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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15449-8.txt b/15449-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df8c6d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/15449-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4717 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of New Faces, by Myra Kelly + +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: New Faces + +Author: Myra Kelly + +Illustrator: Charles F. Neagle + + +Release Date: March 24, 2005 [EBook #15449] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW FACES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + +NEW FACES + +BY + +MYRA KELLY + +AUTHOR OF "LITTLE CITIZENS" "WARDS OF LIBERTY" "THE ISLE OF DREAMS" +"ROSNAH" "THE GOLDEN SEASON" "LITTLE ALIENS" + +[Illustration: Printers Mark] + +_Illustrations by_ + +CHARLES F. NEAGLE + + +G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + +_Copyright, 1910, By_ G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY + + + + +NEW FACES + +[Illustration: "THERE'S NO QUESTION ABOUT IT," HE RETORTED. "SHE KNOWS +THAT I SHALL MARRY HER."] + + + "Oh give me new faces, new faces, new faces + I have seen those about me a fortnight or more. + Some people grow weary of names or of places + But faces to me are a much greater bore." + + _Andrew Lang._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +THE PLAY'S THE THING 17 +THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS 57 +MISERY LOVES COMPANY 83 +THE CHRISTMAS GUEST 115 +WHO IS SYLVIA? 147 +THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE 187 +THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD 219 +GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS 263 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"There's no question about it," he retorted. "She knows that I shall +marry her." + +Burgess gained an interest and an occupation more absorbing than he had +found for many years + +Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's eyes, was a study + +She swooped under the large center table, dragging Patty with her + +The changeless smile and the drooping plumes made three complete +revolutions, and nestled confidingly upon the shoulder of the law + +Celia Anne shut her eyes tightly and fired the rifle into the air + + + + +NEW FACES + + + + +"THE PLAY'S THE THING" + + +A business meeting of the Lady Hyacinths Shirt-Waist Club was in +progress. The roll had been called. The twenty members were all present +and the Secretary had read the minutes of the last meeting. These +formalities had consumed only a few moments and the club was ready to +fall upon its shirt waists. The sewing-machines were oiled and +uncovered, the cutting-table was cleared, every Hyacinth had her box of +sewing paraphernalia in her lap; and Miss Masters who had been half +cajoled and half forced into the management of this branch of the St. +Martha's Settlement Mission was congratulating herself upon the ease and +expedition with which her charges were learning to transact their +affairs, when the President drew a pencil from her pompadour and rapped +professionally on the table. In her daytime capacity of saleslady in a +Grand Street shoe store she would have called "cash," but as President +of the Lady Hyacinths her speech was: + +"If none of you goils ain't got no more business to lay before the +meetin' a movement to adjoin is in order." + +"I move we adjoin an git to woik," said Mamie Kidansky promptly. Only +three buttonholes and the whalebones which would keep the collar well up +behind the ears lay between her and the triumphant rearing of her shirt +waist. Hence her zeal. + +Susie Meyer was preparing to second the motion. As secretary she +disapproved of much discussion. She was always threatening to resign her +portfolio vowing, with some show of reason, "I never would 'a' joined +your old Hyacinths Shirt-Waists if I'd a' known I was goin' to have to +write down all the foolish talk you goils felt like givin' up." + +It seemed therefore that the business meeting was closed, when a voice +from the opposite side of the table broke in with: + +"Say, Rosie, why can't us goils give a play?" + +"Ah Jennie, you make me tired," protested the Secretary. + +"An' you're out of order anyway," was the President's dictum. + +"Where?" cried Jennie wildly, clutching her pompadour with one hand and +the back of her belt with the other, "where, what's the matter with me?" + +"Go 'way back an' sit down," was the Secretary's advice, "Rosie meant +you're out of parliamentry order. We got a motion on the table an' it's +too late for you to butt in on it. This meetin' is goin' to adjoin." + +But Jennie was the spokesman of a newly-born party and her supporters +were not going to allow her to be silenced. Even those Lady Hyacinths +who had not been admitted to earlier consultations took kindly to the +suggestion when they heard it. + +"I don't care whether she's out of order or not," one ambitious Hyacinth +declared, "I think it would be just too lovely for anything to have a +play. They have 'em all the time over to Rivington Street an' down to +the Educational Alliance." + +"Rebecca Einstein," said the Secretary darkly, "if you're goin' to fire +off your face about plays an' the Educational Alliances you can keep +your own minnits, that's all! Do ye think I'm goin' to write down your +foolishness? Well, I ain't." + +Again the President plied her gavel. "Goils," she remonstrated, "this +ain't no way to act. Say, Miss Masters," she went on, "I guess the whole +lot of us is out of order now. What would you do about it if you was me?" + +"I should suggest," Miss Masters answered, "that the motion to adjourn +be carried and that the whole club go into committee on the question +raised by Miss Meyer." + +"I move that we take our woik into committee with us," cried Miss +Kidansky, not to be deflected from her buttonholes. And from such humble +beginnings the production of Hamlet by the Lady Hyacinths sprang. + +Hamlet was not their first choice. It was not even their tenth and to +the end it was not the unanimous choice. During the preliminary stages +of the dramatic fever Miss Masters preserved that strict neutrality +which marks the successful Settlement worker. She would help--oh, surely +she would help--the Hyacinths, but she would not lead them. She had +never questioned their taste in the shape and color of their shirt +waists. Some horrid garments had resulted but to her they represented +"self expression," and as such gave her more pleasure than any servile +following of her advice could have done. She soon discovered that the +latitude in the shirt waist field is far exceeded by that in the +dramatic and she discovered too, that the Lady Hyacinths, though they +seldom visited the theatre had strong digestions where plays were +concerned. + +"East Lynne" was warmly advocated until some one discovered a +grandmother who had seen it in her youth. Then: + +"Ah gee!" remarked the Lady Hyacinths, "we ain't no grave snatchers. We +ain't goin' to dig up no dead ones. Say Miss Masters, ain't there no new +plays we could give?" + +Miss Masters referred them to the public library, but not many plays are +obtainable in book form, and the next two meetings were devoted to the +plays of Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, Vaughan Moody. When Miss Masters descried +this literature in the hands of the now openly mutinous Secretary she +felt the time had come to interfere with the "self activity" of her +charges. She promptly confiscated the second volume of "G.B.S." "For," +she explained "we don't want to do anything unpleasant and the writer of +these plays himself describes them as that." + +"Guess we don't," the President agreed. "We got to live up to our name, +ain't we? An' what could be pleasanter than a Hyacinth?" + +"Nothing, of course," agreed Miss Masters unsteadily. + +"There's one in this Ibsen book might do," Jennie suggested. "It's +called 'A Dolls' House,' that's a real sweet name." + +"I am afraid it wouldn't do," said Miss Masters hastily. + +"What's the matter with it?" demanded Susie Meyer. + +"Well, in the first place, there are children in it--" + +"Cut it! 'Nough said," pronounced the President. "Them plays wid kids in +'em is all out of style. We giv' 'East Lynne' the turn down an' there +was only one kid in that. What else have you got in that Gibson book? +Have you got the play with the Gibson goils in it? We could do that all +right, all right. Ain't most of us got Gibson pleats in our shirt +waists?" + +"I don't see nothin' about goils," the Secretary made answer, "but +there's one here about ghosts. How would that do?" + +"Not at all," said Miss Masters firmly. + +"What's the matter with it?" asked one of the girls abandoning her +sewing-machine and coming over to the table. "I seen posters of it last +year. They are givin' it in Broadway. The costoomes would be real easy, +just a sheet you know and your hair hanging down." + +"It's not about that kind of ghost," Miss Masters explained, "and I +don't think it would do for us as there are very few people in the cast +and one of them is a minister." + +"Cut it," said the President briefly, "we ain't goin' to have no hymn +singin' in ours. We couldn't, you know," she explained to Miss Masters, +"the most of us is Jewesses." + +"Katie McGuire ain't no Jewess," asserted the Secretary. "She could be +the minister if that's all you've got against this Gibson play. I wish +we _could_ give it. It's about the only up-to-date Broadway success we +can find. The librarian says you can't never buy copies of Julia +Marlowe's an' Ethel Barrymore's an' Maude Adams' plays. I guess they're +just scared somebody like us will come along an' do 'em better than they +do an' bust their market. Actresses," she went on, "is all jest et up +with jealousy of one another. Is there anythin' except the minister the +matter with 'Ghosts?'" + +"Everything else is the matter with it," said Miss Masters. "To begin +with, I might as well tell you, it never was a Broadway success. It's a +play that is read oftener than it's acted and last year, Jennie, when +you saw the posters, it only ran for a week." + +"Cut it," said the President. "We ain't huntin' frosts." + +The brows of the Hyacinths grew furrowed and their eyes haggard in the +search. Everyone could tell them of plays but no one knew where they +could be found in printed form and whenever the librarian found +something which might be suitable Miss Masters was sure to know of +something to its disadvantage. + +And then the real stage, the legitimate Broadway stage intervened. +Albert Marsden produced Hamlet and the Lady Hyacinths determined to +follow suit. + +"It's kind of old," the President admitted, "but there must be some +style left to it. They're playin' it on Broadway right now. An' we'll +give it on East Broadway just as soon as we can git ready. Me and Mamie +went round to the library last night an' got it out. It's got a dandy +lot of parts in it: more than this club will ever need. An' it's got +lots of murders an' scraps, an' court ladies an' soldiers an' kings. +It's our play all right!" + +The sea of troubles into which the Lady Hyacinths plunged with so much +enthusiasm swallowed them so completely that Miss Masters could only +stand on its shore, looking across to Denmark and wringing her hands +over the awful things that were happening in that unhappy land. +Fortunately she had a friend to whom she could appeal for succour for +the lost but still valiant Hyacinths. He was the sort of person to whom +appeals came as naturally as honors come to some men and, since he had +nothing to do and ample time and money with which to do it, he was +generally helpful and resourceful. That he had once loved Miss Masters +has nothing to do with this story. She was now engaged to be married to +a poorer and busier man, but it was to Jack Burgess that she appealed. + +"Of course I know," said he when he had responded to her message and she +had anchored him with a tea-cup and disarmed him with a smile, "of +course I know what you want to say to me. Every girl who has refused me +has said it sooner or later. You are saying it later--much later--than +they generally do, but it always comes. 'You have found a wife for me.'" + +"I have done much better than that," she answered, "I have found work +for you." And she sketched the distress of the Hyacinths in Denmark and +urged him to go to their assistance. + +"But, my dear Margaret," he remonstrated, "What can I do? You have +always known that 'something is rotten in the state of Denmark,' and +yet you have let these poor innocents stir it up. I have often thought +that poor Shakespeare added that line after the first performance. I +intend to write that hint to Furniss one of these days." + +"You will write it," said Margaret Masters, "with more conviction after +you have seen _my_ Denmark." + +"Very well," said he, "I'll visit Elsinore to-night, but I insist upon a +return ticket." + +"You will be begging for a season ticket," she laughed. "They have +reduced me to such a condition that I don't know whether they are +amusing me or breaking my heart. Tell me, come, which is it? Did you +ever hear blank verse recited with tense and reverent earnestness and a +Bowery accent?" + +"I never did," said he. + + * * * * * + +"Shakespeare was right," whispered Burgess to Miss Masters. "There is +something rotten in Denmark. I've located it. It's the Prince." They +were sitting together in a corner of the kindergarten room of the +settlement: a large and spacious room all decked and bright with the +paper and cardboard masterpieces of the babies who played and learned +there in the mornings. Casts and pictures and green growing things added +to its charm and the Lady Hyacinths so trim and neat and earnest did not +detract from it. + +The sewing-machines and the cutting-table had been cast into corners and +well in the glare of the electric light the President was exclaiming in +a voice which would have disgraced an early phonograph, "Oh that this +too too solid flesh would melt." + +It was not a dress rehearsal but the too solid Prince wore his hair low +on his neck and a golden fillet bound his brows. Silent, he was noble. +His walk as he came in at the end of a procession of court ladies and +gentlemen was magnificent--slow, dejected, imperious, aloof. But +Wittenberg had a great deal to answer for, if he had contracted his +accent there. + +Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, was a Hyacinth who worked daily at hooks and +buttonholes for an East Broadway tailor. On this night she wore none of +her regalia save her crown and the King had done nothing at all to +differentiate himself from Susie Lacov who officiated as waitress in a +Jewish lunchroom. + +The Hyacinths had wisely decided to edit Hamlet. In this they followed +an almost universal principle and their method was also time-honored. +All the scenes in which unimportant members of the club or cast "came +out strong," were eliminated. So far the Hyacinths were orthodox, but +Rosie Rosenbaum, Prince, President and Censor, went a step further. + +"Git busy. Mix her up, why don't you!" she commanded later from the +wings. The other players were laboriously wading through persiflage and +conversation. "You folks ain't _done_ nothin' the last ten minutes only +stand there and gas. Is that actin'? Maybe it's wrote in the book. What +I want to know is--is it actin'?" Burgess sat suddenly erect and his +eyes glowed. Miss Masters half rose to assume authority but he +restrained her. + +"You shut up and leave me be," Polonius cried. "Ain't I got a right to +say good-bye to my son?" + +"You can say good-bye all right," Rosie reminded her, "without puttin' +up that game of talk. Give him a 'I'll be a sister to you' on the cheek +an' git through sometime before to-morrow. Cut it, I tell you." + +This "off with his head" attitude on the President's part delighted +Burgess. But the caste enjoyed it less and when the ghost was docked of +a whole scene it grew rebellious. + +"If you give me any more of your lip," said the princely stage manager, +"I'll trow you out altogether. There's lots of people wouldn't believe +in ghosts anyway. Me grandfather seen this play in Chermany and he told +me they didn't use the ghost at all. Nothin' but a green light with a +voice comin' out of it." + +"Well, I could be the voice, couldn't I?" the ghost argued; and it was +at this point that Miss Masters took charge of the meeting and +introduced Mr. Burgess. + +"Who has offered," she went on in spite of his energetic pantomime of +disclaimer, "to help us with our play." + +"That's real sweet of you, Mr. Burgess," said the President graciously. + +"Not at all--not at all," he answered. "It will be a pleasure, I assure +you." + +"You'll excuse me, I'm sure," the Secretary broke in, "if we go right on +with our woik while you're here. We're makin' our own costoomes, as +much as we can. That was one reason us young ladies chose Hamlet. It's a +play what everyone wears skoits in. It's easier for us and it ain't so +embarrassing, and I guess our folks will like it better. You _have_ to +think of your folks sometimes. Even if they are old-fashioned. Miss +Masters got us pictures of Mr. Marsden's production an' every last one +of the characters has skoits on. Hamlet's ain't no longer than a bathin' +suit, but anyway it's there. I don't think it's real refined, myself, +for young ladies to wear gents' suits on the stage." + +"And of course," a gentle-eyed little girl looked up from her sewing to +remark,--"of course this club ain't formed just for makin' shirt waists. +We've got a culture-an'-refinement clause in the club constitution, so +we wouldn't want to do nothin' that wasn't real refined." + +[Illustration: BURGESS GAINED AN INTEREST AND AN OCCUPATION MORE +ABSORBING THAN HE HAD FOUND FOR MANY YEARS.] + +"I understand," said Burgess more at a loss than a conversation had +ever found him, "And what may I ask, is your part of the play?" + +"Mamie Conners is too nervous," the lady President explained "to come +right out and act. She's 'A flourish of trumpets within an' a voice +without an' a lady of the court an' a soldier an' a choir boy at the +funeral.'" + +"Ah, Miss Conners," Burgess assured this timid but versatile Hyacinth, +"that's only stage fright, all great actresses suffer from it at one +time or another." + + * * * * * + +During the weeks that followed, order gradually gained sway in Denmark +and Burgess gained an interest and an occupation more absorbing than he +had found for many years. + +"My dear Margaret," he was wont to assure Miss Masters, when she +remonstrated with him upon his generosity, "Why shouldn't I order +supper to be sent in for them? and why shouldn't I ask them up to the +house for rehearsals? There's the big music room going to waste and +those lazy beggars of servants with nothing to do, and you saw yourself +how it brightened up poor old Aunt Priscilla. She likes it--they like +it--I like it--you ought to like it. And you certainly can't object to +my having taken them _en masse_ to see Marsden in the play. By George! +I'll drag him to theirs. We'll show him an Ophelia! that Mary Conners is +a little genius." + +"She is wonderful," agreed Miss Masters. "The grace of her! The dignity! +What she herself would call the culture-an'-refinement!" + +"All my discovery. That tyrant of a Rosie Rosenbaum had cast her as a +quick change, general utility woman. And in the day-time you tell me +she's a miserable little shop-girl in a Grand Street rookery!" + +"That is what she used to be. But I went to the shop a day or two ago +to ask her to come up to my house to rehearse with the new Hamlet. I +watched her for a few moments before she noticed me. She was Ophelia to +the life. She conversed in blank verse. She walked about with that +little queenly air you have taught her. She was delicious, adorable. At +first she said that she could not rehearse that night, but I told her +you wished it and she came like a lamb. I often wonder if I did a wise +thing in introducing them to you. Your sort of culture-an'-refinement' +may rather upset them when the play is over and we all settle back to +the humdrum." + +"You did a great kindness to me," said he, "and the best stroke of +missionary work you'll do in a dog's age. I'm going to work." + +"You are not," she laughed. + +"I am. Shamed into it by the Lady Hyacinths." + +"Then perhaps the balance will be maintained. If you turn them against +labor they will have turned you toward it." + +But Miss Masters' fears were groundless: the Lady Hyacinths though +dedicated to a flower of spring were old and wise in social +distinctions. The story of King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid would have +drawn only a contemptuous "cut it out" from the lady President. Every +Hyacinth of them knew her exact place in nature's garden--all except +Mary Conners--now Ophelia--and she knew herself to be a foundling with +no place at all. The lonely woman who had adopted her was now dead and +Mary was quite alone in her little two-room tenement, free to dream and +play Ophelia to her heart's content and to an imaginary Hamlet who was +always Burgess. To her he was indeed, "The expectancy and rose of the +fair state." "The glass of fashion and the mould of form." He was "her +honoured lord"--"her most dear lord." But in Monroe Street she never +deceived him. Never handed his letters over to interfering relatives. +She could quite easily go mad and tuneful when she knew that each +rehearsal--each lesson taught by him and so quickly learned by +her--brought the days when she would never see him so close that she +could almost feel their emptiness. + +It was well that she played to an idealized Hamlet for the real Hamlets +came and went bewilderingly. One of Burgess's first triumphs of tact had +been to pry the part away from the lady President and give it to the +sturdy Secretary. There followed two other claimants to the throne in +quick succession and then the lot fell to Rebecca Einstein and stayed +there. Each change in the principal role necessitated readjustment +throughout the cast and at every change the lady President was persuaded +not to over exert herself. + +And still Burgess in the seclusion of the homeward bound hansom railed +and swore. + +"I tell you, Margaret, that girl will ruin us. All the rest are funny. +Overwhelmingly, incredibly funny! And pathetic! Could anything be more +pathetic! But that awful President strikes a wrong note: Vulgarity. Take +her out of it and we'll have a thing the like of which New York had +never seen, for Ophelia is a genius or I miss my guess and all the rest +are darlings." + +"But we can't throw out the President of the club. She must have a part. +You have moved her down from Hamlet to Laertes--to the King--" + +"I did," groaned Burgess. "Will you ever forget her rendering of the +line, "Now I could do it, Pat," and then her storming up to me to know +"Who Pat was anyway?"" + +"I do," laughed Margaret, "and then how you moved her on to Guildenstern +and now you have got her down to Bernardo with all her part cut out and +nothing except that opening line, "Who's there?" and the other: "'Tis +now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco."" + +"Yes, and she ruins them. I've drilled her and drilled her till my +throat is sore and still she says it straight through her nose just as +though she were delivering an order of 'ham and' at her hash battery. +Just the same truculent 'Don't you dare to answer back' attitude. She's +impossible. She must be removed." + +Meanwhile the Lady Hyacinths scattering to their different homes +discussed their mentor. Ophelia and Horatio and Hamlet were going +through Clinton Street together. Ophelia was still at Elsinore but +Horatio was approaching common ground again. + +"I suppose he's Miss Masters' steady," said he to Hamlet. "He wouldn't +come down here every other night just to help us goils out." + +But Ophelia was better informed. She knew Miss Masters to be engaged to +quite another person. + +"Then I know," cried Horatio triumphantly. "He's stuck on Rosie +Rosenbaum. It's her brings him." + +Ophelia said nothing, and Horatio having experienced an inspiration, set +about strengthening it with proof. + +"It's Rosie sure enough. Ain't he learned her about every part in the +play? Don't he keep takin' her off in corners an' goin' 'Who's there, +'Tis now struck twelve' for about an hour every night? I wouldn't have +nothin' to do with a feller that kept company that way, but I s'pose +it's the style on Fifth Avenue. You know how I tell you, Ham, in the +play that there's lots of things goin' on what you ain't on to. Well +it's so. None of you was on to Rosie an' his nibs. You didn't ever guess +it did you 'Pheleir?" + +"No," admitted Ophelia. "No, I never did." + +"Well it's so. You watch 'em. The style in wives is changin'. Actresses +is goin' out an' the 'poor but honest workin' goil' is comin' in. One of +our salesladies has a book about it. "The Bowery Bride" its name is. All +about a shop goil what married a rich fellow and used to come back to +the store and take her old friends carriage ridin'. If Rosie Rosenbaum +tries it on me, I'll break her face. If she comes round me," cried the +Prince's fellow student: "with carriages and a benevolent smile, I'll +claw the smile off of her if I have to take the skin with it!" + +When Horatio and Hamlet left her, she wandered disconsolate, down to the +river. But no willow grows aslant that brook, no flowers were there with +which to weave fantastic garlands. + +"I've gone crazy all right," said poor Ophelia as she watched the lights +of the great bridge, "but I don't drown myself until Scene VII. And I'm +goin' up to his house to-morrow night to learn to act crazy. I guess I +don't need much learning." + + * * * * * + +The performance of Hamlet by the Lady Hyacinths is still remembered by +those who saw it as the most bewildering entertainment of their +theatrical experience. The play had been cut down to its absolute +essentials and the players, though drilled and coached in their lines +and business, had been left quite free in the matters of interpretation +and accent. The result was so unique that the daily press fell upon it +with whoops of joy and published portraits of and interviews with the +leading characters. People who had thought that only ferries and docks +lay south of Twenty-third Street penetrated to the heart of the great +East Side and went home again full of an altruism which lasted three +days. And on the last night of the "run" of three nights, Jack Burgess +brought Albert Marsden to witness it. Other spectators had always +emerged dumb or inarticulate from the ordeal but the great actor was not +one of them. He was blusterous and garrulous and, to Burgess' amazement, +not at all amused. + +"Who is that girl who played Ophelia? Is she an East Side working girl +or one of the mission people?" + +"She's a shop-girl," answered Burgess. "There's no good in your asking +me to introduce you to her for I won't. That's been one of our rules +from the beginning. We don't want the children to be upset and +patronized." + +"Who taught her to act?" + +"Well, I coached them all as you know, but she never seemed to require +any special teaching. Pretty good, isn't she?" + +"Pretty good! She is a genius--a wonder. This is all rot about my not +meeting her. I am going to meet her and train her. I suppose you have +noticed that she is a beauty too." + +"But she's only a child," Burgess urged. "She's only eighteen. She +couldn't stand the life and the work and she couldn't stand the people. +You have no idea what high ideals these girls have, and Mary +Conners--that's the girl's name--seems to be exceptional even amongst +them." + +"Too good for us, eh?" asked the actor. + +"Entirely too good," answered Burgess steadily. + +"And do you feel justified in deciding her future for her! In condemning +her to an obscure life in the slums instead of a successful career on +the stage?" + +"I do not," answered Burgess, "she must decide that for herself. I'll +ask her and let you know." + +To this end he sought Miss Masters. "I want you," said he, "to ask Mary +Conners to tea with you to-morrow afternoon. It will be Sunday so she +can manage. And then I want you to leave us alone. I have something very +serious to say to her." + +Margaret looked at him and laughed. "Then you were right," said she, +"and I was wrong; I had found a wife for you." + +"For absolute inane, insensate romanticism," said he, "I recommend you +to the recently engaged. You used to have some sense. You were clever +enough to refuse me and now you go and forever ruin my opinion of you by +making a remark like that." + +"It is not romanticism at all," she maintained. "It is the best of +common sense. You will never be satisfied with anyone you haven't +trained and formed to suit your own ideals. And you will never find such +a 'quick study' as Mary." + +It was the earliest peep of spring and Burgess stopped on his way to +Miss Masters' house and bought a sheaf of white hyacinths and pale +maiden hair for the little Lady Hyacinth who was waiting for him. + +As soon as he was alone with her he managed to distract her attention +from her flowers and to make her listen to Marsden's message. He set the +case before her plainly. Without exaggeration and without extenuation. + +"And we don't expect you," he ended, "to make up your mind at once. You +must consult your relatives and friends." + +"I have no relatives," she answered. + +"Your friends then." + +"I don't think I have many. Some of the girls in the club perhaps. The +old book-keeper in the store where I work, perhaps Miss Masters." + +"And you have me," he interrupted. But she smiled at him and shook her +head. "You were real kind about the play," said she, "but the play's all +over now. I guess you'd better tell your friend that I'll take the +position. I have been getting pretty tired of work in the store and I'd +like to try this if he don't mind." + +"Oh, but you mustn't go into it like that," Burgess protested, "just for +the want of something better. Acting is an art--a great art--you must be +glad and proud." + +"I'll try it," she said without enthusiasm. "If you feel that way about +it I'll try it. It can't be worse than the store. The store is just +horrible. Oh! Mr. Burgess you can't think what it is to be Ophelia in +the evening with princes loving you and then to be a cashier in the +day-time that any fresh customer thinks he can get gay with. Maybe if I +was an actress I could be Ophelia oftener. I'd do anything, Mr. Burgess, +to get away from the store." + +Burgess did not answer immediately. Her earnestness had rather overcome +her and he waited silently while she walked to the window, surreptitiously +pressed her handkerchief against her eyes and conquered +the sobs that threatened to choke her. Burgess watched her. The trimness +of her figure, the absolute neatness and propriety of her dress, the +poise and restraint of her manner. Then she turned and he rose to meet her. + +"Mary," said he, "you never in all the time I've known you have failed +to do what I asked you. Will you do something for me now?" + +"Yes, sir," she answered simply. + +"Then sit down in that chair and take this watch of mine in your hand +and don't say one single, solitary, lonely word for five minutes. No +matter what happens: no matter what anyone says or does. Will you +promise?" + +"Yes, sir," she answered again. + +"Well then," he began, "I know another man who wants you--this stage +idea is not the only way out of the store. Remember you're not to +speak--this other man wants to marry you." + +A scarlet flush sprang to Mary's face and slowly ebbed away again leaving +her deadly pale. She kept her word in letter but hardly in spirit for +she looked at him through tear-filled eyes, and shook her head. + +"Of course you can't be expected to take to the idea just at first," +said he, as if she had spoken, "but I want you to think it over. The man +is a well-off, gentlemanly sort of chap. Miles too old for you of +course--for you're not twenty and he's nearly forty--but I think he +would make you happy. I know he'd try with all the strength that's in him." + +Blank incredulity was on Mary's face. She glanced at the watch and up at +him and again she shook her head. + +"This man," Burgess went on, "is a friend of Miss Masters and it was +through her that he first heard of the Lady Hyacinths. He was an idler +then. A shiftless, worthless loafer, but the Lady Hyacinths made a man +of him and he's gone out and got a job." + +Comprehension overwhelming, overmastering, flashed into Mary's eyes. But +her promise held her silent and in her chair. Again it was as though she +had spoken. + +"Yes, I see you understand--you probably think of me as an old man past +the time of love and yet I love you." + + "Doubt thou the stars are fire; + Doubt that the sun doth move; + Doubt truth to be a liar; + But never doubt I love." + +"That's all I have to offer you, sweetheart. Just love and my life," and +he in turn went to the window and looked out into the gathering dusk. + +Mary sat absolutely still. She knew now that she was dreaming. Just so +the dream had always run and when the five minutes were past, she rose +and went to him: a true Ophelia, her arms all full of hyacinths. + +"My honored Lord," said she. He turned, and the dream held. + + + + +THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS + + +The Pennsylvania Limited was approaching Jersey City and the afternoon +was approaching three o'clock when Mr. John Blake turned to Mrs. John +Blake, née Marjorie Underwood, a bride of about three hours, and +precipitated the first discussion of their hitherto happy married life. + +"Your Uncle Richard Underwood," said he--the earlier discussions in the +wedded state are usually founded upon relations--"is as stupid as he is +kind. It was very good of him to arrange that I should meet old +Nicholson. Any young fellow in the country would give his eyes for the +chance. But to make an appointment for a fellow at four o'clock in the +afternoon of his wedding day is a thing of which no one, except your +Uncle Richard, would be capable. He might have known that I couldn't go." + +"But you must go," urged the bride, "it's the chance of a lifetime. +Besides which," she added with a pretty little air of practicality, "we +can't afford to throw away an opportunity like this. We may never get +another one, and if you don't go how are you to explain it to Uncle +Richard when we dine there to-morrow night?--you know we promised to, +when he was last at West Hills." + +"But what," suggested her husband--"what if, in grasping at the shadow, +I lose the reality? I'd rather lose twenty opportunities than my only +wife, and what's to become of you while I go down to Broad Street? Do +you propose to sit in the station?" + +"I propose nothing of the kind," she laughed. "I shall go straight to +the Ruissillard and wait for you. Dick and Gladys may be there already." + +Although Mr. John Blake received this suggestion with elaborate +disfavor and disclaimer it was clear to the pretty eyes of Mrs. John +Blake that he hailed it with delight, and she was full of theories upon +marital co-operation and of eagerness to put them into practice. None of +her husband's objections could daunt her, and before he had adjusted +himself to the situation he had packed his wife into a hansom, given the +cabman careful instructions and a careless tip, and was standing on the +step admonishing his bride: + +"Be sure to tell them that we must have out-side rooms. Have the baggage +sent up, but don't touch it. If you open a trunk or lift a tray before I +arrive I shall instantly send you home to your mother as incorrigible." + +"Very well," she agreed; "I'll be good." + +"And then, if Gladys is there--it's only an off-chance that they come +before to-morrow--get her to sit with you. But don't go wandering about +the hotel by yourself. And, above all, don't go out." + +"Goosie," said she, "of course I shan't go out. Where should I go?" + +"And you're sure, sure, sure that you don't mind?" he asked for the +dozenth time. + +"Goosie," said she again, "I am quite, quite sure of it. Now go or you +will surely miss your appointment and disappoint your uncle." + +After two or three more questions of his and assurances of hers the cab +was allowed to swing out into the current. John had given the driver +careful navigation orders, and Marjorie leaned back contentedly enough +and watched the busy people, all hot and haggard, as New York's people +sometimes are in the first warm days of May. Her collection of +illustrated post-cards had prepared her to identify many of the places +she passed, but once or twice she felt, a little ruefully the difference +between this, her actual first glimpse of New York and the same first +glimpse as she and John had planned it before the benign, but hardly +felicitous, interference of Uncle Richard. This feeling of loneliness +was strongly in the ascendent when the cab stopped under an ornate +portico and two large male creatures, in powdered wigs and white silk +stockings, emerged before her astonished eyes. Open flew her little +door, down jumped the cabman, out rushed other menials and laid hands +upon her baggage. Horses fretted, pedestrians risked their lives, motors +snorted and newsboys clamored as an enormous police-appearing person +assisted her to alight. He had such an air of having been expecting and +longing for her arrival that she wondered innocently whether John had +telephoned about her. This thought persisted with her until she and her +following of baggage-laden pages drew up before the desk, but it fell +from her with a crash when she encountered the aloof, impersonal, +world-weary regard of the presiding clerk. In all Marjorie's happy life +she had never met anything but welcome. The belle of a fast-growing town +is rather a sheltered person, and not even the most confiding of +ingénues could detect a spark of greeting in the lackadaisical regard of +this highly-manicured young man. + +Marjorie began her story, began to recite her lesson: "Outside rooms, +not lower than the fourth nor higher than the eighth floor; the Fifth +Avenue side if possible--and was Mrs. Robert Blake in?" + +The lackadaisical young man consulted the register with a disparaging eye. + +"Not staying here," Marjorie understood him to remark. + +"Oh, it doesn't matter--but about the rooms?" + +"Front!" drawled the young man, and several blue-clad bellboys ceased +from lolling on a bench and approached the desk. + +"Register here," commanded the clerk, twirling the big book on its +turn-table toward Marjorie so suddenly that she jumped, and laying his +pink-tinted finger on its first blank line. + +"No, thank you," she stammered, "I was not to register until my +husband--" and her heart cried out within her for that she was saying +these new, dear words for the first time to so unresponsive a +stranger--"told me not to register until he should come and see that the +rooms were satisfactory. He will be here presently." + +"We have no unsatisfactory rooms," was the answer, followed by: "Front +625 and 6," and fresh pages and bellboys fell upon the yellow baggage, +and Marjorie, in a hot confusion of counting her property and wondering +how to resent the young man's impertinence, turned to follow them. + +"One moment, madam," the clerk murmured; "name and address, please." The +pages were escaping with the bags, and Mrs. Blake hardly turned as she +answered, according to the habit of her lifetime: + +"Underwood, West Hills, N.J.," and flew to the elevator, which had +already swallowed her baggage and the boys. Up to suite Number 625 and 6 +she was conducted by her blue-clad attendants, who opened the windows, +pushed the furniture about--then waited; who fetched ice water, drew +down shades--and waited; who closed the windows, drew up the shades, +shifted the baggage from sofa to armchair, unbuckled the straps of a +suitcase, indicated the telephone--and waited; who put the bags on the +bed, opened the windows, pushed the furniture back against the wall--and +waited. Marjorie viewed all these manoeuvres with amused but +unsophisticated eyes. She smiled serenely at the smiling bellboys--while +they waited. She thanked them prettily for their assistance--and they +waited. She dismissed them still prettily, and it is to be regretted +that, in the privacy of the hall, they swore. + +She then took possession of her little domain. The clerk, however +unbearably, had spoken the truth, and the rooms were charming. There +could be no question, she decided, of going farther. She spread her +pretty wedding silver on the dressing-table, she hung her negligée with +her hat and coat in the closet. She went down on her knees and +investigated the slide which was to lead shoes to the bootblack; she +tested, with her bridal glove-stretcher, the electrical device in the +bathroom for the heating of curling irons. She studied all the pictures, +drew out all the drawers, examined the furniture and bric-a-brac, and +then she looked at her watch. Only half an hour was gone. + +She went to the window and watched the hats of the passing multitude, +noting how short and fore-shortened all the figures seemed and how +queerly the horses passed along beneath her, without visible legs to +move them. Still an hour before John could be expected. + +And then their trunks, hers large and his small, made their thumping +entrance. The porter crossed to the window and raised the shade, crossed +to her trunk and undid its straps, dried his moistened brow--and waited. +Marjorie thanked him and smiled. He smiled and waited, drying his brow +industriously the while. No village black-smith ever had so damp a brow +as he. She sympathized with him in the matter of the heat; he +agreed--and waited. He undid the straps of John's trunk; he moved her +trunk into greater proximity to the window and the light; he carried +John's trunk into the sitting-room; he performed innumerable feats of +prowess before her. But she only smiled and commended in an unfinancial +way. Finally he laid violent hands upon his truck and retreated into the +hall, swearing, as became his age, more luridly than the bellboys. + +Once more Marjorie looked out into the street for a while and began to +plan the exact form of greeting with which she should meet John. It +already seemed an eternity since she had parted with him. She drew the +pretty evening dress which she had chosen for this and most important +evening from its tissue-paper nest in the upper tray of her trunk. Its +daintiness comforted and cheered her, as a friend's face might have +done, and under its impetus she found calm enough to rearrange her hair, +and, with many a shy recoil and shy caress, to lay out John's evening +things for him, as she had often laid out her father's. How surprised, +she smiled, he would be. How delighted, when he came, to find everything +so comfy and domestic. Surely it was time for him to come. Presently it +was late, and yet he did not come. She evolved another form of greeting: +he did not deserve comfort and domesticity when he did not set more +store on them than on a stupid interview in a stuffy office. He should +see that an appointment with old Nicholson could not be allowed to +interfere with their home life; that, simply because they were married +now, he could not neglect her with impunity. + +She practised the detached, casual sort of smile with which she would +greet him, and the patient, uninterested silence with which she would +listen to his apologies. Then, realizing that these histrionics would be +somewhat marred by a pink negligée, she struggled into her dinner dress. + +It was then seven o'clock and time to practise some more vehement reception +for the laggard. It went well--very well. Any man would have been +annihilated by it, but there was still no man when half-past seven came. + +Quite suddenly she fell into a panic. John was dead! She had heard and +read of the perils of New York. She had seen a hundred potential +accidents on her drive from the ferry. Trolley, anarchist, elevated +railroad, collapsed buildings, frightened horses, runaway automobiles. +Her dear John! Her mangled husband! Passing out of the world, even while +she, his widowed bride, was dressing in hideous colors, and thinking so +falsely of him! + +He must be brought to her. Some one should go and say something to +somebody! Telephone Uncle Richard! She flew to the directory, which had +interested her so little when the polite bellboy of the itching palm had +pointed it out to her, and presently she had startled a respectable old +stockbroker, so thoroughly and so hastily that he burst into his wife's +presence with the news that John Blake had met with a frightful accident +and was being carried to the hotel in the automobile of some rich +gentleman from Paterson, New Jersey. + +"Hurry down there at once," commanded Aunt Richard, who was as staid +and practical as the wife of a stockbroker ought to be, "and bring the +two poor lambs here in your car. Take the big one. They'll want plenty +of room to lay him flat. I'll have the nurse and the doctor here and a +room ready. Get there if possible before he does, so as not to move him +about too often." + +Meanwhile Mrs. John Blake, bride now of nearly eight hours, lay in a +stricken heap upon the bed, bedewing with hot tears the shirt she had so +dutifully laid ready for Mr. John Blake, and which now he was never more +to wear. And Mr. John Blake, in a hurricane of fear, exasperation and +bewilderment, a taxicab, and the swift-falling darkness, fared from +hotel to hotel and demanded speech with Mrs. John Blake, a young lady in +blue with several handbags and some heavy luggage, who had arrived at +some hotel early that afternoon. + +His interview with old Nicholson had been short and satisfactory, and +at about five-thirty o'clock he was at the Ruissillard inquiring for Mrs. +J. Blake's number and floor with a confidence he was soon to lose. There +was no such person. No such name. Then could the clerk tell him whether, +and why, she had gone elsewhere. A slim and tall young lady in blue. + +The clerk really couldn't say. He had been on duty for only half an +hour. There was no person of the name of Blake in the hotel. Sometimes +guests who failed to find just the accommodation they wanted went over +to the Blinheim, just across the avenue. So the bridegroom set out upon +his quest and the clerk, less world-weary than his predecessor, turned +back to the telephone-girl. + +Presently there approached the desk a brisk, business-like person who +asked a few business-like questions and then registered in a bold and +flowing hand, "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Blake, Boston." + +"My husband," she announced, "will be here presently." + +"He was here ten minutes ago," said the clerk, and added particulars. + +"Oh, that's all right," replied the slightly-puzzled but quite unexcited +lady; "he'll be back." And then, accompanied by bags and suitcases, she +vanished aloft. + +"Missed connections, somehow," commented the clerk to the stenographer, +and gave himself to the contemplation of "Past Performances" in the +_Evening Telegram_, and to ordinary routine of a hotel office for an +hour or so, when, to prove the wisdom of the lady's calm, the excited +Mr. John Blake returned. + +"There must be some mistake," he began darkly, "I've been to every +hotel--" + +"Lady came ten minutes after you left," said the genial clerk. "Front, +show the gentleman to 450." And, presently, John was explaining his +dilemma to Gladys, the pretty wife of his cousin Bob. "She is somewhere +in this hotel," he fumed, "and I'll find her if I have to search it room +by room." + +The office was hardly quiet after the appearance and disappearance of +Mr. John Blake, when the clerk and the telephone-girl were again +interrupted by an excited gentleman. His white whiskers framed an +anxious, kindly face, his white waistcoat bound a true and tender heart. + +"Has Mr. Blake arrived?" he demanded with some haste. + +"Just a minute ago," the clerk replied, and was surprised at the +disappointment his answer caused. + +"I must see him," cried the old gentleman. "You needn't announce me. +I'll go right up. I'm his wife's uncle, and she telephoned me to come." + +"Front!" called the clerk. "This gentleman to 450." + +At the door of 450 he dismissed his guide with suitable _largesse_, and +softly entered the room. It was brightly illuminated, and Uncle Richard +was able clearly to contemplate his nephew of eight hours in animated +converse with a handsome woman in evening dress. + +"I think, sir," said the woman, "that there is some mistake." + +"I agree with you, madam," said Uncle Richard, "and I'm sorry for it." + +"But you are exactly the man to help us," cried the nephew; "we are in +an awful state." + +"I agree with you, sir," repeated Uncle Richard. + +"You _must_ know how to help us," urged the nephew. "I've lost +Marjorie." + +"So I should have inferred. But she had already thrown herself away." + +"She's _lost_!" stormed the bridegroom. "Don't you understand? Lost, +lost, lost!" + +"I rather think he misunderstands," the handsome woman interrupted. +"You've not told him, John, who I am." + +"You are mistaken," replied Uncle Richard with a horrible suavity; "I +understand enough. That poor child telephoned to me not twenty minutes +ago that her husband was injured, perhaps mortally, and implored my +help. I left my dinner to come to his assistance and I find +him--here--and thus." + +"Twenty minutes ago?" yelled John, leaping upon his new relative and +quite disregarding that gentleman's last words. "Where was she? Did she +tell you where to look for her?" + +"So, sir," stormed Uncle Richard, "the poor, deluded child has left you +and turned to her faithful old uncle! Allow me to say that you're a +blackguard, sir, and to wish you good-bye." + +"If you dare to move," stormed John Blake, "until you tell me where my +wife is, I'll strangle you. Now listen to me. This is Mrs. Bob Blake, +wife of my cousin Robert. She's an old friend of Marjorie's. We had a +half engagement to meet here this week. Bob is due any minute, but +Marjorie is lost. There is only one record of a Blake in to-day's +register and that's this room and this lady--when Marjorie left me at +the ferry she was coming here, straight. I've been to all the possible +hotels. She is nowhere. You say she telephoned to you. From where?" + +"She didn't say," answered Uncle Richard, shame-facedly, and added still +more dejectedly, "I didn't ask. She said in a letter her aunt received +this morning that she was coming here. So I inferred that she was here." + +"Then she is here," cried Gladys. "It's some stupid mistake in the +office." + +"I'll go down to that chap," John threatened, "and if he doesn't +instantly produce Marjorie I'll shoot him." + +[Illustration: UNCLE RICHARD'S FACE, AS HE MET JOHN'S EYES, WAS A STUDY.] + +"You'll do nothing of the sort," his uncle contradicted, "the child +appealed to me and I am the one to rescue her. I shall interview the +manager. I know him. You may come with me if you like." + +Down at the desk they accosted the still-courteous clerk. Uncle Richard +produced his card, and, before he could ask for the manager the clerk +flicked a memorandum out of one pigeon-hole, a key out of another, and +twirled the register on its turn-table almost into the midst of the +white waistcoat. + +"The lady has been expecting you for hours, Mr. Underwood," said he. +"Looked for you quite early in the afternoon, so the maid says. Register +here, please. Quite hysterical, she is, they tell me, and the maid was +asking for the doctor--Front! 625!" + +Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's eyes, was a study. The +telephone-girl disentangled the receiver from her pompadour so that she +might hear without hindrance the speech which was bursting through the +swelling buttons of the white waistcoat and making the white whiskers +quiver. + +"I know nothing whatever about _any_ lady in _any_ of your rooms," he +roared, greatly to the delight of the bellboys. "I know nothing about +your Underwood woman, with her doctors and her hysterics. I want to see +the manager." + +"If," said the telephone maiden, adjusting her skirt at the hips and +shaking her figure into greater conformity with the ideal she had set +before it--"If this gentleman is 2525 Gram., then the lady in 625 rang +him up at seven-thirty and held the wire seven minutes talkin' to him +and cryin' to beat Sousa's band. All about her uncle she was talkin'. I +guess it was him, all right, all right. His voice sounds sort of +familiar to me when he talks mad." + +But John had neither eyes nor ears for Uncle Richard's wrath. He +snatched the key and the paper upon which the supercilious clerk had +inscribed, at Marjorie's embarrassed dictation, "Mrs. Underwood, West +Hills, N.J. (husband to arrive later), 625 and 6," and, since love is +keen, he jumped to the right conclusion and the open elevator without +further delay. + +An hour or so later the attention of the clerk and the telephone-girl +was again drawn to the complicated Blakes. A party of four sauntered out +of the dining-room and approached the desk. + +"I'll register now, I think," said John. And when he had finished he +turned to the star-eyed girl behind him. + +"Look carefully at this, Marjorie," he admonished. "Mr. and Mrs. John +Blake. _You_ are Mrs. John Blake. Do you think you can remember that?" + +"Don't laugh at me," she pleaded, "Gladys says it was a most natural +mistake, and so does Bob. Don't you, Gladys and Bob?" + +"An almost inevitable mistake," they chorused mendaciously, "but," added +Bob, "a rather disastrous mistake for your uncle to explain to his wife, +the doctor and the nurse. He'll be able for it, though; I never saw so +game an old chap." + +"And I'll never do it again," she promised. People never do when they've +been married a long, long time, and I feel as though I had been married +thousands and thousands of years." + +"Poor, tired little girl," said John, "you have had a rather indifferent +time of it. Say good-night to Dick and Gladys. Come, my dear." + + + + +MISERY LOVES COMPANY. + + +"But, Win," remonstrated the bride-elect, "I really don't think we +_could_. Wouldn't it look awfully strange? I don't think I ever heard of +its being done." + +"Neither did I," he agreed. "And yet I want you to do it. Look at it +from my point of view. I persuade John Mead to stop wandering around the +world and to take an apartment with me here in New York. Then I meet +you. The inevitable happens and in less than a year John is to be left +desolate. You know how eccentric he is, and how hard it will be for him +to get on with any other companion--" + +"I know," said Patty, "that he never will find any one--but you--to put +up with his eccentricities." + +"And then, as if abandoning him were not bad enough, I go and maim the +poor beggar: blind him temporarily--permanently, if he is not taken care +of--and disfigure him beyond all description. Honestly, Patty, you never +saw anything like him." + +"I know," said she, "I know. A pair of black eyes." + +"Black!" he cried, "why, they're all the colors of the rainbow and two +more beside, as the story-book says. All the way from his hair to his +mustache he is one lurid sunset. I don't want to minimize this thing. It +has only one redeeming feature: he will be a complete disguise. No +amount of rice or ribbon could counteract his sinister companionship. No +bridal suspicions could live in the light of it. Doesn't that thought +help?". + +The conversation wandered into personalities and back again, as a +conversation may three days before a wedding, but Patty was not entirely +won over to Hawley's view of his responsibility for having with +unprecedented dexterity and precision planted a smashing "right" on the +bridge of his friend's nose in the course of an amicable "bout." + +"And the oculist chap says," Winthrop urged, "that he simply must not be +allowed to use his eyes. I'm the only one who takes any interest in him +or has any control over him, and to abandon him now would be an awful +responsibility. Can't you see that, dear? If we stay at home to take +care of him he will understand why we're doing it, and he'd vanish. Do +let me put him into a motor mask and attach him to the procession." + +"Well, of course, Win," Patty answered, "of course we must have him if +you feel so strongly about it. It's a pity," she ended mischievously, +"that he dislikes me so much." + +"That's because you dislike him. But just wait till you know one +another." + +"I will," she answered with a spirit which promised well for the future. +"I'll wait." + +And Winthrop was so touched and gratified by her complaisance that he +had no alternative, save to duplicate it, when the following evening +brought him this communication: + +"Kate Perry and I were playing golf this morning. And, oh! Win, it seems +just too dreadful! I banged her between the eyes with my driver. I can't +think how I ever did it. She's not fit to be seen. Awful! worse than Mr. +Mead can possibly be. She can't stay here and she can't go home to +Washington. + +"So, now, if you will consent, we shall be four instead of three. Let me +take poor Kate. She can wear a thick veil and sit in behind with Mr. +Mead, in his goggles, and leave the front seats for us. They'll be +company for one another." + +Winthrop questioned this final sentence. A supercilious, spoiled +beauty--a beauty now doubly spoiled and presumedly bad tempered--was +hardly an ideal companion for the misanthropic Mead. + + * * * * * + +The wedding took place in the morning and the beginning of the honeymoon +was prosaic enough. Winthrop and Patty sat in the front seat of the +throbbing touring car, while hysterical bridesmaids and vengeful +groomsmen showered the requisite quantities of rice, confetti and old +slippers upon them. + +It was at the New York side of the ferry that a shrouded female joined +them, and it was at the Hoboken side of the river that a be-goggled +young man was added unto her. The bride rushed through the formula of +introduction: a readjustment of dress-suit cases and miniature trunks +was effected, and the disguise which the bridegroom had predicted was +complete. The most romantic onlooker would not have suspected them of +concealing a honeymoon about them. + +It was nearly six o'clock when at last they reached their destination, +the little town of Rapidan, in New Jersey, and stopped before the +Empress Hotel. Hawley had visited Rapidan once before, as a member of +his college glee club, and he had recalled it instantly when Mead's +disfigurement made sequestration imperative. + +The motor sobbed itself to a standstill: several children and dogs +gathered to inspect it, and then finding more interest and novelty in +Mead's mask turned their attention to him. + +The Empress had evidently been dethroned for some years, and the +hospitality she afforded her guests was of an impoverished sort. Hawley, +approaching the desk to make enquiries, was met by a clerk incredibly +arrayed, and the intelligence that the whole house was theirs to choose, +except for two small rooms on the third floor occupied by two gentlemen +who "traveled" respectively in sarsaparilla and molasses. + +Hawley returned to his friends and repeated this information. + +"How perfectly sweet of them," cried the irresponsible bride. "Oh! Win, +we must stay here and see them. Isn't it the dearest sleepy hollow of a +place?" + +Attended by the impressed and impressive clerk, they made an inspection +of the house. Mr. and Mrs. Hawley settled upon a suite just over the +main entrance. Mead was established across the hall. But Kate found a +wonderful panorama which could only be seen from the rooms on the third +floor, and there, down a dreary length of oil-clothed hall, she bestowed +herself and her belongings. + +"For I must," she explained to Patty, "I simply _must_ get out of this +veil and breathe, and I shouldn't dare to do it within reach of that +horribly supercilious friend of Winthrop's. I'm going to plead headache +or something, and have my dinner sent up here." + +Mead, meanwhile, was unfolding similar plans to Hawley. "I should have +joined you," said he, "if your wife's friend had been a little less +self-sufficient and unsympathetic. Of course, I don't require any +sympathy; but I don't want ridicule either. So, while she is of the +party I'll have my meals in my room. I can't act the 'Man in the Iron +Mask' forever. You just leave the ladies together after dinner and come +up here for a pipe with me." + +And when Mr. and Mrs. Hawley next encountered one another and reported +the wishes of their friends, he suggested and she rapturously agreed, +that they should dine in their horse-hair-covered sitting-room. + +"I have a reason, dear," she told him, "for not wishing to go to the +dining-room for our first meal together. I'll explain later." + +"Your wishing it is enough," he answered before the conversation sank to +banalities. + +And when these several intentions were made clear to the conscientious +clerk, he sent for the police force of the town--it consisted of a mild, +little old man in a uniform and helmet which might have belonged to some +mountainous member of the Broadway Squad in its prime--and implored him +to spend the evening in the hall. + +"They're beginning to act up funny already," the clerk imparted. "This +eatin' all over the house don't seem just right to me. What do they +think the dining-room's for anyway? Sam was up with the bag belonging to +the single fellow, and he says he's got the worst looking pair of black +eyes he ever saw. Here, Sam, you come and tell Jimmie what he looks +like." + +Sam, a middle-aged combination of porter, bellboy, furnace-man, office +assistant and emergency barkeeper was but newly launched upon his +description of Mead's face, when the chambermaid, who was also the +waitress and housekeeper, broke in upon them with the intelligence that +never in all her born days _or_ nights had she seen anything like the +face of the young lady on the third floor. + +"What's the matter with her," said the clerk suspiciously, with a look +which warned Jimmie to be at once a Bingham and a Sherlock Holmes. + +"Why, Horace," she answered tragically, "that girl has two of the most +awful black eyes. The whites of them is red and then comes purple and +green and yellow. I guess they was meant to be blue." + +This chromatic scale was too much for Jimmie. He reeled where he sat and +then, the postman opportunely arriving, sent word to Mrs. Jimmie that +duty would keep him from her all the night. + +"Tell her," he huskily charged his messenger, "that there is suspicious +circumstances going on in this house." + +"You bet there is," the clerk agreed. "It looks like a case of attempted +murder to me." + +"Divorce, more likely," was Jimmie's professional opinion, but he had +scant time to enlarge upon it before the waitress, outraged to the point +of tears, broke out of her domain. She brought with her an atmosphere of +long-dead beefsteak, chops and onions, and she shrilled for an answer to +her question. + +"What's the matter with 'em anyway? Ain't the dining-room good enough +for 'em to eat in? It done all right for Judge Campbell's funeral this +afternoon, and I found a real sweet wreath on that there whatnot in the +corner. The candles wasn't all burnt up neither, an' I set out four of +'em on the four corners. It looks elegant, an' them tube-roses smells +grand. An' when I told that young lady what's got the use of her eyes +how glad I was they happened in when we was so well fixed for +decorations, she looked awful funny. Most like she was cross-eyed." + +"They all seem to have eye-trouble," Jimmie commented. "Do you suppose +they're running away from one of these here blind asylums." + +"Lunatic asylum, most likely," the cheerful clerk contributed. + +When the other two guests ceased from traveling in molasses and +sarsaparilla and returned to their quiet hostelry, all these surmises +had hardened into certainties, and were imparted to them with a new maze +of suspicion, more dense, more deadly, and more strictly in accordance +with the principles laid down in "Dandy Dick, the Boy Detective." + +Madeline, the waitress, reported further particulars as she ministered +to the creature-comforts of the traveling gentlemen dining alone among +the funeral-baked meats. So interested and excited did these gentlemen +become that they determined to interview, or at least to see, their +mysterious fellow guests. + +When their elaborate supper had reached its apotheosis of stewed prunes +and blue-boiled rice, Hawley and Mead had gone out for a meditative and +tobacco-shrouded stroll. They passed through the hall and inspiration +awoke in Jimmie. + +"By gum," said he, "I know them now. I suspicioned them from the first +by what Horace told me. But now I've got them sure. You mind that time I +was down to New York and was showed over Police Headquarters, by +professional etiquette?" + +"Sure," they all agreed. It was indeed a reminiscence, the details of +which had been playing havoc with Rapidan's nerves for the past fifteen +years. They felt that they could not bear it now. + +"Well," continued Jimmie, gathering his auditors close about him by the +husky whisper he now adopted, "I see them two fellers then. Mebbe 'twas +in the Rogue's Gallery and mebbe it was in the cells. I ain't worked it +down that fine yet, but I'll think and pray on it and let you know when +I get light." + +When the staff and the commercial guests of the Empress Hotel were +waiting to see illumination burst through the blue-shrouded protector, +the bridal party was veering momentarily further from the normal. For +the deserted bride, alone in the desolate best sitting-room, laid her +head upon her arms and laughed and laughed. She had made one cautious +descent to the ground floor in search of diversion, and meeting Jimmie, +she found it. After a conversation strictly categorical upon his side +and widely misleading upon hers, she had gone up stairs again and halted +in the upper hall just long enough to hear Jimmie's triumphant: + +"Well, we know _her_ name anyway." + +"What is it?" hissed Horace, while the porter relieved himself of a quid +of tobacco so that nothing should interfere with his hearing and +attention. + +"Huh!" ejaculated Jimmie, "you bin a hotel clerk two years and sold +seegars all that time (when you could) and you don't know Ruby +Mandeville when she stands before you." + +A box of the "Flor de" that gifted songstress, was soon produced and +pried open, and the effulgent charms of its godmother compared with the +less effulgent, but no less charming figure which had just trailed away. + +"It's her, sure as you're born," cried the gentleman who traveled in +molasses, absent-mindedly abstracting three cigars and conveying them +surreptitiously to his coat pocket. + +"She's fallen off some in flesh," commented Horace, as with careful +presence of mind he drew out his daybook and entered a charge for those +three cigars. + +"But she don't fool me," said Jimmie, "she can put flesh on or she can +take it off--" + +"My, how you talk!" shrilled the chambermaid-bellboy, "you'd think you +was talkin' about clothes." + +"It ain't no different to them," Jimmie maintained. "That's one of the +things us detekitives has got to watch out for." + +"What do you s'pose she's doing here?" asked the porter. + +"Gettin' married again most likely. That's about all she does nowadays." + +Patty was still chuckling and choking over these remarks, when the door +of the sitting-room opened cautiously and Kate Perry, swathed in her +motor veil, looked in. + +"Are we alone?" she demanded with proper melodramatic accent. + +"We are," the bride answered, "Winthrop and Mr. Mead have gone out for a +smoke." + +"Then I want you to tell me if I'm fading at all. I've been looking at +it upstairs, in a little two-by-three mirror, and taken that way, by +inches, it looks awful. Tell me what you think?" She removed the veil +and presented her damaged face for her friend's inspection. There was +not much improvement to report, but the always optimistic Patty did what +she could with it. + +[Illustration: SHE SWOOPED UNDER THE LARGE CENTER TABLE, DRAGGING PATTY +WITH HER.] + +"The left cheek," she pronounced, "is really better, less swollen, +less--Oh! Kate, here they come." + +Miss Perry began to readjust her charitable gray chiffon veil. It was +one of those which are built around a circular aperture, and as the +steps in the hall came ever closer she, in one last frantic effort +succeeded in framing the most lurid of her eyes in this opening. Casting +one last look into the mirror, she swooped under the large center-table, +dragging Patty with her, and disposing their various frills and ribbons +under the long-hanging tablecover. + +"If they don't find either of us," she whispered, "they'll go away to +look for us." + +She had no time to say more, and Patty had no time to say anything +before the door opened and presented to their limited range of vision, +two utterly strange pairs of shoes and the hems of alien trousers. + +"I hope you will excuse me, Miss," began the molasses gentleman, so full +of his entrance speech that he said the first part of it before he +noticed that the room was empty. And then turned to rend his fellow +adventurer, who was laughing at him. + +"Didn't Horace tell us," he stormed, "that she was here, and wasn't you +going to say how you had saw her in the original 'Black Crook?'" + +"I seen her all right," said his more grammatical friend, with heavy +emphasis. + +"Do you see her now?" demanded the irate molasses traveler. + +"I do not, but I'll set here 'til she comes." + +They both sat. Not indeed until the arrival of Ruby Mandeville, but +until Hawley and Mead made their appearance, and made it, too, very +plain that they had not expected and did not enjoy the society of the +travelers. + +"Where are the ladies?" asked Hawley. + +"Search us," responded the travelers. + +"They must have gone to their rooms," said the bridegroom. "If these +gentlemen don't object to our waiting here," he went on with a fine and +wasted sarcasm. + +"Set right down," said the genial sarsaparilla man, and to further +promote good feeling he tendered his remaining "Ruby Mandeville" cigar. + +"Your friend," said he affably, "does he always wear them goggles?" + +"Always," answered Hawley. "Eats in them, sleeps in them." + +"Born in them," supplemented Mead savagely. + +They sat and waited for yet a few moments, and though Mead did not add +geniality to the conversation, he certainly contributed interest to it. +For his views on honeymoon etiquette being strong within him, and an +audience made to his hand, he went on to amplify some of the theories +with which he had been trying to undermine Winthrop's loyalty. + +"I am persuaded that most of the disappointments of married life are due +to the impossible standards set up at the beginning. Look at it this +way. You know the fuss most wives make about the hours a husband keeps. +Well! suppose Mr. Hawley comes out in the car with me to-night. I know +some fellows who have a summer studio near here. We'll run over and make +a night of it." + +"Say," the molasses gentleman broke in, "be you married, mister?" + +"No!" said Mead. + +"Sounds like it," said the molasses gentleman. "Marriage will sort of +straighten you out on these here subjects." + +"Oh, leave 'em be," admonished the sarsaparilla man. "If I had 'a met up +with him thirty years ago, mebbee I wouldn't be in the traveling line +now. He's got a fine idee." + +Hawley, meanwhile, was wrestling with his manners and the "Ruby +Mandeville," until the lady, as was her custom, triumphed. + +He hurriedly and incompletely extinguished the cigar, and attracted by +the same opportunity for concealment which had appealed to Kate and +Patty, he lifted a corner of the heavy-fringed tablecover and sent Ruby +to join the other ladies. + +Now, a lighted cigar applied suddenly to the ear of an excited and +half-hysterical conspirator, will generally produce results. In this +case it produced a scream, the bride, and after an interval, the +shrouded confidential friend. + +"See where amazement on your mother sits," the ghost remarks in Hamlet, +but amazement never sat so hard on the wicked Gertrude of Denmark as it +did upon the four men who saw the tablecloth give up its ghosts. + +At first there was silence. One of those throbbing, abominable silences +whose every second makes a situation worse and explanation more +impossible. + +The "Black Crook" speech of welcome and appreciation died in the heart +of the molasses traveler. It did not somehow seem the safest answer to +Hawley's threatening-- + +"I think you gentlemen had better explain how you happen to be in my +private sitting-room. Perhaps we had better step out into the hall." + +They did, and the echoes of their conversation brought Jimmie, that +trusty sleuth, upon the scene. With him he brought Horace as witness. +Also, he carried his dark lantern. He directed its glare fitfully at the +two strangers until Mead, catching a beam in his eye, turned and drove +Jimmie and his cohorts from the scene. They retreated in exceedingly +bad order to the bar, and then Jimmie announced in sepulchral whispers +that he had further identification to impart. He required much liquid +refreshment to nerve him to speech, and his audience required to be +similarly strengthened to hear. + +"I've got 'em," he began, "I know 'em now. Horace, this is the biggest +thing you'll ever be anywhere near." And, as his hearers drew close +about him, he whispered "counterfeiters. The hull kit and bilin' of 'em." + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, Kate and Patty wrestled afresh with the automobile veil, and +had succeeded in getting it tied in a limp string around the +bridesmaid's neck, leaving all her head and face uncovered. And when the +groom and the groomsman returned she, with a muffled gurgle, dived back +into the seclusion of the tablecover. + +"We've got rid of those bounders," Hawley announced, and-- + +"Hello!" cried Mead, "Miss Perry gone already?" + +"She was very tired," said Patty veraciously, but evasively. + +"Awfully jolly girl, isn't she Mead?" said Hawley, with the +expansiveness of the newly-wed. "Handsome, too?" + +"Perhaps she is, but so long as she dresses like a veiled prophet it is +hard to tell." + +"If you two can get on without me," said Patty, disregarding a muffled +protest from under the table, "I'll go up and fetch," she made these +comforting words very clear, "my green motor veil." + +Instantly, when he closed the door after her, Mead turned to Hawley. + +"There's something wrong with this confounded mask," said he. "This +strap-thing that goes round my head must be too tight. I've been mad +with it the last half hour. How do I look?" he asked genially as he took +it off, and proceeded to tamper with the buckles and elastic. "Howling +Jupiter!" he cried a moment later, "I've busted it." + +As the two friends stood and stared at one another aghast, they heard +the click of Patty's returning heels, and Mead, abandoning dignity, +courage--everything except the broken mask--dived into Miss Perry's +maiden bower. + +Mrs. Hawley watched this procedure with wide and fascinated eyes. No +ripple shook the walls of the bower. No sound proceeded from it as the +moments flew. Then Patty fell away into helpless laughter and wept tears +of shocked and sudden mirth into the now useless motor veil. + +"Patty!" remonstrated her husband, but she laughed helplessly on. "At +least come out into the hall and laugh there," he urged, "the poor chap +will hear you." And when he had followed her and listened to her shaken +whisper, he broke into such a shout as forced the indignant and +outraged Kate into a shudder of protest and disgust. + +Instantly Mead threw an arm past the table's single central support and +grasped a handful of silk chiffon and two fingers. + +He, being of an acquisitive turn, retained the fingers. She being of a +dictatorial turn, rebuked him. + +"Finding is keeping," he shamelessly remarked. "Even in infancy I was +taught that." + +Now, a certain pomp of scene and circumstance is necessary to the sort +of dignified snubbing with which Miss Perry was accustomed to treat +possible admirers. Also, a serene consciousness of superlative good +looks. But Kate Perry disfigured, cramped into a ridiculous hiding +place, and suffering untold miseries of headache and throbbing eyes, was +a very different creature. + +And Mead, flippant, hard, and misanthropic in the state of nature, +softened wonderfully as he sat in the gloom of the tablecover, in +silent possession of those two slim fingers. + +His words grew gentle, his manner kind, and her answers were calculated +to petrify her long-suffering family if they could have overheard them. + +"Mr. Mead," she said at last, "will you be so very kind as to stay here +quietly under the table while I scramble out and go up to my room?" + +No tongue of angel could have made a more welcome suggestion. Mead +uttered feeble and polite proffers of escort, and silently called down +blessings upon the head he had never seen. He had just allowed himself +to be dissuaded from knight errantry, when the door opened and Jimmie +flashed his dark lantern about the brightly lighted room. He then beckoned +mysteriously to the still vigilant Horace, who lurked in the hall. + +"Have you found them?" whispered that youth. + +"Not a trace of them," answered Jimmie triumphantly. "They ain't gone +out. They ain't in their rooms, and I'm studyin' how I can round 'em up. +They're the most suspicious characters I ever see, Horace, and this +night's work may cost us our lives." + +This disposition of his existence did not seem to cheer Horace. + +"Counterfeiters," Jimmie went on, "is the desperatest kind of criminals +there is. Still we got to git 'em. I'll look round this room just so as +nothing won't escape us, and then we'll go up to the next floor. It's +good we got two of them located in the bridal suite." + +Jimmie, with his prying dark lantern and his prodding nightstick, soon +reached the space under the table, and the counterfeiters secreted there. + +"I got 'em," he cried delightedly. "Hi, you. Come out of there and show +yourselves." + +They came. There was nothing else to do. + +"Moses's holy aunt," cried Jimmie, falling back upon Horace, who +promptly fell back upon the sofa. + +"Here, you," said Mead. "You get out of this, both of you. Don't you +know this is a private sitting-room?" + +"No settin'-room," said Jimmie, recovering somewhat, "is private to them +as sets under tables blackening one another's eyes." + +"You ridiculous idiot," snorted Mead. "Do you dare to think that I hurt +this lady?" + +"Lady? Ain't she your wife?" + +"She is _not_," snapped Kate. + +"Then why did you hit her?" demanded Jimmie. "If she ain't your wife +what did you want to hit her for? An' anyway, she'd ought to be. That's +all I got to say." + + * * * * * + +The same idea occurred to Mr. and Mrs. Hawley, crouched guiltily against +their door to hear their victims pass, for their amazed ears caught +these words--the first were Kate's: + +"You must let me give you some of my lotion." + +And then came Mead's: + +"I shall be _most_ grateful. It must be hot stuff. You know you're +hardly disfigured at all." + +"The saints forgive him," Patty gurgled. + +Later on in the darkness, Jimmie's idea visited Mead and was received +with some cordiality. And at some time later still, it must have been +presented to Miss Perry, for the misanthropic Mead--no longer +misanthropic--now boasts a massive and handsome wife whom he calls his +Little Kitty. But the idea was originally Jimmie's. + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS GUEST + + +On the day before Christmas eve John Sedyard closed his desk, dismissed +his two clerks and his stenographer two hours earlier than usual, and +set out in quest of adventure and a present for his sister Edith. John +Sedyard had a habit of succeeding in all he set forth to do but the +complete and surprising success which attended him in this quest was a +notch above even his high average. + +Earlier in the month, his stenographer had secured the annual pledges of +his affection for all the relatives, friends and dependants to whom he +was in the habit of giving presents: all except his mother, his +unmarried sister, Edith, who still lived at home, and his fiancée, Mary +Van Plank. The gifts for these three, he had decided, must be of his +own choice and purchase. He had provided for his mother and for Mary +earlier in the week. Neither excitement nor adventure had attended upon +the purchase of their gifts. Something for the house or the table was +always the trick for elderly ladies who presided over large +establishments and gave their whole souls to the managing of them. He +bought for his mother a set of colonial silver candlesticks. For Mary, +he bought a comb of gold--all gold, like her own lovely hair. The dark +tortoise shell of the one she wore always seemed an incongruous note in +her fair crown. But Edith was as yet unpresented, and it was on her +account that Mr. Sedyard deserted his office and delighted his +subordinates at three o'clock in the afternoon. + +Edith was much more difficult than the other two had been. She was +strong-minded, much given to churchwork and committees. Neither the +home, as represented by the candlesticks, nor self-adornment as +typified by the golden comb could be expected to appeal to her +communistic, altruistic nature. And Sedyard, having experienced two +inspirations, could think of nothing but combs and candlesticks. So he +threw himself into the current, which swept along Broadway, trusting +that some accident would suggest a suitable offering. Meanwhile, he +revelled in the crowd, good-humored, holiday-making, holly-decked, which +carried him uptown, past Wanamaker's and Grace Church, swirled him +across old "dead man's curve," and down the Fourteenth Street side of +Union Square. Here the shops were smaller, not so overwhelming, and here +he was stopped by seeing a red auction flag. Looking in over the heads +of the assembled crowd, he saw that the auctioneer was holding up a +feather-crowned hat and addressing his audience after the manner of his +kind: + +"Buy a hat for your wife. A waste-paper basket by night and a hat by +day. Genuine ostrich feathers growing on it. Becoming to all styles of +feminine beauty. What am I bid on this sure tickler of the feminine +palate? Three dollars? Why, ladies and gents, the dooty on it alone was +twelve. It's a Paris hat, ladies. Your sister, your mother, your maiden +aunt--" + +Sedyard hearkened, but absently, to the fellow's words, but his problem +was solved. He would buy Edith something to look pretty in. She was a +pretty girl and in danger of forgetting it. And she had been decent, +John reflected, awfully decent about Mary. He knew that the _entente +cordiale_ which existed between Mary and his mother was largely due to +Edith, and he knew, too, that Edith, an authority on modern-housing and +model-living, surely but silently disapproved of Mary's living alone in +a three-roomed studio and devoting her days to painting, when there was +so much rescue work to be done in the world. + +"I get my uplift," Mary would explain when Edith urged these things upon +her, "from the elevator. Living on the eighth floor, dear, I cannot but +help seeing the world from a very different angle." + +Yes, John reflected as he chuckled in retrospect over such +conversations, Edith had certainly been awfully decent. + +During these meditations several articles of feminine apparel had come +and gone under the hammer. The crowd had decreased somewhat and his +position now commanded a clear view of the auctioneer's platform, and he +realized that the fierce light of the arc lamps beat down upon as +charming a costume as he had seen for many a day. All of corn-flower +blue it was, a chiffon gown, a big chiffon muff and a plumed hat. Oh! if +he had been allowed to do such shopping for Mary! how quickly he would +have entered into the lists of bidders! Mary's eyes were just that +heavenly shade of blue, but Mary's pride was as great as her poverty, +and the time when he could shower his now useless wealth upon her was +not yet. And then his loyal memory told him that Edith was blue-eyed +like all the Sedyards and he knew that his sister's Christmas gifts +stood before him. He failed, however, to discern in the bland presence +of the lay figure, upon which they were disposed to such advantage, the +companion of one of the most varied adventures in his long career. + +The chiffon finery was rather too much for the Fourteenth Street +audience. The bidding languished. The auctioneer's pleadings fell upon +deaf ears. In vain his assistant, a deft-fingered man with a beard, +twirled the waxen-faced figure to show the "semi-princesse back" and the +"near-Empire front." Corn-blue chiffon and panne velvet are not much +worn in Fourteenth Street. The auctioneer grew desperate. "Twenty-five +dollars," he repeated with such scorn that the timid woman who had made +the bid wished herself at home and in bed. "_Twenty-five_ dollars!" + +"Throw in the girl, why don't you?" suggested a facetious youth, chiefly +remarkable for a nose, a necktie and a diamond ring. "She's a peach all +right, all right. She's got a smile that won't come off." + +"All right, I'll throw her in," cried the desperate auctioneer. "What am +I bid for this here afternoon costume complete with lady." + +"Twenty-seven fifty," said a woman whom three years of banting would +still have left too fat to get into it. + +"Twenty-eight," whispered the first bidder. + +"Thirty," said John Sedyard. + +There was some other desultory bidding but in a few moments Sedyard +found himself minus fifty-four dollars and plus a chiffon gown and +muff, a hat all drooping plumes and a graceful female form, +golden-haired, bewitching, with a smile sweetly blended of surprise, +incipient idiocy and allure. + +"She's a queen all right, all right," the sophisticated youth cheered +him. "Git onto them lovely wax-like hands. Say, you know honest, on the +level, she's worth the whole price of admission." + +John, still chaperoned by this sagacious and helpful youth, made his way +to the clerk's desk and proceeded to give his name and address and +request that his purchases should be delivered in the morning. + +"Deliver nothin'," said the clerk pleasantly. "Do you suppose we'd 'a +let you have the goods at that price if we could 'a stored 'em +overnight? Our lease is up," he continued consulting his Ingersoll +watch, "in just fifteen minutes. In a quarter of an hour we hand over +the keys and what's left of the fixtures to the landlord. He's let the +store for to-morrow to a Christmas-tree ornaments merchant." + +"Then I suppose I'll have to get an expressman. Where is the nearest, do +you know?" + +"Expressman!" exclaimed the sharp youth. "Well, I guess the nearest +would be about Three Hundred and Fifty-second Street and _then_ he'd +have a load and a jag. No, sir, it's the faithful cab for yours. There's +a row of cabs just on the edge of the square. I could go over and get +you a hansom." + +"Thank you," said John, "I wish you would." But a glance at his +languishing companion made him add, "I guess you had better make it a +four-wheeler. Hansom-riding would be pretty cold for a lady without a +coat." + +"All right," said the sharp youth. "You bring her out on the sidewalk +and I'll get the hurry-up wagon. Say!" he halted to suggest, "you know +what you'll look like, don't you?