; if not, they could order from Boston. + +Richard, who overheard this remark, wondered what it meant, for he had +not the most remote idea of separating himself from his mother. She was +very essential to his happiness; and he was hardly willing to confess to +himself how much during the last summer he had missed her. She had a way +of petting him and deferring to his judgment and making him feel that +Richard Markham was a very nice kind of man, far different from +Ethelyn's criticisms, which had sometimes led him seriously to inquire +whether he were a fool or not. No, he could not live apart from his +mother--he was firm upon that point; but there was time enough to say so +when the subject should be broached to him. So he went on nailing down +the cover to the pine box, and thinking as he nailed what a nice kitchen +cupboard the box would make when once it was safely landed at his home +in the prairie, and wondering, too, how his mother--who was not very +fond of music--would bear the sound of the piano and if Ethie would be +willing for Melinda Jones to practice upon it. He knew Melinda had taken +lessons at Camden, where she had been to school, and he had heard her +express a wish that someone nearer than the village had an instrument, +as she should soon forget all she had learned. Somehow Melinda was a +good deal in Richard's mind, and when a button was missing from his +shirts, or his toes came through his socks--as was often the case at +Saratoga--he found himself thinking of the way Melinda had of helping +"fix his things" when he was going from home, and of hearing his mother +say what a handy girl she was, and what a thrifty, careful wife she +would make. He meant nothing derogatory to Ethelyn in these +reminiscences; he would not have exchanged her for a thousand Melindas, +even if he had to pin his shirt bosoms together and go barefoot all his +life. But Melinda kept recurring to his mind much as if she had been his +sister, and he thought it would be but a simple act of gratitude for all +she had done for him to give her the use of the piano for at least one +hour each day. + +In blissful ignorance of all that was meditated against her, Ethelyn saw +her piano taken away from the sitting room, where it would never stand +again, and saw the tears which rolled down Aunt Barbara's faded cheeks +as she, too, watched its going, and tried to fill up the vacancy it left +by moving a chair and a table and a footstool into the gap. Those were +hard days for Aunt Barbara, harder than for Ethelyn, who liked the +excitement of traveling, and was almost glad when the crisp October +morning came on which she was to say good-by to the home which was hers +no longer. Her two huge trunks stood in the hall, together with the +square hair trunk which held Richard's wardrobe, and the three tin cans +of peaches Mrs. Captain Markham was sending to her sister-in-law, with +the injunction to be sure and get that particular patent for cans if she +wished her fruit to keep. In addition to these, an immense box had been +forwarded by express, containing, besides Ethelyn's wearing apparel, +many little ornaments and pictures and brackets, which, during the +winter, might perhaps adorn the walls of the parlor where Daisy's +picture hung, and where, Richard had said, was also an oil-painting of +Niagara, omitting to add that it was the handiwork of Melinda Jones, +that young lady having dabbled in paints as well as music during her two +terms schooling at Camden. Tucked away in various parts of the box were +also sundry presents, which, at Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's suggestion, Ethelyn +had bought for her husband's family. For James, who, she had heard +Richard say, was an inveterate smoker, there was a handsome velvet +smoking-cap which, having been bought at Saratoga, had cost an enormous +sum; for John, an expensive pair of elaborately wrought slippers had +been selected; but when it came to Anderson, as Ethelyn persisted in +calling the brother whom Richard always spoke of as Andy, she felt a +little perplexed as to what would be appropriate. Richard had talked +very little of him--so little, in fact, that she knew nothing whatever +of his tastes, except from the scrap of conversation she once +accidentally overheard when the old captain was talking to Richard of +his brothers. + +"Does Andy like busts as well as ever?" the captain had asked, but +Richard's reply was lost as Ethelyn walked on. + +Still, she had heard enough to give her some inkling with regard to the +mysterious Andy. Probably he was more refined than either James or +John--at all events, he was evidently fond of statuary, and his tastes +should be gratified. Accordingly, Boston was ransacked by Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren for an exquisite head of Schiller, done in marble, and costing +thirty dollars. Richard did not see it. The presents were a secret from +him, all except the handsome point-lace coiffure which Aunt Barbara +sent to Mrs. Markham, together with a letter which she had sat up till +midnight to write, and in which she had touchingly commended her darling +to the new mother's care and consideration. + +"You will find my Ethie in some respects a spoiled child--[she wrote] +but it is more my fault than hers. I have loved her so much, and petted +her so much, that I have doubt if she knows what a harsh word or cross +look means. She has been carefully and delicately brought up, but has +repaid me well for all my pains by her tender love. Please, dear Mrs. +Markham, be very, very kind to her, and you will greatly oblige, your +most obedient servant, + +"BARBARA BIGELOW. + +"P.S. I dare say your ways out West are not exactly like our ways at the +East, and Ethie may not fall in with them at once, perhaps never with +some of them, but I am sure she will do what is right, as she is a +sensible girl. Again, yours with regret, B.B." + +The writing of this letter was not perhaps the wisest thing Aunt Barbara +could have done, but she was incited to it by what her sister Sophia +told her of the rumors concerning Mrs. Markham, and her own fears lest +Ethelyn should not be as comfortable with the new mother-in-law as was +wholly desirable. To Richard himself she had said that she presumed that +his mother's ways were not like Ethie's--old people were different from +young ones--the world had improved since their day, and instead of +trying to bring young folks altogether to their modes of thinking, it +was well for both to yield something. That was the third time Richard +had heard his mother's ways alluded to; first by Mrs. Jones, who called +them queer; second, by Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, who, for Ethie's sake had +also dropped a word of caution, hinting that his mother's ways might +possibly be a little peculiar; and lastly by good Aunt Barbara, who +signalized them as different from Ethelyn's. + +What did it mean, and why had he never discovered anything amiss in his +mother? He trusted that Mrs. Jones, and Mrs. Van Buren, and Aunt Barbara +were mistaken. On the whole, he knew they were; and even if they were +not his mother could not do wrong to Ethie, while Ethie would, of +course, be willing to conform to any request made by a person so much +older than herself as his mother was. So Richard dismissed that subject +from his mind, and Ethelyn--having never heard it agitated, except that +time when, with Mrs. Jones on his mind, Richard had thought proper to +suggest the propriety of her humoring his mother--felt no fears of Mrs. +Markham, senior, whom she still associated in her mind with heavy black +silk, gold-bowed spectacles, handsome lace and fleecy crochet-work. + +The October morning was clear and crisp and frosty, and the sun had not +yet shown itself above the eastern hills, when Captain Markham's +carryall drove to Aunt Barbara's gate, followed by the long +democratic-wagon which was to take the baggage. Ethelyn's spoiled +traveling dress had been replaced by a handsome poplin, which was made +in the extreme of fashion, and fitted her admirably, as did every +portion of her dress, from her jaunty hat and dotted lace veil to the +Alexandre kids and fancy little gaiters which encased her feet and +hands. She was prettier even than on her bridal day, Richard thought, as +he kissed away the tears which dropped so fast even after the last +good-by had been said to poor Aunt Barbara, who watched the flutter of +Ethie's veil and ribbons as far as they could be seen, and then in the +secrecy of her own room knelt and prayed that God would bless and keep +her darling, and make her happy in the new home to which she was going. + +It was very quiet and lonely in the Bigelow house that day, Aunt Barbara +walking softly and speaking slowly, as if the form of someone dead had +been borne from her side, while on the bed, which the housemaid Betty +had made so plump and round there was a cavity made by Aunt Barbara's +head, which hid itself there many times as the good woman went +repeatedly to God with the pain gnawing so at her heart. But in the +evening, when a cheerful wood fire was kindled on the hearth of her +pleasant sitting room, while Mrs. Captain Markham came in with her +knitting work, to sit until the Captain called for her on his return +from the meeting where he was to oppose with all his might the building +of a new schoolhouse, to pay for which he would be heavily taxed, she +felt better, and could talk composedly of the travelers, who by that +time were nearing Rochester, where they would spend the night. + +Although very anxious to reach home, Richard had promised that Ethelyn +should only travel through the day, as she was not as strong as before +her illness. And to this promise he adhered, so that it was near the +middle of the afternoon of the fifth day that the last change was made, +and they took the train that would in two hours' time deposit them at +Olney. At Camden, the county seat, they waited for a few moments. There +was always a crowd of people here going out to different parts of the +country, and as one after another came into the car Richard seemed to +know them all, while the cordial and rather noisy greeting which they +gave "the Judge" struck Ethelyn a little oddly--it was so different from +the quiet, undemonstrative manner to which she had been accustomed. With +at least a dozen men in shaggy overcoats and slouched hats she shook +hands with a tolerably good grace, but when there appeared a tall, lank, +bearded young giant of a fellow, with a dare-devil expression in his +black eyes and a stain of tobacco about his mouth, she drew back, and to +his hearty "How are ye, Miss Markham? Considerable tuckered out, I +reckon?" she merely responded with a cool bow and a haughty stare, +intended to put down the young man, whom Richard introduced as "Tim +Jones," and who, taking a seat directly in front of her, poured forth a +volley of conversation, calling Richard sometimes "Dick," sometimes +"Markham," but oftener "Squire," as he had learned to do when Richard +was justice of the peace in Olney. Melinda, too, or "Melind," was +mentioned as having been over to the "Squire's house helping the old +lady to fix up a little," and then Ethelyn knew that the "savage" was +no other than brother to Abigail Jones, deceased. The discovery was not +a pleasant one, and did not tend to smooth her ruffled spirits or lessen +the feeling of contempt for Western people in general, and Richard's +friends in particular, which had been growing in her heart ever since +the Eastern world was left behind and she had been fairly launched upon +the great prairies of the Mississippi Valley. Richard was a prince +compared with the specimens she had seen, though she did wonder that he +should be so familiar with them, calling them by their first names, and +even bandying jokes with the terrible Tim Jones spitting his tobacco +juice all over the car floor and laughing so loudly at all the "Squire" +said. It was almost too dreadful to endure, and Ethelyn's head was +beginning to ache frightfully when the long train came to a pause, and +the conductor, who also knew Judge Markham, and called him "Dick," +screamed through the open door "O-l-ney!" + +Ethelyn was at home at last. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +MRS. MARKHAM'S WAYS + +They were very peculiar, and no one knew this better than Mrs. Jones and +her daughter Melinda, sister and mother to the deceased Abigail and the +redoubtable Tim. Naturally bright and quick-witted, Melinda caught +readily at any new improvement, and the consequence was that the Jones +house bore unmistakable signs of having in it a grown-up daughter whose +new ideas of things kept the old ideas from rusting. After Melinda came +home from boarding-school the Joneses did not set the table in the +kitchen close to the hissing cook stove, but in the pleasant dining +room, where there gradually came to be crocheted tidies on the backs of +the rocking-chairs, and crayon sketches on the wall, and a pot of +geraniums in the window, with a canary bird singing in his cage near by. +At first, Mrs. Markham, who felt a greater interest in the Joneses than +in any other family--Mrs. Jones being the only woman in the circle of +her acquaintance to whom she would lend her copper boiler--looked a +little askance at these "new-fangled notions," wondering how "Miss Jones +expected to keep the flies out of her house if she had all the doors +a-flyin' three times a day," and fearing lest Melinda was getting +"stuck-up notions in her head, which would make her fit for nothing." + +But when she found there were no more flies buzzing in Farmer Jones' +kitchen than in her own, and that Melinda worked as much as ever, and +was just as willing to lend a helping hand when there was need of haste +at the Markham house, her anxiety subsided, and the Joneses were welcome +to eat wherever they chose, or even to have to wait upon the table, when +there was company, the little black boy Pete, whom Tim had bought at a +slave auction in New Orleans, whither he had gone on a flatboat +expedition two or three years before. But she never thought of +introducing any of Melinda's notions into her own household. She "could +not fuss" to keep so many rooms clean. If in winter time she kept a fire +in the front room, where in one corner her own bed was curtained off, +and if in summer she always sat there when her work was done, it was all +that could be required of her, and was just as they used to do at her +father's, in Vermont, thirty years ago. Her kitchen was larger than Mrs. +Jones', which was rather uncomfortable on a hot day when there was +washing to be done; the odor of the soap-suds was a little sickening +then, she admitted, but in her kitchen it was different; she had had an +eye to comfort when they were building, and had seen that the kitchen +was the largest, airiest, lightest room in the house, with four windows, +two outside doors, and a fireplace, where, although they had a stove, +she dearly loved to cook just as her mother had done in Vermont, and +where hung an old-fashioned crane, with iron hooks suspended from it. +Here she washed, and ironed, and ate, and performed her ablutions in the +bright tin basin which stood in the sink near to the pail, with the +gourd swinging in the top, and wiped her face on the rolling towel and +combed her hair before the clock, which served the double purpose of +looking-glass and timepiece. When company came--and Mrs. Markham was not +inhospitable--the east room, where the bed stood, was opened; and if the +company, as was sometimes the case, chanced to be Richard's friends, she +used the west room across the hall, where the chocolate-colored paper +and Daisy's picture hung, and where, upon the high mantel, there was a +plaster image of little Samuel, and two plaster vases filled with +colored fruit. The carpet was a very pretty Brussels, but it did not +quite cover the floor on either side. It was a small pattern, and on +this account had been offered a shilling cheaper a yard, and so the +economical Mrs. Markham had bought it, intending to eke out the +deficiency with drugget of a corresponding shade; but the merchant did +not bring the drugget, and the carpet was put down, and time went on, +and the strips of painted board were still uncovered, save by the +straight row of haircloth chairs, which stood upon one side, and the +old-fashioned sofa, which had cost fifty dollars, and ought to last at +least as many years. There was a Boston rocker, and a center table, with +the family Bible on it, and a volume of Scott's Commentaries, and +frosted candlesticks on the mantel and two sperm candles in them, with +colored paper, pink and green, all fancifully notched and put around +them, and a bureau in the corner, which held the boys' Sunday shirts and +Mrs. Markham's black silk dress, with Daisy's clothes in the bottom +drawer, and the silver plate taken from her coffin. There was a +gilt-framed looking-glass on the wall, and blue paper curtains at the +windows, which were further ornamented with muslin drapery. This was the +great room--the parlor--where Daisy had died, and which, on that +account, was a kind of sacred place to those who held the memory of that +sweet, little prairie blossom as the dearest memory of their lives. Had +she lived, with her naturally refined tastes, and her nicety of +perceptions, there was no guessing what that farmhouse might have been, +for a young girl makes a deal of difference in any family. But she died, +and so the house, which when she died, was not quite finished, remained +much as it was--a large, square building, minus blinds, with a wide +hall in the center opening in front upon a broad piazza, and opening +back upon a stoop, the side entrance to the kitchen. There was a picket +fence in front; but the yard was bare of ornament, if we except the +lilac bushes under the parlor windows, the red peony in the corner, and +the clumps of violets and daisies, which grew in what was intended for +borders to the walk, from the front gate to the door. Sometimes the +summer showed here a growth of marigolds, with sweet peas and china +asters, for Andy was fond of flowers, and when he had leisure he did a +little floral gardening; but this year, owing to Richard's absence, +there had been more to do on the farm, consequently the ornamental had +been neglected, and the late autumn flowers which, in honor of Ethelyn's +arrival, were standing in vases on the center table and the mantel, were +contributed by Melinda Jones, who had been very busy in other portions +of the house working for the bride. + +She could do this now without a single pang of jealousy, for she was a +sensible girl, and after a night and a day of heaviness, and a vague +sense of disappointment, she had sung as merrily as ever, and no one was +more interested in the arrival of Richard's bride than she, from the +time when Richard started eastward for her. Between herself and her +mother there had been a long, confidential conversation, touching Mrs. +Markham's ways and the best means of circumventing them, so that the new +wife might not be utterly crushed with homesickness and surprise when +she first arrived. No one could manage Mrs. Markham as well as Melinda, +and it was owing to her influence wholly that the large, pleasant +chamber, which had been Richard's ever since he became a growing man, +was renovated and improved until it presented a very inviting +appearance. The rag carpet which for years had done duty, and bore many +traces of Richard's muddy boots, had been exchanged for a new +ingrain--not very pretty in design, or very stylish either, but +possessing the merit of being fresh and clean. To get the carpet Melinda +had labored assiduously, and had enlisted all three of the brothers, +James, and John, and Andy in the cause before the economical mother +consented to the purchase. The rag carpet, if cleaned and mended, was as +good as ever, she insisted; and even if it were not, she could put on +one that had not seen so much actual service. It was Andy who finally +decided her to indulge in the extravagance urged by Melinda Jones. There +were reasons why Andy was very near to his mother's heart, and when he +offered to sell his brown pony, which he loved as he did his eyes, his +mother yielded the point, and taking with her both Mrs. Jones and +Melinda, went to Camden, and sat two mortal hours upon rolls of +carpeting while she decided which to take. + +Mrs. Markham was not stingy with regard to her table; that was always +loaded with the choicest of everything, while many a poor family blessed +her as an angel. But the articles she ate were mostly the products of +their large, well-cultivated farm; they did not cost money directly out +of her hand, and it was the money she disliked parting with, so she +talked and dickered, and beat the Camden merchant down five cents on a +yard, and made him cut it a little short, to save a waste, and made him +throw in the thread and binding and swear when she was gone, wondering +who "the stingy old woman was." And yet the very day after her return +from Camden "the stingy old woman" had sent to her minister a loaf of +bread and a pail of butter, and to a poor sick woman, who lived in a +leaky cabin off in the prairie, a nice, warm blanket for her bed, with a +basket of delicacies to tempt her capricious appetite. + +In due time the carpet had been made, Melinda Jones sewing up three of +the seams, while Andy, who knew how to use the needle almost as well as +a girl, claimed the privilege of sewing at least half a seam on the new +sister's carpet. Adjoining Richard's chamber was a little room where +Mrs. Markham's flour and meal and corn were kept, but which, with a +little fitting up, would answer nicely for a bedroom, and after an +amount of engineering, which would have done credit to the general of an +army, Melinda succeeded in coaxing Mrs. Markham to move her barrels and +bags, and give up the room for Ethelyn's bed, which looked very nice and +inviting, notwithstanding that the pillows were small, and the bedstead +a high poster, which had been in use for twenty years. Mrs. Markham knew +all about the boxes, as she called them. There was one in Mrs. Jones' +front chamber, but she had never bought one, for what then would she do +with her old ones--"with them laced cords," so greatly preferable to the +hard slats, which nearly broke her back the night she slept on some at a +friend's house in Olney. + +Richard was fond of books, and had collected from time to time a +well-selected library, which was the only ornament in his room when +Melinda first took it in hand; but when she had finished her work--when +the carpet was down, and the neat, white shades were up at the windows; +when the books which used to be on the floor and table, and chairs, and +mantel, and window sills, and anywhere, were neatly arranged in the very +respectable shelves which Andy made and James had painted; when the +little sewing chair designed for Ethelyn was put before one window, and +Richard's arm-chair before the other, and the drab lounge was drawn a +little into the room, and the bureau stood corner-ways, with a bottle of +cologne upon it, which John had bought, and a pot of pomade Andy had +made, and two little pink and white mats Melinda had crocheted, the room +was very presentable. Great, womanish Andy was sure Ethelyn would be +pleased, and rubbed his hands jubilantly over the result of his labors, +while Melinda was certainly pardonable for feeling that in return for +what she had done for Richard's wife she might venture to suggest that +the huge box, marked piano, which for ten days had been standing on the +front piazza, be opened and the piano set up, so that she could try its +tone. This box had cost Andy a world of trouble, keeping him awake +nights, and taking him from his bed more than once, as he fancied he +heard a mysterious sound, and feared someone might be stealing the +ponderous thing, which it took four men to lift. With the utmost +alacrity he helped in the unpacking, nearly bursting a blood-vessel as +he tugged at the heaviest end, and then running to the village with all +his speed, to borrow Mrs. Crandall's piano key, which, fortunately, +fitted Ethelyn's, so that Melinda Jones was soon seated in state, and +running her fingers over the superb five-hundred dollar instrument, +Ethelyn's gift from Aunt Barbara on her nineteenth birthday. + +Melinda's fingers were strained and cut with carpet thread, and pricked +with carpet tacks, and red with washing dishes, but they moved nimbly +over the keys, striking out with a will the few tunes she had learned +during her two quarters' instruction. She had acquired a great deal of +knowledge in a short time, for she was passionately fond of music, and +every spare moment had been devoted to it, so that she had mastered the +scales with innumerable exercises, besides learning several pieces, of +which Money-musk was one. This she now played with a sprightliness and +energy which brought Andy to his feet, while the cowhides moved to the +stirring music in a fashion which would have utterly confounded poor +Ethelyn could she have seen them. But Ethelyn was miles and miles away. +She was not coming for a week or more, and in that time Andy tried his +hand at Yankee Doodle, playing with one finger, and succeeding far +beyond his most sanguine expectations. Andy was delighted with the +piano, and so was Eunice, the hired girl, who left her ironing and her +dishes, standing with wiping towel or flatiron in hand, humming an +accompaniment to Andy's playing, and sometimes helping to find the +proper key to touch next. + +Eunice was not an Irish girl, nor a German, nor a Scotch, but a +full-blooded American, and "just as good as her employers," with whom +she always ate and sat. It was not Mrs. Markham's custom to keep a girl +the year round, but when she did it was Eunice Plympton, the daughter of +the drunken fiddler who earned his livelihood by playing for the dances +the young people of Olney sometimes got up. He was anticipating quite a +windfall from the infair it was confidently expected would be given by +Mrs. Markham in honor of her son's marriage; and Eunice herself had +washed and starched and ironed the white waist she intended to wear on +the same occasion. Of course she knew she would have to wait and tend +and do the running, she said to Melinda, to whom she confided her +thoughts, but after the supper was over she surely might have one little +dance, if with nobody but Andy. + +This was Eunice, and she had been with Mrs. Markham during the past +summer; but her time was drawing to a close. All the heavy work was +over, the harvests were gathered in, the soap was made, the cleaning +done, the house made ready for Richard's wife, and it was the +understanding that when that lady came and was somewhat domesticated, +Miss Eunice was to leave. There was not much to do in the winter, Mrs. +Markham said, and with Richard's wife's help she should get along. Alas! +how little Ethelyn was prepared for the home which awaited her, and for +the really good woman, who, on the afternoon of her son's arrival, saw +into the oven the young turkey which Andy had been feeding for so very +long with a view to this very day, and then helped Eunice set the table +for the expected guests. + +It did occur to Mrs. Markham that there might be a great propriety in +Eunice's waiting for once, inasmuch as there were plates to change, and +custard pie and minced, and pudding, to be brought upon the table, for +they were having a great dinner, but the good woman did not dare hint at +such a thing, so the seven plates were put upon the table, and the china +cups brought from the little cupboard at the side of the chimney, and +the silver teapot, which was a family heirloom, and had been given Mrs. +Markham by her mother, was brought also and rubbed up with what Eunice +called a "shammy," and the pickles, and preserves, and honey, and cheese +and jellies, and the white raised biscuits and fresh brown bread, and +shredded cabbage and cranberry sauce, with golden butter, and pitchers +of cream, were all arranged according to Eunice's ideas. The turkey was +browning nicely, the vegetables were cooking upon the stove, the odor of +silver-skinned onions pervading the entire house. Eunice was grinding +the coffee, and the clock said it wanted but half an hour of car-time, +when Mrs. Markham finally left the kitchen and proceeded to make +her toilet. + +Eunice's had been made some time ago, and the large-sized hoop she wore +had already upset a pail and dragged a griddle from the stove hearth, +greatly to the discomfiture of Mrs. Markham, who did not fancy hoops, +though she wore a small one this afternoon under her clean and +stiffly-starched dress of purple calico. St. Paul would have made her an +exception in his restrictions with regard to women's apparel, for +neither gold nor silver ornaments, nor braided hair, found any tolerance +in her. She followed St. Paul strictly, except at such times as the good +people in the Methodist church at the east end of the village held a +protracted meeting, when she deviated so far from his injunction as to +speak her mind and tell her experience. + +She was a good and conscientious woman, practicing what she preached, +and believing more in the inner than the outer adorning; but she looked +very neat this afternoon in her purple calico, with a motherly white +apron tied around her waist, and her soft, silvery hair combed smoothly +back from her forehead and twisted in a knot behind, about the size of a +half dollar. This knot however, was hidden by the headdress which +Melinda had made from bits of black lace and purple ribbon, and which, +though not at all like Aunt Barbara's Boston caps, was still very +respectable, and even tasteful-looking. Almost too tasteful, Mrs. +Markham thought, as she glanced at the tiny artificial flower tucked in +among the bows of ribbon. But Mrs. Markham did not remove the flower, +for it was a daisy, and it made her think of the Daisy who died fourteen +years ago, and who, had she lived till now, would have been +twenty-eight. + +"A married woman, most likely, and I might have been grandmother," Mrs. +Markham sighed, and then, as she heard in fancy the patter of little +feet at her side, and saw before her little faces with a look like Daisy +in them, her thoughts went softly out to Richard's bride, through whom +this coveted blessing might come to her quiet household, and her heart +throbbed with a quick sudden yearning for the young daughter-in-law, +now just alighting at the Olney station, for the Eastern train had come, +and James was there with the democrat-wagon to meet it. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +GETTING HOME + +Olney was a thriving, busy little town, numbering five hundred +inhabitants or thereabouts. It had its groceries, its dry goods stores, +and its two houses for public worship--the Methodist and +Presbyterian--while every other Sunday a little band of Episcopalians +met for their own service in what was called the Village Hall, where, +during week days, a small, select school was frequently taught by some +Yankee schoolmistress. It had its post office, too; and there was also +talk of a bank after the railroad came that way, and roused the people +to a state of still greater activity. On the whole, it was a pretty +town, though different from Chicopee, where the houses slept so +aristocratically under the shadow of the old elms, which had been +growing there since the day when our national independence was declared. + +At home Ethelyn's pride had all been centered in Boston, and she had +sometimes thought a little contemptuously of Chicopee and its +surroundings; but the farther she traveled west the higher Chicopee rose +in her estimation, until she found herself comparing every prairie +village with that rural town among the hills, which seemed to give it +dignity, and made it so greatly superior to the dead levels of which she +was getting so weary. She had admired the rolling prairies at first, +but, tired and jaded with her long journey, nothing looked well to her +now--nothing was like Chicopee--certainly not Olney, where the dwellings +looked so new and the streets were minus sidewalks. + +Ethelyn had a good view of it as the train approached it and even caught +a passing glimpse of the white house in the distance which Richard +pointed out as home, his face lighting up with all the pleasure of a +schoolboy as he saw the old familiar waymarks and felt that he was +home at last. + +Dropping her veil over her face Ethelyn arose to follow her husband, who +in his eagerness to grasp the hand of the tall, burly young man he had +seen from the window, forgot to carry her shawl and her satchel, which +last being upon the car-rack, she tugged at it with all her strength, +and was about crying with vexation at Richard's thoughtlessness, when +Tim Jones, who while rolling his quid of tobacco in his great mouth, had +watched her furtively, wondering how she and Melind would get along, +gallantly came to her aid, and taking the satchel down kept it upon +his arm. + +"Take care of that air step. Better let me help you out. Dick is so +tickled to see Jim that he even forgets his wife, I swan!" Tim said, +offering to assist her from the train; but with a feeling of disgust too +deep to be expressed, Ethelyn declined the offer and turned away from +him to meet the curious gaze of the young man whom Richard presented as +brother James. + +He was younger than his brother by half a dozen years, but he looked +quite as old, if not older. His face and hands were sunburnt and brown, +his clothes were coarse, his pants were tucked into his tall, muddy +boots, and he held in his hands the whip with which he had driven the +shining bays, pricking up their ears behind the depot and eyeing askance +the train just beginning to move away. The Markhams were all +good-looking, and James was not an exception. The Olney girls called him +very handsome, when on Sunday he came to church in his best clothes and +led the Methodist choir; but Ethelyn only thought him rough, and coarse, +and vulgar, and when he bent down to kiss her she drew back haughtily. + +"Ethelyn!" Richard said, in the low, peculiar tone, which she had almost +unconsciously learned to fear, just as she did the dark expression which +his hazel eyes assumed as he said the single word "Ethelyn!" + +She was afraid of Richard when he looked and spoke that way, and putting +up her lip, she permitted the kiss which the warm-hearted James gave to +her. He was naturally more demonstrative than his brother, and more +susceptible, too; a pretty face would always set his heart to beating +and call out all the gallantry of his nature. Wholly unsophisticated, he +never dreamed of the gulf there was between him and the new sister, whom +he thought so beautiful--loving her at once, because she was so pretty, +and because she was the wife of Dick, their household idol. He was more +of a ladies' man than Richard, and when on their way to the +democratic-wagon they came to a patch of mud, through which Ethelyn's +skirts were trailing, he playfully lifted her in his strong arms, and +set her down upon the wagon-box, saying, as he adjusted her skirts: "We +can't have that pretty dress spoiled, the very first day, with +Iowa mud." + +All this time Tim Jones had been dutifully holding the satchel, which he +now deposited at Ethelyn's feet, and then, at James' invitation, he +sprang into the hinder part of the wagon-box, and sitting down, let his +long limbs dangle over the backboard, while James sat partly in +Richard's lap and partly in Ethelyn's. It had been decided that the +democrat must come down again for the baggage; and so, three on a seat, +with Tim Jones holding on behind, Ethelyn was driven through the town, +while face after face looked at her from the windows of the different +dwellings, and comment after comment was made upon her pretty little +round hat, with its jaunty feather, which style had not then penetrated +so far west as Olney. Rumors there were of the Eastern ladies wearing +hats which made them look at least ten years younger than their actual +age; but Ethelyn was the first to carry the fashion to Olney, and she +was pronounced very stylish, and very girlish, too, by those who watched +her curiously from behind their curtains and blinds. + +It was the close of a chill October day, and a bank of angry clouds hung +darkly in the western sky, while the autumn wind blew across the +prairie; but colder, blacker, chillier far than prairie winds, or +threatening clouds, or autumnal day was the shadow resting on Ethelyn's +heart, and making her almost cry out with loneliness and homesickness, +as they drew near the house where the blue paper curtains were hanging +before the windows and Eunice Plympton's face was pressed against the +pane. The daisies and violets and summer grass were withered and dead, +and the naked branches of the lilac bush brushed against the house with +a mournful, rasping sound, which reminded her of the tall sign-post in +Chicopee, which used to creak so in the winter wind, and keep her Aunt +Barbara awake. To the right of the house, and a little in the rear, were +several large, square corn-cribs, and behind these an inclosure in which +numerous cattle, and horses, and pigs were industriously feeding, while +the cobs, stripped, and soiled, and muddy, were scattered everywhere. +Ethelyn took it all in at a glance, exclaiming, in a smothered voice, as +the wagon turned into the lane which led to the side door, "Not here, +Richard; surely, not here!" + +But Richard, if he heard her, did not heed her. He could not comprehend +her utter desolation and crushing disappointment. Her imaginings of his +home had never been anything like this reality, and for a moment she +felt as if in a kind of horrible nightmare, from which she struggled +to awake. + +"Oh! if it were only a dream," she thought; but it was no dream, though +as Richard himself lifted her carefully from the wagon, and deposited +her upon the side stoop, there came a mist before her eyes, and for an +instant sense and feeling forsook her; but only for an instant, for the +hall door was thrown open, and Richard's mother came out to greet her +son and welcome her new daughter. + +But alas for Ethelyn's visions of heavy silk and costly lace! How they +vanished before this woman in purple calico, with ruffles of the same +standing up about the throat, and the cotton lace coiffure upon her +head! She was very glad to see her boy and wound both her arms around +his neck, but she was afraid of Ethelyn. She, too, had had her ideal, +but it was not like this proud-looking beauty, dressed so stylishly, +and, as it seemed to her so extravagantly, with her long, full skirt of +handsome poplin trailing so far behind her, and her basque fitting her +graceful figure so admirably. Neither did the hat, rolled so jauntily on +the sides, and giving her a coquettish appearance, escape her notice, +nor the fact that the dotted veil was not removed from the white face, +even after Richard had put the little, plump hand in hers, and said: + +"This, mother, is Ethie, my wife. I hope you will love each other for my +sake." + +In her joy at seeing her pet boy again, Mrs. Markham would have done a +great deal for his sake, but she could not "kiss a veil," as she +afterwards said to Melinda Jones, when she reached the point where she +talked straight out about her daughter-in-law. No, she could not kiss a +veil, and so she only held and pressed Ethelyn's hand, and leading her +into the house, told her she was very welcome, and bade her come to the +fire and take off her things, and asked if she was not tired, and cold +and hungry. + +And Ethelyn tried to answer, but the great lumps were swelling in her +throat, and so keen a pain was tugging at her heart that when at last, +astonished at her silence, Richard said, "What is the matter, Ethie--why +don't you answer mother?" she burst out in a pitiful cry: + +"Oh, Richard, I can't, I can't; please take me back to Aunt Barbara." + +This was the crisis, the concentration of all she had been suffering for +the last hour, and it touched Mrs. Markham's heart, for she remembered +just how wretched she had been when she first landed at the rude log +cabin which was so long her Western home, and turning to Richard, she +said, in an aside: + +"She is homesick, poor child, as it's natural she should be at first. +She'll be better by and by, so don't think strange of it. She seems +very young." + +In referring to her youth, Mrs. Markham meant nothing derogatory to her +daughter-in-law, though Ethelyn did strike her as very young, in her +pretty hat with her heavy hair low in her neck. She was finding an +excuse for her crying, and did not mean that Ethelyn should hear. But +she did hear, and the hot tears were dashed aside at once. She was too +proud to be petted or patronized by Mrs. Markham, or apologized for by +her, so she dried her eyes, and lifting her head, said proudly: + +"I am tired to-night, and my head is aching so hard that I lost my +self-control. I beg you will excuse me. Richard knows me too well to +need an excuse." + +A born duchess could not have assumed a loftier air, and in some +perplexity Mrs. Markham glanced from her to Richard, as if asking what +to do next. Fortunately for all parties, Andy just then came in with his +brother John, who approached his new sister with some little hesitation. +He had heard Tim Jones' verdict, "Stuck up as the old Nick," while even +cautious James had admitted his fears that Dick had made a mistake, and +taken a wife who would never fit their ways. And this was why John had +been so late with his welcome. He had crept up the back stairs, and +donned his best necktie, and changed his heavy boots for a pair of +shoes, which left exposed to view a portion of his blue yarn socks. He +had before changed his coat and vest, and tied on a handkerchief, but it +was not his best; not the satin cravat, with the pretty bow Melinda +Jones had made, and in which was stuck a rather fanciful pin he wore on +great occasions. He was all right now, and he shook hands with his new +sister, and asked if she were pretty well, and told her she was welcome, +and then stepped back for Andy, who had been making his toilet when the +bride arrived, and so was late with his congratulations. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ANDY + +Andy was a character in his way. A fall from his horse upon the ground +had injured his head when he was a boy, and since that time he had been +what his mother called a little queer, while the neighbors spoke of him +as simple Andy, or Mrs. Markham's half-wit, who did the work of a girl +and knit all his own socks. He was next to Richard in point of age, but +he looked younger than either of his brothers, for his face was round +and fair, and smooth as any girl's. It is true that every Sunday of his +life he made a great parade with lather and shaving-cup, standing before +the glass in his shirt-sleeves, just as the other boys did, and +flourishing his razor around his white throat and beardless face, to the +amusement of anyone who chanced to see him for the first time. + +In his younger days, when the tavern at the Cross Roads was just opened, +Andy had been a sore trial to both mother and brothers, and many a +night, when the rain and sleet were driving across the prairies, Richard +had left the warm fireside and gone out in the storm after the erring +Andy, who had more than once been found by the roadside, with his hat +jammed into every conceivable shape, his face scratched, and a tell-tale +smell about his breath which contradicted his assertion "that somebody +had knocked him down." + +Andy had been intemperate, and greatly given to what the old Captain in +Chicopee had designated as "busts"; but since the time when the church +missionary, young Mr. Townsend, had come to Olney, and held his first +service in the log schoolhouse, Andy had ceased to frequent the Cross +Roads tavern, and Richard went no more in the autumnal storms to look +for his wayward brother. There was something in the beautiful simplicity +of the church service which went straight to Andy's heart, and more than +all, there was something in Mr. Townsend's voice, and manner, and face, +which touched a responsive chord in the breast of the boyish Andy, and +when at last the bishop came to that section of Iowa, his hands were +first laid in blessing on the bowed head of Andy, who knelt to receive +the rite of confirmation in the presence of a large concourse of people, +to most of whom the service and ceremony were entirely new. + +While rejoicing and thanking God for the change, which she felt was +wholly sincere, Mrs. Markham had deeply deplored the pertinacity with +which Andy had clung to his resolve to join "Mr. Townsend's church or +none." She did not doubt Mr. Townsend's piety or Andy's either, but she +doubted the Episcopalians generally because they did not require more +than God himself requires, and it hurt her sore that Andy should go with +them rather than to her church across the brook, where Father Aberdeen +preached every Sunday against the pride, and pomp, and worldliness +generally of his Episcopal brethren. Andy believed in Mr. Townsend, and +in time he came to believe heart and soul in the church doctrines as +taught by him, and the beautiful consistency of his daily life was to +his mother like a constant and powerful argument in favor of the church +to which he belonged, while to his brothers it was a powerful argument +in favor of the religion he professed. + +That Andy Markham was a Christian no one doubted. It showed itself in +every act of his life; it shone in his beaming, good-natured face, and +made itself heard in the touching pathos of his voice, when he repeated +aloud in his room the prayers of his church, saying to his mother, when +she objected that his prayers were made up beforehand: "And for the +land's sake, ain't the sams and hims, which are nothing but prayers set +to music, made up beforehand? A pretty muss you'd have of it if +everybody should strike out for himself, a singin' his own words just as +they popped into his head." + +Mrs. Markham was not convinced, but she let Andy alone after that, +simply remarking that "the prayer-book would not always answer the +purpose; there would come a time when just what he wanted was +not there." + +Andy was willing to wait till that time came, trusting to Mr. Townsend +to find for him some way of escape; and so the matter dropped, and he +was free to read his prayers as much as he pleased. He had heard from +Richard that his new sister was of his way of thinking--that though not +a member of the church except by baptism, she was an Episcopalian, and +would be married by that form. + +It was strange how Andy's great, warm heart went out toward Ethelyn +after that. He was sure to like her; and on the evening of the bridal, +when the clock struck nine, he had taken his tallow candle to his room, +and opening his prayer-book at the marriage ceremony, had read it +carefully through, even to the saying: "I, Richard, take thee, Ethelyn," +etc., kneeling at the proper time, and after he was through even +venturing to improvise a prayer of his own, in which he asked, not that +Ethelyn might be happy with his brother--there was no doubt on that +point, for Richard was perfect in his estimation--but that "old Dick" +might be happy with her--that he, Andy, might do his whole duty by her, +and that, if it was right to ask it, she might bring him something from +that famous Boston, which seemed to him like a kind of paradise, and +also that she need not at once discover that he did not know as much as +"old Dick." + +This was Andy's prayer, which he had confessed to Mr. Townsend; and now, +all shaven and shorn, with his best Sunday coat and a large bandanna in +his hand, he came in to greet his sister. It needed but a glance for +Ethelyn to know the truth, for Andy's face told what he was; but there +was something so kind in his expression and so winning in his voice, as +he called her "Sister Ethie," that she unbent to him as she had unbent +to no one else; and when he stooped to kiss her, she did not draw back +as she had from James and John, but promptly put up her lips, and only +winced a very little at the second loud, hearty smack which Andy gave +her, his great mouth leaving a wet spot on her cheek, which she wiped +away with her handkerchief. + +Richard had dreaded the meeting between his polished wife and his simple +brother more than anything else, and several times he had tried to +prepare Ethelyn for it, but he could not bring himself to say, "Andy is +foolish"; for when he tried to do it Andy's pleading face came up before +him just as it looked on the morning of his departure from home in June, +when Andy had said to him: "Don't tell her what a shaller critter I am. +Let her find it out by her learning." + +So Richard had said nothing particular of Andy, and now he watched him +anxiously, to see the impression he was making, and, as he saw Ethelyn's +manner, marveling greatly at this new phase in her disposition. She did +not feel half so desolate after seeing Andy, and she let him hold her +hand, which he stroked softly, admiring its whiteness, and evidently +comparing it with his own. All the Markhams had large hands and feet, +just as they were all good-looking. Even Andy had his points of beauty, +for his soft brown hair was handsomer, if possible, than Richard's, and +more luxuriant, while many a city dandy might have coveted his white, +even teeth, and his dark eyes were very placid and gentle in their +expression. + +"Little sister" he called Ethelyn, who though not very short in stature, +seemed to him so much younger than he had expected Dick's wife to be +that he applied the term "little" as he would to anything which he +wished to pet. + +Ethelyn's hat was laid aside by this time, and the basquine, too, which +Andy thought the prettiest coat he had ever seen, and which Eunice, who +was bidden to carry Ethelyn's things away, tried on before the glass in +Ethelyn's chamber, as she did also the hat, deciding that Melinda Jones +could make her something like them out of a gray skirt she had at home +and one of Tim's palm-leaf hats. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +DINNER, AND AFTER IT + +Eunice had not fully seen the stranger, and so, when dinner was +announced and Richard led her out, with Andy hovering at her side, she +stood ready to be introduced, with the little speech she had been +rehearsing about "I hope to see you well," etc., trembling on the tip of +her tongue. But her plans were seriously disarranged. Six months before +Richard would have presented her himself, as a matter of course; but he +had learned some things since then, and he tried not to see his mother's +meaning as she glanced from him to Eunice and then to Ethelyn, whose +proud, dignified bearing awed and abashed even her. Eunice, however, had +been made quite too much of to be wholly ignored now, and Mrs. Markham +felt compelled to say, "Ethelyn, this--ah, this is--Eunice--Eunice +Plympton." + +That Eunice Plympton was the hired girl Ethelyn did not for a moment +dream; but that she was coarse and vulgar, like the rest of Richard's +family, she at once decided, and if she bowed at all it was not +perceptible to Eunice, who mentally resolved "to go home in the morning +if such a proud minx was to live there." + +Mrs. Markham saw the gathering storm, and Richard knew by the drop of +her chin that Ethelyn had not made a good impression. How could she with +that proud cold look, which never for an instant left her face, but +rather deepened in its expression as the dinner proceeded, and one after +the other Mrs. Markham and Eunice left the table in quest of something +that was missing, while Andy himself, being nearest the kitchen, went to +bring a pitcher of hot water for Ethelyn's coffee, lifting the kettle +with the skirt of his coat, and snapping his fingers, which were +slightly burned with the scalding steam. From the position she occupied +at the table Ethelyn saw the whole performance, and had it been in any +other house she would have smiled at Andy's grotesque appearance as he +converted his coat skirts into a holder; but now it only sent a colder +chill to her heart as she reflected that these were Richard's people and +this was Richard's home. Sadly and vividly there arose before her +visions of dear Aunt Barbara's household, where Betty served so quietly +and where, except that they were upon a smaller scale, everything was as +well and properly managed as in Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's family. It was +several hours since she had tasted food, but she could scarcely swallow +a morsel for the terrible homesick feeling swelling in her throat. She +knew the viands before her were as nicely cooked as even Aunt Barbara or +Betty could have cooked them--so much she conceded to Mrs. Markham and +Eunice; but had her life depended upon it she could not have eaten them +and the plate which James had filled so plentifully scarcely diminished +at all. She did pick a little with her fork at the white, tender turkey, +and tried to drink her coffee, but the pain in her head and the pain at +her heart were both too great to allow of her doing more, and Mrs. +Markham and Eunice both felt a growing contempt for a dainty thing who +could not eat the dinner they had been at so much pains to prepare. + +Ethelyn knew their opinion of her as well as if it had been expressed in +words; but they were so very far beneath her that whatsoever they might +think was not of the slightest consequence. They were a vulgar, ignorant +set, the whole of them, she mentally decided, as she watched their +manners at table, noticing how James and John poured their coffee into +their saucers, blowing it until it was cool, while Richard, feeling more +freedom now that he was again under his mother's wing, used his knife +altogether, even to eating jelly with it. Ethelyn was disgusted, and +once, as Richard's well-filled knife was moving toward his mouth, she +gently touched his foot with her own; but if he understood her he did +not heed her, and went quietly on with his dinner. Indeed, it might be +truly said of him that "Richard was himself again," for his whole manner +was that of a petted child, which, having returned to the mother who +spoiled it, had cast off the restraint under which for a time it had +been laboring. Richard was hungry, and would have enjoyed his dinner +hugely but for the cold, silent woman beside him, who, he knew, was +watching and criticising all he did; but somehow at home he did not care +so much for her criticisms as when alone with her at fashionable hotels +or with fashionable people. Here he was supreme, and none had ever +disputed his will. Perhaps if Ethelyn had known all that was in his +heart she might have changed her tactics and tried to have been more +conciliatory on that first evening of her arrival at his home. But +Ethelyn did not know--she only felt that she was homesick and +wretched--and pleading a headache, from which she was really suffering, +she asked to go to her room as soon as dinner was over. + +It was very pleasant up there, for a cheerful wood fire was blazing on +the hearth, and a rocking-chair drawn up before it, with a footstool +which Andy had made and Melinda covered, while the bed in the little +room adjoining looked so fresh, and clean, and inviting, that with a +great sigh of relief, as the door closed between her and the "dreadful +people below," Ethelyn threw herself upon it, and burying her face in +the soft pillows, tried to smother the sobs which, nevertheless, smote +heavily upon Richard's ear when he came in, and drove from him all +thoughts of the little lecture he had been intending to give Ethelyn +touching her deportment toward his folks. It would only be a fair +return, he reflected, for all the Caudles he had listened to so +patiently, and duly strengthened for his task by his mother's remark to +James, accidentally overheard, "Altogether too fine a lady for us. I +wonder what Richard was thinking of," he mounted the stairs resolved at +least to talk with Ethie and ask her to do better. + +Richard could be very stern when he tried, and the hazel of his eye was +darker than usual, and the wrinkle between his eyebrows was deeper as he +thus meditated harm against his offending wife. But the sight of the +crushed form lying so helplessly upon the bed and crying in such a +grieved, heart-sick way, drove all thoughts of discipline from his mind. +He could not add one iota to her misery. She might be cold, and proud, +and even rude to his family, as she unquestionably had been, but she was +still Ethie, his young wife, whom he loved so dearly; and bending over +her, he smoothed the silken bands of her beautiful hair and said to her +softly, "What is it, darling? Anything worse than homesickness? Has +anyone injured you?" + +No one had injured her. On the contrary, all had met, or tried to meet +her with kindness, which she had thrust back upon them. Ethelyn knew +this as well as anyone, and Mrs. Markham, washing her dishes below +stairs, and occasionally wiping her eyes with the corner of the check +apron as she thought how all her trouble had been thrown away upon a +proud, ungrateful girl, could not think less of Ethie than Ethie thought +of herself, upstairs sobbing among the pillows. The family were ignorant +and ill bred, as she counted ignorance and ill breeding; but they did +mean to be kind to her, and she hated herself for her ingratitude in not +at least seeming pleased with their endeavors to please her. Added to +this was a vague remembrance of a certain look seen in Richard's eye--a +look which made her uneasy as she thought, "What if he should hate +me, too?" + +Richard was all Ethelyn had to cling to now. She respected, if she did +not love him, and when she heard his step upon the stairs, her heart, +for an instant, throbbed with dread lest he was coming to chide her as +she deserved. When, then, he bent so kindly over her, and spoke to her +so tenderly, all her better nature went out toward him in a sudden gush +of something akin to love, and lifting her head, she laid it upon his +bosom, and drawing his arm around her neck, held it there with a sense +of protection, while she said: "No one has injured me; but, oh, I am so +homesick, and they are all so different, and my head aches so hard." + +He knew she was homesick and it was natural that she should be; and he +knew, too, that, as she said, they were "so different," and though on +this point he could not fully appreciate her feelings he was sorry for +her, and he soothed her aching head, and kissed her forehead, and told +her she was tired; she would feel better by and by, and get accustomed +to their ways, and when, as he said this, he felt the shiver with which +she repelled the assertion, he repressed his inclination to tell her +that she could at least conceal her aversion to whatever was +disagreeable, and kissing her again, bade her lie down and try to sleep, +as that would help her sooner than anything else, unless it were a cup +of sage tea, such as his mother used to make for him when his head was +aching. Should he send Eunice up with a cup? + +"No; oh, no," and Ethelyn's voice expressed the disgust she felt for the +young lady with red streamers in her hair, who had stared so at her and +called her husband Richard. + +Ethelyn had not yet defined Eunice's position in the family--whether it +was that of cousin, or niece, or companion--and now that Richard had +suggested her, she said to him: + +"Who is this Eunice that seems so familiar?" + +Richard hesitated a little and then replied: + +"She is the girl who works for mother when we need help." + +"Not a hired girl--surely not a hired girl!" and Ethelyn opened her +brown eyes wide with surprise and indignation, wondering aloud what Aunt +Sophia or Aunt Barbara would say if they knew she had eaten with and +been introduced to a hired girl. + +Richard did not say, "Aunt Sophia or Aunt Barbara be hanged, or +be--anything," but he thought it, just as he thought Ethelyn's ideas +particular and over-nice. Eunice Plympton was a respectable, trusty +girl, and he believed in doing well for those who did well for him; but +that was no time to argue the point, and so he sat still and listened to +Ethelyn's complaint that Eunice had called him Richard, and would +undoubtedly on the morrow address her as Ethelyn. Richard thought not, +but changed his mind when, fifteen minutes later, he descended to the +kitchen and heard Eunice asking Andy if he did not think "Ethelyn looked +like the Methodist minister's new wife." + +This was an offense which even Richard could not suffer to pass +unrebuked, and sending Andy out on some pretext or other, he said that +to Eunice Plympton which made her more careful as to what she called his +wife, but he did it so kindly that she could not be offended with him, +though she was strengthened in her opinion that "Miss Ethelyn was a +stuck-up, an upstart, and a hateful. Supposin' she had been waited on +all her life, and brought up delicately, as Richard said, that was no +reason why she need feel so big, and above speaking to a poor girl when +she was introduced." She guessed that "Eunice Plympton was fully as +respectable and quite as much thought on by the neighbors, if she didn't +wear a frock coat and a man's hat with a green feather stuck in it." + +This was the substance of Eunice's soliloquy, as she cleaned the +potatoes for the morrow's breakfast, and laid the kindlings by the +stove, ready for the morning fire. Still Eunice was not a bad-hearted +girl, and when Andy, who heard her mutterings, put in a plea for +Ethelyn, who he said "had never been so far away from home before, and +whose head was aching enough to split," she began to relent, and +proposed, of her own accord, to take up to the great lady a foot-bath +together with hot water for her head. + +It was so long since Richard had been at home, and there was so much to +hear of what had happened during his absence that instead of going back +to Ethelyn he yielded to his mother's wish that he should stay with her, +and sitting down in his arm-chair by the blazing fire, he found it so +pleasant to be flattered and caressed and deferred to again, that he was +in some danger of forgetting the young wife who was thus left to the +tender mercies of Andy and Eunice Plympton. Andy had caught eagerly at +Eunice's suggestion of the foot-bath, and offered to carry it up +himself, while Eunice followed with her towels and basin of hot water. +It never occurred to either of them to knock for admittance, and Ethelyn +was obliged to endure their presence, which she did at first with a +shadow on her brow; but when Andy asked so pleadingly that she try the +hot water, and Eunice joined her entreaties with his, Ethelyn consented, +and lay very quiet while Eunice Plympton bathed the aching head and +smoothed the long, bright hair, which both she and Andy admired so much, +for Andy, when he found that Ethelyn declined the foot-bath, concluded +to remain a while, and sitting down before the fire, he scrutinized the +form and features of his new sister, and made remarks upon the luxuriant +tresses which Eunice combed so carefully. + +It was something to have the homage of even such subjects as these, and +Ethelyn's heart grew softer as the pain gradually subsided beneath +Eunice's mesmeric touch, so that she answered graciously the questions +propounded by her as to whether that sack, or great-coat, or whatever it +was called, which she wore around her, was the very last style, how much +it took to cut it, and if Miss Markham had the pattern. On being told +that "Miss Markham" had not the pattern, Eunice presumed Melinda Jones +could cut one, and then, while the cooled water was heating on the coals +which Andy raked out upon the hearth, Eunice asked if she might just try +on the "vasquine" and let Miss Markham see how she looked in it. + +For a moment Ethelyn hesitated, but Eunice had been so kind, and +proffered her request so timidly, that she could not well refuse, and +gave a faint assent. But she was spared the trial of seeing her basquine +strained over Eunice's buxom figure by the entrance of Richard, who came +to say that Melinda Jones was in the parlor below. In spite of all Tim +had said about madam's airs, and his advice that "Melinda should keep +away," that young lady had ventured upon a call, thinking her intimacy +with the family would excuse any unseemly haste, and thinking, too, it +may be, that possibly Mrs. Richard Markham would be glad to know there +was someone in Olney more like the people to whom she had been +accustomed than Mrs. Markham, senior, and her handmaid, Eunice Plympton. +Melinda's toilet had been made with direct reference to what Mrs. +Ethelyn would think of it, and she was looking very well indeed in her +gray dress and sack, with plain straw hat and green ribbons, which +harmonized well with her high-colored cheeks. But Melinda's pains had +been for naught, just as Richard feared, when she asked if "Mrs. +Markham" was too tired to see her. + +Richard was glad to see Melinda, and Melinda was glad to see Richard--so +glad that she gave him a hearty kiss, prefacing the act with the remark, +"I can kiss you, now you are a married man." + +Richard liked the kiss, and liked Melinda's frank, open manner, which +had in it nothing Van Burenish, as he secretly termed the studied +elegance of Mrs. Richard Markham's style. Melinda was natural, and he +promptly kissed her back, feeling that in doing so he was guilty of +nothing wrong, for he would have done the same had Ethelyn been present. +She had a terrible headache, he said, in answer to Melinda's inquiry, +and perhaps she did not feel able to come down. He would see. + +The hot water and Eunice's bathing had done Ethelyn good, and, with the +exception that she was very pale, she looked bright and handsome, as she +lay upon the pillows, with her loose hair forming a dark, glossy frame +about her face. + +"You are better, Ethie," Richard said, bending over her, and playfully +lifting her heavy hair. "Eunice has done you good. She's not so bad, +after all." + +"Eunice is well enough in her place," was Ethelyn's reply; and then +there was a pause, while Richard wondered how he should introduce +Melinda