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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, In Apple-Blossom Time, by Clara Louise
+Burnham, Illustrated by B. Morgan Dennis
+
+
+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: In Apple-Blossom Time
+       A Fairy-Tale to Date
+
+
+Author: Clara Louise Burnham
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2007  [eBook #20901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Stephen Hope, Fox in the Stars, Mary Meehan, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 20901-h.htm or 20901-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/9/0/20901/20901-h/20901-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/9/0/20901/20901-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME
+
+A Fairy-Tale to Date
+
+by
+
+CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM
+
+With Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston and New York
+Houghton Mifflin Company
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+Copyright, 1919, by Clara Louise Burnham
+All Rights Reserved
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Lifted the Girl in after it]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. The Princess
+
+      II. The Ogre
+
+     III. The Prince
+
+      IV. The Good Fairy
+
+       V. The New Help
+
+      VI. The Dwarf
+
+     VII. A Midnight Message
+
+    VIII. The Meadow
+
+      IX. The Bird of Prey
+
+       X. The Palace
+
+      XI. Mother and Son
+
+     XII. The Transformation
+
+    XIII. The Goddess
+
+     XIV. The Mermaid Shop
+
+      XV. The Clouds Disperse
+
+     XVI. Apple Blossoms
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_Drawn by B. Morgan Dennis_
+
+
+   Lifted the Girl in after it
+
+   Tingling with the Increasing Desire to knock down his Host
+   and catch this Girl up in his Arms
+
+   "Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me"
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
+
+In the Order of their Appearance
+
+
+The Good Fairy      _Mehitable Upton_
+
+The Princess        _Geraldine Melody_
+
+The Ogre            _Rufus Carder_
+
+The Dwarf           _Pete_
+
+The Slave           _Mrs. Carder_
+
+The Prince          _Benjamin Barry_
+
+The Grouch          _Charlotte Whipp_
+
+The Queen           _Mrs. Barry_
+
+
+
+
+IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The Princess
+
+
+Miss Mehitable Upton had come to the city to buy a stock of goods for
+the summer trade. She had a little shop at the fashionable resort of
+Keefeport as well as one in the village of Keefe, and June was
+approaching. It would soon be time to move.
+
+Miss Upton's extreme portliness had caused her hours of laborious
+selection to fatigue her greatly. Her face was scarlet as she entered a
+popular restaurant to seek rest and refreshment. She trudged with all
+the celerity possible toward the only empty table, her face expressing
+wearied eagerness to reach that desirable haven before any one else
+espied it.
+
+Scarcely had she eased herself down into the complaining chair, however,
+before a reason for the unpopularity of this table appeared. A steady
+draught blew across it strong enough to wave the ribbons on her hat.
+
+"This won't do at all," muttered Miss Mehitable. "I'm all of a sweat."
+
+She looked about among the busy hungry horde, and her eye alighted on a
+table at which a young girl sat alone.
+
+"Bet she'll hate to see me comin', but here goes," she added, slipping
+the straps of her bag up on her arm and grasping the sides of the table
+with both hands.
+
+Ben Barry was wont to say: "When Mehit is about to rise and flee, it's a
+case of Yo heave ho, my hearties. All hands to the ropes." But then it
+was notorious that Ben's bump of reverence was an intaglio.
+
+Miss Upton got to her feet and started on her trip, her eyes expressing
+renewed anxiety.
+
+A lantern-faced, round-shouldered man, whose ill-fitting clothes, low
+collar several sizes too large, and undecided manner suggested that he
+was a visitor from the rural districts, happened to be starting for the
+young girl's table at the same moment.
+
+Miss Upton perceived his intention.
+
+"Let him set in the draught," she thought. "He don't look as if he'd
+ever been het up in his life."
+
+With astonishing swiftness her balloon-like form took on an extra
+sprint. The man became aware of her object and they arrived at the
+coveted haven nearly simultaneously.
+
+Miss Mehitable's umbrella decided the victory. She deftly moved it to
+where a hurdle would have intervened for her rival in their foot-race,
+and the preoccupied girl at the table looked up somewhat startled as a
+red face atop a portly figure met her brown eyes in triumph. The girl
+glanced at the defeated competitor and took in the situation. The man
+scowled at Mehitable's umbrella planted victoriously beside its owner
+and his thin lips expressed his impatience most unbecomingly. Then he
+caught sight of the vacant table and started for that with the haste
+which, like many predecessors, he was to find unnecessary.
+
+"I'm sorry to disturb you," said Miss Upton, still excited from her
+Marathon, "but you'd have had him if you hadn't had me."
+
+The girl was a sore-hearted maiden, and the geniality and good-humor in
+the jolly face opposite had the effect of a cheery fire in a gloomy and
+desolate room.
+
+"I would much rather have you," she replied. "I couldn't have sat
+opposite that Adam's apple."
+
+Miss Mehitable laughed. "He wasn't pretty, was he?" she replied; "and
+wasn't he mad, though?"
+
+Then she became aware that if the disappointed man had not been
+prepossessing, her present companion was so. A quantity of golden hair,
+a fine pink-and-white skin, with dark eyebrows, eyes, and lashes, were
+generous gifts of Nature; and the curves of the grave little mouth were
+very charming. The girl's plain dark suit and simple hat, and above all
+her shrinking, cast-down demeanor made her appear careless, even unaware
+of these advantages, and Miss Mehitable noticed this at once.
+
+"Hasn't the child got a looking-glass?" she thought; and even as she
+thought it and took the menu she observed a tear gather on the dark
+lashes opposite.
+
+As the girl wiped it away quickly, she glanced up and saw the look of
+kindly concern in her neighbor's face.
+
+"I'd rather you would be the one to see me cry, too," she said. "I can't
+help it," she added desperately. "They just keep coming and coming no
+matter what I do, and I must eat."
+
+"Well, now, I'm real sorry." Miss Upton's hearty sincerity was a sort of
+consolation. After she had given her luncheon order she spoke again to
+her vis-à-vis who was valiantly swallowing.
+
+"Do your folks live here in town?" she asked in the tone one uses toward
+a grieving child.
+
+"Oh, if I had folks!" returned the other. "Do people who have folks ever
+cry?"
+
+"Why, you poor child," said Miss Mehitable. For the girl caught her
+lower lip under her teeth and for a minute it seemed that she was not
+going to be able to weather the crisis of her emotion: but her
+self-control was equal to the emergency and she bit down the battling
+sob. Miss Mehitable saw the struggle and refrained from speaking for a
+few minutes. Her luncheon arrived and she broke open a roll. She
+continued to send covert glances at the young girl who industriously
+buttered small pieces of bread and put them into her unwilling mouth,
+and drank from a glass of milk.
+
+When Miss Upton thought it was safe to address her again, she spoke:
+"Who have you got to take care of you, then?" she asked.
+
+"Nobody," was the reply, but the girl spoke steadily now. Apparently she
+had summoned the calm of desperation.
+
+"Why, that don't seem possible," returned Miss Mehitable, and her voice
+and manner were full of such sympathetic interest that the forlorn one
+responded again; this time with a long look of gratitude that seemed to
+sink right down through Miss Upton's solicitous eyes into her good
+heart.
+
+"You're a kind woman. If there are any girls in your family they know
+where to go for comfort. I'm sure of that."
+
+"There ain't any girls in my family. I'm almost without folks myself;
+but then, I'm old and tough. I work for my livin'. I keep a little
+store."
+
+"That is what I wanted to do--work for my living," said the girl. "I've
+tried my best." Again for a space she caught her lip under her teeth.
+"First I tried the stores; then I even tried service. I went into a
+family as a waitress. I"--she gave a determined swallow--"I suppose
+there must be some good men in the world, but I haven't found any."
+
+Miss Upton's small eyes gave their widest stare and into them came
+understanding and indignation.
+
+"I'm discouraged"--said the girl, and a hard tone came into her low
+voice--"discouraged enough to end it all."
+
+"Now--now--don't you talk that way," stammered Miss Mehitable. "I s'pose
+it's because you're so pretty."
+
+"Yes," returned the girl disdainfully. "I despise my looks."
+
+"Now, see here, child," exclaimed Miss Upton, prolonging her troubled
+stare, "perhaps Providence helped me nearly trip up that slab-sided
+gawk. Perhaps I set down here for a purpose. Desperate folks cling to
+straws. I'm the huskiest straw you ever saw, and I might be able to give
+you some advice. At least I've got an old head and you've got a young
+one, bless your poor little heart. Why don't we go somewheres where we
+can talk when we're through eating?"
+
+"You're very good to take an interest," replied the girl.
+
+"I'm as poor as Job's turkey," went on Miss Upton, "and I haven't got
+much to give you but advice."
+
+The girl leaned across the table. "Yes, you have," she said, her soft
+dark eyes expressive. "Kindness. Generosity. A warm heart."
+
+"Well, then, you come with me some place where we can talk; but," with
+sudden cheerfulness, "let's have some ice-cream first. Don't you love
+it? I ought to run a mile from the sight of it; and these fried potatoes
+I've just been eatin' too. I've no business to look at 'em; but when I
+come to town I just kick over the traces. I forget there is such a thing
+as Graham bread and I just have one good time."
+
+She laughed and the young girl regarded her wistfully.
+
+"It's a pity you haven't any daughters," she said.
+
+"I haven't even any husband," was the cheerful response, "and I never
+shall have now, so why should I worry over my waistline? Queen Victoria
+had one the same size and everybody respected _her_. Now I'm goin' to
+order the ice-cream. That's my treat as a proof that you and I are
+friends. My name is Upton. What's yours, my dear?"
+
+"Melody."
+
+"First or last?"
+
+"Last. Geraldine Melody."
+
+"It's a _nawful_ pretty name," declared Miss Upton impressively. "There
+ain't any discord in melody. Now you take courage. Which'll you have?
+Chocolate or strawberry?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Ogre
+
+
+It proved that Miss Upton's new acquaintance had an appointment later at
+a hotel near by, so thither they repaired when the ice-cream was
+finished.
+
+"Now tell me all about it," said Miss Mehitable encouragingly, when they
+had found the vacant corner of a reception-room and sat down side by
+side.
+
+"I feel like holding on to you and not letting you go," said the girl,
+looking about apprehensively.
+
+"Are you afraid of the folks you're goin' to meet here? Is it another
+job you're lookin' for? I can tell you right now," added Miss Mehitable
+firmly, "that I'm goin' to stay and see what they look like if I lose
+every train out to Keefe."
+
+"You are so good," said the girl wistfully. "Are you always so kind to
+strangers?"
+
+"When they're a hundred times too pretty and as young as you are I am,"
+returned Miss Upton promptly; "but this is my first experience. What
+sort of position are you tryin' for now?"
+
+"I don't know what to call it," replied Geraldine, with another
+apprehensive look toward the door. "General utility, I hope." She looked
+back at her companion. "When my father died, it left me alone in the
+world; for my stepmother is the sort that lives in the fairy tales; not
+the loving kind who are in real life. I know a girl who has the dearest
+stepmother. I was fourteen years old when my father married again. My
+mother had been dead for three years. I was an only child and had always
+lived at home, but my stepmother didn't want me. She persuaded my father
+to send me away to school. I think Daddy never had any happiness after
+he married her. He had always been very extravagant and easy-going.
+While my precious mother lived she helped him and guided him, and
+although I was only a little girl I always believed he married again
+because he was greatly embarrassed for money. This woman appeared to
+have plenty and she was so in love with him! If you had seen _him_, I
+think you would have said he was a hundred times too handsome. Well,
+from what I could see at vacation time she was never sufficiently in
+love with him to let him have her money; and I am sure the last years of
+his life were wretched and full of hard places because of his financial
+ill-success. Poor father." The girl's voice failed and she waited,
+looking down at the gloved hands in her lap. "I had been at home from
+school only a few months when he died," she went on. "My stepmother
+endured me and that was all. She is a quite young woman, very fond of
+gayety, and she made me feel that I was very much in her way no matter
+how hard I tried to keep out of it."
+
+"I'll bet you were," put in Miss Upton _sotto voce_.
+
+"As soon as my dear father was gone she threw off all disguise to her
+impatience. She put on very becoming mourning and said she wanted to
+travel. She said my father had left nothing, but that I was young and
+could easily get a position. She broke up the home, found a cheap room
+for me to lodge, gave me a little money and went away." Again
+Geraldine's voice broke and she stopped.
+
+"You poor child," said Miss Upton; "to try as you have and find all your
+efforts failures!"
+
+"My stepmother has some relatives who live on a farm," went on the girl.
+"Before my father died we three had one talk which it always sickens me
+to remember. My stepmother was saying that it was high time I went out
+into the world and did something for my own support. My father perhaps
+knew that he was very ill; but we did not. His death came suddenly. That
+day while my stepmother talked he walked the floor casting troubled
+looks at me and I knew she was hurting him. 'Everybody should be where
+she can be of some use,' said my stepmother. 'I think the Carder farm
+would be a fine place for Geraldine, and after all Rufus Carder has done
+for you I should think you'd be glad to send her out there.'
+
+"I shall never forget the light that came into Daddy's eyes as he
+stopped and turned on her. 'What Rufus Carder has done for me is what
+the icy sidewalk does for the man who trips,' he answered. My stepmother
+shrugged her shoulders. 'That was your own weakness, then,' she said. 'I
+think a more appropriate simile for Rufus would be the bridge that
+carried you over!' Her voice was so cold and contemptuous! Daddy came to
+me and there was despair in his face. He put his hand on my shoulder
+while she went on talking: 'Many times since the day that Rufus saw
+Geraldine in the park,' she said, 'he has told me they would be glad to
+have her come out to the farm and live with them. I think you ought to
+send her. She isn't needed here and they really do need somebody.' The
+desperate look in my father's face wrung my heart. He did not look at my
+stepmother nor answer her; but just gazed into my eyes and said over and
+over softly, 'Forgive me, Gerrie. Forgive me.' I took his hands in mine
+and told him I had nothing to forgive." The young girl choked.
+
+When she could go on she spoke again: "A couple of days after that he
+died. My stepmother was angry because he left no life insurance, and she
+talked to me again about going to work, and again brought up the subject
+of the Carder farm. She tried to flatter me by talking of her cousin's
+admiration of me the day he saw me in the park. I told her I could not
+bear to go to people who had not been kind to my father, and she replied
+that what Daddy had said that day must have been caused by his illness,
+for Rufus Carder had befriended him times without number."
+
+The girl lifted her appealing eyes to Miss Upton's face as she
+continued: "Of course I knew that my dear father had been weak and I
+couldn't contradict her; so after trying and failing, trying and failing
+many times, as I've told you, I came to feel that the farm might be the
+right place for me after all. Work is the only thing I'm not afraid of
+now. It must be a forlorn place if they need help and can't get it. I
+think they said he and his mother live alone, but I shan't care how
+forlorn it is if only Mrs. Carder is like--like--you, for instance!" The
+girl laid her hand impulsively on her companion's knee.
+
+At that moment a man appeared in the wide doorway to the reception-room
+and looked about uncertainly. Instantly Miss Upton recognized the long,
+weather-beaten face, the straggling hair, the half-open mouth, and the
+revealing collar of her restaurant rival.
+
+She gave her companion a mirthful nudge.
+
+"He's right on my trail, you see," she whispered. "Adam's apple and
+all."
+
+Geraldine glanced up and the stranger's roving gaze fell straight upon
+hers. He came toward her.
+
+"Miss Melody?" he said in a rasping voice.
+
+She rose as if impelled by some inner spring, her light disdain
+swallowed in dread.
+
+"This is Mr. Carder, then," she returned.
+
+"You've guessed right the very first time," responded the man with an
+air of relief. "I recognize you now, but you look some different from
+the only other time I ever saw you."
+
+"This is Miss Upton, Mr. Carder, a lady who has befriended me very
+kindly while I have been waiting for you."
+
+"Yes, and who prevented me from havin' lunch with you," responded the
+stranger, eying Miss Upton jocosely; but as if he could not spare time
+from the near survey of Geraldine his eyes again swept over her hair and
+crimsoning cheeks. "I thought I felt some strong drawin' toward that
+particular table," he added. "Well, we'll make up for it in the future
+you can bet. That your bag here? We'd better be runnin' along. Time,
+tide, and business don't wait for any man. Good-bye, Miss Upton, I'll
+forgive you for takin' my place, considerin' you've been good to this
+little girl."
+
+Miss Mehitable's face was as solemn as lies in the power of round faces
+to be. At close quarters one observed a cast in Mr. Carder's right eye.
+She disapproved his assured proprietary air and she disapproved him the
+more that she could see repulsion in the young girl's suddenly pale
+countenance. She had time for only one strong pressure of a little hand
+before Geraldine was whisked away and she was left standing there
+stunned by the suddenness of it all.
+
+"I never asked where it was!" she ejaculated suddenly. "I've lost the
+child!" People began to look at her and she continued mentally: "The
+critter looked as if he wanted to eat her up, the poor little lamb.
+Unless the mother's something different from the son she'll be driven to
+desperation. No knowin' what she'll do." Miss Upton clasped her plump
+hands together in great trouble of spirit. "I believe I said Keefe
+more'n once. Perhaps she'll have sense enough to write to me. Why didn't
+I just tell that old rawbones that her plans was changed and she was
+goin' with me. Oh, I am a fool! I don't know what I'd have done with
+her; but some way would have opened. Let's see. Where am I!" Miss Upton
+delved distractedly into the large bag that hung on her arm. "Where's my
+list? Am I through or not?" She seemed to herself to have lived long
+since her wearied entrance into that restaurant.
+
+In her uneventful life this brief experience took deep hold on her
+imagination. As she rode out to Keefe on the train that afternoon she
+constructed the scenes of the story in her mind.
+
+The weak, handsome, despairing father begging his child's forgiveness.
+The dismantling of the home. The placing of Geraldine in a cheap lodging
+while her father's widow shed all responsibility of her and set forth in
+new raiment for green fields and pastures new.
+
+The shabby and carelessly put on suit in which Geraldine had appeared
+this morning told a tale. The girl had said she despised her looks. Her
+appearance had borne out the declaration. The lovely hair had been
+brushed tightly back; the old hat would have been unbecoming if it
+could: all seemed to testify that if the girl could have had her way not
+an element of attractiveness would have been observable in her. Miss
+Upton waxed indignant as she went on to picture the probable scenes
+which had frightened and disgusted the child into such an abnormal frame
+of mind. The memory of Rufus Carder's gaze, as his oblique eye had
+feasted upon his guest, brought the blood to Miss Mehitable's face.
+
+"I'll find out where she is if I have to employ a detective," she
+thought, setting her lips. "Now there's no use in bein' a fool," she
+muttered after a little more apprehensive thought. "I shall get daffy if
+I go on thinkin' about it. I'll do my accounts and see if I can take my
+mind off it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile Geraldine with her escort was also on a moving train. A
+creeping train it seemed to her. Rufus Carder was trying to make himself
+agreeable. She strove with herself to give him credit for that. She had
+not lived to be a nineteen-year-old school girl without meeting
+attractive young men. Her stepmother had always kept her in the
+background at times when it was impossible to eliminate her altogether,
+quite, as Geraldine had said, like the stepmother of a fairy tale; but
+there had been holidays with school friends and an occasional admirer;
+although these cases had been rare because Geraldine, always kept on
+short allowance as to money and clothes, avoided as much as possible
+social affairs outside the school.
+
+She tried now to find amusement instead of mental paralysis in the
+proximity of her present escort, contrasting him with some men she had
+known; but recent bitter experiences made his probably well-intentioned
+familiarities sorely trying. There was a lump in his cheek. Geraldine
+hoped it arose from an afflicted tooth, but she strongly suspected
+tobacco. Oh, if he would but sit a little farther away from her!
+
+"So you've renounced the city, the world, the flesh, and the devil,"
+said Rufus when the conductor had left them, and he settled down in an
+attitude that brought his shoulder in contact with Geraldine's.
+
+She drew closer to the window and kept her eyes ahead. "He is as old as
+Father," she thought. "He means to be kind."
+
+"There is not much chance for those at school," she replied. "School is
+about all I know."
+
+"Well, you don't need to know anything else," returned Rufus
+protectingly. "I'll bet Juliet kept you out of sight." He laughed, and
+his companion turning saw that he had been bereft of a front tooth.
+
+"I didn't see very much of my stepmother," she answered in the same
+stiff manner.
+
+"I'll bet you didn't," declared Rufus, "not when she saw you first."
+Again he laughed, convinced that his companion must enjoy the
+implication.
+
+"I mean that I have been away from home at school for several years,"
+said the girl coldly.
+
+"Oh, I know where you have been, and why, and when, and just how long,
+and all about it." The tone of this was quiet, but there was something
+disquieting to Geraldine in his manner. "Perhaps you didn't know," he
+added after a pause filled by the crescendos and diminuendos of the
+speeding train, "that your father and I were pretty thick." At this the
+girl's head turned and her eyes raised to his questioningly. "Yes," he
+added, receiving the look, appreciative of the curves of the long lashes
+and lovely lips, "I don't believe anybody knew Dick Melody better than I
+did."
+
+"Do you mean," asked the girl, "that you were fond of my father?"
+
+Charming as her self-forgetful, earnest look was, her companion seemed
+unable to sustain it. He gave a short laugh and turned his head away.
+
+"My wife attended to that part of it," he replied.
+
+A flash of relief passed over Geraldine's face. "Your wife," she
+repeated. "I--I hadn't heard--I didn't know--I thought the Mrs. Carder
+they mentioned was your mother."
+
+"She is. My wife died nearly a year ago, but she had the nerve to think
+your father was handsomer than me." The speaker looked back at his
+companion with a cheerful grin. "She said Dick Melody'd ought to be set
+up on a pedestal somewheres to be admired. I don't know as bein'
+good-lookin' gets a man anywhere. What good did those eyes ever do him!"
+
+Geraldine sank closer to her window. The despair in those eyes, as her
+father begged for her forgiveness, rose before her. Never had she felt
+so utterly alone; so utterly friendless.
+
+"Yes, I say leave the looks to the womenfolks," pursued Rufus Carder,
+feasting his gaze on the girl's profile. "When Juliet set out to get
+Dick, I warned her, but it wasn't any use. She had to have him, and she
+knew pretty well how to look out for herself. I guess she never lost
+anything by the deal."
+
+"Would you mind not talking about them?" said Geraldine stiffly.
+
+"Please yourself and you'll please me as to what we talk about,"
+returned Rufus cheerfully. "Shouldn't wonder if you were pretty sore at
+Juliet. Look out for number one was her motto all right." A glance at
+the shrinking girl showed the host that her eyes were closed. "Tired,
+ain't you?" he added.
+
+"Dead tired," she answered. And as she continued to keep her eyes closed
+he contented himself by watching the lashes resting on her pale cheeks.
+
+"Ketch a little nap if you can, that's right," he said. She kept
+silence.
+
+She did not know how long the blessed relief from his voice had lasted
+when he announced their arrival.
+
+"Be it ever so humble," he remarked, "There's no place like home."
+
+To have him get out of the seat and leave her free of the touch of his
+garments was a blessing, and she rose to follow mechanically. The
+eternal hope that dies so hard in the human breast was suggesting that
+his mother might be not impossible; and at any rate a farm was wide. She
+would never be imprisoned in a car seat with him again.
+
+"There now, my lady," he said triumphantly when they were on the
+platform. "I suppose you thought you were comin' to Rubeville. That
+don't look so hay-seedy? Eh?"
+
+He pointed to a dusty automobile whose driver, a boy of eighteen or
+twenty, with a torn hat, eyed her with dull curiosity.
+
+"I suppose you expected a one-hoss shay. No, indeedy. You've come to all
+the comforts of home, little girl." His airy geniality of tone changed.
+"What you starin' at, you coot? Come along here, Pete."
+
+The boy moved the car toward the spot where they waited with their bags.
+
+Rufus put these in at the front and himself entered the tonneau with his
+guest. His conversation as they sped along the country road consisted
+mainly of pointing out to her the cottages or fields owned by himself.
+The information fell on deaf ears. The roughness of her host's tone to
+the boy added one more item against him and lessened her hope that the
+woman responsible for his existence could be a better specimen.
+
+"I'm free," thought Geraldine over and over. "I don't need to stay
+here." Of course the proprietary implication in every word the man said
+arose simply from the conceit of a boor. She would be patient and
+self-controlled. It might be possible still that she should find this a
+haven where she could live her own life in her leisure hours, few though
+they might be.
+
+It was with a weary curiosity that she viewed the weather-beaten house
+toward which they finally advanced. In front of it stood an elm-tree
+whose lower branches swept the roof of the porch.
+
+"That's got to come down, that tree," said Rufus meditatively.
+
+His companion turned on him. "You would cut down that splendid tree?"
+
+He regarded her suddenly vital expression admiringly.
+
+"Why not, little one?" he asked. "It's makin' the house damp and
+injurin' property. Property, you understand. Property. If I'd indulged
+in sentiment do you s'pose I'd be owner of all the land I've been
+showin' you?" He smiled, the semi-toothless smile, and met her horrified
+upturned eyes with an affectionate gaze. "However, what you say goes,
+little girl. You look as if you were goin' to recite--'Woodman, spare
+that tree.' Consider the tree spared for the present."
+
+The automobile drew up at the house and in high good-humor the master
+jumped out and removed Geraldine's bag to the steps of the narrow
+piazza. A woman's face could be seen appearing and disappearing at the
+window, and Pete, the driver, looked with furtive curiosity at the guest
+as she stepped to the porch without touching the host's outstretched
+hand.
+
+Rufus threw open the door. "Where are you, Ma?" he shouted, and a thin,
+wrinkled old woman came into the corridor nervously wiping her hands on
+her apron.
+
+Geraldine looked at her eagerly.
+
+"Well, you have to take us as you find us, little girl," remarked Rufus,
+scowling at his parent. "Ma hasn't even taken off her apron to welcome
+you."
+
+At this Mrs. Carder fumbled at her apron strings, but Geraldine advanced
+to her and put out her hand.
+
+"I like aprons," she said; and the old woman took the hand for a loose,
+brief shake.
+
+"I'm very glad to see you, Miss Melody," she said timidly. "I'm glad it
+has been a pretty day."
+
+"Show her her room, Ma, and then perhaps she'd like some tea. City
+folks, you know, must have their tea."
+
+Geraldine followed her hostess with alacrity as she went up the narrow
+stairway; glad there was an upstairs; and a room of her own, and a woman
+to speak to.
+
+She was ushered into a barely furnished chamber; a bowl and pitcher on
+the small wash-stand seemed to indicate that modern improvements had not
+penetrated to the Carder farm.
+
+"I s'pose you'll find country livin' a great change for you," said Mrs.
+Carder, pulling up the window shade. Geraldine wondered how in this
+beautiful state could have been found such a treeless tract of land. She
+remembered the threatened fate of the elm. Perhaps there had been other
+destruction. "My son never seemed to take any interest in puttin' in
+water here."
+
+The girl met the wrinkled face. The apprehension in the old eyes under
+Carder's scowl had given place to curiosity.
+
+"I have come to help you," said Geraldine, "I must get used to fewer
+conveniences."
+
+"It's nice of you to say that," said the old woman, "Rufus don't want
+you to work much, though."
+
+"But of course I shall," returned the girl quickly. "I'm much better
+able to work than you are."
+
+"Oh, I've got a wet sink this year," said Mrs. Carder. "I told Rufus I
+just had to have it. I was gettin' too old to haul water."
+
+"I should think so!" exclaimed Geraldine indignantly. "Mr. Carder is
+well off. He shouldn't allow you to work any more the rest of your
+life."
+
+Mrs. Carder smiled and shook her head, revealing her own need of
+dentistry. "I'm stronger than I look. I s'pose if I was taken out of
+harness I might be like one o' these horses that drops down when the
+shafts don't hold him up any longer."
+
+Geraldine regarded her compassionately. "I've heard--my stepmother told
+me it was very hard for you to get help out here. I suppose it is lonely
+for maids."
+
+The old woman regarded her strangely, and her withered lips compressed.
+
+"I don't mind loneliness," went on Geraldine eagerly. She had thrown her
+hat on the bed and the gold of her hair shone in the mean little room.
+"I love to be alone. I long to be."
+
+"That ain't natural," observed Mrs. Carder, regarding her earnest,
+self-forgetful loveliness. "Rufus told me you was a beauty," she went on
+reflectively. "Your father was the handsomest man I ever saw."
+
+"You knew him, then," said Geraldine eagerly.
+
+"He was out here a number o' times. Rufus seemed to be his favorite man
+o' business, as you might say."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Carder, tell me all you can about his visits here." The girl's
+heart began to beat faster and she drew the clean, dried-up old woman
+down upon the edge of the bed beside her. Why should her father choose
+this dreadful place, this impossible man as a refuge? It could only have
+been as a last resort for him, just as it now was for her.
+
+"I was always away at school after his marriage," she went on. "I saw so
+little of him."
+
+Mrs. Carder looked uneasy.
+
+"I saw nothin' of him except at a meal sometimes. He and my son was
+always shut up in Rufus's office."
+
+"Did he seem--seem unhappy, Mrs. Carder?"
+
+"Well--yes. He was a sort of an absent-minded man. Perhaps that was his
+way. Really, I don't know a thing about their business, Miss Melody."
+The addition was made in sudden panic because the girl had grasped both
+the wrinkled hands and was gazing searchingly into the old woman's face
+as if she would wring information out of her.
+
+"You wouldn't tell me if you did," said Geraldine in a low voice. "You
+are afraid of your son. I saw it in your eyes downstairs. Had my father
+reason to be afraid of him? Tell me that. That is what I want to know."
+
+"Your father is dead. What difference does it make?" asked the old
+woman, looking from side to side as if for a means of escape from the
+strong young hands and eyes.
+
+"Yes, poor Daddy. Well, I have come to help you, Mrs. Carder." The
+speaker released the wrinkled hands and the old woman rose in relief. "I
+have come to work for you, not for your son, and I am not going to be
+afraid of him."
+
+The mother shook her head.
+
+"We all work for him, my dear. He holds the purse-strings."
+
+Geraldine seemed to see him holding the actual bag and leering at her
+over it with his odious, oblique eye and smile.
+
+"And let me give you a word of advice," continued the old woman,
+lowering her voice and looking toward the door. "Don't make him mad.
+It's terrible when he's angry." She winked and lowered her voice to a
+whisper. "He's crazy about you and he's the biggest man in the county."
+The old woman nodded and snapped her eyes knowingly. "You've got a home
+here for life if you don't make him mad. For life. I'll go down and make
+the tea. You come down pretty soon."
+
+She disappeared, leaving Geraldine standing in the middle of the room.
+She looked about her at the cheap, meager furniture, the small mirror
+that distorted her face, the bare outlook from the window.
+
+"For life!" she repeated to herself. "For life!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Prince
+
+
+Miss Upton's accounts were still in a muddle when she reached Keefe. Try
+as she might her unruly thoughts would wander back to the golden hair
+and dark, wistful eyes of that forlorn girl.
+
+"I was such a fool to lose her!" she kept saying to herself. "Such a
+fool."
+
+Arrived at her station she left the car, encumbered by her bulging bag
+and the umbrella which had performed a nobler deed to-day than keeping
+off the rain.
+
+"I don't know, though," soliloquized Miss Mehitable. "If I hadn't had my
+umbrella I couldn't have stopped him and he'd have sat with her and I
+shouldn't be havin' a span-tod now."
+
+From the car in front of her she saw descend a young man with a bag. He
+was long-legged, lean and broad-shouldered, and Miss Upton, who had
+known him all his life, estimated him temperately as a mixture of
+Adonis, Apollo, and Hercules. He caught sight of his friend now and a
+merry look came into his eyes. Miss Mehitable's mental perturbation and
+physical weariness had given her plump face a troubled cast, accented by
+the fact that her hat was slightly askew. The young man hurried forward
+and was in time to ease his portly friend down the last step of her car.
+
+"Howdy, Miss Mehit?" he said. "You look as if the great city hadn't
+treated you well."
+
+"Ben Barry, was you on this train?" she asked dismally.
+
+"I was. My word, you're careful of your complexion! An umbrella with
+such a sky as this!"
+
+"You don't know what that umbrella has meant to me to-day," returned
+Miss Upton with no abatement of the portentous in her tone. "Let me have
+my bag, Ben. The top don't shut very good and you might drop something
+out."
+
+"You must let me take you home," he said. "You don't look fit to walk.
+You have certainly had a big day. Anything left in the shops? The Upton
+Emporium must be going to surprise the natives."
+
+As he talked, the young man led his friend along the platform to where a
+handsome motor waited among the dusty line of vehicles. "Gee, I'm off
+for a vacation and I'm beginning to appreciate Keefe, Miss Upton. The
+air is great out here."
+
+"That's nice for your mother," observed Miss Mehitable wearily.
+
+They both greeted the chauffeur, who wore a plain livery. Miss Upton
+sank back among the cushions. "It's awful good of you to take me home,
+Ben. I'm just beat out."
+
+"Miss Upton's celebrated notions, I suppose," returned the young fellow
+as the car started. "They get harder to select every year, perhaps."
+
+"I've come home with just one notion this time," returned his companion
+with sudden fierceness. "It is that I'm a fool."
+
+"Now, Mehit, don't tell me you've fallen a prey in the gay metropolis
+and lost a lot of money."
+
+"That's nothin' to what has happened. I'm poor and I don't know what I'd
+do if I lost money, but, Ben Barry, it's much worse than that."
+
+"Look here, you're scaring me. I'm timid."
+
+"If I'd seen you on the train I could have told you all about it; but
+there isn't time now." In fact the motor was rapidly traversing the
+short distance up the main street and was now approaching a shop on the
+elm-shaded trolley track which bore across its front a sign reading:
+"Upton's Notions and Fancy Goods."
+
+Before Miss Mehitable disembarked, and this was a matter of some
+moments, she turned wistfully to her companion.
+
+"Ben, do you think your mother ever gets lonely?"
+
+"I've never seen any sign of it. Why? What were you thinking of--that I
+ought to give up the law school and come home and turn market-gardener?
+I sometimes think I'd like it."
+
+Miss Upton continued to study his clean-cut face wistfully.
+
+"Don't she need a secretary, or a sort of a--a sort of a companion?"
+
+"Why? Have you had about as much of Bright-Eyes as you can stand? Do you
+want to make a present of her to some undeserving person?"
+
+Miss Upton shook her head. "No, indeed, it ain't poor Charlotte I'm
+thinkin' of, Ben," again speaking impressively. "Can you spare time to
+come over and see me a little while to-morrow afternoon? I know your
+mother always has a lot of young folks in for tea for you Sundays."
+
+"She won't to-morrow. I told her I wanted to lie in the grass under the
+apple-blossoms and compose sonnets; but your feelings will do just as
+well."
+
+"I must tell somebody, and you know Charlotte isn't sympathetic."
+
+"No, except perhaps with a porcupine. You might try her with one of
+those. Tether it in the back yard, and when she is in specially good
+form turn her out there and let them sport together.--Easy now,
+Mehit--easy." For Miss Upton's escort had jumped out and she was
+essaying to leave the car.
+
+"If I ever knew which foot to put first," she said desperately,
+withdrawing the left and reaching down gingerly with her right.
+
+"Let me have the bag and the umbrella," suggested her companion. "Now,
+then, one light spring. Steady!" For clutching both the young man's
+hands she made him quiver to the shock as she fell against him.
+
+"I'm clumsy when I'm tired, Ben," she explained. "I'm so much obliged to
+you, and you will come over to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"To hear about the umbrella? Yes, indeed! Look at its fine open
+countenance. You can see at once that it has performed some great deed
+to-day." He shook the capacious fluttering folds and handed it to its
+owner.
+
+"Thank you so much, Ben, and give my love to your mother."
+
+The young fellow jumped into the car and sped away and Miss Upton
+plodded slowly up to her door whose bell pealed sharply as it was pulled
+open by an unseen hand, and a colorless, sour-visaged woman appeared in
+the entrance. Her hay-colored hair was strained back and wound in a
+tight, small knot, her forehead wore a chronic scowl, and her one-sided
+mouth had a vinegary expression.
+
+"Think you're smart, don't you?" was her greeting; "comin' home in a
+grand automobile with the biggest ketch in the village."
+
+"Yes, wasn't I lucky?" responded Miss Upton nasally. "I hope the
+kettle's on, Charlotte. I'm beat out."
+
+"Well, what did you stay so long for? That's what you always do--stay
+till the last dog's hung and wear yourself out." The speaker snatched
+the bag and umbrella and Miss Mehitable followed her into the house,
+through the shop, and into the little living-room at the back where an
+open fire burned in the Franklin stove and the tea-table was neatly set
+for two.
+
+Miss Upton regarded the platter of sliced meat, the amber preserve, and
+napkin-enfolded biscuit listlessly.
+
+"How nice you always make a table look," she said.
+
+"Well, set right down and give me your hat and jacket. Drink some tea
+before you talk any more. I should think you'd have some sense by this
+time."
+
+Scolding away, Charlotte poured the tea and Miss Mehitable drank it in
+silence. Her companion's monotonous grumbling was like the ticking of
+the clock so far as any effect it had upon her. The autumn before, this
+woman's drunken husband, Whipp by name, had passed out of her life. She
+was penniless, not strong, and friendless as much by reason of her
+sharp tongue as by her poor circumstances. Miss Upton hired her one day
+a week for cleaning and once upon a time fell ill herself, when this
+unpromising person developed such a kindly touch in nursing and so much
+common sense in tending the little shop, that Miss Mehitable, seeing
+what a godsend it would be to the poor creature, asked her to stay on;
+since which time, though no gratitude had ever been expressed in words,
+Mrs. Whipp had taken upon herself the ruling of the small establishment
+and its mistress with all the vigor possible. Miss Upton had told her to
+bring with her anything she valued and the widow had twisted her thin,
+one-sided mouth: "There ain't a thing in that shanty I don't wish was
+burned except Pearl," she said. "I'll bring her if you'll let me. She's
+a Malty cat."
+
+"Oh, bring her along," Miss Mehitable had replied. "I suppose I won't
+really sense that I'm an old maid until there's a cat in the house."
+
+So Pearl came, and to-night she sat blinking at the leaping flame in the
+open stove while the two women ate their supper in the long spring
+evening.
+
+"I brought some things home in my bag," said Miss Upton, "but most o'
+them are comin' out Monday."
+
+"Put in a good day, did you?" asked Charlotte, who, now that her mind
+was relieved of rebukes, was ready to listen to the tales she always
+expected when Miss Mehitable returned from her trips.
+
+"Yes, I think I did pretty well," was the answer.
+
+But the widow regarded her friend with dissatisfaction. This dispirited
+manner was very different from the effervescence which usually bubbled
+over in anecdote.
+
+"Well, next time don't stay till you're worn to a frazzle," she said.
+
+"I missed the train, Charlotte. That was what happened."
+
+"Well, didn't Mr. Barry have anything to say comin' out on the train?"
+asked Mrs. Whipp, determined to get some of her usual proxy satisfaction
+from Miss Upton's outing.
+
+"I never saw him till we got to Keefe. Oh, Charlotte, if I'd ever met a
+boy like him when I was young I wouldn't be keepin' a store now with
+another woman and a cat."
+
+"H'm, you're better off as you are. Ben Barry's young yet. He'll be in
+plenty of mischief before he's forty. His mother was in the shop to-day.
+With all her money it's queer she never married again."
+
+"Oh, she's just wrapped up in her flowers and chickens," remarked Miss
+Mehitable.
+
+"Well," returned Charlotte, "seems to me if I had a big house and
+grounds like that, I'd want somebody around besides servants."
+
+Miss Mehitable lifted her eyes from her meat and potato and gazed at her
+companion.
+
+"Queer you should say that," she returned. "I was speakin' of that very
+thing to Ben to-day. I should really think his mother would like
+somebody; somebody young and--and pleasant, you know."
+
+"Well," returned Charlotte, breaking open a biscuit, "I suppose havin'
+got rid of her husband she thinks she'll let well enough alone. She's
+the happiest-lookin' woman in town. Why not? She's got the most money
+and no man to bother her."
+
+"Why, Charlotte Whipp, you don't know what you're sayin'. Ben's father
+was a fine man. For years after he died Mrs. Barry couldn't hardly
+smile. Yes"--Miss Upton's thoughtful manner returned--"Ben's away so
+much I should think she'd like to have somebody, say a nice young girl
+with her. Of course, to folks with motors Keefe ain't much more'n a
+suburb to the city now, and Mrs. Barry, with her three months in town
+and three months to the port and six months here, has a full, pleasant
+life, and I s'pose that fine son fills it. Wasn't she fortunate to get
+him out o' the war safe? You'd ought to 'a' seen him in his Naval
+Aviation uniform, Charlotte. He looked like a prince; but he could 'a'
+bitten a board nail because he never got to go across the water. I
+s'pose his mother's average patriotic, but I guess she thanked Heaven he
+couldn't go. She didn't dare say anything like that before him, though.
+It was a terrible disappointment. Oh, Charlotte"--Miss Upton bent a
+wistful smile on her table-mate--"I can't help thinkin' what a
+wonderful home the Barry house would be for some needy girl--a lady, you
+know."
+
+"H'm!" Charlotte's twisted mouth contracted further as she gave a dry
+little sniff. "She'd probably fall in love with Ben, and he wouldn't
+give a snap for her, so she'd be miserable anyway."
+
+Miss Mehitable shook her head. "If all your probablys came true,
+Charlotte, what a world this would be."
+
+"What a world it _is_!" retorted the other. "Have some more tea"--then
+as Miss Mehitable demurred--"Yes, have some. It'll do you good and maybe
+brighten up your wits so's you can remember somethin' that's happened to
+you to-day."
+
+Miss Upton cudgeled her brain for the small occurrences of her shopping
+and managed to recall a few items; but she was not in her usual form and
+Charlotte received her offerings with scornful sniffs and silence.
+
+Miss Upton's dreams that night were troubled and the sermon next morning
+fell on deaf ears. Ben and his mother were both in the Barry pew near
+the memorial window to his father. She could not resist the drawing
+which made her head turn periodically to make certain that Ben was
+really there. Miss Mehitable respected men in general, especially in
+time of trouble, and in this case the legal mind attracted her. Ben was
+going to be a lawyer even if he wasn't one yet. The Barrys had money and
+influence, they were always friendly to her, and while she could not
+impart poor little Geraldine's story to Mrs. Barry direct without
+appearing to beg, it might reach and interest her via Ben.
+
+When the last hymn had been sung and the benediction pronounced, Miss
+Upton watched with jealous eyes the various interruptions to the Barrys'
+progress down the aisle. Everybody liked to have a word with them. All
+the girls were willing to make it easy to be asked to the hospitable
+house for Sunday tea. Miss Mehitable glowered at the bolder and more
+aggressive of these as she moved along a side aisle.
+
+When mother and son finally reached the sunlit out-of-doors they found
+Miss Upton waiting beside the steps.
+
+"Why, if here isn't the fair Mehit," remarked Ben as they approached,
+and his mother smiled and shook her regal head and Miss Upton's hand
+simultaneously.
+
+"I don't understand why you allow Ben to be so disrespectful," she said.
+
+"Law, Mrs. Barry," replied Miss Upton, "you must know that women don't
+care anything about bein' _respected_. What they want is to be _liked_;
+and Ben's a good friend o' mine."
+
+"Sure thing," remarked the young fellow, something in Miss Mehitable's
+eyes reminding him of her portentous yesterday and his promise. "Oh, I
+forgot to tell you, mother, Miss Upton is going home to dinner with us
+to-day."
+
+"No, no, I'm not, Ben," put in Miss Mehitable hastily. "I couldn't leave
+Charlotte alone for Sunday dinner; but"--she looked at Mrs. Barry--"I do
+want to see Ben about something and he promised me a little time this
+afternoon."
+
+"Mehit got into trouble yesterday," Ben explained to his mother.
+"Somebody tried to rob her of her notions and she beaned him with her
+umbrella. She's scared to death and she wants to consult the law." The
+speaker delivered a blow on his chest.
+
+"I know you hate to spare him the little time he's home, Mrs. Barry,"
+said Miss Upton apologetically; "but I'll keep him only a short time
+and--and I couldn't hardly sleep last night, though it ain't any o' my
+business, _really_."
+
+"It's a good business if you're in it, I know that," said Mrs. Barry
+kindly, "and I'll lend you Ben with pleasure if he can do you any good!"
+
+"Then when will you be over, Ben?" asked Miss Mehitable anxiously. "I'd
+like to know just when to expect you."
+
+"You don't tr-r-ust me, that's what's the matter," he returned. "Will
+you promise to muzzle Merry Sunshine?"
+
+"I--I think perhaps Charlotte will go out to walk," returned Miss Upton,
+somewhat troubled herself to know how to insure privacy in her
+restricted domain. "She does, sometimes, Sundays."
+
+"How does it affect the Keefe springtime to have her walk out in it?"
+inquired Ben solicitously.
+
+"I'll tell you, Ben," said his mother, sympathetic with the anxiety in
+Miss Mehitable's face, "bring Miss Upton over to see our
+apple-blossoms, and you can have your talk at our house."
+
+Relief overspread Miss Upton's round countenance.
+
+"Certainly. I'll call for you at three," said Ben, "Blackstone under my
+arm. If Merry Sunshine attacks me it will be a trusty weapon. Hop into
+the car, Mehit, and we'll run you home."
+
+Mrs. Barry laughed. "The sermon doesn't seem to have done him any good
+this morning, Miss Upton. We shall be glad to take you home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The Good Fairy
+
+
+So again Mrs. Whipp saw her friend and employer descend from the Barry
+car.
+
+She didn't open the door for her this time, but sat, rocking, in the
+shop with Pearl in her lap, and sniffed at her as she entered.
+
+"You and your fine friends," she scoffed. "Pretty soon you won't demean
+yourself to use the trolley at all."
+
+"If you had only been willing to come to church, Charlotte, they'd have
+brought you home, too," said Miss Mehitable, hoping she was telling the
+truth.
+
+"'The Sabbath was made for man,'" snapped Mrs. Whipp, "not man for the
+Sabbath, to go and hear that man talk through his nose!"
+
+"Now, Charlotte, I refused to go home to dinner with them just so's you
+and I could have our meal together; so don't you make me sorry."
+
+Mrs. Whipp had started up at once alertly on her friend's entrance,
+spilling Pearl, and was already removing Miss Mehitable's jacket and hat
+with deft fingers and receiving the silk gloves she pulled off.
+
+"H'm, I don't believe they'll eat any better things than we're goin' to
+have. How can I go to church and have us a good hot dinner?"
+
+"Sunday dinner should be cold mainly," returned Miss Upton calmly. "Mine
+always was till you came. Of course you're such a splendid cook,
+Charlotte, it's kind of a temptation to you to spoil me and feed me up,
+yet you know I ought not to eat much."
+
+"Oh, pshaw," returned Mrs. Whipp. "More folks die from the lack o' good
+things than from eatin' 'em."
+
+"You'll have to look out," said Miss Mehitable warningly, following her
+friend's lead to the sunny living-room where the table was spread. "It's
+a sayin' that good cooks are always cross. The better you cook the more
+you must watch to have your temper as sweet as your sauces."
+
+"Ho! Vinegar's just as important as oil," retorted the other. "You're so
+smooth to everybody it's a good thing I came to live with you and keep
+you from bein' imposed upon."
+
+Miss Mehitable laughed. "You think together we make a pretty good salad,
+do you?" she returned.
+
+When dinner was on the table and they were both seated, Miss Upton spoke
+again:
+
+"I wonder how you're goin' to like it to the port?" she said.
+
+"Awful rheumatic, I sh'd think 'twould be," returned Mrs. Whipp.
+
+"Pretty soon we'll have to be goin'," said Miss Upton. "I usually lock
+everything up here tight as a drum for three months. I was talkin' to a
+man in town yesterday that thought it was a joke that folks in Keefe
+just went a few miles to their seashore cottages. He was from Chicago
+where you have to go a thousand miles to get anywhere. I told him I
+couldn't see anything funny about it. Keefe was a village and Keefeport
+was a resort; but he kept on laughin' and said it was like lockin' the
+door of one home and goin' across the street to another, then back again
+in the fall. I told him I was full as satisfied as I would be to have
+to make my way through Indians and buffaloes to get anywhere as you have
+to in those wild Western cities. He claimed that it was perfectly
+civilized around Chicago now; but of course he'd say that."
+
+"H'm," returned Mrs. Whipp, non-committally.
+
+"Now I was thinkin', Charlotte, that there ain't a reason in the world
+why you should go to the port if you don't want to. You can stay right
+here and look after the house. I shall move the shop goods just as I
+always do to my little port place."
+
+"You don't get along there alone, do you?" asked Charlotte hastily.
+
+"No; one o' the schoolgirls is always glad to live with me in vacation
+and work for her board. I had Nellie McIntyre last summer."
+
+"Oh, of course, if you'd rather have Nellie."
+
+"I wouldn't," said Miss Upton calmly; "but she don't have rheumatism nor
+mind the dampness. She thinks it's a great chance to be to the shore and
+swim every day, and she's happy as a bird from mornin' till night. If
+she ain't to go this year, I must let the child know, for I expect
+she's lottin' on it."
+
+The silence that followed this was broken only by the purring of Pearl
+who had established herself upon a broad beam of sunshine which lay
+across the ingrain carpet. Miss Mehitable was recklessly extravagant of
+carpets in Mrs. Whipp's opinion. She would not allow the shutting-out of
+the sunlight.
+
+Miss Upton drank her tea busily now to conceal her desire to smile. Some
+of Ben Barry's comments upon her companion returned to her irresistibly;
+for she easily followed Charlotte's present mental processes.
+
+Mrs. Whipp was in a most uncomfortable corner and her friend had driven
+her into it with such bland kindness that it made the situation doubly
+difficult. There was nothing Charlotte could resent in being offered a
+summer of ease in the Keefe cottage; but to be confronted with the
+alternatives of renouncing all right to complain of fog and storm, or
+else to part from Miss Mehitable and allow her to run her own life and
+notions for the whole summer, was a dilemma which drove her also to
+drinking a great deal of tea, and leaving the floor to Pearl for some
+minutes.
+
+Miss Upton did not help her out, but, regaining control of her risibles,
+continued to eat and drink placidly, allowing her companion to
+cerebrate.
+
+Well she knew that now was the time to defend herself from a summer of
+grumbling as continuous as the swish of waves on the shore; and well she
+knew also her companion's verbally unexpressed but intense devotion to
+herself which made any prospect of their separation a panic. So she
+waited and Pearl purred.
+
+One Mr. Lugubrious Blue flits through the drawings of a certain famous
+cartoonist. Mr. Blue's mission is to take the joy out of life and
+Charlotte Whipp was his blood kin. The tip of her long nose was as
+chilly as his and her gloom was similarly chronic. Miss Upton was
+determined that she would not be the first to break in upon Pearl's
+solo.
+
+Finally Charlotte spoke:
+
+"Do the Barrys have a house to the port?"
+
+"Yes, a real cottage. The rest of us have shelters, but you can't call
+'em houses."
+
+Mrs. Whipp looked up apprehensively. "Do you mean they let in the rain?"
+
+"Sometimes in storms," returned Miss Upton cheerfully, "but we run
+around with pans and catch it."
+
+Mrs. Whipp viewed her bread and butter gloomily, the down-drawn corner
+of her one-sided mouth unusually depressed.
+
+Miss Mehitable felt a wild desire to laugh. She wished she could keep
+Ben Barry out of her mind during this important interview. Her kind
+heart administered a little comfort.
+
+"You see, there isn't any lath and plaster to the cottage, but it's good
+and tight except in very bad weather," she said.
+
+"It's a wonder you don't get rheumatics yourself," vouchsafed Charlotte.
+
+"Nobody thinks of such a thing in that beautiful sun-soaked place,"
+returned Miss Upton.
+
+"Sun-stroke did you say?" asked Mrs. Whipp, looking up quickly.
+
+"No." Miss Mehitable indulged in one frank laugh. "Sun-soaked."
+
+"Sounds more like water-logged to me from your description," said the
+other sourly, returning to her dinner. "I don't see why you go there."
+
+"For two reasons. First, because I love it better than any place on
+earth, and second, because it's good business. I do a better business
+there than I do here. You think it over, Charlotte, because I ought to
+let Nellie know."
+
+"Well, you can let Nellie know that I'm goin'," replied Mrs. Whipp
+crossly. "What sense is there in your takin' a girl to the port to go in
+swimmin' while you work?"
+
+"Nellie was a very good little helper," declared Miss Mehitable, again
+taking refuge in her teacup. When she set it down she continued: "If you
+think, Charlotte, that you can make up your mind to take the bitter with
+the sweet, the rain and the sun, the fog and the wind, why, come along;
+but it don't do a bit o' good to argue with Neptune. He'll stick his
+fork right through you if you do."
+
+Mrs. Whipp stared, but Miss Upton's eyes were twinkling so she suspected
+this was just one of her jokes.
+
+"I never was one to shirk," she declared curtly.
+
+"Then I can tell Nellie you want to go?"
+
+That word "want" made Charlotte writhe and was probably accountable for
+the extra acidity of her reply:
+
+"Yes, unless you're tongue-tied," she returned.
+
+When dinner was over and the dishes washed and put away (Miss Upton's
+Sunday suit being enveloped in a huge gingham apron during the
+performance), Miss Mehitable watched solicitously to see if Charlotte
+manifested any symptoms of going out for a constitutional. She asked
+herself, with a good deal of severity, why she should dread to inform
+Mrs. Whipp of her own plan for the afternoon.
+
+"I guess I'm free, white, and twenty-one," thought Miss Upton. But all
+the same she continued to cast furtive glances at Mrs. Whipp, who showed
+every sign of relapsing into a rocking-chair with Pearl in her lap.
+
+"It's a real pleasant day, Charlotte," she said. "Ain't you goin' to
+walk?"
+
+Mrs. Whipp yawned. "Dunno as I am."
+
+"I've got to go out again," pursued Miss Mehitable intrepidly, but she
+felt the dull gaze that at once turned and fixed upon her. "I've got to
+see Ben Barry about some business that came up in the city yesterday."
+
+"I knew you had something on your mind last night," returned Mrs. Whipp,
+triumphantly. "I notice you wouldn't tell _me_."
+
+"You ain't a lawyer, Charlotte Whipp."
+
+"Neither is that young whipper-snapper," rejoined the widow, "but then
+of course he's a Barry."
+
+"You do try my patience dreadfully, Charlotte," declared Miss Mehitable,
+her plump cheeks scarlet. "If you didn't know when you came here that
+Mrs. Barry is one o' the best friends I've got in the world, I'll tell
+you so now. You needn't be throwin' 'em up to me just because they've
+got money. I'm goin' there whenever they ask me, and this afternoon's
+one o' the times."
+
+She felt like a child who works its elbows to throw off some hampering
+annoyance. How her companion managed to hold her under the spell of
+domination which seemed merely a heavy weight of silent disapproval, she
+did not understand. It always meant jealousy, Miss Mehitable knew that,
+and usually her peace-loving, sunny nature pacified and coaxed the
+offended one, but occasionally she stood her ground. She knew that
+presently the Barry car would again draw up before her gate and she felt
+she must forestall Charlotte's sneers.
+
+"How soon you goin'?" inquired the latter mildly.
+
+"At three o'clock," returned Miss Upton bravely.
+
+"Let me fix your collar," said Charlotte, rising; "your apron rumpled it
+all up."
+
+"Why can't I remember to bully her oftener?" thought Miss Mehitable. "It
+always does her good just like medicine."
+
+Promptly at three Ben Barry jumped out of his car before Miss Upton's
+Emporium, and Mrs. Whipp dodged behind the window-curtain and watched
+them drive away.
+
+"I saw that cute Lottie looking after us," said Ben.
+
+"Poor thing, I kind o' hate to leave her on a Sunday," said Miss Upton,
+sighing.
+
+"'The better the day, the better the deed,'" remarked her companion.
+"You've got me all het up about you and your umbrella. What's my part?
+To keep you out of the lock-up? Whom did you 'sault 'n' batter? When
+are you going to tell me?"
+
+"You see that's one thing that's the matter with Charlotte," said Miss
+Mehitable. "She does hate to think I'm keepin' anything from her and she
+felt it in the air."
+
+"Do you believe she'll visit you in prison? I'll address the jury
+myself. I maintain that one punishment's enough. You at least deserve a
+holiday. Say, Mehit, me dear, I've a big surprise for you, too. You know
+I told you I warned mother to have no guests this afternoon."
+
+"Yes, you said you wanted to write poetry--Ben"--the speaker suddenly
+grasped the driver's coat-sleeve--"I never thought of it till this
+minute, but, Ben Barry"--Miss Upton's voice expressed acute dismay--"are
+you in love?"
+
+"Why, does it mean so much to you, little one?" responded Ben
+sentimentally.
+
+"You wouldn't take near as much interest, not near as much if you've got
+a girl on your mind."
+
+"One? Dozens, Mehit. I'm only human, dear."
+
+"If it's dozens, it's all right," returned Miss Upton, relieved.
+"There's always room for one more in that case, but what is your
+surprise, then, Ben?"
+
+"I didn't want to be alone to write poetry. I wanted to gloat,
+undisturbed. My dandy mother is giving me something I've been aching to
+have."
+
+Miss Upton's face brightened. "Yes, I know. Something's being built way
+back o' your house. Folks are wonderin' what it is. It looks like some
+queer kind of a stable. What in the world can you want, Ben! You've got
+the cars and a motor-cycle, and a saddle-horse."
+
+"Well"--confidentially--"don't tell, Mehit, but I wanted a zebra. Horses
+are too commonplace."
+
+"But they can't be tamed, zebras can't," returned Miss Upton, much
+disturbed. "I've read about 'em. You'll be killed. I shall--"
+
+"I _must_ have a zebra and a striped riding-suit to be happy. While
+you're wearing the stripes in jail I'll come and ride up and down
+outside your barred window and cheer you up."
+
+"I don't believe it's a zebra," declared Miss Mehitable; "but if it is I
+shall tell your mother you cannot have it, Ben Barry."
+
+"And yet you expect me to sympathize with your umbrella--"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Miss Upton suddenly; for now the tinted,
+pearly pink cloud of the Barrys' apple-orchard came in view.
+
+The house was a brick structure with broad verandas, set back among
+well-kept lawns and drives, and its fine elm trees were noted. Mrs.
+Barry was reclining in a hammock-chair under one of them as the car
+drove in, and she rose and came to meet the guest. Miss Mehitable
+thought she looked like a queen as her erect, graceful figure moved
+across the lawn in the long silken cape that floated back and showed its
+violet lining.
+
+"It's perfectly beautiful here to-day," she said as the hostess greeted
+her; "but, oh, Mrs. Barry, I suppose I'm a fool to ever believe
+Ben"--the speaker cast a glance around at her escort--"but you won't let
+him have a zebra, will you? They're the most dangerous animals. He says
+you're goin' to give him--"
+
+"My dear Miss Upton," Mrs. Barry laughed, "I do need a scolding, I know.
+I've allowed myself to be talked into something crazy--crazy. It's much
+worse than a zebra, but you know what a big disappointment Ben had last
+year--flapping his wings and aching and longing to go across the sea
+while Uncle Sam obstinately refused to let him go over and end the War?
+All dressed up and no place to go! Poor Benny!" Mrs. Barry glanced at
+her son, laughing. "He did need some consolation prize, and anyway he
+persuaded me to let him have an aeroplane."
+
+"Mrs.--_Barry_!" returned Miss Mehitable, and she gazed around at Ben
+with wide eyes.
+
+"I'm such a bird, you see," he explained.
+
+"Well," said the visitor after a pause, drawing her suspended breath,
+"I'm glad I can talk to you before you're killed."
+
+"Oh, not so bad as that," said Mrs. Barry. "He is at home in the air,
+you know, and he assures me they will soon be quite common. Come up on
+the veranda, Miss Upton. I'm going to hide you and Ben in a corner
+where no one will disturb you."
+
+"What a big place for you to live in all alone," observed Mehitable as
+they moved toward the house, and Ben drove the car to the garage.
+
+"Yes, it is; but I'm so busy with my chickens and my bees I'm never
+lonely. I'm quite a farmer, Miss Upton. See how fine my orchard is this
+year? I tell Ben that so long as he doesn't light in my apple-trees we
+can be friends."
+
+"I think you're awful venturesome, Mrs. Barry!"
+
+That lady smiled as they moved up the steps to the veranda, the black
+and violet folds of her shimmering wrap blowing about her in lines of
+beauty that fascinated her companion.
+
+"What else can the mother of a boy be?" she returned. "Ben has been
+training me in courage ever since he was born; apparently the prize-ring
+or the circus would have been his natural field of operations; so I have
+chained him down to the law and given him an aeroplane so he can work
+off his extra steam away from the publicity of earth."
+
+At last the hostess withdrew, and Miss Upton found herself alone with
+her embryo lawyer in a sheltered corner of the porch where the vines
+were hastening to sprout their curtaining green, and a hammock,
+comfortable chairs, a table and books proclaimed the place an
+out-of-door sitting-room.
+
+"Your mother is wonderful," she began when her companion had placed her
+satisfactorily and had stretched himself out in a listening attitude,
+his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes on hers.
+
+What eyes they were, Miss Upton thought. Clear and light-brown, the
+color of water catching the light in a swift, sunny brook.
+
+"She is a queen," he responded with conviction.
+
+"A pity such a woman hasn't got a daughter," said Miss Mehitable
+tentatively.
+
+"I'm going to give her one some day." A smile accompanied this.
+
+"Is she picked out?"
+
+Ben laughed at his companion's anxious tone. "You seem interested in my
+prospects. That's the second time you have seemed worried at the idea.
+No, she isn't picked out. I'm going to hunt for her in the stars. Why?
+Have you some one selected?"
+
+"Law, no!" returned Miss Upton, flushing. "It is a--yes, it is a girl
+I've come to talk to you about, though." The visitor stammered and grew
+increasingly confused as she proceeded. "I thought--I didn't know--the
+girl needs somebody--yes, to--to look after her and I thought your
+mother bein'--bein' all alone and the house so big, she might have some
+use for a--young girl, you know, a kind of a helper; but Charlotte says
+the girl would fall in love with you and--and--" Miss Upton paused,
+drawing her handkerchief through and through her hands and looking
+anxiously at her companion who leaned his head back still farther and
+laughed aloud.
+
+"Come, now, that's the most sensible speech that ever fell from Lottie's
+rosebud lips." He sat up and viewed his visitor, who, in spite of her
+crimson embarrassment, was gazing at him appealingly. "I don't believe,
+Mehit, my dear, that you've begun at the beginning, and you'll have to,
+you know, if you want legal advice."
+
+"I never do, Ben; I am so stupid. I always do begin right in the middle,
+but now I'll go back. You know I went to the city yesterday."
+
+"You and the umbrella."
+
+"Yes, and I was mad at myself for luggin' it around all the mornin' when
+the weather turned out so pleasant and I had so many other things; but
+never _mind_"--the narrator tightened her lips impressively--"that
+umbrella was all _right_."
+
+"Sure thing," put in Ben. "How could you have rescued the girl without
+it?"
+
+Miss Upton's eyes widened. "How did you know I did?"
+
+"The legal mind, you know, the legal mind."
+
+"Oh, but I didn't rescue her near enough, not near enough," mourned Miss
+Mehitable. "I must go on. I got awful tired shoppin' and I went into a
+restaurant for lunch. I got set down to one table, but it was so
+draughty I moved to another where a young girl was sittin' alone. A man,
+a homely, long-necked critter made for that place too, but I got there
+first. I don't know whether I'm glad or sorry I did. Ben, she was the
+prettiest girl in this world."
+
+Miss Upton paused to see if this solemn statement awakened an interest
+in her listener.
+
+"Maybe," he replied placidly; "but then there are the stars, you know."
+
+"She had lots of golden hair, and dark eyes and lashes, with kind o'
+long dark corners to 'em, and a sad little mouth the prettiest shape you
+ever saw. We got to talkin' and she told me about herself. It was like a
+story. She had a cruel stepmother who didn't want her around, so kept
+her away at school, and a handsome, extravagant father without enough
+backbone to stand up for her; and on top of everything he died suddenly.
+Her stepmother had money and she put this poor child in a cheap
+lodgin'-house tellin' her to find a job, and she herself went calmly off
+travelin'. This poor lamb tried one place after another, but her beauty
+always stood in her way. I'm ashamed to speak of such things to you,
+Ben, but I've got to, to make you understand. She said she wondered if
+there were any good men in this world. She was in despair."
+
+Ben's eyes twinkled, but his lips were serious as he returned his
+friend's valiant gaze.
+
+"Her name is Geraldine Melody. Did you ever hear such a pretty name?"
+Miss Upton scrutinized her listener's face for some stir of interest.
+
+"I never did. Your girl was a very complete story-teller. You blessed
+soul! and you've had all these thrills over that!" Ben leaned forward
+and took his companion's hand affectionately. "I didn't believe even you
+would fall for drug-store hair, darkened eyes, and that chestnut story.
+What did the fair Geraldine touch you for?"
+
+Miss Upton returned his compassionate gaze with surprise and
+indignation. "She didn't touch me. What do you mean? Why shouldn't she
+if she wanted to? I tell you her eyes and her story were all the truth,
+Ben Barry. I ain't a fool."
+
+"No, dear, no. Of course. But how much did you give her?"
+
+"Give her what?"
+
+"Money."
+
+"I didn't give her any, poor lamb." Into Miss Mehitable's indignant eyes
+came a wild look. "I wonder if I'd ought to have. I wonder if it would
+have helped any."
+
+Ben gave a low laugh. "I'll bet she had the disappointment of her young
+life: to tell you that yarn, and tell it so convincingly, and yet dear
+old Mehit never rose to the bait!"
+
+Miss Upton glared at him and pulled her hand away. He leaned back and
+resumed his former easy attitude. "When are you going to reach the
+umbrella?" he asked.
+
+"I've passed it," snapped Miss Mehitable, angry and baffled. "I kept
+that long-necked, gawky man off with it, pretty near tripped him up so's
+I could get to the table with that poor child."
+
+Ben shook his head slowly. "To think of it! That good old umbrella after
+a well-spent life to get you into a trap like that. All the same"--he
+looked admiringly at his companion--"there's no hay-seed in _your_ hair.
+The dam-sell--pardon, Mehit, it's all right to say damsel, isn't
+it?--didn't think best to press things quite far enough to get into your
+pocket-book. You call it a rescue. Why do you? Geraldine might have got
+something out of the gawk."
+
+Miss Upton's head swung from side to side on her short neck as she gazed
+at her friend for a space in defiant silence. His smile irritated her
+beyond words.
+
+"Look here, Ben Barry," she said at last; "young folks think old folks
+are fools. Old folks _know_ young folks are. Now I want to find that
+girl. I see you won't help me, but you can tell me where to get a
+detective."
+
+Ben raised his eyebrows. "Hey-doddy-doddy, is it as serious as that?
+Geraldine is some actress. It would be a good thing if you could let
+well enough alone; but I suspect you'll have to find her before you can
+settle down and give Lottie that attention to which she has been
+accustomed. I will help you. We won't need any detective. You shall meet
+me in town next Saturday. We'll go to that restaurant and others. Ten to
+one we'll find her."
+
+"She's left the city," announced Miss Upton curtly.
+
+"She told you so?" the amused question was very gentle.
+
+"That cat of a stepmother had a relative on a farm, some place so
+God-forsaken they couldn't keep help, so the cat kindly told the girl
+she was desertin' that if other jobs failed she could go there. I've
+told you why the other jobs did fail, and it's the truth whether you
+believe it or not, and at the time I met her the poor child had given up
+hope and decided to take that last resort."
+
+Ben bit his lip. "Back to the farm, Geraldine!"
+
+Miss Upton's head again swung from side to side and again she glared at
+her companion.
+
+"It would surprise you very much if we were to meet her in town next
+Saturday, wouldn't it?" he added.
+
+"I'd be so glad I'd hug her beautiful little head off," returned Miss
+Mehitable fervently.
+
+"Do that, dear, if you must. It would be better than bringing her out
+here to be a companion to mother." Miss Upton's eyes were so fiery that
+Ben smothered his laugh. "I'm nearly sure that Miss Melody wouldn't suit
+mother as a companion."
+
+"I wouldn't allow her to come anywhere near you," returned Miss Upton
+hotly. "I s'pose you think she didn't go to the farm. Well, I saw her go
+myself with that very gawk I tripped up with my umbrella."
+
+"Of course you did," laughed Ben; "and pretty mad he was doubtless when
+she told him she hadn't got a rise out of you. Those people usually work
+in pairs. We'll probably see him, too."
+
+Miss Upton clutched the iron table in front of her and swung herself to
+her feet with superhuman celerity.
+
+"Ben Barry, you're entirely too smart for the law!" she said. "You'll
+never stoop to try a case. You'll know everything beforehand. You're a
+kind of a mixture of a clairvoyant and a Sherlock Holmes, you are. If
+you'd seen as I did that beautiful, touchin' young face turn to stone
+when that raw-boned, cross-eyed thing looked at her so--so hungry-like,
+and took possession of her as though he was only goin' to wait till they
+got home to eat her up--and I let 'em go!" Miss Upton reverted to her
+chief woe. "I let 'em go without findin' out _where_, when in all the
+world that poor child had nobody but me, a country jake she met in a
+restaurant, to care whether that Carder picked her bones after he got
+her to his cave."
+
+"That what?"
+
+"Carder, Rufus Carder. The one thing I have got is his hateful name. He
+lives 'way off on a farm somewheres, but knowin' his name, a detective
+ought to--"
+
+Ben Barry leaned forward in his chair and his eyes ceased to twinkle.
+
+"Rufus Carder? If it is the one I'm thinking of, he's one of the biggest
+reprobates in the country."
+
+"That's him," returned Miss Upton with conviction. "At first I sized him
+up as just awkward and countrified; but the way he looked at the child
+and the way he spoke to her showed he wa'n't any weaklin'."
+
+"I should say not. He's as clever as they make 'em and he has piles of
+money--other people's money. He can get out of the smallest loophole
+known to the law. He always manages to save his own skin while he takes
+the other fellow's. Rufus Carder." Ben frowned. "I wonder if it can be."
+
+Miss Upton received his alert gaze and looked down on him in triumph.
+
+"You're wakin' up, are you?" she said. "I guess I don't meet you in town
+next Saturday, do I? Oh, Ben"--casting her victory behind her--"do you
+mean to say you know where he lives?"
+
+"I know some of the places."
+
+"That farm"--eagerly--"do you know that?"
+
+"Yes. Pretty nearly. I can find it."
+
+"And you mean you will find it? You dear boy! And you'll take me with
+you, and we'll bring her back with us. I can make room for her at my
+house."
+
+"Hold on, Mehitable. We're dealing with one of the biggest rascals on
+the top side of earth. If he wants to keep the girl it may not be simple
+to get her. At any rate, it's best for me to go alone first. You write a
+note to her and I'll take it and bring back news to you of the lay of
+the land."
+
+Miss Upton gazed in speechless hope and gratitude at the young man as he
+rose and paced up and down the piazza in thought.
+
+"Oh, Ben," she ejaculated, clasping her hands, "to think that I'm in
+time to get you to do this before you kill yourself in that aeroplane!"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, my dear Mehit" he returned. "Remember that, unlike
+the zebra, they are tamable in captivity, you'll be soaring with me
+yet."
+
+Miss Upton laughed in her relief. "If all they want is something heavier
+than air, I'm _it_," she returned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The New Help
+
+
+Geraldine, begging to be excused from supper on the night of her
+arrival, drank the glass of milk that Mrs. Carder gave her, and at an
+early hour laid an aching head on her pillow and slept fitfully through
+the night.
+
+A heavy rain began to fall and continued in the morning. She still felt
+singularly numb toward the world and life in general. Her own room was
+bad enough, but outside it was the bare landscape, the desolate house,
+and its vulgar host.
+
+Mrs. Carder, under orders from her son, presented herself early with a
+tray on which were coffee and toast, and the girl had more than a twinge
+of compunction at being waited on by the worn, wrinkled old woman.
+
+"This is Sunday," she said. "I feel very tired. If you will let me stay
+here and be lazy until this afternoon, I should like it, but only on
+condition that you promise not to bring me anything more or take any
+trouble for me."
+
+"Just as you say," responded the old woman; and she reported this
+request below stairs. Her son received it with a nod.
+
+All the afternoon he hovered near the parlour with its horsehair
+furniture, and about four-thirty the young girl came downstairs. He
+greeted her effusively and she endeavored to pass him and go to the
+kitchen. The most lively sensation of which she was conscious now was
+compassion for the old woman who had brought up her breakfast.
+
+"No, don't go out there," said Rufus decidedly. "Ma is giving the hands
+their supper. You'd only be in the way. Sit down and take it easy while
+you can."
+
+The speaker established the reluctant guest in a slippery rocking-chair
+of ancient days. The atmosphere seemed to indicate that the room had
+awakened from a long sleep for her reception.
+
+Rufus sat down near her. "We're a democratic bunch here," he said, eying
+his companion as if he could never drink in enough of her youth and
+beauty. "We usually eat all together, but distinguished company, you
+know," he smiled and winked at her while she listened to the clatter of
+knives and forks at the long table in the kitchen. "We'll have our
+supper when they get through."
+
+"I should think the servants might relieve your mother of that work,"
+said Geraldine.
+
+"Servants! Hired girl, do you mean? Nice time we'd have tryin' to keep
+'em here. Oh, Ma's pert as a cricket. She don't mind the work. That's
+real kindness, you know, to old folks," he continued. "All a mistake to
+put 'em on the shelf. They're lots happier doin' the work they're
+accustomed to."
+
+"To-morrow I shall be helping her," said Geraldine mechanically, her
+whole soul shrinking from the gloating expression in her companion's
+face.
+
+"Depends on how you do it," he responded protectingly. "I don't want
+those hands put in dishwater."
+
+"I shall do whatever your mother will let me do," responded the girl
+quickly. "That is what I came for. I've come here to earn my living."
+
+Rufus Carder laughed leniently, and leaning forward would have patted
+her hand, but she drew it away with a quick motion which warned him to
+proceed slowly. In her eyes was an indignant light.
+
+"You can do about as you like with me, little girl," he said fondly. "If
+it's a dishwasher for Ma that you want, why, I'll have to get one,
+that's all."
+
+"I heard that you have found it very difficult to get help out here."
+
+"I always get whatever I go after," was the reply. And the guest had a
+fleeting consolation in the thought that she might make easier the lot
+of that wrinkled slave in the kitchen.
+
+"You don't know yet all I can do for you," pursued Carder, and Geraldine
+writhed under the self-satisfied gaze which seemed to be taking stock of
+her person from head to foot; "nor what I intend to do," he added. "My
+wife was a plain sort of woman and I've been wrapped up in business. See
+that little buildin' down there side o' the road? That's my office. I
+can see everybody who comes in or goes out of the place and can keep my
+hand on everything that's doin' on the farm. I've held my nose pretty
+close to the grindstone and I've earned the right to let up a little. I
+know you find things very plain here, but I'm goin' to give you leave to
+do it all over. I intend you shall have just what you want, little
+girl."
+
+Every time Rufus Carder used that expression, "little girl," a strange
+sensation of nausea crept again around Geraldine's heart. It was as if
+he actually caressed her with those big-jointed and not over-clean
+hands. She still remembered the pleading of his mother not to make him
+angry.
+
+"Your mother should be your first thought," she said.
+
+"Well, that's all right," he returned. "Of course she's gettin' along
+and I put water in the kitchen for her this year; but it's legitimate
+for young folks to begin where old folks leave off. If it wa'n't so, how
+would there be any improvement in the world? You and I'll make lots o'
+trips to town until you get this old house to lookin' just the way you
+want it. I'm sorry Dick Melody can't come out and see us here."
+
+Tears sprang to the girl's eyes. Tears of grief and an infinite
+resentment that this coarse creature could so familiarly name her
+father.
+
+Mrs. Carder here appeared to announce that their supper was ready, so no
+more was said until in the next room they found a small table set for
+two.
+
+"Have you eaten your supper, Mrs. Carder?" Geraldine asked of the
+harassed and heated little woman who was hurrying back and forth loaded
+with dishes.
+
+"Yes, much as I ever do," was the reply. "I get my meals on the fly."
+Then, meeting her son's lowering expression, she hastened to add, "I get
+all I want that way, you know. It's the way I like the best."
+
+"It isn't the way you must do while I'm here," responded Geraldine
+firmly. "You're tired out. Come and sit down with your son and let me
+wait on you while you rest."
+
+"Don't that sound daughterly?" remarked Rufus exultantly. "Perhaps I
+didn't know how to pick out the right girl. What?" His mother, relieved
+by his returned complacence, became voluble with reassurances; and
+Geraldine, seeing that Rufus's hand was approaching her arm, hastily
+slid into her chair and he took the opposite place.
+
+"Didn't I tell you we'd make up for the lunch that great porpoise
+cheated us out of yesterday?" he said in high good-humor.
+
+Geraldine's desolate heart yearned after the kind friend so soon lost.
+
+"That'll do, Ma. I guess the grub's all on the table. Go chase yourself.
+Miss Melody'll pour my coffee."
+
+"Don't wash any of the dishes, Mrs. Carder, please, until I get out
+there," said Geraldine.
+
+The old woman disappeared with one last glance at her son whom Geraldine
+eyed with sudden steadiness.
+
+He smiled at her with semi-toothless fondness.
+
+"Give me my coffee, little girl. I'm famished. Isn't this jolly--just
+you and me?"
+
+Geraldine poured the coffee and handed him the cup; then she spoke
+impressively.
+
+"Mr. Carder, this is the last time this must happen. I refuse to sit
+down and make a waitress of your old mother. If you insist on showing
+her no consideration, I shall go away from here at once."
+
+Her companion laughed, quietly, but with genuine amusement and
+admiration.
+
+"By ginger," he said, "when you're mad, you're the handsomest thing
+above ground. Go away! That's a good one. Don't I tell you, you can do
+anything with me?" The speaker paused to drink his coffee noisily,
+keeping his eyes on the exquisite, stiff little mouth opposite him. "I
+know I ain't any dandy to look at. I've been too busy rollin' up the
+money that's goin' to make you go on velvet the rest o' your days:
+you're welcome to change all that, too. Yes, indeed. Never fear. When we
+do over the house we're goin' to do over yours truly, too. I'll do
+exactly as you say and you can turn me out a fashion plate that'll be
+hard to beat."
+
+"I'm not interested in turning you out a fashion plate," returned
+Geraldine coldly. "I'm interested in making the lot of your mother
+easier, that is all."
+
+Rufus regarded her thoughtfully and nodded. It penetrated his brain that
+he had been going too fast with this disdainful beauty. He rather
+admired her for her disdain; it added zest to the certainty of her
+capitulation.
+
+"Have it your own way, little girl," he said leniently. "I know you're
+tired, still. You're not eatin'. Eat a good supper and to-night take
+another long sleep and to-morrow everything will look different."
+
+Geraldine still regarded him with an unfaltering gaze. "We are
+strangers," she said. "I wish you not to call me 'little girl!'"
+
+Rufus smiled at her admiringly. "It's hard for me to be formal with Dick
+Melody's girl," he said. "What shall I call you? My lady? That's all
+right, that's what you are. My lady. Another cup o' coffee please, my
+lady. It tastes extra good from your fair hands. We'll do away with this
+rocky tea-set, too. You're goin' to have eggshell China if you want it;
+and of course you do want it, you little princess."
+
+His extreme air of proprietorship had several times during this
+interview convinced Geraldine that her host had been drinking. In spite
+of his odious frank admiration and the glimpses that he gave of some
+disquieting power, Geraldine scorned him too much to be afraid of him,
+and while she doubted increasingly that it would be possible for her to
+remain here, she determined to see what the morning would bring forth.
+The man's passion for acquisition, evidenced by his showmanship of his
+accumulations, might again absorb him after the first flush of her
+novelty wore off. She would enter into the work of the house, she would
+never again sit _tête-à-tête_ with him, and he should find it impossible
+to see her alone. His mother had warned her that he was terrible when he
+was angry, and Geraldine suspected that the mother always felt the brunt
+of his wrath. She must be careful, therefore, not to make the lot of
+that mother harder while endeavoring to ease it.
+
+As soon as she could, Geraldine escaped to the kitchen where she found
+Mrs. Carder at her wet sink.
+
+"I asked you to wait for me, Mrs. Carder," she said.
+
+The old woman looked up from her steaming pan, her countenance full of
+trouble.
+
+"Now, Rufus don't want you to do anything like this, Miss Melody, and
+Pete's helpin' me, you see."
+
+Geraldine turned and saw a boy who was carrying a heavy, steaming kettle
+from the stove to the sink, and she met his eyes fixed upon her. She
+recognized him at once as the driver of the motor in which she and her
+host had come from the station. As the chauffeur he had appeared like a
+boy of ordinary size, but now she saw that his arms were long and his
+legs short and bowed, and in height he would barely reach her shoulder.
+
+The dwarf had a long, solemn, tanned face and a furtive, sullen eye.
+Geraldine remembered Rufus Carder's rough tone as he had summoned him at
+the station. He was perhaps a wretched, lonely creature like herself.
+She met his look with a smile that, directed toward his master, would
+have sent Rufus into the seventh heaven of complacence.
+
+"I have met Pete already," she said, kindly. "He drove us up from the
+station. I'm glad you are helping Mrs. Carder, Pete. She seems to have
+too much to do."
+
+The boy did not reply, but he appeared unable to remove his eyes from
+Geraldine's kind look, and careless of where he was going he stumbled
+against the sink.
+
+"Look out, Pete!" exclaimed his mistress. "What makes you so clumsy? You
+nearly scalded me. I guess he's tired, too." The old woman sighed.
+"Everybody picks on Pete. They all find something for him to do."
+
+"Then run away now," said Geraldine, still warming the boy's dull eyes
+with her entrancing smile, "and let me take your place. I can dry dishes
+as fast as anybody can wash them."
+
+The dwarf slowly backed away, and disappeared into the woodshed, keeping
+his gaze to the last on the sunny-haired loveliness which had invaded
+the ugliness of that low-ceiled kitchen.
+
+Geraldine seized a dish-towel, and Mrs. Carder, her hands in the suds,
+cast a troubled glance around at her.
+
+"Rufus won't like it," she declared timorously.
+
+"Why should you say anything so foolish? What did I come out here for?"
+
+The old woman looked around at her with a brief, strange look.
+
+"You couldn't get help," went on Geraldine, "and so as I needed a home I
+came."
+
+"Is that what they told you?"
+
+"Yes. That is what my stepmother told me, and I see it is true. You seem
+to have no one here but men."
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Carder. "It--it hasn't been a healthy place for
+girls." She cast a glance toward the door as she spoke in a lowered
+voice.
+
+"Dreadfully lonely, you mean?" inquired Geraldine, unpleasantly affected
+by the other's timidity. "The woman has no spirit," she added mentally
+with some impatience.
+
+Mrs. Carder looked full in her eyes for a silent space; then: "Rufus can
+do anything he wants to--anything," she whispered.
+
+Geraldine, in the act of wiping a coarse, thick dinner-plate, met the
+other's gaze with a little frown.
+
+"Don't give in to him, my dear," went on the sharp whisper. "You are too
+beautiful, too young. He's crazy about you, so you be firm. Don't give
+in to him. Insist on his marrying you!"
+
+The thick dinner-plate fell to the floor with a crash.
+
+"Marrying him!" ejaculated Geraldine.
+
+"Sh! Sh! Oh, Miss Melody, hush!"
+
+Geraldine began to shiver from head to foot. The lover-like words and
+actions of her host seemed rushing back to memory with all the other
+repulsive experiences of past weeks.
+
+The kitchen door opened and the master appeared.
+
+"Who's smashing the crockery?" he inquired.
+
+"It's your awkward help," rejoined Geraldine, her teeth chattering as
+she stooped to pick up the plate.
+
+"I knew you weren't fit for this kind of thing," he said tenderly,
+approaching, to the girl's horror. "Where's that confounded Pete?"
+
+"I sent him away," said Geraldine, indignant with herself for trembling.
+"I wanted to do this; it is what I came for. The plate didn't break."
+
+The man regarded her flushed face with a gaze that scorched her.
+
+"Break everything in the old shack if you want to--that is, all but one
+thing!"
+
+He stood for half a minute more while his mother scalded a new pan full
+of dishes.
+
+"What is that poem," he went on--"What's that about, 'Thou shalt not
+wash dishes nor yet feed the swine'? Well, well, we'll see later."
+
+Geraldine's heart was pounding too hard to allow her to speak. She
+seized another plate in her towel, his mother, her wrinkled lips pursed,
+kept her eyes on her dishpan, so with a pleased smile at his own apt
+quotation the master reluctantly removed his presence from the room.
+
+"I'm very sorry for you, Mrs. Carder," said Geraldine breathlessly,
+meanwhile holding her plate firmly lest another crash bring back the
+owner, "but I can't stay here. I must go away to-morrow."
+
+Her companion gave a fleeting glance around at the girl, and her
+withered lips relaxed in a smile as she shook her head.
+
+"Oh, no, you won't, my dear."
+
+At the unexpected reply Geraldine's heart thumped harder.
+
+"I certainly shall, Mrs. Carder. I'm sorry not to stay and help you, but
+it's impossible."
+
+"It will be impossible for you to go," was the colorless reply. "Nobody
+goes away from here till Rufus is ready they should; then they leave
+whether they have any place to go to or not. It's goin' to be different
+with you. I can see that. You needn't be scared by what I said, a minute
+ago. You are safe. You've got a home for life. I only hope you won't let
+him send me away." The old woman again turned around to Geraldine and
+her tired old eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Nothing should be too good for you with all your son's money," rejoined
+Geraldine hotly.
+
+Her panic-stricken thought was centered now on one idea. Escape. The
+night was closing in. The clouds had cleared away. The stretches of
+fields in all directions, the lack of neighbors, the horrors of the old
+woman's implications, all weighed on the girl like a crushing nightmare.
+The dishes at last put away, she bade the weary old woman good-night,
+and apprehensively looking from side to side stole to the stairway
+without encountering anyone and mounting to her dreary chamber she
+locked the door.
+
+She hurried to the window and looked out.
+
+A half-moon in the sky showed her that the distance down was too far to
+jump. She might sprain or break one of those ankles which must go fast
+and far to-night.
+
+Packing her belongings back in her bag she sat down to wait. Gradually
+all sounds about the house ceased. Still she waited. The minutes seemed
+hours, but not until her watch pointed to midnight did she put on her
+hat and jacket and slip off her shoes.
+
+Then going to the door she gradually turned the key. The process was
+remarkably noiseless. If only the hinges were as friendly. Very, very
+slowly she turned the knob and very, very slowly opened the door. Not a
+sound.
+
+When the opening was wide enough to admit her body she was gliding
+through, when her stockinged foot struck something soft. She thought it
+was a dog lying across the threshold, and only by heroic effort she
+controlled the cry that sprang to her lips. The dark mass half rose, and
+by the faint moonlight she could see two long, suddenly out-flung arms.
+"Pete," she whispered, "Pete, you _will_ let me pass!"
+
+"I'm sorry, lady. He'd kill me. He'd tear me to pieces," came back the
+whisper.
+
+"Please, Pete," desperately, "I'll do anything for you. Please,
+_please_!"
+
+For answer the long arms pushed her back through the open door. Another
+door opened and Rufus Carder's nasal voice sounded. "You there, Pete?"
+
+A sonorous snore was the only answer. For a minute that other door
+remained open, but the rhythmical snoring continued, and at last the
+latch was heard to close.
+
+Geraldine again cautiously opened her door a crack.
+
+"Pete," she whispered.
+
+The dwarf snored.
+
+"Please talk to me, Pete. I'm sure you are a kind boy." The pleading
+whisper received no answer beyond the heavy breathing.
+
+"I want to ask your advice. I want you to tell me what I can do. I'm
+sure you don't love your master."
+
+A sort of snort interrupted the snoring which then went on rhythmically
+as before.
+
+Geraldine closed her door noiselessly. She sat down white and unnerved.
+She was a prisoner, then. For a time her mind was in such a whirl that
+she was unable to form a plan.
+
+She put her hand to her head.
+
+"I must try to sleep if I can in this hideous place. Then to-morrow I
+may be able to think."
+
+Locking the door, she drew the bureau against it; then she undressed and
+fell into bed. Her youth and exhaustion did the rest. She slept until
+morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Dwarf
+
+
+"You, Pete," said his master, approaching the pump where the boy was
+performing his morning ablutions, "what was the noise I heard in Miss
+Melody's room last night?"
+
+"Dunno," sullenly.
+
+"Well, you'd better know. I'll skin you alive if anything happens to
+her."
+
+"How--how could I help it if she jumps out the winder?"
+
+Carder smiled. "You're thinkin' of somebody else. _She_ went to the
+hospital. If Miss Melody hurts herself, we'll keep her here. She won't
+do that, though, and I hold you accountable for anything else she does.
+Night and day, remember. You've got to know where she is all the time.
+You understand?"
+
+The dwarf grunted and combed his thick, tousled hair with his fingers.
+
+"Watch yourself now. You'll pay if anything goes wrong. What was that
+noise I heard? Out with it!"
+
+The dwarf grunted his reply. "She moved the furniture ag'in' the door, I
+guess."
+
+"Oh, that was it."
+
+Rufus laughed and turned toward the house.
+
+The hired men had had their breakfast and gone to the fields and the
+drudge in the kitchen was prepared for the arrival of her son and his
+guest.
+
+Geraldine came downstairs fresh from sleep and such a cold bath as was
+obtainable from the contents of a crockery pitcher. Rufus's eyes
+glittered as he beheld her.
+
+"Well, my little--I mean my lady, you look wonderful. I guess there was
+some sleep in the little old bed after all; but you shall have down to
+sleep on if you want it."
+
+Geraldine regarded him.
+
+"I don't see how you expected I could sleep when you let a dog lie
+outside my door, a dog with the nightmare, I should judge, snoring and
+snorting. Be sure he is not there to-night. He frightened me."
+
+"Too bad, too bad," returned Rufus; "but you see you slept, or you
+couldn't look like a fresh rosebud as you do this morning; and you'll
+get used to good old Sport. He's a splendid watchdog."
+
+Geraldine turned to her hostess.
+
+"I don't know what your hours are, Mrs. Carder--whether five, or six, or
+seven is over-sleeping, but I'm ashamed not to have been down here to
+help you get breakfast. It shan't happen again."
+
+"Don't fret about that," said Rufus, "Sleep as long as you want to,
+little girl. It's good for your complexion."
+
+Geraldine flatly refused to sit down to breakfast unless Mrs. Carder was
+also at the table, so the old woman wiped her hands on her apron and
+took her place between her son and the beautiful girl, and Geraldine
+jumped up and fetched and carried when anything was needed.
+
+Rufus watched this proceeding discontentedly. "We've got to start in
+new, Ma," he said. "The Princess Geraldine and me are goin' to do this
+house over, and we'll get some help, too--help that knows how; the
+stylish kind, you know. Geraldine thinks the time has come for you to
+hold your hands the rest o' your days."
+
+"Just as you say, Rufus," returned his mother meekly, nibbling away at
+the bacon on her plate and feeling vastly uncomfortable.
+
+"What she says goes; eh, Ma?"
+
+"Just as you say, Rufus," repeated the mother.
+
+A light was glowing in Geraldine's eyes. It was day. She was young and
+strong. The world was wide. She laughed at her fears of the night. The
+right moment to escape would present itself. Rufus would have to go to
+the city, and even if he refused to leave without her, once in town she
+could easily give him the slip. Perhaps that was going to prove the best
+solution after all.
+
+"Your trunk came last night," he said, when at last the three rose from
+the breakfast-table. "You can show Pete where you want it put."
+
+Geraldine tried not to betray the eagerness with which she received this
+permission.
+
+The dwarf's strong arms carried her modest trunk up the stairs as easily
+as if it had been a hatbox. She feared Carder might follow them, but he
+did not.
+
+"Pete," she said, low and excitedly, as soon as they reached her room
+and he had deposited his burden, "you _will_ help me! I know you are
+going to be the one to help me get away from here."
+
+The dwarf shook his head. "Then I'd be killed," he answered, but he
+gazed at her admiringly. "I've got the marks of his whip on me now."
+
+"Why do you stay?" asked Geraldine indignantly.
+
+"He says nobody else would give me work. I'm too ugly. He says I'd
+starve."
+
+"That isn't so!" exclaimed the girl. "I will help you." The
+consciousness of the futility of the promise swept over her even as she
+made it. Who was she to give help to another!
+
+The dwarf, gazing fascinated at her glowing face, saw her eyes suddenly
+fill. A heavy step sounded on the stair.
+
+"Move it, move the trunk, Pete," she whispered, dragging at it herself.
+
+Rufus Carder appeared at the door just as the dwarf was shoving the
+trunk to another part of the room.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Seems to me you take a long time about
+it."
+
+"I'm always so undecided," said Geraldine. "I believe I will have it
+back under the window after all, Pete."
+
+So back under the window the boy lifted the trunk, his master meanwhile
+looking suspiciously from one to the other. It was quite in the
+possibilities that his fair guest might try to corrupt that dog which at
+night lay outside her door; but the dog well knew that no corner of the
+earth could hide him from Rufus Carder if he played him false, and the
+master felt tolerably safe on that score.
+
+All that day Geraldine watched to observe the habits of those around
+her. She found that the small yellow building near the drive which
+Carder had pointed out to her was the place where he spent most of his
+time: the cave of the ogre she named it. The driveway came in from a
+road which passed the farm and no one entered it except persons who had
+business with the owner.
+
+Again the girl marveled at the character of the country surrounding the
+farmhouse. Not a tree provided a hiding-place or shade for man or beast.
+Stones had been removed and built into low walls that intersected the
+fields. Even in the lovely late spring with verdant crops growing there
+were no lines of beauty anywhere. The ugly yellow office building reared
+itself from a strip of grass where dandelions fought for their rights,
+but a wide cement walk led to its door.
+
+"Come down and see my den," said Rufus late that afternoon. "The washing
+dishes and feeding swine can come later if you are determined to do it.
+It's a great little old office, that is. There's more business
+transacted there than you might suppose." He met Geraldine's grave gaze,
+and added: "Many a profitable half-hour your father has spent there.
+Yes, indeed, Dick Melody knew which side his bread was buttered on, and
+I'm in hopes of being as good a friend to his daughter as I was to him."
+
+Geraldine yielded to the invitation in silence. She wished to discover
+every possible detail which could make her understand how her father, as
+popular with men as with women, and with every custom of good manners,
+had often sought this brute. Doubtless it was to obtain money. Probably
+her father had died in debt to the man. Probably it was that fact which
+gave her jailer his evident certainty that he had her in his power. Her
+father was dead. Was there anything in the law that could hold her, a
+girl, responsible for his debts? It was surely only a matter of days
+before she could make her escape and meanwhile she would try not to let
+disgust overpower her reason. She was not sorry to be asked to see the
+abode of the spider, in the center of which he sat and watched the
+approach from any direction of those who dragged themselves of necessity
+into his web. Let him tell what he would about her father. She wished to
+know anything concerning him, of which Carder had proof. She would not
+allow her poise to be shaken by lies.
+
+It was bright day and the office was but a few hundred yards from the
+house. All the same, as they walked along, she was glad to hear a sharp
+metallic clicking a little distance behind them, and turning her head,
+to see Pete ambling along with his clumsy, bow-legged gait, dragging a
+lawn-mower. Little protection was this poor oaf with the scars of his
+master's whip upon him, but Geraldine had seen a doglike devotion light
+up the dull eyes in those few minutes up in her room, and in spite of
+the dwarf's hopeless words she felt that she had one friend in this
+place of desolation. She expected the master would drive the boy away
+when the mower began to behead the dandelions, but Rufus appeared
+unaware of the monotonous sound.
+
+"Pretty ship-shape, eh?" he said when they were inside the office. He
+indicated the open desk with its orderly files of papers and well-filled
+pigeon-holes. Placing himself in the desk-chair he drew another close
+for his visitor.
+
+Geraldine moved the chair back a little and sat down, her eyes fixed on
+the telephone at Carder's left. That instrument connecting with the
+outside world, the world of freedom, fascinated her. If she could but
+get ten minutes alone with it! She had some friends of her school days,
+and the pride which had hitherto prevented her from communicating with
+them was all gone, immersed in the flood of fear and repulsion which,
+despite all her reasoning, swept over her periodically like a paralysis.
+Rufus leaned back in his seat and surveyed his guest. She looked very
+young in the soft, pale-green dress she wore.
+
+"Here I am, you see, master of all I survey, and of a good deal that I
+don't survey--except with my mind's eye." He shook his head
+impressively. "I can do a lot for anybody I care for." He pulled his
+check-book toward him. "I can draw my check for four figures, and I'll
+do it for you any time you say the word. How would you like to have a
+few thousands to play with?"
+
+Geraldine removed her longing gaze from the telephone and looked at her
+hands. She could not meet the insupportable expression of his greedy
+eyes.
+
+"Two figures would do," she said, "if you would allow me to go to town
+and spend it as I please."
+
+"Why, my beauty," he laughed, "you can spend any amount, any way you
+please."
+
+"Alone?" asked Geraldine, her suddenly eager eyes looking straight into
+his, but instantly shrinking away.
+
+"Of course not," he returned cheerfully. "I ought to get something for
+my money, oughtn't I?"
+
+She was silent, and he watched her as if making up his mind how to
+proceed.
+
+"Look here," he said at last in a changed tone, "I don't know what I've
+got to gain by beating about the bush. I've shown you plain enough that
+I'm crazy about you and I've told you that I always get what I go
+after."
+
+Geraldine's heart began to beat wildly. She kept her eyes on her folded
+hands and the extremity of her terror made her calm.
+
+"I'm goin' to treat you as white as ever a girl was treated; but I want
+you, and I want you soon. I know we're more or less strangers, but you
+can get acquainted with me as well after marriage as before. I know all
+this ain't regulation. A girl expects to be courted, but I'll court you
+all your life, little girl."
+
+The lawn-mower clicked through the silence in which Geraldine summoned
+the power to speak. Indignation helped to steady her voice. She looked
+up at her companion, who was leaning forward in his chair waiting for
+her first word.
+
+"It is impossible for me to marry you, Mr. Carder," she said, trying to
+hold her voice steady, "and since your feeling for me is so extreme, I
+intend to leave here immediately. You speak as if you had bought me as
+you might have bought one of your farm implements, but these are modern
+days and I am a free agent."
+
+Carder did not change his position, his elbows leaning on the arms of
+his chair, his fingers touching.
+
+"I have bought you, Geraldine," he answered quietly.
+
+She started up from her chair, her indignation bursting forth. "I knew
+it!" she exclaimed. "My father died owing you money and you have
+determined that I shall pay his debts in another coin! He would turn in
+his grave if he heard you make such a cruel demand."
+
+The frank horror and repulsion in the girl's eyes made the blood rise to
+her companion's temples.
+
+He pointed to her chair. "Sit down," he said. "You don't understand
+yet."
+
+She obeyed trembling, for she could scarcely stand. His unmoved
+certainty was terrifying. "Your father was a very popular man. His
+vanity was his undoing. Juliet was too smart to let him throw away her
+money, so rather than lose his reputation as a good sport, rather than
+not keep up his end, he looked elsewhere for the needful, and he came to
+me, not once, but many times. At last he wore out my patience and the
+Carder spring ran dry, so far as he was concerned; then, Geraldine"--the
+narrator paused, the girl's dilated eyes were fixed upon him--"then, my
+proud little lady, handsome Dick Melody fell. He began helping himself."
+
+"What do you mean--helping himself?" The girl leaned forward and her
+hands tightened until the nails pressed into her flesh.
+
+Rufus Carder slipped his fingers into an inside pocket and drew forth
+two checks which he held in such a way that she could read them.
+
+"You don't know my signature," he went on, "but that is it. Large as
+life and twice as natural. Yes"--he regarded the checks--"twice as
+natural. I couldn't have done them better myself."
+
+Geraldine's hands flew to her heart, her eyes spoke an anguished
+question.
+
+"Yes," Rufus nodded, "Dick did those." The speaker paused and slipped
+the checks back into his pocket. "I breathed fire when I discovered it,
+and then very strangely something occurred which put the fire out."
+Again he leaned his elbows on the chair-arms, and bent toward the wide
+eyes and parted lips opposite. "I saw you sitting in the park one day,"
+he went on slowly, "you got up and walked and laughed with a girl
+companion. I found out who you were. I went to your father, who was
+nearly crazy with apprehension at the time, and I told him there was no
+girl on earth for me but you, and that if he would give you to me I
+would forgive his crime. I didn't want a forger for a father-in-law. It
+was arranged that this month he should bring you out here and make his
+wishes known. His reputation was safe. Even Juliet suspected nothing. He
+is still mourned at his clubs as the prince of good fellows; but his
+sudden death prevented him from puttin' your hand in mine."
+
+A silence followed, broken only by the rasping of the lawn-mower and
+Rufus Carder watched the girl's heaving breast.
+
+"So you see," he went on at last, "all you have to do to save your
+father's name is to sit down in the lap of luxury; not a very hard
+thing to do, I should think. You'll find that I'll take--" The speaker
+paused, for another sound now broke in upon the click of the lawn-mower,
+an increasingly sharp noise which brought him to his feet and to one of
+the many windows which gave him a view in every direction.
+
+A motor-cycle was speeding up the driveway.
+
+"That's Sam Foster comin' to pay his rent," he said. "There'll be many a
+one on that errand along about now," he declared with satisfaction.
+"Cheer up," he added, turning back to the pale face and tremulous lips
+of the young girl. "Your father wasn't the first fine man to go wrong;
+but they don't all have somebody to stick by 'em and shield 'em as he
+did. The more you think it over, the more--"
+
+The motor-cycle had stopped during this declaration, and the rider now
+stepped into the office-door. Geraldine, her hands still unconsciously
+on her heart, gazed at the newcomer. Could it be that Rufus Carder had a
+tenant like this youth? The well-born, the well-bred, showed in his
+erect bearing and in his sunny brown eyes, and the smile that matched
+them.
+
+The owner started and scowled at sight of him.
+
+"Mr. Carder, I believe," said the visitor.
+
+Rufus's chair grated as he advanced to edge the stranger back through
+the door.
+
+"Your business, sir," he said roughly. "Can't you see I'm in the midst
+of an interview?"
+
+Ben's eyes never left those of the young girl, and hers clung to him
+with a desperate appeal impossible to mistake. She rose from her chair
+as if to go to him.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Carder, and I won't interrupt you. I'll wait outside. I came
+to see Miss Melody with a message from one of her friends and I'm sure
+from the description that this is she." The young fellow bowed
+courteously toward Geraldine, who stood mute drinking in the inflections
+of his voice; the very pronunciation of his words were earmarks of the
+world of refinement from which she was exiled. In her distraction she
+was unconscious of the manner in which she was gazing at him above the
+tumult of grief at her father's double treachery. Her father had sold
+her, sold her in cold blood, and her life was ruined. Had the visitor in
+his youth and strength and grace been Sir Galahad himself, she could not
+have yearned more toward his protection.
+
+To Ben she looked, as she stood there, like a lovely lily in a green
+calyx, and her expression made his hands tingle to knock flat the
+scowling, middle-aged man with the unkempt hair and the missing tooth
+who was uneasily edging him farther and farther out the door.
+
+"Miss Melody don't wish to receive calls at present and you can tell her
+friend so," said Rufus in the same rough tone. "She don't wear black,
+but she's in mournin' all the same. Her father died recently. Ain't you
+in mournin', Geraldine?" He turned toward the girl.
+
+She had dropped her hands and seized the back of her chair for support.
+
+"Yes," she breathed despairingly.
+
+"Can't I see you for a few minutes, Miss Melody?" said Ben over the
+wrathful Carder's shoulder. "Miss Upton sent me to you. My name is
+Barry."
+
+"No, you can't, and that's the end of it!" shouted Rufus.
+
+Ben's smile had vanished. His eyes had sparks in them as he looked down
+at the shorter man.
+
+"Not at all the end of it," he returned. "Miss Melody decides this. Can
+you give me a few minutes?"
+
+As he addressed her he again met the wonderful, dark-lashed eyes that
+were beseeching him.
+
+Rufus Carder looked around at the girl his thin lips twitching in ugly
+fashion.
+
+"_You_ can tell him, then, if he won't take it from me," he said, "and
+mind you're quick about it. We ain't ready here for guests. Miss Melody
+don't want to receive anybody. She's tired and she's recuperatin'. Tell
+him so, Geraldine."
+
+The girl's lips moved at first without a sound; then she spoke:
+
+"I'm very tired, Mr. Barry," she said faintly. "Please excuse me."
+
+Rufus turned back to the guest.
+
+"Good-day, sir," he ejaculated savagely.
+
+Ben stood for a silent space undecided. His fists were clenched.
+Geraldine, meeting his glowing eyes, shook her head slowly. Her keen
+distress made him fear to make another move.
+
+"At some other time, then, perhaps," he said, tingling with the
+increasing desire to knock down his host and catch this girl up in his
+arms.
+
+"Yes, at some other time," said Rufus, speaking with a sneer. "Tell Miss
+Upton that Mrs. Carder may see her later."
+
+A tide of crimson rushed over Ben's face. He saw that there must be a
+pressure here that he could not understand, and again Geraldine's fair
+head and wonderful eyes signaled him a warning. He could not risk
+increasing her suffering.
+
+"Good-day, sir," repeated Rufus; and the visitor stepped down from the
+office-door in silence and out to his machine.
+
+Carder turned back to Geraldine, who met his angry gaze with despairing
+eyes.
+
+"What have I to hope for from you when you treat a stranger so
+inexcusably?" she said in a low, clear voice that had a sharp edge.
+
+[Illustration: Tingling with the Increasing Desire to knock down his
+Host and catch this Girl up in his Arms]
+
+"Let me run this," said Rufus with bravado. "You'll find out later what
+you'll get from me, and it will be nothin' to complain of when once
+you're Mrs. Carder. You can have that fat porpoise or any other woman
+come to see you, and when you're ridin' 'em around in the new car I'm
+goin' to get you, they'll be green with envy. You'll see. Let me run
+this."
+
+His absorption in Geraldine had distracted Carder's attention from the
+fact that he was not hearing the departure of that most satirically
+named engine of misery, "The Silent Traveler."
+
+He strode to a window and saw Ben Barry mounting his machine close to
+where Pete was mowing the grass.
+
+He hurried to the door. "Come here, you damned coot!" he yelled. And
+Pete dropped the mower and ambled up to the office-door.
+
+"What did that man want of you?" he asked furiously.
+
+"Wanted to know the shortest road to Keefe," replied Pete in his usual
+sullen tone.
+
+"You lie!" exclaimed Rufus. If Ben Barry had looked like a dusty Sir
+Galahad to Geraldine, he had looked dangerously attractive to Carder,
+who cursed the luck that had made him invite the girl to his office on
+this particular afternoon. "You lie!" he repeated, and stepping back to
+his desk he seized a whip which lay along one side of it.
+
+Geraldine cried out, and springing forward grasped his arm. He paused at
+the first voluntary touch he had ever received from her.
+
+"Don't you dare strike that boy!" she exclaimed breathlessly.
+
+Carder looked down at the white horror in her face and in her shining
+eyes.
+
+"I'm goin' to get the truth out of him," he said, his mouth twitching.
+"You go up to the house."
+
+"I will not go up to the house! Put down that whip! If you strike Pete,
+I'll kill myself." She finished speaking, more slowly, and Rufus,
+looking down into her strangely changed look, became uneasy.
+
+"I guess not," he said. "You go up to the house."
+
+"I mean it," declared Geraldine in a low tone. "What have I to live for!
+My own father, the only one on earth I had to love, has sold me to a man
+who has shown himself a ruffian. One thing you have no power over is my
+life, and what have I now to live for!"
+
+Carder dropped the whip. There was no doubt of her sincerity.
+
+"Now, Geraldine, calm down," he said, anxiety sounding through his
+bravado. "I'm sorry I had to give you that shock about Dick; but it was
+your own high-headed attitude that made it necessary. Calm down now. I
+won't touch Pete. What was it, boy," he went on, addressing the dwarf in
+his usual tone--"What did that man ask you?"
+
+"The shortest way to Keefe," repeated the dwarf. His eyes were fixed
+dully on Geraldine, but his heart was thumping. She had said she would
+kill herself if his master struck him.
+
+Rufus looked at him, unsatisfied.
+
+"What did he give you?" he asked after a silence.
+
+Pete put his hand in the pocket of his coarse blue shirt and drew out a
+half-dollar.
+
+"Humph!" grunted Rufus. "You can go."
+
+He turned back to Geraldine.
+
+"Is one allowed to write letters from here?" she asked.
+
+"Of course, of course," replied Rufus genially. "What a foolish
+question." His face had settled into its customary lines.
+
+"Where do we take them? Out to the rural-delivery box? I should like to
+write to Miss Upton. She was very kind to me."
+
+"No, don't mail anything there. It isn't safe. Right here is the place."
+He indicated a box on his desk. "Drop anything you want to have go right
+in here. I'll take care of it."
+
+"Yes," thought Geraldine bitterly. He will take care of it.
+
+Another motor-cycle now sped into the driveway and approached. This time
+it was the tenant Carder had expected, and Geraldine left the office and
+went back to the house. At the moment when she stepped out of the yellow
+building, Pete ceased mowing the grass. Looking back when she had
+traversed half the distance, she saw that he was following her, the
+mower clicking after him.
+
+"Poor slaves," she thought heavily. "Poor slaves, he and I!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A Midnight Message
+
+
+Sitting down at the supper table that evening was a severe ordeal.
+Geraldine had angered Carder, but she had also frightened him, and he
+was mild in manner and words and did not attempt to be either
+affectionate or jocose. Instead he dwelt on the good promise of the
+crops, and mentioned having extended the time of payment to a delinquent
+tenant.
+
+Geraldine forced herself to eat something, and the host addressed most
+of his remarks to his mother, who was again compelled to sit at table
+and allow the young girl to do the serving.
+
+"What do you think of throwin' out a wing or two or say a bay window to
+the house, Ma, while we're refurnishin'?" he asked pleasantly.
+
+"Just as you say, Rufus," was her docile response. "I think, though,
+Miss Geraldine would like a bathroom better."
+
+"Bathroom, eh?" returned Carder, regarding the girl's stiffly immobile
+face and downcast eyes. "It would mean a lot of expense, but what
+Geraldine says goes. I can stand the damage, I guess."
+
+No word from Geraldine. Rufus was made thoroughly uneasy by her rigid
+pallor. He blamed himself for not having waited longer to produce his
+trump card and clinch his possession of her.
+
+His own dreams were troubled that night and long in coming. Geraldine,
+as soon as the dishes were dried and put away, went up to her room and
+locked the door. She sat down to think, and strangely accompanying the
+paralyzing discovery of her father's downfall was the memory of the tall
+stranger with the dusty clothes and gallant bearing. She shut out the
+memory of his delightful speech, his speaking eyes, and the way he
+towered above Rufus and held himself in check for her sake.
+
+"For my sake!" she repeated to herself bitterly. "They are all
+alike--men. He would be just the same as the other at close quarters.
+Some have no veneer like this boor, and some have the polish, but they
+are all the same underneath. Even Father, poor Father."
+
+Geraldine felt hot, slow tears begin to scald her eyes. The last time
+she had cried she had been with Miss Upton and felt her hearty, motherly
+sympathy. That young man had come from her. Miss Upton was thinking of
+her. The tears came faster now under the memory of the kindness of her
+chance acquaintance on the day--it seemed months ago--that she had left
+the world and entered upon this living death.
+
+Miss Upton's messenger would return to her and tell of his fruitless
+quest and describe Rufus Carder, and she knew how that kind heart would
+ache; but Mr. Barry would also tell her that her young friend had
+repulsed him and would discourage her from further effort. Geraldine
+knew that no letter from the outside would be allowed to reach her, nor
+would any be allowed to go out from her, until she had paid the ghastly
+price which her father's protection necessitated.
+
+She did not know how long she sat on that hard chair in the ugly room
+that night. She only knew how valiantly she struggled to stifle the
+sobs that wrenched her slight body. Early in the evening she had heard a
+soft impact against her door, which she knew meant that the watchdog was
+in his place.
+
+Her kerosene lamp was burning low, when again a slight sound against her
+door made her look that way apprehensively and wish that she had
+barricaded it as on the night before.
+
+Something white caught her eye. It was paper being slowly pushed beneath
+the door and now an envelope was revealed. Geraldine started up and
+noiselessly crept toward it. Seizing it she carried it to the light. It
+was a letter addressed to herself:
+
+_Miss Geraldine Melody_
+
+And down in the left-hand corner were the words--_"Kindness of Mr.
+Barry."_ Across the face of the envelope was scrawled in another hand
+these words: "Courage. Walk in meadow. Wear white."
+
+Geraldine stared at this with her swollen eyes, the aftermath of her
+wild weeping causing convulsive catches in her throat which she stifled
+automatically. Turning the envelope over she saw that it was sealed
+clumsily with red wax.
+
+Running a hairpin through the flap she opened it and took out the letter
+with trembling hands. This is what she read:
+
+     DEAR MISS MELODY:
+
+     I can't help worrying about you, not knowing what you found when
+     you got to the farm, and whether Mr. Carder and his mother turned
+     out to be the kind you like to live with. I've wished a hundred
+     times that I'd brought you home with me instead of letting you go,
+     because, after all the hard experiences you went through, I wanted
+     to be sure that you found care and protection where you was going.
+     I'm poor and have only a small place, but I'd have found some way
+     to take care of you.
+
+     I worried so much about it, and Mr. Carder, the little I saw of him
+     that day at the hotel, acted so much as if he owned you, that I
+     thought it would be just as well to hear what a lawyer would say;
+     so I went to see Benjamin Barry. He's studying to be a lawyer and
+     he's the young man who has consented to hunt up the Carder farm
+     and take my letter to you. I know it ain't etiket to seal up a
+     letter you send by hand, but I'm going to seal this with wax just
+     so you'll know that Ben hasn't read it. After your experience with
+     men it will be hard for you to trust any man, I'm pretty sure. So I
+     just want to tell you that I've known Ben Barry from a baby and
+     he's the cleanest, _finest_ boy in the world. You can't always tell
+     whether he's in fun or in earnest, because he's a great one to
+     joke; but his folks are the finest that you could find anywhere.
+     He's got good blood and he's been brought up with the greatest care
+     and expense. If I had ten daughters I'd trust him with them all. He
+     is the soul of honor about everything, so don't hesitate to tell
+     him just how you're fixed. If you are happy and contented, that's
+     all I want to know; but if you ain't I want to know that posthaste,
+     for I shall want you to come right here to me at Keefe. Ben will
+     tell you how to come and you can tell Mr. Carder that you have
+     found a better position. Give him a week's notice; that's
+     _honorable_ and _long enough_. I shan't be easy in my mind till Ben
+     gets back, and he's so good to go for me that I should love him
+     for it all the rest of my life if I didn't already.
+
+     Now, good-bye, dear child, and be _perfectly frank_ with Ben.
+
+     Your loving friend
+     MEHITABLE UPTON
+
+In her utter despair and desolation this homely expression of
+affectionate solicitude went to Geraldine's heart like a message from
+heaven. She held the senseless paper to her breast, and her pulses beat
+fast as she read again those words scribbled across the face of the
+envelope.
+
+They meant an understanding that she was not a free agent. They meant
+that the young knight had not given up. He could never know--kind Miss
+Upton must never know--what it was that compelled her, and why nothing
+that they might contrive could save her.
+
+Good little Pete had risked brutal treatment to bring her this. Her
+heart welled with gratitude toward him. She felt that she could continue
+to protect him to a degree, for the infatuation of their master gave her
+power to that extent.
+
+She was no longer pale. Her cheeks were flushed, her sobs ceased. There
+were hearts that cared for her. Some miracle might intervene to save
+her. The knight was a lawyer. The law was very wonderful. A sudden
+shudder passed over her. What it could have done to her father--still
+honored at his clubs as the prince of good fellows!
+
+She reviewed her situation anew. It was established that she was a
+prisoner. Then in order to obey the message on the envelope she must
+follow the example of the more ambitious prisoners and become a trusty.
+Poor Geraldine, who had ceased to pray, began to feel that there might
+be a God after all; and when she was between the coarse, mended sheets
+of her bed she held Miss Upton's letter to her breast and thanked the
+unseen Power for a friend.
+
+When she awoke, it was with the confused sense that some happiness was
+awaiting her. As her mind cleared, the mental atmosphere clouded.
+
+Did not any hope which imagination held out mean the cruel revenge of
+her jailer? Could she betray her father as he had betrayed her?
+
+She dressed and went downstairs to help Mrs. Carder. The precious letter
+was against her breast.
+
+Pete was washing at the pump. She did not dare approach him to speak;
+but she soon found that as to that opportunities would be plentiful; for
+whenever she left the house she had a respectful shadow; never close,
+but always in the vicinity, and remembering yesterday and the lawn-mower
+she now realized that the watchdog who guarded her by night had orders
+to perform the same office by day.
+
+Rufus felt some relief at seeing his guest appear this morning. His
+dreams would have been pleasanter had he been perfectly sure that she
+would not in her youthful horror and despair evade him in the one way
+possible. He bade her good-morning with an inoffensive commonplace. He
+had shot his bolt; now his policy must be soothing and unexacting until
+her fear of him had abated and custom had reconciled her to her new
+life. She was silent at breakfast, speaking only when spoken to, and
+observant of his mother's needs; waiting upon him, too, when it was
+necessary.
+
+"I must get one o' these reclinin'-chairs for you, Geraldine," he said,
+"and put it out under the elm tree. Your elm tree, we'll have to call
+it, because you've saved its life, you know."
+
+"It is nice that there is one bit of shade here," she replied. "I
+suppose you hang a hammock there in summer for your mother."
+
+Rufus grinned at his parent, who was vastly uncomfortable under the new
+régime of being waited upon by a golden-haired beauty.
+
+"How about it, Ma?" he said. "Did you ever lie down in a hammock in your
+life? Got to do it now, you know. Bay windows and hammocks belong
+together. We got to be stylish now this little girl's goin' to boss us.
+
+"It's a sightly day, Geraldine. How would you like to go for a drive and
+see somethin' of the country around here? It's mighty pretty. You seem
+stuck on trees. I'll show you a wood road that's a wonder."
+
+Geraldine cringed, but controlled herself. Renewed contact with Rufus
+was inexorably crushing every reviving hope of the night.
+
+"I think it would be a refreshing thing for your mother," she answered.
+
+"No, no, indeed!" exclaimed the old woman, with an anxious look at her
+son. "I'm scared of autos. I don't want to go."
+
+"Well, you're goin', Ma," declared Rufus, perceiving that Geraldine
+would as yet refuse to go alone with him, and considering that as
+ballast in the tonneau his mother's presence would be innocuous. "This
+little girl's got the reins. You and me are passengers. Don't forget
+that."
+
+So later in the fresh, lovely spring day, Mrs. Carder, wrapped in an
+antiquated shawl and with a bonnet that had to be rescued from an unused
+shelf, was tucked into the back seat of the car.
+
+Rufus held open the front door for Geraldine, and though she hesitated
+she decided not to anger him and stepped in to sit beside him. He did
+all the talking that was done, the girl replying in monosyllables and
+looking straight before her.
+
+"I thought I'd stop to the village," he said, "and wire into town to
+have some help sent out. How would you word it?"
+
+"I came as help," replied Geraldine. "I think we get along with the work
+pretty well. Pete is very handy for a boy. Your mother seems to dread
+servants. Don't send for anybody on my account."
+
+The girl's voice was colorless, and she did not look at Rufus who
+regarded her uncertainly.
+
+"All right," he said at last. "Perhaps it would be as well to wait till
+some day we're in town and you can talk to 'em. I'll wire for some eats
+anyway."
+
+When they reached the village the car stopped before the
+telegraph-office. Carder left the car, and at the mere temporary relief
+of him Geraldine's heart lightened. A wild wish swept through her that
+she knew how to drive and could put on all the power and drive away,
+even kidnapping the shrunken, beshawled slave in the tonneau.
+
+But the thought of the dusty knight intervened. If she were going to
+betray her father, let it be under his guidance whatever that might be.
+She could not do it, though. She could not!
+
+A man loafing on the walk saw Mrs. Carder and, stopping, addressed her
+with some country greeting. Geraldine instantly turned to him.
+
+"Where is Keefe?" she asked quickly.
+
+"What?" he returned stupidly, with a curious gaze at her lovely, eager
+face.
+
+"Keefe. The village of Keefe. Where is it?"
+
+"Oh, that's yonder," said the man, pointing. "T'other side o' the
+mountain."
+
+She turned to Mrs. Carder. "I have a friend who lives there, a very good
+friend whom I would like to see."
+
+She made the explanation lest the old woman should tell her son of her
+eager question.
+
+Rufus came out, nodded curtly to the man beside his machine, jumped in,
+and drove off.
+
+Geraldine spoke. "I'm surprised this country seems so flat. I thought it
+would be hilly about here."
+
+"Not so close to the sea," replied Carder. "There is what they call the
+mountain, though, over yonder." He jerked his head vaguely. "Pretty
+good-sized hill. Makes a water-shed that favors my farm."
+
+Geraldine appeared to listen in silence to the monologue that followed
+concerning her companion's prowess as a self-made man and the cleverness
+with which he had seized every opportunity that came his way. Her mind
+was in a singular tumult. An incoming wave of thought--the reminder that
+she must be clever, too, and earn Carder's confidence in order that he
+might relax his espionage--was met by the counter-consideration that if
+she disappointed his desire he would blast her father's name. Just as
+happens in the meeting of the incoming and outgoing tide, her thoughts
+would be broken and fly up in a confusion as to what course she really
+wished to pursue. By the time she gained the privacy of her own room
+that night, she felt exhausted by the contradictions of her own beaten
+heart and she sat down again in the hard chair, too dulled to think.
+
+At last she put her hand in her bosom and drew out her letter. She would
+feel the human touch of Miss Upton's kindliness once again. Even if she
+gave "her body to be burned" and all life became a desert of ashes, one
+star would shine upon her sacrifice, the affectionate thought of this
+good woman who had made so much effort for her.
+
+She closed her eyes to the exhortation scribbled on the envelope.
+Whatever plan the tall knight had in mind, it was certain that her
+escape was the end in view. Did she wish to escape? Did she? Could she
+pay the cost? What happiness would there be for her when all her life
+she Would be hearing in fancy the amazement at her father's crime, the
+gossip and condemnation that would go the rounds of his associates.
+
+She held the letter to her sick heart and gazing into space pictured the
+hateful future.
+
+There was a slight stir outside her door. Something was again being
+pushed beneath it by slow degrees. Again it looked like an envelope, but
+this time the paper was not white. Geraldine regarded the small dusky
+square, scarcely discernible in the lamplight, and rising went toward
+it.
+
+She picked up the much-soiled object by its extreme corner. It bore no
+address. She believed Pete must have written to her, and was greatly
+touched by the thought that the poor boy might wish to express to her
+his sympathy or his gratitude. It had been a brave soul who stood
+stolidly before Rufus Carder and refused to give up Miss Upton's letter.
+Moving cautiously and without a sound, she took the letter to the
+bureau, and holding down the bent and soiled envelope with the handle of
+her hairbrush, she again used the woman's universal utensil, opened the
+seal, and drew out a letter. Her heart suddenly leaped to her throat,
+for it was her father's handwriting that met her eye. Unfolding the
+sheet, and cold with dread, she began to read:
+
+     MY DEAR GERRIE:
+
+     If this letter ever reaches you I shall be dead. The heart attacks
+     have been worse of late and it may be I shall go off suddenly. If I
+     do, I want to get word to you which if I live it will not be
+     necessary for you to read. I have not been a good father and I
+     deserve nothing at your hands. The worst mistake of all those that
+     I have made was marrying the woman who has shirked mothering you;
+     and after I am gone I know you have nothing to expect from her. I
+     am financially involved with Rufus Carder to an extent that gives
+     me constant anxiety. He has happened to see you and taken a
+     violent fancy to you, and this fact has made him withdraw the
+     pressure that has made my nights miserable. He has been trying to
+     persuade me to let you come out here. He knows that his cousin
+     Juliet is not attached to you, and, since seeing me in one of my
+     attacks of pain, he is constantly reminding me how precarious is my
+     life and that if he had a daughter like you she should have every
+     advantage money could buy. He is a rough specimen with a miserly
+     reputation. I won't go into the occasions of weakness and need
+     which have resulted in his power over me. Suffice it to say that he
+     may bring cruel pressure to bear on you, and I want to warn you
+     solemnly not to let any consideration of me or what people may say
+     of me influence your actions. You are young and beautiful, and I
+     pray that the rest of your life may have in it more happiness than
+     your childhood has known. I have interceded with Carder for Pete
+     several times, winning the poor fellow's devotion. He can't read
+     writing and will not be tempted to open this. I'm sure he will hide
+     it and manage to give it to you secretly if you come to this
+     dreary place. My poor child! My selfishness all rises before me and
+     the punishment is fearful. If there is a God, may He bless you and
+     guard you, my innocent little girl.
+
+     Your unworthy
+     FATHER
+
+Geraldine's hungry heart drank in the tender message. Again and again
+she kissed the letter while tears of grief ran down her cheeks. A tiny
+hope sprang in her breast. She read her father's words over and over,
+striving to glean from them a contradiction of the accusation that he
+had planned and carried out a deliberate crime.
+
+Rufus Carder had promised her father to treat her as a daughter. How
+that assertion soothed the wound to her filial affection, and warmed her
+heart with the assurance that her father had not sold her into the worst
+slavery!
+
+She soon crept into bed, but not to sleep. Her father's exhortation
+seemed to give her permission to speculate on those words of the
+stranger knight:
+
+"Courage. Walk in meadow. Wear white."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The Meadow
+
+
+The knight was doubly dusty when, returning from his quest in the late
+twilight, he halted his noisy steed before Upton's Fancy Goods and
+Notions. He was confronted by a sign: "Closed. Taking account of stock."
+
+The young man tried the door which resisted vigorous turns of its
+handle. Nothing daunted, he knocked peremptorily, then waited a space.
+Getting no response, he renewed his assaults with such force that at
+last the lock turned, the door opened, and an irate face with a
+one-sided slit of a mouth was projected at him threateningly.
+
+"Can't you read, hey?" was the exasperated question, followed by an
+energetic effort to close the door which was foiled by the interposition
+of a masculine foot.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Whipp, I learned last year. I'm awfully sorry, but I have to
+come in." As he spoke the visitor opened the door in spite of the
+indignant resistance of Charlotte's whole body, and walked into the
+empty shop where kerosene lamps were already burning. "I have to see
+Miss Upton. Awfully sorry to disturb you like this," he added, smiling
+down at the angry, weazened face which gradually grew bewildered. "Why,
+it's Mr. Barry," she soliloquized aloud. "Just the same," she added, the
+sense of outrage holding over, "we'd ruther you'd 'a' come to-morrer."
+
+Ben strode through the shop and out to the living-room, Mrs. Whipp
+following impotently, talking in a high, angry voice.
+
+"'T ain't my fault, Miss Upton. He would come in. Some folk'll do jest
+what they please, whatever breaks."
+
+"Law, Ben Barry!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable with a start. "You've surely
+caught me in my regimentals!"
+
+Miss Upton's regimentals consisted of ample and billowy apron effects
+over a short petticoat. Her hair was brushed straight off her round face
+and twisted in a knot as tight as Charlotte's own; and she wore large
+list slippers.
+
+"Don't you care, Mehit. I look like a blackamoor myself. I had to see
+you"--the young fellow grasped his friend's hands, his eyes sparkling.
+"I'd kiss you if I was wearing a pint less dust. She's an angel, a star,
+a wonder!" he finished vehemently.
+
+Miss Upton forgot her own appearance, her lips worked, and her eyes were
+eager. "Ain't she, ain't she?" she responded in excitement equal to his
+own. "Is she comin'? When?"
+
+"Heaven knows. She's a prisoner, with that brute for a jailer."
+
+Miss Upton, who had been standing by the late supper-table in the act of
+assisting Charlotte to carry off the wreck, fell into a chair, her mouth
+open.
+
+"And you left her there!" she cried at last. "You didn't knock him down
+and carry her off!"
+
+"Great Scott, how I wanted to!" replied Ben between his teeth, his fists
+clenched; "but she wouldn't let me. There's something there we've got to
+find out. She shook her head and signaled me to do nothing. He told her
+to bid me go away and she obeyed him. Oh, Miss Upton, how she looked!
+The most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life, but the most haunted,
+mournful, despairing face--"
+
+"Ben, you're makin' me sick!" responded Miss Mehitable, her voice
+breaking. "Did you give the poor lamb my letter?"
+
+"He wouldn't let me get near enough to do that; but I gave it to a
+stupid-looking dwarf who was mowing the grass near by. I'm not even sure
+he understood me. Perhaps he was deaf and dumb. I don't know; but it was
+the best I could do. She showed me so plainly that I was only making it
+harder for her by insisting on anything, there was nothing for me to do
+but to come away, boiling." Ben began striding up and down the
+living-room, his hands in his pockets, his restlessness causing Pearl to
+leap up, barely escaping his heavy shoe. Her arched back and her
+mistress's face both betokened an outraged bewilderment.
+
+Mrs. Whipp's eyes and ears were stretched to the utmost. This autocratic
+young upstart had broken into the house and nearly stepped on her pet.
+All the same, if he hadn't done so, Miss Upton would still be keeping
+secrets from her. She had felt sure ever since Miss Mehitable's last
+trip to the city that there was something unusual in the air and that
+she was being defrauded of her rights in being shut out from
+participation therein. Had this young masculine hurricane not stormed in
+to-night, no telling how long she would have been kept in the dark; so
+she stopped, looked, and listened, with all her might.
+
+"Well, what are you goin' to _do_, Ben?" asked Miss Upton, beseechingly.
+"You're not goin' to leave it so, are you?"
+
+"I should say not. Carder is going to have me on his trail till that
+exquisite creature is out of his clutches. Never was there a sleuth with
+his heart in his business as mine will be. Oh!"--Ben, pausing not in the
+march which sent Pearl to the top of a bookcase, raised his gaze
+heavenward--"what eyes, Miss Upton! Those beautiful despairing eyes in
+that dreary, sordid den, cut off from the world!"
+
+"Ben, you stop!" whimpered Miss Mehitable, using her handkerchief.
+"You're breakin' my heart. And to think how you scoffed at me on
+Sunday!"
+
+"Wasting time like a fool!" ejaculated Ben. He suddenly stopped before
+the weeping Mehitable, nearly tripping over her roomy slippers. "Now,
+Miss Upton, this is what you are to do. I'm going to town the first
+thing in the morning and take steps to get on the trail of that sly fox.
+You go right up to see Mother and tell her all about Miss Melody." Again
+his gaze sought the ceiling. "Melody! What a perfect name for the most
+charming, graceful, exquisite human flower that ever bloomed!" Turning
+suddenly, the rapt speaker encountered Mrs. Whipp's twisted, acid,
+hungrily listening countenance. He emitted a burst of laughter and
+looked back at Miss Mehitable, who was wiping her eyes. "Tell Mother the
+whole story," he went on, "just as you did to me; and here's hoping my
+skepticism isn't inherited. And now, Mrs. Whipp"--addressing the faded
+listener who gave a surprised sniff--"I'll go home and wash my face. I
+know you'll approve of that. Good-night, Miss Upton; don't you cry. I'm
+going to put up a good fight and perhaps Geraldine--oh, what a lovely
+name!--perhaps she has the comfort of your letter by this time." Ben
+scowled with sudden introspection. "What hold has that rascal over her?
+That's what puzzles me. What hold _can_ he have?"
+
+Miss Mehitable blew her nose grievously. "Why, he's cousin to her rascal
+stepmother, you know. No tellin' what they cooked up between 'em."
+
+Of course, after her emissary had departed Miss Upton had to face Mrs.
+Whipp and her injured sniffs and silent implications of maltreatment;
+but she sketched the story to her, eliciting the only question she
+dreaded.
+
+"What did you say to the girl in your letter? Did you write her to come
+here?" Mrs. Whipp's manner was stony.
+
+"Yes, I did," replied Miss Mehitable bravely.
+
+"Then I s'pose I'd better be makin' other plans," said Charlotte, going
+to Pearl and picking her up as if preparing for instant departure.
+
+Miss Upton's eyes shone with exasperation. "I wish you wouldn't drive me
+crazy, Charlotte Whipp. If you haven't any sympathy for a poor orphan in
+jail on a desolate farm, then I wouldn't own it, if I was you. You can
+see what chance she has o' comin' here. If the _law_ has to settle it,
+she's likely to be toothless before she can make a move."
+
+Mrs. Whipp was startled by the wrathful voice and manner of one usually
+so pacific.
+
+"I didn't mean to make you mad, Miss Upton," she said with a meek change
+of manner; and there the matter dropped.
+
+Now was a crucial time for Geraldine Melody. Her father's exhortation to
+her not to consider him and the doubt which his letter had raised as to
+his legal guilt, coupled with the memory of the vigorous young knight in
+knickerbockers, gave her the feeling that she might at least obey the
+latter's mysterious hint.
+
+Rufus Carder was still in fear that he had pushed matters too fast, and
+the next morning, when his captive came downstairs to help get the
+breakfast, he contented himself with devouring her with his eyes. She
+felt that she must guard her every look lest he observe a vestige of her
+reviving hope and courage. She must return to the thought of becoming a
+"trusty." It would be difficult to steer a course between the docility
+that would encourage odious advances on the one hand, and on the other
+a too obvious repugnance which would put her jailer on his guard. Of
+course there were moments when the lines of her father's letter seemed
+to her to admit criminality, but at others the natural hopefulness of
+youth asserted itself, and she interpreted his words to indicate only
+his humiliation and disgraceful debts.
+
+There was an innate loftiness, an ethereal quality, about the girl's
+personality which Carder always felt, in spite of himself, even at the
+very moments when he was obtruding his familiarities upon her. She was
+like a fine jewel which he had stolen, but which baffled his efforts to
+set it among his own possessions.
+
+Already in the short time which had elapsed since bringing her to the
+farm, she had fallen away to an alarming delicacy of appearance. Her
+mental conflict and the blows she had received showed so plainly in her
+looks that Carder's whole mind became absorbed in the desire to build
+her up. She might slip away from him yet without any recourse to
+violence on her own part.
+
+That morning, her father's letter in the same envelope with Miss Upton's
+and both treasures against her heart, she came downstairs and saw Pete
+washing at the pump. Rufus Carder was not in sight, and she moved
+swiftly toward the dwarf, who looked frightened at her approach.
+
+"How can I thank you, Pete!" she exclaimed softly, and her smile
+transformed her pale face into something heavenly to look upon. Her eyes
+poured gratitude into his dull ones and his face crimsoned.
+
+"Keep away," was all he said.
+
+Carder appeared, as it seemed, up through the ground, and the dwarf
+rubbed his face and neck with a rough, grimy towel.
+
+"Good-mornin'," said Rufus in his harsh voice.
+
+Geraldine turned a lightless face toward him. "Good-morning," she said.
+"Is this well a spring?"
+
+"Yes. Have you noticed how good the water is?"
+
+"I was just coming for a drink when you startled me. I didn't see you."
+
+"Allow me," said Rufus, picking up the half cocoanut shell which was
+chained to the wood. "Let's make a loving-cup of it. I'm thirsty, too."
+
+He held the cup while Pete pumped the water over it, and finally shaking
+off the clinging drops offered it to the guest.
+
+Geraldine made good her words. An inward fever of excitement was burning
+in her veins. The proximity of this man caused her always the same
+panic. Oh, what was meant by those written words of the sunny-eyed,
+upstanding young knight who had obeyed her so reluctantly? Now it was
+her turn to obey him, and she must see to it that no suspicion of
+Carder's should prevent her.
+
+When she had drunk every drop, Rufus took a few sips--he had not much
+use for water--and they returned to the house together.
+
+When Mrs. Carder and Pete had sent the hired men afield, the three sat
+down to breakfast as usual, and Rufus, moved by the guest's transparent
+appearance and downcast eyes, played unconsciously into her hands.
+
+"This is great weather, Geraldine," he said. "You don't want to mope in
+the house. You want to spend a lot o' time outdoors. I'll take you out
+driving whenever you want to go."
+
+Geraldine lifted her eyes to his--the eyes with the drooping, pensive
+corners deepened by dark lashes which Miss Upton had tried to describe.
+
+"I think I'm not feeling very strong, Mr. Carder," she said listlessly.
+"Long drives tire me."
+
+"Long walks will tire you more," he answered, instantly suspicious.
+
+"Yes, I don't feel equal to them now," she answered, her grave glance
+dropping again to her plate.
+
+He regarded her with a troubled frown.
+
+"That hammock chair and a hammock will be out to-day," he said. "I'll
+put 'em under the elm you're so stuck on, and I guess we can scare up
+some books for you to read."
+
+Geraldine's heart began to quicken and she put a guard upon her manner
+lest eagerness should crop out in spite of her.
+
+"It is early for shade," she replied. "The sun is pleasant. Everything
+is so bare about here," she added wearily. "I wish I could find some
+flowers."
+
+Then it was that Mrs. Carder, poor dumb automaton, volunteered a remark;
+and the most silver-tongued orator could not have better pleased
+Geraldine with eloquence.
+
+"Used to be quite a lot grow down in the medder," she said.
+
+Geraldine's heart beat like a little triphammer, but she did not look up
+from her plate, nor change her listless expression.
+
+"I'd like to go and see if there are any," she said. "I love them. Where
+is the meadow?"
+
+"Oh, it's just that swale to the right of the driveway," said Rufus.
+"It's low ground, and I s'pose the wild flowers do like it. I hope the
+cows haven't taken them all. You needn't be afraid o' the cows."
+
+"No, I'm not," replied Geraldine. "Perhaps I'll go some time."
+
+"Go to-day, go while the goin's good," urged Rufus. "Never can tell when
+the rain will keep you in. You shall have a flower garden, Geraldine.
+You tell me where you'd like it and I'll have the ground got ready right
+off."
+
+"Thank you," she answered, "but I like the wild flowers best."
+
+As soon as the dishes were dried, Geraldine went up to her room and
+delved into her little trunk. She brought out a white cotton dress. It
+had not been worn since the summer before, and though clean it was badly
+wrinkled. She took it down to the kitchen and ironed it.
+
+"Goin' to put on a white dress?" asked Mrs. Carder. "Kind o' cool for
+that, ain't it?"
+
+"I don't think so. I have very few dresses, and I get tired of wearing
+the same one."
+
+Mrs. Carder sighed. "Rufus will buy you all the dresses you want if
+you'll only get strong. I can see he's dreadful worried because you look
+pale."
+
+"Well, I am going to try to become sunburned to-day. I'm so glad you
+thought of the meadow, Mrs. Carder. Perhaps you like flowers, too."
+
+The old woman sighed. "I used to. I've 'most forgot what they look
+like."
+
+"I'll bring you some if there are any."
+
+Geraldine's eyes held an excited light as she ironed away. After the
+eleven o'clock dinner she went up to her room to dress. Color came into
+her cheeks as she saw her reflection in the bit of mirror. What a
+strange thing she was doing. Supposing Miss Upton's paragon had already
+become absorbed in his own interests. How absurd she should feel
+wandering afield in the costume he had ordered, if he never came and she
+never heard from him again.
+
+"Wear white."
+
+What could it mean? What possible difference could the color of her gown
+make in any plan he might have concocted for her assistance? However, in
+the dearth of all hope, in her helplessness and poverty, and aching from
+the heart-wound Rufus Carder had given her, why should she not obey?
+
+The color receded from her face, and again delving into her trunk she
+brought forth an old, white, embroidered crêpe shawl with deep fringe
+which had belonged to her mother. This she wrapped about her and started
+downstairs. She feared that Carder would accompany her in her ramble.
+She could hear his rough voice speaking to some workmen in front of the
+house, and she moved noiselessly out to the kitchen.
+
+Mrs. Carder looked up from the bread she was moulding and started,
+staring over her spectacles at the girl.
+
+"You look like a bride," she said.
+
+"I'll bring you some flowers," replied Geraldine, hastening out of the
+kitchen-door down the incline toward the yellow office.
+
+"Hello, there," called the voice she loathed, and Carder came striding
+after her. She stood still and faced him. The long lines and deep,
+clinging fringe of the creamy white shawl draped her in statuesque
+folds. Carder gasped in admiration.
+
+"You look perfectly beautiful!" he exclaimed.
+
+The young girl reminded herself that she was working to become a trusty.
+
+"What's the idea," he went on, "of makin' such a toilet for the benefit
+of the cows?" At the same time, the wish being father to the thought,
+the glorious suspicion assailed him that Geraldine was perhaps not
+unwilling to show him her beauty in a new light. It stood to reason that
+she must possess a normal girlish vanity.
+
+She forced a faint smile. "It's just my mother's old shawl," she
+replied.
+
+"Want me to help you find your flowers?" he asked.
+
+"If you wish to," she answered, "but it isn't discourteous to like to be
+alone sometimes, is it, Mr. Carder? You were saying at dinner that I
+looked tired. I really don't feel very well. I thought I would like to
+roam about alone a while in the sunshine."
+
+Her gentle humility brought forth a loud: "Oh, of course, of course,
+that's all right. Suit yourself and you'll suit me. Just find some roses
+for your own cheeks while you're about it, that's all I ask."
+
+"I'll try," she answered, and walked on. Carder accompanied her as far
+as his office, where he paused.
+
+"Good-bye, bless your little sweet heart," he said, low and ardently, in
+the tone that always seemed to make the girl's very soul turn over.
+
+"Good-bye," she answered, without meeting the hunger of his oblique
+gaze; and crossing the driveway she forced herself to move slowly down
+the grassy incline that led to the meadow where a number of cows were
+grazing.
+
+Carder watched longingly her graceful, white figure crowned with gold.
+She was safe enough in the meadow. Even if she desired to go out of
+bounds, she would not invade any public way, hatless, and in clinging
+white crêpe. The cows were excellent chaperones. Nevertheless--he
+snapped his fingers and Pete came out from behind the office.
+
+Carder did not speak, but pointed after the white figure, and Pete,
+again dragging the mower, ambled across the driveway and followed on
+down the slope.
+
+Geraldine heard the clicking and glanced around, sure of what she should
+see. She smiled a little and shook her head as she walked on.
+
+"Poor little Pete. Good little Pete," she murmured. "I owe him every
+moment of comfort I've known in this place."
+
+When she considered that she had gone far enough to be free from
+observation, she turned to let him catch up with her; but when she
+paused he did likewise and waited immovable.
+
+"I want to talk to you, Pete. I'm so glad of the chance. I'm so thankful
+to you," she called softly.
+
+The dwarf drank in the delicate radiance of her face with adoring eyes.
+
+"Go on," he replied. "He is watching. He is always watching. You look
+like an angel, but the devil is at the window. Go on."
+
+She turned back obediently and continued down the slope. When she
+reached the soft, spongy green of the meadow, the cows regarded her
+wonderingly. Pete began mowing the long grass on the edge, working so
+slowly that the sound did not mar the hush of the place; and sometimes
+he sank down at ease and pulled apart a jointed stem, his eyes feasting
+on his charge.
+
+The cows had scorned certain blooms which grew lavishly and which
+Geraldine waited to gather until it should be time to return. Near a
+large clump of hazel-bushes she found a low rock, and she stretched out
+there in the sunshine and quiet, and tried to think.
+
+There had been a little warm spot in her heart ever since that hour when
+she read Miss Upton's letter. She was no longer utterly friendless. If
+some miracle should give her back her freedom, this good woman would
+help her to find independence. She longed to see that village of Keefe.
+She wished never again to see a city. Did Benjamin Barry live in Keefe?
+Geraldine summoned his image only too easily. Despite Miss Upton's
+recommendation she did not wish to know him, or to trust him; but think
+about him she must since she was dressed to his order and in the spot of
+his selection. How absurd it all was! What dream could he have been
+indulging when he wrote those words?
+
+The girl could not keep her eyes from the driveway nor banish the
+pulsing hope that she should see a motor-cycle again speeding up the
+road. She even rose from her reclining posture lest she should not be
+sufficiently conspicuous in the field; but the hours passed and nothing
+occurred beyond the cows' occasional cessation from browsing to regard
+her when she moved, and the occasional arising of Pete from the ground
+to push his mower idly along the turf.
+
+The flat landscape, the broad sky, everything was laid bare to the
+windows of the yellow office. She felt certain that should the dusty
+knight reappear, he would be recognized from afar, and that Rufus Carder
+would circumvent any plan he might have. He would stop at nothing, that
+she knew. She wondered if the law would excuse a man for murdering an
+intruder who had once been warned off his premises. She did not doubt
+that Carder would be as ready with the shot-gun she had noticed in his
+office as he was with the cruel whip. She covered her face with her
+hands as she recalled the sunny-eyed knight and shuddered at the thought
+of another meeting between the two. It had been plain that the visitor's
+youth, strength, and good looks had thrown Carder into a panic. He would
+stop at nothing. Nothing.
+
+A lanky youth with trousers tucked in his boots at last appeared,
+slouching down toward the meadow to get the cows.
+
+Geraldine came out of her apprehensive mental pictures with a sigh, and
+rose. She gathered her flowers, and moved slowly back toward the house.
+
+She must appear to have enjoyed her outing, else it would not seem
+consistent for her to wish to come again to-morrow; and she must, she
+must come again! Her poor contradictory little heart found itself
+clinging to the one vague, absurd hope, despite its fears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Bird of Prey
+
+
+Not until another sunny day had passed uneventfully did Geraldine
+realize how much hope she was hanging upon the knight of the
+motor-cycle. Despite his youth, his manner and voice had been those of
+one accustomed to exercising authority. He certainly had had something
+definite in mind when he wrote that message to her. She knew so well
+Pete's stupid demeanor, that, as she roamed in the meadow that second
+day, she meditated on the probability that the visitor had despaired of
+her receiving the message, and had concluded to abandon his idea,
+whatever it might have been.
+
+It was at least a relief from odious pressure to be out in the field
+alone. The soft-eyed cows, an occasional bird flying overhead, and the
+intermittent clicking of Pete's lawn-mower as he kept his respectful
+distance were all peaceful. There was not a tree for a bird to light
+upon. Even birds fled from the Carder farm. The great elm could have
+sheltered many, but the feathered creatures seemed not to trust it.
+Perhaps a reason lay in the fact that numbers of cats lived under the
+barn and outhouses. Nearly always one might be seen crouching and
+crawling along the ground looking cautiously to the right and left. None
+was ever kept for a pet or allowed in the house or fed. They lived on
+rats, mice, birds, and the field mice, and were practically wild
+animals. In their frightened, suspicious actions at sight of a human
+being, Geraldine recognized a reflection of her own mental attitude; and
+she pitied the poor things even while they excited her repugnance.
+
+Spring and no birds, she thought sadly, gathering her few wild flowers
+when the cows had gone home that second afternoon. She strained her eyes
+down the driveway, Blankness. Blankness everywhere. At the house,
+misery.
+
+The old fairy tales came to her mind. Tales where the captive princess
+pines and hopes alternately.
+
+"'On the second day all happened as before,'" she murmured in quotation.
+It was always on the third day that something really came to pass, she
+remembered, and she scanned the sky for threatening clouds. Ah, if it
+should rain to-morrow and the leaden hours should drag by in that odious
+house! After having indulged a ray of hope, such a prospect seemed
+unbearable.
+
+In her rôle of trusty she had constrained herself to civility. She had
+taken Mrs. Carder the flowers last night, and Rufus had put some tiny
+blooms in his buttonhole and caressed them at supper-time with
+significant glances at her.
+
+When she awoke on the following day her first move was to the window
+with an anxious look at the sky. As soon as she was satisfied that it
+was not threatening, a reaction set in to her thought. She always
+hastened to dress in the morning, for her compassion for Mrs. Carder
+made her hurry to her assistance. Pete's eyes in this few days had taken
+on a seeing look and he worked with energy to follow every direction of
+his golden-haired goddess. In the kitchen he did not avoid her eyes, and
+the smiles he received from her were the only sunbeams that had ever
+come into his life.
+
+She was in many minds that morning about going again to the meadow. It
+seemed so absurd, so humiliating to costume herself as for private
+theatricals, and to go repeatedly to keep a tryst which the other party,
+and that a man, had forgotten.
+
+Would the princess in the fairy tale do so? she wondered; but then if
+she had not persisted the story could never have been written.
+
+"Ain't you sick o' that meadow and the cows?" asked Rufus at the
+dinner-table. "Hadn't you better go drivin' to-day? I've got an errand
+to the village and just as lieve do it myself as send one o' the men if
+you'll go."
+
+Geraldine, the two braids of her hair brought up around her head in a
+golden wreath that rested on fluffy waves, was looking more than usually
+appealing, he thought, and he congratulated himself on the restraint
+with which he was allowing her mind to work on the proposition he had
+made to her. She was evidently becoming more normal, finding herself as
+it were. Those flashes of red and white that had passed across her face
+in her intensity of feeling had ceased. Her voice was steady and civil.
+
+"The meadow seems to agree with me," she answered. "Why should my not
+going with you prevent you from doing your errand at the village?"
+
+Why, indeed? thought Carder, regarding her. She had no money, she was in
+a part of the world strange to her. If she again strolled forth arrayed
+in the white costume in which her girlish vanity seemed to revel, how
+could she do anything unsafe during the short time of his absence,
+especially with Pete to guard her? The dwarf had had it made perfectly
+clear to him that his life depended on Geraldine's presence.
+
+However, it was Carder's policy never to take a very small chance of a
+very big misfortune. 'Safe bind, safe find,' was a favorite saying of
+his.
+
+"As soon as you feel thoroughly rested, we must take a trip to town," he
+said, and he advanced a bony, ill-kept hand toward hers as if he would
+seize it. "I think Ma works too hard," he added diplomatically as
+Geraldine slid her hand off the table. "We must go and see if we can get
+the right kind of help. You'll know how to pick it out. Then what do
+you say to havin' an architect come out and look over the old shack here
+and see what he thinks he can do with it, regardless of expense?"
+
+Geraldine felt that unnerving nausea again steal around her heart.
+
+"It isn't too late for us to take a little flyer in to-day," he added
+eagerly, and the suggestion made the meadow and its cows look like a
+glimpse of paradise. Supposing _he_ should come and she be gone! This
+was the great third day. "I--really--I"--stammered Geraldine--"I feel a
+little shaky yet."
+
+"Oh, all right," Rufus laughed leniently. "Be it ever so humble and all
+that you know. _Home_ for you, eh, Gerrie?"
+
+She longed to rise and strike his ugly smile at the sound of her
+father's pet name, and she trembled from head to foot. "A trusty," she
+said to herself commandingly. "A trusty."
+
+She did not hear another word that was said during dinner, and when she
+was free she flew up to her room and put on the poor little
+grass-stained dress and the rich crêpe of her mother's heirloom.
+
+"O God, send him!" she prayed, as her fingers worked on the fastenings.
+"O God, let him come"--then with tardy, desperate recollection, she
+added--"and O God, save his life!"
+
+It seemed difficult for Rufus Carder to separate himself from her that
+day. When she emerged from the house, she found him watching for her and
+she reminded herself again that if she angered him he might prevent her
+from doing as she pleased. It seemed to her now so intensely vital that
+she should get to the meadow that she felt panic lest something happen
+to prevent it.
+
+"You don't want to go down there again to-day," said Rufus coaxingly.
+"Let's take a walk up to the pond."
+
+"Is there a pond?" asked Geraldine quickly. She had often wondered if
+there were any body of water about the place deep enough for a girl to
+be covered in it if she lay face down.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have a cranberry bog with a dam. Makes a pretty decent pond
+part o' the year. How would you like it if I got you a canoe, Gerrie?
+Say! would you like that?" The interest that had come into the girl's
+face at mention of the pond encouraged him. "Come on, let's go. You've
+had enough o' the cows."
+
+He grasped her arm and she set her teeth not to pull away.
+
+"Would you mind waiting?" She put the question gently and even gave him
+a little smile, the first he had ever seen on her face. The
+exquisiteness of it, her pearly teeth, the Cupid's bow of her lips
+flushed him from head to foot. "I seem to be getting attached to that
+meadow," she added. "You'd better have one more buttonhole bouquet,
+don't you think?"
+
+The delight of it rushed to Carder's head. He, too, had to put a strong
+restraint upon himself to let well enough alone. All was going so
+nicely. He must not make a false move.
+
+"Well," he responded with a sort of gasping sigh, the blood in his face,
+"as I've always said, suit yourself and you'll suit me. Wind me right
+around your finger as you always have done and always will do."
+
+He walked completely down the incline with her to-day.
+
+She wondered if he had any sense of humor when she heard the clicking of
+Pete's lawn-mower behind them and knew that he was following. Carder did
+not seem to notice it; but he said: "I've a great mind to stay down here
+with you to-day and find out what the charm is."
+
+"I suppose it is just peace," she answered, and she was so frightened
+lest he carry out this threat that she felt herself grow pale to the
+lips. "I've passed through a great deal of excitement," she added
+unsteadily. "The silence seems healing to me."
+
+"Oh, well, little one," he replied good-humoredly, "if it's doing you
+good, that's the main thing. You have had it pretty hard, I know that.
+I'm goin' to make it up to you, Gerrie, I'm goin' to make it up to you.
+Don't you be afraid. You're safe to be the most envied girl in this
+county. You'll make some splash, let me tell you, when my plans are
+carried out." He patted her cringing shoulder, and with one more longing
+look turned and left her.
+
+Her knees were still trembling and she sank down on her rock and watched
+Carder's round shoulders and ill-fitting clothes as he ascended the
+incline to the office.
+
+Pete was using a sickle on the stubbly grass, too stiff and
+interspersed with stones for the mower.
+
+The cows' big soft eyes were regarding Geraldine, as they always did for
+a time after her arrival.
+
+She turned her tired, listless look back to them and wondered what they
+did here for comfort in the heat of summer. There was no shade, and no
+creek to walk into.
+
+When Rufus Carder arrived at his office he found the telephone ringing.
+The message he received necessitated sending some word to a man out in
+the field.
+
+He went to the window and looked down at the white spot which was
+Geraldine. He saw her rise and walk about. Perhaps she was picking
+flowers. The distance was too great for him to be certain.
+
+"I shall be right here," he muttered. Then he went to the corner of the
+office and picked up a megaphone. Going outside the door he called to
+Pete. "Come up here!" he shouted. The boy dropped his sickle and began
+to amble up the hill as fast as his bow-legs would permit.
+
+Geraldine heard the shout, and turning saw the dwarf obeying the
+summons.
+
+"Nobody but you to guard me now," she said to the prettiest of the cows
+with whom she had made friends.
+
+She watched Pete reach the summit of the incline and vanish into the
+yellow office.
+
+Presently he came out again and started off in the direction of the
+fields.
+
+"I think there is some one beside you to guard me now," went on
+Geraldine to the cow, who gave her an undivided attention mindful of the
+bunches of grass which the girl had often gathered for her. "I think the
+ogre has come out to the edge of his cave and is scarcely winking as he
+watches us down here. Oh, Bossy, I'm the most miserable girl in the
+whole world." Her breath caught in her throat, and winking back
+despairing tears she stooped to gather the expected thick handful of
+grass when a humming sound came faintly across the stillness of the
+field. She paused with listless curiosity and listened. The buzzing
+seemed suddenly to fill all the air. It increased, and her upturned face
+beheld an approaching aeroplane. Before she had time to connect its
+presence with herself it began diving toward the earth. On and on it
+came. It skimmed the ground, it ran along the meadow, the cows
+stampeded. She clasped her hands, and with dilated eyes saw the aviator
+jump out, pull something out of the cockpit and run toward her. She ran
+toward him. It was--it couldn't be--it was--he pushed back his
+helmet--it was her knight! Her excited eyes met his. "I've come for
+you," he called gayly, and her face glorified with amazed joy.
+
+"He'll kill you!" she gasped in sudden terror. "Hurry!"
+
+Ben was already taking off the crêpe shawl and putting her arms into the
+sleeves of a leather coat. A shout came from the top of the hill. Rufus
+Carder appeared, yelling and running. His gun was in his hand. The men
+from the fields, who had heard and seen the aeroplane, and Pete, who had
+not yet had time to reach them, all came running in excitement to see
+the great bird which had alighted in such an unlikely spot.
+
+"He'll kill you!" gasped Geraldine again. A shot rang out on the air.
+
+Ben laughed as he pushed a helmet down over her head.
+
+"It can't be done," he cried, as excited as she. He threw the shawl into
+the cockpit, lifted the girl in after it, buckled the safety belt across
+her, jumped in himself, and the great bird began to flit along the
+ground and quickly to rise.
+
+Another wild shot rang out, and frightful oaths. Geraldine heard the
+former, though the latter were inaudible, and she became tense from her
+head to the little feet which pushed against the foot-board as if to
+hasten their flight. She clutched the side of the veering plane. With
+every rod they gained her relief grew. Ben, looking into her face for
+signs of fear, received a smile which made even his enviable life better
+worth living than ever before. No exultant conqueror ever experienced
+greater thrills. Up, up, up, they flew out of reach of bullets and all
+the sordidness of earth; and when the meadow became a blur Geraldine
+felt like a disembodied spirit, so great was her exaltation. Not a
+vestige of fear assailed the heart which had so recently wondered if the
+cranberry pond was deep enough to still its misery. She rejoiced to be
+near the low-lying, fleecy clouds which a little while ago had aroused
+her apprehensions for the morrow. Let come what would, she was safe from
+Rufus Carder and she was free. Her sentiment for her leather-coated
+deliverer was little short of adoration. Gratitude seemed too poor a
+term. He had taken her from hell, and it seemed to her as they went up,
+up, up, they must be nearing heaven. At last he began flying in a direct
+line.
+
+Below was her former jailer, foaming at the mouth, and Pete, poor Pete,
+lying on the ground rolling in an agony of loss. "She's gone, she's
+gone," he moaned and sobbed, over and over; and even Carder saw that if
+there had been any plot afoot the dwarf had not been in it. So long as
+the plane was in sight, all the farm-workers stared open-mouthed. None
+of them loved the master, but none dared comment on his fury now or ask
+a question. His gun was in his hand and his eyes were bloodshot. His
+open mouth worked. They had all seen the beautiful girl who had now been
+snatched away so amazingly, and there was plenty to talk about and
+wonder about for months to come on the Carder farm. Rufus Carder, when
+the swift scout plane had become a speck, tore at his collar. The veins
+stood out in his neck and his forehead. He felt the curious gaze of his
+helpers and in impotent fury he turned and walked up to the house. His
+mother, still in the kitchen, saw him come in and started back with a
+cry. His collar and shirt flying open, his face crimson and distorted,
+his scowl, and his gun, terrified her almost to fainting. She sank into
+a chair. Her lips moved, but she could not make a sound.
+
+"What did the girl tell you!" cried her son.
+
+She clutched her breast, her lips moved, but no sound emerged.
+
+Rufus saw that she was too frightened to speak.
+
+"Don't be scared," he said roughly. "All you've got to do is to tell me
+the truth." He made a mighty effort to control his rasping voice. "Did
+you know Geraldine was goin' away?"
+
+Mrs. Carder shook her head speechlessly.
+
+"Sit up, Ma. Talk if you've got any sense. What did the girl tell you?
+Why was she dressin' up every day?"
+
+"I--I thought"--stammered Mrs. Carder, "I thought she wanted to look
+pretty. I--I thought you were goin' to marry her. She never told me
+anything. Gone away?" Some curiosity struggled through the old woman's
+paralyzing fear. "How could she go away? She hadn't any hat on." She
+spoke tremulously.
+
+"Come up to her room," said Rufus sternly.
+
+He flung his gun into a corner and strode toward the stairs, the shaky
+old woman following him.
+
+Up in Geraldine's chamber he stood still for a moment scowling and
+viewing its neatness, then strode to the closet and opened the door. Her
+shabby suit was hanging there, and the pale-green challie gown she had
+worn in his office. He grasped its soft folds in crushing fingers. The
+gingham dress in which she worked every morning was also hanging on its
+hook. Her hat was on the shelf. That was all. Her few toilet articles
+were neatly arranged on the shabby old bureau. He opened its drawers and
+tossed their meager contents ruthlessly, searching for some letter or
+scrap of paper to throw light on her exit. He went to the trunk which
+contained some sheets of music and a few books. These he scattered
+about searching, searching between their leaves.
+
+His mother, trembling before him, spoke tremulously. "Did she have any
+money to go away?"
+
+"No," he growled.
+
+"You can see she didn't expect to go, Rufus," said the old woman
+timidly. "All her things are here. Why--why don't you take the car
+and--and go after her?"
+
+"Because she went up in the air, that's why; and I'll kill him!" He
+shook his fists in impotent rage. "He'll find he didn't get away with it
+as neat as he thought."
+
+He stormed out of the room, and lucky it was for Pete that that
+threshold could tell no tales.
+
+The old woman stared after him in a new terror. Her son, the most
+important man in the county, had lost his mind, and all for the sake of
+that girl who had managed in some mysterious way to give him the slip.
+"Gone up in the air!" Poor Rufus. He had gone mad. She managed that
+night to get an interview in the woodshed with the grief-stricken Pete,
+and in spite of his incoherence and renewed sobs she learned what had
+happened. The dwarf believed that his goddess had been kidnapped. It
+never occurred to his dull brain to connect her disappearance with the
+letters he had conveyed to her.
+
+The next day Carder was amazed to have the boy seek him. Never before
+had Pete ventured to volunteer a word to him. He was sitting in his den
+gnawing his nails and revolving in his mind some scheme for Geraldine's
+recovery when the dwarf appeared at the door. His shock of hair stood up
+as usual and his eyes were swollen.
+
+"Can't we--can't we--look for her, master?" he asked beseechingly. "They
+may hurt her--the man that stole her. Can't you--find him, master?"
+
+Carder's scowl bent upon the humble suppliant.
+
+"I ought to have shot him the first time he came," he said savagely.
+
+"Did the--the areoplane ever come before?" asked Pete, amazed, his
+heart's desire to see again and save his goddess supplying him with
+courage to speak. His dull eyes opened as wide as their puffiness would
+permit.
+
+"No," snarled Carder; "but it was that damned fool on the motor-cycle
+without a doubt. I don't see how he got at her. No letter ever came."
+
+The speaker went back to gnawing his nails in bitter meditation and
+forgot the mourner at his door whose slow wits began to
+remember--remember; and who, as he remembered, began to shake in his
+poor broken shoes and feel nailed to the ground. At last he ambled away,
+thankful that his master did not recur to the questioning of that other
+day. His dull wits received a novel sharpening.
+
+Carder's few words had transformed the situation. His goddess had not
+been stolen. He recalled that first night when he had forced her back
+into her room to save his own life, unmoved by her pleading. Her
+sweetness had given him courage to risk concealing the tall visitor's
+letter and conveying it to her.
+
+If Carder should suddenly revert to that day and cross-question him, he
+must have his denials ready. He must show no fear.
+
+He fell now on the ground and rested his head on his long arms to think.
+It was so hard for him to think, and dry sobs kept choking him; but the
+wonderful fact slowly possessed him that he had served her. Pete, the
+stupid dwarf, butt of rough jokes and ridicule, had saved the bright
+being he adored. He understood now her fervent efforts to convey thanks
+to him. He felt dimly that the angel whose kindness had brightened his
+life for those few days had gone back to the skies she had left. The man
+of the motor-cycle had looked stern as he slipped the letter into his
+ragged blouse and said the few low words that imposed secrecy and the
+importance of the message.
+
+"I'm sure you love her," the man had said. "I'm sure you want to help
+her."
+
+The words had contained magic that worked; and Pete had helped her, and
+outwitted the man with the whip who owned him body and soul.
+
+Henceforth the dwarf had a wonderful secret, a secret that warmed his
+heart with divine fire.
+
+Remembering how his goddess had wanted to go out into the night alone to
+escape, he realized that she must have been as unhappy as himself. When
+he prevented her from departing, she had not hated him. Compassion was
+still in her eyes and voice when she spoke to him that next morning.
+
+Now he had helped her. An angel had fallen into that smoky kitchen and
+toiled with her white hands. He had helped her back to heaven. Pete, the
+dwarf had done it: Pete.
+
+He rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky. Clouds were
+gathering, but she had gone into the blue. She was there now, and it was
+through him. Perhaps she was looking at him at this moment. He knew how
+her face would glow. He knew how her voice would sound and her eyes
+would smile.
+
+"Thank you, Pete. Thank you, good little Pete."
+
+He gazed up at the scudding clouds and his troubled soul grew quiet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The Palace
+
+
+Ben, taking an occasional look around at his passenger, flew directly on
+toward a landing-field. Their destination had hardly yet interested
+Geraldine. The whole experience, in spite of the noise of the motor,
+seemed as yet unreal to her. In reaction from the frightful nightmare of
+the last few days, her whole being responded to the flight through the
+bright spring air, and had Ben seen fit to do a figure eight she would
+have accepted it as part of the reckless joyousness of the present
+dream.
+
+As the plane began to descend and objects below came into view, she
+wondered for the first time where the great bird was coming to earth.
+Perhaps Miss Upton's ample and blessed figure would be waiting to greet
+her. Nothing, nothing was too good to be true.
+
+The plane touched earth and flitted along to a standstill. They were in
+a field, just now deserted, and her escort, pushing back his helmet,
+smiled upon her radiantly.
+
+"First time you've ever flown?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, except in dreams," she answered. "This seems only one more."
+
+"Were they happy dreams?"
+
+"None so happy as this."
+
+"You weren't afraid, then? You're a good sport."
+
+"I think I shall never be afraid again. I've sounded the depths of fear
+in the last week."
+
+The two sat looking into one another's eyes and the appeal in those
+long-lashed orbs of Geraldine continued the havoc that they had begun.
+Her lips were very grave as she recalled the precipice from which she
+had been snatched.
+
+"I saw that he frightened you terribly that day he gave me such a warm
+welcome."
+
+"He was going to marry me," explained Geraldine simply.
+
+"How could he--the old ogre?"
+
+"I was to consent in order to save my father's name. I'm going to tell
+you about it because you're a lawyer, aren't you, and the finest man in
+the world? I have it here."
+
+Geraldine loosened her coat and felt inside her white blouse for Miss
+Upton's letter.
+
+Ben laughed and blushed to his ears. "I haven't attained the former yet.
+The latter, of course, I can't deny."
+
+Geraldine produced the letter, inside of which was folded that from her
+father.
+
+"Miss Upton wrote me about you and--"
+
+"You're not going to show it to me," interrupted Ben hastily. "I'm
+afraid the dear woman spread it on too thick for the victim to view."
+
+"You see, she knew how I hate men," explained Geraldine, "and she knew
+how friendless I was and she wanted me to trust you."
+
+"And do you?" asked Ben with ardor.
+
+"Yes, perfectly. I have to, you know." She tucked back the rejected
+letter in its hiding-place.
+
+"And you're not going to hate me?"
+
+"I should think not," returned the girl with the same simple gravity;
+"not when you've done me the greatest kindness of my whole life!"
+
+"I'm so glad I haven't named the plane yet," said Ben impulsively. "You
+shall name it."
+
+"There's no name good enough," she replied--"unless--unless we name it
+for that carrier pigeon that was such a hero in the War. We might name
+it _Cher Ami_."
+
+"Good," declared Ben. "It is surely a homing bird."
+
+"And such a _cher ami_ to me," added Geraldine fervently.
+
+Ben wondered if this marvelous girl never smiled.
+
+"You were going to tell me how the ogre was able to force you to marry
+him," he said.
+
+"Yes; I don't like to tell you. It is very sad, and he crushed me with
+it." The girl's lips trembled for a silent moment, and Cupid alone knows
+how Ben longed to kiss them, close to him as they were.
+
+"He said that my father forged two checks, and that he only refrained
+from prosecuting him because of me. He said my father had promised that
+he should have me."
+
+Ben scowled, and the dark eyes fixed upon him brightened with sudden
+eagerness. "But that was a lie--about father giving me to him. I have
+Daddy's letter here." She felt again inside her blouse. "You will have
+to know everything--how my poor father was his own worst enemy and came
+to rely for money on that impossible man."
+
+She took out the letter and gave it to Ben and he read it in silence.
+
+"Probably it was a lie also about the checks," he said when he had
+finished.
+
+"No, oh, no," she replied earnestly. "He showed me those. He said that
+my father was held in affectionate remembrance at his clubs and among
+his friends, and that he could ruin all that and hold him up to contempt
+as a criminal, unless--unless I married him." Geraldine's bosom heaved
+convulsively. "I have been wild with joy ever since you came," she
+declared. "If I ever go to heaven I can't be happier than I was flying
+up from that meadow where there seemed a curse even on the poor little
+wild flowers but you can see how it is going to keep coming over me in
+waves that perhaps I have done wrong. You see, Daddy tells me not to
+consider him; but should I not guard his name in spite of that? That is
+the question that will keep coming up to me. Nevertheless"--she made a
+gesture of despair--"if I went through with it--if I married Mr. Carder,
+I'm sure I should lose all control and kill myself. I'm sure of it."
+
+Here Ben gave rein to the dastardly instinct which occasionally causes a
+poor mortal to fling all conscience to the winds when he sees an
+unexpected opportunity to attain a longed-for prize.
+
+"For you to become his wife cannot be right," declared Ben, endeavoring
+to speak with mature and legal poise; "but as you say, that heartrending
+doubt of your duty may attack you at times. How would it be to put it
+beyond your power to yield to his wishes by marrying some one else--me,
+for instance?"
+
+Geraldine regarded the speaker with grief and reproach. "Can you joke
+about my trouble?" She turned away and he suspected hurt tears.
+
+"Miss Melody--Geraldine." What Ben had fondly hoped was the judicial
+manner disappeared in a whirlwind of words. "I'm in earnest! I've
+thought of nothing but you since the day I saw you with that cut-throat.
+It's my highest desire to guard you, to make you happy. Give me the
+right, and every day of my life will prove it. Of course, I saw that
+Carder had some hold over you. I've spent all my time ever since that
+day trying to ferret out facts that could give me some hold on him. I
+haven't found them. The fox has always left himself a loophole. Marry me
+to-day: now: before we go home. I'm well known in the town yonder. I can
+arrange it. Marry me, and whatever comes you will be safe from him.
+Geraldine!"
+
+The girl's gaze was fixed on the flushed face and glowing eyes beside
+her and she leaned as far away from him as possible.
+
+"You really mean it?" she said when he paused.
+
+"As I never meant anything before in my life."
+
+"Have you a mother?"
+
+"The best on earth."
+
+"And yet you would do this to her, just because I have nice eyes."
+
+It was a frigid bucket of water, but Ben stood up under it.
+
+"Yes, I could give her nothing better."
+
+"You don't even know me," said Geraldine. "How strange men are."
+
+"Yes, those you hate; but how about me? You said you liked me."
+
+At this the girl did smile, and the effect was so wonderful that it
+knocked what little sense Ben Barry had left into oblivion.
+
+"Love at first sight is a fact," he declared. "No one believes it till
+he's hit, but then there's no questioning. You looked that day as if you
+would have liked to speak to me--yes"--boldly--"as if to escape Carder
+you would have mounted that motor-cycle with me and we should have done
+that Tennyson act, you know--'beyond the earth's remotest rim the happy
+princess followed him'--or something like that. I don't know it exactly
+but I'm going to learn it from start to finish and read law afterward.
+I've dreamed of you all night and worked for you all day ever since and
+yet I haven't accomplished anything!"
+
+"Haven't!" exclaimed Geraldine. "You've done the most wonderful thing in
+the world."
+
+"Oh, well, _Cher Ami_ did that. Tell me you'll let me take care of you
+always, and knock Carder's few remaining teeth down his throat if he
+ever comes in sight. Tell me you do--you like me a little."
+
+Geraldine's entrancing smile was still lighting her pensive eyes.
+
+"Oh, no, I don't like you. How can I? People don't like utter strangers.
+One feels worship, adoration for a creature that drops from the skies,
+and lifts a wretched helpless girl out of torturing captivity into the
+free sweet air of heaven."
+
+"Well, that'll do," returned Ben, nodding. "Adoration and worship will
+do to begin with. Let us go over to the village and be married--_my
+beautiful darling_."
+
+Geraldine colored vividly under this escape of her companion's
+ungovernable steam, but she did not change her expression.
+
+"I certainly shall not do that," she answered quietly.
+
+Ben relaxed his tense, appealing posture.
+
+"Well, then," he said, drawing a long breath, "if you positively decline
+the trap--oh, it was a trap all right--if you are determined to postpone
+the wedding, I'll tell you that I really don't believe your father
+forged those checks."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barry--" the girl leaned toward him.
+
+"Ben, or I won't go on."
+
+"Ben, then. It is no sort of a name compared to the one I have been
+giving you. I've been calling you Sir Galahad."
+
+Ben smiled at her blissfully. "Nice," he said. "I don't believe Miss
+Upton went beyond that."
+
+"Oh, please go on, Mr. Barry--Ben--Sir Galahad."
+
+"Why couldn't our cheerful friend have shown you any checks he drew to
+your father's name and claim that they were forged?"
+
+Geraldine's eyes shone. "I never thought of that."
+
+"Of course I cannot be sure of it. I would far rather get something
+definite on the old scamp."
+
+Geraldine shuddered. "He is so cruel. He is so rough to that poor little
+fellow Pete. Think what I owe that boy! He managed to get your message
+to me even when threatened with his master's whip. Mr. Carder saw you
+speaking to him and questioned him."
+
+"Oh, you mean that nut who took my letter?"
+
+"The hero who took your letter. He had to lie outside my door every
+night to keep me from escaping, and he slipped your message under it.
+Where should I be now but for him? Poor child, he is as friendless as I
+am"--Geraldine interrupted herself with a grateful look at her
+companion--"as I was, I mean. He had to follow me and guard me wherever
+I went, always keeping at a distance, because he mustn't speak to me and
+the ogre was always watching. How I thank Heaven," added Geraldine
+fervently, "that Mr. Carder himself had called Pete off duty for the
+first time before the--the archangel swooped down from the sky."
+
+"I'm getting on," said Ben. "If you keep on promoting me, I'll arrive
+first thing you know."
+
+"I should honestly be wretched if I had to think Mr. Carder was blaming
+Pete for my escape. The boy did tell me his life depended on my safety."
+
+"Well, I don't understand," said Ben with a puzzled frown. "Who lies in
+front of Pete's door? Why does he stay there? Why doesn't he light out
+some time between two days?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Carder has told him no one would employ him, that Pete would
+starve but for him. Did you notice how ragged and neglected he looked?"
+
+"He looked like a nut. I was afraid he was so stupid that you would
+never receive the message." Ben looked thoughtful. "How long has he
+lived at the farm?"
+
+"For years. Mrs. Carder took him from the orphan asylum when he was a
+child. She thought he would be more useful than a girl. They keep him as
+a slave. You saw how very bow-legged he is. He can't get about normally,
+but he drives the car and helps in the kitchen and does every sort of
+menial task. There was such a look in his eyes always when he saw me.
+Little as I could do for him, or even speak to him, I'm afraid he is
+missing me terribly." Geraldine's look suddenly grew misty. "See how
+faithful he was about Daddy's letter. Poor little Pete. Mr. Carder will
+be out of his mind at my flight. I hope he doesn't visit it on that poor
+boy."
+
+"Well," said Ben, heroically refraining from putting his arms around
+her, "why don't we take him?"
+
+"We? Take Pete? How wonderful!" she returned, her handkerchief pausing
+in mid-air.
+
+"Sure thing, if you want him. Send him to the barber and have his hair
+mowed. Have some trousers cut out for him with a circular saw and fix
+him up to the queen's taste."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barry--Ben! You don't know what you're saying. It would give me
+more relief than I can express, for the boy's lot is so miserable and
+starved."
+
+"Well, then, that is settled, my princess."
+
+"But you can't get him. I can't help feeling that anyone who has lived
+there so long, and been so unconsidered and unnoticed, must know more
+than Mr. Carder wishes to have go to the outside world. His mother
+hinted some things." Geraldine gasped with reminiscent horror of that
+low-ceiled kitchen.
+
+Her companion suddenly looked very alert. "Highly probable," he
+returned. "Why didn't you say that before? We certainly will take Pete
+in. What are his habits? You say he drives the car."
+
+"Yes, he did until he was set to dog my movements. I often heard it
+referred to. Do you mean--you could never get him in this blessed
+chariot. He will probably never see the meadow again unless they send
+him to get the cows."
+
+Ben shook his head. "No; I think he will have to be bagged some other
+way. What's the matter with my going back to the farm on my motor-cycle
+and engaging him, overbidding the ogre?"
+
+Geraldine actually clasped her hands on the leathern arm beside her.
+"Promise me," she said fervently, looking into her companion's
+eyes--"promise me that you will never go back to that farm alone."
+
+"You want to go with me?"
+
+"Don't joke. Promise me solemnly."
+
+Ben's lips took a grave line and he put one hand over the beseeching
+ones.
+
+"Then what will you promise me?" he returned.
+
+The blood mantled high over the girl's face. "You're taking me to Miss
+Upton, aren't you?" she returned irrelevantly.
+
+"Yes, if you positively refuse still to go to the parson."
+
+The expression of her anxious eyes grew inscrutable.
+
+"I want your mother to love me," she said naïvely.
+
+Ben lifted her hands and held them to his lips.
+
+"You haven't promised," she said softly. "I know he suspects you now. I
+think he is a madman when he is angry."
+
+"Very well, I promise." Ben released her hands and smiled down with
+adoring eyes. "Now, we will go home," he said.
+
+Again the great bird rose and winged its way between heaven and earth.
+
+Now it was not as before when Geraldine's whole being had seemed
+absorbed in flight and freedom. The earth was before her and a new life.
+She had a lover. Wonderful, sweet, incredible fact. A good man, Miss
+Upton said. Could it be that never again desolation and fear should
+sicken her heart; that like the princess of the tales her great third
+day had come and brought her love as well as liberty? Happiness deluged
+her, flushed her cheeks, and shone in her eyes. She longed and dreaded
+to alight again upon that earth which had never shown her kindness.
+Could it be possible that she should reign queen in a good man's heart?
+For so many years she had been habitually in the background, kept there
+either by her stepmother's will or her own desire to hide her
+shabbiness, and when need had at last forced her to initiative, she had
+received such humiliating stabs from the greed of men--could it be that
+she was to walk surrounded by protection, and love, and _respect_?
+
+She closed her eyes. Spring, sunlight, joy coursed through every vein.
+When at last they began again to dip toward earth, the question surged
+through her: "Shall I ever be so happy again?"
+
+And now Miss Upton's figure loomed large and gracious in the foreground
+of her thoughts. She longed for the refuge of her kindly arms until she
+could gather herself together in the new era of safety and peace.
+
+The plane touched the earth, ran a little way toward an arched building,
+and stopped.
+
+Ben jumped out, and Geraldine exclaimed over the beauty of a rose-tinted
+cloud of blossoms.
+
+"Yes. Pretty orchard, isn't it?" he said. He unstrapped her safety belt
+and lifted her out of the cockpit. Her eager eyes noted that they were
+at the back of a large brick dwelling.
+
+"Is Miss Upton here?" she asked while her escort took off her leather
+coat and her helmet. The latter had been pushed on and off once too
+often. The wonder of her golden hair fell over the poor little white
+cotton gown and Ben repressed his gasp of admiration.
+
+"Oh, this is dreadful," she said, putting her hands up helplessly.
+
+"Don't touch it," exclaimed her companion quickly. "You can't do
+anything with it anyway. There isn't a hairpin in the hangar. Miss Upton
+will love to see it. She will take care of it."
+
+"Oh, I can't. How can I!" exclaimed Geraldine.
+
+"Certainly, that's all right," said Ben hastily. "Miss Upton is right
+here. She will take you into the house and make you comfy. Let me put
+this around you."
+
+He took the crêpe shawl and put it about her shoulders, lifting out the
+shining gold that fell over the fringes.
+
+"I know it is very old-fashioned and queer," said Geraldine, pulling the
+wrap over the grass stains and looking up into his eyes with a childlike
+appeal that made him set his teeth. "It was my mother's and you said
+'white.' It was all I had."
+
+Miss Upton had come to Mrs. Barry's to receive her protégée provided Ben
+could bring her. The two ladies were sitting out under the trees
+waiting. Miss Mehitable had obeyed Ben, and some days since had given
+Mrs. Barry the young girl's story, and that lady had received it
+courteously and with the tempered sympathy which one bestows on the
+absolutely unknown.
+
+Miss Upton's excitement when she heard the humming of the aeroplane and
+saw it approaching in the distance baffles description. She had been
+forcing herself to talk on other subjects, perceiving clearly that her
+hostess was what our English friends would term fed up on the subject of
+the girl with the fanciful name; but now she clasped her plump hands and
+caught her breath.
+
+"Well, she ain't killed, anyway," she said. She longed to rush back to
+the landing-place, but instinctively felt that such action on the part
+of a guest would be indecorous. She hoped Mrs. Barry would suggest it,
+but such a move was evidently far from that lady's thought. She sat in
+her white silken gown, with sewing in her lap, the picture of unruffled
+calm.
+
+Miss Upton swallowed and kept her eyes on the approaching plane. "She
+ain't killed, anyway," she repeated.
+
+"Nor Ben either," remarked Mrs. Barry, drawing the fine needle in and
+out of her work. "He is of some importance, isn't he?"
+
+"Oh, do you suppose he got her, Mrs. Barry?" gasped Miss Mehitable.
+
+"Ben would be likely to," returned that lady, who had been somewhat
+tried by her son's preoccupation in the last few days and considered the
+adventure a rather annoying interlude in their ordered life.
+
+"Why don't she say let's go and see! How can she just set there as cool
+as a cucumber!" thought Miss Mehitable, squeezing the blood out of her
+hands.
+
+The plane descended, the humming ceased. Miss Upton sat on the edge of
+her chair looking excitedly at the figure in white who embroidered
+serenely. Moments passed with the tableau undisturbed; then:
+
+"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, still holding a rein over herself,
+mindful that she was not the hostess.
+
+Mrs. Barry looked up. She was a New Englander of the New Englanders,
+conservative to her finger tips. Ben was her only son, the light of her
+eyes. If what she saw was startling, it can hardly be wondered at.
+
+There came through the pink cloud of the apple blossoms her aviator son
+looking handsomer than she had ever beheld him, leading a girl in
+white-fringed crêpe that clung in soft folds to her slenderness. All
+about her shoulders fell a veil of golden hair, and her appealing eyes
+glowed in a face at once radiant and timid.
+
+Mrs. Barry started up from her chair.
+
+"Mother!" cried Ben as they approached, "I told you I should bring her
+from the stars."
+
+The hostess advanced a step mechanically, Miss Mehitable followed close.
+Geraldine gazed fascinated at the tall, regal woman, whose habitually
+formal manner took on an additional stiffness.
+
+"This is Miss Melody, I believe." Mrs. Barry held out her smooth, fair
+hand. "I hear you have passed through a very trying experience," she
+said with cold courtesy. "I am glad you are safe."
+
+The light went out of the girl's eager eyes. The color fled from her
+face. She had endured too many extremes of emotion in one day. Miss
+Mehitable extended her arms to her with a yearning smile. Geraldine
+glided to her and quietly fainted away on that kindly breast.
+
+"Poor lamb, poor lamb," murmured Miss Mehitable, and Ben, frowning,
+exclaimed: "Here, let me take her!"
+
+He gathered her up in his arms and carried her into the house and laid
+her on a divan, Miss Upton panting after his long strides and his mother
+deliberately bringing up the rear. Mrs. Barry knew just what to do and
+she did it, while Miss Upton wrung her hands above the recumbent white
+figure. When the long eyelashes flickered on the pallid cheek, Ben spoke
+commandingly: "I'll take her upstairs. She must be put to bed."
+
+Miss Mehitable came to herself with a rush. "Not here," she said
+decidedly. "If you'll let me have the car, Mrs. Barry, we'll be out of
+your way in five minutes."
+
+Ben looked at his mother, who was still cool and unexcited; and the
+expression on his face was a new one for her to meet.
+
+"She isn't fit to be moved, Mother, and Miss Upton hasn't room. Miss
+Melody is exhausted. She has had a frightful experience," he said
+sternly.
+
+If he had appealed she might have been touched, but it is doubtful. The
+grass stains, the quaint shawl, the hair that was rippling down to the
+rug, were none of them part of her visions of a daughter-in-law, and, at
+any rate, Ben shouldn't look at her like that--at her! for the sake of a
+friendless waif whose existence he had not suspected one week ago.
+
+Miss Upton, understanding the situation perfectly, saved the hostess the
+trouble of replying.
+
+"It won't hurt her a bit to drive as far as my house after she's been
+caperin' all over the sky!" she exclaimed, seizing Geraldine's hands.
+
+The girl heard the declaration and essayed to rise while her eyes fixed
+on the round face bending over her.
+
+"I want to go with you," she said.
+
+"And you're going, my lamb," returned Miss Mehitable.
+
+"Certainly, you shall have the car," said Mrs. Barry suavely.
+
+She wished to send word to the chauffeur, she wished to give Geraldine
+tea, she was entirely polite and sufficiently solicitous, but her heir
+looked terrible things, and, bringing around the car, himself drove the
+guests to Miss Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions.
+
+Geraldine declined his help to walk to the door of the shop. Miss Upton
+had her arm around her, and though the girl was pale she gave her
+rescuer a look full of gratitude; and when he pressed her hand she
+answered the pressure and restored a portion of his equanimity.
+
+"I never, never shall forget this happiest day of my life," she said.
+
+"And don't forget we are going to get Pete," he responded eagerly,
+holding her hand close, "and everything is going to come out right."
+
+"Yes"--she looked doubtful and frightened; "but if you get Pete don't
+let your mother see him. She is--she couldn't bear it."
+
+"Don't judge her, Geraldine," he begged. "She is glorious. Ask Miss
+Upton. Just a little--a little shy at first, you know. Miss Upton, you
+explain, won't you?"
+
+"Don't fret, Ben," said Miss Mehitable. "You're the best boy on earth,
+and I want to hear all about it, for I'm sure you did something
+wonderful to get her."
+
+"Yes, wonderful, Miss Upton!" echoed Geraldine, with another
+heart-warming smile at her deliverer whose own smile lessened and died
+as he walked back to his car. By the time he entered it he was frowning,
+thinking of his "shy" mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Mother and Son
+
+
+Miss Upton had looked upon the parting amenities of the two young people
+with beaming approval; and Geraldine's first words when they were alone
+astonished her.
+
+As soon as they were inside the shop and the door closed, the young girl
+looked earnestly into her friend's eyes. Miss Mehitable returned her
+regard affectionately. The golden hair had been wound up and secured
+with Mrs. Barry's hairpins.
+
+"I wish there were some way by which I need never see him again," she
+said.
+
+"Why, Miss Melody, child, what do you mean? Every word I told you in my
+letter was true. Perhaps you never got it, but I told you that he is the
+_finest_--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I believe it," was the hasty reply. "I did receive your
+letter, and some time I'll tell you how, and what a comfort it was to
+me. Oh, Miss Upton"--the girl threw her arms around the stout
+figure--"I can't tell you what it means to me for you to take me in; and
+this is your shop you told me of--" she released Miss Mehitable and
+looked about--"and I'm going to tend it for you and help you in every
+way I can. It is paradise--paradise to me, Miss Upton."
+
+Her fervor brought a lump to her companion's throat, but she knew that
+Mrs. Whipp was listening from the sitting-room, and Miss Mehitable did
+love peace.
+
+"Yes, yes, dear child; it'll all come out right," she said vaguely,
+patting the white shoulder. "I have another good helper and I want you
+to meet her. Come with me." She led the girl through the shop.
+
+Mrs. Whipp had retreated violently from the front window when she saw
+the closed car drive up, and now she was standing, at bay as it were,
+with eyes fixed on the doorway through which her employer would bring
+the stranger. Pearl was placidly purring in the last rays of the sinking
+sun, her milk-white paws tucked under her soft breast, the only
+unexcited member of the family.
+
+Mrs. Whipp had excuse for staring as the young girl came into view.
+Short wisps of golden hair waved about her face. Her beauty struck a
+sort of awe to the militant woman, who was standing on a mental fence in
+armed neutrality holding herself ready to spring down on that side which
+would regard the stranger as an interloper come to sponge on Miss Upton,
+or possibly she might descend upon the other side and endure the
+newcomer passively.
+
+"This is our little girl, Charlotte," said Miss Mehitable; "our little
+girl to take care of, and who wants to take care of us. This is Mrs.
+Whipp, Geraldine."
+
+Charlotte blinked as the newcomer's face relaxed in her appealing smile,
+and she came forward and took Mrs. Whipp's hard, unexpectant hand in her
+soft grasp. "Such a fortunate girl I am, Mrs. Whipp," she said, "I'm
+sure I shall inconvenience you at first (this fact had been too plainly
+legible on the weazened face to be ignored), but I will try to make up
+for it--try my very best, and it may not be for long."
+
+Charlotte mumbled some inarticulate greeting, falling an instant victim
+to the young creature's humility and loveliness.
+
+"I look very queer, I know," continued Geraldine, "but you see I just
+came down out of the sky."
+
+"She really did," put in Miss Upton. "She came in Mr. Barry's
+areoplane."
+
+"Shan't I die!" commented Mrs. Whipp, continuing to stare with a
+pertinacity equal to Rufus Carder's own. "I believe it. She looks like
+an angel," she thought. Miss Mehitable watched her melting mood with
+inward amusement.
+
+"What a beautiful cat!" said Geraldine. "She's tame, isn't she? Will she
+let you touch her?"
+
+"Well," said Charlotte with a broader smile than had been seen on her
+countenance for many a day, "I guess they don't have cats in the sky."
+She lifted Pearl and bestowed her in Geraldine's arms.
+
+The girl met the lazy, golden eyes rather timorously, but she took her.
+
+"All the cats where--where I was--were wild--and no one--no one fed
+them, you see."
+
+"Well, this cat is named Pearl," said Miss Mehitable. "She's Charlotte's
+jewel and you can bet she does get fed. How about us, Charlotte?" She
+turned to the waiting table. "I want to give Miss Melody her supper and
+put her to bed, and after she has slept twelve hours we'll get her to
+tell us how it feels to fly. Thank Heaven, she's here with no broken
+bones."
+
+Meanwhile Ben Barry had reached home and made a rather formal toilet for
+the evening meal. Even before his mother saw it, she knew she was going
+to be disciplined. While the waitress remained in the room the young
+man's gravity and meticulous politeness would have intimidated most
+mothers with a conscience as guilty as Mrs. Barry's. She was forced to
+raise her napkin several times, not to dry tears, but to conceal smiles
+which would have been sure to add fuel to the flame.
+
+She showed her temerity by soon dismissing the servant. Her son met her
+twinkling eyes coldly. She leaned across the table toward him and
+revealed the handsome teeth he had inherited.
+
+"Now, Benny, don't be ridiculous," she said.
+
+This beginning destroyed his completely. He arrived at his climax at
+once.
+
+"How could you be so heartless!" he exclaimed. "She had told me she
+wanted you to love her. Your coldness shocked her."
+
+This appeal, so pathetic to the speaker, caused Mrs. Barry again to
+raise her napkin to her rebellious lips.
+
+"I tell you," went on Ben heatedly, "she has been through so much that
+the surprise and humiliation of your manner made her faint."
+
+"Now, dear, be calm. Didn't I bring her to again? Didn't I do up her
+hair--it's beautiful, but I like it better wound up, in company--didn't
+I want to give her--"
+
+"Do you suppose," interrupted Ben more hotly, "do you suppose she wasn't
+conscious, and hurt, too, by her unconventional appearance?"
+
+He was arraigning his parent now with open severity.
+
+"How about my shock, Ben? I'm old-fashioned, you know. You come, leading
+that odd little waif and displaying so much--well, enthusiasm, wasn't
+it--wasn't the whole thing a little extreme?"
+
+"Yes, the situation was certainly very extreme. An old rascal had
+managed to capture that flower of a girl, and made her believe that to
+save her dead father's good name she must marry him. I come along with
+the Scout and pick her up out of a field where she was walking, he
+running, and yelling, and firing his gun at us. There was scarcely time
+for her to put on a traveling costume to accord with your ideas of
+decorum, was there?"
+
+Mrs. Barry's eyes widened as they gazed into his accusing ones.
+
+"How dreadful," she said.
+
+"Yes; and even in all her relief at escaping, Miss Melody was in doubt
+as to whether she was not deserting her father's cause--torn, as the
+books say, with conflicting emotions. You may think it was all very
+pleasant."
+
+"Benny, I think it was dreadful! Awfully hard for you, dear; and, oh,
+that wretch might have disabled the plane and hurt you! Why did I ever
+let you have it?"
+
+"To save her! That's why you let me have it."
+
+His mother regarded his glowing face. "What a wretched mess!" she was
+thinking. "What a bother that the girl is so pretty!"
+
+"You remember the other evening when I came home from that motor-cycle
+trip, and the next day Miss Upton came and told you Miss Melody's
+story?"
+
+"Yes, dear." Mrs. Barry added apologetically, "I'm afraid I didn't pay
+strict attention."
+
+"Well, it is a pity that you did not, for I've known ever since that day
+that Geraldine Melody is the only girl I shall ever marry."
+
+His mother's heart beat faster as she marked the expression in those
+steady, young eyes.
+
+There was silence for a space between them. She was the first to speak,
+and she did so with a cool, unsmiling demeanor which reminded him of
+childhood days when he was in disgrace.
+
+"Then you care nothing for what sort of mind and character are possessed
+by your future wife. The skin-deep part is all that interests you."
+
+"That's what she said," he responded quickly. "I suggested that she put
+affairs in a shape where it would be of no use for an irritating
+conscience to try to make trouble. I urged her to marry me this
+afternoon before we came home."
+
+Mrs. Barry's nonchalance deserted her with a rush. Her face became
+crimson.
+
+"How--how criminal!" she ejaculated.
+
+"That's what she said," returned Ben. "She asked if I hadn't a mother. I
+told her I had a glorious one; and she just looked at me and said: 'And
+you would do that to her just because I have nice eyes.'"
+
+Mrs. Barry bit her lip and did not love the waif the more that she had
+been able to defend her.
+
+"What is the use of being a mother!" she ejaculated. "What is the use of
+expending your whole heart's love on a boy for his lifetime, when he
+will desert you at the first temptation!"
+
+"Well, she wouldn't let me, dear," said Ben more gently, flushing and
+feeling his first qualm. "I would stake my life that she is as beautiful
+within as without and that you would have a treasure as well as I. It
+wasn't deserting you. I was thinking of you. I felt she was worthy of
+you and no one else is."
+
+"This is raving, Ben," said his mother, quiet again. "He has escaped,"
+she thought, "and now nothing will come of it." She raised her drooping
+head and again regarded him deprecatingly. "Let us talk of something
+else," she added.
+
+"No," he returned firmly; "not until you understand that I am entirely
+in earnest. You had your love-affair, now I am having mine, and I am
+going through with it, openly and in the sight of all men. I urged her a
+second time to marry me this afternoon, and she looked at me soberly
+with those glorious eyes and her only answer was: 'I want your mother to
+love me.'" Ben looked off reminiscently. "It encouraged me to hope that
+she cares for me a little that your coldness bowled her over so
+completely."
+
+Mrs. Barry looked at him helplessly, and this time when she put up her
+napkin she touched a corner of her eye.
+
+"We stopped at the landing-field at Townley and had our talk," he went
+on.
+
+"And she seemed refined?" Mrs. Barry's voice was a little uncertain.
+
+"Exquisite!" he exclaimed.
+
+"You have standards, Ben," she said. "You couldn't be totally fooled by
+beauty."
+
+He smiled upon her for the first time and a very warming light shone in
+his eyes. "The best," he replied, leaning toward her. "You."
+
+She drew a long, quavering breath; but she scorned weeping women.
+
+Ben watched her repressed emotion.
+
+"Now you examine, Mother," he said gently. "Take your New England
+magnifying-glass along, and when she will see you, put her to the test."
+
+"When she will see me? What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Barry quickly.
+
+"Well"--Ben shrugged his shoulders--"we'll see. How much she was hurt,
+how long it will last, I don't know, of course. You can try."
+
+"_Try!_" repeated the queen of Keefe, her handsome face coloring faintly
+above her white silken gown.
+
+"Yes. Miss Upton will be a good go-between, when she is placated. You
+saw the partisan in her."
+
+Of course, it was all very absurd, as Mrs. Barry told herself when they
+arose from the table; but there was no denying that her throne was
+tottering. Her boy was no longer all hers. Bitter, bitter discovery for
+most mothers to make even when the rival is not Miss Nobody from
+Nowhere.
+
+The next morning betimes Ben presented himself at the Emporium. He drove
+up in his roadster and rushed in upon Miss Upton with an arm full of
+apple blossoms.
+
+"How is she?" he inquired eagerly.
+
+"Hush, hush! I think she's goin' to sleep again. She's had her
+breakfast."
+
+"Mother sent her these," he went on, laying the fragrant mass on the
+counter behind which Miss Mehitable was piling up goods for packing.
+
+She looked at him and the corners of her mouth drew down. "Ben Barry,
+what do you want to tell such a lie for?"
+
+"Because I think it sounds nice," he returned, unabashed. "Really, I
+think she would if she dared, you know. We had it out last night. Now
+what are you going to do about Miss Melody's clothes?"
+
+"Yes, what am I?" said Miss Upton. "Say, Ben"--she gave his arm a push
+and lowered her voice--"what do you s'pose Charlotte's doin'? She's out
+in the shed washin' and ironin' Geraldine's clothes." She lifted her
+plump shoulders and nudged Ben again. They both laughed.
+
+"Good for Lottie!" remarked Ben.
+
+"Oh, she's in love, just in love," said Miss Mehitable. "It's too funny
+to see her. She wants to wait on the child by inches; but clothes--Ben!
+You should have seen Geraldine in my--a--my--a wrapper last night!" Miss
+Mehitable gave vent to another stifled chuckle. "She was just lost in
+it, and we had to hunt for her and fish her out and put her into
+something of Charlotte's. Charlotte was tickled to death." Again the
+speaker's cushiony fist gave Ben's arm an emphatic nudge.
+
+He smiled sympathetically. "I suppose so," he said; "but aren't you
+going to town to-day to buy her some things?"
+
+"What with?" Miss Upton grew sober and extended both hands palms upward.
+"I've been thinkin' about it while I was workin' here. She's got to have
+clothes. I shouldn't wonder if some o' my customers had things they
+could let us have. Once your mother would 'a' been my first thought."
+
+"Hand-me-downs?" said Ben, flushing. "Nothing doing. Surely you have
+credit at the stores."
+
+"Yes, I have, but it's my habit to pay my bills," was the defiant reply,
+"and that girl needs everything. I can't buy 'em all."
+
+Ben patted her arm. "Don't speak so loud, you'll wake the baby. You buy
+the things, Mehit. I'll see that they're paid for."
+
+"How your mother'd love that!"
+
+"My mother will have nothing to do with it."
+
+"Why, you ain't even self-supportin' yet," declared Miss Upton bluntly.
+"'T ain't anything to your discredit, of course; you ain't ready," she
+added kindly.
+
+Ben's steady eyes kept on looking into hers and his low voice replied:
+"My father died suddenly, you remember. He had destroyed one will and
+not yet made another. I have money of my own, quite a lot of it, to tell
+the truth. Now if you'd just let me fly you over to town--"
+
+Miss Mehitable started. "Fly me over, you lunatic!"
+
+"Well, let us go in the train, then. I'll go with you. I know in a
+general way just what she ought to wear. Soft silky things and a--a
+droopy hat."
+
+"Ben Barry, you've taken leave o' your senses. Don't you know that
+everything I get her, that poor child will want to pay for--work, and
+earn the money? If I buy anything for her, it's goin' to be somethin'
+she can pay for before she's ninety."
+
+Ben sighed. "All right, Mehit! have it your own way, only get a move. I
+can't take her out till she gets a hat."
+
+"You haven't got to take her out," retorted Miss Upton decidedly. "She
+don't want to go out with you. It was only last night she was sayin' she
+wished she might never see you again."
+
+"Huh!" ejaculated Ben. "Poor girl, I'm sorry for her, then. She is going
+to stumble over me every time she turns around. She is going to see me
+till she cries for mercy."
+
+He smiled into Miss Upton's doubtful, questioning face for a silent
+space.
+
+"Don't worry about that," he said at last. "Just go upstairs and put on
+your duds, like the dear thing you are, and get the next train." The
+speaker looked at his watch. "You can catch it all right."
+
+"I never heard o' such a thing," said Miss Mehitable. She had made her
+semi-annual trip to the city. The idea of going back again with no
+preparation was startling--and also expensive.
+
+Ben perceived that if there were to be any initiative here he would have
+to furnish it.
+
+"You don't expect to open the shop again until you have moved, do you?"
+
+"No," admitted Miss Upton reluctantly.
+
+"Then you can take your time. Take these flowers upstairs, ask her what
+size things she wears, and hurry up and catch the train."
+
+Miss Upton brought her gaze back from its far-away look and she appeared
+to come to herself. "Look here, Ben Barry, I'm not goin' to be crazy
+just because you are. Her clean clothes'll be all ready for her by
+night. I can buy her a sailor hat right here in the village and maybe a
+jacket. She's got to go to town with me. The idea of buyin' a lot of
+clothes and maybe not havin' 'em right."
+
+"You're perfectly correct, Miss Upton."
+
+The young man took out his pocket-book and handed his companion a bill.
+"This is for your fares," he said.
+
+Miss Mehitable's troubled brow cleared even while she blushed, seeing
+that he had read her thoughts.
+
+"I don't know as this is exactly proper, Ben," she said doubtfully.
+
+"Take my word for it, it is," he replied. "Let me be your conscience for
+a few weeks. I may not see you for a day or two. I have another little
+job of kidnapping on hand; so I put you on your honor to do your part."
+
+He was gone, and Miss Upton, placing the sturdy stems of the apple
+blossoms in a pitcher of water, carried them upstairs. She tiptoed into
+the room where Geraldine was in bed, but the girl was awake and gave an
+exclamation of delight.
+
+"Have you an apple tree, too?" she asked.
+
+"No, Mr. Barry brought these over."
+
+The girl's face sobered as she buried it in the blooms Miss Upton
+offered. Miss Mehitable looked admiringly at the golden braids hanging
+over the pillows.
+
+"Do you feel rested?" she asked.
+
+"Perfectly, and I know I have taken your bed. To-night we will make me a
+nice nest on the floor."
+
+Miss Upton smiled. "Oh, I've got a cot. We'll do all right. Do you
+s'pose there is any way we could get your clothes from that fiend on the
+farm?" she added.
+
+Geraldine shrank and shook her head. "I wouldn't dare try," she replied.
+
+"Then you and I've got to go to town to-morrow," said Miss Upton, "and
+get you something."
+
+The girl returned her look seriously and caught her lip under her teeth
+for a silent space.
+
+"Yes, I know what you're thinkin'," said Miss Mehitable cheerfully; "but
+the queerest thing and the nicest thing happened to me this mornin'. I
+got some money that I didn't expect. Just in the nick o' time, you see.
+We can go to town and--"
+
+Geraldine reached up a hand and took that of her friend, her face
+growing eager.
+
+"How splendid!" she exclaimed. "Then we will go and get me the very
+simplest things I can get along with and we'll keep account of every
+cent and I will pay it all back to you. Do you know I think this bed of
+yours is full of courage? At any rate, when I waked up this morning I
+found all my hopefulness had come back. I feel that I am going to make
+my living and not be a burden on anyone. It's wonderful to feel that
+way!"
+
+"Of course you are, child." Miss Upton patted the hand that grasped
+hers. "But first off, you'll have to help me move. I've got a lot o'
+packin' to do, you understand. I'm movin' my shop to Keefeport. I always
+do summers."
+
+For answer Geraldine, who had been leaning on her elbow, sat up quickly,
+evidently with every intention of rising.
+
+"Get back there," laughed Miss Mehitable. "Your clothes ain't ironed
+yet. I'll move the apple blossoms up side of you--"
+
+"Don't, please," said Geraldine, as she lay down reluctantly. "I think
+I'd rather they would keep their distance--like their owner."
+
+"Now, child," said Miss Mehitable coaxingly. "Mrs. Barry's one o' the
+grandest women in the world. I felt pretty hot myself yesterday--I might
+as well own it--but that'll all smooth over. She didn't mean a thing
+except that she was surprised."
+
+"We can't blame her for that," returned Geraldine, "but--but--I'm sorry
+he brought the flowers. I wonder if you couldn't make him
+understand--very kindly, you know, Miss Upton, that I want to be--just
+to be forgotten."
+
+Miss Upton pursed her lips and her eyes laughed down into the earnest
+face. "I'm afraid, child, I don't know any language that could make him
+understand that."
+
+Geraldine did not smile. She felt that in those intense hours of
+yesterday, freed from every convention of earth, they two had lived a
+lifetime. She would rather dwell on its memory henceforth than run the
+risk of any more shocks. Peace and forgetfulness. That is what she felt
+she needed from now on.
+
+"He said he was goin' on another kidnappin' errand now," remarked Miss
+Upton.
+
+The girl looked up quickly from her introspection. A startled look
+sprang into her eyes and she sat up in bed.
+
+"Oh, Miss Upton, you know him!" she exclaimed, gazing at her friend.
+"Does he keep solemn promises?"
+
+"I'm sure he does, child. What's the matter now?"
+
+"He promised me--oh, he promised me, he wouldn't go back to that farm
+alone." The girl's eyes filled with tears that overflowed on her
+suddenly pale cheeks.
+
+Miss Mehitable sat down on the edge of the bed and patted her, while
+Geraldine wiped the drops away with the long sleeve of Charlotte's
+unbleached nightgown. "Then he won't, dear, don't you worry," she said
+comfortingly. "Where's that courage you were talkin' about just now?"
+
+"That was for myself," said the girl grievously, accepting the
+handkerchief Miss Upton gave her.
+
+"Who else does he want out o' that God-forsaken place?" asked Miss Upton
+impatiently. "I wish to goodness that boy could stay put somewhere."
+
+"It's a servant, a dwarf, a poor little friendless boy who was kind to
+me there. If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here now. I should be
+dying--there! Mr. Barry is going to get him and bring him away. Oh, why
+didn't I prevent him!" Geraldine broke down completely, weeping
+broken-heartedly into the handkerchief.
+
+Miss Upton smiled over her head. She knew nothing of Rufus Carder's
+shot-gun, and she was thinking of Geraldine's earnest request that Ben
+Barry should forget her.
+
+"Now, stop that right away, my child," she said, enjoying herself
+hugely. She had seen Ben Barry's heart in his eyes as he came walking
+under the apple blossoms yesterday and this revelation of Geraldine's
+was most pleasing.
+
+"Stop cryin'," she said with authority. "Ben Barry's just as smart as he
+is brave. He ain't goin' to take any foolish risk now that you're safe.
+I don't know what he wants the boy for, but probably it's some good
+reason; and if you don't stop workin' yourself up, you won't be fit to
+go to town to-morrow. I want you should stay in bed all day. Now, you
+behave yourself, my lamb. Ben'll come back all right."
+
+Geraldine flushed through her tears. It was heavenly to be scolded by
+someone who loved her.
+
+She looked at the pitcher exiled to the bureau. "I--I think you might as
+well move the apple blossoms here," she said, wiping her eyes and
+speaking meekly.
+
+"All right," said Miss Mehitable, beaming, and she proceeded to set a
+light stand beside the bed and placed the rosy mass upon it.
+
+Toward night came a parcel-post package for Miss Geraldine Melody. Miss
+Upton and Charlotte both stood by with eager interest while the girl sat
+up in bed and opened it. None of the three had ever seen such a box of
+bon-bons as was disclosed. It was a revelation of dainty richness, and
+the older women exclaimed while Geraldine bowed her fair head over this
+new evidence of thoughtfulness. The long sleeves of Charlotte's
+nightgown, the patchwork quilt of the bed, the homely surroundings, all
+made the contrast of the gift more striking. There was a card upon it.
+Ben Barry's card: Geraldine turned it over and read: "Is the princess
+happy?"
+
+She was back among the clouds, the bright spring air flowing past her,
+each breath a wonderful memory.
+
+The two women looked at one another. They saw her close her hand on the
+card. She lifted the box to them, and raised her pensive eyes.
+
+"It is for us all," she said softly; but her ardent thought was
+repeating:
+
+"He would--he _will_ take care of himself, for me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Transformation
+
+
+Into the village nearest the Carder farm rolled Ben Barry's roadster. He
+stopped at the inn which made some pretension to furnishing
+entertainment to the motorists who found it on their route, and after a
+luncheon put up his car and walked to the village center to the
+post-office and grocery store. He had most hope of the latter as a
+bureau of information.
+
+After buying some cigarettes and chocolate, and exchanging comments on
+the weather with the proprietor, he introduced his subject.
+
+"I believe Rufus Carder lives near here," he remarked.
+
+"Yus, oh, yus," agreed the man, who was in his shirt-sleeves, and who
+here patronized the cuspidor.
+
+"He's pretty well-to-do, I understand. I should suppose if he is
+public-spirited his being in the neighborhood would be a great
+advantage to the village."
+
+"Yus, _if_," returned the grocer, scornfully. "The bark on a tree ain't
+a circumstance to him. Queer now, ain't it?" he went on argumentatively.
+"Carder's a rich man, and so many o' these-here rich men, they act as if
+they wasn't ever goin' to die. Where's the satisfaction in not usin'
+their money? You know him?" The speaker cocked an eye up at the handsome
+young stranger.
+
+"I--I've met him," returned Ben.
+
+"You might be interested, then, to hear about what happened out to the
+farm yisterday. P'r'aps it'll be in the paper to-night. A young girl
+visitin' the Carders was kidnapped right out o' the field by an
+areoplane. Yes, sir, slick as a whistle." Ben's look of interest and
+amazement rewarded the narrator. "One o' the hands from the farm come in
+last night and told about it, but the editor o' the paper thought't was
+a hoax and he didn't dare to work on it last night. Lots of us saw the
+plane, but the feller's story did sound fishy, and if the
+_Sunburst_--that's our paper--should print a lot o' stuff about Carder
+shootin' guns and foamin' at the mouth when he saw the girl he was
+goin' to marry fly up into the sky _and't wa'n't so_--ye see, 't would
+go mighty hard with our editor."
+
+"Why didn't he send somebody right out to the farm to inquire?" asked
+Ben.
+
+The grocer smiled, looked off, and shook his head.
+
+"You say you've met Rufus Carder? Well, ye don't know him or else ye
+wouldn't ask that. Don't monkey with the buzz-saw is a pretty good
+motter where he's concerned. I'm lookin' fer Pete now. This is his day
+to come in an' stock up. He's so stupid he couldn't make up anything,
+and we'll know fer sure if there's any truth at all in the story."
+
+"Who is Pete--a son?" Ben put the question calmly, considering his
+elation at his good luck. He had made up his mind that he might have to
+spend days in this soporific hamlet.
+
+The grocer looked at him quickly from under his bushy eyebrows.
+
+"What made ye ask that? Some folks say he is. Say, are you one o' these
+here detectives? Be you after Carder? Pete's a boy they took out of an
+asylum, and if he'd ever had any care he wouldn't be bandy-legged and
+undersized, but don't you say I've told ye anything, 'cause I haven't."
+
+Ben smiled into the startled, suspicious face. "Not a bit of it," he
+answered. "I'm just motoring about these parts on a little vacation, and
+I got out of cigarettes, so I called on you."
+
+"There's Pete now!" exclaimed the grocer eagerly, hurrying out from
+behind the counter and to the door.
+
+Other of the neighbors recognized the Carder car and came out to
+question the boy, who by the time he entered the grocery found himself
+confronting an audience who all asked questions at once. Pete's shock of
+hair stood up as usual like a scrubbing-brush; he wore no hat, and his
+dull eyes looked about from one to another eager face. Ben had strolled
+back of a tall pile of starch-boxes.
+
+"Is it true an areoplane come down in Mr. Carder's field yisterday?" The
+question volleyed at the dwarf from a dozen directions.
+
+He stared at them all dumbly, and they cried at him the more, one woman
+shaking him by the shoulder.
+
+"Look here, shut up, all of you!" said the proprietor; "let the boy do
+his business first. Ye'll put it all out of his head. What d'ye want,
+Pete?"
+
+The dwarf drew a list out of his pocket and handed it to the grocer upon
+which the bystanders all fell upon him again.
+
+As Ben regarded the dwarf, he felt some reflection of Geraldine's
+compassion for the forlorn little object in his ragged clothes, and he
+realized that it was a wonder that the poor, stultified brain had
+possessed enough initiative to carry out the important part he had
+played in their lives.
+
+While the grocer's clerk was putting up the packages the man himself
+laid his hand on Pete's shoulder.
+
+"Now then, boy," he said kindly, "an areoplane dived down out o' the sky
+into your medder yisterday and picked up a homely, stupid girl and flew
+off with her."
+
+"She was an angel!" exclaimed the dwarf. His dull eyes brightened and
+looked away. "She was more beautiful than flowers."
+
+"She was, eh?" returned the grocer, and the crowd listened
+breathlessly. "They say your master was goin' to marry her? That a
+fact?"
+
+The light went out of Pete's face and his lips closed.
+
+The grocer shook him gently by the shoulder. "Speak up, boy. Was there
+any shootin'? Did the air turn blue 'round there?"
+
+Pete's lips did not open for a moment. "Master told me not to talk," he
+said at last.
+
+A burst of excited laughter came from the crowd. "Then it's true, it's
+true!" they cried.
+
+The grocer kept his hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "Ye might as well
+tell," he said, "'cause Hiram Jones come in last night and told us all
+about it."
+
+Pete's lips remained closed.
+
+"Give ye a big lump o' chocolate if ye'll tell us," said one woman.
+
+"Master told me not to talk," was all the boy would say.
+
+The grocer's clerk went out to the auto with a basket and packed the
+purchases into it.
+
+Ben came from behind the starch boxes, went out the door, and accosted
+him.
+
+"Do you want to make five dollars?" he asked.
+
+"Do I?" drawled the boy, winking at him. "Ain't I got a girl?"
+
+"Then jump in and drive this car out to the Carder farm. I want to talk
+to Pete."
+
+"Eh-h-h! You're a reporter!" cried the boy. "Less see the money."
+
+Ben promptly produced it. "In with you now."
+
+"Sure, I'll have to speak to Pete," the boy demurred. "He can't walk out
+to the farm with them phony legs."
+
+"In with you," repeated the tall stranger firmly. "Go now or not at
+all." He held the bill before the boy's eyes. "I have my car at the inn.
+I'll take care of Pete."
+
+The boy looked eagerly at the money. "Can't I tell the boss?"
+
+"I'll fix it with the boss. Here's your money. In with you."
+
+The next minute the car was rattling down the street and Ben went back
+into the store where Pete was still being badgered by a laughing crowd
+persisting in questions about the angel.
+
+As Pete caught sight of him, the obstinate expression in his dull eyes
+did not at first change, but in a minute something familiar in the look
+of the stranger impressed him, and suddenly he knew.
+
+"Was it you? Was it you?" the boy blurted out, elbowing the others aside
+and approaching Ben eagerly.
+
+The bystanders looked curiously at the stranger and at the excited boy.
+
+"I want to have a little talk with you, Pete," said Ben. The dwarf's
+staring eyes had filled.
+
+"Is she here? Has she come down again?" he cried, unmindful of the
+gaping listeners.
+
+"Be quiet," returned Ben. Then he turned to the grocer. "I've sent your
+boy on an errand," he said, and he handed the man a bill. "Will that pay
+you for his time? I've paid him."
+
+He put his hand on Pete's shoulder and led him through the crowd out to
+the street.
+
+"Master's car has gone," cried the dwarf, looking wildly up and down the
+street.
+
+"I have taken care of it," said Ben quietly.
+
+"But I must find it," declared Pete, beginning to shake.
+
+Ben saw his abject terror.
+
+"There's nothing to be afraid of, Pete, nothing any more," said Ben. "Do
+you want to see Miss Melody?"
+
+"Oh, Master!" exclaimed the boy, looking up and meeting a kindly look.
+
+"Then come with me. Let us hurry." Reaching the inn, Ben paid his bill
+while Pete's eyes roved about in all directions for his goddess.
+
+Leading the boy out to the garage he bade him enter the machine. Even
+here Pete hesitated, his weight of terrifying responsibility still
+hanging over him.
+
+"Master's car!" he gasped, looking imploringly up into Ben's face.
+
+"It has gone home, back to the farm," said Ben. "Don't worry. There's
+nothing to worry about."
+
+Pete was trembling as he entered the roadster. He wondered if he were
+dreaming. All this couldn't be real. Nothing had ever happened to him
+before except his goddess.
+
+Ben put on speed and the car flew out of the village and along the
+highroad. They entered another village, but halted not. Through it they
+sped and again out into the open country.
+
+Pete felt dazed, but the man of the motor-cycle, Master had said, was the
+man of the aeroplane. He was here beside him, big, powerful. The dwarf
+felt that he was risking his own life on the hope of seeing his goddess,
+for what would Rufus Carder say to him when he finally returned to the
+farm, a deserter from his duty.
+
+Silently they sped on. Just once Pete spoke, for his heart had sunk.
+
+"Shall we see her, Master?" he asked unsteadily.
+
+Ben turned and smiled at him cheerfully.
+
+"Sure thing," he answered. "She is well and she wants to see you."
+
+Pete had had no practice in smiling, but a joyful reassurance pervaded
+him. Let Rufus Carder kill him, if it must be. This would come first.
+
+Darkness had fallen when they finally entered a town and drove to a
+hotel. Ben looked rather ruefully at the poor little scarecrow beside
+him with his hatless scrubbing-brush of a head, but the keeper of the
+garage consented to give the boy a place to sleep.
+
+"At least," thought Ben, "it will be more comfortable than the boards
+outside Geraldine's door."
+
+He saw to it that the dwarf should have a good supper, after which Pete
+presented himself at Ben's room as he had been ordered to do. Never
+before in his life had he had all the meat and potato he wanted, and
+still marveling at the wonderful things happening to him he was
+conducted to Ben, and stood before him with questioning eyes.
+
+"Is she here, Master?" he asked.
+
+"No, but we shall see her to-morrow."
+
+"When--when do I go back to the farm?" asked the boy.
+
+"Never," replied Ben calmly.
+
+"Master!" exclaimed the dwarf, and could say no more. His tanned face
+grew darker with the rush of crimson.
+
+"You're my servant now," said Ben, and his good-humored expression shone
+upon an eager face that worked pitifully.
+
+"What--what can I do?" stammered Pete, his rough hands with their
+broken nails working together.
+
+"You can get into the bathtub."
+
+"Wha--what, Master?"
+
+Ben threw open the door of his bathroom.
+
+"Draw that tub full of water and use up all the soap on yourself. Make
+yourself clean for to-morrow. Understand?"
+
+Pete didn't understand anything. He was in a blissful daze. He had never
+seen faucets except the one in the Carder kitchen. Ben had to draw the
+water for him, showing him the hot and the cold; finally making him
+understand that he was not to get in with his clothes on, and that he
+was to use any and all of those fresh white towels, the like of which
+the boy had never seen; then his new master came out, closed the door,
+and laughing to himself sat down to wait and read a magazine.
+
+There was a mighty splashing in the bathroom.
+
+"Clean to see her. Clean to see her," Pete kept saying to himself. He
+was going to be able to speak to her with no one to object. He was going
+to work for this god who could fly down out of the sky. Rufus Carder
+might come to find him later and kill him, but that was no matter.
+
+When finally the bathroom door opened and again arrayed in his
+disreputable clothes the dwarf appeared, Ben spoke without looking up
+from his magazine.
+
+"Did you let the water out of the tub?"
+
+"No, Master. I didn't know."
+
+Ben got up, and Pete followed him, eager for the lesson. Ben viewed the
+color of the water frothing with suds.
+
+"I think you must be clean," he remarked dryly, as he opened the
+waste-pipe, "or at least you will be after a few more ducks."
+
+"Yes, Master, to see her."
+
+He showed the boy how to wash out the tub which the little fellow did
+with a will.
+
+"Now, then, to bed with you, and we'll have an early breakfast, for we
+have a busy day to-morrow. Good-night."
+
+Pete ambled away to the garage so happy that he still felt himself in a
+dream. To see his goddess, and never to go back to Rufus Carder! Those
+two facts chased each other around a rosy circle in his brain until he
+fell asleep.
+
+When Ben Barry came out of his room the next morning he found Pete
+squatting outside his door. He regarded the broken, earth-stained shoes
+and the ragged coat and trousers, which if they had ever been of a
+distinct color were of none now, and the thick mop of hair. The eyes
+raised to his met a gay smile.
+
+"Hello, there," said Ben. "Did you think I might get away?"
+
+The dwarf rose. "I--I didn't--didn't know how much--much was a dream,"
+he stammered.
+
+"I hope you had a real breakfast," said Ben.
+
+The dwarf smiled. It was a dreary, unaccustomed sort of crack in his
+weather-beaten face. "I had coffee, too," he replied in an awestruck
+tone.
+
+Ben laughed. "Good enough. You go out to the car and wait till I come.
+I'm going to my breakfast now."
+
+In less than an hour they were on their way. Pete's eyes had lost their
+dullness.
+
+Ben drove to a department store, on a small scale such as the cities
+boast. He parked his car, and when he told Pete to get out the boy
+began looking about at once for Geraldine.
+
+"Is she here, Master?" he asked as they entered the store.
+
+"No, we shall see her to-night," was the reply.
+
+Then more miracles began to happen to Pete. He was taken from one
+section to another in the store and when he emerged again into the
+street, he hardly knew himself. He was wearing new underclothes,
+stockings, shoes, coat, vest; even the phony legs had been cared for in
+the trousers, cut off to suit the little fellow's peculiar needs, and
+his eyes seemed to have grown larger in the process. Under his arm he
+carried a box containing more underwear.
+
+Next they drove to a barber's where Pete's hair was properly cut; then
+to a hat store and he was fitted to a hat.
+
+When they came out, Ben regarded his work whimsically. The boy was not a
+bad-looking boy. He liked the direct manner of the dwarf's grateful,
+almost reverent, gaze up into his own merry eyes. There was nothing
+shifty there.
+
+When they reëntered the roadster, Ben spoke to him before he started the
+car.
+
+"Do you know why I have done all this, Pete?"
+
+The boy shook his head. "Because you came down out of the sky?" he
+questioned.
+
+"No, it is just because you took care of Miss Melody; because you put
+those letters underneath her door."
+
+Pete's face crimsoned with happiness. "I helped her--I--I helped her get
+away," he said.
+
+"Yes, and she will never forget it, and neither will I."
+
+"You--you--asked me if I loved her," said Pete, his mind returning to
+the day of the motor-cycle visit.
+
+"Yes, and you did, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, and--and when she was gone up to--to heaven, I wanted to die till
+I--I remembered that she--she wanted to go."
+
+"Yes, wanted to go just as much as you did, and more. Now _that_ life is
+all over, Pete. Just as much gone as those old clothes of yours that we
+left to be burned. You've been a faithful, brave boy, and Miss Melody
+and I are going to look after you henceforth."
+
+Pete couldn't speak. Ben saw him bite his lip to control himself. The
+roadster started and moving slowly out of the town sped again along a
+country road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+The Goddess
+
+
+On the same day Geraldine and Miss Upton were patronizing the department
+stores in the city and getting such clothing as was absolutely necessary
+for the girl. Geraldine's purchases were rigidly simple.
+
+"I think you're downright stingy, child," commented Miss Upton when the
+girl had overruled certain suggestions Miss Mehitable had made with the
+fear of Ben Barry before her eyes.
+
+"No, indeed. Don't you see how it's counting up?" rejoined Geraldine
+earnestly. "All these things on your bill, and no telling how soon I can
+pay for them."
+
+Miss Upton noticed how the salesgirls appreciated the beauty they had to
+deal with, and she was in sympathy with their efforts to dress Geraldine
+as she deserved.
+
+There were some shops into which the girl refused to enter, and it was
+plain to her companion that these had been the scenes of some of her
+repulsive experiences.
+
+Also they shunned the restaurant where they had met; and every minute
+that they were on the street Geraldine held tight to Miss Upton's
+substantial arm.
+
+"I shall be so glad when we get home," she said repeatedly.
+
+"Now, look here," said Miss Upton, "there's one thing you've got to
+accept from me as a present. You're my little girl and I've a right to
+give you one thing, I hope."
+
+"I'd much rather you wouldn't," returned Geraldine anxiously--"not until
+I've paid for these."
+
+She had changed the white dress she wore into town for a dark-blue skirt
+and jacket which formed the chief item of her purchases, and on her head
+she had a black sailor hat which Miss Upton had procured in Keefe.
+
+"I want to give you," said Miss Upton--"I want to give you a--a droopy
+hat!"
+
+Geraldine laughed. "What in the world for, you dear? What do I need of
+droopy hats?"
+
+"To wear with your light things--your white dress, and--and everything."
+
+"Miss Upton, how absurd! I don't need it at all. Don't think of such a
+thing. I shan't go anywhere."
+
+"I don't believe you know what you'll do," returned Miss Mehitable.
+"Just come and try one on, anyway. I want to see you in it."
+
+So, coaxing, while the girl demurred, she led her to the millinery
+section of the store they were in. Of course, putting hats on Geraldine
+was a very fascinating game, which everybody enjoyed except the girl
+herself. There was one hat especially in which Miss Upton reveled,
+mentally considering its devastating effect upon Ben Barry. It was very
+simple, and at the most depressed point of the brim nestled one soft,
+loose-leaved pink rose with a little foliage. Miss Upton's eyes
+glistened and she drew the saleslady aside.
+
+"I've bought it," she said triumphantly when she came back.
+
+"It isn't right," replied Geraldine, although it must be admitted that
+she herself had thought of Ben when she first saw the reflection of it
+in the glass.
+
+"Don't you want me to have any fun?" returned Miss Mehitable, quite
+excited, for the price of the hat caused the matter to be portentous.
+
+"Let him pay for it," she considered recklessly. "What's the harm as
+long as he and I are the only ones who know it, and wild horses couldn't
+drag it out of me?"
+
+So, Geraldine carrying the large hatbox, they at last pursued their way
+to the railway station and with mutual sighs of relief stowed themselves
+into the train for Keefe.
+
+"What you thinkin' about, child?" demanded Miss Mehitable after a long
+period of silence.
+
+Geraldine met her regard wistfully. "I was wondering if anybody is ever
+perfectly happy. Isn't there always some drawback, some 'if' that has to
+be met?"
+
+"Was you thinkin' about Mrs. Barry, Geraldine? I'm sorry she had one o'
+her haughty spells that day--"
+
+"No, I was not thinking of her; it is Mr. Barry--Ben. He went on a very
+dangerous errand yesterday."
+
+"You don't say so! Why, he came in as gay as a lark with those apple
+blossoms and he went out to his machine whistlin'. He couldn't have had
+much on his mind. You know I told you yesterday he's as sensible as he
+is brave."
+
+"What good is bravery against a madman with a gun--still he promised, he
+promised me he would not go to the farm alone."
+
+"Then he'll abide by it. You do give me a turn, Geraldine, talkin' about
+madmen and guns."
+
+The girl sighed.
+
+"I haven't had anything but 'turns' ever since I first saw the Carder
+farm; but it is unkind to draw you into it. Sometimes I wish I had never
+mentioned Pete to Mr. Barry, yet it seems disloyal to leave the boy
+there when I owe him so much."
+
+And then Geraldine told her friend in detail the part the dwarf had
+played in her life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Barry was, of course, able to think of little else than the new
+element which had come so suddenly into her calm, well-ordered life. She
+shrank fastidiously from anything undignified, and she felt that through
+no fault of her own she was now in an undignified position. In her son's
+eyes she was a culprit. Even her humble friend, Mehitable Upton, had
+revealed plainly an indignation at her attitude. When Ben left yesterday
+telling her that he might be gone several days, without explaining why
+or where, she felt the barrier between them even while he kissed her
+good-bye. He had made a vigorous declaration of independence that night
+at dinner, and now he had gone away to let her think it over, not even
+noticing that her eyes were heavy from a sleepless night.
+
+All that day, as she moved about her customary occupations, the thought
+of Geraldine haunted her; the way the girl had avoided her eyes after
+their first encounter, how she had clung to Miss Upton, and how eagerly
+she had urged departure.
+
+"So silly," thought Mrs. Barry while she fed her pigeons. "How absurd of
+her to expect anything different from a civil reception."
+
+Side by side with this condemnation, however, ran the consideration of
+how Ben had probably flung himself at her feet so far as the Scout plane
+would allow, and how he had even urged immediate matrimony. That hurt
+too much! Mrs. Barry saw the pigeons through a veil of quick tears. One
+more night she slept or waked over the problem, and as her thought
+adjusted itself more to Geraldine, the practical side of the girl's
+situation unfolded to her consideration. There would seem to be no
+question of returning to the irate farmer to get her clothing, yet that
+might be the very thing Ben was doing now; risking his precious life
+again for this stranger who was nothing to them. The more Mrs. Barry
+thought about it, the more restless she became. At last there was no
+question any longer but that her only peace lay in going to Miss Melody.
+After all, it was merely courteous to inquire how the girl had borne the
+excitement of her escape; but in the back of Mrs. Barry's mind was the
+hope that she might discover where her boy had gone now.
+
+She made a hasty toilet, jumped into her electric, and drove
+to Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions. The shades were drawn. The
+taking-account-of-stock notice was still on the door which resisted all
+effort to open it.
+
+Knocking availed nothing. Mrs. Barry's lips took a line of firmness
+equal to her son's. Walking around to the back door, she found it open
+and entered the kitchen. It was empty.
+
+She moved through the house into the shop. There was Mrs. Whipp, her
+head tied up in a handkerchief, bending over a packing-box. She started
+at a sound, raised her head, and stood amazed at the visitor's identity.
+
+"I knocked, but you didn't seem to hear me," said Mrs. Barry with
+dignity.
+
+"Yes'm, I did hear a knock," returned Charlotte, "but they pound there
+all day, and o' course I didn't know't was you. I tell Miss Upton if we
+kept the door locked and the shades down all the time, we'd do a drivin'
+business. Folks seem jest possessed to come in and buy somethin' 'cause
+they can't. Did you want somethin' special, Mrs. Barry?"
+
+"I came to see Miss Melody. I wished to inquire if she has recovered
+from her excitement."
+
+A softened expression stole over Charlotte's weazened face.
+
+"She ain't here. They've gone to the city."
+
+"Who--who did you say has gone?"
+
+Mrs. Barry controlled her own start. Visions of two in that roadster
+swept over her. Perhaps, she herself having forfeited her right to
+consideration--there was no telling what might have happened by this
+time. Mrs. Whipp's smile was frightfully complacent.
+
+"Miss Upton and her went together," was the reply. "Of course, all the
+girl's clo'es was in the den o' that fiend she got away from, and she
+had to git some more."
+
+Mrs. Barry breathed freer.
+
+"Miss Upton cal'lated to get some things from her customers and fix 'em
+over, but Mr. Barry, he wouldn't have it so."
+
+"Are you referring to my son?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Upton said he turned up his nose at hand-me-downs, so she had
+to jest brace up and git 'em new."
+
+Mrs. Whipp's eyes seemed to see far away and her expression under the
+protecting towel was one quite novel.
+
+Mrs. Barry cleared her throat.
+
+"My son was here, then, before he went away on his--his little trip."
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Whipp, appearing to perceive Dan Cupid over her
+visitor's shoulder. "He come in to bring the apple blossoms and ask how
+Geraldine was, and that night sech a box o' candy as he sent her! You'd
+ought to 'a' seen it, Mis' Barry. P'r'aps you did see it." Charlotte met
+the lady's steady eyes eagerly.
+
+"No, I did not see it."
+
+"Well, that poor little girl she couldn't half enjoy them bon-bons,
+'cause she was so scared somethin' was goin' to happen to Mr. Barry."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, she was afraid he'd gone back to that farm where they murder folks
+as quick as look at 'em." Charlotte sniffed a sniff of excited
+enjoyment.
+
+"What would he go there for?" demanded Mrs. Barry. "Surely not to get
+those foolish clothes!"
+
+"I don't know. I only know Geraldine cried. Miss Upton said so; but she
+told her how Mr. Barry was jest as smart as he was brave and she took
+her to the city to git her mind off."
+
+Charlotte smiled with as soft an expression as the unaccustomed lips
+could reveal, and nothing but stamping her aristocratic foot could have
+expressed Mrs. Barry's exasperation.
+
+"I am quite sure my son would not take any absurd and unnecessary step,"
+she said, with such hauteur that Mrs. Whipp came out of her day-dream
+and realized that the great lady's eyes were flashing. Without another
+word the visitor turned and left the shop, her black and violet cape
+sweeping through living-room and kitchen and back into her machine.
+
+The rest of the day was spent by the lady in alternations of scorn,
+vexation, and anxiety.
+
+Late in the afternoon she heard a motor enter the grounds, and hurrying
+to the door saw with a happy leap of the heart that it was Ben's
+roadster. Her relief drove her to forgive and forget and to hurry out to
+the piazza. The machine came on and she saw that her son was not alone.
+A boy sat beside him.
+
+The roadster stopped. Ben jumped out and kissed his mother, then
+beckoned to Pete, who obediently drew near and stood on his curved legs,
+his hat in his hand. He looked up at the queenly lady, and his eyes
+which had ceased to wonder were still seeking.
+
+"Is she here, Master?" he asked.
+
+"No, but near by," replied Ben.
+
+"Mother, I've engaged a new boy. His name is Pete. He is here for
+general utility. He is very willing."
+
+Mrs. Barry gazed in disapproval at the quaint, clean figure in his
+brand-new clothes. Pete's rough hands constantly twirled his straw hat.
+
+"You should have asked me," she said. "We don't need any more help."
+
+Ben put his arm around her and drew her close to him. "Yes, we do," he
+replied cheerfully, "down at Keefeport. Pete will go there and keep
+things in shape. You will wonder how you ever got along without him; but
+I need him first. He was one of the hands at the Carder farm--has been
+there from a child and he knows more about his master's devilment than
+anybody else."
+
+"Ben!" His mother looked up reproachfully into the young fellow's happy
+eyes. "Why did you need to risk your life again--"
+
+"Oh, not a bit of that," laughed Ben. "I picked Pete out of a grocery
+store--"
+
+"Where is she, Master?" The voice of the boy was pleading again.
+
+"Pete was a good friend to Miss Melody, the only one she had, and now
+his reward is going to be to see her."
+
+"You don't mean," exclaimed Mrs. Barry, "that you have spent a couple of
+days to get this boy and dress him up in order to allow him to see Miss
+Melody?"
+
+"No, not exactly. I kidnapped him as an information bureau."
+
+"Why can't you let that disgusting farmer alone?" asked the lady
+despairingly.
+
+"Because if I do, he won't let us alone," returned Ben shortly. "Well,
+now, we've shown ourselves to you and we'll be off to keep my word to
+Pete. Hop in, boy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Upton and Geraldine had reached home, hatbox and all, and were in
+the dismantled shop answering Charlotte's questions when they heard an
+automobile stop before the door and a cheery whistle sounded. The
+repellent shades were still down at the windows.
+
+"That's Ben Barry!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable. "Don't you dare to touch
+that hat!" she added severely to Geraldine, whose cheeks flushed deeply
+as a tattoo began on the locked door.
+
+So the girl was standing in the middle of the room wearing the droopy
+hat when Ben came in, followed by the dwarf at whom Miss Mehitable and
+Charlotte stared.
+
+Geraldine forgot her hat, and Ben Barry--forgot everything but the eager
+adoration in the face of the transformed slave. "Why, Pete, Pete!" she
+cried joyously, running to meet him.
+
+The boy bit his lips to keep back the tears and his clumsy fingers
+worked nervously as his goddess rested both her hands on his shoulders.
+He couldn't speak, but gazed and gazed up into the eyes under the droopy
+hat.
+
+Ben Barry, his arms folded, looked on at the tableau while Geraldine
+murmured welcome and reassurance.
+
+"Aren't we the happiest people in the world, Pete?" she finished softly.
+
+He choked. "Yes, and I'm not going back," he was able to say at last.
+
+"I should say not," put in Ben. "I've brought somebody to help you move,
+Mehit," he added. Miss Upton was still staring at the dwarf's legs.
+
+"That's fine," said Geraldine. "Pete is just the right one for us."
+
+The boy kept his eyes on hers.
+
+"He can't ever get you again," he said, with trembling eagerness,
+"'cause I know all about the girls he had there before you, and how one
+jumped out the winder, and I know what hospital they took her to, for I
+drove, and I'm goin' there with Mr. Barry, and he's goin' to--"
+
+"Never mind, Pete," interrupted Ben quietly. "We're going to take care
+of that without troubling Miss Melody."
+
+The dwarf dropped back as Ben advanced. Charlotte said afterward that it
+gave her a turn to see the manner in which the young man took both the
+girl's hands and scanned her changed appearance.
+
+"It looks perfectly absurd with this tailor suit," she said, blushing
+and laughing. "Miss Upton _would_ give it to me. So extravagant!"
+
+The elaborate wink which Miss Mehitable bestowed on Ben as he glanced
+at her over his love's head was intended to warn him that he had a bill
+to pay.
+
+"Miss Upton has been your good fairy all along, hasn't she?" His look
+was so intense and he spoke so seriously that Geraldine glanced up at
+him half timidly and down again.
+
+Charlotte pulled Miss Upton's dress and motioned with her head toward
+the living-room; but, as Miss Mehitable said afterward, "What was the
+good of _their_ goin' and leavin' that critter there?"
+
+"Thank you for the candy, Mr. Barry," said Geraldine, meeting his eyes
+again steadily, "but please don't. You have put me under everlasting
+obligation, but will you do me one more favor? Will you let me help
+these dear women and--and stay away, and--don't send me anything?"
+
+Miss Mehitable understood this prayer, and she had a qualm as she
+thought of the price of the bewitching hat which was at the present
+moment doing its worst.
+
+"Yes, for a little while," replied Ben. "Pete will get you moved and
+settled at the Port and then he and I will take a trip. I don't know
+how long we shall be away; but when we return you will understand that
+the ogre's teeth have been extracted, the tiger's claws cut, and the
+spider's web rent. How's that?" He smiled down into the girl's grave
+eyes, still holding her hands close.
+
+"If I could only find out what my father's debt to him really is, I
+would consecrate my life to paying it," she said in a low tone.
+
+Miss Mehitable felt that the atmosphere was getting very warm.
+
+"Come here, Pete," she said. "I want to show you my kitchen." The dwarf
+walked slowly backward to the door, his eyes on the young couple, as if
+he feared to let them out of his sight lest they vanish and he waken.
+"Come on, Charlotte."
+
+The three disappeared, Miss Mehitable urging Pete by the shoulder.
+
+"I'll try to find out," returned Ben; "and if it is possible to do that,
+the debt shall be paid."
+
+Geraldine caught her lip under her teeth and swallowed the rising lump.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barry--Ben," she said at last, "of course I have no words to
+thank you--"
+
+"I don't wish to be thanked in words."
+
+"You're too generous."
+
+"Not in the least," returned Ben quietly. "I want to be thanked. I want
+each of us to thank the other all our lives. I to be grateful to you for
+existing, and you to thank me for spending my days with the paramount
+thought of your happiness."
+
+They looked at each other for a long silent minute.
+
+"Mrs. Whipp says your mother came to call on me to-day," said Geraldine
+at last. "She described her manner so well that it is evident she came
+at the point of your bayonet. I understand the situation entirely. I've
+already heard that she is the great lady of the town. You are her only
+son. Do you suppose I blame her when out of a clear sky you produced me
+and made your feeling plain to her? Is it any wonder that she made hers
+plain to me? I should think"--Geraldine gave an appealing pressure to
+the hands holding hers--"I should think you could be generous enough
+to--to let me alone."
+
+Her eyes pleaded with him seriously.
+
+"What am I doing?" asked Ben. "What do you suppose is the reason that
+I'm wasting all these minutes when I might be holding you in my arms!"
+He had to stop here himself and swallow manfully. "If you knew how you
+look at this moment--and I don't kiss you--just because I'm giving
+Mother a little time, so that you will be satisfied--"
+
+"Then you'll promise--will you promise--you kept your promise about the
+farm?"
+
+"Yes; I found Pete in the village."
+
+"Then you do keep promises! Tell me solemnly that you will leave your
+mother in freedom. If you don't, Ben--Sir Galahad--I'll run away. I
+really will--"
+
+In her earnestness she lifted her face toward his, her eyes were
+irresistible, and in an instant he had swept her into his arms and was
+kissing her tenderly, fervently, to the utter undoing of the droopy hat
+which fell unnoticed to the floor.
+
+Voices approaching made him release her.
+
+Very flushed, very grave, both of them, they looked into each other's
+eyes, and Geraldine, being a woman, put both hands up to her ruffled
+hair.
+
+"I do promise you, Geraldine," he said, low and earnestly. "Whatever my
+mother does after this you may know is of her own volition."
+
+Pete burst into the room wild-eyed, followed by Miss Mehitable, who was
+talking and laughing.
+
+"He was afraid you'd go away without him," she said--"Mercy's sakes,
+Geraldine Melody, look at your hat!" She darted upon it and snapped some
+dust off its chiffon. "You'd better be careful how you throw this
+around. We can't buy a hat like this every day."
+
+"Oh, do forgive me, Miss Upton!" murmured the girl, her eyes very
+bright. "It was her present to me," she added to Ben. "I'm so sorry!"
+She went to Miss Mehitable and laid her cheek against hers, and Miss
+Upton bestowed another prodigious wink upon the purchaser of the hat.
+
+It did not break his gravity; a gravity which Miss Upton but just now
+noticed.
+
+"Come, Pete, we'll be going," said Ben, and his flushed, serious face
+worried Miss Mehitable's kind heart, especially as no sign of his merry
+carelessness returned in his brief leave-taking.
+
+When they were gone and the door had closed after them, she looked at
+the girl accusingly.
+
+"Something has happened," she said, in a low tone not to attract
+Charlotte.
+
+"Don't be cross with me about the hat," said the girl, nestling up close
+to her again. "I just love it--much better even than I did in the
+store."
+
+Miss Mehitable put an arm around her, not because at the moment she
+loved her, but because she was there.
+
+"I wonder," she said, "if there's anything in this world that can make
+anything but a fool out of a girl before it's too late. I know you're
+just as crazy about him as he is about you! If you wasn't, would you
+have been snivellin' around because he might get hurt to the farm? And
+yet jest 'cause o' your silly, foolish pride you've gone and refused
+him. It's as plain as the nose on his splendid face. As if in the long
+run it mattered if Mrs. Barry was a little cantankerous. She's run
+everything around here so long that she forgets her boy's a man with a
+mind of his own. It's awful narrow of you, Geraldine, awful narrow!"
+
+Upon this the girl lifted her head and smiled faintly into the accusing
+face.
+
+"Won't it be nice to have Pete help us move," she said innocently.
+
+Miss Upton's lips tightened. She dropped her arm, moved away, and put
+the droopy hat back in its box.
+
+"You're heartless!" she exclaimed. There was such a peachy bloom on the
+girl's face. "I won't waste my breath."
+
+"I love _you_," said Geraldine, meekly and defensively.
+
+"Ho!" snorted her good fairy, unappeased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The Mermaid Shop
+
+
+For the next few days Miss Mehitable had no time to worry over
+love-affairs. No matter how early she arose in the morning she found
+Pete arrayed in overalls sitting on the stone step of Upton's Fancy
+Goods and Notions, and when by the evening of the third day all her
+goods, wares, and chattels were deposited in the little shop at
+Keefeport, she wondered how she had ever got on without him.
+
+On that very day Ben Barry received a threatening letter from Rufus
+Carder demanding the return of Pete, and he knew that no more time must
+be lost. He flew over to the Port that afternoon, and alighting on the
+landing-field which had been prepared near his cottage walked to the
+little shop near the wharf. Here he found Pete industriously obeying
+Miss Upton's orders in company with his idol, the whole quartet gay amid
+their chaos. Even Mrs. Whipp had postponed the fear of rheumatism and
+had learned how to laugh.
+
+They had formed a line and were passing the articles from boxes to
+shelves when the leather-coated, helmeted figure stood suddenly before
+them.
+
+The effect of the apparition upon Geraldine with its associations was so
+extreme as to make her feel faint for a minute, and Ben saw her face
+change as she leaned against the counter.
+
+Miss Mehitable saw it too. "Aha!" she thought triumphantly. "Aha! It
+isn't so funny to break a body's heart, after all."
+
+"Well, Ben Barry," she said aloud, "why didn't you wait till we got
+settled?"
+
+The aviator stood in the doorway, but came no farther.
+
+"Because I have to take Pete away. I've had a _billet doux_ from Rufus
+Carder and he wants him."
+
+The dwarf rushed to his new master on quaking legs. "Oh, Master! I won't
+go! I can't go." He looked off wildly on the big billows rolling in.
+"I'll throw myself in the sea."
+
+Ben put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Of course you won't go," he said; "but you want to brighten up your
+wits now and remember everything that will help us. We're going to the
+city to-night and begin at once to settle that gentleman's affairs." He
+gave Geraldine a reassuring look. "I should like to take your father's
+letter with me," he added quietly.
+
+"But we mustn't get Pete into trouble," she replied doubtfully.
+
+"I'm not intending to show it. I want to familiarize myself with his
+handwriting. I expect to have an interview and perhaps there will be
+notes to examine."
+
+"But not at the farm," protested the girl quickly. "You'll not go near
+the meadow?"
+
+"No; the cows have nothing to fear from us this time."
+
+"And you'll"--Geraldine swallowed--"you'll be careful?"
+
+Ben nodded. "All my promises hold," he replied, looking straight into
+her eyes with only the ghost of his old smile, as Miss Upton noticed.
+
+Geraldine ran upstairs, brought down her father's letter, and gave it to
+him.
+
+He took it with a nod of thanks. "How do you think you will like to
+fly, Pete?" he asked. "You can go home with me, or, if you prefer it, in
+the trolley."
+
+"Anywhere with you, Master," returned the boy. He felt certain that
+Rufus Carder would not be met among the clouds, but who could be sure
+that he would not pop up in a trolley car.
+
+"Very well, then. Good-bye, everybody, and expect us when you see us."
+
+"Good-bye, you dear boy," cried Miss Mehitable. _Somebody_ should call
+him "dear." She was determined on that. "Always workin' for others," she
+continued loudly, "and riskin' your life the way you are." She moved to
+the door, and raised her voice still higher as the strangely assorted
+pair moved away up the road. "I hope you'll get your reward sometime!"
+she shouted; then she turned back and glared at Geraldine.
+
+The girl put her hand on her heart. "It startled me so to see him--just
+as he looked on that--that--dreadful day," she was going to say, but how
+could she so characterize the day of her full joy and wonder? So her
+voice died to silence, and Miss Upton began slamming articles up on the
+shelves with unnecessary violence, while Geraldine, smiling into the
+packing-boxes, meekly set about helping her.
+
+Pete, like Geraldine before him, was in such terror of his former master
+and so full of trust in his present one, that he swallowed his fears as
+the plane rose for its short trip, and he found the experience
+enjoyable. Ben, when they reached the house, sought his mother. She was
+walking on the piazza.
+
+"You didn't tell me you were off for a flight," she said in an annoyed
+tone.
+
+"Well, it was now you see me and now you don't this time, wasn't it? You
+had hardly time to miss me. I flew over to the Port to get Pete. We have
+to go to the city to-night. I'll be gone a few days, Mother, perhaps a
+week."
+
+"On some disgusting business connected with that unspeakable man, I
+suppose."
+
+"Verily I believe it will be very disgusting; but it has to be gone
+through with."
+
+"Why does it?" His mother stood before him and spoke desperately. "Why
+can't you let it alone?"
+
+"I've told you--because it affects the happiness of my future wife."
+
+Mrs. Barry's eyes were hard, though her cheeks grew crimson. "You
+haven't announced your engagement to me. Don't you think I should be one
+of the first to know?" she said.
+
+"I'm not engaged." Ben smiled into her angry, hurt eyes. "Something
+stands in the way as yet."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+They continued to exchange a steady gaze. She spoke first.
+
+"Do you mean to say that anyone concerned in the affair still considers
+_me_?"
+
+Her boy's smile became a laugh at the deliberate manner of her sarcasm.
+
+"Oh, cut it out, Mother mine," he said. And though she tried to hold
+stiffly away from him, he hugged her and kissed her and pulled her down
+beside him on a wicker seat.
+
+She could not get away from his encircling arm and probably she did not
+wish to.
+
+"Ben, I've had a most disagreeable day," she declared. "Everybody within
+fifteen miles knows that you flew into the village with a strange girl."
+
+"They said she was pretty, didn't they?"
+
+"I can't leave the house without somebody stopping me and asking me
+about it, and I'll have to order the telephone taken out if this goes
+on. I can hardly bear to answer it any more. I called on Miss Melody,
+but she had gone to town, and that hopeless Mrs. Whipp babbled about
+your attentions. I don't want you to break the apple blossoms anyway."
+
+"All right, honey, I won't. They're nearly gone; but I shall always love
+apple blossoms. They're fragrant like her spirit, pink and white like
+her, wholesome like her, modest like her. You see she has always been
+kept in the background. No one has taken the bloom from her freshness.
+She has had blows, has come in contact with some of the world's mud, but
+it washed away and disappeared under her own purity."
+
+Mrs. Barry looked into the speaker's flashing eyes. "My poor boy," she
+said at last. "I wonder whether you're crazy or whether you're right.
+What am I going to do!"
+
+"Of course I don't know what you're going to do," he returned, his lips
+and voice suddenly serious. "It depends largely upon whether you want
+my future wife to hand out ice-cream cones to the trippers at
+Keefeport."
+
+"What do you mean now?" Mrs. Barry asked it severely.
+
+"Why, the little girl is going to try to earn her living, of course, and
+she will be slow to leave Miss Upton's protection, for she has proved,
+that a girl's beauty may be her worst enemy. Miss Upton will do a bigger
+business than ever, that is easily prophesied. The hilarious, rowdy
+parties that come over in motor-boats will pass the word along that
+there is something worth seeing at Upton's this year. They will crack
+their jokes, and Miss Melody will be loyal to her employer. She won't
+want to discourage trade. They will make longer visits than usual and
+the phonograph will work overtime."
+
+Mrs. Barry had risen slowly during this harangue and now looked down
+upon her son with haughty, displeased eyes.
+
+"I shall speak to Miss Upton," she said.
+
+"I advise you not to," returned Ben dryly, crossing one leg over the
+other and embracing his knee. "I don't think you are in any position to
+dictate. I left a merry party down there just now. Mrs. Whipp cracking
+the air with chuckles, Mehitable rocking the store with her activities,
+Miss Melody enveloped in a gigantic apron and with a large smudge across
+her cheek, having the time of her life unpacking boxes. I was sorry to
+bereave them of Pete, but it won't take them long now to be ready for
+business."
+
+Mrs. Barry did not speak. A catbird sang in an apple tree, a call to
+vespers.
+
+"This won't do for me," said Ben, suddenly rising. "I'll go up and throw
+a few things into my bag. Give us a bite to eat, Mother dear, and tell
+Lawson to bring the car around. We must get the seven-thirty."
+
+After her boy and his humble lieutenant had left for the train, the
+mother sat a long time on the piazza thinking. The telephone rang at
+last. She sighed, went to its corner, and sat down to stop its annoying
+peremptoriness. For days it had reminded her of an inescapable, buzzing
+gnat, a thousand times magnified.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Barry," came a girlish voice across the wire. "Don't think me
+too inquisitive, but we're all dying to know if that beautiful girl,
+Miss Melody, is going to live with Miss Upton? Mrs. Whipp said they were
+going to take her to Keefeport with them, and somebody said they did
+move to-day and that she did go with them. We thought she was visiting
+you and I wanted to ask when we might come to call. We're all dying to
+meet her. You know Ben has been a sort of brother to us all, and we're
+simply crazy to know this girl and hear about her rescue."
+
+While this speech gushed into Mrs. Barry's unwilling ear, her martyred
+look was fixed upon the wall and her wits were working. It was Adele
+Hastings talking. She had always liked Adele. In fact this young girl
+had been her secret choice for Ben in those innocent days when she
+supposed she would have some voice in the most important affair of his
+life. She could not turn Adele off as she had other questioners.
+
+"I suppose this is Adele Hastings speaking."
+
+"Oh, didn't I say? I do beg your pardon. I just saw Ben on the station
+platform with the queerest little bow-legged boy. Ben looked like a
+giant beside him. I just flew home to the telephone to ask how you were
+and--and--about everything."
+
+"That is just a servant Ben has picked up." ("A member of our new
+menagerie," Mrs. Barry felt like adding, but held her peace and
+continued to look at the wall.)
+
+"Well, Mother wanted me to say to you that if you were house cleaning,
+or there was any other reason why it was inconvenient for you to have
+Miss Melody with you, she would be so glad to have her come to us till
+you are ready. I told Mother she had probably gone to Keefeport to
+recuperate in the quiet before the season really begins. I haven't seen
+Miss Upton or that cross thing that tends store for her, but some people
+have, and we've heard such fairy tales about that lovely creature--I saw
+her on the train with Miss Upton--about her being shut up with a madman
+and Ben literally flying to her rescue and carrying her off under the
+creature's nose. Why, it's perfectly wonderful! I can hardly wait to
+hear the truth about it. Talk about the prince on a milk-white steed
+that always rescued the princess--Ben in his aeroplane makes _him_ look
+like thirty cents."
+
+"Tut, tut," said Mrs. Barry; "you know I don't like slang."
+
+The girlish voice laughed. "But, dear Mrs. Barry, 'marry come up' and
+'ods bodikins' were probably slang in the day of the spear and shield.
+When may I see you and hear about it?"
+
+This direct question forced Mrs. Barry to a decision. The impossible
+Charlotte Whipp, who had not hesitated to tell her regal self of her
+son's attentions to the waif, had doubtless poured enough of the yeast
+of gossip into eager ears to set the whole village to swelling with
+curiosity, and her dignity as well as Ben's depended on the attitude she
+took at the present moment.
+
+Her rather stiff and formal voice took on a more confidential tone. "I'm
+going to ask you to wait a few days, Adele. We have been passing through
+rather stirring times. I thank your mother very much for her kind offer,
+but it seemed best for Miss Melody to go to the sea, at least for a few
+days. You know what an excellent soul Miss Upton is. Miss Melody knew
+her before, and as the girl was a good deal upset by some exciting
+experiences, and as I was a complete stranger, Miss Upton stepped into
+the breach. Please don't believe the exaggerated stories that may be
+going about. Ben was able to do the young lady a favor, that is all. As
+you say, she is very charming to look upon. We shall all know her better
+after a while."
+
+"Well, just one thing before you hang up, dear Mrs. Barry. I know you
+will excuse my asking it, because I know your standards, and you have
+been an even stronger influence upon me socially than my own mother; but
+is--is Miss Melody the sort of girl you will entertain as an--an equal?
+or does she--it sounds horrid to ask it--or does she belong more in good
+Miss Upton's class?"
+
+Mrs. Barry ground her teeth together, and luckily the wall of her
+reception room was of tough stuff or her look would have withered it.
+She had a mental flashlight of Geraldine serving trippers with ice-cream
+cones behind Miss Upton's counter.
+
+"My dear," she said suavely, "do you sound a little bit snobbish?"
+
+"No more than you have taught me to be," was the prompt reply. "I want
+to behave toward Miss Melody just as you wish me to. It looks to us all,
+of course, as if she were Miss Upton's friend and not yours."
+
+Mrs. Barry's cheeks flamed. This dreadful youngster was forcing her,
+hurrying her, and she would be spokesman to the village. Ben's
+infatuation left her no choice.
+
+"Oh, quite in ours, quite, I judge," she said graciously. "Ben thinks
+her quite exceptional."
+
+The girlish voice laughed again: not so gleefully as Mrs. Barry could
+have wished. She hoped they were not sister-sufferers!
+
+"I should judge so, from what Mrs. Whipp has told people. Well, I will
+be patient, Mrs. Barry. We want to show all courtesy to Ben's friend
+when the right time comes. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," replied Mrs. Barry, and hung up the receiver.
+
+She sat a few minutes more without moving, deep in thought.
+
+"I have no choice," she said to herself at last. "I have no choice."
+
+The next day she moved about restlessly amid her accustomed occupations
+and by evening had come to a conclusion and made a plan which on the
+following afternoon she carried out.
+
+After an early luncheon she set forth in her motor for Keefeport. Miss
+Upton's little establishment was in nice order by this time and the sign
+had been hung up over the door: "The Mermaid Shop." By the time Mrs.
+Barry's car stopped before it, the three residents had eaten their
+dinner and the dishes were set away.
+
+"There's so few folks here yet, there's hardly anything to do in the
+store," said Miss Mehitable to Geraldine. "Now's the time for you to go
+out and walk around and see the handsome cottages and the grand rocky
+shore. This wharf ain't anything to see."
+
+"Do you think Pearl would like to go to walk?" said the girl, picking up
+the handsome cat, while Charlotte looked on approvingly.
+
+"Pearl does hate this movin' business," she said. "It'll be weeks before
+she'll find a spot in the house where she can really settle down."
+
+Geraldine was burying her face in the soft fur when the motor flashed up
+to the grassy path before the shop, and stopped.
+
+"For the land's sake!" said Miss Mehitable. "It's the Barry car." She
+hurried forward, and Geraldine, still holding the cat against her cheek,
+saw the chauffeur open the door and Mrs. Barry emerge.
+
+Ben's assurance flashed into her thought. "Whatever she may do
+hereafter, remember it is of her own volition."
+
+The lady came in, and, smiling a return to Miss Mehitable's welcome,
+looked at the girl in the blue dress. She liked the self-possessed
+manner with which Geraldine greeted her.
+
+"I'm trying to make Pearl feel at home, you see," said the girl. "Mrs.
+Whipp says it is very hard for her to move."
+
+"Yes, I know that is a pussy's nature. I like cats, but I like birds
+better, so I don't keep any. How nice you look here. Oh, what charming
+roses!" going to the nodding beauties standing in a vase on the counter.
+"Are those for sale? If so they're going home to Keefe."
+
+"No, Mrs. Barry, they ain't for sale," replied Miss Mehitable. "I'm so
+proud of 'em I can hardly stand it. Ben sent 'em to me. Wasn't he the
+dear boy to give the Mermaid such a send-off?"
+
+"He is a nice boy, isn't he, Miss Upton?" returned the visitor
+graciously. "I'm glad to see you looking so well, Miss Melody."
+
+Geraldine certainly had plenty of color and she held to the cat as an
+embarrassed actor does to a prop. "I tried to see you one day at Keefe,
+but you were out."
+
+"Yes, I was dressin' the doll that day," said Miss Mehitable, smiling.
+She discerned friendliness in the air and was elated.
+
+"The result is very nice," said Mrs. Barry graciously.
+
+"Yes, I think blue serges are about the best thing at the seaside. I
+wanted to get her one o' these here real snappy sailor dresses, but she
+kept holdin' me back, holdin' me back, till it's a wonder we got any
+clothes at all!" Miss Upton laughed, and as Geraldine turned toward her
+with a smile, Mrs. Barry was conscious of a faint echo of that smile's
+effect upon her son.
+
+Charlotte stood at the back of the shop looking on and reflectively
+picking her teeth with a pin. "She's a real good worker, Geraldine is,"
+she remarked with a sniff, "I'll say that for her."
+
+An angry flash leaped up Mrs. Barry's spine. That settled it. This
+exquisite creature must not stay where that charwoman could speak of her
+so familiarly.
+
+"Certainly there has been a lot of good work done here," she said,
+looking about, "but it is a little early to come down yet. I have a lot
+of curtains to make for my cottage. Miss Melody"--turning to the girl
+with her most winning look--"you have these people all settled, don't
+you want to come home with me and help me make my curtains?"
+
+Geraldine's heart leaped in her throat. Although she had put up a brave
+front she was terribly afraid of the queen of Keefe.
+
+"Why, that would be fine!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, her optimistic
+spirit at once seeing her clouds roll away and disperse in mist.
+
+"I don't think everything is done here," said Geraldine; "I don't think
+you can spare me."
+
+"Of course I can," returned Miss Mehitable vehemently. "You can go just
+as well as not." She perceived that this was not at all the answer the
+girl wanted, but she was determined to override all objections and even
+Geraldine's own feelings.
+
+The latter looked at Mrs. Barry with a faint smile. She only hoped that
+Miss Upton's mental processes were not such an open book to the visitor
+as they were to herself. She saw plainly that if it came to the
+necessity Miss Mehitable would throw her into the motor with her own
+hands.
+
+"She is not very complimentary, is she?" she remarked. "I thought I was
+so important."
+
+"She hain't seen the Port yet either. Have you, Gerrie?" came from the
+back of the store.
+
+Miss Mehitable turned on the speaker. "As if there was any hurry about
+that!" she said, so fiercely that Charlotte evaporated through the back
+door of the shop into the regions beyond.
+
+"I'm sure you were important," said Mrs. Barry, "but it is I who need
+you now."
+
+"I'll help you get your things," said Miss Upton, moving to the stairs
+with alacrity.
+
+Geraldine dropped Pearl. She could not defend her any longer.
+
+"Wait, Miss Upton," said Mrs. Barry. "How would it be for you to pack
+Miss Melody's trunk and express it after we are gone?"
+
+Miss Mehitable's face was one broad beam. A trunk!
+
+"She hasn't got any," she replied. "Of course hers was left in that No
+Man's Land and we just brought things down here in suit-cases and
+boxes."
+
+"Very well, then, we can take them with us."
+
+"But I shan't need--" began Geraldine.
+
+Mrs. Barry interrupted her. "It is always hard to foresee just what one
+will need even in a week's time. We may as well take everything."
+
+"Such a small everything," added Geraldine.
+
+A little pulse was beating in her throat. She dreaded to find herself
+alone with this _grande dame_. She believed that Ben had kept his
+promise and that this move of his mother was being made of her own
+volition, but in what capacity was she being invited? Was it a case of
+giving a piece of employment to a needy girl in her son's absence, or
+was she being asked on the footing of a friend? In any case, she knew
+her lover would wish her to go, and as for Miss Upton she would use
+violence if necessary.
+
+She went upstairs and came down wearing the black sailor hat of the
+Keefe brand, and carrying a suit-case. Miss Mehitable followed with
+sundry boxes which she took to the motor. Lamson jumped out and came to
+the shop to get the suit-case.
+
+"One moment more, please," said Miss Upton, and vanished upstairs. She
+returned bearing a large hatbox.
+
+"Oh, no, Miss Upton!" exclaimed Geraldine as Miss Mehitable had known
+she would. "Keep that till I come back. It's a seashore hat."
+
+"It is not," said Miss Mehitable defiantly. "It is a town hat. She got
+the present of a beautiful hat, Mrs. Barry--"
+
+"Dear Miss Upton doesn't say that she gave it to me herself," put in
+Geraldine.
+
+No, dear Miss Upton did not; for she had a New England conscience; but
+she continued firmly:
+
+"She may want to wear it; she's got a white dress."
+
+Geraldine colored. Mrs. Barry had seen her white dress.
+
+"By all means let us take the hat," said that lady, and Lamson bore off
+the box.
+
+"_Au revoir_, then," said Geraldine, trying to speak lightly, and
+kissing Miss Mehitable. "I'll let you know what day I am coming back.
+Say good-bye to Mrs. Whipp for me."
+
+Mrs. Barry's face became inscrutable as Geraldine spoke. She had seen
+the counter, and the phonograph, and in fancy she could see the
+impending excursionists.
+
+"Good-bye, Miss Upton." And the shining motor started. "To Rockcrest,
+Lamson."
+
+Miss Mehitable went back into the house. She suspected she should find
+Charlotte weeping, and she did.
+
+"I s'pose I can't never say anything right," sniffed the injured one
+upon her employer's entrance.
+
+"Never mind _us_, Charlotte," responded Miss Upton. "That's a very big
+thing that's just happened. I'm so tickled I'd dance if I thought the
+house would stand it."
+
+"I don't see anything so wonderful in that stuck-up woman givin' the
+girl a job o' sewin'," returned Mrs. Whipp, blowing her nose. "When will
+Gerrie come back? How we'll miss her!"
+
+"I think," said Miss Upton, impressively--"I think it is very safe to
+say--Never!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean!"
+
+"I mean Mrs. Barry ain't goin' to let that girl stand behind my counter
+this summer." Miss Mehitable gave a sudden, sly laugh. "I wasn't goin'
+to let her anyway," she added, in a low tone as if the walls might have
+ears, "but Mrs. Barry don't know that, and I'm glad she don't."
+
+Miss Upton sat down and laughed and rocked, and rocked and laughed until
+Mrs. Whipp began to worry.
+
+"Thumbscrews," said Miss Mehitable, between each burst, "thumbscrews!"
+
+"Where shall I git 'em?" asked Charlotte, rising and staring about her
+vaguely.
+
+"Nevermind. Let's have some tea," said Miss Mehitable, wiping her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Clouds Disperse
+
+
+And so with the entrance into that automobile began still another
+chapter in Geraldine Melody's life. While they drove through the
+attractive avenues of the resort and Mrs. Barry pointed out the cottages
+belonging to well-known people, the young girl was making an effort for
+her own self-possession. To be alone with the mother of her knight was
+exciting, and her determination was not to allow any emotion to be
+observable in her manner. She did not yet know whether she was present
+as a seamstress or as a guest. She felt that in either case she had been
+summoned for inspection, for of course Ben had left his mother in no
+doubt as to his sentiments. Mrs. Barry evinced no embarrassment. Her
+smooth monologue flowed on without a question. Perhaps she suspected the
+tumult in the fluttering heart beside her, and was giving the young girl
+time. At all events, nothing that she said required an answer, and
+Geraldine obediently looked, unseeing, at every object she pointed out.
+
+The motor rolled across a bridge. "Here you see Keefeport even boasts a
+little river," said Mrs. Barry. "The young people can enjoy a mild canoe
+trip as well as their exciting yachting. I am going to stop at my
+cottage and give a few orders, so long as I am here."
+
+Another five minutes of swift riding brought them to the driveway
+leading to a cottage placed on a rocky height close to the sea. "We have
+a rather wonderful view, you see," Mrs. Barry's calm voice went on.
+"Perhaps you would like to get out and walk about the piazza while I
+speak with the caretaker."
+
+Geraldine followed her out of the luxurious car, feeling very small and
+insignificant and resenting the sensation made upon her by the imposing
+surroundings. She wished herself back with Miss Upton and the cat; but
+she mounted the steps and stood on the wide porch looking on the jagged
+rocks beneath. The sea came hissing in among them, flinging up spray and
+dragging back noisily in the strong wind to make ready for another
+onslaught. The vast view was superb and suggested all the poems she had
+ever read about the sea. Mrs. Barry had gone into the house and now came
+out with the caretakers, a man and wife, with whom she examined the
+progress of flowers and vines growing in sheltered nooks. Geraldine
+resolutely shut out memories of her knight. The girls whose summers were
+spent among these scenes were his friends, and among them his mother had
+doubtless selected some fastidious maiden who had never encountered
+disgraceful moments.
+
+"I belong to myself," thought Geraldine proudly, forcing back some
+stinging drops, salt as the vast waters before her. "I don't need
+anybody, I don't." She fought down again the memory of her lover's
+embraces. Ever afterward she remembered those few minutes alone on the
+piazza at Rockcrest, overwhelmed by the sensation of contrast between
+herself on sufferance in her cheap raiment, and the indications all
+about her of the opposite extreme of luxury--remembered those moments as
+affording her a poignant unhappiness.
+
+"I won't ask you to come into the cottage," said Mrs. Barry, approaching
+at the close of her interview. "The rugs haven't been unrolled yet, and
+it is all in disorder. Isn't that a superb show of sky and sea, and
+never twice alike?"
+
+"Superb," echoed Geraldine.
+
+"You are shivering," said her hostess. "It is many degrees colder here
+than over in the sheltered place where Miss Upton has her shop. I have
+quite finished. Let us go back."
+
+They went down to the car and were soon speeding toward Keefe. Beside
+Lamson sat the imposing hatbox. Somehow it added to Geraldine's
+unhappiness, as if jeering at her for an effort to appear what she was
+not.
+
+She must talk. Her regal companion would suspect her wretchedness.
+
+"What are you going to make your curtains of, Mrs. Barry?" she asked.
+
+The commonplace proved a most felicitous question. The lady described
+material, took her measurements out of her purse, and discussed ruffles
+and tucks and described location and size of windows, during which talk
+the young girl was able to throw off the spell that had held her mute.
+
+She did not suspect how her companion was listening with discriminating
+ears to her speech, and the very tones of her voice, and watching with
+discriminating eyes her manner and expression. Ben had told his mother
+to take her magnifying glass and she had begun to use it.
+
+When the motor entered the home grounds at Keefe, Geraldine resisted the
+associations of her last arrival there. A faint mist of apple blossoms
+still clung in spots to the orchard.
+
+Lamson carried her poor little effects and the hateful, grandiose hatbox
+into the living-room where one day she had regained her scattered
+senses.
+
+"You may take these things up to the blue room," Mrs. Barry said to the
+maid who appeared, "and you will give Miss Melody any assistance she
+requires."
+
+Geraldine followed the girl upstairs to the charming room assigned to
+her. Every dainty convenience was within its walls. The pleasant maid's
+manner was all alacrity. It was safe to believe that she knew more than
+her mistress about Geraldine, and the attitude toward her of the young
+master of the house. The guest looked about her and recalled her room at
+the Carder farm, the patchwork quilt at the Upton Emporium, and her last
+shakedown under the eaves of the Keefeport shell house.
+
+Between the filmy white curtains at these windows she could see the rosy
+vestiges of the orchard bloom. The furniture of the room was apparently
+ivory, the bathroom silver and porcelain. Azure and white coloring were
+in all the decorations. The maid was unpacking her boxes. Geraldine was
+ashamed of her own mortification in allowing her to see the contents.
+
+"I think I'd rather do that myself," she said hastily.
+
+"Some ladies do," returned the girl.
+
+"Especially," rejoined Geraldine, "when they are not used to being
+waited upon!"
+
+She accompanied this with a look of such frank sweetness that she
+counted one more victim to her charms.
+
+"She isn't one bit stuck-up," the maid reported downstairs, "and I
+never saw such hair and eyes in all my life."
+
+"They've done for Mr. Ben all right," remarked the chauffeur. "I guess
+Madam thought it was about time to get acquainted."
+
+When Geraldine came downstairs an hour later, she was arrayed in the
+cheap little green-and-white house dress which had been one of her
+purchases with Miss Upton, and was intended for summer use in the shop.
+As she wandered into the living-room, Mrs. Barry walking on the piazza
+perceived her through the long, open windows and came to join her.
+
+"Did you find everything quite comfortable?" she asked solicitously.
+
+"Perfectly," replied Geraldine. "It is quite wonderful after one has
+been leading a camping-out life."
+
+Mrs. Barry continued to approve her intonation and manner.
+
+"You certainly have passed through strange vicissitudes," she replied.
+"Sometime you must tell me your story-book adventures."
+
+"They are not very pleasant reminiscences," said Geraldine.
+
+"Very well, then, you shall not be made to rehearse them."
+
+A maid appeared and announced dinner.
+
+Geraldine's repressed excitement took away her appetite for the
+perfectly served repast. Mrs. Barry's regal personality seemed to
+pervade the whole establishment. One could not imagine any detail
+venturing to go wrong; any food to be underdone or overdone; any servant
+to venture to make trouble. The machinery of the household moved on
+oiled wheels. A delicate cleanliness, quietness, order, pervaded the
+home and all its surroundings.
+
+Mrs. Barry made no comment on her guest's lack of appetite. When they
+had finished, she led her out to the porch where their coffee was
+served.
+
+"Now, isn't this an improvement on Rockcrest?" she asked as they sat
+listening to the sleepy, closing evening songs of the thrushes. "Imagine
+trying to drink our coffee on that piazza where we were this afternoon.
+There is a more sheltered portion, a part that I have enclosed in glass;
+but my son likes the front to be all open to the elements."
+
+"It is very beautiful here," said Geraldine. "It must be hard for you to
+tear yourself away even later in the season."
+
+"That is what does it," returned Mrs. Barry, waving her hand toward a
+large thermometer affixed to one of the columns. "When you come down
+some morning and find the mercury trying to go over the top, you are
+ready to flit where there are no great trees to seem to hold in the
+air." The speaker paused, regarding the young girl for a moment in
+silence. An appreciation of her had been growing ever since they left
+Keefeport, and now for the first time she allowed herself a pleasure in
+Geraldine's beauty. It was wonderful camouflage if it was nothing more.
+"Do you enjoy music, Miss Melody?" she asked suddenly.
+
+The girl gave her a faint smile.
+
+"Foolish question, isn't it?" she added. "I usually play awhile in the
+evening." She set down her cup and rose.
+
+Geraldine rose also, looked pleased and eager.
+
+"I'm so glad," she replied. "I have no accomplishments myself."
+
+A vague memory of having heard something about a cruel stepmother
+assailed the hostess. She smiled kindly at the girl. "Some people have
+gifts instead," she said. "Stay here. I will go in and try to give you
+some happy thoughts."
+
+Geraldine sank back in her chair, her eyes fixed on the graceful elms
+and the vivid streaks across a sunset sky.
+
+As the strains of Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms came through the open
+window it necessitated some, effort not to have too happy thoughts. The
+skillful musician modulated from one number to another, and Geraldine,
+all ignorant in her art-starved life, of what she was hearing, gave
+herself up to the loveliness of sight and sound.
+
+When Mrs. Barry reappeared, the girl's eyelids were red, and as she
+started up to meet her she put out her hands impulsively, and the
+musician laughed a little as she accepted their grasp, well pleased with
+the eloquent speechlessness.
+
+When Geraldine waked the next morning her first vague thought was that
+she must shake off sleep and help Mrs. Carder. That troubling sense
+faded into another, also troubling. She was to spend a whole day,
+perhaps several whole days, with the rather fearful splendor of the
+mother of her knight. That in itself would not be so bad, Mrs. Barry had
+shown a kind intention, but the knight himself might return at any hour.
+Why had she come? Yet how refuse when her previous hostess had so
+energetically thrown her out of the nest?
+
+The sun had gone behind clouds. She rose, closed her windows, and made
+her toilet, then descended to the hall where Mrs. Barry met her with a
+pleasant greeting and they went in to breakfast.
+
+"We're going to catch some rain, it seems," she said. "It is nice Miss
+Upton is moved and settled."
+
+"Yes," rejoined Geraldine, "and curtain-making can go on just as well in
+the rain."
+
+"You had a good sleep, I'm sure," said the hostess, regarding her
+freshness.
+
+"Yes, I am ready and full of energy to begin," said the girl. "I feel
+that I am going to do the work quickly and go back sooner than Miss
+Upton expects. It is nice for them to have some young hands and feet to
+call upon."
+
+"I hope you don't feel in haste," returned Mrs. Barry politely. She was
+so courteous, so gracious, so powerful, and such leagues away from her,
+Geraldine longed to get at the work, and know what to do with her hands
+and her eyes.
+
+Very soon the curtain material was produced. Mrs. Barry had the sewing
+machine moved into the living-room where there was plenty of space for
+the billowy white stuff, and they began their measuring.
+
+The air was sultry preceding the storm, and a distant rumbling of
+thunder was heard. The house door was left open as well as the long
+French windows which gave upon the piazza.
+
+The guest had slept late, delaying the breakfast hour, and the two had
+been working at the curtains only a short time when a man, strange to
+Mrs. Barry, walked into the living-room. Approaching on the footpath to
+the house, Geraldine only had been visible to him through the window. He
+believed her to be alone in the room, and the house door standing open
+he had dispensed with the formality of ringing and walked in.
+
+Something in the wildness of the intruder's look startled the hostess
+and she pressed a button in the wall.
+
+She saw Geraldine's face blanch and her eyes dilate with terror as the
+man approached her, but no sound escaped her lips. The stranger put out
+his hand. The girl shrank back. The queen of Keefe stepped forward.
+
+"What do you mean by this?" she exclaimed sternly. "What do you wish?"
+
+The man turned and faced her. "I've come on important business with this
+girl. My name is Rufus Carder--you may have heard of it. Geraldine
+Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me." He turned back quickly
+to the girl, for Mrs. Barry's face warned him that his time was short.
+
+"You may have gone away against your will, Gerrie," he said. "It ain't
+too late to save your father. Come back with me now and there won't be a
+word said. Refuse to come, and to-morrow all his pals shall know what he
+was."
+
+[Illustration: "Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her Father gave her to
+me"]
+
+Geraldine straightened her slight body. Terror was in every line of her
+delicate face, but Mrs. Barry saw her control it. The details of the
+stories she had heard came back to her vividly. She realized the
+suffering and the fate from which her boy had delivered the captive.
+Geraldine was exquisite to look at now as she faced her jailer. That
+ethereal quality which was hers gave her spirituelle face a wonderful
+appeal.
+
+"Ben was right," thought Mrs. Barry with a thrill of pride. "She is a
+thoroughbred."
+
+"Mr. Carder," she said, approaching still nearer, her peremptory tone
+forcing him to turn his long, twitching face toward her, "Miss Melody is
+about to marry my son. He will attend to any business you may have with
+her."
+
+"Huh! That's it, is it? You don't look like the kind of woman who will
+enjoy having a forger in the family."
+
+The girl's eyes closed under the stab.
+
+"Geraldine, I should like you to go upstairs, dear," said Mrs. Barry
+gently. The girl moved slowly toward the door, Carder's eyes following
+her full of a fierce, baffled hunger.
+
+He turned on Mrs. Barry with the ugliest look she had ever beheld in a
+human countenance.
+
+"Your son has stolen my boy, too, my servant, and I've come after him,"
+he said. "The law'll teach that fellow whether he can take other
+people's property. That boy was bound to me out o' the asylum and I
+won't stand such impudence, I warn you. Where is he? Where is Pete? I've
+got a few things to teach him." The furious man was breathing heavily.
+
+"I understand that you have taught him a few things already," replied
+Mrs. Barry, her eyes as steady as her voice. "I think, as you say, the
+law may take a hand in your affairs. My son and Pete have gone to the
+city now, and I fancy it is on your business."
+
+"What business?" ejaculated Carder, fumbling his hat, his rage appearing
+to feel a check.
+
+"That I don't know, really. I was not interested; but I seem to remember
+hearing my son use your name.--Lamson, is that you?" she added in the
+same tone.
+
+The chauffeur was standing at the door. "Yes, Mrs. Barry, you rang."
+
+"Show this man the way to the station, Lamson."
+
+Rufus Carder gave her one parting, vindictive look, and strode to the
+door.
+
+"Out of my way!" he said savagely, as he pushed by the chauffeur and
+proceeded out of doors and down the path like one in haste. Mrs. Barry
+believed he was, indeed, in haste and driven by fear.
+
+She proceeded upstairs to Geraldine's room and found the girl pacing the
+floor. She paused and gazed at her hostess, her eyes dry and bright.
+Mrs. Barry approached and took her in her arms. At the affectionate
+embrace a sob rose in the girl's throat.
+
+"When he says it, it seems true again," she said brokenly. "Ben says it
+is probably a lie, but I don't know, I don't know."
+
+"That wretch declaring it makes it likely to be untrue. Ben tells me you
+have lost your father, and if no proceedings were taken against him in
+his lifetime, I should not fear now. My son hints at disreputable things
+committed by this man, and if he can prove them, which he has gone to
+do, and Pete promises that they can do, then the culprit will not want
+to draw attention to himself by starting any scandal, not even for the
+joy of revenge on you. Forget it all, Geraldine." The addition was made
+so tenderly that the girl's desperate composure gave way and she
+trembled in the enfolding arms.
+
+Mrs. Barry loved her for struggling not to weep. She kissed her cheek as
+she gently released her. "You are safe, and beloved, and entering a new
+world. You are young to have endured so many sorrows, but youth is
+elastic and the future is bright."
+
+Geraldine's breast heaved, she bit her lip, and no eyes ever expressed
+more than the speaking orbs into which the queen of Keefe was looking.
+
+"I know all that you are thinking," said Mrs. Barry. "I know all that
+you would like to say. Don't try now. You have had enough excitement. I
+have always wanted a daughter. I hope you will love me, too."
+
+She kissed the girl again, on the lips this time, and there was fervor
+in the return.
+
+The next day Mrs. Barry telephoned to half a dozen of her son's girl
+friends and invited them to come to a sewing-bee and help with the
+curtains for her cottage. She said that Miss Melody was visiting her and
+that she would like them to know her. So they all came, wild with
+curiosity to see the girl that their own Ben had kidnapped and who was
+going to make him forget them; and Geraldine won them all by her modesty
+and naturalness. The fact that Ben's mother had accepted her gave her
+courage in the face of this bevy who had grown up with her lover from
+childhood. They were too uncertain of the exact status of affairs
+between the beautiful stranger and their old friend to speak openly of
+him to her, but almost every reminiscence or subject of which they
+talked led up to Ben. Of course, some among the six pairs of eyes
+leveled at Geraldine had a green tinge, and there were some girlish
+heartaches; and when the chattering flock had had their tea and cakes
+and left for home, there were certain ones who discussed the
+impossibility of there being anything serious in the wind.
+
+Ben was not even at home. Would he have gone away for an indefinite time
+as his mother said he had done, if he was as engrossed in the girl as
+gossip had said? Had not that very gossip proceeded from the humble
+walls of Miss Upton's shop where the stranger had apparently found her
+level? The Barrys had always held such a fine position, etc., etc., etc.
+
+"Oh, but," said Adele Hastings, "that girl is a lady. Every movement and
+word proves it."
+
+"Besides," added another maiden, "her being humble wouldn't have
+anything to do with it. It never has, from the time of King Cophetua
+on."
+
+"Well," put in the poor little girl with the greenest eyes of all, "I
+think it is very significant that Ben has gone away. You notice Mrs.
+Barry didn't invite her to come until he had gone, and that common Mrs.
+Whipp called her by her first name. I heard her myself."
+
+On the whole, Geraldine had scored, and really, although she was at
+peace with the whole world, the fact of Mrs. Barry's approval dwarfed
+every other opinion and event; for it meant that no longer need she set
+up a mental warning and barrier against thoughts of her lover.
+
+A few days afterward Ben telephoned to have Lamson at the station at a
+certain hour, and he and Pete returned from their strange quest. Little
+he dreamed of the stir that telephone message caused in his home.
+
+All the way out to Keefe on the train he was planning interviews with
+his mother and wondering whether the seed he had dropped into her mind
+before leaving had borne fruit. He had promised Geraldine not to coerce
+her, and the girl's pride he knew would not submit to opposing his
+mother's wish. Therefore, when Mrs. Barry walked out on the piazza to
+meet him, it was a very serious son that she encountered.
+
+"What is the matter, Benny?" she asked as she kissed him. "Have you
+failed?"
+
+"No, indeed. I have succeeded triumphantly. I've got Carder in a box,
+and, believe me, he won't try to lift up the lid and let anybody see
+him."
+
+"He was here soon after you left," said Mrs. Barry calmly.
+
+Ben looked surprised and alert.
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"Pete; and he was going to have him or put you in the lock-up. Also he
+wanted Miss Melody. He's a wretch, Ben. I'm glad you went after him."
+
+"He'll not trouble her any more," said the young fellow, walking into
+the house with his mother clinging to his arm. "Carder is going to have
+ample leisure to think over the game he has played. Isn't it a strange
+satire of fate that should make insignificant little Pete the boomerang
+to turn back and floor him? Pete's an ideal witness. He sees what he
+sees and he knows what he knows, and nothing can shake him because he
+doesn't know anything else. Great Scott! when I located the facts at
+that hospital and linked them together and brought an accusation against
+Carder, it was like opening a door to a swarm of hornets. He has made so
+many people hate him that when the timid ones found it would be safe to
+loosen up, they were ready to fall upon him and sting him to death. He's
+safe to get a long sentence, and it will be time enough when he comes
+out to talk to him about Mr. Melody's debts--if Geraldine wishes it."
+
+Ben looked around suddenly at his mother.
+
+"Have you been to Keefeport to see Geraldine?"
+
+She returned his gaze smiling, and feigned to tremble. "I'm so glad I
+have, Ben. You look so severe."
+
+"And did you take that magnifying glass?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Wasn't I right?" asked Ben with some relief.
+
+"You were. I like the girl. I feel we are going to be friends."
+
+"Well, then, how about her being a clerk for Miss Upton?"
+
+Ben asked the question frowning, and flung himself down beside his
+mother where she had seated herself on a divan. Why couldn't her blood
+run as fast as his? Why must she be so cold and deliberate at a crucial
+time? "Going to be friends!" What an utterly inadequate speech!
+
+"I want to talk to you about that," rejoined his mother. "Will you
+please go into my study and bring me a letter you'll find on the table?"
+
+Without a word, and still with the dissatisfied line in his forehead,
+the young man rose and moved away toward the closed door of the
+sanctum.
+
+He opened it and there was a moment of dead silence. Mrs. Barry could
+visualize Geraldine as she looked standing there, radiantly expectant,
+mischievously blissful. The door slammed, and all was silence.
+
+The mother laughed softly over the bit of sewing she had picked up. For
+a minute she could not see very plainly, but she wiped her eyes and it
+passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Apple Blossoms
+
+
+Of course Ben wanted to be married at once, and whatever he wanted
+Geraldine wanted, but Mrs. Barry overruled this.
+
+"I hope you will go back to school, Ben, and get your sheepskin," she
+said. "I want you to live in the city, too, and leave Geraldine with me.
+I would like to have some happiness with a daughter before she is
+engrossed in being your wife. Wait for your wedding until the orchard
+blooms again."
+
+Ecstatic as Ben was, he could see sense in this; but vacation came first
+and Geraldine was a belle at Keefeport that summer. Her beauty
+blossomed, and all the repressed vivacity of her nature came to the
+surface. Her room at Rockcrest commanded the ocean, and every night
+before she slept she knelt before her window and gave thanks for a
+happiness which seemed as illimitable as the waters rolling to the
+horizon. She yachted, and danced, and canoed, and flew, all that
+summer. She gained the hearts of the women by her unspoiled modesty and
+consideration, while Ben was the envy of every bachelor at the resort.
+Nor did Geraldine forget Miss Upton. Every few days she called at the
+shop, and the two women there were never tired of admiring and
+exclaiming over the charming costumes in which Mrs. Barry dressed her
+child, and many a gift the girl brought to them, never forgetting what
+she owed to her good fairy.
+
+Pete was a happy general utility man and Miss Upton borrowed him at
+times; but he liked best working on the yacht, where he was never
+through polishing and cleaning, keeping it spick and span. He was given
+a blue suit and a yachting cap and rolled around the deck the jolliest
+of jolly little tars.
+
+When autumn came, Ben Barry took rooms in the city, coming to Keefe for
+the week-ends. Geraldine, who had had the usual school-girl fragments of
+music and languages, studied hard, and Mrs. Barry took her to town for
+one month instead of the three which she usually spent there. It was
+best not to divert Ben too much.
+
+So the winter wore away, and the snow melted and the crocuses peeped up
+again. The robins returned, and Ben understood at last why their
+insistent, joyous cry was always of _Geraldine, Geraldine, Geraldine_!
+
+The orchard was under solicitous surveillance this spring, and though it
+takes the watched pot so long to boil, at last the rosy clouds drifting
+in the sky seemed to catch in the apple boughs and rest there, and then
+the wedding day was set.
+
+The spacious rooms of the old house were cleared for dancing, for the
+ceremony was to take place out under the trees at noon. Miss Upton had a
+new black silk dress given her by the bridegroom with a note over which
+she wept, for it acknowledged so affectionately all that he owed to his
+bride's good fairy from the day when she so effectively waved her
+umbrella wand in the city. One of her gowns was made over for Mrs.
+Whipp, who on the great day stood with the maids and watched the wedding
+party as it filed out over the lawn to the rosy bower of the orchard.
+The six bridesmaids wore pale-green and white, and, as Miss Upton viewed
+with satisfaction, "droopy hats." She scanned the half-dozen of Ben's
+men friends who supported him on the occasion and mentally noted their
+inferiority to her hero.
+
+Geraldine--but who could describe Geraldine in her beautiful happiness
+and her happy beauty! Look over your fairy tales and find a princess in
+clinging, lacy robes, her veil fastened with apple blossoms, and the
+golden sheen of her hair shining through. Her bouquet of
+lilies-of-the-valley showered down before her and clung to her filmy
+gown as she stepped, and the sweet gravity of her eyes never left the
+face of the good old minister who had baptized Ben in his babyhood,
+until he came to the words: "Who giveth this woman to be married to this
+man?" Mrs. Barry stepped forward, took the hands of her children and
+placed them together. Mehitable Upton was not the only one in the large
+gathering who dissolved at the look on those three faces.
+
+In a minute it was over. The two were made one, and a soft, happy
+confusion of tongues ensued. After the kissing and the congratulations,
+a breakfast was served on the wide piazzas, and the orchestra behind
+the screen of palms began its strains of gay music.
+
+After Geraldine had cut the bride's cake and disappeared to put on her
+going-away gown, one of the waiters brought out the rice.
+
+Mrs. Barry begged the company not to be too generous with it. "Just a
+pinch apiece," she said. "Don't embarrass them."
+
+Adele Hastings, the maid of honor, laughed with her maids. She had come
+very close to Geraldine in the last weeks, and she had managed to get
+both umbrellas of bride and groom and put as much rice into them as the
+slim fastenings would permit. She believed the bridal pair were going to
+take a water trip, and she felt that the effect of opening the umbrellas
+on a sunny deck some day would be exhilarating.
+
+Mrs. Barry, as serene as ever, and very handsome in her lavender satin,
+disappeared upstairs for a few minutes. When she returned, Lamson was
+driving the automobile around to the front of the house.
+
+"Now, be merciful to those poor youngsters," she said again, as, armed
+with rice, they ranged themselves on the piazza and steps, making an
+aisle for the hero and heroine to pass through. They waited, talking
+and laughing, when suddenly there was a burst of sound. Over the
+house-top came an increasing whirr, and an aeroplane suddenly flew over
+their heads. An excited cry arose from the cheated crowd. Laughter and
+shrieks burst from every upturned face. _Cher Ami_ circled around the
+house, flew away and returned, the young people below shouting messages
+that were never heard. At last down through the laughter-rent air came
+the bridal bouquet, and scrambling and more shrieks ensued. The little
+girl with the greenest eyes of all--one of the bridesmaids she
+was--secured it. We'll hope it was a comfort to her.
+
+Lamson was demurely driving the car back to the garage, and Mrs. Barry,
+her dignity for once all forgotten, was laughing gayly. The wedding
+party fell upon her with reproaches while the orchestra gave a spirited
+rendition of "Going Up," the aviation operetta of the day.
+
+They all watched the flight for a time, but the music invited, and soon
+the couples were disappearing through the windows into the house and
+gliding over the floor.
+
+Mrs. Barry and Miss Upton stood together, still following the swiftly
+receding aeroplane.
+
+Mrs. Barry shook her head and sighed, smiling. "Young America! Young
+America!" she murmured.
+
+"Yes," said Miss Upton, "what would our grandfathers have thought of it?
+Talk about fairy tales! Do any of the old stories come up to that?"
+
+"No," returned Mrs. Barry, "but there is one feature of them that is
+ever new. It is the best part of all and no story is complete without
+it."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Miss Mehitable, nodding. They were both looking now
+at a small dark point vanishing into a pearly cloud. "I know," she
+repeated. "'And they lived happily ever afterward!'"
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+By Clara Louise Burnham
+
+    IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME. Illustrated.
+    HEARTS' HAVEN. Illustrated by Helen Mason Grose.
+    INSTEAD OF THE THORN. With frontispiece.
+    THE RIGHT TRACK. With frontispiece in color.
+    THE GOLDEN DOG. Illustrated in color.
+    THE INNER FLAME. With frontispiece in color.
+    CLEVER BETSY. Illustrated.
+    FLUTTERFLY. Illustrated.
+    THE LEAVEN OF LOVE. With frontispiece in color.
+    THE QUEST FLOWER. Illustrated.
+    THE OPENED SHUTTERS.  With frontispiece in color.
+    JEWEL: A CHAPTER IN HER LIFE. Illustrated.
+    JEWEL'S STORY BOOK. Illustrated.
+    THE RIGHT PRINCESS.
+    MISS PRITCHARD'S WEDDING TRIP.
+    YOUNG MAIDS AND OLD.
+    DEARLY BOUGHT.
+    NO GENTLEMEN.
+    A SANE LUNATIC.
+    NEXT DOOR.
+    THE MISTRESS OF BEECH KNOLL.
+    MISS BAGG'S SECRETARY.
+    DR. LATIMER.
+    SWEET CLOVER.  A Romance of the White City.
+    THE WISE WOMAN.
+    MISS ARCHER ARCHER.
+    A GREAT LOVE. A Novel.
+    A WEST POINT WOOING, and Other Stories.
+
+
+    HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+    Boston and New York
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 20901-8.txt or 20901-8.zip *******
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, In Apple-Blossom Time, by Clara Louise
+Burnham, Illustrated by B. Morgan Dennis</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: In Apple-Blossom Time</p>
+<p>       A Fairy-Tale to Date</p>
+<p>Author: Clara Louise Burnham</p>
+<p>Release Date: March 25, 2007  [eBook #20901]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Stephen Hope, Fox in the Stars, Mary Meehan,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>In Apple-Blossom Time</h1>
+
+<h3><i>A Fairy-Tale to Date</i></h3>
+
+<h2>By <span class="smcap">Clara Louise Burnham</span></h2>
+
+<h3><i>With Illustrations</i></h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4><i>Boston and New York</i><br />
+Houghton Mifflin Company<br />
+The Riverside Press Cambridge<br />
+COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM<br />
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED</h4>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a>
+<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Lifted the Girl in after it"</h3>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#DRAMATIS_PERSONAE">DRAMATIS PERSON&AElig;</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. The Princess</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. The Ogre</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. The Prince</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. The Good Fairy</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. The New Help</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. The Dwarf</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. A Midnight Message</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. The Meadow</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. The Bird of Prey</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. The Palace</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. Mother and Son</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. The Transformation</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. The Goddess</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. The Mermaid Shop</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. The Clouds Disperse</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. Apple Blossoms</a><br /><br />
+<a href="#By_Clara_Louise_Burnham">By Clara Louise Burnham</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="ILLUSTRATIONS" id="ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+
+<h3><i>Drawn by B. Morgan Dennis</i></h3>
+
+
+<p><a href="#illus1">Lifted the Girl in after it</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus2">Tingling with the Increasing Desire to knock down his Host and catch
+this Girl up in his Arms</a></p>
+
+<p><a href="#illus3">"Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me"</a></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="DRAMATIS_PERSONAE" id="DRAMATIS_PERSONAE"></a>DRAMATIS PERSON&AElig;</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">In the Order of their Appearance</span></h3>
+
+
+<table>
+<tr><td>The Good Fairy</td><td> <i>Mehitable Upton</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Princess</td><td> <i>Geraldine Melody</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Ogre</td><td> <i>Rufus Carder</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Dwarf</td><td> <i>Pete</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Slave</td><td> <i>Mrs. Carder</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Prince </td><td><i>Benjamin Barry</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Grouch </td><td><i>Charlotte Whipp</i></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The Queen </td><td><i>Mrs. Barry</i></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Princess</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable Upton had come to the city to buy a stock of goods for
+the summer trade. She had a little shop at the fashionable resort of
+Keefeport as well as one in the village of Keefe, and June was
+approaching. It would soon be time to move.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's extreme portliness had caused her hours of laborious
+selection to fatigue her greatly. Her face was scarlet as she entered a
+popular restaurant to seek rest and refreshment. She trudged with all
+the celerity possible toward the only empty table, her face expressing
+wearied eagerness to reach that desirable haven before any one else
+espied it.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely had she eased herself down into the complaining chair, however,
+before a reason for the unpopularity of this table appeared. A steady
+draught blew across it strong enough to wave the ribbons on her hat.</p>
+
+<p>"This won't do at all," muttered Miss Mehitable. "I'm all of a sweat."</p>
+
+<p>She looked about among the busy hungry horde, and her eye alighted on a
+table at which a young girl sat alone.</p>
+
+<p>"Bet she'll hate to see me comin', but here goes," she added, slipping
+the straps of her bag up on her arm and grasping the sides of the table
+with both hands.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Barry was wont to say: "When Mehit is about to rise and flee, it's a
+case of Yo heave ho, my hearties. All hands to the ropes." But then it
+was notorious that Ben's bump of reverence was an intaglio.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton got to her feet and started on her trip, her eyes expressing
+renewed anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>A lantern-faced, round-shouldered man, whose ill-fitting clothes, low
+collar several sizes too large, and undecided manner suggested that he
+was a visitor from the rural districts, happened to be starting for the
+young girl's table at the same moment.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton perceived his intention.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him set in the draught," she thought. "He don't look as if he'd
+ever been het up in his life."</p>
+
+<p>With astonishing swiftness her balloon-like form took on an extra
+sprint. The man became aware of her object and they arrived at the
+coveted haven nearly simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable's umbrella decided the victory. She deftly moved it to
+where a hurdle would have intervened for her rival in their foot-race,
+and the preoccupied girl at the table looked up somewhat startled as a
+red face atop a portly figure met her brown eyes in triumph. The girl
+glanced at the defeated competitor and took in the situation. The man
+scowled at Mehitable's umbrella planted victoriously beside its owner
+and his thin lips expressed his impatience most unbecomingly. Then he
+caught sight of the vacant table and started for that with the haste
+which, like many predecessors, he was to find unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry to disturb you," said Miss Upton, still excited from her
+Marathon, "but you'd have had him if you hadn't had me."</p>
+
+<p>The girl was a sore-hearted maiden, and the geniality and good-humor in
+the jolly face opposite had the effect of a cheery fire in a gloomy and
+desolate room.</p>
+
+<p>"I would much rather have you," she replied. "I couldn't have sat
+opposite that Adam's apple."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable laughed. "He wasn't pretty, was he?" she replied; "and
+wasn't he mad, though?"</p>
+
+<p>Then she became aware that if the disappointed man had not been
+prepossessing, her present companion was so. A quantity of golden hair,
+a fine pink-and-white skin, with dark eyebrows, eyes, and lashes, were
+generous gifts of Nature; and the curves of the grave little mouth were
+very charming. The girl's plain dark suit and simple hat, and above all
+her shrinking, cast-down demeanor made her appear careless, even unaware
+of these advantages, and Miss Mehitable noticed this at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Hasn't the child got a looking-glass?" she thought; and even as she
+thought it and took the menu she observed a tear gather on the dark
+lashes opposite.</p>
+
+<p>As the girl wiped it away quickly, she glanced up and saw the look of
+kindly concern in her neighbor's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd rather you would be the one to see me cry, too," she said. "I can't
+help it," she added desperately. "They just keep coming and coming no
+matter what I do, and I must eat."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, I'm real sorry." Miss Upton's hearty sincerity was a sort of
+consolation. After she had given her luncheon order she spoke again to
+her vis-&agrave;-vis who was valiantly swallowing.</p>
+
+<p>"Do your folks live here in town?" she asked in the tone one uses toward
+a grieving child.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, if I had folks!" returned the other. "Do people who have folks ever
+cry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you poor child," said Miss Mehitable. For the girl caught her
+lower lip under her teeth and for a minute it seemed that she was not
+going to be able to weather the crisis of her emotion: but her
+self-control was equal to the emergency and she bit down the battling
+sob. Miss Mehitable saw the struggle and refrained from speaking for a
+few minutes. Her luncheon arrived and she broke open a roll. She
+continued to send covert glances at the young girl who industriously
+buttered small pieces of bread and put them into her unwilling mouth,
+and drank from a glass of milk.</p>
+
+<p>When Miss Upton thought it was safe to address her again, she spoke:
+"Who have you got to take care of you, then?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody," was the reply, but the girl spoke steadily now. Apparently she
+had summoned the calm of desperation.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that don't seem possible," returned Miss Mehitable, and her voice
+and manner were full of such sympathetic interest that the forlorn one
+responded again; this time with a long look of gratitude that seemed to
+sink right down through Miss Upton's solicitous eyes into her good
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>"You're a kind woman. If there are any girls in your family they know
+where to go for comfort. I'm sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>"There ain't any girls in my family. I'm almost without folks myself;
+but then, I'm old and tough. I work for my livin'. I keep a little
+store."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what I wanted to do&mdash;work for my living," said the girl. "I've
+tried my best." Again for a space she caught her lip under her teeth.
+"First I tried the stores; then I even tried service. I went into a
+family as a waitress. I"&mdash;she gave a determined swallow&mdash;"I suppose
+there must be some good men in the world, but I haven't found any."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's small eyes gave their widest stare and into them came
+understanding and indignation.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm discouraged"&mdash;said the girl, and a hard tone came into her low
+voice&mdash;"discouraged enough to end it all."</p>
+
+<p>"Now&mdash;now&mdash;don't you talk that way," stammered Miss Mehitable. "I s'pose
+it's because you're so pretty."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," returned the girl disdainfully. "I despise my looks."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, see here, child," exclaimed Miss Upton, prolonging her troubled
+stare, "perhaps Providence helped me nearly trip up that slab-sided
+gawk. Perhaps I set down here for a purpose. Desperate folks cling to
+straws. I'm the huskiest straw you ever saw, and I might be able to give
+you some advice. At least I've got an old head and you've got a young
+one, bless your poor little heart. Why don't we go somewheres where we
+can talk when we're through eating?"</p>
+
+<p>"You're very good to take an interest," replied the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm as poor as Job's turkey," went on Miss Upton, "and I haven't got
+much to give you but advice."</p>
+
+<p>The girl leaned across the table. "Yes, you have," she said, her soft
+dark eyes expressive. "Kindness. Generosity. A warm heart."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, you come with me some place where we can talk; but," with
+sudden cheerfulness, "let's have some ice-cream first. Don't you love
+it? I ought to run a mile from the sight of it; and these fried potatoes
+I've just been eatin' too. I've no business to look at 'em; but when I
+come to town I just kick over the traces. I forget there is such a thing
+as Graham bread and I just have one good time."</p>
+
+<p>She laughed and the young girl regarded her wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pity you haven't any daughters," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't even any husband," was the cheerful response, "and I never
+shall have now, so why should I worry over my waistline? Queen Victoria
+had one the same size and everybody respected <i>her</i>. Now I'm goin' to
+order the ice-cream. That's my treat as a proof that you and I are
+friends. My name is Upton. What's yours, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Melody."</p>
+
+<p>"First or last?"</p>
+
+<p>"Last. Geraldine Melody."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a <i>nawful</i> pretty name," declared Miss Upton impressively. "There
+ain't any discord in melody. Now you take courage. Which'll you have?
+Chocolate or strawberry?"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Ogre</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It proved that Miss Upton's new acquaintance had an appointment later at
+a hotel near by, so thither they repaired when the ice-cream was
+finished.</p>
+
+<p>"Now tell me all about it," said Miss Mehitable encouragingly, when they
+had found the vacant corner of a reception-room and sat down side by
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"I feel like holding on to you and not letting you go," said the girl,
+looking about apprehensively.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you afraid of the folks you're goin' to meet here? Is it another
+job you're lookin' for? I can tell you right now," added Miss Mehitable
+firmly, "that I'm goin' to stay and see what they look like if I lose
+every train out to Keefe."</p>
+
+<p>"You are so good," said the girl wistfully. "Are you always so kind to
+strangers?"</p>
+
+<p>"When they're a hundred times too pretty and as young as you are I am,"
+returned Miss Upton promptly; "but this is my first experience. What
+sort of position are you tryin' for now?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what to call it," replied Geraldine, with another
+apprehensive look toward the door. "General utility, I hope." She looked
+back at her companion. "When my father died, it left me alone in the
+world; for my stepmother is the sort that lives in the fairy tales; not
+the loving kind who are in real life. I know a girl who has the dearest
+stepmother. I was fourteen years old when my father married again. My
+mother had been dead for three years. I was an only child and had always
+lived at home, but my stepmother didn't want me. She persuaded my father
+to send me away to school. I think Daddy never had any happiness after
+he married her. He had always been very extravagant and easy-going.
+While my precious mother lived she helped him and guided him, and
+although I was only a little girl I always believed he married again
+because he was greatly embarrassed for money. This woman appeared to
+have plenty and she was so in love with him! If you had seen <i>him</i>, I
+think you would have said he was a hundred times too handsome. Well,
+from what I could see at vacation time she was never sufficiently in
+love with him to let him have her money; and I am sure the last years of
+his life were wretched and full of hard places because of his financial
+ill-success. Poor father." The girl's voice failed and she waited,
+looking down at the gloved hands in her lap. "I had been at home from
+school only a few months when he died," she went on. "My stepmother
+endured me and that was all. She is a quite young woman, very fond of
+gayety, and she made me feel that I was very much in her way no matter
+how hard I tried to keep out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bet you were," put in Miss Upton <i>sotto voce</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as my dear father was gone she threw off all disguise to her
+impatience. She put on very becoming mourning and said she wanted to
+travel. She said my father had left nothing, but that I was young and
+could easily get a position. She broke up the home, found a cheap room
+for me to lodge, gave me a little money and went away." Again
+Geraldine's voice broke and she stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"You poor child," said Miss Upton; "to try as you have and find all your
+efforts failures!"</p>
+
+<p>"My stepmother has some relatives who live on a farm," went on the girl.
+"Before my father died we three had one talk which it always sickens me
+to remember. My stepmother was saying that it was high time I went out
+into the world and did something for my own support. My father perhaps
+knew that he was very ill; but we did not. His death came suddenly. That
+day while my stepmother talked he walked the floor casting troubled
+looks at me and I knew she was hurting him. 'Everybody should be where
+she can be of some use,' said my stepmother. 'I think the Carder farm
+would be a fine place for Geraldine, and after all Rufus Carder has done
+for you I should think you'd be glad to send her out there.'</p>
+
+<p>"I shall never forget the light that came into Daddy's eyes as he
+stopped and turned on her. 'What Rufus Carder has done for me is what
+the icy sidewalk does for the man who trips,' he answered. My stepmother
+shrugged her shoulders. 'That was your own weakness, then,' she said. 'I
+think a more appropriate simile for Rufus would be the bridge that
+carried you over!' Her voice was so cold and contemptuous! Daddy came to
+me and there was despair in his face. He put his hand on my shoulder
+while she went on talking: 'Many times since the day that Rufus saw
+Geraldine in the park,' she said, 'he has told me they would be glad to
+have her come out to the farm and live with them. I think you ought to
+send her. She isn't needed here and they really do need somebody.' The
+desperate look in my father's face wrung my heart. He did not look at my
+stepmother nor answer her; but just gazed into my eyes and said over and
+over softly, 'Forgive me, Gerrie. Forgive me.' I took his hands in mine
+and told him I had nothing to forgive." The young girl choked.</p>
+
+<p>When she could go on she spoke again: "A couple of days after that he
+died. My stepmother was angry because he left no life insurance, and she
+talked to me again about going to work, and again brought up the subject
+of the Carder farm. She tried to flatter me by talking of her cousin's
+admiration of me the day he saw me in the park. I told her I could not
+bear to go to people who had not been kind to my father, and she replied
+that what Daddy had said that day must have been caused by his illness,
+for Rufus Carder had befriended him times without number."</p>
+
+<p>The girl lifted her appealing eyes to Miss Upton's face as she
+continued: "Of course I knew that my dear father had been weak and I
+couldn't contradict her; so after trying and failing, trying and failing
+many times, as I've told you, I came to feel that the farm might be the
+right place for me after all. Work is the only thing I'm not afraid of
+now. It must be a forlorn place if they need help and can't get it. I
+think they said he and his mother live alone, but I shan't care how
+forlorn it is if only Mrs. Carder is like&mdash;like&mdash;you, for instance!" The
+girl laid her hand impulsively on her companion's knee.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a man appeared in the wide doorway to the reception-room
+and looked about uncertainly. Instantly Miss Upton recognized the long,
+weather-beaten face, the straggling hair, the half-open mouth, and the
+revealing collar of her restaurant rival.</p>
+
+<p>She gave her companion a mirthful nudge.</p>
+
+<p>"He's right on my trail, you see," she whispered. "Adam's apple and
+all."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine glanced up and the stranger's roving gaze fell straight upon
+hers. He came toward her.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Melody?" he said in a rasping voice.</p>
+
+<p>She rose as if impelled by some inner spring, her light disdain
+swallowed in dread.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Mr. Carder, then," she returned.</p>
+
+<p>"You've guessed right the very first time," responded the man with an
+air of relief. "I recognize you now, but you look some different from
+the only other time I ever saw you."</p>
+
+<p>"This is Miss Upton, Mr. Carder, a lady who has befriended me very
+kindly while I have been waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and who prevented me from havin' lunch with you," responded the
+stranger, eying Miss Upton jocosely; but as if he could not spare time
+from the near survey of Geraldine his eyes again swept over her hair and
+crimsoning cheeks. "I thought I felt some strong drawin' toward that
+particular table," he added. "Well, we'll make up for it in the future
+you can bet. That your bag here? We'd better be runnin' along. Time,
+tide, and business don't wait for any man. Good-bye, Miss Upton, I'll
+forgive you for takin' my place, considerin' you've been good to this
+little girl."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable's face was as solemn as lies in the power of round faces
+to be. At close quarters one observed a cast in Mr. Carder's right eye.
+She disapproved his assured proprietary air and she disapproved him the
+more that she could see repulsion in the young girl's suddenly pale
+countenance. She had time for only one strong pressure of a little hand
+before Geraldine was whisked away and she was left standing there
+stunned by the suddenness of it all.</p>
+
+<p>"I never asked where it was!" she ejaculated suddenly. "I've lost the
+child!" People began to look at her and she continued mentally: "The
+critter looked as if he wanted to eat her up, the poor little lamb.
+Unless the mother's something different from the son she'll be driven to
+desperation. No knowin' what she'll do." Miss Upton clasped her plump
+hands together in great trouble of spirit. "I believe I said Keefe
+more'n once. Perhaps she'll have sense enough to write to me. Why didn't
+I just tell that old rawbones that her plans was changed and she was
+goin' with me. Oh, I am a fool! I don't know what I'd have done with
+her; but some way would have opened. Let's see. Where am I!" Miss Upton
+delved distractedly into the large bag that hung on her arm. "Where's my
+list? Am I through or not?" She seemed to herself to have lived long
+since her wearied entrance into that restaurant.</p>
+
+<p>In her uneventful life this brief experience took deep hold on her
+imagination. As she rode out to Keefe on the train that afternoon she
+constructed the scenes of the story in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>The weak, handsome, despairing father begging his child's forgiveness.
+The dismantling of the home. The placing of Geraldine in a cheap lodging
+while her father's widow shed all responsibility of her and set forth in
+new raiment for green fields and pastures new.</p>
+
+<p>The shabby and carelessly put on suit in which Geraldine had appeared
+this morning told a tale. The girl had said she despised her looks. Her
+appearance had borne out the declaration. The lovely hair had been
+brushed tightly back; the old hat would have been unbecoming if it
+could: all seemed to testify that if the girl could have had her way not
+an element of attractiveness would have been observable in her. Miss
+Upton waxed indignant as she went on to picture the probable scenes
+which had frightened and disgusted the child into such an abnormal frame
+of mind. The memory of Rufus Carder's gaze, as his oblique eye had
+feasted upon his guest, brought the blood to Miss Mehitable's face.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll find out where she is if I have to employ a detective," she
+thought, setting her lips. "Now there's no use in bein' a fool," she
+muttered after a little more apprehensive thought. "I shall get daffy if
+I go on thinkin' about it. I'll do my accounts and see if I can take my
+mind off it."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Meanwhile Geraldine with her escort was also on a moving train. A
+creeping train it seemed to her. Rufus Carder was trying to make himself
+agreeable. She strove with herself to give him credit for that. She had
+not lived to be a nineteen-year-old school girl without meeting
+attractive young men. Her stepmother had always kept her in the
+background at times when it was impossible to eliminate her altogether,
+quite, as Geraldine had said, like the stepmother of a fairy tale; but
+there had been holidays with school friends and an occasional admirer;
+although these cases had been rare because Geraldine, always kept on
+short allowance as to money and clothes, avoided as much as possible
+social affairs outside the school.</p>
+
+<p>She tried now to find amusement instead of mental paralysis in the
+proximity of her present escort, contrasting him with some men she had
+known; but recent bitter experiences made his probably well-intentioned
+familiarities sorely trying. There was a lump in his cheek. Geraldine
+hoped it arose from an afflicted tooth, but she strongly suspected
+tobacco. Oh, if he would but sit a little farther away from her!</p>
+
+<p>"So you've renounced the city, the world, the flesh, and the devil,"
+said Rufus when the conductor had left them, and he settled down in an
+attitude that brought his shoulder in contact with Geraldine's.</p>
+
+<p>She drew closer to the window and kept her eyes ahead. "He is as old as
+Father," she thought. "He means to be kind."</p>
+
+<p>"There is not much chance for those at school," she replied. "School is
+about all I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you don't need to know anything else," returned Rufus
+protectingly. "I'll bet Juliet kept you out of sight." He laughed, and
+his companion turning saw that he had been bereft of a front tooth.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't see very much of my stepmother," she answered in the same
+stiff manner.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bet you didn't," declared Rufus, "not when she saw you first."
+Again he laughed, convinced that his companion must enjoy the
+implication.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean that I have been away from home at school for several years,"
+said the girl coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I know where you have been, and why, and when, and just how long,
+and all about it." The tone of this was quiet, but there was something
+disquieting to Geraldine in his manner. "Perhaps you didn't know," he
+added after a pause filled by the crescendos and diminuendos of the
+speeding train, "that your father and I were pretty thick." At this the
+girl's head turned and her eyes raised to his questioningly. "Yes," he
+added, receiving the look, appreciative of the curves of the long lashes
+and lovely lips, "I don't believe anybody knew Dick Melody better than I
+did."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean," asked the girl, "that you were fond of my father?"</p>
+
+<p>Charming as her self-forgetful, earnest look was, her companion seemed
+unable to sustain it. He gave a short laugh and turned his head away.</p>
+
+<p>"My wife attended to that part of it," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>A flash of relief passed over Geraldine's face. "Your wife," she
+repeated. "I&mdash;I hadn't heard&mdash;I didn't know&mdash;I thought the Mrs. Carder
+they mentioned was your mother."</p>
+
+<p>"She is. My wife died nearly a year ago, but she had the nerve to think
+your father was handsomer than me." The speaker looked back at his
+companion with a cheerful grin. "She said Dick Melody'd ought to be set
+up on a pedestal somewheres to be admired. I don't know as bein'
+good-lookin' gets a man anywhere. What good did those eyes ever do him!"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine sank closer to her window. The despair in those eyes, as her
+father begged for her forgiveness, rose before her. Never had she felt
+so utterly alone; so utterly friendless.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I say leave the looks to the womenfolks," pursued Rufus Carder,
+feasting his gaze on the girl's profile. "When Juliet set out to get
+Dick, I warned her, but it wasn't any use. She had to have him, and she
+knew pretty well how to look out for herself. I guess she never lost
+anything by the deal."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind not talking about them?" said Geraldine stiffly.</p>
+
+<p>"Please yourself and you'll please me as to what we talk about,"
+returned Rufus cheerfully. "Shouldn't wonder if you were pretty sore at
+Juliet. Look out for number one was her motto all right." A glance at
+the shrinking girl showed the host that her eyes were closed. "Tired,
+ain't you?" he added.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead tired," she answered. And as she continued to keep her eyes closed
+he contented himself by watching the lashes resting on her pale cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Ketch a little nap if you can, that's right," he said. She kept
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know how long the blessed relief from his voice had lasted
+when he announced their arrival.</p>
+
+<p>"Be it ever so humble," he remarked, "There's no place like home."</p>
+
+<p>To have him get out of the seat and leave her free of the touch of his
+garments was a blessing, and she rose to follow mechanically. The
+eternal hope that dies so hard in the human breast was suggesting that
+his mother might be not impossible; and at any rate a farm was wide. She
+would never be imprisoned in a car seat with him again.</p>
+
+<p>"There now, my lady," he said triumphantly when they were on the
+platform. "I suppose you thought you were comin' to Rubeville. That
+don't look so hay-seedy? Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to a dusty automobile whose driver, a boy of eighteen or
+twenty, with a torn hat, eyed her with dull curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose you expected a one-hoss shay. No, indeedy. You've come to all
+the comforts of home, little girl." His airy geniality of tone changed.
+"What you starin' at, you coot? Come along here, Pete."</p>
+
+<p>The boy moved the car toward the spot where they waited with their bags.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus put these in at the front and himself entered the tonneau with his
+guest. His conversation as they sped along the country road consisted
+mainly of pointing out to her the cottages or fields owned by himself.
+The information fell on deaf ears. The roughness of her host's tone to
+the boy added one more item against him and lessened her hope that the
+woman responsible for his existence could be a better specimen.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm free," thought Geraldine over and over. "I don't need to stay
+here." Of course the proprietary implication in every word the man said
+arose simply from the conceit of a boor. She would be patient and
+self-controlled. It might be possible still that she should find this a
+haven where she could live her own life in her leisure hours, few though
+they might be.</p>
+
+<p>It was with a weary curiosity that she viewed the weather-beaten house
+toward which they finally advanced. In front of it stood an elm-tree
+whose lower branches swept the roof of the porch.</p>
+
+<p>"That's got to come down, that tree," said Rufus meditatively.</p>
+
+<p>His companion turned on him. "You would cut down that splendid tree?"</p>
+
+<p>He regarded her suddenly vital expression admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>"Why not, little one?" he asked. "It's makin' the house damp and
+injurin' property. Property, you understand. Property. If I'd indulged
+in sentiment do you s'pose I'd be owner of all the land I've been
+showin' you?" He smiled, the semi-toothless smile, and met her horrified
+upturned eyes with an affectionate gaze. "However, what you say goes,
+little girl. You look as if you were goin' to recite&mdash;'Woodman, spare
+that tree.' Consider the tree spared for the present."</p>
+
+<p>The automobile drew up at the house and in high good-humor the master
+jumped out and removed Geraldine's bag to the steps of the narrow
+piazza. A woman's face could be seen appearing and disappearing at the
+window, and Pete, the driver, looked with furtive curiosity at the guest
+as she stepped to the porch without touching the host's outstretched
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus threw open the door. "Where are you, Ma?" he shouted, and a thin,
+wrinkled old woman came into the corridor nervously wiping her hands on
+her apron.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine looked at her eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you have to take us as you find us, little girl," remarked Rufus,
+scowling at his parent. "Ma hasn't even taken off her apron to welcome
+you."</p>
+
+<p>At this Mrs. Carder fumbled at her apron strings, but Geraldine advanced
+to her and put out her hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I like aprons," she said; and the old woman took the hand for a loose,
+brief shake.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very glad to see you, Miss Melody," she said timidly. "I'm glad it
+has been a pretty day."</p>
+
+<p>"Show her her room, Ma, and then perhaps she'd like some tea. City
+folks, you know, must have their tea."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine followed her hostess with alacrity as she went up the narrow
+stairway; glad there was an upstairs; and a room of her own, and a woman
+to speak to.</p>
+
+<p>She was ushered into a barely furnished chamber; a bowl and pitcher on
+the small wash-stand seemed to indicate that modern improvements had not
+penetrated to the Carder farm.</p>
+
+<p>"I s'pose you'll find country livin' a great change for you," said Mrs.
+Carder, pulling up the window shade. Geraldine wondered how in this
+beautiful state could have been found such a treeless tract of land. She
+remembered the threatened fate of the elm. Perhaps there had been other
+destruction. "My son never seemed to take any interest in puttin' in
+water here."</p>
+
+<p>The girl met the wrinkled face. The apprehension in the old eyes under
+Carder's scowl had given place to curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come to help you," said Geraldine, "I must get used to fewer
+conveniences."</p>
+
+<p>"It's nice of you to say that," said the old woman, "Rufus don't want
+you to work much, though."</p>
+
+<p>"But of course I shall," returned the girl quickly. "I'm much better
+able to work than you are."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I've got a wet sink this year," said Mrs. Carder. "I told Rufus I
+just had to have it. I was gettin' too old to haul water."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think so!" exclaimed Geraldine indignantly. "Mr. Carder is
+well off. He shouldn't allow you to work any more the rest of your
+life."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder smiled and shook her head, revealing her own need of
+dentistry. "I'm stronger than I look. I s'pose if I was taken out of
+harness I might be like one o' these horses that drops down when the
+shafts don't hold him up any longer."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine regarded her compassionately. "I've heard&mdash;my stepmother told
+me it was very hard for you to get help out here. I suppose it is lonely
+for maids."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman regarded her strangely, and her withered lips compressed.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind loneliness," went on Geraldine eagerly. She had thrown her
+hat on the bed and the gold of her hair shone in the mean little room.
+"I love to be alone. I long to be."</p>
+
+<p>"That ain't natural," observed Mrs. Carder, regarding her earnest,
+self-forgetful loveliness. "Rufus told me you was a beauty," she went on
+reflectively. "Your father was the handsomest man I ever saw."</p>
+
+<p>"You knew him, then," said Geraldine eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"He was out here a number o' times. Rufus seemed to be his favorite man
+o' business, as you might say."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mrs. Carder, tell me all you can about his visits here." The girl's
+heart began to beat faster and she drew the clean, dried-up old woman
+down upon the edge of the bed beside her. Why should her father choose
+this dreadful place, this impossible man as a refuge? It could only have
+been as a last resort for him, just as it now was for her.</p>
+
+<p>"I was always away at school after his marriage," she went on. "I saw so
+little of him."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder looked uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw nothin' of him except at a meal sometimes. He and my son was
+always shut up in Rufus's office."</p>
+
+<p>"Did he seem&mdash;seem unhappy, Mrs. Carder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;yes. He was a sort of an absent-minded man. Perhaps that was his
+way. Really, I don't know a thing about their business, Miss Melody."
+The addition was made in sudden panic because the girl had grasped both
+the wrinkled hands and was gazing searchingly into the old woman's face
+as if she would wring information out of her.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't tell me if you did," said Geraldine in a low voice. "You
+are afraid of your son. I saw it in your eyes downstairs. Had my father
+reason to be afraid of him? Tell me that. That is what I want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"Your father is dead. What difference does it make?" asked the old
+woman, looking from side to side as if for a means of escape from the
+strong young hands and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, poor Daddy. Well, I have come to help you, Mrs. Carder." The
+speaker released the wrinkled hands and the old woman rose in relief. "I
+have come to work for you, not for your son, and I am not going to be
+afraid of him."</p>
+
+<p>The mother shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"We all work for him, my dear. He holds the purse-strings."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine seemed to see him holding the actual bag and leering at her
+over it with his odious, oblique eye and smile.</p>
+
+<p>"And let me give you a word of advice," continued the old woman,
+lowering her voice and looking toward the door. "Don't make him mad.
+It's terrible when he's angry." She winked and lowered her voice to a
+whisper. "He's crazy about you and he's the biggest man in the county."
+The old woman nodded and snapped her eyes knowingly. "You've got a home
+here for life if you don't make him mad. For life. I'll go down and make
+the tea. You come down pretty soon."</p>
+
+<p>She disappeared, leaving Geraldine standing in the middle of the room.
+She looked about her at the cheap, meager furniture, the small mirror
+that distorted her face, the bare outlook from the window.</p>
+
+<p>"For life!" she repeated to herself. "For life!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Prince</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Miss Upton's accounts were still in a muddle when she reached Keefe. Try
+as she might her unruly thoughts would wander back to the golden hair
+and dark, wistful eyes of that forlorn girl.</p>
+
+<p>"I was such a fool to lose her!" she kept saying to herself. "Such a
+fool."</p>
+
+<p>Arrived at her station she left the car, encumbered by her bulging bag
+and the umbrella which had performed a nobler deed to-day than keeping
+off the rain.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know, though," soliloquized Miss Mehitable. "If I hadn't had my
+umbrella I couldn't have stopped him and he'd have sat with her and I
+shouldn't be havin' a span-tod now."</p>
+
+<p>From the car in front of her she saw descend a young man with a bag. He
+was long-legged, lean and broad-shouldered, and Miss Upton, who had
+known him all his life, estimated him temperately as a mixture of
+Adonis, Apollo, and Hercules. He caught sight of his friend now and a
+merry look came into his eyes. Miss Mehitable's mental perturbation and
+physical weariness had given her plump face a troubled cast, accented by
+the fact that her hat was slightly askew. The young man hurried forward
+and was in time to ease his portly friend down the last step of her car.</p>
+
+<p>"Howdy, Miss Mehit?" he said. "You look as if the great city hadn't
+treated you well."</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Barry, was you on this train?" she asked dismally.</p>
+
+<p>"I was. My word, you're careful of your complexion! An umbrella with
+such a sky as this!"</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know what that umbrella has meant to me to-day," returned
+Miss Upton with no abatement of the portentous in her tone. "Let me have
+my bag, Ben. The top don't shut very good and you might drop something
+out."</p>
+
+<p>"You must let me take you home," he said. "You don't look fit to walk.
+You have certainly had a big day. Anything left in the shops? The Upton
+Emporium must be going to surprise the natives."</p>
+
+<p>As he talked, the young man led his friend along the platform to where a
+handsome motor waited among the dusty line of vehicles. "Gee, I'm off
+for a vacation and I'm beginning to appreciate Keefe, Miss Upton. The
+air is great out here."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nice for your mother," observed Miss Mehitable wearily.</p>
+
+<p>They both greeted the chauffeur, who wore a plain livery. Miss Upton
+sank back among the cushions. "It's awful good of you to take me home,
+Ben. I'm just beat out."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Upton's celebrated notions, I suppose," returned the young fellow
+as the car started. "They get harder to select every year, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"I've come home with just one notion this time," returned his companion
+with sudden fierceness. "It is that I'm a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Mehit, don't tell me you've fallen a prey in the gay metropolis
+and lost a lot of money."</p>
+
+<p>"That's nothin' to what has happened. I'm poor and I don't know what I'd
+do if I lost money, but, Ben Barry, it's much worse than that."</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, you're scaring me. I'm timid."</p>
+
+<p>"If I'd seen you on the train I could have told you all about it; but
+there isn't time now." In fact the motor was rapidly traversing the
+short distance up the main street and was now approaching a shop on the
+elm-shaded trolley track which bore across its front a sign reading:
+"Upton's Notions and Fancy Goods."</p>
+
+<p>Before Miss Mehitable disembarked, and this was a matter of some
+moments, she turned wistfully to her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, do you think your mother ever gets lonely?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've never seen any sign of it. Why? What were you thinking of&mdash;that I
+ought to give up the law school and come home and turn market-gardener?
+I sometimes think I'd like it."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton continued to study his clean-cut face wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't she need a secretary, or a sort of a&mdash;a sort of a companion?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why? Have you had about as much of Bright-Eyes as you can stand? Do you
+want to make a present of her to some undeserving person?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton shook her head. "No, indeed, it ain't poor Charlotte I'm
+thinkin' of, Ben," again speaking impressively. "Can you spare time to
+come over and see me a little while to-morrow afternoon? I know your
+mother always has a lot of young folks in for tea for you Sundays."</p>
+
+<p>"She won't to-morrow. I told her I wanted to lie in the grass under the
+apple-blossoms and compose sonnets; but your feelings will do just as
+well."</p>
+
+<p>"I must tell somebody, and you know Charlotte isn't sympathetic."</p>
+
+<p>"No, except perhaps with a porcupine. You might try her with one of
+those. Tether it in the back yard, and when she is in specially good
+form turn her out there and let them sport together.&mdash;Easy now,
+Mehit&mdash;easy." For Miss Upton's escort had jumped out and she was
+essaying to leave the car.</p>
+
+<p>"If I ever knew which foot to put first," she said desperately,
+withdrawing the left and reaching down gingerly with her right.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me have the bag and the umbrella," suggested her companion. "Now,
+then, one light spring. Steady!" For clutching both the young man's
+hands she made him quiver to the shock as she fell against him.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm clumsy when I'm tired, Ben," she explained. "I'm so much obliged to
+you, and you will come over to-morrow afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"To hear about the umbrella? Yes, indeed! Look at its fine open
+countenance. You can see at once that it has performed some great deed
+to-day." He shook the capacious fluttering folds and handed it to its
+owner.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you so much, Ben, and give my love to your mother."</p>
+
+<p>The young fellow jumped into the car and sped away and Miss Upton
+plodded slowly up to her door whose bell pealed sharply as it was pulled
+open by an unseen hand, and a colorless, sour-visaged woman appeared in
+the entrance. Her hay-colored hair was strained back and wound in a
+tight, small knot, her forehead wore a chronic scowl, and her one-sided
+mouth had a vinegary expression.</p>
+
+<p>"Think you're smart, don't you?" was her greeting; "comin' home in a
+grand automobile with the biggest ketch in the village."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, wasn't I lucky?" responded Miss Upton nasally. "I hope the
+kettle's on, Charlotte. I'm beat out."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what did you stay so long for? That's what you always do&mdash;stay
+till the last dog's hung and wear yourself out." The speaker snatched
+the bag and umbrella and Miss Mehitable followed her into the house,
+through the shop, and into the little living-room at the back where an
+open fire burned in the Franklin stove and the tea-table was neatly set
+for two.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton regarded the platter of sliced meat, the amber preserve, and
+napkin-enfolded biscuit listlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"How nice you always make a table look," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, set right down and give me your hat and jacket. Drink some tea
+before you talk any more. I should think you'd have some sense by this
+time."</p>
+
+<p>Scolding away, Charlotte poured the tea and Miss Mehitable drank it in
+silence. Her companion's monotonous grumbling was like the ticking of
+the clock so far as any effect it had upon her. The autumn before, this
+woman's drunken husband, Whipp by name, had passed out of her life. She
+was penniless, not strong, and friendless as much by reason of her
+sharp tongue as by her poor circumstances. Miss Upton hired her one day
+a week for cleaning and once upon a time fell ill herself, when this
+unpromising person developed such a kindly touch in nursing and so much
+common sense in tending the little shop, that Miss Mehitable, seeing
+what a godsend it would be to the poor creature, asked her to stay on;
+since which time, though no gratitude had ever been expressed in words,
+Mrs. Whipp had taken upon herself the ruling of the small establishment
+and its mistress with all the vigor possible. Miss Upton had told her to
+bring with her anything she valued and the widow had twisted her thin,
+one-sided mouth: "There ain't a thing in that shanty I don't wish was
+burned except Pearl," she said. "I'll bring her if you'll let me. She's
+a Malty cat."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, bring her along," Miss Mehitable had replied. "I suppose I won't
+really sense that I'm an old maid until there's a cat in the house."</p>
+
+<p>So Pearl came, and to-night she sat blinking at the leaping flame in the
+open stove while the two women ate their supper in the long spring
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I brought some things home in my bag," said Miss Upton, "but most o'
+them are comin' out Monday."</p>
+
+<p>"Put in a good day, did you?" asked Charlotte, who, now that her mind
+was relieved of rebukes, was ready to listen to the tales she always
+expected when Miss Mehitable returned from her trips.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think I did pretty well," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p>But the widow regarded her friend with dissatisfaction. This dispirited
+manner was very different from the effervescence which usually bubbled
+over in anecdote.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, next time don't stay till you're worn to a frazzle," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I missed the train, Charlotte. That was what happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, didn't Mr. Barry have anything to say comin' out on the train?"
+asked Mrs. Whipp, determined to get some of her usual proxy satisfaction
+from Miss Upton's outing.</p>
+
+<p>"I never saw him till we got to Keefe. Oh, Charlotte, if I'd ever met a
+boy like him when I was young I wouldn't be keepin' a store now with
+another woman and a cat."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm, you're better off as you are. Ben Barry's young yet. He'll be in
+plenty of mischief before he's forty. His mother was in the shop to-day.
+With all her money it's queer she never married again."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's just wrapped up in her flowers and chickens," remarked Miss
+Mehitable.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," returned Charlotte, "seems to me if I had a big house and
+grounds like that, I'd want somebody around besides servants."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable lifted her eyes from her meat and potato and gazed at her
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer you should say that," she returned. "I was speakin' of that very
+thing to Ben to-day. I should really think his mother would like
+somebody; somebody young and&mdash;and pleasant, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," returned Charlotte, breaking open a biscuit, "I suppose havin'
+got rid of her husband she thinks she'll let well enough alone. She's
+the happiest-lookin' woman in town. Why not? She's got the most money
+and no man to bother her."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Charlotte Whipp, you don't know what you're sayin'. Ben's father
+was a fine man. For years after he died Mrs. Barry couldn't hardly
+smile. Yes"&mdash;Miss Upton's thoughtful manner returned&mdash;"Ben's away so
+much I should think she'd like to have somebody, say a nice young girl
+with her. Of course, to folks with motors Keefe ain't much more'n a
+suburb to the city now, and Mrs. Barry, with her three months in town
+and three months to the port and six months here, has a full, pleasant
+life, and I s'pose that fine son fills it. Wasn't she fortunate to get
+him out o' the war safe? You'd ought to 'a' seen him in his Naval
+Aviation uniform, Charlotte. He looked like a prince; but he could 'a'
+bitten a board nail because he never got to go across the water. I
+s'pose his mother's average patriotic, but I guess she thanked Heaven he
+couldn't go. She didn't dare say anything like that before him, though.
+It was a terrible disappointment. Oh, Charlotte"&mdash;Miss Upton bent a
+wistful smile on her table-mate&mdash;"I can't help thinkin' what a
+wonderful home the Barry house would be for some needy girl&mdash;a lady, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm!" Charlotte's twisted mouth contracted further as she gave a dry
+little sniff. "She'd probably fall in love with Ben, and he wouldn't
+give a snap for her, so she'd be miserable anyway."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable shook her head. "If all your probablys came true,
+Charlotte, what a world this would be."</p>
+
+<p>"What a world it <i>is</i>!" retorted the other. "Have some more tea"&mdash;then
+as Miss Mehitable demurred&mdash;"Yes, have some. It'll do you good and maybe
+brighten up your wits so's you can remember somethin' that's happened to
+you to-day."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton cudgeled her brain for the small occurrences of her shopping
+and managed to recall a few items; but she was not in her usual form and
+Charlotte received her offerings with scornful sniffs and silence.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's dreams that night were troubled and the sermon next morning
+fell on deaf ears. Ben and his mother were both in the Barry pew near
+the memorial window to his father. She could not resist the drawing
+which made her head turn periodically to make certain that Ben was
+really there. Miss Mehitable respected men in general, especially in
+time of trouble, and in this case the legal mind attracted her. Ben was
+going to be a lawyer even if he wasn't one yet. The Barrys had money and
+influence, they were always friendly to her, and while she could not
+impart poor little Geraldine's story to Mrs. Barry direct without
+appearing to beg, it might reach and interest her via Ben.</p>
+
+<p>When the last hymn had been sung and the benediction pronounced, Miss
+Upton watched with jealous eyes the various interruptions to the Barrys'
+progress down the aisle. Everybody liked to have a word with them. All
+the girls were willing to make it easy to be asked to the hospitable
+house for Sunday tea. Miss Mehitable glowered at the bolder and more
+aggressive of these as she moved along a side aisle.</p>
+
+<p>When mother and son finally reached the sunlit out-of-doors they found
+Miss Upton waiting beside the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, if here isn't the fair Mehit," remarked Ben as they approached,
+and his mother smiled and shook her regal head and Miss Upton's hand
+simultaneously.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't understand why you allow Ben to be so disrespectful," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Law, Mrs. Barry," replied Miss Upton, "you must know that women don't
+care anything about bein' <i>respected</i>. What they want is to be <i>liked</i>;
+and Ben's a good friend o' mine."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing," remarked the young fellow, something in Miss Mehitable's
+eyes reminding him of her portentous yesterday and his promise. "Oh, I
+forgot to tell you, mother, Miss Upton is going home to dinner with us
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, I'm not, Ben," put in Miss Mehitable hastily. "I couldn't leave
+Charlotte alone for Sunday dinner; but"&mdash;she looked at Mrs. Barry&mdash;"I do
+want to see Ben about something and he promised me a little time this
+afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Mehit got into trouble yesterday," Ben explained to his mother.
+"Somebody tried to rob her of her notions and she beaned him with her
+umbrella. She's scared to death and she wants to consult the law." The
+speaker delivered a blow on his chest.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you hate to spare him the little time he's home, Mrs. Barry,"
+said Miss Upton apologetically; "but I'll keep him only a short time
+and&mdash;and I couldn't hardly sleep last night, though it ain't any o' my
+business, <i>really</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a good business if you're in it, I know that," said Mrs. Barry
+kindly, "and I'll lend you Ben with pleasure if he can do you any good!"</p>
+
+<p>"Then when will you be over, Ben?" asked Miss Mehitable anxiously. "I'd
+like to know just when to expect you."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't tr-r-ust me, that's what's the matter," he returned. "Will
+you promise to muzzle Merry Sunshine?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I think perhaps Charlotte will go out to walk," returned Miss Upton,
+somewhat troubled herself to know how to insure privacy in her
+restricted domain. "She does, sometimes, Sundays."</p>
+
+<p>"How does it affect the Keefe springtime to have her walk out in it?"
+inquired Ben solicitously.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you, Ben," said his mother, sympathetic with the anxiety in
+Miss Mehitable's face, "bring Miss Upton over to see our
+apple-blossoms, and you can have your talk at our house."</p>
+
+<p>Relief overspread Miss Upton's round countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. I'll call for you at three," said Ben, "Blackstone under my
+arm. If Merry Sunshine attacks me it will be a trusty weapon. Hop into
+the car, Mehit, and we'll run you home."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry laughed. "The sermon doesn't seem to have done him any good
+this morning, Miss Upton. We shall be glad to take you home."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Good Fairy</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>So again Mrs. Whipp saw her friend and employer descend from the Barry
+car.</p>
+
+<p>She didn't open the door for her this time, but sat, rocking, in the
+shop with Pearl in her lap, and sniffed at her as she entered.</p>
+
+<p>"You and your fine friends," she scoffed. "Pretty soon you won't demean
+yourself to use the trolley at all."</p>
+
+<p>"If you had only been willing to come to church, Charlotte, they'd have
+brought you home, too," said Miss Mehitable, hoping she was telling the
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>"'The Sabbath was made for man,'" snapped Mrs. Whipp, "not man for the
+Sabbath, to go and hear that man talk through his nose!"</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Charlotte, I refused to go home to dinner with them just so's you
+and I could have our meal together; so don't you make me sorry."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp had started up at once alertly on her friend's entrance,
+spilling Pearl, and was already removing Miss Mehitable's jacket and hat
+with deft fingers and receiving the silk gloves she pulled off.</p>
+
+<p>"H'm, I don't believe they'll eat any better things than we're goin' to
+have. How can I go to church and have us a good hot dinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sunday dinner should be cold mainly," returned Miss Upton calmly. "Mine
+always was till you came. Of course you're such a splendid cook,
+Charlotte, it's kind of a temptation to you to spoil me and feed me up,
+yet you know I ought not to eat much."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, pshaw," returned Mrs. Whipp. "More folks die from the lack o' good
+things than from eatin' 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"You'll have to look out," said Miss Mehitable warningly, following her
+friend's lead to the sunny living-room where the table was spread. "It's
+a sayin' that good cooks are always cross. The better you cook the more
+you must watch to have your temper as sweet as your sauces."</p>
+
+<p>"Ho! Vinegar's just as important as oil," retorted the other. "You're so
+smooth to everybody it's a good thing I came to live with you and keep
+you from bein' imposed upon."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable laughed. "You think together we make a pretty good salad,
+do you?" she returned.</p>
+
+<p>When dinner was on the table and they were both seated, Miss Upton spoke
+again:</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how you're goin' to like it to the port?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Awful rheumatic, I sh'd think 'twould be," returned Mrs. Whipp.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty soon we'll have to be goin'," said Miss Upton. "I usually lock
+everything up here tight as a drum for three months. I was talkin' to a
+man in town yesterday that thought it was a joke that folks in Keefe
+just went a few miles to their seashore cottages. He was from Chicago
+where you have to go a thousand miles to get anywhere. I told him I
+couldn't see anything funny about it. Keefe was a village and Keefeport
+was a resort; but he kept on laughin' and said it was like lockin' the
+door of one home and goin' across the street to another, then back again
+in the fall. I told him I was full as satisfied as I would be to have
+to make my way through Indians and buffaloes to get anywhere as you have
+to in those wild Western cities. He claimed that it was perfectly
+civilized around Chicago now; but of course he'd say that."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm," returned Mrs. Whipp, non-committally.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I was thinkin', Charlotte, that there ain't a reason in the world
+why you should go to the port if you don't want to. You can stay right
+here and look after the house. I shall move the shop goods just as I
+always do to my little port place."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't get along there alone, do you?" asked Charlotte hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"No; one o' the schoolgirls is always glad to live with me in vacation
+and work for her board. I had Nellie McIntyre last summer."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, of course, if you'd rather have Nellie."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't," said Miss Upton calmly; "but she don't have rheumatism nor
+mind the dampness. She thinks it's a great chance to be to the shore and
+swim every day, and she's happy as a bird from mornin' till night. If
+she ain't to go this year, I must let the child know, for I expect
+she's lottin' on it."</p>
+
+<p>The silence that followed this was broken only by the purring of Pearl
+who had established herself upon a broad beam of sunshine which lay
+across the ingrain carpet. Miss Mehitable was recklessly extravagant of
+carpets in Mrs. Whipp's opinion. She would not allow the shutting-out of
+the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton drank her tea busily now to conceal her desire to smile. Some
+of Ben Barry's comments upon her companion returned to her irresistibly;
+for she easily followed Charlotte's present mental processes.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp was in a most uncomfortable corner and her friend had driven
+her into it with such bland kindness that it made the situation doubly
+difficult. There was nothing Charlotte could resent in being offered a
+summer of ease in the Keefe cottage; but to be confronted with the
+alternatives of renouncing all right to complain of fog and storm, or
+else to part from Miss Mehitable and allow her to run her own life and
+notions for the whole summer, was a dilemma which drove her also to
+drinking a great deal of tea, and leaving the floor to Pearl for some
+minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton did not help her out, but, regaining control of her risibles,
+continued to eat and drink placidly, allowing her companion to
+cerebrate.</p>
+
+<p>Well she knew that now was the time to defend herself from a summer of
+grumbling as continuous as the swish of waves on the shore; and well she
+knew also her companion's verbally unexpressed but intense devotion to
+herself which made any prospect of their separation a panic. So she
+waited and Pearl purred.</p>
+
+<p>One Mr. Lugubrious Blue flits through the drawings of a certain famous
+cartoonist. Mr. Blue's mission is to take the joy out of life and
+Charlotte Whipp was his blood kin. The tip of her long nose was as
+chilly as his and her gloom was similarly chronic. Miss Upton was
+determined that she would not be the first to break in upon Pearl's
+solo.</p>
+
+<p>Finally Charlotte spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"Do the Barrys have a house to the port?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, a real cottage. The rest of us have shelters, but you can't call
+'em houses."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp looked up apprehensively. "Do you mean they let in the rain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Sometimes in storms," returned Miss Upton cheerfully, "but we run
+around with pans and catch it."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp viewed her bread and butter gloomily, the down-drawn corner
+of her one-sided mouth unusually depressed.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable felt a wild desire to laugh. She wished she could keep
+Ben Barry out of her mind during this important interview. Her kind
+heart administered a little comfort.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, there isn't any lath and plaster to the cottage, but it's good
+and tight except in very bad weather," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a wonder you don't get rheumatics yourself," vouchsafed Charlotte.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody thinks of such a thing in that beautiful sun-soaked place,"
+returned Miss Upton.</p>
+
+<p>"Sun-stroke did you say?" asked Mrs. Whipp, looking up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"No." Miss Mehitable indulged in one frank laugh. "Sun-soaked."</p>
+
+<p>"Sounds more like water-logged to me from your description," said the
+other sourly, returning to her dinner. "I don't see why you go there."</p>
+
+<p>"For two reasons. First, because I love it better than any place on
+earth, and second, because it's good business. I do a better business
+there than I do here. You think it over, Charlotte, because I ought to
+let Nellie know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you can let Nellie know that I'm goin'," replied Mrs. Whipp
+crossly. "What sense is there in your takin' a girl to the port to go in
+swimmin' while you work?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nellie was a very good little helper," declared Miss Mehitable, again
+taking refuge in her teacup. When she set it down she continued: "If you
+think, Charlotte, that you can make up your mind to take the bitter with
+the sweet, the rain and the sun, the fog and the wind, why, come along;
+but it don't do a bit o' good to argue with Neptune. He'll stick his
+fork right through you if you do."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp stared, but Miss Upton's eyes were twinkling so she suspected
+this was just one of her jokes.</p>
+
+<p>"I never was one to shirk," she declared curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I can tell Nellie you want to go?"</p>
+
+<p>That word "want" made Charlotte writhe and was probably accountable for
+the extra acidity of her reply:</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, unless you're tongue-tied," she returned.</p>
+
+<p>When dinner was over and the dishes washed and put away (Miss Upton's
+Sunday suit being enveloped in a huge gingham apron during the
+performance), Miss Mehitable watched solicitously to see if Charlotte
+manifested any symptoms of going out for a constitutional. She asked
+herself, with a good deal of severity, why she should dread to inform
+Mrs. Whipp of her own plan for the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess I'm free, white, and twenty-one," thought Miss Upton. But all
+the same she continued to cast furtive glances at Mrs. Whipp, who showed
+every sign of relapsing into a rocking-chair with Pearl in her lap.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a real pleasant day, Charlotte," she said. "Ain't you goin' to
+walk?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp yawned. "Dunno as I am."</p>
+
+<p>"I've got to go out again," pursued Miss Mehitable intrepidly, but she
+felt the dull gaze that at once turned and fixed upon her. "I've got to
+see Ben Barry about some business that came up in the city yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you had something on your mind last night," returned Mrs. Whipp,
+triumphantly. "I notice you wouldn't tell <i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"You ain't a lawyer, Charlotte Whipp."</p>
+
+<p>"Neither is that young whipper-snapper," rejoined the widow, "but then
+of course he's a Barry."</p>
+
+<p>"You do try my patience dreadfully, Charlotte," declared Miss Mehitable,
+her plump cheeks scarlet. "If you didn't know when you came here that
+Mrs. Barry is one o' the best friends I've got in the world, I'll tell
+you so now. You needn't be throwin' 'em up to me just because they've
+got money. I'm goin' there whenever they ask me, and this afternoon's
+one o' the times."</p>
+
+<p>She felt like a child who works its elbows to throw off some hampering
+annoyance. How her companion managed to hold her under the spell of
+domination which seemed merely a heavy weight of silent disapproval, she
+did not understand. It always meant jealousy, Miss Mehitable knew that,
+and usually her peace-loving, sunny nature pacified and coaxed the
+offended one, but occasionally she stood her ground. She knew that
+presently the Barry car would again draw up before her gate and she felt
+she must forestall Charlotte's sneers.</p>
+
+<p>"How soon you goin'?" inquired the latter mildly.</p>
+
+<p>"At three o'clock," returned Miss Upton bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me fix your collar," said Charlotte, rising; "your apron rumpled it
+all up."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't I remember to bully her oftener?" thought Miss Mehitable. "It
+always does her good just like medicine."</p>
+
+<p>Promptly at three Ben Barry jumped out of his car before Miss Upton's
+Emporium, and Mrs. Whipp dodged behind the window-curtain and watched
+them drive away.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that cute Lottie looking after us," said Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor thing, I kind o' hate to leave her on a Sunday," said Miss Upton,
+sighing.</p>
+
+<p>"'The better the day, the better the deed,'" remarked her companion.
+"You've got me all het up about you and your umbrella. What's my part?
+To keep you out of the lock-up? Whom did you 'sault 'n' batter? When
+are you going to tell me?"</p>
+
+<p>"You see that's one thing that's the matter with Charlotte," said Miss
+Mehitable. "She does hate to think I'm keepin' anything from her and she
+felt it in the air."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you believe she'll visit you in prison? I'll address the jury
+myself. I maintain that one punishment's enough. You at least deserve a
+holiday. Say, Mehit, me dear, I've a big surprise for you, too. You know
+I told you I warned mother to have no guests this afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you said you wanted to write poetry&mdash;Ben"&mdash;the speaker suddenly
+grasped the driver's coat-sleeve&mdash;"I never thought of it till this
+minute, but, Ben Barry"&mdash;Miss Upton's voice expressed acute dismay&mdash;"are
+you in love?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, does it mean so much to you, little one?" responded Ben
+sentimentally.</p>
+
+<p>"You wouldn't take near as much interest, not near as much if you've got
+a girl on your mind."</p>
+
+<p>"One? Dozens, Mehit. I'm only human, dear."</p>
+
+<p>"If it's dozens, it's all right," returned Miss Upton, relieved.
+"There's always room for one more in that case, but what is your
+surprise, then, Ben?"</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't want to be alone to write poetry. I wanted to gloat,
+undisturbed. My dandy mother is giving me something I've been aching to
+have."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's face brightened. "Yes, I know. Something's being built way
+back o' your house. Folks are wonderin' what it is. It looks like some
+queer kind of a stable. What in the world can you want, Ben! You've got
+the cars and a motor-cycle, and a saddle-horse."</p>
+
+<p>"Well"&mdash;confidentially&mdash;"don't tell, Mehit, but I wanted a zebra. Horses
+are too commonplace."</p>
+
+<p>"But they can't be tamed, zebras can't," returned Miss Upton, much
+disturbed. "I've read about 'em. You'll be killed. I shall&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>must</i> have a zebra and a striped riding-suit to be happy. While
+you're wearing the stripes in jail I'll come and ride up and down
+outside your barred window and cheer you up."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe it's a zebra," declared Miss Mehitable; "but if it is I
+shall tell your mother you cannot have it, Ben Barry."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you expect me to sympathize with your umbrella&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Miss Upton suddenly; for now the tinted,
+pearly pink cloud of the Barrys' apple-orchard came in view.</p>
+
+<p>The house was a brick structure with broad verandas, set back among
+well-kept lawns and drives, and its fine elm trees were noted. Mrs.
+Barry was reclining in a hammock-chair under one of them as the car
+drove in, and she rose and came to meet the guest. Miss Mehitable
+thought she looked like a queen as her erect, graceful figure moved
+across the lawn in the long silken cape that floated back and showed its
+violet lining.</p>
+
+<p>"It's perfectly beautiful here to-day," she said as the hostess greeted
+her; "but, oh, Mrs. Barry, I suppose I'm a fool to ever believe
+Ben"&mdash;the speaker cast a glance around at her escort&mdash;"but you won't let
+him have a zebra, will you? They're the most dangerous animals. He says
+you're goin' to give him&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"My dear Miss Upton," Mrs. Barry laughed, "I do need a scolding, I know.
+I've allowed myself to be talked into something crazy&mdash;crazy. It's much
+worse than a zebra, but you know what a big disappointment Ben had last
+year&mdash;flapping his wings and aching and longing to go across the sea
+while Uncle Sam obstinately refused to let him go over and end the War?
+All dressed up and no place to go! Poor Benny!" Mrs. Barry glanced at
+her son, laughing. "He did need some consolation prize, and anyway he
+persuaded me to let him have an aeroplane."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs.&mdash;<i>Barry</i>!" returned Miss Mehitable, and she gazed around at Ben
+with wide eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm such a bird, you see," he explained.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said the visitor after a pause, drawing her suspended breath,
+"I'm glad I can talk to you before you're killed."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not so bad as that," said Mrs. Barry. "He is at home in the air,
+you know, and he assures me they will soon be quite common. Come up on
+the veranda, Miss Upton. I'm going to hide you and Ben in a corner
+where no one will disturb you."</p>
+
+<p>"What a big place for you to live in all alone," observed Mehitable as
+they moved toward the house, and Ben drove the car to the garage.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it is; but I'm so busy with my chickens and my bees I'm never
+lonely. I'm quite a farmer, Miss Upton. See how fine my orchard is this
+year? I tell Ben that so long as he doesn't light in my apple-trees we
+can be friends."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're awful venturesome, Mrs. Barry!"</p>
+
+<p>That lady smiled as they moved up the steps to the veranda, the black
+and violet folds of her shimmering wrap blowing about her in lines of
+beauty that fascinated her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"What else can the mother of a boy be?" she returned. "Ben has been
+training me in courage ever since he was born; apparently the prize-ring
+or the circus would have been his natural field of operations; so I have
+chained him down to the law and given him an aeroplane so he can work
+off his extra steam away from the publicity of earth."</p>
+
+<p>At last the hostess withdrew, and Miss Upton found herself alone with
+her embryo lawyer in a sheltered corner of the porch where the vines
+were hastening to sprout their curtaining green, and a hammock,
+comfortable chairs, a table and books proclaimed the place an
+out-of-door sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother is wonderful," she began when her companion had placed her
+satisfactorily and had stretched himself out in a listening attitude,
+his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes on hers.</p>
+
+<p>What eyes they were, Miss Upton thought. Clear and light-brown, the
+color of water catching the light in a swift, sunny brook.</p>
+
+<p>"She is a queen," he responded with conviction.</p>
+
+<p>"A pity such a woman hasn't got a daughter," said Miss Mehitable
+tentatively.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm going to give her one some day." A smile accompanied this.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she picked out?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben laughed at his companion's anxious tone. "You seem interested in my
+prospects. That's the second time you have seemed worried at the idea.
+No, she isn't picked out. I'm going to hunt for her in the stars. Why?
+Have you some one selected?"</p>
+
+<p>"Law, no!" returned Miss Upton, flushing. "It is a&mdash;yes, it is a girl
+I've come to talk to you about, though." The visitor stammered and grew
+increasingly confused as she proceeded. "I thought&mdash;I didn't know&mdash;the
+girl needs somebody&mdash;yes, to&mdash;to look after her and I thought your
+mother bein'&mdash;bein' all alone and the house so big, she might have some
+use for a&mdash;young girl, you know, a kind of a helper; but Charlotte says
+the girl would fall in love with you and&mdash;and&mdash;" Miss Upton paused,
+drawing her handkerchief through and through her hands and looking
+anxiously at her companion who leaned his head back still farther and
+laughed aloud.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, now, that's the most sensible speech that ever fell from Lottie's
+rosebud lips." He sat up and viewed his visitor, who, in spite of her
+crimson embarrassment, was gazing at him appealingly. "I don't believe,
+Mehit, my dear, that you've begun at the beginning, and you'll have to,
+you know, if you want legal advice."</p>
+
+<p>"I never do, Ben; I am so stupid. I always do begin right in the middle,
+but now I'll go back. You know I went to the city yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"You and the umbrella."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and I was mad at myself for luggin' it around all the mornin' when
+the weather turned out so pleasant and I had so many other things; but
+never <i>mind</i>"&mdash;the narrator tightened her lips impressively&mdash;"that
+umbrella was all <i>right</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing," put in Ben. "How could you have rescued the girl without
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's eyes widened. "How did you know I did?"</p>
+
+<p>"The legal mind, you know, the legal mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but I didn't rescue her near enough, not near enough," mourned Miss
+Mehitable. "I must go on. I got awful tired shoppin' and I went into a
+restaurant for lunch. I got set down to one table, but it was so
+draughty I moved to another where a young girl was sittin' alone. A man,
+a homely, long-necked critter made for that place too, but I got there
+first. I don't know whether I'm glad or sorry I did. Ben, she was the
+prettiest girl in this world."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton paused to see if this solemn statement awakened an interest
+in her listener.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe," he replied placidly; "but then there are the stars, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"She had lots of golden hair, and dark eyes and lashes, with kind o'
+long dark corners to 'em, and a sad little mouth the prettiest shape you
+ever saw. We got to talkin' and she told me about herself. It was like a
+story. She had a cruel stepmother who didn't want her around, so kept
+her away at school, and a handsome, extravagant father without enough
+backbone to stand up for her; and on top of everything he died suddenly.
+Her stepmother had money and she put this poor child in a cheap
+lodgin'-house tellin' her to find a job, and she herself went calmly off
+travelin'. This poor lamb tried one place after another, but her beauty
+always stood in her way. I'm ashamed to speak of such things to you,
+Ben, but I've got to, to make you understand. She said she wondered if
+there were any good men in this world. She was in despair."</p>
+
+<p>Ben's eyes twinkled, but his lips were serious as he returned his
+friend's valiant gaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Her name is Geraldine Melody. Did you ever hear such a pretty name?"
+Miss Upton scrutinized her listener's face for some stir of interest.</p>
+
+<p>"I never did. Your girl was a very complete story-teller. You blessed
+soul! and you've had all these thrills over that!" Ben leaned forward
+and took his companion's hand affectionately. "I didn't believe even you
+would fall for drug-store hair, darkened eyes, and that chestnut story.
+What did the fair Geraldine touch you for?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton returned his compassionate gaze with surprise and
+indignation. "She didn't touch me. What do you mean? Why shouldn't she
+if she wanted to? I tell you her eyes and her story were all the truth,
+Ben Barry. I ain't a fool."</p>
+
+<p>"No, dear, no. Of course. But how much did you give her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Give her what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Money."</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't give her any, poor lamb." Into Miss Mehitable's indignant eyes
+came a wild look. "I wonder if I'd ought to have. I wonder if it would
+have helped any."</p>
+
+<p>Ben gave a low laugh. "I'll bet she had the disappointment of her young
+life: to tell you that yarn, and tell it so convincingly, and yet dear
+old Mehit never rose to the bait!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton glared at him and pulled her hand away. He leaned back and
+resumed his former easy attitude. "When are you going to reach the
+umbrella?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I've passed it," snapped Miss Mehitable, angry and baffled. "I kept
+that long-necked, gawky man off with it, pretty near tripped him up so's
+I could get to the table with that poor child."</p>
+
+<p>Ben shook his head slowly. "To think of it! That good old umbrella after
+a well-spent life to get you into a trap like that. All the same"&mdash;he
+looked admiringly at his companion&mdash;"there's no hay-seed in <i>your</i> hair.
+The dam-sell&mdash;pardon, Mehit, it's all right to say damsel, isn't
+it?&mdash;didn't think best to press things quite far enough to get into your
+pocket-book. You call it a rescue. Why do you? Geraldine might have got
+something out of the gawk."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's head swung from side to side on her short neck as she gazed
+at her friend for a space in defiant silence. His smile irritated her
+beyond words.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, Ben Barry," she said at last; "young folks think old folks
+are fools. Old folks <i>know</i> young folks are. Now I want to find that
+girl. I see you won't help me, but you can tell me where to get a
+detective."</p>
+
+<p>Ben raised his eyebrows. "Hey-doddy-doddy, is it as serious as that?
+Geraldine is some actress. It would be a good thing if you could let
+well enough alone; but I suspect you'll have to find her before you can
+settle down and give Lottie that attention to which she has been
+accustomed. I will help you. We won't need any detective. You shall meet
+me in town next Saturday. We'll go to that restaurant and others. Ten to
+one we'll find her."</p>
+
+<p>"She's left the city," announced Miss Upton curtly.</p>
+
+<p>"She told you so?" the amused question was very gentle.</p>
+
+<p>"That cat of a stepmother had a relative on a farm, some place so
+God-forsaken they couldn't keep help, so the cat kindly told the girl
+she was desertin' that if other jobs failed she could go there. I've
+told you why the other jobs did fail, and it's the truth whether you
+believe it or not, and at the time I met her the poor child had given up
+hope and decided to take that last resort."</p>
+
+<p>Ben bit his lip. "Back to the farm, Geraldine!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's head again swung from side to side and again she glared at
+her companion.</p>
+
+<p>"It would surprise you very much if we were to meet her in town next
+Saturday, wouldn't it?" he added.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd be so glad I'd hug her beautiful little head off," returned Miss
+Mehitable fervently.</p>
+
+<p>"Do that, dear, if you must. It would be better than bringing her out
+here to be a companion to mother." Miss Upton's eyes were so fiery that
+Ben smothered his laugh. "I'm nearly sure that Miss Melody wouldn't suit
+mother as a companion."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't allow her to come anywhere near you," returned Miss Upton
+hotly. "I s'pose you think she didn't go to the farm. Well, I saw her go
+myself with that very gawk I tripped up with my umbrella."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you did," laughed Ben; "and pretty mad he was doubtless when
+she told him she hadn't got a rise out of you. Those people usually work
+in pairs. We'll probably see him, too."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton clutched the iron table in front of her and swung herself to
+her feet with superhuman celerity.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Barry, you're entirely too smart for the law!" she said. "You'll
+never stoop to try a case. You'll know everything beforehand. You're a
+kind of a mixture of a clairvoyant and a Sherlock Holmes, you are. If
+you'd seen as I did that beautiful, touchin' young face turn to stone
+when that raw-boned, cross-eyed thing looked at her so&mdash;so hungry-like,
+and took possession of her as though he was only goin' to wait till they
+got home to eat her up&mdash;and I let 'em go!" Miss Upton reverted to her
+chief woe. "I let 'em go without findin' out <i>where</i>, when in all the
+world that poor child had nobody but me, a country jake she met in a
+restaurant, to care whether that Carder picked her bones after he got
+her to his cave."</p>
+
+<p>"That what?"</p>
+
+<p>"Carder, Rufus Carder. The one thing I have got is his hateful name. He
+lives 'way off on a farm somewheres, but knowin' his name, a detective
+ought to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Ben Barry leaned forward in his chair and his eyes ceased to twinkle.</p>
+
+<p>"Rufus Carder? If it is the one I'm thinking of, he's one of the biggest
+reprobates in the country."</p>
+
+<p>"That's him," returned Miss Upton with conviction. "At first I sized him
+up as just awkward and countrified; but the way he looked at the child
+and the way he spoke to her showed he wa'n't any weaklin'."</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not. He's as clever as they make 'em and he has piles of
+money&mdash;other people's money. He can get out of the smallest loophole
+known to the law. He always manages to save his own skin while he takes
+the other fellow's. Rufus Carder." Ben frowned. "I wonder if it can be."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton received his alert gaze and looked down on him in triumph.</p>
+
+<p>"You're wakin' up, are you?" she said. "I guess I don't meet you in town
+next Saturday, do I? Oh, Ben"&mdash;casting her victory behind her&mdash;"do you
+mean to say you know where he lives?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know some of the places."</p>
+
+<p>"That farm"&mdash;eagerly&mdash;"do you know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Pretty nearly. I can find it."</p>
+
+<p>"And you mean you will find it? You dear boy! And you'll take me with
+you, and we'll bring her back with us. I can make room for her at my
+house."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold on, Mehitable. We're dealing with one of the biggest rascals on
+the top side of earth. If he wants to keep the girl it may not be simple
+to get her. At any rate, it's best for me to go alone first. You write a
+note to her and I'll take it and bring back news to you of the lay of
+the land."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton gazed in speechless hope and gratitude at the young man as he
+rose and paced up and down the piazza in thought.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Ben," she ejaculated, clasping her hands, "to think that I'm in
+time to get you to do this before you kill yourself in that aeroplane!"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing of the sort, my dear Mehit" he returned. "Remember that, unlike
+the zebra, they are tamable in captivity, you'll be soaring with me
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton laughed in her relief. "If all they want is something heavier
+than air, I'm <i>it</i>," she returned.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The New Help</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Geraldine, begging to be excused from supper on the night of her
+arrival, drank the glass of milk that Mrs. Carder gave her, and at an
+early hour laid an aching head on her pillow and slept fitfully through
+the night.</p>
+
+<p>A heavy rain began to fall and continued in the morning. She still felt
+singularly numb toward the world and life in general. Her own room was
+bad enough, but outside it was the bare landscape, the desolate house,
+and its vulgar host.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder, under orders from her son, presented herself early with a
+tray on which were coffee and toast, and the girl had more than a twinge
+of compunction at being waited on by the worn, wrinkled old woman.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Sunday," she said. "I feel very tired. If you will let me stay
+here and be lazy until this afternoon, I should like it, but only on
+condition that you promise not to bring me anything more or take any
+trouble for me."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you say," responded the old woman; and she reported this
+request below stairs. Her son received it with a nod.</p>
+
+<p>All the afternoon he hovered near the parlour with its horsehair
+furniture, and about four-thirty the young girl came downstairs. He
+greeted her effusively and she endeavored to pass him and go to the
+kitchen. The most lively sensation of which she was conscious now was
+compassion for the old woman who had brought up her breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't go out there," said Rufus decidedly. "Ma is giving the hands
+their supper. You'd only be in the way. Sit down and take it easy while
+you can."</p>
+
+<p>The speaker established the reluctant guest in a slippery rocking-chair
+of ancient days. The atmosphere seemed to indicate that the room had
+awakened from a long sleep for her reception.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus sat down near her. "We're a democratic bunch here," he said, eying
+his companion as if he could never drink in enough of her youth and
+beauty. "We usually eat all together, but distinguished company, you
+know," he smiled and winked at her while she listened to the clatter of
+knives and forks at the long table in the kitchen. "We'll have our
+supper when they get through."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think the servants might relieve your mother of that work,"
+said Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"Servants! Hired girl, do you mean? Nice time we'd have tryin' to keep
+'em here. Oh, Ma's pert as a cricket. She don't mind the work. That's
+real kindness, you know, to old folks," he continued. "All a mistake to
+put 'em on the shelf. They're lots happier doin' the work they're
+accustomed to."</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow I shall be helping her," said Geraldine mechanically, her
+whole soul shrinking from the gloating expression in her companion's
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Depends on how you do it," he responded protectingly. "I don't want
+those hands put in dishwater."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall do whatever your mother will let me do," responded the girl
+quickly. "That is what I came for. I've come here to earn my living."</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder laughed leniently, and leaning forward would have patted
+her hand, but she drew it away with a quick motion which warned him to
+proceed slowly. In her eyes was an indignant light.</p>
+
+<p>"You can do about as you like with me, little girl," he said fondly. "If
+it's a dishwasher for Ma that you want, why, I'll have to get one,
+that's all."</p>
+
+<p>"I heard that you have found it very difficult to get help out here."</p>
+
+<p>"I always get whatever I go after," was the reply. And the guest had a
+fleeting consolation in the thought that she might make easier the lot
+of that wrinkled slave in the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know yet all I can do for you," pursued Carder, and Geraldine
+writhed under the self-satisfied gaze which seemed to be taking stock of
+her person from head to foot; "nor what I intend to do," he added. "My
+wife was a plain sort of woman and I've been wrapped up in business. See
+that little buildin' down there side o' the road? That's my office. I
+can see everybody who comes in or goes out of the place and can keep my
+hand on everything that's doin' on the farm. I've held my nose pretty
+close to the grindstone and I've earned the right to let up a little. I
+know you find things very plain here, but I'm goin' to give you leave to
+do it all over. I intend you shall have just what you want, little
+girl."</p>
+
+<p>Every time Rufus Carder used that expression, "little girl," a strange
+sensation of nausea crept again around Geraldine's heart. It was as if
+he actually caressed her with those big-jointed and not over-clean
+hands. She still remembered the pleading of his mother not to make him
+angry.</p>
+
+<p>"Your mother should be your first thought," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's all right," he returned. "Of course she's gettin' along
+and I put water in the kitchen for her this year; but it's legitimate
+for young folks to begin where old folks leave off. If it wa'n't so, how
+would there be any improvement in the world? You and I'll make lots o'
+trips to town until you get this old house to lookin' just the way you
+want it. I'm sorry Dick Melody can't come out and see us here."</p>
+
+<p>Tears sprang to the girl's eyes. Tears of grief and an infinite
+resentment that this coarse creature could so familiarly name her
+father.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder here appeared to announce that their supper was ready, so no
+more was said until in the next room they found a small table set for
+two.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you eaten your supper, Mrs. Carder?" Geraldine asked of the
+harassed and heated little woman who was hurrying back and forth loaded
+with dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, much as I ever do," was the reply. "I get my meals on the fly."
+Then, meeting her son's lowering expression, she hastened to add, "I get
+all I want that way, you know. It's the way I like the best."</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't the way you must do while I'm here," responded Geraldine
+firmly. "You're tired out. Come and sit down with your son and let me
+wait on you while you rest."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't that sound daughterly?" remarked Rufus exultantly. "Perhaps I
+didn't know how to pick out the right girl. What?" His mother, relieved
+by his returned complacence, became voluble with reassurances; and
+Geraldine, seeing that Rufus's hand was approaching her arm, hastily
+slid into her chair and he took the opposite place.</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't I tell you we'd make up for the lunch that great porpoise
+cheated us out of yesterday?" he said in high good-humor.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's desolate heart yearned after the kind friend so soon lost.</p>
+
+<p>"That'll do, Ma. I guess the grub's all on the table. Go chase yourself.
+Miss Melody'll pour my coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't wash any of the dishes, Mrs. Carder, please, until I get out
+there," said Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman disappeared with one last glance at her son whom Geraldine
+eyed with sudden steadiness.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled at her with semi-toothless fondness.</p>
+
+<p>"Give me my coffee, little girl. I'm famished. Isn't this jolly&mdash;just
+you and me?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine poured the coffee and handed him the cup; then she spoke
+impressively.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Carder, this is the last time this must happen. I refuse to sit
+down and make a waitress of your old mother. If you insist on showing
+her no consideration, I shall go away from here at once."</p>
+
+<p>Her companion laughed, quietly, but with genuine amusement and
+admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"By ginger," he said, "when you're mad, you're the handsomest thing
+above ground. Go away! That's a good one. Don't I tell you, you can do
+anything with me?" The speaker paused to drink his coffee noisily,
+keeping his eyes on the exquisite, stiff little mouth opposite him. "I
+know I ain't any dandy to look at. I've been too busy rollin' up the
+money that's goin' to make you go on velvet the rest o' your days:
+you're welcome to change all that, too. Yes, indeed. Never fear. When we
+do over the house we're goin' to do over yours truly, too. I'll do
+exactly as you say and you can turn me out a fashion plate that'll be
+hard to beat."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not interested in turning you out a fashion plate," returned
+Geraldine coldly. "I'm interested in making the lot of your mother
+easier, that is all."</p>
+
+<p>Rufus regarded her thoughtfully and nodded. It penetrated his brain that
+he had been going too fast with this disdainful beauty. He rather
+admired her for her disdain; it added zest to the certainty of her
+capitulation.</p>
+
+<p>"Have it your own way, little girl," he said leniently. "I know you're
+tired, still. You're not eatin'. Eat a good supper and to-night take
+another long sleep and to-morrow everything will look different."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine still regarded him with an unfaltering gaze. "We are
+strangers," she said. "I wish you not to call me 'little girl!'"</p>
+
+<p>Rufus smiled at her admiringly. "It's hard for me to be formal with Dick
+Melody's girl," he said. "What shall I call you? My lady? That's all
+right, that's what you are. My lady. Another cup o' coffee please, my
+lady. It tastes extra good from your fair hands. We'll do away with this
+rocky tea-set, too. You're goin' to have eggshell China if you want it;
+and of course you do want it, you little princess."</p>
+
+<p>His extreme air of proprietorship had several times during this
+interview convinced Geraldine that her host had been drinking. In spite
+of his odious frank admiration and the glimpses that he gave of some
+disquieting power, Geraldine scorned him too much to be afraid of him,
+and while she doubted increasingly that it would be possible for her to
+remain here, she determined to see what the morning would bring forth.
+The man's passion for acquisition, evidenced by his showmanship of his
+accumulations, might again absorb him after the first flush of her
+novelty wore off. She would enter into the work of the house, she would
+never again sit <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with him, and he should find it impossible
+to see her alone. His mother had warned her that he was terrible when he
+was angry, and Geraldine suspected that the mother always felt the brunt
+of his wrath. She must be careful, therefore, not to make the lot of
+that mother harder while endeavoring to ease it.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as she could, Geraldine escaped to the kitchen where she found
+Mrs. Carder at her wet sink.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked you to wait for me, Mrs. Carder," she said.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman looked up from her steaming pan, her countenance full of
+trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Rufus don't want you to do anything like this, Miss Melody, and
+Pete's helpin' me, you see."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine turned and saw a boy who was carrying a heavy, steaming kettle
+from the stove to the sink, and she met his eyes fixed upon her. She
+recognized him at once as the driver of the motor in which she and her
+host had come from the station. As the chauffeur he had appeared like a
+boy of ordinary size, but now she saw that his arms were long and his
+legs short and bowed, and in height he would barely reach her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf had a long, solemn, tanned face and a furtive, sullen eye.
+Geraldine remembered Rufus Carder's rough tone as he had summoned him at
+the station. He was perhaps a wretched, lonely creature like herself.
+She met his look with a smile that, directed toward his master, would
+have sent Rufus into the seventh heaven of complacence.</p>
+
+<p>"I have met Pete already," she said, kindly. "He drove us up from the
+station. I'm glad you are helping Mrs. Carder, Pete. She seems to have
+too much to do."</p>
+
+<p>The boy did not reply, but he appeared unable to remove his eyes from
+Geraldine's kind look, and careless of where he was going he stumbled
+against the sink.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out, Pete!" exclaimed his mistress. "What makes you so clumsy? You
+nearly scalded me. I guess he's tired, too." The old woman sighed.
+"Everybody picks on Pete. They all find something for him to do."</p>
+
+<p>"Then run away now," said Geraldine, still warming the boy's dull eyes
+with her entrancing smile, "and let me take your place. I can dry dishes
+as fast as anybody can wash them."</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf slowly backed away, and disappeared into the woodshed, keeping
+his gaze to the last on the sunny-haired loveliness which had invaded
+the ugliness of that low-ceiled kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine seized a dish-towel, and Mrs. Carder, her hands in the suds,
+cast a troubled glance around at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Rufus won't like it," she declared timorously.</p>
+
+<p>"Why should you say anything so foolish? What did I come out here for?"</p>
+
+<p>The old woman looked around at her with a brief, strange look.</p>
+
+<p>"You couldn't get help," went on Geraldine, "and so as I needed a home I
+came."</p>
+
+<p>"Is that what they told you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. That is what my stepmother told me, and I see it is true. You seem
+to have no one here but men."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Mrs. Carder. "It&mdash;it hasn't been a healthy place for
+girls." She cast a glance toward the door as she spoke in a lowered
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Dreadfully lonely, you mean?" inquired Geraldine, unpleasantly affected
+by the other's timidity. "The woman has no spirit," she added mentally
+with some impatience.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder looked full in her eyes for a silent space; then: "Rufus can
+do anything he wants to&mdash;anything," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine, in the act of wiping a coarse, thick dinner-plate, met the
+other's gaze with a little frown.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't give in to him, my dear," went on the sharp whisper. "You are too
+beautiful, too young. He's crazy about you, so you be firm. Don't give
+in to him. Insist on his marrying you!"</p>
+
+<p>The thick dinner-plate fell to the floor with a crash.</p>
+
+<p>"Marrying him!" ejaculated Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"Sh! Sh! Oh, Miss Melody, hush!"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine began to shiver from head to foot. The lover-like words and
+actions of her host seemed rushing back to memory with all the other
+repulsive experiences of past weeks.</p>
+
+<p>The kitchen door opened and the master appeared.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's smashing the crockery?" he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"It's your awkward help," rejoined Geraldine, her teeth chattering as
+she stooped to pick up the plate.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew you weren't fit for this kind of thing," he said tenderly,
+approaching, to the girl's horror. "Where's that confounded Pete?"</p>
+
+<p>"I sent him away," said Geraldine, indignant with herself for trembling.
+"I wanted to do this; it is what I came for. The plate didn't break."</p>
+
+<p>The man regarded her flushed face with a gaze that scorched her.</p>
+
+<p>"Break everything in the old shack if you want to&mdash;that is, all but one
+thing!"</p>
+
+<p>He stood for half a minute more while his mother scalded a new pan full
+of dishes.</p>
+
+<p>"What is that poem," he went on&mdash;"What's that about, 'Thou shalt not
+wash dishes nor yet feed the swine'? Well, well, we'll see later."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's heart was pounding too hard to allow her to speak. She
+seized another plate in her towel, his mother, her wrinkled lips pursed,
+kept her eyes on her dishpan, so with a pleased smile at his own apt
+quotation the master reluctantly removed his presence from the room.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very sorry for you, Mrs. Carder," said Geraldine breathlessly,
+meanwhile holding her plate firmly lest another crash bring back the
+owner, "but I can't stay here. I must go away to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>Her companion gave a fleeting glance around at the girl, and her
+withered lips relaxed in a smile as she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, you won't, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>At the unexpected reply Geraldine's heart thumped harder.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall, Mrs. Carder. I'm sorry not to stay and help you, but
+it's impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"It will be impossible for you to go," was the colorless reply. "Nobody
+goes away from here till Rufus is ready they should; then they leave
+whether they have any place to go to or not. It's goin' to be different
+with you. I can see that. You needn't be scared by what I said, a minute
+ago. You are safe. You've got a home for life. I only hope you won't let
+him send me away." The old woman again turned around to Geraldine and
+her tired old eyes filled with tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing should be too good for you with all your son's money," rejoined
+Geraldine hotly.</p>
+
+<p>Her panic-stricken thought was centered now on one idea. Escape. The
+night was closing in. The clouds had cleared away. The stretches of
+fields in all directions, the lack of neighbors, the horrors of the old
+woman's implications, all weighed on the girl like a crushing nightmare.
+The dishes at last put away, she bade the weary old woman good-night,
+and apprehensively looking from side to side stole to the stairway
+without encountering anyone and mounting to her dreary chamber she
+locked the door.</p>
+
+<p>She hurried to the window and looked out.</p>
+
+<p>A half-moon in the sky showed her that the distance down was too far to
+jump. She might sprain or break one of those ankles which must go fast
+and far to-night.</p>
+
+<p>Packing her belongings back in her bag she sat down to wait. Gradually
+all sounds about the house ceased. Still she waited. The minutes seemed
+hours, but not until her watch pointed to midnight did she put on her
+hat and jacket and slip off her shoes.</p>
+
+<p>Then going to the door she gradually turned the key. The process was
+remarkably noiseless. If only the hinges were as friendly. Very, very
+slowly she turned the knob and very, very slowly opened the door. Not a
+sound.</p>
+
+<p>When the opening was wide enough to admit her body she was gliding
+through, when her stockinged foot struck something soft. She thought it
+was a dog lying across the threshold, and only by heroic effort she
+controlled the cry that sprang to her lips. The dark mass half rose, and
+by the faint moonlight she could see two long, suddenly out-flung arms.
+"Pete," she whispered, "Pete, you <i>will</i> let me pass!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sorry, lady. He'd kill me. He'd tear me to pieces," came back the
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, Pete," desperately, "I'll do anything for you. Please,
+<i>please</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>For answer the long arms pushed her back through the open door. Another
+door opened and Rufus Carder's nasal voice sounded. "You there, Pete?"</p>
+
+<p>A sonorous snore was the only answer. For a minute that other door
+remained open, but the rhythmical snoring continued, and at last the
+latch was heard to close.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine again cautiously opened her door a crack.</p>
+
+<p>"Pete," she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf snored.</p>
+
+<p>"Please talk to me, Pete. I'm sure you are a kind boy." The pleading
+whisper received no answer beyond the heavy breathing.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to ask your advice. I want you to tell me what I can do. I'm
+sure you don't love your master."</p>
+
+<p>A sort of snort interrupted the snoring which then went on rhythmically
+as before.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine closed her door noiselessly. She sat down white and unnerved.
+She was a prisoner, then. For a time her mind was in such a whirl that
+she was unable to form a plan.</p>
+
+<p>She put her hand to her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I must try to sleep if I can in this hideous place. Then to-morrow I
+may be able to think."</p>
+
+<p>Locking the door, she drew the bureau against it; then she undressed and
+fell into bed. Her youth and exhaustion did the rest. She slept until
+morning.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Dwarf</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>"You, Pete," said his master, approaching the pump where the boy was
+performing his morning ablutions, "what was the noise I heard in Miss
+Melody's room last night?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dunno," sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you'd better know. I'll skin you alive if anything happens to
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"How&mdash;how could I help it if she jumps out the winder?"</p>
+
+<p>Carder smiled. "You're thinkin' of somebody else. <i>She</i> went to the
+hospital. If Miss Melody hurts herself, we'll keep her here. She won't
+do that, though, and I hold you accountable for anything else she does.
+Night and day, remember. You've got to know where she is all the time.
+You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf grunted and combed his thick, tousled hair with his fingers.</p>
+
+<p>"Watch yourself now. You'll pay if anything goes wrong. What was that
+noise I heard? Out with it!"</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf grunted his reply. "She moved the furniture ag'in' the door, I
+guess."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that was it."</p>
+
+<p>Rufus laughed and turned toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>The hired men had had their breakfast and gone to the fields and the
+drudge in the kitchen was prepared for the arrival of her son and his
+guest.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine came downstairs fresh from sleep and such a cold bath as was
+obtainable from the contents of a crockery pitcher. Rufus's eyes
+glittered as he beheld her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my little&mdash;I mean my lady, you look wonderful. I guess there was
+some sleep in the little old bed after all; but you shall have down to
+sleep on if you want it."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine regarded him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see how you expected I could sleep when you let a dog lie
+outside my door, a dog with the nightmare, I should judge, snoring and
+snorting. Be sure he is not there to-night. He frightened me."</p>
+
+<p>"Too bad, too bad," returned Rufus; "but you see you slept, or you
+couldn't look like a fresh rosebud as you do this morning; and you'll
+get used to good old Sport. He's a splendid watchdog."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine turned to her hostess.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what your hours are, Mrs. Carder&mdash;whether five, or six, or
+seven is over-sleeping, but I'm ashamed not to have been down here to
+help you get breakfast. It shan't happen again."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fret about that," said Rufus, "Sleep as long as you want to,
+little girl. It's good for your complexion."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine flatly refused to sit down to breakfast unless Mrs. Carder was
+also at the table, so the old woman wiped her hands on her apron and
+took her place between her son and the beautiful girl, and Geraldine
+jumped up and fetched and carried when anything was needed.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus watched this proceeding discontentedly. "We've got to start in
+new, Ma," he said. "The Princess Geraldine and me are goin' to do this
+house over, and we'll get some help, too&mdash;help that knows how; the
+stylish kind, you know. Geraldine thinks the time has come for you to
+hold your hands the rest o' your days."</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you say, Rufus," returned his mother meekly, nibbling away at
+the bacon on her plate and feeling vastly uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>"What she says goes; eh, Ma?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you say, Rufus," repeated the mother.</p>
+
+<p>A light was glowing in Geraldine's eyes. It was day. She was young and
+strong. The world was wide. She laughed at her fears of the night. The
+right moment to escape would present itself. Rufus would have to go to
+the city, and even if he refused to leave without her, once in town she
+could easily give him the slip. Perhaps that was going to prove the best
+solution after all.</p>
+
+<p>"Your trunk came last night," he said, when at last the three rose from
+the breakfast-table. "You can show Pete where you want it put."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine tried not to betray the eagerness with which she received this
+permission.</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf's strong arms carried her modest trunk up the stairs as easily
+as if it had been a hatbox. She feared Carder might follow them, but he
+did not.</p>
+
+<p>"Pete," she said, low and excitedly, as soon as they reached her room
+and he had deposited his burden, "you <i>will</i> help me! I know you are
+going to be the one to help me get away from here."</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf shook his head. "Then I'd be killed," he answered, but he
+gazed at her admiringly. "I've got the marks of his whip on me now."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you stay?" asked Geraldine indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>"He says nobody else would give me work. I'm too ugly. He says I'd
+starve."</p>
+
+<p>"That isn't so!" exclaimed the girl. "I will help you." The
+consciousness of the futility of the promise swept over her even as she
+made it. Who was she to give help to another!</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf, gazing fascinated at her glowing face, saw her eyes suddenly
+fill. A heavy step sounded on the stair.</p>
+
+<p>"Move it, move the trunk, Pete," she whispered, dragging at it herself.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder appeared at the door just as the dwarf was shoving the
+trunk to another part of the room.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter?" he asked. "Seems to me you take a long time about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm always so undecided," said Geraldine. "I believe I will have it
+back under the window after all, Pete."</p>
+
+<p>So back under the window the boy lifted the trunk, his master meanwhile
+looking suspiciously from one to the other. It was quite in the
+possibilities that his fair guest might try to corrupt that dog which at
+night lay outside her door; but the dog well knew that no corner of the
+earth could hide him from Rufus Carder if he played him false, and the
+master felt tolerably safe on that score.</p>
+
+<p>All that day Geraldine watched to observe the habits of those around
+her. She found that the small yellow building near the drive which
+Carder had pointed out to her was the place where he spent most of his
+time: the cave of the ogre she named it. The driveway came in from a
+road which passed the farm and no one entered it except persons who had
+business with the owner.</p>
+
+<p>Again the girl marveled at the character of the country surrounding the
+farmhouse. Not a tree provided a hiding-place or shade for man or beast.
+Stones had been removed and built into low walls that intersected the
+fields. Even in the lovely late spring with verdant crops growing there
+were no lines of beauty anywhere. The ugly yellow office building reared
+itself from a strip of grass where dandelions fought for their rights,
+but a wide cement walk led to its door.</p>
+
+<p>"Come down and see my den," said Rufus late that afternoon. "The washing
+dishes and feeding swine can come later if you are determined to do it.
+It's a great little old office, that is. There's more business
+transacted there than you might suppose." He met Geraldine's grave gaze,
+and added: "Many a profitable half-hour your father has spent there.
+Yes, indeed, Dick Melody knew which side his bread was buttered on, and
+I'm in hopes of being as good a friend to his daughter as I was to him."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine yielded to the invitation in silence. She wished to discover
+every possible detail which could make her understand how her father, as
+popular with men as with women, and with every custom of good manners,
+had often sought this brute. Doubtless it was to obtain money. Probably
+her father had died in debt to the man. Probably it was that fact which
+gave her jailer his evident certainty that he had her in his power. Her
+father was dead. Was there anything in the law that could hold her, a
+girl, responsible for his debts? It was surely only a matter of days
+before she could make her escape and meanwhile she would try not to let
+disgust overpower her reason. She was not sorry to be asked to see the
+abode of the spider, in the center of which he sat and watched the
+approach from any direction of those who dragged themselves of necessity
+into his web. Let him tell what he would about her father. She wished to
+know anything concerning him, of which Carder had proof. She would not
+allow her poise to be shaken by lies.</p>
+
+<p>It was bright day and the office was but a few hundred yards from the
+house. All the same, as they walked along, she was glad to hear a sharp
+metallic clicking a little distance behind them, and turning her head,
+to see Pete ambling along with his clumsy, bow-legged gait, dragging a
+lawn-mower. Little protection was this poor oaf with the scars of his
+master's whip upon him, but Geraldine had seen a doglike devotion light
+up the dull eyes in those few minutes up in her room, and in spite of
+the dwarf's hopeless words she felt that she had one friend in this
+place of desolation. She expected the master would drive the boy away
+when the mower began to behead the dandelions, but Rufus appeared
+unaware of the monotonous sound.</p>
+
+<p>"Pretty ship-shape, eh?" he said when they were inside the office. He
+indicated the open desk with its orderly files of papers and well-filled
+pigeon-holes. Placing himself in the desk-chair he drew another close
+for his visitor.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine moved the chair back a little and sat down, her eyes fixed on
+the telephone at Carder's left. That instrument connecting with the
+outside world, the world of freedom, fascinated her. If she could but
+get ten minutes alone with it! She had some friends of her school days,
+and the pride which had hitherto prevented her from communicating with
+them was all gone, immersed in the flood of fear and repulsion which,
+despite all her reasoning, swept over her periodically like a paralysis.
+Rufus leaned back in his seat and surveyed his guest. She looked very
+young in the soft, pale-green dress she wore.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I am, you see, master of all I survey, and of a good deal that I
+don't survey&mdash;except with my mind's eye." He shook his head
+impressively. "I can do a lot for anybody I care for." He pulled his
+check-book toward him. "I can draw my check for four figures, and I'll
+do it for you any time you say the word. How would you like to have a
+few thousands to play with?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine removed her longing gaze from the telephone and looked at her
+hands. She could not meet the insupportable expression of his greedy
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Two figures would do," she said, "if you would allow me to go to town
+and spend it as I please."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, my beauty," he laughed, "you can spend any amount, any way you
+please."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?" asked Geraldine, her suddenly eager eyes looking straight into
+his, but instantly shrinking away.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," he returned cheerfully. "I ought to get something for
+my money, oughtn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>She was silent, and he watched her as if making up his mind how to
+proceed.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," he said at last in a changed tone, "I don't know what I've
+got to gain by beating about the bush. I've shown you plain enough that
+I'm crazy about you and I've told you that I always get what I go
+after."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's heart began to beat wildly. She kept her eyes on her folded
+hands and the extremity of her terror made her calm.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm goin' to treat you as white as ever a girl was treated; but I want
+you, and I want you soon. I know we're more or less strangers, but you
+can get acquainted with me as well after marriage as before. I know all
+this ain't regulation. A girl expects to be courted, but I'll court you
+all your life, little girl."</p>
+
+<p>The lawn-mower clicked through the silence in which Geraldine summoned
+the power to speak. Indignation helped to steady her voice. She looked
+up at her companion, who was leaning forward in his chair waiting for
+her first word.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible for me to marry you, Mr. Carder," she said, trying to
+hold her voice steady, "and since your feeling for me is so extreme, I
+intend to leave here immediately. You speak as if you had bought me as
+you might have bought one of your farm implements, but these are modern
+days and I am a free agent."</p>
+
+<p>Carder did not change his position, his elbows leaning on the arms of
+his chair, his fingers touching.</p>
+
+<p>"I have bought you, Geraldine," he answered quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She started up from her chair, her indignation bursting forth. "I knew
+it!" she exclaimed. "My father died owing you money and you have
+determined that I shall pay his debts in another coin! He would turn in
+his grave if he heard you make such a cruel demand."</p>
+
+<p>The frank horror and repulsion in the girl's eyes made the blood rise to
+her companion's temples.</p>
+
+<p>He pointed to her chair. "Sit down," he said. "You don't understand
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>She obeyed trembling, for she could scarcely stand. His unmoved
+certainty was terrifying. "Your father was a very popular man. His
+vanity was his undoing. Juliet was too smart to let him throw away her
+money, so rather than lose his reputation as a good sport, rather than
+not keep up his end, he looked elsewhere for the needful, and he came to
+me, not once, but many times. At last he wore out my patience and the
+Carder spring ran dry, so far as he was concerned; then, Geraldine"&mdash;the
+narrator paused, the girl's dilated eyes were fixed upon him&mdash;"then, my
+proud little lady, handsome Dick Melody fell. He began helping himself."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean&mdash;helping himself?" The girl leaned forward and her
+hands tightened until the nails pressed into her flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder slipped his fingers into an inside pocket and drew forth
+two checks which he held in such a way that she could read them.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't know my signature," he went on, "but that is it. Large as
+life and twice as natural. Yes"&mdash;he regarded the checks&mdash;"twice as
+natural. I couldn't have done them better myself."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's hands flew to her heart, her eyes spoke an anguished
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Rufus nodded, "Dick did those." The speaker paused and slipped
+the checks back into his pocket. "I breathed fire when I discovered it,
+and then very strangely something occurred which put the fire out."
+Again he leaned his elbows on the chair-arms, and bent toward the wide
+eyes and parted lips opposite. "I saw you sitting in the park one day,"
+he went on slowly, "you got up and walked and laughed with a girl
+companion. I found out who you were. I went to your father, who was
+nearly crazy with apprehension at the time, and I told him there was no
+girl on earth for me but you, and that if he would give you to me I
+would forgive his crime. I didn't want a forger for a father-in-law. It
+was arranged that this month he should bring you out here and make his
+wishes known. His reputation was safe. Even Juliet suspected nothing. He
+is still mourned at his clubs as the prince of good fellows; but his
+sudden death prevented him from puttin' your hand in mine."</p>
+
+<p>A silence followed, broken only by the rasping of the lawn-mower and
+Rufus Carder watched the girl's heaving breast.</p>
+
+<p>"So you see," he went on at last, "all you have to do to save your
+father's name is to sit down in the lap of luxury; not a very hard
+thing to do, I should think. You'll find that I'll take&mdash;" The speaker
+paused, for another sound now broke in upon the click of the lawn-mower,
+an increasingly sharp noise which brought him to his feet and to one of
+the many windows which gave him a view in every direction.</p>
+
+<p>A motor-cycle was speeding up the driveway.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Sam Foster comin' to pay his rent," he said. "There'll be many a
+one on that errand along about now," he declared with satisfaction.
+"Cheer up," he added, turning back to the pale face and tremulous lips
+of the young girl. "Your father wasn't the first fine man to go wrong;
+but they don't all have somebody to stick by 'em and shield 'em as he
+did. The more you think it over, the more&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The motor-cycle had stopped during this declaration, and the rider now
+stepped into the office-door. Geraldine, her hands still unconsciously
+on her heart, gazed at the newcomer. Could it be that Rufus Carder had a
+tenant like this youth? The well-born, the well-bred, showed in his
+erect bearing and in his sunny brown eyes, and the smile that matched
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The owner started and scowled at sight of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Carder, I believe," said the visitor.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus's chair grated as he advanced to edge the stranger back through
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Your business, sir," he said roughly. "Can't you see I'm in the midst
+of an interview?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben's eyes never left those of the young girl, and hers clung to him
+with a desperate appeal impossible to mistake. She rose from her chair
+as if to go to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mr. Carder, and I won't interrupt you. I'll wait outside. I came
+to see Miss Melody with a message from one of her friends and I'm sure
+from the description that this is she." The young fellow bowed
+courteously toward Geraldine, who stood mute drinking in the inflections
+of his voice; the very pronunciation of his words were earmarks of the
+world of refinement from which she was exiled. In her distraction she
+was unconscious of the manner in which she was gazing at him above the
+tumult of grief at her father's double treachery. Her father had sold
+her, sold her in cold blood, and her life was ruined. Had the visitor in
+his youth and strength and grace been Sir Galahad himself, she could not
+have yearned more toward his protection.</p>
+
+<p>To Ben she looked, as she stood there, like a lovely lily in a green
+calyx, and her expression made his hands tingle to knock flat the
+scowling, middle-aged man with the unkempt hair and the missing tooth
+who was uneasily edging him farther and farther out the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Melody don't wish to receive calls at present and you can tell her
+friend so," said Rufus in the same rough tone. "She don't wear black,
+but she's in mournin' all the same. Her father died recently. Ain't you
+in mournin', Geraldine?" He turned toward the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She had dropped her hands and seized the back of her chair for support.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she breathed despairingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't I see you for a few minutes, Miss Melody?" said Ben over the
+wrathful Carder's shoulder. "Miss Upton sent me to you. My name is
+Barry."</p>
+
+<p>"No, you can't, and that's the end of it!" shouted Rufus.</p>
+
+<p>Ben's smile had vanished. His eyes had sparks in them as he looked down
+at the shorter man.</p>
+
+<p>"Not at all the end of it," he returned. "Miss Melody decides this. Can
+you give me a few minutes?"</p>
+
+<p>As he addressed her he again met the wonderful, dark-lashed eyes that
+were beseeching him.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder looked around at the girl his thin lips twitching in ugly
+fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> can tell him, then, if he won't take it from me," he said, "and
+mind you're quick about it. We ain't ready here for guests. Miss Melody
+don't want to receive anybody. She's tired and she's recuperatin'. Tell
+him so, Geraldine."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's lips moved at first without a sound; then she spoke:</p>
+
+<p>"I'm very tired, Mr. Barry," she said faintly. "Please excuse me."</p>
+
+<p>Rufus turned back to the guest.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-day, sir," he ejaculated savagely.</p>
+
+<p>Ben stood for a silent space undecided. His fists were clenched.
+Geraldine, meeting his glowing eyes, shook her head slowly. Her keen
+distress made him fear to make another move.</p>
+
+<p>"At some other time, then, perhaps," he said, tingling with the
+increasing desire to knock down his host and catch this girl up in his
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, at some other time," said Rufus, speaking with a sneer. "Tell Miss
+Upton that Mrs. Carder may see her later."</p>
+
+<p>A tide of crimson rushed over Ben's face. He saw that there must be a
+pressure here that he could not understand, and again Geraldine's fair
+head and wonderful eyes signaled him a warning. He could not risk
+increasing her suffering.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-day, sir," repeated Rufus; and the visitor stepped down from the
+office-door in silence and out to his machine.</p>
+
+<p>Carder turned back to Geraldine, who met his angry gaze with despairing
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"What have I to hope for from you when you treat a stranger so
+inexcusably?" she said in a low, clear voice that had a sharp edge.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a>
+<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Tingling with the Increasing Desire to knock down<br />
+his Host and catch this Girl up in his Arms"</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>"Let me run this," said Rufus with bravado. "You'll find out later what
+you'll get from me, and it will be nothin' to complain of when once
+you're Mrs. Carder. You can have that fat porpoise or any other woman
+come to see you, and when you're ridin' 'em around in the new car I'm
+goin' to get you, they'll be green with envy. You'll see. Let me run
+this."</p>
+
+<p>His absorption in Geraldine had distracted Carder's attention from the
+fact that he was not hearing the departure of that most satirically
+named engine of misery, "The Silent Traveler."</p>
+
+<p>He strode to a window and saw Ben Barry mounting his machine close to
+where Pete was mowing the grass.</p>
+
+<p>He hurried to the door. "Come here, you damned coot!" he yelled. And
+Pete dropped the mower and ambled up to the office-door.</p>
+
+<p>"What did that man want of you?" he asked furiously.</p>
+
+<p>"Wanted to know the shortest road to Keefe," replied Pete in his usual
+sullen tone.</p>
+
+<p>"You lie!" exclaimed Rufus. If Ben Barry had looked like a dusty Sir
+Galahad to Geraldine, he had looked dangerously attractive to Carder,
+who cursed the luck that had made him invite the girl to his office on
+this particular afternoon. "You lie!" he repeated, and stepping back to
+his desk he seized a whip which lay along one side of it.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine cried out, and springing forward grasped his arm. He paused at
+the first voluntary touch he had ever received from her.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you dare strike that boy!" she exclaimed breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>Carder looked down at the white horror in her face and in her shining
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm goin' to get the truth out of him," he said, his mouth twitching.
+"You go up to the house."</p>
+
+<p>"I will not go up to the house! Put down that whip! If you strike Pete,
+I'll kill myself." She finished speaking, more slowly, and Rufus,
+looking down into her strangely changed look, became uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>"I guess not," he said. "You go up to the house."</p>
+
+<p>"I mean it," declared Geraldine in a low tone. "What have I to live for!
+My own father, the only one on earth I had to love, has sold me to a man
+who has shown himself a ruffian. One thing you have no power over is my
+life, and what have I now to live for!"</p>
+
+<p>Carder dropped the whip. There was no doubt of her sincerity.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Geraldine, calm down," he said, anxiety sounding through his
+bravado. "I'm sorry I had to give you that shock about Dick; but it was
+your own high-headed attitude that made it necessary. Calm down now. I
+won't touch Pete. What was it, boy," he went on, addressing the dwarf in
+his usual tone&mdash;"What did that man ask you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The shortest way to Keefe," repeated the dwarf. His eyes were fixed
+dully on Geraldine, but his heart was thumping. She had said she would
+kill herself if his master struck him.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus looked at him, unsatisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he give you?" he asked after a silence.</p>
+
+<p>Pete put his hand in the pocket of his coarse blue shirt and drew out a
+half-dollar.</p>
+
+<p>"Humph!" grunted Rufus. "You can go."</p>
+
+<p>He turned back to Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"Is one allowed to write letters from here?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course, of course," replied Rufus genially. "What a foolish
+question." His face had settled into its customary lines.</p>
+
+<p>"Where do we take them? Out to the rural-delivery box? I should like to
+write to Miss Upton. She was very kind to me."</p>
+
+<p>"No, don't mail anything there. It isn't safe. Right here is the place."
+He indicated a box on his desk. "Drop anything you want to have go right
+in here. I'll take care of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," thought Geraldine bitterly. He will take care of it.</p>
+
+<p>Another motor-cycle now sped into the driveway and approached. This time
+it was the tenant Carder had expected, and Geraldine left the office and
+went back to the house. At the moment when she stepped out of the yellow
+building, Pete ceased mowing the grass. Looking back when she had
+traversed half the distance, she saw that he was following her, the
+mower clicking after him.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor slaves," she thought heavily. "Poor slaves, he and I!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Midnight Message</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Sitting down at the supper table that evening was a severe ordeal.
+Geraldine had angered Carder, but she had also frightened him, and he
+was mild in manner and words and did not attempt to be either
+affectionate or jocose. Instead he dwelt on the good promise of the
+crops, and mentioned having extended the time of payment to a delinquent
+tenant.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine forced herself to eat something, and the host addressed most
+of his remarks to his mother, who was again compelled to sit at table
+and allow the young girl to do the serving.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of throwin' out a wing or two or say a bay window to
+the house, Ma, while we're refurnishin'?" he asked pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Just as you say, Rufus," was her docile response. "I think, though,
+Miss Geraldine would like a bathroom better."</p>
+
+<p>"Bathroom, eh?" returned Carder, regarding the girl's stiffly immobile
+face and downcast eyes. "It would mean a lot of expense, but what
+Geraldine says goes. I can stand the damage, I guess."</p>
+
+<p>No word from Geraldine. Rufus was made thoroughly uneasy by her rigid
+pallor. He blamed himself for not having waited longer to produce his
+trump card and clinch his possession of her.</p>
+
+<p>His own dreams were troubled that night and long in coming. Geraldine,
+as soon as the dishes were dried and put away, went up to her room and
+locked the door. She sat down to think, and strangely accompanying the
+paralyzing discovery of her father's downfall was the memory of the tall
+stranger with the dusty clothes and gallant bearing. She shut out the
+memory of his delightful speech, his speaking eyes, and the way he
+towered above Rufus and held himself in check for her sake.</p>
+
+<p>"For my sake!" she repeated to herself bitterly. "They are all
+alike&mdash;men. He would be just the same as the other at close quarters.
+Some have no veneer like this boor, and some have the polish, but they
+are all the same underneath. Even Father, poor Father."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine felt hot, slow tears begin to scald her eyes. The last time
+she had cried she had been with Miss Upton and felt her hearty, motherly
+sympathy. That young man had come from her. Miss Upton was thinking of
+her. The tears came faster now under the memory of the kindness of her
+chance acquaintance on the day&mdash;it seemed months ago&mdash;that she had left
+the world and entered upon this living death.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's messenger would return to her and tell of his fruitless
+quest and describe Rufus Carder, and she knew how that kind heart would
+ache; but Mr. Barry would also tell her that her young friend had
+repulsed him and would discourage her from further effort. Geraldine
+knew that no letter from the outside would be allowed to reach her, nor
+would any be allowed to go out from her, until she had paid the ghastly
+price which her father's protection necessitated.</p>
+
+<p>She did not know how long she sat on that hard chair in the ugly room
+that night. She only knew how valiantly she struggled to stifle the
+sobs that wrenched her slight body. Early in the evening she had heard a
+soft impact against her door, which she knew meant that the watchdog was
+in his place.</p>
+
+<p>Her kerosene lamp was burning low, when again a slight sound against her
+door made her look that way apprehensively and wish that she had
+barricaded it as on the night before.</p>
+
+<p>Something white caught her eye. It was paper being slowly pushed beneath
+the door and now an envelope was revealed. Geraldine started up and
+noiselessly crept toward it. Seizing it she carried it to the light. It
+was a letter addressed to herself:</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss Geraldine Melody</i></p>
+
+<p>And down in the left-hand corner were the words&mdash;<i>"Kindness of Mr.
+Barry."</i> Across the face of the envelope was scrawled in another hand
+these words: "Courage. Walk in meadow. Wear white."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine stared at this with her swollen eyes, the aftermath of her
+wild weeping causing convulsive catches in her throat which she stifled
+automatically. Turning the envelope over she saw that it was sealed
+clumsily with red wax.</p>
+
+<p>Running a hairpin through the flap she opened it and took out the letter
+with trembling hands. This is what she read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Melody</span>:</p>
+
+<p>I can't help worrying about you, not knowing what you found when
+you got to the farm, and whether Mr. Carder and his mother turned
+out to be the kind you like to live with. I've wished a hundred
+times that I'd brought you home with me instead of letting you go,
+because, after all the hard experiences you went through, I wanted
+to be sure that you found care and protection where you was going.
+I'm poor and have only a small place, but I'd have found some way
+to take care of you.</p>
+
+<p>I worried so much about it, and Mr. Carder, the little I saw of him
+that day at the hotel, acted so much as if he owned you, that I
+thought it would be just as well to hear what a lawyer would say;
+so I went to see Benjamin Barry. He's studying to be a lawyer and
+he's the young man who has consented to hunt up the Carder farm
+and take my letter to you. I know it ain't etiket to seal up a
+letter you send by hand, but I'm going to seal this with wax just
+so you'll know that Ben hasn't read it. After your experience with
+men it will be hard for you to trust any man, I'm pretty sure. So I
+just want to tell you that I've known Ben Barry from a baby and
+he's the cleanest, <i>finest</i> boy in the world. You can't always tell
+whether he's in fun or in earnest, because he's a great one to
+joke; but his folks are the finest that you could find anywhere.
+He's got good blood and he's been brought up with the greatest care
+and expense. If I had ten daughters I'd trust him with them all. He
+is the soul of honor about everything, so don't hesitate to tell
+him just how you're fixed. If you are happy and contented, that's
+all I want to know; but if you ain't I want to know that posthaste,
+for I shall want you to come right here to me at Keefe. Ben will
+tell you how to come and you can tell Mr. Carder that you have
+found a better position. Give him a week's notice; that's
+<i>honorable</i> and <i>long enough</i>. I shan't be easy in my mind till Ben
+gets back, and he's so good to go for me that I should love him
+for it all the rest of my life if I didn't already.</p>
+
+<p>Now, good-bye, dear child, and be <i>perfectly frank</i> with Ben.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Your loving friend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Mehitable Upton</span><br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>In her utter despair and desolation this homely expression of
+affectionate solicitude went to Geraldine's heart like a message from
+heaven. She held the senseless paper to her breast, and her pulses beat
+fast as she read again those words scribbled across the face of the
+envelope.</p>
+
+<p>They meant an understanding that she was not a free agent. They meant
+that the young knight had not given up. He could never know&mdash;kind Miss
+Upton must never know&mdash;what it was that compelled her, and why nothing
+that they might contrive could save her.</p>
+
+<p>Good little Pete had risked brutal treatment to bring her this. Her
+heart welled with gratitude toward him. She felt that she could continue
+to protect him to a degree, for the infatuation of their master gave her
+power to that extent.</p>
+
+<p>She was no longer pale. Her cheeks were flushed, her sobs ceased. There
+were hearts that cared for her. Some miracle might intervene to save
+her. The knight was a lawyer. The law was very wonderful. A sudden
+shudder passed over her. What it could have done to her father&mdash;still
+honored at his clubs as the prince of good fellows!</p>
+
+<p>She reviewed her situation anew. It was established that she was a
+prisoner. Then in order to obey the message on the envelope she must
+follow the example of the more ambitious prisoners and become a trusty.
+Poor Geraldine, who had ceased to pray, began to feel that there might
+be a God after all; and when she was between the coarse, mended sheets
+of her bed she held Miss Upton's letter to her breast and thanked the
+unseen Power for a friend.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke, it was with the confused sense that some happiness was
+awaiting her. As her mind cleared, the mental atmosphere clouded.</p>
+
+<p>Did not any hope which imagination held out mean the cruel revenge of
+her jailer? Could she betray her father as he had betrayed her?</p>
+
+<p>She dressed and went downstairs to help Mrs. Carder. The precious letter
+was against her breast.</p>
+
+<p>Pete was washing at the pump. She did not dare approach him to speak;
+but she soon found that as to that opportunities would be plentiful; for
+whenever she left the house she had a respectful shadow; never close,
+but always in the vicinity, and remembering yesterday and the lawn-mower
+she now realized that the watchdog who guarded her by night had orders
+to perform the same office by day.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus felt some relief at seeing his guest appear this morning. His
+dreams would have been pleasanter had he been perfectly sure that she
+would not in her youthful horror and despair evade him in the one way
+possible. He bade her good-morning with an inoffensive commonplace. He
+had shot his bolt; now his policy must be soothing and unexacting until
+her fear of him had abated and custom had reconciled her to her new
+life. She was silent at breakfast, speaking only when spoken to, and
+observant of his mother's needs; waiting upon him, too, when it was
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>"I must get one o' these reclinin'-chairs for you, Geraldine," he said,
+"and put it out under the elm tree. Your elm tree, we'll have to call
+it, because you've saved its life, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"It is nice that there is one bit of shade here," she replied. "I
+suppose you hang a hammock there in summer for your mother."</p>
+
+<p>Rufus grinned at his parent, who was vastly uncomfortable under the new
+r&eacute;gime of being waited upon by a golden-haired beauty.</p>
+
+<p>"How about it, Ma?" he said. "Did you ever lie down in a hammock in your
+life? Got to do it now, you know. Bay windows and hammocks belong
+together. We got to be stylish now this little girl's goin' to boss us.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a sightly day, Geraldine. How would you like to go for a drive and
+see somethin' of the country around here? It's mighty pretty. You seem
+stuck on trees. I'll show you a wood road that's a wonder."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine cringed, but controlled herself. Renewed contact with Rufus
+was inexorably crushing every reviving hope of the night.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it would be a refreshing thing for your mother," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, indeed!" exclaimed the old woman, with an anxious look at her
+son. "I'm scared of autos. I don't want to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you're goin', Ma," declared Rufus, perceiving that Geraldine
+would as yet refuse to go alone with him, and considering that as
+ballast in the tonneau his mother's presence would be innocuous. "This
+little girl's got the reins. You and me are passengers. Don't forget
+that."</p>
+
+<p>So later in the fresh, lovely spring day, Mrs. Carder, wrapped in an
+antiquated shawl and with a bonnet that had to be rescued from an unused
+shelf, was tucked into the back seat of the car.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus held open the front door for Geraldine, and though she hesitated
+she decided not to anger him and stepped in to sit beside him. He did
+all the talking that was done, the girl replying in monosyllables and
+looking straight before her.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I'd stop to the village," he said, "and wire into town to
+have some help sent out. How would you word it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came as help," replied Geraldine. "I think we get along with the work
+pretty well. Pete is very handy for a boy. Your mother seems to dread
+servants. Don't send for anybody on my account."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's voice was colorless, and she did not look at Rufus who
+regarded her uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," he said at last. "Perhaps it would be as well to wait till
+some day we're in town and you can talk to 'em. I'll wire for some eats
+anyway."</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the village the car stopped before the
+telegraph-office. Carder left the car, and at the mere temporary relief
+of him Geraldine's heart lightened. A wild wish swept through her that
+she knew how to drive and could put on all the power and drive away,
+even kidnapping the shrunken, beshawled slave in the tonneau.</p>
+
+<p>But the thought of the dusty knight intervened. If she were going to
+betray her father, let it be under his guidance whatever that might be.
+She could not do it, though. She could not!</p>
+
+<p>A man loafing on the walk saw Mrs. Carder and, stopping, addressed her
+with some country greeting. Geraldine instantly turned to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Keefe?" she asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" he returned stupidly, with a curious gaze at her lovely, eager
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Keefe. The village of Keefe. Where is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, that's yonder," said the man, pointing. "T'other side o' the
+mountain."</p>
+
+<p>She turned to Mrs. Carder. "I have a friend who lives there, a very good
+friend whom I would like to see."</p>
+
+<p>She made the explanation lest the old woman should tell her son of her
+eager question.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus came out, nodded curtly to the man beside his machine, jumped in,
+and drove off.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine spoke. "I'm surprised this country seems so flat. I thought it
+would be hilly about here."</p>
+
+<p>"Not so close to the sea," replied Carder. "There is what they call the
+mountain, though, over yonder." He jerked his head vaguely. "Pretty
+good-sized hill. Makes a water-shed that favors my farm."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine appeared to listen in silence to the monologue that followed
+concerning her companion's prowess as a self-made man and the cleverness
+with which he had seized every opportunity that came his way. Her mind
+was in a singular tumult. An incoming wave of thought&mdash;the reminder that
+she must be clever, too, and earn Carder's confidence in order that he
+might relax his espionage&mdash;was met by the counter-consideration that if
+she disappointed his desire he would blast her father's name. Just as
+happens in the meeting of the incoming and outgoing tide, her thoughts
+would be broken and fly up in a confusion as to what course she really
+wished to pursue. By the time she gained the privacy of her own room
+that night, she felt exhausted by the contradictions of her own beaten
+heart and she sat down again in the hard chair, too dulled to think.</p>
+
+<p>At last she put her hand in her bosom and drew out her letter. She would
+feel the human touch of Miss Upton's kindliness once again. Even if she
+gave "her body to be burned" and all life became a desert of ashes, one
+star would shine upon her sacrifice, the affectionate thought of this
+good woman who had made so much effort for her.</p>
+
+<p>She closed her eyes to the exhortation scribbled on the envelope.
+Whatever plan the tall knight had in mind, it was certain that her
+escape was the end in view. Did she wish to escape? Did she? Could she
+pay the cost? What happiness would there be for her when all her life
+she Would be hearing in fancy the amazement at her father's crime, the
+gossip and condemnation that would go the rounds of his associates.</p>
+
+<p>She held the letter to her sick heart and gazing into space pictured the
+hateful future.</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight stir outside her door. Something was again being
+pushed beneath it by slow degrees. Again it looked like an envelope, but
+this time the paper was not white. Geraldine regarded the small dusky
+square, scarcely discernible in the lamplight, and rising went toward
+it.</p>
+
+<p>She picked up the much-soiled object by its extreme corner. It bore no
+address. She believed Pete must have written to her, and was greatly
+touched by the thought that the poor boy might wish to express to her
+his sympathy or his gratitude. It had been a brave soul who stood
+stolidly before Rufus Carder and refused to give up Miss Upton's letter.
+Moving cautiously and without a sound, she took the letter to the
+bureau, and holding down the bent and soiled envelope with the handle of
+her hairbrush, she again used the woman's universal utensil, opened the
+seal, and drew out a letter. Her heart suddenly leaped to her throat,
+for it was her father's handwriting that met her eye. Unfolding the
+sheet, and cold with dread, she began to read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">My Dear Gerrie</span>:</p>
+
+<p>If this letter ever reaches you I shall be dead. The heart attacks
+have been worse of late and it may be I shall go off suddenly. If I
+do, I want to get word to you which if I live it will not be
+necessary for you to read. I have not been a good father and I
+deserve nothing at your hands. The worst mistake of all those that
+I have made was marrying the woman who has shirked mothering you;
+and after I am gone I know you have nothing to expect from her. I
+am financially involved with Rufus Carder to an extent that gives
+me constant anxiety. He has happened to see you and taken a
+violent fancy to you, and this fact has made him withdraw the
+pressure that has made my nights miserable. He has been trying to
+persuade me to let you come out here. He knows that his cousin
+Juliet is not attached to you, and, since seeing me in one of my
+attacks of pain, he is constantly reminding me how precarious is my
+life and that if he had a daughter like you she should have every
+advantage money could buy. He is a rough specimen with a miserly
+reputation. I won't go into the occasions of weakness and need
+which have resulted in his power over me. Suffice it to say that he
+may bring cruel pressure to bear on you, and I want to warn you
+solemnly not to let any consideration of me or what people may say
+of me influence your actions. You are young and beautiful, and I
+pray that the rest of your life may have in it more happiness than
+your childhood has known. I have interceded with Carder for Pete
+several times, winning the poor fellow's devotion. He can't read
+writing and will not be tempted to open this. I'm sure he will hide
+it and manage to give it to you secretly if you come to this
+dreary place. My poor child! My selfishness all rises before me and
+the punishment is fearful. If there is a God, may He bless you and
+guard you, my innocent little girl.</p>
+
+<p>Your unworthy</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Father</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Geraldine's hungry heart drank in the tender message. Again and again
+she kissed the letter while tears of grief ran down her cheeks. A tiny
+hope sprang in her breast. She read her father's words over and over,
+striving to glean from them a contradiction of the accusation that he
+had planned and carried out a deliberate crime.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder had promised her father to treat her as a daughter. How
+that assertion soothed the wound to her filial affection, and warmed her
+heart with the assurance that her father had not sold her into the worst
+slavery!</p>
+
+<p>She soon crept into bed, but not to sleep. Her father's exhortation
+seemed to give her permission to speculate on those words of the
+stranger knight:</p>
+
+<p>"Courage. Walk in meadow. Wear white."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Meadow</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The knight was doubly dusty when, returning from his quest in the late
+twilight, he halted his noisy steed before Upton's Fancy Goods and
+Notions. He was confronted by a sign: "Closed. Taking account of stock."</p>
+
+<p>The young man tried the door which resisted vigorous turns of its
+handle. Nothing daunted, he knocked peremptorily, then waited a space.
+Getting no response, he renewed his assaults with such force that at
+last the lock turned, the door opened, and an irate face with a
+one-sided slit of a mouth was projected at him threateningly.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you read, hey?" was the exasperated question, followed by an
+energetic effort to close the door which was foiled by the interposition
+of a masculine foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Mrs. Whipp, I learned last year. I'm awfully sorry, but I have to
+come in." As he spoke the visitor opened the door in spite of the
+indignant resistance of Charlotte's whole body, and walked into the
+empty shop where kerosene lamps were already burning. "I have to see
+Miss Upton. Awfully sorry to disturb you like this," he added, smiling
+down at the angry, weazened face which gradually grew bewildered. "Why,
+it's Mr. Barry," she soliloquized aloud. "Just the same," she added, the
+sense of outrage holding over, "we'd ruther you'd 'a' come to-morrer."</p>
+
+<p>Ben strode through the shop and out to the living-room, Mrs. Whipp
+following impotently, talking in a high, angry voice.</p>
+
+<p>"'T ain't my fault, Miss Upton. He would come in. Some folk'll do jest
+what they please, whatever breaks."</p>
+
+<p>"Law, Ben Barry!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable with a start. "You've surely
+caught me in my regimentals!"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's regimentals consisted of ample and billowy apron effects
+over a short petticoat. Her hair was brushed straight off her round face
+and twisted in a knot as tight as Charlotte's own; and she wore large
+list slippers.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you care, Mehit. I look like a blackamoor myself. I had to see
+you"&mdash;the young fellow grasped his friend's hands, his eyes sparkling.
+"I'd kiss you if I was wearing a pint less dust. She's an angel, a star,
+a wonder!" he finished vehemently.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton forgot her own appearance, her lips worked, and her eyes were
+eager. "Ain't she, ain't she?" she responded in excitement equal to his
+own. "Is she comin'? When?"</p>
+
+<p>"Heaven knows. She's a prisoner, with that brute for a jailer."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton, who had been standing by the late supper-table in the act of
+assisting Charlotte to carry off the wreck, fell into a chair, her mouth
+open.</p>
+
+<p>"And you left her there!" she cried at last. "You didn't knock him down
+and carry her off!"</p>
+
+<p>"Great Scott, how I wanted to!" replied Ben between his teeth, his fists
+clenched; "but she wouldn't let me. There's something there we've got to
+find out. She shook her head and signaled me to do nothing. He told her
+to bid me go away and she obeyed him. Oh, Miss Upton, how she looked!
+The most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life, but the most haunted,
+mournful, despairing face&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, you're makin' me sick!" responded Miss Mehitable, her voice
+breaking. "Did you give the poor lamb my letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"He wouldn't let me get near enough to do that; but I gave it to a
+stupid-looking dwarf who was mowing the grass near by. I'm not even sure
+he understood me. Perhaps he was deaf and dumb. I don't know; but it was
+the best I could do. She showed me so plainly that I was only making it
+harder for her by insisting on anything, there was nothing for me to do
+but to come away, boiling." Ben began striding up and down the
+living-room, his hands in his pockets, his restlessness causing Pearl to
+leap up, barely escaping his heavy shoe. