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+Summer, by Edith Wharton
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+September, 1994 [Etext #166]
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+
+
+SUMMER
+
+by Edith Wharton
+1917
+
+
+I
+
+
+A girl came out of lawyer Royall's house, at the end of
+the one street of North Dormer, and stood on the
+doorstep.
+
+It was the beginning of a June afternoon.  The
+springlike transparent sky shed a rain of silver
+sunshine on the roofs of the village, and on the
+pastures and larchwoods surrounding it.  A little wind
+moved among the round white clouds on the shoulders of
+the hills, driving their shadows across the fields and
+down the grassy road that takes the name of street when
+it passes through North Dormer.  The place lies high
+and in the open, and lacks the lavish shade of the more
+protected New England villages.  The clump of weeping-
+willows about the duck pond, and the Norway spruces in
+front of the Hatchard gate, cast almost the only
+roadside shadow between lawyer Royall's house and the
+point where, at the other end of the village, the road
+rises above the church and skirts the black hemlock
+wall enclosing the cemetery.
+
+The little June wind, frisking down the street, shook
+the doleful fringes of the Hatchard spruces, caught the 
+straw hat of a young man just passing under them, and 
+spun it clean across the road into the duck-pond.
+
+As he ran to fish it out the girl on lawyer Royall's 
+doorstep noticed that he was a stranger, that he wore 
+city clothes, and that he was laughing with all his 
+teeth, as the young and careless laugh at such mishaps.
+
+Her heart contracted a little, and the shrinking that 
+sometimes came over her when she saw people with 
+holiday faces made her draw back into the house and
+pretend to look for the key that she knew she had 
+already put into her pocket.  A narrow greenish mirror
+with a gilt eagle over it hung on the passage wall, and 
+she looked critically at her reflection, wished for the 
+thousandth time that she had blue eyes like Annabel 
+Balch, the girl who sometimes came from Springfield to 
+spend a week with old Miss Hatchard, straightened the 
+sunburnt hat over her small swarthy face, and turned 
+out again into the sunshine.
+
+"How I hate everything!" she murmured.
+
+The young man had passed through the Hatchard gate, and 
+she had the street to herself.  North Dormer is at all 
+times an empty place, and at three o'clock on a June 
+afternoon its few able-bodied men are off in the fields 
+or woods, and the women indoors, engaged in languid
+household drudgery.
+
+The girl walked along, swinging her key on a finger, 
+and looking about her with the heightened attention
+produced by the presence of a stranger in a familiar 
+place.  What, she wondered, did North Dormer look like 
+to people from other parts of the world?  She herself 
+had lived there since the age of five, and had long 
+supposed it to be a place of some importance.  But 
+about a year before, Mr. Miles, the new Episcopal
+clergyman at Hepburn, who drove over every other 
+Sunday--when the roads were not ploughed up by hauling--
+to hold a service in the North Dormer church, had 
+proposed, in a fit of missionary zeal, to take the 
+young people down to Nettleton to hear an illustrated 
+lecture on the Holy Land; and the dozen girls and boys 
+who represented the future of North Dormer had been 
+piled into a farm-waggon, driven over the hills to 
+Hepburn, put into a way-train and carried to Nettleton.
+
+In the course of that incredible day Charity Royall 
+had, for the first and only time, experienced railway-
+travel, looked into shops with plate-glass fronts, 
+tasted cocoanut pie, sat in a theatre, and listened to 
+a gentleman saying unintelligible things before
+pictures that she would have enjoyed looking at if his 
+explanations had not prevented her from understanding 
+them.  This initiation had shown her that North Dormer 
+was a small place, and developed in her a thirst for 
+information that her position as custodian of the 
+village library had previously failed to excite.  For a 
+month or two she dipped feverishly and disconnectedly 
+into the dusty volumes of the Hatchard Memorial 
+Library; then the impression of Nettleton began to 
+fade, and she found it easier to take North Dormer as 
+the norm of the universe than to go on reading.
+
+The sight of the stranger once more revived memories of 
+Nettleton, and North Dormer shrank to its real size.  As 
+she looked up and down it, from lawyer Royall's faded 
+red house at one end to the white church at the other, 
+she pitilessly took its measure.  There it lay, a 
+weather-beaten sunburnt village of the hills, abandoned 
+of men, left apart by railway, trolley, telegraph, and 
+all the forces that link life to life in modern 
+communities.  It had no shops, no theatres, no
+lectures, no "business block"; only a church that was 
+opened every other Sunday if the state of the roads 
+permitted, and a library for which no new books had 
+been bought for twenty years, and where the old ones 
+mouldered undisturbed on the damp shelves.  Yet Charity 
+Royall had always been told that she ought to consider 
+it a privilege that her lot had been cast in North 
+Dormer.  She knew that, compared to the place she had 
+come from, North Dormer represented all the blessings 
+of the most refined civilization.  Everyone in the
+village had told her so ever since she had been brought
+there as a child.  Even old Miss Hatchard had said to
+her, on a terrible occasion in her life:  "My child, you
+must never cease to remember that it was Mr. Royall who 
+brought you down from the Mountain."
+
+She had been "brought down from the Mountain"; from the 
+scarred cliff that lifted its sullen wall above the 
+lesser slopes of Eagle Range, making a perpetual 
+background of gloom to the lonely valley.  The Mountain 
+was a good fifteen miles away, but it rose so abruptly
+from the lower hills that it seemed almost to cast its 
+shadow over North Dormer.  And it was like a great 
+magnet drawing the clouds and scattering them in storm 
+across the valley.  If ever, in the purest summer sky, 
+there trailed a thread of vapour over North Dormer, it 
+drifted to the Mountain as a ship drifts to a 
+whirlpool, and was caught among the rocks, torn up and 
+multiplied, to sweep back over the village in rain and 
+darkness.
+
+Charity was not very clear about the Mountain; but she 
+knew it was a bad place, and a shame to have come from, 
+and that, whatever befell her in North Dormer, she 
+ought, as Miss Hatchard had once reminded her, to 
+remember that she had been brought down from there, and 
+hold her tongue and be thankful.  She looked up at the 
+Mountain, thinking of these things, and tried as usual 
+to be thankful.  But the sight of the young man turning 
+in at Miss Hatchard's gate had brought back the vision 
+of the glittering streets of Nettleton, and she felt 
+ashamed of her old sun-hat, and sick of North Dormer,
+and jealously aware of Annabel Balch of Springfield, 
+opening her blue eyes somewhere far off on glories 
+greater than the glories of Nettleton.
+
+"How I hate everything!" she said again.
+
+Half way down the street she stopped at a weak-hinged 
+gate.  Passing through it, she walked down a brick path 
+to a queer little brick temple with white wooden 
+columns supporting a pediment on which was inscribed in
+tarnished gold letters:  "The Honorius Hatchard Memorial 
+Library, 1832."
+
+Honorius Hatchard had been old Miss Hatchard's great-
+uncle; though she would undoubtedly have reversed the 
+phrase, and put forward, as her only claim to 
+distinction, the fact that she was his great-niece.  
+For Honorius Hatchard, in the early years of the 
+nineteenth century, had enjoyed a modest celebrity.  As 
+the marble tablet in the interior of the library 
+informed its infrequent visitors, he had possessed
+marked literary gifts, written a series of papers 
+called "The Recluse of Eagle Range," enjoyed the 
+acquaintance of Washington Irving and Fitz-Greene 
+Halleck, and been cut off in his flower by a fever 
+contracted in Italy.  Such had been the sole link 
+between North Dormer and literature, a link piously 
+commemorated by the erection of the monument where 
+Charity Royall, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, 
+sat at her desk under a freckled steel engraving of the 
+deceased author, and wondered if he felt any deader in
+his grave than she did in his library.
+
+Entering her prison-house with a listless step she took 
+off her hat, hung it on a plaster bust of Minerva, 
+opened the shutters, leaned out to see if there were 
+any eggs in the swallow's nest above one of the 
+windows, and finally, seating herself behind the desk, 
+drew out a roll of cotton lace and a steel crochet 
+hook.  She was not an expert workwoman, and it had taken 
+her many weeks to make the half-yard of narrow lace 
+which she kept wound about the buckram back of a
+disintegrated copy of "The Lamplighter."  But there was 
+no other way of getting any lace to trim her summer 
+blouse, and since Ally Hawes, the poorest girl in the 
+village, had shown herself in church with enviable 
+transparencies about the shoulders, Charity's hook had 
+travelled faster.  She unrolled the lace, dug the hook 
+into a loop, and bent to the task with furrowed brows.
+
+Suddenly the door opened, and before she had raised her 
+eyes she knew that the young man she had seen going in
+at the Hatchard gate had entered the library.
+
+Without taking any notice of her he began to move 
+slowly about the long vault-like room, his hands behind 
+his back, his short-sighted eyes peering up and down 
+the rows of rusty bindings.  At length he reached the 
+desk and stood before her.
+
+"Have you a card-catalogue?" he asked in a pleasant 
+abrupt voice; and the oddness of the question caused 
+her to drop her work.
+
+"A WHAT?"
+
+"Why, you know----" He broke off, and she became 
+conscious that he was looking at her for the first 
+time, having apparently, on his entrance, included her 
+in his general short-sighted survey as part of the 
+furniture of the library.
+
+The fact that, in discovering her, he lost the thread 
+of his remark, did not escape her attention, and she 
+looked down and smiled.  He smiled also.
+
+"No, I don't suppose you do know," he corrected 
+himself.  "In fact, it would be almost a pity----"
+
+She thought she detected a slight condescension in his 
+tone, and asked sharply:  "Why?"
+
+"Because it's so much pleasanter, in a small library 
+like this, to poke about by one's self--with the help
+of the librarian."
+
+He added the last phrase so respectfully that she was 
+mollified, and rejoined with a sigh:  "I'm afraid I 
+can't help you much."
+
+"Why?" he questioned in his turn; and she replied that 
+there weren't many books anyhow, and that she'd hardly 
+read any of them.  "The worms are getting at them," she 
+added gloomily.
+
+"Are they?  That's a pity, for I see there are some good 
+ones."  He seemed to have lost interest in their 
+conversation, and strolled away again, apparently 
+forgetting her.  His indifference nettled her, and she 
+picked up her work, resolved not to offer him the least 
+assistance.  Apparently he did not need it, for he 
+spent a long time with his back to her, lifting down, 
+one after another, the tall cob-webby volumes from a 
+distant shelf.
+
+"Oh, I say!" he exclaimed; and looking up she saw that 
+he had drawn out his handkerchief and was carefully 
+wiping the edges of the book in his hand.  The action 
+struck her as an unwarranted criticism on her care of 
+the books, and she said irritably:  "It's not my fault 
+if they're dirty."
+
+He turned around and looked at her with reviving 
+interest.  "Ah--then you're not the librarian?" 
+
+"Of course I am; but I can't dust all these books.  
+Besides, nobody ever looks at them, now Miss Hatchard's 
+too lame to come round."
+
+"No, I suppose not."  He laid down the book he had been 
+wiping, and stood considering her in silence.  She 
+wondered if Miss Hatchard had sent him round to pry 
+into the way the library was looked after, and the 
+suspicion increased her resentment.  "I saw you going 
+into her house just now, didn't I?" she asked, with the 
+New England avoidance of the proper name.  She was
+determined to find out why he was poking about among 
+her books.
+
+"Miss Hatchard's house?  Yes--she's my cousin and I'm 
+staying there," the young man answered; adding, as if 
+to disarm a visible distrust:  "My name is Harney--
+Lucius Harney.  She may have spoken of me."
+
+"No, she hasn't," said Charity, wishing she could have 
+said:  "Yes, she has."
+
+"Oh, well----" said Miss Hatchard's cousin with a 
+laugh; and after another pause, during which it 
+occurred to Charity that her answer had not been 
+encouraging, he remarked:  "You don't seem strong on 
+architecture."
+
+Her bewilderment was complete:  the more she wished to 
+appear to understand him the more unintelligible his 
+remarks became.  He reminded her of the gentleman who 
+had "explained" the pictures at Nettleton, and the
+weight of her ignorance settled down on her again like 
+a pall.
+
+"I mean, I can't see that you have any books on the old 
+houses about here.  I suppose, for that matter, this 
+part of the country hasn't been much explored.  They 
+all go on doing Plymouth and Salem.  So stupid.  My 
+cousin's house, now, is remarkable.  This place must 
+have had a past--it must have been more of a place 
+once."  He stopped short, with the blush of a shy man 
+who overhears himself, and fears he has been voluble.  
+"I'm an architect, you see, and I'm hunting up old 
+houses in these parts."
+
+She stared.  "Old houses?  Everything's old in North 
+Dormer, isn't it?  The folks are, anyhow."
+
+He laughed, and wandered away again.
+
+"Haven't you any kind of a history of the place?
+I think there was one written about 1840:  a book or
+pamphlet about its first settlement," he presently said 
+from the farther end of the room.
+
+She pressed her crochet hook against her lip and
+pondered.  There was such a work, she knew:  "North
+Dormer and the Early Townships of Eagle County."  She
+had a special grudge against it because it was a limp 
+weakly book that was always either falling off the 
+shelf or slipping back and disappearing if one squeezed 
+it in between sustaining volumes.  She remembered, the 
+last time she had picked it up, wondering how anyone 
+could have taken the trouble to write a book about 
+North Dormer and its neighbours:  Dormer, Hamblin, 
+Creston and Creston River.  She knew them all, mere lost 
+clusters of houses in the folds of the desolate ridges:  
+Dormer, where North Dormer went for its apples; Creston 
+River, where there used to be a paper-mill, and its 
+grey walls stood decaying by the stream; and Hamblin, 
+where the first snow always fell.  Such were their 
+titles to fame.
+
+She got up and began to move about vaguely before the 
+shelves.  But she had no idea where she had last put 
+the book, and something told her that it was going to 
+play her its usual trick and remain invisible.  It was 
+not one of her lucky days.
+
+"I guess it's somewhere," she said, to prove her zeal; 
+but she spoke without conviction, and felt that her 
+words conveyed none.
+
+"Oh, well----" he said again.  She knew he was going, 
+and wished more than ever to find the book.
+
+"It will be for next time," he added; and picking up 
+the volume he had laid on the desk he handed it to her.  
+"By the way, a little air and sun would do this good; 
+it's rather valuable."
+
+He gave her a nod and smile, and passed out.
+
+
+
+II
+
+
+The hours of the Hatchard Memorial librarian were from 
+three to five; and Charity Royall's sense of duty 
+usually kept her at her desk until nearly half-past 
+four.
+
+But she had never perceived that any practical 
+advantage thereby accrued either to North Dormer or to 
+herself; and she had no scruple in decreeing, when it 
+suited her, that the library should close an hour 
+earlier.  A few minutes after Mr. Harney's departure 
+she formed this decision, put away her lace, fastened 
+the shutters, and turned the key in the door of the 
+temple of knowledge.
+
+The street upon which she emerged was still empty:  and 
+after glancing up and down it she began to walk toward 
+her house.  But instead of entering she passed on,
+turned into a field-path and mounted to a pasture on 
+the hillside.  She let down the bars of the gate, 
+followed a trail along the crumbling wall of the 
+pasture, and walked on till she reached a knoll where a 
+clump of larches shook out their fresh tassels to the 
+wind.  There she lay down on the slope, tossed off her 
+hat and hid her face in the grass.
+
+She was blind and insensible to many things, and dimly 
+knew it; but to all that was light and air, perfume and 
+colour, every drop of blood in her responded.  She 
+loved the roughness of the dry mountain grass under her 
+palms, the smell of the thyme into which she crushed 
+her face, the fingering of the wind in her hair and 
+through her cotton blouse, and the creak of the larches 
+as they swayed to it.
+
+She often climbed up the hill and lay there alone for 
+the mere pleasure of feeling the wind and of rubbing 
+her cheeks in the grass.  Generally at such times she 
+did not think of anything, but lay immersed in an
+inarticulate well-being.  Today the sense of well-being 
+was intensified by her joy at escaping from the 
+library.  She liked well enough to have a friend drop in 
+and talk to her when she was on duty, but she hated to 
+be bothered about books.  How could she remember where 
+they were, when they were so seldom asked for?  Orma Fry 
+occasionally took out a novel, and her brother Ben was 
+fond of what he called "jography," and of books 
+relating to trade and bookkeeping; but no one else 
+asked for anything except, at intervals, "Uncle Tom's 
+Cabin," or "Opening of a Chestnut Burr," or Longfellow.  
+She had these under her hand, and could have found them 
+in the dark; but unexpected demands came so rarely that 
+they exasperated her like an injustice....
+
+She had liked the young man's looks, and his short-
+sighted eyes, and his odd way of speaking, that was 
+abrupt yet soft, just as his hands were sun-burnt and 
+sinewy, yet with smooth nails like a woman's.  His hair 
+was sunburnt-looking too, or rather the colour of 
+bracken after frost; his eyes grey, with the appealing
+look of the shortsighted, his smile shy yet confident, 
+as if he knew lots of things she had never dreamed of, 
+and yet wouldn't for the world have had her feel his 
+superiority.  But she did feel it, and liked the 
+feeling; for it was new to her.  Poor and ignorant as 
+she was, and knew herself to be--humblest of the humble 
+even in North Dormer, where to come from the Mountain 
+was the worst disgrace--yet in her narrow world she had 
+always ruled.  It was partly, of course, owing to the 
+fact that lawyer Royall was "the biggest man in North 
+Dormer"; so much too big for it, in fact, that 
+outsiders, who didn't know, always wondered how it held 
+him.  In spite of everything--and in spite even of Miss 
+Hatchard--lawyer Royall ruled in North Dormer; and 
+Charity ruled in lawyer Royall's house.  She had never 
+put it to herself in those terms; but she knew her 
+power, knew what it was made of, and hated it.  
+Confusedly, the young man in the library had made her 
+feel for the first time what might be the sweetness of 
+dependence.
+
+She sat up, brushed the bits of grass from her hair, 
+and looked down on the house where she held sway.  It 
+stood just below her, cheerless and untended, its faded 
+red front divided from the road by a "yard" with a path 
+bordered by gooseberry bushes, a stone well overgrown 
+with traveller's joy, and a sickly Crimson Rambler tied 
+to a fan-shaped support, which Mr. Royall had once 
+brought up from Hepburn to please her.  Behind the 
+house a bit of uneven ground with clothes-lines strung 
+across it stretched up to a dry wall, and beyond the 
+wall a patch of corn and a few rows of potatoes strayed 
+vaguely into the adjoining wilderness of rock and fern.
+
+Charity could not recall her first sight of the house.  
+She had been told that she was ill of a fever when she 
+was brought down from the Mountain; and she could only 
+remember waking one day in a cot at the foot of Mrs. 
+Royall's bed, and opening her eyes on the cold neatness 
+of the room that was afterward to be hers.
+
+Mrs. Royall died seven or eight years later; and by
+that time Charity had taken the measure of most things 
+about her.  She knew that Mrs. Royall was sad and timid 
+and weak; she knew that lawyer Royall was harsh and 
+violent, and still weaker.  She knew that she had been 
+christened Charity (in the white church at the other 
+end of the village) to commemorate Mr. Royall's 
+disinterestedness in "bringing her down," and to keep 
+alive in her a becoming sense of her dependence; she 
+knew that Mr. Royall was her guardian, but that he had 
+not legally adopted her, though everybody spoke of her 
+as Charity Royall; and she knew why he had come back to 
+live at North Dormer, instead of practising at 
+Nettleton, where he had begun his legal career.
+
+After Mrs. Royall's death there was some talk of 
+sending her to a boarding-school.  Miss Hatchard 
+suggested it, and had a long conference with Mr. 
+Royall, who, in pursuance of her plan, departed one day 
+for Starkfield to visit the institution she 
+recommended.  He came back the next night with a black 
+face; worse, Charity observed, than she had ever seen
+him; and by that time she had had some experience.
+
+When she asked him how soon she was to start he
+answered shortly, "You ain't going," and shut himself
+up in the room he called his office; and the next day
+the lady who kept the school at Starkfield wrote that
+"under the circumstances" she was afraid she could not
+make room just then for another pupil.
+
+Charity was disappointed; but she understood.  It
+wasn't the temptations of Starkfield that had been Mr.
+Royall's undoing; it was the thought of losing her.  He 
+was a dreadfully "lonesome" man; she had made that out 
+because she was so "lonesome" herself.  He and she, 
+face to face in that sad house, had sounded the depths 
+of isolation; and though she felt no particular 
+affection for him, and not the slightest gratitude, she 
+pitied him because she was conscious that he was 
+superior to the people about him, and that she was the 
+only being between him and solitude.  Therefore, when 
+Miss Hatchard sent for her a day or two later, to talk
+of a school at Nettleton, and to say that this time a 
+friend of hers would "make the necessary arrangements," 
+Charity cut her short with the announcement that she 
+had decided not to leave North Dormer.
+
+Miss Hatchard reasoned with her kindly, but to no 
+purpose; she simply repeated:  "I guess Mr. Royall's too 
+lonesome."
+
+Miss Hatchard blinked perplexedly behind her eye-
+glasses.  Her long frail face was full of puzzled 
+wrinkles, and she leant forward, resting her hands on 
+the arms of her mahogany armchair, with the evident 
+desire to say something that ought to be said.
+
+"The feeling does you credit, my dear."
+
+She looked about the pale walls of her sitting-room, 
+seeking counsel of ancestral daguerreotypes and 
+didactic samplers; but they seemed to make utterance 
+more difficult.
+
+"The fact is, it's not only--not only because of the 
+advantages.  There are other reasons.  You're too young 
+to understand----"
+
+"Oh, no, I ain't," said Charity harshly; and Miss 
+Hatchard blushed to the roots of her blonde cap.  But 
+she must have felt a vague relief at having her 
+explanation cut short, for she concluded, again 
+invoking the daguerreotypes:  "Of course I shall always 
+do what I can for you; and in case....in case....you 
+know you can always come to me...."
+
+Lawyer Royall was waiting for Charity in the porch when 
+she returned from this visit.  He had shaved, and 
+brushed his black coat, and looked a magnificent 
+monument of a man; at such moments she really admired 
+him.
+
+"Well," he said, "is it settled?"
+
+"Yes, it's settled.  I ain't going."
+
+"Not to the Nettleton school?"
+
+"Not anywhere."
+
+He cleared his throat and asked sternly:  "Why?"
+
+"I'd rather not," she said, swinging past him on her 
+way to her room.  It was the following week that he 
+brought her up the Crimson Rambler and its fan from 
+Hepburn.  He had never given her anything before.
+
+The next outstanding incident of her life had happened 
+two years later, when she was seventeen.  Lawyer 
+Royall, who hated to go to Nettleton, had been called 
+there in connection with a case.  He still exercised 
+his profession, though litigation languished in North 
+Dormer and its outlying hamlets; and for once he had 
+had an opportunity that he could not afford to refuse.  
+He spent three days in Nettleton, won his case, and
+came back in high good-humour.  It was a rare mood with 
+him, and manifested itself on this occasion by his 
+talking impressively at the supper-table of the 
+"rousing welcome" his old friends had given him.  He 
+wound up confidentially:  "I was a damn fool ever to 
+leave Nettleton.  It was Mrs. Royall that made me do 
+it."
+
+Charity immediately perceived that something bitter had 
+happened to him, and that he was trying to talk down 
+the recollection.  She went up to bed early, leaving 
+him seated in moody thought, his elbows propped on the 
+worn oilcloth of the supper table.  On the way up she 
+had extracted from his overcoat pocket the key of the 
+cupboard where the bottle of whiskey was kept.
+
+She was awakened by a rattling at her door and jumped 
+out of bed.  She heard Mr. Royall's voice, low and 
+peremptory, and opened the door, fearing an accident.  
+No other thought had occurred to her; but when she saw 
+him in the doorway, a ray from the autumn moon falling
+on his discomposed face, she understood.
+
+For a moment they looked at each other in silence; 
+then, as he put his foot across the threshold, she 
+stretched out her arm and stopped him.
+
+"You go right back from here," she said, in a shrill 
+voice that startled her; "you ain't going to have that 
+key tonight."
+
+"Charity, let me in.  I don't want the key.  I'm a 
+lonesome man," he began, in the deep voice that 
+sometimes moved her.
+
+Her heart gave a startled plunge, but she continued to 
+hold him back contemptuously.  "Well, I guess you made 
+a mistake, then.  This ain't your wife's room any 
+longer."
+
+She was not frightened, she simply felt a deep disgust; 
+and perhaps he divined it or read it in her face, for
+after staring at her a moment he drew back and turned 
+slowly away from the door.  With her ear to her keyhole 
+she heard him feel his way down the dark stairs, and 
+toward the kitchen; and she listened for the crash of 
+the cupboard panel, but instead she heard him, after an 
+interval, unlock the door of the house, and his heavy 
+steps came to her through the silence as he walked down 
+the path.  She crept to the window and saw his bent 
+figure striding up the road in the moonlight.  Then a 
+belated sense of fear came to her with the 
+consciousness of victory, and she slipped into bed, 
+cold to the bone.
+
+
+A day or two later poor Eudora Skeff, who for twenty 
+years had been the custodian of the Hatchard library, 
+died suddenly of pneumonia; and the day after the 
+funeral Charity went to see Miss Hatchard, and asked to 
+be appointed librarian.  The request seemed to surprise 
+Miss Hatchard:  she evidently questioned the new 
+candidate's qualifications.
+
+"Why, I don't know, my dear.  Aren't you rather too 
+young?" she hesitated.
+
+"I want to earn some money," Charity merely answered.
+
+"Doesn't Mr. Royall give you all you require?  No one is 
+rich in North Dormer."
+
+"I want to earn money enough to get away."
+
+"To get away?" Miss Hatchard's puzzled wrinkles 
+deepened, and there was a distressful pause.  "You want 
+to leave Mr. Royall?"
+
+"Yes:  or I want another woman in the house with me," 
+said Charity resolutely.
+
+Miss Hatchard clasped her nervous hands about the arms 
+of her chair.  Her eyes invoked the faded countenances 
+on the wall, and after a faint cough of indecision she
+brought out:  "The...the housework's too hard for you, I 
+suppose?"
+
+Charity's heart grew cold.  She understood that Miss 
+Hatchard had no help to give her and that she would 
+have to fight her way out of her difficulty alone.  A 
+deeper sense of isolation overcame her; she felt 
+incalculably old.  "She's got to be talked to like a 
+baby," she thought, with a feeling of compassion for 
+Miss Hatchard's long immaturity.  "Yes, that's it," she 
+said aloud.  "The housework's too hard for me:  I've 
+been coughing a good deal this fall."
+
+She noted the immediate effect of this suggestion.  Miss 
+Hatchard paled at the memory of poor Eudora's taking-
+off, and promised to do what she could.  But of course
+there were people she must consult:  the clergyman, the 
+selectmen of North Dormer, and a distant Hatchard 
+relative at Springfield.  "If you'd only gone to 
+school!" she sighed.  She followed Charity to the door, 
+and there, in the security of the threshold, said with
+a glance of evasive appeal:  "I know Mr. Royall 
+is...trying at times; but his wife bore with him; and 
+you must always remember, Charity, that it was Mr. 
+Royall who brought you down from the Mountain."  Charity 
+went home and opened the door of Mr. Royall's "office."  
+He was sitting there by the stove reading Daniel 
+Webster's speeches.  They had met at meals during the 
+five days that had elapsed since he had come to her 
+door, and she had walked at his side at Eudora's 
+funeral; but they had not spoken a word to each other.
+
+He glanced up in surprise as she entered, and she 
+noticed that he was unshaved, and that he looked 
+unusually old; but as she had always thought of him as 
+an old man the change in his appearance did not move 
+her.  She told him she had been to see Miss Hatchard, 
+and with what object.  She saw that he was astonished; 
+but he made no comment.
+
+"I told her the housework was too hard for me, and I 
+wanted to earn the money to pay for a hired girl.  But
+I ain't going to pay for her:  you've got to.  I want to 
+have some money of my own."
+
+Mr. Royall's bushy black eyebrows were drawn together 
+in a frown, and he sat drumming with ink-stained nails 
+on the edge of his desk.
+
+"What do you want to earn money for?" he asked.
+
+"So's to get away when I want to."
+
+"Why do you want to get away?"
+
+Her contempt flashed out.  "Do you suppose anybody'd 
+stay at North Dormer if they could help it?  You 
+wouldn't, folks say!"
+
+With lowered head he asked:  "Where'd you go to?"
+
+"Anywhere where I can earn my living.  I'll try here 
+first, and if I can't do it here I'll go somewhere
+else.  I'll go up the Mountain if I have to."  She 
+paused on this threat, and saw that it had taken 
+effect.  "I want you should get Miss Hatchard and the 
+selectmen to take me at the library:  and I want a woman 
+here in the house with me," she repeated.
+
+Mr. Royall had grown exceedingly pale.  When she ended 
+he stood up ponderously, leaning against the desk; and 
+for a second or two they looked at each other.
+
+"See here," he said at length as though utterance were 
+difficult, "there's something I've been wanting to say 
+to you; I'd ought to have said it before.  I want you 
+to marry me."
+
+The girl still stared at him without moving.  "I want 
+you to marry me," he repeated, clearing his throat.  
+"The minister'll be up here next Sunday and we can fix 
+it up then.  Or I'll drive you down to Hepburn to the 
+Justice, and get it done there.  I'll do whatever you 
+say."  His eyes fell under the merciless stare she
+continued to fix on him, and he shifted his weight
+uneasily from one foot to the other.  As he stood there
+before her, unwieldy, shabby, disordered, the purple
+veins distorting the hands he pressed against the desk,
+and his long orator's jaw trembling with the effort of
+his avowal, he seemed like a hideous parody of the
+fatherly old man she had always known.
+
+"Marry you?  Me?" she burst out with a scornful laugh.
+"Was that what you came to ask me the other night?
+What's come over you, I wonder?  How long is it since
+you've looked at yourself in the glass?"  She
+straightened herself, insolently conscious of her youth 
+and strength.  "I suppose you think it would be cheaper 
+to marry me than to keep a hired girl.  Everybody knows 
+you're the closest man in Eagle County; but I guess 
+you're not going to get your mending done for you that 
+way twice."
+
+Mr. Royall did not move while she spoke.  His face was 
+ash-coloured and his black eyebrows quivered as though
+the blaze of her scorn had blinded him.  When she 
+ceased he held up his hand.
+
+"That'll do--that'll about do," he said.  He turned to 
+the door and took his hat from the hat-peg.  On the 
+threshold he paused.  "People ain't been fair to me--
+from the first they ain't been fair to me," he said.  
+Then he went out.
+
+A few days later North Dormer learned with surprise 
+that Charity had been appointed librarian of the 
+Hatchard Memorial at a salary of eight dollars a month,
+and that old Verena Marsh, from the Creston Almshouse, 
+was coming to live at lawyer Royall's and do the 
+cooking.
+
+
+
+III
+
+
+It was not in the room known at the red house as Mr. 
+Royall's "office" that he received his infrequent 
+clients.  Professional dignity and masculine 
+independence made it necessary that he should have a 
+real office, under a different roof; and his standing 
+as the only lawyer of North Dormer required that the 
+roof should be the same as that which sheltered the 
+Town Hall and the post-office.
+
+It was his habit to walk to this office twice a day, 
+morning and afternoon.  It was on the ground floor of 
+the building, with a separate entrance, and a weathered
+name-plate on the door.  Before going in he stepped in 
+to the post-office for his mail--usually an empty 
+ceremony--said a word or two to the town-clerk, who sat 
+across the passage in idle state, and then went over to 
+the store on the opposite corner, where Carrick Fry, 
+the storekeeper, always kept a chair for him, and where 
+he was sure to find one or two selectmen leaning on the 
+long counter, in an atmosphere of rope, leather, tar 
+and coffee-beans.  Mr. Royall, though monosyllabic at 
+home, was not averse, in certain moods, to imparting 
+his views to his fellow-townsmen; perhaps, also, he was 
+unwilling that his rare clients should surprise him 
+sitting, clerkless and unoccupied, in his dusty office.  
+At any rate, his hours there were not much longer or 
+more regular than Charity's at the library; the rest of 
+the time he spent either at the store or in driving 
+about the country on business connected with the 
+insurance companies that he represented, or in sitting 
+at home reading Bancroft's History of the United States 
+and the speeches of Daniel Webster.
+
+Since the day when Charity had told him that she wished 
+to succeed to Eudora Skeff's post their relations had 
+undefinably but definitely changed.  Lawyer Royall had 
+kept his word.  He had obtained the place for her at 
+the cost of considerable maneuvering, as she guessed 
+from the number of rival candidates, and from the 
+acerbity with which two of them, Orma Fry and the 
+eldest Targatt girl, treated her for nearly a year 
+afterward.  And he had engaged Verena Marsh to come up 
+from Creston and do the cooking.  Verena was a poor old 
+widow, doddering and shiftless:  Charity suspected that 
+she came for her keep.  Mr. Royall was too close a man 
+to give a dollar a day to a smart girl when he could 
+get a deaf pauper for nothing.  But at any rate, Verena 
+was there, in the attic just over Charity, and the fact 
+that she was deaf did not greatly trouble the young 
+girl.
+
+Charity knew that what had happened on that hateful 
+night would not happen again.  She understood that, 
+profoundly as she had despised Mr. Royall ever since,
+he despised himself still more profoundly.  If she had 
+asked for a woman in the house it was far less for her 
+own defense than for his humiliation.  She needed no 
+one to defend her:  his humbled pride was her surest 
+protection.  He had never spoken a word of excuse or 
+extenuation; the incident was as if it had never been.  
+Yet its consequences were latent in every word that he 
+and she exchanged, in every glance they instinctively 
+turned from each other.  Nothing now would ever shake 
+her rule in the red house.
+
+On the night of her meeting with Miss Hatchard's cousin 
+Charity lay in bed, her bare arms clasped under her 
+rough head, and continued to think of him.  She 
+supposed that he meant to spend some time in North 
+Dormer.  He had said he was looking up the old houses in 
+the neighbourhood; and though she was not very clear as 
+to his purpose, or as to why anyone should look for old 
+houses, when they lay in wait for one on every 
+roadside, she understood that he needed the help of 
+books, and resolved to hunt up the next day the volume
+she had failed to find, and any others that seemed
+related to the subject.
+
+Never had her ignorance of life and literature so 
+weighed on her as in reliving the short scene of her 
+discomfiture.  "It's no use trying to be anything in 
+this place," she muttered to her pillow; and she 
+shrivelled at the vision of vague metropolises, shining 
+super-Nettletons, where girls in better clothes than 
+Belle Balch's talked fluently of architecture to young 
+men with hands like Lucius Harney's.  Then she
+remembered his sudden pause when he had come close to 
+the desk and had his first look at her.  The sight had 
+made him forget what he was going to say; she recalled 
+the change in his face, and jumping up she ran over the 
+bare boards to her washstand, found the matches, lit a 
+candle, and lifted it to the square of looking-glass on 
+the white-washed wall.  Her small face, usually so 
+darkly pale, glowed like a rose in the faint orb of 
+light, and under her rumpled hair her eyes seemed 
+deeper and larger than by day.  Perhaps after all it
+was a mistake to wish they were blue.  A clumsy band 
+and button fastened her unbleached night-gown about the 
+throat.  She undid it, freed her thin shoulders, and saw 
+herself a bride in low-necked satin, walking down an 
+aisle with Lucius Harney.  He would kiss her as they 
+left the church....She put down the candle and covered 
+her face with her hands as if to imprison the kiss.  At 
+that moment she heard Mr. Royall's step as he came up 
+the stairs to bed, and a fierce revulsion of feeling 
+swept over her.  Until then she had merely despised 
+him; now deep hatred of him filled her heart.  He became 
+to her a horrible old man....
+
+
+The next day, when Mr. Royall came back to dinner, they 
+faced each other in silence as usual.  Verena's 
+presence at the table was an excuse for their not 
+talking, though her deafness would have permitted the 
+freest interchange of confidences.  But when the meal 
+was over, and Mr. Royall rose from the table, he looked 
+back at Charity, who had stayed to help the old woman
+clear away the dishes.
+
+"I want to speak to you a minute," he said; and she 
+followed him across the passage, wondering.
+
+He seated himself in his black horse-hair armchair, and 
+she leaned against the window, indifferently.  She was 
+impatient to be gone to the library, to hunt for the 
+book on North Dormer.
+
+"See here," he said, "why ain't you at the library the 
+days you're supposed to be there?"
+
+The question, breaking in on her mood of blissful 
+abstraction, deprived her of speech, and she stared at 
+him for a moment without answering.
+
+"Who says I ain't?"
+
+"There's been some complaints made, it appears.  Miss 
+Hatchard sent for me this morning----"
+
+Charity's smouldering resentment broke into a blaze.  "I 
+know! Orma Fry, and that toad of a Targatt girl and Ben 
+Fry, like as not.  He's going round with her.  The low-
+down sneaks--I always knew they'd try to have me out! 
+As if anybody ever came to the library, anyhow!"
+
+"Somebody did yesterday, and you weren't there."
+
+"Yesterday?" she laughed at her happy recollection.  "At 
+what time wasn't I there yesterday, I'd like to know?"
+
+"Round about four o'clock."
+
+Charity was silent.  She had been so steeped in the 
+dreamy remembrance of young Harney's visit that she had 
+forgotten having deserted her post as soon as he had 
+left the library.
+
+"Who came at four o'clock?"
+
+"Miss Hatchard did."
+
+"Miss Hatchard?  Why, she ain't ever been near the place 
+since she's been lame.  She couldn't get up the steps 
+if she tried."
+
+"She can be helped up, I guess.  She was yesterday, 
+anyhow, by the young fellow that's staying with her.  He 
+found you there, I understand, earlier in the 
+afternoon; and he went back and told Miss Hatchard the 
+books were in bad shape and needed attending to.  She 
+got excited, and had herself wheeled straight round; 
+and when she got there the place was locked.  So she 
+sent for me, and told me about that, and about the 
+other complaints.  She claims you've neglected things, 
+and that she's going to get a trained librarian."
+
+Charity had not moved while he spoke.  She stood with 
+her head thrown back against the window-frame, her arms 
+hanging against her sides, and her hands so tightly 
+clenched that she felt, without knowing what hurt her,
+the sharp edge of her nails against her palms.
+
+Of all Mr. Royall had said she had retained only the 
+phrase:  "He told Miss Hatchard the books were in bad 
+shape."  What did she care for the other charges against 
+her?  Malice or truth, she despised them as she despised 
+her detractors.  But that the stranger to whom she had 
+felt herself so mysteriously drawn should have betrayed 
+her! That at the very moment when she had fled up the 
+hillside to think of him more deliciously he should 
+have been hastening home to denounce her short-comings! 
+She remembered how, in the darkness of her room, she 
+had covered her face to press his imagined kiss closer; 
+and her heart raged against him for the liberty he had 
+not taken.
+
+"Well, I'll go," she said suddenly.  "I'll go right 
+off."
+
+"Go where?" She heard the startled note in Mr. Royall's 
+voice.
+
+"Why, out of their old library:  straight out, and never 
+set foot in it again.  They needn't think I'm going to 
+wait round and let them say they've discharged me!"
+
+"Charity--Charity Royall, you listen----" he began, 
+getting heavily out of his chair; but she waved him 
+aside, and walked out of the room.
+
+Upstairs she took the library key from the place where 
+she always hid it under her pincushion--who said she 
+wasn't careful?--put on her hat, and swept down again 
+and out into the street.  If Mr. Royall heard her go he 
+made no motion to detain her:  his sudden rages probably 
+made him understand the uselessness of reasoning with 
+hers.
+
+She reached the brick temple, unlocked the door and 
+entered into the glacial twilight.  "I'm glad I'll 
+never have to sit in this old vault again when other 
+folks are out in the sun!" she said aloud as the
+familiar chill took her.  She looked with abhorrence at 
+the long dingy rows of books, the sheep-nosed Minerva 
+on her black pedestal, and the mild-faced young man in 
+a high stock whose effigy pined above her desk.  She 
+meant to take out of the drawer her roll of lace and 
+the library register, and go straight to Miss Hatchard 
+to announce her resignation.  But suddenly a great 
+desolation overcame her, and she sat down and laid her 
+face against the desk.  Her heart was ravaged by life's 
+cruelest discovery:  the first creature who had come 
+toward her out of the wilderness had brought her 
+anguish instead of joy.  She did not cry; tears came 
+hard to her, and the storms of her heart spent 
+themselves inwardly.  But as she sat there in her dumb 
+woe she felt her life to be too desolate, too ugly and 
+intolerable.
+
+"What have I ever done to it, that it should hurt me 
+so?" she groaned, and pressed her fists against her 
+lids, which were beginning to swell with weeping.
+
+"I won't--I won't go there looking like a horror!" she 
+muttered, springing up and pushing back her hair as if 
+it stifled her.  She opened the drawer, dragged out the 
+register, and turned toward the door.  As she did so it 
+opened, and the young man from Miss Hatchard's came in 
+whistling.
+
+
+
+IV
+
+
+He stopped and lifted his hat with a shy smile.  "I beg 
+your pardon," he said.  "I thought there was no one 
+here."
+
+Charity stood before him, barring his way.  "You can't 
+come in.  The library ain't open to the public 
+Wednesdays."
+
+"I know it's not; but my cousin gave me her key."
+
+"Miss Hatchard's got no right to give her key to other 
+folks, any more'n I have.  I'm the librarian and I know 
+the by-laws.  This is my library."
+
+The young man looked profoundly surprised.
+
+"Why, I know it is; I'm so sorry if you mind my 
+coming."
+
+"I suppose you came to see what more you could say to 
+set her against me?  But you needn't trouble:  it's my 
+library today, but it won't be this time tomorrow.  I'm 
+on the way now to take her back the key and the 
+register."
+
+Young Harney's face grew grave, but without betraying 
+the consciousness of guilt she had looked for.
+
+"I don't understand," he said.  "There must be some 
+mistake.  Why should I say things against you to Miss
+Hatchard--or to anyone?"
+
+The apparent evasiveness of the reply caused Charity's 
+indignation to overflow.  "I don't know why you should.  
+I could understand Orma Fry's doing it, because she's 
+always wanted to get me out of here ever since the 
+first day.  I can't see why, when she's got her own 
+home, and her father to work for her; nor Ida Targatt, 
+neither, when she got a legacy from her step-brother 
+on'y last year.  But anyway we all live in the same 
+place, and when it's a place like North Dormer it's 
+enough to make people hate each other just to have to 
+walk down the same street every day.  But you don't 
+live here, and you don't know anything about any of us, 
+so what did you have to meddle for?  Do you suppose the 
+other girls'd have kept the books any better'n I did?  
+Why, Orma Fry don't hardly know a book from a flat-
+iron! And what if I don't always sit round here doing 
+nothing till it strikes five up at the church?  Who 
+cares if the library's open or shut?  Do you suppose 
+anybody ever comes here for books?  What they'd like to
+come for is to meet the fellows they're going with if 
+I'd let 'em.  But I wouldn't let Bill Sollas from over 
+the hill hang round here waiting for the youngest 
+Targatt girl, because I know him...that's all...even if 
+I don't know about books all I ought to...."
+
+She stopped with a choking in her throat.  Tremors of 
+rage were running through her, and she steadied herself 
+against the edge of the desk lest he should see her 
+weakness.
+
+What he saw seemed to affect him deeply, for he grew 
+red under his sunburn, and stammered out:  "But, Miss 
+Royall, I assure you...I assure you..."
+
+His distress inflamed her anger, and she regained her 
+voice to fling back:  "If I was you I'd have the nerve 
+to stick to what I said!"
+
+The taunt seemed to restore his presence of mind.  "I 
+hope I should if I knew; but I don't.  Apparently
+something disagreeable has happened, for which you 
+think I'm to blame.  But I don't know what it is, 
+because I've been up on Eagle Ridge ever since the 
+early morning."
+
+"I don't know where you've been this morning, but I 
+know you were here in this library yesterday; and it 
+was you that went home and told your cousin the books 
+were in bad shape, and brought her round to see how I'd 
+neglected them."
+
+Young Harney looked sincerely concerned.  "Was that 
+what you were told?  I don't wonder you're angry.  The 
+books are in bad shape, and as some are interesting 
+it's a pity.  I told Miss Hatchard they were suffering 
+from dampness and lack of air; and I brought her here 
+to show her how easily the place could be ventilated.  I 
+also told her you ought to have some one to help you do 
+the dusting and airing.  If you were given a wrong 
+version of what I said I'm sorry; but I'm so fond of 
+old books that I'd rather see them made into a bonfire
+than left to moulder away like these."
+
+Charity felt her sobs rising and tried to stifle them 
+in words.  "I don't care what you say you told her.  All 
+I know is she thinks it's all my fault, and I'm going 
+to lose my job, and I wanted it more'n anyone in the 
+village, because I haven't got anybody belonging to me, 
+the way other folks have.  All I wanted was to put 
+aside money enough to get away from here sometime.  
+D'you suppose if it hadn't been for that I'd have kept 
+on sitting day after day in this old vault?"
+
+Of this appeal her hearer took up only the last 
+question.  "It is an old vault; but need it be?  That's 
+the point.  And it's my putting the question to my 
+cousin that seems to have been the cause of the 
+trouble."  His glance explored the melancholy penumbra 
+of the long narrow room, resting on the blotched walls, 
+the discoloured rows of books, and the stern rosewood 
+desk surmounted by the portrait of the young Honorius.  
+"Of course it's a bad job to do anything with a
+building jammed against a hill like this ridiculous 
+mausoleum:  you couldn't get a good draught through it 
+without blowing a hole in the mountain.  But it can be 
+ventilated after a fashion, and the sun can be let in:  
+I'll show you how if you like...."  The architect's 
+passion for improvement had already made him lose sight 
+of her grievance, and he lifted his stick instructively 
+toward the cornice.  But her silence seemed to tell him 
+that she took no interest in the ventilation of the 
+library, and turning back to her abruptly he held out 
+both hands.  "Look here--you don't mean what you said?  
+You don't really think I'd do anything to hurt you?"
+
+A new note in his voice disarmed her:  no one had ever 
+spoken to her in that tone.
+
+"Oh, what DID you do it for then?" she wailed.  He 
+had her hands in his, and she was feeling the smooth 
+touch that she had imagined the day before on the 
+hillside.
+
+He pressed her hands lightly and let them go.  "Why, to 
+make things pleasanter for you here; and better for the 
+books.  I'm sorry if my cousin twisted around what I 
+said.  She's excitable, and she lives on trifles:  I 
+ought to have remembered that.  Don't punish me by 
+letting her think you take her seriously."
+
+It was wonderful to hear him speak of Miss Hatchard as 
+if she were a querulous baby:  in spite of his shyness 
+he had the air of power that the experience of cities 
+probably gave.  It was the fact of having lived in 
+Nettleton that made lawyer Royall, in spite of his 
+infirmities, the strongest man in North Dormer; and 
+Charity was sure that this young man had lived in 
+bigger places than Nettleton.
+
+She felt that if she kept up her denunciatory tone he 
+would secretly class her with Miss Hatchard; and the 
+thought made her suddenly simple.
+
+"It don't matter to Miss Hatchard how I take her.  Mr.
+Royall says she's going to get a trained librarian; and 
+I'd sooner resign than have the village say she sent me 
+away."
+
+"Naturally you would.  But I'm sure she doesn't mean to 
+send you away.  At any rate, won't you give me the 
+chance to find out first and let you know?  It will be 
+time enough to resign if I'm mistaken."
+
+Her pride flamed into her cheeks at the suggestion of 
+his intervening.  "I don't want anybody should coax her 
+to keep me if I don't suit."
+
+He coloured too.  "I give you my word I won't do that.  
+Only wait till tomorrow, will you?" He looked straight 
+into her eyes with his shy grey glance.  "You can trust 
+me, you know--you really can."
+
+All the old frozen woes seemed to melt in her, and she 
+murmured awkwardly, looking away from him:  "Oh, I'll 
+wait."
+
+
+
+V
+
+
+There had never been such a June in Eagle County.  
+Usually it was a month of moods, with abrupt 
+alternations of belated frost and mid-summer heat; this 
+year, day followed day in a sequence of temperate 
+beauty.  Every morning a breeze blew steadily from the 
+hills.  Toward noon it built up great canopies of
+white cloud that threw a cool shadow over fields and 
+woods; then before sunset the clouds dissolved again, 
+and the western light rained its unobstructed 
+brightness on the valley.
+
+On such an afternoon Charity Royall lay on a ridge 
+above a sunlit hollow, her face pressed to the earth 
+and the warm currents of the grass running through her.  
+Directly in her line of vision a blackberry branch laid
+its frail white flowers and blue-green leaves against 
+the sky.  Just beyond, a tuft of sweet-fern uncurled 
+between the beaded shoots of the grass, and a small 
+yellow butterfly vibrated over them like a fleck of 
+sunshine.  This was all she saw; but she felt, above 
+her and about her, the strong growth of the beeches 
+clothing the ridge, the rounding of pale green cones on
+countless spruce-branches, the push of myriads of 
+sweet-fern fronds in the cracks of the stony slope 
+below the wood, and the crowding shoots of meadowsweet 
+and yellow flags in the pasture beyond.  All this 
+bubbling of sap and slipping of sheaths and bursting of 
+calyxes was carried to her on mingled currents of 
+fragrance.  Every leaf and bud and blade seemed to 
+contribute its exhalation to the pervading sweetness in 
+which the pungency of pine-sap prevailed over the spice 
+of thyme and the subtle perfume of fern, and all were 
+merged in a moist earth-smell that was like the breath 
+of some huge sun-warmed animal.
+
+Charity had lain there a long time, passive and sun-
+warmed as the slope on which she lay, when there came 
+between her eyes and the dancing butterfly the sight of 
+a man's foot in a large worn boot covered with red mud.
+
+"Oh, don't!" she exclaimed, raising herself on her 
+elbow and stretching out a warning hand.
+
+"Don't what?" a hoarse voice asked above her head.
+
+"Don't stamp on those bramble flowers, you dolt!" she 
+retorted, springing to her knees.  The foot paused and 
+then descended clumsily on the frail branch, and 
+raising her eyes she saw above her the bewildered face 
+of a slouching man with a thin sunburnt beard, and 
+white arms showing through his ragged shirt.
+
+"Don't you ever SEE anything, Liff Hyatt?" she 
+assailed him, as he stood before her with the look of a 
+man who has stirred up a wasp's nest.
+
+He grinned.  "I seen you! That's what I come down for."
+
+"Down from where?" she questioned, stooping to gather 
+up the petals his foot had scattered.
+
+He jerked his thumb toward the heights.  "Been cutting 
+down trees for Dan Targatt."
+
+Charity sank back on her heels and looked at him 
+musingly.  She was not in the least afraid of poor Liff 
+Hyatt, though he "came from the Mountain," and some of 
+the girls ran when they saw him.  Among the more 
+reasonable he passed for a harmless creature, a sort of 
+link between the mountain and civilized folk, who 
+occasionally came down and did a little wood cutting 
+for a farmer when hands were short.  Besides, she knew 
+the Mountain people would never hurt her:  Liff himself 
+had told her so once when she was a little girl, and 
+had met him one day at the edge of lawyer Royall's 
+pasture.  "They won't any of 'em touch you up there, 
+f'ever you was to come up....But I don't s'pose you 
+will," he had added philosophically, looking at her new
+shoes, and at the red ribbon that Mrs. Royall had tied 
+in her hair.
+
+Charity had, in truth, never felt any desire to visit 
+her birthplace.  She did not care to have it known that 
+she was of the Mountain, and was shy of being seen in 
+talk with Liff Hyatt.  But today she was not sorry to 
+have him appear.  A great many things had happened to 
+her since the day when young Lucius Harney had entered 
+the doors of the Hatchard Memorial, but none, perhaps, 
+so unforeseen as the fact of her suddenly finding it a 
+convenience to be on good terms with Liff Hyatt.  She 
+continued to look up curiously at his freckled weather-
+beaten face, with feverish hollows below the cheekbones 
+and the pale yellow eyes of a harmless animal.  "I 
+wonder if he's related to me?" she thought, with a 
+shiver of disdain.
+
+"Is there any folks living in the brown house by the 
+swamp, up under Porcupine?" she presently asked in an 
+indifferent tone.
+
+Liff Hyatt, for a while, considered her with surprise; 
+then he scratched his head and shifted his weight from 
+one tattered sole to the other.
+
+"There's always the same folks in the brown house," he 
+said with his vague grin.
+
+"They're from up your way, ain't they?"
+
+"Their name's the same as mine," he rejoined 
+uncertainly.
+
+Charity still held him with resolute eyes.  "See here, 
+I want to go there some day and take a gentleman with 
+me that's boarding with us.  He's up in these parts 
+drawing pictures."
+
+She did not offer to explain this statement.  It was 
+too far beyond Liff Hyatt's limitations for the attempt 
+to be worth making.  "He wants to see the brown house,
+and go all over it," she pursued.
+
+Liff was still running his fingers perplexedly through 
+his shock of straw-colored hair.  "Is it a fellow from 
+the city?" he asked.
+
+"Yes.  He draws pictures of things.  He's down there 
+now drawing the Bonner house."  She pointed to a chimney 
+just visible over the dip of the pasture below the 
+wood.
+
+"The Bonner house?" Liff echoed incredulously.
+
+"Yes.  You won't understand--and it don't matter.  All 
+I say is:  he's going to the Hyatts' in a day or two."
+
+Liff looked more and more perplexed.  "Bash is ugly 
+sometimes in the afternoons."
+
+She threw her head back, her eyes full on Hyatt's.  "I'm 
+coming too:  you tell him."
+
+"They won't none of them trouble you, the Hyatts won't.  
+What d'you want a take a stranger with you though?"
+
+I've told you, haven't I?  You've got to tell Bash 
+Hyatt."
+
+He looked away at the blue mountains on the horizon; 
+then his gaze dropped to the chimney-top below the 
+pasture.
+
+"He's down there now?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He shifted his weight again, crossed his arms, and 
+continued to survey the distant landscape.  "Well, so 
+long," he said at last, inconclusively; and turning 
+away he shambled up the hillside.  From the ledge above 
+her, he paused to call down:  "I wouldn't go there a 
+Sunday"; then he clambered on till the trees closed in
+on him.  Presently, from high overhead, Charity heard 
+the ring of his axe.
+
+She lay on the warm ridge, thinking of many things that 
+the woodsman's appearance had stirred up in her.  She 
+knew nothing of her early life, and had never felt any 
+curiosity about it:  only a sullen reluctance to explore 
+the corner of her memory where certain blurred images 
+lingered.  But all that had happened to her within the 
+last few weeks had stirred her to the sleeping depths.  
+She had become absorbingly interesting to herself, and 
+everything that had to do with her past was illuminated 
+by this sudden curiosity.
+
+She hated more than ever the fact of coming from the 
+Mountain; but it was no longer indifferent to her.  
+Everything that in any way affected her was alive and 
+vivid:  even the hateful things had grown interesting 
+because they were a part of herself.
+
+"I wonder if Liff Hyatt knows who my mother was?" she
+mused; and it filled her with a tremor of surprise to 
+think that some woman who was once young and slight, 
+with quick motions of the blood like hers, had carried 
+her in her breast, and watched her sleeping.  She had 
+always thought of her mother as so long dead as to be 
+no more than a nameless pinch of earth; but now it 
+occurred to her that the once-young woman might be 
+alive, and wrinkled and elf-locked like the woman she 
+had sometimes seen in the door of the brown house that 
+Lucius Harney wanted to draw.
+
+The thought brought him back to the central point in 
+her mind, and she strayed away from the conjectures 
+roused by Liff Hyatt's presence.  Speculations 
+concerning the past could not hold her long when the 
+present was so rich, the future so rosy, and when 
+Lucius Harney, a stone's throw away, was bending over 
+his sketch-book, frowning, calculating, measuring, and 
+then throwing his head back with the sudden smile that 
+had shed its brightness over everything.
+
+She scrambled to her feet, but as she did so she saw 
+him coming up the pasture and dropped down on the grass 
+to wait.  When he was drawing and measuring one of "his 
+houses," as she called them, she often strayed away by 
+herself into the woods or up the hillside.  It was 
+partly from shyness that she did so:  from a sense of 
+inadequacy that came to her most painfully when her 
+companion, absorbed in his job, forgot her ignorance 
+and her inability to follow his least allusion, and 
+plunged into a monologue on art and life.  To avoid the 
+awkwardness of listening with a blank face, and also to 
+escape the surprised stare of the inhabitants of the 
+houses before which he would abruptly pull up their 
+horse and open his sketch-book, she slipped away to 
+some spot from which, without being seen, she could 
+watch him at work, or at least look down on the house 
+he was drawing.  She had not been displeased, at first, 
+to have it known to North Dormer and the neighborhood 
+that she was driving Miss Hatchard's cousin about the 
+country in the buggy he had hired of lawyer Royall.  
+She had always kept to herself, contemptuously aloof
+from village love-making, without exactly knowing 
+whether her fierce pride was due to the sense of her 
+tainted origin, or whether she was reserving herself 
+for a more brilliant fate.  Sometimes she envied the 
+other girls their sentimental preoccupations, their 
+long hours of inarticulate philandering with one of the 
+few youths who still lingered in the village; but when 
+she pictured herself curling her hair or putting a new 
+ribbon on her hat for Ben Fry or one of the Sollas boys 
+the fever dropped and she relapsed into indifference.
+
+Now she knew the meaning of her disdains and 
+reluctances.  She had learned what she was worth when 
+Lucius Harney, looking at her for the first time, had 
+lost the thread of his speech, and leaned reddening on 
+the edge of her desk.  But another kind of shyness had 
+been born in her:  a terror of exposing to vulgar perils 
+the sacred treasure of her happiness.  She was not 
+sorry to have the neighbors suspect her of "going with" 
+a young man from the city; but she did not want it 
+known to all the countryside how many hours of the long
+June days she spent with him.  What she most feared was 
+that the inevitable comments should reach Mr. Royall.  
+Charity was instinctively aware that few things 
+concerning her escaped the eyes of the silent man under 
+whose roof she lived; and in spite of the latitude 
+which North Dormer accorded to courting couples she had 
+always felt that, on the day when she showed too open a 
+preference, Mr. Royall might, as she phrased it, make 
+her "pay for it."  How, she did not know; and her fear 
+was the greater because it was undefinable.  If she had 
+been accepting the attentions of one of the village 
+youths she would have been less apprehensive:  Mr. 
+Royall could not prevent her marrying when she chose 
+to.  But everybody knew that "going with a city fellow" 
+was a different and less straightforward affair:  almost 
+every village could show a victim of the perilous
+venture.  And her dread of Mr. Royall's intervention 
+gave a sharpened joy to the hours she spent with young 
+Harney, and made her, at the same time, shy of being 
+too generally seen with him.
+
+As he approached she rose to her knees, stretching her 
+arms above her head with the indolent gesture that was 
+her way of expressing a profound well-being.
+
+"I'm going to take you to that house up under 
+Porcupine," she announced.
+
+"What house?  Oh, yes; that ramshackle place near the 
+swamp, with the gipsy-looking people hanging about.  
+It's curious that a house with traces of real 
+architecture should have been built in such a place.  
+But the people were a sulky-looking lot--do you suppose 
+they'll let us in?"
+
+"They'll do whatever I tell them," she said with 
+assurance.
+
+He threw himself down beside her.  "Will they?" he 
+rejoined with a smile.  "Well, I should like to see 
+what's left inside the house.  And I should like to 
+have a talk with the people.  Who was it who was
+telling me the other day that they had come down from 
+the Mountain?"
+
+Charity shot a sideward look at him.  It was the first 
+time he had spoken of the Mountain except as a feature 
+of the landscape.  What else did he know about it, and 
+about her relation to it?  Her heart began to beat with 
+the fierce impulse of resistance which she 
+instinctively opposed to every imagined slight.
+
+"The Mountain?  I ain't afraid of the Mountain!"
+
+Her tone of defiance seemed to escape him.  He lay 
+breast-down on the grass, breaking off sprigs of thyme 
+and pressing them against his lips.  Far off, above the 
+folds of the nearer hills, the Mountain thrust itself 
+up menacingly against a yellow sunset.
+
+"I must go up there some day:  I want to see it," he 
+continued.
+
+Her heart-beats slackened and she turned again to 
+examine his profile.  It was innocent of all unfriendly 
+intention.
+
+"What'd you want to go up the Mountain for?" 
+
+"Why, it must be rather a curious place.  There's a 
+queer colony up there, you know:  sort of out-laws, a 
+little independent kingdom.  Of course you've heard 
+them spoken of; but I'm told they have nothing to do 
+with the people in the valleys--rather look down on 
+them, in fact.  I suppose they're rough customers; but 
+they must have a good deal of character."
+
+She did not quite know what he meant by having a good 
+deal of character; but his tone was expressive of 
+admiration, and deepened her dawning curiosity.  It 
+struck her now as strange that she knew so little about 
+the Mountain.  She had never asked, and no one had ever 
+offered to enlighten her.  North Dormer took the 
+Mountain for granted, and implied its disparagement by
+an intonation rather than by explicit criticism.
+
+"It's queer, you know," he continued, "that, just over 
+there, on top of that hill, there should be a handful 
+of people who don't give a damn for anybody."
+
+The words thrilled her.  They seemed the clue to her 
+own revolts and defiances, and she longed to have him 
+tell her more.
+
+"I don't know much about them.  Have they always been 
+there?"
+
+"Nobody seems to know exactly how long.  Down at 
+Creston they told me that the first colonists are 
+supposed to have been men who worked on the railway 
+that was built forty or fifty years ago between 
+Springfield and Nettleton.  Some of them took to drink, 
+or got into trouble with the police, and went off--
+disappeared into the woods.  A year or two later there 
+was a report that they were living up on the Mountain.
+Then I suppose others joined them--and children were 
+born.  Now they say there are over a hundred people up 
+there.  They seem to be quite outside the jurisdiction 
+of the valleys.  No school, no church--and no sheriff 
+ever goes up to see what they're about.  But don't 
+people ever talk of them at North Dormer?"
+
+"I don't know.  They say they're bad."
+
+He laughed.  "Do they?  We'll go and see, shall we?"
+
+She flushed at the suggestion, and turned her face to 
+his.  "You never heard, I suppose--I come from there.  
+They brought me down when I was little."
+
+"You?" He raised himself on his elbow, looking at her 
+with sudden interest.  "You're from the Mountain?  How 
+curious! I suppose that's why you're so different...."
+
+Her happy blood bathed her to the forehead.  He was 
+praising her--and praising her because she came from
+the Mountain!
+
+"Am I...different?" she triumphed, with affected 
+wonder.
+
+"Oh, awfully!" He picked up her hand and laid a kiss on 
+the sunburnt knuckles.
+
+"Come," he said, "let's be off."  He stood up and shook 
+the grass from his loose grey clothes.  "What a good 
+day! Where are you going to take me tomorrow?"
+
+
+
+VI
+
+
+That evening after supper Charity sat alone in the 
+kitchen and listened to Mr. Royall and young Harney 
+talking in the porch.
+
+She had remained indoors after the table had been 
+cleared and old Verena had hobbled up to bed.  The 
+kitchen window was open, and Charity seated herself 
+near it, her idle hands on her knee.  The evening was 
+cool and still.  Beyond the black hills an amber west 
+passed into pale green, and then to a deep blue in 
+which a great star hung.  The soft hoot of a little owl 
+came through the dusk, and between its calls the men's 
+voices rose and fell.
+
+Mr. Royall's was full of a sonorous satisfaction.  It 
+was a long time since he had had anyone of Lucius 
+Harney's quality to talk to:  Charity divined that the 
+young man symbolized all his ruined and unforgotten 
+past.  When Miss Hatchard had been called to 
+Springfield by the illness of a widowed sister, and 
+young Harney, by that time seriously embarked on his 
+task of drawing and measuring all the old houses 
+between Nettleton and the New Hampshire border, had 
+suggested the possibility of boarding at the red house 
+in his cousin's absence, Charity had trembled lest Mr.
+Royall should refuse.  There had been no question of 
+lodging the young man:  there was no room for him.  But 
+it appeared that he could still live at Miss Hatchard's 
+if Mr. Royall would let him take his meals at the red 
+house; and after a day's deliberation Mr. Royall 
+consented.
+
+Charity suspected him of being glad of the chance to 
+make a little money.  He had the reputation of being an 
+avaricious man; but she was beginning to think he was 
+probably poorer than people knew.  His practice had 
+become little more than a vague legend, revived only at 
+lengthening intervals by a summons to Hepburn or 
+Nettleton; and he appeared to depend for his living 
+mainly on the scant produce of his farm, and on the 
+commissions received from the few insurance agencies 
+that he represented in the neighbourhood.  At any rate, 
+he had been prompt in accepting Harney's offer to hire 
+the buggy at a dollar and a half a day; and his 
+satisfaction with the bargain had manifested itself, 
+unexpectedly enough, at the end of the first week, by
+his tossing a ten-dollar bill into Charity's lap as she 
+sat one day retrimming her old hat.
+
+"Here--go get yourself a Sunday bonnet that'll make all 
+the other girls mad," he said, looking at her with a 
+sheepish twinkle in his deep-set eyes; and she 
+immediately guessed that the unwonted present--the only 
+gift of money she had ever received from him--
+represented Harney's first payment.
+
+But the young man's coming had brought Mr. Royall other 
+than pecuniary benefit.  It gave him, for the first 
+time in years, a man's companionship.  Charity had only 
+a dim understanding of her guardian's needs; but she 
+knew he felt himself above the people among whom he 
+lived, and she saw that Lucius Harney thought him so.  
+She was surprised to find how well he seemed to talk 
+now that he had a listener who understood him; and she 
+was equally struck by young Harney's friendly 
+deference.
+
+Their conversation was mostly about politics, and
+beyond her range; but tonight it had a peculiar
+interest for her, for they had begun to speak of the
+Mountain.  She drew back a little, lest they should see
+she was in hearing.
+
+"The Mountain?  The Mountain?" she heard Mr. Royall say.
+"Why, the Mountain's a blot--that's what it is, sir, a 
+blot.  That scum up there ought to have been run in 
+long ago--and would have, if the people down here 
+hadn't been clean scared of them.  The Mountain belongs 
+to this township, and it's North Dormer's fault if 
+there's a gang of thieves and outlaws living over 
+there, in sight of us, defying the laws of their 
+country.  Why, there ain't a sheriff or a tax-collector 
+or a coroner'd durst go up there.  When they hear of 
+trouble on the Mountain the selectmen look the other 
+way, and pass an appropriation to beautify the town 
+pump.  The only man that ever goes up is the minister, 
+and he goes because they send down and get him whenever 
+there's any of them dies.  They think a lot of
+Christian burial on the Mountain--but I never heard of 
+their having the minister up to marry them.  And they 
+never trouble the Justice of the Peace either.  They 
+just herd together like the heathen."
+
+He went on, explaining in somewhat technical language 
+how the little colony of squatters had contrived to
+keep the law at bay, and Charity, with burning 
+eagerness, awaited young Harney's comment; but the 
+young man seemed more concerned to hear Mr. Royall's 
+views than to express his own.
+
+"I suppose you've never been up there yourself?" he 
+presently asked.
+
+"Yes, I have," said Mr. Royall with a contemptuous 
+laugh.  "The wiseacres down here told me I'd be done 
+for before I got back; but nobody lifted a finger to 
+hurt me.  And I'd just had one of their gang sent up 
+for seven years too."
+
+"You went up after that?"
+
+"Yes, sir:  right after it.  The fellow came down to 
+Nettleton and ran amuck, the way they sometimes do.  
+After they've done a wood-cutting job they come down 
+and blow the money in; and this man ended up with 
+manslaughter.  I got him convicted, though they were
+scared of the Mountain even at Nettleton; and then a 
+queer thing happened.  The fellow sent for me to go and 
+see him in gaol.  I went, and this is what he says:  
+'The fool that defended me is a chicken-livered son of 
+a--and all the rest of it,' he says.  'I've got a job 
+to be done for me up on the Mountain, and you're the 
+only man I seen in court that looks as if he'd do it.' 
+He told me he had a child up there--or thought he had--
+a little girl; and he wanted her brought down and 
+reared like a Christian.  I was sorry for the fellow, 
+so I went up and got the child."  He paused, and Charity 
+listened with a throbbing heart.  "That's the only time 
+I ever went up the Mountain," he concluded.
+
+There was a moment's silence; then Harney spoke.  "And 
+the child--had she no mother?"
+
+"Oh, yes:  there was a mother.  But she was glad enough 
+to have her go.  She'd have given her to anybody.  They 
+ain't half human up there.  I guess the mother's dead 
+by now, with the life she was leading.  Anyhow, I've
+never heard of her from that day to this."
+
+"My God, how ghastly," Harney murmured; and Charity, 
+choking with humiliation, sprang to her feet and ran 
+upstairs.  She knew at last:  knew that she was the 
+child of a drunken convict and of a mother who wasn't 
+"half human," and was glad to have her go; and she had 
+heard this history of her origin related to the one 
+being in whose eyes she longed to appear superior to 
+the people about her! She had noticed that Mr. Royall 
+had not named her, had even avoided any allusion that 
+might identify her with the child he had brought down 
+from the Mountain; and she knew it was out of regard 
+for her that he had kept silent.  But of what use was 
+his discretion, since only that afternoon, misled by 
+Harney's interest in the out-law colony, she had 
+boasted to him of coming from the Mountain?  Now every 
+word that had been spoken showed her how such an origin 
+must widen the distance between them.
+
+During his ten days' sojourn at North Dormer Lucius
+Harney had not spoken a word of love to her.  He had 
+intervened in her behalf with his cousin, and had 
+convinced Miss Hatchard of her merits as a librarian; 
+but that was a simple act of justice, since it was by 
+his own fault that those merits had been questioned.  He 
+had asked her to drive him about the country when he
+hired lawyer Royall's buggy to go on his sketching 
+expeditions; but that too was natural enough, since he 
+was unfamiliar with the region.  Lastly, when his 
+cousin was called to Springfield, he had begged Mr. 
+Royall to receive him as a boarder; but where else in 
+North Dormer could he have boarded?  Not with Carrick 
+Fry, whose wife was paralysed, and whose large family 
+crowded his table to over-flowing; not with the 
+Targatts, who lived a mile up the road, nor with poor 
+old Mrs. Hawes, who, since her eldest daughter had
+deserted her, barely had the strength to cook her own 
+meals while Ally picked up her living as a seamstress.  
+Mr. Royall's was the only house where the young man 
+could have been offered a decent hospitality.  There 
+had been nothing, therefore, in the outward course of
+events to raise in Charity's breast the hopes with 
+which it trembled.  But beneath the visible incidents 
+resulting from Lucius Harney's arrival there ran an 
+undercurrent as mysterious and potent as the influence 
+that makes the forest break into leaf before the ice is 
+off the pools.
+
+The business on which Harney had come was authentic; 
+Charity had seen the letter from a New York publisher 
+commissioning him to make a study of the eighteenth 
+century houses in the less familiar districts of New 
+England.  But incomprehensible as the whole affair was 
+to her, and hard as she found it to understand why he 
+paused enchanted before certain neglected and paintless 
+houses, while others, refurbished and "improved" by the 
+local builder, did not arrest a glance, she could not 
+but suspect that Eagle County was less rich in 
+architecture than he averred, and that the duration of 
+his stay (which he had fixed at a month) was not 
+unconnected with the look in his eyes when he had first 
+paused before her in the library.  Everything that had
+followed seemed to have grown out of that look:  his way 
+of speaking to her, his quickness in catching her 
+meaning, his evident eagerness to prolong their 
+excursions and to seize on every chance of being with 
+her.
+
+The signs of his liking were manifest enough; but it 
+was hard to guess how much they meant, because his 
+manner was so different from anything North Dormer had 
+ever shown her.  He was at once simpler and more 
+deferential than any one she had known; and sometimes 
+it was just when he was simplest that she most felt the 
+distance between them.  Education and opportunity had 
+divided them by a width that no effort of hers could 
+bridge, and even when his youth and his admiration 
+brought him nearest, some chance word, some unconscious 
+allusion, seemed to thrust her back across the gulf.
+
+Never had it yawned so wide as when she fled up to her 
+room carrying with her the echo of Mr. Royall's tale.  
+Her first confused thought was the prayer that she
+might never see young Harney again.  It was too 
+bitter to picture him as the detached impartial 
+listener to such a story.  "I wish he'd go away:  I 
+wish he'd go tomorrow, and never come back!" she moaned 
+to her pillow; and far into the night she lay there, in 
+the disordered dress she had forgotten to take off, her 
+whole soul a tossing misery on which her hopes and 
+dreams spun about like drowning straws.
+
+
+
+Of all this tumult only a vague heart-soreness was left 
+when she opened her eyes the next morning.  Her first 
+thought was of the weather, for Harney had asked her to 
+take him to the brown house under Porcupine, and then 
+around by Hamblin; and as the trip was a long one they 
+were to start at nine.  The sun rose without a cloud, 
+and earlier than usual she was in the kitchen, making 
+cheese sandwiches, decanting buttermilk into a bottle, 
+wrapping up slices of apple pie, and accusing Verena of 
+having given away a basket she needed, which had always
+hung on a hook in the passage.  When she came out into 
+the porch, in her pink calico, which had run a little 
+in the washing, but was still bright enough to set off 
+her dark tints, she had such a triumphant sense of 
+being a part of the sunlight and the morning that 
+the last trace of her misery vanished.  What did it 
+matter where she came from, or whose child she was, 
+when love was dancing in her veins, and down the road 
+she saw young Harney coming toward her?
+
+Mr. Royall was in the porch too.  He had said nothing 
+at breakfast, but when she came out in her pink dress, 
+the basket in her hand, he looked at her with surprise.  
+"Where you going to?" he asked.
+
+"Why--Mr. Harney's starting earlier than usual today," 
+she answered.
+
+"Mr. Harney, Mr. Harney?  Ain't Mr. Harney learned how 
+to drive a horse yet?"