Jones. + +Perhaps it was vain in him, but he really fancied that the name of Jones +was distasteful to Ethelyn, just as the Van Buren name would have been +more distasteful to him than it already was had he known of Frank's love +affair. And to a certain extent he was right. Ethelyn did dislike to +hear of the Joneses, whom she heartily despised, and her brow grew +cloudy at once when Richard said, bunglingly, and as if it were not at +all what he had come up to say: "Oh, don't you remember hearing me speak +of Melinda Jones, whom I hoped you would like? She is very kind to +mother--we all think a great deal of her; and though she knows it is +rather soon to call, she has come in for a few minutes, and would like +to see you. I should be so glad if you would go down, for it will +gratify her, I know, and I really think we owe her something--she has +always been so kind." + +But Ethelyn was too tired, and her head ached too hard to see visitors, +she said; and besides that, "Miss Jones ought to have known that it was +not proper to call so soon. None but a very intimate friend could +presume upon such a thing." + +"And Melinda is an intimate friend," Richard answered, a little warmly, +as he left his wife, and went back to Melinda with the message, that +"some time she should be happy to make Miss Jones' acquaintance, but +to-night she really must be excused, as she was too tired to come down." + +All this time Andy had been standing with his back to the fire, his +coat-skirts taken up in his arms, his light, soft hat on his head, and +his ears taking in all that was transpiring. Andy regarded his stylish +sister-in-law as a very choice gem, which was not to be handled too +roughly, but he was not afraid of her; he was seldom afraid of anybody, +and when Richard was gone, he walked boldly up to Ethelyn and said: + +"I don't want to be meddlesome, but 'pears to me if you'd spoke out your +feelings to Dick, you'd said, 'Tell Melinda Jones I don't want to see +her, neither to-night nor any time.' Mebby I'm mistaken, but honest, do +you want to see Melinda?" + +There was something so straightforward in his manner that, without being +the least offended, Ethelyn replied: + +"No, I do not. I am sure I should not like her if she at all resembles +her brother^ that terrible Timothy." + +Andy did not know that there was anything so very terrible about Tim. He +liked him, because he gave him such nice chews of tobacco, and was +always so ready to lend a helping hand in hog-killing time, or when a +horse was sick; neither had he ever heard him called Timothy before, and +the name sounded oddly, but he classed it with the fine ways of his new +sister, who called him Anderson, though he so much wished she wouldn't. +It sounded as if she did not like him; but he said nothing on that +subject now--he merely adhered to the Jones question, and without +defending Tim, replied: + +"Gals are never much like their brothers, I reckon. They are softer, and +finer, and neater; leastways our Daisy was as different from us as +different could be, and Melinda is different from Tim. She's been to +Camden high-school, and has got a book that she talks French out of; and +didn't you ever see that piece she wrote about Mr. Baldwin's boy, who +fell from the top of the church when it was building, and was crushed to +death? It was printed, all in rhyme, in the Camden _Sentinel_, and Jim +has a copy of it in his wallet, 'long with a lock of Melinda's hair. I +tell you she's a team." + +Andy was warming up with his subject, and finding Ethelyn a good +listener, he continued: + +"I want you to like her, and I b'lieve you orter, for if it hadn't been +for her this room wouldn't of been fixed up as 'tis. Melinda coaxed +mother to buy the carpet, and the curtings, and to put your bed in +there. Why, that was the meal room, where you be, and we used to keep +beans there, too; but Melinda stuck to it till mother moved the chest +and the bags, and then we got some paint, and me and the boys and +Melinda painted, and worked, hopin' all the time that you'd be pleased, +as I guess you be. We wanted to have you like us." + +And simple-hearted Andy drew near to Ethelyn, who was softened more by +what he said than she could have been by her husband's most urgent +appeal. The thought of the people to whom she had been so cold, and even +rude, working and planning for her comfort, touched a very tender chord, +and had Richard then proffered his request for her to go down, it is +very possible she might have done so; but it was too late now, and after +Andy left her she lay pondering what he had said and listening to the +sound of voices which came up to her from the parlor directly beneath +her room where James, and John, and Andy, and the mother, with Melinda, +and Eunice, were talking to Richard, who was conscious of a greater +feeling of content, sitting there in their midst again, than he had +known in many a day. Melinda had been more than disappointed at Mrs. +Richard's non-appearance, for aside from a curiosity to see the great +lady, there was a desire to be able to report that she seen her to other +females equally curious, whom she would next day meet at church. It +would have added somewhat to her self-complacency as well as importance +in their eyes, could she have quoted Mrs. Richard's sayings, and, +described Mrs. Richard's dress, the very first day after her arrival. It +would look as if the intimacy, which many predicted would end with Mrs. +Ethelyn's coming, was only cemented the stronger; but no such honor was +in store for her. Ethelyn declined coming down, and with a good-humored +smile Melinda said she was quite excusable; and then, untying her +bonnet, she laid it aside, just as she did the indescribable air of +stiffness she had worn while expecting Mrs. Richard. + +How merrily they all laughed and chatted together! and how handsome +James' eyes grew as they rested admiringly upon the sprightly girl, who +perfectly conscious of his gaze, never looked at him, but confined her +attention wholly to Richard, until Andy asked "if they could not have a +bit of a tune." + +Then, for the first time, Richard discovered that Ethelyn's piano had +been unpacked, and was now standing between the south windows, directly +under Daisy's picture. It was open, too, and the sheet of music upon the +rack told that it had been used. Richard did not care for himself, but +he was afraid of what Ethelyn might say, and wondered greatly why she +had not spoken of the liberty they had taken. + +Ethelyn had not observed the piano; or if she did she had paid no +attention to it. Accustomed as she had always been to seeing one in the +room, she would have missed its absence more than she noticed its +presence. But when, as she lay half dozing and thinking of Aunt Barbara, +the old familiar air of "Money-musk," played with a most energetic hand, +came to her ear, she started, for she knew the tone of her own +instrument--knew, too, that Melinda Jones' hands were sweeping the +keys--and all that Melinda Jones had done for her comfort was forgotten +in the deep resentment which heated her blood and flushed her cheek as +she listened to "Old Zip Coon," which followed "Money-musk," a shuffling +sound of feet telling that somebody's boots were keeping time after a +very unorthodox fashion. Next came a song--"Old Folks at Home"--and in +spite of her resentment Ethelyn found herself listening intently as +James' rich, deep bass, and John's clear tenor, and Andy's alto joined +in the chorus with Melinda's full soprano. The Markham boys were noted +for their fine voices; and even Richard had once assisted at a public +concert; but to-night he did not sing--his thoughts were too intent upon +the wife upstairs and what she might be thinking of the performance, and +he was glad when the piano was closed and Melinda Jones had gone. + +It was later than he supposed, and the clock pointed to almost eleven +when he at last said good-night to his mother and went, with a +half-guilty feeling, to his room. But there were no chidings in store +for him; for, wearied with her journey and soothed by the music, Ethelyn +had forgotten all her cares and lay quietly sleeping, with one hand +beneath her cheek and the other resting outside the white counterpane. +Ethie was very pretty in her sleep, and the proud, restless look about +her mouth was gone, leaving an expression more like a child's than like +a girl of twenty. And Richard, looking at her, felt supremely happy that +she was his, forgetting all of the past which had been unpleasant, and +thinking only that he was blessed above his fellow mortals that he could +call the beautiful girl before him his Ethelyn--his wife. + + + +CHAPTER X + +FIRST DAYS IN OLNEY + +There were a great many vacant seats in the Methodist church the morning +following Ethelyn's arrival, while Mr. Townsend was surprised at the +size of his congregation. It was generally known that Mrs. Judge Markham +was an Episcopalian, and as she would of course patronize the Village +Hall, the young people of Olney were there en masse, eager to see the +new bride. But their curiosity was not gratified. Ethelyn was too tired +to go out, Andy said, when questioned on the subject, while Eunice +Plympton, who was also of Andy's faith, and an attendant of the Village +Hall, added the very valuable piece of information that "Miss Markham's +breakfast had been taken to her, and that when she [Eunice] came away +she was still in bed, or at all events had not yet made her appearance +below." This, together with Eunice's assertion that she was handsome, +and Tim Jones' testimony that she was "mighty stuck-up, but awful neat," +was all the disappointed Olneyites knew of Mrs. Richard Markham, who, as +Eunice reported, had breakfasted in bed, and was still lying there when +the one bell in Olney rang out its summons for church. She did not +pretend to be sick--only tired and languid, and indisposed for any +exertion; and then it was much nicer taking her breakfast from the +little tray covered with the snowy towel which Richard brought her, than +it was to go down stairs and encounter "all those dreadful people," as +she mentally styled Richard's family; so she begged for indulgence this +once, and Richard could not refuse her request, and so excused her to +his mother, who said nothing, but whose face wore an expression which +Richard did not like. + +Always strong and healthy herself, Mrs. Markham had but little charity +for nervous, delicate people, and she devoutly hoped that Richard's wife +would not prove to be one of that sort. When the dishes were washed, and +the floor swept, and the broom hung up in its place, and the sleeves of +the brown, dotted calico rolled down, she went herself to see Ethelyn, +her quick eye noticing the elaborate night-gown, with its dainty tucks +and expensive embroidery, and her thoughts at once leaping forward to +ironing day, with the wonder who was to do up such finery. "Of course, +though, she'll see to such things herself," was her mental conclusion, +and then she proceeded to question Ethelyn as to what was the matter, +and where she felt the worst. A person who did not come down to +breakfast must either be sick or very babyish and notional, and as +Ethelyn did not pretend to much indisposition, the good woman naturally +concluded that she was "hypoey," and pitied her boy accordingly. + +Ethelyn readily guessed the opinion her mother-in-law was forming of +her, and could hardly steady her voice sufficiently to answer her +questions or repress her tears, which gushed forth the moment Mrs. +Markham had left the room, and she was alone with Richard. Poor Richard! +it was a novel position in which he found himself--that of mediator +between his mother and his wife; but he succeeded very well, soothing +and caressing the latter, until when, at three o'clock in the afternoon, +the bountiful dinner was ready, he had the pleasure of taking her +downstairs, looking very beautiful in her handsome black silk, and the +pink coral ornaments Aunt Barbara had given her. There was nothing gaudy +about her dress; it was in perfect taste, and very plain too, as she +thought, even if it was trimmed with lace and bugles. But she could not +help feeling it was out of keeping when James, and John, and Eunice +stared so at her, and Mrs. Markham asked her if she hadn't better tie on +an apron for fear she might get grease or something on her. With ready +alacrity Eunice, who fancied her young mistress looked like a queen, +forgetting in her admiration that she had ever thought her proud, ran +for her own clean, white apron, which she offered to the lady. + +But Ethelyn declined it, saying, "My napkin is all that I shall +require." + +Mrs. Markham, and Eunice, and Andy glanced at each other. Napkins were a +luxury in which Mrs. Markham had never indulged. She knew they were +common in almost every family of her acquaintance; but she did not see +of what use they were, except to make more washing, and as her standard +of things was the standard of thirty years back she was not easily +convinced; and even Melinda Jones had failed on the napkin question. +Ethelyn had been too much excited to observe their absence the previous +night, and she now spoke in all sincerity, never dreaming that there was +not such an article in the house. But there was a small square towel of +the finest linen, and sacred to the memory of Daisy, who had hemmed it +herself and worked her name in the corner. It was lying in the drawer, +now, with her white cambric dress, and, at a whispered word from her +mistress, Eunice brought it out and laid it in Ethelyn's lap, while +Richard's face grew crimson as he began to think that possibly his +mother might be a very little behind the times in her household +arrangements. + +Ethelyn's appetite had improved since the previous night, and she did +ample justice to the well-cooked dinner; but her spirits were ruffled +again when, on returning to her room an hour or so after dinner, she +found it in the same disorderly condition in which she had left it. +Ethelyn had never taken charge of her own room, for at Aunt Barbara's +Betty had esteemed it a privilege to wait upon her young mistress, while +Aunt Van Buren would have been horror-stricken at the idea of any one of +her guests making their own bed. Mrs. Markham, on the contrary, could +hardly conceive of a lady too fine to do that service herself, and +Eunice was not the least to blame for omitting to do what she had never +been told was her duty to do. A few words from Richard, however, and the +promise of an extra quarter per week made that matter all right, and +neither Betty nor Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's trained chambermaid, Mag, had +ever entered into the clearing-up process with greater zeal than did +Eunice when once she knew that Richard expected it of her. She was +naturally kind-hearted, and though Ethelyn's lofty ways annoyed her +somewhat, her admiration for the beautiful woman and her elegant +wardrobe was unbounded, and she felt a pride in waiting upon her which +she would once have thought impossible to feel in anything pertaining to +her duties as a servant. + +The following morning brought with it the opening of the box where the +family presents were; but Ethelyn did not feel as much interest in them +now as when they were purchased. She knew how out of place they were, +and fully appreciated the puzzled expression on James' face when he saw +the blue velvet smoking cap. It did not harmonize with the common clay +pipe he always smoked on Sunday, and much less with the coarse cob thing +she saw him take from the kitchen mantel that morning just after he left +the breakfast table and had donned the blue frock he wore upon the farm. +He did not know what the fanciful-tasseled thing was for; but he +reflected that Melinda, who had been to boarding school, could enlighten +him, and he thanked his pretty sister with a good deal of gentlemanly +grace. He was naturally more observing than Richard, and with the same +advantages would have polished sooner. Though a little afraid of +Ethelyn, there was something in her refined, cultivated manners very +pleasing to him, and his soft eyes looked down upon her kindly as he +took the cap and carried it to his room, laying it carefully away in the +drawer where his Sunday shirts, and collars, and "dancing pumps," and +fishing tackle, and paper of chewing tobacco were. + +Meanwhile, John, who was even more shy of Ethelyn than James, had been +made the recipient of the elegantly embroidered slippers, which +presented so marked a contrast to his heavy cowhides, and were three +sizes too small for his mammoth feet. Ethelyn saw the discrepancy at +once, and the effort it was for John to keep from laughing outright, as +he took the dainty things into which he could but little more than +thrust his toes. + +"You did not know what a Goliath I was, nor what stogies I wore; but I +thank you all the same," John said, and with burning blushes Ethelyn +turned next to her beautiful Schiller--the exquisite little bust--which +Andy, in his simplicity mistook for a big doll, feeling a little +affronted that Ethelyn should suppose him childish enough to care for +such toys. + +But when Richard, who stood looking on, explained to his weak brother +what it was, saying that people of cultivation prized such things as +these, and that some time he would read to him of the great German poet, +Andy felt better, and accepted his big doll with a very good grace. + +The coiffure came next, Mrs. Markham saying she was much obliged, and +Eunice asking if it was a half-handkerchief, to be worn about the neck. + +Taken individually and collectively, the presents were a failure--all +but the pretty collar and ribbon-bow, which, as an afterthought, Ethelyn +gave to Eunice, whose delight knew no bounds. This was something she +could appreciate, while Ethelyn's gifts to the others had been far +beyond them, and but for the good feeling they manifested might as well +have been withheld. Ethelyn felt this heavily, and it did not tend to +lessen the bitter disappointment which had been gnawing in her heart +ever since she had reached her Western home. Everything was different +from what she had pictured it in her mind--everything but Daisy's face, +which, from its black-walnut frame above her piano, seemed to look so +lovingly down upon her. It was a sweet, refined face, and the soft eyes +of blue were more beautiful than anything Ethelyn had ever seen. She +did not wonder that every member of that family looked upon their lost +Daisy as the household angel, lowering their voices when they spoke of +her, and even retarding their footsteps when they passed near her +picture. She did wonder, however, that they were not more like what +Daisy would have been, judging from the expression of her face and all +Richard had said of her. + +Between Mrs. Markham and Ethelyn there was from the first a mutual +feeling of antagonism, and it was in no degree lessened by Aunt +Barbara's letter, which Mrs. Markham read three times on Sunday, and +then on Monday very foolishly talked it up with Eunice, whom she treated +with a degree of familiarity wholly unaccountable to Ethelyn. + +"What did that Miss Bigelow take her for that she must ask her to be +kind to Ethelyn? Of course she should do her duty, and she guessed her +ways were not so very different from other people's, either," and the +good woman gave an extra twist to the tablecloth she was wringing, and +shaking it out rather fiercely, tossed it into the huge clothes-basket +standing near. + +The wash was unusually large that day and as the unpacking of the box +had taken up some time, the clock was striking two just as the last +clothespin was fastened in its place, and the last brown towel hung upon +the currant bushes. It was Mrs. Markham's weakness that her wash should +be fluttering in the wind before that of Mrs. Jones, which could be +plainly seen from her kitchen window. But to-day Mrs. Jones was ahead, +and Melinda's pink sun-bonnet was visible in the little back-yard as +early as eleven, at which time the Markham garments had just commenced +to boil. The bride had brought with her a great deal of extra work, and +what with waiting breakfast for her until the coffee was cold and the +baked potatoes "all soggy," and then cleaning up the litter of "that +box," Mrs. Markham was dreadfully behind with her Monday's work. And it +did not tend to improve her temper to know that the cause of all her +discomposure was "playing lady" in a handsome cashmere morning gown, +with heavy tassels knotted at her side, while she was bending over the +washtub in a faded calico pinned about her waist, and disclosing the +quilt patched with many colors, and the black yarn stockings footed with +coarse white. Not that Mrs. Markham cared especially for the difference +between her dress and Ethelyn's--neither did she expect Ethelyn to +"help" that day--but she might at least have offered to wipe the dinner +dishes, she thought. It would have shown her good will at all events. +But instead of that she had returned to her room the moment dinner was +over, and Eunice, who went to hunt for a missing sock of Richard's, +reported that she was lying on the lounge with a story book in her hand. + +"Shiffless," was the word Mrs. Markham wanted to use, but she repressed +it, for she would not talk openly against Richard's wife so soon after +her arrival, though she did make some invidious remarks concerning the +handsome underclothes, wondering "what folks were thinking of to put so +much work where it was never seen. Puffs, and embroidery, and lace, and, +I vum, if the ruffles ain't tucked too," she continued, in a despairing +voice, hoping Ethelyn knew "how to iron such filagree herself, for the +mercy knew she didn't." + +Now these same puffs, and embroidery, and ruffles, and tucks had excited +Eunice's liveliest admiration, and her fingers fairly itched to see how +they would look hanging on the clothes bars after passing through her +hands. That Ethelyn could touch them she never once dreamed. Her +instincts were truer than Mrs. Markham's and it struck her as perfectly +proper that one like Ethelyn should sit still while others served, and +to her mistress' remarks as to the ironing, she hastened to reply: "I'd +a heap sight rather do them up than to iron the boys' coarse shirts and +pantaloons. Don't you mind the summer I was at Camden working for Miss +Avery, who lived next door to Miss Judge Miller, from New York? She had +just such things as these, and I used to go in sometimes and watch Katy +iron 'em, so I b'lieve I can do it myself. Anyways, I want to try." + +Fears that Eunice might rebel had been uppermost in Mrs. Markham's mind +when she saw the pile of elegant clothes, for she had a suspicion that +Mrs. Ethelyn would keep as much aloof from the ironing-board as she did +from the dish-washing; but if Eunice was willing and even glad of the +opportunity, why, that made a difference, and the good woman began to +feel so much better that by the time the last article was on the line, +the kitchen floor cleared up, and the basin of water heating on the +stove for her own ablutions, she was quite amiably disposed toward her +grand daughter-in-law, who had not made her appearance since dinner. +Ethelyn liked staying in her chamber better than anywhere else, and it +was especially pleasant there to-day, for Eunice had taken great pains +to make it so, sweeping, and dusting and putting to rights, and patting +the pillows and cushions just as she remembered seeing Melinda do, and +then, after the collar and ribbon had been given to her, going down on +her hands and knees before the fire to wash the hearth with milk, which +gave to the red bricks a polished, shining appearance, and added much to +the cheerfulness of the room. Ethelyn had commended her pleasantly, and, +in the seventh heaven of delight, Eunice had returned to her washing, +taking greater pains than ever with the dainty puffs and frills, and +putting in a stitch where one was needed. + +It was very evident that Eunice admired Ethelyn, and Ethelyn in return +began to appreciate Eunice; and when, after dinner, she went to her +room, and, wearied with her unpacking, lay down upon the lounge, she +felt happier than she had since her first sight of Olney. It was +pleasant up there, and the room looked very pretty with the brackets and +ornaments, and pictures she had hung there instead of in the parlor, and +she decided within herself that though disappointed in every respect, +she could be quite comfortable for the few weeks which must intervene +before she went to Washington. She should spend most of the time in the +retirement of her room, mingling as little as possible with the family, +and keeping at a respectful distance from her mother-in-law, whom she +liked less than any of Richard's relations. + +"I trust the Olney people will not think it their duty to call," she +thought. "I suppose I shall have to endure the Joneses for Abigail's +sake. Melinda certainly has some taste; possibly I may like her," and +while cogitating upon Melinda Jones and the expected gayeties in +Washington, she fell asleep; nor did Richard's step arouse her, when, +about three o'clock, he came in from the village in quest of some law +documents he wished to see. + +Frank Van Buren would probably have kissed her as she lay there sleeping +so quietly; but Richard was in a great hurry. He had plunged at once +into business. Once there were forty men waiting to see and consult "the +Squire," whose reputation for honesty and ability was very great, and +whose simple assertion carried more weight than the roundest oath of +some lawyers, sworn upon the biggest Bible in Olney. Waylaid at every +corner, and plied with numberless questions, he had hardly found an +opportunity to come home to dinner, and now he had no time to waste in +love-making. He saw Ethelyn, however, and felt that his room had never +been as pleasant as it was with her there in it, albeit her coming was +the cause of his books and papers being disturbed and tossed about and +moved where he had much trouble to find them. He felt glad, too, that +she was out of his mother's way, and feeling that all was well, he found +his papers and hurried off to the village again, while Ethelyn slept on +till Eunice Plympton came up to say that "Miss Jones and Melinda were +both in the parlor and wanted her to come down." + + + +CHAPTER XI + +CALLS AND VISITING + +Mrs. Jones had risen earlier than usual that Monday morning, and felt +not a little elated when she saw her long line of snowy linen swinging +in the wind before that of her neighbor, whom she excused on the score +of Richard's wife. But when twelve o'clock, and even one o'clock struck, +and still the back yard gave no sign, she began to wonder "if any of +'em could be sick"; and never was flag of truce watched for more +anxiously than she watched for something which should tell that it was +all well at Sister Markham's. + +The sign appeared at last, and with her fears quieted, Mrs. Jones +pursued the even tenor of her way until everything was done and her +little kitchen was as shining as soap and sand and scrubbing brush could +make it. Perhaps it was washing the patchwork quilt which Abigail had +pieced that brought the deceased so strongly to Mrs. Jones' mind, and +made her so curious to see Abigail's successor. Whatever it was, Mrs. +Jones was very anxious for a sight of Ethelyn; and when her work was +done she donned her alpaca dress, and tying on her black silk apron, +announced her intention of "running into Mrs. Markham's just a minute. +Would Melinda like to go along?" + +Melinda had been once to no purpose, and she had inwardly resolved to +wait a while before calling again; but she felt that she would rather be +with her mother at her first interview with Ethelyn, for she knew she +could cover up some defects by her glibber and more correct manner of +conversing. So she signified her assent, but did not wear her best +bonnet as she had on Saturday night. This was only a run in, she said, +never dreaming that, "for fear of what might happen if she was urged to +stay to tea," her mother had deposited in her capacious pocket the +shirt-sleeve of unbleached cotton she was making for Tim. + +And so about four o'clock the twain started for the house of Mrs. +Markham, who saw them coming and welcomed them warmly. She was always +glad to see Mrs. Jones, and she was doubly glad to-day, for it seemed to +her that some trouble had come upon her which made neighborly sympathy +and neighborly intercourse more desirable than ever. Added to this, +there was in her heart an unconfessed pride in Ethelyn and a desire to +show her off. "Miss Jones was not going to stir home a step till after +supper," she said, as that lady demurred at laying off her bonnet. "She +had got to stay and see Richard; besides that, they were going to have +waffles and honey, with warm gingerbread." + +Nobody who had once tested them, could withstand Mrs. Markham's waffles +and gingerbread. Mrs. Jones certainly could not; and when Eunice went up +for Ethelyn, that worthy woman was rocking back and forth in a low +rocking-chair, her brass thimble on her finger and Tim's shirt-sleeve in +progress of making; while Melinda, in her pretty brown merino and white +collar, with her black hair shining like satin, sat in another +rocking-chair, working at the bit of tatting she chanced to have in her +pocket. Ethelyn did not care to go down; it was like stepping into +another sphere leaving her own society for that of the Joneses; but +there was no alternative, and with a yawn she started up and began +smoothing her hair. + +"This wrapper is well enough," she said, more to herself, than Eunice, +who was still standing by the door looking at her. + +Eunice did not think the wrapper well enough. It was pretty, she knew, +but not as pretty as the dresses she had seen hanging in Ethelyn's +closet when she arranged the room that morning; so she said, +hesitatingly: "I wish you wouldn't wear that down. You were so handsome +yesterday in the black gown, with them red earrings and pin, and your +hair brushed up, so." + +Ethelyn liked to look well, even here in Olney, and so the wrapper was +laid aside, the beautiful brown hair was wound in heavy coils about the +back of the head, and brushed back from her white forehead after a +fashion which made her look still younger and more girlish than she was. +A pretty plaid silk, with trimmings of blue, was chosen for to-day, +Eunice going nearly wild over the short jaunty basque, laced at the +sides and the back. Eunice had offered to stay and assist at her young +mistress' toilet, and as Ethelyn was not unaccustomed to the office of +waiting-maid, she accepted Eunice's offer, finding, to her surprise, +that the coarse red fingers, which that day had washed and starched her +linen, were not unhandy even among the paraphernalia of a Boston +lady's toilet. + +"You do look beautiful," Eunice said, standing back to admire Ethelyn, +when at last she was dressed. "I have thought Melinda Jones handsome, +but she can't hold a candle to you, nor nobody else I ever seen, except +Miss Judge Miller, in Camden. She do act some like you, with her gown +dragglin' behind her half a yard." + +Thus flattered and complimented, Ethelyn shook out her skirts, which +"draggled half a yard behind," and went downstairs to where Mrs. Jones +sat working on Timothy's shirt, and Melinda was crocheting, while Mrs. +Markham, senior, clean and neat, and stiff in her starched, purple +calico, sat putting a patch on a fearfully large hole in the knee of +Andy's pants. As Ethelyn swept into the room there fell a hush upon the +inmates, and Mrs. Jones was almost guilty of an exclamation of surprise. +She had expected something fine, she said--something different from the +Olney quality--but she was not prepared for anything as grand and +queenly as Ethelyn, when she sailed into the room, with her embroidered +handkerchief held so gracefully in her hands, and in response to Mrs. +Markham's introduction, bowed so very low, and slowly, too, her lips +scarcely moving at all, and her eyes bent on the ground. Mrs. Jones +actually ran the needle she was sewing with under her thumb in her +sudden start, while Melinda's crocheting dropped into her lap. She, too, +was surprised, though not as much as her mother. She, like Eunice, had +seen Mrs. Judge Miller, from New York, whose bridal trousseau was +imported from Paris, and whose wardrobe was the wonder of Camden. And +Ethelyn was very much like her, only younger and prettier. + +"Very pretty," Melinda thought, while Mrs. Jones fell to comparing her, +mentally, with the deceased Abigail; wondering how Richard, if he had +ever loved the one, could have fancied the other, they were so unlike. + +Of course, the mother's heart gave to Abigail the preference for all +that was good and womanly, and worthy of Richard Markham; but Ethelyn +bore off the palm for style, and beauty, too. + +"Handsome as a doll, but awfully proud," Mrs. Jones decided, during the +interval in which she squeezed her wounded thumb, and got the needle +again in motion upon Timothy's shirt-sleeve. + +Ethelyn was not greatly disappointed in Mrs. Jones and her daughter; the +mother especially was much like what she had imagined her to be, while +Melinda was rather prettier--rather more like the Chicopee girls than +she expected. There was a look on her face like Susie Granger, and the +kindly expression of her black eyes made Ethelyn excuse her for wearing +a magenta bow, while her cheeks were something the same hue. They were +very stiff at first, Mrs. Jones saying nothing at all, and Melinda only +venturing upon common-place inquiries--as to how Ethelyn bore her +journey, if she was ever in that part of the country before, and how she +thought she should like the West. This last question Ethelyn could not +answer directly. + +"It was very different from New England," she said, "but she was +prepared for that, and hoped she should not get very homesick during the +few weeks which would elapse before she went to Washington." + +At this point Mrs. Markham stopped her patching and looked inquiringly +at Ethelyn. It was the first she had heard about Ethelyn's going to +Washington; indeed, she had understood that Richard's wife was to keep +her company during the winter, a prospect which since Ethelyn's arrival +had not looked so pleasing to her as it did before. How in the world +they should get on together without Richard, she did not know, and if +she consulted merely her own comfort she would have bidden Ethelyn go. +But there were other things to be considered--there was the great +expense it would be for Richard to have his wife with him. Heretofore he +had saved a good share of his salary, but with Ethelyn it would be money +out of his pocket all the time; besides that, there were reasons why it +was not proper for Ethelyn to go; her best place was at home. + +Thus reasoned Mrs. Markham, and when next her needle resumed its work on +Andy's patch, Ethelyn's fate with regard to Washington was decided, for +as thought the mother on that point, so eventually would think the son, +who deferred so much to her judgment. He came in after a little, looking +so well and handsome that Ethelyn felt proud of him, and had he then +laid his hand upon her shoulder, or put his arm around her waist, as he +sometimes did when they were alone, she would not have shaken it off, as +was her usual custom. Indeed, such is the perversity of human nature, +and so many contradictions are there in it, that Ethelyn rather wished +he would pay her some little attention. She could not forget Abigail, +with Abigail's mother and sister sitting there before her, and she +wanted them to see how fond her husband was of her, hoping thus to prove +how impossible it was that Abigail could ever have been to him what she +was. But Richard was shy in the presence of others, and would sooner +have put his arm around Melinda than around his wife, for fear he should +be thought silly. He was very proud of her, though, and felt a thrill of +satisfaction in seeing how superior, both in look and manner, she was to +Melinda Jones, whose buxom, healthy face grew almost coarse and homely +from comparison with Ethelyn's. + +As Ethelyn's toilet had occupied some time, it was five when she made +her appearance in the parlor, consequently she had not long to wait ere +the announcement of supper broke up the tediousness she endured from +that first call, or visit. The waffles and the gingerbread were all they +had promised to be, and the supper passed off quietly, with the +exception of a mishap of poor, awkward Andy, who tipped his plate of hot +cakes and honey into his lap, and then in his sudden spring backward, +threw a part of the plate's contents upon Ethelyn's shining silk. This +was the direst calamity of all, and sent poor Andy from the table so +heart-broken and disconsolate that he did not return again, and Eunice +found him sitting on the wood-house steps, wiping away with his +coat-sleeve the great tears which rolled down his womanish face. + +"Ethelyn never would like him again," he said, calling himself "a great +blundering fool, who never ought to eat at the same table with +civilized folks." + +But when Ethelyn, who heard from Eunice of Andy's distress, went out to +see him, assuring him that but little damage had been done, that soft +water and magnesia would make the dress all right again, he brightened +up, and was ready to hold Mr. Harrington's horse when, after dark, that +gentleman drove over from Olney with his wife and sister to call on Mrs. +Richard. It would almost seem that Ethelyn held a reception that +evening, for more than the Harringtons knocked at the front door, and +were admitted by the smiling Eunice. It was rather early to call, the +Olneyites knew, but there on the prairie they were not hampered with +many of Mrs. Grundy's rules, and so curious to see the "Boston lady," +several of the young people had agreed together between the Sunday +services to call at Mrs. Markham's the following night. They were +well-meaning, kind-hearted people, and would any one of them gone far +out of their way to serve either Richard or his young wife; but they +were not Eastern bred, and feeling somewhat awed by Ethelyn's cold, +frigid manner, they appeared shy and awkward--all except Will Parsons, +the young M.D. of Olney, who joked, and talked and laughed so loudly, +that even Richard wondered he had never before observed how noisy Dr. +Parsons was, while Andy, who was learning to read Ethelyn's face, tried +once or twice, by pulling the doctor's coat-skirts and giving him a +warning glance, to quiet him down a little. But the doctor took no +hints, and kept on with his fun, finding a splendid coadjutor in the +"terrible Tim Jones," who himself came over to call on Dick and +his woman. + +Tim was rigged out in his best, with a bright red cravat tied around his +neck, and instead of his muddy boots with his pants tucked in the tops, +he wore coarse shoes tied with strings and flirted his yellow silk +handkerchief for the entire evening. It was dreadful to Ethelyn, for she +could see nothing agreeable in Richard's friends; indeed, their presence +was scarcely bearable, and the proud look on her face was so apparent +that the guests felt more or less ill at ease, while Richard was nearer +being angry with Ethelyn than he had ever been. Will Parsons and Tim +Jones seemed exceptions to the rest of the company, especially the +latter, who, if he noticed Ethelyn's evident contempt, was determined +to ignore it, and make himself excessively familiar. + +As yet, the open piano had been untouched, no one having the courage to +ask Ethelyn to play; but Tim was fond of music, and unhesitatingly +seating himself upon the stool, thrust one hand in his pocket, and with +the other struck the keys at random, trying to make out a few bars of +"Hail, Columbia!" Then turning to Ethelyn he said, with a good-humored +nod, "Come, old lady, give us something good." + +Ethelyn's eyes flashed fire, while others of the guests looked their +astonishment at Tim, who knew he had done something, but could not for +the life of him tell what. + +"Old lady" was a favorite title with him. He called his mother so, and +Melinda, and Eunice Plympton, and Maria Moorehouse, whose eyes he +thought so bright, and whom he always saw home from meeting on Sunday +nights; and so it never occurred to him that this was his offense. But +Melinda knew, and her red cheeks burned scarlet as she tried to cover +her brother's blunder by modestly urging Ethelyn to favor them with +some music. + +Of all the Western people whom she had seen, Ethelyn liked Melinda the +best. She had thought her rather familiar, and after the Olneyites came +in and put her more at her ease, she fancied her a little flippant and +forward; but, in all she did or said, there was so much genuine +sincerity and frankness, that Ethelyn could not dislike her as she had +thought she should dislike a sister of Abigail Jones and the terrible +Tim. She had not touched her piano since her arrival, for fear of the +homesickness which its familiar tones might awaken, and when she saw +Tim's big red hands fingering the keys, in her resentment at the +desecration she said to herself that she never would touch it again; but +when in a low aside Melinda added to her entreaties: "Please, Mrs. +Markham, don't mind Tim--he means well enough, and would not be rude for +the world, if he knew it," she began to give way, and it scarcely needed +Richard's imperative, "Ethelyn," to bring her to her feet. No one +offered to conduct her to the piano--not even Richard, who sat just +where he was; while Tim, in his haste to vacate the music stool, +precipitated it to the floor, and got his leather shoes entangled in +Ethelyn's skirts. + +Tim, and Will Parsons, and Andy all hastened to pick up the stool, +knocking their heads together, and raising a laugh in which Ethelyn +could not join. Thoroughly disgusted and sick at heart, she felt much as +the Jewish maidens must have felt when required to give a song. Her harp +was indeed upon the willows hung, and her heart was turning sadly toward +her far-off Jerusalem as she sat down and tried to think what she should +play to suit her audience. Suddenly it occurred to her to suit herself +rather than her hearers, and her snowy fingers--from which flashed +Daisy's diamond and a superb emerald--swept the keys with a masterly +grace and skill. Ethelyn was perfectly at home at the piano, and dashing +off into a brilliant and difficult overture, she held her hearers for a +few minutes astonished both at her execution and the sounds she made. To +the most of them, however, the sounds were meaningless; their tastes had +not yet been cultivated up to Ethelyn's style. They wanted something +familiar--something they had heard before; and when the fine performance +was ended terrible Tim electrified her with the characteristic +exclamation: "That was mighty fine, no doubt, for them that understand +such; but, now, for land's sake, give us a tune." + +Ethelyn was horror-stricken. She had cast her pearls before swine; and +with a haughty stare at the offending Timothy, she left the stool, and +walking back to her former seat, said: + +"I leave the tunes to your sister, who, I believe, plays sometimes." + +Somewhat crestfallen, but by no means browbeaten, Tim insisted that +Melinda should give them a jig; and, so, crimsoning with shame and +confusion, Melinda took the vacant stool and played her brother a +tune--a rollicking, galloping tune, which everybody knew, and which set +the feet to keeping time, and finally brought Tim and Andy to the floor +for a dance. But Melinda declined playing for a cotillion which her +brother proposed, and so the dancing arrangement came to naught, +greatly to the delight of Ethelyn, who could only keep back her tears by +looking up at the sweet face of Daisy smiling down upon her from the +wall. That was the only redeeming point in that whole assembly, she +thought. She would not even except Richard then, so intense was her +disappointment and so bitter her regret for the mistake she made when +she promised to go where her heart could never be. + +It was nine o'clock when the company dispersed. Each of the ladies +cordially invited Ethelyn to call as soon as convenient, and Mrs. +Harrington, a lady of some cultivation, whose husband was the village +merchant, saying encouragingly to her, as she held her hand a moment, +"Our Western manners seem strange to you, I dare say; but we are a +well-meaning people, and you will get accustomed to us by and by." + +She never should--no, never, thought Ethelyn, as she went up to her +room, tired and homesick, and disheartened with this, her first +introduction to the Olney people. It was a very cross wife that slept at +Richard's side that night, and the opinion expressed of the Olneyites +was anything but complimentary to the taste of one who had known them +all his life and liked them so well. But Richard was getting accustomed +to such things. Lectures did not move him now as they had at first, and +overcome with fatigue from his day's work and the evening's excitement, +he fell asleep, while Ethelyn was enlarging upon the merits of the +terrible Tim, who had addressed her as "old lady" and asked her to +"play a tune." + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SOCIETY + +In the course of two weeks all the people in Olney called upon Ethelyn, +who would gladly have refused herself to them all. But after the morning +when Andy stood outside the door of her room, wringing his hands in +great distress at the tone of Richard's voice, and Ethelyn stayed in bed +all day with the headache, and was nursed by Eunice and Melinda, Ethelyn +did better, and was at least polite to those who called. She had said +she would not see them, and Richard had said she should; and as he +usually made people do as he liked, Ethelyn was forced to submit, but +cried herself sick. It was very desolate and lonely upstairs that day, +for Richard was busy in town, and the wind swept against the windows +with a mournful, moaning sound, which made Ethelyn think of dear old +Chicopee, and the lofty elms through whose swaying branches the same +October wind was probably sighing on this autumnal day. But, oh! how +vast the difference, she thought; for what would have been music if +heard at home among the New England hills, was agony here upon the +Western prairie. + +Ethelyn was very wretched and hailed with delight the presence of +Melinda Jones, who came in the afternoon, bringing a basket of delicious +apples and a lemon tart she had made herself. Melinda was very sorry for +Ethelyn, and her face said as much as she stood by her side and laid her +hand softly upon the throbbing temples, pitying her so much, for she +guessed just how homesick she was there with Mrs. Markham, whose ways +had never seemed so peculiar, even to her, as since Ethelyn's arrival. +"And still," she thought, "I do not see how she can be so very unhappy, +in any circumstances, with a husband like Richard." But here Melinda +made a mistake; for though Ethelyn respected her husband, and had +learned to miss him when he was gone, and the day whose close was not to +bring him back would have been very long, she did not love him as a +husband should be loved; and so there was nothing to fall back upon when +other props gave way. + +Wholly unsuspicious, Melinda sat down beside her, offering to brush her +hair, and while she brushed and combed, and braided, and admired the +glossy brown locks, she talked on the subject she thought most +acceptable to the young wife's ear--of Richard, and the great popularity +he had achieved, not only in his own county, but in neighboring ones, +where he stood head and shoulders above his fellows. There was talk once +of making him governor, she said, but some thought him too young. +Lately, however, she had heard that the subject was again agitated, +adding that her father and Tim both thought it more than probable that +the next election would take him to the gubernatorial mansion. + +"Tim would work like a hero for Richard," she said. "He almost idolizes +him, and when he was up for Judge Tim's exertions alone procured for him +a hundred extra votes. Tim is a rough, half-savage fellow, but he has +the kindest of hearts, and is very popular with a certain class of men +who could not be reached by one more polished and cultivated." + +So much Melinda said, by way of excusing Tim's vulgarities; and then, +with the utmost tact, she led the conversation back to Richard and the +governorship, hinting that Ethelyn could do much toward securing that +office for her husband. A little attention, which cost nothing, would go +a great ways, she said; and it was sometimes worth one's while to make +an effort, even if they did not feel like it. More than one rumor had +reached Melinda's ear touching the pride of Dick Markham's wife--a pride +which the Olney people felt keenly, and it the more keenly knowing that +they had helped to give her husband a name; they had made him Judge, and +sent him to Congress, and would like to make him governor, knowing well +that that no office, however high, would change him from the plain, +unpretending man, who, even in the Senate Chamber, would shake drunken +Ike Plympton's hand, and slap Tim Jones on the back if need be. They +liked their Dick, who had been a boy among them, and they thought it +only fair that his wife should unbend a little, and not freeze them so +with her lofty ways. + +"She'll kick the whole thing over if she goes on so," Tim had said to +his father, in Melinda's hearing, and so, like a true friend to Richard, +Melinda determined to try and prevent the proud little feet from doing +so much mischief. + +Nor was she unsuccessful. Ethelyn saw the drift of the conversation, and +though for an instant her cheek crimsoned with resentment that she +should be talked at by Melinda Jones, she was the better for the +talking, and the Olney people, when next they come in contact with her, +changed their minds with regard to her being so very proud. She was +homesick at first, and that was the cause of her coldness, they said, +excusing her in their kind hearts, and admiring her as something far +superior to themselves. Even Tim Jones got now and then a pleasant word, +for Ethelyn had not forgotten the hundred extra votes. She would have +repelled the insinuation that she was courting favor or that hopes of +the future governorship for Richard had anything to do with her changed +demeanor. She despised such things in others; but Ethelyn was human, and +it is just possible that had there been nothing in expectancy she would +not have submitted with so good a grace to the familiarities with which +she so constantly came in contact. At home she was cold and proud as +ever, for between her mother-in-law and herself there was no affinity, +and they kept as far apart as possible, Ethelyn staying mostly in her +room, and Mrs. Markham, senior, staying in the kitchen, where Eunice +Plympton still remained. + +Mrs. Markham had fully expected that Eunice would go home within a few +days after Ethelyn's arrival; but when the days passed on, Ethelyn +showed no inclination for a nearer acquaintance with the kitchen--"never +even offering to wipe the teacups on washing days," as Mrs. Markham +complained to James, and John, and Andy--the good woman began to +manifest some anxiety on the subject, and finally went to Richard to +know if "he expected to keep a hired girl all winter or was Ethelyn +going to do some light chores." + +Richard really did not know; but after a visit to his room, where Ethie +sat reading in her handsome crimson wrapper, with the velvet trimmings, +he decided that she could "not do chores," and Eunice must remain. It +was on this occasion that Washington was broached, Mrs. Markham +repeating what she heard Ethelyn saying to Melinda, and asking Richard +if he contemplated such a piece of extravagance as taking his wife to +Washington would be. In Richard's estimation there were other and +weightier reasons why Ethelyn should remain quietly at home that winter. +He did not especially mind the expense she might be to him, and he owned +to a weak desire to see her queen it over all the reigning belles, as he +was certain she would. Unbiased by his mother, and urged by Ethelyn, he +would probably have yielded in her favor; but the mother was first in +the field, and so she won the day, and Ethie's disappointment was a +settled thing. But Ethie did not know it, as Richard wisely refrained +from being the first to speak of the matter. That she was going to +Washington Ethelyn had no doubt, and this made her intercourse with the +Olneyites far more endurable. Some of them she found pleasant, +cultivated people--especially Mr. Townsend, the clergyman, who, after +the Sunday on which she appeared at the Village Hall in her blue silk +and elegant basquine, came to see her, and seemed so much like an old +friend when she found that he had met at Clifton, in New York, some of +her acquaintances. It was easy to be polite to him, and to the people +from Camden, who hearing much of Judge Markham's pretty bride, came to +call upon her--Judge Miller and his wife, with Marcia Fenton and Miss +Ella Backus, both belles and blondes, and both some-bodies, according to +Ethelyn's definition of that word. She liked these people, and Richard +found no trouble in getting her to return their calls. She would gladly +have stayed in Camden altogether, and once laughingly pointed out to +Richard a large, vacant lot, adjoining Mr. Fenton's, where she would +like to have her new house built. + +There was a decided improvement in Ethelyn; nor did her old perversity +of temper manifest itself very strongly until one morning, three weeks +after her arrival in Olney, when Richard suggested to her the propriety +of his mother's giving them a party, or infair, as he called it. The +people expected it, he said; they would be disappointed without it, and, +indeed, he felt it was something he owed them for all their kindness to +him. Then Ethelyn rebelled--stoutly, stubbornly rebelled--but Richard +carried the point, and two days after the farmhouse was in a state of +dire confusion, wholly unlike the quiet which reigned there usually. +Melinda Jones was there all the time, while Mrs. Jones was back and +forth, and a few of the Olney ladies dropped in with suggestions and +offers of assistance. It was to be a grand affair--so far, at least, as +numbers were concerned--for everybody was invited, from Mr. Townsend and +the other clergy, down to Cecy Doane, who did dressmaking and tailoring +from house to house. The Markhams were very democratic in their +feelings, and it showed itself in the guests bidden to the party. They +were invited from Camden as well--Mr. and Mrs. Miller, with Marcia +Fenton and Ella Backus; and after the two young ladies had come over to +ascertain how large an affair it was to be, so as to know what to wear, +Ethelyn began to take some little interest in it herself and to give the +benefit of her own experience in such matters. But having a party in +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's handsome house, where the servants were all so well +trained, and everything necessary was so easy of access, or even having +a party at Aunt Barbara's, was a very different thing from having one +here under the supervision of Mrs. Markham, whose ideas were so many +years back, and who objected to nearly everything which Ethelyn +suggested. But by dint of perseverance on Melinda's part her scruples +were finally overcome; so that when the night of the party arrived the +house presented a very respectable appearance, with its lamps of +kerosene, and the sperm candles flaming on the mantels in the parlor, +and the tallow candles smoking in the kitchen. + +Mrs. Markham's bed had been removed from the sitting room, and the +carpet taken from the floor, for they were going to dance, and Eunice's +mother had been working hard all day to keep her liege lord away from +the Cross Roads tavern so that he might be presentable at night, and +capable of performing his part, together with his eldest son, who played +the flute. She was out in the kitchen now, very large and important with +the office of head waiter, her hoops in everybody's way, and her face +radiant with satisfaction, as she talked to Mrs. Markham about what we +better do. The table was laid in the kitchen and loaded with all the +substantials, besides many delicacies which Melinda and Ethelyn had +concocted; for the latter had even put her hands to the work, and +manufactured two large dishes of Charlotte Russe, with pretty molds of +blanc-mange, which Eunice persisted in calling "corn-starch puddin', +with the yallers of eggs left out," There were trifles, and tarts, and +jellies, and sweetmeats, with raised biscuits by the hundred, and loaves +on loaves of frosted cake; while out in the woodshed, wedged in a tub of +ice, was a huge tin pail, over which James, and John, and Andy, and even +Richard had sat, by turns, stirring the freezing mass. Mrs. Jones' +little colored boy, who knew better how to wait on company than any +person there, came over in his clean jacket, and out on the doorstep was +eating chestnuts and whistling Dixie, as he looked down the road to see +if anybody was coming. Melinda Jones had gone home to dress, feeling +more like going to bed than making merry at a party, as she looped up +her black braids of hair and donned her white muslin dress with the +scarlet ribbons. Melinda was very tired, for a good share of the work +had fallen upon her--or rather she had assumed it--and her cheeks and +hands were redder than usual when, about seven o'clock, Tim drove her +over to Mrs. Markham's, and then went to the village after the dozen or +more of girls whom he had promised "to see to the doin's." + +But Melinda looked very pretty--at least James Markham thought so--when +she stood up on tiptoe to tie his cravat in a better-looking bow than +he had done. Since the night when Richard first told her of Ethelyn, it +had more than once occurred to Melinda that possibly she might yet bear +the name of Markham, for her woman nature was quick to see that James, +at least, paid her the homage which Richard had withheld. But Melinda's +mind was not yet made up, and as she was too honest to encourage hopes +which might never be fulfilled, she would not even look up into the +handsome eyes resting so admiringly upon her as she tied the bow of the +cravat and felt James' breath upon her burning cheeks. She did, however, +promise to dance the first set with him, and then she ran upstairs to +see if Ethelyn needed her. But Eunice had been before her, and Ethelyn's +toilet was made. + +Had this party been at Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's, in Boston, Ethelyn would +have worn her beautiful white satin with the fleecy lace; but here it +would be out of place, she thought, and so she left it pinned up in +towels at the bottom of her trunk, and chose a delicate lavender, +trimmed with white applique. Lavender was not the most becoming color +Ethelyn could wear, but she looked very handsome in it, with the soft +pearls upon her neck and arms. Richard thought her dress too low, while +modest Andy averted his eyes, lest he should do wrong in looking upon +the beautiful round neck and shoulders which so greatly shocked his +mother. "It was ridiculous and disgraceful for respectable wimmen folks +to dress like that," she said to Melinda Jones, who spoke up for +Ethelyn, saying the dress was like that of all fashionable ladies, and +in fact was not as low as Mrs. Judge Miller wore to a reception when +Melinda was at school in Camden. + +Mrs. Markham "did not care for Miss Miller, nor forty more like her. +Ethelyn looked ridickerlous, showing her shoulderblades, with that sharp +point running down her back, and her skirts moppin' the floor for half a +yard behind." + +Any superfluity of length in Ethelyn's skirts was more than +counterbalanced by Mrs. Markham's, who this night wore the heavy black +silk which her sister-in-law had matched in Boston ten years before. Of +course it was too narrow and too short, and too flat in front, Andy +said, admiring Ethelyn far more than he did his mother, even though the +latter wore the coiffure which Aunt Barbara had sent her, and a big +collar made from the thread lace which Mrs. Captain Markham, of +Chicopee, had also matched in Boston. Ethelyn was perfect, Andy thought, +and he hovered constantly near her, noticing how she carried her hands, +and her handkerchief, and her fan, and thinking Richard must be +perfectly happy in the possession of such a gem. + +But Richard was not happy--at least not that night--for, with Mrs. +Miller, and Marcia Fenton, and Ella Backus before her mind, Ethelyn had +lectured him again on etiquette, and Richard did not bear lecturing here +as well as at Saratoga. There it was comparatively easy to make him +believe he did not know anything which he ought to know; but at home, +where the old meed of praise and deference was awarded to him, where his +word was law and gospel, and he was Judge Markham, the potentate of the +town, Ethelyn's criticisms were not palatable, and he hinted that he was +old enough to take care of himself without quite so much dictation. +Then, when he saw a tear on Ethelyn's eyelashes, he would have put his +arm around her and kissed it away, if she had not kept him back, telling +him he would muss her dress. Still he was not insensible to her pretty +looks, and felt very proud of her, as she stood at his side and shook +the hands of the arriving guests. + +By eight o'clock the Olneyites had assembled in full force; but it was +not until the train came in and brought the elite from Camden that the +party was fairly commenced. There was a hush when the three ladies with +veils on their heads went up the stairs, and a greater hush when they +came down again--Mrs. Judge Miller, splendid in green moire-antique, +with diamonds in her ears, while Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus figured +in white tarletan, one with trimmings of blue, the other with trimmings +of pink, and both with waists so much lower than Ethelyn's that Mrs. +Markham thought the latter very decent by comparison. + +It took the ladies a few minutes to inspect the cut of Mrs. Miller's +dress, and the style of hair worn by Marcia and Ella, whose heads had +been under a hairdresser's hands, and were curiosities to some of the +Olneyites. But all stiffness vanished with the sound of Jerry Plympton's +fiddle, and the girls on the west side of the room began to look at the +boys on the opposite side, who were straightening their collars and +glancing at their "pumps." + +Ethelyn did not intend to dance, but when Judge Miller politely offered +to lead her to the floor, saying, as he guessed her thoughts, "Remember +the old adage, 'among the Romans, and so forth,'" she involuntarily +assented, and even found herself leading the first cotillion to the +sound of Jerry Plympton's fiddle. Mrs. Miller was dancing, too, as were +both Marcia and Ella, and that in a measure reconciled her to what she +was doing. They knew something of the lancers there on the prairie, and +terrible Tim Jones offered to call off "if Miss Markham would dance with +him and kind of keep him goin' straight." + +Tim had laid a wager with a companion as rough as himself, that he would +dance with the proud beauty, and this was the way he took to win the +bet. The ruse succeeded, too, Richard's eyes and low-toned "Ethelyn!" +availing more than aught else to drive Ethelyn to the floor with the +dreadful Tim, who interlarded his directions with little asides of his +own, such as "Go it, Jim," "Cut her down there, Tom," "Hurry up +your cakes." + +Ethelyn could have screamed out with disgust, and the moment the set was +over she said to Richard, "I shall not dance again to-night." + +And she kept her word, until toward the close of the party when poor +Andy, who had been so unfortunate as to find everybody engaged or too +tired, came up to her as she was playing an accompaniment to Jerry's +"Money-musk," and with a most doleful expression, said to her, timidly: + +"Please, sister Ethie, dance just once with me; none of the girls wants +to, and I hain't been in a figger to-night." + +Ethelyn could not resist Andy, whose face was perfectly radiant as he +led her to the floor, and bumped his head against hers in bowing to her. +Eunice was in the same set--her partner the terrible Tim--who cracked +jokes and threw his feet about in the most astounding fashion. And +Ethelyn bore it all, feeling that by being there with such people she +had fallen from the pedestal on which Ethelyn Grant once stood. Her +lavender dress was stepped upon, and her point applique caught and torn +by the big pin Andy had upon his coat cuff. Taken as a whole, that party +was the most dreadful of anything Ethelyn had endured and she could have +cried for joy when the last guest had said good-night, and she was at +liberty to lay her aching head upon her pillow. + +Four days after there was a large and fashionable party at Mrs. Judge +Miller's, in Camden, and Ethelyn went over in the cars, taking Eunice +with her as dressing-maid, and stopping at the Stafford House. That +night she wore her bridal robes, receiving so much attention that her +head was nearly turned with flattery. She could dance with the young men +of Camden, and flirt with them, too--especially with Harry Clifford, +who, she found, had been in college with Frank Van Buren. Harry Clifford +was a fast young man, but pleasant to talk with for a while and Ethelyn +found him very agreeable, saving that his mention of Frank made her +heart throb unpleasantly; for she fancied he might know something of +that page of her past life which she had concealed from Richard. Nor +were her fears without foundation, for once when they were standing +together near her husband, Harry said: + +"It seems so strange that you are the Ethie about whom Frank used to +talk so much, and a lock of whose hair he kept so sacred. I remember I +tried to buy a part of it from him, but could not succeed until once, +when his funds from home failed to come, and he was so hard up, as we +used to say, that he actually sold, or rather pawned, half of the +shining tress for the sum of five dollars. As the pawn was never +redeemed, I