--riding around with that smile. When +the lights flush you, you'll look just like a bridal party from +Hoboken." + +Leaving this word of comfort behind him, he proceeded to imperil his +life among trolley cars and traffic, while John engaged the lady and +urged her to motion. + +He discovered that, supported at the waistline, she could be wheeled +very nicely. He forced the muff over her upraised right hand, so that it +somewhat concealed her face, and through an aisle respectfully cleared +by the onlookers he led her to the open air. There he propped her +against the show-window and turned in search of the cab and his new +friend. In doing so he came face to face with an old one. + +"Why, hello John!" said Frederick Trevor, a man who had an office in his +building and an interest in his sister. "Who would have thought of +meeting you here?" + +"Or you," retorted John. "But since you are here, you can help me in a +little difficulty." + +"Not now, old chap," said Frederick, "I'm in a bit of a hurry. See you +about it to-morrow. Well, so long. Don't let me keep you from your +friend." + +"Friend!" stormed John and then following the directions of Trevor's +eyes, he descried a blue-clad, golden-haired young lady lolling against +the window, trying with a giant chiffon muff to smother a fit of +hilarious laughter. One arched and smiling eye showed above the muff and +the whole figure was instinct with Bacchanalian mirth. "Why that's," he +began to explain, but young Trevor had vanished into the crowd. + +Presently the cab with the smart youth inside drew up to the curb and +Sedyard, with a new self-consciousness, put his arm around the blue +figure and trundled her across the sidewalk. The cabman threw his rug +across his horse's quarters and lumbered down to assist at the +embarkation of so fair a passenger. The smart youth held the door +encouragingly open and John proceeded, with much more strength than he +had expected to use, to heave the passenger aboard. + +Even these preliminaries had attracted the nucleus of a crowd and the +smart youth grew restive. + +"Aw, say Maudie," he urged when the lady stuck rigid catty-cornerwise +across the cab with her blue feathers pressed against the roof in one +corner, and her bird-cage skirt arrangement protruding beyond the +door-sill. "Aw, say Maudie, set down, why don't you, and take your +Trilbys in. This gent is going to take you carriage riding." + +"What's the matter with her anyway," demanded the cabman. "Don't she +know how to set in a carriage?" + +"No, she doesn't, she's only a wax figure," said John, "but I bought +her and now I'm determined to take her home. She'd better go up on the +box with you." + +"What! her?" demanded the outraged Jehu. "Say, what do you take me for +anyway? Do you suppose I ain't got no friends just 'cause I drive a cab? +Why! I wouldn't drive up Broadway with them goo-goo eyes settin' beside +me, not for nothing you could offer, I wouldn't." + +By this time the crowd had reached very respectable proportions although +there was nothing to see except the end of a blue gown hanging out of +the cab's open door. The sharp youth, the cabman and John took turns in +trying to adjust the lady to her environment. The rigidity and fragility +of her arms and head made this very difficult, and presently there +rolled upon the scene a policeman, large, Irish and chivalrous. It took +Patrolman McDonogh but a second, but one glance at the tableaux and one +whisper from the crowd to understand that a kidnapping atrocity was in +progress. + +With wrath in his eye, he shouldered aside Sedyard and the cabman, +grabbed the smart youth, whose turn at persuasion was then on, and threw +him into the face of the crowd. + +"Oh! but you're the villyans," he admonished them, and then addressed +the captive maid in reassuring tones. + +"You're all right, Miss, now. You're no longer defenceless in this +wicked city. The arrum of the law is around you," he cried, encircling +her waist with that substantial member. "You're safe at last, come here +to me out of that." + +"Oh! noble, noble man," cried an emotional woman in the crowd. "If all +officers were like you!" + +Heartened by these words the noble, noble man exerted the arm of the +law and plucked the maiden out of the cab amid great excitement and +applause. But above the general murmur the shrill voice of the sharp +youth rent the air: + +"Fathead," he cried, "you've broke her neck. Can't you see how her +head's goin' round and round?" + +[Illustration: THE CHANGELESS SMILE AND THE DROOPING PLUMES MADE THREE +COMPLETE REVOLUTIONS AND NESTLED CONFIDINGLY UPON THE SHOULDER OF THE +LAW. Page 129.] + +At this the emotional woman dropped to the sidewalk. "Lady fainted here, +officer," cried a gentleman. But the noble, noble officer had no time +for faints, and the lady was obliged to revive with only the assistance +of the cold stones and curiosity. + +For the shrill voice had spoken truth. Something had given away in +Maudie's mysterious anatomy; the fair head, the changeless smile and the +drooping plumes made three complete revolutions and nestled confidingly +upon the shoulder of the Law. + +"Here, none o' that," yelled Patrolman McDonogh quite reversing his +earlier diagnosis of the situation. "None of your flim-flams, if you +please. You go quiet and paceable with this gentleman. A little ride in +the air is what you need." + +"That's right, officer," Sedyard interrupted. "That's how to talk to +her. I can't do a thing with her." + +"Brute!" cried the emotional woman now happily restored. "It's officers +like him that disgraces the force." + +Patrolman McDonogh turned to identify this blasphemer and Maudie's head, +deprived of its support, made another revolution and then dropped coyly +to her left shoulder. She looked so unspeakable in that attitude that +the cabman felt called upon to offer a little professional advice: + +"She needs a checkrein," he declared, "an' she needs it bad," a remark +which so incensed Patrolman McDonogh that Sedyard decided to explain: + +"Just disperse those people, will you," said he, "I want to talk to you." + +The sharp youth relieved the officer of law of his fair burden and +posed her in a natural attitude of waiting beside the cab. McDonogh +cleared the sidewalk and hearkened to Sedyard's tale. + +"So you see," said John in conclusion, "what I'm up against. I really +didn't want the dummy when I bought it and you can bet I'm tired of it +now. What I wanted was the clothes, and I guess the thing for me to do +is just to take them in the cab and leave the figure here." + +"What!" thundered McDonogh. "You're going to leave a dummy without her +clothes here on my beat? Not if I see ye first, ye ain't, and if ye try +it on I'll run ye in." + +"Say! I'll tell you what you want," piped up the still buoyant, smart +youth. "You need one of them open taxicabs. + +"He needs a hearse," corrected the disgruntled cabman. "Somethin' she +can lay down in comfortable an' take in the sights through the windows." + +"Now, he needs a taxi. He can leave her stand in the back all right, +but I guess," he warned John, "you'll have to sit in with her and hold +her head on." + +And thus it was that Maudie left the scene. She left, too, the smart +youth, the cabman and the noble, noble officer. And as the taxi bumped +over the trolley tracks she, despite all Sedyard's efforts, turned her +head and smiled out at them straight over her near-princesse back. + +"Gee!" said the smart youth, "ain't she the friendliest bunch of +calico." + +"This case," said the noble Patrolman McDonogh with unpunctual +inspiration, "had ought to be looked into by rights." + +"Chauffeur," said John Sedyard to the shadowy form before him, "just +pick out the darkest streets, will you?" + +"Yes, sir," answered the chauffeur looking up into the bland smile and +the outstretched hand above him. "I'll make it if I can but if we get +stopped, don't blame me." + +A year later, or so it seemed to John Sedyard, the taxicab, panting with +indignation at the insults and interferences to which it had been +subjected, turned into Sedyard's eminently respectable block and drew up +before his eminently handsome house. + +He paid and propitiated the chauffeur, took his lovely burden in his +arms and staggered up the steps with the half regretful feeling of one +who steps out of the country of adventure back to prosaic things. He +found his latchkey, opened his door and drew Maudie into the hall. And +on the landing half-way up the stairs stood his sister Edith, evidently +the bearer of some pleasant tidings. + +Maudie's smile flashed up at her from John's shoulder. Edith stared, +stiffened, and retraced her steps. John wheeled the figure into the +reception-room and thus addressed it: + +"Listen to me, you dumbhead. You may think this adventure is over. +Well, so did I, but I tell you now it's only just beginning. If you are +not mighty careful you will be wrecking a home. So keep your mouth +shut," he charged her, "and do nothing till you hear from me!" + +Maudie smiled archly, coyly, confidentially, and he went upstairs. + +In the sitting-room, he found gathered together his mother, his sister +and Dick Van Plank, Mary's young brother and a student at Columbia. John +was supported through Edith's first remark and the look with which she +accompanied it by the memory of her goodness to Mary and by the +anticipation of the fun which Maudie might be made to provide. + +"I wish to say, John," she began, before any one else had time to speak, +"that I've said _nothing_ to mother or Dick, and I think it would be +better if you didn't. I can attend to the case if you leave it to me." + +"Like you," said John shortly. "Who told you she is a 'case.' Mother," +he went on addressing that gentle knitter by the fire, "I want you to +come downstairs." + +"She shall do nothing of the kind!" cried Edith, and as Mrs. Sedyard +looked interrogatively from one to another of her children, her daughter +swept on. "John must be crazy, I saw him come in with a--a person--who +never ought to be in a house like this." + +"I'd like to know why not?" stormed John. "You don't know a thing about +her. _I_ don't know much for that matter, but when I came across her +down on Union Square, just turned out of a shop where she had been +working, mother, I made up my mind that I would bring her right straight +home, and that Edith would be decent to her. You can see that Edith does +not intend to be." + +"But my dear boy," faltered Mrs. Sedyard, "was not that a very reckless +thing to do? I know of an institution where you could send her." + +"Oh! yes, yes," said John. "And I suppose I might have handed her over +to a policeman," he added, thinking of his attempt in this direction, +"but I didn't. The sight of her so gentle and uncomplaining in that +awful situation at this time of general rejoicing was too much for me." + +He felt this to be so fine a flight and its effect upon Dick was so +remarkable, that he went on in a voice, as his mother always remembered, +"that positively trembled at times." + +"How was I, a man strong and well-dowered, to pass heartlessly by like +the Good Samaritan--" + +"There's something wrong with that," Dick interposed. + +But John was not to be deflected. "What, mother, would you have thought +of your son if he left that beautiful figure--for she is beautiful--" + +"You don't say," said Dick. + +"To be buffeted by the waves of 'dead man's curve?'" + +"Oh, how awful!" murmured the old lady. "How _perfectly_ dreadful." + +It was at this point that Dick Van Plank unostentatiously left the room. + +"But I didn't do it, mother," cried John, thumping his chest and anxious +to make his full effect before the return of an enlightened and possibly +enlightening Dick. "No, I thought of this big house, with only us three +in it, and I said 'I'll bring her home.' Edith will love her. Edith will +give her friendship, advice, guidance. She will even give her something +to wear instead of the unsuitable things she has on. And what do I +find?" He paused and looked around dramatically and warningly as Dick, +with a beautified grin, returned. "Does Edith open her heart to her? +No. Does Edith open her arms to her? No. All that Edith opens to her is +the door which leads--who can tell where, whither?" + +"I can tell," said Dick, "it leads right straight to my little diggings. +If Edith throws her out, I'll take her in." + +"Oh, noble, noble man," ejaculated John remembering the emotional woman, +"but ah! that must not be. I took her hand in mine--by the way, did I +tell you, she has beautiful little hands, not at all what I should have +expected." + +"You did not," said Dick. "And now that'll be about all from you. You're +just about through." + +"My opinion is," said Edith darkly, "that you are both either crazy or +worse." + +"Go down and see her for yourself," urged Dick, "so quiet, so +reserved--hush! hark! she's coming up. Now be nice to her whatever you +feel! I'll be taking her away in a minute or two." + +But it was Mary Van Plank who came in. Mary, all blooming and glowing +from the cold. + +"Who's that in the reception-room?" she asked when the greetings were +over and she was warming her slender hands before the fire. "She's the +prettiest dear. She was standing at the window and she smiled so sweetly +at me as I came up the steps." + +John looked at Dick. + +"Yes," admitted that unabashed delinquent, "I left her at the window +when I came up." + +"Alas! poor child," sighed John, looking out into the night. "She'll be +there soon." + +"What is she going out for at this time?" Mary demanded. "I quite +thought that she, too, had come to dinner. Who is she, Mrs. Sedyard?" + +Upon her mother's helpless silence, Edith broke in with the story as +she felt she knew it. Union Square, the discharged shopgirl, John's +quixotic conduct. And John watched Mary with a lover's eye. He had not +intended that she should be involved. A moment of her displeasure, even +upon mistaken grounds, was no part of his idea of a joke. + +But there was no displeasure in Mary's lovely face. + +"Why, of course, he brought her home," she echoed Edith's indignant +peroration. "What else could he do?" + +"Well, for one thing he could have taken her to the Margaret Louise +Home, that branch of the Y.W.C.A., on Sixteenth Street, only a few +blocks from where he found her." + +"Oh! Edith," Mary remonstrated. "The Maggie Lou! And you know they would +not admit her. Who would take a friendless girl to any sort of an +institution at this season? John couldn't have done it! I think he's an +old dear to bring her right straight home. Let's go down and talk to +her. She must be wondering why we all leave her so long alone." + +"No, you don't," said Dick. "Edith didn't tell you the whole story. The +girl," and he drew himself up to a dignity based on John's, "is under +_my_ protection." + +"Your protection!" repeated his amazed sister. + +"Precisely. _My_ protection. Edith declines to receive this helpless +child. Therefore, I have offered her the shelter of my roof." + +"His roof," explained Mary to Mrs. Sedyard, "is the floor of the hall +bedroom above his. It measures about nine by six. So the thing to do, +since of course, Dick is only talking nonsense, is to let me take the +girl around to the studio until John and I can plan an uninstitutional +future for her." + +"You may do just as you please," said Edith coldly. "I have given my +opinion as to what should be done with her. It has been considered, by +persons more experienced than you, the opinion of an expert. Girls of +her history and standards are not desirable inmates for well-ordered +homes. I shall have nothing to do with her." + +"How about it, Mary?" asked her brother. "Are you willing to risk her in +the high-art atmosphere of the studio?" + +"I'm glad to," Mary answered. "It's not often that one gets a chance of +being a little useful, and doesn't the Christmas Carol say, 'Good will +to men.' I'm going down to see her now." + +"You're a darling," cried John. "True blue right through. Now, we'll all +go down and arrange the transfer. But, first, I want to give Edith one +more chance. Do you finally and unreservedly--" + +"I do," said Edith promptly. + +"And you, Mary, are you sure of yourself? Suppose that, when you see +her, you change your mind?" + +"I've given my word,", she answered. "I promise to take her." + +"That's all I want," said John. + + * * * * * + +"How could you, John? How could you?" sobbed Edith. "How could you tell +us--?" + +"I told you nothing but the absolute truth. I meant her to be your +Christmas present, but you have resigned her 'with all her works and all +her pomps' to Mary." + +"Ah! but if I refuse to take her from Edith?" Mary suggested. + +"Then I get her," answered Dick blithely, "and she'd be safer with me. I +know what you two girls are thinking of. You are going to borrow her +clothes and make a Cinderella of her. They are what you care about. But +I love her for herself, her useless hands, her golden hair, her lovely +smile--well, no, I guess we'll cut out the smile," he corrected when +Maudie, agitated by the appraising hands of the two girls, swung her +head completely round and beamed impartially upon the whole assembly. +"It don't look just sincere to me." + +But there was no insincerity about Maudie. She was just as +sweet-tempered as she looked. Uncomplainingly, she allowed herself to be +despoiled of her finery and wrapped in a sheet while Mary wriggled +ecstatically in the heavenly blue dress, pinned the plumed hat on her +own bright head and threw the muff into a corner of the darkened +drawing-room when she found that it interfered with the free expression +of her gratitude to John. + +And some months later when the trousseau was in progress, the once +despised Christmas guest, now a member in good-standing of Mary's +household, did tireless service, smilingly, in the sewing-room. + + + + +"WHO IS SYLVIA?" + + +"Lemon, I think," said Miss Knowles, in defiance of the knowledge, born +of many afternoons, that he preferred cream. She took a keen and +mischievous pleasure in annoying this hot-tempered young man, and she +generally succeeded. But to-day he was not to be diverted from the +purpose which, at the very moment of his entrance, she had divined. + +"Nothing, thank you," he answered. "I'll not have any tea. I came in +only for a moment to tell you that I'm going to be married." + +"Again?" she asked calmly, as though he had predicted a slight fall of +snow. But her calm did not communicate itself to him. + +"Again?" he repeated hotly. "What do you mean by 'again?'" + +"Now, Jimmie," she remonstrated, as she settled herself more +comfortably among her pillows and centered all her apparent attention +upon a fragile cup and a small but troublesome sandwich, "don't be +savage. I only mean that you always tell me so when you find an +opportunity. That you even manufacture opportunities--some of them out +of most unlikely material. A chance meeting in a cross-town car; an +especially _forte_ place in an opera; the moment when a bishop is saying +grace or a host telling his favorite story. And yet you expect me to be +surprised to hear it now! Here in my own deserted drawing-room with the +fire lighted and the lamps turned low. You forget that one is allowed to +remember." + +"You allow yourself to forget when you choose and to remember when you +wish: You are--" + +"And to whom are you going to be married? To the same girl? Do you +know, I think she is not worthy of you?" + +"She is not," he acquiesced, and she, for a passing moment, seemed +disconcerted. "Yet she is," he continued, cheered by this slight +triumph, "the most persistent, industrious and deserving of all the +young persons who, attracted by my great position and vast wealth, are +pressing themselves or being pressed by designing relatives upon my +notice." + +His hostess laughed softly. + +"Make allowances for them," she pleaded. "You know very few men can +rival your advantages. The sixth son of a retired yet respectable stock +broker, and an income of four thousand a year derived from a small but +increasing--shall we say increasing--?" + +"Diminishing; incredible as it may seem, diminishing." + +"From a small but diminishing law practice. And with these you must +mention your greatest charm." + +"Which is?" + +"Your humility, your modesty, your lack of self-assertiveness. Do you +think she recognizes that? It is so difficult to fully appreciate your +humility." + +Jimmie grinned. "She's up to it," said he. "She knows all about it. +She's as clever, as keen, as clear-sighted." + +"Is she, perhaps, pleasing to the eye?" asked Miss Knowles idly. "Clever +women are often so--well, so--" + +Jimmie gazed at her across the little tea-table. He filled his eyes with +her. And, since his heart was in his eyes, he filled that, too. After a +moment he made solemn answer: + +"She is the most beautiful woman God ever made." + +"Ah, now," said Miss Knowles, returning her cup to its fellows and +turning her face, and her mind, more entirely to him, "now we grow +interesting. Describe her to me." + +"Again?" Jimmie plagiarized. + +"Yes, again. Tell me, what is she like?" + +"She is like," he began so deliberately that his hostess, leaning +forward, hung upon his words, "she is exactly like--nothing." The +hostess sat back. "There was never anything in the least like her. To +begin with, she is fair and young and slim. She is tall enough, and +small enough and her eyes are gray and black and blue." + +"She sounds disreputable, your paragon." + +"And her eyes," he insisted, "are gray in the sunlight, blue in the +lamplight, and black by the light of the moon." + +"And in the firelight?" + +He rose to kick the logs into a greater brightness; and when he had +studied her glowing face until it glowed even more brightly, he +answered: + +"In the firelight they are--wonderful. She has--did I tell you?--the +whitest and smallest of teeth." + +"They're so much worn this year," she laughed, and wondered the while +what evil instinct tempted her to play this dangerous game; why she +could not refrain from peering into the deeper places of his nature to +see if her image were still there and still supreme? Why should she, +almost involuntarily, work to create and foster an emotion upon which +she set no store, which indeed, only amused her in its milder +manifestations and frightened her when it grew intense? He showed +symptoms of unwelcome seriousness now, but she would have none of it. + +"Go on," she urged. "Unless you give her a few more features she will be +like little Red Riding Hood's grandmother." + +"And she has," he proceeded obediently, "eyebrows and eyelashes--" + +"One might have guessed them." + +"--beyond the common, long and dark and soft. The rest of her face is +the only possible setting for her eyes. It is perfection." + +"And is she gentle, womanly, tender? Is she, I so often wonder, good +enough to you?" + +"She treats me hundreds of times better than I deserve." + +"Doesn't she rather swindle you? Doesn't she let you squander your +time?"--she glanced at the clock--"your substance?"--she bent to lay her +cheek against the violets at her breast--"your affection upon her--?" + +"And how could she be kinder? And when I marry her--" + +"And _if_," Miss Knowles amended. + +"There's no question about it," he retorted. "She knows that I shall +marry her." Miss Knowles looked unconvinced. "She knows that she will +marry me." Miss Knowles looked rebellious. "She knows that I shall never +marry anyone else." Miss Knowles took that apparently for granted. + +"Dear boy!" said she. + +"That I have waited seven years for her." + +"Poor boy!" said she. + +"That I shall wait seven more for her." + +"Silly boy!" said she. + +"And so I stopped this afternoon to tell her that I'm coming home to +marry her in two or three months." + +"Coming home?" she questioned with not much interest. "Where are you +going?" + +"To Japan on a little business trip. One of the big houses wants to get +some papers and testimony and that sort of thing out of a man who is +living in a backwoods village there for his health--and his liberty. +None of their own men can afford time to go. And I got the chance, a +very good one for me--but I tire you." + +"No; oh, no," said Miss Knowles politely. "You are very interesting." + +"Then you shouldn't fidget and yawn. You lay yourself open to +misinterpretation. To continue: a very great chance for me. The firm is +a big firm, the case is a big case, and it will be a great thing for me +to be heard of in connection with it." + +"Some nasty scandal, of course." + +"Not exactly. It is the Drewitt case. I wonder if you heard anything +about it." + +"For three months after the thing happened," she assured him with a +flattering accession of interest, "I heard nothing about anything else. +Poor, dear father knew him, to his cost, you know. I heard that there +was to be a new investigation and another attempt at a settlement. And +now you're going to interview the man! And you're going to Japan! Oh, +the colossal luck of some people! You will write to me--won't you?--as +soon as you see him, and tell me all about him. How he looks, what he +says, how he justifies himself. O Jimmie, dear Jimmie, you will surely +write to me?" + +"Naturally," said Jimmie, and his thin, young face looked happier than +it had at any other time since the beginning of this conversation; +happier than it had in many preceding conversations with this very +unsatisfying but charming interlocutor. "I always do. Sometimes when +your mood has been particularly, well, unreceptive, I have thought of +going away so that I might write to you. Perhaps I could write more +convincingly than I can talk." A cheering condition of things for a +lawyer, he reflected. + +"But this is a different and much more particular thing," she insisted +with a cruelty of which her interest made her unconscious. "I have a +sort of a right to know on account of poor, dear father. I shall make a +list of questions and you will answer them fully, won't you? Then I +shall be the only woman in New York to know the true inwardness of the +Drewitt affair. When do you start?" + +"To-morrow morning. I shall be away for perhaps three months, and then," +doggedly, "then I'm coming home to be married. I came in to tell you." + +"And if I don't quite believe you?" + +"I shall postpone the ceremony. Shall we say indefinitely, some time in +the summer?" + +"Not even then. Never, I think. That troublesome girl is beginning--she +feels that she ought to tell you--" + +"That there is another 'another'?" + +"Yes, I fear so." + +"Who will be in town for the next three months?" + +"Again, I fear so." + +"Then that's all right," said the optimistic Jimmie. "There never was a +man--save one, oh, lady mine--who could, for three months, avoid boring +you. When he holds forth upon every subject under the sun and stars you +will think longingly of me and of the endless variety of my one topic, +'I'm going to marry you.'" + +"But if he should make it his?" + +"I defy him to do it. There is no guise in which he could clothe the +idea which would not remind you instantly of me. If he should be +poetical: well, so was I when we were twenty-one. If he should give you +gifts of great price: well, so did I in those Halcyon days when I had an +allowance from my Governor and toiled not. If his is an outdoor wooing, +you will inevitably remember that I taught you to ride, to skate, to +drive, and to play golf. If he should attack you musically, you will be +surprised at the number of operas we've heard together and of duets +we've sung together. And so, in the words of my friend, fellow-sufferer, +and name-sake, Mr. Yellowplush, 'You'll still remember Jeames.'" + +"That's nonsense!" cried Miss Knowles. "I've tried to be fond of you--I +_am_ fond of you and accustomed to you. The fatal point is that I am +accustomed to you. You say you never bore me. Well, you don't. And that +other men do. Well, you're right. But people don't marry people simply +because they don't bore each other." + +"Your meaning is clearer than your words and much more correct. This +really essential consideration is, alas, frequently not considered." + +"People should marry," said Miss Knowles with a sort of consecrated +earnestness--the most deadly of all the practiced phases of her +coquetry--"for love. Now, I'm not in love with you. If I were, the very +idea of your going away would make me miserable. And do I seem +miserable? Am I lovelorn? Look at me carefully and tell the truth." + +Jimmie obeyed, and the contemplation of his hostess seemed to depress him. + +"No," he agreed gloomily, "you seem to bear up. No one, looking at your +face, could guess that your heart was in--was in--" Jimmie halted, +vainly searching for the poetical word. Miss Knowles supplied it. + +"In torn and bleeding fragments," she supplemented. "No, Jimmie, I'm +sorry. You've laid siege to it in every known way, and yet there's not a +feather out of it." + +"There are two ways," Jimmie pondered audibly, "in which I have not +wooed you. One is _à la_ cave dweller. I might knock you on the head +with a knobby club and drag you to my lair. But since my lair is some +blocks away, and since those blocks are studded with the interested +public and the uninterested police, the cave dweller's method will not +serve. There remains one other. I stand before you, so; I take your +hand, so; I may even have to kiss it, so. And I say: 'Dear one, I want +you. Every hour of my life I want you. I want you to take care of, to +work for, to be proud of. I want you to let me teach you what life +means. I want you for my dearest friend, for my everlasting sweetheart, +for my wife.' And when I've said it, I kiss your hand, so; gently, once +again, and wait for your answer." + +"Dear boy," said she with an unsteady little laugh, for--as always--she +shrank from his earnestness after she had deliberately roused it, "I +wish you wouldn't talk like that. You make me feel so shallow-pated and +so small. I don't want to talk about life and knowledge and love. And I +don't want any husband at all. What makes you so tragic this afternoon? +You're spoiling our last hour together. Come, be reasonable. Tell me +what you think of Drewitt. Why do you suppose he did it? Did his wife +and daughter know?" + +"You're quite sure about the other thing?" + +"Unalterably sure. And, Jimmie, dear old Jimmie, there are two things I +want you to do for me. The first is, to abandon forever and forever this +'one topic' of which, you are so proud. Will you?" + +"I will not," said Jimmie. + +"And the second is: to fall in love with a girl on the boat. There is +always a girl on a boat. Will you?" + +"I will," said Jimmie promptly. "It would be just what you deserve." + + * * * * * + +Miss Knowles bore the absence of her most persistent and accustomed +suitor with a fortitude not predicted by that self-confident young man. +She danced and drove, lunched and dined, rode and flirted with +undiminished zest, bringing, each day, new energy and determination to +the task of enjoying herself. + +The enjoyment of her neighbors seemed less important. She preferred that +her part in the cotillion should be observed by a frieze of unculled +wall-flowers. A drive was always pleasanter if it were preceded by a +skirmish with her mother in which Miss Knowles should come off +victorious with the victoria, while Mrs. Knowles accepted the _coup de +grâce_ and the coupé. A flirtation--if her languid, seeming innocent +monopoly of a man's time and thoughts could be called by so gross a +name--was more satisfying if it implied the breaking of vows and hearts +and the mad jealousy of some less gifted sister; if it had, like a +Russian folk song, a sob and a wail running through it. + +Jimmie had never approved of these amusements and had never hesitated to +express his opinion of them in terms which were intelligible even to her +vanity. From the days when they had played together in the park she had +dreaded his honesty and feared his judgments. "You're such a poacher, +Sylvia," he told her once, "such an inveterate, diabolical Fly-by-Night, +Will-o'-the-Wisp poacher. I sometimes think you'd condescend to take a +shot at me if you didn't know that I'm fair game. But you like to kill +two birds with one stone; smash two hearts with one smile." + +During the weeks immediately following the departure of her mentor she +devoted herself whole-heartedly to her favorite form of sport. Besides +her unscrupulousness she was armed with her grandfather's name, the +riches of her dead father, her own beauty, and a mind capable of much +better things. And, since Jimmie's presence would have seriously +interfered with the pleasures of the chase, she was rather glad than +otherwise that he was not there to see--and comment. + +Her mother bore his absence with a like stoicism. That astute matron had +long and silently deprecated the regularity with which her Louis Quinze +had groaned beneath one hundred and eighty pounds of ineligibility, the +frequency with which a tall troup horse of spectacular gait and +snortings could be descried beside her daughter's English hunter in the +park, the strange chain of coincidence by which at theater, house party, +dinner, or even church, Jimmie smiling and unabashed, would find his +way to her daughter's side and monopolize her daughter's attention. + +In the excitement of the first stages of one of her expeditions into +another's territory, Jimmie's first letter arrived. It was mailed at +Honolulu, and consisted obediently of the cryptic statement: "There is +no girl on the boat. She is a widow, but lots of fun." And it changed +the character of the invasion from a harmless survey of the land to a +determined attack upon its fortresses. And so Gilbert Stevenson, +millionaire dock owner, veteran of many seasons and more campaigns, +found himself engaged to Miss Sylvia Knowles just when, after a long and +careful courtship, he had decided to bestow his hand and name upon the +daughter of the retired senior partner of his firm: "that dear little +girl of old Marvin's," as he described the lady of his choice, "his only +child and a good child, too." He bore his surprise and honors with a +courteous pomposity. Miss Knowles bore the situation with restraint and +decorum. But that "dear little girl of old Marvin's" could not bring +herself to bear it at all and wept away her modest claims to prettiness +and spirit in one desolate month. + +Like many a humbler poacher, Sylvia Knowles found an embarrassment in +disposing of her victims after she had bagged them, and Mr. Gilbert +Stevenson was peculiarly difficult in this regard. She did not want to +keep him. In fact, the engagement upon which she was enduring +congratulations had been as surprising to her as to her fiancé. And the +methodical manifestations of his regard contrasted wearyingly with the +erratic events in another friendship in which nothing was to be counted +upon except the unaccountable. So that when vanquished suitors withdrew +discomfited and returned to renew an earlier allegiance or to swear a +new one; when "that good child of old Marvin's" had withdrawn her +pitiful little face and her disappointment into the remote fastness of +settlement work; when her mother resigned all claims upon the victoria +and loudly affirmed her preference for the brougham, then things in +general--and Mr. Stevenson in particular--began to bore Miss Knowles, +and she began to look forward, with an emotion which would have +surprised her betrothed, to foreign mails and letters. She considerately +spared Mr. Stevenson this disquieting intelligence, having found him in +matters of honor and rectitude as archaic and as fastidious as Jimmie +himself. "Has a nasty suspicious mind," she reflected, "and a nasty +jealous disposition. I wonder if he will expect me to give up all my +friends when I marry him." + +Yet even Mr. Stevenson could have found no cause for jealousy in the +matter of the letters. He might have objected to their being written at +all, but beyond that they were innocuous. For all the personality they +contained they might have been transcripts of Jimmie's reports to his +firm. He clung doggedly to his prescribed topics, and he could not have +devised a surer method of arousing the curiosity and the interest of +this spoiled young person. She spent hours, which should have been +devoted to the contemplation of approaching bliss, in reading between +the prosaic lines, in searching for sentiment in a catalogue of railway +stations, for tenderness in description of eccentric _tables d'hôte_. +Finding no trace of his old gallantry in all the closely written pages, +she attributed its absence to obedience and accepted it as the higher +tribute to her power. She was forced to judge her lover's longing by the +quantity rather than by the ardor of his words, and to detect the +yearning of a true lover's heart through such effectual disguise as: + +"Drewitt is a fine old chap; as placid and as bright as this country +and a great deal more so than anyone you'll see in the windows of the +Union League Club. He received me so cordially that I felt awkward about +introducing the object of my visit, but when I had admired everything in +sight from the mountains in the distance to the rug I was sitting on, I +finally faced the situation and did it. + +"'Dear me,' said he, 'are those directors still troubling themselves +about their transaction with me?' I admitted apologetically that they +were; that their books refused to close over the gap left by the +vanishing of $50,000, and that he was earnestly requested to return to +New York and to lend his acknowledged business acumen, etc., etc. He +never turned a hair. Said they--and I--were very kind. Nothing could +give him greater pleasure. But the ladies preferred Japan. Therefore he, +etc., etc., etc. But he would be delighted to explain the matter fully +to me; to supply me with all the figures and information I desired. (And +that, of course, is as much as I am expected to bring back.) But he +would have to postpone his return until--and you should have seen the +whimsical, quizzical old eye of his--until the nations would agree upon +new extradition treaties. Then, of course, etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile, +as there was no immediate urgency about the matter, as he hoped that I +would stay with them for as long a time as I cared to arrange, he would +suggest that we should join Mrs. Drewitt in the garden. She would +welcome news of our American friends. 'I need not ask you,' he added as +we went out through the wall-like people in a dream or a fairy tale, to +be discreet and casual in your conversation with the ladies. My daughter +is away this week visiting an old friend of hers who is married to a +missionary in a neighboring village. She knows the reason for our being +here. My wife does not. It need not be discussed with either of them.' +I should think not! + +"And there in the garden was Mrs. Drewitt, a fat little old lady in a +flaming kimono and spectacles. She wears her hair as your Aunt Matilda +does, stuck to her forehead in scrolls. 'Water curls,' I think, is the +technical term. She was holding the head of a dejected marigold while a +native propped it up with a stick. It seemed she remembered my mother, +and we spent a delightful tea-time in a garden which was a part of the +same dream as the phantom wall. Then the old gentleman led me off by +myself and wanted to hear all about Broadway. Whether Oscar was still at +the Waldorf. Whether Fields and Weber made 'a good thing of it' apart. +Then the old lady led me off by myself and wanted to know who was now +the pastor of the Brick Church, and what was Maude Adam's latest play, +and whether skirts were worn long or short in the street. + +"'You see this dress,' she said, 'is not really made for a woman of my +age. In fact, in this country all the bright and pretty colors are worn +by the waitresses. Geishas they call them. But Mr. Drewitt always liked +bright colors, and red is very becoming to me.' She was such a wistful, +pathetic, and incongruous little figure that I said something about +hoping that she would soon be in New York again. 'But,' she said, 'Mr. +Drewitt cannot leave his work here. Didn't you know that he is stationed +here to report the changes of the weather to Washington? It is very +important, and we can't go home until he is recalled. And, besides,'" +she went on with a half sob in her voice and a look in her eyes that +made her seem as young as her own daughter, 'and, besides, I would much +rather be here. In New York my husband was too busy. He had so many +calls upon his time, so many people to meet, and so many places to go, +that sometimes I hardly felt as though he belonged to me. But now for +days and weeks at a time we are together. And he has no business +worries. And his salary,' she brightened up to tell me, 'is almost as +good here as it used to be in the Trust Company for _much_ harder work.' +She's a sweet old thing--must have been quite a beauty once--and I wish +you could see old Drewitt's manner with her--so courteous and +affectionate--and hers with him--so adoring and confiding. It's +wonderful! + +"It will take some time to get all the information I want from the old +man. He has the papers and he is quite willing to explain everything, +but we spend the larger part of every day in entertaining the old lady +and keeping her happy and unsuspicious." + +A series of such letters covering several placid weeks reduced Miss +Knowles to a condition of moodiness and abstraction which all the +resources at her command failed to dissipate. In vain were the +practical blandishments of Mr. Stevenson; in vain her mother's shopping +triumphs; in vain were dinners given in her honor and receptions at +which she reigned supreme. None of her other experiments had resulted in +an engagement--an immunity which she now humbly attributed to the +watchful Jimmie--and she was dismayed at the determined and +matter-of-fact way in which she was called upon to fulfil her promise. +"If only Jimmie were at home!" she realized, "he would save me." This +was when the happy day was yet a great way off. "If only Jimmie would +come home," she wailed as the weeks grew to months, and even the comfort +of his letters failed her. For two months there had been no news of him, +and Fate--and Mr. Stevenson--were very near when, at last, she heard +from him again. He sent a telegram nearly as brief as his first letter. + +"I am coming home," it announced, "I am coming home, and I'm going to +be married." + +And the simple little words, waited for so long, remembered so clearly, +and coming, at last, so late, did what all Jimmie's more eloquent +pleadings had failed to do. + +Sylvia Knowles, a creature made of vanities, realized that she loved +better than all her other vanities her place in this one man's regard. +No contemplation of Mr. Stevenson's estate on the Hudson, his shooting +lodge on a Scottish moor, his English abbey, and his Italian villa could +nerve her for the first meeting with Jimmie, could fortify her against +his first laughing repetition: + +"_You_ married to Gilbert Stevenson," or his later scornful, "You +_married_ to Gilbert Stevenson." + +So she dismissed Mr. Stevenson with as little feeling as she had annexed +him, and sought comfort in the knowledge that her mother was furious, +her own fortune ample, and that marrying for love was a graceful, +becoming pose and an unusual thing to do. + +Her rejected suitor bore his disappointment as correctly as he had borne +his joy. He stormed the special center of philanthropy in which old +Marvin's little girl had buried herself, and she was most incorrectly +but refreshingly glad to see him. She destroyed forever his poise and +his pride in it when she sat upon his unaccustomed knee, rested her +tired head upon his immaculate shirt front, and wept for very happiness. + + * * * * * + +"And I remember," said Miss Knowles, "that you always take cream." + +"Nothing, thank you," Jimmie corrected. "Just plain unadulterated tea. I +learned to like it in Japan. But don't bother about it. I haven't long +to stay. I came in to tell you--" + +"That you're going to be married." + +"How did you guess?" + +"You didn't leave me to guess. Your telegram." + +"Ah, yes!" quoth Jimmie. "I sent a lot of them before I sailed. But in +my letters--" + +"You mentioned absolutely nothing but that stupid old Drewitt affair. +Never a word of the places you saw, the people you met, or even the +people you missed. Nothing of the customs, the girls, the clothes. +Nothing but that shuffling old Drewitt and his stuffy old wife. Nothing +about yourself." + +"Orders are orders," quoth Jimmie, "and those were yours to me. I +remember exactly how it came about. We had been talking personalities. I +have an idea that I made rather a fool of myself, and that you told me +so. Then you, wisely conjecturing that I might write as foolishly as I +had talked, made out a list of subjects for my letters. My name, I noted +with some care, was not upon that list." + +"Jimmie," said Miss Knowles, "I was cruel and heartless that day. I've +thought about it often." + +"You've thought!" cried the genial Jimmie. "How had you time to think? +Where were all those 'anothers'?" + +"There were none," lied Miss Knowles soulfully with a disdainful +backward glance toward Mr. Stevenson. "For a time I thought there was +one. But whenever I thought of that last talk of ours--you remember it, +don't you?" + +"Of course. I told you I was going to be married as soon as I came home. +Well, and so I am." + +"So you are. But I used to think that if you hesitated to tell me; if +you felt that I might still be hard about it and unsympathetic; if you +decided to confide no more in me--" + +"But you would be sure to know. Even if I had not telegraphed I never +could have kept it a secret from you." + +"Not easily. I should have been, as you observe, sure to know. Do you +remember how I always refused to believe you? It was not until you were +in that horrid Japan, where all the women are supposed to be +beautiful--" + +"Yes," Jimmie acquiesced. "It was when I was in Japan." + +"It was then that it began to seem possible that you would be married +when you came home. It was then that I began to realize that I didn't +deserve to be told of your plans. For I had been a fool, Jimmie. You had +been a fool, too, but not in the way you think. And so, if you will sit +where I sat that horrid day, we will begin that conversation all over +again and end it differently. The first speech was yours. Do you +remember it?" + +"But I'm going to be married," said Jimmie. + +"Good boy. He knows his lesson. And now I say, 'To the most beautiful +woman in the world?'" + +"To the most beautiful woman God ever made. The dearest, the most +clever, the most simple." + +"Simple," repeated Miss Knowles with some natural surprise. "Did you say +simple?" + +"Simple and jolly and unaffected. As true and as bright as the stars. +And I'm going to marry her--" + +"Now this," Miss Knowles interjected, "is where the difference comes. +You are to sit quite still and listen to me because a thing like +this--however long and carefully one had thought it out--is difficult in +the saying. So, I stand here before you where I can look at you; for +four months are long; and where you may, when I have quite finished, +kiss my hand again; for again four months are long. And I begin thus: +Jimmie, you are going to be married--" + +"I told you first," cried Jimmie. + +"But I knew it first," she countered, "to a woman who has learned to +love you during the past three months, but who could not do it more +utterly, more perfectly, if she had practiced through all the years that +you and I have been friends." + +"So she says," Jimmie interrupted with sudden heat. "So she says. God +bless her!" + +"And, ah, _how_ she is fond of you. 'Fond' is a darling of a word. It +keeps just enough of its old 'foolish' meaning to be human. Proud of +you, glad of you, fond of you--I think that this is, perhaps, the time +for you to kiss my hand." + +"You're a darling," he said as he obeyed. "But what I can't +understand--" + +"It's not your turn. You may talk after I finish if I leave anything for +you to say. See, I go on: You are going to marry--" + +"The most beautiful woman in the world." + +"That reminds me. What is she like? I've not heard her described for ages." + +"Because there was no one in New York who could do justice to her." + +"You are the knightliest of knights. Go on. Describe her." + +"Well, she is neither very tall nor very small. But the grace of her, +the young, surpassing grace of her, makes you know as soon as your eyes +have rested on her that her height, whatever it chances to be, is the +perfect height for a woman. And then there is the noble heart of her. +What other daughter would have buried herself, as she has done, in a +little mountain village--" + +Miss Knowles looked quickly about the luxurious room, then out upon the +busy avenue, then back at him, suspecting raillery. But he was staring +straight through her; straight into the land of visions. His eyes never +wavered when she moved slowly out of their range and sat, huddled and +white-faced, in the corner of a big chair. + +"And all," Jimmie went on, "so bravely, so cheerily, that it makes +one's throat ache to see. And one's heart hot to see. Then there is the +beauty of her. Her hair is dark, her eyes are dark, but her skin is the +fairest in the world." + +Miss Knowles pushed back a loose lace cuff and studied the arm it had +hidden. _La reine est morte_, she whispered, _morte, morte, morte_. + +"But what puzzles me,", said the genial Jimmie, "is your knowing about +it all. I never wrote you a word of it, and as for Sylvia--by the way, +did you know that her name, like yours, is Sylvia?" + +"Yes," said Miss Knowles, "I had even guessed that her name would be +Sylvia." + +"You're a wonderful woman," Jimmie protested. "The most wonderful woman +in the world." + +"Except?" + +"Except, of course, Sylvia Drewitt." + +"Ah, yes," said Miss Knowles. "Yes, of course." + + + + +THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE + + +"And all the rest and residue of my estate," read the lawyer, his +voice growing more impressive as he reached this most impressive clause, +"I give and bequeath to my beloved granddaughter and godchild Cecelia +Anne Hawtry for her own use and benefit forever." + +The black-clothed relations whose faces had been turned toward the front +of the long drawing-room now swung round toward the back where a +fair-haired little girl, her hands spread guardian-wise round the new +black hat on her knees, lay asleep in her father's arms. For old Mrs. +Hawtry's "beloved granddaughter Cecelia Anne" was not yet too big to +find solace in sleep when she was tired and uninterested, being indeed +but nine years old and exceedingly small of stature and babyish of +habit. So she slept on and missed hearing all the provisions which were +meant to protect her in the enjoyment of her estate but which were +equally calculated to drive her guardian distracted. + +"I leave nothing to my beloved son, James Hawtry," the document +continued, "because I consider that he has quite enough already. And I +leave nothing to his son, James Hawtry, Junior, the twin-brother of +Cecelia Anne Hawtry, because, though he and I have met but seldom, I +have formed the opinion that he is capable of winning his way in the +world without any aid from me." + +James Hawtry, Junior, sitting beside the heiress, failed to derive much +satisfaction from this clause. If things were being given away, he was +not quite certain as to what "rest and residue" might mean, but if +things of any kind were being doled out he would fain have enjoyed them +with the rest. + +Presently the lawyer read the final codicil and gathered his papers +together, then addressed the blank and disappointed assemblage with: "As +you have seen that all the minor bequests are articles of a household +nature--portraits, tableware and the like, 'portable property' as my +immortal colleague, Mr. Wemmick, would have said--I should suggest the +present to be an admirable time for their removal by the fortunate +legatees who may not again be in this neighbourhood. And now I have but +to congratulate the young lady who has succeeded to this property, a +really handsome property I may say, though the amount is not stated nor +even yet fully ascertained. If Miss Cecelia Anne Hawtry is present, I +should like to pay my respects to her and to wish her all happiness in +her new inheritance. I have never had the pleasure of meeting the +principal legatee. May I ask her to come forward and accept my +congratulations." + +"Take her, Jimmie," commanded Mr. Hawtry, setting Cecelia down upon her +thin little black legs, while he tried to smooth her into presentable +shape in anticipation of the anxious cross-examination he was sure to +undergo when he returned with the children to his New York home and wife. + +"She looked as fit as paint," he afterward assured that anxious +questioner. "I stood the bow out on her hair and pushed her dress down +just as I've seen you do hundreds of times. Jimmie helped, too, and I +declare to you, you'd have been as proud of those two kids as I was when +that boy led his little sister through the hostile camp. Funny, he felt +the hostility instantly, though of course, he didn't understand it. But +she--well, you know what a confiding little thing she is, and having +been asleep made her eyes look even more babyish than they always +do--walked beside him, smiling her soft little smile and looking about +three inches high in her little black dress." + +"If I had been there," interrupted Mrs. Hawtry warmly, "I should have +murdered your sister Elizabeth before I allowed her to put that baby +into mourning. The black bow I packed for her hair would have been quite +enough." + +"Well, she had it on. I saw it bobbing up the room while tenth and +fifteenth cousins seven or eight times removed, stared at it and at her. +But the person most surprised was old Debrett when Jimmie introduced them." + +"'This is her,' remarked your son with more truth than polish, and I'm, +well, antecedently condemned, if that dry-as-dust old lawyer didn't +stoop and kiss her as he wished her joy." + +"Ah, I'm glad he's as nice as that," said Mrs. Hawtry, "since he is to +be your co-trustee. However," she added a little wistfully, "I don't +like the idea of anybody dictating to us about the baby. It makes her +seem somehow not quite so much our very own. And we could have taken +care of her quite well without your mother's money and advice." + +"Why, my dear," laughed her husband, "that's a novel attitude to adopt +toward a legacy. The baby is ours as much as she ever was. The advice is +as good as any I ever read. And the money will leave us all the more to +devote to Jimmie. There's the making of a good business man in Jimmie." + + * * * * * + +It was part of what Mrs. Hawtry for a long time considered the +interference of Cecelia Anne's grandmother that the child should have a +monthly allowance, small while she was small and growing with her +growth. She was to be allowed to spend it without supervision and to +keep an account of it. At the end of each year the trustees were to +examine these accounts and to judge from them the trend of their ward's +inclinations. They would be then in a position to curb or foster her +leanings as their judgment should dictate. + +Now, Cecelia Anne, restored to her friends from a wonderland sort of +dream, called going--West--with--papa--on--the--train--and--living-- +with--Aunt--Elizabeth, was too full of narration and too excited by the +envious regard of untraveled playmates to trouble overmuch about that +scene in the long drawing-room which she had never clearly understood. +The first monthly payment of her allowance failed to connect itself in +her mind with the journey. Her predominant emotion on the subject of +legacies was one of ardent gratitude to Jimmie. He had given her a +quarter out of the change they had received at the toyshop where they +had purchased the most beautiful sloop-yacht they had ever seen or +dreamed of. A quarter for her very own; Jimmie's generosity and +condescension extended even further than this. He also allowed her, the +day being warm, to carry the yacht for a considerable part of their +homeward journey, and, when the treasure was exhibited upon the topmost +of their own front steps, he allowed her twice to pull the sails up and +down. When he went to Central Park to sail the _Jennie H_, that being as +near the feminine form of Jimmie Hawtry as their learning carried them, +James, Junior, frequently allowed his sister to accompany him and his +envious fellows. Then it was her proud privilege to watch the _Jennie +H's_ wavering course and to rush around the margin of the lake ready to +"stand by" to receive her beloved bowsprit wherever she should dock. +Then all proudly would she set the rudder straight again and turn the +_Jennie H_ back to the landing-stage where Jimmie, surrounded by his +cohorts, all calm and cool in his magnificence, awaited this first +evidence of "the trend of Cecelia Anne's inclinations." + +Not quite a year elapsed before Mr. Hawtry's genial co-trustee visited +his little ward. The reading of the will had taken place in November, +and on the last week of the following June, Mr. Debrett, chancing to be +in New York, decided to cultivate the acquaintance of Cecelia Anne. Mrs. +Hawtry and the twins were by this time settled in their country home in +Westchester, and Debrett, driving up from the station in the evening +with Mr. Hawtry, found it difficult to accept the freckled, barelegged, +blue-jumpered form which he saw in the garden, polishing the spokes of a +bicycle, as the ward who had lived all these months in his memory: a +fragile little figure in funeral black. Never had he seen so altered a +child, he assured Mrs. Hawtry with many congratulations. She seemed +taller, heavier, more self-assured. But the smile with which she put a +greasy little hand into his extended hand was misty and babyish still. + +Presently, while the two men rested with long chairs and long glasses +and Mrs. Hawtry ministered to them, Jimmie appeared on the scene and +after exchanging proper greetings turned to inspect Cecelia Anne and her +work. "I think you've got it bright enough," he said with kindly +condescension. "You can go and get dressed for dinner now. And to-morrow +morning if I'm not using the wheel maybe I'll let you use it awhile." + +"Oh, fank you!" said Cecelia Anne who had never quite outgrown her +babyhood's lisp, "and can I have the saddle lowered so's I can reach the +pedals?" + +"Oh, I s'pose so," said Jimmie grudgingly. "Sometimes you act just like +a girl. You give 'em something and they always want, more. Now you run +on and open the stable door. I'm goin' to try if I can ride right into +the harness-room without getting off. Don't catch your foot in the door +and don't get too near Dolly's hind legs." + +When the children had vanished around the corner of the house, Mrs. +Hawtry turned to Mr. Debrett. + +"There's the explanation of Cecelia Anne's ruggedness," said she. "She +and Jimmie are inseparable. He has taught her all kinds of boys' +accomplishments. And she's as happy as a bird if she's only allowed to +trot around after him. It doesn't seem to make her in the least ungentle +or hoydenish and I feel that she's safer with him than with the gossipy +little girls down at the hotel." + +"Not a doubt of it," Debrett heartily endorsed. "She couldn't have a +better adviser. Her grandmother, a very clever lady by the way, had a +high opinion of your son's practical mind. A useful antidote, I should +say, to his sister's extreme gentleness." + +He found further confirmation of old Mrs. Hawtry's acumen when Mr. +Hawtry proposed that they should look over Cecelia Anne's disbursement +account, kept by herself, as the will had specified. + +Cecelia Anne was delighted with the idea. Jimmie had wandered out to see +about the sports that were going to be held on the Fourth of July, and +so the burden of explanation fell upon the little heiress. She drew her +account book from its drawer in her father's desk, settled herself +comfortably in the hollow of his arm and proceeded to disclose the +"trend of her inclinations" as is evidenced by her shopping list: + +"One sloop yat _Jennie H_ swoped for hockey skates when it got cold. + +One air riffle. + +Three Tickets. + +One riding skirt. + +Two Tickets. + +Six white rats two died. + +Four Tickets. + +Leather Stocking Tales. Three Books. + +Three Tickets. + +Four Boxing Gloves. + +Eight Tickets. + +One bull tarrier dog and collar he fought Len Fogerty's dog bit him all +up and father sent him away." + +"I remember him," said Mr. Hawtry, "a well-bred beast but a holy terror, +go on dear." + +"One Byccle. + +Three Tickets. + +Stanley's Darkest Africa two books but not very new. + +One printing press. + +Two Tickets. + +Treasure Island. One Book." + +"And that's all the big things," finished Cecelia Anne in evident +relief. "Jimmie wrote down the prices, wouldn't you like to see them?" + +And she crossed to Mr. Debrett and laid the open book on his knee. + +Mr. Debrett, as Cecelia Anne teetered up and down on her heels and toes +before him, read the list again, counted up the total expenditure and +admitted that his ward had got remarkably good value for her money. + +"But what are all these 'tickets,' my dear?" he asked her. + +"Eden Musee," answered Cecelia Anne. And the very thought of it drew her +to her mother's knee. "Jimmie and the boys used to take me there +Saturday afternoons in the winter to try to get my nerve up. They say," +she admitted dolefully, "that I haven't got much. So they used to take +me to the Chamber of Horrors so's I'd get accustomed to life. That's +what Jimmie thought I needed. They used to like it, and I expect I'd +have liked it, too, if I could have kept my eyes open, but I never +could. I couldn't even _get_ them open when the boys stood me right +close to that gentleman having death throes on the ground after he'd +been hung on a tree. You can hear him breathing!" + +"I know him well," said Mr. Debrett. "He is rather awful I must admit. +And now we'll talk about the books. Don't you care at all about 'Little +Men' and 'Little Women' or the 'Elsie Books?'" + +"Jimmie says," Cecelia Anne made reply, "that 'Darkest Africa' is better +for me. It tells me just where to hit an elephant to give him the death +throes. He says the 'Elsie Books' wouldn't be any help to us even with a +buffalo. We're going to buy 'The Wild Huntress, or Love in the +Wilderness' next month. Jimmie thinks that's sure to get my nerve +up--being about a girl, you see--" + +"And 'Treasure Island' now;" said her guardian, "did you enjoy that? It +came rather late in my life, but I remember thinking it a great book." + +"It's great for nerve. Jimmie often reads me parts of it after I go to +bed at night. There's a poem in it--he taught me that by heart--and if +I think to say it the last thing before I go to sleep he says I'll get +so's _nothing_ can scare me." + +"Recite it for Mr. Debrett," urged Mrs. Hawtry. And Cecelia Anne +obediently began, with a jerk of a curtsey and a shake of her delicate +embroideries and blue sash. + + "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest + Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! + Drink and the devil had done for the rest + Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" + +Mr. Debrett's astonishment at this lullaby held him silent for some +seconds. + +"You see, sir," Cecelia Anne explained, "if you _can_ go to sleep +thinking about that it shows your nerve. I can't. Not yet. But it never +makes me cry any more and Jimmie says that's something." + +"I should say it was!" he congratulated her. "It's wonderful. And now in +the matter of dolls," he went on referring to the list, "no rag babies, +eh?" + +"Oh, but she has beautiful dolls, Mr. Debrett," interposed her mother. +"She'll show them to you to-morrow morning, won't you honey-child? But +she did not buy them. They were given to her at Christmas and other +times. But really, since we came out here for the summer they've been +rather neglected. Their mother has been so busy." + +"And Jimmie made me a house for them!" Cecelia Anne broke in. "And +furniture! And a front yard stuck right on to the piazza! But I don't +know, mother, whether I'd have time to show them to Mr. Debrett in the +morning. I'm pretty busy now. It's getting so near the race. And I pace +Jimmie _every_ morning." + +"Ah! that reminds me," said her father, "Jimmie told me to send you to +bed at eight o'clock--one of the rules of 'training', you know--so say +good night to us all and put your little book back in the drawer. +You've kept it very nicely. I am sure Mr. Debrett agrees with me." + +When the elders were alone, Mrs. Hawtry crossed over into the light and +addressed her guest. + +"I can't have you thinking badly of Jimmie," she began, "or of us, for +allowing him to practically spend the baby's income. Every one of the +things on that list mark a stage in Cecelia Anne's progress away from +priggishness and toward health. I don't know just how much she realizes +her own power of veto in these purchases but I am sure she would never +exercise it against Jimmie. She's absolutely wrapped up in him and he's +wonderfully good and patient with her. Of course, you know, they're +twins although no one ever guesses it. They've shared everything from +the very first." + +"In this combination," laughed Debrett, "the boy is 'father to the +girl' and the girl is 'mother to the boy.'" + +"Precisely so," Mr. Hawtry replied, "and the mother part comes out +strong in this race and training affair. An old chap down at the +hotel--one of those old white-whiskered 'Foxey Grandpas' that no summer +resort should be without--has arranged a great race for his friends, the +children, on Fourth of July morning. The prize is to be the privilege of +setting off the fireworks in the evening." + +"They'll run themselves to death," commented Debrett, who knew his young +America, "and is Jimmie to be one of the contestants?" + +"He is," replied Hawtry, "it's a 'free for all' event and even Cecelia +Anne _may_ start if Jimmie allows it. She's not thinking much about that +though. You see, Jimmie has gone into training and she's his trainer. I +went out with them last Saturday morning to see how they manage. They +marched me down to an untenanted little farm, back from the road. Jimmie +carried the 'riffle' referred to in Cecelia Anne's text and a handful of +blank cartridges. Cecelia Anne carried Jimmie's sweater, a bath towel, a +large sponge, a small tin bucket and a long green bottle. I carried +nothing. I was observing, not interfering." + +"Oh, that dear baby!" broke in Mrs. Hawtry, "such a heavy load!" + +"She's thriving under it, my dear." Well, presently we arrived at our +destination, and I saw that those kids had worn a little path, not very +deep of course, all round what used to be rather a spacious 'door yard.' +The winning-post was the pump. By its side Cecelia Anne disposed her +burden like a theatrical 'dresser' getting things ready for his +principal. She hung her tin pail on the pump's snout and pumped it full +of water, laid it beside the bath towel, threw the sponge into it, +gave a final testing jerk to her tight little braids and divested +herself of her jumpers and the dress she wore under them. Then she +resumed the jumpers, took the rifle and crossed the 'track.' Jimmie, +meanwhile, had stripped to trousers and the upper part of his +bathing-suit, had donned his running shoes, set his feet in holes kicked +in the ground for that purpose and bent forward, his back professionally +hunched and in his hands the essential pieces of cork. Cecelia Anne +gabbled the words of starting, shut her eyes tightly, fired the rifle +into the air, threw it on the ground and set off after the swiftly +moving Jimmie. Early in his first lap she was up to him. As they passed +the pump, she was ahead. In the succeeding laps she kept a comfortable +distance in the lead, until the end of the third when she sprinted for +'home,' grabbed the towel and, as Jimmie came bounding up, wrapped him +in it, rubbed him down, fanned him with it, moistened his brow with +vinegar from the long bottle, tied the sweater around his neck by its +red sleeves and held the dripping sponge to his lips. Then she found +time for me. + +[Illustration: CELIA ANNE SHUT HER EYES TIGHTLY AND FIRED THE RIFLE INTO +THE AIR.] + +"Oh, father," she cried, "did you _ever_ see _any_body who could run as +fast as Jimmie? Don't you just know he'll win that race?" + +"There's but one chance against it," said I. "And really, Mr. Debrett, +that boy can run. He's a little bit heavy maybe, but he holds himself +well together and keeps up a pretty good pace. I timed him and measured +up the distance roughly afterward. It was pretty good going for a little +chap. Cecelia Anne is so much smaller that we often forget what a little +fellow he is after all. But that baby--whew--I wish you'd seen her fly. +It wasn't running. She just blew over the ground and arrived at the pump +as cool as a cucumber although Jimmie was puffing like an automobile of +the vintage of 1890." + +"You see," said Jimmie to me as he lay magnificently on the grass +waiting to grow cool while Cecelia still fanned him with the towel, "you +see it don't hurt her to pace me round the track." + +"Apparently not," said I, and although he's my own boy and I know him +pretty well, I couldn't for the life of me decide whether he, as well as +Cecelia Anne, had really failed to grasp the fact that she beats him to +a standstill every morning. I suppose we'll know on the Fourth. If she +runs, then he does not know. But if he refuses to let her run; it will +be because he does know." + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Mrs. Hawtry. + + * * * * * + +Cecelia Anne _was_ allowed to run. First, in a girl's race among the +giggling, amateurish, self-conscious girls whom she outdistanced by a +lap or two and, later, in the race for all winners, where she had to +compete with Charlie Anderson, the beau of the hotel, Len Fogarty, the +milkman's son, and her own incomparable Jimmie. + +The master of ceremonies gave the signal and the event of the day was +on. First to collapse was Charlie Anderson. Jimmie was then in the lead +with Len Fogarty a close second, and Cecelia Anne beside him. So they +went for a lap. Then Jimmie, missing perhaps the blue little figure of +his pacemaker, wavered a little, only a little, but enough to allow Len +Fogarty to forge past him. Len Fogarty! The blatant, hated Len Fogarty, +always shouting defiance from his father's milk-wagon! Then forward +sprang Cecelia Anne. Not for all the riches of the earth would she have +beaten Jimmie, but not for all the glory of heaven would she allow any +one else to beat him. And so by an easy spectacular ten seconds, she +outran Len Fogarty. + +Then wild was the enthusiasm of the audience and black was the brow of +Len Fogarty. A chorus of: "Let a girl lick you," "Call yourself a +runner," "Come up to the house an' race me baby brother," has not a +soothing effect when added to the disappointment of being forever shut +off from the business end of rockets and Roman candles. These things +Cecelia Anne knew and so accepted, sadly and resignedly, the glare with +which Len turned away from her little attempts at explanations. + +But she was not prepared, nothing in her short life could ever have +prepared her, to find the same expression on Jimmie's face when she +broke through a shower of congratulations and followed him up the road; +to expect praise and to meet _such_ a rebuff would have been sufficient +to make even stiffer laurels than Cecelia Anne's trail in the dust. + +"Why Jimmie," she whimpered contrary to his most stringent rule. "Why +Jimmie what's the matter?" + +"You're a sneak," said Jimmie darkly and vouchsafed no more. There was +indeed no more to say. It was the last word of opprobrium. + +They pattered on in silence for a short but dusty distance, Cecelia Anne +struggling with the temptation to lie down and die; Jimmie upborne by +furious temper. + +"Who taught you how to run?" he at last broke out. "Wasn't it me? Didn't +I give you lessons every morning in the old lot? And then didn't you go +and beat me when Len Fogarty, Charlie Anderson, Billy Van Derwater, and +all the other fellows were there?" + +Cecelia Anne returned his angry gaze with her blue and loyal eyes. + +"I didn't beat you 't all," she answered. "I didn't beat anybody but Len +Fogarty." + +Her mentor studied her for a while and then a grin overspread his once +more placid features. + +"I guess it'll be all right," he condescended. "Maybe you didn't mean it +the way it looked. But say, Cecelia Anne, if you're afraid of +fire-crackers what are you going to do about the rockets and the Roman +candles? You know sparks fly out of them like rain. And if the smell of +old cartridge shells makes you sick, I don't know just how you'll get +along to-night." + +The victor stopped short under the weight of this overwhelming spoil. + +"I forgot all about it," she whispered. "Oh, Jimmie, I guess I ought to +have let Len Fogarty win that race. He could set off rockets and Roman +candles and Catherine wheels. I guess it'll kill me when the sparks and +the smoke come out. Maybe I'd better go and see Mr. Anstell and ask to +be excused." + +"Aw, I wouldn't do that," Jimmie advised her, "you don't want everyone +to know about your nerve. You just tell him your dress is too light and +that you want me to attend to the fireworks for you." + +In the transports of gratitude to which this knightly offer reduced her, +Cecelia Anne fared on by Jimmie's side until they reached the house and +their enquiring parents. Mrs. Hawtry was on the steps as they came up +and she gathered Cecelia Anne into her arms. For a moment no one spoke. +Then Jimmie made his declaration. + +"Cecelia Anne beat Len Fogarty all to nothing. You ought to have been +there to see her." + +"Was there any one else in the race?" queried Mr. Hawtry in what his son +considered most questionable taste. + +"Oh, yes," he was constrained to answer. "Charlie Anderson was in it. +She beat him, too. And I _started_ with them but I thought it would do +those boys more good to be licked by a little girl than to have me 'tend +to them myself." And Jimmie proceeded leisurely into the house. + +"But I don't have to set off the fireworks," Cecelia Anne explained +happily. "Jimmie says I don't have to if I don't want to. He's going to +do it for me." + +"Kind brother," ejaculated Mr. Hawtry. And across the bright gold braids +of her little Atalanta, Mrs. Hawtry looked at her husband. + +"_Did_ he know?" she questioned, "or did he not? You thought we could be +sure if he let her start." + +"Well," was Mr. Hawtry's cryptic utterance, "he knows now." + + + + +THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD + + +"And then," cried Mary breathlessly, "what did they do then?" + +"And then," her father obediently continued, "the two doughty knights +smote lustily with their swords. And each smote the other on the helmet +and clove him to the middle. It was a fair battle and sightly." + +But Mary's interest was unabated. "And then," she urged, "what did they +do then?" + +"Not much, I think. Even a knight of the Table Round stops fighting for +a while when that happens to him." + +"Didn't they do anything 'tall?" the audience insisted. "You aren't +leaving it out, are you? Didn't they bleed nor nothing?" + +"Oh, yes, they bled." + +"Then tell me that part." + +"Well, they bled. They never stinteth bleeding for three days and three +nights until they were pale as the very earth for bleeding. And they +made a great dole." + +"And then, when they couldn't bleed any more nor make any more dole, +what did they do?" + +"They died." + +"And then--" + +"That's the end of the story," said the narrator definitely. + +"Then tell me another," she pleaded, "and don't let them die so soon." + +"There wouldn't be time for another long one," he pointed out as he +encouraged his horse into an ambling trot. "We are nearly there now." + +"After supper will you tell me one?" + +"Yes," he promised. + +"One about Lancelot and Elaine?" + +"Yes," he repeated. "Anything you choose." + +"I choose Lancelot," she declared. + +"A great many ladies did," commented her father as the horse sedately +stopped before the office of the Arcady _Herald-Journal_, of which he +was day and night editor, sporting editor, proprietor, society editor, +chief of the advertising department, and occasionally type-setter and +printer and printer's devil. + +Mary held the horse, which stood in need of no such restraint, while +this composite of newspaper secured his mail, and then they jogged off +through the spring sunshine, side by side, in the ramshackle old buggy +on a leisurely canvass of outlying districts in search of news or +advertisements, or suggestions for the forthcoming issue. + +In the wide-set, round, opened eyes of his small daughter, Herbert +Buckley was the most wonderful person in the world. No stories were so +enthralling as his. No songs so tuneful, no invention so fertile, no +temper so sweet, no companionship so precious. And her nine happy years +of life had shown her no better way of spending summer days or winter +evenings than in journeying, led by his hand and guided by his voice, +through the pleasant ways of Camelot and the shining times of chivalry. + +Upon a morning later in this ninth summer of her life Mary was perched +high up in an apple tree enjoying the day, the green apples, and +herself. The day was a glorious one in mid July, the apples were of a +wondrous greenness and hardness, and Mary, for the first time in many +weeks, was free to enjoy her own society. A month ago a grandmother and +a maiden aunt had descended out of the land which had until then given +forth only letters, birthday presents, and Christmas cards. And they had +proved to be not at all the idyllic creatures which these manifestations +had seemed to prophesy, but a pair of very interfering old ladies with a +manner of over-ruling Mary's gentle mother, brow-beating her genial +father and cloistering herself. + +This morning had contributed another female assuming airs of instant +intimacy. She had gone up to the last remaining spare chamber, donned a +costume all of crackling white linen, and had introduced herself, +entirely uninvited, into the dim privacy of Mary's mother's room, whence +Mary had been sternly banished. + +"Another aunt!" was the outcast's instant inference, as in a moment of +accountable preoccupation on the part of the elders she had escaped to +her own happy and familiar country--the world of out-of-doors--where +female relatives seldom intruded, and where the lovely things of life +were waiting. + +When she had consumed all the green apples her constitution would +accept, and they seemed pitifully few to her more robust mind, she +descended from the source of her refreshment and set out upon a +comprehensive tour of her domain. She liked living upon the road to +Camelot. It made life interesting to be within measurable distance of +the knights and ladies who lived and played and loved in the +many-towered city of which one could gain so clear a view from the +topmost branches of the hickory tree in the upper pasture. She liked to +crouch in the elder bushes where a lane, winding and green-arched, +crossed a corner of the cornfield, and to wait, through the long, still +summer mornings for Lancelot or Galahad or Tristram or some other of her +friends to come pricking his way through the sunshine. She could hear +the clinking of his golden armor, the whinnying of his steed, the soft +brushing of the branches as they parted before his helmet or his spear; +the rustling of the daisies against his great white charger's feet. And +then there was the river "where the aspens dusk and quiver," and where +barges laden with sweet ladies passed and left ripples of foam on the +water and ripples of light laughter in the air as, brilliant and fair +bedight, they went winding down to Camelot. + +This morning she revisited all these hallowed spots. She thrilled on the +very verge of the river and quivered amid the waving corn. She scaled +the sentinel hickory and turned her eyes upon the Southern city. It was +nearly a week since she had been allowed to wander so far afield, and +Camelot seemed more than ever wonderful as it lay in the shimmering +distance gleaming and glistening beyond the hills. Trails of smoke waved +above all the towers, showing where Sir Beaumanis still served his +kitchen apprenticeship for his knighthood and his place at the Table +Round. Thousands of windows flashed back the light. + +"I could get there," pondered Mary, "if God would send me that goat and +wagon. I guess there's quite a demand for goats and wagons. I could +dress my goat all up in skirts like the ladies dressed their palfreys, +an' I'd wear my hair loose on my shoulders--it's real goldy when it's +loose--an' my best hat. I guess Queen Guinevere would be real glad to +see me. Oh, dear," she fretted as these visions came thronging back to +her, "I wish Heaven would hurry up." + +Between the pasture and the distant city she could distinguish the roofs +of another of the havens of her dear desire--the house where the old +ladies lived. Four old ladies there were, in the sweet autumn of their +lives, and Mary's admiration of them was as passionate as were all her +psychic states. She never could be quite sure as to which of the four +she most adored. There was the gentle Miss Ann, who taught her to recite +verses of piercing and wilting sensibility; the brisk Miss Jane, who +explained and demonstrated the construction of many an old-time cake or +pastry; the silent Miss Agnes, who silently accepted assistance in her +never-ending process of skeletonizing leaves and arranging them in prim +designs upon cardboard, and the garrulous Miss Sabina, who, with a +crochet needle, a hair-pin, a spool with four pins driven into it, +knitting needles and other shining implements, could fashion, and teach +Mary to fashion, weavings and spinnings which might shame the most +accomplished spider. Aided by her and by the re-enforced spool above +mentioned, Mary had already achieved five dirty inches of red woollen +reins for the expected goat. But the house was distant just three +fields, a barb-wire fence, a low stone wall, and a cross bull, and Mary +knew that her unaccustomed leisure could not be expected to endure long +enough for so perilous a pilgrimage. + +Her dissatisfied gaze wandered back to her quiet home surrounded by its +neatly laid out meadows, cornfield, orchard, barns, and garden. And a +shadow fell upon her wistful little face. + +"That old aunt," she grumbled, "she makes me awful tired. She's always +pokin' round an' callin' me." + +Such, indeed, seemed the present habit and intent of the prim lady who +was approaching, alternately clanging a dinner-bell and calling in a +tone of resolute sweetness: + +"Mary, O Mary, dear." + +Mary parted the branches of her tree and watched, but made no sound. + +"Mary," repeated the oncoming relative, "Mary, I want to tell you +something," and added as she spied her niece's abandoned sunbonnet on +the grass, "I know you're here and I shall wait until you come to me." + +"I _ain't_ coming," announced the Dryad, and thereby disclosed her +position, both actual and mental. "I suppose it's something I've done +and I don't want to hear it, so there!" Then, her temper having been +worn thin by much admonishing, she anticipated: "I _ain't_ sorry I've +been bad. I _ain't_ ashamed to behave so when my mamma is sick in bed. +And I don't care if you _do_ tell my papa when he comes home to-night." + +The intruding relative, discerning her, stopped and smiled. And the +smile was as a banderilla to her niece's goaded spirit. + +"Jiminy!" gasped that young person, "she's got a smile just like a +teacher." + +"Mary, dear," the intruder gushed, "God has sent you something." + +The hickory flashed forth black and white and red. Mary stood upon the +ground. + +"Where are they?" she demanded. + +"They?" repeated the lady. "There is only one." + +"Why, I prayed for two. Which did he send?" + +"Which do you think?" parried the lady. "Which do you hope it is?" + +Even Mary's scorn was unprepared for this weak-mindedness. "The goat, of +course," she responded curtly. "Is it the goat?" + +"Goat!" gasped the scandalized aunt. "Goat! Why, God has sent you a baby +sister, dear." + +"A sister! a baby!" gasped Mary in her turn. "I don't _need_ no sister. +I prayed for a goat just as plain as plain. 'Dear God,' I says, 'please +bless everybody, and make me a good girl, an' send me a goat an' wagon.' +And they went an' changed it to a baby sister! Why, I never s'posed they +made mistakes like that." + +Crestfallen and puzzled she allowed herself to be led back to the +darkened house where her grandmother met her with the heavenly +substitute wrapped in flannel. And as she held it against the square and +unresponsive bosom of her apron she realized how the "Bible gentleman" +must have felt when he asked for bread and was given a stone. + +During the weeks that followed, the weight of the stone grew heavier +and heavier while the hunger for bread grew daily more acute. Not even +the departure of interfering relatives could bring freedom, for the +baby's stumpy arms bound Mary to the house as inexorably as bolts and +bars could have done. She passed weary hours in a hushed room watching +the baby, when outside the sun was shining, the birds calling, the +apples waxing greener and larger, and the shining knights and ladies +winding down to Camelot. She sat upon the porch, still beside the baby, +while the river rippled, the wheatfields wimpled, and the cows came +trailing down from the pasture, down from the upland pasture where the +sentinel hickory stood and watched until the sun went down, and, one by +one, the lights came out in distant Camelot. She listened for the light +laughter of the ladies, the jingling of the golden armor, the swishing +of the branches and of the waves. Listened all in vain, for Theodora, +that gift of God, had powerful lungs and a passion for exercising them +so that minor sounds were overwhelmed and only yells remained. + +But the deprivation against which she most passionately rebelled was +that of her father's society. Before the advent of Theodora she had been +his constant companion. They were perfectly happy together, for the poet +who at nineteen had burned to challenge the princes of the past and to +mold the destinies of the future was, at twenty-nine, very nearly +content to busy himself about the occurrences of the present and to edit +a weekly paper in the town which had known and honored his father, and +was proud of, if puzzled by, their well-informed debonair son. Even +himself he sometimes puzzled. He knew that this was not to be his life's +work, this chronicling of the very smallest beer, this gossip and +friendliness and good cheer. But it served to fill his leisure and his +modest exchequer until such time as he could finish his great tragedy +and take his destined place among the writers of his time. Meanwhile, he +told himself, with somewhat rueful humor, there was always an editor +ready to think well of his minor poems and an audience ready to marvel +at them, "which is more, my dear," he pointed out to his admiring wife, +"than Burns could have said for himself--or Coleridge." + +And when his confidence and his hopes flickered, as the strongest of +hopes and confidence sometimes will, when his tragedy seemed far from +completion, his paper paltry, and his life narrow, he could always look +into his daughter's eyes and there find faith in himself and strength +and sunny patience. + +Formerly these fountains of perpetual youth had been beside him all the +long days through. From village to village, from store to farm, they +had jogged, side by side, in a lazy old buggy; he smoking long, silent +pipes, perhaps, or entertaining his companion with tales and poems of +the days of chivalry when men were brave and women fair and all the +world was young. And, Mary, inthralled, enrapt, adoring her father, and +seeing every picture conjured up by his sonorous rhythm or quaint +phrase, was much more familiar with the deeds and gossip of King +Arthur's court than with events of her own day and country. + +So that while Mary, tied to the baby, yearned for the wide spaces of her +freedom, Mr. Buckley, lonely in a dusty buggy, jogging over the familiar +roads, thought longingly of a little figure in an irresponsible +sunbonnet, and found it difficult to bear patiently with matronly +neighbors, who congratulated him upon this arrangement, and assured him +that his little play-fellow would now quickly outgrow her old-fashioned +ways and become as other children, "which she would never have, Mr. +Buckley, as long as you let her tag around with you and filled her head +with impossible nonsense." + +It was not a desire for any such alteration which made him acquiesce in +the separation. It was a very grave concern for his wife's health, and a +very sharp realization that, until he could devise some means of +increasing his income, he could not afford to engage a more experienced +nurse for the new arrival. He had no ideas of the suffering entailed +upon his elder daughter. He was deceived, as was every one else, by the +gentle uncomplainingness with which she waited upon Theodora, for whose +existence she regarded herself as entirely to blame. Had she not, +without consulting her parents, applied to high heaven for an increase +in live stock, and was not the answer to this application, however +inexact, manifestly her responsibility. + +"They're awful good to me," she pondered. "They ain't scolded me a +mite, an' I just know how they must feel about it. Mamma ain't had her +health ever since that baby come, an' papa looks worried most to death. +If they'd 'a' sent that goat an' wagon I could 'a' took mamma riding. +Ain't prayers terrible when they go wrong!" And in gratitude for their +forbearance she, erstwhile the companion, or at least the audience, of +fealty knight and ladies, bowed her small head to the swathed and +shapeless feet of heaven's error and became waiting woman to a flannel +bundle. + +Only her dreams remained to her. She could still look forward to the +glorious time of "when I'm big." She could still unbind her dun-colored +hair and shake it in the sun. She could still quiver with anticipation +as she surveyed her brilliant future. A beautiful prince was coming to +woo her. He would ride to the door and kneel upon the front porch while +all his shining retinue filled the front yard and overflowed into the +road. Then she would appear and, since these things were to happen in +the days of her maturity, perhaps when she was twelve years old, she +would be radiantly beautiful, and her hair would be all goldy gold and +curly, and it would trail upon the ground a yard or two behind her as +she walked. And the prince would be transfixed. And when he was all +through being that--Mary often wondered what it was--he would arise and +sing "Nicolette, the Bright of Brow," or some other disguised +personality, while all his shining retinue would unsling hautboys and +lyres and--and--mouth organs and play ravishing music. + +And when she rode away to be the prince's bride and to rule his fair +lands, her father and her mother should ride with her, all in the +sunshine of the days "when I'm big"--the wonderful days "when I'm big." + +Meanwhile, being but little, she served the flannel bundle even as Sir +Beaumanis had served a yet lowlier apprenticeship. But she still stormed +high heaven to rectify its mistake. + +"And please, dear God, if you are all out of goats and wagons, send +rabbits. But anyway come and take away this baby. My mamma ain't well +enough to take care of it an' I can't spare the time. We don't need +babies, but we do need that goat and wagon." + +And the powers above, with a mismanagement which struck their petitioner +dumb, sent a wagon--only a wagon--and it was a gocart for the baby, and +Mary was to be the goat. + +With this millstone tied about her neck she was allowed to look upon the +scenes of her early freedom, and no inquisitor could have devised a more +anguishing torture than that to which Mary's suffering and unsuspecting +mother daily consigned her suffering and uncomplaining daughter. + +"Walk slowly up and down the paths, dear, and don't leave your sister +for a moment. Isn't it nice that you have somebody to play with now?" + +"Yes, ma'am," said Mary. "But she ain't what I'd call playful." + +"You used to be so much alone," Mrs. Buckley continued. Mary breathed +sharply, and her mother kissed her sympathetically. "But now you always +have your sister with you. Isn't it fine, dearie?" + +"Yes, ma'am," repeated the victim, and bent her little energies to the +treadmill task of wheeling the gocart to the orchard gate, where all +wonders began, and then, with an effort as exhausting to the will as to +the body, turning her back upon the lane, the river, and the sentinel +tree, to trundle her Juggernaut between serried rows of cabbages and +carrots. + +Then slowly she began to hate, with a deep, abiding hatred, the flannel +bundle. She loathed the very smell of flannel before Theodora was six +short weeks old, and the sight of the diminutive laundry, which hung +upon the line between the cherry trees, almost drove her to arson. + +The shy, quick-darting creature--half child and half humming bird--was +forced to drag that monstrous perambulator on all her expeditions. After +a month's confinement to the garden, where knights and ladies never +penetrate, she managed to bump her responsibility out into the orchard. +But the glory was all in the treetops, and Mary soon grew restless under +her mother's explicit directions. "Up and down the walks" meant +imprisonment, despair. Theodora should have tried to make her role of +Albatross as acceptable as it might be made to the long-suffering +mariner about whose neck she hung, but she showed a callousness and a +heartless selfishness which nothing could excuse. Mary would sometimes +plead with all gentleness and courtesy for a few short moments' freedom. + +"Theodora," she would begin, "Theodora, listen to me a minute," and the +gift of God would make aimless pugilistic passes at her interlocutor. + +"O Theodora, I'm awful tired of stayin' down here on the ground. +Wouldn't you just as lieves play you was a mad bull an' I was a lady in +a red dress?" + +Theodora, after some space spent in apparent contemplation, would wave a +cheerful acquiescence. + +"An' then I'll be scared of you, an' I'll run away an' climb as high as +anything in the hickory tree up there on the hill. Let's play it right +now, Theodora. There's something I want to see up there." + +Taking her sister's bland smile for ratification and agreement, Mary +would set about her personification, shed her apron lest its damaged +appearance convict her in older eyes, and speed toward her goal. But +the mad bull's shrieks of protest and repudiation would startle every +bit of chivalry for miles and miles around. + +Several experiences of this nature taught Mary, that, in dealing with +infants of changeable and rudimentary mind, honesty was an impossible +policy and candor a very boomerang, which returned and smote one with +savage force. So she stooped to guile and detested the flannel all the +more deeply because of the state to which it was debasing an upright +conscience and a high sense of honor. + +At first her lapses from the right were all negative. She neglected the +gift of God. She would abandon it, always in a safe and shady spot and +always with its covers smoothly tucked in, its wabbly parasol adjusted +at the proper angle, and always with a large piece of wood tied to the +perambulator's handle by a labyrinth of elastic strings. These Mary had +drawn from abandoned garters, sling shots, and other mysterious sources, +and they allowed the wood to jerk unsteadily up and down, and to soothe +the unsuspecting Theodora with a spasmodic rhythm very like the +ministrations of her preoccupied nurse. + +Meanwhile the nurse would be far afield upon her own concerns, and +Theodora was never one of them. The river, the lane, the tall hickory +knew her again and again. Camelot shone out across the miles of hill and +tree and valley. But the river was silent and the lane empty, and +Camelot seemed very far as autumn cleared the air. Perhaps this was +because knights and ladies manifest themselves only to the pure of +heart. Perhaps because Mary was always either consciously or +subconsciously listening for the recalling shrieks of the abandoned and +disprized gift of God. + +"Stop it, I tell you," she admonished her purple-faced and convulsive +charge one afternoon when all the world was gold. "Stop it, or mamma +will be coming after us, and making us stay on the back porch." But +Theodora, in the boastfulness of her new lungs, yelled uninterruptedly +on. Then did Mary try cajolery. She removed her sister from the +perambulator and staggered back in a sitting posture with suddenness and +force. The jar gave Theodora pause, and Mary crammed the silence full of +promise. "If you'll stop yellin' now I'll see that my prince husband +lets you be a goose-girl on the hills behind our palace. Its awful nice +being a goose-girl," she hastened to add lest the prospect fail to +charm. "If I didn't have to marry that prince an' be a queen I guess I'd +been a goose-girl myself. Yes, sir, it's lovely work on the hills behind +a palace with all the knights ridin' by an' sayin', 'Fair maid, did'st +see a boar pass by this way?' You don't have to be afraid--you'd never +have to see one. In all the books the goose-girls didn't never see no +boars, and the knights gave 'em a piece of gold an' smiled on 'em, and +the sunshine shined on 'em, an' they had a lovely time." + +Having stumbled into the road to peace of conscience, Mary trod it +bravely and joyously. Theodora's future rank increased with the decrease +of her present comfort, but her posts, though lofty and remunerative, +were never such as would bring her into intimate contact with the person +of the queen. + +She was betrothed to the son of a noble, and very distant, house after +an afternoon when the perambulator, ill-trained to cross-country work, +balked at the first stone wall on the way to the old ladies' house. It +was then dragged backward for a judicious distance and faced at the +obstacle at a mad gallop. Umbrella down, handle up, wheels madly +whirring, it was forced to the jump. + +Again it refused, reared high into the air, stood for an instant upon +its hind wheels and then fell supinely on its side, shedding its +blankets, its pillows, and Theodora upon the cold, hard stones. + +After that her rise was rapid, and the distance separating her from her +sister's elaborate court more perilous and more beset with seas and +boars and mountains and robbers. She was allowed to wed her high-born +betrothed when she had been forgotten for three hours while Mary learned +a heart-rending poem commencing, "Oh, hath she then failed in her troth, +the beautiful maid I adore?" until even Miss Susan could only weep in +intense enjoyment and could suggest; no improvement in the recitation. + +On another occasion Mary was obliged to borrow the perambulator for the +conveyance of leaves and branches with which to build a bower withal; +and Theodora, having been established in unfortunate proximity to an +ant hill, was thoroughly explored by its inhabitants ere her +ministering sister realized that her cries and agitation were anything +more than her usual attitude of protest against whatever chanced to be +going on. By the time the bower was finished and the perambulator ready +for its customary occupant that young person was in a position to claim +heavy damages. + +"Don't you care," said Mary cheerfully, as she relieved Theodora from +the excessive animation. "I can make it up to you when I'm big. My +prince husband--I guess he'd better be a king by that time--will go over +to your country an' kill your husband's father an' his grandfather an' +all the kings an' princes until there's nobody only your husband to be +king. Then you'll be a queen you see, an' live in a palace. So now hush +up." And one future majesty was rocked upside down by another until the +royal face of the younger queen was purple and her voice was still. + +Mary found it more difficult to quiet her new and painful agnosticism, +and in her efforts to reconcile dogma with manifestation she evolved a +series of theological and economical questions which surprised her +father and made her mother's head reel. She further manifested a +courteous attention when the minister came to call, and she engaged him +in spiritual converse until he writhed again. For a space her +investigations led her no whither, and then, without warning, the man of +peace solved her dilemma and shed light upon her path. + +A neighbor ripe in years and good works had died. The funeral was over +and the man of God had stopped to rest in the pleasant shade of Mrs. +Buckley's trees and in the pleasant sound of Mrs. Buckley's voice. Mary, +the gocart, and Theodora completed the group, and the minister spoke. + +"A good man," he repeated, "Ah, Mrs. Buckley, he will be sadly missed! +But the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be--" + +"When?" demanded Mary breathlessly. "When does he take away?" + +"In His own good time." + +"When's that?" + +"'Tis not for sinful man to say. He sends His message to the man in the +pride of his youth or to the babe in its cradle. He reaches forth His +hand and takes away." + +"But when--" Mary was beginning when her mother, familiar with the +Socratic nature of her daughter's conversation and its exhaustive effect +upon the interlocutor, interposed a remark which guided the current of +talk out of heavenly channels and back to the material plain. + +But Mary had learned all that she cared to know. It was not necessary +that she should suffer the exactions of the baby or subject her family +to them. The Lord had given and would take away! The minister had said +so, and the minister knew all about the Lord. And if the powers above +were not ready to send for the baby, it would be easy enough to deposit +it in the Lord's own house, which showed its white spire beyond the +first turn in the road which led to Camelot. There the Lord would find +it and take it away. This would be, she reflected, the quiet, dignified, +lady-like thing to do. And the morrow, she decided, would be an +admirable day on which to do it. + +Therefore, on the morrow she carefully decked Theodora in small finery, +hung garlands of red and yellow maple leaves upon the perambulator, +twined chains of winter-green berries about its handle, tied a bunch of +gorgeous golden rod to its parasol, and trundled it by devious and +obscure ways to the sacred precincts of God's house. + +"They look real well," she commented. "If I was sure about that goat I +might keep the cart, but it really ain't the right kind for a goat. I +guess I'd better take 'em back just like they are an' when the Lord sees +how I got 'em all fancied up, he'll know I ain't a careless child, an' +maybe I'd get that goat after all." + +So the disprized little gifts of God were bumped up the church steps, +wheeled up the aisle, and bestowed in a prominent spot before the +chancel rail. Some one was playing soft music at the unseen organ, but +Mary accepted soft music as a phenomenon natural to churches, and failed +to connect it with human agency. Sedately she set out Theodora's bows +and ruffles to the best advantage. Carefully she rearranged the floral +decorations of the perambulator, and set her elastic understudy in +erratic motion. Complacently she surveyed the whole and walked out into +the sunshine--free. And presently the minister, the intricacies of a new +hymn reconciled to the disabilities of a lack of ear and a lack of +training, came out into the body of the church, where the gifts of God, +bland in smiles and enwreathed in verdure, were waiting to be taken +away. + +"Mrs. Buckley's baby," was his first thought. "I wonder where that queer +little Mary is," was his second. And his third, it came when he was +tired of waiting for some solution of his second, was an embarrassed +realization that he would be obliged to take his unexpected guest home +to its mother. And the quiet town of Arcady rocked upon its foundations +as he did it. + +"In the church," marveled Mrs. Buckley. "How careless of Mary!" she +apologized, and "How good of you!" she smiled. "No, I'm not in the least +worried. She always had a way of trotting off to her own diversions when +she was not with her father. And lately she has been astonishingly +patient about spending her time with baby. I have felt quite guilty, +about it. But after to-day she will be free, as Mr. Buckley has found a +nurse to relieve her. He was beginning to grow desperate about Mary and +me--said we neither of us had a moment to waste on him--and yet could +not find a nurse whom we felt we could afford. And yesterday a young +woman walked into his office to put an advertisement in his paper for +just such a position as we had to offer. She is a German, wants to learn +English, and she will be here this afternoon." + +"Perhaps your little girl resented her coming," he suggested vaguely. +"Perhaps that was the reason." + +"Mary resentful!" laughed Mrs. Buckley. + +"She doesn't, bless her gentle little heart, know the meaning of the +word. Besides which we haven't told her about the girl, as we are rather +looking forward to that first interview, and wondering how Mary will +acquit herself in a conversational Waterloo. She can't, you know, make +life miserable and information bitter to a German who speaks no +English. 'Ja' or 'nein' alternately and interchangeably may baffle even +her skill in questioning." + +Mary, meanwhile, was hurrying along the way to Camelot. She had not +planned the expedition in advance. Rather, it was the inevitable +reaction toward license which marks the success of any revolution. She +had cast off the bonds of the baby carriage, her time and her life were +her own, and the road stretched white and straight toward Camelot. + +It was afternoon and the sun was near its setting when at last she +reached the towered city and found it in all ways delightful but in some +surprising. She was prepared for the moat and for the drawbridge across +it, but not for the exceeding dirtiness of its water and the dinginess +of its barges. She had expected it to be wider and perhaps cleaner, and +the castles struck her as being ill-adapted to resist siege and the +shocks of war since nearly all their walls were windows. And through +these windows she caught glimpses of the strangest interiors which ever +palaces boasted. Miles and acres of bare wooden tables stood under the +shade of straight iron trees. From the trees black ribbons depended. In +the treetops there were wheels and shining iron bars, and all about the +tables there were other iron bars and bolts and bands of greasy leather. + +"I don't see a round table anywhere," she reflected. "What do you s'pose +they do with all those little square ones?" She sought the answer to +this question through many a dirty pane and many a high-walled street. +But the palaces and the streets were empty and the explorer discovered +with a quick-sinking heart and confidence that she was alone and hungry +and very far from home. She was treading close upon the verge of tears +when her path debouched upon the central square of Camelot. And +straightway she forgot her doubts and puzzlements, her hunger and her +increasing weariness, for she had found "The Court." Across a fair green +plaisance, all seemly beset with flower and shrub, the wide doors of a +church stood open. Tall palaces were all about, and in every window, on +every step, on the green benches which dotted the plaisance, on every +possible elevation or post of observation, the good folk of Camelot +stood or hung or even fought, to watch the procession of beauty and +chivalry as it came foaming down the steps, broke into eddies, and +disappeared among the thronging carriages. Mary found it quite easy to +identify the illustrious personages in the procession when once she had +realized that they would, of course, not be in armor on a summer's +afternoon, and at what even, to her inexperienced eyes, was manifestly a +wedding. + +First to emerge was a group of the younger knights, frock-coated, +silk-hatted, pale gray of waistcoat and gloves, white and effulgent of +_boutonnière_. Excitement, almost riot, resulted among the +much-caparisoned horses, the much-favored coachmen, and the +much-beribboned equipages of state. But the noise increased to clamor +and eagerness to violence when an ethereal figure in floating tulle and +clinging lace was led out into the afternoon light by a more resplendent +edition of black-coated, gray-trousered knighthood. + +The next wave was all of pink chiffon and nodding plumes. The first +wave, after trickling about the carriages and the coachmen, receded up +the steps again to be lost and mingled in the third, and then both swept +down to the carriages again and were absorbed. Then the steady tide of +departing royalty set in. Then horses plunged, elderly knights fussed, +court ladies commented upon the heat, the bride, the presents, or their +neighbors. Then the bride's father mopped his brow and the bridegroom's +mother wept a little. Then there was much shaking or waving of hands or +of handkerchiefs. Then the bridal carriage began to move, the bride +began to smile, and rice and flowers and confetti and good wishes and +slippers filled the air. Then other carriages followed, then the good +folk of Camelot followed, an aged man closed the wide church doors, and +the square was left to the sparrows, pink sunshine, confetti, rice, and +Mary. + +The little pilgrim's sunbonnet was hanging down her back, her hair was +loose upon her shoulders, "an' real goldy" where it caught the sun, and +her eyes were wide and deep with happiness and faith. She crossed the +wide plaisance and stood upon the steps, she gathered up three white +roses and a shred of lace, she sat down to rest upon the topmost step, +she laid her cheek against the inhospitable doors, and, in the language +of the stories she loved so well, "so fell she on sleep" with the tired +flowers in her tired hands. + +And there Herbert Buckley found her. He had traveled far afield on that +autumn afternoon; but it is not every day that the daughter of the owner +of one-half the mills in a manufacturing town is married to the owner of +the other half, and when such things do occur to the accompaniment of +illustrious visitors, a half-holiday in all the mills, perfect weather, +and unlimited hospitality, it behooves the progressive journalist and +reporter for miles around to sing "haste to the wedding," and to draw +largely upon his adjectives and his fountain pen. The editorial staff of +the Arcady _Herald-Journal_ turned homeward, and was evolving phrases in +which to describe that gala day when his eye caught the color of a +familiar little sunbonnet, the outline of a familiar little figure. But +such a drooping little sunbonnet! Such a relaxed little figure! Such a +weary little face! And such a wildly impossible place in which to find a +little daughter. Then he remembered having seen Miss Ann and Miss Agnes +among the spectators and his wonder changed to indignation. + +It was nearly dark when Mary opened her eyes again and found herself +sheltered in her father's arm and rocked by the old familiar motion of +the buggy. + +"And then," she prompted sleepily as her old habit was, "what did they +do then?" + +"They were married," his quiet voice replied. + +"And then?" + +"Oh, then they went away together and lived happily ever after." + +For some space there was silence and a star came out. Mary watched it +drowsily and then drowsily began: + +"When I was to Camelot--" + +"Where?" demanded her father. + +"When I was to Camelot," she repeated, cuddling close to him as if to +show that there were dearer places than that gorgeous city, "I saw a +knight and a lady getting married. And lots of other knights were +there--they didn't wear their fighting clothes--and lots of other +ladies, pink ones. An' Arthur wore a stovepipe hat an' Guinevere wore a +white dress, an' she had white feathers in her crown. An' Lancelot, he +was there, all getting married. Daddy, dear," she broke off to question, +"were you ever to Camelot?" + +"Oh, yes, I was there," he answered, "but it was a great many years +ago." + +"Did you find roses?" she asked, exhibiting her wilted treasures. + +"I found your mother there, my dear." + +"And then, what did you do then?" + +"Well, then we were married and lived happily ever after." + +"And then--?" + +"There was you, and we lived happier ever after." + +And Mary fell on sleep again in the shelter of her father's arm while the +stars came out and the glow of joyant Camelot lit all the southern sky. + + + + +GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS + + + +Among the influences which, in America, promote harmony between alien +races, the public school plays a most important part. The children, the +teachers, the parents--whether of emigrant or native origin--the +relatives and friends in distant countries, are all brought more or less +under its amalgamating influences. In the schoolroom the child finds +friends and playmates belonging to races widely different from his own; +there Greek meets not only Greek, but Turk, American, Irish, German, +French, English, Italian and Hungarian, and representatives of every +other nation under the sun. The lion lying down with the lamb was +nothing to it, because the lamb, though its feelings are not enlarged +upon, must have been distinctly uncomfortable. But in the schoolroom +Jew and Gentile work and play together; and black and white learn love +and knowledge side by side. + +And long after more formal instruction has faded with the passing of the +years a man of, perhaps, German origin will think kindly of the whole +irresponsible Irish race when he remembers little Bridget O'Connor, who +sat across the aisle in the old Cherry Street school, her quick temper +and her swift remorse. + +Of course, all these nationalities are rarely encountered in one +district, but a teacher often finds herself responsible for fifty +children representing five or six of them. In the lower grades eight or +ten may be so lately arrived as to speak no English. The teacher +presiding over this polyglot community is often, herself, of foreign +birth, yet they get on very well together, are very fond of one another, +and very happy. The little foreigners, assisted by their more +well-informed comrades, learn the language of the land, I regret to say +that it is often tinctured with the language of the Bowery, in from six +to twelve weeks, six weeks for the Jews, and twelve for the slower among +the Germans' children. And again, it will be difficult to stir Otto +Schmidt, at any stage of his career, into antagonism against the Jewish +race, when he remembers the patience and loving kindness with which +Maxie Fishandler labored with him and guided his first steps through the +wilderness of the English tongue. + +These indirect but constant influences are undeniably the strongest, but +at school the child is taught in history of the heroism and the strength +of men and nations other than his own; he learns, with some degree of +consternation, that Christopher Columbus was a "Dago," George Washington +an officer in the English Army, and Christ, our Lord, a Jew. Geography, +as it is now taught with copious illustrations and descriptions, shows +undreamed-of beauties in countries hitherto despised. And gradually, as +the pupils move on from class to class, they learn true democracy and +man's brotherhood to man. + +But the work of the American public school does not stop with the +children who come directly under its control. The board of education +reaches, as no other organization does, the great mass of the +population. All the other boards and departments established for the +help and guidance of these people only succeed in badgering and +frightening them. They are met, even at Ellis Island, by the board of +health and they are subjected to all kinds of disagreeable and +humiliating experiences culminating sometimes in quarantine and +sometimes in deportation. Even after they have passed the barrier of the +emigration office, the monster still pursues them. It disinfects their +houses, it confiscates the rotten fish and vegetables which they +hopefully display on their push-carts, it objects to their wrenching off +and selling the plumbing appliances in their apartments, it interferes +with them in twenty ways a day and hedges them round about with a +hundred laws which they can only learn, as Parnell advised a follower to +learn the rules of the House of Commons, by breaking them. + +Then comes the department of street cleaning, with its extraordinary +ideas of the use of a thoroughfare. The new-comer is taught that the +street is not the place for dead cats and cabbage stalks, and other +trifles for which he has no further use. Neither may it be used, except +with restrictions, as a bedroom or a nursery. The emigrant, puzzled but +obliging, picks his progeny out of the gutter and lays it on the +fire-escape. He then makes acquaintance of the fire department, and +listens to its heated arguments. So perhaps he, still willing to please, +reclaims the dead cat and the cabbage stalk, and proceeds to cremate +them in the privacy of the back yard. Again the fire department, this +time in snorting and horrible form, descends upon him. And all these +manifestations of freedom are attended by the blue-coated police who +interdict the few relaxations unprovided for by the other powers. These +human monsters confiscate stilettos and razors; discourage +pocket-picking, brick-throwing, the gathering of crowds and the general +enjoyment of life. Their name is legion. Their appetite for figs, dates, +oranges and bananas and graft is insatiable; they are omnipresent; they +are argus-eyed; and their speech is always, "Keep movin' there. Keep +movin'." And all these baneful influences may be summoned and set in +action by another, but worse than all of them, known as the Gerry +Society. This tyrant denies the parent's right in his own child, forbids +him to allow a minor to work in sweatshop, store, or even on the stage, +and enforces these commands, even to the extreme of removing the child +altogether and putting it in an institution. + +In sharp contrast to all these ogres, the board of education shines +benignant and bland. Here is power making itself manifest in the form of +young ladies, kindly of eye and speech, who take a sweet and friendly +interest in the children and all that concerns them. Woman meets woman +and no policeman interferes. The little ones are cared for, instructed, +kept out of mischief for five hours a day, taught the language and +customs of the country in which they are to make their living or their +fortunes; and generally, though the board of education does not insist +upon it, they are cherished and watched over. Doctors attend them, +nurses wait upon them, dentists torture them, oculists test them. + +Friendships frequently spring up between parent and teacher, and it +often lies in the power of the latter to be of service by giving either +advice or more substantial aid. At Mothers' meetings the cultivation of +tolerance still goes on. There, women of widely different class and +nationality, meet on the common ground of their children's welfare. Then +there are roof gardens, recreation piers and parks, barges and +excursions, all designed to help the poorer part of the city's +population--without regard to creed or nationality--to bear and to help +their children to bear the killing heat of summer. So Jew and Gentile, +black and white, commingle; and gradually old hostilities are forgotten +or corrected. The board of education provides night schools for adults +and free lectures upon every conceivable interesting topic, including +the history and geography and natural history of distant lands. +Travelers always draw large audiences to their lectures. + +The children soon learn to read well enough to translate the American +papers and there are always newspapers in the different vernaculars, so +that the emigrant soon becomes interested not only in the news of his +own country, but in the multitudinous topics which go to make up +American life. He soon grasps at least the outlines of politics, +national and international, and before he can speak English he will +address an audience of his fellow countrymen on "Our Glorious American +Institutions." + +It is not only the emigrant parent who profits by the work of the public +school. The American parent also finds himself, or generally herself, +brought into friendly contact with the foreign teachers and the foreign +friends of her children. The New York public school system culminates in +the Normal College, which trains women as teachers, and the College of +the City of New York, which offers courses to young men in the +profession of law, engineering, teaching, and, besides, a course in +business training. The commencement at these institutions brings +strangely contrasted parents together in a common interest and a common +pride. The students seem much like one another, but the parents are so +widely dissimilar as to make the similarity of their offspring an +amazing fact for contemplation. Mothers with shawls over their heads and +work-distorted hands sit beside mothers in Parisian costumes, and the +silk-clad woman is generally clever enough to appreciate and to admire +the spirit which strengthened her weary neighbor through all the years +of self-denial, labor, poverty and often hunger, which were necessary to +pay for the leisure and the education of son or daughter. The feeling of +inferiority, of uselessness, which this realization entails may +humiliate the idle woman but it is bound to do her good. It will +certainly deprive her conversation of sweeping criticisms on lives and +conditions unknown to her. It will also utterly do away with many of her +prejudices against the foreigner and it will make the "Let them eat +cake" attitude impossible. + +And so the child, the parent, the teacher and the home-staying relative +are brought to feel their kinship with all the world through the agency +of the public school, but the teacher learns the lesson most fully, most +consciously. The value to the cause of peace and good-will in the +community of an army of thousands of educated men and women holding +views such as these cannot easily be over-estimated. The teachers, too, +are often aliens and nearly always of a race different from their +pupils, yet you will rarely meet a teacher who is not delighted with her +charges. + +"Do come," they always say, "and see my little Italians, or Irish, or +German, or picaninnies; they are the sweetest little things," or, if +they be teachers of a higher grade, "They are the cleverest and the most +charming children." They are all clever in their different ways, and +they are all charming to those who know them, and the work of the public +school is to make this charm and cleverness appreciated, so that race +misunderstandings in the adult populations may grow fewer and fewer. + +The only dissatisfied teacher I ever encountered was a girl of old +Knickerbocker blood, who was considered by her relatives to be too +fragile and refined to teach any children except the darlings of the +upper West side, where some of the rich are democratic enough to +patronize the public school. From what we heard of her experiences, +"patronize" is quite the proper word to use in this connection. A group +of us, classmates, had been comparing notes and asked her from what +country her charges came. "Oh, they are just kids," she answered +dejectedly, "ordinary every-day kids, with Dutch cut hair, Russian +blouses, belts at the knee line, sandals, and nurses to convey them to +and from school. You never saw anything so tiresome." + +It grew finally so tiresome that she applied for a transfer, and took +the Knickerbocker spirit down to the Jewish quarter, where it gladdened +the young Jacobs, Rachaels, Isadors and Rebeccas entrusted to her care. +Her place among the nursery pets was taken by a dark-eyed Russian girl, +who found the uptown babies, the despised "just kids," as entertaining, +as lovable, and as instructive as the Knickerbocker girl found the Jews. +Well, and so they are all of them, lovable, entertaining and +instructive, and the man or woman who goes among them with an open heart +and eye will find much material for thought and humility, and one +function of the public school is to promote this understanding and +appreciation. It has done wonders in the past, and every year finds it +better equipped for its work of amalgamation. The making of an American +citizen is its stated function, but its graduates will be citizens not +only of America. In sympathy, at least, they will be citizens of the +world. + + +FINIS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of New Faces, by Myra Kelly + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW FACES *** + +***** This file should be named 15449-8.txt or 15449-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/4/15449/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: New Faces + +Author: Myra Kelly + +Illustrator: Charles F. Neagle + + +Release Date: March 24, 2005 [EBook #15449] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW FACES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>NEW FACES</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>MYRA KELLY</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF<br /> +"LITTLE CITIZENS" "WARDS OF LIBERTY"<br /> +"THE ISLE OF DREAMS" "ROSNAH" "THE GOLDEN SEASON"<br /> +"LITTLE ALIENS"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/mark.png" +alt="Printers Mark" title="" /> +</div> + +<p class="center"><i>Illustrations by</i></p> + +<p class="center">CHARLES F. NEAGLE</p> + + +<p class="center">G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1910, By</i><br /> +G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY</p> + + +<h1>NEW FACES</h1> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ill-frontispiece" id= "ill-frontispiece"></a> +<img src="images/ill-frontispiece.png" +alt=""THERE'S NO QUESTION ABOUT IT," HE RETORTED. "SHE KNOWS THAT I SHALL +MARRY HER."" title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption"><i>"THERE'S NO QUESTION ABOUT IT," HE RETORTED. "SHE KNOWS THAT I SHALL +MARRY HER."</i></span> +<br /><br /></div> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Oh give me new faces, new faces, new faces<br /></span> +<span>I have seen those about me a fortnight or more.<br /></span> +<span>Some people grow weary of names or of places<br /></span> +<span>But faces to me are a much greater bore."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="center"><i>Andrew Lang.</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p class="center"> + <a href="#THE_PLAYS_THE_THINGquot"><b>"THE PLAY'S THE THING"</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THERES_DANGER_IN"><b>THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS</b></a><br /> + <a href="#MISERY_LOVES_COMPANY"><b>MISERY LOVES COMPANY.</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_CHRISTMAS_GUEST"><b>THE CHRISTMAS GUEST</b></a><br /> + <a href="#WHO_IS_SYLVIAquot"><b>"WHO IS SYLVIA?"</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THE_SPIRIT_OF_CECELIA_ANNE"><b>THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE</b></a><br /> + <a href="#THEODORA_GIFT_OF_GOD"><b>THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD</b></a><br /> + <a href="#GREAT_OAKS_FROM"><b>GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS</b></a><br /> + </p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<p class="center"> +<a href="#ill-frontispiece">"There's no question about it," he retorted. "She knows that I shall marry her."</a><br /> +<a href="#ill-35">Burgess gained an interest and an occupation more absorbing than he had found for many years</a><br /> +<a href="#ill-77">Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's eyes, was a study</a><br /> +<a href="#ill-99">She swooped under the large center table, dragging Patty with her</a><br /> +<a href="#ill-129">The changeless smile and the drooping plumes made three complete revolutions, and nestled confidingly upon the shoulder of the law</a><br /> +<a href="#ill-207">Celia Anne shut her eyes tightly and fired the rifle into the air</a><br /> +</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>NEW FACES</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_PLAYS_THE_THINGquot" id="THE_PLAYS_THE_THINGquot"></a>"THE PLAY'S THE THING"</h2> + + +<p>A business meeting of the Lady Hyacinths +Shirt-Waist Club was in progress. +The roll had been called. The +twenty members were all present and the +Secretary had read the minutes of the last +meeting. These formalities had consumed +only a few moments and the club was ready +to fall upon its shirt waists. The sewing-machines +were oiled and uncovered, the cutting-table +was cleared, every Hyacinth had +her box of sewing paraphernalia in her lap; +and Miss Masters who had been half cajoled +and half forced into the management of this +branch of the St. Martha's Settlement Mission +was congratulating herself upon the ease +and expedition with which her charges were +learning to transact their affairs, when the +President drew a pencil from her pompadour +and rapped professionally on the table. In +her daytime capacity of saleslady in a Grand +Street shoe store she would have called +"cash," but as President of the Lady Hyacinths +her speech was:</p> + +<p>"If none of you goils ain't got no more +business to lay before the meetin' a movement +to adjoin is in order."</p> + +<p>"I move we adjoin an git to woik," said +Mamie Kidansky promptly. Only three +buttonholes and the whalebones which would +keep the collar well up behind the ears lay +between her and the triumphant rearing of +her shirt waist. Hence her zeal.</p> + +<p>Susie Meyer was preparing to second the +motion. As secretary she disapproved of +much discussion. She was always threatening +to resign her portfolio vowing, with some +show of reason, "I never would 'a' joined +your old Hyacinths Shirt-Waists if I'd a' +known I was goin' to have to write down all +the foolish talk you goils felt like givin' up."</p> + +<p>It seemed therefore that the business meeting +was closed, when a voice from the opposite +side of the table broke in with:</p> + +<p>"Say, Rosie, why can't us goils give a +play?"</p> + +<p>"Ah Jennie, you make me tired," protested +the Secretary.</p> + +<p>"An' you're out of order anyway," was +the President's dictum.</p> + +<p>"Where?" cried Jennie wildly, clutching +her pompadour with one hand and the back +of her belt with the other, "where, what's +the matter with me?"</p> + +<p>"Go 'way back an' sit down," was the +Secretary's advice, "Rosie meant you're out +of parliamentry order. We got a motion +on the table an' it's too late for you to butt +in on it. This meetin' is goin' to adjoin."</p> + +<p>But Jennie was the spokesman of a newly-born +party and her supporters were not going +to allow her to be silenced. Even those +Lady Hyacinths who had not been admitted +to earlier consultations took kindly to the +suggestion when they heard it.</p> + +<p>"I don't care whether she's out of order +or not," one ambitious Hyacinth declared, +"I think it would be just too lovely for anything +to have a play. They have 'em all +the time over to Rivington Street an' down +to the Educational Alliance."</p> + +<p>"Rebecca Einstein," said the Secretary +darkly, "if you're goin' to fire off your face +about plays an' the Educational Alliances +you can keep your own minnits, that's all! +Do ye think I'm goin' to write down your +foolishness? Well, I ain't."</p> + +<p>Again the President plied her gavel. +"Goils," she remonstrated, "this ain't no +way to act. Say, Miss Masters," she went +on, "I guess the whole lot of us is out of order +now. What would you do about it if you +was me?"</p> + +<p>"I should suggest," Miss Masters answered, +"that the motion to adjourn be carried +and that the whole club go into +committee on the question raised by Miss +Meyer."</p> + +<p>"I move that we take our woik into committee +with us," cried Miss Kidansky, not +to be deflected from her buttonholes. And +from such humble beginnings the production +of Hamlet by the Lady Hyacinths sprang.</p> + +<p>Hamlet was not their first choice. It was +not even their tenth and to the end it was +not the unanimous choice. During the preliminary +stages of the dramatic fever Miss +Masters preserved that strict neutrality +which marks the successful Settlement +worker. She would help—oh, surely she +would help—the Hyacinths, but she would +not lead them. She had never questioned +their taste in the shape and color of their +shirt waists. Some horrid garments had +resulted but to her they represented "self +expression," and as such gave her more +pleasure than any servile following of her +advice could have done. She soon discovered +that the latitude in the shirt waist field +is far exceeded by that in the dramatic and +she discovered too, that the Lady Hyacinths, +though they seldom visited the theatre +had strong digestions where plays were +concerned.</p> + +<p>"East Lynne" was warmly advocated until +some one discovered a grandmother who +had seen it in her youth. Then:</p> + +<p>"Ah gee!" remarked the Lady Hyacinths, +"we ain't no grave snatchers. We ain't +goin' to dig up no dead ones. Say Miss +Masters, ain't there no new plays we could +give?"</p> + +<p>Miss Masters referred them to the public +library, but not many plays are obtainable +in book form, and the next two meetings +were devoted to the plays of Ibsen, Bernard +Shaw, Vaughan Moody. When Miss Masters +descried this literature in the hands of +the now openly mutinous Secretary she felt +the time had come to interfere with +the "self activity" of her charges. She +promptly confiscated the second volume of +"G.B.S." "For," she explained "we don't +want to do anything unpleasant and the +writer of these plays himself describes them +as that."</p> + +<p>"Guess we don't," the President agreed. +"We got to live up to our name, ain't we? +An' what could be pleasanter than a +Hyacinth?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, of course," agreed Miss Masters +unsteadily.</p> + +<p>"There's one in this Ibsen book might +do," Jennie suggested. "It's called 'A +Dolls' House,' that's a real sweet name."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it wouldn't do," said Miss +Masters hastily.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with it?" demanded +Susie Meyer.</p> + +<p>"Well, in the first place, there are children +in it—"</p> + +<p>"Cut it! 'Nough said," pronounced the +President. "Them plays wid kids in 'em +is all out of style. We giv' 'East Lynne' +the turn down an' there was only one kid +in that. What else have you got in that +Gibson book? Have you got the play with +the Gibson goils in it? We could do that all +right, all right. Ain't most of us got Gibson +pleats in our shirt waists?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see nothin' about goils," the +Secretary made answer, "but there's one +here about ghosts. How would that do?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Miss Masters firmly.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with it?" asked one +of the girls abandoning her sewing-machine +and coming over to the table. "I seen +posters of it last year. They are givin' it +in Broadway. The costoomes would be real +easy, just a sheet you know and your hair +hanging down."</p> + +<p>"It's not about that kind of ghost," Miss +Masters explained, "and I don't think it +would do for us as there are very few people +in the cast and one of them is a minister."</p> + +<p>"Cut it," said the President briefly, "we +ain't goin' to have no hymn singin' in ours. +We couldn't, you know," she explained to +Miss Masters, "the most of us is Jewesses."</p> + +<p>"Katie McGuire ain't no Jewess," asserted +the Secretary. "She could be the +minister if that's all you've got against this +Gibson play. I wish we <i>could</i> give it. It's +about the only up-to-date Broadway success +we can find. The librarian says you can't +never buy copies of Julia Marlowe's an' +Ethel Barrymore's an' Maude Adams' plays. +I guess they're just scared somebody like +us will come along an' do 'em better than +they do an' bust their market. Actresses," +she went on, "is all jest et up with jealousy +of one another. Is there anythin' except +the minister the matter with 'Ghosts?'"</p> + +<p>"Everything else is the matter with it," +said Miss Masters. "To begin with, I might +as well tell you, it never was a Broadway +success. It's a play that is read oftener than +it's acted and last year, Jennie, when you +saw the posters, it only ran for a week."</p> + +<p>"Cut it," said the President. "We ain't +huntin' frosts."</p> + +<p>The brows of the Hyacinths grew furrowed +and their eyes haggard in the search. +Everyone could tell them of plays but no +one knew where they could be found in +printed form and whenever the librarian +found something which might be suitable +Miss Masters was sure to know of something +to its disadvantage.</p> + +<p>And then the real stage, the legitimate +Broadway stage intervened. Albert Marsden +produced Hamlet and the Lady Hyacinths +determined to follow suit.</p> + +<p>"It's kind of old," the President admitted, +"but there must be some style left to it. +They're playin' it on Broadway right now. +An' we'll give it on East Broadway just as +soon as we can git ready. Me and Mamie +went round to the library last night an' got +it out. It's got a dandy lot of parts in it: +more than this club will ever need. An' +it's got lots of murders an' scraps, an' court +ladies an' soldiers an' kings. It's our play +all right!"</p> + +<p>The sea of troubles into which the Lady +Hyacinths plunged with so much enthusiasm +swallowed them so completely that +Miss Masters could only stand on its shore, +looking across to Denmark and wringing her +hands over the awful things that were happening +in that unhappy land. Fortunately +she had a friend to whom she could appeal +for succour for the lost but still valiant Hyacinths. +He was the sort of person to whom +appeals came as naturally as honors come to +some men and, since he had nothing to do +and ample time and money with which to +do it, he was generally helpful and resourceful. +That he had once loved Miss Masters +has nothing to do with this story. She was +now engaged to be married to a poorer and +busier man, but it was to Jack Burgess that +she appealed.</p> + +<p>"Of course I know," said he when he had +responded to her message and she had +anchored him with a tea-cup and disarmed +him with a smile, "of course I know what +you want to say to me. Every girl who has +refused me has said it sooner or later. You +are saying it later—much later—than they +generally do, but it always comes. 'You +have found a wife for me.'"</p> + +<p>"I have done much better than that," +she answered, "I have found work for you." +And she sketched the distress of the Hyacinths +in Denmark and urged him to go to +their assistance.</p> + +<p>"But, my dear Margaret," he remonstrated, +"What can I do? You have always +known that 'something is rotten in the state +of Denmark,' and yet you have let these +poor innocents stir it up. I have often +thought that poor Shakespeare added that +line after the first performance. I intend +to write that hint to Furniss one of these +days."</p> + +<p>"You will write it," said Margaret Masters, +"with more conviction after you have +seen <i>my</i> Denmark."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said he, "I'll visit Elsinore +to-night, but I insist upon a return ticket."</p> + +<p>"You will be begging for a season ticket," +she laughed. "They have reduced me to +such a condition that I don't know whether +they are amusing me or breaking my heart. +Tell me, come, which is it? Did you ever +hear blank verse recited with tense and +reverent earnestness and a Bowery accent?"</p> + +<p>"I never did," said he.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Shakespeare was right," whispered Burgess +to Miss Masters. "There is something +rotten in Denmark. I've located it. It's +the Prince." They were sitting together +in a corner of the kindergarten room of the +settlement: a large and spacious room all +decked and bright with the paper and cardboard +masterpieces of the babies who played +and learned there in the mornings. Casts +and pictures and green growing things added +to its charm and the Lady Hyacinths so +trim and neat and earnest did not detract +from it.</p> + +<p>The sewing-machines and the cutting-table +had been cast into corners and well +in the glare of the electric light the President +was exclaiming in a voice which would +have disgraced an early phonograph, "Oh +that this too too solid flesh would melt."</p> + +<p>It was not a dress rehearsal but the too +solid Prince wore his hair low on his neck +and a golden fillet bound his brows. Silent, +he was noble. His walk as he came in at +the end of a procession of court ladies and +gentlemen was magnificent—slow, dejected, +imperious, aloof. But Wittenberg had a +great deal to answer for, if he had contracted +his accent there.</p> + +<p>Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, was a Hyacinth +who worked daily at hooks and buttonholes +for an East Broadway tailor. On this +night she wore none of her regalia save her +crown and the King had done nothing at all +to differentiate himself from Susie Lacov +who officiated as waitress in a Jewish lunchroom.</p> + +<p>The Hyacinths had wisely decided to edit +Hamlet. In this they followed an almost +universal principle and their method was +also time-honored. All the scenes in which +unimportant members of the club or cast +"came out strong," were eliminated. So +far the Hyacinths were orthodox, but Rosie +Rosenbaum, Prince, President and Censor, +went a step further.</p> + +<p>"Git busy. Mix her up, why don't you!" +she commanded later from the wings. +The other players were laboriously wading +through persiflage and conversation. "You +folks ain't <i>done</i> nothin' the last ten minutes +only stand there and gas. Is that actin'? +Maybe it's wrote in the book. What I want +to know is—is it actin'?" Burgess sat suddenly +erect and his eyes glowed. Miss Masters +half rose to assume authority but he +restrained her.</p> + +<p>"You shut up and leave me be," Polonius +cried. "Ain't I got a right to say good-bye +to my son?"</p> + +<p>"You can say good-bye all right," Rosie +reminded her, "without puttin' up that +game of talk. Give him a 'I'll be a sister +to you' on the cheek an' git through sometime +before to-morrow. Cut it, I tell you."</p> + +<p>This "off with his head" attitude on the +President's part delighted Burgess. But the +caste enjoyed it less and when the ghost was +docked of a whole scene it grew rebellious.</p> + +<p>"If you give me any more of your lip," +said the princely stage manager, "I'll trow +you out altogether. There's lots of people +wouldn't believe in ghosts anyway. Me +grandfather seen this play in Chermany and +he told me they didn't use the ghost at all. +Nothin' but a green light with a voice comin' +out of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I could be the voice, couldn't I?" +the ghost argued; and it was at this point +that Miss Masters took charge of the meeting +and introduced Mr. Burgess.</p> + +<p>"Who has offered," she went on in spite +of his energetic pantomime of disclaimer, +"to help us with our play."</p> + +<p>"That's real sweet of you, Mr. Burgess," +said the President graciously.</p> + +<p>"Not at all—not at all," he answered. +"It will be a pleasure, I assure you."</p> + +<p>"You'll excuse me, I'm sure," the Secretary +broke in, "if we go right on with our +woik while you're here. We're makin' our +own costoomes, as much as we can. That +was one reason us young ladies chose Hamlet. +It's a play what everyone wears skoits +in. It's easier for us and it ain't so embarrassing, +and I guess our folks will like it +better. You <i>have</i> to think of your folks +sometimes. Even if they are old-fashioned. +Miss Masters got us pictures of Mr. Marsden's +production an' every last one of the characters +has skoits on. Hamlet's ain't no +longer than a bathin' suit, but anyway it's +there. I don't think it's real refined, myself, +for young ladies to wear gents' suits on +the stage."</p> + +<p>"And of course," a gentle-eyed little girl +looked up from her sewing to remark,—"of +course this club ain't formed just for makin' +shirt waists. We've got a culture-an'-refinement +clause in the club constitution, so +we wouldn't want to do nothin' that wasn't +real refined."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ill-35" id= "ill-35"></a> +<img src="images/ill-35.png" +alt="BURGESS GAINED AN INTEREST AND AN OCCUPATION MORE ABSORBING THAN HE HAD FOUND FOR MANY YEARS. +PAGE 35." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption"><i>BURGESS GAINED AN INTEREST AND AN OCCUPATION MORE ABSORBING THAN HE HAD FOUND FOR MANY YEARS.</i></span> +<br /><br /></div> + +<p>"I understand," said Burgess more at a +loss than a conversation had ever found him, +"And what may I ask, is your part of the +play?"</p> + +<p>"Mamie Conners is too nervous," the lady +President explained "to come right out and +act. She's 'A flourish of trumpets within +an' a voice without an' a lady of the court +an' a soldier an' a choir boy at the funeral.'"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Miss Conners," Burgess assured this +timid but versatile Hyacinth, "that's only +stage fright, all great actresses suffer from +it at one time or another."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>During the weeks that followed, order +gradually gained sway in Denmark and Burgess +gained an interest and an occupation +more absorbing than he had found for many +years.</p> + +<p>"My dear Margaret," he was wont to +assure Miss Masters, when she remonstrated +with him upon his generosity, "Why +shouldn't I order supper to be sent in for +them? and why shouldn't I ask them up to +the house for rehearsals? There's the big +music room going to waste and those lazy +beggars of servants with nothing to do, and +you saw yourself how it brightened up poor +old Aunt Priscilla. She likes it—they like +it—I like it—you ought to like it. And you +certainly can't object to my having taken +them <i>en masse</i> to see Marsden in the play. +By George! I'll drag him to theirs. We'll +show him an Ophelia! that Mary Conners +is a little genius."</p> + +<p>"She is wonderful," agreed Miss Masters. +"The grace of her! The dignity! What she +herself would call the culture-an'-refinement!"</p> + +<p>"All my discovery. That tyrant of a +Rosie Rosenbaum had cast her as a quick +change, general utility woman. And in the +day-time you tell me she's a miserable little +shop-girl in a Grand Street rookery!"</p> + +<p>"That is what she used to be. But I +went to the shop a day or two ago to ask her +to come up to my house to rehearse with +the new Hamlet. I watched her for a few +moments before she noticed me. She was +Ophelia to the life. She conversed in blank +verse. She walked about with that little +queenly air you have taught her. She was +delicious, adorable. At first she said that +she could not rehearse that night, but I told +her you wished it and she came like a lamb. +I often wonder if I did a wise thing in introducing +them to you. Your sort of culture-an'-refinement' +may rather upset them when +the play is over and we all settle back to the +humdrum."</p> + +<p>"You did a great kindness to me," said +he, "and the best stroke of missionary work +you'll do in a dog's age. I'm going to work."</p> + +<p>"You are not," she laughed.</p> + +<p>"I am. Shamed into it by the Lady +Hyacinths."</p> + +<p>"Then perhaps the balance will be maintained. +If you turn them against labor they +will have turned you toward it."</p> + +<p>But Miss Masters' fears were groundless: +the Lady Hyacinths though dedicated to a +flower of spring were old and wise in social +distinctions. The story of King Cophetua +and the Beggar Maid would have drawn only +a contemptuous "cut it out" from the lady +President. Every Hyacinth of them knew +her exact place in nature's garden—all except +Mary Conners—now Ophelia—and she +knew herself to be a foundling with no place +at all. The lonely woman who had adopted +her was now dead and Mary was quite alone +in her little two-room tenement, free to +dream and play Ophelia to her heart's content +and to an imaginary Hamlet who was +always Burgess. To her he was indeed, +"The expectancy and rose of the fair state." +"The glass of fashion and the mould of +form." He was "her honoured lord"—"her +most dear lord." But in Monroe Street she +never deceived him. Never handed his letters +over to interfering relatives. She could +quite easily go mad and tuneful when she +knew that each rehearsal—each lesson taught +by him and so quickly learned by her—brought +the days when she would never see +him so close that she could almost feel their +emptiness.</p> + +<p>It was well that she played to an idealized +Hamlet for the real Hamlets came and went +bewilderingly. One of Burgess's first triumphs +of tact had been to pry the part away +from the lady President and give it to the +sturdy Secretary. There followed two other +claimants to the throne in quick succession +and then the lot fell to Rebecca Einstein +and stayed there. Each change in the principal +role necessitated readjustment throughout +the cast and at every change the lady +President was persuaded not to over exert +herself.</p> + +<p>And still Burgess in the seclusion of the +homeward bound hansom railed and swore.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, Margaret, that girl will ruin +us. All the rest are funny. Overwhelmingly, +incredibly funny! And pathetic! +Could anything be more pathetic! But that +awful President strikes a wrong note: Vulgarity. +Take her out of it and we'll have a +thing the like of which New York had never +seen, for Ophelia is a genius or I miss my +guess and all the rest are darlings."</p> + +<p>"But we can't throw out the President of +the club. She must have a part. You have +moved her down from Hamlet to Laertes—to +the King—"</p> + +<p>"I did," groaned Burgess. "Will you +ever forget her rendering of the line, "Now +I could do it, Pat," and then her storming +up to me to know "Who Pat was anyway?""</p> + +<p>"I do," laughed Margaret, "and then how +you moved her on to Guildenstern and now +you have got her down to Bernardo with +all her part cut out and nothing except that +opening line, "Who's there?" and the other: +"'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, +Francisco.""</p> + +<p>"Yes, and she ruins them. I've drilled +her and drilled her till my throat is sore and +still she says it straight through her nose +just as though she were delivering an order +of 'ham and' at her hash battery. Just the +same truculent 'Don't you dare to answer +back' attitude. She's impossible. She must +be removed."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Lady Hyacinths scattering +to their different homes discussed their mentor. +Ophelia and Horatio and Hamlet were +going through Clinton Street together. +Ophelia was still at Elsinore but Horatio +was approaching common ground again.</p> + +<p>"I suppose he's Miss Masters' steady," +said he to Hamlet. "He wouldn't come +down here every other night just to help us +goils out."</p> + +<p>But Ophelia was better informed. She +knew Miss Masters to be engaged to quite +another person.</p> + +<p>"Then I know," cried Horatio triumphantly. +"He's stuck on Rosie Rosenbaum. +It's her brings him."</p> + +<p>Ophelia said nothing, and Horatio having +experienced an inspiration, set about +strengthening it with proof.</p> + +<p>"It's Rosie sure enough. Ain't he learned +her about every part in the play? Don't he +keep takin' her off in corners an' goin' 'Who's +there, 'Tis now struck twelve' for about +an hour every night? I wouldn't have +nothin' to do with a feller that kept company +that way, but I s'pose it's the style +on Fifth Avenue. You know how I tell +you, Ham, in the play that there's lots of +things goin' on what you ain't on to. Well +it's so. None of you was on to Rosie an' +his nibs. You didn't ever guess it did you +'Pheleir?"</p> + +<p>"No," admitted Ophelia. "No, I never +did."</p> + +<p>"Well it's so. You watch 'em. The style +in wives is changin'. Actresses is goin' out +an' the 'poor but honest workin' goil' is +comin' in. One of our salesladies has a book +about it. "The Bowery Bride" its name +is. All about a shop goil what married a +rich fellow and used to come back to the +store and take her old friends carriage ridin'. +If Rosie Rosenbaum tries it on me, I'll break +her face. If she comes round me," cried +the Prince's fellow student: "with carriages +and a benevolent smile, I'll claw the smile +off of her if I have to take the skin with it!"</p> + +<p>When Horatio and Hamlet left her, she +wandered disconsolate, down to the river. +But no willow grows aslant that brook, no +flowers were there with which to weave fantastic +garlands.</p> + +<p>"I've gone crazy all right," said poor +Ophelia as she watched the lights of the great +bridge, "but I don't drown myself until +Scene VII. And I'm goin' up to his house +to-morrow night to learn to act crazy. I +guess I don't need much learning."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The performance of Hamlet by the Lady +Hyacinths is still remembered by those who +saw it as the most bewildering entertainment +of their theatrical experience. The play had +been cut down to its absolute essentials and +the players, though drilled and coached in +their lines and business, had been left quite +free in the matters of interpretation and accent. +The result was so unique that the +daily press fell upon it with whoops of joy +and published portraits of and interviews +with the leading characters. People who +had thought that only ferries and docks lay +south of Twenty-third Street penetrated to +the heart of the great East Side and went +home again full of an altruism which lasted +three days. And on the last night of the +"run" of three nights, Jack Burgess brought +Albert Marsden to witness it. Other spectators +had always emerged dumb or inarticulate +from the ordeal but the great actor was +not one of them. He was blusterous and +garrulous and, to Burgess' amazement, not +at all amused.</p> + +<p>"Who is that girl who played Ophelia? +Is she an East Side working girl or one of +the mission people?"</p> + +<p>"She's a shop-girl," answered Burgess. +"There's no good in your asking me to introduce +you to her for I won't. That's been +one of our rules from the beginning. We +don't want the children to be upset and +patronized."</p> + +<p>"Who taught her to act?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I coached them all as you know, +but she never seemed to require any special +teaching. Pretty good, isn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Pretty good! She is a genius—a wonder. +This is all rot about my not meeting her. +I am going to meet her and train her. I +suppose you have noticed that she is a beauty +too."</p> + +<p>"But she's only a child," Burgess urged. +"She's only eighteen. She couldn't stand +the life and the work and she couldn't stand +the people. You have no idea what high +ideals these girls have, and Mary Conners—that's +the girl's name—seems to be exceptional +even amongst them."</p> + +<p>"Too good for us, eh?" asked the actor.</p> + +<p>"Entirely too good," answered Burgess +steadily.</p> + +<p>"And do you feel justified in deciding her +future for her! In condemning her to an +obscure life in the slums instead of a successful +career on the stage?"</p> + +<p>"I do not," answered Burgess, "she must +decide that for herself. I'll ask her and let +you know."</p> + +<p>To this end he sought Miss Masters. "I +want you," said he, "to ask Mary Conners +to tea with you to-morrow afternoon. It +will be Sunday so she can manage. And +then I want you to leave us alone. I have +something very serious to say to her."</p> + +<p>Margaret looked at him and laughed. +"Then you were right," said she, "and I +was wrong; I had found a wife for you."</p> + +<p>"For absolute inane, insensate romanticism," +said he, "I recommend you to the +recently engaged. You used to have some +sense. You were clever enough to refuse +me and now you go and forever ruin my +opinion of you by making a remark like +that."</p> + +<p>"It is not romanticism at all," she maintained. +"It is the best of common sense. +You will never be satisfied with anyone you +haven't trained and formed to suit your own +ideals. And you will never find such a +'quick study' as Mary."</p> + +<p>It was the earliest peep of spring and Burgess +stopped on his way to Miss Masters' +house and bought a sheaf of white hyacinths +and pale maiden hair for the little Lady Hyacinth +who was waiting for him.</p> + +<p>As soon as he was alone with her he +managed to distract her attention from +her flowers and to make her listen to Marsden's +message. He set the case before +her plainly. Without exaggeration and +without extenuation.</p> + +<p>"And we don't expect you," he ended, +"to make up your mind at once. You must +consult your relatives and friends."</p> + +<p>"I have no relatives," she answered.</p> + +<p>"Your friends then."</p> + +<p>"I don't think I have many. Some of +the girls in the club perhaps. The old book-keeper +in the store where I work, perhaps +Miss Masters."</p> + +<p>"And you have me," he interrupted. +But she smiled at him and shook her head. +"You were real kind about the play," said +she, "but the play's all over now. I guess +you'd better tell your friend that I'll take +the position. I have been getting pretty +tired of work in the store and I'd like to try +this if he don't mind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you mustn't go into it like that," +Burgess protested, "just for the want of +something better. Acting is an art—a great +art—you must be glad and proud."</p> + +<p>"I'll try it," she said without enthusiasm. +"If you feel that way about it I'll +try it. It can't be worse than the store. +The store is just horrible. Oh! Mr. Burgess +you can't think what it is to be Ophelia in +the evening with princes loving you and then +to be a cashier in the day-time that any +fresh customer thinks he can get gay with. +Maybe if I was an actress I could be Ophelia +oftener. I'd do anything, Mr. Burgess, to +get away from the store."</p> + +<p>Burgess did not answer immediately. Her +earnestness had rather overcome her and he +waited silently while she walked to the window, +surreptitiously pressed her handkerchief +against her eyes and conquered the +sobs that threatened to choke her. Burgess +watched her. The trimness of her figure, +the absolute neatness and propriety of her +dress, the poise and restraint of her manner. +Then she turned and he rose to meet her.</p> + +<p>"Mary," said he, "you never in all the +time I've known you have failed to do what +I asked you. Will you do something for me +now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," she answered simply.</p> + +<p>"Then sit down in that chair and take +this watch of mine in your hand and don't +say one single, solitary, lonely word for five +minutes. No matter what happens: no +matter what anyone says or does. Will you +promise?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," she answered again.</p> + +<p>"Well then," he began, "I know another +man who wants you—this stage idea is not +the only way out of the store. Remember +you're not to speak—this other man wants +to marry you."</p> + +<p>A scarlet flush sprang to Mary's face and +slowly ebbed away again leaving her deadly +pale. She kept her word in letter but hardly +in spirit for she looked at him through tear-filled +eyes, and shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Of course you can't be expected to take +to the idea just at first," said he, as if she +had spoken, "but I want you to think it over. +The man is a well-off, gentlemanly sort of +chap. Miles too old for you of course—for +you're not twenty and he's nearly forty—but +I think he would make you happy. I +know he'd try with all the strength that's +in him."</p> + +<p>Blank incredulity was on Mary's face. +She glanced at the watch and up at him and +again she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"This man," Burgess went on, "is a friend +of Miss Masters and it was through her that +he first heard of the Lady Hyacinths. He +was an idler then. A shiftless, worthless +loafer, but the Lady Hyacinths made a man +of him and he's gone out and got a job."</p> + +<p>Comprehension overwhelming, overmastering, +flashed into Mary's eyes. But her +promise held her silent and in her chair. +Again it was as though she had spoken.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see you understand—you probably +think of me as an old man past the time +of love and yet I love you."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Doubt thou the stars are fire;<br /></span> +<span>Doubt that the sun doth move;<br /></span> +<span>Doubt truth to be a liar;<br /></span> +<span>But never doubt I love."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"That's all I have to offer you, sweetheart. +Just love and my life," and he in +turn went to the window and looked out into +the gathering dusk.</p> + +<p>Mary sat absolutely still. She knew now +that she was dreaming. Just so the dream +had always run and when the five minutes +were past, she rose and went to him: a true +Ophelia, her arms all full of hyacinths.</p> + +<p>"My honored Lord," said she. He +turned, and the dream held.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THERES_DANGER_IN" id="THERES_DANGER_IN"></a>THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS</h2> + + +<p>The Pennsylvania Limited was approaching +Jersey City and the afternoon +was approaching three o'clock +when Mr. John Blake turned to Mrs. John +Blake, née Marjorie Underwood, a bride of +about three hours, and precipitated the first +discussion of their hitherto happy married +life.</p> + +<p>"Your Uncle Richard Underwood," said +he—the earlier discussions in the wedded +state are usually founded upon relations—"is +as stupid as he is kind. It was very good +of him to arrange that I should meet old +Nicholson. Any young fellow in the country +would give his eyes for the chance. But to +make an appointment for a fellow at four +o'clock in the afternoon of his wedding day +is a thing of which no one, except your +Uncle Richard, would be capable. He might +have known that I couldn't go."</p> + +<p>"But you must go," urged the bride, "it's +the chance of a lifetime. Besides which," +she added with a pretty little air of practicality, +"we can't afford to throw away an +opportunity like this. We may never get +another one, and if you don't go how are you +to explain it to Uncle Richard when we dine +there to-morrow night?—you know we promised +to, when he was last at West Hills."</p> + +<p>"But what," suggested her husband—"what +if, in grasping at the shadow, I lose +the reality? I'd rather lose twenty opportunities +than my only wife, and what's +to become of you while I go down to Broad +Street? Do you propose to sit in the +station?"</p> + +<p>"I propose nothing of the kind," she +laughed. "I shall go straight to the Ruissillard +and wait for you. Dick and Gladys +may be there already."</p> + +<p>Although Mr. John Blake received this suggestion +with elaborate disfavor and disclaimer +it was clear to the pretty eyes of +Mrs. John Blake that he hailed it with +delight, and she was full of theories upon +marital co-operation and of eagerness to put +them into practice. None of her husband's +objections could daunt her, and before he +had adjusted himself to the situation he had +packed his wife into a hansom, given the +cabman careful instructions and a careless +tip, and was standing on the step admonishing +his bride:</p> + +<p>"Be sure to tell them that we must have +out-side rooms. Have the baggage sent up, +but don't touch it. If you open a trunk or +lift a tray before I arrive I shall instantly +send you home to your mother as incorrigible."</p> + +<p>"Very well," she agreed; "I'll be good."</p> + +<p>"And then, if Gladys is there—it's only an off-chance that they come +before to-morrow—get her to sit with you. But don't go wandering about +the hotel by yourself. And, above all, don't go out."</p> + +<p>"Goosie," said she, "of course I shan't go +out. Where should I go?"</p> + +<p>"And you're sure, sure, sure that you +don't mind?" he asked for the dozenth time.</p> + +<p>"Goosie," said she again, "I am quite, +quite sure of it. Now go or you will surely +miss your appointment and disappoint your +uncle."</p> + +<p>After two or three more questions of his +and assurances of hers the cab was allowed +to swing out into the current. John had +given the driver careful navigation orders, +and Marjorie leaned back contentedly enough +and watched the busy people, all hot and +haggard, as New York's people sometimes +are in the first warm days of May. Her collection +of illustrated post-cards had prepared +her to identify many of the places she passed, +but once or twice she felt, a little ruefully +the difference between this, her actual first +glimpse of New York and the same first +glimpse as she and John had planned it +before the benign, but hardly felicitous, +interference of Uncle Richard. This feeling +of loneliness was strongly in the ascendent +when the cab stopped under an ornate +portico and two large male creatures, in +powdered wigs and white silk stockings, +emerged before her astonished eyes. Open +flew her little door, down jumped the cabman, +out rushed other menials and laid +hands upon her baggage. Horses fretted, +pedestrians risked their lives, motors snorted +and newsboys clamored as an enormous +police-appearing person assisted her to alight. +He had such an air of having been expecting +and longing for her arrival that she wondered +innocently whether John had telephoned +about her. This thought persisted with her +until she and her following of baggage-laden +pages drew up before the desk, but it fell +from her with a crash when she encountered +the aloof, impersonal, world-weary regard of +the presiding clerk. In all Marjorie's happy +life she had never met anything but welcome. +The belle of a fast-growing town is +rather a sheltered person, and not even the +most confiding of ingénues could detect a +spark of greeting in the lackadaisical regard +of this highly-manicured young man.</p> + +<p>Marjorie began her story, began to recite +her lesson: "Outside rooms, not lower than +the fourth nor higher than the eighth floor; +the Fifth Avenue side if possible—and was +Mrs. Robert Blake in?"</p> + +<p>The lackadaisical young man consulted the +register with a disparaging eye.</p> + +<p>"Not staying here," Marjorie understood +him to remark.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it doesn't matter—but about the +rooms?"</p> + +<p>"Front!" drawled the young man, and +several blue-clad bellboys ceased from lolling +on a bench and approached the desk.</p> + +<p>"Register here," commanded the clerk, +twirling the big book on its turn-table toward +Marjorie so suddenly that she jumped, and +laying his pink-tinted finger on its first blank +line.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," she stammered, "I was +not to register until my husband—" and her +heart cried out within her for that she was +saying these new, dear words for the first +time to so unresponsive a stranger—"told +me not to register until he should come and +see that the rooms were satisfactory. He +will be here presently."</p> + +<p>"We have no unsatisfactory rooms," was +the answer, followed by: "Front 625 and 6," +and fresh pages and bellboys fell upon the +yellow baggage, and Marjorie, in a hot confusion +of counting her property and wondering +how to resent the young man's impertinence, +turned to follow them.</p> + +<p>"One moment, madam," the clerk murmured; +"name and address, please." The +pages were escaping with the bags, and Mrs. +Blake hardly turned as she answered, according +to the habit of her lifetime:</p> + +<p>"Underwood, West Hills, N.J.," and flew +to the elevator, which had already swallowed +her baggage and the boys. Up to suite +Number 625 and 6 she was conducted by her +blue-clad attendants, who opened the windows, +pushed the furniture about—then +waited; who fetched ice water, drew down +shades—and waited; who closed the windows, +drew up the shades, shifted the baggage +from sofa to armchair, unbuckled the +straps of a suitcase, indicated the telephone—and +waited; who put the bags on the bed, +opened the windows, pushed the furniture +back against the wall—and waited. Marjorie +viewed all these manœuvres with amused +but unsophisticated eyes. She smiled serenely +at the smiling bellboys—while they +waited. She thanked them prettily for their +assistance—and they waited. She dismissed +them still prettily, and it is to be regretted +that, in the privacy of the hall, they swore.</p> + +<p>She then took possession of her little domain. +The clerk, however unbearably, had +spoken the truth, and the rooms were charming. +There could be no question, she decided, +of going farther. She spread her +pretty wedding silver on the dressing-table, +she hung her negligée with her hat and coat +in the closet. She went down on her knees +and investigated the slide which was to lead +shoes to the bootblack; she tested, with her +bridal glove-stretcher, the electrical device +in the bathroom for the heating of curling +irons. She studied all the pictures, drew out +all the drawers, examined the furniture and +bric-a-brac, and then she looked at her +watch. Only half an hour was gone.</p> + +<p>She went to the window and watched +the hats of the passing multitude, noting +how short and fore-shortened all the figures +seemed and how queerly the horses passed +along beneath her, without visible legs to +move them. Still an hour before John could +be expected.</p> + +<p>And then their trunks, hers large and his +small, made their thumping entrance. The +porter crossed to the window and raised the +shade, crossed to her trunk and undid its +straps, dried his moistened brow—and +waited. Marjorie thanked him and smiled. +He smiled and waited, drying his brow industriously +the while. No village black-smith +ever had so damp a brow as he. She +sympathized with him in the matter of the +heat; he agreed—and waited. He undid the +straps of John's trunk; he moved her trunk +into greater proximity to the window and the +light; he carried John's trunk into the sitting-room; +he performed innumerable feats of +prowess before her. But she only smiled +and commended in an unfinancial way. Finally +he laid violent hands upon his truck +and retreated into the hall, swearing, as +became his age, more luridly than the bellboys.</p> + +<p>Once more Marjorie looked out into the +street for a while and began to plan the exact +form of greeting with which she should meet +John. It already seemed an eternity since +she had parted with him. She drew the +pretty evening dress which she had chosen +for this and most important evening from its +tissue-paper nest in the upper tray of her +trunk. Its daintiness comforted and cheered +her, as a friend's face might have done, and +under its impetus she found calm enough to +rearrange her hair, and, with many a shy +recoil and shy caress, to lay out John's evening +things for him, as she had often laid out +her father's. How surprised, she smiled, he +would be. How delighted, when he came, to +find everything so comfy and domestic. +Surely it was time for him to come. Presently +it was late, and yet he did not come. +She evolved another form of greeting: he +did not deserve comfort and domesticity +when he did not set more store on them than +on a stupid interview in a stuffy office. He +should see that an appointment with old +Nicholson could not be allowed to interfere +with their home life; that, simply because +they were married now, he could not neglect +her with impunity.</p> + +<p>She practised the detached, casual sort of +smile with which she would greet him, and +the patient, uninterested silence with which +she would listen to his apologies. Then, realizing +that these histrionics would be somewhat +marred by a pink negligée, she struggled +into her dinner dress.</p> + +<p>It was then seven o'clock and time to +practise some more vehement reception for +the laggard. It went well—very well. Any man +would have been annihilated by it, but there +was still no man when half-past seven came.</p> + +<p>Quite suddenly she fell into a panic. John +was dead! She had heard and read of the +perils of New York. She had seen a hundred +potential accidents on her drive from the +ferry. Trolley, anarchist, elevated railroad, +collapsed buildings, frightened horses, runaway +automobiles. Her dear John! Her mangled husband! Passing out +of the world, even while she, his widowed +bride, was dressing in hideous colors, and +thinking so falsely of him!</p> + +<p>He must be brought to her. Some one +should go and say something to somebody! +Telephone Uncle Richard! She flew to the +directory, which had interested her so little +when the polite bellboy of the itching palm +had pointed it out to her, and presently she +had startled a respectable old stockbroker, so +thoroughly and so hastily that he burst into +his wife's presence with the news that John +Blake had met with a frightful accident and +was being carried to the hotel in the automobile +of some rich gentleman from Paterson, +New Jersey.</p> + +<p>"Hurry down there at once," commanded +Aunt Richard, who was as staid and practical +as the wife of a stockbroker ought to be, +"and bring the two poor lambs here in your +car. Take the big one. They'll want plenty +of room to lay him flat. I'll have the nurse +and the doctor here and a room ready. Get +there if possible before he does, so as not to +move him about too often."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mrs. John Blake, bride now of +nearly eight hours, lay in a stricken heap +upon the bed, bedewing with hot tears the +shirt she had so dutifully laid ready for Mr. +John Blake, and which now he was never +more to wear. And Mr. John Blake, in a +hurricane of fear, exasperation and bewilderment, +a taxicab, and the swift-falling darkness, +fared from hotel to hotel and demanded +speech with Mrs. John Blake, a young lady +in blue with several handbags and some +heavy luggage, who had arrived at some +hotel early that afternoon.</p> + +<p>His interview with old Nicholson had been +short and satisfactory, and at about five-thirty +o'clock he was at the Ruissillard inquiring +for Mrs. J. Blake's number and floor +with a confidence he was soon to lose. There +was no such person. No such name. Then +could the clerk tell him whether, and why, +she had gone elsewhere. A slim and tall +young lady in blue.</p> + +<p>The clerk really couldn't say. He had +been on duty for only half an hour. There +was no person of the name of Blake in the +hotel. Sometimes guests who failed to find +just the accommodation they wanted went +over to the Blinheim, just across the avenue. +So the bridegroom set out upon his quest +and the clerk, less world-weary than his +predecessor, turned back to the telephone-girl.</p> + +<p>Presently there approached the desk a +brisk, business-like person who asked a few +business-like questions and then registered +in a bold and flowing hand, "Mr. and Mrs. +Robert Blake, Boston."</p> + +<p>"My husband," she announced, "will be +here presently."</p> + +<p>"He was here ten minutes ago," said the +clerk, and added particulars.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right," replied the slightly-puzzled +but quite unexcited lady; "he'll be +back." And then, accompanied by bags and +suitcases, she vanished aloft.</p> + +<p>"Missed connections, somehow," commented +the clerk to the stenographer, and +gave himself to the contemplation of "Past +Performances" in the <i>Evening Telegram</i>, and +to ordinary routine of a hotel office for an +hour or so, when, to prove the wisdom of the +lady's calm, the excited Mr. John Blake +returned.</p> + +<p>"There must be some mistake," he began +darkly, "I've been to every hotel—"</p> + +<p>"Lady came ten minutes after you left," +said the genial clerk. "Front, show the +gentleman to 450." And, presently, John +was explaining his dilemma to Gladys, the +pretty wife of his cousin Bob. "She is +somewhere in this hotel," he fumed, "and +I'll find her if I have to search it room by +room."</p> + +<p>The office was hardly quiet after the appearance +and disappearance of Mr. John +Blake, when the clerk and the telephone-girl +were again interrupted by an excited gentleman. +His white whiskers framed an anxious, +kindly face, his white waistcoat bound a true +and tender heart.</p> + +<p>"Has Mr. Blake arrived?" he demanded +with some haste.</p> + +<p>"Just a minute ago," the clerk replied, +and was surprised at the disappointment his +answer caused.</p> + +<p>"I must see him," cried the old gentleman. +"You needn't announce me. I'll go right +up. I'm his wife's uncle, and she telephoned +me to come."</p> + +<p>"Front!" called the clerk. "This gentleman +to 450."</p> + +<p>At the door of 450 he dismissed his guide +with suitable <i>largesse</i>, and softly entered the +room. It was brightly illuminated, and Uncle +Richard was able clearly to contemplate +his nephew of eight hours in animated converse +with a handsome woman in evening +dress.</p> + +<p>"I think, sir," said the woman, "that +there is some mistake."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you, madam," said Uncle +Richard, "and I'm sorry for it."</p> + +<p>"But you are exactly the man to help +us," cried the nephew; "we are in an awful +state."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you, sir," repeated Uncle +Richard.</p> + +<p>"You <i>must</i> know how to help us," urged +the nephew. "I've lost Marjorie."</p> + +<p>"So I should have inferred. But she had +already thrown herself away."</p> + +<p>"She's <i>lost</i>!" stormed the bridegroom. +"Don't you understand? Lost, lost, lost!"</p> + +<p>"I rather think he misunderstands," the +handsome woman interrupted. "You've not +told him, John, who I am."</p> + +<p>"You are mistaken," replied Uncle Richard +with a horrible suavity; "I understand +enough. That poor child telephoned to me +not twenty minutes ago that her husband +was injured, perhaps mortally, and implored +my help. I left my dinner to come to his +assistance and I find him—here—and thus."</p> + +<p>"Twenty minutes ago?" yelled John, leaping +upon his new relative and quite disregarding +that gentleman's last words. "Where +was she? Did she tell you where to look for +her?"</p> + +<p>"So, sir," stormed Uncle Richard, "the +poor, deluded child has left you and turned +to her faithful old uncle! Allow me to say +that you're a blackguard, sir, and to wish +you good-bye."</p> + +<p>"If you dare to move," stormed John +Blake, "until you tell me where my wife is, +I'll strangle you. Now listen to me. This +is Mrs. Bob Blake, wife of my cousin Robert. +She's an old friend of Marjorie's. We had a +half engagement to meet here this week. +Bob is due any minute, but Marjorie is lost. +There is only one record of a Blake in to-day's +register and that's this room and this lady—when +Marjorie left me at the ferry she was +coming here, straight. I've been to all the +possible hotels. She is nowhere. You say +she telephoned to you. From where?"</p> + +<p>"She didn't say," answered Uncle Richard, +shame-facedly, and added still more dejectedly, +"I didn't ask. She said in a letter her +aunt received this morning that she was +coming here. So I inferred that she was +here."</p> + +<p>"Then she is here," cried Gladys. "It's +some stupid mistake in the office."</p> + +<p>"I'll go down to that chap," John threatened, +"and if he doesn't instantly produce +Marjorie I'll shoot him."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ill-77" id= "ill-77"></a> +<img src="images/ill-77.png" +alt="UNCLE RICHARD'S FACE, AS HE MET JOHN'S EYES, WAS A STUDY." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption"><i>UNCLE RICHARD'S FACE, AS HE MET JOHN'S EYES, WAS A STUDY.</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<p>"You'll do nothing of the sort," his uncle +contradicted, "the child appealed to me and +I am the one to rescue her. I shall interview +the manager. I know him. You may come +with me if you like."</p> + +<p>Down at the desk they accosted the still-courteous +clerk. Uncle Richard produced his +card, and, before he could ask for the manager +the clerk flicked a memorandum out of +one pigeon-hole, a key out of another, and +twirled the register on its turn-table almost +into the midst of the white waistcoat.</p> + +<p>"The lady has been expecting you for +hours, Mr. Underwood," said he. "Looked +for you quite early in the afternoon, so the +maid says. Register here, please. Quite +hysterical, she is, they tell me, and the maid +was asking for the doctor—Front! 625!"</p> + +<p>Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's +eyes, was a study. The telephone-girl disentangled +the receiver from her pompadour +so that she might hear without hindrance the +speech which was bursting through the swelling +buttons of the white waistcoat and making +the white whiskers quiver.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing whatever about <i>any</i> lady +in <i>any</i> of your rooms," he roared, greatly to +the delight of the bellboys. "I know nothing +about your Underwood woman, with her doctors +and her hysterics. I want to see the +manager."</p> + +<p>"If," said the telephone maiden, adjusting +her skirt at the hips and shaking her figure +into greater conformity with the ideal she had +set before it—"If this gentleman is 2525 +Gram., then the lady in 625 rang him up at +seven-thirty and held the wire seven minutes +talkin' to him and cryin' to beat Sousa's +band. All about her uncle she was talkin'. +I guess it was him, all right, all right. His +voice sounds sort of familiar to me when he +talks mad."</p> + +<p>But John had neither eyes nor ears for +Uncle Richard's wrath. He snatched the +key and the paper upon which the supercilious +clerk had inscribed, at Marjorie's +embarrassed dictation, "Mrs. Underwood, +West Hills, N.J. (husband to arrive later), +625 and 6," and, since love is keen, he jumped +to the right conclusion and the open elevator +without further delay.</p> + +<p>An hour or so later the attention of the +clerk and the telephone-girl was again drawn +to the complicated Blakes. A party of four +sauntered out of the dining-room and approached +the desk.</p> + +<p>"I'll register now, I think," said John. +And when he had finished he turned to the +star-eyed girl behind him.</p> + +<p>"Look carefully at this, Marjorie," he +admonished. "Mr. and Mrs. John Blake. +<i>You</i> are Mrs. John Blake. Do you think you +can remember that?"</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh at me," she pleaded, "Gladys +says it was a most natural mistake, and so +does Bob. Don't you, Gladys and Bob?"</p> + +<p>"An almost inevitable mistake," they chorused +mendaciously, "but," added Bob, "a +rather disastrous mistake for your uncle to +explain to his wife, the doctor and the nurse. +He'll be able for it, though; I never saw so +game an old chap."</p> + +<p>"And I'll never do it again," she promised. +People never do when they've been married +a long, long time, and I feel as though I had +been married thousands and thousands of +years."</p> + +<p>"Poor, tired little girl," said John, "you +have had a rather indifferent time of it. Say +good-night to Dick and Gladys. Come, my +dear."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MISERY_LOVES_COMPANY" id="MISERY_LOVES_COMPANY"></a>MISERY LOVES COMPANY.</h2> + + +<p>"But, Win," remonstrated the bride-elect, +"I really don't think we <i>could</i>. +Wouldn't it look awfully strange? I +don't think I ever heard of its being done."</p> + +<p>"Neither did I," he agreed. "And yet I +want you to do it. Look at it from my point +of view. I persuade John Mead to stop wandering +around the world and to take an +apartment with me here in New York. Then +I meet you. The inevitable happens and in +less than a year John is to be left desolate. +You know how eccentric he is, and how hard +it will be for him to get on with any other +companion—"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Patty, "that he never will +find any one—but you—to put up with his +eccentricities."</p> + +<p>"And then, as if abandoning him were not +bad enough, I go and maim the poor beggar: +blind him temporarily—permanently, if he is +not taken care of—and disfigure him beyond +all description. Honestly, Patty, you never +saw anything like him."</p> + +<p>"I know," said she, "I know. A pair of +black eyes."</p> + +<p>"Black!" he cried, "why, they're all the +colors of the rainbow and two more beside, +as the story-book says. All the way from +his hair to his mustache he is one lurid sunset. +I don't want to minimize this thing. It +has only one redeeming feature: he will be +a complete disguise. No amount of rice or +ribbon could counteract his sinister companionship. +No bridal suspicions could live +in the light of it. Doesn't that thought +help?".</p> + +<p>The conversation wandered into personalities +and back again, as a conversation may +three days before a wedding, but Patty was +not entirely won over to Hawley's view of his +responsibility for having with unprecedented +dexterity and precision planted a smashing +"right" on the bridge of his friend's nose in +the course of an amicable "bout."</p> + +<p>"And the oculist chap says," Winthrop +urged, "that he simply must not be allowed +to use his eyes. I'm the only one who takes +any interest in him or has any control over +him, and to abandon him now would be an +awful responsibility. Can't you see that, +dear? If we stay at home to take care of +him he will understand why we're doing it, +and he'd vanish. Do let me put him into a +motor mask and attach him to the procession."</p> + +<p>"Well, of course, Win," Patty answered, +"of course we must have him if you feel so +strongly about it. It's a pity," she ended +mischievously, "that he dislikes me so much."</p> + +<p>"That's because you dislike him. But +just wait till you know one another."</p> + +<p>"I will," she answered with a spirit which +promised well for the future. "I'll wait."</p> + +<p>And Winthrop was so touched and gratified +by her complaisance that he had no alternative, +save to duplicate it, when the following +evening brought him this communication:</p> + +<p>"Kate Perry and I were playing golf this +morning. And, oh! Win, it seems just too +dreadful! I banged her between the eyes +with my driver. I can't think how I ever +did it. She's not fit to be seen. Awful! +worse than Mr. Mead can possibly be. She +can't stay here and she can't go home to +Washington.</p> + +<p>"So, now, if you will consent, we shall be +four instead of three. Let me take poor +Kate. She can wear a thick veil and sit in +behind with Mr. Mead, in his goggles, and +leave the front seats for us. They'll be company +for one another."</p> + +<p>Winthrop questioned this final sentence. +A supercilious, spoiled beauty—a beauty now +doubly spoiled and presumedly bad tempered—was +hardly an ideal companion for +the misanthropic Mead.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The wedding took place in the morning +and the beginning of the honeymoon was +prosaic enough. Winthrop and Patty sat in +the front seat of the throbbing touring car, +while hysterical bridesmaids and vengeful +groomsmen showered the requisite quantities +of rice, confetti and old slippers upon them.</p> + +<p>It was at the New York side of the ferry +that a shrouded female joined them, and it +was at the Hoboken side of the river that a +be-goggled young man was added unto her. +The bride rushed through the formula of +introduction: a readjustment of dress-suit +cases and miniature trunks was effected, and +the disguise which the bridegroom had predicted +was complete. The most romantic +onlooker would not have suspected them of +concealing a honeymoon about them.</p> + +<p>It was nearly six o'clock when at last +they reached their destination, the little town +of Rapidan, in New Jersey, and stopped before +the Empress Hotel. Hawley had visited +Rapidan once before, as a member of his +college glee club, and he had recalled it instantly +when Mead's disfigurement made +sequestration imperative.</p> + +<p>The motor sobbed itself to a standstill: +several children and dogs gathered to inspect +it, and then finding more interest and +novelty in Mead's mask turned their attention +to him.</p> + +<p>The Empress had evidently been dethroned +for some years, and the hospitality she afforded +her guests was of an impoverished +sort. Hawley, approaching the desk to make +enquiries, was met by a clerk incredibly +arrayed, and the intelligence that the whole +house was theirs to choose, except for two +small rooms on the third floor occupied by +two gentlemen who "traveled" respectively +in sarsaparilla and molasses.</p> + +<p>Hawley returned to his friends and repeated +this information.</p> + +<p>"How perfectly sweet of them," cried the +irresponsible bride. "Oh! Win, we must +stay here and see them. Isn't it the dearest +sleepy hollow of a place?"</p> + +<p>Attended by the impressed and impressive +clerk, they made an inspection of the house. +Mr. and Mrs. Hawley settled upon a suite +just over the main entrance. Mead was established +across the hall. But Kate found a +wonderful panorama which could only be +seen from the rooms on the third floor, and +there, down a dreary length of oil-clothed +hall, she bestowed herself and her belongings.</p> + +<p>"For I must," she explained to Patty, "I +simply <i>must</i> get out of this veil and breathe, +and I shouldn't dare to do it within reach of +that horribly supercilious friend of Winthrop's. +I'm going to plead headache or +something, and have my dinner sent up +here."</p> + +<p>Mead, meanwhile, was unfolding similar +plans to Hawley. "I should have joined +you," said he, "if your wife's friend had been +a little less self-sufficient and unsympathetic. +Of course, I don't require any sympathy; but +I don't want ridicule either. So, while she is +of the party I'll have my meals in my room. +I can't act the 'Man in the Iron Mask' forever. +You just leave the ladies together +after dinner and come up here for a pipe +with me."</p> + +<p>And when Mr. and Mrs. Hawley next encountered +one another and reported the +wishes of their friends, he suggested and she +rapturously agreed, that they should dine in +their horse-hair-covered sitting-room.</p> + +<p>"I have a reason, dear," she told him, "for +not wishing to go to the dining-room for our +first meal together. I'll explain later."</p> + +<p>"Your wishing it is enough," he answered +before the conversation sank to banalities.</p> + +<p>And when these several intentions were +made clear to the conscientious clerk, he sent +for the police force of the town—it consisted +of a mild, little old man in a uniform and +helmet which might have belonged to some +mountainous member of the Broadway Squad +in its prime—and implored him to spend the +evening in the hall.</p> + +<p>"They're beginning to act up funny already," +the clerk imparted. "This eatin' all +over the house don't seem just right to me. +What do they think the dining-room's for +anyway? Sam was up with the bag belonging +to the single fellow, and he says he's got +the worst looking pair of black eyes he ever +saw. Here, Sam, you come and tell Jimmie +what he looks like."</p> + +<p>Sam, a middle-aged combination of porter, +bellboy, furnace-man, office assistant and +emergency barkeeper was but newly launched +upon his description of Mead's face, when the +chambermaid, who was also the waitress and +housekeeper, broke in upon them with the +intelligence that never in all her born days +<i>or</i> nights had she seen anything like the face +of the young lady on the third floor.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with her," said the +clerk suspiciously, with a look which warned +Jimmie to be at once a Bingham and a Sherlock +Holmes.</p> + +<p>"Why, Horace," she answered tragically, +"that girl has two of the most awful black +eyes. The whites of them is red and then +comes purple and green and yellow. I guess +they was meant to be blue."</p> + +<p>This chromatic scale was too much for +Jimmie. He reeled where he sat and then, +the postman opportunely arriving, sent word +to Mrs. Jimmie that duty would keep him +from her all the night.</p> + +<p>"Tell her," he huskily charged his messenger, +"that there is suspicious circumstances +going on in this house."</p> + +<p>"You bet there is," the clerk agreed. "It +looks like a case of attempted murder to me."</p> + +<p>"Divorce, more likely," was Jimmie's professional +opinion, but he had scant time to +enlarge upon it before the waitress, outraged +to the point of tears, broke out of her domain. +She brought with her an atmosphere of long-dead +beefsteak, chops and onions, and she +shrilled for an answer to her question.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with 'em anyway? +Ain't the dining-room good enough for 'em +to eat in? It done all right for Judge Campbell's +funeral this afternoon, and I found a +real sweet wreath on that there whatnot in +the corner. The candles wasn't all burnt up +neither, an' I set out four of 'em on the four +corners. It looks elegant, an' them tube-roses +smells grand. An' when I told that +young lady what's got the use of her eyes +how glad I was they happened in when we +was so well fixed for decorations, she looked +awful funny. Most like she was cross-eyed."</p> + +<p>"They all seem to have eye-trouble," Jimmie +commented. "Do you suppose they're +running away from one of these here blind +asylums."</p> + +<p>"Lunatic asylum, most likely," the cheerful +clerk contributed.</p> + +<p>When the other two guests ceased from +traveling in molasses and sarsaparilla and returned +to their quiet hostelry, all these surmises +had hardened into certainties, and were +imparted to them with a new maze of suspicion, +more dense, more deadly, and more +strictly in accordance with the principles laid +down in "Dandy Dick, the Boy Detective."</p> + +<p>Madeline, the waitress, reported further +particulars as she ministered to the creature-comforts +of the traveling gentlemen dining +alone among the funeral-baked meats. So +interested and excited did these gentlemen +become that they determined to interview, +or at least to see, their mysterious fellow +guests.</p> + +<p>When their elaborate supper had reached +its apotheosis of stewed prunes and blue-boiled +rice, Hawley and Mead had gone out +for a meditative and tobacco-shrouded stroll. +They passed through the hall and inspiration +awoke in Jimmie.</p> + +<p>"By gum," said he, "I know them now. I +suspicioned them from the first by what +Horace told me. But now I've got them +sure. You mind that time I was down to +New York and was showed over Police +Headquarters, by professional etiquette?"</p> + +<p>"Sure," they all agreed. It was indeed a +reminiscence, the details of which had been +playing havoc with Rapidan's nerves for the +past fifteen years. They felt that they could +not bear it now.</p> + +<p>"Well," continued Jimmie, gathering his +auditors close about him by the husky whisper +he now adopted, "I see them two fellers +then. Mebbe 'twas in the Rogue's Gallery +and mebbe it was in the cells. I ain't worked +it down that fine yet, but I'll think and pray +on it and let you know when I get light."</p> + +<p>When the staff and the commercial guests +of the Empress Hotel were waiting to see illumination +burst through the blue-shrouded +protector, the bridal party was veering momentarily +further from the normal. For the +deserted bride, alone in the desolate best +sitting-room, laid her head upon her arms and +laughed and laughed. She had made one +cautious descent to the ground floor in search +of diversion, and meeting Jimmie, she found +it. After a conversation strictly categorical +upon his side and widely misleading upon +hers, she had gone up stairs again and halted +in the upper hall just long enough to hear +Jimmie's triumphant:</p> + +<p>"Well, we know <i>her</i> name anyway."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" hissed Horace, while the +porter relieved himself of a quid of tobacco +so that nothing should interfere with his hearing +and attention.</p> + +<p>"Huh!" ejaculated Jimmie, "you bin a +hotel clerk two years and sold seegars all +that time (when you could) and you don't +know Ruby Mandeville when she stands +before you."</p> + +<p>A box of the "Flor de" that gifted songstress, +was soon produced and pried open, +and the effulgent charms of its godmother +compared with the less effulgent, but no less +charming figure which had just trailed away.</p> + +<p>"It's her, sure as you're born," cried the +gentleman who traveled in molasses, absent-mindedly +abstracting three cigars and conveying +them surreptitiously to his coat +pocket.</p> + +<p>"She's fallen off some in flesh," commented +Horace, as with careful presence of +mind he drew out his daybook and entered +a charge for those three cigars.</p> + +<p>"But she don't fool me," said Jimmie, +"she can put flesh on or she can take it +off—"</p> + +<p>"My, how you talk!" shrilled the chambermaid-bellboy, +"you'd think you was talkin' +about clothes."</p> + +<p>"It ain't no different to them," Jimmie +maintained. "That's one of the things us +detekitives has got to watch out for."</p> + +<p>"What do you s'pose she's doing here?" +asked the porter.</p> + +<p>"Gettin' married again most likely. That's +about all she does nowadays."</p> + +<p>Patty was still chuckling and choking over +these remarks, when the door of the sitting-room +opened cautiously and Kate Perry, +swathed in her motor veil, looked in.</p> + +<p>"Are we alone?" she demanded with +proper melodramatic accent.</p> + +<p>"We are," the bride answered, "Winthrop +and Mr. Mead have gone out for a smoke."</p> + +<p>"Then I want you to tell me if I'm fading +at all. I've been looking at it upstairs, in a +little two-by-three mirror, and taken that +way, by inches, it looks awful. Tell me what +you think?" She removed the veil and presented +her damaged face for her friend's inspection. +There was not much improvement +to report, but the always optimistic Patty +did what she could with it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ill-99" id= "ill-99"></a> +<img src="images/ill-99.png" +alt="SHE SWOOPED UNDER THE LARGE CENTER TABLE, DRAGGING PATTY WITH HER." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption"><i>SHE SWOOPED UNDER THE LARGE CENTER TABLE, DRAGGING PATTY WITH HER.</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<p>"The left cheek," she pronounced, "is +really better, less swollen, less—Oh! Kate, +here they come."</p> + +<p>Miss Perry began to readjust her charitable +gray chiffon veil. It was one of those which +are built around a circular aperture, and as +the steps in the hall came ever closer she, +in one last frantic effort succeeded in framing +the most lurid of her eyes in this opening. +Casting one last look into the mirror, she +swooped under the large center-table, dragging +Patty with her, and disposing their +various frills and ribbons under the long-hanging +tablecover.</p> + +<p>"If they don't find either of us," she whispered, +"they'll go away to look for us."</p> + +<p>She had no time to say more, and Patty +had no time to say anything before the door +opened and presented to their limited range +of vision, two utterly strange pairs of shoes +and the hems of alien trousers.</p> + +<p>"I hope you will excuse me, Miss," began +the molasses gentleman, so full of his entrance +speech that he said the first part of it before +he noticed that the room was empty. And +then turned to rend his fellow adventurer, +who was laughing at him.</p> + +<p>"Didn't Horace tell us," he stormed, "that +she was here, and wasn't you going to say +how you had saw her in the original 'Black +Crook?'"</p> + +<p>"I seen her all right," said his more grammatical +friend, with heavy emphasis.</p> + +<p>"Do you see her now?" demanded the +irate molasses traveler.</p> + +<p>"I do not, but I'll set here 'til she comes."</p> + +<p>They both sat. Not indeed until the arrival +of Ruby Mandeville, but until Hawley +and Mead made their appearance, and made +it, too, very plain that they had not expected +and did not enjoy the society of the +travelers.</p> + +<p>"Where are the ladies?" asked Hawley.</p> + +<p>"Search us," responded the travelers.</p> + +<p>"They must have gone to their rooms," +said the bridegroom. "If these gentlemen +don't object to our waiting here," he went on +with a fine and wasted sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"Set right down," said the genial sarsaparilla +man, and to further promote good +feeling he tendered his remaining "Ruby +Mandeville" cigar.</p> + +<p>"Your friend," said he affably, "does he +always wear them goggles?"</p> + +<p>"Always," answered Hawley. "Eats in +them, sleeps in them."</p> + +<p>"Born in them," supplemented Mead savagely.</p> + +<p>They sat and waited for yet a few moments, +and though Mead did not add geniality +to the conversation, he certainly contributed +interest to it. For his views on honeymoon +etiquette being strong within him, and an +audience made to his hand, he went on to +amplify some of the theories with which he +had been trying to undermine Winthrop's +loyalty.</p> + +<p>"I am persuaded that most of the disappointments +of married life are due to the impossible +standards set up at the beginning. +Look at it this way. You know the fuss most +wives make about the hours a husband keeps. +Well! suppose Mr. Hawley comes out in the +car with me to-night. I know some fellows +who have a summer studio near here. We'll +run over and make a night of it."</p> + +<p>"Say," the molasses gentleman broke in, +"be you married, mister?"</p> + +<p>"No!" said Mead.</p> + +<p>"Sounds like it," said the molasses gentleman. +"Marriage will sort of straighten you +out on these here subjects."</p> + +<p>"Oh, leave 'em be," admonished the sarsaparilla +man. "If I had 'a met up with him +thirty years ago, mebbee I wouldn't be in +the traveling line now. He's got a fine +idee."</p> + +<p>Hawley, meanwhile, was wrestling with +his manners and the "Ruby Mandeville," +until the lady, as was her custom, triumphed.</p> + +<p>He hurriedly and incompletely extinguished +the cigar, and attracted by the same opportunity +for concealment which had appealed to +Kate and Patty, he lifted a corner of the +heavy-fringed tablecover and sent Ruby to +join the other ladies.</p> + +<p>Now, a lighted cigar applied suddenly to +the ear of an excited and half-hysterical conspirator, +will generally produce results. In +this case it produced a scream, the bride, +and after an interval, the shrouded confidential +friend.</p> + +<p>"See where amazement on your mother +sits," the ghost remarks in Hamlet, but +amazement never sat so hard on the wicked +Gertrude of Denmark as it did upon the four +men who saw the tablecloth give up its +ghosts.</p> + +<p>At first there was silence. One of those +throbbing, abominable silences whose every +second makes a situation worse and explanation +more impossible.</p> + +<p>The "Black Crook" speech of welcome +and appreciation died in the heart of the +molasses traveler. It did not somehow seem +the safest answer to Hawley's threatening—</p> + +<p>"I think you gentlemen had better explain +how you happen to be in my private sitting-room. +Perhaps we had better step out into +the hall."</p> + +<p>They did, and the echoes of their conversation +brought Jimmie, that trusty sleuth, upon +the scene. With him he brought Horace as +witness. Also, he carried his dark lantern. +He directed its glare fitfully at the two strangers +until Mead, catching a beam in his eye, +turned and drove Jimmie and his cohorts +from the scene. They retreated in exceedingly +bad order to the bar, and then Jimmie +announced in sepulchral whispers that he +had further identification to impart. He +required much liquid refreshment to nerve +him to speech, and his audience required to +be similarly strengthened to hear.</p> + +<p>"I've got 'em," he began, "I know 'em +now. Horace, this is the biggest thing you'll +ever be anywhere near." And, as his hearers +drew close about him, he whispered "counterfeiters. +The hull kit and bilin' of 'em."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Meanwhile, Kate and Patty wrestled afresh +with the automobile veil, and had succeeded +in getting it tied in a limp string around the +bridesmaid's neck, leaving all her head and +face uncovered. And when the groom and +the groomsman returned she, with a muffled +gurgle, dived back into the seclusion of the +tablecover.</p> + +<p>"We've got rid of those bounders," Hawley +announced, and—</p> + +<p>"Hello!" cried Mead, "Miss Perry gone +already?"</p> + +<p>"She was very tired," said Patty veraciously, +but evasively.</p> + +<p>"Awfully jolly girl, isn't she Mead?" said +Hawley, with the expansiveness of the newly-wed. +"Handsome, too?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps she is, but so long as she dresses +like a veiled prophet it is hard to tell."</p> + +<p>"If you two can get on without me," said +Patty, disregarding a muffled protest from +under the table, "I'll go up and fetch," she +made these comforting words very clear, +"my green motor veil."</p> + +<p>Instantly, when he closed the door after +her, Mead turned to Hawley.</p> + +<p>"There's something wrong with this confounded +mask," said he. "This strap-thing +that goes round my head must be too tight. +I've been mad with it the last half hour. +How do I look?" he asked genially as he took +it off, and proceeded to tamper with the +buckles and elastic. "Howling Jupiter!" +he cried a moment later, "I've busted +it."</p> + +<p>As the two friends stood and stared at +one another aghast, they heard the click of +Patty's returning heels, and Mead, abandoning +dignity, courage—everything except the +broken mask—dived into Miss Perry's maiden +bower.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hawley watched this procedure with +wide and fascinated eyes. No ripple shook +the walls of the bower. No sound proceeded +from it as the moments flew. Then Patty +fell away into helpless laughter and wept +tears of shocked and sudden mirth into the +now useless motor veil.</p> + +<p>"Patty!" remonstrated her husband, but +she laughed helplessly on. "At least come +out into the hall and laugh there," he urged, +"the poor chap will hear you." And when +he had followed her and listened to her shaken +whisper, he broke into such a shout as forced +the indignant and outraged Kate into a shudder +of protest and disgust.</p> + +<p>Instantly Mead threw an arm past the +table's single central support and grasped a +handful of silk chiffon and two fingers.</p> + +<p>He, being of an acquisitive turn, retained +the fingers. She being of a dictatorial turn, +rebuked him.</p> + +<p>"Finding is keeping," he shamelessly remarked. +"Even in infancy I was taught +that."</p> + +<p>Now, a certain pomp of scene and circumstance +is necessary to the sort of dignified +snubbing with which Miss Perry was accustomed +to treat possible admirers. Also, a +serene consciousness of superlative good looks. +But Kate Perry disfigured, cramped into a +ridiculous hiding place, and suffering untold +miseries of headache and throbbing eyes, was +a very different creature.</p> + +<p>And Mead, flippant, hard, and misanthropic +in the state of nature, softened wonderfully +as he sat in the gloom of the tablecover, in +silent possession of those two slim fingers.</p> + +<p>His words grew gentle, his manner kind, +and her answers were calculated to petrify +her long-suffering family if they could have +overheard them.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mead," she said at last, "will you +be so very kind as to stay here quietly under +the table while I scramble out and go up to +my room?"</p> + +<p>No tongue of angel could have made a +more welcome suggestion. Mead uttered feeble +and polite proffers of escort, and silently +called down blessings upon the head he had +never seen. He had just allowed himself to +be dissuaded from knight errantry, when the +door opened and Jimmie flashed his dark +lantern about the brightly lighted room. He +then beckoned mysteriously to the still vigilant +Horace, who lurked in the hall.</p> + +<p>"Have you found them?" whispered that +youth.</p> + +<p>"Not a trace of them," answered Jimmie +triumphantly. "They ain't gone out. They +ain't in their rooms, and I'm studyin' how I +can round 'em up. They're the most suspicious +characters I ever see, Horace, and this +night's work may cost us our lives."</p> + +<p>This disposition of his existence did not +seem to cheer Horace.</p> + +<p>"Counterfeiters," Jimmie went on, "is the +desperatest kind of criminals there is. Still +we got to git 'em. I'll look round this room +just so as nothing won't escape us, and then +we'll go up to the next floor. It's good we +got two of them located in the bridal suite."</p> + +<p>Jimmie, with his prying dark lantern and +his prodding nightstick, soon reached the +space under the table, and the counterfeiters +secreted there.</p> + +<p>"I got 'em," he cried delightedly. "Hi, +you. Come out of there and show yourselves."</p> + +<p>They came. There was nothing else to do.</p> + +<p>"Moses's holy aunt," cried Jimmie, falling +back upon Horace, who promptly fell back +upon the sofa.</p> + +<p>"Here, you," said Mead. "You get out of +this, both of you. Don't you know this is a +private sitting-room?"</p> + +<p>"No settin'-room," said Jimmie, recovering +somewhat, "is private to them as sets +under tables blackening one another's eyes."</p> + +<p>"You ridiculous idiot," snorted Mead. +"Do you dare to think that I hurt this +lady?"</p> + +<p>"Lady? Ain't she your wife?"</p> + +<p>"She is <i>not</i>," snapped Kate.</p> + +<p>"Then why did you hit her?" demanded +Jimmie. "If she ain't your wife what did +you want to hit her for? An' anyway, she'd +ought to be. That's all I got to say."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The same idea occurred to Mr. and Mrs. +Hawley, crouched guiltily against their door +to hear their victims pass, for their amazed +ears caught these words—the first were +Kate's:</p> + +<p>"You must let me give you some of my +lotion."</p> + +<p>And then came Mead's:</p> + +<p>"I shall be <i>most</i> grateful. It must be hot +stuff. You know you're hardly disfigured at +all."</p> + +<p>"The saints forgive him," Patty gurgled.</p> + +<p>Later on in the darkness, Jimmie's idea +visited Mead and was received with some +cordiality. And at some time later still, it +must have been presented to Miss Perry, for +the misanthropic Mead—no longer misanthropic—now +boasts a massive and handsome +wife whom he calls his Little Kitty. +But the idea was originally Jimmie's.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_CHRISTMAS_GUEST" id="THE_CHRISTMAS_GUEST"></a>THE CHRISTMAS GUEST</h2> + + +<p>On the day before Christmas eve John +Sedyard closed his desk, dismissed +his two clerks and his stenographer +two hours earlier than usual, and set out in +quest of adventure and a present for his sister +Edith. John Sedyard had a habit of +succeeding in all he set forth to do but the +complete and surprising success which attended +him in this quest was a notch above +even his high average.</p> + +<p>Earlier in the month, his stenographer had +secured the annual pledges of his affection +for all the relatives, friends and dependants +to whom he was in the habit of giving presents: +all except his mother, his unmarried +sister, Edith, who still lived at home, and +his fiancée, Mary Van Plank. The gifts for +these three, he had decided, must be of his +own choice and purchase. He had provided +for his mother and for Mary earlier in the +week. Neither excitement nor adventure +had attended upon the purchase of their +gifts. Something for the house or the table +was always the trick for elderly ladies who +presided over large establishments and gave +their whole souls to the managing of them. +He bought for his mother a set of colonial +silver candlesticks. For Mary, he bought a +comb of gold—all gold, like her own lovely +hair. The dark tortoise shell of the one she +wore always seemed an incongruous note in +her fair crown. But Edith was as yet unpresented, +and it was on her account that Mr. +Sedyard deserted his office and delighted his +subordinates at three o'clock in the afternoon.</p> + +<p>Edith was much more difficult than +the other two had been. She was strong-minded, +much given to churchwork and committees. +Neither the home, as represented +by the candlesticks, nor self-adornment as +typified by the golden comb could be expected +to appeal to her communistic, altruistic +nature. And Sedyard, having experienced +two inspirations, could think of nothing +but combs and candlesticks. So he +threw himself into the current, which swept +along Broadway, trusting that some accident +would suggest a suitable offering. +Meanwhile, he revelled in the crowd, good-humored, +holiday-making, holly-decked, which +carried him uptown, past Wanamaker's +and Grace Church, swirled him across old +"dead man's curve," and down the Fourteenth +Street side of Union Square. Here +the shops were smaller, not so overwhelming, +and here he was stopped by seeing a red +auction flag. Looking in over the heads of +the assembled crowd, he saw that the auctioneer +was holding up a feather-crowned hat +and addressing his audience after the manner +of his kind:</p> + +<p>"Buy a hat for your wife. A waste-paper +basket by night and a hat by day. Genuine +ostrich feathers growing on it. Becoming +to all styles of feminine beauty. What am +I bid on this sure tickler of the feminine +palate? Three dollars? Why, ladies and +gents, the dooty on it alone was twelve. +It's a Paris hat, ladies. Your sister, your +mother, your maiden aunt—"</p> + +<p>Sedyard hearkened, but absently, to the +fellow's words, but his problem was solved. +He would buy Edith something to look pretty +in. She was a pretty girl and in danger of +forgetting it. And she had been decent, +John reflected, awfully decent about Mary. +He knew that the <i>entente cordiale</i> which existed +between Mary and his mother was +largely due to Edith, and he knew, too, that +Edith, an authority on modern-housing and +model-living, surely but silently disapproved +of Mary's living alone in a three-roomed +studio and devoting her days to painting, +when there was so much rescue work to be +done in the world.</p> + +<p>"I get my uplift," Mary would explain +when Edith urged these things upon her, +"from the elevator. Living on the eighth +floor, dear, I cannot but help seeing the +world from a very different angle."</p> + +<p>Yes, John reflected as he chuckled in +retrospect over such conversations, Edith +had certainly been awfully decent.</p> + +<p>During these meditations several articles +of feminine apparel had come and gone under +the hammer. The crowd had decreased +somewhat and his position now commanded +a clear view of the auctioneer's platform, +and he realized that the fierce light of the +arc lamps beat down upon as charming a +costume as he had seen for many a day. +All of corn-flower blue it was, a chiffon gown, +a big chiffon muff and a plumed hat. Oh! +if he had been allowed to do such shopping +for Mary! how quickly he would have entered +into the lists of bidders! Mary's eyes +were just that heavenly shade of blue, but +Mary's pride was as great as her poverty, +and the time when he could shower his now +useless wealth upon her was not yet. And +then his loyal memory told him that Edith +was blue-eyed like all the Sedyards and he +knew that his sister's Christmas gifts stood +before him. He failed, however, to discern +in the bland presence of the lay figure, upon +which they were disposed to such advantage, +the companion of one of the most varied +adventures in his long career.</p> + +<p>The chiffon finery was rather too much +for the Fourteenth Street audience. The +bidding languished. The auctioneer's pleadings +fell upon deaf ears. In vain his assistant, +a deft-fingered man with a beard, twirled +the waxen-faced figure to show the "semi-princesse +back" and the "near-Empire +front." Corn-blue chiffon and panne velvet +are not much worn in Fourteenth Street. +The auctioneer grew desperate. "Twenty-five +dollars," he repeated with such scorn +that the timid woman who had made the bid +wished herself at home and in bed. "<i>Twenty-five</i> +dollars!"</p> + +<p>"Throw in the girl, why don't you?" suggested +a facetious youth, chiefly remarkable +for a nose, a necktie and a diamond ring. +"She's a peach all right, all right. She's +got a smile that won't come off."</p> + +<p>"All right, I'll throw her in," cried the +desperate auctioneer. "What am I bid for +this here afternoon costume complete with +lady."</p> + +<p>"Twenty-seven fifty," said a woman whom +three years of banting would still have left +too fat to get into it.</p> + +<p>"Twenty-eight," whispered the first +bidder.</p> + +<p>"Thirty," said John Sedyard.</p> + +<p>There was some other desultory bidding +but in a few moments Sedyard found himself +minus fifty-four dollars and plus a chiffon +gown and muff, a hat all drooping plumes +and a graceful female form, golden-haired, +bewitching, with a smile sweetly blended of +surprise, incipient idiocy and allure.</p> + +<p>"She's a queen all right, all right," the +sophisticated youth cheered him. "Git onto +them lovely wax-like hands. Say, you know +honest, on the level, she's worth the whole +price of admission."</p> + +<p>John, still chaperoned by this sagacious +and helpful youth, made his way to the +clerk's desk and proceeded to give his name +and address and request that his purchases +should be delivered in the morning.</p> + +<p>"Deliver nothin'," said the clerk pleasantly. +"Do you suppose we'd 'a let you +have the goods at that price if we could 'a +stored 'em overnight? Our lease is up," he +continued consulting his Ingersoll watch, +"in just fifteen minutes. In a quarter of +an hour we hand over the keys and what's +left of the fixtures to the landlord. He's +let the store for to-morrow to a Christmas-tree +ornaments merchant."</p> + +<p>"Then I suppose I'll have to get an expressman. +Where is the nearest, do you +know?"</p> + +<p>"Expressman!" exclaimed the sharp +youth. "Well, I guess the nearest would +be about Three Hundred and Fifty-second +Street and <i>then</i> he'd have a load and a jag. +No, sir, it's the faithful cab for yours. +There's a row of cabs just on the edge of the +square. I could go over and get you a +hansom."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said John, "I wish you +would." But a glance at his languishing +companion made him add, "I guess you had +better make it a four-wheeler. Hansom-riding +would be pretty cold for a lady without +a coat."</p> + +<p>"All right," said the sharp youth. "You +bring her out on the sidewalk and I'll get the +hurry-up wagon. Say!" he halted to suggest, +"you know what you'll look like, don't +you?—riding around with that smile. When +the lights flush you, you'll look just like a +bridal party from Hoboken."</p> + +<p>Leaving this word of comfort behind him, +he proceeded to imperil his life among trolley +cars and traffic, while John engaged the lady +and urged her to motion.</p> + +<p>He discovered that, supported at the waistline, +she could be wheeled very nicely. He +forced the muff over her upraised right hand, +so that it somewhat concealed her face, and +through an aisle respectfully cleared by the +onlookers he led her to the open air. There +he propped her against the show-window +and turned in search of the cab and his new +friend. In doing so he came face to face with +an old one.</p> + +<p>"Why, hello John!" said Frederick Trevor, +a man who had an office in his building +and an interest in his sister. "Who +would have thought of meeting you +here?"</p> + +<p>"Or you," retorted John. "But since +you are here, you can help me in a little +difficulty."</p> + +<p>"Not now, old chap," said Frederick, +"I'm in a bit of a hurry. See you about it +to-morrow. Well, so long. Don't let me +keep you from your friend."</p> + +<p>"Friend!" stormed John and then following +the directions of Trevor's eyes, he descried +a blue-clad, golden-haired young lady lolling +against the window, trying with a giant chiffon +muff to smother a fit of hilarious laughter. +One arched and smiling eye showed above +the muff and the whole figure was instinct +with Bacchanalian mirth. "Why that's," +he began to explain, but young Trevor had +vanished into the crowd.</p> + +<p>Presently the cab with the smart youth +inside drew up to the curb and Sedyard, with +a new self-consciousness, put his arm around +the blue figure and trundled her across the +sidewalk. The cabman threw his rug across +his horse's quarters and lumbered down to +assist at the embarkation of so fair a passenger. +The smart youth held the door encouragingly +open and John proceeded, with +much more strength than he had expected +to use, to heave the passenger aboard.</p> + +<p>Even these preliminaries had attracted the +nucleus of a crowd and the smart youth grew +restive.</p> + +<p>"Aw, say Maudie," he urged when the +lady stuck rigid catty-cornerwise across the +cab with her blue feathers pressed against +the roof in one corner, and her bird-cage +skirt arrangement protruding beyond the +door-sill. "Aw, say Maudie, set down, why +don't you, and take your Trilbys in. This +gent is going to take you carriage riding."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with her anyway," +demanded the cabman. "Don't she know +how to set in a carriage?"</p> + +<p>"No, she doesn't, she's only a wax figure," +said John, "but I bought her and now I'm +determined to take her home. She'd better +go up on the box with you."</p> + +<p>"What! her?" demanded the outraged +Jehu. "Say, what do you take me for anyway? +Do you suppose I ain't got no friends +just 'cause I drive a cab? Why! I wouldn't +drive up Broadway with them goo-goo eyes +settin' beside me, not for nothing you could +offer, I wouldn't."</p> + +<p>By this time the crowd had reached very +respectable proportions although there was +nothing to see except the end of a blue gown +hanging out of the cab's open door. The +sharp youth, the cabman and John took turns +in trying to adjust the lady to her environment. +The rigidity and fragility of her arms +and head made this very difficult, and presently +there rolled upon the scene a policeman, +large, Irish and chivalrous. It took Patrolman +McDonogh but a second, but one glance +at the tableaux and one whisper from the +crowd to understand that a kidnapping +atrocity was in progress.</p> + +<p>With wrath in his eye, he shouldered aside +Sedyard and the cabman, grabbed the smart +youth, whose turn at persuasion was then +on, and threw him into the face of the crowd.</p> + +<p>"Oh! but you're the villyans," he admonished +them, and then addressed the captive +maid in reassuring tones.</p> + +<p>"You're all right, Miss, now. You're no +longer defenceless in this wicked city. The +arrum of the law is around you," he cried, +encircling her waist with that substantial +member. "You're safe at last, come here +to me out of that."</p> + +<p>"Oh! noble, noble man," cried an emotional +woman in the crowd. "If all officers +were like you!"</p> + +<p>Heartened by these words the noble, noble +man exerted the arm of the law and plucked +the maiden out of the cab amid great excitement +and applause. But above the general +murmur the shrill voice of the sharp +youth rent the air:</p> + +<p>"Fathead," he cried, "you've broke her +neck. Can't you see how her head's goin' +round and round?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ill-129" id= "ill-129"></a> +<img src="images/ill-129.png" +alt="THE CHANGELESS SMILE AND THE DROOPING PLUMES MADE THREE COMPLETE +REVOLUTIONS AND NESTLED CONFIDINGLY UPON THE SHOULDER OF THE LAW." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption"><i>THE CHANGELESS SMILE AND THE DROOPING PLUMES MADE THREE COMPLETE +REVOLUTIONS AND NESTLED CONFIDINGLY UPON THE SHOULDER OF THE LAW.</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<p>At this the emotional woman dropped to +the sidewalk. "Lady fainted here, officer," +cried a gentleman. But the noble, noble +officer had no time for faints, and the lady +was obliged to revive with only the assistance +of the cold stones and curiosity.</p> + +<p>For the shrill voice had spoken truth. +Something had given away in Maudie's mysterious +anatomy; the fair head, the changeless +smile and the drooping plumes made +three complete revolutions and nestled confidingly +upon the shoulder of the Law.</p> + +<p>"Here, none o' that," yelled Patrolman +McDonogh quite reversing his earlier diagnosis +of the situation. "None of your flim-flams, +if you please. You go quiet and +paceable with this gentleman. A little ride +in the air is what you need."</p> + +<p>"That's right, officer," Sedyard interrupted. +"That's how to talk to her. I +can't do a thing with her."</p> + +<p>"Brute!" cried the emotional woman now +happily restored. "It's officers like him that +disgraces the force."</p> + +<p>Patrolman McDonogh turned to identify +this blasphemer and Maudie's head, deprived +of its support, made another revolution and +then dropped coyly to her left shoulder. +She looked so unspeakable in that attitude +that the cabman felt called upon to offer a +little professional advice:</p> + +<p>"She needs a checkrein," he declared, "an' +she needs it bad," a remark which so incensed +Patrolman McDonogh that Sedyard +decided to explain:</p> + +<p>"Just disperse those people, will you," +said he, "I want to talk to you."</p> + +<p>The sharp youth relieved the officer of law +of his fair burden and posed her in a natural +attitude of waiting beside the cab. McDonogh +cleared the sidewalk and hearkened +to Sedyard's tale.</p> + +<p>"So you see," said John in conclusion, +"what I'm up against. I really didn't want +the dummy when I bought it and you can bet +I'm tired of it now. What I wanted was the +clothes, and I guess the thing for me to do +is just to take them in the cab and leave the +figure here."</p> + +<p>"What!" thundered McDonogh. "You're +going to leave a dummy without her clothes +here on my beat? Not if I see ye first, ye +ain't, and if ye try it on I'll run ye in."</p> + +<p>"Say! I'll tell you what you want," piped +up the still buoyant, smart youth. "You +need one of them open taxicabs.</p> + +<p>"He needs a hearse," corrected the disgruntled +cabman. "Somethin' she can lay +down in comfortable an' take in the sights +through the windows."</p> + +<p>"Now, he needs a taxi. He can leave her +stand in the back all right, but I guess," he +warned John, "you'll have to sit in with her +and hold her head on."</p> + +<p>And thus it was that Maudie left the scene. +She left, too, the smart youth, the cabman +and the noble, noble officer. And as the +taxi bumped over the trolley tracks she, +despite all Sedyard's efforts, turned her head +and smiled out at them straight over her +near-princesse back.</p> + +<p>"Gee!" said the smart youth, "ain't she +the friendliest bunch of calico."</p> + +<p>"This case," said the noble Patrolman +McDonogh with unpunctual inspiration, +"had ought to be looked into by rights."</p> + +<p>"Chauffeur," said John Sedyard to the +shadowy form before him, "just pick out the +darkest streets, will you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered the chauffeur looking +up into the bland smile and the outstretched +hand above him. "I'll make it if +I can but if we get stopped, don't blame +me."</p> + +<p>A year later, or so it seemed to John Sedyard, +the taxicab, panting with indignation +at the insults and interferences to which it +had been subjected, turned into Sedyard's +eminently respectable block and drew up +before his eminently handsome house.</p> + +<p>He paid and propitiated the chauffeur, +took his lovely burden in his arms and staggered +up the steps with the half regretful +feeling of one who steps out of the country +of adventure back to prosaic things. He +found his latchkey, opened his door and drew +Maudie into the hall. And on the landing +half-way up the stairs stood his sister Edith, +evidently the bearer of some pleasant tidings.</p> + +<p>Maudie's smile flashed up at her from +John's shoulder. Edith stared, stiffened, +and retraced her steps. John wheeled the +figure into the reception-room and thus addressed +it:</p> + +<p>"Listen to me, you dumbhead. You may +think this adventure is over. Well, so did +I, but I tell you now it's only just beginning. +If you are not mighty careful you will be +wrecking a home. So keep your mouth +shut," he charged her, "and do nothing till +you hear from me!"</p> + +<p>Maudie smiled archly, coyly, confidentially, +and he went upstairs.</p> + +<p>In the sitting-room, he found gathered together +his mother, his sister and Dick Van +Plank, Mary's young brother and a student +at Columbia. John was supported through +Edith's first remark and the look with which +she accompanied it by the memory of her +goodness to Mary and by the anticipation +of the fun which Maudie might be made to +provide.</p> + +<p>"I wish to say, John," she began, before +any one else had time to speak, "that I've +said <i>nothing</i> to mother or Dick, and I think +it would be better if you didn't. I can +attend to the case if you leave it to me."</p> + +<p>"Like you," said John shortly. "Who +told you she is a 'case.' Mother," he went +on addressing that gentle knitter by the fire, +"I want you to come downstairs."</p> + +<p>"She shall do nothing of the kind!" cried +Edith, and as Mrs. Sedyard looked interrogatively +from one to another of her children, +her daughter swept on. "John must be +crazy, I saw him come in with a—a person—who +never ought to be in a house like this."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know why not?" stormed +John. "You don't know a thing about her. +<i>I</i> don't know much for that matter, but +when I came across her down on Union +Square, just turned out of a shop where she +had been working, mother, I made up my +mind that I would bring her right straight +home, and that Edith would be decent to +her. You can see that Edith does not intend +to be."</p> + +<p>"But my dear boy," faltered Mrs. Sedyard, +"was not that a very reckless thing to +do? I know of an institution where you +could send her."</p> + +<p>"Oh! yes, yes," said John. "And I suppose +I might have handed her over to a +policeman," he added, thinking of his attempt +in this direction, "but I didn't. The +sight of her so gentle and uncomplaining in +that awful situation at this time of general +rejoicing was too much for me."</p> + +<p>He felt this to be so fine a flight and its +effect upon Dick was so remarkable, that he +went on in a voice, as his mother always remembered, +"that positively trembled at +times."</p> + +<p>"How was I, a man strong and well-dowered, +to pass heartlessly by like the Good +Samaritan—"</p> + +<p>"There's something wrong with that," +Dick interposed.</p> + +<p>But John was not to be deflected. "What, +mother, would you have thought of your son +if he left that beautiful figure—for she is +beautiful—"</p> + +<p>"You don't say," said Dick.</p> + +<p>"To be buffeted by the waves of 'dead +man's curve?'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, how awful!" murmured the old lady. +"How <i>perfectly</i> dreadful."</p> + +<p>It was at this point that Dick Van Plank +unostentatiously left the room.</p> + +<p>"But I didn't do it, mother," cried John, +thumping his chest and anxious to make his +full effect before the return of an enlightened +and possibly enlightening Dick. "No, I +thought of this big house, with only us three +in it, and I said 'I'll bring her home.' Edith +will love her. Edith will give her friendship, +advice, guidance. She will even give +her something to wear instead of the unsuitable +things she has on. And what do I +find?" He paused and looked around dramatically +and warningly as Dick, with a +beautified grin, returned. "Does Edith open +her heart to her? No. Does Edith open +her arms to her? No. All that Edith opens +to her is the door which leads—who can tell +where, whither?"</p> + +<p>"I can tell," said Dick, "it leads +right straight to my little diggings. +If Edith throws her out, I'll take her +in."</p> + +<p>"Oh, noble, noble man," ejaculated John +remembering the emotional woman, "but +ah! that must not be. I took her hand in +mine—by the way, did I tell you, she has +beautiful little hands, not at all what I should +have expected."</p> + +<p>"You did not," said Dick. "And now +that'll be about all from you. You're just +about through."</p> + +<p>"My opinion is," said Edith darkly, "that +you are both either crazy or worse."</p> + +<p>"Go down and see her for yourself," +urged Dick, "so quiet, so reserved—hush! +hark! she's coming up. Now be nice to her +whatever you feel! I'll be taking her away in +a minute or two."</p> + +<p>But it was Mary Van Plank who came in. +Mary, all blooming and glowing from the +cold.</p> + +<p>"Who's that in the reception-room?" she +asked when the greetings were over and she +was warming her slender hands before the +fire. "She's the prettiest dear. She was +standing at the window and she smiled so +sweetly at me as I came up the steps."</p> + +<p>John looked at Dick.</p> + +<p>"Yes," admitted that unabashed delinquent, +"I left her at the window when I +came up."</p> + +<p>"Alas! poor child," sighed John, looking +out into the night. "She'll be there soon."</p> + +<p>"What is she going out for at this time?" +Mary demanded. "I quite thought that she, +too, had come to dinner. Who is she, Mrs. +Sedyard?"</p> + +<p>Upon her mother's helpless silence, Edith +broke in with the story as she felt she knew +it. Union Square, the discharged shopgirl, +John's quixotic conduct. And John watched +Mary with a lover's eye. He had not intended +that she should be involved. A moment +of her displeasure, even upon mistaken +grounds, was no part of his idea of a +joke.</p> + +<p>But there was no displeasure in Mary's +lovely face.</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, he brought her home," +she echoed Edith's indignant peroration. +"What else could he do?"</p> + +<p>"Well, for one thing he could have taken +her to the Margaret Louise Home, that +branch of the Y.W.C.A., on Sixteenth +Street, only a few blocks from where he +found her."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Edith," Mary remonstrated. "The +Maggie Lou! And you know they would not +admit her. Who would take a friendless girl +to any sort of an institution at this season? +John couldn't have done it! I think he's an +old dear to bring her right straight home. +Let's go down and talk to her. She must be +wondering why we all leave her so long +alone."</p> + +<p>"No, you don't," said Dick. "Edith +didn't tell you the whole story. The girl," +and he drew himself up to a dignity based on +John's, "is under <i>my</i> protection."</p> + +<p>"Your protection!" repeated his amazed +sister.</p> + +<p>"Precisely. <i>My</i> protection. Edith declines +to receive this helpless child. Therefore, +I have offered her the shelter of my +roof."</p> + +<p>"His roof," explained Mary to Mrs. Sedyard, +"is the floor of the hall bedroom above +his. It measures about nine by six. So the +thing to do, since of course, Dick is only +talking nonsense, is to let me take the girl +around to the studio until John and I can +plan an uninstitutional future for her."</p> + +<p>"You may do just as you please," said +Edith coldly. "I have given my opinion as +to what should be done with her. It has +been considered, by persons more experienced +than you, the opinion of an expert. +Girls of her history and standards are not +desirable inmates for well-ordered homes. +I shall have nothing to do with her."</p> + +<p>"How about it, Mary?" asked her brother. +"Are you willing to risk her in the high-art +atmosphere of the studio?"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad to," Mary answered. "It's +not often that one gets a chance of being a +little useful, and doesn't the Christmas Carol +say, 'Good will to men.' I'm going down to +see her now."</p> + +<p>"You're a darling," cried John. "True +blue right through. Now, we'll all go down +and arrange the transfer. But, first, I want +to give Edith one more chance. Do you +finally and unreservedly—"</p> + +<p>"I do," said Edith promptly.</p> + +<p>"And you, Mary, are you sure of yourself? +Suppose that, when you see her, you +change your mind?"</p> + +<p>"I've given my word,", she answered. +"I promise to take her."</p> + +<p>"That's all I want," said John.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"How could you, John? How could you?" +sobbed Edith. "How could you tell +us—?"</p> + +<p>"I told you nothing but the absolute +truth. I meant her to be your Christmas +present, but you have resigned her 'with all +her works and all her pomps' to Mary."</p> + +<p>"Ah! but if I refuse to take her from +Edith?" Mary suggested.</p> + +<p>"Then I get her," answered Dick blithely, +"and she'd be safer with me. I know what +you two girls are thinking of. You are going +to borrow her clothes and make a Cinderella +of her. They are what you care about. +But I love her for herself, her useless hands, +her golden hair, her lovely smile—well, no, +I guess we'll cut out the smile," he corrected +when Maudie, agitated by the appraising +hands of the two girls, swung her head completely +round and beamed impartially upon +the whole assembly. "It don't look just +sincere to me."</p> + +<p>But there was no insincerity about Maudie. +She was just as sweet-tempered as she looked. +Uncomplainingly, she allowed herself to be +despoiled of her finery and wrapped in a +sheet while Mary wriggled ecstatically in +the heavenly blue dress, pinned the plumed +hat on her own bright head and threw the +muff into a corner of the darkened drawing-room +when she found that it interfered with +the free expression of her gratitude to John.</p> + +<p>And some months later when the trousseau +was in progress, the once despised +Christmas guest, now a member in good-standing +of Mary's household, did tireless +service, smilingly, in the sewing-room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="WHO_IS_SYLVIAquot" id="WHO_IS_SYLVIAquot"></a>"WHO IS SYLVIA?"</h2> + + +<p>"Lemon, I think," said Miss Knowles, in +defiance of the knowledge, born of +many afternoons, that he preferred +cream. She took a keen and mischievous +pleasure in annoying this hot-tempered young +man, and she generally succeeded. But to-day +he was not to be diverted from the purpose +which, at the very moment of his entrance, +she had divined.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thank you," he answered. "I'll +not have any tea. I came in only for a +moment to tell you that I'm going to be +married."</p> + +<p>"Again?" she asked calmly, as though he +had predicted a slight fall of snow. But +her calm did not communicate itself to him.</p> + +<p>"Again?" he repeated hotly. "What do +you mean by 'again?'"</p> + +<p>"Now, Jimmie," she remonstrated, as she +settled herself more comfortably among her +pillows and centered all her apparent attention +upon a fragile cup and a small but +troublesome sandwich, "don't be savage. I +only mean that you always tell me so when +you find an opportunity. That you even +manufacture opportunities—some of them +out of most unlikely material. A chance +meeting in a cross-town car; an especially +<i>forte</i> place in an opera; the moment when a +bishop is saying grace or a host telling his +favorite story. And yet you expect me to +be surprised to hear it now! Here in my own +deserted drawing-room with the fire lighted +and the lamps turned low. You forget that +one is allowed to remember."</p> + +<p>"You allow yourself to forget when you +choose and to remember when you wish: +You are—"</p> + +<p>"And to whom are you going to be +married? To the same girl? Do you +know, I think she is not worthy of you?"</p> + +<p>"She is not," he acquiesced, and she, for +a passing moment, seemed disconcerted. +"Yet she is," he continued, cheered by this +slight triumph, "the most persistent, industrious +and deserving of all the young persons +who, attracted by my great position and vast +wealth, are pressing themselves or being +pressed by designing relatives upon my +notice."</p> + +<p>His hostess laughed softly.</p> + +<p>"Make allowances for them," she pleaded. +"You know very few men can rival your +advantages. The sixth son of a retired yet +respectable stock broker, and an income of +four thousand a year derived from a small but +increasing—shall we say increasing—?"</p> + +<p>"Diminishing; incredible as it may seem, +diminishing."</p> + +<p>"From a small but diminishing law practice. +And with these you must mention +your greatest charm."</p> + +<p>"Which is?"</p> + +<p>"Your humility, your modesty, your lack +of self-assertiveness. Do you think she +recognizes that? It is so difficult to fully +appreciate your humility."</p> + +<p>Jimmie grinned. "She's up to it," said +he. "She knows all about it. She's as +clever, as keen, as clear-sighted."</p> + +<p>"Is she, perhaps, pleasing to the eye?" +asked Miss Knowles idly. "Clever women +are often so—well, so—"</p> + +<p>Jimmie gazed at her across the little tea-table. +He filled his eyes with her. And, +since his heart was in his eyes, he filled that, +too. After a moment he made solemn +answer:</p> + +<p>"She is the most beautiful woman God +ever made."</p> + +<p>"Ah, now," said Miss Knowles, returning +her cup to its fellows and turning her face, +and her mind, more entirely to him, "now we +grow interesting. Describe her to me."</p> + +<p>"Again?" Jimmie plagiarized.</p> + +<p>"Yes, again. Tell me, what is she like?"</p> + +<p>"She is like," he began so deliberately +that his hostess, leaning forward, hung upon +his words, "she is exactly like—nothing." +The hostess sat back. "There was never +anything in the least like her. To begin +with, she is fair and young and slim. She +is tall enough, and small enough and her +eyes are gray and black and blue."</p> + +<p>"She sounds disreputable, your paragon."</p> + +<p>"And her eyes," he insisted, "are gray in +the sunlight, blue in the lamplight, and black +by the light of the moon."</p> + +<p>"And in the firelight?"</p> + +<p>He rose to kick the logs into a greater +brightness; and when he had studied her +glowing face until it glowed even more +brightly, he answered:</p> + +<p>"In the firelight they are—wonderful. +She has—did I tell you?—the whitest and +smallest of teeth."</p> + +<p>"They're so much worn this year," she +laughed, and wondered the while what evil +instinct tempted her to play this dangerous +game; why she could not refrain from peering +into the deeper places of his nature to see +if her image were still there and still supreme? +Why should she, almost involuntarily, work +to create and foster an emotion upon which +she set no store, which indeed, only amused +her in its milder manifestations and frightened +her when it grew intense? He showed +symptoms of unwelcome seriousness now, +but she would have none of it.</p> + +<p>"Go on," she urged. "Unless you give +her a few more features she will be like little +Red Riding Hood's grandmother."</p> + +<p>"And she has," he proceeded obediently, +"eyebrows and eyelashes—"</p> + +<p>"One might have guessed them."</p> + +<p>"—beyond the common, long and dark and +soft. The rest of her face is the only possible +setting for her eyes. It is perfection."</p> + +<p>"And is she gentle, womanly, tender? Is +she, I so often wonder, good enough to you?"</p> + +<p>"She treats me hundreds of times better +than I deserve."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't she rather swindle you? Doesn't +she let you squander your time?"—she +glanced at the clock—"your substance?"—she +bent to lay her cheek against the +violets at her breast—"your affection upon +her—?"</p> + +<p>"And how could she be kinder? And when +I marry her—"</p> + +<p>"And <i>if</i>," Miss Knowles amended.</p> + +<p>"There's no question about it," he retorted. +"She knows that I shall marry +her." Miss Knowles looked unconvinced. +"She knows that she will marry me." Miss +Knowles looked rebellious. "She knows that +I shall never marry anyone else." Miss +Knowles took that apparently for granted.</p> + +<p>"Dear boy!" said she.</p> + +<p>"That I have waited seven years for her."</p> + +<p>"Poor boy!" said she.</p> + +<p>"That I shall wait seven more for her."</p> + +<p>"Silly boy!" said she.</p> + +<p>"And so I stopped this afternoon to tell +her that I'm coming home to marry her in +two or three months."</p> + +<p>"Coming home?" she questioned with not +much interest. "Where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"To Japan on a little business trip. One +of the big houses wants to get some papers +and testimony and that sort of thing out of +a man who is living in a backwoods village +there for his health—and his liberty. None +of their own men can afford time to go. And +I got the chance, a very good one for me—but +I tire you."</p> + +<p>"No; oh, no," said Miss Knowles politely. +"You are very interesting."</p> + +<p>"Then you shouldn't fidget and yawn. +You lay yourself open to misinterpretation. +To continue: a very great chance for me. +The firm is a big firm, the case is a big case, +and it will be a great thing for me to be heard +of in connection with it."</p> + +<p>"Some nasty scandal, of course."</p> + +<p>"Not exactly. It is the Drewitt case. I +wonder if you heard anything about it."</p> + +<p>"For three months after the thing happened," +she assured him with a flattering +accession of interest, "I heard nothing about +anything else. Poor, dear father knew him, +to his cost, you know. I heard that there +was to be a new investigation and another +attempt at a settlement. And now you're +going to interview the man! And you're going +to Japan! Oh, the colossal luck of some +people! You will write to me—won't you?—as +soon as you see him, and tell me all about +him. How he looks, what he says, how he +justifies himself. O Jimmie, dear Jimmie, +you will surely write to me?"</p> + +<p>"Naturally," said Jimmie, and his thin, +young face looked happier than it had at +any other time since the beginning of this +conversation; happier than it had in many +preceding conversations with this very +unsatisfying but charming interlocutor. "I +always do. Sometimes when your mood +has been particularly, well, unreceptive, I +have thought of going away so that I might +write to you. Perhaps I could write more +convincingly than I can talk." A cheering +condition of things for a lawyer, he reflected.</p> + +<p>"But this is a different and much more +particular thing," she insisted with a cruelty +of which her interest made her unconscious. +"I have a sort of a right to know on account +of poor, dear father. I shall make a list of +questions and you will answer them fully, +won't you? Then I shall be the only woman +in New York to know the true inwardness +of the Drewitt affair. When do you start?"</p> + +<p>"To-morrow morning. I shall be away +for perhaps three months, and then," +doggedly, "then I'm coming home to be married. +I came in to tell you."</p> + +<p>"And if I don't quite believe you?"</p> + +<p>"I shall postpone the ceremony. Shall we +say indefinitely, some time in the summer?"</p> + +<p>"Not even then. Never, I think. That +troublesome girl is beginning—she feels that +she ought to tell you—"</p> + +<p>"That there is another 'another'?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I fear so."</p> + +<p>"Who will be in town for the next three +months?"</p> + +<p>"Again, I fear so."</p> + +<p>"Then that's all right," said the optimistic +Jimmie. "There never was a man—save +one, oh, lady mine—who could, for three +months, avoid boring you. When he holds +forth upon every subject under the sun and +stars you will think longingly of me and of +the endless variety of my one topic, 'I'm +going to marry you.'"</p> + +<p>"But if he should make it his?"</p> + +<p>"I defy him to do it. There is no guise in +which he could clothe the idea which would +not remind you instantly of me. If he should +be poetical: well, so was I when we were +twenty-one. If he should give you gifts of +great price: well, so did I in those Halcyon +days when I had an allowance from my +Governor and toiled not. If his is an outdoor +wooing, you will inevitably remember +that I taught you to ride, to skate, to drive, +and to play golf. If he should attack you +musically, you will be surprised at the number +of operas we've heard together and of +duets we've sung together. And so, in the +words of my friend, fellow-sufferer, and name-sake, +Mr. Yellowplush, 'You'll still remember +Jeames.'"</p> + +<p>"That's nonsense!" cried Miss Knowles. +"I've tried to be fond of you—I <i>am</i> fond of +you and accustomed to you. The fatal +point is that I am accustomed to you. +You say you never bore me. Well, you +don't. And that other men do. Well, +you're right. But people don't marry people +simply because they don't bore each +other."</p> + +<p>"Your meaning is clearer than your words +and much more correct. This really essential +consideration is, alas, frequently not +considered."</p> + +<p>"People should marry," said Miss Knowles +with a sort of consecrated earnestness—the +most deadly of all the practiced phases of +her coquetry—"for love. Now, I'm not in +love with you. If I were, the very idea of +your going away would make me miserable. +And do I seem miserable? Am I lovelorn? +Look at me carefully and tell the truth."</p> + +<p>Jimmie obeyed, and the contemplation of +his hostess seemed to depress him.</p> + +<p>"No," he agreed gloomily, "you seem to +bear up. No one, looking at your face, could +guess that your heart was in—was in—" +Jimmie halted, vainly searching for the poetical +word. Miss Knowles supplied it.</p> + +<p>"In torn and bleeding fragments," she +supplemented. "No, Jimmie, I'm sorry. +You've laid siege to it in every known +way, and yet there's not a feather out of +it."</p> + +<p>"There are two ways," Jimmie pondered +audibly, "in which I have not wooed you. +One is <i>à la</i> cave dweller. I might knock +you on the head with a knobby club and +drag you to my lair. But since my lair is +some blocks away, and since those blocks +are studded with the interested public and +the uninterested police, the cave dweller's +method will not serve. There remains one +other. I stand before you, so; I take your +hand, so; I may even have to kiss it, so. +And I say: 'Dear one, I want you. Every +hour of my life I want you. I want you to +take care of, to work for, to be proud of. I +want you to let me teach you what life +means. I want you for my dearest friend, +for my everlasting sweetheart, for my wife.' +And when I've said it, I kiss your hand, so; +gently, once again, and wait for your +answer."</p> + +<p>"Dear boy," said she with an unsteady +little laugh, for—as always—she shrank from +his earnestness after she had deliberately +roused it, "I wish you wouldn't talk like that. +You make me feel so shallow-pated and so +small. I don't want to talk about life and +knowledge and love. And I don't want any +husband at all. What makes you so tragic +this afternoon? You're spoiling our last hour +together. Come, be reasonable. Tell me +what you think of Drewitt. Why do you +suppose he did it? Did his wife and daughter +know?"</p> + +<p>"You're quite sure about the other thing?"</p> + +<p>"Unalterably sure. And, Jimmie, dear +old Jimmie, there are two things I want you +to do for me. The first is, to abandon forever +and forever this 'one topic' of which, +you are so proud. Will you?"</p> + +<p>"I will not," said Jimmie.</p> + +<p>"And the second is: to fall in love with a +girl on the boat. There is always a girl on +a boat. Will you?"</p> + +<p>"I will," said Jimmie promptly. "It +would be just what you deserve."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Miss Knowles bore the absence of her most +persistent and accustomed suitor with a +fortitude not predicted by that self-confident +young man. She danced and drove, lunched +and dined, rode and flirted with undiminished +zest, bringing, each day, new energy +and determination to the task of enjoying +herself.</p> + +<p>The enjoyment of her neighbors seemed +less important. She preferred that her part +in the cotillion should be observed by a frieze +of unculled wall-flowers. A drive was always +pleasanter if it were preceded by a +skirmish with her mother in which Miss +Knowles should come off victorious with the +victoria, while Mrs. Knowles accepted the +<i>coup de grâce</i> and the coupé. A flirtation—if +her languid, seeming innocent monopoly +of a man's time and thoughts could be called +by so gross a name—was more satisfying if +it implied the breaking of vows and hearts +and the mad jealousy of some less gifted +sister; if it had, like a Russian folk song, a +sob and a wail running through it.</p> + +<p>Jimmie had never approved of these +amusements and had never hesitated to express +his opinion of them in terms which were +intelligible even to her vanity. From the +days when they had played together in the +park she had dreaded his honesty and feared +his judgments. "You're such a poacher, +Sylvia," he told her once, "such an inveterate, +diabolical Fly-by-Night, Will-o'-the-Wisp +poacher. I sometimes think you'd +condescend to take a shot at me if you didn't +know that I'm fair game. But you like to +kill two birds with one stone; smash two +hearts with one smile."</p> + +<p>During the weeks immediately following +the departure of her mentor she devoted herself +whole-heartedly to her favorite form of +sport. Besides her unscrupulousness she was +armed with her grandfather's name, the +riches of her dead father, her own beauty, +and a mind capable of much better things. +And, since Jimmie's presence would have +seriously interfered with the pleasures of +the chase, she was rather glad than otherwise +that he was not there to see—and +comment.</p> + +<p>Her mother bore his absence with a like +stoicism. That astute matron had long and +silently deprecated the regularity with which +her Louis Quinze had groaned beneath one +hundred and eighty pounds of ineligibility, +the frequency with which a tall troup horse +of spectacular gait and snortings could be +descried beside her daughter's English hunter +in the park, the strange chain of coincidence +by which at theater, house party, dinner, or +even church, Jimmie smiling and unabashed, +would find his way to her daughter's side and +monopolize her daughter's attention.</p> + +<p>In the excitement of the first stages of one +of her expeditions into another's territory, +Jimmie's first letter arrived. It was mailed +at Honolulu, and consisted obediently of +the cryptic statement: "There is no girl on +the boat. She is a widow, but lots of fun." +And it changed the character of the invasion +from a harmless survey of the land to a determined +attack upon its fortresses. And so +Gilbert Stevenson, millionaire dock owner, +veteran of many seasons and more campaigns, +found himself engaged to Miss Sylvia +Knowles just when, after a long and careful +courtship, he had decided to bestow his hand +and name upon the daughter of the retired +senior partner of his firm: "that dear little +girl of old Marvin's," as he described the +lady of his choice, "his only child and a good +child, too." He bore his surprise and honors +with a courteous pomposity. Miss +Knowles bore the situation with restraint +and decorum. But that "dear little girl of +old Marvin's" could not bring herself to bear +it at all and wept away her modest claims +to prettiness and spirit in one desolate month.</p> + +<p>Like many a humbler poacher, Sylvia +Knowles found an embarrassment in disposing +of her victims after she had bagged +them, and Mr. Gilbert Stevenson was peculiarly +difficult in this regard. She did not +want to keep him. In fact, the engagement +upon which she was enduring congratulations +had been as surprising to her as to her +fiancé. And the methodical manifestations +of his regard contrasted wearyingly with the +erratic events in another friendship in which +nothing was to be counted upon except the +unaccountable. So that when vanquished +suitors withdrew discomfited and returned +to renew an earlier allegiance or to swear a +new one; when "that good child of old Marvin's" +had withdrawn her pitiful little face +and her disappointment into the remote +fastness of settlement work; when her mother +resigned all claims upon the victoria and +loudly affirmed her preference for the brougham, +then things in general—and Mr. Stevenson +in particular—began to bore Miss +Knowles, and she began to look forward, +with an emotion which would have surprised +her betrothed, to foreign mails and +letters. She considerately spared Mr. Stevenson +this disquieting intelligence, having +found him in matters of honor and rectitude +as archaic and as fastidious as Jimmie himself. +"Has a nasty suspicious mind," she +reflected, "and a nasty jealous disposition. +I wonder if he will expect me to give up all +my friends when I marry him."</p> + +<p>Yet even Mr. Stevenson could have found +no cause for jealousy in the matter of the +letters. He might have objected to their +being written at all, but beyond that they +were innocuous. For all the personality they +contained they might have been transcripts +of Jimmie's reports to his firm. He clung +doggedly to his prescribed topics, and he +could not have devised a surer method of +arousing the curiosity and the interest of +this spoiled young person. She spent hours, +which should have been devoted to the contemplation +of approaching bliss, in reading +between the prosaic lines, in searching for +sentiment in a catalogue of railway stations, +for tenderness in description of eccentric +<i>tables d'hôte</i>. Finding no trace of his old +gallantry in all the closely written pages, she +attributed its absence to obedience and accepted +it as the higher tribute to her power. +She was forced to judge her lover's longing +by the quantity rather than by the ardor of +his words, and to detect the yearning of a +true lover's heart through such effectual +disguise as:</p> + +<p>"Drewitt is a fine old chap; as placid and +as bright as this country and a great deal +more so than anyone you'll see in the windows +of the Union League Club. He received +me so cordially that I felt awkward +about introducing the object of my visit, +but when I had admired everything in sight +from the mountains in the distance to the +rug I was sitting on, I finally faced the situation +and did it.</p> + +<p>"'Dear me,' said he, 'are those directors +still troubling themselves about their transaction +with me?' I admitted apologetically +that they were; that their books refused +to close over the gap left by the vanishing +of $50,000, and that he was earnestly +requested to return to New York and to lend +his acknowledged business acumen, etc., etc. +He never turned a hair. Said they—and I—were +very kind. Nothing could give him +greater pleasure. But the ladies preferred +Japan. Therefore he, etc., etc., etc. But +he would be delighted to explain the matter +fully to me; to supply me with all the figures +and information I desired. (And that, of +course, is as much as I am expected to bring +back.) But he would have to postpone his +return until—and you should have seen the +whimsical, quizzical old eye of his—until +the nations would agree upon new extradition +treaties. Then, of course, etc., etc., etc. +Meanwhile, as there was no immediate urgency +about the matter, as he hoped that I +would stay with them for as long a time as +I cared to arrange, he would suggest that we +should join Mrs. Drewitt in the garden. +She would welcome news of our American +friends. 'I need not ask you,' he added as +we went out through the wall-like people in +a dream or a fairy tale, to be discreet and +casual in your conversation with the ladies. +My daughter is away this week visiting an +old friend of hers who is married to a missionary +in a neighboring village. She knows +the reason for our being here. My wife does +not. It need not be discussed with either of +them.' I should think not!</p> + +<p>"And there in the garden was Mrs. Drewitt, +a fat little old lady in a flaming kimono +and spectacles. She wears her hair as your +Aunt Matilda does, stuck to her forehead in +scrolls. 'Water curls,' I think, is the technical +term. She was holding the head of a +dejected marigold while a native propped it +up with a stick. It seemed she remembered +my mother, and we spent a delightful tea-time +in a garden which was a part of the +same dream as the phantom wall. Then the +old gentleman led me off by myself and +wanted to hear all about Broadway. +Whether Oscar was still at the Waldorf. +Whether Fields and Weber made 'a good +thing of it' apart. Then the old lady led me +off by myself and wanted to know who was +now the pastor of the Brick Church, and what +was Maude Adam's latest play, and whether +skirts were worn long or short in the street.</p> + +<p>"'You see this dress,' she said, 'is not +really made for a woman of my age. In +fact, in this country all the bright and pretty +colors are worn by the waitresses. Geishas +they call them. But Mr. Drewitt always +liked bright colors, and red is very becoming +to me.' She was such a wistful, pathetic, +and incongruous little figure that I said something +about hoping that she would soon be +in New York again. 'But,' she said, 'Mr. +Drewitt cannot leave his work here. Didn't +you know that he is stationed here to report +the changes of the weather to Washington? +It is very important, and we can't go home +until he is recalled. And, besides,'" she went +on with a half sob in her voice and a look in +her eyes that made her seem as young as her +own daughter, 'and, besides, I would much +rather be here. In New York my husband +was too busy. He had so many calls upon +his time, so many people to meet, and so +many places to go, that sometimes I hardly +felt as though he belonged to me. But now +for days and weeks at a time we are together. +And he has no business worries. And his +salary,' she brightened up to tell me, 'is +almost as good here as it used to be in the +Trust Company for <i>much</i> harder work.' She's +a sweet old thing—must have been quite a +beauty once—and I wish you could see old +Drewitt's manner with her—so courteous and +affectionate—and hers with him—so adoring +and confiding. It's wonderful!</p> + +<p>"It will take some time to get all the information +I want from the old man. He has +the papers and he is quite willing to explain +everything, but we spend the larger +part of every day in entertaining the old +lady and keeping her happy and unsuspicious."</p> + +<p>A series of such letters covering several +placid weeks reduced Miss Knowles to a condition +of moodiness and abstraction which +all the resources at her command failed to +dissipate. In vain were the practical blandishments +of Mr. Stevenson; in vain her +mother's shopping triumphs; in vain were +dinners given in her honor and receptions at +which she reigned supreme. None of her +other experiments had resulted in an engagement—an +immunity which she now humbly +attributed to the watchful Jimmie—and she +was dismayed at the determined and matter-of-fact +way in which she was called upon to +fulfil her promise. "If only Jimmie were at +home!" she realized, "he would save me." +This was when the happy day was yet a great +way off. "If only Jimmie would come home," +she wailed as the weeks grew to months, and +even the comfort of his letters failed her. +For two months there had been no news of +him, and Fate—and Mr. Stevenson—were +very near when, at last, she heard from him +again. He sent a telegram nearly as brief +as his first letter.</p> + +<p>"I am coming home," it announced, "I +am coming home, and I'm going to be +married."</p> + +<p>And the simple little words, waited for so +long, remembered so clearly, and coming, at +last, so late, did what all Jimmie's more eloquent +pleadings had failed to do.</p> + +<p>Sylvia Knowles, a creature made of vanities, +realized that she loved better than all +her other vanities her place in this one man's +regard. No contemplation of Mr. Stevenson's +estate on the Hudson, his shooting lodge on +a Scottish moor, his English abbey, and his +Italian villa could nerve her for the first +meeting with Jimmie, could fortify her against +his first laughing repetition:</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> married to Gilbert Stevenson," or +his later scornful, "You <i>married</i> to Gilbert +Stevenson."</p> + +<p>So she dismissed Mr. Stevenson with as +little feeling as she had annexed him, and +sought comfort in the knowledge that her +mother was furious, her own fortune ample, +and that marrying for love was a graceful, +becoming pose and an unusual thing to do.</p> + +<p>Her rejected suitor bore his disappointment +as correctly as he had borne his joy. +He stormed the special center of philanthropy +in which old Marvin's little girl had buried +herself, and she was most incorrectly but +refreshingly glad to see him. She destroyed +forever his poise and his pride in it when she +sat upon his unaccustomed knee, rested her +tired head upon his immaculate shirt front, +and wept for very happiness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"And I remember," said Miss Knowles, +"that you always take cream."</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thank you," Jimmie corrected. +"Just plain unadulterated tea. I learned to +like it in Japan. But don't bother about it. +I haven't long to stay. I came in to tell +you—"</p> + +<p>"That you're going to be married."</p> + +<p>"How did you guess?"</p> + +<p>"You didn't leave me to guess. Your +telegram."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes!" quoth Jimmie. "I sent a +lot of them before I sailed. But in my +letters—"</p> + +<p>"You mentioned absolutely nothing but +that stupid old Drewitt affair. Never a +word of the places you saw, the people you +met, or even the people you missed. Nothing +of the customs, the girls, the clothes. +Nothing but that shuffling old Drewitt and +his stuffy old wife. Nothing about yourself."</p> + +<p>"Orders are orders," quoth Jimmie, "and +those were yours to me. I remember exactly +how it came about. We had been talking +personalities. I have an idea that I made +rather a fool of myself, and that you told me +so. Then you, wisely conjecturing that I +might write as foolishly as I had talked, made +out a list of subjects for my letters. My +name, I noted with some care, was not upon +that list."</p> + +<p>"Jimmie," said Miss Knowles, "I was cruel +and heartless that day. I've thought about +it often."</p> + +<p>"You've thought!" cried the genial Jimmie. +"How had you time to think? Where were +all those 'anothers'?"</p> + +<p>"There were none," lied Miss Knowles soulfully +with a disdainful backward glance toward +Mr. Stevenson. "For a time I thought +there was one. But whenever I thought of +that last talk of ours—you remember it, +don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. I told you I was going to be +married as soon as I came home. Well, and +so I am."</p> + +<p>"So you are. But I used to think that if +you hesitated to tell me; if you felt that I +might still be hard about it and unsympathetic; +if you decided to confide no more +in me—"</p> + +<p>"But you would be sure to know. +Even if I had not telegraphed I never +could have kept it a secret from you."</p> + +<p>"Not easily. I should have been, as you +observe, sure to know. Do you remember +how I always refused to believe you? It was +not until you were in that horrid Japan, +where all the women are supposed to be +beautiful—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Jimmie acquiesced. "It was when +I was in Japan."</p> + +<p>"It was then that it began to seem possible +that you would be married when you came +home. It was then that I began to realize +that I didn't deserve to be told of your plans. +For I had been a fool, Jimmie. You had been +a fool, too, but not in the way you think. +And so, if you will sit where I sat that horrid +day, we will begin that conversation all over +again and end it differently. The first speech +was yours. Do you remember it?"</p> + +<p>"But I'm going to be married," said Jimmie.</p> + +<p>"Good boy. He knows his lesson. And +now I say, 'To the most beautiful woman +in the world?'"</p> + +<p>"To the most beautiful woman God ever +made. The dearest, the most clever, the +most simple."</p> + +<p>"Simple," repeated Miss Knowles with some +natural surprise. "Did you say simple?"</p> + +<p>"Simple and jolly and unaffected. As true +and as bright as the stars. And I'm going to +marry her—"</p> + +<p>"Now this," Miss Knowles interjected, "is +where the difference comes. You are to sit +quite still and listen to me because a thing +like this—however long and carefully one +had thought it out—is difficult in the +saying. So, I stand here before you where I +can look at you; for four months are long; +and where you may, when I have quite +finished, kiss my hand again; for again four +months are long. And I begin thus: Jimmie, +you are going to be married—"</p> + +<p>"I told you first," cried Jimmie.</p> + +<p>"But I knew it first," she countered, "to +a woman who has learned to love you during +the past three months, but who could not do +it more utterly, more perfectly, if she had +practiced through all the years that you and +I have been friends."</p> + +<p>"So she says," Jimmie interrupted with +sudden heat. "So she says. God bless her!"</p> + +<p>"And, ah, <i>how</i> she is fond of you. 'Fond' +is a darling of a word. It keeps just enough +of its old 'foolish' meaning to be human. +Proud of you, glad of you, fond of you—I +think that this is, perhaps, the time for you +to kiss my hand."</p> + +<p>"You're a darling," he said as he obeyed. +"But what I can't understand—"</p> + +<p>"It's not your turn. You may talk after +I finish if I leave anything for you to say. +See, I go on: You are going to marry—"</p> + +<p>"The most beautiful woman in the world."</p> + +<p>"That reminds me. What is she like? I've +not heard her described for ages."</p> + +<p>"Because there was no one in New York +who could do justice to her."</p> + +<p>"You are the knightliest of knights. Go +on. Describe her."</p> + +<p>"Well, she is neither very tall nor very +small. But the grace of her, the young, surpassing +grace of her, makes you know as soon +as your eyes have rested on her that her +height, whatever it chances to be, is the perfect +height for a woman. And then there is +the noble heart of her. What other daughter +would have buried herself, as she has done, +in a little mountain village—"</p> + +<p>Miss Knowles looked quickly about the +luxurious room, then out upon the busy +avenue, then back at him, suspecting raillery. +But he was staring straight through her; +straight into the land of visions. His eyes +never wavered when she moved slowly out +of their range and sat, huddled and white-faced, +in the corner of a big chair.</p> + +<p>"And all," Jimmie went on, "so bravely, +so cheerily, that it makes one's throat ache +to see. And one's heart hot to see. Then +there is the beauty of her. Her hair is dark, +her eyes are dark, but her skin is the fairest +in the world."</p> + +<p>Miss Knowles pushed back a loose lace cuff +and studied the arm it had hidden. <i>La reine +est morte</i>, she whispered, <i>morte, morte, morte</i>.</p> + +<p>"But what puzzles me,", said the genial +Jimmie, "is your knowing about it all. I +never wrote you a word of it, and as for +Sylvia—by the way, did you know that her +name, like yours, is Sylvia?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Miss Knowles, "I had even +guessed that her name would be Sylvia."</p> + +<p>"You're a wonderful woman," Jimmie protested. +"The most wonderful woman in the +world."</p> + +<p>"Except?"</p> + +<p>"Except, of course, Sylvia Drewitt."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," said Miss Knowles. "Yes, of +course."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_SPIRIT_OF_CECELIA_ANNE" id="THE_SPIRIT_OF_CECELIA_ANNE"></a>THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE</h2> + + +<p>"And all the rest and residue of my estate," +read the lawyer, his voice +growing more impressive as he +reached this most impressive clause, "I give +and bequeath to my beloved granddaughter +and godchild Cecelia Anne Hawtry for her +own use and benefit forever."</p> + +<p>The black-clothed relations whose faces +had been turned toward the front of the +long drawing-room now swung round toward +the back where a fair-haired little girl, her +hands spread guardian-wise round the new +black hat on her knees, lay asleep in her +father's arms. For old Mrs. Hawtry's "beloved +granddaughter Cecelia Anne" was not +yet too big to find solace in sleep when she +was tired and uninterested, being indeed but +nine years old and exceedingly small of +stature and babyish of habit. So she slept +on and missed hearing all the provisions +which were meant to protect her in the enjoyment +of her estate but which were equally +calculated to drive her guardian distracted.</p> + +<p>"I leave nothing to my beloved son, James +Hawtry," the document continued, "because +I consider that he has quite enough +already. And I leave nothing to his son, +James Hawtry, Junior, the twin-brother of +Cecelia Anne Hawtry, because, though he +and I have met but seldom, I have formed +the opinion that he is capable of winning his +way in the world without any aid from +me."</p> + +<p>James Hawtry, Junior, sitting beside the +heiress, failed to derive much satisfaction +from this clause. If things were being given +away, he was not quite certain as to what +"rest and residue" might mean, but if things +of any kind were being doled out he would +fain have enjoyed them with the rest.</p> + +<p>Presently the lawyer read the final codicil +and gathered his papers together, then addressed +the blank and disappointed assemblage +with: "As you have seen that all the +minor bequests are articles of a household +nature—portraits, tableware and the like, +'portable property' as my immortal colleague, +Mr. Wemmick, would have said—I +should suggest the present to be an admirable +time for their removal by the fortunate +legatees who may not again be in this neighbourhood. +And now I have but to congratulate +the young lady who has succeeded +to this property, a really handsome property +I may say, though the amount is not stated +nor even yet fully ascertained. If Miss Cecelia +Anne Hawtry is present, I should like +to pay my respects to her and to wish her all +happiness in her new inheritance. I have +never had the pleasure of meeting the principal +legatee. May I ask her to come forward +and accept my congratulations."</p> + +<p>"Take her, Jimmie," commanded Mr. +Hawtry, setting Cecelia down upon her thin +little black legs, while he tried to smooth her +into presentable shape in anticipation of +the anxious cross-examination he was +sure to undergo when he returned with +the children to his New York home and +wife.</p> + +<p>"She looked as fit as paint," he afterward +assured that anxious questioner. "I stood +the bow out on her hair and pushed her +dress down just as I've seen you do hundreds +of times. Jimmie helped, too, and I declare +to you, you'd have been as proud of those +two kids as I was when that boy led his little +sister through the hostile camp. Funny, +he felt the hostility instantly, though of +course, he didn't understand it. But she—well, +you know what a confiding little thing +she is, and having been asleep made her eyes +look even more babyish than they always do—walked +beside him, smiling her soft little +smile and looking about three inches high in +her little black dress."</p> + +<p>"If I had been there," interrupted Mrs. +Hawtry warmly, "I should have murdered +your sister Elizabeth before I allowed her to +put that baby into mourning. The black +bow I packed for her hair would have been +quite enough."</p> + +<p>"Well, she had it on. I saw it bobbing up +the room while tenth and fifteenth cousins +seven or eight times removed, stared at it +and at her. But the person most surprised +was old Debrett when Jimmie introduced +them."</p> + +<p>"'This is her,' remarked your son with +more truth than polish, and I'm, well, antecedently +condemned, if that dry-as-dust old +lawyer didn't stoop and kiss her as he wished +her joy."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I'm glad he's as nice as that," said +Mrs. Hawtry, "since he is to be your co-trustee. +However," she added a little wistfully, +"I don't like the idea of anybody dictating +to us about the baby. It makes her +seem somehow not quite so much our very +own. And we could have taken care of her +quite well without your mother's money and +advice."</p> + +<p>"Why, my dear," laughed her husband, +"that's a novel attitude to adopt toward a +legacy. The baby is ours as much as she +ever was. The advice is as good as any I +ever read. And the money will leave us all +the more to devote to Jimmie. There's the +making of a good business man in Jimmie."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was part of what Mrs. Hawtry for a +long time considered the interference of +Cecelia Anne's grandmother that the child +should have a monthly allowance, small while +she was small and growing with her growth. +She was to be allowed to spend it without +supervision and to keep an account of it. +At the end of each year the trustees were to +examine these accounts and to judge from +them the trend of their ward's inclinations. +They would be then in a position to curb or +foster her leanings as their judgment should +dictate.</p> + +<p>Now, Cecelia Anne, restored to her friends +from a wonderland sort of dream, called +going—West—with—papa—on—the—train—and—living—with—Aunt—Elizabeth, +was +too full of narration and too excited by the +envious regard of untraveled playmates to +trouble overmuch about that scene in the +long drawing-room which she had never +clearly understood. The first monthly payment +of her allowance failed to connect itself +in her mind with the journey. Her predominant +emotion on the subject of legacies +was one of ardent gratitude to Jimmie. He +had given her a quarter out of the change +they had received at the toyshop where they +had purchased the most beautiful sloop-yacht +they had ever seen or dreamed of. A +quarter for her very own; Jimmie's generosity +and condescension extended even further +than this. He also allowed her, the day +being warm, to carry the yacht for a considerable +part of their homeward journey, +and, when the treasure was exhibited upon +the topmost of their own front steps, he allowed +her twice to pull the sails up and down. +When he went to Central Park to sail the +<i>Jennie H</i>, that being as near the feminine +form of Jimmie Hawtry as their learning +carried them, James, Junior, frequently allowed +his sister to accompany him and his +envious fellows. Then it was her proud +privilege to watch the <i>Jennie H's</i> wavering +course and to rush around the margin of the +lake ready to "stand by" to receive her beloved +bowsprit wherever she should dock. +Then all proudly would she set the rudder +straight again and turn the <i>Jennie H</i> back +to the landing-stage where Jimmie, surrounded +by his cohorts, all calm and cool in +his magnificence, awaited this first evidence +of "the trend of Cecelia Anne's inclinations."</p> + +<p>Not quite a year elapsed before Mr. Hawtry's +genial co-trustee visited his little ward. +The reading of the will had taken place in +November, and on the last week of the following +June, Mr. Debrett, chancing to be in New +York, decided to cultivate the acquaintance +of Cecelia Anne. Mrs. Hawtry and the +twins were by this time settled in their +country home in Westchester, and Debrett, +driving up from the station in the evening +with Mr. Hawtry, found it difficult to accept +the freckled, barelegged, blue-jumpered +form which he saw in the garden, polishing +the spokes of a bicycle, as the ward who had +lived all these months in his memory: a +fragile little figure in funeral black. Never +had he seen so altered a child, he assured +Mrs. Hawtry with many congratulations. +She seemed taller, heavier, more self-assured. +But the smile with which she put a greasy +little hand into his extended hand was misty +and babyish still.</p> + +<p>Presently, while the two men rested with +long chairs and long glasses and Mrs. Hawtry +ministered to them, Jimmie appeared +on the scene and after exchanging proper +greetings turned to inspect Cecelia Anne and +her work. "I think you've got it bright +enough," he said with kindly condescension. +"You can go and get dressed for dinner now. +And to-morrow morning if I'm not using the +wheel maybe I'll let you use it awhile."</p> + +<p>"Oh, fank you!" said Cecelia Anne who +had never quite outgrown her babyhood's +lisp, "and can I have the saddle lowered so's +I can reach the pedals?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I s'pose so," said Jimmie grudgingly. +"Sometimes you act just like a girl. You +give 'em something and they always want, +more. Now you run on and open the stable +door. I'm goin' to try if I can ride right +into the harness-room without getting off. +Don't catch your foot in the door and don't +get too near Dolly's hind legs."</p> + +<p>When the children had vanished around +the corner of the house, Mrs. Hawtry turned +to Mr. Debrett.</p> + +<p>"There's the explanation of Cecelia Anne's +ruggedness," said she. "She and Jimmie +are inseparable. He has taught her all kinds +of boys' accomplishments. And she's as +happy as a bird if she's only allowed to trot +around after him. It doesn't seem to make +her in the least ungentle or hoydenish and I +feel that she's safer with him than with the +gossipy little girls down at the hotel."</p> + +<p>"Not a doubt of it," Debrett heartily endorsed. +"She couldn't have a better adviser. +Her grandmother, a very clever lady by the +way, had a high opinion of your son's practical +mind. A useful antidote, I should say, +to his sister's extreme gentleness."</p> + +<p>He found further confirmation of old Mrs. +Hawtry's acumen when Mr. Hawtry proposed +that they should look over Cecelia +Anne's disbursement account, kept by herself, +as the will had specified.</p> + +<p>Cecelia Anne was delighted with the idea. +Jimmie had wandered out to see about the +sports that were going to be held on the +Fourth of July, and so the burden of explanation +fell upon the little heiress. She drew +her account book from its drawer in her +father's desk, settled herself comfortably in +the hollow of his arm and proceeded to disclose +the "trend of her inclinations" as is +evidenced by her shopping list:</p> + +<p>"One sloop yat <i>Jennie H</i> swoped for +hockey skates when it got cold.</p> + +<p>One air riffle.</p> + +<p>Three Tickets.</p> + +<p>One riding skirt.</p> + +<p>Two Tickets.</p> + +<p>Six white rats two died.</p> + +<p>Four Tickets.</p> + +<p>Leather Stocking Tales. Three Books.</p> + +<p>Three Tickets.</p> + +<p>Four Boxing Gloves.</p> + +<p>Eight Tickets.</p> + +<p>One bull tarrier dog and collar he fought +Len Fogerty's dog bit him all up and father +sent him away."</p> + +<p>"I remember him," said Mr. Hawtry" +"a well-bred beast but a holy terror, go on +dear."</p> + +<p>"One Byccle.</p> + +<p>Three Tickets.</p> + +<p>Stanley's Darkest Africa two books but +not very new.</p> + +<p>One printing press.</p> + +<p>Two Tickets.</p> + +<p>Treasure Island. One Book."</p> + +<p>"And that's all the big things," finished +Cecelia Anne in evident relief. "Jimmie +wrote down the prices, wouldn't you like to +see them?"</p> + +<p>And she crossed to Mr. Debrett and laid +the open book on his knee.</p> + +<p>Mr. Debrett, as Cecelia Anne teetered up +and down on her heels and toes before him, +read the list again, counted up the total +expenditure and admitted that his ward had +got remarkably good value for her money.</p> + +<p>"But what are all these 'tickets,' my +dear?" he asked her.</p> + +<p>"Eden Musee," answered Cecelia Anne. +And the very thought of it drew her to her +mother's knee. "Jimmie and the boys used +to take me there Saturday afternoons in the +winter to try to get my nerve up. They +say," she admitted dolefully, "that I haven't +got much. So they used to take me to the +Chamber of Horrors so's I'd get accustomed +to life. That's what Jimmie thought I +needed. They used to like it, and I expect +I'd have liked it, too, if I could have kept my +eyes open, but I never could. I couldn't +even <i>get</i> them open when the boys stood me +right close to that gentleman having death +throes on the ground after he'd been hung +on a tree. You can hear him breathing!"</p> + +<p>"I know him well," said Mr. Debrett. +"He is rather awful I must admit. And +now we'll talk about the books. Don't you +care at all about 'Little Men' and 'Little +Women' or the 'Elsie Books?'"</p> + +<p>"Jimmie says," Cecelia Anne made reply, +"that 'Darkest Africa' is better for me. +It tells me just where to hit an elephant to +give him the death throes. He says the +'Elsie Books' wouldn't be any help to us +even with a buffalo. We're going to buy +'The Wild Huntress, or Love in the Wilderness' +next month. Jimmie thinks that's +sure to get my nerve up—being about a +girl, you see—"</p> + +<p>"And 'Treasure Island' now;" said her +guardian, "did you enjoy that? It came +rather late in my life, but I remember thinking +it a great book."</p> + +<p>"It's great for nerve. Jimmie often reads +me parts of it after I go to bed at night. +There's a poem in it—he taught me that by +heart—and if I think to say it the last thing +before I go to sleep he says I'll get so's <i>nothing</i> +can scare me."</p> + +<p>"Recite it for Mr. Debrett," urged Mrs. +Hawtry. And Cecelia Anne obediently began, +with a jerk of a curtsey and a shake of +her delicate embroideries and blue sash.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest<br /></span> +<span>Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!<br /></span> +<span>Drink and the devil had done for the rest<br /></span> +<span>Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Mr. Debrett's astonishment at this lullaby +held him silent for some seconds.</p> + +<p>"You see, sir," Cecelia Anne explained, +"if you <i>can</i> go to sleep thinking about that +it shows your nerve. I can't. Not yet. +But it never makes me cry any more and +Jimmie says that's something."</p> + +<p>"I should say it was!" he congratulated +her. "It's wonderful. And now in the +matter of dolls," he went on referring to the +list, "no rag babies, eh?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but she has beautiful dolls, Mr. Debrett," +interposed her mother. "She'll show +them to you to-morrow morning, won't you +honey-child? But she did not buy them. +They were given to her at Christmas and +other times. But really, since we came out +here for the summer they've been rather +neglected. Their mother has been so busy."</p> + +<p>"And Jimmie made me a house for them!" +Cecelia Anne broke in. "And furniture! +And a front yard stuck right on to the piazza! +But I don't know, mother, whether I'd have +time to show them to Mr. Debrett in the +morning. I'm pretty busy now. It's getting +so near the race. And I pace Jimmie +<i>every</i> morning."</p> + +<p>"Ah! that reminds me," said her father, +"Jimmie told me to send you to bed at eight +o'clock—one of the rules of 'training', you +know—so say good night to us all and put +your little book back in the drawer. You've +kept it very nicely. I am sure Mr. Debrett +agrees with me."</p> + +<p>When the elders were alone, Mrs. Hawtry +crossed over into the light and addressed +her guest.</p> + +<p>"I can't have you thinking badly of Jimmie," +she began, "or of us, for allowing +him to practically spend the baby's income. +Every one of the things on that list mark a +stage in Cecelia Anne's progress away from +priggishness and toward health. I don't +know just how much she realizes her own +power of veto in these purchases but I am +sure she would never exercise it against +Jimmie. She's absolutely wrapped up in +him and he's wonderfully good and patient +with her. Of course, you know, they're +twins although no one ever guesses it. +They've shared everything from the very +first."</p> + +<p>"In this combination," laughed Debrett, +"the boy is 'father to the girl' and the girl +is 'mother to the boy.'"</p> + +<p>"Precisely so," Mr. Hawtry replied, "and +the mother part comes out strong in this +race and training affair. An old chap down +at the hotel—one of those old white-whiskered +'Foxey Grandpas' that no summer +resort should be without—has arranged a +great race for his friends, the children, on +Fourth of July morning. The prize is to +be the privilege of setting off the fireworks +in the evening."</p> + +<p>"They'll run themselves to death," commented +Debrett, who knew his young +America, "and is Jimmie to be one of the +contestants?"</p> + +<p>"He is," replied Hawtry, "it's a 'free for +all' event and even Cecelia Anne <i>may</i> start +if Jimmie allows it. She's not thinking much +about that though. You see, Jimmie has +gone into training and she's his trainer. I +went out with them last Saturday morning +to see how they manage. They marched me +down to an untenanted little farm, back +from the road. Jimmie carried the 'riffle' +referred to in Cecelia Anne's text and a +handful of blank cartridges. Cecelia Anne +carried Jimmie's sweater, a bath towel, a +large sponge, a small tin bucket and a long +green bottle. I carried nothing. I was observing, +not interfering."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that dear baby!" broke in Mrs. +Hawtry, "such a heavy load!"</p> + +<p>"She's thriving under it, my dear." Well, +presently we arrived at our destination, and +I saw that those kids had worn a little path, +not very deep of course, all round what used +to be rather a spacious 'door yard.' The +winning-post was the pump. By its side +Cecelia Anne disposed her burden like a +theatrical 'dresser' getting things ready for +his principal. She hung her tin pail on the +pump's snout and pumped it full of water, +laid it beside the bath towel, threw the +sponge into it, gave a final testing jerk to +her tight little braids and divested herself +of her jumpers and the dress she wore under +them. Then she resumed the jumpers, took +the rifle and crossed the 'track.' Jimmie, +meanwhile, had stripped to trousers and the +upper part of his bathing-suit, had donned +his running shoes, set his feet in holes kicked +in the ground for that purpose and bent forward, +his back professionally hunched and +in his hands the essential pieces of cork. +Cecelia Anne gabbled the words of starting, +shut her eyes tightly, fired the rifle into the +air, threw it on the ground and set off after +the swiftly moving Jimmie. Early in his +first lap she was up to him. As they passed +the pump, she was ahead. In the succeeding +laps she kept a comfortable distance in +the lead, until the end of the third when she +sprinted for 'home,' grabbed the towel and, +as Jimmie came bounding up, wrapped him +in it, rubbed him down, fanned him with it, +moistened his brow with vinegar from the +long bottle, tied the sweater around his neck +by its red sleeves and held the dripping +sponge to his lips. Then she found time for +me.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<a name="ill-207" id= "ill-207"></a> +<img src="images/ill-207.png" +alt="CELIA ANNE SHUT HER EYES TIGHTLY AND FIRED THE RIFLE INTO THE AIR." title="" /><br /> +<span class="caption"><i>CELIA ANNE SHUT HER EYES TIGHTLY AND FIRED THE RIFLE INTO THE AIR.</i></span><br /><br /> +</div> + +<p>"Oh, father," she cried, "did you <i>ever</i> see +<i>any</i>body who could run as fast as Jimmie? +Don't you just know he'll win that +race?"</p> + +<p>"There's but one chance against it," said +I. "And really, Mr. Debrett, that boy can +run. He's a little bit heavy maybe, but he +holds himself well together and keeps up a +pretty good pace. I timed him and +measured up the distance roughly afterward. +It was pretty good going for a little +chap. Cecelia Anne is so much smaller that +we often forget what a little fellow he is after +all. But that baby—whew—I wish you'd +seen her fly. It wasn't running. She just +blew over the ground and arrived at the +pump as cool as a cucumber although Jimmie +was puffing like an automobile of the +vintage of 1890."</p> + +<p>"You see," said Jimmie to me as he lay +magnificently on the grass waiting to grow +cool while Cecelia still fanned him with the +towel, "you see it don't hurt her to pace me +round the track."</p> + +<p>"Apparently not," said I, and although +he's my own boy and I know him pretty +well, I couldn't for the life of me decide +whether he, as well as Cecelia Anne, had +really failed to grasp the fact that she beats +him to a standstill every morning. I suppose +we'll know on the Fourth. If she runs, +then he does not know. But if he refuses +to let her run; it will be because he does +know."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure of that," said Mrs. +Hawtry.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Cecelia Anne <i>was</i> allowed to run. First, +in a girl's race among the giggling, amateurish, +self-conscious girls whom she outdistanced +by a lap or two and, later, in the +race for all winners, where she had to compete +with Charlie Anderson, the beau of the +hotel, Len Fogarty, the milkman's son, and +her own incomparable Jimmie.</p> + +<p>The master of ceremonies gave the signal +and the event of the day was on. First to +collapse was Charlie Anderson. Jimmie was +then in the lead with Len Fogarty a close +second, and Cecelia Anne beside him. So +they went for a lap. Then Jimmie, missing +perhaps the blue little figure of his pacemaker, +wavered a little, only a little, but +enough to allow Len Fogarty to forge past +him. Len Fogarty! The blatant, hated Len +Fogarty, always shouting defiance from his +father's milk-wagon! Then forward sprang +Cecelia Anne. Not for all the riches of the +earth would she have beaten Jimmie, but +not for all the glory of heaven would she +allow any one else to beat him. And so by +an easy spectacular ten seconds, she outran +Len Fogarty.</p> + +<p>Then wild was the enthusiasm of the +audience and black was the brow of Len +Fogarty. A chorus of: "Let a girl lick +you," "Call yourself a runner," "Come up +to the house an' race me baby brother," has +not a soothing effect when added to the +disappointment of being forever shut off +from the business end of rockets and Roman +candles. These things Cecelia Anne knew +and so accepted, sadly and resignedly, the +glare with which Len turned away from her +little attempts at explanations.</p> + +<p>But she was not prepared, nothing in her +short life could ever have prepared her, to +find the same expression on Jimmie's face +when she broke through a shower of congratulations +and followed him up the road; to +expect praise and to meet <i>such</i> a rebuff would +have been sufficient to make even stiffer +laurels than Cecelia Anne's trail in the dust.</p> + +<p>"Why Jimmie," she whimpered contrary +to his most stringent rule. "Why Jimmie +what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"You're a sneak," said Jimmie darkly +and vouchsafed no more. There was indeed +no more to say. It was the last word +of opprobrium.</p> + +<p>They pattered on in silence for a short +but dusty distance, Cecelia Anne struggling +with the temptation to lie down and die; +Jimmie upborne by furious temper.</p> + +<p>"Who taught you how to run?" he at last +broke out. "Wasn't it me? Didn't I give +you lessons every morning in the old lot? +And then didn't you go and beat me when +Len Fogarty, Charlie Anderson, Billy Van +Derwater, and all the other fellows were +there?"</p> + +<p>Cecelia Anne returned his angry gaze with +her blue and loyal eyes.</p> + +<p>"I didn't beat you 't all," she answered. +"I didn't beat anybody but Len Fogarty."</p> + +<p>Her mentor studied her for a while and +then a grin overspread his once more placid +features.</p> + +<p>"I guess it'll be all right," he condescended. +"Maybe you didn't mean it the +way it looked. But say, Cecelia Anne, if +you're afraid of fire-crackers what are you +going to do about the rockets and the Roman +candles? You know sparks fly out of them +like rain. And if the smell of old cartridge +shells makes you sick, I don't know just how +you'll get along to-night."</p> + +<p>The victor stopped short under the weight +of this overwhelming spoil.</p> + +<p>"I forgot all about it," she whispered. +"Oh, Jimmie, I guess I ought to have let Len +Fogarty win that race. He could set off +rockets and Roman candles and Catherine +wheels. I guess it'll kill me when the sparks +and the smoke come out. Maybe I'd +better go and see Mr. Anstell and ask to be +excused."</p> + +<p>"Aw, I wouldn't do that," Jimmie advised +her, "you don't want everyone to +know about your nerve. You just tell him +your dress is too light and that you want me +to attend to the fireworks for you."</p> + +<p>In the transports of gratitude to which +this knightly offer reduced her, Cecelia Anne +fared on by Jimmie's side until they reached +the house and their enquiring parents. Mrs. +Hawtry was on the steps as they came up +and she gathered Cecelia Anne into her arms. +For a moment no one spoke. Then Jimmie +made his declaration.</p> + +<p>"Cecelia Anne beat Len Fogarty all to +nothing. You ought to have been there to +see her."</p> + +<p>"Was there any one else in the race?" +queried Mr. Hawtry in what his son considered +most questionable taste.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he was constrained to answer. +"Charlie Anderson was in it. She beat him, +too. And I <i>started</i> with them but I thought +it would do those boys more good to be licked +by a little girl than to have me 'tend to them +myself." And Jimmie proceeded leisurely +into the house.</p> + +<p>"But I don't have to set off the fireworks," +Cecelia Anne explained happily. +"Jimmie says I don't have to if I don't want +to. He's going to do it for me."</p> + +<p>"Kind brother," ejaculated Mr. Hawtry. +And across the bright gold braids of her +little Atalanta, Mrs. Hawtry looked at her +husband.</p> + +<p>"<i>Did</i> he know?" she questioned, "or did +he not? You thought we could be sure if he +let her start."</p> + +<p>"Well," was Mr. Hawtry's cryptic utterance, +"he knows now."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THEODORA_GIFT_OF_GOD" id="THEODORA_GIFT_OF_GOD"></a>THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD</h2> + + +<p>"And then," cried Mary breathlessly, +"what did they do then?"</p> + +<p>"And then," her father obediently +continued, "the two doughty knights smote +lustily with their swords. And each smote +the other on the helmet and clove him to the +middle. It was a fair battle and sightly."</p> + +<p>But Mary's interest was unabated. "And +then," she urged, "what did they do then?"</p> + +<p>"Not much, I think. Even a knight of +the Table Round stops fighting for a while +when that happens to him."</p> + +<p>"Didn't they do anything 'tall?" the audience +insisted. "You aren't leaving it out, +are you? Didn't they bleed nor nothing?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, they bled."</p> + +<p>"Then tell me that part."</p> + +<p>"Well, they bled. They never stinteth +bleeding for three days and three nights +until they were pale as the very earth for +bleeding. And they made a great dole."</p> + +<p>"And then, when they couldn't bleed any +more nor make any more dole, what did they +do?"</p> + +<p>"They died."</p> + +<p>"And then—"</p> + +<p>"That's the end of the story," said the +narrator definitely.</p> + +<p>"Then tell me another," she pleaded, +"and don't let them die so soon."</p> + +<p>"There wouldn't be time for another long +one," he pointed out as he encouraged his +horse into an ambling trot. "We are nearly +there now."</p> + +<p>"After supper will you tell me one?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he promised.</p> + +<p>"One about Lancelot and Elaine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he repeated. "Anything you +choose."</p> + +<p>"I choose Lancelot," she declared.</p> + +<p>"A great many ladies did," commented +her father as the horse sedately stopped before +the office of the Arcady <i>Herald-Journal</i>, +of which he was day and night editor, sporting +editor, proprietor, society editor, chief of +the advertising department, and occasionally +type-setter and printer and printer's devil.</p> + +<p>Mary held the horse, which stood in need +of no such restraint, while this composite of +newspaper secured his mail, and then they +jogged off through the spring sunshine, side +by side, in the ramshackle old buggy on a +leisurely canvass of outlying districts in +search of news or advertisements, or suggestions +for the forthcoming issue.</p> + +<p>In the wide-set, round, opened eyes of his +small daughter, Herbert Buckley was the +most wonderful person in the world. No +stories were so enthralling as his. No songs +so tuneful, no invention so fertile, no temper +so sweet, no companionship so precious. And +her nine happy years of life had shown her no +better way of spending summer days or winter +evenings than in journeying, led by his hand +and guided by his voice, through the pleasant +ways of Camelot and the shining times of +chivalry.</p> + +<p>Upon a morning later in this ninth summer +of her life Mary was perched high up in an +apple tree enjoying the day, the green apples, +and herself. The day was a glorious one in +mid July, the apples were of a wondrous +greenness and hardness, and Mary, for the +first time in many weeks, was free to enjoy +her own society. A month ago a grandmother +and a maiden aunt had descended +out of the land which had until then given +forth only letters, birthday presents, and +Christmas cards. And they had proved to +be not at all the idyllic creatures which these +manifestations had seemed to prophesy, but a +pair of very interfering old ladies with a manner +of over-ruling Mary's gentle mother, brow-beating +her genial father and cloistering herself.</p> + +<p>This morning had contributed another female +assuming airs of instant intimacy. She +had gone up to the last remaining spare +chamber, donned a costume all of crackling +white linen, and had introduced herself, +entirely uninvited, into the dim privacy of +Mary's mother's room, whence Mary had +been sternly banished.</p> + +<p>"Another aunt!" was the outcast's instant +inference, as in a moment of accountable preoccupation +on the part of the elders she had +escaped to her own happy and familiar country—the +world of out-of-doors—where female +relatives seldom intruded, and where the +lovely things of life were waiting.</p> + +<p>When she had consumed all the green +apples her constitution would accept, and +they seemed pitifully few to her more robust +mind, she descended from the source of her +refreshment and set out upon a comprehensive +tour of her domain. She liked living +upon the road to Camelot. It made life +interesting to be within measurable distance +of the knights and ladies who lived and +played and loved in the many-towered city +of which one could gain so clear a view from +the topmost branches of the hickory tree in +the upper pasture. She liked to crouch in +the elder bushes where a lane, winding and +green-arched, crossed a corner of the cornfield, +and to wait, through the long, still +summer mornings for Lancelot or Galahad +or Tristram or some other of her friends to +come pricking his way through the sunshine. +She could hear the clinking of his golden +armor, the whinnying of his steed, the soft +brushing of the branches as they parted before +his helmet or his spear; the rustling of +the daisies against his great white charger's +feet. And then there was the river "where +the aspens dusk and quiver," and where +barges laden with sweet ladies passed and +left ripples of foam on the water and ripples +of light laughter in the air as, brilliant and +fair bedight, they went winding down to +Camelot.</p> + +<p>This morning she revisited all these hallowed +spots. She thrilled on the very verge +of the river and quivered amid the waving +corn. She scaled the sentinel hickory and +turned her eyes upon the Southern city. +It was nearly a week since she had been allowed +to wander so far afield, and Camelot +seemed more than ever wonderful as it lay +in the shimmering distance gleaming and +glistening beyond the hills. Trails of smoke +waved above all the towers, showing where +Sir Beaumanis still served his kitchen apprenticeship +for his knighthood and his place +at the Table Round. Thousands of windows +flashed back the light.</p> + +<p>"I could get there," pondered Mary, "if +God would send me that goat and wagon. +I guess there's quite a demand for goats and +wagons. I could dress my goat all up in +skirts like the ladies dressed their palfreys, +an' I'd wear my hair loose on my shoulders—it's +real goldy when it's loose—an' my best +hat. I guess Queen Guinevere would be +real glad to see me. Oh, dear," she fretted +as these visions came thronging back to her, +"I wish Heaven would hurry up."</p> + +<p>Between the pasture and the distant city +she could distinguish the roofs of another of +the havens of her dear desire—the house +where the old ladies lived. Four old ladies +there were, in the sweet autumn of their +lives, and Mary's admiration of them was as +passionate as were all her psychic states. +She never could be quite sure as to which of +the four she most adored. There was the +gentle Miss Ann, who taught her to recite +verses of piercing and wilting sensibility; +the brisk Miss Jane, who explained and +demonstrated the construction of many an +old-time cake or pastry; the silent Miss +Agnes, who silently accepted assistance in +her never-ending process of skeletonizing +leaves and arranging them in prim designs +upon cardboard, and the garrulous Miss +Sabina, who, with a crochet needle, a hair-pin, +a spool with four pins driven into it, +knitting needles and other shining implements, +could fashion, and teach Mary to +fashion, weavings and spinnings which might +shame the most accomplished spider. Aided +by her and by the re-enforced spool above +mentioned, Mary had already achieved five +dirty inches of red woollen reins for the expected +goat. But the house was distant +just three fields, a barb-wire fence, a low +stone wall, and a cross bull, and Mary knew +that her unaccustomed leisure could not be +expected to endure long enough for so perilous +a pilgrimage.</p> + +<p>Her dissatisfied gaze wandered back to +her quiet home surrounded by its neatly +laid out meadows, cornfield, orchard, barns, +and garden. And a shadow fell upon her +wistful little face.</p> + +<p>"That old aunt," she grumbled, "she +makes me awful tired. She's always pokin' +round an' callin' me."</p> + +<p>Such, indeed, seemed the present habit +and intent of the prim lady who was approaching, +alternately clanging a dinner-bell +and calling in a tone of resolute sweetness:</p> + +<p>"Mary, O Mary, dear."</p> + +<p>Mary parted the branches of her tree and +watched, but made no sound.</p> + +<p>"Mary," repeated the oncoming relative, +"Mary, I want to tell you something," and +added as she spied her niece's abandoned +sunbonnet on the grass, "I know you're here +and I shall wait until you come to me."</p> + +<p>"I <i>ain't</i> coming," announced the Dryad, +and thereby disclosed her position, both +actual and mental. "I suppose it's something +I've done and I don't want to hear it, +so there!" Then, her temper having been +worn thin by much admonishing, she anticipated: +"I <i>ain't</i> sorry I've been bad. I +<i>ain't</i> ashamed to behave so when my mamma +is sick in bed. And I don't care if you +<i>do</i> tell my papa when he comes home +to-night."</p> + +<p>The intruding relative, discerning her, +stopped and smiled. And the smile was as +a banderilla to her niece's goaded spirit.</p> + +<p>"Jiminy!" gasped that young person, +"she's got a smile just like a teacher."</p> + +<p>"Mary, dear," the intruder gushed, "God +has sent you something."</p> + +<p>The hickory flashed forth black and white +and red. Mary stood upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"Where are they?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>"They?" repeated the lady. "There is +only one."</p> + +<p>"Why, I prayed for two. Which did he +send?"</p> + +<p>"Which do you think?" parried the lady. +"Which do you hope it is?"</p> + +<p>Even Mary's scorn was unprepared for +this weak-mindedness. "The goat, of +course," she responded curtly. "Is it the +goat?"</p> + +<p>"Goat!" gasped the scandalized aunt. +"Goat! Why, God has sent you a baby +sister, dear."</p> + +<p>"A sister! a baby!" gasped Mary in her +turn. "I don't <i>need</i> no sister. I prayed for +a goat just as plain as plain. 'Dear God,' +I says, 'please bless everybody, and make +me a good girl, an' send me a goat an' wagon.' +And they went an' changed it to a baby +sister! Why, I never s'posed they made mistakes +like that."</p> + +<p>Crestfallen and puzzled she allowed herself +to be led back to the darkened house +where her grandmother met her with the +heavenly substitute wrapped in flannel. And +as she held it against the square and unresponsive +bosom of her apron she realized +how the "Bible gentleman" must have felt +when he asked for bread and was given a +stone.</p> + +<p>During the weeks that followed, the weight +of the stone grew heavier and heavier while +the hunger for bread grew daily more acute. +Not even the departure of interfering relatives +could bring freedom, for the baby's +stumpy arms bound Mary to the house as +inexorably as bolts and bars could have done. +She passed weary hours in a hushed room +watching the baby, when outside the sun +was shining, the birds calling, the apples +waxing greener and larger, and the shining +knights and ladies winding down to Camelot. +She sat upon the porch, still beside the baby, +while the river rippled, the wheatfields +wimpled, and the cows came trailing down +from the pasture, down from the upland +pasture where the sentinel hickory stood +and watched until the sun went down, and, +one by one, the lights came out in distant +Camelot. She listened for the light laughter +of the ladies, the jingling of the golden armor, +the swishing of the branches and of the +waves. Listened all in vain, for Theodora, +that gift of God, had powerful lungs and a +passion for exercising them so that minor +sounds were overwhelmed and only yells +remained.</p> + +<p>But the deprivation against which she +most passionately rebelled was that of her +father's society. Before the advent of Theodora +she had been his constant companion. +They were perfectly happy together, for the +poet who at nineteen had burned to challenge +the princes of the past and to mold the +destinies of the future was, at twenty-nine, +very nearly content to busy himself about +the occurrences of the present and to edit a +weekly paper in the town which had known +and honored his father, and was proud of, +if puzzled by, their well-informed debonair +son. Even himself he sometimes puzzled. +He knew that this was not to be his life's +work, this chronicling of the very smallest +beer, this gossip and friendliness and good +cheer. But it served to fill his leisure and +his modest exchequer until such time as he +could finish his great tragedy and take his +destined place among the writers of his time. +Meanwhile, he told himself, with somewhat +rueful humor, there was always an editor +ready to think well of his minor poems and +an audience ready to marvel at them, "which +is more, my dear," he pointed out to his +admiring wife, "than Burns could have said +for himself—or Coleridge."</p> + +<p>And when his confidence and his hopes +flickered, as the strongest of hopes and confidence +sometimes will, when his tragedy +seemed far from completion, his paper paltry, +and his life narrow, he could always +look into his daughter's eyes and there find +faith in himself and strength and sunny +patience.</p> + +<p>Formerly these fountains of perpetual +youth had been beside him all the long days +through. From village to village, from store +to farm, they had jogged, side by side, in a +lazy old buggy; he smoking long, silent +pipes, perhaps, or entertaining his companion +with tales and poems of the days of +chivalry when men were brave and women +fair and all the world was young. And, +Mary, inthralled, enrapt, adoring her father, +and seeing every picture conjured up by his +sonorous rhythm or quaint phrase, was much +more familiar with the deeds and gossip of +King Arthur's court than with events of her +own day and country.</p> + +<p>So that while Mary, tied to the baby, +yearned for the wide spaces of her freedom, +Mr. Buckley, lonely in a dusty buggy, jogging +over the familiar roads, thought longingly +of a little figure in an irresponsible +sunbonnet, and found it difficult to bear +patiently with matronly neighbors, who congratulated +him upon this arrangement, and +assured him that his little play-fellow would +now quickly outgrow her old-fashioned ways +and become as other children, "which she +would never have, Mr. Buckley, as long as +you let her tag around with you and filled +her head with impossible nonsense."</p> + +<p>It was not a desire for any such alteration +which made him acquiesce in the separation. +It was a very grave concern for his wife's +health, and a very sharp realization that, +until he could devise some means of increasing +his income, he could not afford to engage +a more experienced nurse for the new arrival. +He had no ideas of the suffering entailed +upon his elder daughter. He was deceived, +as was every one else, by the gentle uncomplainingness +with which she waited upon +Theodora, for whose existence she regarded +herself as entirely to blame. Had she not, +without consulting her parents, applied to +high heaven for an increase in live stock, and +was not the answer to this application, however +inexact, manifestly her responsibility.</p> + +<p>"They're awful good to me," she pondered. +"They ain't scolded me a mite, an' +I just know how they must feel about it. +Mamma ain't had her health ever since that +baby come, an' papa looks worried most to +death. If they'd 'a' sent that goat an' wagon +I could 'a' took mamma riding. Ain't prayers +terrible when they go wrong!" And in +gratitude for their forbearance she, erstwhile +the companion, or at least the audience, of +fealty knight and ladies, bowed her small +head to the swathed and shapeless feet of +heaven's error and became waiting woman +to a flannel bundle.</p> + +<p>Only her dreams remained to her. She +could still look forward to the glorious time +of "when I'm big." She could still unbind +her dun-colored hair and shake it in the sun. +She could still quiver with anticipation as +she surveyed her brilliant future. A beautiful +prince was coming to woo her. He would +ride to the door and kneel upon the front +porch while all his shining retinue filled the +front yard and overflowed into the road. +Then she would appear and, since these +things were to happen in the days of her +maturity, perhaps when she was twelve years +old, she would be radiantly beautiful, and her +hair would be all goldy gold and curly, and +it would trail upon the ground a yard or two +behind her as she walked. And the prince +would be transfixed. And when he was all +through being that—Mary often wondered +what it was—he would arise and sing "Nicolette, +the Bright of Brow," or some other +disguised personality, while all his shining +retinue would unsling hautboys and lyres +and—and—mouth organs and play ravishing +music.</p> + +<p>And when she rode away to be the prince's +bride and to rule his fair lands, her father +and her mother should ride with her, all in +the sunshine of the days "when I'm big"—the +wonderful days "when I'm big."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, being but little, she served the +flannel bundle even as Sir Beaumanis had +served a yet lowlier apprenticeship. But she +still stormed high heaven to rectify its mistake.</p> + +<p>"And please, dear God, if you are all out +of goats and wagons, send rabbits. But +anyway come and take away this baby. +My mamma ain't well enough to take care of +it an' I can't spare the time. We don't +need babies, but we do need that goat and +wagon."</p> + +<p>And the powers above, with a mismanagement +which struck their petitioner dumb, +sent a wagon—only a wagon—and it was a +gocart for the baby, and Mary was to be the +goat.</p> + +<p>With this millstone tied about her neck she +was allowed to look upon the scenes of her +early freedom, and no inquisitor could have +devised a more anguishing torture than that +to which Mary's suffering and unsuspecting +mother daily consigned her suffering and +uncomplaining daughter.</p> + +<p>"Walk slowly up and down the paths, +dear, and don't leave your sister for a moment. +Isn't it nice that you have somebody +to play with now?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am," said Mary. "But she ain't +what I'd call playful."</p> + +<p>"You used to be so much alone," Mrs. +Buckley continued. Mary breathed sharply, +and her mother kissed her sympathetically. +"But now you always have your sister with +you. Isn't it fine, dearie?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am," repeated the victim, and +bent her little energies to the treadmill task +of wheeling the gocart to the orchard gate, +where all wonders began, and then, with an +effort as exhausting to the will as to the +body, turning her back upon the lane, the +river, and the sentinel tree, to trundle her +Juggernaut between serried rows of cabbages +and carrots.</p> + +<p>Then slowly she began to hate, with a +deep, abiding hatred, the flannel bundle. +She loathed the very smell of flannel before +Theodora was six short weeks old, and the +sight of the diminutive laundry, which hung +upon the line between the cherry trees, almost +drove her to arson.</p> + +<p>The shy, quick-darting creature—half child +and half humming bird—was forced to drag +that monstrous perambulator on all her expeditions. +After a month's confinement to +the garden, where knights and ladies never +penetrate, she managed to bump her responsibility +out into the orchard. But the +glory was all in the treetops, and Mary soon +grew restless under her mother's explicit +directions. "Up and down the walks" +meant imprisonment, despair. Theodora +should have tried to make her role of Albatross +as acceptable as it might be made to +the long-suffering mariner about whose neck +she hung, but she showed a callousness and +a heartless selfishness which nothing could +excuse. Mary would sometimes plead with +all gentleness and courtesy for a few short +moments' freedom.</p> + +<p>"Theodora," she would begin, "Theodora, +listen to me a minute," and the gift of God +would make aimless pugilistic passes at her +interlocutor.</p> + +<p>"O Theodora, I'm awful tired of stayin' +down here on the ground. Wouldn't you +just as lieves play you was a mad bull an' +I was a lady in a red dress?"</p> + +<p>Theodora, after some space spent in apparent +contemplation, would wave a cheerful +acquiescence.</p> + +<p>"An' then I'll be scared of you, an' I'll +run away an' climb as high as anything in +the hickory tree up there on the hill. Let's +play it right now, Theodora. There's something +I want to see up there."</p> + +<p>Taking her sister's bland smile for ratification +and agreement, Mary would set about +her personification, shed her apron lest its +damaged appearance convict her in older +eyes, and speed toward her goal. But the +mad bull's shrieks of protest and repudiation +would startle every bit of chivalry for miles +and miles around.</p> + +<p>Several experiences of this nature taught +Mary, that, in dealing with infants of changeable +and rudimentary mind, honesty was an +impossible policy and candor a very boomerang, +which returned and smote one with +savage force. So she stooped to guile and +detested the flannel all the more deeply because +of the state to which it was debasing +an upright conscience and a high sense of +honor.</p> + +<p>At first her lapses from the right were all +negative. She neglected the gift of God. +She would abandon it, always in a safe and +shady spot and always with its covers +smoothly tucked in, its wabbly parasol adjusted +at the proper angle, and always with +a large piece of wood tied to the perambulator's +handle by a labyrinth of elastic +strings. These Mary had drawn from abandoned +garters, sling shots, and other mysterious +sources, and they allowed the wood +to jerk unsteadily up and down, and to +soothe the unsuspecting Theodora with a +spasmodic rhythm very like the ministrations +of her preoccupied nurse.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the nurse would be far afield +upon her own concerns, and Theodora was +never one of them. The river, the lane, the +tall hickory knew her again and again. +Camelot shone out across the miles of hill +and tree and valley. But the river was +silent and the lane empty, and Camelot +seemed very far as autumn cleared the air. +Perhaps this was because knights and ladies +manifest themselves only to the pure of heart. +Perhaps because Mary was always either consciously +or subconsciously listening for the +recalling shrieks of the abandoned and disprized +gift of God.</p> + +<p>"Stop it, I tell you," she admonished her +purple-faced and convulsive charge one afternoon +when all the world was gold. "Stop +it, or mamma will be coming after us, and +making us stay on the back porch." But +Theodora, in the boastfulness of her new +lungs, yelled uninterruptedly on. Then did +Mary try cajolery. She removed her sister +from the perambulator and staggered back +in a sitting posture with suddenness and +force. The jar gave Theodora pause, and +Mary crammed the silence full of promise. +"If you'll stop yellin' now I'll see that my +prince husband lets you be a goose-girl on +the hills behind our palace. Its awful nice +being a goose-girl," she hastened to add lest +the prospect fail to charm. "If I didn't +have to marry that prince an' be a queen I +guess I'd been a goose-girl myself. Yes, +sir, it's lovely work on the hills behind a +palace with all the knights ridin' by an' +sayin', 'Fair maid, did'st see a boar pass by +this way?' You don't have to be afraid—you'd +never have to see one. In all the +books the goose-girls didn't never see no +boars, and the knights gave 'em a piece of +gold an' smiled on 'em, and the sunshine +shined on 'em, an' they had a lovely time."</p> + +<p>Having stumbled into the road to peace of +conscience, Mary trod it bravely and joyously. +Theodora's future rank increased +with the decrease of her present comfort, +but her posts, though lofty and remunerative, +were never such as would bring her into +intimate contact with the person of the +queen.</p> + +<p>She was betrothed to the son of a noble, +and very distant, house after an afternoon +when the perambulator, ill-trained to cross-country +work, balked at the first stone wall +on the way to the old ladies' house. It was +then dragged backward for a judicious distance +and faced at the obstacle at a mad +gallop. Umbrella down, handle up, wheels +madly whirring, it was forced to the jump.</p> + +<p>Again it refused, reared high into the air, +stood for an instant upon its hind wheels and +then fell supinely on its side, shedding its +blankets, its pillows, and Theodora upon +the cold, hard stones.</p> + +<p>After that her rise was rapid, and the +distance separating her from her sister's +elaborate court more perilous and more beset +with seas and boars and mountains and +robbers. She was allowed to wed her high-born +betrothed when she had been forgotten +for three hours while Mary learned a heart-rending +poem commencing, "Oh, hath she +then failed in her troth, the beautiful maid +I adore?" until even Miss Susan could only +weep in intense enjoyment and could suggest; +no improvement in the recitation.</p> + +<p>On another occasion Mary was obliged to +borrow the perambulator for the conveyance +of leaves and branches with which to build +a bower withal; and Theodora, having been +established in unfortunate proximity to an +ant hill, was thoroughly explored by its inhabitants +ere her ministering sister realized +that her cries and agitation were anything +more than her usual attitude of protest +against whatever chanced to be going on. +By the time the bower was finished and the +perambulator ready for its customary occupant +that young person was in a position +to claim heavy damages.</p> + +<p>"Don't you care," said Mary cheerfully, +as she relieved Theodora from the excessive +animation. "I can make it up to you when +I'm big. My prince husband—I guess he'd +better be a king by that time—will go over +to your country an' kill your husband's +father an' his grandfather an' all the kings +an' princes until there's nobody only your +husband to be king. Then you'll be a queen +you see, an' live in a palace. So now hush up." +And one future majesty was rocked upside down +by another until the royal face of the younger +queen was purple and her voice was still.</p> + +<p>Mary found it more difficult to quiet her +new and painful agnosticism, and in her +efforts to reconcile dogma with manifestation +she evolved a series of theological and +economical questions which surprised her +father and made her mother's head reel. +She further manifested a courteous attention +when the minister came to call, and she engaged +him in spiritual converse until he +writhed again. For a space her investigations +led her no whither, and then, without +warning, the man of peace solved her dilemma +and shed light upon her path.</p> + +<p>A neighbor ripe in years and good works +had died. The funeral was over and the +man of God had stopped to rest in the pleasant +shade of Mrs. Buckley's trees and in +the pleasant sound of Mrs. Buckley's voice. +Mary, the gocart, and Theodora completed +the group, and the minister spoke.</p> + +<p>"A good man," he repeated, "Ah, Mrs. +Buckley, he will be sadly missed! But the +Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. +Blessed be—"</p> + +<p>"When?" demanded Mary breathlessly. +"When does he take away?"</p> + +<p>"In His own good time."</p> + +<p>"When's that?"</p> + +<p>"'Tis not for sinful man to say. He sends +His message to the man in the pride of his +youth or to the babe in its cradle. He +reaches forth His hand and takes away."</p> + +<p>"But when—" Mary was beginning when +her mother, familiar with the Socratic nature +of her daughter's conversation and its +exhaustive effect upon the interlocutor, interposed +a remark which guided the current +of talk out of heavenly channels and back +to the material plain.</p> + +<p>But Mary had learned all that she cared +to know. It was not necessary that she +should suffer the exactions of the baby or +subject her family to them. The Lord had +given and would take away! The minister +had said so, and the minister knew all about +the Lord. And if the powers above were +not ready to send for the baby, it would be +easy enough to deposit it in the Lord's own +house, which showed its white spire beyond +the first turn in the road which led to Camelot. +There the Lord would find it and take +it away. This would be, she reflected, the +quiet, dignified, lady-like thing to do. And +the morrow, she decided, would be an admirable +day on which to do it.</p> + +<p>Therefore, on the morrow she carefully +decked Theodora in small finery, hung garlands +of red and yellow maple leaves upon +the perambulator, twined chains of winter-green +berries about its handle, tied a bunch +of gorgeous golden rod to its parasol, and +trundled it by devious and obscure ways to +the sacred precincts of God's house.</p> + +<p>"They look real well," she commented. +"If I was sure about that goat I might keep +the cart, but it really ain't the right kind for +a goat. I guess I'd better take 'em back +just like they are an' when the Lord sees +how I got 'em all fancied up, he'll know I +ain't a careless child, an' maybe I'd get that +goat after all."</p> + +<p>So the disprized little gifts of God were +bumped up the church steps, wheeled up the +aisle, and bestowed in a prominent spot before +the chancel rail. Some one was playing +soft music at the unseen organ, but Mary +accepted soft music as a phenomenon natural +to churches, and failed to connect it with +human agency. Sedately she set out Theodora's +bows and ruffles to the best advantage. +Carefully she rearranged the floral decorations +of the perambulator, and set her +elastic understudy in erratic motion. Complacently +she surveyed the whole and walked +out into the sunshine—free. And presently +the minister, the intricacies of a new hymn +reconciled to the disabilities of a lack of ear +and a lack of training, came out into the +body of the church, where the gifts of God, +bland in smiles and enwreathed in verdure, +were waiting to be taken away.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Buckley's baby," was his first +thought. "I wonder where that queer little +Mary is," was his second. And his third, it +came when he was tired of waiting for some +solution of his second, was an embarrassed +realization that he would be obliged to take +his unexpected guest home to its mother. +And the quiet town of Arcady rocked upon +its foundations as he did it.</p> + +<p>"In the church," marveled Mrs. Buckley. +"How careless of Mary!" she apologized, +and "How good of you!" she smiled. "No, +I'm not in the least worried. She always +had a way of trotting off to her own diversions +when she was not with her father. +And lately she has been astonishingly patient +about spending her time with baby. +I have felt quite guilty, about it. But after +to-day she will be free, as Mr. Buckley has +found a nurse to relieve her. He was beginning +to grow desperate about Mary and me—said +we neither of us had a moment to +waste on him—and yet could not find a nurse +whom we felt we could afford. And yesterday +a young woman walked into his office +to put an advertisement in his paper for +just such a position as we had to offer. She +is a German, wants to learn English, and she +will be here this afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps your little girl resented her +coming," he suggested vaguely. "Perhaps +that was the reason."</p> + +<p>"Mary resentful!" laughed Mrs. Buckley.</p> + +<p>"She doesn't, bless her gentle little heart, +know the meaning of the word. Besides +which we haven't told her about the girl, as +we are rather looking forward to that first +interview, and wondering how Mary will +acquit herself in a conversational Waterloo. +She can't, you know, make life miserable +and information bitter to a German who +speaks no English. 'Ja' or 'nein' alternately +and interchangeably may baffle even +her skill in questioning."</p> + +<p>Mary, meanwhile, was hurrying along the +way to Camelot. She had not planned the +expedition in advance. Rather, it was +the inevitable reaction toward license which +marks the success of any revolution. She +had cast off the bonds of the baby carriage, +her time and her life were her own, and the +road stretched white and straight toward +Camelot.</p> + +<p>It was afternoon and the sun was near its +setting when at last she reached the towered +city and found it in all ways delightful but +in some surprising. She was prepared for +the moat and for the drawbridge across it, +but not for the exceeding dirtiness of its +water and the dinginess of its barges. She +had expected it to be wider and perhaps +cleaner, and the castles struck her as being +ill-adapted to resist siege and the shocks of +war since nearly all their walls were windows. +And through these windows she caught +glimpses of the strangest interiors which ever +palaces boasted. Miles and acres of bare +wooden tables stood under the shade of +straight iron trees. From the trees black +ribbons depended. In the treetops there +were wheels and shining iron bars, and all +about the tables there were other iron bars +and bolts and bands of greasy leather.</p> + +<p>"I don't see a round table anywhere," +she reflected. "What do you s'pose they +do with all those little square ones?" She +sought the answer to this question through +many a dirty pane and many a high-walled +street. But the palaces and the streets were +empty and the explorer discovered with a +quick-sinking heart and confidence that she +was alone and hungry and very far from +home. She was treading close upon the +verge of tears when her path debouched +upon the central square of Camelot. And +straightway she forgot her doubts and puzzlements, +her hunger and her increasing +weariness, for she had found "The Court." +Across a fair green plaisance, all seemly beset +with flower and shrub, the wide doors of +a church stood open. Tall palaces were all +about, and in every window, on every step, +on the green benches which dotted the plaisance, +on every possible elevation or post of +observation, the good folk of Camelot stood +or hung or even fought, to watch the procession +of beauty and chivalry as it came +foaming down the steps, broke into eddies, +and disappeared among the thronging carriages. +Mary found it quite easy to identify +the illustrious personages in the procession +when once she had realized that they would, +of course, not be in armor on a summer's +afternoon, and at what even, to her inexperienced +eyes, was manifestly a wedding.</p> + +<p>First to emerge was a group of the younger +knights, frock-coated, silk-hatted, pale gray +of waistcoat and gloves, white and effulgent +of <i>boutonnière</i>. Excitement, almost riot, resulted +among the much-caparisoned horses, +the much-favored coachmen, and the much-beribboned +equipages of state. But the noise +increased to clamor and eagerness to violence +when an ethereal figure in floating tulle and +clinging lace was led out into the afternoon +light by a more resplendent edition of black-coated, +gray-trousered knighthood.</p> + +<p>The next wave was all of pink chiffon and +nodding plumes. The first wave, after trickling +about the carriages and the coachmen, +receded up the steps again to be lost and +mingled in the third, and then both swept +down to the carriages again and were absorbed. +Then the steady tide of departing +royalty set in. Then horses plunged, elderly +knights fussed, court ladies commented upon +the heat, the bride, the presents, or their +neighbors. Then the bride's father mopped +his brow and the bridegroom's mother wept +a little. Then there was much shaking or +waving of hands or of handkerchiefs. Then +the bridal carriage began to move, the bride +began to smile, and rice and flowers and +confetti and good wishes and slippers filled +the air. Then other carriages followed, then +the good folk of Camelot followed, an aged +man closed the wide church doors, and the +square was left to the sparrows, pink sunshine, +confetti, rice, and Mary.</p> + +<p>The little pilgrim's sunbonnet was hanging +down her back, her hair was loose upon +her shoulders, "an' real goldy" where it +caught the sun, and her eyes were wide and +deep with happiness and faith. She crossed +the wide plaisance and stood upon the steps, +she gathered up three white roses and a +shred of lace, she sat down to rest upon the +topmost step, she laid her cheek against the +inhospitable doors, and, in the language of the +stories she loved so well, "so fell she on sleep" +with the tired flowers in her tired hands.</p> + +<p>And there Herbert Buckley found her. +He had traveled far afield on that autumn +afternoon; but it is not every day that the +daughter of the owner of one-half the mills +in a manufacturing town is married to the +owner of the other half, and when such things +do occur to the accompaniment of illustrious +visitors, a half-holiday in all the mills, perfect +weather, and unlimited hospitality, it +behooves the progressive journalist and reporter +for miles around to sing "haste to the +wedding," and to draw largely upon his +adjectives and his fountain pen. The editorial +staff of the Arcady <i>Herald-Journal</i> +turned homeward, and was evolving phrases +in which to describe that gala day when his +eye caught the color of a familiar little sunbonnet, +the outline of a familiar little figure. +But such a drooping little sunbonnet! Such +a relaxed little figure! Such a weary little +face! And such a wildly impossible place +in which to find a little daughter. Then he +remembered having seen Miss Ann and Miss +Agnes among the spectators and his wonder +changed to indignation.</p> + +<p>It was nearly dark when Mary opened her +eyes again and found herself sheltered in her +father's arm and rocked by the old familiar +motion of the buggy.</p> + +<p>"And then," she prompted sleepily as +her old habit was, "what did they do +then?"</p> + +<p>"They were married," his quiet voice +replied.</p> + +<p>"And then?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, then they went away together and +lived happily ever after."</p> + +<p>For some space there was silence and a +star came out. Mary watched it drowsily +and then drowsily began:</p> + +<p>"When I was to Camelot—"</p> + +<p>"Where?" demanded her father.</p> + +<p>"When I was to Camelot," she repeated, +cuddling close to him as if to show that there +were dearer places than that gorgeous city, +"I saw a knight and a lady getting married. +And lots of other knights were there—they +didn't wear their fighting clothes—and lots +of other ladies, pink ones. An' Arthur wore +a stovepipe hat an' Guinevere wore a white +dress, an' she had white feathers in her +crown. An' Lancelot, he was there, all +getting married. Daddy, dear," she broke +off to question, "were you ever to Camelot?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I was there," he answered, "but +it was a great many years ago."</p> + +<p>"Did you find roses?" she asked, exhibiting +her wilted treasures.</p> + +<p>"I found your mother there, my dear."</p> + +<p>"And then, what did you do then?"</p> + +<p>"Well, then we were married and lived +happily ever after."</p> + +<p>"And then—?"</p> + +<p>"There was you, and we lived happier +ever after."</p> + +<p>And Mary fell on sleep again in the shelter +of her father's arm while the stars came out +and the glow of joyant Camelot lit all the +southern sky.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="GREAT_OAKS_FROM" id="GREAT_OAKS_FROM"></a>GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS</h2> + + +<p>Among the influences which, in America, +promote harmony between alien +races, the public school plays a most +important part. The children, the teachers, +the parents—whether of emigrant or native +origin—the relatives and friends in distant +countries, are all brought more or less under +its amalgamating influences. In the schoolroom +the child finds friends and playmates +belonging to races widely different from his +own; there Greek meets not only Greek, +but Turk, American, Irish, German, French, +English, Italian and Hungarian, and representatives +of every other nation under the +sun. The lion lying down with the lamb was +nothing to it, because the lamb, though its +feelings are not enlarged upon, must have +been distinctly uncomfortable. But in the +schoolroom Jew and Gentile work and play +together; and black and white learn love and +knowledge side by side.</p> + +<p>And long after more formal instruction +has faded with the passing of the years a man +of, perhaps, German origin will think kindly +of the whole irresponsible Irish race when +he remembers little Bridget O'Connor, who +sat across the aisle in the old Cherry Street +school, her quick temper and her swift +remorse.</p> + +<p>Of course, all these nationalities are rarely +encountered in one district, but a teacher +often finds herself responsible for fifty children +representing five or six of them. In +the lower grades eight or ten may be so +lately arrived as to speak no English. The +teacher presiding over this polyglot community +is often, herself, of foreign birth, yet +they get on very well together, are very fond +of one another, and very happy. The little +foreigners, assisted by their more well-informed +comrades, learn the language of the +land, I regret to say that it is often tinctured +with the language of the Bowery, in from +six to twelve weeks, six weeks for the Jews, +and twelve for the slower among the Germans' +children. And again, it will be difficult +to stir Otto Schmidt, at any stage of his +career, into antagonism against the Jewish +race, when he remembers the patience and +loving kindness with which Maxie Fishandler +labored with him and guided his first steps +through the wilderness of the English tongue.</p> + +<p>These indirect but constant influences are +undeniably the strongest, but at school the +child is taught in history of the heroism and +the strength of men and nations other than +his own; he learns, with some degree of consternation, +that Christopher Columbus was +a "Dago," George Washington an officer in +the English Army, and Christ, our Lord, a +Jew. Geography, as it is now taught with +copious illustrations and descriptions, shows +undreamed-of beauties in countries hitherto +despised. And gradually, as the pupils move +on from class to class, they learn true democracy +and man's brotherhood to man.</p> + +<p>But the work of the American public +school does not stop with the children who +come directly under its control. The board +of education reaches, as no other organization +does, the great mass of the population. +All the other boards and departments established +for the help and guidance of these +people only succeed in badgering and frightening +them. They are met, even at Ellis +Island, by the board of health and they are +subjected to all kinds of disagreeable and +humiliating experiences culminating sometimes +in quarantine and sometimes in deportation. +Even after they have passed the +barrier of the emigration office, the monster +still pursues them. It disinfects their +houses, it confiscates the rotten fish and +vegetables which they hopefully display on +their push-carts, it objects to their wrenching +off and selling the plumbing appliances in +their apartments, it interferes with them +in twenty ways a day and hedges them round +about with a hundred laws which they can +only learn, as Parnell advised a follower +to learn the rules of the House of Commons, +by breaking them.</p> + +<p>Then comes the department of street +cleaning, with its extraordinary ideas of the +use of a thoroughfare. The new-comer is +taught that the street is not the place for +dead cats and cabbage stalks, and other +trifles for which he has no further use. Neither +may it be used, except with restrictions, +as a bedroom or a nursery. The emigrant, +puzzled but obliging, picks his progeny out +of the gutter and lays it on the fire-escape. +He then makes acquaintance of the fire department, +and listens to its heated arguments. +So perhaps he, still willing to please, +reclaims the dead cat and the cabbage stalk, +and proceeds to cremate them in the privacy +of the back yard. Again the fire department, +this time in snorting and horrible +form, descends upon him. And all these +manifestations of freedom are attended by +the blue-coated police who interdict the few +relaxations unprovided for by the other +powers. These human monsters confiscate +stilettos and razors; discourage pocket-picking, +brick-throwing, the gathering of crowds +and the general enjoyment of life. Their +name is legion. Their appetite for figs, dates, +oranges and bananas and graft is insatiable; +they are omnipresent; they are argus-eyed; +and their speech is always, "Keep movin' +there. Keep movin'." And all these baneful +influences may be summoned and set in +action by another, but worse than all of +them, known as the Gerry Society. This +tyrant denies the parent's right in his own +child, forbids him to allow a minor to work +in sweatshop, store, or even on the stage, +and enforces these commands, even to the +extreme of removing the child altogether and +putting it in an institution.</p> + +<p>In sharp contrast to all these ogres, the +board of education shines benignant and +bland. Here is power making itself manifest +in the form of young ladies, kindly of eye and +speech, who take a sweet and friendly interest +in the children and all that concerns +them. Woman meets woman and no policeman +interferes. The little ones are cared +for, instructed, kept out of mischief for five +hours a day, taught the language and customs +of the country in which they are to +make their living or their fortunes; and +generally, though the board of education +does not insist upon it, they are cherished +and watched over. Doctors attend them, +nurses wait upon them, dentists torture them, +oculists test them.</p> + +<p>Friendships frequently spring up between +parent and teacher, and it often lies in the +power of the latter to be of service by giving +either advice or more substantial aid. At +Mothers' meetings the cultivation of tolerance +still goes on. There, women of widely +different class and nationality, meet on the +common ground of their children's welfare. +Then there are roof gardens, recreation piers +and parks, barges and excursions, all designed +to help the poorer part of the city's +population—without regard to creed or nationality—to +bear and to help their children +to bear the killing heat of summer. So Jew +and Gentile, black and white, commingle; +and gradually old hostilities are forgotten +or corrected. The board of education provides +night schools for adults and free lectures +upon every conceivable interesting +topic, including the history and geography +and natural history of distant lands. Travelers +always draw large audiences to their +lectures.</p> + +<p>The children soon learn to read well enough +to translate the American papers and there +are always newspapers in the different vernaculars, +so that the emigrant soon becomes +interested not only in the news of his own +country, but in the multitudinous topics +which go to make up American life. He soon +grasps at least the outlines of politics, national +and international, and before he can +speak English he will address an audience +of his fellow countrymen on "Our Glorious +American Institutions."</p> + +<p>It is not only the emigrant parent who +profits by the work of the public school. +The American parent also finds himself, or +generally herself, brought into friendly contact +with the foreign teachers and the foreign +friends of her children. The New York +public school system culminates in the Normal +College, which trains women as teachers, +and the College of the City of New York, +which offers courses to young men in the +profession of law, engineering, teaching, and, +besides, a course in business training. The +commencement at these institutions brings +strangely contrasted parents together in a +common interest and a common pride. The +students seem much like one another, but +the parents are so widely dissimilar as to +make the similarity of their offspring an +amazing fact for contemplation. Mothers +with shawls over their heads and work-distorted +hands sit beside mothers in Parisian +costumes, and the silk-clad woman is generally +clever enough to appreciate and to admire +the spirit which strengthened her weary +neighbor through all the years of self-denial, +labor, poverty and often hunger, which were +necessary to pay for the leisure and the education +of son or daughter. The feeling of inferiority, +of uselessness, which this realization +entails may humiliate the idle woman but +it is bound to do her good. It will certainly +deprive her conversation of sweeping criticisms +on lives and conditions unknown to +her. It will also utterly do away with many +of her prejudices against the foreigner and +it will make the "Let them eat cake" attitude +impossible.</p> + +<p>And so the child, the parent, the teacher +and the home-staying relative are brought +to feel their kinship with all the world +through the agency of the public school, but +the teacher learns the lesson most fully, +most consciously. The value to the cause +of peace and good-will in the community of +an army of thousands of educated men and +women holding views such as these cannot +easily be over-estimated. The teachers, too, +are often aliens and nearly always of a race +different from their pupils, yet you will rarely +meet a teacher who is not delighted with +her charges.</p> + +<p>"Do come," they always say, "and see +my little Italians, or Irish, or German, or +picaninnies; they are the sweetest little +things," or, if they be teachers of a higher +grade, "They are the cleverest and the most +charming children." They are all clever in +their different ways, and they are all charming +to those who know them, and the work +of the public school is to make this charm +and cleverness appreciated, so that race +misunderstandings in the adult populations +may grow fewer and fewer.</p> + +<p>The only dissatisfied teacher I ever encountered +was a girl of old Knickerbocker +blood, who was considered by her relatives +to be too fragile and refined to teach any +children except the darlings of the upper +West side, where some of the rich are democratic +enough to patronize the public school. +From what we heard of her experiences, +"patronize" is quite the proper word to use +in this connection. A group of us, classmates, +had been comparing notes and asked +her from what country her charges came. +"Oh, they are just kids," she answered dejectedly, +"ordinary every-day kids, with +Dutch cut hair, Russian blouses, belts at +the knee line, sandals, and nurses to convey +them to and from school. You never saw +anything so tiresome."</p> + +<p>It grew finally so tiresome that she applied +for a transfer, and took the Knickerbocker +spirit down to the Jewish quarter, where it +gladdened the young Jacobs, Rachaels, Isadors +and Rebeccas entrusted to her care. +Her place among the nursery pets was taken +by a dark-eyed Russian girl, who found the +uptown babies, the despised "just kids," +as entertaining, as lovable, and as instructive +as the Knickerbocker girl found the +Jews. Well, and so they are all of them, +lovable, entertaining and instructive, and +the man or woman who goes among them +with an open heart and eye will find much +material for thought and humility, and one +function of the public school is to promote +this understanding and appreciation. It has +done wonders in the past, and every year +finds it better equipped for its work of amalgamation. +The making of an American citizen +is its stated function, but its graduates +will be citizens not only of America. In +sympathy, at least, they will be citizens of +the world.</p> + + +<p>FINIS</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of New Faces, by Myra Kelly + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW FACES *** + +***** This file should be named 15449-h.htm or 15449-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/4/15449/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: New Faces + +Author: Myra Kelly + +Illustrator: Charles F. Neagle + + +Release Date: March 24, 2005 [EBook #15449] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW FACES *** + + + + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + +NEW FACES + +BY + +MYRA KELLY + +AUTHOR OF "LITTLE CITIZENS" "WARDS OF LIBERTY" "THE ISLE OF DREAMS" +"ROSNAH" "THE GOLDEN SEASON" "LITTLE ALIENS" + +[Illustration: Printers Mark] + +_Illustrations by_ + +CHARLES F. NEAGLE + + +G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + + + + +_Copyright, 1910, By_ G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY + + + + +NEW FACES + +[Illustration: "THERE'S NO QUESTION ABOUT IT," HE RETORTED. "SHE KNOWS +THAT I SHALL MARRY HER."] + + + "Oh give me new faces, new faces, new faces + I have seen those about me a fortnight or more. + Some people grow weary of names or of places + But faces to me are a much greater bore." + + _Andrew Lang._ + + + + +CONTENTS + +THE PLAY'S THE THING 17 +THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS 57 +MISERY LOVES COMPANY 83 +THE CHRISTMAS GUEST 115 +WHO IS SYLVIA? 147 +THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE 187 +THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD 219 +GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS 263 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"There's no question about it," he retorted. "She knows that I shall +marry her." + +Burgess gained an interest and an occupation more absorbing than he had +found for many years + +Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's eyes, was a study + +She swooped under the large center table, dragging Patty with her + +The changeless smile and the drooping plumes made three complete +revolutions, and nestled confidingly upon the shoulder of the law + +Celia Anne shut her eyes tightly and fired the rifle into the air + + + + +NEW FACES + + + + +"THE PLAY'S THE THING" + + +A business meeting of the Lady Hyacinths Shirt-Waist Club was in +progress. The roll had been called. The twenty members were all present +and the Secretary had read the minutes of the last meeting. These +formalities had consumed only a few moments and the club was ready to +fall upon its shirt waists. The sewing-machines were oiled and +uncovered, the cutting-table was cleared, every Hyacinth had her box of +sewing paraphernalia in her lap; and Miss Masters who had been half +cajoled and half forced into the management of this branch of the St. +Martha's Settlement Mission was congratulating herself upon the ease and +expedition with which her charges were learning to transact their +affairs, when the President drew a pencil from her pompadour and rapped +professionally on the table. In her daytime capacity of saleslady in a +Grand Street shoe store she would have called "cash," but as President +of the Lady Hyacinths her speech was: + +"If none of you goils ain't got no more business to lay before the +meetin' a movement to adjoin is in order." + +"I move we adjoin an git to woik," said Mamie Kidansky promptly. Only +three buttonholes and the whalebones which would keep the collar well up +behind the ears lay between her and the triumphant rearing of her shirt +waist. Hence her zeal. + +Susie Meyer was preparing to second the motion. As secretary she +disapproved of much discussion. She was always threatening to resign her +portfolio vowing, with some show of reason, "I never would 'a' joined +your old Hyacinths Shirt-Waists if I'd a' known I was goin' to have to +write down all the foolish talk you goils felt like givin' up." + +It seemed therefore that the business meeting was closed, when a voice +from the opposite side of the table broke in with: + +"Say, Rosie, why can't us goils give a play?" + +"Ah Jennie, you make me tired," protested the Secretary. + +"An' you're out of order anyway," was the President's dictum. + +"Where?" cried Jennie wildly, clutching her pompadour with one hand and +the back of her belt with the other, "where, what's the matter with me?" + +"Go 'way back an' sit down," was the Secretary's advice, "Rosie meant +you're out of parliamentry order. We got a motion on the table an' it's +too late for you to butt in on it. This meetin' is goin' to adjoin." + +But Jennie was the spokesman of a newly-born party and her supporters +were not going to allow her to be silenced. Even those Lady Hyacinths +who had not been admitted to earlier consultations took kindly to the +suggestion when they heard it. + +"I don't care whether she's out of order or not," one ambitious Hyacinth +declared, "I think it would be just too lovely for anything to have a +play. They have 'em all the time over to Rivington Street an' down to +the Educational Alliance." + +"Rebecca Einstein," said the Secretary darkly, "if you're goin' to fire +off your face about plays an' the Educational Alliances you can keep +your own minnits, that's all! Do ye think I'm goin' to write down your +foolishness? Well, I ain't." + +Again the President plied her gavel. "Goils," she remonstrated, "this +ain't no way to act. Say, Miss Masters," she went on, "I guess the whole +lot of us is out of order now. What would you do about it if you was me?" + +"I should suggest," Miss Masters answered, "that the motion to adjourn +be carried and that the whole club go into committee on the question +raised by Miss Meyer." + +"I move that we take our woik into committee with us," cried Miss +Kidansky, not to be deflected from her buttonholes. And from such humble +beginnings the production of Hamlet by the Lady Hyacinths sprang. + +Hamlet was not their first choice. It was not even their tenth and to +the end it was not the unanimous choice. During the preliminary stages +of the dramatic fever Miss Masters preserved that strict neutrality +which marks the successful Settlement worker. She would help--oh, surely +she would help--the Hyacinths, but she would not lead them. She had +never questioned their taste in the shape and color of their shirt +waists. Some horrid garments had resulted but to her they represented +"self expression," and as such gave her more pleasure than any servile +following of her advice could have done. She soon discovered that the +latitude in the shirt waist field is far exceeded by that in the +dramatic and she discovered too, that the Lady Hyacinths, though they +seldom visited the theatre had strong digestions where plays were +concerned. + +"East Lynne" was warmly advocated until some one discovered a +grandmother who had seen it in her youth. Then: + +"Ah gee!" remarked the Lady Hyacinths, "we ain't no grave snatchers. We +ain't goin' to dig up no dead ones. Say Miss Masters, ain't there no new +plays we could give?" + +Miss Masters referred them to the public library, but not many plays are +obtainable in book form, and the next two meetings were devoted to the +plays of Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, Vaughan Moody. When Miss Masters descried +this literature in the hands of the now openly mutinous Secretary she +felt the time had come to interfere with the "self activity" of her +charges. She promptly confiscated the second volume of "G.B.S." "For," +she explained "we don't want to do anything unpleasant and the writer of +these plays himself describes them as that." + +"Guess we don't," the President agreed. "We got to live up to our name, +ain't we? An' what could be pleasanter than a Hyacinth?" + +"Nothing, of course," agreed Miss Masters unsteadily. + +"There's one in this Ibsen book might do," Jennie suggested. "It's +called 'A Dolls' House,' that's a real sweet name." + +"I am afraid it wouldn't do," said Miss Masters hastily. + +"What's the matter with it?" demanded Susie Meyer. + +"Well, in the first place, there are children in it--" + +"Cut it! 'Nough said," pronounced the President. "Them plays wid kids in +'em is all out of style. We giv' 'East Lynne' the turn down an' there +was only one kid in that. What else have you got in that Gibson book? +Have you got the play with the Gibson goils in it? We could do that all +right, all right. Ain't most of us got Gibson pleats in our shirt +waists?" + +"I don't see nothin' about goils," the Secretary made answer, "but +there's one here about ghosts. How would that do?" + +"Not at all," said Miss Masters firmly. + +"What's the matter with it?" asked one of the girls abandoning her +sewing-machine and coming over to the table. "I seen posters of it last +year. They are givin' it in Broadway. The costoomes would be real easy, +just a sheet you know and your hair hanging down." + +"It's not about that kind of ghost," Miss Masters explained, "and I +don't think it would do for us as there are very few people in the cast +and one of them is a minister." + +"Cut it," said the President briefly, "we ain't goin' to have no hymn +singin' in ours. We couldn't, you know," she explained to Miss Masters, +"the most of us is Jewesses." + +"Katie McGuire ain't no Jewess," asserted the Secretary. "She could be +the minister if that's all you've got against this Gibson play. I wish +we _could_ give it. It's about the only up-to-date Broadway success we +can find. The librarian says you can't never buy copies of Julia +Marlowe's an' Ethel Barrymore's an' Maude Adams' plays. I guess they're +just scared somebody like us will come along an' do 'em better than they +do an' bust their market. Actresses," she went on, "is all jest et up +with jealousy of one another. Is there anythin' except the minister the +matter with 'Ghosts?'" + +"Everything else is the matter with it," said Miss Masters. "To begin +with, I might as well tell you, it never was a Broadway success. It's a +play that is read oftener than it's acted and last year, Jennie, when +you saw the posters, it only ran for a week." + +"Cut it," said the President. "We ain't huntin' frosts." + +The brows of the Hyacinths grew furrowed and their eyes haggard in the +search. Everyone could tell them of plays but no one knew where they +could be found in printed form and whenever the librarian found +something which might be suitable Miss Masters was sure to know of +something to its disadvantage. + +And then the real stage, the legitimate Broadway stage intervened. +Albert Marsden produced Hamlet and the Lady Hyacinths determined to +follow suit. + +"It's kind of old," the President admitted, "but there must be some +style left to it. They're playin' it on Broadway right now. An' we'll +give it on East Broadway just as soon as we can git ready. Me and Mamie +went round to the library last night an' got it out. It's got a dandy +lot of parts in it: more than this club will ever need. An' it's got +lots of murders an' scraps, an' court ladies an' soldiers an' kings. +It's our play all right!" + +The sea of troubles into which the Lady Hyacinths plunged with so much +enthusiasm swallowed them so completely that Miss Masters could only +stand on its shore, looking across to Denmark and wringing her hands +over the awful things that were happening in that unhappy land. +Fortunately she had a friend to whom she could appeal for succour for +the lost but still valiant Hyacinths. He was the sort of person to whom +appeals came as naturally as honors come to some men and, since he had +nothing to do and ample time and money with which to do it, he was +generally helpful and resourceful. That he had once loved Miss Masters +has nothing to do with this story. She was now engaged to be married to +a poorer and busier man, but it was to Jack Burgess that she appealed. + +"Of course I know," said he when he had responded to her message and she +had anchored him with a tea-cup and disarmed him with a smile, "of +course I know what you want to say to me. Every girl who has refused me +has said it sooner or later. You are saying it later--much later--than +they generally do, but it always comes. 'You have found a wife for me.'" + +"I have done much better than that," she answered, "I have found work +for you." And she sketched the distress of the Hyacinths in Denmark and +urged him to go to their assistance. + +"But, my dear Margaret," he remonstrated, "What can I do? You have +always known that 'something is rotten in the state of Denmark,' and +yet you have let these poor innocents stir it up. I have often thought +that poor Shakespeare added that line after the first performance. I +intend to write that hint to Furniss one of these days." + +"You will write it," said Margaret Masters, "with more conviction after +you have seen _my_ Denmark." + +"Very well," said he, "I'll visit Elsinore to-night, but I insist upon a +return ticket." + +"You will be begging for a season ticket," she laughed. "They have +reduced me to such a condition that I don't know whether they are +amusing me or breaking my heart. Tell me, come, which is it? Did you +ever hear blank verse recited with tense and reverent earnestness and a +Bowery accent?" + +"I never did," said he. + + * * * * * + +"Shakespeare was right," whispered Burgess to Miss Masters. "There is +something rotten in Denmark. I've located it. It's the Prince." They +were sitting together in a corner of the kindergarten room of the +settlement: a large and spacious room all decked and bright with the +paper and cardboard masterpieces of the babies who played and learned +there in the mornings. Casts and pictures and green growing things added +to its charm and the Lady Hyacinths so trim and neat and earnest did not +detract from it. + +The sewing-machines and the cutting-table had been cast into corners and +well in the glare of the electric light the President was exclaiming in +a voice which would have disgraced an early phonograph, "Oh that this +too too solid flesh would melt." + +It was not a dress rehearsal but the too solid Prince wore his hair low +on his neck and a golden fillet bound his brows. Silent, he was noble. +His walk as he came in at the end of a procession of court ladies and +gentlemen was magnificent--slow, dejected, imperious, aloof. But +Wittenberg had a great deal to answer for, if he had contracted his +accent there. + +Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, was a Hyacinth who worked daily at hooks and +buttonholes for an East Broadway tailor. On this night she wore none of +her regalia save her crown and the King had done nothing at all to +differentiate himself from Susie Lacov who officiated as waitress in a +Jewish lunchroom. + +The Hyacinths had wisely decided to edit Hamlet. In this they followed +an almost universal principle and their method was also time-honored. +All the scenes in which unimportant members of the club or cast "came +out strong," were eliminated. So far the Hyacinths were orthodox, but +Rosie Rosenbaum, Prince, President and Censor, went a step further. + +"Git busy. Mix her up, why don't you!" she commanded later from the +wings. The other players were laboriously wading through persiflage and +conversation. "You folks ain't _done_ nothin' the last ten minutes only +stand there and gas. Is that actin'? Maybe it's wrote in the book. What +I want to know is--is it actin'?" Burgess sat suddenly erect and his +eyes glowed. Miss Masters half rose to assume authority but he +restrained her. + +"You shut up and leave me be," Polonius cried. "Ain't I got a right to +say good-bye to my son?" + +"You can say good-bye all right," Rosie reminded her, "without puttin' +up that game of talk. Give him a 'I'll be a sister to you' on the cheek +an' git through sometime before to-morrow. Cut it, I tell you." + +This "off with his head" attitude on the President's part delighted +Burgess. But the caste enjoyed it less and when the ghost was docked of +a whole scene it grew rebellious. + +"If you give me any more of your lip," said the princely stage manager, +"I'll trow you out altogether. There's lots of people wouldn't believe +in ghosts anyway. Me grandfather seen this play in Chermany and he told +me they didn't use the ghost at all. Nothin' but a green light with a +voice comin' out of it." + +"Well, I could be the voice, couldn't I?" the ghost argued; and it was +at this point that Miss Masters took charge of the meeting and +introduced Mr. Burgess. + +"Who has offered," she went on in spite of his energetic pantomime of +disclaimer, "to help us with our play." + +"That's real sweet of you, Mr. Burgess," said the President graciously. + +"Not at all--not at all," he answered. "It will be a pleasure, I assure +you." + +"You'll excuse me, I'm sure," the Secretary broke in, "if we go right on +with our woik while you're here. We're makin' our own costoomes, as +much as we can. That was one reason us young ladies chose Hamlet. It's a +play what everyone wears skoits in. It's easier for us and it ain't so +embarrassing, and I guess our folks will like it better. You _have_ to +think of your folks sometimes. Even if they are old-fashioned. Miss +Masters got us pictures of Mr. Marsden's production an' every last one +of the characters has skoits on. Hamlet's ain't no longer than a bathin' +suit, but anyway it's there. I don't think it's real refined, myself, +for young ladies to wear gents' suits on the stage." + +"And of course," a gentle-eyed little girl looked up from her sewing to +remark,--"of course this club ain't formed just for makin' shirt waists. +We've got a culture-an'-refinement clause in the club constitution, so +we wouldn't want to do nothin' that wasn't real refined." + +[Illustration: BURGESS GAINED AN INTEREST AND AN OCCUPATION MORE +ABSORBING THAN HE HAD FOUND FOR MANY YEARS.] + +"I understand," said Burgess more at a loss than a conversation had +ever found him, "And what may I ask, is your part of the play?" + +"Mamie Conners is too nervous," the lady President explained "to come +right out and act. She's 'A flourish of trumpets within an' a voice +without an' a lady of the court an' a soldier an' a choir boy at the +funeral.'" + +"Ah, Miss Conners," Burgess assured this timid but versatile Hyacinth, +"that's only stage fright, all great actresses suffer from it at one +time or another." + + * * * * * + +During the weeks that followed, order gradually gained sway in Denmark +and Burgess gained an interest and an occupation more absorbing than he +had found for many years. + +"My dear Margaret," he was wont to assure Miss Masters, when she +remonstrated with him upon his generosity, "Why shouldn't I order +supper to be sent in for them? and why shouldn't I ask them up to the +house for rehearsals? There's the big music room going to waste and +those lazy beggars of servants with nothing to do, and you saw yourself +how it brightened up poor old Aunt Priscilla. She likes it--they like +it--I like it--you ought to like it. And you certainly can't object to +my having taken them _en masse_ to see Marsden in the play. By George! +I'll drag him to theirs. We'll show him an Ophelia! that Mary Conners is +a little genius." + +"She is wonderful," agreed Miss Masters. "The grace of her! The dignity! +What she herself would call the culture-an'-refinement!" + +"All my discovery. That tyrant of a Rosie Rosenbaum had cast her as a +quick change, general utility woman. And in the day-time you tell me +she's a miserable little shop-girl in a Grand Street rookery!" + +"That is what she used to be. But I went to the shop a day or two ago +to ask her to come up to my house to rehearse with the new Hamlet. I +watched her for a few moments before she noticed me. She was Ophelia to +the life. She conversed in blank verse. She walked about with that +little queenly air you have taught her. She was delicious, adorable. At +first she said that she could not rehearse that night, but I told her +you wished it and she came like a lamb. I often wonder if I did a wise +thing in introducing them to you. Your sort of culture-an'-refinement' +may rather upset them when the play is over and we all settle back to +the humdrum." + +"You did a great kindness to me," said he, "and the best stroke of +missionary work you'll do in a dog's age. I'm going to work." + +"You are not," she laughed. + +"I am. Shamed into it by the Lady Hyacinths." + +"Then perhaps the balance will be maintained. If you turn them against +labor they will have turned you toward it." + +But Miss Masters' fears were groundless: the Lady Hyacinths though +dedicated to a flower of spring were old and wise in social +distinctions. The story of King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid would have +drawn only a contemptuous "cut it out" from the lady President. Every +Hyacinth of them knew her exact place in nature's garden--all except +Mary Conners--now Ophelia--and she knew herself to be a foundling with +no place at all. The lonely woman who had adopted her was now dead and +Mary was quite alone in her little two-room tenement, free to dream and +play Ophelia to her heart's content and to an imaginary Hamlet who was +always Burgess. To her he was indeed, "The expectancy and rose of the +fair state." "The glass of fashion and the mould of form." He was "her +honoured lord"--"her most dear lord." But in Monroe Street she never +deceived him. Never handed his letters over to interfering relatives. +She could quite easily go mad and tuneful when she knew that each +rehearsal--each lesson taught by him and so quickly learned by +her--brought the days when she would never see him so close that she +could almost feel their emptiness. + +It was well that she played to an idealized Hamlet for the real Hamlets +came and went bewilderingly. One of Burgess's first triumphs of tact had +been to pry the part away from the lady President and give it to the +sturdy Secretary. There followed two other claimants to the throne in +quick succession and then the lot fell to Rebecca Einstein and stayed +there. Each change in the principal role necessitated readjustment +throughout the cast and at every change the lady President was persuaded +not to over exert herself. + +And still Burgess in the seclusion of the homeward bound hansom railed +and swore. + +"I tell you, Margaret, that girl will ruin us. All the rest are funny. +Overwhelmingly, incredibly funny! And pathetic! Could anything be more +pathetic! But that awful President strikes a wrong note: Vulgarity. Take +her out of it and we'll have a thing the like of which New York had +never seen, for Ophelia is a genius or I miss my guess and all the rest +are darlings." + +"But we can't throw out the President of the club. She must have a part. +You have moved her down from Hamlet to Laertes--to the King--" + +"I did," groaned Burgess. "Will you ever forget her rendering of the +line, "Now I could do it, Pat," and then her storming up to me to know +"Who Pat was anyway?"" + +"I do," laughed Margaret, "and then how you moved her on to Guildenstern +and now you have got her down to Bernardo with all her part cut out and +nothing except that opening line, "Who's there?" and the other: "'Tis +now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco."" + +"Yes, and she ruins them. I've drilled her and drilled her till my +throat is sore and still she says it straight through her nose just as +though she were delivering an order of 'ham and' at her hash battery. +Just the same truculent 'Don't you dare to answer back' attitude. She's +impossible. She must be removed." + +Meanwhile the Lady Hyacinths scattering to their different homes +discussed their mentor. Ophelia and Horatio and Hamlet were going +through Clinton Street together. Ophelia was still at Elsinore but +Horatio was approaching common ground again. + +"I suppose he's Miss Masters' steady," said he to Hamlet. "He wouldn't +come down here every other night just to help us goils out." + +But Ophelia was better informed. She knew Miss Masters to be engaged to +quite another person. + +"Then I know," cried Horatio triumphantly. "He's stuck on Rosie +Rosenbaum. It's her brings him." + +Ophelia said nothing, and Horatio having experienced an inspiration, set +about strengthening it with proof. + +"It's Rosie sure enough. Ain't he learned her about every part in the +play? Don't he keep takin' her off in corners an' goin' 'Who's there, +'Tis now struck twelve' for about an hour every night? I wouldn't have +nothin' to do with a feller that kept company that way, but I s'pose +it's the style on Fifth Avenue. You know how I tell you, Ham, in the +play that there's lots of things goin' on what you ain't on to. Well +it's so. None of you was on to Rosie an' his nibs. You didn't ever guess +it did you 'Pheleir?" + +"No," admitted Ophelia. "No, I never did." + +"Well it's so. You watch 'em. The style in wives is changin'. Actresses +is goin' out an' the 'poor but honest workin' goil' is comin' in. One of +our salesladies has a book about it. "The Bowery Bride" its name is. All +about a shop goil what married a rich fellow and used to come back to +the store and take her old friends carriage ridin'. If Rosie Rosenbaum +tries it on me, I'll break her face. If she comes round me," cried the +Prince's fellow student: "with carriages and a benevolent smile, I'll +claw the smile off of her if I have to take the skin with it!" + +When Horatio and Hamlet left her, she wandered disconsolate, down to the +river. But no willow grows aslant that brook, no flowers were there with +which to weave fantastic garlands. + +"I've gone crazy all right," said poor Ophelia as she watched the lights +of the great bridge, "but I don't drown myself until Scene VII. And I'm +goin' up to his house to-morrow night to learn to act crazy. I guess I +don't need much learning." + + * * * * * + +The performance of Hamlet by the Lady Hyacinths is still remembered by +those who saw it as the most bewildering entertainment of their +theatrical experience. The play had been cut down to its absolute +essentials and the players, though drilled and coached in their lines +and business, had been left quite free in the matters of interpretation +and accent. The result was so unique that the daily press fell upon it +with whoops of joy and published portraits of and interviews with the +leading characters. People who had thought that only ferries and docks +lay south of Twenty-third Street penetrated to the heart of the great +East Side and went home again full of an altruism which lasted three +days. And on the last night of the "run" of three nights, Jack Burgess +brought Albert Marsden to witness it. Other spectators had always +emerged dumb or inarticulate from the ordeal but the great actor was not +one of them. He was blusterous and garrulous and, to Burgess' amazement, +not at all amused. + +"Who is that girl who played Ophelia? Is she an East Side working girl +or one of the mission people?" + +"She's a shop-girl," answered Burgess. "There's no good in your asking +me to introduce you to her for I won't. That's been one of our rules +from the beginning. We don't want the children to be upset and +patronized." + +"Who taught her to act?" + +"Well, I coached them all as you know, but she never seemed to require +any special teaching. Pretty good, isn't she?" + +"Pretty good! She is a genius--a wonder. This is all rot about my not +meeting her. I am going to meet her and train her. I suppose you have +noticed that she is a beauty too." + +"But she's only a child," Burgess urged. "She's only eighteen. She +couldn't stand the life and the work and she couldn't stand the people. +You have no idea what high ideals these girls have, and Mary +Conners--that's the girl's name--seems to be exceptional even amongst +them." + +"Too good for us, eh?" asked the actor. + +"Entirely too good," answered Burgess steadily. + +"And do you feel justified in deciding her future for her! In condemning +her to an obscure life in the slums instead of a successful career on +the stage?" + +"I do not," answered Burgess, "she must decide that for herself. I'll +ask her and let you know." + +To this end he sought Miss Masters. "I want you," said he, "to ask Mary +Conners to tea with you to-morrow afternoon. It will be Sunday so she +can manage. And then I want you to leave us alone. I have something very +serious to say to her." + +Margaret looked at him and laughed. "Then you were right," said she, +"and I was wrong; I had found a wife for you." + +"For absolute inane, insensate romanticism," said he, "I recommend you +to the recently engaged. You used to have some sense. You were clever +enough to refuse me and now you go and forever ruin my opinion of you by +making a remark like that." + +"It is not romanticism at all," she maintained. "It is the best of +common sense. You will never be satisfied with anyone you haven't +trained and formed to suit your own ideals. And you will never find such +a 'quick study' as Mary." + +It was the earliest peep of spring and Burgess stopped on his way to +Miss Masters' house and bought a sheaf of white hyacinths and pale +maiden hair for the little Lady Hyacinth who was waiting for him. + +As soon as he was alone with her he managed to distract her attention +from her flowers and to make her listen to Marsden's message. He set the +case before her plainly. Without exaggeration and without extenuation. + +"And we don't expect you," he ended, "to make up your mind at once. You +must consult your relatives and friends." + +"I have no relatives," she answered. + +"Your friends then." + +"I don't think I have many. Some of the girls in the club perhaps. The +old book-keeper in the store where I work, perhaps Miss Masters." + +"And you have me," he interrupted. But she smiled at him and shook her +head. "You were real kind about the play," said she, "but the play's all +over now. I guess you'd better tell your friend that I'll take the +position. I have been getting pretty tired of work in the store and I'd +like to try this if he don't mind." + +"Oh, but you mustn't go into it like that," Burgess protested, "just for +the want of something better. Acting is an art--a great art--you must be +glad and proud." + +"I'll try it," she said without enthusiasm. "If you feel that way about +it I'll try it. It can't be worse than the store. The store is just +horrible. Oh! Mr. Burgess you can't think what it is to be Ophelia in +the evening with princes loving you and then to be a cashier in the +day-time that any fresh customer thinks he can get gay with. Maybe if I +was an actress I could be Ophelia oftener. I'd do anything, Mr. Burgess, +to get away from the store." + +Burgess did not answer immediately. Her earnestness had rather overcome +her and he waited silently while she walked to the window, surreptitiously +pressed her handkerchief against her eyes and conquered +the sobs that threatened to choke her. Burgess watched her. The trimness +of her figure, the absolute neatness and propriety of her dress, the +poise and restraint of her manner. Then she turned and he rose to meet her. + +"Mary," said he, "you never in all the time I've known you have failed +to do what I asked you. Will you do something for me now?" + +"Yes, sir," she answered simply. + +"Then sit down in that chair and take this watch of mine in your hand +and don't say one single, solitary, lonely word for five minutes. No +matter what happens: no matter what anyone says or does. Will you +promise?" + +"Yes, sir," she answered again. + +"Well then," he began, "I know another man who wants you--this stage +idea is not the only way out of the store. Remember you're not to +speak--this other man wants to marry you." + +A scarlet flush sprang to Mary's face and slowly ebbed away again leaving +her deadly pale. She kept her word in letter but hardly in spirit for +she looked at him through tear-filled eyes, and shook her head. + +"Of course you can't be expected to take to the idea just at first," +said he, as if she had spoken, "but I want you to think it over. The man +is a well-off, gentlemanly sort of chap. Miles too old for you of +course--for you're not twenty and he's nearly forty--but I think he +would make you happy. I know he'd try with all the strength that's in him." + +Blank incredulity was on Mary's face. She glanced at the watch and up at +him and again she shook her head. + +"This man," Burgess went on, "is a friend of Miss Masters and it was +through her that he first heard of the Lady Hyacinths. He was an idler +then. A shiftless, worthless loafer, but the Lady Hyacinths made a man +of him and he's gone out and got a job." + +Comprehension overwhelming, overmastering, flashed into Mary's eyes. But +her promise held her silent and in her chair. Again it was as though she +had spoken. + +"Yes, I see you understand--you probably think of me as an old man past +the time of love and yet I love you." + + "Doubt thou the stars are fire; + Doubt that the sun doth move; + Doubt truth to be a liar; + But never doubt I love." + +"That's all I have to offer you, sweetheart. Just love and my life," and +he in turn went to the window and looked out into the gathering dusk. + +Mary sat absolutely still. She knew now that she was dreaming. Just so +the dream had always run and when the five minutes were past, she rose +and went to him: a true Ophelia, her arms all full of hyacinths. + +"My honored Lord," said she. He turned, and the dream held. + + + + +THERE'S DANGER IN NUMBERS + + +The Pennsylvania Limited was approaching Jersey City and the afternoon +was approaching three o'clock when Mr. John Blake turned to Mrs. John +Blake, nee Marjorie Underwood, a bride of about three hours, and +precipitated the first discussion of their hitherto happy married life. + +"Your Uncle Richard Underwood," said he--the earlier discussions in the +wedded state are usually founded upon relations--"is as stupid as he is +kind. It was very good of him to arrange that I should meet old +Nicholson. Any young fellow in the country would give his eyes for the +chance. But to make an appointment for a fellow at four o'clock in the +afternoon of his wedding day is a thing of which no one, except your +Uncle Richard, would be capable. He might have known that I couldn't go." + +"But you must go," urged the bride, "it's the chance of a lifetime. +Besides which," she added with a pretty little air of practicality, "we +can't afford to throw away an opportunity like this. We may never get +another one, and if you don't go how are you to explain it to Uncle +Richard when we dine there to-morrow night?--you know we promised to, +when he was last at West Hills." + +"But what," suggested her husband--"what if, in grasping at the shadow, +I lose the reality? I'd rather lose twenty opportunities than my only +wife, and what's to become of you while I go down to Broad Street? Do +you propose to sit in the station?" + +"I propose nothing of the kind," she laughed. "I shall go straight to +the Ruissillard and wait for you. Dick and Gladys may be there already." + +Although Mr. John Blake received this suggestion with elaborate +disfavor and disclaimer it was clear to the pretty eyes of Mrs. John +Blake that he hailed it with delight, and she was full of theories upon +marital co-operation and of eagerness to put them into practice. None of +her husband's objections could daunt her, and before he had adjusted +himself to the situation he had packed his wife into a hansom, given the +cabman careful instructions and a careless tip, and was standing on the +step admonishing his bride: + +"Be sure to tell them that we must have out-side rooms. Have the baggage +sent up, but don't touch it. If you open a trunk or lift a tray before I +arrive I shall instantly send you home to your mother as incorrigible." + +"Very well," she agreed; "I'll be good." + +"And then, if Gladys is there--it's only an off-chance that they come +before to-morrow--get her to sit with you. But don't go wandering about +the hotel by yourself. And, above all, don't go out." + +"Goosie," said she, "of course I shan't go out. Where should I go?" + +"And you're sure, sure, sure that you don't mind?" he asked for the +dozenth time. + +"Goosie," said she again, "I am quite, quite sure of it. Now go or you +will surely miss your appointment and disappoint your uncle." + +After two or three more questions of his and assurances of hers the cab +was allowed to swing out into the current. John had given the driver +careful navigation orders, and Marjorie leaned back contentedly enough +and watched the busy people, all hot and haggard, as New York's people +sometimes are in the first warm days of May. Her collection of +illustrated post-cards had prepared her to identify many of the places +she passed, but once or twice she felt, a little ruefully the difference +between this, her actual first glimpse of New York and the same first +glimpse as she and John had planned it before the benign, but hardly +felicitous, interference of Uncle Richard. This feeling of loneliness +was strongly in the ascendent when the cab stopped under an ornate +portico and two large male creatures, in powdered wigs and white silk +stockings, emerged before her astonished eyes. Open flew her little +door, down jumped the cabman, out rushed other menials and laid hands +upon her baggage. Horses fretted, pedestrians risked their lives, motors +snorted and newsboys clamored as an enormous police-appearing person +assisted her to alight. He had such an air of having been expecting and +longing for her arrival that she wondered innocently whether John had +telephoned about her. This thought persisted with her until she and her +following of baggage-laden pages drew up before the desk, but it fell +from her with a crash when she encountered the aloof, impersonal, +world-weary regard of the presiding clerk. In all Marjorie's happy life +she had never met anything but welcome. The belle of a fast-growing town +is rather a sheltered person, and not even the most confiding of +ingenues could detect a spark of greeting in the lackadaisical regard of +this highly-manicured young man. + +Marjorie began her story, began to recite her lesson: "Outside rooms, +not lower than the fourth nor higher than the eighth floor; the Fifth +Avenue side if possible--and was Mrs. Robert Blake in?" + +The lackadaisical young man consulted the register with a disparaging eye. + +"Not staying here," Marjorie understood him to remark. + +"Oh, it doesn't matter--but about the rooms?" + +"Front!" drawled the young man, and several blue-clad bellboys ceased +from lolling on a bench and approached the desk. + +"Register here," commanded the clerk, twirling the big book on its +turn-table toward Marjorie so suddenly that she jumped, and laying his +pink-tinted finger on its first blank line. + +"No, thank you," she stammered, "I was not to register until my +husband--" and her heart cried out within her for that she was saying +these new, dear words for the first time to so unresponsive a +stranger--"told me not to register until he should come and see that the +rooms were satisfactory. He will be here presently." + +"We have no unsatisfactory rooms," was the answer, followed by: "Front +625 and 6," and fresh pages and bellboys fell upon the yellow baggage, +and Marjorie, in a hot confusion of counting her property and wondering +how to resent the young man's impertinence, turned to follow them. + +"One moment, madam," the clerk murmured; "name and address, please." The +pages were escaping with the bags, and Mrs. Blake hardly turned as she +answered, according to the habit of her lifetime: + +"Underwood, West Hills, N.J.," and flew to the elevator, which had +already swallowed her baggage and the boys. Up to suite Number 625 and 6 +she was conducted by her blue-clad attendants, who opened the windows, +pushed the furniture about--then waited; who fetched ice water, drew +down shades--and waited; who closed the windows, drew up the shades, +shifted the baggage from sofa to armchair, unbuckled the straps of a +suitcase, indicated the telephone--and waited; who put the bags on the +bed, opened the windows, pushed the furniture back against the wall--and +waited. Marjorie viewed all these manoeuvres with amused but +unsophisticated eyes. She smiled serenely at the smiling bellboys--while +they waited. She thanked them prettily for their assistance--and they +waited. She dismissed them still prettily, and it is to be regretted +that, in the privacy of the hall, they swore. + +She then took possession of her little domain. The clerk, however +unbearably, had spoken the truth, and the rooms were charming. There +could be no question, she decided, of going farther. She spread her +pretty wedding silver on the dressing-table, she hung her negligee with +her hat and coat in the closet. She went down on her knees and +investigated the slide which was to lead shoes to the bootblack; she +tested, with her bridal glove-stretcher, the electrical device in the +bathroom for the heating of curling irons. She studied all the pictures, +drew out all the drawers, examined the furniture and bric-a-brac, and +then she looked at her watch. Only half an hour was gone. + +She went to the window and watched the hats of the passing multitude, +noting how short and fore-shortened all the figures seemed and how +queerly the horses passed along beneath her, without visible legs to +move them. Still an hour before John could be expected. + +And then their trunks, hers large and his small, made their thumping +entrance. The porter crossed to the window and raised the shade, crossed +to her trunk and undid its straps, dried his moistened brow--and waited. +Marjorie thanked him and smiled. He smiled and waited, drying his brow +industriously the while. No village black-smith ever had so damp a brow +as he. She sympathized with him in the matter of the heat; he +agreed--and waited. He undid the straps of John's trunk; he moved her +trunk into greater proximity to the window and the light; he carried +John's trunk into the sitting-room; he performed innumerable feats of +prowess before her. But she only smiled and commended in an unfinancial +way. Finally he laid violent hands upon his truck and retreated into the +hall, swearing, as became his age, more luridly than the bellboys. + +Once more Marjorie looked out into the street for a while and began to +plan the exact form of greeting with which she should meet John. It +already seemed an eternity since she had parted with him. She drew the +pretty evening dress which she had chosen for this and most important +evening from its tissue-paper nest in the upper tray of her trunk. Its +daintiness comforted and cheered her, as a friend's face might have +done, and under its impetus she found calm enough to rearrange her hair, +and, with many a shy recoil and shy caress, to lay out John's evening +things for him, as she had often laid out her father's. How surprised, +she smiled, he would be. How delighted, when he came, to find everything +so comfy and domestic. Surely it was time for him to come. Presently it +was late, and yet he did not come. She evolved another form of greeting: +he did not deserve comfort and domesticity when he did not set more +store on them than on a stupid interview in a stuffy office. He should +see that an appointment with old Nicholson could not be allowed to +interfere with their home life; that, simply because they were married +now, he could not neglect her with impunity. + +She practised the detached, casual sort of smile with which she would +greet him, and the patient, uninterested silence with which she would +listen to his apologies. Then, realizing that these histrionics would be +somewhat marred by a pink negligee, she struggled into her dinner dress. + +It was then seven o'clock and time to practise some more vehement reception +for the laggard. It went well--very well. Any man would have been +annihilated by it, but there was still no man when half-past seven came. + +Quite suddenly she fell into a panic. John was dead! She had heard and +read of the perils of New York. She had seen a hundred potential +accidents on her drive from the ferry. Trolley, anarchist, elevated +railroad, collapsed buildings, frightened horses, runaway automobiles. +Her dear John! Her mangled husband! Passing out of the world, even while +she, his widowed bride, was dressing in hideous colors, and thinking so +falsely of him! + +He must be brought to her. Some one should go and say something to +somebody! Telephone Uncle Richard! She flew to the directory, which had +interested her so little when the polite bellboy of the itching palm had +pointed it out to her, and presently she had startled a respectable old +stockbroker, so thoroughly and so hastily that he burst into his wife's +presence with the news that John Blake had met with a frightful accident +and was being carried to the hotel in the automobile of some rich +gentleman from Paterson, New Jersey. + +"Hurry down there at once," commanded Aunt Richard, who was as staid +and practical as the wife of a stockbroker ought to be, "and bring the +two poor lambs here in your car. Take the big one. They'll want plenty +of room to lay him flat. I'll have the nurse and the doctor here and a +room ready. Get there if possible before he does, so as not to move him +about too often." + +Meanwhile Mrs. John Blake, bride now of nearly eight hours, lay in a +stricken heap upon the bed, bedewing with hot tears the shirt she had so +dutifully laid ready for Mr. John Blake, and which now he was never more +to wear. And Mr. John Blake, in a hurricane of fear, exasperation and +bewilderment, a taxicab, and the swift-falling darkness, fared from +hotel to hotel and demanded speech with Mrs. John Blake, a young lady in +blue with several handbags and some heavy luggage, who had arrived at +some hotel early that afternoon. + +His interview with old Nicholson had been short and satisfactory, and +at about five-thirty o'clock he was at the Ruissillard inquiring for Mrs. +J. Blake's number and floor with a confidence he was soon to lose. There +was no such person. No such name. Then could the clerk tell him whether, +and why, she had gone elsewhere. A slim and tall young lady in blue. + +The clerk really couldn't say. He had been on duty for only half an +hour. There was no person of the name of Blake in the hotel. Sometimes +guests who failed to find just the accommodation they wanted went over +to the Blinheim, just across the avenue. So the bridegroom set out upon +his quest and the clerk, less world-weary than his predecessor, turned +back to the telephone-girl. + +Presently there approached the desk a brisk, business-like person who +asked a few business-like questions and then registered in a bold and +flowing hand, "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Blake, Boston." + +"My husband," she announced, "will be here presently." + +"He was here ten minutes ago," said the clerk, and added particulars. + +"Oh, that's all right," replied the slightly-puzzled but quite unexcited +lady; "he'll be back." And then, accompanied by bags and suitcases, she +vanished aloft. + +"Missed connections, somehow," commented the clerk to the stenographer, +and gave himself to the contemplation of "Past Performances" in the +_Evening Telegram_, and to ordinary routine of a hotel office for an +hour or so, when, to prove the wisdom of the lady's calm, the excited +Mr. John Blake returned. + +"There must be some mistake," he began darkly, "I've been to every +hotel--" + +"Lady came ten minutes after you left," said the genial clerk. "Front, +show the gentleman to 450." And, presently, John was explaining his +dilemma to Gladys, the pretty wife of his cousin Bob. "She is somewhere +in this hotel," he fumed, "and I'll find her if I have to search it room +by room." + +The office was hardly quiet after the appearance and disappearance of +Mr. John Blake, when the clerk and the telephone-girl were again +interrupted by an excited gentleman. His white whiskers framed an +anxious, kindly face, his white waistcoat bound a true and tender heart. + +"Has Mr. Blake arrived?" he demanded with some haste. + +"Just a minute ago," the clerk replied, and was surprised at the +disappointment his answer caused. + +"I must see him," cried the old gentleman. "You needn't announce me. +I'll go right up. I'm his wife's uncle, and she telephoned me to come." + +"Front!" called the clerk. "This gentleman to 450." + +At the door of 450 he dismissed his guide with suitable _largesse_, and +softly entered the room. It was brightly illuminated, and Uncle Richard +was able clearly to contemplate his nephew of eight hours in animated +converse with a handsome woman in evening dress. + +"I think, sir," said the woman, "that there is some mistake." + +"I agree with you, madam," said Uncle Richard, "and I'm sorry for it." + +"But you are exactly the man to help us," cried the nephew; "we are in +an awful state." + +"I agree with you, sir," repeated Uncle Richard. + +"You _must_ know how to help us," urged the nephew. "I've lost +Marjorie." + +"So I should have inferred. But she had already thrown herself away." + +"She's _lost_!" stormed the bridegroom. "Don't you understand? Lost, +lost, lost!" + +"I rather think he misunderstands," the handsome woman interrupted. +"You've not told him, John, who I am." + +"You are mistaken," replied Uncle Richard with a horrible suavity; "I +understand enough. That poor child telephoned to me not twenty minutes +ago that her husband was injured, perhaps mortally, and implored my +help. I left my dinner to come to his assistance and I find +him--here--and thus." + +"Twenty minutes ago?" yelled John, leaping upon his new relative and +quite disregarding that gentleman's last words. "Where was she? Did she +tell you where to look for her?" + +"So, sir," stormed Uncle Richard, "the poor, deluded child has left you +and turned to her faithful old uncle! Allow me to say that you're a +blackguard, sir, and to wish you good-bye." + +"If you dare to move," stormed John Blake, "until you tell me where my +wife is, I'll strangle you. Now listen to me. This is Mrs. Bob Blake, +wife of my cousin Robert. She's an old friend of Marjorie's. We had a +half engagement to meet here this week. Bob is due any minute, but +Marjorie is lost. There is only one record of a Blake in to-day's +register and that's this room and this lady--when Marjorie left me at +the ferry she was coming here, straight. I've been to all the possible +hotels. She is nowhere. You say she telephoned to you. From where?" + +"She didn't say," answered Uncle Richard, shame-facedly, and added still +more dejectedly, "I didn't ask. She said in a letter her aunt received +this morning that she was coming here. So I inferred that she was here." + +"Then she is here," cried Gladys. "It's some stupid mistake in the +office." + +"I'll go down to that chap," John threatened, "and if he doesn't +instantly produce Marjorie I'll shoot him." + +[Illustration: UNCLE RICHARD'S FACE, AS HE MET JOHN'S EYES, WAS A STUDY.] + +"You'll do nothing of the sort," his uncle contradicted, "the child +appealed to me and I am the one to rescue her. I shall interview the +manager. I know him. You may come with me if you like." + +Down at the desk they accosted the still-courteous clerk. Uncle Richard +produced his card, and, before he could ask for the manager the clerk +flicked a memorandum out of one pigeon-hole, a key out of another, and +twirled the register on its turn-table almost into the midst of the +white waistcoat. + +"The lady has been expecting you for hours, Mr. Underwood," said he. +"Looked for you quite early in the afternoon, so the maid says. Register +here, please. Quite hysterical, she is, they tell me, and the maid was +asking for the doctor--Front! 625!" + +Uncle Richard's face, as he met John's eyes, was a study. The +telephone-girl disentangled the receiver from her pompadour so that she +might hear without hindrance the speech which was bursting through the +swelling buttons of the white waistcoat and making the white whiskers +quiver. + +"I know nothing whatever about _any_ lady in _any_ of your rooms," he +roared, greatly to the delight of the bellboys. "I know nothing about +your Underwood woman, with her doctors and her hysterics. I want to see +the manager." + +"If," said the telephone maiden, adjusting her skirt at the hips and +shaking her figure into greater conformity with the ideal she had set +before it--"If this gentleman is 2525 Gram., then the lady in 625 rang +him up at seven-thirty and held the wire seven minutes talkin' to him +and cryin' to beat Sousa's band. All about her uncle she was talkin'. I +guess it was him, all right, all right. His voice sounds sort of +familiar to me when he talks mad." + +But John had neither eyes nor ears for Uncle Richard's wrath. He +snatched the key and the paper upon which the supercilious clerk had +inscribed, at Marjorie's embarrassed dictation, "Mrs. Underwood, West +Hills, N.J. (husband to arrive later), 625 and 6," and, since love is +keen, he jumped to the right conclusion and the open elevator without +further delay. + +An hour or so later the attention of the clerk and the telephone-girl +was again drawn to the complicated Blakes. A party of four sauntered out +of the dining-room and approached the desk. + +"I'll register now, I think," said John. And when he had finished he +turned to the star-eyed girl behind him. + +"Look carefully at this, Marjorie," he admonished. "Mr. and Mrs. John +Blake. _You_ are Mrs. John Blake. Do you think you can remember that?" + +"Don't laugh at me," she pleaded, "Gladys says it was a most natural +mistake, and so does Bob. Don't you, Gladys and Bob?" + +"An almost inevitable mistake," they chorused mendaciously, "but," added +Bob, "a rather disastrous mistake for your uncle to explain to his wife, +the doctor and the nurse. He'll be able for it, though; I never saw so +game an old chap." + +"And I'll never do it again," she promised. People never do when they've +been married a long, long time, and I feel as though I had been married +thousands and thousands of years." + +"Poor, tired little girl," said John, "you have had a rather indifferent +time of it. Say good-night to Dick and Gladys. Come, my dear." + + + + +MISERY LOVES COMPANY. + + +"But, Win," remonstrated the bride-elect, "I really don't think we +_could_. Wouldn't it look awfully strange? I don't think I ever heard of +its being done." + +"Neither did I," he agreed. "And yet I want you to do it. Look at it +from my point of view. I persuade John Mead to stop wandering around the +world and to take an apartment with me here in New York. Then I meet +you. The inevitable happens and in less than a year John is to be left +desolate. You know how eccentric he is, and how hard it will be for him +to get on with any other companion--" + +"I know," said Patty, "that he never will find any one--but you--to put +up with his eccentricities." + +"And then, as if abandoning him were not bad enough, I go and maim the +poor beggar: blind him temporarily--permanently, if he is not taken care +of--and disfigure him beyond all description. Honestly, Patty, you never +saw anything like him." + +"I know," said she, "I know. A pair of black eyes." + +"Black!" he cried, "why, they're all the colors of the rainbow and two +more beside, as the story-book says. All the way from his hair to his +mustache he is one lurid sunset. I don't want to minimize this thing. It +has only one redeeming feature: he will be a complete disguise. No +amount of rice or ribbon could counteract his sinister companionship. No +bridal suspicions could live in the light of it. Doesn't that thought +help?". + +The conversation wandered into personalities and back again, as a +conversation may three days before a wedding, but Patty was not entirely +won over to Hawley's view of his responsibility for having with +unprecedented dexterity and precision planted a smashing "right" on the +bridge of his friend's nose in the course of an amicable "bout." + +"And the oculist chap says," Winthrop urged, "that he simply must not be +allowed to use his eyes. I'm the only one who takes any interest in him +or has any control over him, and to abandon him now would be an awful +responsibility. Can't you see that, dear? If we stay at home to take +care of him he will understand why we're doing it, and he'd vanish. Do +let me put him into a motor mask and attach him to the procession." + +"Well, of course, Win," Patty answered, "of course we must have him if +you feel so strongly about it. It's a pity," she ended mischievously, +"that he dislikes me so much." + +"That's because you dislike him. But just wait till you know one +another." + +"I will," she answered with a spirit which promised well for the future. +"I'll wait." + +And Winthrop was so touched and gratified by her complaisance that he +had no alternative, save to duplicate it, when the following evening +brought him this communication: + +"Kate Perry and I were playing golf this morning. And, oh! Win, it seems +just too dreadful! I banged her between the eyes with my driver. I can't +think how I ever did it. She's not fit to be seen. Awful! worse than Mr. +Mead can possibly be. She can't stay here and she can't go home to +Washington. + +"So, now, if you will consent, we shall be four instead of three. Let me +take poor Kate. She can wear a thick veil and sit in behind with Mr. +Mead, in his goggles, and leave the front seats for us. They'll be +company for one another." + +Winthrop questioned this final sentence. A supercilious, spoiled +beauty--a beauty now doubly spoiled and presumedly bad tempered--was +hardly an ideal companion for the misanthropic Mead. + + * * * * * + +The wedding took place in the morning and the beginning of the honeymoon +was prosaic enough. Winthrop and Patty sat in the front seat of the +throbbing touring car, while hysterical bridesmaids and vengeful +groomsmen showered the requisite quantities of rice, confetti and old +slippers upon them. + +It was at the New York side of the ferry that a shrouded female joined +them, and it was at the Hoboken side of the river that a be-goggled +young man was added unto her. The bride rushed through the formula of +introduction: a readjustment of dress-suit cases and miniature trunks +was effected, and the disguise which the bridegroom had predicted was +complete. The most romantic onlooker would not have suspected them of +concealing a honeymoon about them. + +It was nearly six o'clock when at last they reached their destination, +the little town of Rapidan, in New Jersey, and stopped before the +Empress Hotel. Hawley had visited Rapidan once before, as a member of +his college glee club, and he had recalled it instantly when Mead's +disfigurement made sequestration imperative. + +The motor sobbed itself to a standstill: several children and dogs +gathered to inspect it, and then finding more interest and novelty in +Mead's mask turned their attention to him. + +The Empress had evidently been dethroned for some years, and the +hospitality she afforded her guests was of an impoverished sort. Hawley, +approaching the desk to make enquiries, was met by a clerk incredibly +arrayed, and the intelligence that the whole house was theirs to choose, +except for two small rooms on the third floor occupied by two gentlemen +who "traveled" respectively in sarsaparilla and molasses. + +Hawley returned to his friends and repeated this information. + +"How perfectly sweet of them," cried the irresponsible bride. "Oh! Win, +we must stay here and see them. Isn't it the dearest sleepy hollow of a +place?" + +Attended by the impressed and impressive clerk, they made an inspection +of the house. Mr. and Mrs. Hawley settled upon a suite just over the +main entrance. Mead was established across the hall. But Kate found a +wonderful panorama which could only be seen from the rooms on the third +floor, and there, down a dreary length of oil-clothed hall, she bestowed +herself and her belongings. + +"For I must," she explained to Patty, "I simply _must_ get out of this +veil and breathe, and I shouldn't dare to do it within reach of that +horribly supercilious friend of Winthrop's. I'm going to plead headache +or something, and have my dinner sent up here." + +Mead, meanwhile, was unfolding similar plans to Hawley. "I should have +joined you," said he, "if your wife's friend had been a little less +self-sufficient and unsympathetic. Of course, I don't require any +sympathy; but I don't want ridicule either. So, while she is of the +party I'll have my meals in my room. I can't act the 'Man in the Iron +Mask' forever. You just leave the ladies together after dinner and come +up here for a pipe with me." + +And when Mr. and Mrs. Hawley next encountered one another and reported +the wishes of their friends, he suggested and she rapturously agreed, +that they should dine in their horse-hair-covered sitting-room. + +"I have a reason, dear," she told him, "for not wishing to go to the +dining-room for our first meal together. I'll explain later." + +"Your wishing it is enough," he answered before the conversation sank to +banalities. + +And when these several intentions were made clear to the conscientious +clerk, he sent for the police force of the town--it consisted of a mild, +little old man in a uniform and helmet which might have belonged to some +mountainous member of the Broadway Squad in its prime--and implored him +to spend the evening in the hall. + +"They're beginning to act up funny already," the clerk imparted. "This +eatin' all over the house don't seem just right to me. What do they +think the dining-room's for anyway? Sam was up with the bag belonging to +the single fellow, and he says he's got the worst looking pair of black +eyes he ever saw. Here, Sam, you come and tell Jimmie what he looks +like." + +Sam, a middle-aged combination of porter, bellboy, furnace-man, office +assistant and emergency barkeeper was but newly launched upon his +description of Mead's face, when the chambermaid, who was also the +waitress and housekeeper, broke in upon them with the intelligence that +never in all her born days _or_ nights had she seen anything like the +face of the young lady on the third floor. + +"What's the matter with her," said the clerk suspiciously, with a look +which warned Jimmie to be at once a Bingham and a Sherlock Holmes. + +"Why, Horace," she answered tragically, "that girl has two of the most +awful black eyes. The whites of them is red and then comes purple and +green and yellow. I guess they was meant to be blue." + +This chromatic scale was too much for Jimmie. He reeled where he sat and +then, the postman opportunely arriving, sent word to Mrs. Jimmie that +duty would keep him from her all the night. + +"Tell her," he huskily charged his messenger, "that there is suspicious +circumstances going on in this house." + +"You bet there is," the clerk agreed. "It looks like a case of attempted +murder to me." + +"Divorce, more likely," was Jimmie's professional opinion, but he had +scant time to enlarge upon it before the waitress, outraged to the point +of tears, broke out of her domain. She brought with her an atmosphere of +long-dead beefsteak, chops and onions, and she shrilled for an answer to +her question. + +"What's the matter with 'em anyway? Ain't the dining-room good enough +for 'em to eat in? It done all right for Judge Campbell's funeral this +afternoon, and I found a real sweet wreath on that there whatnot in the +corner. The candles wasn't all burnt up neither, an' I set out four of +'em on the four corners. It looks elegant, an' them tube-roses smells +grand. An' when I told that young lady what's got the use of her eyes +how glad I was they happened in when we was so well fixed for +decorations, she looked awful funny. Most like she was cross-eyed." + +"They all seem to have eye-trouble," Jimmie commented. "Do you suppose +they're running away from one of these here blind asylums." + +"Lunatic asylum, most likely," the cheerful clerk contributed. + +When the other two guests ceased from traveling in molasses and +sarsaparilla and returned to their quiet hostelry, all these surmises +had hardened into certainties, and were imparted to them with a new maze +of suspicion, more dense, more deadly, and more strictly in accordance +with the principles laid down in "Dandy Dick, the Boy Detective." + +Madeline, the waitress, reported further particulars as she ministered +to the creature-comforts of the traveling gentlemen dining alone among +the funeral-baked meats. So interested and excited did these gentlemen +become that they determined to interview, or at least to see, their +mysterious fellow guests. + +When their elaborate supper had reached its apotheosis of stewed prunes +and blue-boiled rice, Hawley and Mead had gone out for a meditative and +tobacco-shrouded stroll. They passed through the hall and inspiration +awoke in Jimmie. + +"By gum," said he, "I know them now. I suspicioned them from the first +by what Horace told me. But now I've got them sure. You mind that time I +was down to New York and was showed over Police Headquarters, by +professional etiquette?" + +"Sure," they all agreed. It was indeed a reminiscence, the details of +which had been playing havoc with Rapidan's nerves for the past fifteen +years. They felt that they could not bear it now. + +"Well," continued Jimmie, gathering his auditors close about him by the +husky whisper he now adopted, "I see them two fellers then. Mebbe 'twas +in the Rogue's Gallery and mebbe it was in the cells. I ain't worked it +down that fine yet, but I'll think and pray on it and let you know when +I get light." + +When the staff and the commercial guests of the Empress Hotel were +waiting to see illumination burst through the blue-shrouded protector, +the bridal party was veering momentarily further from the normal. For +the deserted bride, alone in the desolate best sitting-room, laid her +head upon her arms and laughed and laughed. She had made one cautious +descent to the ground floor in search of diversion, and meeting Jimmie, +she found it. After a conversation strictly categorical upon his side +and widely misleading upon hers, she had gone up stairs again and halted +in the upper hall just long enough to hear Jimmie's triumphant: + +"Well, we know _her_ name anyway." + +"What is it?" hissed Horace, while the porter relieved himself of a quid +of tobacco so that nothing should interfere with his hearing and +attention. + +"Huh!" ejaculated Jimmie, "you bin a hotel clerk two years and sold +seegars all that time (when you could) and you don't know Ruby +Mandeville when she stands before you." + +A box of the "Flor de" that gifted songstress, was soon produced and +pried open, and the effulgent charms of its godmother compared with the +less effulgent, but no less charming figure which had just trailed away. + +"It's her, sure as you're born," cried the gentleman who traveled in +molasses, absent-mindedly abstracting three cigars and conveying them +surreptitiously to his coat pocket. + +"She's fallen off some in flesh," commented Horace, as with careful +presence of mind he drew out his daybook and entered a charge for those +three cigars. + +"But she don't fool me," said Jimmie, "she can put flesh on or she can +take it off--" + +"My, how you talk!" shrilled the chambermaid-bellboy, "you'd think you +was talkin' about clothes." + +"It ain't no different to them," Jimmie maintained. "That's one of the +things us detekitives has got to watch out for." + +"What do you s'pose she's doing here?" asked the porter. + +"Gettin' married again most likely. That's about all she does nowadays." + +Patty was still chuckling and choking over these remarks, when the door +of the sitting-room opened cautiously and Kate Perry, swathed in her +motor veil, looked in. + +"Are we alone?" she demanded with proper melodramatic accent. + +"We are," the bride answered, "Winthrop and Mr. Mead have gone out for a +smoke." + +"Then I want you to tell me if I'm fading at all. I've been looking at +it upstairs, in a little two-by-three mirror, and taken that way, by +inches, it looks awful. Tell me what you think?" She removed the veil +and presented her damaged face for her friend's inspection. There was +not much improvement to report, but the always optimistic Patty did what +she could with it. + +[Illustration: SHE SWOOPED UNDER THE LARGE CENTER TABLE, DRAGGING PATTY +WITH HER.] + +"The left cheek," she pronounced, "is really better, less swollen, +less--Oh! Kate, here they come." + +Miss Perry began to readjust her charitable gray chiffon veil. It was +one of those which are built around a circular aperture, and as the +steps in the hall came ever closer she, in one last frantic effort +succeeded in framing the most lurid of her eyes in this opening. Casting +one last look into the mirror, she swooped under the large center-table, +dragging Patty with her, and disposing their various frills and ribbons +under the long-hanging tablecover. + +"If they don't find either of us," she whispered, "they'll go away to +look for us." + +She had no time to say more, and Patty had no time to say anything +before the door opened and presented to their limited range of vision, +two utterly strange pairs of shoes and the hems of alien trousers. + +"I hope you will excuse me, Miss," began the molasses gentleman, so full +of his entrance speech that he said the first part of it before he +noticed that the room was empty. And then turned to rend his fellow +adventurer, who was laughing at him. + +"Didn't Horace tell us," he stormed, "that she was here, and wasn't you +going to say how you had saw her in the original 'Black Crook?'" + +"I seen her all right," said his more grammatical friend, with heavy +emphasis. + +"Do you see her now?" demanded the irate molasses traveler. + +"I do not, but I'll set here 'til she comes." + +They both sat. Not indeed until the arrival of Ruby Mandeville, but +until Hawley and Mead made their appearance, and made it, too, very +plain that they had not expected and did not enjoy the society of the +travelers. + +"Where are the ladies?" asked Hawley. + +"Search us," responded the travelers. + +"They must have gone to their rooms," said the bridegroom. "If these +gentlemen don't object to our waiting here," he went on with a fine and +wasted sarcasm. + +"Set right down," said the genial sarsaparilla man, and to further +promote good feeling he tendered his remaining "Ruby Mandeville" cigar. + +"Your friend," said he affably, "does he always wear them goggles?" + +"Always," answered Hawley. "Eats in them, sleeps in them." + +"Born in them," supplemented Mead savagely. + +They sat and waited for yet a few moments, and though Mead did not add +geniality to the conversation, he certainly contributed interest to it. +For his views on honeymoon etiquette being strong within him, and an +audience made to his hand, he went on to amplify some of the theories +with which he had been trying to undermine Winthrop's loyalty. + +"I am persuaded that most of the disappointments of married life are due +to the impossible standards set up at the beginning. Look at it this +way. You know the fuss most wives make about the hours a husband keeps. +Well! suppose Mr. Hawley comes out in the car with me to-night. I know +some fellows who have a summer studio near here. We'll run over and make +a night of it." + +"Say," the molasses gentleman broke in, "be you married, mister?" + +"No!" said Mead. + +"Sounds like it," said the molasses gentleman. "Marriage will sort of +straighten you out on these here subjects." + +"Oh, leave 'em be," admonished the sarsaparilla man. "If I had 'a met up +with him thirty years ago, mebbee I wouldn't be in the traveling line +now. He's got a fine idee." + +Hawley, meanwhile, was wrestling with his manners and the "Ruby +Mandeville," until the lady, as was her custom, triumphed. + +He hurriedly and incompletely extinguished the cigar, and attracted by +the same opportunity for concealment which had appealed to Kate and +Patty, he lifted a corner of the heavy-fringed tablecover and sent Ruby +to join the other ladies. + +Now, a lighted cigar applied suddenly to the ear of an excited and +half-hysterical conspirator, will generally produce results. In this +case it produced a scream, the bride, and after an interval, the +shrouded confidential friend. + +"See where amazement on your mother sits," the ghost remarks in Hamlet, +but amazement never sat so hard on the wicked Gertrude of Denmark as it +did upon the four men who saw the tablecloth give up its ghosts. + +At first there was silence. One of those throbbing, abominable silences +whose every second makes a situation worse and explanation more +impossible. + +The "Black Crook" speech of welcome and appreciation died in the heart +of the molasses traveler. It did not somehow seem the safest answer to +Hawley's threatening-- + +"I think you gentlemen had better explain how you happen to be in my +private sitting-room. Perhaps we had better step out into the hall." + +They did, and the echoes of their conversation brought Jimmie, that +trusty sleuth, upon the scene. With him he brought Horace as witness. +Also, he carried his dark lantern. He directed its glare fitfully at the +two strangers until Mead, catching a beam in his eye, turned and drove +Jimmie and his cohorts from the scene. They retreated in exceedingly +bad order to the bar, and then Jimmie announced in sepulchral whispers +that he had further identification to impart. He required much liquid +refreshment to nerve him to speech, and his audience required to be +similarly strengthened to hear. + +"I've got 'em," he began, "I know 'em now. Horace, this is the biggest +thing you'll ever be anywhere near." And, as his hearers drew close +about him, he whispered "counterfeiters. The hull kit and bilin' of 'em." + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile, Kate and Patty wrestled afresh with the automobile veil, and +had succeeded in getting it tied in a limp string around the +bridesmaid's neck, leaving all her head and face uncovered. And when the +groom and the groomsman returned she, with a muffled gurgle, dived back +into the seclusion of the tablecover. + +"We've got rid of those bounders," Hawley announced, and-- + +"Hello!" cried Mead, "Miss Perry gone already?" + +"She was very tired," said Patty veraciously, but evasively. + +"Awfully jolly girl, isn't she Mead?" said Hawley, with the +expansiveness of the newly-wed. "Handsome, too?" + +"Perhaps she is, but so long as she dresses like a veiled prophet it is +hard to tell." + +"If you two can get on without me," said Patty, disregarding a muffled +protest from under the table, "I'll go up and fetch," she made these +comforting words very clear, "my green motor veil." + +Instantly, when he closed the door after her, Mead turned to Hawley. + +"There's something wrong with this confounded mask," said he. "This +strap-thing that goes round my head must be too tight. I've been mad +with it the last half hour. How do I look?" he asked genially as he took +it off, and proceeded to tamper with the buckles and elastic. "Howling +Jupiter!" he cried a moment later, "I've busted it." + +As the two friends stood and stared at one another aghast, they heard +the click of Patty's returning heels, and Mead, abandoning dignity, +courage--everything except the broken mask--dived into Miss Perry's +maiden bower. + +Mrs. Hawley watched this procedure with wide and fascinated eyes. No +ripple shook the walls of the bower. No sound proceeded from it as the +moments flew. Then Patty fell away into helpless laughter and wept tears +of shocked and sudden mirth into the now useless motor veil. + +"Patty!" remonstrated her husband, but she laughed helplessly on. "At +least come out into the hall and laugh there," he urged, "the poor chap +will hear you." And when he had followed her and listened to her shaken +whisper, he broke into such a shout as forced the indignant and +outraged Kate into a shudder of protest and disgust. + +Instantly Mead threw an arm past the table's single central support and +grasped a handful of silk chiffon and two fingers. + +He, being of an acquisitive turn, retained the fingers. She being of a +dictatorial turn, rebuked him. + +"Finding is keeping," he shamelessly remarked. "Even in infancy I was +taught that." + +Now, a certain pomp of scene and circumstance is necessary to the sort +of dignified snubbing with which Miss Perry was accustomed to treat +possible admirers. Also, a serene consciousness of superlative good +looks. But Kate Perry disfigured, cramped into a ridiculous hiding +place, and suffering untold miseries of headache and throbbing eyes, was +a very different creature. + +And Mead, flippant, hard, and misanthropic in the state of nature, +softened wonderfully as he sat in the gloom of the tablecover, in +silent possession of those two slim fingers. + +His words grew gentle, his manner kind, and her answers were calculated +to petrify her long-suffering family if they could have overheard them. + +"Mr. Mead," she said at last, "will you be so very kind as to stay here +quietly under the table while I scramble out and go up to my room?" + +No tongue of angel could have made a more welcome suggestion. Mead +uttered feeble and polite proffers of escort, and silently called down +blessings upon the head he had never seen. He had just allowed himself +to be dissuaded from knight errantry, when the door opened and Jimmie +flashed his dark lantern about the brightly lighted room. He then beckoned +mysteriously to the still vigilant Horace, who lurked in the hall. + +"Have you found them?" whispered that youth. + +"Not a trace of them," answered Jimmie triumphantly. "They ain't gone +out. They ain't in their rooms, and I'm studyin' how I can round 'em up. +They're the most suspicious characters I ever see, Horace, and this +night's work may cost us our lives." + +This disposition of his existence did not seem to cheer Horace. + +"Counterfeiters," Jimmie went on, "is the desperatest kind of criminals +there is. Still we got to git 'em. I'll look round this room just so as +nothing won't escape us, and then we'll go up to the next floor. It's +good we got two of them located in the bridal suite." + +Jimmie, with his prying dark lantern and his prodding nightstick, soon +reached the space under the table, and the counterfeiters secreted there. + +"I got 'em," he cried delightedly. "Hi, you. Come out of there and show +yourselves." + +They came. There was nothing else to do. + +"Moses's holy aunt," cried Jimmie, falling back upon Horace, who +promptly fell back upon the sofa. + +"Here, you," said Mead. "You get out of this, both of you. Don't you +know this is a private sitting-room?" + +"No settin'-room," said Jimmie, recovering somewhat, "is private to them +as sets under tables blackening one another's eyes." + +"You ridiculous idiot," snorted Mead. "Do you dare to think that I hurt +this lady?" + +"Lady? Ain't she your wife?" + +"She is _not_," snapped Kate. + +"Then why did you hit her?" demanded Jimmie. "If she ain't your wife +what did you want to hit her for? An' anyway, she'd ought to be. That's +all I got to say." + + * * * * * + +The same idea occurred to Mr. and Mrs. Hawley, crouched guiltily against +their door to hear their victims pass, for their amazed ears caught +these words--the first were Kate's: + +"You must let me give you some of my lotion." + +And then came Mead's: + +"I shall be _most_ grateful. It must be hot stuff. You know you're +hardly disfigured at all." + +"The saints forgive him," Patty gurgled. + +Later on in the darkness, Jimmie's idea visited Mead and was received +with some cordiality. And at some time later still, it must have been +presented to Miss Perry, for the misanthropic Mead--no longer +misanthropic--now boasts a massive and handsome wife whom he calls his +Little Kitty. But the idea was originally Jimmie's. + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS GUEST + + +On the day before Christmas eve John Sedyard closed his desk, dismissed +his two clerks and his stenographer two hours earlier than usual, and +set out in quest of adventure and a present for his sister Edith. John +Sedyard had a habit of succeeding in all he set forth to do but the +complete and surprising success which attended him in this quest was a +notch above even his high average. + +Earlier in the month, his stenographer had secured the annual pledges of +his affection for all the relatives, friends and dependants to whom he +was in the habit of giving presents: all except his mother, his +unmarried sister, Edith, who still lived at home, and his fiancee, Mary +Van Plank. The gifts for these three, he had decided, must be of his +own choice and purchase. He had provided for his mother and for Mary +earlier in the week. Neither excitement nor adventure had attended upon +the purchase of their gifts. Something for the house or the table was +always the trick for elderly ladies who presided over large +establishments and gave their whole souls to the managing of them. He +bought for his mother a set of colonial silver candlesticks. For Mary, +he bought a comb of gold--all gold, like her own lovely hair. The dark +tortoise shell of the one she wore always seemed an incongruous note in +her fair crown. But Edith was as yet unpresented, and it was on her +account that Mr. Sedyard deserted his office and delighted his +subordinates at three o'clock in the afternoon. + +Edith was much more difficult than the other two had been. She was +strong-minded, much given to churchwork and committees. Neither the +home, as represented by the candlesticks, nor self-adornment as +typified by the golden comb could be expected to appeal to her +communistic, altruistic nature. And Sedyard, having experienced two +inspirations, could think of nothing but combs and candlesticks. So he +threw himself into the current, which swept along Broadway, trusting +that some accident would suggest a suitable offering. Meanwhile, he +revelled in the crowd, good-humored, holiday-making, holly-decked, which +carried him uptown, past Wanamaker's and Grace Church, swirled him +across old "dead man's curve," and down the Fourteenth Street side of +Union Square. Here the shops were smaller, not so overwhelming, and here +he was stopped by seeing a red auction flag. Looking in over the heads +of the assembled crowd, he saw that the auctioneer was holding up a +feather-crowned hat and addressing his audience after the manner of his +kind: + +"Buy a hat for your wife. A waste-paper basket by night and a hat by +day. Genuine ostrich feathers growing on it. Becoming to all styles of +feminine beauty. What am I bid on this sure tickler of the feminine +palate? Three dollars? Why, ladies and gents, the dooty on it alone was +twelve. It's a Paris hat, ladies. Your sister, your mother, your maiden +aunt--" + +Sedyard hearkened, but absently, to the fellow's words, but his problem +was solved. He would buy Edith something to look pretty in. She was a +pretty girl and in danger of forgetting it. And she had been decent, +John reflected, awfully decent about Mary. He knew that the _entente +cordiale_ which existed between Mary and his mother was largely due to +Edith, and he knew, too, that Edith, an authority on modern-housing and +model-living, surely but silently disapproved of Mary's living alone in +a three-roomed studio and devoting her days to painting, when there was +so much rescue work to be done in the world. + +"I get my uplift," Mary would explain when Edith urged these things upon +her, "from the elevator. Living on the eighth floor, dear, I cannot but +help seeing the world from a very different angle." + +Yes, John reflected as he chuckled in retrospect over such +conversations, Edith had certainly been awfully decent. + +During these meditations several articles of feminine apparel had come +and gone under the hammer. The crowd had decreased somewhat and his +position now commanded a clear view of the auctioneer's platform, and he +realized that the fierce light of the arc lamps beat down upon as +charming a costume as he had seen for many a day. All of corn-flower +blue it was, a chiffon gown, a big chiffon muff and a plumed hat. Oh! if +he had been allowed to do such shopping for Mary! how quickly he would +have entered into the lists of bidders! Mary's eyes were just that +heavenly shade of blue, but Mary's pride was as great as her poverty, +and the time when he could shower his now useless wealth upon her was +not yet. And then his loyal memory told him that Edith was blue-eyed +like all the Sedyards and he knew that his sister's Christmas gifts +stood before him. He failed, however, to discern in the bland presence +of the lay figure, upon which they were disposed to such advantage, the +companion of one of the most varied adventures in his long career. + +The chiffon finery was rather too much for the Fourteenth Street +audience. The bidding languished. The auctioneer's pleadings fell upon +deaf ears. In vain his assistant, a deft-fingered man with a beard, +twirled the waxen-faced figure to show the "semi-princesse back" and the +"near-Empire front." Corn-blue chiffon and panne velvet are not much +worn in Fourteenth Street. The auctioneer grew desperate. "Twenty-five +dollars," he repeated with such scorn that the timid woman who had made +the bid wished herself at home and in bed. "_Twenty-five_ dollars!" + +"Throw in the girl, why don't you?" suggested a facetious youth, chiefly +remarkable for a nose, a necktie and a diamond ring. "She's a peach all +right, all right. She's got a smile that won't come off." + +"All right, I'll throw her in," cried the desperate auctioneer. "What am +I bid for this here afternoon costume complete with lady." + +"Twenty-seven fifty," said a woman whom three years of banting would +still have left too fat to get into it. + +"Twenty-eight," whispered the first bidder. + +"Thirty," said John Sedyard. + +There was some other desultory bidding but in a few moments Sedyard +found himself minus fifty-four dollars and plus a chiffon gown and +muff, a hat all drooping plumes and a graceful female form, +golden-haired, bewitching, with a smile sweetly blended of surprise, +incipient idiocy and allure. + +"She's a queen all right, all right," the sophisticated youth cheered +him. "Git onto them lovely wax-like hands. Say, you know honest, on the +level, she's worth the whole price of admission." + +John, still chaperoned by this sagacious and helpful youth, made his way +to the clerk's desk and proceeded to give his name and address and +request that his purchases should be delivered in the morning. + +"Deliver nothin'," said the clerk pleasantly. "Do you suppose we'd 'a +let you have the goods at that price if we could 'a stored 'em +overnight? Our lease is up," he continued consulting his Ingersoll +watch, "in just fifteen minutes. In a quarter of an hour we hand over +the keys and what's left of the fixtures to the landlord. He's let the +store for to-morrow to a Christmas-tree ornaments merchant." + +"Then I suppose I'll have to get an expressman. Where is the nearest, do +you know?" + +"Expressman!" exclaimed the sharp youth. "Well, I guess the nearest +would be about Three Hundred and Fifty-second Street and _then_ he'd +have a load and a jag. No, sir, it's the faithful cab for yours. There's +a row of cabs just on the edge of the square. I could go over and get +you a hansom." + +"Thank you," said John, "I wish you would." But a glance at his +languishing companion made him add, "I guess you had better make it a +four-wheeler. Hansom-riding would be pretty cold for a lady without a +coat." + +"All right," said the sharp youth. "You bring her out on the sidewalk +and I'll get the hurry-up wagon. Say!" he halted to suggest, "you know +what you'll look like, don't you?--riding around with that smile. When +the lights flush you, you'll look just like a bridal party from +Hoboken." + +Leaving this word of comfort behind him, he proceeded to imperil his +life among trolley cars and traffic, while John engaged the lady and +urged her to motion. + +He discovered that, supported at the waistline, she could be wheeled +very nicely. He forced the muff over her upraised right hand, so that it +somewhat concealed her face, and through an aisle respectfully cleared +by the onlookers he led her to the open air. There he propped her +against the show-window and turned in search of the cab and his new +friend. In doing so he came face to face with an old one. + +"Why, hello John!" said Frederick Trevor, a man who had an office in his +building and an interest in his sister. "Who would have thought of +meeting you here?" + +"Or you," retorted John. "But since you are here, you can help me in a +little difficulty." + +"Not now, old chap," said Frederick, "I'm in a bit of a hurry. See you +about it to-morrow. Well, so long. Don't let me keep you from your +friend." + +"Friend!" stormed John and then following the directions of Trevor's +eyes, he descried a blue-clad, golden-haired young lady lolling against +the window, trying with a giant chiffon muff to smother a fit of +hilarious laughter. One arched and smiling eye showed above the muff and +the whole figure was instinct with Bacchanalian mirth. "Why that's," he +began to explain, but young Trevor had vanished into the crowd. + +Presently the cab with the smart youth inside drew up to the curb and +Sedyard, with a new self-consciousness, put his arm around the blue +figure and trundled her across the sidewalk. The cabman threw his rug +across his horse's quarters and lumbered down to assist at the +embarkation of so fair a passenger. The smart youth held the door +encouragingly open and John proceeded, with much more strength than he +had expected to use, to heave the passenger aboard. + +Even these preliminaries had attracted the nucleus of a crowd and the +smart youth grew restive. + +"Aw, say Maudie," he urged when the lady stuck rigid catty-cornerwise +across the cab with her blue feathers pressed against the roof in one +corner, and her bird-cage skirt arrangement protruding beyond the +door-sill. "Aw, say Maudie, set down, why don't you, and take your +Trilbys in. This gent is going to take you carriage riding." + +"What's the matter with her anyway," demanded the cabman. "Don't she +know how to set in a carriage?" + +"No, she doesn't, she's only a wax figure," said John, "but I bought +her and now I'm determined to take her home. She'd better go up on the +box with you." + +"What! her?" demanded the outraged Jehu. "Say, what do you take me for +anyway? Do you suppose I ain't got no friends just 'cause I drive a cab? +Why! I wouldn't drive up Broadway with them goo-goo eyes settin' beside +me, not for nothing you could offer, I wouldn't." + +By this time the crowd had reached very respectable proportions although +there was nothing to see except the end of a blue gown hanging out of +the cab's open door. The sharp youth, the cabman and John took turns in +trying to adjust the lady to her environment. The rigidity and fragility +of her arms and head made this very difficult, and presently there +rolled upon the scene a policeman, large, Irish and chivalrous. It took +Patrolman McDonogh but a second, but one glance at the tableaux and one +whisper from the crowd to understand that a kidnapping atrocity was in +progress. + +With wrath in his eye, he shouldered aside Sedyard and the cabman, +grabbed the smart youth, whose turn at persuasion was then on, and threw +him into the face of the crowd. + +"Oh! but you're the villyans," he admonished them, and then addressed +the captive maid in reassuring tones. + +"You're all right, Miss, now. You're no longer defenceless in this +wicked city. The arrum of the law is around you," he cried, encircling +her waist with that substantial member. "You're safe at last, come here +to me out of that." + +"Oh! noble, noble man," cried an emotional woman in the crowd. "If all +officers were like you!" + +Heartened by these words the noble, noble man exerted the arm of the +law and plucked the maiden out of the cab amid great excitement and +applause. But above the general murmur the shrill voice of the sharp +youth rent the air: + +"Fathead," he cried, "you've broke her neck. Can't you see how her +head's goin' round and round?" + +[Illustration: THE CHANGELESS SMILE AND THE DROOPING PLUMES MADE THREE +COMPLETE REVOLUTIONS AND NESTLED CONFIDINGLY UPON THE SHOULDER OF THE +LAW. Page 129.] + +At this the emotional woman dropped to the sidewalk. "Lady fainted here, +officer," cried a gentleman. But the noble, noble officer had no time +for faints, and the lady was obliged to revive with only the assistance +of the cold stones and curiosity. + +For the shrill voice had spoken truth. Something had given away in +Maudie's mysterious anatomy; the fair head, the changeless smile and the +drooping plumes made three complete revolutions and nestled confidingly +upon the shoulder of the Law. + +"Here, none o' that," yelled Patrolman McDonogh quite reversing his +earlier diagnosis of the situation. "None of your flim-flams, if you +please. You go quiet and paceable with this gentleman. A little ride in +the air is what you need." + +"That's right, officer," Sedyard interrupted. "That's how to talk to +her. I can't do a thing with her." + +"Brute!" cried the emotional woman now happily restored. "It's officers +like him that disgraces the force." + +Patrolman McDonogh turned to identify this blasphemer and Maudie's head, +deprived of its support, made another revolution and then dropped coyly +to her left shoulder. She looked so unspeakable in that attitude that +the cabman felt called upon to offer a little professional advice: + +"She needs a checkrein," he declared, "an' she needs it bad," a remark +which so incensed Patrolman McDonogh that Sedyard decided to explain: + +"Just disperse those people, will you," said he, "I want to talk to you." + +The sharp youth relieved the officer of law of his fair burden and +posed her in a natural attitude of waiting beside the cab. McDonogh +cleared the sidewalk and hearkened to Sedyard's tale. + +"So you see," said John in conclusion, "what I'm up against. I really +didn't want the dummy when I bought it and you can bet I'm tired of it +now. What I wanted was the clothes, and I guess the thing for me to do +is just to take them in the cab and leave the figure here." + +"What!" thundered McDonogh. "You're going to leave a dummy without her +clothes here on my beat? Not if I see ye first, ye ain't, and if ye try +it on I'll run ye in." + +"Say! I'll tell you what you want," piped up the still buoyant, smart +youth. "You need one of them open taxicabs. + +"He needs a hearse," corrected the disgruntled cabman. "Somethin' she +can lay down in comfortable an' take in the sights through the windows." + +"Now, he needs a taxi. He can leave her stand in the back all right, +but I guess," he warned John, "you'll have to sit in with her and hold +her head on." + +And thus it was that Maudie left the scene. She left, too, the smart +youth, the cabman and the noble, noble officer. And as the taxi bumped +over the trolley tracks she, despite all Sedyard's efforts, turned her +head and smiled out at them straight over her near-princesse back. + +"Gee!" said the smart youth, "ain't she the friendliest bunch of +calico." + +"This case," said the noble Patrolman McDonogh with unpunctual +inspiration, "had ought to be looked into by rights." + +"Chauffeur," said John Sedyard to the shadowy form before him, "just +pick out the darkest streets, will you?" + +"Yes, sir," answered the chauffeur looking up into the bland smile and +the outstretched hand above him. "I'll make it if I can but if we get +stopped, don't blame me." + +A year later, or so it seemed to John Sedyard, the taxicab, panting with +indignation at the insults and interferences to which it had been +subjected, turned into Sedyard's eminently respectable block and drew up +before his eminently handsome house. + +He paid and propitiated the chauffeur, took his lovely burden in his +arms and staggered up the steps with the half regretful feeling of one +who steps out of the country of adventure back to prosaic things. He +found his latchkey, opened his door and drew Maudie into the hall. And +on the landing half-way up the stairs stood his sister Edith, evidently +the bearer of some pleasant tidings. + +Maudie's smile flashed up at her from John's shoulder. Edith stared, +stiffened, and retraced her steps. John wheeled the figure into the +reception-room and thus addressed it: + +"Listen to me, you dumbhead. You may think this adventure is over. +Well, so did I, but I tell you now it's only just beginning. If you are +not mighty careful you will be wrecking a home. So keep your mouth +shut," he charged her, "and do nothing till you hear from me!" + +Maudie smiled archly, coyly, confidentially, and he went upstairs. + +In the sitting-room, he found gathered together his mother, his sister +and Dick Van Plank, Mary's young brother and a student at Columbia. John +was supported through Edith's first remark and the look with which she +accompanied it by the memory of her goodness to Mary and by the +anticipation of the fun which Maudie might be made to provide. + +"I wish to say, John," she began, before any one else had time to speak, +"that I've said _nothing_ to mother or Dick, and I think it would be +better if you didn't. I can attend to the case if you leave it to me." + +"Like you," said John shortly. "Who told you she is a 'case.' Mother," +he went on addressing that gentle knitter by the fire, "I want you to +come downstairs." + +"She shall do nothing of the kind!" cried Edith, and as Mrs. Sedyard +looked interrogatively from one to another of her children, her daughter +swept on. "John must be crazy, I saw him come in with a--a person--who +never ought to be in a house like this." + +"I'd like to know why not?" stormed John. "You don't know a thing about +her. _I_ don't know much for that matter, but when I came across her +down on Union Square, just turned out of a shop where she had been +working, mother, I made up my mind that I would bring her right straight +home, and that Edith would be decent to her. You can see that Edith does +not intend to be." + +"But my dear boy," faltered Mrs. Sedyard, "was not that a very reckless +thing to do? I know of an institution where you could send her." + +"Oh! yes, yes," said John. "And I suppose I might have handed her over +to a policeman," he added, thinking of his attempt in this direction, +"but I didn't. The sight of her so gentle and uncomplaining in that +awful situation at this time of general rejoicing was too much for me." + +He felt this to be so fine a flight and its effect upon Dick was so +remarkable, that he went on in a voice, as his mother always remembered, +"that positively trembled at times." + +"How was I, a man strong and well-dowered, to pass heartlessly by like +the Good Samaritan--" + +"There's something wrong with that," Dick interposed. + +But John was not to be deflected. "What, mother, would you have thought +of your son if he left that beautiful figure--for she is beautiful--" + +"You don't say," said Dick. + +"To be buffeted by the waves of 'dead man's curve?'" + +"Oh, how awful!" murmured the old lady. "How _perfectly_ dreadful." + +It was at this point that Dick Van Plank unostentatiously left the room. + +"But I didn't do it, mother," cried John, thumping his chest and anxious +to make his full effect before the return of an enlightened and possibly +enlightening Dick. "No, I thought of this big house, with only us three +in it, and I said 'I'll bring her home.' Edith will love her. Edith will +give her friendship, advice, guidance. She will even give her something +to wear instead of the unsuitable things she has on. And what do I +find?" He paused and looked around dramatically and warningly as Dick, +with a beautified grin, returned. "Does Edith open her heart to her? +No. Does Edith open her arms to her? No. All that Edith opens to her is +the door which leads--who can tell where, whither?" + +"I can tell," said Dick, "it leads right straight to my little diggings. +If Edith throws her out, I'll take her in." + +"Oh, noble, noble man," ejaculated John remembering the emotional woman, +"but ah! that must not be. I took her hand in mine--by the way, did I +tell you, she has beautiful little hands, not at all what I should have +expected." + +"You did not," said Dick. "And now that'll be about all from you. You're +just about through." + +"My opinion is," said Edith darkly, "that you are both either crazy or +worse." + +"Go down and see her for yourself," urged Dick, "so quiet, so +reserved--hush! hark! she's coming up. Now be nice to her whatever you +feel! I'll be taking her away in a minute or two." + +But it was Mary Van Plank who came in. Mary, all blooming and glowing +from the cold. + +"Who's that in the reception-room?" she asked when the greetings were +over and she was warming her slender hands before the fire. "She's the +prettiest dear. She was standing at the window and she smiled so sweetly +at me as I came up the steps." + +John looked at Dick. + +"Yes," admitted that unabashed delinquent, "I left her at the window +when I came up." + +"Alas! poor child," sighed John, looking out into the night. "She'll be +there soon." + +"What is she going out for at this time?" Mary demanded. "I quite +thought that she, too, had come to dinner. Who is she, Mrs. Sedyard?" + +Upon her mother's helpless silence, Edith broke in with the story as +she felt she knew it. Union Square, the discharged shopgirl, John's +quixotic conduct. And John watched Mary with a lover's eye. He had not +intended that she should be involved. A moment of her displeasure, even +upon mistaken grounds, was no part of his idea of a joke. + +But there was no displeasure in Mary's lovely face. + +"Why, of course, he brought her home," she echoed Edith's indignant +peroration. "What else could he do?" + +"Well, for one thing he could have taken her to the Margaret Louise +Home, that branch of the Y.W.C.A., on Sixteenth Street, only a few +blocks from where he found her." + +"Oh! Edith," Mary remonstrated. "The Maggie Lou! And you know they would +not admit her. Who would take a friendless girl to any sort of an +institution at this season? John couldn't have done it! I think he's an +old dear to bring her right straight home. Let's go down and talk to +her. She must be wondering why we all leave her so long alone." + +"No, you don't," said Dick. "Edith didn't tell you the whole story. The +girl," and he drew himself up to a dignity based on John's, "is under +_my_ protection." + +"Your protection!" repeated his amazed sister. + +"Precisely. _My_ protection. Edith declines to receive this helpless +child. Therefore, I have offered her the shelter of my roof." + +"His roof," explained Mary to Mrs. Sedyard, "is the floor of the hall +bedroom above his. It measures about nine by six. So the thing to do, +since of course, Dick is only talking nonsense, is to let me take the +girl around to the studio until John and I can plan an uninstitutional +future for her." + +"You may do just as you please," said Edith coldly. "I have given my +opinion as to what should be done with her. It has been considered, by +persons more experienced than you, the opinion of an expert. Girls of +her history and standards are not desirable inmates for well-ordered +homes. I shall have nothing to do with her." + +"How about it, Mary?" asked her brother. "Are you willing to risk her in +the high-art atmosphere of the studio?" + +"I'm glad to," Mary answered. "It's not often that one gets a chance of +being a little useful, and doesn't the Christmas Carol say, 'Good will +to men.' I'm going down to see her now." + +"You're a darling," cried John. "True blue right through. Now, we'll all +go down and arrange the transfer. But, first, I want to give Edith one +more chance. Do you finally and unreservedly--" + +"I do," said Edith promptly. + +"And you, Mary, are you sure of yourself? Suppose that, when you see +her, you change your mind?" + +"I've given my word,", she answered. "I promise to take her." + +"That's all I want," said John. + + * * * * * + +"How could you, John? How could you?" sobbed Edith. "How could you tell +us--?" + +"I told you nothing but the absolute truth. I meant her to be your +Christmas present, but you have resigned her 'with all her works and all +her pomps' to Mary." + +"Ah! but if I refuse to take her from Edith?" Mary suggested. + +"Then I get her," answered Dick blithely, "and she'd be safer with me. I +know what you two girls are thinking of. You are going to borrow her +clothes and make a Cinderella of her. They are what you care about. But +I love her for herself, her useless hands, her golden hair, her lovely +smile--well, no, I guess we'll cut out the smile," he corrected when +Maudie, agitated by the appraising hands of the two girls, swung her +head completely round and beamed impartially upon the whole assembly. +"It don't look just sincere to me." + +But there was no insincerity about Maudie. She was just as +sweet-tempered as she looked. Uncomplainingly, she allowed herself to be +despoiled of her finery and wrapped in a sheet while Mary wriggled +ecstatically in the heavenly blue dress, pinned the plumed hat on her +own bright head and threw the muff into a corner of the darkened +drawing-room when she found that it interfered with the free expression +of her gratitude to John. + +And some months later when the trousseau was in progress, the once +despised Christmas guest, now a member in good-standing of Mary's +household, did tireless service, smilingly, in the sewing-room. + + + + +"WHO IS SYLVIA?" + + +"Lemon, I think," said Miss Knowles, in defiance of the knowledge, born +of many afternoons, that he preferred cream. She took a keen and +mischievous pleasure in annoying this hot-tempered young man, and she +generally succeeded. But to-day he was not to be diverted from the +purpose which, at the very moment of his entrance, she had divined. + +"Nothing, thank you," he answered. "I'll not have any tea. I came in +only for a moment to tell you that I'm going to be married." + +"Again?" she asked calmly, as though he had predicted a slight fall of +snow. But her calm did not communicate itself to him. + +"Again?" he repeated hotly. "What do you mean by 'again?'" + +"Now, Jimmie," she remonstrated, as she settled herself more +comfortably among her pillows and centered all her apparent attention +upon a fragile cup and a small but troublesome sandwich, "don't be +savage. I only mean that you always tell me so when you find an +opportunity. That you even manufacture opportunities--some of them out +of most unlikely material. A chance meeting in a cross-town car; an +especially _forte_ place in an opera; the moment when a bishop is saying +grace or a host telling his favorite story. And yet you expect me to be +surprised to hear it now! Here in my own deserted drawing-room with the +fire lighted and the lamps turned low. You forget that one is allowed to +remember." + +"You allow yourself to forget when you choose and to remember when you +wish: You are--" + +"And to whom are you going to be married? To the same girl? Do you +know, I think she is not worthy of you?" + +"She is not," he acquiesced, and she, for a passing moment, seemed +disconcerted. "Yet she is," he continued, cheered by this slight +triumph, "the most persistent, industrious and deserving of all the +young persons who, attracted by my great position and vast wealth, are +pressing themselves or being pressed by designing relatives upon my +notice." + +His hostess laughed softly. + +"Make allowances for them," she pleaded. "You know very few men can +rival your advantages. The sixth son of a retired yet respectable stock +broker, and an income of four thousand a year derived from a small but +increasing--shall we say increasing--?" + +"Diminishing; incredible as it may seem, diminishing." + +"From a small but diminishing law practice. And with these you must +mention your greatest charm." + +"Which is?" + +"Your humility, your modesty, your lack of self-assertiveness. Do you +think she recognizes that? It is so difficult to fully appreciate your +humility." + +Jimmie grinned. "She's up to it," said he. "She knows all about it. +She's as clever, as keen, as clear-sighted." + +"Is she, perhaps, pleasing to the eye?" asked Miss Knowles idly. "Clever +women are often so--well, so--" + +Jimmie gazed at her across the little tea-table. He filled his eyes with +her. And, since his heart was in his eyes, he filled that, too. After a +moment he made solemn answer: + +"She is the most beautiful woman God ever made." + +"Ah, now," said Miss Knowles, returning her cup to its fellows and +turning her face, and her mind, more entirely to him, "now we grow +interesting. Describe her to me." + +"Again?" Jimmie plagiarized. + +"Yes, again. Tell me, what is she like?" + +"She is like," he began so deliberately that his hostess, leaning +forward, hung upon his words, "she is exactly like--nothing." The +hostess sat back. "There was never anything in the least like her. To +begin with, she is fair and young and slim. She is tall enough, and +small enough and her eyes are gray and black and blue." + +"She sounds disreputable, your paragon." + +"And her eyes," he insisted, "are gray in the sunlight, blue in the +lamplight, and black by the light of the moon." + +"And in the firelight?" + +He rose to kick the logs into a greater brightness; and when he had +studied her glowing face until it glowed even more brightly, he +answered: + +"In the firelight they are--wonderful. She has--did I tell you?--the +whitest and smallest of teeth." + +"They're so much worn this year," she laughed, and wondered the while +what evil instinct tempted her to play this dangerous game; why she +could not refrain from peering into the deeper places of his nature to +see if her image were still there and still supreme? Why should she, +almost involuntarily, work to create and foster an emotion upon which +she set no store, which indeed, only amused her in its milder +manifestations and frightened her when it grew intense? He showed +symptoms of unwelcome seriousness now, but she would have none of it. + +"Go on," she urged. "Unless you give her a few more features she will be +like little Red Riding Hood's grandmother." + +"And she has," he proceeded obediently, "eyebrows and eyelashes--" + +"One might have guessed them." + +"--beyond the common, long and dark and soft. The rest of her face is +the only possible setting for her eyes. It is perfection." + +"And is she gentle, womanly, tender? Is she, I so often wonder, good +enough to you?" + +"She treats me hundreds of times better than I deserve." + +"Doesn't she rather swindle you? Doesn't she let you squander your +time?"--she glanced at the clock--"your substance?"--she bent to lay her +cheek against the violets at her breast--"your affection upon her--?" + +"And how could she be kinder? And when I marry her--" + +"And _if_," Miss Knowles amended. + +"There's no question about it," he retorted. "She knows that I shall +marry her." Miss Knowles looked unconvinced. "She knows that she will +marry me." Miss Knowles looked rebellious. "She knows that I shall never +marry anyone else." Miss Knowles took that apparently for granted. + +"Dear boy!" said she. + +"That I have waited seven years for her." + +"Poor boy!" said she. + +"That I shall wait seven more for her." + +"Silly boy!" said she. + +"And so I stopped this afternoon to tell her that I'm coming home to +marry her in two or three months." + +"Coming home?" she questioned with not much interest. "Where are you +going?" + +"To Japan on a little business trip. One of the big houses wants to get +some papers and testimony and that sort of thing out of a man who is +living in a backwoods village there for his health--and his liberty. +None of their own men can afford time to go. And I got the chance, a +very good one for me--but I tire you." + +"No; oh, no," said Miss Knowles politely. "You are very interesting." + +"Then you shouldn't fidget and yawn. You lay yourself open to +misinterpretation. To continue: a very great chance for me. The firm is +a big firm, the case is a big case, and it will be a great thing for me +to be heard of in connection with it." + +"Some nasty scandal, of course." + +"Not exactly. It is the Drewitt case. I wonder if you heard anything +about it." + +"For three months after the thing happened," she assured him with a +flattering accession of interest, "I heard nothing about anything else. +Poor, dear father knew him, to his cost, you know. I heard that there +was to be a new investigation and another attempt at a settlement. And +now you're going to interview the man! And you're going to Japan! Oh, +the colossal luck of some people! You will write to me--won't you?--as +soon as you see him, and tell me all about him. How he looks, what he +says, how he justifies himself. O Jimmie, dear Jimmie, you will surely +write to me?" + +"Naturally," said Jimmie, and his thin, young face looked happier than +it had at any other time since the beginning of this conversation; +happier than it had in many preceding conversations with this very +unsatisfying but charming interlocutor. "I always do. Sometimes when +your mood has been particularly, well, unreceptive, I have thought of +going away so that I might write to you. Perhaps I could write more +convincingly than I can talk." A cheering condition of things for a +lawyer, he reflected. + +"But this is a different and much more particular thing," she insisted +with a cruelty of which her interest made her unconscious. "I have a +sort of a right to know on account of poor, dear father. I shall make a +list of questions and you will answer them fully, won't you? Then I +shall be the only woman in New York to know the true inwardness of the +Drewitt affair. When do you start?" + +"To-morrow morning. I shall be away for perhaps three months, and then," +doggedly, "then I'm coming home to be married. I came in to tell you." + +"And if I don't quite believe you?" + +"I shall postpone the ceremony. Shall we say indefinitely, some time in +the summer?" + +"Not even then. Never, I think. That troublesome girl is beginning--she +feels that she ought to tell you--" + +"That there is another 'another'?" + +"Yes, I fear so." + +"Who will be in town for the next three months?" + +"Again, I fear so." + +"Then that's all right," said the optimistic Jimmie. "There never was a +man--save one, oh, lady mine--who could, for three months, avoid boring +you. When he holds forth upon every subject under the sun and stars you +will think longingly of me and of the endless variety of my one topic, +'I'm going to marry you.'" + +"But if he should make it his?" + +"I defy him to do it. There is no guise in which he could clothe the +idea which would not remind you instantly of me. If he should be +poetical: well, so was I when we were twenty-one. If he should give you +gifts of great price: well, so did I in those Halcyon days when I had an +allowance from my Governor and toiled not. If his is an outdoor wooing, +you will inevitably remember that I taught you to ride, to skate, to +drive, and to play golf. If he should attack you musically, you will be +surprised at the number of operas we've heard together and of duets +we've sung together. And so, in the words of my friend, fellow-sufferer, +and name-sake, Mr. Yellowplush, 'You'll still remember Jeames.'" + +"That's nonsense!" cried Miss Knowles. "I've tried to be fond of you--I +_am_ fond of you and accustomed to you. The fatal point is that I am +accustomed to you. You say you never bore me. Well, you don't. And that +other men do. Well, you're right. But people don't marry people simply +because they don't bore each other." + +"Your meaning is clearer than your words and much more correct. This +really essential consideration is, alas, frequently not considered." + +"People should marry," said Miss Knowles with a sort of consecrated +earnestness--the most deadly of all the practiced phases of her +coquetry--"for love. Now, I'm not in love with you. If I were, the very +idea of your going away would make me miserable. And do I seem +miserable? Am I lovelorn? Look at me carefully and tell the truth." + +Jimmie obeyed, and the contemplation of his hostess seemed to depress him. + +"No," he agreed gloomily, "you seem to bear up. No one, looking at your +face, could guess that your heart was in--was in--" Jimmie halted, +vainly searching for the poetical word. Miss Knowles supplied it. + +"In torn and bleeding fragments," she supplemented. "No, Jimmie, I'm +sorry. You've laid siege to it in every known way, and yet there's not a +feather out of it." + +"There are two ways," Jimmie pondered audibly, "in which I have not +wooed you. One is _a la_ cave dweller. I might knock you on the head +with a knobby club and drag you to my lair. But since my lair is some +blocks away, and since those blocks are studded with the interested +public and the uninterested police, the cave dweller's method will not +serve. There remains one other. I stand before you, so; I take your +hand, so; I may even have to kiss it, so. And I say: 'Dear one, I want +you. Every hour of my life I want you. I want you to take care of, to +work for, to be proud of. I want you to let me teach you what life +means. I want you for my dearest friend, for my everlasting sweetheart, +for my wife.' And when I've said it, I kiss your hand, so; gently, once +again, and wait for your answer." + +"Dear boy," said she with an unsteady little laugh, for--as always--she +shrank from his earnestness after she had deliberately roused it, "I +wish you wouldn't talk like that. You make me feel so shallow-pated and +so small. I don't want to talk about life and knowledge and love. And I +don't want any husband at all. What makes you so tragic this afternoon? +You're spoiling our last hour together. Come, be reasonable. Tell me +what you think of Drewitt. Why do you suppose he did it? Did his wife +and daughter know?" + +"You're quite sure about the other thing?" + +"Unalterably sure. And, Jimmie, dear old Jimmie, there are two things I +want you to do for me. The first is, to abandon forever and forever this +'one topic' of which, you are so proud. Will you?" + +"I will not," said Jimmie. + +"And the second is: to fall in love with a girl on the boat. There is +always a girl on a boat. Will you?" + +"I will," said Jimmie promptly. "It would be just what you deserve." + + * * * * * + +Miss Knowles bore the absence of her most persistent and accustomed +suitor with a fortitude not predicted by that self-confident young man. +She danced and drove, lunched and dined, rode and flirted with +undiminished zest, bringing, each day, new energy and determination to +the task of enjoying herself. + +The enjoyment of her neighbors seemed less important. She preferred that +her part in the cotillion should be observed by a frieze of unculled +wall-flowers. A drive was always pleasanter if it were preceded by a +skirmish with her mother in which Miss Knowles should come off +victorious with the victoria, while Mrs. Knowles accepted the _coup de +grace_ and the coupe. A flirtation--if her languid, seeming innocent +monopoly of a man's time and thoughts could be called by so gross a +name--was more satisfying if it implied the breaking of vows and hearts +and the mad jealousy of some less gifted sister; if it had, like a +Russian folk song, a sob and a wail running through it. + +Jimmie had never approved of these amusements and had never hesitated to +express his opinion of them in terms which were intelligible even to her +vanity. From the days when they had played together in the park she had +dreaded his honesty and feared his judgments. "You're such a poacher, +Sylvia," he told her once, "such an inveterate, diabolical Fly-by-Night, +Will-o'-the-Wisp poacher. I sometimes think you'd condescend to take a +shot at me if you didn't know that I'm fair game. But you like to kill +two birds with one stone; smash two hearts with one smile." + +During the weeks immediately following the departure of her mentor she +devoted herself whole-heartedly to her favorite form of sport. Besides +her unscrupulousness she was armed with her grandfather's name, the +riches of her dead father, her own beauty, and a mind capable of much +better things. And, since Jimmie's presence would have seriously +interfered with the pleasures of the chase, she was rather glad than +otherwise that he was not there to see--and comment. + +Her mother bore his absence with a like stoicism. That astute matron had +long and silently deprecated the regularity with which her Louis Quinze +had groaned beneath one hundred and eighty pounds of ineligibility, the +frequency with which a tall troup horse of spectacular gait and +snortings could be descried beside her daughter's English hunter in the +park, the strange chain of coincidence by which at theater, house party, +dinner, or even church, Jimmie smiling and unabashed, would find his +way to her daughter's side and monopolize her daughter's attention. + +In the excitement of the first stages of one of her expeditions into +another's territory, Jimmie's first letter arrived. It was mailed at +Honolulu, and consisted obediently of the cryptic statement: "There is +no girl on the boat. She is a widow, but lots of fun." And it changed +the character of the invasion from a harmless survey of the land to a +determined attack upon its fortresses. And so Gilbert Stevenson, +millionaire dock owner, veteran of many seasons and more campaigns, +found himself engaged to Miss Sylvia Knowles just when, after a long and +careful courtship, he had decided to bestow his hand and name upon the +daughter of the retired senior partner of his firm: "that dear little +girl of old Marvin's," as he described the lady of his choice, "his only +child and a good child, too." He bore his surprise and honors with a +courteous pomposity. Miss Knowles bore the situation with restraint and +decorum. But that "dear little girl of old Marvin's" could not bring +herself to bear it at all and wept away her modest claims to prettiness +and spirit in one desolate month. + +Like many a humbler poacher, Sylvia Knowles found an embarrassment in +disposing of her victims after she had bagged them, and Mr. Gilbert +Stevenson was peculiarly difficult in this regard. She did not want to +keep him. In fact, the engagement upon which she was enduring +congratulations had been as surprising to her as to her fiance. And the +methodical manifestations of his regard contrasted wearyingly with the +erratic events in another friendship in which nothing was to be counted +upon except the unaccountable. So that when vanquished suitors withdrew +discomfited and returned to renew an earlier allegiance or to swear a +new one; when "that good child of old Marvin's" had withdrawn her +pitiful little face and her disappointment into the remote fastness of +settlement work; when her mother resigned all claims upon the victoria +and loudly affirmed her preference for the brougham, then things in +general--and Mr. Stevenson in particular--began to bore Miss Knowles, +and she began to look forward, with an emotion which would have +surprised her betrothed, to foreign mails and letters. She considerately +spared Mr. Stevenson this disquieting intelligence, having found him in +matters of honor and rectitude as archaic and as fastidious as Jimmie +himself. "Has a nasty suspicious mind," she reflected, "and a nasty +jealous disposition. I wonder if he will expect me to give up all my +friends when I marry him." + +Yet even Mr. Stevenson could have found no cause for jealousy in the +matter of the letters. He might have objected to their being written at +all, but beyond that they were innocuous. For all the personality they +contained they might have been transcripts of Jimmie's reports to his +firm. He clung doggedly to his prescribed topics, and he could not have +devised a surer method of arousing the curiosity and the interest of +this spoiled young person. She spent hours, which should have been +devoted to the contemplation of approaching bliss, in reading between +the prosaic lines, in searching for sentiment in a catalogue of railway +stations, for tenderness in description of eccentric _tables d'hote_. +Finding no trace of his old gallantry in all the closely written pages, +she attributed its absence to obedience and accepted it as the higher +tribute to her power. She was forced to judge her lover's longing by the +quantity rather than by the ardor of his words, and to detect the +yearning of a true lover's heart through such effectual disguise as: + +"Drewitt is a fine old chap; as placid and as bright as this country +and a great deal more so than anyone you'll see in the windows of the +Union League Club. He received me so cordially that I felt awkward about +introducing the object of my visit, but when I had admired everything in +sight from the mountains in the distance to the rug I was sitting on, I +finally faced the situation and did it. + +"'Dear me,' said he, 'are those directors still troubling themselves +about their transaction with me?' I admitted apologetically that they +were; that their books refused to close over the gap left by the +vanishing of $50,000, and that he was earnestly requested to return to +New York and to lend his acknowledged business acumen, etc., etc. He +never turned a hair. Said they--and I--were very kind. Nothing could +give him greater pleasure. But the ladies preferred Japan. Therefore he, +etc., etc., etc. But he would be delighted to explain the matter fully +to me; to supply me with all the figures and information I desired. (And +that, of course, is as much as I am expected to bring back.) But he +would have to postpone his return until--and you should have seen the +whimsical, quizzical old eye of his--until the nations would agree upon +new extradition treaties. Then, of course, etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile, +as there was no immediate urgency about the matter, as he hoped that I +would stay with them for as long a time as I cared to arrange, he would +suggest that we should join Mrs. Drewitt in the garden. She would +welcome news of our American friends. 'I need not ask you,' he added as +we went out through the wall-like people in a dream or a fairy tale, to +be discreet and casual in your conversation with the ladies. My daughter +is away this week visiting an old friend of hers who is married to a +missionary in a neighboring village. She knows the reason for our being +here. My wife does not. It need not be discussed with either of them.' +I should think not! + +"And there in the garden was Mrs. Drewitt, a fat little old lady in a +flaming kimono and spectacles. She wears her hair as your Aunt Matilda +does, stuck to her forehead in scrolls. 'Water curls,' I think, is the +technical term. She was holding the head of a dejected marigold while a +native propped it up with a stick. It seemed she remembered my mother, +and we spent a delightful tea-time in a garden which was a part of the +same dream as the phantom wall. Then the old gentleman led me off by +myself and wanted to hear all about Broadway. Whether Oscar was still at +the Waldorf. Whether Fields and Weber made 'a good thing of it' apart. +Then the old lady led me off by myself and wanted to know who was now +the pastor of the Brick Church, and what was Maude Adam's latest play, +and whether skirts were worn long or short in the street. + +"'You see this dress,' she said, 'is not really made for a woman of my +age. In fact, in this country all the bright and pretty colors are worn +by the waitresses. Geishas they call them. But Mr. Drewitt always liked +bright colors, and red is very becoming to me.' She was such a wistful, +pathetic, and incongruous little figure that I said something about +hoping that she would soon be in New York again. 'But,' she said, 'Mr. +Drewitt cannot leave his work here. Didn't you know that he is stationed +here to report the changes of the weather to Washington? It is very +important, and we can't go home until he is recalled. And, besides,'" +she went on with a half sob in her voice and a look in her eyes that +made her seem as young as her own daughter, 'and, besides, I would much +rather be here. In New York my husband was too busy. He had so many +calls upon his time, so many people to meet, and so many places to go, +that sometimes I hardly felt as though he belonged to me. But now for +days and weeks at a time we are together. And he has no business +worries. And his salary,' she brightened up to tell me, 'is almost as +good here as it used to be in the Trust Company for _much_ harder work.' +She's a sweet old thing--must have been quite a beauty once--and I wish +you could see old Drewitt's manner with her--so courteous and +affectionate--and hers with him--so adoring and confiding. It's +wonderful! + +"It will take some time to get all the information I want from the old +man. He has the papers and he is quite willing to explain everything, +but we spend the larger part of every day in entertaining the old lady +and keeping her happy and unsuspicious." + +A series of such letters covering several placid weeks reduced Miss +Knowles to a condition of moodiness and abstraction which all the +resources at her command failed to dissipate. In vain were the +practical blandishments of Mr. Stevenson; in vain her mother's shopping +triumphs; in vain were dinners given in her honor and receptions at +which she reigned supreme. None of her other experiments had resulted in +an engagement--an immunity which she now humbly attributed to the +watchful Jimmie--and she was dismayed at the determined and +matter-of-fact way in which she was called upon to fulfil her promise. +"If only Jimmie were at home!" she realized, "he would save me." This +was when the happy day was yet a great way off. "If only Jimmie would +come home," she wailed as the weeks grew to months, and even the comfort +of his letters failed her. For two months there had been no news of him, +and Fate--and Mr. Stevenson--were very near when, at last, she heard +from him again. He sent a telegram nearly as brief as his first letter. + +"I am coming home," it announced, "I am coming home, and I'm going to +be married." + +And the simple little words, waited for so long, remembered so clearly, +and coming, at last, so late, did what all Jimmie's more eloquent +pleadings had failed to do. + +Sylvia Knowles, a creature made of vanities, realized that she loved +better than all her other vanities her place in this one man's regard. +No contemplation of Mr. Stevenson's estate on the Hudson, his shooting +lodge on a Scottish moor, his English abbey, and his Italian villa could +nerve her for the first meeting with Jimmie, could fortify her against +his first laughing repetition: + +"_You_ married to Gilbert Stevenson," or his later scornful, "You +_married_ to Gilbert Stevenson." + +So she dismissed Mr. Stevenson with as little feeling as she had annexed +him, and sought comfort in the knowledge that her mother was furious, +her own fortune ample, and that marrying for love was a graceful, +becoming pose and an unusual thing to do. + +Her rejected suitor bore his disappointment as correctly as he had borne +his joy. He stormed the special center of philanthropy in which old +Marvin's little girl had buried herself, and she was most incorrectly +but refreshingly glad to see him. She destroyed forever his poise and +his pride in it when she sat upon his unaccustomed knee, rested her +tired head upon his immaculate shirt front, and wept for very happiness. + + * * * * * + +"And I remember," said Miss Knowles, "that you always take cream." + +"Nothing, thank you," Jimmie corrected. "Just plain unadulterated tea. I +learned to like it in Japan. But don't bother about it. I haven't long +to stay. I came in to tell you--" + +"That you're going to be married." + +"How did you guess?" + +"You didn't leave me to guess. Your telegram." + +"Ah, yes!" quoth Jimmie. "I sent a lot of them before I sailed. But in +my letters--" + +"You mentioned absolutely nothing but that stupid old Drewitt affair. +Never a word of the places you saw, the people you met, or even the +people you missed. Nothing of the customs, the girls, the clothes. +Nothing but that shuffling old Drewitt and his stuffy old wife. Nothing +about yourself." + +"Orders are orders," quoth Jimmie, "and those were yours to me. I +remember exactly how it came about. We had been talking personalities. I +have an idea that I made rather a fool of myself, and that you told me +so. Then you, wisely conjecturing that I might write as foolishly as I +had talked, made out a list of subjects for my letters. My name, I noted +with some care, was not upon that list." + +"Jimmie," said Miss Knowles, "I was cruel and heartless that day. I've +thought about it often." + +"You've thought!" cried the genial Jimmie. "How had you time to think? +Where were all those 'anothers'?" + +"There were none," lied Miss Knowles soulfully with a disdainful +backward glance toward Mr. Stevenson. "For a time I thought there was +one. But whenever I thought of that last talk of ours--you remember it, +don't you?" + +"Of course. I told you I was going to be married as soon as I came home. +Well, and so I am." + +"So you are. But I used to think that if you hesitated to tell me; if +you felt that I might still be hard about it and unsympathetic; if you +decided to confide no more in me--" + +"But you would be sure to know. Even if I had not telegraphed I never +could have kept it a secret from you." + +"Not easily. I should have been, as you observe, sure to know. Do you +remember how I always refused to believe you? It was not until you were +in that horrid Japan, where all the women are supposed to be +beautiful--" + +"Yes," Jimmie acquiesced. "It was when I was in Japan." + +"It was then that it began to seem possible that you would be married +when you came home. It was then that I began to realize that I didn't +deserve to be told of your plans. For I had been a fool, Jimmie. You had +been a fool, too, but not in the way you think. And so, if you will sit +where I sat that horrid day, we will begin that conversation all over +again and end it differently. The first speech was yours. Do you +remember it?" + +"But I'm going to be married," said Jimmie. + +"Good boy. He knows his lesson. And now I say, 'To the most beautiful +woman in the world?'" + +"To the most beautiful woman God ever made. The dearest, the most +clever, the most simple." + +"Simple," repeated Miss Knowles with some natural surprise. "Did you say +simple?" + +"Simple and jolly and unaffected. As true and as bright as the stars. +And I'm going to marry her--" + +"Now this," Miss Knowles interjected, "is where the difference comes. +You are to sit quite still and listen to me because a thing like +this--however long and carefully one had thought it out--is difficult in +the saying. So, I stand here before you where I can look at you; for +four months are long; and where you may, when I have quite finished, +kiss my hand again; for again four months are long. And I begin thus: +Jimmie, you are going to be married--" + +"I told you first," cried Jimmie. + +"But I knew it first," she countered, "to a woman who has learned to +love you during the past three months, but who could not do it more +utterly, more perfectly, if she had practiced through all the years that +you and I have been friends." + +"So she says," Jimmie interrupted with sudden heat. "So she says. God +bless her!" + +"And, ah, _how_ she is fond of you. 'Fond' is a darling of a word. It +keeps just enough of its old 'foolish' meaning to be human. Proud of +you, glad of you, fond of you--I think that this is, perhaps, the time +for you to kiss my hand." + +"You're a darling," he said as he obeyed. "But what I can't +understand--" + +"It's not your turn. You may talk after I finish if I leave anything for +you to say. See, I go on: You are going to marry--" + +"The most beautiful woman in the world." + +"That reminds me. What is she like? I've not heard her described for ages." + +"Because there was no one in New York who could do justice to her." + +"You are the knightliest of knights. Go on. Describe her." + +"Well, she is neither very tall nor very small. But the grace of her, +the young, surpassing grace of her, makes you know as soon as your eyes +have rested on her that her height, whatever it chances to be, is the +perfect height for a woman. And then there is the noble heart of her. +What other daughter would have buried herself, as she has done, in a +little mountain village--" + +Miss Knowles looked quickly about the luxurious room, then out upon the +busy avenue, then back at him, suspecting raillery. But he was staring +straight through her; straight into the land of visions. His eyes never +wavered when she moved slowly out of their range and sat, huddled and +white-faced, in the corner of a big chair. + +"And all," Jimmie went on, "so bravely, so cheerily, that it makes +one's throat ache to see. And one's heart hot to see. Then there is the +beauty of her. Her hair is dark, her eyes are dark, but her skin is the +fairest in the world." + +Miss Knowles pushed back a loose lace cuff and studied the arm it had +hidden. _La reine est morte_, she whispered, _morte, morte, morte_. + +"But what puzzles me,", said the genial Jimmie, "is your knowing about +it all. I never wrote you a word of it, and as for Sylvia--by the way, +did you know that her name, like yours, is Sylvia?" + +"Yes," said Miss Knowles, "I had even guessed that her name would be +Sylvia." + +"You're a wonderful woman," Jimmie protested. "The most wonderful woman +in the world." + +"Except?" + +"Except, of course, Sylvia Drewitt." + +"Ah, yes," said Miss Knowles. "Yes, of course." + + + + +THE SPIRIT OF CECELIA ANNE + + +"And all the rest and residue of my estate," read the lawyer, his +voice growing more impressive as he reached this most impressive clause, +"I give and bequeath to my beloved granddaughter and godchild Cecelia +Anne Hawtry for her own use and benefit forever." + +The black-clothed relations whose faces had been turned toward the front +of the long drawing-room now swung round toward the back where a +fair-haired little girl, her hands spread guardian-wise round the new +black hat on her knees, lay asleep in her father's arms. For old Mrs. +Hawtry's "beloved granddaughter Cecelia Anne" was not yet too big to +find solace in sleep when she was tired and uninterested, being indeed +but nine years old and exceedingly small of stature and babyish of +habit. So she slept on and missed hearing all the provisions which were +meant to protect her in the enjoyment of her estate but which were +equally calculated to drive her guardian distracted. + +"I leave nothing to my beloved son, James Hawtry," the document +continued, "because I consider that he has quite enough already. And I +leave nothing to his son, James Hawtry, Junior, the twin-brother of +Cecelia Anne Hawtry, because, though he and I have met but seldom, I +have formed the opinion that he is capable of winning his way in the +world without any aid from me." + +James Hawtry, Junior, sitting beside the heiress, failed to derive much +satisfaction from this clause. If things were being given away, he was +not quite certain as to what "rest and residue" might mean, but if +things of any kind were being doled out he would fain have enjoyed them +with the rest. + +Presently the lawyer read the final codicil and gathered his papers +together, then addressed the blank and disappointed assemblage with: "As +you have seen that all the minor bequests are articles of a household +nature--portraits, tableware and the like, 'portable property' as my +immortal colleague, Mr. Wemmick, would have said--I should suggest the +present to be an admirable time for their removal by the fortunate +legatees who may not again be in this neighbourhood. And now I have but +to congratulate the young lady who has succeeded to this property, a +really handsome property I may say, though the amount is not stated nor +even yet fully ascertained. If Miss Cecelia Anne Hawtry is present, I +should like to pay my respects to her and to wish her all happiness in +her new inheritance. I have never had the pleasure of meeting the +principal legatee. May I ask her to come forward and accept my +congratulations." + +"Take her, Jimmie," commanded Mr. Hawtry, setting Cecelia down upon her +thin little black legs, while he tried to smooth her into presentable +shape in anticipation of the anxious cross-examination he was sure to +undergo when he returned with the children to his New York home and wife. + +"She looked as fit as paint," he afterward assured that anxious +questioner. "I stood the bow out on her hair and pushed her dress down +just as I've seen you do hundreds of times. Jimmie helped, too, and I +declare to you, you'd have been as proud of those two kids as I was when +that boy led his little sister through the hostile camp. Funny, he felt +the hostility instantly, though of course, he didn't understand it. But +she--well, you know what a confiding little thing she is, and having +been asleep made her eyes look even more babyish than they always +do--walked beside him, smiling her soft little smile and looking about +three inches high in her little black dress." + +"If I had been there," interrupted Mrs. Hawtry warmly, "I should have +murdered your sister Elizabeth before I allowed her to put that baby +into mourning. The black bow I packed for her hair would have been quite +enough." + +"Well, she had it on. I saw it bobbing up the room while tenth and +fifteenth cousins seven or eight times removed, stared at it and at her. +But the person most surprised was old Debrett when Jimmie introduced them." + +"'This is her,' remarked your son with more truth than polish, and I'm, +well, antecedently condemned, if that dry-as-dust old lawyer didn't +stoop and kiss her as he wished her joy." + +"Ah, I'm glad he's as nice as that," said Mrs. Hawtry, "since he is to +be your co-trustee. However," she added a little wistfully, "I don't +like the idea of anybody dictating to us about the baby. It makes her +seem somehow not quite so much our very own. And we could have taken +care of her quite well without your mother's money and advice." + +"Why, my dear," laughed her husband, "that's a novel attitude to adopt +toward a legacy. The baby is ours as much as she ever was. The advice is +as good as any I ever read. And the money will leave us all the more to +devote to Jimmie. There's the making of a good business man in Jimmie." + + * * * * * + +It was part of what Mrs. Hawtry for a long time considered the +interference of Cecelia Anne's grandmother that the child should have a +monthly allowance, small while she was small and growing with her +growth. She was to be allowed to spend it without supervision and to +keep an account of it. At the end of each year the trustees were to +examine these accounts and to judge from them the trend of their ward's +inclinations. They would be then in a position to curb or foster her +leanings as their judgment should dictate. + +Now, Cecelia Anne, restored to her friends from a wonderland sort of +dream, called going--West--with--papa--on--the--train--and--living-- +with--Aunt--Elizabeth, was too full of narration and too excited by the +envious regard of untraveled playmates to trouble overmuch about that +scene in the long drawing-room which she had never clearly understood. +The first monthly payment of her allowance failed to connect itself in +her mind with the journey. Her predominant emotion on the subject of +legacies was one of ardent gratitude to Jimmie. He had given her a +quarter out of the change they had received at the toyshop where they +had purchased the most beautiful sloop-yacht they had ever seen or +dreamed of. A quarter for her very own; Jimmie's generosity and +condescension extended even further than this. He also allowed her, the +day being warm, to carry the yacht for a considerable part of their +homeward journey, and, when the treasure was exhibited upon the topmost +of their own front steps, he allowed her twice to pull the sails up and +down. When he went to Central Park to sail the _Jennie H_, that being as +near the feminine form of Jimmie Hawtry as their learning carried them, +James, Junior, frequently allowed his sister to accompany him and his +envious fellows. Then it was her proud privilege to watch the _Jennie +H's_ wavering course and to rush around the margin of the lake ready to +"stand by" to receive her beloved bowsprit wherever she should dock. +Then all proudly would she set the rudder straight again and turn the +_Jennie H_ back to the landing-stage where Jimmie, surrounded by his +cohorts, all calm and cool in his magnificence, awaited this first +evidence of "the trend of Cecelia Anne's inclinations." + +Not quite a year elapsed before Mr. Hawtry's genial co-trustee visited +his little ward. The reading of the will had taken place in November, +and on the last week of the following June, Mr. Debrett, chancing to be +in New York, decided to cultivate the acquaintance of Cecelia Anne. Mrs. +Hawtry and the twins were by this time settled in their country home in +Westchester, and Debrett, driving up from the station in the evening +with Mr. Hawtry, found it difficult to accept the freckled, barelegged, +blue-jumpered form which he saw in the garden, polishing the spokes of a +bicycle, as the ward who had lived all these months in his memory: a +fragile little figure in funeral black. Never had he seen so altered a +child, he assured Mrs. Hawtry with many congratulations. She seemed +taller, heavier, more self-assured. But the smile with which she put a +greasy little hand into his extended hand was misty and babyish still. + +Presently, while the two men rested with long chairs and long glasses +and Mrs. Hawtry ministered to them, Jimmie appeared on the scene and +after exchanging proper greetings turned to inspect Cecelia Anne and her +work. "I think you've got it bright enough," he said with kindly +condescension. "You can go and get dressed for dinner now. And to-morrow +morning if I'm not using the wheel maybe I'll let you use it awhile." + +"Oh, fank you!" said Cecelia Anne who had never quite outgrown her +babyhood's lisp, "and can I have the saddle lowered so's I can reach the +pedals?" + +"Oh, I s'pose so," said Jimmie grudgingly. "Sometimes you act just like +a girl. You give 'em something and they always want, more. Now you run +on and open the stable door. I'm goin' to try if I can ride right into +the harness-room without getting off. Don't catch your foot in the door +and don't get too near Dolly's hind legs." + +When the children had vanished around the corner of the house, Mrs. +Hawtry turned to Mr. Debrett. + +"There's the explanation of Cecelia Anne's ruggedness," said she. "She +and Jimmie are inseparable. He has taught her all kinds of boys' +accomplishments. And she's as happy as a bird if she's only allowed to +trot around after him. It doesn't seem to make her in the least ungentle +or hoydenish and I feel that she's safer with him than with the gossipy +little girls down at the hotel." + +"Not a doubt of it," Debrett heartily endorsed. "She couldn't have a +better adviser. Her grandmother, a very clever lady by the way, had a +high opinion of your son's practical mind. A useful antidote, I should +say, to his sister's extreme gentleness." + +He found further confirmation of old Mrs. Hawtry's acumen when Mr. +Hawtry proposed that they should look over Cecelia Anne's disbursement +account, kept by herself, as the will had specified. + +Cecelia Anne was delighted with the idea. Jimmie had wandered out to see +about the sports that were going to be held on the Fourth of July, and +so the burden of explanation fell upon the little heiress. She drew her +account book from its drawer in her father's desk, settled herself +comfortably in the hollow of his arm and proceeded to disclose the +"trend of her inclinations" as is evidenced by her shopping list: + +"One sloop yat _Jennie H_ swoped for hockey skates when it got cold. + +One air riffle. + +Three Tickets. + +One riding skirt. + +Two Tickets. + +Six white rats two died. + +Four Tickets. + +Leather Stocking Tales. Three Books. + +Three Tickets. + +Four Boxing Gloves. + +Eight Tickets. + +One bull tarrier dog and collar he fought Len Fogerty's dog bit him all +up and father sent him away." + +"I remember him," said Mr. Hawtry, "a well-bred beast but a holy terror, +go on dear." + +"One Byccle. + +Three Tickets. + +Stanley's Darkest Africa two books but not very new. + +One printing press. + +Two Tickets. + +Treasure Island. One Book." + +"And that's all the big things," finished Cecelia Anne in evident +relief. "Jimmie wrote down the prices, wouldn't you like to see them?" + +And she crossed to Mr. Debrett and laid the open book on his knee. + +Mr. Debrett, as Cecelia Anne teetered up and down on her heels and toes +before him, read the list again, counted up the total expenditure and +admitted that his ward had got remarkably good value for her money. + +"But what are all these 'tickets,' my dear?" he asked her. + +"Eden Musee," answered Cecelia Anne. And the very thought of it drew her +to her mother's knee. "Jimmie and the boys used to take me there +Saturday afternoons in the winter to try to get my nerve up. They say," +she admitted dolefully, "that I haven't got much. So they used to take +me to the Chamber of Horrors so's I'd get accustomed to life. That's +what Jimmie thought I needed. They used to like it, and I expect I'd +have liked it, too, if I could have kept my eyes open, but I never +could. I couldn't even _get_ them open when the boys stood me right +close to that gentleman having death throes on the ground after he'd +been hung on a tree. You can hear him breathing!" + +"I know him well," said Mr. Debrett. "He is rather awful I must admit. +And now we'll talk about the books. Don't you care at all about 'Little +Men' and 'Little Women' or the 'Elsie Books?'" + +"Jimmie says," Cecelia Anne made reply, "that 'Darkest Africa' is better +for me. It tells me just where to hit an elephant to give him the death +throes. He says the 'Elsie Books' wouldn't be any help to us even with a +buffalo. We're going to buy 'The Wild Huntress, or Love in the +Wilderness' next month. Jimmie thinks that's sure to get my nerve +up--being about a girl, you see--" + +"And 'Treasure Island' now;" said her guardian, "did you enjoy that? It +came rather late in my life, but I remember thinking it a great book." + +"It's great for nerve. Jimmie often reads me parts of it after I go to +bed at night. There's a poem in it--he taught me that by heart--and if +I think to say it the last thing before I go to sleep he says I'll get +so's _nothing_ can scare me." + +"Recite it for Mr. Debrett," urged Mrs. Hawtry. And Cecelia Anne +obediently began, with a jerk of a curtsey and a shake of her delicate +embroideries and blue sash. + + "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest + Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! + Drink and the devil had done for the rest + Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!" + +Mr. Debrett's astonishment at this lullaby held him silent for some +seconds. + +"You see, sir," Cecelia Anne explained, "if you _can_ go to sleep +thinking about that it shows your nerve. I can't. Not yet. But it never +makes me cry any more and Jimmie says that's something." + +"I should say it was!" he congratulated her. "It's wonderful. And now in +the matter of dolls," he went on referring to the list, "no rag babies, +eh?" + +"Oh, but she has beautiful dolls, Mr. Debrett," interposed her mother. +"She'll show them to you to-morrow morning, won't you honey-child? But +she did not buy them. They were given to her at Christmas and other +times. But really, since we came out here for the summer they've been +rather neglected. Their mother has been so busy." + +"And Jimmie made me a house for them!" Cecelia Anne broke in. "And +furniture! And a front yard stuck right on to the piazza! But I don't +know, mother, whether I'd have time to show them to Mr. Debrett in the +morning. I'm pretty busy now. It's getting so near the race. And I pace +Jimmie _every_ morning." + +"Ah! that reminds me," said her father, "Jimmie told me to send you to +bed at eight o'clock--one of the rules of 'training', you know--so say +good night to us all and put your little book back in the drawer. +You've kept it very nicely. I am sure Mr. Debrett agrees with me." + +When the elders were alone, Mrs. Hawtry crossed over into the light and +addressed her guest. + +"I can't have you thinking badly of Jimmie," she began, "or of us, for +allowing him to practically spend the baby's income. Every one of the +things on that list mark a stage in Cecelia Anne's progress away from +priggishness and toward health. I don't know just how much she realizes +her own power of veto in these purchases but I am sure she would never +exercise it against Jimmie. She's absolutely wrapped up in him and he's +wonderfully good and patient with her. Of course, you know, they're +twins although no one ever guesses it. They've shared everything from +the very first." + +"In this combination," laughed Debrett, "the boy is 'father to the +girl' and the girl is 'mother to the boy.'" + +"Precisely so," Mr. Hawtry replied, "and the mother part comes out +strong in this race and training affair. An old chap down at the +hotel--one of those old white-whiskered 'Foxey Grandpas' that no summer +resort should be without--has arranged a great race for his friends, the +children, on Fourth of July morning. The prize is to be the privilege of +setting off the fireworks in the evening." + +"They'll run themselves to death," commented Debrett, who knew his young +America, "and is Jimmie to be one of the contestants?" + +"He is," replied Hawtry, "it's a 'free for all' event and even Cecelia +Anne _may_ start if Jimmie allows it. She's not thinking much about that +though. You see, Jimmie has gone into training and she's his trainer. I +went out with them last Saturday morning to see how they manage. They +marched me down to an untenanted little farm, back from the road. Jimmie +carried the 'riffle' referred to in Cecelia Anne's text and a handful of +blank cartridges. Cecelia Anne carried Jimmie's sweater, a bath towel, a +large sponge, a small tin bucket and a long green bottle. I carried +nothing. I was observing, not interfering." + +"Oh, that dear baby!" broke in Mrs. Hawtry, "such a heavy load!" + +"She's thriving under it, my dear." Well, presently we arrived at our +destination, and I saw that those kids had worn a little path, not very +deep of course, all round what used to be rather a spacious 'door yard.' +The winning-post was the pump. By its side Cecelia Anne disposed her +burden like a theatrical 'dresser' getting things ready for his +principal. She hung her tin pail on the pump's snout and pumped it full +of water, laid it beside the bath towel, threw the sponge into it, +gave a final testing jerk to her tight little braids and divested +herself of her jumpers and the dress she wore under them. Then she +resumed the jumpers, took the rifle and crossed the 'track.' Jimmie, +meanwhile, had stripped to trousers and the upper part of his +bathing-suit, had donned his running shoes, set his feet in holes kicked +in the ground for that purpose and bent forward, his back professionally +hunched and in his hands the essential pieces of cork. Cecelia Anne +gabbled the words of starting, shut her eyes tightly, fired the rifle +into the air, threw it on the ground and set off after the swiftly +moving Jimmie. Early in his first lap she was up to him. As they passed +the pump, she was ahead. In the succeeding laps she kept a comfortable +distance in the lead, until the end of the third when she sprinted for +'home,' grabbed the towel and, as Jimmie came bounding up, wrapped him +in it, rubbed him down, fanned him with it, moistened his brow with +vinegar from the long bottle, tied the sweater around his neck by its +red sleeves and held the dripping sponge to his lips. Then she found +time for me. + +[Illustration: CELIA ANNE SHUT HER EYES TIGHTLY AND FIRED THE RIFLE INTO +THE AIR.] + +"Oh, father," she cried, "did you _ever_ see _any_body who could run as +fast as Jimmie? Don't you just know he'll win that race?" + +"There's but one chance against it," said I. "And really, Mr. Debrett, +that boy can run. He's a little bit heavy maybe, but he holds himself +well together and keeps up a pretty good pace. I timed him and measured +up the distance roughly afterward. It was pretty good going for a little +chap. Cecelia Anne is so much smaller that we often forget what a little +fellow he is after all. But that baby--whew--I wish you'd seen her fly. +It wasn't running. She just blew over the ground and arrived at the pump +as cool as a cucumber although Jimmie was puffing like an automobile of +the vintage of 1890." + +"You see," said Jimmie to me as he lay magnificently on the grass +waiting to grow cool while Cecelia still fanned him with the towel, "you +see it don't hurt her to pace me round the track." + +"Apparently not," said I, and although he's my own boy and I know him +pretty well, I couldn't for the life of me decide whether he, as well as +Cecelia Anne, had really failed to grasp the fact that she beats him to +a standstill every morning. I suppose we'll know on the Fourth. If she +runs, then he does not know. But if he refuses to let her run; it will +be because he does know." + +"I'm not so sure of that," said Mrs. Hawtry. + + * * * * * + +Cecelia Anne _was_ allowed to run. First, in a girl's race among the +giggling, amateurish, self-conscious girls whom she outdistanced by a +lap or two and, later, in the race for all winners, where she had to +compete with Charlie Anderson, the beau of the hotel, Len Fogarty, the +milkman's son, and her own incomparable Jimmie. + +The master of ceremonies gave the signal and the event of the day was +on. First to collapse was Charlie Anderson. Jimmie was then in the lead +with Len Fogarty a close second, and Cecelia Anne beside him. So they +went for a lap. Then Jimmie, missing perhaps the blue little figure of +his pacemaker, wavered a little, only a little, but enough to allow Len +Fogarty to forge past him. Len Fogarty! The blatant, hated Len Fogarty, +always shouting defiance from his father's milk-wagon! Then forward +sprang Cecelia Anne. Not for all the riches of the earth would she have +beaten Jimmie, but not for all the glory of heaven would she allow any +one else to beat him. And so by an easy spectacular ten seconds, she +outran Len Fogarty. + +Then wild was the enthusiasm of the audience and black was the brow of +Len Fogarty. A chorus of: "Let a girl lick you," "Call yourself a +runner," "Come up to the house an' race me baby brother," has not a +soothing effect when added to the disappointment of being forever shut +off from the business end of rockets and Roman candles. These things +Cecelia Anne knew and so accepted, sadly and resignedly, the glare with +which Len turned away from her little attempts at explanations. + +But she was not prepared, nothing in her short life could ever have +prepared her, to find the same expression on Jimmie's face when she +broke through a shower of congratulations and followed him up the road; +to expect praise and to meet _such_ a rebuff would have been sufficient +to make even stiffer laurels than Cecelia Anne's trail in the dust. + +"Why Jimmie," she whimpered contrary to his most stringent rule. "Why +Jimmie what's the matter?" + +"You're a sneak," said Jimmie darkly and vouchsafed no more. There was +indeed no more to say. It was the last word of opprobrium. + +They pattered on in silence for a short but dusty distance, Cecelia Anne +struggling with the temptation to lie down and die; Jimmie upborne by +furious temper. + +"Who taught you how to run?" he at last broke out. "Wasn't it me? Didn't +I give you lessons every morning in the old lot? And then didn't you go +and beat me when Len Fogarty, Charlie Anderson, Billy Van Derwater, and +all the other fellows were there?" + +Cecelia Anne returned his angry gaze with her blue and loyal eyes. + +"I didn't beat you 't all," she answered. "I didn't beat anybody but Len +Fogarty." + +Her mentor studied her for a while and then a grin overspread his once +more placid features. + +"I guess it'll be all right," he condescended. "Maybe you didn't mean it +the way it looked. But say, Cecelia Anne, if you're afraid of +fire-crackers what are you going to do about the rockets and the Roman +candles? You know sparks fly out of them like rain. And if the smell of +old cartridge shells makes you sick, I don't know just how you'll get +along to-night." + +The victor stopped short under the weight of this overwhelming spoil. + +"I forgot all about it," she whispered. "Oh, Jimmie, I guess I ought to +have let Len Fogarty win that race. He could set off rockets and Roman +candles and Catherine wheels. I guess it'll kill me when the sparks and +the smoke come out. Maybe I'd better go and see Mr. Anstell and ask to +be excused." + +"Aw, I wouldn't do that," Jimmie advised her, "you don't want everyone +to know about your nerve. You just tell him your dress is too light and +that you want me to attend to the fireworks for you." + +In the transports of gratitude to which this knightly offer reduced her, +Cecelia Anne fared on by Jimmie's side until they reached the house and +their enquiring parents. Mrs. Hawtry was on the steps as they came up +and she gathered Cecelia Anne into her arms. For a moment no one spoke. +Then Jimmie made his declaration. + +"Cecelia Anne beat Len Fogarty all to nothing. You ought to have been +there to see her." + +"Was there any one else in the race?" queried Mr. Hawtry in what his son +considered most questionable taste. + +"Oh, yes," he was constrained to answer. "Charlie Anderson was in it. +She beat him, too. And I _started_ with them but I thought it would do +those boys more good to be licked by a little girl than to have me 'tend +to them myself." And Jimmie proceeded leisurely into the house. + +"But I don't have to set off the fireworks," Cecelia Anne explained +happily. "Jimmie says I don't have to if I don't want to. He's going to +do it for me." + +"Kind brother," ejaculated Mr. Hawtry. And across the bright gold braids +of her little Atalanta, Mrs. Hawtry looked at her husband. + +"_Did_ he know?" she questioned, "or did he not? You thought we could be +sure if he let her start." + +"Well," was Mr. Hawtry's cryptic utterance, "he knows now." + + + + +THEODORA, GIFT OF GOD + + +"And then," cried Mary breathlessly, "what did they do then?" + +"And then," her father obediently continued, "the two doughty knights +smote lustily with their swords. And each smote the other on the helmet +and clove him to the middle. It was a fair battle and sightly." + +But Mary's interest was unabated. "And then," she urged, "what did they +do then?" + +"Not much, I think. Even a knight of the Table Round stops fighting for +a while when that happens to him." + +"Didn't they do anything 'tall?" the audience insisted. "You aren't +leaving it out, are you? Didn't they bleed nor nothing?" + +"Oh, yes, they bled." + +"Then tell me that part." + +"Well, they bled. They never stinteth bleeding for three days and three +nights until they were pale as the very earth for bleeding. And they +made a great dole." + +"And then, when they couldn't bleed any more nor make any more dole, +what did they do?" + +"They died." + +"And then--" + +"That's the end of the story," said the narrator definitely. + +"Then tell me another," she pleaded, "and don't let them die so soon." + +"There wouldn't be time for another long one," he pointed out as he +encouraged his horse into an ambling trot. "We are nearly there now." + +"After supper will you tell me one?" + +"Yes," he promised. + +"One about Lancelot and Elaine?" + +"Yes," he repeated. "Anything you choose." + +"I choose Lancelot," she declared. + +"A great many ladies did," commented her father as the horse sedately +stopped before the office of the Arcady _Herald-Journal_, of which he +was day and night editor, sporting editor, proprietor, society editor, +chief of the advertising department, and occasionally type-setter and +printer and printer's devil. + +Mary held the horse, which stood in need of no such restraint, while +this composite of newspaper secured his mail, and then they jogged off +through the spring sunshine, side by side, in the ramshackle old buggy +on a leisurely canvass of outlying districts in search of news or +advertisements, or suggestions for the forthcoming issue. + +In the wide-set, round, opened eyes of his small daughter, Herbert +Buckley was the most wonderful person in the world. No stories were so +enthralling as his. No songs so tuneful, no invention so fertile, no +temper so sweet, no companionship so precious. And her nine happy years +of life had shown her no better way of spending summer days or winter +evenings than in journeying, led by his hand and guided by his voice, +through the pleasant ways of Camelot and the shining times of chivalry. + +Upon a morning later in this ninth summer of her life Mary was perched +high up in an apple tree enjoying the day, the green apples, and +herself. The day was a glorious one in mid July, the apples were of a +wondrous greenness and hardness, and Mary, for the first time in many +weeks, was free to enjoy her own society. A month ago a grandmother and +a maiden aunt had descended out of the land which had until then given +forth only letters, birthday presents, and Christmas cards. And they had +proved to be not at all the idyllic creatures which these manifestations +had seemed to prophesy, but a pair of very interfering old ladies with a +manner of over-ruling Mary's gentle mother, brow-beating her genial +father and cloistering herself. + +This morning had contributed another female assuming airs of instant +intimacy. She had gone up to the last remaining spare chamber, donned a +costume all of crackling white linen, and had introduced herself, +entirely uninvited, into the dim privacy of Mary's mother's room, whence +Mary had been sternly banished. + +"Another aunt!" was the outcast's instant inference, as in a moment of +accountable preoccupation on the part of the elders she had escaped to +her own happy and familiar country--the world of out-of-doors--where +female relatives seldom intruded, and where the lovely things of life +were waiting. + +When she had consumed all the green apples her constitution would +accept, and they seemed pitifully few to her more robust mind, she +descended from the source of her refreshment and set out upon a +comprehensive tour of her domain. She liked living upon the road to +Camelot. It made life interesting to be within measurable distance of +the knights and ladies who lived and played and loved in the +many-towered city of which one could gain so clear a view from the +topmost branches of the hickory tree in the upper pasture. She liked to +crouch in the elder bushes where a lane, winding and green-arched, +crossed a corner of the cornfield, and to wait, through the long, still +summer mornings for Lancelot or Galahad or Tristram or some other of her +friends to come pricking his way through the sunshine. She could hear +the clinking of his golden armor, the whinnying of his steed, the soft +brushing of the branches as they parted before his helmet or his spear; +the rustling of the daisies against his great white charger's feet. And +then there was the river "where the aspens dusk and quiver," and where +barges laden with sweet ladies passed and left ripples of foam on the +water and ripples of light laughter in the air as, brilliant and fair +bedight, they went winding down to Camelot. + +This morning she revisited all these hallowed spots. She thrilled on the +very verge of the river and quivered amid the waving corn. She scaled +the sentinel hickory and turned her eyes upon the Southern city. It was +nearly a week since she had been allowed to wander so far afield, and +Camelot seemed more than ever wonderful as it lay in the shimmering +distance gleaming and glistening beyond the hills. Trails of smoke waved +above all the towers, showing where Sir Beaumanis still served his +kitchen apprenticeship for his knighthood and his place at the Table +Round. Thousands of windows flashed back the light. + +"I could get there," pondered Mary, "if God would send me that goat and +wagon. I guess there's quite a demand for goats and wagons. I could +dress my goat all up in skirts like the ladies dressed their palfreys, +an' I'd wear my hair loose on my shoulders--it's real goldy when it's +loose--an' my best hat. I guess Queen Guinevere would be real glad to +see me. Oh, dear," she fretted as these visions came thronging back to +her, "I wish Heaven would hurry up." + +Between the pasture and the distant city she could distinguish the roofs +of another of the havens of her dear desire--the house where the old +ladies lived. Four old ladies there were, in the sweet autumn of their +lives, and Mary's admiration of them was as passionate as were all her +psychic states. She never could be quite sure as to which of the four +she most adored. There was the gentle Miss Ann, who taught her to recite +verses of piercing and wilting sensibility; the brisk Miss Jane, who +explained and demonstrated the construction of many an old-time cake or +pastry; the silent Miss Agnes, who silently accepted assistance in her +never-ending process of skeletonizing leaves and arranging them in prim +designs upon cardboard, and the garrulous Miss Sabina, who, with a +crochet needle, a hair-pin, a spool with four pins driven into it, +knitting needles and other shining implements, could fashion, and teach +Mary to fashion, weavings and spinnings which might shame the most +accomplished spider. Aided by her and by the re-enforced spool above +mentioned, Mary had already achieved five dirty inches of red woollen +reins for the expected goat. But the house was distant just three +fields, a barb-wire fence, a low stone wall, and a cross bull, and Mary +knew that her unaccustomed leisure could not be expected to endure long +enough for so perilous a pilgrimage. + +Her dissatisfied gaze wandered back to her quiet home surrounded by its +neatly laid out meadows, cornfield, orchard, barns, and garden. And a +shadow fell upon her wistful little face. + +"That old aunt," she grumbled, "she makes me awful tired. She's always +pokin' round an' callin' me." + +Such, indeed, seemed the present habit and intent of the prim lady who +was approaching, alternately clanging a dinner-bell and calling in a +tone of resolute sweetness: + +"Mary, O Mary, dear." + +Mary parted the branches of her tree and watched, but made no sound. + +"Mary," repeated the oncoming relative, "Mary, I want to tell you +something," and added as she spied her niece's abandoned sunbonnet on +the grass, "I know you're here and I shall wait until you come to me." + +"I _ain't_ coming," announced the Dryad, and thereby disclosed her +position, both actual and mental. "I suppose it's something I've done +and I don't want to hear it, so there!" Then, her temper having been +worn thin by much admonishing, she anticipated: "I _ain't_ sorry I've +been bad. I _ain't_ ashamed to behave so when my mamma is sick in bed. +And I don't care if you _do_ tell my papa when he comes home to-night." + +The intruding relative, discerning her, stopped and smiled. And the +smile was as a banderilla to her niece's goaded spirit. + +"Jiminy!" gasped that young person, "she's got a smile just like a +teacher." + +"Mary, dear," the intruder gushed, "God has sent you something." + +The hickory flashed forth black and white and red. Mary stood upon the +ground. + +"Where are they?" she demanded. + +"They?" repeated the lady. "There is only one." + +"Why, I prayed for two. Which did he send?" + +"Which do you think?" parried the lady. "Which do you hope it is?" + +Even Mary's scorn was unprepared for this weak-mindedness. "The goat, of +course," she responded curtly. "Is it the goat?" + +"Goat!" gasped the scandalized aunt. "Goat! Why, God has sent you a baby +sister, dear." + +"A sister! a baby!" gasped Mary in her turn. "I don't _need_ no sister. +I prayed for a goat just as plain as plain. 'Dear God,' I says, 'please +bless everybody, and make me a good girl, an' send me a goat an' wagon.' +And they went an' changed it to a baby sister! Why, I never s'posed they +made mistakes like that." + +Crestfallen and puzzled she allowed herself to be led back to the +darkened house where her grandmother met her with the heavenly +substitute wrapped in flannel. And as she held it against the square and +unresponsive bosom of her apron she realized how the "Bible gentleman" +must have felt when he asked for bread and was given a stone. + +During the weeks that followed, the weight of the stone grew heavier +and heavier while the hunger for bread grew daily more acute. Not even +the departure of interfering relatives could bring freedom, for the +baby's stumpy arms bound Mary to the house as inexorably as bolts and +bars could have done. She passed weary hours in a hushed room watching +the baby, when outside the sun was shining, the birds calling, the +apples waxing greener and larger, and the shining knights and ladies +winding down to Camelot. She sat upon the porch, still beside the baby, +while the river rippled, the wheatfields wimpled, and the cows came +trailing down from the pasture, down from the upland pasture where the +sentinel hickory stood and watched until the sun went down, and, one by +one, the lights came out in distant Camelot. She listened for the light +laughter of the ladies, the jingling of the golden armor, the swishing +of the branches and of the waves. Listened all in vain, for Theodora, +that gift of God, had powerful lungs and a passion for exercising them +so that minor sounds were overwhelmed and only yells remained. + +But the deprivation against which she most passionately rebelled was +that of her father's society. Before the advent of Theodora she had been +his constant companion. They were perfectly happy together, for the poet +who at nineteen had burned to challenge the princes of the past and to +mold the destinies of the future was, at twenty-nine, very nearly +content to busy himself about the occurrences of the present and to edit +a weekly paper in the town which had known and honored his father, and +was proud of, if puzzled by, their well-informed debonair son. Even +himself he sometimes puzzled. He knew that this was not to be his life's +work, this chronicling of the very smallest beer, this gossip and +friendliness and good cheer. But it served to fill his leisure and his +modest exchequer until such time as he could finish his great tragedy +and take his destined place among the writers of his time. Meanwhile, he +told himself, with somewhat rueful humor, there was always an editor +ready to think well of his minor poems and an audience ready to marvel +at them, "which is more, my dear," he pointed out to his admiring wife, +"than Burns could have said for himself--or Coleridge." + +And when his confidence and his hopes flickered, as the strongest of +hopes and confidence sometimes will, when his tragedy seemed far from +completion, his paper paltry, and his life narrow, he could always look +into his daughter's eyes and there find faith in himself and strength +and sunny patience. + +Formerly these fountains of perpetual youth had been beside him all the +long days through. From village to village, from store to farm, they +had jogged, side by side, in a lazy old buggy; he smoking long, silent +pipes, perhaps, or entertaining his companion with tales and poems of +the days of chivalry when men were brave and women fair and all the +world was young. And, Mary, inthralled, enrapt, adoring her father, and +seeing every picture conjured up by his sonorous rhythm or quaint +phrase, was much more familiar with the deeds and gossip of King +Arthur's court than with events of her own day and country. + +So that while Mary, tied to the baby, yearned for the wide spaces of her +freedom, Mr. Buckley, lonely in a dusty buggy, jogging over the familiar +roads, thought longingly of a little figure in an irresponsible +sunbonnet, and found it difficult to bear patiently with matronly +neighbors, who congratulated him upon this arrangement, and assured him +that his little play-fellow would now quickly outgrow her old-fashioned +ways and become as other children, "which she would never have, Mr. +Buckley, as long as you let her tag around with you and filled her head +with impossible nonsense." + +It was not a desire for any such alteration which made him acquiesce in +the separation. It was a very grave concern for his wife's health, and a +very sharp realization that, until he could devise some means of +increasing his income, he could not afford to engage a more experienced +nurse for the new arrival. He had no ideas of the suffering entailed +upon his elder daughter. He was deceived, as was every one else, by the +gentle uncomplainingness with which she waited upon Theodora, for whose +existence she regarded herself as entirely to blame. Had she not, +without consulting her parents, applied to high heaven for an increase +in live stock, and was not the answer to this application, however +inexact, manifestly her responsibility. + +"They're awful good to me," she pondered. "They ain't scolded me a +mite, an' I just know how they must feel about it. Mamma ain't had her +health ever since that baby come, an' papa looks worried most to death. +If they'd 'a' sent that goat an' wagon I could 'a' took mamma riding. +Ain't prayers terrible when they go wrong!" And in gratitude for their +forbearance she, erstwhile the companion, or at least the audience, of +fealty knight and ladies, bowed her small head to the swathed and +shapeless feet of heaven's error and became waiting woman to a flannel +bundle. + +Only her dreams remained to her. She could still look forward to the +glorious time of "when I'm big." She could still unbind her dun-colored +hair and shake it in the sun. She could still quiver with anticipation +as she surveyed her brilliant future. A beautiful prince was coming to +woo her. He would ride to the door and kneel upon the front porch while +all his shining retinue filled the front yard and overflowed into the +road. Then she would appear and, since these things were to happen in +the days of her maturity, perhaps when she was twelve years old, she +would be radiantly beautiful, and her hair would be all goldy gold and +curly, and it would trail upon the ground a yard or two behind her as +she walked. And the prince would be transfixed. And when he was all +through being that--Mary often wondered what it was--he would arise and +sing "Nicolette, the Bright of Brow," or some other disguised +personality, while all his shining retinue would unsling hautboys and +lyres and--and--mouth organs and play ravishing music. + +And when she rode away to be the prince's bride and to rule his fair +lands, her father and her mother should ride with her, all in the +sunshine of the days "when I'm big"--the wonderful days "when I'm big." + +Meanwhile, being but little, she served the flannel bundle even as Sir +Beaumanis had served a yet lowlier apprenticeship. But she still stormed +high heaven to rectify its mistake. + +"And please, dear God, if you are all out of goats and wagons, send +rabbits. But anyway come and take away this baby. My mamma ain't well +enough to take care of it an' I can't spare the time. We don't need +babies, but we do need that goat and wagon." + +And the powers above, with a mismanagement which struck their petitioner +dumb, sent a wagon--only a wagon--and it was a gocart for the baby, and +Mary was to be the goat. + +With this millstone tied about her neck she was allowed to look upon the +scenes of her early freedom, and no inquisitor could have devised a more +anguishing torture than that to which Mary's suffering and unsuspecting +mother daily consigned her suffering and uncomplaining daughter. + +"Walk slowly up and down the paths, dear, and don't leave your sister +for a moment. Isn't it nice that you have somebody to play with now?" + +"Yes, ma'am," said Mary. "But she ain't what I'd call playful." + +"You used to be so much alone," Mrs. Buckley continued. Mary breathed +sharply, and her mother kissed her sympathetically. "But now you always +have your sister with you. Isn't it fine, dearie?" + +"Yes, ma'am," repeated the victim, and bent her little energies to the +treadmill task of wheeling the gocart to the orchard gate, where all +wonders began, and then, with an effort as exhausting to the will as to +the body, turning her back upon the lane, the river, and the sentinel +tree, to trundle her Juggernaut between serried rows of cabbages and +carrots. + +Then slowly she began to hate, with a deep, abiding hatred, the flannel +bundle. She loathed the very smell of flannel before Theodora was six +short weeks old, and the sight of the diminutive laundry, which hung +upon the line between the cherry trees, almost drove her to arson. + +The shy, quick-darting creature--half child and half humming bird--was +forced to drag that monstrous perambulator on all her expeditions. After +a month's confinement to the garden, where knights and ladies never +penetrate, she managed to bump her responsibility out into the orchard. +But the glory was all in the treetops, and Mary soon grew restless under +her mother's explicit directions. "Up and down the walks" meant +imprisonment, despair. Theodora should have tried to make her role of +Albatross as acceptable as it might be made to the long-suffering +mariner about whose neck she hung, but she showed a callousness and a +heartless selfishness which nothing could excuse. Mary would sometimes +plead with all gentleness and courtesy for a few short moments' freedom. + +"Theodora," she would begin, "Theodora, listen to me a minute," and the +gift of God would make aimless pugilistic passes at her interlocutor. + +"O Theodora, I'm awful tired of stayin' down here on the ground. +Wouldn't you just as lieves play you was a mad bull an' I was a lady in +a red dress?" + +Theodora, after some space spent in apparent contemplation, would wave a +cheerful acquiescence. + +"An' then I'll be scared of you, an' I'll run away an' climb as high as +anything in the hickory tree up there on the hill. Let's play it right +now, Theodora. There's something I want to see up there." + +Taking her sister's bland smile for ratification and agreement, Mary +would set about her personification, shed her apron lest its damaged +appearance convict her in older eyes, and speed toward her goal. But +the mad bull's shrieks of protest and repudiation would startle every +bit of chivalry for miles and miles around. + +Several experiences of this nature taught Mary, that, in dealing with +infants of changeable and rudimentary mind, honesty was an impossible +policy and candor a very boomerang, which returned and smote one with +savage force. So she stooped to guile and detested the flannel all the +more deeply because of the state to which it was debasing an upright +conscience and a high sense of honor. + +At first her lapses from the right were all negative. She neglected the +gift of God. She would abandon it, always in a safe and shady spot and +always with its covers smoothly tucked in, its wabbly parasol adjusted +at the proper angle, and always with a large piece of wood tied to the +perambulator's handle by a labyrinth of elastic strings. These Mary had +drawn from abandoned garters, sling shots, and other mysterious sources, +and they allowed the wood to jerk unsteadily up and down, and to soothe +the unsuspecting Theodora with a spasmodic rhythm very like the +ministrations of her preoccupied nurse. + +Meanwhile the nurse would be far afield upon her own concerns, and +Theodora was never one of them. The river, the lane, the tall hickory +knew her again and again. Camelot shone out across the miles of hill and +tree and valley. But the river was silent and the lane empty, and +Camelot seemed very far as autumn cleared the air. Perhaps this was +because knights and ladies manifest themselves only to the pure of +heart. Perhaps because Mary was always either consciously or +subconsciously listening for the recalling shrieks of the abandoned and +disprized gift of God. + +"Stop it, I tell you," she admonished her purple-faced and convulsive +charge one afternoon when all the world was gold. "Stop it, or mamma +will be coming after us, and making us stay on the back porch." But +Theodora, in the boastfulness of her new lungs, yelled uninterruptedly +on. Then did Mary try cajolery. She removed her sister from the +perambulator and staggered back in a sitting posture with suddenness and +force. The jar gave Theodora pause, and Mary crammed the silence full of +promise. "If you'll stop yellin' now I'll see that my prince husband +lets you be a goose-girl on the hills behind our palace. Its awful nice +being a goose-girl," she hastened to add lest the prospect fail to +charm. "If I didn't have to marry that prince an' be a queen I guess I'd +been a goose-girl myself. Yes, sir, it's lovely work on the hills behind +a palace with all the knights ridin' by an' sayin', 'Fair maid, did'st +see a boar pass by this way?' You don't have to be afraid--you'd never +have to see one. In all the books the goose-girls didn't never see no +boars, and the knights gave 'em a piece of gold an' smiled on 'em, and +the sunshine shined on 'em, an' they had a lovely time." + +Having stumbled into the road to peace of conscience, Mary trod it +bravely and joyously. Theodora's future rank increased with the decrease +of her present comfort, but her posts, though lofty and remunerative, +were never such as would bring her into intimate contact with the person +of the queen. + +She was betrothed to the son of a noble, and very distant, house after +an afternoon when the perambulator, ill-trained to cross-country work, +balked at the first stone wall on the way to the old ladies' house. It +was then dragged backward for a judicious distance and faced at the +obstacle at a mad gallop. Umbrella down, handle up, wheels madly +whirring, it was forced to the jump. + +Again it refused, reared high into the air, stood for an instant upon +its hind wheels and then fell supinely on its side, shedding its +blankets, its pillows, and Theodora upon the cold, hard stones. + +After that her rise was rapid, and the distance separating her from her +sister's elaborate court more perilous and more beset with seas and +boars and mountains and robbers. She was allowed to wed her high-born +betrothed when she had been forgotten for three hours while Mary learned +a heart-rending poem commencing, "Oh, hath she then failed in her troth, +the beautiful maid I adore?" until even Miss Susan could only weep in +intense enjoyment and could suggest; no improvement in the recitation. + +On another occasion Mary was obliged to borrow the perambulator for the +conveyance of leaves and branches with which to build a bower withal; +and Theodora, having been established in unfortunate proximity to an +ant hill, was thoroughly explored by its inhabitants ere her +ministering sister realized that her cries and agitation were anything +more than her usual attitude of protest against whatever chanced to be +going on. By the time the bower was finished and the perambulator ready +for its customary occupant that young person was in a position to claim +heavy damages. + +"Don't you care," said Mary cheerfully, as she relieved Theodora from +the excessive animation. "I can make it up to you when I'm big. My +prince husband--I guess he'd better be a king by that time--will go over +to your country an' kill your husband's father an' his grandfather an' +all the kings an' princes until there's nobody only your husband to be +king. Then you'll be a queen you see, an' live in a palace. So now hush +up." And one future majesty was rocked upside down by another until the +royal face of the younger queen was purple and her voice was still. + +Mary found it more difficult to quiet her new and painful agnosticism, +and in her efforts to reconcile dogma with manifestation she evolved a +series of theological and economical questions which surprised her +father and made her mother's head reel. She further manifested a +courteous attention when the minister came to call, and she engaged him +in spiritual converse until he writhed again. For a space her +investigations led her no whither, and then, without warning, the man of +peace solved her dilemma and shed light upon her path. + +A neighbor ripe in years and good works had died. The funeral was over +and the man of God had stopped to rest in the pleasant shade of Mrs. +Buckley's trees and in the pleasant sound of Mrs. Buckley's voice. Mary, +the gocart, and Theodora completed the group, and the minister spoke. + +"A good man," he repeated, "Ah, Mrs. Buckley, he will be sadly missed! +But the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be--" + +"When?" demanded Mary breathlessly. "When does he take away?" + +"In His own good time." + +"When's that?" + +"'Tis not for sinful man to say. He sends His message to the man in the +pride of his youth or to the babe in its cradle. He reaches forth His +hand and takes away." + +"But when--" Mary was beginning when her mother, familiar with the +Socratic nature of her daughter's conversation and its exhaustive effect +upon the interlocutor, interposed a remark which guided the current of +talk out of heavenly channels and back to the material plain. + +But Mary had learned all that she cared to know. It was not necessary +that she should suffer the exactions of the baby or subject her family +to them. The Lord had given and would take away! The minister had said +so, and the minister knew all about the Lord. And if the powers above +were not ready to send for the baby, it would be easy enough to deposit +it in the Lord's own house, which showed its white spire beyond the +first turn in the road which led to Camelot. There the Lord would find +it and take it away. This would be, she reflected, the quiet, dignified, +lady-like thing to do. And the morrow, she decided, would be an +admirable day on which to do it. + +Therefore, on the morrow she carefully decked Theodora in small finery, +hung garlands of red and yellow maple leaves upon the perambulator, +twined chains of winter-green berries about its handle, tied a bunch of +gorgeous golden rod to its parasol, and trundled it by devious and +obscure ways to the sacred precincts of God's house. + +"They look real well," she commented. "If I was sure about that goat I +might keep the cart, but it really ain't the right kind for a goat. I +guess I'd better take 'em back just like they are an' when the Lord sees +how I got 'em all fancied up, he'll know I ain't a careless child, an' +maybe I'd get that goat after all." + +So the disprized little gifts of God were bumped up the church steps, +wheeled up the aisle, and bestowed in a prominent spot before the +chancel rail. Some one was playing soft music at the unseen organ, but +Mary accepted soft music as a phenomenon natural to churches, and failed +to connect it with human agency. Sedately she set out Theodora's bows +and ruffles to the best advantage. Carefully she rearranged the floral +decorations of the perambulator, and set her elastic understudy in +erratic motion. Complacently she surveyed the whole and walked out into +the sunshine--free. And presently the minister, the intricacies of a new +hymn reconciled to the disabilities of a lack of ear and a lack of +training, came out into the body of the church, where the gifts of God, +bland in smiles and enwreathed in verdure, were waiting to be taken +away. + +"Mrs. Buckley's baby," was his first thought. "I wonder where that queer +little Mary is," was his second. And his third, it came when he was +tired of waiting for some solution of his second, was an embarrassed +realization that he would be obliged to take his unexpected guest home +to its mother. And the quiet town of Arcady rocked upon its foundations +as he did it. + +"In the church," marveled Mrs. Buckley. "How careless of Mary!" she +apologized, and "How good of you!" she smiled. "No, I'm not in the least +worried. She always had a way of trotting off to her own diversions when +she was not with her father. And lately she has been astonishingly +patient about spending her time with baby. I have felt quite guilty, +about it. But after to-day she will be free, as Mr. Buckley has found a +nurse to relieve her. He was beginning to grow desperate about Mary and +me--said we neither of us had a moment to waste on him--and yet could +not find a nurse whom we felt we could afford. And yesterday a young +woman walked into his office to put an advertisement in his paper for +just such a position as we had to offer. She is a German, wants to learn +English, and she will be here this afternoon." + +"Perhaps your little girl resented her coming," he suggested vaguely. +"Perhaps that was the reason." + +"Mary resentful!" laughed Mrs. Buckley. + +"She doesn't, bless her gentle little heart, know the meaning of the +word. Besides which we haven't told her about the girl, as we are rather +looking forward to that first interview, and wondering how Mary will +acquit herself in a conversational Waterloo. She can't, you know, make +life miserable and information bitter to a German who speaks no +English. 'Ja' or 'nein' alternately and interchangeably may baffle even +her skill in questioning." + +Mary, meanwhile, was hurrying along the way to Camelot. She had not +planned the expedition in advance. Rather, it was the inevitable +reaction toward license which marks the success of any revolution. She +had cast off the bonds of the baby carriage, her time and her life were +her own, and the road stretched white and straight toward Camelot. + +It was afternoon and the sun was near its setting when at last she +reached the towered city and found it in all ways delightful but in some +surprising. She was prepared for the moat and for the drawbridge across +it, but not for the exceeding dirtiness of its water and the dinginess +of its barges. She had expected it to be wider and perhaps cleaner, and +the castles struck her as being ill-adapted to resist siege and the +shocks of war since nearly all their walls were windows. And through +these windows she caught glimpses of the strangest interiors which ever +palaces boasted. Miles and acres of bare wooden tables stood under the +shade of straight iron trees. From the trees black ribbons depended. In +the treetops there were wheels and shining iron bars, and all about the +tables there were other iron bars and bolts and bands of greasy leather. + +"I don't see a round table anywhere," she reflected. "What do you s'pose +they do with all those little square ones?" She sought the answer to +this question through many a dirty pane and many a high-walled street. +But the palaces and the streets were empty and the explorer discovered +with a quick-sinking heart and confidence that she was alone and hungry +and very far from home. She was treading close upon the verge of tears +when her path debouched upon the central square of Camelot. And +straightway she forgot her doubts and puzzlements, her hunger and her +increasing weariness, for she had found "The Court." Across a fair green +plaisance, all seemly beset with flower and shrub, the wide doors of a +church stood open. Tall palaces were all about, and in every window, on +every step, on the green benches which dotted the plaisance, on every +possible elevation or post of observation, the good folk of Camelot +stood or hung or even fought, to watch the procession of beauty and +chivalry as it came foaming down the steps, broke into eddies, and +disappeared among the thronging carriages. Mary found it quite easy to +identify the illustrious personages in the procession when once she had +realized that they would, of course, not be in armor on a summer's +afternoon, and at what even, to her inexperienced eyes, was manifestly a +wedding. + +First to emerge was a group of the younger knights, frock-coated, +silk-hatted, pale gray of waistcoat and gloves, white and effulgent of +_boutonniere_. Excitement, almost riot, resulted among the +much-caparisoned horses, the much-favored coachmen, and the +much-beribboned equipages of state. But the noise increased to clamor +and eagerness to violence when an ethereal figure in floating tulle and +clinging lace was led out into the afternoon light by a more resplendent +edition of black-coated, gray-trousered knighthood. + +The next wave was all of pink chiffon and nodding plumes. The first +wave, after trickling about the carriages and the coachmen, receded up +the steps again to be lost and mingled in the third, and then both swept +down to the carriages again and were absorbed. Then the steady tide of +departing royalty set in. Then horses plunged, elderly knights fussed, +court ladies commented upon the heat, the bride, the presents, or their +neighbors. Then the bride's father mopped his brow and the bridegroom's +mother wept a little. Then there was much shaking or waving of hands or +of handkerchiefs. Then the bridal carriage began to move, the bride +began to smile, and rice and flowers and confetti and good wishes and +slippers filled the air. Then other carriages followed, then the good +folk of Camelot followed, an aged man closed the wide church doors, and +the square was left to the sparrows, pink sunshine, confetti, rice, and +Mary. + +The little pilgrim's sunbonnet was hanging down her back, her hair was +loose upon her shoulders, "an' real goldy" where it caught the sun, and +her eyes were wide and deep with happiness and faith. She crossed the +wide plaisance and stood upon the steps, she gathered up three white +roses and a shred of lace, she sat down to rest upon the topmost step, +she laid her cheek against the inhospitable doors, and, in the language +of the stories she loved so well, "so fell she on sleep" with the tired +flowers in her tired hands. + +And there Herbert Buckley found her. He had traveled far afield on that +autumn afternoon; but it is not every day that the daughter of the owner +of one-half the mills in a manufacturing town is married to the owner of +the other half, and when such things do occur to the accompaniment of +illustrious visitors, a half-holiday in all the mills, perfect weather, +and unlimited hospitality, it behooves the progressive journalist and +reporter for miles around to sing "haste to the wedding," and to draw +largely upon his adjectives and his fountain pen. The editorial staff of +the Arcady _Herald-Journal_ turned homeward, and was evolving phrases in +which to describe that gala day when his eye caught the color of a +familiar little sunbonnet, the outline of a familiar little figure. But +such a drooping little sunbonnet! Such a relaxed little figure! Such a +weary little face! And such a wildly impossible place in which to find a +little daughter. Then he remembered having seen Miss Ann and Miss Agnes +among the spectators and his wonder changed to indignation. + +It was nearly dark when Mary opened her eyes again and found herself +sheltered in her father's arm and rocked by the old familiar motion of +the buggy. + +"And then," she prompted sleepily as her old habit was, "what did they +do then?" + +"They were married," his quiet voice replied. + +"And then?" + +"Oh, then they went away together and lived happily ever after." + +For some space there was silence and a star came out. Mary watched it +drowsily and then drowsily began: + +"When I was to Camelot--" + +"Where?" demanded her father. + +"When I was to Camelot," she repeated, cuddling close to him as if to +show that there were dearer places than that gorgeous city, "I saw a +knight and a lady getting married. And lots of other knights were +there--they didn't wear their fighting clothes--and lots of other +ladies, pink ones. An' Arthur wore a stovepipe hat an' Guinevere wore a +white dress, an' she had white feathers in her crown. An' Lancelot, he +was there, all getting married. Daddy, dear," she broke off to question, +"were you ever to Camelot?" + +"Oh, yes, I was there," he answered, "but it was a great many years +ago." + +"Did you find roses?" she asked, exhibiting her wilted treasures. + +"I found your mother there, my dear." + +"And then, what did you do then?" + +"Well, then we were married and lived happily ever after." + +"And then--?" + +"There was you, and we lived happier ever after." + +And Mary fell on sleep again in the shelter of her father's arm while the +stars came out and the glow of joyant Camelot lit all the southern sky. + + + + +GREAT OAKS FROM LITTLE ACORNS + + + +Among the influences which, in America, promote harmony between alien +races, the public school plays a most important part. The children, the +teachers, the parents--whether of emigrant or native origin--the +relatives and friends in distant countries, are all brought more or less +under its amalgamating influences. In the schoolroom the child finds +friends and playmates belonging to races widely different from his own; +there Greek meets not only Greek, but Turk, American, Irish, German, +French, English, Italian and Hungarian, and representatives of every +other nation under the sun. The lion lying down with the lamb was +nothing to it, because the lamb, though its feelings are not enlarged +upon, must have been distinctly uncomfortable. But in the schoolroom +Jew and Gentile work and play together; and black and white learn love +and knowledge side by side. + +And long after more formal instruction has faded with the passing of the +years a man of, perhaps, German origin will think kindly of the whole +irresponsible Irish race when he remembers little Bridget O'Connor, who +sat across the aisle in the old Cherry Street school, her quick temper +and her swift remorse. + +Of course, all these nationalities are rarely encountered in one +district, but a teacher often finds herself responsible for fifty +children representing five or six of them. In the lower grades eight or +ten may be so lately arrived as to speak no English. The teacher +presiding over this polyglot community is often, herself, of foreign +birth, yet they get on very well together, are very fond of one another, +and very happy. The little foreigners, assisted by their more +well-informed comrades, learn the language of the land, I regret to say +that it is often tinctured with the language of the Bowery, in from six +to twelve weeks, six weeks for the Jews, and twelve for the slower among +the Germans' children. And again, it will be difficult to stir Otto +Schmidt, at any stage of his career, into antagonism against the Jewish +race, when he remembers the patience and loving kindness with which +Maxie Fishandler labored with him and guided his first steps through the +wilderness of the English tongue. + +These indirect but constant influences are undeniably the strongest, but +at school the child is taught in history of the heroism and the strength +of men and nations other than his own; he learns, with some degree of +consternation, that Christopher Columbus was a "Dago," George Washington +an officer in the English Army, and Christ, our Lord, a Jew. Geography, +as it is now taught with copious illustrations and descriptions, shows +undreamed-of beauties in countries hitherto despised. And gradually, as +the pupils move on from class to class, they learn true democracy and +man's brotherhood to man. + +But the work of the American public school does not stop with the +children who come directly under its control. The board of education +reaches, as no other organization does, the great mass of the +population. All the other boards and departments established for the +help and guidance of these people only succeed in badgering and +frightening them. They are met, even at Ellis Island, by the board of +health and they are subjected to all kinds of disagreeable and +humiliating experiences culminating sometimes in quarantine and +sometimes in deportation. Even after they have passed the barrier of the +emigration office, the monster still pursues them. It disinfects their +houses, it confiscates the rotten fish and vegetables which they +hopefully display on their push-carts, it objects to their wrenching off +and selling the plumbing appliances in their apartments, it interferes +with them in twenty ways a day and hedges them round about with a +hundred laws which they can only learn, as Parnell advised a follower to +learn the rules of the House of Commons, by breaking them. + +Then comes the department of street cleaning, with its extraordinary +ideas of the use of a thoroughfare. The new-comer is taught that the +street is not the place for dead cats and cabbage stalks, and other +trifles for which he has no further use. Neither may it be used, except +with restrictions, as a bedroom or a nursery. The emigrant, puzzled but +obliging, picks his progeny out of the gutter and lays it on the +fire-escape. He then makes acquaintance of the fire department, and +listens to its heated arguments. So perhaps he, still willing to please, +reclaims the dead cat and the cabbage stalk, and proceeds to cremate +them in the privacy of the back yard. Again the fire department, this +time in snorting and horrible form, descends upon him. And all these +manifestations of freedom are attended by the blue-coated police who +interdict the few relaxations unprovided for by the other powers. These +human monsters confiscate stilettos and razors; discourage +pocket-picking, brick-throwing, the gathering of crowds and the general +enjoyment of life. Their name is legion. Their appetite for figs, dates, +oranges and bananas and graft is insatiable; they are omnipresent; they +are argus-eyed; and their speech is always, "Keep movin' there. Keep +movin'." And all these baneful influences may be summoned and set in +action by another, but worse than all of them, known as the Gerry +Society. This tyrant denies the parent's right in his own child, forbids +him to allow a minor to work in sweatshop, store, or even on the stage, +and enforces these commands, even to the extreme of removing the child +altogether and putting it in an institution. + +In sharp contrast to all these ogres, the board of education shines +benignant and bland. Here is power making itself manifest in the form of +young ladies, kindly of eye and speech, who take a sweet and friendly +interest in the children and all that concerns them. Woman meets woman +and no policeman interferes. The little ones are cared for, instructed, +kept out of mischief for five hours a day, taught the language and +customs of the country in which they are to make their living or their +fortunes; and generally, though the board of education does not insist +upon it, they are cherished and watched over. Doctors attend them, +nurses wait upon them, dentists torture them, oculists test them. + +Friendships frequently spring up between parent and teacher, and it +often lies in the power of the latter to be of service by giving either +advice or more substantial aid. At Mothers' meetings the cultivation of +tolerance still goes on. There, women of widely different class and +nationality, meet on the common ground of their children's welfare. Then +there are roof gardens, recreation piers and parks, barges and +excursions, all designed to help the poorer part of the city's +population--without regard to creed or nationality--to bear and to help +their children to bear the killing heat of summer. So Jew and Gentile, +black and white, commingle; and gradually old hostilities are forgotten +or corrected. The board of education provides night schools for adults +and free lectures upon every conceivable interesting topic, including +the history and geography and natural history of distant lands. +Travelers always draw large audiences to their lectures. + +The children soon learn to read well enough to translate the American +papers and there are always newspapers in the different vernaculars, so +that the emigrant soon becomes interested not only in the news of his +own country, but in the multitudinous topics which go to make up +American life. He soon grasps at least the outlines of politics, +national and international, and before he can speak English he will +address an audience of his fellow countrymen on "Our Glorious American +Institutions." + +It is not only the emigrant parent who profits by the work of the public +school. The American parent also finds himself, or generally herself, +brought into friendly contact with the foreign teachers and the foreign +friends of her children. The New York public school system culminates in +the Normal College, which trains women as teachers, and the College of +the City of New York, which offers courses to young men in the +profession of law, engineering, teaching, and, besides, a course in +business training. The commencement at these institutions brings +strangely contrasted parents together in a common interest and a common +pride. The students seem much like one another, but the parents are so +widely dissimilar as to make the similarity of their offspring an +amazing fact for contemplation. Mothers with shawls over their heads and +work-distorted hands sit beside mothers in Parisian costumes, and the +silk-clad woman is generally clever enough to appreciate and to admire +the spirit which strengthened her weary neighbor through all the years +of self-denial, labor, poverty and often hunger, which were necessary to +pay for the leisure and the education of son or daughter. The feeling of +inferiority, of uselessness, which this realization entails may +humiliate the idle woman but it is bound to do her good. It will +certainly deprive her conversation of sweeping criticisms on lives and +conditions unknown to her. It will also utterly do away with many of her +prejudices against the foreigner and it will make the "Let them eat +cake" attitude impossible. + +And so the child, the parent, the teacher and the home-staying relative +are brought to feel their kinship with all the world through the agency +of the public school, but the teacher learns the lesson most fully, most +consciously. The value to the cause of peace and good-will in the +community of an army of thousands of educated men and women holding +views such as these cannot easily be over-estimated. The teachers, too, +are often aliens and nearly always of a race different from their +pupils, yet you will rarely meet a teacher who is not delighted with her +charges. + +"Do come," they always say, "and see my little Italians, or Irish, or +German, or picaninnies; they are the sweetest little things," or, if +they be teachers of a higher grade, "They are the cleverest and the most +charming children." They are all clever in their different ways, and +they are all charming to those who know them, and the work of the public +school is to make this charm and cleverness appreciated, so that race +misunderstandings in the adult populations may grow fewer and fewer. + +The only dissatisfied teacher I ever encountered was a girl of old +Knickerbocker blood, who was considered by her relatives to be too +fragile and refined to teach any children except the darlings of the +upper West side, where some of the rich are democratic enough to +patronize the public school. From what we heard of her experiences, +"patronize" is quite the proper word to use in this connection. A group +of us, classmates, had been comparing notes and asked her from what +country her charges came. "Oh, they are just kids," she answered +dejectedly, "ordinary every-day kids, with Dutch cut hair, Russian +blouses, belts at the knee line, sandals, and nurses to convey them to +and from school. You never saw anything so tiresome." + +It grew finally so tiresome that she applied for a transfer, and took +the Knickerbocker spirit down to the Jewish quarter, where it gladdened +the young Jacobs, Rachaels, Isadors and Rebeccas entrusted to her care. +Her place among the nursery pets was taken by a dark-eyed Russian girl, +who found the uptown babies, the despised "just kids," as entertaining, +as lovable, and as instructive as the Knickerbocker girl found the Jews. +Well, and so they are all of them, lovable, entertaining and +instructive, and the man or woman who goes among them with an open heart +and eye will find much material for thought and humility, and one +function of the public school is to promote this understanding and +appreciation. It has done wonders in the past, and every year finds it +better equipped for its work of amalgamation. The making of an American +citizen is its stated function, but its graduates will be citizens not +only of America. In sympathy, at least, they will be citizens of the +world. + + +FINIS + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of New Faces, by Myra Kelly + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NEW FACES *** + +***** This file should be named 15449.txt or 15449.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/4/4/15449/ + +Produced by Ted Garvin, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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