+
+She made no answer, and he sat tilted back in his 
+chair, drumming on the rail of the porch.  It was the 
+first time he had ever spoken of the young man in that 
+tone, and Charity felt a faint chill of apprehension.  
+After a moment he stood up and walked away toward the 
+bit of ground behind the house, where the hired man was 
+hoeing.
+
+The air was cool and clear, with the autumnal sparkle 
+that a north wind brings to the hills in early summer, 
+and the night had been so still that the dew hung on 
+everything, not as a lingering moisture, but in 
+separate beads that glittered like diamonds on the 
+ferns and grasses.  It was a long drive to the foot of 
+Porcupine:  first across the valley, with blue hills 
+bounding the open slopes; then down into the beech-
+woods, following the course of the Creston, a brown 
+brook leaping over velvet ledges; then out again onto 
+the farm-lands about Creston Lake, and gradually up the 
+ridges of the Eagle Range.  At last they reached the 
+yoke of the hills, and before them opened another
+valley, green and wild, and beyond it more blue heights 
+eddying away to the sky like the waves of a receding 
+tide.
+
+Harney tied the horse to a tree-stump, and they 
+unpacked their basket under an aged walnut with a riven 
+trunk out of which bumblebees darted.  The sun had 
+grown hot, and behind them was the noonday murmur of 
+the forest.  Summer insects danced on the air, and a 
+flock of white butterflies fanned the mobile tips of 
+the crimson fireweed.  In the valley below not a house 
+was visible; it seemed as if Charity Royall and young 
+Harney were the only living beings in the great hollow 
+of earth and sky.
+
+Charity's spirits flagged and disquieting thoughts 
+stole back on her.  Young Harney had grown silent, 
+and as he lay beside her, his arms under his head, his 
+eyes on the network of leaves above him, she wondered 
+if he were musing on what Mr. Royall had told him, and 
+if it had really debased her in his thoughts.  She 
+wished he had not asked her to take him that day to the 
+brown house; she did not want him to see the people she 
+came from while the story of her birth was fresh in his 
+mind.  More than once she had been on the point of 
+suggesting that they should follow the ridge and drive 
+straight to Hamblin, where there was a little deserted 
+house he wanted to see; but shyness and pride held her 
+back.  "He'd better know what kind of folks I belong 
+to," she said to herself, with a somewhat forced 
+defiance; for in reality it was shame that kept her 
+silent.
+
+Suddenly she lifted her hand and pointed to the sky.  
+"There's a storm coming up."
+
+He followed her glance and smiled.  "Is it that scrap 
+of cloud among the pines that frightens you?"
+
+"It's over the Mountain; and a cloud over the Mountain 
+always means trouble."
+
+"Oh, I don't believe half the bad things you all 
+say of the Mountain! But anyhow, we'll get down to 
+the brown house before the rain comes."
+
+He was not far wrong, for only a few isolated drops had 
+fallen when they turned into the road under the shaggy 
+flank of Porcupine, and came upon the brown house.  It 
+stood alone beside a swamp bordered with alder thickets 
+and tall bulrushes.  Not another dwelling was in sight, 
+and it was hard to guess what motive could have 
+actuated the early settler who had made his home in so 
+unfriendly a spot.
+
+Charity had picked up enough of her companion's 
+erudition to understand what had attracted him to the 
+house.  She noticed the fan-shaped tracery of the 
+broken light above the door, the flutings of the 
+paintless pilasters at the corners, and the round 
+window set in the gable; and she knew that, for reasons 
+that still escaped her, these were things to be admired 
+and recorded.  Still, they had seen other houses far 
+more "typical" (the word was Harney's); and as he threw 
+the reins on the horse's neck he said with a slight 
+shiver of repugnance:  "We won't stay long."
+
+Against the restless alders turning their white lining 
+to the storm the house looked singularly desolate.  
+The paint was almost gone from the clap-boards, the 
+window-panes were broken and patched with rags, and the 
+garden was a poisonous tangle of nettles, burdocks and 
+tall swamp-weeds over which big blue-bottles hummed.
+
+At the sound of wheels a child with a tow-head and pale 
+eyes like Liff Hyatt's peered over the fence and then 
+slipped away behind an out-house.  Harney jumped down 
+and helped Charity out; and as he did so the rain broke 
+on them.  It came slant-wise, on a furious gale, laying 
+shrubs and young trees flat, tearing off their leaves 
+like an autumn storm, turning the road into a river, 
+and making hissing pools of every hollow.  Thunder 
+rolled incessantly through the roar of the rain, and a 
+strange glitter of light ran along the ground under the 
+increasing blackness.
+
+"Lucky we're here after all," Harney laughed.  He 
+fastened the horse under a half-roofless shed, and 
+wrapping Charity in his coat ran with her to the house.  
+The boy had not reappeared, and as there was no 
+response to their knocks Harney turned the door-handle 
+and they went in.
+
+There were three people in the kitchen to which the 
+door admitted them.  An old woman with a 
+handkerchief over her head was sitting by the 
+window.  She held a sickly-looking kitten on her knees, 
+and whenever it jumped down and tried to limp away she 
+stooped and lifted it back without any change of her 
+aged, unnoticing face.  Another woman, the unkempt 
+creature that Charity had once noticed in driving by, 
+stood leaning against the window-frame and stared at 
+them; and near the stove an unshaved man in a tattered 
+shirt sat on a barrel asleep.
+
+The place was bare and miserable and the air heavy with 
+the smell of dirt and stale tobacco.  Charity's heart 
+sank.  Old derided tales of the Mountain people came 
+back to her, and the woman's stare was so 
+disconcerting, and the face of the sleeping man so 
+sodden and bestial, that her disgust was tinged with a 
+vague dread.  She was not afraid for herself; she knew 
+the Hyatts would not be likely to trouble her; but she 
+was not sure how they would treat a "city fellow."
+
+Lucius Harney would certainly have laughed at her 
+fears.  He glanced about the room, uttered a general 
+"How are you?" to which no one responded, and then 
+asked the younger woman if they might take shelter till 
+the storm was over.
+
+She turned her eyes away from him and looked at 
+Charity.
+
+"You're the girl from Royall's, ain't you?"
+
+The colour rose in Charity's face.  "I'm Charity 
+Royall," she said, as if asserting her right to the 
+name in the very place where it might have been most 
+open to question.
+
+The woman did not seem to notice.  "You kin stay," she 
+merely said; then she turned away and stooped over a 
+dish in which she was stirring something.
+
+Harney and Charity sat down on a bench made of a board 
+resting on two starch boxes.  They faced a door hanging 
+on a broken hinge, and through the crack they saw the 
+eyes of the tow-headed boy and of a pale little girl 
+with a scar across her cheek.  Charity smiled, and 
+signed to the children to come in; but as soon as they 
+saw they were discovered they slipped away on bare 
+feet.  It occurred to her that they were afraid of 
+rousing the sleeping man; and probably the woman shared 
+their fear, for she moved about as noiselessly and 
+avoided going near the stove.
+
+The rain continued to beat against the house, and in 
+one or two places it sent a stream through the 
+patched panes and ran into pools on the floor.  
+Every now and then the kitten mewed and struggled down, 
+and the old woman stooped and caught it, holding it 
+tight in her bony hands; and once or twice the man on 
+the barrel half woke, changed his position and dozed 
+again, his head falling forward on his hairy breast.  As 
+the minutes passed, and the rain still streamed against 
+the windows, a loathing of the place and the people 
+came over Charity.  The sight of the weak-minded old 
+woman, of the cowed children, and the ragged man 
+sleeping off his liquor, made the setting of her own 
+life seem a vision of peace and plenty.  She thought of 
+the kitchen at Mr. Royall's, with its scrubbed floor 
+and dresser full of china, and the peculiar smell of 
+yeast and coffee and soft-soap that she had always 
+hated, but that now seemed the very symbol of household 
+order.  She saw Mr. Royall's room, with the high-backed 
+horsehair chair, the faded rag carpet, the row of books 
+on a shelf, the engraving of "The Surrender of 
+Burgoyne" over the stove, and the mat with a brown and 
+white spaniel on a moss-green border.  And then her 
+mind travelled to Miss Hatchard's house, where all was 
+freshness, purity and fragrance, and compared to which 
+the red house had always seemed so poor and plain.  
+
+"This is where I belong--this is where I belong," she 
+kept repeating to herself; but the words had no meaning 
+for her.  Every instinct and habit made her a stranger 
+among these poor swamp-people living like vermin in 
+their lair.  With all her soul she wished she had not 
+yielded to Harney's curiosity, and brought him there.
+
+The rain had drenched her, and she began to shiver 
+under the thin folds of her dress.  The younger woman 
+must have noticed it, for she went out of the room and 
+came back with a broken tea-cup which she offered to 
+Charity.  It was half full of whiskey, and Charity 
+shook her head; but Harney took the cup and put his 
+lips to it.  When he had set it down Charity saw him 
+feel in his pocket and draw out a dollar; he hesitated 
+a moment, and then put it back, and she guessed that he 
+did not wish her to see him offering money to people 
+she had spoken of as being her kin.
+
+The sleeping man stirred, lifted his head and opened 
+his eyes.  They rested vacantly for a moment on Charity 
+and Harney, and then closed again, and his head 
+drooped; but a look of anxiety came into the woman's 
+face.  She glanced out of the window and then came 
+up to Harney.  "I guess you better go along now," she 
+said.  The young man understood and got to his feet.  
+"Thank you," he said, holding out his hand.  She seemed 
+not to notice the gesture, and turned away as they 
+opened the door.
+
+The rain was still coming down, but they hardly noticed 
+it:  the pure air was like balm in their faces.  The 
+clouds were rising and breaking, and between their 
+edges the light streamed down from remote blue hollows.  
+Harney untied the horse, and they drove off through the 
+diminishing rain, which was already beaded with 
+sunlight.
+
+For a while Charity was silent, and her companion did 
+not speak.  She looked timidly at his profile:  it was 
+graver than usual, as though he too were oppressed by 
+what they had seen.  Then she broke out abruptly:  
+"Those people back there are the kind of folks I come 
+from.  They may be my relations, for all I know."  She 
+did not want him to think that she regretted having 
+told him her story.
+
+"Poor creatures," he rejoined.  "I wonder why they came 
+down to that fever-hole."
+
+She laughed ironically.  "To better themselves! It's 
+worse up on the Mountain.  Bash Hyatt married the 
+daughter of the farmer that used to own the brown 
+house.  That was him by the stove, I suppose."
+
+Harney seemed to find nothing to say and she went on:  
+"I saw you take out a dollar to give to that poor 
+woman.  Why did you put it back?"
+
+He reddened, and leaned forward to flick a swamp-fly 
+from the horse's neck.  "I wasn't sure----"
+
+"Was it because you knew they were my folks, and 
+thought I'd be ashamed to see you give them money?"
+
+He turned to her with eyes full of reproach.  "Oh, 
+Charity----" It was the first time he had ever called 
+her by her name.  Her misery welled over.
+
+"I ain't--I ain't ashamed.  They're my people, and I 
+ain't ashamed of them," she sobbed.
+
+"My dear..."  he murmured, putting his arm about her; 
+and she leaned against him and wept out her pain.
+
+It was too late to go around to Hamblin, and all the 
+stars were out in a clear sky when they reached the 
+North Dormer valley and drove up to the red house.
+
+
+
+VII
+
+
+SINCE her reinstatement in Miss Hatchard's favour 
+Charity had not dared to curtail by a moment her hours 
+of attendance at the library.  She even made a point of 
+arriving before the time, and showed a laudable 
+indignation when the youngest Targatt girl, who had 
+been engaged to help in the cleaning and rearranging of 
+the books, came trailing in late and neglected her task 
+to peer through the window at the Sollas boy.  
+Nevertheless, "library days" seemed more than ever 
+irksome to Charity after her vivid hours of liberty; 
+and she would have found it hard to set a good example 
+to her subordinate if Lucius Harney had not been 
+commissioned, before Miss Hatchard's departure, to 
+examine with the local carpenter the best means of 
+ventilating the "Memorial."
+
+He was careful to prosecute this inquiry on the days 
+when the library was open to the public; and Charity 
+was therefore sure of spending part of the afternoon in 
+his company.  The Targatt girl's presence, and the 
+risk of being interrupted by some passer-by suddenly 
+smitten with a thirst for letters, restricted their 
+intercourse to the exchange of commonplaces; but there 
+was a fascination to Charity in the contrast between 
+these public civilities and their secret intimacy.
+
+The day after their drive to the brown house was 
+"library day," and she sat at her desk working at the 
+revised catalogue, while the Targatt girl, one eye on 
+the window, chanted out the titles of a pile of books.  
+Charity's thoughts were far away, in the dismal house 
+by the swamp, and under the twilight sky during the 
+long drive home, when Lucius Harney had consoled her 
+with endearing words.  That day, for the first time 
+since he had been boarding with them, he had failed to 
+appear as usual at the midday meal.  No message had 
+come to explain his absence, and Mr. Royall, who was 
+more than usually taciturn, had betrayed no surprise, 
+and made no comment.  In itself this indifference was 
+not particularly significant, for Mr. Royall, in common 
+with most of his fellow-citizens, had a way of 
+accepting events passively, as if he had long since 
+come to the conclusion that no one who lived in North 
+Dormer could hope to modify them.  But to Charity, 
+in the reaction from her mood of passionate exaltation, 
+there was something disquieting in his silence.  It was 
+almost as if Lucius Harney had never had a part in 
+their lives:  Mr. Royall's imperturbable indifference 
+seemed to relegate him to the domain of unreality.
+
+As she sat at work, she tried to shake off her 
+disappointment at Harney's non-appearing.  Some 
+trifling incident had probably kept him from joining 
+them at midday; but she was sure he must be eager to 
+see her again, and that he would not want to wait till 
+they met at supper, between Mr. Royall and Verena.  She 
+was wondering what his first words would be, and trying 
+to devise a way of getting rid of the Targatt girl 
+before he came, when she heard steps outside, and he 
+walked up the path with Mr. Miles.
+
+The clergyman from Hepburn seldom came to North Dormer 
+except when he drove over to officiate at the old white 
+church which, by an unusual chance, happened to belong 
+to the Episcopal communion.  He was a brisk affable 
+man, eager to make the most of the fact that a little 
+nucleus of "church-people" had survived in the 
+sectarian wilderness, and resolved to undermine the 
+influence of the ginger-bread-coloured Baptist 
+chapel at the other end of the village; but he was kept 
+busy by parochial work at Hepburn, where there were 
+paper-mills and saloons, and it was not often that he 
+could spare time for North Dormer.
+
+Charity, who went to the white church (like all the 
+best people in North Dormer), admired Mr. Miles, and 
+had even, during the memorable trip to Nettleton, 
+imagined herself married to a man who had such a 
+straight nose and such a beautiful way of speaking, and 
+who lived in a brown-stone rectory covered with 
+Virginia creeper.  It had been a shock to discover that 
+the privilege was already enjoyed by a lady with 
+crimped hair and a large baby; but the arrival of 
+Lucius Harney had long since banished Mr. Miles from 
+Charity's dreams, and as he walked up the path at 
+Harney's side she saw him as he really was:  a fat 
+middle-aged man with a baldness showing under his 
+clerical hat, and spectacles on his Grecian nose.  She 
+wondered what had called him to North Dormer on a 
+weekday, and felt a little hurt that Harney should have 
+brought him to the library.
+
+It presently appeared that his presence there was due 
+to Miss Hatchard.  He had been spending a few days 
+at Springfield, to fill a friend's pulpit, and had been 
+consulted by Miss Hatchard as to young Harney's plan 
+for ventilating the "Memorial."  To lay hands on the 
+Hatchard ark was a grave matter, and Miss Hatchard, 
+always full of scruples about her scruples (it was 
+Harney's phrase), wished to have Mr. Miles's opinion 
+before deciding.
+
+"I couldn't," Mr. Miles explained, "quite make out from 
+your cousin what changes you wanted to make, and as the 
+other trustees did not understand either I thought I 
+had better drive over and take a look--though I'm 
+sure," he added, turning his friendly spectacles on the 
+young man, "that no one could be more competent--but of 
+course this spot has its peculiar sanctity!"
+
+"I hope a little fresh air won't desecrate it," Harney 
+laughingly rejoined; and they walked to the other end 
+of the library while he set forth his idea to the 
+Rector.
+
+Mr. Miles had greeted the two girls with his usual 
+friendliness, but Charity saw that he was occupied with 
+other things, and she presently became aware, by the 
+scraps of conversation drifting over to her, that he 
+was still under the charm of his visit to 
+Springfield, which appeared to have been full of 
+agreeable incidents.
+
+"Ah, the Coopersons...yes, you know them, of course," 
+she heard.  "That's a fine old house! And Ned Cooperson 
+has collected some really remarkable impressionist 
+pictures...."  The names he cited were unknown to 
+Charity.  "Yes; yes; the Schaefer quartette played at 
+Lyric Hall on Saturday evening; and on Monday I had the 
+privilege of hearing them again at the Towers.  
+Beautifully done...Bach and Beethoven...a lawn-party 
+first...I saw Miss Balch several times, by the 
+way...looking extremely handsome...."
+
+Charity dropped her pencil and forgot to listen to the 
+Targatt girl's sing-song.  Why had Mr. Miles suddenly 
+brought up Annabel Balch's name?
+
+"Oh, really?" she heard Harney rejoin; and, raising his 
+stick, he pursued:  "You see, my plan is to move these 
+shelves away, and open a round window in this wall, on 
+the axis of the one under the pediment."
+
+"I suppose she'll be coming up here later to stay with 
+Miss Hatchard?" Mr. Miles went on, following on his 
+train of thought; then, spinning about and tilting his 
+head back:  "Yes, yes, I see--I understand:  that 
+will give a draught without materially altering the 
+look of things.  I can see no objection."
+
+The discussion went on for some minutes, and gradually 
+the two men moved back toward the desk.  Mr. Miles 
+stopped again and looked thoughtfully at Charity.  
+"Aren't you a little pale, my dear?  Not overworking?  
+Mr. Harney tells me you and Mamie are giving the 
+library a thorough overhauling."  He was always careful 
+to remember his parishioners' Christian names, and at 
+the right moment he bent his benignant spectacles on 
+the Targatt girl.
+
+Then he turned to Charity.  "Don't take things hard, my 
+dear; don't take things hard.  Come down and see Mrs. 
+Miles and me some day at Hepburn," he said, pressing 
+her hand and waving a farewell to Mamie Targatt.  He 
+went out of the library, and Harney followed him.
+
+Charity thought she detected a look of constraint in 
+Harney's eyes.  She fancied he did not want to be alone 
+with her; and with a sudden pang she wondered if he 
+repented the tender things he had said to her the night 
+before.  His words had been more fraternal than lover-
+like; but she had lost their exact sense in the 
+caressing warmth of his voice.  He had made her feel 
+that the fact of her being a waif from the Mountain was 
+only another reason for holding her close and soothing 
+her with consolatory murmurs; and when the drive was 
+over, and she got out of the buggy, tired, cold, and 
+aching with emotion, she stepped as if the ground were 
+a sunlit wave and she the spray on its crest.
+
+Why, then, had his manner suddenly changed, and why did 
+he leave the library with Mr. Miles?  Her restless 
+imagination fastened on the name of Annabel Balch:  from 
+the moment it had been mentioned she fancied that 
+Harney's expression had altered.  Annabel Balch at a 
+garden-party at Springfield, looking "extremely 
+handsome"...perhaps Mr. Miles had seen her there at the 
+very moment when Charity and Harney were sitting in the 
+Hyatts' hovel, between a drunkard and a half-witted old 
+woman! Charity did not know exactly what a garden-party 
+was, but her glimpse of the flower-edged lawns of 
+Nettleton helped her to visualize the scene, and 
+envious recollections of the "old things" which Miss 
+Balch avowedly "wore out" when she came to North Dormer 
+made it only too easy to picture her in her splendour.  
+Charity understood what associations the name must 
+have called up, and felt the uselessness of struggling 
+against the unseen influences in Harney's life.
+
+When she came down from her room for supper he was not 
+there; and while she waited in the porch she recalled 
+the tone in which Mr. Royall had commented the day 
+before on their early start.  Mr. Royall sat at her 
+side, his chair tilted back, his broad black boots with 
+side-elastics resting against the lower bar of the 
+railings.  His rumpled grey hair stood up above his 
+forehead like the crest of an angry bird, and the 
+leather-brown of his veined cheeks was blotched with 
+red.  Charity knew that those red spots were the signs 
+of a coming explosion.
+
+Suddenly he said:  "Where's supper?  Has Verena Marsh 
+slipped up again on her soda-biscuits?"
+
+Charity threw a startled glance at him.  "I presume 
+she's waiting for Mr. Harney."
+
+"Mr. Harney, is she?  She'd better dish up, then.  He 
+ain't coming."  He stood up, walked to the door, and 
+called out, in the pitch necessary to penetrate the old 
+woman's tympanum:  "Get along with the supper, Verena."
+
+Charity was trembling with apprehension.  Something 
+had happened--she was sure of it now--and Mr. Royall 
+knew what it was.  But not for the world would she have 
+gratified him by showing her anxiety.  She took her 
+usual place, and he seated himself opposite, and poured 
+out a strong cup of tea before passing her the tea-pot.  
+Verena brought some scrambled eggs, and he piled his 
+plate with them.  "Ain't you going to take any?" he 
+asked.  Charity roused herself and began to eat.
+
+The tone with which Mr. Royall had said "He's not 
+coming" seemed to her full of an ominous satisfaction.  
+She saw that he had suddenly begun to hate Lucius 
+Harney, and guessed herself to be the cause of this 
+change of feeling.  But she had no means of finding out 
+whether some act of hostility on his part had made the 
+young man stay away, or whether he simply wished to 
+avoid seeing her again after their drive back from the 
+brown house.  She ate her supper with a studied show of 
+indifference, but she knew that Mr. Royall was watching 
+her and that her agitation did not escape him.
+
+After supper she went up to her room.  She heard Mr. 
+Royall cross the passage, and presently the sounds 
+below her window showed that he had returned to the 
+porch.  She seated herself on her bed and began to 
+struggle against the desire to go down and ask him what 
+had happened.  "I'd rather die than do it," she 
+muttered to herself.  With a word he could have 
+relieved her uncertainty:  but never would she gratify 
+him by saying it.
+
+She rose and leaned out of the window.  The twilight 
+had deepened into night, and she watched the frail 
+curve of the young moon dropping to the edge of the 
+hills.  Through the darkness she saw one or two figures 
+moving down the road; but the evening was too cold for 
+loitering, and presently the strollers disappeared.  
+Lamps were beginning to show here and there in the 
+windows.  A bar of light brought out the whiteness of a 
+clump of lilies in the Hawes's yard:  and farther down 
+the street Carrick Fry's Rochester lamp cast its bold 
+illumination on the rustic flower-tub in the middle of 
+his grass-plot.
+
+For a long time she continued to lean in the window.  
+But a fever of unrest consumed her, and finally she 
+went downstairs, took her hat from its hook, and swung 
+out of the house.  Mr. Royall sat in the porch, Verena 
+beside him, her old hands crossed on her patched skirt.  
+As Charity went down the steps Mr. Royall called after 
+her:  "Where you going?" She could easily have 
+answered:  "To Orma's," or "Down to the Targatts'"; and 
+either answer might have been true, for she had no 
+purpose.  But she swept on in silence, determined not 
+to recognize his right to question her.
+
+At the gate she paused and looked up and down the road.  
+The darkness drew her, and she thought of climbing the 
+hill and plunging into the depths of the larch-wood 
+above the pasture.  Then she glanced irresolutely along 
+the street, and as she did so a gleam appeared through 
+the spruces at Miss Hatchard's gate.  Lucius Harney was 
+there, then--he had not gone down to Hepburn with Mr. 
+Miles, as she had at first imagined.  But where had he 
+taken his evening meal, and what had caused him to stay 
+away from Mr. Royall's?  The light was positive proof of 
+his presence, for Miss Hatchard's servants were away on 
+a holiday, and her farmer's wife came only in the 
+mornings, to make the young man's bed and prepare his 
+coffee.  Beside that lamp he was doubtless sitting at 
+this moment.  To know the truth Charity had only to 
+walk half the length of the village, and knock at the 
+lighted window.  She hesitated a minute or two longer, 
+and then turned toward Miss Hatchard's.
+
+She walked quickly, straining her eyes to detect 
+anyone who might be coming along the street; and before 
+reaching the Frys' she crossed over to avoid the light 
+from their window.  Whenever she was unhappy she felt 
+herself at bay against a pitiless world, and a kind of 
+animal secretiveness possessed her.  But the street was 
+empty, and she passed unnoticed through the gate and up 
+the path to the house.  Its white front glimmered 
+indistinctly through the trees, showing only one oblong 
+of light on the lower floor.  She had supposed that the 
+lamp was in Miss Hatchard's sitting-room; but she now 
+saw that it shone through a window at the farther 
+corner of the house.  She did not know the room to 
+which this window belonged, and she paused under the 
+trees, checked by a sense of strangeness.  Then she 
+moved on, treading softly on the short grass, and 
+keeping so close to the house that whoever was in the 
+room, even if roused by her approach, would not be able 
+to see her.
+
+The window opened on a narrow verandah with a trellised 
+arch.  She leaned close to the trellis, and parting the 
+sprays of clematis that covered it looked into a corner 
+of the room.  She saw the foot of a mahogany bed, an 
+engraving on the wall, a wash-stand on which a 
+towel had been tossed, and one end of the green-covered 
+table which held the lamp.  Half of the lampshade 
+projected into her field of vision, and just under it 
+two smooth sunburnt hands, one holding a pencil and the 
+other a ruler, were moving to and fro over a drawing-
+board.
+
+Her heart jumped and then stood still.  He was there, a 
+few feet away; and while her soul was tossing on seas 
+of woe he had been quietly sitting at his drawing-
+board.  The sight of those two hands, moving with their 
+usual skill and precision, woke her out of her dream.  
+Her eyes were opened to the disproportion between what 
+she had felt and the cause of her agitation; and she 
+was turning away from the window when one hand abruptly 
+pushed aside the drawing-board and the other flung down 
+the pencil.
+
+Charity had often noticed Harney's loving care of his 
+drawings, and the neatness and method with which he 
+carried on and concluded each task.  The impatient 
+sweeping aside of the drawing-board seemed to reveal a 
+new mood.  The gesture suggested sudden discouragement, 
+or distaste for his work and she wondered if he too 
+were agitated by secret perplexities.  Her impulse of 
+flight was checked; she stepped up on the verandah 
+and looked into the room.
+
+Harney had put his elbows on the table and was resting 
+his chin on his locked hands.  He had taken off his 
+coat and waistcoat, and unbuttoned the low collar of 
+his flannel shirt; she saw the vigorous lines of his 
+young throat, and the root of the muscles where they 
+joined the chest.  He sat staring straight ahead of 
+him, a look of weariness and self-disgust on his face:  
+it was almost as if he had been gazing at a distorted 
+reflection of his own features.  For a moment Charity 
+looked at him with a kind of terror, as if he had been 
+a stranger under familiar lineaments; then she glanced 
+past him and saw on the floor an open portmanteau half 
+full of clothes.  She understood that he was preparing 
+to leave, and that he had probably decided to go 
+without seeing her.  She saw that the decision, from 
+whatever cause it was taken, had disturbed him deeply; 
+and she immediately concluded that his change of plan 
+was due to some surreptitious interference of Mr. 
+Royall's.  All her old resentments and rebellions flamed 
+up, confusedly mingled with the yearning roused by 
+Harney's nearness.  Only a few hours earlier she had 
+felt secure in his comprehending pity; now she was 
+flung back on herself, doubly alone after that moment 
+of communion.
+
+Harney was still unaware of her presence.  He sat 
+without moving, moodily staring before him at the same 
+spot in the wall-paper.  He had not even had the energy 
+to finish his packing, and his clothes and papers lay 
+on the floor about the portmanteau.  Presently he 
+unlocked his clasped hands and stood up; and Charity, 
+drawing back hastily, sank down on the step of the 
+verandah.  The night was so dark that there was not 
+much chance of his seeing her unless he opened the 
+window and before that she would have time to slip away 
+and be lost in the shadow of the trees.  He stood for a 
+minute or two looking around the room with the same 
+expression of self-disgust, as if he hated himself and 
+everything about him; then he sat down again at the 
+table, drew a few more strokes, and threw his pencil 
+aside.  Finally he walked across the floor, kicking the 
+portmanteau out of his way, and lay down on the bed, 
+folding his arms under his head, and staring up 
+morosely at the ceiling.  Just so, Charity had seen him 
+at her side on the grass or the pine-needles, his eyes 
+fixed on the sky, and pleasure flashing over his face 
+like the flickers of sun the branches shed on it.  
+But now the face was so changed that she hardly knew 
+it; and grief at his grief gathered in her throat, rose 
+to her eyes and ran over.
+
+She continued to crouch on the steps, holding her 
+breath and stiffening herself into complete immobility.  
+One motion of her hand, one tap on the pane, and she 
+could picture the sudden change in his face.  In every 
+pulse of her rigid body she was aware of the welcome 
+his eyes and lips would give her; but something kept 
+her from moving.  It was not the fear of any sanction, 
+human or heavenly; she had never in her life been 
+afraid.  It was simply that she had suddenly understood 
+what would happen if she went in.  It was the thing 
+that did happen between young men and girls, and that 
+North Dormer ignored in public and snickered over on 
+the sly.  It was what Miss Hatchard was still ignorant 
+of, but every girl of Charity's class knew about before 
+she left school.  It was what had happened to Ally 
+Hawes's sister Julia, and had ended in her going to 
+Nettleton, and in people's never mentioning her name.
+
+It did not, of course, always end so sensationally; 
+nor, perhaps, on the whole, so untragically.  Charity 
+had always suspected that the shunned Julia's fate 
+might have its compensations.  There were others, worse 
+endings that the village knew of, mean, miserable, 
+unconfessed; other lives that went on drearily, without 
+visible change, in the same cramped setting of 
+hypocrisy.  But these were not the reasons that held 
+her back.  Since the day before, she had known exactly 
+what she would feel if Harney should take her in his 
+arms:  the melting of palm into palm and mouth on mouth, 
+and the long flame burning her from head to foot.  But 
+mixed with this feeling was another:  the wondering 
+pride in his liking for her, the startled softness that 
+his sympathy had put into her heart.  Sometimes, when 
+her youth flushed up in her, she had imagined yielding 
+like other girls to furtive caresses in the twilight; 
+but she could not so cheapen herself to Harney.  She 
+did not know why he was going; but since he was going 
+she felt she must do nothing to deface the image of her 
+that he carried away.  If he wanted her he must seek 
+her:  he must not be surprised into taking her as girls 
+like Julia Hawes were taken....
+
+No sound came from the sleeping village, and in the 
+deep darkness of the garden she heard now and then 
+a secret rustle of branches, as though some night-bird 
+brushed them.  Once a footfall passed the gate, and she 
+shrank back into her corner; but the steps died away 
+and left a profounder quiet.  Her eyes were still on 
+Harney's tormented face:  she felt she could not move 
+till he moved.  But she was beginning to grow numb from 
+her constrained position, and at times her thoughts 
+were so indistinct that she seemed to be held there 
+only by a vague weight of weariness.
+
+A long time passed in this strange vigil.  Harney still 
+lay on the bed, motionless and with fixed eyes, as 
+though following his vision to its bitter end.  At last 
+he stirred and changed his attitude slightly, and 
+Charity's heart began to tremble.  But he only flung 
+out his arms and sank back into his former position.  
+With a deep sigh he tossed the hair from his forehead; 
+then his whole body relaxed, his head turned sideways 
+on the pillow, and she saw that he had fallen asleep.  
+The sweet expression came back to his lips, and the 
+haggardness faded from his face, leaving it as fresh as 
+a boy's.
+
+She rose and crept away.
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+
+SHE had lost the sense of time, and did not know how 
+late it was till she came out into the street and saw 
+that all the windows were dark between Miss Hatchard's 
+and the Royall house.
+
+As she passed from under the black pall of the Norway 
+spruces she fancied she saw two figures in the shade 
+about the duck-pond.  She drew back and watched; but 
+nothing moved, and she had stared so long into the 
+lamp-lit room that the darkness confused her, and she 
+thought she must have been mistaken.
+
+She walked on, wondering whether Mr. Royall was still 
+in the porch.  In her exalted mood she did not greatly 
+care whether he was waiting for her or not:  she seemed 
+to be floating high over life, on a great cloud of 
+misery beneath which every-day realities had dwindled 
+to mere specks in space.  But the porch was empty, Mr. 
+Royall's hat hung on its peg in the passage, and the 
+kitchen lamp had been left to light her to bed.  She 
+took it and went up.
+
+The morning hours of the next day dragged by 
+without incident.  Charity had imagined that, in some 
+way or other, she would learn whether Harney had 
+already left; but Verena's deafness prevented her being 
+a source of news, and no one came to the house who 
+could bring enlightenment.
+
+Mr. Royall went out early, and did not return till 
+Verena had set the table for the midday meal.  When he 
+came in he went straight to the kitchen and shouted to 
+the old woman:  "Ready for dinner----" then he turned 
+into the dining-room, where Charity was already seated.  
+Harney's plate was in its usual place, but Mr. Royall 
+offered no explanation of his absence, and Charity 
+asked none.  The feverish exaltation of the night 
+before had dropped, and she said to herself that he had 
+gone away, indifferently, almost callously, and that 
+now her life would lapse again into the narrow rut out 
+of which he had lifted it.  For a moment she was 
+inclined to sneer at herself for not having used the 
+arts that might have kept him.
+
+She sat at table till the meal was over, lest Mr. 
+Royall should remark on her leaving; but when he stood 
+up she rose also, without waiting to help Verena.  
+She had her foot on the stairs when he called to her to 
+come back.
+
+"I've got a headache.  I'm going up to lie down."
+
+"I want you should come in here first; I've got 
+something to say to you."
+
+She was sure from his tone that in a moment she would 
+learn what every nerve in her ached to know; but as she 
+turned back she made a last effort of indifference.
+
+Mr. Royall stood in the middle of the office, his thick 
+eyebrows beetling, his lower jaw trembling a little.  
+At first she thought he had been drinking; then she saw 
+that he was sober, but stirred by a deep and stern 
+emotion totally unlike his usual transient angers.  And 
+suddenly she understood that, until then, she had never 
+really noticed him or thought about him.  Except on the 
+occasion of his one offense he had been to her merely 
+the person who is always there, the unquestioned 
+central fact of life, as inevitable but as 
+uninteresting as North Dormer itself, or any of the 
+other conditions fate had laid on her.  Even then she 
+had regarded him only in relation to herself, and had 
+never speculated as to his own feelings, beyond 
+instinctively concluding that he would not trouble 
+her again in the same way.  But now she began to wonder 
+what he was really like.
+
+He had grasped the back of his chair with both hands, 
+and stood looking hard at her.  At length he said:  
+"Charity, for once let's you and me talk together like 
+friends."
+
+Instantly she felt that something had happened, and 
+that he held her in his hand.
+
+"Where is Mr. Harney?  Why hasn't he come back?  Have you 
+sent him away?" she broke out, without knowing what she 
+was saying.
+
+The change in Mr. Royall frightened her.  All the blood 
+seemed to leave his veins and against his swarthy 
+pallor the deep lines in his face looked black.
+
+"Didn't he have time to answer some of those questions 
+last night?  You was with him long enough!" he said.
+
+Charity stood speechless.  The taunt was so unrelated 
+to what had been happening in her soul that she hardly 
+understood it.  But the instinct of self-defense awoke 
+in her.
+
+"Who says I was with him last night?"
+
+"The whole place is saying it by now."
+
+"Then it was you that put the lie into their 
+mouths.--Oh, how I've always hated you!" she cried.
+
+She had expected a retort in kind, and it startled her 
+to hear her exclamation sounding on through silence.
+
+"Yes, I know," Mr. Royall said slowly.  "But that ain't 
+going to help us much now."
+
+"It helps me not to care a straw what lies you tell 
+about me!"
+
+"If they're lies, they're not my lies:  my Bible oath on 
+that, Charity.  I didn't know where you were:  I wasn't 
+out of this house last night."
+
+She made no answer and he went on:  "Is it a lie that 
+you were seen coming out of Miss Hatchard's nigh onto 
+midnight?"
+
+She straightened herself with a laugh, all her reckless 
+insolence recovered.  "I didn't look to see what time 
+it was."
+
+"You lost girl...you...you...Oh, my God, why did you 
+tell me?" he broke out, dropping into his chair, his 
+head bowed down like an old man's.
+
+Charity's self-possession had returned with the sense 
+of her danger.  "Do you suppose I'd take the 
+trouble to lie to YOU?  Who are you, anyhow, to 
+ask me where I go to when I go out at night?"
+
+Mr. Royall lifted his head and looked at her.  His face 
+had grown quiet and almost gentle, as she remembered 
+seeing it sometimes when she was a little girl, before 
+Mrs. Royall died.
