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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/19343-8.txt b/19343-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90cdc33 --- /dev/null +++ b/19343-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3773 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Mary, by Jean Forsyth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Making of Mary + +Author: Jean Forsyth + +Release Date: September 22, 2006 [EBook #19343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MARY *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + +THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY + + +THE MAKING +OF MARY + +BY +JEAN FORSYTH + + +NEW YORK +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. +31 EAST 17TH ST. (UNION SQUARE) + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. + + +_All rights reserved._ + +THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, +RAHWAY, N. J. + + + + +PROLOGUE. + + +A STURDY northeast wind was rattling the doors and windows of a deserted +farmhouse in Western Michigan. The building was not old, measured by +years, but it had never been painted or repaired, and its wooden face, +prematurely lined with weather stains, looked as if it had borne the +wear and tear of centuries. The windows, like lidless eyes, stared +vacantly at the flat stubble fields and the few spindling trees, a +dreary apology for an orchard. There were plenty of shingles off the +roof to allow the inquisitive rain-drops to follow one another through +the rafters, and thence to the floor of the room below, where the +darkness was creeping out of the corners to take possession. + +The house had been but recently vacated, for there was still a "slab" +smoldering on the hearth of the wide fireplace in the outer kitchen, and +something that looked almost human, wrapped in a ragged bedquilt, was +lying much too near it for safety. A friendly gust of wind came down the +chimney, bringing back the smoke, and drawing a faint cough from the +bundle. Another gust and another cough, and then a sneeze which burst +open the quilt, to disclose an ill-clad little girl, six or seven years +old. + +She gazed about with drowsy blue eyes till terror of the darkness made +her draw the tattered comforter over her head again, and crouching +nearer to the smoldering log, she tried to warm her fingers and toes. +More wind down the chimney made more smoke, and sent the child coughing +back from the fireplace. She was wide awake now, and stood listening. +Sounds there were, indeed, but not one that could be associated with any +living thing in the house. She felt her way around the walls to where +the candle used to be, but it was gone. There was no furniture to +stumble over, and when she came to the side of the wall in the inner +room from which the stairway crept up, she mounted it on her hands and +knees, trembling, partly with cold, partly with fear at the noise made +by the flapping of the sole of one of her old shoes. There was a step +missing at the turn of the stairs, but the child knew where the vacancy +was, and pulling herself over it, she reached the landing, felt all +around the walls there, and made the circuit of the three small rooms +in the same fashion. They were entirely empty. + +Cautiously the girl stole down the broken stairs and back to her former +place by the smoking slab, where she curled herself up into the old +quilt again, as into a mother's arms, and spoke aloud, though there was +none to listen but the obstreperous wind: + +"Anyhow she won't be here to lick me no more!" That thought seemed to +compensate for darkness and loneliness. The voices of wind and rain were +apparently more kindly than the human tones to which she had been +accustomed, and soothed by their stormy lullaby, the little maid fell +asleep. + +The sunshine poured freely into the forsaken house next morning, drying +up the damp floors, and turning to gold the scrap of yellow hair that +showed through a hole in the old quilt. Presently the small girl shook +the covering away from her and stood up, to yawn and stretch herself +out of the stiffness from a night spent on the hard floor. She was not a +pretty child, unless naturally curling fair hair, that would be fairer +when it was washed, could make her so. The long, thin legs that came +below her torn dress made her too tall for her age, and what might have +been a passable mouth was spoiled by the departure of two of the front +"baby" teeth and the tardy arrival of the later contingent. + +Part of the day the child seemed satisfied with her new-found liberty. +Having discovered a stale crust or two in a cupboard, she wanted no +more, for her diet had never been luxurious. Into every corner of the +house she intruded her small freckled nose, pulling down from shelves +all sorts of odds and ends that had been left behind as worthless at the +flitting. + +There was an old straw bonnet with a pair of dirty strings, and +therewith the damsel elected to adorn the tousled head, which evidenced +but slight acquaintance with comb or brush. She could not find any +feminine garments to please her fancy, but there was a boy's jacket, out +at elbows and ragged round the edges, which she proudly donned, and as a +finishing touch she popped her long slim legs, old shoes and all, into a +worn-out pair of man's top-boots that reached to her knees. + +"I just wish Mawm Mason had lef' a lookin'-glass behin', so's I could +see how I look. My! wouldn't she whack me if she seen me with this +bonnet on!" The child smiled broadly as she continued her confidential +address to the other valueless things left behind. "I allays knowed she +warn't my own mother, an' I'm glad Pete nor Matty aint my own brother +nor sister neither. I'd like him to see me in his jacket!" + +She pulled the coat across her narrow little chest to where it met in +the days when there were buttons on it, and marched up and down the +room, making as much noise as possible with the big boots. + +This killing of time was all very well while the daylight lasted and the +sun warmed up the frosty November air, but when the darkness began to +assert itself once more the small waif did not feel so contented. + +"There aint no use goin' over to Mis' Morgan's. She don't want me no +more'n Mis' Mason did. I guess I'll sleep upstairs to-night with some o' +them things over me. I'll be warm anyhow." + +In the middle of the front bedroom she heaped up all the _débris_ and +crawled beneath it. A fantastic pile it seemed to the moon when he +looked in after the rain had stopped, the childish head resting on the +cover of an old bandbox at one side and a pair of man's boots sticking +out at the other. + +The last scrap of bread was finished next day, and the two potatoes +picked up in the yard proved uneatable without the softening influence +of fire, so there was nothing for it but Mrs. Morgan's. After sunset, +when the rapidly falling temperature and the heavy bank of clouds in the +west gave warning of a snow-storm, the little girl, still wearing the +old bonnet, boy's jacket, and man's boots, left the only home she could +remember, and made her way slowly over the hard rough fields and snake +fences to the next farmhouse. + +Mrs. Morgan was running in from the barn with a shawl over her head. + +"Good sakes alive! Mary Mason! I hardly knowed you. What you got on? I +thought you was one o' them scarecrows out o' the fall wheat. Mis' +Mason moved to Californy three days ago. Didn't she take you with her?" + +"No, mawm." + +"So it 'pears. Wal, she hadn't any call to, I s'pose. You aint none o' +hers." + +By this time they were in the kitchen of the farmhouse, Mrs. Morgan +rubbing her hands above the stove, and Mary Mason also venturing near, +stretching out her thin arms to the heat, for the adopted jacket was +somewhat short in the sleeves. + +"What's that mark on yer wrist?" + +"Bruise--but it don't hurt now." + +"Who done it?" + +"Ma--Mis' Mason. I've lots worse'n that on me," said the small girl with +some vanity. + +"There, now! I jest knew that Mis' Mason was a hard case, though my man +would never hear to it. What you going to do now?" + +"I dunno." The accent implied that to be a matter of small moment. + +"I don't s'pose we can turn you out to-night. There's room in the attic +for you to sleep, but don't you go near one o' my girls' beds with that +head o' yourn." + +As a hostess, Mrs. Morgan was a slight improvement upon Mrs. Mason. She +never took stick or strap to the foundling, and if she occasionally gave +her a cuff on the ear it was never strong enough to knock the girl down. +But the Morgan children bullied Mary Mason, the Morgan father grumbled +at an extra mouth to feed, and when she had been about a month in the +house the mistress of it told her she must move on. + +"There's an old dress of Ellie's you can have, an' a pair of Sue's +cast-off boots, and Tom's old cap." + +"Where am I to go, mawm?" + +"You jest go on from one farmhouse to another, till you find a place +where they'll keep you all winter. It's comin' on to Christmas, an' +people won't be hard on ye. Tell 'em you aint got no folks." + + * * * * * + +The forlorn little pilgrim took up her march down the snow-covered road. + + + + +THE MAKING OF MARY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +MY wife is a theosophist. This fact may account for her numerous +eccentricities or be simply one of them. I incline to the latter +opinion, because she preferred the unbeaten to the beaten track, both in +walk and conversation, long before Modern Buddhism was ever heard of in +the small Western town of whose chief newspaper (circulation largest in +Michigan) I have the honor to be editor and proprietor. + +How such a hot-house plant as Theosophy ever took root in the swamps +and sands of the Wolverine State may seem surprising at the first +glance, but let the second rest upon our environment--the absence of +mountain or swift-flowing river, the presence of fever and ague and +half-burnt pine woods--and it will be seen that this Eastern lore with +its embarrassment of symbols supplies a long-felt want to starving +imagination. We of the West are forever reaching beyond our grasp, have +intelligence and perception, but lack the culture necessary for +discrimination, and therefore the romantic souls among us who rise above +the rampant materialism of the majority go to the other extreme, and +hail with enthusiasm the new-old religion. + +"It's better to believe too much than too little, but you theosophists +swallow an awful lot," I say to Belle when she tries to convert me. + +I am well aware that many of my fellow-citizens consider me a subject +for commiseration because I have lived for twenty years with so erratic +a house-mate, for I have not deemed it necessary to explain to them that +without the stimulus of her enlivening spirit, without the element of +surprise constantly contributed by my wife's love of variety, the daily +life, and therefore the daily paper, of their favorite editor would +partake of that flatness which is the predominant characteristic of this +western part of the State of Michigan. + +Our four sons and two daughters enjoy their mother fully as much as I +do, for is she not the most fascinating romancer they ever knew? Now +that they are all of an age to be attending school and looking out for +themselves, after the manner of independent young Americans, they +require from her nothing but sympathy, for their grandmother sews their +buttons on. Grandma!--Ay, there's the rub. + +I have no hesitation in owning that I am Scotch by birth. My mother left +her native land to make her home with us entirely too late in life to +allow Western ideas regarding Sabbath observance, the rearing of +children, or the amount of respect due to the opinion of elders, to +become ingrafted upon Scottish prejudice concerning these matters. + +Mrs. Gemmell Senior has, however, the national peculiarity of judging +"blood thicker than water," and whatever her convictions may be +concerning the methods of Mrs. Gemmell Junior, she restricts the +expression of them to our family circle--in fact, I may say, to myself. +She generally seizes me when I lie at my ease on the well-worn lounge in +our sitting room, more properly dubbed the "nursery," for it is Liberty +Hall for the youngsters. Two rooms have been knocked into one to +accommodate their dolls' houses, bookshelves, toys, and printing +machines. Belle had the whole side torn out of the house to build an +open fire-place, on purpose to burn slabs, over which the children roast +pop-corn to their hearts' content. + +"A body wad think," said my mother one cold night five or six years ago, +when I lay on the sofa, trying to send my weariness off in smoke, "A +body wad think there had been nae cherritable wark dune in the toon ava, +till they theossiphies set aboot it. If yer provost and baillies lookit +efter things as they ocht, there wad be a dacent puirs-house for the +idignant folk, an' a wheen daft leddies like Eesabel needna gang roun' +speirin' at yon infeedels for their siller tae build a hoose o' refuse." + +"There is a county poorhouse, mother, but it doesn't happen to be +located in this city, and they won't take in anybody there that hasn't +been a resident of the county for a certain time." + +"Aweel! there's plenty o' kirks, though ye never darken the door o' ane. +Do they no' leuk efter their ain puir folk?" + +"Yes; but after nobody else's. This House of Refuge is to be +non-sectarian, non-religious, humanitarian, in the broadest sense of the +term. Ah! There's Belle now," and I gave a sigh of relief as I heard my +wife's latch-key in the front door. + +She came in with an out-of-door breeze, her dark face glowing from the +wintry wind, flakes of newly fallen snow resting like diamonds upon her +prematurely white hair, and her brown eyes sparkling with the animation +of twenty summers rather than of forty-two. + +"Children all gone to bed? That's right! Don't go, mother! I'm sure +you'll like to hear about the House of Refuge. We've got it fixed at +last! Those rich old lumbermen that won't give a cent to a church, or +any charity connected with one, have gone to the bottom of their pockets +this time. Fancy Peter Wood, Dave--five hundred dollars! And Jeff +Henderson, five hundred. I have the list in my bag. Like to see it?" + +"No' the nicht, thenk ye," said my mother stiffly, but I added: + +"Hand it over to me, and I'll put it in to-morrow's _Echo_. That's what +they want." + +"Nothing of the kind, you old cynic! I shan't tell you another thing +about it." But still she went on: "We've taken the old Laurence house on +the corner of Garfield Avenue and Pine Street, and it's to be fitted up +to accommodate any sort of refugees." + +"Irrespective of race, creed, sex, or color," I whispered +parenthetically. + +"No one is ever to be turned from the door without a good square meal, +and there's to be a back, outside stair erected, up which a tramp can go +at any hour of the night, and find a nice clean bed awaiting him--locked +away from the rest of the house, of course." + +"Oh, why?" I innocently inquired. "Surely you have enough faith in your +brother man to believe that he would not commit any breach of +hospitality?" + +"_I_ have," replied Belle, squeezing my recumbent form further against +the back of the sofa, upon which she had seated herself. "But remember +we are not all theosophists on the Board." + +In the words of the historic witness against Mrs. Muldoon, "That's the +way the row began!" Belle was elected Treasurer of the House of Refuge, +but as she knows nothing of figures, I had to keep the books of that +unique institution, and was therefore enabled to form a practical +estimate of its workings. + +I shall not attempt a description of the numerous "cases" in which my +advice, if not my pocketbook, was freely drawn upon, but shall leave +them, along with the description of the many antecedent fads of my +beloved better half, to some historian of longer wind, and shall content +myself with recounting the particular "case"--and attachments--which +most nearly affected our family life and happiness. + + * * * * * + +"This is what I call solid comfort," said Belle to me one evening late +in September, as we sat in the parlor in a couple of deep, springy +armchairs, fronting a huge grate fire, that would be banished by the +lighting of the furnace. "Children all in school again, your mother off +on a long visit, and plenty of new books on the table." + +I looked up from one of the aforesaid new books. + +"Just wait! The season's business hasn't begun in the Refuge yet." + +"Everything is in good shape for it, though. We've had enough donations +of groceries and vegetables to keep us going almost all winter. We've +lots of wood for the furnace, and Mack and Hardy have given us some +second-hand furniture and----" + +The electric door-bell sent out a long, imperative summons. + +"Who can that be, Dave, at this time of night? None of the boys locked +out?" + +"No; they all went up to bed a while ago." + +Belle rose and walked to the door. I pulled the tidy from my chair-back +over my bald head to protect me from the draught, but that did not +prevent me from hearing what went on. + +"Are you Mrs. Gemmell?" This from a female voice, breathless with +excitement. + +"I am." + +"Then you are one of the trustees of the House of Refuge?" gasped +another feminine speaker. + +"Yes. Won't you come in?" + +"No, thank you. We've just come to tell you about this young girl who +has run to us for protection." + +"We're school-teachers, mawm." + +"She's in my class, and she hasn't a friend in the city and knew nowhere +else to go." + +Then followed some hysterical whispers, which roused my curiosity so +much that I went to the door and peeped over the shoulder of my tall +wife. The two plain, business-like young women were evidently much +distressed, but between them was a fair-haired slip of a girl of +fifteen or sixteen, the least disturbed of the group. The three older +women might have been talking in a foreign tongue, or of someone else, +so unconcerned did she appear, present danger being over. + +"How did she happen to be with these people?" Belle was asking as I came +forward. + +"The wife of this brute of a man told us that she was nursemaid with the +Ferguson Family Concert Company, but they dropped her here in Lake City +without a friend or a cent." + +"She took her in to help sell fruit and ice cream evenings, and she let +her go to school through the day." + +At this juncture the subject under discussion broke into a beaming +smile, showing all her fine teeth. Her cheek dimpled and reddened, and +her blue eyes, full of fun, looked straight into mine. I became +suddenly aware that I had forgotten to remove the tidy, and retired in +confusion, but heard Belle's conclusion of the interview: + +"Just wait a second till I give you a line to the matron of the House of +Refuge. You can leave the girl there till we see what can be done for +her. She'll be perfectly safe, and had better keep on going to school as +usual." + + * * * * * + +A week afterward I asked my wife what had become of her latest +_protégée_. + +"You mean Mary Mason? She's in the refuge yet, attending school, and +we've settled that man's ice-cream saloon." + +"How?" + +"Boycotted him. We can't reach him any other way." + +"That's rather hard on his wife, who seems to be a decent sort of +party." + +"The innocent often appear to suffer with and for the guilty, but if +you understood the law of Karma you would know that all the evil that +befalls us is really the result of some wrongdoing of our own in a +previous incarnation. Mary Mason herself is an instance." + +"What's the matter with her?" + +"Poor girl! She's been knocked from pillar to post all her days. She +hasn't an idea who her parents are, and there isn't a creature in the +world she has any claim upon. She must have gone very far astray _last +time_ to have been brought into the world again with such +disadvantages." + +"It appears to me she has a great many advantages--lovely blue eyes, +good teeth, the fashionable golden shade of hair, and the prettiest +complexion I've seen for many a day." + +"Don't be provoking, Dave! The poor little thing has the marks of some +of her beatings on her yet. The Ferguson family were the first who ever +treated her decently, or paid her any wages." + +"Why did they drop her?" + +"One of our Committee took it upon herself to write and ask them. They +replied that the girl was of perfectly good character, so far as they +knew, but she fell so ridiculously in love with Frank Ferguson, their +eldest son, that she was making a nuisance of herself, and so they had +to let her go." + +I laughed. + +"There are generally two sides to that kind of story." + +"At the meeting of the trustees to-morrow it is to be decided what's to +be done with her, because she says she doesn't want to go to school any +more. She's never had much of a chance before to learn anything, and +she's in a class with little bits of girls, and she doesn't like +it--says she'd rather go to work to earn her own living." + +Belle came home from that meeting with her face ablaze with righteous +wrath. Her hands trembled so much over the teacups at our evening meal +that even sixteen year old Watty, our eldest son, remarked it. + +"What's the matter with _mamma_? Her trolley's off." + +I knew there was trouble in the wind, so I fortified myself with a good +supper and read my paper at the same time, to leave myself free for what +was to follow. The children study their lessons in the back end of the +nursery, and I therefore forbore to take up my usual position upon the +sofa, but withdrew to the parlor with my pipe. + +Presently my wife followed me, nearly walking over the furniture in her +excitement. + +"Go on, Belle; out with it!" + +"You will listen, will you, seriously?" + +"Certainly, mawm. I never had any sort of an objection to your making a +scavenger barrel of me, so go ahead." + +"Oh, these benevolent women, Dave! Any one of them alone is as +good-hearted as can be, but lump them together on a committee, and +they're as cold and cruel and grasping as the meanest business man you +could name!" + +"More so!" said I, approvingly, and for once Isabel did not resent the +disparagement of her sex. + +"The question arose, what was to be done about Mary Mason, and every one +of them, David--every one of them, with young daughters of their own +growing up at home, voted to let that girl go round this town selling a +book." + +"Was that what she wanted to do herself?" + +"Yes; but think of them letting her do it! You know as well as I do what +sort of a city this is, and whether it's safe for a lovely girl like +that to go to men's offices, trying with her pretty looks and ways to +wheedle them into subscribing for Stanley's 'Darkest Africa.' Oh, I was +wild! I said to Mrs. Robinson: 'How would you like your Lulu to do it?' +'The cases are very different,' said she; 'my daughter has no need to +earn her living.' 'Mrs. Constable,' said I, 'if your grandchild were +left alone in the world, what would you think of the charity of any body +of women who allowed her to go from under their protection to make her +living in this way?' 'I don't see the connection,' said she; 'Mary +Mason's been fighting the world since she was seven years old, and just +because she happens to have a pretty face, you seem to think she should +be put in a glass case and never do anything for herself.'" + +"She had you there, Belle," said I, pulling her down to the arm of my +big easy-chair. "Let the girl alone; she'll come out all right. She's +too good-looking for a nurse or a housemaid, and she doesn't know enough +arithmetic to be a shop girl. I don't see what else she can do." + +"That's just what the ladies calmly decided," said my wife, walking the +floor again. "They seemed to think that a little business training would +just be the making of Mary. Oh, these Christians!" + +"You see, my dear," said I, "committees are not supposed to have any +conscience. They have the income of the Refuge in trust for the +contributors, and they have no right to keep on supporting a girl who is +willing to work for herself. How she proposes to do it is none of their +business." + +"That's just what it is--their business; their business to see that she +doesn't meet the very fate we've saved her from once already. Oh! +there's no getting these narrow-minded, orthodox, bigoted people to see +more than one side of a question." + +"Take care you don't become dogmatic on your own side," said I, rising +to knock the ashes out of my pipe. "If it's the law of Karma that's +responsible for her having been left to shift for herself at so early an +age, it's the same law that's after her now, and I wouldn't interfere +with its operations, if I were you." + +"You don't in the least understand what you are talking about," and +Belle sailed from the room to settle a noisy dispute in the nursery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +THROUGH that winter I caught occasionally a glimpse of Mary Mason on the +street, but as I had not the pleasure of her acquaintance, I did not +stop to ask her how she was getting on. My wife told me, however, that +she lived in a room over a store down town, and took her meals out, and +that she was succeeding very well with her subscription list. + +"The girl is all right, if only the gossips would let her alone. Some of +them assert that she had a child in the Refuge, and though the ladies on +our committee indignantly deny that, they shake their heads, and say of +course they don't know anything about her now." + +"It's the only excitement a lot of these women have," said I. "They +wouldn't read a French novel for the world, and some of them wouldn't be +seen in a theater, so they have to satisfy their morbid craving for +sensationalism by hearing and repeating all sorts of unsavory tales--and +they do it in the name of charity! They're very sorry that there is so +much wickedness in the world, but since it is there, they enjoy the +investigation of details, and it doesn't matter very much whether +they're doing any good or not." + +"There aren't any details to investigate, so far as Mary Mason is +concerned. I took pains to make sure of that, when I heard that a big +hulk of a machinist, who rooms on the same flat, was telling lies about +her, just because she refused to have anything to say to him." + +When I was leaving the _Echo_ office at noon one day I saw Henderson's +handsome black span, with the wreck of a sleigh behind them, come down +the street at a full gallop, and I was just debating with myself whether +my duty as a citizen, which called me to attempt to stop the brutes, was +stronger than my duty to my wife and family, which bade me stay where I +was, when a young lady jumped the snow ridge at the edge of the sidewalk +and flung herself at the bit of the nearest horse. The powerful animal +swung her right off her feet, but he was checked for an instant, and in +that instant a young man seized the mate on the other side; the team was +stopped and surrounded by a crowd directly. Then I saw it was Mary Mason +who was the heroine of the drama. She withdrew from the throng, +straightened her flat hat above her rosy face, and walked off with her +habitual indifferent air. + +"She's got good grit, that girl," said I to myself, but I thought no +more about her till I came home on a certain evening in March, and found +her comfortably ensconced on one side of our nursery fire, while my +mother from the other side cast suspicious glances at her over her +spectacles. "Miss Mason," had supper with us, and then I retired to my +big leather-covered spring rocker in the parlor to await developments. +That chair needs to be approached with deference, for it has a +precocious trick of either tilting in the air the feet of any unwary +occupant, or of tipping him out on the floor. I know its disposition, +can preserve my proper balance, and have never been flung either forward +or backward--except once each way. + +Presently Belle followed me, "loaded up," as the boys say. + +"It seems as if I was never to get free from the responsibility of that +child." + +"What's up now?" + +"Down town to-day I met the chief of police----" + +"Great chum of yours!" + +"Yes, indeed. We've had considerable conversation at different times +about some of my cases. To-day he said, 'You're interested in that young +girl, Mary Mason, aint you, Mrs. Gemmell?' 'Yes,' said I, though my +heart sank, and I didn't see why he couldn't have addressed any other +one of the committee; 'anything wrong with her?' 'Not yet,' said he; +'but there will be pretty soon if somebody doesn't look after her. +There's a scheme on foot to take her off to Chicago--to sell a book--so +they say.' 'Good gracious! Nobody would dare!' 'Wouldn't they, though?' +said he. 'There's a well-known drummer in this town at the bottom of +it. He's aware the girl has no friends, and in Chicago she don't even +know a soul. It's too bad, for I've had my eye on the young woman all +winter, and she's kept perfectly straight.' + +"You may think, Dave, that I ought to be hardened to horrors by this +time, but I became fairly dazed as the chief of police went on to say, +'I can't move in the matter. We never can touch these things until the +mischief is done; but if you like to make inquiries, you'll find out +that I've been telling you the truth.' + +"When he left me, I turned to come home, not knowing what to do, but +going round the first corner, didn't I run right into Mary Mason +herself! I hadn't laid eyes on her for a couple of months. 'How d'ye do, +Mrs. Gemmell?' she said, for I stopped and stared at her as if she'd +been a white crow. 'What about "Darkest Africa?"' I found breath to +ask, though it was Darkest Chicago I had in my mind. 'I've done with +that now,' she said; 'did very well, too.' 'And what are you going to do +next?' 'I dunno. Whatever turns up. I've got an offer to go to Chicago +to sell a book there.' I caught her by the arm as if I'd been the chief +of police. 'Mary, will you please go to my house and wait there for me +till I come?' 'Oh, yes, mawm, if you want me to,' and off she went, +asking no questions. + +"Well, Dave, I've put in four hours of amateur detective work this +afternoon, and I feel as if I needed a moral bath. I found out it was +all true, as the chief of police had said. There was a plot to ruin the +girl, and I don't think the author of it will forget his interview with +me in a hurry." + +"What good will that do the young woman? There are plenty more of his +kind in the world, and with her inherited tendencies I suppose it's only +a question of time--how soon she goes to the bad." + +"David Gemmell!" + +It is worth while making a caustic speech occasionally to see Isabel +rise to her full height. Her brown eyes positively emit sparks, and her +gray hair, which she wears waved and parted, gives her an air of +distinction that would not be out of place upon an avenging spirit. + +"I came home all tired out," she went on, sinking into the chair beside +mine, "and looking through the nursery window, there sat Mary Mason with +our little Chrissie on her knee. The two faces in the firelight looked +so much alike that my heart gave a great thump, and I vowed that girl +should never be set adrift again. This is the second time she has been +cast upon my shore, and I must see to her." + +So Mary Mason dropped into our family circle without anybody having very +much to say in the matter--except my mother! + +"Wha's yon 'at Eesabell's ta'en up wi' the noo?" + +"Her name's Mason," said I; "Mary Mason." + +"I h'ard yer wife was thinkin' o' keepin' a hoosemaid, but I didna +expeck tae see her pap hersel' doon at the table wi' the fem'ly." + +"She's not a housemaid. She's just staying with us for a while." + +"Ye'd think Eesabell micht hae eneugh adae wi' her ain, 'thoot takin' in +ony strangers." + +"But Mary is to help with the housework, in return for her board and +clothes." + +"Let her wear a kep an' apron, then, an' eat wi' Marg'et." + +"Margaret might object," and I laughed at the probable dismay of our +stalwart, rough-and-ready five-foot-tenner, should this ladyfied blonde +permanently invade her domain. + +"Hoo lang's she gaun to st'y?" + +"That's more than I can tell you." + +When Mary had been a week in the house, it became apparent that +something must be done with her. + +"She's bound she'll not go back to the public school, Dave, and yet she +cannot read or write. Do you think we can afford to send her to +boarding-school--to a convent, for instance, where she'd be well looked +after, and allowances made for her backwardness?" + +Belle and I were out driving together. It was the first springlike +evening we had had, and I was trying Jim Atwood's new mare on Maple +Avenue, which had been newly block-paved. So engrossed was I in watching +her paces I did not reply to my wife at once, and she continued: + +"You were going to get me a horse and a victoria this spring, but I'm +willing to give them up to send Mary to school." + +"Please yourself, my dear. You would be the one to use the turnout. I'm +content to borrow from my friends. Isn't she a beauty?" + +Belle came out of space to answer me. + +"Yes, just now; but she'll not be when she's old. Her features are not +good at all; her forehead's too narrow, and her nose too broad. Were it +not for her lovely hair and complexion, she'd have nothing to brag about +but a pair of very ordinary blue eyes." + +"Who? The mare?" + +"Don't be stupid, Dave, and do attend to what I am saying. I hardly ever +have a chance to speak to you, goodness knows!" + +"You get the editorial ear oftener and longer than anybody else." + +"Lend it to me now, then. Don't you think a convent would be the best +place for Mary?" + +"Perhaps--as there are no theosophical educational institutions that we +know about." + +"Mary isn't far enough on for theosophist yet. She'll have to come back +many times before she is. The Roman Catholic Church is on her plane this +incarnation." + +"It does seem to catch the masses, that's a fact, whereas your theosophy +doesn't appear to be practicable for uneducated people nor for +children." + +"I don't agree with you there." + +"Then why were you so anxious to send Watty to a church school to finish +his education, and why are you on the lookout already for a +boarding-school for the two girls where they will have the best of +Christian influences? What is your object in being so particular that +the younger boys are regular in their attendance at our surpliced +choir?" + +"It gives them a good idea of music--but that is not the point just now. +Can we afford to send Mary Mason to a convent, or can we not?" + +"Choose between her and the buggy mare 'suitable for a lady to drive,'" +said I; but in reality it was my mother who settled the question. + +When we came home that evening she was sitting by the fireside, + + "Nursin' her wrath to keep it warm." + +"Ye maun either pit yon hizzy oot the hoose, or I'll hitta gang." + +"What's the matter now, mother?" + +"I tell't her to brush the boys' bits tae be ready for the schule in the +mornin'. They were thrang wi' their lessons an' she wasna daein' a han's +turn." + +"And what did she say?" + +"S'y! I wush ye'd seen the leuk she gi'ed me!" + +"The boys can brush their ain bits," said she; "I'm no' their servant." + +I laughed. + +"It's well seen she hasn't been brought up in Scotland, or she would +know it was the bounden duty of the girls in the house to wait on the +boys." + +"An' a hantle better it is than to see the laddies aye rinnin' efter the +lasses, tendin' them han' an' fut as they dae here. When a man comes +hame efter his d'y's wark, he should be let sit on his sate, an' hae a' +things dune for him." + +"David," said Belle, sinking to a footstool at my feet with a dramatic +gesture, "you shall never button my boots again! But seriously," she +continued, as mother withdrew in high dudgeon to her sanctum upstairs, +"I don't think Mary should be expected to brush the boys' boots. We +didn't engage her as servant, and even if we had, there isn't a hired +girl in this part of the country that wouldn't make a fuss if she had to +brush the boots of the man of the house, not to mention the boys. We'll +have to pack Mary off somewhere, if only to keep the peace." + +So Mary was sent to a convent, and at the end of three months came back +for her holidays to our summer cottage at Interlaken. Being so near the +big lake does not agree with my mother, and she rarely spends more than +a week with us there, but during July and August visits my married +sister in town. The coast was clear for Belle and me to decide what +progress had been made in the making of Mary, and we fancied we +discovered a good deal. + +"What have they done to you, those nuns, to tone you down so quickly, +Mary?" I asked, as she sat beside me, swinging in a low rocker, and +looking so pretty that I was quite proud of her as an ornament to our +front veranda. + +"I dunno," she said, "unless it was the exercise for sitting perfectly +still on a row of chairs. A nun goes behind us and drops a big book or +something, and any girl that jumps gets a bad mark." + +"Capital!" I cried; "no wonder you have learned repose of manner." + +Thus encouraged, the girl continued: + +"Then we have little parties and receptions, and we have to converse +with the nuns and with each other, and anybody that mentions one of the +three D's gets a bad mark." + +"The three D's?" + +"Yes, sir--Dress, Disease, and Domestics." + +"Hear this, Belle," I said, laughing, as my wife took the rocking chair +on the other side of me; "fancy any collection of women being obliged to +steer clear of the three D's!" + +"You should ask Mary about her studies," was the severe reply. "We were +much pleased with your letters." + +"Yes, mawm; Sister Stella was always very good about that; helped me +with the big words, and often wrote the whole thing out for me. +Sometimes I had to copy it two or three times before I could please +her." + +Belle hastily changed the subject. "Let Mr. Gemmell hear that piece you +recited to me this morning." + +I am no judge of elocution, but the general effect of the young girl +standing there in the arch of the veranda, a clematis-wreathed post on +either side, and her face, with its delicate coloring, turned toward the +golden twilight, was pleasing in the extreme. + +"She'll maybe be famous some day," said Belle, when Mary had discreetly +retired. "She is far quicker at learning verses off by heart than she is +at reading them." + +"Still, to be a successful elocutionist nowadays one has to be +thoroughly well educated, and Mary is too late in beginning." + +"You can't tell. She's got the appearance, and that's half the battle." + +"With us, perhaps; but remember, we are not capable critics, even though +one of us is a Theosophist." + +"Laugh as you like, Dave. Theosophy satisfies me, because it explains +some things in my own nature that I never could understand before." + +"It may be that you are too soon satisfied. That's the way with all new +movements--one story is good till another is told. Your +great-granddaughter will smile at the credulity of your ideas on this +very subject." + +"She can smile, and so can you. We don't pretend to know everything; we +only hope that we are on the right road to learn. I, for one, am +thankful to think that there are wiser heads than mine puzzling over the +problem of our psychic powers. I've always taken impressions from +inanimate objects, and it has bothered me. Now I find my sensations +analyzed and classified under the head of Psychometry, and it is a +comfort to know that other people besides myself can discern an _aura_, +and are foolishly wise enough to trust the impressions they receive in +that way." + +"But if I were you, I don't think I'd make a parlor entertainment out of +the gift,--if it is a gift,--as I heard you did at the Wades' the other +night." + +"Who told you? What have you heard?" + +"Newspaper men hear everything. You asked Mr. Saxon to hold his +handkerchief pressed tightly in his hand for a few minutes, and then to +give it to you. You shut your eyes as you held it, and received the +impression of his 'aura,' or the atmosphere which surrounds him, or +whatever you like to call it, and then the company asked you questions, +and you gave him a great old character. He didn't like it a bit, nor did +his wife, nor his mother-in-law. You'll make enemies for yourself if you +don't watch out." + +"It _was_ wrong of me to exercise my powers just to gratify idle +curiosity. No good Theosophist would approve of it." + +"Say, rather, 'no sensible person would.' The Theosophists haven't a +monopoly of common sense. To me they appear slightly deficient in that +article, but I dare say they make up for it in uncommon sense." + +"You speak more wisely than you know," said Belle solemnly. "If I hadn't +taken in some of the Brotherhood ideas I wonder where that pretty, +innocent young girl would have been by this time. Would you like me to +go back and be as I was in the old days, a rank materialist, caring for +nothing but dress, dancing, and having a good time? You know you +wouldn't, David. You know as well as I do that Theosophy has been the +making of me, and through me it shall be the making of Mary too." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +TO the Scotchman or Englishman, with Loch Katrine or Windermere in his +fond memory's eye, it is not surprising that the great lakes of America +seem howling wildernesses of water, for the shores are mostly low and +unpicturesque. There is no changing tide to give variety, no strong +smell of seaweed nor salt breeze to brace the wearied nerves, but the +wearied nerves are braced nevertheless. The sand is soft and clean to +extend one's length upon, and the waves forever rolling up at one's feet +are soothing in their monotony. There is no fear of the encroachment of +the water, no fear of its leaving a bare mud-flat for nearly a mile; and +the unlimited expanse of blue which meets the horizon satisfies the eye, +which cares not if the land on the other side be hundreds or thousands +of miles away, so long as it be out of sight. + +Two young people one evening in July seemed to find Lake Michigan +perfectly satisfactory in every respect. The girl sat on a log of +driftwood, poking holes in the sand with the pointed toes of her shoes, +much too fine for the purpose, while the young man stretched at her feet +looked at her instead of the sunset they had come to admire. I could not +help thinking what a pretty picture they made, as I strolled along the +shore with my pipe, to get cooled off after a very hot day in town. + +The family were all at Interlaken, but Margaret was left in Lake City +to keep the grass watered, and to give me my midday dinner. I am unable +to decide which occupation she considered the more important. It is not +easy to get grass to grow with us, and anyone who can display a +reasonably green patch in July and August gives evidence of considerable +perseverance in the matter of lawn sprinkling. I told Margaret she would +be ready to enter the Fire Brigade next winter, she was getting to be +such an expert with the hose. But to return to the shore of Michigan. + +The pair of lovers interested me so much that I gradually edged nearer +to them. The species seldom objects to the proximity of a stout little +man with a prosaic pipe in his mouth and a pair of light blue eyes, +handicapped by spectacles, that seem always to be looking for a sail on +the horizon. In fact, I never attract any attention anywhere, unless my +wife is along, and then I am only too proud and happy to shine in her +reflection. + +So I sat down on a piece of stump, worn white and smooth like a skeleton +before being cast up by the waves; but when the two caught sight of me, +the man sprang up and came toward me, holding out his hand, while the +girl sauntered off in the other direction, and I saw that she was Mary +Mason. + +"Hello, Link?" said I to the young fellow. "Didn't know you were down +here." + +"I'm at the hotel for a week or two. I've just been making the +acquaintance of your adopted daughter." + +"My what?" + +"You have adopted her, haven't you?" + +"Don't know that I have--hadn't considered the matter at all." + +"She's a sweet girl, and a beauty too. Anyone would be proud to own +her." + +"You'd better let Dolly Martin hear you say that." + +Abraham Lincoln Todd straightened himself up in the most independent +bachelor style. + +"She can look after me when we're married, but in the meantime I'm a +free man." + +He is considered very handsome, tall and dark, a good business man too, +and Belle had quite approved of the engagement between him and Dolly +Martin, who, though not a pretty girl, was strong and sensible, and the +daughter of one of her oldest friends. + +Lincoln must be taking advantage of his intimacy with our family to +flirt with Mary Mason. + +Interlaken is not a fashionable resort. Even the hotel is a homely +abode, which the guests seem to run themselves, though they generally +prefer to live outdoors and go inside only for meals and beds. Once in +a while, on a chilly evening, the young people get up a dance, and some +of us older folks are dragged into it too. + +Scotchmen love to dance, and I am no exception. I am not up to waltzing +or any of the newfangled round dances, but give me a Highland +schottische, or a square dance, when there is an inventive genius to +call off the figures and prescribe plenty of variety. There was no +professional caller-off at Interlaken, but Lincoln Todd did duty for one +as he danced. When he tired of it, and led off into a round of waltzes, +ripples, jerseys, bon tons, rush polkas, and goodness knows what +besides, I remained as a wall-flower. + +The reason that I sat there was that I could not take my eyes off Mary +Mason. Where she learned to dance I know not, but dance she did, with a +grace and _abandon_ that made every other girl in the room a +clod-hopper. Lincoln Todd was quite infatuated with her. + +Ours is one of the dozen or so of cottages that radiate from the big +hotel. Most of the cottagers take dinner and supper at the hotel, being, +like ourselves, in a servantless condition. Belle said she could get +along perfectly well without Margaret, when she had Mary Mason to help +her with the housework, and, indeed, there was not much to be done. The +four bedrooms open into one central room that we call the sitting-room, +but it is only in wet weather it justifies the name, for, as a rule, we +sit in rockers or swing in hammocks on the broad veranda that runs round +three sides of the house. The cottages lie so close together that a good +jumper can easily spring from one veranda to the next, and the lady +proprietors gossip across, and the men too when they come down from +business every evening, or from Saturday till Monday. My lot is +generally the shorter allowance, and one Sunday afternoon I lay in my +favorite hammock on the north side of the veranda, sleeping the sleep of +the brain-tired editor, till voices roused me. + +"Mary, where did you get that new tennis racket?" + +"Mr. Todd gave it to me." + +"Haven't I told you distinctly that you were not even to take candy from +Mr. Todd?" + +"He gives things to you and Chrissie." + +"That's a very different matter. Chrissie is a child, and he is an old +friend of the family." + +"I can't help it if he likes to give me presents." + +"You can help taking them, especially from an engaged man." + +"I don't care if he is engaged. He says he don't care anything at all +about Miss Martin. He only went after her for her money. He likes me +best, and he says he'll never marry her." + +"Mary! I should think you'd know better than to make yourself so cheap. +You give Mr. Todd back that racket right away, and tell him Mrs. Gemmell +said you were not to keep it, and the next time he brings you down +flowers or chocolates you do the same." + +If I had not known the sex and the approximate age of Mary, I should +have thought it was a small boy in a temper who stamped off the veranda. + +The next Saturday night the full moon was assisted in her duties by a +large bonfire down on our beach. The Adamless Eden, having received its +"week-end" male contingent, was stimulated to a corn-roasting. The green +ears, stuck on the ends of long sticks, were held by girls and men over +the fire till roasted, and then passed on to a row of matrons, disguised +in large aprons, who salted and buttered them ready for eating. If you +know anything that tastes sweeter than a freshly roasted and buttered +ear of Indian corn, your experience is broader than mine. + +Using my eyes habitually in the way of business, I could not avoid +noticing that Lincoln Todd was not collecting his share of driftwood for +keeping up the fire, nor did I see Mary Mason's pretty face in the +garland of beauties bending with eager interest over the poles bayoneted +with cobs of corn. It may have been fear of spoiling her complexion that +kept her at one side whispering with Link, but it served them both right +that Dolly Martin should choose that very moment for her stage entrance. +She and her mother joined the group of butterers, and I noticed that +Mrs. Martin returned Belle's cordial greeting rather stiffly. Then Miss +Dolly calmly walked over to the pair sitting apart, having evidently +recognized the back of Lincoln's blazer. She pretended to stumble over +one of his feet. + +"Oh, excuse me!" said she; and when Link sprang up, Mary Mason had the +pleasure of witnessing the warmest sort of a meeting between the engaged +lovers. They sallied off in the moonlight, his arm around her waist. + +No one but me noticed the young girl slipping down on the sand, and +laying her head on the log on which she had been sitting, and even I +pretended not to see that her handkerchief was in action. + +"Hello, Mary!" said I, "I'll match you skipping stones. Look at this!" + +With that I sent a beautiful flat one skimming along with nearly a dozen +hops in the brilliant track of the moon on the water. She did not pay +any attention to me at first, and I kept skipping away, just as if I +did not see her mopping her eyes. By-and-by a stroke worthy of myself +sent a pebble spinning through the ripples, and Mary's ready laugh rang +out beside me. Within twenty minutes of Dolly Martin's appearance on the +scene, "Mamie" was the center of the corn-roasters, and the gayest of +the gay. Belle told me she kept on that line of conduct during the whole +week that Miss Martin and her mother stayed at the hotel. + +"It seemed to me that Dolly took a special pleasure in parading her +happiness before poor Mary, but Mary never showed the white feather." + +"There's the making of a fine woman in her." + +"That may be," said my wife. "But this last week she has been extremely +wearing on me. Having no particular man on the string, she has followed +me about like a spaniel, wanted to know what I'm reading, and has begun +a book the minute I'm through with it." + +"I've seen her carrying 'The Coming Race' about with her lately, but I +notice that the bookmark always stays in the same place." + +Mary became fond of solitary rambles back in the pine woods, intersected +by plank walks that made promenading possible. People liked to wander +through there in the evenings, when the camp-lights in the hollows lent +a mysterious charm, and on up to the big Knight Templar's Building, +erected on the highest point of the sandy bluff overlooking Lake +Michigan. Every night that prominent structure blazed with electric +lights, and sometimes a band played on the veranda; but the only +visitors were cottagers and guests from the hotel, who went up there to +walk about and enjoy the prospect. + +Our city editor often surprises me with the depth and breadth of his +local information. For example, I opened the _Echo_ one day to be made +aware that "Miss Mamie Gemmell" had outstripped all the lady bicyclists +in town by making the distance between Lake City and Interlaken in +forty-seven minutes. It was also remarked that she was one of the most +graceful lady riders on the road. + +I wonder how many generations a man must be removed from Scotland before +he becomes callous to the disposition of the family name. I own that I +squirmed inwardly, but with outward composure asked Belle where Mary got +the "bike." + +"Watty's old one. He taught Mary to ride it, and then made her a present +of it, for he's set his heart on a new wheel." + +"Confoundedly generous of him!" + +"I'm glad you look at it that way. It is so seldom that he does give up +anything for anybody, I thought he ought to be encouraged, and I said he +should have a new bicycle with pneumatic tires and all the latest +improvements at Christmas, if you did not see fit to give it to him +sooner." + +In August I took my annual day's fishing, which has come to be rather a +joke in the house, because, in spite of my elaborate preparations the +night before, and the unheard-of hour at which I rise in the morning, I +have never been known to catch anything worth bringing home. + +This time my companion was a journalist from Chicago, an ardent young +fellow, who could not keep from "shop" even when off on his holidays, +and who had started a small weekly paper in which were to be recorded +the doings of a certain congress holding a summer session in our grove. + +We rowed up the little lake on the edge of the lily-pads, fishing both +sides of it, but caught nothing except a sunfish or two. Then we lit our +pipes and talked. + +"What an extremely clever young lady that adopted daughter of yours is. +I heard only the other day that she is not your own." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, sir. No one would believe it to talk to her, but she's got a +surprisingly bright mind for one so young. She can't be more than +seventeen, but her descriptions are good enough for one of the best +magazines, and she has evidently thought a lot on all the leading topics +of the day. Why, she's up in Hypnotism, Evolution, Theosophy--everything!" + +"Bless my soul! How did you find all that out?" + +Thereupon he fished from his pocket a couple of his tiresome little +publications. + +"I asked her to write something for our paper, that's how I know. Want +to see?" + +I do not set up to be a literary critic, but I guess I know my own +wife's style of composition when I encounter it. During the two years +that we were engaged she lived in Detroit and I in Indiana, and I missed +her letters so much after we were married that to this day she is in the +habit of letting me read those she writes to other people. I was not +going to give her away to that newspaper man, though, for the name "Mary +Gemmell" stared me in the face from the end of each article; but I +remonstrated with Belle when I reached home. + +"How could I help it, Dave? There was the girl teasing me to write +something for her because this fellow had asked her to do it. She said I +could scribble down something just as easy as not, and then she could +copy it for him. Copy it! She took hours to do it, and I considered she +deserved all the praise she got for the articles." + +"I wouldn't do it again, if I were you. It sets the girl sailing under +false colors." + +"Poor Mary! Her one little accomplishment has been of no use to her +since that professional elocutionist came to the hotel, and I hated to +see her cast altogether into the shade, especially while Dolly Martin +was here." + +Still there came another production from the pen of Miss Mary Gemmell. + +"Really, Belle," said I, "this is carrying the joke too far." + +"Don't you worry about it. Some of the old cats at the hotel began to +suspect that Mary hadn't written those things, and accused me to my face +of doing it myself, so I had to write an account of the picnic up the +little lake, because they all know I wasn't there at all!" + +"Let this be the last, then." + +"It shall, I assure you, for I am much displeased with Mary. Since Mrs. +Martin and Dolly left, she's been going it just as hard as ever with +Lincoln Todd. If you walk up to the Knight Templar's Building I'll +warrant you'll find them there promenading this very minute." + +"No, I won't, because I passed them just a little while ago as I came +through the woods, sitting on a secluded bench, his arm round her waist +and her head on his shoulder." + +"Didn't they see you?" + +"I dare say, but I never let on I saw them. What's the use? I can't be +expected to leave the _Echo_ to my subs, and come down here to play +special policeman to Mary Mason. I should have thought Todd was more of +a gentleman." + +"So should I, but I've spoken to him, quarreled with him indeed, so +that he doesn't come near the house, but I know that he and Mary meet +just the same. Thank Heaven! he will be married soon." + +"Have you told Mary that?" + +"Yes; but she laughs and shrugs her shoulders; evidently thinks she +knows more about Lincoln Todd's intentions than I do." + +In the last week of August Mr. Todd went off for a few days "on +business," and then there came a dreadful morning when the announcement +of his marriage to Dolly Martin appeared in the _Echo_. + +Mary would not believe her ears. She took the paper down to the beach, +and spelled out the notice word by word. Then she lay down on the sand +and bawled, kicking and squealing like a year-old infant when Belle +appealed to her self-respect. + +"I could have spanked her well," said my wife. The worst of it was that +the whole hotel was "on to the racket," as Watty vulgarly expressed it, +and rather chuckled over Belle's mortification, instead of sympathizing +with her in the trying time she was having with her "adopted daughter." + +Our grief, as a family, was not unbearable when the time came in +September for Mary Mason to go back to the convent. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +THE self-assertive sleigh-bells suddenly ceased their tinkling, and the +long covered van, with its four horses, drew up in front of our "House +of Many Gables," in Lake City. Watty, then a tall lad of eighteen, +over-coated, fur-capped, and gloved, went quickly out, banging the front +door after him, while his younger brothers and sisters made holes with +their breath through the frost on the window panes, to watch his +departure with the hilarious load of young folks. + +"Why aint you goin', Mame?" asked Joe, our smallest son, of the girl +spending her Christmas holidays with us. + +"Wasn't asked," she replied defiantly. "An' what's more, I don't care to +go anywheres, neither, if the girls don't act better to me than they +done at that party the other night." + +Belle raised her head from the Treasurer's book of the House of Refuge. + +"Perhaps you weren't nice to them, Mary?" + +"Yes, I was too. I smiled whenever one of them looked at me, but they +all turned their heads as if they'd never seen me before." + +My wife sighed as she bent over her book again. If the difficulty of +befriending Mary rested only with outsiders it might have been patiently +borne, but there was mother, to whom the girl's presence in the house +was a constant grievance. + +I had been able to buy a quiet horse and a Mikado cutter for Belle when +the snow came, but she had no pleasure out of them during the vacation. + +"I'm going to drive downtown, mother," I heard her say one morning. +"Would you like to go?" + +"Is Mary gaun?" + +"I thought of taking her." + +"Then I'll no' gang. I wadna like to crood Mary." + +"Dear mother, there's plenty of room." + +"Ay, ay, but ye ken Mary doesna like tae sit wi' her back tae the +horse." + +That sort of thing was always happening. One day the old lady came home +from a round of visits, much perturbed in mind and body. The sandy hair +I inherited, and have largely lost, does not show the gray with which it +is mixed, and so light and wiry is she one finds it difficult to +remember my mother's seventy years. She is a small woman, but her +personality is sufficiently large for the ripples to be felt throughout +the household when its surface is disturbed. + +"What dae ye think I've been hearin'?" she cried, finding me alone in +the nursery on the sofa, and helpless in her hands. + +"I can't imagine, mother. You generally have something spicy to tell us +after you've been calling on the MacTavishes." + +"Dae ye ken 'at yon hizzy ye've ta'en intill yer hoose ca's hersel' Mary +_Gemmell_?" + +"Oh, well, what's in a name?" + +"I wonner tae hear ye, Davvit! What wad yer faither hae thocht aboot it, +or yer gran'faither? Gie'n the femly name, that's come doon unspotted +frae ae generation till anither, tae a funnlin' aff the streets! Ou, ay! +I micht 'a' kent what wad happen when I h'ard tell o' ye bein' merrit +till an Amerrican." + +"Hold up there, mother. You're just twenty years too late in raking up +that story. If it suits me and Belle to have that girl called 'Mary +Gemmell,' Mary Gemmell she shall be, if it turns all Scotland head over +heels into the North Sea." + +So seldom do I break out that an eruption of mine never fails to clear +the air of an unwelcome topic. + +Our boys have grown up on a sort of an "every-man-for himself" +principle, and when it came to a fight for the favorite corner of the +sofa, the favorite game, or picture-book, "Mamie" was in the thick of it +every time. + +"What else can you expect?" said I to Belle, consolingly. "She's been +fighting the world on her own account ever since she can remember, and +our house represents to her only a change of battle ground." + +"I think her father must have been a gentleman." + +"He certainly had one gentlemanly peculiarity." + +"Don't be a brute, Dave. I mean that Mary's ancestors must have been +wealthy people, she has such a taste for luxury." + +"That doesn't follow. I'm sure you've seen plenty of poor folks go +without the necessaries of life in order to get the luxuries." + +"She is shiftless enough. To-day I took her into a store to buy her some +stockings, and she refused to have any but the very best quality. 'The +second best are what I get for myself, Mary,' said I; 'they wear much +longer than the others.' 'I don't care,' she said. 'If I can't have the +best, I don't want any.' 'Then do without,' said I, and we left the +place. The fun of it is that she won't even darn her old ones! I can't +always be so firm with her. I'm amazed at myself sometimes, the things +she gets out of me. What do you suppose she wants now?" + +I gave a warning cough to signify that my mother had come into the +nursery, but Belle gazed straight ahead into the wood fire, and seesawed +in the rattan rocker--a tuneful symphony in a mauve tea-gown. + +"A cornet, if you please." + +"A cornet!" said I. "Whatever put that into her head?" + +"I can't tell. She says the music professor at the convent can teach her +to play it, and she thinks if she learned she might be able to lead the +singing in a church with one." + +"Perhaps somebody played the cornet in that concert company she was +with." + +"Na, na. It's nearer hame than that," mother struck in. "She has a +notion o' ane o' thae cratur's 'at pl'y at the Opera Hoose. I hae seen +her gang by the window wi' him, an' spiered at Watty wha he was." + +"I don't like Wat's telling tales of Mary." + +"He dinna, Davvit, till I pit it tae him. He canna bear the tawpie, and +doesna like to hae her p'inted oot as his sister. A body canna blame the +laddie. It's a heap better than his fa'in' in luv wi' her." + +"Perhaps it is," groaned Isabel. + +When mother had gone to bed my wife said: + +"Mrs. Wade has been here to-day to ask Watty and Mary to a young +people's dance on Friday night." + +"What did you say?" + +"I told her I wasn't going to dress that girl up and send her out to +parties to be snubbed and slighted by the other girls, as she was at the +dancing school ball. She said that if I let Mary go she'd see that she +had a good time. For her part, she admired the way I'd stuck up for the +girl in spite of everything; and if she was good enough to live with us +as a daughter, it would surely not contaminate anybody else to meet her +out of an evening." + +Saturday night I inquired of Belle how Mary got on at the party. + +"First rate. Mrs. Wade met her at the door of the drawing room and +kissed her. 'How you've grown, Mary!' said she, and then she took her +round and introduced her to all the girls in the room, including some of +those who've been cutting her right and left, as well as to every boy +she didn't know already. Of course she danced every dance, and had the +best time going." + +"And, of course, she put it all down to her own superior attractions?" + +"Just exactly. This morning she didn't want to help me make the beds!" + +Mary's Christmas present had been a beautiful silver-plated cornet, and +of course she must learn to play it when she went back to the convent. +Word came shortly that the music master employed there could not +undertake to teach her to play the instrument, but that a "professor" +could be secured to go out from Detroit twice a week--if desired. We +seemed to be in for it, so the lessons were desired, and we comforted +ourselves with the assurance that if Mary did not turn out to be a +tiptop reciter she would surely prove a tiptop cornet player. Her +unusual talent would justify my wife in her unusual step, and the +society of Lake City would forgive her for attempting to thrust the girl +into its midst as an equal. Many of our acquaintances seemed to take +mother's view of the case,--"Matter out of place becomes _dirrt_!"--and +Belle was put on her mettle to convince the majority that she had done +exactly the right thing in thus disclassing people. Disclassing +people? In a free republic! + +We received glowing accounts of the cornet lessons. + +"Dear girl!" said Belle enthusiastically. "She must have the real +artistic temperament to be so determined to excel in one or other of the +arts." + +"She's dramatic, anyway," said I, and I was confirmed in my opinion +along in the spring, when the cornet, and aught else, appeared to have +palled upon the versatile Mary. She wrote that she had serious thoughts +of taking the veil. + +"Bah!" said I; "what's she after now? She wants to scare us into +something." + +Belle wrote privately to the Lady Superior, telling her that if she +considered Mary would be a desirable acquisition to their ranks she had +no sort of objection to her joining them. + +The good sister replied that Miss Gemmell had not a grain of the stuff +of which nuns are made, that her leanings were all in a worldly +direction. + +"No hope in that quarter!" laughed I, but Belle chided me for making fun +of Mary in her absence. + +When "Miss Mamie Gemmell" joined us at Interlaken for the summer her +convent manners lasted for about two weeks, and then gave place to those +of a spoiled and pampered daughter of the house. + +We in America are accustomed to disrespectfulness and waywardness in our +own children, but to notice the same attitude in a little nobody from +nowhere we have taken in out of charity, makes a man or woman stand +aghast. + +"I don't believe she cares a straw for me personally," Belle would say +sometimes, "but I must confess I like her better than the cringing, +fawning variety. She's outspoken in her impertinent demands." + + * * * * * + +After a very hot week in July I joyfully took the train on Saturday +afternoon for the five miles' ride to Interlaken, and went to sleep that +night with my ears full of the sound of waves and pine trees; my heart +filled with the satisfaction of knowing that I had a whole round day +ahead of me--a sunrise and a sunset at either end. + +I omitted the sunrise part of the programme, but between ten and eleven +I was ready for a walk down the pier to watch the bathers. American +women are seldom plump enough to stand the undress uniform of a bathing +costume. They run to extremes--become very stout indeed, or else very +thin, but in girlhood the tendency is to over-slimness. + +I was thinking what a contrast our summer girls would present to a +group of Scotch lasses, though, to be sure, I was never privileged to +see any of the latter in bathing-dress, when a well-rounded apparition +in sky blue luster and no bathing cap emerged from one of the disrobing +houses. This damsel betook herself boldly to the pier, instead of +splashing around the edge of the sand as the others were doing, and, +coming near the end, took a run and then a beautiful header into the +deep blue water. + +She had passed me too quickly to be recognized, but as her face appeared +above the surface I saw it belonged to no other than our adopted +daughter, for as such, at the moment, was I pleased to own her. She +shook the water out of her ears, gave her knob of hair an extra twist, +brushed back the ringlets that threatened her eyes, and looked as much +at home as if there were eighteen feet of land, instead of eighteen feet +of water below her. + +There were several young men swimming about at the end of the wharf, and +they declared with gusto that a springboard must be erected for "Miss +Gemmell" at once. I declined to assist in breaking the Sabbath over any +such pranks, but a couple of scantily clad, dripping youths arose from +the deep and succeeded in loosening a heavy three-inch plank from the +flooring of the wharf. This was projected well out over the water, and +the fair Mary was induced to ascend and exhibit therefrom. I did not +approve at all, but thought it my duty to remain as chaperon until Belle +and another lady, whom I perceived walking leisurely out the pier, +should arrive. + +The young men sprang back into the water to be on the reception +committee, and Mary teetered on the far end of the plank. There was +heard a loud, suggestive _crack_, and she leaped into space in a most +graceful semicircle before touching the water; but that awful board, the +instant her weight was removed, rose straight up in the air, nearly +knocked me off the dock, and with a groan slid through the opening +whence it had been raised, into the depths below. + +Belle rushed to my rescue, while the other woman stood still and +shrieked. + +"Nobody hurt!" called out from the water a nice-looking lad who was +swimming beside Mary, and apparently daring her to further exploits. + +"Who is the young man?" I asked my wife, being ready to change the +subject from my own narrow escape. + +"You mean the one with the Burne Jones head and the sleepy blue eyes +that's round with Mary all the time? His name's Flaker, and he's a +medical student from Chicago. That's all I know about him." But she was +destined to hear more, as we sat on the hotel veranda that night, from +two old ladies inside the open window and closed blind. + +"Isn't it scandalous," said one, "the way Mrs. Gemmell tries to shove +that girl forward on every occasion?" + +"Yes," said the other. "The old friendship between her and Mrs. Martin +is all broken up since she tried so hard to get Lincoln Todd entangled +with her last summer, and now she's doing her best to catch young +Flaker." + +"I don't believe he has any idea who the girl is, or rather who she is +not." + +"No, indeed, and his people would be in a great state if they knew the +sort of company he was keeping." + +"Who are they?" + +"Don't you know? His father is Dr. Flaker, who has that fine mansion on +the Grand Boulevard, and his mother belongs to one of the best New York +families. They're all as proud as Lucifer." + +"I think it is time we went home, David. Listeners never hear any good +of themselves," said Belle, loudly enough to arrest the attention of the +two dames. + +Walking over the dried-up moonlit grass to our cottage, I threatened to +go back and give them a piece of my mind, but my wife said: + +"Maybe I did need a slight reminder. I haven't paid much attention to +Mary's goings-on this summer. I must talk to Mr. Flaker the first +chance." + +The opportunity came before the Evening was over, while I was in my pet +hammock round the corner of the cottage, and Belle in a rocking-chair at +the front. + +"Good-evening, Mr. Flaker," I heard her say. "I don't think you've ever +seen the inside of our cottage. Won't you step in for a moment, now that +it is lighted up?" + +The moment satisfied him, for he speedily returned to the veranda. + +"I never saw such a beautiful swimmer as Miss Gemmell," said the mannish +voice, and Belle replied impressively: + +"I believe you are not aware, Mr. Flaker, that the young lady you call +Miss Gemmell is not my own daughter." + +"Your stepchild is she, or your husband's niece?" + +"Neither. She is no relation at all--just a poor girl whom I have taken +up to educate. She can barely read or write. I felt that I ought to tell +you this because you have been paying her a good deal of attention." + +"Indeed, Mrs. Gemmell, I admire Miss Gemmell very much; but I assure +you I never regarded her as anything else than a pleasant summer +acquaintance." + +And Mary was dropped forthwith. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE winter of 1892-93 Mary spent at home with us. Her first expressed +wish, when the family returned from Interlaken, was to be confirmed, and +the Rev. Mr. Armstrong of the church we do not attend was duly notified. + +"He says I must be christened first," said Mary. "Would you mind if he +called me 'Mary Gemmell'? There aint any name that I've a right to, and +I don't want to be called 'Mason,' because that's the name of the woman +that abused me when I was little. I'd rather have yours." + +She was such a pathetic-looking young person, standing there before +Belle in her fresh and innocent loveliness, that my wife had not the +heart to refuse her anything. + +When I came home that same evening there was a _tableau vivant_ in front +of the parlor fire. Dressed in white, Mary sat on a low stool at the +feet of the Rev. Walter Armstrong, her hands clasped in her lap, gazing +up into the clean-shaven clerical face, with that which passed for her +soul in her eyes. In spite of his stiff round collar and long black coat +the rector is a young man, and I saw that he was impressed. + +"You understand, do you, Mary," he said tenderly, "that when you are +received into the Church you have God for your Father and Christ for +your Elder Brother?" + +"Yes, I understand, Mr. Armstrong," replied the girl earnestly. "And +that's just what I always wanted--was to have _'folks.'_" + +I retired in haste to the dining room, where Isabel was brimming over +with a new scheme. + +"I've always found the housekeeping a drag, and it becomes more so every +year as my outlook broadens. I want to keep up to the times, but I never +have any leisure for reading, and our four eldest being boys, there +seemed to be no hope for years of having any one to relieve me." + +"Mary's a godsend," said I. + +"I wish you really thought that, as I do. She's quick and adaptable, and +I'm going to hand over to her a weekly allowance and let her keep the +house on it." + +"What about her accomplishments--the elocution and the cornet?" + +"They can stand in the meantime. Do you know, Davie," hesitatingly, "I'm +beginning to be afraid she hasn't a good ear for music." + +"Why?" + +"The other night when the Mortons were in she sat and talked to Frank +Wade the whole time Eva was playing." + +"That's nothing. Everyone else did the same." + +"But for a girl who is trying to pose as a cornet player, who thinks she +might earn her living leading a church choir with one, it's bad policy, +to say the least of it." + +"Earn her living! I asked Joe Mitchell, when he was listening to her +practicing out in the summer-house, what he thought of her playing, and +he said she'd better keep to a penny whistle." + +"Very rude of him!" + +"No, it wasn't. I asked him point blank if I should be justified in +paying for the more lessons she wants, and he said decidedly I should +not." + +"Well," said Belle wearily, "we'll try the housekeeping. That's a +woman's true vocation, according to orthodox ideas. I shouldn't have set +my heart on Mary turning out to be anything extraordinary. If she'll +only be kind of half decent, and help me out with the housework, I'll be +more than satisfied." + +The sense of power gave new brightness to Mary's fair face, and her step +through the house was of the lightest during the next week or two, but +the boys rebelled in turn. + +"_Mam_ma! Mary's locked the pantry. Must we go to her for the key +whenever we want anything?" + +"I call it a mean shame!" from Joe. + +"What were you doing?" + +"We didn't do nothin', on'y eat up the pie she meant for dessert. I'm +sure Margaret wouldn't mind makin' another." + +"Mary's perfectly right, boys; I've indulged you too much." + +Then it was Watty who complained: + +"Mary says she won't have us mussing up the parlor after she's tidied +it, and that we've got to change our boots when we come into the house." +Or Chrissie: + +"Mary says I'm big enough now to keep my own room in order, and she aint +going to do it any more. She's wors'en grandma!" + +To their grandma did they go with their woes when they found their +mother so unaccountably obdurate, but they did not get much comfort +there. Detest Mary as she might, my poor mother is always loyal to the +powers that be, and she told the children: + +"Yer mither kens fine what she's aboot, an' ye needna fash yer heids tae +come cryin' tae me." + +She even went so far as to back Mary up in her suggestion that the boys +should eat what was set before them, asking no questions. + +"That's the w'y yer faither was brocht up. If he didna finish his +parritch in the mornin', they were warmed up for him again at nicht. Ye +tak' but a spinfu' 'at ye could hardly ca' parritch, for they're jist +puzhioned wi' sugar." + +Mary was not naturally fond of children, and, having entered our family +full-grown, she found it hard to put up with the freaks of our six, +there being no foundation of sisterly love upon which to build +toleration. + +Belle's housekeeping had always been lavish. She ordered her groceries +wholesale, and when they were done never inquired what had become of +them. + +"I decline to go into details--life is too short! I don't know where my +patience ends and my laziness begins, but I'd rather be cheated than +lock things up, or try to keep track of what Margaret wastes. She's not +an ideal 'general,' but it's only one in a hundred that would stand the +children pottering about in the kitchen so much." + +After the time-worn custom of new brooms, Mary made a bold attempt to +record each item of expenditure, and ordered what she wanted from day to +day; but there was no calculating the appetites of four growing boys, +especially when, as Mary affirmed, they sometimes over-ate themselves +just to spite her. + +"We're living from hand to mouth, _pa_pa," they would say, when an +unwonted scarcity occurred. + +Truth to tell, I began to sympathize with my revolting sons when I +brought an old friend home with me to dinner one day, and went to +announce the fact to our "housekeeper." + +"I just wish that Bob Mansell would quit coming here so much when he's +not expected. There's only enough pudding for ourselves." + +"Mary," said I sternly, "Mr. Mansell's been coming to this house before +you were here, and he'll keep on coming after you're gone, if you're not +careful." + +It was the first time I had ever spoken sharply to her, and I flattered +myself that I had done some good, though she held her head high and left +the room. + +Belle came to the conclusion that the housekeeping scheme did not work +smoothly, and she resumed the reins of government. Mary was still +supposed to do the work of a second maid, but it was evident that her +heart was not in it. + +"What does Mary want now?" I asked my wife when she took her usual seat +beside me, as I lay on the sofa with my pipe. + +"She thinks she'd like to go to the Boston School of Oratory to prepare +herself to be a public reader." + +"Is it necessary that she should be before the public in one way or +another?" + +"She doesn't seem to be much of a success in private life." + +"In that respect she's no worse than half the girls in town. None of +them dote on housework." + +"But, considering that this girl has no earthly claim on us, you'd think +she might be different." + +"Don't be angry, Belle, at my saying so, but you've only yourself to +thank for that. You've been most anxious that Mary should be just like +one of ourselves--should not feel that she was accepting charity, and +you've succeeded only too well. The girl takes everything you do for her +as her right, and asks for more." + +"Well, what about Boston?" + +"I think it would be arrant folly to send her there. How do we know she +has any more talent for elocution than for music?" + +"She has the desire to learn. I suppose that's a sign of the ability." + +"She has an intense desire for admiration, that's about the size of it. +To be the center of all eyes, giving a recitation in a drawing room, +pleases her down to the ground, but it doesn't follow that she would be +a success professionally." + +"I dare say we've spent about as much on her education as you care to do +just now." + +"We have indeed!" + +My wife and I are much in demand at all the social functions of our +town, and, though I accompany her under protest, I confess that, once +the affair is in full swing, I enjoy as much as anybody a hand at +"Pedro" or a dance. + +The houses of our city are mostly wooden and mostly new, for an annual +conflagration keeps building brisk. Hardwood floors and mantels are the +order of the day, and if some of our lumbermen and their wives have not +a command of English grammar in keeping with their horses, their +sealskins, and their diamonds, they have a heartier than an English +welcome--except, of course, for guests of such questionable antecedents +as our Mary. + +Mrs. David Gemmell is a bright and witty woman, though I say it, who +should not. But why should I not? She did not inherit her wits from me. +Mrs. David Gemmell let the leading ladies of the town understand that +unless Mary was invited to everything that was going on, we stayed away +ourselves. Lake City society could not proceed without Isabel, so the +"white elephant" was received in her train, and truly she did us credit +in company, if nowhere else. She was always stylishly dressed, and her +dancing was a joy forever. We did not marvel when Will Axworthy, the +most eligible young man about, took it into his head to introduce the +german to our benighted citizens, that he chose Mary for his partner to +lead it with him. She had private lessons from himself, as well as from +the dancing master, and proud and happy were Belle and I to sit at the +side of the ballroom and watch her going through the figures and +bestowing her favors with all the grace and dignity of one of the four +hundred. + +"She shall go to Boston to-morrow, if she wants to," said I, but this +time Belle demurred. + +"I think she seems likely to have a good time here this winter, and we +may as well let her have her fling." + +The prophecy was fulfilled. In spite of the supreme jealousy of the +other girls, who could not say mean enough things about her, Mary +became quite the rage with the young men. + +One Sunday afternoon Will Axworthy called. He is short and broad, has +reddish hair and a chronic blush hardly to be looked for in the Ward +McAllister of Lake City. Too nervously did he plant himself in my frisky +spring rocker, and therefore involuntarily did he present the soles of +his boots to the assembled family, while his head bumped the wall, to +the huge delight of our boys! + +Undaunted by that inauspicious beginning, he came again the next Sunday, +smoked my best cigars, and talked lumber, the one subject upon which he +is posted, for he was the manager of a mill here. + +He stayed to supper that evening and went with Mary to church afterward. +Then he called for her with a cutter the first bright day, and took her +sleigh riding. The embryo wrinkle left Belle's forehead. + +"Do you really think he means anything?" said she. + +"Don't be too sanguine about it. Nowadays, young men pay a girl a great +deal of attention with nothing in their heads but a good time." + +"Still, Axworthy's no boy. He's thirty if he's a day, and he has a good +salary, and can afford to marry whenever the mood takes him." + +"Let us hope and pray that it may take him soon!" + +"Amen!" said Belle solemnly. + +The daily friction with her _protégée_ was becoming too much for the +good-natured patience even of my better half. Acting upon generous +impulses is all very fine, but they need to be backed up by a large +amount of endurance and tolerance if the results are to be successfully +dealt with. + +From my vantage-ground on the nursery sofa, behind my screen of +newspaper, I frequently hear more than is suspected by the family. + +"Mary, you're not going to the rink to-night!" in Belle's most imploring +tone. + +"Yes, mawm, I am. Lend me your wrench, Watty." + +"Mary, I positively forbid you to go to the rink!" + +"Well, I do think that's just too mean for anything. Every girl in town +goes." + +"Every girl in town doesn't skate with barber, or bandsman, or anybody +who comes along, as you do." + +"Watty's been telling!" + +"Watty hasn't been telling!" broke in our eldest son in indignant +protest, which he further emphasized by going out and banging the door +after him. + +"And, Mary," Belle continued, "are you engaged to Mr. Axworthy?" + +"No!" sullenly. + +"Then if I were you I wouldn't let him kiss me when he says +'Good-night' at the door after bringing you home from a party." + +"You're old-fashioned. All the girls do it!" + +"No _lady_ would permit a man to take such a liberty. You're spoiling +your chances with Mr. Axworthy, I can tell you. I never knew a man yet +that would bind himself to a girl when he could have all the privileges +of an engaged man, and none of the responsibilities." + +"I don't care anything at all about him. I don't want to marry him. He's +just giving me a good time." + +A good time he undoubtedly did give her throughout the winter. To the +smartest balls and parties he was her escort, and she always wore the +roses he never neglected to send. Every Sunday about dusk he would come +round to our house, and, martyrs to a good cause, Isabel, mother, and I +vacated the cozy parlor with its easy chairs and blazing fire for the +nursery--always uproarious with children on that day. + +"I wonder what those two find to talk about," speculated Belle. "Mary +has no conversation at all, and Axworthy hasn't much more." + +"Perhaps he takes it out in looking at her. By the way, Belle, when are +you going to appear in the new dress I gave you that fifty dollars to +buy? I am quite tired of the mauve tea gown." + +My wife glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Grandma was out of +hearing. + +"The truth is, Dave, I thought I must wait to see how much of it I had +left after getting Mary rigged up for the Robinsons' dance. She goes out +so often that she needs a change of evening dress." + +"Did she ask for it?" + +"Not directly, but she remarked that she didn't see what I wanted with +a new black silk, that I had plenty of clothes, and that when she was my +age she didn't think she'd bother about what she had to wear." + +I sprang up from the sofa, prepared to shove Mary out of the house, neck +and crop, but Belle's outburst of laughter calmed me. + +"Her cheek is so great that it passes from the ridiculous to the +sublime!" + +"Why do you stand it, Belle? You wouldn't from anybody else." + +"I can't very well go back on her at this stage, and send her about her +business. She's shrewd enough to know that." + +"People would laugh; that's so!" + +"Besides, if she marries Axworthy, she'll be our social equal here in +this town, and it must never be in her power to say that we did not +treat her well." + +"What is the prospect with Axworthy?" + +"Good, I think. He is thoroughly kind to her, and he has given me plenty +of hints about the state of his affections, hopes by another winter that +Mary will have somebody else to look after her, and so on. He is always +most particular in seeing that she is well wrapped up, and that is +highly necessary, for she is extremely careless about how she goes out. +In spite of a certain amount of physical dash, she isn't a bit strong; +has no staying power." + +"It won't be much fun for Axworthy to be saddled with a delicate wife." + +"Well, I guess he needs some discipline, just as much as I do. I've had +my share out of Miss Mary for the last three years, and I am quite +willing to let somebody else have a turn. He walks into this thing with +his eyes open. He knows her history." + +"But does he know her disposition?" + +"Let him find that out--if he can. Most mothers don't think it necessary +to tell their daughters' suitors how the girls get on with them in the +house." + +"You say she has no constitution. Supposing he does marry her, how about +the possible children? What have they done that they should have Mary +for a mother?" + +"That's exactly the right way to put it--what have they done? We don't +know, but they must have gone far astray last time, if they are given +such a bad start this incarnation." + +Will Axworthy left town in the spring. Lumber was done in our part of +Michigan and he had to follow it further south. He and Mary +corresponded, for I caught Belle in the act of correcting one of her +letters. + +"Do you think that's quite fair to Axworthy? If they become engaged, the +first unedited letter he gets from Mary will be considerable of a +surprise to him." + +"Don't you bother your old head, Dave! I'm running this thing! He's +arranging to meet us in Chicago, and hopes to have the pleasure of +showing Mary the Columbian Exhibition. Something is sure to happen while +we're there!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +ALL winter we had been talking about the Fair, reading up about the +Fair, making plans for the Fair; and Belle declared that even if she +never saw the Fair she would be glad it had been, on account of the +amount of preparatory information she had laid up. + +We did get off at last in the end of June, the whole of us, including +Mary, of course--my first experience of traveling in her company. We +went to Chicago by boat,--a night's crossing,--and a rare time I had +securing berths for the family in the overcrowded propeller. I was +thankful for an "extension," a sort of shell run out between two +staterooms and partitioned off by curtains and poles. The boys had to +sleep on sofas, floor, anywhere, which to them was but the beginning of +the fun. + +The first of my Herculean labors at an end, I was enjoying my smoke aft +in the cool of the evening, when Belle came back to me, her brow drawn +up into what I had begun to call the "Mary wrinkle." + +"David, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to that girl. She's sitting up in +the bow there flirting with one of the waiters, and though I've sent +Watty twice after her, she won't stir." + +As majestically as my five feet four would permit, I moved to the front +of the boat. + +"Mary, Mrs. Gemmell wants you right away." + +She took time to exchange a laughing farewell with the good-looking +waiter, and explained to me _en route_: + +"That's Bill Moreland. I knew him quite well in Lake City. I've met him +at balls." + +In the morning before we reached Chicago, she managed to get in a long +confabulation with another waiter, whom I am sure she had never met in +Lake City, nor anywhere else. + +"See here, Mary! If this is the way you're going to behave, you go +straight back to Lake City on that boat, and don't see one bit of the +Fair." + +Her manners were mended till we were actually in Jackson Park, but then: + +"She's a philanthropist, Belle, a lover of _man_kind--Columbian Guard, +Gospel Charioteer, Turk in the bazaar. The creed or the color doesn't +matter so long as he calls himself a man." + +I am afraid I was cross, for it did not take one day to realize what an +undertaking it was going to be to keep track of my family, who had never +before seemed too numerous. Daily at 10 A. M., in the Michigan Building, +did I hand over to Will Axworthy the most troublesome of the lot, and +daily did I wish he would keep her for better or worse. + +On the Fourth of July cannonading began at daybreak, and for once I +sympathized in my mother's objection to the license accorded to young +Americans. They set off firecrackers, not by the bunch but by the +bushel; kerosene and dynamite were their ambrosia and nectar. What with +fighting for lunch in overcrowded restaurants, and then retaliating by +stealing chairs out of the same, hunting through the various booths in +the Midway to collect my three younger sons when it was time to send +them home, and rescuing my two little girls from an over-supply of ice +cream sodas and chocolate drops, I did not specially enjoy the glorious +Fourth. + +Toward evening there was not a foot of Fair ground undecorated by a +banana skin, a crust of bread, or a flying paper. Belle considered the +signs "Keep off the Grass" quite superfluous, and pulling one up by the +roots she sat down on it, thereby keeping the letter, if not the spirit +of the law. + +"Now, Dave," said she, "the family are all safe off the grounds, and you +can go and get a gondola to come and take us for a sail before dark. +Everybody is moving toward the lake front to wait for the fireworks, and +the lagoons are not so crowded as they were. Let's pretend we're on our +honeymoon." + +So seldom does Belle wax sentimental over me, I hailed her proposition +with outward indifference but inward joy. Securing a gondola to +ourselves, in it we were gently swayed through canal and under bridge in +the mystical evening light. + +The distant rumble of a train on the Intramural, or a quack from a +sleepy duck among the rushes, alone broke the stillness. + +"This is where I belong!" exclaimed Belle. "I've seen before those +Eastern-looking towers and minarets, with the sunset glow on the cloud +masses behind them. Look! there's a Turk and a Hindoo crossing the +bridge. This is the region, this the soil, the clime. I always knew I +wasn't meant for Western America." + +"You must have been very naughty _last time_ to have been raised in +Michigan this trip. Still this is only Chicago!" + +"It's not Chicago! It's the world! Listen to that now--the music of the +spheres!" + +We approached another gondola that had withdrawn itself from the center +of the channel close in to a small island. The man at the stern was +doing nothing very picturesquely, but the man at the bow, a swarthy +Venetian, was pouring out his soul in an aria from "Cavalleria +Rusticana." His voice might not have passed muster at Covent Garden, but +in the unique stage setting, which included a group of eager listeners +on abridge behind him, one could forgive a break on a high note or two. + +The singer threw himself into the spirit of the composition, cast his +eyes upward with hand on his heart, and bent them to earth again for the +approval of his passengers. There were but two, a young man and a young +lady, and to the latter was the hero in costume directing his amorous +glances. + +"There's romance for you!" said I to Belle, who is notoriously on the +lookout for it. I directed our gondolier to draw nearer to his +enamoured compatriot. My wife replied uneasily: + +"I don't know the man, or boy, for that's all he is, but if that isn't +Mary's hat----" + +"Mary! Phew! What's become of Axworthy?" + +As we approached the comfortable-looking pair, Mary bowed to us +smilingly, and called the attention of her companion to her "father and +mother"--darn her impudence! + +The boat ride was spoiled for Belle and me, our white elephant having +arisen to haunt us once more. We landed and walked over to the lake +front, where the whole slope was packed with people waiting for the +fireworks to begin. + +Someone started to sing "Way Down upon the Swanee Ribber," and everybody +joined in. "Nearer, my God, to Thee" was also most impressive from the +vast impromptu chorus. In the foreground Lake Michigan lay darkly +expectant, with a large black cloud upon its horizon, though the stars +shone overhead. A half-circle of boats extended from the long Exhibition +Wharf on the right, round to the warship _Illinois_ on the left, and +from the latter a search light, an omnipresent eye, swept the crowd with +rapidly veering glance, till it concentrated its gaze on the dark +balloon which rose so mysteriously from the water. Suddenly from this +balloon was suspended the Stars and Stripes in colored lights. The crowd +cheered like mad, the boats whistled, and sent up rockets galore. + +On went the programme. Bombs tested the strength of our wearied +ear-drums, fiery snakes sizzled through the air, big wheels spurted +brilliant marvels, and along the very edge of the lake, to the great +discomfort of the front rows of the stalls, a line of combustibles +behaved like gigantic footlights on a spree. + +"David, who do you suppose that was with Mary?" + +I had been up in the air with George Washington, surrounded by "First in +War, First in Peace, etc.," in letters of fire, and I was unwillingly +recalled to earth. + +"Haven't the remotest idea. Hope she hasn't given Axworthy the slip." + +"I'm only hoping that he has not given her the slip. I'd never have +brought her to the Fair if he hadn't agreed to look after her." + +At that moment there was a surging of the mighty crowd, caused by a band +of college students pushing their way through, shoulder to shoulder, +singing one of their rousing ditties. Some people who had been standing +on their hired rolling chairs had narrow escapes from being flung upon +the shoulders of those in front. Some did not escape--Mary for +instance, who landed between us as if shot from a catapult. + +"I knew I was going to fall, so I just jumped to where I seen you two," +said she, with her customary calmness, and then she turned to assure her +escort of the gondola, who was anxiously elbowing his way to her, that +she was entirely unhurt. + +Blushing prettily, she introduced the lad as "Mr. Tom Axworthy--cousin +of the Mr. Axworthy you know." + +Mr. Tom talked to Mrs. Gemmell with the ease and assurance of ninety +rather than nineteen, while I exchanged a few words aside with the +maiden: + +"Where is the Mr. Axworthy that we know?" + +"He had some business to do in town to-night, so he left me in charge of +this cousin of his--just a lovely fellow!" + +"Humph! Introduced you to any more of his relations?" + +"Oh, yes--an uncle; quite an old bachelor, but lovely too!" + +"And I suppose you've been round with the uncle as well." + +"Not very much. He was to have taken me up in the balloon yesterday, but +the cyclone burst it." + +"We're going home now, and I think you'd better say 'Good-night' to Mr. +Tom Axworthy and come with us." + +After waiting two hours and a half for standing room on a suburban +train, we reached the hotel at an early hour on July the 5th, dusty, +smoke-stained, and powder-scented, like veterans from a field of battle. + +That was not by any means the last of Mr. Tom Axworthy. During the +remainder of our stay in Chicago it was he quite as frequently as his +more mature and eligible cousin who exchanged a lingering farewell with +Mary at the ladies' entrance to our hotel, and a great fear arose in the +heart of Belle that the young woman was fooling away her time with this +impecunious boy, instead of making the most of her opportunities to come +to a satisfactory understanding with his cousin. Every morning did she +gaze pathetically into my face, saying: + +"I do hope Axworthy will propose to-day!" and once she added: + +"I cannot face another winter in the same house with that girl and your +mother. Grandma has taken it into her head that Mary is my pet lamb, the +idol of my heart, for whom she, and you too, have been set aside. She +doesn't see that it worries me half to death to have Mary tagging round +after me the whole time, and overrunning the house with her beaux. +Neither of our own girls is old enough yet, thank goodness, to consider +herself my companion and equal, to wear my gloves, my boots, my best +hairpins, and to use my favorite perfume; to come and plant herself down +beside me whenever I'm talking confidentially to anyone, to be +determined to have her finger into every pie, to know what I'm reading +or thinking about. She'll insist on knowing my dreams next!" + +"Perhaps you mesmerize her." + +"If I did, I'd make her keep away from me! I could stand it all better +if I thought she really cared a straw for me, but I have the feeling +that she regards me merely as a basis for supplies." + +"We can only trust, then, that the basis may be speedily transferred to +Axworthy!" + +On our return from the World's Fair, the family stopped off at +Interlaken, but I had to go on into town to the _Echo_ office. To my +surprise, Mary joined me at my solitary dinner at the "House of the +Seven Gables," where Margaret, as usual, was in charge, and she remained +there for the rest of the week. + +"Where's Mary?" was Belle's greeting, when I joined her on Saturday. + +"She's in town." + +"Why didn't you bring her out with you?" + +"Didn't know you wanted her. She said she'd like to stay in Lake City +over Sunday, to take the Communion." + +"Take the Communion indeed! She wants to be left there alone with +Margaret, so that she'll have a chance to flirt with every man in town. +I thought you had more sense, David." + +I pulled my soft felt hat further over my diminished head. + +"Did she get any letters?" + +"One or two." + +"Wretch! I told her to come out here with you to-night for certain." + +Monday morning, mother, who had been spending the summer with my married +sister in Lake City, came out to stay for a week with us at Interlaken. + +She could hardly wait till the youngsters were out of hearing to pour +her story into my ears. I had to take back to town the train by which +she had come out, but she made the most of her time. + +"There's been great doin's in yer hoose in yer absence. Marg'et 's been +tellin' yer sister's servant a' aboot Mary's luv affairs. Mary tell't +her 'at Eesabelle bade her write Willum Axworthy an' spier his +intentions; that if she didna, Mrs. Davvit said she'd d'it hersel'. An' +a' the time she's correspondin' wi' a yunger ane, an Axworthy tae, 'at +she tells Marg'et she likes a hape better. Yer sister's sair affronted +to think o' the w'y the fem'ly name's bein' cairted thro' the mire." + +Belle came out on the veranda, her broad hat in her hand, ready to walk +down to the train with me. + +"So Axworthy didn't propose at the Fair?" said I, when we were out of +earshot of the cottage. + +"No; and I think it's a crying shame, too, after the way he appropriated +the girl all last winter, and in Chicago too." + +"A great relief to you! Well, I guess the whole town knows by this time +that you made Mary write and ask his intentions." + +"This is too much! Has your mother----" + +"Mary's been making a _confidante_ of Margaret, that's all. That +inestimable domestic is so much one of ourselves, it was hard for the +unsophisticated mind to know exactly where to draw the line." + +"I hope she has drawn the line at showing Margaret his reply. I haven't +seen that myself." + +"What can you expect it to be? If he had wanted to marry the girl there +was nothing to prevent him asking her, and if he did not, no letter of +yours would make him want to." + +"She wrote it herself, and all she said was that she would like to know +definitely how she stood with him. I did nothing but correct the +spelling." + +"Better if you had written in your own name, and without her knowledge. +No daughter of the house would ever have been put in such a position. So +far as I can judge, Mary and Mr. Will Axworthy are quits. If he has had +a good time in her society, she has had an equally good time in his, and +he does not enjoy her letters so much as he did her propinquity." + +"He's a cold-hearted, cowardly----" + +"Tut! tut! my dear!" + +By this time we were on the platform, and the engine was backing its one +car down to receive me and the other unhappy toilers compelled to go +away and leave that sapphire-blue lake behind. + +"Don't you think, Isabel, that it's about time you quit trying to play +Providence and gave God a chance?" + +"Dave! you're blasphemous!" + +"No, I'm not. I only wish to remark that in your schemes for the welfare +of one particular person, you are apt to overlook the comfort and +happiness of everyone else concerned. That's the worst of not being +omniscient. You're only an amateur sort of a deity after all." + +"Send that girl out here by the very next train." And I obeyed. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +ANOTHER week of night work, and then the sunniest of Sundays on the +shore of old Lake Michigan. + +I noticed that Mary was in deep disgrace with my wife, who would hardly +speak to her, and I judged therefore that Mr. Will Axworthy had not been +brought to time. + +I am not a venturesome boatman, and generally confine my aquatic outings +to the smaller lake, but that Saturday night there was not a breath of +wind, and the water was placidity personified, so I drifted in my small +skiff through the channel that connects the smaller with the larger body +of water. On the sandy point jutting out at the mouth, upon an old +stump, sat a solitary maiden, the picture of woe. + +"Hello, Mary!" said I, ignoring the tears; "want to go for a boat ride?" + +"I don't care if I do," she replied, seating herself in the stern, which +I turned toward her. + +Silently I pulled out into the big lake, where the copper-colored sun +going down in a haze near the horizon bade us beware of a hot day on the +morrow. Out of the lake to the right rose the full moon, failing as yet +to make her gentle influence felt against the radiant glow the sun was +leaving behind him. + +"So Axworthy's gone back on you, Mary?" + +The fountains played again. + +"Yes; and it aint the first time I've got left, neither." + +With Mrs. Mason, the Ferguson Family, Lincoln Todd, and young Flaker on +the tablets of my mind, I could truthfully assent to that remark. + +"Still, it may be just the making of you in the long run." + +"I'm not breakin' my heart over Will Axworthy; didn't care nothing 'tall +'bout him, on'y I'd got used havin' him round, and I'd have married him +if he asked me. I think a sight more of his cousin." + +"The boy we saw at the Fair?" + +"Yes. He's written me a lovely letter. Would you mind reading it aloud +to me? Some of the big words I couldn't make out, and neither could +Margaret. I wrote him all myself!" + +Never before had it fallen to my lot to play father confessor to a lady +in love difficulties, but the editorial mind is equal to any emergency, +so I let my oars slide and adjusted my reading-glasses to peruse Mary's +precious epistle. + +When I had read on to the signature. "Your devoted lover 'Tom,'" Mary's +face was radiant. + +"Aint he smart? You know he was at the Fair, reporting for a newspaper." + +"That explains his glibness. Don't have anything to do with him, Mary. +He's just trying to draw you on. The burnt dog should dread the fire." + +"But he admires me, don't he?" + +"He says so, but he is much more anxious that you should admire him. +Why, it's part of his business to keep his hand in by being in love, or +rather by having some silly little fool of a girl in love with him. +You'll just get left again if you encourage this young scamp." + +April showers once more. + +"I think the best thing I can do is to jump overboard here into Lake +Michigan. It don't seem to me I'm wanted anywheres." + +"That might do very well, but you're too good a swimmer to drown +easily, and you'd catch on to my boat and upset me. I can't swim a +stroke, and there'd be five--six young Gemmells and a widow and a mother +cast upon the world. No, we'll have to think of something better than +that." + +Mary's laughter was always quick an the heels of her tears. + +"What do you think I'm good for, anyhow?" + +"I can testify that you're not a success as a housekeeper." + +"Nor a nursemaid." + +"And as a lady's companion you're not all that could be desired, even if +there were a demand for the article in West Michigan." + +"As a gentleman's companion I am all right," and the girl showed her +perfect teeth in a smile. + +"It's no joking matter, Mary. You're not very happy in our house, and +things will be worse for you next winter, with no Will Axworthy coming +to see you, and no engagement to him in prospect. What do you think +yourself that you're fit for--putting reciting and cornet playing out of +the question?" + +The young lady rested her chin on the palm of her hand and composed her +face into a bewitching expression of profound meditation. + +"I can't teach, and I can't sew, and I can't cook. I couldn't bear +sitting still all day at a typewriter, and there's no room in the +telephone office. You know quite well that there aint a thing for girls +like me to do but to get married. That's why God made us pretty, so's +we'd have a good chance." + +"Don't be flippant, miss. How do you think you'd like to be an hospital +nurse?" + +"I dunno; I wouldn't mind trying. I'm generally good to folks--when +they're sick--and I aint a bit scared of dirty nor of dead ones. I laid +out an old woman that died in the Refuge." + +"You're not particularly thin-skinned, that's a fact; but it's the +educational qualification I'd be afraid of. There's some sort of an +examination to be passed before you can get into any of these Training +Schools nowadays. I'll write for some forms of application, and we'll +see. If once you were able to support yourself, you'd think very +differently about marrying anybody that turned up, just for the sake of +a home. Ours mayn't be much of a one for you, but marry to get out of +it, and you'll perhaps find yourself out of the frying-pan into the +fire." + +"I think it would be just lovely to be a nurse! There was one came down +from Chicago when Mrs. Wade was sick, and the uniform was awfully +pretty. I'm sure it would suit me." + +"It would be very becoming, I haven't any doubt of that; and when it's +all settled that you are going to an hospital you can write in reply to +Will Axworthy's last letter." + +"He wanted me to keep on writing to him just the same; said he'd like +always to be good friends with me." + +"I wouldn't write him but once again, and do it all by yourself. Just +say that the reason you wrote the other letter, asking how you stood +with him, was that you had been thinking of leaving us altogether, but +before taking the decided step of entering an hospital, you had thought +it only fair to him to give him the chance to object, if he really had +the objections he had led you to take for granted." + +We heard a shouting and a blowing of tin horns upon the beach at this +juncture. I took the oars and pulled in, seeing Belle and the boys +waving their hats in the bright moonlight. My wife's face expressed the +blankest astonishment when she saw who was my shipmate. + +"We thought you must have fallen asleep out there. Didn't know you had +company!" + +Mary was still in the black books when I came down the next Saturday. +Belle had a bitter complaint. + +"She sat there the whole afternoon yesterday and part of the evening, +writing and rewriting a letter before my very eyes. 'Are you replying to +Will Axworthy?' I asked quite cordially, for I did want to have a hand +in answering that letter--had some cutting sentences all ready for him. +'Yes, mawm,' said she very shortly; 'but I guess I can manage to get +along by myself.'" + +I did not dare own up to the advice I had given, but I saw that matters +must be hastened. Having business in Chicago about that time, I visited +almost every hospital in the city, telling Mary's story in my most +dramatic newspaper style. I made it understood that it was very noble +and self-sacrificing of the young woman, when she might live in the lap +of luxury,--for thus did I unblushingly describe my own modest +establishment,--to embrace a nurse's vocation and labor for the good of +humanity, including herself, of course. The education--or the lack of +it--was the drawback everywhere, and also the youth of the applicant, +twenty-five being a more acceptable age than barely twenty-one. + +But my perseverance was at last rewarded by finding the superintendent +of a training school who still had some imagination left, and who became +deeply interested in Mary's "tale of woe." + +"Make her study her reading, spelling, and arithmetic as hard as she +can for the next few months, and I'll get her in the very first +opening." + +The prospect roused Belle's old-time vigor, and she had spelling matches +for Mary's benefit, made the girl read aloud to her, gave her dictation +to write, and heard her the multiplication tables every forenoon--when +she did not forget. + +One delightful morning in October I had the honor of taking our +_protégée_ into Chicago and delivering her up to the lady +superintendent. If she could only stand the month of probation, we +flattered ourselves that she would be safe. + +Three weeks later I met the Rev. Mr. Armstrong on the street. + +"I think it is only right to tell you what people are saying," said he. + +"It's my business to know," I replied. + +"I mean about your adopted daughter. I have just been told by two +reputable parties, one after the other, that she has been dismissed from +the hospital for flirting, and that you and Mrs. Gemmell are hushing the +matter up as well as you can, but that you don't know at all where she +is." + +When I reached home my first question was: + +"Have you heard from Mary lately, Belle?" + +"Not for a week, and I'm quite worried about her. Before that, she wrote +to me dutifully every two or three days, telling me all about her work. +I've kept on writing to her just the same, making excuses for her to +herself, and never doubting her for a minute; but to tell you the truth, +Dave, I'm getting dreadfully anxious." + +Then I told her what I had heard. + +"Don't you believe it, David! I never shall till I hear it from +herself. I know now for a certainty that I love that girl! I'll believe +her before all the world! I'll stick by her through thick and thin! I'll +not insult her by writing to the Hospital! What now matters the little +inconveniences of living with her? What have a few clothes and toilet +articles, more or less, to do with it? If she has failed, she shall come +_home_, and we'll begin the three years' fight all over again. I'll sit +down now and write her the nicest letter I can write." + +That sounded very brave, but inwardly I knew that my wife suffered +agonies the next few days. + +"Perhaps if I had done this," she would say, "or if I had done that--it +seems precisely like a death, and I've killed her." + +Tuesday morning, two letters came from Mary. They were hurriedly and +excitedly written. + +"My dear good mother, I am accepted! It is the happiest day of my life; +it will be a red letter day for you! I love you. I have tried so hard +for your sake; I have tried to make my life hear one long prayer and the +dear Lord helps me. I did not write because the exam. was delaid, and I +wanted to wait untill I had something _good_ to tell you. I look nice in +the unniform. It is pink and a white cap, apron and cuffs. Oh I am so +contented; this work is so filling. I never get lonely or homesick. _We_ +nurses had a party, and we danced and served ice cream, and there was +some lovely doctors here, and the Princippal is so kind to us we have +lots of fun"--and so the letters ran on. + + * * * * * + +The reaction was too much for Belle. She cried, then she laughed, then +she fell on her knees and thanked God, and she told me she added that, +for pity's sake, He _must_ set His angels to guard Mary, for she was a +poor, frail child, who had got lost in coming this time, and many +persecuted her because she was pretty, and might find a resting place +and get a little of what rightfully (?) belonged to them. + +After a while she went down to see Mr. Armstrong, and read him the +letters. He turned very white. + +"Oh, the pity of it!" said he. + +"I wish I could gather her slanderers into one room and read them these +letters," said Belle. + +For days afterward she button-holed people in the street to tell them +about Mary, or to read them scraps of her letters. If they had said she +was vain and idle, and selfish and incompetent, just like the half of +their own daughters, Belle could have forgiven them. It was their +determination to shove her into the gutter which made my wife her +valiant champion. + +"Whatever that girl amounts to, Dave, will be born of our faith in her, +and we must never go back on her. She writes me that whenever she has a +hard task, such as attending fits, there I stand at her back and help." + +"Just between ourselves, though, you must confess that it is a great +relief to have her away." + +"You can't begin to feel that as I do. I live again! I read my own +books, think my own thoughts. I belong to myself. No one says, 'What's +the matter?' 