have the hair now, but never expected to meet with its fair +owner, who needs not to be told that the tress is tenfold more valuable +since I have met her, and know her to be the wife of our esteemed +Member," and young Clifford bowed toward Richard, whose face wore a +perplexed, dissatisfied expression. + +He did not fancy Harry Clifford much, and he certainly did not care to +hear that he had in his possession a lock of Ethelyn's hair, while the +allusions to Frank Van Buren were anything but agreeable to him. Neither +did he like Ethelyn's painful blushes, and her evident desire for Harry +to stop. It looked as if the hair business meant more than he would like +to suppose. Naturally bright and quick, young Clifford detected +Richard's thoughts, and directly began to wonder if there were not +something somewhere which Judge Markham did not understand. + +"I mean to find out," he thought, and watching an opportunity, when +Ethelyn was comparatively alone, he crossed to her side and said in a +low tone, "Excuse me, Mrs. Markham. If in my illusions to Frank Van +Buren I touched a subject which has never been discussed between +yourself and your husband, I meant no harm, I assure you." + +Instead of rebuking the impertinent young man, Ethelyn turned very red, +and stammered out something about its being of no consequence; and so +Harry Clifford held the secret which she had kept so carefully from +Richard, and that party in Camden was made the stepping-stone to much of +the wretchedness that afterward came to our heroine. + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +GOING TO WASHINGTON + +Richard's trunk was ready for Washington. His twelve shirts, which +Eunice had ironed so nicely, were packed away with his collars and new +yarn socks, and his wedding suit, which he was carrying as a mere matter +of form, for he knew he should not need it during his three months' +absence. He should not go into society, he thought, or even attend +levees, with his heart as sore and heavy as it was on this, his last day +at home. Ethelyn was not going with him. She knew it now, and never did +the face of a six-months wife look harder or stonier than hers as she +stayed all day in her room, paying no heed whatever to Richard, and +leaving entirely to Eunice and her mother-in-law those little things +which most wives would have been delighted to do for their husbands' +comfort. Ethelyn was very unhappy, very angry, and very bitterly +disappointed. The fact that she was not going to Washington had fallen +upon her like a thunderbolt, paralyzing her, as it were, so that after +the first great shock was over she seemed like some benumbed creature +bereft of care, or feeling, or interest in anything. + +She had remained in Camden the most of the day following Mrs. Judge +Miller's party, and had done a little shopping with Marcia Fenton and +Ella Backus, to whom she spoke of her winter in Washington as a matter +of course, saying what she had to say in Richard's presence, and never +dreaming that he was only waiting for a fitting opportunity to demolish +her castles entirely. Perhaps if Ethelyn had talked Washington openly to +her husband when she was first married, and before his mother had gained +his ear, her chances for a winter at the capital would have been far +greater than they were now. But she had only taken it for granted that +she was going, and supposed that Richard understood it just as she did. +She had asked him several times where he intended to board and why he +did not secure rooms at Willard's, but Richard's non-committal replies +had given her no cue to her impending fate. On the night of her return +from Camden, as she stood by her dressing bureau, folding away her +point-lace handkerchief, she had casually remarked, "I shall not use +that again till I use it in Washington. Will it be very gay there +this winter?" + +Richard was leaning his elbow upon the mantel, looking thoughtfully into +the fire, and for a moment he did not answer. He hated to demolish +Ethie's castles, but it could not be helped. Once it had seemed very +possible that she would go with him to Washington, but that was before +his mother had talked to him upon the subject. Since then the fiat had +gone forth, and thinking this the time to declare it, Richard said at +last, "Put down your finery, Ethelyn, and come stand by me while I say +something to you." + +His voice and manner startled Ethelyn, but did not prepare her for what +followed after she had "dropped her finery" and was standing by +her husband. + +"Ethelyn," he began, and his eyes did not move from the blazing fire, +"it is time we came to an understanding about Washington. I have talked +with mother, whose age certainly entitles her opinion to some +consideration, and she thinks that for you to go to Washington this +winter would not only be improper, but also endanger your life; +consequently, I hope you will readily see the propriety of remaining +quietly at home where mother can care for you, and see that you are not +at all imprudent. It would break my heart if anything happened to my +darling wife, or--" he finished the sentence in a whisper, for he was +not yet accustomed to speaking of the great hope he had in expectancy. + +He was looking at Ethelyn now, and the expression of her face startled +and terrified him, it was so strange and terrible. + +"Not go to Washington!" and her livid lips quivered with passion, while +her eyes burned like coals of fire. "I stay here all this long, dreary +winter with your mother! Never, Richard, never! I'll die before I'll do +that. It is all--" she did not finish the sentence, for she would not +say, "It is all I married you for"; she was too much afraid of Richard +for that, and so she hesitated, but looked at him intently to see if he +was in earnest. + +She knew he was at last--knew that neither tears, nor reproaches, nor +bitter scorn could avail to carry her point, for she tried them all, +even to violent hysterics, which brought Mrs. Markham, senior, into the +field and made the matter ten times worse. Had she stayed away Richard +might have yielded, for he was frightened at the storm he had invoked; +but Richard was passive in his mother's hands, and listened complacently +while in stronger, plainer language than he had used she repeated in +substance all he had said about the impropriety of Ethelyn's mingling +with the gay throng at Washington. Immodesty, Mrs. Markham called it, +with sundry reflections upon the time when she was young, and what young +married women did then. And while she talked poor Ethelyn lay upon the +lounge writhing with pain and passion, wishing that she could die, and +feeling in her heart that she hated the entire Markham race, from +Richard down to the innocent Andy, who heard of the quarrel going on +between his mother and Ethelyn, and crept cautiously to the door of +their room, wishing so much that he could mediate between them. + +But this was a matter beyond Andy's ken. He could not even find a +petition in his prayer-book suited to that occasion. Mr. Townsend had +assured him that it would meet every emergency; but for once Mr. +Townsend was at fault, for with the sound of Ethelyn's angry voice +ringing in his ears, Andy lighted his tallow candle and creeping up to +his chamber knelt down by his wooden chair and sought among the general +prayers for one suited "to a man and his wife quarreling." There was a +prayer for the President, a prayer for the clergy, a prayer for +Congress, a prayer for rain, a prayer for the sick, a prayer for people +going to sea and people going to be hanged, but there was nothing for +the point at issue, unless he took the prayer to be used in time of war +and tumults, and that he thought would never answer, inasmuch as he did +not really know who was the enemy from which he would be delivered. It +was hard to decide against Ethelyn and still harder to decide against +"Dick," and so with his brains all in a muddle Andy concluded to take +the prayer "for all sorts and conditions of men," speaking very low and +earnestly when he asked that all "who were distressed in mind, body, or +estate, might be comforted and relieved according to their several +necessities." This surely covered the ground to a very considerable +extent; or if it did not, the fervent "Good Lord, deliver us," with +which Andy finished his devotions, did, and the simple-hearted, trusting +man arose from his knees comforted and relieved, even if Richard and +Ethelyn were not. + +With them the trouble continued, for Ethelyn kept her bed next day, +refusing to see anyone and only answering Richard in monosyllables when +he addressed himself directly to her. Once he bent over her and said, +"Ethelyn, tell me truly--is it your desire to be with me, your dread of +separation from me, which makes you so averse to be left behind?" + +There was that in his voice which said that if this were the case he +might be induced to reconsider. But though sorely tempted to do it, +Ethelyn would not tell a falsehood for the sake of Washington; so she +made no reply, and Richard drew from her silence any inference he +pleased. He was very wretched those last days, for he could not forget +the look of Ethelyn's eye or the sound of her voice when, as she finally +gave up the contest, she said to him with quivering nostrils and steady +tones, "You may leave me here, Richard, but remember this: not one word +or line will I write to you while you are gone. I mean what I say. I +shall abide by my decision." + +It would be dreadful not to hear a word from Ethie during all the dreary +winter, and Richard hoped she would recall her words; but Ethelyn was +too sorely wounded to do that. She must reach Richard somehow, and this +was the way to do it. She did not come downstairs again after it was +settled. She was sick, she said, and kept her room, seeing no one but +Richard and Eunice, who three times a day brought up her nicely cooked +meals and looked curiously at her as she deposited her tray upon the +stand and quietly left the room. Mrs. Markham did not go up at all, for +Ethelyn charged her disappointment directly to her mother-in-law, and +had asked that she be kept away; and so, 'mid passion and tears and +bitterness, the week went by and brought the day when Richard was +to leave. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE FIRST DAY OF RICHARD'S ABSENCE + +The gray light of a November morning was breaking over the prairies when +Richard stooped down to kiss his wife, who did not think it worth her +while to rise so early even to see him off. She felt that she had been +unjustly dealt with, and up to the very last maintained the same cold, +icy manner so painful to Richard, who would fain have won from her one +smile to cheer him in his absence. But the smile was not given, though +the lips which Richard touched did move a little, and he tried to +believe it was a kiss they meant to give. Only the day before Ethie had +heard from Aunt Van Buren that Frank was to be married at Christmas, +when they would all go on to Washington, where they confidently expected +to meet Ethelyn. With a kind of grim satisfaction Ethelyn showed this to +her husband, hoping to awaken in him some remorse for his cruelty to +her, if, indeed, he was capable of remorse, which she doubted. She did +not know him, for if possible he suffered more than she did, though in a +different way. It hurt him to leave her there alone feeling as she did. +He hated to go without her, carrying only in his mind the memory of the +white, rigid face which had not smiled on him for so long. He wanted her +to seem interested in something, for her cold apathy of manner puzzled +and alarmed him; so remembering her aunt's letter on the morning of his +departure, he spoke of it to her and said, "What shall I tell Mrs. Van +Buren for you? I shall probably see more or less of them." + +"Tell nothing; prisoners send no messages," was Ethelyn's reply; and in +the dim gray of the morning the two faces looked a moment at each other +with such thoughts and passions written upon them as were pitiable +to behold. + +But when Richard was fairly gone, when the tones of his voice bidding +his family good-by had ceased, and Ethelyn sat leaning on her elbow and +listening to the sound of the wheels which carried him away, such a +feeling of utter desolation and loneliness swept over her that, burying +her face in the pillows, she wept bitterer tears of remorse and regret +than she had ever wept before. + +That day was a long and dreary one to all the members of the prairie +farmhouse. It was lonely there the first day of Richard's absence, but +now it was drearier than ever; and with a harsh, forbidding look upon +her face, Mrs. Markham went about her work, leaving Ethelyn entirely +alone. She did not believe her daughter-in-law was any sicker than +herself. "It was only airs," she thought, when at noon Ethelyn declined +the boiled beef and cabbage, saying just the odor of it made her sick. +"Nothing but airs and ugliness," she persisted in saying to herself, as +she prepared a slice of nice cream toast with a soft-boiled egg and cup +of fragrant black tea. Ethie did not refuse this, and was even gracious +enough to thank her mother-in-law for her extra trouble, but she did it +in such a queenly as well as injured kind of way, that Mrs. Markham felt +more aggrieved than ever, and, for a good woman, who sometimes spoke in +meeting, slammed the door considerably hard as she left the room and +went back to her kitchen, where the table had been laid ever since +Ethelyn took to eating upstairs. So long as she ate with the family Mrs. +Markham felt rather obliged to take her meals in the front room, but it +made a deal more work, and she was glad to return to her olden ways once +more. Eunice was gone off on an errand, and so she felt at liberty to +speak her mind freely to her boys as they gathered around the table. + +"It is sheer ugliness," she said, "which keeps her cooped up there to be +waited on. She is no more sick than the dog; but law, I couldn't make +Richard b'lieve it." + +"Mother, you surely did not go to Richard with complaints of his wife," +and James looked reproachfully across the table at his mother, who +replied: "I told him what I thought, for I wa'n't going to have him +miserable all the time thinking how sick she was, but I might as well +have talked to the wind, for any good it did. He even seemed +putcherky, too." + +"I should be more than putcherky if you were to talk to me against my +wife if I had one," James retorted, thinking of Melinda and the way she +sang that solo in the choir the day before. + +It was a little strange that James and John and Andy all took Ethelyn's +part against their mother, and even against Richard, who they thought +might have taken her with him. + +"It would not have hurt her any more than fretting herself to death at +home. No, nor half so much; and she must feel like a cat in a strange +garret there alone with them." + +It was John who said this--quiet John, who talked so little, and annoyed +Ethelyn so much by coming to the table in his blue frock, with his pants +tucked in his boots and his curly hair standing every way. Though very +much afraid of his grand sister-in-law, he admired her beyond +everything, and kept the slippers she brought him safely put away with a +lock of Daisy's hair and a letter written him by the young girl whose +grave was close beside Daisy's in the Olney cemetery. John had had his +romance and buried it with his heroine, since which time he had said but +little to womankind, though never was there a truer heart than that +which beat beneath the homespun frock Ethelyn so despised. Richard had +bidden him to be kind to Ethie, and John had said he would; and after +that promise was given had the farmhouse been on fire the sturdy fellow +would have periled life and limb to save her for Dick. To James, too, +Richard had spoken a word for Ethie, and to Andy also; so that there +were left to her four champions in his absence--for Eunice had had her +charge, with promises of a new dress if faithful to her trust; and thus +there was no one against poor Ethelyn saving the mother-in-law, who made +that first dinner after Richard's absence so uncomfortable that John +left the table without touching the boiled Indian pudding, of which he +was so fond, while James rather curtly asked what there was to be gained +by spitting out so about Ethelyn, and Andy listened in silence, thinking +how, by and by, when all the chores were done, he would take a basket of +kindlings up for Ethie's fire, and if she asked him to sit down, he +would do so and try and come to the root of the matter, and see if he +could not do something to make things a little better. + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANDY TRIES TO FIND THE ROOT OF THE MATTER + +Ethelyn was very sick with a nervous headache, and so Andy did not go in +with his kindlings that night, but put the basket near the door, where +Eunice would find it in the morning. It was a part of Richard's bargain +with Eunice that Ethie should always have a bright, warm fire to dress +by, and the first thing Ethelyn heard as she unclosed her eyes was the +sound of Eunice blowing the coals and kindlings into a blaze as she +knelt upon the hearth, with her cheeks and eyes extended to their utmost +capacity. It was a very dreary awakening, and Ethelyn sighed as she +looked from her window out upon the far-stretching prairie, where the +first snows of the season were falling. There were but few objects to +break up the monotonous level, and the mottled November sky frowned +gloomily and coldly down upon her. Down in the back-yard James and John +were feeding the cattle; the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the +cows came to her ear as she turned with a shiver from the window. How +could she stay there all that long, dreary winter--there where there +was not an individual who had a thought or taste in common with her own? +She could not stay, she decided, and then as the question arose, "Where +will you go?" the utter hopelessness and helplessness of her position +rushed over her with so much force that she sank down upon the lounge +which Eunice had drawn to the fire, and when the latter came up with +breakfast she found her young mistress crying in a heart-broken, +despairing kind of way, which touched her heart at once. + +Eunice knew but little of the trouble with regard to Washington. Mrs. +Markham had been discreet enough to keep that from her; and so she +naturally ascribed Ethie's tears to grief at parting with her husband, +and tried in her homely way to comfort her. Three months were not very +long; and they would pass 'most before you thought, she said, adding +that she heard Jim say the night before that as soon as he got his gray +colts broken he was going to take his sister all over the country and +cheer her up a little. + +Ethie's heart was too full to permit her to reply, and Eunice soon left +her alone, reporting downstairs how white and sick she was looking. To +Mrs. Markham's credit we record that with a view to please her +daughter-in-law, a fire was that afternoon made in the parlor, and +Ethelyn solicited to come down, Mrs. Markham, who carried the +invitation, urging that a change would do her good, as it was not always +good to stay in one place. But Ethelyn preferred the solitude of her own +chamber, and though she thanked her mother-in-law for her +thoughtfulness, she declined going down, and Mrs. Markham had made her +fire for nothing. Not even Melinda came to enjoy it, for she was in +Camden, visiting a schoolmate; and so the day passed drearily enough +with all, and the autumnal night shut down again darker, gloomier than +ever, as it seemed to Ethelyn. She had seen no one but Mrs. Markham and +Eunice since Richard went away, and she was wondering what had become of +Andy, when she heard his shuffling tread upon the stairs, and a moment +after, his round shining face appeared, asking if he might come in. +Andy wore his best clothes on this occasion, for an idea had somehow +been lodged in his brain that Ethelyn liked a person well dressed, and +he was much pleased with himself in his short coat and shorter pants, +and the buff and white cotton cravat tied in a hard knot around his +sharp, standing collar, which almost cut the bottom of his ears. + +"I wished to see you," he said, taking a chair directly in front of +Ethelyn and tipping back against the wall. "I wanted to come before, but +was afraid you didn't care to have me. I've got something for you now, +though--somethin' good for sore eyes. Guess what 'tis?" + +And Andy began fumbling in his pocket for the something which was to +cheer Ethelyn, as he hoped. + +"Look a-here. A letter from old Dick, writ the very first day. That's +what I call real courtin' like," and Andy gave to Ethelyn the letter +which John had brought from the office and which the detention of a +train at Stafford for four hours had afforded Richard an opportunity +to write. + +It was only a few lines, meant for her alone, but Ethelyn's cheek didn't +redden as she read them, or her eyes brighten one whit. Richard was +well, she said, explaining to Andy the reason for his writing, and then +she put the letter away, while Andy sat looking at her, wondering what +he should say next. He had come up to comfort her, but found it hard to +begin. Ethie was looking very pale, and there were dark rings around her +eyes, showing that she suffered, even if Mrs. Markham did assert there +was nothing ailed her but spleen. + +At last Andy blurted out: "I am sorry for you, Ethelyn, for I know it +must be bad to have your man go off and leave you all alone, when you +wanted to go with him. Jim and John and me talked it up to-day when we +was out to work, and we think you orto have gone with Dick. It must be +lonesome staying here, and you only six months married. I wish, and the +boys wishes, we could do something to chirk you up." + +With the exception of what Eunice had said, these were the first words +of sympathy Ethelyn had heard, and her tears flowed at once, while her +slight form shook with such a tempest of sobs that Andy was alarmed, +and getting down on his knees beside her, begged of her to tell him what +was the matter. Had he hurt her feelings? he was such a blunderin' +critter, he never knew the right thing to say, and if she liked he'd go +straight off downstairs. + +"No, Anderson," Ethelyn said, "you have not hurt my feelings, and I do +not wish you to go, but, oh, I am so wretched and so disappointed, too!" + +"About goin' to Washington, you mean?" Andy asked, resuming his chair, +and his attitude of earnest inquiry, while Ethelyn, forgetting all her +reserve, replied: "Yes, I mean that and everything else. It has been +nothing but disappointment ever since I left Chicopee, and I sometimes +wish I had died before I promised to go away from dear Aunt Barbara's, +where I was so happy." + +"What made you promise, then? I suppose, though, it was because you +loved Dick so much," simple-minded Andy said, trying to remember if +there was not a passage somewhere which read, "For this cause shall a +man leave father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain +shall be one flesh." + +Ethelyn would not wound Andy by telling him how little love had had to +do with her unhappy marriage, and she remained silent for a moment, +while Andy continued, "Be you disappointed here--with us, I mean, and +the fixins?" + +"Yes, Anderson, terribly disappointed. Nothing is as I supposed. Richard +never told me what I was to expect," Ethelyn replied, without stopping +to consider what she was saying. + +For a moment Andy looked intently at her, as if trying to make out her +meaning. Then, as it in part dawned upon him, he said sorrowfully: +"Sister Ethie, if it's me you mean, I was more to blame than Dick, for I +asked him not to tell you I was--a--a--wall, I once heard Miss Captain +Simmons say I was Widder Markham's fool," and Andy's chin quivered as he +went on: "I ain't a fool exactly, for I don't drool or slobber like Tom +Brown the idiot, but I have a soft spot in my head, and I didn't want +you to know it, for fear you wouldn't like me. Daisy did, though, and +Daisy knew what I was and called me 'dear Andy,' and kissed me when +she died." + +Andy was crying softly now, and Ethelyn was crying with him. The hard +feeling at her heart was giving way, and she could have put her arms +around this childish man, who after a moment continued: "Dick said he +wouldn't tell you, so you must forgive him for that. You've found me +out, I s'pose. You know I ain't like Jim, nor John, and I can't hold a +candle to old Dick, but sometimes I've hope you liked me a little, even +if you do keep calling me Anderson. I wish you wouldn't; seems as if +folks think more of me when they say 'Andy' to me." + +"Oh, Andy, dear Andy," Ethelyn exclaimed: "I do like you so much--like +you best of all. I did not mean you when I said I was disappointed." + +"Who, then?" Andy asked, in his straightforward way. "Is it mother? She +is odd, I guess, though I never thought on't till you came here. Yes, +mother is some queer, but she is good; and onct when I had the typhoid +and lay like a log, I heard her pray for 'her poor dear boy Andy'; +that's what she called me, as lovin' like as if I wasn't a fool, or +somethin' nigh it." + +Ethelyn did not wish to leave upon his mind the impression that his +mother had everything to do with her wretchedness, and so cautiously as +she could she tried to explain to him the difference between the habits +and customs of Chicopee and Olney. Warming up with her theme as she +progressed, she said more than she intended, and succeeded in driving +into Andy's brain a vague idea that his family were not up to her +standard, but were in fact a long way behind the times. Andy was in a +dilemma; he wanted to help Ethelyn and did not know how. Suddenly, +however, his face brightened, and he asked, "Do you belong to +the church?" + +"Yes," was Ethelyn's reply. + +"You do!" Andy repeated in some surprise, and Ethelyn replied, "Not the +way you mean, perhaps; but when I was a baby I was baptized in the +church and thus became a member." + +"So you never had the Bishop's hands upon your head, and done what the +Saviour told us to do to remember him by?" + +Ethelyn shook her head, and Andy went on: "Oh, what a pity, when he is +such a good Saviour, and would know just how to help you, now you are so +sorry-like and homesick, and disappointed. If you had him you could tell +him all about it and he would comfort you. He helped me, you don't know +how much, and I was dreadful bad once. I used to get drunk, +Ethie--drunker'n a fool, and come hiccuppin' home with my clothes all +tore and my hat smashed into nothin'." + +Andy's face was scarlet as he confessed to his past misdeeds, but +without the least hesitation he went on: "Mr. Townsend found me one day +in the ditch, and helped me up and got me into his room and prayed over +me and talked to me, and never let me off from that time till the +Saviour took me up, and now it's better than three years since I tasted +a drop. I don't taste it even at the sacrament, for fear what the taste +might do, and I used to hold my nose to keep shut of the smell. Mr. +Townsend knows I don't touch it, and God knows, too, and thinks I'm +right, I'm sure, and gives me to drink of his precious blood just the +same, for I feel light as air when I come from the altar. If religion +could make me, a fool and a drunkard, happy, it would do sights for you +who know so much. Try it, Ethie, won't you?" + +Andy was getting in earnest now, and Ethelyn could not meet the glance +of his honest, pleading eyes. + +"I can't be good, Andy," she replied; "I shouldn't know how to begin or +what to do." + +"Seems to me I could tell you a few things," Andy said. "God didn't want +you to go to Washington for some wise purpose or other, and so he put it +into Dick's heart to leave you at home. Now, instead of crying about +that I'd make the best of it and be as happy as I could be here. I know +we ain't starched up folks like them in Boston, but we like you, all of +us--leastwise Jim and John and me do--and I don't mean to come to the +table in my shirt-sleeves any more, if that will suit you, and I won't +blow my tea in my sasser, nor sop my bread in the platter; though if +you are all done and there's a lot of nice gravy left, you won't mind +it, will you, Ethelyn?--for I do love gravy." + +Ethelyn had been more particular than she meant to be with her reasons +for her disappointment, and in enumerating the bad habits to which she +said Western people were addicted, she had included the points upon +which Andy had seized so readily. He had never been told before that his +manners were entirely what they ought not to be; he could hardly see it +so now, but if it would please Ethie he would try to refrain, he said, +asking that when she saw him doing anything very outlandish, she would +remind him of it and tell him what was right. + +"I think folks is always happier," he continued, "when they forgit to +please themselves and try to suit others, even if they can't see any +sense in it." + +Andy did not exactly mean this as a rebuke, but it had the effect of one +and set Ethelyn thinking. Such genuine simplicity and frankness could +not be lost upon her, and long after Andy had left her and gone to his +room, where he sought in his prayer-book for something just suited to +her case, she sat pondering all he had said, and upon the faith which +could make even simple Andy so lovable and good. + +"He has improved his one talent far more than I have my five or ten," +she said, while regrets for her own past misdeeds began to fill her +bosom, with a wish that she might in some degree atone for them. + +Perhaps it was the resolution formed that night, and perhaps it was the +answer to Andy's prayer that God would have mercy upon Ethie and incline +her and his mother to pull together better, which sent Ethelyn down to +breakfast the next morning and kept her below stairs a good portion of +the day, and made her accept James' invitation to ride with him in the +afternoon. Then when it was night again, and she saw Eunice carrying +through the hall a smoking firebrand, which she knew was designed for +the parlor fire, she changed her mind about staying alone upstairs with +the books she had commenced to read, but brought instead the white, +fleecy cloud she was knitting, and sat with the family, who had never +seen her more gracious or amiable, and wondered what had happened. Andy +thought he knew; he had prayed for Ethie, not only the previous night, +but that morning before he left his room, and also during the day--once +in the barn upon a rick of hay and once behind the smoke-house. + +Andy always looked for direct answers to his prayers, and believing he +had received one his face was radiant with content and satisfaction, +when after supper he brushed and wet his hair and plastered it down upon +his forehead, and changed his boots for a lighter pair of Richard's, and +then sat down before the parlor fire with the yarn sock he was knitting +for himself. Ethelyn had never seen him engaged in this feminine +employment before, and she felt a strong disposition to laugh, but +fearing to wound him, repressed her smiles and seemed not to look at him +as he worked industriously on the heel, turning and shaping it better +than she could have done. It was not often that Ethelyn had favored the +family with music, but she did so that night, playing and singing pieces +which she knew were familiar to them, and only feeling a momentary pang +of resentment when, at the close of "Yankee Doodle," with variations, +quiet John remarked that Melinda herself could not go ahead of that! +Melinda's style of music was evidently preferable to her own, but she +swallowed the insult and sang "Lily Dale," at the request of Andy, who, +thinking the while of dear little Daisy, wiped his eyes with the leg of +his sock, while a tear trickled down his mother's cheek and dropped +into her lap. + +"I thought Melinda Jones wanted to practice on the pianner," Eunice +said, after Ethelyn was done playing; "I heard her saying so one day and +wondering if Miss Markham would be willin'." + +Ethelyn was in a mood then to assent to most anything, and she expressed +her entire approbation, saying even that she would gladly give Melinda +any assistance in her power. Ethelyn had been hard and cold and proud so +long that she scarcely knew herself in this new phase of character, and +the family did not know her, either. But they appreciated it fully, and +James' eyes were very bright and sparkling when, in imitation of Andy, +he bade his sister good-night, thinking, as she left the room how +beautiful she was and how pleased Melinda would be, and hoping she would +find it convenient to practice there evenings, as that would render an +escort home absolutely necessary, unless "Terrible Tim" came for her. + +Ethelyn had not changed her mind when Melinda came home next day, and as +a matter of course called at the Markhams' in the evening. But Ethelyn's +offer had come a little too late--Melinda was going to Washington to +spend the winter! A bachelor brother of her mother's, living among the +mountains of Vermont, had been elected Member of Congress in the place +of the regular member, who had resigned, and as the uncle was wealthy +and generous, and had certain pleasant reminiscences of a visit to Iowa +when a little black-eyed girl had been so agreeable to him, he had +written for her to join him in Washington, promising to defray all +expenses and sending on a draft for two hundred dollars, with which she +was to procure whatever she deemed necessary for her winter's outfit. +Melinda's star was in the ascendant, and Ethelyn felt a pang of +something like envy as she thought how differently Melinda's winter +would pass from her own, while James trembled for the effect Washington +might have upon the girl who walked so slowly with him along the beaten +path between his house and her father's, and whose eyes, as she bade him +good-night, were little less bright than the stars shining down upon +her. Would she come back like Ethelyn? He hoped not, for there would +then be an end to all fond dreams he had been dreaming. She would +despise his homely ways and look for somebody higher than plain Jim +Markham in his cowhide boots. James was sorry to have Melinda go, and +Ethelyn was sorry, too. It seemed as if she was to be left alone, for +two days after Melinda's return, Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus came out +from Camden to call, and communicated the news that they, too, were +going on to Washington, together with Mrs. Judge Miller, whose father +was a United States Senator. It was terrible to be thus left behind, +and Ethelyn's heart grew harder against her husband for dooming her to +such a fate. Every week James, or John, or Andy brought from the post a +letter in Richard's handwriting, directed to Mrs. Richard Markham, and +once in two weeks Andy carried a letter to the post directed in +Ethelyn's handwriting to "Richard Markham, M.C.," but Andy never +suspected that the dainty little envelope, with a Boston mark upon it, +inclosed only a blank sheet of paper! Ethelyn had affirmed so solemnly +that she would not write to her husband that she half feared to break +her vow; and, besides that, she could not forgive him for having left +her behind, while Marcia, Ella, and Melinda were enjoying themselves so +much. She knew she was doing wrong, and not a night of her life did she +go to her lonely bed that there did not creep over her a sensation of +fear as she thought, "What if I should die while I am so bad?" + +At home, in Chicopee, she used always to go through with a form of +prayer, but she could not do that now for the something which rose up +between her and Heaven, smothering the words upon her lips, and so in +this dreadful condition she lived on day after day, growing more, and +more desolately and lonely, and wondering sadly if life would always be +as dreary and aimless as it was now. And while she pondered thus, Andy +prayed on and practiced his lessons in good manners, provoking the mirth +of the whole family by his ludicrous attempts to be polite, and feeling +sometimes tempted to give the matter up. Andy was everything to Ethelyn, +and once when her conscience was smiting her more than usual with regard +to the blanks, she said to him abruptly: "if you had made a wicked vow, +which would you do--keep it or break it, and so tell a falsehood?" + +Andy was not much of a lawyer, he said, but "he thought he knew some +scripter right to the pint," and taking his well-worn Bible he found and +read the parable of the two sons commanded to work in their +father's vineyard. + +"If the Saviour commended the one who said he wouldn't and then went and +did it, I think there can be no harm in your breaking a wicked vow: +leastways I should do it." + +This was Andy's advice, and that night, long after the family were in +bed, a light was shining in Ethelyn's chamber, where she sat writing to +her husband, and as if Andy's spirit were pervading hers, she softened, +as she wrote and asked forgiveness for all the past which she had made +so wretched. She was going to do better, she said, and when her husband +came home she would try to make him happy. + +"But, oh, Richard," she wrote, "please take me away from here to Camden, +or Olney, or anywhere--so I can begin anew to be the wife I ought to be. +I was never worthy of you, Richard. I deceived you from the first, and +if I could summon the courage I would tell you about it." + +This letter which would have done so much good, was never finished, for +when the morning came there were troubled faces at the prairie +farmhouse--Mrs. Markham looking very anxious and Eunice very scared, +James going for the doctor and Andy for Mrs. Jones, while up in Ethie's +room, where the curtains were drawn so closely before the windows, life +and death were struggling for the mastery, and each in a measure coming +off triumphant. + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WASHINGTON + +Richard had not been very happy in Washington. He led too quiet and +secluded a life, his companions said, advising him to go out more, and +jocosely telling him that he was pining for his young wife and growing +quite an old man. When Melinda Jones came, Richard brightened a little, +for there was always a sense of comfort and rest in Melinda's presence, +and Richard spent much of his leisure in her society, accompanying her +to concerts and occasionally to a levee, and taking pains to show her +whatever he thought would interest her. It was pleasant to have a lady +with him sometimes, and he wished so much it had been practicable for +Ethelyn to have come. "Poor Ethie," he called her to himself, pitying +her because, vain man that he was, he thought her so lonely without him. +This was at first, and before he had received in reply to his letter +that dreadful blank, which sent such a chill to his heart, making him +cold, and faint, and sick, as he began to realize what it was in a +woman's power to do. He had occasionally thought of Ethelyn's threat, +not to write him a line, and felt very uncomfortable as he recalled the +expression of her eyes when she made it. But he did not believe she was +in earnest. She surely could not hold out against the letter he wrote, +telling how he missed her every moment, and how, if it had been at all +advisable, he would have taken her with him. He did not know Ethelyn, +and so was not prepared for the bitter disappointment in store for him +when the dainty little envelope was put into his hand. It was her +handwriting--so much he knew; and there lingered about the missive faint +traces of the sweet perfume he remembered as pervading everything she +wore or used. Ethelyn had not kept her vow; and with a throb of joy +Richard tore open the envelope and removed the delicate tinted sheet +inside. But the hand of the strong man shook and his heart grew heavy as +lead when he turned the sheet thrice over, seeking in vain for some line +or word, or syllable or sign. But there was none. Ethelyn had kept her +vow, and Richard felt for a moment as if all the world were as +completely a blank as that bit of gilt-edged paper he crumpled so +helplessly in his hand. Anon, however, hope whispered that she would +write next time; she could not hold out thus all winter; and so Richard +wrote again with the same success, until at last he expected nothing, +and people said of him that he was growing old, while even Melinda +noticed his altered appearance, and how fast his brown hair was turning +gray. Melinda was in one sense his good angel. She brought him news from +home and Ethelyn, telling for one thing of Ethie's offer to teach her +music during the winter; and for another, of Ethie's long drives upon +the prairie, sometimes with James, sometimes with John, but oftenest +with Andy, to whom she seemed to cling as to a very dear brother. + +This news did Richard good, showing a better side of Ethie's character +than the one presented to him. She was not cold and proud to the family +at home; even his mother, who wrote to him once or twice, spoke kindly +of her, while James warmly applauded her, and Andy wrote a letter, +wonderful in composition, and full of nothing but Ethelyn, who made +their home so pleasant with her music, and songs, and pretty face. There +was some comfort in this^ and so Richard bore his burden in silence, and +no one ever dreamed that the letters he received with tolerable +regularity were only blank, fulfillments of a hasty vow. + +With Christmas came the Van Buren set from Boston--Aunt Sophia, with +Frank, and his girlish bride, who soon became a belle, flirting with +every man who offered his attentions, while Frank was in no way behind +in his flirtations with the other sex. Plain, matter-of-fact Melinda +Jones was among the first to claim his notice after he learned that she +was niece of the man who drove such splendid blacks and kept so handsome +a suite of rooms at Willard's; but Melinda was more than his match, and +snubbed him so unmercifully that he gave her up, and sneered at her as +"that old-maidish girl from the West." Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had been +profuse in her inquiries after Ethelyn, and loud in her regrets at her +absence. She had also tried to patronize both Richard and Melinda, +taking the latter with her to the theater and to a reception, and trying +to cultivate her for the sake of poor Ethie, who was obliged to +associate with her and people like her. Melinda, however, did not need +Mrs. Van Buren's patronage. Her uncle was a man of wealth and mark, who +stood high in Washington, where he had been before. His niece could not +lack attention, and ere the season was over the two rival belles at +Washington were Mrs. Frank Van Buren, from Boston, and Miss Melinda +Jones, from Iowa. + +But prosperity did not spoil Melinda, and James Markham's chances were +quite as good when, dressed in pink silk, with camelias in her hair, she +entertained some half-dozen judges and M.C.'s as when in brown delaine +and magenta ribbons she danced a quadrille at some "quilting bee out +West." She saw the difference, however, between men of cultivation and +those who had none, and began to understand the cause of Ethelyn's cold, +proud looks when surrounded by Richard's family. She began also silently +to watch and criticise Richard, comparing him with other men of equal +brain, and thinking how, if she were his wife, she would go to work to +correct his manners. Possibly, too, thoughts of James, in his blue frock +and cowhide boots, occasionally intruded themselves upon her mind; but +if so, they did not greatly disturb her equanimity, for, let what might +happen, Melinda felt herself equal to the emergency--whether it were to +put down Frank Van Buren and the whole race of impudent puppies like +him, or polish rough James Markham if need be. How she hated Frank Van +Buren when she saw his neglect of his young wife, whose money was all he +seemed to care for; and how utterly she loathed and despised him after +the night, when, at a party given by one of Washington's magnates, he +stood beside her for half an hour and talked confidently to her of +Ethelyn, whom, he hinted, he could have married if he would. + +"Why didn't you, then?" and Melinda turned sharply upon him, with a look +in her black eyes which made him wince as he replied: "Family +interference--must have money, you know! But, zounds! don't I pity +her!--tied to that clown, whom--" + +Frank did not finish the sentence, for Melinda's eyes fairly blazed with +anger as she cut him short with "Excuse me, Mr. Van Buren; I can't +listen to such abuse of one whom I esteem as highly as I do Judge +Markham. Why, sir, he is head and shoulders above you, in sense and +intellect and everything which makes a man," and with a haughty bow, +Melinda swept away, leaving the shamefaced Frank alone in his +discomfiture. + +"I'd like to kick myself if I could, though I told nothing but the +truth. Ethie did want me confoundedly, and I would have married her if +she hadn't been poor as a church mouse," Frank muttered to himself, +standing in the deep recess of the window, and all unconscious that just +outside upon the balcony was a silent, motionless form, which had heard +every word of his conversation with Melinda, and his soliloquy +afterward. + +Richard Markham had come to this party just to please Melinda, but he +did not enjoy it. If Ethie had been there he might; but he could not +forget the blank that day received, or the letter from James, which said +that Ethelyn was not looking as well as usual, and had the morning +previously asked him to turn back before they had ridden more than two +miles. He could not be happy with that upon his mind, and so he stole +from the gay scene out upon the balcony, where he stood watching the +quiet stars and thinking of Ethelyn, when his ear had caught by the +mention of her name. + +He had not thought before who the couple were standing so near to him, +but he knew now it was Melinda and Frank Van Buren, and became an +involuntary listener to the conversation which ensued. There was a +clenching of his fist, a shutting together of his teeth, and an impulse +to knock the boasting Frank Van Buren down; and then, as the past +flashed before him, with the thought that possibly Frank spoke the truth +and Ethelyn had loved him, there swept over him such a sense of anguish +and desolation that he forgot all else in his own wretchedness. It had +never occurred to him that Ethelyn married him while all the time she +loved another--that perhaps she loved that other still--and the very +possibility of it drove him nearly wild. + +He was missed from the party, but no one could tell when he left, for no +one saw him as he sprang down into the garden, and taking refuge in the +paths where the shades were the deepest, escaped unobserved into the +street, and so back to his own room, where he went over all the past +and recalled every little act of affection on Ethelyn's part, weighed it +in the balance with proofs that she did not care for him and never had. +So much did Richard love his wife and so anxious was he to find her +guiltless that he magnified every virtue and excused every error until +the verdict rendered was in her favor, and Frank alone was the +delinquent--Frank, the vain, conceited coxcomb, who thought because a +woman was civil to him that she must needs wish to marry him; Frank, the +wretch who had presumed to pity his cousin, and called her husband a +clown! How Richard's fingers tingled with a desire to thrash the +insulting rascal; and how, in spite of the verdict, his heart ached with +a dull, heavy fear lest it might be true in part, that Ethie had once +felt for Frank something deeper than what girls usually feel for their +first cousins. + +"And supposing she has?" Richard's generous nature asked. "Supposing she +did love this Frank once on a time well enough to marry him? She surely +was all over that love before she promised to be my wife, else she had +not promised; and so the only point where she is at fault was in +concealing from me the fact that she had loved another first. I was +honest with her. I told her of Abigail, and it was very hard to do it, +for I felt that the proud girl's spirit rebelled against such as Abigail +was years ago. It would have been so easy, then, for Ethelyn to have +confessed to me, if she had a confession to make; though how she could +ever care for such a jackanapes as that baboon of a Frank is more than I +can tell." + +Richard was waxing warm against Frank Van Buren, whom he despised so +heartily that he put upon his shoulders all the blame concerning +Ethelyn, if blame there were. He would so like to think her innocent, +and he tried so hard to do it, that he succeeded in part, though +frequently as the days passed on, and he sat at his post in the House, +listening to some tiresome speech, or took his solitary walk toward +Arlington Heights, a pang of something like jealousy and dread that all +had not been open and fair between himself and his wife cut like a +knife through his heart, and almost stopped his breath. The short +session was wearing to a close, and he was glad of it, for he longed to +be home again with Ethelyn, even if he were doomed to meet the same +coldness which those terrible blanks had brought him. Anything was +preferable to the life he led, and though he grew pale as ashes and his +limbs quivered like a reed when, toward the latter part of February, he +received a telegram to come home at once, as Ethelyn was very sick, he +hailed the news as a message of deliverance, whereby he could escape +from hated Washington a few days sooner. He hardly knew when or how the +idea occurred to him that Aunt Barbara's presence would be more +acceptable in that house, where he guessed what had happened; but occur +to him it did; and Aunt Barbara, sitting by her winter fire and thinking +of Ethelyn, was startled terribly by the missive which bade her join +Richard Markham at Albany, on the morrow, and go with him to Iowa, where +Ethie lay so ill. A pilgrimage to Mecca would scarcely have looked more +formidable to the good woman than this sudden trip to Iowa; but where +her duty was concerned she did not hesitate, and when at noon of the +next day the New York train came up the river, the first thing Richard +saw as he walked rapidly toward the Central Depot at Albany was Aunt +Barbara's bonnet protruding from the car window and Aunt Barbara's hand +making frantic passes and gestures to attract his notice. + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +RICHARD'S HEIR + +For one whole week the windows of Ethelyn's room were darkened as dark +as Mrs. Markham's heavy shawl and a patchwork quilt could make them. The +doctor rode to and from the farmhouse, looking more and more concerned +each time he came from the sick-room. Mrs. Jones was over almost every +hour, or if she did not come Tim was sent to inquire, his voice very low +and subdued as he asked, "How is she now?" while James' voice was lower +and sadder still as he answered, "There is no change." Up and down the +stairs Mrs. Markham trod softly, wishing that she had never harbored an +unkind thought against the pale-faced girl lying so unconscious of all +they were doing for her. In the kitchen below, with a scared look upon +her face, Eunice washed and wiped her dishes, and wondered if Richard +would get home in time for the funeral, and if he would order from +Camden a metallic coffin such as Minnie Dayton had been buried in; and +Eunice's tears fell like rain as she thought how terrible it was to die +so young, and unprepared, too, as she heard Mrs. Markham say to the +Methodist clergyman when he came over to offer consolation. + +Yes, Ethelyn was unprepared for the fearful change which seemed so near, +and of all the household none felt this more keenly than Andy, whose +tears soaked through and through the leaf of the prayer-book, where was +printed the petition for the sick, and who improvised many a touching +prayer himself, kneeling by the wooden chair where God had so often met +and blessed him. + +"Don't let Ethie die, Good Father, don't let her die; at least not till +she is ready, and Dick is here to see her--poor old Dick, who loves her +so much. Please spare her for him, and take me in her place. I'm good +for nothing, only I do hope I'm ready, and Ethie ain't; so spare her and +take me in her place." + +This was one of Andy's prayers--generous, unselfish Andy--who would have +died for Ethelyn, and who had been in such exquisite distress since the +night when Eunice first found Ethelyn moaning in her room, with her +letter to Richard lying unfinished before her. No one had read that +letter--the Markhams were too honorable for that--and it had been put +away in the portfolio, while undivided attention was given to Ethelyn. +She had been unconscious nearly all the time, saying once when Mrs. +Markham asked, "Shall we send for Richard?" "Send for Aunt Barbara; +please send for Aunt Barbara." + +This was the third day of Ethelyn's danger, and on the sixth there came +a change. The shawl was pinned back from the window, admitting light +enough for the watchers by the bedside to see if the sufferer still +breathed. Life was not extinct, and Mrs. Markham's lips moved with a +prayer of thanksgiving when Mrs. Jones pointed to a tiny drop of +moisture beneath the tangled hair. Ethelyn would live, the doctor said, +but down in the parlor on the sofa where Daisy had lain was a little +lifeless form with a troubled look upon its face, showing that it had +fought for its life. Prone upon the floor beside it sat Andy, whispering +to the little one and weeping for "poor old Dick, who would mourn for +his lost boy." + +Andy was very sorry, and to one who saw him that day, and, ignorant of +the circumstances, asked what was the matter that he looked so solemn, +he answered sadly, "I have just lost my little uncle that I wanted to +stand sponsor for. He only lived a day," and Andy's tears flowed afresh +as he thought of all he had lost with the child whose life numbered +scarcely twenty-four hours in all. But that was enough to warrant its +being now among the spirits of the Redeemed, and heaven seemed fairer, +more desirable to Andy than it had done before. His father was there +with Daisy and his baby uncle, as he persisted in calling Ethelyn's dead +boy until James told him better, and pointed out the ludicrousness of +the mistake. To Ethelyn Andy was tender as a mother, when at last they +let him see her, and his lips left marks upon her forehead and cheek. +She was perfectly conscious now, and when told they had sent for +Richard, manifested a good deal of interest, and asked when he would +probably be there. They were expecting him every train; but ere he came +the fever, which seemed for a time to have abated, returned with double +force and Ethelyn knew nothing of the kisses Richard pressed upon her +lips, or the tears Aunt Barbara shed over her poor darling. + +There were anxious hearts and troubled faces in the farmhouse that day, +for Death was brooding there again, and they who watched his shadow +darkening around them spoke only in whispers, as they obeyed the +physician's orders. When Richard first came in Mrs. Markham wound her +arm around his neck, and said, "I am so sorry for you, my poor boy," +while the three sons, one after another, had grasped their brother's +hand in token of sympathy, and that was all that had passed between them +of greeting. For the rest of the day, Richard had sat constantly by +Ethelyn, watching the changes of her face, and listening to her as she +raved in snatches, now of himself, and the time he saved her from the +maddened cow, and now of Frank and the huckleberries, which she said +were ripening on the Chicopee hills. When she talked of this Richard +held his breath, and once, as he leaned forward so as not to lose a +word, he caught Aunt Barbara regarding him intently, her wrinkled cheek +flushing as she met his eye and guessed what was in his mind. If Richard +had needed any confirmation of his suspicions, that look on transparent +Aunt Barbara's face would have confirmed them. There had been something +between Ethelyn and Frank Van Buren more than a cousinly liking, and +Richard's heart throbbed powerfully as he sat by the tossing, restless +Ethelyn, moaning on about the huckleberry hills, and the ledge of rocks +where the wild laurels grew. This pain he did not try to analyze; he +only said to himself that he felt no bitterness toward Ethelyn. She was +too near to death's dark tide for that. She was Ethie--his darling--the +mother of the child that had been buried from sight before he came. +Perhaps she did not love him, and never would; but he had loved her, oh! +so much, and if he lost her he would be wretched indeed. And so, +forgiving all the past of which he knew, and trying to forgive all he +did not know, he sat by her till the sun went down, and his mother came +for the twentieth time, urging him to eat. He had not tasted food that +day, and faint for the want of it he followed her to where the table had +been set, and supper prepared with a direct reference to his +particular taste. + +He felt better and stronger when supper was over, and listened eagerly +while Andy and Eunice, who had been the last with Ethelyn before her +sudden illness, recounted every incident as minutely and reverently as +if speaking of the dead. Especially did he hang on what Andy said with +reference to her questioning him about the breaking of a wicked vow, and +when Eunice added her mite to the effect that, getting up for some +camphor for an aching tooth, she had heard a groan from Ethelyn's room, +and had found her mistress bending over a half-finished letter, which +she "reckoned" was to him, and had laid away in the portfolio, he waited +for no more, but hurried upstairs to the little bookcase where Eunice +had put the treasure--for it was a countless treasure, that unfinished +letter, which he read with the great tears rolling down his cheeks, and +his heart growing tenfold softer and warmer toward the writer, who +confessed to having wronged him, and wished so much that she dare tell +him all. What was it she had to tell? Would he ever know? he asked +himself, as he put the letter back where he found it. Yes, she would +surely tell him, if she lived, as live she must. She was dearer to him +now than she had ever been, and the lips unused to prayer, save as a +form, prayed most earnestly that Ethie might be spared. Then, as there +flashed upon him a sense of the inconsistency there was in keeping aloof +from God all his life, and going to him only when danger threatened, he +bowed his head in very shame, and the prayer died on his lips. But Andy +always prayed--at least he had for many years; and so the wise strong +brother sought the simple weaker one, and asked him to do what he had +not power to do. + +Andy's swollen eyes and haggard face bore testimony to his sorrow, and +his voice was very low and earnest, as he replied: "Brother Dick, I'm +prayin' all the time. I've said that prayer for the sick until I've worn +it threadbare, and now every breath I draw has in it the petition, 'We +beseech Thee to hear us, good Lord.' There's nothing in that about +Ethie, it's true; but God knows I mean her, and will hear me all +the same." + +There was a touching simplicity in Andy's faith, which went to the heart +of Richard, making him feel of how little avail was knowledge or wisdom +or position if there was lacking the one thing needful, which Andy so +surely possessed. That night was a long, wearisome one at the farmhouse; +but when the morning broke hope and joy came with it, for Ethelyn was +better, and in the brown eyes, which unclosed so languidly, there was a +look of consciousness, which deepened into a look of surprise and joyful +recognition as they rested upon Aunt Barbara. + +"Is this Chicopee? Am I home? Oh, Aunt Barbara, I am so glad! you can't +guess how glad, or know how tired and sorry your poor Ethie has been," +came brokenly from the pale lips, as Ethelyn moved nearer to Aunt +Barbara and laid her head upon the motherly bosom, where it had so often +lain in the dear old Chicopee days. + +She did not notice Richard, or seem to know that she was elsewhere than +in Chicopee, back in the old home, and Richard's pulse throbbed quickly +as he saw the flush come over Ethie's face, and the look of pain creep +into her eyes, when a voice broke the illusion and told her she was +still in Olney, with him and the mother-in-law leaning over the bed-rail +saying, "Speak to her, Richard." + +"Ethie, don't you know me, too?--I came with Aunt Barbara." + +That was what he said, as he bent over her, seeking to take in his own +one of the feverish little hands locked so fast in those of Aunt +Barbara. She did know then, and remember, and her lip quivered in a +grieved, disappointed way as she said, "Yes, Richard, I know now. I am +not at home, I'm here;" and the intonation of the voice as it uttered +the word "here," spoke volumes, and told Aunt Barbara just how homesick +and weary and wretched her darling had been here. She must not talk +much, the physician said, and so with one hand in Richard's and one in +Aunt Barbara's she fell away to sleep again, while the family stole out +to their usual avocations, Mrs. Markham and Eunice to their baking, +James and John to their work upon the farm, and Andy to his Bethel in +the wood-house chamber, where he repeated: "Blessed be the Lord God of +Israel who has visited and redeemed his people," and added at the +conclusion the Gloria Patri, which he thought suitable for the occasion. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +DAYS OF CONVALESCENCE + +They were very pleasant to Ethelyn, for with Aunt Barbara anticipating +every want, and talking of Chicopee; she could not be very weary. It was +pleasant, too, having Richard home again, and Ethie was very soft and +kind and amiable toward him; but she did not tell him of the letter she +had commenced, or hint at the confession he longed to hear. It would +have been comparatively easy to write it, but with him there where she +could look into his face and watch the dark expression which was sure to +come into his eyes, it was hard to tell him that Frank Van Buren had +held the first place in her affections, if indeed he did not hold it +now. She was not certain yet, though she hoped and tried to believe that +Frank was nothing more than cousin now. He surely ought not to be, with +Nettie calling him her husband, while she too was a wife. But so subtle +was the poison which that unfortunate attachment had infused into her +veins that she could not tell whether her nature was cleared of it or +not, and so, though she asked forgiveness for having so literally kept +her vow, and said that she did commence a letter to him, she kept back +the most important part of all. It was better to wait, she thought, +until she could truly say, "I loved Frank Van Buren once, but now I love +you far better than ever I did him." + +Had she guessed how much Richard knew, and how the knowledge was +rankling in his bosom, she might have done differently. But she took the +course she thought the best, and the perfect understanding Richard had +so ardently hoped for was not then arrived at. For a time, however, +there seemed to be perfect peace between them, and could Richard have +forgotten Frank Van Buren's words or even those of Ethie herself when +her fever was on, he would have been supremely happy. But to forget was +impossible, and he often found himself wondering how much of Frank's +assertion was true, and if Ethelyn would ever be as open and honest +with him as he had tried to be with her. She did not get well very fast, +and the color came slowly back into her lips and cheeks. She was far +happier than she had been before since she first came to Olney. She +could not say that she loved her husband as a true wife ought to love a +man like Richard Markham, but she found a pleasure in his society which +she had never experienced before, while Aunt Barbara's presence was a +constant source of joy. That good woman had prolonged her stay far +beyond what she had thought it possible when she left Chicopee. She +could not tear herself away, when Ethie pleaded so earnestly for her to +remain a little longer, and so, wholly impervious to the hints which +Mrs. Markham occasionally threw out, that her services were no longer +needed as nurse to Ethelyn, she stayed on week after week, seeing far +more than she seemed to see, and making up her mind pretty accurately +with regard to the prospect of Ethie's happiness, if she remained an +inmate of her husband's family. + +Aunt Barbara and Mrs. Markham did not harmonize at all. At first, when +Ethie was so sick, everything had been merged in the one absorbing +thought of her danger, and even the knowledge accidentally obtained that +Richard had paid Miss Bigelow's fare out there and would pay it back, +had failed to produce more than a passing pang in the bosom of the +close, calculating, economical Mrs. Markham; but when the danger was +past, it kept recurring again and again, with very unpleasant +distinctness, that Aunt Barbara was an expense they could well do +without. Nobody could quarrel with Aunt Barbara--she was so mild, and +gentle, and peaceable--and Mrs. Markham did not quarrel with her, but +she thought about her all the time, and fretted over her, and remembered +the letter she had written about her ways and her being good to Ethie, +and wondered what she was there for, and why she did not go home, and +asked her what time they generally cleaned house in Chicopee, and if she +dared trust her cleaning with Betty. Aunt Barbara was a great annoyance, +and she complained to Eunice and Mrs. Jones, and Melinda, who had +returned from Washington, that she was spoiling Ethelyn, babying her +so, and making her think herself so much weaker than she was. + +"Mercy knew," she said, that in her day, when she was young and having +children, she did not hug the bed forever. She had something else to do, +and was up and around in a fortnight at the most. Her table wasn't +loaded down with oranges and figs, and the things they called banannys, +which fairly made her sick at her stomach. Nobody was carryin' her up +glasses of milk-punch, and lemonade, and cups of tea, at all hours of +the day. She was glad of anything, and got well the faster for it. +Needn't tell her!--it would do Ethelyn good to stir around and take the +air, instead of staying cooped up in her room, complaining that it is +hot and close there in the bedroom. "It's airy enough out doors," and +with a most aggrieved look on her face, Mrs. Markham put into the oven +the pan of soda biscuit she had been making, and then proceeded to lay +the cloth for tea. + +Eunice had been home for a day or two with a felon on her thumb, and +thus a greater proportion of the work had fallen upon Mrs. Markham, +which to some degree accounted for her ill-humor. Mrs. Jones and Melinda +were spending the afternoon with her, but the latter was up in Ethie's +room. Melinda had always a good many ideas of her own, and she had +brought with her several new ones from Washington and New York, where +she had stayed for four weeks at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. But Melinda, +though greatly improved in appearance, was not one whit spoiled. In +manner, and the fit of her dress, she was more like Ethelyn and Mrs. +Judge Miller, of Camden, than she once had been, and at first James was +a little afraid of her, she puffed her hair so high, and wore her gowns +so long, while his mother, looking at the stylish hat and fashionable +sack which she brought back from Gotham, said her head was turned, and +she was altogether too fine for Olney. But when, on the next rainy +Sunday, she rode to church in her father's lumber wagon, holding the +blue cotton umbrella over her last year's straw and waterproof--and when +arrived at the church she suffered James to help her to alight, jumping +over the muddy wheel, and then going straight to her accustomed seat in +the choir, which had missed her strong voice so much--the son changed +his mind, and said she was the same as ever; while after the day when +she found Mrs. Markham making soap out behind the corn-house, and +good-humoredly offered to watch it and stir it while that lady went into +the house to see to the corn pudding, which Eunice was sure to spoil if +left to her own ingenuity, the mother, too, changed her mind, and wished +Richard had been so lucky as to have fixed his choice on Melinda. But +James was far from wishing a thing which would so seriously have +interfered with his hopes and wishes. He was very glad that Richard's +preference had fallen where it did, and his cheery whistle was heard +almost constantly, and after Tim Jones told, in his blunt way, how +"Melind was tryin' to train him, and make him more like them dandies at +the big tavern in New York," he, too, began to amend, and taking Richard +for his pattern, imitated him, until he found that simple, loving Andy, +in his anxiety to please Ethelyn, had seized upon more points of +etiquette than Richard ever knew existed, and then he copied Andy, +having this in his favor: that whatever he did himself was done with a +certain grace inherent in his nature, whereas Andy's attempts were +awkward in the extreme. + +Melinda saw the visible improvement in James, and imputing it rather to +Ethelyn's influence than her own, was thus saved from any embarrassment +she might have experienced had she known to a certainty how large a +share of James Markham's thoughts and affections she possessed. She was +frequently at the farmhouse; but had not made what her mother called a +visit until the afternoon when Mrs. Markham gave her opinion so freely +of Aunt Barbara's petting and its effect on Ethelyn. + +From the first introduction Aunt Barbara had liked the practical, +straightforward Melinda, in whom she found a powerful ally whenever any +new idea was suggested with regard to Ethelyn. To her Aunt Barbara had +confided her belief that it was not well for Ethelyn to stay there any +longer--that she and Richard both would be better by themselves; an +opinion which Melinda heartily indorsed, and straightway set herself at +work to form some plan whereby Aunt Barbara's idea might be carried out. + +Melinda was not a meddlesome girl, but she did like to help manage other +people's business, doing it so well, and evincing so little selfishness +in her consideration for others, that when once she had taken charge of +a person's affairs she was pretty sure to have the privilege again. When +Richard ran for justice of the peace, and she was a little girl, she had +refused to speak to three other little girls who flaunted the colors of +the opposition candidate; and when he was nominated first for Judge and +then as member for the district, she had worked for him quite as +zealously as Tim himself, and through her more than one vote, which +otherwise might have been lost, was cast in his favor. As she had worked +for him, so she now worked for Ethelyn, approaching Richard very +adroitly and managing so skillfully that when at last, on the occasion +of her visit to his mother's, Aunt Barbara asked him, in her presence +and Ethelyn's, if he had never thought it would be well both for himself +and wife to live somewhere else than there at home, he never dreamed +that he was echoing the very ideas Melinda had instilled into his mind +by promptly replying that "he had recently thought seriously of a +change," and then asked Ethie where she would like to live--in Olney or +in Camden. + +"Not Olney--no, not Olney!" Ethelyn gasped, thinking how near that was +to her mother-in-law, and shrinking from the espionage to which she +would surely be subjected. + +Her preference was Davenport, but to this Richard would not listen. +Indeed, he began to feel sorry that he had admitted a willingness to +change at all, for the old home was very dear to him, and he thought he +would never leave it. But he stood committed now, and Melinda followed +him up so dexterously, that in less than half an hour it was arranged +that early in June Ethelyn should have a home in Camden--either a house +of her own, or a suite of rooms at the Stafford House, just which she +preferred. She chose the latter, and, womanlike, began at once in fancy +to furnish and arrange the handsome apartments which looked out upon +Camden Park, and which Melinda said were at present unoccupied. Melinda +knew, for only two days before she had been to Camden with her brother +Tim and dined at the Stafford House, and heard her neighbor on her right +inquire of his vis-a-vis how long since General Martin left the second +floor of the new wing, and who occupied it now. This was a mere happen +so, but Melinda was one of those to whom the right thing was always +happening, the desired information always coming; and if she did +contrive to ascertain the price charged for the rooms, it was only +because she understood that one of the Markham peculiarities was being a +little close, and wished to be armed at every point. + +Richard had no idea that Melinda was managing him, or that anyone was +managing him. He thought himself that Camden might be a pleasant place +to live; as an ex-Judge and M.C. he could get business anywhere; and +though he preferred Olney, inasmuch as it was home, he would, if Ethelyn +liked, try Camden for a while. It is true the price of the rooms, which +Melinda casually named, was enormous, but, then, Ethelyn's health and +happiness were above any moneyed consideration; and so, while Mrs. +Markham below made and molded the soda biscuit, and talked about +dreading the hot weather if "Ethelyn was going to be weakly," Aunt +Barbara, and Melinda, and Richard settled a matter which made her eyes +open wide with astonishment when, after the exit of the Joneses and the +doing up of her work, it was revealed to her. Of course, she charged it +all to Aunt Barbara, wishing that good woman as many miles away as +intervened between Olney and Chicopee. Had the young people been going +to keep house, she would have been more reconciled, for in that case +much of what they consumed would have been the product of the farm; but +to board, to take rooms at the Stafford House where Ethelyn would have +nothing in the world to do but to dress and gossip, was abominable. Then +when she heard of the price she opposed the plan with so much energy +that, but for Aunt Barbara and Melinda Jones, Richard might have +succumbed; but the majority ruled, and Ethelyn's eyes grew brighter, and +her thin cheeks rounder, with the sure hope of leaving a place where she +had been so unhappy. She should miss Melinda Jones; and though she would +be near Mrs. Miller, and Marcia Fenton, and Ella Backus, they could not +be to her all Melinda had been, while Andy--Ethelyn felt the lumps +rising in her throat whenever she thought of him and the burst of tears +with which he had heard that she was going away. + +"I can't help thinkin' it's for the wuss," he said, wiping his smooth +face with the cuff of his coat-sleeve. "Something will happen as the +result of your goin' there. I feel it in my bones." + +Were Andy's words prophetic? Would something happen, if they went to +Camden, which would not have happened had they remained in Olney? +Ethelyn did not ask herself the question. She was too supremely happy, +and if she thought at all, it was of how she could best accelerate her +departure from the lonely farmhouse. + +When Mrs. Markham found that they were really going, that nothing she +could say would be of any avail, she gave up the contest, and, +mother-like, set herself at work planning for their comfort, or rather +for Richard's comfort. It was for him that the best and newest +featherbed, weighing thirty pounds and a half to a feather, was aired +and sunned three days upon the kitchen roof, the good woman little +dreaming that if the thirty-pounder was used at all, it would do duty +under the hair mattress Ethelyn meant to have. They were to furnish +their own rooms, and whatever expense Mrs. Markham could save her boy +she meant to do. There was the carpet in their chamber--they could have +that; for after they were gone it was not likely the room would be used, +and the old rag one would answer. They could have the curtains, too, if +they liked, with the table and the chairs. Left to himself and his +mother's guidance, Richard would undoubtedly have taken to Camden such a +promiscuous outfit as would have made even a truckman smile; but there +were three women leagued against him, and so draft after draft was drawn +from his funds in the Camden bank until the rooms were furnished; and +one bright morning in early June, a week after Aunt Barbara started for +Chicopee, Ethie bid her husband's family good-by, and turning her back +upon Olney, turned also the first leaf of her life's history in +the West. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +COMING TO A CRISIS + +Richard was not happy in his new home; it did not fit him like the old. +He missed his mother's petting; he missed the society of his plain, +outspoken brothers; he missed his freedom from restraint, and he missed +the deference so universally paid to him in Olney, where he was the only +lion. In Camden there were many to divide the honors with him; and +though he was perhaps unconscious of it, he had been first so long that +to be one of many firsts was not altogether agreeable. With the new home +and new associates more like those to which she had been accustomed, +Ethelyn had resumed her training process, which was not now borne as +patiently as in the halcyon days of the honeymoon, when most things wore +the couleur de rose and were right because they came from the pretty +young bride. Richard chafed under the criticisms to which he was so +frequently subjected, and if he improved on them in the least it was not +perceptible to Ethlyn, who had just cause to blush for the careless +habits of her husband--habits which even Melinda observed, when in +August she spent a week with Ethelyn, and then formed one of a party +which went for a pleasure trip to St. Paul and Minnehaha. From this +excursion, which lasted for two weeks, Richard returned to Camden in +anything but an amiable frame of mind. Ethelyn had not pleased him at +all, notwithstanding that she had been unquestionably the reigning belle +of the party--the one whose hand was claimed in every dance, and whose +company was sought in every ride and picnic. Marcia Fenton and Ella +Backus faded into nothingness when she was near, and they laughingly +complained to Richard that his wife had stolen all their beaux away, and +they wished he would make her do better. + +"I wish I could," was his reply, spoken not playfully, but moodily, just +as he felt at the time. + +He was not an adept in concealing his feelings, which generally showed +themselves upon his face, or were betrayed in the tones of his voice, +and when he spoke as he did of his wife the two young girls glanced +curiously at each other, wondering if it where possible that the grave +Judge was jealous. If charged with jealousy Richard would have denied +it, though he did not care to have Ethelyn so much in Harry Clifford's +society. Richard knew nothing definite against Harry, except that he +would occasionally drink more than was wholly in accordance with a +steady and safe locomotion of his body; and once since they had been at +the Stafford House, where he also boarded, the young lawyer had been +invisible for three entire days. "Sick with a cold" was his excuse when +he appeared again at the table, with haggard face and bloodshot eyes; +but in the parlor, and halls, and private rooms, there where whispers of +soiled clothes and jammed hats, and the servants bribed to keep the +secret that young lawyer Clifford's boots were carried dangling up to +No. 94 at a very late hour of the night on which he professed to have +taken his cold. After this, pretty Marcia Fenton, who, before Ethelyn +came to town, had ridden oftenest after the black horses owned by Harry, +tossed her curls when he came near, and arched her eyebrows in a manner +rather distasteful to the young man; while Ella Backus turned her back +upon him, and in his hearing gave frequent lectures on intemperance and +its loathsomeness. Ethelyn, on the contrary, made no difference in her +demeanor toward him. She cared nothing for him either way, except that +his polite attentions and delicate deference to her tastes and opinions +were complimentary and flattering, and so she saw no reason why she +should shun him because he had fallen once. It might make him worse, and +she should stand by him as an act of philanthropy, she said to Richard +when he asked her what she saw to admire in that drunken Clifford. + +Richard had no idea that Ethelyn cared in the least for Harry Clifford; +he knew she did not, though she sometimes singled him out as one whose +manners in society her husband would do well to imitate. Of the two +young men, Harry Clifford and Frank Van Buren, who had been suggested to +him as copies, Richard preferred the former, and wished he could feel as +easy with regard to Frank as he was with regard to Harry. He had never +forgotten that fragment of conversation overheard in Washington, and as +time went on it haunted him more and more. He had given up expecting any +confession from Ethelyn, though at first he was constantly expecting it, +and laying little snares by way of hints and reminders; but Ethelyn had +evidently changed her mind, and if there was a past which Richard ought +to have known, he would now probably remain in ignorance of it, unless +some chance revealed it. It would have been far better if Richard had +tried to banish all thoughts of Frank Van Buren from his mind and taken +Ethelyn as he found her; but Richard was a man, and so, manlike, he +hugged the skeleton which he in part had dragged into his home, and +petted it, and kept it constantly in sight, instead of thrusting it out +from the chamber of his heart, and barring the door against it. Frank's +name was never mentioned between them, but Richard fancied that always +after the receipt of Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letters Ethelyn was a little +sad, and more disposed to find fault with him, and he sometimes wished +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren might never write to them again. There was one of her +letters awaiting Ethelyn after her return from Minnesota, and she read +it standing under the chandelier, with Richard lying upon the couch near +by, watching her curiously. There was something in the letter which +disturbed her evidently, for her face flushed, and her lips shut firmly +together, as they usually did when she was agitated. Richard already +read Aunt Barbara's letters, and heretofore he had been welcome to Mrs. +Van Buren's, a privilege of which he seldom availed himself, for he +found nothing interesting in her talk of parties, and operas and +fashions, and the last new color of dress goods, and style of +wearing the hair. + +"It was too much twaddle for him," he had said in reply to Ethelyn's +questions as to whether he would like to see what Aunt Van Buren +had written. + +Now, however, she did not offer to show him the letter, but crumpled it +nervously in her pocket, and going to her piano, began to play +dashingly, rapidly, as was her custom when excited. She did not know +that Richard was listening to her, much less watching her, as he lay in +the shadow, wondering what that letter contained, and wishing so much +that he knew. Ethelyn was tired that night, and after the first heat of +her excitement had been thrown off in a spirited schottische, she closed +her piano, and coming to the couch where Richard was lying, sat down by +his side, and after waiting a moment in silence, asked "of what he was +thinking." + +There was something peculiar in the tone of her voice--something almost +beseeching, as if she either wanted sympathy, or encouragement for the +performance of some good act. But Richard did not so understand her. He +was, to tell the truth, a very little cross, as men, and women, too, are +apt to be when tired with sight-seeing and dissipation. He had been away +from his business three whole weeks, traveling with a party for not one +member of which, with the exception of his wife, Melinda, Marcia, and +Ella, did he care a straw. + +Hotel life at St. Paul he regarded as a bore, second only to life at +Saratoga. The falls of Minnehaha "was a very pretty little stream," he +thought, but what people could see about it go into such ecstasies as +Ethelyn, and even Melinda did, he could not tell. Perhaps if Harry +Clifford had not formed a part of every scene where Ethelyn was the +prominent figure, he might have judged differently. But Harry had been +greatly in his way, and Richard did not like it any more than he liked +Ethelyn's flirting so much with him, and leaving him, her husband, to +look about for himself. He had shown, too, that he did not like it to +Marcia Fenton and Ella Backus who probably thought him a bear, as +perhaps he was. On the whole, Richard was very uncomfortable in his +mind, and Aunt Van Buren's letter did not tend in the least to improve +his temper; so when Ethelyn asked him of what he was thinking, and +accompanied her question with a stroke of her hand upon his hair, he +answered her, "Nothing much, except that I am tired and sleepy." + +The touch upon his hair he had felt to his finger tips, for Ethelyn +seldom caressed him even as much as this; but he was in too moody a +frame of mind to respond as he would once have done. His manner was not +very encouraging, but, as if she had nerved herself to some painful +duty, Ethelyn persisted, and said to him next: "You have not seen Aunt +Van Buren's letter. Shall I read you what she says?" + +Every nerve in Richard's body had been quivering with curiosity to see +that letter, but now, when the coveted privilege was within his reach, +he refused it; and, little dreaming of all he was throwing aside, +answered indifferently: "No, I don't know that I care to hear it. I +hardly think it will pay. Where are they now?" + +"At Saratoga," Ethelyn replied; but her voice was not the same which had +addressed Richard first; there was a coldness, a constraint in it now, +as if her good resolution had been thrown back upon her and frozen up +the impulse prompting her to the right. + +Richard had had his chance with Ethelyn and lost it. But he did not know +it, or guess how sorry and disappointed she was when at last she left +him and retired to her sleeping-room. There was a window open in the +parlor, and as the wind was rising with a sound of rain, Richard went to +close it ere following his wife. The window was near to the piano and as +he shut it something rattled at his feet. It was the crumpled letter, +which Ethelyn had accidentally drawn from her dress pocket with the +handkerchief she held in her hand when she sat down by Richard. He knew +it was that letter, and his first thought was to carry it to Ethelyn; +then, as he remembered her offer to read it to him, he said, "Surely +there can be no harm in reading it for myself. A man has a right to know +what is in a letter to his wife." + +Thus reasoning, he sat down by the side light as far away from the +bedroom door as possible and commenced Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letter. They +were stopping at the United States, and there was nothing particular at +first, except her usual remarks of the people and what they wore; but on +the third page Richard's eye caught Frank's name, and skipping all else, +leaped eagerly forward to what the writer was saying of her son. His +conduct evidently did not please his mother; neither did the conduct of +Nettie, who was too insipid for anything, the lady wrote, adding that +she was not half so bright and pretty as when she was first married, but +had the headache and kept her own room most of the time, and was looking +so faded and worn that Frank was really ashamed of her. + +"You know how he likes brilliant, sparkling girls," she wrote, "and of +course he has no patience with Nettie's fancied ailments. I can't say +that I altogether sympathize with her myself; and, dear Ethie, I must +acknowledge that it has more than once occurred to me that I did very +wrong to meddle with Frank's first love affair. He would be far happier +now if it had been suffered to go on, for I suspect he has never +entirely gotten over it; but it is too late now for regrets. Nettie is +his wife, and he must make the best of it." + +Then followed what seemed the secret of the Van Buren discomfort. The +bank in which most of Nettie's fortune was deposited had failed, leaving +her with only the scanty income of five hundred dollars a year, a sum +not sufficient to buy clothes, Mrs. Van Buren said. But Richard did not +notice this--his mind was only intent upon Frank's first love affair, +which ought to have gone on. He did not ask himself whether, in case it +had gone on, Ethelyn would have been there, so near to him that her soft +breathing came distinctly to his ear. He knew she would not; there had +been something between her and Frank Van Buren, he was convinced beyond +a doubt, and the fiercest pang he had ever known was that which came to +him when he sat with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's letter in his hand, wondering +why Ethie had withheld the knowledge of it from him, and if she had +outlived the love which her aunt regretted as having come to naught. +Then, as the more generous part of his nature began to seek excuses for +her, he asked himself why she offered to read the letter if she had +really been concerned in Frank's first love affair, and hope whispered +that possibly she was not the heroine of that romance. There was comfort +in that thought: and Richard would have been comforted if jealousy had +not suggested how easy it was for her to skip the part relating to +Nettie and Frank, and thus leave him as much in the dark as ever. Yes, +that was undoubtedly her intention. While seeming to be so open and +honest, she would have deceived him all the more. This was what Richard +decided, and his heart grew very hard against the young wife, who looked +so innocent and pretty in her quiet sleep, when at last he sought his +pillow and lay down by her side. + +He was very moody and silent for days after that, and even his clients +detected an irritability in his manner which they had never seen before. +"There was nothing ailed him," he said to Ethelyn, when she asked what +was the matter, and accused him of being positively cross. She was very +gay; Camden society suited her; and as the season advanced, and the +festivities grew more and more frequent, she was seldom at home more +than one or two evenings in the week, while the day was given either to +the arrangement of dress or taking of necessary rest, so that her +husband saw comparatively little of her, except for the moment when she +always came to him with hood and white cloak in hand to ask him how she +looked, before going to the carriage waiting at the door. Never in her +girlish days had she been so beautiful as she was now, but Richard +seldom told her so, though he felt the magic influence of her brilliant +beauty, and did not wonder that she was the reigning belle. He seldom +accompanied her himself. Parties, and receptions, and concerts, were +bores, he said; and at first he had raised objections to her going +without him. But after motherly Mrs. Harris, who boarded in the next +block, and was never happier than when chaperoning someone, offered to +see to her and take her under the same wing which had sheltered six +fine and now well-married daughters, Richard made no further objections. +He did not wish to be thought a domestic tyrant; he did not wish to seem +jealous, and so he would wrap Ethie's cloak around her, and taking her +himself to Mrs. Harris' carriage, would give that lady sundry charges +concerning her, bidding her see that she did not dance till wholly +wearied out, and asking her to bring her home earlier than the previous +night. Then, returning to his solitary rooms, he would sit nursing the +demon which might so easily have been thrust aside. Ethie was not +insensible to his kindness in allowing her to follow the bent of her own +inclinations, even when it was so contrary to his own, and for his sake +she did many things she might not otherwise have done. She snubbed Harry +Clifford and the whole set of dandies like him, so that, though they +danced, and talked, and laughed with her, they never crossed a certain +line of propriety which she had drawn between them. She was very +circumspect; she tried at first in various ways to atone to Richard for +her long absence from him, telling him whatever she thought would +interest him, and sometimes, when she found him waiting for her, and +looking so tired and sleepy, playfully chiding him for sitting up for +her, and telling him that though it was kind in him to do so, she +preferred that he should not. This was early in the season; but after +the day when Mrs. Markham, senior, came over from Olney to spend the +day, and "blow Richard's wife up," as she expressed it, everything was +changed, and Ethelyn stayed out as late as she liked without any +concessions to Richard. Mrs. Markham, senior, had heard strange stories +of Ethelyn's proceedings--"going to parties night after night, with her +dress shamefully low, and going to plays and concerts bareheaded, with +flowers and streamers in her hair, besides wearing a mask, and +pretending she was Queen Hortense." + +"A pretty critter to be," Mrs. Markham had said to the kind neighbor who +had returned from Camden and was giving her the particulars in full of +Ethelyn's misdoings. "Yes, a pretty critter to be! If I was goin' to +turn myself into somebody else I'd take a decent woman. I wonder at +Richard's lettin' her; but, law! he is so blind and she so headstrong!" + +And the good woman groaned over this proof of depravity as she +questioned her visitor further with regard to Ethie's departures +from duty. + +"And he don't go with her much, you say," she continued, feeling more +aggrieved than ever when she heard that on the occasion of Ethie's +personating Hortense, Richard had also appeared as a knight of the +sixteenth century, and borne his part so well that Ethelyn herself did +not recognize him until the mask was removed. + +Mrs. Markham could not suffer such high-handed wickedness to go +unrebuked, and taking as a peace offering, in case matters assumed a +serious aspect, a pot of gooseberry jam and a ball of head cheese, she +started for Camden the very next day. + +Ethelyn did not expect her, but she received her kindly, and knowing how +she hated a public table, had dinner served in her own room, and then, +without showing the least impatience, waited a full hour for Richard to +come in from the court-house, where an important suit was pending. Mrs. +Markham was to return to Olney that night, and as there was no time to +lose, she brought the conversation round to the "stories" she had heard, +and little by little laid on the lash till Ethelyn's temper was roused, +and she asked her mother-in-law to say out what she had to say at once, +and not skirt round it so long. Then came the whole list of misdemeanors +which Mrs. Markham thought "perfectly ridiculous," asking her son how he +"could put up with such work." + +Richard wisely forbore taking either side; nor was it necessary that he +should speak for Ethie. She was fully competent to fight her own battle, +and she fought it with a will, telling her mother-in-law that she should +attend as many parties as she pleased and wear as many masks. She did +not give up her liberty of action when she married. She was young yet, +and should enjoy herself if she chose, and in her own way. + +This was all the satisfaction Mrs. Markham could get, and supremely +pitying "her poor boy," whom she mentally decided was "henpecked," she +took the cars back to Olney, saying to Richard, who accompanied her to +the train, "I am sorry for you from the bottom of my heart. It would be +better if you had stayed with me." + +Richard liked his mother's good opinion, but as he walked back to the +hotel he could not help feeling that a mother's interference between man +and wife was never very discreet, and he wished the good woman had +stayed at home. If he had said so to Ethelyn, when on his return to his +rooms he found her weeping passionately, there might have come a better +understanding between them, and she probably would have stayed with him +that evening instead of attending the whist party given by Mrs. Miller. +But he had fully determined to keep silent, and when Ethelyn asked if +she was often to be subjected to such insults, he did not reply. He went +with her, however, to Mrs. Miller's, and knowing nothing of cards, +almost fell asleep while waiting for her, and playing backgammon with +another fellow-sufferer, who had married a young wife and was there +on duty. + +Mrs. Markham, senior, did not go to Camden again, and when Christmas +came, and with it an invitation for Richard and his wife to dine at the +farmhouse on the turkey Andy had fattened for the occasion, Ethelyn +peremptorily declined; and as Richard would not go without her, Mrs. +Jones and Melinda had their seats at table, and Mrs. Markham wished for +the hundredth time that Richard's preference had fallen on the latter +young lady instead of "that headstrong piece who would be his ruin." + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE CRISIS + +It was the Tuesday before Lent. The gay season was drawing to a close, +for Mrs. Howard and Mrs. Miller, who led the fashionable world of Camden +before Ethelyn's introduction to it, were the highest kind of +church-women, and while neglecting the weightier matters of the law +were strict to bring their tithes of mint, and anise, and cummin. They +were going to wear sackcloth and ashes for forty days and stay at home, +unless, as Mrs. Miller said to Ethelyn, they met occasionally in each +other's house for a quiet game of whist or euchre. There could be no +harm in that, particularly if they abstained on Fridays, as of course +they should. Mr. Bartow himself could not find fault with so simple a +recreation, even if he did try so hard to show what his views were with +regard to keeping the Lenten fast. Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Howard intended +to be very regular at the morning service, hoping that the odor of +sanctity with which they would thus be permeated would in some way atone +for the absence of genuine heart-religion and last them for the +remainder of the year. First, however, and as a means of helping her in +her intended seclusion from the world, Mrs. Howard was to give the +largest party of the season--a sort of carnival, from which the revelers +were expected to retire the moment the silvery-voiced clock on her +mantel struck the hour of twelve and ushered in the dawn of Lent. It was +to be a masquerade, for the Camdenites had almost gone mad on that +fashion which Ethelyn had the credit of introducing into their midst; +that is, she was the first to propose a masquerade early in the season, +telling what she had seen and giving the benefit of her larger +experience in such matters. + +It was a fashion which took wonderfully with the people, for the +curiosity and interest attaching to the characters was just suited to +the restless, eager temperament of the Camdenites, and they entered into +it with heart and soul, ransacking boxes and barrels and worm-eaten +chests, scouring the country far and near and even sending as far as +Davenport and Rock Island for the necessary costumes. Andy himself had +been asked by Harry Clifford to lend his Sunday suit, that young scamp +intending to personate some raw New England Yankee; and that was how +Mrs. Markham, senior, first came to hear of the proceedings which, to +one of her rigid views, savored strongly of the pit, especially after +she heard one of the parties described by an eye-witness, who mentioned +among other characters his Satanic Majesty, as enacted by Harry +Clifford, who would fain have appeared next in Andy's clothes! No wonder +the good woman was enraged and took the next train for Camden, giving +her son and daughter a piece of her mind and winding up her discourse +with: "And they say you have the very de'il himself, with hoofs and +horns. I think you might have left him alone, for I reckon he was there +fast enough if you could not see him." + +Ethelyn had not approved of Harry Clifford's choice, and with others had +denounced his taste as bad; but she enjoyed the masquerades generally, +and for this last and most elaborate of all she had made great +preparations. Richard had not opposed her joining it, but he did wince a +little when he found she was to personate Mary, Queen of Scots, wishing +that she would not always select persons of questionable character, like +Hortense and Scotland's ill-fated queen. But Ethie had decided upon her +role without consulting him, and so he walked over piles of +ancient-looking finery and got his boots tangled in the golden wig which +Ethie had hunted up, and told her he should be glad when it was over, +and wished mentally that it might be Lent the year around, and was +persuaded into saying he would go to the party himself, not as a masker, +but in his own proper person as Richard Markham, the grave and dignified +Judge whom the people respected so highly. Ethie was glad he was going. +She would always rather have him with her, if possible; and the genuine +satisfaction she evinced when he said he would accompany her did much +toward reconciling him to the affair about which so much was being said +in Camden. When, however, he came in to supper on Tuesday night +complaining of a severe headache, and saying he wished he could remain +quietly at home, inasmuch as he was to start early the next morning for +St. Louis, where he had business to transact, Ethelyn said to him: "If +you are sick, of course I will not compel you to go. Mr. and Mrs. Miller +will look after me." + +She meant this kindly, for she saw that he was looking pale and +haggard, and Richard took it so then; but afterward her words became so +many scorpions stinging him into fury. It would seem as if every box, +and drawer, and bag, had been overturned, and the contents brought to +light, for ribbons, and flowers, and laces were scattered about in wild +confusion, while on the carpet, near the drawer where Ethie's little +mother-of-pearl box was kept, lay a tiny note, which had inadvertently +been dropped from its hiding-place when Ethie opened the box in quest of +something which was wanted for Queen Mary's outfit. Richard saw the note +just as he saw the other litter, but paid no attention to it then, and +after supper was over went out as usual for his evening paper. + +Gathered about the door of the office was a group of young men, all his +acquaintances, and all talking together upon some theme which seemed to +excite them greatly. + +"Too bad to make such a fool of himself," one said, while another added, +"He ought to have known better than to order champagne, when he knows +what a beast a few drops will make of him, and he had a first-class +character for to-night, too." + +Richard was never greatly interested in gossip of any kind, but +something impelled him now to ask of whom they were talking. + +"Of Hal Clifford," was the reply. "A friend of his came last night to +Moore's Hotel, where Hal boards, and wishing to do the generous host Hal +ordered champagne and claret for supper, in his room, and got drunker +than a fool. It always lasts him a day or two, so he is gone up for +to-night." + +Richard had no time to waste in words upon Harry Clifford, and after +hearing the story started for his boarding-place. His route lay past the +Moore House and as he reached it the door opened and Harry came reeling +down the steps. He was just drunk enough to be sociable, and spying +Richard by the light of the lamppost he hurried to his side, and taking +his arm in the confidential manner he always assumed when intoxicated, +he began talking in a half-foolish, half-rational way, very disgusting +to Richard, who tried vainly to shake him off. Harry was not to be +baffled, and with a stammer and a hiccough he began: "I say--a--now, old +chap, don't be so fast to get rid of a cove. Wife waiting for you, I +suppose. Deuced fine woman. Envy you; I do, 'pon honor, and so does +somebody else. D'ye know her old beau that she used to be engaged to, +is here?" + +"Who? What do you mean?" Richard asked, turning sharply upon his +companion, who continued: + +"Why, Frank Van Buren. Cousin, you know; was chum with me in college, so +I know all about it. Don't you remember my putting it to her that first +time I met her at Mrs. Miller's? Mistrusted by her blushing there was +more than I supposed; and so there was. He told me all about it +last night." + +Richard did not try now to shake off his comrade. There seemed to be a +spell upon him, and although he longed to thrash the impudent young man, +saying such things of Ethelyn, he held his peace, with the exception of +the single question: + +"Frank Van Buren in town? Where is he stopping?" + +"Up at Moore's. Came last night; and between you and me, Judge, I took a +little too much. Makes my head feel like a tub. Sorry for Frank. He and +his wife ain't congenial, besides she's lost her money that Frank +married her for. Serves him right for being so mean to Mrs. Markham, and +I told him so when he opened his heart clear to the breast-bone and told +me all about it; how his mother broke it up about the time you were down +there; and, Markham, you don't mind my telling you, as an old friend, +how he said she went to the altar with a heavier heart than she would +have carried to her coffin. Quite a hifalutin speech for Frank, who used +to be at the foot of his class." + +Richard grew faint and cold as death, feeling one moment an impulse to +knock young Clifford down, and the next a burning desire to hear the +worst, if, indeed, he had not already heard it. He would not question +Harry; but he would listen to all he had to say, and so kept quiet, +waiting for the rest. Harry was just enough beside himself to take a +malicious kind of satisfaction in inflicting pain upon Richard, as he +was sure he was doing. He knew Judge Markham despised him, and though, +when sober, he would have shrunk from so mean a revenge, he could say +anything now, and so went on: + +"She has not seen him yet, but will to-night, for he is going. I got him +invited as my friend. She knows he is here. He sent her a note this +morning. Pity I can't go, too; but I can't, for you see, I know how +drunk I am. Here we part, do we?" and Harry loosed his hold of Richard's +arm as they reached the corner of the street. + +Wholly stunned by what he had heard, Richard kept on his way, but not +toward the Stafford House. He could not face Ethelyn yet. He was not +determined what course to pursue, and so he wandered on in the darkness, +through street after street, while the wintry wind blew cold and chill +about him; but he did not heed it, or feel the keen, cutting blast. His +blood was at a boiling heat, and the great drops of sweat were rolling +down his face, as, with head and shoulders bent like an aged man, he +walked rapidly on, revolving all he had heard, and occasionally +whispering to himself, "She carried a heavier heart to the altar than +she would have taken to her coffin." + +"Yes, I believe it now. I remember how white she was, and how her hand +trembled when I took it in mine. Oh! Ethie, Ethie, I did not deserve +this from you." + +Resentment--hard, unrelenting resentment--was beginning to take the +place of the deep pain he had at first experienced, and it needed but +the sight of Mrs. Miller's windows, blazing with light, to change the +usually quiet, undemonstrative man into a demon. + +"She is to meet him here to-night, it seems, and perhaps talk over her +blighted life. Never, no, never, so long as bolts and bars have the +power to hold her. She shall not disgrace herself, for with all her +faults she is my wife, and I have loved her so much. Oh, Ethie, I love +you still," and the wretched man leaned against a post as he sent forth +this despairing cry for the Ethie who he felt was lost forever. + +Every little incident which could tend to prove that what Harry had said +was true came to his mind; the conversation overheard in Washington +between Frank and Melinda, Ethelyn's unfinished letter, to which she had +never referred, and the clause in Aunt Van Buren's letter relating to +Frank's first love affair. He could not any longer put the truth aside +with specious arguments, for it stood out in all its naked deformity, +making him cower and shrink before it. It was a very different man who +went up the stairs of the Stafford House to room No--from the man who +two hours before had gone down them, and Ethelyn would hardly have known +him for her husband had she been there to meet him. Wondering much at +his long absence, she had at last gone on with her dressing, and then, +as he still did not appear, she had stepped for a moment to the room of +a friend, who was sick, and had asked to see her when she was ready. +Richard saw that she was out, and sinking into the first chair, his eyes +fell upon the note lying near the bureau drawer. The room had partially +been put to rights, but this had escaped Ethie's notice, and Richard +picked it up, glowering with rage, and almost foaming at the mouth when, +in the single word, "Ethie," on the back, he recognized Frank Van +Buren's writing! + +He had it then--the note which his rival had sent, apprising his wife of +his presence in town, and he would read it, too. He had no scruples +about that, and his fingers tingled to his elbows as he opened the note, +never observing how yellow and worn it looked, or that it was not dated. +He had no doubt of its identity, and his face grew purple with passion +as he read: + +"MY OWN DARLING ETHIE: Don't fail to be there to-night, and, if +possible, leave the 'old maid' at home, and come alone. We shall have so +much better time. Your devoted, + +"FRANK." + +Words could not express Richard's emotions as he held that note in his +shaking hand, and gazed at the words, "My own darling Ethie." Quiet men +like Richard Markham are terrible when roused; and Richard was terrible +in his anger, as he sat like a block of stone, contemplating the proof +of his wife's unfaithfulness. He called it by that hard name, grating +his teeth together as he thought of her going by appointment to meet +Frank Van Buren, who had called him an "old maid," and planned to have +him left behind if possible. Then, as he recalled what Ethelyn had said +about his remaining at home if he were ill, he leaped to his feet, and +an oath quivered on his lips at her duplicity. + +"False in every respect," he muttered, "and I trusted her so much." + +It never occurred to him that the note was a strange one for what he +imagined it to portend, Frank merely charging Ethelyn to be present at +the party, without even announcing his arrival or giving any explanation +for his sudden appearance in Camden. Richard was too much excited to +reason upon anything, and stood leaning upon the piano, with his livid +face turned toward the door, when Ethie made her appearance, looking +very pretty and piquant in her Mary Stuart guise. She held her mask in +her hand, but when she caught a glimpse of him she hastily adjusted it, +and springing forward, "Where were you so long? I began to think you +were never coming. We shall be among the very last. How do I look as +Mary? Am I pretty enough to make an old maid like Elizabeth jealous +of me?" + +Had anything been wanting to perfect Richard's wrath, that allusion to +an "old maid" would have done it. It was the drop in the brimming +bucket, and Richard exploded at once, hurling such language at Ethelyn's +head that, white and scared, and panting for breath, she put up both her +hands to ward off the storm, and asked what it all meant. Richard had +locked the door, the only entrance to their room, and stooping over +Ethelyn he hissed into her ear his meaning, telling her all he had heard +from Harry Clifford, and asking if it were true. Ere Ethelyn could reply +there was a knock at the door, and a servant's voice called out, +"Carriage waiting for Mrs. Markham." + +It was the carriage sent by Mrs. Miller for Ethelyn, and quick as +thought Richard stepped to the door, and unlocking it, said hastily, +"Give Mrs. Miller Mrs. Markham's compliments, and say she cannot be +present to-night. Tell her she regrets it exceedingly"; and Richard's +voice was very bitter and sarcastic in its tone as he closed the door +upon the astonished waiter; and relocking it, he returned again to +Ethelyn, who had risen to her feet, and with a different expression upon +her face from the white, scared look it had worn at first, stood +confronting him fearlessly now, and even defiantly, for this bold step +had roused her from her apathy; and in a fierce whisper, which, +nevertheless, was as clear and distinct as the loudest tones could have +been; she asked, "Am I to understand that I am a prisoner here in my own +room? It is your intention to keep me from the party?" + +"It is," and with his back against the door, as if doubly to bar her +egress, Richard regarded her gloomily, while he charged her with the +special reason why she wished to go. "It was to meet Frank Van Buren, +your former lover," he said, asking if she could deny it. + +For a moment Ethelyn stood irresolute, mentally going over all that +would be said if she stayed from Mrs. Miller's, where she was to be the +prominent one, and calculating her strength to stem the tide of wonder +and conjecture as to her absence which was sure to follow. She could not +meet it, she decided; she must go, at all hazards, even if, to achieve +her purpose, she made some concessions to the man who had denounced her +so harshly, and used such language as is not easily forgotten. + +"Richard," she began, and her eyes had a strange glittering light in +them, "with regard to the past I shall say nothing now, but that Frank +was here in Camden I had not the slightest knowledge till I heard it +from you. Believe me, Richard, and let me go. My absence will seem very +strange, and cause a great deal of remark. Another time I may explain +what would best have been explained before." + +The light in her eyes was softer now, and her voice full of entreaty; +for Ethie felt almost as if pleading for her life. But she might as well +have talked to the wall for any good results it produced. Richard was +moved from his lofty height of wrath and vindictiveness, but he did not +believe her. How could he, with the fatal note in his hand, and the +memory of the degrading epithet it contained, and which Ethie, too, had +used against him, still ringing in his ears? The virgin queen of England +was never more stony and inexorable with regard to the unfortunate Mary +than was Richard toward his wife, and the expression of his face froze +all the better emotions rising in Ethie's heart, as she felt that in a +measure she was reaping a just retribution for her long deception. + +"I do not believe you, madam," Richard said; "and if I were inclined to +do so, this note, which Harry said was sent to you, and which I found +upon the floor, would tell me better," and tossing into her lap the +soiled bit of paper, accomplishing so much harm, he continued: "There is +my proof; that in conjunction with the name of opprobrium, which you +remember you insinuatingly used, asking if you were pretty enough to +make the old maid, Elizabeth, jealous. You are pretty enough, madam; but +it is an accursed beauty which would attract to itself men of Frank Van +Buren's stamp." + +Richard could not get over that epithet. He would have forgiven the +other sin almost as soon as this, and his face was very dark and stern +as he watched Ethelyn reading the little note. She knew in a moment what +it was, and the suddenness of its appearance before her turned her white +and faint. It brought back so vividly the day when she received it--six +or seven years ago, the lazy September day, when the Chicopee hills wore +the purplish light of early autumn, and the air was full of golden +sunshine. It was a few weeks after the childish betrothal among the +huckleberry hills, and Frank had come up to spend a week with a boy +friend of his, who lived across the river. There was to be an exhibition +in the white schoolhouse, in the river district, and Frank had written, +urging her to come, and asking that Aunt Barbara should be left +behind--"the old maid," he sometimes called her to his cousin, thinking +it sounded smart and manlike. Aunt Barbara had stayed at home from +choice, sending her niece in charge of Susie Granger's mother; but the +long walk home, after the exercises were over, the lingering, loitering +walk across the causeway, where the fog was riding so damply, the +stopping on the bridge, and looking down into the deep, dark water, +where the stars were reflected so brightly, the slow climbing of the +depot hill, and the long talk by the gate beneath the elms, whose long +arms began to drop great drops of dew on Ethie's head ere the interview +was ended--all this had been experienced with Frank, whose arm was +around the young girl's waist, and whose hand was clasping hers, as with +boyish pride and a laughable effort to seem manly, he talked of "our +engagement," and even leaped forward in fancy to the time "when we +are married." + +All this came back to Ethelyn, and she seemed to feel again the breath +of the September night, and see through the clustering branches the +flashing light waiting for her in the dear old room in Chicopee. She +forgot for a moment the stern, dark face watching her so jealously, and +so hardening toward her as he saw how pale she grew, and heard her +exclamation of surprise when she first recognized the note, and +remembered that in turning over the contents of the ebony box she must +have dropped it upon the floor. + +"Do you still deny all knowledge of Frank's presence in town?" Richard +asked, and his voice recalled Ethelyn from the long ago back to the +present time. + +He was waiting for her answer; but Ethie had none to give. Her hot, +imperious temper was in the ascendant now. She was a prisoner for the +night; her own husband was the jailer, who she felt was unjust to her, +and she would make no explanations, at least not then. He might think +what he liked or draw any inference he pleased from her silence. And so +she made him no reply, except to crush into her pocket the paper which +she should have burned on that morning when, crouching on the +hearthstone at home, she destroyed all other traces of a past which +ought never to have been. He could not make her speak, and his words of +reproach might as well have been given to the winds as to that cold, +statue-like woman, who mechanically laid aside the fanciful costume in +which she was arrayed, doing everything with a deliberation and +coolness more exasperating to Richard than open defiance would have +been. A second knock at the door, and another servant appeared, saying, +apologetically, that the note he held in his hand had been left at the +office for Mrs. Markham early in the morning, but forgotten till now. + +"Give it to me, if you please. It is mine," Ethelyn said, and something +in her voice and manner kept Richard quiet while she took the offered +note and went back to the chandelier where, with a compressed lip and +burning cheek, she read the genuine note sent by Frank. + + * * * * * + +"Dear cousin," he wrote, "business for a Boston firm has brought me to +Camden, where they have had debt standing out. Through the influence of +Harry Clifford, who was a college chum of mine, I have an invitation to +Mrs. Miller's, where I hope to meet yourself and husband. I should call +to-day, but I know just how busy you must be with your costume, which I +suppose you wish to keep incog., even from me. I shall know you, though, +at once. See if I do not. Wishing to be remembered to the Judge, I am, +yours truly, + +"FRANK VAN BUREN." + + * * * * * + +This is what Ethelyn read, knowing, as she read, that it would make +matters right between herself and husband--at least so far as an +appointment was concerned; but she would not show it to him then. She +was too angry, too much aggrieved, to admit of any attempts on her part +for a reconciliation; so she put that note with the other, and then went +quietly on arranging her things in their proper places. Then, when this +was done, she sat down by the window and peering out into the wintry +darkness watched the many lights and moving figures in Mrs. Miller's +house, which could be distinctly seen from the hotel. Richard still +intended to take the early train for St. Louis, and so he retired at +last, but Ethelyn sat where she was until the carriages taking the +revelers home had passed, and the lights were out in Mrs. Miller's +windows, and the bell of St. John's had ushered in the second hour of +the fast. Not then did she join her husband, but lay down upon the +sofa, where he found her when at six o'clock he came from his broken, +feverish sleep, to say his parting words. He had contemplated the +propriety of giving up his trip and remaining at home while Frank Van +Buren was in town, but this he could not very well do. + +"I will leave her to herself," he thought, "trusting that what has +passed will deter her from any further improprieties." + +Something like this he said to her when, in the gray dawn, he stood +before her, equipped for his journey; but Ethelyn did not respond, and +with her cold, dead silence weighing more upon him than bitter +reproaches would have done, Richard left her and took his way through +the chill, snowy morning to the depot, little dreaming as he went of +when and how he and Ethelyn would meet again. + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE RESULT + +The bell in the tower of St. John's pealed forth its summons to the +house of prayer, and one by one, singly or in groups, the worshipers +went up to keep this first solemn day of Lent--true, sincere worshipers, +many of them, who came to weep, and pray, and acknowledge their past +misdeeds; while others came from habit, and because it was the fashion, +their pale, haggard faces and heavy eyes telling plainly of the last +night's dissipation, which had continued till the first hour of the +morning. Mrs. Howard was there, and Mrs. Miller, too, both glancing +inquiringly at Judge Markham's pew and then wonderingly at each other. +Ethelyn was not there. She had breakfast in her room after Richard left, +and when that was over had gone mechanically to her closet and drawers +and commenced sorting her clothes--hanging away the gayest, most +expensive dresses, and laying across chairs and upon the bed the more +serviceable ones, such as might properly be worn on ordinary occasions. +Why she did this she had not yet clearly defined, and when, after her +wardrobe was divided, and she brought out the heavy traveling trunk, +made for her in Boston, she was not quite certain what she meant to do. +She had been sorely wounded, and, as she thought, without just cause. +She knew she was to blame for not having told Richard of Frank before +she became his wife, but of the things with which he had so severely +charged her she was guiltless, and every nerve quivered and throbbed +with passion and resentment as she recalled the scene of the previous +night, going over again with the cruel words Richard had uttered in his +jealous anger, and then burning with shame and indignation as she +thought of being locked in her room, and kept from attending the +masquerade, where her absence must have excited so much wonder. + +"What did they say, and what can I tell them when we meet?" she thought, +just as Mrs. Howard's voice was heard in the upper hall. + +Church was out, and several of the more intimate of Ethie's friends had +stopped at the Stafford House to inquire into so strange a proceeding. + +"Come to see if you were sick, or what, that you disappointed me so. I +was vexed enough, I assure you," Mrs. Miller said, looking curiously +enough at Ethelyn, whose face was white as ashes, save where a crimson +spot burned on her cheeks, and whose lips were firmly pressed together. + +She did not know what to say, and when pressed to give a reason +stammered out: + +"Judge Markham wished me to stay with him, and as an obedient wife I +stayed." + +With ready tact the ladies saw that something was wrong, and kindly +forbore further remarks, except to tell what a grand affair it was, and +how much she was missed. But Ethie detected in their manner an unspoken +sympathy or pity, which exasperated and humiliated her more than open +words would have done. Heretofore she had been the envy of the entire +set, and it wounded her deeply to fall from that pedestal to the level +of ordinary people. She was no longer the young wife, whose husband +petted and humored her so much, but the wife whose husband was jealous +and tyrannical, and even abusive, where language was concerned, and she +could not rid herself of the suspicion that her lady friends knew more +than they professed to know, and was heartily glad when they took their +departure and left her again alone. + +There was another knock at her door, and a servant handed in a card +bearing Frank Van Buren's name. He was in the office, the waiter said. +Should he show the gentleman up? + +Ethie hesitated a moment, and then taking her pencil wrote upon the back +of the card, "I am too busy to see you to-day." + +The servant left the room, and Ethelyn went back to where her clothes +were scattered about and the great trunk was standing open. She did not +care to see Frank Van Buren now. He was the direct cause of every sorrow +she had known, and bitter feelings were swelling in her heart in place +of the softer emotions she had once experienced toward him. He was +nothing to her now. Slowly but gradually the flame had been dying out, +until Richard had nothing to dread from him, and he was never nearer to +winning his wife's entire devotion than on that fatal night when, by his +jealousy and rashness, he built so broad a gulf between them. + +"It is impossible that we should ever live together again, after all +that has transpired," Ethelyn said, as she stood beside her trunk and +involuntarily folded up a garment and laid it on the bottom. + +She had reached a decision, and her face grew whiter, stonier, as she +made haste to act upon it. Every article which Richard had bought was +laid aside and put away in the drawers and bureaus she would never see +again. These were not numerous, for her bridal trousseau had been so +extensive that but few demands had been made upon her husband's purse +for dress, and Ethelyn felt glad that it was so. It did not take long to +put them away, or very long to pack the trunk, and then Ethie sat down +to think "what next?" + +Only a few days before a Mr. Bailey, who boarded in the house, and +whose daughter was taking music lessons, had tried to purchase her +piano, telling her that so fine a player as herself ought to have one +with a longer keyboard. Ethie had thought so herself, wishing sometimes +that she had a larger instrument, which was better adapted to the +present style of music, but she could not bring herself to part with +Aunt Barbara's present. Now, however, the case was different. Money she +must have, and as she scorned to take it from the bank, where her check +was always honored, she would sell her piano. It was hers to do with as +she liked, and when Mr. Bailey passed her door at dinner time he was +asked to step in and reconsider the matter. She had changed her mind, +she said. She was willing to sell it now; there was such a superb affair +down at Shumway's Music Room. Had Mr. Bailey seen it? + +Ethie's voice was not quite steady, for she was not accustomed to +deception of this kind, and the first step was hard. But Mr. Bailey was +not at all suspicious, and concluded the bargain at once; and two hours +later Ethie's piano was standing between the south windows of Mrs. +Bailey's apartment, and Ethie, in her own room, was counting a roll of +three hundred dollars, and deciding how far it would go. + +"There's my pearls," she said, "if worst comes to worst I can sell them +and my diamond ring." + +She did not mean Daisy's ring. She would not barter that, or take it +with her, either. Daisy never intended it for a runaway wife, and +Ethelyn must leave it where Richard would find it when he came back and +found her gone. And then as Ethie in her anger exulted over Richard's +surprise and possible sorrow when he found himself deserted, some demon +from the pit whispered in her ear, "Give him back the wedding ring. +Leave that for him, too, and so remove every tie which once bound you +to him." + +It was hard to put off Daisy's ring, and Ethelyn paused and reflected as +the clear stone seemed to reflect the fair, innocent face hanging on the +walls at Olney. But Ethie argued that she had no right to it, and so the +dead girl's ring was laid aside, and then the trembling fingers +fluttered about the plain gold band bearing the date of her marriage. +But when she essayed to remove that, too, blood-red circles danced +before her eyes, and such a terror seized her that her hands dropped +powerless into her lap and the ring remained in its place. + +It was four o'clock in the afternoon, and the cars for Olney left at +seven. She was going that way as far as Milford, where she could take +another route to the East. She would thus throw Richard off the track if +he tried to follow her, and also avoid immediate remark in the hotel. +They would think it quite natural that in her husband's absence she +should go for a few days to Olney, she reasoned; and they did think so +in the office when at six she asked that her trunk be taken to the +station. Her rooms were all in order. She had made them so herself, +sweeping and dusting, and even leaving Richard's dressing-gown and +slippers by the chair where he usually sat the evenings he was at home. +The vacancy left by the piano would strike him at once, she knew, and so +she moved a tall bookcase up there, and put a sofa where the bookcase +had been, and a large chair where the sofa had been, and pushed the +center table into the large chair's place; and then her work was +done--the last she would ever do in that room, or for Richard either. +The last of everything is sad, and Ethie felt a thrill of pain as she +whispered to herself, "It is the last, last time," and then thought of +the outer world which lay all unknown before her. She would not allow +herself to think, lest her courage should give way, and tried, by +dwelling continually upon Richard's cruel words, to steel her heart +against the good impulses which were beginning to suggest that what she +was doing might not, after all, be the wisest course. What would the +world say?--and dear Aunt Barbara, too? How it would wring her heart +when she heard the end to which her darling had come! And Andy--simple, +conscientious, praying Andy--Ethie's heart came up in her throat when +she thought of him and his grief at her desertion. + +"I will write to Andy," she said. "I will tell him how thoughts of him +almost deterred me from my purpose," and opening her little writing +desk, which Richard gave her at Christmas, she took up her pen and held +it poised a moment, while something said: "Write to Richard, too. Surely +you can do so much for him. You can tell him the truth at last, and let +him know how he misjudged you." + +And so the name which Ethie first wrote down upon the paper was not +"Dear Brother Andy," but simply that of "Richard." + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +ETHIE'S LETTERS + +"Stafford House, Feb.--, + +"Five o'clock in the afternoon. + +"RICHARD: I am going away from you forever, and When you recall the +words you spoke to me last night, and the deep humiliation you put upon +me, you will readily understand that I go because we cannot live +together any longer as man and wife. You said things to me, Richard, +which women find hard to forgive, and which they never can forget. I did +not deserve that you should treat me so, for, bad as I may have been in +other respects, I am innocent of the worst thing you alleged against me, +and which seemed to excite you so much. Until I heard it from you, I did +not know Frank Van Buren was within a thousand miles of Camden. The note +from him which I leave with this letter, and which you will remember was +brought to the door by a servant, who said it had been mislaid and +forgotten, will prove that I tell you truly. The other note which you +found, and which must have fallen from the box where I kept it, was +written years ago, when I was almost a little girl, with no thought that +I ever could be the humbled, wretched creature I am now. + +"Let me tell you all about it, Richard--how I happened to be engaged to +Frank, and how wounded and sore and sorry I was when you came the second +time to Chicopee, and asked me to be your wife." + +Then followed the whole story of Ethelyn's first love. Nothing was +concealed, nothing kept back. Even the dreariness of the day when Aunt +Van Buren came up from Boston and broke poor Ethie's heart, was +described and dwelt upon with that particularity which shows how the +lights, and shadows, and sunshine, and storms which mark certain events +in one's history will impress themselves upon one's mind, as parts of +the great joy or sorrow which can never be forgotten. Then she spoke of +meeting Richard, and the train of circumstances which finally led to +their betrothal. + +"I wanted to tell you about Frank that night, on the shore of the pond, +when you told me of Abigail, and twice I made up my mind to do so, but +something rose up to prevent it, and after that it was very hard to +do so." + +She did not tell him how she at first shrank away from his caresses with +a loathing which made her flesh creep, but she confessed that she did +not love him, even when taking the marriage vow. + +"But I meant to be true to you, Richard. I meant to be a good wife, and +never let you know how I felt. You were different from Frank; different +from most men whom I had met, and you did annoy me so at times. You will +tell me I was foolish to lay so much stress on little things, and so, +perhaps, I was; but little things, rather than big, make up the sum of +human happiness, and, besides, I was too young to fully understand how +any amount of talent and brain could atone for absence of culture of +manner. Then, too, I was so disappointed in your home and family. You +know how unlike they are to my own, but you can never know how terrible +it was to me who had formed so different an estimate of them. I suppose +you will say I did not try to assimilate, and perhaps I did not. How +could I, when to be like them was the thing I dreaded most of all? I do +believe they tried to be kind, especially your brothers, and I shall +ever be grateful to them for their attempt to please and interest me +during that dreadful winter I spent alone, with you in Washington. You +did wrong, Richard, not to take me with you, when I wanted so much to +go. I know that, after what happened, you and your mother think you were +fully justified in what you did; but, Richard, you are mistaken. The +very means you took to avert a catastrophe hastened it instead. The +cruel disappointment and terrible homesickness which I endured hastened +our baby's birth, and cost its little life. Had it lived, Richard, I +should have been a better woman from what I am now. It would have been +something for me to love, and oh, my heart did ache so for an object on +which to fasten. I did not love you when I became your wife, but I was +learning to do so. When you came home from Washington I was so glad to +see you, and I used to listen for your step when you went to Olney and +it was time for you to return. Just in proportion as I was drawn toward +you, Frank fell in my estimation, and I wanted to tell you all about it, +and begin anew. I was going to do so in that letter commenced the night +I was taken so ill, and two or three times afterwards I thought I would +do it. Do you remember that night of our return from St. Paul? I found a +letter from Aunt Van Buren, and asked if you would like to hear it. You +seemed so indifferent and amost cross about it, that the good angel left +me, and your chance was lost again. There was something in that letter +about Frank and me--something which would have called forth questions +from you, and I meant to explain if you would let me. Think, Richard. +You will remember the night. You lay upon the sofa, and I sat down +beside you, and smoothed your hair. I was nearer to loving you then than +I ever was before; but you put me off, and the impulse did not come +again--that is, the impulse of confession. A little more consideration +on your part for what you call my airs and high notions would have won +me to you, for I am not insensible to your many sterling virtues, and I +do believe that you did love me once. But all that is over now. I made a +great mistake when I came to you, and perhaps I am making a greater one +in going from you. But I think not. We are better apart, especially +after the indignities of last night. Where I am going it does not +matter to you. Pursuit will be useless, inasmuch as I shall have the +start of a week. Neither do I think you will search for me much. You +will he happier without me, and it is better that I should go. You will +give the accompanying note to Andy. Dear Andy, my heart aches to its +very core when I think of him, and know that his grief for me will be +genuine. I leave you Daisy's ring. I am not worthy to keep that, so I +give it back. I wish I could make you free from me entirely, if that +should be your wish. Perhaps some time you will be, and then when I am +nothing to you save a sad memory, you will think better of me than +you do now. + +"Good-by, Richard. We shall probably never meet again. Good-by. + +"ETHIE." + +She did not stop to read what she had written. There was not time for +that, and taking a fresh sheet, she wrote: + +"DEAR, DARLING ANDY: If all the world were as good, and kind, and true +as you, I should not be writing this letter, with my arrangements made +for flight. Richard will tell you why I go. It would take me too long. I +have been very unhappy here, though none of my wretchedness has been +caused by you. Dear Andy, if I could tell you how much I love you, and +how sorry I am to fall in your opinion, as I surely shall when you hear +what has happened. Do not hate me, Andy, and sometimes when you pray, +remember Ethie, won't you? She needs your prayers so much, for she +cannot pray herself. I do not want to be wholly bad--do not want to be +lost forever; and I have faith that God will hear you. The beautiful +consistency of your everyday life and simple trust, have been powerful +sermons to me, convincing me that there is a reality in the religion you +profess. Go on, Andy, as you have begun, and may the God whom I am not +worthy to name, bless you, and keep you, and give you every possible +good. In fancy I wind my arms around your neck, and kiss your dear, kind +face, as, with scalding tears, I write you good-by. + +"Farewell, Andy, darling Andy, farewell." + +Ethelyn had not wept before, but now, as Andy rose up before her with +the thought that she should see him no more, her tears poured like rain, +and blotted the sheet on which she had written to him. It hurt her more, +if possible, to lose his respect than that of any other person, and for +a half-instant she wavered in the decision. But it was too late now. The +piano was sold and delivered, and if she tarried she had no special +excuse to offer for its sale. She must carry out her plan, even though +it proved the greatest mistake of her life. So the letters were directed +and put, with Daisy's ring, in the little drawer of the bureau, where +Richard would be sure to find them when he came back. Perhaps, as Ethie +put them there, she thought how they might be the means of a +reconciliation; that Richard, after reading her note, would move heaven +and earth to find her, and having done so, would thenceforth be her +willing slave; possibly, too, remembering the harsh things he had so +recently said to her, she exulted a little as she saw him coming back to +his deserted home, and finding his domestic altar laid low in the dust. +But if this was so she gave no sign, and though her face was deathly +pale, her nerves were steady and her voice calm, as she gave orders +concerning her baggage, and then when it was time, turned the key upon +her room, and left it with the clerk, to whom she said: + +"I shall not be back until my husband returns." + +She was going to Olney, of course--going to see his folks, the landlady +said, when she heard Mrs. Markham had gone; and so no wonder was created +among the female boarders, except that Ethelyn had not said good-by to a +single one of them. She was not equal to that. Her great desire was to +escape unseen, and with a veil drawn closely over her face, she sat in +the darkest corner of the ladies' room, waiting impatiently for the +arrival of the train, and glancing furtively at the people around her. +Groups of men were walking up and down upon the platform without, and +among them Frank Van Buren. On his way to the cars he had called again +at the Stafford House, and learned that Mrs. Markham was out. + +"I'll see her when I return," he thought, and so went his way to the +train, which would take him to his next point of destination. + +Never once dreaming how near he was to her, Ethie drew her veil and furs +more closely around her, and turning her face to the frosty window, +gazed drearily out into the wintry darkness as they sped swiftly on. She +hardly knew where she was going or what she could do when she was there. +She was conscious only of the fact that she was breaking away from +scenes and associations which had been so distasteful to her--that she +was leaving a husband who had been abusive to her, and she verily +believed she had just cause for going. The world might not see it so, +perhaps, but she did not care for the world. She was striking out a path +of her own, and with her heart as sore and full of anger as it then was, +she felt able to cope with any difficulty, so that her freedom was +achieved. They were skirting across the prairie now; and the lights of +Olney were in sight. Perhaps she could see the farmhouse, and rubbing, +with her warm palm, the moisture from the window-pane, she looked +wistfully out in the direction of Richard's home. Yes, there it was, and +a light shining from the sitting-room window, as if they expected her. +But Ethie was not going there, and with something like a sigh as she +thought of Andy so near, yet separated so widely from her, she turned +from the window and rested her tired head upon her hands while they +stayed at Olney. It was only a moment they stopped, but to Ethie it +seemed an age, and her heart almost stopped its beating when she heard +the voice of Terrible Tim just outside the car. He was not coming in, as +she found after a moment of breathless waiting; he was only speaking to +an acquaintance, who stepped inside and took a seat by the stove, just +as the train plunged again into the darkness, leaving behind a fiery +track to mark its progress across the level prairie. + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DESERTED HUSBAND + +Richard had been very successful in St. Louis. The business which took +him there had been more than satisfactorily arranged. He had collected a +thousand-dollar debt he never expected to get, and had been everywhere +treated with the utmost deference and consideration, as a man whose +worth was known and appreciated. But Richard was ill at ease, and his +face wore a sad, gloomy expression, which many remarked, wondering what +could be the nature of the care so evidently preying upon him. Do what +he might, he could not forget the white, stony face which had looked at +him so strangely in the gray morning, nor shut out the icy tones in +which Ethie had last spoken to him. Besides this, Richard was thinking +of all he had said to her in the heat of passion, and wishing he could +recall it in part at least. He was very indignant, very angry still, for +he believed her guilty of planning to meet Frank Van Buren at the party +and leave him at home, while his heart beat with keen throbs of pain +when he remembered that Ethie's first love was not given to him--that +she would have gone to her grave more willingly than she went with him +to the altar; but he need not have been so harsh with her--that was no +way to make her love him. Kindness must win her back should she ever be +won, and impatient to be reconciled, if reconciliation were now +possible, Richard chafed at the necessary delays which kept him a day +longer in St. Louis than he had at first intended. + +Ethie had been gone just a week when he at last found himself in the +train which would take him back to Camden. First, however, he must stop +at Olney; the case was imperative--and so he stepped from the train one +snowy afternoon when the February light shone cold and blue upon the +little town and the farmhouse beyond. His brothers were feeding their +flocks and herds in the rear yard to the east; but they came at once to +greet him, and ask after his welfare. The light snow which had fallen +that day was lying upon the front door-steps undisturbed by any track, +so Richard entered at the side. Mrs. Markham was dipping candles, and +the faint, sickly odor of the hot melted tallow, which filled Richard's +olfactories as he came in, was never forgotten, but remembered as part +and parcel of that terrible day which would have a place in his memory +so long as being lasted. Every little thing was impressed upon his mind, +and came up afterward with vivid distinctness whenever he thought of +that wretched time. There was a bit of oilcloth on the floor near to the +dripping candles, and he saw the spots of tallow which had dropped and +dried upon it--saw, too, his mother's short red gown and blue woolen +stockings, as she got up to meet him, and smelled the cabbage cooking on +the stove, for they were having a late dinner that day--the boys' +favorite, and what Mrs. Markham designated as a "dish of biled vittles." + +Richard had seen his mother dip candles before--nay, had sometimes +assisted at the dipping. He had seen her short striped gown and blue +woolen stockings, and smelled the cooking cabbage, but they never struck +him with so great a sense of discomfort as they did to-day when he +stood, hat in hand, wondering why home seemed so cheerless. It was as if +the shadow of the great shock awaiting him had already fallen upon him, +oppressing him with a weight he could not well shake off. He had no +thought that any harm had come to Ethie, and yet his first question was +for her. Had his mother heard from her while he was away, or did she +know if she was well? + +Mrs. Markham's under jaw dropped, in the way peculiar to her when at all +irritated, but she did not answer at once; she waited a moment, while +she held the rod poised over the iron kettle, and with her forefinger +deliberately separated any of the eight candles which showed a +disposition to stick together; then depositing them upon the frame and +taking up another rod, she said: + +"Miss Plympton was down to Camden three or four days ago, and she said +Ann Merrills, the chambermaid at the Stafford House, told her Ethelyn +had come to Olney to stay with us while you was away; but she must have +gone somewhere else, as we have not seen her here. Gone to visit that +Miss Amsden, most likely, that lives over the creek." + +"What makes you think she has gone there?" Richard asked, with a sudden +spasm of fear, for which he could not account, and which was not in any +wise diminished by his mother's reply: "Ann said she took the six +o'clock train for Olney, and as Miss Amsden lives beyond us, it's likely +she went there, and is home by this time." + +Richard accepted this supposition, but it was far from reassuring him. +The load he had felt when he first came into the kitchen was pressing +more and more heavily, and he wished that he had gone straight on +instead of stopping at Olney. But now there was nothing to do but to +wait with what patience he could command until the next train came and +carried him to Camden. + +It was nine o'clock when he reached there, and a stiff northeaster was +blowing down the streets with gusts of sleet and rain, but he did not +think of it as he hurried on toward the Stafford House, with that +undefined dread growing stronger and stronger as he drew near. He did +not know what he feared, nor why he feared it. He should find Ethie +there, he said. She surely had returned from her visit by this time; he +should see the lights from the windows shining out upon the park, just +as he had seen them many other nights when hastening back to Ethie. He +would take the shortest route down that dark, narrow alley, and so gain +a moment of time. The alley was traversed at last, also the square, and +he turned the corner of the street where stood the Stafford House. +Halting for an instant, he strained his eyes to see if he were mistaken, +or was there no light in the window, no sign that Ethie was there. There +were lights below, and lights above, but the second floor was dark, the +shutters closed, and all about them a look of silence and desertion, +which quickened Richard's footsteps to a run. Up the private staircase +he went, and through the narrow hall, till he reached his door and found +it locked. Ethie was surely gone. She had not expected him so soon. +Mrs. Amsden had urged her to stay, and she had stayed. This was what +Richard said, as he went down to the office for the key, which the clerk +handed him, with the remark: "Mrs. Markham went to Olney the very day +you left. I thought perhaps you would stop there and bring her home." + +Richard did not reply, but hurried back to the darkened room, where +everything was in order; even Ethie's work-box was in its usual place +upon the little table, and Ethie's chair was standing near; but +something was missing--something besides Ethie--and its absence made the +room look bare and strange as the gas-light fell upon it. The piano was +gone or moved. It must be the latter, and Richard looked for it in every +corner, even searching in the bedroom and opening the closet door, as if +so ponderous a thing could have been hidden there! It was gone, and so +was Ethie's trunk, and some of Ethie's clothes, for he looked to see, +and then mechanically went out into the hall, just as Mr. Bailey came +upstairs and saw him. + +"Ho, Judge! is that you? Glad to see you back. Have been lonesome with +you and your wife both away. Do you know of the trade we made--she and +I--the very day you left? She offered me her piano for three hundred +dollars, and I took her up at once. A fine instrument, that, but a +little too small for her. Answers very well for Angeline. It's all +right, isn't it?" the talkative man continued, as he saw the blank +expression on Richard's face and construed it into disapprobation of +the bargain. + +"Yes, all right, of course. It was her piano, not mine," Richard said +huskily. Then feeling the necessity of a little duplicity, he said, +"Mrs. Markham went the same day I did, I believe?" + +"Really, now, I don't know whether 'twas that day or the next," Mr. +Bailey replied, showing that what was so important to Richard had as yet +made but little impression upon him. "No, I can't say which day it was; +but here's Hal Clifford--he'll know," and Mr. Bailey stepped aside as +Harry came up the hall. + +He had been to call upon a friend who occupied the floor above, and +seeing Richard came forward to speak to him, the look of shame upon his +face showing that he had not forgotten the circumstances under which +they had last met. As Harry came in Mr. Bailey disappeared, and so the +two men were alone when Richard asked, "Do you know what day Mrs. +Markham left Camden?" + +Richard tried to be natural. But Harry was not deceived. There was +something afloat--something which had some connection with his foolish, +drunken talk and Ethie's non-appearance at the masquerade. Blaming +himself for what he remembered to have said, he would not now willingly +annoy Richard, and he answered, indifferently: "She went the same day +you did; that is, she left here on the six o'clock train. I know, for I +called in the evening and found her gone." + +"Was she going to Olney?" + +Richard's lips asked this rather than his will, and Harry replied, "I +suppose so. Isn't she there?" + +It was an impudent question, but prompted purely by curiosity, and +Richard involuntarily answered, "She has not been there at all." + +For several seconds the two men regarded each other intently, one +longing so much to ask a certain question, and the other reading that +question in the wistful, anxious eyes bent so earnestly upon him. + +"He left in that same train, and took the same route, too." + +Harry said this, and Richard staggered forward, till he leaned upon the +door-post while his face was ashy pale. Harry had disliked Richard +Markham, whom he knew so strongly disapproved of his conduct; but he +pitied him now and tried to comfort him. + +"It cannot be they went together. I saw no indications of such an +intention on the part of Frank. I hardly think he saw her, either. He +was going to--, he said, and should be back in a few days. Maybe she is +somewhere." + +Yes, maybe she was somewhere, but so long as Richard did not know where, +it was poor comfort for him. One thing, however, he could do--he could +save her good name until the matter was further investigated; and +pulling Harry after him into his room, he sat down by the cold, dark +stove, over which he crouched shiveringly, while he said, "Ethie has +gone to visit a friend, most likely--a Mrs. Amsden, who lives in the +direction of Olney. So please, for her sake, do not say either now or +ever who went on the train with her." + +"You have my word as a gentleman that I will not," Harry replied; "and +as no one but myself ever knew that they were cousins and acquaintances, +their names need not be mentioned together, even if she never returns." + +"But she will--she will come back, Ethie will. She has only gone to Mrs. +Amsden's," Richard replied, his teeth chattering and his voice betraying +all the fear and anguish he tried so hard to hide. + +Harry saw how cold he seemed, and with his own hands built a quick wood +fire, and then asked: + +"Shall I leave you alone, or would you prefer me to stay?" + +"Yes, stay. I do not like being here alone, though Ethie will come back. +She's only gone to visit Mrs. Amsden," and Richard whispered the words, +"gone to visit Mrs. Amsden." + +It is pitiful to see a strong man cut down so suddenly, and every nerve +of Harry's throbbed in sympathy as he sat watching the deserted husband +walking up and down the room, now holding his cold fingers to the fire +and now saying to himself: "She has only gone to Mrs. Amsden's. She will +be back to-morrow." + +At last the clock struck eleven, and then Richard roused from his +lethargy and said: "The next train for Olney passes at twelve. I am +going there, Harry--going after Ethie. You'll see her coming back +to-morrow." + +Richard hardly knew why he was going back to Olney, unless it were from +a wish to be near his own kith and kin in this hour of sorrow. He knew +that Ethie had gone, and the Mrs. Amsden ruse was thrown out for the +benefit of Harry, who, frightened at the expression of Richard's face, +did not dare to leave him alone until he saw him safely on board the +train, which an hour later dropped him upon the slippery platform in +Olney, and then went speeding on in the same direction Ethie once +had gone. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Markham's candles were finished, and in straight even rows were +laid away in the candle-box, the good woman finding to her great +satisfaction that there were just ten dozen besides the slim little +thing she had burned during the evening, and which, with a long, crisp +snuff, like the steeple of a church, was now standing on the chair by +her bed. The hash was chopped ready for breakfast, the coffee was +prepared, and the kindlings were lying near the stove, where, too, were +hanging to dry Andy's stockings, which he had that day wet through. They +had sat up later than usual at the farmhouse that night, for Melinda and +her mother had been over there, and the boys had made molasses candy, +and "stuck up" every dish and spoon, as Mrs. Markham said. Tim had come +after his mother and sister, and as he had a good deal to say, the clock +struck eleven before the guests departed, and Andy buttoned the door of +the woodshed and put the nail over the window by the sink. Mrs. Markham +had no suspicion of the trial in store for her, but for some cause she +felt restless and nervous, and even scary, as she expressed it herself. +"Worked too hard, I guess," she thought, as she tied on her +high-crowned, broad-frilled nightcap, and then as a last chore, wound +the clock before stepping into bed. + +It was nearly midnight, and for some little time she lay awake listening +to the wind as it swept past the house, or screamed through the key-hole +of the door. But she did not hear the night train when it thundered +through the town; nor the gate as it swung back upon its hinges; nor the +swift step coming up the walk; nor the tap upon her window until it was +repeated, and Richard's voice called faintly, "Mother, mother, let +me in!" + +Andy, who was as good as a watch-dog, was awake by this time, and with +his window open was looking down at the supposed burglar, while his hand +felt for some missile to hurl at the trespasser's head. With a start, +Mr. Markham awoke, and, springing up, listened till the voice said +again, "Mother, mother, it's I; let me in!" + +The Japan candlestick Andy had secured was dropped in a trice, and +adjusting his trousers as he descended the stairs, he reached the door +simultaneously with his mother, and pulling Richard into the hall, asked +why he was there, and what had happened. Richard did not know for +certain that anything had happened. "Ethie was most probably with Mrs. +Amsden. She would be home to-morrow," and Andy felt how his brother +leaned against him and his hand pressed upon his shoulders as he went to +the stove, and crouched down before it just as he had done in Camden. +The candle was lighted, and its dim light fell upon that strange group +gathered there at midnight, and looking into each other's faces with a +wistful questioning as to what it all portended. + +"It is very cold; make more fire," Richard said, shivering, as the sleet +came driving against the window; and in an instant all the morning +kindlings were thrust into the stove, which roared and crackled, and +hissed, and diffused a sense of warmth and comfort through the +shadowy room. + +"What is it, Richard? What makes you so white and queer?" his mother +asked, trying to pull on her stockings, and in her trepidation jamming +her toes into the heel, and drawing her shoe over the bungle thus made +at the bottom of her foot. + +"Ethie was not there, and has not been since the night I left. She sold +her piano, and took the money, and her trunk, and her clothes, and went +to visit Mrs. Amsden." + +This was Richard's explanation, which Andy thought a mighty funny reason +for his brother's coming at midnight, and frightening them so terribly. +But his mother saw things differently. She knew there was something +underlying all this--something which would require all her skill and +energy to meet--and her face was almost as white as Richard's as she +asked, "Why do you think she has gone to Mrs. Amsden's?" + +"You told me so, didn't you?" and Richard looked up at her in a +bewildered, helpless way, which showed that all he knew upon the Amsden +question was what she had said herself, and that was hardly enough to +warrant a conclusion of any kind. + +"Was there any reason why Ethelyn should go away?" she asked next, and +Richard's head dropped, and his eyes were cast down in shame, as +he replied: + +"Yes; we--quar--. We differed, I mean, the night before I went away, and +I kept her from the masquerade, I would not let her go. I locked the +door, and now she has gone--gone to Mrs. Amsden's." + +He persisted in saying that, as if he would fain make himself believe it +against his better judgment. + +"What is it all about? What does it mean?" Andy asked in great +perplexity; and his mother answered for Richard: + +"It means just this, as far as I can see: Ethelyn has got mad at Richard +for keepin' her in, which he or'to have done long ago, and so, with her +awful temper she has run away." + +Mrs. Markham had defined it at last--had put into words the terrible +thing which had happened, the disgrace which she saw coming upon them; +and with this definition of it she, too, defined her own position with +regard to Ethelyn, and stood bristling all over with anger and +resentment, and ready to do battle for her son against the entire world. + +"Mother! mother!" Andy gasped, and his face was whiter than Richard's. +"It is not true. Ethie never went and done that--never! Did she, Dick? +Tell me! Speak! Has Ethie run away?" + +Andy was down on one knee now, and looking into Richard's face with a +look which would almost have brought Ethie back could she have seen it. +Andy had faith in her, and Richard clung to him rather than to the +mother in denouncing her so bitterly. + +"I don't know, Andy," he said, "I hope not. I think not. She must have +gone to Mrs. Amsden's. We will wait till morning and see." + +The sound of voices had aroused both James and John, who, half-dressed, +came down to inquire what had happened, and why Dick was there at that +unseemly hour of the night. James' face was very pale as he listened, +and when his mother spoke of the disgrace which would come upon them +all, his hard fists were clenched for a moment, while he thought of +Melinda, and wondered if with her it would make any difference. Both +James and John had liked Ethelyn, and as the temper about which their +mother talked so much had never been exhibited to them, they were +inclined even now to take her part, and cautious John suggested that it +might not be so bad as his mother feared. To be sure, he didn't know how +hard Dick and Ethie might have spatted it, or what had gone before; but +anyway his advice would be to wait and see if she was not really at Mrs. +Amsden's, or somewhere else. Richard let them manage it for him. He was +powerless to act then, and stunned and silent he sat shivering by the +stove, which they made red-hot with the blocks of wood they put in, +hoping thus to warm him. There was no more sleep at the farmhouse that +night, though James and John went back to bed, and Andy, too, crept up +to his lonely room; but not to sleep. His heart was too full for that, +and kneeling by his wooden chair, he prayed for Ethie--that she had not +run away, but might be at Mrs. Amsden's, where he was going for her +himself the moment the morning broke. He had claimed this privilege, and +his mother had granted it, knowing that many allowances would be made +for whatever Andy might say, and feeling that, on this account, he would +do better than either of his brothers. Richard, of course, could not go. +He scarcely had strength to move, and did not look up from his stooping +posture by the stove, when, at day-dawn, Andy drew on his butternut +overcoat, and tying a thick comforter about his neck, started for +Mrs. Amsden's. + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE INVESTIGATION + +Richard knew she was not there--at least all the probabilities were +against it; and still he clung to the vague hope that Andy would bring +him some good news, and his thoughts went after the brother whose every +breath was a prayer, as he galloped over the snowy ground toward Mrs. +Amsden's. They were early risers there, and notwithstanding the sun was +just coming up the eastern sky, the family were at breakfast when Andy's +horse stopped before their gate, and Andy himself knocked at their door +for admission. Andy's faith was great--so great that, in answer to his +petitions, he fully expected to see Ethie herself at the table, when the +door was opened, and he caught a view of the occupants of the dining +room; but no Ethie was there, nor had been, as they said, in answer to +his eager questionings. + +"What made you think she was here? When did she go away? Was she +intending to visit me?" Mrs. Amsden asked. + +But Andy, while praying that Ethie might be there, had also asked that +if she were not, "he needn't make a fool of himself, nor let the cat out +of the bag," and he didn't; he merely replied: + +"She left home a few days ago. Dick was in St. Louis, and it was +lonesome stayin' alone. I'll find her, most likely, as she is +somewhere else." + +Andy was in his saddle now, and his fleet steed fled swiftly along +toward home, where they waited so anxiously for him, Richard tottering +to the window so as to read his fate in Andy's tell-tale face. + +"She is not there. I knew she was not. She has gone with that villain." + +Richard did not mean to say that last. It dropped from him mechanically, +and in an instant his mother seized upon it, demanding what he meant, +and who was the villain referred to. Richard tried to put her off, but +she would know what he meant, and so to her and his three brothers he +told as little as he could and make any kind of a story, and as he +talked his heart hardened toward Ethie, who had done him this wrong. It +seemed a great deal worse when put into words, and the whole expression +of Richard's face was changed when he had finished speaking, while he +was conscious of feeling much as he did that night when he denounced +Ethie so terribly to her face. "Had it been a man, or half a man, or +anybody besides that contemptible puppy, it would not seem so bad; but +to forsake me for him!" Richard said, while the great ridges deepened in +his forehead, and a hard, black look crept into his eyes, and about the +corners of his mouth. He was terrible in his anger, which grew upon him +until even his mother stood appalled at the fearful expression of +his face. + +"He would do nothing to call her back," he said, when James suggested +the propriety of trying in a quiet way to ascertain where she had gone. +"She had chosen her own path to ruin, and she might tread it for all of +him. He would not put forth a hand to save her and if she came back, he +never could forgive her." + +Richard was walking up and down the room, white with rage, as he said +this, and Andy, cowering in a corner, was looking on and listening. He +did not speak until Richard declared his incapacity for forgiving Ethie, +when he started up, and confronting the angry man, said to him +rebukingly: + +"Hold there, old Dick! You have gone a leetle too far. If God can +forgive you and me all them things we've done, which he knows about, and +other folks don't, you can, or or'to forgive sister Ethie, let her sin +be what it may. Ethie was young, Dick, and childlike, and so pretty, +too, and I 'most know you aggravated her some, if you talked to her as +you feel now; and then, too, Dick, and mother, and all of you, I don't +care who says it, or thinks it, it's a big lie! Ethie never went off +with a man--never! I know she didn't. She wasn't that kind. I'll swear +to it in the court. I won't hear anybody say that about her. I'll fight +'em, first, even if 'twas my own kin who did it!" And in his +excitement, Andy began to shove back his wrist-bands from his strong +wrists, as if challenging someone to the fight he had threatened. + +Andy was splendid in his defense of Ethie, and both James and John +stepped up beside him, showing their adhesion to the cause he pleaded so +well. Ethie might have ran away, but she had surely gone alone, they +said, and their advice was that Richard should follow her as soon as +possible. But Richard would not listen to such a proposition now, and +quietly aided and abetted by his mother, he declared his intention of +"letting her alone." She had chosen her course, he said, and she must +abide by it. "If she has gone with that villain"--and Richard ground his +teeth together--"she can never again come back to me. If she has not +gone with him, and chooses to return, I do not say the door is shut +against her." + +Richard seemed very determined and unrelenting, and, knowing how useless +it was to reason with him when in so stern a mood, his brothers gave up +the contest, Andy thinking within himself how many, many times a day he +should pray for Ethie that she might come back again. Richard would not +return to Camden that day, he said. He could not face his acquaintance +there until the first shock was over and they were a little accustomed +to thinking of the calamity which had fallen upon him. So he remained +with his mother, sitting near the window which looked out upon the +railroad track over which Ethie had gone. What his thoughts were none +could fathom, save as they were expressed by the dark, troubled +expression of his face, which showed how much he suffered. Perhaps he +blamed himself as he went over again the incidents of that fatal night +when he kept Ethelyn from the masquerade; but if he did, no one was the +wiser for it, and so the first long day wore on, and the night fell +again upon the inmates of the farmhouse. The darkness was terrible to +Richard, for it shut out from his view that strip of road which seemed +to him a part of Ethie. She had been there last, and possibly looked up +at the old home--her first home after her marriage; possibly, too, she +had thought of him. She surely did, if, as Andy believed, she was alone +in her flight. If not alone, he wanted no thoughts of hers, and +Richard's hands were clenched as he moved from the darkening window, and +took his seat behind the stove, where he sat the entire evening, like +some statue of despair, brooding over his ruined hopes. + +The next day brought the Joneses--Melinda and Tim--the latter of whom +had heard from Mrs. Amsden's son of Andy's strange errand there. There +was something in the wind, and Melinda came to learn what it was. Always +communicative to the Jones family, Mrs. Markham told the story without +reserve, not even omitting the Van Buren part, but asking as a +precaution that Melinda would not spread a story which would bring +disgrace on them. Melinda was shocked, astonished, and confounded, but +she did not believe in Frank Van Buren. Ethie never went with +him--never. She, like Andy, would swear to that, and she said as much to +Richard, taking Ethie's side as strongly as she could, without casting +too much blame on him. And Richard felt better, hearing Ethie upheld and +spoken for, even if it were so much against himself. Melinda was still +his good angel, while Ethie, too, had just cause for thanking the kind +girl who stood by her so bravely, and even made the mother-in-law less +harsh in her expression. + +There was a letter for Richard that night, from Harry Clifford, who +wrote as follows: + +"I do not know whether you found your wife at Mrs. Amsden's or not, but +I take the liberty of telling you that Frank Van Buren has returned, and +solemnly affirms that if Mrs. Markham was on board the train which left +here on the 17th, he did not know it. Neither did he see her at all when +in Camden. He called on his way to the depot that night, and was told +she was out. Excuse my writing you this. If your wife has not come back, +it will remove a painful doubt, and if she has, please burn and forget +it. Yours, + +"H. CLIFFORD." + +"Thank Heaven for that!" was Richard's exclamation as in the first +revulsion of feeling he sprang from his chair, while every feature of +his face was irradiated with joy. + +"What is it, Dick? Is Ethie found? I knew she would be. I've prayed for +it fifty times to-day, and I had faith that God would hear," Andy said, +the great tears rolling down his smooth, round face as he gave vent +to his joy. + +But Andy's faith was to be put to a stronger test, and his countenance +fell a little when Richard explained the nature of the letter. Ethie was +not found; she was only proved innocent of the terrible thing Richard +had feared for her, and in being proven innocent, she was for a moment +almost wholly restored to his favor. She would come back some time. She +could not mean to leave him forever. She was only doing it for a scare, +and to punish him for what he did that night. He deserved punishment, +too, he thought, for he was pretty hard on her, and as he surely had +been punished in all he had suffered during the last forty-eight hours, +he would, when she came back, call everything even between them, and +begin anew. + +This was Richard's reasoning; and that night he slept soundly, dreaming +that Ethie had returned, and on her knees was suing for his forgiveness, +while her voice was broken with tears and choking sobs. As a man and +husband who had been deserted, it was his duty to remain impassive a few +moments, while Ethie atoned fully for her misdeeds: then he would +forgive her, and so he waited an instant, and while he waited he woke to +find only Andy, with whom he was sleeping, kneeling by the bedside, with +the wintry moonlight falling on his upturned face, as he prayed for the +dear sister Ethie, whose steps had "mewandered" so far away. + +"Don't let any harm come to her; don't let anybody look at her for bad, +but keep her--keep her--keep her in safety, and send her back to poor +old Dick and me, and make Dick use her better than I 'most know he has, +for he's got the Markham temper in him, and everybody knows what +that is." + +This was Andy's prayer, taken from no book or printed form, but the +outpouring of his simple, honest heart, and Richard heard it, wincing a +little as Andy thus made confession for him of his own sins; but he did +not pray himself, though he was glad of Andy's prayers, and placed great +hopes upon them. God would hear Andy, and if he did not send Ethie back +at once, he would surely keep her from harm. + +The next day Richard went back to Camden. Melinda Jones had suggested +that possibly Ethie left a letter, or note, which would explain her +absence, and Richard caught at it eagerly, wondering he had not thought +of it before, and feeling very impatient to be off, even though he +dreaded to meet some of his old friends, and be questioned as to the +whereabouts of his wife. He did not know that the story of his desertion +was already there--Mrs. Amsden having gone to town with her mite, which, +added to the sale of the piano, Ethie's protracted absence, Richard's +return to Olney at midnight, and Harry Clifford's serious and mysterious +manner, were enough to set the town in motion. Various opinions were +expressed, and, what was very strange, so popular were both Richard and +Ethelyn that everybody disliked blaming either, and so but few unkind +remarks had as yet been made, and those by people who had been jealous +or envious of Ethelyn's high position. No one knew a whisper of Frank +Van Buren, for Harry kept his promise well, and no worse motive was +ascribed to Ethie's desertion than want of perfect congeniality with her +husband. Thus they were not foes, but friends, who welcomed Richard back +to Camden, watching him curiously, and wishing so much to ask where Mrs. +Markham was. That she was not with him, was certain, for only Andy +came--Andy, who held his head so high, and looked round so defiantly, as +he kept close to Richard's side on the way to the hotel. It was very +dreary going up the old, familiar staircase into the quiet hall, and +along to the door of the silent room, which seemed drearier than on that +night when he first came back to it and found Ethie gone. There were +ashes now upon the stove-hearth where Hal Clifford had kindled the fire, +and the two chairs they had occupied were standing just where they had +left them. The gas had not been properly turned off, and a dead, sickly +odor filled the room, making Andy heave as he hastened to open the +window, and admit the fresh, pure air. + +"Seems as it did the day Daisy died," Andy said, his eyes filling with +tears. + +To Richard it was far worse than the day Daisy died, for he had then the +memory of her last loving words in his ear, and the feeling of her +clinging kiss upon his lips, while now the memories of the lost one were +only bitter and sad in the extreme. + +"Melinda suggested a letter or something. Where do you suppose she would +put it if there were one?" Richard asked in a helpless, appealing way, +as he sank into a chair and looked wistfully around the room. + +He had been very bold and strong in the cars and in the street; but +here, in the deserted room, where Ethie used to be, and where something +said she would never be again, he was weak as a girl, and leaned wholly +upon Andy, who seemed to feel how much was depending upon him, and so +kept up a cheery aspect while he kindled a fresh fire and cleared the +ashes from the hearth by blowing them off upon the oilcloth; then, as +the warmth began to make itself felt and the cold to diminish, he +answered Richard's query. + +"In her draw, most likely; mother mostly puts her traps there." So, to +the "draw" they went--the very one where Daisy's ring was lying; and +Richard saw that first, knowing now for sure that Ethelyn had fled. + +He knew so before, but this made it more certain--more dreadful, too, +for it showed a determination never to return. + +"It was Daisy's, you know," he said to Andy, who, at his side, was not +looking at the ring, but beyond it, to the two letters, his own and +Richard's, both of which he seized with a low cry, for he, too, was sure +of Ethie's flight. + +"See, Dick, there's one for you and one for me," he exclaimed, and his +face grew very red as he tore open his own note and began to devour the +contents, whispering the words, and breaking down entirely amid a storm +of sobs and tears as he read: + +"DEAR ANDY: I wish I could tell you how much I love you, and how sorry I +am to fall in your good opinion, as I surely shall when you hear what +has happened. Do not hate me, Andy; and sometimes, when you pray, +remember Ethie, won't you?" + +He could get no farther than this, and with a great cry he buried his +face in his hands and sobbed: "Yes, Ethie, I will, I will; but oh, what +is it? What made you go? Why did she, Dick?" and he turned to his +brother, who, with lightning rapidity, was reading Ethelyn's long +letter. He did not doubt a word she said, and when the letter was +finished he put it passively in Andy's hand, and then, with a bitter +groan, laid his throbbing head upon the cushion of the lounge where he +was sitting. There were no tears in his eyes--nothing but blood-red +circles floating before them; while the aching balls seemed starting +from their sockets with the pressure of pain. He had had his chance with +Ethie and lost it; and though, as yet, he saw but dimly where he had +been to blame, where he had made a mistake, he endured for the time all +he was capable of enduring, and if revenge had been her object, Ethie +had more than her desire. + +Andy was stunned for a moment, and sat staring blankly at the motionless +figure of his brother; then, as the terrible calamity began to impress +itself fully upon him, intense pity for Richard became uppermost in his +mind, and stooping over the crushed man, he laid his arm across his +neck, and, tender as a sorrowing, loving mother, kissed and fondled the +damp brown hair, and dropped great tears upon it, and murmured words of +sympathy, incoherent at first, for the anguish choking his own +utterance, but gradually gathering force and sound as his quivering lips +kept trying to articulate: "Dick, poor old Dick, dear old Dick, don't +keep so still and look so white and stony. She'll come back again, Ethie +will. I feel it, I feel it, I know it, I shall pray for her every hour +until she comes. Prayer will reach her where nothing else can find her. +Poor Dick, I am so sorry. Don't look at me so; you scare me. Try to cry; +try to make a fuss; try to do anything rather than that dreadful look. +Lay your head on me, so," and lifting up the bowed head, which offered +no resistance, Andy laid it gently on his arm, and smoothing back the +hair from the pallid forehead, went on: "Now cry, old boy, cry with all +your might;" and with his hand Andy brushed away the scalding tears +which began to fall like rain from Richard's eyes. + +"Better so, a great deal better than the other way. Don't hold up till +you've had it out," he kept repeating, while Richard wept, until the +fountain was dry and the tears refused to flow. + +"I've been a brute, Andy," he said, when at last he could speak. "The +fault was all my own. I did not understand her in the least. I ought +never to have married her. She was not of my make at all." + +Andy would hear nothing derogatory of Richard any more than of Ethelyn, +and he answered promptly: "But, Dick, Ethie was some to blame. She +didn't or'to marry you feelin' as she did. That was where the +wrong began." + +This was the most and the worst Andy ever said against Ethelyn, and he +repented of that the moment the words were out of his mouth. It was mean +to speak ill of the absent, especially when the absent one was Ethie, +who had written, "In fancy I put my arms around your neck and kiss your +dear, kind face." Andy deemed himself a monster of ingratitude when he +recalled these lines and remembered that of her who penned them he had +said, "She was some to blame." He took it all back to himself, and tried +to exonerate Ethie entirely, though it was hard work to do so where he +saw how broken, and stunned, and crushed his brother was, and how little +he realized what was passing around him. + +"He don't know much more than I do," was Andy's mental comment, when to +his question, "What shall we do next?" Richard replied, in a maudlin +kind of way, "Yes, that is a very proper course. I leave it entirely +to you." + +Andy felt that a great deal was depending upon himself, and he tried to +meet the emergency. Seeing how Richard continued to shiver, and how cold +he was, he persuaded him to lie down upon the bed, and piling the +blankets upon him, made such a fire as he said to himself, "would roast +a common ox"; then, when Hal Clifford came to the door and knocked, he +kept him out, with that "Dick had been broke of his rest, and was tryin' +to make it up." + +But this state of things could not last long. Richard was growing ill, +and talking so strangely withal, that Andy began to feel the necessity +of having somebody there beside himself; "some of the wimmen folks, who +knew what to do, for I'm no better than a settin' hen," he said. + +Very naturally his thoughts turned to his mother as the proper person to +come, "though Melinda Jones was the properest of the two. There was snap +to her, and she would not go to pitchin' in to Ethie." + +Accordingly, the next mail carried to Melinda Jones a note from Andy, +which was as follows: + +"MISS MELINDA JONES: Dear Madam--We found the letters Ethie writ, one to +me, and one to Dick, and Dick's was too much for him. He lies like a +punk of wood, makin' a moanin' noise, and talkin' such queer things, +that I guess you or somebody or'to come and see to him a little. I send +to you because there's no nonsense about you, and you are made of the +right kind of stuff. + +"Yours to command, + +"ANDERSON MARKHAM, ESQ." + +This note Melinda carried straight to Mrs. Markham, and as the result, +four hours later both the mother and Melinda were on the road to Camden, +where Melinda's services were needed to stem the tide of wonder and +gossip, which had set in when it began to be known that Ethelyn was +gone, and Richard was lying sick in his room, tended only by Andy, who +would admit no one, not even the doctor, who, when urged by Harry +Clifford, came to offer his services. + +"He wasn't goin' to let in a lot of curious critters to hear what Dick +was talkin'," he said to his mother and Melinda, his haggard face +showing how much he had endured in keeping them at bay, and answering +through the key-hole their numerous inquiries. + +Richard did not have a fever, as was feared at first; but for several +days he kept his bed, and during that time his mother and Melinda stayed +by him, nursing him most assiduously, but never once speaking to each +other of Ethelyn. Both had read her letter, for Mrs. Markham never +thought of withholding it from Melinda, who, knowing that she ought not +to have seen it, wisely resolved to keep to herself the knowledge of its +contents. So, when she was asked, as she was repeatedly, "Why Mrs. +Markham had gone away," she answered evasively, or not at all, and +finding that nothing could be obtained from her, the people at last left +her in quiet and turned to their own resources, which furnished various +reasons for the desertion. They knew it was a desertion now, and hearing +how sick and broken Richard was, popular opinion was in his favor +mostly, though many a kind and wistful thought went after the fair young +wife, who had been a belle in their midst, and a general favorite, too. +Where was she now, and what was she doing, these many days, while the +winter crept on into spring, and the March winds blew raw and chill +against the windows of the chamber where Richard battled with the +sickness which he finally overcame, so that by the third week of Ethie's +absence he was up again and able to go in quest of her, if so be she +might be found and won to the love she never returned. + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +IN CHICOPEE + +They were having a late dinner at Aunt Barbara's, a four o'clock dinner +of roast fowls with onions and tomatoes, and the little round table was +nicely arranged with the silver and china and damask for two, while in +the grate the fire was blazing brightly and on the hearth, the tabby cat +was purring out her appreciation of the comfort and good cheer. But Aunt +Barbara's heart was far too sorry and sad to care for her surroundings, +or think how pleasant and cozy that little dining room looked to one who +did not know of the grim skeleton which had walked in there that very +day along with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, of Boston. That lady had come up on +the morning train and in her rustling black silk with velvet trimmings, +and lace barb hanging from her head, she sat before the fire with a look +of deep dejection and thoughtfulness upon her face, as if she too recked +little of the creature comforts around her. Aunt Barbara knew nothing of +her coming, and was taken by surprise when the village hack stopped at +the door, and Sister Sophia's sable furs and beaver cloak alighted. That +something was the matter she suspected from her sister's face the moment +that lady removed her veil and gave the usual dignified kiss of +greeting. Things had gone wrong again with Frank and Nettie, most +likely, she thought, for she was not ignorant, of the misunderstandings +and misery arising from that unfortunate marriage, and she had about +made up her mind to tell her sister just where the fault lay. She would +not spare Frank any longer, but would give him his just deserts. She +never dreamed that the trouble this time concerned Ethie, her own +darling, the child whom she had loved so well, and pitied, and thought +of so much since the time she left her out West with "those +Philistines," as she designated Richard's family. She had not heard from +her for some time, but, in the last letter received, Ethie had written +in a very cheerful strain, and told how gay and pleasant it was in +Camden that winter. Surely nothing had befallen her, and the good woman +stood aghast when Mrs. Dr. Van Buren abruptly asked if Ethelyn was not +there, or had been there lately, or heard from either. What did it +portend? Had harm come upon Ethie? And a shadow broke the placid surface +of the sweet old face as Aunt Barbara put these questions, first to +herself, and then to Mrs. Van Buren, who rapidly explained that Ethelyn +had left her husband, and gone, no one knew whither. + +"I hoped she might be here, and came up to see," Mrs. Van Buren +concluded; while Aunt Barbara steadied herself against the great +bookcase in the corner, and wondered if she was going out of her senses, +or had she heard aright, and was it her sister Van Buren sitting there +before her, and saying such dreadful things. + +She could not tell if it were real until Tabby sprang with a purring, +caressing sound, upon her shoulder, and rubbed her soft sides against +her cap. That made it real, and brought the color back to her wrinkled +face, but brought, also, a look of horror into her blue eyes, which +sought Mrs. Van Buren's with an eager, and yet terribly anxious glance. +Mrs. Dr. Van Buren understood the look. Its semblance had been on her +own face for an instant when she first heard the news, and now she +hastened to dispossess her sister's mind of any such suspicion. + +"No, Barbara; Frank did not go with her, or even see her when in Camden. +He is not quite so bad as that, I hope." + +The mother nature was in the ascendant, and for a moment resented the +suspicion against her son, even though that suspicion had been in her +own mind when Frank returned from Camden with the news of Ethie's +flight. That he had had something to do with it was her first fear, +until convinced to the contrary; and now she blamed Aunt Barbara for +harboring the same thought. As soon as possible she told all she had +heard from Frank, and then went on with her invectives against the +Markhams generally, and Richard in particular, and her endless surmises +as to where Ethelyn had gone, and what was the final cause of her going. + +For a time Aunt Barbara turned a deaf ear to what she was saying, +thinking only of Ethie, gone; Ethie, driven to such strait, that she +must either run away or die; Ethie, the little brown-eyed, rosy-cheeked, +willful, imperious girl, whom she loved so much for the very willful +imperiousness which always went hand in hand with such pretty fits of +penitence, and sorrow, and remorse for the misdeed, that not to love her +was impossible. Where was she now, and why had she not come at once to +the dear old home, where she would have been so welcome until such time +as matters could be adjusted on a more amicable basis? + +For Aunt Barbara, though in taking Ethie's side altogether, had no +thought that the separation should be final. She had chosen a life of +celibacy because she preferred it, and found it a very smooth and +pleasant one, especially after Ethie came and brought the sunshine of +joyous childhood to her quiet home; but "those whom God had joined +together" were bound to continue so, she firmly believed; and had Ethie +come to her with her tale of sorrow, she would have listened kindly to +it, poured in the balm of sympathy and love, and then, if possible, +restored her to her husband. Of all this she thought during the few +minutes Mrs. Dr. Van Buren talked, and she sat passive in her chair, +where she had dropped, with her dumpy little hands lying so helplessly +in her lap, and her cap all awry, as Tabby had made it when purring and +rubbing against it. + +"Then, you have not seen her, or heard a word?" Mrs. Van Buren asked; +and in a kind of uncertain way, as if she wondered what they were +talking about, Aunt Barbara replied: + +"No, I have not seen her, and I don't know, I am sure, what made the +child go off without letting us know." + +"She was driven to it by the pack of heathens around her," Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren retorted, feeling a good deal guilty herself for having been +instrumental in bringing about this unhappy match, and in proportion as +she felt guilty, seizing with avidity any other offered cause for +Ethie's wretchedness. "I've heard even more about them than you told +me," she went on to say. "There was Mrs. Ellis, whose cousin lives in +Olney--she says the mother is the most peculiar and old-fashioned woman +imaginable; actually wears blue yarn stockings, footed with black, makes +her own candles, and sleeps in the kitchen." + +With regard to the candles Aunt Barbara did not know; the sleeping in +the kitchen she denied, and the footed stockings she admitted; saying, +however, those she saw were black, rather than blue. Black or blue, it +was all the same to Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, whose feet seldom came in +contact with anything heavier than silk or the softest of lamb's wool; +and, had there been wanting other evidence of Mrs. Markham's vulgarity, +the stocking question would have settled the matter with her. + +"Poor Ethie!" she sighed, as she drew her seat to the fire, and asked +what they ought to do. + +Aunt Barbara did not know. She was too much bewildered to think of +anything just then, and after ordering the four o'clock dinner, which, +she knew, would suit her sister's habits better than an earlier one, +she, too, sat quietly down by the fire with her knitting lying idly in +her lap, and her eyes looking dreamily through the frosty panes off upon +the snowy hills where Ethelyn used to play. Occasionally, in reply to +some question of her sister's, she would tell what she herself saw in +that prairie home, and then look up amazed at the exasperating effect it +seemed to have upon Mrs. Dr. Van Buren. That lady was terrible incensed +against the whole Markham race, for through them she had been touched on +a tender point. Ethie's desertion of her husband would not be wholly +excused by the world; there was odium attaching to such a step, however +great the provocation, and the disgrace was what Mrs. Van Buren would +feel most keenly. That a Bigelow should do so was very humiliating; and, +by way of fortifying herself with reasons for the step, she slandered +and abused the Markhams until they would hardly have recognized the +remotest relationship between themselves and the "terrible creatures" +whom the great lady from Boston dissected so mercilessly that afternoon +in Chicopee. + +It was nearly four o'clock now, and the dinner was almost ready. Aunt +Barbara had dropped her knitting upon the floor, where the ball was at +once claimed as the lawful prey of Tabby, who rolled, and kicked, and +tangled the yarn in a perfect abandon of feline delight. Mrs. Van Buren +having exhausted herself, if not her topic, sat rocking quietly, and +occasionally giving little sniffs of inquiry as to whether the tomatoes +were really burned or not. If they were, there were still the +silver-skinned onions left; and, as Mrs. Van Buren was one who thought a +great deal of what she ate, she was anticipating her dinner with a keen +relish, and wishing Barbara and Betty would hurry, when a buggy stopped +before the door, and, with a start of disagreeable surprise, she +recognized Richard Markham coming through the gate, and up the walk to +the front door. He was looking very pale and worn, for to the effects of +his recent illness were added traces of his rapid, fatiguing journey, +and he almost staggered as he came into the room. It was not in kind +Aunt Barbara's nature to feel resentment toward him then, and she went +to him at once, as she would have gone to Ethie, and, taking his hand in +hers, said softly: + +"My poor boy! We have heard of your trouble. Have you found her yet? Do +you know where she is?" + +There was a look of anguish and disappointment in Richard's eyes as he +replied: + +"I thought--I hoped I might find her here." + +"And that is the reason of your waiting so long before coming?" Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren put in sharply. + +It was three weeks now since Ethie's flight, and her husband had shown +himself in no hurry to seek her, she reasoned; but Richard's reply, "I +was away a week before I knew it, and I have been very sick since then," +mollified her somewhat, though she sat back in her chair very stiff and +very straight, eyeing him askance, and longing to pounce upon him and +tell him what she thought. First, however, she must have her dinner. The +tea would be spoiled if they waited longer; and when Aunt Barbara began +to question Richard, she suggested that they wait till after dinner, +when they would all be fresher and stronger. So dinner was brought in, +and Richard, as he took his seat at the nicely-laid table, where +everything was served with so much care, did think of the difference +between Ethie's early surroundings and those to which he had introduced +her when he took her to his mother's house. He was beginning to think of +those things now; Ethie's letter had opened his eyes somewhat, and Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren would open them more before she let him go. She was +greatly refreshed with her dinner. The tomatoes had not been burned; the +fowls were roasted to a most delicate brown; the currant jelly was just +the right consistency; the pickled peaches were delicious, and the tea +could not have been better. On the whole, Mrs. Van Buren was satisfied, +and able to cope with a dozen men as crushed, and sore, and despondent +as Richard seemed. She had scanned him very closely, deciding that so +far as dress was concerned, he had improved since she saw him last. It +is true, his collar was not all the style, and his necktie was too wide, +and his coat sleeves too small, and his boots too rusty, and his vest +too much soiled; but she made allowance for the circumstances, and his +hasty journey, and so excused his tout ensemble. She had resumed her +seat by the fire, sitting where she could look the culprit directly in +the face; while good Aunt Barbara occupied the middle position, and, +with her fat, soft hands shaking terribly, tried to pick up the stitches +Tabby had pulled out. That personage, too, had had her chicken wing out +in the woodshed, and, knowing nothing of Ethie's grievances, had mounted +into Richard's lap, where she lay, slowly blinking and occasionally +purring a little, as Richard now and then passed his hand over her +soft fur. + +"Now tell us: Why did Ethelyn go away?--that is, what reason did she +give?" + +It was Mrs. Dr. Van Buren who asked this question, her voice betokening +that nothing which Richard could offer as an excuse would be received. +They must have Ethie's reason or none. Richard would far rather Mrs. +Dr. Van Buren had been in Boston, or Paris, or Guinea, than there in +Chicopee, staring so coolly at him; but as her being there was something +he could not help, he accepted it as a part of the train of calamities +closing so fast about him, and answered, respectfully: + +"It was no one thing which made her go, but the culmination of many. +There was a mistake on my part. I thought her guilty when she was not, +and charged her with it in a passion, saying things I would give much to +recall. This was one night, and she went the next, before her temper had +time to cool. You know she was a little hasty herself at times." + +"Perhaps so, though her temper never troubled me any. On the whole, I +think her temper amiable and mild in disposition as people generally +are," Mrs. Van Buren replied, forgetting, or choosing to forget, the +many occasions on which even she had shrunk from the fire which blazed +in Ethie's eyes when that young lady was fully roused. + +But Aunt Barbara had either more conscience or a better memory, and in a +manner half apologetic for her interference, she said: "Yes, Sophia, +Richard is right. Ethie had a temper--at least she was very decided. +Don't you remember when she broke the cut glass fruit dish, because she +could not have any more pineapple?" + +"Barbara!" Mrs. Dr. Van Buren exclaimed, her voice indicating her +surprise that her sister should so far forget herself as to reveal any +secrets of the family, and especially any which could be brought to bear +upon Ethelyn. + +Aunt Barbara felt the implied rebuke, and while her sweet, old face +crimsoned with mortification, she said: "Truth is truth, Sophia. Ethie +is as dear to me as to you, but she was high-tempered, and did break the +big fruit bowl, and then denied herself sweetmeats of all kinds, and +even went without sugar in her coffee and butter on her bread until she +had saved enough to buy another in its place. Ethie was generous and +noble after it was all over, if she was a little hot at times. That's +what I was going to say when you stopped me so sudden." + +Aunt Barbara looked a little aggrieved at being caught up so quickly by +her sister, who continued: "She was a Bigelow, and everybody knows what +kind of blood that is. She was too sensitive, and had too nice a +perception of what was proper to be thrown among"--heathen, she was +going to add, but something in Aunt Barbara's blue eyes kept her in +check, and so she abruptly turned to Richard and asked, "Did she leave +no message, no reason why she went?" + +Richard could have boasted his Markham blood had he chosen, and the +white heats to which that was capable of being roused; but he was too +utterly broken to feel more than a passing flash of resentment for +anything which had yet been said, and after a moment's thought, during +which he was considering the propriety of showing Mrs. Van Buren what +Ethie had written of Frank, he held the letter to her, saying, "She left +this. Read it if you like. It's a part of my punishment, I suppose, that +her friends should know all." + +With a stately bow Mrs. Van Buren took the letter and hastily read it +through, her lip quivering a little and her eyelids growing moist as +Ethie described the dreariness of that dreadful day when "Aunt Van Buren +came up from Boston and broke her heart." And as she read how much poor +Ethie had loved Frank, the cold, proud woman would have given all she +had if the past could be undone and Ethie restored to her just as she +was that summer nine years ago, when she came from the huckleberry hills +and stood beneath the maples. With a strange obtuseness peculiar to some +people who have seen their dearest plans come to naught, she failed to +ascribe the trouble to herself, but charged it all to Richard. He was +the one in fault; and by the time the letter was finished the Bigelow +blood was at a boiling pitch, and for a polished lady, Mrs. Dr. Van +Buren, of Boston, raised her voice pretty high as she asked: "Did you +presume, sir, to think that my son--mine--a married man--would make an +appointment with Ethie, a married woman? You must have a strange +misconception of the manner in which he was brought up! But it is all of +a piece with the rest of your abominable treatment of Ethelyn. I wonder +the poor girl stayed with you as long as she did. Think of it, Barbara! +Accused her of going to meet Frank by appointment, and then locked her +up to keep her at home, and she a Bigelow!" + +This was the first inkling Aunt Barbara had of what was in the letter. +She was, however, certain that Frank was in some way involved in the +matter, and anxious to know the worst, she said, beseechingly: + +"Tell me something, do. I can't read it, for my eyes are dim-like +to-night." + +They were full of unshed tears--the kind old eyes, which did not grow +one whit sterner or colder as Mrs. Van Buren explained, to some extent, +what was in the letter; reading a little, telling a little, and skipping +a little where Frank was especially concerned, until Aunt Barbara had a +pretty correct idea of the whole. Matters had been worse than she +supposed, Ethie more unhappy, and knowing her as she did, she was not +surprised that at the last she ran away; but she did not say so--she +merely sat grieved and helpless, while her sister took up the cudgels in +Ethelyn's defense, and, attacking Richard at every point, left him no +quarter at all. She did not pretend that Ethie was faultless or perfect, +she said, but surely, if mortal ever had just provocation for leaving +her husband, she had. + +"Her marriage was a great mistake," she said; "and I must say, Mr. +Markham, that you did very wrong to take her where you did without a +word of preparation. You ought to have told her what she was to expect; +then, if she chose to go, very well. But neither she nor I had any idea +of the reality; and the change must have been terrible to her. For my +part, I can conceive of nothing worse than to be obliged to live with +people whom even sister Barbara called 'Hottentots,' when she came home +from Iowa." + +"Not Hottentots," mildly interposed Aunt Barbara. "Philistines was what +I called them, Sophia; and in doing so; I did not mean all of them, +you know." + +"Well, Philistines, then, if that's a better word than Hottentots, +which I doubt," Mrs. Van Buren retorted sharply. + +Aunt Barbara's evident wish to smooth matters irritated her to say more +than she might otherwise have done, and she went on: + +"I know you made exceptions, but if my memory serves me right, your +opinion of Ethie's mother-in-law was not very complimentary to that +lady. A man has no business to take his wife to live with his mother +when he knows how different they are." + +"But I did not know," Richard said; "that is, I had never thought much +of the things which tried Ethie. Mother was always a good mother to me, +and I did not suppose she was so very different from other women." + +"You certainly must be very obtuse, then," Mrs. Van Buren replied: "for, +if all accounts which I hear are true, your mother is not the person to +make a daughter-in-law happy. Neither, it seems, did you do what you +could to please her. You annoyed her terribly with your codger-like +ways, if I may be allowed that term. You made but little effort to +improve, thinking, no doubt, that it was all nonsense and foolishness; +that it was just as well to wear your hat in church, and sit with your +boots on top of the stove, as any other way." + +"I never wore my hat in church!" Richard exclaimed, with more warmth +than he had before evinced. + +"I don't suppose you did do that particular thing, but you were guilty +of other low-bred habits which grated just as harshly as that. You +thought because you were a judge and an M.C., and had the reputation of +possessing brains, that it did not matter how you demeaned yourself; and +there you were mistaken. The manners of a gentleman would sit ten times +more gracefully upon you because you had brains. No one likes a boor, +and no man of your ability has any business to be a clown. Even if you +were not taught it at home, you could learn from observation, and it was +your duty to do so. Instead of that, you took it for granted you were +right because no one had ever suggested that you were wrong, while your +mother had petted you to death. I have not the honor of her +acquaintance, but I must say I consider her a very remarkable person, +even for a Western woman." + +"My mother was born East," Richard suggested, and Mrs. Van Buren +continued: + +"Certainly; but that does not help the matter. It rather makes it worse, +for of all disagreeable people, a Western Yankee is, I think, the most +disagreeable. Such an one never improves, but adheres strictly to the +customs of their native place, no matter how many years have passed +since they lived there, or how great the march of improvement may have +been. In these days of railroads and telegraphs there is no reason why +your mother should not be up to the times. Her neighbors are, it seems, +and I have met quite as cultivated people from beyond the Rocky +Mountains as I have even seen in Boston." + +This was a great admission for Mrs. Van Buren, who verily believed there +was nothing worth her consideration out of Boston unless it were a few +families in the immediate vicinity of Fifth Avenue and Madison Square. +She was bent upon making Richard uncomfortable, and could at the moment +think of no better way of doing it than contrasting his mother's "way" +with those of her neighbors. Occasionally Aunt Barbara put her feeble +oar into the surging tide, hoping to check, even if she could not subdue +the angry waters; but she might as well have kept silent save that +Richard understood and appreciated her efforts to spare him as much as +possible. Mrs. Van Buren was not to be stopped, and at last, when she +had pretty fully set before Richard his own and his mother's +delinquencies, she turned fiercely on her sister, demanding if she had +not said "so and so" with regard to Ethie's home in the West. Thus +straitened, Aunt Barbara replied: + +"Things did strike me a little odd at Ethie's, and I don't well see how +she could be very happy there. Mrs. Markham is queer--the queerest +woman, if I must say it, that I ever saw, though I guess there's a good +many like her up in Vermont, where she was raised, and if the truth was +known, right here in Chicopee, too; and I wouldn't wonder if there were +some queer ones in Boston. The place don't make the difference; it's the +way the folks act." + +This she said in defense of the West generally. There were quite as nice +people there as anywhere, and she believed Mrs. Markham meant to be kind +to Ethie; surely Richard did, only he did not understand her. It was +very wrong to lock her up, and then it was wrong in Ethie to marry him, +feeling as she did. "It was all wrong every way, but the heaviest +punishment for the wrong had fallen on poor Ethie, gone, nobody +knew where." + +It was not in nature for Aunt Barbara to say so much without crying, and +her tears were dropping fast into her motherly lap, where Tabby was now +lying. Mrs. Van Buren was greatly irritated that her sister did not +render her more assistance, and as a failure in that quarter called for +greater exertions on her own part, she returned again to the charge, and +wound up with sweeping denunciations against the whole Markham family. + +"The idea of taking a young girl there, and trying to bend her to your +ways of thinking--to debar her from all the refinements to which she had +been accustomed, and give her for associates an ignorant mother-in-law +and a half-witted brother." + +Richard had borne a great deal from Mrs. Van Buren, and borne it +patiently, too, as something which he deserved. He had seen himself torn +to atoms, until he would never have recognized any one of the dissected +members as parts of the Honorable Judge he once thought himself to be. +He had heard his mother and her "ways" denounced as utterly repugnant to +any person of decency, while James and John, under the head of "other +vulgar appendages to the husband," had had a share in the general +sifting down, and through it all he had kept quiet, with only an +occasional demur or explanation; but when it came to Andy, the great, +honest, true-hearted Andy, he could bear it no longer, and the Bigelow +blood succumbed to the fiery gleam in Richard's eyes as he started to +his feet, exclaiming: + +"Mrs. Van Buren, you must stop, for were you a hundred times a woman, I +would not listen to one word of abuse against my brother Andy. So long +as it was myself and my mother, I did not mind; but every hair of Andy's +head is sacred to us who know him, and I would take his part against the +world, were it only for the sake of Ethie, who loved him so much, and +whom he idolized. He would die for Ethie this very night, if need +be--aye, die for you too, perhaps, if you were suffering and his life +could bring relief. You don't know Andy, or you would know why we held +him as dear as we do the memory of our darling Daisy; and when you taunt +me with my half-witted brother, you hurt me as much as you would to tear +my dead sister from her grave, and expose her dear face to the gaze of +brutal men. No, Mrs. Van Buren, say what you like of me, but never again +sneer at my brother Andy." + +Richard paused, panting for breath, while Mrs. Van Buren looked at him +with entirely new sensations from what she had before experienced. There +was some delicacy of feeling in his nature, after all--something which +recoiled from her unwomanly attack upon his weak-minded brother--and she +respected him at that moment, if she had never done so before. Something +like shame, too, she felt for her cruel taunt, which had both roused and +wounded him, and she would gladly have recalled all she said of Andy if +she could, for she remembered now what Aunt Barbara had told her of his +kindness and the strong attachment there was between the simple man and +Ethie. Mrs. Van Buren could be generous if she tried; and as this seemed +a time for the trial, she did attempt to apologize, saying her zeal for +Ethie had carried her too far; that she hoped Richard would excuse what +she had said of Andy--she had no intention of wounding him on +that point. + +And Richard accepted the apology, but his face did not again assume the +cowed, broken expression it had worn at first. There was a compression +about the mouth, a firm shutting together of the teeth, and a dark look +in the bloodshot eyes, which warned Mrs. Van Buren not to repeat much of +what she had said. It would not now be received as it was at first. +Richard would do much to bring Ethie back--he would submit to any +humiliation, and bear anything for himself, but he would never again +listen quietly while his mother and family were so thoroughly abused. +Mrs. Van Buren felt this intuitively, and knowing that what she said had +made an impression, and would after a time be acted upon, perhaps, she +changed her tactics, and became quite as conciliating as Aunt Barbara +herself, talking and consulting with Richard as to the best course to be +pursued with regard to finding Ethie, and succeeding, in part, in +removing from his face the expression it had put on when Andy was the +subject of her maledictions. + +Richard had a great dread of meeting his uncle, the old colonel, in his +present trouble, and he was not quite sure whether he should go there or +not. At least, he should not to-night; and when the clock struck eleven, +he arose to retire. + +"The room at the head of the stairs. I had a fire made for you in +there," Aunt Barbara said, as she handed him the lamp. + +Richard hesitated a moment, and then asked, "Does anyone occupy Ethie's +old room? Seems to me I would rather go there. It would be somehow bring +her nearer to me." + +So to Ethie's old room he went, Aunt Barbara lamenting that he would +find it so cold and comfortless, but feeling an increased kindliness +toward him for this proof of love for her darling. + +"There's a great deal of good about that man, after all," she said to +her sister, when, after he was gone to his room, they sat together +around their hearth and talked the matter over afresh; and then, as she +took off and carefully smoothed her little round puffs of false hair, +and adjusted her nightcap in its place, she said, timidly, "You were +rather hard on him, Sophia, at times." + +It needed but this for Mrs. Van Buren to explode again and charge her +sister with saying too little rather than too much. "One would think you +blamed Ethie entirely, or at least that you were indifferent to her +happiness," she said, removing her lace barb, and unfastening the heavy +switch bound about her head. "I was surprised at you, Barbara, I must +say. After all your pretended affection for Ethelyn, I did expect you +would be willing to do as much as to speak for her, at least." + +This was too much for poor Aunt Barbara, and without any attempt at +justification, except that her sister in her attack upon Richard had +left her nothing to say, she cried quietly and sorrowfully, as she +folded up her white apron and made other necessary preparations for the +night. That she should be accused of not caring for Ethie, of not +speaking for her, wounded her in a tender point; and long after Mrs. Van +Buren had gone to the front chamber, where she always slept, Aunt +Barbara was on her knees by the rocking chair, praying earnestly for +Ethie, and then still kneeling there, with her face on the cushion, +sobbing softly, "God knows how much I love her. There's nothing of +personal comfort I would not sacrifice to bring her back; but when a man +was feeling as bad as he could, what was the use of making him +feel worse?" + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +WATCHING AND WAITING + +The pink and white blossoms of the apple trees by the pump in Aunt +Barbara's back yard were dropping their snowy petals upon the clean, +bright grass, and the frogs in the meadows were croaking their sad +music, when Richard Markham came again to Chicopee. He had started for +home the morning after his memorable interview with Mrs. Dr. Van Buren, +and to Aunt Barbara had fallen the task of telling her troubles to the +colonel's family, asking that the affair be kept as quiet as possible, +inasmuch as Ethie might soon be found, and matters between her and +Richard be made right. Every day, after the mail came from the West, the +colonel rang at Aunt Barbara's door and asked solemnly, "if there was +any news"--good news, he meant--and Aunt Barbara always shook her head, +while her face grew thinner, and her round, straight figure began to get +a stoop and a look of greater age than the family Bible would warrant. + +Ethelyn had not been heard from, and search as he would, Richard could +find no trace of her whatever. She had effectually covered her tracks, +so that not even a clew to her whereabouts was found. No one had seen +her, or any person like her, and the suspense and anxiety of those +three--Richard, Aunt Barbara, and Andy--who loved her so well, was +getting to be terrible, when there came to Andy a letter--a letter in +the dear, familiar handwriting. A few lines only, and they read: + +"NEW YORK, May--. + +"MY DARLING ANDY: I know you have not forgotten me, and I am +superstitious enough to fancy that you are with me in spirit constantly. +I do not know why I am writing this to you, but something impels me to +do it, and tell you that I am well. I cannot say happy yet, for the +sundering of every earthly relation made too deep a wound for me not to +feel the pain for months and may be for years. I have employment, +though--constant employment--that helps me to bear, and keeps me from +dwelling too much upon the past. + +"Andy, I want you to tell Richard that in thinking over my married life +I see many places where I did very wrong and tried him terribly. I am +sorry for that, and hope he will forgive me. I wish I had never crossed +his path and left so dark a shadow on his life. + +"Tell your mother that I know now I did not try to make her like me. +Perhaps I could not if I had; but I might at least have tried. I am +sorry I troubled her so much. + +"Tell Melinda Jones, and James and John, that I remember all their +kindness, and thank them so much. And Eunice, too. She was good to me, +always. And oh! Andy, please get word somehow to dear Aunt Barbara that +her lost Ethie is well, and so sorry to give her pain, as I know I do. I +would write to her myself, but I am afraid she blames me for going away +and bringing a kind of disgrace upon her and Aunt Van Buren. I cannot +say yet I am sorry for the step I took, and, until I am sorry I cannot +write to Aunt Barbara. But you must tell her for me how much I love her, +and how every night of my life I dream I am back in the dear old home +under the maples, and see upon the hills the swelling buds and leaves of +spring. Tell her not to forget me, and be sure that wherever I am or +whatever may befall me, she will be remembered as the dearest, most +precious memory of my life. Next to her Andy, you come; my darling Andy, +who was always so kind to me when my heart was aching so hard. + +"Good-by, Andy, good-by." + +This was the letter which Andy read with streaming eyes, while around +him, on tiptoe, to look over his and each other's shoulders, stood the +entire family, all anxious and eager to know what the runaway had +written. It was a very conciliatory letter, and it left a sadly pleasant +impression on those who read it, making even the mother wipe her eyes +with the corner of her apron as she washed her supper dishes in the sink +and whispered to herself, "She didn't trouble me so very much more than +I did her. I might have done different, too." + +Richard made no comment whatever, but, like Andy, he conned the letter +over and over until he knew it by heart, especially the part referring +to himself. She had cast a shadow upon his life, but she was very dear +to him for all that, and he would gladly have taken back the substance, +had that been possible. This letter Richard carried to Aunt Barbara, +whom he found sitting in her pleasant porch, with the May moonlight +falling upon her face, and her eyes wearing the look of one who is +constantly expecting something which never comes. And Aunt Barbara was +expecting Ethie. It could not be that a young girl like her would stay +away for long. She might return at any time, and every morning the good +woman said to herself, "She will be here to-day;" every night, "She will +come home to-morrow." The letter, however, did not warrant such a +conclusion There was no talk of coming back, but the postmark, "New +York," told where she was, and that was something gained. They could +surely find her now, Aunt Barbara said, and she and Richard talked long +together about what he was going to do, for he was on his way then to +the great city. + +"Bring her to me at once. It is my privilege to have her first," Aunt +Barbara said, next morning, as she bade Richard good-by, and then began +to watch and wait for tidings which never came. + +Richard could not find Ethelyn, or any trace of her, and after a +protracted search of six long weeks, he went back to his Iowa home, +sick, worn out, and discouraged. Aunt Barbara roused herself for action. +"Men were good for nothing to hunt. They could not find a thing if it +was right before their face and eyes. It took a woman; and she was going +to see what she could do," she said to Mrs. Van Buren, who was up at the +homestead for a few days, and who looked aghast at her sister's +proposition, that she should accompany her, and help her hunt up Ethie. + +"Was Barbara crazy, that she thought of going to New York in this hot +weather, when the smallpox, and the dysentery, and the plague, and mercy +knew what was there? Besides that, how did Barbara intend to manage? +What was she going to do?" + +Barbara hardly knew herself how she should manage, or what she should +do. "Providence would direct," she said, though to be sure she had an +idea. Ethie had written that she had found employment, and what was more +probable than to suppose that the employment was giving music lessons, +for which she was well qualified, or teaching in some gentleman's +family. Taking this as her basis, Aunt Barbara intended to inquire for +every governess and teacher in the city, besides watching every house +where such an appendage would be likely to be found. Still her great +hope was in the street and the Park. She should surely meet Ethie there +some day--at least she would try the effect of her plan; and she went +quietly on with her preparations, while Mrs. Van Buren tried to dissuade +her from a scheme which seemed so foolish and utterly impracticable. + +"Suppose Ethie was a governess, the family most likely would be out of +town at that season; and what good would it do for Aunt Barbara to risk +her life and health in the crowded city?" + +This view of the matter was rather dampening to Aunt Barbara's zeal; but +trusting that Providence would interfere in her behalf, she still +insisted that she should go, and again expressed a wish that Sophia +would go with her. "It would not be so lonesome, and would look better, +too," she said, "while you know more of city ways than I do, and would +not get imposed upon." + +Mrs. Van Buren could go far beyond her sister in abusing Richard, but +when it came to a sacrifice of her own comfort and pleasure, she held +back. Nothing could induce her to go to New York. She preferred the cool +seaside, where she was to join a party of Boston elite. Her dresses were +made, her room engaged, and she must go, she said, urging that Nettie's +health required the change--Nettie, who had given to her husband a +sickly, puny child, which lived just long enough to warrant a grand +funeral, and then was laid to rest under the shadow of the Van Buren +monument, out in pleasant Mount Auburn. + +So Mrs. Van Buren went back to Boston, while Aunt Barbara gave all +needful directions to Betty with regard to the management of the house, +and the garden, and plants, and cellar door, which must be shut nights, +and the spot on the roof which sometimes leaked when it rained, and the +burdocks and dandelions which must be dug up, and the grass which Uncle +Billy Thompson must cut once in two weeks, and the old cat, Tabby, and +the young cat, Jim, who had come to the door in a storm, and was now the +pet of the house, and the canary bird, and the yeast, and look in the +vinegar barrel to see that all was right, and be sure and scald the +milk-pans, and turn them up in the sun for an hour, and keep the doors +locked, and the silver up in the scuttle-hole; and if she heard the rat +which baffled and tormented them so long, get some poison and kill it, +but not on any account let it get in the cistern; and keep the +door-steps clean, and the stoop, and once in a while sweep the low roof +at the back of the house, and not sit up late nights, or sleep very long +in the morning; and inasmuch as there would be so little to do, she +might as well finish up all her new sewing, and make the pile of sheets +and pillow-cases which had been cut out since March. These were Aunt +Barbara's directions, which Betty, nothing appalled, promised to heed, +telling her mistress not to worry an atom, as things should be attended +to, even better than if she were at home to see to them herself. + +Aunt Barbara knew she could trust old Betty, and so, after getting +herself vaccinated in both arms, as a precaution against the smallpox, +and procuring various disinfecting agents, and having underpockets put +in all her dresses, by way of eluding pickpockets, the good woman +started one hot July morning on her mission in search of Ethie. But, +alas, finding Ethie, or anyone, in New York, was like "hunting for a +needle in a hay mow," as Aunt Barbara began to think after she had been +for four weeks or more an inmate of an uptown boarding house, +recommended as first-class, but terrible to Aunt Barbara, from the +contrast it presented to her own clean, roomy home beneath the maple +trees, which came up to her so vividly, with all its delicious coolness +and fragrance, and blossoming shrubs, and newly cut grass, with the dew +sparkling like diamonds upon it. + +Aunt Barbara was terribly homesick from the first, but she would not +give up; so day after day she traversed one street after another, +looking wistfully in every face she met for the one she sought, +questioning children playing in the parks and squares as to whether they +knew any teacher by the name of Markham or Grant, ringing the door-bells +of every pretentious-looking house and putting the same question to the +servants, until the bombazine dress and black Stella shawl, and brown +Neapolitan hat, and old-fashioned lace veil, and large sun umbrella +became pretty well known in various parts of New York, while the owner +thereof grew to be a suspicious character, whom servants watched from +the basement and ladies from the parlor windows, and children shunned on +the sidewalk, while even the police were cautioned with regard to the +strange woman who went up and down day after day, sometimes in stages, +sometimes in cars, but oftener on foot, staring at everyone she met, +especially if they chanced to be young or pretty, and had any children +near them. Once down near Washington Square, as she was hurrying toward +a group of children, in the center of which stood a figure much like +Ethie's, a tall man in the blue uniform accosted her, inquiring into her +reasons for wandering about so constantly. + +Aunt Barbara's honest face, which she turned full toward the officer, +was a sufficient voucher for her with the simple, straightforward +explanation which she made to the effect that her niece had left home +some time ago--run away, in fact--and she was hunting for her here in +New York, where her letter was dated. "But it's wearisome work for an +old woman like me, walking all over New York, as I have," Aunt Barbara +said, and her lip began to quiver as she sat down upon one of the seats +in the square, and looked helplessly up at the policeman. She was not +afraid of him, nor of the five others of the craft who knew her by +sight, and stopped to hear what she had to say. She never dreamed that +they could suspect her of wrong, and they did not when they heard her +story, and saw the truthful, motherly face. Perhaps they could help her, +they said, and they asked the name of the runaway. + +At first Aunt Barbara refused to give it, wishing to spare Ethie this +notoriety; but she finally yielded so far as to say, "She might call +herself either Markham or Grant," and that was all they could get from +her; but after that day the bombazine dress, and black Stella shawl, and +large sun umbrella were safe from the surveillance of the police, save +as each had a kindly care for the owner, and an interest in the object +of her search. + +The light-fingered gentry, however, were not as chary of her. The sweet, +motherly face, and wistful, pleading, timid eyes, did not deter them in +the least. On the contrary, they saw in the bombazine and Stella shawl a +fine field for their operations; and twice, on returning to her boarding +house, the good soul was horrified to find her purse was missing, +notwithstanding that she had kept her hand upon her pocket every +instant, except once, when the man who looked like a minister had kindly +opened the car window for her, and she had gathered up her dress to make +more room for him at her side, and once when she got entangled in a +crowd, and had to hold on to her shawl to keep it on her shoulders. Ten +dollars was the entire sum purloined, so the villains did not make much +out of her, Aunt Barbara reflected with a good deal of complacency; but +when they stole her gold-bowed glasses from her pocket, and adroitly +snatched from her hand the parcel containing the dress she had bought +for Betty at Stewart's, she began to look upon herself as specially +marked by a gang of thieves for one on whom to commit their +depredations; and when at last a fire broke out in the very block where +she was boarding, and she, with others was driven from her bed at +midnight, with her bombazine only half on, and her hoops left behind, +she made up her mind that the fates were against her, and wrote to Betty +that she was coming home, following her letter in the next train so that +both reached Chicopee the same day, the very last day of summer. + +It was sooner than Betty expected her, but the clean, cool house, +peeping out from the dense shadows of the maples, looked like a paradise +to the tired, dusty woman, who rode down the street in the village hack +and surprised Betty sitting in the back door cutting off corn to dry and +talking to Uncle Billy, whose scythe lay on the grass while he drank +from the gourd swimming on top of the water-pail. + +Betty was glad to see her mistress, and lamented that she did not know +of her coming, so as to have a nice hot cup of tea ready, with a +delicate morsel of something. Aunt Barbara was satisfied to be home on +any terms, though her nose did go up a little, and something which +sounded like "P-shew!" dropped from her lips as she entered the dark +sitting room, where the odor was not the best in the world. + +"It's the rat, ma'am, I think," Betty said, opening both blinds and +windows. "I put the pizen for him as you said, and all I could do he +would die in the wall. It ain't as bad as it has been, and I've got some +stuff here to kill it, though I think it smells worse than the rat +himself," and Betty held her nose as she pointed out to her mistress the +saucer of chloride of lime which, at Mrs. Col. Markham's suggestion, she +had put in the sitting room. + +Aside from the rat in the wall, things were mostly as Aunt Barbara could +wish them to be. The vinegar had made beautifully. There was fresh +yeast, brewed the day before, in the jug. The milk-pans were bright and +sweet; the cellar door was fastened; the garden was looking its best; +the silver was all up the scuttle-hole, Betty climbing up and risking +her neck every morning to see if it were safe; the stoop and steps were +scrubbed, the roof was swept, and both the cats, Tabby and Jim, were so +fat that they could scarcely walk as they came up to greet their +mistress. Only two mishaps Betty had to relate. Jim had eaten up the +canary bird, and she had broken the kitchen tongs. She had also failed +to accomplish as much sewing as she had hoped to do, and the pile of +work was not greatly diminished. + +"There is so many steps to take when a body is alone, and with you gone +I was more particular," she said, by way of apology, as she confessed to +the rat, and the canary bird, and the kitchen tongs, and the small +amount of sewing she had done. + +These were all the points wherein she had been remiss, and Aunt Barbara +was content, and even happy, as she laid aside her Stella shawl and +brown Neapolitan, and out in her pleasant dining room sat down to the +hasty meal which Betty improvised, of bread and butter, Dutch cheese, +baked apples, and huckleberry pie, with a cup of delicious tea, such as +Aunt Barbara did not believe the people of New York had ever tasted. +Most certainly those who were fortunate enough to board at first-class +boarding-houses had not; and as she sipped her favorite beverage with +Tabby on her dress and the criminal Tim in her lap, his head +occasionally peering over the table, she felt comforted and rested, and +thankful for her cozy home, albeit it lay like a heavy weight upon her +that her trouble had been for nothing, and no tidings of Ethie had +been obtained. + +She wrote to Richard the next day, of her unsuccessful search, and asked +what they should do next. + +"We can do nothing but wait and hope," Richard wrote in reply, but Aunt +Barbara added to it, "we can pray;" and so all through the autumn, when +the soft, hazy days which Ethie had loved so well kept the lost one +forever in mind, Aunt Barbara waited and hoped, and prayed and watched +for Ethie's coming home, feeling always a sensation of expectancy when +the Western whistle sounded and the Western train went thundering +through the town; and when the hack came up from the depot and did not +stop at her door, she said to herself, "She would walk up, maybe," and +then waiting again she would watch from her window and look far up the +quiet street, where the leaves of crimson and gold were lying upon the +walk. No Ethie was to be seen. Then as the days grew shorter and the +nights fell earlier upon the Chicopee hills, and the bleak winds blew +across the meadow, and the waters of the river looked blue and dark and +cold in the November light, she said: "She will be here sure by +Christmas. She always liked that day best," and her fingers were busy +with the lamb's wool stockings she was knitting for her darling. + +"It won't be much," she said to Betty, "but it will show she is not +forgotten;" and so the stocking grew, and was shaped from a half-worn +pair which Ethelyn used to wear, and on which Aunt Barbara's tears +dropped as she thought of the dear little feet, now wandered so far +away, which the stockings used to cover. + +Christmas came, and Susie Granger sang of Bethlehem in the old stone +church, and other fingers than Ethie's swept the organ keys, and the +Christmas tree was set up, and the presents were hung upon the boughs, +and the names were called, and Aunt Barbara was there, but the +lamb's-wool stockings were at home in the bureau drawer; there was no +one to wear them, no one to take them from the tree, if they had been +put there; Ethie had not come. + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +AFFAIRS AT OLNEY + +Richard could not stay in Camden, where everything reminded him so much +of Ethelyn, and at his mother's earnest solicitations he went back to +Olney, taking with him all the better articles of furniture which Ethie +had herself selected, and which converted the plain farmhouse into quite +a palace, as both Andy and his mother thought. The latter did not object +to them in the least, and was even conscious of a feeling of pride and +satisfaction when her neighbors came in to admire, and some of them to +envy her the handsome surroundings. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren's lesson, though +a very bitter one, was doing Richard good, especially as it was adroitly +followed up by Melinda Jones, who, on the strength of her now being his +sister-elect, took the liberty of saying to him some pretty plain things +with regard to his former intercourse with Ethie. + +James had finally nerved himself to the point of asking Melinda if she +could be happy with such a homespun fellow as himself, and Melinda had +answered that she thought she could, hinting that it was possible for +him to overcome much which was homespun about him. + +"I do not expect you to leave off your heavy boots or your coarse frock +when your work requires you to wear them," she said, stealing her hand +into his in a caressing kind of way; "but a man can be a gentleman in +any dress." + +James promised to do his best, and with Melinda Jones for a teacher, had +no fear of his success. And so, some time in August, when the summer +work at the Jones' was nearly done, Melinda came to the farmhouse and +was duly installed as mistress of the chamber which James and John had +occupied--the latter removing his Sunday clothes, and rifle, and fishing +lines, and tobacco, and the slippers Ethie had given him, into Andy's +room, which he shared with his brother. Mrs. Markham, senior, got on +better with Melinda than she had with Ethelyn; Melinda knew exactly how +to manage her, and, indeed, how to manage the entire household, from +Richard down to Andy, who, though extremely kind and attentive to her, +never loved her as he did Ethelyn. + +"She was a nice, good girl," he said, "but couldn't hold a candle to +Ethie. She was too dark complected, and had altogether too thumpin' feet +and ankles, besides wearin' wrinkly stockings." + +That was Andy's criticism, confided to his brother John, around whose +grave mouth there was a faint glimmer of a smile, as he gave a hitch to +his suspender and replied, "I guess her stockin's do wrinkle some." + +A few of Melinda's ways Mrs. Markham designated as high-flown, but one +by one her prejudices gave way as Melinda gained upon her step by step, +until at last Ethelyn would hardly have recognized the well-ordered +household, so different from what she had known it. + +"The boys" no longer came to the table in their shirt-sleeves, for +Melinda always had their coats in sight, just where it was handy to put +them on, and the trousers were slipped down over the boots while the +boys ate, and the soft brown Markham hair always looked smooth and +shining, and Mrs. Markham tidied herself a little before coming to the +table, no matter how heavy her work, and never but once was she guilty +of sitting down to her dinner in her pasteboard sun-bonnet, giving as an +excuse that her "hair was at sixes and sevens." She remembered seeing +her mother do this fifty years before, and she had clung to the habit as +one which must be right because they used to do so in Vermont. +Gradually, too, there came to be napkins for tea, and James' Christmas +present to his wife was a set of silver forks, while John contributed a +dozen individual salts, and Andy bought a silver bell, to call he did +not know whom, only it looked pretty on the table, and he wanted it +there every meal, ringing it himself sometimes when anything was needed, +and himself answering the call. On the whole, the Markhams were getting +to be "dreadfully stuck up," Eunice Plympton's mother said, while Eunice +doubted if she should like living there now as well as in the days of +Ethelyn. She had been a born lady, and Eunice conceded everything to +her; but, "to see the airs that Melinda Jones put on" was a little too +much for Eunice's democratic blood, and she and her mother made many +invidious remarks concerning "Mrs. Jim Markham," who wore such heavy +silk to church, and sported such handsome furs. One hundred and fifty +dollars the cape alone had cost, it was rumored, and when, to this +Richard added a dark, rich muff to match, others than Eunice looked +enviously at Mrs. James, who to all intents and purposes, was the same +frank, outspoken person that she was when she wore a plain scarf around +her neck, and rode to church in her father's lumber wagon instead of the +handsome turn-out James had bought since his marriage. Nothing could +spoil Melinda, and though she became quite the fashion in Olney, and was +frequently invited to Camden to meet the elite of the town, she was up +just as early on Monday mornings as when she lived at home, and her +young, strong arms saved Mrs. Markham more work than Eunice's had done. +She would not dip candles, she said, nor burn them, either, except as a +matter of convenience to carry around the house; and so the tallows gave +way to kerosene, and as Melinda liked a great deal of light, the house +was sometimes illuminated so brilliantly that poor Mrs. Markham had +either to shade her eyes with her hands, or turn her back to the lamp. +She never thought of opposing Melinda; that would have done no good; and +she succumbed with the rest to the will which was ruling them so +effectually and so well. + +Some very plain talks Melinda had with Richard with regard to Ethelyn; +and Richard, when he saw how anxious James was to please his wife, even +in little things which he had once thought of no consequence, regretted +so much that his own course had not been different with Ethelyn. "Poor, +dear Ethie," he called her to himself, as he sat alone at night in the +room where she used to be. At first he had freely talked of her with his +family. That was when, like Aunt Barbara, they were expecting her back, +or rather expecting constantly to hear from her through Aunt Barbara. +She would go to Chicopee first, they felt assured, and then Aunt Barbara +would write, and Richard would start at once. How many castles he built +to that second bringing her home, where Melinda made everything so +pleasant, and where she could be happy for a little time, when they +would go where she liked--it did not matter where. Richard was willing +for anything, only he did want her to stay a little time at the +farmhouse, just to see how they had improved, and to learn that his +mother could be kind if she tried. She meant to be so if Ethelyn ever +came back, for she had said as much to him on the receipt of Ethie's +message, sent in Andy's letter, and her tears had fallen fast as she +confessed to not always having felt or acted right toward the young +girl. With Melinda the ruling spirit they would have made it very +pleasant for Ethelyn, and they waited for her so anxiously all through +the autumnal days till early winter snow covered the prairies, and the +frost was on the window panes, and the wind howled dismally past the +door, just as it did one year ago, when Ethelyn went away. But, alas no +Ethie came, or tidings of her either, and Richard ceased to speak of her +at last, and his face wore so sad a look whenever she was mentioned that +the family stopped talking of her; or, if they spoke her name, it was as +they spoke of Daisy, or of one that was dead. + +For a time Richard kept up a correspondence with Aunt Barbara; but that, +too, gradually ceased, and as his uncle, the old colonel, died in the +spring, and the widow went to her friends in Philadelphia, he seemed to +be cut off from any connections with Chicopee, and but for the sad, +harassing memory of what had been, he was to all intents and purposes +the same grave, silent bachelor as of yore, following the bent of his +own inclinations, coming and going as he liked, sought after by those +who wished for an honest man to transact their business, and growing +gradually more and more popular with the people of his own and the +adjoining counties. + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE GOVERNOR + +They were to elect a new one in Iowa, and there were rumors afloat that +Richard Markham would be the man chosen by his party. There had been +similar rumors once before, but Mrs. Markham had regarded them as +mythical, never dreaming that such an honor could be in store for her +boy. Now, however, matters began to look a little serious. Crowds of men +came frequently to the farmhouse and were closeted with Richard. Tim +Jones rode up and down the country, electioneering for "Dick." Hal +Clifford, in Camden, contributed his influence, though he belonged to +the other party. Others, too, of Harry's way of thinking, cast aside +political differences and "went in," as they said, for the best man--one +whom they knew to be honest and upright, like Judge Markham. Each in +their own way--James and John, and Andy and Melinda--worked for Richard, +who was frequently absent from home for several days, sometimes taking +the stump himself, but oftener remaining quiet while others presented +his cause. Search as they might, his opponents could find nothing +against him, except that sad affair with his wife, who, one paper said, +"had been put out of the way when she became troublesome," hinting at +every possible atrocity on the husband's part, and dilating most +pathetically upon the injured, innocent, and beautiful young wife. Then +with a face as pale as ashes, Richard made his "great speech" in Camden +court-house, asking that the whole matter be dropped at once, and saying +that he would far rather live a life of obloquy than have the name, more +dear to him than the names of our loved dead, bandied about from lip to +lip and made the subject for newspaper paragraphs. They knew Richard in +Camden, and they knew Ethelyn, too, liking both so well, that the result +of that speech was to increase Richard's popularity tenfold, and to +carry in his favor the entire town. + +The day of election was a most exciting one, especially in Olney, where +Richard had lived from boyhood. It was something for a little town like +this to furnish the governor, the Olneyites thought, and though, for +party's sake, there were some opponents, the majority went for Richard, +and Tim Jones showed his zeal by drinking with so many that at night he +stopped at the farmhouse, insisting that he had reached home, and should +stay there, "for all of Melind," and hurrahing so loud for +"Richud--Mark-um--Square," that he woke up the little blue-eyed boy +which for six weeks had been the pride and pet and darling of the +household. + +Andy's tactics were different. He had voted in the morning, and prayed +the rest of the day, that if it were right, "old Dick might lick the +whole of 'em," adding the petition that "he need not be stuck up if he +was governor," and that Ethie might come back to share his greatness. +Others than Andy were thinking of Ethelyn that day, for not the faintest +echo of a huzza reached Richard's ears that did not bring with it +regretful thoughts of her. And when at last success was certain, and, +flushed with triumph, he stood receiving the congratulations of his +friends, and the Olney bell was ringing in honor of the new governor, +and bonfires were lighted in the streets, the same little boys who had +screamed themselves hoarse for the other candidates, stealing barrels +and dry-goods boxes to feed the flames with quite as much alacrity as +their opponents, there was not a throb of his heart which did not go out +after the lost one, with a yearning desire to bring her back, and, by +giving her the highest position in the State, atone in part for all +which had been wrong. But Ethie was very, very far away--further than he +dreamed--and strain ear and eye as she might, she could not see the +lurid blaze which lit up the prairie till the tall grass grew red in +the ruddy glow, or hear the deafening shouts which rent the sky for the +new Governor Markham, elected by an overwhelming majority. Oh, how +lonely Richard felt even in the first moments of his success! And how he +longed to get away from all the noise and din which greeted him at every +step, and be alone again, as since Ethie went away he had chosen to be +so much of his time. Melinda guessed at his feelings in part, and when +he came home at last, looking so pale and tired, she pitied him, and +showed her pity by letting him alone; and when supper was ready, sending +his tea to his room, whither he had gone as soon as his mother had +unwound her arms from his neck, and told him how glad she was. + +These were also days of triumph for Melinda, for it was soon known that +she was to be the lady of the governor's mansion, and the knowledge gave +her a fresh accession of dignity among her friends. It was human that +Melinda should feel her good fortune a little, and perhaps she did. Andy +thought so, and prayed silently against the pomps and vanities of the +world, especially after her new purple silk was sent home, with the +handsome velvet cloak and crimson morning gown. These had been made in +Camden, a thing which gave mortal offense to Miss Henry, the Olney +dressmaker, who wondered "what Melinda Jones was that she should put on +such airs, and try to imitate Mrs. Richard Markham." They had expected +such things from Ethelyn, and thought it perfectly right. She was born +to it, they said; but for Melinda, whom all remembered as wearing a red +woolen gown when a little girl, "for her to set up so steep was another +matter." But when Melinda ordered a blue merino, and a flannel wrapper, +and a blue silk, and a white cloak for baby, made at Miss Henry's, and +told that functionary just how her purple was trimmed, and even offered +to show it to her, the lady changed her mind, and quoted "Mrs. James +Markham's" wardrobe for months afterward. + +Richard, and James, and Melinda, and baby, and Eunice Plympton as baby's +nurse, all went to Des Moines, and left the house so lonely that Andy +lay flat upon the floor and cried, and his mother's face wore the look +of one who had just returned from burying their dead. It was something, +however, to be the mother and brother of a governor, and a comfort to +get letters from the absent ones, to hear of Richard's immense +popularity, and the very graceful manner in which Melinda discharged her +duties. But to see their names in print, to find something about +Governor Markham in almost every paper--that was best of all, and Andy +spent half his time in cutting out and saving every little scrap +pertaining to the "governor's family," and what they did at Des Moines. +Andy was laid up with rheumatism toward spring; but Tim Jones used to +bring him the papers, rolling his quid of tobacco rapidly from side to +side as he pointed to the paragraphs so interesting to both. Tim hardly +knew whether himself, or Richard, or Melinda, was the governor. On the +whole, he gave the preference to "Melind," after the governor's levee, +at which she had appeared in "royal purple, with ostrich feathers in her +hair," and was described in the Camden _Leader_ as the "elegant and +accomplished Mrs. James Markham, who had received the guests with so +much dignity and grace." + +"Ain't Melind a brick? and only to think how she used to milk the cows, +and I once chased her with a garter snake," Tim said, reading the +article aloud to Andy, who, while assenting that she was a brick, and +according all due credit to her for what she was, and what she did, +never for a moment forgot Ethelyn. + +She would have done so much better, and looked so much neater, +especially her shoes! Andy could not quite forgive Melinda's big feet +and ankles, especially as his contempt for such appendages was +constantly kept in mind by the sight of the little half-worn slippers +which Ethie had left in her closet when she moved to Camden, and which, +now that she was gone, he kept as something almost as sacred as Daisy's +hair, admiring the dainty rosettes and small high heels more than he +admired the whole of Melinda's wardrobe when spread upon the bed, and +tables, and chairs, preparatory to packing it for Des Moines. Richard, +too, remembered Ethelyn, and never did Melinda stand at his side in any +gay saloon that he did not see in her place a brown-eyed, brown-haired +woman who would have moved a very queen among the people. Ethelyn was +never forgotten, whether in the capitol, or the street, or at home, or +awake, or asleep. Ethie's face and Ethie's form were everywhere, and if +earnest, longing thoughts could have availed to bring her back, she +would have come, whether across the rolling sea, or afar from the +trackless desert. But they could not reach her, Ethie did not come, and +the term of Richard's governorship glided away, and he declined a +re-election, and went back to Olney, looking ten years older than when +he left it, with an habitual expression of sadness on his face, which +even strangers noticed, wondering what was the heart trouble which was +aging him so fast, and turning his brown hair gray. + +For a time the stillness and quiet of Olney were very acceptable to him, +and then he began to long for more excitement--something to divert his +mind from the harrowing fear, daily growing more and more certain, that +Ethie would never come back. It was four years since she went away, and +nothing had been heard from her since the letter sent to Andy from New +York. "Dead," he said to himself many a time, and but for the dread of +the hereafter, he, too, would gladly have lain down in the graveyard +where Daisy was sleeping so quietly. With Andy it was different. Ethie +was not dead--he knew she was not--and some time she would surely come +back, There was comfort in Andy's strong assurance, and Richard always +felt better after a talk with his hopeful brother. Perhaps she would +come back, and if so he must have a place worthy of her, he said, one +day, to Melinda, who seized the opportunity to unfold a plan she had +long been cogitating. During the two years spent in Des Moines, James +had devoted himself to the study of law, preferring it to his farming, +and now he was looking out for a good locality where to settle and +practice his profession. + +"Let's go together somewhere and build a house," Melinda said. "You know +Ethie's taste. You can fashion it as you think she would like it, and +meantime we will live with you and see to you a little. You need some +looking after," and Melinda laid her hand half pityingly upon the bowed +head of her brother-in-law, who, but for her strong, upholding +influence, and Andy's cheering faith, would have sunk ere this into +hopeless despondency. + +Melinda was a fine specimen of true womanhood. She had met many highly +cultivated people at Des Moines and other towns, where, as the +governor's sister-in-law, she had spent more or less of the last two +years, and as nothing ever escaped her notice, she had improved +wonderfully, until even Mrs. Van Buren, of Boston, would have been proud +of her acquaintance. She had known sorrow, too; for in the cemetery at +Des Moines she had left her little blue-eyed baby boy when only six +months old, and her mother's heart had ached to its very core, until +there came another child, a little girl, this time, whom they had +christened "Ethelyn Grant," and who, on this account, was quite as dear +to Richard as to either of its parents. Richard was happier with that +little brown-haired girl than with anyone else, and when Melinda +suggested they should go together somewhere, he assented readily, +mentioning Davenport as a place where Ethelyn had many times said she +would like to live. Now, as ever, Melinda's was the active, ruling +voice, and almost before Richard knew it, he was in Davenport and +bargaining for a vacant lot which overlooked the river and much of the +country beyond. Davenport suited them all, and by September, Melinda, +who had spent the summer with her mother, was located at a hotel and +making herself very useful to Richard with her suggestions with regard +to the palatial mansion he was building. + +There was nothing in Davenport like the "governor's house," and the +people watched it curiously as it went rapidly up. There was a suite of +rooms which they called Ethelyn's, and to the arrangement and adorning +of these Richard gave his whole attention, sparing nothing which could +make them beautiful and attractive, and lavishing so much expense upon +them that strangers came to inspect and comment upon them, wondering why +he took so much pains, and guessing, as people will, that he was +contemplating a second marriage as soon as a divorce could be obtained +from his runaway wife. + +The house was finished at last, and Richard took possession, installing +Melinda as housekeeper, and feeling how happy he should be if only Ethie +were there. Somehow he expected her now. Andy's prayers would certainly +be answered even if his own were not, for he, too, had begun to pray, +feeling, at times, that God was slow to hear, as weeks and weeks went by +and still Ethie did not come. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and +the weary waiting told upon his bodily health, which began to fail so +rapidly that people said "Governor Markham was going into a decline," +and the physicians urged a change of air, and Mr. Townsend, who came in +May for a day at Davenport, recommended him strongly to try what Clifton +Springs, in Western New York, could do for him--the Clifton, whose +healing waters and wonderful power to cure were famed from the shores of +the Atlantic to the Californian hills. + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +AFTER YEARS OF WAITING + +The weather in Chicopee that spring was as capricious as the smiles of +the most spoiled coquette could ever be. The first days of April were +warm, and balmy, and placid, without a cloud upon the sky or a token of +storm in the air. The crocuses and daffodils showed their heads in the +little borders by Aunt Barbara's door, and Uncle Billy Thompson sowed +the good woman a bed of lettuce, and peas, and onions, which came up +apace, and were the envy of the neighbors. Taking advantage of the +warmth and the sunshine, and Uncle Billy's being there to whip her +carpets, Aunt Barbara even began her house cleaning, commencing at the +chambers first--the rooms which since the last "reign of terror," had +only been used when a clergyman spent Sunday there, and when Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren was up for a few days from Boston, with Nettie and the new +girl baby, which, like Melinda's, bore the name of Ethelyn. Still they +must be renovated, and cleaned, and scrubbed, lest some luckless moth +were hiding there, or some fly-speck perchance had fallen upon the +glossy paint. Aunt Barbara was not an untidy house-cleaner--one who +tosses the whole house into chaos, and simultaneous with the china from +the closet, brings up a basket of bottles from the cellar to be washed +and rinsed. She took one room at a time, settling as she went along, so +that her house never was in that state of dire confusion which so many +houses present every fall and spring. Her house was not hard to clean, +and the chambers were soon done, except Ethie's own room, where Aunt +Barbara lingered longest, turning the pretty ingrain carpet the +brightest side up, rubbing the furniture with polish, putting a bit of +paint upon the window sills where it was getting worn, and once +revolving the propriety of hanging new paper upon the wall. But that, +she reasoned, would be needless expense. Since the night Richard spent +there, five years ago, no one had slept there, and no one should sleep +there, either, till Ethie came back again. + +"Till Ethie comes again." Aunt Barbara rarely said that now, for with +each fleeting year the chance for Ethie's coming grew less and less, +until now she seldom spoke of it to Betty, the only person to whom she +ever talked of Ethie. Even with her she was usually very reticent, +unless something brought the wanderer to mind more vividly than usual. +Cleaning her room was such an occasion, and sitting down upon the floor, +while she darned a hole in the carpet which the turning had brought to +view, Aunt Barbara spoke of her darling, and the time when, a little +toddling thing of two years old, she first came to the homestead, and +was laid in that very room, and "on that very pillow," Aunt Barbara +said, seeing again the round hollow left by the little brown head when +the child awoke and stretched its fat arms toward her. + +"Julia, her mother, died in that bed," Aunt Barbara went on, "and Ethie +always slept there after that. Well put on the sheets marked with her +name, Betty, and the ruffled pillow-cases. I want it to seem as if she +were here," and Aunt Barbara's chin quivered, and her eyes grew moist, +as her fat, creasy hands smoothed and patted the plump pillows, and +tucked in the white spread, and picked up a feather, and moved a chair, +and shut the blinds, and dropped the curtains, and then she went softly +out and shut the door behind her. + +Two weeks from that day, the soft, bland air was full of sleet, and +snow, and rain, which beat down the poor daffies on the borders, and +pelted the onions, and lettuce, and peas which Uncle Billy had planted, +and dashed against the closed windows of Ethie's room, and came in under +the door of the kitchen, and through the bit of leaky roof in the dining +room, while the heavy northeaster which swept over the Chicopee hills +screamed fiercely at Betty peering curiously out to see if it was going +to be any kind of drying for the clothes she had put out early in the +day, and then, as if bent on a mischievous frolic took from the line and +carried far down the street, Aunt Barbara's short night-gown with the +patch upon the sleeve. On the whole it was a bleak, raw, stormy day, and +when the night shut down, the snow lay several inches deep upon the +half-frozen ground, making the walking execrable, and giving to the +whole village that dirty, comfortless appearance which a storm in April +always does. It was pleasant, though, in Aunt Barbara's sitting room. It +was always pleasant there, and it seemed doubly so to-night from the +contrast presented to the world without by the white-washed ceiling, the +newly whipped carpet, the clean, white curtains, and the fire blazing on +the hearth, where two huge red apples were roasting. This was a favorite +custom of Aunt Barbara's, roasting apples in the evening. She used to do +it when Ethie was at home, for Ethie enjoyed it quite as much as she +did, and when the red cheeks burst, and the white frothy pulp came +oozing out, she used, as a little girl, to clap her hands and cry, "The +apples begin to bleed, auntie! the apples begin to bleed!" + +Aunt Barbara never roasted them now that she did not remember her +darling, and many times she put one down for Ethie, feeing that the +"make believe" was better than nothing at all. There was one for +to-night, and Aunt Barbara sat watching it as it simmered and sputtered, +and finally burst with the heat, "bleeding," just as her heart was +bleeding for the runaway whose feet had wandered so long. It was after +nine, and Betty had gone to bed, so that Aunt Barbara was there alone, +with the big Bible in her lap. She had been reading the parable of the +Prodigal, and though she would not liken Ethie to him, she sighed +softly, "If she would only come, we would kill the fatted calf." Then, +thoughtfully, she turned the leaves of the Good Book one by one, till +she found the "Births," and read in a low whisper, "Ethelyn Adelaide, +Born," and so forth. Then her eye moved on to where the marriage of +Ethelyn Adelaide with Richard Markham, of Iowa, had been recorded; and +then she turned to the last of "Deaths," wondering if, unseen by her, +Ethie's name had been added to the list. The last name visible to mortal +eye was that of Julia, wife of William Grant, who had died at the age of +twenty-five. + +"Just as old as Ethie is, if living," Aunt Barbara whispered, and the +tears which blotted the name of Julia Grant were given to Ethie rather +than the young half-sister who had been so much of a stranger. + +Suddenly, as Aunt Barbara sat there, with her Bible in her lap, there +was heard the distant rumbling of the New York express, as it came +rolling across the plains from West Chicopee. Then as the roar became +more muffled as it moved under the hill, a shrill whistle echoed on the +night air, and half the people of Chicopee who were awake said to each +other, "The train is stopping. Somebody has come from New York." It was +not often that the New York express stopped at Chicopee, and when it +did, it was made a matter of comment. To-night, however, it was too +dark, and stormy, and late for anyone to see who had come; and guessing +it was some of the Lewises, who now lived in Col. Markham's old house, +the people, one by one, went to their beds, until nearly every light in +Chicopee was extinguished save the one shining out into the darkness +from the room where Aunt Barbara sat, with thoughts of Ethie in her +heart. And up the steep hill, from the station, through the snow, a +girlish figure toiled--the white, thin face looking wistfully down the +maple-lined street when the corner by the common was turned, and the +pallid lips whispering softly, "I wonder if she will know me?" + +There were flecks of snow upon the face and on the smooth brown hair and +travel-soiled dress; clogs of snow, too, upon the tired feet--the little +feet Andy had admired so much; but the traveler kept on bravely, till +the friendly light shone out beneath the maples, and then she paused, +and leaning for a moment against the fence, sobbed aloud, but not sadly +or bitterly. She was too near home for that--too near the darling Aunt +Barbara, who did not hear gate or door unclose, or the step in the dark +hall. But when the knob of the sitting room door moved, she heard it, +and, without turning her head, called out, "What is it, Betty? I thought +you in bed an hour ago." + +The supposed Betty did not reply, but stood a brief instant taking in +every feature in the room, from the two apples roasting on the hearth to +the little woman sitting with her fingers on the page where possibly +Ethie's death ought to be recorded. Aunt Barbara was waiting for Betty +to answer, and she turned her head at last, just as a low, rapid step +glided across the floor, and a voice, which thrilled every vain, first +with a sudden fear, and then with a joy unspeakable, said, "Aunt +Barbara, it's I. It's Ethie, come back to you again. Is she +welcome here?" + +Was she welcome? Answer, the low cry, and gasping sob, and outstretched +arms, which held the wanderer in so loving an embrace, while a rain of +tears fell upon the dear head from which the bonnet had fallen back as +Ethelyn sank upon her knees before Aunt Barbara. Neither could talk much +for a few moments. Certainly not Aunt Barbara, who sat bewildered and +stupefied while Ethelyn, more composed, removed her hat, and cloak, and +overshoes, and shook out the folds of her damp dress; and then drawing a +little covered stool to Aunt Barbara's side, sat down upon it, and +leaning her elbows on Aunt Barbara's lap, looked up in her face, with +the old, mischievous, winning smile, and said, "Auntie, have you +forgiven your Ethie for running away?" + +Then it began to seem real again--began to seem as if the last six years +were blotted out, and things restored to what they were when Ethie was +wont to sit at her aunt's feet as she was sitting now. There was this +difference, however; the bright, round, rosy face, which used to look so +flushed, and eager, and radiant, and assured, was changed, and the one +confronting Aunt Barbara now was pale, and thin, and worn, and there +were lines across the brow, and the eyes were heavy and tired, and a +little uncertain and anxious in their expression as they scanned the +sweet old face above them. Aunt Barbara saw it all, and this, if nothing +else, would have brought entire pardon even had she been inclined to +withhold it, which she was not. Ethie was back again, and that was +enough for her. She would not chide or blame her ever so little, and her +warm, loving hands took the thin white face and held it while she kissed +the parted lips, the blue-veined forehead, and the hollow cheeks, +whispering: "My own darling. I am so glad to have you back. I have been +so sad without you, and mourned for you so much, fearing you were dead. +Where has my darling been that none of us could find you?" + +"Did you hunt, Aunt Barbara? Did you really hunt for me?" + +And something of Ethie's old self leaped into her eyes and flushed into +her cheeks as she asked the question. + +"Yes, darling. All the spring and all the summer long, and on into the +fall, and then I gave it up." + +"Were you alone, auntie? That is, did nobody help you hunt?" was +Ethelyn's next query; and Richard would have read much hope for him in +the eagerness of the eyes, which waited for Aunt Barbara's answer, and +which dropped so shyly upon the carpet when Aunt Barbara said, "Alone, +child? No; he did all he could--Richard did--but we could get no clew." + +Ethelyn could not tell her story until she had been made easy on several +important points, and smoothing the folds of Aunt Barbara's dress, and +still looking beseechingly into her face, she said, "and Richard +hunted, too. Was he sorry, auntie? Did he care because I went away?" + +"Care? Of course he did. It almost broke his heart, and wasted him to a +skeleton. You did wrong, Ethie, to go and stay so long. Richard did not +deserve it." + +It was the first word of censure Aunt Barbara had uttered, and Ethelyn +felt it keenly, as was evinced by her quivering lip and trembling voice, +as she said: "Don't auntie, don't you scold me, please. I can bear it +better from anyone else. I want you to stand by me. I know I was hasty +and did very wrong. I've said so a thousand times; but I was so unhappy +and wretched at first, and at the last he made me so angry with his +unjust accusations." + +"Yes; he told me all, and showed me the letter you left. I know the +whole," Aunt Barbara said, while Ethelyn continued: + +"Where is he now? How long since you heard from him?" + +"It is two years or more. He wrote the last letter. I'm a bad +correspondent, you know, and as I had no good news to write, I did not +think it worth while to bother him. I don't know where he is since he +quit being governor." + +There was a sudden lifting of Ethie's head, a quick arching of her +eyebrows, which told that the governor part was news to her. Then she +asked, quietly, "Has he been governor?" + +"Yes, Governor of Iowa; and James' wife lived with him. She was Melinda +Jones." + +"Yes, yes," and Ethie's foot beat the carpet thoughtfully, while her +eyes were cast-down, and the great tears gathered slowly in the +long-fringed lids, then they fell in perfect showers, and laying her +head in Aunt Barbara's lap she sobbed piteously. + +Perhaps she was thinking of all she had thrown away, and weeping that +another had taken the post she would have been so proud to fill. Aunt +Barbara did not know, and she kept smoothing the bowed head until it was +lifted up again, and the tears were dried in Ethie's eyes, where there +was not the same hopeful expression there had been at first when she +heard of Richard's hunting for her. Some doubt or fear had crossed her +mind, and her hands were folded together in a hopeless kind of way as, +at Aunt Barbara's urgent request, she began the story of her wanderings. + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +ETHIE'S STORY + +"You say you read my letter, auntie; and if you did, you know nearly all +that made me go away. I do not remember now just what was in it, but I +know it was very concise, and plain, and literal; for I was angry when I +wrote it, and would not spare Richard a bit. But, oh! I had been so +tired and so wretched. You can't guess half how wretched I was at the +farmhouse first, where they were all so different, and where one of the +greatest terrors was lest I should get used to it and so be more like +them. I mean Richard's mother, auntie. I liked the others--they were +kind and good; especially Andy. Oh, Andy! dear old Andy! I have thought +of him so much during the last five years, and bad as I am I have prayed +every night that he would not forget me. + +"Aunt Barbara, I did not love Richard, and that was my great mistake. I +ought not to have married him, but I was so sore and unhappy then that +any change was a relief. I do not see now how I ever could have loved +Frank; but I did, or thought I did, and was constantly contrasting +Richard with him and making myself more miserable. If I had loved +Richard things would have been so much easier to bear. I was beginning +to love him, and life was so much pleasanter, when he got so angry about +Frank and charged me with those dreadful things, driving me frantic and +making me feel as if I hated him and could do much to worry him. Don't +look so shocked. I know how wicked it was, and sometimes I fear God +never can forgive me; but I did not think of him then. I forgot +everything but myself and my trouble, and so I went away, going first to +----, so as to mislead Richard, and then turning straight back to +New York. + +"Do you remember Abby Jackson, who was at school in Boston, and who once +spent a week with me here? She married, and lives in New York, and +believes in women's rights and wears the Bloomer dress. She would take +my part, I said, and I went at once to her house and told her all I had +done, and asked if I could stay until I found employment. Aunt Barbara, +this is a queer world, and there are queer people in it. I thought I was +sure of Abby, she used to protest so strongly against the tyranny of +men, and say she should like nothing better than protecting females who +were asserting their own rights. I was asserting mine, and I went to her +for sympathy. She was glad to see me at first, and petted and fondled me +just as she used to do at school. She was five years older than I, and +so I looked up to her. But when I told my story her manner changed, and +it really seemed as if she looked upon me as a suspicious person who had +done something terrible. She advocated women's rights as strongly as +ever, but could not advise me to continue in my present course. It would +bring odium upon me, sure. A woman separated from her husband was always +pointed at, no matter what cause she had for the separation. It was all +wrong, she urged, that public opinion should be thus, and ere long she +trusted there would be a change. Till then I would do well to return to +Iowa and make it up with Richard. That was what she said, and it made me +very angry, so that I was resolved to leave her the next day; but I was +sick in the morning, and sick some weeks following, so that I could not +leave her house. + +"She nursed me carefully and tried to be kind, but I could see that my +being there was a great annoyance to her. Her husband had an aunt--a +rich, eccentric old lady--who came sometimes to see me, and seemed +interested in me. Forgive me, auntie, if it was wrong. I dropped the +name of Markham and took yours, asking Abby to call me simply Miss +Bigelow to her friends. Her husband knew my real name, but to all others +I was Adelaide Bigelow. Old Mrs. Plum did not know I was married, for +Abby was as anxious to keep the secret as I was myself. She was going +abroad, the rich aunt, and being a nervous invalid, she wanted some +young, handy person as traveling companion. So when I was better Abby +asked if I was still resolved not to go home, and on learning that I +was, she spoke of Mrs. Plum, and asked if I would go. I caught at it +eagerly, and in May I was sailing over the sea to France. I wrote a few +lines to Andy before I went, and I wanted to write to you, but I fancied +you must be vexed and mortified, and I would not trouble you. + +"Mrs. Plum was very nervous, and capricious, and exacting, and my life +with her was not altogether an easy one. At first, before we were +accustomed to each other, it was terrible. I suppose I have a high +temper. She thought so, and yet she could not do without me, for she was +lame in her arms, and unable to help herself readily; besides that, I +spoke the French language well enough to make myself understood, and so +was necessary to her. There were many excellent traits of character +about her, and after a time I liked her very much, while she seemed to +think of me as a willful but rather 'nicish' kind of a daughter. She +took me everywhere, even into Russia and Palestine; but the last two +years of our stay abroad were spent in Southern France, where the days +were one long bright summer dream, and I should have been so happy if +the past had been forgotten." + +"And did you hear nothing from us in all that time?" Aunt Barbara asked, +and Ethelyn replied: "Nothing from Richard, no; and nothing direct from +you. I requested as a favor that Mrs. Plum should order the Boston +_Traveller_ and Springfield _Republican_ to be sent to her address in +Paris, which we made our headquarters. I knew you took both these +papers, and if anything happened to you, it would appear in their +columns. I saw the death of Col. Markham, and after that I used to grow +so faint and cold, for fear I might find yours. I came across a New York +paper, too, and saw that Aunt Van Buren had arrived at the Fifth Avenue +Hotel, knowing then that she was just as gay as ever. Richard's name I +never saw; neither did Abby know anything about him.. I called at her +house yesterday. She has seven children now--five born since I went +away--and her women's rights have given place to theories with regard to +soothing syrups and baby-jumpers, and the best means of keeping one +child quiet while she dresses the other. Mrs. Plum died six weeks +ago--died in Paris; and, auntie, I was kind to her in her last sickness, +bearing everything, and finding my reward in her deep gratitude, +expressed not only in words, but in a most tangible form. She made her +will, and left me ten thousand dollars. So you see I am not poor nor +dependent. I told her my story, too--told her the whole as it was; and +she made me promise to come back, to you at least, if not to Richard. +Going to him would depend upon whether he wanted me, I said. Do you +think he has forgotten me?" + +Again the eager, anxious expression crept into Ethie's eyes, which grew +very soft, and even dewy, as Aunt Barbara replied, "Forgotten you? No. I +never saw a man feel as he did when he first came here, and Sophia +talked to him so, as he sat there in that very willow chair." + +Involuntarily Ethie's hand rested itself on the chair where Richard had +sat, and Ethie's face crimsoned where Aunt Barbara asked: + +"Do you love Richard now?" + +"I cannot tell. I only know that I have dreamed of him so many, many +times, and thought it would be such perfect rest to put my tired head in +his lap, as I never did put it. When I was on the ocean, coming home, +there was a fearful storm, and I prayed so earnestly to live till I +could hear him say that he forgave me for all the trouble I have caused +him. I might not love him if I were to see him again just as he used to +be. Sometimes I think I should not, but I would try. Write to him, +auntie, please, and tell him I am here, but nothing more. Don't say I +want to see him, or that I am changed from the willful, high-tempered +Ethie who made him so unhappy, for perhaps I am not." + +A while then they talked of Aunt Van Buren, and Frank, and Nettie, and +Susie Granger, who was married to a missionary and gone to heathen +lands; and the clock was striking one before Aunt Barbara lighted her +darling up to the old room, and kissing her good-night, went back to +weep glad tears of joy in the rocking-chair by the hearth, and to thank +her Heavenly Father for sending home her long lost Ethelyn. + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +MRS. DR. VAN BUREN + +She was always tossing up just when she was not wanted, Ethie used to +say in the olden days, when she saw the great lady alighting at the gate +in time to interfere with and spoil some favorite project arranged for +the day, and she certainly felt it, if she did not say it, when, on the +morning following her arrival in Chicopee she heard Betty exclaim, "If +there ain't Miss Van Buren! I wonder what sent her here!" + +Ethie wondered so, too, and drawing the blanket closer around her +shoulders (for she had taken advantage of her fatigue and languor to lie +very late in bed) she wished her aunt had stayed in Boston, for a little +time at least. + +It had been very delightful, waking up in the dear old room and seeing +Betty's kind face bending over her--Betty, who had heard of her young +mistress' return with a gush of glad tears, and then at once bethought +herself as to what there was nice for the wanderer to eat. Just as she +used to do when Ethie was a young lady at home, Betty had carried her +pan of coals and kindlings into the chamber where Ethie was lying, and +kneeling on the hearth had made the cheerfulest of fires, while Ethie, +with half-closed eyes, watched her dreamily, thinking how nice it was to +be cared for again, and conscious only of a vague feeling of delicious +rest and quiet, which grew almost into positive happiness as she counted +the days it would take for Aunt Barbara's letter to go to Iowa and for +Richard to answer it in person, as he surely would if all which Aunt +Barbara had said was true. + +Ethie did not quite know if she loved him. She had thought of him so +much during the last two years, and now, when he seemed so near, she +longed to see him again--to hear his voice and look into his eyes. They +were handsome eyes as she remembered them; kindly and pleasant, too--at +least they had been so to her, save on that dreadful night, the memory +of which always made her shiver and grow faint. It seemed a dream now--a +far-off, unhappy dream--which she would fain forget just as she wanted +Richard to forget her foibles and give her another chance. She had +bidden Aunt Barbara write to say she was there, and so after the +tempting breakfast, which had been served in her room, and which she had +eaten sitting up in bed, because Betty insisted that it should be +so--and she was glad to be petted and humored and made into a +comfortable invalid--Aunt Barbara brought her writing materials into the +room, and bidding Ethie lie still and rest herself, began the letter +to Richard. + +But only the date and name were written, when Betty, coming in with a +few geranium leaves and a white fuchsia which she had purloined from her +mistress' house plants, announced Mrs. Van Buren's arrival, and the +pleasant morning was at an end. Mrs. Dr. Van Buren had come up from +Boston to borrow money from her sister for the liquidation of certain +debts contracted by her son, and which she had not the ready means to +meet. Aunt Barbara had accommodated her once or twice before, saying to +her as she signed the check, "That money in the bank was put there for +Ethie, but no one knows if she will ever need it, so it may as well do +somebody some good." + +It had done good by relieving Mrs. Van Buren of a load of harassing +care, for money was not as plenty with her as formerly, and now she +wanted more. She was looking rather old and worn, and her cloak was last +year's fashion, but good enough for Chicopee, she reflected, as she +hurried into the house and stamped the muddy, melting snow from +her feet. + +Utter amazement seemed the prevailing sensation in her mind when she +learned that Ethelyn had returned, and then her selfishness began to +suggest that possibly Barbara's funds, saved for Ethie, might not now be +as accessible for Frank. She was glad, though, to see her niece, but +professed herself shocked at her altered appearance. + +"Upon my word, I would not have recognized you," she said, sitting down +upon the bed and looking Ethie fully in the face. + +Aunt Barbara, thinking her sister might like to have Ethie alone for a +little, had purposely left the room, and so Mrs. Van Buren was free to +say what she pleased. She had felt a good deal of irritation toward +Ethie for some time past. In fact, ever since Richard became governor, +she had blamed her niece for running away from the honor which might +have been hers. As aunt to the governor's lady, she, too, would have +come in for a share of the eclat; and so, as she smoothed out the folds +of her stone-colored merino, she felt as if she had been sorely +aggrieved by that thin, white-faced woman, who really did not greatly +resemble the rosy, bright-faced Ethelyn to whom Frank Van Buren had once +talked love among the Chicopee hills. + +"No, I don't believe I should have known you," Mrs. Van Buren continued. +"What have you been about to fade you so?" + +Few women like to hear that they have faded, even if they know it to be +true, and Ethie's cheek flushed a little as she asked, with a smile, "Am +I really such a fright?" + +"Why, no, not a fright! No one with the Bigelow features can ever be +that. But you are changed; and so I am sure Richard would think. He +liked beautiful girls. You know he has been governor?" + +Ethie nodded, and Mrs. Van Buren continued: "You lost a great deal, +Ethelyn, when you went away; and I must say that, though, of course, you +had great provocation, you did a very foolish thing leaving your husband +as you did, and involving us all, to a certain extent, in disgrace." + +It was the first direct intimation Ethie had received that her family +had suffered from mortification on her account. She had felt that they +must, and knew that she deserved some censure; but as kind Aunt Barbara +had withheld it, she was not quite willing to hear it from Mrs. Van +Buren, and for an instant her eyes flashed, and a hot reply trembled on +her lips; but she restrained herself and merely said: "I am sorry if I +disgraced you, Aunt Sophia. I was very unhappy at the time," + +"Certainly; I understand that, but the world does not; and if it did, it +forgot all when your husband became governor. He was greatly honored and +esteemed, I hear from a friend who spent a few weeks at Des Moines, and +everybody was so sorry for him." + +"Did they talk of me?" Ethie asked, repenting the next minute that she +had been at all curious in the matter. + +Mrs. Van Buren, bent upon annoying her, replied, "Some, yes; and knowing +the governor as they did, it is natural they should blame you more than +him. There was a rumor of his getting a divorce, but my friends did not +believe it and neither do I, though divorces are easy to get out West. +Have you written to him? Are you not 'most afraid he will think you came +back because he has been governor?" + +"Aunt Sophia!" and Ethie looked very much like her former self, as she +started from her pillow and confronted her interlocutor. "He cannot +think so. I never knew he had been governor until I heard it from Aunt +Barbara last night. I came back for no honors, no object. My work was +taken from me; I had nothing more to do, and I was so tired, and sick, +and weary, and longed so much for home. Don't begrudge it to me, Aunt +Sophia, that I came to see Aunt Barbara once more. I won't stay long in +anybody's way; and if--if he likes, Richard--can--get--that--divorce--as +soon as he pleases." + +The last came gaspingly, and showed the real state of Ethie's feelings. +In all the five long years of her absence the possibility that Richard +would seek to separate himself from her had never crossed her mind. She +had looked upon his love for her as something too strong to be +shaken--as the great rock in whose shadow she could rest whenever she +so desired. At first, when the tide of angry passion was raging at her +heart, she had said she never should desire it, that her strength was +sufficient to stand alone against the world; but as the weary weeks and +months crept on, and her anger had had time to cool, and she had learned +better to know the meaning of "standing alone in the world," and +thoughts of Richard's many acts of love and kindness kept recurring to +her mind, she had come gradually to see that the one object in the +future to which she was looking forward was a return to Aunt Barbara and +a possible reconciliation with her husband. The first she had achieved, +and the second seemed so close within her grasp, a thing so easy of +success, that in her secret heart she had exulted that, after all, she +was not to be more sorely punished than she had been--that she could not +have been so very much in fault, or Providence would have placed greater +obstacles in the way of restoration to all that now seemed desirable. +But Ethie's path back to peace and quiet was not to be free from thorns, +and for a few minutes she writhed in pain, as she thought how possible, +and even probable, it was that Richard should seek to be free from one +who had troubled him so much. Life looked very dreary to Ethelyn that +moment--drearier than it ever had before--but she was far too proud to +betray her real feelings to her aunt, who, touched by the look of +anguish on her niece's face, began to change her tactics, and say how +glad she was to have her darling back under any circumstances, and so +she presumed Richard would be. She knew he would, in fact; and if she +were Ethie, she should write to him at once, apprising him of her +return, but not making too many concessions.--Men could not bear them, +and it was better always to hold a stiff rein, or there was danger of a +collision. She might as well have talked to the winds, for all that +Ethie heard or cared. She was thinking of Richard, and the possibility +that she might not be welcome to him now. If so, nothing could tempt her +to intrude herself upon him. At all events, she would not make the first +advances. She would let Richard find out that she was there through some +other source than Aunt Barbara, who should not now write the letter. It +would look too much like begging him to take her back. This was Ethie's +decision, from which she could not be moved; and when, next day, Mrs. +Van Buren went back to Boston with the check for $1,000 which Aunt +Barbara had given her, she was pledged not to communicate with Richard +Markham in any way, while Aunt Barbara was held to the same promise. + +"He will find it out somehow. I prefer that he should act unbiased by +anything we can do," Ethelyn said to Aunt Barbara. "He might feel +obliged to come if you wrote to him that I was here, and if he came, the +sight of me so changed might shock him as it did Aunt Van Buren. She +verily thought me a fright," and Ethie tried to smile as she recalled +her Aunt Sophia's evident surprise at her looks. + +The change troubled Ethie more than she cared to confess. Nor did the +villagers' remarks, when they came in to see her, tend to soothe her +ruffled feelings. Pale, and thin, and languid, she moved about the house +and yard like a mere shadow of her former self, having, or seeming to +have, no object in life, and worrying Aunt Barbara so greatly that the +good woman began at last seriously to inquire what was best to do. +Suddenly, like an inspiration, there came to her a thought of Clifton, +the famous water-cure in Western New York, where health, both of body +and soul, had been found by so many thousands. And Ethie caught eagerly +at the proposition, accepting it on one condition--she would not go +there as Mrs. Markham, where the name might be recognized. She had been +Miss Bigelow abroad, she would be Miss Bigelow again; and so Aunt +Barbara yielded, mentally asking pardon for the deception to which she +felt she was a party, and when, two weeks after, the clerk at Clifton +water-cure looked over his list to see what rooms were engaged, and to +whom, he found "Miss Adelaide Bigelow, of Massachusetts," put down for +No. 101, while "Governor Markham of Iowa," was down for No. 102. + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +CLIFTON + +They were very full at Clifton that summer, for the new building was not +completed, and every available point was taken, from narrow, contracted +No. 94 in the upper hall down to more spacious No. 8 on the lower floor, +where the dampness, and noise, and mold, and smell of coal and cooking, +and lower bathrooms were. "A very, very quiet place, with only a few +invalids too weak and languid, and too much absorbed in themselves and +their 'complaints' to note or care for their neighbors; a place where +one lives almost as much excluded from the world as if immured within +convent walls; a place where dress and fashion and distinction were +unknown, save as something existing afar off, where the turmoil and +excitement of life were going on." This was Ethelyn's idea of Clifton; +and when, at four o'clock, on a bright June afternoon, the heavily laden +train stopped before the little brown station, and "Clifton" was shouted +in her ears, she looked out with a bewildered kind of feeling upon the +crowd of gayly dressed people congregated upon the platform. Heads were +uncovered, and hair frizzled, and curled, and braided, and puffed, and +arranged in every conceivable shape, showing that even to that "quiet +town" the hairdresser's craft had penetrated. Expanded crinoline, with +light, fleecy robes, and ribbons, and laces, and flowers, was there +assembled, with bright, eager, healthful faces, and snowy hands wafting +kisses to some departed friend, and then turning to greet some new +arrival. There were no traces of sickness, no token of disease among the +smiling crowd, and Ethelyn almost feared she had made a mistake and +alighted at the wrong place, as she gave her checks to John, and then +taking her seat in the omnibus, sat waiting and listening to the lively +sallies and playful remarks around her. Nobody spoke to her, nobody +stared at her, nobody seemed to think of her; and for that she was +thankful, as she sat with her veil drawn closely over her face, looking +out upon the not very pretentious dwellings they were passing. The +scenery around Clifton is charming, and to the worn, weary invalid +escaping from the noise and heat and bustle of the busy city, there +seems to come a rest and a quiet, from the sunlight which falls upon the +hills, to the cool, moist meadow lands where the ferns and mosses grow, +and where the rippling of the sulphur brook gives out constantly a +soothing, pleasant kind of music. But for the architecture of the town +not very much can be said; and Ethie, who had longed to get away from +Chicopee, where everybody knew her story, and all looked curiously at +her, confessed to a feeling of homesickness as her eyes fell upon the +blacksmith shop, the dressmaker's sign, the grocery on the corner, where +were sold various articles of food forbidden by doctor and nurse; the +schoolhouse to the right, where a group of noisy children played, and +the little church further on, where the Methodist people worshiped. She +did not see the "Cottage" then, with its flowers and vines, and nicely +shaven lawn, for her back was to it; nor the handsome grounds, where the +shadows from the tall trees fall so softly upon the velvet grass; and +the winding graveled walks, which intersect each other and give an +impression of greater space than a closer investigation will warrant. + +"I can't stay here," was Ethie's thought, as it had been the thought of +many others, when, like her, they first step into the matted hall and +meet the wet, damp odor, as of sheets just washed, which seems to be +inseparable from that part of the building. + +But that was the first day, and before she had met the kindness and +sympathy of those whose business it is to care for the patients, or felt +the influences for good, the tendency to all the better impulses of our +nature, which seems to pervade the very atmosphere of Clifton. Ethie +felt this influence very soon, and her second letter to Aunt Barbara was +filled with praise of Clifton, where she had made so many friends, in +spite of her evident desire to avoid society and stay by herself. She +had passed through the usual ordeal attending the advent of every new +face, especially if that face be a little out of the common order of +faces. She had been inspected in the dining room, and bathroom, and +chapel, both when she went in and when she went out. She had been talked +up and criticised from the way she wore her hair to the hang of her +skirts, which here, as well as in Olney, trailed the floor with a sweep +unmistakably aristocratic and stamped her as somebody. The sacque and +hat brought from Paris had been copied by three or four, and pronounced +distingue, but ugly by as many more, while Mrs. Peter Pry, of whom there +are always one or two at every watering-place, had set herself +industriously at work to pry into her antecedents to find out just who +and what Miss Bigelow was. As the result of this research, it had been +ascertained that the young lady was remotely connected with the Bigelows +of Boston, and had something of her own--that she had spent several +years abroad, and could speak both French and German with perfect ease; +that she had been at the top of Mont Blanc, and passed part of a winter +at St. Petersburg, and seen a crocodile in the river Nile, and a Moslem +burying-ground in Constantinople, and had the cholera at Milan, the +varioloid at Rome, and was marked between the eyes and on the chin, and +was twenty-five years old, and did not wear false hair, nor use Laird's +Liquid Pearl, as was at first suspected from the clearness of her +complexion, and did wear crimping pins at night, and pay Annie, the +bath-girl, extra for bringing up the morning bath, and was more +interested in the chapel exercises when the great Head Center was there, +and bought cream every morning of Mrs. King, and sat up at night long +after the gas was turned off, and was there at Clifton for spine in the +back and head difficulties generally. These few items, together with the +surmise that she had had some great trouble--a disappointment, most +likely, which affected her health--were all Mrs. Pry could learn, and +she detailed them to anyone who would listen, until Ethelyn's history, +from the Pry point of view, was pretty generally known and the most made +of every good quality and virtue. + +The Mrs. Pry of this summer was not ill-natured; she was simply +curious; and as she generally said more good than evil of people, she +was generally liked and tolerated by all. She was not a fashionable +woman, nor an educated woman, though very popular with her neighbors at +home, and she was there for numbness and swollen knees; and, having knit +socks for four years for the soldiers, she now knit stockings for the +soldiers' orphans, and took a dash every morning and screamed loud +enough to be heard at the depot when she took it, and had a pack every +afternoon, and corked her right ear with cotton, which she always took +out when in a pack, so as to hear whatever might be said in the hall, +her open ventilator being the medium of sound. This was Mrs. Peter Pry, +drawn from no one in particular, but a fair exponent of characters found +in other places than Clifton Springs. Rooming on the same floor with +Ethelyn, whom she greatly admired, the good woman persisted until she +overcame the stranger's shyness, and succeeded in establishing, first, a +bowing, then a speaking, and finally, a calling acquaintance between +them--the calls, however, being mostly upon one side, and that the +prying one. + +Ethie had been at Clifton for three or four weeks, and the dimensions of +No. 101 did not seem half so circumscribed, as at first. On the whole, +she was contented, especially after the man who snored, and the woman +who wore squeaky boots, and talked in her sleep, vacated No. 102, the +large, airy, pleasant room adjoining her own. There was no one in it now +but Mary, the chambermaid, who said it was soon to be occupied by a sick +gentleman, adding that she believed he had the consumption, and hoped +his cough would not fret Miss Bigelow. Ethie hoped so too. Nervousness, +and, indeed, diseases of all kinds, seemed to develop rapidly at +Clifton, where one has nothing to do but to watch each new symptom, and +report to physician or nurse, and Ethie was not an exception. She was +very nervous, and she found herself dreading the arrival of the sick +man, wondering if his coughing would keep her awake nights, and if the +light from her candle shining out into the darkened hall would annoy +and worry him, as it had worried the woman opposite, who complained that +she could not rest with that glimmer on the wall, showing that somebody +was up, who, might at any moment make a noise. That he was a person of +consequence she readily guessed, for an extra pair of pillows was taken +in, and the rocking-chair possessed of two whole arms, and No. 109, also +vacant just then, was rifled of its round stand and footstool, and Mrs. +Pry reported that Dr. F---- himself had been up to see that all was +comfortable, and Miss Clark had ordered a better set of springs, with a +new hair mattress, and somebody had put a bouquet of flowers in the room +and hung a muslin curtain at the window. + +"A big-bug, most likely," Mrs. Peter Pry said, when, after her pack, she +brought her knitting for a few moments into Ethelyn's room and wondered +who the man could be. + +Ethelyn did not care particularly who he was, provided he did not cough +nights and keep her awake, in which case she should feel constrained to +change her room, an alternative she did not care to contemplate, as she +had become more attached to No. 101 than she had at first supposed +possible. Ethelyn was very anxious that day, and, had she believed in +presentiments, she would have thought that something was about to befall +her, so heavy was the gloom weighing upon her spirits, and so dark the +future seemed. She was going to have a headache, she feared, and as a +means of throwing it off, she started, after ten, for a walk to Rocky +Run, a distance of a mile or more. It was a cool, hazy July afternoon, +such as always carried Ethie back to Chicopee and the days of her happy +girlhood, when her heart was not so heavy and sad as it was now. With +thoughts of Chicopee came also thoughts of Richard, and Ethie's eyes +were moist with tears as she looked wistfully toward the setting sun and +wondered if he ever thought of her now or had forgotten her, and was the +story true of his seeking for a divorce. That rumor had troubled Ethie +greatly, and was the reason why she did not improve as the physician +hoped she would when she first came to Clifton. Sitting down upon the +bridge across the creek, she bowed her head in her hands and went over +again all the dreadful past, blaming herself now more than she did +Richard, and wishing that much could be undone of all that had +transpired to make her what she was, and while she sat there the Western +train appeared in view, and, mechanically rising to her feet, Ethie +turned her steps back toward the Cure, standing aside to let the long +train go by, and feeling, when it passed her, a strange, sudden throb, +as if it were fraught with more than ordinary interest to her. Usually, +that Western train, the distant roll of whose wheels and the echo of +whose scream quickened so many hearts waiting for news from home, had no +special interest for her. It never brought her a letter. Her name was +never called in the exciting distribution which took place in the parlor +or on the long piazza after the eight-o'clock mail had arrived, and so +she seldom heeded it; but to-night there was a difference, and she +watched the long line curiously until it passed the corner by the old +brown farmhouse and disappeared from view. It had left the station long +ere she reached the Cure, for she had walked slowly, and lights were +shining from the different rooms, and there was a sound of singing in +the parlor, and the party of croquet players had come up from the lawn, +and ladies were hurrying toward the bathroom, when she came in and +climbed the three flights of stairs which led to the fourth floor. There +was a light shining through the ventilator of No. 102, the door was +partly ajar, and the doctor was there, asking some questions of the tall +figure, whose outline Ethelyn dimly descried as she went into her room. +There was more talking after a little--more going in and out, while Mary +Ann brought up some supper on a tray, and John brought up a traveling +trunk much larger than himself, and then, without Mrs. Pry's assurance, +Ethie knew that the occupant of No. 102 had arrived. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +THE OCCUPANT OF NO. 102 + +He did not cough, but he seemed to be a restless spirit, for Ethie heard +him pacing up and down his room long after the gas was turned off and +her own candle was extinguished. Once, too, she heard a long-drawn sigh, +or groan, which made her start suddenly, for something in the tone +carried her to Olney and the house on the prairie. It was late that +night ere she slept, and when next morning she awoke, the nervous +headache, which had threatened her the previous night, was upon her in +full force, and kept her for nearly the entire day confined to her bed. +Mrs. Pry was spending the day in Phelps, and with this source of +information cut off, Ethelyn heard nothing of No. 102, further than the +chambermaid's casual remark that "the gentleman was quite an invalid, +and for the present was to take his meals and baths in his room to avoid +so much going up and down stairs." + +Who he was Ethelyn did not know or care, though twice she awoke from a +feverish sleep with the impression that she had heard Richard speaking +to her; but it was only Jim, the bath man, talking in the next room, and +she laid her throbbing head again upon her pillow, while her new +neighbor dreamed in turn of her and woke with the strange fancy that she +was near him. Ethie's head was better that night; so much better that +she dressed herself and went down to the parlor in time to hear the +calling of the letters as the Western mail was distributed. Usually she +felt but little interest in the affair further than watching the eager, +anxious faces bending near the boy, and the looks of joy or +disappointment which followed failure and success. To-night, however, it +was different. She was not expecting a letter herself. Nobody wrote to +her but Aunt Barbara, whose letters came in the morning, but she was +conscious of a strange feeling of expectancy, and taking a step toward +the table around which the excited group were congregated, she stood +leaning against the column while name after name was called. First the +letters, a score or two, and then the papers, matters of less account, +but still snatched eagerly by those who could get nothing better. There +was a paper for Mrs. More-house, and Mrs. Stone, and Mrs. Wilson, and +Mrs. Turner, while Mr. Danforth had half a dozen or less, and then Perry +paused a moment over a new name--one which had never before been called +in the parlor at Clifton: + +"Richard Markham, Esq." + +The name rang out loud and clear, and Ethie grasped the pillar tightly +to keep herself from falling. She did not hear Mr. Danforth explaining +that it was "Governor Markham from Iowa, who came the night before." She +did not know, either, how she left the parlor, for the next thing of +which she was perfectly conscious was the fact that she was hurrying up +the stairs and through the unfinished halls toward her own room, casting +frightened glances around, and almost shrieking with excitement when +through the open door of No. 102 she heard Dr. Hayes speaking to +someone, and in the voice which answered recognized her husband. + +He was there, then, next to her, separated by only a thin partition--the +husband whom she had not seen for five long years, whom she had +voluntarily left, resolving never to go back to him again, was there, +where, just by crossing a single threshold, she could fall at his feet +and sue for the forgiveness she had made up her mind to crave should she +ever see him again. Dr. Hayes' next call was upon her, and he found her +fainting upon the floor, where she had fallen in the excitement of the +shock she had experienced. + +"It was a headache," she said, when questioned as to the cause of the +sudden attack; but her eyes had in them a frightened, startled look, for +which the doctor could not account. + +There was something about her case which puzzled and perplexed him. "She +needed perfect quiet, but must not be left alone," he said, and so all +that night Richard, who was very wakeful, watched the light shining out +into the hall from the room next to his own, and heard occasionally a +murmur of low voices as the nurse put some question to Ethie, who +answered always in whispers, while her eyes turned furtively toward No. +102, as if fearful that its occupant would hear and know how near she +was. For three whole days her door was locked against all intruders, for +the headache and nervous excitement did not abate one whit. How could +they, when every sound from No. 102, every footfall on the floor, every +tone of Richard's voice speaking to servant or physician, quickened the +rapid beats and sent the hot blood throbbing fiercely through the temple +veins and down along the neck? At Clifton they are accustomed to every +phase of nervousness, from spasms at the creaking of a board to the +stumbling upstairs of the fireman in the early winter morning, and once +when Ethie shuddered and turned her head aside at the sound of Richard's +step, the attendant said to the physician: + +"It's the gentleman's boots, I think, which make her nervous." + +There was a deprecating gesture on Ethie's part, but it passed +unnoticed, and when next the doctor went to visit Richard he said, in a +half-apologetic way, that the young lady in the next room was suffering +from a violent headache, which was aggravated by every sound, even the +squeak of a boot--would Governor Markham greatly object to wearing +slippers for a while? Dr. Hayes was sorry to trouble him, but "if they +would effect a cure they must keep their patients quiet, and guard +against everything tending to increase nervous irritation." + +Governor Markham would do anything in his power for the young lady, and +he asked some questions concerning her. Had he annoyed her much? Was she +very ill? And what was her name? + +"Bigelow," he repeated after Dr. Hayes, thinking of Aunt Barbara in +Chicopee, and thinking of Ethelyn, too, but never dreaming how near she +was to him. + +He had come to Clifton at the earnest solicitation of some of his +friends, who had for themselves tested the healing properties of the +water, but he had little faith that anything could cure so long as the +pain was so heavy at his heart. It had not lessened one jot with the +lapse of years. On the contrary, it seemed harder and harder to bear, as +the months went by and brought no news of Ethie. Oh, how he wanted her +back again, even if she came as willful and imperious as she used to be +at times, when the high spirit was roused to its utmost, and even if she +had no love for him, as she had once averred. He could make her love him +now, he said: he knew just where he had erred; and many a time in dreams +he had strained the wayward Ethie to his bosom in the fond caress which +from its very force should impart to her some faint sensation of joy. He +had stroked her beautiful brown hair, and caressed her smooth round +cheek, and pressed her little hands, and made her listen to him till the +dark eyes flashed into his own with something of the tenderness he felt +for her. Then, with a start, he had awakened to find it all a dream, and +only darkness around him. Ethie was not there. The arms which had held +her so lovingly were empty. The pillow where her dear head had lain was +untouched, and he was alone as of old. Even that handsome house he had +built for her had ceased to interest him, for Ethie did not come back to +enjoy it. She would never come now, he said, and he built many fancies +as to what her end had been, and where her grave could be. Here at +Clifton he had thought of her continually, but not that she was alive. +Andy's faith in her return was as strong as ever, but Richard's had all +died out. Ethie was dead, and when asked by Dr. Hayes if he had a wife, +he answered sadly: + +"I had one, but I lost her." + +He had no thought of deception, or how soon the story would circulate +through the house that he was a widower, and so he, as ex-governor of +Iowa, and a man just in his prime, became an object of speculative +interest to every marriageable woman there. He had no thought, no care +for the ladies, though for the Miss Bigelow, whom his boots annoyed, he +did feel a passing interest, and Ethie, whose ears seemed doubly sharp, +heard him in his closet adjusting the thin-soled slippers, which made no +sound upon the carpet. She heard him, too, as he moved his water +pitcher, and knew he was doing it so quietly for her. The idea of being +cared for by him, even if he did not know who she was, was very soothing +and pleasant, and she fell into a quiet sleep, which lasted several +hours, while Richard, on the other side of the wall, scarcely moved, so +fearful was he of worrying the young lady. + +Ethie's headache spent itself at last, and she awoke at the close of the +third day, free from pain, but very weak and languid, and wholly unequal +to the task of entertaining Mrs. Peter Pry, who had been so distressed +on her account, and was so delighted with a chance to see and talk with +her again. Ethie knew she meant to be kind, and believed she was sincere +in her professions of friendship. At another time she might have been +glad to see her; but now, when she guessed what the theme of +conversation would be, she felt a thrill of terror as the good woman +came in, knitting in hand, and announced her intention of sitting +through the chapel exercises. She was not going to prayer meeting that +night, she said, for Dr. Foster was absent, and they were always stupid +when he was away. She could not understand all Mr.---- said, his words +were so learned, while the man who talked so long, and never came to the +point, was insufferable in hot weather, so she remained away, and came +to see her friend, who, she supposed, knew that she had a governor for +next-door neighbor--Governor Markham from Iowa--and a widower, too, as +Dr. Hayes had said, when she asked why his wife was not there with him. + +"A widower!" and Ethie looked up so inquiringly that Mrs. Pry, mistaking +the nature of her sudden interest, went on more flippantly. "Yes, and a +splendid looking man, too, if he wasn't sick. I saw him in the chapel +this morning--the only time he has been there--and sat where I had a +good view of his face. They say he is very rich, and has one of the +handsomest places in Davenport." + +"Does he live in Davenport?" Ethie asked, in some surprise, and Mrs. Pry +replied: + +"Yes; and that Miss Owens, from New York, is setting her cap for him +already. She met him in Washington, a few years ago, and the minute +chapel exercises were over, she and her mother made up to him at once. +I'm glad there's somebody good enough for them to notice. If there's a +person I dislike it's that Susan Owens and her mother. I do hope she'll +find a husband. It's what she's here for, everybody says." + +Mrs. Peter had dropped a stitch while animadverting against Miss Susan +Owens, from New York, and stopped a moment while she picked it up. It +would be difficult to describe Ethelyn's emotions as she heard her own +husband talked of as something marketable, which others than Susan Owens +might covet. He was evidently the lion of the season. It was something +to have a governor of Richard's reputation in the house, and the guests +made the most of it, wishing he would join them in the parlor or on the +piazza, and regretting that he stayed so constantly in his room. Many +attempts were made to draw him out, Mrs. and Miss Owens, on the strength +of their acquaintance in Washington, venturing to call upon him, and +advising him to take more exercise. Miss Owens' voice was loud and +clear, and Ethie heard it distinctly as the young lady talked and +laughed with Richard, the hot blood coursing rapidly through her veins, +and the first genuine pangs of jealousy she had ever felt creeping into +her heart as she guessed what might possibly be in Miss Owens' mind. +Many times she resolved to make herself known to him; but uncertainty as +to how she might be received, and the remembrance of what Mrs. Van Buren +had said with regard to the divorce, held her back; and so, with only a +thin partition between them, and within sound of each other's footsteps, +the husband and wife, so long estranged from each other, lived on, day +after day, Richard spending most of his time in his room, and Ethelyn +managing so adroitly when she came in and went out, that she never saw +so much as his shadow upon the floor, and knew not whether he was +greatly changed or not. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +IN RICHARD'S ROOM + +Richard had been sick for a week or more. As is frequently the case, the +baths did not agree with him at first, and Mrs. Pry reported to Ethelyn +that the governor was confined to his bed, and saw no one but the doctor +and nurses, not even "that bold Miss Owens, who had actually sent to +Geneva for a bouquet, which she sent to his room with her compliments." +This Mrs. Pry knew to be a fact, and the highly scandalized woman +repeated the story to Ethelyn, who scarcely heard what she was saying +for the many turbulent emotions swelling at her heart. That Richard +should be sick so near to her, his wife--that other hands than hers +should tend his pillow and minister to his wants--seemed not as it +should be; and when she recalled the love and tender care which had been +so manifest that time when he came home from Washington and found her so +very ill, the wish grew strong within her to do something for him. But +what to do--that was the perplexing question. She dared not go openly to +him, until assured that she was wanted; and so there was nothing left +but to imitate Miss Owens and adorn his room with flowers. Surely she +had a right to do so much, and still her cheek crimsoned like some young +girl's as she gathered together the choicest flowers the little town +afforded, and arranging them into a most tasteful bouquet, sent them in +to Richard, vaguely hoping that at least in the cluster of double pinks, +which had been Richard's favorite, there might be hidden some mesmeric +power or psychological influence which should speak to the sick man of +the wayward Ethie who had troubled him so much. + +Richard was sitting up in bed when Mary brought the bouquet, saying, +Miss Bigelow sent it, thinking it might cheer him a bit. Should she put +it in the tumbler near Miss Owens'? + +Miss Owens had sent a pretty vase with hers, but Ethie's was simply tied +with a bit of ribbon she had worn about her neck. And Richard took it +in his hand, an exclamation escaping him as he saw and smelled the +fragrant pinks, whose perfume carried him first to Olney and Andy's +weedy beds in the front yard, and then to Chicopee, where in Aunt +Barbara's pretty garden, a large plant of them had been growing when he +went after his bride. A high wind had blown them down upon the walk, and +he had come upon Ethie one day trying to tie them up. He had plucked a +few, he remembered, telling Ethie they were his favorites for perfume, +while the red peony was his favorite for beauty. There had been a +comical gleam in her brown eyes which he now knew was born of contempt +for his taste with regard to flowers. Red peonies were not the rarest of +blossoms--Melinda had taught him that when he suggested having them in +his conservatory; but surely no one could object to these waxen, +feathery pinks, whose odor was so delicious. Miss Bigelow liked them, +else she had never sent them to him. And he kept the bouquet in his +hand, admiring its arrangement, inhaling the sweet perfume of the +delicate pinks and heliotrope, and speculating upon the kind of person +Miss Bigelow must be to have thought so much of him. He could account +for Miss Owens' gift--the hot-house blossoms, which had not moved him +one-half so much as did this bunch of pinks. She had known him +before--had met him in Washington; he had been polite to her on one or +two occasions, and it was natural that she should wish to be civil, at +least while he was sick. But the lady in No. 101--the Miss Bigelow for +whom he had discarded his boots and trodden on tiptoe half the time +since his arrival--why she should care for him he could not guess; and +finally deciding that it was a part of Clifton, where everybody was so +kind, he put the bouquet in the tumbler Mary had brought and placed it +on the stand beside him. He was very restless that night, and Ethie +heard the watchman at his door twice asking if he wanted anything. + +"Nothing," was the reply, and the voice, heard distinctly in the +stillness of the night, was so faint and sad that Ethie hid her face in +her pillow and sobbed bitterly, while the intense longing to see him +grew so strong within her that by morning the resolution was taken to +risk everything for the sake of looking upon him again. + +He did not require an attendant at night--he preferred being alone, she +had ascertained; and she knew that his door was constantly left open for +the admission of fresh air. The watchman only came into the hall once an +hour or thereabouts, and while Richard slept it would be comparatively +easy for her to steal into his room. Fortune seemed to favor her, for +when at nine the doctor, as usual, came up to pay his round visits, she +heard him say, "I will leave you something which never fails to make one +sleep," and after two hours had passed she knew by the regular breathing +which, standing on the threshold of her room, she could distinctly hear, +that Richard was sleeping soundly. The watchman had just made the tour +of that hall, and the faint glimmer of his lantern was disappearing down +the stairs. It would be an hour before he came back again, and now, if +ever, was her time. There was a great throb of fear at her heart, a +trembling of every joint, a choking sensation in her throat, a shrinking +back from what might probably be the result of that midnight visit; and +then, nerving herself for the effort, she stepped out into the hall and +listened. Everything was quiet, and every room was darkened, save by the +moon, which, at its full, was pouring a flood of light through the +southern window at the end of the hall and seemed to beckon her on. She +was standing now at Richard's door, opened wide enough to admit her, and +so she made no noise as she stepped cautiously across the threshold and +stood within the chamber. The window faced the east, and the inside +blinds were opened wide, making Ethelyn remember how annoyed she used to +be at that propensity of Richard's to roll up every curtain and open +every shutter so as to make the room light and airy. It was light now +almost as day, for the moonlight lay upon the floor in a great sheet of +silver, and showed her plainly the form and features of the sick man +upon the bed. She knew he was asleep, and with a beating heart she drew +near to him, and stood for a moment looking down upon the face she had +not seen since that wintry morning five years before, when in the dim +twilight, it had bent wistfully over her, as if the lips would fain have +asked forgiveness for the angry words and deeds of the previous night. +That face was pale now, and thin, and the soft brown hair was streaked +with gray, making Richard look older than he was. He had suffered, and +the suffering had left its marks upon him so indisputably that Ethie +could have cried out with pain to see how changed he was. + +"Poor Richard," she whispered softly, and kneeling by the bedside she +laid her hot cheek as near as she dared to the white, wasted hand +resting outside the counterpane. + +She did not think what the result of waking him might be. She did not +especially care. She was his wife, let what would happen--his erring but +repentant Ethie. She had a right to be there with him, and so at last +she took his thin hand between her own, and caressed it tenderly. Then +Richard moved, and moaning in his deep sleep seemed to have a vague +consciousness that someone was with him. Perhaps it was the nurse who +had been with him at night on one or two occasions; but the slumber into +which he had fallen was too deep to be easily broken. Something he +murmured about the medicine, and Ethie's hand held it to his lips, and +Ethie's arm was passed beneath his pillow as she lifted up his head +while he swallowed it. Then, without unclosing his eyes, he lay back +upon his pillow again, while Ethie stood over him until the glimmer of +the watchman's lamp passed down the hall a second time, and disappeared +around the corner. The watchman had stopped at Richard's door to listen, +and then Ethie had experienced a spasm of terror at the possibility of +being discovered; but with the receding footsteps her fears left her, +and she waited a half-hour longer, while Richard in his dreams talked of +bygone days--speaking of Olney, and then of Daisy and herself. Dead, +both of them, he seemed to think; and Ethie's pulse throbbed with a +strange feeling of joy as she heard herself called his poor darling, +whom he wanted back again. She was satisfied now. He had not forgotten +her, or even thought to separate himself from her, as Aunt Van Buren +hinted. He was true to her yet, and she had acted foolishly in keeping +aloof from him so long. But she would be foolish no longer. To-morrow he +should know everything. If he would only awaken she would tell him now, +and take the consequences. But Richard did not waken, and at last, with +a noiseless step, she glided back to her own chamber. She would write to +Richard, she decided. She could talk to him better on paper, and, then, +if he did not care to receive her, they would both be spared much +embarrassment. + +Ethie's door was locked all the next morning, for she was writing to her +husband a long, humble letter, in which all the blame was taken upon +herself, inasmuch as she had made the great mistake of marrying without +love. "But I do love you now, Richard," she said; "love you truly, too, +else I should never be writing this to you, and asking you to take me +back and try if I cannot make you happy." + +It was a good deal for Ethie to confess that she had been so much in +fault; but she did it honestly, and when the letter was finished she +felt as if all that had been wrong and bitter in the past was swept +away, and a new era in her life had begun. She would wait till night, +she said--wait till all was again quiet in the hall and in the +sick-room, and then when the boy came around with the mail, as he was +sure to do, she would hand her letter to him, and bid him leave it in +Governor Markham's room. The rest she could not picture to herself; but +she waited impatiently for the long August day to draw to its close, +joining the guests in the parlor by way of passing the time, and +appearing so bright and gay that those who had thought her proud and +cold, and reticent, wondered at the brightness of her face and the glad, +eager expression of her eyes. She was pretty, after all, they thought, +and even Miss Owens, from New York, tried to be very gracious, speaking +to her of Governor Markham, whose room adjoined hers, and asking if she +had seen him. About him Ethie did not care to talk, and, making some +excuse to get away, left the room without hearing a whisper of the +story which was going the rounds of the Cure, and which Miss Owens was +rather desirous of communicating to someone who, like herself, would be +likely to believe it a falsehood. + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +MRS. PETER PRY TAKES A PACK + +Mrs. Pry was in a pack, a whole pack, too, which left nothing free but +her head, and even that was bandaged in a wet napkin, so that the good +woman was in a condition of great helplessness, and nervously counted +the moments which must elapse ere Annie, the bath girl, would come to +her relief. Now, as was always the case when in a pack, her ears were +uncorked and turned toward the door, which she had purposely left ajar, +so as not to lose a word, in case any of the ladies came down to that +end of the hall and stood by the window while they talked together. They +were there now, some half a dozen or more, and they were talking eagerly +of the last fresh piece of news brought by Mrs. Carter and daughter, who +had arrived from Iowa the day before, and for lack of accommodations at +the Cure had gone to the hotel. Both were old patients, and well known +in Clifton and so they had spent most of the day at the Cure, hunting up +old acquaintances and making new ones. Being something of lion-seekers, +they had asked at the office who was there worth knowing, the young +lady's face wearing a very important air as she glanced round upon the +guests, and remarked, "How different they seemed from those charming +people from Boston and New York whom we met here last summer!" + +It did not appear as if there was a single lion there this season, +whether moneyed, literary, or notorious; and Miss Annie Carter thought +it very doubtful whether they should remain or go on to Saratoga, as all +the while she had wished to do. In great distress good Mrs. Leigh racked +her brain to think who the notables were, and finally bethought herself +of Governor Markham, whose name acted like magic upon the newcomers. + +"Governor Markham here? Strange, I never thought of Clifton when I heard +that he was going East for his health. How is he? Does he improve? It is +quite desirable that he should do so, if all reports are true;" and Mrs. +Carter looked very wise and knowing upon the group which gathered around +her, anxious to hear all she had to tell of Governor Markham. + +She did not pretend that she knew him herself, as she lived some +distance from Davenport; but she had heard a great deal about him and +his handsome house; and Annie, her daughter, who was visiting in +Davenport, had been all over it after it was finished. Such a beautiful +suite of rooms as he had fitted up for his bride; they were the envy and +wonder of both Davenport and Rock Island, too. + +"His bride! We did not know he had one. He passes for a widower here," +several voices echoed in chorus, and then Mrs. Carter began the story +which had come to her through a dozen mediums, and which circulated +rapidly through the house, but had not reached Mrs. Pry up to the time +when, with her blanket and patchwork quilt she had brought from New +Hampshire, she lay reposing in her pack, with her ears turned toward the +door and ventilator, ready to catch the faintest breath of gossip. + +She heard a great deal that afternoon, for the ladies at the end of the +hall did not speak very low, and when at last she was released from her +bandages and had made her afternoon toilet, she hastened round to Miss +Bigelow's to report what she had heard. Tired with her vigils of the +previous night, Ethie was lying down, but she bade Mrs. Pry come in, and +then kept very quiet while the good woman proceeded to ask if she had +heard the news. Ethie had not, but her heart stood still while her +visitor, speaking in a whisper, asked if she was sure Governor Markham +could not hear. That the news concerned herself Ethelyn was sure, and +she was glad that her face was in a measure concealed from view as she +listened to the story. + +Governor Markham's wife was not dead, as they had supposed. She was a +shameless creature, who eight or ten years before eloped with a man a +great deal younger than herself. She was very beautiful, people said, +and very fascinating, and the governor worshiped the ground she trod +upon. He took her going off very hard at first, and for years scarcely +held up his head. But lately he had seemed different, and had been more +favorable to a divorce, as advised by his friends. This, however, was +after he met Miss Sallie Morton, whose father was a millionaire in +Chicago, and whose pretty face had captivated the grave governor. To get +the divorce was a very easy matter there in the West, and the governor +was now free to marry again. As Miss Morton preferred Davenport to any +other place in Iowa, he had built him a magnificent house upon a bluff, +finishing it elegantly, and taking untold pains with the suite of rooms +intended for his bride. As Miss Sallie objected to marrying him while he +was so much of an invalid, he had come to Clifton, hoping to reestablish +his health so as to bring home his wife in the autumn, for which event +great preparations were making in the family of Miss Sallie. + +This was the story as told by Mrs. Pry, and considering that it had only +come to her through eight or ten different persons, she repeated the +substance of it pretty accurately, and then stopped for Ethie's comment. +But Ethie had nothing to say, and when, surprised at her silence, Mrs. +Pry asked if she believed it at all, there was still no reply, for +Ethelyn had fainted. The reaction was too great from the bright +anticipations of the hour before, to the crushing blow which had fallen +so suddenly upon her hopes. That a patient at Clifton should faint was +not an uncommon thing. Mrs. Pry had often felt like it herself when just +out of a pack, or a hot sulphur bath, and so Ethie's faint excited no +suspicion in her mind. She was fearful, though, that Miss Bigelow had +not heard all the story, but Ethie assured her that she had, and then +added that if left to herself she might possibly sleep, as that was what +she needed. So Mrs. Pry departed, and Ethie was alone with the terrible +calamity which had come upon her. She had been at the Water Cure long +enough to know that not more than half of what she heard was true, and +this story she knew was false in the parts pertaining to herself and her +desertion of her husband. She had never heard before that she was +suspected of having had an associate in the flight, and her cheeks +crimsoned at the idea, while she wondered if Richard had ever thought +that of her. Not at first, she knew, else he had never sought for her so +zealously as Aunt Barbara had intimated; but latterly, as he had heard +no tidings from her, he might have surmised something of the kind, and +that was the secret of the divorce. + +"Oh, Richard! Richard!" she murmured, with her hands pressed tightly +over her lips, so as to smother all sound, "I felt so sure of your love. +You were so different from me. I am punished more than I can bear." + +If she had never known before, Ethie knew now, how much she really loved +her husband, and how the hope of eventually returning to him had been +the day-star of her life. Had she heard that he was lying dead in the +next room, she would have gone to him at once, and claiming him as hers, +would have found some comfort in weeping sadly over him, and kissing his +cold lips, but now it did indeed seem more than she could bear. She did +not doubt the story of the divorce, or greatly disbelieve in the other +wife. It was natural that many should seek to win his love now that he +had risen so high, and she supposed it was natural that he should wish +for another companion. Perhaps he believed her dead, and Ethie's heart +gave one great throb of joy as she thought of going in to him, and by +her bodily presence contradict that belief, and possibly win him from +his purpose. But Ethie was too proud for that, and her next feeling was +one of exultation that she had not permitted Aunt Barbara to write, or +herself taken any measures for communicating with him. He should never +know how near she had been to him, or guess ever so remotely of the +anguish she was enduring, as, only a few feet removed from him, she +suffered, in part, all the pain and sorrow she had brought upon him. +Then, as she remembered the new house fitted for the bride, she said: + +"I must see that house. I must know just what is in store for my rival. +No one knows me in Davenport. Richard is not at home, and there is no +chance for my being recognized." + +With this decision came a vague feeling akin to hope that possibly the +story was false--that after all there was no rival, no divorce. At all +events, she should know for a certainty by going to Davenport; and with +every nerve stretched to its utmost tension, Ethie arose from her bed +and packed her trunk quietly and quickly, and then going to the office, +surprised the clerk with the announcement that she wished to leave on +the ten-o'clock train. She had received news which made her going so +suddenly imperative, she said to him, and to the physician, whom she +called upon next, and whose strong arguments against her leaving that +night almost overcame her. But Ethie's will conquered at last, and when +the train from the East came in she stood upon the platform at the +station, her white face closely veiled, and her heart throbbing with the +vague doubts which began to assail her as to whether she were really +doing a wise and prudent thing in going out alone and unprotected to the +home she had no right to enter, and where she was not wanted. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +IN DAVENPORT + +Hot, and dusty, and tired, and sick, and utterly hopeless and wretched, +Ethie looked drearily out from the windows of her room at the hotel, +whither she had gone on her first arrival in Davenport. Her head seemed +bursting as she stood tying her bonnet before the mirror, and drawing on +her gloves, she glanced wistfully at the inviting-looking bed, feeling +strongly tempted to lie down there among the pillows and wait till she +was rested before she went out in that broiling August sun upon her +strange errand. But a haunting presentiment of what the dizziness and +pain in her head and temples portended urged her to do quickly what she +had to do; so with another gulp of the ice water she had ordered, and +which only for a moment cooled her feverish heat, she went from her room +into the hall, where the boy was waiting to show her the way to "the +governor's house." He knew just where it was. Everybody knew in +Davenport, and the chambermaid to whom Ethie had put some questions, had +volunteered the information that the governor had gone East for his +health, and the house, she believed, was shut up--not shut so that she +could not effect an entrance to it. She would find her way through every +obstacle, Ethie thought, wondering vaguely at the strength which kept +her up and made her feel equal to most anything as she followed her +conductor through street after street, onward and onward, up the hill, +where the long windows and turrets of a most elegant mansion were +visible. When asked at the hotel if she would not have a carriage, she +had replied that she preferred to walk, feeling that in this way she +should expend some of the fierce excitement consuming her like an inward +fire. It had not abated one whit when at last the house was reached, and +dismissing her guide she stood a moment upon the steps, leaning her +throbbing head against the door post, and summoning courage to ring the +bell. Never before had she felt so much like an intruder, or so widely +separated from her husband, as during the moment she stood at the +threshold of her home, hesitating whether to ring or go away and give +the matter up. She could not go away now that she had come so far, she +finally decided. She must go in and see the place where Richard lived, +and so, at last, she gave the silver knob a pull, which reverberated +through the entire house, and brought Hannah, the housemaid, in a trice +to see who was there. + +"Is Governor Markham at home?" Ethie asked, as the girl waited for her +to say something. + +Governor Markham was East, and the folks all gone, the girl replied, +staring a little suspiciously at the stranger who without invitation, +had advanced into the hall, and even showed a disposition to make +herself further at home by walking into the drawing room, the door of +which was slightly ajar. + +"My name is Markham. I am a relative of the governor. I am from the +East," Ethelyn volunteered, as she saw the girl expected some +explanation. + +Had Hannah known more of Ethelyn, she might have suspected something; +but she had not been long in the family, and coming, as she did, from +St. Louis, the story of her master's wife was rather mythical to her +than otherwise. That there was once a Mrs. Markham, who, for beauty, and +style, and grandeur, was far superior to Mrs. James, the present +mistress of the establishment, she had heard vague rumors; while only +that morning when dusting and airing Richard's room, she had stopped her +work a moment to admire the handsome picture which Richard had had +painted, from a photograph of Ethie, taken when she was only seventeen. +It was a beautiful, girlish face, and the brown eyes were bright and +soft, and full of eagerness and joy; while the rounded cheeks and +pouting lips were not much like the pale thin woman who now stood in the +marbled hall, claiming to be a relative of the family. Hannah never +dreamed who it was; but, accustomed to treat with respect everything +pertaining to the governor, she opened the door of the little +reception-room, and asked the lady to go in. + +"I'll send you Mrs. Dobson the housekeeper," she said; and Ethie heard +her shuffling tread as she disappeared through the hall and down the +stairs to the regions where Mrs. Dobson reigned. + +Ethelyn was a little afraid of that dignitary; something in the +atmosphere of the house made her afraid of everything, inspiring her as +it did with the feeling that she had no business there--that she was a +trespasser, a spy, whom Mrs. Dobson would be justified in turning from +the door. But Mrs. Dobson meditated no such act. She was a quiet, +inoffensive, unsuspicious, personage, believing wholly in Governor +Markham and everything pertaining to him. She was canning fruit when +Hannah came with the message that some of the governor's kin had come +from the East, and remembering to have heard that Richard once had an +uncle somewhere in Massachusetts, she had no doubt that this was a +daughter of the old gentleman and a cousin of Richard's, especially as +Hannah described the stranger as youngish and tolerably good-looking. +She had no thought that it was the runaway wife, of whom she knew more +than Hannah, else she would surely have dropped the Spencer jar she was +filling and burned her fingers worse than she did, trying to crowd in +the refractory cover, which persisted in tipping up sideways and all +ways but the right way. + +"Some of his kin. Pity they are gone. What shall we do with her?" she +said, as she finally pushed the cover to its place and blew the thumb +she had burned badly. + +"Maybe she don't mean to stay long; she didn't bring no baggage," Hannah +said, and thus reassured, Mrs. Dobson rolled down her sleeves and tying +on a clean apron, started for the reception-room, where Ethie sat like +one stupefied, or one who walks in a dream from which he tries in +vain to waken. + +This house, as far as she could judge, was not like that home on the +prairie where her first married days were spent. Everything here was +luxurious and grand and in such perfect taste. It seemed a princely +home, and Ethie experienced more than one bitter pang of regret that by +her own act she had in all probability cut herself off from any part or +lot in this earthly paradise. + +"I deserve it, but it is very hard to bear," she thought, just as Mrs. +Dobson appeared and bowing respectfully, began: + +"Hannah tells me you are kin to the governor's folks,--his cousin, I +reckon--and I am so sorry they are all, gone, and will be yet for some +weeks. The governor is at a water cure down East--strange you didn't +hear of it--and t'other Mr. Markham has gone with his wife to Olney, +and St. Paul, and dear knows where. Too bad, ain't it? But maybe you'll +stay a day or two and rest? We'll make you as comfortable as we can. You +look about beat out," and Mrs. Dobson came nearer to Ethelyn, whose face +and lips were white as ashes, and whose eyes looked almost black with +her excitement. + +She was very tired. The rapid journey, made without rest or food +either, save the cup of tea and cracker she tried to swallow, was +beginning to tell upon her, and while Mrs. Dobson was speaking she felt +stealing over her the giddiness which she knew was a precursor +to fainting. + +"I am tired and heated," she gasped. "I could not sleep at the hotel or +eat, either. I will stay a day and rest, if you please. Rich--Governor +Markham will not care; I was traveling this way, and thought I would +call. I have heard so much about his house." + +She felt constrained to say this by way of explanation, and Mrs. Dobson +accepted it all, warming up at once on the subject of the house--that +was her weak point; while to show strangers through the handsome rooms +was her delight. No opportunity to do this had for some time been +presented, and the good woman's face glowed with the pleasure she +anticipated from showing the governor's cousin his house and grounds. +But first the lady must have some dinner, and bidding her lay aside her +bonnet and shawl and make herself at home, she hurried back to the +kitchen and dispatched Hannah for the tender lamb-chop she was going to +broil, as that was something easily cooked, and the poor girl seemed so +tired and feeble. + +"She looks like the Markhams, or like somebody I've seen," she said, +never dreaming of finding the familiar resemblance to "somebody she had +seen" in the picture hanging in Richard's room. + +What she would have done had she known who the stranger was is doubtful. +Fortunately she did not know; but being hospitably inclined, and feeling +anxious to show the governor's Eastern relatives how grand and nice they +were, she broiled the tender lamb, and made the fragrant coffee, and +laid the table in the cozy breakfast-room, and put on the little silver +set, and then conducted her visitor out to dinner, helping her herself, +and leaving the room with the injunction to ring if she wanted anything, +as Hannah was within hearing. Terribly bewildered and puzzled with +regard to her own identity, Ethie sat down to Richard's table, in +Richard's house, and partook of Richard's food, with a strange feeling +of quiet, and a constantly increasing sensation of numbness and +bewilderment. Access to the house had been easier than she fancied; but +she could not help feeling that she had no right to be there, no claim +on Richard's hospitality. Certainly she had none, if what she had heard +at Clifton were true. But was it? There was some doubt creeping into her +mind, though why Richard should wish to build so large and so fine a +house just for himself alone she could not understand. She never guessed +how every part of that dwelling had been planned with a direct reference +to her and her tastes; that not a curtain, or a carpet, or a picture had +been purchased without Melinda's having said she believed Ethie would +approve it. Every stone, and plank and tack, and nail had in it a +thought of the Ethie whose coming back had been speculated upon and +planned in so many different ways, but never in this way--never just as +it had finally occurred, with Richard gone, and no one there to welcome +her, save the servants in the kitchen, who, while she ate her solitary +dinner, feeling more desolate and wretched than she had ever before felt +in her life, wondered who she was, and how far they ought to go with +their attentions and civilities. They were not suspicious, but took her +for what she professed to be--a Markham, and a near connection of the +governor; and as that stamped her somebody, they were inclined to be +very civil, feeling sure that Mrs. James would heartily approve their +course. She had rung no bell for Hannah; but they knew her dinner was +over, for they heard her as she went back into the reception-room, where +Mrs. Dobson ere long joined her, and asked if she would like to see +the house. + +"It's the only thing we can amuse you with, unless you are fond of +music. Maybe you are," and Mrs. Dobson led the way to a little +music-room, where, in the recess of a bow window a closed piano +was standing. + +At first Ethelyn did not observe it closely; but when the housekeeper +opened it, and pushing back the heavy drapery, disclosed it fully to +view, Ethie started forward with a sudden cry of wonder and surprise, +while her face was deathly pale, and the fingers which came down with a +crash upon the keys shook violently, for she knew it was her old +instrument standing there before her--the one she had sold to procure +money for her flight. Richard must have bought it back; for her sake, +too, or rather for the sake of what she once was to him, not what +she was now. + +"Play, won't you?" Mrs. Dobson said. But Ethie could not then have +touched a note. The faintest tone of that instrument would have maddened +her and she turned away from it with a shudder, while the rather +talkative Mrs. Dobson continued: "It's an old piano, I believe, that +belonged to the first Mrs. Markham. There's to be a new one bought for +the other Mrs. Markham, I heard them say." + +Ethie's hands were tightly locked together now, and her teeth shut so +tightly over her lips that the thin skin was broken, and a drop of blood +showed upon the pale surface; but in so doing she kept back a cry of +anguish which leaped up from her heart at Mrs. Dobson's words. The +"first Mrs. Markham," that was herself, while the "other Mrs. Markham" +meant, of course, her rival--the bride about whom she had heard at +Clifton. She did not think of Melinda as being a part of that household, +"and the other Mrs. Markham," for whom the new piano was to be +purchased--she thought of nothing but herself, and her own +blighted hopes. + +"Does the governor know for certain that his first wife is dead?" she +asked, at last, and Mrs. Dobson replied: + +"He believes so, yes. It's five years since he heard a word. Of course +she's dead. She must have been a pretty creature. Her picture is in the +governor's room. Come, I will show it to you." + +Mrs. Dobson had left her glasses in the kitchen, so she did not notice +the white, stony face, so startling in its expression, as her visitor +followed her on up the broad staircase into the spacious hall above, and +on still further, till they came to the door of Richard's room, which +Hannah had left open. Then for a moment Ethelyn hesitated. It seemed +almost like a sacrilege for her feet to tread the floor of that private +room, for her breath to taint the atmosphere of a spot where the new +wife would come. But Mrs. Dobson led her on until she stood in the +center of Richard's room, surrounded by the unmistakable paraphernalia +of a man, with so many things around her to remind her of the past. +Surely, this was her own furniture; the very articles he had chosen for +the room in Camden. It was kind in Richard to keep and bring them here, +where everything was so much more elegant--kind, too, in him to redeem +her piano. It showed that for a time, at least, he had remembered her; +but alas! he had forgotten her now, when she wanted his love so much. +There were great blurring tears in her eyes, and she could not +distinctly see the picture on the walk which Mrs. Dobson said was the +first Mrs. Markham, asking if she was not a beauty. + +"Rather pretty, yes," Ethie said, making a great effort to speak +naturally, and adding after a moment: "I suppose it will be taken down +when the other Mrs. Markham comes." + +In Mrs. Dobson's mind the other Mrs. Markham only meant Melinda, and she +replied: + +"Why should it? She knows it is here. She knew the other lady and liked +her, too." + +"She knew me? Who can it be?" Ethie asked herself, remembering that the +name she had heard at Clifton was a strange one to her. + +"This, now, is the very handsomest part of the whole house," Mrs. Dobson +said, throwing open a door which led from Richard's room into a suite of +apartments which, to Ethie's bewildered gaze, seemed more like fairyland +than anything real she had ever seen. "This the governor fitted up +expressly for his wife and I'm told he spent more money here than in all +the upper rooms. Did you ever see handsomer lace? He sent to New York +for them," she said, lifting up one of the exquisitely wrought curtains +festooned across the arch which divided the boudoir from the large +sleeping room beyond. "This I call the bridal chamber," she continued, +stepping into the room where everything was so pure and white. "But, +bless me, I forgot that I put on a lot of bottles to heat: I'll venture +they are every one of them shivered to atoms. Hannah is so careless. +Excuse me, will you, and entertain yourself a while. I reckon you can +find your way back to the parlor." + +Ethelyn wanted nothing so much as to be left alone and free to indulge +in the emotions which were fast getting the mastery of her. Covering her +face with her hands, as the door closed after Mrs. Dobson, she sat for a +moment bereft of the power to think or feel. Then, as things became more +real, as great throbs of heat and pain went tearing through her temples, +she remembered that she was in Richard's house, up in the room which +Mrs. Dobson had termed the bridal chamber, the apartments which had been +fitted up for Richard's bride, whoever she might be. + +"I never counted on this," she whispered, as she paced up and down the +range of rooms, from the little parlor or boudoir to the dressing room +beyond the bedroom, and the little conservatory at the side, where the +choicest of plants were in blossom, and where the dampness was so cool +to her burning brow. + +It did not strike her as strange that Richard should have thought of all +this, nor did she wonder whose taste had aided him in making such a +home. She did not wonder at anything except at herself, who had missed +so much and fallen into such depths of woe. + +"Oh, Richard!" she sighed, as she went back to the bridal chamber. "You +would pity me now, and forgive me, too, if you knew what I am suffering +here in your home, which can never, never be mine!" + +She was standing now near the low window, taking in the effect of her +surroundings, from the white ground carpet covered with brilliant +bouquets, to the unrumpled, snowy bed which looked so deliciously cool +and inviting and seemed beckoning the poor, tired woman to its embrace. +And Ethie yielded at last to the silent invitation, forgetting +everything save how tired, and sorry, and fever-smitten she was, and how +heavy her swollen eyelids were with tears unshed, and the many nights +she had not slept. Ethie's cheeks were turning crimson, and her pulse +throbbing rapidly as, loosing her long, beautiful hair, which of all her +girlish beauty remained unimpaired, and putting off her little gaiters, +she lay down upon the snowy bed, and pressing her aching head upon the +pillows, whispered softly to her other self--the Ethelyn Grant she used +to know in Chicopee, when a little twelve-year-old girl she fled from +the maddened cow and met the tall young man from the West. + +"Governor Markham they call him now," she said, "and I am Mrs. +Governor," and a wild laugh broke the stillness of the rooms kept so +sacred until now. + +In the hall below Hannah overheard the laugh, and mounting the stairs +cast one frightened glance into the chamber where a tossing, moaning +figure lay upon the bed, with masses of brown hair falling about the +face and floating over the pillows. + +Good Mrs. Dobson dropped one of the jars she was filling when Hannah +came with her strange tale, and leaving the scalding mass of pulp and +juice upon the floor, she hastened up the stairs, and with as stern a +voice as it was possible for her to assume, demanded of Ethelyn what she +was doing there. But Ethie only whispered on to herself of divorces, and +governors' wives-elect, and bridal chambers where she could rest so +nicely. Mrs. Dobson and Mrs. Dobson's ire were nothing to her, and the +good woman's wrath changed to pity as she met the bright, restless eyes, +and felt the burning hands which she held for a moment in her own. It +was a pretty little hand--soft and white and small almost as a child's. +There was a ring upon the left hand, too; a marriage ring, Mrs. Dobson +guessed, wondering now more than ever who the stranger was that had thus +boldly taker possession of a room where none but the family ever came. + +"She is married, it would seem," she said to Hannah, and then, as +Richard's name dropped from Ethelyn's lips, she looked curiously at the +flushed face so ghastly white, save where spots of crimson colored the +cheeks, and at the mass of hair which Ethie had pushed up and off from +the forehead it seemed to oppress with its weight. + +"Go, bring me some ice-water from the cellar," Mrs. Dobson said to +Hannah, who hurried away on the errand, while the housekeeper, left to +herself, bent nearer to Ethelyn and closely scrutinized her face; then +stepping to Richard's room, she examined the picture on the wall, where +the hair was brushed back and the lips were parted like the lips and +hair in that other room where the stranger was. + +Mrs. Dobson was a good deal alarmed--"set back," as she afterward +expressed it when telling the story to Melinda--and her knees fairly +knocked together as she returned to the sick-room, and bending again +over the stranger asked, "Is your name Ethelyn?" + +For an instant there was a look of consciousness in the brown eyes, and +Ethie whispered faintly: + +"Don't tell him. Don't send me away. Let me stay here and die; it won't +be long, and this pillow is so nice." + +She was wandering again, and satisfied that her surmises were correct, +Mrs. Dobson lifted her gently up, and to the great surprise of Hannah, +who had returned with the ice, began removing the heavy dress and the +skirts so much in the way. + +"Bring some of Mrs. Markham's night-clothes, and ask me no questions," +she said to the astonished girl, who silently obeyed her, and then +assisted while Ethelyn was arrayed in Melinda's night-gown and made more +comfortable and easy than she could be in her own tight-fitting dress. + +"Take this to the telegraph office," was Mrs. Dobson's next order, after +she had been a few moments in the library, and Hannah obeyed, reading +as she ran: + + "DAVENPORT, August--. + "To MRS. JAMES MARKHAM, Olney: + + "There's a strange woman sick here. Please come + home. "ELINOR DOBSON." + +The way was open for the dispatch, and in less than half an hour the +operator at Olney was writing out the message which would take Melinda +back to Davenport as fast as steam could carry her. + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +AT HOME + +Mrs. James Markham had spent a few weeks with a party of Davenport +friends in St. Paul and vicinity, but she was now at home in Olney with +her mother, whom she helped with the ironing that morning, showing a +quickness and dexterity in the doing up of Tim's shirts and best table +linen which proved that, although a "mighty fine lady," as some of the +Olneyites termed her, she had neither forgotten nor was above working in +the kitchen when the occasion required. The day's ironing was over now, +and refreshed with a bath and a half-hour's sleep after it, she sat +under the shadow of the tall trees, arrayed in her white marseilles, +which, being gored, made her look, as unsophisticated Andy thought, most +too slim and flat. Andy himself was over at the Joneses that afternoon, +and, down upon all fours, was playing bear with baby Ethelyn, who +shouted and screamed with delight at the antics of her childish uncle. +Mrs. James was not contemplating a return to Davenport for three or four +weeks; indeed, ever since the letter received from Clifton with regard +to Richard's sickness, she had been seriously meditating a flying visit +to the invalid, who she knew would be glad to see her. It must be very +desolate for him there alone, she said; and then her thoughts went after +the wanderer whom they had long since ceased to talk about, much less +than to expect back again. Melinda was sadly thinking of her, and +speculating as to what her fate had been, when down the road from the +village came the little messenger boy, who always made one's heart beat +so fast when he handed out his missive. He had one now, and he brought +it to Melinda, who, thinking of her husband, gone to Denver City, felt +a thrill of fear lest something had befallen him. But no; the dispatch +came from Davenport, from Mrs. Dobson herself, and read that a strange +woman lay very sick in the house. + +"A strange woman," that was all, but it made Melinda's heart leap up +into her throat at the bare possibility as to who the strange woman +might be. Andy was standing by her now reading the message, and Melinda +knew by the flush upon his face, and the drops of perspiration which +started out so suddenly around his mouth, that he, too, shared her +suspicions. But not a word was spoken by either upon the subject +agitating them so powerfully. Melinda only said, "I must go home at +once--in the next train if possible," while Andy rejoined, "I am going +with you." + +Melinda knew why he was going, and when at last they were on the way, +the sight of his honest-speaking face, glowing all over with eagerness +and joyful anticipations, kept her own spirits up, and made what she so +greatly hoped for seem absolutely certain. It was morning when they +arrived, and were driven rapidly through the streets toward home. The +house seemed very quiet; every window and shutter, so far as they could +see, was closed, and both experienced a terrible fear lest "the strange +woman" was gone. They could not wait for Hannah to open the door, and so +they went round to the basement, surprising Mrs. Dobson as she bent over +the fire, stirring the basin of gruel she was preparing for her patient. +"The strange woman" was not gone. She was raving mad, Mrs. Dobson said, +and talked the queerest things. "I've had the doctor, just as I knew you +would have done, had you been here," she said, "and he pronounced it +brain fever, brought on by fatigue, and some great excitement or +worriment. 'Pears like she thought she was divorced, or somebody was +divorced, for she was talking about it, and showing the ring on her +fourth finger. I hope Governor Markham won't mind it. 'Twas none of my +doings. She went there herself, and I first found her in the bed in that +room where nobody ever slept--the bride's room, I call it, you know." + +"Is she there?" Melinda asked, in amazement, while Andy, who had been +standing near the door which led up to the next floor, disappeared up +the stairs, leaving the women alone. + +He knew the way to the room designated, and went hurrying on until he +reached the door, and there he paused, his flesh creeping with the +intensity of his excitement, and his whole being pervaded with a +crushing sense of eager expectancy. He had not put into words what or +whom he expected to find on the other side of the door he hardly dared +to open. He only knew he should be terribly disappointed if his +conjectures proved wrong, and a smothered prayer rose to his lips, "God +grant it may be the she I mean." + +The she he meant was sleeping now. The brown head which rolled so +restlessly all night was lying quietly upon the pillows, the burning +cheek resting upon one hand, and the mass of long, bright hair tucked +back under one of Mrs. Dobson's own nightcaps, that lady having sought +in vain for such an article among her mistress' wardrobe. She did not +hear Andy as he stepped softly across the floor to the bedside. Bending +cautiously above her, he hesitated a moment, while a great throb of +disappointment ran through his veins. Surely that was not Ethie, with +the hollow cheeks and the disfiguring frill around her face, giving her +more the look of the new and stylish nurse Melinda had got from +Chicago--the woman who wore a cap in place of a bonnet, and jabbered +half the time in some foreign tongue, which Melinda said was French. The +room was very dark, and Andy pushed back a blind, letting in such a +flood of light that the sleeper started, and moaned, and turned herself +upon the pillow, while with a gasping, sobbing cry, Andy fell upon his +knees, and with clasped hands and streaming eyes, exclaimed: + +"I thank Thee, Father of mercies, more than I can tell, for it is +Ethie--it is Ethie--it is Ethie, our own darling Ethie, come back to us +again; and now, dear Lord, bring old Dick home at once, and let us have +a time of it." + +Ethie's eyes were opened and fixed inquiringly upon Andy. Something in +his voice and manner must have penetrated through the mists of delirium +clouding her brain, for the glimmer of a smile played round her lips, +and her hands moved slowly toward him; then they went back again to her +throat and tugged at the nightcap strings which good Mrs. Dobson had +tied in a hard knot by way of keeping the cap upon the refractory head. +Ethie did not fancy the cap any more than Andy, who, guessing her +wishes, lent his own assistance to the untying of the strings. + +"You don't like the pesky thing on your head, making you look so like a +scarecrow, do you?" he said gently, as with a jerk he broke the strings +and then threw the discarded cap upon the floor. + +Ethie seemed to know him for a moment, and, "Kiss me, Andy," came feebly +from her lips. Winding his arms about her, Andy did kiss her many times, +while his tears dropped upon her face and moistened the long hair, +which, relieved from its confinement, fell in dark masses about her +face, making her look more like the Ethelyn of old than she had +at first. + +"Was there a divorce?" she whispered, and Andy, in great perplexity, was +wondering what she meant, when Melinda's step came along the hall, and +Melinda entered the room together with Mrs. Dobson. + +"It's she--herself! It's our own Ethie!" Andy exclaimed, standing back a +little from the bed, but still holding the feverish hand which had +grasped his so firmly, as if in that touch alone was rest and security. + +"I thought so," and with a satisfied nod Mrs. Dobson put down her bowl +of gruel and went down to communicate the startling news to Hannah, who +nearly lost her senses in the first moment of surprise. + +"Do you know me, Ethie?" Melinda asked, but in the bright, rolling eyes +there was no ray of reason; only the lip quivered slightly, and Ethie +said so sadly, so beseechingly, "Don't send me away, when I am so tired +and sorry." + +She seemed to have a vague idea where she was and who was with her, +clinging closer to Andy, as if surest of him, and once when he bent +over her, she suddenly wound her arms around his neck and whispered, +"Don't leave me--it's nice to know you are with me; and don't let them +put that dreadful thing on my head again. Aunt Van Buren said I was a +fright. Will Richard think so, too?" + +This was the only time she mentioned her husband, though she talked of +Clifton and Mrs. Pry, and the story of the divorce, and the dear little +chapel where she said God always came, bidding Andy kneel down and pray +just as they were doing there when the summer day drew to a close. + +"We must send for Dick," Andy said; "but don't let's tell the whole; +let's leave something to his imagination;" and so the telegram which +went to Governor Markham read simply: "Come home immediately. Don't wait +for a single train." + +Richard had heard of Miss Bigelow's sudden departure, and had been +surprised to find how much he missed the light footsteps and the +rustling sound which had come from No. 101. He was a good deal +interested in Miss Bigelow, and when Mary told him of her leaving so +unexpectedly and appearing so excited, there had for a moment flashed +over him the wild thought, "Could it be?" No, it could not, he said; but +he questioned Mary as to the appearance of the lady in No. 101. "Was she +very handsome, with full, rosy cheeks, and eyes of chestnut brown?" + +"She was rather pretty," Mary said; "but her face was thin and pale, and +her eyes, she guessed, were black." + +It was not Ethie, then--Richard had never believed it was--but he felt +sorry that she was gone, whoever she might be, and Clifton was not so +pleasant to him now as it had been at first. He was much better, and had +been once to the chapel, when up the three flights of stairs Perry came +and along the hall till he stopped at Room No. 102. There was a telegram +for Richard, who took it with trembling hands and read it with a blur +before his eyes and something at his heart like a blow, but which was +born of a sudden hope that, after many days and months and years of +waiting, God had deigned to be merciful. But only for a brief moment did +this hope buoy him up. It could not be, he said; and yet, as he made his +hasty preparations for his journey, he found the possibility constantly +recurring to his mind, while the nearer he came to Davenport the more +probable it seemed, and the more impatient he grew at every little +delay. There were several upon the road, and once, only fifty miles from +home, there was a detention of four hours. But the long train moved at +last, and just as the sun was setting the cars stopped in the Davenport +depot, and as the passengers alighted the loungers whispered to each +other, "Governor Markham has come home." + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +RICHARD AND ETHELYN + +Arrived at Davenport, and so near his home that he could discern its +roofs and chimneys, the hope which had kept Richard up all through his +rapid journey began to give way, and he hardly knew what or whom he +expected to find, as he went up the steps to his house and rang the door +bell. Certainly not Andy--he had not thought of him--and his pulse +quickened with a feeling of eagerness and hope renewed when he caught +sight of his brother's beaming face and felt the pressure of his broad +hand. In his delight Andy kissed his brother two or three times during +the interval it took to get him through the hall into the reception +room, where they were alone. Arrived there, Andy fell to capering across +the floor, while Richard looked on, puzzled to decide whether his weak +brother had gone wholly daft or not. Recollecting himself at last, and +assuming a more sober attitude, Andy came close to him and whispered: + +"Dick, you ought to be thankful, so thankful and glad that God has been +kind at last and heard our prayers, just as I always told you he would. +Guess who is upstairs, ravin' crazy by spells, and quiet as a Maltese +kitten the rest of the time? I'll bet, though, you'll never guess, it +is so strange? Try, now--who do you think it is?" + +"Ethelyn," came in a whisper from Richard's lips, and rather +crestfallen, the simple Andy said, "Somebody told you, I know; but you +are right. Ethie is here--came when we all was gone--said she was a +connection of yourn, and so Miss Dobson let her in, and treated her up, +and showed her the house, and left her in them rooms you fixed a purpose +for her. You see Miss Dobson had some truck she was canning, and she +stayed downstairs so long that when she went back she found Ethie had +taken possession of that bed where nobody ever slept, and was burnin' up +with fever and talkin' the queerest kind of talk about divorces, and all +that, and there was something in her face made Miss Dobson mistrust who +she was, and she telegraphed for Melinda and me--or rather for +Melinda--and I came out with her, for I knew in a minit who the strange +woman was. But she won't know you, Dick. She don't know me, though she +lays her head on my arm and snugs up to me awful neat. Will you go now +to see her?" + +The question was superfluous, for Richard was halfway up the stairs, +followed close by Andy, who went with him to the door of Ethie's room, +and then stood back, thinking it best for Richard to go in alone. + +Ethelyn was asleep, and Melinda sat watching her. She knew it was +Richard who came in, for she had heard his voice in the hall, and +greeting him quickly, arose and left the room, whispering: "If she +wakes, don't startle her. Probably she will not know you." + +Then she went out, and Richard was alone with the wife he had not seen +for more than five weary years. It was very dark in the room, and it +took him a moment to accustom himself to the light enough to discover +the figure lying so still before him, the pale eyelids closed, and the +long eyelashes resting upon the crimson cheek. The lips and forehead +were very white, but the rest of the face was purple with fever, and as +that gave the cheeks a fuller, rounder look, she did not at first seem +greatly changed, but looked much as she did the time he came from +Washington and found her so low. The long hair which Andy would not have +confined in a cap was pushed back from her brow, and lay in tangled +masses upon the pillow, while her hands were folded one within the other +and rested outside the covering. And Richard touched her hands +first--the little, soft, white hands he used to think so pretty, and +which he now kissed so softly as he knelt by the bedside and tried to +look closely into Ethie's face. + +"My poor, sick darling, God knows how glad I am to have you back," he +murmured, and his tears dropped like rain upon the hands he pressed so +gently. Then softly caressing the pale forehead, his fingers threaded +the mass of tangled hair, and his lips touched the hot, burning ones +which quivered for a moment, and then said, brokenly: + +"A dream--all a dream. I've had it so many times." + +She was waking, and Richard drew back a step or two, while the bright, +restless eyes moved round the room as if in quest of someone. + +"It's very dark," she said, and turning one of the shutters Richard came +back and stood just where the light would fall upon his face as it +did on hers. + +He saw now how changed she was; but she was none the less dear to him +for that, and he spoke to her very tenderly: + +"Ethie, darling, don't you know me? I am Richard, your husband, and I am +so glad to get you back." + +There did seem to be a moment's consciousness, for there crept into the +eyes a startled, anxious look as they scanned Richard's face; then the +lip quivered again, and Ethie said pleadingly: + +"Don't send me away. I am so tired, and the road was so long. I thought +I would never get here. Let me stay. I shall not be bad any more." + +Then, unmindful of consequences, Richard gathered her in his arms, and +held her there an instant in a passionate embrace, which left her pale +and panting, but seemed to reassure her, for when he would have laid her +back upon the pillow, she said to him, "No, not there--on your arm--so. +Yes, that's nice," and an expression of intense satisfaction stole into +her face as she nestled her head close to Richard's bosom, and, closing +her eyes, seemed to sleep again. And Richard held her thus, forgetting +his own fatigue, and refusing to give up his post either to Andy or +Melinda, both of whom ventured in at last, and tried to make him take +some refreshment and rest. + +"I am not hungry," he said, "and it is rest enough to be with Ethelyn." + +Much he wondered where she had come from, and Melinda repeated all +Ethelyn had said which would throw any light upon the subject. + +"She has talked of the Nile, and St. Petersburg, and the Hellespont, and +the ship which was bringing her to Richard, and of Chicopee, but it was +difficult telling how much was real," Melinda said, adding, "She talked +of Clifton, too; and were it possible, I should say she came direct from +there, but that could not be. You would have known if she had been +there. What was the number of your room?" + +"102," Richard replied, a new revelation dawning upon him, while Melinda +rejoined: + +"That is the number she talks about--that and 101. Can it be that she +was there?" + +Richard was certain of it. The Miss Bigelow who had interested him so +much lay there in his arms, his own wife, who was, if possible, tenfold +dearer to him now than when he first held her as his bride. He knew she +was very sick, but she would not die, he said to himself. God had not +restored her to him just to take her away again, and make his desolation +more desolate. Ethie would live. And surely if love, and nursing, and +tender care were of any avail to save the life which at times seemed +fluttering on the very verge of the grave, Ethelyn would live. Nothing +was spared which could avail to save her, and even the physician, who +had all along done what he could, seemed to redouble his efforts when he +ascertained who his patient was. + +Great was the surprise, and numerous the remarks and surmises of the +citizens, when it was whispered abroad that the strange woman lying so +sick in the governor's house was no other than the governor's wife, +about whom the people had speculated so much. Nor was it long ere the +news went to Camden, stirring up the people there, and bringing Mrs. +Miller at once to Davenport, where she stayed at a hotel until such time +as she could be admitted to Ethelyn's presence. + +Mrs. Markham, senior, was washing windows when Tim Jones brought her the +letter bearing the Davenport postmark. Melinda had purposely abstained +from writing home until Richard came; and so the letter was in his +handwriting, which his mother recognized at once. + +"Why, it's from Richard!" she exclaimed. "I thought he wouldn't stay +long at Clifton. I never did believe in swashin' all the time. A bath in +the tin washbasin does me very well," and the good woman wiped her +window leisurely, and even put it back and fastened the side-slat in its +place before she sat down to see what Richard had written. + +Tim knew what he had written, for in his hat was another letter from +Melinda, for his mother, which he had opened, his feet going off into a +kind of double shuffle as he read that Ethelyn had returned. She had +been very cold and proud to him; but he had admired her greatly, and +remembered her with none but kindly feelings. He was a little anxious to +know what Mrs. Markham would say, but as she was in no hurry to open her +letter, and he was in a hurry to tell his mother the good news, he bade +her good-morning, and mounting his horse, galloped away toward home. + +"I hope he's told who the critter was that was took sick in the house," +Mrs. Markham said, as she adjusted her glasses and broke the seal. + +Mrs. Markham had never fainted in her life, but she came very near it +that morning, feeling some as she would if the Daisy, dead, so long, had +suddenly walked into the room and taken a seat beside her. + +"I am glad for Dick," she said. "I never saw a man change as he has, +pinin' for her. I mean to be good to her, if I can," and Mrs. Markham's +sun-bonnet was bent low over Richard's letter, on which there were +traces of tears when the head was lifted up again. "I must let John +know, I never can stand it till dinner time," she said, and a shrill +blast from the tin horn, used to bring her sons to dinner, went echoing +across the prairie to the lot where John was working. + +It was not a single blast, but peal upon peal, a loud, prolonged sound, +which startled John greatly, especially as he knew by the sun that it +could not be twelve o'clock. + +"Blows as if somebody was in a fit," he said, as he took long and rapid +strides toward the farmhouse. + +His mother met him in the lane, letter in hand, and her face white with +excitement as she said below her breath: + +"John, John, oh! John, she's come. She's there at Richard's--sick with +the fever, and crazy; and Richard is so glad. Read what he says." + +She did not say who had come, but John knew, and his eyes were dim with +tears as he took the letter from his mother's hand, and read it, walking +beside her to the house. + +"I presume they doctor her that silly fashion, with little pills the +size of a small pin head. Melinda is so set in her way. She ought to +have some good French brandy if they want to save her. I'd better go +myself and see to it," Mrs. Markham said, after they had reached the +house, and John, at her request, had read the letter aloud. + +John did not quite fancy his mother's going, particularly as Richard had +said nothing about it, but Mrs. Markham was determined. + +"It was a good way to make it up with Ethelyn, to be there when she come +to," she thought, and so, leaving her house-cleaning to itself, and John +to his bread and milk, of which he never tired, she packed a little +traveling bag, and taking with her a bottle of brandy, started on the +next train for Davenport, where she had never been. + +Aunt Barbara was not cleaning house. She was cutting dried caraway seed +in the garden, and thinking of Ethie, wondering why she did not write, +and hoping that when she did she would say that she had talked with +Richard, and made the matter up. Ever since hearing that he was at +Clifton, in the next room to Ethie, Aunt Barbara had counted upon a +speedy reconciliation, and done many things with a direct reference to +that reconciliation. The best chamber was kept constantly aired, with +bouquets of flowers in it, in case the happy pair, "as good as just +married," should come suddenly upon her. Ethie's favorite loaf cake was +constantly kept on hand, and when Betty suggested that they should let +Uncle Billy cut down that caraway seed, "and heave it away," the good +soul objected, thinking there was no telling what would happen, and it +was well enough to save such things as anise and caraway. So, in her big +cape bonnet, she was cutting her branches of herbs, when Charlie Howard +looked over the garden gate with "Got a letter for you." + +"It ain't from her. It's from--why, it's from Richard, and he is in +Davenport," Aunt Barbara exclaimed, as she sat down in a garden chair to +read the letter which was not from Ethie. + +Richard did not say directly to her that she must come, but Aunt Barbara +felt an innate conviction that her presence would not be disagreeable, +even if Ethie lived, while "if she died," and Aunt Barbara's heart gave +a great throb as she thought it, "if Ethie died she must be there," and +so her trunk was packed for the third time in Ethie's behalf, and the +next day's train from Boston carried the good woman on her way to +Davenport. + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +RECONCILIATION + +There had been a succession of rainy days in Davenport--dark, rainy +days, which added to the gloom hanging over that house where they +watched so intently by Ethie's side, trembling lest the life they prayed +for so earnestly might go out at any moment, so high the fever ran, and +so wild and restless the patient grew. The friends were all there +now--James, and John, and Andy, and Aunt Barbara, with Mrs. Markham, +senior, who, at first, felt a little worried, lest her son should be +eaten out of house and home, especially as Melinda manifested no +disposition to stint the table of any of their accustomed luxuries. As +housekeeper, Mrs. Dobson was a little inclined at first to stand in awe +of the governor's mother, and so offered no remonstrance when the tea +grounds from supper were carefully saved to be boiled up for breakfast, +as both Melinda and Aunt Barbara preferred tea to coffee, but when it +came to a mackerel and a half for seven people, and four of them men, +Mrs. Dobson demurred, and Melinda's opinion in requisition, the result +was that three fishes, instead of one and a half smoked upon the +breakfast table next morning, together with toast and mutton-chops. +After that Mrs. Markham gave up the contest with a groan, saying, "they +might go to destruction their own way, for all of her." + +Where Ethelyn was concerned, however, she showed no stint. Nothing was +too good for her, no expense too great, and next to Richard and Andy, +she seemed more anxious, more interested than anyone for the sick girl +who lay so insensible of all that was passing around her, save at brief +intervals when she seemed for an instant to realize where she was, for +her eyes would flash about the room with a frightened, startled look, +and then seek Richard's face with a wistful, pleading expression, as if +asking not to cast her off, not to send her back into the dreary world +where she had wandered so long alone. The sight of so many seemed to +worry her, for she often talked of the crowd at the Clifton depot, +saying they took her breath away; and once, drawing Andy's face down to +her, she whispered to him, "Send them back to the Cure, all but his +royal highness"--pointing to Richard--"and Anna, the prophetess, she +can stay." + +This was Aunt Barbara, to whom Ethelyn clung as a child to its mother, +missing her the moment she left the room, and growing quiet as soon as +she returned. It was the same with Richard. She seemed to know when he +quitted her side, and her eyes watched the door eagerly till he came +back to her again. At the doctor's suggestion, all were at last banished +from the sick-room except Aunt Barbara, and Richard, and Nick Bottom, as +she persisted in calling poor Andy, who was terribly perplexed to know +whether he was complimented or not, and who eventually took to studying +Shakspere to find out who Bottom was. Those were trying days to Richard, +who rarely left Ethie's bedside, except when it was absolutely +necessary. She was more quiet with him, and would sometimes sleep for +hours upon his arm, with one hand clasped in Aunt Barbara's, and the +other held by Andy. At other times, when the fever was on, no arm +availed to hold her as she tossed from side to side, talking of things +at which a stranger would have marveled, and which made Richard's heart +ache to its very core. At times she was a girl in Chicopee, and all the +past as connected with Frank Van Buren was lived over again; then she +would talk of Richard, and shudder as she recalled the dreary, dreadful +day when the honeysuckles were in blossom, and he came to make her +his wife. + +"It was wrong, all wrong. I did not love him then," she said, "nor +afterward, on the prairie, nor anywhere, until I went away, and found +what it was to live without him." + +"And do you love him now?" Richard asked her once when he sat alone with +her. + +There was no hesitancy on her part, no waiting to make up an answer. It +was ready on her lips, "Yes, oh, yes!" and the weak arms lifted +themselves up and were wound around his neck with a pressure almost +stifling. How much of this was real Richard could not tell, but he +accepted it as such, and waited impatiently for the day when the full +light of reason should return and Ethie be restored to him. There was +but little of her past life which he did not learn from her ravings, and +so there was less for her to tell him when at last the fever abated, and +his eyes met hers with a knowing, rational expression. Andy was alone +with her when the change first came. The rain, which had fallen so +steadily, was over, and out upon the river the sunlight was softly +falling. At Andy's earnest entreaty, Richard had gone for a little +exercise in the open air, and was walking slowly up and down the broad +piazza, while Aunt Barbara slept, and Andy kept his vigils by Ethelyn. +She, too, was sleeping quietly, and Andy saw the great drops of +perspiration standing upon her brow and beneath her hair. He knew it was +a good omen, and on his knees by the bedside, with his face in his +hands, he prayed aloud, thanking God for restoring Ethelyn to them, and +asking that they might all be taught just how to make her happy. A faint +sound between a moan and a sob roused him and, looking up, he saw the +great tears rolling down Ethie's cheeks, while her lips moved as if they +would speak to him. + +"Andy, dear old Andy! is it you, and are you glad to have me back?" she +said, and then all Andy's pent-up feelings found vent in a storm of +tears and passionate protestations of love and tenderness for his +darling sister. + +She remembered how she came there, and seemed to understand why Andy was +there, too; but the rest was a little confused. Was Aunt Barbara there, +or had she only dreamed it? + +"Aunt Barbara is here," Andy said, and then, with the same frightened, +anxious look her face had so often worn during her illness, Ethie said: +"Somebody else has sat by me and held my head and hands, and kissed me! +Andy, tell me--was that Richard?--and did he kiss me, and is he glad +to find me?" + +She was gazing fixedly at Andy, who replied: "Yes, Dick is here. He's +glad to have you back. He's kissed you more than forty times. He don't +remember nothing.'' + +"And the divorce, Andy--is the story true, and am I not his wife?" + +"I never heard of no divorce, only what you said about one in your +tantrums. Dick would as soon have cut off his head as got such a thing," +Andy replied. + +Ethelyn knew she could rely on what Andy said, and a heartfelt "Thank +God! It is more than I deserve!" fell from her lips, just as a step was +heard in the hall. + +"That's Dick,--he's coming," Andy whispered, and hastily withdrawing he +left the two alone together. + +It was more than an hour before even Aunt Barbara ventured into the +room, and when she did she knew by the joy written on Richard's face and +the deep peace shining in Ethie's eyes that the reconciliation had been +complete and perfect. Every error had been confessed, every fault +forgiven, and the husband and wife stood ready now to begin the world +anew, with perfect love for and confidence in each other. Ethie had +acknowledged all her faults, the greatest of which was the giving her +hand to one from whom she withheld her heart. + +"But you have that now," she said. "I can truly say that I love you far +betten than ever frank Van Buren was loved, and I know you to be worthy, +too. I have been so wicked, Richard,--so wilful and impatient,--that I +wonder you have not learned to hate my very name. I may be wilful still. +My old hot temper is not all subdued, though I hope I am a better woman +than I used to be when I cared for nothing but myself. God has been so +good to me who have forgotten Him so long; but we will serve Him +together now." + +As Ethie talked she had nestled closer and closer to her husband, whose +arms encircled her form and whose face bent itself down to hers, while a +rain of tears fell upon her hair and forehead as the strong man,--the +grave Judge and the honored Governor,--confessed where he, too, had been +in fault, and craving his young wife's pardon, ascribed also to God the +praise for bringing them both to feel their dependence on Him, as well +as to see this day, the happiest of their lives. + +Gradually, as she could bear it, the family came in one by one to see +her, Mrs. Markham, Sen., waiting till the very last, and refusing to go +until Ethelyn had expressed a wish to see her. + +"I was pretty hard on her, I s'pose, and it would not be strange if she +laid it up against me," she said to Melinda; but Ethie had nothing +against her now. + +The deep waters through which she had passed had obliterated all traces +of bitterness toward anyone, and when her mother-in-law came in she +feebly extended her hand and whispered: "I'm too tired, mother, to talk +much, but kiss me once for the sake of what we are going to be to +each other." + +Mrs. Markham was not naturally a bad or a hard woman, either. She was +only unfortunate that her ideas had run in one rut so long without any +jolt to throw them out. Circumstances had greatly softened her, and +Ethie's words touched her deeply. + +"I was mighty mean to you sometimes, Ethelyn, and I've been sorry for +it," she said, as she stooped to kiss her daughter-in-law, and then +hurried from the room, "Only to think, she called me mother," she said +to Melinda, to whom she reported the particulars of her interview with +Ethelyn--"me, who had been meaner than dirt to her--called me mother, +when I used to mistrust her she didn't think any more of me than if I'd +been an old squaw. I shan't forget it right away." + +Perhaps the sweetest, most joyful tears Ethelyn shed that day were those +which came to her eyes when they brought her Ethelyn, her namesake, the +little three-year-old, who pushed her brown curls back from her baby +face with such a womanly air, and said: + +"I'se glad to see Aunt Ethie. I prays for her ever' night. Uncle Andy +told me so. I loves you, Aunt Ethie." + +She was a beautiful little creature, and her innocent prattle and +engaging manners did much toward bringing the color back to Ethie's +cheeks and the brightness to her eyes. Those days of convalescence were +blissful ones, for now there was no shadow of a cloud resting on the +domestic horizon. Between husband and wife there was perfect love, and +in his newly born happiness, Richard forgot the ailments which had sent +him an invalid to Clifton, while Ethie, surrounded by every luxury which +love could devise or money procure, and made each hour to feel how dear +she was to those from whom she had been so long estranged, grew fresh, +and young, and pretty again; so that when, early in December, Mrs. Dr. +Van Buren came to Davenport to see her niece, she found her more +beautiful far than she had been in her early girlhood, when the boyish +Frank had paid his court to her. Poor little Nettie was dead. Her life +had literally been worried out of her; and during those September days, +when Ethelyn was watched and tended so carefully, she had turned herself +wearily upon her pillow, and just as the clock was striking the hour of +midnight, asked of the attendant: + +"Has Frank come yet?" + +"Not yet. Do you want anything?" + +"No, nothing. Is mother here?" + +"She was tired out, and has gone to her room to rest. Shall I call her?" + +"No, no matter. Is Ethie in her crib? Please bring her here. Never mind +if you do wake her. 'Tis the last time." + +And so the little sleeping child was brought to the dying mother, who +would fain feel that something she had loved was near her in the last +hour of loneliness and anguish she would ever know. Sorrow, +disappointment, and cruel neglect had been her lot ever since she became +a wife, but at the last these had purified and made her better, and led +her to the Saviour's feet, where she laid the little child she held so +closely to her bosom, dropping her tears upon its face and pressing her +farewell kiss upon its lips. Then she put it from her, and bidding the +servant remove the light, which made her eyes ache so, turned again upon +her pillow, and folding her little, white, wasted hands upon her bosom, +said softly the prayer the Saviour taught, and then glided as softly +down the river whose tide is never backward toward the shores of time. + + * * * * * + +About one Frank came home from the young men's association which he +attended so often, his head fuller of champagne and brandy than it was +of sense, and every good feeling blunted with dissipation. But the +Nettie whose pale face had been to him so constant a reproach was gone +forever, and only the lifeless form was left of what he once called his +wife. She was buried in Mount Auburn, and they made her a grander +funeral than they had given to her first-born, and then the household +want on the same as ever until Mrs. Van Buren conceived the idea of +visiting her niece, Mrs. Gov. Markham, and taking her grandchild with +her. For the sake of the name she was sure the little girl would be +welcome, as well as for the sake of the dead mother. And she was +welcome, more so even than the stately aunt, whose deep mourning robes +seemed to throw a kind of shadowy gloom over the house which she found +so handsome, and elegant, and perfectly kept that she would willingly +have spent the entire winter there. She was not invited to do this, and +some time in January she went back to her home, looking out on Boston +Common, but not until she had eaten a Christmas dinner with Mrs. +Markham, senior, at whose house the whole family were assembled on +that occasion. + +There was much good cheer and merriment there, and Ethie, in her rich +crimson silk which Richard had surprised her with, was the queen of all, +her wishes deferred to, and her tastes consulted with a delicacy and +deference which no one could fail to observe. And Eunice Plympton was +there, too, waiting upon the table with Andy, who insisted upon standing +at the back of Ethie's chair, just as he had seen the waiters do in +Camden, and would have his mother ring the silver bell when anything was +wanted. It was a happy family reunion, and a meet harbinger of the +peaceful days in store for our heroine--days which came and went so +fast, until winter melted into spring, and the spring budded into +blushing summer, and the summer faded into the golden autumn, and the +autumn floated with feathery snowflakes into the chilly winter and +December came again, bringing another meeting of the Markhams. But this +time it was at the governor's house in Davenport, and another was added +to the number--a pretty little waxen thing, which all through the +elaborate dinner slept quietly in its crib, and then in the evening, +when the gas was lighted in the parlors, and Mr. Townsend was there in +his gown, behaved most admirably, and lay very still in its father +Richard's arms, until it was transferred from his to those of the +clergyman, who in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost +baptized it "Daisy Adelaide Grant." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ethelyn's Mistake, by Mary Jane Holmes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ETHELYN'S MISTAKE *** + +***** This file should be named 12104.txt or 12104.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/1/0/12104/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Charlie Kirschner and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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