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diff --git a/15321-8.txt b/15321-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4da9b31 --- /dev/null +++ b/15321-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,19816 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tracy Park, 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: Tracy Park + +Author: Mary Jane Holmes + +Release Date: March 10, 2005 [eBook #15321] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRACY PARK*** + + +E-text prepared by David Garcia, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team from page images generously +made available by the Kentuckiana Digital Library + + + +Note: Images of the original pages of the printed work can be seen at + the Electonic Text Collection of the Kentuckiana Digital Library + http://kdl.kyvl.org/ + + + + +TRACY PARK + +A Novel + +by + +MRS. MARY J. HOLMES, + +Author of Bessie's Fortune, Queenie Hetherton, Edith Lysle's Secret, +Homestead on the Hillside, etc., etc., etc. + +Toronto: +Rose Publishing Company +Hunter Rose & Co. +Printers & Book Binders +Toronto +25 Wellington St + +1886 + + + + + + + +"Don't stand and cry; press forward and remove the +difficulty."--Dickens. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE TELEGRAM. + + +'BREVOORT HOUSE, NEW YORK, Oct. 6th, 18--. + +'_To Mr. Frank Tracy, Tracy Park, Shannondale_. + +'I arrived in the Scotia this morning, and shall take the train for +Shannondale at 3 p.m. Send someone to the station to meet us. + +'ARTHUR TRACEY.' + +This was the telegram which the clerk in the Shannonville office wrote +out one October morning, and despatched to the Hon. Frank Tracy, of +Tracy Park, in the quiet town of Shannondale, where our story opens. + +Mr. Frank Tracy, who, since his election to the State Legislature for +two successive terms, had done nothing except to attend political +meetings and make speeches on all public occasions, had an office in +town, where he usually spent his mornings, smoking, reading the papers +and talking to Mr. Colvin, his business agent and lawyer, for, though +born in one of the humblest of New England houses, where the slanting +roof almost touched the ground in the rear, and he could scarcely stand +upright in the chamber where he slept, Mr. Frank Tracy was a great man +now, and as he dashed along the turnpike behind his blooded bays, with +his driver beside him, people looked admiringly after him, and pointed +him out to strangers as the Hon. Mr. Tracy, of Tracy Park, one of the +finest places in the county. It is true it did not belong to him, but he +had lived there so long that he had come to look upon it as his, while +his neighbors, too, seemed to have forgotten that there was across the +ocean a Mr. Arthur Tracy, who might at any time come home to claim his +own, and demand an account of his brother's stewardship. And it was +this very Arthur Tracy, whose telegram announcing his return from Europe +was read by his brother with mingled feelings of surprise and +consternation. + +'Not that everything isn't fair and above-board, and he is welcome to +look into matters as much as he likes,' Frank said over and over to +himself, as he sat stating blankly at the telegram, while the cold +chills ran up and down his back and arms. 'Yes, he can examine all +Colvin's books and he will find them straight as a string, for didn't he +tell me to use what I needed as remuneration for looking after his +property while he was gallivanting over the world; and if he objects +that I have paid myself too much, why, I can at once transfer those +investments in my name to him. No, it is not that which affects me so, +it is the suddenness of the thing, coming without warning and to-night +of all nights, when the house will be full of carousing and champagne. +What will Dolly say! Hysterics of course, if not a sick headache. I +don't believe I can face her till she has had a little time to get over +it. Here, boy, I want, you!' and he rapped at the window at a young lad +who happened to be passing with a basket on his arm. 'I want you to do +an errand for me,' he continued, as the boy entered the office, and, +removing his cap, stood respectfully before him 'Take this telegram to +Mrs. Tracy, and here is a dime for you.' + +'Thank you, but I don't care for the money,' the boy said 'I was going +to the park anyway to tell Mrs. Tracy that grandma is sick and can't go +there to-night.' + +'Cannot go! Sick! What is the matter?' Mr. Tracy asked, in some dismay, +feeling that here was a fresh cause of trouble and worry for Dolly, as +he designated his wife when off his guard and not on show before his +fashionable friends, to whom she was Dora, or Mrs. Tracy. + +'She catched cold yesterday fixing up mother's grave,' the boy replied; +and, as if the mention of that grave had sent Mr. Tracy's thoughts +straying backward to the past, he looked thoughtfully at the child a +moment, and then said: + +'How old are you, Harold?' + +'Ten, last August,' was the reply; and Mr. Tracy continued: + +'You do not remember your mother?' + +'No, sir, only a great crowd, and grandma crying so hard,' was Harold's +reply. + +'You look like her,' Mr. Tracy said. + +'Yes, sir,' Harold answered, while into his frank, open face there came +an expression of regret for the mother who had died when he was three +years old, and whose life had been so short and sad. + +'Now, hurry off with the telegram, and mind you don't lose it. It is +from my brother. He is coming to-night.' + +'Mr. Arthur Tracy, who sent the monument for my mother--is he coming +home? Oh, I am so glad!' Harold exclaimed, and his handsome face lighted +up with childish joy, as he put the telegram in his pocket and started +For Tracy Park, wondering if he should encounter Tom, and thinking that +if he did, and Tom gave him any chaff, he should lick him, or try to. + +'Darn him!' he said to himself, as he recalled the many times when Tom +Tracy, a boy of his own age, had laughed at him for his poverty and +coarse clothes. 'Darn him! he ain't any better than I am, if he does +wear velvet trousers and live in a big house. 'Taint his'n; it's Mr. +Arthur's, and I'm glad he is coming home. I wonder if he will bring +grandma anything. I wish he'd I bring me a pyramid. He's seen 'em, they +say.' + +Meantime, Mr. Frank Tracy had resumed his seat, and, with his hands +clasped together over his head, was wondering what effect his brother's +return would have upon him. Would he be obliged to leave the park, and +the luxury he had enjoyed so long, and go back to the old life which he +hated so much. + +'No; Arthur will never be so mean,' he said. 'He has always shown +himself generous, and will continue to do so. Besides that, he will want +somebody to keep his house for him, unless--' and here the perspiration +started from every pore, as Frank Tracy thought: 'What if he is married, +and the _us_ in his telegram means a wife, instead of a friend or +servant, as I imagined!' + +This would indeed be a calamity, for then his own and Dolly's reign was +over at Tracy Park, and the party they were to give that night to at +least three hundred people would be their last grand blow-out. + +'Confound the party!' he thought, as he arose from his chair and began +to pace the room. 'Arthur won't like that as a greeting after eleven +years' absence. He never fancied being cheek by jowl with Tom, Dick and +Harry; and that is just what the smash is to-night. Dolly wants to +please everybody, thinking to get me votes for Congress, and so she has +invited all creation and his wife. There's old Peterkin, the roughest +kind of a canal bummer when Arthur went away. Think of my fastidious +brother shaking hands with him and Widow Shipley, who kept a low tavern +on the tow-path! She'll be there; in her silks and long gold chain, for +she has four boys, all voters, who call me _Frank_ and slap me on the +shoulder. Ugh! even I hate it all; and in a most perturbed state of +mind, the Hon. Frank and would-be Congressman continued to walk the room +lamenting the party which must be, and wondering what his aristocratic +brother would say to such a crowd in his house on the night of his +return. + +And if there should be a Mrs. Arthur Tracy, with possibly some little +Tracys! But that idea was too horrible to contemplate, and so he tried +to put it from his mind, and to be as calm and quiet as possible until +lunch-time, when, with no very great amount of alacrity and +cheerfulness, he started for home, where, as he had been warned by his +wife when he left her in the morning, 'he was to lunch standing up or +anyhow, as she had no time for parade that day.' + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +ARTHUR TRACY. + + +Although it was a morning in October, the grass in the park was as green +as in early June, while the flowers in the beds and borders, the +geraniums, the phlox, the stocks, and verbenas were handsomer, if +possible, than they had been in the summer-time: for the rain, which had +fallen almost continually during the month of September, had kept them +fresh and bright. Here and there the scarlet and golden tints of autumn +were beginning to show on the trees; but this only added a new charm to +a place which was noted for its beauty, and was the pride and admiration +of the town. + +And yet Mrs. Frank Tracy, who stood on the wide piazza, looking after a +carriage which was moving down the avenue which led through the park to +the highway, did not seem as happy as the mistress of that house ought +to have been, standing there in the clear, crisp morning, with a silken +wrapper trailing behind her, a coquettish French cap on her head, and +costly jewels on her short, fat hands, which once were not as white and +soft as they were now. For Mrs. Frank Tracy, as Dorothy Smith, had known +what hard labor and poverty meant, and slights, too, because of the +poverty and labor. Her mother was a widow, sickly and lame, and Dorothy +in her girlhood had worked in the cotton mills at Langley, and bound +shoes for the firm of Newell & Brothers, and had taught a district +school, 'by way of elevating herself,' but the elevation did not pay, +and she went back to the mills in the day-time and her shoes at night, +and rebelled at the fate which had made her so poor and seemed likely to +keep her so. + +But there was something better in store for her than binding shoes, or +even teaching a district school, and, from the time when young Frank +Tracy came to Langley as clerk in the Newell firm, Dorothy's life was +changed and her star began to rise. They both sang in the choir, +standing side by side, and sometimes using the same book, and once or +twice their hands met as both tried to turn the leaves together. +Dorothy's were red and rough, and not nearly as delicate as those of +Frank, who had been in a store all his life: and still there was a +magnetism in their touch which sent a thrill through the young man's +veins, and made him for the first time look critically at his companion. + +She was very pretty, he thought, with bright black eyes, a healthful +bloom, and a smile and blush which went straight to his heart and made +him her slave at once. In three months' time they were married and +commenced housekeeping in a very unostentatious way, for Frank had +nothing but his salary to depend upon. But he was well connected, and +boasted some blue blood, which, in Dorothy's estimation, made amends for +lack of money. The Tracys of Boston were his distant relatives, and he +had a rich bachelor uncle who spent his winters in New Orleans and his +summers in Shannondale, at Tracy Park, on which he had lavished fabulous +sums of money. From this uncle Frank had expectations, though naturally +the greater part of his fortune would go to his god-son and name-sake, +Arthur Tracy, who was Frank's elder brother, and as unlike him as one +brother could well be unlike another. + +Arthur was scholarly in his tastes, quiet and gentlemanly in his +manners, with a musical voice which won him friends at once, while in +his soft black eyes there was a peculiar look of sadness, as if he were +brooding over something which filled him with regret. Frank was very +proud of his brother, and with Dorothy felt that he was honored when, +six months after their marriage, he came for a day or so to visit them, +and with him his intimate friend Harold Hastings, an Englishman by +birth, but so thoroughly Americanized as to pass unchallenged for a +native. There was a band of crape on Arthur's hat, and his manner was +like one trying to be sorry, while conscious of a great inward feeling +of resignation, if not content. The rich uncle was dead. He had died +suddenly in Paris, where he had gone on business, and the whole of his +vast fortune was left to his nephew Arthur--not a farthing to Frank, not +even the mention of his name in the will: and when Dorothy heard it she +put her white apron over her face, and cried as if her heart would +break. They were so poor, she and Frank, and they wanted so many things, +and the man who could have helped them was dead and had left them +nothing. It was hard, and she might not have made the young heir very +welcome if he had not ensured her that he should do something for her +husband. And he kept his word, and in course of time bought out a +grocery in Langley and put Frank in it, and paid the mortgage on his +house, and gave him a thousand dollars, and invited them for a few days +to visit him; and then it would seem as if he forgot them entirely; for +with his friend Harold he settled himself at Tracy Park, and played the +role of the grand gentleman to perfection. + +Dinner parties and card parties, where it was said the play was for +money, and where Arthur always allowed himself to lose and his friends +to win; races and hunts were of frequent occurrence at Tracy Park, +where matters generally were managed on a magnificent scale, and created +a great deal of talk among the plain folks of Shannondale, whose only +dissipation then was going to church twice on Sunday and to the cattle +show once each year. + +Few ladies ever graced these festivities, for Arthur was very +aristocratic in his feelings, and with two or three exceptions, held +himself aloof from the people of Shannondale. It was said, however, that +sometimes, when he and his friend were alone, there was the sweep of a +white dress and the gleam of golden hair in the parlor, where sweet Amy +Crawford, daughter of the housekeeper, played and sang her simple +ballads to the two gentlemen, who always treated her with as much +deference as if she had been a queen, instead of a poor young girl +dependent for her bread upon her own and her mother's exertions. But +beyond the singing in the twilight Amy never advanced, and so far as her +mother knew she had never for a single instant been alone with either of +the gentlemen. How, then, was the household electrified one morning when +it was found that Amy had fled, and that Harold Hastings was the +companion of her flight? + + 'I wanted to tell you,' Amy wrote to her mother in the note left on + her dressing table. 'I wanted to tell you and be married at home, + but Mr. Hastings would not allow it. It would create trouble, he + said, between himself and Mr. Tracy, who I may confess to you in + confidence, asked me twice to be his wife, and when I refused, + without giving him a reason, for I dared not tell him of my love for + his friend, he was so angry and behaved so strangely, and there was + such a look in his eyes, that I was afraid of him, and it was this + fear, I think, which made me willing to go away secretly with Harold + and be married in New York. We are going to Europe; shall sail + to-morrow morning at nine o'clock in the Scotia. The marriage + ceremony will be performed before we go on board. I shall write as + soon as we reach Liverpool. You must forgive me, mother, and I am + sure you would not blame me, if you knew how much I love Mr. + Hastings. I know he is poor, and that I might be mistress of Tracy + Park, but I love Harold best. It is ten o'clock, and the train, you + know, passes at eleven; so I must say good-bye. + + 'Yours lovingly, + + 'Amy Crawford, now, but when you read this, + + 'Amy Hastings.' + +This was Amy's letter which her mother found upon entering her room +after waiting more than an hour for her daughter's appearance at the +breakfast, which they always took by themselves. To say that she was +shocked and astonished would but faintly portray the state of her mind +as she read that her beautiful young daughter had gone with Harold +Hastings, whom she had never liked, for though he was handsome, and +agreeable, and gentlemanly as a rule, she knew him to be thoroughly +selfish and indolent, and she trembled for her daughter's happiness when +a little time had quenched the ardor of his passion. Added to this was +another thought which made her brain reel for a moment an she thought +what might have been. Arthur Tracy had wished to make Amy his wife, and +mistress of Tracy Park, which she would have graced so well, for in all +the town there was not a fairer, sweeter girl than Amy Crawford, or one +better beloved. + +It did not matter that she was poor, and her mother was only a +housekeeper. She had never felt a slight on that account, and had been +reared as carefully and tenderly as the daughters of the rich, and if +away down, in her mother's heart there had been a half defined hope that +some time the master of Tracy Park might turn his attention to her, it +had been hidden so closely that Mrs. Crawford scarcely knew of it +herself until she learned what her daughter was and what she might have +been. But it was too late now. There was no turning back the wheels of +fate. + +Forcing herself to be as calm as possible, she took the note to Arthur, +who had breakfasted alone, and was waiting impatiently in the library +for the appearance of his friend. + +'Lazy dog!' Mrs. Crawford heard him say, as she approached the open +door. 'Does he think he has nothing to do but to sleep? We were to start +by this time, and he in bed yet!' + +'Are you speaking of Mr. Hastings?' Mrs. Crawford asked, as she stepped +into the room. + +'Yes,' was his crisp and haughty reply, as if he resented the question, +and her presence there. + +He could be very proud and stern when he felt like it, and one of these +moods was on him now, but Mrs. Crawford did not heed it, and sinking +into a chair, for she felt that she could not stand and face him, she +began: + +'I came to tell you of Mr. Hastings and--Amy. She did not come to +breakfast, and I found this note in her room. She has gone to New York +with him. They took the eleven o'clock train last night. They are to be +married this morning, and sail in the Scotia for Europe.' + +She had told her story, and paused for the result, which was worse than +she had expected. + +For a moment Arthur Tracy stood staring at her, while his face grew +white as ashes, and into his dark eyes, usually so soft and mild, there +came a fiery gleam like that of a madman, as he seemed for a time to be. + +'Amy gone with Harold, my friend!' he said at last. 'Gone to New York! +Gone to be married! Traitors! Vipers! Both of them. Curse them! If he +were here I'd shoot him like a dog; and she--I believe I would kill +her.' + +He was walking the floor rapidly, and to Mrs. Crawford it seemed as if +he really were unsettled in his mind, he talked so incoherently and +acted so strangely. + +'What else did she say?' he asked, suddenly, stopping and confronting +her. 'You have not told me all. Did she speak of me? Let me see the +note,' and he held his hand for it. + +For a moment Mrs. Crawford hesitated, but as he grew more and more +persistent she suffered him to take it, and then watched him as he read +it, white the veins on his forehead began to swell until they stood out +like a dark blue net-work against his otherwise pallid face. + +'Yes,' he snapped between his white teeth. 'I did ask her to be my wife, +and she refused, and with her soft, kittenish ways made me more in love +with her than ever, and more her dupe. I never suspected Harold, and +when I told him of my disappointment, for I never kept a thing from +him--traitor that he was--he laughed at me for losing my heart to my +housekeeper's daughter! I, who, he said, might marry the greatest lady +in the land. I could have knocked him down for his sneer at Amy, and I +wish now I had, the wretch! He will not marry your daughter, madam; and +if he does not I will kill him!' + +He was certainly mad, and Mrs. Crawford shrank away from him an from +something dangerous, and going to her room took her bed in a fit of +frightful hysterics. This was followed by a state of nervous +prostration, and for a few days she neither saw, nor heard of, nor +inquired for Mr. Tracy. At the end of the fourth day, however, she was +told by the house-maid that he had that morning packed his valise and, +without a word to any one, had taken the train for New York. A week went +by, and then there came a letter from him, which ran as follows: + + 'New York, May ----, 18--. + + 'Mrs. Crawford:--I am off for Europe to-morrow, and when I shall + return is a matter of uncertainty. They are married; or at least I + suppose so, for I found a list of the passengers who sailed in the + Scotia, and the names, Mr. and Mrs. Hastings, were in it. So that + saves me from breaking the sixth commandment, as I should have done + if he hid played Amy false. I may not make myself known to them, but + I shall follow them, and if he harms a hair of her head I shall + shoot him yet. My brother Frank is to live at Tracy Park. That will + suit his wife, and as you will not care to stay with her, I send you + a deed of that cottage in the lane by the wood where the gardener + now lives. It is a pretty little place, and Amy liked it well. We + used to meet there sometimes, and more than once I have sat with her + on that seat under the elm tree, and it was there I asked her to be + my wife. Alas! I loved her so much, and I love her still as I can + never love another woman, and I could have made her so happy; but + that is past, and I can only watch her at a distance. When I have + anything to communicate, I will write again. + + 'Yours truly, 'Arthur Tracy.' + + 'P.S.--Take all the furniture in your room and Amy's, and whatever + else is needful for your house. I shall tell Colvin to give you a + thousand dollars, and when you want more let him know, I shall never + forget that you are Amy's mother. + +This was Arthur's letter to Mrs. Crawford, while to his brother he +wrote: + + 'Dear Frank:--I am going to Europe for an indefinite length of time. + Why I go it matters not to you or any one. I go to suit myself, and + I want you to sell out your business at Langley and live at Tracy + Park, where you can see to things as if they were your own. You will + find everything straight and square, for Colvin is honest and + methodical. He knows all about the bonds, and mortgages, and stocks, + so you cannot do better than to retain him in your service, + overseeing matters yourself, of course, and drawing for your salary + what you think right and necessary for your support and for keeping + up the place as it ought to be kept up. I enclose a power of + attorney. When I want money I shall call upon Colvin. I may be gone + for years and perhaps forever. + + 'I shall never marry, and when I die, what I have will naturally go + to you. We have not been to each other much like brothers for the + past few years, but I do not forget the old home in the mountains + where we were boys together, and played, and quarreled, and slept up + under the roof, where the blankets were hung to keep the snow from + sifting through the rafters upon our bed. + + 'And, Frank, do you remember the bitter mornings, when the + thermometer was below zero, and we performed our ablutions in the + wood-shed, and the black-eye you gave me once for telling mother + that you had not washed yourself at all, it was so cold? She sent + you from the table, and made you go without your breakfast, and we + had ham and johnny-cake toast that morning, too. That was long ago, + and our lives are different now. There are marble basins, with + silver chains and stoppers, at Tracy Pack, and you can have a hot + bath every day if you like, in a room which would not shame + Caracalla himself. And I know you will like it all, and Dolly, too; + but don't make fools of yourselves. Nothing stamps a person as a + _come-up_ from the scum so soon as airs and ostentation. Be quiet + and modest, as if you had always lived at Tracy Park. Imitate Squire + Harrington and Mr. St. Claire. They are the true gentlemen, and were + to the manner born. Be kind to Mrs. Crawford. She is a lady in every + sense of the word, for she comes of good New England stock. + + 'And now, good-bye. I shall write sometimes, but not often. + + 'Your brother, + + 'Arthur Tracy.' + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MR. AND MRS. FRANK TRACY. + + +Mr. Frank, in his small grocery store at Langley, was weighing out a +pound of butter for the Widow Simpson, who was haggling with him about +the price, when his brother's letter was brought to him by the boy who +swept his store and did errands for him. But Frank was too busy just +then to read it. There was a circus in the village that day, and it +brought the country people into the town in larger numbers than usual. +Naturally, many of them paid Frank a visit in the course of the morning, +so that it was not until he went home to his dinner that be even thought +of the letter, which was finally brought to his mind by his wife's +asking if there was any news. + +Mrs. Frank was always inquiring for and expecting news, but she was not +prepared for what this day brought her. Neither was her husband, and +when he read his brother's letter, which he did twice to assure himself +that he was not mistaken, he sat for a moment perfectly bewildered, and +staring at his wife, who was putting his dinner upon the table. + +'Dolly,' he gasped at last, when he could speak at all--'Dolly, what do +you think? Just listen. Arthur is going to Europe, to stay forever, +perhaps, and has left us Tracy Park. We are going there to live, and you +will be as grand a lady as Mrs. Atherton, of Brier Hill; or that young +girl at Collingwood.' + +Dolly had a platter of ham and eggs in her hand, and she never could +tell, though she often tried to do so, what prevented her from dropping +the whole upon the floor. She did spill some of the fat upon her clean +tablecloth, she put the dish down so suddenly, and sinking into a chair, +demanded what her husband meant. Was he crazy, or what? + +'Not a bit of it,' he replied, recovering himself and beginning to +realize the good fortune which had come to him. 'We are rich people, +Dolly. Read for yourself;' and he passed her the letter, which she +seemed to understand better than he had done. + +'Why, yes,' she said. 'We are going to Tracy Park to live; but that +doesn't make us rich. It is not ours.' + +'I know that,' her husband replied. 'But we shall enjoy it all the same, +and hold our heads with the best of them. Besides, don't you see, Arthur +gives me _carte blanche_ as to pay for my services, and, though I shall +do right, it is not in human nature that I should not feather my nest +when I have a chance. Some of that money ought to have been mine. I +shall sell out at once if I can find a purchaser, and if I cannot, I +shall rent the grocery and move out of this hole double quick.' + +His ideas were growing faster than those of his wife, who was attached +to Langley and its people, and shrank a little from the grander opening +before her. She had once spent a few days at Tracy Park, as Arthur's +guest, and had felt great restraint even in the presence of Mrs. +Crawford and Amy, whom she recognized as ladies notwithstanding their +position in the house. On that occasion she had, with her +brother-in-law, been invited to dine at Brier Hill, the country-seat of +Mrs. Grace Atherton, a gay widow, whose dash and style had completely +overawed the plain, matter-of-fact Dolly, who did not know what half the +dishes were, or what she was expected to do. But, by watching Arthur, +and declining some things which she felt sure were beyond her +comprehension, she managed tolerably well, though when the dinner was +over, and she could breathe freely again, she found that the back of her +new silk gown was wet with perspiration, which had oozed from every pore +during the hour and a half she had sat at the table. And even then her +troubles were not ended, for coffee was served in the drawing-room, and +as Arthur took his clear, she did not know whether she was expected to +do the same or not, but finally ventured to say she would have hers with +'trimmin's.' There was a mischievous twinkle in Mrs. Atherton's eyes +which disconcerted her so much that she spilled her coffee in her lap, +and felt, as she afterward told a friend to whom she was describing the +dinner, as if she could have been knocked down with a feather. + +'Such folderol!' she said. 'Changing your plates all the time--eating +peas in the winter greener than grass, with nothing under the sun with +them, and drinking coffee out of a cup about as big as a thimble. Give +me the good old-fashioned way, I say, with peas and potatoes, and meat, +and things, and cups that will hold half a pint and have some thickness +that you can feel in your mouth.' + +And now she was to exchange the good, old-fashioned way for what she +termed 'folderol,' and for a time she did not like it. But her husband +was so delighted and eager that he succeeded in impressing her with some +of his enthusiasm, and after he had returned to his grocery, and her +dishes were washed, she removed her large kitchen apron, and pulling +down the sleeves of her dress, went and stood before the mirror, where +she examined herself critically and not without some degree of +complacency. + +Her hair was black and glossy, or would be if she had time to care for +it as it ought to be cared for; her eyes were bright, and perhaps in +time she might learn to use them as Mrs. Atherton used hers. + +Mrs. Atherton stood as the criterion for everything elegant and +fashionable, and naturally it was with her that she compared herself. + +'She is older than I am,' she said to herself; 'there are crow-tracks +around her eyes, and her complexion is not a bit better than mine was +before I spoiled it with soap-suds, and stove heat, and everything +else.' + +Then she looked at her hands, but they were red and rough, and the nails +were broken and not at all like the nails which an expert has polished +for an hour or more. Mrs. Atherton's diamond rings would be sadly out of +place on Dolly's fingers, but time and abstinence from work would do +much for them, she reflected, and after all it would be nice to live in +a grand house, ride in a handsome carriage, and keep a hired girl to do +the heavy work. So, on the whole, she began to feel quite reconciled to +her change of situation, and to wonder how she ought to conduct herself +in view of her future position. She had intended going to the circus +that night, but she gave that up, telling her husband that it was a +second-class amusement any way, and she did not believe that either Mrs. +Atherton or the young lady at Collingwood patronized such places. So +they staid at home and talked together of what they should do at Tracy +Park, and wondered if it was their duty to ask all their Langley friends +to visit them. Mrs. Frank, as the more democratic of the two, decided +that it was. She was not going to begin by being _stuck up_, she said, +and when at last she left Langley four weeks later, every man, woman, +and child of her familiar acquaintance in town had been heartily invited +to call upon her at Tracy Park if ever they came that way. + +Frank had disposed of his business at a reasonable price, and had rented +his house with all the furniture, except such articles as his wife +insisted upon taking with her. The bureau, and bedstead, and chairs +which she and Frank had bought together in Springfield just before their +marriage, the Boston rocker her mother had given her, and in which the +old mother had sat until the day she died, the cradle in which she had +rocked her first baby boy who was lying in the Langley grave-yard, were +dear to the wife and mother, and though her husband told her she could +have no use for them at Tracy Park, where the furniture was of the +costliest kind, and that she would probably put them in the servants' +rooms or attic, there was enough of sentiment in her nature to make her +cling to them as something of the past, and so they were boxed up and +forwarded by freight to Tracy Park, whither Mr. and Mrs. Tracy followed +them a week later. + +The best dressmaker in Langley had been employed upon the wardrobe of +Mrs. Frank, who, in her travelling dress of some stuff goods of a +plaided pattern, too large and too bright to be quite in good taste, +felt herself perfectly _au fait_ as the mistress of Tracy Park, until +she reached Springfield, where Mrs. Grace Atherton, accompanied by a +tall, elegant looking young lady, entered the car and took a seat in +front of her. Neither of the ladies noticed her, but she recognized Mrs. +Atherton at once and guessed that her companion was the young lady from +Collingwood, who, rumor said, was soon to marry her guardian, Mr. +Richard Harrington, although he was old enough to be her father. + +Dolly scanned both the ladies very closely, noting every article of +their costumes from their plain linen collars and cuffs to their quiet +dresses of gray, which seemed so much more in keeping with the dusty +cars than her buff and purple plaid. + +'I ain't like them, and never shall be,' she said to herself, with a +bitter sense of her inferiority pressing upon her. 'I ain't like them, +and never shall be, if I live to be a hundred. I wish we were not going +to be grand. I shall never get used to it,' and the hot tears sprang to +her eyes as she longed to be back in the kitchen where she had worked so +hard. + +But Dolly did not know then how readily people can forget the life of +toil behind them and adapt themselves to one of luxury and ease; and +with her the adaptability commenced in some degree the moment +Shannondale station was reached, and she saw the handsome carriage +waiting for them. A carriage finer far and more modern than the one from +Collingwood, in which Mrs. Atherton and the young lady took their seats, +laughing and chatting so gayly that they did not see the woman in the +big plaid who stood watching them with a rising feeling of jealousy and +resentment as she thought of Mrs. Atherton, 'She does not even notice +me.' + +But when the Tracy carriage drew up, Grace Atherton saw and recognized +her, and whispered, in an aside to her companion: + +'For goodness' sake, Edith, look! There are the Tracys, our new +neighbors.' Then she bowed to Mrs. Tracy, and said: 'Ah, I did not know +you were on the train.' + +'I sat right behind you,' was Mrs. Tracy's rather ungracious reply: and +then, not knowing whether she ought to do it or not, she introduced her +husband. + +'Yes, Mr. Tracy--how do you do?' was Mrs. Atherton's response; but she +did not in return introduce the young girl, whose dark eyes were +scanning the strangers so curiously, and this Dolly took as a slight and +inwardly resented it. + +But Mrs. Atherton had spoken to her and that was something, and helped +to keep her spirits up as she was driven along the turnpike to the +entrance of the park. + +On the occasion of Mrs. Frank's first and only visit to her +brother-in-law it was winter, and everything was covered with snow. But +it was summer now, the month of roses, and fragrance, and beauty, and as +the carriage passed up the broad, smooth avenue which led to the house, +Dolly's eyes wandered over the well-kept lawn, sweet with the scent of +newly-mown grass, the parteries of flowers and shrubs, the winding walks +and clumps of evergreens here and there formed into fancy rooms, with +rustic seats and tables under the over-hanging boughs; and when she +reflected that all this was hers to enjoy for many years, and perhaps +for her life-time, she felt the first stirring of that pride, and +satisfaction, and self-assertion which was to grow upon her so rapidly +and transform her from the plain, unpretentious woman who had washed, +and ironed, and baked, and mended in the small house in Langley into the +arrogant, haughty lady of fashion, who courted only the rich and looked +down upon her less fortunate neighbors. Now, however, she was very meek +and humble, and trembled as she alighted from the carriage before the +great stone house which was to be her home. + +'Isn't this grand, Dolly?' her husband said, rubbing his hands together +and looking about him complacently. + +'Yes, very grand,' Dolly answered him; but somehow it makes me feel +weaker than water. I suppose, though, I shall get accustomed to it.' + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GETTING ACCUSTOMED TO IT. + + +In the absence of Mrs. Crawford, who for a week or more had been +domesticated in the cottage in the lane, as the house was designated +which Arthur had given her, there was no one to receive the strangers +except the cook and the house-maid, and as Mrs. Tracy entered the hall +the two came forward, bristling with criticism, and ready to resent +anything like interference in the new-comers. + +The servants at the park had not been pleased with the change of +administration. That Mr. Arthur was a gentleman whom it was an honor to +serve, they all conceded; but with regard to the new master and +mistress, they had grave doubts. Although none of them had been at the +park on the occasion of Mrs. Tracy's first visit there, many rumors +concerning her had reached them, and she would scarcely have recognized +herself could she have heard the remarks of which she was the subject. +That she had worked in a factory--which was true--was her least offence, +for it was whispered that once, when the winter was unusually severe, +and work scarce, she had gone to a soup-house, and even asked and +procured coal from the poor-master for herself and her mother. + +This was not true, and would have argued nothing against her as a woman +if it had been, but the cook and the house-maid believed it, and passed +sundry jokes together while preparing to meet 'the pauper,' as they +designated her. + +In this state of things their welcome could not be very cordial, but +Mrs. Tracy was too tired and too much excited, to observe their demeanor +particularly. They were civil, and the house was in perfect order, and +so much larger and handsomer than she had thought it to be, that she +felt bewildered and embarrassed, and said 'Yes 'em,' and 'No, ma'am,' to +Martha, the cook, and told Sarah, who was waiting at dinner, that she +'might as well sit down in a chair as to stand all the time; she +presumed she was tired with so many extra steps to take.' + +But Sarah knew her business, and persisted in standing, and inflicting +upon the poor woman as much ceremony as possible, and then, in the +kitchen, she repeated to the cook and the coachman, with sundry +embellishments of her own, the particulars of the dinner, amid peals of +laughter at the expense of the would-be lady, who had said 'she could +just as soon have her salad with her other things, and save washing go +many dishes.' + +It was hardly possible that mistress and maids would stay together long, +especially as Mrs. Tracy, when a little more assured, and a little less +in awe of her servants, began to show a disposition to know by personal +observation what was going on in the kitchen, and to hint broadly that +there was too much waste here and expenditure there, and quite too much +company at all hours of the day. + +'She didn't propose to keep a boarding-house,' she said, 'or to support +families outside, and the old woman who came so often to the basement +door with a big basket under her cloak must discontinue her calls.' + +Then there occurred one of those Hibernian cyclones which sweep +everything before them, and which in this instance swept Mrs. Tracy out +of the kitchen for the time being, and the cook out of the house. Her +self-respect, she said, would not allow her to stay with a woman who +knew just how much coal was burned, how much butter was used, and how +much bread was thrown away, and who objected to giving a bite now and +then to a poor old woman, who, poor as she was, had never yet been +helped by the poor-master, or gone to a soup-house like my lady! + +Martha's departure was followed by that of Sarah, and then Mrs. Tracy +was alone, and for a few days enjoyed herself immensely, doing her own +work, cooking her own dinner, and eating it when and where she liked--in +the kitchen mostly, as that kept the flies from the dining-room, and +saved her many steps, for Dolly was beginning to find that there was a +vast difference between keeping a house with six rooms and one with +twenty or more. + +Her husband urged her to try a new servant, saying there was no +necessity for her to make a slave of herself: but she refused to listen. +Economy was a part of her nature, and besides that she meant to show +them that she was perfectly independent of the whole tribe; the _tribe_ +and _them_ referring to the hired girls alone, for she knew no one else +in town. + +Nobody had called except the clergyman, not even Mrs. Crawford, whose +friendship and possible advice Mrs. Tracy had counted upon, and with +whom she knew she should feel more at ease than with Mrs. Atherton from +Brier Hill, or Miss Hastings from Collingwood. She had seen both the +last named ladies at church and had a nod from Mrs. Atherton, and that +was all the recognition she had received from her neighbors up to the +hot July morning, a week or more after the house-maid's departure, when +she was busy in the kitchen canning black raspberries, of which the +garden was full. + +Like many housekeepers who do their own work, Dolly was not very +particular with regard to her dress in the morning, and on this occasion +her hair was drawn from her rather high forehead, and twisted into a +hard knot at the back of her head; her calico dress hung straight dawn, +for she was minus hoops, which in those days were worn quite large; her +sleeves were rolled above her elbows, and, as a protection against the +juice of the berries, she wore a huge apron made of sacking. In this +garb, and with no thought of being interrupted, she kept on with her +work until the last kettle of fruit, was boiling and bubbling on the +stove, and she was just glancing at the clock to see if it were time to +put over the peas for dinner, when there came a quick, decisive ring at +the front door. + +'Who can that be?' she said to herself, as she wiped her hands upon her +apron. 'Some peddler or agent, I dare say. Why couldn't he come round to +the kitchen, door, I'd like to know?' + +She had been frequently troubled with peddlers and agents of all kinds, +and feeling certain that this was one--ringing the bell a second time, +as if in a hurry--she started for' the door in no very amiable frame of +mind, for peddlers were her abomination. Something ailed the lock or +key, which resisted all her efforts to turn it; and at last, putting her +mouth to the keyhole, she called out, rather sharply: + +'Go to the back door: I cannot open this,' + +Then, as she caught a whiff of burnt syrup, she hurried to the kitchen, +where she found that her berries had boiled over, and were hissing and +sputtering on the hot stove, raising a cloud of smoke so dense that she +did not see the person who stood on the threshold of the door until a +voice wholly unlike that of any peddler or agent said to her; + +'Good morning, Mrs. Tracy. I hope I am not intruding.' + +Then she turned, and to her horror and surprise, saw Grace Atherton, +attired in the coolest and daintiest of morning costumes, with a jaunty +French bonnet set coquettishly upon her head, and a silver card-case in +her hand. + +For the moment Dolly's wits forsook her and she stood staring at her +visitor, who, perfectly at her ease, advanced into the room and said: + +'I hope you will excuse me, Mrs. Tracy, for this morning call I came--' + +But she did not finish the sentence, for by this time Dolly had +recovered herself a little, and throwing off her apron, she replied, +nervously: + +'Not at all--not at all, I supposed you were some peddler or agent when +I sent you to this door. They are the plague of my life, and think I'll +buy everything and give to everything because Arthur did. I am doing my +own work, you see. Come into the parlor;' and she led the way into the +dark drawing-room, and where the chairs and sofas were surrounded in +white linen, looking like so many ghosts in the dim, uncertain light. + +But Dolly opened one of the windows, and pushing back the blinds, let in +a flood of sunshine, so strong and bright that she at once closed the +shutters, saying, apologetically, that she did not believe in fading the +carpets, if they were not her own. Then she sat down upon an ottoman and +faced her visitor, who was regarding her with a mixture of amusement and +wonder. + +Grace Atherton was an aristocrat to her very finger-tips, and shrank +from contact with anything vulgar and unsightly, and, to her mind, Mrs. +Tracy represented both, and seemed sadly out of place in that handsome +room, with her sleeves rolled up and the berry stains on her hands and +face. Grace knew nothing by actual experience of canning berries, or of +aprons made of sacking, or of bare arms, except it were of an evening +when they showed white and fair against her satin gown, with bands of +gold and precious stones upon them, and she felt that there was an +immeasurable distance between herself and this woman, whom she had come +to see partly on business and partly because she thought she must call +upon her for the sake of Arthur Tracy, the former occupant of the park. + +Grace and Arthur had been fast friends, and Brier Hill was almost the +only place where he had visited on anything like terms of intimacy. +Indeed, it was rumored by the busy knowing ones of Shannondale that, had +the pretty widow been six years his junior instead of his senior, she +would have left no art untried to win him. But here the wise ones were +in fault, for though Grace Atherton's heart was not buried in her +husband's grave, and, in fact, had never been her husband's at all, it +was given to one who, though he cared for it once, did not prize it now, +for, with all the intensity of his noble nature, Richard Harrington, of +Collingwood; loved the beautiful girl whom, years ago, he had taken to +his home as his child, and whom, it was said, he was to marry. But if +the belief that the love she once refused and which she would fain +recover was lost to her forever rankled in her breast, Grace never made +a sign, and laughed as gayly and looked almost as young and handsome as +in the days when Richard was wooing her in the pleasant old English town +across the sea. She had loved Richard then, but, alas! loved money more, +and she chose a richer man, old enough to be her father, who had died +when she was twenty-one and left her the possessor of nearly half a +million, every dollar of which she would have given to have recalled the +days which were gone forever. + +Grace had been intending to call upon Mrs. Tracy ever since she came to +the park. 'Not,' as she said to her friend, Edith Hastings, 'for the +woman's sake, for she knew her to be vulgar: but because she was a +neighbor and the sister-in-law of Arthur Tracy,' And so at last she +came, partly out of compliment and partly on business, into which last +she plunged at once. She was going to the mountains with Mr. Harrington +and Miss Hastings: her cook, who had been with her seven years, had gone +to attend a sick mother, and had recommended as a fit person to take her +place the woman who had just left Tracy Park. + +'I do not like to take a servant without first knowing something of her +from her last employer,' she said: 'and, if you do not mind, I should +like to ask if Martha left for anything very bad.' + +Mrs. Tracy colored scarlet, and for a moment was silent. She could not +tell that fine lady in the white muslin dress, with seas of lace and +embroidery, that Martha had called her _second classy_, and _stingy_ and +_strooping_, and _mean_, because she objected to the amount of coal +burned, and bread thrown away, and time consumed at the table, besides +turning down the gas in the kitchen when she thought it too light, to +say nothing of turning it off at the meter at ten o'clock, just when the +servants were beginning to enjoy themselves. All this she felt would +scarcely interest a person like Mrs. Atherton, who might sympathize with +Martha more than with herself, so she finally said: + +'Martha was saucy to me, and on the whole it was better for them all to +go; and so I am doing my own work.' + +'Doing your own work!' and Grace gave a little cry of surprise, while +her shoulders shrugged meaningly, and made Mrs. Tracy almost as angry as +she had been with Martha when she called her mean and second-class. 'It +cannot be possible that you cook, and wash, and iron, and do +everything,' Mrs. Atherton continued. 'My dear Mrs. Tracy, you can never +stand it in a house like this, and Mr. Arthur would not like it if he +knew. Why he kept as many as six servants, and sometimes more. Pray let +me advise you, and commend to you a good girl; who lived with me three +years, and can do everything, from dressing my hair to making a +blanc-mange. I only parted with her because she was sick, and now that +she is well, her place is filled. Try her, and do not make a servant of +yourself. It is not fitting that you should.' + +Grace was fond of giving advice, and had said more than she intended +saying when she began, but Mrs. Tracy, though annoyed, was not angry, +and consented to receive the girl who had lived at Brier Hill three +years, and who, she reflected, could be of use to her in many ways. + +While sitting there in her soiled working dress talking to the elegant +Mrs. Atherton she had felt her inferiority more keenly than she had ever +done before, while at the same time she was conscious that a new set of +ideas and thoughts had taken possession of her, reawaking in her the +germ of that ambition to be somebody which she had felt so often when a +girl, and which now was to bud and blossom, and bear fruit a hundred +fold. She would take the girl, and from her learn the ways of the world +as presented at Brier Hill. She would no longer wear sacking aprons, and +open the door herself. She would be more like Grace Atherton, whom she +watched admiringly as she went down the walk to the handsome carriage +waiting for her, with driver and footman in tall hats and long coats on +the box. + +This was the beginning of the fine lady into which Dolly finally +blossomed, and when that day Frank went home to his dinner he noticed +something in her manner which he could not understand until she told him +of Mrs. Atherton's call, and the plight in which that lady had found +her. + +'Served you right, Dolly,' Frank said, laughing till the tears ran. 'You +have no business to be digging round like a slave when we are able to +have what we like. Arthur said we were to keep up the place us he had +done, and that does not mean that you should be a scullion. No, Dolly; +have all the girls you want, and hold up your head with the best of +them. Get a new silk gown, and return Mrs. Atherton's call at once, and +take a card and turn down one corner or the other, I don't know which, +but this girl of hers can tell you. Pump her dry as a powder horn; find +out what the quality do, and then do it, and not bother about the +expense. I am going in for a good time, and don't mean to work either. I +told Colvin this morning that I thought I ought to draw a salary of +about four thousand a year, besides our living expenses, and though he +looked at me pretty sharp over his spectacles he said nothing. Arthur is +worth half a million, if he is worth a cent. So, go it, Dolly, while you +are young,' and in the exuberance of his joy Frank kissed his wife on +both cheeks, and then hurried back to his office, where he spent most of +his time trying to be a gentleman. + +That day they dined in the kitchen with a leaf of the table turned up as +they had done in Langley, but the next day they had dinner in the +dining-room, and were waited upon by the new girl as well as it was +possible for her to do with her mistress' interference. + +'Never mind; Mr. Tracy's in a hurry. Give him his pie at once,' she +said, as Susan was about to clear the table preparatory to the dessert, +but she repented the speech when she saw the look of surprise which the +girl gave her and which expressed more than words could have done. + +'Better let her run herself,' Frank said, when Susan had left the room, +'and if she wants to take every darned thing off the table and tip it +over to boot, let her do it. If she has lived three years with Mrs. +Atherton, she knows what is what better than we do.' + +'But it takes so long, and I have much to see to in this great house,' +Dolly objected, and her husband replied: + +'Get another girl, then; three of them if you like. What matter how many +girls we have so long as Arthur pays for them, and he is bound to do +that. He said so in his letter. You are altogether too economical. I've +told you so a hundred times, and now there is no need of saving. I want +to see you a lady of silks and satins like Mrs. Atherton. Pump that +girl. I tell you, and find out what ladies do!' + +This was Frank's advice to his wife, and as far as in her lay she acted +upon it, and whatever Susan told her was done by Mrs. Atherton at Brier +Hill, she tried to do at Tracy Park: all except staying out of the +kitchen. That, from her nature, she could not and would not do. +Consequently she was constantly changing cooks, and frequently took the +helm herself, to the great disgust of her husband, who managed at last +to imbue her with his own ideas of things. + +In course of time most of the neighbors who had any claim to society +called at the park, and among them Mrs. Crawford. But Mrs. Tracy had +then reached a point from which she looked down upon one who had been +housekeeper where she was now mistress, and whose daughter's good name +was under a cloud, as there were some who did not believe that Harold +Hastings had ever made her his wife. When told that Mrs. Crawford had +asked for her Mrs. Tracy sent word that she was engaged, and that if +Mrs. Crawford pleased she would give her errand to the girl. + +'I have no errand. I came to call,' was Mrs. Crawford's reply, and she +never crossed the threshold of her old home again until the March winds +were blowing and there was a little boy in the nursery at the park. + +At the last moment the expected nurse had fallen sick, and in his +perplexity Mr. Tracy went to the cottage in the lane and begged of Mrs. +Crawford to come and care for his wife. Mrs. Crawford was very proud, +but she was poor, too, and as the price per week which Frank offered her +was four times as much as she could earn by sewing, she consented at +last and went as nurse to the sick-room, and the baby, Tom, on whose +little red face she imprinted many a kiss for the sake of her daughter +who was coming home in June, and over whom the shadow of hope and fear +was hanging. + +Dolly Tracy's growth after it fairly commenced, was very rapid, and when +Mrs. Crawford went to her as nurse she had three servants in her employ, +besides the coachman, and was imitating Mrs. Atherton to the best of her +ability; and when, early in the summer, she received the wedding cards +of Edith Hastings, the young lady from Collingwood, who had married a +Mr. St. Claire instead of her guardian, she felt that her position was +assured, and from that time her progress was onward and upward until the +October morning, ten years later, when our story proper opens, and we +see her standing upon the piazza of her handsome house, with every sign +of wealth and luxury about her person, from the silken robe to the +jewels upon her soft, white hands, which once had washed her own dishes, +and canned berries in her own kitchen, where she had received Grace +Atherton, with her sleeves above her elbows. + +There were five servants in the house now, and they ran over and against +each other, and quarrelled, and gossipped, and worried her life nearly +out of her, until she was sometimes tempted to send them away and do the +work herself. But she was far too great a lady for that. She dressed in +silk and satin every day, and drove in her handsome carriage, with her +driver and footman in tall hats and long coats. She was thoroughly up in +etiquette, and did not need Susan to tell her what to do. She knew all +about visiting cards, and dinner cards, and cards of acceptance, and +regret, and condolence, and she read much oftener than she did her Bible +a book entitled 'Habits of Good Society.' + +Three children played in the nursery now, Tom, and Jack, and baby Maude, +and she kept a nurse constantly for them, and strove with all her might +to instil into their infant minds that they were the Tracys of Tracy +Park, and entitled to due respect from their inferiors; and Tom, the boy +of ten and a half, had profited by her teaching, and was the veriest +little braggart in all Shannondale, boasting of his father's house, and +his father's money, without a word of the Uncle Arthur wandering no one +knew where, or cared particularly for that matter. + +Arthur had never been home since the day he quitted it to look after Amy +Crawford, now lying in the grave-yard of Shannondale, under the shadow +of the tall monument which Arthur's money had bought. At first he had +written frequently to Mrs. Crawford, and occasionally to his brother, +and his agent, Mr. Colvin; then his letters came very irregularly, and +sometimes a year would intervene between them. Then he would write every +week, and he once told them not to be anxious if they did not hear from +him in a long time, as in case of his death he had arranged to have the +news communicated to his friends at once. After this letter nothing had +been heard from him for more than two years, until the morning when his +telegram came and so greatly disturbed the mental equilibrium of Mr. +Frank Tracy that for an hour or more he sat staring into the street in a +bewildered kind of way, wondering what would be the result of his +brother's return, and if he should be required to give up the +investments he had made from the exorbitant sum he had charged for +looking after the place. Once he thought he would ask Colvin's opinion; +but he was a little afraid of the old man, who had sometimes hinted that +his salary was far greater than the services rendered, but as Mr. +Arthur, to whom he made reports of the expenditures, had never objected, +it was not for him to do so, he said. And still Frank distrusted him, +and decided that, on the whole, his better plan was to wait, or at least +to consult no one but his wife, and he was glad when lunch-time came, +and he started home, where preparations were going forward for the first +large party they had ever given. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +AT THE PARK. + + +Frank Tracy had at first grown faster than his wife, and the change in +his manner had been more perceptible; for with all her foolishness Dolly +had a kind heart, and a keen sense of right, and wrong, and justice than +her husband. She had opposed him stoutly when he raised his own salary +from $4,000 to $6,000 a year, on the plea that his services were worth +it, and that two thousand more or less was nothing to Arthur; and when +he was a candidate for the Legislature she had protested loudly against +his inviting to the house and giving beer and cider to the men whose +votes he wanted, and for whom as men he did not care a farthing; but +when he came up for Congress she forgot all her scruples, and was as +anxious as himself to please those who could help him secure the +nomination and afterward the election. It was she who had proposed the +party, to which nearly everybody was to be invited, from old Peterkin, +with his powerful influence among a certain class, and Widow Shipleigh +with her four sons, to Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire, from Grassy Spring, +Squire Harrington, from Collingwood, and Grace Atherton, from Brier +Hill. Very few who could in any way help Frank to a seat in Congress +were omitted from the list, whether Republican or Democrat, for Frank +was popular with both parties and expected help from both. Over three +hundred cards had been issued for the party, which was the absorbing +topic of conversation in the whole town, and which brought white kids +and white muslins into great requisition, while swallow-tails and non +swallow-tails were discussed in the privacy of households, and discarded +or decided upon according to the length of the masculine purse or the +strength of the masculine resistance, for dress coats were not then the +rule in Shannondale. It was said that Mr. St. Claire and Squire +Harrington always wore them to dinner, but they were the nobility _par +excellence_ of the town, and were expected to do things differently from +the middle class, who had their bread to earn. Old Peterkin, however, +whom Frank in his soliloquy, had designated a _canal bummer_, had become +a rich man, and was resolved to show that he knew what was _au fait_ for +the occasion; a new suit throughout, in the very latest style, was in +progress of making for him, and he had been heard to say that 'Tracy +should have his vote and that of fifty more of the boys to pay for his +ticket to the doin's'. This speech, which was reported to Mrs. Tracy, +reconciled her to the prospect of receiving as a guest the coarsest, +roughest man in town, whose only recommendation was his money and the +brute influence he exercised over a certain class. + +Dolly has scarcely slept for excitement since the party had been decided +upon, and everything seemed to be moving on very smoothly and in order. +They were to have music, and flowers, and a caterer from Springfield, +where a lovely party-dress for herself of peach-blow satin was making, +and nothing occurred of any importance to disturb her until the morning +of the day appointed for the party, when it seemed as if every evil +culminated at once. First, the colored boy who was to wait in the upper +hall came down with measles. Then Grace Atherton drove round in her +carriage to say that it would be impossible for her to be present, as +she had received news from New York which made it necessary for her to +go there by the next train. She was exceedingly sorry, she said, and for +once in her life Grace was sincere. She _was_ anxious to attend the +party, for, as she said to Edith St. Claire in confidence, she wanted to +see old Peterkin in his swallow-tail and white vest, with a shirt-front +as big as a platter. There was a great deal of sarcasm and ridicule in +Grace Atherton's nature, but at heart she was kind and meant to be just, +and after a fashion really liked Mrs. Tracy, to whom she had been of +service in various ways, helping her to fill her new position more +gracefully than she could otherwise have done, and enlightening her +without seeming to do so on many points which puzzled her sorely; on the +whole they were good friends, and, after expressing her regret that she +could not be present in the evening, Grace stood a few moments chatting +familiarly and offering to send over flowers from her greenhouse, and +her own maid to arrange Mrs. Tracy's hair and assist her in dressing. +Then she took her leave, and it was her carriage Mrs. Tracy was watching +as it went down the avenue, when little Harold Hastings appeared around +the corner of the house, and, coming up the steps, took off his cap +respectfully as he said: + +'Grandma sends you her compliments, and is very sorry that she has +rheumatism this morning and cannot come to-night to help you. She +thinks, perhaps, you can get Mrs. Mosher.' + +'Your grandmother can't come, when I depended so much upon her, and she +thinks I can get Mrs. Mosher, that termagant, who would raise a mutiny +in the kitchen in an hour!' Mrs. Tracy said this so sharply that a flush +mounted to the handsome face of the boy, who felt as if he were in some +way a culprit and being reprimanded. 'She _must_ come, if she does +nothing but sit in the kitchen and keep order,' was Mrs. Tracy's next +remark. + +'She can't,' Harold replied; 'her foot and ankle is all swelled and +aches so she almost cries. She is awful sorry, and so am I, for I was +coming with her to see the show.' + +This speech put a new idea into Mrs. Tracy's mind, and she said to the +boy: + +'How would you like to come anyway, and stay in the upper hall, and tell +the people where to go? The boy I engaged has disappointed me. You are +rather small for the place, but I guess you'll do, and I will give you +fifty cents.' + +'I'd like it first-rate,' Harold said, his face brightening at the +thought of earning fifty cents and seeing the show at the same time. + +Half-dollars were not very plentiful with Harold, and he was trying to +save enough to buy his grandmother a pair of spectacles, for he had +heard her say that she could not thread her needle as readily as she +once did, and must have glasses as soon as she had the money to spare. +Harold had seen a pair at the drug-store for one dollar, and, without +knowing at all whether they would fit his grandmother's eyes or not, had +asked the druggist to keep them until he had the required amount. Fifty +cents would just make it, and he promised at once that he would come; +but in an instant there fell a shadow upon his face as he thought of +_Tom_, his tormentor, who worried him so much. + +'What is it?' Mrs. Tracy asked, as she detected in him a disposition to +reconsider. + +'Will Tom be up in the hall?' Harold asked. + +'Of course not,' Mrs. Tracy replied. 'He will be in the parlors until +ten o'clock, and then he will go to bed. Why do you ask?' + +'Because,' Harold answered fearlessly, 'if he was to be there I could +not come; he chaffs me so and twits me with being poor and living in a +house his uncle gave us.' + +'That is very naughty in him, and I will see that he behaves better in +future,' said Mrs. Tracy, rather amused than other wise at the boy's +frankness. + +As the mention of the uncle reminded Harold of the telegram, he took it +from his pocket and handed it to her. + +'Mr. Tracy said I was to bring you this. It's from Mr. Arthur, and he's +coming to-night. I'm so glad, and grandma will be, too!' + +If Mrs. Tracy heard the last of Harold's speech she did not heed it, for +she had caught the words that Arthur was coming that night, and, for a +moment, she felt giddy and faint, and her hand shook so she could +scarcely open the telegram. + +Arthur had been gone so long and left them in undisputed possession of +the park, that she had come to feel as if it belonged to them by right, +and she had grown so into a life of ease and luxury, that to give it up +now and go back to Langley seemed impossible to her. She could see it +all so plainly--the old life of obscurity and toil in the little kitchen +where she had eaten her breakfast on winter mornings so near the stove +that she could cook her buckwheats on the griddle and transfer them to +her own and her husband's plates without leaving her seat. She had been +happy, or comparatively so there, she said to herself, because she knew +no better. But now she did know better, and she ate her breakfast in an +oak-paneled dining-room, with a waitress at her elbow, and her +buckwheats hot from a silver dish instead of the smoking griddle. She +had a governess for her two boys, Tom and Jack, and a nurse for her +little Maude, who, in her ambitious heart, she hoped would one day marry +Dick St. Clair, the young heir of Grassy Spring. + +It never occurred to Dolly that they might possibly remain at the park +if Arthur did come home. She felt sure they could not, for Arthur would +hardly approve of his brother's stewardship when he came to realize how +much it had cost him. They would have to leave, and this party she was +giving would be her first and last at Tracy Park. How she wished she had +never thought of it, or, having thought of it, that she had omitted from +the list those who, she knew, would be obnoxious to the foreign brother, +and who had only been invited for the sake of their political influence, +which would now be useless, for Frank Tracy as a nobody, with very +little money to spend, would not run as well, even in his own party, as +Frank Tracy of Tracy Park, with thousands at his command if he chose to +take them. + +'It is too bad, and I wish we could give up the party,' she said aloud, +forgetting in her excitement that Harold was still standing there, +gazing curiously at her. 'You here yet? I thought you had gone!' she +said, half angrily, as she recovered herself a little and met the boy's +wondering eyes. + +'Yes'm; but you ain't going to give the party up?' he said, afraid of +losing his half-dollar. + +'Of course not. How can I, with all the people invited?' she asked, +questioningly, and a little less sharply. + +'I don't know, unless I get a pony and go round and tell 'em not to +come,' Harold suggested, thinking he might earn his fifty cents as +easily that way as any other. + +But, much as Mrs. Tracy wished the party had never been thought of, she +could not now abandon it, and declining the services of Harold and his +pony, she again bade him go home, with a charge that he should be on +time in the evening, adding, as she surveyed him critically: + +'If you have no clothes suitable, you can wear some of Tom's. You are +about his size.' + +'Thank you; I have my meetin' clothes, and do not want Tom's,' was +Harold's reply, as he walked away, thinking he would go in rags before +he would wear anything which belonged to his enemy, Tom Tracy. + +The rest of the morning was passed by Mrs. Frank in a most unhappy frame +of mind, and she was glad when, at an hour earlier than she had reason +to expect him, her husband came home. + +'Well, Dolly,' he said, the moment they were alone, 'this is awfully +unlucky, the whole business. If Arthur must come home, why couldn't he +have written in advance, and not take us by surprise? Looks as if he +meant to spring a trap on us, don't it? And if he did, by Jove, he has +caught us nicely. It will be somewhat like the prodigal son, who heard +the sound of music and dancing, only I don't suppose Arthur has spent +his substance in riotous living, with not over nice people; but there is +no telling what he has been up to all these years that he has not +written to us. Perhaps he is married. He said in his telegram, "Send to +meet _us_." What does that mean, if not a wife?' + +'A wife! Oh, Frank!' and with a great gasp Dolly sank down upon the +lounge near where she was standing, and actually went into the hysterics +her husband had prophesied. + +In reading the telegram she had not noticed the little monosyllable +'_us_,' which was now affecting her so powerfully. Of course it meant a +wife and possibly children, and her day was surely over at Tracy Park. +It was in vain that her husband tried to comfort her, saying that they +knew nothing positively, except that Arthur was coming home and somebody +was coming with him; it might be a friend, or, what was more likely, it +might be a valet; and at all events he was not going to cross Fox River +till he reached it, when he might find a bridge across it. + +But Frank's reasoning did not console his wife, whose hysterical fit was +succeeded by a racking headache, which by night was almost unbearable. +Strong coffee, aconite, brandy, and belladonna, were all tried without +effect. Nothing helped her until she commenced her toilet, when in the +excitement of dressing she partly forgot her disquietude, and the pain +in her head grew leas. Still she was conscious of a feeling of +wretchedness and regret as she sat in her handsome boudoir and felt that +it might be for the last time--that on the morrow another would be +mistress where she had reigned so long. + +It was known in the house that Arthur was expected, and some one with +him, but no hint had been given of a wife, and Mrs. Tracy had ordered +separate rooms prepared for the strangers, who were to arrive on the +half-past ten train. How she should manage to keep up and appear natural +until that time Mrs. Tracy did not know, and her face and eyes wore an +anxious, frightened look, which all her finery could not hide. And still +she was really very handsome and striking in her dress of peach blow +satin, and the bare arms which had once been more familiar with +soap-suds and dishwater than lace and gold bracelets, looked very fair +and girlish when at last she descended to the drawing-room and stood +waiting for the first ring which would open the party. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE COTTAGE IN THE LANE. + + +It was called thus because it stood at the end of a broad, grassy avenue +or lane, which led from the park to the entrance of the grounds of +Collingwood, whose chimneys and gables were distinctly visible in the +winter when the trees were stripped of their foliage. At the time when +Mrs. Crawford took possession of it its color was red, but the storms +and rains of eleven summers and winters had washed nearly all the red +away; and as Mrs. Crawford had never had the money to spare for its +repainting, it would have presented a brown and dingy appearance +outwardly, but for the luxurious woodbine, which she had trained with so +much care and skill that it covered nearly three sides of the cottage, +and made a gorgeous display in the autumn, when the leaves had turned a +bright scarlet. + +Thanks to the thoughtfulness of Arthur Tracy, the cottage was furnished +comfortably and even prettily when Mrs. Crawford entered it, and it was +from the same kind friend that her resources mostly had come up to the +day when, three years after her marriage, Amy Hastings came home to die, +bringing with her a little two-year-old boy, whom, she called Harold, +for his father. Just where the father was, if indeed he were living, she +did not know. He had left her in London six months before, saying he was +going over to Paris for a few days, and should be back almost before she +had time to miss him. Just before he left her he said to her, playfully: + +'Cheer up, _petite_. I have not been quite as regular in my habits as I +ought to have been, but London is not the place for a man of my +tastes--too many temptations for a fellow like me. When I come back we +will go into the country, where you can have a garden, with flowers and +chickens, and grow fat and pretty again. You are not much like the girl +I married. Good-bye.' + +He kissed her and the baby, and went whistling down the stairs. She +never saw him again, and only heard from him once. Then he was in Paris, +and had decided to go for a week to Pau, where he said they were having +such fine fox hunts. Weeks went by and he never wrote nor came, and Amy +would have been utterly destitute and friendless but for Arthur Tracy, +who, when her need was greatest, went to her, telling her that he had +never been far from her, but had watched over her vigilantly to see that +no harm came to her. When her husband went to Paris he knew it through a +detective, and from the same source knew when he went to Pau, where all +trace of him had been lost. + +'But we are sure to find him again,' he said, encouragingly; 'and +meantime I shall see that you do not suffer. As an old friend of your +husband, you will allow me to care for you until he is found.' + +And Amy, who had no alternative, accepted his care, and tried to seem +cheerful and brave while waiting for the husband who never came back. + +At last when all hope of seeing him again was gone, Arthur sent her home +to the cottage in the lane, where her mother received her gladly, +thanking Heaven that she had her daughter back again. But not for long. +Poor Amy's heart was broken. She loved her husband devotedly, and his +cruel desertion of her--for she knew now it was that--hurt her more than +years of suffering with him could have done. Occasionally she heard from +Arthur, who was still busy in search of the delinquent, and who always +sent in his letter a substantial proof of his friendship and generosity. + +And so the weeks and months went by; and then, one day, there came a +letter in the well-known handwriting. But it was Mrs. Crawford who +opened it and read that Harold Hastings was dead: that Amy was free, and +that Arthur Tracy, who through all had loved her just as well as when he +first asked her to be his wife, now put the question again, offering to +make her the mistress of Tracy Park and surround her with every possible +comfort. + +'Say yes, darling Amy,' he wrote, 'and we may yet be very happy. I will +be a good husband to you and a father to your child, who shall share my +fortune as if he were my own. Answer at once, telling me to come, and, +before you know it I shall be there to claim you for my wife.' + +With a low moan, Mrs. Crawford hid her face in her hands and sobbed +aloud, for the Amy who might have been the honored wife of Arthur Tracy +lay dead in her coffin; and that day they buried her under the November +snow, which was falling in great sheets upon the frozen ground. What +Arthur felt when he heard the news no one ever knew, for he made no sign +to any one, but at once gave orders to Colvin that a costly monument +should be placed at her grave, with only this inscription upon it: + + AMY + + _Aged_ 23. + +Of course the low-minded people talked, and Mrs. Crawford knew they did; +but her heart was too full of sorrow to care what was said. Her +beautiful daughter was dead, and she was alone with the little boy, the +child Harold, who had inherited his mother's beauty, with all her lovely +traits of character. Had Mrs. Crawford consented, Arthur would have +supported him entirely; but she was too proud for that. She would take +care of him herself as long as possible, she wrote him, but if, when +Harold was older, he chose to educate him, she would offer no objection. + +And there the matter dropped, and Mrs. Crawford struggled on as best she +could, sometimes going out to do plain sewing, sometimes taking it home, +sometimes going to people's houses to superintend when they had company, +and sometimes selling fruit and flowers from the garden attached to the +cottage. But whatever she did, she was always the same quiet, lady-like +woman, who commanded the respect of all, and who, poor as she was, was +held in high esteem by the better class in Shannondale. Grace Atherton's +carriage and that of Edith St. Claire stood oftener before her door +than that at Tracy Park; and though the ladies came mostly on business, +they found themselves lingering after the business was over to talk with +one who, in everything save money, was their equal. + +Harold was his grandmother's idol. For him she toiled and worked, +feeling more than repaid for all she did by his love and devotion to +her. And Harold was a noble little fellow, full of manly instincts, and +always ready to deny himself for the sake of others. That he and his +grandmother were poor he knew, but he had never felt the effects of +their poverty, save when Tom Tracy had jeered at him for it, and called +him a pauper. There had been one square fight between the two boys, in +which Harold had been the victor, with only a torn jacket, while Tom's +eye had been black for a week, and Mrs. Tracy had gone to the cottage to +complain and insist that Harold should be punished. But when she heard +that Dick St. Claire had assisted in the fray, taking Harold's part, and +himself dealing Tom the blow which blackened his eye, she changed her +tactics, for she did not care to quarrel with Mrs. Arthur St. Claire, of +Grassy Spring. + +Harold and Richard St. Claire, or Dick, as he was familiarly called, +were great friends, and if the latter knew there was a difference +between himself and the child of poverty he never manifested it, and +played far oftener with Harold than with Tom, whose domineering +disposition and rough manners were distasteful to him. That Harold would +one day be obliged to earn his living, Mrs. Crawford knew, but he was +still too young for anything of that kind; and when Grace Atherton, or +Mrs. St. Claire offered him money for the errands he sometimes did for +them, she steadily refused to let him take it. Had she known of Mrs. +Tracy's proposition that he should be present at the party as hall-boy, +she would have declined, for though she could go there herself as an +employee, she shrank from suffering Harold to do so. That Mrs. Tracy was +not a lady, she knew, and in her heart there was always a feeling of +superiority to the woman even while she served her, and she was not as +sorry, perhaps, as she ought to have been, for the attack of rheumatism +which would prevent her from going to the park to take charge of the +kitchen during the evening. + +'I am sorry to disappoint her, but I am glad not to be there,' she was +thinking to herself as she sat in her bright, cheerful kitchen, waiting +for Harold, when he burst in upon her, exclaiming: + +'Oh, grandma, only think! I am invited to the party, and I told her I'd +go, and I am to be there at half-past seven sharp, and to wear my +meetin' clothes.' + +'Invited to the party! What do you mean? Only grown up people are to be +there,' Mrs. Crawford said. + +'Yes, I know;' replied Harold, 'but I'm not to be with the _grown-ups_. +I'm to stay in the upper hall and tell 'em where to go.' + +'Oh, you are to be a _waiter_,' was Mrs. Crawford's rather contemptuous +remark, which Harold did not heed in his excitement. + +'Yes, I'm to be at the head of the stairs, and somebody else at the +bottom; and they are to have fiddlin and dancin'; I've never seen +anybody dance; and ice-cream and cake, with something like plaster all +over it, and oranges and grapes, and, oh, everything! Dick St. Claire +told me; he knows; his mother has had parties, and she's going to-night, +and her gown is crimson velvet, with black and white fur in it like our +cat, only they don't call it that; and--oh, I forgot--they have had a +telegraph, and I took it to Mrs. Tracy, who looked mad and almost cried +when she read it, Mr. Arthur Tracy is coming home to-night.' + +Harold had talked so fast that his grandmother could hardly follow him, +but she understood what he said last, and started as if he had struck +her a blow. + +'Arthur Tracy! Coming home to-night!' she exclaimed. 'Oh, I am so glad, +so glad.' + +'But Mrs. Tracy did not seem to be, and I guess she wanted to stop the +party,' Harold said, repeating as nearly as he could what had passed +between him and the lady. + +Harold was full of the party to which he believed he had been invited, +and when in the afternoon Dick St. Claire came to the cottage to play +with him, he felt a kind of patronizing pity for his friend who was not +to share his honor. + +'Perhaps mother will let me come over and help you,' Dick said, 'I know +how they do it. You mustn't talk to the people as they come up the +stairs, nor even say good-evening, only; + +'"Ladies will please walk this way, and gentlemen that!" + +And Dick went through with a pantomime performance for the benefit of +Harold, who, when the drill was over, felt himself competent to receive +the Queen's guests at the head of the great staircase in Windsor Castle. + +'Yes, I know,' he said, '"Ladies this way, and gentlemen that;" but when +am I to go down and see the dancing and get some ice-cream?' + +On this point Dick was doubtful. He did not believe, he said, that +waiters ever went down to see the dancing, or to get ice cream, until +the party was over, and then they ate it in the kitchen, if there was +any left. + +This was not a cheerful outlook for Harold, whose thoughts were more +intent upon cream and dancing than upon showing the people where to go, +and it was also the second time the word waiter had been used in +connection with what he was expected to do. But Harold was too young to +understand that he was not of the party itself. Later on it would come +to him fast enough, that he was only a part of the machinery which moved +the social engine. Now, he felt like the engine itself, and long before +six o'clock he was dressed, and waiting anxiously for his grandmother's +permission to start.' + +'I'll tell you all about it,' he said to her. 'What they do, and what +they say, and what they wear, and if I can, I'll speak to Mr. Arthur +Tracy and thank him for mother's grave-stone.' + +By seven o'clock he was on his way to the park, walking rapidly, and +occasionally saying aloud with a gesture of his hand to the right and +the left, and a bow almost to the ground. + +'Ladies this way,' and 'gentlemen that.' + +When he reached the house the gas-jets had just been turned up, and +every window was ablaze with light from the attic to the basement. + +'My eye! ain't it swell!' Harold said to himself, as he stood a moment, +looking at the brilliantly lighted rooms. 'Don't I wish I was rich and +could burn all that gas, and maybe I shall be. Grandma says Mr. Arthur +Tracy was once a poor boy like me; only he had an uncle and I haven't. +I've got do earn my money, and I mean to, and sometimes, maybe, I'll +have a house us big as this, and just such a party, with a boy up stairs +to tell 'em where to go. I wonder now if I'm expected to go into the +kitchen door. Of course not, I've got on my Sunday clothes, and am +invited to the party. I shall ring,' + +And he did ring--a sharp, loud ring, which made Mrs. Tracy, who had not +yet left her room, start nervously as she wondered who had come so +early. + +'Old Peterkin, of course. Those whom you care for least always come +first.' + +Peering over the banister Tom Tracy saw Harold when the door was opened, +and screaming to his mother at the top of his voice, 'It ain't old +Peterkin, mother; it's Hall Hastings, come to the front door,' he ran +down the stairs, and confronting the intruder just as he was crossing +the threshold, exclaimed: + +'Go 'long; go back. You hain't no business ringin' the bell as if you +was a gentleman. Go to the kitchen door with the other servants!' + +With a thrust of the hand he pushed Harold back and was about to shut +the door upon him when, with a quick, dextrous movement, Harold darted +past him into the hall, saying, as he did so: + +'Darn you, Tom Tracy, I won't go to the back kitchen door, and I'm not a +servant, and if you call me so again I'll lick you!' + +How the matter would have ended is doubtful, if Mrs. Tracy had not +called from the head of the stairs: + +'Thomas! Thomas Tracy! I am ashamed of you! Come to me this minute! And +you, boy, go to the kitchen; or, no--now you are here, come up stairs, +and I'll tell you what you are to do.' + +Her directions were much like those of Dick St. Claire, except that she +laid more stress upon the fact that he was not to speak to any one +familiarly, but was to be in all respects a machine. Just what she meant +by that Harold did not know; but he hung his cap on a bracket, and +taking his place where she told him to stand, watched her admiringly as +she went down the staircase, with her peach-blow satin trailing behind +her, and followed, by her husband, who looked and felt anxious and ill +at ease. + +Tom had disappeared, but his younger brother, Jack, who was wholly +unlike him, came to Harold's side, and began telling him what quantities +of good things there were in the dining-room and pantry, and that his +Uncle Arthur was coming home that night, and his mother was so glad, she +cried; then, with a spring he mounted upon the banister of the long +staircase and slipped swiftly to the bottom. Ascending the stairs almost +as quickly as he had gone down, he bade Harold try it with him. + +'It's such fun! and mother won't care. I've done it forty times,' he +said, as Harold demurred; and then, as the temptation became too strong +to be resisted, two boys instead of one rode down the banister and +landed in the lower hall, and two pairs of little legs ran nimbly up the +stairs just as the door opened and admitted the first arrival. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE PARTY. + + +The invitations had been for half-past seven, and precisely at that hour +Peterkin arrived, magnificent in his swallow-tail and white shirt front, +where an enormous diamond shone conspicuously. With him came the second +Mrs. Peterkin, whose name was Mary Jane, but whom her husband always +called _May_ Jane. She was a frail, pale faced little woman, and had +once been Grace Atherton's maid, but had married Peterkin for his money. +This was her first appearance at a grand party, and in her excitement +and timidity she did not hear Harold's thrice repeated words, 'Ladies go +that way,' but followed her husband into the gentlemen's dressing-room, +where she deposited her wraps, and then, shaking in every limb, +descended to the drawing-room, where Peterkin's boisterous laugh was +soon heard, as he slapped his host on the shoulder, and said: + +'You see, we are here on time, though May Jane said it was too early. +But I s'posed half-past seven meant half-past seven and then I wanted a +little time to talk up the ropes with you. We are going to run you in, +you bet!' and again his coarse laugh thrilled every nerve in Mrs. +Tracy's body, and she longed for fresh arrivals to help quiet this +vulgar man. + +Soon they began to come by twos, and threes, and sixes, and Harold was +kept busy with his 'Ladies this way, and gentlemen that.' + +After Mrs. Peterkin had gone down stairs, leaving her wraps in the +gentlemen's rooms, Harold, who knew they did not belong there, had +carried them to the ladies' room and deposited them upon the bed, just +as the girl who was to be in attendance appeared at her post, asked him +sharply why he was in there rummaging the ladies' things. + +'I'm not rummaging. They are Mrs. Peterkin's. She left them in the other +room, and I brought them here,' Harold said, as he returned to the hall, +never dreaming that this little circumstance, trivial as it seemed, +would be one of the links in the chain of evidence which must for a time +overshadow him so darkly. + +Now, he was eager and excited, and interested in watching the people as +they came up the stairs and went down again. With the quick instinct of +a bright, intelligent boy, he decided who was accustomed to society and +who was not, and leaning over the banister when not on duty, watched +them when they entered the drawing-room and were received by Mr. and +Mrs. Tracy. Unconsciously he began to imitate them, bowing when they +bowed, and saying softly to himself: + +'Oh, how do you do? Good evening. Happy to see you. Pleasant to-night. +Walk in. Ye-as!' + +This was the monosyllable with which he finished every sentence, and was +the affirmation to the thought in his mind that he, too, would some day +go down those stairs and into those parlors as a guest, while some other +boy in the upper hall bade the ladies go this way and the gentlemen +that. + +It was after nine when Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire arrived, with Squire +Harrington, from Collingwood. Harold had been looking for them, anxious +to see the crimson satin trimmed with ermine, of which Dick had told +him. Many of the guests he had mentally criticised unsparingly, but Mrs. +St. Claire, he knew, was genuine, and his face beamed, when in passing +him, she smiled upon him with her sweet, gracious manner, and said, +pleasantly: + +'Good evening, Harold. I knew you were to be here. Dick told me, and he +wanted to come and assist you, but I thought he'd better stay home with +Nina.' + +Up to this time no one had spoken to Harold, and he had spoken to no one +except to tell them where to go, but had, as far as possible, followed +Mrs. Tracy's injunction to be a machine. But the machine was getting a +little tired. It was hard work to stand for two hours or more, and Mrs. +Tracy had impressed it upon him that he was not to sit down. But when +Mrs. St. Claire came from the dressing-room and stood before him a +moment in her crimson satin and pearls, he forgot his weariness and +forgot that he was not to talk, and said to her, involuntarily: + +'Oh, Mrs. St. Claire, how handsome you look! Handsomer than anybody yet, +and different, too, somehow.' + +Edith knew the compliment was genuine, and she replied: + +'Thank you, Harold,' then, laying her hand on the boy's head and parting +his soft, brown hair, she said, as she noticed a look of fatigue in his +eyes, 'are you not tired, standing so long? Why don't you bring a chair +from one of the rooms and sit when you can?' + +'She told me to stand,' Harold replied, nodding toward the parlors, from +which a strain of music then issued. + +The dancing had commenced, and Harold's feet and hands beat time to the +lively strains of the piano and violin, until he could contain himself +no longer. The dancing he must see at all hazards and know what it was +like, and when the last guests came up the stairs there was no hall boy +there to tell them, 'Ladies this way, gentlemen that,' for Harold was in +the thickest of the crowd, standing on a chair so as to look over the +heads of those in front of him and see the dancers. But, alas, for poor +Harold! He was soon discovered by Mrs. Tracy, who, asking him if he did +not know his place better than that, ordered him back to his post, where +he was told to stay until the party was over. + +Wholly unconscious of the nature of his offence, but very sorry that he +had offended, Harold went up the stairs, wondering why he could not see +the dancing, and how long the party would last. His head was beginning +to ache with the glare and gas; his little legs were tired, and he was +growing sleepy. Surely he might sit down now, particularly as Mrs. St. +Claire had suggested it, and bringing himself a chair from one of the +rooms he sat down in a corner of the hall and was soon in a sound sleep, +from which, however, he was roused by the sound of Mr. Tracy's voice, as +he came up the stairs, followed by a tall, distinguished-looking man, +who wore a Spanish cloak wrapped gracefully around him, and a large, +broad-brimmed hat drawn down so closely, as to hide his features from +view. + +As he reached the upper landing he raised his head, and Harold, who was +now wide awake and standing up, caught a glimpse of a thin, pale face +and a pair of keen, black eyes, which seemed for an instant to take +everything in; than the head was dropped, and the two men disappeared in +a room at the far end of the hall. + +'I'll bet that's Mr. Arthur. How grand he is! looks just like a pirate +in that cloak and hat,' was Harold's mental comment. + +Before he had time for further thought, Frank Tracy came from the room +and hurried down the stairs to rejoin his guests. + +Five minutes later and the door at the end of the long hall which +communicated with the back staircase and the rear of the house, opened, +and a man whom Harold recognized as the expressman from the station +appeared with a huge trunk on his shoulder and a large valise in his +hand. These he deposited in the stranger's room and then went back for +more, until four had been carried in. But when he came with the fifth +and largest of all, a hand, white and delicate as a woman's, was thrust +from the door-way with an imperative gesture, and a voice with a decided +foreign accent exclaimed: + +'For heaven's sake, don't bring any more boxes in here. Why, I am +positively stumbling over them now. Surely there must be some place in +the house for my luggage besides my private apartment.' + +Then the door was shut with a bang, and Harold heard the sliding of the +bolt as Arthur Tracy fastened himself in his room. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +ARTHUR. + + +All the time that Frank Tracy had been receiving his guests and trying +to seem happy and at his ease, his thoughts had been dwelling upon his +brother's telegram and the ominous words, 'Send some one to meet us.' +How slowly the minutes dragged until it was ten o'clock, and he knew +that John had started for the station to meet the dreaded '_us_.' He had +told everybody that he was expecting his long-absent brother, and had +tried to seem glad on account of it. + +'You and he were great friends, I believe,' he said to Squire +Harrington. + +'Yes, we were friends,' the latter replied; 'but when he lived here my +health was such that I did not mingle much in society. I met him, +however, in Paris four years ago, and found him very companionable and +quite Europeanized in his manner and tastes. He spoke French or German +altogether, and might easily have passed for a foreigner. I shall be +glad to see him.' + +'And so shall I,' chimed in Peterkin, whose voice was like a trumpet and +could be heard everywhere. 'A first-rate chap, though we didn't use to +hitch very well together. He was all-fired big feelin', and them days +Peterkin was nowhere; but circumstances alter cases. He'll be glad to +see me now, no doubt;' and with the most satisfied air the half +millionaire put his hand as if by accident to his immense diamond pin, +and pulling down his swallow-tail, walked away. + +Frank saw the faint smile of contempt which showed itself in Squire +Harrington's face, and his own grew red with shame, but paled almost +instantly as the outer door was opened by some one who did not seem to +think it necessary to ring; and a stranger, in Spanish cloak and +broad-brimmed hat, stepped into the hall. + +Arthur had come, and was _alone_. The train had been on time, and at +just half-past ten the long line of cars stopped before the Shannondale +station, where John, the coachman from Tracy Park, was waiting. The +night was dark, but by the light from the engine and the office John saw +the foreign-looking stranger, who stepped upon the platform, and felt +sure it was his man. But there was no one with him, though it seemed as +if he were expecting some one to follow him from the car as he stood for +a moment waiting. Then, as the train moved on, he turned with a puzzled +look upon his face to meet John, who said to him, respectfully: + +'Are you Mr. Arthur Tracy?' + +'Yes; who are you?' was the not very cordial response. + +'Mr. Frank Tracy sent me from the park to fetch you,' John replied. 'I +think he expected some one with you. Are you alone?' + +'Yes--no, no!' and Arthur's voice indicated growing alarm and uneasiness +as he looked rapidly around him, 'Where is she? Didn't you see her? She +was with me all the way. Surely she got off when I did. Where can she +have gone?' + +He was greatly excited, and kept peering through the darkness as he +talked; while John, a good deal puzzled, looked curiously at him, as if +uncertain whether he were in his right mind or not. + +'Was there some one with you in the car?' he asked. + +'Yes, in the car, and in New York, and on the ship. She was with me all +the way,' Mr. Tracy replied. 'It is strange where she is now. Did no one +alight from the train when I did?' + +'No one,' John answered, more puzzled than ever.... 'I was looking for +you, and there was no one else. She may have fallen asleep and been +carried by.' + +'Yes, probably that is it,' Mr. Tracy said, more cheerfully, 'she was +asleep and carried by. She will come back to-morrow.' + +He seemed quite content with this solution of the mystery, and began to +talk of his luggage, which lay upon the platform--a pile so immense that +John looked at it in some alarm, knowing that the carriage could never +take it all. + +'Eight trunks, two portmanteaus, and a hat-box!' he said, aloud, +counting the pieces. + +'Yes, and a nice sum those rascally agents in New York made me pay for +having them come with me,' Arthur rejoined. 'They weighed them all, and +charged me a little fortune. I might as well have sent them by express; +but I wanted them with me, and here they are. What will you do with +them? This is hers,' and he designated a black trunk or box, longer and +larger than two ordinary trunks ought to be. + +'I can take one of them with the box and portmanteau, and the expressman +will take the rest. He is here. Hallo, Brown,' John said, calling to a +man in the distance, who came forward, and, on learning what was wanted, +begun piling the trunks into his wagon, while Arthur followed John, to +the carriage, which he entered, and, sinking into a seat, pulled his +broad-brimmed hat over his face and eyes, and sat as motionless as if he +had been a stone. + +For a moment John stood looking at him, wondering what manner of man he +was, and thinking, too, of the woman who, he said, had been with him in +the train, and who should have alighted with him. At last, remembering +suddenly a message his master had given him, he began: + +'If you please, sir, Mr. Tracy told me to tell you he was very sorry +that he could not come himself to meet you. If he had known that you +were coming sooner, he would have done different; but he did not get +your telegram till this morning, and then it was too late to stop it. We +are having a great break-down to-night.' + +During the first of these remarks Arthur had given no sign that he +heard, but when John spoke of a break-down, he lifted his head quickly, +and the great black eyes, which Harold noticed later as peculiar, +flashed a look of inquiry upon John, as he said: + +'Break-down? What is that!' + +'A party--a smasher! Mr. Tracy is running for Congress.' was John's +reply. + +And then over the thin face there crept a ghost of a smile, which, faint +as it was, changed the expression wonderfully. + +'Oh, a party!' he said. 'Well, I will be a guest, too. I have my +dress-suit in some of those trunks. Frank is going to Congress, is he? +That's a good joke! Drive on. What are you standing there for?' + +The carriage door was shut, and, mounting the box, John drove as rapidly +toward Tracy Park as the darkness of the night would admit, while the +passenger inside sat with his hat over his eyes, and his chin almost +touching his breast, as if absorbed in thought, or else not thinking at +all. Once, however, he spoke to himself, and said: + +'Poor little Gretchen! I wonder how I could have forgotten and left her +in the train. What will she do alone in a strange place? But perhaps +Heaven will take care of her. She always said so. I wish I had her faith +and could believe as she does. Poor little Gretchen!' + +They had turned into the park by this time, and very soon draw up before +the house, from every window of which lights were flashing, while the +sounds of music and dancing could be distinctly heard. + +Something like Frank's idea came into Arthur's mind at the sight. + +'It makes me think of the return of the prodigal, only I have not wasted +my substance and my father does not come to meet me,' he said, as he +descended from the carriage and went up the broad steps to the piazza, +on which a few young people were walking, unmindful of the chill night +air. + +'I need not ring at my own house,' Arthur thought, as he opened the door +and stepped into the hall; and thus it was that the first intimation +which Frank had of his arrival was when he saw him standing in the midst +of a crowd of people, who were gazing curiously at him. + +'Arthur!' he exclaimed, rushing forward and taking his brother's hand. +'Welcome home again! I did not hear the carriage, though I was listening +for it. I am so glad to see you! Come with me to your room;' and he led +the way up stairs to the apartment prepared for the stranger. + +He had seen at a glance that Arthur was alone, unless, indeed, he had +brought a servant who had gone to the side door; and thus relieved from +a load of anxiety, he was very cordial in his manner, and began at once +to make excuses for the party, repeating in substance what John had +already said. + +'Yes, I know; that fellow who drove me here told me,' Arthur said, +throwing off his coat and hat, and beginning to lave his face, and neck, +and hands in the cold water which he turned into the bowl until it was +full to the brim, and splashed over the sides as he dashed it upon +himself. + +All this time Frank had not seen his face distinctly, nor did he have +an opportunity to do so until the ablutions were ended and Arthur had +rubbed himself with, not one towel, but two, until it seemed as if he +must have taken off the skin in places. Then he turned, and running his +fingers through his luxuriant hair, which had a habit of curling around +his forehead as in his boyhood, looked full at his brother, who saw that +he was very pale and thin, and that his eyes were unnaturally large and +bright, while there was about him an indescribable something which +puzzled Frank a little. It was not altogether the air of foreign travel +and cultivation which was so perceptible, but a something else--a +restlessness and nervousness of speech and manner as he moved about the +room, walking rapidly and gesticulating as he walked. + +'You are looking thin and tired. Are you not well?' Frank asked. + +'Oh, yes, perfectly well,' Arthur replied: 'only this infernal heat in +my blood, which keeps me up to fever pitch all the time. I shall have to +bathe my face again,' and, turning a second time to the bowl, he began +to throw water over his face and hands as he had done before. + +'I'd like a bath in ice water,' he said, as he began drying himself with +a fresh towel. 'If I remember right, there is no bath-room on this +floor, but I can soon have one built. I intend to throw down the wall +between this room and the next, and perhaps the next, so as to have a +suite.' + +He was asserting the ownership at once, and Frank had nothing to say, +for his brother was master there, and had a right to tear the house down +if he chose. The second washing must have cooled him, for there came a +change in his manner, and he moved more slowly and spoke with greater +deliberation, as he asked some questions about the people below. + +'Will you come down by-and-bye,' Frank said, after having made some +explanations with regard to his guests. + +'No, you will have to excuse me,' Arthur replied. 'I am too tired to +encounter old acquaintances or make new. I do not believe I could stand +old Peterkin, who you say is a millionaire. I suppose you want his +influence; your coachman told me you were running for Congress,' and +Arthur laughed the old merry musical laugh which Frank remembered so +well: then, suddenly changing his tune, he said: 'When does the next +train from the East pass the station?' + +Frank told him at seven the next morning, and he continued: + +'Please send the carriage to meet it. Gretchen will probably be there. +She was in the train with me, and should have gotten out when I did, but +she must have been asleep and carried by.' + +'Gr-gr-gretchen! Who is she?' Frank stammered, while the cold sweat +began to run down his back. + +The 'us' in the telegram did mean something, and mischief, too, to his +interests, he felt intuitively. + +Instantly into Arthur's eyes there stole a look of cunning, and a +peculiar smile played round his mouth as he replied: + +'She is Gretchen. See that the carriage goes for her, will you?' + +His voice and manner indicated that he wished the conference ended, and +with a great sinking at his heart Frank left the room and returned to +his guests and his wife, who had not seen the stranger when he entered +the hall, and thus did not know of Arthur's arrival until her husband +rejoined her. + +'He has come,' he whispered to her, while she whispered back: + +'Is he alone?' + +'Yes, but somebody is coming to-morrow; I do not know who; Gretchen, he +calls her,' was Frank's reply. + +'Gretchen!' Mrs. Tracy repeated, in a trembling voice. 'Who is she?' + +'I don't know. He merely said she was Gretchen; his daughter, perhaps,' +was Frank's answer, which sent the color from his wife's cheeks, and +made her so faint and sick that she would have given much to be alone +and think over this evil coming upon her the next day in the shape of +the mysterious Gretchen. + +Meantime when left to himself, Arthur changed his mind with regard to +going down into the parlors to see his brother's guests, and, unlocking +the trunk which held his own wardrobe he took out an evening suit fresh +from the hands of a London tailor, and, arraying himself in it, stood +for a moment before the glass to see the effect. Everything was +faultless, from his neck-tie to his boots; and, opening the door, he +went out into the hall, which was empty, except for Harold, who was +sitting near the stairs, half asleep again. Most of the guests were in +the supper-room, but a few of the younger portion were dancing, and the +strains of music were heard with great distinctness in the upper hall. + +'Ugh!' Arthur said, with a shiver, as he stopped a moment to listen, +while his quick eye took in every detail of the furniture and its +arrangement in the hall. 'That violinist ought to be hung--the pianist, +too! Don't they know what horrid discord they are making? It brings that +heat back. I believe, upon my soul, I shall have to bathe my face +again.' + +Suiting the action to the word, he went back and washed his face for the +third time; then returning to the hall, he advanced toward Harold, who +was now wide awake and stood up to meet him. As Arthur met the +clear-brown eyes fixed so curiously upon him, he stopped suddenly, and +put his hand to his head as if trying to recall something; then going a +step or two nearer to Harold, he said: + +'Well, my little boy, what are you doing up here?' + +'Telling the folks which way to go,' was Harold's answer. + +'Who are you?' Arthur continued. 'What is your name?' + +'Harold Hastings,' was the reply; and instantly there came over the +white, thin face, and into the large, bright eyes, an expression which +made the boy stand back a little as the tall man came up to him and, +laying a hand on his shoulder, said, excitedly: + +'Harold Hastings! He was once my friend, or, I thought he was; but I +hate him now. And he was your father, and Amy Crawford was your mother? +_N'est ce pas?_ Answer me!' + +'Yes, sir--yes, sir; but I don't know what you mean by "_na-se par_,"' +Harold said, in a frightened voice; and Arthur continued, as he +tightened his grasp on his shoulder: + +'Don't you know you ought to have been my son, instead of his?' + +'Yes, sir--yes, sir; I'll never do so again,' Harold stammered, too much +alarmed now to know what he was saying, or of what he was accused. + +'No, you never will do it again. I hated your father, and I hate you, +and I am going to throw you over the stair railing!' Arthur said, and +seizing Harold's coat-collar, he swung him over the banister as if he +had been a feather, while the boy struggled and fought, and held onto +the rails, until help appeared in the person of Frank Tracy, who came +swiftly up the stairs, demanding the cause of what he saw. + +He had been standing near the drawing-room door, and had caught the +sound of his brother's voice and Harold's as if in altercation. Excusing +himself from those around him, he hastened to the scene of action in +time to save Harold from a broken limb, if not a broken neck. + +'What is it? What have you been doing?' he asked the boy, who replied, +amid his tears: + +'I hain't been doing anything, only minding my business, and he came and +asked me who I was, and when I told him, he was going to chuck me over +the railing--darn him! I wish I was big; I'd lick him!' + +Harold's cheeks were flushed, and the great tears glittered in his eyes, +as he stood up, brave and defiant, and resentful of the injustice done +him. + +'Are you mad, Arthur?' Frank said. + +And whether it was the tone of his voice, or the words he uttered, +something produced a wonderful effect upon his brother, whose mood +changed at once, and who advanced toward Harold with outstretched hand, +saying to him: + +'Forgive me, my little man. I think I must have been mad for the +instant; there is such a heat in my head, and the crash of that music +almost drives me wild. Shall it be peace between us, my boy?' + +It was next to impossible to resist the influence of Arthur Tracy's +smile, and Harold took the offered hand and said, between a sob and a +laugh: + +'I don't know now why you wanted to throw me down stairs.' + +'Nor I, and I will make it up to you some time,' was Arthur's reply, as +he took his brother's arm and said: 'Now introduce me to your guests.' + +The moment the gentlemen disappeared from view Harold's resolution was +taken. He was of no use there any longer, as he could see. It was nearly +midnight. He was very tired and sleepy, and his head was aching +terribly. He could not see the dancing. He had had nothing to eat; he +had stood until his legs were ready to drop off, and to crown all a +lunatic had tried to throw him over the banister. + +'I won't stay here another minute,' he said. + +And leaving the hall by the rear entrance, and slipping down a back +stairway, he was soon in the open air, and running swiftly through the +park toward the cottage in the lane. + +Meanwhile the two brothers had descended to the drawing-room, where +Arthur was soon surrounded by his friends and old acquaintances, whom he +greeted with that cordiality and friendliness of manner which had made +him so popular with those who knew him best. Every trace of excitement +had disappeared, and had he been master of ceremonies himself, at whose +bidding the guests were there, he could not have been more gracious or +affable. Even old Peterkin, when he came into notice, was treated with a +consideration which put that worthy man at ease, and set his tongue +again in motion. At first he had felt a little overawed by Arthur's +elegant appearance, and had whispered to his neighbor: + +'That's a swell, and no mistake. I s'pose that's what you call foreign +get up. Well, me and ma is goin' to Europe some time, and hang me if I +don't put on style when I come home. I'd kind of like to speak to the +feller. I wonder if he remember that I was runnin' a boat when he went +away?' + +If Arthur did remember it he showed no sign when Peterkin at last +pressed up to him, claiming his attention, as Captain Peterkin, of the +_'Liza Ann_, the fastest boat on the canal, and by George, the +all-tiredest meanest, too, I guess, he said: 'but them days is past, and +the old captain is past with them. I dabbled a little in ile, and if I +do say it, I could about buy up the whole canal if I wanted to; but I +ain't an atom proud, and I don't forget the old boatin' days, and I've +got the old '_Liza Ann_ hauled up inter my back yard as a relict. The +children use it for a play-house, but to me it is a--a--what do you call +it? a--gol darn it, what is it?' + +'Souvenir,' suggested Arthur, vastly amused at this tirade, which had +assumed the form of a speech, and drawn a crowd around him. + +'Wall, yes; I s'pose that's it, though 'taint exactly what I was trying +to think of,' he said. It's a reminder, and keeps down my pride, for +when I get to feelin' pretty big, after hearin' myself pointed out as +Peterkin the millionaire, I go out to that old boat in the back yard, +and says I, '_'Liza Ann_,' says I, 'you and me has took many a trip up +and down the canal, with about the wust crew, and the wust hosses, and +the wust boys that was ever created, and though you've got a new coat of +paint onto you, and can set still all day and do nothing while I can +wear the finest broadcloth and set still, too, it won't do for us to +forget the pit from which we was dug, and I don't forget it neither, no +more than I forgit favors shown when I was not fust cut. You, sir, rode +on the _'Liza Ann_ with that crony of yours--Hastings was his name--and +you paid me han'some, though I didn't ask nothin'; and ther's your +brother--Frank, I call him. I don't forgit that he used to speak to me +civil when I was nobody, and now, though I'm a Dimocrat, as everybody +knows me knows, and everybody most does know me, for Shannondale allus +was my native town, I'm goin' to run him into Congress, if it takes my +bottom dollar, and anybody, Republican or Dimocrat; who don't vote him +ain't my friend, and must expect to feel the full heft of my--my--' + +'Powerful disapprobation,' Arthur said, softly, and Peterkin continued: + +'Thank you, sir, that's the word--powerful, sir, powerful, powerful,' +and he glowered threateningly at two or three young men in white kids +and high shirt collars, who were known to prefer the opposing candidate. + +Peterkin had finished his harrangue, and was wiping his wet face with +his handkerchief, when Arthur, who had listened to him with well-bred +attention, said: + +'I thank you, Captain Peterkin, for your interest in my brother, who, if +he succeeds, will, I am sure, owe his success to your influence, and be +grateful in proportion. Perhaps you have a bill you would like him to +bring before the House?' + +'No,' Peterkin said, with a shake of the head. 'My Bill is a little +shaver, eight or nine years old; too young to go from home, but'--and he +lowered his voice: a little--'I don't mind saying that if there should +be a chance, I'd like the post-office fust-rate. It would be a kind of +hist, you know, to see my name in print, Captain Joseph Peterkin, P.M.' + +Here the conversation ended, and the aspirant for the post-office, who +had tired himself out, stepped aside and gave place to others who were +anxious to renew their acquaintance with Arthur. It was between one and +two o'clock in the morning when the party finally broke up, and, as the +Peterkins had been the first to arrive, so they were the last to leave, +and Mrs. Peterkin found herself again in the gentlemen's dressing-room, +looking after her wraps. But they were not there, and after a vain and +anxious search she said to her husband: + +'Joe, somebody has stole my things, and 'twas my Indian shawl, too, and +gold-headed pin, with the little diamond.' + +Mrs. Tracy was at once summoned to the scene, and the missing wraps were +found in the ladies' room, where Harold had carried them, but the +gold-headed shawl-pin was gone and could not be found. + +Lucy, the girl in attendance, said, when questioned, that she knew +nothing of the pin or Mrs. Peterkin's wraps either, except that on first +going up to the room after the lady's arrival, she found Harold Hastings +fumbling them over, and that she sent him out with a sharp reprimand. +Harold was then looked for and could not be found, for he had been at +home and in bed for a good two hours. Clearly, then, he knew something +of the pin; and Peterkin and his wife said good-night, resolving to see +the boy the first thing in the morning, and demand their property. + +When the Peterkins were gone, Arthur started at once for his room, but +stopped at the foot of the stairs and said to his brother: + +'Don't forget to have the carriage at the station at seven o'clock. +Gretchen is sure to be there.' + +'All right,' was Frank's reply. + +While Mrs. Tracy asked: + +'Who is Gretchen?' + +If Arthur heard her he made no reply, but kept on up the stairs to his +room, where they heard him for a long time walking about, opening and +shutting windows, locking and unlocking trunks, and occasionally +splashing water over his face and hands. + +'Your brother is a very elegant-looking man,' Mrs. Tracy said to her +husband as she was preparing to retire. 'Quite like a foreigner, but how +bright his eyes are, and they look at you sometimes as if they would +see through you and know what you were thinking. They almost make me +afraid of him.' + +Frank made no direct reply. In his heart there was an undefined fear +which he then could not put into words, and with the remark that he was +very tired, he stepped into bed, and was just falling into a quiet sleep +when there came a knock upon his door loud enough, it seemed to him, to +waken the dead. Starting up he demanded who was there and what was +wanted. + +'It is I,' Arthur said. 'I thought I smelled gas, and I have been +hunting round for it. There is nothing worse to breathe than gas, +whether from the furnace, the pipes, or the drain. I hope that is all +right.' + +'Yes,' Frank answered, a little crossly. 'Had a new one put in two weeks +ago.' + +'If there's gas in the main sewer it will come up just the same, and I +am sure I smell it,' Arthur said. 'I think I shall have all the +waste-pipes which connect with the drain cut off. Good-night. Am sorry I +disturbed you.' + +They heard him as he went across the hall to his room, and Frank was +settling down again to sleep when there came a second knock, and Arthur +said, in a whisper: + +'I hope I do not trouble you, but I have decided to go myself to the +station to meet Gretchen. She is very timid, and does not speak much +English. Good-night once more, and pleasant dreams.' + +To sleep now was impossible, and both husband and wife turned restlessly +on their pillows, Frank wondering what ailed his brother, and Dolly +wondering who Gretchen was and how her coming would affect them. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +WHO IS GRETCHEN? + + +This was the question which Mr. and Mrs. Tracy asked of themselves and +each other many times during the hours which intervened between their +retiring and rising. But speculate as they might they could reach no +satisfactory conclusion, and were obliged to wait for what the morning +and the train might bring. The party had been a success, and Frank felt +that his election to Congress was almost certain; but of what avail +would all this be if he lost his foothold at Tracy Park, as he was sure +to do if a woman appeared upon the scene. Both he and his wife had +outgrown the life of eleven years ago, and could not go back to it +without a struggle, and it is not strange if both wished that the +troublesome brother had remained abroad instead of coming home so +suddenly and disturbing all their plans. They heard him moving in his +room before the clock struck six, and knew he was getting himself in +readiness to meet the dreaded Gretchen. Then, long before the carriage +came round they heard him in the hall opening the windows and admitting +a gust of wind which blew their door open, and when Frank arose to shut +it he saw the top of Arthur's broad-brimmed hat disappearing down the +stairs. + +'I believe he is going to walk to the station; he certainly is crazy,' +Frank said to his wife, as they dressed themselves and waited with +feverish impatience for the return of the carriage. + +Arthur did walk to the station, which he reached just as the ticket +agent was unlocking the door, and there, with his Spanish cloak wrapped +around him, he stalked up and down the long platform for more than an +hour, for the train was late, and it was nearer eight than seven when it +finally came in sight. + +Standing side by side Arthur and John looked anxiously for some one to +alight, but nobody appeared and the expression of Arthur's face was +pitiable as he turned it to John, and said: + +'Gretchen did not come. Where do you suppose she is?' + +'I am sure I don't know. On the next train, may be,' was John's reply, +at which Arthur caught eagerly. + +'Yes, the next train, most likely. We will come and meet it; and now +drive home as fast as you can. This disappointment has brought that heat +to my head, and I must have a bath. But, stop a bit; who is the best +carpenter in town?' + +John told him that Belknap was the best, and Burchard the highest +priced. + +'I'll see them both,' Arthur said. 'Take me to their houses;' and in the +course of half an hour he had interviewed both Burchard and Belknap, +and made an appointment with both for the afternoon. + +Then he was driven back to Tracy Park, where breakfast had been waiting +until it was spoiled, and the cook's temper was spoiled, too, and when +Frank and Dolly met him at the door, both asked in the same breath: + +'Where is she?' + +'She was not on this train. She will come on the next. We must go and +meet her,' was Arthur's reply, as he passed up the stairs, while Frank +and his wife looked wonderingly at each other. + +The spoiled breakfast was eaten by Mr. and Mrs. Tracy alone, for the +children had had theirs and gone to their lessons, and Arthur had said +that he never took anything in the morning except a cup of coffee and a +roll, and these he wished sent to his room, together with a time-table. + +After breakfast Mrs. Tracy, who was suffering from a sick headache, +declared her inability to sit up a moment longer and returned to her +bed, leaving her husband and the servants to bring what order they could +out of the confusion reigning everywhere, and nowhere to a greater +extent than in Arthur's room, or rather the rooms which he had +appropriated to himself, and into which he had had all his numerous +boxes and trunks brought, so that he could open them at his leisure. +There were more coming by express, he said, boxes which came through the +custom-house, for he had brought many valuable things, such as pictures, +and statuary, and rugs and inlaid tables and chinas, with which to adorn +his home. + +The house, which was very large, had a wing on either side, while the +main building was divided by a wide hall, with three rooms on each side, +the middle one being a little smaller than the other two, with each of +which it communicated by a door. And it was into this middle room on the +second floor Arthur had been put, and which he found quite too small for +his use. So he ordered both the doors to be opened and took possession +of the suite, pacing them several times, and then measuring their +length, and breadth, and height, and the distance between the windows. +Then he inspected the wing on that side of the house, and, going into +the yard, looked the building over from all points, occasionally +marking a few lines on the paper he held in his hand. Before noon every +room in the house, except the one where Dolly lay sick with a headache +had been visited and examined minutely, while Frank watched him +nervously, wondering if he would think they had greatly injured +anything, or had expended too much money on furniture. But Arthur was +thinking of none of these things, and found fault with nothing except +the drain and the gas fixtures, all of which he declared bad, saying +that the latter must be changed at once, and that ten pounds of copperas +must be bought immediately and put down the drain, and that quantities +of chloride of lime and carbolic acid must be placed where there was the +least danger of vegetable decomposition. + +'I am very sensitive to smells, and afraid of them, too, for they breed +malaria and disease of all kinds,' he said to the cook, whose nose and +chin both were high in the air, not on account of any obnoxious odor, +but because of this unreasonable meddling with what she considered her +own affairs. If things were to go on in this way, she said to the +house-maid, and if that man was going to poke his nose into drains, and +gas-pipes, and kerosene lamps, and bowls of sour milk which she might +have forgotten, she should give notice to quit. + +But when, half an hour later, some boxes and trunks which had come by +express were deposited in the back hall, and Arthur, who was +superintending them, said to her, as he pointed to a large black trunk, +'I think this has the dress patterns and shawls I brought for you, +girls; for though I did not know you personally, I knew that women were +always pleased with anything from Paris' her feelings underwent a +radical change, and Arthur was free to smell the drain and the gas +fixtures as much as he liked. + +He was very busy, and though always pleasant, and even familiar at +times, there was in all he said and did an air of ownership, as if he +had assumed the mastership. And he had. Everything was his, and he knew +it, and Frank knew it, too, and gave no sign of rebelling when the reins +were taken from him by one who seemed to be driving at a break-neck +speed. + +At lunch, while the brothers were together, Arthur announced his +intentions in part, but not until Frank, who was anxious to get it off +his mind, said to him: + +'By the way, I suppose you will be going to the office this afternoon, +to see Colvin and look over the books. I believe you will find them +straight, and hope you will not think I have spent too much, or drawn +too large a salary. It you do, I will--' + +'Nonsense!' was Arthur's reply, with a graceful shrug of his shoulders. +'Don't bother about that there is money enough for us both. What I +invested in Europe has trebled itself, and more too, and would make me a +rich man if I had nothing else. I am always lucky. I played but once at +Monte Carlo, just before I came home, and won ten thousand dollars, +which I invested in--But no matter; that is a surprise--something for +your wife and Gretchen. I have come home to stay. I do not think I am +quite what I used to be. I was sick all that time when you heard from me +so seldom, and I am not strong yet. I need quite a rest. I have seen the +world, and am tired of it, and now I want a house for Gretchen and +myself, and you too. I expect you to stay with me as long as we pull +together pleasantly and you do not interfere with my plans. I am going +to take the three south rooms on the second floor for my own. I shall +put folding-doors, or rather a wide arch between two of them, making +them almost like one, and these I shall fit up to suit my own taste. In +the smaller and middle room, where I slept last night, I shall have a +large bow window, with shelves for books in the spaces between and +beneath, and by the sides of the windows. I got the idea in a villa a +little way out of Florence. Opposite this bow window, on the other side +of the room, I shall have niches in the wall and corners for statuary, +with shelves for books above and below. I have some beautiful pieces of +marble from Florence and Rome. The Venus de Milo, Apollo Belvidere, +Nydra and Psyche, and Ruth at the Well. But the crowning glory of this +room will be the upper half of the middle window of the bow. This is to +be of stained glass, bright but soft colors which harmonize perfectly, +two rows on the four sides, and in the centre a lovely picture of +Gretchen, also of cathedral glass, and so like her that it seems to +speak to me in her soft German tongue. I had it made from a photograph I +have of her, and it is very natural--the same sad, sweet smile around +the lips which never said an unkind word to any one--the same bright, +wavy hair, and eyes of blue, innocent as a child--and Gretchen is little +more than that. She is only twenty-one--poor little Gretchen!' and, +leaning back in his chair, Arthur seemed to be lost in recollections of +the past. + +Not pleasant, all of them, it would seem, for there was a moisture in +his eyes when he at last looked up in response to his brother's +questioning. + +'Who did you say Gretchen was?' + +Instantly the expression of the eye changed to one of weariness and +caution, as Arthur replied: + +'I did not say who she was, but you will soon know. I saw by the +time-table that the train which passes here at eleven does not stop, but +the three o'clock does, and you will please see that John goes with the +carriage. I may be occupied with the carpenters, Burchard and Belknap, +who were coming to talk with me about the changes I purpose to make, and +which I wish commenced immediately. It is a rule of mine that when I am +to do a thing, to do it at once. So I shall employ at least twenty men, +and before Christmas everything will be finished, and I will show you +rooms worthy of a palace. It is of Gretchen I am thinking, more than of +myself. Poor little Gretchen!' + +Arthur's voice was inexpressibly sad and pitiful as he said 'Poor +Gretchen,' while his eyes again grew soft and tender, with a far-away +look in them, as if they were seeing things in the past rather than in +the future. + +There was not a particle of sentiment in Frank's nature, and Gretchen +was to him an object of dread rather than a romance. So far as he could +judge, his brother had no intention of routing him; but a woman in the +field would be different, and he should at once lose his vantage-ground. + +'You seem to be very fond of Gretchen,' he said, at last. + +'Fond!' Arthur replied, 'I should say I am, though the poor child has +not much cause to think so. But I am going to atone, and this suite of +rooms is for her. I mean to make her a very queen, and dress her in +satin and diamonds every day. She has the diamonds. I sent them to her +when I wrote to her to join me in Liverpool.' + +'And she did join you, I suppose?' Frank said, determined by adroit +questioning to learn something of the mysterious Gretchen. + +'Yes, she joined me,' was the reply. + +'Was she very seasick?' Frank continued. + +'Not a minute. She sat by me all the time while I lay in my berth, but +she would not let me hold her hand, and if I tried to touch even her +hair, she always moved away to the other side of the state-room, where +she sat looking at me reproachfully with those soft blue eyes of hers.' + +'And she was with you at the Brevoort in New York!' Frank said. + +'Yes, with me at Brevoort.' + +'And in the train?' + +'Yes, and in the train.' + +'And you left her there?' + +'No; she left herself. She did not follow me out. She went on by +mistake, but is sure to come back this afternoon,' Arthur replied, +rather excitedly, just as a sharp ring at the bell announced the arrival +of Burchard and Belknap, the leading carpenters of the town, with whom +he was closeted for the next two hours, and both of whom he finally +hired in order to expedite the work he had in hand. + +At precisely three o'clock the carriage from Tracy Park drew up before +the station, awaiting the arrival of the train and Gretchen, but though +the former came, the latter did not, and John returned alone, mentally +avowing to himself that he would not be sent on a fool's errand a third +time; but five o'clock found him there again with the same result. +Gretchen did not come, and Arthur's face wore a sad, troubled +expression, and looked pale and worn, notwithstanding the many times he +bathed it in the coldest water and rubbed it with the coarsest towels. + +He had unpacked several of his trunks and boxes, and made friends of all +she servants by the presents, curious and rare, which he gave them, +while Dolly's headache had been wholly cured at sight of the exquisite +diamonds which her husband brought to her room and told her were hers, +the gift of Arthur, who had bought them in Paris, and who begged her to +accept them with his love. + +The box itself, which was of tortoise shell, lined with blue velvet, was +a marvel of beauty, while the pin was a cluster of five diamonds with a +larger one in the center, but the ear-rings were solitaires, large and +brilliant, and Dolly's delight knew no bounds as she took the dazzling +stones in her hands and examined them carefully. Diamond were the jewels +of all others which she coveted, but which Frank never felt warranted in +buying, and now they were hers, and for a time she forgot even Gretchen, +whose arrival, or rather non-arrival, troubled her as much as it did her +brother-in-law. + +Arthur had been very quiet and gentle all the afternoon, showing no sign +of the temper he had exhibited the previous night at sight of Harold +until about six o'clock, when Tom, his ten-year-old nephew, came rushing +into the library, followed by Peterkin, very hot and very red in the +face, which he mopped with his yellow silk handkerchief. + +'Oh, mother,' Tom began, 'what do you think Harold Hastings has done? He +stole Mrs. Peterkin's gold pin last night. It was stuck in her shawl, +and she couldn't find it, and Lucy saw him fumbling with the things, and +he denies it up hill and down, and Mr. Peterkin is going to arrest him. +I guess Dick St. Claire won't think him the nicest boy in town now. The +thief! I'd like-- + +But what he would like was never known, for with a spring Arthur bounded +toward him, and seizing him by the coat collar, shook him vigorously, +while he exclaimed: + +'Coward and liar! Harold Hastings is not a thief! No child of Amy +Crawford could ever be a thief, and if you say that again, or even +insinuate it to any living being, I'll break every bone in your body. Do +you understand?' + +'Yes, sir; no sir, I won't; I won't,' Tom gasped, as well as he could, +with his head bobbing forward and back so rapidly that his teeth cut +into his under lip. + +'But _I_ shall,' Peterkin roared. 'I'll have the young dog arrested, +too, if he don't own up and give up.' + +There was a wicked look in Arthur's black eyes, which he fastened upon +Peterkin, as he said; + +'What does it all mean, sir? Will you please explain?' + +'Yes, in double quick time,' replied Peterkin, a little nettled by +Arthur's manner, which he could not understand. 'You see, me and Mary +Jane was early to the doin's; fust ones, in fact, for when your invite +says half past seven it means it, I take it. Wall, we was here on time, +and Mary Jane has been on a tear ever since, and says Miss St. Claire +nor none of the big bugs didn't come till nine, which I take is +imperlite, don't you?' + +'Never mind, we are not discussing etiquette. Go on with the pin and the +boy,' Arthur said haughtily. + +'Mary Jane,' Peterkin continued, 'had a gold-headed shawl pin, with a +small diamond in the head--real, too, for I don't b'lieve in shams, and +haint sense the day I quit boatin' and hauled ther 'Liza Ann up inter my +back yard. Well, she left this pin stickin' in her shawl, and no one up +there but this boy of that Crawford gal's, and nobody knows who else.' + +Something in Arthur's face and manner made Frank think of a tiger about +to pounce upon its prey, and he felt himself growing cold with suspense +and dread as he watched his brother, while Peterkin continued: + +'When Mary Jane came to go home, her things wa'n't there, and the pin +was missin'; and Lucy, the girl, said she found the boy pullin' them +over by himself, when he had no call to be in there; and, sir, there +ain't a lawyer in the United States that would refuse a writ on that +evidence, and I'll get one of St. Claire afore to-morrow night. I told +'em so, the widder and the boy, who was as brassy as you please, and +faced me down and said he never seen the pin, nor knowed there was one; +while she--wall, I swow, if she didn't start round lively for a woman +with her leg bandaged up in vinegar and flannel. When I called the brat +a thief and said I'd have him arrested, she made for the door and +ordered me out--me, Joe Peterkin, of the 'Liza Ann! I'll make her smart, +though, wus than the rheumatiz. I'll make her feel the heft--' + +He did not have time to finish the sentence, for the tiger in Arthur was +fully roused, and with a bound toward Peterkin he opened the door, and, +in a voice which seemed to fill the room, although it was only a +whisper, he said: + +'Clown! loafer! puff-ball! Leave my house instantly, and never enter it +again until you have apologized to Mrs. Crawford and her grandson for +the insult offered them by your vile accusations. If it were not for +soiling my hands, I would throw you down the steps,' he continued, as he +stood holding the door open, and looking with his flashing eyes and +dilated nostrils, as if he were fully equal to anything. + +Like most men of the boasting sort, Peterkin was a coward, and though he +probably had twice the strength of Arthur, he went through the door-way +out upon the piazza, where he stopped, and, with a flourish of his fist, +denounced the whole Tracy tribe, declaring them but a race of upstarts, +no better than he was, and saying he would yet be even with them, and +make them feel the heft of his powerful disapprobation. Whatever else he +said was not heard, for Arthur shut the door upon him, and returning to +the library, where his brother stood, pale, trembling, and anxious for +the votes he felt he had lost, he became on the instant as quiet and +gentle as a child, and, consulting his watch, said in his natural tone: + +'Quarter of seven, and the train is due at half-past. Please tell John +to have the carriage ready. I am going myself this time.' + +Frank opened his lips to protest against it, but something in his +brother's manner kept him quiet and submissive. He was no longer master +there--unless--unless--he scarcely dared whisper to himself what; but +when the carriage went for the fourth time to the station after Gretchen +and returned without her, he said to his wife: + +'I think Arthur is crazy, and possibly we shall have to shut him up.' + +'Yes, I wish you would,' was Dolly's reply, in a tone of relief, for, +thus far, Arthur's presence in the house had not added to her comfort. +'Of course he is crazy, and ought to be taken care of before he tears +the house down over our heads, or does some dreadful thing.' + +'That's so, and I will see St. Claire to-morrow and find out the proper +steps to be taken,' said Frank. + +That night he dreamed of windows with iron bars across them, and +strait-jackets, into which he was thrusting his brother, while a face, +the loveliest he had ever seen, looked reproachfully at him, with tears +in the soft blue eyes, and a pleading pathos in the voice which said +words he could not understand, for the language was a strange one to him +who only knew his own. + +With a start Frank awoke, and found his wife sitting up in bed, +listening intently to sounds which came from the hall, where some one +was evidently moving around. + +'Hark!' she said, in a whisper. 'Do you hear that? There's a burglar in +the house after my diamonds. What shall I do?' + +But Frank knew that no burglar ever made the noise this disturber of +their rest was making and stepping out of bed he opened the door +cautiously, and looking out, saw his brother, wrapped in a long +dressing-gown, with a candle in his hand, opening one window after +another until the hall was filled with the cold night wind, which swept +down the long corridor banging a door at the farther end and setting all +the rest to rattling. + +'Oh! Frank, is that you?' Arthur said. 'I am sorry I woke you, but I +smelled an awful smell somewhere, and traced it to the hall, which you +see I am airing; better shut the door or you will take cold. The house +is full of malaria.' + +He was certainly crazy; there could be no doubt of it; and next morning, +when Mr. St. Claire entered his office, he found Frank Tracy waiting +there to consult him with regard to the legal steps necessary to procure +his brother's incarceration in a lunatic asylum. + +Arthur St. Claire's face wore a grave, troubled look as he listened, for +he remembered a time, years before, when he, too, had been interested in +the lunatic asylum at Worcester, where a beautiful young girl, his wife, +had been confined. She was dead now, and the Florida roses were growing +over her grave, but there were many sad, regretful memories connected +with her short life, and not the least sad of these were those connected +with the asylum. + +'If it were to do over again I would not put her there, unless she +became dangerous,' he had often said to himself, and he said much the +same thing to Frank Tracy with regard to his brother. + +'Keep him at home, if possible. Do not place him with a lot of lunatics +if you can help it. No proof he is crazy because he smells everything. +My wife does the same. Her nose is over the registers half the time in +winter to see if any gas is escaping from the furnace. And as to this +Gretchen, it is possible there was some woman with him on the ship, or +in New York, and he may be a little muddled there. You can inquire at +the hotel where he stopped.' + +This was Mr. St. Claire's advice, and Frank acted upon it, and took +immediate steps to ascertain if there had been a lady in company with +his brother at the Brevoort House, where he had stopped, or if there had +been any one in his company on the ship, which was still lying in the +dock at New York. But there no one had been with him. Arthur Tracy alone +was registered among the list of passengers, and only Arthur Tracy was +on the books at the hotel. He had come alone, and been alone on the sea +and at the hotel. + +Gretchen was a myth, or at least a mystery, though he still persisted +that she would arrive with every train from Boston; and for nearly a +week they humored him, and the carriage went to meet her, until at last +there seemed to dawn upon his mind the possibility of a mistake, and +when the carriage had made its twentieth trip for nothing, and Mr. St. +Claire, who was standing by him on the platform when the train came up +and brought no Gretchen, said to him: + +'She did not come.' + +'I am afraid she will never come,' he answered, sadly. 'No, she will +never come. There has been some mistake. She will never come. Poor +little Gretchen!' Then, after a moment he added, but there _is_ a +Gretchen, and I wrote to her to join me in Liverpool, and I thought she +did and was with me on the ship and in the train, but sometimes, when my +head is so hot, I get things mixed, and am not sure but--' and he looked +wistfully in his companion's face, while his voice trembled a little. +'Don't let them shut me up; I have a suspicion that they will try it, +but it will do no good. I was in an asylum nearly three years near +Vienna; went of my own accord, because of that heat in my head.' + +'Been in an asylum?' Mr. St. Claire said, wonderingly. + +'Yes,' Arthur continued, 'I was only out three months ago. I wrote +occasionally to Frank and Gretchen, but did not tell them where I was. +They called it a _maison de santé_, and treated me well because I paid +well, but the sight of so many crazy people made me worse, and if I had +staid I should have been mad as the maddest of them. As it was, I forgot +almost everything that ever happened, and fancied I was an Austrian. As +soon as I came out I was better, though I was not quite myself till I +got to Liverpool. Then things came back to me. Stand by me, St. Claire. +I can see I am in the way, and Frank would like to be rid of me; but +stand by me, and don't let them do it.' + +His manner was very pleading, and like one who was in fear of something, +and remembering the past when a golden-haired girl had begged him to +save her from iron bars and bolts, Mr. St. Claire assured him of his +support against any steps which might be taken to prove him mad enough +for the asylum. + +'But I would not come for Gretchen any more,' he said. 'I would give her +a rest. Who is she?' + +Instantly the old look of cunning came into Arthur's eyes, as he +replied: + +'She is Gretchen;' and then he walked toward the carriage, while Mr. St. +Claire looked curiously after him, and said to himself: + +'That fellow is not right, but he is not a subject for a mad house, and +I should oppose his being sent there. I do not believe, however, that +they will try it on.' + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +ARTHUR SETTLES HIMSELF. + + +They did try it on, but not until after the November election, at which +Frank was defeated by a large majority, for Peterkin worked against him +and brought all the 'heft of his powerful disapprobation' to bear upon +him. Although Frank had had no part in turning him from the door that +morning after the party, he had not tried to prevent it by a word, and +this the low, brutal man resented, and swearing vengeance upon the whole +Tracy tribe, declared his intention to defeat Frank if it cost him half +his fortune to do so. And it did cost him at least two thousand dollars, +for Frank Tracy was popular with both parties; many of the Democrats +voted for him, but the rabble, the scum, those who could be bought on +both sides, went against him, even to the Widow Shipley's four sons; and +when all was over, Frank found himself defeated by just as many votes as +old Peterkin had paid for, not only in Shannondale, but in the adjoining +towns, where his money carried 'heft,' as he expressed it. + +It was a terrible disappointment to Frank and his wife, who had looked +forward to enjoying a winter in Washington, where they intended to take +a house and enjoy all society had to offer them in the national +metropolis. Particularly were they anxious for the change now that +Arthur had come home, for it was not altogether pleasant to be ruled +where they had so long been rulers, and to see the house turned upside +down without the right to protest. + +'I can't stand it, and I won't,' Frank said to his wife in the first +flush of his bitter disappointment. 'Ever since he came home he has +raised Cain generally, with his carpenters, and masons, and painters, +and stewing about water-pipes, and sewer-gas, and smells. He's mad as a +March hare, and if I can't get rid of him by going to Washington, I'll +do it in some other way. You know he is crazy, and so do I, and I'll +swear to it on a stack of Bibles as high as the house.' + +And Frank did swear to it, not on a stack of Bibles, but before two or +three physicians and Mr. St. Claire, who, at his solicitation, came to +Tracy Park, and were closeted with him for an hour or more, while he +related his grievances, asserting finally that he considered his brother +dangerous, and did not think his family safe with him, citing as proof +that he had on one occasion threatened to kill his son Tom for accusing +Harold Hastings of theft. + +How the matter would have terminated is doubtful, if Arthur himself had +not appeared upon the scene, calm, dignified, and courtly in his manner, +which insensibly won upon his hearers, as in a few well-chosen and +eloquent words, he proceeded to prove that though he might be peculiar +in some respects, he was not mad, and that a man might repair his own +house, and cut off his own water-pipes, and take up his sewer, and +detect a bad smell, and still not be a subject for a lunatic asylum. + +'And,' he continued, addressing his brother, 'it ill becomes you to +take this course against me--you, who have enriched yourself at my +expense, while I have held my peace. Suppose I require you to give an +account of all the money which you have considered necessary for your +support and salary--would you like to do it? Would the world consider +you strictly honorable, or would they call you a lunatic on the subject +of money and not responsible for your acts? But I have no wish to harm +you. I have money enough, and cannot forget that you are my brother. But +molest me, and I shall molest you. If I go to the asylum you will leave +Tracy Park. If I am allowed to stay here in peace, you can do so, +too--at least, until Gretchen comes, when it will, perhaps, be better +for us to separate. Two masters may manage to scramble along in the same +house, but two mistresses never can, and Dora and Gretchen would not be +congenial. Good morning, gentlemen!' and he bowed himself from the room, +leaving Frank covered with confusion and shame as he felt that he was +beaten. + +The physicians did not think it a case in which they were warranted to +interfere. Neither could conscientiously sign a certificate which should +declare Arthur a lunatic, and their advice to Frank was that he should +suffer his brother to have his own way in his own house, and when he +felt that he could not bear with his idiosyncracies he could go +elsewhere. But it was this going elsewhere which Frank did not fancy; +and, after a consultation with his wife, he decided to let matters take +their course for a time at least, or until Gretchen came, if she ever +did. + +Arthur's allusion to the sums of money his brother had appropriated to +his own use had warned Frank that he was not quite so indifferent or +ignorant of his business affairs as he had seemed, and this of itself +served to keep him quiet and patient during the confusion which ensued, +as walls were torn down, and doors and windows cut, while the house was +filled with workmen, and the sound of the hammer and saw was heard from +morning till night. + +It was in the middle of October when Arthur fairly commenced his +repairs, but so many men did he employ, and so rapidly was the work +pushed on, that the first of January found everything finished and +Arthur installed in his suite of rooms, which a prince might have +envied, so richly and tastefully were they fitted up. Beautiful pictures +and rich tapestry covered the walls in the first room, where the floor +was inlaid with colored woods in lovely Mosaic designs, and the centre +was covered with a costly Oriental rug, which Arthur had bought at a +fabulous price in Paris, where it had once adorned a room in the +Tuileries. But the gem of the whole was the library, where the statuary +stood in the niches, and where, from the large bow-window at the south, +a young girl's face looked upon the scene with an expression of shy +surprise and half regret in the soft blue eyes, as if their owner +wondered how she came there, and was always thinking of the fields and +forests of far-away Germany. For it was decidedly a German face of the +higher type, and such as is seldom found among the lower or even middle +classes. And yet you instinctively felt that it belonged to the latter, +notwithstanding the richness of the dress, from the pearl-embroidered +cap set jauntily on the reddish golden hair to the velvet bodice and the +satin peasant waist. The hands, small and dimpled like those of a child, +were clasped around a prayer-book and a bunch of wild flowers which had +evidently just been gathered. It was a marvelously beautiful face, pure +and sweet as that of a Madonna, and the workmen involuntarily bowed +their heads before it, calling it, not without some reason, a memorial +window, for the name Gretchen was under the picture, and one +unconsciously found himself looking for the date of birth and death. But +only the one word 'Gretchen' was there, with no sign to tell who she +was, or where, if living, she was now, or what relation she bore to the +strange man who often stood before her whispering to himself: + +'Poor little Gretchen! Will you never come?' + +For a few days after the rooms were completed, they were thrown open to +such of Arthur's friends as cared to see them, and the question 'Who is +Gretchen?' was often asked, but the answer was always the same: 'She is +Gretchen. I am expecting her every day.' + +But if he were expecting her, he no longer asked that the carriage be +sent to meet her. That had been one of the proofs of his insanity as +alleged by his brother, and Arthur was sane enough and cunning enough to +avoid a repetition of that offence, but he often went himself to the +station, when the New York trains were due, for it was from the west +rather than the east that he was now looking for her. + +Frank, who watched him nervously, with all his senses sharpened, guessed +what had caused the change and grew more nervous and morbid on the +subject of Gretchen than ever. At first his brother, who was greatly +averse to going out, had asked him to post his letters; business letters +they seemed to be, for they were addressed to business firms in New +York, London, and Paris, with all of which Arthur had relations. But one +morning when Frank went as usual to his brother's room asking if there +was any mail to be taken to the office, Arthur, who was just finishing a +letter, replied: + +'No, thank you, I will post this myself. I have been writing to +Gretchen.' + +'Yes, to Gretchen?' Frank said, quickly, as he advanced nearer to the +writing desk, hoping to see the address on the envelope. + +But Arthur must have suspected his motive, for he at once turned over +the envelope and kept his hand upon it, while Frank said to him: + +'Is she in London now?' + +'No; she was never in London,' was the curt reply, and then, turning +suddenly, Arthur faced his brother and said: 'Why are you so curious +about Gretchen? It is enough for you to know that the is the sweetest, +truest little girl that ever lived. When she comes I shall tell you +everything, but not before. You have tried to prove me crazy; have said +I was full of cranks; perhaps I am, and Gretchen is one of them, but it +does not harm you, so leave me in peace, if you wish for peace +yourself.' + +There was a menacing look in Arthur's eyes which Frank did not like, and +he retreated from the room, resolved to say no more to him of Gretchen, +whose arrival he again began to look for and dread. But Gretchen did not +come, or any tidings of her, and Christmas came and went, and the lovely +bracelets which Arthur brought from the trunk he said was hers, and into +which no one had ever looked but himself, remained unclaimed upon his +table, as did the costly inlaid work-box, and the cut-glass bottles with +the gold stoppers. All these were to have been Gretchen's Christmas +presents; but when she did not come they disappeared from view and were +not seen again, while Arthur seemed to be settling into a state of great +depression, caring nothing for the outside world, but spending all his +time in the lovely rooms he had prepared for himself and one who never +came. + +As far as was possible he continued his foreign habits, having his +coffee and rolls at eight in the morning, his breakfast, as he called +it, at half-past twelve, and his dinner at half-past six. All these +meals were served in his room as elaborately, and with as much ceremony, +as if lords and ladies sat at the table instead of one lone man, who +never let himself down a particle, but required the utmost subservience +and care in the waiting. The finest of linen, and china, and glass, and +silver adorned his table, with bits of fanciful crockery gathered here +and there in his extended wanderings, and always flowers for a +centre-piece--roses mostly, if he could get them--tea roses and Marshal +Neils, for Gretchen, he said, was fond of these, and, as she might +surprise him at any moment, he wished to be ready for her, and show that +he was expecting her. + +Opposite him, at the end of the table, was always an empty plate with +its surroundings, and the curiously-carved chair, which had seen the +lion at Lucerne. But no one ever sat in it. No one ever used the +decorated plate, or the glass mug at its side, with its twisted handle +and the letter 'G.' on the silver cover. Just what this mug was for none +of the household knew until Grace Atherton, who had travelled in Europe, +and to whom Mrs. Tracy showed it one day when Arthur was out, said: + +'Why, it is a beer-mug, such as is used in Germany, though more +particularly among the Bavarian Alps and in the Tyrol. This Gretchen is +probably a tippler, with a red nose and a double chin. I wish to +goodness she would come and satisfy our curiosity.' + +This wish of Grace's was not shared by Mrs. Tracy, who felt an uneasy +sense of relief as the days went on, and the beer-drinking Gretchen did +not appear, while Arthur became more and more depressed and remained +altogether in his room, seeing no one and holding no intercourse with +the outside world. He had returned no calls, and had been but once to +the cottage in the lane to see Mrs. Crawford. That interview had been a +long and sad one, and when they talked of Amy, whose grave Arthur had +visited on his way to the cottage, both had cried together, and Gretchen +seemed for the time forgotten. They talked of Amy's husband, who, Arthur +said, had died at Monte Carlo; and then he spoke of Amy's son, who was +not present, and whom he seemed to have forgotten entirely, for when +Mrs. Crawford said to him, 'You saw him on the night of your return +home,' he looked at her in a perplexed kind of way, and if trying to +recall something which had gone almost entirely from his mind. It was +this utter forgetfulness of people and events which was a marked feature +of his insanity, if insane he were, and he knew it and struggled against +it; and when Mrs. Crawford told him he had seen Harold he tried to +recall him, and could not until the boy came in, flushed and excited +from a race with Dick St. Claire through the crisp November wind, which +had brought a bright color to his cheek and a sparkle to his eye. Then +Arthur remembered everything, and something of his old prejudice came +back to him, and his manner was a little constrained as he talked to the +boy, whose only fault was that Harold Hastings had been his father and +that he bore his name. + +Arthur did not stay long after Harold came in, but said good-morning to +Mrs. Crawford and walked slowly away, going again to Amy's grave, and +taking from it a few leaves of the ivy which was growing around the +monument. And this was all the intercourse he held with Mrs. Crawford, +except to send her at Christmas a hundred dollars, which he said was for +the boy Harold, to whom he had done an injustice. + +After this he seldom went out, but gave himself heart and soul to the +completion of his rooms, and when they were finished he settled down +into the life of a recluse, seeing very few and talking but little, +except occasionally to himself, when he seemed to be carrying on a +conversation with some unseen visitant, who must have spoken in a +foreign tongue or tongues, for sometimes it was French, sometimes +Italian, and oftener German, in which he addressed his fancied guest, +and neither Frank nor Dolly could understand a word of the strange +jargon. On the whole, however, he was very quiet and undemonstrative, +and but for the habit of talking to himself and smelling odors where +there were none, he would not have seemed very different from many +peculiar people who are never suspected of being crazy. + +If he were still expecting Gretchen, he gave no sign of it, except the +place at his table always laid for her, and Frank was beginning to +breathe freely, and to look upon his brother's presence in the house as +not altogether unbearable, when an event occurred which excited all +Shannondale, and for a time made Frank almost as crazy as his brother. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE STORM. + + +The winter since Christmas had been unusually severe, and the oldest +inhabitant, of whom there are always many in every town, pronounced the +days as they came and went the coldest they had ever known. Ten, twelve, +and even fourteen degrees below zero the thermometers marked more than +once, while old Peterkin's, which was hung inside the Lizy Ann and +always took the lead, went down one morning to seventeen, and all the +water-pipes and pumps in town either froze or burst, and Arthur Tracy, +who, with his absorption of self, never forgot the poor, sent tons and +tons of coal to them, and whispered to himself: + +'Poor Gretchen! It is hard for her if she is on the sea in such weather +as this. Heaven protect her, poor little Gretchen!' + +That night when Frank went, as his custom was, to sit a few moments with +his brother, he found him on his knees, with his face toward the +picture, repeating the prayer for those upon the sea. + +The next day there was a change for the better, and the next, and the +next, until when the last day of February dawned Peterkin's thermometer +registered only two, and people began to show themselves in the +streets, while the sun tried to break through the grey clouds which +shrouded the wintry sky. But this was only temporary, for before noon +the mercury fell again to eight below, the wind began to rise, and when +the New York train came panting to the station at half-past six, clouds +of snow so dense and dark were driving over the hills and along the line +of track that nothing could be distinctly seen. + +It was not until the train had moved on that the station-master, who, +half blinded with the sleet, was gathering up the mail-bag, which had +been unceremoniously dropped, saw across the track at a little distance +from him the figure of a woman who seemed to be trying to examine a +paper she held in her hand, while clinging to her skirts and crying +piteously was a little child, but whether boy or girl, he could not +tell. + +'Can I do anything for you?' he said advancing toward the stranger, who, +thrusting the paper from sight, caught up the child in her arms, and +without word of answer, hurried away in the storm and rapidly-increasing +darkness. + +'Curis! She must have got off t'other side of the cars. I wonder who she +is and where she is goin'. Not fur, I hope, such a night as this. Ugh! +the wind is like so many screech owls and almost takes a feller off his +feet, the agent said to himself, as he looked after the stranger, and +then went back to the light and warmth of his office, where he soon +forgot the woman, who, with the child held closely in her arms, walked +rapidly on, her eyes strained to their utmost tension as they peered +through the darkness and the storm until she reached a gate opening into +a grassy road which led through the fields in a straight line to Tracy +Park and Collingwood beyond. + +Carriages seldom traversed this road, but in the summer time the people +from Collingwood and Tracy Park frequently walked that way, as it was a +much nearer route to town than the main highway. Here the woman stopped, +and looking up at the tall arch over the gate, said aloud, as if +repeating a lesson learned by heart, 'Leave the car on your right hand; +take the road to the right, as I have drawn it on paper; go straight on +for a quarter of a mile until you come to a wide iron gate with a tall +arch over it. This gate is also at your right. You cannot mistake it.' + +'No,' she continued, 'I cannot mistake it. This is the place. We are +almost there,' and putting down the child, she tugged with all her +strength at the ponderous gate, which she at last succeeded in opening, +and resuming her burden, passed through into the field where the snow +lay on the ground in great white drifts, while the blinding flakes and +cutting sleet from the leaden clouds above, beat pitilessly upon her as +she struggled on the wearisome way. + +And while she toiled on, fighting bravely with the storm, and +occasionally speaking a word of encouragement to the little child +nestled in her bosom, Arthur Tracy stood at one of the windows in his +library, with his white face pressed close against the pane, as he +looked anxiously out into the gathering darkness, shuddering +involuntarily as the wind came screaming round a corner of the house, +bending the tall evergreens until their slender tops almost touched the +ground, and then rushing on down the carriage-drive with a shriek like +so many demons let loose from the ice-caves of the north, where the +winds are supposed to hold high carnival. + +They were surely holding carnival to-night, and their king was out with +all his legions, and as Arthur listened to the roar of the tempest he +whispered to himself: + +'A wild, wild night for Gretchen to arrive, and her dear little feet and +hands will be so cold; but there is warmth and comfort here, and love +such as she never dreamed of, poor Gretchen! I will hold her in my arms +and chafe her cold fingers and kiss her tired face until she feels that +her home-coming is a happy one. It must be almost time,' and he glanced +at a small cathedral clock which stood upon the mantel. + +In the adjoining room the dinner table was as usual laid for two, but +one could see that more care than usual had been given to its +arrangement, while the roses in the centre were the largest and finest +of their kind. In the low, wide grate a bright fire was burning, and +Arthur placed a large easy chair before it, and then brought from the +library a covered footstool, with a delicate covering of blue and gold. +No foot had ever yet profaned this stool with a touch, for it was one of +Arthur's specialties, bought at a great price in Algiers; but he brought +it now for Gretchen and saw in fancy resting upon it the cold little +feet his hands were to rub and warm and caress until life came back to +them, and Gretchen's blue eyes smiled upon him and Gretchen's sweet +voice said: + +'Thank you, Arthur. It is pleasant coming home.' + +For the last two or three weeks, Arthur had been very quiet and +taciturn, but on the morning of this day he had seemed restless and +nervous, and his nervousness and excitability increased until a violent +headache came on, and Charles, the servant, who attended him, reported +to Mrs. Tracy that his midday meal had been untouched and that he really +seemed quite ill. Then Frank went to him, and sitting down beside him as +he lay upon a couch in the room with Gretchen's picture, said to him, +not unkindly: + +'Are you sick to-day? What is the matter?' + +For a few moments Arthur made no reply, but lay with his eyes closed as +if he had not heard. Then suddenly rousing himself, he burst out, +vehemently: + +'Frank, you think me crazy, or you have thought so, and you have based +that belief in part on the fact that I am always expecting Gretchen. And +so for a long time I have suppressed all mention of her, though I have +never ceased to look for her arrival, since--since--well, I may as well +tell you the truth. I know now that she could not have been with me on +the ship and in the train, although I thought she was. I wrote her to +join me in Liverpool, and fancied she did. But my brain must have been a +little mixed. She did not come with me, but I wrote to her weeks ago, +telling her to come at once, and giving her directions how to find the +park if she should arrive at the station and no one there to meet her. +She has had more than time to get here, but I have said nothing about +sending the carriage for her, as that seemed to annoy you. But to-day, +Frank, to-day'--and Arthur's voice grew softer and pleading, and +trembled as he went on. 'I dreamed of her last night, and to-day she +seems so near to me that more than once I have put out my hand to touch +her. Frank, it is not insanity, this presentiment of mine that she is +near me, that she is coming to me, or tidings of her; it is mind acting +upon mind; her thoughts of me reaching forward and fastening upon my +thoughts of her, making a mental bridge on which to see her coming to +me. And you will send for her. You will let John go again. Think if she +should arrive in this terrible storm and no one there to meet her. You +will send this once, and if she is not there I will not trouble you +again.' + +There was something in Arthur's white face which Frank could not resist, +and though he had no idea that anything would come of it, he promised +that John should go. + +'Oh, Frank,' Arthur exclaimed, his face brightening at once, 'you have +made me so happy! My headache is quite gone,' and then he began to plan +for the dinner, which was to be more elaborate than usual, and served an +hour later, so as to give plenty of time for Gretchen to rest and dress +herself if she wished to do so. + +'And she will when she sees the lovely dress I have for her,' he thought +to himself, and after his brother had gone he went to the large closet +where he kept the long black trunk which he called Gretchen's, and into +which Dolly's curious eyes had never looked, although she longed to know +the contents. + +This Arthur now opened, and had Dolly been there she would have held +her breath in wonder at the many beautiful things it contained. +Folded in one of the trays, as only a French packer accustomed to +the business could have arranged it, was an exquisite dinner-dress of +salmon-colored satin, with a brocaded front and jacket of blue and gold, +and here and there a knot of duchess lace, which gave it a more airy +effect. This Arthur took out carefully and laid upon the bed in his +sleeping-apartment, together with every article of the toilet necessary +to such a dress, from a lace pocket handkerchief to a pair of pale-blue +silk hose, which he kissed reverently as he whispered to himself: + +'Dear little feet, which, no doubt, are so cold now in the wretched car; +but they will never be cold when once I have them here.' + +He was talking in German, as he always did when Gretchen was the subject +of his thought, and so Dolly, who came to say that some things which he +had ordered for dinner were impossible now, could not understand him, +but she caught a glimpse of the dress upon the bed, and advanced quickly +toward the open door, exclaiming: + +'Oh, Arthur, what a lovely gown! Whose--?' + +But before she completed her question Arthur was upon the threshold and +had closed the door, saying as he did so: + +'It is Gretchen's. I had it made at Worth's. She is coming to-night, you +know.' + +Dolly had heard from her husband of Arthur's fancy, and though she had +no faith in it, she replied: + +'Yes, Frank told me you were expecting her again, and I came to say that +we cannot get the fish you ordered, for no one can go to town in this +storm, and I doubt if we could find it if we did. You will have to skip +the fish.' + +'All right; all right. Gretchen will be too much excited to care,' +Arthur replied, standing with his hand upon the door-knob until Dolly +left the room and went to this kitchen, where Frank was interviewing the +coachman. + +He had found that important personage before the fire, bending nearly +double and complaining bitterly of a fall he had just had on his way +from the stable to the house. According to his statement, the wind had +taken him up bodily, and carrying him a dozen rods or so, had set him +down heavily upon a stone flowerpot which was left outside in the +winter, nearly breaking his back, as he declared. This did not look very +promising for the drive to the station, and Frank opened the business +hesitatingly, and asked John what he thought of it. + +'I think I would not go out in such a storm as this with my back if +Queen Victoria was to be there,' John answered gruffly. 'And what would +be the use?' he continued. 'I have been to meet that woman, if she is a +woman, with the outlandish name, more than fifty times, I'll bet; he +don't know what he is talking about when he gets on her track. And +s'posin' she does come, she can find somebody to fetch her. She ain't +going to walk.' + +This seemed reasonable; and as Frank's sympathies were with his coachman +and horses rather than with Gretchen and his brother, he decided with +John that he need not go, but added, laughingly, as he saw the man walk +across the floor as well as he ever did on his way to the woodshed: + +'Seems to me your broken back has recovered its elasticity very soon.' + +To this John made no reply except an inaudible growl, and Frank returned +to the library, resolving not to go near his brother until after train +time, but to let him think that John had gone to the station. + +At half-past five, however, Arthur sent for him, and said: + +'Has he gone? It must be time.' + +'Not quite; it is only half-past five. The train does not come until +half-past six, and is likely to be late,' was Frank's reply. + +'Yes, I know,' Arthur continued, 'but he should be there on time. Tell +him to start at once, and take an extra robe with him, and say to +Charles that I will have sherry to-night, and champagne, too, and +Hamburg grapes, and--' + +The remainder of his speech was lost on Frank, who was hurrying down the +stairs with a guilty feeling in his heart, although he felt that the end +justified the means, and that under the circumstances he was justified +in deceiving his half-crazy brother. Still he was ill at ease. He had no +faith in Arthur's presentiments, and no idea that any one bound for +Tracy Park would be on the train that night, but he could not shake off +a feeling of anxiety, amounting almost to a dread of some impending +calamity, which possibly the sending of John to the station might have +averted, and going to a window in the library, he, too, stood looking +out into the night, trying not to believe that he was watching for some +possible arrival, when, above the storm, he heard the shrill scream of +the locomotive as it stopped for a moment and then dashed on into the +white snow clouds; trying to believe, too, that he was not glad, as the +minutes became a quarter, the quarter a half, and the half +three-quarters, until at last he heard the clock strike the half-hour +past seven, and nobody had come. + +'I shall have to tell Arthur,' he thought, and, with something like +hesitancy, he started for his brother's room. + +Arthur was standing before the fire, with his arm thrown caressingly +across the chair where Gretchen was to sit, when Frank opened the door +and advanced a step or two across the threshold. + +'Has she come? I did not see the carriage. Where is she?' Arthur cried, +springing swiftly forward, while his bright, eager eyes darted past his +brother to the open door-way and out into the hall. + +'No, she has not come. I knew she wouldn't; and it was nonsense to send +the horses out such a night as this,' Frank said, sternly, with a +mistaken notion that he must speak sharply to the unfortunate man, who, +if rightly managed, was gentle as a child. + +'Not come! Gretchen not come! There must be some mistake!' Arthur said, +all the brightness fading from his face, which seemed to grow pinched +and pallid as he turned it piteously toward his brother and continued: +'Not come! Oh, Frank! did John say so? Was no one there? Let me go and +question him--there must be a mistake.' + +He was hurrying toward the door, when Frank caught his arm and detained +him, while he said, decidedly: + +'No use to see John. Can't you believe me when I tell you no one was +there--and I knew there would not be. It was folly to send.' + +For a moment a pale, haggard face, which looked still more haggard and +pale with the firelight flickering over it, confronted Frank steadily; +then the lips began to quiver, and the eyelids to twitch, while great +tears gathered in Arthur's eyes, until at last, covering his face with +his hands, he staggered to the couch, and throwing himself upon it, +sobbed convulsively. + +'Oh, Gretchen, my darling!' he said. 'I was so sure, and now everything +is swept away, and I am left so desolate.' + +Frank had never seen grief just like this, and, with his conscience +pricking him a little for the deception he had practised, he found +himself pitying his brother as he had never done before; and when at +last the latter cried out loud, he went to him, and laying his hand +gently upon his bowed head, said to him, soothingly: + +'Don't, Arthur; don't feel so badly. It is terrible to see a man cry as +you are crying.' + +'No, no; let me cry,' Arthur replied. 'The tears do me good, and my +brain would burst without them. It is all on fire, and my head is aching +so hard again.' + +At this moment Charles appeared, asking if his master would have dinner +served. But Arthur could not eat, and the table which had been arranged +with so much care for Gretchen was cleared away, while Gretchen's chair +was moved back from the fire and Gretchen's footstool put in its place, +and nothing remained to show that she had been expected except the +pretty dress, with its accessories, which lay upon Arthur's bed. These +he took care of himself, folding them with trembling hands and tear-wet +eyes, as a fond mother folds the clothes her dead child has worn, +sorrowing most over the half-worn shoes, so like the dear little feet +which will never wear them again. So Arthur sorrowed over the +high-heeled slippers, with the blue rosettes and pointed toes, +fashionable in Paris at that time. Gretchen had never worn them, it is +true, but they seemed so much like her that his tears fell fast as he +held them in his hands, and, dropping upon the pure white satin, left a +stain upon it. + +When everything was put away and the long trunk locked again, Arthur +went back to the couch and said to his brother, who was still in the +room: + +'Don't leave me, Frank; at least not yet, till I am more composed. My +nerves are dreadfully shaken to-night, and I feel afraid of something, I +don't know what. How the wind howls and moans! I never heard it like +that but once before, and that was years ago, among the Alps in +Switzerland. Then it blew off the roof of the chalet where I was +staying, and I heard afterward that Amy died that night. You remember +Amy, the girl I loved so well, though not as I love Gretchen. If she had +come, I should have told you all about her, but now it does not matter +who she is, or where I saw her first, knitting in the sunshine, with the +halo on her hair and the blue of the summer skies reflected in her eyes. +Oh, Gretchen, my love, my love!' + +He was talking more to himself than to Frank, who sat beside him until +far into the night, while the wild storm raged on and shook the solid +house to its very foundations. A tall tree in the yard was uprooted, and +a chimney-top came crushing down with a force which threatened to break +through the roof. For a moment there was a lull in the tempest, and, +raising himself upon his elbow, Arthur listened intently, while he said, +in a whisper which made Frank's blood curdle in his veins: + +'Hark! there's more abroad to-night than the storm! Something is +happening or has happened which affects me. I have heard voices in the +wind--Gretchen calling me from far away. Frank, Frank, _did_ you hear +that? It was a woman's cry; her voice--Gretchen's. Yes, Gretchen, I am +coming!' + +And with a bound he was at the window, which he opened wide, and leaning +far out of it, listened to hear repeated a sound which Frank, too, had +heard--a cry like the voice of one in mortal peril calling for help. + +It might have been the wind, which on the instant swept round the corner +in a great gust, driving the snow and sleet into Arthur's face, and +making him draw in his body, nearly half of which was leaning from the +window as he waited for the strange cry to be repeated. But it did not +come again, though Frank, whose nerves were strung to almost as high a +tension as his brother's, thought he heard it once above the roar of the +tempest, and a vague feeling of disquiet took possession of him as he +sat for an hour longer watching his brother and listening to the noise +without. + +Gradually the storm subsided, and when the clock struck one the wind had +gone down, the snow had ceased to fall, and the moon was struggling +feebly through a rift of dark clouds in the west. After persuading his +brother to go to bed, Frank retired to his own room and was soon asleep, +unmindful of the tragedy which was being enacted not very far away, +where a little child was smiling in its dreams, while the woman beside +it was praying for life until her mission should be accomplished. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +THE TRAMP HOUSE. + + +About midway between the entrance to the park and the Collingwood +grounds, and fifty rods or more from the cross-road which the strange +woman had taken on the night of the storm, stood a small stone building, +which had been used as a school-house until the Shannondale turnpike was +built and the cross-road abandoned. After that it was occupied by one +poor family after another, until the property of which it was a part +came into the hands of the elder Mr. Tracy, who, with his English ideas, +thought to make it a lodge and bring the gates of his park down to it. +But this he did not do, and the house was left to the mercy of the +winds, and the storms, and the boys, until Arthur became master there, +and with his artistic taste thought to beautify it a little and turn it +to some use. + +'I would tear it down,' he said to his neighbor, Mr. St. Claire, who +stood with him one day looking at it, 'I would tear it down, and have +once or twice given orders to that effect, but as often countermanded +them. I do not know that I am exactly superstitious, but I am subject to +fancies, or presentiments, or whatever you choose to call those moods +which take possession of you and which you cannot shake off, and, +singularly enough, one of these fancies is connected with this old hut, +and as often as I decide to remove it something tells me not to; and +once I actually dreamed that a dead woman's hand clutched me by the arm +and bade me leave it alone. A case of "Woodman spare that tree," you +see.' + +And Arthur laughed lightly at his own morbid fancies, but he left the +house and planted around it quantities of woodbine, which soon crept up +its sides to the chimney-top and made it look like the ivy-covered +cottages so common in Ireland. It was the nicest kind of rendezvous for +lovers, who frequently availed themselves of its seclusion to whisper +their secrets to each other, and it was sometimes used as a dining-room +by the people of Shannondale, where in summer they held picnics in the +pretty pine grove not far away. But during Arthur's absence it had been +suffered to go to decay, for Frank cared little for lovers or picnics, +and less for the tramps who often slept there at night, and for whom it +came at last to be called the Tramp House. So the winds, and the storms, +and the boys did their work upon it unmolested, and when Arthur +returned, the door hung upon one hinge, and there was scarcely a whole +light of glass in the six windows. + +'Better tear the old rookery down. It is of no earthly use except to +harbor rats and tramps. I've known two or three to spend the night in it +at a time, and once a lot of gipsies quartered themselves here for a +week and nearly scared Dolly to death,' Frank said to his brother as +they were walking past it a few days after his return, and Arthur was +commenting upon its dilapidated appearance. + +'Oh, the tramps sleep here, do they?' Arthur said. 'Well, let them. If +any poor, homeless wretches want to stay here nights they are very +welcome, I am sure, and I will see that the door is rehung and glass put +in the windows. May as well make them comfortable.' + +'Do as you like,' Frank replied, and there, so far as he was concerned, +the matter ended. + +But while the carpenters were at work at the Park Arthur sent one of +them to the old stone house and had the door fixed and glass put in two +of the windows, while rude but close shutters were nailed before the +others, and then Arthur went himself into the room and pushed a long +table which the picnic people had used for their refreshments and the +tramps for a bed into a corner, where one sleeping upon it would be more +sheltered from the draught. All this seemed nonsense to Frank, who +laughingly suggested that Arthur should place in it a stove and a ton of +coal for the benefit of his lodgers. But Arthur cared little for his +brother's jokes. His natural kindness of heart, which was always seeking +another's good, had prompted him to this care for the Tramp House, in +which he felt a strange interest, never dreaming that what he was doing +would reach forward to the future and influence not only his life but +that of many others. + +The storm which had raged so fiercely around the house in the park had +not spared the cottage in the lane, which rocked like a cradle as gust +after gust of wind struck it with a force which made every timber +quiver, and sent the boy Harold close to his grandmother's side as he +asked, tremblingly: + +'Do you think we shall be blown away?' + +The rheumatism from which Mrs. Crawford had been suffering in the fall +had troubled her more or less during the entire winter, and now, +aggravated by a cold, it was worse than it had ever been before, and on +the night of the storm she was suffering intense pain, which was only +relieved by the hot poultices which Harold made under her direction and +applied to the swollen limb. This kept him up later than usual, and the +clock was striking eleven when his grandmother declared herself easier, +and bade him go to bed. + +It was at this hour that Arthur Tracy had fancied he heard the cry for +help, and the snow was sweeping past the cottage in great billows of +white when Harold went to the window and looked out into the night. In +the summer when the leaves were upon the trees the old stone house could +not he seen from the cottage, from which it was distant a quarter of a +mile or more, but in the winter when the trees were stripped of their +foliage it was plainly discernible, and as Harold glanced that way a +gleam of light appeared suddenly, as if the door had been opened and the +flickering rays of a candle had for a moment shone out into the +darkness. Then it disappeared, but not until Harold had cried out: + +'Oh, grandma, there's a light in the Tramp House; I saw it plain as day. +Somebody is in there.' + +'God pity them.' was Mrs. Crawford's reply, though she did not quite +credit Harold's statement, or think of it again that night. + +It was late next morning when Harold awoke to find the sun shining into +the room, and without any sign of the terrible storm, except the snow, +which lay in great piles everywhere and came almost to the window's +edge. But Harold was not afraid of snow, and soon had the walks cleared +around the cottage, and when, after breakfast, which he prepared +himself, for his grandmother could not step, he was told that a doctor +must be had and he must go for him, he did not demur at all, but +commenced his preparations at once for the long and wearisome walk. + +'Better go through the park,' his grandmother said to him, as he was +tying his warm comforter about his ears and putting on his mittens. 'It +is a little farther that way, but somebody has broken a path by this +time, and the cross-road, which is nearer, must be impassable.' + +Harold made no reply, but remembering the light he had seen in the Tramp +House, resolved within himself to take the cross-road and investigate +the mystery. Bidding his grandmother good-by, and telling her he should +be back before she had time to miss him, he started on his journey, and +was soon plunging through the snow, which, in some places, was up to his +armpits, so that his progress was very slow, but by kicking with his +feet and throwing out his arms like the paddles of a boat, he managed to +get on until he was opposite the Tramp House, which looked like an +immense snow-heap, so completely was it covered. Only the chimney and +the slanting roof showed any semblance to a house as Harold made his way +toward it, still beating the snow with his arms, and thinking it was not +quite the fun he had fancied it might be. + +He was close to the house at last, and stood for a moment looking at it, +while a faint thrill of fear stirred in his veins as he remembered to +have heard that burglars and thieves sometimes made it their rendezvous +after a night's marauding. What if they were there now, and should rush +upon him if he ventured to disturb them! + +'I don't believe I will try it,' he thought, as he glanced nervously at +the door, which was blockaded by a great bank of snow; and he was about +to retrace his steps, when a sound met his ear which made him stand +still and listen until it was repeated a second time. + +Then forgetting both burglar and thief, he started forward quickly, and +was soon at the door, from which he dug away the snow with a desperate +energy, as if working for his life. For the sound was the cry of a +little child, frightened and pleading. + +'Mah-nee! mah-nee!' it seemed to say; and Harold, thinking it was mamma, +answered, cheerily: + +'I am coming as fast I can.' + +Then the crying ceased, and all was still inside, while Harold worked on +until enough snow was cleared away to allow of his opening the door +about a foot, and through this narrow opening he forced his way into the +cold, damp room, where for a moment he could see nothing distinctly, for +the sunlight outside had blinded him, and there was but little light +inside, owing to the barred and snow-bound windows. + +Gradually, however, as he became accustomed to the place, he saw upon +the long table in the corner where Arthur Tracy had moved it months +before, what looked like a human form stretched at full length and lying +upon its back, with its white, stony face upturned to the rafters above, +and no sound or motion to tell that it still lived. + +With an exclamation of surprise, Harold sprang forward and laid his hand +upon the pale forehead of the woman, but started back as quickly with a +cry of horror, for by the touch of the ice-cold flesh he knew the woman +was dead. + +'Frozen to death!' he whispered, with ashen lips; and then, as something +stirred under the gray cloak which partly covered the woman, he +conquered his terror and went forward again to the table, over which he +bent curiously. + +Again the cry, which was more like 'mah-nee' now than 'mamma,' met his +ear, and, stooping lower, he saw a curly head nestle close to the bosom +of the woman, while a little fat white hand was clasping the neck as if +for warmth and protection. + +At this sight all Harold's fear vanished, and, bending down so that his +lips almost touched the bright, wavy hair, he said: + +'Poor little girl!'--he felt instinctively that it was a girl--'poor +little girl! come with me away from this dreadful place!' and he tried +to lift up her head, but she drew it away from him, and repeated the +piteous cry of 'Mah-nee, mah-nee!' + +At last, however, as Harold continued to talk to her, the cries ceased, +and, cautiously lifting her head, she turned toward him a fat, chubby +face and a pair of soft, blue eyes in which the great tears were +standing. Then her lips began to quiver in a grieved kind of way, as if +the horror of the previous night had stamped itself upon her tender mind +and she were asking for sympathy. + +'Mah-nee!' she said again, placing one hand on the cold, dead face, and +stretching the other toward Harold, who put out his arms to take her. + +But something resisted all his efforts, and a closer inspection showed +him a long, old-fashioned carpet-bag, which enveloped her body from her +neck to her feet, and into which she had evidently been put to protect +her from the cold. + +'Not a bad idea either,' Harold said, as he comprehended the situation; +'and your poor mother gave you the most of her cloak, too, and her +shawl,' he continued, as he saw how carefully the child had been +wrapped, while the mother, if it were her mother, had paid for her +unselfishness with her life. + +'What is your name, little girl?' he asked. + +The child, who had been staring at him while he talked as if he were a +lunatic, made no reply until he had her in his arms, when she, too, +began to talk in a half-frightened way. Then he looked at her as if she +were the lunatic, for never had he heard such speech as hers. + +'I do believe you are a Dutchman,' he said, as he wrapped both shawl and +cloak around her and started for the door, which he kicked against some +time in order to make an opening wide enough to allow of his egress with +his burden. + +When at last they emerged from the cold, dark room into the bright +sunshine, the child gave a great cry of delight, and the blue eyes +fairly danced with joy as they fell upon the dazzling snow. Then she put +both arms around Harold's neck, and nestling her face close to his, +kissed him as fondly as if she had known him all her life, while the boy +paid her back kiss after kiss as he proceeded slowly toward home. + +The child was heavy, and the bag and shawl made such an unwieldy bundle +that his progress was very slow, and he stopped more than once to rest +and take breath, and as often as he stopped the blue eyes would look up +enquiringly at him with an expression which made his boyish heart beat +faster as he thought what pretty eyes they were and wondered who she +was. Once he fell down, and bag and baby rolled in the snow; but only +the vigorous kicking of a pair of little legs inside the bag showed that +the child disapproved of the proceeding, for she made no sound, and when +he picked her up she brushed the snow from his hair, and laughed as if +the thing had been done for fun. + +He reached the cottage at last, and bursting into the room where his +grandmother was sitting with her foot in a chair, exclaimed, as he put +down the child, who, as she was still enveloped in the bag, stood with +difficulty: + +'Oh grandma, what do you think? I did see a light in the Tramp House, +and there is somebody there--a woman--dead--frozen to death, with +nothing over her, for she had given her cloak and shawl to her little +girl. I went there. I found her, and brought the baby home in the +carpet-bag, and now I must go back to the woman. Oh, it was dreadful to +see her white face, and it is so cold there and dark;' and if the horror +of what he had seen had just impressed itself upon him, the boy turned +pale and faint, and, staggering to a chair, burst into tears. + +Too much astonished to utter a word, Mrs. Crawford stared at him a +moment in a bewildered kind of way, and then when the child, seeing him +cry, began also to cry for "Mah-nee," and struggle in the bag, she +forgot her lame foot, on which she had not stepped for a week, and going +to the little girl, released her from the bag, and taking her upon her +lap, began to untie the soft woollen cloak and to chafe the cold +fingers, while she questioned her grandson. + +Having recovered himself somewhat, Harold repeated his story, and asked +with a shudder: + +'Must I go for her alone? I can't, I can't. I was not afraid with the +baby there, but it is so awful, and I never saw any one dead before.' + +'Go back alone! Of course not!' his grandmother replied. 'But you must +go to the park at once and tell them; go as fast as you can. She may not +be dead.' + +'Yes, she is,' Harold answered, decidedly. 'I touched her face, and +nothing alive could feel like that.' + +He was buttoning his overcoat preparatory to a fresh start, but before +he went he kissed the little girl who was sitting on his grandmother's +lap, and who, as she saw him leaving her, began to cry for him and to +utter curious sounds unintelligible to them both. But Harold brought her +a piece of bread, which she began to devour ravenously, and then he +stepped quietly out and was soon breaking through the drifts which lay +between the cottage and the park. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +THE WOMAN. + + +They slept later than usual at the park house that morning, and Frank +and his family were just sitting down to breakfast, and Arthur was +taking his rolls and coffee in his own room, when John, with a white, +scared face, looked in and said: + +'Excuse me, Mr. Tracy, but--but something dreadful has happened. There's +a woman frozen to death in the Tramp House, with a baby, and Harold +Hastings found them, and--but he is here, sir; he will tell you +himself;' and he went for the boy, who soon entered the room, followed +by every servant in the house. + +Harold had come upon John first in the stable, and sinking down +exhausted upon the hay, had told his story, while the man, John, +listened terror-stricken and open-mouthed. Then seeing how weak and +tired Harold seemed, and how he sank back upon the hay when he attempted +to rise, he took him in his arms, and carrying him to the kitchen, left +him there while he went with the news to his master. + +'A woman dead in the Tramp House, and a baby!' Frank exclaimed, and for +an instant he felt as if he were dying, for there flashed over him a +conviction that the woman had come in the train the previous night, and +that it was her cry for help which had been borne to him on the winds, +and to which he had paid no heed. + +'Are you sick? Are you going to faint?' his wife said to him, as she saw +how white he grew, and how heavily he leaned back in his chair as Harold +related the particulars of his finding the woman and the child. + +'I am not going to faint; but it makes me sick and shaky to think of a +woman freezing to death so near us that if she had cried for help we +might perhaps have heard her,' Frank replied. + +Then turning to Harold, he continued: + +'How did she look? Was she young? Was she pretty? Was she dark or fair?' + +He almost gasped the last word, as if it choked him, and no one guessed +how anxiously he waited for Harold's answer, which did not afford him +much relief. + +'I don't know; it was so dark in there, and cold, and I was afraid some +of the time, and in a hurry. I only know that her nose was long and +large, for I touched it when I was trying to get at the little girl, and +it was so cold--oh, oh!' + +And Harold shuddered as if he still felt the icy touch of the dead. + +'A long nose and a large one,' Frank said, involuntarily, while a sigh +of relief escaped him as he remembered that the nose of the picture in +his brother's room was neither long nor large. + +Still Harold might be mistaken, and though he had no good cause for +believing that the woman lying dead in the Tramp House was Gretchen, +there was a horrible feeling in his heart, while a lump came into his +throat and affected his speech, which was thick and indistinct, as he +rose from his chair at last and said to John: + +'We have no time to lose. Hitch up the horses to the long sleigh as +quick as you can. We must go to the Tramp House after the woman, and +send to the village for a doctor, and telegraph to Springfield for the +coroner. I suppose there must be an inquest; and, Dolly, see that a room +is prepared for the body.' + +'Oh, Frank, must it come here? Why not take it to the cottage? The child +is there,' Mrs. Tracy said, not because she cared so much for the +trouble, but because of her aversion to having the corpse of a stranger +in the house, with all that it involved. + +'I tell you that woman must come here,' was Frank's decided reply, as he +began to make himself ready for the ride. + +'Don't tell Arthur yet,' he said, as he left the house and took his seat +in the sleigh, which was soon ploughing its way through the snow banks +in the direction of the Tramp House. + +It was Harold who acted as master of ceremonies, for John was nervous +and hung back from the half open door, while Frank was too much unstrung +to know just what he was doing or saying, as he squeezed through the +narrow space and then stood for a moment, snow-blind and dizzy, in the +cheerless room. + +Harold was not afraid now. He had been there before alone, had seen and +touched the white face of the corpse, and now, with companionship in its +presence, he went fearlessly up to it, followed by Frank, who could +scarcely stand, and who laid his hand for support on Harold's shoulder, +and then turned curiously and eagerly toward the woman. + +John had lingered outside, shovelling the snow from the door which he +succeeded in opening wide, so that the full, broad sunlight fell upon +the face, which was neither young, nor pretty, nor fair, while the hair +was black as night. + +Frank noted all these points at a glance, and could have shouted aloud +for joy, so great was the revulsion of his feelings. It was not Gretchen +lying there before him, and he was not a murderer, as he had accused +himself of being, for she did not come by the train; she had no +connection with Tracy Park; she was going somewhere else--to +Collingwood, perhaps--when, overcome by the storm and the cold, she had +sought shelter for the night in this wretched place. + +'I suppose the proper thing to do is to leave her here till the coroner +can see her,' he said to John; 'but no train can get through from +Springfield to-day, I am sure, and I shall have her taken to the park. +Bring me the blankets from the sleigh.' + +He was very collected now, for a great load was lifted from his mind. + +'Had she nothing with her? nothing to cover her?' he asked, as they +proceeded to wrap her in the warm blankets, which, had they sooner come, +would have saved her life. + +Harold told him again of the carpet-bag and the cloak and the shawl, +which had covered the child, and added, 'That's all; there don't seem to +be anything else. Oh, what's this?' and stooping down, he picked up some +hard substance which he had kicked against the table. + +It proved to be one of those olive wood candle sticks, so convenient in +travelling, as when not in use, they can be made into a small round box +or ball, and take but little room. It contained but the remains of a wax +candle, which had burned down into the socket and then gone out. Near +by, upon the floor, was a tiny box of matches, with two or three charred +ones among them. + +'The poor woman must have had a light for at least a portion of the +time,' Frank said, as he picked up the box. + +'She had, I know she had,' Harold cried, excitedly; 'for I saw it and +told grandma so. It was like she had opened the door and let out a big +blaze, and then everything was dark, as if the door was shut or the wind +had blown the candle out.' + +'What time was that, do you think?' Frank asked. + +'It must have been about eleven,' Harold replied, 'for I remember +hearing the clock strike and grandma's saying I must go to bed, it was +so late. I was up with her because her foot was so bad, and I warmed the +poultices.' + +Frank groaned aloud, unmindful of the boy looking so curiously at him, +for that was the time when he had heard the sound like a human voice is +distress. He had thought it a fancy then communicated to him by his +brother's nervousness, but now he was certain it must have been the +stranger calling through the storm, in the vain hope that somebody would +hear and come. Somebody had heard, but no one had come; and so in the +cold and the darkness, with the snow sifting through every crevice and +blowing down the wide chimney to the hearth where it made a drift like a +grave, she had battled for her own life and that of the child beside +her, saving the latter but losing her own. + +'If I had only believed it was a cry,' Frank thought, and as he wrapped +the body in the blankets and buffalo robe as tenderly and reverently as +if the stiffened limbs had belonged to his mother, he saw distinctly +before him as if painted upon canvas the driving gale, the inky sky, the +half-opened door, through which the sleet was driving, the light behind, +and the frantic, freezing woman, screaming for help, while only the +winds made answer, and the pitiless storm raged on. + +This was the picture which Frank was destined to see in his dreams for +many and many a night, until the mystery was solved concerning the woman +whom they carried to the sleigh, which was driven back to the park +house, where, within fifteen or twenty minutes a crowd of anxious, +curious people gathered. The messenger sent to town had done his work +rapidly and thoroughly, and half the villagers who heard of the tragedy +enacted at their very door started at once for Tracy Park. The boy had +stopped at the station and told his story there, making the +baggage-master feel as if he, too, were a murderer, or at least an +accessory. + +'If I had only gone after that woman,' he said, as he told of the +stranger who had come on the train and gotten off on the side of the car +farthest from the depot--'if I had gone after her and made her take a +conveyance to where she was going, this would not have happened; but it +was so all-fired cold, and the wind was yelling so, and she walked off +so fast, as if she knew her own business. So I just minded mine, or +rather I didn't, for I never even seen the box, or trunk, which was +pitched out helter-skelter, and which I found this morning, all covered +up with snow. It was hers, of course, and I shall send it right over +there, as it may tell who the poor critter was.' + +This trunk, which was little more than a strong wooden box with two +double locks upon it, was still further secured by a bit of rope wound +twice around it and tied in a hard knot. There was no name upon it to +tell whose it was, or whence it came, except the name of a German +steamer, on which its owner had probably crossed the ocean, and the +significant word 'Hold,' showing that it had not been used in the +state-room. It had been checked at the Grand Central depot in New York +for Shannondale, and the check was still attached to the iron handle +when it was put down in the kitchen at Tracy Park, where the utmost +excitement prevailed, the servants huddling together with scared faces, +and talking in whispers of the terrible thing which had happened, while +Mrs. Tracy and the housekeeper, scarcely less excited than the servants, +gave their attention to the dead. + +At the end of the rear hall was a small room, where Frank sometimes +received business calls when at home, and there they laid the body, +after the physician, who had arrived, declared that life had been +extinct for many hours. + +Seen in the full daylight, she seemed to be at least thirty-five years +of age, and her features, though not unpleasing, were coarse and large, +especially the nose. Her hair was black, her complexion dark, and the +hands, which lay folded upon her bosom, showed marks of toil, for they +were rough and unshapely, though smaller in proportion than the other +members of her body. Her woollen dress of grayish blue was short and +scant; her knit stockings were black and thick, and her leather shoes +were designed fur use rather than ornament. A wide white apron was tied +around her waist, and she wore a small black and white plaided shawl +pinned about her neck. + +And there she lay, not a pleasant picture to contemplate, helpless and +defenceless against the curious eyes bent upon her and the remarks +concerning her, as one after another of the villagers came in to look at +her and speculate as to who she was or how she came in the Tramp House. + +Among the crowd was Mr. St. Claire, who gave it as his opinion that she +was a Frenchwoman of the lower class, and asked if nothing had been +found with her except the clothes she wore. Harold told him of the +shawl, and cloak, and carpet-bag which he had carried with the child to +the cottage. + +'Yes, there is something more--her trunk,' chimed in the baggage-master, +who had just entered the room, trembling and breathless. + +'Her trunk! Did she come in the cars?' Frank asked, his hands dropping +helplessly at his side, and his lips growing pale, as the man replied: + +'Yes; last night, on the quarter-past-six from New York; and what is +curi's, she got out on the side away from the depot, and I never seen +her till the cars went on, when she was lookin' at a paper, and the +child cryin' at her feet. I spoke to her, but she did not answer, and +snatching up the child, she hurried off, almost on a run. It was +storming so I did not see her trunk till this mornin', when I found it +on the platform. I wish I had gone after her and made her take a sleigh. +If I had she wouldn't now have been dead, and, I swow, I feel as if I +had killed her. I wonder why under the sun she turned into the lots, +unless she was goin' to Collingwood--' + +'Or Tracy Park,' Frank said, involuntarily. + +'Were you expecting any one?' Mr. St. Claire asked. + +Sinking into a chair, Frank replied: + +'No, I was not, but Arthur, who has been worse than usual for a few +days, has again a fancy that Gretchen is coming. He says now that she +was not in the ship with him, but that he has written her to join him +here, and yesterday he took it into his head that she would be here last +night, and insisted that the carriage be sent to meet her; but John had +hurt his back, and as I had no faith in her coming, he did not go. I +wish he had; it might have saved this woman's life, although she is not +Gretchen.' + +Frank had made his confession, except so far as deceiving his brother +was concerned, and he felt his mind eased a little, though there was +still a lump in his throat, and a feeling of disquiet in his heart, with +a wish that the dead woman had never crossed his path, and a conviction +that he had not yet seen the worst of it. + +Mr. St. Claire looked at him thoughtfully a moment, and then said: + +'I should not accuse myself too much. You could not know that any one +would be there, and this woman certainly is not the Gretchen of whom +your brother talks so much, and whose picture is in his room. Has he +seen her? Does he know of the accident?' + +'I have not told him yet. He is not feeling well to-day. Charles says he +is still in bed,' was Frank's reply. + +'We may find something in her trunk,' Mr. St. Claire continued, 'which +will give us a clue to her history. Where do you suppose she kept her +key?' + +No one volunteered an answer, until Harold suggested that if she had a +pocket it was probably there, when half a dozen hands or more at once +felt for the pocket, which was found at last, and proved to be one of +great capacity, and to contain a heterogeneous mass of contents: A +purse, in which were two or three small German coins, an English +sovereign, and a five dollar green-back; two handkerchiefs, one soiled +and coarse, bearing in German text the initials 'N.B.' the other small +and fine, bearing the initial 'J.,' also in German text: a pair of +scissors, a thimble, a small needle-case, a child's toy, a worn +picture-book, printed in Leipsic, a box of pills, some peanuts, some +cloves, a piece of candy, a seed cake, a pocket comb, half a biscuit; +and at the very bottom, the brass check whose number corresponded with +that upon the trunk; also a ring to which were attached three keys, one +belonging to the trunk, another evidently to the carpet-bag, while the +third, which was very small and straight, must have been used for +fastening some box or dressing-case. + +It was Mr. St. Claire who opened the trunk, from which one of the +servants had removed the rope, while Frank sat near still trembling in +every limb, and watching anxiously as article after article was taken +out and examined, but afforded no satisfaction whatever, or gave any +sign by which the stranger might be traced. + +There was a black alpaca dress and a few coarse garments which must have +belonged to the woman. Some of them bore the initials 'N.B.,' some were +without a mark, and all were cheap and plain, like the clothes of a +servant before her head is turned and she apes her mistress' wardrobe. +The child's dresses were of a better quality, and one embroidered +petticoat bore the name 'Jerrine,' while the letter 'J.' was upon them +all, except a towel of the finest linen, on one corner of which was the +letter 'M.' worked with colored floss. + +'Jerrine!' Mr. St. Claire repeated, pronouncing it 'Jerreen.' 'That is a +French name, and a pretty one. It is the child's, of course.' + +To this no one replied, and he continued his examination of the trunk +until it was quite empty. + +'That is all,' he said in a tone of disappointment; and Frank, who had +been sitting by and holding some of the things in his lap as they were +taken from the trunk, answered, faintly: + +'No, here is a book. It was done up in a handkerchief,' and he held up +what proved to be a German Bible; but he did not tell that he had found +something else, which he had thrust into his pocket when no one was +looking at him. + +What he had found was a photograph, which had slipped from the leaves of +the Bible, and at sight of the face, of which he only had a glimpse, +every drop of blood seemed to leave his heart and came surging to his +brain, making him so giddy and wild that he did not realise what he was +doing when he hid away the picture until he could examine it by himself. +Once in his pocket he dared not take it out, although he raised his hand +two or three times to do so, but was as often deterred by the thought +that everybody would think that he had intended to hide it and suspect +his motive. So he kept quiet and saw them examine the book, the blank +page of which had been torn half off, leaving only the last three +letters of what must have been the owner's name, '----ich'--that was +all, and might as well not have been there, for any light it shed upon +the matter. + +Opening the book by chance at 1st Corinthians, 2nd chapter, Mr. St. +Claire, who could read German much better than he could speak it, saw +pencil-marks around the ninth verse, and read aloud: + + 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the + heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love + Him.' + +On the margin opposite this verse was written, in a girlish hand: + + 'Think of me as there when you read this, and do not be sorry.' + +A lock of soft, golden hair, which might have been cut from a baby's +head, and a few faded flowers, which still gave forth a faint perfume +like heliotrope, were tied with a bit of thread, and lying between the +leaves. And except that the book was full of marked passages, chiefly +comforting and conciliatory, there was nothing more to indicate the +character of the owner. + +'If this Bible were hers, she was a good woman,' Mr. St. Claire said, +laying his hand reverently upon the forehead of the dead, while Frank, +who saw another meaning between the lines, shook like one in an ague +fit, for he did not believe that those hands, so pulseless and cold, had +ever traced the words, 'Think of me as there when you read this, and do +not be sorry.' She who wrote them might be, and probably was dead, but +her grave was far away, and the fact did not at all change the duty +which he owed to her and him for whom the message was intended. + +'What shall I say to Arthur, and how shall I tell him,' he was wondering +to himself, when Mr. St. Claire roused him by saying: + +'You seem greatly unstrung by what has happened. I never saw you look so +ill.' + +'Yes, I feel as if I had murdered her by not sending John to the +station,' Frank stammered, glad to offer this as an excuse for his +manner, which he knew must seem strange and unnatural. + +'You are too sensitive altogether. John might not have seen her, she +hurried off so fast, and you have no particular reason to think she was +coming here,' Mr. St. Claire said, adding: 'We'd better leave her now. +We can do nothing more until the coroner comes, which will hardly be +to-day. I hear the roads are all blocked and impassable. Let everything +remain in the trunk where he can see them.' + +Mechanically Mrs. Tracy, who was present, put the different articles +into the trunk, leaving the Bible on the top, and then followed her +husband from the room. She knew there was more affecting him than the +fact that a dead woman was in the house, or that he had not sent John to +the station. But what it was she could not guess, unless, and she, too, +felt faint and giddy for a moment, as a new idea entered her mind. + +'Frank,' she said to him when they were alone for a few moments, 'Arthur +had a fancy that Gretchen was coming last night. You do not think this +woman is she?' + +'Gretchen? No. Don't be a fool, Dolly. Gretchen is fair and young, and +the woman is old and black as the ace of spades. Gretchen! No, indeed!' + +He did not show her the picture he had secreted; he knew she would not +approve of the act, and if she had no suspicion with regard to the woman +and the child he did not care to share his with her, particularly as it +was only a suspicion, and so far as he could judge in his perturbed +state of mind, nothing he could do would ever make things sure. His wife +seemed to have forgotten the child at the cottage, and he would not +bring it to her mind until it was necessary to do so. Just then Charles +came to the room and said that his master was very much excited and +wished to know the reason for so much commotion in the house, and why so +many people were coming and going down and up the avenue. + +'I thought it better that you should tell him,' Charles added, and with +a sinking heart Frank started for his brother's room. + +He had not seen him before that day, and now as he looked at him it +seemed to him that he had grown older since the previous night, for +there were lines about his mouth, and his face was very thin and pale. +But his eyes were unusually bright, and his voice rang out clear as a +bell as he said: + +'What is it, Frank? What has happened that so many people are coming +here, banging doors and talking so loud that I heard them here in my +room, but I could not distinguish what they said. What's the matter? Any +one hurt or dead?' + +He put the question direct, and Frank gave a direct reply. + +'Yes, a woman was found frozen to death in the Tramp House this morning, +and was brought here. She is lying in the office at the end of the back +hall.' + +'A women frozen to death in the Tramp House!' Arthur repeated. 'Then I +did hear a cry. Oh, Frank, who is she? Where did she come from?' + +'We do not know who she is, or where she came from!' Frank replied, 'Mr. +St. Claire thinks she is French. There is nothing about her person to +identify her, but I would like you to see her, and--and--' + +'I see her! Why should I see her, and shock my nerves more than they are +already shocked?' Arthur said, with a decided shake of his head. + +'But you must see her,' Frank continued. 'Perhaps you know her. She came +last night. She--' + +Before he could utter another word Arthur was at his side, Frank seizing +him by the shoulder with the grip of a giant, demanded, fiercely: + +'What do you mean by her coming last night? How did she come? Not by +train, for John was there. Frank, there is something you are keeping +back. I know it by your face. Tell me the truth. Is it Gretchen dead in +this house?' + +'No,' Frank answered huskily. 'It is not Gretchen, if that picture is +like her, for this woman is very dark and old, and, besides that, has +Gretchen a child?' + +For an instant Arthur stood staring at him, or rather at the space +beyond him, as if trying to recall something too distant or too shadowy +to assume any tangible form; then bursting into a laugh he said: + +'Gretchen a child! That is the best joke I have heard. How should +Gretchen have a child? She is little more than one herself, or was when +I saw her last. No, Gretchen has no child. Why do you ask?' + +'Because,' Frank replied, 'there was a little girl found in the Tramp +House with this woman, a girl three or four years old, I judge. She is +at the cottage now, where Harold carried her. He found the woman this +morning. Will you see her now?' + +Arthur answered 'no,' decidedly, and then Frank, who knew that he should +never again know peace of mind if his brother did not see her, summoned +all his courage and said: + +'Arthur, you must. I have not told you all. This woman did come by train +from New York.' + +'Then why did not John see her?' interrupted Arthur. + +'He was not there,' Frank replied. 'Forgive me, Arthur, I did not send +him as you thought. It was so cold and stormy, and I had no faith in +your presentiments, and so--so--' + +'And so you lied to me, and I will never trust you again as long as I +live, and if this had been Gretchen, I would kill you, where I stand!' +Arthur hissed in a whisper, more terrible to hear than louder tones +would have been, 'Yes, I will see this woman whose death lies at your +door,' he continued, with a gesture that Frank should precede him. + +Arthur was very calm, and collected, and stern, as he followed to the +office where the body lay, covered now from view, but showing terribly +distinct through the linen sheet folded over it. + +'Remove the covering,' he said, in the tone of a master to his slave, +and Frank obeyed. + +Then bending close to the stiffened form, Arthur examined the face +minutely, while Frank looked on alternately between hope and dread, the +former of which triumphed as his brother said, quietly: + +'Yes, she is French: but I do not know her. I never saw her before. Had +she nothing with her to tell who she was?' + +His mood had passed, and Frank did not hear him now. + +'She had a trunk,' he replied. 'Here it is, with her clothes, and the +child's, and--a Bible.' + +'He said the last slowly, and, taking up the book, opened it as far as +possible from the writing on the margin, which might or might not be +dangerous. + +'It is a German Bible,' he continued, and then Arthur took it quickly +from him as if it had been a long-lost friend, turning the worn pages +rapidly, but failing to discover the marked passage and the message for +some one. + +The lock of baby hair and the faded flowers caught his attention, and +his breath came hard and pantingly, as for a moment he held the little +golden tress which seemed almost to twine itself lovingly around his +fingers. + +'That must be her child's hair. You know I told you there was a little +girl found with her. Would you like to see her?' Frank said. + +'No, no!' Arthur answered, hastily. 'Let her stay where she is, I don't +like children as a rule. You know I can't abide the noise yours +sometimes make.' + +He was leaving the room with the Bible in his hand, but Frank could not +suffer that, and he said: + +'I suppose all these things must stay here till the coroner sees them; +so I will put the Bible where I found it. + +Arthur gave it up readily enough, and then, as he reached the door, +looked back, and said: + +'If forty coroners and undertakers come on this business, don't bother +me any more. My head buzzes like a bee-hive. See that everything is done +decently for the poor woman, and don't let the town bury her. Do it +yourself, and send the bill to me. There is room enough on the Tracy +lot; put her in a corner.' + +'Yes,' Frank answered, standing in the open door and watching him as he +went slowly down the long hall and until he heard him going up stairs. + +Then locking the door, which shut him in with the dead, he took the +photograph from his pocket and examined it minutely, feeling no shadow +of doubt in his heart that it was Gretchen--if the picture in the window +was like her. It was the same face, the same sweet mouth and sunny blue +eyes, with curls of reddish-golden hair shading the low brow. The dress +was different and more in accordance with that of a girl who belonged to +the middle class, but this counted for nothing, and Frank felt himself a +thief, and a liar, and a murderer as he stood looking at the lovely +face; and debating what he should do. + +Turning it over he saw on the back a word traced in English letters, in +a very uncertain scrawling hand, as if it were the writer's first +attempt at English. Spelling it letter by letter he made out what he +called 'Wiesbaden,' and knew it was some German town. Did Gretchen live +there, he wondered, and how could he find out, and what should he do? He +had not yet seen the child at the cottage, but from some things Harold +said, he knew she was more like this picture than like the dead woman +found with her, and in his heart he felt almost sure who she was, and +that his course of duty was plain. He ought to show Arthur the +photograph, and tell him his suspicions, and take every possible step to +ascertain who the woman was and where she came from. + +Frank was not a bad man, nor a hard-hearted man, but he was ambitious +and weak. He had enjoyed money, and ease, and position long enough to +make him unwilling to part with them now, while for his children he was +more ambitious than for himself. To see Tom master of Tracy Park was the +great desire of his life, and this could not be, if what he feared were +proved true. If Arthur had no wife, no child, no will adverse to him, +why, then his interest was safe, for no will his brother could now make +would be held as valid, and when he died everything would naturally go +to him. Of all this Frank thought during the few minutes he staid in +the silent room. Then he said to himself: + +'I will see the child first. After all I know nothing for certain--can +never know anything for certain, and I should be a fool to give up all +my children's interests for a fancy, an idea, which may have no +foundation. Arthur does not know half the time what he is saying, and +might not tell the truth about Gretchen. She may not have been his wife. +On the whole, I do not believe she was. He would never have left her if +she had been, and if so, this child, if she is Gretchen's, has no right +to come between me and mine. No, I shall wait a little while and think, +though in the end I mean to do right.' + +With these specious arguments Frank tried to quiet his conscience, but +he could not help feeling that Satan had possession of him, and as he +hurried through the hall he said aloud, as if speaking to something +seen: + +'Go away--go away! I shall do right if I only know what right is. + +He did not see his brother again that day, or go to the cottage either, +but as he was dressing himself next morning he said to his wife: + +'That little girl ought to see her mother before she is buried. I shall +send for her to-day. The coroner will be here, too. Did I tell you I had +a telegram last night? He is coming on the early train.' + +Mrs. Tracy passed the allusion to the coroner in silence, but of the +little girl she said: + +'I suppose the child must come to the funeral, but you surely do not +mean to keep her? We are not bound to do that because her mother froze +to death on our premises.' + +'Would you let her go to the poor-house?' Frank asked, but Dolly did not +reply. + +As the breakfast-bell just then rang, no more was said of the little +waif until the sleigh was brought to the door, and Frank announced his +intention of stopping for the child on his way back from the station, +where he was going to meet the coroner. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +LITTLE JERRY. + + +It was nearly noon when Harold left Tracy Park the previous day and +started for home, eager and anxious with regard to the child whom he +claimed as his own. He had found her. She was his and he should keep +her, he said to himself, and then he wondered how his grandmother had +managed with her, and if she had cried for him or for her mother, and as +he reached the house he stood still a moment, to listen. But the sounds +which met his ear were peals of laughter, mingled with mild, and, as it +would seem, unavailing expostulations from his grandmother. + +Opening the door suddenly he found the child seated at the table in the +high chair he used to occupy, and which Mrs. Crawford had brought from +the attic, where it was stored. Standing before the child was a dish of +bread and milk, of which she had evidently eaten enough, for she was +playing with it now, and amusing herself by striking the spoon into the +milk, which was splashed over the table, while three or four drops of it +were standing on the forehead and nose of the distressed woman, who was +vainly trying to take the spoon from the little hand clenching it so +firmly. + +Mrs. Crawford had had a busy and exciting day with her charge, who, +active and restless, and playful, kept her on the alert and made her +forget in part how lame she was. As she could not put her foot to the +floor without great pain, and as she must move about, she adopted the +expedient of placing her knee on a chair to the back of which she held, +while she hobbled around the room, followed by the child, who, delighted +with this novel method of locomotion, put her knee in a low chair, and +holding to Mrs. Crawford's skirts, limped after her, imitating her +perfectly, even to the groans she sometimes uttered when a twinge +sharper than usual ran up her swollen limb. It was fun for the child, +but almost death to the woman, who, when she could endure it no longer, +sank into a chair, and tried by speaking sharply, to make the little +girl understand that she must keep quiet. But when she scolded, baby +scolded back, in a language wholly unintelligible, shaking her curly +head, and sometimes stamping her foot by way of emphasizing her words. + +When Mrs. Crawford laughed the child laughed, and when once a pang +severer than usual wrung the tears from her eyes, baby looked at her +compassionately a moment, while her little face puckered itself into +wrinkles as if she too were going to cry; then, putting up her soft hand +she wiped the tears from Mrs. Crawford's cheeks, and, climbing into her +lap, became as quiet as a kitten. But a touch sufficed to start her up, +for she was full of fun and frolic, and her laughing blue eyes, which +were of that wide-open kind which see everything, were brimming over +with mischief. Once or twice she called out 'Mahnee,' and going to the +window, stood on tip-toe looking out, to see if she were coming. But on +the whole she seemed happy and content, exploring every nook and corner +of the kitchen and examining curiously every article of furniture as if +it were quite new to her. + +Once when Mrs. Crawford was talking earnestly to her, trying to make her +understand, she stood for a moment watching and imitating the motion of +the lady's lips and the expression of her face; then going up to her she +began to examine her mouth and her teeth, as if she would know what +manner of machinery it was which produced sounds so new and strange to +her. She certainly was a remarkable child for her age, though Mrs. +Crawford was puzzled to know just how old she was. She was very small, +and, judging from her size, one would have said she was hardly three; +but the expression of her face was so mature, and she saw things so +quickly and understood so readily, that she must have been older. She +was certainly very precocious, with a most inquiring turn of mind, and +Mrs. Crawford felt herself greatly interested in her as she watched her +active movements and listened to the musical prattle she could not +understand. + +She had examined the carpet-bag, in which were found the articles +necessary for an ocean voyage, and little else. Most of these were +soiled from use, but there was among them a little clean, white apron, +and this Mrs. Crawford put upon the child, after having washed her face +and hands and brushed her wavy hair, which had a trick of coiling itself +into soft, fluffy curls all over her head. + +The bread and milk had been given her about twelve o'clock, and the +laugh she gave when she saw it showed her appreciation of it quite as +much as the eagerness with which she ate it. Her appetite appeased, +however, she began to play with it and throw the milk over the table and +into Mrs. Crawford's face, just as Harold came in, full of what he had +seen at the park, and anxious to see his baby, as he called her. + +Taking her on his lap and kissing her rosy cheeks, he began to narrate +to his grandmother all that had been done, and told her that Mr. St. +Claire had given it as his opinion that the woman was French. + +'And if so,' he continued, 'baby must be French, too, though she does +not look a bit like her mother, who is very dark and not--well, not at +all like you or Mrs. St. Claire.' + +Then he told of the trunk which the baggage-master had taken to the +park, and of what it contained. + +'The woman's clothes were marked "N.B."' he said, 'and some of the +baby's--such a funny name. Mr. St. Claire said it was French, and +pronounced "Jerreen," though it is spelled "Jerrine."' + +'That is the name of the child's things in the bag,' Mrs. Crawford said. + +'Of course it is baby's, then,' Harold replied; 'but, I shall call her +Jerry for short, even if it is a boy's name, and so my little lady, I +christen you Jerry;' and kissing the forehead, the eyes, the nose, and +the chin, he marked the shape of the cross upon the face upturned to +his, and named his baby 'Jerry.' + +Later, when he knew more of the world, he would change the 'y' into +'ie,' but now she was simply Jerry, and when he called her that she +laughed and nodded as if the sound were not new to her. She was a +beautiful child, with complexion as pure as wax, and eyes which might +have borrowed their color from the blue lakes of Italy, or from the +skies of England when they are at their brightest. + +'I wish she could talk to me. I suppose she must speak French,' he said, +as he was trying in vain to make her understand him. 'Don't you know a +word I say?' he asked her, and her reply was what sounded to him like +'We, we.' + +'That's English,' he cried, delighted with her progress, but when he +spoke to her again, her answer was, 'Yah, yah,' which seemed to him so +nonsensical that after a few attempts to make her say 'yes,' and to +teach her what it meant, he gave up his lesson for the remainder of the +day and talked to her by signs and gestures which she seemed to +understand. + +Whatever he did she did, and he saw her more than once imitating his +grandmother's motions as well as his own, to the life. + +Late in the afternoon Mr. St. Claire came to the cottage, curious to see +the child, who, at sight of him, retreated behind Harold, and then +peered shyly up at him, with a look in her great blue eyes which puzzled +him on the instant, as one is frequently puzzled with a likeness to +something or somebody he tries in vain to recall. In this instance it +was hardly the eyes themselves, but rather the way they looked at him, +and the sweep of the long lashes, together with a firm shutting together +of the lips, which struck Mr. St. Claire as familiar, and when with a +swift movement of her little hand, she swept the mass of golden hair +back from her forehead, he would have sworn that he had seen that trick +a thousand times, and yet he could not place it. That she was the child +of the dead woman he believed, and as the mother was French, so also was +she. He had once passed two years in France, and was master of the +language; so he spoke to the child in French, but though she seemed to +understand him she made no reply, until he said to her: + +'Where is your mother, little one?' + +'Then she answered, promptly, 'Dead,' but the language was German, not +French. + +'Ho-ho! You are a little Dutchman,' Mr. St. Claire said, with some +surprise in his voice. + +Then as he noted the purity of her complexion, her fair hair and blue +eyes, he said to himself: + +'Her father was a German, and probably they lived in Germany, but the +mother was certainly French.' + +His own knowledge of German was very limited, but he could speak it a +little, and turning again to the child he managed to say: + +'What is your name!' + +'Der-ree,' was the reply, and Harold exclaimed: + +'That's it; she means Jerry; that's short for the name on her clothes, +which you said was pronounced Jereen. I have christened her Jerry, and +she is my little girl, ain't you, Jerry!' + +'Yah--oui--'ess,' was the answer, and there was a gleam of triumph in +the blue eyes which flashed up to Harold for approbation. + +She had not, of course, understood a word he said, except, indeed her +name; but the tone of his voice was interrogatory, and seemed to expect +an affirmative answer, which she gave in three languages, emphasizing +the ''ess' with a nod of her head, as if greatly pleased with herself. + +'Bravo!' Harold shouted. 'She can say yes. I taught her, and I shall +have her talking English in a few days as well as I do, shan't I, +Jerry?' + +'Yah--'ess,' was the reply. + +Then Mr. St. Claire tried to question her further with regard to herself +and her home, but his phraseology was probably at fault, for no +satisfactory result was reached beyond the fact that her mother was +dead, that her name was Jerry, or Derree, as she called it, and that she +had been on a ship with Mah-nee, who did _so_--and she imitated +perfectly the motions and contortions of one who is deathly sea-sick. + +'I suppose she means her mother by Mah-nee,' said Mr. St. Claire; and +when he asked her if it were not so, she answered 'yah,' and ''ess,' as +she did to everything, adopting finally the latter word altogether +because she saw it pleased Harold. + +No matter what was the question put to her, her reply was ''ess,' which +she repeated quickly, with a prolonged sound on the 's.' + +When at last Mr. St. Claire took his leave, it was with a strange +feeling of interest for the child, whose antecedents must always be +shrouded in mystery, and whose future he could not predict. + +It seemed impossible for Mrs. Crawford to keep her, poor as she was, and +as he had no idea that the Tracys would take her, there was no +alternative but the poor-house, unless he took her himself and brought +her up with his own little five-year-old Nina. He would wait until after +the funeral and see, he decided, as he went back to his home at Brier +Hill, where his children, Dick and Nina, were eager to hear all he had +to tell them of the poor little girl whose mother had been frozen to +death. + +The next morning the sleigh from Tracy Park stopped before the cottage +door, and Frank, who had been to meet the coroner, alighted from it. He +was pale and haggard as he entered the room where Jerry was playing on +the floor with Harold's Maltese kitten. As he came in she looked up at +him, and, lifting her hand, swept the hair back from her forehead just +as she had done the day before when Mr. St. Claire was there. The +peculiar motion had struck the latter as something familiar, though he +could not define it; but Frank did, or in his nervous condition he +thought he did, and his knees shook so he could hardly stand as he +talked with Mrs. Crawford and told her he had come for the child, who +ought to be where her mother was until after the funeral.' + +'Then she will come back again. You will not keep her. She is mine, +ain't you, Jerry?' Harold exclaimed, eagerly; while Jerry, who, with a +child's instinct scented danger from Harold's manner and associated that +danger with the strange man looking so curiously at her, sprang to her +feet, which she stamped vigorously, while she cried, ''ess, 'ess, 'ess,' +with her face all in wrinkles, and her blue eyes anything but soft and +sunny, as they usually were. + +In this mood she was not much like Gretchen in the picture, but she was +like some one else whom Frank had seen in excited moods, and he grew +faint and sick as he watched her, and saw the varying expression of her +face and eyes. The way she shook her head at him and flourished her +hands was a way he had seen many times and remembered so well, and he +felt as if his heart would leap from his throat as he tried to speak to +her. A turn of the head, a gesture of the hands, a curve of the +eyelashes, a tone in the voice, seemed slight actions on which to base a +certainty; but Frank did feel certain, and his brain reeled for a second +as his thoughts leaped forward years and years until he was an old man, +and he wondered if he could bear it and make no sign. + +Then, just as he had decided that he could not, the tempter suggested a +plan which seemed so feasible and fair that the future, with a secret to +guard, did not look so formidable, and to himself he said: + +'It is not likely I can ever be positive; and so long as there is a +doubt, however small, it would be preposterous to give up what otherwise +must come to my children, if not to me; but I will not wrong her more +than I can help.' + +'Come, little girl, go with me,' he said, in his kindest tones, as he +advanced toward her, while Harold went for her cloak and hood. + +Jerry knew then that she was expected to go with the stranger, and +without Harold, and resisted with all her might. Standing behind him, as +if safe there, and clinging to his coat, she sobbed piteously, +intermingling her sobs with 'Ess, 'ess, 'ess,' the only English word she +knew, and which she seemed to think would avail in every emergency. + +And it did help her now, for Harold pleaded that he might go, too, and +when Jerry saw him with his coat and hat, and understood that he was to +be her escort, she ceased to sob, and allowing herself to be made ready, +was soon in the sleigh, and on her way to Tracy Park. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +JERRY AT THE PARK. + + +And so this is the poor little girl. We'll take her right to the +kitchen, where she can get warm,' Mrs. Tracy said, as she met her +husband in the hall, with Harold and the mite of a creature wrapped in +the foreign looking cloak and hood. + +'No, Dolly!' and Frank spoke very decidedly, as Harold was turning in +the direction of the kitchen. 'She is going to the nursery, with the +other children, and when they have their dinner she shall have hers with +them.' + +'Ess, 'ess, 'ess,' Jerry said, as if she comprehended that there was a +difference of opinion between the man and woman, and that she was on the +affirmative side. + +'Take her to the nursery! Oh, Frank! she may have something about her +which the children will catch,' Mrs. Tracy said, blocking the way as she +spoke. + +But Jerry, who through the half-open door had caught sight of the pretty +sitting-room, with its warm carpet and curtains, and cheerful fire, +shook her head defiantly at the lady, and brushing past her, went boldly +into the room, whose brightness had attracted her. + +Marching up to the fire, she stood upon the rug and looked about her +with evident satisfaction; then glancing at the three who were watching +her, she nodded complacently, and said, ''ess, 'ess, 'ess,' while she +held her little cold hands to the fire. + +'Acts as if she belonged here, doesn't she?' Frank said to his wife, who +did not reply, so intent was she upon watching the strange child, who +deliberately took off her cloak and hood and tossing them upon the +floor, drew a small low chair to the fire, and climbing into it, sat +down as composedly as if she were mistress there instead of an intruder. + +Once she swept the hair back from her forehead with the motion Frank +knew so well, and then the lump came into his throat again, and he +steadied himself against the mantel, while he looked curiously at the +young girl, making herself so much at home and seeming so well pleased +with her surroundings. + +'Take her to the nursery now. I must see to that coroner,' he said to +his wife, adding: 'Harold must go too, or there will be the Old Harry to +pay.' + +''Ess, 'ess,' came decidedly from the child, who went willingly with +Harold, and was soon ushered into the large upper room, which was used +as both nursery and school-room, for Mrs. Tracy could not allow her two +sons, Tom and Jack, to come in contact with the boys at school; so she +kept a governess, a middle-aged spinster, who, glad of a home, and the +rather liberal compensation, sat all day in the nursery and bore +patiently with Tom's freaks and Jack's dullness: to say nothing of the +trouble it was to have the three-year-old Maude toddling about and +interfering with everything. + +'Hallo!' Tom cried, as his mother came in, followed by Harold and Jerry. +'Hallo, what's up?' And throwing aside the slate on which he had been +trying to master the difficulties of a sum in long division, he went +toward them, and said: 'Has the coroner come, and can't I go and see the +inquest? You said maybe I could if I behaved, and I do, don't I, Miss +Howard?' + +Just then he caught sight of Jerry, and stopping short, exclaimed: + +'By Jingo! ain't she pretty! I mean to kiss her.' + +And he made a movement toward the little face, which looked up so shyly +at him. But his mother caught his arm and held him back, as she said, +sharply: + +'Don't touch her, there is no tolling what you may catch. I wanted her +to go to the kitchen, the proper place for her, but your father insisted +that she should be brought here. I hope, Miss Howard, you will see that +she does not go near the children.' + +'Yes, Madam,' Miss Howard replied, 'but I am sure there can be no +danger. She looks as clean and sweet as a rose.' + +Miss Howard was fond of children, and she held out her hand to the +little girl, who seemed to have a most wonderful faculty for +discriminating between friends and enemies, and who went to her readily, +and leaning against her arm, looked curiously at the group of +children--at Tom, and Jack, and Maude, the latter of whom wished to go +to her, but was restrained by the nurse. The moment the door closed on +Mrs. Tracy, Tom walked up to the child, and said: + +'I shall kiss her now, anyhow.' + +But Jerry hid her face, and could not be induced to look up until he had +moved away from her. + +'Catty as well as pretty,' Tom said. 'I wonder who she is anyway, and +how she will like the poor-house?' + +'Who said she was going to the poor-house?' Harold exclaimed +indignantly. + +'Mother said so,' Tom replied. 'I heard her talking to the cook. Where +would she go if she did not go to the poor-house? Who would take care of +her?' + +'I!' Harold answered, and to Miss Howard he seemed to grow older a dozen +years, as he stood there with his arms folded and the light of a brave +manhood in his brown eyes. 'I shall take care of her. She will live with +grandmother and me. I found her, and she is mine.' + +''Ess, 'ess, 'ess,' came from Jerry, as she swung one little foot back +and forth and looked confidingly at her champion. + +'_You_ take care of her!' Tom sneered, with that supercilious air he +always assumed toward those he considered his inferiors. Why, you and +your grandmother can't take care of yourselves, or you couldn't if it +wasn't for Uncle Arthur. Mother says so. You wouldn't have any house to +live in if he hadn't given it to you,' + +Harold's arms were unfolded now and the doubled fists were in his +pockets clenching themselves tighter and tighter as he advanced to Tom, +who, remembering his black eye, began to back towards the nurse for +safety. + +'It's a lie, Tom Tracy,' Harold said. 'Mr. Arthur does not take care of +us. We do it ourselves, and have for ever so long. He did give us the +house, but it ain't for you to twit me of that. Whose house is this, I'd +like to know? It isn't yours, nor your father's, and there isn't a thing +in it yours. It is all Mr. Arthur's.' + +'Wall, we are to be his _hares_--Jack, and Maude, and me. Mother says +so,' Tom stammered out, while Jerry, who had been looking intently, +first at one boy, and then at the other, called out in her own language: + +'Nein, nein, nein,' and struck her hand toward Tom. + +'What does she mean by her "Nine, nine, nine,'" he asked of Miss Howard, +who replied that she thought it was the German for 'No, no, no,' and +that the child probably did not approve of him. + +Tom knew she did not, and though she was only a baby, be felt chagrined +and irritable. Had he dared, he would have struck Harold, who asked him +what he meant by being his uncle's _hare._ But he was afraid of Miss +Howard, and remembering it must be time for the inquest, he slipped from +the room, whispering fiercely to Harold as he passed him: + +'Darn you, Hal Hastings, I'll thrash you yet.' + +'Let me know when you are ready, and also when you get to be your +uncle's _hare_,' was Harold's taunting reply, as the door closed upon +the discomfited Tom. + + * * * * * + +The inquest was a mere matter of form, for there was no doubt in any +one's mind that the woman had been frozen to death, and she had no +friends to complain that due attention had not been paid her. So after a +few questions put to Mr. Tracy, and more to Harold, who was summoned +from the nursery to tell what he knew, and a look at the cold rigid +face, a verdict was rendered of 'Frozen to death.' + +Then came the question of burial, as to when, and where, and at whose +expense. Quite a number of people had assembled and the little room was +full. Conspicuous among them was Peterkin, who, having been elected to +an office, which necessitated a care for the expenditures of the +village, was swelled with importance, and dying for a chance to be +heard. + +When Harold came into the room Jerry was with him. She had refused to +let him leave her, and he led her by the hand into the midst of the men, +who grew as silent and respectful the moment she appeared as if she had +been a woman instead of a little child, who could speak no word of their +language, or understand what was said to her. It was her mother lying +there dead, and they made way for her as, catching sight of the white +face, she uttered a cry of joy, and running up to the body, patted the +cold cheeks, while she kept calling 'Mah-nee, Mah-nee,' and saying words +unintelligible to all, but full of pathos and love, and child-like +coaxing for the inanimate form to rouse itself, and speak to her again. + +'Poor little thing,' was said by more than one, and hands went up to +eyes unused to tears, for the sight was a touching one--that lovely +child bending over the dead face, and imprinting kisses upon it. + +Harold took her away from the body, and lifting her into a chair, kept +by her, as with her arm around his neck, she stood listening to, and +watching, and sometimes imitating the gestures of the men around her. + +It was Peterkin who spoke first; standing back so straight that his +immense stomach, with the heavy gold watch-chain hanging across it, +seemed to fill the room, he gave his opinion before any one had a chance +to express theirs. + +It was the first time he had been in the house since the morning after +the party, when Arthur had turned him from the door. He had vowed +vengeance against the Tracys then, and kept his vow by spending two +thousand dollars in order to defeat Frank as member of Congress and to +get himself elected as one of the village trustees, and now he had come, +partly out of curiosity to see the woman, and partly to oppose her being +buried by the town, if such a thing were suggested. + +'Let them Tracys bury their own dead,' he said to his wife before he +left home, and he said it again in substance now, as with a tremendous +'ahem!' he commenced his speech standing close to little Jerry, who +never took her eyes from him, but watched him with a face which varied +in its expression with every variation in his voice and manner, and +reached its climax when he said: 'I don't b'lieve in saddlin' the town +with a debt we don't orto pay. Let the Tracys bury their own dead, I +say!' + +''Ess, 'ess, 'ess,' Jerry chimed in with an emphatic shake of her head +with each ''ess,' and a flourish of her hand more threatening than +approving toward the speaker, who glanced at her and went on: + +'Do you see, gentlemen of the jury, who this cub looks like. I do! and +so can you with half an eye. She looks like Arthur Tracy!' + +Just then Jerry swept back her golden hair, and, opening her eyes, +flashed them around the room until they rested by accident upon Frank, +who, pale, and faint, and terrified, was leaning against the door-way +trying to seem only amused at the tirade which was concluded as follows: + +'Yes, Arthur Tracy! Not her skin, perhaps, nor hair, nor her eyes, +leastwise not the color, but something I can't describe; and this woman, +her mother, you say is a furriner; that may be, but I've seen her afore, +or I'm mistaken. She took passage once on the 'Liza Ann, I'm sure on't, +and Arthur look passage same day as far as Chester and was as chipper as +you please with her. I don't say nothin', nor insinerate nothin', but I +won't consent to have the town pay what belongs to the Tracys. Let 'em +run their own canoes and funerals, too, I say; and as for this young one +with the yaller hair--though where she got that the lord only knows; +'tain't her's,' pointing to the corpse; 'nor 'tain't his'n,' pointing in +the direction of Arthur's rooms; 'as for her, I'm opposed to sendin' to +the poor-house another pauper.' + +'She is not a pauper, and she is not going to the poor-house either,' +Harold exclaimed, while Jerry came in with her _nein, nein, nein_, which +made the bystanders laugh, as Peterkin went on, addressing himself to +Harold: + +'You are her champion, hey, and intend to take care of her. Mighty fine, +I'm sure, but hadn't you better fetch back May Jane's pin that you took +at the party.' + +'It is false,' Harold cried. 'I never saw the pin, never!' and the hot +tears sprang to his eyes at this unmanly assault. + +By this time Peterkin, who felt that everybody was against him, was +swelling with rage, and seizing Harold by the collar, roared out: + +'Do you tell me I lie! You rascal! I'll teach you what belongs to +manners!' and he would have struck the boy but for Jerry, who had been +watching him as a cat watches a mouse, and who, raising her war-cry of +'_nein, nein, nein_,' sprang at him like a little tiger, and by the +fierceness of her gestures and the volubility of her German jargon +actually compelled him to retreat step by step until she had him outside +the door, which she barred with her diminutive person. No one could help +laughing at the discomfited giant and the mite of a child facing him so +bravely, while she scolded at the top of her voice. + +Peterkin saw that he was beaten and left the house, vowing vengeance +against both Harold and Jerry, if he should ever have it in his power to +harm them. + +When he was gone, Frank, who had recovered his composure during the +ludicrous scene, said to those present: + +'I would not explain to that brute, but it is not my intention to +trouble the town. I have no more idea who this woman is than you have, +and I'll swear that Peterkin's vile insinuations with regard to her are +false. My brother says he never saw her in his life, and he speaks the +truth. She may have been on Peterkin's boat, but I doubt it. She has +every appearance of a foreigner, and her child'--here Frank's tongue +felt a little thick, but he cleared his throat and went on--'her child +speaks a foreign language--German, they tell me. This poor woman died on +my--or rather my brother's premises. I have consulted with him, and he +thinks as I do, that she should be cared for at our expense. He says, +further, that there is room on the Tracy lot; she is to be buried there. +I shall attend to it at once, and the funeral will take place to-morrow +morning at ten o'clock from this house. What disposition will be made of +the child I have not yet decided, but she will _not_ go to the +poor-house.' + +'Oh, Mr. Tracy,' Harold burst out, 'she is mine. She is to live with +grandma and me. You will not take her from me--say you will not?' + +'_Vill not_,' Jerry reiterated, imitating as well as she could Harold's +last words. + +For a moment Mr. Tracy looked fixedly at the boy, pleading for a burden +which would necessitate toil, and self-denial, and patience of no +ordinary kind and never had he despised himself more than he did then, +when, believing what he did believe, he said at last: + +'I will talk with your grandmother, and see what arrangements we can +make. I rather think you have the best right to her. But she must stay +here to-night and until after the funeral, when she can go with you, if +you like.' + +To this Harold did not object, and as Jerry seemed very happy and +content, he left her, while she was exploring the long drawing-room, and +examining curiously the different articles of furniture. As she did not +seem disposed to touch anything, she was allowed to go where she liked, +although Mrs. Frank remonstrated against her roaming all over the house +as if she belonged there, and suggested again that she be sent to the +kitchen. But Frank said 'no,' decidedly, and Jerry was left to herself, +except as the nurse-girl and Charles looked after her a little. + +And so it came about that towards evening she found herself in the upper +hall, and after making a tour of the rooms, whose doors were open, she +came to one whose door was shut--nor could she turn the knob, although +she tried with all her might. Doubling her tiny fist, she knocked upon +the door, and then, as no one came, kicked against it with her foot, but +still with no result. + +Inside the room, with Gretchen's picture, Arthur sat in his +dressing-gown, very nervous and a little inclined to be irritable and +captious. He knew there had been an inquest, and that many people had +come and gone that day, for he had seen them from his window, and had +seen, too, the sleigh, with Frank, and the coroner, and Harold, and a +blue hood, drive into the yard. But to the blue hood he never gave a +thought, as he was only intent upon the dead woman, whose presence in +the house made him so nervous and restless. + +'I shall be glad when she is buried. I have been so cold and shaky ever +since they brought her here,' he said to Charles, as, with a shiver, he +drew his chair nearer to the fire and leaning back wearily in it fixed +his eyes upon Gretchen's picture smiling at him from the window, 'Dear +little Gretchen,' he said in a whisper, 'you seem so near to me now that +I can almost hear your feet at the door, and your voice asking to come +in. Hush!' and he started suddenly, as Jerry's kicks made themselves +heard even to the room where he sat. 'Hush! Charles, who is that banging +at the door? Surely not Maude? They would not let her come up here. Go +and see, and send her away.' + +He had forgotten that he was listening for Gretchen, and when Charles, +who had opened the door cautiously and described the intruder, said to +him. 'It is that woman's child. Shall I let her in? She is a pretty +little thing,' he replied, 'Let her in? No; why should you and why is +she allowed to prowl around the house? Tell her to go away.' + +So Jerry was sent away with a troubled disappointed look in her little +face, and as the chill March night came on and the dark shades crept +into the room and Gretchen's picture gradually faded from sight in the +gathering gloom until it seemed only a confused mixture of lead and +glass, Arthur felt colder, and drearier, and more wretched than he had +ever felt before. It was a genuine case of homesickness, if one can be +homesick who is in his own house, surrounded by every possible comfort +and luxury. He was tired, and sick, and disappointed, and his head was +aching terribly, while thoughts of the past were crowding his brain +where the light of reason seemed struggling to reinstate itself. He was +thinking of Gretchen, and longing for her so intensely that once he +groaned aloud and whispered to himself: + +'Poor Gretchen! I am so sorry for it all. I can see it clearer now, how +I left her and did not write, and I don't know where she is, or if she +will ever come; and yet, I feel as if she had come, or tidings of her. +Perhaps my letter reached her. Perhaps she is on her way. God grant it, +and forgive me for all I have made her suffer.' + +It was very still in the room where Arthur sat, for Charles had gone +out, and only the occasional crackling of the coal in the grate and +ticking of the clock broke the silence which reigned around him; and at +last, soothed into quiet, he fell asleep and dreamed that on his door he +heard again the thud of baby feet, while Gretchen's voice was calling to +him to let the baby in. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE FUNERAL AND AFTER. + + +Long before ten o'clock, the hour appointed for the funeral, the next +morning, people began to gather at the Park House, and the avenue seemed +full of them. The news that an unknown woman had been frozen to death in +the Tramp House had spread far and wide, awakening in many a curiosity +to see the stranger, and discover, if possible, a likeness to some one +they might have known. + +It was strange how many reminiscences were brought to mind by this +circumstance of girls who had disappeared years before and were supposed +to be dead--or worse. And this woman might be one of them; indeed, +Peterkin had said that she was, and they came in crowds to see her, and +to see, as well, the inside of the handsome house, of which they had +heard so much, especially since Mr. Arthur's return. But in this they +were disappointed, for all the front rooms were locked against them, and +only the large dining-room, the breakfast-room, the servants' hall, and +the little back office were thrown open to the public. In the first of +these the corpse was lying in a substantial, handsome coffin, for Frank, +who ordered it, would have no other; and when the undertaker suggested a +cheaper one would answer just as well, had said, decidedly: + +'I mean to bury her decently. Give me this one, and send the bill to me, +not to Arthur.' + +It was _his_ funeral, and, judging from his face, he was burying all his +friends, instead of a poor, unknown woman, whose large, coarse features +and plain woollen dress looked out of place in that handsome black +coffin, with its silver-plated trimmings. Frank had suggested that she +should have a white merino shroud, but his wife had overruled him. It +was _not_ her funeral, and she had no interest in it, except that it +should be over as soon as possible, and the house cleansed from the +atmosphere of death. So when her husband asked if the child ought not to +have a mourning-dress, she scoffed at him for the suggestion saying she +did not like to see children in black anyway, and even if she died +herself she should not wish hers to wear it. + +'I cannot imagine,' she continued, 'why you have taken so unaccountable +a fancy to and interest in these people, especially the child. One would +think she belonged to royalty, the fuss you make over her. What are we +to do with her to-night? Where is she to sleep?' + +'In the nursery,' was his reply; and he saw his wishes carried out and +ordered in a crib, which used to be Jack's, and bade the nurse see that +she was comfortable. + +So Jerry was put to bed in the nursery and slept very quietly until +about, ten o'clock when she awoke and cried piteously for both 'Man-nee' +and 'Ha-roll.' Frank, who was sitting alone in the library, heard the +cry, and knew it was not Maude's. Had it been he would not have minded +it, for he knew that she would be cared for without his interference. +But something in the crying of this little foreign girl stirred him +strangely, and after listening to it a few moments he arose, and going +softly to the door of the nursery, stood listening until a sharp hush +from the nurse girl decided him to enter, and going to the crib he bent +over the sobbing child and tried to comfort her. She could not +understand him, but the tone of his voice was kind, and when he put his +hand on her hot head she took it in hers and held it fast, as if she +recognized in him a friend. And Frank as he felt the clasp of the soft, +warm fingers, and saw the confiding look in the wide-open eyes, grew +faint and cold, and asked himself again, as he had many times that day, +_if he could do it_. + +Jerry was asleep at last, but she sobbed occasionally in her sleep, and +there were great tears on her eyelashes, while her fingers clutched +Frank's hand tightly as if fearing to let it go. But he managed to +disengage it and stealing cautiously from the room went back to the +library where he sat late into the night, facing the future and +wondering if he could meet it. + +He had Jerry at the table next morning and saw that she was helped to +everything she wanted without any regard to its suitability for her, and +when his wife said rather curtly that she never knew that he was so fond +of children before, he answered her: + +'I am only doing as I would wish some one to do to Maude if she were +like this poor little girl.' + +When, at last, the hour for the funeral arrived he placed her himself +upon the high chair close to the coffin, where she sat through the short +service, conspicuous in her gray cloak and blue hood, with her golden +hair falling on her neck and piled in wavy masses on her forehead, while +her bright eyes scanned the crowd curiously as if asking why they were +there and why they were all looking so intently at her. More than one +kind-hearted woman went up and kissed her, and when, at the close of the +services, Mr. Tracy held her in his arms for a last look at her mother, +their tears fell fast for the child, so unconscious of the meaning of +what was passing around her. + +'Isn't she beautiful! Such lovely hair, and eyes, and dazzling +complexion!' was said by more than one; and then they speculated as to +her future. + +Would she go to the poor-house? Would Frank Tracy keep her with all his +children, or was it true, as they had heard, that Mr. Arthur Tracy was +to adopt her at his own? And where was Mr. Arthur? He might, at least, +have shown enough respect for the dead woman to come into the room, and +they wanted so much to see him, for there was a great deal of curiosity +with regard to the lunatic of Tracy Park among the lower class of people +who had come to Shannondale during the eleven years of his absence. + +But Arthur was sick in bed, suffering alternately from chills and a +raging fever, which set his brain on fire and made him wilder than +usual. He had not slept well during the night. Indeed, he said, he had +not slept at all. But this was a common assertion of his, and one to +which Charles now paid little heed. + +'A man can't snore and not sleep,' was the unanswerable argument with +which he refuted the sleepless nights of his master. + +On this occasion, however, he had heard no snoring, and Arthur's face, +seen by the morning light, was a sufficient proof of the wakeful hours +he had passed. He, too, had heard the distant crying, and felt +instinctively that it was not Maude's. Starting up in bed to listen, he +said: + +'What's that? Is that child here yet?' + +'Yes sir: she is to stay till after the funeral,' was Charles' reply, +and Arthur continued: + +'Bring me some cotton for my ears. I never can stand that noise. It is a +peculiar cry.' + +The cotton was brought. A window in the hall which had a habit of +rattling with every breath of wind was made fast with a bit of shingle +whittled out for that purpose, and then Arthur became tolerably quiet +until morning, when he began to talk to himself in the German language, +which Charles could not understand. But he caught the name Gretchen, and +knew she was the subject of the sick man's thoughts. Suddenly turning to +his attendant, to whom he always spoke in English, Arthur said: + +'The funeral is to-day?' + +'Yes, sir, at ten o'clock.' + +'Well, lock every door leading up this way, and shut out the gossipping +blockheads who will come by hundreds, and, if we would let them, swarm +into my room as thick as the frogs were in the houses of the Egyptians. +Shut the doors, Charles, and keep them out.' + +So the doors were shut and bolted, and then Arthur lay listening with +that intensity which so quickens one's hearing, that the faintest sounds +are distinct at great distances. He heard the trampling footsteps as the +people came crowding in, and the tread of horses' feet as sleigh after +sleigh drove up the avenue, and once, with a shudder, he said: + +'That is the hearse. I am sure of it.' + +Then all was still, and listen as he might he could not distinguish the +faintest sound until the services were over and the people began to +leave the house. + +'There,' he said, with a sigh of relief; 'it will soon be over. Bring me +my clothes, Charles. I am going to get up and see the last of this poor +woman. God help her, whoever she was.' + +He was beginning to feel a great pity for the woman whose coffin they +were putting in the hearse, which moved off a few rods, and then stopped +until the open sleigh came up, the sleigh in which Frank Tracy sat, +muffled in his heavy overcoat, for the day, though bright and sunny, was +cold, and a chill March wind was blowing. Dolly had taken refuge in a +headache which had prevented her from being present at the funeral and +kept her from going to the grave as her husband had wished her to do. So +only Harold and Jerry occupied the sleigh with Frank, and these sat +opposite him, with their backs to the horses, Jerry in her gray cloak +and blue hood showing conspicuously as she came into full view of the +window where Arthur stood looking at the procession with a feeling at +his heart, as if in some way he were interested in the sad funeral, +where there was no mourner, no one who had ever seen or known the +deceased, save the little helpless girl, looking around her in perfect +unconcern save as she rather liked the stir and all that was going on. + +They had tied a thin veil over her head to shield her from the cold, and +thus her face was not visible to Arthur. But he saw the blue hood and +the golden hair on the old gray cloak, and the sight of it moved him +mightily, making him hold fast to the window-casing for support, while +he stood watching it. Just as far as he could see it his eye followed +that hood, and when it disappeared from view, he turned from the window, +deathly sick, and tottering back to his bedroom, vomited from sheer +nervous excitement. + +'Thank Heaven it is over and the rabble gone,' he said, when he became +easier. 'Go now and open all the doors and windows to let in the fresh +air and out the smell they are sure to have left. Ugh! I get a whiff of +it now. Burn some of that aromatic paper; but open the hall windows +first.' + +Charles did as he was ordered, and the wind was soon sweeping through +the wide hall, while Arthur's rooms were filled with an odor like the +sweet incense burned in the old cathedrals. + +'I am very giddy and faint,' Arthur said, when Charles came back to him +after his ventilating operation. 'I have looked at the bright snow too +long, and there are a thousand rings of fire dancing before my eyes, and +in every ring I see a blue hood and veil, with waves of hair like +Gretchen's, when she was a child. There is a redder tinge now on +Gretchen's hair, because she is older. Wheel me out there, Charles, +where I can see her.' + +Charles obeyed, and moved the light bed-lounge into the library, where +his master could feast his eyes upon the sweet face which knew no +change, but which always, night and day, smiled upon him the same. The +picture had a soothing effect upon Arthur, and he gazed at it now until +it began to fade away and lose itself in the blue hood and veil he had +seen in the sleigh far down the avenue; and when, a few minutes later, +Charles came in to look at him, he found him fast asleep. + +Meantime the funeral train had reached the cemetery, where the snow was +piled in great drifts, and where, in a corner of the Tracy lot, they +buried the stranger, with no tear to hallow her grave, and no pang of +regret save that she had ever come there, with the mystery and the doubt +which must always cling to her memory. Frank Tracy's face was very pale +and stern as he held little Jerry in his arms during the committal of +the body to the grave, and then bade her take one last look at the box +which held her mother. But Jerry, who was growing cold and tired, began +to cry, and so Frank took her back to the sleigh, which was driven to +the cottage in the lane. Here she felt at home, and drawing to the fire +the low rocking chair she had appropriated to herself, was soon +supremely happy devouring the ginger cookie which Mrs. Crawford had +given her, and in trying to pronounce English words under Harold's +teaching. + +While the children were thus employed, Mr. Tracy was divulging to Mrs. +Crawford the object of his visit. He could hardly explain, he said, why +he was so deeply interested in the child, except it were that her mother +had died on his premises and she seemed to be thrown upon his care. + +'I cannot see her go to the poor-house,' he continued, with a trembling +in his voice which made Mrs. Crawford wonder a little, as she had never +credited him with much sympathy for anything outside his own family. 'I +cannot see her go to the poor-house, and I cannot well take her into my +family, as we have three children of our own. But I have made up my mind +to care for her, and I have come to ask if, for a compensation, you will +keep her here?' + +'Yes, grandma--say yes!' Harold cried; while Jerry, with her mouth full +of cookie, repeated, 'ay 'ess.' + +'You see, the children plead for me,' Mr. Tracy said, with a smile at +the little girl, whose hand just then swept back the hair from her eyes, +which looked steadily at him as he went on: 'While she is young--say, +until she is ten years old--I will pay you three dollars a week, and +after that more, if necessary. I know you will be kind to her, and that +she will be happy here and well brought up. Is it a bargain?' + +Mrs. Crawford had never seen him so interested in anything and felt +somewhat surprised and puzzled, but she expressed her willingness to +take the child and do what she could for her. + +'It will be a good thing for Harold,' she said, 'as he is in danger of +growing selfish here alone with me.' + +And so Jerry's future was settled, and counting out twelve dollars, +Frank handed them to Mrs. Crawford, saying: + +'I will pay you for four weeks in advance, as you may need the money, +and--and--perhaps--' His face grew very red as he stammered on, 'perhaps +it may be as well not to tell how much I pay you. People--or +rather--well, Mrs. Tracy might think it strange, and not understand why +I feel such an interest in the child. I don't understand it myself.' + +But he did understand, and his knees were shaking under him as, when the +transaction was over, and he was on his way to the Park, he felt that he +had sold himself to Satan. + +'And yet I know nothing for sure,' he kept repeating to himself. 'Arthur +is expecting Gretchen, whoever she may be. He says he has written to +her, and he has one of his presentiments that she is coming on the night +when this woman arrives, who is no more like the Gretchen he raves about +than I am. This woman has a child. He says Gretchen has none, and that +he never saw this woman. And yet I find among the things a photograph +exactly like the picture in the window, and also like the child, who +certainly bears a resemblance to my brother, though no one else, +perhaps, would see it. Now, sir,' he appeared to be addressing himself +to some person unseen, from whom he shrank, for he drew himself as far +as was possible to his side of the sleigh and shivered as he went on: +'Now, sir, is that sufficient proof to warrant me in turning everything +topsy-turvy, and making Arthur crazier than he is?' + +'Certainly not,' he seemed to hear in reply, either from within or +without, he hardly knew which, and he went on: + +'I shall try to find out who the woman was, and where she came from; but +how am I to do it? how begin? Arthur will not tell me a word about +Gretchen, who she is, or what she is to him. Still, I mean to be on the +safe side, and do right by the child. Arthur cannot live many years. His +nerves will wear him out, if nothing else, and when he does, his money +will naturally come to me.' + +'Naturally,' his spectral companion replied, and he continued: + +'Well, what I intend doing is this: I shall make my will, in which Jerry +will share equally with my children, and I shall further draw up a +written request that in case I die before my brother, any money which +may fall to my children from him shall be shared equally with her. I +shall, out of my own private funds, provide for her support and +education, until she comes of age, or marries, and if possible, I shall +bring about a marriage between her and Tom, who will probably one day be +master of Tracy Park. Can anything more be required of me?' + +'Nothing,' was the consoling reply; and as the sleigh just then drew up +before his door, Frank alighted from it, and said to himself as he ran +up the steps: + +'I believe I have been riding with the devil, and have made a league +with him!' + +He found the house thoroughly aired and cleansed from all signs of the +recent funeral; and when, at one o'clock, he sat down to lunch in the +handsome dining-room, and sipped his favorite claret, and ate his +foreign preserves, and thought how much comfort and luxury money could +buy, he was sure he had done well for himself and his children after +him. But, like Bishop Hatto, of Mouse-Tower memory, Frank Tracy never +knew real peace of mind from the day he deliberately sold himself to the +Evil One for filthy lucre, until the day, years after, when full +restitution was made, and, with the sin confessed, he held his head up +again, free from the shadow which he did not leave in the sleigh, but +which followed him day and night, walking by him when he walked, sitting +by him when he sat, and watching by him when he slept, so as to be ready +when he woke with the specious argument that he was acting justly and +even generously by the little waif, who was like a sunbeam in the +cottage in the lane, whom many people went to see, marvelling at her +beauty and wondering in vain whose likeness they sometimes saw in her as +she frolicked around the house, full of life, and fun, and laughter. + +Frank made his will, as he promised his shadow he would, but he went to +Springfield to have it drawn up, for he knew that Colvin, or any lawyer +whom he might employ in Shannondale, would wonder at it. He also wrote +out himself what he called his dying request to his children, in case he +should die before his brother. In this he stated emphatically his wish +that Jerry should have her share of whatever might come to them from the +Tracy estate, the same as if she were his own child. + +'I have a good and sufficient reason for this,' he wrote in conclusion, +'and I enjoin it upon you to carry out my wishes as readily as you would +were I to speak to you from my grave,' + +This done, Frank felt a little better, and the shadow at his side was +not quite as real as it had been before. He put his will and his dying +request together in a private drawer with Gretchen's photograph, and the +testament with the handwriting in it. He had kept this back when the +stranger's trunk was sent to the cottage, thinking that if it were +missed and inquired for, he could easily produce it as having been +mislaid. At the suggestion of Mr. St. Claire he went to New York, to the +office of the German line of steamers, and made inquiries with regard to +the passengers who had come on a certain ship at such a time. But +nothing could be learned of any woman with a child, and after inserting +in several of the New York papers a description of the woman, with a +request for any information concerning her which could be given, he +returned home, with a feeling that he had done all that could be +required of him, and that he might now enjoy himself. + +He was accordingly kind and even tender to his brother, who for several +weeks suffered from low nervous depression, which kept him altogether in +his room, to which he refused to admit any one except his attendant and +Frank. He had ceased for the time being, to talk of Gretchen, or to +expect her, and he never inquired for the child, whose blue hood had so +affected him. Once Frank spoke of her to him and told him where she was, +and that she was learning to speak English very rapidly, and growing +prettier every day. But Arthur did not seem at all interested and only +said: + +'How can Mrs. Crawford afford to keep the child?' + +Others than Arthur asked that question, and among them Dolly, who with a +woman's quick wit, sharpened by something she accidentally saw, divined +the truth, which she wrung at last from her husband. There was a fierce +quarrel--almost their first--a sick headache which lasted three days, +and a month or more of coldness between the married pair, and then, +finding she could accomplish nothing, for Frank was as firm as a rock, +Dolly gave up the contest, and tried by economizing in various ways, to +save the money which she felt was taken from her children by the little +girl, who had become so dear to Mrs. Crawford, that she would not have +parted with her had nothing been paid for her keeping. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"MR. CRAZYMAN, DO YOU WANT SOME CHERRIES?" + + +More than two years had passed away since the terrible March night when +the strange woman was frozen to death in the Tramp House, and her +history was still shrouded in mystery. Not a word had been heard +concerning her, and her story was gradually being forgotten by the +people of Shannondale. Her grave, however, was tolerably well kept, and +every Saturday afternoon, in summer time, a few flowers were put upon it +by Harold. Not so much for the sake of the dead as for the beautiful +child who always accompanied him, laughing, and frolicking, and +sometimes dancing around the grave where he told her her mother was +buried. + +As there had been no date on which to fix Jerry's birth, they had called +the first day of March her birthday, so that when more than two years +later we introduce her to our readers on a hot July morning, she was +said to be six years and four months old. In some respects, however, she +seemed much older, for there was about her a precocity only found in +children who have always associated with people much older than +themselves, or into whose lives strange experiences have come. In +stature she was very short, though round and plump as a partridge. +'Dutchy,' Mr. Tracy called her, for Mrs. Tracy did not like her, and +took no pains to conceal her dislike, though it was based upon nothing +except the money which she knew was paid regularly to Mrs. Crawford for +the child's maintenance. + +There could be no reason, she said to her husband, why he should support +the child of a tramp, and the woman had been little better, judging from +appearances, unless, indeed--and then she told what old Peterkin had +said more than once, to the effect that Jerry Crawford, as she was +called, was growing to be the image of the Tracys, especially Arthur. + +'And if so,' she added, 'you'd better let Arthur take care of her, and +save your money for your own children,' + +To this Frank never replied. He knew better than old Peterkin that Jerry +was like the Tracys, or, rather, like his brother, and that it was not +so much in the features as in the expression and certain movements of +the head and hands, and tones of the voice when she was very much in +earnest, and raised it to a higher pitch than usual. She could speak +English very well now, and sometimes, when Frank, who was a frequent +visitor at the cottage, sat watching her at her play, and listening to +her as she talked to herself, as was her constant habit, he could have +shut his eyes and sworn it was his brother's voice calling to him from +the hay-loft or apple tree where they had played together when boys. + +Jerry's favorite amusement when alone was to make believe that either +herself, or a figure she had made out of a shawl, was a sick woman, +lying on a settee which she converted into a bed. Sometimes she was the +nurse and took care of the sick woman to whom she always spoke in +German, bending fondly over her, and occasionally holding up before her +a doll which Mrs. St. Claire had given her, and which she played was the +woman's baby. Then she would be the sick woman herself, and trying on +the broad frilled cap which had been found in the trunk, would slip +under the covering, and laying her head upon the pillow, go through with +all the actions of some one very sick, occasionally hugging to her bosom +and kissing the doll. + +Once she enacted the pantomime of dying. Folding her hands together and +closing her eyes, her lips moved as if in prayer, for a moment, then +stretching out her feet she lay perfectly motionless, with a set +expression in the little face which looked so comical under the broad +frilled cap. Then, as if it had occurred to her that action was +necessary from some one, she exchanged places with the lay figure, and +tying the cap upon its head, tucked it carefully in the bed, by which +she knelt, and covering her face with her hands imitated perfectly the +sobs and moans of a middle-aged person, mingled occasionally with the +clearer, softer notes of a child's crying. + +The first time Frank witnessed this piece of acting was on a Saturday +afternoon, when he had come to the cottage as usual to pay his weekly +due. Both Mrs. Crawford and Harold were gone, but knowing they would +soon return, as it was not their habit to leave Jerry long alone he sat +down to wait, while she went back to the corner in the kitchen, which +she used as her play-house. + +'Somebody is sick and I am taking care of her,' she said to Mr. Tracy, +who watched her through the pantomime of the death scene with a feeling, +when it was over, that he had seen Gretchen die. + +There was not a shadow of doubt in his mind that the sick woman was +Gretchen, the nurse the stranger found in the Tramp House, and the doll +baby the little girl upon whose memory that scene had been indelibly +stamped, and who, with her wonderful powers of imitation, could rehearse +it in every particular. To herself she always spoke in German, which no +one could understand sufficiently to make out what she meant. Once Mr. +St. Claire suggested to Frank that he take her to his brother, to whom +German was as natural as English, and who might be able to learn +something of her antecedents. And Frank had answered that he would do +so, knowing the while that nothing could tempt him to bring her and his +brother together until all the recollections of her babyhood, if she had +any, were obliterated, and she had in part forgotten her own language. + +His first step in evil doing had to be followed by others until he was +so far committed that he could not retrace his steps, and two shadows +were with him constantly now, one always reproaching him for what he had +done, and the other telling him it was now too late to turn back. + +He was very fond of Jerry, and on the Saturday afternoon when he sat +watching her strange play, noticing how graceful was every movement, and +how lovely the constantly varying expression of her face--from concern +and anxiety when she was the nurse to distress and pain and then +resignation and quietude in death when she took the role of the sick +woman--he felt himself moved by some mighty influence to right her at +once and put her in her proper place. + +'It is more than I can bear. I can't even look Dolly straight in the +eye,' he said to his evil shadow, which answered back. + +'You know nothing sure. Will you give up your prospects for a photograph +and a likeness which may be accidental?' + +So his conscience was smothered again; but he would question the child, +and after her play was over he called her to him and taking her in his +lap, kissed the little grave face upon which the shadow of the scene she +had been enacting had left its impress. + +'Jerry,' he said, 'that lady who just died in the bed with the cap on +was your mamma, was it not?' + +''Ess,' was Jerry's reply, for she still adhered to her first +pronunciation of the word. + +'And the other was the nurse?' + +''Ess,' Jerry said again; 'Mah-nee.' + +This was puzzling, for he had always supposed that by 'mah-nee' the +child meant 'mam-ma;' but he went on: + +'Try to understand me, Jerry; try to think away back before you came in +the ship.' + +''Ess, I vill,' she said, with a very wise look on her face, while Mr. +Tracy continued: + +'Had you a papa? Was he there with you?' + +'_Nein_,' was the prompt reply, and Mr. Tracy continued: + +'Where did your mamma live? Was it in Wiesbaden?' + +He knew he did not pronounce the word right, and was surprised at the +sudden lighting up of the child's eyes as she tried to repeat the name. +'Oo-oo-ee,' she began, with a tremendous effort, but the W mastered her, +and she gave it up with a shake of her head. + +'I not say dat oo-oo-ee,' she said, and he put the question in another +form: + +'Where did your mamma die?' + +'Tamp House; f'oze to deff,' was now the ready answer, a natural one, +too, for she had been taught by Harold that such was the case, and had +often gone with him to the house where he found her, and where the old +table still stood against the wall. + +No one picnicked there now, for the place was said to be haunted, and +the superstitious ones told each other that on stormy nights, when the +wild winds were abroad, lights had been seen in the Tramp House, where a +pale-faced woman, with her long, black hair streaming down her back, +stood in the door-way, shrieking for help, while the cry of a child +mingled with her call. But Harold shared none of these fancies. He was +not afraid of the building, and often went there with Jerry, and sitting +with her on the table, told her again and again how he had found her +mother that wintry morning, and how funny she herself had looked in the +old carpet-bag, and so it is not strange that when Mr. Tracy asked her +where her mother died, she should answer, 'In the Tramp House,' although +she had acted a pantomime whose reality must have taken place under very +different circumstances. + +'Of course your mother died in the Tramp House, and I have nothing with +which to reproach myself. I am altogether too morbid on the subject,' +Frank said, and he had decided that he was a pretty good sort of fellow, +after all, when at last Mrs. Crawford came in and he paid her for +Jerry's board. + +It was a part of Frank's plan to save the money out of his own personal +expenses, so he smoked two cigars less each day and went without claret +for dinner, except on Sunday, and never touched champagne, and wore his +hats and coats until his wife said they were shabby and insisted upon +new ones. In this way he saved more than three dollars a week, but the +overplus was laid aside for the time when Jerry must necessarily cost +him more because she would be older. In some respects he was doing his +duty by the child, who, next to Harold and Mrs. Crawford, whom she +called grandma, loved him better than any one else. She always ran to +meet him when he came, and sometimes, when he went away, accompanied him +down the lane, holding his hand and asking him numberless questions +about Tracy Park and about his little girl, and why she never came to +see her. + +Frank could not tell Jerry of his wife's bitter prejudice against her, +and that this was the reason why Maude had never been to the cottage or +Jerry to the park. But if Jerry had not visited it in person, she was +greatly interested in the handsome house and grounds, and the lovely +rooms where the crazy man lived. This was Harold's designation of Mr. +Arthur--the crazy man--and perhaps of all the things at Tracy Park, +Jerry was most desirous to see him and his rooms. Harold, who, on one of +the rare occasions when Arthur was out to dine, had been sent to the +house on an errand, had gone with Jack into these rooms, which he +described minutely to his grandmother and Jerry, dwelling longest upon +the beautiful picture in the window. 'Gretchen, he calls it,' he said; +and then Jerry, who was listening intently, gave a sudden upward and +sidewise turn to her Lead, just as she had done when Mr. Tracy spoke to +her of Wiesbaden. + +'Detchen,' she repeated, with a little hesitancy. 'Vat the name vas? Say +again.' + +He said it again, and over the child's face there came a puzzled +expression, as if she were trying to recall something which baffled all +her efforts. But she did not forget the name, and that evening Mrs. +Crawford heard her singing to herself, + +'Detchen, Detchen, who are you? Detchen, Detchen, where are you?' and +she noticed that the doll baby with which Jerry played the most was ever +after called 'Detchen,' instead of Maude, as it had been christened when +first given to her. + +Jerry had seen Maude Tracy many times and had admired her greatly, with +her pretty white dresses and costly embroideries; and once, at church, +when Maude passed near where she was standing, she stood back as far as +possible out of the way and held her plain gingham dress aside, as if +neither it nor herself had any right to come in close contact with so +superior a being. Of the house in the park she knew nothing, except what +Harold had told her, and that it was a place to be admired and gazed at +breathlessly at a respectful distance. She had never been there since +the day of the funeral But she was going at last with Harold, who had +permission to gather cherries for his grandmother from some of the many +trees which grew upon the place. + +It was a hot morning in July, and the air seemed thunderous and heavy +when she set off on what to her was as important an expedition as is a +trip to Europe to an older person. She had wanted to wear her pink +gingham dress, the one kept sacred for Sunday, and had even hoped that +she might be allowed to display her best straw hat with the blue ribbons +and cluster of apple blossoms. She had no doubt that she should go into +the house and see the crazy man, and Mrs. Tracy, who she had heard wore +silk stockings every day, and she wished to be suitably attired for such +honor. + +But Mrs. Crawford dispelled her air castles by telling her that she was +only to go into the side yard where the cherry trees were, and that she +must be very quiet, so as not to disturb Mr. Arthur, whose windows +looked that way. To wear her pink dress was impossible, as she would get +it stained with the juice of the cherries, while the best hat was not +for a moment to be thought of. + +So Jerry submitted to the dark calico frock and high-necked, +long-sleeved apron which Mrs. Crawford thought safe and proper for her +to wear on a cherry expedition. A clean, white sun-bonnet with a wide +cape covered her head and concealed her face when she started from the +cottage, with her quart tin pail on her arm; but no sooner was she on +the path which led to the park that the obnoxious bonnet was removed and +was swinging on her arm, while she was admiring the shadow which, her +long, bright curls made in the sunshine as she shook her head from side +to side. + +To tell the truth, our little Jerry was rather vain. Passionately fond +of pictures and flowers, and quick to detect everything beautiful both +in art and nature, she knew that the little face she sometimes saw in +Mrs. Crawford's old-fashioned mirror was pretty, and after the day when +Dick St. Claire told her that her hair was 'awful handsome,' she had +felt a pride in it and in herself, which all Mrs. Crawford's +asseverations that 'Handsome is that handsome does' could not destroy. +Maude Tracy's hair was black and straight, and here she felt she had the +advantage over her. + +'I do hope we shall see her,' she said to Harold, as she danced along, +swaying her bonnet and shaking her hair. 'Do you think we shall?' + +Harold thought it doubtful, and, even if they did, it was not likely she +would speak to them, he said. + +'Why not?' Jerry asked, and he replied: + +'Oh, I suppose they feel big because they are rich and we are poor.' + +'But why ain't I rich, too? Why don't I live at the park like Maude, and +wear low-necked aprons instead of this old high one?' Jerry asked; but +Harold could not tell, and only said: + +'Would you rather live at the park than with me?' + +'No,' Jerry answered, promptly, stopping short and digging her heel into +the soft loam of the path. 'I would not stay anywhere without you; and +when I live at the park you will live there, too, and have codfish and +tatoe every day.' + +Strangely enough this was Harold's favorite dish, and, as it was not his +grandmother's, his taste was not gratified in that respect as often as +he would have liked, hence Jerry's promise of the luxury. + +Just here, at a sudden turn in the path, they came upon Jack and Maude +Tracy playing on a bench under a tree, while the nurse was at a distance +either reading or asleep. Harold would have passed them at once, as he +knew his grandmother was in a hurry for the cherries, but Jerry had no +such intention. + +Stopping short in front of Maude, she inspected her carefully, from her +white dress and bright plaid sash to the string of amber beads around +her neck; while, side by side with this picture, she saw herself in her +dark calico frock and high-necked apron, with her sun-bonnet and tin +pail on her arm. Jerry did not like the contrast, and a lump began to +swell in her throat. Then, as a happy thought struck her, she said, with +something like exultation in her tone: + +'My hair curls and yours don't.' + +'No,' Maude answered, slowly--'no it don't curl, but it's black, and +yours is yaller.' + +This was a set back to Jerry, who hated everything yellow, and who had +never dreamed of applying that color to her hair. She only knew that +Dick St. Claire had called it pretty, but in this new light thrown upon +it all her pride vanished, for she recognized like a flash that it might +be 'yaller,' and stood there silent and vanquished, until Maude, who in +turn had been regarding her attentively, said to her: + +'Ain't you Jerry Crawford?' + +That broke the ice of reserve, and the two little girls were soon +talking together familiarly, and Jerry was asking Maude if she wore +beads and her best clothes every day. + +'Phoo! These ain't my best clothes. I have one gown all brawdery and +lace,' was Maude's reply, while Jack, who was standing near, chimed in: + +'My father's got lots of money, and so has Uncle Arthur, and when he +dies we are going to have it; Tom says so.' + +Slowly the shadows gathered on Jerry's brow as she said, sadly; + +'I wish I had an Uncle Arthur, and could wear beads and a sash every +day' Then, as she looked at Harold, her face brightened immediately and +she exclaimed. + +'But I have Harold and a grandma, and you hain't,' and running up to +Harold, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him lovingly, as +if to make amends for the momentary repining. + +'We must go now,' Harold said, and taking her hand in his, he led her +away toward the house, which impressed her with so much awe that as she +drew near to it, she held her breath and walked on tiptoe, as if afraid +that any sound from her would be sacrilege in that aristocratic +atmosphere. + +'Oh, isn't it grand, Harold?' Isn't it grand!' she kept repeating, with +her mouth full of cherries, after they had reached the trees on which +the ripe, red fruit hung so thickly. 'Do you s'pose we shall see the +crazy man?' she asked, and Harold replied: + +'I don't know. I guess not, unless he comes to the window. Those are his +rooms, and that window which looks so ugly outside, is the one with the +picture in it,' and he pointed to the south wing, most of the windows of +which were open, while against one a long ladder was standing. + +It had been left there by a workman who had been up on it to fix the +hinge of a blind, and who had gone to the village in quest of something +he needed, Jerry saw the ladder and its close proximity to the open +window, and she thought to herself. + +'I mean to fill my pail with cherries, and go up that ladder and take +them to him, I wonder if he would bite me?' + +Suiting the action to the word she stopped eating; and began to pick +from the lower limbs as rapidly as possible until her pail was full. + +'Pour them into the basket,' Harold called to her from the top of the +tree, but Jerry did not heed him. She had seen the tall figure of a man +pass before the window, and a pale, thin face had for a moment, looked +out, apparently to discover whence the talking came. + +'I'm going to take the crazyman some cherries,' she tried, and almost +before Harold could protest, she was half way up the ladder, which she +climbed with the agility of a little cat. + +'Jerry, Jerry! What are you doing!' Harold exclaimed, 'Come back this +minute. He doesn't like children; he tried to throw me over the banister +once; he will knock you off the ladder; oh, Jerry!' and Harold's voice +was almost a sob as he watched the girl going up round after round until +the top was reached, and she stood with her flushed, eager face, just on +a level with the window so that by standing on tiptoe, she could look +into the room. + +It was Arthur's bedroom, and there was no one in it, but she heard the +sound of footsteps in the adjoining apartment, and raising herself as +far as possible, and holding up her pail, she called out in a clear, +shrill voice; + +'Mr. Crazyman, Mr. Crazyman, don't you want some cherries?' + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +ARTHUR AND JERRY. + + +Arthur had passed a restless night. Indeed all his nights were restless, +but this one had been especially so. Thoughts of Gretchen had troubled +him in his dreams, and two or three times he had started up to listen, +thinking that he heard her calling to him from a distance. He had +dreamed also of the blue hood seen that day of the funereal, now more +than two years ago, and of the child who had come knocking at his door, +first with her hands and then with her feet, but whom he had refused to +admit. He had never seen her since, and had never inquired for her of +his own accord. Two or three times his brother had spoken of her in a +casual way, telling him once that she was with Mrs. Crawford. Arthur had +then asked how she could afford to keep her, and Frank had made no +reply. But the second time when he spoke of Jerry, and Arthur, more +interested in Mrs. Crawford than in her, had asked the same question, +Frank had said: + +'She cannot afford it, I pay her three dollars a week.' + +For a moment Arthur looked inquiringly at him; then he said: + +'You are a good fellow after all, even if you did deceive me about +sending John for Gretchen. Tell Colvin, when Christmas comes, to give +Mrs. Crawford a hundred dollars for me.' + +After this Mrs. Crawford and her affairs passed completely out of +Arthur's mind. He never went to the cottage, or near it. He never went +anywhere, in fact, but lived the life of a recluse, growing thinner, and +paler, and more reticent every day, talking now but seldom of Gretchen, +though he never arose in the morning or retired at night without kissing +her picture and murmuring to it some words of tenderness in German. + +He had measured the length of his three rooms and dressing-room, and +found them to be nearly one hundred feet, or six rods do that by passing +back and forth twenty-five times he would walk almost a mile. + +Regularly each morning, when it was not too cold or stormy, he would +throw open his windows and take his daily exercise, which was but a poor +substitute for what might be had in the fresh air outside, but was +nevertheless much better than nothing. + +On this particular morning, when Harold and Jerry were at the park, he +was taking his walk as usual, though very slowly, for he felt weak and +sick, and, oh, so inexpressibly lonely and desolate that it seemed to +him he would gladly lie down and die. + +'If I thought Gretchen were dead, nothing would seem so desirable to me +as the grave, for then there would be nothing to live for,' he was +saying to himself, when the sound of voices outside attracted his +attention, and going to the window, he saw the children, Harold in the +top of the tree, and Jerry at the foot, with her white sun-bonnet +shading her face. + +Recognizing Harold, he guessed who the little girl was, and a strange +feeling of interest stirred in his heart for her, as he said: + +'Poor little waif! I wonder where she came from, or what will become of +her?' + +'Then resuming his walk, he forgot all about the little waif, until +startled by a voice which rang, clear and bell-like, through the rooms: + +'Mr. Crazyman! Mr. Crazyman! don't you want some cherries?' + +It was not so much the words as something in the tone, the foreign +accent, the ring like a voice he never could forget, and which the +previous night had called to him in his dreams. And now it was calling +again--not in his sleep, but in reality, for he knew he was +awake--calling from the adjoining room, which no one could enter without +his knowledge. + +Mentally weak as he was, and apt to be superstitious, his limbs shook, +and his heart beat faster than its wont, as he went toward his +sleeping-apartment, from which the voice came again a little louder and +more peremptory: + +'Mr. Crazyman! where are you? I've brought you some cherries!' + +He had reached the door by this time, and saw the pail on the broad +window-ledge where Jerry had put it, and to which she was clinging, with +her white sun-bonnet just in view. + +'Oh, Gretchen! how did you get here?' he said, bounding across the +floor, with no thought of Jerry in his mind, no thought of any one but +Gretchen, whom he was constantly expecting to come, though not exactly +in this way. + +'I climbed the ladder to fetch you some cherries, and I'm standing on +the toppest stick,' Jerry said, craning her neck until her bonnet fell +back, disclosing to view her beautiful face flushed with excitement, and +her bright, wavy hair, which, moist with perspiration, clung in masses +of round curls to her head and forehead. + +'Great Heaven!' Arthur exclaimed, as he stood staring at the wide-open +blue eyes confronting him so steadily. 'Who are you, and where did you +come from?' + +'I'm Jerry, and I comed from the carpet-bag in the Tramp House. Take me +in, won't you?' Jerry said; and, mechanically leaning from the window, +Arthur took her in, while Harold from below looked on, horror-struck +with fear as to what the result might be if Jerry were left any time +alone with a madman who did not like children. + +'He may kill her; I must tell the folks,' he said; and, going round to +the side door, he entered, without knocking, and asked for Mrs. Tracy. + +But she was not at home, and so he told the servants of Jerry's danger, +and begged them to go to her rescue. + +'Pshaw, he won't hurt her. Charles will come pretty soon, and I'll send +him up. Don't look so scared; he is harmless,' the cook said to Harold, +who, in a wild state of nervous fear, went back to the cherry trees, +where he could listen and hear the first scream which should proclaim +Jerry's danger. + +But none came, and could he have looked into the room, where Jerry sat, +or rather stood, he would have been amazed. + +As Arthur lifted Jerry through the window, and put her down upon the +floor, he said to her: + +'Take off that bonnet and let me look at you.' + +She obeyed and stood before him with all her wealth of hair tumbling +about her glowing face, and an eager, questioning expression in her blue +eyes, which looked at him so fearlessly. Arthur knew perfectly well who +she was, but something about her so dazed and bewildered him that for a +moment he could not speak, but stared at her with the hungry, wistful +look of one longing for something just within his reach, but still +unattainable. + +'Do you like me?' Jerry asked at last. + +'Like you?' he replied. 'Yes. Why did you not come to me sooner?' + +And, stooping, he kissed the cherry-stained mouth as he had never kissed +a child before. + +Sitting down upon the lounge, he took her in his lap and said to her +again: + +'Who are you, and where did you come from? I know your name is Jerry, +which is a strange one for a girl, and I know you live with Mrs. +Crawford, but before that night where did you live? Where did you come +from?' + +'Out of the carpet-bag in the Tramp House. I told you that once,' Jerry +said. 'Harold found me. I am his little girl. He is out in the cherry +tree, and said I must not come up, because you were crazy and would hurt +me. You won't hurt me, will you? And be you crazy?' + +'Hurt you? No,' he answered, as he parted the rings of her hair from her +low brow. 'I don't know whether I am crazy or not They say so, and +perhaps I am, when my head is full of bumble-bees.' + +'Oh--h!' Jerry gasped, drawing back from him. 'Can they get out? And +will they sting?' + +Arthur burst into a merry laugh, the first he had known since he came +back to Shannondale. Jerry was doing him good. There was something very +soothing in the touch of the little warm hands he held in his, and +something puzzling and fascinating, too, in the face of the child. He +did not think of a likeness to any one; he only knew that he felt drawn +toward her in a most unaccountable manner, and found himself wondering +greatly who she was. + +'Harold told me there were pictures and marble people up here with +nothing on, and everything, and that's why I comed--that and to bring +you some cherries. I like pictures. Can I see them?' Jerry said. + +'Yes, you shall see them,' Arthur replied; and he led her into the room +where Gretchen's picture looked at them from the window. + +'Oh, my!' Jerry exclaimed, with bated breath, 'Ain't she lovely! Is she +God's sister?' and folding her hands together, she stood before the +picture as reverently as a devout Catholic stands before a Madonna. + +It was some time since Jerry had spoken a word of German, but as she +stood before Gretchen's picture old memories seemed to revive, and with +them the German word for _pretty_, which she involuntarily spoke aloud. + +Low as was the utterance, it caught Arthur's ear, and grasping her +shoulder, he said: + +'What was that? What did you say, and where did you learn it?' + +His manner frightened her; perhaps the bumble-bees were coming out, and +she drew back from him, forgetting entirely what she had said. + +'It was a German word,' he continued, 'and the accent is German, too; +can you speak it.' + +Unconsciously as he talked, he dropped into that language, and Jerry +listened intently, with a strained look on her face, as if trying to +recall something which came and went, but went more than it came, if +that could be. + +'I talked that once,' she said, 'when I lived with mamma; but she is +dead. Harold found her, and I put flowers on her grave.' + +Half the time she was speaking in German, or trying to, and Arthur +listened in amazement, while his interest in her deepened every moment, +as he took her through the rooms and showed her 'the marble people with +nothing on them,' and the beautiful pictures which adorned his walls. + +'How would you like to come and be my little girl?' he asked her at +last, when, remembering Harold and the cherries, she told him she must +go, and started toward the window as if she would make her egress as she +had come in. + +'Can Harold come, too? I can't leave Harold,' she said Then, as she +caught sight of him still standing at a distance, gazing curiously up at +the window through which she had disappeared, she called out, 'Yes +Harold; I'm coming. I have seen him and everything, and he did not hurt +me. Good-bye!' and she turned toward Arthur with a little nod. + +Then, before he could stop her, she sprang out upon the ladder, and went +down faster than she had come up, leaving the pail of cherries upon the +window-sill, and leaving, too, in Arthur's breast a tumult of emotions +which he could not define. + +That night, when Frank, who had heard in much alarm of Jerry's visit to +his brother, went up to see him, he found him more cheerful and natural +than he had seen him in weeks. As Frank expected, his first words were +of the little girl who had come to him through the window and left him +the cherries, of which he said he had eaten so many that he feared they +might make him sick. What did Frank know of the child? What had he +learned of her history? Of course he had made enquiries everywhere? + +It was just in the twilight, before the gas was lighted, and so Arthur +did not see how his brother's face flamed at first and then grew white +as he recapitulated what the reader already knows, dwelling at length +upon the enquiries he had made in New York, all of which had been +fruitless. There was the name Jerrine on the child's clothing, he said +and the initials 'N.B.' on that of her mother, who was evidently French, +although she must have come from Germany.' + +'Yes,' Arthur replied, 'the child is a German, and interests me greatly. +Her face and something in her voice has haunted me all the afternoon. +Was there nothing in that trunk or the carpet-bag which would be a +clue?' + +'Nothing,' Frank replied, although it seemed to him it was the shadow +speaking for him, or at least putting the lie into his mouth. There were +articles of clothing, all very plain, and a picture book printed at +Leipsic, I can get that for you if you like, though it tells nothing +unless it he that the mother lived in Leipsic.' + +Frank talked very rapidly, and laid so much stress on Leipsic, that +Arthur got an idea that Jerry had actually come from there, just as his +brother meant he should, and he began to speak of the town and recall +all he knew of it. + +'I was never there but once,' he said, 'for although I spent a great +deal of time in Germany, it was mostly in Heidleberg and Wiesbaden. Oh, +that is lovely,--Wiesbaden--and nights now, when I cannot sleep, I fancy +that I am there again, in the lovely park, and hear the music of the +band, and see the crowds of people strolling through the grounds, and I +am there with them, though apart from the rest, just where a narrow +path turns off from a bridge, and a seat is half hidden from view +behind the thick shrubberies. There I sit again with Gretchen, and feel +her hand in mine and her dear head on my arm. Oh, Gretchen--' + +There was a sob now in his voice, and he seemed to be talking to himself +rather than to his brother, who said to him: + +'Gretchen lived in Wiesbaden, then?' + +'Yes; but for heaven's sake pronounce it with a V, and not a W, and in +two syllables instead of three,' Arthur answered, pettishly, his ear +offended as it always was with a discordant sound or mispronounciation. + +'Veesbaden, then,' Frank repeated, understanding now why Jerry had +stumbled over the name when he once spoke it to her. + +Clearly she had come from Wiesbaden, where Gretchen had lived, and where +he believed she had died, though he did not tell Arthur so; he merely +said: + +'Gretchen was your sweetheart, I suppose?' + +But Arthur did not reply; he never replied to direct questions as to who +Gretchen was, but after a moment's silence, he said: + +'You speak of her as something past. Do you believe she is dead?' + +'Yes, I do,' was Frank's decided answer. You have never told me who she +was, though I have my own opinion on the subject, and I know that you +loved her very much, and if she loved you so much--' + +'She did--she did; she loved me more--far more than I deserved,' was +Arthur's vehement interruption. + +'Well, then,' Frank continued, 'if she did, and were living, she would +have come to you, or answered your letters, or sent you some messenger.' + +Frank's voice trembled here, and be seemed to see again the cold, still +face of the dead woman, whose lips, could they have spoken, might have +unlocked the mystery and brought a message from Gretchen' + +'True, true,' Arthur replied. 'She would have come or written. How long +is it since I came home?' + +'Four years next October,' Frank said. + +'Four years;' Arthur went on, 'is it so long as that? And it, was then +more than three years since I had seen her. Everything was blotted out +from my mind from the time that I entered that accursed _maison de +santé_ until I found myself in Paris. I am afraid she _is_ dead.' + +Just then Charles came in with lights and the chocolate his master +always took before retiring, and so Frank said good-night, and went out +upon the broad piazza, hoping the night air would cool his heated brow, +or that the laughter and prattle of Jack and Maude, who were frolicking +on the gravel walk, would drown the voice of the shadow which said to +him: + +'But for the number of years he says it is since he saw Gretchen, there +could be no doubt, and you would be the biggest rascal living. As it is, +you need not distress yourself--Jerry is nothing to him; and if she +were, you have gone too far now to go back. People would never respect +you again. And then there is Maude. You cannot disgrace her.' + +No, he could not disgrace his darling Maude, who, as if guessing that he +was thinking of her, came up the steps to his side, and seating herself +upon his lap, pushed the hair from his forehead with her soft fingers, +and kissed him lovingly as she was wont to do. + +'My beautiful Maude,' he thought, for he knew she would be beautiful, +with her black hair, and starry eyes, and brilliant complexion, and he +loved her with all the strength of his nature. To see her grow into +womanhood, admired and sought after by everyone, was the desire of his +heart, and as he believed that money was necessary to the perfect +fulfilment of his desire, for her sake he would carry his secret to the +grave. + +'Are you sick, papa?' Maude asked, looking into his pale face, on which +the moon shone brightly. + +'No, pet,' he answered, 'only tired. I am thinking of little Jerry +Crawford. She was here this afternoon,' + +'Yes, I saw her in the park with Harold. Isn't he handsome, papa? and +such a nice boy! so different from Tom,' said Maude, and then she went +on: 'Jerry is pretty too; prettier than I am; her hair curls and mine +doesn't, but her dress is so ugly--that old high apron and calico gown. +What makes her so poor and me so rich?' + +Mr. Tracy groaned inwardly, as he replied: + +'You are not rich, my child.' + +'Oh, yes, I am,' Maude said, 'I heard mamma tell Mrs. Brinsmade so. She +said Uncle Arthur was worth a million, and when he died we should have +it all, because he could not make a will if he wanted to, and he had no +children of his own,' + +Although little more than seven years old, Maude Tracy was very knowing +and precocious in some respects, and, like her brother Tom, had heard so +much from her mother and others of their prospective wealth, that she +understood the situation far better than she ought, and was already +counting on the thousands waiting for her when her uncle died. And yet +Maude Tracy had in her nature qualities which were to ripen into a noble +womanhood. Truthful and generous, her instincts of right and wrong were +very keen, and young as she was she had no respect for anything like +deception or trickery. This her father knew, and his bitterest pang of +remorse came from this thought, 'What would Maude say if she knew?' And +it was more for her sake he was sinning than for his own or that of any +other. She was so pretty, or would be when grown to young ladyhood, and +the adornments which money could bring would so well become her. + +'Maude,' he said at last, 'how would you like to change places with +Jerry? That is, let her come here and live, while we go away and be +poor; not quite as she is, but like many people.' + +'And not wear a sash, and beads, and buttoned boots every day?' Maude +interrupted him quickly. 'I should not like it at all. Why, Jerry +dresses herself, and wipes the dishes, and wears those big aprons all +the time. No, I don't want to be poor;' and as if something in her +father's mind had communicated itself to her, she raised her head from +his shoulder and looked beseechingly at him. + +'Nor shall you be poor, if I can help it,' he said; 'but you must be +very kind to Jerry, and never let her feel that you are richer than she. +Do you understand?' + +'I think I do,' Maude answered, adding as she kissed him fondly: 'And +now I s'pose I must go, for there is Hetty come for me; so, good-night, +you dearest, best papa in the world.' + +He knew that she believed in him fully; that should he confess his +fault she would understand it, and lose faith in him. He would bear the +burden, he said to himself. There should be no more repining or looking +back, Maude must never know; and so Jerry's chance was lost. + +The next morning Arthur awoke with a racking headache. He was accustomed +to it, it is true; but this one was particularly severe. + +'It's the cherries; no wonder; a quart of those sour things would turn +upside down any stomach,' Charles said, as he glanced at the empty tin +pail which was adorning an inlaid table, and then suggested a dose of +ipecac as a means of dislodging the offending cherries. + +But Arthur declined the medicine. His stomach was well enough, he said. +It was his head which ached, and nothing would help that like the touch +of the cool little hands he had held in his the previous day. Charles +must go for Jerry--go at once, for he wanted her, and as when Arthur +wanted a thing he wanted it immediately, Charles was soon on his way to +the cottage in the lane, where he found the little girl under a tall +lilac bush, busy with the mud pies she was making, and talking to +herself, partly in English and partly in broken German, which she had +resumed since visiting the park. + +'Seemed like something I had dreamed, when he talked like that, and I +could almost do it myself,' she said to Harold when describing the +particulars of her interview with Mr. Tracy, and her tongue fell +naturally into the language of her babyhood. + +On hearing Charles' errand, her delight was unbounded. + +'Iss. You'll let me go,' she cried, as she stood before Mrs. Crawford, +with the mud-spots on her hands and face; 'and you'll let me wear my +best gown now, and my white apron with the shoulder-straps, and my +morocco shoes, because this visiting.' + +As Mrs. Crawford could see no objection to the plan, Jerry was soon +dressed, and on her way to the Park House, which seemed to her to be a +very palace, and until the day before a place to be looked upon with +awe, and admired breathlessly at a distance. Indeed, she had sometimes, +when passing near the house, walked on tiptoe, as if on sacred ground, +and held back her humble dress lest it should harm a shrub or vine by +contact. But matters now were changed. She had been there, and was +going there again by special invitation from the master, and she tripped +along airily with a sense of dignity and importance unusual in one so +young. + +Mrs. Tracy, who seldom troubled herself with her brother-in-law's +affairs, knew nothing of his having sent for Jerry, and was surprised +when she saw her coming up the walk with Charles, whose manner indicated +that he knew perfectly what he was about. She had heard of Jerry's visit +on the previous day, and had wondered what Arthur could find in that +child to interest him, when he would never allow Maude in his room. She +knew nothing of the shadow which night and day was nearer to her husband +than she was herself, but she did not fancy Jerry, because of the three +dollars a week, which she felt was so much taken from herself. Why they +should be burdened with the support of the child, just because her +mother happened to be found dead upon their premises, she could not +understand. + +Had Jerry been older, she might, she said, have taken her into the +kitchen as maid of all work, for Dolly had reached a point where she +liked a great many servants in the household, and prided herself upon +employing more help than either Grace Atherton or Edith St. Claire. Only +that morning she had spoken to her husband of Jerry, and asked him how +long he proposed to support her. + +'Just as long as I have a dollar of my own, and she needs it,' was his +reply, as he left the room, slamming the door behind him and leaving her +to think him almost as crazy as his brother. + +Thus it was not in a very quiet frame of mind that she went out upon the +cool, broad piazza, and, taking one of the large willow chairs standing +there, began to rock back and forth and wonder what had so changed her +husband, making him silent and absent-minded, and even irritable at +times, as he had been that morning. Was there insanity in his veins as +well as in his brother's, and would her children inherit--her darling +Maude, of whom she was so proud, and who, she hoped, would some day be +the richest heiress in the county and marry Dick St. Claire, if, indeed, +she did not look even higher? + +It was at this point in her soliloquy that she saw Jerry coming up the +walk, her face glowing with excitement and her manner one of freedom and +assurance. + +Ascending the steps, Jerry nodded and smiled at the lady, whose +expression was not very inviting, and who, to the child's remark, 'I've +comed again,' answered, icily: + +'I see you have. Seems to me you come pretty often.' Turning to Charles, +Mrs. Tracy continued: + +'Why is she here again so soon? What does she want?' + +Quick to detect and interpret the meaning of the tones of a voice, and +hearing disapprobation in Mrs. Tracy's, Jerry's face was shadowed at +once, and she looked up entreatingly at Charles, who said: + +'Mr. Tracy sent me for her. She was with him yesterday, and he will have +her again to-day.' + +Then Jerry's face brightened, and she chimed in: + +'Iss, I'm visiting, I'm invited, and I'm going to stay to eat.' + +Mrs. Tracy dared not interfere with Arthur, even if he took Jerry to +live there altogether, and, with a bend of her head, she signified to +Charles that the conference was ended. + +'Come, Jerry,' Charles said; but Jerry held back a moment, and asked: + +'Where's Maude?' + +If Mrs. Tracy heard, she did not reply, and Jerry followed on after +Charles through the hall and up the broad staircase to the darkened room +where Arthur lay, suffering intense pain in the head, and moaning +occasionally. But he heard the patter of the little feet, for he was +listening for it, and when Jerry entered his room he raised himself upon +his elbow, and reaching the other hand toward her, said: + +'So you have come again, little Jerry; or, perhaps I should call you +little _Cherry_, considering how you first came to me. Would you like +that name?' + +'Iss,' was Jerry's reply, in the quick, half-lisping way which made the +monosyllable so attractive. + +'Well, then, Cherry,' Arthur continued, 'take off that bonnet, and open +the blind behind me so I can see your face. Then bring that stool and +sit where I can look at you while you rub my head with your hands. It +aches enough to split, and I believe the bumble bees are swarming; but +they can't get out, and if they could, they are the white-faced kind, +which never sting.' + +Jerry knew all about white-faced bumble-bees, for Harold had caught them +for her, and with this fear removed, she did as Arthur bade her, and was +soon seated at his side, rubbing his forehead, where the blue veins were +standing out full and round, and smoothing his hair caressingly with her +fingers, which seemed to have in them a healing power, for the pain and +heat grew less under their touch, and, after a while Arthur fell into a +quiet sleep. + +When he awoke, after half an hour or so, it was with a delicious sense +of rest and freedom from pain. Jerry had dropped the shades to shut out +the sunlight, and was walking on tiptoe round the room, arranging the +furniture and talking to herself in whispers, as she usually did when +playing alone. + +'Jerry,' Arthur said to her, and she was at his side in a moment, 'you +are an enchantress. The ache is all gone from my head, charmed away by +your hands. Now, come and sit by me again, and tell me all you know of +yourself before Harold found you. Where did you live? What was your +mother's name? Try and recall all you can.' + +Jerry, however, could tell him very little besides the Tramp House, and +the carpet-bag, and Harold letting her fall in the snow. Of the cold and +the suffering she could recall nothing, or of the journey from New York +in the cars. She did remember something about the ship, and her mother's +seasickness, but where she lived before she went to the ship she could +not tell. It was a big town, she thought, and there was music there, and +a garden, and somebody sick. That was all. Everything else was gone +entirely, except now and then when vague glimpses of something in the +past bewildered and perplexed her. Her pantomime of the dying woman and +the child had not been repeated for more than a year, for now her acting +always took the form of the tragedy in the Tramp House, with herself in +the carpet-bag and a lay figure dead beside her. But gradually, as +Arthur questioned her, the old memories began to come back and shape +themselves in her mind, and he said at last: + +'It was like this--playin' you was a sick lady and I was your nurse. I +can't think of her name, I guess I'll call her Manny. And there must be +a baby; that's me, only I can't think of my name.' + +'Call it Jerry, then,' Arthur suggested, both interested and amused, +though he did not quite understand what she meant. + +But he was passive in her hands, and submitted to have a big +handkerchief put over his head for a cap, to hold on his arm the baby +she improvised from a sofa-cushion of costly plush, around which she +arranged as a dress an expensive tablespread, tied with the rich cord +and tassel of his dressing-gown. + +'You must cry a great deal,' she said, 'and pray a great deal, and kiss +the baby a great deal, and I must scold you some for crying so much, and +shake the baby some in the kitchen for making a noise, because, you +know, the baby can walk and talk, and is me, only I can't be both at a +time.' + +She was not very clear in her explanations, but Arthur began to have a +dim perception of her meaning, and did what she bade him do, and rather +enjoyed having his face and hands washed with a wet rag, and his hair +brushed and _turled_, as she called it, even though the fingers which +_turled_ it sometimes made suspicious journeyings to her mouth. He cried +when she told him to cry; he coughed when she told him to cough; he +kissed the baby when she told him to kiss it; he took medicine from the +tin pail in the form of the cherry juice left there, and did not have to +make believe that it sickened him, as she said he must, for that was a +reality. But when she told him he must die, but pray first, he demurred, +and asked what he should say. Jerry hesitated a little. She knew that +her prayers were 'Our Father,' and 'Now I lay me,' but it seemed to her +that a person dying should say something else, and at last she replied: + +'I can't think what she did say, only a lot about _him_. There was a +_him_ somewhere, and I guess he was naughty, so pray for _him_, and the +baby--that's me--and tell Manny she must take me to Mecky,' + +'To whom?' Arthur asked, and she replied: + +'To Mecky, where he was, don't you know?' + +Arthur did not know, but he prayed for _him_, saying what she bade him +say--a mixture half English, half German. + +'There now, you are dead,' she said at last, as she closed his eyes and +folded his hand upon his chest, 'You are dead, and mustn't stir nor +breathe, no matter how awful we cry, Man-nee and I.' + +Kneeling down beside him, she began to cry so like that of two persons +that if Arthur had not known to the contrary, he would have sworn there +were two beside him, a woman and a child, the voice of the one shrill +and clear, and young, and frightened, the other older, and harsher, and +stronger, and both blending together in a most astonishing manner. + +'With a little practice she would make a wonderful ventriloquist,' +Arthur thought, as he watched her flitting about the room, talking to +unseen people and giving orders with regard to himself. + +Once Frank had witnessed a pantomine very similar to this, only then the +play had ended with the death, while now there was the burial, and when +Arthur moved a little and asked if he might get up, she laid her hand +quickly on his mouth, with a peremptory 'hush! you are dead and we must +bury you.' + +But here Jerry's memory failed her, and the funeral which followed was +an imitation of the one which had left the Park House three years +before, and which Arthur had watched from his window. Frank was there, +and his wife, and Peterkin, and Jerry imitated the voices of them all, +and when someone bade her kiss her mother she stooped and kissed +Arthur's forehead, and said: + +'Good-bye, mamma,' then throwing a thin tidy over his face, she +continued, 'Now, I am going to shut the coffin,' and as she worked at +the corners, as if driving down the screws, Arthur felt as if he were +actually being shut out from life, and light, and the world. + +To one of his superstitious tendencies the whole was terribly real, and +when at last she told him he was buried, and the folks had come back, +and he could get up, the sweat was standing upon his face and hands in +great drops, and he felt that he had in very truth been present at the +obsequies of some one, whose death had made an impression so strong upon +Jerry's mind that time had not erased it. There was in his heart no +thought of Gretchen, as there had been in Frank's when he was a +spectator at the play. He had no cause for suspicion, and thought only +of the child whose restlessness and activity were something appalling to +him. + +'Now, what shall we play next?' she asked, as he sat white and trembling +in his chair. + +'Oh, nothing, nothing,' he groaned, 'I cannot stand any more now.' + +'Well, then, you sit still, and I'll clean house; it needs it badly. +Such mud as that boy brings in I never saw, and I'm so lame, too!' Jerry +responded, and Arthur recognized Mrs. Crawford, whose tidiness and +cleanliness were proverbial, and for the next half hour he watched the +little actress as she limped around the room exactly as Mrs. Crawford +limped with her rheumatism, sweeping, dusting, and scolding a little, +both to Harold and Jerry, the latter of whom once retorted: + +'I would not be so cross as that if I had forty rheumatisses in my +laigs, would you, Harold?' + +But Harold only answered, softly: + +'Hush, Jerry I you should not speak so to grandmamma, and she so good to +us both, when we haven't any mother.' + +Arthur would have laughed, so perfect was the imitation of voice and +gesture, but at the mention of Harold's mother there came into his mind +a vision of sweet Amy Crawford, who had been his first love, and for +whose son he had really done so little. + +'Jerry,' he said, 'I guess you have cleaned house long enough. Wash your +hands and come to me.' + +She obeyed him, and looking into his face, said: + +'Now, what? can you play cat's cradle or casino?' + +'No; I want to talk to you of Harold. You love him very much?' + +'Oh, a hundred bushels--him and grandma, too.' + +'And he is very kind to you?' + +'Yes, I guess he is. He never talks back, and I am awful sometimes, and +once I spit at him, and struck him; but I was so sorry and cried all +night, and offered to give him my best doll 'cause it was the plaything +I loved most, and I went without my piece of pie so he could have two +pieces if he wanted,' Jerry said, her voice trembling as she made this +confession, which gave Arthur a better insight into her real character +than he had had before. + +Hasty, impulsive, repentant, generous, and very affectionate, he felt +sure she was, and he continued; + +'Does Harold go to school?' + +'Yes; and I too--to the district; but I hate it!' Jerry replied. + +'Why hate it?' Arthur asked. 'What is the matter with the district +school?' + +'Oh, it smells awful there sometimes when it is hot,' Jerry replied with +an upward turn to her nose. 'And the boys are so mean, some of them. +Bill Peterkin goes there and I can't bear him, he plagues me so. Wants +to kiss me. A-a-h, and says I am to be his wife, and he has got warts on +his thumb!' + +Jerry's face was sufficiently indicative of the disgust she felt for +Bill Peterkin with his warts, and leaning back in his chair, Arthur +laughed heartily, as he said: + +'And you do not like Bill Peterkin? Well, what boys do you like?' + +'Harold and Dick St. Claire,' was the prompt response, and Arthur +continued: + +'What would you have in place of the district school?' + +'A governess,' was Jerry's answer. 'Nina St. Claire has one, and Ann +Eliza Peterkin has one, and Maude Tracy has one.' + +Here Jerry stopped suddenly, as if struck with a new idea. + +'Why, Maude is your little girl, isn't she? You are her rich uncle, and +she is to have all your money when you die. I wish I was your little +girl.' + +She spoke the last very sadly, and something in the expression of her +face brought Gretchen to Arthur's mind, and his voice was choked as he +said to her: + +'I'd give half my fortune if you were my little girl.' + +Then laying his hand on her bright hair, he questioned her adroitly of +her life at the cottage, finding that it was a very happy one, and that +she had never known want, although Mrs. Crawford was unable to work as +she once had done, and was largely dependent upon the price for Jerry's +board, which Frank paid regularly. Of this, however, Jerry did not +speak. She only said: + +'Harold works in the furnace, and in folks' gardens, and does lots of +things for everybody, and once Bill Peterkin twitted him because he goes +to Mrs. Baker's sometimes after stuff for the pig, and Harold cried, and +I got up early the next morning and went after it myself and drew the +cart home. After that grandma wouldn't let Harold go for any more, so I +s'pose the pig will not weigh as much, I'm sorry, for I like sausage, +don't you?' + +Arthur hated it, but he did not tell her so, and she went on. + +'Harold studies awful hard, and wants to go to college. He is trying to +learn Latin and recites to Dick St. Claire; but grandma says it is +up-hill business. Oh, if I's only rich I'd give it all to Harold, and he +should get learning like Dick. Maybe I can work some time and earn some +money. I wish I could.' + +Arthur did not speak for a long time, but sat looking at the child whose +face now wore an old and troubled look. In his mind he was revolving a +plan which, with, his usual precipitancy, he resolved to carry into +effect at once. But he said nothing of it to Jerry, whose attention was +diverted by the entrance of Charles and the preparations for luncheon, +which on the little girl's account, was served with more care than +usual. + +Jerry, who had a great liking for everything luxurious, had taken tea +once or twice at Grassy Spring with Nina St. Claire, and had been +greatly impressed with the appointments of the table, prizing them more +even than the dainties for her to eat. But what she had seen there +seemed as nothing compared to this round Swiss table, with its colored +glass and rare china, no two pieces of which were alike. + +'Oh, it is just like a dream!' she cried, as she watched Charles' +movement and saw that there were two places laid. + +'Am I to sit down with you?' she said in an awe-struck voice, 'and in +that lovely chair? I am glad I wore my best gown. It won't dirty the +chair a bit.' + +But she took her pocket handkerchief and covered over the satin cushion +before she dared seat herself in the chair, which had once been brought +out for Gretchen, and in which she now sat down, dropping her head and +shutting her eyes a moment Then, as she heard no sound, she looked up +wonderingly, and asked: + +'Ain't you going to say "for Christ's Sake?" grandma does.' + +Arthur's face was a study with its mixed expression of surprise, +amusement, and self-reproach. He never prayed except it were in some +ejaculatory sentences wrung from him in his sore need, and the thought +of asking a blessing on his food had never occurred to him. But Jerry +was persistent. + +'You must say "for Christ's sake,"' she continued, and, with his weak +brain all in a muddle, Arthur began what he meant to be a brief +thanksgiving, but which stretched itself into a lengthy prayer, fall of +the past and of Gretchen, whom he seemed to be addressing rather than +his Maker. + +For a while Jerry listened reverently; then she looked up and moved +uneasily in the chair, and at last when the prayer had continued for at +least five minutes, she burst out impulsively: + +'Oh, dear, do say "amen." I am so hungry!' + +That broke the spell, and with a start Arthur came to himself, and said: + +'Think you, Jerry, praying is a new business for me, and I do believe I +should have gone on forever if you had not stopped me. Now, what will +you have?' + +He helped her to whatever she liked best, but could eat scarcely +anything himself. It was sufficient for him to watch Jerry sitting there +in Gretchen's chair and using Gretchen's plate, which every day for so +many years had been laid for her. Gretchen had not come. She would never +come, he feared, but with Jerry he did not feel half as desolate as when +alone, with only his morbid fancies for company. And he must have her +there, at least a portion of the time. His mind was made up on that +point, and when about four o'clock, Jerry said to him: + +'I want to go now. Grandma said I was to be home by five,' she replied: + +'Yes, I am going with you. I wish to see your grandmother. I am going to +drive you in the phaeton. How would you like that?' + +Her dancing eyes told him how she would like it, and Charles was sent to +the stable with an order to have the little pony phaeton brought round +as soon as possible as he was going for a drive. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +ARTHUR'S PLAN + + +'Why, the madam is going to drive, too, and I've come to harness; +there'll be a row somewhere,' John said. + +'Can't help it,' Charles replied, 'Mr. Arthur wants the phaeton, and +will have it for all of Madam.' + +'Yes, I s'p'o' so. Wall, I'll go and tell her,' was John's rejoinder, as +he started for the house, where Mrs. Tracy was just drawing on her long +driving gloves, and admiring her new hat and feather before the glass. + +Dolly looked almost as young, and far prettier, than when the came to +the park, eleven years before. A life of luxury suited her. She had +learned to take things easily, and the old woman with the basket might +now come every day to her kitchen door without her knowing it. She aped +Mrs. Atherton of Brier Hill, in everything, and had the satisfaction of +knowing that she was on all occasions quite as stylish-looking and +well-dressed as that aristocratic lady whom she called her intimate +friend. She had also grown very proud and very exclusive in her ideas, +and when poor Mrs. Peterkin, who was growing, too, with _her_ million, +ventured to call at the park, the call was returned with a card which +Doily's coachman left at the door. Since the night of her party, and the +election which followed when Frank was defeated, she had ignored the +Peterkins, and laughed at what she called their vulgar imitation of +people above them, and when she heard that Mary Jane hail hired a +governess for her two children, Bill and Ann Eliza, she scoffed at the +airs assumed by _come-up_ people, and wondered if Mrs. Peterkin had +forgotten that she was one of Grace Atherton's hired girls. Dolly had +certainly forgotten the Langley life, and was to all intents and +purposes the great lady of the park, who held herself aloof from the +common herd, and taught her children to do the same. + +She had seen Jerry enter the house that morning with a feeling of +disapprobation, which had not diminished as the day wore on and still +the child staid, and what was worse, Maude was not sent for to join her. + +'Not that I would have allowed it, if she had been,' she said to +herself, for she did not wish her daughter intimate with one of whose +antecedents nothing was known, but Arthur might at least have invited +her. He had never noticed her children much, and this she deeply +resented. Maude, who knew of Jerry's presence in the house had cried to +go in and play with her, but Mrs. Tracy had refused, and promised as an +equivalent a drive in the phaeton around the town. And it was for this +drive Dolly was preparing herself, when John came with the message that +she could not have the phaeton, as Mr. Arthur was going to take Jerry +home in it. + +Usually Arthur's slightest wish was a law in the household, for that was +Frank's order; but on this occasion Dolly felt herself justified in +rebelling. + +'Not have the phaeton! That's smart, I must say,' she exclaimed. 'Can't +that child walk home, I'd like to know? Tell Mr. Tracy Maude has had the +promise of a drive all day, and I am ready, with my things on. Ask him +to take the Victoria; he never drives.' + +All this in substance was repeated to Arthur, who answered, quietly: + +'Let Mrs. Tracy take the victoria. I prefer the phaeton myself.' + +That settled it, and in few moments Jerry was seated at Arthur's side, +and skimming along through the park, and out upon the highway which +skirted the river for miles. + +'This is not going home, and grandma will scold,' Jerry said. + +'Never mind the grandma--I will make it right with her. I am going to +show you the country,' Arthur replied, as he chirruped to the fleet pony +who seemed to fly along the smooth road. + +No one who saw the tall, elegant-looking man, who sat so erect, and +handled the reins so skilfully, would ever have suspected him of +insanity, and more than one stopped to gaze after him and the little +girl whose face, with the golden hair blowing about it, looked out from +the white sun bonnet with so joyous an expression. On the homeward route +they met the victoria, with John upon the box, and Mrs. Tracy and Maude +inside. + +'There's Maude! Hallo, Maude--see me! I'm riding!' Jerry called out, +cheerily, while Maude answered back: + +'Hallo, Jerry!' + +But Mrs. Tracy gave no sign of recognition, and only rebuked her +daughter for her vulgarity in saying 'Hallo,' which was second class and +low. + +'Then Nina St. Claire is second class and low, for she says "Hallo,"' +was Maude's reply, to which her mother had no answer. + +Meanwhile the phaeton was going swiftly on toward the cottage, which it +reached a few minutes after the furnace whistle blew for six, and +Harold, who had been working there, came up the lane. There were soiled +spots on his hands and on his face, and his clothes showed marks of +toil, all of which Arthur noted, while he was explaining to Mrs. +Crawford that he had taken Jerry for a drive, and kept her beyond the +prescribed hour. Then, turning to Harold, he said: + +'And so you work in the furnace?' + +'Yes, sir, during vacation, when I can get a job there,' Harold +answered, and Mr. Tracy continued: + +'How much do you get a day?' + +'Fifty cents in dull times,' was the reply, and Arthur went on: + +'Fifty cents from seven in the morning to six at night, and board +yourself. A magnificent sum truly. Pray, how do you manage to spend so +much? You must be getting rich.' + +The words were sarcastic, but the tone belied the words, and Harold was +about to speak, when his grandmother interrupted him, and said, + +'What he does not spend for us he puts aside. He is trying to save +enough to go to the High School, but it's slow work. I can do but little +myself, and it all falls upon Harold.' + +'But I like it, grandma. I like to work for you and Jerry, and I have +almost twenty dollars saved,' Harold said, 'and in a year or two I can +go away to school, and work somewhere for my board. Lots of boys do +that.' + +Arthur was hitching his pony to the fence, while a new idea was dawning +in his mind. + +'Fifty cents a day,' he said to himself, 'and he has twenty dollars +saved, and thinks himself rich. Why, I've spent more than that on one +bottle of wine, and here is this boy, Amy's son, wanting an education, +and working to support his grandmother like a common laborer. I believe +I _am_ crazy.' + +He was in the cottage by this time--in the clean, cool kitchen where the +supper table was laid with its plain fair, most unlike the costly viands +which daily loaded his board. + +'Don't wait for me, Harold must be hungry,' he said, adding quickly: 'Or +stay, if you will permit me, I will take a cup of tea with you. The +drive has given me an appetite, and your tea smells very inviting.' + +It was a great honor to have Arthur Tracy at her table, and Mrs. +Crawford felt it as such, and was very sorry, too, that she had nothing +better to offer him than bread and butter and radishes, with milk, and a +dish of cold beans, and chopped beets, and a piece of apple pie saved +for Harold from dinner. But she made him welcome, and Jerry, delighted +to return the hospitality she had received, brought him a clean plate +and cup and saucer, and asked if she might get the best sugar-bowl and +the white sugar. Then, remembering the beautiful flowers which had +adorned the table at Tracy Park, she ran out and gathering a bunch of +June pinks, put them in a little glass by his plate. + +When all was ready and they had taken their seats at the table, Mrs. +Crawford closed her eyes reverently and asked the accustomed blessing +which in that house preceded every meal. Jerry's amen was a good deal +louder and more emphatic than usual, while she nodded her head to +Arthur, with an expression which he understood to mean, 'You know now +what you ought to say, instead of that long prayer,' and he nodded back +that he did so understand it. + +Arthur enjoyed the supper immensely, or pretended that he did. He ate +three slices of bread and butter; he drank three cups of tea; he even +tried the beans and the beets, but declined the radishes, which, he +said, would give him the nightmare. + +When supper was over and the table cleared away, he still showed no +signs of going, but asking Mrs. Crawford to take a seat near him, he +plunged at once into the business which had brought him there, and +which, since he had seen Harold in his working-dress and heard what he +was trying to do, had grown to be of a two-fold nature. He was very +lonely, he said, and all the elegance and luxuriousness of his handsome +house failed to give him pleasure or to make him forget the past. He +wanted some one to love who would love him in return, and the little +taste he had had of Jerry's society had made him wish for more, and he +must have her with him a part at least of every day. + +'In short,' he said, 'I should like to undertake her education myself +until she is older, when I shall see that she has the proper finishing. +She tells me she hates the district school, with Bill Peterkin and his +warts--' + +'Trying to kiss me,' Jerry interrupted, as open-eyed and open-mouthed, +she stood, with her hand on his shoulder, listening to him. + +'Yes, trying to kiss you, though I do not blame him much for that,' +Arthur said, with a smile, and then continued: 'She is ambitious enough +to want a governess like Ann Eliza Peterkin and my brother's daughter, +but I am better than a dozen governesses. I can teach her all the +rudiments of an English education, with French and German, and Latin, +too, if she likes; and my plan is, that she come to me every day except +Saturdays and Sundays--come at ten in the morning, get her lessons and +her lunch with me, and return home at four in the afternoon. Would you +like it, Cherry?' + +'Oh-h-oh!' was all the answer Jerry could make for a moment, but her +cheeks were scarlet, and tears of joy stood in her eyes, until she +glanced at Harold; then all the brightness faded from her face, for how +could she accept this great good and leave him to drudge and toil alone? + +'What is it, Cherry?' Mr. Tracy asked; and, with a half sob, she +replied: + +'I can't go without Harold. If I get learning, he must get learning, +too,' and leaving Arthur, the crossed over to the boy, and putting her +arm around him, looked up at him with a look which in after years he +would have given half his life to win. + +She was a little girl now and did not care if he did know how much she +loved him, and that for him she would sacrifice everything. But in this +case the sacrifice was not required, for Arthur hastened to say: + +'I shall not forget Harold. I have something better in store for him +than reciting his lessons to me. When the High School opens in +September, he is going there, and if he does well he shall go to +Andover in time, and perhaps to Harvard. It will all depend upon +himself, and how he improves his opportunities. What! crying? Don't you +like it?' Arthur asked, as he saw the great tears gathering in Harold's +eyes and rolling down his cheeks. + +'Yes, oh, yes; but it don't seem real, and--and--I guess it makes me +kind of sick,' Harold gasped, as, freeing himself from Jerry's +encircling arm, he hurried from the room, to think over this great and +unexpected joy which had come so suddenly to him. + +With his naturally refined tastes and instincts the dirty furnace work +had not been pleasant to him, and he had shrunk with inexpressible +loathing from the swill cart and the other menial duties he had been +obliged to perform for the sake of those he loved. How to get an +education was the problem he was earnestly trying to solve, and lo! it +was now solved for him. For a moment the suddenness of the thing +overcame him, and he sat down upon a table in the yard, faint and +bewildered, while Arthur made his plan clear to Mrs. Crawford, saying +that what he meant to do was partly for Jerry's sake and partly for the +sake of the young girl who had been his early love. + +'I always intended to take care of you,' he said; 'but things go from my +mind, and I forget the past as completely as if it had never been. But +this will stay by me, for I shall have Cherry as a reminder, and if I am +in danger of forgetting she will jog my memory.' + +Fur a moment Mrs. Crawford could not speak, so great was her surprise +and joy that the good she had thought unattainable was to be Harold's at +last. And yet something in her proud, sensitive nature rebelled against +receiving so much from a stranger, even if that stranger were Arthur +Tracy. It seemed like charity, she said, when at last she spoke at all. +But Arthur overruled her with that persuasive way he had of converting +people to his views; and when at last he left the cottage it was with +the understanding that Jerry should commence her lessons with him the +first week in September, and that Harold should enter the High School in +Shannondale when it opened in the autumn. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +THE WORKING OF ARTHUR'S PLAN. + + +As Arthur was wholly uncommunicative with regard to his affairs, and as +Mrs. Crawford kept her own counsel, and bade Harold and Jerry do the +same, the Tracys knew nothing whatever of the plan until the September +morning when Jerry presented herself at the park house, and was met in +the door-way by Mrs. Frank, who was just going out. Very few could have +resisted the bright little face, so full of childish happiness, or the +clear, assured voice, which said so cheerily: + +'Good-morning, Mrs. Tracy. I'm come to school.' + +But, prejudiced as she was against the girl, Mrs. Tracy could resist any +thing, and she answered, haughtily; + +'Come to school! What do you mean? This is not a school-house, and if +you have any errand here, go round to the other door. Only company come +in here.' + +'But I'm company. I'm going to get learning; he told me to come,' Jerry +answered, flushed and eager, and altogether sure of her right to be +there. + +Before Mrs. Frank could reply, a voice, distinct and authoritative, and +to which she always yielded, called from the top of the stairway inside: + +'Mrs. Tracy, if that is Jerry to whom you are talking, send her up at +once. I am waiting for her.' + +Jerry did not mean the nod she gave the lady as she passed her to be +disrespectful, but Mrs. Frank felt it as such, and went to her own room +in a most perturbed state of mind, for which she could find no vent +until her husband came in, when she stated the case to him, and asked if +he knew what it meant. + +But Frank was as ignorant as herself, and could not enlighten her until +that night, after he had seen his brother, and heard from him what he +was intending to do. + +'God bless you, Arthur. You don't know how happy you have made me,' +Frank said, feeling on the instant that a great burden was lifted from +his mind. + +Jerry was to be educated and cared for, and would probably receive all +that the world would naturally concede to her if the truth were known. +He believed, or thought he did, that Gretchen had never been his +brother's wife, though to believe so seemed an insult to the original of +the sweet face which looked at him from the window every time he entered +his brother's room. Jerry was a great trouble to him, and he would not +have liked to confess to any one how constantly she was in his mind, or +how many plans he had devised in order to atone for the wrong he knew he +was doing her. And now his brother had taken her off his hands, and she +was to be cared for and receive the education which would fit her to +earn her own livelihood, and make her future life respectable. No +particular harm was done her after all, and he might now enjoy himself, +and cast his morbid fancies to the winds, he reflected, as he went +whistling to his wife's apartment, and told her what he had heard. + +For a moment Dolly was speechless with astonishment, and when at last +she opened her lips, her husband silenced her with that voice and manner +of which she was beginning to be afraid. + +It was none of their business, he said, what Arthur did in his own +house, provided they were not molested, and if he chose to turn +schoolmaster, he had a right to do so. For his part, he was glad of it, +as it saved him the expense of Jerry's education, for if Arthur had not +taken it in hand, he should; and Dolly was to keep quiet and let the +child come and go in peace. + +After delivering himself of these sentiments, Frank went away, leaving +his wife to wonder, as she had done more than once, if he, too, were not +a little crazy, like his brother. But, she said no mare about Jerry's +coming there, except to suggest that she might at least come in at the +side door instead of the front, especially on muddy days when she was +liable to soil the costly carpets. And Jerry, who cared but little how +she entered the house, if she only got in, came through the kitchen +after the second day, and wiped her feet upon the mat; and once, when +her shoes were worse than usual, took them off, lest they should leave a +track. + +It is not our intention to linger over the first few months of Jerry's +school days at Tracy Park, but rather to hasten on to the summer four +years after her introduction to Tracy Park as Arthur's pupil. During all +that time he had never once seemed to grow weary of the task he had +imposed upon himself, but, on the contrary, his interest had daily +deepened in the child who developed so rapidly under his training that +he sometimes looked at her in astonishment, marvelling more and more who +she was and from whom she had inherited her wonderful memory and power +to grasp points which are usually far beyond the comprehension of a +child of ten, or even twelve, and which Maude Tracy could no more have +mastered than her brother, the stupid Jack. His intellect had not grown +with his body, and when at thirteen he was asked the question, 'If there +are five peaches on the table, and Tom eats three of them, how many will +there be left?' he answered, promptly: + +'None, 'cause Tom would eat them all.' + +In this reply there was a shrewdness which poor Jack never intended, and +the laugh which followed his answer confused and bewildered him. There +was a tutor now at Tracy Park for Jack, but Maude had been transferred +to Arthur's care. This was wholly due to Jerry, who alone could have +induced him to let Maude share her instruction. Arthur did not care for +Maude. She was dull, he said, and would never learn her lessons. But +Jerry coaxed so hard that Arthur consented at last, and when Jerry had +been with him about three years, Maude became his pupil, and that of +Jerry as well, for nearly every day when the lessons were over the two +little girls might have been seen sitting together under the trees in +the park, or in some corner of the house, Maude puzzled, and perplexed, +and worried, and Jerry anxious, decided, and peremptory, as she went +over and over again with what was so clear to her and so hazy to her +friend. + +'Oh, dear me, suz, what does ail you?' she said, one day, with a stamp +of her foot, after she had tried in vain to make Maude see through a +simple sum in long division. 'Can't you remember first to divide, second +multiply, third subtract, and fourth bring down?' + +'No, I can't. I can't remember anything, and if I could, how do I know +what to divide or what to bring down? I am stupid, and shall never know +anything,' was Maude's sobbing reply, as she covered her face with her +slate. + +Maude's tears always moved Jerry, who tried to reassure the weeping girl +with the assurance that perhaps, if she tried very hard, she might some +time know enough to teach a district school. This was the height of +Jerry's ambition, to teach a district school and board around; but +Maude's aspirations were different. She was rich. She was to be a belle +and wear diamonds and satins like her mother; and so it did not matter +so much whether she understood long division or not, though it did hurt +her a little to be so far outstripped by Jerry, who was younger than +herself. + +To Arthur, Jerry was a constant delight and surprise, and nothing +astonished or pleased him more than the avidity with which she took up +German. This language was like play to her, and by the time she was ten +years old she spoke, and read, and wrote it almost as well as Arthur +himself. + +'It takes me back somewhere, I can't tell where,' she said to him; 'and +I seem to be somebody else than Jerry Crawford, and I hear music and see +people, and a pale face is close to me, and I get all confused trying to +remember things which come and go.' + +Only once after her first day at the park had she enacted the pantomime +of the sick woman and the nurse, and then she had done it at Arthur's +request. But it was not quite as thrilling as at first; the _him_ for +whom the dying woman had prayed was omitted, and the whole was mixed +with the Tramp House, and the carpet-bag, and Harold, who was now a +youth of seventeen, and a student at the high school in Shannondale, +where he was making as rapid progress in his studies as Jerry was at the +park. + +But Harold's life was not as serene and happy as Jerry's, for it was not +pleasant for him to hear, as he often did, that he was a charity +student, supported by Arthur Tracy. Such remarks were very galling to +the high-spirited boy, and he was constantly revolving all manner of +schemes by which he could earn money and cease to be dependent. All +through the summer vacations, which were long ones, he worked at +whatever he could find to do, sometimes in people's gardens, sometimes +on their lawns, but oftener in the hay-fields, where he earned the +most. Here Jerry was not infrequently his companion. She liked to rake +hay, she said; it came natural to her, and she had no doubt she +inherited the taste from her mother, who had probably worked in the +fields in Germany. + +One afternoon, when Jerry knew that Harold was busy in one of Mr. +Tracy's meadows, she started to join him, for he had complained of a +headache at home, and had expressed a fear that he might not be able to +finish the task he had imposed upon himself. The road to the field was +by the Tramp House, which looked so cool and quiet, with its thick +covering of woodbine and ivy over it, that Jerry turned aside for a +moment to look into the room which had so great a fascination for her, +and where she spent so much time. Indeed, she seldom passed near it +without going in for a moment and standing by the old table which had +once held her and her dead mother. Things came back to her there, she +said, and she could almost give a name to the pale-faced woman who +haunted her so often. + +As she entered the damp, dark place now, she started, with an +exclamation of surprise, which was echoed by another, as Frank Tracy +sprang up and confronted her. It was not often that he entered the Tramp +House, and he would not have confessed to any one his superstitious +dread of it, or that, when he did visit it, he always had a feeling that +the dead woman found there years ago would start up to accuse him of his +deceit and hypocrisy. Could he have had his way he would have pulled the +building down, but it was not his, and when he suggested it to Arthur, +as he sometimes did, the latter opposed it, saying latterly, since Jerry +had been so much to him: + +'No, no, Frank; let it stand. I like it, because but for it Jerry might +have perished with her mother, and I should not have had her with me.' + +So the Tramp House stood, and grew damper and mustier each year, as the +moss and ivy gathered on the walls outside, and the dust and cobwebs +gathered on the walls within. These, however, Jerry was careful to brush +away, for she had a play house in one corner, and a little work-bench +and chair, and she often sat there alone and talked to herself, and the +woman dead so long ago, and to others whose faces were dim and shadowy, +but whom she had felt sure she had known. Very frequently she went +through the process of cleaning up, as she called it, and her object in +stopping there now was, in part, to see if it did not need her care +again. + +'Oh, Mr. Tracy! are you here! How you scared me? I thought it was a +tramp!' she said, as he came toward her. + +'Do you come here often?' he asked, as he offered her his hand. + +'Yes, pretty often. I like it, because mother died here, and sometimes I +feel as if she would make it known to me here who she was. I talk to her +and ask her to tell me, but she never has. Oh, don't you wish she +would?' + +Frank shuddered involuntarily, for to have Jerry told who she really +was, was the last thing he could desire, but as a criminal is said +always to talk about the crime he has committed and is hiding, so Frank, +when with Jerry, felt impelled to talk with her of the past and what she +could remember of it. Seating himself upon the bench with her at his +side, he said: + +'And you really believe the woman found here was your mother?' + +'Why, yes. Don't you? Who was my mother, if she wasn't?' and Jerry's +eyes opened wide as he looked at him. + +'I don't know, I am sure. Does my brother talk of Gretchen now?' was the +abrupt reply. + +'Yes, at times,' Jerry answered: 'and yesterday, after I sang him a +little German song, which he taught me, he had them pretty bad--the bees +in his head, I mean: that is what he calls it when things are mixed; and +he says he is going to write to her, or her friends.' + +'Write to her! I thought he had given that up. I thought he--Did he say, +"Write to her friends?"' Frank gasped as he felt himself grow cold and +sick with this threatened danger. + +Arthur had seemed so quiet and happy with Jerry, and had said so little +of Gretchen, that Frank had grown quite easy in his mind, and the black +shadow of fear did not trouble him quite so much as formerly. But now it +was over him again, and grew in intensity as he questioned the child. + +'Have you ever tried to find out who Gretchen is?' he asked at last. + +'No,' she replied, 'but I guess she is his wife.' + +'Yes,' Frank said, falteringly, 'his wife; and where do you think she +lived?' + +'Oh, I know that. In Wiesbaden. He told me so once, and it seems as if I +had been there, too, when he talked about it, and I hear the music and +see the flowers, and a white-faced woman is with me, not at all like +mother, who, they say, was ugly and dark; black as a nigger, Tom told me +once, when he was mad. Was she black?' + +Mr. Tracy made no reply to this, but said, suddenly: + +'Jerry, do you like me well enough to do me a favor, a great favor?' + +'Why, yes, I guess I do. I like you very much, though not as well as I +do Harold and Mr. Arthur. What do you want?' was Jerry's answer. + +After hesitating a moment, Mr. Tracy began: + +'There are certain reasons why I ought to know if my brother writes to +Gretchen, or her friends, or any one in Germany, especially Wiesbaden. A +letter of that kind might do me a great deal of harm; if he should write +to any one in Germany, you would, perhaps, he asked to post the letter, +as he never goes to town?' + +He said this interrogatively, and Jerry answered him promptly: + +'I think he would give it to me.' + +'Yes, well; Jerry, can you keep a secret, and never tell any one what I +am saying to you?' was Frank's next remark, to which Jerry responded: + +'I think I should tell Harold, and, perhaps, Mr. Arthur.' + +'No, no, no, Jerry, never!' and Frank laid his hand half menacingly upon +the little girl's shoulder. 'I have been kind to you, have paid your +board to Mrs. Crawford ever since you have been there--' + +He felt how mean it was to say this, and do not at all resent Jerry's +quick reply: + +'Yes, but Mrs. Peterkin says you do not pay enough.' + +'Perhaps not,' he continued, 'but if Mrs. Crawford is satisfied, it +matters little what Mrs. Peterkin thinks. Jerry, you _must_ do this for +me,' he went on rapidly, as his fears kept growing. 'You must never tell +anyone of our conversation, and if my brother writes that letter soon, +or at any time, you must bring it to me. Will you do it? Great harm +would come if it were sent--harm to me, and harm to Maude, and--' + +'To Maude!' Jerry replied. 'I would do anything for Maude. Yes, I will +bring the letter to you if he writes one. You are sure it would be right +for me to do so?' + +Frank had touched the right cord when he mentioned his daughter's name, +for during these years of close companionship the two little girls had +learned to love each other devotedly, though naturally Jerry's was the +stronger and less selfish attachment of the two. To her Maude was a +queen who had a right to tyrannize over and command her if she pleased; +and as the tyranny was never very severe, and was usually followed by +some generous act of contrition, she did not mind it at all, and was +always ready to make up and be friends whenever it suited the capricious +little lady. + +'Yes, I will do it for Maude,' she said again; but there was a troubled +look on her face, and a feeling in her heart as if, in some way, she was +false to Arthur in thus consenting to his brother's wishes. + +But, she reflected, Arthur was crazy, so people said, and she herself +knew better than anyone else of his many fanciful vagaries, which, at +times, took the form of actual insanity. For weeks he would seem +perfectly rational, and then suddenly his mood would change, and he +would talk strange things to himself and the child, who was now so +necessary to him, and who alone had a soothing influence over him. Only +the day before, as Jerry had told Frank, Arthur had been unusually +excited, after listening to a simple air which he had taught to her, and +which, at his request, she sang to him after Maude had gone out and left +them alone. + +'I could swear you were Gretchen, singing to me in the twilight, and +across the meadow comes the tinkle of the bells where the cows and goats +are feeding,' he said to her, as he paced up and down the room.' + +Then, stopping suddenly, he went up to her, and pushing her soft, wavy +hair from her forehead, looking long and earnestly into her face. + +'Cherry,' he said at last, using the pet name he often gave her, 'you +_are_ some like Gretchen as she must have been when of your age. Oh, if +you only were hers and mine! But there was no child; and yet--and yet--' + +He seemed to be thinking intently for a moment, and then going to a +drawer in his writing desk, which Jerry had never seen open before, he +took out a worn, yellow letter, and ran his eye rapidly over it until he +found a certain paragraph, which he bade Jerry read. + +The paragraph was as follows: + +'I have something to tell you when you come, which I am sure will make +you as glad as I am.' + +Jerry read it aloud slowly, for the handwriting was cramped and +irregular, and then looked up questioningly to Arthur, who said to her: + +'What do you think she meant by the something which would make me glad +as she was?' + +'I don't know,' Jerry answered him. 'Who wrote it? Gretchen?' + +'Yes, Gretchen; it is her last letter to me, and I never went back to +see what she meant, for the bees were bad in my head and I forgot +everything, even Gretchen herself. Poor little Gretchen! What was the +idea which came to me like a flash of lightning, in regard to this +letter, when I heard you sing? It is gone, and I cannot recall it.' + +There was a worried, anxious look on his face as he put the letter away, +and went on talking to himself of Gretchen, saying he was going to write +her again, or her friends, and find out what she meant. + +The next day Jerry met Frank in the Tramp House, as we have described, +and gave him the promise to bring him any letter directed to Germany +which Arthur might entrust to her. But the promise weighed heavily upon +her as she walked slowly on towards the field where Harold was at work, +and where she found him resting for a moment under the shadow of a +wide-spreading butternut. He looked tired and pale, and there were great +drops of sweat upon his white forehead, and an expression on his face +which Jerry did not understand. + +Harold was not in a very happy frame of mind. Naturally cheerful and +hopeful, it was not often that he gave way to fits of despondency, or +repining at his humble lot, so different from that of the boys of his +own age, with whom he came in daily contact, both at school and in the +town. + +Dick St. Claire, his most intimate friend, always treated him as if he +were fully his equal, and often stood between him and the remarks which +boys made thoughtlessly, and which, while they mean so little, wound to +the quick such sensitive natures as Harold's. But not even Dick St. +Claire could keep Tom Tracy in check. With each succeeding year he grew +more and more supercilious and unbearable, pluming himself upon his +position as a Tracy of Tracy Park, and this wealth he was to inherit +from his Uncle Arthur. For the last year he had been at Andover, where +he had formed a new set of acquaintances, one of whom was spending the +vacation with him. This was young Fred Raymond, whose home was at Red +Stone Hall, in Kentucky, and whose parents were in Europe. Between the +two youths there was but little similarity of taste or disposition, for +young Raymond represented all that was noble and true, and though proud +of his State and proud of his name, never assumed the slightest +superiority over those whom the world considered his inferiors. He was +Tom's room-mate, and hence the intimacy between them which had resulted +in Fred's accepting the invitation to Tracy Park. If anything had been +wanting to complete Tom's estimate of his own importance this visit of +the Kentuckian would have done it. All his former friends were cut +except Dick St. Claire, while Harold was as much ignored as if he had +never existed. Tom did not even see him or recognize him with so much as +a look, but passed him by as he would any common day laborer whom he +might chance to meet. All through the summer days, while Harold was +working until every bone in his body ached, Tom and his friend were +enjoying themselves in hunting, fishing, driving, or rowing, or lounging +under the trees in the shady lawns. + +That afternoon when Jerry joined him in the hayfield, Tom and the +Kentuckian had passed him in their fanciful hunting-suits with their +dogs and guns, but though Harold was within a few yards of them, Tom +affected not to see him, and kept his head turned the other way, as if +intent upon some object in the distance. + +Leaning upon his rake, Harold watched them out of sight, with a choking +sensation in his throat as he wondered if it would always be thus with +him, and if the day would never come when he, too, could know what +leisure meant, with no thought for the morrow's bread. + +'I am Tom's superior in everything but money, and yet he treats me like +a dog,' he said, as he seated himself upon the grass, where he sat +fanning himself with his straw hat. + +When Jerry appeared in view he brightened at once, for in all the world +there was not anything half so sweet and lovely to him as the little +blue-eyed girl who seated herself beside him, and, nestling close to +him, laid her curly head upon his arm. + +'I've come to help you rake the hay,' she said, 'for grandma told me you +had a headache at noon, and couldn't eat your huckleberry pie. I am +awfully sorry, Harold, but I ate it myself, it looked so good, instead +of saving it for your supper. It was nasty and mean in me, and I hope it +will make me sick.' + +But Harold told her he did not care for the pie, and would rather that +she would eat it if she liked it. Then he questioned her of the park +house and of Arthur; asking if the bees were often in his head now, or +had she driven them out. + +'No, I guess I haven't. They were awful yesterday and to-day,' Jerry +replied. 'He was talking of Gretchen all the time. I wonder who she was. +Sometimes I look at her until it seems to me I have seen her or +something like her, a paler face with sadder eyes. How he must have +loved her, better than you or I could ever love anybody; don't you think +so?' + +Harold hesitated a moment, and then replied: + +'I don't know, but it seems to me I love you as much as a man could ever +love another.' + +'Phoo! Of course you do; but that's boy love; that isn't like when you +are old enough to have a beau!' and Jerry laughed merrily, as she sprang +up, and, taking Harold's rake, began to toss the hay about rapidly, +bidding him sit still and see how fast she could work in his place. + +Harold was very tired, and his head was aching badly, so for a time he +sat still, watching the graceful movements of the beautiful child, who, +it seemed to him, was slipping away from him. Constant intercourse with +a polished man like Arthur Tracy had not been without its effect upon +her, and there was about her an air which with strangers would have +placed her at once above the ordinary level of simple country girls. +This Harold had been the first to detect, and though he rejoiced at +Jerry's good fortune, there was always with him a dread lest she should +grow beyond him, and that he should lose the girl he loved so much. + +'What if she should think me a clown and a clodhopper, as Tom Tracy +does?' he said to himself, as he watched her raking up the hay faster, +and quite as well as he could have done himself. 'I believe I should +want to die.' + +It was impossible that Jerry should have guessed the nature of Harold's +thoughts, but once, as she passed near him, she dropped her rake, and +going up to him, wiped his forehead with her apron, and, kissing him +fondly, said to him: + +'Poor, tired boy, is your head awful? You look as if you wanted to +vomit? Do you?' + +'No, Jerry,' Harold answered, laughingly. 'I am not as bad as that. I +was only thinking and wishing that I were rich and could sometime give +you and grandma a home as handsome as Tracy Park. How would you like +it?' + +'First-rate, if you were there,' Jerry replied; 'but if you were not I +shouldn't like it at all. I never mean to live anywhere without you; +because, you know, I am your little girl, the one you found in the +carpet-bag, and I love you more than all the world, and will love and +stand by you forever and ever, amen!' + +She said the last so abruptly, and it sounded so oddly, that Harold +burst into a laugh, and taking up the rake she had dropped, began his +work again, declaring that the headache was gone, and that he was a +great deal better. + +'Forever and ever, amen!' The words kept repeating themselves over and +over in Harold's mind as he walked homeward in the gathering twilight +with Jerry hip-pi-ty-hopping at his side, her hand in his, and her +tongue running rapidly, as it usually did when with him. + +She would 'love and stand by him forever and ever, amen!' It was a +singular remark for a child, and in after years, when his sky was the +blackest, the words would come back to the man Harold like so many stabs +as he whispered in his anguish: + +'She has forgotten her promise to "stand by me forever and ever, amen!"' + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +MRS. TRACY'S DIAMONDS. + + +Mrs. Tracy was going to have a party--not a general one, like that which +she gave when our readers first knew her, and Harold Hastings stood at +the head of the stairs and bade 'the ladies go this way and the +gentlemen that.' Since Dolly had become so exclusive and a leader of +fashion, she had ignored general parties and limited her invitations to +a select few, which, on this occasion, numbered about sixty or seventy. +But the entertainment was prepared as elaborately as if hundreds had +been expected, and the hostess was radiant in satin and lace, and +diamonds, as she received her guests and did the honors of the occasion. + +The September night was soft and warm, and the grounds were lighted up, +while quite a crowd collected near the house to hear the music and watch +the proceedings. + +Mrs. Tracy would have liked to have had Jerry in the upper hall, where +Harold had once stood. + +'It would help to keep the child in her place,' she thought, 'for she is +getting to feel herself of quite too much consequence, with so much +attention from Arthur.' + +But her husband promptly vetoed the proposition, saying that when Jerry +Crawford came to the park house to an entertainment it would be as a +guest, and not as a waiter. So a colored boy stood in the upper hall, +and a colored boy stood in the lower hall, and there were colored +waiters everywhere, and Dolly had never been happier or prouder in her +life: for Governor Markham and his wife, from Iowa, were there, and a +judge's wife from Springfield--all guests of Grace Atherton, and, in +consequence, bidden to the party. + +Another remarkable feature of the evening was the presence of Arthur in +the parlors. He had known both Governor Markham and his wife, Ethelyn +Grant, and had been present at their wedding, and it was mostly on their +account that he had consented to join in the festivities. Jerry, it is +true, had done a great deal toward persuading him to go down, +repeating, in her own peculiar way, what she had heard people say with +regard to his seclusion from society. + +'You just make a hermit of yourself,' she said, 'cooped up here all the +time. I don't wonder folks say you are crazy. It is enough to make +anybody crazy, to stay in one or two rooms and see nobody but Charles +and me. Just dress yourself in your best clothes and go down and be +somebody, and don't talk of Gretchen all the time! I am tired of it, and +so is everybody. Give her a rest for one evening, and show the people +how nice you can be if you only have a mind to.' + +Jerry delivered this speech with her hands on her hips, and with all the +air of a woman of fifty; while Arthur laughed immoderately, and promised +her to do his best not to disgrace her, and to appear as if he were not +crazy. + +Jerry's anxiety was somewhat like that of a mother for a child whose +ability she doubts; and, after her supper was over she took her way to +the park house to see that Arthur was dressed properly for the occasion. + +'It would be like him to go without his neck-tie and wear his every-day +boots,' she thought. + +But she found him as faultlessly gotten up as he well could be in his +old-fashioned evening dress, which sat rather loosely upon him, for he +had grown thinner with each succeeding year. + +Jerry thought him splendid, and watched him admiringly as if he left the +room and started for the parlors, with her last injunction ringing in +her ears: + +'Not a word out of your head about Gretchen, but try and act as if you +were not crazy.' + +'I'll do it, Cherry. Don't you worry,' he said to her, with a little +reassuring nod, as he descended the stairs. + +And he kept his promise well. There was no word out of his head about +Gretchen, and no one ignorant of the fact would ever have suspected that +his mind was unsettled as he moved among the guests, talking to one +another with that pleasant, courtly manner so natural to him. A very +close observer, however, might have seen his eyes dilate and even flash +with some sudden emotion when his brother's wife passed him and her +brilliant diamonds, his gift, sparkled in the bright gaslight. The +setting was rather peculiar, but Mrs. Tracy liked it for the +peculiarity, and had never had it changed. She was very proud of her +diamonds, they were so large and clear, and she had the satisfaction of +knowing that there were no finer, if as fine, in town. She seemed to +know, too, just in what light to place herself in order to show them to +the best advantage, and at times the gleams of fire from them were +wonderful, and once Arthur put his hand before his eyes as she passed +him, and muttering something to himself moved quickly to another part of +the room. This was late in the evening, and soon after he excused +himself to those around him, saying it was not often that he dissipated +like this, and as he was growing tired he must say good-night. + +The next morning Charles found him looking very pale and worn, with a +bad pain in his head. He had rested badly, he said, and would have his +coffee in bed, after which Charles was to leave him alone and not come +back until he rang for him, as he might possibly fall asleep. + +It was very late that morning when the family breakfasted, and as they +lingered around the table, discussing the events of the previous night, +it was after eleven o'clock when at last Mrs. Tracy went up to her room. + +As she ascended the stairs to the upper hall, she caught a glimpse of +Harold disappearing through a door at the lower end of the hall, +evidently with the intention of going down the back stairway and making +his exit from the house by the rear door, rather than the front. Mrs. +Tracy knew that he was sometimes sent by his grandmother on some errand +to Arthur, and giving no further thought to the matter went on to her +own room, which her maid had put in order. All the paraphernalia of last +night's toilet were put away, diamonds and all. Contrary to her usual +custom, for she was very careful of her diamonds, and very much afraid +they would be stolen, she had left them in their box on her dressing +bureau. But they were not there now. Sarah, who knew where she kept +them, had put them away, of course, and she gave them no more thought +until three days later, when she received an invitation to a lunch party +at Brier Hill. + +'I shall wear my dark blue satin and diamonds,' she said to her maid, +who was dressing her hair, but the diamonds, when looked for, were not +in their usual place. + +Sarah had not put them away, nor in fact had she seen them at all, for +they were not upon the bureau when she went to arrange her mistress' +room the morning after the party. The diamonds were gone, nor could any +amount of searching bring them to light. And they looked everywhere, in +every box and drawer and corner, and Mrs. Tracy grew cold and sick and +faint, and finally broke down in a fit of crying, as she explained to +her husband that her beautiful diamonds were stolen. She called it that, +now, and the whole household was roused and questioned as to when and +where each had last seen the missing jewels. But no one had seen them +since they were in the lady's ears, and she knew she had left them upon +her bureau when she went down to breakfast. She was positive of that. No +one had been in the room, or that part of the house, except Tom, Fred +Raymond, Charles and Sarah. Of these the first two were not to be +thought of for a moment, while the last two had been in the family for +years, and were above suspicion. Clearly, then, it was some one from +outside, who had watched his or her portunity and come in. + +Had any one been seen about the house at that hour? Yes, Charles +remembered having met Harold Hastings coming out of the rear door; +'but,' he added, 'I would sooner suspect myself than him.' + +And this was the verdict of all except Mrs. Tracy, who now recalled the +fact that she, too, had seen Harold 'sneaking through the door as if he +did not wish to be seen.' + +That was the way she expressed herself, and her manner had in it more +meaning even than her words. + +'What was Harold doing in the house? What was his errand? Does any one +know?' she asked, but no one volunteered any information until Charles +suggested that he probably came on some errand to Mr. Arthur; he would +inquire, he said, and he went at once to his master's room. + +Arthur was sitting by his writing-desk, busy with a letter, and did not +turn, his head when Charles asked if he remembered whether Harold +Hastings had been to his room the morning after the party. + +'No, I have not seen him for more than a week,' was the reply. + +'But he must have been here that morning,' Charles continued. 'Try and +think.' + +'I tell you no one was here. I am not quite demented yet. Now go. Don't +you see you are interrupting me?' was Arthur's rather savage response, +and without having gained any satisfactory information Charles returned +to the group anxiously awaiting him: + +'_Well_?' was Mrs. Tracy's sharp interrogatory, to which Charles +responded: + +'He does not remember what happened that morning; but that is not +strange. He was very tired and unusually excited after the party, and +when he is that way he does not remember anything. Harold might have +been there a dozen times and he would forget it.' + +'Bring the boy, then. He will know what he was doing here,' was Mrs. +Tracy's next peremptory remark, and her husband said to her, +reproachfully: + +'Surely you do not intend to charge him with the theft?' + +'I charge no one with the theft until it is proven on him; but I must +see the boy and know what he was doing here. I never liked this free +running in and out of those people in the lane. I always knew something +would come of it,' Mrs. Tracy said, and Charles was despatched for +Harold. + +He found him mowing the lawn for a gentleman whose premises joined Tracy +Park, and without any explanation told him that he was wanted +immediately at the park house. + +'But it is noon,' Harold said, glancing up at the sun. 'And there is +Jerry coming to call me to dinner.' + +'No; better come at once. Jerry can go with you, if she likes,' Charles +said, feeling intuitively that in the little girl Harold would find a +champion. + +Harold left his lawn mower, and explaining to Jerry, who had come up to +him, that he had been summoned to the park house, whither she could +accompany him if she chose, he started with her and Charles, whom he +questioned as to what was wanted with him. + +'Were you in the park house the morning after the party? That would be +Wednesday,' Charles asked. + +'Yes, I went to see Mr. Arthur Tracy, but could get no answer to my +knock,' Harold promptly replied, while his face flushed scarlet, and he +seemed annoyed at something. He could not explain to Charles his motive +in going to see Arthur, as, now that the first burst of indignation was +over, he felt half ashamed of it himself. On the afternoon of the day of +the party he had been at Grassy Spring, helping Mrs. St. Claire with her +flowers, and after his work was done he had gone with Dick into the +billiard-room, where they found Tom Tracy and his friend, young Raymond. +They had come over for a game, and the four boys were soon busily +engaged in the contest. Harold, who had often played with Dick and was +something of an expert, proved himself the most skilful of them all, +greatly to the chagrin of Tom, who had not recognized him even by a nod. +Dick, on the contrary, had introduced him to Fred Raymond with as much +ceremony as if he had been the Governor's son, instead of the boy who +sometimes worked in his mother's flower garden. And the Kentuckian had +taken him by the hand and greeted him cordially, with a familiar: + +'How d'ye do, Hastings? Glad to make your acquaintance' + +There was nothing snobbish about Fred Raymond, whose every instinct was +gentlemanly and kind, and Harold felt at ease with him at once, and all +through the game appeared at his best, and quite as well bred as either +of his companions. + +When the play was over Dick excused himself a moment, as he wished to +speak with his father, who was about driving to town. As he stayed away +longer than he had intended doing, Tom grew restless and angry, too, +that Fred should treat Harold Hastings as an equal, for the two had at +once entered into conversation, comparing notes with regard to their +standing in school and discussing the merits of Cicero and Virgil, the +latter of which Harold had just commenced. + +'We can't wait here all day for Dick,' Tom said. 'Let us go out and look +at the pictures.' + +So they went down the stairs to a long hall, in which many pictures were +hanging--some family portraits and others, copies of the old masters +which Mr. St. Claire had brought from abroad. Near one of the portraits +Fred lingered a long time, commenting upon its beauty, and the +resemblance he saw in it to little Nina St. Claire, the daughter of the +house, and whose aunt the original had been. The portrait was not far +from the stairway which led to the billiard-room, and Harold, who had +remained behind, and was listlessly knocking the balls, could not help +hearing all they said: + +'By the way, who is that Hastings? I don't think I have seen him before; +he is a right clever chap,' Fred Raymond said. + +Tom replied, in that sneering, contemptuous tone which Harold knew so +well, and which always made his blood boil and his fingers tingle with a +desire to knock the speaker down: + +'Oh, that's Hal Hastings, a poor boy, who does chores for us and the St. +Claires. His grandmother used to work at the park house, and so uncle +Arthur pays for his schooling, and Hal allows it, which I think right +small in him. I wouldn't be a charity student, anyway, if I never knew +anything. Besides that, what's the use of education to chaps like him. +Better stay as he was born. I don't believe in educating the masses, do +you?' + +Of himself Tom could never have thought of all this, but he had heard it +from his mother, who frequently used the expression 'not to elevate the +masses,' forgetting that she was once herself a part of the mass which +she would now keep down. + +Just what Fred said in reply Harold did not hear. There was a ringing in +his ears, and he felt as if every drop of blood in his body was rushing +to his head as he sat down, dizzy and bewildered, and smarting cruelly +under the wound he had received this time. He had more than once been +taunted with his poverty and dependence upon Mr. Tracy, but the taunts +had never hurt him so before, and he could have cried out in his pain as +he thought of Tom's words, and knew that in himself there was the making +of a far nobler manhood than Tom Tracy would ever know. + +Was poverty, which one could not help, so terrible a disgrace, an +insuperable barrier to elevation, and was it mean and small in him to +accept his education from a man on whom he had no claim? Possibly; and +if so, the state of things should not continue. He would go to Arthur +Tracy, thank him for all he had done, and tell him he could receive no +more from him; that if he had an education, he must get it himself by +the work of his own hands, and thus be beholden to no one. + +Full of this resolution, he went down the stairs and out into the open +air, which cooled his hot head a little, though it was still throbbing +terribly as he went through the leafy woods toward home. + +In the lane he saw Jerry coming toward him, with her sun-bonnet hanging +down her back and her soft, curly hair blowing around her forehead. The +moment she saw him she knew something was the matter, and, hastening her +steps to run, asked him what had happened, and why he looked so white +and mad. + +Harold was sure of sympathy from Jerry, and he told her his story, which +roused her to a high pitch of indignation. + +'The miserable, nasty, sneaking Tom!' she said, stopping short and +emphasizing each adjective with a stamp of her foot as if she were +trampling upon the offending Tom. 'I wish I had heard him. I'd have +scratched his eyes out! talking of you as if you were dirt! I hate him, +and I told him so the other day, and spit at him when he tried to kiss +me.' + +'Kiss you! Tom Tracy kiss you!' Harold exclaimed, forgetting his own +grief in this insult to Jerry; for it seemed to him little less than +profanity for lips like Tom Tracy's to touch his little Jerry. + +'No, he didn't, but he tried, right before that boy from Kentucky; but I +wriggled away from him, and bit him, too, and he called me a cat, and +said he guessed I wouldn't mind if _you_ or Dick St. Claire tried to +kiss me, and I shouldn't; but I'll fight _him_ and Bill Peterkin every +time. I wonder why all the boys want to kiss me so much!' + +'I expect it is because you have just the sweetest mouth in the world,' +Harold said, stooping down and kissing the lips which seemed made for +that use alone. + +This little episode had helped somewhat to quiet Harold's state of mind, +but did not change his resolve to speak to Mr. Tracy, and tell him that +he could not receive any more favors from his hands. He would, however, +wait until to-morrow, as Jerry bade him to. + +'You will worry him so that he will be crazier than a loon at the +party,' she said, and so Harold waited, but started for the park the +next morning as soon as he thought Mr. Tracy would see him. + +He had rung at the door of the rear hall, but as no one heard him he +ventured in, as he had sometimes done before, when sent for Jerry if it +rained, and ascending the stairs to the upper hall, knocked two or three +times at Arthur's door, first gently, and then louder as there came no +response. + +'He cannot be there, and I must come again,' he thought as he retraced +his steps, reaching the door at the lower end of the hall just as Mrs. +Tracy came up the broad staircase on her way to her room. + +As that day wore on, and the next, and the next, Harold began to care +less for Tom's insult, and to think that possibly he had been hasty in +his determination to decline Arthur's assistance, especially as he meant +to pay back every dollar when he was a man. He would at all events wait +a little, he thought, and so had made no further effort to see Mr. +Tracy, when Charles found him, and told he was wanted at the park house. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +SEARCHING FOR THE DIAMONDS. + + +They went directly to Mrs. Tracy's room, where they found that lady in a +much higher fever of excitement than when she first discovered her loss. +All the household had assembled in the hall and in her room, except +Arthur, who sat in his library, occasionally stopping to listen to the +sound of the many voices, and to wonder why there was much noise. + +Tom was there with his friend, Fred Raymond, anxiously awaiting the +arrival of Harold, whose face wore a look of wonder and perplexity which +deepened into utter amazement as Mrs. Tracy angrily demanded of him what +his business was in the hall on Wednesday morning when she saw him +sneaking through the door. + +'Where had you been, and did you see my diamonds? Somebody has stolen +them,' she said, while Harold gazed at her in utter astonishment. + +'Somebody stolen your diamonds!' he repeated, without the shadow of an +idea that she could in any way connect him with a theft; nor would the +idea have come to him at all, if Tom had not said to him with a sneer: + +'Better own up, Hal, and restore the property. It is your easiest way +out of it.' + +Then he comprehended, and had Tom knocked him senseless the effect could +not have been greater. With lips as white as ashes and fists tightly +clenched, he stood, shaking like a leaf and staring helplessly, first at +one and then at another, unable to speak until his eyes fell on Jerry, +whose face was a study. She had thrown her head forward and on one side, +and was looking intently at Tom Tracy, while her blue eyes flashed fire, +and her whole attitude was like that of a tiger ready to pounce upon its +prey. And when Harold said faintly, 'Ask Jerry; she knows,' she did +pounce upon Tom, not bodily, but with her tongue, pouring out her words +so rapidly and mingling with them so much German that it was almost +impossible to understand all she said. + +'You miserable, good-for-nothing, nasty fellow,' she began. 'Do you dare +accuse Harold of stealing! Stealing! You, who are not fit to tie his +shoes! And do you want to know why he was here that morning? I can tell +you; but no, I won't tell _you_! I won't speak to you! I'll never speak +to you again; and if you try to kiss me as you did the other day, +I'll--I'll scratch out every single one of your eyes! _You_ twit Harold +for being poor, and call him a charity! What are you but a charity +yourself, I'd like to know! Is this your house? No, sir! It is Mr. +Arthur's! Everything is Mr. Arthur's, and if you don't quit being so +mean to Harold I'll tell him every single nasty thing I know about you! +Then see what he will do!' + +As Jerry warmed with her subject, every look, every gesture, and every +tone of her voice was like Arthur's, and Frank watched with a +fascination which made him forget everything else, until she turned +suddenly to him, and in her own peculiar style and language told him why +Harold had come to the park house that morning when the diamonds were +missing. + +'I advised him to come,' she said, with all the air of a grown woman, +'and I said I'd stand by him, and I will, forever and ever, amen!' + +The words dropped from her lips the more maturely, perhaps, because she +had used them once before with reference to the humiliated boy, to whose +pale, set face there came a smile as he heard them again, and stretching +out his hand he laid it on Jerry's curly head with a caressing motion +which told plainer than words could have done of his affection for and +trust in her. + +What more Jerry might have said was prevented by the appearance of a new +actor upon the scene in the person of Arthur himself. He had borne the +noise and confusion as long as he could, and then had rung for Charles +to enquire what it meant. But Charles was too much absorbed with other +matters to heed the bell, though it rang three times sharply and loudly. +At last, as no one came, and the bustle outside grew louder, and Jerry's +voice was distinctly heard, excited and angry, Arthur started to see for +himself what had happened. + +'Oh, Mr. Arthur,' Jerry cried, as she caught sight of him coming down +the hall, 'I was just going after you, to come and turn Tom out of +doors, and everybody else who says that Harold took Mrs. Tracy's +diamonds. She has lost them, and Tom--' + +But here she was interrupted by Tom himself, who, always afraid of his +uncle, and now more afraid than ever because of the fiery gleam in his +eyes, stammered out that he had not accused Harold, nor any one; that he +only knew the diamonds were gone and could not have gone without help. + +'Do you mean those stones your mother flashed in my eyes that night? +Serves her right if she has lost them,' Arthur said, without manifesting +the slightest interest or concern in the matter. + +But when Jerry began her story, which she told rapidly in German, he +became excited at once, and his manner was that of a maniac, as he +turned fiercely upon Tom, denouncing him as a coward and a liar, and +threatening to turn him out of the house if he dared harbor such a +suspicion against Harold Hastings. + +'I'll turn you all into the street,' he continued, 'if you are not +careful, and bring Harold and Jerry here to live; then see if I can have +peace. Diamonds, indeed! what has a poor man's wife to do with +diamonds? Gretchen's diamonds, too! If they are lost, search the house, +but never accuse Harold again.' + +At this paint Arthur wandered off into German, which no one could +understand except Jerry, who stood, holding fast to his arm, her face +flushed and triumphant at Harold's victory and Tom's defeat; but as the +tirade in German went on, she started suddenly forward, and with clasped +hands and staring eyes stood confronting Arthur until he had ceased +speaking, and with a wave of his hand signified that he was through and +his audience dismissed. Jerry, however, did not move, but stood +regarding him with a frightened, questioning expression in her face, +which was lost upon the spectators, who were too much interested in the +all-absorbing topic to notice anyone particularly. + +Tom was the first to go away, and his example was followed by all the +servants, except Charles, who succeeded in getting his master back to +his room and quieting him somewhat, though he kept talking to himself of +diamonds, and Paris, and Gretchen, who, he said, should not he wronged. + +'I am sorry, Harold, that this thing has happened. I have no idea that +you know anything of the matter. I would as soon suspect my own son,' +Frank said to Harold, as he was leaving the house. + +With this grain of comfort, the boy went slowly home, humiliated and cut +to the heart with the indignity put upon him; while Jerry walked +silently at his side, never speaking a word until they were nearly home, +when she said, suddenly: + +'I know where the diamonds are, but I shan't tell now while there is +such a fuss;' but Harold was too much absorbed in his own thoughts to +pay much attention to the remark, although it recurred to him years +after, when the diamonds came up to confront him again. + +It did not take long for the whole town to know of Mrs. Tracy's loss. +The papers were full of it. The neighbors talked of it constantly, and +two detectives were employed to work the matter up and discover the +thief, if possible. A thorough search was also made at the park house. +Every servant was examined and cross-examined, and all their trunks and +boxes searched; every nook and corner and room was gone through in the +most systematic order, even to Arthur's apartments. This last was +merely done as a matter of form, and to let the indignant servant see +that no partiality was shown, the polite officers explained to Arthur, +who at first refused to let them in, but who finally opened the door +himself, and bade them go where they liked. + +Half hidden among the cushions of the sofa from which Arthur had arisen +when he let the officers in and to which he returned again, was Jerry, +her face pale to her lips and her eyes like the eyes of some haunted +animal, when she saw the policemen cross the threshold. + +After her return home the previous day she had been unusually taciturn +and had taken no part in the conversation relative to the missing +diamonds, but just before going to bed she said to Harold: + +'What will they do with the one who took the diamonds, if they find +him?' + +'Send him to state prison,' Harold answered. + +'And what do they do to them in state prison?' Jerry continued. + +'Cut their hair off; make them eat bread and water and mush, and sleep +on a board, and work awful hard,' was Harold's reply, given at random +and without the least suspicion why the question had been asked. + +Jerry said no more, but the next morning she started for the park house, +which she knew was to be searched, and going to Mr. Arthur's room looked +him wistfully in the face as she asked in a whisper: + +'Are they found?' + +'Found! What found?' he said, as if all recollection of the missing +jewels had passed entirely from his mind. + +'The diamonds; Mrs. Tracy's diamonds; the ones you gave her,' was +Jerry's answer. + +For a moment, Arthur looked perplexed and bewildered and confused, and +seemed trying to recall something which would not come at his bidding. + +'I don't know anything about it,' he said at last. 'I don't seem to +think of anything, my head is so thick with all the noise there was here +yesterday and the tumult this morning. Search-warrants, Charles says, +and two strange men driving up so early. Who are they, Jerry?' + +'Police, come to search the house; search everybody and everything. +Ain't you afraid?' Jerry said. + +'Afraid? No: why should I be afraid? Why, child, how white you are, and +what makes you tremble so? You didn't take the diamonds,' was Arthur's +response, as he drew the little girl close to him and looked into her +pallid face. + +'Mr. Arthur,' Jerry began, very low, as if afraid of being heard, 'if I +should give Maude something for her very own, and she should accept and +keep it a good while, and then some day I should take it from her, when +she did not know it, and hide it, and not give it up, would that be +stealing?' + +'Certainly. Why do you ask?' + +Jerry did not say why she asked, but put the same question to him she +had put to Harold: + +'If they find the one who took the diamonds will they send him to state +prison?' + +'Undoubtedly. They ought to.' + +'And cut off his hair?' + +She was threading Arthur's luxuriant locks caressingly, and almost +pityingly, with her fingers as she asked the last question, to which he +replied, shortly: + +'Yes.' + +'And make him eat bread and water and mush?' + +'Yes; I believe so.' + +'And sleep on a board?' + +'Yes, or something as bad.' + +'And make him work awful hard until his hands are blistered?' + +Now she had in hers Arthur's hands, soft and white as a woman's, and +seemed to be calculating how much hard work it would take to blister +hands like these. + +'Yes, work till his hands drop off,' Arthur said. + +With a shudder, she continued: + +'I could not bear it: could you?' + +'Bear it? No; I should die in a week. Why, what does ail you? You are +shaking like a leaf. What are you afraid of?' + +'I don't know; only state prison seems so terrible, and they are looking +everywhere. What if they should come in here?' + +'Come in here? Impossible, unless they break the door down,' Arthur +replied; and then Jerry said to him: + +'If they do, suppose you lie down and let me cover you with the afghan +and cushions?' + +'But I don't want to lie down and be smothered with cushions,' Arthur +returned, puzzled, and wondering at the excitement of the child, who +nestled close to his side and held fast to his hand, as if she were +guarding him, or expected him to guard her, while the examination went +on outside, and the frightened and angry servants submitted to having +their boxes and trunks examined. + +At last footsteps were heard on the stairs and the sound of strange +voices, mingled with that of Frank, who was protesting against his +brother's rooms being entered. + +'You will lose every servant you have if we do not serve all alike,' was +the answer. + +Then Frank knocked at his brother's door and asked admittance. + +'We must do it to pacify the servants,' he said, as Arthur refused, +bidding him go about him business. + +After a little further expostulation Arthur arose, and, unlocking the +door, bade them enter and look as long as they pleased and where they +pleased. + +It was a mere matter of form, for not a drawer or box was disturbed; but +Jerry's breath came in gasps, and her eyes were like saucers, as she +watched the men moving from place to place, and then looked timidly at +Arthur to see how he was taking it. He took it very coolly, and when it +was over and the men were about to leave, he bade them come again as +often as they liked; they would always find him there ready to receive +them, but the diamonds--_nix_. + +This last he said in a low tone as he turned to Jerry, who, the moment +they were alone and he had seated himself beside her, put her head on +his arm and burst into a hysterical fit of crying. + +'Why, Cherry, what is it? Why are you crying so?' he asked, in much +concern. + +'Oh, I don't know,' the sobbed; 'only I was so scared all the time they +were in the room. What if they had found them! What if they should think +that--that--_I_ took them, and should send me to prison, and cut off my +hair: and make me eat bread and water and mush, which I hate!' + +Arthur looked at her a moment, and then with a view to comfort her, +said, laughingly: + +'They would not send you to prison, for I would go in your stead.' + +'Would you? Could you? I mean could somebody go for another somebody, if +they wanted to ever go much?' Jerry asked, eagerly, as she lifted her +tear-stained face to Arthur's. + +Without clearly understanding her meaning, and with only a wish to quiet +her, Arthur answered, at random: + +'Certainly. Have you never heard of people who gave life for another's? +So, why not be a substitute, and go to prison, if necessary?' + +'Yes,' Jerry answered, with a long-drawn breath, and the cloud lifted a +little from her face. + +After a moment, however, she asked, abruptly: + +'Suppose the one who took the diamonds will not give them up, and +somebody else knows where they are, ought that somebody else tell?' + +'Certainly, or be an accessory to the crime,' was Arthur's reply. + +Jerry did not at all know what an accessory was, but it had an awful +sound to her, and she asked: + +'What do they do to an accessory? Punish her--him, I mean--just the +same?' + +'Yes, of course,' Arthur said, scarcely heeding what she was asking him, +and never dreaming of the wild fancy which had taken possession of her. + +That one could go to prison in another's stead, and that an accessory +would be punished equally with the criminal, were the two ideas distinct +in her mind when she at last arose to go, saying to Arthur, as she stood +in the door: + +'You are sure you are not afraid to have them come here again, if they +take it into their heads to do so?' + +'Not in the least; they can search my rooms every day and welcome, if +they like,' was Arthur's reply. + +'Well, that beats me!' Jerry said aloud to herself, with a nod for every +word, as she went down the stairs and started for home, taking the Tramp +House on her way. 'I guess I'll go in there and think about it,' she +said, and entering the deserted building, she sat down upon the bench +and began to wonder if she _could do it_, if worst came to worst, as it +might. + +'Yes, I could for him, and I'll never tell; I'll be that thing he said, +and a substitute, too, if I can,' she thought, 'though I guess it would +kill me. Oh, I hope I shan't have to do it! I mean to say a prayer about +it, anyway.' + +And kneeling down in the damp, dark room, Jerry prayed, first, that it +might never be found out, and second, that if it were she might not be +called to account as an accessory, but might have the courage to be the +substitute, and stand by him forever and ever, amen!' + +'I may as well begin to practice, and see if I can bear it,' she +thought, as she walked slowly home, where she astonished Mrs. Crawford +by asking her to make some mush for dinner. + +'Mush! Why, child, I thought you hated it' Mrs. Crawford exclaimed. + +'I did hate it,' Jerry replied, 'but I want it now real bad. Make it for +me, please. Harold likes it, don't you, Hally?' + +Harold did like it very much; and so the mush was made, and Jerry forced +herself to swallow it in great gulps, and made up her mind that she +could not stand that any way. She preferred bread and water. So, for +supper she took bread and water and nothing else, and went up to bed us +unhappy and nervous as a healthy, growing child well could be. + +She had tried the mush, and the bread and water, and now she meant to +try the shorn head, which was the hardest of all, for she had a pride in +her hair, which so many had told her was beautiful. + +Standing before her little glass, with the lamp beside her, she looked +at it admiringly for a while, turning her head from side to side to see +the bright ringlets glisten; then, with an unsteady hand the severed, +one by one, the shining tresses, on which her tears fell like rain as +she gathered them in a paper and put them away, wondering if the prison +shears would cut closer or shorter, and wondering if it would make any +difference that she was only a substitute, or at most an accessory. + +It was a strange idea which had taken possession of her, and a senseless +one, but it was terribly real to her, and that little shorn head +represented as noble and complete a sacrifice as was ever made by older +and wiser people. There was no hard board to sleep upon, and so she took +the floor, with a pillow under her head and a blanket over her, +wondering the while if this were not a more luxurious couch than +convicts, who had stolen diamonds, were accustomed to have. + +'Why, Jerry, what have you done?' and 'Oh, Jerry, how you look!' were +the ejaculatory remarks which greeted her next morning, when she went +down to her breakfast of bread and water, for she would take nothing +else. + +'Why did you do it?' Mrs. Crawford asked a little angry and a good deal +astonished; but Jerry only answered at first with her tears, as Harold +jeered at her forlorn appearance and called her a picked chicken. + +'Maude's hair is short, and all the girls', and mine was always in my +eyes and snarled awfully,' she said at last, and this was all the excuse +she would give for what she had done; while for her persisting in a +bread and water diet she would give no reason for three or four days. +Then she said to Harold, suddenly: + +'You told me that the one who stole the diamonds would have to eat bread +and water and have his head shaved, and I am trying to see how it would +seem--am playing that I am the man, and in prison; but I find it very +hard, I don't believe I can stand it. Oh, Harold, do you think they will +ever find the diamonds? I am so tired and hungry, and the blackberry pie +we had for dinner did look so good!' + +'Jerry,' Harold exclaimed, in amazement, and but dimly comprehending her +real meaning, 'you are crazy, to be playing you are a convict! And is +that what you have been doing?' + +'Ye-es,' Jerry sobbed; 'but I can't bear it, and I hope they will not +find him,' + +'Him! Who?' Harold asked. + +'The one who took the diamonds,' she replied. + +'And I hope they will. He ought to be found and punished. Think what +harm he has done to me by letting them accuse me,' Harold answered, +indignantly. + +'No, no, Hally,' Jerry replied. 'No one accused you but Tom, and he is +meaner than dirt; and if they did think you took them, and if you had to +go, I should not let you; I should go in your place. I could do it for +you and Mr. Arthur, but for no one else. Oh, I hope they will never find +them.' + +She put her hands to her head, and looked so white and faint that +Harold was alarmed, and took her at once to his mother, who, scarcely +less frightened than himself, made her lie down, and brought her a piece +of toast and a cup of milk, which revived her a little. But the strain +upon her nerves for the last few days, and the fasting on bread and +water proved too much for the child, who for a week or more lay up in +her little room, burning with fever, and talking strange things at +intervals, of diamonds, and state prison, and accessories, and +substitutes, the last of which she said she was, assuring some one to +whom she seemed to be talking that she would never tell, never! + +Every day Arthur came and sat for an hour by her bed, and held her hot +hands in his, and listened to her talk, and marvelled at her shorn head, +which he did not like. Whatever he said to her was spoken in German, and +as she answered in the same tongue, no one understood what they said to +each other, though Harold, who understood a few German words, knew that +she was talking of the diamonds, and the prison, and the substitute. + +'I shall _never_ tell!' she said to Arthur, 'and I shall go! I can bear +it better than you. It is not that which makes my headache so. It's--oh, +Mr. Arthur, I thought you so good, and I am so sorry about the +diamonds--Mrs. Tracy was so proud of them. Can't you contrive to get +them back to her? I could, if you would let me. I am thinking all the +time how to do it, and never let her know, and the back of my head aches +so when I think.' + +Arthur could not guess what she really meant, except that the lost +diamonds troubled her, and that she wished Mrs. Tracy to have them. +Occasionally his brows would knit together, and he seemed trying to +recall something which perplexed him, and which her words had evidently +suggested to his mind. + +'Cherry,' he said to her one day when he came as usual, and her first +eager question was, 'Have they found them?' 'Jerry, try and understand +me. Do you know where the diamonds are?' + +Instantly into Jerry's eyes there came a scared look, but she answered, +unhesitatingly: + +'Yes, don't you?' + +'No,' was the prompt reply; 'though it seems to me I did know, but there +has been so much talk about them, and you are so sick, that everything +has gone from my head, and the bees are stinging me frightfully. Where +are the diamonds?' + +But by this time Jerry was in the prison, sleeping on a board and eating +bread and mush, and Arthur failed to get any satisfaction from her. +Indeed, they were two crazy ones talking together, with little or no +meaning in what they said. Only this Arthur gathered--that Jerry would +be happy if 'Mrs. Tracy had her diamonds again and did not know how they +came to her. When this dawned upon him he laughed aloud, and kissing her +hot cheek, said to her: + +'I see; I know, and I'll do it. Wait till I come again. + +It was ten o'clock in the morning when he left Mrs. Crawford's house; +there was a train which passed the station at half-past ten, bound for +New York, and without returning to the park, Arthur took the train, +sending word to his brother not to expect him home until the next day, +and not to be alarmed on his account, as he was going to New York and +would take care of himself. + +Why he had gone Frank could not guess, and he waited in much anxiety for +his return. It was evening when he came home, seeming perfectly composed +and well, but giving no reason for his sudden journey to the city. His +first inquiry was for Jerry, and his second, if anything had been heard +of the diamonds. On being answered in the negative, he remarked: + +'Those rascally detectives are bunglers, and oftentimes would rather let +the culprit escape than catch him. I doubt if you ever see the jewels +again. But no matter; it will all come right. Tell your wife not to +fret,' + +The next morning when Mrs. Tracy went to her room after breakfast she +was astonished to find upon her dressing bureau a velvet box with +Tiffany's name upon it, and inside an exquisite set of diamonds; not as +fine as those she had lost, or quite as large, but white, and clear, and +sparkling as she took them in her hand with a cry of delight, and ran +with them to her husband. Both knew from whence they came, and both went +at once to Arthur, who, to his sister-in-law's profuse expressions of +gratitude, replied indifferently: + +'Don't bother me with thanks; it worries me. I bought them to please +the little girl, who talks about them all the time. She will yet well +now, I am going to tell her.' + +He found Jerry better, and perfectly sane. She was very glad to see him, +though she seemed somewhat constrained, and shrank from him a little, +when he sat down beside her. Her first rational question had been for +him, and her second for the diamonds; were they found, and if not, were +they still looking for them. + +'No, they have not found them,' Harold had said, 'and the officers are +still hunting for the thief, while the papers are full of the reward +offered to any one who will return them. Five hundred dollars now, for +Mr. Arthur has added two hundred to the first sum. He has quite waked up +to the matter. You know he seemed very indifferent at first.' + +'Mr. Arthur offered two hundred more!' Jerry exclaimed. 'Well, that +beats me!' + +This was Mrs. Crawford's favorite expression, which Jerry had caught, as +she did most of the peculiarities in speech and manner of those about +her. + +'Two hundred dollars! He must be crazy.' + +'Of course he is. He don't know what he does or says half the time, and +especially since you have been sick,' Harold said. + +'Sick!' Jerry repeated, quickly. 'Have I been sick, and is that why I am +in bed so late? I thought you had come in to wake me up, and I was glad, +for I have had horrid dreams.' + +Harold told her she had been in bed since the day of the investigation, +when she came from the park house with a dreadful headache. + +'And you've been crazy, too, as a loon,' he continued, 'and talked the +queerest things about state prison, and hard boards, and bread and +water, and accessories, and substitutes, and so on. Seemed as if you +thought you were a felon, and a body would have supposed that you had +either taken the diamonds yourself or else knew who did, the way you +went on by spells.' + +'Oh, Harold!' Jerry gasped, while her face grew spotted and the +perspiration came out upon her forehead. 'Did I speak anybody's name?' + +'No,' Harold replied. 'I could not make you do that. I asked you ever +so many times if you knew who took the diamonds, and you said "Yes," but +when I asked who it was, you always answered, "Don't you wish you knew?" +and that was all I could get out of you. Mr. Arthur was here every day, +and sometimes twice a day, but you spoke German to him. Still I knew it +was about the diamonds, for I understood that word. He was not here +yesterday at all. There, hark! I do believe he is coming now. Don't you +know who is said to be near when you are talking about him?' + +And, with a laugh, Harold left the room just as Arthur entered it. + +'Well, Cherry,' he said to her, as he drew a chair to her bedside, 'Mrs. +Crawford tells me the bees are out of your head this morning, and I am +glad. I have some good news for you. Mrs. Tracy has some diamonds, and +is the happiest woman in town.' + +Jerry had not noticed his exact words, and only understood that Mrs. +Tracy had found her diamonds. + +'Oh, Mr. Arthur, I am so glad!' the cried; and springing up in bed, she +threw both arms around his neck and held him fast, while she sobbed +hysterically. + +'There, there, child! Cherry, let go. You throttle me. You are pulling +my neck-tie all askew, and my head spins like a top,' Arthur said, as he +unclasped the clinging arms and put the little girl back upon her +pillow, where she lay for a moment, pale and exhausted, with the light +of a great joy shining in her eyes. + +'Did she know where they came from? how did you manage it? Are you sure +she did not suspect!' she asked. + +'I put them on her dressing-bureau while she was at breakfast,' he +replied, 'and when she came up there they were--large solitaire +ear-rings and a bar with five stones, not quite as large or as fine as +the ones she lost, but the best I could find at Tiffany's. Why, Jerry, +what is the matter? You do not look glad a bit. I thought you wanted me +to give them to her surreptitiously, and I did,' he continued, as the +expression of Jerry's face changed to one of blank dismay and +disappointment, and the tears gathered in her eyes. + +'I did--I do,' she said; 'but I meant, not new ones, but her very +own--the ones you gave her.' + +For a moment Arthur sat looking at her with a perplexed and troubled +expression, as if wondering what she could mean, and why he had so +utterly failed to please her; then he said, slowly: + +'The ones I gave her? You make my head swim trying to remember, and the +bumble-bees are black-faced, instead of white, and stinging me +dreadfully. I wish you would say nothing more of the diamonds. It +worries me, and makes me feel as if I were in a nightmare, and I know +nothing of them.' + +Raising herself on her elbow and pointing her finger toward him in a +half beseeching, half threatening way, Jerry said: + +'As true as you live and breathe, and hope not to be hung and choked to +death, don't you know where they are?' + +This was the oath which Jerry's companions were in the habit of +administering to each other in matters of doubt, and she now put it to +Arthur as the strongest she knew. + +'Of course not,' he answered, with a little irritation in his tone. +'What ails you, Cherry? Are you crazy, like myself? Struggle against it. +Don't let the bees get into your brain and swarm and buzz until you +forget everything. You ought to remember; you do things you ought not to +do. It is terrible to be crazy and half conscious of it all the +time--conscious that no one believes what you say or holds you +responsible for what you do.' + +'Don't they?' Jerry asked, eagerly, for she knew the meaning of the word +'responsible.' 'If a crazy man or woman took the diamonds, and then +forgot, and did not tell, and it was ever found out, wouldn't they be +punished?' + +'Certainly not,' was the reassuring reply, 'Don't you know how many +murders are committed and the murderer is not hung, because they say he +is crazy?' + +In a moment the cloud lifted from Jerry's face, which grew so bright +that Arthur noticed the change, and said to her: + +'You are better now, I see, and I must go before I undo it all. +Good-bye, and never say diamonds to me again; it gets me all in a--m +a--well, a French pickle--mixed, you know.' + +He kissed her tenderly, and promising to take her for a drive as soon as +she was able, went out and left her alone, wondering why it was that his +having given the diamonds to his sister-in-law had failed in its effect +upon her, and upon himself, too. + +For a long time after he was gone Jerry lay thinking with her eyes +closed, so that if Harold or her grandmother came in they would think +her asleep. Mr. Arthur was certainly crazy at times--very crazy. She +could swear to that, and so could many others. And if a crazy man was +not responsible for his acts, then he was not, and the law would not +touch him; but with regard to the accessory, she was not sure. If that +individual were not crazy, why, then he or she might be punished; and as +the taste she had had of bread and water, and hard boards, in the shape +of the floor, was not very satisfactory, and as Mrs. Tracy had other +diamonds in the place of the lost ones, she finally determined to keep +her own counsel and never tell what she had heard Arthur say that +morning when the theft was discovered and he had talked so fast in +German to her and to himself. If she had known where the diamonds were +she might have managed to return them to their owner. But she did not +know, and her better course was to keep quiet, hoping that in time Mr. +Arthur himself would remember and make restitution; for that he had +forgotten and was sincere in saying that he knew nothing of them she was +certain, and her faith in him, which for a little time had been shaken, +was restored. + +With this load lifted from her mind Jerry's recovery was rapid, and when +the autumnal suns were just beginning to tinge the woodbine on the Tramp +House and the maples in the park woods with scarlet, she took her +accustomed seat in Arthur's room and commenced her lessons again with +Maude, who had missed her sadly and who would have gone to see her every +day during her sickness if her mother had permitted it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +ARTHUR'S LETTER. + + +Two weeks had passed since Jerry's return to her lessons, and people had +ceased to talk of the missing diamonds, although the offered reward of +$500 was still in the weekly papers, and a detective still had the +matter in charge, without, however, achieving the slightest success. No +one had ever been suspected, and the thief, whoever he was, must have +been an expert, and managed the affair with the most consummate skill. +Now that she had another set, Mrs. Tracy was content, and peace and +quiet reigned in the household, except so far as Arthur was concerned. +He was restless and nervous, and given to fits of abstraction, which +sometimes made him forget the two little girls, one of whom watched him +narrowly; and once when they were alone and he seemed unusually absorbed +in thought, she asked him if he were trying to think of something. + +'Yes,' he said, looking up quickly and eagerly; 'that is it. I am trying +to remember something which, it seems to me, I ought to remember; but I +cannot, and the more I try, the farther it gets from me. Do you know +what it is?' + +Jerry hesitated a moment, and then she asked: + +'Is it the diamonds?' + +'Diamonds! No. What diamonds? Didn't I tell you never to say diamonds to +me again? I am tired of it,' he said, and in his eyes there was a gleam +which Jerry had never seen there before when they rested upon her. It +made her afraid, and she answered, meekly: + +'Then I cannot help you to remember.' + +'Of course not. No one can,' Arthur replied, in a softened tone. 'It is +something long ago, and has to do with Gretchen.' + +Then suddenly brightening, as if that name had been the key to unlock +his misty brain, he added; + +'I have it; I know; it has come to me at last! Gretchen always sets me +right. I wrote her a letter long ago--a year, it seems to me--and it has +never been posted. Strange that I should forget that; but something came +up--I can't tell what--and drove it from my mind.' + +As he talked he was opening and looking in the drawer which Jerry had +never seen but once before, and that when he took from it the letter in +German, a paragraph of which he had bidden her read. + +'Here it is!' he said, joyfully, as he took out a sealed envelope and +held it up to Jerry. 'This is the letter which you must post to-day. I +can trust it to you.' + +He gave her the letter, which she took with a beating heart and a sense +of shame and regret as she remembered her pledge to Mr. Frank Tracy. She +had promised to take him any letter which Mr. Arthur might intrust to +her care, and if she took this one from Arthur she must keep her word. + +'Oh, I can't do it--I can't! It would be mean to Mr. Arthur,' she +thought; and returning him the letter, she said: 'Please post it +yourself; then you will be sure, and I might lose it, or forget. I am +careless sometimes. Don't ask me to take it.' + +She was pleading with her might; but Arthur paid no heed, and only +laughed at her fears. + +'I know you will not forget, and I'd rather trust you than Charles. +Surely, you will not refuse to do so small a favor for me?' + +'No,' she said, at last, as she put the letter in her pocket, with the +thought that, after all, there might be no harm in showing it to Mr. +Frank, who, of course, merely wished to see it, and would not think of +keeping it. + +But she did not know Frank Tracy or guess how great was his anxiety lest +any message should ever reach a friend of Gretchen, if friend there were +living. She found him in the room he called his office, where the dead +woman had lain in her coffin, and where he often sat alone thinking of +the day when the inquest was held, and when he took his first step in +the downward road, which had led him so far that now it seemed +impossible to turn back, even had he wished to do so, as he sometimes +did. + +'If I had never secreted the photograph, or the book with the +handwriting, if I had shown them to Arthur, everything would have been +so different, and I should have been free,' he was thinking, when Jerry +knocked timidly at the door, rousing him from his reverie, and making +him start with a nameless tsar which was always haunting him. + +'Oh, Jerry, it is you,' he said, as the little girl crossed the +threshold, and shutting the door, stood with her back against it, and +her hands behind her. 'What is it?' he asked, as he saw her hesitating. + +With a quick, jerky movement of the head, which set in motion the little +rings of hair, now growing so fast, and brought his brother to his mind, +Jerry replied: + +'I came to tell you that Mr. Arthur has written the letter.' + +'What letter?' Frank asked, for the moment forgetting the conversation +he had held with the child in the Tramp House. + +'The one I promised to bring you to show you--the one to Germany,' was +Jerry's answer. + +And then Frank remembered at once what, in the excitement of the diamond +theft, had passed from his mind. + +'Yes, yes, I know; give it to me,' he said, advancing rapidly toward +her, and putting out his hand. 'When did he write it? Give it to me, +please.' + +'But not to keep,' Jerry said, struck by something in his face and +manner which, it seemed to her, meant danger to the letter. + +'Let me see it,' he continued. + +And rather reluctantly Jerry handed him a bulky letter, the direction of +which covered nearly the whole of one side of the envelope. + +Very nervously Frank scanned the address, which might as well have been +in the Fiji language for any idea it conveyed to him. + +'To whom is it directed? I cannot read German,' he said + +'I don't know,' Jerry replied. 'I have not looked at it, and would +rather not.' + +'Why, what a little prude you are;' and Frank laughed uneasily. 'What +possible harm is there in reading an address? The postmaster has to do +it, and any one who took it to the office would do it if he could.' + +This sounded reasonable enough, and standing beside him, while he held +the letter a little way from her, Jerry read the address in German +first, then, as he said to her: 'I don't understand that lingo, put it +into English,' she read again: + +'To Marguerite Heinrich, if living, and if dead to any of her friends; +or to the postmaster at Wiesbaden, Germany. If not delivered within two +months, return to Arthur Tracy, Tracy Park, Shannondale, Mass., U.S.A.' + +'Marguerite--Marguerite Heinrich!' Frank repeated, 'That is not +Gretchen. The letter is not to her.' + +'I guess it is,' Jerry replied. 'He told me once that Gretchen was a pet +name for Marguerite.' + +'Yes,' Frank returned, with a sigh, as this little crumb of hope was +swept away, while to himself he added: 'At all events it is not +Marguerite Tracy, and that makes me less a scoundrel than I should +otherwise be. If he had written a little more it would have run over to +the other side of the envelope. Any one would know he was crazy,' he +continued, with a sickly attempt at a smile, while Jerry stood waiting +to take the letter from him. + +He knew she was waiting, and said to her, as he put it in his pocket: + +'Thank you for bringing this to me. It is probably some nonsense which +ought not to go, even if the sending it would do no harm, as it +certainly would.' + +Until then Jerry had not realised that he did not mean the letter to go +at all. She had remembered her promise to take it to him, and forgotten +that he had said it must not be sent lest it should do harm to Maude. +But it all came back to her now, and her tears fell like rain as she +stood for a moment irresolute. But loyalty to Arthur conquered every +other feeling. Surely he would not suffer any wrong to come to his own +brother and niece. The letter was harmless, and must go. + +'Give it to me, please. You do not mean to keep it?' she said, at last, +in a tone and manner she might have borrowed from Arthur himself, it was +so like him when on his dignity. + +And Frank felt it, and knew that he had more than a child to deal with, +and must use duplicity if he would succeed. So he said to her quietly +and naturally: + +'Why, how excited you are! Do you think I intend to keep the letter? It +is as safe with me as with you. It is true that when I talked with you +in the Tramp House I thought that it must not be sent, but I have +changed my mind since then, and do not care. I am going to the office, +and will take it myself. John is saddling my horse now, and if I hurry I +shall be in time for the western mail. Good-bye, and do not look so +worried. Do you take me for a villain?' + +He was leaving the room as he talked, and before he had finished he was +in the hall and near the outer door, leaving Jerry stupefied, and +perplexed, and only half reassured. + +'If I had not sold myself to Satan before, I have now, for sure; and +still I did not actually tell her that I would post it, though it +amounted to that,' Frank thought, as he galloped through the park toward +the highway which led to the town. + +Once he took the letter from his pocket and examined it again, wishing +so much that he knew its contents. + +'If I could read German, I believe I am bad enough now to open it; but I +can't, and I dare not take it to any one who can,' he said, as he put it +again in his pocket, half resolving to post it and take the chances of +its ever reaching Gretchen's friends, or any one who had known her. +'I'll see how I feel when I get inside,' he thought, as he dismounted +from his horse before the door of the post-office. + +The mail was just in, and the little room was full of people waiting for +it to be distributed; and Frank waited with them, leaning against the +wall, with his head bent down, and beating his boot with his +riding-whip. + +'I must decide soon,' he thought, when a voice not far from him caught +his ear, and glancing from under his hat, he saw Peterkin coming in, +portly and pompous, and with him a dapper little man, who, in the days +of the 'Liza Ann, had been a driver for the boat, but who now, like his +former employer, was a millionaire, and wore a thousand-dollar diamond +ring. To him Peterkin was saying: + +'There, that's him--that's Frank Tracy, the biggest swell in town--lives +in that handsome place I was telling you about.' + +Strange that words like these from a man like old Peterkin should have +inflated Frank's pride; but he was weak in many points; and though he +detested Peterkin, it gratified him to be pointed out to strangers as a +swell who lived in a fine house, and with the puff of vanity came the +reflection that, as Frank Tracy of some other place than Tracy Park, +with all its appliances of wealth, he would not be a swell whom +strangers cared to see, and Jerry's chance was lost again. + +'Here is your mail, Mr. Tracy,' the postmistress said; and stepping +forward, Frank took his letters from her, just as Peterkin slapped him +on the shoulder, and, with a familiarity which made Frank want to knock +him down, called out: + +'Hallo, Tracy! Just the feller I wanted to see. Let me introduce you to +Mr. Bijah Jones, from Pennsylvany; used to drive hosses for me in the +days I ain't ashamed of, by a long shot. He's bought him a place out +from Philadelphy, and wants to lay it out _à la--à la_--dumbed if I +know the word, but like them old chaps' gardens in Europe, and I told +him of Tracy Park, which beats everything holler in this part of the +country. Will you let us go over it and take a survey?' + +'Certainly; go where you like,' Frank said, struggling to reach the +door; but Peterkin button-holed him and held him fast, while he +continued: + +'I say, Tracy, heard anything from them diamonds?' + +'Nothing,' was the reply. + +'Didn't hunt in the right quarter,' Peterkin continued, 'leastwise +didn't foller it up, or you'd a found 'em without so much advertisin'.' + +'What do you mean?' Frank asked. + +'Oh, nothin',' Peterkin replied; 'only them diamonds never went off +without hands, and them hands ain't a thousand miles from the park.' + +'Perhaps not,' Frank answered, mechanically, more intent upon getting +away than upon what Peterkin was saying. + +He longed to be in the open air, and as he mounted his horse, he said, +as if speaking to some one near him: + +'Well, old fellow, I've done it again, and sunk myself still lower. You +are bound to get me now some day, unless I have a death-bed repentance +and confess everything. The thief was forgiven at the last hour, why not +I?' + +The black shadow which Frank felt sure was beside him, did not answer, +though he could have sworn that he heard a chuckle as he rode on, fast +and far, until his horse was tired and he was tired, too. Then he began +to retrace his steps, so slowly that it was dark when, he reached the +village, and took the road which led by the gate through which the woman +had passed to her death on the night of the storm. It was the shortest +route to the park, and he intended to take it. + +As he drew near to the gate, it seemed to him that there was something +on the wide post nearest the fence which had not been there in the +afternoon when he rode by--something dark, and large, and peculiar in +shape, and motionless as a stone. He was not by nature a coward, and +once he had no belief in ghosts or supernatural appearances, but now he +did not know what he believed, and this object, whose outline, seen +against, the western sky, where a little dim light was lingering, seemed +almost like that of a human form, made his heart beat faster than its +wont, and he involuntarily checked his horse, just as a clear, shrill +voice called out: + +'Mr. Tracy, is that you? I have waited so long, and I'm so cold sitting +here. Did you post the letter?' + +It was Jerry who, after he had left her in his office, had been seized +with an indefinable terror lest he might not post the letter after all. +It seemed wrong to doubt him, and she did not really think that she did +doubt him; still she would feel happier if she knew, and after supper +was over she started along the grassy road until she reached the gate. +Here she waited a long time, and then, as Mr. Tracy did not appear, she +walked up and down the lane until the sun was down and the ground began +to feel so damp and cold that she finally climbed up to the top of the +gate-post, which was very broad, and where, on her way to town, she had +frequently sat for a while. It was very cold and tiresome waiting there, +and she was beginning to get impatient and to wonder if it could be +possible that he had gone home by some other road, when she heard the +sound of a horse's hoofs and felt sure he was coming. + +'Why, Jerry, how you frightened me!' Frank said, as he reined his horse +close up to her. 'Jump down and get up behind me. I will take you home.' + +She obeyed, and with the agility of a little cat, got down from the +gate-post and on to the horse's back, putting both arms around Frank's +waist to keep herself steady, for the big horse took long steps, and she +felt a little afraid. + +'Did you post the letter?' she asked again, as they left the gate behind +them and struck into the lane. + +To lie now was easy enough, and Frank answered without hesitation: + +'Of course. Did you think I would forget it?' + +'No,' Jerry answered. 'I knew you would not. I only wanted to be sure, +because he trusted it to me, and not to have sent it would have been +mean, and a sneak, and a lie, and a steal. Don't you think so?' + +She emphasized the 'steal,' and the 'lie,' and the 'sneak,' and the +'mean,' with a kick that made the horse jump a little and quicken his +steps. + +'Yes,' Frank assented; it would be all she affirmed, and more too, and +the man who could do such a thing was wholly unworthy the respect of any +one, and ought to be punished to the full extent of the law. + +'That's so,' Jerry said, with another emphatic kick and a slight +tightening of her arm around the conscience-stricken man, who wondered +if he should ever reach the cottage and be free from the clasp of those +arms, which seemed to him like bands of fire burning to his soul. 'I'd +never speak to him again,' Jerry continued, 'and Mr. Arthur wouldn't +either. He is so right-up, and hates a trick. I don't believe, either, +that any harm will come to Maude from that letter, as you said. If there +does, and Mr. Arthur can fix it, he will, I know, for I shall ask him, +and he once told me he would do anything for me, because I look as he +thinks Gretchen must have looked when she was a little girl like me.' + +They had reached the cottage by this time, where they found Harold in +the yard looking up and down the lane for Jerry, whose protracted +absence at that hour had caused them some anxiety, even though they were +accustomed to her long rambles by herself and frequent absences from +home. It was not an unusual thing for her to linger in the Tramp House, +even after dark, talking to herself, and Gretchen, and Mah-nee, and her +mother and a sick woman, whose face was far back in the past. She was +there now, Harold supposed, and this belief was confirmed when Mr. Tracy +said to him: + +'You see I have picked up your little girl and brought her home. Jump +down, Jerry, and good-night to you.' + +She was on the ground in an instant, and he was soon galloping toward +home, saying to himself: + +'I don't believe I can even have a death-bed repentance now. I have told +too many lies for that, and more than all, must go on lying to the end. +I have sold my soul for a life of luxury, which after all is very +pleasant,' he continued, as he drew near the house, which was +brilliantly lighted up, while through the long windows of the +drawing-room he could see the table, with its silver and glass and +flowers, and the cheerful blaze upon the hearth of the fire-place, which +Dolly had persuaded Arthur to have built. There was every kind of +bric-a-brac on the tall mantel, and Frank saw it as he passed, and saw +the colored man moving slowly about the room after the manner of a +well-trained servant who understands his business. There was company +staying in the house, Mr. and Mrs. Raymond, from Kentucky, father and +mother to Fred; and Mr. and Mrs. St. Claire, and Grace Atherton, and +Squire Harrington had been invited to dinner, and were already in the +dining-room when Frank entered it after a hasty toilet. + +He had been out in the country and ridden further than he had intended, +he said by way of apology, as he greeted his guests, and then took Mrs. +Raymond into dinner, which, with the exception of the soup and fish, was +served from side tables. This was Dolly's last new kink, as Frank called +it, and Dolly was very fine, in claret velvet, with her new diamonds, +which were greatly admired, Grace Atherton declaring that she liked them +quite as well as the stolen ones, whose setting was rather _passé._ + +'That is just why I liked them so, because they were old-fashioned; it +made them look like heir-looms, and showed that one had always had a +family,' Dolly said. + +Grace Atherton shrugged her still plump shoulders just a little, and +thought of the first call she ever made upon Dolly, when she entered +through the kitchen and the lady entertained her in her working-apron! + +Dolly did not look now as if she had ever seen a working-apron, and was +very bright and talkative, and entertaining, and all the more so because +of her husband's silence. He was given to moods, and sometimes +aggravated his wife to desperation when he left all the conversation to +her. + +'Do talk,' she would say to him when they were alone. 'Do talk to people +and not sit so glum, with that great wrinkle between your eyes as if you +were mad at something; and do laugh, too, when anybody tells anything +worth laughing at, and not leave it all to me. Why, I actually giggle at +times until I feel like a fool, while you never smile or act as if you +heard a word. Look at me occasionally, and when I elevate my +eyebrows--_so_--brace up and say something, if it isn't so cunning.' + +This _elevating of the eyebrows_ and _bracing up_ were matters of +frequent occurrence, as Frank grew more and more silent and abstracted, +and now after he had sat through a funny story told by Mr. St. Claire +and had not even smiled, or given any sign that he heard it, he suddenly +caught Dolly's eye and saw that both eyebrows, and nose, and chin were +up as marks of unusual disapprobation, for how could she guess of what +he was thinking as he sat with his head bent down, and his eyes +seemingly half shut. But they came open wide enough, and his head was +high enough when he saw Dolly's frown; and turning to Mrs. Raymond he +began to talk rapidly and at random. She had just returned from Germany, +where she had left her daughter, Marion, in school, and Frank asked her +of the country, and if she had visited Wiesbaden, and had there met or +heard of anyone by the name of Marguerite Heinrich. + +Mrs. Raymond had spent some months in Wiesbaden, for it was there her +daughter was at school, and she was very enthusiastic in her praises of +the beautiful town. But she had never seen or heard of Marguerite +Heinrich, or of anyone by the name of Heinrich. + +'Marguerite Heinrich?' Dolly repeated. 'Who in the world is she--and +where did you know her?' + +'I never did know her. I have only heard of her,' Frank replied, again +lapsing into a silence from which he did not rouse again. + +He was thinking of the letter hidden away with the photograph and the +book--of the lies he had told since his deception began, and now sure it +was that he had sinned beyond forgiveness. When he was a boy he had +often listened, with the blood curdling in his veins, to a story his +grandmother told him with sundry embellishments, for he was not well +versed in German literature, of a man--Foster it seemed to him was the +name--who sold his soul to the devil in consideration that for a certain +number of years he was to have every pleasure the world could give. It +had been very pleasant listening to the recital of the fine things the +man enjoyed, for Satan kept his promise well; but the boy's hair had +stood on end as the story neared its close, and he heard how, when the +probation was ended, the devil came for his victim down the wide-mouthed +chimney, scattering bricks and fire-brands over the floor, as he carried +the trembling soul out in the blackness of the stormy night. + +Strangely enough this story came back to him now, and notwithstanding +the horror of the thing he laughed aloud as he glanced up at the tall +oak fire-place, wondering if it would be that way he would one day go +with his master, and seeing in fancy Dolly's dismay when the tea-cups, +and saucers, and vases, and plaques, came tumbling to the floor as he +disappeared from sight in a blue flame, which smelled of brimstone. + +It was a loud, unnatural laugh, but fortunately for him it came just as +Grace Atherton had set the guests in a roar with what she was saying of +the Peterkin's final struggle to enter society, and so it passed +unnoticed by most of them. But that night in the privacy of his room, +where Dolly delivered most of her lectures, she again upbraided him with +his taciturnity, telling him that he never laughed but once, and then it +sounded more like a groan than a laugh. + +'You have hit the nail on the head this time, for it was a groan,' Frank +said, as he plunged into bed; and Dolly, as she undressed herself +deliberately, and this time put her diamonds carefully away, little +dreamed what was passing in the mind of the man, who, all through the +long hours of the night, lay awake, seldom stirring lest he should +disturb her, but repeating over and over to himself, the words: + +'Lost now forever and ever, but if Maude is happy I can bear it.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +JERRIE--NINE YEARS LATER. + + +She spelled her name with an _ie_ now, instead of a _y._ She was +nineteen years old; she had been a student at Vassar for four years, +together with Nina St. Claire and Ann Eliza Peterkin, and in July was to +be graduated with the highest honors of her class. In her childhood, +when we knew her as little Jerry, she had been very small, but at the +age of twelve she suddenly shot up like an arrow, and had you first seen +her, with her back to you, you might have said she was very tall, but +had you waited till she turned her face toward you, or walked across +the floor, you would have thought that if an eighth of an inch were +taken from her height it would spoil her splendidly developed form. Her +school companions called her the Princess, she was so tall and straight, +and graceful in every movement, with that sweet graciousness of manner +which won all hearts to her and made her a general favorite. Whether she +spelled her name with an _ie_ or a _y_ and stood five feet six or four +feet five, she was the same Jerry who had defended Harold against Tom +Tracy, and been ready to go to prison, if need be, for Mr. Arthur. +Frank, unselfish, truthful, and original, she had been as a child, with +perhaps a little too much pride in her hair, which she hid once cut off +to see how it would seem, and she was original, and truthful, and +unselfish now, with a pardonable pride in her luxuriant tresses, which +lay in waves upon her finely-shaped head and glistened in the sunlight +like satin of a golden hue. But nothing could spoil Jerrie, not even the +adulation of her friends or the looking-glass which told her she was +beautiful, just as Nina St. Claire told her every day. + +'Yes; I am not blind, and I know that I am rather good-looking,' she +once said to Nina, 'and I am glad, for, as a rule, people like pretty +things better than ugly ones, but I am not an idiot to think that looks +are everything, and I don't believe I am very vain. I used to be though, +when a child, but Harold gave me so many lectures upon vanity that I +should not do credit to his teachings were I now to be proud of what I +did not do myself.' + +'But Harold thinks you are beautiful,' Nina replied. + +'He does? I did not know that. When did he say so?' Jerrie asked; with +kindling eyes and a quick, sideways turn of her head, of which she had a +habit when startled by some sudden emotion. + +'He said so last vacation, when we were home, and I had that little +musicale, and you played and sang so divinely, and wore that dress of +baby-blue which Mr. Arthur gave you, with the blush-rose, in your belt.' +Nina said; 'I was so proud of you and so was mamma and Mrs. Atherton. +You remember there were some New Yorkers there who were visiting Mrs. +Grace, and I was glad for them to know that we had some talent, and some +beauty, too, in the country; and Harold was proud, too. I don't think +he ever took his eyes off you from the time you sat down to the piano +until you left it, and when I said to him, "Doesn't she sing like an +angel, and isn't the lovely?" he replied: "I think my sister Jerry has +the loveliest face I ever saw, and that blue dress is very becoming to +her."' + +'Wasn't that rather a stiff speech to make about his _sister_?' Jerry +said, with a slight emphasis upon the last word, as she walked away, +leaving Nina to wonder if she were displeased. + +Evidently not, for a few minutes later she heard her whistling softly +the air 'He promised to buy me a knot of blue ribbon to tie up my bonny +brown hair,' and could she have looked into Jerry's room she would have +seen her standing before the mirror examining the face which Harold had +said was the loveliest he had ever seen. Others had said the same, and +their sayings had been repeated to her. Billy Peterkin, and Tom Tracy, +and Dick St. Claire, and even Fred Raymond, from Kentucky, who was +supposed to be devoted to Nina. But Jerry cared little for the +compliments of either Fred or Dick, while those of Tom she scorned and +those of Billy she ridiculed. One word of commendation from Harold was +worth more to her than the praises of the whole world besides. But +Harold had always been chary of his commendations, and was rather more +given to reproof than praise, which did not altogether suit the young +lady. + +As Jerry had grown older, and merged from childhood into womanhood, a +change had come over both the girl and boy, a change which Jerry +discovered first, awaking suddenly one day to find that the brother and +sister delusion was ended, and Harold stood to her in an entirely new +relation. Just when the change had commenced she could not tell. She +only knew that it had come, and that she was not quite so happy as she +had been in the days when she called Harold her brother, and kissed him +whenever she felt like it, which was very often, for she was naturally +affectionate, and showed her affection to those she loved. She was +seventeen when the dream came--the old, old story which transformed her +from a romping, a rather gushing child, into a woman more quiet and more +dignified, especially with Harold, who missed and mourned in secret for +the playful loving ways which had been so pleasant to him, even if he +did not always make a return. + +Though capable of loving quite as devotedly and unselfishly as Jerry, +he was not demonstrative, while a natural shyness and depreciation of +himself made him afraid to tell in words just what or how much he did +feel. He would rather show it by acts; and never was brother tenderer or +kinder toward a sister than he was to Jerry, whose changed mood he could +not understand. And so there gradually arose between them a little +cloud, which both felt, and neither could exactly define. + +Arthur had kept his promise well with regard to Jerry, who had passed +from him to Vassar, and he would have kept it with Harold, if the latter +had permitted it. But the boy's pride and independence had asserted +themselves at last. He had accepted the course at Andover, and one year +at Harvard, on condition that he should be allowed to pay Arthur back +all he had received as soon as he was able to do it. As he entered +Harvard in advance, he was a junior when he decided to care for himself, +and during the remainder of his college course, which, of course, was +longer than usual, he struggled on, doing what he could during the +summer vacation--teaching school for months at a time--and in the +college reducing his expenses by acting as proctor, and compelling +obedience to the rules of the institution. Even the few who were aware +of his limited means, and his efforts to increase them, had to +acknowledge, as he stood before the multitude, delivering the +valedictory, and exciting thunders of applause by his graceful gestures +and thrilling eloquence, that he was not only an orator, but every inch +a gentleman. + +His fellow students who saw him then, and listened entranced to his +clear, well-trained voice, thought not of Harold's threadbare coat and +shining old-fashioned pants, which were so conspicuous as he pursued his +studies in the class-room, but which were now concealed by the gown he +wore over them. They saw only the large, dark eyes, the finely chiseled +features, and the manly form. But as they listened to the burning words +which showed so much clear, deep thought, they said to each other: + +'The young man has a future before him. Such eloquence as that could +move the world, and rouse or quiet the wildest mob that ever surged +through the streets of mad Paris.' + +Jerry was there, and saw and heard. And when Harold's speech was over, +and the building was shaking with applause, and flowers were falling +around him like rain, she, too, stood up and cheered so loudly that a +Boston lady, who sat in front of her, and who thought any outward show +of feeling vulgar and ill-bred, turned and looked at her wonderingly and +reprovingly. But in her excitement Jerry did not see the disapprobation +in the cold, proud eyes. She saw only what she mistook for enquiry, and +she answered eagerly: + +'That's Harold--that's my brother! Oh, I am so proud of him!' + +And leaning forward so that a curl of her bright hair touched the Boston +woman's bonnet, she threw the bunch of pond lilies which she had herself +gathered that day on the river at home, before the sun was up, and while +the white petals were still folded in sleep. For Jerry had come down on +the early train to see Harold graduated, and Maude had found her in the +crowd and sat beside her, almost as pleased and happy as herself to see +Harold thus acquit himself. + +Maude's roses had been bought at a florist's in Boston at a fabulous +price, for they were the choicest and rarest in market. Harold had seen +both the roses and the lilies long before they fell at his feet. It was +a fancy, perhaps, but it seemed to him that it sweet perfume from the +latter reached him with the brightness of Jerry's eyes. He knew just +where the lilies came from, for he had often waded out to the green bed +when the water was low to get them for Jerry; and all the time he was +speaking there was in his heart a thought of the old home, and the +woods, and the river, and the tall tree on the bank, with the bench +beneath, and on it the girl, whose upturned, eager face he saw above the +sea of heads confronting him. + +Jerrie's approval was worth more to the young man than that of all the +rest; for he knew that, though she would be very lenient toward him, she +was a keen and discriminating critic, and would detect a weakness which +many an older person would fail to see. But she was satisfied--he was +sure of that; and if there had been in his mind any doubt it would have +been swept away when, after the exercises were over, and he stood +receiving the congratulations of his friends, she worked her way through +the crowd and threw her arms around his neck, kissing him fondly, and +bursting into a flood of tears as she told him how proud she was of him. + +The eyes of half his classmates were upon him, and though Harold felt a +thrill of keen delight run through his veins at the touch of Jerrie's +lips, he would a little rather she had waited until they were alone. + +'There, there, Jerrie, that will do!' he whispered, as he unclasped her +arms, and put her gently from him, though he still held her hand. 'Don't +you see they are all looking at us.' + +With a sudden, jerk Jerrie withdrew her hand from his and stepped back +into the crowd, her heart beating wildly, and her cheeks burning with +shame, as she thought what she had done and how it must have mortified +Harold. + +Maude was speaking to him now--Maude with her bright black eyes and +brilliant color. But she was neither crying nor strangling him with +kisses. She was shaking hands with him very decorously, and telling him +how pleased and glad she was. And in his hand he held her roses, which +he occasionally smelled as he listened, and smiled upon her with that +peculiar smile of his which made him so attractive. But the lilies were +nowhere to be seen; and when, an hour later, all the baskets and +bouquets bearing his name were piled together, the lilies were not +there. + +'He has thrown them away! He did not care for them at all, and I might +as well have staid in bed as to have gotten up at four o'clock and +risked my neck to get them. He likes Maude and her roses better than he +does me,' Jerrie thought, with a swelling heart and all through the +journey home--for they returned that night--she was very quiet and +tactiturn, letting Maude do all the talking, and saying when asked why +she was so still, that her head was aching, and that she was too tired +and sleepy to talk. + +That was the last time for years that Jerrie put her arms around +Harold's neck, or touched her lips to his; for it had come to her like a +blow how much he was to her, and, as she believed, how little she was to +him. + +'Maude is preferred to me--I see it now so plainly; he likes me well +enough, but he loves _her_--I saw it in the way he looked at her that +time I mortified him so dreadfully with my _gush_,' she thought; and +although of all her girl friends, not even excepting Nina St. Claire, +Maude was the nearest and dearest, she was half-glad when a week or two +later, Maude said good-bye to her, and with her mother sailed away to +Europe, where she remained for more than a year and a half. + +During her absence the two girls corresponded regularly, and Jerrie +never failed to write whatever she thought would please her friend to +hear of Harold; and when at last Maude returned, and wrote to Jerrie of +failing health, and wakeful nights, and lonely days, and her longing for +the time when Jerrie would be home, and be with her, and read to her, or +recite bits of poetry, as she had been wont to do, Jerrie trampled every +jealous, selfish thought under her feet, and in her letters to Harold +urged him to see Maude as often as possible, and read to her whenever +she wished him to do so. + +'You have such a splendid voice, and read so well,' she wrote, 'that it +will rest her just to listen to you, and will keep her from being so +lonely; so offer your services if she does not ask for them--that's a +good boy.' + +Then, as she remembered how weak Maude was, mentally, she thought: + +'He never can be happy with her as she is now. A girl who cannot do a +sum in simple fractions, and who, when abroad, thought only of Rome as a +good place in which to buy sashes and ribbons, and who asked me in a +letter to tell her who all those Caesars were, and what the Forum was +for, is not the wife for a man like Harold, and however much he might +love her at first he would be sure to tire of her after a while, unless +he can bring her up. Possibly he can.' + +Resuming her pen, she wrote: + +'Don't give her all sentimental poetry and love trash, but something +solid--something historical, which she can remember and talk about with +you.' + +In his third letter to Jerrie, after the receipt of her instructions, +Harold wrote as follows: + +'I have offered my services as reader, and tried the solid on Maude as +you advised--have read her fifty pages of Grote's History of Greece; but +when I got as far as Homeric Theogony, she looked piteously at me, while +with Hesiod and Orpheus she was hopelessly bewildered, and by the time I +reached the extra Hellenic religion she was fast asleep! I do not +believe her mind is strong enough to grapple with those old Greek chaps; +at all events they worry her, and tire her more than they rest. So I +have abandoned the gods and come down to common people, and am reading +to her Tennyson's poems. Have read the May Queen four times, until I do +believe she knows it by heart. She has a great liking for the last +portion of it, especially the lines: + + "I shall not forget you, mother: + I shall hear you when you pass, + With your feet above my head + In the long and pleasant grass." + +'I saw her cry one day when I read that to her. Poor little Maude! She +is very frail, but no one seems to think her in danger, she has so +brilliant a color, and always seems so bright.' + +Jerrie read this letter two or three times, and each time with an +increased sense of comfort. No man who really loved a girl could speak +of her mental weakness to another as Harold had spoken of Maude's to +her, and it might be after all that he merely thought of her as a +friend, whom he had always known. So the cloud was lifted in part, and +she only felt a greater anxiety for Maude's health, which as the spring +advanced, grew stronger, so that it was almost certain that she would +come to Vassar in the summer and see her friend graduated. + +Such was the state of affairs when Nina repeated to Jerrie what Harold +had said to her at the musicale the previous winter. All day long there +was a note of gladness in Jerrie's heart which manifested itself in +snatches of song, and low, warbling, whistled notes, which sounded more +as if they came from a canary's than from a human throat. Jerrie did +_not_ chew gum, but she whistled, and the teachers who reproved her most +for what they called a boyish trick, always listened intently, when the +clear, musical notes, now soft and low, now loud and shrill, were heard +outside, or in the building. + +'Whistling Jerrie,' the girls sometimes called her, but she rather liked +the name, and whistled on whenever she felt like it. + +And it was a very joyous, happy song she trilled, as she thought of +Harold's compliment, and wished she might wear at commencement the dress +of baby-blue which he had admired, for Harold would, of course, be there +to see and hear, and as, when he wrote his valedictory two years before +there had been in every line a thought of her, so in her essay, which +was peculiarly German in its method and handling, thoughts of Harold had +been closely interwoven. She knew she should receive a surfeit of +applause--she always did; but if Harold's were wanting the whole thing +would be a failure. So she wrote him twice a week, urging him to come, +and he always replied that nothing but necessity would keep him from +doing so. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +THE TWO FACES IN THE MIRROR. + + +Toward the last of May Arthur came to Vassar, bringing with him the +graduating dress which he had bought in New York, with Maude as his +adviser. He had Jerrie at the hotel to spend Saturday and Sunday with +him, and took her to drive and to shop, and then in the evening asked +her to put on her finery, that he might see how it looked. + +'I shall not come to hear you spout out your erudition,' he said, 'for I +detest crowds, with the dreadful smell of the rooms. I have gotten the +park house tolerably free from odors, though the cook's drain is +terrible at times, and I shall have brimstone burned in the cellar once +a week. But what was I saying? Oh, I know--I shall not be here at +commencement, and I wish to see if my Cherry is likely to look as well +as any of them.' + +So Jerrie left him alone while she donned the white dress, which fell in +soft, fluffy folds around her feet, and fitted her superb figure +perfectly. She knew how well it became her, and sure of Arthur's +approbation, went back to the parlor, where she had left him. Arthur was +standing with his back to the door when she came in, and going up to +him, she said: + +'Here I am in all my gewgaws. Do you think I shall pass muster?' + +She spoke in German, as she always did to him, and when he turned +quickly, there was a startled look on his face, as he said: + +'Oh, Cherry, it's you! I thought for a moment it was Gretchen speaking +to me. Just so she used to come in with her light footstep and soft +voice, so much like yours. Where is she, Cherry, that she never comes +nor writes? Where is Gretchen now?' + +His chin quivered as he talked, and there was a moisture in his eyes, +bent so fondly upon the young girl beside him. He was worn with the +fatigue and excitement of his journey and the long drive he had taken, +and Jerrie knew that whenever he was tired his mind was weaker and +wandered more thin usual. So she tried to quiet and divert him by +calling his attention to her dress, and asking how he liked it. + +'It is lovely,' he said, examining the lace and the soft flounces. 'It +is the prettiest Maude and I could find. You know, she was with me, and +helped me select it. Yes, it's lovely, and so are you, Cherry, with +Gretchen's eyes and hair, and smile, and that one dimple in your cheek. +She used to wear soft, white dresses, and in this you are enough like +her to be her daughter.' + +They were standing side by side before a long mirror, she taller for a +woman than he was for a man, so that her face was almost in a range with +his, as he stooped a little forward. + +Glancing into the mirror at the two faces so near to each other, Jerrie +saw something which for an instant made her cold and sick, and set every +nerve to quivering as she stepped suddenly back, looking first at the +man's face and then at her own in the mirror. It was gone now, the look +which had so startled her, but it had certainly been there--a likeness +between the two faces--and she had seen it plainer than she had ever +seen any resemblance between herself and the picture. Gretchen had blue +eyes, and fair hair, and fair complexion, and so had she, and so had +hundreds of German girls, and all Arthur had ever said to her had never +brought to her mind a thought like the two faces in the mirror. _What if +it were so?_ That was the thought which had flashed like lightning +through her brain, making her so weak that she grasped Arthur's arm to +steady herself as she tried to speak composedly. + +'You are white as your dress,' he said. 'It is this confounded hot room; +let us sit nearer the window.' + +They sat down together on a sofa, and taking up a newspaper, Arthur +fanned Jerrie gently, while she said to him: + +'Do you really think I look like Gretchen?' + +'Yes; except that you are taller. You might be her daughter.' + +'Had she--had Gretchen a daughter?' was Jerrie's next question, put +hesitatingly. + +'None that I ever heard of,' Arthur replied. 'Why do you ask that?' + +'And her name when a girl was Marguerite Heinrich, was it not?' Jerrie +went on. + +'Yes. Who told you that?' Arthur said. + +'I saw it on a letter which you gave me to post years ago, when I was a +child,' Jerrie replied. 'You never received an answer to that letter, +did you?' + +'What letter did you post for me to Marguerite Heinrich? I don't know +what you mean,' Arthur said, the old worried look settling upon his +face, which always came there when he was trying to recall something he +ought to remember. + +As he grew older he seemed to be annoyed when told of things he had +forgotten, and as the letter had evidently gone entirely from his mind, +Jerrie said no more of it. _She_ remembered it well; and never dreaming +that it had not been posted, she had watched a long time for an answer, +which never came. Gretchen was dead; that was settled in her mind. But +who was she? With the words, 'What if it were so?' still buzzing in her +brain, the answer to this question was of vital importance to her, and +after a moment, she continued, as if she had all the time been talking +of Gretchen: + +'She was Marguerite Heinrich when a girl in Wiesbaden, but she had +another name afterward, when she was married.' + +'You are talking of something you know nothing about. Can't you let +Gretchen alone?' Arthur said, petulantly, and springing up he began to +pace the room in a state of great excitement, while Jerrie sat +motionless, with a white, stony look on her face and a far off look in +her eyes, as if she were seeing in a vision things she could not retain, +they passed to rapidly before her, and were so hazy and indistinct. + +The likeness she had seen in the glass was gone now. She was not like +Arthur at all; it was madness in her to have thought so. And she was not +like Gretchen either. Her mother was lying under the little pine tree +which she and Harold had planted above the lonely grave. Her mother had +been dark, and coarse, and bony, and a peasant woman--so Ann Eliza +Peterkin, who had heard it from her father, had told her once, when +angry with her, and Harold, when sorely pressed, had admitted as much to +her. + +'Dark, with large, hard hands,' he had said; and Jerrie with the great +tears shining in her eyes, had answered, indignantly: + +'But hard and black as they were, they always touched _me_ gently and +tenderly, and sometimes I believe I can remember just how lovingly and +carefully they wrapped the old cloak around me to keep me warm. Dear +mother, what do I care how black she was, and coarse. She was mine, and +gave her life for me.' + +This was when Jerrie was a child, and now that she was older she was +seeking to put away this woman with the dark face and the coarse hands, +and substitute in her place a fairer, sweeter face, with hands like wax +and features like a Madonna. But only for a few moments, and then the +wild dream vanished, and the sad, pale face, the low voice, the music, +the trees, the flowers, the sick-room, the death-bed, the woman who +died, and the woman who served, all went out together into the darkness, +and she was Jerrie Crawford again, wearing her commencement dress to +please the man still pacing the floor abstractedly, and paying no heed +to her when she went out to change her dress for the blue muslin she bud +worn through the day. + +When she returned to the parlor she found him seated at the tea-table, +which had been laid during her absence. Taking her seat opposite to him, +she made his tea, and buttered his toast, and chatted, and laughed until +she succeeded in bringing back a quiet expression to the face which bore +no likeness now to her own, but looked pale and haggard as it always did +after any excitement. He was talking of the commencement exercises, and +regretting that he could not be present. + +'I may not be home,' he said. 'And if I am. I shall not come. Crowds +kill me, and smells kill me, and we are sure to have both. I wish I had +a different nose, but it is as it was made, and I think I detect some +bad odor in here, don't you?' + +Jerrie, who knew from experience that the better way was to humor his +fancy, said she did smell something; perhaps it was the carpet, or the +curtains, both of which were new. + +'Very likely, and in that case the smell is a clean one,' he replied, +and began again to speak of commencement. + +'Harold is sure to be here,' he said, 'and he is better than forty old +coves like me. It is astonishing what a fancy I have taken to that young +man. I don't see a fault in him, except that he is too infernally proud. +Think of his refusing to take any more money from me unless I would +accept his note promising to pay it all back in time--just as if he ever +can, or will.' + +'Indeed he will,' Jerrie exclaimed, rousing at once in Harold's defence. +'He will pay every dollar, and I shall help him.' + +'You!' and Arthur laughed, merrily, 'How will you help him, I'd like to +know.' + +'I shall teach school, or give music lessons, or do both to earn +something for grandmother,' Jerrie answered, quickly. 'And I shall help +Harold, and shall pay Mr. Frank all he gave grandmother for my board. I +know just how much it is. Three dollars a week from the time I was four +years old until I was sixteen and came here to school--almost two +thousand dollars; a big sum, I know, but I shall pay it. You will see,' +she went on rapidly and earnestly; as she saw the amused look on +Arthur's face, and felt that he was laughing at her. + +'You are going to pay my brother to the uttermost farthing, but what of +me? Am I to be left in the cold?' he asked, as he arose from the table +and seated himself upon the sofa near the window. + +'I expect to be your debtor all my life,' Jerrie said, as went over to +him and laid her soft, white arms around his neck. 'I can never pay you +for all you have done for me, never. I can only love you, which I do so +dearly, as the kindest and best of men.' + +She was stooping over him now; and putting up his hands Arthur drew her +close to him, so that the two faces were again plainly reflected, side +by side in the mirror opposite--the man's gentle and tender as a +woman's, the girl's flushed, and eager, and excited as she caught a +second time the likeness which had made her cold and faint when she +first saw it, and which made her faint again as she clasped her hands +tightly together, and leaning a little forward, looked earnestly at the +faces in the mirror, while she listened to what Arthur was saying. + +'You owe me nothing, Cherry; the indebtedness is all on my side, and has +been since the day when a little white sun-bonnet showed itself at my +window, and a clear, ringing voice, which I can hear yet, said to me, +"Mr. Crazyman, don't you want some cherries?" You don't know how much of +life and sunshine you brought me with the cherries. My sky was very +black those days, and but for you I am certain that I should long ere +this have been what you called me--a crazy man for sure, locked up +behind bars and bolts. My little Cherry has been all the world to me; +and though she is very grand, and tall, and stately now, I love to +remember her as the child in the sun-bonnet, clinging to the ladder, and +talking to the lunatic inside. That would make a fine picture, and it I +were an artist I would paint it some day. Perhaps Maude will. Poor +little Maude! Did I tell you that while she was absent she dabbled in +water-colors? and now she has what she calls a studio, where she +perpetrates the most atrocious daubs you ever saw. Poor Maude! She is +weak in the upper story, but is, on the whole, a nice girl, and very +pretty, too, with her black eyes, and brilliant color, and kittenish +ways. I did not care for her once, but we are great friends now, and she +is a comfort to me in your absence. I am afraid, though, that she is not +long for this world. Everything tires her, and she has grown so thin +that a breath might blow her away. I think it would kill Frank to lose +her. His life is bound up in hers; and he once said to me, either that +he had sold, or would sell, his soul for her. What do you suppose he +meant?' + +Jerrie did not reply. The likeness in the mirror had disappeared as +Arthur grew more in earnest, and she listened more intently to what he +was saying of Maude, every word as he went on a blow from which she +shrank as from some physical pain. + +'Yes,' Arthur continued, 'Maude is weak, mentally and physically, though +I believe she is trying hard to improve her wind, or rather, that young +man, Harold, is trying to improve it for her. He is at the house nearly +everyday, or she is at the cottage. But, hold on! I wasn't to tell, and +I haven't told--only he reads to her, sometimes outside when the weather +will admit, but oftener in her _studio_, where she talks to him of art, +and where I once saw him giving her a sitting while she tried to sketch +his face. A caricature, I called it, ridiculing it so much that she put +it away unfinished, and is now at work on some water-lilies he brought +her, and which are really very good. Mrs. Tracy is not pleased with +Harold's visits, and I once overheard her saying to Maude, "Why do you +encourage the attentions of that young man? why do you run after him so, +down there every day?" Hold on, again! What a tattler I am! Why don't I +stick to Dolly, who said, "You certainly do not care for him. He hasn't +a cent to his name, nor any family and has even worked in Peterkin's +furnace." What Maude replied I do not know, I only heard Dolly bang the +door hard as she left the room, so I suppose the answer was not a +pleasing one. Dolly is a grand lady and would not like her daughter to +marry an ordinary man like Harold.' + +'No,' Jerrie said, slowly, as if speaking were an effort. 'N-no; and you +think Harold likes Maude very much?' + +'Likes her? Yes. Why shouldn't he like a girl as pretty as she is, +especially when she meets him more than half way?' Arthur replied, and +Jerrie continued in the same measured tone: + +'Ye-es, and you think he would marry her if her mother would permit it?' + +'He is not at all likely to do that,' Arthur answered, quickly, 'A man +seldom marries a woman who throws herself at his head and lets him see +how much she cares for him, and Maude is doing just that. She cannot +conceal anything. I tell you, Cherry, if the time ever comes when you +love somebody better than all the world beside, don't let him know until +he speaks for himself. Don't be lightly won. Better be shy and cold, +than demonstrative and gushing, like Maude. Gretchen was shy as a fawn, +and after I told her I loved her she would not believe it possible. But, +child, you look fagged and tired. It is time you were in bed. I have +talked you nearly to death.' + +'I am not tired,' Jerrie said, 'and I want to know what it is about +Maude's going to the cottage, which you must not tell me. Is she there +very, very often, and does Harold like to have her come, and is that +throwing herself at his head, as you call it?' + +She had her arm around his neck in a coaxing kind of way, and Arthur +smoothed the soft white hand resting on his coat-collar, as he answered, +laughingly: + +'Mother Eve herself. You would have eaten the apple, too, had you been +Mrs. Adam. No, no, I shall not tell any secrets. You must wait and see +for yourself. And now you must go, for I am tired myself.' + +She said good-night, and went to her room, but not to sleep at once, +because of the tumult of emotions which had been roused by what Arthur +had told her of Maude and Harold. + +'I don't believe now that I really meant him to make love to her when I +asked him to amuse her,' she whispered to herself, as she dashed away +two great tear-drops from her cheeks. + +Then, after a moment, she continued: + +'But they shall never know. No one shall ever know that I care, for I +don't, or I am not going to. Harold is my brother, and I shall love +Maude as my sister, and I will do all I can to make her more like what +Harold's wife should be. She is beautiful, and good, and sweet, and +true, and with money and position can do far more for him than I +could--I, the daughter of a peasant woman, the child of the carpet bag; +and yet--' + +Here Jerrie's hands beat the air excitedly as she recalled the wild +fancy which had twice taken possession of her that night, and which had +been born of that likeness seen in the mirror. Many times since she had +passed from childhood to womanhood had she speculated upon the mystery +which enshrouded her, while one recollection after another of past +events flitted through her brain, only to bewilder her awhile and then +to disappear into oblivion. But never before had she been affected as +she was that night when the possibility of what might be nearly drove +her wild. + +'Oh, if that were so,' she said, 'I could help Harold, and I'd give +everything to him and make him my king, as he is worthy to be. There is +something far back,' she continued 'something different from the woman +who died at my side. That face which haunts me so often was a reality +somewhere. It has kissed me and called me darling, and I saw the life +fade out of it--saw it cold and dead. I know I did, and sometime, when I +have paid that debt to Mr. Frank Tracy, and have helped Harold, and made +grandmother comfortable, I'll go to Germany, to Wiesbaden and +everywhere, and clear the mystery, if possible; and if mother was a +peasant girl, with hands coarse and hard, and black from labor in the +field, then, I, too, will be a peasant girl, and marry a peasant lad, +and draw his potatoes home in a cart, while he trudges at my side.' + +At this picture of herself Jerrie laughed out loud, and while trying to +think how it would seem to draw potatoes in a cart, after having dug +them, she fell asleep and dreamed of Maude and Harold, and studios and +lilies, and a face which was a caricature, as Arthur had said, and +which, when at a late hour she awoke, proved to be that of the +chambermaid, whom Arthur had sent to rouse her, as he was waiting for +his breakfast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +MAUDE'S LETTER. + + + TRACY PARK, June ----, 18--. + + 'My darling Jerrie:--I wish I could send you a whiff of the + delicious air I am breathing this morning from the roses under my + window and the pond-lilies which Harold brought me about an hour + ago. Don't you think he was up before the sun, and went out upon the + river to get them for me because he knows how fond I am of them, and + I told him yesterday that they always made me think of you, they are + an sweet, and pure, and fair. I wish you could have seen him, or, + rather, have heard his voice and seen the look in his eyes, as he + said: "Yes; Jerrie is the lily and you are the rose; you set each + other off admirably. I am glad you are so good friends." + + 'Harold thinks the world of you, Jerrie, and were you his own + sister, I am sure he could not love you better than he does. How + handsome he has grown since I went away. I always thought him + splendid-looking, but he is more than that now; so tall and + straight, with his head set on his shoulders in such an aristocratic + kind of way, and then his eyes, which look at you so--well, I don't + know how they do look at you, but they are eyes you would trust and + never be afraid of anything bad behind them. Uncle Arthur says his + mother was lovely, and that his father was one of the handsomest men + of his time, but I am certain that Harold looks better than either + of them, and has inherited the good qualities of both, without a + single bad one. He is so nice and gentlemanly, and has such a kind, + courteous way of saying and doing things. Fred Raymond--who, you + know, is so sweet on Nina St. Clair--says that if Harold had all the + blood of a hundred kings in his veins he could not be more courtly + or dignified in his manner than he is, and that is a great deal for + a Kentuckian to say. Fred is now at Grassy Spring, visiting Dick St. + Claire, and will stay until Nina comes home. I wish Harold was rich, + and if I had money of my own, I believe I'd give it to him, only he + wouldn't take it, he is so awfully proud, and afraid somebody will + help him; and yet I respect him for the pride, which has made him + teach school, and do everything he could find to do in order to go + through college the last two years and pay his own way. But I did + not like it a bit when I heard he had accepted a situation in + Peterkin's furnace. I know he had good wages, but it is dreadful to + think of Harold under such a man, even if Billy is there. When I + told Uncle Arthur he laughed, and said: "Honor and shame from no + condition rise." I wonder what he meant? I asked Tom, and he said I + was a fool. + + 'Weren't you proud of Harold, though, the day he graduated? What an + oration that was! and how the building shook with applause when he + came on and when he went off! And do you remember the expression of + his face when he picked up the bouquet of roses I threw him, and + looked over where we sat? I thought he touched his lips to them, but + was not sure. Do you remember? He is studying law now all the time + he can get in Judge St. Claire's office, but he comes to read to me + for an hour or more nearly every day. He came of his own accord, + too. I did not ask him, or even hint, as Tom says I do, when I want + anything; and sometimes I half think he is trying to drive something + into my head, or was, when he began to read to me about those old + Greeks, Hesiod, or Herod, I don't know which, and Theogony--that's + rather a pretty name, don't you think so? But I could not stand the + Greeks. My mind is too weak to be impressed by anything Grecian, + unless it is the Grecian bend. You tried it until you were + discouraged and gave it up, telling me I was the stupidest idiot you + ever saw! That was the time we had the a spelling-school in the + Tramp House, and you were the teacher, and Harold chose me first, + and I spelled biscuit "bisket!" Do you remember how I cried? and + when you told me nobody would ever like me unless I knew something, + Harold said. "Don't talk like that, Jerrie; those who know the least + are frequently liked the best." + + 'What a comfort those words have been to me; and especially at the + time when I failed so utterly in examination at Vassar and had to + give it up. Oh, Jerrie, you do not know how mortified I was over + that failure, to think I knew so little; and the worst of it is I + can't learn, or understand; or remember, and it makes my head ache + so to try. I am sorry most on father's account, he is so proud of + me and would like to see me take the lead in everything. Poor + father! he is growing old so fast. Why, his hair is white as snow, + and he sometimes talks to himself just as Uncle Arthur does. I + wonder what ails him that he never smiles or seems interested in + anything except when I am smoothing his hair or sitting on his knee; + then he brightens up and calls me his pet and darling, and talks + queer kind of talk, I think. He asks me if I am glad I live at Tracy + Park--if I like the pretty things he buys me, and if I should be as + happy if I were poor--not real poor, you know, but as we were at + Langley before I was born. I went there with him a few weeks ago for + the first time; and oh, my goodness gracious! such a poky little + house, with the stairs going right up in the room, and such a tiny, + stuffy bedroom! I tried to fancy mamma's scent bottles, and brushes, + and combs, and the box for polishing her nails, transported to that + room, and her in there with Rosalie dressing her hair. It made me + laugh till I cried, and I think papa did actually cry, for he sat + down upon the stairs and turned his head away, and when he looked up + his eyes were all wet and red, with such a sorry look in them that I + went straight up and kissed him, and asked him playfully if he was + crying for the old days when he lived in that house and sold codfish + in the store. + + '"Yes, Maude," he said. "I believe I'd give the remainder of my life + if I could be put back right here as I was when your uncle Arthur's + letter came and turned my head. Oh, if the years and everything + could be blotted out!" + + 'What do you suppose he meant? I was frightened, and did not say a + word until he asked me those questions I told you about; did I like + pretty things? did I like to live at Tracy Park, and could I bear to + be poor and live in the Langley house? I just told him, 'No, I + should not like to live in Langley, that I did like living at Tracy + Park, and did like the pretty things which money bought.' + + '"Then I ought to be content, if my beautiful Maude is so," he said, + and the tired look on his face lifted a little. + + 'He calls me beautiful so often. But I don't see it, do you? Of + course you don't. You think me too black, and small, and thin, and + so I am. Harold never told me I was pretty, and--I tell this in + confidence, and you must never breathe it to any one--I have tried + to wring a compliment from him so many times, but it's no use, I + can't do it, he never understands anything, though he does sometimes + say, when he brings me a bright rose: "Wear it, Maude; it will + become your style." + + 'He never says you are pretty, either, and that is strange, for I + think you have the loveliest and sweetest face I ever saw, except + Gretchen's in the picture, you look like her; I saw it so plainly + two years ago, when you were here one evening, and I spoke of it to + father. Who was she, I wonder? Uncle Arthur does not talk much of + her now, though I believe he kisses her every night and morning. How + much he thinks of you, and how much he has talked of _Cherry_ since + his visit to you in May. I am so glad you liked the dress, he was so + anxious about it. Did he say any thing to you of a trip to + California? He took us quite by surprise two weeks ago by telling us + he was going. He wanted to see the Yosemite Valley before he died, + he said, and June was the time to see it. So he started off with + Charles about ten days ago, and the house seems like a tomb without + him. + + 'If I can, I shall come and see you graduate with the other Vassars, + though I shall be ashamed to be seen where I failed so utterly. I + might have known I should, for I haven't about me a single quality + which would entitle me to be a Vassar, unless it is my fondness for + _gum_. Do you really chew an awful lot there, or is it a fib? How + learned you and Nina will be, and how you will cast me in the shade, + making me seem stupider than ever. I did try very hard to learn to + speak German when I was abroad with mamma, for father wished it + particularly; but I could not do it, and gave it up. I have not a + capacity for anything, except to love and suffer and sacrifice for + those I love. Do you know, it sometimes frightens me to think how + devotedly I could love some one. Not a girl, but a man--a lover--a + husband, who loved me. Why, I would give my life for him, and bear + any kind of torture if it would add to his happiness. But why write + this nonsense to you, who never acted as if you cared an atom for + any boy, not even Dick St. Claire, who used to give you sugar hearts + and call you his little wife. _Entre nous_ (who says I do not know + two French words?) mamma would like to make a match between Dick and + me, but she never will--never! Dick is nice, and I like him, but not + that way. Poor mamma! How much she thinks of money and position! I + tell her she ought to have a photograph of the old Langley House + hung up in her room to keep her in mind of her former condition. + Just now she has the craze to hammer brass and paint in + water-colors, and goes over to Mrs. Atherton's to take lessons. + Don't you think that Mrs. Peterkin--_May Jane_--had like aspirations + with mamma, and wanted to join the class; but the teacher found that + she had as many pupils as she could attend to, and so May Jane is + left out in the cold. But Mr. Peterkin says, 'By George, my wife + shall have 'complishments if money can buy em!' And so, I suppose, + she will. What strides those Peterkins have taken, to be sure, and + what a big house he has built with such a funny name.--"_Le + Batteau_", which, as he pronounces it, sounds like _Lubber-too_! It + is just finished, and they have moved into it. I have not been + there, but Tom has, and he says it fairly glitters, it is so + gorgeous, and looks inside like those chariots which come with + circuses. + + 'You ought to hear Peterkin talk about his '_Ann Lizy_, who, he + says, "is to Vassar, gettin schoolin' with the big bugs, and when + she comes _hum_ he is goin' to get her a hoss and cart for her own, + and a maid, and a vally, too, if she wants one." Well, there are + some bigger fools in the world than I am, and that's a comfort. As + for Billy, he stammers worse, if possible, than he used to when he + told us we were "pl-p-plaguey mean to pl-pl-plague Ann Lizy so;" but + I guess I will let him burst upon you in all the magnificence of his + summer attire--his almost white clothes, short coat, tight pants, + pointed shoes, and stove-pipe hat to make him look taller. He comes + here occasionally to see Tom, and always talks of you. I do believe + you might be Mrs. Billy Peterkin and live at _Lubber-too_, if you + wanted; but, really, Billy is very kind to Harold, who gets twice as + much wages in the office, when he writes there, as he would if it + were not for Billy. + + 'Tom is home, doing nothing, but taking his ease and aping an + English swell. You know he was with mamma and me in England, and + since his return has effected everything English, and looks quite + like the _dude_ of the period. He, too, seems interested in your + return; and I don't know but you might be mistress of Tracy Park, if + you could fancy the incumbrance. Dick St. Claire is going to Vassar + to see you and Nina graduate; and Harold, too, if he possibly can. + He is very busy just now with something he must finish, and perhaps + he cannot be there. Tom is going, and Fred Raymond, and Billy + Peterkin--quite a turn-out from Shannondale. + + 'I can hardly wait to see you. Only think, it is almost two years + since I said good-bye; for we went to Europe just after Harold was + graduated, and your last Christmas holidays were over before we came + home. + + 'What a long letter I have written you, and have not told you a word + of my health, about which you inquired so particularly. Did Uncle + Arthur tell you anything? I wish he had not, for it worries me to + have people look, and act, and talk as if I were sick, when I am + not. If I had not a pain in my side, and a tickling cough, which + keeps me awake nights and makes me sweat until my hair is wet, I + should be perfectly strong; and but for the pain and the weariness, + I feel as well as I ever did; and I go out nearly every day, and I + don't want to die and leave my beautiful home, and father, and + mother, and you, and--everybody I love. I am too young to die. I + cannot die. + + 'Oh, Jerrie, I am glad you are coming home! You will do me good, + just as Harold does. He is so strong every way, and so kind I can't + begin to tell you what he has been to me since I came home in + March--more than a friend--more than a brother. I do not see why you + never fell in love with him, thought I suppose it is living with + him always, as you have, and looking upon him as a brother. + + 'And now I must say good-bye, for I am getting tired and must rest. + I was at the cottage this morning, and Harold is coming here this + afternoon to read Tennyson's "May Queen" to me. He has read it a + dozen times, but I am never tired of it, although it makes me cry to + think of that grave in the long grass, with little Alice in it, cold + and dead, listening for those she loved to come and weep over her. + You know, she says to her mother: + + '"I shall hear you when you pass, + With your feet above me, in the long and pleasant grass." + + 'Oh, Jerrie, if it should be--you know what I mean; if there should + come a time when people say to each other, "Maude Tracy is dead!" + you'll come often, won't you, and think of me always as the friend, + who, weak and stupid as she was, loved you dearly--dearly. + + 'Now, good-bye again. Harold has just come in, and says, "Remember + me to Jerrie, and tell her I shall hope to see her graduated, but do + not know, I am so busy." + + 'Truly and lovingly, + + 'MAUDE TRACY.' + + 'P.S.--Tom has come in, and says, "Give my love to Jerrie." + + 'P.S. No. 2.--Dick St. Claire and Fred Raymond are here, and both + send their regards. + + 'P.S. No. 3.--If you will believe me, Billy Peterkin is here, + nibbling his little cane, and says, "Present my compliments to Miss + Crawford." + + 'Just think of it. Five, or, rather, four young men--for Tom don't + count--for me to entertain. But I can do it, and rather like it, + too, though they all tire me, except Harold.' + +Jerrie read this letter, which was received a few days before +commencement, two or three times, and each time she read it, the little +ache in her heart kept growing larger, until at last it was actual pain, +and covering her face with her hands, she cried like a child. + +'It is Maude I am crying for,' she kept saying to herself. 'I know she +is worse than they have told me. She is going to die, and I am mean to +grudge her Harold's love, if that will make her happier. Why does she go +to the cottage so often, I wonder? Is it to see him? He would not like +me to do that. He was chagrined when I kissed him at Harvard. But, then, +he does not love me, and he does Maude; but he _must_ see me graduate. +I'll write and tell him so. That, surely, will not be "throwing myself +at his head;"' and seizing her pen, Jerrie wrote, rapidly and excitedly: + + 'DEAR HAROLD: I have just heard from Maude, who says there is a + possibility that you will not come to Vassar; but I shall be so + disappointed if you do not. I would rather have you here than all + the wise old heads in the State. So come without fail, no matter + what you are doing. I can't imagine anything which should keep you. + Tell grandma I am longing to be home, and keep thinking just how + cool and nice the kitchen looks, with the hop-vine over the door; + but she will I have to raise the roof soon, for I do believe I've + grown an inch since last winter and am in danger of knocking my + brains out in those low rooms. + + 'Good-bye till I see you. + + 'JERRIE.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +'HE COMETH NOT,' SHE SAID. + + +The _she_ was Jerrie, who, the night before commencement, was shaking +hands with Dick St. Claire, Fred Raymond, Tom Tracy, and Billy Peterkin, +all of whom had arrived on the evening train, and after dinner had come +to pay their respects to the young ladies from Shannondale. The _he_ way +Harold, for whom Jerrie asked at once. + +'Where is Harold? Is he coming in the morning?' she said, as she stood, +tall, and straight, and queen-like, before the four young men, who +glanced at each other with a significance in their looks, which she did +not understand. + +It was Dick St. Claire who took it upon himself to explain. + +'No, Hal is not coming,' he said, 'and he is awfully cut up about it. He +thought he might manage it until yesterday when he found it impossible +to do so. You see, he has taken a job which must be done at a certain +time.' + +'Taken a job!' Jerrie repeated. 'What job? What do you mean?' and her +blue eyes flashed upon each of the young men, falling last upon Tom +Tracy, as if she expected him to answer, which he did in the half +sneering, half satirical tone which made her hate him and long to box +his ears. + +'Why, it's a sort of carpenter's job,' he said; 'and I heard his hammer +going this morning before sunrise, for I was up early for once and out +in the park. Sounded as if he were shingling a roof, and that's work, +you know, which must be done in fair weather. It might rain and spoil +the plastering.' + +'Thank you,' Jerrie answered, curtly. 'Harold is shingling a roof, and +cannot come. But where is Maude? Is she shingling a roof, too?' + +'Yes, b-b-by Jove. You've h-hit it. Maude's sh-shingling a roof, too: +the b-best joke out,' Billy Peterkin chimed in, glad of an opportunity +to join in the conversation, and so get some attention from Jerrie. + +He was a little man, only four feet five with heels, and he wore the +light clothes of which Maude had written, and a stove-pipe hat, and dove +colored gloves, and carried a little cane, which he constantly nibbled +at, when he was not beating his little boot with it. But he was +good-natured and inoffensive and kind-hearted, with nothing low or mean +in his nature; and Jerrie, who looked as if she could have picked him up +and thrown him over the house, liked him far better than she did the +'elegant Tom,' as she had nicknamed him, who stood six feet without +heels, and who knew exactly what shade of color to choose, from his +neck-tie to his hose, which were always silk of the finest quality. Tom +was faultlessly gotten up, and he knew it, and carried himself as if he +knew it, and knew, too, that he was Tom Tracy, the future heir of Tracy +Park, if he were fortunate enough to outlive both his uncle and his +father. Jerrie had disliked him when he was a boy and she disliked him +now, and turning her back upon him pretended to be interested in 'little +Billy,' as she was in the habit of calling him; he was so short and she +was so tall. + +He was speaking of Harold, and he said: + +'It's a dused shame he co-couldn't come, b-but he sent some money by +Dick to buy you a b-basket in New York, and by George, we've got you a +st-stunner down to the h-hotel; only I'm a-a-fraid it'll be w-wilted +some b-before to-morrow. + +'Yes,' Dick said, coming forward, 'I should not have told you now, if +Billy had not let it out; Hal did give me some money to buy a basket of +flowers for you; the very best I could find, he said, and I got a big +one; but I'm afraid it was not very fresh, for it begins to look wilted +now. You must blame Tom, though; he pretends to be up in flowers, and +advised my getting this one in New York, because it was so handsome and +cheap.' + +'Oh, it is all right,' Tom drawled, in that affected voice he had +adopted since his return from Europe. 'It was the best, any way, we +could get for the money. Hal, you know, isn't very flush in the pocket.' + +It was a mean speech to make, and all Tom's audience felt it to be so, +while Jerry crimsoned with resentment and answered hotly: + +'Faded or not, I shall care more for Harold's flowers than for all the +rest which may be given me.' + +This was not very encouraging to three at least of the young men who +were intending to make the finest floral offering they could find, to +the girl whom in their secret hearts they admired more than any girl +they had ever seen, and who, had she made the slightest sign, might have +been installed at Grassy Spring, or Tracy Park, or Le Bateau, within +less than a month. But Jerry had never made a sign, and had laughed and +chatted and flirted with them all, not excepting Tom, who had long ago +dropped his supercilious air of superiority and patronage when talking +with her, and treated her with a gentleness and consideration almost +lover-like. Horribly jealous of Harold, whom he still felt infinitely +above, although he did not now often openly show it, he had encouraged +the visits of the latter to Tracy Park, and by jokes and hints and +innuendoes had fed the flame which he knew was burning in his sister's +heart. + +'There will be a jolly row when mother finds it out,' he said to Maude +one day; 'for you know she holds her head a great deal higher than Hal +Hastings, who isn't the chap I'd choose for a brother-in-law. But if you +like him, all right. Stick to him, and I'll stand by you to the death.' + +This was to Maude; while to his mother, when, she complained that Harold +came there quite too often, and that Maude was running after him too +much, he said: + +'Nonsense, mother! let Maude alone. She knows what she is about, and +would not wipe her shoes on Hal Hastings, much less marry him. She is +lonely without Nina and Jerry, and not strong enough to read much +herself, and Hal amuses her; that's all. I know. I have talked with her. +I am keeping watch, and the moment I see any indications of love-making +on either side I will give you warning, and together we will put my fine +chap in his proper place in a jiffy.' + +Tom was a young man now of twenty-seven, tall, and finely-formed, with +all his mother's good looks, and his Uncle Arthur's courtliness of +manner when he felt that his companions were worthy of his notice, but +proud, and arrogant, and self-asserting with his inferiors, or those +whom he thought such. He had never overcome his unwarrantable dislike of +Harold, whom he considered far beneath him; but Harold was too popular +to be openly treated with contempt, and so there was a show of +friendship and civility between them, without any real liking on either +side. Tom could not tell just when he began to look upon Jerrie as the +loveliest girl he had ever seen, and to contemplate the feasibility of +making her Mrs. Tom Tracy. His admiration for her had been of slow +growth, for she was worse than a nobody--a child of the Tramp House, of +whose antecedents nothing was known, while he was a Tracy, of Tracy +Park, whom a duchess might be proud to wed. But he had succumbed at last +to Jerrie's beauty, and sprightliness, and originality, and now his love +for her had become the absorbing passion of his life, and he would have +made her his wife at any moment, in the face of all his mother's +opposition. By some subtle intuition, he felt that Harold was his rival, +though he could not fathom the nature of Harold's feeling for Jerrie, so +carefully did the latter conceal it. + +'He must regard her as something more than a sister,' he thought; 'he +cannot see her every day without loving her, and by-and-by he will tell +her so, and then my cake is dough. If I can only get him committed to +Maude while Jerrie is away, my way is clear, for I am quite sure she +does not care for Dick, and she would be a fool not to take Tracy Park +if she could get it. And why shouldn't Hal love Maude? She is pretty, +and sweet, and winning, and will some day be an heiress. Hal may thank +his stars to get her, though I hate him as I do poison.' + +It was Tom who had insisted that Harold's basket should be bought in New +York, where there was a better chance, he said, and he had himself +selected flowers which he knew were not fresh, and would be still worse +twenty-four hours later. + +'Why don't you get yours here, if it is the be-best place?' Will +Peterkin had asked him, and he replied: + +'Oh, we can't be bothered with more than one basket in the train. I can +find something there.' + +He did not say what he intended to find, or that baskets were quite too +common for him. But after leaving the young ladies in the evening, he +went to a florist's and ordered for Jerrie a book of white daisies, with +a rack of purple pansies for it to rest upon. + +'That will certainly be unique, and show her that I have taste,' he +thought. + +For Nina a bouquet was sufficient, while for Ann Eliza Peterkin he +ordered nothing. Tom could be lavish of his money where his own interest +was concerned, but where he had no interest he was stingy and even mean, +and so poor little red-haired Ann Eliza, who would have prized a leaf +from him more than all the florist's garden from another, was to get +nothing from him. + +'What business has old Peterkin's daughter to graduate with ladies, any +way?' he thought, and he looked on with a sneer, while Billy ordered +five baskets, one of which was to be of white roses, with a heart of +blue forget-me-nots in the centre. + +'What, under heaven, are you going to do with five baskets?' he asked; +but Billy was non committal, for he would not own that three were +intended for Jerrie, whom he wished to carry off the palm so far as +flowers were concerned. + +And she did; for of all the young ladies who the next day passed in +review before the multitude, no one attracted so much attention or +received so much praise as Jerrie. For clearness of reasoning, depth of +thought, and purity of language, her essay, though a little too +metaphysical, perhaps, was accounted the best, and listened to with rapt +attention. And when the musical voice ceased, and the young girl, who +had never looked more beautiful than she did then, with the sparkle in +her eyes and the flush on her cheeks, bowed to the audience, bouquets of +flowers fell around her like hailstones, while basket after basket was +handed up to her, Tom Tracy's book showing conspicuously from the rest +and attracting unusual admiration. + +But, alas for poor Harold's gift! Dick had watered it the last thing +before going to bed and the first thing in the morning, but the flowers +were limp and faded, and gave forth a sickly odor, while the leaves of +the roses were dropping off, and only the size, which was immense, +remained to tell what it once had been. But Jerrie singled it out from +all the rest, and held it in her hands until the exercises were over; +and that night, at a reception given to the graduates, she wore in her +bosom two faded pink roses, the only ones she could make hold together, +and which Nina told her smelled a little old. But Jerrie did not care. +They were Harold's roses, which he had sent to her, and she prized them +more than all the rest she had received. At little Billy's _heart_ she +had laughed till she cried, and then had given it to a young girl, not a +graduate, who admired it exceedingly. Tom's book she knew was exquisite, +and placed it with others, and thanked him for it, and told him it was +lovely, and then gave it to Ann Eliza, whose offerings had been so few. +A bouquet from Dick St. Claire and Fred Raymond, a basket from her +brother, and one more from _herself_, were all, and the little +red-haired girl, who, with her heavy gold chain and locket, and diamond +ear-rings, and three bracelets, and five finger-rings, had looked like a +jeweller's shop, felt aggrieved and neglected, and Jerrie found her +sobbing in her room as if her heart was broken. + +'Only four snipping things,' she said, 'and you had twenty-five, and +mother will be so disappointed, and father too, when he knows just how +few I got. I wish I was popular like you.' + +'Never mind,' Jerrie said, cheerfully. 'It was only a happen so--my +getting so many. You are just as nice as I am, and I'll give you part of +mine to take home to your mother. I can never carry them all. I should +have to charter a car,' and in a few moments six of Jerrie's baskets +were transferred to Ann Eliza's room, including Tom Tracy's book. + +'Oh, I can't take that, Ann Eliza said; he didn't mean it for me; he +didn't give me anything, and I--I--' + +Here she began to sob again, and laying her hand pityingly upon the +bowed head, Jerrie said: + +'Yes, I know; I understand. Something from Tom Tracy would have pleased +you more than from anyone; but listen to me, Annie. Tom is not worth +your tears.' + +'Don't you care for him?' the girl asked, lifting her head suddenly. + +'Not a particle, as you mean. You have nothing to fear from me,' Jerrie +replied. + +This was a grain of comfort to the girl who had been weak enough to +waste her affections upon Tom Tracy, and who, fearing Jerrie was a +rival, was weak enough to hope that with her out of the way she might +eventually succeed in bringing him to her feet, for she knew his +fondness for money, and knew, too, that she should in all probability be +one day the heiress to a million. So great was her infatuation for the +man who had never shown her the slightest attention, that even his +flowers, though second-hand, and not intended for her, were everything +to her, and when she packed her trunk that night she put them carefully +away in many wrappings of paper, to be brought out at home in the +privacy of her own room, and kept as long as the least beauty or perfume +remained. + +It was a merry party which the New York train carried to Shannondale the +next day, and Jerrie was the merriest and gayest of them all, bandying +jokes and jests, and coquetting pretty equally with the young men, until +neither Tom, nor Dick, nor Billy quite knew what he was doing or saying. +But always in her gayest moods, when her eyes were brightest and her wit +the keenest, there was in Jerrie's heart a thought of Harold, who had so +disappointed her, and a wonder as to the nature of the _job_ which had +been of sufficient importance to keep him from Vassar. + +'Shingling a roof, and Maude is helping him,' Billy said, 'I wonder what +he meant?' she was thinking, when she heard Ann Eliza cry out, that the +towers of 'Le Bateau' were visible. + +As she had not seen that wonderful structure since its completion, she +arose from her seat, and going to the window, looked out upon the +massive pile in the distance, looking, with its turrets, and towers, and +round projections, like some old castle rather than a home where people +could live and be happy. + +'It is very grand,' she said to Ann Eliza; and Billy, who was leaning +toward her, replied: + +'Yes, too grand for a Pe-Peterkin. It wants you, there, Jerrie, as its +m-m-master-p-p-piece, and, by Jove, you can b-be there, too, if you +will!' + +No one heard this attempt at an offer but Jerrie, who, with a saucy toss +of the head, replied, laughingly: + +'Thank you, Billy. I'll think of it, and let you know when I make up my +mind to come. Just now I prefer the cottage in the lane to any spot on +earth. Oh, here, we are at the station,' she cried, as the train shot +round a curve and Shannondale was reached. + +There was a scrambling for bundles, and flowers, and wraps. Fred Raymond +gathering up Nina's, while Dick, and Tom, and Billy, almost fought over +Jerrie's, and poor little Ann Eliza would have carried hers alone if +Jerrie had not helped her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +IN SHANNONDALE. + + +Nine years of change in Shannondale, and the green hill-side, which +stretched from the common down to the river where, when our story +opened, sheep and cows were feeding in the pasture land, is thickly +covered with houses of every kind of architecture, from the Mansard roof +to the Queen Anne style, just coming into fashion, while the meadow +lands are dotted over with the small houses of the men who work in the +large furnace, or manufactory, which Peterkin had bought and enlarged, +as a monument, he said, and where he sometimes employed as many as four +hundred men, and had set up a whistle which could be heard for miles and +miles, and nearly blew off the chimney-tops when it sounded in the +morning at six o'clock, it was so loud and shrill. A screecher, Peterkin +called it, and he always listened with a smile of pride and satisfaction +on his face when he heard the first indications of its blowing, and knew +that four hundred men were quickening their stops on account of it, +lest they should be a few minutes late and have their wages docked. + +Peterkin counted two millions now, and boasted the finest, or at least, +the most expensive house in the county, not even excepting Tracy Park, +which still held its own for solidity and old-fashioned dignity, and was +the show place to the strangers visiting in Shannondale. + +When Peterkin made $20,000 in one day from some speculation in stocks, +he said to Mr. St. Claire, who was now a judge, and with whom he +pretended to be on terms of great familiarity: + +'I say, judge, I'm goin' to build a buster, and whip the crowd. I've +lived about long enough in that little nine-by-ten hole, and I'll be +dumbed if I don't show 'em what I can do. I'll have towers, and +bay-windows, and piazzers, with checkered work all 'round 'em, and a +preservatory, and all kinds of new fangled doin's. May Jane and Ann +'Liza want that Queen Anny style, but I tell 'em no such squatty things +for me. They can have all the little winder panes and stained glass, +cart loads on't, if they want; but I'll have the rooms big and high, so +a feller won't bump his head. Yes, _sir_! I'm in for a smasher!' + +And he built 'a smasher' on the site of the old house, behind which the +'Liza Ann,' or what there was left of it, was lying; and when the house +was done, and furnished with the most gaudy and expensive furniture he +could find in Boston and New York, he said it had just as good a right +to a name as any body. There was Tracy Park, and Grassy Springs, and +Brier Hill, and Collingwood, and he'd be dumbed if he'd be outdone by +any of 'em. + +'He'd like to call it 'Liza Ann,' he said to Arthur, whom he met one day +in the park, and to whom he began to talk of his new house. 'He'd like +to call it 'Liza Ann, after the old boat, for that craft was the +beginnin' of his bein' any body; but May Jane and Ann 'Liza wouldn't +hear to it. They wanted some new-frangled foreign name; could Mr. Tracy +suggest something?' + +'How would "_Le Bateau_" do? It is the French for "the boat," and might +cover your difficulty,' Arthur said, without a thought that his +suggestion would be adopted. + +But it was, immediately. + +'That's jest the checker. 'Liza Ann with a new name, _Lub--lub_--what +d'ye call her?' Peterkin said, and Arthur replied: + +'_Le Bateau_.' + +'Yes, yes--_Lubber-toe_; that'll suit May Jane tip-top. Beats all what +high notions she's got! Why, I don't s'pose she any more remembers that +she used to wash Miss Atherton's stun steps than you remember somethin' +that never happened. Do you?' + +Arthur thought very likely that she did not, and Peterkin went on: + +'You say it means a boat in French; _canal_, do you s'pose?' + +Arthur did not think it mattered what boat, and Peterkin continued: + +'_Lubber-toe_! Sounds droll, but I like it, I'll see an engraver to-day +but how do you spell the plaguy thing!' + +Arthur wrote it on a slip of paper, which he handed Peterkin, who began +slowly: + +_L-e le, b-a-t-bat; le-bat_. Why, what in thunder! That ain't +_Lubbertoe_. 'Tain't nothin'!' + +With an amused smile Arthur explained that the pronunciation of French +words had very little to do with the way they were spelled; then, very +carefully pronouncing the name several times, and making Peterkin repeat +it after him, he said good-bye, and walked away, thinking to himself: + +'There are bigger lunatics outside the asylum than I am, but it is not +possible the fool will adopt that name.' + +But the fool did. May Jane approved, and Billy did not care, provided +his father would pronounce it right, and so in less than a week, '_Le +Bateau_' was on Peterkin's door-plate, and on the two gate-posts of the +entrance to his grounds, and May Jane's visiting cards bore the words: + +'Mrs. Peterkin. Le Bateau. Fridays.' + +She had her _days_ now, like Mrs. Atherton, and Mrs. St. Claire, and +Mrs. Tracy, and had her butler, too, and her maid, and her carriage; and +after the house was furnished, and furnished in style which reminded one +of a theatre, it was so gorgeous and gay, Peterkin concluded to have a +_coat of arms_ for his carriage; and remembering how Arthur had helped +him in a former dilemma he sought him again and told him his trouble. + +'That _Lubber-too_ (he called it _too_ now) 'went down like hot cakes, +and was just the thing,' he said, 'and now I want some picter for my +carriage door to kinder mark me, and show who I am. You know what I +mean.' + +Arthur thought a _puff-ball_ would represent Peterkin better than +anything else, but he replied: + +'Yes, I know. You want a coat of arms, which shall suggest your early +days--' + +'When I was a flounderin' to get up--jess so,' Peterkin interrupted him. +'You've hit it, square. Now I'd like a picter of the Lizy Ann, as she +was, but May Jane won't hear to't. What do you say, square?' + +Arthur tingled to his finger tips at this familiarity from a man whom he +detested, and whom he would like to turn from his door, but the man was +in his house and in his private room, tilting back in a delicate Swiss +chair, which Arthur expected every moment to see broken to pieces, and +which finally did go down with a crash as the burly figure settled +itself a little more firmly upon the frail thing. + +'I'll be dumbed if I hain't, broke it all to shivers!' the terrified +Peterkin exclaimed, as he struggled to his feet, and looked with dismay +upon the _débris_. 'What's the damage?' he continued, taking out his +pocket-book and ostentatiously showing a fifty-dollar bill. + +'Money cannot replace the chair, which once adorned the _salon_ of +Madame De Stael,' Arthur said, 'Put up your purse, but for Heaven's +sake, never again tip back in your chair. It is a vulgar trick, of which +no gentleman would be guilty.' + +Ordinarily, Peterkin would have resented language like this, but he was +just now too anxious to curry favor with Arthur to show any anger, and +he answered, meekly: + +'That's so, square. 'Tain't good manners, and I know it, as well as the +next one. I'm awful sorry about the chair, and think mebby I could get +it mended. I'd like to try.' + +'Never mind the chair,' Arthur said, with an impatient gesture. 'Try +another and a stronger one, and let's go back to business. You want a +painted panel for your carriage. How will this do?' and he rapidly +sketched a green, pleasant meadow, with a canal running through it, and +on the canal a boat, drawn by one horse, which a barefoot, +elfish-looking boy was driving. + +'I swow, square, you're a trump, you be,' Peterkin exclaimed, slapping +him on the back, 'You've hit it to a dot. That's the 'Lizy Ann, and that +there boy is Bije Jones, drivin the old spavin hoss. You or'to hev _me_ +somewhere in sight, cussin' the hands as I generally was, and May Jane +on deck, hangin' her clothes to dry. Could you manage that?' + +Arthur thought he could, but suggested that Mrs. Peterkin might not like +to be made so conspicuous. + +'Possibly she will not like this drawing at all. She may think it too +suggestive of other days.' + +'That's so,' Peterkin assented, a little sadly; 'and if she don't take +to it, the old Harry can't make her. She used to be the meekest of wives +them days she dried her clothes on the 'Lizy Ann, but she don't knock +under wuth a cent sense we riz in the world, and Ann Lizy is wus than +her mother. But I'll show this to the old woman and let you know.' + +May Jane did not approve, neither did Billy. No use, they said, to +flaunt the canal, horse, driver, and all in people's faces; and so the +discomfited Peterkin went to Arthur again and told him, 'the fat was all +in the fire, and May Jane on a rampage.' + +'Try again, squire; but give us some kind of water and craft.' + +So Arthur good-humoredly changed the canal into a gracefully flowing +river, in a bend of which, in the distance, there was just visible a +boat, which was a cross between a gondola and one of those little +dangerous things so common on the lakes of Wisconsin. Standing in the +bow of the boat, with folded arms, as if calmly contemplating the +scenery, was the figure of a man--suppositively Peterkin--who swore +'he'd keep this picter in spite of 'em;' and as his wife did not +seriously object, the sketch was transferred in oil to a pannel and +inserted in the carriage, which, when drawn by two shining bays and +driven by a colored man in long coat and tall hat, with Peterkin sitting +back in it with all the pride and pompousness of a two-millionaire, and +May Jane at his side, covered with diamonds, attracted general attention +and comment. Billy seldom patronized the carriage, but frequently rode +beside it, talking to his mother, of whom he was very fond, and taking +off his hat to every person he met, whether old or young, rich or poor. + +'Billy is an idiot, but very kind-hearted,' people said of him, and in +truth he was popular with everybody, especially with the men in his +father's employ, who all went to him for favors, or for an increase of +wages; for if Billy had any business it was in his father's office, +where he pretended to look after matters and keep the books straight. +Such had been the growth of Peterkin during the past nine years. 'He had +got clean to the front,' he said, 'and was hob-nobbin' with Squire +Harrenton, and Judge St. Claire, and the Tracys,' all of whom shrugged +their shoulders and laughed at him in secret, but treated him civilly to +his face, for, deny it as we may, money has a mighty power, and will +open many a door which nothing else could move. + +'Coarse and ignorant as a horse, but not so bad after all' was what +people said of him now; and in fact Peterkin had improved and softened a +good deal with the accession of wealth. Nobody gave so largely, or +lavishly either, to everything, as he did, while to his employees he was +always generous and considerate. Once he thought to join the church, +thinking that would add to his respectability; but when talked with by +his clergyman he showed himself so lamentably deficient in every +necessary qualification that he was advised to wait a while, which he +did; but he rented the most expensive pew he could find, and carried the +largest prayer-book of any one, and read the loudest, stumbling over the +words frightfully, and kept his head down the longest, so long, indeed, +that he once went to sleep, and had quite a little nap before his wife +nudged him and told him to get up. + +'Good Lord deliver us!' Was his ejaculation, as he sprang to his feet, +and, adjusting his glasses, looked fiercely round at the amused +congregation. + +So far as money and display were concerned, the St. Claires and Mrs. +Atherton had not kept up with Peterkin. On the contrary, as he grew into +society they gradually withdrew, until at last Dolly Tracy had it all +her own way and looked upon herself as the lady _par excellence_ of the +town. She had been to Europe. She had seen the queen; she had had some +dresses made at Worth's; she had picked up a few French words which she +used on all occasions, with but little regard to their appropriateness. +She had decorated a tea set, and was as unlike the Dolly Tracy, who once +did her own work and ate griddle cakes from her own kitchen stove, as a +person well could be. Everything had gone well with her, and scarcely a +sorrow had touched her, for though poor, stupid Jack had slept for five +years in the Tracy lot with only the woman of the Tramp House for +company, he was so near an imbecile when he died that his death was a +blessing rather than otherwise. Tom, with his fine figure, his +fastidious tastes, and aristocratic notions, was the apple of her eye, +and _tout à fait au fait_, she said, when her French fever was at its +height and she wished to impress her hearers with her knowledge of the +language; while, except for her ill-health, and the bad taste she +manifested in her liking for Harold's society, Maude was _tout à fait au +fait_, too. She had no dread of Gretchen, now; even Arthur had ceased to +talk of her, and was as a rule very quiet and contented. + +Only her husband troubled her, for with the passing years his silence +and abstraction had increased, until now it was nothing remarkable for +him to go days without speaking to any one unless he were first spoken +to. His hair was white as snow, and made him look years older than he +really was; while the habit he had of always walking with his head down, +and a stoop in his shoulders, added to his apparent years. + +During the time Maude was in Europe he grew old very fast, for Maude was +all that made life endurable. To see her in her young beauty, flitting +about the house and grounds like a bright bird, whose nest is high up in +some sheltered spot where the storms never come, was some compensation +for what he had done; but when she was gone there came over him such a +sense of loneliness and desolation that at times he feared lest he +should become crazier than his brother, who really appeared to be +improving, although the strange forgetfulness of past events still clung +to and increased upon him. He did not now remember ever to have said +that Gretchen was with him in the ship or on the train, or that he had +sent the carriage so many times to meet her; and when be spoke of her, +which he seldom did to any one except to Jerrie, it was as of one who +had died years ago. Occasionally, in the winter, when a wild storm was +raging like that which had shaken the house and bent the evergreens the +night Jerrie came, he would tie a knot of crape upon the picture, but +would give no reason for it when questioned except to say, 'Can't you +see it is a badge of mourning?' + +For a week or more it would remain there, and then he would put it +carefully away, to be again brought out when the night was wild and +stormy. + +It was during Maude's absence that the two brothers became more intimate +than they had been before since Arthur first came home, and it happened +in this wise. Every day, for months after Maude and his wife went away, +Frank spent hours alone in his private room, sometimes doing nothing, +but oftener looking at the photograph of Gretchen, and the Bible with +the marked passages and the handwriting around it. Then he would take +out the letter about which Jerrie had been so anxious, and examine it +carefully, studying the address, which he knew by heart, and beginning +at last to arrange the letters in alphabetical order as far as he could, +and try to imitate them. It was a difficult process, but little by +little, with the assistance of a German text book of Maude's which he +found, he learned the alphabet, and began to form words, then to put +them together, and then to read. Gradually the work began to have a +great fascination for him, and he went to Arthur one day and asked for +some assistance. + +'Never too old to learn,' he said, 'and as the house is like a tomb +without Maude, I have actually taken up German, but find it up-hill +business without a teacher. Will you help me?' + +'To be sure, to be sure,' Arthur cried, brightening up at once, and +bringing out on the instant such a pile of books as appalled Frank and +made him wish to withdraw his proposition. + +But Arthur was eager, and persistent, and patient, and had never +respected his brother one half as much as when he was stammering over +the German pronunciation, which he could not well master. But he learned +to read with a tolerable degree of fluency, and to speak a little, too, +while he could understand nearly all Arthur said to him. + +'Do you think I could get along in Germany?' he asked his brother, one +day. + +'Certainly you could,' Arthur replied. Do you think of going there? If +you do, go to Wiesbaden, and inquire for Gretchen--how she died, and +where she was buried. I should have gone long ago only I dreaded the +ocean voyage so confoundedly, and then I forget so badly. When are you +going?' + +'Oh, I don't know--I don't know as ever,' Frank answered quickly; and +yet in his heart there was the firm resolve to go to Wiesbaden and hunt +up Marguerite Heinrich's friends, if possible. + +'And if I find them, and find my suspicions correct, what shall I do +then?' he asked himself over and over again; and once made answer to his +question: 'I will either make restitution, or drown myself in the +Rhine.' + +Jerrie was a constant source of misery to Frank, and yet when she was at +home he was always managing to have her at the park house, where he +could see her, and watch her, as she moved like a young queen though the +handsome rooms, or frolicked with Maude upon the lawn. + +'She is surely Gretchen's daughter, and Arthur's, too,' he would say to +himself, as he, too, detected in her face the likeness to his brother, +which had so startled Jerrie in the mirror. + +He was always exceedingly kind to her, and almost as proud of her +success at Vassar as Arthur himself; and on the day when she was +expected home he went two or three times to the cottage in the lane, +carrying fruit and flowers, and even offering things more substantial, +which, however, were promptly declined by Mrs. Crawford, who had +signified her intention to take nothing more for Jerrie's board. + +'The girl pays for herself, or will,' she said, 'and it is Harold's wish +and mine to be independent.' + +But she accepted the fruit and the flowers and wondered a little to see +Frank so excited, and nervous, and anxious that every thing should be +done to make Jerrie's final home-coming as pleasant as possible. + +It was a lovely July afternoon when the young ladies from Vassar were +expected, but the train was half an hour late, and the carriage from +Grassy Spring and the carriage from Le Bateau had waited so long that +both coachmen were asleep upon their respective boxes, when at last the +whistle was heard among the hills telling that the cars were coming. The +Tracy carriage was not there, though twenty minutes before train time +Maude had come down in the victoria, and on learning of the delay had +been driven rapidly to the cottage in the lane, from which she had not +returned when at last the cars stopped before the station and the young +people alighted upon the platform, which, with their luggage, seemed at +once to be full. + +'Your checks, miss,' the coachman from Grassy Spring said to Nina, as he +touched his hat regretfully to her, and his words were repeated to Ann +Eliza by the servant from Le Bateau. + +But Jerrie held hers in her hand with a rueful look of disappointment on +her face as she looked in vain for Harold or Maude to greet her. For a +single moment the difference between her position and that of Nina and +Ann Eliza struck her like a blow, and she thought to herself: + +'For them everything, for me nothing.' + +Then she rallied, and passing her checks to the baggage master, said to +him: + +'If there is a boy here with a cart or a wheelbarrow, let him take my +trunks, otherwise send them by express. I see there is no one to meet +me.' + +'Yes'm, but they's comin',' the man replied, with a significant nod in +the direction where a cloud of dust was visible, as the Tracy victoria +came rapidly up to the station, with Maude and Harold in it. + +The former was standing up and waving her parasol to the party upon the +platform, while, almost before the carriage stopped, Harold sprang out, +and had both of Jerrie's hands in his, and held them, as he told her how +glad he was to welcome her home again. He looked tired and flurried, and +did not seem quite himself, but there could be no doubt that he was +glad, for the gladness shone in his eyes and in his face, and Jerrie +felt it in the warm clasp of his hands, which she noticed with a pang +were brown, and calloused, and bruised in some places as if they had of +late been used to harder toil than usual. But she had not much time for +thought before Maude's arms were around her neck and Maude was standing +on tiptoe and drawing down her face which she covered with kisses; and, +between laughing and crying, exclaimed: + +'You darling old Jerrie, how glad I am to see you again! and how tall +and grand you have grown! Why, I don't much more than come to your +shoulder. See, Harold, how Jerrie outshines me,' and she lifted her +sparkling face to Harold, who looked down at her as a brother might have +looked at an only sister of whom he was very fond. + +How pretty and piquant she was with her brilliant complexion and her +black eyes, and how stylish she looked in the Paris gown of embroidered +linen, which fitted her perfectly, and the big hat, which turned up just +enough on the side to give her a saucy, coquettish air, as she flitted +from one to another, kissing Nina twice, Ann Eliza once, and shaking +hands with all the young men except Tom, who put his in his pockets out +of her way. + +He could not stand Maude's gush, he said, and he watched her with a +half-sneering smile as she tiptoed around, for it always seemed as if +she walked upon her toes, courtesying as she walked. + +'I meant to have been here before the train,' she said to Jerrie, 'and I +was here about an hour ago; but when I found the cars were late I drove +over to tell Harold, as time with him was everything. How we did drive, +though, when we heard the whistle. Come, jump in,' she continued, as she +herself stepped into the victoria. 'Jump in, and I will take you home in +a jiffy. It won't hurt Hal to walk, although he is awful tired.' + +'But I would rather walk; take Harold, if he is so tired,' Jerrie said, +in a tone she did not quite intend. + +'Oh, Jerrie,' Harold exclaimed, in a low, pained voice, 'I am not tired, +let us both walk,' and going to Maude he said something to her which +Jerrie could not hear, except the words, 'Don't you think it better so?' + +'Of course I do; it was stupid in me not to see it before,' was Maude's +reply, as she laid her hand on Harold's arm where it rested a moment, +while she said her good-byes. + +And Jerrie saw the little, ungloved hand touching Harold so familiarly, +and thought how small, and white and thin it was, with the full, blue +veins showing so distinctly upon it, and then she looked more closely at +Maude herself, and saw with a pang how tired and sick she looked in +spite of the bright color in her cheeks which came and went so fast. +There was a pallor about her lips and about her nose, while her ears +were almost transparent, and her neck was so small that Jerrie felt she +could have clasped it with one hand. + +'Maude,' she cried, pressing close to the young girl, as Harold stepped +aside, 'Maude, are you sick? You are so pale everywhere except your +cheeks, which are like roses.' + +'No, no,' Maude answered quickly, as if she did not like the question. +'Not sick a bit, only a little tired. We have been at work real hard, +Hal and I; but he will tell you about it, and now good-bye again, for I +must go, I shall be round in the morning. Good-bye. Oh, Tom, I forgot! +We have company to dinner to-night--a Mr. and Mrs. Hart, who are friends +of Mrs. Atherton, and have just returned from Germany, bringing Fred's +sister, Marian, with them. She has been abroad at school for years, and +is very nice. I ought to have told Fred and Nina. How stupid in me! But +they will find their invitations when they get home. Now hop in, quick, +and don't tear my flounces. You are so awkward.' + +'I suppose Hal never tears your flounces,' Tom said, as he took his seat +beside his sister, and gave Jerrie a look which sent the blood in great +waves to her face and neck, for it seemed to imply that he understood +the case and supposed she did too. + +The St. Claire carriage had driven away with Nina and Dick, and Fred, +and the carriage from Le Bateau had gone, too, when at last Jerrie and +Harold started down the road and along the highway to the gate through +which the strange woman had once passed with the baby Jerrie in her +arms. The baby was a young woman now, tall and erect, with her head set +high as she walked silently by Harold's side, until the gate was reached +and they passed into the shaded lane, where they were hidden from the +sight of anyone upon the main road leading to the park house. Then +stopping suddenly, she faced squarely toward her companion, and said: + +'Why didn't you come to commencement? Tom Tracy said you were shingling +a roof, and Billy Peterkin said Maude was helping you.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +WHY HAROLD DID NOT GO TO VASSAR. + + +The cottage in the lane, as its name implied, was not very pretentious, +and all its rooms were small and low, and mostly upon the ground floor, +except the one which Jerrie had occupied since she had grown too large +for the crib by Mrs. Crawford's bed. In this room, in which there was +but one window, and where the roof slanted down on both sides, Jerrie +kept all her possessions--her playthings and her books, and the trunk +and carpet-bag which had been found when she was found. Here she had cut +off her hair and slept on the floor, to see how it would seem, and here +she had enacted many a play, in which the scenes and characters were all +of the past. For the cold in winter she did not care at all, and when in +summer the nights were close and hot, she drew her little bed to the +open window and fell asleep while thinking how warm she was. That she +ought to have a better room had never occurred to her, and never had she +found a word of fault or repined at her humble surroundings, so +different from those of her girl friends. Only, as she grew taller, she +had sometimes laughingly said that if the kept on she should not much +longer be able to stand upright in her den, as she called it. + +'I hit my head now everywhere except in the middle,' she once said. 'I +wonder if we can't some time manage to raise the roof.' + +The words were spoken thoughtlessly, and almost immediately forgotten by +Jerrie: but Harold treasured them up, and began at once to devise ways +and means to raise the roof and give Jerrie a room more worthy of her. +This was just after he had left college, and there was hanging over him +his debt to Arthur and the support of his grandmother. The first did not +particularly disturb him, for he knew that Arthur would wait any length +of time, while the latter seemed but a trifle to a strong, robust young +man. Mrs. Crawford was naturally very economical, and could make one +dollar go further than most people could two; so that very little +sufficed for their daily wants when Jerrie was away. + +'I must earn money somehow,' Harold thought, 'and must seek work where I +can do the best, even if it is from Peterkin.' + +So, swallowing his pride, he went to Peterkin's office and asked for +work. Once before, when a boy of eighteen, and sorely pressed, he had +done the same thing, and met with a rebuff from the foreman, who said to +him gruffly: + +'No, sir; we don't want no more boys; leastwise, gentlemen boys. We've +had enough of 'em. Try t'other furnace. Mr. Warner is allus takin' all +kinds of trash, out of pity, and if he says "No," go to his wife; she'll +get you in.' + +But the Warner factory, where Harold had once worked, was full of boys, +whom the kind-hearted employer, or his wife, or both, had taken in, and +there was no place for Harold. So he waited awhile until Jerrie needed a +new dress and his grandmother a bonnet, and then he tried Peterkin +again, and this time with success. + +'Yes, take him,' Peterkin said to his foreman, 'take him, and put him to +the emery wheel; that's the place for such upstarts; that'll take the +starch out of him double quick. He's a bad egg, he is, and proud as +Lucifer. I don't suppose he'd touch my Bill or my Ann'Lizy with a +ten-foot pole. Put him to the wheel. Bad egg! bad egg!' + +For some moat unaccountable reason, old Peterkin had a bitter prejudice +against the boy, on whose account he had once been turned from the Tracy +house; and though he had forgiven the Tracys, and would now have voted +for Frank for Congressman if he had the chance, he still cherished his +animosity against Harold, designating him as an upstart and a bad egg, +who was to be put to the wheel. So Harold was 'put to the wheel' until +he got a bit of steel in his eye, and his hands were blistered. But he +did not mind the latter so much, because Jerrie cried over them at night +and kissed them in the morning, and bathed them in cosmoline, and called +Peterkin a mean old thing, and offered to go herself to the wheel. + +But to this Harold only laughed. He could stand it, he said, and a +dollar a day was not to be sneezed at. He could wear gloves and save his +hands. + +But the appearance of gloves was the signal for a general hooting and +jeering from the boys of his own age who were employed there, and who +had from the first looked askance at Harold because they knew how +greatly he was their superior, and fancied an affront in everything he +did and every word he said, it was spoken so differently from their own +dialect. + +'I can't stand it,' Harold said to Jerrie, after a week's trial with the +gloves. 'I'd rather sweep the streets than be jeered at as I am. I don't +mind the work. I am getting used to it, but the boys are awful. Why, +they call me 'sissy,' and 'Miss Hastings,' and all that.' + +So Harold left the employ of Peterkin, greatly to the chagrin of that +functionary, who had found him the most faithful boy he had ever had. +But this was years ago, and matters had changed somewhat since then. +Harold was a man now--a graduate from Harvard, with an air and dignity +about him which commanded respect even from Peterkin, who was sitting +upon his high stool when Harold came in with his application. Billy, who +was Harold's fast friend, was now in the business with his father, and +as he chanced to be present, the thing was soon arranged, and Harold +received into the office at a salary of twelve dollars per week, which +was soon increased to fifteen and twenty, and at last, as the autumn +advanced and Harold began to talk of taking the same school in town +which he had once before taught, he was offered $1,500 a year, if he +would remain, as foreman of the office, where his services were +invaluable. But Harold had chosen the law for his profession, and as +teaching school was more congenial to him than writing in the office, +and would give him more time for reading law, he declined the salary and +took the school, which he kept for two successive winters, going between +times into the office whenever his services were needed, which was very +often, as they knew his worth, and Billy was always glad to have him +there. + +In this way he managed to lay aside quite a little sum of money, besides +paying his interest to Arthur, and when Maude came home from Europe in +March he felt himself warranted in beginning _to raise the roof_. He was +naturally a mechanic, and would have made a splendid carpenter; he was +also something of an architect, and sketched upon paper the changes he +proposed making. The roof was to be raised over Jerrie's room; there was +to be a pretty bay-window at the south, commanding a view of the +Collingwood grounds and the river. There was to be another window on a +side, but whether to the east or the west he could not quite decide. +There was to be a dressing-room and large closet, while the main room +was to be carried up in the centre, after the fashion of a church, and +to be ceiled with narrow strips of wood painted alternately with a pale +blue and gray. He showed the sketch to his grandmother, who approved it, +just as she approved everything he did, but suggested that he submit it +to Maude Tracy, who she heard, had become an artist and had a studio; so +he took the plan to Maude, explaining it to her, and saying it was to be +a surprise to Jerrie, when she came home for good in the summer. Maude +was interested and enthusiastic at once, and entered heart and soul into +the matter, making some suggestions which Harold adopted, and deciding +for him where the extra window was to be placed. + +'Put it to the east,' she said, 'for Jerrie is always looking toward the +rising sun, because, she says her old home is that way. And, besides, +she can see the Tramp House she is so fond of. For my part, I think it a +poky place, and never like to pass it after dark, lest I should see the +dark woman standing in the door, with the candle in her hand, crying for +help. Where was Jerry then, I wonder! In the carpet-bag, asleep, +perhaps. Wouldn't that make a very effective picture! The storm, the +open door, the frantic woman in it, with the candle held high over her +head, and Jerrie clutching her dress behind, with her great blue eyes +staring out in the darkness. That is the way I have always seen it since +you told me about it, and the light you saw. I mean to paint the +picture, and hang it in the new room as another surprise to Jerrie.' + +'Oh, don't!' Harold said, with a shudder. 'Jerrie would not like it. It +almost killed her when she first knew of the cry which Mr. Arthur heard, +and the light I saw that night. She insisted upon knowing everything +there was to know; and when I told her all the color left her face, and +for a moment she sat rigid as a stone, with a look I shall never forget, +and then she cried as I never saw anybody cry before. This was three +years ago, and she has never spoken to me of it since.' + +Harold's voice trembled as he talked, while Maude cried outright. The +idea of the picture was given up, and she went back to the subject of +the new room in which she seemed quite as much interested as Harold +himself. When the roof was raised, and the floor laid, and the +frame-work of the bay-window up, she went nearly every day to the +cottage to watch the progress of the work, and to keep Harold's one +hired man up to the mark, if he showed the least sign of lagging. + +'She is wus than a slave-driver,' the man said to Harold one day. 'Why, +if ever I stop to take a chair, or rest my bones a bit, she's after me +in a jiffy, and asks if I don't think I can get so much done in an hour +if I work as tight as I can clip it. I was never so druv in my life.' + +And yet both the man and Harold liked to see the little lady there, +walking through the shavings, and holding high her dainty skirts as she +clambered over piles of boards and shingles, or perching herself on the +work bench, superintended them both, and twice by her intervention saved +a door from swinging the wrong way, and from being a little askew. + +Mrs. Tracy was greatly opposed to Maude's going so often to the cottage, +wondering what pleasure she could find in seeing an old house repaired, +and predicting that she would make herself sick. But Maude was +headstrong and would have her way, especially as her father did not +object, but himself took her frequently to the cottage. Frank was almost +as much interested in the work as she was, and once offered his +services, as did Dick St. Claire and Billy Peterkin. + +'That's splendid. We'll have a bee, and get a lot done,' Maude said; and +she pressed into the _bee_ her father and Dick, and Billy, and Fred +Raymond, and Tom, the latter of whom did nothing but find fault, saying +that the ceiling ought to have been of different woods, the floor +inlaid, and the tops of the windows cathedral glass. + +'And I suppose you will find the money for all that elegance,' Maude +said, as she held one end of a board for Harold to nail. 'We are cutting +our garment according to the cloth, and if you don't like it you'd +better go away. We do not want any drones in the hive, do we, Hally?' + +'She had taken to address him thus familiarly since they had commenced +their carpenter work together, and Harold smiled brightly upon her as +upon a child, as she stood on tip-toe at his side. + +Tom went away, but he soon came back again; for there was for him a +peculiar fascination about this room for Jerrie, and sitting down upon a +saw-horse, he looked on, and whittled, and smoked, while Dick blistered +his hands, and Fred raised a blood-blister by striking his finger with +the hammer, and Billy ran a huge splinter under his thumb nail. + +Then they all went away, and Harold was left alone, for his man had been +obliged to leave, and thus the finishing up devolved upon him. But he +was equal to it. The worst was over, and all that was now required was +hard and constant work if he would accomplish it in time to see Jerrie +graduated, as he greatly wished to do, provided he should have money +enough left for the trip when everything was paid for. + +But whoever has repaired an old house needs not to be told that the cost +is always greater than was anticipated, and that there are a thousand +difficulties which beset the unwary workman and hinder his progress. And +Harold found it so. Still he worked bravely on, early and late, taking +no rest except for an hour or so in the afternoon, when he found it a +very pleasant change to walk through the leafy woods, so full of summer +life and beauty, to where Maude waited for him, with her sunny face and +bright smile, which always grew brighter at his coming. How could he +know what was in her mind?--he, who never dreamed it possible that she, +of all other girls, could fall in love with him--'that Hastings chap, +poor as poverty,' as he knew Tom sometimes called him. + +That Maude liked him, he was sure; but he supposed it was mostly for the +amusement he afforded her, and for the sake of Jerrie, of whom she was +never tired of talking. Maude's friendship was very sweet to the young +man, who had so few means of enjoyment, and whose life was one of toil +and care. So he went blindly on toward the pitfall in the distance, and +began at last to look forward with a great deal of pleasure to the +readings or talks with Maude, even though he did not find her very +intellectual. She amused and rested him, and that was something to the +tired and overworked man. + +The room was finished inside at last, and looked exceedingly cool and +pleasant in its dress of blue and gray, and its two rows of colored +glass in each window; for Harold had carried out Tom's suggestion in +that respect, and by going without a new hat and a pair of pants, which +he needed, had managed to get the glass, which he set himself; for, as +he said to Maude, who assisted him in the matching and arrangement, he +was a kind of jack-at-all-trades. Maude had also helped him to putty up +the nail-holes, and had tried her hand at the painting until it gave her +a sick-headache, and she was obliged to quit. + +When Arthur first heard of the raised roof, he went down to see it, and +approving of everything which had thus far been done, insisted upon +furnishing the room himself. But Harold refused, saying decidedly that +it was his own surprise for Jerrie, and no one must help him. So Arthur +went away, and told Maude confidentially that the young man Hastings was +made of the right kind of stuff, that he liked his independence, and +that, although he should allow him to pay his debt, he should deposit +the money as fast as received to his credit in the savings bank, so that +he would eventually get it all. + +'You are the darlingest uncle in the world!' Maude said, rubbing her +soft cheek against his, in that purring way many men like, which made +Arthur kiss her, and tell her she was a little simpleton, but rather +nice on the whole. + +'And you'll not tell Jerrie a word about the room!' Maude charged him +again and again, while they were in New York selecting the dress. + +'Not if I can help it,' was his reply, although, as the reader knows, he +came near letting it out twice, but _held on in time_, so that the +raised roof was still a secret from Jerrie when she reached the station +and was met by Maude and Harold. + +The room, was all ready, and a most inviting looking room it was, with +its pretty carpet of blue and drab, and a delicate shading of pink in +it; its cottage furniture, simple, but suitable; its muslin curtains and +chintz covered lounge, and the willow chair and round table, which Maude +had insisted upon furnishing. She _would_ have some part in furnishing +the room, she said, and Harold allowed her to get the chair, which she +put by the window looking toward the Tramp House, and the round table, +which stood in the bay-window, with a Japanese bowl upon it filled with +the lilies Harold had gathered in the early morning. He had found it +impossible to go to Vassar there were so many last things to be done, +and so little money left in his purse with which to make the journey, +and as Maude had more confidence in her own taste for the arrangement +of furniture than in his, she too decided to remain at home and see it +through. The carpet was not put down until the morning of the day when +the young men started for Vassar, and it was the noise of the +tack-hammer which Tom had heard and likened to the shingling of a roof. + +'There must be flowers everywhere, Jerrie is so fond of them,' Maude +said; and she brought great baskets full from the park gardens, and a +costly Dresden vase, which Arthur had left for Jerrie when he went away, +together with his card and his photograph, and a note in which he had +written as follows: + + 'MY DEAR CHILD:--Welcome, welcome home again. I wish I could see you + when your blue eyes first look upon the room I came so near telling + you about. Maude would have killed me if I had. You have no idea how + Harold has worked to get it done, and where he got the money is more + than I know. Pinched himself, in every way, of course. He is a noble + fellow, Jerrie. But you know that. I saw it in your face at Vassar, + and saw something else, too, which you may think is a secret. Will + talk with you about it when I come home. I am off to-morrow for + California. Would like to take you with me. Maybe I shall meet with + robbers in the Yosemite. I'd rather like to. God bless you! + + 'ARTHUR TRACY.' + +'Uncle Arthur was very queer the day he went away,' Maude said to +Harold, as she put the note, and the photograph, and the card upon the +dressing-bureau. 'I heard him talking to Gretchen, and saying, +"Gretchen, Gretchen, Jerrie will be here by-and-by, to keep you company +while I am gone--little Jerrie, when I first knew her, but a great tall +Jerrie now, with the air of a duchess. Yes, Jerrie is coming, Gretchen." +How he loves her--Jerrie, I mean; and I do not wonder, do you?' + +Harold's mouth was full of tacks and he did not reply, but went steadily +on with his work until everything was done. + +'Isn't it lovely, and won't she be pleased!' Maude kept saying, as she +gave the room a last look and then started for home, charging Harold to +be on time at the train, and to try and not look so tired. + +Harold _was_ very tired, for the constant strain of the last few weeks +had told upon him, and he felt that he could not have gone on much +longer, and that only for Maude's constant enthusiasm and sympathy he +should have broken down before the task was done. It was not easy work, +shingling roofs and nailing down floors, and painting ceilings, and +every bone in his body ached, and his hands were calloused like a piece +of leather, and his face looked tired and pale when he at last sat down +to rest awhile before changing his working suit for one scarcely better, +although clean and fresher, with no daubs of paint or patches upon it. + +'They don't look first-rate, that's a fact,' he said to himself as he +surveyed his pants, and boots, and hat, and thought what a contrast he +should present to the elegant Tom and his other friends at the station. +'But Jerrie won't care a bit; she understands, or will, when she sees +her new room. How pretty it is!' he added, as he stopped to look in and +admire it. + +A blind had swung open, letting in a flood of hot sunshine and as it was +desirable to keep the room as cool as possible, Harold went in to close +the shutter. But something was the matter with both fastening and hinge, +and he was fixing it when Maude drove up, telling him the train was +late. + +'That's lucky,' he said, 'for this blind is all out of gear;' and it +took so much time to fix and rehang it that the whistle was heard among +the hills a mile away, just as he entered the victoria with Maude and +started for the station upon a run. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +THE WALK HOME. + + +All the way from the station to the gate Harold was trying to think of +something to say besides the merest commonplaces, and wondering at +Jerrie's silence. She had seemed glad to see him, he had seen that in +her eyes, and seen there something else which puzzled and troubled him, +and he was about to ask her what it was when she stopped so abruptly, +and said: + +'Why didn't you come to Vassar? Tom Tracy said you were shingling a +roof, and Billy Peterkin said Maude was helping you.' + +'Oh, that's it, is it?' Harold said, bursting into a laugh. 'That is why +you have been so stiff and distant, ever since we left the depot, that I +could not touch you with a ten-foot pole.' + +'Well, I don't care,' Jerry replied, with a sob in her voice. 'I was so +disappointed, for I wanted you so badly. Everybody had some friend +there, but myself. You don't know how lonely I felt when I went on the +stage and knew there was no home face looking at me in all that crowd. I +think you might have come any way.' + +'But, Jerrie,' Harold said, laying his hand upon her shoulder, as they +slowly walked on, 'wait a little before you condemn me utterly. I wanted +to come quite as much as you wanted to have me. I remembered what a help +it was to me when I was graduated to see your face in the crowd, and +know by its expression that you were satisfied.' + +'I did not suppose you saw me,' Jerry exclaimed, her voice very +different in its tone from what it had been at first. + +'Saw you!' and Harold's hand tightened its grasp on her shoulder. 'Saw +you! I scarcely saw any one else except you, and Maude, who sat beside +you. I knew you would be there, and I looked the room over, missing you +at first, and feeling as if something were wanting to fire me up; then, +when I found you, the inspiration came, and if I began to flag ever so +little, I had only to look at your blue eyes and my blood was up again.' + +This was a great deal for Harold to say and he felt half frightened when +he had said it; but Jerrie's answer was reassuring. + +'Oh, I didn't know that. I am so glad you told me.' + +They were close to the Tramp House now. The walk from the station had +been hot and dusty, and Jerry was tired, so she said to Harold: + +'Let's go in a moment; it looks so cool in there.' + +So they went in, and Jerry sat down upon a bench, while Harold took a +seat upon the table where Jerrie once had slept, with the shadow of +death around her, and the carpet-bag for her covering. + +'I suppose you had peals of applause and flowers by the bushel,' Harold +said. + +'Yes,' Jerry replied, 'applause enough, and flowers enough--twenty +bouquets and baskets in all, including yours. It was kind in you to send +it.' + +She did not tell him of the wilted condition of his flowers, or that one +of the faded roses was pressed between the lids of her Latin grammar. + +'Billy sent up a heart of blue forget-me-nots,' she continued, 'and Tom +a bunch of daisies on a standard of violets. What a prig Tom is, and +what a dandy Billy has grown to be, and he stammers worse than ever.' + +'But he is one of the best-hearted fellows in the world;' Harold said, +'he has been very kind to me.' + +'Yes, I know;' Jerry rejoined, quickly, 'he makes his father pay you big +wages in the office and gives you a great many holidays; that is kind. +But, oh, Harold, how I hate it all--your being obliged to work for such +a man as Peterkin. I wish I were rich! Maybe I shall be some day. Who +knows?' + +The great tears were shining in her eyes as she talked, and brushing +them away she suddenly changed the conversation, and said: + +'I never come in here that a thousand strange fancies do not begin to +flit through my brain, and my memory seems stretched to the utmost +tension, and I remember things away back in the past before you found me +in the carpet-bag.' + +She was gazing up toward the rafters with a rapt look on her face, as if +she were seeing the things of which she was talking; and Harold, who had +never seen her in this way, said to her very softly: + +'What do you remember, Jerrie? What do you see?' + +She did not move her head or eyes, but answered him. + +'I see always a sweet pale face, to which I can almost give a name--a +face which smiles upon me; and a thin, white hand which is laid upon my +hair--a hand not like those you have told me about, and which must have +touched me so tenderly that awful night. Did you ever try to recall a +name, or a dream, which seems sometimes just within your grasp, and then +baffles all your efforts to retain it?' + +'Yes, often,' Harold said. + +'Just so it is with me,' she continued, 'I try to keep the fancies which +come and go so fast, and which always have reference to the past and +some far off country--Germany, I think. Harold, I must have been older +when you found me than you supposed I was.' + +'Possibly,' Harold replied. 'You were so small that we thought you +almost a baby, although you had an old head on your shoulders from the +first, and could you have spoken our language I believe you might have +told us where you were and where you came from.' + +'Perhaps,' Jerry said. 'I don't know; only this, as I grow older, the +things way back come to me, and the others fade away. The dark woman; my +mother,'--she spoke the name very low--'is not half as real to me as the +pale, sick face, on which the firelight shines. It is a small house, and +a low room, a poor room, I think, with a big, white stove in the corner, +and somebody is putting wood in it; a dark woman; she stoops; and from +the open door the firelight falls upon the face in the chair--the woman +who is always writing when she is not in bed; and I am there, a little +child; and when the pale face cries, I cry, too; and when she dies--oh, +Harold! but you saw me play it once, and wondered where I got the idea. +I saw it. I know I did; I was there, a part of the play. I was the +little child. Then, there is a blur, a darkness, with many people and a +crying--two voices--the dark woman's and mine; then, a river, or the +sea, or both, and noisy streets, and a storm, and cold; and _you_ taking +me into the sunshine.' + +As she talked she had unconsciously laid her hand on Harold's knee, and +he had taken it in his, and was holding it fast, when she startled him +with the question: + +'Do you--did you--ever think--did anybody ever think it possible, that +the woman found dead in here, was not my mother?' + +'Not your mother!' Harold exclaimed, dropping her hand in his surprise. +'Not your mother! What do you mean?' + +'No disrespect to her,' Jerrie replied--'the good, brave woman, who gave +her life for me, and whose dear hands caressed and shielded me from the +cold as long as there was power in them to do it. I love and reverence +her memory as if she had been my mother; but Harold, do I look at all as +she did? You saw her--here, and at the park house. Think--am I like +her--in any thing?' + +'No,' Harold answered. 'You are like her in nothing; but you may +resemble your father.' + +'Ye-es,' Jerrie said, slowly, 'I may. Oh, Harold, the spell is on me now +so strong that I can almost remember. Tell me again about that night, +and the morning; what they did at the park house--Mr. Arthur, I mean. He +was expecting somebody; Nina told me a little once, but not much. Do you +know? Was it _Gretchen_ he expected?' + +She had grasped his hand again, and was looking into his face as if his +answer would be life or death to her. And Harold who had no idea what +was in her mind, and who had never thought that the dark woman was not +her mother, looked at her wonderingly, as he replied: + +'Yes, I remember that he had a fancy in his mind that Gretchen was +coming; but he has had that fancy so often. He said she was in the ship +with him and on the train, but she wasn't. I think Gretchen is dead.' + +'Yes, she is dead,' Jerry said, decidedly; 'but tell me all you know of +the time I came.' + +So Harold told her again what he knew personally of the tragedy, and all +he remembered to have heard. There was little which Jerrie did not +already know, for as Harold had been a boy when it happened, he had not +heard all that was said, and since that time other matters had crowded +the incidents of the death and burial out of his mind. The thing most +real to him was Jerrie herself, the beautiful girl sitting by his side, +astonishing him so with her mood and her questions. He had seen her +often in her spells, as he called them; when she acted her pantomimes, +and talked to people whom she said she saw; but he had only thought of +them as the vagaries of a peculiar mind--a German mind his grandmother +said, and he accepted her theory as the correct one. + +He had never seen Jerrie as she was now, with that rapt look in her face +and in her eyes, which shone with a strange light as she went on to +speak of the things which sometimes came and went so fast, and which she +tried in vain to retain. It had never occurred to him that the woman he +had found dead was not her mother, and he thought her crazy when she put +the question to him. But he was a man, solid and steady, with no +vagaries of the brain, and not a tithe of the impetuosity and +immigration of the girl, who went on to ask him if he had ever seen any +one whom she resembled. + +He was wondering, in a vague kind of way, how long she meant to stay +there, and if the tea-cakes his grandmother was going to make for supper +would be spoiled, when she asked the question, to which he replied. + +'No, I don't think I ever did, unless it is Gretchen. You are some like +her, but I suppose many German girls have her complexion and hair.' + +The answer was not very reassuring, and Jerrie showed it in her fact, +which was still upturned to Harold, who, looking down upon it and the +earnest, wistful expression which had settled there, started suddenly as +if an arrow had struck him, for he saw the likeness Jerry had seen in +the glass, and taking the upturned face between both his hands, he +studied it intently, while, like lightening, the possibility of the +thing flashed through his brain, making him colder and fainter than +Jerrie herself when she looked into the mirror. + +'What if it were so?' he said to himself, while everything seemed +slipping away from him, but mostly Jerrie, who, if it were so, would be +separated from him by a gulf he could not pass; for what could the +daughter of Arthur Tracy care for him, the poor boy, whose life had been +one fight with poverty, and whose worn, shabby clothes, on which the +full western sunlight was falling, told plainer than words of the +poverty which still held him in thrall. + +'Jerrie!' he cried, rising to his feet, and letting the hands which had +clasped her face drop down to her shoulders, which they pressed tightly, +as if he thus would keep her with him--'Oh, Jerrie, you are like Arthur +Tracy, or you were when you looked at me so earnestly; but it is gone +now. Do you--have you thought that Gretchen was your mother?' + +He was pale as a corpse, and Jerrie was the calmer of the two, as she +told him frankly all she had thought and felt since Arthur's visit to +her. + +'I meant to tell you,' she said, 'though not quite so soon; but when I +came in here I could not help it, things crowd upon me so. It may be, +and probably is, all a fancy, but there is something in my babyhood +different from the woman who died, and when I am able to do it I am +going to Wiesbaden, for that is where Gretchen lived, and where I +believe I came from, and if there is anything I shall find it. Oh, +Harold!' and she grasped his hand in hers, 'I may not be Gretchen's +daughter, but if I am more than a peasant girl--if anything good comes +of my search, my greatest joy will be that I can share with you who have +been so kind to me. I will gladly give you and grandma every dollar I +may ever have, and then I should not pay you.' + +'There is nothing owing me,' Harold said, the pain in his heart and his +fear of losing her growing lean as she talked. 'You have brought me +nearly all the happiness I have ever known; for when I was a boy and +every bone ached with the hard work I had to do--the thought that Jerry +was waiting for me at home, that her face would greet me at the window, +or in the door, made the labor light; and now that I am a man--' He +paused a moment, and Jerrie's head dropped a little, for his voice was +very low and soft, and she waited with a beating heart for him to go on. +'Now that I am a man, life would be nothing to me without you.' + +Was this a declaration of love? It almost seemed so, and but for a +thought of Maude, Jerry might have believed it was such, and lead him on +to something more definite. As it was, her heart gave a great bound of +joy, which showed itself on her face as she replied: + +'If I make your life happier, _I_ am glad; for never had a poor, unknown +girl so good and true a brother as I. But come, I have kept you here too +long, and grandma must be wondering where we are.' + +'Yes, and supper will be spoiled,' Harold said, as he followed her to +the door. 'We are to have it in the back porch, where it is so cool, and +to have tea-cakes, with strawberries from our own vines, and cream from +our own cow, or rather your cow. Did I write you that she had a splendid +calf, which we call Clover-top. + +They had come back to commonplaces now, Jerrie's clairvoyant spell had +passed and she was herself again, simple Jerrie Crawford, walking along +the familiar path, and talking of the cow which Frank Tracy had given +her when it was a little sickly calf, whose mother had died. She had +taken it home and nursed it so carefully that it was now a healthy +little Jersey, whom she called Nannie. + +'A funny name for a cow,' Harold had said, and she had replied: + +'Yes, but it keeps repeating itself in my brain. I have known a Nannie +sometime, sure, and may as well perpetuate the name in my bossy as +anywhere.' + +Nannie was in a little enclosure by the side of the lane, and at +Harold's call she came at once to the fence, over which she put her face +for the caress she was sure to get, while Clover-top kicked up her heels +and acted as if she, too, understood and were glad Jerrie had come. + +'Oh, it is so pleasant everywhere, and I am so glad to be home again,' +Jerrie said, as her eyes went rapidly from one thing to another, until +at last they fell upon the raised roof shining to new and yellow in the +sunlight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +AT HOME. + + +Oh, Harold, what is that? What have you been doing?' Jerrie cried, +stopping short, while a suspicion of the truth began to dawn upon her. + +'That is the roof Tom told you I was shingling,' Harold replied; and +taking her by the arm, he hurried her into the cottage where Mrs. +Crawford stood at the door, in her broad white apron and the neat muslin +cap which Maude has fashioned for her. + +With a cry of joy, Jerrie took the old lady in her arms, and kissed and +cried over her. + +'It is so nice to be home, and everything is so pleasant!' she said, as +her eyes swept the sitting-room and kitchen, and back porch where the +tea-table was laid, with its luscious berries and pitchers of cream. +'Go right up stairs with Harold. I have just come down, and cannot go +up again,' Mrs. Crawford said, excitedly; and, with a bound, Jerry was +up the stairs and into the lovely room. + +When she saw them coming in the lane, Mrs. Crawford had gone up and +opened the shutters, letting in a flood of light, so that nothing should +escape Jerrie's notice. And she saw it all at a glance--the high walls, +the carpet, the furniture, the curtains, and the flowers--and knew why +Harold did not come to Vassar. + +He was standing in the bay-window, watching her, and the light fell full +upon his shabby clothes, which Jerrie noticed for the first time, +knowing exactly why he must wear them, and understanding perfectly all +the self-denials and sacrifices he had made for her, who had been angry +because he did not come to see her graduated. Had she been three years +younger, she would have thrown herself into his arms and died there. +Harold half thought and hoped she was going to do so now, for she made a +rush toward him, then stopped suddenly, and sinking into the willow +chair--Maude's gift--began to sob aloud, while Harold stood looking at +her, wishing she had not cried, and wondering what he ought to do. + +'Don't you like it, Jerrie?' he said at last. + +'Like it?' and in the blue eyes so full of tears which she flashed upon +him, he read her answer. 'Like it! Oh, Harold, it is perfect! I never +saw a room I liked better. But why did you do it? Was it because of that +foolish speech of mine about knocking my brains out, the ceiling was so +low?' + +'Not at all,' Harold replied. 'I had the idea in my head long before you +wrote that to me, but could not quite see my way clear until last +spring. I have seen Nina's room and Maude's, and have heard that Ann +Eliza Peterkin's was finer than the Queen's at Windsor, and I did not +like to think of you in the cooped up place this was, with the slanting +roof and low windows. I am glad you like it.' + +And then, knowing that she would never let him rest until he had done +so, he told her all the ways and means by which he had been able to +accomplish it, except indeed, his own self-denials and sacrifices of +pride, and even comfort. But this she understood, and noticed again more +carefully the shabby coat, and pants, and shoes, and the calloused +hands, which lay upon his knees as he talked, and which she wished so +much to take in hers and kiss and pity, for the hard work they had done +for her. But this would have been 'throwing herself at his head.' + +She was constantly thinking of Arthur's words, and so she only cried the +more, as she told Harold how much she thanked him, and never could repay +him for what he had done for her. + +'But it was a pleasure, Jerrie,' he said.' I never enjoyed anything in +my life as I have working in this room, with Maude to help me. She was +here nearly every day, and by her courage and enthusiasm kept me up to +fever heat. She puttied up the nail-holes and painted your +dressing-room, and would have helped shingle the roof if I had permitted +it. She gave the chair you sit in, and the table in the window. She +would do that and I let her; but when Mr. Arthur offered his assistance, +and the other Mr. Tracy, I refused, for I wanted it all my own, for +you.' + +He was speaking rapidly and excitedly, and had Jerrie looked she would +have seen in his face all she was to him; but she did not look up, and +at mention of Maude a cloud fell suddenly upon her. But she would not +let it remain; she would be happy and make Harold so, too. So she told +him again of her delight, and what a joyous coming home it was. + +She had not yet seen Arthur's card, and photograph, and note; but Harold +called her attention to them; and taking up the latter, she opened it, +while her heart gave a great throb of something between joy and pain as +she saw the words, 'My dear child,' and then went on to read the note so +characteristic of him. + +'What a strange fancy of his to go off so suddenly to California. I +wonder Mr. Frank allowed it,' she said, as she put the note in her +pocket, and then, at a call from Mrs. Crawford, went down to where the +supper was waiting for her. + +The tea cakes were a little cold, but everything else was delicious, +from the fragrant tea to the ripe berries and thick, sweet cream, and +Jerrie enjoyed it all with the keen relish of youth and perfect health. + +After supper was over Jerrie made her grandmother sit still while she +washed up and put away the dishes, singing as she worked, and whistling, +too--loud, dear, ringing strains, which made a robin in the grass fly up +to the perch, where, with his head turned on one side he listened, as +if in wonder, to this new songster, whose notes were strange to him. + +And Jerrie did seem like some joyous bird just let loose from prison, as +she flitted from one thing to another, now setting her grandmother's cap +a little more squarely on her head, and bending to kiss the silvery hair +as she said to her, 'Your working days are over now, for I have come +home to care for you, and in the future you have nothing to do but to +sit still, with your dear old lame feet on a cushion;' now helping +Harold water the flowers in the borders, and pinning a June pink in his +buttonhole, while he longed to take her in his arms and kiss her as in +the days when they were children together; now, going with him to milk +Nannie, who, either remembering Jerrie, or recognizing a friend in her, +allowed her gentle face to be petted and her horn to be decorated with a +knot of blue ribbon, which Jerrie took from her throat, and which Harold +afterward took from Nannie's horn and hid away with the withered lillies +Jerrie had thrown him that day at Harvard when her face and her eyes had +been his inspiration. + +They kept early hours at the cottage, and the people at the Park House +were little more than through the grand dinner they were giving, when +Jerrie said good-night to her grandmother and Harold, and went up to her +new room under the raised roof. It was a lovely summer night, and the +moonlight fell softly upon the grass and shrubs outside, and shone far +down the long lane where the Tramp House stood, with its thick covering +of woodbine. + +Leaning from the window Jerrie looked out upon the night, while a +thousand thoughts and fancies came crowding into her brain, all born of +that likeness seen by her in the mirror when Arthur was with her at +Vassar, and which Harold, too, had recognized that afternoon when she +sat with him in the Tramp House. After Arthur had left her in May, she +had been too busy to indulge often in idle dreams, but they had come +back to her again with an overwhelming force, which seemed for a few +moments to lift the veil of mystery and show her the past, for which she +was so eagerly longing. The pale lace was clearer, more distinct in her +mind, as was the room with the tall white stove and the high-backed +settee beside it, and on the settee a little girl--herself, she +believed--and she could hear a voice from the cushioned chair where the +pale face was resting speaking to her and calling her by the name Arthur +had given her in his note. + +'My child,' he had written; but he had only put it as a term of +endearment; he had no suspicion of the truth if it were truth; and yet +why should he not know? Could anything obliterate the memory of a child, +if there had been one, Jerrie asked herself, as her eyes wandered in +that direction of the park, which had once seemed to her like Paradise. + +'I _will_ know some time. _I_ will find it out myself,' she said, as she +withdrew from the window and commenced her preparations for bed. + +As she stepped into her dressing room, her eye fell upon the foreign +trunk, which had come with her, and with the contents of which she was +familiar. They had been kept intact by Mrs. Crawford, who hoped that by +them Jerrie might some day be identified. The girl went now to the old +trunk, and, lifting the heavy lid, took out the articles one by one with +a very different feeling from what she had ever experienced before when +handling them. The alpaca dress came first, and she examined it +carefully. It was coarse, and plain, and old-fashioned, and she felt +intuitively that a servant had worn it and not she whose pale, refined +face seemed almost to touch hers as she knelt beside the box. The cloak +and shawl, in which she had been wrapped, were inspected next, and on +these Jerrie's tears fell like rain, while there was in her heart an +indefinable feeling of pity for the woman who had resolutely put away +the covering from herself to save a life which was no part of her own. + +'Oh, Mah-nee,' she sobbed, laying her face upon the rough, coarse +garments, 'I am not disloyal to you in trying to believe that you were +not my mother, and could you come back to me, Mah-nee, whoever you are, +I'd be to you so loving and true. Tell me, Mah-nee, who I am; give me +some sign that what comes to me so often of that far-off land is true. +There _was_ another face than yours, which kissed me fondly, and other +hands, dead now, as are the dear old hands which shielded me from the +cold that awful night, have caressed me lovingly.' + +But to this appeal there came no response, and Jerrie would have been +frightened if there had. The shawl, the cloak, the dress were as silent +and motionless as she to whom they had belonged; and Jerrie folded them +reverently, kissing each one as she did so; then she took out the +carpet-bag, which had once held her tiny body. She always laughed when +she looked at this and tried to imagine herself in it, and she did so +now as she held it up and said: + +'I could not much more than get my two feet in you now, old bag; but you +did me good service once, and I respect you, although I have outgrown +you.' + +Her own clothes came next--the little dresses, which showed a mother's +love and care; the handkerchief, marked 'J;' the aprons, and the picture +book with which she had played, and from which it seemed to her she had +learned the alphabet, standing by that cushioned chair before the tall +white stove. There was only the fine towel left of the clothing, and +Jerrie gazed along and thoughtfully at the letter 'M,' embroidered with +flowers in the corners. + +'Marguerite begins with M,' she said, 'and Gretchen's name was +Marguerite. Oh, if it were Gretchen who worked this letter, then I can +touch what her hands have touched--the little dimpled hands in the +picture,' and she kissed the 'M' as fervently as if it had been +Gretchen's lips and Gretchen were her mother. + +On the old brass ring the key to the trunk and carpet-bag were still +fastened, together with the small straight key, for which no use had +ever been found. Jerrie had never thought much about this key before, +but now she held it in her hand a long, long time, while the conviction +grew that this was the key to the mystery; that could she find the +article which this unlocked, she would know what she so longed to +know--something definite with regard to herself. But where to look she +could not guess; and with her brain in a whirl which threatened a +violent headache, she closed the chest at last, and crept wearily to bed +just as the clock, which Peterkin had set up in one of his towers, +struck for half-past ten, and Grace Atherton's carriage was rolling down +the avenue from the big dinner at the Park House. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE NEXT DAY. + + +Jerrie was astir the next morning almost as soon as the first robin +begin to sing under her window. She had left a blind open, and the red +beams of the rising sun fell upon her face and roused her from a dream +of Germany and what she meant to do there. Once fairly awake, Germany +seemed far away, as did the fancies of the previous night. The spell, +mesmeric, or clairvoyant, or whatever one chooses to call it, was +broken, and she was only Jerrie Crawford again, dressing herself rapidly +and noiselessly so as not to awaken her grandmother, who slept in the +room beneath hers. + +'I shall get the start of her,' she said, as she donned a simple working +dress which had done her service during the summer vacations for three +successive years. 'I heard her telling Harold last night to have the +tubs and water ready early, for she had put off the Monday's washing +until I came home, as I was sure to bring a pile of soiled clothes. And +I have; but, my dear grandmother, your poor old twisted hands will not +touch them. What is a great strapping girl like me for, I'd like to +know, if it is not to wash her own clothes, and yours, too?' and Jerrie +nodded resolutely at the fresh young face in the mirror, which nodded +back with a smile of approbation of the _tout ensemble_ of the figure +reflected in the glass. + +And truly it was a very pretty and piquant picture which she, made in +her neat calico dress, which, as it was three years old at least, was a +little too short for her, and showed plainly her red stockings and +high-heeled slippers, with the strap around her instep. Her sleeves were +short, for she had cut them off and arranged them in a puff above her +elbows to save rolling them up, and her white bib-apron was fastened on +each shoulder with a knot of blue ribbon, Harold's favorite color. She +had thoroughly brushed her beautiful wavy hair, and then twisting it +into a mass of curls had tucked it under a coquettish muslin cap, whose +narrow frill just shaded her lovely face. 'You look like a peasant +girl, and I believe you are a peasant girl, and ought to be working in +the fields of Germany this minute,' she said to herself with a mocking +courtesy, as she left the mirror and descended to the kitchen, where, +early as it was, she found Harold warming some coffee over a fire of +chips, and cutting a slice of dry bread. + +'What in the world!' she exclaimed, stopping short on the threshold. 'I +mean to be the first on the scene, and lo! here you are before me. What +are you doing?' + +'Getting my breakfast,' Harold replied, turning toward her with a slight +shade of annoyance on his face. 'You see, I have a job. I did not tell +you last night that a Mr. Allen, who lives across the river, four miles +away, looked in one day when I was painting your ceiling, and liked it +so much that he has engaged me to paint one for him. I told him I was +only an amateur, but he said he'd rather have me than all the boss +painters in Shannondale. He offered me three dollars a day and board, +which means dinner and supper, or fifteen for the job; and I took the +last offer, as I can make the most at it by beginning early and working +late, and we need--' + +Here he stopped short, for how could he tell Jerrie that the raised roof +had taken all his means, and that he even owed the grocer for the sugar +she had eaten upon her berries, and the butcher for the bit of steak +bought the previous night for her breakfast and his grandmother's. But +Jerrie guessed it without his telling, but with her quick instinct and +delicate perception knew that no genuine man like Harold cares to have +even his best friend know of his poverty if he can help it. Forcing back +the tears which sprang to her eyes, she cried, cheerily: + +'Yes, I know; you are a kind of second Michael Angelo, though I doubt if +that old gentleman, at your age, could have done my room better than you +did. I don't wonder Mr. Allen wanted you. But you are not going to tramp +four miles on a hot morning, on nothing but bread and coffee, and such +coffee--muddier than the Missouri River! You shall have a decent +breakfast, if I can get it for you. Just sit down and rest, and see what +a Vassar with a diploma can do.' + +As she talked she was replenishing the fire with hard-wood, putting on +the kettle, pouring out the coffee dregs saved from yesterday's +breakfast, and hunting for an egg with which to settle the fresh cup she +intended to make. + +'No, no, Jerrie. No, you must not take that; it is all we have in the +house, and grandma must have a fresh one every day at eleven o'clock, +the doctor says--it strengthens her,' Harold said, rising quickly, while +Jerrie put the one egg back in the box and asked what Mrs. Crawford did +settle coffee with. + +'I am sure I don't know; cold water, I guess,' Harold said, resuming his +seat, while Jerrie tripped here and there, laying the cloth, bringing +his cup and saucer and plate, and at last pouncing upon the bit of steak +in the refrigerator. + +But here Harold again interfered. + +'Jerrie--Jerrie, that is for your breakfast and grandma's. You must not +take that.' + +'But I shall take half of it. I would rather have a glass of Nannie's +milk any time than meat, and you are going to have my share; so, Mr. +Hastings, just mind your business and let the cook alone, or she'll be +givin' ye warnin',' Jerrie answered laughingly, as she divided the +steak, which she proceeded at once to broil. + +So Harold let her have her way, and felt an increase of self-respect, +and that he was something more than a common day laborer, as he ate his +steak and buttered toast, and drank the coffee, which seemed to him the +best he had ever tasted. Jerrie picked him a few strawberries, and laid +beside his plate a beautiful half-opened rose, with the dew still upon +it. It was a delicate attention, and Harold felt it more than all she +had done for him. + +'Thank you, Jerrie,' he said, picking up the rose as he finished his +breakfast. 'It was so nice in you to think of it, just as if I were a +king instead of a jack-at-all-trades, but I hardly think it suits my +blue checked shirt and painty pants. Keep it yourself, Jerrie,' and he +held it up against her white bib apron. 'It is just like the pink on +your cheeks. Wear it for me,' and taking a pin from his collar, he +fastened it rather awkwardly to the bib, while his face came in so close +proximity to Jerrie's that he felt her breath stir his hair, and felt, +too, a strong temptation to kiss the glowing cheek so near his own. +'There, that completes your costume,' he said, holding her off a little +to look at her. 'By the way, haven't you got yourself up uncommonly +well this morning? I never saw you as pretty as you are in this rig. If +it would not be very improper, I'd like to kiss you.' + +He was astonished at his own boldness, and not at all surprised at +Jerrie's reply, as she stepped back from him. + +'No, thank you, it would be highly improper for a man of twenty-six, who +stands six feet in his boots, to kiss a girl of nineteen, who stands +five feet six in her slippers.' + +There was a flush on her cheeks and a strange look in her eyes, for she +was thinking of Harvard, where he had put her from him, ashamed that +strangers should see her kiss him. Harold had forgotten that incident, +which at the time had made no impression upon him, and was now thinking +only of the beautiful girl whose presence seemed to brighten and ennoble +everything with which she came in contact, and to whom he at last said +good-bye, just as Peterkin's tower clock struck for half-past five.' + +'I _must_ go now,' he said, taking up his basket of brushes. 'I have +lost a full half-hour with you, and your steaks, and your coddling me +generally. I ought to have been there by this time. Good-bye,' and +offering her his hand, he started down the lane at a rapid pace, +thinking the morning the loveliest he had ever known, and wondering why +everything seemed so fresh, and bright, and sweet. + +If he could have sung, he would have done so, but he could not, and so +he talked to himself, and to the birds, and rabbits, and squirrels, +which sprang up before him as he struck into the woods as the shortest +route to Mr. Allen's farm house--talked to them and to himself of +Jerrie, and how delightful it was to have her home again, unspoiled by +flattery, sweet and gracious as ever, and how he longed to tell her of +his love, but dared not yet until he was surer of her and of what she +felt for him. He had no faith now in her fancies with regard to herself. +Of the likeness to Arthur, which he thought he saw the previous there +had been no trace on the face which had almost touched his that morning +when he pinned the rose upon her bib. She was not--could not be +Gretchen's daughter, and was undoubtedly the child of the woman found in +the Tramp House--his Jerry, whom he had found, and claimed as his own, +and whom he meant to win some day, when he had his profession, and was +established in business. 'But that will be a long, long time, and some +one else may steal her from me,' he said to himself, sadly, as he +thought of the years which must elapse before he could venture to take a +wife. 'Oh, if I were sure she cared for me a little, as I do for her, I +would ask her now and have it settled; for Jerrie is not a girl to go +back on her promise, and the years would seem so short, and the work so +easy, with Jerrie at the end of it all,' he continued, and then he +wondered how he could find out the nature of Jerrie's feeling for him +without asking her directly, and so spoiling everything if he should +happen to be premature. + +Would his grandmother know? Not at all likely. She was too old to know +much of love, or its symptoms in a girl. Would Nina St. Claire know? +Possibly, for she and Jerrie were great friends, and girls always told +each other their secrets, so Maude said, and Maude was just then his +oracle. He had seen so much of her the last few months that he felt as +if he knew her even better than he did Jerrie, and he was certainly more +at his ease in her presence. Then why not talk with Maude and enlist her +as a partisan. He might certainly venture to make her his confidente, +she had been so very communicative and familiar with him, telling him +things which he had wondered at, with regard to her father, and mother, +and Tom, and the family generally. Yes, he would sound Maude, very +cautiously at first, and get her opinion, and then he should know better +what to do. Maude would espouse his cause, he was sure, for she liked +him and worshipped Jerrie. He could trust her, and he would. + +He had reached the Allen farm-house by this time, and though he was +perspiring at every pore, for the morning was very hot, he scarcely felt +the heat or the fatigue of his rapid four-mile walk, as he mixed his +paints and prepared for his work, for there was constantly in his heart +a thought of Jerrie, as she had looked in that bewitching dress, and of +the bright, smile she had flashed upon him when she said good-bye. + +Meanwhile Jerrie had watched him out of sight, whistling merrily: + + 'Gin a body meet a body, + Comin' through the rye, + Gin a body kiss a body, + Need a body cry?' + +whistling it so loud and clear that Nannie came to the fence and put +her head over it with a faint low of approval, while Clover-top thrust +his white nose through the bars, and looked at her inquiringly, as +Jerrie pulled up handfuls of fresh grass and fed them from her hands, +noticing that Nannie had lost her knot of ribbon, and wondering where it +was. Then she returned to the house, and was busying herself with +preparations for her grandmother's breakfast and her own, when the +latter appeared in the kitchen, surprised to find her there, and saying: + +'Why, Jerrie, what made you get up till I called you? Why didn't you lie +and rest?' + +'Lie and rest,' Jerrie answered laughingly. 'It is you who are to lie +and rest, and not a great overgrown girl like me. I have given Harold +his breakfast and seen him off. I cooked him half the steak,' she added +as she took out the remaining half and put it on the gridiron. 'I don't +care for steak,' she continued, as she saw Mrs. Crawford about to +protest. 'I would rather any time have bread and milk and strawberries. +I shall never tire of them;' and the big bowl full which she ate with a +keen relish, proved that she spoke the truth. + +'Now, grandma,' she said, when breakfast was over. 'I am going to do the +work, washing and all. I must do something to work off my superfluous +health, and strength, and muscle. Look at that arm, will you?' and she +threw out her bare arm, which for whiteness and roundness and symmetry +of proportion, might have been coveted by the most fashionable lady in +the land. 'Go back to your rocking-chair and rest your dear, old lame +foot on your softest cushion, and see how soon I will have everything +done. It is just seven now, and by ten we shall be all slicked up, as +Ann Eliza Peterkin says.' + +It was of no use to try to resist Jerrie. She would have her own way; +and so Mrs. Crawford, after skimming her milk and attending to the +cream, went to her rocking-chair and her cushion, and sat there quietly, +while Jerrie in the woodshed pounded and rubbed, and boiled and rinsed, +and wrung and starched and blued, and hung upon the line article after +article, until there remained only a few towels and aprons and stockings +and socks, and a pair of colored overalls which Harold had worn at his +work. As these last were rather soiled and had no them patches of +paint, Jerrie was attacking them with a will, when her grandmother +called out in great trepidation: + +'Jerrie, Jerrie, do wipe your hands and come quick! Here's Tom Tracy +hitching his horse at the gate.' + +Jerrie's first impulse was to do as her grandmother bade her, and her +second to stay where she was. + +'If Tom chooses to call so early he must take me as he finds me,' she +thought, while to her grandmother she said: 'Nonsense! Who cares for Tom +Tracy? If he asks for me send him to the woodshed. I can't stop my +work.' + +In a moment the elegant Tom, fresh from his perfumed bath, the odor of +which still lingered about him, and faultlessly attired in a cool summer +suit, was bending his tall figure in the door-way of the woodshed where +Jerrie, who was rubbing away on Harold's overalls, received him with a +nod and a smile, as she said: + +'Good-morning, Tom. You are up early, and so was I. Business before +pleasure, you know; so I hope you will excuse me if I keep right on. I +have stinted myself to get through, mopping and all, by ten, and it is +now nine by Peterkin's bell. Pray be seated. How is Maude?' + +She pointed to a wooden chair near the door, where Tom sat down, wholly +nonplussed, and not knowing at all what to say first. + +Never before had he been received in this fashion, and it struck him +that there was something incongruous between himself, in his dainty +attire, with a cluster of beautiful roses in his hand, and that chair, +minus a back, in the woodshed, where the smell of the soapsuds would +have made him faint and sick if he had not been so near to the open +door. + +Tom had not slept well the previous night. He had joined the fine +dinner-party his mother had given to the Hart's, and St. Claire's and +Atherton's, and had sat next to Fred Raymond's sister Marian, a very +pretty young girl with a good deal that was foreign in her style and in +her accent, for she had been in Europe nine years, and had only just +come home. Everything in her manner was perfect, from her low, +well-modulated voice, to her sweet, musical laugh, and Tom acknowledged +to himself that she was the most highly polished and cultivated girl he +had ever met; and still she tired him, and he was constantly +contrasting her with Jerrie, and thinking how much better he should +enjoy himself if she were there beside him, with her ready wit and +teasing remarks, which frequently amounted almost to ridicule. Jerrie +had been very gracious to him on the train, and had laughed and joked +with him quite as much as she had with Dick St. Clare. + +'Perhaps she likes me better than I have supposed she did,' he thought. +'Anyway, I'd better be on hand, now she is at home and can see Harold +every day. He don't care a copper for Maude, or wouldn't if she didn't +run after him so much, and that will sicken him pretty soon, now that he +has Jerrie. By George, I believe I'd be as poor as he is, and paint for +a living, if I couldn't have Jerrie without it. But I think I can; +anyway, I am going to try. She cannot be insensible to the advantage it +would be to her to be my wife, and eventually the mistress of Tracy +Park. There is not a girl in the world who would not consider twice +before she threw such a chance away.' + +Such was the nature of Tom's reflections all through the dinner, and to +him the tiresome talk which followed it and the short summer night +during which he was planning his mode of attack. + +'I'll call in the morning and take her some roses; she likes flowers,' +he thought. 'I wonder what she did with those I gave her at Vassar? They +were not with her on the car, unless she hid them in the paper box she +carried so carefully. Yes, I guess they were there, and I shall see them +standing around some where.' + +And this was the secret of Tom's early call. He had thought at first to +walk, but had changed his mind, and driven down to the cottage in his +light buggy, with the intention of asking Jerrie to drive with him along +the river road. But she did not look much like driving as she stood +there by the wash-tub in that working-dress, which he thought the most +charming of anything he had ever seen, notwithstanding his chagrin that +the future Mrs. Tom Tracy should ever come in contact with anything as +vulgar as soapsuds and pounding barrels. How beautiful she was in that +short dress, with her bare arms, the whitest he had ever seen, and how +pretty her feet looked in the red stockings and slippers, which he +would have sworn were threes instead of fours and a half. + +'I was coming this way,' he said at last, 'and thought I'd stop and see +how you stood the journey, and I've brought you some roses.' + +He held them toward her, and with a bright smile she came forward to +receive them. + +'Oh, thank you, Tom,' she said, 'it was so kind in you. Roses are my +favorites after the white pond lilies, and these are very sweet.' + +She buried her face in them two or three times, and then, putting them +in some water, resumed her position by the wash-tub. + +'I'd like you to drive with me,' Tom said, 'but I see you are too busy. +Must you do that work, Jerrie? Can't somebody--can't your grandmother do +it for you?' + +'Grandmother! That old lady do my washing! No, indeed!' Jerrie answered, +scornfully, as she made a dive into the boiler with the clothes-stick +and brought out a pair of Mrs. Crawford's long knit stockings, and +dropped them into the rinsing water with a splash. + +'Grandma has worked enough,' she continued, as she plunged both her arms +into the water. 'Harold and I shall take care of her now. He was up this +morning at four o'clock, and has gone to Mr. Allen's, four miles away, +to paint a room for him like mine.' + +She said this a little defiantly, for she felt hot and resentful that +Tom Tracy should be sitting there at his ease, while Harold was +literally working for his daily bread, and also took a kind of bitter +pride in letting Tom know that she was not ashamed of Harold's work. + +'Yes,' Tom drawled, 'that new room must have cost Hal his bottom dollar. +We all wondered how he could afford it. I hope you like it.' + +She was too angry to tell him whether she liked it or not, for she knew +the speech was a mean one and prompted by a mean spirit, and she kept on +rubbing a towel until there was danger of its being rubbed into shreds. +Then suddenly remembering that Tom had not told her of Maude, she +repeated her question. 'How is Maude? She was coming to see me this +morning I hope I shall be done before she gets here.' + +'Don't hurry yourself for Maude,' Tom replied. 'She will not be here +to-day. I had nearly forgotten that she sent her love and wants you to +come there. She is sick in bed, or was when I left. She had a slight +hemorrhage last night. I think it was from her stomach, though, and so +does mother, but father is scared to death, as he always is if Maude has +a pain in her little finger.' + +'Oh, Tom,' Jerrie said, recalling with a pang the thin face, the +blue-veined hands, the tired look of the young girl at the station. 'Oh, +Tom, why didn't you tell me before, so I could hurry and go to her;' and +leaning over her tub Jerrie began to cry, while Tom looked curiously at +her, wondering if she really cared so much for his sister. + +'Don't cry, Jerrie,' he said, at last, very tenderly for him. 'Maude is +not so bad; the doctor has no fear. She is only tired with all she has +done lately. You know, perhaps, that she was here constantly with +Harold, and I believe she actually painted for him some, and for aught I +know helped shingle the roof, as Billy said.' + +'Yes, I know; I understand,' Jerrie replied, 'I saw it in her face +yesterday. She has tired herself out for me, and if she dies I shall +hate the room forever.' + +'But she will not die; that is nonsense,' Tom began when he was +interrupted by Mrs. Crawford, who called out: + +'Oh, Jerry, here is Billy Peterkin, with his hands full. What shall I do +with him?' + +Dashing away her tears, Jerry replied: + +'Send him in here, of course.' + +In a few moments the dapper little man was in the woodshed, with a large +bouquet of hot-house flowers in one hand and a basket of delicious +black-caps in the other. For a moment he stood staring first at Tom on +the wooden chair glaring savagely at him, and at Jerrie by the washtub +with the traces of tears on her face--then, with a wind of forced laugh, +he said: + +'Be-beg pardon, if I in-tr-trude. Looks dusedly like l-love in a +t-t-tub.' + +'And if it is, you have knocked the bottom out,' Tom said, with a sneer. +Both jokes were atrocious, but they made Jerrie laugh, which was +something. She was glad on the whole that Billy had come, and when he +offered her the berries and the flowers, she accepted them graciously, +and bade him sit down, if he could find a seat. + +'Here is one on the wash bench,' she said, 'or, will be when I have +emptied the tub;' and she was about to take up the latter, when Billy +sprang to her assistance and emptied it himself, while Tom sat looking +on, chaffing with anger and disgust. + +After a moment Billy stuttered out: + +'Ann Eliza sent me here, and wants you to c-c-come and see her rooms. +G-g-got a suite, you know; and, by Jove, they are like a b-b-bazaar, +they are so f-full of things, and fl-flowers; half Vassar is there. Got +your basket of d-daisies, Tom, and when I asked her where she g-g-got +'em, she said it was n-n-none of my business. D-did she steal 'em?' and +he turned to Jerrie, whose face was scarlet, as she replied: + +'No, I gave them to her, with a lot of others; I could not bring them +all and it was better to dispose of home flowers, as I can get them any +time.' + +Tom could have beaten the air, he was so angry. He had been vain enough +to hope that his gift was carefully put away in some box or parcel; and +lo! it was in the possession of that red-haired Peterkin girl, whose +_penchant_ for himself he suspected, and whom he despised accordingly. + +'Much obliged to you for giving away my flowers,' he was going to say, +when Mrs. Crawford called again, and this time in real distress. + +'Jerrie, Jerrie! you _must_ come now, for here is Dick St. Claire.' + +For an instant Jerrie hesitated, and then ashamed of the feeling which +had at first prompted her not to let Dick into the wood-shed, she +replied: + +'If Tom and Billy can he admitted to my boudoir, Dick can. Send him in.' + +'By George, this is jolly!' Dick said, as he bent his tall figure under +the low door-way, and seated himself upon the inverted washtub which +Billy had emptied. 'Have you all been washing?' 'No,' Jerrie answered, +proudly. 'I am the washerwoman, and all those clothes you saw on the +line are my handiwork.' + +'By George!' Dick said again. 'You are a trump, Jerrie! Why didn't you +wear that dress when you were graduated? It's the prettiest costume I +ever saw.' + +'Th-that's what I think, only I d-didn't d-dare t-tell her so!' Billy +cried, springing to his feet and hopping about like a little robin. + +'How is Nina?' Jerrie asked, ignoring the compliment. + +'Brisk as a bee,' Dick replied, 'and sends an invitation for you to come +over to a garden-tea to-night to meet Marian Raymond, Fred's sister. +Awful pretty girl, with an accent like a foreigner; was over there +several years, you know. I was going to the Park House to invite you and +Maude,' he continued, turning to Tom, 'but as you are here, it will save +me the walk. Half-past five sharp.' + +Then as his eye fell upon Billy, in whose face there was a look of +expectancy, his countenance fell, for Nina had given him no instructions +to invite the Peterkins, and he felt intuitively that there was nothing +in common between Ann Eliza Peterkin and the refined and aristocratic +Marian Raymond, who had seen the best society in Europe, and in whose +veins some of Kentucky's bluest blood was flowing. But Dick was very +kind-hearted, and never knowingly wounded the feelings of any one if he +could help it; and, after an awkward moment, during which he was +wondering what Nina would do to him if he did it, he turned to Billy and +said, as naturally as if it were what he had been expressly bidden to +say: + +'Why, I shan't have to walk over to Le Bateau either. I'm in luck this +hot morning, if you will take the invitation to your sister--for +half-past five.' + +'Th-thanks,' Billy began; 'b-but am I left out?' + +'Of course not. I'm an awful blunderer,' Dick said, adding, mentally, +'and liar, too, though I didn't say anybody would be happy to see them. +Poor Billy, he is well enough, and so is Ann Eliza, if she wouldn't pile +that red hair so high on the top of her head and wear so much jewelry. +Well, I am in for it, and Nina can't any more than kill me.' + +By this time Jerrie was bustling about, putting away the washing +paraphernalia and sweeping the wood-shed, thus indicating that she had +no more time to lose with her three callers, two of whom Dick and Billy, +took the hint and left, but not until she had explained to the former +that it would be impossible for Harold to be present at the +garden-party, as she knew he would not be home until late, and would +then be quite too tired for company. + +'I am sorry that he cannot join us. I counted upon him,' Dick said. 'But +you will come, of course, and I offer my services on the spot to see you +home. Do you accept them?' + +Jerrie seemed to see, without looking, the disappointment in Billy's +face, and the wrath in Tom's; but as she greatly preferred Dick's +society to theirs in a walk from Grassy Spring to the cottage, she +accepted his offer, and then said, laughingly: + +'Now, good-morning to you, and good riddance, too, for I am in an awful +hurry, I am going over to see Maude as soon as I can get myself ready.' + +She had not thought that Tom would wait for her, and would greatly have +preferred to walk; but Tom was persistent, and moving his chair from the +wood-shed outside into the shade where it was cooler, he sat fanning +himself with his hat, and watching the long line of clothes, which +Jerrie had washed, flopping in the wind, with a feeling of mortified +pride, as if his own wife had washed them. He knew that his mother had +once been familiar with tubs, and wash-boards, and soap-suds, but that +was before his day. Twenty-seven years had washed all that out, and he +really felt that to be a Tracy and live at Tracy Park was an honor +scarcely less than to be President of the United States, and Jerrie, he +was sure, would see it as such when once the chance was offered her. She +could not be so blind to her own interest as to refuse him, Tom Tracy, +who was so much sought after by the belles of Saratoga and Newport, +where he had spent a part of two or three seasons. He had been best man +at the great ---- wedding in Springfield, and groomsman at another big +affair in Boston, and had scores of invitations everywhere. Taken +altogether, he was a most desirable _parti_, and he was rather surprised +himself at his infatuation for the girl whom he had found in the suds, +and who was not ashamed that he had thus seen her. This was while he was +watching the clothes on the line, scowling at three pairs of coarse, +vulgar stockings which he knew belonged to Mrs. Crawford, and the pair +of blue overalls which were Harold's. + +'Yes, I do wonder at my interest in that nameless girl, whose mother was +a common peasant woman,' he thought; but when the nameless girl +appeared, fresh, and bright, and dainty, as if she had never seen a +wash-tub, with her hat on her arm, and two of his roses pinned on the +bosom of her blue muslin dress, he forgot the peasant woman, and the +lack of a name, and thought only of the lovely girl who signified that +she was ready. + +It was very cool in the pine woods, where the heat of the summer morning +had not yet penetrated, and Tom, who was enjoying himself immensely, +suggested that they leave the park and take a short drive on the river +road. But Jerrie, who was not enjoying herself, said 'No!' very +decidedly. It would be hot there, and she was anxious to be with Maude +as soon as possible. So they drove on until they reached the grounds +which surrounded the house, and which Jerrie thought more beautiful than +she had ever seen them. The grass was like velvet, with masses of +flowers and shrubs, and urns, and bits of statuary here and there, while +over a little brook where Jerrie and Maude had often waded, and where +poor Jack had had a little water-wheel, a rustic bridge had been built, +with a pretty summer-house just beyond. Frank Tracy was a natural +gardener, and had lavished piles of money upon the grounds, in which he +often worked himself, and where he was busy now with a clump of roses +when Tom drove up with Jerrie. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +AT THE PARK HOUSE. + + +It was six months since Jerrie had seen Frank Tracy, and even in that +time he had changed so much that she noticed it at once, and looked at +him wonderingly as he came quickly toward her with a smile on his +haggard face, and an eager welcome in his voice, as he gave her both +his hands, and told her how glad he was to see her. + +His hair was very white, and she noticed how he stooped as he walked +with her to the house and told her how anxiously Maude was waiting for +her. + +'But she cannot talk just yet,' he said. 'You must do all that. The +doctor tells us there is no danger, if she is kept quiet for a few days. +Oh, Jerrie, what if I should lose Maude after all.' + +They were ascending the staircase now, and Frank was holding Jerrie's +hand while she tried to comfort and reassure him, and then thanked him +for the fruit and the flowers he had sent to the cottage for her the day +before. + +'You are so good to me,' she said, 'you and Mr. Arthur. How lonely the +house seems without him.' + +'Yes,' Frank replied, though in his heart he felt his brother's absence +as a relief, for his presence was a constant reproach to him, and helped +to keep alive the remorse which was always tormenting him. + +The sight of Jerrie, too, was a pain, but she held a nameless +fascination for him, and he was constantly wondering what she would say +and do when she knew, as he was morally sure she would sometime know +what he had done. He was thinking of this now, and saying to himself, +'She will not be as hard upon me as Arthur,' as he led her up the stairs +and stopped at the door of Arthur's rooms. + +'Would you like to go in?' he asked. 'I have the keys,' and he proceeded +to unlock the door. + +But Jerrie held back. + +'No,' she said, as she glanced in at the silent, deserted rooms. 'It is +like a grave. The ruling spirit is gone.' + +'But you forget Gretchen. She is here, and one of Arthur's last +injunctions was that I should visit her every day, and tell her he was +coming back. I have not seen her this morning. Come.' + +He was leading her now by the waist through the front parlor, where the +furniture in its white shrouds looked like ghosts, and the pictures were +covered with tarletan. It was dark, too, in the Gretchen room, as they +called it now, but Frank threw open the blinds and let in a flood of +light upon the picture, before which Jerrie stood reverently, and with +feelings such as she had never experienced before, as she looked upon +that lovely, girlish face. + +A new idea had taken possession of Jerrie since she had last seen that +picture, and while, unsuspected by her, Frank was studying first her +features and then those of Gretchen, she was struggling frantically with +the past, which seemed clearer than before. Again she saw the low room +far away--the tall stove in the corner, the dark woman opening the door, +the firelight on the white face in the chair; and this time memory added +another item to the picture, and she of the white face and wavy golden +hair seemed to hold a writing-desk on her lap and a piece of paper on +which the pale hands were tracing words slowly and feebly, as if the +effort were a pain. + +'Oh, I can almost remember,' she whispered, just as Frank's voice broke +the spell by saying: + +'Good-morning, Gretchen. Arthur is in California, but he is surely +coming back; he bade me tell you so.' + +'Is he crazy as well as Mr. Arthur? Are we all crazy together?' Jerrie +asked herself, as she watched him closing the blinds and shutting out +the sunlight from the room, so that the picture was in shadow now and +seemed nothing but bits of colored glass. + +'I have kept my promise to Arthur; and now for Maude,' Frank said, and +Jerry was conscious of a new and strange sensation--a feeling of +ownership and possession, as she went through the broad hall, glancing +in at one handsome room after another, until she reached Maude's door. + +On the threshold she met Mrs. Frank, just coming out, and elegantly +attired in a tasteful muslin wrapper, with more lace and embroidery upon +it than Jerrie had ever worn in her life; her hair was carefully dressed +with a cap which looked like a pen-wiper or doll's bonnet, it was so +small, perched on the top of it; her face was powdered, and her manner +was one of languor and fine-ladyism, which she had cultivated so +assiduously and achieved so successfully. Not a muscle of her face +changed when she saw Jerrie, but she closed Maude's door quickly, and +stepping into the hall, offered the tips of her fingers, as she said, in +a fretful, rather than a welcoming tone: + +'Good-morning. You are very late. Maude expected you two hours ago, +almost immediately after Tom went out. She has worked herself into a +great state of feverish nervousness.' + +'I am so sorry,' Jerry replied. 'But I could not come sooner. I had a +large washing to do, and that takes time, you know.' + +Jerry meant no reflection upon the days when Dolly had done her own +washing, and knew that it took time, but the thought she did, and a +frown settled upon her face as she replied: + +'Surely your grandmother might have helped you, or Harold; and Maude is +so impatient and weak this morning. The doctor says there is no danger +if she is kept quiet. She is only tired out with that room of yours. +Why, I am told she has actually puttied up nail-holes, and painted +walls, and sawed boards! I hope you like it. You ought to, for a part of +Maude's life and strength is in it.' + +'Oh, Mrs. Tracy,' Jerry cried, with tears in her eyes, 'I am so sorry. +Of course I like the room, or did; but if it has injured Maude, I shall +hate it.' + +Dolly had given her a little stab and was satisfied, so she said in a +softer tone: + +'Maude may recover--I think she will; but everything must be done to +please her, and she cannot talk to you this morning--remember that. You +must do the talking, but must not stay too long.' + +'Mamma--mamma, let Jerrie in,' came faintly from the closed room; and +then Mrs. Tracy stood aside and let Jerrie pass into the luxurious +apartment, where Maude lay upon a silken couch, with a soft, +rose-colored shawl thrown over her shoulders, her eyes large and hollow, +and her face as white almost as a corpse. + +One looking at her needed not to be told of her danger, or of the peril +there was in exciting her; and Jerrie felt a cold thrill creep over her +as she went to the couch, and kneeling beside it, kissed the pale, +quivering lips and smoothed the dark hair, while she tried to speak +naturally and cheerfully, as if in her mind there was no thought of +danger to the beautiful girl, who smiled so lovingly upon her and kept +caressing her hands and her face, as if she would thus express her +gladness to see her. + +'I know all about it, Maude,' Jerrie said. 'Tom told me, and your +mother. You tired yourself out for me. Hush! Don't speak, or I shall go +away,' she continued, as she saw Maude's lips move. 'You are not to +talk. You are to listen, just for a day or two, and then you will he +better, and come to the cottage and see my lovely room. It is so pretty, +and I like it so much, and thank you and Harold so much. He has gone to +the Allen farm to-day to paint,' she said, in answer to an eager +questioning look in Maude's eyes. 'He does not know you are sick. He +will come when he can see you--to-morrow, maybe. Would you like to have +him?' + +A warm pressure of the hand was Maude's reply, as the moisture gathered +upon her heavy eyelashes. But Jerrie kissed it away, though her own hot +tears fell upon Maude's hair, which, however, was so thick that she did +not feel them; nor did she dream what it cost Jerrie to sit there and +tell her everything of Harold which she could think of, because she knew +that would please the sick girl better. Once she made Maude laugh, as +she took off little Billy, imitating his voice so perfectly that a +person outside would have said he was in the room. Jerrie's talent for +imitation and ventriloquism had not deserted her, although as she grew +older, she did not so often practice it as when a child; but she brought +it into full play now to amuse Maude, and imitated every individual of +whom she spoke, except Arthur. He was the one person whose peculiarities +she could not take off. + +'I have been to Mr. Arthur's room,' she said, 'but it seems so desolate +without him. Do you hear from him often?' + +'I have only had one letter, and then he was in Salt Lake City, at the +Continental, in a room which he said was big enough for three rooms, and +had not a single bad smell in it, except the curtains, which were new, +and in which he did detect a little odor.' + +Here Maude laughed again, while there came into her face a faint color +and a look which made Jerrie's breath come quickly as, for the first +time, the thought flashed across her mind that if what she had been +foolish enough to dream of were true Maude was her cousin--her own flesh +and blood. + +'Maude,' she said suddenly, with a strong desire to fold the frail +little body in her arms and tell her what she had thought. + +But when Maude looked up inquiringly at her she only put her head down +upon the rose-colored shawl and began to cry. Then, regardless of +consequences, Maude raised herself upon her elbow, and laying her face +on Jerrie's head began herself to cry piteously. + +'Jerrie, Jerrie,' she sobbed, 'you think I am going to die, I know you +do, and so does everybody, but I am not; I cannot die when there is so +much to live for, and my home is so beautiful, and I love everybody so +much, and--' + +Terrified beyond measure, Jerrie put her hand over Maude's mouth and +said, almost sharply: + +'If you want to live you must not talk. Be careful and you will get +well; the doctor says so.' + +But Jerrie's tears belied her words when she saw the palor in Maude's +face as she sank back upon her pillow exhausted, while, with her +handkerchief she wiped a faint coloring of blood from her lips. + +'I have stayed too long,' Jerrie said, as she arose from her low seat by +the couch. Then Maude spoke again in a whisper and said: + +'Send Harold soon.' + +'I will,' Jerrie replied, and kissing the death-like face again she went +softly from the room, thinking to herself, as she descended the stairs, +'I believe I could give Harold to her now.' + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +UNDER THE PINES WITH TOM. + + +Jerrie found Tom just where she had left him, on the piazza outside, +waiting for her, it would seem, for the moment she appeared he arose, +and going with her down the steps walked by her side along the avenue +toward the point where she would turn aside into the road which led to +the cottage. + +'How did you find Maude!' he asked. + +'Weaker than I supposed,' Jerrie replied, 'and so tired. Oh, Tom, I know +she hurt herself worrying about my room as she did, and if she dies I +shall never like it again.' + +'Nonsense,' Tom answered, carelessly. 'Maude won't die. She's got the +Tracy constitution, which nothing can kill. Don't fret about your room. +Maude liked being there. Nothing could keep her away. And don't flatter +yourself that it was all love for you which took her there so much, for +it wasn't. She is just mashed with Harold, while he--well, what can a +young man do when a pretty girl--and Mamie is pretty--when she gushes at +him all the time? It is a regular flirtation, and everybody knows about +it except mother and the Gov.' + +'Who is the Gov.?' Jerry asked, sharply. + +'Why, you Vassars must be very innocent,' Tom replied, with a laugh, +'not to know that Gov. is one's respected sire: the old man, some call +him, but I am more respectful. My gracious, though! isn't it sweltering? +I'm nearly baked, you make me walk so fast!' and he wiped the great +drops of swat from his forehead. + +'Why don't you go back then? Why are you walking here in the hot sun?' +Jerrie asked. + +'I am going home with you,' he replied. 'Do you think I'd let you go +alone?' + +'Go alone?' Jerrie repeated, stopping short and fixing her blue eyes +upon him. 'You have let me go alone a hundred times, and after dark, +too, when I was much smaller than I am now, and less able to defend +myself, supposing there was anything to fear, which there is not. Pray +go back, and not trouble yourself for me.' + +'I shall not go back,' Tom said. 'I waited on purpose to come with you. +There is something I must say to you, and I may as well say it now as +any other time.' + +Jerrie was tall, but Tom was six inches taller, and he was looking down +straight into her eyes with an expression in his before which hers fell, +for she guessed what it was he wished to say to her, and her heart beat +painfully as, without another word, she walked rapidly on until they +were in the woods near a place where four tall pines formed a kind of +oblong square. Here an iron seat had been placed years before, when the +Tracy children were young, and held what they called their picnics there +under the thick boughs of the pines which shaded them from both heat and +cold. Laying his hand on Jerrie's shoulder, Tom said to her: + +'Sit here with me under the pines while I tell you what for a long time +I have wanted to tell you, and which may as well be told at once.' + +Still Jerrie did not speak, but she sat down upon the seat, and, taking +off her hat, began to fan herself with it, while with the end of her +parasol she tried to trace letters in the thick carpet of dead pine +needles at her feet. + +Her attitude was not encouraging, and a less conceited man than Tom +would have felt disheartened, but he was not. No girl would be insane +enough to refuse Tom Tracy, of Tracy Park; and at last he made the +plunge, and told her of his love for her and his desire to make her his +wife. + +'I know I was a mean little scamp when I was a boy,' he said, 'and did a +lot of things for which I am ashamed; but I believe that I always loved +you, Jerrie, even when I was teasing you the worst. I know I used to +think you the prettiest little girl I ever saw, and now I think you the +prettiest big one, and I have had splendid opportunities for seeing +girls. You know I have travelled a great deal, and been in the very best +society; and, if I may say it, I think I can marry almost any one whom I +choose. I used to fear lest you and Hal would hit it off together, or, +rather, that he would try to get you, but, since he and Maude are so +thick, my fears in that quarter have vanished, and I am constantly +building castles as to what we will do. I did not mean to ask you quite +so soon, but the sight of you this morning washing your clothes, with +all that soapy steam in your face, decided me not to put it off. A Tracy +has no business in a washtub.' + +'Did no Tracy ever wash her own clothes?' Jerrie asked, with an upward +and sidewise turn of her head, habitual with her when startled or +stirred. + +There was a ring in her voice which Tom did not quite like, but he +answered, promptly: + +'Oh, of course, years ago; but times change, and you certainly ought not +to be familiar with such vulgar things, and at Tracy Park you will be +surrounded with every possible luxury, Father, and Maude, and Uncle +Arthur will be overjoyed to have you there; and if, on my part, love and +money can make you happy, you certainly will be so.' + +'You have plenty of money of your own?' Jerrie said, with another upward +toss of her golden head. + +The question was full of sarcasm, but Tom did not see it, and answered +at once: + +'Why, yes, or I shall have in time. Uncle Arthur, you know, is in no +condition to make a will now. It would not stand a minute. All the +lawyers say that.' + +'You have taken counsel, then?' + +The parasol dug a great hole in the soft pines and was in danger of +being broken, as Tom replied: + +'Oh, yes; we are sure of that. Whatever Uncle Arthur has, and it is more +than a million, will go to father, and, after him, to Maude and me; so +you are sure to be rich and to be the mistress of Tracy Park, which will +naturally come to me. Think, Jerrie, what a different life you will lead +at the Park House from what you do now, washing old Mrs. Crawford's +stockings and Harold's overalls.' + +'Yes, I am thinking,' Jerrie answered, very low; and if Tom had followed +the end of her parasol, he would have seen that it was forming the word +Gretchen in front of him. + +'Suppose Mr. Arthur has a wife somewhere?' Jerrie asked. + +'A wife!' Tom exclaimed. 'That is impossible. We should have heard of +that.' + +'Who was Gretchen?' was the next query. + +'Oh, some sweetheart, I suppose--some little German girl with whom he +amused himself a while and then cast off, as men usually do such +incumbrances.' + +Tom did not quite know himself what he was saying, or what it implied, +and he was not at all prepared to see the parasol stuck straight into +the ground, while Jerrie sprang to her feet and confronted him fiercely. + +'Tom Tracy! If you mean to insinuate a thing which is not good and pure +against Gretchen, I'll never speak to you as long as I live! Take back +what you said about Mr. Arthur's casting her off! She was his wife, and +you know it? Dead, perhaps--I think she is; but she was his wife--his +true and lawful wife; and--I--sometimes--' + +She could not add 'think she was my mother,' for the words stuck in her +throat, where her heart seemed to be beating wildly and choking her +utterance. + +'Why, Jerrie,' Tom said, startled at her excited appearance, and anxious +to appease her, 'what can ail you? I hardly know what I said, and if I +have offended you, I am sorry, I know nothing of Gretchen; her face is a +good one and a pretty one, and Maude says you look like her; though I +don't see it, for I think you far prettier than she. Perhaps she was my +uncle's wife--I guess she was: but that does not injure my prospects, +for of course she is dead, or she would have turned up before this time. +We have nothing to fear from her.' + +'She may have left a child. What then?' Jerrie asked, with as steady a +voice as she could command. + +'Pshaw! humbug!' Tom replied, with a laugh. 'That is impossible. A child +would have been heard from before this time. There is no child; I'm sure +I hope not, as that would seriously interfere with our prospects. Think +of some one--say a young lady--walking in upon us some day and claiming +to be Arthur Tracy's daughter!' + +'What would you do?' Jerrie asked, in a tone of smothered excitement. + +'I believe I'd kill her,' Tom said, laughingly, 'or marry her, if I had +not already seen you. But don't worry about that. There is no child; +there is nothing between us and a million, and you have only to appoint +the day which will make me the happiest of men, and free you from a +drudgery, which just to think of sets my teeth on edge. Will you name +the day, Jerrie?' + +If it had been possible for a look to have annihilated Tom, the scorn +which blazed in Jerrie's eyes would have done so. To hear him talk as if +the matter were settled and the money he was to inherit from his uncle +could buy her made her blood boil, and seizing her poor parasol, still +standing up so straight in the piny sand, she stepped backward from him +and said, in a mocking voice: + +'Thank you, Tom, for the honor you would confer upon me, and which I +must decline, for I would rather wash grandma's stockings all my life, +and Harold's overalls, too, than marry a man for money.' + +'Jerrie, oh, Jerrie, you don't mean it! You do not refuse me!' Tom +cried, in alarm, stretching out his arm to reach her but touching only +the parasol, to which he clung desperately as a drowning man to a straw. + +'I do mean it, Tom,' she said, softened a little by the pain she saw in +his face. 'I can never be your wife.' + +'But why not!' Tom demanded. 'Many a girl who stands higher socially in +the world than you would gladly bear my name. I might have married +Governor Storey's daughter, at Saratoga, last summer. She threw herself +at my head, but one thought of you was enough to keep me from her. You +cannot be in earnest.' + +'But I am. I care nothing for your money, which may or may not be yours. +I do not love you, Tom; and without love I would not marry a prince.' + +It was very hard for Tom to believe that Jerrie really meant to refuse +him, Tom Tracy, who with all his love for her--and he did love her as +well as he was capable of loving any one--still felt that he was +stooping a little, or at least was honoring her greatly when he asked +her to be his wife. And she had refused him, and kept on refusing him in +spite of all he could say; and worse than all, made him feel at last +that she did not consider it an honor to be Mrs. Tom Tracy, of Tracy +Park, and did not care either for him or his prospective fortune. She +called it that finally, then Tom grew angry and taunted her with +fostering a hope that Arthur might make her his heir, or at least leave +her some portion of his money. + +'But I tell you he can't do it. A crazy man's will would never stand, +and he is crazy and you know it. You will never touch a dollar of Uncle +Arthur's money, if you live to be a hundred, unless it comes to you from +me. Don't flatter yourself that you will, and don't flatter yourself +either that you will ever catch Hal Hastings, who is the real obstacle +in my way. I know that very well, and so do you; but let me tell you +that what heart he has is given to Maude, who is silly enough to +encourage him; though I doubt if she would ever marry him when it comes +to that. She will look higher than a painter, a carpenter, a--' + +'Tom Tracy!' and Jerrie's parasol was raised so defiantly and her eyes +flashed so indignantly that Tom did not finish what he was going to +say, but cowered a little before the angry girl, who stood so tall +before him and hurled her words at him with such scathing vehemence. +'Tom Tracy! Stop! You have said enough. When you made me believe that +you really did care for me; and I suppose you must, or you would not +have thrown over a governor's daughter for me, or left so many lovelorn, +high-born maidens out in the cold, I was sorry for you, for I hate to +give any one pain, and I would rather have you my friend than my enemy; +but when you taunt me with expectations from your uncle--.' + +Here Jerrie paused, for the lump in her throat would not suffer the +words to come, and there arose before her as if painted upon canvas the +low room, the white stove, the firelight on the whiter face, the writing +on the lap, and the little child in the far-off German city. But she +would have died sooner than have told Tom of this, or that the +conviction was strong upon her that she should one day stand there under +the pines, herself the heiress of Tracy Park, Gretchen's memory honored, +and Gretchen's wrongs wiped out. + +After a moment she went on: + +'I care nothing for your money, and less for you, who show the meanness +there is in your nature when you speak of Harold Hastings as you have +done. Supposing he is poor--suppose he is a painter and a carpenter, and +has been what you started to call him--is he less a man for that? A +thousand times no, and there is more of true manhood and nobility in his +little finger than in your whole body; and if Maude has won his love, +she should be prouder of it than of a duchess' coronet. I do not wish to +wound you, but when you talk of Harold, you make me so mad. +Good-morning; it is time for me to be at my drudgery, as you call it.' + +She walked rapidly away, leaving her parasol, which she had again thrust +into the ground, flopping in the breeze which had just sprung up, and +each flop seemed to mock the discomfited Tom, who, greatly astonished +but not at all out of conceit with himself, sat staring blankly after +her, and with her head and shoulders more erect than usual, if possible, +she went on almost upon a run until a turn in the road hid her from +view. Then he arose and shook himself together, and picking up the +soiled parasol, folded it carefully and put it upon the seat, saying as +he did so: + +'By George! did that girl know what she was about when she refused to +marry me?' + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +THE GARDEN PARTY. + + +Jerrie went on very rapidly toward home, almost running at times, and +not at all conscious of the absence of her parasol, or that the noonday +sun was beating hot upon her head, conscious only of a bitter feeling of +pain and vexation, the latter that she had allowed herself to speak so +angrily to Tom, and of pain because of what he had said to her of Maude +and Harold. Do what she might, she could not forget the tone of Harold's +voice, or the look in his eyes when he bade her good-bye that morning, +or that his whole manner since her return had been more like that of a +lover than of a brother. And still there was that little throb of +jealousy tugging at her heart-strings, notwithstanding that he had said +to herself in substance not more than an hour before that she believed +she could give Harold to Maude, whose love for him she could not doubt. + +'And I'll do it now,' she said, at last, to herself. 'I'll fight it +down, this something which makes me hate myself. If Harold loves Maude +he shall never know from me of that horrible pain which cuts me like a +knife and makes me forget to be indignant at Tom for talking so much of +his money and his position, as if they could buy me! Poor Tom! I said +some sharp things to him, but he deserved them, the prig! Let him marry +that governor's daughter if he can. I am sure I wish him success.' + +She had reached home by this time, and found their simple dinner waiting +for her. 'Oh, grandma, why did you do it? Why didn't you wait for me?' +she said, as she took her seat at the table where the dishes were all so +plain, and the cloth, though white and clean, so coarse and cheap. + +Jerrie was as fond of luxury and elegance as any one, and Tracy Park, +with its appurtenances, would have suited her taste better than the +cottage. + +'But not with Tom, not with Tom,' she kept on repeating to herself, as +she cleared the table and washed the dishes, and then brought in and +folded the clothes for the morrow's ironing. + +By this time she was very tired, and going to her cool, pretty room, she +threw herself upon the lounge and slept soundly for three hours or more. +Sleep is a wonderful tonic, and Jerrie rose refreshed and quite herself +again. Not even a thought of Maude and Harold disturbed her as she went +whistling and singing around her room, hanging up her dresses one by +one, and wondering which she should wear at the garden party. Deciding +at last upon a simple white muslin, which, although two years old, was +still in fashion, and very becoming, she arranged her wavy hair in a +fluffy mass at the back of her head, brushed her bangs into short, soft +curls upon her forehead, pinned a cluster of roses on the bosom of her +dress, and was ready for the party. + +'Tell Harold, if he is not too tired, I want him very much to come for +me,' she said, to Mrs. Crawford, and then about five o'clock started for +Grassy Spring, where she found the guests all assembled in the pleasant, +shady grounds, which surrounded the house. + +Tom was there in his character of a fine city dandy, and the moment he +saw Jerry, he hastened to meet her, greeting her with perfect +self-possession, as if nothing had happened. + +'You are late,' he said, going up to her. 'We are waiting for you to +complete our eight hand croquet, and I claim you as my partner.' + +'I c-c call that mean, T-t-tom. I was g-g-going to ask J-jerrie to +pl-play with m-me,' little Billy said, hopping around them, while Dick's +face showed that he, too, would like the pleasure of playing with +Jerrie, who was known to be an expert and seldom missed a ball. + +Naturally, however, Marian Raymond, as a stranger, would fall to him, +and they were soon paired off, Dick and Marian, Tom and Jerrie, Nina and +Billy, Fred Raymond and Ann Eliza, who wore diamonds enough for a full +dress party, and whose red hair was piled on the top of her head so +loosely that the ends of it stuck out here and there like the streamers +on a boat on gala days. This careless style of dressing her hair, Ann +Eliza affected, thinking it gave individuality to her appearance; and it +certainly did attract general observation, her hair was so red and +bushy. Dick had stumbled and stammered dreadfully when confessing to his +sister that he had invited the Peterkins, while Nina had drawn a long +breath of dismay as she thought of presenting Ann Eliza and Billy to +Marian Raymond, with her culture and aristocratic ideas. Then she burst +into a laugh and said, with her usual sweetness: + +'Never mind, Dickie. You could not do otherwise. I'll prepare Marian, +and the Peterkins will really enjoy it.' + +So Marian, who, with all her accomplishments and foreign air, was a +kind-hearted, sensible girl, was prepared, and received the Peterkins +very graciously, and seemed really pleased with Billy, whose big, kind +heart shone through his diminutive body and always won him friends. He +was very happy to be there, because he liked society, and because he +knew Jerrie was coming; and Ann Eliza was very glad because she felt it +an honor to be at Grassy Spring, and because she knew Tom was coming, +and when he came she fastened upon him with a tenacity which he could +not well shake off; and when croquet was proposed she was the first to +respond. + +'Oh, yes, that will be nice, and I know our side will beat,' and she +looked at Tom as it were a settled thing that she should play with him. + +But Tom was not in a mood to be gracious. He had come to the +entertainment, which he mentally called a bore, partly because he would +not let Jerrie think he was taking her refusal to heart, and partly +because he must see her again, even if she never could be his wife. All +the better nature of Tom was concentrated in his love for Jerrie, and +had she married him he would probably have made her as happy as a wholly +selfish man can make happy the woman he loves. But she had declined his +offer, and wounded him deeper than she supposed. + +A hundred times he had said to himself that afternoon, as he sat alone +in the lovely park--of which he had once said to Harold, he was to be +the _hare_, and of whose possession in the future he had boasted to +Jerrie--that he did not care a _sou_, that he was glad she had refused +him, for after all it was only an infatuation on his part; that the girl +of the carpet-bag was not the wife for a Tracy; but the twinge of pain +in his heart belied his words, and he knew he did love Jerrie Crawford +better than he should ever again love any girl, whether the daughter of +a governor or of the president. + +'And I go to the party, too, just to show her that I don't care, and for +the sake of looking at her,' he said. 'She can't help that, and it is a +pleasure to look at a woman so grandly developed and perfectly formed as +she is. By Jove! Hal Hastings is a lucky dog; but I shall hate him +forever.' + +So Tom pulled himself together, and went to Grassy Spring in a frame of +mind not the most amiable; and when croquet was proposed, he sneered at +it as something quite too _passé_, citing lawn tennis as the only decent +outdoor amusement. + +'Why, then, don't you set it up on your grounds, where you have plenty +of room, and ask us all over there?' Dick asked, good-humoredly, as he +began to get out the mallets and balls. + +To this Tom did not reply, but said, instead: + +'Count me out. I don't like the game, and there are enough without me.' + +Just then Jerry appeared at the gate, and he added quickly: + +'Still, I don't wish to be ungracious; and now Jerrie has come, we can +have an eight hand.' + +Hastening toward her, he met her as we have recorded, and claimed her +for his partner. + +'Thank you, Tom,' Jerrie said, with a bright smile on her face, which +made the young man's heart beat fast with both pleasure and pain, as he +gave her the mallet and told her she was to play first. + +Tom was making himself master of ceremonies, and Dick kept quiet and let +him, and watched Jerrie admiringly as she made the two arches, and the +third, and fourth, and then sent her ball out of harm's way. It was a +long and closely contested game, for all were skilful players, except +poor Ann Eliza, who was always behind and required a great deal of +attention from her partner especially when it came to croqueting a +ball. She did not know exactly what to do, and kept her foot so long +upon the ball that less amiable girls than Nina and Jerrie would have +said she did it on purpose, to show how small and pretty it looked in +her closely fitting French boot. But Jerrie's side beat, as it usually +did. She had become a 'rover' the second round, had rescued Tom from +many a difficulty, and taken Ann Eliza through four or five wickets, +besides doing good service to her other friends. + +'I p-p-propose three ch-cheers for Jerrie,' Billy said, standing on his +tiptoes and nearly splitting his throat with his own hurrah. + +After the game was over they repaired to the piazza, where the little +tables were laid for tea, and where Jerrie found herself _vis-à-vis_ +with Marian Raymond, of whom she had thought she might stand a little in +awe, she had heard so much of her. But the mesmeric power which Jerrie +possessed drew the Kentucky girl to her at once, and they were soon in a +most animated conversation. + +'You do not seem like a stranger to me,' Marian said, 'and I should +almost say I had seen you before, you are so like a picture in Germany.' + +'Yes,' Jerrie answered, with a gasp, and a feeling such as she always +experienced when the spell was upon her and she saw things as in a +dream. + +'Was it in a gallery?' + +'Oh, no; it was in a house we rented in Wiesbaden. You know, perhaps, +that I was there at school for a long time. Then, when mamma came out, +and I was through school, we stayed there for months, it was so lovely, +and we rented a house which an Englishman had bought and made over. Such +a pretty house it was, too, with so many flowers and vines around it.' + +'And the picture--did it belong to the Englishman?' Jerrie asked. + +'Oh, no,' Marian replied: 'it did not seem to belong to anybody. Mr. +Carter--that was the name of our landlord--said it was there in the wall +when he took the house, which was then very small and low, with only two +or three rooms. He bought it because of the situation, which, though +very quiet and pleasant, was so near the Kursaal that we could always +hear the music without going to the garden. + +'Yes,' Jerrie said again, with her head on one side, and her ear turned +up, as if she were listening to some far-off, forgotten strains. 'Yes; +and the picture was like me, you say--how like me?' + +'Every way like you,' Marian replied; 'except that the original must +have been younger when it was taken--sixteen, perhaps--and she was +smaller than you, and wore a peasant's dress, and was knitting on a +bench under a tree, with the sunshine falling around her, and at a +little distance a gentleman stood watching her. But what is the matter, +Miss Crawford? Are you sick?' Marian asked, suddenly, as she saw the +bright color fade for an instant from Jerrie's face, leaving it deathly +white, while Tom and Dick knocked their heads together in their efforts +to get her a glass of water, which they succeeded in spilling into her +lap. + +'It is nothing,' Jerrie said, recovering herself quickly. 'I have been +in the hot sun a good deal to-day, and perhaps that affected me and made +me a little faint. 'It has passed now;' and she looked up as brightly as +ever. + +'It's that confounded washing!' Tom thought; but Jerrie could have told +him differently. + +As Marian had talked to her of the house in Wiesbaden and the picture on +the wall--of the peasant girl knitting in the sunshine--she had seen, as +by revelation, through a rift in the clouds which separated her from the +past--the picture on the wall, in its pretty Florentine frame, and knew +that it resembled the pale, sweet face which came to her so often and +was so real to her. Was it her old home Marian was describing? Had she +lived there once, when the house consisted of only two or three rooms? +and was that a picture of her mother, left there she knew not how or +why? These were the thoughts crowding each other so fast in her brain +when the faintness and pallor crept over her and the objects about her +began to seem unreal. But the cold water revived her, and she was soon +herself again, listening while Marian talked of heat and sun-strokes, +with an evident forgetfulness of the peasant girl knitting in the +sunshine; but Jerrie soon recurred to the subject and asked, rather +abruptly: 'Was there a stove in that house--a tall, white stove, in a +corner of one of the old rooms--say the kitchen--and a high-backed +settee?' + +Marian stared at her a moment in surprise, and then replied: + +'Oh, I know what you mean--those unwieldy things in which they sometimes +put the wood from the hall. No; there was nothing of that kind, though +there was an old settee by the kitchen fire-place, but not a tall stove. +Mr. Carter had modernized the house, and set up a real Yankee +stove--Stewart's, I think they called it.' + +'Was the picture in the kitchen?' Jerrie asked next. + +'No,' Marian replied, 'it was in a little, low apartment which must once +have been the best room.' + +'And was there no theory with regard to it! It seems strange that any +one should leave it there if he cared for it,' Jerrie said. + +'Yes, it does,' Marian replied; 'but all Mr. Carter knew was that the +people of whom he bought the house said the portrait was there when they +took possession, and that it had been left to apply on the back rent; +also that the original was dead. He (Mr. Carter) had bought the picture +with the house, and offered to take it down, but I would not let him. It +was such a sweet, sunny, happy face that it did me good to look at it, +and wonder who the young girl was, and if her life were ever linked with +that of the stranger watching her.' + +Again the faintness came upon Jerrie, for she could see so plainly on +the sombre wall the picture of the sweet-faced girl, with the long +stocking in her lap--a very long stocking she felt sure it was, but +dared not ask, lest they should think her question a strange one. Of the +stranger in the back yard watching the young girl she had no +recollection, but her heart beat wildly as she thought: + +'Was that Mr. Arthur, and was the young girl Gretchen?' + +How fast the lines touching her past had widened about her since she +first saw the likeness in the mirror, and her confused memories of the +past began to take shape and assume a tangible form. + +'I will find that house, and that picture, and that Mr. Carter, and the +people who lived there before him,' she said to herself; and then again, +addressing Marian, she asked: + +'What was the street, and the number of that house?' + +Marian told her the street, but could not remember the number, while Tom +said, laughingly: + +'Why, Jerrie, what makes you so much interested in an old German house? +Do you expect to go there and live in it?' + +'Yes,' Jerrie replied, in the same light tone. 'I am going to Germany +sometime--going to Wiesbaden, and I mean to find that house and the +picture which Miss Raymond says I am so much like; then I shall know how +I look to others. You remember the couplet: + + '"Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us, + To see ourselfs as others see us!" + +'Look in the glass there, the best one you can find, and you'll see +yourself as others see you,' Dick said, gallantly. + +Before Jerrie could reply, a servant appeared on the piazza, saying +there was some one at the telephone asking for Mr. Peterkin. + +It proved to be Billy's father, who was in the village, and had received +a telegram from Springfield concerning a lawsuit which was pending +between himself and a rival firm, which claimed that he had infringed +upon their patents. Before replying to the telegram he wished to confer +with his son, who was to come at once to the hotel, and, if necessary, +go to Springfield that night. + +'B-by Jove,' Billy said, as he returned to the piazza and explained the +matter, 'it's t-t-too bad that I must g-go, when I'm enjoying m-myself +t-t-tip-top. I wish that lawsuit was in Gu-Guinea.' + +Then turning to Ann Eliza he asked how she would get home if he did nut +return. + +'Oh, don't trouble about me. I can take care of myself,' Ann Eliza said, +with a bounce up in her chair, which set every loose hair of her frowzy +head to flying. + +'M-m-maybe they'll send the ca-carriage,' Billy went on, 'and if they +do-don't, m-may be you can g-go with T-Tom as far as his house, and then +you wo-wont be afraid.' + +Tom could have killed the little man for having thus made it impossible +for him not to see his sister safely home. He had fully intended to +forestall Dick, and go with Jerrie if Harold did not come, for though +she had refused him, he wished to keep her as a friend, hoping that in +time she might be led to reconsider. He liked to hear her voice--to look +into her face--to be near her, and the walk in the moonlight, with her +upon his arm, had been something very pleasant to contemplate, and now +it was snatched from him by Billy's ill-advised speech, and old +Peterkin's red-haired daughter thrust upon him. It was rather hard, and +Tom's face was very gloomy and dark for the remainder of the evening, +while they sat upon the piazza and laughed, and talked, and said the +little nothings so pleasant to the young and so meaningless to the old +who have forgotten their youth. + +Jerrie was the first to speak of going. She had hoped that Harold might +possibly come for her, but as the time passed on, and he did not appear, +she knew he was not coming, and at last arose to say good-night to Nina, +while Dick hastened forward and announced his intention to accompany +her. + +'No, Dick, no; please don't,' she said. 'I am not a bit afraid, and I +would rather you did not go.' + +But Dick was persistent. + +'You know you accepted my services this morning,' he said, and his face, +as he went down the steps with Jerrie on his arm, wore a very different +expression from that of poor Tom, who, with Ann Eliza coming about to +his elbow, stalked moodily along the road, scarcely hearing and not +always replying to the commonplace remarks of his companion, who had +never been so happy in her life, because never before had she been out +alone in the evening with Tom Tracy as her escort. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +OUT IN THE STORM. + + +For half an hour or more before the young people left the house a dark +mass of clouds had been rolling up from the west, and by the time that +they were out of the grounds and on the highway, the moonlight was +wholly obscured and the sky was overcast as with a pall, while frequent +groans of thunder and flashes of lightning in the distance told of the +fast coming storm. + +'Oh, I am so afraid of thunder! Aren't you?' Ann Eliza cried, in terror, +as she clung closer to Tom, who, beside her, seemed a very giant, and +who did not reply until there came a gleam of lightning which showed him +the white face and the loose hair blowing out from under his companion's +hat. + +There was a little shriek of fear and a smothered cry. 'Oh, Tom, aren't +you a bit afraid?' + +And then the giant answered the trembling little girl whom he would like +to have shaken off, she clung so closely to him 'Thunder and lightning, +no!' I'm not afraid of anything except getting wet; and if you are, +you'd better run before the whole thing is upon us; the sky is blacker +than midnight now. I never saw a storm come on so fast. Can you run?' + +'Yes--some,' Ann Eliza gasped out; 'only my boots are so tight and new, +and the heels are so high. Do you think we shall be struck?' + +This as a peal of thunder louder than any which had preceded it rolled +over their heads, making Ann Eliza clutch Tom's arm in nervous terror +which was not feigned. + +'Struck? No. But don't screech and hang on to me so. We can never get +along if you do,' Tom growled; and, taking her by the wrist, he dragged +rather than led her through the woods where the great rain-drops were +beginning to fall so fast as the two showers--one from the west and one +from the south--approached each other, until at last they met overhead, +and then commenced a wild and fierce battle of the elements, the +southern storm and the western storm each seemingly trying to outdo the +other and come off conqueror. + +As the thunder and lightning and rain increased, Tom went on faster and +faster, forgetting that the slip of a girl, who scarcely came to his +shoulders, could not take so long strides as a great, hulking fellow +like himself. + +'Oh, Tom, Tom--please not so fast. I can't keep up, my heart beats so +fast and my boots hurt me so,' came in a faint, sobbing protest more +than once from the panting girl at his side; but he only answered: + +'You _must_ keep up, or we shall be soaked through and through. I never +knew it rain so fast. Take off your boots, if they hurt you. You've no +business to wear such small ones.' + +He had heard from Maude that Ann Eliza was very proud of her feet, and +always wore boots too small for them, and he experienced a savage +satisfaction in knowing that she was paying for her foolishness. This +was not very kind in Tom, but he was not a kind-hearted man, and he held +the whole Peterkin tribe, as he called them, in such contempt that he +would scarcely have cared if the tired little feet, boots and all, had +dropped off, provided it did not add to his discomfort. They were out of +the woods and park by this time, and had struck into a field as a +shorter route to Le Bateau. But the way was rough and stony, and Tom had +stumbled himself two or three times and almost fallen, when a sharp, +loud cry from Ann Eliza smote his ear, and he felt that she was sinking +to the ground. + +His first impulse was to drag her on, but that would have been too +brutal, and stopping short he asked what was the matter. + +'Oh, I don't know. I guess I've sprained my ankle. It turned right over +on a big stone, you went so fast, and hurts me awfully. I can't walk +another step. Oh, what shall we do, and am I going to die?' + +'Die? No!' Tom answered, gloomily. 'But we are in an awful muss, and I +don't know what to do. Here it is raining great guns, and I am wet to my +skin, and you can't walk, you say. What in thunder shall we do?' + +Ann Eliza was sobbing piteously, and when a glare of lightning lighted +up the whole heavens, Tom caught a glimpse of her face which was white +as marble, and distorted with pain, and this decided him. He had thought +to leave her in the darkness and rain, while he went for assistance +either to the Park House or Le Bateau; but the sight of her utter +helplessness awoke in him a spark of pity, and bending over her he said, +very gently for him: + +'Annie,'--this was the name by which he used to call her when they were +children together, and he thought Ann Eliza too long--'Annie, I shall +have to carry you in my arms; there is no other way. It is not very far +to your home. Come!' and stooping low over the prostrate form he lifted +her very carefully and holding her in a position the least painful for +her, began again to battle with the storm, walking more carefully now +and groping his way through the stony field lest he should stumble and +fall and sprain him own ankle, perhaps. + +'This is a jolly go,' he said to himself, as he went on; and then he +thought of Dick and Jerrie, and wondered how they were getting through +the storm, and if she had sprained her ankle and Dick was carrying her +in his arms. + +'He will sweat some, if he is, for Jerrie is twice as heavy as +Peterkin's daughter;' and at the very idea Tom laughed out loud, +thinking that he should greatly prefer to have Jerrie's strength and +weight in his arms to his light, slim, little girl, who neither spoke +nor moved until he laughed, and then there came in smothered tones from +the region of his vest: + +'Oh, Tom, how can you laugh? Do you think it such fun?' + +'Fun! Thunder! Anything but fun!' was his gruff reply, as he went on +more rapidly now, for they were in the grounds of Le Bateau, and the +lights from the house were distinctly visible at no great distance away. +'We are here at last. Thank the Lord.' he said, as he went up the steps +and pulled sharply at the bell. + +'Let me down. I can stand on one foot,' Ann Eliza said; and nothing loth +Tom put her down, a most forlorn and dilapidated piece of humanity as +she stood leaning against him with the light of the piazza lamp falling +full upon her. + +Her little French boots, which had partly done the mischief, were +spoiled, and the heel of one of them had been nearly wrenched off when +she stumbled over the stone. Her India muslin, with its sash, and +ribbons, and streamers, was torn in places and bedraggled with mud. She +had lost her hat in the woods, and the wind and the rain had held high +carnival in her loosely-arranged hair, whose color Tom so detested, and +which streamed down her back in many little wet tags, giving her the +look of a drowned rat after it has been tortured in a trap. + +Old Peterkin was reading his evening paper when Tom's sharp summons +sounded through the house, making him jump from the chair, as he +exclaimed: + +'Jiminy hoe-cakes! Who can that be in this storm?' + +He had seen Billy off in the train, and had returned home just as the +rain began to fall. Naturally both he and his wife had felt some +anxiety on Ann Eliza's account, but had concluded that if the storm +continued she would remain at Grassy Spring, and if it cleared in time +they would send the carriage for her. So neither thought of her when the +loud ring came, startling them both so much. It was Peterkin himself who +went to the door, gorgeous in a crimson satin dressing gown which came +to his feet, but which no amount of pulling would make meet together +over his ponderous stomach. An oriental smoking cap was on his head, the +big tassel hanging almost in his eyes, and a half-burned cigar between +his fingers. + +'Good George of Uxbridge!' he exclaimed, as his eye fell upon Tom, from +whose soaked hat the water was dripping, and upon Ann Eliza leaning +against him, her pale face quivering with pain, and her eyes full of +tears. 'George of Uxbridge! What's up? What ails the girl!' + +At sight of her father Ann Eliza began to cry, while Tom said: + +'She has sprained her ankle and I had to bring her home. She cannot +step.' + +'Jerusalem hoe-cakes! Spraint her ankle! Can't step! You bring her home! +Heavens and earth! Here, May Jane, come lively! Here's a nice how-dy-do! +Ann Liza's broke her laig, and Tom Tracy's brung her home!' + +As Peterkin talked, he was taking his daughter in his arms and bringing +her into the hall, hitting her lame foot against the door, and eliciting +from her a cry of pain. + +'Oh, father; Oh-h!--it does hurt so. Put me somewhere quick, and take +off my boot. I believe I am going to die!' + +She was dripping wet, and little puddles of water trailed along the +carpet as Peterkin carried her into the sitting room, where he was about +to lay her down upon the delicate satin couch, when his wife's +housewifely instincts were roused, and she exclaimed: + +'No, father. No, not there, when she's so wet, and water spots that +satin so dreadfully.' + +'What in thunder shall I do with her? Hold her all night?' Peterkin +demanded, while Tom deliberately picked up the costly Turkey hearth rug, +and throwing it across the couch, said: + +'Put her on that.' So Peterkin deposited her upon the rug, hitting her +foot again, and sending her off in a dead faint. + +'Oh, she's dead! she's dead! What shall we do?' Mrs. Peterkin cried, +wringing her hands, and walking about excitedly. + +'Do?' Peterkin yelled. 'Hold your yawp, and stop floppin' round like a +hen with her head cut off! She ain't dead. She's fainted. Bring some +camfire, or alcohol, or hartshorn, or Pond's Extract, or something for +her to smell.' + +'Yes, yes; but where are they?' Mrs. Peterkin moaned, still flopping +around, as her husband had expressed it, while Tom rang the bell and +summoned the maid, to whom he gave directions. + +'Bring some camphor or hartshorn,' he said. 'Miss Peterkin has fainted, +and get off the boot as soon as possible. Don't you see how her foot is +swelling?' + +This to Peterkin, who made a dive at the boot, which resisted all his +efforts, even after it was unbuttoned. The leather, which was soaked +through, had shrunk so that it was impossible to remove the boot without +cutting it away, and this they commenced to do. + +Ann Eliza had recovered her consciousness by this time, and although the +pain was terrible she bore it heroically, as piece after piece of the +boot was removed, together with the silk stocking which left her poor +little swollen foot exposed and bare. + +'By Jove, she's plucky!' Tom thought, as he watched the operation and +saw the great drops of sweat on Ann Eliza's forehead and her efforts to +quiet her mother, pretending that it did not hurt so very much. 'Yes, +she's plucky,' and for the first time in his life Tom was conscious of a +feeling of something like respect for Peterkin's red-haired daughter. +'She _has_ a small foot, too; the smallest I ever saw on a woman. I do +believe she wears twos,' he thought, while something about the little +white foot made him think of poor Jack's dead feet, laid under the grass +years ago. + +In this softened frame of mind he at last said good-night, although +pressed by Peterkin to stay and dry himself, or at least take a drink as +a preventive against cold, but Tom declined both, saying a hot bath +would set him all right. 'Good-bye, Annie. I'm awful sorry for the +sprain,' he said, offering her his hand; and as she took it in hers, +noticing about the wrist prints of his fingers which had grasped it so +tightly and held it so firmly as he dragged her along over stumps, and +bogs, and stones, until she sank at his feet, 'I guess I was a brute to +race her like that,' he said to himself, as he went out into the +darkness and started for home. 'But I didn't want to go with her. I +wanted to be with Jerrie, who, I have no doubt, went straight along, +without ever thinking of spraining her ankle, as Ann Eliza did. Poor +little foot! How swollen, though, it was when they got that boot off; +but she bore it like a major! Pity she has such all-fired red hair, and +piles it up like a haystack on the top of her head, with every hair +looking six ways for Sunday.' + +At this point in his soliloquy Tom reached home, and was soon +luxuriating in a hot bath, which removed all traces of the soaking he +had received. That night he dreamed of Ann Eliza, and how light she was +in his arms, and how patient through it all, and that the magnificent +rooms at Le Bateau were all frescoed with diamonds and the floors inlaid +with gold. Then the nature of his dream changed, and it was Jerry he was +carrying in his arms, bending under her weight until his back was nearly +broken. But he did not heed it in the least, and when he bent to kiss +the face lying upon his bosom, where Ann Eliza had lain, he awoke +suddenly to find that it was morning and that the sun was shining +brightly into his room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +UNDER THE PINES WITH DICK. + + +Jerrie was soaked through, but she did not sprain her ankle as Ann Eliza +had done. And yet, had she been given her choice, rather than inflict +the pain she did inflict upon poor Dick, she would have chosen the +former unhesitatingly, and felt herself happy in doing it. Like Tom and +Ann Eliza, she and Dick had run when they saw how fast the storm was +coming, but it was of no use, for by the time they entered the park, the +shortest route to the cottage, the rain came down in torrents, and +drenched them to the skin in a few moments. Jerrie's hat was wrenched +off, as Ann Eliza's had been by the wind, which tossed her long golden +hair in a most fantastic fashion. But Dick put his hat upon her head, +and would have given her his coat had she allowed it. + +'No, Dick,' she said, laughingly, as she saw him about to divest himself +of it. 'Keep your coat. I am wet enough without that. But what an awful +storm, and how dark it grows. We shall break our necks stumbling along +at this rate.' + +Just then a broad glare of lightning illuminated the darkness, and +showed Dick the four pines close at hand. He knew the place well, for, +with the Tracy children, he had often played there when a boy, and knew +that the thick bushes would afford them some protection from the storm. + +'By Jove, we are in luck!' he said. 'Here's the pine room, as we used to +call it when you played you were Marie Antoinette, and had your head cut +off. I can remember just how I felt when your white sun-bonnet, with +Mrs. Crawford's false hair pinned it in, dropped into the basket, and +how awful it seemed when you played dead so long that we almost thought +you were; and when you came to light, the way you imitated the cries of +a French mob, I would have sworn there were a hundred voices instead of +one yelling: "Down with the nobility!" You were a wonderful actress, +Jerrie; and it is a marvel you have not gone upon the stage.' + +While he talked he was groping for the bench under the pines, where they +sat down, Dick seating himself upon the parasol, which Jerrie had left +there that morning after her interview with Tom. + +'Hallo! what's this?' he said, drawing the parasol from under him. 'An +umbrella, as I live! We are in luck. What good fairy do you suppose left +it here for us?' + +Jerrie could not tell him that she had left it there, and she said +nothing; while he opened and held it so that every drop of rain which +slipped from it fell upon her neck and trickled down her back. 'Great +Cæsar! that was a roarer!' Dick said, as the peal of thunder which had +so frightened Ann Eliza burst over their heads, and, echoing through the +woods, went bellowing off in the direction of the river, 'That's a +stunner! but I rather like it, and like being here, too, with you, if +you don't mind it. I've wanted a chance to speak to you alone, ever +since--well, ever since this morning, when I saw you in that bewildering +costume that showed your feet and your arms so--you know, with that +thing like a napkin pinned up in front, and that jimcrack on your head, +and the red stockings--and--and--' + +Dick was getting bewildered and did not quite know what he was saying, +so he stopped and waited for Jerrie to reply. But Jerrie did not speak, +because of the sudden alarm which possessed her. She could not see +Dick's face, but in his voice she had recognized a tone heard in Tom's +that morning when she sat with him under pines as she was sitting now +with Dick and he had asked her to be his wife. Something told her that +Dick was feeling for her hands, which she resolutely put behind her out +of his way, and as he could not find them, he wound his arm around her +and held her fast, while he told her how much he loved her and wanted +her for his wife. + +'I believe I have loved you,' he said, 'ever since the day I first saw +you at the inquest, and you flew so like a little cat at Peterkin when +he attacked Harold. I used to be awfully jealous of Hal, for fear he +would find in you more than a sister, but that was before he and Maude +got so thick together. I guess that's a sure thing, and it makes me bold +to tell you what I have. Why are you so silent Jerrie? Don't you love me +a little? That is all I ask at first, for I know I can make you love me +a great deal in time. I will be so kind and true to you. Jerrie, and +father, and mother, and Nina will be so glad. Speak to me, Jerrie, and +say you will try to love me, if you do not now.' + +As he talked he had drawn the girl closer to him, where she sat rigid as +a stone, wholly unmindful of the little puddles of water--and they were +puddles now--running down her back, for Dick had tilted the parasol in +such a manner that one of the points rested upon the nape of her neck. +But she did not know it, or think of any thing except the pain she must +inflict upon the young man wooing her so differently from what Tom +Tracy had done. No hint had Dick given of the honor he was conferring +upon her, or of his own and his family's superiority to her family and +herself. All the honor and favor to be conferred were on her side; all +the love and humility on his, and for one brief moment the wild wish +flashed upon her: + +'Oh, if I could love him as a wife ought, I might he so happy, for he is +all that is noble and good and true.' + +But this was while she was smarting under the few words he had said of +Harold and Maude. He, too, believed it a settled thing between the +two--everybody believed it--and why should she waste her love upon one +who did not care for her as she did for him? Why not encourage a love +for Dick, who stood next in her heart to Harold? Questioning herself +thus until there flushed upon her the recollection of Harold's voice as +it had spoken to her that morning, and the look in his eyes when they +rested upon her, as he said good-bye, lingering a moment as if loth to +leave her, and then Dick's chance, if he had ever had any, was gone! + +'I do not believe it,' she said to herself, and then, turning her face +to Dick she cried: 'Oh, Dick, I am so sorry you have said this to me; +sorry that you love me--in this way--for I can't--I can't--. I do love +you as a friend, a brother, next to Harold, but I cannot be your wife. I +cannot.' + +For a moment there was perfect silence in the darkness, and then a lurid +flame of lightning showed the two faces--that of the man pale as ashes, +with a look of bitter pain upon it, and that of the woman, whiter than +the man's and bathed in upon which fell almost as fast as the rain drops +were falling tears, the pines. + +Then Dick spoke, but his voice sounded strange and unnatural and a great +ways off: + +'If I wait a long, long time--say a year, or two, or three--do you think +you could learn to love me just a little? I will not ask for much; only, +Jerrie, I do hunger so for you that without you life would seem a +blank.' + +'No, Dick; not if you waited twenty years. I must still answer no. I +cannot love you as your wife should love you, and as some good, sweet +girl will one day love you when you have forgotten me.' + +This is what Jerrie said to him, with much more, until he knew she was +in earnest and felt as if his heart were breaking. + +'I shall never forget you, Jerrie,' he said, 'or cease to hope that you +will change your mind, unless--' and here he started so suddenly that +the wet parasol, down which streams of water were still coursing their +way to Jerrie's back, dropped from his hand and rolled off upon the bed +of fine needles at his feet, just where it had been in the morning when +Tom was there instead of himself--'unless there is some one between us, +some other man whom you love. I will not ask you the question, but I +believe I could bear it better if I knew it was because your love was +already given to another, and not because of anything in me.' + +For a moment Jerrie was silent; then suddenly facing Dick, she laid her +hand on his and said: + +'I can trust you, I am sure of that; there is some one between us--some +one whom I love. If I had never seen him, Dick, never known that he +lived--and if I had known you just as I do, I might not have answered +just as I have. I am very sorry.' + +Dick did not ask her who his rival was, nor did Harold come to his mind, +so sure was he that an engagement existed between him and Maude. +Probably it was some one whom she had met while away at school; and if +so, Nina would know, and he would sound her cautiously, but never let +her know, if he could help it, the heart-wound he had received. + +Poor Dick! every nerve was quivering with pain and disappointment when +at last, as the rain began to cease, he rose at Jerrie's suggestion, and +offering her his arm, walked silently and sadly with her to the door of +the cottage. Here for a moment they stood side by side and hand in hand, +until Jerrie said: + +'Dick, your friendship has been very dear to me. I do not want to lose +it.' + +'Nor shall you,' he answered; and winding his arms around her, he kissed +her lips, saying as he did so: + +'That is the seal of our eternal friendship. The man you love would not +grudge me that one kiss, but perhaps you'd better tell him. Good-bye, +and God bless you. When I see you again I shall try to be the same Dick +you have always known.' + +For a few moments Jerrie stood listening to the sound of his footsteps +as he went splashing through the wet grass and puddles of water; then, +kissing her hands to him, she whispered: + +'Poor Dick! it would not be difficult to love you if I had never known +Harold.' + +Opening the door softly, she found, as she had expected, that both her +grandmother and Harold had retired; and taking the lamp from the table +where it had been left for her, she stole quietly up to her room and +crept shivering into bed, more wretched than she had ever been before in +her life. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +AT LE BATEAU. + + +Harold got his own breakfast the next morning, and was off for his work +just as the sun looked into the windows of the room where Jerrie lay in +a deep slumber. She had been awake a long time the previous night, +thinking over the incidents of a day which had been the most eventful +one of her life, but had fallen asleep at last, and dreamed that she had +found the low room far away in Wiesbaden, with the wall adorned with the +picture of a young girl knitting in the sunshine, and the stranger +watching her from a distance. + +It was late when she awoke, and Peterkin's clock was striking eight when +she went down to the kitchen, where she found Mrs. Crawford sewing, and +a most dainty breakfast waiting for her on a little round table near an +open window shaded with the hop-vines. There was a fresh egg for her, +with English buns, and strawberries and cream, and chocolate served in a +pretty cup which she had never seen before, while near her plate was +lying a bunch of roses, and on them a strip of paper, on which Harold +had written: + + "The top of the mornin' to ye, Jerrie. I'd like to stay and see you, + but if I work very hard to-day, I hope to finish the job on Monday + and get my fifteen dollars. That's a pile of money to earn in three + days, isn't it? I hope you enjoyed the garden-party. If I had not + been so awfully tired I should have gone for you. Grandma will tell + you that I went to bed and to sleep before that shower came up, so I + knew nothing of it. I wonder you got home; but of course Dick came + with you, or Billy, or possibly Tom. I hear you entertained all + three of them at the washtub! Pretty good for the first day home! + Good-bye till to-night. I only live till then, as they say in + novels. + + "HAROLD." + +This note, every line of which was full of affection and thoughtfulness +for her, was worth more to Jerrie than the chocolate, or the bun, or the +pretty cup and saucer which Harold had bought for her the night before, +going to the village, a mile out of his way, on purpose to get them and +surprise her. This, Mrs. Crawford told her, as she eat eating her +breakfast, which she had to force down because of the lump in her throat +and the tears which came so fast as she listened. + +'You see,' Mrs. Crawford began, 'Mr. Allen paid Harold two or three +dollars, and so he came home through the village, and bought the eggs, +and the buns, and the chocolate, which he knew you liked, and the cup +and saucer at Grady's. He has had it on his mind a long time to get it +for you, but there were so many other things to pay for. Don't you think +it is pretty?' + +'Yes, lovely!' Jerrie replied, taking up the delicate bit of china, +through which the light shone so clearly. 'It is very pretty; but I wish +he had not bought it for me,' and Jerrie wiped the hot tears from both +her eyes, as Mrs. Crawford continued: + +'Oh, he wanted to. He is never happier than when doing something which +he thinks pleases you or me. Harold is the most unselfish boy I ever +knew; and I never saw him give way, or heard him complain that his lot +was hard but once, and that was this summer, when he was building the +room, and had to dismiss the man because he had no money to pay him. +That left it all for him to do, and he was already so tired and +overworked; and then Tom Tracy was always making fun of the addition, +and saying it made the cottage look like a pig-sty with a steeple to +it, and that you would think so too; and if it were his he'd tear the +old hut down and start anew. Peterkin, too, made remarks about its being +out of proportion to the rest of the house, and wondered where Harold +got the money, and why he didn't do this and that, but supposed he +couldn't afford it, adding that "beggars couldn't be choosers." When +Harold heard all that, he was tired, and nervous, and sick, and +discouraged, and his hands were blistered and bruised with hard work. +His head was aching, and he just put it on that table, where you are +sitting, and cried like a baby. When I tried to comfort him, he said, +"It isn't the hard work, grandmother; I don't mind that in the least; +neither do I care for what they say, or should not, if there was not +some truth in it; things are out of proportion, and the new room makes +the rest of the cottage look lower than ever, and I'd like so much to +have everything right for Jerrie, who would not shame the Queen's +palace. I wish, for her sake, that I had money, and could make her home +what it ought to be. I do not want her to feel homesick, or long for +something better, when she comes back to us."' + +Jerrie was crying outright now; but Mrs. Crawford, who was a little deaf +and did not hear her, went on: + +'If you were a hundred times his sister he could not love you more than +he does, or wish to make you happier. He would have gone for you last +night, only he was so tired, and I persuaded him to go to bed. I knew +somebody would come home with you, Dick, wasn't it? I thought I heard +his voice.' + +'Yes, it was Dick,' Jerrie answered, very low, returning again to her +breakfast, while her grandmother rambled on: + +'Harold slept so soundly that he never heard the storm or knew there was +one till this morning. Lucky you didn't start home till it was over. +You'd have been wet to the skin.' + +Jerrie made no answer, for she could not tell of that interview under +the pines, or that she had been wet to the skin, and felt chilly even +now from the effects of it. It seemed that Mrs. Crawford would never +tire talking of Harold, for she continued: + +'He was up this morning about daylight, I do believe, and had his own +breakfast eaten and that table laid for you when I came down. He wanted +to see you before he went, and know if you were pleased; but I told him +you were probably asleep, as it was late when you came in, and so he +wrote something for you, and went whistling off as merrily as if he had +been in his carriage, instead of on foot in his working-dress.' + +'And he shall have his carriage, too, some day, and a pair of the finest +horses the country affords, and you shall ride beside him, in a satin +gown and India shawl. You'll see!' Jerrie said, impetuously, as she +arose from the table and began to clear away the dishes. + +The spell was upon her strongly now, and as her grandmother talked, the +objects around her gradually faded away; the cottage, so out of +proportion, and so humble in all its surroundings, was gone, and in its +place a house, fair to look upon, fair as Tracy Park and much like it, +and Harold was the master, looking a very prince, instead of the tired, +shabbily dressed man he was now. + +'And I shall be there, too,' Jerrie whispered, or rather nodded to +herself. 'I know I shall, and I do not believe one word of the Maude +affair, and never will until he tells me himself, or she; and +then--well, then, I will be glad for them, until I come to be really +glad myself.' + +She was moving rapidly around the kitchen, for there was a great deal to +be done--the Saturday's work and all the clothes to be ironed, and then +she meant to get up some little surprise for Harold, to show him that +she appreciated his thoughtfulness for her. + +About half-past ten a servant from Le Bateau brought her a note from Ann +Eliza, who wrote as follows. + + 'Dear Jerrie:--Have pity on a poor cripple, and come as soon as you + can and see her. I sprained my ankle last night in that awful storm, + and Tom had to bring me home in his arms. Think of it, and what my + feelings must have been. I am hardly over it yet--the queer feelings + I mean--for, of course, my ankle is dreadful, and so swollen, and + pains me so that I cannot step, but must stay in my room all day. So + come as soon as possible. You have never seen the inside of our + house, or my rooms. Come to lunch, please. We will have it up here. + Good-bye. + + 'From your loving friend, + + 'ANN ELIZA. + + 'P.S.--I wonder if Tom will inquire for me.' + +'Tell her I will be there by lunch time,' Jerrie said to the man, while +to her grandmother she continued: 'The baking and cleaning are all done, +and I can finish the ironing when I get back; it will be cooler then, +and I do want to see the inside of that show-house which Harold says +cost a hundred thousand dollars. Pity somebody besides the Peterkins did +not live there.' + +And so, about twelve o'clock Jerrie walked up to the grand house of gray +stone, which, with its turrets, and towers, and immense arch over the +carriage drive in front of a side door, looked like some old feudal +castle, and flaunted upon its walls the money it had cost. Even the loud +bell which echoed through the hall like a town clock told of wealth and +show, as did the colored man who answered the summons, and bowing low to +Jerrie, held out a silver tray for her card. + +'Nonsense, Leo!' Jerrie said, laughingly, for she had known the negro +all her life and played with him, too, at times, when they both went to +the district school. 'I have no card with me. Miss Ann Eliza has invited +me to lunch, and I have come. Tell her I am here.' + +With another profound bow, Leo waved Jerrie into the reception-room, and +then started to deliver her message. + +Seated upon one of the carved chairs, Jerrie looked about her curiously, +with a feeling that the half had not been told her, everything was so +much more gorgeous and magnificent than she had supposed. But what +impressed and at the same time oppressed her most was the height of the +walls from the richly inlaid floor to the gayly decorated ceiling +overhead. It made her neck ache staring up fourteen feet and a half to +the costly center ornament from which the heavy chandelier depended. All +the rooms of the old house had been low, and when Peterkin built the new +one, he made ample amends. + +"I mean to lick the crowd," he said; and a man was sent to Collingwood, +and Grassy Spring, and Brier Hill, and lastly to Tracy Park, to take the +height of the lower rooms. Those at Tracy Park were found to be the +highest, and measured just twelve feet, so Peterkin's orders were to +"run 'em up--run 'em up fourteen feet, for I swan I'll get ahead of +'em." + +So they were run up fourteen feet, and by some mistake, half a foot +higher, looking when finished so cold and cheerless and bare that the +ambitious man ransacked New York and Boston and even sent to London for +ornaments for his walls. Books were bought by the square yard, pictures +by the wholesale, mirrors by the dozen, with bronzes and brackets and +sconces and tapestry and banners and screens and clocks and cabinets and +statuary, with every kind of furniture imaginable, from the costliest +rugs and carpets to the most exquisite inlaid tables to be found in +Florence or Venice. For Peterkin sent there for them by a gentleman to +whom he said: + +'Git the best there is if it costs a fortune. I'm bound to lick the +crowd.' + +This was his favorite expression; and when his house was done, and he +stood, his broad, white shirt-front studded with diamonds and his coat +thrown back to show them, surveying his possessions, he felt that he +'had licked the crowd.' + +Jerrie felt so, too, as she followed the elegant Leo up the stairs and +through the upper hall--handsomer, if possible than the lower one--to +the pretty room where Ann Eliza lay, or rather reclined, with her lame +foot on a cushion and her well one incased in a white embroidered silk +stocking and blue satin slipper. She was dressed in a delicate blue +satin wrapper, trimmed with swan's-down, and there were diamonds in her +ears and on the little white hands which she stretched toward Jerrie as +she came in. + +'Oh, Jerrie,' she said, 'I am so glad to see you, for it is awfully +lonesome here; and if one can be homesick at home, I am. I miss the +girls and the lessons and the rules at Vassar; much as I hated them when +I was there; and just before you came in I wanted to cry. I guess my +rooms are too big and have too much in them; any way, I have the feeling +that I am visiting, and everything is strange and new. I do believe I +liked the old room better, with its matting on the floor and the little +mirror with the peacock feathers ornamenting the top, and that painted +plaster image of Samuel on the mantel. It is very ungrateful in me, I +know, when father has done it mostly to please me. Do you believe--he +has hunted me up a maid; Doris is her name; and what I am ever to do +with her, or she with me, I am sure I don't know. Do you?' + +Jerrie did not know either, but suggested that she might read to her +while she was confined to her room. 'Yes, she might, perhaps, do that, +if she can read,' Ann Eliza said. 'She certainly has pretentions enough +about her to have written several treatises on scientific subjects. She +was a year with Lady Augusta Hardy, in Ireland. Don't you remember the +grand wedding father and mother attended in Allington two or three years +ago, when Augusta Browne was married to an Irish lord, who had been +bought by her money?--for of course he did not care much for her. Well, +Doris went out with her as maid, and acts as if she, too, had married a +peer. She came last night, and mamma and I are already as afraid of her +as we can be, she is so fine and airy. She insisted upon dressing me +this morning, and I felt all the while as if she were thinking how red +and ugly my hair is, or counting the freckles on my face, and +contrasting me with 'my Lady Augusta,' as she calls her. I wonder if she +ever saw my lady's mother, Mrs. Rossiter-Browne, who told me once that I +had a very _petty figger_, but she presumed it would _envelope_ as I +grew older. But then people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw +stones,' and Ann Eliza colored a little as she made this reference to +her own father and mother, whose language was not much more correct than +Mrs. Rossiter-Browne's. + +For one brought up as she had been, Ann Eliza was a rather sensible +girl, and although she attached a great deal of importance to money, she +knew it was not everything, and that with her father's millions there +was still a wide difference between him and the men to whose society he +aspired; and knew, too, that although Jerrie had not a penny in the +world, she was greatly her superior, and so considered by the world at +large. She was very fond of Jerrie, who had often helped her with her +lessons, and stood between her and the ridicule of her companions, and +was never happier than when in her society. So now she made her bring an +ottoman close beside her, and held her hand while she narrated in detail +the events of the previous night, dwelling at length upon the fact that +Tom had carried her in his arms, and wondering if he would call to +inquire after her. Jerrie thought he would; and, as if in answer to the +thought, Doris almost immediately appeared with his card. She _was_ very +fine and very smart, and Jerrie herself felt awed by her dignity and +manner as she delivered her message. 'The gentleman sends his +compliments, and would like to know how you are this morning.' + +'Jerrie, it's Tom! he has come!' Ann Eliza said, with joy in her voice. +'Surely I can receive him here, for this is my parlor.' + +Jerrie thought she might, but the toss of the fine maid's head showed +that she thought differently, as she left the room with her mistress' +message. + +'Thunderation! I didn't want to see her. It's enough to have to call,' +was Tom's mental comment, when Doris told him he was to walk up stairs. + +Indeed, he would not have come at all if Maude, to whom he related his +adventure, had not insisted that he must. + +'You needn't see her, of course; but you must go and inquire how she is. +According to your own statement you are to blame for her mishap; you +dragged her along too fast. + +Tom knew there was some truth in this, and so he went the more +willingly; and, sending up his card, stood near the open door, ready to +leave the moment Leo came down with the message he had received from +Doris. + +'I shall be cheek by jowl with these Peterkins, if I don't look out,' he +thought, as he ascended the stairs to the hall, where Doris stood +waiting to show him her mistress' room. + +'What! Jerry! You here?' he exclaimed, his face clearing, and the whole +aspect of matters changing at once, as she arose to meet him. + +With Jerrie there the place seemed different, and he did not feel as if +he were lowering himself, as he sat in the luxuriously furnished room, +and joined in the dainty lunch which was brought up and served from +Dresden china, and linen and cut glass, and was as delicate and dainty +in its way as anything he had ever found at the Brunswick or +Delmonico's. Mrs. Peterkin prided herself upon her _cuisine_, which she +always superintended, and as Peterkin was something of an epicure and +gourmand, the table was always supplied with every possible delicacy. + +Tom enjoyed it all, and praised the chocolate, and the broiled chicken, +and the jellies, and thought Ann Eliza not so very bad-looking in her +blue satin wrapper, with the swan's-down trimmings, and made himself +generally agreeable. Maude was better, he said, and could talk a +little, and he asked Jerrie to go home with him and see her. But Jerrie +declined. + +'I have a great deal of work to do yet,' she said, 'I must iron all +those clothes you saw upon the line yesterday, and so I must be going.' + +Tom frowned at the mention of the clothes which Jerrie had washed; while +Ann Eliza insisted that she should stay until the dog-cart, which had +been sent to the station for Billy, came back, when Lewis would take her +home, as it was too warm to walk. Jerrie did not mind the walk, but she +felt morally sure that Tom meant to accompany her, and greatly preferred +the dog-cart and Lewis to another _tête-à-tête_ with him, for he did not +act at all like a discarded lover, but rather as one who still hoped he +had a chance. So she signified her intention to wait for the dog-cart, +which soon came, with Billy in it, anxious when he heard of his sister's +accident, delighted when he found Jerrie there, and persistent in saying +that he and not Lewis would take her home. + +'Well, if you will, you will,' she said, laughingly; and bidding Ann +Eliza good-bye, and telling Tom to give her love to Maude and say to her +that she did not believe she should be at the park that day, she had so +much to do, she was soon in the dog-cart with Billy, whose face was +radiant as he gathered up the reins and started down the turnpike, +driving at what Jerrie thought a very slow pace, as she was anxious to +get home. + +Something of Billy's thoughts must have communicated itself to Jerrie, +for she became nervous and ill at ease and talked rapidly of things in +which she had not the slightest interest. + +'What of the lawsuit?' she asked. 'Are you likely to settle it?' + +'N-no,' Billy answered, hurriedly. 'It will h-have to co-come into +co-court in a f-few days, and I am aw-awful sorry. I wa-wanted father to +p-pay what they demanded, but he won't. Hal is subpoenaed on the other +side, as he was in our office, and is supposed to know something about +it; b-but I ho-hope he won't da-damage us m-much, as father would +n-never forgive him if he went against us.' + +'But he must tell the truth, no matter who is damaged,' Jerrie said. +'Ye-yes' Billy replied, 'of co-course he must, b-but he needn't +volunteer information.' + +Jerry began to think that Billy had insisted upon coming with her for +the sake of persuading her to caution Harold against saying too much +when he was called to testify in the great lawsuit between Peterkin & +Co., manufacturers in Shannondale, and Wilson & Co., manufacturers in +Truesdale, an adjoining town; but she was undeceived when her companion +turned suddenly off upon the river road, which would take them at least +two miles out of their way. + +'Why are you coming here!' Jerrie said, in real distress. 'It is ever so +much farther, and I must get home. I have piles of work to do.' + +'Co-confound the work,' Billy replied, very energetically for him, and +reining his horse up under a wide spreading butternut tree, which grew +upon the river bank, he sprang out and pretended to be busy with some +part of the harness, while he astonished Jerrie by bursting out, without +the least stammer, he was so earnest and so excited: 'I've something to +say to you, Jerrie, and I may as well say it now as any time, and know +the worst, or the best. I can't bear the suspense any longer, and I got +out of the cart so as to stand where I could look you square in the face +while I say it.' + +And he was looking her square in the face while she grew hot and cold +and experienced a sensation quite different from what she had when Tom +and Dick made love to her. She had felt no fear of them, but she was +afraid of this little man, who stood up so resolutely, with his tongue +loosened, and asked her to be his wife, for that was what he did, making +his wishes known in a very few words, and then waiting for her answer +with his eyes fixed upon her face and a firm, set look about his mouth +which puzzled and troubled her and made her uncertain as to how she was +to deal with this third aspirant for her hand within twenty-four hours. + +Billy had long had it in his mind that Jerry Crawford was the only girl +in the world for him, but he might not have spoken quite; so soon had it +not been for a conversation held with his father the previous night, +when they were alone in a private room at the hotel in Shannondale, +waiting for the train which Billy was to take, and which was half an +hour late. Peterkin had exhausted himself in oaths and epithets with +regard to the lawsuit and those who had brought it against him, and was +regaling himself with a cigar and a glass of brandy and water, while +Billy sat by the window watching for the train and wishing himself at +Grassy Spring with Jerrie. Peterkin seldom drank to excess, but on this +occasion he had taken a little too much. When under the influence of +stimulants, he was either aggressive and quarrelsome, or jocose and +talkative. The latter mood was on him now, and as he drank his brandy +and water he held forth upon the subject of matrimony, wondering why his +son did not marry, and saying it was quite time he did so and settled +down. + +'You can have the south wing,' he said, 'and if the rooms ain't up to +snuff now, why, I'll make 'em so. The fact is, Bill, I've got money +enough--three millions and better; but somehow it doesn't seem to do the +thing. It doesn't fetch us to the quality and make us fust-cut. We need +better blood than the Peterkins or the Moshers--need boostin', and you +must get a wife to boost us. Have you ever thought on't?' + +'Billy never had thought of it in that light,' he said, although he had +thought of marrying, providing the girl would have him. + +'Have you! Thunderation! A girl would be a fool who wouldn't marry three +millions, with Lubber-too thrown in! Who is she?' Peterkin asked. + +After a little hesitancy Billy replied: + +'Jerrie Crawford.' + +'Jerrie Crawford! I'll be dammed! Jerrie Crawford!' and Peterkin's big +feet came down from the back of the chair on which they were resting, +upsetting the chair and his brandy at the same time. 'Jerrie Crawford! I +swow! A gal without a cent, or name either, though I used to have a +sneakin' notion that I knew who she was, but I guess I didn't. 'Twould +have come out afore now. What under heavens put her into your noddle? +She can't _boost_! and then she's head and shoulders taller than you be! +How you would look trottin' beside her! Jerrie Crawford! Wal, I swan!' +and Peterkin laughed until his big stomach shook like a bowl of jelly. + +Billy was angry, and replied that he did not know what height had to do +with it, or name either; and as for _boosting_, he wouldn't marry a +king's daughter, if he did not love her; and for that matter Jerrie +could boost, for she stood quite as high in town as any young lady. + +Both Nina St. Claire and Maude Tracy worshipped her, while Mrs. Atherton +paid her a great deal of attention; and so did the Mungers and +Crosbys--enough sight more than they did to Ann Eliza with all her +money. + +'Mo-money isn't ev-everything.' Billy stammered, 'and Je-Jerrie would +make a ve-very different pl-place of Le Bateau.' + +'Mebby she would--mebby she would; but I'd never thought of her for +you,' Peterkin said. 'I'd picked out some; big bug, who perhaps wouldn't +wipe her shoes on you. Jerrie is handsome as blazes and no mistake, with +a kinder up and comin' way about her which takes the folks. Yes, it +keeps growin' on me, and I presume Arthur Tracy would give her away, +which would be a feather in your cap; but lord! you'll have to git a +pair of the highest heels you ever seen to come within ten foot on her.' + +'She's only two inches t-taller than I am,' Billy said, and his father +continued: + +'Wall, if your heart's set on her go it, and quick, too, I'm goin' to +have a smasher of a party in the fall, and Jerrie'll be just the one to +draw, I can see her now, standin' there with the diamonds we'll give her +sparklin' on her neck, and she lookin' like a queen, and the _sinecure_ +of all eyes. But for thunder's sake don't marry the old woman and all. +Leave her to Harold, the sneak! I never did like him, and I'll be mad +enough to kill him if he goes agin me in the suit, and I b'lieve he +will.' + +At this point Peterkin wandered off to the suit entirely and forgot +Jerrie, who was to boost the house of Peterkin and make it 'fust-cut.' +But not so Billy, and all the way from Shannondale to Springfield he was +thinking of Jerrie, and wondering if it were possible that she could +ever look upon him with favor. Like Tom and Dick, he could scarcely +remember the time when he did not think Jerrie the loveliest girl in the +world, and ever since he had grown to manhood he had meditated making +her his wife, but had feared what his father might say, as he knew how +much importance he attached to money. Now however, his father had +signified his assent, and, resolving to lose no time, Billy, on his +return next day to Le Bateau, seized the opportunity to take Jerrie +home, as the occasion for declaring his love, which he did in a manly, +straightforward manner, never hinting at any advantage it would be to +her to be the wife of a millionaire, or offering any inducement in any +way except to say that he loved her and would devote his life to making +her happy. Tom Tracy Jerrie had scorned, Dick St. Claire she had pitied, +but this little man she felt like ridiculing. + +'Oh, Billy,' she said, laughing merrily. 'You can't be in earnest. Why +I'm head and shoulders taller than you are. I do believe I could pick +you up and throw you into the river. Only think how we should look +together; people would think you my little boy, and that I should not +like. So, I can never be your wife.' + +Nothing cuts a man like ridicule, and sensitive as he was with regard to +his size, Billy felt it to his heart's core; and as he stood nervously +playing with the reins and looking at Jerrie sitting there so tall and +erect in all the brightness of her wonderful beauty, it flashed upon him +how impossible it was for that glorious creature ever to be his wife, +and what a fool he had made of himself. + +'For-gi-give me, Jerrie,' he said, his chin beginning to quiver, and the +great tears rolling down his face, 'I know you ca-can't, and I +ou-oughtn't to have ask-asked it, bu-but I d-did love you so much, that +I f-forgot how impossible it was f-for one like you to lo-love one +li-like me. I am so small and insig-insignificant, and st-stutter so. I +wish I was dead,' and laying his head upon the horse's neck, he sobbed +aloud. + +In an instant Jerrie was out of the dog-cart and at his side, talking to +and trying to soothe him as she would a child. + +'Oh, Billy, Billy,' she said. 'I am so sorry for you, and sorry I said +those cruel words about your size. It was only in fun. Your size has +nothing to do with my refusal. I know you have a big, kind heart, and +next to Harold and Dick, and Mr. Arthur, I like you better than any man +I ever knew; but I cannot be your wife. Don't cry, Billy; it hurts me so +to see you and know that I have done it. Please stop, and take me home +as quickly as possible.' + +With a great gulp, and a long sigh like a grieved child, Billy dried +his tears, of which he was much ashamed, and helping Jerrie into the +cart drove her rapidly to the door of the cottage. + +'I should not like Tom, nor Dick, nor Harold to know this,' he said to +her, as he stood a moment with her at the gate. + +'Billy!' she exclaimed, 'do you know me so little as to think I would +tell them, or anybody? I have more honor than that,' and she gave him +her hand, which he held tightly in his while he looked earnestly into +the sweet young face which could never be his, every muscle of his own +quivering with emotion, and telling of the pain he was enduring. + +'Good-bye. I shall be more like a ma-man, and less a ba-baby when I see +you again,' and springing into his cart he drove rapidly away. + +Jerrie found her grandmother seated at a table and trying to iron. + +'Grandma,' she said, 'this is too bad. I did not mean to stay so long. +Put down that flat-iron this minute. I am coming there as soon as I lay +off my hat.' + +Running up the stairs to her room, Jerrie put away her hat, and then, +throwing herself upon the bed, cried for a moment as hard as she could +cry. The look on Billy's face haunted her, and she pitied him now more +than she had pitied Dick St. Claire. + +'Dick will get over it, and marry somebody else, but Billy never,' she +said. + +Then, rising up, she bathed her eyes, and pushing back her tangled hair, +stood for a moment before the mirror, contemplating the reflection of +herself in it. + +'Jerrie Crawford,' she said, 'you must be a mean, heartless, +good-for-nothing girl, for it certainly is not your Dutch face, nor +yellow hair, nor great staring eyes, which make men think that you will +marry them; so it must be your flirting, coquettish manners. I hate a +flirt. I hate you, Jerrie Crawford.' + +Once when a little girl, Jerrie had said to Harold, 'Why do all the boys +want to kiss me so much?' and now she might have asked, 'Why do these +same boys wish to marry me?' It was a curious fact that she should have +had three offers within twenty-four hours; and she didn't like it, and +her face wore a troubled look all that hot afternoon as she stood at the +ironing table, perspiring at every pore, and occasionally smiling to +herself as she thought, 'Grassy Spring, Le Bateau, Tracy Park, I might +take my choice, if I would, but I prefer the cottage,' and then at the +thought of Tracy Park her thoughts went off across the sea to Germany, +and the low room with the picture upon the wall, and her resolve to find +it some day. + +'Far in the future it may be, but find it I will, and find, too, who I +am,' she said to herself, little dreaming that the finding was close at +hand, and that she had that day lighted the train which was so soon to +bear her on to the end. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +MAUDE. + + +Harold did not finish his work at the Allen farm-house until Tuesday, so +it was not until Wednesday afternoon that he started to pay his promised +visit to Maude. Jerrie had seen her twice, and reported her as much +better, although still very weak. + +'She is so anxious to see you. Don't you think you can go this +afternoon?' she said to Harold, in the morning, as she helped him weed +the garden and pick the few strawberries left upon the vines. + +'Ye-es, I guess I can--if you'll go with me,' he said. + +He was so loth to be away from Jerrie when it was not absolutely +necessary, that even a call upon Maude without her did not seem very +tempting. But Jerrie could not go now, for Nina and Marian Raymond came +down to the cottage to spend the afternoon, and Harold went alone to the +park house, where he found Maude in the room she called her studio +trying to finish a little water-color which she had sketched of the +cottage as it was before the roof was raised. + +'I mean it for Jerrie,' she had said to Harold, who stood by her when +she sketched it, 'and I am going to put her under the tree, with her sun +bonnet hanging down her back, as she used to wear it when she was a +little girl, and you are to be over there by the fence, looking at me +coming up the lane.' + +It was the best thing Maude had ever done, for the likeness to Jerrie +and to herself was perfect, while the cottage, embowered in trees and +flowers, made it a most attractive picture. Harold had praised it a +great deal, and told her that it would make her famous. But when the +carpenter work came in Maude put it aside until now, when she brought it +out again, and was just beginning to retouch it in places, as Harold was +announced. + +She was looking very tired, and it seemed to Harold that she had lost +many pounds of flesh since he saw her last. Her face was pale, and +pinched, and wan, but it flushed brightly as Harold came in, and she +went eagerly forward to meet him. + +'Hally, you naughty boy!' she began, as she gave him her little, thin +hand. 'Why didn't you come before? You don't know how I have missed you. +You must not forget me now that Jerrie is at home.' + +She had led him to a seat, and then herself sank into a large cushioned +easy chair, against which she leaned her head wearily, while she looked +at him with eyes which ought to have told Harold how much he was to her, +and so put him on his guard, and saved the misunderstanding which +followed. + +'No, Maude, I couldn't forget you,' he said; and without really knowing +that he was doing it, he put his hand upon the little soft white one +lying on the arm of the chair. + +Every nerve in Maude's body thrilled to the touch of that hand upon +which she involuntarily laid her other one, noticing as she did so the +signs of toil upon it, and feeling sorry for him. One would have thought +them lovers, sitting there thus together, but nothing could have been +farther from Harold's mind. He was thinking only of Jerrie, and his +resolve to confide in Maude, and get her opinion with regard to his +chance. + +'Now is as good a time as any,' he thought, wondering how he should +begin, and finding it harder than he had imagined it would he. + +At last after a few commonplaces, Maude told him again that he must not +neglect her now that Jerrie was at home. + +'Neglect you? How can I do that?' he said, 'when I look upon you as one +of my best friends, and in proof of it, I am going to tell you +something, or, rather, ask you something, and I hope you will answer me +truly. Better that I know the worst at first than learn it afterward.' + +Maude's face was aflame now with a great and sudden joy, and her soft +eyes drooped beneath Harold's as he went on stammeringly, for he began +to feel the awkwardness of telling one girl that he loved another, even +though that other were her dearest friend. + +'I hardly know how to begin,' he said, 'it is such a delicate matter, +and perhaps I'd better say nothing at all.' + +'Was he going to stop? Had he changed his mind--and would he not after +all, say the words she had so longed to hear?' Maude asked herself, as +she turned her eyes appealingly to him, while he sat silent and unmoved, +his thoughts very, very far from her to whom he was all in all. + +Poor Maude! She was weak and sick, and impulsive and mistaken in the +nature of Harold's feelings for her; so judge her not too harshly, my +prudish reader, if she at last did what Arthur would have called +'throwing herself at his head.' + +'I can guess what you mean,' she said, after a long pause, during which +he did not speak. 'I have long suspected that you cared for me just as I +care for you, and have wondered you did not tell me so, but supposed +that you refrained because I was rich and you were poor; but what has +that to do with those who love each other? I am glad you have spoken; +and you have made me very happy; and even if we can never be more to +each other than we are now, because I may die, as I sometimes fear I +shall--' + +'Oh, Maude, Maude, you are mistaken. I--,' came from Harold like a cry +of horror as he wrenched away his hand lying between hers, and to which +her slender fingers hung caressingly. + +What could she mean? How had she understood him? he asked himself, while +great drops of sweat gathered upon his forehead and in the palms of his +hands, as like lightning the past came back to him, and he could see as +in a printed page that what he had thought mere friendship for himself +was a far different and deeper feeling, while he unwittingly had fanned +the flame; and was now reaping the result. + +'What can I do?' he said aloud, unconsciously, while from the depths of +the chair on which Maude was leaning back so wearily came a plaintive +voice like that of a child: + +'Ring the bell, and give me my handkerchief.' + +He was at her side in a moment, bending over her, and looking anxiously +into the pallid face from which the bright color had faded, leaving it +gray, and pinched, and drawn, it seemed to him. Had he killed her by +blurting out so roughly that she was mistaken; and thus filling her with +mortification and shame? No, that could not be, for as he brought her +handkerchief and bent still closer to her, she whispered to him: + +'I am not mistaken, Hally. I am going to die, but you have made the last +days of my life very, very happy.' + +She thought he was referring to herself and her situation when he told +her she was mistaken, and with a smothered groan he was starting for the +camphor, as she bade him do, when the door opened, and Mrs. Tracy +herself appeared. + +'What is it?' she asked, sharply; then, as she saw Maude's face she knew +what it was, and going swiftly to her, said to Harold: + +'Why did you allow her to talk and get excited? What were you saying to +her?' + +Instantly Maude's eyes went up to Harold's with an appealing look, as if +asking him not to tell her mother then--a precaution which was needless, +as he had no intention to tell Mrs. Tracy, or any one, of the terrible +blunder he had made; and with a hope that the reality might dawn upon +Maude, he answered, truthfully: + +'I was talking to her of Jerrie. I am very sorry.' + +If Maude heard she did not understand, for drops of pinkish blood were +oozing from her lips, and she looked as if she were already dead, as in +obedience to Mrs. Tracy's command, Harold took her in his arms and +carried her to the couch near the open window, where he laid her down as +tenderly as if she were indeed his affianced wife. + +'Thanks,' she sighed, softly, and her bright, beautiful eyes looked up +at him with an expression which half tempted him to kiss the quivering +lips from which he was wiping the stains so carefully, while Mrs. Tracy, +at the door, gave some orders to a servant. + +'You can go now,' she said, returning to the couch, and dismissing him +with her usual hauteur of manner; while Maude put up her hand and +whispered: + +'Come soon--and Jerrie.' + +Had Harold been convicted of theft or murder he could scarcely have felt +worse than he did as he walked slowly through the park, reviewing the +situation and wondering what he ought to do. + +'If it almost killed her when she thought I loved her, it would surely +kill her to know that I do not,' he thought. 'I cannot undeceive her +now, while she is so weak; but when she is better and able to bear it, I +will tell her the truth.' + +'And if she dies?' came to him like the stab of a knife, as he +remembered how white she looked as he held her in his arms. 'If she +does,' he said, 'no one shall ever know of the mistake she made. In this +I will be true to Maude, even should the world believe I loved her and +had told her so. But, oh, Heaven! spare me that, and spare Maude's life +for many years. She is too young, too sweet, too good to die.' + +This was Harold's prayer as he rested for a moment in the pine-room, +where he had often played with the little girl, and where he could now +see her so plainly picking up the cones, or sitting on the soft bed of +needles, with the bloom on her cheeks and the brightness in her soft +black eyes which had looked so lovingly at him an hour ago. 'Spare +Maude; do not let her die!' was his prayer, and that of many others +during the week which followed, when Maude's life hung on a thread, and +every bell at the park house was muffled, and the servants spoke only in +whispers; while Frank Tracy sat day and night in the room where his +daughter lay, perfectly quiet, except as she sometimes put up her hand +to stroke his white hair or wipe away the tears constantly rolling down +his cheeks. + +In Frank's heart there was a feeling worse than death itself, for keen +remorse and bitter regret were torturing his soul as he sat beside the +wreck of all his hopes and felt that he had sinned for naught. He knew +Maude would die, and then what mattered it to him if he had all the +money of the Rothschilds at his command? + +'Oh, Gretchen, you are avenged, and Jerrie, too! Oh, Jerrie!' he said, +one day, unconsciously, as he sat by his daughter, who, he thought, was +sleeping. But at the mention of Jerrie's name her eyes unclosed and +fixed themselves upon her father with a look in which he read an earnest +desires for something. + +'What is it, pet?' he asked. 'Do you want anything?' + +They had made her understand that, she must not speak, for the slightest +effort to do so always brought on a fit of coughing which threatened a +hemorrhage, of which she could not endure many more. But they had +brought her a little slate, on which she sometimes wrote her requests, +though that, too, was an effort. Pointing now to the slate, she wrote, +while her father held it: + +'I want Jerrie.' + +'I thought so; and you shall have her for just as long as she will +stay,' Frank said; and a servant was dispatched to the cottage with the +message that Jerrie must come at once, and come prepared to pass the +night, if possible. + +It had been very dreary for Maude during the time she had been shut up +in her room, to which no one was admitted except her father and mother, +the doctor, and the nurse. Many messages of enquiry and sympathy, +however, had come to her from the cottage, and Grassy Spring, and Le +Bateau, where Ann Eliza was still kept a prisoner with her sprained +ankle; and once Jerrie had written to Maude a note full of love and +solicitude and a desire to see her. As a postscript she added: + +'Harold sends his love, and hopes you will soon be better. You don't +know how anxious he is about you. Why, I believe he has lost ten pounds +since your attack, for which he seems to blame himself, thinking he +excited you too much by talking to you.' + +Maude listened to this note, which her father read to her, with a smile +on her face and tears on her long eyelashes; but when he came to the +postscript she laughed aloud, as a little child laughs at the return of +its mother, for whom it has been hungering. This was the first word she +had had from him, except that he had called to enquire for her, and she +had so longed for something which should assure her that he remembered +her even as she did him. She had no distrust of him, and would as soon +have doubted that the sun would rise again as to have doubted his +sincerity; but she wanted to hear again that he loved her, and now she +had heard it, and, folding her hands upon her breast, she fell into the +most, refreshing sleep she had had since her illness. Could Maude have +talked and seen people, or if she had been less anxious to live, she +would probably have told Jerrie and Nina, and possibly Ann Eliza +Peterkin, of what had passed between herself and Harold, but she had not +seen them; while life, with Harold to love her, looked so bright and +sweet, that if by keeping silence she could prolong it, she would do so +for months, if necessary. To live for Harold was all she wished or +thought about; and often when they hoped she was sleeping, she lay so +still, with her eyes closed and her arms folded upon her breast, just as +if she were praying in her dreams, her father thought. She _was_ praying +for life and length of days, with strength to make Harold as happy as he +ought to be, and was thinking of and planning all she meant to do for +him when once they were married. First to Europe, where she would be so +proud to show him the places she had seen, and where Jerrie would be +with them, for in all her plans Jerrie had almost as prominent a place +as herself. + +'I am nothing without Jerrie,' she thought 'She keeps me up, and Jerrie +will live with us, and Mrs. Crawford; that makes four, just enough for a +nice game of whist in long winter evenings, when it is so cold outside +but warm and bright within--always bright for Harold, whose life has +been so full of care and toil. Poor boy! how I pitied his great warm +hand when it was holding mine so lovingly, and how I could have kissed +every seam and scar upon it. But by and by his hands shall be white like +Tom's, though not so soft. I hate a hand which feels like a fluff of +cotton. He shall not live here, for Harold could never get along with +mother and Tom; but we will build a house together, Hally and I, with +Jerrie to help and plan--build one where the cottage stands, or near it, +so Jerrie can still see the old Tramp House she is so fond of. Not a +house like this, with such big rooms, but a pretty, modern Queen Ann +house, with every room a corner room, and a bay-window in it. And Harold +will have an office in town, and I shall drive down for him every +afternoon and take him home to dinner and to Jerrie.' + +Such was the nature of Maude's thoughts, as she lay day after day upon +the couch, too weak to do more thin lift her hands or rise her head +when the dreadful paroxysms of coughing seized her and racked her +fragile frame. Still she was very happy, and the happiness showed itself +upon her, where there rested a look of perfect content and peace, which +her father and mother had noticed and commented upon, and which Jerrie +saw the moment she entered the room and stood by Maude's side. + +'Dear Maude,' she said, as she took the hot hands in hers and kissed +them tenderly. + +Then she sat down beside her, and smoothed her hair, and told her how +lovely she looked in her pretty rose-colored wrapper, and how sorry +every one was for her, and that both she and Nina would have been there +every day, only they knew they could not see her. Then, as the great +black eyes fixed themselves steadily upon her, with a look of enquiry in +them, she set her teeth hard, and began: + +'I don't think anyone has been more sorry than Harold. Why, for the +first few days after you were taken so ill he just walked the floor all +the time he was in the house, and when grandma asked what ailed him, he +said, "I am thinking of Maude, and am afraid my call upon her was the +cause of the attack."' + +'N--n--,' Maude began, but checked herself in time, and taking up her +slate, wrote, 'Tell him it was not his call. I am glad he came.' + +'Yes I will,' Jerrie replied, scarcely able to keep back her tears, when +she saw how cramped and irregular the handwriting was, so unlike +Maude's, and realized more and more how weak and sick was the little +girl whose eyes followed her everywhere and always grew brighter and +softer when she was talking to her of Harold. + +All day and all night Jerrie sat by her, sometimes talking to her and +answering the questions she wrote upon the slate, but oftener in perfect +silence, when Maude seemed to be asleep. Then Jerrie's tears fell like +rain, the face upon the pillow looked so much like death, and she kept +repeating to herself the lines: + + 'We thought her dying when she slept. + And sleeping when she died.' + +When the warm July morning looked in at the windows of the sick-room, +bringing with it the perfume of hundreds of flowers blooming on the +lawn, and the scent of the hay cut the previous day, it found Jerrie +still watching by Maude, her own face tired and pale, with dark rings +about her eyes, which were heavy with tears and wakefulness. She had not +slept at all, and her head was beginning to ache frightfully when the +nurse came in and relieved her, telling her breakfast was ready. Maude +was awake, and wrote eagerly upon the slate: + +'You'll come back? You'll stay all day? You do me so much good, and I am +a great deal better for your being here.' + +Jerrie hesitated a moment; her head was aching so hard that she longed +to get away. But selfishness was not one of Jerrie's faults, and putting +her own wishes aside, she said: + +'Yes, I will stay until afternoon, and then I must go home. I did not +tell you that Harold was going away to-night, did I?' + +Maude shook her head, and Jerry went on: + +'You know, perhaps, that some time ago a Mr. Wilson, of Truesdale, sued +Peterkin for some infringement on a patent, or something of that sort.' + +Maude nodded, and Jerrie continued: + +'The suit comes off to-morrow, and Harold is subpoenaed as a witness, as +he was in Peterkin's office a while and knows something about the +arrangement between them. I am sorry he has got to swear against +Peterkin; it will make him so angry, and he hates Harold now. The suit +is to be called in the morning and Judge St. Claire and Harold are going +to-night on the five o'clock train; and as he may be gone a day or two I +must be home to see to packing his bag. But I will stay with you just as +long as I can.' + +She said nothing of her head which throbbed in a most peculiar way, +making her dizzy and half blind as she went down to breakfast, which she +took alone with Mrs. Tracy. Frank had eaten his long before, and was now +pacing up and down the long piazza with his head bent forward and his +hands locked together behind him. + +'I shall never have rest or peace again until it is known. Oh, if it +would only come out without my telling,' he said to himself, little +dreaming how near it was to coming out and that before that day's sun +had set Jerrie would know! + +Tom seldom appeared until after ten, and when Jerrie went for a few +moments into the grounds, to see if the fresh air would do her good, she +found him seated in an arm-chair under a horse chestnut tree, stretching +himself and yawning as if he were just out of bed. + +'Jerrie, you here? Did you stay all night? If I'd known that, I'd have +made an effort to come down to breakfast, though I think getting up in +the morning a bore. Why, what's the matter? You look as if you were +going to faint. Sit down here,' he continued, as he saw Jerrie reel +forward as if she were about to fall. + +He put her into the chair and stood over her, fanning her with his hat +and wondering what he should do, while for a moment she lost +consciousness of the things about her, and her mind went floating off +after the picture on the wall in Wiesbaden, which was haunting her that +morning. + +When she came to herself, Tom and Dick and Billy were all three hovering +around, and so close to her that without opening her eyes she could have +told exactly where each one was standing, Tom by the smell of tobacco, +with which his clothes were saturated, Billy by the powerful scent of +white rose with which he always perfumed his handkerchief, and Dick, +because, as she had once said to Nina when a child, he was so clean and +looked as if he had just been scrubbed. The two young men had come to +enquire for Maude, and had found Jerrie half swooning under the tree, +with Tom fanning her frantically and acting like a wild man. + +Jerrie had seen Dick twice since her refusal of him, and both times her +manner, exactly like what it had always been to him, had put him at his +ease, so that a looker-on would never have dreamed of that episode under +the pines when she nearly broke his heart. Billy, however, was more +conscious. He had not seen Jerrie since he took her home in his +dog-cart, and his face was scarlet and his manner nervous and +constrained as he stood before her, longing and yet not daring to fan +her with his hat just as Tom was doing. + +Of the three young men who had sought her hand, Billy's wound was the +deepest, and Billy would remember it the longest; for, mingled with his +defeat, was a sense of mortification and hatred of his own personal +appearance, which he could not help thinking had influenced Jerrie's +decision. 'And I don't blame her, by Jove!' he said to himself a +hundred times. 'She could not marry a pigmy, and I was a fool to hope +it; but I shall love her just the same as long as I live, and if I can +ever help her I will.' + +And when at last Jerrie was better, and assured him so with her own +sweet graciousness of manner, and put her hand upon his shoulder to +steady herself as she stood up, he felt that paradise was opening to him +again, and that although he had lost Jerrie as a wife, he still had her +as a friend, which was more than he had dared expect. + +'Are you better now? Can you walk to the house?' Tom asked. + +'Oh, yes; I can walk. The giddiness is gone,' Jerrie replied. 'I don't +quite know what ails me this morning.' + +Never before could she remember having felt as she did now, with that +sharp pain in her head, that buzzing in her ears, and more than all, +that peculiar state of mind which she called "spells," and which seemed +to hold her now, body and soul. Even when she returned to Maude's room, +and sat down beside her couch, her thoughts were far away, and +everything which had ever come to her concerning her babyhood came to +her now, crowding upon her so fast that once it seemed to her that the +top of her head was lifting, and she put up her hand to hold it in its +place. And still she staid on with Maude, although two or three times +she arose to go, but something kept her there--chance, if one chooses to +call by that name the something which at times moulds us to its will and +influences our whole lives. Something kept her there until the morning +was merged into noon and the noon into the middle of the afternoon, and +then she could stay no longer. The hour had come when she must go, for +the other force which was to be the instrument in changing all her +future was astir, and she must go to keep her unconscious appointment +with it. + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + +'DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?' + + +Judging from the result, this question might far better have been put to +rather than by Peterkin, as he stood puffing, and hot, and indignant in +the Tramp House, looking down upon Jerrie, who was sitting upon the +wooden bench, with her aching head resting upon a corner of the old +table standing against the wall just where it stood that stormy night +fifteen years ago, when death claimed the woman beside her, but left her +unharmed. + +After saying good-bye to Maude, Jerrie had walked very slowly through +the park, stopping more than once to rest upon the seats scattered here +and there, and wondering more and more at the feeling which oppressed +her and the terrible pain in her head, which grew constantly worse as +she went on. + +'I'm afraid I'm going to be sick,' she said to herself. 'I never felt +this way before; and no wonder, with all I have gone through the last +few weeks. The getting ready for the commencement, the coming home, and +all the excitement which followed, with three men, one after another, +offering themselves to me, and the drenching that night in the rain, and +then watching by Maude without a wink of sleep, it is enough to make a +behemoth sick, and I am so dizzy and hot--' + +She had reached the Tramp House by this time, and, feeling that she +could go no farther without resting herself, she went in, and seating +herself upon the bench, laid her tired, aching head upon the table, and +felt again for a few moments that strange sensation as if the top of her +head were rising up and up until she could not reach it with her hand, +for she tried, and thought of Ann Eliza, with her hair piled so high on +her head. + +'The loss of an inch or two might improve me,' she said, though I'd +rather keep my scalp.' + +Then she seemed to be drifting away into the realms of sleep, and all +around her were confusion and bewilderment. The window, across which +the woodbine was growing, changed places with the door; the floor rose +up and bowed to her, while the room was full of faces, beckoning to and +smiling upon her. Faces like the one she knew so well, the pale face in +the chair; faces like her own, as she remembered it when a child; faces +like the dark woman dead so long ago and buried in the Tracy lot, and +faces like Arthur's as she had seen him oftenest, when he spoke so +lovingly, and called her little Cherry. Then the scene changed, and the +old Tramp House was full of wondrous music, which came floating in at +every crevice and through the open door and windows, while she listened +intently in her dreams as the grand chorus went on. It as was if Arthur, +from the top of the highest peak beyond the Rocky Mountains, and +Gretchen, from her lonely grave in far-off Germany, were calling to each +other across two continents, their voices meeting and mingling together +in the Tramp House in a jubilistic strain, now wild and weird like the +cry of the dying woman looking out into the stormy night, now soft and +low as the lullaby a fond mother sings to her sleeping child, and now +swelling louder and louder, and higher and higher, until the rafters +rang with the joyous music, and the whole world outside was filled with +the song of gladness. + +Wake up, Jerrie! Wake from the dream of rapture to a reality far more +rapturous, for the time is at hand, the hour has come, heralded by the +shadow which falls over the floor as Peterkin's burly figure crosses the +threshold and enters the silent room. + +After Peterkin's conversation with his son concerning his future wife, +Jerrie had grown rapidly in the old man's favor. It is true she had +neither name nor money, the latter of which was scarcely necessary in +this case, but he was not insensible to the fact that she possessed +other qualities and advantages which would be a help to the house of +Peterkin in its efforts to rise. No girl in the neighborhood was more +popular or more sought after than Jerrie, or more intimate with the +big-bugs, as he styled the St. Claires, and Athertons, and Tracys. +Jerrie would _draw_; Jerry would _boost_; and he found himself forming +many plans for the young couple, who were to occupy the south wing; and +in fancy he saw Arthur at Le Bateau half the time at least, while the +rest of the time the carriages from Grassy Spring, and Brier Hill, and +Tracy Park, were standing under the stone arch in front of the door. +How, then, was he disappointed, and enraged, too, when told by his son +that Jerrie had refused him? + +Peterkin had been in Springfield nearly a week, and after his return +home had waited a little before broaching the subject to his son; so +that it was not until the morning before the day of the lawsuit that he +learned the truth by closely questioning Billy, who shielded and +defended Jerrie as far as possible. + +'Not have you! Refused you! Don't love you! Don't care for money! +Thunderation! What does the girl mean? Is she crazy? Is she a fool? Is +she in love with some other idiot?' + +'I th-think so, yes; th-though it did not occur to me then,' Billy +answered, very meekly; 'and if so she ca-can't care for me any mo-more +that I ca-can care for any other girl.' + +'And you are a fool, too,' was the affectionate rejoinder. 'I'll be +dummed if you ain't a pair! Who is the lucky man? Not that dog Harold, +who is goin' to swear agin' us to-morrow? If it is, I b'lieve I'll shoot +him.' + +'Father,' Billy cried in alarm, 'be quiet; if I can st-stand it, you +can.' + +But Peterkin swore he wouldn't stand it. He'd do something, he didn't +know what; and all the morning he went about the house like a madman, +swearing at his wife, because she wasn't _up to snuff_, and couldn't hoe +her own with the 'ristocrats; swearing at Billy because he was a fool, +and so small that 'twas no wonder a bean-pole like Jerrie wouldn't look +at him, and swearing at Ann Eliza because her hair was so red, and +because she had sprained her ankle for the sake of having Tom Tracy +bring her home, hoping he would keep calling to see her, and thus give +her a chance to rope him in, which she never could as long as the world +stood. + +'Neither you nor Bill will ever marry, with all your money, unless you +take up with a cobbler, and he with a washwoman,' was his farewell +remark, as he finally left the house about three o'clock and started for +the village, where he had some of his own witnesses to see before taking +the train for Springfield at five. + +His wife had ventured to suggest that he go in a carriage, as it was so +warm, but he had answered, savagely: + +'Go to thunder with your carriage and coat-of-arms! What good have they +ever done us only to make folks laugh at us for a pack of fools? Nothing +under heaven gives us a h'ist, and I'm just goin' to quit the folderol +and pad it on foot, as I used to when I was cap'n of the 'Liza Ann--durn +it!' + +And so, with his bag in his hand, he started rapidly down the road in +the direction of Shannondale. But the sun was hot, and he was hot, and +his bag was heavy, and, cursing himself for a fool that he had not taken +the carriage, he finally struck into the park as a cooler, if a longer, +route to the station. + +As he came near the Tramp House, which gave no sign of its sleeping +occupant, something impelled him to look in at the door. And this he did +with a thought of Jerrie in his heart, though with no suspicion that she +was there; and when he saw her he started suddenly, and uttered an +exclamation of surprise, which roused her from her heavy slumber. + +'Oh!' she exclaimed, shedding back her golden hair from her flushed face +and lifting her eyes to him; but whatever else she might have said was +prevented by his outburst of passion, which began with the question: + +'Do you know what you have done?' + +Jerrie looked at him wonderingly, but made no reply, and he went on: + +'Yes, do you know what you have done?--you, a poor, unknown girl, who, +but for the Tracys, would have gone to the poor-house sure as guns, +where you orter have gone! Yes, you orter. You refuse my Bill! you, who +hain't a cent to your name; and all for that sneak of a Harold, who will +swear agin me to-morrer. I know he's at the root on't, though Bill +didn't say so, and I hate him wuss than pizen; he, who has been at the +wheel in my shop and begged swill for a livin'! he to be settin' up for +a gentleman and a cuttin' out my Bill, who will be wuth more'n a +million,--yes, two millions, probably, and you have refused him! Do you +hear me, gal?' + +He yelled this last, for something in Jerry's attitude made him think +Jerrie was not giving him her undivided attention, for she was still +listening to the music, which seemed to swell higher and higher, louder +and clearer, until it almost drowned the voice of the man demanding a +second time so fiercely: + +'Do you hear me, gal?' + +'Yes, I hear you,' she said. 'You are talking of Harold, and saying +things you shall not repeat in my presence.' + +'Hoity-toity, miss! What's to hinder me repeatin' in your presence that +Harold Hastings is a sneak and a snob, a hewer of wood, a drawer of +water, and a--' + +Jerrie had risen to her feet, and stood up so tall and straight that, it +seemed to Peterkin as if she towered even above himself, while something +in the flash of her blue eyes made him think of Arthur when he turned +him from the house for accusing Harold of theft, and also of the little +child who had attacked him so fiercely on that wintry morning when the +dead woman lay stretched upon the table at the Park House, with her dark +face upturned to the ceiling above. + +'I shall hinder you,' she said, her voice ringing clear and distinct; +'and if you breathe another word against Harold, I'll turn you from this +room. The Tramp House is mine; Mr. Arthur gave it to me, and you cannot +stay in it with me.' + +"Heavens and earth! hear the girl! One would s'pose she was the Queen of +Sheby to hear her go on, instead of a beggar, whose father was the Lord +only knows who, and whose mother was found in rags on this 'ere table. +Drat the dum thing!" Peterkin roared, bringing his fist down with such +force upon the poor old rickety table that it fell to pieces under the +blow and went crashing to the floor. + +Jerrie's face was a face to fear then, and Peterkin was afraid, and +backed himself out of the room, with Jerrie close to him, never speaking +a word, but motioning him to the door, through which he passed swiftly, +and picking up his bag, walked rapidly away, growling to himself: + +'There's the very Old Harry in that gal's eye. Bill did well to get shet +of her; and yit, if she'd married him, how she would have rid over all +their heads! Well, to be sure, what a dum fool she is!' + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + +WHAT JERRIE FOUND UNDER THE FLOOR. + + +Meantime Jerrie had gone back to the wreck of the table, which she tried +to straighten up, handling it as carefully and as reverently as if it +had been her mother's coffin she was touching. One of the legs had been +broken off before, and she and Harold has fastened it on and turned it +to the side of the house where it would be more out of the way of harm, +and it was this leg which had succumbed first to the force of Peterkin's +fist, and as the entire pressure of the table was brought to bear upon +it in falling, it had been precipitated through a hole in the base +board, which had been there as long as she could remember the place, not +so large at first, but growing larger each year, as the decaying boards +crumbled or were eaten away by rats. + +Jerrie called it a rat-hole, and had several times put a trap there to +catch the marauders, who sometimes scampered across her very feet, so +accustomed were they to her presence. But the rats would not go into the +trap, and then she pasted a newspaper over the hole, but this had been +torn, and hung in shreds, while the hole grew gradually larger. + +Taking up the top of the table, Jerrie dragged it to the centre of the +room, and, putting three of the legs upon it, went to search for the +fourth, one end of which was just visible at the aperture in the wall. +As she stooped to take it out, a bit of the floor under her feet gave +way, making the opening so large that the table leg disappeared from +view entirely. Then Jerrie went down upon her knees, and, thrusting her +hand under the floor, felt for the missing leg, striking against stones, +and brushes, and bits of mortar, and finally touching something from +which she recoiled for an instant, it was so cold and slimy. + +But she struck it again in her search, this time more squarely, and, +grasping it hard in her hand, brought it out to the light, while an +undefinable thrill, half of terror, half of joy, ran through her frame, +as she held it up and examined it carefully. + +It was a small hand-bag of Russian leather, covered with mold and +stained with the damp of its long hiding-place, while a corner of it +showed that the rats had tested its properties, but, disliking either +the taste or the smell had left it in quiet. And there under the floor, +not two feet from where Jerrie had often played, it had lain ever since +the wintry night years before when on the table a strange woman had +struggled with death, and in her struggle the bag, which held so much +that was important to the child beside her, had probably fallen from her +rude bed into the hole just behind it, and which was then large enough +to receive it. Then the rats, attracted by this novel appearance in +their midst, had investigated and dragged it so far from the opening +that it could not been seen unless one went down upon the floor to look +for it. + +This was the conviction that flashed upon Jerrie as she stood, with +widely dilated eyes and quivering nostrils, staring at the bag, without +the power at first to speak or move. + +The music was gone now--Gretchen's voice and Arthur's--and there was +only in her ears a roaring sound like the rushing of distant waters +falling heavily, while the objects in the room swam around her, and she +experienced again that ringing sensation as if the top of her head were +leaving her. She was so sure that here at last was a message from the +dead--that she had the mystery of her babyhood in her grasp--and yet, +for full two minutes she hesitated and held back, until at last the +sweet, pale face which had haunted her so often seemed about to touch +her own with a caress which brought the hot tears to her eyes, and the +spell which had bound her hands and feet was broken. + +The bag was clasped, but not locked, although there was a lock, and +Jerrie thought involuntarily of the little key lying with the other +articles on the dead woman's person. To unclasp the bag required a +little strength, for the steel was covered with rust; but it yielded at +last to Jerrie's strong fingers; and the bag came open, disclosing first +some square object carefully wrapped in a silk handkerchief which had +been white in its day, but which now was yellow and soiled by time. At +this, however, Jerrie scarcely looked, for her eye had fallen upon a +package of papers lying beneath it--papers folded with care, and +securely tied with a bit of faded blue ribbon. + +Seating herself upon the bench where she had been sleeping when +Peterkin's voice aroused her, Jerrie untied the package, and then began +to read, first slowly, as if weighing every word and sentence, then +faster and faster, until at last it seemed that her burning eyes, from +which the hot tears were streaming like rain, fairly leaped from page to +page, taking in the contents at a glance, and comprehending everything. + +When she had finished, she sat for a moment rigid as a corpse, and then, +with a loud, glad cry, which made the very rafters ring, and went +floating out upon the summer air, "Thank Heaven, I have found my +mother!" she fell upon her face, insensible to everything. + +How long she lay thus she did not know, but when she came back to +consciousness the sunlight had changed its position in the room, and she +felt it was growing late. + +Starting suddenly up, and wiping from her face a drop of blood which has +oozed from a cut in her forehead caused by her striking it against some +hard substance when she fell, she looked about her for a moment in a +bewildered kind of way, not realizing at first what had happened; and +even when she remembered, she was too much stunned and astonished to +take it all in as she would afterward when she was calmer and could +think more clearer. + +Taking up the papers one by one, in the order in which she had found +them, she tied them again with the blue ribbon, and put them into the +bag. + +'There was something more,' she whispered, trying to think what it was. + +Then, as her eye fell upon the first package she had taken out, and +which was wrapped in a silk handkerchief, she took it up, and removing +the covering, started as suddenly as if a blow had been dealt her, for +there was the tortoise-shell box, with its blue satin lining, and its +diamonds, which seemed to her like so many sparks of fire flashing in +her eyes and dazzling her with their brilliancy. + +Just such a box as this, and just such diamonds as these, Mrs. Frank +Tracy had lost years ago, and as Jerrie held them in her hand and turned +them to the light, till they showed all the hues of the rainbow, she +experienced a feeling of terror as if she were a thief and had been +convicted of the theft. Then, as she remembered what she had read, she +burst into a hysterical fit of laughing and crying together, and +whispered to herself: + +'I believe I am going mad like him.' + +After a time she arose, and with the bag on her arm and the diamonds in +her hand, she started for home, with only one thought in her mind: + +'I must tell Harold, and ask him what to do.' + +She had forgotten that he was to leave that afternoon on the +train--forgotten everything, except the one subject which affected her +so strongly, so that in one sense she might be said to be thinking of +nothing, when, as she was walking with her head bent down, she came +suddenly face to face with Harold, who, with his satchel in his hand, +was starting for the train due now in a few minutes. + +'Jerrie,' he exclaimed, 'how late you are! I waited until the last +minute to say good-bye. Why, what ails you, and where have you been?' he +continued, as she raised her head and he saw the bruise on her forehead +and the strange pallor of her face. + +'In the Tramp House,' the answered, in a voice which was not hers at +all, and made Harold look more curiously at her. + +As he did so he saw peeping from a fold of the silk handkerchief the +corner of the tortoise-shell box which he remembered so well, and the +sight of which brought back all the shame and humiliation and pain of +that memorable morning when he had been suspected of taking it. + +'What is it? What have you in your hand?' he asked. + +Then Jerrie's face, so pale before, flushed scarlet, and her eyes had in +them a wild look which Harold construed into fear, as, without a word, +she laid the box in his hand, and then stood watching him is he opened +it. + +Harold's face was whiter than Jerrie's had been, and his voice trembled +as he said, in a whisper: + +'Mrs. Tracy's diamonds!' + +'Yes, Mrs. Tracy's diamonds,' Jerrie replied, with a marked emphasis on +the _Mrs. Tracy_. + +'How came you by them, and where did you find them,' Harold asked next, +shrinking a little from the glittering stones which seemed like fiery +eyes confronting him. + +'I can't tell you now. Put them up quick. Don't let any one see them. +Somebody is coming,' Jerrie said, hurriedly, as her ear caught a sound +and her eye an object which Harold neither saw nor heard as he +mechanically thrust the box into his side pocket and then turned just as +Tom Tracy came up on horseback. + +'Hallo, Jerrie! hallo, Hal!' he cried, dismounting quickly and throwing +the bridle-rein over his arm. 'And so you are off to that suit?' he +continued, addressing himself to Harold. 'By George, I wish I were a +witness. I'd swear the old man's head off; for, upon my soul, I believe +he is an old liar?' Then turning to Jerrie, he continued: 'Are you +better than you were this morning? Upon my word, you look worse. It's +that infernal watching last night that ails you. I told mother you ought +not to do it.' + +Just then a whistle was heard in the distance; the train was at +Truesdale, four miles away. + +'You will never catch it,' Tom said, as Harold snatched up his bag and +started to run, 'Here, jump on to Beaver, and leave him at the station. +I can go there for him.' + +Harold knew it was impossible for him to make time against the train, +and, accepting Tom's offer, he vaulted into the saddle and galloped +rapidly away, reaching the station just in time to give his horse to the +care of a boy and to leap upon the train as it was moving away. + +Meanwhile Tom walked on with Jerrie to the cottage, where he would have +stopped if she had not said to him: + +'I would ask you to come in, but my head is aching so badly that I must +go straight to bed. Good-bye, Tom,' and she offered him her hand, a most +unusual thing for her to do on an ordinary occasion like this. + +What ailed her, Tom wondered, that she spoke so kindly to him and looked +at him so curiously? Was she sorry for her decision, and did she wish to +revoke it? + +'Then, by Jove, I'll give her a chance, for every time I see her I find +myself more and more in love,' Tom thought, as he left her and started +for the station after Beaver, whom he found hitched to a post and pawing +the ground impatiently. + +Mrs. Crawford was in the garden when Jerrie entered the house, and thus +there was no one to see her as she hurried up stairs and hid the leather +bag away upon a shelf in her dressing-room. First, however, she took out +two of the papers and read them again, as if to make assurance doubly +sure; then she tried the little key to the lock, which it fitted +perfectly. + +'There is no mistake,' she whispered; 'but I can't think about it now, +for this terrible pain in my head. I must wait till Harold comes home; +he will tell me what to do, and be so glad for me. Dear Harold; his days +of labor are over, and grandmother's, too. Those diamonds are a fortune +in themselves, and they are _mine_! my own! she said so! Oh, mother, I +have found you at last, but I can't make it real; my head is so strange. +What if I should be crazy?' and she started suddenly. 'What if that +dreadful taint should be in my blood, or what if I should die just as I +have found my mother! Oh, Heaven, don't let me die; don't let me lose my +reason, and I will try to do right; only show me what right is.' + +She was praying now upon her knees with her throbbing head upon the side +of the bed, into which she finally crept with her clothes on, even to +her boots, for Jerrie was herself no longer. The fever with which for +days she had been threatened, and which had been induced by over-study +at Vassar, and the excitement which had followed her return home, could +be kept at bay no longer, and when Mrs. Crawford, who had seen her enter +the house, went up after a while to see why she did not come down to +tea, she found her sleeping heavily, with spots of crimson upon her +cheeks, while her hands, which moved incessantly, were burning with +fever. Occasionally she moaned and talked in her sleep of the Tramp +House, and rats, and Peterkin, who had struck the blow and knocked +something or somebody down, Mrs. Crawford could not tell what, unless it +were Jerrie herself, on whose forehead there was a bunch the size now of +a walnut. + +'Jerrie, Jerrie,' Mrs. Crawford cried in alarm, as she tried to remove +the girl's clothes. 'What is it, Jerrie? What has happened? Who hurt +you? Who struck the blow?' + +'Peterkin,' was the faint response, as for an instant Jerrie opened her +eyelids only to close them again and sink away into a heavier sleep or +stupefaction. It seemed the latter, and as Mrs. Crawford could not +herself go for a physician, and as no one came down the lane that +evening, she sat all night, by Jerrie's bed, bathing the feverish hands +and trying to lessen the lump on the forehead, which, in spite of all +her efforts, continued to swell until it seemed to her it was as large +as a hen's egg. + +'Did Peterkin strike you, and what for?' she kept asking; but Jerrie +only moaned and muttered something she could not understand, except once +when she said, distinctly: + +'Yes, Peterkin. Such a blow; it was like a blacksmith's hammer, and +knocked the table to pieces. I am glad he did it.' + +What did she mean? Mrs. Crawford asked herself in vain, and when at last +the early summer morning broke, she was almost as crazy as Jerrie, who +was steadily growing worse, and who was saying the strangest things +about arrests and blows, and Peterkin, and Harold, and Mr. Arthur, whose +name she always mentioned with a sob and stretching out of her hands, as +to some invisible presence. Help must be had from some quarter; and for +two hours, which seemed to her years, Mrs. Crawford watched for the +coming of someone, until at last she saw Tom Tracy galloping up on +Beaver. + +'Tom, Tom,' she screamed from the window, as she saw him dismounting at +the gate, 'don't get off, but ride for your life and fetch the doctor, +quick. Jerrie is very sick; has been crazy all night, and has a bunch on +her head as big as a bowl, where she says Peterkin struck her. + +'Peterkin struck Jerrie! I'll kill him!' Tom said as he tore down the +lane and out upon the highway in quest of the physician, who was soon +found and at Jerrie's side, where Tom stood with him, gazing awe struck +upon the fever stricken girl, who was tossing and talking all the time, +and whose bright eyes unclosed once and fixed themselves on him, as he +spoke her name and laid his hand on one of hers. + +'Oh, Tom, Tom,' she said, 'you told me you'd kill her. Will you kill +her? Will you kill her?' And a wild, hysterical laugh echoed through the +room, as she kept repeating the words, 'Will you kill her? Will you kill +her?' which conveyed no meaning to Tom, who had forgotten what he had +said he would do if a claimant to Tracy Park should appear in the shape +of a young lady. + +Whatever Jerrie took up she repeated rapidly until something else came +into her mind, and when Mrs. Crawford, referring to the bunch on her +head, said to the physician, 'Peterkin struck the blow, she says,' she +began at once like a parrot. 'Peterkin struck the blow! Peterkin struck +the blow!' until another idea suggested itself, and she began to ring +changes on the sentence. 'In the rat-hole; in the Tramp House; in the +Tramp House; in the rat-hole,' talking so fast that sometimes it was +impossible to follow her. + +The blow on her head alone could not have produced this state of things; +it was rather over-excitement, added to some great mental shock, the +nature of which he could not divine, the doctor said to Tom, who in his +wrath at Peterkin was ready to flay him alive, or at least to ride him +on a rail the instant he entered town. + +It was a puzzling case, though not a dangerous one as yet, the physician +said. Jerrie's strong constitution could stand an attack much more +severe than this one; and prescribing perfect quiet, with strict orders +that she should see no more people than was necessary, he left, +promising to return in the afternoon, when he hoped to find her better. +Tom lingered a while after the doctor had left, and showed himself so +thoughtful and kind that Mrs. Crawford forgave him much which she had +harbored against him for his treatment of Harold. + +All night Tom's dreams had been haunted with Jerrie's voice and Jerrie's +look as she gave him her hand and said, 'Good-bye, Tom,' and he had +ridden over early to see if the look and tone were still there, and if +they were, and he had a chance, he meant to renew his offer. But words +of love would have been sadly out of place to this restless, feverish +girl, whose incoherent babblings puzzled and bewildered him. + +One fact, however, was distinct in his mind--Peterkin had struck her a +terrible blow in the Tramp House. Of that he was sure, though why he +should have done so he could not guess; and vowing vengeance upon the +man, he left the cottage at last and rode down to the Tramp House, where +he found the table in a state of ruin upon the door, three of the legs +upon it and the other one nowhere to be seen. + +'He struck her with it and then threw it away, I'll bet,' he said to +himself, as he hunted for the missing leg; 'and it was some quarrel he +picked with her about Hal, who is going to swear against him. Jerrie +would never hear Hal abused, and I've no doubt she aggravated the wretch +until he forgot himself and dealt her that blow. I'll have him arrested +for assault and battery, as sure as I am born.' + +Hurrying home, he told the story to his mother, who smiled incredulously +and said she did not believe it, bidding him say nothing of it to Maude, +who was not as well as usual that day. Then he told his father, who +started at once for the cottage, where Mrs. Crawford refused to let him +see Jerrie, saying that the doctor's orders were that she should be kept +perfectly quiet. But as they stood talking together near the open door, +Jerrie's voice was heard calling: + +'Let Mr. Frank come up.' + +So Frank went up, and, notwithstanding all he had heard from Tom, he was +surprised at Jerrie's flushed face and the unnatural expression of her +eyes, which turned so eagerly toward him as he came in. + +'Oh, Mr. Tracy,' she said, as he sat down beside her and took one of her +burning hands in his, 'you have always been kind to me, haven't you?' + +'Yes,' he replied, with a keen pang of remorse, and wondering if she +would call it kindness if she knew all that he did. + +'And I think you like me some,' she continued: 'don't you?' + +'Like you!' he repeated; 'yes, more than you can ever know. Why, +sometimes I think I like you almost as much as I do Maude.' + +As if the mention of Maude had sent her thoughts backward in a very +different channel, she said abruptly, while she held his gaze steadily +with her bright eyes: + +'You posted that letter?' + +Frank knew perfectly well that she meant the letter which, together with +the photograph, and the Bible, and the lock of the baby's golden hair, +had lain for years in his private drawer--the letter whose +superscription he had studied so many times, and which had seldom been +absent from his thoughts an hour since that night when, from her perch +on the gate-post, Jerrie had startled him with the question she was +asking him now. But be affected ignorance and said, as indifferently as +he could, with those blue eyes upon him seeming to read his inmost +thoughts: + +'What letter do you mean?' + +'Why, the one Mr. Arthur wrote to Gretchen, or her friends, in +Wiesbaden, and gave me to post. You took it for me to the office, and I +sat on the gate so long in the darkness waiting for you to come and tell +me you had posted it sure.' + +'Oh, yes, I remember it perfectly, and how you frightened me sitting up +there so high like a goblin,' Frank answered, falteringly, his face as +crimson now as Jerrie's, and his eyes dropping beneath her gaze. + +'Gretchen's friends never got that letter,' Jerrie continued. + +'No, they never got it,' Frank answered, mechanically. + +'If they had,' Jerrie went on, 'they would have answered it, for she had +friends there.' + +Frank looked up quickly and curiously at the girl talking so strangely +to him. What had she heard? What did she know? or was this only an +outburst of insanity? She certainly looked crazy as she lay there +talking to him. He was sure of it a moment after when, as if the nature +of her thoughts had changed suddenly, she said to him: + +'Yes, you have been very kind to me, you and Maude--you and Maude--and I +shan't forget it. Tell her I shan't forget it.--I shan't forget it.' + +She repeated this rapidly, and was growing so wild and excited that +Frank thought it advisable to leave her. As he arose to go she looked up +pleadingly at him, and said: + +'Kiss me, Mr. Tracy, please.' + +Had he been struck by lightning, Frank could hardly have been more +astonished than he was at this singular request, and for a moment he +stared blankly at the girl who had made it, not because he was at all +averse to granting it, but because he doubted the propriety of the act, +even if she were crazy. But something in Jerrie's face, like Arthur's, +mastered him, and, stooping down, he kissed the parched lips through +which the breath came so hotly, wondering as he did so what Dolly would +say if she could see him, a white-haired man of forty-five, kissing a +young girl of nineteen, and that girl Jerrie Crawford. + +'Thanks,' Jerrie said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. 'I +think you have been chewing tobacco, haven't you? But I sha'nt forget +it; I sha'nt forget it. I shall do right. I shall do right. Tell Maude +so; tell Maude so.' + +She was certainly growing worse, Frank thought, as he went down to +confer with Mrs. Crawford as to what ought to be done, and to offer his +services. He would remain there that afternoon, he said, and send a +servant over to be in the house during the night. + +'She is very sick,' he said; 'but it does not seem as if her sickness +could be caused wholly by that bruise on her head. Do you think Peterkin +struck her?' + +'She says so,' was Mrs. Crawford's reply, 'though why he should do it, I +cannot guess.' + +Then she added that a servant would not be necessary, as Harold would be +home by seven. + +'But he may not,' Frank replied. 'Squire Harrington came at two, and +reported that the suit was not called until so late that they would not +probably get through with the witnesses to-day, so Hal may not be here, +and I will send Rob anyway.' + +On his way home Frank, too, looked in at the Tramp House, and saw the +broken-down table, and hunted for the missing leg, and with Tom +concluded that something unusual had taken place there, though he could +not guess what. + +That evening, as Jerrie grew more and more restless and talkative, Mrs. +Crawford listened anxiously for the train, and when it came, waited and +watched for Harold, but watched in vain, for Harold did not come. +Several of her neighbors, however, did come; those who had gone to the +city out of curiosity to attend the lawsuit, and 'see old Peterkin +squirm and hear him swear;' and could she have looked into the houses in +the village that night, she would have heard some startling news, for +almost before the train rolled away from the platform, everybody at or +near the station had been told that Mrs. Tracy's diamonds, lost nine or +ten years ago, had been found in Harold Hastings' pocket, and that he +was under arrest. + +Such news travels fast, and it reached the Park House just as the family +were finishing their late dinner. + +'I told you so! I always thought he was guilty, or knew something about +them,' Mrs. Frank exclaimed, with a look of exultation on her face as +she turned to her husband. 'What do you think now of your fine young +man, who has been hanging around here after your daughter until she is +half-betwaddled after him?' + +Frank's face was very grave as he answered, decidedly: + +'I do not believe it. Harold Hastings never took your diamonds.' + +'How came he by them, then?' she asked, in a loud, angry voice. + +'I don't know,' her husband replied; 'there is some mistake; it will be +cleared in time. But keep it from Maude; I think the news would kill +her.' + +Meantime Tom had sat with his brows knit together, as if intently +thinking; and when at last he spoke he said to his father: + +'I shall go to Springfield on the ten o'clock train, and you'd better go +with me.' + +To this Frank made no objections. If his wife's diamonds were really +found, he ought to be there to receive them; and, besides, he might say +a word in Harold's defence, if necessary. So ten o'clock found him and +Tom at the station, where also was Dick St. Claire, with several other +young men, pacing up and down the platform and excitedly discussing the +news, of which they did not believe a word. + +'I almost feel as if they were hurting me when they touch Hal, he's such +a noble fellow,' Dick said to Mr. Tracy and Tom. 'We are all as mad as +can be, and so a lot of us fellows, who have always known him, are going +over to speak a good word for him, and go his bail if necessary. I don't +believe, though, they can do anything after all these years; but father +will know. He is there with him.' + +And so the night train to Springfield carried fourteen men from +Shannondale, thirteen of whom were going to stand by Harold, while the +fourteenth hardly knew why he was going or what he believed. Arrived in +the city, their first inquiry was for Harold, who, instead of being in +the charge of an officer as they had feared, was quietly sleeping in his +room at the hotel, while Judge St. Claire had the diamonds in his +possession. + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + +HAROLD AND THE DIAMONDS. + + +When Harold sprang upon the train as it was moving from the station and +entered the rear car, he found old Peterkin near the door, button-holing +Judge St. Claire, to whom he was talking loudly and angrily of that +infernal cheat, Wilson, who had brought the suit against him. + +'Yes, yes, I see; I know; but all that will come out on the trial,' the +judge said, trying to silence him. + +But Peterkin held on, until his eye caught Harold, when he let the judge +go, and seating himself beside the young man began in a soft, coaxing +tone for him: + +'I don't see why in thunder you are goin' agin me, who have allus been +your friend, and gin you work when you couldn't git it any where else; +and I can't imagine what you're goin' to say, or what you know.' + +Harold's face was very red, but his manner was respectful as he replied: + +'You cannot be more sorry than I am that I am subpoenaed as a witness +against you. I did not seek it. I could not help it: but, being a +witness, I must answer the questions truthfully.' + +'Thunder and lightning, man! Of course you must! Don't I know that?' the +irascible Peterkin growled, getting angry at once. 'Of course you must +answer questions, but you needn't blab out stuff they don't ask you, so +as to lead 'em on. I know 'em, the blood-hounds; they'll squeeze you +dry, once let 'em git an inklin' you know sunthin' more. Now, if this +goes agin me, I'm out at least thirty thousand dollars; and between you +and I, I don't mind givin' a cool two thousand, or three, or mebby five, +right out of pocket, cash down, to anybody whose testimony, without +bein' a lie--I don't want nobody to swear false, remember--but, heaven +and earth, can't a body furgit a little, and keep back a lot if they +want to?' 'What are you trying to say to me?' Harold asked, his face +pale with resentment, as he suspected the man's motive. + +'Say to you? Nothin', only that I'll give five thousand dollars down to +the chap whose testimony gits me off and flings old Wilson.' + +'Mr. Peterkin,' Harold said, looking the old wretch full in the face, +'if you are trying to bribe me, let me tell you at once that I am not to +be bought. I shall not volunteer information, but shall answer +truthfully whatever is asked me.' + +'Go to thunder, then! I always knew you were a bad aig,' Peterkin +roared; and as there was nothing to be made from Harold, he changed his +seat to try his tactics elsewhere. + +Left to himself, Harold had time to think of the diamonds, which, +indeed, had not been absent from his thoughts a moment, since Jerrie +gave them to him. They were closely buttoned in his coat pocket, where +they burned like fire, as he wondered where and how Jerrie had found +them. + +'In the Tramp House it must have been,' he said to himself; 'but who put +them there, and how did she chance to find them, and why did she look so +wild and excited, so like a crazy person, when she gave them to me, +bidding me let no one see them?' + +These questions he could not answer, and his brain was all in a whirl +when the train reached Springfield, and, with the others, he registered +himself at the hotel. Suddenly, like a gleam of lightning seen through a +rift of clouds, there came back to him, with a horrible distinctness, +the words the child Jerry had spoken to him that day years ago, when he +had walked homeward with her through the leafy woods from the Park +House, where he had been questioned so closely by Mrs. Tracy with regard +to her diamonds and what he had been doing in the house on the morning +of their disappearance. + +'I know where those diamonds are, but I shan't tell while there is such +a fuss,' she had said, and in his abstraction he had scarcely noticed it +then, but it came back to him now with fearful significance, making him +sick, and faint, and cold, although the great drops of sweat stood +thickly upon his lips and under his hair, as, after the gas was lighted, +he sat alone in a little reception-room opening from one of the parlors. +Did Jerrie know where they were, and had she known all the time and not +spoken? And, if so, was she not guilty as an accessory, at least in +trying to shield another? For that she took them herself he never for a +moment dreamed. It was some one else, and she knew and did not tell. He +was certain of it now, as every incident connected with her strange +sickness came back to him, when she seemed to be doing penance for +another's fault. She had called herself an accessory, and that was what +she was, or rather what the world would call her, if it knew. To him she +was Jerrie, the girl he loved, and he would defend her to the bitter +end, no matter how culpable she had been in keeping silence so long. + +But who took them! That was the question puzzling him so much as he sat +thinking with his head bent down, and so absorbed that he did not hear a +step in the adjoining room, or know that Peterkin had seated himself +just where a large mirror showed him distinctly the young man in the +next room, whom he recognized at once, though Harold never moved for a +few moments or lifted his head. + +At last, however, he unbuttoned his coat and after glancing cautiously +around to make sure no one was near, he took the box from his pocket, +and holding the stones to the light examined them carefully, taking in +his hand first the ear-rings and then the pin, and holding them in such +a way that two or three times they flashed directly in the eyes of the +cruel man watching him. + +'Yes, they are Mrs. Tracy's diamonds; there can be no mistake,' he +whispered, just as he became conscious that there was some one in the +door looking at him. + +Quick as thought he put the box out of sight just as Peterkin's voice, +exultant and hateful, cried out: + +'Hallo, Mr. Prayer-book! your piety won't let you keep back a darned +thing you know agin me, but it lets you have in your possession diamonds +which I'd eenamost sware was them stones Miss Tracy lost years ago and +suspected you of takin. I know the box anyway, I heard it described so +often, and I b'lieve I know them diamonds. I seen 'em in the +lookin'-glass, settin' in t'other room, and seen you look all round like +a thief afore you opened 'em. So, fork over, and mebby you can give me +back May Jane's pin you stole at the party the night Mr. Arthur came +home. Fork over, I say!' + +Too much astonished at first to speak, Harold stood staring at the man +who had attacked him so brutally, while his hand closed tightly over the +diamonds in his pocket, as if fearing they might be wrenched from him by +force. + +'Will you fork over, or shall I call the perlice?' Peterkin asked. + +'Call the police as soon as you like,' Harold replied, 'but I shall not +give you the diamonds.' + +'Then you own that you've got 'em! That's half the battle!' Peterkin +said, coming up close to him, and looking at him with a meaning smile +more detestable than any menace could have been. 'I know you've got 'em, +and I can run you if I try, and then what will your doxie think of you! +Will she refuse my Bill for a thief, and treat me as if I was dirt?' + +'What do you mean, sir?' Harold demanded, feeling intuitively that by +his _doxie_ Jerrie was meant, and feeling a great horror, too, lest by +some means Jerrie's name should be mixed up with the affair before she +had a chance to explain. + +The reference to Billy was a puzzle, but Peterkin did not leave him in +doubt. + +'I mean that you think yourself very fine, and always have, and that are +girl of the carpet-bag thinks herself fine, too, and refused my Bill for +you, who hain't a cent in the world. I seen it in her face when I +twitted her on it, and she riz up agin me like a catamount. But I'll be +even with you both yit. I've got you in my power, young man, but--' and +here he came a step or two nearer to Harold, and dropping his voice to a +whisper said: 'I sha'n't do nothin', nor say nothin' till you've gin +your evidence, and if you hold your tongue I will. You tickle me, and +I'll tickle you! see!' + +Harold was too indignant to reply, and feeling that he was degrading +himself every moment he spent in the presence of that man, he left the +room without a word, and went to his own apartment, but not to sleep, +for never had he spent so wretched a night as that which followed his +interview with Peterkin. Of what the man could do to him, he had no +fear. His anxiety was all for Jerrie. Where did she find the diamonds, +and for whom did she keep silence so long? and what would be said of +the act when it was known, as it might be, though not from him? + +Two or three times he arose and lighted the gas, examined the diamonds +carefully to see if there were not some mistake. But there could be +none. He had seen them on the lady's person and had heard them described +so accurately that he could not be mistaken; and then the box was the +same he had once seen when Jack took him to his mother's room to show +him what Uncle Arthur had brought. That was a tortoise shell, of an oval +shape, lined with blue satin, and this was a tortoise shell, oval +shaped, and lined with blue satin. Harold felt, when at last the +daylight shone into his room, that if it had tarried a moment longer he +must have gone mad. He was very white and haggard, and there were dark +rings under his eyes, when he went down to the office, where the first +person he met was Billy, who also looked pale and worn, with a different +expression upon his face from anything Harold had ever seen before. It +was as if all life and hope had gone, leaving him nothing now to care +for. In his anxiety and worry about the diamonds Harold had scarcely +given a thought to what Peterkin had said of Jerrie's refusal of Billy, +for it seemed so improbable that the latter would presume to offer +himself to her; but at sight of Billy's face it came back to him with a +throb of pity for the man, and a thrill of joy for himself for whom +Peterkin had said his son was rejected. + +'Does Billy know of the diamonds, I wonder?' he thought. + +As if to answer the question in the negative, Billy came quickly +forward, and offering his hand, bade Harold good-morning, and then +motioning him to a seat, took one beside him, and began: + +'I'm awful sorry, Hal, th-that you are mix-mixed up in th-this but I sup +suppose you m-must t-tell the truth.' + +'Yes, I must tell the truth, Harold said.' + +'Fa-father will be so m-mad,' Billy continued. 'I wi-wish I could +t-t-testify f-for you, bu-but I can't. You were th-there, I wa-wan't, +and all I know fa-father told me; bu-but d don't volunteer information.' + +'No,' Harold said, slowly, wishing that the ocean were rolling between +him and this detestable suit. + +Once he resolved to go to Judge St. Claire, deliver up the diamonds, and +tell him all he knew about them, but this would be bringing Jerrie into +the matter, and so he changed his mind and wondered aimlessly about the +town until it was time for him to appear at the court-house, where a +crowd was gathering. It was late before the suit known as _Wilson vs. +Peterkin_ was called, and later still when Harold took the stand. + +White and trembling, so that both his hands and his knees were shaking +visibly, he seemed more like a criminal than a witness, he was so +agitated and pre-occupied, too, it would seem, for at first his answers +were given at random, as if he hardly knew what he was saying; nor did +he, for over and beyond the sea of long faces confronting him, Judge St. +Claire's wondering and curious--Billy's wondering, too--Wilson's +disappointed and surprised, and Peterkin's threatening and exultant by +turns--he saw only Jerrie coming to him in the lane and asking him to +keep the diamonds for her--saw her, too, away back years ago up in the +little low room, with her fever-stained cheeks and shorn head, talking +the strangest things of prisons, and substitutes, and accessories, and +assuring some one that she would never tell, and was going for him, if +necessary. + +Who was that man? Where was he now? and why had he imposed this terrible +secret upon Jerrie? + +These were the thoughts crowding through his brain while he was being +questioned as to what he knew of the agreement between the plaintiff and +defendant while in the office of the latter. Once a thought of Maude +crossed his mind with a keen pang of regret, as he remembered the lovely +face which had smiled so fondly upon him, mistaking his meaning utterly, +and appropriating to herself the love he was trying to tell her was +another's. And with thoughts of Maude there came a thought of Arthur, +the very first which Harold had given him, Arthur, the crazy man, who +himself had hidden the diamonds and for whom Jerrie was ready to +sacrifice so much. It was clear as daylight to him now, the anxiety and +stain were over, and those who were watching him so intently as he gave +his answers at random, with the sweat pouring like rain down his face, +were electrified at the start he gave as he came to himself and realized +for the first time where he was, and why he was there. Arthur would +never see Jerrie wronged. _She_ was safe, and with this load lifted from +him, he gave his whole attention to the business on hand, answering the +questions now clearly and distinctly. + +When at last the lawyer said to him, 'Repeat what you can remember of +the conversation which took place between the plaintiff and the +defendant on the morning of ----, 18--,' he gave one sorry look at poor +Billy, who was the picture of shame and confusion, and then, in a clear, +distinct voice, which filled every corner of the room, told what he had +heard said in his presence, and what he knew of the transaction, proving +conclusively that the plaintiff was right and Peterkin a rascal, and +this in the face of the man who had asked him not to _blab_ and who +shook his fist at him threateningly as the narrative went on. + +'Would you believe the defendant under oath?' was asked at the close, +and Harold answered, promptly: + +'Under oath--yes.' + +'Would you, if not under oath?' + +'If an untruth would be to his advantage, no,' and then Harold was +through. + +As he stepped down from the witness stand old Peterkin arose, so angry +that at first he could scarcely articulate his words. + +'You dog! you liar! you thief! he screamed; 'to stand there and lie so +about me! I'll teach you--I'll show 'em what you are. If there's a +perlice here, I call on 'em to arrest this feller for them diamonds of +Miss Tracy's! They are in his pocket--or was last night. I seen 'em +myself, and he dassent deny it.' + +By this time the court-house was in wild confusion, as the spectators +arose from their seats and pressed forward to where Peterkin stood +denouncing Harold, who was white as ashes, and looked as if he were +going to faint, as Billy hastened to his side, whispering: + +'Lean on me, and I will get you out of this. Father is mad.' + +But order was soon restored, though not until Peterkin had yelled again, +as Harold was leaving the room: + +'Search him, I tell you! Don't let him escape! He's got 'em in his +pocket--Miss Tracy's diamonds! Lord of heavens! don't you remember the +row there was about 'em years ago?' + +Of what followed during the next hour Harold knew very little. There +was a crowd around him, and cries of 'He is going to faint!' while +Billy's stammering voice called pleadingly, 'St-stand back, ca-can't +you, and gi-give him air.' + +Then, a deluge of water in his face; then a great darkness and the +voices sounded a long way off, and he felt so tired and sleepy, and +thought of Jerry, and Maude, and lived over again the scene in the +Tramp-House, when he found the former in the bag, and felt her little +fat arms around his neck as he staggered with her through the snow, +wondering why she was so heavy, and why her feet were dragging on the +ground. When he came more fully to himself, he was in a little room in +the court-house, and Billy's arm was lying protectingly across his +shoulder, while Billy's father was bellowing like a bull: + +'Be you goin' to let him go! Ain't you goin' to git a writ and arrest +him! Why don't you handcuff him, somebody? And you, Bill, be you a fool +to stan' there a huggin' him as if he was a gal! What do you mean?' + +'Ha-Hal is my fr-friend, father. He never to-took the diamonds,' Billy +answered, sadly, while Judge St. Claire, who had the box of jewels in +his hand and was looking very anxious, turned to the angry man clamoring +so loudly for a _writ_ and said, sternly: + +'Even if Harold took the diamonds--which he did not, I am certain of +that--there is some mistake which he will explain; but if he took them, +it is too late to arrest him. A theft commited ten years ago cannot be +punished now.' + +'May the Lord give you sense,' Peterkin rejoined, with a derisive laugh. +'Don't tell me that a body can't be punished for stealin' diamonds ef +'twas done a hundred years ago,' + +'But it is true, nevertheless,' the judge replied. + +Turning to another lawyer who was standing near, Peterkin asked: + +'Is that so, square? Is it so writ? Is that the law?' + +'That is the law,' was the response. + +'Wall, I'll be condumbed, if that don't beat all!' Peterkin exclaimed. +'Can't be sent to prison! I swow! There ain't no law or justice for +nobody but _me_, and I must be kicked to the wall! I'll give up, and +won't try to be nobody, I vurm!' And as he talked he walked away to +ruminate upon the injustice of the law which could not touch Harold +Hastings, but could throw its broad arms tightly around himself. + +Meanwhile the Judge had ordered a carriage and taken Harold with him to +his private room in the hotel, where the hardest part for Hal was yet to +come. + +'Now, my boy,' the judge said, after he had made Harold lie down upon +the couch and had locked the door, 'now, tell me all about it. How came +you by the diamond?' + +It was such a pitiful, pleading, agonized face which lifted itself from +the cushion and looked at Judge St. Claire, as Harold began: + +'I cannot tell you now--I must not? but by and by perhaps I can. They +were handed to me to keep by some one, just for a little while. I cannot +tell you who it was. I think I would die sooner than do it. Certainly I +would rather go to prison, as Peterkin wishes me to.' + +There was a thoughtful, perplexed look on the judge's face as he said: + +'This is very strange, Harold, that you cannot tell who gave them to +you, and with some people will be construed against you.' + +'Yes, I know it; but I would rather bear it than have that person's name +brought in question,' was Harold's reply. + +'Do you think that person took them?' the judge asked. + +'No, a thousand times, no!' and Harold leaped to his feet and began to +pace the floor hurriedly. 'They never took them, never; I'd swear to +that with my life. Don't talk any more about it, please; I can't bear +it. I have gone through so much to-day, and last night I never slept a +wink. Oh, I am so tired!' and with a groan he threw himself again upon +the couch, and, closing his eyes, dropped almost instantly into a heavy +slumber, from which the judge did not rouse him until after dinner, when +he ordered some refreshments sent to his room, and himself awoke the +young man, whose face looked pinched, and white, and haggard, and who +could only swallow a cup of coffee and a part of a biscuit. + +'I am so tired,' he kept repeating; 'but I shall be better in the +morning;' and long before the night train had come he was in bed +sleeping off the effects of the day's excitement. + +The next morning when he went down to the office he was surprised and +bewildered at the crowd which gathered around him--the friends who had +came on the train to stand by and defend him, if necessary; and as the +home faces he had known all his life looked kindly into his, and the +familiar voices of his boyhood told him of sympathy for and faith in +him, while hand after hand took his in a friendly clasp, that of Dick +St. Claire clinging to his with a grasp which said plainer than words +could have done: 'I believe in you, Hal, and am so sorry for you,' the +tension of his nerves gave way entirely, and, sinking down in their +midst, he cried like a child when freed from some terrible danger. + +He had not thought before that he cared for himself what people said, +but he knew now that he did, and this assurance of confidence from his +friends unnerved him for a time; then, dashing away his tears and +lifting up his face, on which his old winning smile was breaking, he +said: + +'Excuse me for this weakness; only girls should cry, but I have borne so +much, and your coming was such a surprise. Thank you all. I cannot say +what I feel. I should cry again if I did.' + +'Never mind, old boy,' Dick's cheery voice called out. 'We know what you +would say. We came to help you, just a few of us; but if anything had +really happened to you, why, all Shannondale would have turned out to +the rescue.' + +'Thank you, Dick,' Harold said, the tears starting again; then, as his +eye fell for the first time upon Tom, he exclaimed, with a glad ring in +his voice, 'and you, too, Tom!' + +'Yes, I thought I'd come with the crowd and see the fun,' Tom answered, +indifferently, as he walked away by himself. + +Tom had said very little, on the train, or after they had reached the +hotel, but no one had listened with more eagerness to every detail of +the matter than he had done, and all that morning he was busy gathering +up every item of information, and listening to the guesses as to who the +person could be who gave the diamonds to Harold. + +The jewels had been identified by his father and by himself, although an +identification was scarcely necessary as Harold had distinctly said: + +'They are the Tracy diamonds, and the person who gave them, to me said +so.' + +But who was the person? That was the question puzzling the heads of all +the Shannondale people as the morning wore on, and each went where he +liked. At last, toward noon, Tom found himself near Harold in front of +the court-house, and going up to him, said: + +'Hal, I wan't to talk to you a little while.' + +'Yes,' Hal said, assentingly, and selecting out a retired corner, Tom +began: + +'Hal, I've never shown any great liking for you, and I don't s'pose I +have any, but I don't like to see a man kicked for nothing, and so I +came over with the rest.' + +'Thank you, Tom,' Harold replied, 'I don't think you ever did like me, +and I don't think I cared if you didn't, but I'm glad you came. Is that +all you wished to say to me?' + +'So,' Tom answered. 'Jerrie is very sick--' + +'Jerrie! Jerrie sick! Oh, Tom!' + +It was a cry of almost despair as Harold thought, 'What if she should +die and the people never know.' + +'She had an awful headache when you left her in the lane, and I walked +home with her, and the next morning she was raving mad--kind of a brain +fever, I guess.' + +Harold was stupefied, but he managed to ask: + +'Does she talk much? What does she say?' + +There was alarm in his voice, which the sagacious Tom detected at once, +and, strengthened in his suspicion, he replied: + +'Nothing about the diamonds, and the Lord knows I hope she won't.' + +'What do you mean!' Harold asked, in a frightened tone. + +'Don't you worry,' Tom replied. 'I wouldn't harm Jerrie any more than +you would, but--Well, Hal, you are a trump! Yes, you are, to hold your +tongue and let some think you are the culprit. Hal, Jerrie gave you the +diamonds. I saw her do it in the lane as I came up to you. I did not +think of it at the time, but afterward it came to me that you took +something from her and slipped it into your pocket, and that you both +looked scared when you saw me. Jerrie was abstracted and queer all the +way to the house, and had a bruise on her head, and she keeps talking of +the Tramp House and Peterkin, who, she says, dealt the blow. I went to +the Tramp House, and found the old table on the floor, with three of the +legs on it; the fourth I couldn't find. I thought at first that the old +wretch had quarreled with her about you on account of the suit, and she +had squared up to him, and he had struck her; but now I believe _he_ had +the diamonds, and she got them from him in some way, and he struck her +with the missing table-leg. If you say so, I'll have him arrested.' + +Tom had told his story rapidly, while Harold listened breathlessly, +until he suggested the arrest of Peterkin, when he exclaimed: + +'No, no, Tom. No; don't you see that would mix Jerrie's name up with the +diamonds, and that must not be. She must not be mentioned in connection +with them until she speaks for herself; and, besides, I do not believe +it was Peterkin who took them. It might have been your Uncle Arthur.' + +'Uncle Arthur?' Tom said, indignantly. 'Why, he gave them to mother.' + +'I know he did,' Harold continued; 'but in a crazy fit he might have +taken them away and secreted them and then forgotten it, and Jerrie +might have known it, and not been able to find them till now. Many +things go to prove that;' and very briefly Harold repeated some +incidents connected with Jerrie's illness when she was a child. + +'That looks like it, certainly,' Tom said; 'but I am awfully loth to +give up arresting the brute, and believe I shall do it yet for assault +and battery. He certainly struck her. You will see for yourself the lump +on her head.' + +So saying Tom arose to go away, but before he went made a remark quite +characteristic of him and his feeling for Harold, to whom he said, with +a laugh: + +'Don't for thunder's sake, think us a kind of a Damon and Pythias twins, +because I've joined hands with you against Peterkin and for Jerrie. +Herod and Pilate, you know, became friends, but I guess at heart they +were Pilate and Herod still.' + +'No danger of my presuming at all upon your friendship for myself, +though I thank you for your interest in Jerrie,' Harold replied. + +Then the two separated, Tom going his way and Harold his, until it was +time for the afternoon train which was to take them home. + +The suit had gone against Peterkin, and it was in a towering rage that +he stood in the long depot, denouncing everybody, and swearing he would +sell out Lubbertoo and every dumbed thing he owned in Shannondale and +take his money away, 'and then see how they'd git along without his +capital to boost 'em.' At Harold he would not even look, for his +testimony had been the most damaging of all, and he frowned savagely +when on entering the car he saw his son in the same seat with him, +talking in low, earnest tones, while Harold was evidently listening to +him with interest. Small as he was and mean in personal appearance, +there was more of true manhood in Billy's finger than in his father's +whole body. The suit had been a pain and trouble to Billy, from +beginning to end, for he knew his father was in the wrong, and he bore +no malice toward Harold for his part in it, and when the diamonds came +up, and his father was clamoring for a writ, he was the first to declare +Harold's innocence and to say he would go his bail. Now, there was in +his mind another plan by which to benefit his friend, and rival, +too--for Billy knew he was that; and the heart of the little man ached +with a bitter pain and sense of loss whenever he thought of Jerrie, and +lived over again the scene under the butternut tree by the river, when +her blue eyes had smiled so kindly upon him and her hands had touched +his, even while she was breaking his heart. When Billy reached his +majority his father had given him $100,000, and thus he had business of +his own to transact, and a part of this was just now centered in +Washington Territory, where, in Tacoma, on Puget Sound, he owned real +estate and had dealings with several parties. To attend to this an agent +was needed for a while, and he said to himself; + +'I'll offer it to Hal, with such a salary that he cannot refuse it; that +will get him out of the way until this thing blows over.' + +Billy knew perfectly well that although everybody said Harold was +innocent and that nine-tenths believed it, there would still be a few in +Shannondale--the scum whose opinions his father's money controlled--who, +without exactly saying they doubted him, would make it unpleasant for +him in many ways; and from this he would save him by sending him to +Tacoma at once, and thus getting him out of the way of any +unpleasantness which might arise from his father's persecutions or those +of his clan. It was this which he was proposing to Harold, who at once +thought favorably of it--not because he wished to escape from the +public, he said, but because of the pay offered, and which seemed to him +far more than his services would be worth. + +'You are a noble fellow, Billy,' he said. 'I'll think of the plan, and +let you know after I've seen Jerrie and Judge St. Claire.' + +'A-all ri-right; he'll a-advise you to go,' Billy said, as they arose to +leave the car, followed by Peterkin, who had been engaged in a fierce +altercation with Tom, who had accused him of having struck Jerrie, and +threatened to have him arrested for assault and battery the moment they +reached Shannondale. + +'Thunder and lightning and guns' old Peterkin exclaimed, while the +spittle flew from his mouth like the spray from Niagara. 'I assault and +batter Jerry Crawford!--a gal! What do you take me for, young man? I'm a +gentleman, I be, if I ain't a Tracy; and I never salted nor battered +nobody, and she'll tell you so herself. Heavens and earth! this is the +way 'twas,' and Peterkin shook from his head to his feet--for, like most +men who clamor so loudly for the law, he had a mortal terror of it for +himself, and Tom's threatening looks and words made him afraid. 'This is +how 'twas. I found her in the Tramp-House, and I was all-fired mad at +her about somethin'--I shan't tell what, for Bill would kill me; but I +pitched into her right and left; and, by gum, she pitched into me, so +that for a spell it was nip-and-tuck betwixt us; and, by George, if she +didn't order me out of the Tramp-House, and said it was her'n; and I'll +be dumbed if I don't believe she'd av put me out, too, body and bones, +if I hadn't gone. She was just like a tiger; and, I swan, I was kinder +feared on her, and backed out with a kinder flourish of my fist on that +darned old rotten table, which went all to smash; and that's all I know. +You don't call that 'sault and batter, do you?' + +Tom could not say that he did, but he replied: + +'That's your version of it. Jerrie may have another, and her friends +ain't going to have her abused by a chap like you; and my advice is that +you hold your tongue, both about her and Harold. It will he better for +you. Do you understand?' + +'You bet!' Peterkin said, with a meaning nod, breathing a little more +freely as he caught sight of the highest tower of _Lubbertoo_, and more +freely still when he arrived at the station, where he was met by his +coat-of-arms carriage, instead of a writ, and was suffered to go +peaceably home, a disappointed, if not a better man. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +HAROLD AND JERRIE. + + +The news which so electrified all Shannondale was slow in reaching Mrs. +Crawford, but it did reach her at last, crushing and overwhelming her +with a sense of shame and anguish, until as the day wore on, Grace +Atherton, and Mrs. St. Claire, and Nina, and many others came to +reassure her, and to say that it was all a mistake, which would be soon +cleared up. + +Thus comforted and consoled, she tried to be calm, and wait patiently +for the train. But there was a great pity for her boy in her heart as +she sat by Jerrie's bedside and watched her in all her varying moods, +now perfectly quiet, with her wide open eyes staring up at the ceiling +as if she were seeing something there, now talking of Peterkin, and the +Tramp House, and the table, and the blow, and again of the bag, which +she said was lost, and which her grandmother must find. + +Thinking she meant the carpet bag, Mrs. Crawford brought that to her, +but she tossed it aside impatiently saying: + +'No, no; the other one, which tells it all. Where is it! I must have +lost it. Find it, find it. To be so near, and yet so far. What did it +say? Why can't I think? Am I like Mr. Arthur--crazy, like him?' + +Mrs. Crawford thought her crazier than Arthur, and waited still more +impatiently for Harold, until she heard his step outside, and knew that +he had come. + +'Harold!' + +'Grandma!' was all they said for a moment while the poor old lady was +sobbing on his neck, and then he comforted her as best he could, +telling her that it was all over now--that no one but Peterkin had +accused him--that everybody was ready to defend him, and that after a +little he could explain everything. + +'And now I must see Jerrie,' he continued, starting for the stairs, and +glad that his grandmother did not attempt to follow him. + +Jerrie had heard his voice, and had raised herself in bed, and as he +came in, met him with the question: + +'Have you brought them? Has any one seen them?' + +The strange light in her eyes should have told Harold how utterly +incapable she was of giving any rational answers to his questions, but +he did not think of that, and instead of trying to quiet her, he plunged +at once into the subject she had broached: + +'Do you mean the diamonds?' he asked. + +'Yes,' she replied, 'the diamonds! the diamonds! Where are they?' + +'Mrs. Tracy has them by this time,' Harold replied. + +'Mrs. Tracy!' Jerrie exclaimed. 'What has she to do with them? They are +not hers. They are mine--they are mine! Bring them to me--bring them to +me.' + +She was terribly excited, and for a time Harold bent all his energies to +soothe her, and at last when from sheer exhaustion she became quiet he +said to her: + +'Jerrie, where did you find the diamonds?' + +She looked at him curiously, but made no reply, and he continued: + +'You must tell me where you found them: it is necessary I should know.' + +Still she did not reply, but stared at him, as if not fully +comprehending what he meant. + +'Jerrie,' he said again, 'do you love me?' + +Quickly her eyes filled with tears, and she replied: + +'Love you, Harold! Yes, more than you ever dreamed of; more than you +love me.' + +Instantly Harold had his arms around her, for she had risen to a sitting +posture, and pillowing her head upon his breast, he said: + +'No, darling, that is impossible, for I love you better than my life,' +and his lips pressed hers passionately. He felt that this was their +betrothal, for he did not take into consideration the state of her mind; +but she undeceived him quickly, for although she kissed him back, she +said, with a tinge of sarcasm in her voice: + +'Aren't you afraid they will see you?' + +'Who are they?' he asked, and she replied + +'The people, and the Harvard boys and Maude.' + +He did not know at all what she meant, but at the mention of Maude he +groaned involuntarily, as the white face came up before him again and +the eyes looked into his, fuller far of love and tenderness than those +confronting him so steadily, with no consciousness of his real meaning +in them. + +'Those diamonds have caused me a great deal of trouble,' he began again, +'and will cause me more unless you tell me where you found them. Try and +think. Was it in the Tramp House?' + +That started her at once, and she began to rave of the Tramp House, and +the rat-hole, and the table, and Peterkin, who dealt the blow. The +bruise on her head had not proved so serious as was at first feared, and +with her tangled hair falling over her face Harold had not noticed it. +But he looked at it now and questioned her of it, and asking if Peterkin +had struck her there. + +'No,' she said, and began the senseless babbling of rat-holes, and +table-legs and bags, and diamonds until Harold became alarmed and went +for his grandmother. + +There was nothing to be learned from Jerrie in her present condition, +and so Harold started for the Tramp House to see what that would tell +him. The table was still upon the floor, with the three legs piled upon +it, while the fourth one was missing. But Harold found it at last; for, +remembering what Jerrie had said of the rat-hole, he investigated that +spot, and from its enlarged appearance drew his own conclusion. Jerrie +had found the diamonds there; he had no doubt of it, and he told Tom +Tracy so; for, as if there was a fascination about the place for him, +Tom appeared in the door-way just as Harold was leaving it. Sitting down +upon the bench where Jerrie had sat that day when Peterkin attacked her, +the two young men who had been enemies all their lives, but who were now +drawn together by a common sympathy and love for the same girl, talked +the matter over again, each arriving at the same theory as the most +probable one they could accept. + +'Arthur, in a crazy fit, had secreted the diamonds, and Jerrie knew it, +but possibly not where he had put them. This accounted for her strange +sickness when a child, while her finding them later on, added to other +causes, would account for her sickness now. Peterkin owns that he was +blowing her up for something, and that he knocked the table down with +his fist, but he swears he didn't touch her,' Tom said, repeating in +substance all Peterkin had said to him in the train when shaking with +fear of a _writ_. + +'And do you still mean to keep silent with regard to Jerrie?' Tom asked. + +'Yes,' Harold replied; 'her name must not be mentioned in connection +with the diamonds. I can't have the slightest breath of suspicion +touching Jerrie, _my sister_.' + +'Sister be hanged!' Tom began savagely, then checked himself, and added +with a sneering laugh: 'Don't try to deceive me, Hal, with your sister +business. You love Jerrie, and she loves you, and that is one reason why +I hate you, or shall, when this miserable business is cleared up. Just +now we must pull together and find out where she found the diamonds, and +who put them there. To write to Uncle Arthur would do no good, though +seeing him might; the last we heard he was thinking of taking the coast +voyage from San Francisco to Tacoma.' + +'Tom,' Harold exclaimed, with great energy, as he sprang to his feet, +'that decides me;' and then he told of the offer Billy had made him on +the car. 'When I saw how sick Jerrie was, I made up my mind not to +accept it, although I need the money badly. But now, if Jerrie gets no +worse, I shall start for Tacoma in a few days and shall find your uncle +Arthur, if he is to be found.' + +It was growing dark when the two young men finally emerged from the +house and stood for a moment outside, while Harold inquired for Maude. + +'She is not very well, that's a fact,' Tom said, gloomily; 'and no +wonder, when mother keeps her cooped up in one room, without enough +fresh air, and lets nobody see her except the family and the doctor, for +fear they will excite her. She knows nothing about the diamonds, nor +that Jerrie is sick. I did tell her, though, that you had come home; +and, by Jove! I pretty near forgot it. She wants to see you bad; but, +Lord! mother won't let you in. No use to try. She's like a she-wolf +guarding its cub. Good-night.' + +And Tom walked away, while Harold went back to the cottage, where he +found Jerrie sleeping very quietly, with a look on her face so like that +it had worn in her babyhood, when he called her his little girl, that he +involuntarily stooped down and kissed it as one would kiss a beautiful +baby. + +The next morning Jerrie was very restless, and talked wildly of the +Tramp House and the diamonds, insisting that they were hers and must be +brought to her. + +'Why did you tell her about them?' Mrs. Crawford asked, reproachfully. + +But Harold did not reply, his mind was so torn with distracting doubts +as to whether he ought to take the western trip or not. + +If he went, he must go at once, and to leave Jerrie in her present state +seemed impossible. He would consult the physician first, and Judge St. +Claire next. The doctor gave it as his opinion that Jerrie was in no +danger, if she were only kept quiet. She had taken a severe cold and +overtaxed her strength, while most likely she had inherited from some +one a tendency to be flighty when anything was the matter, and he +thought Harold might venture to leave her. + +'Yes, I'd go if I were you,' he added, looking intently at the young +man; for, like Billy, he too thought it might be pleasanter for him to +be out of the way for a time, although he did not say so. + +And this was the view the judge took of it, after a few moments' +conversation. His first question had been: + +'Well, my boy, can you tell me now who gave them to you?' + +'No, I can't,' was Harold's reply; and then, acting upon a sudden +impulse, he burst out impetuously: 'Yes, I will tell you, for I can +trust you, and I want your advice so badly.' + +So he repeated rapidly all he knew, and his theory with regard to +Arthur, whom he wished so much to find, and of Billy's proposition that +he should go on his business to Tacoma. For a few moments the judge +seemed perplexed and undecided, for he was balancing in his mind the +pros and cons for going from the people, or staying to face them. If he +stayed he might have some unpleasant things to bear and hear, for there +were those who would talk, in spite of their protestations of the young +man's innocence; while to go might look like running away from the +storm, with the matter unexplained. On the whole, however, he decided +that it was better to go. + +'Jerrie's interests are safe with me,' he said, 'and by the time you +return everything will be explained; but find Mr. Tracy as soon as +possible. I am inclined to think your theory with regard to him +correct.' + +So it was decided that Harold should go, and the next night was +appointed for him to start. Had he known that Peterkin, and even Mrs. +Tracy, were each in his or her own way insinuating that he was running +from public opinion, nothing could have induced him to leave. But he did +not know it, and went about his preparations with as brave a heart as he +could command under the circumstances. Jerrie was more quiet now, though +every effort on his part to learn anything from her concerning the +diamonds brought on a fit of raving, when she would insist that the +jewels were hers, and must be brought to her at once. + +'But you told me they were Mrs. Tracy's,' he said to her once. + +With a cunning gleam in her eyes, she replied: + +'So they are, or were; but oh, how little you know!' + +And this was all he could get from her. + +He told her he was going away, but that did not seem to affect her, and +she only began to talk of Maude, who, she said, must not be harmed. + +'Have you seen her? have you seen her?' she kept saying. + +'Not yet,' he replied, 'but I am going to say good-bye;' and on the day +of his departure he went to the Park House and asked if he could see +Maude. + +'Of course not,' was Mrs. Tracy's prompt reply, when the request was +taken to her. 'No one sees her, and I certainly shall not allow him to +enter her room.' + +'But, Dolly,' Frank began, protestingly, but was cut short by the lady, +who said: + +'You needn't "Dolly" me, or try to take his part, either. I have my +opinion, and always shall. He cannot see Maude, and you may tell him +so,' turning now to the servant who had brought Harold's message, and +who softened it as much as possible. + +Harold had half expected a refusal, and was prepared for it. Taking a +card from his pocket, he wrote upon it: + + 'DEAR MAUDE,--I am going away for a few weeks, and am very sorry + that I cannot see you; but your mother knows best, of course, and I + must not do anything to make you worse. I shall think of you very + often, and hope to find you much better when I return. + + 'HAROLD.' + +'Will you give this to her?' he said to the girl, who answered that she +would, and who, of course, read every word before she took it to her +young mistress, late in the afternoon, while the family were at dinner, +and she was left in charge of the invalid. + +'Mr. Hastings sent you this,' she said, handing the card to Maude, into +whose face the bright color rushed, but left it instantly as she read +the few hurried lines. + +'Going away! Gone! and I didn't see him!' she exclaimed, regardless of +consequences. 'And mother did it. I know she did. I _will_ talk till I +spit blood; then see what she'll say!' she continued, as the frightened +girl tried to stop her, and as she could not, ran for Mrs. Tracy, who +came in much alarm, asking what was the matter. + +'You sent Harold away. You didn't let him see me, and he is--' + +Maude gasped, but could get no farther, for the paroxysm of coughing +which came on, together with a hemorrhage which made her so weak that +they thought her dying all night, she lay so white, and still, and +insensible, save at times when her lips moved, and her mother, bending +over her, heard her whisper: + +'Send for Harold.' + +But it was too late now; the train had come and gone, and taken Harold +with it, away from the girl _he_ loved and from, the girls who loved him +so devotedly, and both of whom, for a few days after his departure, went +down very near to the gates of death, and whose first enquiry, when they +at last came back to life and consciousness, was for Harold and why he +stayed away. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +JERRIE CLEARS HAROLD. + + +The next day two items of news went like wildfire through the little +town of Shannondale--the first, set afloat by Peterkin and helped on by +Mrs. Tracy, that Harold had run away from public opinion, which was fast +turning against him since he could not explain where he found the +diamonds; and the second, that both Maude Tracy and Jerrie Crawford were +at the point of death, which made Harold's sudden departure all the more +heinous in the eyes of his enemies; for what but conscious guilt could +have prompted him to leave his sister, who, it was said, was calling for +him with every breath, and charging him with having taken the diamonds? +Now, this was false; for although Jerrie's fever had increased rapidly +during the night, and her babbling was something terrible to hear, there +was in it no accusation of Harold, although she was constantly talking +to him, and asking for the diamonds and the bag. + +'It is a pity he ever told her about them,' the doctor said, as twice +each day, morning and night, for four successive days, he came and +looked upon her fever-stained cheeks, and counted her rapid pulse, and +took her temperature, and listened to her strange talk; and then, with a +shake of his head, drove over to Tracy Park and stood by poor little +Maude's couch, and looked into her death-white face, and counted her +faint heartbeats, and tried in vain to find some word of encouragement +for the stricken man, who looked about as much like death as the young +girl so dear to him. And every morning, on his way from the cottage to +Tracy Park, the doctor saw under the pines two young men, Tom and Dick, +seated upon the iron bench each whittling a bit of pine, which one was +unconsciously fashioning into a cross and the other into a grave-stone. + +Tom had found Dick there working at his cross, and, after a simple +good-morning, had sat down beside him and whittled in silence upon +another bit of wood until the doctor appeared on his way to Tracy Park. +Then the whittling ceased, and both young men arose, and, going forward, +asked how Jerrie was. + +'Pretty bad. Hal oughtn't to have gone, though I told him there was no +danger. We must telegraph if she gets worse,' was the reply, as the +doctor rode on. + +Tom and Dick separated, and saw no more of each other until the next +morning, when they went again, and whittled in silence under the pines +until the doctor came in sight, when the same questions were asked and +answered as on the previous day. + +Billy never joined them, but sat under the butternut tree where Jerrie +had refused him, for hours and hours watching the sluggish river, and +wondering what the world would be to him if Jerrie were not in it. Had +Billy been with Tom and Dick, he could not have whittled as they did, +for all the nerve power had left his hands, which lay helplessly in his +lap, and when he walked he looked more like a withered old man than a +young one of twenty-seven. + +Maude was the first to rally--her first question for Harold, her second +for Jerrie--and her father, who was with her, answered truthfully that +Harold had not returned, and that Jerrie was sick and could not come to +her. He did not say how sick, and Maude felt no alarm, but waited +patiently until Jerrie should appear. For Maude, on her brass bedstead +with its silken hangings, and every possible luxury around her, there +were hired nurses and a mother's care, with many kind inquiries, while +it would seem as if every hand in town was stretched out to Jerrie, who +was a general favorite. Flowers and fruit and delicacies of every kind +were sent to the cottage, carriage after carriage stopped before the +door, offer after offer of assistance was made to Mrs. Crawford, while +Nina and Marian Raymond were there constantly; and Billy went to +Springfield for a chair in which to wheel his sister to the cottage, for +she could not yet mount into the dog-cart; and Tom and Dick whittled on +until the cross and the grave-stone were finished, and, with a sickly +smile, Tom said to Dick: + +'Would you cut Jerrie's name upon it?' + +'No; oh, no!' Dick answered, with a gasp. 'She may be better to-morrow.' + +When, after a few days, the crisis was past, and Jerrie's strong +constitution triumphed over the disease which had grappled with it, the +whole town wore a holiday air as the people said to each other gladly: +'Jerrie is better; Jerrie will live!' + +Her recovery was rapid, and within a week after the fever left her and +she awoke to perfect consciousness, she was able to sit up a part of +every day, and had walked across the floor and read a letter from Harold +to his grandmother, full of solicitude for herself and enthusiasm for +his trip over the wild mountains and across the vast plains to the +lovely little city of Tacoma, built upon a cliff and looking seaward +over the sound. + +'Dear Harold,' Jerrie whispered. 'I shall be so glad when he comes home. +Nothing can be done till then, and I am so bewildered when I try to +think.' + +In her weak state, everything seemed unreal to Jerrie, except the fact +that she had found her mother--and such a mother!--and many times each +day she thanked her God who had brought her this unspeakable joy, and +asked that she might do right when the time came to act. She knew the +bag was safe, for she had climbed to the top shelf and found it just +where she had put it. But where were the diamonds? Had Harold taken them +with him? Had he told any one? Did his grandmother know anything about +them? she wondered. She tried in many ways to draw Mrs. Crawford out, +but was unsuccessful, for there were now too much pain and bitterness +connected with the diamonds for Mrs. Crawford to speak to her of them. +The poisonous breath of gossip had been at work ever since Harold went +away, quietly aided and abetted by Mrs. Tracy, who never failed to roll +her eyes and shrug her shoulders when Harold's name was mentioned, and +openly pushed on by Peterkin, until Tom Tracy went to him one day and +threatened to have him tarred and feathered and ridden on a rail, if he +ever breathed Harold's name again in connection with the diamonds. + +'Wall, I swow!' was all Peterkin said, as he put an enormous quid of +tobacco in his mouth, and walked away, thinking to himself, 'Twould take +an all-fired while to scrape them tar and feathers off of me, I'm so +big, and I b'lieve the feller meant it. Them high bucks wouldn't like no +better fun than to make a spectacle of me; so I guess I'll dry up a +spell.' + +But the trouble did not stop with Peterkin's talk, for a neighboring +Sunday paper, which fed its readers with all the choicest bits of +gossip, came out with an article headed 'The Tracy Diamonds,' and after +narrating the story in the most garbled and sensational manner, went on +to comment upon the young man's having run away, rather than face public +opinion, and to comment upon the law which could not touch him because +the offence was committed so long ago. + +One after another, and without either knowing that the other had done +so, Tom, and Dick, and Billy, waited upon the editor of the Sunday +_News_, threatening to sue him for libel if he did not retract every +word of the offensive article in his next issue, which he did. But the +mischief was done, and the paper found its way at last to Jerrie, sent +unwittingly by Ann Eliza, who covered it over a basket of fruit and +flowers which was carried one afternoon to the cottage. + +Jerrie had been down stairs several times, but was in her room when the +basket was brought to her. Raising the paper, she was about to throw it +on the floor, when her eye caught the words, 'The Tracy Diamonds,' and +with bloodless lips and wildly beating heart she read the article +through, understanding the situation perfectly, and resolving at once +how to act. It seemed to her that she was lifted above and out of +herself, she felt so strong, and light, and well, as she threw on her +bonnet and shawl, and taking the leather bag in her hand, hurried down +stairs in quest of Mrs. Crawford. + +'Grandma!' she exclaimed, 'why haven't you told me about Harold, and the +suspicion resting on him, and why did you let him go until I was better, +and what are the people saying? Tell me everything.' + +Jerrie would not be put off, and Mrs. Crawford told her everything she +knew, and that she herself had added to the mystery by the strange +things she had said in her delirium about the diamonds, which she +insisted were hers. + +'And they are mine!' Jerrie said, while Mrs. Crawford looked at her in +alarm, for her madness had returned. + +'Where are you going?' she gasped, as Jerrie turned toward the door. + +'To Tracy Park, to claim my own and clear Harold!' was the reply. 'When +I come back I will tell you all, but now I cannot wait.' + +'But, Jerrie, you are not strong enough to walk there, and besides they +have company this afternoon, some kind of a new-fangled card party, and +you must not go,' Mrs. Crawford said. + +'I have the strength of twenty horses,' Jerrie said, 'and if they have +company, so much the better, for there will be more to hear my story. +Good-bye.' + +She was off like an arrow, and went almost upon a run through the leafy +woods until the house was reached, and then she stopped a moment to take +breath and look about her. How very fair and beautiful it was, that home +of the Tracys, and Jerrie's heart beat so hard that she felt for a +moment as if she were choking to death as she sat under a maple tree and +tried to think it all over, to make sure there was no mistake. Opening +the box she took out two documents, and read them again as she had the +night she was taken sick. One was a certificate of marriage, the other +of a birth and baptism; there was no mistake. + +Holding the papers in one hand and the bag in the other, she went on to +the house, from which shouts of laughter were issuing, Nina's voice, and +Marian's, and Tom's, and Dick's, and Mrs. Tracy's. Jerrie shuddered a +little when she heard that, for it brought back to her mind all the +slights she had received from that woman who was so cruel to Harold, and +the pity which had been springing up in her heart ever since she looked +up at the windows of Maude's room and thought of the white-faced girl +lying there, died out, and it was more a Nemesis than a gentle, +forgiving woman who walked boldly into the hall and entered unbidden at +the drawing-room door. + +Mrs. Tracy was having a progressive euchre party that afternoon. A +friend in Boston had written her about it, and, proud to be the first to +introduce it in Shannondale, she stood, flushed and triumphant, with the +restored diamonds in her ears and at her throat, laughing merrily with +the others at Judge St. Claire, who had won the booby prize--a little +drum, as something he could beat--and who, with a perplexed look in his +face, was staring at the thing as if he did not quite get the joke. + +Apart from the rest, Frank Tracy sat looking on, though with no apparent +interest in the matter. He had joined in the game because his wife told +him he must, and had borne meekly her sarcastic remarks when he trumped +her ace and ordered up on nothing. His thoughts were not with the cards, +but up stairs with Maude, who seemed to be much better, and for whom +there was constantly a prayer in his heart. + +'Spare her, and I will make reparation; I will tell the truth.' + +He was trying to bribe the Lord to hear him, and there was some such +thought in his mind when he saw Jerrie in the door--tall, thin, and +white from her recent sickness, with eyes which rolled, and shone, and +flashed as Arthur's did sometimes, and falling at last upon Mrs. Tracy, +where they rested with an intensity which must have drawn that lady's +notice to her, if Frank had not exclaimed, as he rose to his feet: + +'Jerrie! How did you get here?' + +Then all turned and looked at her, and crowded around her with +exclamations of surprise and inquiries as to how she got there. + +For a moment Jerrie stood like one in a catalepsy, with no power to move +or speak, but when Mrs. Tracy came forward, and in her iciest tones said +to her: 'Good-afternoon, Miss Crawford. To what am I indebted for this +unexpected pleasure?' her faculties came back, her tongue was loosened, +and she replied in a clear voice, which rang through the room like a +bell, and was, indeed, the knell to all the lady's greatness: + +'I am here to claim my own, and to clear Harold from the foul suspicion +heaped upon him--by whom, at first, I do not know, but it was helped on +by you. I have seen the paper, have heard the whole from grandma, and am +here to defend him. It was I who gave him the diamonds! It was for me he +kept silent, and let you think what you would.' + +'You gave him the diamonds?' Mrs. Tracy repeated, as one by one all the +members of the party, even the judge and Tom, gathered close to her in +their astonishment. 'You gave him the diamonds! You! and have come to +confess yourself a--' + +She never finished the sentence, for something in Jerrie's face +frightened her, while her husband, who had come forward, laid his hand +warningly upon her arm. + +So absorbed were they all that no one saw the little white-robed girl, +who, they supposed, was lying up stairs in her room, but who at the +sound of Jerrie's voice had, in her eagerness to see her, crept down the +stairs, and now stood in the door-way opposite to Jerrie, her large, +bright eyes looking in wonder upon the scene, and her ears listening +intently to what was as new to her as it had been to Jerrie an hour ago. + +'Don't give me the name you have more than once given to Harold,' Jerrie +said, as with a gesture she silenced Mrs. Tracy. 'The diamonds are mine, +not yours. Can one steal his own?' + +'Yours! Your diamonds! What do you mean?' Mrs. Tracy asked. + +'They were my mother's,' Jerrie replied, 'and she sent them to me.' + +They all thought her crazy except Frank, to whom there had come a horrid +presentiment of the truth, and who had clutched hard his wife's arm as +she said questioningly, in a mocking, aggravating tone: + +'And your mother was--?' + +Then Jerrie stepped into the room, and stood in their midst like a queen +among her subjects as she answered: + +'My mother was Marguerite Heinrich, of Wiesbaden, better known to you as +Gretchen; and my father is Arthur Tracy, and I am their lawful child. It +is so written here,' and she held up the papers and the bag; 'I am +Jerrie Tracy!' + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + +WHAT FOLLOWED. + + +'Thank God that it is out! I couldn't have borne it much longer,' leaped +involuntarily from Frank's lips. + +No one heard it save Jerrie, and she scarcely heeded it then; for with +one bound, as it seemed to the petrified spectators, who divided right +and left to let her pass, she reached the opposite door-way, and +stooping over the little figure lying there so still, lifted it +tenderly, and carrying it up stairs, laid it down in the room it would +never leave again until other hands than hers carried it out and laid +it away in the Tracy lot, where only Jack and the dark woman were lying +now. + +Maude had heard all Jerrie was saying, and understood it, too; and at +the words, 'I am Jerrie Tracy,' she felt an electric thrill pass over +her, like what she had experienced when watching the acting in some +great tragedy; then all was darkness, and she knew no more until Jerrie +was bending over her and she heard her mother saying: + +'Leave her to me, Miss Crawford. You have done harm enough for one day. +You have killed my daughter!' + +'No!' Maude cried, exerting all her strength. 'She has not hurt me. She +must not go, I want her; for if what she said is true, she is my own +cousin. Oh, Jerrie, I am so glad!' and throwing her arms around Jerrie's +neck, Maude sobbed convulsively. + +As yet Maude saw only the good which had come to her, if the news were +true; the evil had not yet been presented to her, and she clung tightly +to Jerrie, who, nearly distraught herself, did not know what to do. She +knew that Mrs. Tracy looked upon her as an intruder, and possibly a +liar; but she cared little for that lady's opinion. She only thought of +Frank and what he would say. + +Lifting up her head at last from the pillow where she had lain it for a +moment, while Maude's thin little hands caressed the golden hair, she +saw him standing at the foot of the bed, taller, straighter than she had +seen him in years, with a look on his face which she knew was not +adverse to herself. + +'Jerrie,' he said, slowly and thickly, for something choked his speech, +'I can't tell you now all I feel, only I am glad for you and Arthur, but +gladder for myself.' + +What did he mean? Jerrie wondered; while Maude's eyes sought his +questioningly, and his wife said, sharply: + +'You are talking like a lunatic! Do you propose to give up so easily to +a girl's bare word! Let Jerrie prove it, before she is mistress here.' + +Then into Maude's eyes there crept a look of terror and pain, and she +whispered: + +'Yes, Jerrie, prove it. There were papers in your hand, and a bag, and +you said, "It is so written here." Bring the papers and read them to +us--here in this room. I can bear it. I must hear them. I must know.' +'Better let her have her way,' Frank said; and Dolly could have knocked +him down, he spoke so cheerfully; while Jerrie answered: + +'I can't read them myself aloud. They are written in German.' + +'But Marian can. I saw her there. Let them all come up; they will have +to know,' Maude persisted. + +After a moment, during which a powerful tonic had been given to his +daughter, Frank went down to his guests, who were eagerly discussing the +strange story, which not one of them doubted in the least. + +In her haste to reach Maude, Jerrie had dropped the bag and the two +papers, which Judge St. Claire picked up and held for a moment in his +hand; then passing the papers to Marian, he said: + +'It can be no secret now, and Jerrie will not care. What do the papers +contain?' + +Running her eyes rapidly over them, Marian said: + +'The first is a certificate of marriage between Arthur Tracy and +Marguerite Heinrich, who were married October 20th, 18--, in the English +church at Wiesbaden, by the Rev. Mr. Eaton, then the officiating +clergyman. The second is a certificate of the birth and baptism of +Jerrine, daughter of Arthur and Marguerite Tracy, who was born at +Wiesbaden, January 1st, 18--, and christened January 8th, 18--, by the +Rev. Mr. Eaton.' + +Then a deep silence fell upon the group, while Tom stood like one +paralyzed. He understood the situation perfectly, and knew that if +Jerrie was mistress there, he could never hope to be master. + +'May as well evacuate at once,' he said at last, with an attempt to +smile as he walked slowly out of the house, which he felt was his +inheritance no longer. + +Just then Frank came down, saying that Maude insisted upon knowing what +was in the papers which Marian was to read, while the others were to +come up and listen. He did not seem at all like a man who had lost +anything, but bustled about cheerily; and when the judge said to him +apologetically, 'We know the contents of two of the papers. They are +certificates of the marriage of Arthur with Gretchen, and of Jerrie's +birth. I hope you don't mind if we read them,' he answered, briskly. + +'Not at all--not in the least. Arthur and Gretchen! I thought so. Where +is Tom? He must hear the papers.' + +He found his son under the true where he had been sitting the morning +when Jerrie came near fainting there, and in his hand was a curious bit +of pine finished like a grave-stone--the same he had whittled under the +pines, and on which he was now carving, 'Euchred, August --, 18--.' + +'This is the monument to our downfall,' he said, as his father came up +to him with something so pitiful in his face and voice that Frank gave +way suddenly, and, sitting down beside him, laid his hand upon his tall +son's head and cried for a moment like a child, while Tom's chin +quivered, and he was mortally afraid there was something like tears in +his own eyes, and he meant to be so brave and not show that he was hurt. + +'I am sorry for you, my boy,' Frank said at last, 'but glad for +Jerrie--so glad--and she will not be hard on us.' + +'I shall ask no favors of her. I can stand it if you can, though money +is a good thing to have.' + +And then, without in the least knowing why, he thought of Ann Eliza, and +wondered how her ankle was getting along, and if he ought not to have +called upon her again. + +'Marian is going to read the papers in Maude's room, and I have come for +you,' Frank said. + +'I don't care to hear them,' Tom replied. 'I am satisfied that we are +beggars, and Jerrie the heiress.' + +But Frank insisted, and Tom went with him to his sister's room, followed +by their friends, for whom the dinner was waiting and spoiling in the +kitchen, where as yet no hint of what was transpiring had reached, save +the fact that Maude had been down stairs and fainted. She was propped +upon pillows scarcely whiter than her face save where two crimson spots +burned brightly, and her eyes were fixed constantly upon Jerrie, who sat +beside her, holding her cold, clammy hands, which she occasionally +patted, and kissed and caressed. + +'Where did you find the bag?' the judge asked; and then Jerrie narrated +the particulars of her interview with Peterkin, whose destruction of the +table had resulted in her finding the bag with the diamonds in it. +'They were mother's,' she said, the last words almost a sob, as she +turned her eyes upon Mrs. Tracy, who stood like a block of stone, with +no sympathy or credulity upon her face. 'Father bought them for her at +the same time with Mrs. Tracy's, which they are exactly like. It is so +written in her letter. And she sent them for me. They are mine and I +gave them to Harold to keep untill I could think what to do. The +diamonds are mine.' + +She was still looking at Mrs. Tracy, on whom all eyes were now resting +as the precious stones flashed, and glittered, and shone in the sunlight +in the hall in all the colors of the rainbow. + +For an instant the proud woman hesitated, then, quickly unclasping the +ear-rings and the pin, she laid them in Jerrie's lap. + +'You are welcome to your property, if it is yours, I am sure,' she said, +and was about to leave the room. + +But her husband kept her back. + +'No, Dolly,' he said. 'You must stay, and hear, and know. It concerns us +all.' + +As he had closed the door and stood against it she had no alternative +except to stay, but she walked to the window and stood with her back to +them all, while Marian put into English and read, in a clear, distinct +voice, and without the least hesitation, that message from the dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +THE LETTERS. + + +There were four of them--two in Arthur's handwriting: one directed to +Mrs. Arthur Tracy, Wiesbaden, postmarked Liverpool; one to Margaret +Heinrich, Wiesbaden, postmarked Shannondale; one in a strange +handwriting to Arthur Tracy, if living; and one to Arthur Tracy's +friends if he were dead, or incapable of understanding it. And it was +this last which Marian read; for as Arthur was living, she felt that +with his letters strangers had nothing to do. The letter to the friends, +which had evidently been written at intervals, as the writer's strength +would permit, was as follows: + + 'WIESBADEN, December ----, 18--, + + 'To the friends of Mr. Arthur Tracy, if he is dead, or incapable of + understanding this letter, from his wife, who was Marguerite + Heinrich, and whom he always called Gretchen. + + 'I want to tell you about it for the sake of my little Jerrie, whom, + if her father is dead, I give to your care, praying God to deal with + you as you are good and just to her. I was seventeen when I first + saw Mr. Tracy. My father was dead. I was an only child, and my + mother kept a little fancy shop in Wiesbaden. I went to school and + learned what other girls like me learned--to read and write, and + knit and sew, and fear God and keep His commandments. People called + me pretty. I don't know that I was, but he told me so when he came + to me one day as I was knitting under a tree in the park. He had a + picture made of me as I was then, and it is on the wall, but I have + pawned it for the rent, as I have almost everything.' + +'Oh, Jerrie!' Marian exclaimed at this point. + +But Jerrie's face was buried in Maude's pillow and she made no response. +So Marian read on: + + 'He came many times, for I was always there waiting for him, I am + afraid; but when he said he loved me, and wanted me for his wife I + could not believe it, he was so grand, so like nobility, and I so + poor and plain. Then mother died suddenly--oh, so suddenly--well + to-day--dead to-morrow--with cholera, and I was left alone. + + '"Gretchen we must he married now," he said to me, the night after + the funeral; and I answered him, "yes, we must be married;" and we + were, the next day, in the little English Church, by Mr. Eaton, the + pastor. You will find the certificate with the other papers. Do you + ever remember a beautiful moonlight night, when the air was soft, + and warm, and sweet with many summer flowers, and there was music in + the distance, and heaven seemed so near that you could almost touch + the blue lining which separates it from us? Well, just like that was + my life with Arthur for a few months. Oh, how I loved him, and how + he loved me! It frightened me sometimes, he was so fierce and--I + don't know what the word is--so something in his love. He never left + me a moment. He couldn't, he said, for I was his balance-wheel, and + without me he was lost. I think now he was crazy then. I know he was + afterward when he did such queer things and forgot so + often--sometimes the house we lived in, sometimes his own name, and + at last, me, his Gretchen! That was so sad, when he went away, and + stayed away for weeks, and said he had forgotten. But he was sorry, + too, and made it up, and for ten day heaven came down again so I + could touch it; then he went away and I have never seen him since. + + 'You must excuse me, his friends--if I stop a little while to cry; + it makes me no lonesome to think of the long years--four and + more--which have been buried with the yesterdays, under the flowers, + and under the snow, since Arthur went away and left me all alone. If + I had told him, he might have come back, he was so fond of children; + but I was not sure, and would not tell a lie, and let him go without + a hint. I wrote him once I had something to tell him when he came + which would make him glad, as it did me, and he never replied to it, + though he wrote two or three times more, and sent me money, but did + not tell me where he was, only he was being cured, he said--that was + all. In January my baby was born, and I had her christened Jerrine, + by Mr. Eaton. You will find it among the papers. Then, how I longed + for him, and waited, and watched; but he never came, and I knew he + had forgotten; but I did not doubt his love, or that he would one + day come back; and I tried to improve myself and learn what was in + books, so I could mate with him better when he came home, which he + never did; and the years went on, and my little Jerrine grew more + lovely every day. She is standing by me now, and says, "Are you + writing to him?" + + 'Darling Jerrie, you will be kind to her, won't you, for his sake, + and for me, too, who will be dead when you yet this?' + +Jerrie was sobbing now, and Maude's arm was around her neck, while Frank +had walked to a window, and, like his wife, was looking out upon the +lawn, which he did not see for the tears which filled his eyes. + + 'When the money stopped,' the letter went on, 'we grew so poor, + Jerrie and I and Nannine--that is the French woman who lives with me + and whom Jerrie calls Mah-nee. She will bring my child to you when I + am dead; and oh, be kind to her, for a truer, more faithful woman + never lived. She is such a comfort to me, except when she scolds + about Arthur and calls him a _bête noire_, which he is not, as you + will see. He was shut up, I don't know where, but think it was where + they put people with bad heads, and he forget everything till he was + out, and as far as Paris on his way to America. Then he remembered + and wrote me from Liverpool such a letter--full of love and sorrow + for the past, and sent me such lovely diamonds, just like those he + had bought for his sister in America, he said--and he was going home + at such a date on the Scotia, and he wished me to join him in + Liverpool. I send the letter with this to prove that I write true. + But it was too late, for I was too weak to travel; neither could I + write to him, for he gave me no address. 'That was last September, + and I have been dying ever since, for my heart broke when I thought + of what was and what might have been could I have found him. The + money he sent me then I am saving for Nannine and Jerrie to take + them to America when I am dead. All the days and nights I prayed + that Arthur might remember and write me again, and God heard, and he + did; and five days ago I received his letter. So crazy it was, but + just as full of love and tenderness and a desire to see me. He told + me of his lovely home and the Gretchen room, where my picture is in + the window; and in case there should be no one to meet me at the + station when I arrived he sent me directions how to find Tracy Park, + and told me just what to do when I reached New York. He would come + for me himself, he said, only the sea made him so sick and he was + afraid he should forget everything if he did. But you will see in + his letter what he wrote and how fond he was of me; and if he is + alive and too crazy to understand now, tell him, when he is better, + how I loved him and prayed for him every hour that God would bring + him, at last, where I am going so soon. Nannine will take him my + Bible, with passages marked by me, and a photograph which I had + taken a year ago, and which will tell you how I looked then. Now I + am so thin and pale that Arthur would hardly know me. I send, too, a + lock of Jerrie's hair, cut when she was three weeks old. Darling + Jerrie! She is such a comfort to me, and so old and womanly for her + years! She will remember much of our life here, for she notices + everything and understands it, too, and goes over, as in a play, + what she sees and hears. + + 'We have been cold and hungry sometimes; but not often; the + neighbors are so kind; and when I am dead they will see that Nannine + is made ready for America, with Jerrie; and the papers, and the + diamonds, which I might have pawned when our need was greatest, but + I could not. I must save them for Jerrie, and may she wear them some + day, and many days in the years to come, when her mother is dust and + ashes in the ground, but a glorified spirit in Paradise, where I + shall watch over her, and, if I can, be with her often, and keep + myself in her mind, so that she will never forget my face or the old + home in Germany. + + 'God bless my little daughter, and make her a true, noble woman; and + God bless you, Arthur's friends, who read this, and incline you to + be kind and just to Jerrie, and see that she has her own; for there + must be money at Tracy Park; and if you are poor and Jerrie comes + rich, tell her from her mother to be kind to you, and give as you + have given to her. Now I must stop, I am so tired, and it is growing + dark, and Nannie has opened the stove door to let the light fall on + the paper in my lap, and Jerrie is standing by me and says, "Are you + going to God pretty soon?" + + 'Yes, darling, very soon--to-night, perhaps, or to-morrow, or when + He will. The air grows cold, the night is coming on, my eyes grow + dim, my head is tired. I think, yes, I think it will be to-morrow. + + 'Good-bye. + + 'GRETCHEN TRACY.' + +As she finished reading Marian arose, and going up to Jerrie kissed her +lovingly and said to her in German: + +'That was your mother's picture in our old home in Wiesbaden. I am so +glad for you.' + +A low sob was Jerrie's reply, and then Judge St. Claire asked: + +'Is that all?' + +'Yes,' Marian said; 'All except Mr. Tracy's letters to Gretchen. Oh, +no,' she added; 'there is something more;' and feeling in the bag, she +drew out two small papers, one crumpled and worn, as if it had been +often referred to, the other folded neatly and tied with a white ribbon. + +This Marian opened first, and found it to be a certificate, written in +English, to the effect that Mrs. Arthur Tracy, _née_ Marguerite +Heinrich, died at such a date and was buried by the Rev. Mr. Bellows, +the resident rector of the English church; the other was in Arthur's +handwriting, and the directions he had written to his wife, as to what +she was to do and how to find Tracy Park. + +'Yes,' Judge St. Claire said, coming forward and taking the paper from +her hand, 'this is what the station-master saw the poor woman examining +that night in the storm. She probably dropped it into the bag without +stopping to fold it. There can be no doubt.' + +Then a deep silence reigned for a moment in the room, until Mrs. Tracy, +who, all through the reading had stood like a block of granite by the +window, turned and walking swiftly up to Jerrie, said, in a bitter tone: + +'Of course there is no mistake. I do not doubt that you are mistress +here, and am ready to leave at once. Shall we pack up and quit +to-night?' + +'Dolly!' 'Mother!' came angrily and sternly from both Tom and Frank, and +'Oh, mamma, please,' came faintly from Maude, while Jerrie lifted up her +head, and looking steadily at the cruel woman, said: + +'Why are you so hard with me? I cannot help it. I am not to blame. I +mean to do right; only wait--a little. I am so sick now--so dizzy and +blind. Oh, somebody lead me out where I can breathe. I am choking here.' + +It was Tom who reached her first, and passing his arm around her, took +her into the open air and to a seat under the tree where once before she +had almost fainted, as she did now, with her head upon his shoulder, for +he put it there, and then pushed her hair back from her face as he said +lightly: + +'Don't take it so hard; if we can stand it, you can!' + +Then Jerrie straightened up and said: + +'Oh, Tom, do you want to kill me now?' + +'What do you mean?' he asked, and she replied: + +'Don't you know you said under the pines that you would kill any +claimant to Tracy Park who might appear against you?' + +'I remember it,' Tom said, 'but I didn't think then that the claimant +would be Jerrie, my cousin,' and he put his arm around her as he +continued: 'I can't say that I am not awfully cut up to be turned neck +and heels out of what I believed would be my own, but if it must be, I +am glad it is you who do it, for I know you'll not be hard upon us, or +let Uncle Arthur be, even if mother is so mean. Remember, Jerrie, that I +loved you and asked you to be my wife when I believed you poor and +unknown.' + +Tom was very politic and was speaking good words for himself, but all +the good there was in him seemed now to be on the surface and while +inwardly rebelling at his misfortune, he felt a thrill of joy in knowing +that Jerrie was his cousin, and would not be hard upon him. + +'Shall we go back to the house?' he said at last, and they went back, +meeting the people upon the piazza, where they stopped for a moment +while Jerrie's hands were shaken, and she was kissed and congratulated +that at last the mystery was cleared, and her rights restored to her. + +'Mr. Arthur Tracy ought to be here,' Judge St. Claire said. + +'Yes, I'd thought of that,' Tom replied, first, 'and shall telegraph him +to-morrow,' + +Then they said good night, and without going in to see either Mr. or +Mrs. Tracy again, Tom and Jerry walked slowly toward the cottage, +through the leafy woods, where the trees met in graceful arches +overhead, and the moonlight fell in silver flecks upon the grass, and +the summer air was odorous and sweet with the smell of the pines and the +balm of Gilead trees scattered here and there. It was a lovely place, +and Tom thought so with a keen sense of pain, as, after leaving Jerrie +at her gate, he walked slowly back until he reached the four pines, +where he sat down to think and wonder what he should do as a poor man, +with neither business nor prospects. + +'I don't suppose the governor has laid up much,' he said, 'for since +Uncle Arthur came home he has done very little business, and has spent +what really was his own recklessly and without a thought of saving, he +was so sure to have enough at last, and Uncle Arthur was so free to give +us what we asked for. But that will end when he knows he has a daughter, +and as he never fancied me much, I shall either have to beg, or work, or +starve, or marry a rich wife, which is not so easy for a poor dog to do. +I don't suppose that Governor's daughter would look at me now, nor +anyone else who is anybody. By George, I ought to have called on Ann +Eliza before this time. I wonder if it's too late to go there now. I +believe I'll walk round there anyway, and if I see a light, I'll go in, +and if old _paterfamilias_--how I'd like to kick him--is there, I'll +tell him the news, and that I know now he did not strike Jerrie with the +table-leg, and perhaps I'll apologize for what I said when in the car. +Tom Tracy, you are a scoundrel, and no mistake,' he added, with energy, +as he arose, and struck into the field, through which he had dragged Ann +Eliza the night of the storm. + +There were lights at Le Bateau, and Tom was soon shaking hands with old +_paterfamilias_, who was at home, and with Ann Eliza, who was now able +to come down stairs. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +ARTHUR. + + +He had enjoyed himself immensely, from the moment he first caught sight +of grand old Pike's Peak on the distant plains until he entered the city +of the Golden Gate, and, standing on the terrace of the Cliff House, +looked out upon the blue Pacific, with the sea lions disporting on the +rocks below. For he went there first, and then to China-town, and +explored every nook and corner, and opium den in it, and drank tea at +twenty dollars a pound in a high-toned restaurant, and visited the +theatre and the Joss House, and patronized the push-cars, as he called +them, every day, and experienced a wonderful exhilaration of spirits, as +he sat upon the front seat, with the fresh air blowing in his face, and +only the broad, steep street, lined with palaces, before him. + +'This is heaven! this clears the cobwebs!' he would say to Charles, who +sat beside him with chattering teeth and his coat-collar pulled high +about his ears, for the winds of San Francisco are cold even in the +summer. + +Arthur's first trip was to the Yosemite, taking the Milton route, and +meeting with the adventure he so much desired; for in the early morning, +between Chinese Camp and Priest's, the stage was suddenly stopped by two +masked marauders, one of whom stood at the horses' heads, while the +other confronted the terrified passengers with the blood-curling words: + +'Hands up, every soul of you!' + +And the hands went up from timid women and strong men, until click-dick +came in rapid succession from the driver's box, where Arthur sat, and +shot after shot followed each other, one bullet grazing the ear of the +highwayman at the horses' head, and another cutting through the slouched +hat of his comrade near the stage. + +'Leave, or I'll shoot you dead! I've five more shots in this one, and +two more revolvers in my pockets, and I'm not afraid!' Arthur yelled, +jumping about like a maniac, as for the time being he was, and so +startling the robbers that they fled precipitately, followed for a +little distance by Arthur, who leaped from the stage and started in +pursuit, with a revolver in each hand, and ball after ball flying ahead +of him as he ran. + +When at last he came back, the passengers flocked around him, grasping +his hands and blessing him as the preserver of their money, if not of +their lives. After that Arthur was a lion, whom all people in the valley +wished to see and talk with, and with whom the landlord bore as he had +never borne with a guest before, for Arthur found fault with the rooms, +which he likened to bath-tubs, and fault with the smells which came from +the river, and fault with the smoke in the parlour, but made ample +amends by the money he spent so lavishly, the scores of photographs he +bought, and the puffs he wrote for the San Francisco papers, extolling +the valley as the very gate of heaven, and the hotel as second only to +the Palace, and signing himself "Bumble Bees." + +He went on every trail, and started for the highest possible peak, and +when he stood on the top of old Capitan and looked down upon the world +below, he capered and shouted like a madman, singing at the top of his +voice, "Mine eye have seen the coming of the glory of the Lord, glory, +glory, hallelujah!" until the rocky gorges rang with the wild echoes +which went floating down the valley below, where the sun was shining so +brightly and the grass was growing so green. + +On his return to San Francisco after an absence of several weeks, he +took up his abode at the Palace Hotel, which he turned topsy-turvy with +his vagaries; but as in the valley, so here in the city, the landlord +could afford to bear much from one who spent his money so freely and +paid so lavishly; and so he was allowed to change rooms every day if he +liked, and half the plumbers in the city were called in to see what +caused the smells which he declared worse than anything he had ever met +in his life, and which were caused in part by the disinfectants which he +bought by the wholesale and kept in his bath room, his wash-room, and +under his bed, until the chambermaid tied her nose in camphor when she +went in to do her work. + +But his career was brought to a close suddenly one morning in August, +when, just as he was taking his coffee and rolls in his room, Charles +brought him the following telegram: + + 'Come immediately. There's the devil to pay. + + 'TOM TRACY.' + +Arthur read the message two or three times, not at all disturbed by it, +but vastly amused at its wording; then, putting it down, he went on with +his breakfast until it was finished, when he took a card from his pocket +and wrote upon it: + + 'Pay him then, for I sha'n't come. ARTHUR TRACY.' + +This was handed to Charles with instructions to forward it to Tracy +Park. This done, he gave no further thought to the message so full of +such import to himself, but began to talk of and plan his contemplated +trip to Tacoma by the next steamer which sailed. It was six o'clock when +he had his dinner in his own private parlour, where he was served by +both Charles and a waiter, and where a second telegram was brought him. + +'Confound it,' he said, 'have they nothing to do at home but to torment +me with telegrams? Didn't I tell them to pay the old Harry and have done +with it? What do they mean?' and putting the envelope down by his plate +he went quietly on with his dinner until he was through, when he took it +up, and, breaking the seal, read: + + 'Come at once. I need you. JERRIE.' + +That changed everything, and with a bound he was in the next room, +gesticulating fiercely, and ordering Charles to step lively and get +everything in readiness to start home on the first eastward bound train +which left San Francisco. + +'That rascally Tom is a liar,' he said. 'It's not the old Harry to pay. +It's Jerrie. Do you hear, it's Jerrie. Bring me some paper, quick, and +don't stand staring at me as if I were a lunatic. It's Jerrie who needs +me.' + +Charles brought the paper, on which his master wrote: + + 'Coming on the wings of the wind, Yours respectfully, + + 'ARTHUR TRACY.' + +In less than half an hour this singular message was flying along the +wires across the continent, and within a few hours Arthur was following +it as fast as the steam horse could take him. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +WHAT THEY WERE DOING AND HAD DONE IN SHANNONDALE. + + +If the earth had opened suddenly and swallowed up half the inhabitants +of Shannondale the other half could not have been more astonished than +they were at the news which Peterkin was the first to tell them, and +which he had risen very early to do, before some one else should be +before him. Irascible and quick-tempered as he was, he was easily +appeased, and the fact that Jerrie was Arthur Tracy's daughter changed +his opinion of her at once. + +'The biggest heiress in the county except my Ann 'Liza, and, by gum, I'm +glad on't for her and Arthur. I allus said she was hisen, and by George, +to think that I helped her into her fortin, for if I hadn't of knocked +that rotten old table down she'd of never found them memoirs,' he said +to the first person to whom he communicated the news, and then hurried +off to buttonhole and enlighten others, until everybody knew and was +discussing the strange story. + +Before noon scores of people had found it in their way to walk past the +cottage, hoping to catch sight of Jerrie, while several went in and told +her how glad they were for her and Mr. Arthur, and looked at her with +wondering eyes as if she were not quite the same girl they had known as +Jerrie Crawford. + +When, the previous night, Mrs. Crawford had listened to the story Jerrie +told her after her return from the Park House, she had been for a few +moments stupefied with amazement, and had sat motionless on her chair +until she felt Jerrie's soft hands upon her head smoothing her silvery +hair, and Jerrie's voice said to her: + +'Dear grandma, I told you your working days were over, and they are, for +what is mine is yours and Harold's, and my home is your home always, so +long as you live.' + +The poor old lady put her head upon Jerrie's arm and cried hysterically +for a moment; then she rallied, and brushing away her tears, kissed the +young girl who had been so much to her, and whom for a brief moment she +feared she might have lost. Far into the night they sat, talking of the +past and the future, and of Harold, who was in Tacoma, where he might +have to remain for three or four weeks longer. He had written several +times to his grandmother and once to Jerrie, but had made no mention of +the diamonds, while in her letters to him Mrs. Crawford had refrained +from telling him what some of the people were saying, and the +construction they were putting upon his absence. Jerrie had not yet +written to him, but, 'I shall to-morrow,' she said, 'and tell him to +hurry home, for I need him now, if ever.' + +Jerrie was very tired when she went at last to bed, but the dreamless +sleep which came upon her, and which lasted until a late hour in the +morning, did her good, and probably saved her from a relapse, which +might have proved fatal. Still she was very pale and weak when she went +down stairs about nine o'clock and found Tom waiting for her. He had +been up since sunrise, strolling through the park, with a troubled, +sorry look on his face for he was extremely sorry for himself, though +very glad for Jerrie, whose sworn ally he was and would be to the end. +In a way he had tried to comfort his mother by telling her that neither +his uncle nor Jerrie would be unjust to her, if she'd only behave +herself, and treat the latter as she ought, and not keep up such a high +and mighty and injured air, as if Jerrie had done something wrong in +finding out who she was. + +But Dolly would not be comforted, and her face wore a sullen, defiant +expression, as she moved about the handsome house where she had queened +it so long that she really looked upon it as her own, resenting bitterly +the thought that another was to be mistress there. She had talked with +her husband, and made him tell her exactly how much he was worth in his +own right, and when he told her how little it was, she had exclaimed, +angrily: + +'We are beggars, and may as well go back to Langley and sell codfish +again.' + +She had seen Tom that morning, and when to her question, 'Why are you up +so early?' he replied, 'To attend to Jerrie's affairs,' she tossed her +head scornfully, and said: 'Before I'd crawl after any girl, much less +Jerrie Crawford! You'd better be attending to your own sister. She's +worse this morning, and looks as if she might die any minute.' + +Then Tom went to Maude, who, since the shock of the night before, had +lain as if she were dead, except for her eyes, in which there was a new +and wondrous light, and which looked up lovingly at Tom as he came in +and kissed her, a most unusual thing for him to do. + +'Dear Tom,' she whispered, 'come closer to me,' and as he bent down to +her, she continued, 'is every thing Jerrie's?' + +'Yes, or will be. She is Uncle Arthur's daughter.' + +'Shall we be very poor?' + +'Yes, poor as a church mouse.' + +Then there was a pause, and when Maude spoke again she said slowly: + +'For me, no matter--sorry for you, and father and mother; but glad for +Jerrie. Stand by her, Tom; tell mother not to be so bitter--it hurts me. +Tell Harold, when he comes, I meant to do so much for him, but Jerrie +will do it instead. Tell her I must see her, and send for Uncle Arthur.' + +There was a lump in Tom's throat as he left his sister's room, and going +to the village, telegraphed to his uncle's head-quarters at the Palace +Hotel, San Francisco, that he was to come at once. + +At least a hundred people stopped him on his way to the office, asking +if what they had heard was true, and to all he replied: + +'True as the gospel; we are floored, as Peterkin would say.' + +And then he hurried to the cottage to see Jerrie, and tell her of the +message sent to Arthur, though not how it was worded After a moment he +continued, hesitatingly, as if half ashamed of it: + +'I called at _Lubbertoo_ last night to enquire after Ann Eliza's foot, +and you ought to have seen Peterkin when I told him the news. At first +he could not find any word in his vocabulary big enough to swear by, but +after a little one came to him, and what do you think it was?' + +Jerrie could not guess, and Tom continued. + +He said, "by the great Peterkin!" and then he swowed, and vowed, and +snummed, and vummed, and dummed, and finally said he was glad of it, +and had always known you were a Tracy. Ann Eliza was so glad she cried, +and I think Billy cried, too, for he left the room suddenly, with very +suspicious-looking eyes. Why, everybody is glad for you, Jerrie, and +nobody seems to think how mean it is for us; but I'm not going to whine. +I'm glad it's you, and so is Maude, and she wants to see you. I believe +she's going to die, and--and--Jerrie--' + +Something choked Tom for a moment, then he went on: + +'If Uncle Arthur should get high, and order us out at once, as father +seems to think he will, you'll--you'll--let us stay while Maude lives, +won't you?' + +'Tom,' Jerrie said, reproachfully, 'What do you take me for, and why +does your father think his brother will order him out?' + +'I don't know,' Tom replied, 'but he seems awfully afraid to meet him. +Mother says he was up all night walking the floor and talking to +himself, and yet he says he is glad, and he is coming this morning to +see you and talk it over. I believe I hear him now speaking to Mrs. +Crawford. Yes, 'tis he; so I guess I'll go; and when I hear from my +telegram I'll let you know. Good-bye.' + +A moment after Tom left the room his father entered it, looking haggard +and old, and frightened, too, it seemed to Jerrie, as she went forward +to meet him with a cheery 'good-morning, Uncle Frank.' + +It was the first time she had addressed him by that name, and her smile +was so bright and her manner so cordial that for an instant the cloud +lifted from his face, but soon came back darker than ever as he declined +the seat she offered him and stood tremblingly before her. + +Frank had not slept a wink the previous night, nor had he been in bed, +but had walked his room until his wife said to him angrily: + +'I thought you were glad; seems to me you don't act like it; but for +pity's sake stop walking, or go somewhere else do it and not keep me +awake.' + +Then he went into the hall outside, and there he walked the livelong +night, trying to think what he should say to Jerrie, and wondering what +she would say to him, for he meant to tell her everything. Nothing could +prevent his doing that; and as soon as he thought she would see him he +started for the cottage, taking with him the Bible, the photograph and +the letter he had secreted so long. All the way there, he was repeating +to himself the form of speech with which he should commence, but when +Jerrie said to him, so graciously, 'Good morning, Uncle Frank,' the +words left him, and he began, impetuously; + +'Don't call me uncle. Don't speak to me, Jerrie, until you have heard +what I have come to confess on my knees, with my white head upon the +floor, if you will it so, and that would not half express the shame and +remorse with which I stand before you and tell you I am a cheat, a liar, +a villain, and have been since that day when I first saw you and that +dead woman we thought your mother.' + +Jerrie was dumb with surprise, and did not speak or move as he went on +rapidly, telling her the whole, with no attempt at an excuse for +himself, except so far as to report what he had done in a business point +of view, making provision for her in case of his death and enjoining it +upon his children to see that his wishes were carried out. + +'Here is the Bible,' he said, laying the book in her lap. 'Here is the +photograph, and here the letter which you gave me to post, and which, +had it been sent, might have cleared the mystery sooner.' + +He had made his confession, and he stood before her with clasped hands +and an expression upon his face such as a criminal might wear when +awaiting the jury's decision. But Jerrie neither looked at him nor +spoke, for through a rain of tears she was gazing upon the sweet face, +sadder and thinner than the face of Gretchen in the window, but so like +it that there could be no mistaking it, and so like to the face which +had haunted her so often, and seemed so near to her. + +'Mother, mother! I remember you as you are here, sick and sorry, but oh, +so lovely!' she said, as she pressed her lips again and again to the +picture, with no thought or care for the wretched man who had come a +step nearer to her, and who said at last: + +'Will you never speak to me, Jerrie? Never tell me how much you despise +me?' + +'Then she looked up at the face quivering with anguish and entreaty, and +the sight melted her at once. Indeed, as he had talked she had scarcely +felt any resentment toward him, for she was sure that though his error +had been great, his contrition and remorse had been greater, and she +thought of him only as Maude's father and the man who had always been +kind to her. And she made him believe at last that she forgave him for +Maude's sake, if not for his own. + +'Had my life been a wretched one because of your conduct,' she said, 'I +might have found it harder to forgive you, but it has not. I have not +been the daughter of Tracy Park, it is true, but I have been the petted +child of the cottage, and I would rather have lived with Harold in +poverty all these years than to have been rich without him. And do you +know, I think it was noble in you to tell me, when you might have kept +it to yourself.' + +'No, no. I couldn't have done that much longer,' he exclaimed, +energetically, as he began to walk up and down the room. 'I could not +bear it. And the shadow which for years has been with me night and day, +counselling me for bad, was growing so black, and huge, and unendurable +that I must have confessed or died. But it is gone now, or will be when +I have told my brother.' + +'Told your brother! Mr. Tracy--Uncle Frank--you cannot mean to do that?' +Jerrie exclaimed. + +'But I do mean to do it,' Frank replied, 'as a part of my punishment, +and he will not forgive as you have done. He will turn me out at once, +as he ought to do.' + +Jerrie thought this very likely, and with all her powers she strove to +dissuade Frank from making a confession which could do no possible good, +and might result in untold harm. + +'Remember Maude,' she said, 'and the effect this thing would have upon +her if your brother should resort to immediate and violent means, as he +might in his first frenzy.' + +'But, I mean to tell Maude, too,' Frank replied. + +Then Jerrie looked upon him as madder than Arthur himself, and talked so +rapidly and argued so well that he consented at last to keep his own +counsel, for the present at least, unless the shadow still haunted him, +in which case he must tell as an act of contrition or penance. + +'He will think the photograph came with the other papers in the bag,' +Jerrie said, as she kissed the sweet face, which looked so much like +life that it was hard to think there was not real love and tenderness in +the eyes which looked into hers so steadfastly. + +It was the hardest to forgive the letter hidden so long, and Jerrie did +feel a pang of resentment, or something like it, as she took it in her +hand and thought of the day when Arthur had confided it to her, saying +he could trust her when he could not another. And she had trusted Frank, +who had not been true to the trust, and here, after the lapse of years, +was the letter, in her hands, with its singular superscription, covering +its whole side, and its seal unbroken. But she would break it now. +Surely she might do that, if Arthur was never to see it; and after a +moment's hesitancy, she opened it, and read, first, wild, crazy +sentences, full of love and tenderness for the little Gretchen to whom +they were addressed, and whom the writer sometimes spoke to as living, +and again as dead. There was the expression of a strong desire to see +her, a wish for her to come where her husband was waiting for her, and +her diamonds too. Here Jerrie started with an exclamation of surprise, +and involuntarily read aloud: + +'The most exquisite diamonds you ever saw, and I long to see them on +you. They are safe, too--safe from her--Mrs. Frank Tracy--who had the +boldness to flaunt them in my face at a party the other night. How she +came by them I can't guess; but I know how she lost them, I found them +on her dressing-table, where she left them when she went to breakfast, +and took possession at once. That was no theft, for they are mine, or +rather yours, and are waiting for you in my private drawer, where no one +has ever looked, except a young girl called Jerrie, who interests me +greatly, she is so much like what you must have been when a child. There +has been some trouble about the diamonds--I hardly know what, my head is +in such a buzzing most of the time that everything goes from me but you. +Oh, if I had remembered you years ago as I do now--' + +Jerrie could read no further, for the letter dropped from her hands, as +she cried joyfully: + +'I knew he had them. I was sure of it, though I did not know where they +were.' + +Then very briefly she explained to Frank that on the morning when the +diamonds were missed, Arthur was so excited because Harold had been in a +way accused, and had rambled off into German, and said many things which +made her know that he had taken them himself and secreted them. + +'You remember my sickness,' she said, and how strangely I talked of +going to prison as an accessory or a substitute? Well, it was for your +brother I was ready to go; and when he told me, as he did one day, that +he knew nothing of the diamonds, I was never more astonished in my life; +but afterward, as I grew older, I came to believe that he had forgotten +them, as he did other things, and that some time he would remember and +make restitution, I am glad we know where they are, but we cannot get +them until he returns. When do you think that will be?' + +Frank did not know. It would depend, he said, upon whether he was in San +Francisco when Tom's telegram was received. If he were and started at +once, travelling day and night, he would be home in a week. + +It seemed a long time to wait in Jerrie's state of mind, and very, very +short to the repentant man, who shrank from his brother's return as from +an impending evil, although it was a relief to think that he need not +tell him what a hypocrite he had been. + +'Thank you, Jerrie,' he said at last, as he rose to go, 'Thank you for +being so kind to me. I did not deserve it. I did not expect it. Heaven +bless you. I am glad for you, and so is Maude. Oh, Jerrie, heaven is +dealing hard with me to take her from me, and yet it is just. I sinned +for her; sinned to see her in the place I was sure was yours, although +the shadow was always telling me that I did not and never could know for +sure that you were Arthur's child; but I did, and I meant to go to +Germany some day, when I had the language a little better, and clear it +up, and then I had promised myself to tell you. Will you lay again that +you forgive me before I go back to Maude?' + +He was standing before her with his white head dropped upon his hat, the +very picture of misery and remorse, and Jerrie laid her hand upon his +head, and said: + +'I do forgive you, Uncle Frank, fully and freely, for Maude's sake if no +other; and if she lives what is mine shall be hers. Tell her so, and +tell her I am coming to see her as soon as I am able, I am so tired +to-day, and everything is so strange. Oh, if Harold were here.' + +Jerrie was indeed so tired and exhausted that for the remainder of the +day she lay upon the couch in her room, seeing no one but Judge St. +Claire and Tom, both of whom came up together, the latter bringing the +answer to his telegram, and asking what to do next. + +'Why, Tom,' Jerrie said, as she read Arthur's reply, 'pay him then, for +I shan't come,' what does he mean? What did you say to him, and whom are +you to pay?' + +With a half comical smile Tom replied, 'I told him the Old Nick was to +pay, though I am afraid I used a stronger name for his Satanic majesty +than that. I guess you'll have to try what you can do.' + +And so Jerrie's message, 'I need you,' went across the continent, and +brought the ready response, 'coming on the wings of the wind.' It was +Judge St. Claire who wrote to Harold, for Jerrie's nerveless fingers +could not grasp the pen, and she could only dictate what she wished the +judge to say. + +'Tell him everything,' she said, 'and how much I want him here; and tell +him, too, of Maude, whose life hangs on a thread. That may bring him +sooner.' + +It was three days before Jerrie went again to the Park House, and then +Tom came for her, saying Maude was failing very fast. The shock which +had come upon her so suddenly with regard to Jerrie's birth and the +suspicions resting upon Harold had shortened the life nearing its close, +and the moment Jerrie entered the room she knew the worst, and with a +storm of sobs and tears knelt by the sick girl's couch and cried: + +'Oh, Maude, Maude, I can't bear it. I'd give up everything to save you. +Oh, Maude, Maude, you don't know how much I love you!' + +Maude was very calm, though her lips quivered a little and the tears +filled her eyes as she put her hand caressingly upon Jerrie's golden +hair. A great change had come over Maude since the night when she heard +Jerrie's strange story--a change for the better some might have thought, +although the physician who attended her gave no hope. She neither +coughed nor suffered pain, and could talk all she liked, although often +in a whisper, she was so very weak. 'Yes, Jerrie,' she said, 'I know +you love me, and it makes me very glad, and dying seems easier for it; +for, Jerrie, oh, Jerrie! once before I knew about you, and when I feared +I might die, I wrote something on paper for father to see when I was +dead, and it was that he should take you in my place, you and Harold.' + +Maude's voice shook a little here, but she soon steadied it and went on: + +'I wanted him to give you what I thought would be mine had I lived, and +what all the time was yours. Oh, Jerrie, how can you help hating me, who +have stood so long where you ought to have stood, and enjoyed what you +ought to have enjoyed?' + +'Maude,' Jerrie cried, as she kissed the little wan face, 'don't talk +like that; as if I, or any one, could ever have hated you. Why, I +worshiped you as some little empress when I used to see you in your +bright sashes and yellow kid boots, with the amber beads around your +neck; and if the contrast between your finery and my high-necked gingham +apron and white sun-bonnet sometimes struck me painfully, I had no wish +to take the boots and sashes from you, whom they fitted so admirably; +and as we grew older and you did not shrink from or slight Jerrie +Crawford, I cannot tell you how great was the love which grew in my +heart for you, the dearest girl friend I ever had, and a thousand times +dearer now that I know you are my cousin.' + +Maude was silent for a moment, and then she asked abruptly: + +'Jerrie, why did you never fall in love with Harold?' + +'Oh, Maude!' and Jerrie started as if Maude had struck her, while the +tell-tale blood rushed to her face, and into her eyes there came a look +which even Maude could not understand. + +'Jerrie,' she exclaimed, 'forgive me. I didn't know, I never guessed, I +was go stupid; but I have been thinking so much since Harold went away. +Does he know about you? who you are? and how long before he will come +home?' + +'Judge St. Claire wrote him everything three days ago,' Jerrie replied, +'and told him how sick you were. That will surely bring him at once, if +it is possible for him to leave; but it will he three or four days now +before the letter will reach him, and take a week for him to come. Would +you like to see him very much?' + +'Yes,' Maude answered with a sob, 'very much, but I never shall. Jerrie, +did Harold ever--did he--does he--love you?' + +'He never told me so,' Jerrie answered, frankly; 'but I have thought +that he loved you' + +'N--no,' Maude answered, piteously, with the great tears in her eyes. +'It is all a mistake, and when I am dead and Harold comes, promise to +tell him something from me, will you?' + +'Yes,' Jerrie answered, and Maude continued: + +'Tell him the very first time you and he are alone together, and speak +of me, that I have been thinking and thinking until it came to me clear +as day that it was all a mistake, a stupid blunder on my part. I was +always stupid, you know; but I believe my brain is a little clearer now. +Will you tell him, Jerrie?' + +'Mistake about what?' Jerrie asked with a vague apprehension that the +task imposed upon her might not be a pleasant one if she know all it +involved. + +'Harold will tell you what,' Maude answered 'He will understand what I +mean, and you must tell him, for I shall not be here when he comes, I am +sure of it. I hope to live till Uncle Arthur comes, for I must see him +and ask him not to be hard on poor father, and tell him that I am sorry +that I have been so long in your place where you should have been. You +will stay here when he comes, and be with me to the last. I want you +with me--want you to hold my hand when I say good-bye for ever. You are +so strong that I shall not be afraid with you to see and hear as long as +I hear and see anything.' + +'And are you afraid?' Jerrie asked, and Maude replied: + +'Of the death struggle, yes; but not what lies beyond where He is, the +Saviour, for I know I am going to Heaven; and when you think me asleep I +am often praying silently for more faith and love, and for you all, that +you may one day come where I soon shall be. Heaven is very, very +beautiful, for I have seen it in my dreams--a material heaven some would +say, for there are trees and flowers, and grass; and on a golden bench, +beneath a tree whose leaves are like emeralds, and whose blossoms are +like pearls, I am sitting, on the bank of a shining river, resting, +resting, and waiting, as little Pilgrim waited for the coming of the +Master, and for you all.' + +Maude was very tired now, and her voice was so low that Jerrie could +scarcely hear it, while the eyelids drooped heavily, and in a few +moments she fell asleep, with a rapt look on her as if she were already +resting on the golden seat beneath the tree whose leaves were emeralds +and whose blossoms were like pearls. + +That night Jerrie wrote as follows: + + 'Dear Harold, come home as soon as you can, for Maude is very low, + and, unless you come soon, you will never see her again. The judge + has written you of me, but I must tell you myself that nothing can + ever change me from the Jerrie of old; and the fact which makes me + the happiest is that now I can help you who have been so kind to me. + How I long to see you and talk it all over. We expect Mr. Arthur in + a few days. I cannot call him father yet, until he has given me the + right to do so by calling me daughter first; but to myself I am + calling Gretchen mother all the time--dear, sweet, darling little + mother! Oh, Harold, you must come home and share my happiness. Truly + Harold, you ought to see how stiffly Mrs. Tracy carries herself + toward me--stiffer, if possible, than she did when I came up the + front steps in my muddy shoes and she bade me go round to the back + door. Poor Mrs. Tracy!' + +During the next few days Jerrie stayed with Maude, who constantly grew +weaker and weaker, and who asked about every hour if anything had been +heard from her uncle since his message that he was coming. + +'I shall never see Harold,' she said to Jerrie; but I must live till +uncle Arthur comes, and you are put in your right place.' + +And at last, one lovely September morning, a telegram was brought to +Frank from Charles, which said the travellers would be home that +afternoon, and that the carriage must be sent to meet them. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX. + +TELLING ARTHUR. + + +Who should do the telling was the question which for some time was +discussed by Frank and Judge St. Claire and Jerrie. Naturally the task +fell upon the latter, who for three or four days prior to Arthur's +arrival remained altogether at the Park House, watching by Maude, and +going over and over again in her mind what she should say and how she +should commence. + +At last the announcement came that Arthur was in Albany, and then it +seemed to Jerrie that she had suddenly turned into stone, for every +thought and feeling had left her, and she had no plan or action or +speech as she moved mechanically about Arthur's rooms, making them +bright with flowers, especially the Gretchen room, which seemed a bower +of beauty when her skilful hands had finished it. Once, as she was +passing through the hall with her arms full of flowers she met Mrs. +Tracy, whose face wore a most forbidding expression as she said: + +'I hope you will leave a few flowers for Maude. You know she likes them +so much.' + +Jerrie made no reply, but by the pang of resentment which shot through +her heart at the smallness of the woman, she knew she was not past all +feeling, and that there was still something human in the stone, as she +had styled herself. + +Slowly the day wore on, every minute seeming an hour, and every hour a +day, until at last Jerrie heard the carriage driving down the avenue, +and not long after the whistle of the engine in the distance. Then, +bending over Maude and kissing her fondly, she said: + +'Pray for me, darling, I am going to meet my father.' + +Arthur had been very quiet during the first part of the journey from San +Francisco, and it was with difficulty that Charles could get a word from +him. + +'Let me alone,' he said once, when spoken to. 'I am with Gretchen. She +is on the train with me, and I'm trying to make out what it is she is +telling me.' + +But after Chicago was left behind his mood changed, and he became as +wild and excitable as he had before been abstracted and silent. +Sometimes he was on the top of old Capitan, looking down into the valley +below, and singing 'glory, hallelujah,' at the top of his voice, while +the startled passengers kept aloof from him as from a lunatic. Again he +was out upon the platform urging the conductor to greater speed; and +when at last Shannondale was reached, he bounded from the car upon the +platform before the train stopped, and was collaring Rob, the coachman, +and demanding of him to know what was the matter with Jerrie, and why he +had been sent for. Rob, who had received his instructions to be wholly +non-committal answered stolidly that nothing was the matter with Jerrie, +but that Miss Maude was very sick and probably would not live many days. + +'Is that all?' Arthur said, gloomily, as he entered the carriage. 'I do +not see what the old Harry has to do with Maude's dying, and certainly +Tom's telegram said something about that chap. I have it in my pocket. +Yes, here it is. "Come immediately. The devil is to pay." That doesn't +mean Maude. There is something else Rob has not told me. 'Here, you +rascal, you are keeping something from me! What is it? Out with it!' he +shouted to the driver, as he thrust his head from the carriage window, +where he kept it, and in this way was driven to the door of the Park +House, where Frank was waiting for him outside, and where, inside, +Jerrie stood, holding fast to the banisters of the stairs, her heart +throbbing wildly one moment, and the next seeming to lie pulseless as a +piece of lead. + +She heard Arthur's voice as he came up the steps, speaking to Frank, and +asking why he had been sent for; and the next moment she saw him +entering the hall, tall and erect, but with the wild look in his eyes +which she knew so well, but which changed at once to a softer expression +as they fell upon her. + +'Cherry, you here!' he cried, with a joyful ring in his voice as he +sprang to her side and kissed her forehead and lips. + +Then Jerrie grew calm instantly, although she could scarcely restrain +herself from falling on his neck and sobbing out, 'Oh, my father! I am +your daughter Jerrie!' But the time for this had not come, and when he +questioned her eagerly as to why she had sent for him, she only +replied: + +'Maude is very sick. But come with me to your rooms, and I will tell you +everything.' + +'Then there is the deuce to pay; I thought so,' he said, as he followed +her upstairs into the Gretchen room, where he stood for a moment, amazed +at the effect produced by the flowers and vines which Jerrie had +arranged so skilfully, 'It is like Eden,' he said, 'and Gretchen is here +with me. Darling Gretchen!' he continued, as he walked up to the picture +and kissed the lovely face which, it seemed to Jerrie, smiled in +benediction upon them both, the husband and the daughter, as they stood +there side by side, Jerrie's hands resting on his shoulder, which she +pressed hard, as if to steady herself, while he talked to the inanimate +face before him. + +'Have you been lonesome, Gretchen, and are you glad to have me back +again! Poor little Gretchen!' And now he turned to Jerrie, who was pale +to the lips, and said: 'It all came to me on the top of those mountains +about Gretchen--who she was, and how I forgot her so long--that is the +strangest of all; and, Cherry,' here his voice dropped to a whisper, 'I +know for sure that Gretchen is dead--that came to me, too.' + +'Yes, Gretchen is dead,' Jerrie answered him, with the sound of a sob in +her own voice, while her hands tightened their grasp on his shoulder, as +she went on; 'I have had a message from Gretchen, and that is why we +sent for you.' + +Jerrie's hands were not strong enough to hold him then, and, wrenching +himself from her, he stood confronting her with a look more like that of +a maniac than any she had ever seen in him before, and which might have +frightened one with nerves less strong than Jerrie's. But she was not +afraid, and a strange calmness fell upon her, now that she had actually +reached a point where she must act, and her eyes, which looked so +steadily into Arthur's, held them fast, even while he interrogated her +rapidly. + +'A message from Gretchen! How, when, and where is it? Give it to me +quick, or tell me about it? Where is she, and when is she coming?' + +'Never!' answered Jerrie sadly. 'I told you she was dead. But sit here,' +and she motioned him to a large cushioned chair. 'Sit here and let me +tell you what I know of Gretchen.' + +Something in the girl's manner mastered him and made him a child in her +hands. + +Sinking into the chair, pale and panting with excitement, he leaned his +head back wearily, and closing his eyes, said to her: + +'Begin. What did Gretchen write?' + +Jerrie felt that she could not stand all through the interview, and +bringing a low ottoman to Arthur's side, seated herself upon it just +where she could look into his face and detect every change in it. + +'Let me tell you of Gretchen as she was when you first knew her,' she +said, 'and then you will be better able to judge of the truth of all I +know.' + +He did not reply, and she went on: + +'Gretchen was very young--sixteen or seventeen--when you first saw her +knitting in the sunshine under the trees in Wiesbaden, and very +beautiful, too--so beautiful that you went again and again to look at +her and talk to her, until you came to love her very much, and told her +so at last; but you seemed so much above her that she could not believe +you at first. At last, however, you made her understand, and when her +mother died suddenly--' + +'Her mother was Mrs. Heinrich, and kept a kind of fancy store,' Arthur +interposed, as if anxious that nothing should be omitted. + +'Yes, she kept a fancy store,' Jerrie rejoined; 'and when she died +suddenly and left Gretchen alone, you said to her, "We must be married +at once," and you were, in the little English chapel, by the Rev. Mr. +Eaton, who was then rector.' Here Arthur's eyes opened wide and fixed +themselves wonderingly upon Jerrie, as he said: + +'Are you the old Harry that you know all this? But go on; don't stop; it +all comes back to me so plain when I hear you tell it. She wore a straw +bonnet trimmed with blue, and a white dress, but took it off directly +for a black one because her mother was dead. Did she tell you that?' + +'No,' Jerrie replied. 'She told me nothing of the dress, only how happy +she was with you, whom she loved so much, and who loved her and made her +so happy for a time that earth seemed like heaven to her, and then--' + +Here Jerrie faltered a little, but Arthur's sharp 'What then?' kept her +up, and she continued: + +'Then something came to you, and you began to forget everything, even +poor little Gretchen, and went away for weeks and left her very sad and +lonely, not knowing where you were; and then, after some months, you +went away and never came back again to the little wife who waited, and +watched, and prayed, and wanted you so badly.' + +'Oh, Cherry! oh, Gretchen! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do it; I +surely didn't. May God forgive me for forgetting the little wife! Was it +long? Was it months, or was it years? I can't remember, only that there +was a Gretchen, and I left her,' Arthur said. + +'It was years, four or five, and--and'--Jerrie's breath came heavily now +and her words slowly, for she was nearing the point relating to herself +and wondering what the effect would be upon him. 'After a while there +came into Gretchen's life the dawning of a great hope, a great joy, +which she felt would make you glad, and wishing to keep it a secret till +you came home, she only gave you a hint of it. She wrote: "I have +something to tell you which will make you as happy as it does me--"' + +'Stop!' and Arthur put out both his hands as if groping for something +which he could not find; then he said, 'Go on,' and Jerrie went on, +slowly now, for every word was an effort, and spoken so low that Arthur +bent forward to listen to her. + +'I don't know just where Gretchen's home was when she lived alone +waiting for you. I only know that after a while there came to it a +little baby--a girl baby--Gretchen's and yours--' + +She did not get any further, for with a bound Arthur was on his feet, +every faculty alert, every nerve strung to its utmost pitch, and every +muscle of his face quivering with wild excitement, as he exclaimed: + +'A baby! Gretchen's baby and mine! A little girl! Oh, Cherry, if you are +deceiving me now!' + +Jerrie, too, had risen, and was standing before him with her hands upon +his arm and her eyes, so like Gretchen's, looking into his, as she said: + +'I am not deceiving you. There was a baby born to you and Gretchen +sometime in January, 18--, and it was christened in the little church +where you were married by the Rev. Mr. Eaton. Oh, Mr. Arthur, how can I +tell you; she, the baby, is living yet--grown to womanhood now, for this +happened about twenty years ago, and the girl is almost twenty--and is +waiting and longing so much for her father to recognize and claim her. +Oh, don't you understand me? Look at _me_ and then at Gretchen's +picture!' + +For an instant Arthur stood like one stricken with catalepsy, his eyes +leaping from Jerry's face to Gretchen's, and from Gretchen's back to +Jerrie's, and then, with a motion of his hands as if fanning the air +furiously, he gasped: + +'Twenty years ago--twenty years ago? How old are you, Cherry?' + +'About twenty,' she answered, but her voice was a whisper, and her head +fell forward a little, though she kept her eyes upon Arthur, who went +on: + +'And they christened my baby and Gretchen's you say? What name did they +give her? Speak quick, for I believe I am dying.' + +'They called her Jerrine, but you know her as Jerrie, for--for I am +Gretchen's daughter,' fell from Jerrie's lips. + +With a wild, glad cry, 'My daughter! oh, my daughter! Thank God! thank +God!' Arthur sank back into the chair, from which he had risen, fainting +and insensible. + +For hours he lay in a state so nearly resembling death that but for the +physician's reassurance that there was no danger, Jerrie would have +believed the great joy given her was to be taken from her at once. But +just as the twilight shadows began to gather in the room he came to +himself, waking as from some quiet dream, and looking around him until +his eyes fell upon Jerrie sitting by his side; then into his white face +there flashed a look of ineffable joy and tenderness and love, as he +said, with a smile the most willing and sweet Jerrie had ever seen. + +'My daughter, my little Cherry, who came to me up the ladder, with +Gretchen's eyes and Gretchen's voice, and I did not know her--have not +known her all these years, although she has so puzzled and bewildered me +at times. My daughter! oh, my daughter!' + +He accepted her unquestioningly, and with a glad cry Jerrie threw +herself into the arms he stretched toward her, and on her father's +bosom gave free vent to the feelings she had restrained so long, sobbing +passionately as she felt Arthur's kisses upon her face, and his +caressing hands upon her hair, as he kept repeating: + +'My daughter! Gretchen's baby and mine!' + +'There is more to tell. I have not heard it all, or how you came by the +information,' he said, when Jerrie was little composed and could look at +and speak to him without a burst of tears. + +'Yes, there is much more. There is a letter for you, with those you +wrote to her,' Jerrie said, 'but you must not have them to-night. +To-morrow you will be stronger, now you must rest.' + +She spoke like one with authority, and he did just what she bade him +do--took the food she brought him, went to bed when she said he must, +and, with her hand locked in his, fell into a heavy slumber, which +lasted all through the night, and late into the next morning. It almost +seemed as if he would never waken, the sleep was so like death; but the +doctor who watched him carefully quieted Jerrie's fears and told her it +would do her father good, and that in all probability he would awake +with a clearer mind than he had had in years, for as a great and sudden +shock sometimes produces insanity, so, contrarywise, it sometimes +restored a shattered mind to its equilibrium. + +And the doctor was partially correct, for when at last Arthur awoke he +seemed natural and bright, with a recollection of all which had happened +the day before, and an earnest desire for the letters and the rest of +the story which Jerrie told him, with her arm across his neck, and her +cheek laid occasionally against his, as she read him the letter directed +to his friends, and then showed him the certificate of her birth and her +mother's death. + +'Born January 1st, 18--, to Arthur Tracy and Marguerite, his wife, a +daughter,' Arthur repeated, again and again, and as often as he did so +he kissed the bright face which smiled at him through tears, for there +was almost as much sadness as joy mingled with the reading of those +messages from the dead. + +Just what Gretchen's letter to Arthur contained, Jerrie never knew, +except that it was full of love and tenderness, with no word of +complaint for the neglect and forgetfulness which must have hastened her +death. + +'Oh, Gretchen, I can't bear it, I can't,' Arthur moaned, as he laid his +hand upon Jerrie's shoulder and sobbed like a child. 'To think I could +forget her, and she so sweet and good.' + +Everything came back to him for a time, and he repeated to Jerrie much +which was of interest to her concerning her mother, but with which the +reader has nothing to do; while Jerrie, in turn, told him all she could +remember of her life in the old house where Gretchen had died. Idle +fancies she had sometimes thought these memories of the past, but now +she knew they were real. And Arthur hung upon her words with breathless +interest, moaning occasionally when she told of the sweet-faced woman +who cried so much and prayed so much, and whose death scene she had once +enacted for him when a little child. At his own letters addressed to +Gretchen he barely glanced, muttering, as he did so, 'how could I have +written such crazy bosh as that?' and then suddenly recollecting +himself, he asked for the photograph mentioned in Gretchen's letter to +his friends, and which he seemed to think had come with the other +papers, just as Jerrie meant he should. Taking it from the bag she +handed it to him, while his tears fell like rain as he gazed upon the +face which was far too young to wear the sad, wan look it did. + +'That is as I remember her,' Jerrie said, referring again to the strange +ideas which had filled her brain and made her sure that not the dark +woman found dead at her side was her mother, but another and far +different person, whose face haunted her so continually and whose voice +she sometimes seemed to hear speaking to her from the dim shadows of the +far-off past when they lived in the little house in Wiesbaden, where the +picture hung on the wall. + +Arthur remembered the picture well and when it was taken, though that, +too, had faded from his mind, until Jerrie told him of it. + +'We will go there together, Cherry,' he said, 'you and I, and find the +house and the picture, and Gretchen's grave, and bring them home with +us. There is room for them at Tracy Park. + +He was beginning to talk wildly now, but Jerrie quieted him, and taking +up the box of diamonds opened it suddenly and held it before his eyes. +In reading the letters he had not seemed to pay any attention to the +diamonds, but when Jerrie said to him; 'These were mother's. You sent +them to her from England,' he replied, 'Yes, I remember. I bought them +in Paris with other things--dresses, I think--for her,' while into his +face there came a troubled look as if he were trying to think of +something. + +Jerrie, who could read him so well, saw the look, and, guessing at once +its cause, hastened to say: + +'Father, do you remember that you gave Mrs. Tracy some diamonds like +these, and that some one took them from her? Try and think,' she +continued, as she saw the troubled look deepen on his face, and the fire +beginning to kindle in his eyes. 'It was years ago, just after a party +Mrs. Tracy gave, and at which she wore them. You were there and thought +they were Gretchen's, did you not?' + +'Ye-es,' he answered slowly. 'I believe I did. What did I do with them? +Do you know?' + +'I think you put them in your private drawer. Suppose you look and see.' + +Obedient to her as a child, Arthur opened his private drawer, bringing +out one thing after another, all mementoes of the old Gretchen days, and +finally the diamonds, at which be looked with wonder and fear, as he +said to Jerrie: + +'Did I take them? Will they call it a steal? I thought they were +Gretchen's. I remember now.' + +Jerrie did not tell him then of the trouble the secreting of the +diamonds had brought to her and Harold, but she said: + +'No one will think it a steal, and Mrs. Tracy will be glad to get her +jewels back. May I take them to her now?' + +'Take them to her?--no,' Arthur said, decidedly. 'She has another set--I +bought them for her, and she wears them all day long. Ha, ha! diamonds +in the morning, with a cotton gown;' and he laughed immoderately at what +be thought Dolly's bad taste. 'Take them to her? No! They are yours.' + +'But I have mother's,' Jerrie pleaded; 'and I cannot wear two sets.' + +'Yes, you can--one to-day, one to-morrow. I mean you shall have +seven--one for everyday in the week. What has Dolly to do with +diamonds. They are for ladies, and she is only a whitewashed one.' + +He was very much excited, and it took all Jerrie's tact to soothe and +quiet him. + +'Father,' she began and then he stopped short, for the sound of that +name spoken by Jerrie had a mighty power over him--'Father, listen to me +a moment.' + +And then she told him of the suspicions cast upon Harold, and said: + +'You do not wish him to suffer any more?' + +'Harold? The boy who found you in the carpet-bag--Amy's boy! No, never! +Where is he that I have not seen him yet? Does he know you are my +daughter?' + +Jerrie had not mentioned Harold before, but she told her father now +where he was, and why he had gone, and that she had written him to come +home, on Maude's account, if on no other. + +'Yes--Maude--I remember; but Harold did not care for Maude. Still, he +had better come. I want him here with you and me; and you must stay here +now, day and night. Select any room or rooms you please; all is yours, +my daughter.' + +'But I cannot leave grandma,' Jerrie said. + +'Let her come, too,' Arthur replied. 'There is room for her.' + +'No,' Jerrie persisted; 'that would not be best. Grandma could not live +with Mrs. Tracy.' + +'Then let Dolly go at once, I'll give the order now;' and Arthur put out +his hand to the bell-cord. + +But Jerrie stopped him instantly, saying to him: + +'Remember Maude. While she lives she must stay here.' + +'Yes, I forgot Maude. Poor little Maude, I have not seen her yet,' +Arthur replied, subdued at once, and willing now that Jerrie should take +the jewels to Dolly, who deserved but little forbearance from Jerrie's +hand. + +Up to the very last Mrs. Tracy had, unconsciously perhaps, clung to a +shadowy hope that Arthur might repudiate his daughter and call it a +trumped-up affair; but when she heard how joyfully he had acknowledged +and claimed her, she lost all hope, and her face wore a sullen, defiant +expression as she walked about the house and through the handsome rooms, +the very furniture of which had nearly all been bought with Arthur's +money, and consequently was not her own. Since the coming of Jerrie, +when the dark shadow settled upon Frank, and remorse was always +torturing him, he had had no heart for business, and had, to all intents +and purposes, lived upon his brother's generosity, which had never +failed. + +'Get what you like; there is money enough,' was always Arthur's reply, +when a request for anything was made to him, and thus they had literally +been sponges, taking everything and giving nothing, until now, when all +was lost--the luxury, the elegance, the ease, and the prestige of Tracy +Park, which they had enjoyed so much. It was hard, and Dolly felt that +she could not bear it, and that she hated the girl through whom this +change had come, and in every possible way she meant to wound and annoy +her; so when the cook came to her that day for orders for dinner, she +answered, curtly: + +'Go to the heiress. She is mistress now.' + +In the hall, coming to seek her, Jerrie met the cook, who, with a +comical look on her face, asked what she would have for dinner. + +'I don't know what you mean,' Jerrie said, and when the cook explained, +her cheeks flushed for an instant and her eyes blazed with resentment +But she controlled herself quickly and said, 'Tell Mrs. Tracy--but, no, +I am going to her room and will tell her myself.' + +Knocking at Mrs. Tracy's door, she was admitted to the presence of the +lady, who simply stared at her as if asking why she were there. Jerrie +told her in a few words that her own diamonds had been found, and where +they had been secreted, and that she had come to return them. + +'Then your father was the thief,' Dolly said, with that rasping, +aggravating tone so hard to hear unmoved. + +'Call him what you please. A crazy man is not responsible for his acts,' +Jerrie answered, calmly; then, more proudly and decidedly, went on, 'By +the way, Mrs. Tracy, I was met by the cook with a singular request, and +I wish to say that as there can be but one mistress in a house, it is my +wish that so long as you remain here you are that mistress in your own +department; of course I shall take charge of my father's, and see that +his wishes are carried out. Good afternoon,' and with a proud, lofty +bearing, Jerrie walked from the room, leaving Dolly to her own morbid +and angry thoughts. + +Not even the restored diamonds had power to conciliate her, and they +were so beautiful as she held them up, admiring their brilliancy and +their size. + +'I'll never wear them, never, because she has some like them,' she said +to herself; and then the thought flashed upon her that she could sell +them, and thus add to the sum which her husband had invested in his own +name. + +Ten thousand dollars, that was all, he had told her, and she had +calculated the income, only six hundred dollars a year to live on--less +than she now wasted yearly upon bric-a-brac and things of which she +tired so soon. + +It was a sombre outlook, and it is not strange that her tears fell fast +upon the costly stones, whose value she could not guess, although she +knew it must be great, they were so superior in size and quality to any +she had ever seen. + +'Yes, I will sell them,' she said, 'and invest the proceeds in my own +name; but even that will hardly keep the wolf from the door, for Frank +is growing more and more imbecile every day, and Tom is good for +nothing. He'll have to scratch for himself, though, I can tell him.' + +Here her ladylike, but very characteristic, soliloquy was brought to an +end by a faint call, which had the power to drive every other thought +from her heart, for the mother-love was strong even with her, and going +to Maude, she asked what she wanted. + +'Uncle Arthur,' Maude replied; 'I have not seen him yet. And Jerrie, +too, she has scarcely been here to-day.' + +Maude's request was made known to Arthur, who, two or three hours later, +went to her room, and kissing her lips, told her how sorry he was to see +her so sick, and that he hoped she would soon be better. + +Frank had been alone with Maude for a long time that day, and he was +with her now, sitting upon the side of her bed, near the head, with his +arm across her pillow, and his eyes fixed anxiously upon her as she held +her conference with his brother. + +'No, uncle,' she said; 'I shall never be any better in this world; but +by-and-by, pretty soon, I shall be well in the other And I want to tell +you how glad I am for you and Jerrie, and to thank you for your kindness +to us all these years, when Jerrie should have been here in our place.' + +'Yes, yes,' Arthur said, with a wave of his hand. 'Only I didn't know. +If I had--' + +'It would have been so different,' Maude interrupted him. 'I know that, +but I want you to be kind to poor father still, and forgive him, he is +sorry, and--' + +'Oh, Maude, Maude,' came like a groan from Frank, as he laid his hand on +Maude's lips, while Arthur replied: + +'Forgive him! For what? He couldn't help being here. I sent for him. He +did not keep Jerrie from her rightful position as my daughter. If he had +I could never forgive him. Why, I believe I'd kill him, or any other one +who, knowing that Jerrie was my daughter, kept it from me.' + +He was gesticulating now with both hands, and Jerrie, who had listened +wonderingly to the conversation, took hold of them as they were swaying +in the air, and said to him softly: + +'Father!' + +The word quieted him, and with a gasp his mind seemed to change at once. + +'Maude is very tired,' Jerrie went on; 'perhaps we'd better go now and +come again to-morrow.' + +'Yes, yes, that's best, child. I'm not fond of sick rooms, though I must +say this is very free from smells,' Arthur replied; then stooping down +he kissed Maude again, saying to her as he rose to go: + +'Don't worry about your father; he is my brother, and he was kind to +Jerry. I shan't forget that. Come, my daughter.' + +And putting his arm fondly around Jerrie he left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER L. + +THE FLOWER FADETH. + + +It took some days after Arthur's return for the household to settle down +into anything like order and quiet, Arthur was so restless and so happy, +and so anxious for everyone to recognise Jerrie as his daughter--Miss +Tracy, as he called her when presenting her to the people who had known +her all her life--the St. Claires, and Athertons, and Crosbys, and +Warners--who came to call upon and congratulate him. Even Peterkin came +in his coat-of-arms carriage, with a card as big as the back of +Webster's spelling book, and himself gotten up in a dress coat, with +lavender kids on his burly hands, which nearly crushed Arthur's in their +grasp as he expressed himself 'tickleder than he ever was before in his +life.' + +'And to think I was the means on't,' he said, 'for if I hadn't of kicked +that darned old table into slivers when I was givin' on't to Jerrie, +she'd never of know'd what was in that dumbed rat-hole. I was a leetle +too upstrupulous, I s'spose, but I'll be darned if she didn't square up +to me like a catamount, till my hair riz right up, and I concluded the +Tramp House was no place for me. But I respect her for it; yes, I do, +and by George, old chap, I congratulate you with my whole soul, and so +does May Jane, and so does Ann 'Lizy, and so does Bill, and so does the +whole caboodle on us.' + +This was Peterkin's speech, which Arthur received more graciously than +Jerrie, who, remembering Harold, could not be very polite to the man who +had injured him so deeply. As if divining her thoughts, Peterkin turned +to her and said: + +'Now, one word, Miss Tracy, about Hal. I hain't one to go halves in any +thing, and I was meaner to him than pussly; but you'll see what I'll do. +I've met with a change, I swow, I have,' and he laid his lavender kid on +his stomach. 'He never took them diamonds, nor May Jane's pin, nor +nothin', and I've blasted it all over town that he didn't, and I've got +a kerridge hired, and some chaps, and a brass band, and a percession, +and when Hal comes, there's to be an oblation to the depot, with the +bugle a playin' "Hail to the Chief," and them hired chips a histen' him +inter the kerridge, with the star-spangled banner a floatin' over it, +and a drawin' him home without horses! What do you think of that for +high?' and he chuckled merrily as he represented the programme he had +prepared for Harold's reception. + +Jerrie shuddered, mentally hoping that Harold's coming might be at +night, and unheralded, so as to save him from what she knew would fill +him with disgust. + +That call of Peterkin's was the last of a congratulatory nature made at +Tracy Park for weeks, for the shadow of death had entered the grand old +house, the doors and windows of which stood wide open, one lovely +September morning, about a week after Arthur's return. But there was no +stir or sign of life, except in the upper hall, near the door, and in +the room where Maude Tracy was dying. Jerrie had been with her +constantly for two or three days, and the converse the two had held +together would never be forgotten, Maude was so peaceful and happy, so +sure of the home beyond, where she was going, and so lovely and sweet to +those around her, thinking of everything and planning everything, even +whose hands were to lower her into the grave. + +'Dick, and Fred, and Billy, and Harold,' she said to Jerrie, one day, +'Something tells me Harold will be here in time for that; and if he is, +I want those four to put me in the grave. They can lift me, for I shall +not be very heavy,' and, with a smile, she held up her wasted arms and +hands, not as large now as a child's. 'And, Jerrie,' she went on, 'I +want the grave lined with boughs from our old playing place--the four +pines, you know--and many, many flowers, for I shudder at the thought of +the cold earth which would chill me in my coffin. So, heap the grave +with flowers, and come often to it, and think lovingly of me, lying +there alone. I am thinking so much of that poem Harold read me long ago +of poor little Alice, the May queen, who said she should hear them as +they passed, with their feet above her in the long and silent grass. +Maybe the dead can't do that. I don't know, but if they can, I shall +listen for you, and be glad when you are near me, and I know I shall +wait on the golden seat by the river. Remember your promise to tell +Harold that it was all a mistake. My mind gets clearer toward the end, +and I see things differently from what I did once, and I know how I +blundered. You will tell him?' + +Again Jerrie made the promise, with a sinking heart, not knowing to what +it bound her; and as Maude was becoming tired, she bade her try to rest +while she sat by and watched her. + +The next day, at the same hour, when the balmy September air was +everywhere, and the mid-afternoon sun was filling the house with golden +light, and the crickets' chirp was heard in the long grass, and the +robins were singing in the tree-tops, another scene was presented in the +sick room, where Frank Tracy knelt at his dying daughter's side, with +his face bowed on his hands, while her fingers played feebly with his +white hair as she spoke to Arthur, who had just come in. They had told +him she was dying and had asked for him, and with his nervous horror of +everything painful and exciting, he had shrunk from the ordeal; but +Jerrie's will prevailed, and he went with her to the room, where Frank, +and his wife, and Tom were waiting--Tom standing, with folded arms, at +the foot of the bed, and looking, with hot, dry eyes, into the face on +the pillow, where death was setting his seal; the mother, half-fainting +upon the lounge, with the nurse beside her; and Frank, oblivious of +everything except the fact that Maude was dying. + +'Kiss me good-bye, Uncle Arthur,' she said, when he came in, 'and come +this side where father is.' Then, as he went round and stood by Frank, +she reached her hand for his, and, putting it on her father's head, said +to him: 'Forgive him, Uncle Arthur; he is so sorry, poor father--the +dearest, the best man in the world. It was for me; say that you forgive +him.' + +Only Frank and one other knew just what she meant, although a sudden +suspicion darted through Jerrie's mind, and, when Arthur looked +helplessly at her, she whispered to him: + +'Never mind what she means--her mind may be wandering; but say that you +forgive him, no matter what it is.' + +Thus adjured, Arthur said to the grief-stricken man, who shook like an +aspen: + +'I know of nothing to forgive except your old disbelief in Gretchen, and +deceiving me about sending the carriage the night Jerrie came; but if +there is anything else, no matter what it is, I do forgive you freely.' + +'Thanks,' came faintly from Maude, who whispered: + +'It is a vow, remember, made at my death-bed.' + +She had done all she could, this little girl, whose life had been so +short, and who, as she once said, had been capable of nothing but loving +and being loved; and now, turning her dim eyes upon Jerrie, who was +parting the damp hair upon her brow, she went on: + +'Remember the promise, and the flowers, and the golden seat where you +will find me resting by the flowing river whose shores I am now looking +upon, for I am almost there, almost to the golden seat, and the tree +whose leaves are like emeralds, and where the grass and flowers are like +the flowers and grass of summer just after a rain. I am glad for you, +Jerrie. Good-bye; and you, father dear, good-bye.' + +That was the last, for Maude was dead; and the servants, who had been +standing about the door, stole noiselessly back to their work, with wet +eyes and a sense of pain and loss in their hearts, for not one of them +but had loved the gentle girl now gone forever from their midst. + +If was Jerrie who led Frank from the room to his own, where she left him +by himself, knowing it would be better so, and it was Arthur who took +Dolly out, for Tom had disappeared, and no one saw him again until the +next day, when he came down to breakfast, with a worn, haggard look upon +his face, which told that he did care, though his mother thought he did +not, and taunted him with his indifference. Poor Tom! He had gone +directly to his room and locked the door, and smoked and smoked, and +thought and thought, and then, when it was dark, he had stolen out into +the park as far as the four pines, and smoked, and looked up at the +stars and wondered if Maude were there with Jack, sitting on the golden +seat by the river. Then going back to the house where no one saw him, he +went into the silent room where Maude was lying, and looked long and +earnestly upon her white, still face, and wondered in a vague kind of +way if she knew he was there, and why he had never thought before what a +nice kind of girl she was, and why he had not made more of her as her +brother. + +'Maude,' he whispered, with a lump in his throat, 'if you can hear me, +I'd like to tell you I am sorry that I was ever mean to you, and I guess +I did like you more than I supposed.' + +Then he kissed her pale forehead and went to his room, where he smoked +the night through, and in the morning felt as if he had lived a hundred +years since the previous night, and wondered how he should get through +the day. It occurred to him that it might be the proper thing to see +his mother; and after his breakfast he went to her room, and was +received by her with a burst of tears and reproaches for his +indifference and lack of feeling in keeping himself away from everybody, +as if it were nothing to him that Maude was dead, or that there was +nothing for him to do. + +'Thunderation, mother!' Tom exclaimed, 'would you have me yell and +scream, and make a fool of myself? I sat up all night long, which was +more than you did, and I've been meditating in the woods, and have seen +Maude and made it square with her. What more can I do?' + +'You can see to things,' Mrs. Tracy replied. 'Your father is all broken +up and has gone to bed, and it is not becoming in me to be around. +Somebody must take the helm.' + +'And somebody has,' Tom answered her. 'Uncle Arthur is master of the +ceremonies now. He is running the ranch, and running it well, to.' + +And Tom was right, for Arthur had taken the helm, and aided and abetted +by Jerrie, was quietly attending to matters and arranging for the +funeral, which Dolly said must be in the house, as she would not go to +the church, with a gaping crowd to stare at her. So it was to take place +at the house on Friday afternoon, and Arthur ordered a costly coffin +from New York, with silver mountings and panels, and almost a car-load +of flowers and floral designs, for Jerrie had explained to him Maude's +wishes with regard to her grave, which they lined first with the +freshest of the boughs from the four pines, filling these again with +flowers up to the very top, so that the grave when finished seemed like +one mass of flowers, in which it would not be hard to lie. + +Dolly had objected to Billy as one of the pall-bearers. He was too short +and inferior looking, she said, and not at all in harmony with Dick, and +Fred, and Paul Crosby, the young man who, in Harold's absence, had been +asked to take his place. But Arthur overruled her with the words 'It was +Maude's wish,' and Billy kept his post. + +The day arrived, and the hour, and the people came in greater crowds +than they had done when poor Jack was buried, or the dark woman, +Nannine, with only Jerrie as chief mourner, and the procession was the +longest ever seen in Shannondale; and Dolly, even while her heart was +aching with bitter pain, felt a thrill of pride that so many were +following her daughter to the grave. + +Arrived at the cemetery, there was a halt for the mourners to alight and +the bearers to take the coffins from the hearse and carry it to the +grave--a halt longer than necessary, it seemed to Jerrie, who under the +folds of her veil did not see the tall young man making his way through +the ranks of the people crowding the road, straining every nerve to +reach the hearse, which he did just as the four young men were taking +the coffin from it. + +With a quick movement he put Paul Crosby aside, saying, apologetically: + +'Excuse me, Paul. I must carry Maude to her grave. She wished it so.' + +Then, taking the young man's place, he went slowly on to the open grave +near which piles and piles of flowers were lying ready to cover the +young girl who it was hard for him to believe was there beneath his +hand, cold and dead, with no word of welcome for him who had tried so +hard to see her, and was only in time for this, to help lay her in the +grave and to listen to the solemn words 'ashes to ashes,' and hear the +dreadful sound of earth to earth falling upon the box which held the +beautiful coffin and the lovely girl within it. + +Even then Jerrie did not see him, but when she took a step or two +forward to look into the grave before it was filled up, and someone put +a hand upon her shoulder and said, 'Not too near, Jerrie,' she started +suddenly, with a suppressed cry, and turning, saw Harold standing by +her, tall, and erect, and self-possessed, as he faced the multitude, +some of whom had suspected him of a crime, but all of whom were ready +now to do him justice and bid him welcome home. + +'Oh, Harold,' Jerrie said, as she grasped his arm, 'I am so glad you are +here. I wish you had come before.' + +Harold could not reply, for they were now leaving the spot, and many +gathered around him; first and foremost, Peterkin, who came tramping +through the grass, puffing like an engine, and, unmindful of the time or +place, slapping him upon the shoulder, as he said: 'Well, my boy, glad +to see you back, 'pon my soul, I be; but you flustrated all my plans. I +was meanin' to give you an oblation; got it, all arranged, and you +spiled it by takin' us onawares, like a thief in the night. I beg your +pardon,' he continued, as he met a curious look in Harold's eyes, 'I'm a +blunderin' cuss, I be. I didn't mean nothin', I've ever meant nothin', +and if I hev' I'm sorry for it.' + +Harold did not hear the last, for he was handing Jerrie into the +carriage with her father, who bade him enter, too; saying they would +leave him at the cottage where he wished to go as soon as possible. +There was no time for much conversation before the cottage was reached, +and Harold alighted at the gate, and no allusion whatever had been made +to Jerrie's changed relations until Harold stood looking at her as she +kept her seat by her father and made no sign of an intention to stop. +Then he said, as calmly as he could: + +'Do you stay at the Park House altogether now?' + +'Oh, no,' she answered quickly. 'I have been there a great deal with +Maude, but am coming home to-night. I could not leave grandma alone, you +know.' + +She acknowledged the home and the relationship still, and Harold's face +flushed with a look of pleasure, which deepened in intensity when +Arthur, with a wave of the hand habitual to him, said: + +'I must keep her now that you are here to see to the grandmother, but +will let you have her to-night. Come up later, if you like, and walk +home with her.' + +'I shall be most happy to do so,' Harold said, and then the carriage +drove away, while he went in to his grandmother, who had not attended +the funeral, but who knew that he had returned and was waiting for him. + + + + +CHAPTER LI. + +UNDER THE PINES WITH HAROLD. + + +It seemed to Harold that it had been a thousand years since he had left +Shannondale, so much had come into and so much had gone out of his life +since he said good-bye to the girl he loved and to the girl who loved +him. One was dead, and he had only come in time to help lay her in her +grave; while the other, the girl he loved, was, some might think, +farther removed from him than death itself could have removed her. + +But Harold did not feel so. He had faith in Jerrie--that she would not +change, though there had been a time during the first homesick weeks in +Tacoma, when, knowing from his grandmother of her convalescence, and +still hearing from her no explanation with regard to the diamonds, which +he knew a few still suspected him of having taken, in his impatience and +humiliation he had cried out, 'Jerrie has forgotten. She is not standing +by me, forever and ever, amen, as she once promised to do.' But this +feeling quickly passed, and there came a day when he read the judge's +letter in the privacy of his room at the Tacoma, and rejoiced with an +exceeding great joy for Jerrie, whose house and birthright had been so +strangely restored. He never doubted the story for a moment, but felt +rather as if he had known it always, and wondered how any one could have +imagined for a moment that blue-eyed, golden-haired Jerrie was the child +of the dark, coarse looking woman found dead beside her. 'I am so glad +for Jerrie,' he said, without a thought that her relations to himself +would in any way be changed. + +Once, when she had told him of the fancies which haunted her so often, +he had put them from him with a fear that, were they true, Jerrie would +be lost to him forever. But he had no such misgivings now; and when +Jerrie's letter came, urging his return, both for her own sake and +Maude's, he wrote a few hurried lines to her, telling her how glad he +was for her, and of his intention to start for the East as soon as +possible. 'To-morrow, perhaps,' he wrote, 'in which case I may be there +before this letter reaches you, for the mails are sometimes slow, and +the judge's communication was overdue three or four days.' + +Starting the second day after his letter, Harold travelled day and +night, while something seemed beckoning him on--Maude's thin, white +face, and Jerrie's, too; and when, between St. Paul and Chicago, there +came a detention from a freight car off the track, he felt that he must +fly, so sure was he that he was wanted and anxiously looked for at Tracy +Park, where at that very time Maude was dying. The next afternoon he +left Chicago, and with no further accident reached Shannondale just as +the long procession was winding its way to the cemetery. + +He had heard from an acquaintance in Springfield that Maude was dead, +and of her request that he should be one of the pall-bearers, together +with Dick, and Fred, and Billy. 'And I will do it yet,' he said, with a +throb of pain, as he thought of the little girl who had died believing +that he loved her. Once or twice he had resolved to write and tell her +as carefully as possible of her mistake, but as often had changed his +mind, thinking to wait until she was better; and now she was dead, and +the chance for explanation gone forever; but he would, if possible, +carry out the wish she had expressed with regard to himself. + +Striking into the fields from the station, he reached the cemetery in +time to take his place by Billy and carry poor little Maude to her last +resting place; and then he looked for Jerrie, and felt an indefinable +thrill when he saw her on her father's arm, and began to realize that +she was Jerrie Tracy. But all that was over now; he had talked with her +face to face, and had found her the Jerrie he had always known, and he +was going to see her in her own home, at Tracy Park--the daughter of the +house, the heiress of Arthur Tracy, and of more than two millions, it +was said--for, despite Frank's extravagance, all of which Arthur had met +without a protest, his money had accumulated rapidly, so that he was a +much richer man now, than when he first came home from Europe. + +Harold found the family at dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Tracy and Tom in the +dining-room, and Arthur and Jerrie in the Gretchen room, to which he was +taken at once. + +'Come in--come in, my boy. You are just in time for dessert,' Arthur +said, rising with alacrity and going forward to meet him; while Jerrie, +too, arose and took his hand, and made him sit by her, and questioned +him on his journey, and helped him to the fairest peach and the finest +bunch of grapes, and, without seeming to do so, examined him from head +to foot, and thought how handsome and grand he was, and felt sure that +her father thought so too. + +With a part of the first money Billy had paid him, or rather had told +him to draw in Tacoma, Harold had bought himself the clothes which he +needed sadly; and though it was only a business suit, and had travelled +thousands of miles, it fitted him well, and it was not at all a shabby +Harold sitting at Arthur's table, but a young man of whom anyone might +have been proud. And Jerrie was proud of him and of her father, too, as +they talked together; and Harold showed no sign of any inequality, even +if he felt it, which he did not. + +'A fine young man, with the best of manners, and carries himself as he +were the lord high chancellor,' Arthur said, when, after dinner, Harold +left there to pay his respects to the other inmates of the family, whom +he found just leaving the dining-room. + +Dolly bowed to him coldly at first, and was about to pass on, when, with +a burst of tears, she offered him her hand, and sobbed: + +'Oh, Harold, why didn't you come before? Maude wanted to see you so +badly.' + +This was a great deal for Dolly, and Tom stared at her in amazement, +while Harold explained that he had come as soon as he possibly could, +and tried to say something of Maude, but could not, for the tears which +choked him. Frank was unfeignedly glad to see him, and told him so. + +'Our dear little girl was fond of you, Hal. I am sure she was, and I +shall always like you for that. Heaven bless you, my boy,' he said, as +he wrung Harold's hand and then hurried away after his wife, leaving +Harold alone with Tom, who, awfully afraid he should break down, said, +indifferently: + +'Glad to see you, Hal. Wish you had come before Maude died. She was in +a tearin' way to see you. Have a cigar? Got a prime lot in my room. Will +you go there? + +Harold was in no mood for cigars, and, declining Tom's offer, sauntered +awhile around the grounds, where he found himself constantly expecting +to find the dead girl sitting under a tree wailing for him with the +light whose meaning he now knew kindling in her beautiful eyes as she +bade him welcome and told him how glad she was to see him. He was glad +now that he had not written and told her of her mistake, and he felt in +his heart a greater tenderness for the Maude dead than he ever could +have felt for the Maude living. + +It was beginning to grow dark when he returned to the house where he +found Jerrie in the hall ready to go home. Arthur was at her side, with +his arm thrown lovingly around her, and as he passed her over to Harold, +he said: + +'Make the most of her to-night, my boy, for to-morrow she comes home to +stay. Heaven bless you, my daughter!' + +His words sent a thrill through both Harold and Jerrie, who walked on in +silence until they reached the four pines, where Jerrie halted suddenly +and said: + +'Let us sit down, Harold. I have a message from Maude, which I promised +to deliver the first time we were alone together after you came home.' + +Jerrie's voice trembled a little, and after they were seated she was +silent until Harold said to her: + +'You were going to tell me of Maude;' then she started and replied: + +'Yes; she wanted so much to see you and tell you herself. I don't know +what she meant, but she said she had made a mistake, and I must tell you +so, and that you would understand it. She had been thinking and +thinking, she said, and knew it was a stupid blunder of hers; that was +what she called it--a stupid blunder; and she was sorry for you that she +had made it, and bade me say so, and tell you no one knew but herself +and you. Dear little Maude! I wish she had not died.' + +Jerrie was crying now, and perhaps that was the reason she did not mind +when Harold put his arm around her and drew her closer to him, so close +that his brown hair touched her golden curls, for the night was warm and +she had brought her bonnet in her hand all the way, while he had taken +off his hat when they sat down under the pines, which moaned and sighed +above them for a moment, and then grew still, as if listening for what +Harold would say. + +'Yea,' he began slowly, 'I think I know what Maude meant by the mistake. +Did she say I must tell you what it was?' + +'She said you would tell me, but perhaps you'd better not,' Jerrie +replied, + +'Yes, I must tell you,' he continued, 'as a preliminary to what I have +to say to you afterward, and what I did not mean to say quite so soon; +but this decides me,' and Harold drew Jerrie a little closer to him as +he went on: 'Did you ever think that I loved poor little Maude?' + +'Yes, I have thought so,' was Jerrie's answer. + +'She thought so, too,' Harold continued, 'and it was all my fault; my +blunder, not hers. I loved her as I would a sister; as I did you in the +olden days, Jerrie. She was so sweet and good, and so interested in you +and all I wanted to do for you, that I regarded her as a very dear +friend, nothing more. And because I looked upon her this way, I +foolishly went to her once to confess my love for another; her dearest +and most intimate friend, and ask if she thought I had a chance for +success. I must have bungled strangely, for she mistook my meaning and +thought I was speaking of herself and in a way she accepted me; and +before I had time to explain, her mother came in and I have never seen +her since; but I shall never forget the eyes which looked at me so +gladly, smiting me so cruelly for the delusion in which I had to leave +her. That is what Maude meant. She saw the mistake, and wished to +rectify it by giving me the chance to tell you myself what I wanted to +tell you then and dared not.' + +Jerrie trembled violently, but made no answer, and Harold went on: + +'It may seem strange that I, who used to be so much afraid of Jerrie +Crawford that I dared not tell her of my love, have the courage to do it +now that she is Jerrie Tracy, and I do not understand it myself. Once +when you told me your fancies concerning your birth, a great fear took +possession of me, lest I should lose you, if they were true; but when I +heard that they were true, I felt so sure of you that I could scarcely +wait for the time when I could ask you, as I now do, to be my wife, poor +as I am, with nothing but love to give you. Will you, Jerrie?' + +His face was so close to hers now that her hot cheeks touched his as she +bent her head lower and lower, but she made no reply for a moment, and +then she cried: + +'Oh, Harold, it seems so soon, with Maude only buried to-day. What shall +I say? What ought I to say?' + +'Shall I tell you?' he answered, taking her hand in his. 'Say the first +English word you ever spoke, and which I taught you. Do you remember +it?' + +'_Iss_' came involuntarily from Jerrie, in the quick, lisping accent of +her babyhood, when that was all the English she could master; and almost +before it had escaped her, Harold smothered it with the kisses he +pressed upon her lips as he claimed her for his own. + +'But, Harold,' she tried to explain between his kisses, 'I meant that I +_did_ remember. You must not--you must not kiss me so fast. You take my +breath away. There! I won't stand it any longer. I'm going straight home +to tell grandma how you act!' + +'And so am I,' Harold said, rising as she did, but keeping his arm +around her as they went slowly along in the soft September night, with +the stars, which were shining for the first time on Maude's grave, +looking down upon then, and a thought of Maude in their hearts, and her +dear name often upon their lips, as they talked of the past as lovers +will, trying to recall just when it was that friendship ceased and love +began, and deciding finally that neither knew nor cared when it was, so +great was their present joy and anticipation of the future. + + + + +CHAPTER LII. + +'FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE.' + + +'Grandma, Jerrie has promised to be my wife!' Harold said to his +grandmother that night when he took Jerrie in to her about ten o'clock, +during which time they had walked to the Tramp House, and sitting down +upon the chair which would hold but one, had talked the whole matter +over, from the morning Harold first saw the sweet little face in the +carpet-bag to the present moment when the same sweet face was pressed +lovingly against his, and the same arms which had clung to him in the +snow were around his neck in the darkness, as they went over with the +old, old story, newest always and best to the last one who listens to it +and believes that it is true. + +'Father, I have promised to marry Harold,' Jerrie said to Arthur the +next morning as she stood before him in the Gretchen room, with Harold's +hand in hers, and a look in her face something like what Gretchen's had +worn when Arthur first called her his wife. + +'Lord bless you, I knew it was coming, but did not think it would be +quite so soon. You shock my nerves dreadfully,' Arthur exclaimed, +springing up and walking two or three times across the room. Then, +confronting the young couple, he said, 'Going to marry Harold? I knew +you would all this time. Well, he will do as well as any one to look +after the business. Frank is no good, and Colvin is too old. So, get +married at once, within a week if you like. I'm off for Germany next +month, to find Gretchen's grave, and the house, and the picture, and +everything, and as I shall take you with me I shall need some one with +brains to look after things while I am gone.' + +'But father,' Jerrie began, 'if I go to Germany, Harold will go, too, +and if he stops here, I shall stay.' + +Arthur looked at her inquiringly a moment, and then, as he begun to +understand, replied: 'Ah, yes, I see; "where thou goest, I go, and +where thou--" and so forth, and so forth. Well, all right; only you must +come here directly; it will never do to stay there, now you are engaged; +and you must be married in this room, with Gretchen looking on, and +soon, too. No wedding, of course, Maude's death is too recent for that; +but soon, very soon, so we can get off. I'll engage passage at once in +the Germanic, which sails the 15th of October, and you shall be married +the 10th. That's three weeks from to-day, and will give you a few days +in New York. I'll leave Frank here till we return, and then he must go, +of course, and the new mistress step in with Mrs. Crawford to +superintend. We will get some nice man and woman to stay with her while +we are gone.' + +He had settled everything rapidly, but Jerrie had something to say upon +the subject. She did not wish to come to Tracy Park altogether while +Mrs. Tracy was there; she would rather enjoy the lovely room which +Harold had built for her, she said, and preferred to be married in the +cottage, the only home she had ever known. + +'I shall stay with you all day,' she continued, 'but go home at night.' + +'And so have a long walk with Harold. Yes, I see,' Arthur said, +laughingly, but assenting finally to her proposal. + +It was Jerrie now who planned everything, with Harold's assistance, and +who broached the subject of Frank's future to her father, asking what +provision he intended to make for him when he left Tracy Park. + +'What provision?' Arthur said. 'I guess he has made provision for +himself all these years, when my purse has been as free to him as +myself. Colvin tells me there has been an awful lot of money spent +somewhere.' + +'Yes,' Jerrie replied, 'but you gave him permission to spend it, and it +would hardly be fair now to leave him with little or nothing, and he so +broken down. When Maude feared she was going to die, and before she knew +who I was, she wrote a letter for her father and you, asking him to give +me what he would have given her, and you to do the same. So now, I want +you to give Maude's father what you would have given me for Maude's +sake.' + +'Bless my soul, Jerrie!' Arthur said. 'What a beggar you are! I don't +know what I should have given you; all I am worth, perhaps. How much +will satisfy you for Frank? Tell me, and it is done.' + +Jerrie thought one hundred thousand dollars would not be any too much, +nor did it seem so to Arthur, who placed but little value upon his +money, and Jerrie was deputed to tell her uncle what provision was to be +made for him, and that, if he wished, he was to remain at the park until +his brother's return from Europe. + +Frank was not in his own room, but Mrs. Tracy was, and to her Jerrie +first communicated the intelligence that she was to be married and go +with her father to Germany. The look which the highly scandalized lady +gave her was wonderful, as she said: + +'Married! almost before the crape is off the door, or the flowers wilted +on Maude's grave! Well, that shows how little we are missed; and I am +not surprised, though I think Maude would be, at Harold, certainly. I +suppose you know there was something between them; but a man will do any +thing for money. I wish you joy of your husband.' + +Jerrie was too indignant to explain any thing, and hurried off in quest +of her uncle, whom she found in Maude's room, where he spent the most of +his time, walking up and down and examining the different articles which +had belonged to his daughter, and which, at his request, remained +untouched as she had left them. Her brushes, her comb, her bottled +perfumery, her work-box, her Bible, a little half-finished sketch, and +her soft bed-slippers she had worn when she died, and one of which he +held in his hand when Jerrie went in to him. + +'It is so like Maude,' he said, with quivering lips, as she went to his +side, 'and when I hold it in my hand I can almost hear the dear little +feet, which I know are cold and dead, coming along the hall as she used +to come, and will never come again. I think I should like to die here in +this room and go where Maude has gone, and I believe I should go there. +I am sure God has forgiven me, and Maude forgave me, too, for I told +her.' + +'You did! I thought so,' Jerrie said. + +'Yes, I had to tell her,' he continued, 'and I am glad I did, and she +loved me just the same. You saw her die. You heard what she said to me. +She must have believed in me, and that keeps me from going mad. I told +Dolly, too; the shadow was so black I had to; and she said she'd never +speak to me again as long as she lived, and she didn't either until last +night, when I was alone in here, crying on Maude's bed; then she came to +me and called me Frank, and said she was sorry she had been so hard, and +asked me what we were going to do, and where we were going. I'm sure I +don't know; do you?' + +He was so broken, so like a child in his appeal to her, that Jerrie's +tears came fast as she told him of her approaching marriage and what her +father intended doing for him. Then Frank broke down entirely, and cried +like a child. + +'I don't deserve it, and I know I owe it to you, whom I have injured so +much,' he said, while Jerrie tried to comfort him. + +'I must go back now to father,' she said at last; and, with a kiss upon +his worn face, she went out into the hall, where she encountered Tom +just coming from his mother's room. + +'Hallo!' Tom cried, with an attempt at a smile, 'and so you are going to +marry Harold?' + +'Yes, Tom; I'm going to marry Harold,' Jerrie replied, unhesitatingly, +as she laid her hand on Tom's arm and walked with him down the stairs. + +It seemed to her the most natural thing in the world that she should +marry Harold, and she was not at all abashed in speaking of it to Tom; +but when outside they saw Harold coming up the walk, the color rushed to +her cheeks, and her eyes grew wondrously bright with the love-light +which shown in them, as she dropped Tom's arm and hurried to Harold's +side. + +'By George, I b'lieve I'll go and hang myself!' Tom said, under his +breath, as he stalked moodily away; but instead of that he went across +the fields to Le Bateau, where he sat for an hour, talking with old +Peterkin and waiting for Ann Eliza, who had gone to Springfield, her +father said, after a new gown, for which he was to pay two hundred +dollars. + +'Think on't!' he continued. 'When we was fust married and run the 'Liza +Ann, the best gown May Jane had to her back was a mereener or +balzarine--dummed if I know what you call it--at one and ninepence a +yard; but now, lord land, what's two hundred dollar gownd to me! Ann +Eliza can have forty on 'em, if she wants to. There she is; there's the +kerridge! By gosh, though, ain't she a neat little filly!' and the +father's face glowed with pride as he watched his daughter alighting +from the carriage, to which Tom had hastened in order to assist her, for +she was still a little lame and limped as she walked. + +He saw the two hundred dollar gown, for Peterkin would have it +displayed, and admired it, of course, and wished thut he had half the +sum it cost in his own right, and wondered if he could stand it, as he +walked slowly home, where he heard from his mother that they were still +to remain at Tracy Park for a while, and that his father was to have one +hundred thousand dollars settled upon him. + +'I guess now I'll wait a spell, and let old Peterkin go to thunder,' he +decided, and for two weeks and more Ann Eliza watched in vain for his +coming, while Peterkin remarked to his wife that if Tom Tracy was goin' +to play fast and loose with his gal, he'd find himself brought up +standin' mighty lively. + +The news that Harold and Jerrie were soon to be married, and go with +Arthur to Germany, created some surprise, and some talk, too, in town, +where many of the people had believed that there had been an +understanding, if not an engagement, between Harold and Maude. But Tom +put that right with a few decided words. There had never been an +engagement, he said. Maude had liked Harold very much, and he had liked +her, but had always preferred Jerrie; in short, matters had been as good +as settled between them, long ago. + +This last was a little fiction of Tom's brain, but the people accepted +it as true, and began to look eagerly forward to the approaching +marriage, wondering, as people will, who would be invited, and who would +not. It took place the 10th of October, in Mrs. Crawford's little +parlor, with only a few intimate friends present--Grace Atherton, the +St. Claires, Ann Eliza Peterkin, and the Tracys, with the exception of +Dolly, who could not do so great violence to her feeling, as to attend a +wedding. Billy was not there, but he sent a magnificent emerald ring to +Jerrie, with the following note: + + DEAR JERRIE,--I can't see you married, although I am glad for you, + and glad for Hal. God bless you both. I shall never forget you as + long as I live; and when you come back, maybe I can bear to see you + as Hal's wife, but now it would kill me. Good-bye. + +Jerrie read this note with wet eyes up in her room, and then passed it +to Harold, to whom she told of that episode under the butternut tree, +when Billy asked her to be his wife. + +'Poor Billy! I am awful sorry for him, but I can't let him have you, +Jerrie,' Harold said, passing the note back to her, and kissing her +tenderly, as he added: 'That is my last kiss for Jerrie Tracy, my little +girl of the carpet-bag. When I kiss you again, you will be my wife.' + +'Come, children, we are waiting,' came with startling distinctness from +Arthur at the foot of the stairs, and then Harold and Jerrie went down +to the parlor, where they were soon made one, Arthur giving the bride +away, and behaving pretty well under the circumstances. + +He had been very flighty the day before, insisting that Jerrie should be +married in white, with a blue ribbon on her bonnet, just as Gretchen had +been, and when she reminded him of Maude's recent death, he replied: + +'Well, Gretchen will wear colors if you do not.' + +And again he brought out and laid upon his bed the dress bought in Paris +years before, and which had been waiting for Gretchen on that stormy +night when he heard the wild cry of the dying woman above the wintery +gale. She was with him again in fancy, and when he went out to the +carriage which was to carry him to the cottage, he stepped back and +stood a moment by the door as if to let some one enter before him, and +all during the ceremony those nearest to him heard him whispering to +himself, 'I, Arthur, take thee, Gretchen,' and so forth; but when it was +over he came to himself and seemed perfectly rational, as he kissed his +daughter and shook hands with his son-in-law, to whom he gave a check +for ten thousand dollars, saying as he did so, that young men must have +a little spending money. + +It was a very pleasant wedding, and every one seemed happy, even to +Dick, whose spirits, however, were rather too gay to be quite natural, +and whose voice shook just a little as he called Jerrie Mrs. Hasting, +and told her he hoped to see her in Paris in the spring as he thought of +going over there with Nina to join the Raymonds. + +'Oh, I hope you will! Nothing could make me so happy as to meet you +there,' Jerrie said, looking at him with an expression which told him +she was thinking of the pines and was sorry for him. + +The newly married pair were going directly to New York, where Arthur was +to join them on the 4th, as the _Germanic_ sailed the 15th. + +All the wedding guests accompanied them to the station, Tom accepting a +seat in the coupé with Ann Eliza, who wore her two hundred dollar gown, +and was, of course, overdressed. But Tom did not think much about that. +He was ill at ease that morning, though trying to seem natural; and when +the train which took Jerrie away disappeared from view, he felt as if +everything which had made life desirable had left him forever, and he +cared but little now what he did, or with whom his lot was cast. + +So when Ann Eliza, who had cried at parting with Jerrie, dried her eyes +and said to him, 'It is such a fine day; suppose we drive along the +river; it may dispel the blues,' he assented, and soon found himself +bowling along the smooth turnpike with Ann Eliza, whom he thought rather +interesting, with the tears shed for Jerrie on her long, light +eyelashes. + +'I shall miss her so much, and be so lonely without her. I hope you'll +call often,' she said to him, when at last the drive was over, and Tom +promised that he would, and kept his promise, too; for after Arthur +left, he found Tracy Park so insupportably dull, with his father always +in Maude's room and his mother always in tears, that it was a relief to +go to Le Bateau and be made much of as if he were a prince and treated +to nice little lunches and suppers, even if old Peterkin did make one of +the party and disgust him so at times that he felt as if he must snatch +up his hat and fly. + +And one night, when the old man had been more than usually disagreeable +and pompous, he did start up abruptly and leave the house, mentally +vowing never to enter it again. + +'I'd rather saw wood and gather swill, as Hal used to, than listen to +that infernal old brag,' he was saying to himself, when he heard a +wheezy sound behind him, and looking round saw the old brag in full +pursuit and beckoning him to stop. + +'I'm goin' to walk a spell with you,' he said, locking his arm in Tom's +as he came up. 'I want to have a little talk.' + +'Yes,' Tom faltered, with a dreadful sinking of the heart, while +Peterkin went on: + +'You see you've been a comin' to Lubbertoo off and on for mighty nigh a +month, and as the parents of a family it's time I as't your intentions.' + +'Intentions!' Tom stammered, trying to draw his arm from Peterkin's. + +But he might as well have tried to wrench it from a vise, for Peterkin +held it fast and went on: + +'Yes, intentions! Thunderation, hain't a chap 'sposed to have intentions +when he hangs round a gal who has money like my Ann 'Liza! I tell you +what, Thomas,' and his manner became very insinuating and frank, 'as +nigh as I can kalkerlate I'm worth three millions, fair and square, and +there's three on 'em to divide it amongst--May Jane, Bill, and Ann +'Liza. Now, s'posin' we say three into three million, don't it leave a +million?' + +Tom acknowledged that it did, and Peterkin continued: + +'Jess so. Now I ain't one of them mean skunks that wants his folks to +wait till he's dead afore they enjoys themselves; and the day my Ann +'Liza is married, I plank down a million in hard cash for her and her +husband to do what they darned please with; cut a dash in Europe as Hal +is doin', if they like, or cut a splurge to hum, it's all one to me. I +call that square, don't you?' + +Tom admitted that he did, and Peterkin went on: + +'Now, then, I ain't goin't to have Ann 'Liza's affections trifled with, +and if I catch a feller a doin' on't, d'ye know what I'll do?' + +Tom could not guess, and Peterkin continued: + +'I'll lick him within an inch of his life, and then set the dogs on him, +and heave him inter the river! See?' + +It was not a warm day, but Tom was perspiring at every pore as he saw +presented to him the choice between a million or to be 'licked within an +inch of his life and then dogged into the river.' Naturally he chose the +first as the lesser evil of the two, and began to lie as he had never +lied in his life before. He was very glad, he said, that Peterkin had +broached the subject, as it made matters easier for him by showing him +that his suit might not be rejected, as he had feared it might be. + +'You know, of course, Mr. Peterkin,' he said, 'that I am a poor young +man, with no expectations whatever, for though Uncle Arthur has settled +something upon father, I cannot depend upon that, and how could I dare +to look as high as your daughter without some encouragement?' + +'Encouragement, boy? Great Scott!' and releasing Tom's arm, Peterkin hit +him a friendly slap, which nearly knocked him down. 'Great Scott! What +do you call encouragement? When a gal is so flustified at seeing you, +and so tickled that she tetters right up and down, while her mother +hunts heaven and earth for tit-bits to tickle your palate with--quail on +toast, mushrooms, sweet-breads, and the Lord knows what--ain't that a +sign they are willin'? Thunder and guns! what would you have? Ann 'Liza +can't up and say "Marry me, Tom;" nor I can't up and say, "Thomas, marry +my daughter," can I? But if you want to marry her, say so like a man, +and I swan I'll meet you like a man, and a father!' + +Alas for Tom! he had nothing left him to do except to say that he wished +to marry Ann Eliza, and that he would come the next evening and tell her +so. + +It was Peterkin who answered his ring when he presented himself at the +door of Le Bateau, Peterkin more inflated and pompous than ever as he +shook the young man's hand, calling him Thomas--a name which aggravated +him beyond all description--and telling him to go right into the parlor, +where he would find Ann 'Liza waitin' for him, and where they could bill +and coo as much as they liked, for he and May Jane would keep out of the +way and give 'em a chance. + +Even then Tom cast one despairing glance toward the door, with a half +resolve to bolt; but Peterkin was behind him, pushing him on to his +fate, which, after all, was not so very bad when he came to face it. +There was nothing low, or mean, or coarse about Ann Eliza, who, but for +her very bright red hair, would have been called pretty by some, and who +was by no means ill-looking, even with her red hair, as she stood up to +receive her lover, with a droop in her eyes, and a flush on her cheeks; +for she knew the object of his visit, into which he plunged at once. He +did not say that he loved her, but he asked her in a straightforward +way to be his wife, and then waited for her answer, which was not long +in coming, for Ann Eliza was no dissembler. She loved Tom Tracy with her +whole soul, and felt herself honored in being sought by him. + +'Oh, Tom!' she said, while the tears shone in her eyes, which Tom +noticed for the first time were large and clear and very blue. 'It does +not seem possible for you to love me, but, if you really do, I will be +your wife and try to make you happy, and--and--' + +She hesitated a moment and then went on: + +'Save you as much as possible from father. We cannot live here; you and +he would not get on; he means well and is the kindest of fathers to me, +but he is not like you, and we must go away.' + +She was really a very sensible girl, Tom thought, and in his joy at +finding her so sensible he stooped and kissed her forehead as the proper +thing for him to do, while she, the poor little mistaken girl, threw +herself into his arms and began to cry, she was so glad and happy. + +Tom did not know exactly what he ought to do. It was a novel situation +for him to be in, with a girl sobbing on his bosom, and his first +impulse was to push her off; but when he remembered that she represented +a million of dollars, he did what half the men in the world would have +done in his place: he held her close and tried to quiet her, and told +her he was not half good enough for her, and knew in his heart he was +telling the truth, and felt within him that stirring of a resolve that +she should never know he did not love her, and that he would make her +happy, if he could. + +And so they were betrothed without much billing and cooing, and Peterkin +came in with Mary Jane and made a speech half-an-hour long to his future +son-in-law, and settled just when they were to be married and what they +were to do. + +Christmas week was the time, and he vowed he'd give 'em a wedding which +should take the starch entirely out of Gusty Browne, whose mother, Mrs. +Rossiter Browne, would think Gusty was never married at all when she saw +what he could do. Greatly he lamented that Harold and Jerry could not be +present. 'But they'll see it in the papers,' he said, 'for I'll have a +four column notice, if I write it myself, and pay for it too! And when +you meet 'em in Europe you can tell 'em what they missed.' + +To all this Tom listened, with great drops of cold sweat running down +his back as he thought of the ridicule he should incur if Peterkin +should carry out his intentions to 'take the rag off the bush,' as he +expressed it. The trip to Europe pleased him, but the party filled him +with a horror from which he saw no escape, until he consulted his +mother, to whom he at once announced his engagement, but did not tell +her of the check on a Springfield bank for $2,000 which Peterkin had +slipped into his hand at parting with him, saying, when he protested +against taking it: + +'Don't be a fool, Thomas. I'm to be your dad, so take it; you'll need +it. I know your circumstances; they ain't what they was, and I don't +s'pose you've got enough to buy the engagement ring, I want a big one. A +solitary--no cluster for me. I know what 'tis to be poor. Take it, +Thomas.' + +So Tom took it with a sense of shame which prompted him several times to +tear it in shreds and throw them to the winds. But this he did not do, +for he knew he should need money, as he had none of his own; and when, a +few days before, he had asked Colvin for some, that worthy man, who had +never taken kindly to him, had bidden him go to a very warm place for +money, as he had no orders to give him any. + +'Your uncle,' he said, 'settled one hundred thousand dollars on your +father--the more fool he--and expects him to live on it. So my advice to +you is that you go to work.' + +Now, Tom couldn't work, and after a little Peterkin's gift did not seem +so very humiliating to him, although he could not bring himself to tell +his mother of it when he announced his engagement to her, which he did +bluntly and with nothing apologetic in his manner or speech. + +'I am going to marry Ann Eliza Peterkin some time during the holidays, +and start at once for Europe,' he said, and then brought some water and +dashed it in her face, for she immediately went into hysterics and +declared herself dying. + +When she grew calm, Tom swore a little, and talked a good deal, and told +her about the million, which he said was not to be sneezed at, and told +her what Colvin had said to him, and asked what the old Harry he was to +do if he didn't marry Ann Eliza, and told her of the proposed party, +asking her to save him from it if she could. + +When she found she could not help herself, Dolly rose to the situation, +and said she would see her daughter-in-law elect, whom Tom was to bring +to her, as she could not think of calling at Le Bateau in her present +state of affliction. So Ann Eliza came over in the coat-of-arms +carriage, and her mother came with her. But her Dolly declined to see. +She could not endure everything, she said to Tom, and was only equal to +Ann Eliza, whom she met with a bow and the tips of her fingers, without +rising from her chair. Still, as the representative of a million, Ann +Eliza was entitled to some consideration, and Dolly motioned her to a +seat beside her, and, with her black-bordered handkerchief to her eyes, +said to her: + +'Tom tells me you are going to marry him, and I trust you will try to +make him happy. He is a most estimable young man now, and if he should +develop any bad habits, I shall think it owing to some new and bad +influence brought to bear upon him.' + +'Yes'm,' Ann Eliza answered, timidly; and the great lady went on to talk +of family, and blood, and position, as something for which money could +not make amends, and to impress upon her a sense of the great honor it +was to be a member of the Tracy family. + +Then she spoke of the wedding party, which she trusted Ann Eliza would +prevent, as nothing could be in worse taste when they were in such +affliction, adding that neither herself nor Mr. Tracy could think of +being present. + +'Be married quietly, without any display, if you wish to please me,' she +said; and with a wave of her cobweb handkerchief she signified that the +conference was ended. + +'Well, Annie, how did you and my lady hit it?' Tom asked, meeting Ann +Eliza in the hall as she came out, flushed and hot from the interview. + +'We didn't hit it at all,' Ann Eliza replied, with a sound of tears in +her voice, and a gleam in her eye which Tom had never seen before. 'She +just talked as if I were dirt, and that you were only marrying me for +money. She don't like me and I don't like her, there!' and the indignant +little girl began to cry. + +Tom laughed immoderately, and, passing his arm around her as they went +down the stairs, he said: + +'Of course you don't like her. Who ever did like her mother-in-law? But +you are marrying me, not my mother, so don't cry, _petite_.' + +Tom was making an effort to be very kind, and even lover-like to his +_fiancée_, who was easily comforted, and who, on her return to Le Bateau +told her father plainly that the party must be given up, as it would be +sadly out of place and deeply offend the Tracys. Very unwillingly +Peterkin gave it up, and sent word to that effect to Mrs. +Rossiter-Browne, who had already been apprised of the coming event and +was having a wonderful gown made for the occasion. + +'I find,' he wrote, 'that it wouldn't be at all _rachelshay_ to have a +blow out whilst the family is in deep black; but when they git into +lavender, and the young folks is home from their tower, I'll have a +tearer.' + +Peterkin tried two or three times to see Mrs. Tracy, but she put him off +with one excuse after another, until Tom took the matter in hand and +told her she was acting like a fool and putting on quite too many airs. +Then she appointed an interview, and, bracing herself with a tonic, went +down to the darkened, cheerless room, and by her manner so managed to +impress him with her superiority over him and his that he forgot +entirely the speech he had prepared with infinite pains, and which had +in it a good deal about family _bonds_, and family _units_, and _Aaron's +beard_, and brotherly love. This he had rehearsed many times to May +Jane, with wonderful gestures and flourishes; 'but, I'll be bumped' he +said to her on his return from the Park House, 'if I didn't forget every +blessed word, she was so high and mighty. Lord! as if I didn't know what +she sprung from; but that's the way with them as was born to nothin'. +May Jane, if I ever catch you puttin' on airs 'cause you're a Peterkin, +I b'lieve I'll kill you!' + +After this, anything like familiar intercourse ceased between the heads +of the two families until the morning after Christmas day, when Frank +and Dolly drove over to Le Bateau, where were assembled the same people +who had been present at Jerrie's wedding, and where Peterkin insisted +upon darkening the rooms and lighting the gas, as something a little out +of the usual order of things in Shannondale. Peterkin was very happy, +and very proud of this alliance with the Tracy, and his pride and +happiness shone in his face all through the ceremony; and when the +clergyman asked, 'Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?' his +manner was something grand to see as he stepped forward and responded, +'I do, sir,' in a voice so loud and full of importance that Dolly +involuntarily groaned, while Tom found it hard to refrain from laughing. + +Tom behaved very well, and kissed his bride before any one else had a +chance to do so, and called May Jane mother and Peterkin father, after +he saw the papers which made Ann Eliza own in her own right a million +dollars; and when, an hour later, she handed over to him as his own, a +deed of property valued at one hundred thousand dollars, he took her in +his arms and kissed her again, telling her what was very true, that she +was worth her weight in gold. Tom had felt his poverty keenly, and all +the more so that Ann Eliza's engagement-ring, a superb solitaire, had +actually been bought with her father's gift, as had their passage +tickets to Europe. But now he was a rich man, made so by his wife's +thoughtful generosity, and he was conscious of a new set of feelings and +emotions with regard to her, and inwardly vowed that, so far as in him +lay, he would make her happy. + +They took the train for New York that afternoon, accompanied by +Peterkin, who, when the ship sailed away next day, stood upon the wharf +waving his hands and calling out as long as they could hear him, 'God +bless you, my children! God bless you, my children!' Then he went back +to Shannondale and called at Tracy Park, and reported to Frank, the only +one he saw, that the youngsters had gone, and that Mrs. Thomas Tracy +looked as well as the best on 'em in the ship, and a darned sight better +than some! + +After this the great houses of Le Bateau and Tracy Park settled down +into perfect quiet, especially that of Tracy Park, where Dolly shut +herself up in her mourning and crape, and Frank spent most of his time +in Maude's room, with her photograph in his hand, and his thoughts busy +with memories of the dear little girl lying in her grave of flowers +under the winter snow. + + + + +CHAPTER LIII. + +AFTER TWO YEARS. + + +Two years since Harold and Jerrie went away, and it was October again, +and the doors and windows of the Park House were all open to the warm +sunshine which filled the rooms, where the servants were flitting in and +out with an air of importance and pleased expectancy, for that afternoon +the master was coming home, with Harold and Jerrie; and what was more +wonderful and exciting still, there was in the party a little boy, born +in Wiesbaden six months before, and christened Frank Tracy. They had +gone directly to Germany--Arthur, Harold, and Jerrie--for the former +would not stop a day until Wiesbaden was reached; and there, overcome +with fatigue and the recollections of the past which crowded upon him so +fast, Arthur fell sick and was confined to his room in the hotel for a +week, during which time Jerrie explored the city with Harold and a +guide, finding every spot connected with Gretchen and her life, even to +the shop were Frau Heinrich had sold her small wares. + +As soon as her father was able, she took him to them one by one. Hand in +hand, for he seemed weak as a little child, they went to the bench under +the trees where he had first seen Gretchen knitting in the sunshine, +with the halo on her hair, and here Arthur took off his hat as if on +consecrated ground, and whispered, 'May God forgive me!' then to the +little shop once kept by Frau Heinrich, where Arthur astonished the +woman by buying out half her stock, which he ordered sent to his hotel, +and afterward gave away; then to the English church, where he knelt +before the altar and seemed to be praying, though the words he said were +spoken more to Gretchen than to God; then to the house where he had +lived with his bride, when heaven came down so close that she could +touch it, or rather, to the site of the house, for fire had done its +work there and they could only stand before the ruins, while Arthur said +again and again, 'May God forgive me!' then to the house where Jerrie +had lived and Gretchen had died, and where the picture still hung upon +the wall, a wonder and delight to all who had rented the place since +Marian's parents parents lived there. Jerrie recognized it in a moment, +and so did Arthur, but he could only wring his hands before it and sob, +'Oh, Gretchen, my darling, my darling!' Changed as the house was, Jerrie +found the room she remembered so well, where she had played and her +mother had died. + +'The big stove stood here,' she said, indicating the spot, 'and mother +sat there writing to you, when Nannine opened the door and let the +firelight shine upon the paper. I can see it all so distinctly, and over +there in the corner was the bed where she died.' + +Then Arthur knelt down upon the spot, and as if the oft-repeated +ejaculation, 'May God forgive me!' were wholly inadequate now, he said +the Lord's Prayer, with folded hands and streaming eyes, while Jerrie +stood over him, with her arm around his neck. + +'Oh, Gretchen,' he cried; 'do you know I am here after so many +years?--Arthur, your husband, who loved you through all? Come back to +me, Gretchen, and I'll be so tender and true--tender and true! My heart +is breaking, Gretchen, and only for Cherry, our dear little girl baby, I +should wish I were dead, like you. Oh, Gretchen! Gretchen! sweetest wife +a man ever called his! and yet I forgot you, darling--forgot that you +had ever lived! May heaven forgive me for I could not help it; I forgot +everything. Where are you, Cherry? It's getting so dark and cold, and +Gretchen is not here--I think you must take me home. + +Jerrie took him back to the hotel, where he kept his room for three +days, and then they went to Gretchen's grave beside her mother, which +Jerrie had found after some little search and enquiry. Here Arthur stood +like a statue, holding fast to Jerrie, and gazing down upon the +neglected grave, on which clumps of withered grass were growing and +blowing in the November wind. + +'Gretchen is not here in this place,' he said mournfully, with a shake +of his head. 'She couldn't rest there a moment, for she liked everything +beautiful and bright, and this is like the Potter's field. But we'll put +up a monument for her, and make the place attractive; and by and by, +when she is tired of wandering about, she may come back and rest when +she sees what we have done, and knows that we have been here. We will +buy that house too, he said, as he walked away from the lonely grave; +and the next day Harold found the owner of the place and commenced +negotiations for the house, which soon changed hands and became the +property of Arthur. + +Just what he meant to do with it he did not know, until Jerrie suggested +that he should make it an asylum for homeless children, who should +receive the kindest and tenderest care from competent and trustworthy +nurses, hired for the purpose. + +'Yes, I'll do it,' Arthur said, 'and will call it "The Gretchen Home." +Maybe she will come there some time, and know what I have done.' + +This idea once in his mind, Arthur never let go of it until the house +was fitted up with school-rooms and dormitories, with the little white +beds and chairs suggestive of the little ones rescued from want and +misery and placed in the Gretchen home until it would hold no more. The +general supervision of this home was placed in the hands of the English +rector, the Rev. James Dennis, whose many acts of kindness and humanity +among the poor had won for him the sobriquet of St. James, and with whom +the interests of the children were safe as with a loving father. + +'There is money enough--money enough,' said Arthur, when giving his +instructions to the matron, a good-natured woman, who, he knew, would +never abuse a child. 'Money enough; to give them something besides bread +and water for breakfast, and mush and molasses for supper. Children like +cookies and custard pie, and if there comes a circus to town let them go +once in a while; it won't hurt them to see a little of the world.' + +Frau Hirch looked at him in some surprise, but promised compliance with +his wishes; and when in the middle of December he left Wiesbaden for +Italy he had the satisfaction of knowing that the inmates of the +Gretchen home were enjoying a bill of fare not common in institutions of +the kind. + +Another odd fancy had entered his brain, upon which he acted with his +usual promptness. Every child not known to have been baptized, was to be +christened with a new name, either Gretchen, or Jerrie, or Maude or +Arthur, or Harold, or Frank. + +'Suppose you have Tom, and Ann Eliza, and Hilly,' Jerrie suggested, and +after a little demur Arthur consented, and the names of Tom, and Ann +Eliza, and Billy were added to the list, which, in the course of time, +created some little confusion in the Gretchen home, where Jerries, and +Maudes, and Harolds, and Arthurs abounded in great profusion, these +being the favorites of the children, who in most instances were allowed +to choose for themselves. + +It was not difficult to find in Wiesbaden people who had remembered +Gretchen and the grand marriage she had made with the rich American, who +afterward abandoned her. That was the way they worded it, and they +remembered too, the little girl, Jerrine, whom, after her mother's +death, the nurse, Nannine, took to her father's friends, since which +nothing had been heard from her. Thus, had there been in Arthur's mind +any doubt as to Jerrie's identity, it would have been swept away; but +there was none. He had accepted her from the first as his daughter, and +he always looked up to her as a child to its mother whom it fears to +lose sight of. + +The winter was mostly spent in Rome, where Harold and Jerrie explored +every part of the city, while Arthur staid in his room talking to an +unseen Gretchen, who afforded him almost as much satisfaction as the +real one might have done. In May they visited the lakes and in June +drifted to Paris, where Jerrie was overjoyed to meet Nina and Dick, who +were staying with the Raymonds at a charming chateau just outside the +city. Here she and Harold passed a most enjoyable week, and before she +left she was made happy by something which she saw and which told her +that Dick was forgetting that night under the pines, and that some day +not far in the future he would find in Marian all he had once hoped to +find in her. In Paris, too, she came one day upon Ann Eliza at the Bon +Marché, with silks and satins piled high around her, and two or three +obsequious clerks in attendance, for La Petite Américaine, who bought so +lavishly everything she saw and fancied, was well known to the +tradespeople, who eagerly sought her patronage and that of my lord +monsieur, who inspired them greatly with his air of importance and +dignity. Tom was enjoying himself immensely, and was really a good deal +improved and a good deal in love with his little wife, whom he always +addressed as Petite or Madame, and who was quite a belle and a general +favorite in the American colony. Following a fashion, which Tom was sure +had been made for his benefit, she had cut off her obnoxious red hair +and substituted in its place a wig of reddish brown, which for +naturalness and beauty was a marvel of art and skill, and became her so +well that Tom really thought her handsome, or at least very stylish and +stunning, which was better than mere beauty. They had a suite of rooms +at the Continental, and there Harold and Jerrie dined with them in their +private parlor, for Tom was quite too fine a gentleman to go to _table +d'hôte_ with the common herd. Ann Eliza's grand maid, Doris, was with +her still, and had come to look upon her young mistress as quite as +great a personage as the Lady Augusta Hardy, whom she had ceased to +quote, and who, with her mother, Mrs. Rossiter-Browne, was now in the +city, attended, it was said, by a Polish count, who had an eye upon her +money. Once, when they were alone, Jerrie asked Tom when he was going +home, and, with a comical twinkle in his eye, he replied, 'When I hear +that my respected father-in-law has gone off with apoplexy, and not +before.' Jerrie thought this a shocking speech, but she was glad to see +him so happy, and, as she told Harold, 'so much more of a man than she +had ever supposed he could be.' + +That summer Harold and Jerrie spent in Switzerland, with the Raymonds +and St. Claires and Tracys, while Arthur went to Wiesbaden to see to the +Gretchen Home, which he found so much to his taste that he remained +there until Harold and Jerrie, after a trip through Austria and Germany, +joined him in November, when they went again for the winter to Italy, +coming back in the spring to Wiesbaden, and because Arthur would have it +so, taking up their abode for a while in the Gretchen Home, which had +been greatly enlarged and improved, and now held thirty deserted and +homeless children. Here, in April, Jerrie's little boy was born, in the +same room and corner where Gretchen had died, and where Arthur again +went down upon his knees and said the Lord's Prayer, to which he added a +fervent thanksgiving for Jerrie spared and a baby given to him. + +'I hoped it would be a girl,' he said, 'for then we should have called +it Gretchen; but as it is a boy, suppose we name it Heinrich?' + +'No, father,' Jerrie said decidedly, 'Baby is not to be Heinrich, or +Arthur, or Harold, although I think the last the dearest name in the +world,' and she put up her hand caressingly to the brown beard of the +tall young man bending over to kiss her pale face and look at his son. +'We will call the baby Frank Tracy.' + +And so Frank Tracy was the name given to the child, who was more like +its father than its mother, and whom Arthur called Tracy, which he liked +better, he said, than he did Frank. + +They remained in Wiesbaden until June, then went to Switzerland and +Paris, and in October sailed for home, where the Park House was ready +for them, with no mistress to dispute Jerrie's rights and no master +except the lawful one. Just out of town on a grassy ridge overlooking +the river, a gentleman from New York had built a pretty little cottage, +which, as his wife died suddenly, he never occupied, but offered for +sale, with all its furniture and appointments. + +'Let's buy it,' Dolly said to her husband. 'We must go somewhere before +Arthur comes home, and we can live there very respectably and +economically, too.' + +She was beginning to count the cost of everything now, and was almost +penurious in her efforts to make their income go as far as possible. So +they bought the pretty place, which she called Ridge Cottage, but Frank +did not live to occupy it. After Tom went away and left him alone with +his wife, who was not the most agreeable of companions, he failed +rapidly, both in body and mind, and those who saw him walking about the +house, with his white hair and bent form, would have said he was seventy +rather than fifty years old. Every day, when the weather permitted, he +visited Maude's grave, where he sometime stayed for hours looking down +upon the mound talking to the insensible clay beneath. + +'I am coming soon, Maude, very soon, to be here beside you,' he would +say. 'Everybody has gone, even to Tom, and your mother is sometimes hard +upon me because of what I did. And I am tired, and cold, and old, and +the world is dark and dreary, and I am coming very soon.' + +Then he would walk slowly back, taking the post office on his way, to +inquire for letters from the folks, as he designated the absent ones. +These letters were a great comfort to him, especially those from Jerrie, +who wrote him very often and told him all they were doing and seeing, +and tried to make him understand how much she loved and sympathised with +him. Not a hint had been given him of the baby; and when, in June, he +received a letter from her containing a photograph of the little boy +named for him, he seemed childish in his joy, and started with the +picture at once for Maude's grave. Kneeling down, with his face in the +long grass, he whispered: + +'Look, Maude!--Jerrie's baby boy, named for me--Frank Tracy! Do you hear +me, Maude? Frank Tracy, for me--who wronged her so. God bless Jerrie, +and give her many years of happiness when I am dead and gone, which will +not now be long. I am coming very soon, Maude; sooner than you think, +and shall never see Jerrie's little boy, God bless him!' + +That night Frank seemed brighter than usual, and talked a great deal +with his wife, who, to the last day of her life, was glad that she was +kind to him and humored all his fancies; and once, when he lay upon the +couch, with the baby's picture in his hand, she went and sat by him and +ran her fingers caressingly through his white hair, and asked if he were +not better. + +'Yes, Dolly,' he said, taking her fingers in his hand and holding them +fast. 'A great deal better. Jerrie's baby has done me good, and you, +too, Dolly. You don't knew how nice it seems to have you smooth my hair; +it is like the old days at Langley, when we sang in the choir together, +and you were fond of me.' + +'I am fond of you now, Frank,' Dolly replied, as she stooped to kiss the +face in which there was a look she had never seen before, and which +haunted her long after he had said good-night and gone to Maude's room, +where he said he would sleep, as he was likely to be restless and might +keep her awake. + +The next morning Dolly took her breakfast alone, for Frank did not join +her. + +'Let him sleep,' she said to the servant, who suggested calling him; but +when some time later, he did not appear, she went herself to Maude's +room, into which the noonday sun was shining, for every blind and window +was open and the light was so dazzling that for a moment she did not see +the still figure stretched upon the bed, where with Maude's picture in +one hand and Jerrie's baby's in the other, her husband lay, calmly +sleeping the sleep which knows no waking. + +On his face there was a look of rapturous joy, and on his lips a smile +as if they were framing the loved name of Maude when death came and +sealed them forever. Around him was no sign of struggle or pain, for the +covering was not disturbed; and the physician when he came said he must +have died quietly and possibly instantly without a note of warning. They +buried him beside his daughter and then Dolly was alone in the great +house, which became so intolerable to her that she left it early in +August and took possession of the cottage on the Ridge, which, though +scarcely less lovely, was not as large as the Park House and did not +seem haunted with the ghosts of the dead. + +And so it happened that Mrs. Crawford alone stood in the door-way to +welcome the travellers when, late in the bright October afternoon they +came, tired and dusty, but oh, so glad to be home once more and to feel +that now it really was home to all intents and purposes. + +'I never was so glad in my life, and if Uncle Frank were here I should +be perfectly happy,' Jerrie cried, as she threw herself upon Mrs. +Crawford's neck, hugging and kissing her awhile, and then taking her +baby from the nurse she put it into the old lady's arms, saying as she +did so: + +'Another grandson for you--Harold's baby. Isn't he a beauty?' + +And little Tracy was a most beautiful child, with his father's features +and complexion, but Jerrie's expression and ways, and Mrs. Crawford +felt, as she folded him to her bosom and cried over him, that he would +be the crowning joy of her old age. At first Harold puzzled and +perplexed her, he was so changed from the Harold who had shingled roofs +and painted barns and worked in Peterkin's furnace. Foreign travel and +prosperity set well upon him, and one could scarcely have found a more +refined or polished young man than Harold as he moved about the +premises, every inch a gentleman and every inch the master, with a +bright smile and pleasant word for everyone, whether of high or low +degree. He had known what poverty meant, with slights on account of it, +and had risen above it all, and remembering the days when he worked in +the Tracy fields and envied his companions their leisure and freedom +from toil, he had resolved that, if possible, some portion of mankind +should be happier because of him. He knew he was very fine-looking, for +his tailor told him so, and his mirror told him so, and Jerrie told him +so twenty times a day as she kissed his handsome face, and his +grandmother frequently took off her spectacles to wipe away her glad +tears as she looked at her boy and felt so proud of him. + +All Shannondale hastened to call upon the travellers, and no one was +louder or more demonstrative in his welcome than Peterkin, who called +himself their _kin_, and was very proud of the connection and of his son +_Thomas_, for whom he made many inquiries. It did not take long for the +family to settle down into every-day quiet, Jerrie proving herself a +competent and thorough housekeeper, while Harold was to all intents and +purposes the head to whom everyone deferred and went for directions. +Arthur, who had half died from seasickness, had at once taken to his +rooms and his old mode of life, telling Harold and Jerrie to do what +they liked and not bother him. One change, however, he made; he put +Harold into the office in the place of Colvin, who had done his business +for so many years, and who was glad to give it up, while Harold was glad +to take it, as it gave him something to do and did not greatly interfere +with his law studies, which he immediately resumed, applying himself so +closely that he was admitted to practice within the year, and in time +became one of the ablest lawyers in the State. + +And now there remains but little to do except to gather up the few +tangled threads of our story and bring it to a close. For another year +the Raymonds and St. Claires remained abroad, and then, just before they +sailed for home, there was a double wedding one morning in London, when +Fred and Dick were the bridegrooms, and Marian and Nina were the brides. +Dick had not forgotten the night under the pines, but he had ceased to +remember it with pain; and when he asked Marian to be his wife he told +her of it, and of his old love for Jerrie, while she in turn told him of +a grave among the Alps by which she had stood with an aching heart, +while strangers buried from her sight forever a young artist from +Boston, who, had he lived, would have made it impossible for her to be +the wife of Dick St. Claire. But Allan was dead, and Jerrie was a wife +and mother, and so across the graves of a living and a dead love the two +grasped hands, and, forgetting the past as far as possible, were content +with the new happiness offered to them. + + * * * * * + +It is five years now since Harold and Jerrie came home, and toddling +about the house is a little girl two years old, whom they call Gretchen, +and who has all the soft beauty of the Gretchen in the picture, together +with Jerrie's stronger and more marked features. This little girl is +Arthur's idol, and has succeeded in luring him from his den, in which, +until she came, he was staying closer than ever. Now, however, he is +with her constantly, either in the house or in the grounds, or sitting +under a tree holding her in his lap, while he talks his strange talk to +the other Gretchen, and the child listens wonderingly, with her great +blue eyes fixed upon him. + +'This is our grandchild,' he will say, nodding to the space beside him, +while little Gretchen nods too, as if she also saw a figure sitting +there. 'Our grandchild and Jerrie's baby, and you are its grandmother. +Grandma Gretchen! That's funny;' and then he laughs, and baby laughs, +and says after him, lispingly, 'Danma Detchen, that's funny.' + +Then Tracy comes up with his whip and his cart, and his straw hat +hanging down his back, and Arthur points him out to the spirit Gretchen +as her grandson, who, he says, is all Hastings, with a very little Tracy +and not a grain of German in him, 'but very nice, very nice; and you are +his grandmother, too, and I am his grandfather, whom he once called an +old crazy man because I wouldn't let him play in my room with a little +alligator which his Aunt Dolly sent him from Florida.' + +'Well, you be crazy, ain't you?' the boy says, seating himself upon the +bench and nestling his brown head against the arm of the man, who +replies: + +'I don't know whether I am or not, but if to be very happy in the +companionship of the living and of the dead, and to have one as real as +the other is craziness, then I am crazy.' + +And then, for the hundredth time, he tells to the boy, and to the baby, +too, who seems to understand the story of the carpet-bag and the little +girl, their mother, whom the boy, their father, found in the Tramp House +one wintry morning years ago, and carried through the snow. And Tracy +starts to his feet with dilating eyes, and says: + +'I just wish I'd been there. I'd carried mamma, and wouldn't let her +drop in the snow as papa did. Where was I then, grandpa?' + +But grandpa does not answer, and begins the story of the cherries and +the ladder, which Tracy likes even better than that of the carpet bag, +particularly the part where the white sun-bonnet appears in the window, +and the shrill voice calls out: 'Mr. Crazyman, Mr. Crazyman, don't you +want some cherries?' + +This Arthur makes very dramatic and real, and Tracy holds his breath; +and sometimes when the question is more real than usual, little Gretchen +puts out her hand, and says: + +'_Iss_, div me some.' + +Then the boy and the old man laugh, and Tracy runs off after a passing +butterfly, and Arthur goes on with talk to the baby and the other +Gretchen beside him, until the former falls asleep, and he takes her to +the crib he has had put in the bay window under the picture which smiles +down upon the sleeping infant, whose guardian angel it seems to be. + +The Tramp House has been repaired and renovated, the table mended, and +the rat hole stopped up; and the trio frequently go there together, for +it is the children's play-house, where Arthur is sometimes a horse, +sometimes a bear, and sometimes a whole menagerie of animals. Once or +twice he has been the dead woman on the table, with little Gretchen +beside him in the carpet-bag, and Tracy tugging with all his might to +lift her out; but after the day when he let her fall, and gave her a big +bump upon the forehead, that kind of play ceased, and the boy was +compelled to try some other make believe than that of the tragedy on the +wintry night many years before. + +Billy Peterkin has never married, and never will. His heart-wound was +too deep to heal without a scar to tell where it had been; but he and +Jerrie are the best of friends, and he is very fond of her children. + +Tom is still abroad, waiting for that fit of apoplexy which is to be the +signal for his return; but the probabilities are that he will wait a +long time, for Peterkin, who is himself afraid of apoplexy, has gone +through the Banting process, which has reduced his weight from fifty to +seventy-five pounds, and as he is very careful in his diet Tom may stay +abroad longer than he cares to do, unless Ann Eliza's persuasions bring +him home to his dreaded father-in-law. There was a little girl born to +them in Rome, whom they called Maude, but she only lived a few weeks, +and then they buried her under the daisies in the Protestant burying +ground, where so many English and Americans are lying. Ann Eliza sent a +lock of the little one's hair to her father, who had it framed and hung +in his bedroom, and wore on his hat a band of crape which nearly covered +it. + +Dolly still calls the Ridge Cottage her home, but she is not often +there, for a mania for travelling has seized her, and she is always upon +the move, searching for some new place, where she hopes to find rest and +quiet. She still dresses in black, relieved at times with something +white, but she has laid aside crape and sports her diamonds, which she +did not find it necessary to sell, and which attract a great deal of +attention, they are so clear and large. One year she spent in Europe +with Tom and Ann Eliza, the latter of whom she made so uncomfortable +with her constant dictation and assumption of superiority that Tom at +last came to the rescue, and told her either to mind her business and +let his wife alone or go home. As she could not do the former she came +home, and joined a Raymond party to California, but soon separated +herself from it, as the members were not to her taste. Every summer she +goes either to Saratoga or the sea-side or the mountains, and every +winter she drifts southward to Florida, where, at certain hotels, she is +as well known as the oldest _habituée_. We saw her recently at Winter +Park, where, at the Seminole, she has a maid and a suit of rooms, and as +far as possible keeps herself aloof from the common herd, consorting +only with the noted ones of the place, those she knows who have money +and position at home. Poor foolish Dolly, who has forgotten Langley and +its humble surroundings. There are many like her in real life, but only +one in our story, to which we now write + +THE END. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRACY PARK*** + + +******* This file should be named 15321-8.txt or 15321-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/5/3/2/15321 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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