'Where are you going?' 'What makes you grave--or gay?' I +sit and chat with my 'odd-fish.' I go to all kinds of meetings and +discuss all kinds of 'isms, and have no tag-tail constantly asking +'Why?' 'Why?' or 'Tell me!' It's the little things that grind. The next +time I try to help a young girl, I'll not risk losing my influence with +her by taking her into my house. Do you know, Dave, I sometimes feel +that Mary must have been my own child in a previous incarnation, and I +neglected and abused her; that's why she was thrust back upon me this +time, whether I liked it or not." + +After Christmas Isabel decided that she must go up to Chicago to see +Mary, and on her return thrilling was the account she gave of her +experiences, which included an attendance at an autopsy--but upon that I +shall not enlarge. + +Introducing herself to the Superintendent of the School, she said: + +"Can I have Miss Gemmell for two days at my hotel?" + +"Indeed, no, madam. We are short of help, and it would be entirely +against the rules." + +"Then I'll stay here with her." + +The Lady Superintendent looked distressed. + +"Don't think us inhospitable, but there is absolutely no provision for +guests in all this great building." + +"Oh!" said Belle, unabashed. "I seem to be unfortunate in breaking, or +wanting to break, the rules of this house. Now, will you kindly tell me +what I can do? How can I see the very most of my Mary while I am in +Chicago?" + +After some thought the answer came: + +"You may have Miss Gemmell to-morrow afternoon, and two hours on +Sunday." + +"That will not suit me at all! Now, please forget all that has been +said, and I will tell you that I Mrs. David Gemmell of Lake City, +Michigan, am a poor tired woman, threatened with nervous prostration, +have already chills of apprehension running down my back, coupled with +flushes of expectation to my head." By this time Mary, the Lady +Superintendent, and two other nurses present were all attention, and +Belle added gravely: + +"I want one of your best private rooms on Corridor B, where Miss Gemmell +is on duty, and I should like to see the House Surgeon at once." + +So Belle was comfortably and luxuriously established in the hospital, +and the only drawback was that she had to be served with her meals in +her room. + +"What feasts we had--Mary and I," she said. "What fun! Before I left I +had demoralized that whole hospital staff, and broken every rule in the +institution. It did them all good." + +"I hope you haven't been indiscreet," said I. + +"Indiscreet?" + +"You must remember that Mary braced herself up to go to the hospital +when she was 'out' with you. Now you've gone and made so much of her +that she'll think, whenever things become too hot for her, she has only +to march straight back here again." + +"She assures me she _will_ graduate." + +"There should never be any question of that." + +"David, I've only told you the one side. If that girl were my very own I +should pluck her out of that particular fire. I'd get down on my knees +and beg her pardon for having thrown her into it. It burns up their +youth, their bloom, their originality, their modesty. It thrusts the +girls into a charnel house of sin, sickness, and death. It shatters the +nervous system of nine out of ten, or it leaves them calm, steady, +burnt-out women, who have been behind the scenes of life and are +disillusioned. When that little pink and white thing sat there and told +me of some of the awful situations that she'd been placed in, and over +which she was made responsible, the tears rolled down my face. I forgave +her lots of things." + +"Plenty of refined, educated women with a very different bringing up +from Mary's go through the same." + +"Well, I advised her to go on and finish the course, if only to show her +friends, and enemies, the stuff she's made of. When I think of those +free wards, and the menial, disgusting offices that frail little girl +has to perform! What did she sow that she should reap this fighting in +the thickest of the fight, so poorly equipped?" + +"I dare say there are alleviations." + +"Oh, yes! She flirts--says she'd die if she didn't--with every man in +the place, from the elevator boy to the head doctor, and, really, I +excused her. The head nurse in Mary's ward is very harsh with her, but +I let her and everyone in the place understand that Miss Gemmell is no +stray waif without influence to back her. Every day I send out +thought-waves--hypnotism--whatever you like to call it--to compel that +Dean woman to think of something else than the making of trained nurses, +and physical wrecks at the same time. People are greater than +institutions." + +"The discipline will be the making of Mary." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +DURING the famous Pullman strike of last summer, duty bade me cross to +Chicago in the interests of the _Echo_. On Saturday afternoon, July the +7th, I was at the pulse of the Anarchist movement, near the corner of +Loomis and Forty-ninth Streets. Taking up my stand in the deep entry of +a "House to Let," I watched the operations of a body of strikers +gathered round a box car close to the Grand Trunk crossing. They had set +it afire, and were trying to overturn it upon the railway track, +encouraged by the cheers of a mob numbering about two thousand men, +women, and children. + +The incendiaries were so much engrossed that they did not observe, +backing swiftly down upon them, the wrecking train it was their purpose +to block. While still in motion, the cars disgorged Captain Kelly and +his company, who had been guarding the Pan Handle tracks all day, but +had not yet, it seemed, earned their night's repose. + +The crowd greeted the soldiers with stones, brickbats, and pieces of old +iron, but the car burners proceeded with their little job, paying no +attention at all to the approach of the military. + +A pistol bullet out of the mob swished in among his men, and then +Captain Kelly gave the order to fire. When the smoke of the volley +cleared away, I saw the people stand still, shocked and dumb with +surprise. A second later, realizing that the worm had had the audacity +to turn, they vented a medley of shrieks and roars, and closed round +the handful of soldiers, to be met by the points of bayonets. + +The yelling mass of humanity scattered, took refuge in lanes and houses, +but regaining courage, appeared here and there in sections, to be +assailed once more by soldiers and police. The latter had to fight it +out by themselves after a while, for the military boarded the wrecking +train again, and the engineer, completely "rattled," opened the +throttle, and whisked them away to the West, leaving a dozen +revolver-armed policemen to meet the assaults of a mob that had now +increased to five thousand. + +The Press abuses the police on principle, but, seeing that heroic +encounter, I wavered in the keeping of my promise to Belle not to run +into danger. Even as I hesitated, "hurry-up wagons" arrived with +re-enforcements from neighboring police stations, and then the crowd +could not disperse quickly enough. It was a desperate sight--men +knocking each other down in their haste to get away, and the women who +had been spurring them on, now shrieking and groaning like maniacs. One +of the poor creatures was hit on the ankle by a bullet, and her falling +over into the gutter was too much for my virtuous resolution. Even if +she is a dirty, howling Polack, a man does not enjoy seeing a woman +knocked down, so I left my doorstep and went to help the lady up. +Constitutionally I am not a brave man, but I forgot all about the flying +bullets till one took me in the knee, and I toppled over, hitting my +head against the curbstone as I did so. I must have been stunned, for +when I opened my eyes again the street was empty, except for a +thundering vehicle that was bearing straight down upon me. + +At first I thought it was a runaway, for the horse was foaming of mouth +and bloodshot of eyeball; but no, there was a man, or fiend, with a +similar wild gleam in his eye, urging the brute upon me, while he +sounded a gong to keep everything out of his way. All this I saw in a +flash, and in a flash too went through my mind the advice given by +President Cleveland in his proclamation to non-combatants to keep out of +harm's way. + +I rolled over on my side with the sickening certainty that the next +instant the hoofs and the wheels would be upon me, but the horse pulled +up on his haunches at my very feet, the rattle and clanging ceased, and +a doctor in his shirt sleeves appeared as if by magic. + +It was an ambulance, of course. + +I fainted when they lifted me, and only came to myself in the +hospital--Mary's hospital, and her ward. Every one in Chicago was +crowded that week and the next, but--the ruling principle strong in +death--I declined to be put away out of eyeshot and earshot into a +private room. + +"D'ye want me to send word to Mis' Gemmell to come?" asked Mary, and I +replied drowsily: + +"No, don't. She's better to keep out of harm's way. She would be sure to +sympathize with the strikers." + +"But she'll wonder where you are." + +"She can't get here safely, as things are now, and the mails are all +upset. Don't write. Send a telegram in my name. Date it Chicago, and +tell her I'm detained, but that I'll go home Monday, sure." + +That same night I was off in a high fever. It was days and days before I +came to myself, and then I was too weak to ask or to care how everything +was going on at home. My whole interest in life was concentrated upon +that hospital ward, and with half-closed eyes I lay there and took notes +unconsciously. + +An ideal life it may seem to outsiders, but there is as much +wire-pulling, as much jealousy and scandal within the walls of one of +those big institutions, as anywhere else on this planet. It is an +epitome of the world battle, and the strugglers meet in hand-to-hand +conflict. + +Nurse Dean, the head of our ward, tall and angular in form, stern and +cold in feature, was the dragon Belle had told me about, but she knew +her business, and I, for one, preferred that she should regard me simply +as a machine laid up for repairs. I did not even think her unduly severe +upon Mary, after I heard her giving that damsel "Hail Columbia" for her +carelessness in having administered the wrong medicine one whole +forenoon to Number Nine--which was myself. + +If I had not made a feeble protest in her favor, "Nurse Gemmell" would +have been discharged on the spot. + +I do not wish to leave the impression that Mary had not in her the +making of a fairly good nurse. She was light of foot, as well as quick +of hand, and I liked to have her do things for me; found her _aura_ +agreeable, as Belle would have expressed it. Like many half-educated +people, she was very observant, but, so far as I could judge, she had +one eye on her work and the other on the lookout for flirtations. I +became quite interested in some of them. + +There was the German fiddler in the next bed to mine, who could not keep +his eyes off Mary whenever she came into the ward, and once when Nurse +Dean was off duty, and she brought out her silver-plated cornet to +"toot" a little for him, he declared it was the most ravishing music he +had ever heard in his life! + +I strongly suspected that the limp young artisan on the other side of me +was perfectly well enough to be discharged, but he could not brace +himself up to part from Mary. Then there was a young doctor whose face I +dimly recognized, but it tired my poor head too much to try to think who +he was. He and Mary had many a talk at my bedside about their own +affairs. One evening I heard the unmistakable sound of a banjo, and +managed to twist myself round far enough to see that this same doctor +was playing an accompaniment to Mary's very fair imitation of a skirt +dance out in the passage. + +The sight revived me so much that I laughed aloud, and Mary came hastily +forward, blushing, with finger on her lip. The pink and white uniform +did indeed become her wonderfully well, and I was not surprised to +notice hearty admiration in the sleepy blue eyes of the young house +surgeon. Where had I seen that "Burne Jones' head" before? + +"You don't seem to remember me, Mr. Gemmell," said the owner of it, +holding out his hand. "My name's Flaker. I was at Interlaken summer +before last." + +"You're a full-fledged M. D. now?" + +"Oh, yes, but I'm taking a year's practice in here, before I set up for +myself." + +Shades of the hotel matrons! They would probably say, if they heard +this, that Mary had been sent here on purpose to catch him. + +Poor Mary! She had her own row to hoe. She came to me in tears one +evening because Nurse Dean had been after her that whole day about one +thing or another. + +"I am never particular 'nough to please her. If it wasn't for Dr. Flaker +I wouldn't stay here another day." + +"You like him pretty well, eh?" + +"Well enough, an' he's all broke up on me; says he was at Interlaken +too, on'y he couldn't say anythin', 'cause he wasn't of age. His folks +are awful high-toned." + +"They'll have their discipline," thought I. + +"By the way, Mary, how long is it since I was brought here?" + +"Two weeks to-day." + +I sprang almost out of bed in my surprise. "Why didn't you tell me? Has +no word been sent to Lake City?" + +"None since that first telegram. I don't write very often now to your +wife, but when I did, I never said nothin' 'tall about your bein' here, +'cause you told me not to." + +"And haven't you had an answer?" + +"There's a letter lyin' there from Mis' Gemmell to you. I don't know how +she could have found out your address. Nurse Dean said I wasn't to give +it to you if you was a bit feverish." + +"Fetch it this minute, Mary, or I'll get up and walk the floor," and the +girl brought me this remarkable document. It had neither beginning nor +end, but rushed to the point at once. + +"I know all! You have laughed at my occult tendencies, sneered at my +Theosophy, but I can now, alas! give you convincing proof of the +penetrative power of the one, the sustaining power of the other. I +became so nervous at your continued silence and absence that I did what +I had promised you not to do--went out in my astral to hunt for you--and +I found you! Would to God I had never tried! It is not my health that +is ruined, but my heart and my happiness. To make assurance doubly sure, +I psychometrized the only letter I have received from Mary in weeks. She +was cunning enough not to mention your name, but the unspoken testimony +was the same. To think that you of all men--but I do not blame you! I +have gone down to the _Echo_ office, my heart bursting with despair, and +have told lies to account for your absence, to keep things moving until +you see fit to send your own explanation. I have thrown dust too in the +eyes of the family, till you tell me your will concerning them. No, I +dare not blame you! Did not I myself thrust the girl into your life--and +the best of us are but human. It is Karma! I have deserved this blow for +some previous sin of my own, and I bow my head to the stroke. Your own +harvest will be just as certain, however long delayed. O David, David! +I can look back now and see the very beginning of your interest in +Mary--but that it should end in this--that you should fly from me to +her----'" + +Having read so far, I burst into hysterical laughter, and it took Mary +and her lover and Nurse Dean, and how many more I know not, to hold me +in bed. Of course I had a relapse, and my life was despaired of, but I +would not, in my sensible moments, allow Mary to write to, or send for +Isabel. I pictured the streets still full of rioting strikers, and the +mails and trains still disorganized. In waking and in delirium alike, +"Keep her out of harm's way!" I cried, "I'll go home to-morrow, sure," +but it was a long to-morrow that saw me on the boat bound for Lake City. + +Mary wanted to accompany me, for I was still very weak, and had to walk +with a stick on account of my knee, but I said brusquely, "You stay +where you are, and keep an eye on Dr. Flaker, or you'll maybe get left +again." + +"No fear of that!" she said, holding up her left hand to show me a broad +gold band with five diamonds in it, adorning her third finger. + +"We'll be married as soon as his year is out, for he has plenty of +money." + +The stones in her ring caught the evening sunlight as she stood on the +wharf waving her handkerchief to me, while the boat moved slowly out, +and I lay in a steamer chair on the hurricane deck, prepared to enjoy a +smoke and a gossip with my old friend, the captain. + +I wished her well with all my heart, but I sincerely hoped that I had +seen the last of Mary. + +Judging the family to be at Interlaken as usual, I took the first train +down there, and toiled in the sun from the depot up to the cottages, by +way of the hill, which I had never considered steep before, to find my +own house deserted, windows and doors boarded up, veranda unswept, +hammocks removed. I would not give any of the neighbors the satisfaction +of knowing I was surprised and disappointed, so I kept out of sight till +they had all been to the hotel for dinner and dispersed. Then I went in +for mine, and after it returned to the beach near the station, lay down +on the sand, and waited for the next train. + +There was not one back to town until late in the afternoon, and the +evening being cloudy, it was quite dark by the time I left the electric +car at the corner of our street. Even that little bit of a walk +exhausted me, and I had to rest on my stick every few minutes, but what +a relief it was to see, gleaming cheerfully as ever, the windows of the +House of the Seven Gables. + +I leaned against our iron railing for a minute or two to collect myself +before making my appearance, and highly necessary was it for me to do +so, because the attitude of the two ladies upon the veranda struck me +dumb with amazement, and their conversation completely floored me. That +sandy-haired little woman in the low rocker must be my mother, but could +that regal figure on the edge of the veranda, with her head in my +mother's lap, possibly be my wife? The light from the nursery window +showed them to me distinctly, but I kept back in the shadow and listened +to the voices. + +"My puir lamb! Ye've grat eneugh! Gang awa' tae yer bed; ye're sair +forfoughten." + +As she stroked the wavy gray hair of the head on her knee, her tone +changed. + +"I canna thole to think 'at son o' mine has brocht a' this trouble upon +ye." + +"Not a word against him, mother! He's the best man that ever lived, and +I didn't appreciate him, that's all. I can never think of him but as my +dear, old, solid, yours-to-count-on Dave Gemmell. He was the silent +partner, unpopular, getting no praise, paying all bills, backing me up +in every fad, whether his judgment approved or not. He was just the +square foundation I could lean away out on--could dance jigs on if I +wanted to. Now that he is dead--or dead to me--I can only hope that he +is happy. Oh! if I had but listened to you, mother, had never brought +that girl into the house. My own vineyard have I not kept." + +"Let by-ganes be by-ganes--but I wad jest like to hae Davvit by the +lug." + +"Lug along, mother! Here I am!" I managed to shout, and then I hung +over that fence and laughed till my specs dropped off in the grass, and +my stick fell away from me. I could not move without it, so I had to +wait till the two women took pity on me and released me from my +impalement. + +Between them they got me into the house and on to my old sofa, and +listened to what I had to say. + +"I was share there must be some mistak'," said my mother, her +self-respect restored, but, when I saw how affectionately her hand +rested on the bowed head of her weeping daughter-in-law, I did not +regret the bullet in my knee. + +"We'll put it all down to your Theosophy, Belle--a collection of +half-truths, more dangerous than lies, when you shove them too far." + +"Don't let us talk about that now, David. It breaks my heart to see you +so thin. Your clothes are just hanging on you. Oh! if I had only known +the true state of the case and been there to nurse you!" + +"Mary has been very good to me, I assure you." + +"I don't want to think about that girl any more. I'm glad she's all +right, but I hope never to lay eyes on her again." + +"Oh, yes, she's all right, and when she marries Dr. Flaker she won't +want to '_pa_pa' and '_mam_ma' us, though she may condescend to +patronize us a little." + +"I'll be gled o' the day she draps the name o' Gemmell!" + + * * * * * + +My wife is still a theosophist. If it pleases her to think that she has +ascertained the nature and method of existence, I have nothing to say. +Sometimes I even look with envy upon her cheerful attitude toward the +approach of old age, her conviction that we are to have another +chance--many more chances--to do and to be that which we have failed in +doing and being, _this time_. + +To judge of a tree by its fruits, there is, of course, no doubt that +Isabel, because of, or in spite of her Theosophy, has been + +THE MAKING OF MARY. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +NURSE DEAN walked through the Pest House, adjoining the great hospital, +with the independent mien of the woman who is confident that her skirt +clears the ground. Her keen, light-colored eyes took in at a glance the +condition of every patient, the occupation of every nurse. + +There had been a smallpox epidemic in Chicago, and three of the nurses +in ---- Hospital had taken the disease, two of them lightly, one very +heavily; but all were now convalescent. The two had gone home to their +friends to recruit, but the third lay in an invalid chair in a darkened +room, looking as if the desire of life had left her. Nurse Dean came in +with a cheery smile, put on just outside the door, and proceeded to +bathe the girl's eyes with warm water. + +"When are you coming out to help me, Mary? I'm sure the light wouldn't +hurt you now. I'm having too much night work, those other nurses being +gone. I thought you might begin to ease me a little with the smallpox +patients through the day." + +"I don't know as I care to go on with the business," replied Mary, +sometime called Mason. + +"Nonsense! You're low-spirited just now because you're not quite better, +but wait till you're on your feet and going around the wards again. +There's nothing like work of this sort to make a person forget +herself." + +Nurse Dean's strong but gentle hands began to rub with oil the patient's +neck and shoulders. + +"I wish I could forget myself and everybody else too. I wish I had died +of the smallpox. There aint anybody that cares whether I live or die." + +"Hush! Mary, you forget Dr. Flaker." + +"Aint it just him I'm thinkin' about? He came in to see me to-day for +the first time. He hates smallpox, and he smelt so of iodoform he nearly +made me sick. About all he had to say was that it was very foolish of me +to meddle with the clothes of them patients, and he could hardly believe +I was so crazy's not to be vaccinated when the other nurses were. Just +as if it wasn't him that admired my lovely arms. Look at them now!" + +"They won't be so bad when all these scales are off. There! Doesn't +that feel better?" + +"It feels all right enough, but you know I'll be a sight to be seen the +rest of my days. I was glad the room was dark, so's Flaker couldn't get +a good look at me. He'll know soon enough--and hate the sight of me. He +was always so proud of my 'pearance." + +"But I'm sure he likes you for something else too, Mary." + +"I don't care whether he does or not, he's got to marry me just the +same. I aint goin' to be left again," and the girl tried to make a +blazing diamond ring keep in place upon her thin finger. + +"You love him very much?" + +"Don't know as I do--no more than lots of other fellows; but I won't +have any more chances now. I didn't ask to be born into this world, and +somebody in it owes me a living." + +"See here, Mary!" said the nurse, in a suddenly energetic tone that +made the girl look up at her with startled eyes. "You know, as well as I +do, that you can't make that man marry you. Why not give him back his +ring of your own free will?" + +"Why should I? You think I aint in love?" + +"Love? You don't know what the word means in any but its very lowest +sense. Suppose you stop loving men, and take to loving women and +children; you'll find them much more grateful, I can tell you." + +Mary closed her eyes, but there were no eyelashes to keep the tears from +trickling out upon the scarred face. + +"My dear child!" said Nurse Dean, in a voice hardly recognizable, it was +so sympathetic, "you've been fighting for yourself ever since you can +remember, and you haven't made much of it, have you?" + +The girl's lips shaped an inaudible "No." + +"Wouldn't it be a good idea, then, to try a little fighting for other +people?" + +"I haven't any folks." + +"Your 'folks' are whoever you can help in any way. What have you done +yet to deserve a foothold on this earth? Instead of seeing how much you +can get out of everybody, turn round and see how much you can do for +them." + + * * * * * + +There was a long silence. When Nurse Dean thought her charge was falling +asleep, she placed a shawl carefully over her, but Mary, without opening +her eyes, drew something from her left hand to her right. + +"You can give him back his ring," she said. + +Nurse Dean closed the door softly behind her, and then paused for a +moment to wipe an impertinent tear from her cold gray eye. + +"I shouldn't be at all surprised if the smallpox were just The Making of +Mary." + + +THE END. + + + + +THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY +OF +CHOICE ORIGINAL FICTION. + + +The volumes are long and narrow, just the right shape to slip into the +pocket, and are bound in flexible cloth and ornamented with a chaste +design. The type is large and the margin generous. + +Price, per volume, 50 cents. + +1. Mademoiselle Ixe. By Lanoe Falconer. + +2. The Story of Eleanor Lambert. By Magdalen Brooke. + +3. A Mystery of the Campagna, and A Shadow on the Wave. By Von Degen. + +4. The Friend of Death. Adapted from the Spanish by Mary J. Serrano. + +5. 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A Study in Temptations. By John Oliver Hobbes. + +24. The Palimpsest. By Gilbert Augustin Thierry. + +25. Squire Hellman, and Other Stories. By Juhani Aho. + +26. A Father of Six. By N. E. Potapeèko. + +27. The Two Countesses. By Marie Ebner von Eschenbach. + +28. God's Will, and Other Stories. By Ilse Frapan. Translated by Helen +A. MacDonald. + +29. Her Provincial Cousin. By Edith Elmer Wood. + +30. My Two Wives. By One of their Husbands. + +31. Young Sam and Sabina. By Tom Cobbleigh. + +32. Chaperoned. By Albert Ulmann. + +33. Wanted, a Copyist. By W. N. Brearley. + +34. A Bundle of Life. By John Oliver Hobbes. + +35. The Lone Inn. By Fergus Hume. + +36. "Go Forth and Find." By Thomas H. Brainerd. + +37. The Beautiful Soul. By Florence Marryat. + +38. Dr. Endicott's Experiment. By Adeline Sergeant. + + +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO., +31 East 17th Street (Union Square), +NEW YORK. + + + + +W. C. 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Item._ + + +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO., +31 East 17th Street (Union Square), +NEW YORK. + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Two minor changes were made during the transcription of this book: + + * "the malone" was changed to "them alone" + * two instances of "Gemmel" were changed to "Gemmell" + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Mary, by Jean Forsyth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MARY *** + +***** This file should be named 19343-8.txt or 19343-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/4/19343/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Making of Mary + +Author: Jean Forsyth + +Release Date: September 22, 2006 [EBook #19343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MARY *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + + + + + +<h3><i>THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY</i></h3> + + +<h1>THE MAKING<br /> +OF MARY<br /><br /><br /></h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>JEAN FORSYTH</h2> +<p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br /> +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.<br /> +<span class="smcap">31 East 17th St. (Union Square)</span> +<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + + + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1895, by</span><br /> +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.<br /></p> + + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved.</i><br /><br /><br /><br /></p> + +<p class="center">THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,<br /> +RAHWAY, N. J.<br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/003.png" width="448" height="182" +alt="003.png" title="003.png" /> +</div> + + +<h2>PROLOGUE.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/a.png" width="105" height="160" alt="A" title="A" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">A</span> sturdy</span> northeast +wind was rattling the +doors and windows of +a deserted farmhouse +in Western Michigan. +The building was not old, measured +by years, but it had never +been painted or repaired, and its +wooden face, prematurely lined +with weather stains, looked as if it +had borne the wear and tear of +centuries. The windows, like lidless +eyes, stared vacantly at the +flat stubble fields and the few +spindling trees, a dreary apology +for an orchard. There were plenty +of shingles off the roof to allow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +the inquisitive rain-drops to follow +one another through the rafters, +and thence to the floor of the +room below, where the darkness +was creeping out of the corners to +take possession.</p> + +<p>The house had been but recently +vacated, for there was still a +"slab" smoldering on the hearth +of the wide fireplace in the outer +kitchen, and something that +looked almost human, wrapped in +a ragged bedquilt, was lying much +too near it for safety. A friendly +gust of wind came down the chimney, +bringing back the smoke, and +drawing a faint cough from the +bundle. Another gust and +another cough, and then a sneeze +which burst open the quilt, to disclose +an ill-clad little girl, six or +seven years old.</p> + +<p>She gazed about with drowsy +blue eyes till terror of the darkness +made her draw the tattered +comforter over her head again, and +crouching nearer to the smolder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>ing +log, she tried to warm her +fingers and toes. More wind +down the chimney made more +smoke, and sent the child coughing +back from the fireplace. She +was wide awake now, and stood +listening. Sounds there were, +indeed, but not one that could be +associated with any living thing +in the house. She felt her way +around the walls to where the +candle used to be, but it was gone. +There was no furniture to stumble +over, and when she came to the +side of the wall in the inner room +from which the stairway crept up, +she mounted it on her hands and +knees, trembling, partly with cold, +partly with fear at the noise made +by the flapping of the sole of one +of her old shoes. There was a +step missing at the turn of the +stairs, but the child knew where +the vacancy was, and pulling herself +over it, she reached the landing, +felt all around the walls there, +and made the circuit of the three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +small rooms in the same fashion. +They were entirely empty.</p> + +<p>Cautiously the girl stole down +the broken stairs and back to her +former place by the smoking slab, +where she curled herself up into +the old quilt again, as into a +mother's arms, and spoke aloud, +though there was none to listen +but the obstreperous wind:</p> + +<p>"Anyhow she won't be here to +lick me no more!" That thought +seemed to compensate for darkness +and loneliness. The voices +of wind and rain were apparently +more kindly than the human tones +to which she had been accustomed, +and soothed by their stormy lullaby, +the little maid fell asleep.</p> + +<p>The sunshine poured freely +into the forsaken house next +morning, drying up the damp +floors, and turning to gold the +scrap of yellow hair that showed +through a hole in the old quilt. +Presently the small girl shook +the covering away from her and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> +stood up, to yawn and stretch +herself out of the stiffness from a +night spent on the hard floor. +She was not a pretty child, unless +naturally curling fair hair, that +would be fairer when it was +washed, could make her so. The +long, thin legs that came below +her torn dress made her too tall +for her age, and what might have +been a passable mouth was spoiled +by the departure of two of the +front "baby" teeth and the tardy +arrival of the later contingent.</p> + +<p>Part of the day the child +seemed satisfied with her new-found +liberty. Having discovered +a stale crust or two in a cupboard, +she wanted no more, for her diet +had never been luxurious. Into +every corner of the house she +intruded her small freckled nose, +pulling down from shelves all +sorts of odds and ends that had +been left behind as worthless at +the flitting.</p> + +<p>There was an old straw bonnet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +with a pair of dirty strings, and +therewith the damsel elected to +adorn the tousled head, which +evidenced but slight acquaintance +with comb or brush. She could +not find any feminine garments to +please her fancy, but there was a +boy's jacket, out at elbows and +ragged round the edges, which +she proudly donned, and as a +finishing touch she popped her +long slim legs, old shoes and all, +into a worn-out pair of man's top-boots +that reached to her knees.</p> + +<p>"I just wish Mawm Mason had +lef' a lookin'-glass behin', so's I +could see how I look. My! +wouldn't she whack me if she +seen me with this bonnet on!" +The child smiled broadly as she +continued her confidential address +to the other valueless things left +behind. "I allays knowed she +warn't my own mother, an' I'm +glad Pete nor Matty aint my own +brother nor sister neither. I'd +like him to see me in his jacket!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p> + +<p>She pulled the coat across her +narrow little chest to where it +met in the days when there were +buttons on it, and marched up +and down the room, making as +much noise as possible with the +big boots.</p> + +<p>This killing of time was all very +well while the daylight lasted and +the sun warmed up the frosty +November air, but when the +darkness began to assert itself +once more the small waif did not +feel so contented.</p> + +<p>"There aint no use goin' over +to Mis' Morgan's. She don't +want me no more'n Mis' Mason +did. I guess I'll sleep upstairs +to-night with some o' them things +over me. I'll be warm anyhow."</p> + +<p>In the middle of the front bedroom +she heaped up all the <i>débris</i> +and crawled beneath it. A fantastic +pile it seemed to the moon +when he looked in after the rain +had stopped, the childish head +resting on the cover of an old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</a></span> +bandbox at one side and a pair of +man's boots sticking out at the +other.</p> + +<p>The last scrap of bread was +finished next day, and the two +potatoes picked up in the yard +proved uneatable without the +softening influence of fire, so +there was nothing for it but Mrs. +Morgan's. After sunset, when +the rapidly falling temperature +and the heavy bank of clouds in +the west gave warning of a snow-storm, +the little girl, still wearing +the old bonnet, boy's jacket, and +man's boots, left the only home +she could remember, and made +her way slowly over the hard +rough fields and snake fences to +the next farmhouse.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Morgan was running in +from the barn with a shawl over +her head.</p> + +<p>"Good sakes alive! Mary +Mason! I hardly knowed you. +What you got on? I thought +you was one o' them scarecrows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[xv]</a></span> +out o' the fall wheat. Mis' Mason +moved to Californy three days +ago. Didn't she take you with +her?"</p> + +<p>"No, mawm."</p> + +<p>"So it 'pears. Wal, she hadn't +any call to, I s'pose. You aint +none o' hers."</p> + +<p>By this time they were in the +kitchen of the farmhouse, Mrs. +Morgan rubbing her hands above +the stove, and Mary Mason also +venturing near, stretching out her +thin arms to the heat, for the +adopted jacket was somewhat +short in the sleeves.</p> + +<p>"What's that mark on yer +wrist?"</p> + +<p>"Bruise—but it don't hurt +now."</p> + +<p>"Who done it?"</p> + +<p>"Ma—Mis' Mason. I've lots +worse'n that on me," said the +small girl with some vanity.</p> + +<p>"There, now! I jest knew +that Mis' Mason was a hard case, +though my man would never hear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</a></span> +to it. What you going to do +now?"</p> + +<p>"I dunno." The accent implied +that to be a matter of small +moment.</p> + +<p>"I don't s'pose we can turn +you out to-night. There's room +in the attic for you to sleep, but +don't you go near one o' my girls' +beds with that head o' yourn."</p> + +<p>As a hostess, Mrs. Morgan was +a slight improvement upon Mrs. +Mason. She never took stick or +strap to the foundling, and if she +occasionally gave her a cuff on the +ear it was never strong enough to +knock the girl down. But the +Morgan children bullied Mary +Mason, the Morgan father +grumbled at an extra mouth to +feed, and when she had been +about a month in the house the +mistress of it told her she must +move on.</p> + +<p>"There's an old dress of Ellie's +you can have, an' a pair of Sue's +cast-off boots, and Tom's old cap."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Where am I to go, mawm?"</p> + +<p>"You jest go on from one farmhouse +to another, till you find a +place where they'll keep you all +winter. It's comin' on to Christmas, +an' people won't be hard on +ye. Tell 'em you aint got no +folks."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The forlorn little pilgrim took +up her march down the snow-covered +road.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/013.png" +alt="013.png" title="013.png" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</a></span><br /></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/015.png" width="448" height="181" alt="015.png" title="015.png" /> +</div> + +<h2>THE MAKING OF MARY.</h2> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 99px;"> +<img src="images/m.png" width="99" height="160" alt="M" title="M" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">M</span>y</span> wife is a theosophist. +This fact may account +for her numerous eccentricities +or be simply +one of them. I incline +to the latter opinion, because she +preferred the unbeaten to the +beaten track, both in walk and +conversation, long before Modern +Buddhism was ever heard of in the +small Western town of whose +chief newspaper (circulation +largest in Michigan) I have the +honor to be editor and proprietor.</p> + +<p>How such a hot-house plant as +Theosophy ever took root in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +swamps and sands of the Wolverine +State may seem surprising at +the first glance, but let the second +rest upon our environment—the +absence of mountain or swift-flowing +river, the presence of fever +and ague and half-burnt pine +woods—and it will be seen that +this Eastern lore with its embarrassment +of symbols supplies a +long-felt want to starving imagination. +We of the West are forever +reaching beyond our grasp, +have intelligence and perception, +but lack the culture necessary for +discrimination, and therefore the +romantic souls among us who rise +above the rampant materialism +of the majority go to the other +extreme, and hail with enthusiasm +the new-old religion.</p> + +<p>"It's better to believe too much +than too little, but you theosophists +swallow an awful lot," I +say to Belle when she tries to convert +me.</p> + +<p>I am well aware that many of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +my fellow-citizens consider me a +subject for commiseration because +I have lived for twenty years with +so erratic a house-mate, for I have +not deemed it necessary to explain +to them that without the +stimulus of her enlivening spirit, +without the element of surprise +constantly contributed by my +wife's love of variety, the daily +life, and therefore the daily paper, +of their favorite editor would partake +of that flatness which is the +predominant characteristic of this +western part of the State of +Michigan.</p> + +<p>Our four sons and two daughters +enjoy their mother fully as +much as I do, for is she not the +most fascinating romancer they +ever knew? Now that they are +all of an age to be attending +school and looking out for themselves, +after the manner of independent +young Americans, they +require from her nothing but +sympathy, for their grandmother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +sews their buttons on. Grandma!—Ay, +there's the rub.</p> + +<p>I have no hesitation in owning +that I am Scotch by birth. My +mother left her native land to +make her home with us entirely +too late in life to allow Western +ideas regarding Sabbath observance, +the rearing of children, or +the amount of respect due to the +opinion of elders, to become ingrafted +upon Scottish prejudice +concerning these matters.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gemmell Senior has, however, +the national peculiarity of +judging "blood thicker than +water," and whatever her convictions +may be concerning the +methods of Mrs. Gemmell Junior, +she restricts the expression of +them to our family circle—in fact, +I may say, to myself. She generally +seizes me when I lie at my +ease on the well-worn lounge in +our sitting room, more properly +dubbed the "nursery," for it is +Liberty Hall for the youngsters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +Two rooms have been knocked +into one to accommodate their +dolls' houses, bookshelves, toys, +and printing machines. Belle had +the whole side torn out of the +house to build an open fire-place, +on purpose to burn slabs, over +which the children roast pop-corn +to their hearts' content.</p> + +<p>"A body wad think," said my +mother one cold night five or six +years ago, when I lay on the sofa, +trying to send my weariness off in +smoke, "A body wad think there +had been nae cherritable wark +dune in the toon ava, till they +theossiphies set aboot it. If yer +provost and baillies lookit efter +things as they ocht, there wad be +a dacent puirs-house for the idignant +folk, an' a wheen daft leddies +like Eesabel needna gang roun' +speirin' at yon infeedels for their +siller tae build a hoose o' refuse."</p> + +<p>"There is a county poorhouse, +mother, but it doesn't happen to +be located in this city, and they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +won't take in anybody there that +hasn't been a resident of the +county for a certain time."</p> + +<p>"Aweel! there's plenty o' +kirks, though ye never darken the +door o' ane. Do they no' leuk +efter their ain puir folk?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but after nobody else's. +This House of Refuge is to +be non-sectarian, non-religious, +humanitarian, in the broadest +sense of the term. Ah! There's +Belle now," and I gave a sigh of +relief as I heard my wife's latch-key +in the front door.</p> + +<p>She came in with an out-of-door +breeze, her dark face glowing +from the wintry wind, flakes +of newly fallen snow resting like +diamonds upon her prematurely +white hair, and her brown eyes +sparkling with the animation of +twenty summers rather than of +forty-two.</p> + +<p>"Children all gone to bed? +That's right! Don't go, mother! +I'm sure you'll like to hear about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +the House of Refuge. We've +got it fixed at last! Those rich +old lumbermen that won't give a +cent to a church, or any charity +connected with one, have gone +to the bottom of their pockets +this time. Fancy Peter Wood, +Dave—five hundred dollars! +And Jeff Henderson, five hundred. +I have the list in my bag. +Like to see it?"</p> + +<p>"No' the nicht, thenk ye," +said my mother stiffly, but I +added:</p> + +<p>"Hand it over to me, and I'll +put it in to-morrow's <i>Echo</i>. +That's what they want."</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the kind, you old +cynic! I shan't tell you another +thing about it." But still she +went on: "We've taken the old +Laurence house on the corner +of Garfield Avenue and Pine +Street, and it's to be fitted up +to accommodate any sort of refugees."</p> + +<p>"Irrespective of race, creed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +sex, or color," I whispered parenthetically.</p> + +<p>"No one is ever to be turned +from the door without a good +square meal, and there's to be a +back, outside stair erected, up +which a tramp can go at any hour +of the night, and find a nice clean +bed awaiting him—locked away +from the rest of the house, of +course."</p> + +<p>"Oh, why?" I innocently inquired. +"Surely you have +enough faith in your brother man +to believe that he would not +commit any breach of hospitality?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> have," replied Belle, squeezing +my recumbent form further +against the back of the sofa, upon +which she had seated herself. +"But remember we are not all +theosophists on the Board."</p> + +<p>In the words of the historic +witness against Mrs. Muldoon, +"That's the way the row began!" +Belle was elected Treasurer of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +the House of Refuge, but as she +knows nothing of figures, I had +to keep the books of that unique +institution, and was therefore +enabled to form a practical estimate +of its workings.</p> + +<p>I shall not attempt a description +of the numerous "cases" in +which my advice, if not my +pocketbook, was freely drawn +upon, but shall leave them, +along with the description of +the many antecedent fads of my +beloved better half, to some historian +of longer wind, and shall +content myself with recounting +the particular "case"—and attachments—which +most nearly +affected our family life and happiness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"This is what I call solid comfort," +said Belle to me one evening +late in September, as we sat +in the parlor in a couple of deep, +springy armchairs, fronting a huge +grate fire, that would be banished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +by the lighting of the furnace. +"Children all in school again, +your mother off on a long visit, +and plenty of new books on the +table."</p> + +<p>I looked up from one of the +aforesaid new books.</p> + +<p>"Just wait! The season's business +hasn't begun in the Refuge +yet."</p> + +<p>"Everything is in good shape +for it, though. We've had enough +donations of groceries and vegetables +to keep us going almost all +winter. We've lots of wood for +the furnace, and Mack and Hardy +have given us some second-hand +furniture and——"</p> + +<p>The electric door-bell sent out a +long, imperative summons.</p> + +<p>"Who can that be, Dave, at +this time of night? None of the +boys locked out?"</p> + +<p>"No; they all went up to bed +a while ago."</p> + +<p>Belle rose and walked to the +door. I pulled the tidy from my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +chair-back over my bald head to +protect me from the draught, but +that did not prevent me from +hearing what went on.</p> + +<p>"Are you Mrs. Gemmell?" +This from a female voice, breathless +with excitement.</p> + +<p>"I am."</p> + +<p>"Then you are one of the +trustees of the House of Refuge?" +gasped another feminine speaker.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Won't you come in?"</p> + +<p>"No, thank you. We've just +come to tell you about this young +girl who has run to us for protection."</p> + +<p>"We're school-teachers, mawm."</p> + +<p>"She's in my class, and she +hasn't a friend in the city and +knew nowhere else to go."</p> + +<p>Then followed some hysterical +whispers, which roused my curiosity +so much that I went to the +door and peeped over the shoulder +of my tall wife. The two plain, +business-like young women were +evidently much distressed, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +between them was a fair-haired +slip of a girl of fifteen or sixteen, +the least disturbed of the group. +The three older women might +have been talking in a foreign +tongue, or of someone else, so unconcerned +did she appear, present +danger being over.</p> + +<p>"How did she happen to be +with these people?" Belle was +asking as I came forward.</p> + +<p>"The wife of this brute of a +man told us that she was nursemaid +with the Ferguson Family +Concert Company, but they +dropped her here in Lake City +without a friend or a cent."</p> + +<p>"She took her in to help sell +fruit and ice cream evenings, and +she let her go to school through +the day."</p> + +<p>At this juncture the subject +under discussion broke into a +beaming smile, showing all her +fine teeth. Her cheek dimpled +and reddened, and her blue eyes, +full of fun, looked straight into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +mine. I became suddenly aware +that I had forgotten to remove +the tidy, and retired in confusion, +but heard Belle's conclusion of +the interview:</p> + +<p>"Just wait a second till I give +you a line to the matron of the +House of Refuge. You can leave +the girl there till we see what can +be done for her. She'll be perfectly +safe, and had better keep +on going to school as usual."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A week afterward I asked my +wife what had become of her +latest <i>protégée</i>.</p> + +<p>"You mean Mary Mason? +She's in the refuge yet, attending +school, and we've settled that +man's ice-cream saloon."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Boycotted him. We can't +reach him any other way."</p> + +<p>"That's rather hard on his wife, +who seems to be a decent sort of +party."</p> + +<p>"The innocent often appear to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +suffer with and for the guilty, +but if you understood the law of +Karma you would know that all +the evil that befalls us is really +the result of some wrongdoing of +our own in a previous incarnation. +Mary Mason herself is an instance."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with her?"</p> + +<p>"Poor girl! She's been +knocked from pillar to post all +her days. She hasn't an idea +who her parents are, and there +isn't a creature in the world she +has any claim upon. She must +have gone very far astray <i>last +time</i> to have been brought into +the world again with such disadvantages."</p> + +<p>"It appears to me she has a +great many advantages—lovely +blue eyes, good teeth, the fashionable +golden shade of hair, and +the prettiest complexion I've seen +for many a day."</p> + +<p>"Don't be provoking, Dave! +The poor little thing has the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +marks of some of her beatings on +her yet. The Ferguson family +were the first who ever treated her +decently, or paid her any wages."</p> + +<p>"Why did they drop her?"</p> + +<p>"One of our Committee took +it upon herself to write and ask +them. They replied that the girl +was of perfectly good character, +so far as they knew, but she fell +so ridiculously in love with Frank +Ferguson, their eldest son, that she +was making a nuisance of herself, +and so they had to let her go."</p> + +<p>I laughed.</p> + +<p>"There are generally two sides +to that kind of story."</p> + +<p>"At the meeting of the trustees +to-morrow it is to be decided +what's to be done with her, because +she says she doesn't want to go to +school any more. She's never had +much of a chance before to learn +anything, and she's in a class with +little bits of girls, and she doesn't +like it—says she'd rather go to +work to earn her own living."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>Belle came home from that +meeting with her face ablaze with +righteous wrath. Her hands +trembled so much over the teacups +at our evening meal that +even sixteen year old Watty, our +eldest son, remarked it.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with +<i>mamma</i>? Her trolley's off."</p> + +<p>I knew there was trouble in the +wind, so I fortified myself with a +good supper and read my paper at +the same time, to leave myself free +for what was to follow. The +children study their lessons in the +back end of the nursery, and I +therefore forbore to take up my +usual position upon the sofa, but +withdrew to the parlor with my +pipe.</p> + +<p>Presently my wife followed me, +nearly walking over the furniture +in her excitement.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Belle; out with it!"</p> + +<p>"You will listen, will you, seriously?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, mawm. I never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +had any sort of an objection to +your making a scavenger barrel of +me, so go ahead."</p> + +<p>"Oh, these benevolent women, +Dave! Any one of them alone +is as good-hearted as can be, but +lump them together on a committee, +and they're as cold and +cruel and grasping as the meanest +business man you could name!"</p> + +<p>"More so!" said I, approvingly, +and for once Isabel did not +resent the disparagement of her +sex.</p> + +<p>"The question arose, what was +to be done about Mary Mason, +and every one of them, David—every +one of them, with young +daughters of their own growing +up at home, voted to let that girl +go round this town selling a +book."</p> + +<p>"Was that what she wanted to +do herself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but think of them letting +her do it! You know as well +as I do what sort of a city this is,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +and whether it's safe for a lovely +girl like that to go to men's +offices, trying with her pretty +looks and ways to wheedle them +into subscribing for Stanley's +'Darkest Africa.' Oh, I was +wild! I said to Mrs. Robinson: +'How would you like your Lulu +to do it?' 'The cases are very +different,' said she; 'my daughter +has no need to earn her living.' +'Mrs. Constable,' said I, 'if your +grandchild were left alone in the +world, what would you think of +the charity of any body of women +who allowed her to go from under +their protection to make her living +in this way?' 'I don't see +the connection,' said she; 'Mary +Mason's been fighting the world +since she was seven years old, and +just because she happens to have +a pretty face, you seem to think +she should be put in a glass case +and never do anything for herself.'"</p> + +<p>"She had you there, Belle,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +said I, pulling her down to the +arm of my big easy-chair. "Let +the girl alone; she'll come out all +right. She's too good-looking for +a nurse or a housemaid, and she +doesn't know enough arithmetic +to be a shop girl. I don't see +what else she can do."</p> + +<p>"That's just what the ladies +calmly decided," said my wife, +walking the floor again. "They +seemed to think that a little business +training would just be the +making of Mary. Oh, these +Christians!"</p> + +<p>"You see, my dear," said I, +"committees are not supposed to +have any conscience. They have +the income of the Refuge in trust +for the contributors, and they +have no right to keep on supporting +a girl who is willing to work +for herself. How she proposes +to do it is none of their business."</p> + +<p>"That's just what it is—their +business; their business to see +that she doesn't meet the very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +fate we've saved her from once +already. Oh! there's no getting +these narrow-minded, orthodox, +bigoted people to see more than +one side of a question."</p> + +<p>"Take care you don't become +dogmatic on your own side," said +I, rising to knock the ashes out of +my pipe. "If it's the law of +Karma that's responsible for her +having been left to shift for herself +at so early an age, it's the +same law that's after her now, and +I wouldn't interfere with its operations, +if I were you."</p> + +<p>"You don't in the least understand +what you are talking about," +and Belle sailed from the room +to settle a noisy dispute in the +nursery.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/034.png" +alt="034.png" title="034.png" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/035.png" width="448" height="175" alt="035.png" title="035.png" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/t.png" width="105" height="160" alt="T" title="T" /> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">T</span>hrough</span> that winter +I caught occasionally a +glimpse of Mary Mason +on the street, but as I +had not the pleasure of +her acquaintance, I did not stop +to ask her how she was getting +on. My wife told me, however, +that she lived in a room over a +store down town, and took her +meals out, and that she was succeeding +very well with her subscription +list.