+
+"Don't let's go on like this, Charity.  It can't do any 
+good to either of us.  You were seen going into that 
+fellow's house...you were seen coming out of it....I've 
+watched this thing coming, and I've tried to stop it.  
+As God sees me, I have...."
+
+"Ah, it WAS you, then?  I knew it was you that sent 
+him away!"
+
+He looked at her in surprise.  "Didn't he tell you so?  
+I thought he understood."  He spoke slowly, with 
+difficult pauses, "I didn't name you to him:  I'd have 
+cut my hand off sooner.  I just told him I couldn't 
+spare the horse any longer; and that the cooking was 
+getting too heavy for Verena.  I guess he's the kind 
+that's heard the same thing before.  Anyhow, he took it 
+quietly enough.  He said his job here was about done, 
+anyhow; and there didn't another word pass between 
+us....If he told you otherwise he told you an untruth."
+
+Charity listened in a cold trance of anger.  It 
+was nothing to her what the village said...but all this 
+fingering of her dreams!
+
+"I've told you he didn't tell me anything.  I didn't 
+speak with him last night."
+
+"You didn't speak with him?"
+
+"No....It's not that I care what any of you say...but 
+you may as well know.  Things ain't between us the way 
+you think...and the other people in this place.  He was 
+kind to me; he was my friend; and all of a sudden he 
+stopped coming, and I knew it was you that done it--
+YOU!" All her unreconciled memory of the past flamed 
+out at him.  "So I went there last night to find out 
+what you'd said to him:  that's all."
+
+Mr. Royall drew a heavy breath.  "But, then--if he 
+wasn't there, what were you doing there all that time?--
+Charity, for pity's sake, tell me.  I've got to know, 
+to stop their talking."
+
+This pathetic abdication of all authority over her did 
+not move her:  she could feel only the outrage of his 
+interference.
+
+"Can't you see that I don't care what anybody says?  
+It's true I went there to see him; and he was in his 
+room, and I stood outside for ever so long and watched 
+him; but I dursn't go in for fear he'd think I'd 
+come after him...."  She felt her voice breaking, and 
+gathered it up in a last defiance.  "As long as I live 
+I'll never forgive you!" she cried.
+
+Mr. Royall made no answer.  He sat and pondered with 
+sunken head, his veined hands clasped about the arms of 
+his chair.  Age seemed to have come down on him as 
+winter comes on the hills after a storm.  At length he 
+looked up.
+
+"Charity, you say you don't care; but you're the 
+proudest girl I know, and the last to want people to 
+talk against you.  You know there's always eyes 
+watching you:  you're handsomer and smarter than the 
+rest, and that's enough.  But till lately you've never 
+given them a chance.  Now they've got it, and they're 
+going to use it.  I believe what you say, but they 
+won't....It was Mrs. Tom Fry seen you going in...and 
+two or three of them watched for you to come out 
+again....You've been with the fellow all day long every 
+day since he come here...and I'm a lawyer, and I know 
+how hard slander dies."  He paused, but she stood 
+motionless, without giving him any sign of acquiescence 
+or even of attention.  "He's a pleasant fellow to talk 
+to--I liked having him here myself.  The young men up 
+here ain't had his chances.  But there's one thing 
+as old as the hills and as plain as daylight:  if he'd 
+wanted you the right way he'd have said so."
+
+Charity did not speak.  It seemed to her that nothing 
+could exceed the bitterness of hearing such words from 
+such lips.
+
+Mr. Royall rose from his seat.  "See here, Charity 
+Royall:  I had a shameful thought once, and you've made 
+me pay for it.  Isn't that score pretty near wiped 
+out?...There's a streak in me I ain't always master of; 
+but I've always acted straight to you but that once.  
+And you've known I would--you've trusted me.  For all 
+your sneers and your mockery you've always known I 
+loved you the way a man loves a decent woman.  I'm a 
+good many years older than you, but I'm head and 
+shoulders above this place and everybody in it, and you 
+know that too.  I slipped up once, but that's no reason 
+for not starting again.  If you'll come with me I'll do 
+it.  If you'll marry me we'll leave here and settle in 
+some big town, where there's men, and business, and 
+things doing.  It's not too late for me to find an 
+opening....I can see it by the way folks treat me when 
+I go down to Hepburn or Nettleton...."
+
+Charity made no movement.  Nothing in his appeal 
+reached her heart, and she thought only of words to 
+wound and wither.  But a growing lassitude restrained 
+her.  What did anything matter that he was saying?  She 
+saw the old life closing in on her, and hardly heeded 
+his fanciful picture of renewal.
+
+"Charity--Charity--say you'll do it," she heard him 
+urge, all his lost years and wasted passion in his 
+voice.
+
+"Oh, what's the use of all this?  When I leave here it 
+won't be with you."
+
+She moved toward the door as she spoke, and he stood up 
+and placed himself between her and the threshold.  He 
+seemed suddenly tall and strong, as though the 
+extremity of his humiliation had given him new vigour.
+
+"That's all, is it?  It's not much."  He leaned against 
+the door, so towering and powerful that he seemed to 
+fill the narrow room.  "Well, then look here....You're 
+right:  I've no claim on you--why should you look at a 
+broken man like me?  You want the other fellow...and I 
+don't blame you.  You picked out the best when you seen 
+it...well, that was always my way."  He fixed his stern 
+eyes on her, and she had the sense that the 
+struggle within him was at its highest.  "Do you want 
+him to marry you?" he asked.
+
+They stood and looked at each other for a long moment, 
+eye to eye, with the terrible equality of courage that 
+sometimes made her feel as if she had his blood in her 
+veins.
+
+"Do you want him to--say?  I'll have him here in an hour 
+if you do.  I ain't been in the law thirty years for 
+nothing.  He's hired Carrick Fry's team to take him to 
+Hepburn, but he ain't going to start for another hour.  
+And I can put things to him so he won't be long 
+deciding....He's soft:  I could see that.  I don't say 
+you won't be sorry afterward--but, by God, I'll give 
+you the chance to be, if you say so."
+
+She heard him out in silence, too remote from all he 
+was feeling and saying for any sally of scorn to 
+relieve her.  As she listened, there flitted through 
+her mind the vision of Liff Hyatt's muddy boot coming 
+down on the white bramble-flowers.  The same thing had 
+happened now; something transient and exquisite had 
+flowered in her, and she had stood by and seen it 
+trampled to earth.  While the thought passed through 
+her she was aware of Mr. Royall, still leaning 
+against the door, but crestfallen, diminished, as 
+though her silence were the answer he most dreaded.
+
+"I don't want any chance you can give me:  I'm glad he's 
+going away," she said.
+
+He kept his place a moment longer, his hand on the 
+door-knob.  "Charity!" he pleaded.  She made no answer, 
+and he turned the knob and went out.  She heard him 
+fumble with the latch of the front door, and saw him 
+walk down the steps.  He passed out of the gate, and 
+his figure, stooping and heavy, receded slowly up the 
+street.
+
+For a while she remained where he had left her.  She 
+was still trembling with the humiliation of his last 
+words, which rang so loud in her ears that it seemed as 
+though they must echo through the village, proclaiming 
+her a creature to lend herself to such vile 
+suggestions.  Her shame weighed on her like a physical 
+oppression:  the roof and walls seemed to be closing in 
+on her, and she was seized by the impulse to get away, 
+under the open sky, where there would be room to 
+breathe.  She went to the front door, and as she did so 
+Lucius Harney opened it.
+
+He looked graver and less confident than usual, 
+and for a moment or two neither of them spoke.  
+Then he held out his hand.  "Are you going out?" he 
+asked.  "May I come in?"
+
+Her heart was beating so violently that she was afraid 
+to speak, and stood looking at him with tear-dilated 
+eyes; then she became aware of what her silence must 
+betray, and said quickly:  "Yes:  come in."
+
+She led the way into the dining-room, and they sat down 
+on opposite sides of the table, the cruet-stand and 
+japanned bread-basket between them.  Harney had laid 
+his straw hat on the table, and as he sat there, in his 
+easy-looking summer clothes, a brown tie knotted under 
+his flannel collar, and his smooth brown hair brushed 
+back from his forehead, she pictured him, as she had 
+seen him the night before, lying on his bed, with the 
+tossed locks falling into his eyes, and his bare throat 
+rising out of his unbuttoned shirt.  He had never 
+seemed so remote as at the moment when that vision 
+flashed through her mind.
+
+"I'm so sorry it's good-bye:  I suppose you know I'm 
+leaving," he began, abruptly and awkwardly; she guessed 
+that he was wondering how much she knew of his reasons 
+for going.
+
+"I presume you found your work was over quicker 
+than what you expected," she said.
+
+"Well, yes--that is, no:  there are plenty of things I 
+should have liked to do.  But my holiday's limited; and 
+now that Mr. Royall needs the horse for himself it's 
+rather difficult to find means of getting about."
+
+"There ain't any too many teams for hire around here," 
+she acquiesced; and there was another silence.
+
+"These days here have been--awfully pleasant:  I wanted 
+to thank you for making them so," he continued, his 
+colour rising.
+
+She could not think of any reply, and he went on:  
+"You've been wonderfully kind to me, and I wanted to 
+tell you....I wish I could think of you as happier, 
+less lonely....Things are sure to change for you by and 
+by...."
+
+"Things don't change at North Dormer:  people just get 
+used to them."
+
+The answer seemed to break up the order of his 
+prearranged consolations, and he sat looking at her 
+uncertainly.  Then he said, with his sweet smile:  
+"That's not true of you.  It can't be."
+
+The smile was like a knife-thrust through her 
+heart:  everything in her began to tremble and 
+break loose.  She felt her tears run over, and stood 
+up.
+
+"Well, good-bye," she said.
+
+She was aware of his taking her hand, and of feeling 
+that his touch was lifeless.
+
+"Good-bye."  He turned away, and stopped on the 
+threshold.  "You'll say good-bye for me to Verena?"
+
+She heard the closing of the outer door and the sound 
+of his quick tread along the path.  The latch of the 
+gate clicked after him.
+
+The next morning when she arose in the cold dawn and 
+opened her shutters she saw a freckled boy standing on 
+the other side of the road and looking up at her.  He 
+was a boy from a farm three or four miles down the 
+Creston road, and she wondered what he was doing there 
+at that hour, and why he looked so hard at her window.  
+When he saw her he crossed over and leaned against the 
+gate unconcernedly.  There was no one stirring in the 
+house, and she threw a shawl over her night-gown and 
+ran down and let herself out.  By the time she reached 
+the gate the boy was sauntering down the road, 
+whistling carelessly; but she saw that a letter had 
+been thrust between the slats and the crossbar of 
+the gate.  She took it out and hastened back to her 
+room.
+
+The envelope bore her name, and inside was a leaf torn 
+from a pocket-diary.
+
+
+DEAR CHARITY:
+
+I can't go away like this.  I am staying for a few days 
+at Creston River.  Will you come down and meet me at 
+Creston pool?  I will wait for you till evening.
+
+
+
+IX
+
+
+CHARITY sat before the mirror trying on a hat which 
+Ally Hawes, with much secrecy, had trimmed for her.  It 
+was of white straw, with a drooping brim and cherry-
+coloured lining that made her face glow like the inside 
+of the shell on the parlour mantelpiece.
+
+She propped the square of looking-glass against Mr. 
+Royall's black leather Bible, steadying it in front 
+with a white stone on which a view of the Brooklyn 
+Bridge was painted; and she sat before her reflection, 
+bending the brim this way and that, while Ally Hawes's 
+pale face looked over her shoulder like the ghost of 
+wasted opportunities.
+
+"I look awful, don't I?" she said at last with a happy 
+sigh.
+
+Ally smiled and took back the hat.  "I'll stitch the 
+roses on right here, so's you can put it away at once."
+
+Charity laughed, and ran her fingers through her rough 
+dark hair.  She knew that Harney liked to see its 
+reddish edges ruffled about her forehead and breaking 
+into little rings at the nape.  She sat down on her bed 
+and watched Ally stoop over the hat with a careful 
+frown.
+
+"Don't you ever feel like going down to Nettleton for a 
+day?" she asked.
+
+Ally shook her head without looking up.  "No, I always 
+remember that awful time I went down with Julia--to 
+that doctor's."
+
+"Oh, Ally----"
+
+"I can't help it.  The house is on the corner of Wing 
+Street and Lake Avenue.  The trolley from the station 
+goes right by it, and the day the minister took us down 
+to see those pictures I recognized it right off, and 
+couldn't seem to see anything else.  There's a big 
+black sign with gold letters all across the front--
+'Private Consultations.' She came as near as anything 
+to dying...."
+
+"Poor Julia!" Charity sighed from the height of her 
+purity and her security.  She had a friend whom she 
+trusted and who respected her.  She was going with him 
+to spend the next day--the Fourth of July--at 
+Nettleton.  Whose business was it but hers, and what 
+was the harm?  The pity of it was that girls like Julia 
+did not know how to choose, and to keep bad 
+fellows at a distance....Charity slipped down from the 
+bed, and stretched out her hands.
+
+"Is it sewed?  Let me try it on again."  She put the hat 
+on, and smiled at her image.  The thought of Julia had 
+vanished....
+
+
+
+The next morning she was up before dawn, and saw the 
+yellow sunrise broaden behind the hills, and the 
+silvery luster preceding a hot day tremble across the 
+sleeping fields.
+
+Her plans had been made with great care.  She had 
+announced that she was going down to the Band of Hope 
+picnic at Hepburn, and as no one else from North Dormer 
+intended to venture so far it was not likely that her 
+absence from the festivity would be reported.  Besides, 
+if it were she would not greatly care.  She was 
+determined to assert her independence, and if she 
+stooped to fib about the Hepburn picnic it was chiefly 
+from the secretive instinct that made her dread the 
+profanation of her happiness.  Whenever she was with 
+Lucius Harney she would have liked some impenetrable 
+mountain mist to hide her.
+
+It was arranged that she should walk to a point of 
+the Creston road where Harney was to pick her up and 
+drive her across the hills to Hepburn in time for the 
+nine-thirty train to Nettleton.  Harney at first had 
+been rather lukewarm about the trip.  He declared 
+himself ready to take her to Nettleton, but urged her 
+not to go on the Fourth of July, on account of the 
+crowds, the probable lateness of the trains, the 
+difficulty of her getting back before night; but her 
+evident disappointment caused him to give way, and even 
+to affect a faint enthusiasm for the adventure.  She 
+understood why he was not more eager:  he must have seen 
+sights beside which even a Fourth of July at Nettleton 
+would seem tame.  But she had never seen anything; and 
+a great longing possessed her to walk the streets of a 
+big town on a holiday, clinging to his arm and jostled 
+by idle crowds in their best clothes.  The only cloud 
+on the prospect was the fact that the shops would be 
+closed; but she hoped he would take her back another 
+day, when they were open.
+
+She started out unnoticed in the early sunlight, 
+slipping through the kitchen while Verena bent above 
+the stove.  To avoid attracting notice, she carried her 
+new hat carefully wrapped up, and had thrown a long 
+grey veil of Mrs. Royall's over the new white 
+muslin dress which Ally's clever fingers had made for 
+her.  All of the ten dollars Mr. Royall had given her, 
+and a part of her own savings as well, had been spent 
+on renewing her wardrobe; and when Harney jumped out of 
+the buggy to meet her she read her reward in his eyes.
+
+The freckled boy who had brought her the note two weeks 
+earlier was to wait with the buggy at Hepburn till 
+their return.  He perched at Charity's feet, his legs 
+dangling between the wheels, and they could not say 
+much because of his presence.  But it did not greatly 
+matter, for their past was now rich enough to have 
+given them a private language; and with the long day 
+stretching before them like the blue distance beyond 
+the hills there was a delicate pleasure in 
+postponement.
+
+When Charity, in response to Harney's message, had gone 
+to meet him at the Creston pool her heart had been so 
+full of mortification and anger that his first words 
+might easily have estranged her.  But it happened that 
+he had found the right word, which was one of simple 
+friendship.  His tone had instantly justified her, and 
+put her guardian in the wrong.  He had made no allusion 
+to what had passed between Mr. Royall and himself, but 
+had simply let it appear that he had left because 
+means of conveyance were hard to find at North Dormer, 
+and because Creston River was a more convenient centre.  
+He told her that he had hired by the week the buggy of 
+the freckled boy's father, who served as livery-stable 
+keeper to one or two melancholy summer boarding-houses 
+on Creston Lake, and had discovered, within driving 
+distance, a number of houses worthy of his pencil; and 
+he said that he could not, while he was in the 
+neighbourhood, give up the pleasure of seeing her as 
+often as possible.
+
+When they took leave of each other she promised to 
+continue to be his guide; and during the fortnight 
+which followed they roamed the hills in happy 
+comradeship.  In most of the village friendships 
+between youths and maidens lack of conversation was 
+made up for by tentative fondling; but Harney, except 
+when he had tried to comfort her in her trouble on 
+their way back from the Hyatts', had never put his arm 
+about her, or sought to betray her into any sudden 
+caress.  It seemed to be enough for him to breathe her 
+nearness like a flower's; and since his pleasure at 
+being with her, and his sense of her youth and her 
+grace, perpetually shone in his eyes and softened 
+the inflection of his voice, his reserve did not 
+suggest coldness, but the deference due to a girl of 
+his own class.
+
+The buggy was drawn by an old trotter who whirled them 
+along so briskly that the pace created a little breeze; 
+but when they reached Hepburn the full heat of the 
+airless morning descended on them.  At the railway 
+station the platform was packed with a sweltering 
+throng, and they took refuge in the waiting-room, where 
+there was another throng, already dejected by the heat 
+and the long waiting for retarded trains.  Pale mothers 
+were struggling with fretful babies, or trying to keep 
+their older offspring from the fascination of the 
+track; girls and their "fellows" were giggling and 
+shoving, and passing about candy in sticky bags, and 
+older men, collarless and perspiring, were shifting 
+heavy children from one arm to the other, and keeping a 
+haggard eye on the scattered members of their families.
+
+At last the train rumbled in, and engulfed the waiting 
+multitude.  Harney swept Charity up on to the first car 
+and they captured a bench for two, and sat in happy 
+isolation while the train swayed and roared along 
+through rich fields and languid tree-clumps.  The 
+haze of the morning had become a sort of clear tremor 
+over everything, like the colourless vibration about a 
+flame; and the opulent landscape seemed to droop under 
+it.  But to Charity the heat was a stimulant:  it 
+enveloped the whole world in the same glow that burned 
+at her heart.  Now and then a lurch of the train flung 
+her against Harney, and through her thin muslin she 
+felt the touch of his sleeve.  She steadied herself, 
+their eyes met, and the flaming breath of the day 
+seemed to enclose them.
+
+The train roared into the Nettleton station, the 
+descending mob caught them on its tide, and they were 
+swept out into a vague dusty square thronged with seedy 
+"hacks" and long curtained omnibuses drawn by horses 
+with tasselled fly-nets over their withers, who stood 
+swinging their depressed heads drearily from side to 
+side.
+
+A mob of 'bus and hack drivers were shouting "To the 
+Eagle House," "To the Washington House," "This way to 
+the Lake," "Just starting for Greytop;" and through 
+their yells came the popping of fire-crackers, the 
+explosion of torpedoes, the banging of toy-guns, and 
+the crash of a firemen's band trying to play the Merry 
+Widow while they were being packed into a 
+waggonette streaming with bunting.
+
+The ramshackle wooden hotels about the square were all 
+hung with flags and paper lanterns, and as Harney and 
+Charity turned into the main street, with its brick and 
+granite business blocks crowding out the old low-
+storied shops, and its towering poles strung with 
+innumerable wires that seemed to tremble and buzz in 
+the heat, they saw the double line of flags and 
+lanterns tapering away gaily to the park at the other 
+end of the perspective.  The noise and colour of this 
+holiday vision seemed to transform Nettleton into a 
+metropolis.  Charity could not believe that Springfield 
+or even Boston had anything grander to show, and she 
+wondered if, at this very moment, Annabel Balch, on the 
+arm of as brilliant a young man, were threading her way 
+through scenes as resplendent.
+
+"Where shall we go first?" Harney asked; but as she 
+turned her happy eyes on him he guessed the answer and 
+said:  "We'll take a look round, shall we?"
+
+The street swarmed with their fellow-travellers, with 
+other excursionists arriving from other directions, 
+with Nettleton's own population, and with the 
+mill-hands trooping in from the factories on the 
+Creston.  The shops were closed, but one would scarcely 
+have noticed it, so numerous were the glass doors 
+swinging open on saloons, on restaurants, on drug-
+stores gushing from every soda-water tap, on fruit and 
+confectionery shops stacked with strawberry-cake, 
+cocoanut drops, trays of glistening molasses candy, 
+boxes of caramels and chewing-gum, baskets of sodden 
+strawberries, and dangling branches of bananas.  Outside 
+of some of the doors were trestles with banked-up 
+oranges and apples, spotted pears and dusty 
+raspberries; and the air reeked with the smell of fruit 
+and stale coffee, beer and sarsaparilla and fried 
+potatoes.
+
+Even the shops that were closed offered, through wide 
+expanses of plate-glass, hints of hidden riches.  In 
+some, waves of silk and ribbon broke over shores of 
+imitation moss from which ravishing hats rose like 
+tropical orchids.  In others, the pink throats of 
+gramophones opened their giant convolutions in a 
+soundless chorus; or bicycles shining in neat ranks 
+seemed to await the signal of an invisible starter; or 
+tiers of fancy-goods in leatherette and paste and 
+celluloid dangled their insidious graces; and, in one 
+vast bay that seemed to project them into exciting 
+contact with the public, wax ladies in daring 
+dresses chatted elegantly, or, with gestures intimate 
+yet blameless, pointed to their pink corsets and 
+transparent hosiery.
+
+Presently Harney found that his watch had stopped, and 
+turned in at a small jeweller's shop which chanced to 
+still be open.  While the watch was being examined 
+Charity leaned over the glass counter where, on a 
+background of dark blue velvet, pins, rings, and 
+brooches glittered like the moon and stars.  She had 
+never seen jewellry so near by, and she longed to lift 
+the glass lid and plunge her hand among the shining 
+treasures.  But already Harney's watch was repaired, 
+and he laid his hand on her arm and drew her from her 
+dream.
+
+"Which do you like best?" he asked leaning over the 
+counter at her side.
+
+"I don't know...."  She pointed to a gold lily-of-the-
+valley with white flowers.
+
+"Don't you think the blue pin's better?" he suggested, 
+and immediately she saw that the lily of the valley was 
+mere trumpery compared to the small round stone, blue 
+as a mountain lake, with little sparks of light all 
+round it.  She coloured at her want of discrimination.
+
+"It's so lovely I guess I was afraid to look at 
+it," she said.
+
+He laughed, and they went out of the shop; but a few 
+steps away he exclaimed:  "Oh, by Jove, I forgot 
+something," and turned back and left her in the crowd.  
+She stood staring down a row of pink gramophone throats 
+till he rejoined her and slipped his arm through hers.
+
+"You mustn't be afraid of looking at the blue pin any 
+longer, because it belongs to you," he said; and she 
+felt a little box being pressed into her hand.  Her 
+heart gave a leap of joy, but it reached her lips only 
+in a shy stammer.  She remembered other girls whom she 
+had heard planning to extract presents from their 
+fellows, and was seized with a sudden dread lest Harney 
+should have imagined that she had leaned over the 
+pretty things in the glass case in the hope of having 
+one given to her....
+
+A little farther down the street they turned in at a 
+glass doorway opening on a shining hall with a mahogany 
+staircase, and brass cages in its corners.  "We must 
+have something to eat," Harney said; and the next 
+moment Charity found herself in a dressing-room all 
+looking-glass and lustrous surfaces, where a party of 
+showy-looking girls were dabbing on powder and 
+straightening immense plumed hats.  When they had gone 
+she took courage to bathe her hot face in one of the 
+marble basins, and to straighten her own hat-brim, 
+which the parasols of the crowd had indented.  The 
+dresses in the shops had so impressed her that she 
+scarcely dared look at her reflection; but when she did 
+so, the glow of her face under her cherry-coloured hat, 
+and the curve of her young shoulders through the 
+transparent muslin, restored her courage; and when she 
+had taken the blue brooch from its box and pinned it on 
+her bosom she walked toward the restaurant with her 
+head high, as if she had always strolled through 
+tessellated halls beside young men in flannels.
+
+Her spirit sank a little at the sight of the slim-
+waisted waitresses in black, with bewitching mob-caps 
+on their haughty heads, who were moving disdainfully 
+between the tables.  "Not f'r another hour," one of them 
+dropped to Harney in passing; and he stood doubtfully 
+glancing about him.
+
+"Oh, well, we can't stay sweltering here," he decided; 
+"let's try somewhere else--" and with a sense of relief 
+Charity followed him from that scene of inhospitable 
+splendour.
+
+That "somewhere else" turned out--after more hot 
+tramping, and several failures--to be, of all things, a 
+little open-air place in a back street that called 
+itself a French restaurant, and consisted in two or 
+three rickety tables under a scarlet-runner, between a 
+patch of zinnias and petunias and a big elm bending 
+over from the next yard.  Here they lunched on queerly 
+flavoured things, while Harney, leaning back in a 
+crippled rocking-chair, smoked cigarettes between the 
+courses and poured into Charity's glass a pale yellow 
+wine which he said was the very same one drank in just 
+such jolly places in France.
+
+Charity did not think the wine as good as sarsaparilla, 
+but she sipped a mouthful for the pleasure of doing 
+what he did, and of fancying herself alone with him in 
+foreign countries.  The illusion was increased by their 
+being served by a deep-bosomed woman with smooth hair 
+and a pleasant laugh, who talked to Harney in 
+unintelligible words, and seemed amazed and overjoyed 
+at his answering her in kind.  At the other tables 
+other people sat, mill-hands probably, homely but 
+pleasant looking, who spoke the same shrill jargon, and 
+looked at Harney and Charity with friendly eyes; and 
+between the table-legs a poodle with bald patches 
+and pink eyes nosed about for scraps, and sat up on his 
+hind legs absurdly.
+
+Harney showed no inclination to move, for hot as their 
+corner was, it was at least shaded and quiet; and, from 
+the main thoroughfares came the clanging of trolleys, 
+the incessant popping of torpedoes, the jingle of 
+street-organs, the bawling of megaphone men and the 
+loud murmur of increasing crowds.  He leaned back, 
+smoking his cigar, patting the dog, and stirring the 
+coffee that steamed in their chipped cups.  "It's the 
+real thing, you know," he explained; and Charity 
+hastily revised her previous conception of the 
+beverage.
+
+They had made no plans for the rest of the day, and 
+when Harney asked her what she wanted to do next she 
+was too bewildered by rich possibilities to find an 
+answer.  Finally she confessed that she longed to go to 
+the Lake, where she had not been taken on her former 
+visit, and when he answered, "Oh, there's time for 
+that--it will be pleasanter later," she suggested 
+seeing some pictures like the ones Mr. Miles had taken 
+her to.  She thought Harney looked a little 
+disconcerted; but he passed his fine handkerchief over 
+his warm brow, said gaily, "Come along, then," and 
+rose with a last pat for the pink-eyed dog.
+
+Mr. Miles's pictures had been shown in an austere 
+Y.M.C.A.  hall, with white walls and an organ; but 
+Harney led Charity to a glittering place--everything 
+she saw seemed to glitter--where they passed, between 
+immense pictures of yellow-haired beauties stabbing 
+villains in evening dress, into a velvet-curtained 
+auditorium packed with spectators to the last limit of 
+compression.  After that, for a while, everything was 
+merged in her brain in swimming circles of heat and 
+blinding alternations of light and darkness.  All the 
+world has to show seemed to pass before her in a chaos 
+of palms and minarets, charging cavalry regiments, 
+roaring lions, comic policemen and scowling murderers; 
+and the crowd around her, the hundreds of hot sallow 
+candy-munching faces, young, old, middle-aged, but all 
+kindled with the same contagious excitement, became 
+part of the spectacle, and danced on the screen with 
+the rest.
+
+Presently the thought of the cool trolley-run to the 
+Lake grew irresistible, and they struggled out of the 
+theatre.  As they stood on the pavement, Harney pale 
+with the heat, and even Charity a little confused 
+by it, a young man drove by in an electric run-about 
+with a calico band bearing the words:  "Ten dollars to 
+take you round the Lake."  Before Charity knew what was 
+happening, Harney had waved a hand, and they were 
+climbing in.  "Say, for twenny-five I'll run you out to 
+see the ball-game and back," the driver proposed with 
+an insinuating grin; but Charity said quickly:  "Oh, I'd
+rather go rowing on the Lake."  The street was so 
+thronged that progress was slow; but the glory of 
+sitting in the little carriage while it wriggled its 
+way between laden omnibuses and trolleys made the 
+moments seem too short.  "Next turn is Lake Avenue," 
+the young man called out over his shoulder; and as they 
+paused in the wake of a big omnibus groaning with 
+Knights of Pythias in cocked hats and swords, Charity 
+looked up and saw on the corner a brick house with a 
+conspicuous black and gold sign across its front.  "Dr.
+Merkle; Private Consultations at all hours.  Lady 
+Attendants," she read; and suddenly she remembered Ally 
+Hawes's words:  "The house was at the corner of Wing 
+Street and Lake Avenue...there's a big black sign 
+across the front...."  Through all the heat and the 
+rapture a shiver of cold ran over her.
+
+
+
+X
+
+
+THE Lake at last--a sheet of shining metal brooded over 
+by drooping trees.  Charity and Harney had secured a 
+boat and, getting away from the wharves and the 
+refreshment-booths, they drifted idly along, hugging 
+the shadow of the shore.  Where the sun struck the 
+water its shafts flamed back blindingly at the heat-
+veiled sky; and the least shade was black by contrast.
+The Lake was so smooth that the reflection of the trees 
+on its edge seemed enamelled on a solid surface; but 
+gradually, as the sun declined, the water grew 
+transparent, and Charity, leaning over, plunged her 
+fascinated gaze into depths so clear that she saw the 
+inverted tree-tops interwoven with the green growths of 
+the bottom.
+
+They rounded a point at the farther end of the Lake, 
+and entering an inlet pushed their bow against a 
+protruding tree-trunk.  A green veil of willows 
+overhung them.  Beyond the trees, wheat-fields sparkled 
+in the sun; and all along the horizon the clear 
+hills throbbed with light.  Charity leaned back in the 
+stern, and Harney unshipped the oars and lay in the 
+bottom of the boat without speaking.
+
+Ever since their meeting at the Creston pool he had 
+been subject to these brooding silences, which were as 
+different as possible from the pauses when they ceased 
+to speak because words were needless.  At such times 
+his face wore the expression she had seen on it when 
+she had looked in at him from the darkness and again 
+there came over her a sense of the mysterious distance 
+between them; but usually his fits of abstraction were 
+followed by bursts of gaiety that chased away the 
+shadow before it chilled her.
+
+She was still thinking of the ten dollars he had handed 
+to the driver of the run-about.  It had given them 
+twenty minutes of pleasure, and it seemed unimaginable 
+that anyone should be able to buy amusement at that 
+rate.  With ten dollars he might have bought her an 
+engagement ring; she knew that Mrs. Tom Fry's, which 
+came from Springfield, and had a diamond in it, had 
+cost only eight seventy-five.  But she did not know why 
+the thought had occurred to her.  Harney would never 
+buy her an engagement ring:  they were friends and 
+comrades, but no more.  He had been perfectly fair to 
+her:  he had never said a word to mislead her.  She 
+wondered what the girl was like whose hand was waiting 
+for his ring....
+
+Boats were beginning to thicken on the Lake and the 
+clang of incessantly arriving trolleys announced the 
+return of the crowds from the ball-field.  The shadows 
+lengthened across the pearl-grey water and two white 
+clouds near the sun were turning golden.  On the 
+opposite shore men were hammering hastily at a wooden 
+scaffolding in a field.  Charity asked what it was for.
+
+"Why, the fireworks.  I suppose there'll be a big 
+show."  Harney looked at her and a smile crept into his 
+moody eyes.  "Have you never seen any good fireworks?"
+
+"Miss Hatchard always sends up lovely rockets on the 
+Fourth," she answered doubtfully.
+
+"Oh----" his contempt was unbounded.  "I mean a big 
+performance like this, illuminated boats, and all the 
+rest."
+
+She flushed at the picture.  "Do they send them up from 
+the Lake, too?"
+
+"Rather.  Didn't you notice that big raft we 
+passed?  It's wonderful to see the rockets 
+completing their orbits down under one's feet."  She 
+said nothing, and he put the oars into the rowlocks.  
+"If we stay we'd better go and pick up something to 
+eat."
+
+"But how can we get back afterwards?" she ventured, 
+feeling it would break her heart if she missed it.
+
+He consulted a time-table, found a ten o'clock train 
+and reassured her.  "The moon rises so late that it 
+will be dark by eight, and we'll have over an hour of 
+it."
+
+Twilight fell, and lights began to show along the 
+shore.  The trolleys roaring out from Nettleton became 
+great luminous serpents coiling in and out among the 
+trees.  The wooden eating-houses at the Lake's edge 
+danced with lanterns, and the dusk echoed with laughter 
+and shouts and the clumsy splashing of oars.
+
+Harney and Charity had found a table in the corner of a 
+balcony built over the Lake, and were patiently 
+awaiting an unattainable chowder.  Close under them the 
+water lapped the piles, agitated by the evolutions of a 
+little white steamboat trellised with coloured globes 
+which was to run passengers up and down the Lake.  
+It was already black with them as it sheered off on its 
+first trip.
+
+Suddenly Charity heard a woman's laugh behind her.  The 
+sound was familiar, and she turned to look.  A band of 
+showily dressed girls and dapper young men wearing 
+badges of secret societies, with new straw hats tilted 
+far back on their square-clipped hair, had invaded the 
+balcony and were loudly clamouring for a table.  The 
+girl in the lead was the one who had laughed.  She wore 
+a large hat with a long white feather, and from under 
+its brim her painted eyes looked at Charity with amused 
+recognition.
+
+"Say! if this ain't like Old Home Week," she remarked 
+to the girl at her elbow; and giggles and glances 
+passed between them.  Charity knew at once that the 
+girl with the white feather was Julia Hawes.  She had 
+lost her freshness, and the paint under her eyes made 
+her face seem thinner; but her lips had the same lovely 
+curve, and the same cold mocking smile, as if there 
+were some secret absurdity in the person she was 
+looking at, and she had instantly detected it.
+
+Charity flushed to the forehead and looked away.  
+She felt herself humiliated by Julia's sneer, and 
+vexed that the mockery of such a creature should affect 
+her.  She trembled lest Harney should notice that the 
+noisy troop had recognized her; but they found no table 
+free, and passed on tumultuously.
+
+Presently there was a soft rush through the air and a 
+shower of silver fell from the blue evening sky.  In 
+another direction, pale Roman candles shot up singly 
+through the trees, and a fire-haired rocket swept the 
+horizon like a portent.  Between these intermittent 
+flashes the velvet curtains of the darkness were 
+descending, and in the intervals of eclipse the voices 
+of the crowds seemed to sink to smothered murmurs.
+
+Charity and Harney, dispossessed by newcomers, were at 
+length obliged to give up their table and struggle 
+through the throng about the boat-landings.  For a 
+while there seemed no escape from the tide of late 
+arrivals; but finally Harney secured the last two 
+places on the stand from which the more privileged were 
+to see the fireworks.  The seats were at the end of a 
+row, one above the other.  Charity had taken off her 
+hat to have an uninterrupted view; and whenever she 
+leaned back to follow the curve of some 
+dishevelled rocket she could feel Harney's knees 
+against her head.
+
+After a while the scattered fireworks ceased.  A longer 
+interval of darkness followed, and then the whole night 
+broke into flower.  From every point of the horizon, 
+gold and silver arches sprang up and crossed each 
+other, sky-orchards broke into blossom, shed their 
+flaming petals and hung their branches with golden 
+fruit; and all the while the air was filled with a soft 
+supernatural hum, as though great birds were building 
+their nests in those invisible tree-tops.
+
+Now and then there came a lull, and a wave of moonlight 
+swept the Lake.  In a flash it revealed hundreds of 
+boats, steel-dark against lustrous ripples; then it 
+withdrew as if with a furling of vast translucent 
+wings.  Charity's heart throbbed with delight.  It was 
+as if all the latent beauty of things had been unveiled 
+to her.  She could not imagine that the world held 
+anything more wonderful; but near her she heard someone 
+say, "You wait till you see the set piece," and 
+instantly her hopes took a fresh flight.  At last, just 
+as it was beginning to seem as though the whole arch of 
+the sky were one great lid pressed against her dazzled 
+eye-balls, and striking out of them continuous 
+jets of jewelled light, the velvet darkness settled 
+down again, and a murmur of expectation ran through the 
+crowd.
+
+"Now--now!" the same voice said excitedly; and Charity, 
+grasping the hat on her knee, crushed it tight in the 
+effort to restrain her rapture.
+
+For a moment the night seemed to grow more impenetrably 
+black; then a great picture stood out against it like a 
+constellation.  It was surmounted by a golden scroll 
+bearing the inscription, "Washington crossing the 
+Delaware," and across a flood of motionless golden 
+ripples the National Hero passed, erect, solemn and 
+gigantic, standing with folded arms in the stern of a 
+slowly moving golden boat.
+
+A long "Oh-h-h" burst from the spectators:  the stand 
+creaked and shook with their blissful trepidations.  
+"Oh-h-h," Charity gasped:  she had forgotten where she 
+was, had at last forgotten even Harney's nearness.  She 
+seemed to have been caught up into the stars....
+
+The picture vanished and darkness came down.  In the 
+obscurity she felt her head clasped by two hands:  her 
+face was drawn backward, and Harney's lips were 
+pressed on hers.  With sudden vehemence he wound his 
+arms about her, holding her head against his breast 
+while she gave him back his kisses.  An unknown Harney 
+had revealed himself, a Harney who dominated her and 
+yet over whom she felt herself possessed of a new 
+mysterious power.
+
+But the crowd was beginning to move, and he had to 
+release her.  "Come," he said in a confused voice.  He 
+scrambled over the side of the stand, and holding up 
+his arm caught her as she sprang to the ground.  He 
+passed his arm about her waist, steadying her against 
+the descending rush of people; and she clung to him, 
+speechless, exultant, as if all the crowding and 
+confusion about them were a mere vain stirring of the 
+air.
+
+"Come," he repeated, "we must try to make the trolley."  
+He drew her along, and she followed, still in her 
+dream.  They walked as if they were one, so isolated in 
+ecstasy that the people jostling them on every side 
+seemed impalpable.  But when they reached the terminus 
+the illuminated trolley was already clanging on its 
+way, its platforms black with passengers.  The cars 
+waiting behind it were as thickly packed; and the 
+throng about the terminus was so dense that it 
+seemed hopeless to struggle for a place.
+
+"Last trip up the Lake," a megaphone bellowed from the 
+wharf; and the lights of the little steam-boat came 
+dancing out of the darkness.
+
+"No use waiting here; shall we run up the Lake?" Harney 
+suggested.
+
+They pushed their way back to the edge of the water 
+just as the gang-plank lowered from the white side of 
+the boat.  The electric light at the end of the wharf 
+flashed full on the descending passengers, and among 
+them Charity caught sight of Julia Hawes, her white 
+feather askew, and the face under it flushed with 
+coarse laughter.  As she stepped from the gang-plank 
+she stopped short, her dark-ringed eyes darting malice.
+
+"Hullo, Charity Royall!" she called out; and then, 
+looking back over her shoulder:  "Didn't I tell you it 
+was a family party?  Here's grandpa's little daughter 
+come to take him home!"
+
+A snigger ran through the group; and then, towering 
+above them, and steadying himself by the hand-rail in a 
+desperate effort at erectness, Mr. Royall stepped 
+stiffly ashore.  Like the young men of the party, he 
+wore a secret society emblem in the buttonhole of 
+his black frock-coat.  His head was covered by a new 
+Panama hat, and his narrow black tie, half undone, 
+dangled down on his rumpled shirt-front.  His face, a 
+livid brown, with red blotches of anger and lips sunken 
+in like an old man's, was a lamentable ruin in the 
+searching glare.
+
+He was just behind Julia Hawes, and had one hand on her 
+arm; but as he left the gang-plank he freed himself, 
+and moved a step or two away from his companions.  He 
+had seen Charity at once, and his glance passed slowly 
+from her to Harney, whose arm was still about her.  He 
+stood staring at them, and trying to master the senile 
+quiver of his lips; then he drew himself up with the 
+tremulous majesty of drunkenness, and stretched out his 
+arm.
+
+"You whore--you damn--bare-headed whore, you!" he 
+enunciated slowly.
+
+There was a scream of tipsy laughter from the party, 
+and Charity involuntarily put her hands to her head.  
+She remembered that her hat had fallen from her lap 
+when she jumped up to leave the stand; and suddenly she 
+had a vision of herself, hatless, dishevelled, with a 
+man's arm about her, confronting that drunken 
+crew, headed by her guardian's pitiable figure.  The 
+picture filled her with shame.  She had known since 
+childhood about Mr. Royall's "habits":  had seen him, as 
+she went up to bed, sitting morosely in his office, a 
+bottle at his elbow; or coming home, heavy and 
+quarrelsome, from his business expeditions to Hepburn 
+or Springfield; but the idea of his associating himself 
+publicly with a band of disreputable girls and bar-room 
+loafers was new and dreadful to her.
+
+"Oh----" she said in a gasp of misery; and releasing 
+herself from Harney's arm she went straight up to Mr. 
+Royall.
+
+"You come home with me--you come right home with me," 
+she said in a low stern voice, as if she had not heard 
+his apostrophe; and one of the girls called out:  "Say, 
+how many fellers does she want?"
+
+There was another laugh, followed by a pause of 
+curiosity, during which Mr. Royall continued to glare 
+at Charity.  At length his twitching lips parted.  "I 
+said, 'You--damn--whore!'" he repeated with precision, 
+steadying himself on Julia's shoulder.
+
+Laughs and jeers were beginning to spring up from the 
+circle of people beyond their group; and a voice called 
+out from the gangway:  "Now, then, step lively 
+there--all ABOARD!" The pressure of approaching and 
+departing passengers forced the actors in the rapid 
+scene apart, and pushed them back into the throng.  
+Charity found herself clinging to Harney's arm and 
+sobbing desperately.  Mr. Royall had disappeared, and 
+in the distance she heard the receding sound of Julia's 
+laugh.
+
+The boat, laden to the taffrail, was puffing away on 
+her last trip.
+
+
+
+XI
+
+
+AT two o'clock in the morning the freckled boy from 
+Creston stopped his sleepy horse at the door of the red 
+house, and Charity got out.  Harney had taken leave of 
+her at Creston River, charging the boy to drive her 
+home.  Her mind was still in a fog of misery, and she 
+did not remember very clearly what had happened, or 
+what they said to each other, during the interminable 
+interval since their departure from Nettleton; but the 
+secretive instinct of the animal in pain was so strong 
+in her that she had a sense of relief when Harney got 
+out and she drove on alone.
+
+The full moon hung over North Dormer, whitening the 
+mist that filled the hollows between the hills and 
+floated transparently above the fields.  Charity stood 
+a moment at the gate, looking out into the waning 
+night.  She watched the boy drive off, his horse's head 
+wagging heavily to and fro; then she went around to the 
+kitchen door and felt under the mat for the key.  She 
+found it, unlocked the door and went in.  The 
+kitchen was dark, but she discovered a box of matches, 
+lit a candle and went upstairs.  Mr. Royall's door, 
+opposite hers, stood open on his unlit room; evidently 
+he had not come back.  She went into her room, bolted 
+her door and began slowly to untie the ribbon about her 
+waist, and to take off her dress.  Under the bed she 
+saw the paper bag in which she had hidden her new hat 
+from inquisitive eyes....
+
+
+
+She lay for a long time sleepless on her bed, staring 
+up at the moonlight on the low ceiling; dawn was in the 
+sky when she fell asleep, and when she woke the sun was 
+on her face.
+
+She dressed and went down to the kitchen.  Verena was 
+there alone:  she glanced at Charity tranquilly, with 
+her old deaf-looking eyes.  There was no sign of Mr. 
+Royall about the house and the hours passed without his 
+reappearing.  Charity had gone up to her room, and sat 
+there listlessly, her hands on her lap.  Puffs of 
+sultry air fanned her dimity window curtains and flies 
+buzzed stiflingly against the bluish panes.
+
+At one o'clock Verena hobbled up to see if she were not 
+coming down to dinner; but she shook her head, and 
+the old woman went away, saying:  "I'll cover up, then."
+
+The sun turned and left her room, and Charity seated 
+herself in the window, gazing down the village street 
+through the half-opened shutters.  Not a thought was in 
+her mind; it was just a dark whirlpool of crowding 
+images; and she watched the people passing along the 
+street, Dan Targatt's team hauling a load of pine-
+trunks down to Hepburn, the sexton's old white horse 
+grazing on the bank across the way, as if she looked at 
+these familiar sights from the other side of the grave.
+
+She was roused from her apathy by seeing Ally Hawes 
+come out of the Frys' gate and walk slowly toward the 
+red house with her uneven limping step.  At the sight 
+Charity recovered her severed contact with reality.  She 
+divined that Ally was coming to hear about her day:  no 
+one else was in the secret of the trip to Nettleton, 
+and it had flattered Ally profoundly to be allowed to 
+know of it.
+
+At the thought of having to see her, of having to meet 
+her eyes and answer or evade her questions, the whole 
+horror of the previous night's adventure rushed back 
+upon Charity.  What had been a feverish nightmare 
+became a cold and unescapable fact.  Poor Ally, at that 
+moment, represented North Dormer, with all its mean 
+curiosities, its furtive malice, its sham 
+unconsciousness of evil.  Charity knew that, although 
+all relations with Julia were supposed to be severed, 
+the tender-hearted Ally still secretly communicated 
+with her; and no doubt Julia would exult in the chance 
+of retailing the scandal of the wharf.  The story, 
+exaggerated and distorted, was probably already on its 
+way to North Dormer.
+
+Ally's dragging pace had not carried her far from the 
+Frys' gate when she was stopped by old Mrs. Sollas, who 
+was a great talker, and spoke very slowly because she 
+had never been able to get used to her new teeth from 
+Hepburn.  Still, even this respite would not last long; 
+in another ten minutes Ally would be at the door, and 
+Charity would hear her greeting Verena in the kitchen, 
+and then calling up from the foot of the stairs.
+
+Suddenly it became clear that flight, and instant 
+flight, was the only thing conceivable.  The longing to 
+escape, to get away from familiar faces, from places 
+where she was known, had always been strong in her in 
+moments of distress.  She had a childish belief in 
+the miraculous power of strange scenes and new faces to 
+transform her life and wipe out bitter memories.  But 
+such impulses were mere fleeting whims compared to the 
+cold resolve which now possessed her.  She felt she 
+could not remain an hour longer under the roof of the 
+man who had publicly dishonoured her, and face to face 
+with the people who would presently be gloating over 
+all the details of her humiliation.
+
+Her passing pity for Mr. Royall had been swallowed up 
+in loathing:  everything in her recoiled from the 
+disgraceful spectacle of the drunken old man 
+apostrophizing her in the presence of a band of loafers 
+and street-walkers.  Suddenly, vividly, she relived 
+again the horrible moment when he had tried to force 
+himself into her room, and what she had before supposed 
+to be a mad aberration now appeared to her as a vulgar 
+incident in a debauched and degraded life.
+
+While these thoughts were hurrying through her she had 
+dragged out her old canvas school-bag, and was 
+thrusting into it a few articles of clothing and the 
+little packet of letters she had received from Harney.  
+From under her pincushion she took the library key, and 
+laid it in full view; then she felt at the back of 
+a drawer for the blue brooch that Harney had given her.  
+She would not have dared to wear it openly at North 
+Dormer, but now she fastened it on her bosom as if it 
+were a talisman to protect her in her flight.  These 
+preparations had taken but a few minutes, and when they 
+were finished Ally Hawes was still at the Frys' corner 
+talking to old Mrs. Sollas....
+
+
+
+She had said to herself, as she always said in moments 
+of revolt:  "I'll go to the Mountain--I'll go back to my 
+own folks."  She had never really meant it before; but 
+now, as she considered her case, no other course seemed 
+open.  She had never learned any trade that would have 
+given her independence in a strange place, and she knew 
+no one in the big towns of the valley, where she might 
+have hoped to find employment.  Miss Hatchard was still 
+away; but even had she been at North Dormer she was the 
+last person to whom Charity would have turned, since 
+one of the motives urging her to flight was the wish 
+not to see Lucius Harney.  Travelling back from 
+Nettleton, in the crowded brightly-lit train, all 
+exchange of confidence between them had been 
+impossible; but during their drive from Hepburn to 
+Creston River she had gathered from Harney's snatches 
+of consolatory talk--again hampered by the freckled 
+boy's presence--that he intended to see her the next 
+day.  At the moment she had found a vague comfort in 
+the assurance; but in the desolate lucidity of the 
+hours that followed she had come to see the 
+impossibility of meeting him again.  Her dream of 
+comradeship was over; and the scene on the wharf--vile 
+and disgraceful as it had been--had after all shed the 
+light of truth on her minute of madness.  It was as if 
+her guardian's words had stripped her bare in the face 
+of the grinning crowd and proclaimed to the world the 
+secret admonitions of her conscience.
+
+She did not think these things out clearly; she simply 
+followed the blind propulsion of her wretchedness.  She 
+did not want, ever again, to see anyone she had known; 
+above all, she did not want to see Harney....
+
+She climbed the hill-path behind the house and struck 
+through the woods by a short-cut leading to the Creston 
+road.  A lead-coloured sky hung heavily over the 
+fields, and in the forest the motionless air was 
+stifling; but she pushed on, impatient to reach 
+the road which was the shortest way to the Mountain.
+
+To do so, she had to follow the Creston road for a mile 
+or two, and go within half a mile of the village; and 
+she walked quickly, fearing to meet Harney.  But there 
+was no sign of him, and she had almost reached the 
+branch road when she saw the flanks of a large white 
+tent projecting through the trees by the roadside.  She 
+supposed that it sheltered a travelling circus which 
+had come there for the Fourth; but as she drew nearer 
+she saw, over the folded-back flap, a large sign 
+bearing the inscription, "Gospel Tent."  The interior 
+seemed to be empty; but a young man in a black alpaca 
+coat, his lank hair parted over a round white face, 
+stepped from under the flap and advanced toward her 
+with a smile.
+
+"Sister, your Saviour knows everything.  Won't you come 
+in and lay your guilt before Him?" he asked 
+insinuatingly, putting his hand on her arm.
+
+Charity started back and flushed.  For a moment she 
+thought the evangelist must have heard a report of the 
+scene at Nettleton; then she saw the absurdity of the 
+supposition.
+
+"I on'y wish't I had any to lay!" she retorted, 
+with one of her fierce flashes of self-derision; 
+and the young man murmured, aghast:  "Oh, Sister, don't 
+speak blasphemy...."
+
+But she had jerked her arm out of his hold, and was 
+running up the branch road, trembling with the fear of 
+meeting a familiar face.  Presently she was out of 
+sight of the village, and climbing into the heart of 
+the forest.  She could not hope to do the fifteen miles 
+to the Mountain that afternoon; but she knew of a place 
+half-way to Hamblin where she could sleep, and where no 
+one would think of looking for her.  It was a little 
+deserted house on a slope in one of the lonely rifts of 
+the hills.  She had seen it once, years before, when 
+she had gone on a nutting expedition to the grove of 
+walnuts below it.  The party had taken refuge in the 
+house from a sudden mountain storm, and she remembered 
+that Ben Sollas, who liked frightening girls, had told 
+them that it was said to be haunted.
+
+She was growing faint and tired, for she had eaten 
+nothing since morning, and was not used to walking so 
+far.  Her head felt light and she sat down for a moment 
+by the roadside.  As she sat there she heard the click 
+of a bicycle-bell, and started up to plunge back into 
+the forest; but before she could move the bicycle 
+had swept around the curve of the road, and Harney, 
+jumping off, was approaching her with outstretched 
+arms.
+
+"Charity! What on earth are you doing here?"
+
+She stared as if he were a vision, so startled by the 
+unexpectedness of his being there that no words came to 
+her.
+
+"Where were you going?  Had you forgotten that I was 
+coming?" he continued, trying to draw her to him; but 
+she shrank from his embrace.
+
+"I was going away--I don't want to see you--I want you 
+should leave me alone," she broke out wildly.
+
+He looked at her and his face grew grave, as though the 
+shadow of a premonition brushed it.
+
+"Going away--from me, Charity?"
+
+"From everybody.  I want you should leave me."
+
+He stood glancing doubtfully up and down the lonely 
+forest road that stretched away into sun-flecked 
+distances.
+
+"Where were you going?'
+
+"Home."
+
+"Home--this way?"
+
+She threw her head back defiantly.  "To my home--up 
+yonder:  to the Mountain."
+
+As she spoke she became aware of a change in his 
+face.  He was no longer listening to her, he was only 
+looking at her, with the passionate absorbed expression 
+she had seen in his eyes after they had kissed on the 
+stand at Nettleton.  He was the new Harney again, the 
+Harney abruptly revealed in that embrace, who seemed so 
+penetrated with the joy of her presence that he was 
+utterly careless of what she was thinking or feeling.
+
+He caught her hands with a laugh.  "How do you suppose 
+I found you?" he said gaily.  He drew out the little 
+packet of his letters and flourished them before her 
+bewildered eyes.
+
+"You dropped them, you imprudent young person--dropped 
+them in the middle of the road, not far from here; and 
+the young man who is running the Gospel tent picked 
+them up just as I was riding by."  He drew back, holding 
+her at arm's length, and scrutinizing her troubled face 
+with the minute searching gaze of his short-sighted 
+eyes.
+
+"Did you really think you could run away from me?  You 
+see you weren't meant to," he said; and before she 
+could answer he had kissed her again, not vehemently, 
+but tenderly, almost fraternally, as if he had 
+guessed her confused pain, and wanted her to know he 
+understood it.  He wound his fingers through hers.
+
+"Come let's walk a little.  I want to talk to you.  
+There's so much to say."
+
+He spoke with a boy's gaiety, carelessly and 
+confidently, as if nothing had happened that could 
+shame or embarrass them; and for a moment, in the 
+sudden relief of her release from lonely pain, she felt 
+herself yielding to his mood.  But he had turned, and 
+was drawing her back along the road by which she had 
+come.  She stiffened herself and stopped short.
+
+"I won't go back," she said.
+
+They looked at each other a moment in silence; then he 
+answered gently:  "Very well:  let's go the other way, 
+then."
+
+She remained motionless, gazing silently at the ground, 
+and he went on:  "Isn't there a house up here somewhere--
+a little abandoned house--you meant to show me some 
+day?" Still she made no answer, and he continued, in 
+the same tone of tender reassurance:  "Let us go there 
+now and sit down and talk quietly."  He took one of the 
+hands that hung by her side and pressed his lips to the 
+palm.  "Do you suppose I'm going to let you send 
+me away?  Do you suppose I don't understand?"
+
+
+
+The little old house--its wooden walls sun-bleached to 
+a ghostly gray--stood in an orchard above the road.  
+The garden palings had fallen, but the broken gate 
+dangled between its posts, and the path to the house 
+was marked by rose-bushes run wild and hanging their 
+small pale blossoms above the crowding grasses.  
+Slender pilasters and an intricate fan-light framed the 
+opening where the door had hung; and the door itself 
+lay rotting in the grass, with an old apple-tree fallen 
+across it.
+
+Inside, also, wind and weather had blanched everything 
+to the same wan silvery tint; the house was as dry and 
+pure as the interior of a long-empty shell.  But it 
+must have been exceptionally well built, for the little 
+rooms had kept something of their human aspect:  the 
+wooden mantels with their neat classic ornaments were 
+in place, and the corners of one ceiling retained a 
+light film of plaster tracery.
+
+Harney had found an old bench at the back door and 
+dragged it into the house.  Charity sat on it, 
+leaning her head against the wall in a state of 
+drowsy lassitude.  He had guessed that she was hungry 
+and thirsty, and had brought her some tablets of 
+chocolate from his bicycle-bag, and filled his 
+drinking-cup from a spring in the orchard; and now he 
+sat at her feet, smoking a cigarette, and looking up at 
+her without speaking.  Outside, the afternoon shadows 
+were lengthening across the grass, and through the 
+empty window-frame that faced her she saw the Mountain 
+thrusting its dark mass against a sultry sunset.  It 
+was time to go.
+
+She stood up, and he sprang to his feet also, and 
+passed his arm through hers with an air of authority.  
+"Now, Charity, you're coming back with me."
+
+She looked at him and shook her head.  "I ain't ever 
+going back.  You don't know."
+
+"What don't I know?" She was silent, and he continued:  
+"What happened on the wharf was horrible--it's natural 
+you should feel as you do.  But it doesn't make any 
+real difference:  you can't be hurt by such things.  You 
+must try to forget.  And you must try to understand 
+that men...men sometimes..."
+
+"I know about men.  That's why."
+
+He coloured a little at the retort, as though it 
+had touched him in a way she did not suspect.
+
+"Well, then...you must know one has to make 
+allowances....He'd been drinking...."
+
+"I know all that, too.  I've seen him so before.  But 
+he wouldn't have dared speak to me that way if he 
+hadn't..."
+
+"Hadn't what?  What do you mean?"
+
+"Hadn't wanted me to be like those other girls...."  She 
+lowered her voice and looked away from him.  "So's 't 
+he wouldn't have to go out...."
+
+Harney stared at her.  For a moment he did not seem to 
+seize her meaning; then his face grew dark.  "The 
+damned hound! The villainous low hound!" His wrath 
+blazed up, crimsoning him to the temples.  "I never 
+dreamed--good God, it's too vile," he broke off, as if 
+his thoughts recoiled from the discovery.
+
+"I won't never go back there," she repeated doggedly.
+
+"No----" he assented.
+
+There was a long interval of silence, during which she 
+imagined that he was searching her face for more 
+light on what she had revealed to him; and a flush of 
+shame swept over her.
+
+"I know the way you must feel about me," she broke out, 
+"...telling you such things...."
+
+But once more, as she spoke, she became aware that he 
+was no longer listening.  He came close and caught her 
+to him as if he were snatching her from some imminent 
+peril:  his impetuous eyes were in hers, and she could 
+feel the hard beat of his heart as he held her against 
+it.
+
+"Kiss me again--like last night," he said, pushing her 
+hair back as if to draw her whole face up into his 
+kiss.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+
+ONE afternoon toward the end of August a group of girls 
+sat in a room at Miss Hatchard's in a gay confusion of 
+flags, turkey-red, blue and white paper muslin, harvest 
+sheaves and illuminated scrolls.
+
+North Dormer was preparing for its Old Home Week.  That 
+form of sentimental decentralization was still in its 
+early stages, and, precedents being few, and the desire 
+to set an example contagious, the matter had become a 
+subject of prolonged and passionate discussion under 
+Miss Hatchard's roof.  The incentive to the celebration 
+had come rather from those who had left North Dormer 
+than from those who had been obliged to stay there, and 
+there was some difficulty in rousing the village to the 
+proper state of enthusiasm.  But Miss Hatchard's pale 
+prim drawing-room was the centre of constant comings 
+and goings from Hepburn, Nettleton, Springfield and 
+even more distant cities; and whenever a visitor 
+arrived he was led across the hall, and treated to 
+a glimpse of the group of girls deep in their pretty 
+preparations.
+
+"All the old names...all the old names...."  Miss 
+Hatchard would be heard, tapping across the hall on her 
+crutches.  "Targatt...Sollas...Fry:  this is Miss Orma 
+Fry sewing the stars on the drapery for the organ-loft.  
+Don't move, girls....and this is Miss Ally Hawes, our 
+cleverest needle-woman...and Miss Charity Royall making 
+our garlands of evergreen....I like the idea of its all 
+being homemade, don't you?  We haven't had to call in 
+any foreign talent:  my young cousin Lucius Harney, the 
+architect--you know he's up here preparing a book on 
+Colonial houses--he's taken the whole thing in hand so 
+cleverly; but you must come and see his sketch for the 
+stage we're going to put up in the Town Hall."
+
+One of the first results of the Old Home Week agitation 
+had, in fact, been the reappearance of Lucius Harney in 
+the village street.  He had been vaguely spoken of as 
+being not far off, but for some weeks past no one had 
+seen him at North Dormer, and there was a recent report 
+of his having left Creston River, where he was said to 
+have been staying, and gone away from the neighbourhood 
+for good.  Soon after Miss Hatchard's return, 
+however, he came back to his old quarters in her house, 
+and began to take a leading part in the planning of the 
+festivities.  He threw himself into the idea with 
+extraordinary good-humour, and was so prodigal of 
+sketches, and so inexhaustible in devices, that he gave 
+an immediate impetus to the rather languid movement, 
+and infected the whole village with his enthusiasm.
+
+"Lucius has such a feeling for the past that he has 
+roused us all to a sense of our privileges," Miss 
+Hatchard would say, lingering on the last word, which 
+was a favourite one.  And before leading her visitor 
+back to the drawing-room she would repeat, for the 
+hundredth time, that she supposed he thought it very 
+bold of little North Dormer to start up and have a Home 
+Week of its own, when so many bigger places hadn't 
+thought of it yet; but that, after all, Associations 
+counted more than the size of the population, didn't 
+they?  And of course North Dormer was so full of 
+Associations...historic, literary (here a filial sigh 
+for Honorius) and ecclesiastical...he knew about the 
+old pewter communion service imported from England in 
+1769, she supposed?  And it was so important, in a 
+wealthy materialistic age, to set the example of 
+reverting to the old ideals, the family and the 
+homestead, and so on.  This peroration usually carried 
+her half-way back across the hall, leaving the girls to 
+return to their interrupted activities.
+
+The day on which Charity Royall was weaving hemlock 
+garlands for the procession was the last before the 
+celebration.  When Miss Hatchard called upon the North 
+Dormer maidenhood to collaborate in the festal 
+preparations Charity had at first held aloof; but it 
+had been made clear to her that her non-appearance 
+might excite conjecture, and, reluctantly, she had 
+joined the other workers.  The girls, at first shy and 
+embarrassed, and puzzled as to the exact nature of the 
+projected commemoration, had soon become interested in 
+the amusing details of their task, and excited by the 
+notice they received.  They would not for the world 
+have missed their afternoons at Miss Hatchard's, and, 
+while they cut out and sewed and draped and pasted, 
+their tongues kept up such an accompaniment to the 
+sewing-machine that Charity's silence sheltered itself 
+unperceived under their chatter.
+
+In spirit she was still almost unconscious of the 
+pleasant stir about her.  Since her return to the 
+red house, on the evening of the day when Harney had 
+overtaken her on her way to the Mountain, she had lived 
+at North Dormer as if she were suspended in the void.  
+She had come back there because Harney, after appearing 
+to agree to the impossibility of her doing so, had 
+ended by persuading her that any other course would be 
+madness.  She had nothing further to fear from Mr. 
+Royall.  Of this she had declared herself sure, though 
+she had failed to add, in his exoneration, that he had 
+twice offered to make her his wife.  Her hatred of him 
+made it impossible, at the moment, for her to say 
+anything that might partly excuse him in Harney's eyes.
+
+Harney, however, once satisfied of her security, had 
+found plenty of reasons for urging her to return.  The 
+first, and the most unanswerable, was that she had 
+nowhere else to go.  But the one on which he laid the 
+greatest stress was that flight would be equivalent to 
+avowal.  If--as was almost inevitable--rumours of the 
+scandalous scene at Nettleton should reach North 
+Dormer, how else would her disappearance be 
+interpreted?  Her guardian had publicly taken away her 
+character, and she immediately vanished from his 
+house.  Seekers after motives could hardly fail to 
+draw an unkind conclusion.  But if she came back at 
+once, and was seen leading her usual life, the incident 
+was reduced to its true proportions, as the outbreak of 
+a drunken old man furious at being surprised in 
+disreputable company.  People would say that Mr. Royall 
+had insulted his ward to justify himself, and the 
+sordid tale would fall into its place in the chronicle 
+of his obscure debaucheries.
+
+Charity saw the force of the argument; but if she 
+acquiesced it was not so much because of that as 
+because it was Harney's wish.  Since that evening in 
+the deserted house she could imagine no reason for 
+doing or not doing anything except the fact that Harney 
+wished or did not wish it.  All her tossing 
+contradictory impulses were merged in a fatalistic 
+acceptance of his will.  It was not that she felt in 
+him any ascendancy of character--there were moments 
+already when she knew she was the stronger--but that 
+all the rest of life had become a mere cloudy rim about 
+the central glory of their passion.  Whenever she 
+stopped thinking about that for a moment she felt as 
+she sometimes did after lying on the grass and staring 
+up too long at the sky; her eyes were so full of 
+light that everything about her was a blur.
+
+Each time that Miss Hatchard, in the course of her 
+periodical incursions into the work-room, dropped an 
+allusion to her young cousin, the architect, the effect 
+was the same on Charity.  The hemlock garland she was 
+wearing fell to her knees and she sat in a kind of 
+trance.  It was so manifestly absurd that Miss Hatchard 
+should talk of Harney in that familiar possessive way, 
+as if she had any claim on him, or knew anything about 
+him.  She, Charity Royall, was the only being on earth 
+who really knew him, knew him from the soles of his 
+feet to the rumpled crest of his hair, knew the 
+shifting lights in his eyes, and the inflexions of his 
+voice, and the things he liked and disliked, and 
+everything there was to know about him, as minutely and 
+yet unconsciously as a child knows the walls of the 
+room it wakes up in every morning.  It was this fact, 
+which nobody about her guessed, or would have 
+understood, that made her life something apart and 
+inviolable, as if nothing had any power to hurt or 
+disturb her as long as her secret was safe.
+
+The room in which the girls sat was the one which had 
+been Harney's bedroom.  He had been sent upstairs, 
+to make room for the Home Week workers; but the 
+furniture had not been moved, and as Charity sat there 
+she had perpetually before her the vision she had 
+looked in on from the midnight garden.  The table at 
+which Harney had sat was the one about which the girls 
+were gathered; and her own seat was near the bed on 
+which she had seen him lying.  Sometimes, when the 
+others were not looking, she bent over as if to pick up 
+something, and laid her cheek for a moment against the 
+pillow.
+
+Toward sunset the girls disbanded.  Their work was 
+done, and the next morning at daylight the draperies 
+and garlands were to be nailed up, and the illuminated 
+scrolls put in place in the Town Hall.  The first 
+guests were to drive over from Hepburn in time for the 
+midday banquet under a tent in Miss Hatchard's field; 
+and after that the ceremonies were to begin.  Miss 
+Hatchard, pale with fatigue and excitement, thanked her 
+young assistants, and stood in the porch, leaning on 
+her crutches and waving a farewell as she watched them 
+troop away down the street.
+
+Charity had slipped off among the first; but at the 
+gate she heard Ally Hawes calling after her, and 
+reluctantly turned.
+
+"Will you come over now and try on your dress?" 
+Ally asked, looking at her with wistful admiration.  "I 
+want to be sure the sleeves don't ruck up the same as 
+they did yesterday."
+
+Charity gazed at her with dazzled eyes.  "Oh, it's 
+lovely," she said, and hastened away without listening 
+to Ally's protest.  She wanted her dress to be as 
+pretty as the other girls'--wanted it, in fact, to 
+outshine the rest, since she was to take part in the 
+"exercises"--but she had no time just then to fix her 
+mind on such matters....
+
+She sped up the street to the library, of which she had 
+the key about her neck.  From the passage at the back 
+she dragged forth a bicycle, and guided it to the edge 
+of the street.  She looked about to see if any of the 
+girls were approaching; but they had drifted away 
+together toward the Town Hall, and she sprang into the 
+saddle and turned toward the Creston road.  There was 
+an almost continual descent to Creston, and with her 
+feet against the pedals she floated through the still 
+evening air like one of the hawks she had often watched 
+slanting downward on motionless wings.  Twenty minutes 
+from the time when she had left Miss Hatchard's door 
+she was turning up the wood-road on which Harney 
+had overtaken her on the day of her flight; and a few 
+minutes afterward she had jumped from her bicycle at 
+the gate of the deserted house.
+
+In the gold-powdered sunset it looked more than ever 
+like some frail shell dried and washed by many seasons; 
+but at the back, whither Charity advanced, drawing her 
+bicycle after her, there were signs of recent 
+habitation.  A rough door made of boards hung in the 
+kitchen doorway, and pushing it open she entered a room 
+furnished in primitive camping fashion.  In the window 
+was a table, also made of boards, with an earthenware 
+jar holding a big bunch of wild asters, two canvas 
+chairs stood near by, and in one corner was a mattress 
+with a Mexican blanket over it.
+
+The room was empty, and leaning her bicycle against the 
+house Charity clambered up the slope and sat down on a 
+rock under an old apple-tree.  The air was perfectly 
+still, and from where she sat she would be able to hear 
+the tinkle of a bicycle-bell a long way down the 
+road....
+
+She was always glad when she got to the little house 
+before Harney.  She liked to have time to take in every 
+detail of its secret sweetness--the shadows of the 
+apple-trees swaying on the grass, the old walnuts 
+rounding their domes below the road, the meadows 
+sloping westward in the afternoon light--before his 
+first kiss blotted it all out.  Everything unrelated to 
+the hours spent in that tranquil place was as faint as 
+the remembrance of a dream.  The only reality was the 
+wondrous unfolding of her new self, the reaching out to 
+the light of all her contracted tendrils.  She had 
+lived all her life among people whose sensibilities 
+seemed to have withered for lack of use; and more 
+wonderful, at first, than Harney's endearments were the 
+words that were a part of them.  She had always thought 
+of love as something confused and furtive, and he made 
+it as bright and open as the summer air.
+
+On the morrow of the day when she had shown him the way 
+to the deserted house he had packed up and left Creston 
+River for Boston; but at the first station he had 
+jumped on the train with a hand-bag and scrambled up 
+into the hills.  For two golden rainless August weeks 
+he had camped in the house, getting eggs and milk from 
+the solitary farm in the valley, where no one knew him, 
+and doing his cooking over a spirit-lamp.  He got up 
+every day with the sun, took a plunge in a brown pool 
+he knew of, and spent long hours lying in the 
+scented hemlock-woods above the house, or wandering 
+along the yoke of the Eagle Ridge, far above the misty 
+blue valleys that swept away east and west between the 
+endless hills.  And in the afternoon Charity came to 
+him.
+
+With part of what was left of her savings she had hired 
+a bicycle for a month, and every day after dinner, as 
+soon as her guardian started to his office, she hurried 
+to the library, got out her bicycle, and flew down the 
+Creston road.  She knew that Mr. Royall, like everyone 
+else in North Dormer, was perfectly aware of her 
+acquisition:  possibly he, as well as the rest of the 
+village, knew what use she made of it.  She did not 
+care:  she felt him to be so powerless that if he had 
+questioned her she would probably have told him the 
+truth.  But they had never spoken to each other since 
+the night on the wharf at Nettleton.  He had returned 
+to North Dormer only on the third day after that 
+encounter, arriving just as Charity and Verena were 
+sitting down to supper.  He had drawn up his chair, 
+taken his napkin from the side-board drawer, pulled it 
+out of its ring, and seated himself as unconcernedly as 
+if he had come in from his usual afternoon session 
+at Carrick Fry's; and the long habit of the household 
+made it seem almost natural that Charity should not so 
+much as raise her eyes when he entered.  She had simply 
+let him understand that her silence was not accidental 
+by leaving the table while he was still eating, and 
+going up without a word to shut herself into her room.  
+After that he formed the habit of talking loudly and 
+genially to Verena whenever Charity was in the room; 
+but otherwise there was no apparent change in their 
+relations.
+
+She did not think connectedly of these things while she 
+sat waiting for Harney, but they remained in her mind 
+as a sullen background against which her short hours 
+with him flamed out like forest fires.  Nothing else 
+mattered, neither the good nor the bad, or what might 
+have seemed so before she knew him.  He had caught her 
+up and carried her away into a new world, from which, 
+at stated hours, the ghost of her came back to perform 
+certain customary acts, but all so thinly and 
+insubstantially that she sometimes wondered that the 
+people she went about among could see her....
+
+Behind the swarthy Mountain the sun had gone down in 
+waveless gold.  From a pasture up the slope a 
+tinkle of cow-bells sounded; a puff of smoke hung over 
+the farm in the valley, trailed on the pure air and was 
+gone.  For a few minutes, in the clear light that is 
+all shadow, fields and woods were outlined with an 
+unreal precision; then the twilight blotted them out, 
+and the little house turned gray and spectral under its 
+wizened apple-branches.
+
+Charity's heart contracted.  The first fall of night 
+after a day of radiance often gave her a sense of 
+hidden menace:  it was like looking out over the world 
+as it would be when love had gone from it.  She 
+wondered if some day she would sit in that same place 
+and watch in vain for her lover....
+
+His bicycle-bell sounded down the lane, and in a minute 
+she was at the gate and his eyes were laughing in hers.  
+They walked back through the long grass, and pushed 
+open the door behind the house.  The room at first 
+seemed quite dark and they had to grope their way in 
+hand in hand.  Through the window-frame the sky looked 
+light by contrast, and above the black mass of asters 
+in the earthen jar one white star glimmered like a 
+moth.
+
+"There was such a lot to do at the last minute," Harney 
+was explaining, "and I had to drive down to 
+Creston to meet someone who has come to stay with my 
+cousin for the show."
+
+He had his arms about her, and his kisses were in her 
+hair and on her lips.  Under his touch things deep down 
+in her struggled to the light and sprang up like 
+flowers in sunshine.  She twisted her fingers into his, 
+and they sat down side by side on the improvised couch.  
+She hardly heard his excuses for being late:  in his 
+absence a thousand doubts tormented her, but as soon as 
+he appeared she ceased to wonder where he had come 
+from, what had delayed him, who had kept him from her.  
+It seemed as if the places he had been in, and the 
+people he had been with, must cease to exist when he 
+left them, just as her own life was suspended in his 
+absence.
+
+He continued, now, to talk to her volubly and gaily, 
+deploring his lateness, grumbling at the demands on his 
+time, and good-humouredly mimicking Miss Hatchard's 
+benevolent agitation.  "She hurried off Miles to ask 
+Mr. Royall to speak at the Town Hall tomorrow:  I didn't 
+know till it was done."  Charity was silent, and he 
+added:  "After all, perhaps it's just as well.  No one 
+else could have done it."
+
+Charity made no answer:  She did not care what part 
+her guardian played in the morrow's ceremonies.  Like 
+all the other figures peopling her meagre world he had 
+grown non-existent to her.  She had even put off hating 
+him.
+
+"Tomorrow I shall only see you from far off," Harney 
+continued.  "But in the evening there'll be the dance 
+in the Town Hall.  Do you want me to promise not to 
+dance with any other girl?"
+
+Any other girl?  Were there any others?  She had 
+forgotten even that peril, so enclosed did he and she 
+seem in their secret world.  Her heart gave a 
+frightened jerk.
+
+"Yes, promise."
+
+He laughed and took her in his arms.  "You goose--not 
+even if they're hideous?"
+
+He pushed the hair from her forehead, bending her face 
+back, as his way was, and leaning over so that his head 
+loomed black between her eyes and the paleness of the 
+sky, in which the white star floated...
+
+
+
+Side by side they sped back along the dark wood-road to 
+the village.  A late moon was rising, full orbed and 
+fiery, turning the mountain ranges from fluid gray 
+to a massive blackness, and making the upper sky so 
+light that the stars looked as faint as their own 
+reflections in water.  At the edge of the wood, half a 
+mile from North Dormer, Harney jumped from his bicycle, 
+took Charity in his arms for a last kiss, and then 
+waited while she went on alone.
+
+They were later than usual, and instead of taking the 
+bicycle to the library she propped it against the back 
+of the wood-shed and entered the kitchen of the red 
+house.  Verena sat there alone; when Charity came in 
+she looked at her with mild impenetrable eyes and then 
+took a plate and a glass of milk from the shelf and set 
+them silently on the table.  Charity nodded her thanks, 
+and sitting down, fell hungrily upon her piece of pie 
+and emptied the glass.  Her face burned with her quick 
+flight through the night, and her eyes were dazzled by 
+the twinkle of the kitchen lamp.  She felt like a 
+night-bird suddenly caught and caged.
+
+"He ain't come back since supper," Verena said.  "He's 
+down to the Hall."
+
+Charity took no notice.  Her soul was still winging 
+through the forest.  She washed her plate and tumbler, 
+and then felt her way up the dark stairs.  When she 
+opened her door a wonder arrested her.  Before going 
+out she had closed her shutters against the afternoon 
+heat, but they had swung partly open, and a bar of 
+moonlight, crossing the room, rested on her bed and 
+showed a dress of China silk laid out on it in virgin 
+whiteness.  Charity had spent more than she could 
+afford on the dress, which was to surpass those of all 
+the other girls; she had wanted to let North Dormer see 
+that she was worthy of Harney's admiration.  Above the 
+dress, folded on the pillow, was the white veil which 
+the young women who took part in the exercises were to 
+wear under a wreath of asters; and beside the veil a 
+pair of slim white satin shoes that Ally had produced 
+from an old trunk in which she stored mysterious 
+treasures.
+
+Charity stood gazing at all the outspread whiteness.  It 
+recalled a vision that had come to her in the night 
+after her first meeting with Harney.  She no longer had 
+such visions...warmer splendours had displaced 
+them...but it was stupid of Ally to have paraded all 
+those white things on her bed, exactly as Hattie 
+Targatt's wedding dress from Springfield had been 
+spread out for the neighbours to see when she married 
+Tom Fry....
+
+Charity took up the satin shoes and looked at them 
+curiously.  By day, no doubt, they would appear a 
+little worn, but in the moonlight they seemed carved of 
+ivory.  She sat down on the floor to try them on, and 
+they fitted her perfectly, though when she stood up she 
+lurched a little on the high heels.  She looked down at 
+her feet, which the graceful mould of the slippers had 
+marvellously arched and narrowed.  She had never seen 
+such shoes before, even in the shop-windows at 
+Nettleton...never, except...yes, once, she had noticed 
+a pair of the same shape on Annabel Balch.
+
+A blush of mortification swept over her.  Ally 
+sometimes sewed for Miss Balch when that brilliant 
+being descended on North Dormer, and no doubt she 
+picked up presents of cast-off clothing:  the treasures 
+in the mysterious trunk all came from the people she 
+worked for; there could be no doubt that the white 
+slippers were Annabel Balch's....
+
+As she stood there, staring down moodily at her feet, 
+she heard the triple click-click-click of a bicycle-
+bell under her window.  It was Harney's secret signal 
+as he passed on his way home.  She stumbled to the 
+window on her high heels, flung open the shutters and 
+leaned out.  He waved to her and sped by, his 
+black shadow dancing merrily ahead of him down the 
+empty moonlit road; and she leaned there watching him 
+till he vanished under the Hatchard spruces.
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+
+THE Town Hall was crowded and exceedingly hot.  As 
+Charity marched into it third in the white muslin file 
+headed by Orma Fry, she was conscious mainly of the 
+brilliant effect of the wreathed columns framing the 
+green-carpeted stage toward which she was moving; and 
+of the unfamiliar faces turning from the front rows to 
+watch the advance of the procession.
+
+But it was all a bewildering blur of eyes and colours 
+till she found herself standing at the back of the 
+stage, her great bunch of asters and goldenrod held 
+well in front of her, and answering the nervous glance 
+of Lambert Sollas, the organist from Mr. Miles's 
+church, who had come up from Nettleton to play the 
+harmonium and sat behind it, his conductor's eye 
+running over the fluttered girls.
+
+A moment later Mr. Miles, pink and twinkling, emerged 
+from the background, as if buoyed up on his broad white 
+gown, and briskly dominated the bowed heads in the 
+front rows.  He prayed energetically and briefly 
+and then retired, and a fierce nod from Lambert Sollas 
+warned the girls that they were to follow at once with 
+"Home, Sweet Home."  It was a joy to Charity to sing:  it 
+seemed as though, for the first time, her secret 
+rapture might burst from her and flash its defiance at 
+the world.  All the glow in her blood, the breath of 
+the summer earth, the rustle of the forest, the fresh 
+call of birds at sunrise, and the brooding midday 
+languors, seemed to pass into her untrained voice, 
+lifted and led by the sustaining chorus.
+
+And then suddenly the song was over, and after an 
+uncertain pause, during which Miss Hatchard's pearl-
+grey gloves started a furtive signalling down the hall, 
+Mr. Royall, emerging in turn, ascended the steps of the 
+stage and appeared behind the flower-wreathed desk.  He 
+passed close to Charity, and she noticed that his 
+gravely set face wore the look of majesty that used to 
+awe and fascinate her childhood.  His frock-coat had 
+been carefully brushed and ironed, and the ends of his 
+narrow black tie were so nearly even that the tying 
+must have cost him a protracted struggle.  His 
+appearance struck her all the more because it was the 
+first time she had looked him full in the face since 
+the night at Nettleton, and nothing in his grave 
+and impressive demeanour revealed a trace of the 
+lamentable figure on the wharf.
+
+He stood a moment behind the desk, resting his finger-
+tips against it, and bending slightly toward his 
+audience; then he straightened himself and began.
+
+At first she paid no heed to what he was saying:  only 
+fragments of sentences, sonorous quotations, allusions 
+to illustrious men, including the obligatory tribute to 
+Honorius Hatchard, drifted past her inattentive ears.  
+She was trying to discover Harney among the notable 
+people in the front row; but he was nowhere near Miss 
+Hatchard, who, crowned by a pearl-grey hat that matched 
+her gloves, sat just below the desk, supported by Mrs. 
+Miles and an important-looking unknown lady.  Charity 
+was near one end of the stage, and from where she sat 
+the other end of the first row of seats was cut off by 
+the screen of foliage masking the harmonium.  The 
+effort to see Harney around the corner of the screen, 
+or through its interstices, made her unconscious of 
+everything else; but the effort was unsuccessful, and 
+gradually she found her attention arrested by her 
+guardian's discourse.
+
+She had never heard him speak in public before, 
+but she was familiar with the rolling music of his 
+voice when he read aloud, or held forth to the 
+selectmen about the stove at Carrick Fry's.  Today his 
+inflections were richer and graver than she had ever 
+known them:  he spoke slowly, with pauses that seemed to 
+invite his hearers to silent participation in his 
+thought; and Charity perceived a light of response in 
+their faces.
+
+He was nearing the end of his address..."Most of you," 
+he said, "most of you who have returned here today, to 
+take contact with this little place for a brief hour, 
+have come only on a pious pilgrimage, and will go back 
+presently to busy cities and lives full of larger 
+duties.  But that is not the only way of coming back to 
+North Dormer.  Some of us, who went out from here in 
+our youth...went out, like you, to busy cities and 
+larger duties...have come back in another way--come 
+back for good.  I am one of those, as many of you 
+know...."  He paused, and there was a sense of suspense 
+in the listening hall.  "My history is without 
+interest, but it has its lesson:  not so much for those 
+of you who have already made your lives in other 
+places, as for the young men who are perhaps 
+planning even now to leave these quiet hills and go 
+down into the struggle.  Things they cannot foresee may 
+send some of those young men back some day to the 
+little township and the old homestead:  they may come 
+back for good...."  He looked about him, and repeated 
+gravely:  "For GOOD.  There's the point I want to 
+make...North Dormer is a poor little place, almost lost 
+in a mighty landscape:  perhaps, by this time, it might 
+have been a bigger place, and more in scale with the 
+landscape, if those who had to come back had come with 
+that feeling in their minds--that they wanted to come 
+back for GOOD...and not for bad...or just for 
+indifference....
+
+"Gentlemen, let us look at things as they are.  Some of 
+us have come back to our native town because we'd 
+failed to get on elsewhere.  One way or other, things 
+had gone wrong with us...what we'd dreamed of hadn't 
+come true.  But the fact that we had failed elsewhere 
+is no reason why we should fail here.  Our very 
+experiments in larger places, even if they were 
+unsuccessful, ought to have helped us to make North 
+Dormer a larger place...and you young men who are 
+preparing even now to follow the call of ambition, and 
+turn your back on the old homes--well, let me say 
+this to you, that if ever you do come back to them it's 
+worth while to come back to them for their good....And 
+to do that, you must keep on loving them while you're 
+away from them; and even if you come back against your 
+will--and thinking it's all a bitter mistake of Fate or 
+Providence--you must try to make the best of it, and to 
+make the best of your old town; and after a while--
+well, ladies and gentlemen, I give you my recipe for 
+what it's worth; after a while, I believe you'll be 
+able to say, as I can say today:  'I'm glad I'm here.'  
+Believe me, all of you, the best way to help the places 
+we live in is to be glad we live there."
+
+He stopped, and a murmur of emotion and surprise ran 
+through the audience.  It was not in the least what 
+they had expected, but it moved them more than what 
+they had expected would have moved them.  "Hear, hear!" 
+a voice cried out in the middle of the hall.  An 
+outburst of cheers caught up the cry, and as they 
+subsided Charity heard Mr. Miles saying to someone near 
+him:  "That was a MAN talking----" He wiped his 
+spectacles.
+
+Mr. Royall had stepped back from the desk, and 
+taken his seat in the row of chairs in front of 
+the harmonium.  A dapper white-haired gentleman--a 
+distant Hatchard--succeeded him behind the goldenrod, 
+and began to say beautiful things about the old oaken 
+bucket, patient white-haired mothers, and where the 
+boys used to go nutting...and Charity began again to 
+search for Harney....
+
+Suddenly Mr. Royall pushed back his seat, and one of 
+the maple branches in front of the harmonium collapsed 
+with a crash.  It uncovered the end of the first row 
+and in one of the seats Charity saw Harney, and in the 
+next a lady whose face was turned toward him, and 
+almost hidden by the brim of her drooping hat.  Charity 
+did not need to see the face.  She knew at a glance the 
+slim figure, the fair hair heaped up under the hat-
+brim, the long pale wrinkled gloves with bracelets 
+slipping over them.  At the fall of the branch Miss 
+Balch turned her head toward the stage, and in her 
+pretty thin-lipped smile there lingered the reflection 
+of something her neighbour had been whispering to 
+her....
+
+Someone came forward to replace the fallen branch, and 
+Miss Balch and Harney were once more hidden.  But to 
+Charity the vision of their two faces had blotted 
+out everything.  In a flash they had shown her the bare 
+reality of her situation.  Behind the frail screen of 
+her lover's caresses was the whole inscrutable mystery 
+of his life:  his relations with other people--with 
+other women--his opinions, his prejudices, his 
+principles, the net of influences and interests and 
+ambitions in which every man's life is entangled.  Of 
+all these she knew nothing, except what he had told her 
+of his architectural aspirations.  She had always dimly 
+guessed him to be in touch with important people, 
+involved in complicated relations--but she felt it all 
+to be so far beyond her understanding that the whole 
+subject hung like a luminous mist on the farthest verge 
+of her thoughts.  In the foreground, hiding all else, 
+there was the glow of his presence, the light and 
+shadow of his face, the way his short-sighted eyes, at 
+her approach, widened and deepened as if to draw her 
+down into them; and, above all, the flush of youth and 
+tenderness in which his words enclosed her.
+
+Now she saw him detached from her, drawn back into the 
+unknown, and whispering to another girl things that 
+provoked the same smile of mischievous complicity he 
+had so often called to her own lips.  The feeling 
+possessing her was not one of jealousy:  she was too 
+sure of his love.  It was rather a terror of the 
+unknown, of all the mysterious attractions that must 
+even now be dragging him away from her, and of her own 
+powerlessness to contend with them.
+
+She had given him all she had--but what was it compared 
+to the other gifts life held for him?  She understood 
+now the case of girls like herself to whom this kind of 
+thing happened.  They gave all they had, but their all 
+was not enough:  it could not buy more than a few 
+moments....
+
+The heat had grown suffocating--she felt it descend on 
+her in smothering waves, and the faces in the crowded 
+hall began to dance like the pictures flashed on the 
+screen at Nettleton.  For an instant Mr. Royall's 
+countenance detached itself from the general blur.  He 
+had resumed his place in front of the harmonium, and 
+sat close to her, his eyes on her face; and his look 
+seemed to pierce to the very centre of her confused 
+sensations....A feeling of physical sickness rushed 
+over her--and then deadly apprehension.  The light of 
+the fiery hours in the little house swept back on her 
+in a glare of fear....
+
+She forced herself to look away from her guardian, 
+and became aware that the oratory of the Hatchard 
+cousin had ceased, and that Mr. Miles was again 
+flapping his wings.  Fragments of his peroration 
+floated through her bewildered brain...."A rich harvest 
+of hallowed memories....A sanctified hour to which, in 
+moments of trial, your thoughts will prayerfully 
+return....And now, O Lord, let us humbly and fervently 
+give thanks for this blessed day of reunion, here in 
+the old home to which we have come back from so far.  
+Preserve it to us, O Lord, in times to come, in all its 
+homely sweetness--in the kindliness and wisdom of its 
+old people, in the courage and industry of its young 
+men, in the piety and purity of this group of innocent 
+girls----" He flapped a white wing in their direction, 
+and at the same moment Lambert Sollas, with his fierce 
+nod, struck the opening bars of "Auld Lang 
+Syne."...Charity stared straight ahead of her and then, 
+dropping her flowers, fell face downward at Mr. 
+Royall's feet.
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+
+NORTH DORMER'S celebration naturally included the 
+villages attached to its township, and the festivities 
+were to radiate over the whole group, from Dormer and 
+the two Crestons to Hamblin, the lonely hamlet on the 
+north slope of the Mountain where the first snow always 
+fell.  On the third day there were speeches and 
+ceremonies at Creston and Creston River; on the fourth 
+the principal performers were to be driven in buck-
+boards to Dormer and Hamblin.
+
+It was on the fourth day that Charity returned for the 
+first time to the little house.  She had not seen 
+Harney alone since they had parted at the wood's edge 
+the night before the celebrations began.  In the 
+interval she had passed through many moods, but for the 
+moment the terror which had seized her in the Town Hall 
+had faded to the edge of consciousness.  She had 
+fainted because the hall was stiflingly hot, and 
+because the speakers had gone on and on....Several 
+other people had been affected by the heat, and 
+had had to leave before the exercises were over.  There 
+had been thunder in the air all the afternoon, and 
+everyone said afterward that something ought to have 
+been done to ventilate the hall....
+
+At the dance that evening--where she had gone 
+reluctantly, and only because she feared to stay away, 
+she had sprung back into instant reassurance.  As soon 
+as she entered she had seen Harney waiting for her, and 
+he had come up with kind gay eyes, and swept her off in 
+a waltz.  Her feet were full of music, and though her 
+only training had been with the village youths she had 
+no difficulty in tuning her steps to his.  As they 
+circled about the floor all her vain fears dropped from 
+her, and she even forgot that she was probably dancing 
+in Annabel Balch's slippers.
+
+When the waltz was over Harney, with a last hand-clasp, 
+left her to meet Miss Hatchard and Miss Balch, who were 
+just entering.  Charity had a moment of anguish as Miss 
+Balch appeared; but it did not last.  The triumphant 
+fact of her own greater beauty, and of Harney's sense 
+of it, swept her apprehensions aside.  Miss Balch, in 
+an unbecoming dress, looked sallow and pinched, and 
+Charity fancied there was a worried expression in 
+her pale-lashed eyes.  She took a seat near Miss 
+Hatchard and it was presently apparent that she did not 
+mean to dance.  Charity did not dance often either.  
+Harney explained to her that Miss Hatchard had begged 
+him to give each of the other girls a turn; but he went 
+through the form of asking Charity's permission each 
+time he led one out, and that gave her a sense of 
+secret triumph even completer than when she was 
+whirling about the room with him.
+
+She was thinking of all this as she waited for him in 
+the deserted house.  The late afternoon was sultry, and 
+she had tossed aside her hat and stretched herself at 
+full length on the Mexican blanket because it was 
+cooler indoors than under the trees.  She lay with her 
+arms folded beneath her head, gazing out at the shaggy 
+shoulder of the Mountain.  The sky behind it was full 
+of the splintered glories of the descending sun, and 
+before long she expected to hear Harney's bicycle-bell 
+in the lane.  He had bicycled to Hamblin, instead of 
+driving there with his cousin and her friends, so that 
+he might be able to make his escape earlier and stop on 
+the way back at the deserted house, which was on 
+the road to Hamblin.  They had smiled together at the 
+joke of hearing the crowded buck-boards roll by on the 
+return, while they lay close in their hiding above the 
+road.  Such childish triumphs still gave her a sense of 
+reckless security.
+
+Nevertheless she had not wholly forgotten the vision of 
+fear that had opened before her in the Town Hall.  The 
+sense of lastingness was gone from her and every moment 
+with Harney would now be ringed with doubt.
+
+The Mountain was turning purple against a fiery sunset 
+from which it seemed to be divided by a knife-edge of 
+quivering light; and above this wall of flame the whole 
+sky was a pure pale green, like some cold mountain lake 
+in shadow.  Charity lay gazing up at it, and watching 
+for the first white star....
+
+Her eyes were still fixed on the upper reaches of the 
+sky when she became aware that a shadow had flitted 
+across the glory-flooded room:  it must have been Harney 
+passing the window against the sunset....She half 
+raised herself, and then dropped back on her folded 
+arms.  The combs had slipped from her hair, and it 
+trailed in a rough dark rope across her breast.  She 
+lay quite still, a sleepy smile on her lips, her 
+indolent lids half shut.  There was a fumbling at the 
+padlock and she called out:  "Have you slipped the 
+chain?" The door opened, and Mr. Royall walked into the 
+room.
+
+She started up, sitting back against the cushions, and 
+they looked at each other without speaking.  Then Mr. 
+Royall closed the door-latch and advanced a few steps.
+
+Charity jumped to her feet.  "What have you come for?" 
+she stammered.
+
+The last glare of the sunset was on her guardian's 
+face, which looked ash-coloured in the yellow radiance.
+
+"Because I knew you were here," he answered simply.
+
+She had become conscious of the hair hanging loose 
+across her breast, and it seemed as though she could 
+not speak to him till she had set herself in order.  She 
+groped for her comb, and tried to fasten up the coil.  
+Mr. Royall silently watched her.
+
+"Charity," he said, "he'll be here in a minute.  Let me 
+talk to you first."
+
+"You've got no right to talk to me.  I can do what I 
+please."
+
+"Yes.  What is it you mean to do?"
+
+"I needn't answer that, or anything else."
+
+He had glanced away, and stood looking curiously about 
+the illuminated room.  Purple asters and red maple-
+leaves filled the jar on the table; on a shelf against 
+the wall stood a lamp, the kettle, a little pile of 
+cups and saucers.  The canvas chairs were grouped 
+about the table.
+
+"So this is where you meet," he said.
+
+His tone was quiet and controlled, and the fact 
+disconcerted her.  She had been ready to give him 
+violence for violence, but this calm acceptance of 
+things as they were left her without a weapon.
+
+"See here, Charity--you're always telling me I've got 
+no rights over you.  There might be two ways of looking 
+at that--but I ain't going to argue it.  All I know is 
+I raised you as good as I could, and meant fairly by 
+you always except once, for a bad half-hour.  There's 
+no justice in weighing that half-hour against the rest, 
+and you know it.  If you hadn't, you wouldn't have gone 
+on living under my roof.  Seems to me the fact of your 
+doing that gives me some sort of a right; the right to 
+try and keep you out of trouble.  I'm not asking you to 
+consider any other."
+
+She listened in silence, and then gave a slight 
+laugh.  "Better wait till I'm in trouble," she 
+said.  He paused a moment, as if weighing her words.  
+"Is that all your answer?"
+
+"Yes, that's all."
+
+"Well--I'll wait."
+
+He turned away slowly, but as he did so the thing she 
+had been waiting for happened; the door opened again 
+and Harney entered.
+
+He stopped short with a face of astonishment, and then, 
+quickly controlling himself, went up to Mr. Royall with 
+a frank look.
+
+"Have you come to see me, sir?" he said coolly, 
+throwing his cap on the table with an air of 
+proprietorship.
+
+Mr. Royall again looked slowly about the room; then his 
+eyes turned to the young man.
+
+"Is this your house?" he inquired.
+
+Harney laughed:  "Well--as much as it's anybody's.  I 
+come here to sketch occasionally."
+
+"And to receive Miss Royall's visits?"
+
+"When she does me the honour----"
+
+"Is this the home you propose to bring her to when you 
+get married?"
+
+There was an immense and oppressive silence.  Charity, 
+quivering with anger, started forward, and then 
+stood silent, too humbled for speech.  Harney's eyes 
+had dropped under the old man's gaze; but he raised 
+them presently, and looking steadily at Mr. Royall, 
+said:  "Miss Royall is not a child.  Isn't it rather 
+absurd to talk of her as if she were?  I believe she 
+considers herself free to come and go as she pleases, 
+without any questions from anyone."  He paused and 
+added:  "I'm ready to answer any she wishes to ask me."
+
+Mr. Royall turned to her.  "Ask him when he's going to 
+marry you, then----" There was another silence, and he 
+laughed in his turn--a broken laugh, with a scraping 
+sound in it.  "You darsn't!" he shouted out with sudden 
+passion.  He went close up to Charity, his right arm 
+lifted, not in menace but in tragic exhortation.
+
+"You darsn't, and you know it--and you know why!" He 
+swung back again upon the young man.  "And you know why 
+you ain't asked her to marry you, and why you don't 
+mean to.  It's because you hadn't need to; nor any 
+other man either.  I'm the only one that was fool 
+enough not to know that; and I guess nobody'll repeat 
+my mistake--not in Eagle County, anyhow.  They all know 
+what she is, and what she came from.  They all know her 
+mother was a woman of the town from Nettleton, 
+that followed one of those Mountain fellows up to his 
+place and lived there with him like a heathen.  I saw 
+her there sixteen years ago, when I went to bring this 
+child down.  I went to save her from the kind of life 
+her mother was leading--but I'd better have left her in 
+the kennel she came from...."  He paused and stared 
+darkly at the two young people, and out beyond them, at 
+the menacing Mountain with its rim of fire; then he sat 
+down beside the table on which they had so often spread 
+their rustic supper, and covered his face with his 
+hands.  Harney leaned in the window, a frown on his 
+face:  he was twirling between his fingers a small 
+package that dangled from a loop of string....Charity 
+heard Mr. Royall draw a hard breath or two, and his 
+shoulders shook a little.  Presently he stood up and 
+walked across the room.  He did not look again at the 
+young people:  they saw him feel his way to the door and 
+fumble for the latch; and then he went out into the 
+darkness.
+
+After he had gone there was a long silence.  Charity 
+waited for Harney to speak; but he seemed at first not 
+to find anything to say.  At length he broke out 
+irrelevantly:  "I wonder how he found out?"
+
+She made no answer and he tossed down the package he 
+had been holding, and went up to her.
+
+"I'm so sorry, dear...that this should have 
+happened...."
+
+She threw her head back proudly.  "I ain't ever been 
+sorry--not a minute!"
+
+"No."
+
+She waited to be caught into his arms, but he turned 
+away from her irresolutely.  The last glow was gone 
+from behind the Mountain.  Everything in the room had 
+turned grey and indistinct, and an autumnal dampness 
+crept up from the hollow below the orchard, laying its 
+cold touch on their flushed faces.  Harney walked the 
+length of the room, and then turned back and sat down 
+at the table.
+
+"Come," he said imperiously.
+
+She sat down beside him, and he untied the string about 
+the package and spread out a pile of sandwiches.
+
+"I stole them from the love-feast at Hamblin," he said 
+with a laugh, pushing them over to her.  She laughed 
+too, and took one, and began to eat
+
+"Didn't you make the tea?"
+
+"No," she said.  "I forgot----"
+
+"Oh, well--it's too late to boil the water now."  He 
+said nothing more, and sitting opposite to each other 
+they went on silently eating the sandwiches.  Darkness 
+had descended in the little room, and Harney's face was 
+a dim blur to Charity.  Suddenly he leaned across the 
+table and laid his hand on hers.
+
+"I shall have to go off for a while--a month or two, 
+perhaps--to arrange some things; and then I'll come 
+back...and we'll get married."
+
+His voice seemed like a stranger's:  nothing was left in 
+it of the vibrations she knew.  Her hand lay inertly 
+under his, and she left it there, and raised her head, 
+trying to answer him.  But the words died in her 
+throat.  They sat motionless, in their attitude of 
+confident endearment, as if some strange death had 
+surprised them.  At length Harney sprang to his feet 
+with a slight shiver.  "God! it's damp--we couldn't 
+have come here much longer."  He went to the shelf, took 
+down a tin candle-stick and lit the candle; then he 
+propped an unhinged shutter against the empty window-
+frame and put the candle on the table.  It threw a 
+queer shadow on his frowning forehead, and made the 
+smile on his lips a grimace.
+
+"But it's been good, though, hasn't it, 
+Charity?...What's the matter--why do you stand there 
+staring at me?  Haven't the days here been good?" He 
+went up to her and caught her to his breast.  "And 
+there'll be others--lots of others...jollier...even 
+jollier...won't there, darling?"
+
+He turned her head back, feeling for the curve of her 
+throat below the ear, and kissing here there, and on 
+the hair and eyes and lips.  She clung to him 
+desperately, and as he drew her to his knees on the 
+couch she felt as if they were being sucked down 
+together into some bottomless abyss.
+
+
+
+XV
+
+
+That night, as usual, they said good-bye at the wood's 
+edge.
+
+Harney was to leave the next morning early.  He asked 
+Charity to say nothing of their plans till his return, 
+and, strangely even to herself, she was glad of the 
+postponement.  A leaden weight of shame hung on her, 
+benumbing every other sensation, and she bade him good-
+bye with hardly a sign of emotion.  His reiterated 
+promises to return seemed almost wounding.  She had no 
+doubt that he intended to come back; her doubts were 
+far deeper and less definable.
+
+Since the fanciful vision of the future that had 
+flitted through her imagination at their first meeting 
+she had hardly ever thought of his marrying her.  She 
+had not had to put the thought from her mind; it had 
+not been there.  If ever she looked ahead she felt 
+instinctively that the gulf between them was too deep, 
+and that the bridge their passion had flung across it 
+was as insubstantial as a rainbow.  But she seldom 
+looked ahead; each day was so rich that it absorbed 
+her....Now her first feeling was that everything would 
+be different, and that she herself would be a different 
+being to Harney.  Instead of remaining separate and 
+absolute, she would be compared with other people, and 
+unknown things would be expected of her.  She was too 
+proud to be afraid, but the freedom of her spirit 
+drooped....
+
+Harney had not fixed any date for his return; he had 
+said he would have to look about first, and settle 
+things.  He had promised to write as soon as there was 
+anything definite to say, and had left her his address, 
+and asked her to write also.  But the address 
+frightened her.  It was in New York, at a club with a 
+long name in Fifth Avenue:  it seemed to raise an 
+insurmountable barrier between them.  Once or twice, in 
+the first days, she got out a sheet of paper, and sat 
+looking at it, and trying to think what to say; but she 
+had the feeling that her letter would never reach its 
+destination.  She had never written to anyone farther 
+away than Hepburn.
+
+Harney's first letter came after he had been gone about 
+ten days.  It was tender but grave, and bore no 
+resemblance to the gay little notes he had sent her by 
+the freckled boy from Creston River.  He spoke 
+positively of his intention of coming back, but named 
+no date, and reminded Charity of their agreement that 
+their plans should not be divulged till he had had time 
+to "settle things."  When that would be he could not yet 
+foresee; but she could count on his returning as soon 
+as the way was clear.
+
+She read the letter with a strange sense of its coming 
+from immeasurable distances and having lost most of its 
+meaning on the way; and in reply she sent him a 
+coloured postcard of Creston Falls, on which she wrote:  
+"With love from Charity."  She felt the pitiful 
+inadequacy of this, and understood, with a sense of 
+despair, that in her inability to express herself she 
+must give him an impression of coldness and reluctance; 
+but she could not help it.  She could not forget that 
+he had never spoken to her of marriage till Mr. Royall 
+had forced the word from his lips; though she had not 
+had the strength to shake off the spell that bound her 
+to him she had lost all spontaneity of feeling, and 
+seemed to herself to be passively awaiting a fate she 
+could not avert.
+
+She had not seen Mr. Royall on her return to the 
+red house.  The morning after her parting from Harney, 
+when she came down from her room, Verena told her that 
+her guardian had gone off to Worcester and Portland.  
+It was the time of year when he usually reported to the 
+insurance agencies he represented, and there was 
+nothing unusual in his departure except its suddenness.  
+She thought little about him, except to be glad he was 
+not there....
+
+She kept to herself for the first days, while North 
+Dormer was recovering from its brief plunge into 
+publicity, and the subsiding agitation left her 
+unnoticed.  But the faithful Ally could not be long 
+avoided.  For the first few days after the close of the 
+Old Home Week festivities Charity escaped her by 
+roaming the hills all day when she was not at her post 
+in the library; but after that a period of rain set in, 
+and one pouring afternoon, Ally, sure that she would 
+find her friend indoors, came around to the red house 
+with her sewing.
+
+The two girls sat upstairs in Charity's room.  Charity, 
+her idle hands in her lap, was sunk in a kind of leaden 
+dream, through which she was only half-conscious of 
+Ally, who sat opposite her in a low rush-bottomed 
+chair, her work pinned to her knee, and her thin lips 
+pursed up as she bent above it.
+
+"It was my idea running a ribbon through the gauging," 
+she said proudly, drawing back to contemplate the 
+blouse she was trimming.  "It's for Miss Balch:  she was 
+awfully pleased."  She paused and then added, with a 
+queer tremor in her piping voice:  "I darsn't have told 
+her I got the idea from one I saw on Julia."
+
+Charity raised her eyes listlessly.  "Do you still see 
+Julia sometimes?"
+
+Ally reddened, as if the allusion had escaped her 
+unintentionally.  "Oh, it was a long time ago I seen 
+her with those gaugings...."
+
+Silence fell again, and Ally presently continued:  "Miss 
+Balch left me a whole lot of things to do over this 
+time."
+
+"Why--has she gone?" Charity inquired with an inner 
+start of apprehension.
+
+"Didn't you know?  She went off the morning after they 
+had the celebration at Hamblin.  I seen her drive by 
+early with Mr. Harney."
+
+There was another silence, measured by the steady tick 
+of the rain against the window, and, at intervals, by 
+the snipping sound of Ally's scissors.
+
+Ally gave a meditative laugh.  "Do you know what 
+she told me before she went away?  She told me she was 
+going to send for me to come over to Springfield and 
+make some things for her wedding."
+
+Charity again lifted her heavy lids and stared at 
+Ally's pale pointed face, which moved to and fro above 
+her moving fingers.
+
+"Is she going to get married?"
+
+Ally let the blouse sink to her knee, and sat gazing at 
+it.  Her lips seemed suddenly dry, and she moistened 
+them a little with her tongue.
+
+"Why, I presume so...from what she said....Didn't you 
+know?"
+
+"Why should I know?"
+
+Ally did not answer.  She bent above the blouse, and 
+began picking out a basting thread with the point of 
+the scissors.
+
+"Why should I know?" Charity repeated harshly.
+
+"I didn't know but what...folks here say she's engaged 
+to Mr. Harney."
+
+Charity stood up with a laugh, and stretched her arms 
+lazily above her head.
+
+"If all the people got married that folks say are 
+going to you'd have your time full making wedding-
+dresses," she said ironically.
+
+"Why--don't you believe it?" Ally ventured.
+
+"It would not make it true if I did--nor prevent it if 
+I didn't."
+
+"That's so....I only know I seen her crying the night 
+of the party because her dress didn't set right.  That 
+was why she wouldn't dance any...."
+
+Charity stood absently gazing down at the lacy garment 
+on Ally's knee.  Abruptly she stooped and snatched it 
+up.
+
+"Well, I guess she won't dance in this either," she 
+said with sudden violence; and grasping the blouse in 
+her strong young hands she tore it in two and flung the 
+tattered bits to the floor.
+
+"Oh, Charity----" Ally cried, springing up.  For a long 
+interval the two girls faced each other across the 
+ruined garment.  Ally burst into tears.
+
+"Oh, what'll I say to her?  What'll I do?  It was real 
+lace!" she wailed between her piping sobs.
+
+Charity glared at her unrelentingly.  "You'd oughtn't 
+to have brought it here," she said, breathing quickly.  
+"I hate other people's clothes--it's just as if they 
+was there themselves."  The two stared at each other 
+again over this avowal, till Charity brought out, 
+in a gasp of anguish:  "Oh, go--go--go--or I'll hate you 
+too...."
+
+When Ally left her, she fell sobbing across her bed.
+
+The long storm was followed by a north-west gale, and 
+when it was over, the hills took on their first umber 
+tints, the sky grew more densely blue, and the big 
+white clouds lay against the hills like snow-banks.  The 
+first crisp maple-leaves began to spin across Miss 
+Hatchard's lawn, and the Virginia creeper on the 
+Memorial splashed the white porch with scarlet.  It was 
+a golden triumphant September.  Day by day the flame of 
+the Virginia creeper spread to the hillsides in wider 
+waves of carmine and crimson, the larches glowed like 
+the thin yellow halo about a fire, the maples blazed 
+and smouldered, and the black hemlocks turned to indigo 
+against the incandescence of the forest.
+
+The nights were cold, with a dry glitter of stars so 
+high up that they seemed smaller and more vivid.  
+Sometimes, as Charity lay sleepless on her bed through 
+the long hours, she felt as though she were bound to 
+those wheeling fires and swinging with them around the 
+great black vault.  At night she planned many 
+things...it was then she wrote to Harney.  But the 
+letters were never put on paper, for she did not know 
+how to express what she wanted to tell him.  So she 
+waited.  Since her talk with Ally she had felt sure 
+that Harney was engaged to Annabel Balch, and that the 
+process of "settling things" would involve the breaking 
+of this tie.  Her first rage of jealousy over, she felt 
+no fear on this score.  She was still sure that Harney 
+would come back, and she was equally sure that, for the 
+moment at least, it was she whom he loved and not Miss 
+Balch.  Yet the girl, no less, remained a rival, since 
+she represented all the things that Charity felt 
+herself most incapable of understanding or achieving.  
+Annabel Balch was, if not the girl Harney ought to 
+marry, at least the kind of girl it would be natural 
+for him to marry.  Charity had never been able to 
+picture herself as his wife; had never been able to 
+arrest the vision and follow it out in its daily 
+consequences; but she could perfectly imagine Annabel 
+Balch in that relation to him.
+
+The more she thought of these things the more the sense 
+of fatality weighed on her:  she felt the uselessness of 
+struggling against the circumstances.  She had never 
+known how to adapt herself; she could only break 
+and tear and destroy.  The scene with Ally had left her 
+stricken with shame at her own childish savagery.  What 
+would Harney have thought if he had witnessed it?  But 
+when she turned the incident over in her puzzled mind 
+she could not imagine what a civilized person would 
+have done in her place.  She felt herself too unequally 
+pitted against unknown forces....
+
+At length this feeling moved her to sudden action.  She 
+took a sheet of letter paper from Mr. Royall's office, 
+and sitting by the kitchen lamp, one night after Verena 
+had gone to bed, began her first letter to Harney.  It 
+was very short:
+
+
+I want you should marry Annabel Balch if you promised 
+to.  I think maybe you were afraid I'd feel too bad 
+about it.  I feel I'd rather you acted right.  
+                   Your loving
+                               CHARITY.
+
+
+She posted the letter early the next morning, and for a 
+few days her heart felt strangely light.  Then she 
+began to wonder why she received no answer.
+
+One day as she sat alone in the library pondering these 
+things the walls of books began to spin around her, and 
+the rosewood desk to rock under her elbows.  The 
+dizziness was followed by a wave of nausea like that 
+she had felt on the day of the exercises in the Town 
+Hall.  But the Town Hall had been crowded and 
+stiflingly hot, and the library was empty, and so 
+chilly that she had kept on her jacket.  Five minutes 
+before she had felt perfectly well; and now it seemed 
+as if she were going to die.  The bit of lace at which 
+she still languidly worked dropped from her fingers, 
+and the steel crochet hook clattered to the floor.  She 
+pressed her temples hard between her damp hands, 
+steadying herself against the desk while the wave of 
+sickness swept over her.  Little by little it subsided, 
+and after a few minutes she stood up, shaken and 
+terrified, groped for her hat, and stumbled out into 
+the air.  But the whole sunlit autumn whirled, reeled 
+and roared around her as she dragged herself along the 
+interminable length of the road home.
+
+As she approached the red house she saw a buggy 
+standing at the door, and her heart gave a leap.  But 
+it was only Mr. Royall who got out, his travelling-bag 
+in hand.  He saw her coming, and waited in the porch.  
+She was conscious that he was looking at her intently, 
+as if there was something strange in her appearance, 
+and she threw back her head with a desperate 
+effort at ease.  Their eyes met, and she said:  "You 
+back?" as if nothing had happened, and he answered:  
+"Yes, I'm back," and walked in ahead of her, pushing 
+open the door of his office.  She climbed to her room, 
+every step of the stairs holding her fast as if her 
+feet were lined with glue.
+
+Two days later, she descended from the train at 
+Nettleton, and walked out of the station into the dusty 
+square.  The brief interval of cold weather was over, 
+and the day was as soft, and almost as hot, as when she 
+and Harney had emerged on the same scene on the Fourth 
+of July.  In the square the same broken-down hacks and 
+carry-alls stood drawn up in a despondent line, and the 
+lank horses with fly-nets over their withers swayed 
+their heads drearily to and fro.  She recognized the 
+staring signs over the eating-houses and billiard 
+saloons, and the long lines of wires on lofty poles 
+tapering down the main street to the park at its other 
+end.  Taking the way the wires pointed, she went on 
+hastily, with bent head, till she reached a wide 
+transverse street with a brick building at the corner.  
+She crossed this street and glanced furtively up at the 
+front of the brick building; then she returned, 
+and entered a door opening on a flight of steep 
+brass-rimmed stairs.  On the second landing she rang a 
+bell, and a mulatto girl with a bushy head and a 
+frilled apron let her into a hall where a stuffed fox 
+on his hind legs proffered a brass card-tray to 
+visitors.  At the back of the hall was a glazed door 
+marked:  "Office."  After waiting a few minutes in a 
+handsomely furnished room, with plush sofas surmounted 
+by large gold-framed photographs of showy young women, 
+Charity was shown into the office....
+
+
+
+When she came out of the glazed door Dr. Merkle 
+followed, and led her into another room, smaller, and 
+still more crowded with plush and gold frames.  Dr. 
+Merkle was a plump woman with small bright eyes, an 
+immense mass of black hair coming down low on her 
+forehead, and unnaturally white and even teeth.  She 
+wore a rich black dress, with gold chains and charms 
+hanging from her bosom.  Her hands were large and 
+smooth, and quick in all their movements; and she smelt 
+of musk and carbolic acid.
+
+She smiled on Charity with all her faultless teeth.  
+"Sit down, my dear.  Wouldn't you like a little 
+drop of something to pick you up?...No....Well, 
+just lay back a minute then....There's nothing to be 
+done just yet; but in about a month, if you'll step 
+round again...I could take you right into my own house 
+for two or three days, and there wouldn't be a mite of 
+trouble.  Mercy me! The next time you'll know better'n 
+to fret like this...."
+
+Charity gazed at her with widening eyes.  This woman 
+with the false hair, the false teeth, the false 
+murderous smile--what was she offering her but immunity 
+from some unthinkable crime?  Charity, till then, had 
+been conscious only of a vague self-disgust and a 
+frightening physical distress; now, of a sudden, there 
+came to her the grave surprise of motherhood.  She had 
+come to this dreadful place because she knew of no 
+other way of making sure that she was not mistaken 
+about her state; and the woman had taken her for a 
+miserable creature like Julia....The thought was so 
+horrible that she sprang up, white and shaking, one of 
+her great rushes of anger sweeping over her.
+
+Dr. Merkle, still smiling, also rose.  "Why do you run 
+off in such a hurry?  You can stretch out right here on 
+my sofa...."  She paused, and her smile grew more 
+motherly.  "Afterwards--if there's been any talk at 
+home, and you want to get away for a while...I have a 
+lady friend in Boston who's looking for a 
+companion...you're the very one to suit her, my 
+dear...."
+
+Charity had reached the door.  "I don't want to stay.  I 
+don't want to come back here," she stammered, her hand 
+on the knob; but with a swift movement, Dr. Merkle 
+edged her from the threshold.
+
+"Oh, very well.  Five dollars, please."
+
+Charity looked helplessly at the doctor's tight lips 
+and rigid face.  Her last savings had gone in repaying 
+Ally for the cost of Miss Balch's ruined blouse, and 
+she had had to borrow four dollars from her friend to 
+pay for her railway ticket and cover the doctor's fee.  
+It had never occurred to her that medical advice could 
+cost more than two dollars.
+
+"I didn't know...I haven't got that much..."  she 
+faltered, bursting into tears.
+
+Dr. Merkle gave a short laugh which did not show her 
+teeth, and inquired with concision if Charity supposed 
+she ran the establishment for her own amusement?  She 
+leaned her firm shoulders against the door as she 
+spoke, like a grim gaoler making terms with her 
+captive.
+
+"You say you'll come round and settle later?  I've heard 
+that pretty often too.  Give me your address, and if 
+you can't pay me I'll send the bill to your 
+folks....What?  I can't understand what you say....That 
+don't suit you either?  My, you're pretty particular for 
+a girl that ain't got enough to settle her own 
+bills...."  She paused, and fixed her eyes on the brooch 
+with a blue stone that Charity had pinned to her 
+blouse.
+
+"Ain't you ashamed to talk that way to a lady that's 
+got to earn her living, when you go about with 
+jewellery like that on you?...It ain't in my line, and 
+I do it only as a favour...but if you're a mind to 
+leave that brooch as a pledge, I don't say no....Yes, 
+of course, you can get it back when you bring me my 
+money...."
+
+
+
+On the way home, she felt an immense and unexpected 
+quietude.  It had been horrible to have to leave 
+Harney's gift in the woman's hands, but even at that 
+price the news she brought away had not been too dearly 
+bought.  She sat with half-closed eyes as the train 
+rushed through the familiar landscape; and now the 
+memories of her former journey, instead of flying 
+before her like dead leaves, seemed to be ripening in 
+her blood like sleeping grain.  She would never again 
+know what it was to feel herself alone.  Everything 
+seemed to have grown suddenly clear and simple.  She no 
+longer had any difficulty in picturing herself as 
+Harney's wife now that she was the mother of his child; 
+and compared to her sovereign right Annabel Balch's 
+claim seemed no more than a girl's sentimental fancy.
+
+
+
+That evening, at the gate of the red house, she found 
+Ally waiting in the dusk.  "I was down at the post-
+office just as they were closing up, and Will Targatt 
+said there was a letter for you, so I brought it."
+
+Ally held out the letter, looking at Charity with 
+piercing sympathy.  Since the scene of the torn blouse 
+there had been a new and fearful admiration in the eyes 
+she bent on her friend.
+
+Charity snatched the letter with a laugh.  "Oh, thank 
+you--good-night," she called out over her shoulder as 
+she ran up the path.  If she had lingered a moment she 
+knew she would have had Ally at her heels.
+
+She hurried upstairs and felt her way into her 
+dark room.  Her hands trembled as she groped for the 
+matches and lit her candle, and the flap of the 
+envelope was so closely stuck that she had to find her 
+scissors and slit it open.  At length she read:
+
+
+DEAR CHARITY:
+
+I have your letter, and it touches me more than I can 
+say.  Won't you trust me, in return, to do my best?  
+There are things it is hard to explain, much less to 
+justify; but your generosity makes everything easier.  
+All I can do now is to thank you from my soul for 
+understanding.  Your telling me that you wanted me to 
+do right has helped me beyond expression.  If ever 
+there is a hope of realizing what we dreamed of you 
+will see me back on the instant; and I haven't yet lost 
+that hope.
+
+
+She read the letter with a rush; then she went over and 
+over it, each time more slowly and painstakingly.  It 
+was so beautifully expressed that she found it almost 
+as difficult to understand as the gentleman's 
+explanation of the Bible pictures at Nettleton; but 
+gradually she became aware that the gist of its meaning 
+lay in the last few words.  "If ever there is a hope of 
+realizing what we dreamed of..."
+
+But then he wasn't even sure of that?  She 
+understood now that every word and every reticence was 
+an avowal of Annabel Balch's prior claim.  It was true 
+that he was engaged to her, and that he had not yet 
+found a way of breaking his engagement.
+
+As she read the letter over Charity understood what it 
+must have cost him to write it.  He was not trying to 
+evade an importunate claim; he was honestly and 
+contritely struggling between opposing duties.  She did 
+not even reproach him in her thoughts for having 
+concealed from her that he was not free:  she could not 
+see anything more reprehensible in his conduct than in 
+her own.  From the first she had needed him more than 
+he had wanted her, and the power that had swept them 
+together had been as far beyond resistance as a great 
+gale loosening the leaves of the forest....Only, there 
+stood between them, fixed and upright in the general 
+upheaval, the indestructible figure of Annabel 
+Balch....
+
+Face to face with his admission of the fact, she sat 
+staring at the letter.  A cold tremor ran over her, and 
+the hard sobs struggled up into her throat and shook 
+her from head to foot.  For a while she was caught 
+and tossed on great waves of anguish that left her 
+hardly conscious of anything but the blind struggle 
+against their assaults.  Then, little by little, she 
+began to relive, with a dreadful poignancy, each 
+separate stage of her poor romance.  Foolish things she 
+had said came back to her, gay answers Harney had made, 
+his first kiss in the darkness between the fireworks, 
+their choosing the blue brooch together, the way he had 
+teased her about the letters she had dropped in her 
+flight from the evangelist.  All these memories, and a 
+thousand others, hummed through her brain till his 
+nearness grew so vivid that she felt his fingers in her 
+hair, and his warm breath on her cheek as he bent her 
+head back like a flower.  These things were hers; they 
+had passed into her blood, and become a part of her, 
+they were building the child in her womb; it was 
+impossible to tear asunder strands of life so 
+interwoven.
+
+The conviction gradually strengthened her, and she 
+began to form in her mind the first words of the letter 
+she meant to write to Harney.  She wanted to write it 
+at once, and with feverish hands she began to rummage 
+in her drawer for a sheet of letter paper.  But there 
+was none left; she must go downstairs to get it.  
+She had a superstitious feeling that the letter must be 
+written on the instant, that setting down her secret in 
+words would bring her reassurance and safety; and 
+taking up her candle she went down to Mr. Royall's 
+office.
+
+At that hour she was not likely to find him there:  he 
+had probably had his supper and walked over to Carrick 
+Fry's.  She pushed open the door of the unlit room, and 
+the light of her lifted candle fell on his figure, 
+seated in the darkness in his high-backed chair.  His 
+arms lay along the arms of the chair, and his head was 
+bent a little; but he lifted it quickly as Charity 
+entered.  She started back as their eyes met, 
+remembering that her own were red with weeping, and 
+that her face was livid with the fatigue and emotion of 
+her journey.  But it was too late to escape, and she 
+stood and looked at him in silence.
+
+He had risen from his chair, and came toward her with 
+outstretched hands.  The gesture was so unexpected that 
+she let him take her hands in his and they stood thus, 
+without speaking, till Mr. Royall said gravely:  
+"Charity--was you looking for me?"
+
+She freed herself abruptly and fell back.  "Me?  No----" 
+She set down the candle on his desk.  "I wanted 
+some letter-paper, that's all."  His face contracted, 
+and the bushy brows jutted forward over his eyes.  
+Without answering he opened the drawer of the desk, 
+took out a sheet of paper and an envelope, and pushed 
+them toward her.  "Do you want a stamp too?" he asked.
+
+She nodded, and he gave her the stamp.  As he did so 
+she felt that he was looking at her intently, and she 
+knew that the candle light flickering up on her white 
+face must be distorting her swollen features and 
+exaggerating the dark rings about her eyes.  She 
+snatched up the paper, her reassurance dissolving under 
+his pitiless gaze, in which she seemed to read the grim 
+perception of her state, and the ironic recollection of 
+the day when, in that very room, he had offered to 
+compel Harney to marry her.  His look seemed to say 
+that he knew she had taken the paper to write to her 
+lover, who had left her as he had warned her she would 
+be left.  She remembered the scorn with which she had 
+turned from him that day, and knew, if he guessed the 
+truth, what a list of old scores it must settle.  She 
+turned and fled upstairs; but when she got back to her 
+room all the words that had been waiting had 
+vanished....
+
+If she could have gone to Harney it would have 
+been different; she would only have had to show herself 
+to let his memories speak for her.  But she had no 
+money left, and there was no one from whom she could 
+have borrowed enough for such a journey.  There was 
+nothing to do but to write, and await his reply.  For a 
+long time she sat bent above the blank page; but she 
+found nothing to say that really expressed what she was 
+feeling....
+
+Harney had written that she had made it easier for him, 
+and she was glad it was so; she did not want to make 
+things hard.  She knew she had it in her power to do 
+that; she held his fate in her hands.  All she had to 
+do was to tell him the truth; but that was the very 
+fact that held her back....Her five minutes face to 
+face with Mr. Royall had stripped her of her last 
+illusion, and brought her back to North Dormer's point 
+of view.  Distinctly and pitilessly there rose before 
+her the fate of the girl who was married "to make 
+things right."  She had seen too many village love-
+stories end in that way.  Poor Rose Coles's miserable 
+marriage was of the number; and what good had come of 
+it for her or for Halston Skeff?  They had hated each 
+other from the day the minister married them; and 
+whenever old Mrs. Skeff had a fancy to humiliate her 
+daughter-in-law she had only to say:  "Who'd ever think 
+the baby's only two?  And for a seven months' child--
+ain't it a wonder what a size he is?" North Dormer had 
+treasures of indulgence for brands in the burning, but 
+only derision for those who succeeded in getting 
+snatched from it; and Charity had always understood 
+Julia Hawes's refusal to be snatched....
+
+Only--was there no alternative but Julia's?  Her soul 
+recoiled from the vision of the white-faced woman among 
+the plush sofas and gilt frames.  In the established 
+order of things as she knew them she saw no place for 
+her individual adventure....
+
+She sat in her chair without undressing till faint grey 
+streaks began to divide the black slats of the 
+shutters.  Then she stood up and pushed them open, 
+letting in the light.  The coming of a new day brought 
+a sharper consciousness of ineluctable reality, and 
+with it a sense of the need of action.  She looked at 
+herself in the glass, and saw her face, white in the 
+autumn dawn, with pinched cheeks and dark-ringed eyes, 
+and all the marks of her state that she herself would 
+never have noticed, but that Dr. Merkle's diagnosis had 
+made plain to her.  She could not hope that those 
+signs would escape the watchful village; even before 
+her figure lost its shape she knew her face would 
+betray her.
+
+Leaning from her window she looked out on the dark and 
+empty scene; the ashen houses with shuttered windows, 
+the grey road climbing the slope to the hemlock belt 
+above the cemetery, and the heavy mass of the Mountain 
+black against a rainy sky.  To the east a space of 
+light was broadening above the forest; but over that 
+also the clouds hung.  Slowly her gaze travelled across 
+the fields to the rugged curve of the hills.  She had 
+looked out so often on that lifeless circle, and 
+wondered if anything could ever happen to anyone who 
+was enclosed in it....
+
+Almost without conscious thought her decision had been 
+reached; as her eyes had followed the circle of the 
+hills her mind had also travelled the old round.  She 
+supposed it was something in her blood that made the 
+Mountain the only answer to her questioning, the 
+inevitable escape from all that hemmed her in and beset 
+her.  At any rate it began to loom against the rainy 
+dawn; and the longer she looked at it the more clearly 
+she understood that now at last she was really going 
+there.
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+
+THE rain held off, and an hour later, when she started, 
+wild gleams of sunlight were blowing across the fields.
+
+After Harney's departure she had returned her bicycle 
+to its owner at Creston, and she was not sure of being 
+able to walk all the way to the Mountain.  The deserted 
+house was on the road; but the idea of spending the 
+night there was unendurable, and she meant to try to 
+push on to Hamblin, where she could sleep under a wood-
+shed if her strength should fail her.  Her preparations 
+had been made with quiet forethought.  Before starting 
+she had forced herself to swallow a glass of milk and 
+eat a piece of bread; and she had put in her canvas 
+satchel a little packet of the chocolate that Harney 
+always carried in his bicycle bag.  She wanted above 
+all to keep up her strength, and reach her destination 
+without attracting notice....
+
+Mile by mile she retraced the road over which she had 
+so often flown to her lover.  When she reached the
+turn where the wood-road branched off from the Creston 
+highway she remembered the Gospel tent--long since 
+folded up and transplanted--and her start of 
+involuntary terror when the fat evangelist had said:  
+"Your Saviour knows everything.  Come and confess your 
+guilt."  There was no sense of guilt in her now, but 
+only a desperate desire to defend her secret from 
+irreverent eyes, and begin life again among people to 
+whom the harsh code of the village was unknown.  The 
+impulse did not shape itself in thought:  she only knew
+she must save her baby, and hide herself with it 
+somewhere where no one would ever come to trouble them.
+
+She walked on and on, growing more heavy-footed as the 
+day advanced.  It seemed a cruel chance that compelled 
+her to retrace every step of the way to the deserted 
+house; and when she came in sight of the orchard, and 
+the silver-gray roof slanting crookedly through the 
+laden branches, her strength failed her and she sat 
+down by the road-side.  She sat there a long time, 
+trying to gather the courage to start again, and walk 
+past the broken gate and the untrimmed rose-bushes 
+strung with scarlet hips.  A few drops of rain were 
+falling, and she thought of the warm evenings when 
+she and Harney had sat embraced in the shadowy room, 
+and the noise of summer showers on the roof had rustled 
+through their kisses.  At length she understood that if 
+she stayed any longer the rain might compel her to take 
+shelter in the house overnight, and she got up and 
+walked on, averting her eyes as she came abreast of the 
+white gate and the tangled garden.
+
+The hours wore on, and she walked more and more slowly, 
+pausing now and then to rest, and to eat a little bread 
+and an apple picked up from the roadside.  Her body 
+seemed to grow heavier with every yard of the way, and 
+she wondered how she would be able to carry her child 
+later, if already he laid such a burden on her....A 
+fresh wind had sprung up, scattering the rain and 
+blowing down keenly from the mountain.  Presently the 
+clouds lowered again, and a few white darts struck her 
+in the face:  it was the first snow falling over 
+Hamblin.  The roofs of the lonely village were only 
+half a mile ahead, and she was resolved to push beyond 
+it, and try to reach the Mountain that night.  She had 
+no clear plan of action, except that, once in the 
+settlement, she meant to look for Liff Hyatt, and get 
+him to take her to her mother.  She herself had 
+been born as her own baby was going to be born; and 
+whatever her mother's subsequent life had been, she 
+could hardly help remembering the past, and receiving a 
+daughter who was facing the trouble she had known.
+
+Suddenly the deadly faintness came over her once more 
+and she sat down on the bank and leaned her head 
+against a tree-trunk.  The long road and the cloudy 
+landscape vanished from her eyes, and for a time she 
+seemed to be circling about in some terrible wheeling 
+darkness.  Then that too faded.
+
+She opened her eyes, and saw a buggy drawn up beside 
+her, and a man who had jumped down from it and was 
+gazing at her with a puzzled face.  Slowly 
+consciousness came back, and she saw that the man was 
+Liff Hyatt.
+
+She was dimly aware that he was asking her something, 
+and she looked at him in silence, trying to find 
+strength to speak.  At length her voice stirred in her 
+throat, and she said in a whisper:  "I'm going up the 
+Mountain."
+
+"Up the Mountain?" he repeated, drawing aside a little; 
+and as he moved she saw behind him, in the buggy, a 
+heavily coated figure with a familiar pink face 
+and gold spectacles on the bridge of a Grecian nose.
+
+"Charity! What on earth are you doing here?" Mr. Miles 
+exclaimed, throwing the reins on the horse's back and 
+scrambling down from the buggy.
+
+She lifted her heavy eyes to his.  "I'm going to see my 
+mother."
+
+The two men glanced at each other, and for a moment 
+neither of them spoke.
+
+Then Mr. Miles said:  "You look ill, my dear, and it's a 
+long way.  Do you think it's wise?"
+
+Charity stood up.  "I've got to go to her."
+
+A vague mirthless grin contracted Liff Hyatt's face, 
+and Mr. Miles again spoke uncertainly.  "You know, 
+then--you'd been told?"
+
+She stared at him.  "I don't know what you mean.  I 
+want to go to her."
+
+Mr. Miles was examining her thoughtfully.  She fancied 
+she saw a change in his expression, and the blood 
+rushed to her forehead.  "I just want to go to her," 
+she repeated.
+
+He laid his hand on her arm.  "My child, your mother is 
+dying.  Liff Hyatt came down to fetch me....Get in and 
+come with us."
+
+He helped her up to the seat at his side, Liff 
+Hyatt clambered in at the back, and they drove off 
+toward Hamblin.  At first Charity had hardly grasped 
+what Mr. Miles was saying; the physical relief of 
+finding herself seated in the buggy, and securely on 
+her road to the Mountain, effaced the impression of his 
+words.  But as her head cleared she began to 
+understand.  She knew the Mountain had but the most 
+infrequent intercourse with the valleys; she had often 
+enough heard it said that no one ever went up there 
+except the minister, when someone was dying.  And now 
+it was her mother who was dying...and she would find 
+herself as much alone on the Mountain as anywhere else 
+in the world.  The sense of unescapable isolation was 
+all she could feel for the moment; then she began to 
+wonder at the strangeness of its being Mr. Miles who 
+had undertaken to perform this grim errand.  He did not 
+seem in the least like the kind of man who would care 
+to go up the Mountain.  But here he was at her side, 
+guiding the horse with a firm hand, and bending on her 
+the kindly gleam of his spectacles, as if there were 
+nothing unusual in their being together in such 
+circumstances.
+
+For a while she found it impossible to speak, and he 
+seemed to understand this, and made no attempt to 
+question her.  But presently she felt her tears rise 
+and flow down over her drawn cheeks; and he must have 
+seen them too, for he laid his hand on hers, and said 
+in a low voice:  "Won't you tell me what is troubling 
+you?"
+
+She shook her head, and he did not insist:  but after a 
+while he said, in the same low tone, so that they 
+should not be overheard:  "Charity, what do you know of 
+your childhood, before you came down to North Dormer?"
+
+She controlled herself, and answered:  "Nothing only 
+what I heard Mr. Royall say one day.  He said he 
+brought me down because my father went to prison."
+
+"And you've never been up there since?"
+
+"Never."
+
+Mr. Miles was silent again, then he said:  "I'm glad 
+you're coming with me now.  Perhaps we may find your 
+mother alive, and she may know that you have come."
+
+They had reached Hamblin, where the snow-flurry had 
+left white patches in the rough grass on the roadside, 
+and in the angles of the roofs facing north.  It was a 
+poor bleak village under the granite flank of the 
+Mountain, and as soon as they left it they began 
+to climb.  The road was steep and full of ruts, and 
+the horse settled down to a walk while they mounted and 
+mounted, the world dropping away below them in great 
+mottled stretches of forest and field, and stormy dark 
+blue distances.
+
+Charity had often had visions of this ascent of the 
+Mountain but she had not known it would reveal so wide 
+a country, and the sight of those strange lands 
+reaching away on every side gave her a new sense of 
+Harney's remoteness.  She knew he must be miles and 
+miles beyond the last range of hills that seemed to be 
+the outmost verge of things, and she wondered how she 
+had ever dreamed of going to New York to find him....
+
+As the road mounted the country grew bleaker, and they 
+drove across fields of faded mountain grass bleached by 
+long months beneath the snow.  In the hollows a few 
+white birches trembled, or a mountain ash lit its 
+scarlet clusters; but only a scant growth of pines 
+darkened the granite ledges.  The wind was blowing 
+fiercely across the open slopes; the horse faced it 
+with bent head and straining flanks, and now and then 
+the buggy swayed so that Charity had to clutch its 
+side.
+
+Mr. Miles had not spoken again; he seemed to 
+understand that she wanted to be left alone.  
+After a while the track they were following forked, and 
+he pulled up the horse, as if uncertain of the way.  
+Liff Hyatt craned his head around from the back, and 
+shouted against the wind:  "Left----" and they turned 
+into a stunted pine-wood and began to drive down the 
+other side of the Mountain.
+
+A mile or two farther on they came out on a clearing 
+where two or three low houses lay in stony fields, 
+crouching among the rocks as if to brace themselves 
+against the wind.  They were hardly more than sheds, 
+built of logs and rough boards, with tin stove-pipes 
+sticking out of their roofs.  The sun was setting, and 
+dusk had already fallen on the lower world, but a 
+yellow glare still lay on the lonely hillside and the 
+crouching houses.  The next moment it faded and left 
+the landscape in dark autumn twilight.
+
+"Over there," Liff called out, stretching his long arm 
+over Mr. Miles's shoulder.  The clergyman turned to the 
+left, across a bit of bare ground overgrown with docks 
+and nettles, and stopped before the most ruinous of the 
+sheds.  A stove-pipe reached its crooked arm out of one 
+window, and the broken panes of the other were stuffed 
+with rags and paper.  
+
+In contrast to such a dwelling the brown house in 
+the swamp might have stood for the home of plenty.
+
+As the buggy drew up two or three mongrel dogs jumped 
+out of the twilight with a great barking, and a young 
+man slouched to the door and stood there staring.  In 
+the twilight Charity saw that his face had the same 
+sodden look as Bash Hyatt's, the day she had seen him 
+sleeping by the stove.  He made no effort to silence 
+the dogs, but leaned in the door, as if roused from a 
+drunken lethargy, while Mr. Miles got out of the buggy.
+
+"Is it here?" the clergyman asked Liff in a low voice; 
+and Liff nodded.
+
+Mr. Miles turned to Charity.  "Just hold the horse a 
+minute, my dear:  I'll go in first," he said, putting 
+the reins in her hands.  She took them passively, and 
+sat staring straight ahead of her at the darkening 
+scene while Mr. Miles and Liff Hyatt went up to the 
+house.  They stood a few minutes talking with the man 
+in the door, and then Mr. Miles came back.  As he came 
+close, Charity saw that his smooth pink face wore a 
+frightened solemn look.
+
+"Your mother is dead, Charity; you'd better come with 
+me," he said.
+
+She got down and followed him while Liff led the 
+horse away.  As she approached the door she said 
+to herself:  "This is where I was born...this is where I 
+belong...."  She had said it to herself often enough as 
+she looked across the sunlit valleys at the Mountain; 
+but it had meant nothing then, and now it had become a 
+reality.  Mr. Miles took her gently by the arm, and 
+they entered what appeared to be the only room in the 
+house.  It was so dark that she could just discern a 
+group of a dozen people sitting or sprawling about a 
+table made of boards laid across two barrels.  They 
+looked up listlessly as Mr. Miles and Charity came in, 
+and a woman's thick voice said:  "Here's the preacher."  
+But no one moved.
+
+Mr. Miles paused and looked about him; then he turned 
+to the young man who had met them at the door.
+
+"Is the body here?" he asked.
+
+The young man, instead of answering, turned his head 
+toward the group.  "Where's the candle?  I tole yer to 
+bring a candle," he said with sudden harshness to a 
+girl who was lolling against the table.  She did not 
+answer, but another man got up and took from some 
+corner a candle stuck into a bottle.
+
+"How'll I light it?  The stove's out," the girl 
+grumbled.
+
+Mr. Miles fumbled under his heavy wrappings and drew 
+out a match-box.  He held a match to the candle, and in 
+a moment or two a faint circle of light fell on the 
+pale aguish heads that started out of the shadow like 
+the heads of nocturnal animals.
+
+"Mary's over there," someone said; and Mr. Miles, 
+taking the bottle in his hand, passed behind the table.  
+Charity followed him, and they stood before a mattress 
+on the floor in a corner of the room.  A woman lay on 
+it, but she did not look like a dead woman; she seemed 
+to have fallen across her squalid bed in a drunken 
+sleep, and to have been left lying where she fell, in 
+her ragged disordered clothes.  One arm was flung above 
+her head, one leg drawn up under a torn skirt that left 
+the other bare to the knee:  a swollen glistening leg 
+with a ragged stocking rolled down about the ankle.  The 
+woman lay on her back, her eyes staring up unblinkingly 
+at the candle that trembled in Mr. Miles's hand.
+
+"She jus' dropped off," a woman said, over the shoulder 
+of the others; and the young man added:  "I jus' come in 
+and found her."
+
+An elderly man with lank hair and a feeble grin 
+pushed between them.  "It was like this:  I says to her 
+on'y the night before:  if you don't take and quit, I 
+says to her..."
+
+Someone pulled him back and sent him reeling against a 
+bench along the wall, where he dropped down muttering 
+his unheeded narrative.
+
+There was a silence; then the young woman who had been 
+lolling against the table suddenly parted the group, 
+and stood in front of Charity.  She was healthier and 
+robuster looking than the others, and her weather-
+beaten face had a certain sullen beauty.
+
+"Who's the girl?  Who brought her here?" she said, 
+fixing her eyes mistrustfully on the young man who had 
+rebuked her for not having a candle ready.
+
+Mr. Miles spoke.  "I brought her; she is Mary Hyatt's 
+daughter."
+
+"What?  Her too?" the girl sneered; and the young man 
+turned on her with an oath.  "Shut your mouth, damn 
+you, or get out of here," he said; then he relapsed 
+into his former apathy, and dropped down on the bench, 
+leaning his head against the wall.
+
+Mr. Miles had set the candle on the floor and taken off 
+his heavy coat.  He turned to Charity.  "Come and help 
+me," he said.
+
+He knelt down by the mattress, and pressed the 
+lids over the dead woman's eyes.  Charity, trembling 
+and sick, knelt beside him, and tried to compose her 
+mother's body.  She drew the stocking over the dreadful 
+glistening leg, and pulled the skirt down to the 
+battered upturned boots.  As she did so, she looked at 
+her mother's face, thin yet swollen, with lips parted 
+in a frozen gasp above the broken teeth.  There was no 
+sign in it of anything human:  she lay there like a 
+dead dog in a ditch Charity's hands grew cold as they 
+touched her.
+
+Mr. Miles drew the woman's arms across her breast and 
+laid his coat over her.  Then he covered her face with 
+his handkerchief, and placed the bottle with the candle 
+in it at her head.  Having done this he stood up.
+
+"Is there no coffin?" he asked, turning to the group 
+behind him.
+
+There was a moment of bewildered silence; then the 
+fierce girl spoke up.  "You'd oughter brought it with 
+you.  Where'd we get one here, I'd like ter know?"
+
+Mr. Miles, looking at the others, repeated:  "Is it 
+possible you have no coffin ready?"
+
+"That's what I say:  them that has it sleeps 
+better," an old woman murmured.  "But then she 
+never had no bed...."
+
+"And the stove warn't hers," said the lank-haired man, 
+on the defensive.
+
+Mr. Miles turned away from them and moved a few steps 
+apart.  He had drawn a book from his pocket, and after 
+a pause he opened it and began to read, holding the 
+book at arm's length and low down, so that the pages 
+caught the feeble light.  Charity had remained on her 
+knees by the mattress:  now that her mother's face was 
+covered it was easier to stay near her, and avoid the 
+sight of the living faces which too horribly showed by 
+what stages hers had lapsed into death.
+
+"I am the Resurrection and the Life," Mr. Miles began; 
+"he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
+shall he live....Though after my skin worms destroy my 
+body, yet in my flesh shall I see God...."
+
+IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD! Charity thought of the 
+gaping mouth and stony eyes under the handkerchief, and 
+of the glistening leg over which she had drawn the 
+stocking....
+
+"We brought nothing into this world and we shall take 
+nothing out of it----"
+
+There was a sudden muttering and a scuffle at the 
+back of the group.  "I brought the stove," said the 
+elderly man with lank hair, pushing his way between the 
+others.  "I wen' down to Creston'n bought it...n' I got 
+a right to take it outer here...n' I'll lick any feller 
+says I ain't...."
+
+"Sit down, damn you!" shouted the tall youth who had 
+been drowsing on the bench against the wall.
+
+"For man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth 
+himself in vain; he heapeth up riches and cannot tell 
+who shall gather them...."
+
+"Well, it ARE his," a woman in the background 
+interjected in a frightened whine.
+
+The tall youth staggered to his feet.  "If you don't 
+hold your mouths I'll turn you all out o' here, the 
+whole lot of you," he cried with many oaths.  "G'wan, 
+minister...don't let 'em faze you...."
+
+"Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the 
+first-fruits of them that slept....Behold, I show you a 
+mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be 
+changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at 
+the last trump....For this corruptible must put on 
+incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality.  
+So when this corruption shall have put on 
+incorruption, and when this mortal shall have put on 
+immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying 
+that is written, Death is swallowed up in Victory...."
+
+One by one the mighty words fell on Charity's bowed 
+head, soothing the horror, subduing the tumult, 
+mastering her as they mastered the drink-dazed 
+creatures at her back.  Mr. Miles read to the last 
+word, and then closed the book.
+
+"Is the grave ready?" he asked.
+
+Liff Hyatt, who had come in while he was reading, 
+nodded a "Yes," and pushed forward to the side of the 
+mattress.  The young man on the bench who seemed to 
+assert some sort of right of kinship with the dead 
+woman, got to his feet again, and the proprietor of the 
+stove joined him.  Between them they raised up the 
+mattress; but their movements were unsteady, and the 
+coat slipped to the floor, revealing the poor body in 
+its helpless misery.  Charity, picking up the coat, 
+covered her mother once more.  Liff had brought a 
+lantern, and the old woman who had already spoken took 
+it up, and opened the door to let the little procession 
+pass out.  The wind had dropped, and the night was very 
+dark and bitterly cold.  The old woman walked 
+ahead, the lantern shaking in her hand and 
+spreading out before her a pale patch of dead grass and 
+coarse-leaved weeds enclosed in an immensity of 
+blackness.
+
+Mr. Miles took Charity by the arm, and side by side 
+they walked behind the mattress.  At length the old 
+woman with the lantern stopped, and Charity saw the 
+light fall on the stooping shoulders of the bearers and 
+on a ridge of upheaved earth over which they were 
+bending.  Mr. Miles released her arm and approached the 
+hollow on the other side of the ridge; and while the 
+men stooped down, lowering the mattress into the grave, 
+he began to speak again.
+
+"Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to 
+live and is full of misery....He cometh up and is cut 
+down...he fleeth as it were a shadow....Yet, O Lord God 
+most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and merciful 
+Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of 
+eternal death...."
+
+"Easy there...is she down?" piped the claimant to the 
+stove; and the young man called over his shoulder:  
+"Lift the light there, can't you?"
+
+There was a pause, during which the light floated 
+uncertainly over the open grave.  Someone bent 
+over and pulled out Mr. Miles's coat----("No, no--
+leave the handkerchief," he interposed)--and then Liff 
+Hyatt, coming forward with a spade, began to shovel in 
+the earth.
+
+"Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of His great 
+mercy to take unto Himself the soul of our dear sister 
+here departed, we therefore commit her body to the 
+ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to 
+dust..."  Liff's gaunt shoulders rose and bent in the 
+lantern light as he dashed the clods of earth into the 
+grave.  "God--it's froze a'ready," he muttered, 
+spitting into his palm and passing his ragged shirt-
+sleeve across his perspiring face.
+
+"Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our 
+vile body that it may be like unto His glorious body, 
+according to the mighty working, whereby He is able to 
+subdue all things unto Himself..."  The last spadeful of 
+earth fell on the vile body of Mary Hyatt, and Liff 
+rested on his spade, his shoulder blades still heaving 
+with the effort.
+
+"Lord, have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us, 
+Lord have mercy upon us..."
+
+Mr. Miles took the lantern from the old woman's 
+hand and swept its light across the circle of 
+bleared faces.  "Now kneel down, all of you," he 
+commanded, in a voice of authority that Charity had 
+never heard.  She knelt down at the edge of the grave, 
+and the others, stiffly and hesitatingly, got to their 
+knees beside her.  Mr. Miles knelt, too.  "And now pray 
+with me--you know this prayer," he said, and he began:  
+"Our Father which art in Heaven..."  One or two of the 
+women falteringly took the words up, and when he ended, 
+the lank-haired man flung himself on the neck of the 
+tall youth.  "It was this way," he said.  "I tole her 
+the night before, I says to her..."  The reminiscence 
+ended in a sob.
+
+Mr. Miles had been getting into his coat again.  He 
+came up to Charity, who had remained passively kneeling 
+by the rough mound of earth.
+
+"My child, you must come.  It's very late."
+
+She lifted her eyes to his face:  he seemed to speak out 
+of another world.
+
+"I ain't coming:  I'm going to stay here."
+
+"Here?  Where?  What do you mean?"
+
+"These are my folks.  I'm going to stay with them."
+
+Mr. Miles lowered his voice.  "But it's not 
+possible--you don't know what you are doing.  You 
+can't stay among these people:  you must come with me."
+
+She shook her head and rose from her knees.  The group 
+about the grave had scattered in the darkness, but the 
+old woman with the lantern stood waiting.  Her mournful 
+withered face was not unkind, and Charity went up to 
+her.
+
+"Have you got a place where I can lie down for the 
+night?" she asked.  Liff came up, leading the buggy out 
+of the night.  He looked from one to the other with his 
+feeble smile.  "She's my mother.  She'll take you 
+home," he said; and he added, raising his voice to 
+speak to the old woman:  "It's the girl from lawyer 
+Royall's--Mary's girl...you remember...."
+
+The woman nodded and raised her sad old eyes to 
+Charity's.  When Mr. Miles and Liff clambered into the 
+buggy she went ahead with the lantern to show them the 
+track they were to follow; then she turned back, and in 
+silence she and Charity walked away together through 
+the night.
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+
+CHARITY lay on the floor on a mattress, as her dead 
+mother's body had lain.  The room in which she lay was 
+cold and dark and low-ceilinged, and even poorer and 
+barer than the scene of Mary Hyatt's earthly 
+pilgrimage.  On the other side of the fireless stove 
+Liff Hyatt's mother slept on a blanket, with two 
+children--her grandchildren, she said--rolled up 
+against her like sleeping puppies.  They had their thin 
+clothes spread over them, having given the only other 
+blanket to their guest.
+
+Through the small square of glass in the opposite wall 
+Charity saw a deep funnel of sky, so black, so remote, 
+so palpitating with frosty stars that her very soul 
+seemed to be sucked into it.  Up there somewhere, she 
+supposed, the God whom Mr. Miles had invoked was 
+waiting for Mary Hyatt to appear.  What a long flight 
+it was! And what would she have to say when she reached 
+Him?
+
+Charity's bewildered brain laboured with the attempt to 
+picture her mother's past, and to relate it in any 
+way to the designs of a just but merciful God; but it 
+was impossible to imagine any link between them.  She 
+herself felt as remote from the poor creature she had 
+seen lowered into her hastily dug grave as if the 
+height of the heavens divided them.  She had seen 
+poverty and misfortune in her life; but in a community 
+where poor thrifty Mrs. Hawes and the industrious Ally 
+represented the nearest approach to destitution there 
+was nothing to suggest the savage misery of the 
+Mountain farmers.
+
+As she lay there, half-stunned by her tragic 
+initiation, Charity vainly tried to think herself into 
+the life about her.  But she could not even make out 
+what relationship these people bore to each other, or 
+to her dead mother; they seemed to be herded together 
+in a sort of passive promiscuity in which their common 
+misery was the strongest link.  She tried to picture to 
+herself what her life would have been if she had grown 
+up on the Mountain, running wild in rags, sleeping on 
+the floor curled up against her mother, like the pale-
+faced children huddled against old Mrs. Hyatt, and 
+turning into a fierce bewildered creature like the girl 
+who had apostrophized her in such strange words.  She 
+was frightened by the secret affinity she had felt 
+with this girl, and by the light it threw on her own 
+beginnings.  Then she remembered what Mr. Royall had 
+said in telling her story to Lucius Harney:  "Yes, there 
+was a mother; but she was glad to have the child go.  
+She'd have given her to anybody...."
+
+Well! after all, was her mother so much to blame?  
+Charity, since that day, had always thought of her as 
+destitute of all human feeling; now she seemed merely 
+pitiful.  What mother would not want to save her child 
+from such a life?  Charity thought of the future of her 
+own child, and tears welled into her aching eyes, and 
+ran down over her face.  If she had been less 
+exhausted, less burdened with his weight, she would 
+have sprung up then and there and fled away....
+
+The grim hours of the night dragged themselves slowly 
+by, and at last the sky paled and dawn threw a cold 
+blue beam into the room.  She lay in her corner staring 
+at the dirty floor, the clothes-line hung with decaying 
+rags, the old woman huddled against the cold stove, and 
+the light gradually spreading across the wintry world, 
+and bringing with it a new day in which she would have 
+to live, to choose, to act, to make herself a 
+place among these people--or to go back to the life she 
+had left.  A mortal lassitude weighed on her.  There 
+were moments when she felt that all she asked was to go 
+on lying there unnoticed; then her mind revolted at the 
+thought of becoming one of the miserable herd from 
+which she sprang, and it seemed as though, to save her 
+child from such a fate, she would find strength to 
+travel any distance, and bear any burden life might put 
+on her.
+
+Vague thoughts of Nettleton flitted through her mind.  
+She said to herself that she would find some quiet 
+place where she could bear her child, and give it to 
+decent people to keep; and then she would go out like 
+Julia Hawes and earn its living and hers.  She knew 
+that girls of that kind sometimes made enough to have 
+their children nicely cared for; and every other 
+consideration disappeared in the vision of her baby, 
+cleaned and combed and rosy, and hidden away somewhere 
+where she could run in and kiss it, and bring it pretty 
+things to wear.  Anything, anything was better than to 
+add another life to the nest of misery on the 
+Mountain....
+
+The old woman and the children were still sleeping 
+when Charity rose from her mattress.  Her body was 
+stiff with cold and fatigue, and she moved slowly lest 
+her heavy steps should rouse them.  She was faint with 
+hunger, and had nothing left in her satchel; but on the 
+table she saw the half of a stale loaf.  No doubt it 
+was to serve as the breakfast of old Mrs. Hyatt and the 
+children; but Charity did not care; she had her own 
+baby to think of.  She broke off a piece of the bread 
+and ate it greedily; then her glance fell on the thin 
+faces of the sleeping children, and filled with 
+compunction she rummaged in her satchel for something 
+with which to pay for what she had taken.  She found 
+one of the pretty chemises that Ally had made for her, 
+with a blue ribbon run through its edging.  It was one 
+of the dainty things on which she had squandered her 
+savings, and as she looked at it the blood rushed to 
+her forehead.  She laid the chemise on the table, and 
+stealing across the floor lifted the latch and went 
+out....
+
+The morning was icy cold and a pale sun was just rising 
+above the eastern shoulder of the Mountain.  The houses 
+scattered on the hillside lay cold and smokeless under 
+the sun-flecked clouds, and not a human being was in 
+sight.  Charity paused on the threshold and tried 
+to discover the road by which she had come the night 
+before.  Across the field surrounding Mrs. Hyatt's 
+shanty she saw the tumble-down house in which she 
+supposed the funeral service had taken place.  The 
+trail ran across the ground between the two houses and 
+disappeared in the pine-wood on the flank of the 
+Mountain; and a little way to the right, under a wind-
+beaten thorn, a mound of fresh earth made a dark spot 
+on the fawn-coloured stubble.  Charity walked across 
+the field to the ground.  As she approached it she 
+heard a bird's note in the still air, and looking up 
+she saw a brown song-sparrow perched in an upper branch 
+of the thorn above the grave.  She stood a minute 
+listening to his small solitary song; then she rejoined 
+the trail and began to mount the hill to the pine-wood.
+
+Thus far she had been impelled by the blind instinct of 
+flight; but each step seemed to bring her nearer to the 
+realities of which her feverish vigil had given only a 
+shadowy image.  Now that she walked again in a daylight 
+world, on the way back to familiar things, her 
+imagination moved more soberly.  On one point she was 
+still decided:  she could not remain at North Dormer, 
+and the sooner she got away from it the better.  
+But everything beyond was darkness.
+
+As she continued to climb the air grew keener, and when 
+she passed from the shelter of the pines to the open 
+grassy roof of the Mountain the cold wind of the night 
+before sprang out on her.  She bent her shoulders and 
+struggled on against it for a while; but presently her 
+breath failed, and she sat down under a ledge of rock 
+overhung by shivering birches.  From where she sat she 
+saw the trail wandering across the bleached grass in 
+the direction of Hamblin, and the granite wall of the 
+Mountain falling away to infinite distances.  On that 
+side of the ridge the valleys still lay in wintry 
+shadow; but in the plain beyond the sun was touching 
+village roofs and steeples, and gilding the haze of 
+smoke over far-off invisible towns.
+
+Charity felt herself a mere speck in the lonely circle 
+of the sky.  The events of the last two days seemed to 
+have divided her forever from her short dream of bliss.  
+Even Harney's image had been blurred by that crushing 
+experience:  she thought of him as so remote from her 
+that he seemed hardly more than a memory.  In her 
+fagged and floating mind only one sensation had the 
+weight of reality; it was the bodily burden of her 
+child.  But for it she would have felt as rootless as 
+the whiffs of thistledown the wind blew past her.  Her 
+child was like a load that held her down, and yet like 
+a hand that pulled her to her feet.  She said to 
+herself that she must get up and struggle on....
+
+Her eyes turned back to the trail across the top of the 
+Mountain, and in the distance she saw a buggy against 
+the sky.  She knew its antique outline, and the gaunt 
+build of the old horse pressing forward with lowered 
+head; and after a moment she recognized the heavy bulk 
+of the man who held the reins.  The buggy was following 
+the trail and making straight for the pine-wood through 
+which she had climbed; and she knew at once that the 
+driver was in search of her.  Her first impulse was to 
+crouch down under the ledge till he had passed; but the 
+instinct of concealment was overruled by the relief of 
+feeling that someone was near her in the awful 
+emptiness.  She stood up and walked toward the buggy.
+
+Mr. Royall saw her, and touched the horse with the 
+whip.  A minute or two later he was abreast of Charity; 
+their eyes met, and without speaking he leaned over and 
+helped her up into the buggy.  
+
+She tried to speak, to stammer out some 
+explanation, but no words came to her; and as he drew 
+the cover over her knees he simply said:  "The minister 
+told me he'd left you up here, so I come up for you."
+
+He turned the horse's head, and they began to jog back 
+toward Hamblin.  Charity sat speechless, staring 
+straight ahead of her, and Mr. Royall occasionally 
+uttered a word of encouragement to the horse:  "Get 
+along there, Dan....I gave him a rest at Hamblin; but I 
+brought him along pretty quick, and it's a stiff pull 
+up here against the wind."
+
+As he spoke it occurred to her for the first time that 
+to reach the top of the Mountain so early he must have 
+left North Dormer at the coldest hour of the night, and 
+have travelled steadily but for the halt at Hamblin; 
+and she felt a softness at her heart which no act of 
+his had ever produced since he had brought her the 
+Crimson Rambler because she had given up boarding-
+school to stay with him.
+
+After an interval he began again:  "It was a day just 
+like this, only spitting snow, when I come up here for 
+you the first time."  Then, as if fearing that she 
+might take his remark as a reminder of past benefits, 
+he added quickly:  "I dunno's you think it was such a 
+good job, either."
+
+"Yes, I do," she murmured, looking straight ahead of 
+her.
+
+"Well," he said, "I tried----"
+
+He did not finish the sentence, and she could think of 
+nothing more to say.
+
+"Ho, there, Dan, step out," he muttered, jerking the 
+bridle.  "We ain't home yet.--You cold?" he asked 
+abruptly.
+
+She shook her head, but he drew the cover higher up, 
+and stooped to tuck it in about the ankles.  She 
+continued to look straight ahead.  Tears of weariness 
+and weakness were dimming her eyes and beginning to run 
+over, but she dared not wipe them away lest he should 
+observe the gesture.
+
+They drove in silence, following the long loops of the 
+descent upon Hamblin, and Mr. Royall did not speak 
+again till they reached the outskirts of the village.  
+Then he let the reins droop on the dashboard and drew 
+out his watch.
+
+"Charity," he said, "you look fair done up, and North 
+Dormer's a goodish way off.  I've figured out that we'd 
+do better to stop here long enough for you to get 
+a mouthful of breakfast and then drive down to Creston 
+and take the train."
+
+She roused herself from her apathetic musing.  "The 
+train--what train?"
+
+Mr. Royall, without answering, let the horse jog on 
+till they reached the door of the first house in the 
+village.  "This is old Mrs. Hobart's place," he said.  
+"She'll give us something hot to drink."
+
+Charity, half unconsciously, found herself getting out 
+of the buggy and following him in at the open door.  
+They entered a decent kitchen with a fire crackling in 
+the stove.  An old woman with a kindly face was setting 
+out cups and saucers on the table.  She looked up and 
+nodded as they came in, and Mr. Royall advanced to the 
+stove, clapping his numb hands together.
+
+"Well, Mrs. Hobart, you got any breakfast for this 
+young lady?  You can see she's cold and hungry."
+
+Mrs. Hobart smiled on Charity and took a tin coffee-pot 
+from the fire.  "My, you do look pretty mean," she said 
+compassionately.
+
+Charity reddened, and sat down at the table.  A feeling 
+of complete passiveness had once more come over 
+her, and she was conscious only of the pleasant animal 
+sensations of warmth and rest.
+
+Mrs. Hobart put bread and milk on the table, and then 
+went out of the house:  Charity saw her leading the 
+horse away to the barn across the yard.  She did not 
+come back, and Mr. Royall and Charity sat alone at the 
+table with the smoking coffee between them.  He poured 
+out a cup for her, and put a piece of bread in the 
+saucer, and she began to eat.
+
+As the warmth of the coffee flowed through her veins 
+her thoughts cleared and she began to feel like a 
+living being again; but the return to life was so 
+painful that the food choked in her throat and she sat 
+staring down at the table in silent anguish.
+
+After a while Mr. Royall pushed back his chair.  "Now, 
+then," he said, "if you're a mind to go along----" She 
+did not move, and he continued:  "We can pick up the 
+noon train for Nettleton if you say so."
+
+The words sent the blood rushing to her face, and she 
+raised her startled eyes to his.  He was standing on 
+the other side of the table looking at her kindly and 
+gravely; and suddenly she understood what he was 
+going to say.  She continued to sit motionless, a 
+leaden weight upon her lips.
+
+"You and me have spoke some hard things to each other 
+in our time, Charity; and there's no good that I can 
+see in any more talking now.  But I'll never feel any 
+way but one about you; and if you say so we'll drive 
+down in time to catch that train, and go straight to 
+the minister's house; and when you come back home 
+you'll come as Mrs. Royall."
+
+His voice had the grave persuasive accent that had 
+moved his hearers at the Home Week festival; she had a 
+sense of depths of mournful tolerance under that easy 
+tone.  Her whole body began to tremble with the dread 
+of her own weakness.
+
+"Oh, I can't----" she burst out desperately.
+
+"Can't what?"
+
+She herself did not know:  she was not sure if she was 
+rejecting what he offered, or already struggling 
+against the temptation of taking what she no longer had 
+a right to.  She stood up, shaking and bewildered, and 
+began to speak:
+
+"I know I ain't been fair to you always; but I want to 
+be now....I want you to know...I want..."  Her voice 
+failed her and she stopped.
+
+Mr. Royall leaned against the wall.  He was paler 
+than usual, but his face was composed and kindly 
+and her agitation did not appear to perturb him.
+
+"What's all this about wanting?" he said as she paused.  
+"Do you know what you really want?  I'll tell you.  You 
+want to be took home and took care of.  And I guess 
+that's all there is to say."
+
+"No...it's not all...."
+
+"Ain't it?" He looked at his watch.  "Well, I'll tell 
+you another thing.  All I want is to know if you'll 
+marry me.  If there was anything else, I'd tell you so; 
+but there ain't.  Come to my age, a man knows the 
+things that matter and the things that don't; that's 
+about the only good turn life does us."
+
+His tone was so strong and resolute that it was like a 
+supporting arm about her.  She felt her resistance 
+melting, her strength slipping away from her as he 
+spoke.
+
+"Don't cry, Charity," he exclaimed in a shaken voice.  
+She looked up, startled at his emotion, and their eyes 
+met.
+
+"See here," he said gently, "old Dan's come a long 
+distance, and we've got to let him take it easy the 
+rest of the way...."
+
+He picked up the cloak that had slipped to her 
+chair and laid it about her shoulders.  She 
+followed him out of the house, and then walked across 
+the yard to the shed, where the horse was tied.  Mr. 
+Royall unblanketed him and led him out into the road.  
+Charity got into the buggy and he drew the cover about 
+her and shook out the reins with a cluck.  When they 
+reached the end of the village he turned the horse's 
+head toward Creston.
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+
+They began to jog down the winding road to the valley 
+at old Dan's languid pace.  Charity felt herself 
+sinking into deeper depths of weariness, and as they 
+descended through the bare woods there were moments 
+when she lost the exact sense of things, and seemed to 
+be sitting beside her lover with the leafy arch of 
+summer bending over them.  But this illusion was faint 
+and transitory.  For the most part she had only a 
+confused sensation of slipping down a smooth 
+irresistible current; and she abandoned herself to the 
+feeling as a refuge from the torment of thought.
+
+Mr. Royall seldom spoke, but his silent presence gave 
+her, for the first time, a sense of peace and security.  
+She knew that where he was there would be warmth, rest, 
+silence; and for the moment they were all she wanted.  
+She shut her eyes, and even these things grew dim to 
+her....
+
+In the train, during the short run from Creston to 
+Nettleton, the warmth aroused her, and the 
+consciousness of being under strange eyes gave her 
+a momentary energy.  She sat upright, facing Mr. 
+Royall, and stared out of the window at the denuded 
+country.  Forty-eight hours earlier, when she had last 
+traversed it, many of the trees still held their 
+leaves; but the high wind of the last two nights had 
+stripped them, and the lines of the landscape' were as 
+finely pencilled as in December.  A few days of autumn 
+cold had wiped out all trace of the rich fields and 
+languid groves through which she had passed on the 
+Fourth of July; and with the fading of the landscape 
+those fervid hours had faded, too.  She could no longer 
+believe that she was the being who had lived them; she 
+was someone to whom something irreparable and 
+overwhelming had happened, but the traces of the steps 
+leading up to it had almost vanished.
+
+When the train reached Nettleton and she walked out 
+into the square at Mr. Royall's side the sense of 
+unreality grew more overpowering.  The physical strain 
+of the night and day had left no room in her mind for 
+new sensations and she followed Mr. Royall as passively 
+as a tired child.  As in a confused dream she presently 
+found herself sitting with him in a pleasant room, at a 
+table with a red and white table-cloth on which 
+hot food and tea were placed.  He filled her cup and 
+plate and whenever she lifted her eyes from them she 
+found his resting on her with the same steady tranquil 
+gaze that had reassured and strengthened her when they 
+had faced each other in old Mrs. Hobart's kitchen.  As 
+everything else in her consciousness grew more and more 
+confused and immaterial, became more and more like the 
+universal shimmer that dissolves the world to failing 
+eyes, Mr. Royall's presence began to detach itself with 
+rocky firmness from this elusive background.  She had 
+always thought of him--when she thought of him at all--
+as of someone hateful and obstructive, but whom she 
+could outwit and dominate when she chose to make the 
+effort.  Only once, on the day of the Old Home Week 
+celebration, while the stray fragments of his address 
+drifted across her troubled mind, had she caught a 
+glimpse of another being, a being so different from the 
+dull-witted enemy with whom she had supposed herself to 
+be living that even through the burning mist of her own 
+dreams he had stood out with startling distinctness.  
+For a moment, then, what he said--and something in his 
+way of saying it--had made her see why he had always 
+struck her as such a lonely man.  But the mist of 
+her dreams had hidden him again, and she had forgotten 
+that fugitive impression.
+
+It came back to her now, as they sat at the table, and 
+gave her, through her own immeasurable desolation, a 
+sudden sense of their nearness to each other.  But all 
+these feelings were only brief streaks of light in the 
+grey blur of her physical weakness.  Through it she was 
+aware that Mr. Royall presently left her sitting by the 
+table in the warm room, and came back after an interval 
+with a carriage from the station--a closed "hack" with 
+sun-burnt blue silk blinds--in which they drove 
+together to a house covered with creepers and standing 
+next to a church with a carpet of turf before it.  They 
+got out at this house, and the carriage waited while 
+they walked up the path and entered a wainscoted hall 
+and then a room full of books.  In this room a 
+clergyman whom Charity had never seen received them 
+pleasantly, and asked them to be seated for a few 
+minutes while witnesses were being summoned.
+
+Charity sat down obediently, and Mr. Royall, his hands 
+behind his back, paced slowly up and down the room.  As 
+he turned and faced Charity, she noticed that his 
+lips were twitching a little; but the look in his eyes 
+was grave and calm.  Once he paused before her and said 
+timidly:  "Your hair's got kinder loose with the wind," 
+and she lifted her hands and tried to smooth back the 
+locks that had escaped from her braid.  There was a 
+looking-glass in a carved frame on the wall, but she 
+was ashamed to look at herself in it, and she sat with 
+her hands folded on her knee till the clergyman 
+returned.  Then they went out again, along a sort of 
+arcaded passage, and into a low vaulted room with a 
+cross on an altar, and rows of benches.  The clergyman, 
+who had left them at the door, presently reappeared 
+before the altar in a surplice, and a lady who was 
+probably his wife, and a man in a blue shirt who had 
+been raking dead leaves on the lawn, came in and sat on 
+one of the benches.
+
+The clergyman opened a book and signed to Charity and 
+Mr. Royall to approach.  Mr. Royall advanced a few 
+steps, and Charity followed him as she had followed him 
+to the buggy when they went out of Mrs. Hobart's 
+kitchen; she had the feeling that if she ceased to keep 
+close to him, and do what he told her to do, the world 
+would slip away from beneath her feet.
+
+The clergyman began to read, and on her dazed mind 
+there rose the memory of Mr. Miles, standing the night 
+before in the desolate house of the Mountain, and 
+reading out of the same book words that had the same 
+dread sound of finality:
+
+"I require and charge you both, as ye will answer at 
+the dreadful day of judgment when the secrets of all 
+hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know 
+any impediment whereby ye may not be lawfully joined 
+together..."
+
+Charity raised her eyes and met Mr. Royall's.  They 
+were still looking at her kindly and steadily.  "I 
+will!" she heard him say a moment later, after another 
+interval of words that she had failed to catch.  She 
+was so busy trying to understand the gestures that the 
+clergyman was signalling to her to make that she no 
+longer heard what was being said.  After another 
+interval the lady on the bench stood up, and taking her 
+hand put it in Mr. Royall's.  It lay enclosed in his 
+strong palm and she felt a ring that was too big for 
+her being slipped on her thin finger.  She understood 
+then that she was married....
+
+Late that afternoon Charity sat alone in a bedroom of 
+the fashionable hotel where she and Harney had 
+vainly sought a table on the Fourth of July.  She had 
+never before been in so handsomely furnished a room.  
+The mirror above the dressing-table reflected the high 
+head-board and fluted pillow-slips of the double bed, 
+and a bedspread so spotlessly white that she had 
+hesitated to lay her hat and jacket on it.  The humming 
+radiator diffused an atmosphere of drowsy warmth, and 
+through a half-open door she saw the glitter of the 
+nickel taps above twin marble basins.
+
+For a while the long turmoil of the night and day had 
+slipped away from her and she sat with closed eyes, 
+surrendering herself to the spell of warmth and 
+silence.  But presently this merciful apathy was 
+succeeded by the sudden acuteness of vision with which 
+sick people sometimes wake out of a heavy sleep.  As 
+she opened her eyes they rested on the picture that 
+hung above the bed.  It was a large engraving with a 
+dazzling white margin enclosed in a wide frame of 
+bird's-eye maple with an inner scroll of gold.  The 
+engraving represented a young man in a boat on a lake 
+over-hung with trees.  He was leaning over to gather 
+water-lilies for the girl in a light dress who lay 
+among the cushions in the stern.  The scene was 
+full of a drowsy midsummer radiance, and Charity 
+averted her eyes from it and, rising from her chair, 
+began to wander restlessly about the room.
+
+It was on the fifth floor, and its broad window of 
+plate glass looked over the roofs of the town.  Beyond 
+them stretched a wooded landscape in which the last 
+fires of sunset were picking out a steely gleam.  
+Charity gazed at the gleam with startled eyes.  Even 
+through the gathering twilight she recognized the 
+contour of the soft hills encircling it, and the way 
+the meadows sloped to its edge.  It was Nettleton Lake 
+that she was looking at.
+
+She stood a long time in the window staring out at the 
+fading water.  The sight of it had roused her for the 
+first time to a realization of what she had done.  Even 
+the feeling of the ring on her hand had not brought her 
+this sharp sense of the irretrievable.  For an instant 
+the old impulse of flight swept through her; but it was 
+only the lift of a broken wing.  She heard the door 
+open behind her, and Mr. Royall came in.
+
+He had gone to the barber's to be shaved, and his 
+shaggy grey hair had been trimmed and smoothed.  He 
+moved strongly and quickly, squaring his shoulders 
+and carrying his head high, as if he did not want to 
+pass unnoticed.
+
+"What are you doing in the dark?" he called out in a 
+cheerful voice.  Charity made no answer.  He went up to 
+the window to draw the blind, and putting his finger on 
+the wall flooded the room with a blaze of light from 
+the central chandelier.  In this unfamiliar 
+illumination husband and wife faced each other 
+awkwardly for a moment; then Mr. Royall said:  "We'll 
+step down and have some supper, if you say so."
+
+The thought of food filled her with repugnance; but not 
+daring to confess it she smoothed her hair and followed 
+him to the lift.
+
+
+
+An hour later, coming out of the glare of the dining-
+room, she waited in the marble-panelled hall while Mr. 
+Royall, before the brass lattice of one of the corner 
+counters, selected a cigar and bought an evening paper.  
+Men were lounging in rocking chairs under the blazing 
+chandeliers, travellers coming and going, bells 
+ringing, porters shuffling by with luggage.  Over Mr. 
+Royall's shoulder, as he leaned against the counter, a 
+girl with her hair puffed high smirked and nodded at a 
+dapper drummer who was getting his key at the desk 
+across the hall.  
+
+Charity stood among these cross-currents of life as 
+motionless and inert as if she had been one of the 
+tables screwed to the marble floor.  All her soul was 
+gathered up into one sick sense of coming doom, and she 
+watched Mr. Royall in fascinated terror while he 
+pinched the cigars in successive boxes and unfolded his 
+evening paper with a steady hand.
+
+Presently he turned and joined her.  "You go right 
+along up to bed--I'm going to sit down here and have my 
+smoke," he said.  He spoke as easily and naturally as 
+if they had been an old couple, long used to each 
+other's ways, and her contracted heart gave a flutter 
+of relief.  She followed him to the lift, and he put 
+her in and enjoined the buttoned and braided boy to 
+show her to her room.
+
+She groped her way in through the darkness, forgetting 
+where the electric button was, and not knowing how to 
+manipulate it.  But a white autumn moon had risen, and 
+the illuminated sky put a pale light in the room.  By 
+it she undressed, and after folding up the ruffled 
+pillow-slips crept timidly under the spotless 
+counterpane.  She had never felt such smooth sheets or 
+such light warm blankets; but the softness of the bed 
+did not soothe her.  She lay there trembling with a 
+fear that ran through her veins like ice.  "What have I 
+done?  Oh, what have I done?" she whispered, shuddering 
+to her pillow; and pressing her face against it to shut 
+out the pale landscape beyond the window she lay in the 
+darkness straining her ears, and shaking at every 
+footstep that approached....
+
+Suddenly she sat up and pressed her hands against her 
+frightened heart.  A faint sound had told her that 
+someone was in the room; but she must have slept in the 
+interval, for she had heard no one enter.  The moon was 
+setting beyond the opposite roofs, and in the darkness 
+outlined against the grey square of the window, she saw 
+a figure seated in the rocking-chair.  The figure did 
+not move:  it was sunk deep in the chair, with bowed 
+head and folded arms, and she saw that it was Mr. 
+Royall who sat there.  He had not undressed, but had 
+taken the blanket from the foot of the bed and laid it 
+across his knees.  Trembling and holding her breath she 
+watched him, fearing that he had been roused by her 
+movement; but he did not stir, and she concluded 
+that he wished her to think he was asleep.
+
+As she continued to watch him ineffable relief stole 
+slowly over her, relaxing her strained nerves and 
+exhausted body.  He knew, then...he knew...it was 
+because he knew that he had married her, and that he 
+sat there in the darkness to show her she was safe with 
+him.  A stir of something deeper than she had ever 
+felt in thinking of him flitted through her tired 
+brain, and cautiously, noiselessly, she let her head 
+sink on the pillow....
+
+When she woke the room was full of morning light, and 
+her first glance showed her that she was alone in it.  
+She got up and dressed, and as she was fastening her 
+dress the door opened, and Mr. Royall came in.  He 
+looked old and tired in the bright daylight, but his 
+face wore the same expression of grave friendliness 
+that had reassured her on the Mountain.  It was as if 
+all the dark spirits had gone out of him.
+
+They went downstairs to the dining-room for breakfast, 
+and after breakfast he told her he had some insurance 
+business to attend to.  "I guess while I'm doing it 
+you'd better step out and buy yourself whatever you 
+need."  He smiled, and added with an embarrassed 
+laugh:  "You know I always wanted you to beat all the 
+other girls."  He drew something from his pocket, and 
+pushed it across the table to her; and she saw that he 
+had given her two twenty-dollar bills.  "If it ain't 
+enough there's more where that come from--I want you to 
+beat 'em all hollow," he repeated.
+
+She flushed and tried to stammer out her thanks, but he 
+had pushed back his chair and was leading the way out 
+of the dining-room.  In the hall he paused a minute to 
+say that if it suited her they would take the three 
+o'clock train back to North Dormer; then he took his 
+hat and coat from the rack and went out.
+
+A few minutes later Charity went out, too.  She had 
+watched to see in what direction he was going, and she 
+took the opposite way and walked quickly down the main 
+street to the brick building on the corner of Lake 
+Avenue.  There she paused to look cautiously up and 
+down the thoroughfare, and then climbed the brass-bound 
+stairs to Dr. Merkle's door.  The same bushy-headed 
+mulatto girl admitted her, and after the same interval 
+of waiting in the red plush parlor she was once more 
+summoned to Dr. Merkle's office.  The doctor 
+received her without surprise, and led her into the 
+inner plush sanctuary.
+
+"I thought you'd be back, but you've come a mite too 
+soon:  I told you to be patient and not fret," she 
+observed, after a pause of penetrating scrutiny.
+
+Charity drew the money from her breast.  "I've come to 
+get my blue brooch," she said, flushing.
+
+"Your brooch?" Dr. Merkle appeared not to remember.  
+"My, yes--I get so many things of that kind.  Well, my 
+dear, you'll have to wait while I get it out of the 
+safe.  I don't leave valuables like that laying round 
+like the noospaper."
+
+She disappeared for a moment, and returned with a bit 
+of twisted-up tissue paper from which she unwrapped the 
+brooch.
+
+Charity, as she looked at it, felt a stir of warmth at 
+her heart.  She held out an eager hand.
+
+"Have you got the change?" she asked a little 
+breathlessly, laying one of the twenty-dollar bills on 
+the table.
+
+"Change?  What'd I want to have change for?  I only see 
+two twenties there," Dr. Merkle answered brightly.
+
+Charity paused, disconcerted.  "I thought...you said it 
+was five dollars a visit...."
+
+"For YOU, as a favour--I did.  But how about 
+the responsibility and the insurance?  I don't s'pose 
+you ever thought of that?  This pin's worth a hundred 
+dollars easy.  If it had got lost or stole, where'd I 
+been when you come to claim it?"
+
+Charity remained silent, puzzled and half-convinced by 
+the argument, and Dr. Merkle promptly followed up her 
+advantage.  "I didn't ask you for your brooch, my dear.  
+I'd a good deal ruther folks paid me my regular charge 
+than have 'em put me to all this trouble."
+
+She paused, and Charity, seized with a desperate 
+longing to escape, rose to her feet and held out one of 
+the bills.
+
+"Will you take that?" she asked.
+
+"No, I won't take that, my dear; but I'll take it with 
+its mate, and hand you over a signed receipt if you 
+don't trust me."
+
+"Oh, but I can't--it's all I've got," Charity 
+exclaimed.
+
+Dr. Merkle looked up at her pleasantly from the plush 
+sofa.  "It seems you got married yesterday, up to the 
+'Piscopal church; I heard all about the wedding from 
+the minister's chore-man.  It would be a pity, wouldn't 
+it, to let Mr. Royall know you had an account 
+running here?  I just put it to you as your own mother 
+might."
+
+Anger flamed up in Charity, and for an instant she 
+thought of abandoning the brooch and letting Dr. Merkle 
+do her worst.  But how could she leave her only 
+treasure with that evil woman?  She wanted it for her 
+baby:  she meant it, in some mysterious way, to be a 
+link between Harney's child and its unknown father.  
+Trembling and hating herself while she did it, she laid 
+Mr. Royall's money on the table, and catching up the 
+brooch fled out of the room and the house....
+
+In the street she stood still, dazed by this last 
+adventure.  But the brooch lay in her bosom like a 
+talisman, and she felt a secret lightness of heart.  It 
+gave her strength, after a moment, to walk on slowly in 
+the direction of the post office, and go in through the 
+swinging doors.  At one of the windows she bought a 
+sheet of letter-paper, an envelope and a stamp; then 
+she sat down at a table and dipped the rusty post 
+office pen in ink.  She had come there possessed with a 
+fear which had haunted her ever since she had felt Mr. 
+Royall's ring on her finger:  the fear that Harney 
+might, after all, free himself and come back to her.  It 
+was a possibility which had never occurred to her 
+during the dreadful hours after she had received his 
+letter; only when the decisive step she had taken made 
+longing turn to apprehension did such a contingency 
+seem conceivable.  She addressed the envelope, and on 
+the sheet of paper she wrote:
+
+
+I'm married to Mr. Royall.  I'll always remember you.
+                                    CHARITY.
+
+
+The last words were not in the least what she had meant 
+to write; they had flowed from her pen irresistibly.  
+She had not had the strength to complete her sacrifice; 
+but, after all, what did it matter?  Now that there was 
+no chance of ever seeing Harney again, why should she 
+not tell him the truth?
+
+When she had put the letter in the box she went out 
+into the busy sunlit street and began to walk to the 
+hotel.  Behind the plateglass windows of the department 
+stores she noticed the tempting display of dresses and 
+dress-materials that had fired her imagination on the 
+day when she and Harney had looked in at them together.  
+They reminded her of Mr. Royall's injunction to go out 
+and buy all she needed.  She looked down at her shabby 
+dress, and wondered what she should say when he 
+saw her coming back empty-handed.  As she drew near 
+the hotel she saw him waiting on the doorstep, and her 
+heart began to beat with apprehension.
+
+He nodded and waved his hand at her approach, and they 
+walked through the hall and went upstairs to collect 
+their possessions, so that Mr. Royall might give up the 
+key of the room when they went down again for their 
+midday dinner.  In the bedroom, while she was thrusting 
+back into the satchel the few things she had brought 
+away with her, she suddenly felt that his eyes were on 
+her and that he was going to speak.  She stood still, 
+her half-folded night-gown in her hand, while the blood 
+rushed up to her drawn cheeks.
+
+"Well, did you rig yourself out handsomely?  I haven't 
+seen any bundles round," he said jocosely.
+
+"Oh, I'd rather let Ally Hawes make the few things I 
+want," she answered.
+
+"That so?" He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment 
+and his eye-brows projected in a scowl.  Then his face 
+grew friendly again.  "Well, I wanted you to go back 
+looking stylisher than any of them; but I guess you're 
+right.  You're a good girl, Charity."
+
+Their eyes met, and something rose in his that she 
+had never seen there:  a look that made her feel ashamed 
+and yet secure.
+
+"I guess you're good, too," she said, shyly and 
+quickly.  He smiled without answering, and they went 
+out of the room together and dropped down to the hall 
+in the glittering lift.
+
+Late that evening, in the cold autumn moonlight, they 
+drove up to the door of the red house.
+
+
+
+The End of Project Gutenberg etext of Summer by Edith Wharton
+
+
+
+
+