</p> + +<p>"The girl is all right, if only the +gossips would let her alone. +Some of them assert that she had +a child in the Refuge, and though +the ladies on our committee indignantly +deny that, they shake<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +their heads, and say of course +they don't know anything about +her now."</p> + +<p>"It's the only excitement a lot +of these women have," said I. +"They wouldn't read a French +novel for the world, and some of +them wouldn't be seen in a +theater, so they have to satisfy +their morbid craving for sensationalism +by hearing and repeating +all sorts of unsavory tales—and +they do it in the name of +charity! They're very sorry that +there is so much wickedness in +the world, but since it is there, +they enjoy the investigation of +details, and it doesn't matter very +much whether they're doing any +good or not."</p> + +<p>"There aren't any details to investigate, +so far as Mary Mason +is concerned. I took pains to +make sure of that, when I heard +that a big hulk of a machinist, +who rooms on the same flat, was +telling lies about her, just because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +she refused to have anything to +say to him."</p> + +<p>When I was leaving the <i>Echo</i> +office at noon one day I saw Henderson's +handsome black span, +with the wreck of a sleigh behind +them, come down the street at a +full gallop, and I was just debating +with myself whether my duty +as a citizen, which called me to +attempt to stop the brutes, was +stronger than my duty to my wife +and family, which bade me stay +where I was, when a young lady +jumped the snow ridge at the +edge of the sidewalk and flung +herself at the bit of the nearest +horse. The powerful animal +swung her right off her feet, but +he was checked for an instant, +and in that instant a young +man seized the mate on the +other side; the team was stopped +and surrounded by a crowd directly. +Then I saw it was Mary +Mason who was the heroine of the +drama. She withdrew from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +throng, straightened her flat hat +above her rosy face, and walked +off with her habitual indifferent +air.</p> + +<p>"She's got good grit, that girl," +said I to myself, but I thought no +more about her till I came home +on a certain evening in March, and +found her comfortably ensconced +on one side of our nursery fire, +while my mother from the other +side cast suspicious glances at +her over her spectacles. "Miss +Mason," had supper with us, and +then I retired to my big leather-covered +spring rocker in the +parlor to await developments. +That chair needs to be approached +with deference, for it has a precocious +trick of either tilting in +the air the feet of any unwary +occupant, or of tipping him out +on the floor. I know its disposition, +can preserve my proper balance, +and have never been flung +either forward or backward—except +once each way.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<p>Presently Belle followed me, +"loaded up," as the boys say.</p> + +<p>"It seems as if I was never to +get free from the responsibility of +that child."</p> + +<p>"What's up now?"</p> + +<p>"Down town to-day I met the +chief of police——"</p> + +<p>"Great chum of yours!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed. We've had considerable +conversation at different +times about some of my cases. +To-day he said, 'You're interested +in that young girl, Mary Mason, +aint you, Mrs. Gemmell?' 'Yes,' +said I, though my heart sank, and +I didn't see why he couldn't have +addressed any other one of the +committee; 'anything wrong with +her?' 'Not yet,' said he; 'but +there will be pretty soon if somebody +doesn't look after her. +There's a scheme on foot to take +her off to Chicago—to sell a book—so +they say.' 'Good gracious! +Nobody would dare!' 'Wouldn't +they, though?' said he. 'There's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +a well-known drummer in this +town at the bottom of it. He's +aware the girl has no friends, and +in Chicago she don't even know a +soul. It's too bad, for I've had +my eye on the young woman all +winter, and she's kept perfectly +straight.'</p> + +<p>"You may think, Dave, that I +ought to be hardened to horrors +by this time, but I became fairly +dazed as the chief of police went +on to say, 'I can't move in the +matter. We never can touch these +things until the mischief is done; +but if you like to make inquiries, +you'll find out that I've been telling +you the truth.'</p> + +<p>"When he left me, I turned to +come home, not knowing what to +do, but going round the first +corner, didn't I run right into +Mary Mason herself! I hadn't +laid eyes on her for a couple of +months. 'How d'ye do, Mrs. +Gemmell?' she said, for I stopped +and stared at her as if she'd been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +a white crow. 'What about +"Darkest Africa?"' I found +breath to ask, though it was +Darkest Chicago I had in my +mind. 'I've done with that now,' +she said; 'did very well, too.' +'And what are you going to +do next?' 'I dunno. Whatever +turns up. I've got an offer to go +to Chicago to sell a book there.' +I caught her by the arm as if I'd +been the chief of police. 'Mary, +will you please go to my house +and wait there for me till I come?' +'Oh, yes, mawm, if you want me +to,' and off she went, asking no +questions.</p> + +<p>"Well, Dave, I've put in four +hours of amateur detective work +this afternoon, and I feel as if I +needed a moral bath. I found +out it was all true, as the chief of +police had said. There was a +plot to ruin the girl, and I don't +think the author of it will forget +his interview with me in a hurry."</p> + +<p>"What good will that do the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +young woman? There are plenty +more of his kind in the world, and +with her inherited tendencies I +suppose it's only a question of +time—how soon she goes to the +bad."</p> + +<p>"David Gemmell!"</p> + +<p>It is worth while making a +caustic speech occasionally to see +Isabel rise to her full height. +Her brown eyes positively emit +sparks, and her gray hair, which +she wears waved and parted, gives +her an air of distinction that +would not be out of place upon +an avenging spirit.</p> + +<p>"I came home all tired out," +she went on, sinking into the +chair beside mine, "and looking +through the nursery window, +there sat Mary Mason with our +little Chrissie on her knee. The +two faces in the firelight looked +so much alike that my heart gave +a great thump, and I vowed that +girl should never be set adrift +again. This is the second time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +she has been cast upon my shore, +and I must see to her."</p> + +<p>So Mary Mason dropped into +our family circle without anybody +having very much to say in the +matter—except my mother!</p> + +<p>"Wha's yon 'at Eesabell's ta'en +up wi' the noo?"</p> + +<p>"Her name's Mason," said I; +"Mary Mason."</p> + +<p>"I h'ard yer wife was thinkin' +o' keepin' a hoosemaid, but I +didna expeck tae see her pap hersel' +doon at the table wi' the +fem'ly."</p> + +<p>"She's not a housemaid. She's +just staying with us for a while."</p> + +<p>"Ye'd think Eesabell micht +hae eneugh adae wi' her ain, +'thoot takin' in ony strangers."</p> + +<p>"But Mary is to help with the +housework, in return for her +board and clothes."</p> + +<p>"Let her wear a kep an' apron, +then, an' eat wi' Marg'et."</p> + +<p>"Margaret might object," and +I laughed at the probable dismay<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +of our stalwart, rough-and-ready +five-foot-tenner, should this ladyfied +blonde permanently invade +her domain.</p> + +<p>"Hoo lang's she gaun to st'y?"</p> + +<p>"That's more than I can tell +you."</p> + +<p>When Mary had been a week +in the house, it became apparent +that something must be done +with her.</p> + +<p>"She's bound she'll not go +back to the public school, Dave, +and yet she cannot read or write. +Do you think we can afford to +send her to boarding-school—to a +convent, for instance, where she'd +be well looked after, and allowances +made for her backwardness?"</p> + +<p>Belle and I were out driving +together. It was the first springlike +evening we had had, and I +was trying Jim Atwood's new +mare on Maple Avenue, which +had been newly block-paved. So +engrossed was I in watching her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +paces I did not reply to my wife +at once, and she continued:</p> + +<p>"You were going to get me a +horse and a victoria this spring, +but I'm willing to give them up +to send Mary to school."</p> + +<p>"Please yourself, my dear. +You would be the one to use the +turnout. I'm content to borrow +from my friends. Isn't she a +beauty?"</p> + +<p>Belle came out of space to +answer me.</p> + +<p>"Yes, just now; but she'll not +be when she's old. Her features +are not good at all; her forehead's +too narrow, and her nose +too broad. Were it not for her +lovely hair and complexion, she'd +have nothing to brag about but +a pair of very ordinary blue eyes."</p> + +<p>"Who? The mare?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be stupid, Dave, and +do attend to what I am saying. +I hardly ever have a chance to +speak to you, goodness knows!"</p> + +<p>"You get the editorial ear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +oftener and longer than anybody +else."</p> + +<p>"Lend it to me now, then. +Don't you think a convent would +be the best place for Mary?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps—as there are no +theosophical educational institutions +that we know about."</p> + +<p>"Mary isn't far enough on for +theosophist yet. She'll have to +come back many times before she +is. The Roman Catholic Church +is on her plane this incarnation."</p> + +<p>"It does seem to catch the +masses, that's a fact, whereas +your theosophy doesn't appear +to be practicable for uneducated +people nor for children."</p> + +<p>"I don't agree with you there."</p> + +<p>"Then why were you so anxious +to send Watty to a church school +to finish his education, and why +are you on the lookout already +for a boarding-school for the two +girls where they will have the +best of Christian influences? +What is your object in being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +so particular that the younger +boys are regular in their attendance +at our surpliced choir?"</p> + +<p>"It gives them a good idea of +music—but that is not the point +just now. Can we afford to send +Mary Mason to a convent, or can +we not?"</p> + +<p>"Choose between her and the +buggy mare 'suitable for a lady +to drive,'" said I; but in reality +it was my mother who settled the +question.</p> + +<p>When we came home that +evening she was sitting by the +fireside,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nursin' her wrath to keep it warm."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Ye maun either pit yon hizzy +oot the hoose, or I'll hitta gang."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter now, +mother?"</p> + +<p>"I tell't her to brush the boys' +bits tae be ready for the schule in +the mornin'. They were thrang +wi' their lessons an' she wasna +daein' a han's turn."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And what did she say?"</p> + +<p>"S'y! I wush ye'd seen the +leuk she gi'ed me!"</p> + +<p>"The boys can brush their ain +bits," said she; "I'm no' their +servant."</p> + +<p>I laughed.</p> + +<p>"It's well seen she hasn't been +brought up in Scotland, or she +would know it was the bounden +duty of the girls in the house to +wait on the boys."</p> + +<p>"An' a hantle better it is than +to see the laddies aye rinnin' efter +the lasses, tendin' them han' an' +fut as they dae here. When a +man comes hame efter his d'y's +wark, he should be let sit on his +sate, an' hae a' things dune for +him."</p> + +<p>"David," said Belle, sinking to +a footstool at my feet with a +dramatic gesture, "you shall +never button my boots again! +But seriously," she continued, as +mother withdrew in high dudgeon +to her sanctum upstairs, "I don't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +think Mary should be expected +to brush the boys' boots. We +didn't engage her as servant, and +even if we had, there isn't a hired +girl in this part of the country +that wouldn't make a fuss if she +had to brush the boots of the +man of the house, not to mention +the boys. We'll have to pack +Mary off somewhere, if only to +keep the peace."</p> + +<p>So Mary was sent to a convent, +and at the end of three months +came back for her holidays to +our summer cottage at Interlaken. +Being so near the big lake does +not agree with my mother, and +she rarely spends more than a +week with us there, but during +July and August visits my married +sister in town. The coast +was clear for Belle and me to decide +what progress had been made +in the making of Mary, and we +fancied we discovered a good deal.</p> + +<p>"What have they done to you, +those nuns, to tone you down so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +quickly, Mary?" I asked, as she +sat beside me, swinging in a low +rocker, and looking so pretty that +I was quite proud of her as an +ornament to our front veranda.</p> + +<p>"I dunno," she said, "unless it +was the exercise for sitting perfectly +still on a row of chairs. A +nun goes behind us and drops a +big book or something, and any +girl that jumps gets a bad mark."</p> + +<p>"Capital!" I cried; "no wonder +you have learned repose of +manner."</p> + +<p>Thus encouraged, the girl continued:</p> + +<p>"Then we have little parties +and receptions, and we have to +converse with the nuns and with +each other, and anybody that +mentions one of the three D's +gets a bad mark."</p> + +<p>"The three D's?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir—Dress, Disease, and +Domestics."</p> + +<p>"Hear this, Belle," I said, laughing, +as my wife took the rocking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +chair on the other side of me; +"fancy any collection of women +being obliged to steer clear of the +three D's!"</p> + +<p>"You should ask Mary about +her studies," was the severe reply. +"We were much pleased with +your letters."</p> + +<p>"Yes, mawm; Sister Stella was +always very good about that; +helped me with the big words, +and often wrote the whole thing +out for me. Sometimes I had to +copy it two or three times before +I could please her."</p> + +<p>Belle hastily changed the subject. +"Let Mr. Gemmell hear +that piece you recited to me this +morning."</p> + +<p>I am no judge of elocution, but +the general effect of the young +girl standing there in the arch of +the veranda, a clematis-wreathed +post on either side, and her face, +with its delicate coloring, turned +toward the golden twilight, was +pleasing in the extreme.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She'll maybe be famous some +day," said Belle, when Mary had +discreetly retired. "She is far +quicker at learning verses off by +heart than she is at reading +them."</p> + +<p>"Still, to be a successful elocutionist +nowadays one has to be +thoroughly well educated, and +Mary is too late in beginning."</p> + +<p>"You can't tell. She's got the +appearance, and that's half the +battle."</p> + +<p>"With us, perhaps; but remember, +we are not capable critics, +even though one of us is a +Theosophist."</p> + +<p>"Laugh as you like, Dave. +Theosophy satisfies me, because +it explains some things in my +own nature that I never could understand +before."</p> + +<p>"It may be that you are too +soon satisfied. That's the way +with all new movements—one +story is good till another is told. +Your great-granddaughter will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +smile at the credulity of your +ideas on this very subject."</p> + +<p>"She can smile, and so can you. +We don't pretend to know everything; +we only hope that we are +on the right road to learn. I, for +one, am thankful to think that +there are wiser heads than mine +puzzling over the problem of our +psychic powers. I've always +taken impressions from inanimate +objects, and it has bothered me. +Now I find my sensations analyzed +and classified under the head of +Psychometry, and it is a comfort +to know that other people besides +myself can discern an <i>aura</i>, and +are foolishly wise enough to trust +the impressions they receive in +that way."</p> + +<p>"But if I were you, I don't +think I'd make a parlor entertainment +out of the gift,—if it is a +gift,—as I heard you did at the +Wades' the other night."</p> + +<p>"Who told you? What have +you heard?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Newspaper men hear everything. +You asked Mr. Saxon to +hold his handkerchief pressed +tightly in his hand for a few +minutes, and then to give it to +you. You shut your eyes as you +held it, and received the impression +of his 'aura,' or the atmosphere +which surrounds him, or +whatever you like to call it, and +then the company asked you +questions, and you gave him a +great old character. He didn't +like it a bit, nor did his wife, nor +his mother-in-law. You'll make +enemies for yourself if you don't +watch out."</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> wrong of me to exercise +my powers just to gratify idle +curiosity. No good Theosophist +would approve of it."</p> + +<p>"Say, rather, 'no sensible person +would.' The Theosophists +haven't a monopoly of common +sense. To me they appear +slightly deficient in that article,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +but I dare say they make up for it +in uncommon sense."</p> + +<p>"You speak more wisely than +you know," said Belle solemnly. +"If I hadn't taken in some of the +Brotherhood ideas I wonder where +that pretty, innocent young girl +would have been by this time. +Would you like me to go back and +be as I was in the old days, a rank +materialist, caring for nothing but +dress, dancing, and having a good +time? You know you wouldn't, +David. You know as well as I do +that Theosophy has been the +making of me, and through me it +shall be the making of Mary too."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/055.png" +alt="055.png" title="055.png" /> + +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/056.png" width="448" height="195" alt="056.png" title="056.png" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/t.png" width="105" height="160" alt="T" title="T" /> + +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">T</span>o</span> the Scotchman or +Englishman, with Loch +Katrine or Windermere +in his fond memory's +eye, it is not surprising +that the great lakes of America +seem howling wildernesses of water, +for the shores are mostly low +and unpicturesque. There is no +changing tide to give variety, no +strong smell of seaweed nor salt +breeze to brace the wearied +nerves, but the wearied nerves are +braced nevertheless. The sand is +soft and clean to extend one's +length upon, and the waves forever +rolling up at one's feet are +soothing in their monotony. +There is no fear of the encroach<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>ment +of the water, no fear of its +leaving a bare mud-flat for nearly +a mile; and the unlimited expanse +of blue which meets the +horizon satisfies the eye, which +cares not if the land on the other +side be hundreds or thousands of +miles away, so long as it be out of +sight.</p> + +<p>Two young people one evening +in July seemed to find Lake +Michigan perfectly satisfactory in +every respect. The girl sat on a +log of driftwood, poking holes in +the sand with the pointed toes of +her shoes, much too fine for the +purpose, while the young man +stretched at her feet looked at her +instead of the sunset they had +come to admire. I could not +help thinking what a pretty picture +they made, as I strolled along +the shore with my pipe, to get +cooled off after a very hot day in +town.</p> + +<p>The family were all at Interlaken, +but Margaret was left in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +Lake City to keep the grass +watered, and to give me my midday +dinner. I am unable to decide +which occupation she considered +the more important. It is +not easy to get grass to grow with +us, and anyone who can display +a reasonably green patch in July +and August gives evidence of considerable +perseverance in the +matter of lawn sprinkling. I told +Margaret she would be ready to +enter the Fire Brigade next winter, +she was getting to be such an expert +with the hose. But to return +to the shore of Michigan.</p> + +<p>The pair of lovers interested +me so much that I gradually +edged nearer to them. The species +seldom objects to the proximity +of a stout little man with a +prosaic pipe in his mouth and a +pair of light blue eyes, handicapped +by spectacles, that seem +always to be looking for a sail on +the horizon. In fact, I never +attract any attention anywhere,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +unless my wife is along, and then +I am only too proud and happy to +shine in her reflection.</p> + +<p>So I sat down on a piece of +stump, worn white and smooth +like a skeleton before being cast +up by the waves; but when the +two caught sight of me, the man +sprang up and came toward me, +holding out his hand, while the +girl sauntered off in the other +direction, and I saw that she was +Mary Mason.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Link?" said I to the +young fellow. "Didn't know you +were down here."</p> + +<p>"I'm at the hotel for a week or +two. I've just been making the +acquaintance of your adopted +daughter."</p> + +<p>"My what?"</p> + +<p>"You have adopted her, haven't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Don't know that I have—hadn't +considered the matter at +all."</p> + +<p>"She's a sweet girl, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +beauty too. Anyone would be +proud to own her."</p> + +<p>"You'd better let Dolly Martin +hear you say that."</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln Todd straightened +himself up in the most independent +bachelor style.</p> + +<p>"She can look after me when +we're married, but in the meantime +I'm a free man."</p> + +<p>He is considered very handsome, +tall and dark, a good business man +too, and Belle had quite approved +of the engagement between him +and Dolly Martin, who, though +not a pretty girl, was strong and +sensible, and the daughter of one +of her oldest friends.</p> + +<p>Lincoln must be taking advantage +of his intimacy with our +family to flirt with Mary Mason.</p> + +<p>Interlaken is not a fashionable +resort. Even the hotel is a +homely abode, which the guests +seem to run themselves, though +they generally prefer to live outdoors +and go inside only for meals<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +and beds. Once in a while, on a +chilly evening, the young people +get up a dance, and some of us +older folks are dragged into it too.</p> + +<p>Scotchmen love to dance, and I +am no exception. I am not up +to waltzing or any of the newfangled +round dances, but give +me a Highland schottische, or a +square dance, when there is an inventive +genius to call off the +figures and prescribe plenty of +variety. There was no professional +caller-off at Interlaken, but +Lincoln Todd did duty for one as +he danced. When he tired of it, +and led off into a round of waltzes, +ripples, jerseys, bon tons, rush +polkas, and goodness knows what +besides, I remained as a wall-flower.</p> + +<p>The reason that I sat there was +that I could not take my eyes off +Mary Mason. Where she learned +to dance I know not, but dance +she did, with a grace and <i>abandon</i> +that made every other girl in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +room a clod-hopper. Lincoln +Todd was quite infatuated with +her.</p> + +<p>Ours is one of the dozen or so +of cottages that radiate from the +big hotel. Most of the cottagers +take dinner and supper at the +hotel, being, like ourselves, in a +servantless condition. Belle said +she could get along perfectly well +without Margaret, when she had +Mary Mason to help her with the +housework, and, indeed, there was +not much to be done. The four +bedrooms open into one central +room that we call the sitting-room, +but it is only in wet weather +it justifies the name, for, as a rule, +we sit in rockers or swing in hammocks +on the broad veranda that +runs round three sides of the +house. The cottages lie so close +together that a good jumper can +easily spring from one veranda to +the next, and the lady proprietors +gossip across, and the men +too when they come down from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +business every evening, or from +Saturday till Monday. My lot is +generally the shorter allowance, +and one Sunday afternoon I lay +in my favorite hammock on the +north side of the veranda, sleeping +the sleep of the brain-tired +editor, till voices roused me.</p> + +<p>"Mary, where did you get that +new tennis racket?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Todd gave it to me."</p> + +<p>"Haven't I told you distinctly +that you were not even to take +candy from Mr. Todd?"</p> + +<p>"He gives things to you and +Chrissie."</p> + +<p>"That's a very different matter. +Chrissie is a child, and he is an +old friend of the family."</p> + +<p>"I can't help it if he likes to +give me presents."</p> + +<p>"You can help taking them, +especially from an engaged man."</p> + +<p>"I don't care if he is engaged. +He says he don't care anything +at all about Miss Martin. He +only went after her for her money.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +He likes me best, and he says he'll +never marry her."</p> + +<p>"Mary! I should think you'd +know better than to make yourself +so cheap. You give Mr. Todd +back that racket right away, and +tell him Mrs. Gemmell said you +were not to keep it, and the next +time he brings you down flowers +or chocolates you do the same."</p> + +<p>If I had not known the sex and +the approximate age of Mary, +I should have thought it was a +small boy in a temper who stamped +off the veranda.</p> + +<p>The next Saturday night the +full moon was assisted in her +duties by a large bonfire down on +our beach. The Adamless Eden, +having received its "week-end" +male contingent, was stimulated +to a corn-roasting. The green +ears, stuck on the ends of long +sticks, were held by girls and men +over the fire till roasted, and then +passed on to a row of matrons, +disguised in large aprons, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +salted and buttered them ready +for eating. If you know anything +that tastes sweeter than a freshly +roasted and buttered ear of Indian +corn, your experience is broader +than mine.</p> + +<p>Using my eyes habitually in +the way of business, I could not +avoid noticing that Lincoln Todd +was not collecting his share of +driftwood for keeping up the fire, +nor did I see Mary Mason's pretty +face in the garland of beauties +bending with eager interest over +the poles bayoneted with cobs of +corn. It may have been fear of +spoiling her complexion that +kept her at one side whispering +with Link, but it served them +both right that Dolly Martin +should choose that very moment +for her stage entrance. She and +her mother joined the group of +butterers, and I noticed that Mrs. +Martin returned Belle's cordial +greeting rather stiffly. Then +Miss Dolly calmly walked over to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +the pair sitting apart, having evidently +recognized the back of +Lincoln's blazer. She pretended +to stumble over one of his feet.</p> + +<p>"Oh, excuse me!" said she; +and when Link sprang up, Mary +Mason had the pleasure of witnessing +the warmest sort of a meeting +between the engaged lovers. +They sallied off in the moonlight, +his arm around her waist.</p> + +<p>No one but me noticed the +young girl slipping down on the +sand, and laying her head on the +log on which she had been sitting, +and even I pretended not to see +that her handkerchief was in +action.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Mary!" said I, "I'll +match you skipping stones. Look +at this!"</p> + +<p>With that I sent a beautiful flat +one skimming along with nearly a +dozen hops in the brilliant track +of the moon on the water. She +did not pay any attention to me +at first, and I kept skipping away,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +just as if I did not see her mopping +her eyes. By-and-by a stroke +worthy of myself sent a pebble +spinning through the ripples, and +Mary's ready laugh rang out beside +me. Within twenty minutes of +Dolly Martin's appearance on the +scene, "Mamie" was the center +of the corn-roasters, and the gayest +of the gay. Belle told me she +kept on that line of conduct during +the whole week that Miss Martin +and her mother stayed at the +hotel.</p> + +<p>"It seemed to me that Dolly +took a special pleasure in parading +her happiness before poor Mary, +but Mary never showed the white +feather."</p> + +<p>"There's the making of a fine +woman in her."</p> + +<p>"That may be," said my wife. +"But this last week she has been +extremely wearing on me. Having +no particular man on the +string, she has followed me about +like a spaniel, wanted to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +what I'm reading, and has begun +a book the minute I'm through +with it."</p> + +<p>"I've seen her carrying 'The +Coming Race' about with her +lately, but I notice that the bookmark +always stays in the same +place."</p> + +<p>Mary became fond of solitary +rambles back in the pine woods, +intersected by plank walks that +made promenading possible. +People liked to wander through +there in the evenings, when the +camp-lights in the hollows lent a +mysterious charm, and on up to +the big Knight Templar's Building, +erected on the highest point +of the sandy bluff overlooking +Lake Michigan. Every night +that prominent structure blazed +with electric lights, and sometimes +a band played on the veranda; +but the only visitors were cottagers +and guests from the hotel, +who went up there to walk about +and enjoy the prospect.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>Our city editor often surprises +me with the depth and breadth of +his local information. For example, +I opened the <i>Echo</i> one +day to be made aware that "Miss +Mamie Gemmell" had outstripped +all the lady bicyclists in town by +making the distance between Lake +City and Interlaken in forty-seven +minutes. It was also remarked +that she was one of the most +graceful lady riders on the road.</p> + +<p>I wonder how many generations +a man must be removed from +Scotland before he becomes callous +to the disposition of the +family name. I own that I +squirmed inwardly, but with outward +composure asked Belle +where Mary got the "bike."</p> + +<p>"Watty's old one. He taught +Mary to ride it, and then made +her a present of it, for he's set his +heart on a new wheel."</p> + +<p>"Confoundedly generous of +him!"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you look at it that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +way. It is so seldom that he +does give up anything for anybody, +I thought he ought to be +encouraged, and I said he should +have a new bicycle with pneumatic +tires and all the latest improvements +at Christmas, if you +did not see fit to give it to him +sooner."</p> + +<p>In August I took my annual +day's fishing, which has come to +be rather a joke in the house, +because, in spite of my elaborate +preparations the night before, and +the unheard-of hour at which I +rise in the morning, I have never +been known to catch anything +worth bringing home.</p> + +<p>This time my companion was a +journalist from Chicago, an ardent +young fellow, who could not keep +from "shop" even when off on +his holidays, and who had started +a small weekly paper in which +were to be recorded the doings of +a certain congress holding a summer +session in our grove.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>We rowed up the little lake on +the edge of the lily-pads, fishing +both sides of it, but caught +nothing except a sunfish or two. +Then we lit our pipes and talked.</p> + +<p>"What an extremely clever +young lady that adopted daughter +of yours is. I heard only the +other day that she is not your +own."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. No one would believe +it to talk to her, but she's +got a surprisingly bright mind for +one so young. She can't be more +than seventeen, but her descriptions +are good enough for one of +the best magazines, and she has +evidently thought a lot on all the +leading topics of the day. Why, +she's up in Hypnotism, Evolution, +Theosophy—everything!"</p> + +<p>"Bless my soul! How did you +find all that out?"</p> + +<p>Thereupon he fished from his +pocket a couple of his tiresome +little publications.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I asked her to write something +for our paper, that's how I +know. Want to see?"</p> + +<p>I do not set up to be a literary +critic, but I guess I know my own +wife's style of composition when I +encounter it. During the two +years that we were engaged she +lived in Detroit and I in Indiana, +and I missed her letters so much +after we were married that to this +day she is in the habit of letting +me read those she writes to other +people. I was not going to give +her away to that newspaper man, +though, for the name "Mary +Gemmell" stared me in the face +from the end of each article; but +I remonstrated with Belle when I +reached home.</p> + +<p>"How could I help it, Dave? +There was the girl teasing me to +write something for her because +this fellow had asked her to do it. +She said I could scribble down +something just as easy as not, and +then she could copy it for him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +Copy it! She took hours to do it, +and I considered she deserved all +the praise she got for the articles."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't do it again, if I +were you. It sets the girl sailing +under false colors."</p> + +<p>"Poor Mary! Her one little +accomplishment has been of no +use to her since that professional +elocutionist came to the hotel, and +I hated to see her cast altogether +into the shade, especially while +Dolly Martin was here."</p> + +<p>Still there came another production +from the pen of Miss Mary +Gemmell.</p> + +<p>"Really, Belle," said I, "this is +carrying the joke too far."</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry about it. +Some of the old cats at the hotel +began to suspect that Mary hadn't +written those things, and accused +me to my face of doing it myself, +so I had to write an account of +the picnic up the little lake, because +they all know I wasn't there +at all!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let this be the last, then."</p> + +<p>"It shall, I assure you, for I +am much displeased with Mary. +Since Mrs. Martin and Dolly left, +she's been going it just as hard as +ever with Lincoln Todd. If you +walk up to the Knight Templar's +Building I'll warrant you'll find +them there promenading this very +minute."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't, because I passed +them just a little while ago as I +came through the woods, sitting +on a secluded bench, his arm +round her waist and her head on +his shoulder."</p> + +<p>"Didn't they see you?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say, but I never let on I +saw them. What's the use? I +can't be expected to leave the +<i>Echo</i> to my subs, and come down +here to play special policeman +to Mary Mason. I should have +thought Todd was more of a +gentleman."</p> + +<p>"So should I, but I've spoken +to him, quarreled with him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +indeed, so that he doesn't come +near the house, but I know that +he and Mary meet just the same. +Thank Heaven! he will be married +soon."</p> + +<p>"Have you told Mary that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but she laughs and +shrugs her shoulders; evidently +thinks she knows more about +Lincoln Todd's intentions than +I do."</p> + +<p>In the last week of August Mr. +Todd went off for a few days "on +business," and then there came a +dreadful morning when the announcement +of his marriage to +Dolly Martin appeared in the +<i>Echo</i>.</p> + +<p>Mary would not believe her +ears. She took the paper down +to the beach, and spelled out the +notice word by word. Then she +lay down on the sand and bawled, +kicking and squealing like a year-old +infant when Belle appealed to +her self-respect.</p> + +<p>"I could have spanked her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +well," said my wife. The worst +of it was that the whole hotel was +"on to the racket," as Watty +vulgarly expressed it, and rather +chuckled over Belle's mortification, +instead of sympathizing with +her in the trying time she was +having with her "adopted daughter."</p> + +<p>Our grief, as a family, was not +unbearable when the time came +in September for Mary Mason to +go back to the convent.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/076.png" +alt="076.png" title="076.png" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/077.png" width="448" height="176" alt="077.png" title="077.png" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/t.png" width="105" height="160" alt="T" title="T" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">T</span>he</span> self-assertive sleigh-bells +suddenly ceased +their tinkling, and the +long covered van, with +its four horses, drew up +in front of our "House of Many +Gables," in Lake City. Watty, +then a tall lad of eighteen, over-coated, +fur-capped, and gloved, +went quickly out, banging the +front door after him, while his +younger brothers and sisters made +holes with their breath through +the frost on the window panes, +to watch his departure with the +hilarious load of young folks.</p> + +<p>"Why aint you goin', Mame?" +asked Joe, our smallest son, of the +girl spending her Christmas holidays +with us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wasn't asked," she replied defiantly. +"An' what's more, I don't +care to go anywheres, neither, if +the girls don't act better to me +than they done at that party the +other night."</p> + +<p>Belle raised her head from the +Treasurer's book of the House of +Refuge.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you weren't nice to +them, Mary?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was too. I smiled +whenever one of them looked at +me, but they all turned their heads +as if they'd never seen me before."</p> + +<p>My wife sighed as she bent +over her book again. If the difficulty +of befriending Mary rested +only with outsiders it might have +been patiently borne, but there +was mother, to whom the girl's +presence in the house was a constant +grievance.</p> + +<p>I had been able to buy a quiet +horse and a Mikado cutter for +Belle when the snow came, but she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +had no pleasure out of them during +the vacation.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to drive downtown, +mother," I heard her say one +morning. "Would you like to +go?"</p> + +<p>"Is Mary gaun?"</p> + +<p>"I thought of taking her."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll no' gang. I wadna +like to crood Mary."</p> + +<p>"Dear mother, there's plenty +of room."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, but ye ken Mary +doesna like tae sit wi' her back tae +the horse."</p> + +<p>That sort of thing was always +happening. One day the old lady +came home from a round of visits, +much perturbed in mind and body. +The sandy hair I inherited, and +have largely lost, does not show +the gray with which it is mixed, +and so light and wiry is she one +finds it difficult to remember my +mother's seventy years. She is a +small woman, but her personality +is sufficiently large for the ripples<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +to be felt throughout the household +when its surface is disturbed.</p> + +<p>"What dae ye think I've been +hearin'?" she cried, finding me +alone in the nursery on the sofa, +and helpless in her hands.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine, mother. You +generally have something spicy to +tell us after you've been calling on +the MacTavishes."</p> + +<p>"Dae ye ken 'at yon hizzy ye've +ta'en intill yer hoose ca's hersel' +Mary <i>Gemmell</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, what's in a name?"</p> + +<p>"I wonner tae hear ye, Davvit! +What wad yer faither hae thocht +aboot it, or yer gran'faither? +Gie'n the femly name, that's come +doon unspotted frae ae generation +till anither, tae a funnlin' aff the +streets! Ou, ay! I micht 'a' +kent what wad happen when I +h'ard tell o' ye bein' merrit till an +Amerrican."</p> + +<p>"Hold up there, mother. +You're just twenty years too late +in raking up that story. If it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +suits me and Belle to have that +girl called 'Mary Gemmell,' Mary +Gemmell she shall be, if it turns +all Scotland head over heels into +the North Sea."</p> + +<p>So seldom do I break out that +an eruption of mine never fails +to clear the air of an unwelcome +topic.</p> + +<p>Our boys have grown up on a +sort of an "every-man-for himself" +principle, and when it came +to a fight for the favorite corner +of the sofa, the favorite game, or +picture-book, "Mamie" was in the +thick of it every time.</p> + +<p>"What else can you expect?" +said I to Belle, consolingly. +"She's been fighting the world on +her own account ever since she +can remember, and our house +represents to her only a change of +battle ground."</p> + +<p>"I think her father must have +been a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"He certainly had one gentlemanly +peculiarity."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't be a brute, Dave. I +mean that Mary's ancestors must +have been wealthy people, she has +such a taste for luxury."</p> + +<p>"That doesn't follow. I'm sure +you've seen plenty of poor folks +go without the necessaries of life +in order to get the luxuries."</p> + +<p>"She is shiftless enough. To-day +I took her into a store to buy +her some stockings, and she refused +to have any but the very +best quality. 'The second best +are what I get for myself, Mary,' +said I; 'they wear much longer +than the others.' 'I don't care,' +she said. 'If I can't have the +best, I don't want any.' 'Then +do without,' said I, and we left +the place. The fun of it is that +she won't even darn her old ones! +I can't always be so firm with her. +I'm amazed at myself sometimes, +the things she gets out of me. +What do you suppose she wants +now?"</p> + +<p>I gave a warning cough to sig<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>nify +that my mother had come +into the nursery, but Belle gazed +straight ahead into the wood fire, +and seesawed in the rattan +rocker—a tuneful symphony in a +mauve tea-gown.</p> + +<p>"A cornet, if you please."</p> + +<p>"A cornet!" said I. "Whatever +put that into her head?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell. She says the +music professor at the convent can +teach her to play it, and she thinks +if she learned she might be able to +lead the singing in a church with +one."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps somebody played the +cornet in that concert company +she was with."</p> + +<p>"Na, na. It's nearer hame than +that," mother struck in. "She +has a notion o' ane o' thae cratur's +'at pl'y at the Opera Hoose. I +hae seen her gang by the window +wi' him, an' spiered at Watty wha +he was."</p> + +<p>"I don't like Wat's telling tales +of Mary."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He dinna, Davvit, till I pit it +tae him. He canna bear the +tawpie, and doesna like to hae her +p'inted oot as his sister. A body +canna blame the laddie. It's a +heap better than his fa'in' in luv +wi' her."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is," groaned Isabel.</p> + +<p>When mother had gone to bed +my wife said:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Wade has been here to-day +to ask Watty and Mary to a +young people's dance on Friday +night."</p> + +<p>"What did you say?"</p> + +<p>"I told her I wasn't going to +dress that girl up and send her out +to parties to be snubbed and +slighted by the other girls, as she +was at the dancing school ball. +She said that if I let Mary go +she'd see that she had a good +time. For her part, she admired +the way I'd stuck up for the girl +in spite of everything; and if she +was good enough to live with us +as a daughter, it would surely not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +contaminate anybody else to meet +her out of an evening."</p> + +<p>Saturday night I inquired of +Belle how Mary got on at the +party.</p> + +<p>"First rate. Mrs. Wade met +her at the door of the drawing +room and kissed her. 'How +you've grown, Mary!' said she, +and then she took her round +and introduced her to all the girls +in the room, including some of +those who've been cutting her +right and left, as well as to every +boy she didn't know already. +Of course she danced every +dance, and had the best time +going."</p> + +<p>"And, of course, she put it all +down to her own superior attractions?"</p> + +<p>"Just exactly. This morning +she didn't want to help me make +the beds!"</p> + +<p>Mary's Christmas present had +been a beautiful silver-plated cornet, +and of course she must learn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +to play it when she went back to +the convent. Word came shortly +that the music master employed +there could not undertake to +teach her to play the instrument, +but that a "professor" could be +secured to go out from Detroit +twice a week—if desired. We +seemed to be in for it, so the +lessons were desired, and we comforted +ourselves with the assurance +that if Mary did not turn out +to be a tiptop reciter she would +surely prove a tiptop cornet +player. Her unusual talent would +justify my wife in her unusual +step, and the society of Lake +City would forgive her for attempting +to thrust the girl into its +midst as an equal. Many of our +acquaintances seemed to take +mother's view of the case,—"Matter +out of place becomes <i>dirrt</i>!"—and +Belle was put on her mettle +to convince the majority that she +had done exactly the right thing +in thus disclassing people. Dis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>classing +people? In a free +republic!</p> + +<p>We received glowing accounts +of the cornet lessons.</p> + +<p>"Dear girl!" said Belle enthusiastically. +"She must have the +real artistic temperament to be +so determined to excel in one or +other of the arts."</p> + +<p>"She's dramatic, anyway," said +I, and I was confirmed in my +opinion along in the spring, when +the cornet, and aught else, appeared +to have palled upon the +versatile Mary. She wrote that +she had serious thoughts of taking +the veil.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" said I; "what's she +after now? She wants to scare +us into something."</p> + +<p>Belle wrote privately to the +Lady Superior, telling her that if +she considered Mary would be a +desirable acquisition to their ranks +she had no sort of objection to +her joining them.</p> + +<p>The good sister replied that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +Miss Gemmell had not a grain of +the stuff of which nuns are made, +that her leanings were all in a +worldly direction.</p> + +<p>"No hope in that quarter!" +laughed I, but Belle chided me +for making fun of Mary in her +absence.</p> + +<p>When "Miss Mamie Gemmell" +joined us at Interlaken for the +summer her convent manners +lasted for about two weeks, and +then gave place to those of a +spoiled and pampered daughter +of the house.</p> + +<p>We in America are accustomed +to disrespectfulness and waywardness +in our own children, but to +notice the same attitude in a little +nobody from nowhere we have +taken in out of charity, makes a +man or woman stand aghast.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe she cares a +straw for me personally," Belle +would say sometimes, "but I +must confess I like her better +than the cringing, fawning variety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +She's outspoken in her impertinent +demands."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>After a very hot week in July I +joyfully took the train on Saturday +afternoon for the five miles' +ride to Interlaken, and went to +sleep that night with my ears +full of the sound of waves and +pine trees; my heart filled with +the satisfaction of knowing that I +had a whole round day ahead of +me—a sunrise and a sunset at +either end.</p> + +<p>I omitted the sunrise part of +the programme, but between ten +and eleven I was ready for a walk +down the pier to watch the +bathers. American women are +seldom plump enough to stand +the undress uniform of a bathing +costume. They run to extremes—become +very stout indeed, or +else very thin, but in girlhood +the tendency is to over-slimness.</p> + +<p>I was thinking what a contrast +our summer girls would present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +to a group of Scotch lasses, +though, to be sure, I was never +privileged to see any of the latter +in bathing-dress, when a well-rounded +apparition in sky blue +luster and no bathing cap emerged +from one of the disrobing houses. +This damsel betook herself boldly +to the pier, instead of splashing +around the edge of the sand as +the others were doing, and, coming +near the end, took a run and +then a beautiful header into the +deep blue water.</p> + +<p>She had passed me too quickly +to be recognized, but as her face +appeared above the surface I saw +it belonged to no other than our +adopted daughter, for as such, at +the moment, was I pleased to own +her. She shook the water out of +her ears, gave her knob of hair an +extra twist, brushed back the ringlets +that threatened her eyes, and +looked as much at home as if there +were eighteen feet of land, instead +of eighteen feet of water below her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span></p> + +<p>There were several young men +swimming about at the end of the +wharf, and they declared with +gusto that a springboard must be +erected for "Miss Gemmell" at +once. I declined to assist in +breaking the Sabbath over any +such pranks, but a couple of +scantily clad, dripping youths +arose from the deep and succeeded +in loosening a heavy three-inch +plank from the flooring of +the wharf. This was projected +well out over the water, and the +fair Mary was induced to ascend +and exhibit therefrom. I did not +approve at all, but thought it my +duty to remain as chaperon until +Belle and another lady, whom I +perceived walking leisurely out the +pier, should arrive.</p> + +<p>The young men sprang back +into the water to be on the reception +committee, and Mary teetered +on the far end of the plank. +There was heard a loud, suggestive +<i>crack</i>, and she leaped into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +space in a most graceful semicircle +before touching the water; but +that awful board, the instant her +weight was removed, rose straight +up in the air, nearly knocked me +off the dock, and with a groan slid +through the opening whence it +had been raised, into the depths +below.</p> + +<p>Belle rushed to my rescue, while +the other woman stood still and +shrieked.</p> + +<p>"Nobody hurt!" called out +from the water a nice-looking lad +who was swimming beside Mary, +and apparently daring her to +further exploits.</p> + +<p>"Who is the young man?" I +asked my wife, being ready to +change the subject from my own +narrow escape.</p> + +<p>"You mean the one with the +Burne Jones head and the sleepy +blue eyes that's round with Mary +all the time? His name's Flaker, +and he's a medical student from +Chicago. That's all I know about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +him." But she was destined to +hear more, as we sat on the hotel +veranda that night, from two old +ladies inside the open window and +closed blind.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it scandalous," said one, +"the way Mrs. Gemmell tries to +shove that girl forward on every +occasion?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the other. "The +old friendship between her and +Mrs. Martin is all broken up since +she tried so hard to get Lincoln +Todd entangled with her last +summer, and now she's doing her +best to catch young Flaker."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe he has any idea +who the girl is, or rather who she +is not."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, and his people +would be in a great state if they +knew the sort of company he was +keeping."</p> + +<p>"Who are they?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you know? His father +is Dr. Flaker, who has that fine +mansion on the Grand Boule<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>vard, +and his mother belongs to +one of the best New York families. +They're all as proud as +Lucifer."</p> + +<p>"I think it is time we went +home, David. Listeners never +hear any good of themselves," +said Belle, loudly enough to arrest +the attention of the two +dames.</p> + +<p>Walking over the dried-up +moonlit grass to our cottage, I +threatened to go back and give +them a piece of my mind, but my +wife said:</p> + +<p>"Maybe I did need a slight +reminder. I haven't paid much +attention to Mary's goings-on this +summer. I must talk to Mr. +Flaker the first chance."</p> + +<p>The opportunity came before +the Evening was over, while I +was in my pet hammock round +the corner of the cottage, and +Belle in a rocking-chair at the +front.</p> + +<p>"Good-evening, Mr. Flaker," I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +heard her say. "I don't think +you've ever seen the inside of +our cottage. Won't you step in +for a moment, now that it is +lighted up?"</p> + +<p>The moment satisfied him, for +he speedily returned to the +veranda.</p> + +<p>"I never saw such a beautiful +swimmer as Miss Gemmell," said +the mannish voice, and Belle +replied impressively:</p> + +<p>"I believe you are not aware, +Mr. Flaker, that the young lady +you call Miss Gemmell is not my +own daughter."</p> + +<p>"Your stepchild is she, or your +husband's niece?"</p> + +<p>"Neither. She is no relation +at all—just a poor girl whom I +have taken up to educate. She +can barely read or write. I felt +that I ought to tell you this because +you have been paying her +a good deal of attention."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Mrs. Gemmell, I admire +Miss Gemmell very much;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +but I assure you I never regarded +her as anything else than a pleasant +summer acquaintance."</p> + +<p>And Mary was dropped forthwith.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/096.png" +alt="096.png" title="096.png" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/097.png" width="448" height="174" alt="097.png" title="097.png" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/t.png" width="105" height="160" alt="T" title="T" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">T</span>he</span> winter of 1892-93 +Mary spent at home +with us. Her first expressed +wish, when the +family returned from +Interlaken, was to be confirmed, +and the Rev. Mr. Armstrong of +the church we do not attend was +duly notified.</p> + +<p>"He says I must be christened +first," said Mary. "Would you +mind if he called me 'Mary Gemmell'? +There aint any name +that I've a right to, and I don't +want to be called 'Mason,' because +that's the name of the +woman that abused me when +I was little. I'd rather have +yours."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> + +<p>She was such a pathetic-looking +young person, standing there +before Belle in her fresh and +innocent loveliness, that my wife +had not the heart to refuse her +anything.</p> + +<p>When I came home that same +evening there was a <i>tableau +vivant</i> in front of the parlor fire. +Dressed in white, Mary sat on a +low stool at the feet of the Rev. +Walter Armstrong, her hands +clasped in her lap, gazing up into +the clean-shaven clerical face, with +that which passed for her soul in +her eyes. In spite of his stiff +round collar and long black coat +the rector is a young man, and I +saw that he was impressed.</p> + +<p>"You understand, do you, +Mary," he said tenderly, "that +when you are received into the +Church you have God for your +Father and Christ for your Elder +Brother?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand, Mr. Armstrong," +replied the girl earnestly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +"And that's just what I always +wanted—was to have <i>'folks.'</i>"</p> + +<p>I retired in haste to the dining +room, where Isabel was brimming +over with a new scheme.</p> + +<p>"I've always found the housekeeping +a drag, and it becomes +more so every year as my outlook +broadens. I want to keep up to +the times, but I never have any +leisure for reading, and our four +eldest being boys, there seemed +to be no hope for years of having +any one to relieve me."</p> + +<p>"Mary's a godsend," said I.</p> + +<p>"I wish you really thought +that, as I do. She's quick and +adaptable, and I'm going to hand +over to her a weekly allowance +and let her keep the house +on it."</p> + +<p>"What about her accomplishments—the +elocution and the +cornet?"</p> + +<p>"They can stand in the meantime. +Do you know, Davie," +hesitatingly, "I'm beginning to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +be afraid she hasn't a good ear +for music."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"The other night when the +Mortons were in she sat and +talked to Frank Wade the whole +time Eva was playing."</p> + +<p>"That's nothing. Everyone +else did the same."</p> + +<p>"But for a girl who is trying +to pose as a cornet player, who +thinks she might earn her living +leading a church choir with one, +it's bad policy, to say the least +of it."</p> + +<p>"Earn her living! I asked Joe +Mitchell, when he was listening to +her practicing out in the summer-house, +what he thought of her +playing, and he said she'd better +keep to a penny whistle."</p> + +<p>"Very rude of him!"</p> + +<p>"No, it wasn't. I asked him +point blank if I should be justified +in paying for the more lessons +she wants, and he said decidedly +I should not."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well," said Belle wearily, +"we'll try the housekeeping. +That's a woman's true vocation, +according to orthodox ideas. I +shouldn't have set my heart on +Mary turning out to be anything +extraordinary. If she'll only be +kind of half decent, and help me +out with the housework, I'll be +more than satisfied."</p> + +<p>The sense of power gave new +brightness to Mary's fair face, and +her step through the house was of +the lightest during the next week +or two, but the boys rebelled in +turn.</p> + +<p>"<i>Mam</i>ma! Mary's locked the +pantry. Must we go to her for +the key whenever we want anything?"</p> + +<p>"I call it a mean shame!" from +Joe.</p> + +<p>"What were you doing?"</p> + +<p>"We didn't do nothin', on'y eat +up the pie she meant for dessert. +I'm sure Margaret wouldn't mind +makin' another."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mary's perfectly right, boys; +I've indulged you too much."</p> + +<p>Then it was Watty who complained:</p> + +<p>"Mary says she won't have us +mussing up the parlor after she's +tidied it, and that we've got to +change our boots when we come +into the house." Or Chrissie:</p> + +<p>"Mary says I'm big enough now +to keep my own room in order, +and she aint going to do it any +more. She's wors'en grandma!"</p> + +<p>To their grandma did they go +with their woes when they found +their mother so unaccountably +obdurate, but they did not get +much comfort there. Detest +Mary as she might, my poor +mother is always loyal to the +powers that be, and she told the +children:</p> + +<p>"Yer mither kens fine what +she's aboot, an' ye needna fash +yer heids tae come cryin' tae me."</p> + +<p>She even went so far as to back +Mary up in her suggestion that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +the boys should eat what was set +before them, asking no questions.</p> + +<p>"That's the w'y yer faither was +brocht up. If he didna finish his +parritch in the mornin', they were +warmed up for him again at nicht. +Ye tak' but a spinfu' 'at ye could +hardly ca' parritch, for they're jist +puzhioned wi' sugar."</p> + +<p>Mary was not naturally fond of +children, and, having entered our +family full-grown, she found it +hard to put up with the freaks of +our six, there being no foundation +of sisterly love upon which to +build toleration.</p> + +<p>Belle's housekeeping had always +been lavish. She ordered her +groceries wholesale, and when +they were done never inquired +what had become of them.</p> + +<p>"I decline to go into details—life +is too short! I don't know +where my patience ends and my +laziness begins, but I'd rather be +cheated than lock things up, or +try to keep track of what Mar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>garet +wastes. She's not an ideal +'general,' but it's only one in a +hundred that would stand the +children pottering about in the +kitchen so much."</p> + +<p>After the time-worn custom of +new brooms, Mary made a bold +attempt to record each item of +expenditure, and ordered what +she wanted from day to day; but +there was no calculating the +appetites of four growing boys, +especially when, as Mary affirmed, +they sometimes over-ate themselves +just to spite her.</p> + +<p>"We're living from hand to +mouth, <i>pa</i>pa," they would say, +when an unwonted scarcity occurred.</p> + +<p>Truth to tell, I began to sympathize +with my revolting sons +when I brought an old friend +home with me to dinner one day, +and went to announce the fact to +our "housekeeper."</p> + +<p>"I just wish that Bob Mansell +would quit coming here so much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +when he's not expected. There's +only enough pudding for ourselves."</p> + +<p>"Mary," said I sternly, "Mr. +Mansell's been coming to this +house before you were here, and +he'll keep on coming after you're +gone, if you're not careful."</p> + +<p>It was the first time I had ever +spoken sharply to her, and I +flattered myself that I had done +some good, though she held her +head high and left the room.</p> + +<p>Belle came to the conclusion +that the housekeeping scheme did +not work smoothly, and she resumed +the reins of government. +Mary was still supposed to do the +work of a second maid, but it +was evident that her heart was +not in it.</p> + +<p>"What does Mary want now?" +I asked my wife when she took +her usual seat beside me, as I lay +on the sofa with my pipe.</p> + +<p>"She thinks she'd like to go to +the Boston School of Oratory to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +prepare herself to be a public +reader."</p> + +<p>"Is it necessary that she should +be before the public in one way or +another?"</p> + +<p>"She doesn't seem to be much +of a success in private life."</p> + +<p>"In that respect she's no worse +than half the girls in town. None +of them dote on housework."</p> + +<p>"But, considering that this girl +has no earthly claim on us, you'd +think she might be different."</p> + +<p>"Don't be angry, Belle, at my +saying so, but you've only yourself +to thank for that. You've +been most anxious that Mary +should be just like one of ourselves—should +not feel that she +was accepting charity, and you've +succeeded only too well. The +girl takes everything you do for +her as her right, and asks for +more."</p> + +<p>"Well, what about Boston?"</p> + +<p>"I think it would be arrant +folly to send her there. How do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +we know she has any more talent +for elocution than for music?"</p> + +<p>"She has the desire to learn. +I suppose that's a sign of the +ability."</p> + +<p>"She has an intense desire for +admiration, that's about the size +of it. To be the center of all +eyes, giving a recitation in a drawing +room, pleases her down to the +ground, but it doesn't follow that +she would be a success professionally."</p> + +<p>"I dare say we've spent about +as much on her education as you +care to do just now."</p> + +<p>"We have indeed!"</p> + +<p>My wife and I are much in demand +at all the social functions of +our town, and, though I accompany +her under protest, I confess +that, once the affair is in full +swing, I enjoy as much as anybody +a hand at "Pedro" or a +dance.</p> + +<p>The houses of our city are +mostly wooden and mostly new,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +for an annual conflagration keeps +building brisk. Hardwood floors +and mantels are the order of the +day, and if some of our lumbermen +and their wives have not a +command of English grammar in +keeping with their horses, their +sealskins, and their diamonds, they +have a heartier than an English +welcome—except, of course, for +guests of such questionable antecedents +as our Mary.</p> + +<p>Mrs. David Gemmell is a bright +and witty woman, though I say it, +who should not. But why should +I not? She did not inherit her +wits from me. Mrs. David Gemmell +let the leading ladies of the +town understand that unless Mary +was invited to everything that was +going on, we stayed away ourselves. +Lake City society could +not proceed without Isabel, so the +"white elephant" was received +in her train, and truly she did us +credit in company, if nowhere +else. She was always stylishly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +dressed, and her dancing was a +joy forever. We did not marvel +when Will Axworthy, the most +eligible young man about, took it +into his head to introduce the +german to our benighted citizens, +that he chose Mary for his partner +to lead it with him. She had private +lessons from himself, as well +as from the dancing master, and +proud and happy were Belle and I +to sit at the side of the ballroom +and watch her going through the +figures and bestowing her favors +with all the grace and dignity of +one of the four hundred.</p> + +<p>"She shall go to Boston to-morrow, +if she wants to," said I, +but this time Belle demurred.</p> + +<p>"I think she seems likely to +have a good time here this winter, +and we may as well let her have +her fling."</p> + +<p>The prophecy was fulfilled. In +spite of the supreme jealousy of +the other girls, who could not say +mean enough things about her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +Mary became quite the rage with +the young men.</p> + +<p>One Sunday afternoon Will +Axworthy called. He is short +and broad, has reddish hair and a +chronic blush hardly to be looked +for in the Ward McAllister of +Lake City. Too nervously did he +plant himself in my frisky spring +rocker, and therefore involuntarily +did he present the soles of his +boots to the assembled family, +while his head bumped the wall, +to the huge delight of our boys!</p> + +<p>Undaunted by that inauspicious +beginning, he came again the next +Sunday, smoked my best cigars, +and talked lumber, the one subject +upon which he is posted, for +he was the manager of a mill here.</p> + +<p>He stayed to supper that evening +and went with Mary to church +afterward. Then he called for her +with a cutter the first bright day, +and took her sleigh riding. The +embryo wrinkle left Belle's forehead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you really think he means +anything?" said she.</p> + +<p>"Don't be too sanguine about +it. Nowadays, young men pay a +girl a great deal of attention with +nothing in their heads but a good +time."</p> + +<p>"Still, Axworthy's no boy. +He's thirty if he's a day, and he +has a good salary, and can afford +to marry whenever the mood takes +him."</p> + +<p>"Let us hope and pray that it +may take him soon!"</p> + +<p>"Amen!" said Belle solemnly.</p> + +<p>The daily friction with her +<i>protégée</i> was becoming too much +for the good-natured patience even +of my better half. Acting upon +generous impulses is all very fine, +but they need to be backed up by +a large amount of endurance and +tolerance if the results are to be +successfully dealt with.</p> + +<p>From my vantage-ground on +the nursery sofa, behind my screen +of newspaper, I frequently hear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +more than is suspected by the +family.</p> + +<p>"Mary, you're not going to the +rink to-night!" in Belle's most +imploring tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, mawm, I am. Lend me +your wrench, Watty."</p> + +<p>"Mary, I positively forbid you +to go to the rink!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I do think that's just +too mean for anything. Every +girl in town goes."</p> + +<p>"Every girl in town doesn't +skate with barber, or bandsman, +or anybody who comes along, as +you do."</p> + +<p>"Watty's been telling!"</p> + +<p>"Watty hasn't been telling!" +broke in our eldest son in indignant +protest, which he further +emphasized by going out and +banging the door after him.</p> + +<p>"And, Mary," Belle continued, +"are you engaged to Mr. Axworthy?"</p> + +<p>"No!" sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Then if I were you I wouldn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +let him kiss me when he says +'Good-night' at the door after +bringing you home from a party."</p> + +<p>"You're old-fashioned. All the +girls do it!"</p> + +<p>"No <i>lady</i> would permit a man +to take such a liberty. You're +spoiling your chances with Mr. +Axworthy, I can tell you. I +never knew a man yet that would +bind himself to a girl when he +could have all the privileges of an +engaged man, and none of the +responsibilities."</p> + +<p>"I don't care anything at all +about him. I don't want to marry +him. He's just giving me a good +time."</p> + +<p>A good time he undoubtedly +did give her throughout the winter. +To the smartest balls and +parties he was her escort, and she +always wore the roses he never +neglected to send. Every Sunday +about dusk he would come +round to our house, and, martyrs +to a good cause, Isabel, mother,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +and I vacated the cozy parlor with +its easy chairs and blazing fire for +the nursery—always uproarious +with children on that day.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what those two find +to talk about," speculated Belle. +"Mary has no conversation at all, +and Axworthy hasn't much more."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he takes it out in +looking at her. By the way, Belle, +when are you going to appear in +the new dress I gave you that +fifty dollars to buy? I am quite +tired of the mauve tea gown."</p> + +<p>My wife glanced over her +shoulder to make sure that +Grandma was out of hearing.</p> + +<p>"The truth is, Dave, I thought +I must wait to see how much of +it I had left after getting Mary +rigged up for the Robinsons' +dance. She goes out so often +that she needs a change of evening +dress."</p> + +<p>"Did she ask for it?"</p> + +<p>"Not directly, but she remarked +that she didn't see what I wanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +with a new black silk, that I had +plenty of clothes, and that when +she was my age she didn't think +she'd bother about what she had +to wear."</p> + +<p>I sprang up from the sofa, +prepared to shove Mary out of the +house, neck and crop, but Belle's +outburst of laughter calmed me.</p> + +<p>"Her cheek is so great that it +passes from the ridiculous to the +sublime!"</p> + +<p>"Why do you stand it, Belle? +You wouldn't from anybody else."</p> + +<p>"I can't very well go back on +her at this stage, and send her +about her business. She's shrewd +enough to know that."</p> + +<p>"People would laugh; that's +so!"</p> + +<p>"Besides, if she marries Axworthy, +she'll be our social equal +here in this town, and it must +never be in her power to say that +we did not treat her well."</p> + +<p>"What is the prospect with +Axworthy?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Good, I think. He is +thoroughly kind to her, and he +has given me plenty of hints +about the state of his affections, +hopes by another winter that +Mary will have somebody else to +look after her, and so on. He is +always most particular in seeing +that she is well wrapped up, and +that is highly necessary, for she is +extremely careless about how she +goes out. In spite of a certain +amount of physical dash, she isn't a +bit strong; has no staying power."</p> + +<p>"It won't be much fun for +Axworthy to be saddled with a +delicate wife."</p> + +<p>"Well, I guess he needs some +discipline, just as much as I do. +I've had my share out of Miss +Mary for the last three years, and +I am quite willing to let somebody +else have a turn. He walks +into this thing with his eyes open. +He knows her history."</p> + +<p>"But does he know her disposition?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let him find that out—if he +can. Most mothers don't think +it necessary to tell their daughters' +suitors how the girls get on with +them in the house."</p> + +<p>"You say she has no constitution. +Supposing he does marry +her, how about the possible children? +What have they done that +they should have Mary for a +mother?"</p> + +<p>"That's exactly the right way +to put it—what have they done? +We don't know, but they must +have gone far astray last time, if +they are given such a bad start +this incarnation."</p> + +<p>Will Axworthy left town in the +spring. Lumber was done in our +part of Michigan and he had to +follow it further south. He and +Mary corresponded, for I caught +Belle in the act of correcting one +of her letters.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that's quite fair +to Axworthy? If they become +engaged, the first unedited letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +he gets from Mary will be considerable +of a surprise to him."</p> + +<p>"Don't you bother your old +head, Dave! I'm running this +thing! He's arranging to meet +us in Chicago, and hopes to have +the pleasure of showing Mary the +Columbian Exhibition. Something +is sure to happen while +we're there!"</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/118.png" +alt="118.png" title="118.png" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/119.png" width="448" height="174" alt="119.png" title="119.png" /> +</div> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/a.png" width="105" height="160" alt="A" title="A" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">A</span>ll</span> winter we had been +talking about the Fair, +reading up about the +Fair, making plans for +the Fair; and Belle declared +that even if she never saw +the Fair she would be glad it had +been, on account of the amount +of preparatory information she +had laid up.</p> + +<p>We did get off at last in the +end of June, the whole of us, including +Mary, of course—my first +experience of traveling in her +company. We went to Chicago +by boat,—a night's crossing,—and +a rare time I had securing berths +for the family in the overcrowded +propeller. I was thankful for an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +"extension," a sort of shell run +out between two staterooms and +partitioned off by curtains and +poles. The boys had to sleep on +sofas, floor, anywhere, which to +them was but the beginning of +the fun.</p> + +<p>The first of my Herculean +labors at an end, I was enjoying +my smoke aft in the cool of the +evening, when Belle came back to +me, her brow drawn up into what +I had begun to call the "Mary +wrinkle."</p> + +<p>"David, I'm afraid you'll have +to talk to that girl. She's sitting +up in the bow there flirting with +one of the waiters, and though +I've sent Watty twice after her, +she won't stir."</p> + +<p>As majestically as my five feet +four would permit, I moved to the +front of the boat.</p> + +<p>"Mary, Mrs. Gemmell wants +you right away."</p> + +<p>She took time to exchange a +laughing farewell with the good-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>looking +waiter, and explained to +me <i>en route</i>:</p> + +<p>"That's Bill Moreland. I knew +him quite well in Lake City. I've +met him at balls."</p> + +<p>In the morning before we +reached Chicago, she managed to +get in a long confabulation with +another waiter, whom I am sure +she had never met in Lake City, +nor anywhere else.</p> + +<p>"See here, Mary! If this is the +way you're going to behave, you +go straight back to Lake City on +that boat, and don't see one bit +of the Fair."</p> + +<p>Her manners were mended till +we were actually in Jackson Park, +but then:</p> + +<p>"She's a philanthropist, Belle, +a lover of <i>man</i>kind—Columbian +Guard, Gospel Charioteer, Turk +in the bazaar. The creed or the +color doesn't matter so long as he +calls himself a man."</p> + +<p>I am afraid I was cross, for it +did not take one day to realize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +what an undertaking it was going +to be to keep track of my family, +who had never before seemed too +numerous. Daily at 10 <span class="smcap">a. m.</span>, in +the Michigan Building, did I hand +over to Will Axworthy the most +troublesome of the lot, and daily +did I wish he would keep her for +better or worse.</p> + +<p>On the Fourth of July cannonading +began at daybreak, and +for once I sympathized in my +mother's objection to the license +accorded to young Americans. +They set off firecrackers, not by +the bunch but by the bushel; +kerosene and dynamite were their +ambrosia and nectar. What with +fighting for lunch in overcrowded +restaurants, and then retaliating +by stealing chairs out of the same, +hunting through the various +booths in the Midway to collect +my three younger sons when it +was time to send them home, and +rescuing my two little girls from +an over-supply of ice cream sodas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +and chocolate drops, I did not +specially enjoy the glorious +Fourth.</p> + +<p>Toward evening there was not +a foot of Fair ground undecorated +by a banana skin, a crust of +bread, or a flying paper. Belle +considered the signs "Keep off +the Grass" quite superfluous, and +pulling one up by the roots she +sat down on it, thereby keeping +the letter, if not the spirit of the +law.</p> + +<p>"Now, Dave," said she, "the +family are all safe off the grounds, +and you can go and get a gondola +to come and take us for a sail before +dark. Everybody is moving +toward the lake front to wait for +the fireworks, and the lagoons are +not so crowded as they were. +Let's pretend we're on our honeymoon."</p> + +<p>So seldom does Belle wax sentimental +over me, I hailed her proposition +with outward indifference +but inward joy. Securing a gon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>dola +to ourselves, in it we were +gently swayed through canal and +under bridge in the mystical evening +light.</p> + +<p>The distant rumble of a train on +the Intramural, or a quack from +a sleepy duck among the rushes, +alone broke the stillness.</p> + +<p>"This is where I belong!" exclaimed +Belle. "I've seen before +those Eastern-looking towers and +minarets, with the sunset glow on +the cloud masses behind them. +Look! there's a Turk and a Hindoo +crossing the bridge. This +is the region, this the soil, the +clime. I always knew I wasn't +meant for Western America."</p> + +<p>"You must have been very +naughty <i>last time</i> to have been +raised in Michigan this trip. Still +this is only Chicago!"</p> + +<p>"It's not Chicago! It's the +world! Listen to that now—the +music of the spheres!"</p> + +<p>We approached another gondola +that had withdrawn itself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +from the center of the channel +close in to a small island. The +man at the stern was doing nothing +very picturesquely, but the +man at the bow, a swarthy Venetian, +was pouring out his soul in an +aria from "Cavalleria Rusticana." +His voice might not have passed +muster at Covent Garden, but in +the unique stage setting, which +included a group of eager listeners +on abridge behind him, one could +forgive a break on a high note or +two.</p> + +<p>The singer threw himself into +the spirit of the composition, cast +his eyes upward with hand on his +heart, and bent them to earth +again for the approval of his passengers. +There were but two, a +young man and a young lady, and +to the latter was the hero in +costume directing his amorous +glances.</p> + +<p>"There's romance for you!" +said I to Belle, who is notoriously +on the lookout for it. I directed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +our gondolier to draw nearer to +his enamoured compatriot. My +wife replied uneasily:</p> + +<p>"I don't know the man, or boy, +for that's all he is, but if that isn't +Mary's hat——"</p> + +<p>"Mary! Phew! What's become +of Axworthy?"</p> + +<p>As we approached the comfortable-looking +pair, Mary bowed to +us smilingly, and called the attention +of her companion to her +"father and mother"—darn her +impudence!</p> + +<p>The boat ride was spoiled for +Belle and me, our white elephant +having arisen to haunt us once +more. We landed and walked +over to the lake front, where the +whole slope was packed with +people waiting for the fireworks +to begin.</p> + +<p>Someone started to sing "Way +Down upon the Swanee Ribber," +and everybody joined in. +"Nearer, my God, to Thee" was +also most impressive from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +vast impromptu chorus. In the +foreground Lake Michigan lay +darkly expectant, with a large +black cloud upon its horizon, +though the stars shone overhead. +A half-circle of boats extended +from the long Exhibition Wharf +on the right, round to the warship +<i>Illinois</i> on the left, and from +the latter a search light, an omnipresent +eye, swept the crowd with +rapidly veering glance, till it concentrated +its gaze on the dark +balloon which rose so mysteriously +from the water. Suddenly from +this balloon was suspended the +Stars and Stripes in colored lights. +The crowd cheered like mad, the +boats whistled, and sent up +rockets galore.</p> + +<p>On went the programme. +Bombs tested the strength of our +wearied ear-drums, fiery snakes +sizzled through the air, big wheels +spurted brilliant marvels, and +along the very edge of the lake, to +the great discomfort of the front<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +rows of the stalls, a line of combustibles +behaved like gigantic +footlights on a spree.</p> + +<p>"David, who do you suppose +that was with Mary?"</p> + +<p>I had been up in the air with +George Washington, surrounded +by "First in War, First in Peace, +etc.," in letters of fire, and I was +unwillingly recalled to earth.</p> + +<p>"Haven't the remotest idea. +Hope she hasn't given Axworthy +the slip."</p> + +<p>"I'm only hoping that he has +not given her the slip. I'd never +have brought her to the Fair if he +hadn't agreed to look after her."</p> + +<p>At that moment there was a +surging of the mighty crowd, +caused by a band of college +students pushing their way +through, shoulder to shoulder, +singing one of their rousing ditties. +Some people who had been standing +on their hired rolling chairs +had narrow escapes from being +flung upon the shoulders of those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +in front. Some did not escape—Mary +for instance, who landed +between us as if shot from a catapult.</p> + +<p>"I knew I was going to fall, so +I just jumped to where I seen you +two," said she, with her customary +calmness, and then she turned to +assure her escort of the gondola, +who was anxiously elbowing his +way to her, that she was entirely +unhurt.</p> + +<p>Blushing prettily, she introduced +the lad as "Mr. Tom +Axworthy—cousin of the Mr. Axworthy +you know."</p> + +<p>Mr. Tom talked to Mrs. Gemmell +with the ease and assurance +of ninety rather than nineteen, +while I exchanged a few words +aside with the maiden:</p> + +<p>"Where is the Mr. Axworthy +that we know?"</p> + +<p>"He had some business to do in +town to-night, so he left me in +charge of this cousin of his—just a +lovely fellow!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Humph! Introduced you to +any more of his relations?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—an uncle; quite an +old bachelor, but lovely too!"</p> + +<p>"And I suppose you've been +round with the uncle as well."</p> + +<p>"Not very much. He was to +have taken me up in the balloon +yesterday, but the cyclone +burst it."</p> + +<p>"We're going home now, and I +think you'd better say 'Good-night' +to Mr. Tom Axworthy and +come with us."</p> + +<p>After waiting two hours and a +half for standing room on a suburban +train, we reached the hotel +at an early hour on July the 5th, +dusty, smoke-stained, and powder-scented, +like veterans from a field +of battle.</p> + +<p>That was not by any means +the last of Mr. Tom Axworthy. +During the remainder of our stay +in Chicago it was he quite as frequently +as his more mature and +eligible cousin who exchanged a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +lingering farewell with Mary at +the ladies' entrance to our hotel, +and a great fear arose in the heart +of Belle that the young woman +was fooling away her time with +this impecunious boy, instead of +making the most of her opportunities +to come to a satisfactory +understanding with his cousin. +Every morning did she gaze +pathetically into my face, saying:</p> + +<p>"I do hope Axworthy will propose +to-day!" and once she +added:</p> + +<p>"I cannot face another winter +in the same house with that girl +and your mother. Grandma has +taken it into her head that Mary +is my pet lamb, the idol of my +heart, for whom she, and you too, +have been set aside. She doesn't +see that it worries me half to +death to have Mary tagging +round after me the whole time, +and overrunning the house with +her beaux. Neither of our own +girls is old enough yet, thank<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +goodness, to consider herself my +companion and equal, to wear my +gloves, my boots, my best hairpins, +and to use my favorite perfume; +to come and plant herself +down beside me whenever I'm +talking confidentially to anyone, +to be determined to have her +finger into every pie, to know +what I'm reading or thinking +about. She'll insist on knowing +my dreams next!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you mesmerize her."</p> + +<p>"If I did, I'd make her keep +away from me! I could stand +it all better if I thought she +really cared a straw for me, but +I have the feeling that she regards +me merely as a basis for +supplies."</p> + +<p>"We can only trust, then, that +the basis may be speedily transferred +to Axworthy!"</p> + +<p>On our return from the World's +Fair, the family stopped off at +Interlaken, but I had to go on +into town to the <i>Echo</i> office. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +my surprise, Mary joined me at +my solitary dinner at the "House +of the Seven Gables," where Margaret, +as usual, was in charge, and +she remained there for the rest of +the week.</p> + +<p>"Where's Mary?" was Belle's +greeting, when I joined her on +Saturday.</p> + +<p>"She's in town."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you bring her out +with you?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't know you wanted her. +She said she'd like to stay in Lake +City over Sunday, to take the +Communion."</p> + +<p>"Take the Communion indeed! +She wants to be left there alone +with Margaret, so that she'll have +a chance to flirt with every man +in town. I thought you had more +sense, David."</p> + +<p>I pulled my soft felt hat further +over my diminished head.</p> + +<p>"Did she get any letters?"</p> + +<p>"One or two."</p> + +<p>"Wretch! I told her to come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +out here with you to-night for +certain."</p> + +<p>Monday morning, mother, who +had been spending the summer +with my married sister in Lake +City, came out to stay for a week +with us at Interlaken.</p> + +<p>She could hardly wait till the +youngsters were out of hearing to +pour her story into my ears. I +had to take back to town the +train by which she had come out, +but she made the most of her +time.</p> + +<p>"There's been great doin's in +yer hoose in yer absence. Marg'et +'s been tellin' yer sister's servant +a' aboot Mary's luv affairs. +Mary tell't her 'at Eesabelle bade +her write Willum Axworthy an' +spier his intentions; that if she +didna, Mrs. Davvit said she'd d'it +hersel'. An' a' the time she's correspondin' +wi' a yunger ane, an +Axworthy tae, 'at she tells Marg'et +she likes a hape better. Yer +sister's sair affronted to think o'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +the w'y the fem'ly name's bein' +cairted thro' the mire."</p> + +<p>Belle came out on the veranda, +her broad hat in her hand, ready +to walk down to the train with +me.</p> + +<p>"So Axworthy didn't propose +at the Fair?" said I, when we were +out of earshot of the cottage.</p> + +<p>"No; and I think it's a crying +shame, too, after the way he appropriated +the girl all last winter, +and in Chicago too."</p> + +<p>"A great relief to you! Well, +I guess the whole town knows by +this time that you made Mary +write and ask his intentions."</p> + +<p>"This is too much! Has your +mother——"</p> + +<p>"Mary's been making a <i>confidante</i> +of Margaret, that's all. +That inestimable domestic is so +much one of ourselves, it was hard +for the unsophisticated mind to +know exactly where to draw the +line."</p> + +<p>"I hope she has drawn the line<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +at showing Margaret his reply. I +haven't seen that myself."</p> + +<p>"What can you expect it to be? +If he had wanted to marry the +girl there was nothing to prevent +him asking her, and if he did not, +no letter of yours would make +him want to."</p> + +<p>"She wrote it herself, and all +she said was that she would like +to know definitely how she stood +with him. I did nothing but correct +the spelling."</p> + +<p>"Better if you had written in +your own name, and without her +knowledge. No daughter of the +house would ever have been put +in such a position. So far as I +can judge, Mary and Mr. Will +Axworthy are quits. If he has +had a good time in her society, +she has had an equally good time +in his, and he does not enjoy her +letters so much as he did her propinquity."</p> + +<p>"He's a cold-hearted, cowardly——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Tut! tut! my dear!"</p> + +<p>By this time we were on the +platform, and the engine was +backing its one car down to receive +me and the other unhappy +toilers compelled to go away and +leave that sapphire-blue lake behind.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think, Isabel, that +it's about time you quit trying to +play Providence and gave God a +chance?"</p> + +<p>"Dave! you're blasphemous!"</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not. I only wish to +remark that in your schemes for +the welfare of one particular +person, you are apt to overlook +the comfort and happiness of +everyone else concerned. That's +the worst of not being omniscient. +You're only an amateur sort of a +deity after all."</p> + +<p>"Send that girl out here by the +very next train." And I obeyed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/138.png" +alt="138.png" title="138.png" /> +</div> + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 105px;"> +<img src="images/a.png" width="105" height="160" alt="A" title="A" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">A</span>nother</span> week of night +work, and then the sunniest +of Sundays on +the shore of old Lake +Michigan.</p> + +<p>I noticed that Mary was in deep +disgrace with my wife, who would +hardly speak to her, and I judged +therefore that Mr. Will Axworthy +had not been brought to time.</p> + +<p>I am not a venturesome boatman, +and generally confine my +aquatic outings to the smaller lake, +but that Saturday night there was +not a breath of wind, and the +water was placidity personified, so +I drifted in my small skiff through +the channel that connects the +smaller with the larger body of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +water. On the sandy point jutting +out at the mouth, upon an old +stump, sat a solitary maiden, the +picture of woe.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Mary!" said I, ignoring +the tears; "want to go for a +boat ride?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care if I do," she +replied, seating herself in the stern, +which I turned toward her.</p> + +<p>Silently I pulled out into the +big lake, where the copper-colored +sun going down in a haze near the +horizon bade us beware of a hot +day on the morrow. Out of the +lake to the right rose the full +moon, failing as yet to make her +gentle influence felt against the +radiant glow the sun was leaving +behind him.</p> + +<p>"So Axworthy's gone back on +you, Mary?"</p> + +<p>The fountains played again.</p> + +<p>"Yes; and it aint the first time +I've got left, neither."</p> + +<p>With Mrs. Mason, the Ferguson +Family, Lincoln Todd, and young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +Flaker on the tablets of my mind, +I could truthfully assent to that +remark.</p> + +<p>"Still, it may be just the making +of you in the long run."</p> + +<p>"I'm not breakin' my heart over +Will Axworthy; didn't care nothing +'tall 'bout him, on'y I'd got +used havin' him round, and I'd +have married him if he asked me. +I think a sight more of his +cousin."</p> + +<p>"The boy we saw at the Fair?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He's written me a lovely +letter. Would you mind reading +it aloud to me? Some of the big +words I couldn't make out, and +neither could Margaret. I wrote +him all myself!"</p> + +<p>Never before had it fallen to my +lot to play father confessor to a +lady in love difficulties, but the +editorial mind is equal to any +emergency, so I let my oars slide +and adjusted my reading-glasses +to peruse Mary's precious epistle.</p> + +<p>When I had read on to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +signature. "Your devoted lover +'Tom,'" Mary's face was radiant.</p> + +<p>"Aint he smart? You know he +was at the Fair, reporting for a +newspaper."</p> + +<p>"That explains his glibness. +Don't have anything to do with +him, Mary. He's just trying to +draw you on. The burnt dog +should dread the fire."</p> + +<p>"But he admires me, don't +he?"</p> + +<p>"He says so, but he is much +more anxious that you should +admire him. Why, it's part of his +business to keep his hand in by +being in love, or rather by having +some silly little fool of a girl in +love with him. You'll just get +left again if you encourage this +young scamp."</p> + +<p>April showers once more.</p> + +<p>"I think the best thing I can +do is to jump overboard here into +Lake Michigan. It don't seem to +me I'm wanted anywheres."</p> + +<p>"That might do very well, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +you're too good a swimmer to +drown easily, and you'd catch on +to my boat and upset me. I can't +swim a stroke, and there'd be +five—six young Gemmells and a +widow and a mother cast upon the +world. No, we'll have to think of +something better than that."</p> + +<p>Mary's laughter was always +quick an the heels of her tears.</p> + +<p>"What do you think I'm good +for, anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"I can testify that you're not a +success as a housekeeper."</p> + +<p>"Nor a nursemaid."</p> + +<p>"And as a lady's companion +you're not all that could be desired, +even if there were a demand +for the article in West Michigan."</p> + +<p>"As a gentleman's companion +I am all right," and the girl +showed her perfect teeth in a +smile.</p> + +<p>"It's no joking matter, Mary. +You're not very happy in our +house, and things will be worse +for you next winter, with no Will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +Axworthy coming to see you, and +no engagement to him in prospect. +What do you think yourself that +you're fit for—putting reciting +and cornet playing out of the +question?"</p> + +<p>The young lady rested her chin +on the palm of her hand and +composed her face into a bewitching +expression of profound meditation.</p> + +<p>"I can't teach, and I can't sew, +and I can't cook. I couldn't +bear sitting still all day at a typewriter, +and there's no room in the +telephone office. You know +quite well that there aint a thing +for girls like me to do but to get +married. That's why God made +us pretty, so's we'd have a good +chance."</p> + +<p>"Don't be flippant, miss. How +do you think you'd like to be an +hospital nurse?"</p> + +<p>"I dunno; I wouldn't mind +trying. I'm generally good to +folks—when they're sick—and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +aint a bit scared of dirty nor of +dead ones. I laid out an old +woman that died in the Refuge."</p> + +<p>"You're not particularly thin-skinned, +that's a fact; but it's the +educational qualification I'd be +afraid of. There's some sort of +an examination to be passed +before you can get into any of +these Training Schools nowadays. +I'll write for some forms of application, +and we'll see. If once +you were able to support yourself, +you'd think very differently +about marrying anybody that +turned up, just for the sake of a +home. Ours mayn't be much of +a one for you, but marry to get +out of it, and you'll perhaps find +yourself out of the frying-pan into +the fire."</p> + +<p>"I think it would be just lovely +to be a nurse! There was one +came down from Chicago when +Mrs. Wade was sick, and the uniform +was awfully pretty. I'm +sure it would suit me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It would be very becoming, I +haven't any doubt of that; and +when it's all settled that you are +going to an hospital you can +write in reply to Will Axworthy's +last letter."</p> + +<p>"He wanted me to keep on +writing to him just the same; said +he'd like always to be good friends +with me."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't write him but once +again, and do it all by yourself. +Just say that the reason you +wrote the other letter, asking how +you stood with him, was that you +had been thinking of leaving us +altogether, but before taking the +decided step of entering an hospital, +you had thought it only +fair to him to give him the chance +to object, if he really had the +objections he had led you to +take for granted."</p> + +<p>We heard a shouting and a +blowing of tin horns upon the +beach at this juncture. I took +the oars and pulled in, seeing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +Belle and the boys waving their +hats in the bright moonlight. +My wife's face expressed the +blankest astonishment when she +saw who was my shipmate.</p> + +<p>"We thought you must have +fallen asleep out there. Didn't +know you had company!"</p> + +<p>Mary was still in the black +books when I came down the next +Saturday. Belle had a bitter +complaint.</p> + +<p>"She sat there the whole afternoon +yesterday and part of the +evening, writing and rewriting a +letter before my very eyes. 'Are +you replying to Will Axworthy?' +I asked quite cordially, for I did +want to have a hand in answering +that letter—had some cutting +sentences all ready for him. +'Yes, mawm,' said she very +shortly; 'but I guess I can manage +to get along by myself.'"</p> + +<p>I did not dare own up to the +advice I had given, but I saw that +matters must be hastened. Hav<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>ing +business in Chicago about that +time, I visited almost every hospital +in the city, telling Mary's story +in my most dramatic newspaper +style. I made it understood that +it was very noble and self-sacrificing +of the young woman, when +she might live in the lap of +luxury,—for thus did I unblushingly +describe my own modest +establishment,—to embrace a +nurse's vocation and labor for the +good of humanity, including herself, +of course. The education—or +the lack of it—was the drawback +everywhere, and also the +youth of the applicant, twenty-five +being a more acceptable age +than barely twenty-one.</p> + +<p>But my perseverance was at last +rewarded by finding the superintendent +of a training school who +still had some imagination left, +and who became deeply interested +in Mary's "tale of woe."</p> + +<p>"Make her study her reading, +spelling, and arithmetic as hard as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +she can for the next few months, +and I'll get her in the very first +opening."</p> + +<p>The prospect roused Belle's old-time +vigor, and she had spelling +matches for Mary's benefit, made +the girl read aloud to her, gave +her dictation to write, and heard +her the multiplication tables every +forenoon—when she did not forget.</p> + +<p>One delightful morning in +October I had the honor of taking +our <i>protégée</i> into Chicago and +delivering her up to the lady +superintendent. If she could only +stand the month of probation, we +flattered ourselves that she would +be safe.</p> + +<p>Three weeks later I met the +Rev. Mr. Armstrong on the street.</p> + +<p>"I think it is only right to tell +you what people are saying," +said he.</p> + +<p>"It's my business to know," I +replied.</p> + +<p>"I mean about your adopted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +daughter. I have just been told +by two reputable parties, one after +the other, that she has been dismissed +from the hospital for flirting, +and that you and Mrs. Gemmell +are hushing the matter up as +well as you can, but that you don't +know at all where she is."</p> + +<p>When I reached home my first +question was:</p> + +<p>"Have you heard from Mary +lately, Belle?"</p> + +<p>"Not for a week, and I'm quite +worried about her. Before that, +she wrote to me dutifully every +two or three days, telling me all +about her work. I've kept on +writing to her just the same, +making excuses for her to herself, +and never doubting her for a +minute; but to tell you the truth, +Dave, I'm getting dreadfully anxious."</p> + +<p>Then I told her what I had +heard.</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe it, David! +I never shall till I hear it from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +herself. I know now for a +certainty that I love that girl! +I'll believe her before all the +world! I'll stick by her through +thick and thin! I'll not insult +her by writing to the Hospital! +What now matters the little inconveniences +of living with her? +What have a few clothes and +toilet articles, more or less, to do +with it? If she has failed, she +shall come <i>home</i>, and we'll begin +the three years' fight all over +again. I'll sit down now and +write her the nicest letter I can +write."</p> + +<p>That sounded very brave, but +inwardly I knew that my wife +suffered agonies the next few +days.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps if I had done this," +she would say, "or if I had done +that—it seems precisely like a +death, and I've killed her."</p> + +<p>Tuesday morning, two letters +came from Mary. They were +hurriedly and excitedly written.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My dear good mother, I am +accepted! It is the happiest day +of my life; it will be a red letter +day for you! I love you. I have +tried so hard for your sake; I +have tried to make my life hear +one long prayer and the dear +Lord helps me. I did not write +because the exam. was delaid, and +I wanted to wait untill I had +something <i>good</i> to tell you. I +look nice in the unniform. It is +pink and a white cap, apron and +cuffs. Oh I am so contented; +this work is so filling. I never +get lonely or homesick. <i>We</i> +nurses had a party, and we danced +and served ice cream, and there +was some lovely doctors here, +and the Princippal is so kind to +us we have lots of fun"—and so +the letters ran on.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The reaction was too much +for Belle. She cried, then she +laughed, then she fell on her knees +and thanked God, and she told me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +she added that, for pity's sake, He +<i>must</i> set His angels to guard +Mary, for she was a poor, frail +child, who had got lost in coming +this time, and many persecuted +her because she was pretty, and +might find a resting place and get +a little of what rightfully (?) belonged +to them.</p> + +<p>After a while she went down +to see Mr. Armstrong, and read +him the letters. He turned very +white.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the pity of it!" said he.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could gather her +slanderers into one room and read +them these letters," said Belle.</p> + +<p>For days afterward she button-holed +people in the street to tell +them about Mary, or to read them +scraps of her letters. If they had +said she was vain and idle, and +selfish and incompetent, just like +the half of their own daughters, +Belle could have forgiven them. +It was their determination +to shove her into the gutter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +which made my wife her valiant +champion.</p> + +<p>"Whatever that girl amounts +to, Dave, will be born of our faith +in her, and we must never go back +on her. She writes me that whenever +she has a hard task, such as +attending fits, there I stand at her +back and help."</p> + +<p>"Just between ourselves, +though, you must confess that it +is a great relief to have her +away."</p> + +<p>"You can't begin to feel that +as I do. I live again! I read +my own books, think my own +thoughts. I belong to myself. +No one says, 'What's the +matter?' 'Where are you going?' +'What makes you grave—or +gay?' I sit and chat with my +'odd-fish.' I go to all kinds of +meetings and discuss all kinds of +'isms, and have no tag-tail constantly +asking 'Why?' 'Why?' +or 'Tell me!' It's the little +things that grind. The next time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +I try to help a young girl, I'll not +risk losing my influence with her +by taking her into my house. Do +you know, Dave, I sometimes feel +that Mary must have been my +own child in a previous incarnation, +and I neglected and abused +her; that's why she was thrust +back upon me this time, whether I +liked it or not."</p> + +<p>After Christmas Isabel decided +that she must go up to Chicago +to see Mary, and on her return +thrilling was the account she gave +of her experiences, which included +an attendance at an autopsy—but +upon that I shall not enlarge.</p> + +<p>Introducing herself to the +Superintendent of the School, +she said:</p> + +<p>"Can I have Miss Gemmell for +two days at my hotel?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, no, madam. We are +short of help, and it would be +entirely against the rules."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll stay here with +her."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Lady Superintendent +looked distressed.</p> + +<p>"Don't think us inhospitable, +but there is absolutely no provision +for guests in all this great +building."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Belle, unabashed. +"I seem to be unfortunate in +breaking, or wanting to break, the +rules of this house. Now, will +you kindly tell me what I can do? +How can I see the very most of +my Mary while I am in Chicago?"</p> + +<p>After some thought the answer +came:</p> + +<p>"You may have Miss Gemmell +to-morrow afternoon, and two +hours on Sunday."</p> + +<p>"That will not suit me at all! +Now, please forget all that has +been said, and I will tell you that +I Mrs. David Gemmell of Lake +City, Michigan, am a poor tired +woman, threatened with nervous +prostration, have already chills of +apprehension running down my +back, coupled with flushes of ex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>pectation +to my head." By this +time Mary, the Lady Superintendent, +and two other nurses +present were all attention, and +Belle added gravely:</p> + +<p>"I want one of your best private +rooms on Corridor B, where +Miss Gemmell is on duty, and I +should like to see the House Surgeon +at once."</p> + +<p>So Belle was comfortably and +luxuriously established in the +hospital, and the only drawback +was that she had to be served +with her meals in her room.</p> + +<p>"What feasts we had—Mary +and I," she said. "What fun! +Before I left I had demoralized +that whole hospital staff, and +broken every rule in the institution. +It did them all good."</p> + +<p>"I hope you haven't been indiscreet," +said I.</p> + +<p>"Indiscreet?"</p> + +<p>"You must remember that Mary +braced herself up to go to the +hospital when she was 'out' with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +you. Now you've gone and made +so much of her that she'll think, +whenever things become too hot +for her, she has only to march +straight back here again."</p> + +<p>"She assures me she <i>will</i> +graduate."</p> + +<p>"There should never be any +question of that."</p> + +<p>"David, I've only told you the +one side. If that girl were my +very own I should pluck her out +of that particular fire. I'd get +down on my knees and beg her +pardon for having thrown her +into it. It burns up their youth, +their bloom, their originality, their +modesty. It thrusts the girls into +a charnel house of sin, sickness, +and death. It shatters the nervous +system of nine out of ten, or +it leaves them calm, steady, burnt-out +women, who have been behind +the scenes of life and are disillusioned. +When that little pink +and white thing sat there and +told me of some of the awful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +situations that she'd been placed +in, and over which she was made +responsible, the tears rolled down +my face. I forgave her lots of +things."</p> + +<p>"Plenty of refined, educated +women with a very different bringing +up from Mary's go through +the same."</p> + +<p>"Well, I advised her to go on +and finish the course, if only to +show her friends, and enemies, +the stuff she's made of. When I +think of those free wards, and the +menial, disgusting offices that frail +little girl has to perform! What +did she sow that she should reap +this fighting in the thickest of the +fight, so poorly equipped?"</p> + +<p>"I dare say there are alleviations."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! She flirts—says she'd +die if she didn't—with every man +in the place, from the elevator +boy to the head doctor, and, +really, I excused her. The head +nurse in Mary's ward is very harsh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +with her, but I let her and everyone +in the place understand that +Miss Gemmell is no stray waif +without influence to back her. +Every day I send out thought-waves—hypnotism—whatever +you +like to call it—to compel that +Dean woman to think of something +else than the making of +trained nurses, and physical wrecks +at the same time. People are +greater than institutions."</p> + +<p>"The discipline will be the +making of Mary."</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/159.png" +alt="159.png" title="159.png" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/160.png" width="448" height="177" alt="160.png" title="160.png" /> +</div> + + + + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 100px;"> +<img src="images/d.png" width="100" height="160" alt="D" title="D" /> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">D</span>uring</span> the famous +Pullman strike of last +summer, duty bade me +cross to Chicago in the +interests of the <i>Echo</i>. +On Saturday afternoon, July the +7th, I was at the pulse of the +Anarchist movement, near the +corner of Loomis and Forty-ninth +Streets. Taking up my stand in +the deep entry of a "House to +Let," I watched the operations of +a body of strikers gathered round +a box car close to the Grand Trunk +crossing. They had set it afire, +and were trying to overturn it +upon the railway track, encouraged +by the cheers of a mob +numbering about two thousand +men, women, and children.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span></p> + +<p>The incendiaries were so much +engrossed that they did not observe, +backing swiftly down upon +them, the wrecking train it was +their purpose to block. While +still in motion, the cars disgorged +Captain Kelly and his company, +who had been guarding the Pan +Handle tracks all day, but had +not yet, it seemed, earned their +night's repose.</p> + +<p>The crowd greeted the soldiers +with stones, brickbats, and pieces +of old iron, but the car burners +proceeded with their little job, +paying no attention at all to the +approach of the military.</p> + +<p>A pistol bullet out of the mob +swished in among his men, and +then Captain Kelly gave the order +to fire. When the smoke of the +volley cleared away, I saw the +people stand still, shocked and +dumb with surprise. A second +later, realizing that the worm had +had the audacity to turn, they +vented a medley of shrieks and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +roars, and closed round the handful +of soldiers, to be met by the +points of bayonets.</p> + +<p>The yelling mass of humanity +scattered, took refuge in lanes +and houses, but regaining courage, +appeared here and there in +sections, to be assailed once more +by soldiers and police. The latter +had to fight it out by themselves +after a while, for the military +boarded the wrecking train again, +and the engineer, completely +"rattled," opened the throttle, +and whisked them away to the +West, leaving a dozen revolver-armed +policemen to meet the +assaults of a mob that had now +increased to five thousand.</p> + +<p>The Press abuses the police on +principle, but, seeing that heroic encounter, +I wavered in the keeping +of my promise to Belle not to run +into danger. Even as I hesitated, +"hurry-up wagons" arrived with +re-enforcements from neighboring +police stations, and then the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +crowd could not disperse quickly +enough. It was a desperate +sight—men knocking each other +down in their haste to get away, +and the women who had been +spurring them on, now shrieking +and groaning like maniacs. One +of the poor creatures was hit on +the ankle by a bullet, and her +falling over into the gutter was +too much for my virtuous resolution. +Even if she is a dirty, howling +Polack, a man does not enjoy +seeing a woman knocked down, +so I left my doorstep and went to +help the lady up. Constitutionally +I am not a brave man, but I +forgot all about the flying bullets +till one took me in the knee, +and I toppled over, hitting my +head against the curbstone as +I did so. I must have been +stunned, for when I opened my +eyes again the street was empty, +except for a thundering vehicle +that was bearing straight down +upon me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> + +<p>At first I thought it was a runaway, +for the horse was foaming +of mouth and bloodshot of eyeball; +but no, there was a man, or +fiend, with a similar wild gleam in +his eye, urging the brute upon +me, while he sounded a gong to +keep everything out of his way. +All this I saw in a flash, and in a +flash too went through my mind +the advice given by President +Cleveland in his proclamation to +non-combatants to keep out of +harm's way.</p> + +<p>I rolled over on my side with +the sickening certainty that the +next instant the hoofs and the +wheels would be upon me, but the +horse pulled up on his haunches +at my very feet, the rattle and +clanging ceased, and a doctor in +his shirt sleeves appeared as if by +magic.</p> + +<p>It was an ambulance, of course.</p> + +<p>I fainted when they lifted me, +and only came to myself in the +hospital—Mary's hospital, and her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +ward. Every one in Chicago was +crowded that week and the next, +but—the ruling principle strong +in death—I declined to be put +away out of eyeshot and earshot +into a private room.</p> + +<p>"D'ye want me to send word to +Mis' Gemmell to come?" asked +Mary, and I replied drowsily:</p> + +<p>"No, don't. She's better to +keep out of harm's way. She +would be sure to sympathize with +the strikers."</p> + +<p>"But she'll wonder where you +are."</p> + +<p>"She can't get here safely, as +things are now, and the mails are +all upset. Don't write. Send a +telegram in my name. Date it +Chicago, and tell her I'm detained, +but that I'll go home Monday, +sure."</p> + +<p>That same night I was off in a +high fever. It was days and days +before I came to myself, and then +I was too weak to ask or to care +how everything was going on at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +home. My whole interest in life +was concentrated upon that hospital +ward, and with half-closed eyes +I lay there and took notes unconsciously.</p> + +<p>An ideal life it may seem to +outsiders, but there is as much +wire-pulling, as much jealousy +and scandal within the walls of +one of those big institutions, as +anywhere else on this planet. It +is an epitome of the world battle, +and the strugglers meet in hand-to-hand +conflict.</p> + +<p>Nurse Dean, the head of our +ward, tall and angular in form, +stern and cold in feature, was the +dragon Belle had told me about, +but she knew her business, and I, +for one, preferred that she should +regard me simply as a machine +laid up for repairs. I did not even +think her unduly severe upon +Mary, after I heard her giving that +damsel "Hail Columbia" for her +carelessness in having administered +the wrong medicine one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +whole forenoon to Number Nine—which +was myself.</p> + +<p>If I had not made a feeble protest +in her favor, "Nurse Gemmell" +would have been discharged +on the spot.</p> + +<p>I do not wish to leave the impression +that Mary had not in +her the making of a fairly good +nurse. She was light of foot, as +well as quick of hand, and I liked +to have her do things for me; +found her <i>aura</i> agreeable, as +Belle would have expressed it. +Like many half-educated people, +she was very observant, but, so +far as I could judge, she had one +eye on her work and the other on +the lookout for flirtations. I became +quite interested in some of +them.</p> + +<p>There was the German fiddler +in the next bed to mine, who +could not keep his eyes off Mary +whenever she came into the ward, +and once when Nurse Dean was +off duty, and she brought out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +her silver-plated cornet to "toot" +a little for him, he declared it was +the most ravishing music he had +ever heard in his life!</p> + +<p>I strongly suspected that the +limp young artisan on the other +side of me was perfectly well +enough to be discharged, but he +could not brace himself up to +part from Mary. Then there was +a young doctor whose face I +dimly recognized, but it tired my +poor head too much to try to +think who he was. He and Mary +had many a talk at my bedside +about their own affairs. One +evening I heard the unmistakable +sound of a banjo, and managed +to twist myself round far enough +to see that this same doctor was +playing an accompaniment to +Mary's very fair imitation of a +skirt dance out in the passage.</p> + +<p>The sight revived me so much +that I laughed aloud, and Mary +came hastily forward, blushing, +with finger on her lip. The pink<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +and white uniform did indeed +become her wonderfully well, and +I was not surprised to notice +hearty admiration in the sleepy +blue eyes of the young house +surgeon. Where had I seen that +"Burne Jones' head" before?</p> + +<p>"You don't seem to remember +me, Mr. Gemmell," said the owner +of it, holding out his hand. "My +name's Flaker. I was at Interlaken +summer before last."</p> + +<p>"You're a full-fledged M. D. +now?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, but I'm taking a +year's practice in here, before I +set up for myself."</p> + +<p>Shades of the hotel matrons! +They would probably say, if they +heard this, that Mary had been +sent here on purpose to catch him.</p> + +<p>Poor Mary! She had her own +row to hoe. She came to me in +tears one evening because Nurse +Dean had been after her that +whole day about one thing or +another.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am never particular 'nough +to please her. If it wasn't for +Dr. Flaker I wouldn't stay here +another day."</p> + +<p>"You like him pretty well, +eh?"</p> + +<p>"Well enough, an' he's all +broke up on me; says he was at +Interlaken too, on'y he couldn't +say anythin', 'cause he wasn't of +age. His folks are awful high-toned."</p> + +<p>"They'll have their discipline," +thought I.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Mary, how long +is it since I was brought here?"</p> + +<p>"Two weeks to-day."</p> + +<p>I sprang almost out of bed in +my surprise. "Why didn't you +tell me? Has no word been sent +to Lake City?"</p> + +<p>"None since that first telegram. +I don't write very often now to +your wife, but when I did, I +never said nothin' 'tall about +your bein' here, 'cause you told +me not to."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And haven't you had an +answer?"</p> + +<p>"There's a letter lyin' there +from Mis' Gemmell to you. I +don't know how she could have +found out your address. Nurse +Dean said I wasn't to give it to +you if you was a bit feverish."</p> + +<p>"Fetch it this minute, Mary, or +I'll get up and walk the floor," +and the girl brought me this +remarkable document. It had +neither beginning nor end, but +rushed to the point at once.</p> + +<p>"I know all! You have +laughed at my occult tendencies, +sneered at my Theosophy, but I +can now, alas! give you convincing +proof of the penetrative power +of the one, the sustaining power +of the other. I became so nervous +at your continued silence and +absence that I did what I had +promised you not to do—went out +in my astral to hunt for you—and +I found you! Would to God I +had never tried! It is not my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +health that is ruined, but my +heart and my happiness. To +make assurance doubly sure, I +psychometrized the only letter I +have received from Mary in weeks. +She was cunning enough not to +mention your name, but the unspoken +testimony was the same. +To think that you of all men—but +I do not blame you! I have +gone down to the <i>Echo</i> office, my +heart bursting with despair, and +have told lies to account for your +absence, to keep things moving +until you see fit to send your own +explanation. I have thrown dust +too in the eyes of the family, till +you tell me your will concerning +them. No, I dare not blame you! +Did not I myself thrust the girl +into your life—and the best of us +are but human. It is Karma! I +have deserved this blow for some +previous sin of my own, and I bow +my head to the stroke. Your own +harvest will be just as certain, +however long delayed. O David,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +David! I can look back now and +see the very beginning of your +interest in Mary—but that it +should end in this—that you +should fly from me to her——'"</p> + +<p>Having read so far, I burst into +hysterical laughter, and it took +Mary and her lover and Nurse +Dean, and how many more I know +not, to hold me in bed. Of course +I had a relapse, and my life was +despaired of, but I would not, in +my sensible moments, allow Mary +to write to, or send for Isabel. I +pictured the streets still full of +rioting strikers, and the mails +and trains still disorganized. In +waking and in delirium alike, +"Keep her out of harm's way!" +I cried, "I'll go home to-morrow, +sure," but it was a long to-morrow +that saw me on the boat bound +for Lake City.</p> + +<p>Mary wanted to accompany me, +for I was still very weak, and had +to walk with a stick on account of +my knee, but I said brusquely,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +"You stay where you are, and +keep an eye on Dr. Flaker, or +you'll maybe get left again."</p> + +<p>"No fear of that!" she said, +holding up her left hand to show +me a broad gold band with five +diamonds in it, adorning her third +finger.</p> + +<p>"We'll be married as soon as +his year is out, for he has plenty +of money."</p> + +<p>The stones in her ring caught +the evening sunlight as she stood +on the wharf waving her handkerchief +to me, while the boat moved +slowly out, and I lay in a steamer +chair on the hurricane deck, prepared +to enjoy a smoke and a +gossip with my old friend, the +captain.</p> + +<p>I wished her well with all +my heart, but I sincerely hoped +that I had seen the last of +Mary.</p> + +<p>Judging the family to be at +Interlaken as usual, I took the +first train down there, and toiled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +in the sun from the depot up to +the cottages, by way of the hill, +which I had never considered +steep before, to find my own +house deserted, windows and +doors boarded up, veranda unswept, +hammocks removed. I +would not give any of the neighbors +the satisfaction of knowing I +was surprised and disappointed, +so I kept out of sight till they +had all been to the hotel for dinner +and dispersed. Then I went +in for mine, and after it returned +to the beach near the station, lay +down on the sand, and waited for +the next train.</p> + +<p>There was not one back to +town until late in the afternoon, +and the evening being cloudy, it +was quite dark by the time I left +the electric car at the corner of +our street. Even that little bit of +a walk exhausted me, and I had +to rest on my stick every few +minutes, but what a relief it was +to see, gleaming cheerfully as ever,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +the windows of the House of the +Seven Gables.</p> + +<p>I leaned against our iron railing +for a minute or two to collect myself +before making my appearance, +and highly necessary was it +for me to do so, because the attitude +of the two ladies upon the +veranda struck me dumb with +amazement, and their conversation +completely floored me. That +sandy-haired little woman in the +low rocker must be my mother, +but could that regal figure on the +edge of the veranda, with her +head in my mother's lap, possibly +be my wife? The light from the +nursery window showed them to +me distinctly, but I kept back in +the shadow and listened to the +voices.</p> + +<p>"My puir lamb! Ye've grat +eneugh! Gang awa' tae yer bed; +ye're sair forfoughten."</p> + +<p>As she stroked the wavy gray +hair of the head on her knee, her +tone changed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I canna thole to think 'at son +o' mine has brocht a' this trouble +upon ye."</p> + +<p>"Not a word against him, +mother! He's the best man that +ever lived, and I didn't appreciate +him, that's all. I can never think +of him but as my dear, old, solid, +yours-to-count-on Dave Gemmell. +He was the silent partner, unpopular, +getting no praise, paying all +bills, backing me up in every fad, +whether his judgment approved +or not. He was just the square +foundation I could lean away out +on—could dance jigs on if I +wanted to. Now that he is dead—or +dead to me—I can only hope +that he is happy. Oh! if I had +but listened to you, mother, had +never brought that girl into the +house. My own vineyard have I +not kept."</p> + +<p>"Let by-ganes be by-ganes—but +I wad jest like to hae Davvit +by the lug."</p> + +<p>"Lug along, mother! Here I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +am!" I managed to shout, and +then I hung over that fence and +laughed till my specs dropped off +in the grass, and my stick fell +away from me. I could not move +without it, so I had to wait till +the two women took pity on me +and released me from my impalement.</p> + +<p>Between them they got me into +the house and on to my old sofa, +and listened to what I had to say.</p> + +<p>"I was share there must be +some mistak'," said my mother, +her self-respect restored, but, when +I saw how affectionately her hand +rested on the bowed head of her +weeping daughter-in-law, I did not +regret the bullet in my knee.</p> + +<p>"We'll put it all down to your +Theosophy, Belle—a collection of +half-truths, more dangerous than +lies, when you shove them too +far."</p> + +<p>"Don't let us talk about that +now, David. It breaks my heart +to see you so thin. Your clothes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +are just hanging on you. Oh! if +I had only known the true state +of the case and been there to +nurse you!"</p> + +<p>"Mary has been very good to +me, I assure you."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to think about +that girl any more. I'm glad she's +all right, but I hope never to lay +eyes on her again."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, she's all right, and +when she marries Dr. Flaker +she won't want to '<i>pa</i>pa' and +'<i>mam</i>ma' us, though she may +condescend to patronize us a +little."</p> + +<p>"I'll be gled o' the day she +draps the name o' Gemmell!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>My wife is still a theosophist. +If it pleases her to think that she +has ascertained the nature and +method of existence, I have nothing +to say. Sometimes I even +look with envy upon her cheerful +attitude toward the approach of +old age, her conviction that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +are to have another chance—many +more chances—to do and to be +that which we have failed in doing +and being, <i>this time</i>.</p> + +<p>To judge of a tree by its fruits, +there is, of course, no doubt that +Isabel, because of, or in spite of +her Theosophy, has been</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Making of Mary</span>.</h3> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/180.png" +alt="180.png" title="180.png" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 448px;"> +<img src="images/181.png" width="448" height="174" alt="181.png" title="181.png" /> + +</div> + +<h2>EPILOGUE.</h2> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 98px;"> +<img src="images/n.png" width="98" height="160" alt="N" title="N" /> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap"><span class="hidden">N</span>urse Dean</span> walked +through the Pest House, +adjoining the great +hospital, with the independent +mien of the +woman who is confident that her +skirt clears the ground. Her +keen, light-colored eyes took in at +a glance the condition of every +patient, the occupation of every +nurse.</p> + +<p>There had been a smallpox +epidemic in Chicago, and three of +the nurses in —— Hospital had +taken the disease, two of them +lightly, one very heavily; but all +were now convalescent. The two +had gone home to their friends to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +recruit, but the third lay in an +invalid chair in a darkened room, +looking as if the desire of life had +left her. Nurse Dean came in +with a cheery smile, put on just +outside the door, and proceeded +to bathe the girl's eyes with warm +water.</p> + +<p>"When are you coming out to +help me, Mary? I'm sure the +light wouldn't hurt you now. I'm +having too much night work, +those other nurses being gone. +I thought you might begin to +ease me a little with the smallpox +patients through the day."</p> + +<p>"I don't know as I care to go +on with the business," replied +Mary, sometime called Mason.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! You're low-spirited +just now because you're +not quite better, but wait till +you're on your feet and going +around the wards again. There's +nothing like work of this sort +to make a person forget herself."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nurse Dean's strong but gentle +hands began to rub with +oil the patient's neck and shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could forget myself +and everybody else too. I wish I +had died of the smallpox. There +aint anybody that cares whether +I live or die."</p> + +<p>"Hush! Mary, you forget Dr. +Flaker."</p> + +<p>"Aint it just him I'm thinkin' +about? He came in to see me +to-day for the first time. He +hates smallpox, and he smelt so +of iodoform he nearly made me +sick. About all he had to say +was that it was very foolish of me +to meddle with the clothes of +them patients, and he could +hardly believe I was so crazy's +not to be vaccinated when the +other nurses were. Just as if it +wasn't him that admired my +lovely arms. Look at them +now!"</p> + +<p>"They won't be so bad when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +all these scales are off. There! +Doesn't that feel better?"</p> + +<p>"It feels all right enough, but +you know I'll be a sight to be +seen the rest of my days. I was +glad the room was dark, so's +Flaker couldn't get a good look +at me. He'll know soon enough—and +hate the sight of me. He +was always so proud of my 'pearance."</p> + +<p>"But I'm sure he likes you for +something else too, Mary."</p> + +<p>"I don't care whether he does +or not, he's got to marry me just +the same. I aint goin' to be left +again," and the girl tried to make +a blazing diamond ring keep in +place upon her thin finger.</p> + +<p>"You love him very much?"</p> + +<p>"Don't know as I do—no more +than lots of other fellows; but I +won't have any more chances +now. I didn't ask to be born into +this world, and somebody in it +owes me a living."</p> + +<p>"See here, Mary!" said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +nurse, in a suddenly energetic +tone that made the girl look up +at her with startled eyes. "You +know, as well as I do, that you +can't make that man marry you. +Why not give him back his ring +of your own free will?"</p> + +<p>"Why should I? You think I +aint in love?"</p> + +<p>"Love? You don't know what +the word means in any but its +very lowest sense. Suppose you +stop loving men, and take to loving +women and children; you'll +find them much more grateful, I +can tell you."</p> + +<p>Mary closed her eyes, but there +were no eyelashes to keep the +tears from trickling out upon the +scarred face.</p> + +<p>"My dear child!" said Nurse +Dean, in a voice hardly recognizable, +it was so sympathetic, +"you've been fighting for yourself +ever since you can remember, and +you haven't made much of it, +have you?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p> + +<p>The girl's lips shaped an inaudible +"No."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be a good idea, +then, to try a little fighting for +other people?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't any folks."</p> + +<p>"Your 'folks' are whoever you +can help in any way. What have +you done yet to deserve a foothold +on this earth? Instead of +seeing how much you can get +out of everybody, turn round and +see how much you can do for +them."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There was a long silence. +When Nurse Dean thought her +charge was falling asleep, she +placed a shawl carefully over her, +but Mary, without opening her +eyes, drew something from her +left hand to her right.</p> + +<p>"You can give him back his +ring," she said.</p> + +<p>Nurse Dean closed the door +softly behind her, and then +paused for a moment to wipe an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +impertinent tear from her cold +gray eye.</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't be at all surprised +if the smallpox were just The +Making of Mary."</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span><br /></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<div class="ads"><h2><b>THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY</b><br /> +<small>OF</small><br /> +CHOICE ORIGINAL FICTION.</h2> + + +<p>The volumes are long and narrow, just the +right shape to slip into the pocket, and are +bound in flexible cloth and ornamented with +a chaste design. The type is large and the +margin generous.</p> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<h4>Price, per volume, 50 cents.</h4> + +<hr style="width: 25%;" /> + +<p>1. Mademoiselle Ixe. By Lanoe Falconer.</p> + +<p>2. The Story of Eleanor Lambert. By Magdalen +Brooke.</p> + +<p>3. A Mystery of the Campagna, and A Shadow +on the Wave. By Von Degen.</p> + +<p>4. The Friend of Death. Adapted from the +Spanish by Mary J. Serrano.</p> + +<p>5. Philippa; or, Under a Cloud. By Ella.</p> + +<p>6. The Hôtel D'Angleterre, and Other Stories. +By Lanoe Falconer.</p> + +<p>7. Amaryllis. By Georgios Drosines.</p> + +<p>8. Some Emotions and a Moral. By John +Oliver Hobbes.</p> + +<p>9. European Relations. By Talmage Dalin.</p> + +<p>10. John Sherman, and Dhoya. By Ganconagh.</p> + +<p>11. Through the Red-Litten Windows, and The +Old River House. By Theodor Hertz-Garten.</p> + +<p>12. Back from the Dead. A Story of the Stage. +By Saqui Smith.</p> + +<p>13. In Tent and Bungalow. By "An Idle +Exile."</p> + +<p>14. The Sinner's Comedy. By John Oliver +Hobbes.</p> + +<p>15. The Wee Widow's Cruise in Quiet Waters. +By "An Idle Exile."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span></p> + +<p>16. A New England Cactus, and Other Tales. By +Frank Pope Humphrey.</p> + +<p>17. Green Tea. A Love Story. By V. Schallenberger.</p> + +<p>18. A Splendid Cousin. By Mrs. Andrew Dean.</p> + +<p>19. Gentleman Upcott's Daughter. By Tom +Cobbleigh.</p> + +<p>20. At the Threshold. By Laura Dearborn.</p> + +<p>21. Her Heart was True. By "An Idle Exile."</p> + +<p>22. The Last King of Yewle. By P. L. McDermott.</p> + +<p>23. A Study in Temptations. By John Oliver +Hobbes.</p> + +<p>24. The Palimpsest. By Gilbert Augustin +Thierry.</p> + +<p>25. Squire Hellman, and Other Stories. By +Juhani Aho.</p> + +<p>26. A Father of Six. By N. E. Potapeèko.</p> + +<p>27. The Two Countesses. By Marie Ebner von +Eschenbach.</p> + +<p>28. God's Will, and Other Stories. By Ilse +Frapan. Translated by Helen A. MacDonald.</p> + +<p>29. Her Provincial Cousin. By Edith Elmer +Wood.</p> + +<p>30. My Two Wives. By One of their Husbands.</p> + +<p>31. Young Sam and Sabina. By Tom Cobbleigh.</p> + +<p>32. Chaperoned. By Albert Ulmann.</p> + +<p>33. Wanted, a Copyist. By W. N. Brearley.</p> + +<p>34. A Bundle of Life. By John Oliver Hobbes.</p> + +<p>35. The Lone Inn. By Fergus Hume.</p> + +<p>36. "Go Forth and Find." By Thomas H. +Brainerd.</p> + +<p>37. The Beautiful Soul. By Florence Marryat.</p> + +<p>38. Dr. Endicott's Experiment. By Adeline +Sergeant.</p> + + + +<h4><big><br />THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.</big>,<br /> +<small>31 East 17th Street (Union Square),</small><br /> +NEW YORK.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>W. C. HUDSON'S<br /> +<i><small>Interesting Books.</small></i></h2> + +<h3><br />Jack Gordon, Knight-Errant, +Gotham, 1883.</h3> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A capital piece of work."—<i>Pittsburg Dispatch.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />On the Rack.</h3> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A story of unusual power."—<i>Boston Post.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />The Diamond Button.</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>A Tale from the Diary of a Lawyer and the Note-book +of a Reporter.</i></p> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A pronounced success."—<i>Albany Express.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />The Dugdale Millions.</h3> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The plot is ingeniously cast and most skillfully +worked out, and the strong interest of the reader is +not allowed to flag for a moment."—<i>Boston +Home Journal.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />The Man with a Thumb.</h3> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Holds the attention to the last page."—<i>Cleveland +Plaindealer.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />Vivier.</h3> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The story contains not a single dull page."—<i>Ohio +State Journal.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />Should She Have Left Him?</h3> + +<p>12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"No one can go to sleep over one of Mr. Hudson's +stories, for the author supplies incidents, generally +unexpected, too, and in more rapid succession than +any other living author."—<i>Godey's Magazine.</i></p></div> + + +<h4><big><br />THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.</big>,<br /> +<small>31 East 17th Street (Union Square),</small><br /> +NEW YORK.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>W. CLARK RUSSELL'S<br /> +POPULAR SEA STORIES.</h2> + + +<h3><br />THE EMIGRANT SHIP.</h3> + +<p class="center">1 Vol., 12mo, Extra Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +Paper Binding, 50 Cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"No better sea story has been written."—<i>Phila. +Bulletin.</i></p> + +<p>"It is a bright, interesting story."—<i>N. Y. World.</i></p></div> + + + +<h3><br />LIST, YE LANDSMEN!</h3> + +<p class="center">1 Vol., 12mo, Extra Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +Paper Binding, 50 Cents.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A stirring romance."—<i>Rochester Herald.</i></p> + +<p>"Next to a genuine sea voyage."—<i>Boston Journal.</i></p></div> + + +<h3><br />ROMANCE OF A TRANSPORT.</h3> + +<p class="center">1 Vol., 12mo, Cloth, $1.00.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"One of his best."—<i>Brooklyn Citizen.</i></p> + +<p>"Who has ever begun one of Clark Russell's tales +and neglected to finish it?"—<i>Phila. Item.</i></p></div> + +<h4><big><br />THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO.</big>,<br /> +<small>31 East 17th Street (Union Square),</small><br /> +NEW YORK.</h4> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 95%;" /> + +<div class="tnote">Two minor changes were made during the transcription of this book: +<ul><li>"the malone" was changed to "them alone"</li> +<li>two instances of "Gemmel" were changed to "Gemmell"</li></ul></div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Mary, by Jean Forsyth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MARY *** + +***** This file should be named 19343-h.htm or 19343-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/4/19343/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Making of Mary + +Author: Jean Forsyth + +Release Date: September 22, 2006 [EBook #19343] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MARY *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) + + + + + +THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY + + +THE MAKING +OF MARY + +BY +JEAN FORSYTH + + +NEW YORK +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. +31 EAST 17TH ST. (UNION SQUARE) + + + + +COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. + + +_All rights reserved._ + +THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, +RAHWAY, N. J. + + + + +PROLOGUE. + + +A STURDY northeast wind was rattling the doors and windows of a deserted +farmhouse in Western Michigan. The building was not old, measured by +years, but it had never been painted or repaired, and its wooden face, +prematurely lined with weather stains, looked as if it had borne the +wear and tear of centuries. The windows, like lidless eyes, stared +vacantly at the flat stubble fields and the few spindling trees, a +dreary apology for an orchard. There were plenty of shingles off the +roof to allow the inquisitive rain-drops to follow one another through +the rafters, and thence to the floor of the room below, where the +darkness was creeping out of the corners to take possession. + +The house had been but recently vacated, for there was still a "slab" +smoldering on the hearth of the wide fireplace in the outer kitchen, and +something that looked almost human, wrapped in a ragged bedquilt, was +lying much too near it for safety. A friendly gust of wind came down the +chimney, bringing back the smoke, and drawing a faint cough from the +bundle. Another gust and another cough, and then a sneeze which burst +open the quilt, to disclose an ill-clad little girl, six or seven years +old. + +She gazed about with drowsy blue eyes till terror of the darkness made +her draw the tattered comforter over her head again, and crouching +nearer to the smoldering log, she tried to warm her fingers and toes. +More wind down the chimney made more smoke, and sent the child coughing +back from the fireplace. She was wide awake now, and stood listening. +Sounds there were, indeed, but not one that could be associated with any +living thing in the house. She felt her way around the walls to where +the candle used to be, but it was gone. There was no furniture to +stumble over, and when she came to the side of the wall in the inner +room from which the stairway crept up, she mounted it on her hands and +knees, trembling, partly with cold, partly with fear at the noise made +by the flapping of the sole of one of her old shoes. There was a step +missing at the turn of the stairs, but the child knew where the vacancy +was, and pulling herself over it, she reached the landing, felt all +around the walls there, and made the circuit of the three small rooms +in the same fashion. They were entirely empty. + +Cautiously the girl stole down the broken stairs and back to her former +place by the smoking slab, where she curled herself up into the old +quilt again, as into a mother's arms, and spoke aloud, though there was +none to listen but the obstreperous wind: + +"Anyhow she won't be here to lick me no more!" That thought seemed to +compensate for darkness and loneliness. The voices of wind and rain were +apparently more kindly than the human tones to which she had been +accustomed, and soothed by their stormy lullaby, the little maid fell +asleep. + +The sunshine poured freely into the forsaken house next morning, drying +up the damp floors, and turning to gold the scrap of yellow hair that +showed through a hole in the old quilt. Presently the small girl shook +the covering away from her and stood up, to yawn and stretch herself +out of the stiffness from a night spent on the hard floor. She was not a +pretty child, unless naturally curling fair hair, that would be fairer +when it was washed, could make her so. The long, thin legs that came +below her torn dress made her too tall for her age, and what might have +been a passable mouth was spoiled by the departure of two of the front +"baby" teeth and the tardy arrival of the later contingent. + +Part of the day the child seemed satisfied with her new-found liberty. +Having discovered a stale crust or two in a cupboard, she wanted no +more, for her diet had never been luxurious. Into every corner of the +house she intruded her small freckled nose, pulling down from shelves +all sorts of odds and ends that had been left behind as worthless at the +flitting. + +There was an old straw bonnet with a pair of dirty strings, and +therewith the damsel elected to adorn the tousled head, which evidenced +but slight acquaintance with comb or brush. She could not find any +feminine garments to please her fancy, but there was a boy's jacket, out +at elbows and ragged round the edges, which she proudly donned, and as a +finishing touch she popped her long slim legs, old shoes and all, into a +worn-out pair of man's top-boots that reached to her knees. + +"I just wish Mawm Mason had lef' a lookin'-glass behin', so's I could +see how I look. My! wouldn't she whack me if she seen me with this +bonnet on!" The child smiled broadly as she continued her confidential +address to the other valueless things left behind. "I allays knowed she +warn't my own mother, an' I'm glad Pete nor Matty aint my own brother +nor sister neither. I'd like him to see me in his jacket!" + +She pulled the coat across her narrow little chest to where it met in +the days when there were buttons on it, and marched up and down the +room, making as much noise as possible with the big boots. + +This killing of time was all very well while the daylight lasted and the +sun warmed up the frosty November air, but when the darkness began to +assert itself once more the small waif did not feel so contented. + +"There aint no use goin' over to Mis' Morgan's. She don't want me no +more'n Mis' Mason did. I guess I'll sleep upstairs to-night with some o' +them things over me. I'll be warm anyhow." + +In the middle of the front bedroom she heaped up all the _debris_ and +crawled beneath it. A fantastic pile it seemed to the moon when he +looked in after the rain had stopped, the childish head resting on the +cover of an old bandbox at one side and a pair of man's boots sticking +out at the other. + +The last scrap of bread was finished next day, and the two potatoes +picked up in the yard proved uneatable without the softening influence +of fire, so there was nothing for it but Mrs. Morgan's. After sunset, +when the rapidly falling temperature and the heavy bank of clouds in the +west gave warning of a snow-storm, the little girl, still wearing the +old bonnet, boy's jacket, and man's boots, left the only home she could +remember, and made her way slowly over the hard rough fields and snake +fences to the next farmhouse. + +Mrs. Morgan was running in from the barn with a shawl over her head. + +"Good sakes alive! Mary Mason! I hardly knowed you. What you got on? I +thought you was one o' them scarecrows out o' the fall wheat. Mis' +Mason moved to Californy three days ago. Didn't she take you with her?" + +"No, mawm." + +"So it 'pears. Wal, she hadn't any call to, I s'pose. You aint none o' +hers." + +By this time they were in the kitchen of the farmhouse, Mrs. Morgan +rubbing her hands above the stove, and Mary Mason also venturing near, +stretching out her thin arms to the heat, for the adopted jacket was +somewhat short in the sleeves. + +"What's that mark on yer wrist?" + +"Bruise--but it don't hurt now." + +"Who done it?" + +"Ma--Mis' Mason. I've lots worse'n that on me," said the small girl with +some vanity. + +"There, now! I jest knew that Mis' Mason was a hard case, though my man +would never hear to it. What you going to do now?" + +"I dunno." The accent implied that to be a matter of small moment. + +"I don't s'pose we can turn you out to-night. There's room in the attic +for you to sleep, but don't you go near one o' my girls' beds with that +head o' yourn." + +As a hostess, Mrs. Morgan was a slight improvement upon Mrs. Mason. She +never took stick or strap to the foundling, and if she occasionally gave +her a cuff on the ear it was never strong enough to knock the girl down. +But the Morgan children bullied Mary Mason, the Morgan father grumbled +at an extra mouth to feed, and when she had been about a month in the +house the mistress of it told her she must move on. + +"There's an old dress of Ellie's you can have, an' a pair of Sue's +cast-off boots, and Tom's old cap." + +"Where am I to go, mawm?" + +"You jest go on from one farmhouse to another, till you find a place +where they'll keep you all winter. It's comin' on to Christmas, an' +people won't be hard on ye. Tell 'em you aint got no folks." + + * * * * * + +The forlorn little pilgrim took up her march down the snow-covered road. + + + + +THE MAKING OF MARY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +MY wife is a theosophist. This fact may account for her numerous +eccentricities or be simply one of them. I incline to the latter +opinion, because she preferred the unbeaten to the beaten track, both in +walk and conversation, long before Modern Buddhism was ever heard of in +the small Western town of whose chief newspaper (circulation largest in +Michigan) I have the honor to be editor and proprietor. + +How such a hot-house plant as Theosophy ever took root in the swamps +and sands of the Wolverine State may seem surprising at the first +glance, but let the second rest upon our environment--the absence of +mountain or swift-flowing river, the presence of fever and ague and +half-burnt pine woods--and it will be seen that this Eastern lore with +its embarrassment of symbols supplies a long-felt want to starving +imagination. We of the West are forever reaching beyond our grasp, have +intelligence and perception, but lack the culture necessary for +discrimination, and therefore the romantic souls among us who rise above +the rampant materialism of the majority go to the other extreme, and +hail with enthusiasm the new-old religion. + +"It's better to believe too much than too little, but you theosophists +swallow an awful lot," I say to Belle when she tries to convert me. + +I am well aware that many of my fellow-citizens consider me a subject +for commiseration because I have lived for twenty years with so erratic +a house-mate, for I have not deemed it necessary to explain to them that +without the stimulus of her enlivening spirit, without the element of +surprise constantly contributed by my wife's love of variety, the daily +life, and therefore the daily paper, of their favorite editor would +partake of that flatness which is the predominant characteristic of this +western part of the State of Michigan. + +Our four sons and two daughters enjoy their mother fully as much as I +do, for is she not the most fascinating romancer they ever knew? Now +that they are all of an age to be attending school and looking out for +themselves, after the manner of independent young Americans, they +require from her nothing but sympathy, for their grandmother sews their +buttons on. Grandma!--Ay, there's the rub. + +I have no hesitation in owning that I am Scotch by birth. My mother left +her native land to make her home with us entirely too late in life to +allow Western ideas regarding Sabbath observance, the rearing of +children, or the amount of respect due to the opinion of elders, to +become ingrafted upon Scottish prejudice concerning these matters. + +Mrs. Gemmell Senior has, however, the national peculiarity of judging +"blood thicker than water," and whatever her convictions may be +concerning the methods of Mrs. Gemmell Junior, she restricts the +expression of them to our family circle--in fact, I may say, to myself. +She generally seizes me when I lie at my ease on the well-worn lounge in +our sitting room, more properly dubbed the "nursery," for it is Liberty +Hall for the youngsters. Two rooms have been knocked into one to +accommodate their dolls' houses, bookshelves, toys, and printing +machines. Belle had the whole side torn out of the house to build an +open fire-place, on purpose to burn slabs, over which the children roast +pop-corn to their hearts' content. + +"A body wad think," said my mother one cold night five or six years ago, +when I lay on the sofa, trying to send my weariness off in smoke, "A +body wad think there had been nae cherritable wark dune in the toon ava, +till they theossiphies set aboot it. If yer provost and baillies lookit +efter things as they ocht, there wad be a dacent puirs-house for the +idignant folk, an' a wheen daft leddies like Eesabel needna gang roun' +speirin' at yon infeedels for their siller tae build a hoose o' refuse." + +"There is a county poorhouse, mother, but it doesn't happen to be +located in this city, and they won't take in anybody there that hasn't +been a resident of the county for a certain time." + +"Aweel! there's plenty o' kirks, though ye never darken the door o' ane. +Do they no' leuk efter their ain puir folk?" + +"Yes; but after nobody else's. This House of Refuge is to be +non-sectarian, non-religious, humanitarian, in the broadest sense of the +term. Ah! There's Belle now," and I gave a sigh of relief as I heard my +wife's latch-key in the front door. + +She came in with an out-of-door breeze, her dark face glowing from the +wintry wind, flakes of newly fallen snow resting like diamonds upon her +prematurely white hair, and her brown eyes sparkling with the animation +of twenty summers rather than of forty-two. + +"Children all gone to bed? That's right! Don't go, mother! I'm sure +you'll like to hear about the House of Refuge. We've got it fixed at +last! Those rich old lumbermen that won't give a cent to a church, or +any charity connected with one, have gone to the bottom of their pockets +this time. Fancy Peter Wood, Dave--five hundred dollars! And Jeff +Henderson, five hundred. I have the list in my bag. Like to see it?" + +"No' the nicht, thenk ye," said my mother stiffly, but I added: + +"Hand it over to me, and I'll put it in to-morrow's _Echo_. That's what +they want." + +"Nothing of the kind, you old cynic! I shan't tell you another thing +about it." But still she went on: "We've taken the old Laurence house on +the corner of Garfield Avenue and Pine Street, and it's to be fitted up +to accommodate any sort of refugees." + +"Irrespective of race, creed, sex, or color," I whispered +parenthetically. + +"No one is ever to be turned from the door without a good square meal, +and there's to be a back, outside stair erected, up which a tramp can go +at any hour of the night, and find a nice clean bed awaiting him--locked +away from the rest of the house, of course." + +"Oh, why?" I innocently inquired. "Surely you have enough faith in your +brother man to believe that he would not commit any breach of +hospitality?" + +"_I_ have," replied Belle, squeezing my recumbent form further against +the back of the sofa, upon which she had seated herself. "But remember +we are not all theosophists on the Board." + +In the words of the historic witness against Mrs. Muldoon, "That's the +way the row began!" Belle was elected Treasurer of the House of Refuge, +but as she knows nothing of figures, I had to keep the books of that +unique institution, and was therefore enabled to form a practical +estimate of its workings. + +I shall not attempt a description of the numerous "cases" in which my +advice, if not my pocketbook, was freely drawn upon, but shall leave +them, along with the description of the many antecedent fads of my +beloved better half, to some historian of longer wind, and shall content +myself with recounting the particular "case"--and attachments--which +most nearly affected our family life and happiness. + + * * * * * + +"This is what I call solid comfort," said Belle to me one evening late +in September, as we sat in the parlor in a couple of deep, springy +armchairs, fronting a huge grate fire, that would be banished by the +lighting of the furnace. "Children all in school again, your mother off +on a long visit, and plenty of new books on the table." + +I looked up from one of the aforesaid new books. + +"Just wait! The season's business hasn't begun in the Refuge yet." + +"Everything is in good shape for it, though. We've had enough donations +of groceries and vegetables to keep us going almost all winter. We've +lots of wood for the furnace, and Mack and Hardy have given us some +second-hand furniture and----" + +The electric door-bell sent out a long, imperative summons. + +"Who can that be, Dave, at this time of night? None of the boys locked +out?" + +"No; they all went up to bed a while ago." + +Belle rose and walked to the door. I pulled the tidy from my chair-back +over my bald head to protect me from the draught, but that did not +prevent me from hearing what went on. + +"Are you Mrs. Gemmell?" This from a female voice, breathless with +excitement. + +"I am." + +"Then you are one of the trustees of the House of Refuge?" gasped +another feminine speaker. + +"Yes. Won't you come in?" + +"No, thank you. We've just come to tell you about this young girl who +has run to us for protection." + +"We're school-teachers, mawm." + +"She's in my class, and she hasn't a friend in the city and knew nowhere +else to go." + +Then followed some hysterical whispers, which roused my curiosity so +much that I went to the door and peeped over the shoulder of my tall +wife. The two plain, business-like young women were evidently much +distressed, but between them was a fair-haired slip of a girl of +fifteen or sixteen, the least disturbed of the group. The three older +women might have been talking in a foreign tongue, or of someone else, +so unconcerned did she appear, present danger being over. + +"How did she happen to be with these people?" Belle was asking as I came +forward. + +"The wife of this brute of a man told us that she was nursemaid with the +Ferguson Family Concert Company, but they dropped her here in Lake City +without a friend or a cent." + +"She took her in to help sell fruit and ice cream evenings, and she let +her go to school through the day." + +At this juncture the subject under discussion broke into a beaming +smile, showing all her fine teeth. Her cheek dimpled and reddened, and +her blue eyes, full of fun, looked straight into mine. I became +suddenly aware that I had forgotten to remove the tidy, and retired in +confusion, but heard Belle's conclusion of the interview: + +"Just wait a second till I give you a line to the matron of the House of +Refuge. You can leave the girl there till we see what can be done for +her. She'll be perfectly safe, and had better keep on going to school as +usual." + + * * * * * + +A week afterward I asked my wife what had become of her latest +_protegee_. + +"You mean Mary Mason? She's in the refuge yet, attending school, and +we've settled that man's ice-cream saloon." + +"How?" + +"Boycotted him. We can't reach him any other way." + +"That's rather hard on his wife, who seems to be a decent sort of +party." + +"The innocent often appear to suffer with and for the guilty, but if +you understood the law of Karma you would know that all the evil that +befalls us is really the result of some wrongdoing of our own in a +previous incarnation. Mary Mason herself is an instance." + +"What's the matter with her?" + +"Poor girl! She's been knocked from pillar to post all her days. She +hasn't an idea who her parents are, and there isn't a creature in the +world she has any claim upon. She must have gone very far astray _last +time_ to have been brought into the world again with such +disadvantages." + +"It appears to me she has a great many advantages--lovely blue eyes, +good teeth, the fashionable golden shade of hair, and the prettiest +complexion I've seen for many a day." + +"Don't be provoking, Dave! The poor little thing has the marks of some +of her beatings on her yet. The Ferguson family were the first who ever +treated her decently, or paid her any wages." + +"Why did they drop her?" + +"One of our Committee took it upon herself to write and ask them. They +replied that the girl was of perfectly good character, so far as they +knew, but she fell so ridiculously in love with Frank Ferguson, their +eldest son, that she was making a nuisance of herself, and so they had +to let her go." + +I laughed. + +"There are generally two sides to that kind of story." + +"At the meeting of the trustees to-morrow it is to be decided what's to +be done with her, because she says she doesn't want to go to school any +more. She's never had much of a chance before to learn anything, and +she's in a class with little bits of girls, and she doesn't like +it--says she'd rather go to work to earn her own living." + +Belle came home from that meeting with her face ablaze with righteous +wrath. Her hands trembled so much over the teacups at our evening meal +that even sixteen year old Watty, our eldest son, remarked it. + +"What's the matter with _mamma_? Her trolley's off." + +I knew there was trouble in the wind, so I fortified myself with a good +supper and read my paper at the same time, to leave myself free for what +was to follow. The children study their lessons in the back end of the +nursery, and I therefore forbore to take up my usual position upon the +sofa, but withdrew to the parlor with my pipe. + +Presently my wife followed me, nearly walking over the furniture in her +excitement. + +"Go on, Belle; out with it!" + +"You will listen, will you, seriously?" + +"Certainly, mawm. I never had any sort of an objection to your making a +scavenger barrel of me, so go ahead." + +"Oh, these benevolent women, Dave! Any one of them alone is as +good-hearted as can be, but lump them together on a committee, and +they're as cold and cruel and grasping as the meanest business man you +could name!" + +"More so!" said I, approvingly, and for once Isabel did not resent the +disparagement of her sex. + +"The question arose, what was to be done about Mary Mason, and every one +of them, David--every one of them, with young daughters of their own +growing up at home, voted to let that girl go round this town selling a +book." + +"Was that what she wanted to do herself?" + +"Yes; but think of them letting her do it! You know as well as I do what +sort of a city this is, and whether it's safe for a lovely girl like +that to go to men's offices, trying with her pretty looks and ways to +wheedle them into subscribing for Stanley's 'Darkest Africa.' Oh, I was +wild! I said to Mrs. Robinson: 'How would you like your Lulu to do it?' +'The cases are very different,' said she; 'my daughter has no need to +earn her living.' 'Mrs. Constable,' said I, 'if your grandchild were +left alone in the world, what would you think of the charity of any body +of women who allowed her to go from under their protection to make her +living in this way?' 'I don't see the connection,' said she; 'Mary +Mason's been fighting the world since she was seven years old, and just +because she happens to have a pretty face, you seem to think she should +be put in a glass case and never do anything for herself.'" + +"She had you there, Belle," said I, pulling her down to the arm of my +big easy-chair. "Let the girl alone; she'll come out all right. She's +too good-looking for a nurse or a housemaid, and she doesn't know enough +arithmetic to be a shop girl. I don't see what else she can do." + +"That's just what the ladies calmly decided," said my wife, walking the +floor again. "They seemed to think that a little business training would +just be the making of Mary. Oh, these Christians!" + +"You see, my dear," said I, "committees are not supposed to have any +conscience. They have the income of the Refuge in trust for the +contributors, and they have no right to keep on supporting a girl who is +willing to work for herself. How she proposes to do it is none of their +business." + +"That's just what it is--their business; their business to see that she +doesn't meet the very fate we've saved her from once already. Oh! +there's no getting these narrow-minded, orthodox, bigoted people to see +more than one side of a question." + +"Take care you don't become dogmatic on your own side," said I, rising +to knock the ashes out of my pipe. "If it's the law of Karma that's +responsible for her having been left to shift for herself at so early an +age, it's the same law that's after her now, and I wouldn't interfere +with its operations, if I were you." + +"You don't in the least understand what you are talking about," and +Belle sailed from the room to settle a noisy dispute in the nursery. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +THROUGH that winter I caught occasionally a glimpse of Mary Mason on the +street, but as I had not the pleasure of her acquaintance, I did not +stop to ask her how she was getting on. My wife told me, however, that +she lived in a room over a store down town, and took her meals out, and +that she was succeeding very well with her subscription list. + +"The girl is all right, if only the gossips would let her alone. Some of +them assert that she had a child in the Refuge, and though the ladies on +our committee indignantly deny that, they shake their heads, and say of +course they don't know anything about her now." + +"It's the only excitement a lot of these women have," said I. "They +wouldn't read a French novel for the world, and some of them wouldn't be +seen in a theater, so they have to satisfy their morbid craving for +sensationalism by hearing and repeating all sorts of unsavory tales--and +they do it in the name of charity! They're very sorry that there is so +much wickedness in the world, but since it is there, they enjoy the +investigation of details, and it doesn't matter very much whether +they're doing any good or not." + +"There aren't any details to investigate, so far as Mary Mason is +concerned. I took pains to make sure of that, when I heard that a big +hulk of a machinist, who rooms on the same flat, was telling lies about +her, just because she refused to have anything to say to him." + +When I was leaving the _Echo_ office at noon one day I saw Henderson's +handsome black span, with the wreck of a sleigh behind them, come down +the street at a full gallop, and I was just debating with myself whether +my duty as a citizen, which called me to attempt to stop the brutes, was +stronger than my duty to my wife and family, which bade me stay where I +was, when a young lady jumped the snow ridge at the edge of the sidewalk +and flung herself at the bit of the nearest horse. The powerful animal +swung her right off her feet, but he was checked for an instant, and in +that instant a young man seized the mate on the other side; the team was +stopped and surrounded by a crowd directly. Then I saw it was Mary Mason +who was the heroine of the drama. She withdrew from the throng, +straightened her flat hat above her rosy face, and walked off with her +habitual indifferent air. + +"She's got good grit, that girl," said I to myself, but I thought no +more about her till I came home on a certain evening in March, and found +her comfortably ensconced on one side of our nursery fire, while my +mother from the other side cast suspicious glances at her over her +spectacles. "Miss Mason," had supper with us, and then I retired to my +big leather-covered spring rocker in the parlor to await developments. +That chair needs to be approached with deference, for it has a +precocious trick of either tilting in the air the feet of any unwary +occupant, or of tipping him out on the floor. I know its disposition, +can preserve my proper balance, and have never been flung either forward +or backward--except once each way. + +Presently Belle followed me, "loaded up," as the boys say. + +"It seems as if I was never to get free from the responsibility of that +child." + +"What's up now?" + +"Down town to-day I met the chief of police----" + +"Great chum of yours!" + +"Yes, indeed. We've had considerable conversation at different times +about some of my cases. To-day he said, 'You're interested in that young +girl, Mary Mason, aint you, Mrs. Gemmell?' 'Yes,' said I, though my +heart sank, and I didn't see why he couldn't have addressed any other +one of the committee; 'anything wrong with her?' 'Not yet,' said he; +'but there will be pretty soon if somebody doesn't look after her. +There's a scheme on foot to take her off to Chicago--to sell a book--so +they say.' 'Good gracious! Nobody would dare!' 'Wouldn't they, though?' +said he. 'There's a well-known drummer in this town at the bottom of +it. He's aware the girl has no friends, and in Chicago she don't even +know a soul. It's too bad, for I've had my eye on the young woman all +winter, and she's kept perfectly straight.' + +"You may think, Dave, that I ought to be hardened to horrors by this +time, but I became fairly dazed as the chief of police went on to say, +'I can't move in the matter. We never can touch these things until the +mischief is done; but if you like to make inquiries, you'll find out +that I've been telling you the truth.' + +"When he left me, I turned to come home, not knowing what to do, but +going round the first corner, didn't I run right into Mary Mason +herself! I hadn't laid eyes on her for a couple of months. 'How d'ye do, +Mrs. Gemmell?' she said, for I stopped and stared at her as if she'd +been a white crow. 'What about "Darkest Africa?"' I found breath to +ask, though it was Darkest Chicago I had in my mind. 'I've done with +that now,' she said; 'did very well, too.' 'And what are you going to do +next?' 'I dunno. Whatever turns up. I've got an offer to go to Chicago +to sell a book there.' I caught her by the arm as if I'd been the chief +of police. 'Mary, will you please go to my house and wait there for me +till I come?' 'Oh, yes, mawm, if you want me to,' and off she went, +asking no questions. + +"Well, Dave, I've put in four hours of amateur detective work this +afternoon, and I feel as if I needed a moral bath. I found out it was +all true, as the chief of police had said. There was a plot to ruin the +girl, and I don't think the author of it will forget his interview with +me in a hurry." + +"What good will that do the young woman? There are plenty more of his +kind in the world, and with her inherited tendencies I suppose it's only +a question of time--how soon she goes to the bad." + +"David Gemmell!" + +It is worth while making a caustic speech occasionally to see Isabel +rise to her full height. Her brown eyes positively emit sparks, and her +gray hair, which she wears waved and parted, gives her an air of +distinction that would not be out of place upon an avenging spirit. + +"I came home all tired out," she went on, sinking into the chair beside +mine, "and looking through the nursery window, there sat Mary Mason with +our little Chrissie on her knee. The two faces in the firelight looked +so much alike that my heart gave a great thump, and I vowed that girl +should never be set adrift again. This is the second time she has been +cast upon my shore, and I must see to her." + +So Mary Mason dropped into our family circle without anybody having very +much to say in the matter--except my mother! + +"Wha's yon 'at Eesabell's ta'en up wi' the noo?" + +"Her name's Mason," said I; "Mary Mason." + +"I h'ard yer wife was thinkin' o' keepin' a hoosemaid, but I didna +expeck tae see her pap hersel' doon at the table wi' the fem'ly." + +"She's not a housemaid. She's just staying with us for a while." + +"Ye'd think Eesabell micht hae eneugh adae wi' her ain, 'thoot takin' in +ony strangers." + +"But Mary is to help with the housework, in return for her board and +clothes." + +"Let her wear a kep an' apron, then, an' eat wi' Marg'et." + +"Margaret might object," and I laughed at the probable dismay of our +stalwart, rough-and-ready five-foot-tenner, should this ladyfied blonde +permanently invade her domain. + +"Hoo lang's she gaun to st'y?" + +"That's more than I can tell you." + +When Mary had been a week in the house, it became apparent that +something must be done with her. + +"She's bound she'll not go back to the public school, Dave, and yet she +cannot read or write. Do you think we can afford to send her to +boarding-school--to a convent, for instance, where she'd be well looked +after, and allowances made for her backwardness?" + +Belle and I were out driving together. It was the first springlike +evening we had had, and I was trying Jim Atwood's new mare on Maple +Avenue, which had been newly block-paved. So engrossed was I in watching +her paces I did not reply to my wife at once, and she continued: + +"You were going to get me a horse and a victoria this spring, but I'm +willing to give them up to send Mary to school." + +"Please yourself, my dear. You would be the one to use the turnout. I'm +content to borrow from my friends. Isn't she a beauty?" + +Belle came out of space to answer me. + +"Yes, just now; but she'll not be when she's old. Her features are not +good at all; her forehead's too narrow, and her nose too broad. Were it +not for her lovely hair and complexion, she'd have nothing to brag about +but a pair of very ordinary blue eyes." + +"Who? The mare?" + +"Don't be stupid, Dave, and do attend to what I am saying. I hardly ever +have a chance to speak to you, goodness knows!" + +"You get the editorial ear oftener and longer than anybody else." + +"Lend it to me now, then. Don't you think a convent would be the best +place for Mary?" + +"Perhaps--as there are no theosophical educational institutions that we +know about." + +"Mary isn't far enough on for theosophist yet. She'll have to come back +many times before she is. The Roman Catholic Church is on her plane this +incarnation." + +"It does seem to catch the masses, that's a fact, whereas your theosophy +doesn't appear to be practicable for uneducated people nor for +children." + +"I don't agree with you there." + +"Then why were you so anxious to send Watty to a church school to finish +his education, and why are you on the lookout already for a +boarding-school for the two girls where they will have the best of +Christian influences? What is your object in being so particular that +the younger boys are regular in their attendance at our surpliced +choir?" + +"It gives them a good idea of music--but that is not the point just now. +Can we afford to send Mary Mason to a convent, or can we not?" + +"Choose between her and the buggy mare 'suitable for a lady to drive,'" +said I; but in reality it was my mother who settled the question. + +When we came home that evening she was sitting by the fireside, + + "Nursin' her wrath to keep it warm." + +"Ye maun either pit yon hizzy oot the hoose, or I'll hitta gang." + +"What's the matter now, mother?" + +"I tell't her to brush the boys' bits tae be ready for the schule in the +mornin'. They were thrang wi' their lessons an' she wasna daein' a han's +turn." + +"And what did she say?" + +"S'y! I wush ye'd seen the leuk she gi'ed me!" + +"The boys can brush their ain bits," said she; "I'm no' their servant." + +I laughed. + +"It's well seen she hasn't been brought up in Scotland, or she would +know it was the bounden duty of the girls in the house to wait on the +boys." + +"An' a hantle better it is than to see the laddies aye rinnin' efter the +lasses, tendin' them han' an' fut as they dae here. When a man comes +hame efter his d'y's wark, he should be let sit on his sate, an' hae a' +things dune for him." + +"David," said Belle, sinking to a footstool at my feet with a dramatic +gesture, "you shall never button my boots again! But seriously," she +continued, as mother withdrew in high dudgeon to her sanctum upstairs, +"I don't think Mary should be expected to brush the boys' boots. We +didn't engage her as servant, and even if we had, there isn't a hired +girl in this part of the country that wouldn't make a fuss if she had to +brush the boots of the man of the house, not to mention the boys. We'll +have to pack Mary off somewhere, if only to keep the peace." + +So Mary was sent to a convent, and at the end of three months came back +for her holidays to our summer cottage at Interlaken. Being so near the +big lake does not agree with my mother, and she rarely spends more than +a week with us there, but during July and August visits my married +sister in town. The coast was clear for Belle and me to decide what +progress had been made in the making of Mary, and we fancied we +discovered a good deal. + +"What have they done to you, those nuns, to tone you down so quickly, +Mary?" I asked, as she sat beside me, swinging in a low rocker, and +looking so pretty that I was quite proud of her as an ornament to our +front veranda. + +"I dunno," she said, "unless it was the exercise for sitting perfectly +still on a row of chairs. A nun goes behind us and drops a big book or +something, and any girl that jumps gets a bad mark." + +"Capital!" I cried; "no wonder you have learned repose of manner." + +Thus encouraged, the girl continued: + +"Then we have little parties and receptions, and we have to converse +with the nuns and with each other, and anybody that mentions one of the +three D's gets a bad mark." + +"The three D's?" + +"Yes, sir--Dress, Disease, and Domestics." + +"Hear this, Belle," I said, laughing, as my wife took the rocking chair +on the other side of me; "fancy any collection of women being obliged to +steer clear of the three D's!" + +"You should ask Mary about her studies," was the severe reply. "We were +much pleased with your letters." + +"Yes, mawm; Sister Stella was always very good about that; helped me +with the big words, and often wrote the whole thing out for me. +Sometimes I had to copy it two or three times before I could please +her." + +Belle hastily changed the subject. "Let Mr. Gemmell hear that piece you +recited to me this morning." + +I am no judge of elocution, but the general effect of the young girl +standing there in the arch of the veranda, a clematis-wreathed post on +either side, and her face, with its delicate coloring, turned toward the +golden twilight, was pleasing in the extreme. + +"She'll maybe be famous some day," said Belle, when Mary had discreetly +retired. "She is far quicker at learning verses off by heart than she is +at reading them." + +"Still, to be a successful elocutionist nowadays one has to be +thoroughly well educated, and Mary is too late in beginning." + +"You can't tell. She's got the appearance, and that's half the battle." + +"With us, perhaps; but remember, we are not capable critics, even though +one of us is a Theosophist." + +"Laugh as you like, Dave. Theosophy satisfies me, because it explains +some things in my own nature that I never could understand before." + +"It may be that you are too soon satisfied. That's the way with all new +movements--one story is good till another is told. Your +great-granddaughter will smile at the credulity of your ideas on this +very subject." + +"She can smile, and so can you. We don't pretend to know everything; we +only hope that we are on the right road to learn. I, for one, am +thankful to think that there are wiser heads than mine puzzling over the +problem of our psychic powers. I've always taken impressions from +inanimate objects, and it has bothered me. Now I find my sensations +analyzed and classified under the head of Psychometry, and it is a +comfort to know that other people besides myself can discern an _aura_, +and are foolishly wise enough to trust the impressions they receive in +that way." + +"But if I were you, I don't think I'd make a parlor entertainment out of +the gift,--if it is a gift,--as I heard you did at the Wades' the other +night." + +"Who told you? What have you heard?" + +"Newspaper men hear everything. You asked Mr. Saxon to hold his +handkerchief pressed tightly in his hand for a few minutes, and then to +give it to you. You shut your eyes as you held it, and received the +impression of his 'aura,' or the atmosphere which surrounds him, or +whatever you like to call it, and then the company asked you questions, +and you gave him a great old character. He didn't like it a bit, nor did +his wife, nor his mother-in-law. You'll make enemies for yourself if you +don't watch out." + +"It _was_ wrong of me to exercise my powers just to gratify idle +curiosity. No good Theosophist would approve of it." + +"Say, rather, 'no sensible person would.' The Theosophists haven't a +monopoly of common sense. To me they appear slightly deficient in that +article, but I dare say they make up for it in uncommon sense." + +"You speak more wisely than you know," said Belle solemnly. "If I hadn't +taken in some of the Brotherhood ideas I wonder where that pretty, +innocent young girl would have been by this time. Would you like me to +go back and be as I was in the old days, a rank materialist, caring for +nothing but dress, dancing, and having a good time? You know you +wouldn't, David. You know as well as I do that Theosophy has been the +making of me, and through me it shall be the making of Mary too." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +TO the Scotchman or Englishman, with Loch Katrine or Windermere in his +fond memory's eye, it is not surprising that the great lakes of America +seem howling wildernesses of water, for the shores are mostly low and +unpicturesque. There is no changing tide to give variety, no strong +smell of seaweed nor salt breeze to brace the wearied nerves, but the +wearied nerves are braced nevertheless. The sand is soft and clean to +extend one's length upon, and the waves forever rolling up at one's feet +are soothing in their monotony. There is no fear of the encroachment of +the water, no fear of its leaving a bare mud-flat for nearly a mile; and +the unlimited expanse of blue which meets the horizon satisfies the eye, +which cares not if the land on the other side be hundreds or thousands +of miles away, so long as it be out of sight. + +Two young people one evening in July seemed to find Lake Michigan +perfectly satisfactory in every respect. The girl sat on a log of +driftwood, poking holes in the sand with the pointed toes of her shoes, +much too fine for the purpose, while the young man stretched at her feet +looked at her instead of the sunset they had come to admire. I could not +help thinking what a pretty picture they made, as I strolled along the +shore with my pipe, to get cooled off after a very hot day in town. + +The family were all at Interlaken, but Margaret was left in Lake City +to keep the grass watered, and to give me my midday dinner. I am unable +to decide which occupation she considered the more important. It is not +easy to get grass to grow with us, and anyone who can display a +reasonably green patch in July and August gives evidence of considerable +perseverance in the matter of lawn sprinkling. I told Margaret she would +be ready to enter the Fire Brigade next winter, she was getting to be +such an expert with the hose. But to return to the shore of Michigan. + +The pair of lovers interested me so much that I gradually edged nearer +to them. The species seldom objects to the proximity of a stout little +man with a prosaic pipe in his mouth and a pair of light blue eyes, +handicapped by spectacles, that seem always to be looking for a sail on +the horizon. In fact, I never attract any attention anywhere, unless my +wife is along, and then I am only too proud and happy to shine in her +reflection. + +So I sat down on a piece of stump, worn white and smooth like a skeleton +before being cast up by the waves; but when the two caught sight of me, +the man sprang up and came toward me, holding out his hand, while the +girl sauntered off in the other direction, and I saw that she was Mary +Mason. + +"Hello, Link?" said I to the young fellow. "Didn't know you were down +here." + +"I'm at the hotel for a week or two. I've just been making the +acquaintance of your adopted daughter." + +"My what?" + +"You have adopted her, haven't you?" + +"Don't know that I have--hadn't considered the matter at all." + +"She's a sweet girl, and a beauty too. Anyone would be proud to own +her." + +"You'd better let Dolly Martin hear you say that." + +Abraham Lincoln Todd straightened himself up in the most independent +bachelor style. + +"She can look after me when we're married, but in the meantime I'm a +free man." + +He is considered very handsome, tall and dark, a good business man too, +and Belle had quite approved of the engagement between him and Dolly +Martin, who, though not a pretty girl, was strong and sensible, and the +daughter of one of her oldest friends. + +Lincoln must be taking advantage of his intimacy with our family to +flirt with Mary Mason. + +Interlaken is not a fashionable resort. Even the hotel is a homely +abode, which the guests seem to run themselves, though they generally +prefer to live outdoors and go inside only for meals and beds. Once in +a while, on a chilly evening, the young people get up a dance, and some +of us older folks are dragged into it too. + +Scotchmen love to dance, and I am no exception. I am not up to waltzing +or any of the newfangled round dances, but give me a Highland +schottische, or a square dance, when there is an inventive genius to +call off the figures and prescribe plenty of variety. There was no +professional caller-off at Interlaken, but Lincoln Todd did duty for one +as he danced. When he tired of it, and led off into a round of waltzes, +ripples, jerseys, bon tons, rush polkas, and goodness knows what +besides, I remained as a wall-flower. + +The reason that I sat there was that I could not take my eyes off Mary +Mason. Where she learned to dance I know not, but dance she did, with a +grace and _abandon_ that made every other girl in the room a +clod-hopper. Lincoln Todd was quite infatuated with her. + +Ours is one of the dozen or so of cottages that radiate from the big +hotel. Most of the cottagers take dinner and supper at the hotel, being, +like ourselves, in a servantless condition. Belle said she could get +along perfectly well without Margaret, when she had Mary Mason to help +her with the housework, and, indeed, there was not much to be done. The +four bedrooms open into one central room that we call the sitting-room, +but it is only in wet weather it justifies the name, for, as a rule, we +sit in rockers or swing in hammocks on the broad veranda that runs round +three sides of the house. The cottages lie so close together that a good +jumper can easily spring from one veranda to the next, and the lady +proprietors gossip across, and the men too when they come down from +business every evening, or from Saturday till Monday. My lot is +generally the shorter allowance, and one Sunday afternoon I lay in my +favorite hammock on the north side of the veranda, sleeping the sleep of +the brain-tired editor, till voices roused me. + +"Mary, where did you get that new tennis racket?" + +"Mr. Todd gave it to me." + +"Haven't I told you distinctly that you were not even to take candy from +Mr. Todd?" + +"He gives things to you and Chrissie." + +"That's a very different matter. Chrissie is a child, and he is an old +friend of the family." + +"I can't help it if he likes to give me presents." + +"You can help taking them, especially from an engaged man." + +"I don't care if he is engaged. He says he don't care anything at all +about Miss Martin. He only went after her for her money. He likes me +best, and he says he'll never marry her." + +"Mary! I should think you'd know better than to make yourself so cheap. +You give Mr. Todd back that racket right away, and tell him Mrs. Gemmell +said you were not to keep it, and the next time he brings you down +flowers or chocolates you do the same." + +If I had not known the sex and the approximate age of Mary, I should +have thought it was a small boy in a temper who stamped off the veranda. + +The next Saturday night the full moon was assisted in her duties by a +large bonfire down on our beach. The Adamless Eden, having received its +"week-end" male contingent, was stimulated to a corn-roasting. The green +ears, stuck on the ends of long sticks, were held by girls and men over +the fire till roasted, and then passed on to a row of matrons, disguised +in large aprons, who salted and buttered them ready for eating. If you +know anything that tastes sweeter than a freshly roasted and buttered +ear of Indian corn, your experience is broader than mine. + +Using my eyes habitually in the way of business, I could not avoid +noticing that Lincoln Todd was not collecting his share of driftwood for +keeping up the fire, nor did I see Mary Mason's pretty face in the +garland of beauties bending with eager interest over the poles bayoneted +with cobs of corn. It may have been fear of spoiling her complexion that +kept her at one side whispering with Link, but it served them both right +that Dolly Martin should choose that very moment for her stage entrance. +She and her mother joined the group of butterers, and I noticed that +Mrs. Martin returned Belle's cordial greeting rather stiffly. Then Miss +Dolly calmly walked over to the pair sitting apart, having evidently +recognized the back of Lincoln's blazer. She pretended to stumble over +one of his feet. + +"Oh, excuse me!" said she; and when Link sprang up, Mary Mason had the +pleasure of witnessing the warmest sort of a meeting between the engaged +lovers. They sallied off in the moonlight, his arm around her waist. + +No one but me noticed the young girl slipping down on the sand, and +laying her head on the log on which she had been sitting, and even I +pretended not to see that her handkerchief was in action. + +"Hello, Mary!" said I, "I'll match you skipping stones. Look at this!" + +With that I sent a beautiful flat one skimming along with nearly a dozen +hops in the brilliant track of the moon on the water. She did not pay +any attention to me at first, and I kept skipping away, just as if I +did not see her mopping her eyes. By-and-by a stroke worthy of myself +sent a pebble spinning through the ripples, and Mary's ready laugh rang +out beside me. Within twenty minutes of Dolly Martin's appearance on the +scene, "Mamie" was the center of the corn-roasters, and the gayest of +the gay. Belle told me she kept on that line of conduct during the whole +week that Miss Martin and her mother stayed at the hotel. + +"It seemed to me that Dolly took a special pleasure in parading her +happiness before poor Mary, but Mary never showed the white feather." + +"There's the making of a fine woman in her." + +"That may be," said my wife. "But this last week she has been extremely +wearing on me. Having no particular man on the string, she has followed +me about like a spaniel, wanted to know what I'm reading, and has begun +a book the minute I'm through with it." + +"I've seen her carrying 'The Coming Race' about with her lately, but I +notice that the bookmark always stays in the same place." + +Mary became fond of solitary rambles back in the pine woods, intersected +by plank walks that made promenading possible. People liked to wander +through there in the evenings, when the camp-lights in the hollows lent +a mysterious charm, and on up to the big Knight Templar's Building, +erected on the highest point of the sandy bluff overlooking Lake +Michigan. Every night that prominent structure blazed with electric +lights, and sometimes a band played on the veranda; but the only +visitors were cottagers and guests from the hotel, who went up there to +walk about and enjoy the prospect. + +Our city editor often surprises me with the depth and breadth of his +local information. For example, I opened the _Echo_ one day to be made +aware that "Miss Mamie Gemmell" had outstripped all the lady bicyclists +in town by making the distance between Lake City and Interlaken in +forty-seven minutes. It was also remarked that she was one of the most +graceful lady riders on the road. + +I wonder how many generations a man must be removed from Scotland before +he becomes callous to the disposition of the family name. I own that I +squirmed inwardly, but with outward composure asked Belle where Mary got +the "bike." + +"Watty's old one. He taught Mary to ride it, and then made her a present +of it, for he's set his heart on a new wheel." + +"Confoundedly generous of him!" + +"I'm glad you look at it that way. It is so seldom that he does give up +anything for anybody, I thought he ought to be encouraged, and I said he +should have a new bicycle with pneumatic tires and all the latest +improvements at Christmas, if you did not see fit to give it to him +sooner." + +In August I took my annual day's fishing, which has come to be rather a +joke in the house, because, in spite of my elaborate preparations the +night before, and the unheard-of hour at which I rise in the morning, I +have never been known to catch anything worth bringing home. + +This time my companion was a journalist from Chicago, an ardent young +fellow, who could not keep from "shop" even when off on his holidays, +and who had started a small weekly paper in which were to be recorded +the doings of a certain congress holding a summer session in our grove. + +We rowed up the little lake on the edge of the lily-pads, fishing both +sides of it, but caught nothing except a sunfish or two. Then we lit our +pipes and talked. + +"What an extremely clever young lady that adopted daughter of yours is. +I heard only the other day that she is not your own." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, sir. No one would believe it to talk to her, but she's got a +surprisingly bright mind for one so young. She can't be more than +seventeen, but her descriptions are good enough for one of the best +magazines, and she has evidently thought a lot on all the leading topics +of the day. Why, she's up in Hypnotism, Evolution, Theosophy--everything!" + +"Bless my soul! How did you find all that out?" + +Thereupon he fished from his pocket a couple of his tiresome little +publications. + +"I asked her to write something for our paper, that's how I know. Want +to see?" + +I do not set up to be a literary critic, but I guess I know my own +wife's style of composition when I encounter it. During the two years +that we were engaged she lived in Detroit and I in Indiana, and I missed +her letters so much after we were married that to this day she is in the +habit of letting me read those she writes to other people. I was not +going to give her away to that newspaper man, though, for the name "Mary +Gemmell" stared me in the face from the end of each article; but I +remonstrated with Belle when I reached home. + +"How could I help it, Dave? There was the girl teasing me to write +something for her because this fellow had asked her to do it. She said I +could scribble down something just as easy as not, and then she could +copy it for him. Copy it! She took hours to do it, and I considered she +deserved all the praise she got for the articles." + +"I wouldn't do it again, if I were you. It sets the girl sailing under +false colors." + +"Poor Mary! Her one little accomplishment has been of no use to her +since that professional elocutionist came to the hotel, and I hated to +see her cast altogether into the shade, especially while Dolly Martin +was here." + +Still there came another production from the pen of Miss Mary Gemmell. + +"Really, Belle," said I, "this is carrying the joke too far." + +"Don't you worry about it. Some of the old cats at the hotel began to +suspect that Mary hadn't written those things, and accused me to my face +of doing it myself, so I had to write an account of the picnic up the +little lake, because they all know I wasn't there at all!" + +"Let this be the last, then." + +"It shall, I assure you, for I am much displeased with Mary. Since Mrs. +Martin and Dolly left, she's been going it just as hard as ever with +Lincoln Todd. If you walk up to the Knight Templar's Building I'll +warrant you'll find them there promenading this very minute." + +"No, I won't, because I passed them just a little while ago as I came +through the woods, sitting on a secluded bench, his arm round her waist +and her head on his shoulder." + +"Didn't they see you?" + +"I dare say, but I never let on I saw them. What's the use? I can't be +expected to leave the _Echo_ to my subs, and come down here to play +special policeman to Mary Mason. I should have thought Todd was more of +a gentleman." + +"So should I, but I've spoken to him, quarreled with him indeed, so +that he doesn't come near the house, but I know that he and Mary meet +just the same. Thank Heaven! he will be married soon." + +"Have you told Mary that?" + +"Yes; but she laughs and shrugs her shoulders; evidently thinks she +knows more about Lincoln Todd's intentions than I do." + +In the last week of August Mr. Todd went off for a few days "on +business," and then there came a dreadful morning when the announcement +of his marriage to Dolly Martin appeared in the _Echo_. + +Mary would not believe her ears. She took the paper down to the beach, +and spelled out the notice word by word. Then she lay down on the sand +and bawled, kicking and squealing like a year-old infant when Belle +appealed to her self-respect. + +"I could have spanked her well," said my wife. The worst of it was that +the whole hotel was "on to the racket," as Watty vulgarly expressed it, +and rather chuckled over Belle's mortification, instead of sympathizing +with her in the trying time she was having with her "adopted daughter." + +Our grief, as a family, was not unbearable when the time came in +September for Mary Mason to go back to the convent. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +THE self-assertive sleigh-bells suddenly ceased their tinkling, and the +long covered van, with its four horses, drew up in front of our "House +of Many Gables," in Lake City. Watty, then a tall lad of eighteen, +over-coated, fur-capped, and gloved, went quickly out, banging the front +door after him, while his younger brothers and sisters made holes with +their breath through the frost on the window panes, to watch his +departure with the hilarious load of young folks. + +"Why aint you goin', Mame?" asked Joe, our smallest son, of the girl +spending her Christmas holidays with us. + +"Wasn't asked," she replied defiantly. "An' what's more, I don't care to +go anywheres, neither, if the girls don't act better to me than they +done at that party the other night." + +Belle raised her head from the Treasurer's book of the House of Refuge. + +"Perhaps you weren't nice to them, Mary?" + +"Yes, I was too. I smiled whenever one of them looked at me, but they +all turned their heads as if they'd never seen me before." + +My wife sighed as she bent over her book again. If the difficulty of +befriending Mary rested only with outsiders it might have been patiently +borne, but there was mother, to whom the girl's presence in the house +was a constant grievance. + +I had been able to buy a quiet horse and a Mikado cutter for Belle when +the snow came, but she had no pleasure out of them during the vacation. + +"I'm going to drive downtown, mother," I heard her say one morning. +"Would you like to go?" + +"Is Mary gaun?" + +"I thought of taking her." + +"Then I'll no' gang. I wadna like to crood Mary." + +"Dear mother, there's plenty of room." + +"Ay, ay, but ye ken Mary doesna like tae sit wi' her back tae the +horse." + +That sort of thing was always happening. One day the old lady came home +from a round of visits, much perturbed in mind and body. The sandy hair +I inherited, and have largely lost, does not show the gray with which it +is mixed, and so light and wiry is she one finds it difficult to +remember my mother's seventy years. She is a small woman, but her +personality is sufficiently large for the ripples to be felt throughout +the household when its surface is disturbed. + +"What dae ye think I've been hearin'?" she cried, finding me alone in +the nursery on the sofa, and helpless in her hands. + +"I can't imagine, mother. You generally have something spicy to tell us +after you've been calling on the MacTavishes." + +"Dae ye ken 'at yon hizzy ye've ta'en intill yer hoose ca's hersel' Mary +_Gemmell_?" + +"Oh, well, what's in a name?" + +"I wonner tae hear ye, Davvit! What wad yer faither hae thocht aboot it, +or yer gran'faither? Gie'n the femly name, that's come doon unspotted +frae ae generation till anither, tae a funnlin' aff the streets! Ou, ay! +I micht 'a' kent what wad happen when I h'ard tell o' ye bein' merrit +till an Amerrican." + +"Hold up there, mother. You're just twenty years too late in raking up +that story. If it suits me and Belle to have that girl called 'Mary +Gemmell,' Mary Gemmell she shall be, if it turns all Scotland head over +heels into the North Sea." + +So seldom do I break out that an eruption of mine never fails to clear +the air of an unwelcome topic. + +Our boys have grown up on a sort of an "every-man-for himself" +principle, and when it came to a fight for the favorite corner of the +sofa, the favorite game, or picture-book, "Mamie" was in the thick of it +every time. + +"What else can you expect?" said I to Belle, consolingly. "She's been +fighting the world on her own account ever since she can remember, and +our house represents to her only a change of battle ground." + +"I think her father must have been a gentleman." + +"He certainly had one gentlemanly peculiarity." + +"Don't be a brute, Dave. I mean that Mary's ancestors must have been +wealthy people, she has such a taste for luxury." + +"That doesn't follow. I'm sure you've seen plenty of poor folks go +without the necessaries of life in order to get the luxuries." + +"She is shiftless enough. To-day I took her into a store to buy her some +stockings, and she refused to have any but the very best quality. 'The +second best are what I get for myself, Mary,' said I; 'they wear much +longer than the others.' 'I don't care,' she said. 'If I can't have the +best, I don't want any.' 'Then do without,' said I, and we left the +place. The fun of it is that she won't even darn her old ones! I can't +always be so firm with her. I'm amazed at myself sometimes, the things +she gets out of me. What do you suppose she wants now?" + +I gave a warning cough to signify that my mother had come into the +nursery, but Belle gazed straight ahead into the wood fire, and seesawed +in the rattan rocker--a tuneful symphony in a mauve tea-gown. + +"A cornet, if you please." + +"A cornet!" said I. "Whatever put that into her head?" + +"I can't tell. She says the music professor at the convent can teach her +to play it, and she thinks if she learned she might be able to lead the +singing in a church with one." + +"Perhaps somebody played the cornet in that concert company she was +with." + +"Na, na. It's nearer hame than that," mother struck in. "She has a +notion o' ane o' thae cratur's 'at pl'y at the Opera Hoose. I hae seen +her gang by the window wi' him, an' spiered at Watty wha he was." + +"I don't like Wat's telling tales of Mary." + +"He dinna, Davvit, till I pit it tae him. He canna bear the tawpie, and +doesna like to hae her p'inted oot as his sister. A body canna blame the +laddie. It's a heap better than his fa'in' in luv wi' her." + +"Perhaps it is," groaned Isabel. + +When mother had gone to bed my wife said: + +"Mrs. Wade has been here to-day to ask Watty and Mary to a young +people's dance on Friday night." + +"What did you say?" + +"I told her I wasn't going to dress that girl up and send her out to +parties to be snubbed and slighted by the other girls, as she was at the +dancing school ball. She said that if I let Mary go she'd see that she +had a good time. For her part, she admired the way I'd stuck up for the +girl in spite of everything; and if she was good enough to live with us +as a daughter, it would surely not contaminate anybody else to meet her +out of an evening." + +Saturday night I inquired of Belle how Mary got on at the party. + +"First rate. Mrs. Wade met her at the door of the drawing room and +kissed her. 'How you've grown, Mary!' said she, and then she took her +round and introduced her to all the girls in the room, including some of +those who've been cutting her right and left, as well as to every boy +she didn't know already. Of course she danced every dance, and had the +best time going." + +"And, of course, she put it all down to her own superior attractions?" + +"Just exactly. This morning she didn't want to help me make the beds!" + +Mary's Christmas present had been a beautiful silver-plated cornet, and +of course she must learn to play it when she went back to the convent. +Word came shortly that the music master employed there could not +undertake to teach her to play the instrument, but that a "professor" +could be secured to go out from Detroit twice a week--if desired. We +seemed to be in for it, so the lessons were desired, and we comforted +ourselves with the assurance that if Mary did not turn out to be a +tiptop reciter she would surely prove a tiptop cornet player. Her +unusual talent would justify my wife in her unusual step, and the +society of Lake City would forgive her for attempting to thrust the girl +into its midst as an equal. Many of our acquaintances seemed to take +mother's view of the case,--"Matter out of place becomes _dirrt_!"--and +Belle was put on her mettle to convince the majority that she had done +exactly the right thing in thus disclassing people. Disclassing +people? In a free republic! + +We received glowing accounts of the cornet lessons. + +"Dear girl!" said Belle enthusiastically. "She must have the real +artistic temperament to be so determined to excel in one or other of the +arts." + +"She's dramatic, anyway," said I, and I was confirmed in my opinion +along in the spring, when the cornet, and aught else, appeared to have +palled upon the versatile Mary. She wrote that she had serious thoughts +of taking the veil. + +"Bah!" said I; "what's she after now? She wants to scare us into +something." + +Belle wrote privately to the Lady Superior, telling her that if she +considered Mary would be a desirable acquisition to their ranks she had +no sort of objection to her joining them. + +The good sister replied that Miss Gemmell had not a grain of the stuff +of which nuns are made, that her leanings were all in a worldly +direction. + +"No hope in that quarter!" laughed I, but Belle chided me for making fun +of Mary in her absence. + +When "Miss Mamie Gemmell" joined us at Interlaken for the summer her +convent manners lasted for about two weeks, and then gave place to those +of a spoiled and pampered daughter of the house. + +We in America are accustomed to disrespectfulness and waywardness in our +own children, but to notice the same attitude in a little nobody from +nowhere we have taken in out of charity, makes a man or woman stand +aghast. + +"I don't believe she cares a straw for me personally," Belle would say +sometimes, "but I must confess I like her better than the cringing, +fawning variety. She's outspoken in her impertinent demands." + + * * * * * + +After a very hot week in July I joyfully took the train on Saturday +afternoon for the five miles' ride to Interlaken, and went to sleep that +night with my ears full of the sound of waves and pine trees; my heart +filled with the satisfaction of knowing that I had a whole round day +ahead of me--a sunrise and a sunset at either end. + +I omitted the sunrise part of the programme, but between ten and eleven +I was ready for a walk down the pier to watch the bathers. American +women are seldom plump enough to stand the undress uniform of a bathing +costume. They run to extremes--become very stout indeed, or else very +thin, but in girlhood the tendency is to over-slimness. + +I was thinking what a contrast our summer girls would present to a +group of Scotch lasses, though, to be sure, I was never privileged to +see any of the latter in bathing-dress, when a well-rounded apparition +in sky blue luster and no bathing cap emerged from one of the disrobing +houses. This damsel betook herself boldly to the pier, instead of +splashing around the edge of the sand as the others were doing, and, +coming near the end, took a run and then a beautiful header into the +deep blue water. + +She had passed me too quickly to be recognized, but as her face appeared +above the surface I saw it belonged to no other than our adopted +daughter, for as such, at the moment, was I pleased to own her. She +shook the water out of her ears, gave her knob of hair an extra twist, +brushed back the ringlets that threatened her eyes, and looked as much +at home as if there were eighteen feet of land, instead of eighteen feet +of water below her. + +There were several young men swimming about at the end of the wharf, and +they declared with gusto that a springboard must be erected for "Miss +Gemmell" at once. I declined to assist in breaking the Sabbath over any +such pranks, but a couple of scantily clad, dripping youths arose from +the deep and succeeded in loosening a heavy three-inch plank from the +flooring of the wharf. This was projected well out over the water, and +the fair Mary was induced to ascend and exhibit therefrom. I did not +approve at all, but thought it my duty to remain as chaperon until Belle +and another lady, whom I perceived walking leisurely out the pier, +should arrive. + +The young men sprang back into the water to be on the reception +committee, and Mary teetered on the far end of the plank. There was +heard a loud, suggestive _crack_, and she leaped into space in a most +graceful semicircle before touching the water; but that awful board, the +instant her weight was removed, rose straight up in the air, nearly +knocked me off the dock, and with a groan slid through the opening +whence it had been raised, into the depths below. + +Belle rushed to my rescue, while the other woman stood still and +shrieked. + +"Nobody hurt!" called out from the water a nice-looking lad who was +swimming beside Mary, and apparently daring her to further exploits. + +"Who is the young man?" I asked my wife, being ready to change the +subject from my own narrow escape. + +"You mean the one with the Burne Jones head and the sleepy blue eyes +that's round with Mary all the time? His name's Flaker, and he's a +medical student from Chicago. That's all I know about him." But she was +destined to hear more, as we sat on the hotel veranda that night, from +two old ladies inside the open window and closed blind. + +"Isn't it scandalous," said one, "the way Mrs. Gemmell tries to shove +that girl forward on every occasion?" + +"Yes," said the other. "The old friendship between her and Mrs. Martin +is all broken up since she tried so hard to get Lincoln Todd entangled +with her last summer, and now she's doing her best to catch young +Flaker." + +"I don't believe he has any idea who the girl is, or rather who she is +not." + +"No, indeed, and his people would be in a great state if they knew the +sort of company he was keeping." + +"Who are they?" + +"Don't you know? His father is Dr. Flaker, who has that fine mansion on +the Grand Boulevard, and his mother belongs to one of the best New York +families. They're all as proud as Lucifer." + +"I think it is time we went home, David. Listeners never hear any good +of themselves," said Belle, loudly enough to arrest the attention of the +two dames. + +Walking over the dried-up moonlit grass to our cottage, I threatened to +go back and give them a piece of my mind, but my wife said: + +"Maybe I did need a slight reminder. I haven't paid much attention to +Mary's goings-on this summer. I must talk to Mr. Flaker the first +chance." + +The opportunity came before the Evening was over, while I was in my pet +hammock round the corner of the cottage, and Belle in a rocking-chair at +the front. + +"Good-evening, Mr. Flaker," I heard her say. "I don't think you've ever +seen the inside of our cottage. Won't you step in for a moment, now that +it is lighted up?" + +The moment satisfied him, for he speedily returned to the veranda. + +"I never saw such a beautiful swimmer as Miss Gemmell," said the mannish +voice, and Belle replied impressively: + +"I believe you are not aware, Mr. Flaker, that the young lady you call +Miss Gemmell is not my own daughter." + +"Your stepchild is she, or your husband's niece?" + +"Neither. She is no relation at all--just a poor girl whom I have taken +up to educate. She can barely read or write. I felt that I ought to tell +you this because you have been paying her a good deal of attention." + +"Indeed, Mrs. Gemmell, I admire Miss Gemmell very much; but I assure +you I never regarded her as anything else than a pleasant summer +acquaintance." + +And Mary was dropped forthwith. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +THE winter of 1892-93 Mary spent at home with us. Her first expressed +wish, when the family returned from Interlaken, was to be confirmed, and +the Rev. Mr. Armstrong of the church we do not attend was duly notified. + +"He says I must be christened first," said Mary. "Would you mind if he +called me 'Mary Gemmell'? There aint any name that I've a right to, and +I don't want to be called 'Mason,' because that's the name of the woman +that abused me when I was little. I'd rather have yours." + +She was such a pathetic-looking young person, standing there before +Belle in her fresh and innocent loveliness, that my wife had not the +heart to refuse her anything. + +When I came home that same evening there was a _tableau vivant_ in front +of the parlor fire. Dressed in white, Mary sat on a low stool at the +feet of the Rev. Walter Armstrong, her hands clasped in her lap, gazing +up into the clean-shaven clerical face, with that which passed for her +soul in her eyes. In spite of his stiff round collar and long black coat +the rector is a young man, and I saw that he was impressed. + +"You understand, do you, Mary," he said tenderly, "that when you are +received into the Church you have God for your Father and Christ for +your Elder Brother?" + +"Yes, I understand, Mr. Armstrong," replied the girl earnestly. "And +that's just what I always wanted--was to have _'folks.'_" + +I retired in haste to the dining room, where Isabel was brimming over +with a new scheme. + +"I've always found the housekeeping a drag, and it becomes more so every +year as my outlook broadens. I want to keep up to the times, but I never +have any leisure for reading, and our four eldest being boys, there +seemed to be no hope for years of having any one to relieve me." + +"Mary's a godsend," said I. + +"I wish you really thought that, as I do. She's quick and adaptable, and +I'm going to hand over to her a weekly allowance and let her keep the +house on it." + +"What about her accomplishments--the elocution and the cornet?" + +"They can stand in the meantime. Do you know, Davie," hesitatingly, "I'm +beginning to be afraid she hasn't a good ear for music." + +"Why?" + +"The other night when the Mortons were in she sat and talked to Frank +Wade the whole time Eva was playing." + +"That's nothing. Everyone else did the same." + +"But for a girl who is trying to pose as a cornet player, who thinks she +might earn her living leading a church choir with one, it's bad policy, +to say the least of it." + +"Earn her living! I asked Joe Mitchell, when he was listening to her +practicing out in the summer-house, what he thought of her playing, and +he said she'd better keep to a penny whistle." + +"Very rude of him!" + +"No, it wasn't. I asked him point blank if I should be justified in +paying for the more lessons she wants, and he said decidedly I should +not." + +"Well," said Belle wearily, "we'll try the housekeeping. That's a +woman's true vocation, according to orthodox ideas. I shouldn't have set +my heart on Mary turning out to be anything extraordinary. If she'll +only be kind of half decent, and help me out with the housework, I'll be +more than satisfied." + +The sense of power gave new brightness to Mary's fair face, and her step +through the house was of the lightest during the next week or two, but +the boys rebelled in turn. + +"_Mam_ma! Mary's locked the pantry. Must we go to her for the key +whenever we want anything?" + +"I call it a mean shame!" from Joe. + +"What were you doing?" + +"We didn't do nothin', on'y eat up the pie she meant for dessert. I'm +sure Margaret wouldn't mind makin' another." + +"Mary's perfectly right, boys; I've indulged you too much." + +Then it was Watty who complained: + +"Mary says she won't have us mussing up the parlor after she's tidied +it, and that we've got to change our boots when we come into the house." +Or Chrissie: + +"Mary says I'm big enough now to keep my own room in order, and she aint +going to do it any more. She's wors'en grandma!" + +To their grandma did they go with their woes when they found their +mother so unaccountably obdurate, but they did not get much comfort +there. Detest Mary as she might, my poor mother is always loyal to the +powers that be, and she told the children: + +"Yer mither kens fine what she's aboot, an' ye needna fash yer heids tae +come cryin' tae me." + +She even went so far as to back Mary up in her suggestion that the boys +should eat what was set before them, asking no questions. + +"That's the w'y yer faither was brocht up. If he didna finish his +parritch in the mornin', they were warmed up for him again at nicht. Ye +tak' but a spinfu' 'at ye could hardly ca' parritch, for they're jist +puzhioned wi' sugar." + +Mary was not naturally fond of children, and, having entered our family +full-grown, she found it hard to put up with the freaks of our six, +there being no foundation of sisterly love upon which to build +toleration. + +Belle's housekeeping had always been lavish. She ordered her groceries +wholesale, and when they were done never inquired what had become of +them. + +"I decline to go into details--life is too short! I don't know where my +patience ends and my laziness begins, but I'd rather be cheated than +lock things up, or try to keep track of what Margaret wastes. She's not +an ideal 'general,' but it's only one in a hundred that would stand the +children pottering about in the kitchen so much." + +After the time-worn custom of new brooms, Mary made a bold attempt to +record each item of expenditure, and ordered what she wanted from day to +day; but there was no calculating the appetites of four growing boys, +especially when, as Mary affirmed, they sometimes over-ate themselves +just to spite her. + +"We're living from hand to mouth, _pa_pa," they would say, when an +unwonted scarcity occurred. + +Truth to tell, I began to sympathize with my revolting sons when I +brought an old friend home with me to dinner one day, and went to +announce the fact to our "housekeeper." + +"I just wish that Bob Mansell would quit coming here so much when he's +not expected. There's only enough pudding for ourselves." + +"Mary," said I sternly, "Mr. Mansell's been coming to this house before +you were here, and he'll keep on coming after you're gone, if you're not +careful." + +It was the first time I had ever spoken sharply to her, and I flattered +myself that I had done some good, though she held her head high and left +the room. + +Belle came to the conclusion that the housekeeping scheme did not work +smoothly, and she resumed the reins of government. Mary was still +supposed to do the work of a second maid, but it was evident that her +heart was not in it. + +"What does Mary want now?" I asked my wife when she took her usual seat +beside me, as I lay on the sofa with my pipe. + +"She thinks she'd like to go to the Boston School of Oratory to prepare +herself to be a public reader." + +"Is it necessary that she should be before the public in one way or +another?" + +"She doesn't seem to be much of a success in private life." + +"In that respect she's no worse than half the girls in town. None of +them dote on housework." + +"But, considering that this girl has no earthly claim on us, you'd think +she might be different." + +"Don't be angry, Belle, at my saying so, but you've only yourself to +thank for that. You've been most anxious that Mary should be just like +one of ourselves--should not feel that she was accepting charity, and +you've succeeded only too well. The girl takes everything you do for her +as her right, and asks for more." + +"Well, what about Boston?" + +"I think it would be arrant folly to send her there. How do we know she +has any more talent for elocution than for music?" + +"She has the desire to learn. I suppose that's a sign of the ability." + +"She has an intense desire for admiration, that's about the size of it. +To be the center of all eyes, giving a recitation in a drawing room, +pleases her down to the ground, but it doesn't follow that she would be +a success professionally." + +"I dare say we've spent about as much on her education as you care to do +just now." + +"We have indeed!" + +My wife and I are much in demand at all the social functions of our +town, and, though I accompany her under protest, I confess that, once +the affair is in full swing, I enjoy as much as anybody a hand at +"Pedro" or a dance. + +The houses of our city are mostly wooden and mostly new, for an annual +conflagration keeps building brisk. Hardwood floors and mantels are the +order of the day, and if some of our lumbermen and their wives have not +a command of English grammar in keeping with their horses, their +sealskins, and their diamonds, they have a heartier than an English +welcome--except, of course, for guests of such questionable antecedents +as our Mary. + +Mrs. David Gemmell is a bright and witty woman, though I say it, who +should not. But why should I not? She did not inherit her wits from me. +Mrs. David Gemmell let the leading ladies of the town understand that +unless Mary was invited to everything that was going on, we stayed away +ourselves. Lake City society could not proceed without Isabel, so the +"white elephant" was received in her train, and truly she did us credit +in company, if nowhere else. She was always stylishly dressed, and her +dancing was a joy forever. We did not marvel when Will Axworthy, the +most eligible young man about, took it into his head to introduce the +german to our benighted citizens, that he chose Mary for his partner to +lead it with him. She had private lessons from himself, as well as from +the dancing master, and proud and happy were Belle and I to sit at the +side of the ballroom and watch her going through the figures and +bestowing her favors with all the grace and dignity of one of the four +hundred. + +"She shall go to Boston to-morrow, if she wants to," said I, but this +time Belle demurred. + +"I think she seems likely to have a good time here this winter, and we +may as well let her have her fling." + +The prophecy was fulfilled. In spite of the supreme jealousy of the +other girls, who could not say mean enough things about her, Mary +became quite the rage with the young men. + +One Sunday afternoon Will Axworthy called. He is short and broad, has +reddish hair and a chronic blush hardly to be looked for in the Ward +McAllister of Lake City. Too nervously did he plant himself in my frisky +spring rocker, and therefore involuntarily did he present the soles of +his boots to the assembled family, while his head bumped the wall, to +the huge delight of our boys! + +Undaunted by that inauspicious beginning, he came again the next Sunday, +smoked my best cigars, and talked lumber, the one subject upon which he +is posted, for he was the manager of a mill here. + +He stayed to supper that evening and went with Mary to church afterward. +Then he called for her with a cutter the first bright day, and took her +sleigh riding. The embryo wrinkle left Belle's forehead. + +"Do you really think he means anything?" said she. + +"Don't be too sanguine about it. Nowadays, young men pay a girl a great +deal of attention with nothing in their heads but a good time." + +"Still, Axworthy's no boy. He's thirty if he's a day, and he has a good +salary, and can afford to marry whenever the mood takes him." + +"Let us hope and pray that it may take him soon!" + +"Amen!" said Belle solemnly. + +The daily friction with her _protegee_ was becoming too much for the +good-natured patience even of my better half. Acting upon generous +impulses is all very fine, but they need to be backed up by a large +amount of endurance and tolerance if the results are to be successfully +dealt with. + +From my vantage-ground on the nursery sofa, behind my screen of +newspaper, I frequently hear more than is suspected by the family. + +"Mary, you're not going to the rink to-night!" in Belle's most imploring +tone. + +"Yes, mawm, I am. Lend me your wrench, Watty." + +"Mary, I positively forbid you to go to the rink!" + +"Well, I do think that's just too mean for anything. Every girl in town +goes." + +"Every girl in town doesn't skate with barber, or bandsman, or anybody +who comes along, as you do." + +"Watty's been telling!" + +"Watty hasn't been telling!" broke in our eldest son in indignant +protest, which he further emphasized by going out and banging the door +after him. + +"And, Mary," Belle continued, "are you engaged to Mr. Axworthy?" + +"No!" sullenly. + +"Then if I were you I wouldn't let him kiss me when he says +'Good-night' at the door after bringing you home from a party." + +"You're old-fashioned. All the girls do it!" + +"No _lady_ would permit a man to take such a liberty. You're spoiling +your chances with Mr. Axworthy, I can tell you. I never knew a man yet +that would bind himself to a girl when he could have all the privileges +of an engaged man, and none of the responsibilities." + +"I don't care anything at all about him. I don't want to marry him. He's +just giving me a good time." + +A good time he undoubtedly did give her throughout the winter. To the +smartest balls and parties he was her escort, and she always wore the +roses he never neglected to send. Every Sunday about dusk he would come +round to our house, and, martyrs to a good cause, Isabel, mother, and I +vacated the cozy parlor with its easy chairs and blazing fire for the +nursery--always uproarious with children on that day. + +"I wonder what those two find to talk about," speculated Belle. "Mary +has no conversation at all, and Axworthy hasn't much more." + +"Perhaps he takes it out in looking at her. By the way, Belle, when are +you going to appear in the new dress I gave you that fifty dollars to +buy? I am quite tired of the mauve tea gown." + +My wife glanced over her shoulder to make sure that Grandma was out of +hearing. + +"The truth is, Dave, I thought I must wait to see how much of it I had +left after getting Mary rigged up for the Robinsons' dance. She goes out +so often that she needs a change of evening dress." + +"Did she ask for it?" + +"Not directly, but she remarked that she didn't see what I wanted with +a new black silk, that I had plenty of clothes, and that when she was my +age she didn't think she'd bother about what she had to wear." + +I sprang up from the sofa, prepared to shove Mary out of the house, neck +and crop, but Belle's outburst of laughter calmed me. + +"Her cheek is so great that it passes from the ridiculous to the +sublime!" + +"Why do you stand it, Belle? You wouldn't from anybody else." + +"I can't very well go back on her at this stage, and send her about her +business. She's shrewd enough to know that." + +"People would laugh; that's so!" + +"Besides, if she marries Axworthy, she'll be our social equal here in +this town, and it must never be in her power to say that we did not +treat her well." + +"What is the prospect with Axworthy?" + +"Good, I think. He is thoroughly kind to her, and he has given me plenty +of hints about the state of his affections, hopes by another winter that +Mary will have somebody else to look after her, and so on. He is always +most particular in seeing that she is well wrapped up, and that is +highly necessary, for she is extremely careless about how she goes out. +In spite of a certain amount of physical dash, she isn't a bit strong; +has no staying power." + +"It won't be much fun for Axworthy to be saddled with a delicate wife." + +"Well, I guess he needs some discipline, just as much as I do. I've had +my share out of Miss Mary for the last three years, and I am quite +willing to let somebody else have a turn. He walks into this thing with +his eyes open. He knows her history." + +"But does he know her disposition?" + +"Let him find that out--if he can. Most mothers don't think it necessary +to tell their daughters' suitors how the girls get on with them in the +house." + +"You say she has no constitution. Supposing he does marry her, how about +the possible children? What have they done that they should have Mary +for a mother?" + +"That's exactly the right way to put it--what have they done? We don't +know, but they must have gone far astray last time, if they are given +such a bad start this incarnation." + +Will Axworthy left town in the spring. Lumber was done in our part of +Michigan and he had to follow it further south. He and Mary +corresponded, for I caught Belle in the act of correcting one of her +letters. + +"Do you think that's quite fair to Axworthy? If they become engaged, the +first unedited letter he gets from Mary will be considerable of a +surprise to him." + +"Don't you bother your old head, Dave! I'm running this thing! He's +arranging to meet us in Chicago, and hopes to have the pleasure of +showing Mary the Columbian Exhibition. Something is sure to happen while +we're there!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +ALL winter we had been talking about the Fair, reading up about the +Fair, making plans for the Fair; and Belle declared that even if she +never saw the Fair she would be glad it had been, on account of the +amount of preparatory information she had laid up. + +We did get off at last in the end of June, the whole of us, including +Mary, of course--my first experience of traveling in her company. We +went to Chicago by boat,--a night's crossing,--and a rare time I had +securing berths for the family in the overcrowded propeller. I was +thankful for an "extension," a sort of shell run out between two +staterooms and partitioned off by curtains and poles. The boys had to +sleep on sofas, floor, anywhere, which to them was but the beginning of +the fun. + +The first of my Herculean labors at an end, I was enjoying my smoke aft +in the cool of the evening, when Belle came back to me, her brow drawn +up into what I had begun to call the "Mary wrinkle." + +"David, I'm afraid you'll have to talk to that girl. She's sitting up in +the bow there flirting with one of the waiters, and though I've sent +Watty twice after her, she won't stir." + +As majestically as my five feet four would permit, I moved to the front +of the boat. + +"Mary, Mrs. Gemmell wants you right away." + +She took time to exchange a laughing farewell with the good-looking +waiter, and explained to me _en route_: + +"That's Bill Moreland. I knew him quite well in Lake City. I've met him +at balls." + +In the morning before we reached Chicago, she managed to get in a long +confabulation with another waiter, whom I am sure she had never met in +Lake City, nor anywhere else. + +"See here, Mary! If this is the way you're going to behave, you go +straight back to Lake City on that boat, and don't see one bit of the +Fair." + +Her manners were mended till we were actually in Jackson Park, but then: + +"She's a philanthropist, Belle, a lover of _man_kind--Columbian Guard, +Gospel Charioteer, Turk in the bazaar. The creed or the color doesn't +matter so long as he calls himself a man." + +I am afraid I was cross, for it did not take one day to realize what an +undertaking it was going to be to keep track of my family, who had never +before seemed too numerous. Daily at 10 A. M., in the Michigan Building, +did I hand over to Will Axworthy the most troublesome of the lot, and +daily did I wish he would keep her for better or worse. + +On the Fourth of July cannonading began at daybreak, and for once I +sympathized in my mother's objection to the license accorded to young +Americans. They set off firecrackers, not by the bunch but by the +bushel; kerosene and dynamite were their ambrosia and nectar. What with +fighting for lunch in overcrowded restaurants, and then retaliating by +stealing chairs out of the same, hunting through the various booths in +the Midway to collect my three younger sons when it was time to send +them home, and rescuing my two little girls from an over-supply of ice +cream sodas and chocolate drops, I did not specially enjoy the glorious +Fourth. + +Toward evening there was not a foot of Fair ground undecorated by a +banana skin, a crust of bread, or a flying paper. Belle considered the +signs "Keep off the Grass" quite superfluous, and pulling one up by the +roots she sat down on it, thereby keeping the letter, if not the spirit +of the law. + +"Now, Dave," said she, "the family are all safe off the grounds, and you +can go and get a gondola to come and take us for a sail before dark. +Everybody is moving toward the lake front to wait for the fireworks, and +the lagoons are not so crowded as they were. Let's pretend we're on our +honeymoon." + +So seldom does Belle wax sentimental over me, I hailed her proposition +with outward indifference but inward joy. Securing a gondola to +ourselves, in it we were gently swayed through canal and under bridge in +the mystical evening light. + +The distant rumble of a train on the Intramural, or a quack from a +sleepy duck among the rushes, alone broke the stillness. + +"This is where I belong!" exclaimed Belle. "I've seen before those +Eastern-looking towers and minarets, with the sunset glow on the cloud +masses behind them. Look! there's a Turk and a Hindoo crossing the +bridge. This is the region, this the soil, the clime. I always knew I +wasn't meant for Western America." + +"You must have been very naughty _last time_ to have been raised in +Michigan this trip. Still this is only Chicago!" + +"It's not Chicago! It's the world! Listen to that now--the music of the +spheres!" + +We approached another gondola that had withdrawn itself from the center +of the channel close in to a small island. The man at the stern was +doing nothing very picturesquely, but the man at the bow, a swarthy +Venetian, was pouring out his soul in an aria from "Cavalleria +Rusticana." His voice might not have passed muster at Covent Garden, but +in the unique stage setting, which included a group of eager listeners +on abridge behind him, one could forgive a break on a high note or two. + +The singer threw himself into the spirit of the composition, cast his +eyes upward with hand on his heart, and bent them to earth again for the +approval of his passengers. There were but two, a young man and a young +lady, and to the latter was the hero in costume directing his amorous +glances. + +"There's romance for you!" said I to Belle, who is notoriously on the +lookout for it. I directed our gondolier to draw nearer to his +enamoured compatriot. My wife replied uneasily: + +"I don't know the man, or boy, for that's all he is, but if that isn't +Mary's hat----" + +"Mary! Phew! What's become of Axworthy?" + +As we approached the comfortable-looking pair, Mary bowed to us +smilingly, and called the attention of her companion to her "father and +mother"--darn her impudence! + +The boat ride was spoiled for Belle and me, our white elephant having +arisen to haunt us once more. We landed and walked over to the lake +front, where the whole slope was packed with people waiting for the +fireworks to begin. + +Someone started to sing "Way Down upon the Swanee Ribber," and everybody +joined in. "Nearer, my God, to Thee" was also most impressive from the +vast impromptu chorus. In the foreground Lake Michigan lay darkly +expectant, with a large black cloud upon its horizon, though the stars +shone overhead. A half-circle of boats extended from the long Exhibition +Wharf on the right, round to the warship _Illinois_ on the left, and +from the latter a search light, an omnipresent eye, swept the crowd with +rapidly veering glance, till it concentrated its gaze on the dark +balloon which rose so mysteriously from the water. Suddenly from this +balloon was suspended the Stars and Stripes in colored lights. The crowd +cheered like mad, the boats whistled, and sent up rockets galore. + +On went the programme. Bombs tested the strength of our wearied +ear-drums, fiery snakes sizzled through the air, big wheels spurted +brilliant marvels, and along the very edge of the lake, to the great +discomfort of the front rows of the stalls, a line of combustibles +behaved like gigantic footlights on a spree. + +"David, who do you suppose that was with Mary?" + +I had been up in the air with George Washington, surrounded by "First in +War, First in Peace, etc.," in letters of fire, and I was unwillingly +recalled to earth. + +"Haven't the remotest idea. Hope she hasn't given Axworthy the slip." + +"I'm only hoping that he has not given her the slip. I'd never have +brought her to the Fair if he hadn't agreed to look after her." + +At that moment there was a surging of the mighty crowd, caused by a band +of college students pushing their way through, shoulder to shoulder, +singing one of their rousing ditties. Some people who had been standing +on their hired rolling chairs had narrow escapes from being flung upon +the shoulders of those in front. Some did not escape--Mary for +instance, who landed between us as if shot from a catapult. + +"I knew I was going to fall, so I just jumped to where I seen you two," +said she, with her customary calmness, and then she turned to assure her +escort of the gondola, who was anxiously elbowing his way to her, that +she was entirely unhurt. + +Blushing prettily, she introduced the lad as "Mr. Tom Axworthy--cousin +of the Mr. Axworthy you know." + +Mr. Tom talked to Mrs. Gemmell with the ease and assurance of ninety +rather than nineteen, while I exchanged a few words aside with the +maiden: + +"Where is the Mr. Axworthy that we know?" + +"He had some business to do in town to-night, so he left me in charge of +this cousin of his--just a lovely fellow!" + +"Humph! Introduced you to any more of his relations?" + +"Oh, yes--an uncle; quite an old bachelor, but lovely too!" + +"And I suppose you've been round with the uncle as well." + +"Not very much. He was to have taken me up in the balloon yesterday, but +the cyclone burst it." + +"We're going home now, and I think you'd better say 'Good-night' to Mr. +Tom Axworthy and come with us." + +After waiting two hours and a half for standing room on a suburban +train, we reached the hotel at an early hour on July the 5th, dusty, +smoke-stained, and powder-scented, like veterans from a field of battle. + +That was not by any means the last of Mr. Tom Axworthy. During the +remainder of our stay in Chicago it was he quite as frequently as his +more mature and eligible cousin who exchanged a lingering farewell with +Mary at the ladies' entrance to our hotel, and a great fear arose in the +heart of Belle that the young woman was fooling away her time with this +impecunious boy, instead of making the most of her opportunities to come +to a satisfactory understanding with his cousin. Every morning did she +gaze pathetically into my face, saying: + +"I do hope Axworthy will propose to-day!" and once she added: + +"I cannot face another winter in the same house with that girl and your +mother. Grandma has taken it into her head that Mary is my pet lamb, the +idol of my heart, for whom she, and you too, have been set aside. She +doesn't see that it worries me half to death to have Mary tagging round +after me the whole time, and overrunning the house with her beaux. +Neither of our own girls is old enough yet, thank goodness, to consider +herself my companion and equal, to wear my gloves, my boots, my best +hairpins, and to use my favorite perfume; to come and plant herself down +beside me whenever I'm talking confidentially to anyone, to be +determined to have her finger into every pie, to know what I'm reading +or thinking about. She'll insist on knowing my dreams next!" + +"Perhaps you mesmerize her." + +"If I did, I'd make her keep away from me! I could stand it all better +if I thought she really cared a straw for me, but I have the feeling +that she regards me merely as a basis for supplies." + +"We can only trust, then, that the basis may be speedily transferred to +Axworthy!" + +On our return from the World's Fair, the family stopped off at +Interlaken, but I had to go on into town to the _Echo_ office. To my +surprise, Mary joined me at my solitary dinner at the "House of the +Seven Gables," where Margaret, as usual, was in charge, and she remained +there for the rest of the week. + +"Where's Mary?" was Belle's greeting, when I joined her on Saturday. + +"She's in town." + +"Why didn't you bring her out with you?" + +"Didn't know you wanted her. She said she'd like to stay in Lake City +over Sunday, to take the Communion." + +"Take the Communion indeed! She wants to be left there alone with +Margaret, so that she'll have a chance to flirt with every man in town. +I thought you had more sense, David." + +I pulled my soft felt hat further over my diminished head. + +"Did she get any letters?" + +"One or two." + +"Wretch! I told her to come out here with you to-night for certain." + +Monday morning, mother, who had been spending the summer with my married +sister in Lake City, came out to stay for a week with us at Interlaken. + +She could hardly wait till the youngsters were out of hearing to pour +her story into my ears. I had to take back to town the train by which +she had come out, but she made the most of her time. + +"There's been great doin's in yer hoose in yer absence. Marg'et 's been +tellin' yer sister's servant a' aboot Mary's luv affairs. Mary tell't +her 'at Eesabelle bade her write Willum Axworthy an' spier his +intentions; that if she didna, Mrs. Davvit said she'd d'it hersel'. An' +a' the time she's correspondin' wi' a yunger ane, an Axworthy tae, 'at +she tells Marg'et she likes a hape better. Yer sister's sair affronted +to think o' the w'y the fem'ly name's bein' cairted thro' the mire." + +Belle came out on the veranda, her broad hat in her hand, ready to walk +down to the train with me. + +"So Axworthy didn't propose at the Fair?" said I, when we were out of +earshot of the cottage. + +"No; and I think it's a crying shame, too, after the way he appropriated +the girl all last winter, and in Chicago too." + +"A great relief to you! Well, I guess the whole town knows by this time +that you made Mary write and ask his intentions." + +"This is too much! Has your mother----" + +"Mary's been making a _confidante_ of Margaret, that's all. That +inestimable domestic is so much one of ourselves, it was hard for the +unsophisticated mind to know exactly where to draw the line." + +"I hope she has drawn the line at showing Margaret his reply. I haven't +seen that myself." + +"What can you expect it to be? If he had wanted to marry the girl there +was nothing to prevent him asking her, and if he did not, no letter of +yours would make him want to." + +"She wrote it herself, and all she said was that she would like to know +definitely how she stood with him. I did nothing but correct the +spelling." + +"Better if you had written in your own name, and without her knowledge. +No daughter of the house would ever have been put in such a position. So +far as I can judge, Mary and Mr. Will Axworthy are quits. If he has had +a good time in her society, she has had an equally good time in his, and +he does not enjoy her letters so much as he did her propinquity." + +"He's a cold-hearted, cowardly----" + +"Tut! tut! my dear!" + +By this time we were on the platform, and the engine was backing its one +car down to receive me and the other unhappy toilers compelled to go +away and leave that sapphire-blue lake behind. + +"Don't you think, Isabel, that it's about time you quit trying to play +Providence and gave God a chance?" + +"Dave! you're blasphemous!" + +"No, I'm not. I only wish to remark that in your schemes for the welfare +of one particular person, you are apt to overlook the comfort and +happiness of everyone else concerned. That's the worst of not being +omniscient. You're only an amateur sort of a deity after all." + +"Send that girl out here by the very next train." And I obeyed. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +ANOTHER week of night work, and then the sunniest of Sundays on the +shore of old Lake Michigan. + +I noticed that Mary was in deep disgrace with my wife, who would hardly +speak to her, and I judged therefore that Mr. Will Axworthy had not been +brought to time. + +I am not a venturesome boatman, and generally confine my aquatic outings +to the smaller lake, but that Saturday night there was not a breath of +wind, and the water was placidity personified, so I drifted in my small +skiff through the channel that connects the smaller with the larger body +of water. On the sandy point jutting out at the mouth, upon an old +stump, sat a solitary maiden, the picture of woe. + +"Hello, Mary!" said I, ignoring the tears; "want to go for a boat ride?" + +"I don't care if I do," she replied, seating herself in the stern, which +I turned toward her. + +Silently I pulled out into the big lake, where the copper-colored sun +going down in a haze near the horizon bade us beware of a hot day on the +morrow. Out of the lake to the right rose the full moon, failing as yet +to make her gentle influence felt against the radiant glow the sun was +leaving behind him. + +"So Axworthy's gone back on you, Mary?" + +The fountains played again. + +"Yes; and it aint the first time I've got left, neither." + +With Mrs. Mason, the Ferguson Family, Lincoln Todd, and young Flaker on +the tablets of my mind, I could truthfully assent to that remark. + +"Still, it may be just the making of you in the long run." + +"I'm not breakin' my heart over Will Axworthy; didn't care nothing 'tall +'bout him, on'y I'd got used havin' him round, and I'd have married him +if he asked me. I think a sight more of his cousin." + +"The boy we saw at the Fair?" + +"Yes. He's written me a lovely letter. Would you mind reading it aloud +to me? Some of the big words I couldn't make out, and neither could +Margaret. I wrote him all myself!" + +Never before had it fallen to my lot to play father confessor to a lady +in love difficulties, but the editorial mind is equal to any emergency, +so I let my oars slide and adjusted my reading-glasses to peruse Mary's +precious epistle. + +When I had read on to the signature. "Your devoted lover 'Tom,'" Mary's +face was radiant. + +"Aint he smart? You know he was at the Fair, reporting for a newspaper." + +"That explains his glibness. Don't have anything to do with him, Mary. +He's just trying to draw you on. The burnt dog should dread the fire." + +"But he admires me, don't he?" + +"He says so, but he is much more anxious that you should admire him. +Why, it's part of his business to keep his hand in by being in love, or +rather by having some silly little fool of a girl in love with him. +You'll just get left again if you encourage this young scamp." + +April showers once more. + +"I think the best thing I can do is to jump overboard here into Lake +Michigan. It don't seem to me I'm wanted anywheres." + +"That might do very well, but you're too good a swimmer to drown +easily, and you'd catch on to my boat and upset me. I can't swim a +stroke, and there'd be five--six young Gemmells and a widow and a mother +cast upon the world. No, we'll have to think of something better than +that." + +Mary's laughter was always quick an the heels of her tears. + +"What do you think I'm good for, anyhow?" + +"I can testify that you're not a success as a housekeeper." + +"Nor a nursemaid." + +"And as a lady's companion you're not all that could be desired, even if +there were a demand for the article in West Michigan." + +"As a gentleman's companion I am all right," and the girl showed her +perfect teeth in a smile. + +"It's no joking matter, Mary. You're not very happy in our house, and +things will be worse for you next winter, with no Will Axworthy coming +to see you, and no engagement to him in prospect. What do you think +yourself that you're fit for--putting reciting and cornet playing out of +the question?" + +The young lady rested her chin on the palm of her hand and composed her +face into a bewitching expression of profound meditation. + +"I can't teach, and I can't sew, and I can't cook. I couldn't bear +sitting still all day at a typewriter, and there's no room in the +telephone office. You know quite well that there aint a thing for girls +like me to do but to get married. That's why God made us pretty, so's +we'd have a good chance." + +"Don't be flippant, miss. How do you think you'd like to be an hospital +nurse?" + +"I dunno; I wouldn't mind trying. I'm generally good to folks--when +they're sick--and I aint a bit scared of dirty nor of dead ones. I laid +out an old woman that died in the Refuge." + +"You're not particularly thin-skinned, that's a fact; but it's the +educational qualification I'd be afraid of. There's some sort of an +examination to be passed before you can get into any of these Training +Schools nowadays. I'll write for some forms of application, and we'll +see. If once you were able to support yourself, you'd think very +differently about marrying anybody that turned up, just for the sake of +a home. Ours mayn't be much of a one for you, but marry to get out of +it, and you'll perhaps find yourself out of the frying-pan into the +fire." + +"I think it would be just lovely to be a nurse! There was one came down +from Chicago when Mrs. Wade was sick, and the uniform was awfully +pretty. I'm sure it would suit me." + +"It would be very becoming, I haven't any doubt of that; and when it's +all settled that you are going to an hospital you can write in reply to +Will Axworthy's last letter." + +"He wanted me to keep on writing to him just the same; said he'd like +always to be good friends with me." + +"I wouldn't write him but once again, and do it all by yourself. Just +say that the reason you wrote the other letter, asking how you stood +with him, was that you had been thinking of leaving us altogether, but +before taking the decided step of entering an hospital, you had thought +it only fair to him to give him the chance to object, if he really had +the objections he had led you to take for granted." + +We heard a shouting and a blowing of tin horns upon the beach at this +juncture. I took the oars and pulled in, seeing Belle and the boys +waving their hats in the bright moonlight. My wife's face expressed the +blankest astonishment when she saw who was my shipmate. + +"We thought you must have fallen asleep out there. Didn't know you had +company!" + +Mary was still in the black books when I came down the next Saturday. +Belle had a bitter complaint. + +"She sat there the whole afternoon yesterday and part of the evening, +writing and rewriting a letter before my very eyes. 'Are you replying to +Will Axworthy?' I asked quite cordially, for I did want to have a hand +in answering that letter--had some cutting sentences all ready for him. +'Yes, mawm,' said she very shortly; 'but I guess I can manage to get +along by myself.'" + +I did not dare own up to the advice I had given, but I saw that matters +must be hastened. Having business in Chicago about that time, I visited +almost every hospital in the city, telling Mary's story in my most +dramatic newspaper style. I made it understood that it was very noble +and self-sacrificing of the young woman, when she might live in the lap +of luxury,--for thus did I unblushingly describe my own modest +establishment,--to embrace a nurse's vocation and labor for the good of +humanity, including herself, of course. The education--or the lack of +it--was the drawback everywhere, and also the youth of the applicant, +twenty-five being a more acceptable age than barely twenty-one. + +But my perseverance was at last rewarded by finding the superintendent +of a training school who still had some imagination left, and who became +deeply interested in Mary's "tale of woe." + +"Make her study her reading, spelling, and arithmetic as hard as she +can for the next few months, and I'll get her in the very first +opening." + +The prospect roused Belle's old-time vigor, and she had spelling matches +for Mary's benefit, made the girl read aloud to her, gave her dictation +to write, and heard her the multiplication tables every forenoon--when +she did not forget. + +One delightful morning in October I had the honor of taking our +_protegee_ into Chicago and delivering her up to the lady +superintendent. If she could only stand the month of probation, we +flattered ourselves that she would be safe. + +Three weeks later I met the Rev. Mr. Armstrong on the street. + +"I think it is only right to tell you what people are saying," said he. + +"It's my business to know," I replied. + +"I mean about your adopted daughter. I have just been told by two +reputable parties, one after the other, that she has been dismissed from +the hospital for flirting, and that you and Mrs. Gemmell are hushing the +matter up as well as you can, but that you don't know at all where she +is." + +When I reached home my first question was: + +"Have you heard from Mary lately, Belle?" + +"Not for a week, and I'm quite worried about her. Before that, she wrote +to me dutifully every two or three days, telling me all about her work. +I've kept on writing to her just the same, making excuses for her to +herself, and never doubting her for a minute; but to tell you the truth, +Dave, I'm getting dreadfully anxious." + +Then I told her what I had heard. + +"Don't you believe it, David! I never shall till I hear it from +herself. I know now for a certainty that I love that girl! I'll believe +her before all the world! I'll stick by her through thick and thin! I'll +not insult her by writing to the Hospital! What now matters the little +inconveniences of living with her? What have a few clothes and toilet +articles, more or less, to do with it? If she has failed, she shall come +_home_, and we'll begin the three years' fight all over again. I'll sit +down now and write her the nicest letter I can write." + +That sounded very brave, but inwardly I knew that my wife suffered +agonies the next few days. + +"Perhaps if I had done this," she would say, "or if I had done that--it +seems precisely like a death, and I've killed her." + +Tuesday morning, two letters came from Mary. They were hurriedly and +excitedly written. + +"My dear good mother, I am accepted! It is the happiest day of my life; +it will be a red letter day for you! I love you. I have tried so hard +for your sake; I have tried to make my life hear one long prayer and the +dear Lord helps me. I did not write because the exam. was delaid, and I +wanted to wait untill I had something _good_ to tell you. I look nice in +the unniform. It is pink and a white cap, apron and cuffs. Oh I am so +contented; this work is so filling. I never get lonely or homesick. _We_ +nurses had a party, and we danced and served ice cream, and there was +some lovely doctors here, and the Princippal is so kind to us we have +lots of fun"--and so the letters ran on. + + * * * * * + +The reaction was too much for Belle. She cried, then she laughed, then +she fell on her knees and thanked God, and she told me she added that, +for pity's sake, He _must_ set His angels to guard Mary, for she was a +poor, frail child, who had got lost in coming this time, and many +persecuted her because she was pretty, and might find a resting place +and get a little of what rightfully (?) belonged to them. + +After a while she went down to see Mr. Armstrong, and read him the +letters. He turned very white. + +"Oh, the pity of it!" said he. + +"I wish I could gather her slanderers into one room and read them these +letters," said Belle. + +For days afterward she button-holed people in the street to tell them +about Mary, or to read them scraps of her letters. If they had said she +was vain and idle, and selfish and incompetent, just like the half of +their own daughters, Belle could have forgiven them. It was their +determination to shove her into the gutter which made my wife her +valiant champion. + +"Whatever that girl amounts to, Dave, will be born of our faith in her, +and we must never go back on her. She writes me that whenever she has a +hard task, such as attending fits, there I stand at her back and help." + +"Just between ourselves, though, you must confess that it is a great +relief to have her away." + +"You can't begin to feel that as I do. I live again! I read my own +books, think my own thoughts. I belong to myself. No one says, 'What's +the matter?' 'Where are you going?' 'What makes you grave--or gay?' I +sit and chat with my 'odd-fish.' I go to all kinds of meetings and +discuss all kinds of 'isms, and have no tag-tail constantly asking +'Why?' 'Why?' or 'Tell me!' It's the little things that grind. The next +time I try to help a young girl, I'll not risk losing my influence with +her by taking her into my house. Do you know, Dave, I sometimes feel +that Mary must have been my own child in a previous incarnation, and I +neglected and abused her; that's why she was thrust back upon me this +time, whether I liked it or not." + +After Christmas Isabel decided that she must go up to Chicago to see +Mary, and on her return thrilling was the account she gave of her +experiences, which included an attendance at an autopsy--but upon that I +shall not enlarge. + +Introducing herself to the Superintendent of the School, she said: + +"Can I have Miss Gemmell for two days at my hotel?" + +"Indeed, no, madam. We are short of help, and it would be entirely +against the rules." + +"Then I'll stay here with her." + +The Lady Superintendent looked distressed. + +"Don't think us inhospitable, but there is absolutely no provision for +guests in all this great building." + +"Oh!" said Belle, unabashed. "I seem to be unfortunate in breaking, or +wanting to break, the rules of this house. Now, will you kindly tell me +what I can do? How can I see the very most of my Mary while I am in +Chicago?" + +After some thought the answer came: + +"You may have Miss Gemmell to-morrow afternoon, and two hours on +Sunday." + +"That will not suit me at all! Now, please forget all that has been +said, and I will tell you that I Mrs. David Gemmell of Lake City, +Michigan, am a poor tired woman, threatened with nervous prostration, +have already chills of apprehension running down my back, coupled with +flushes of expectation to my head." By this time Mary, the Lady +Superintendent, and two other nurses present were all attention, and +Belle added gravely: + +"I want one of your best private rooms on Corridor B, where Miss Gemmell +is on duty, and I should like to see the House Surgeon at once." + +So Belle was comfortably and luxuriously established in the hospital, +and the only drawback was that she had to be served with her meals in +her room. + +"What feasts we had--Mary and I," she said. "What fun! Before I left I +had demoralized that whole hospital staff, and broken every rule in the +institution. It did them all good." + +"I hope you haven't been indiscreet," said I. + +"Indiscreet?" + +"You must remember that Mary braced herself up to go to the hospital +when she was 'out' with you. Now you've gone and made so much of her +that she'll think, whenever things become too hot for her, she has only +to march straight back here again." + +"She assures me she _will_ graduate." + +"There should never be any question of that." + +"David, I've only told you the one side. If that girl were my very own I +should pluck her out of that particular fire. I'd get down on my knees +and beg her pardon for having thrown her into it. It burns up their +youth, their bloom, their originality, their modesty. It thrusts the +girls into a charnel house of sin, sickness, and death. It shatters the +nervous system of nine out of ten, or it leaves them calm, steady, +burnt-out women, who have been behind the scenes of life and are +disillusioned. When that little pink and white thing sat there and told +me of some of the awful situations that she'd been placed in, and over +which she was made responsible, the tears rolled down my face. I forgave +her lots of things." + +"Plenty of refined, educated women with a very different bringing up +from Mary's go through the same." + +"Well, I advised her to go on and finish the course, if only to show her +friends, and enemies, the stuff she's made of. When I think of those +free wards, and the menial, disgusting offices that frail little girl +has to perform! What did she sow that she should reap this fighting in +the thickest of the fight, so poorly equipped?" + +"I dare say there are alleviations." + +"Oh, yes! She flirts--says she'd die if she didn't--with every man in +the place, from the elevator boy to the head doctor, and, really, I +excused her. The head nurse in Mary's ward is very harsh with her, but +I let her and everyone in the place understand that Miss Gemmell is no +stray waif without influence to back her. Every day I send out +thought-waves--hypnotism--whatever you like to call it--to compel that +Dean woman to think of something else than the making of trained nurses, +and physical wrecks at the same time. People are greater than +institutions." + +"The discipline will be the making of Mary." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +DURING the famous Pullman strike of last summer, duty bade me cross to +Chicago in the interests of the _Echo_. On Saturday afternoon, July the +7th, I was at the pulse of the Anarchist movement, near the corner of +Loomis and Forty-ninth Streets. Taking up my stand in the deep entry of +a "House to Let," I watched the operations of a body of strikers +gathered round a box car close to the Grand Trunk crossing. They had set +it afire, and were trying to overturn it upon the railway track, +encouraged by the cheers of a mob numbering about two thousand men, +women, and children. + +The incendiaries were so much engrossed that they did not observe, +backing swiftly down upon them, the wrecking train it was their purpose +to block. While still in motion, the cars disgorged Captain Kelly and +his company, who had been guarding the Pan Handle tracks all day, but +had not yet, it seemed, earned their night's repose. + +The crowd greeted the soldiers with stones, brickbats, and pieces of old +iron, but the car burners proceeded with their little job, paying no +attention at all to the approach of the military. + +A pistol bullet out of the mob swished in among his men, and then +Captain Kelly gave the order to fire. When the smoke of the volley +cleared away, I saw the people stand still, shocked and dumb with +surprise. A second later, realizing that the worm had had the audacity +to turn, they vented a medley of shrieks and roars, and closed round +the handful of soldiers, to be met by the points of bayonets. + +The yelling mass of humanity scattered, took refuge in lanes and houses, +but regaining courage, appeared here and there in sections, to be +assailed once more by soldiers and police. The latter had to fight it +out by themselves after a while, for the military boarded the wrecking +train again, and the engineer, completely "rattled," opened the +throttle, and whisked them away to the West, leaving a dozen +revolver-armed policemen to meet the assaults of a mob that had now +increased to five thousand. + +The Press abuses the police on principle, but, seeing that heroic +encounter, I wavered in the keeping of my promise to Belle not to run +into danger. Even as I hesitated, "hurry-up wagons" arrived with +re-enforcements from neighboring police stations, and then the crowd +could not disperse quickly enough. It was a desperate sight--men +knocking each other down in their haste to get away, and the women who +had been spurring them on, now shrieking and groaning like maniacs. One +of the poor creatures was hit on the ankle by a bullet, and her falling +over into the gutter was too much for my virtuous resolution. Even if +she is a dirty, howling Polack, a man does not enjoy seeing a woman +knocked down, so I left my doorstep and went to help the lady up. +Constitutionally I am not a brave man, but I forgot all about the flying +bullets till one took me in the knee, and I toppled over, hitting my +head against the curbstone as I did so. I must have been stunned, for +when I opened my eyes again the street was empty, except for a +thundering vehicle that was bearing straight down upon me. + +At first I thought it was a runaway, for the horse was foaming of mouth +and bloodshot of eyeball; but no, there was a man, or fiend, with a +similar wild gleam in his eye, urging the brute upon me, while he +sounded a gong to keep everything out of his way. All this I saw in a +flash, and in a flash too went through my mind the advice given by +President Cleveland in his proclamation to non-combatants to keep out of +harm's way. + +I rolled over on my side with the sickening certainty that the next +instant the hoofs and the wheels would be upon me, but the horse pulled +up on his haunches at my very feet, the rattle and clanging ceased, and +a doctor in his shirt sleeves appeared as if by magic. + +It was an ambulance, of course. + +I fainted when they lifted me, and only came to myself in the +hospital--Mary's hospital, and her ward. Every one in Chicago was +crowded that week and the next, but--the ruling principle strong in +death--I declined to be put away out of eyeshot and earshot into a +private room. + +"D'ye want me to send word to Mis' Gemmell to come?" asked Mary, and I +replied drowsily: + +"No, don't. She's better to keep out of harm's way. She would be sure to +sympathize with the strikers." + +"But she'll wonder where you are." + +"She can't get here safely, as things are now, and the mails are all +upset. Don't write. Send a telegram in my name. Date it Chicago, and +tell her I'm detained, but that I'll go home Monday, sure." + +That same night I was off in a high fever. It was days and days before I +came to myself, and then I was too weak to ask or to care how everything +was going on at home. My whole interest in life was concentrated upon +that hospital ward, and with half-closed eyes I lay there and took notes +unconsciously. + +An ideal life it may seem to outsiders, but there is as much +wire-pulling, as much jealousy and scandal within the walls of one of +those big institutions, as anywhere else on this planet. It is an +epitome of the world battle, and the strugglers meet in hand-to-hand +conflict. + +Nurse Dean, the head of our ward, tall and angular in form, stern and +cold in feature, was the dragon Belle had told me about, but she knew +her business, and I, for one, preferred that she should regard me simply +as a machine laid up for repairs. I did not even think her unduly severe +upon Mary, after I heard her giving that damsel "Hail Columbia" for her +carelessness in having administered the wrong medicine one whole +forenoon to Number Nine--which was myself. + +If I had not made a feeble protest in her favor, "Nurse Gemmell" would +have been discharged on the spot. + +I do not wish to leave the impression that Mary had not in her the +making of a fairly good nurse. She was light of foot, as well as quick +of hand, and I liked to have her do things for me; found her _aura_ +agreeable, as Belle would have expressed it. Like many half-educated +people, she was very observant, but, so far as I could judge, she had +one eye on her work and the other on the lookout for flirtations. I +became quite interested in some of them. + +There was the German fiddler in the next bed to mine, who could not keep +his eyes off Mary whenever she came into the ward, and once when Nurse +Dean was off duty, and she brought out her silver-plated cornet to +"toot" a little for him, he declared it was the most ravishing music he +had ever heard in his life! + +I strongly suspected that the limp young artisan on the other side of me +was perfectly well enough to be discharged, but he could not brace +himself up to part from Mary. Then there was a young doctor whose face I +dimly recognized, but it tired my poor head too much to try to think who +he was. He and Mary had many a talk at my bedside about their own +affairs. One evening I heard the unmistakable sound of a banjo, and +managed to twist myself round far enough to see that this same doctor +was playing an accompaniment to Mary's very fair imitation of a skirt +dance out in the passage. + +The sight revived me so much that I laughed aloud, and Mary came hastily +forward, blushing, with finger on her lip. The pink and white uniform +did indeed become her wonderfully well, and I was not surprised to +notice hearty admiration in the sleepy blue eyes of the young house +surgeon. Where had I seen that "Burne Jones' head" before? + +"You don't seem to remember me, Mr. Gemmell," said the owner of it, +holding out his hand. "My name's Flaker. I was at Interlaken summer +before last." + +"You're a full-fledged M. D. now?" + +"Oh, yes, but I'm taking a year's practice in here, before I set up for +myself." + +Shades of the hotel matrons! They would probably say, if they heard +this, that Mary had been sent here on purpose to catch him. + +Poor Mary! She had her own row to hoe. She came to me in tears one +evening because Nurse Dean had been after her that whole day about one +thing or another. + +"I am never particular 'nough to please her. If it wasn't for Dr. Flaker +I wouldn't stay here another day." + +"You like him pretty well, eh?" + +"Well enough, an' he's all broke up on me; says he was at Interlaken +too, on'y he couldn't say anythin', 'cause he wasn't of age. His folks +are awful high-toned." + +"They'll have their discipline," thought I. + +"By the way, Mary, how long is it since I was brought here?" + +"Two weeks to-day." + +I sprang almost out of bed in my surprise. "Why didn't you tell me? Has +no word been sent to Lake City?" + +"None since that first telegram. I don't write very often now to your +wife, but when I did, I never said nothin' 'tall about your bein' here, +'cause you told me not to." + +"And haven't you had an answer?" + +"There's a letter lyin' there from Mis' Gemmell to you. I don't know how +she could have found out your address. Nurse Dean said I wasn't to give +it to you if you was a bit feverish." + +"Fetch it this minute, Mary, or I'll get up and walk the floor," and the +girl brought me this remarkable document. It had neither beginning nor +end, but rushed to the point at once. + +"I know all! You have laughed at my occult tendencies, sneered at my +Theosophy, but I can now, alas! give you convincing proof of the +penetrative power of the one, the sustaining power of the other. I +became so nervous at your continued silence and absence that I did what +I had promised you not to do--went out in my astral to hunt for you--and +I found you! Would to God I had never tried! It is not my health that +is ruined, but my heart and my happiness. To make assurance doubly sure, +I psychometrized the only letter I have received from Mary in weeks. She +was cunning enough not to mention your name, but the unspoken testimony +was the same. To think that you of all men--but I do not blame you! I +have gone down to the _Echo_ office, my heart bursting with despair, and +have told lies to account for your absence, to keep things moving until +you see fit to send your own explanation. I have thrown dust too in the +eyes of the family, till you tell me your will concerning them. No, I +dare not blame you! Did not I myself thrust the girl into your life--and +the best of us are but human. It is Karma! I have deserved this blow for +some previous sin of my own, and I bow my head to the stroke. Your own +harvest will be just as certain, however long delayed. O David, David! +I can look back now and see the very beginning of your interest in +Mary--but that it should end in this--that you should fly from me to +her----'" + +Having read so far, I burst into hysterical laughter, and it took Mary +and her lover and Nurse Dean, and how many more I know not, to hold me +in bed. Of course I had a relapse, and my life was despaired of, but I +would not, in my sensible moments, allow Mary to write to, or send for +Isabel. I pictured the streets still full of rioting strikers, and the +mails and trains still disorganized. In waking and in delirium alike, +"Keep her out of harm's way!" I cried, "I'll go home to-morrow, sure," +but it was a long to-morrow that saw me on the boat bound for Lake City. + +Mary wanted to accompany me, for I was still very weak, and had to walk +with a stick on account of my knee, but I said brusquely, "You stay +where you are, and keep an eye on Dr. Flaker, or you'll maybe get left +again." + +"No fear of that!" she said, holding up her left hand to show me a broad +gold band with five diamonds in it, adorning her third finger. + +"We'll be married as soon as his year is out, for he has plenty of +money." + +The stones in her ring caught the evening sunlight as she stood on the +wharf waving her handkerchief to me, while the boat moved slowly out, +and I lay in a steamer chair on the hurricane deck, prepared to enjoy a +smoke and a gossip with my old friend, the captain. + +I wished her well with all my heart, but I sincerely hoped that I had +seen the last of Mary. + +Judging the family to be at Interlaken as usual, I took the first train +down there, and toiled in the sun from the depot up to the cottages, by +way of the hill, which I had never considered steep before, to find my +own house deserted, windows and doors boarded up, veranda unswept, +hammocks removed. I would not give any of the neighbors the satisfaction +of knowing I was surprised and disappointed, so I kept out of sight till +they had all been to the hotel for dinner and dispersed. Then I went in +for mine, and after it returned to the beach near the station, lay down +on the sand, and waited for the next train. + +There was not one back to town until late in the afternoon, and the +evening being cloudy, it was quite dark by the time I left the electric +car at the corner of our street. Even that little bit of a walk +exhausted me, and I had to rest on my stick every few minutes, but what +a relief it was to see, gleaming cheerfully as ever, the windows of the +House of the Seven Gables. + +I leaned against our iron railing for a minute or two to collect myself +before making my appearance, and highly necessary was it for me to do +so, because the attitude of the two ladies upon the veranda struck me +dumb with amazement, and their conversation completely floored me. That +sandy-haired little woman in the low rocker must be my mother, but could +that regal figure on the edge of the veranda, with her head in my +mother's lap, possibly be my wife? The light from the nursery window +showed them to me distinctly, but I kept back in the shadow and listened +to the voices. + +"My puir lamb! Ye've grat eneugh! Gang awa' tae yer bed; ye're sair +forfoughten." + +As she stroked the wavy gray hair of the head on her knee, her tone +changed. + +"I canna thole to think 'at son o' mine has brocht a' this trouble upon +ye." + +"Not a word against him, mother! He's the best man that ever lived, and +I didn't appreciate him, that's all. I can never think of him but as my +dear, old, solid, yours-to-count-on Dave Gemmell. He was the silent +partner, unpopular, getting no praise, paying all bills, backing me up +in every fad, whether his judgment approved or not. He was just the +square foundation I could lean away out on--could dance jigs on if I +wanted to. Now that he is dead--or dead to me--I can only hope that he +is happy. Oh! if I had but listened to you, mother, had never brought +that girl into the house. My own vineyard have I not kept." + +"Let by-ganes be by-ganes--but I wad jest like to hae Davvit by the +lug." + +"Lug along, mother! Here I am!" I managed to shout, and then I hung +over that fence and laughed till my specs dropped off in the grass, and +my stick fell away from me. I could not move without it, so I had to +wait till the two women took pity on me and released me from my +impalement. + +Between them they got me into the house and on to my old sofa, and +listened to what I had to say. + +"I was share there must be some mistak'," said my mother, her +self-respect restored, but, when I saw how affectionately her hand +rested on the bowed head of her weeping daughter-in-law, I did not +regret the bullet in my knee. + +"We'll put it all down to your Theosophy, Belle--a collection of +half-truths, more dangerous than lies, when you shove them too far." + +"Don't let us talk about that now, David. It breaks my heart to see you +so thin. Your clothes are just hanging on you. Oh! if I had only known +the true state of the case and been there to nurse you!" + +"Mary has been very good to me, I assure you." + +"I don't want to think about that girl any more. I'm glad she's all +right, but I hope never to lay eyes on her again." + +"Oh, yes, she's all right, and when she marries Dr. Flaker she won't +want to '_pa_pa' and '_mam_ma' us, though she may condescend to +patronize us a little." + +"I'll be gled o' the day she draps the name o' Gemmell!" + + * * * * * + +My wife is still a theosophist. If it pleases her to think that she has +ascertained the nature and method of existence, I have nothing to say. +Sometimes I even look with envy upon her cheerful attitude toward the +approach of old age, her conviction that we are to have another +chance--many more chances--to do and to be that which we have failed in +doing and being, _this time_. + +To judge of a tree by its fruits, there is, of course, no doubt that +Isabel, because of, or in spite of her Theosophy, has been + +THE MAKING OF MARY. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +NURSE DEAN walked through the Pest House, adjoining the great hospital, +with the independent mien of the woman who is confident that her skirt +clears the ground. Her keen, light-colored eyes took in at a glance the +condition of every patient, the occupation of every nurse. + +There had been a smallpox epidemic in Chicago, and three of the nurses +in ---- Hospital had taken the disease, two of them lightly, one very +heavily; but all were now convalescent. The two had gone home to their +friends to recruit, but the third lay in an invalid chair in a darkened +room, looking as if the desire of life had left her. Nurse Dean came in +with a cheery smile, put on just outside the door, and proceeded to +bathe the girl's eyes with warm water. + +"When are you coming out to help me, Mary? I'm sure the light wouldn't +hurt you now. I'm having too much night work, those other nurses being +gone. I thought you might begin to ease me a little with the smallpox +patients through the day." + +"I don't know as I care to go on with the business," replied Mary, +sometime called Mason. + +"Nonsense! You're low-spirited just now because you're not quite better, +but wait till you're on your feet and going around the wards again. +There's nothing like work of this sort to make a person forget +herself." + +Nurse Dean's strong but gentle hands began to rub with oil the patient's +neck and shoulders. + +"I wish I could forget myself and everybody else too. I wish I had died +of the smallpox. There aint anybody that cares whether I live or die." + +"Hush! Mary, you forget Dr. Flaker." + +"Aint it just him I'm thinkin' about? He came in to see me to-day for +the first time. He hates smallpox, and he smelt so of iodoform he nearly +made me sick. About all he had to say was that it was very foolish of me +to meddle with the clothes of them patients, and he could hardly believe +I was so crazy's not to be vaccinated when the other nurses were. Just +as if it wasn't him that admired my lovely arms. Look at them now!" + +"They won't be so bad when all these scales are off. There! Doesn't +that feel better?" + +"It feels all right enough, but you know I'll be a sight to be seen the +rest of my days. I was glad the room was dark, so's Flaker couldn't get +a good look at me. He'll know soon enough--and hate the sight of me. He +was always so proud of my 'pearance." + +"But I'm sure he likes you for something else too, Mary." + +"I don't care whether he does or not, he's got to marry me just the +same. I aint goin' to be left again," and the girl tried to make a +blazing diamond ring keep in place upon her thin finger. + +"You love him very much?" + +"Don't know as I do--no more than lots of other fellows; but I won't +have any more chances now. I didn't ask to be born into this world, and +somebody in it owes me a living." + +"See here, Mary!" said the nurse, in a suddenly energetic tone that +made the girl look up at her with startled eyes. "You know, as well as I +do, that you can't make that man marry you. Why not give him back his +ring of your own free will?" + +"Why should I? You think I aint in love?" + +"Love? You don't know what the word means in any but its very lowest +sense. Suppose you stop loving men, and take to loving women and +children; you'll find them much more grateful, I can tell you." + +Mary closed her eyes, but there were no eyelashes to keep the tears from +trickling out upon the scarred face. + +"My dear child!" said Nurse Dean, in a voice hardly recognizable, it was +so sympathetic, "you've been fighting for yourself ever since you can +remember, and you haven't made much of it, have you?" + +The girl's lips shaped an inaudible "No." + +"Wouldn't it be a good idea, then, to try a little fighting for other +people?" + +"I haven't any folks." + +"Your 'folks' are whoever you can help in any way. What have you done +yet to deserve a foothold on this earth? Instead of seeing how much you +can get out of everybody, turn round and see how much you can do for +them." + + * * * * * + +There was a long silence. When Nurse Dean thought her charge was falling +asleep, she placed a shawl carefully over her, but Mary, without opening +her eyes, drew something from her left hand to her right. + +"You can give him back his ring," she said. + +Nurse Dean closed the door softly behind her, and then paused for a +moment to wipe an impertinent tear from her cold gray eye. + +"I shouldn't be at all surprised if the smallpox were just The Making of +Mary." + + +THE END. + + + + +THE "UNKNOWN" LIBRARY +OF +CHOICE ORIGINAL FICTION. + + +The volumes are long and narrow, just the right shape to slip into the +pocket, and are bound in flexible cloth and ornamented with a chaste +design. The type is large and the margin generous. + +Price, per volume, 50 cents. + +1. Mademoiselle Ixe. By Lanoe Falconer. + +2. The Story of Eleanor Lambert. By Magdalen Brooke. + +3. A Mystery of the Campagna, and A Shadow on the Wave. By Von Degen. + +4. The Friend of Death. Adapted from the Spanish by Mary J. Serrano. + +5. Philippa; or, Under a Cloud. By Ella. + +6. The Hotel D'Angleterre, and Other Stories. By Lanoe Falconer. + +7. Amaryllis. By Georgios Drosines. + +8. Some Emotions and a Moral. By John Oliver Hobbes. + +9. European Relations. By Talmage Dalin. + +10. John Sherman, and Dhoya. By Ganconagh. + +11. Through the Red-Litten Windows, and The Old River House. By Theodor +Hertz-Garten. + +12. Back from the Dead. A Story of the Stage. By Saqui Smith. + +13. In Tent and Bungalow. By "An Idle Exile." + +14. The Sinner's Comedy. By John Oliver Hobbes. + +15. The Wee Widow's Cruise in Quiet Waters. By "An Idle Exile." + +16. A New England Cactus, and Other Tales. By Frank Pope Humphrey. + +17. Green Tea. A Love Story. By V. Schallenberger. + +18. A Splendid Cousin. By Mrs. Andrew Dean. + +19. Gentleman Upcott's Daughter. By Tom Cobbleigh. + +20. At the Threshold. By Laura Dearborn. + +21. Her Heart was True. By "An Idle Exile." + +22. The Last King of Yewle. By P. L. McDermott. + +23. A Study in Temptations. By John Oliver Hobbes. + +24. The Palimpsest. By Gilbert Augustin Thierry. + +25. Squire Hellman, and Other Stories. By Juhani Aho. + +26. A Father of Six. By N. E. Potapeeko. + +27. The Two Countesses. By Marie Ebner von Eschenbach. + +28. God's Will, and Other Stories. By Ilse Frapan. Translated by Helen +A. MacDonald. + +29. Her Provincial Cousin. By Edith Elmer Wood. + +30. My Two Wives. By One of their Husbands. + +31. Young Sam and Sabina. By Tom Cobbleigh. + +32. Chaperoned. By Albert Ulmann. + +33. Wanted, a Copyist. By W. N. Brearley. + +34. A Bundle of Life. By John Oliver Hobbes. + +35. The Lone Inn. By Fergus Hume. + +36. "Go Forth and Find." By Thomas H. Brainerd. + +37. The Beautiful Soul. By Florence Marryat. + +38. Dr. Endicott's Experiment. By Adeline Sergeant. + + +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO., +31 East 17th Street (Union Square), +NEW YORK. + + + + +W. C. HUDSON'S +_Interesting Books._ + + +Jack Gordon, Knight-Errant, Gotham, 1883. +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "A capital piece of work."--_Pittsburg Dispatch._ + + +On the Rack. +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "A story of unusual power."--_Boston Post._ + + +The Diamond Button. +_A Tale from the Diary of a Lawyer and the Note-book of a Reporter._ +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "A pronounced success."--_Albany Express._ + + +The Dugdale Millions +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "The plot is ingeniously cast and most skillfully worked out, + and the strong interest of the reader is not allowed to flag + for a moment."--_Boston Home Journal._ + + +The Man with a Thumb. +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "Holds the attention to the last page."--_Cleveland + Plaindealer._ + + +Vivier. +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "The story contains not a single dull page."--_Ohio State + Journal._ + + +Should She Have Left Him? +12mo, Cloth, 75 cents; Paper, 50 cents. + + "No one can go to sleep over one of Mr. Hudson's stories, for + the author supplies incidents, generally unexpected, too, and + in more rapid succession than any other living + author."--_Godey's Magazine._ + + +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO. +31 EAST 17TH ST. (UNION SQUARE), +NEW YORK. + + + + +W. CLARK RUSSELL'S +POPULAR SEA STORIES. + + +THE EMIGRANT SHIP. +1 Vol., 12mo, Extra Cloth, $1.00. +Paper Binding, 50 Cents. + + "No better sea story has been written."--_Phila. Bulletin._ + + "It is a bright, interesting story."--_N. Y. World._ + + +LIST, YE LANDSMEN! +1 Vol., 12mo, Extra Cloth, $1.00. +Paper Binding, 50 Cents. + + "A stirring romance."--_Rochester Herald._ + + "Next to a genuine sea voyage."--_Boston Journal._ + + +ROMANCE OF A TRANSPORT. +1 Vol., 12mo, Cloth, $1.00. + + "One of his best."--_Brooklyn Citizen._ + + "Who has ever begun one of Clark Russell's tales and neglected + to finish it?"--_Phila. Item._ + + +THE CASSELL PUBLISHING CO., +31 East 17th Street (Union Square), +NEW YORK. + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Two minor changes were made during the transcription of this book: + + * "the malone" was changed to "them alone" + * two instances of "Gemmel" were changed to "Gemmell" + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of Mary, by Jean Forsyth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAKING OF MARY *** + +***** This file should be named 19343.txt or 19343.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/3/4/19343/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by the Canadian Institute for Historical +Microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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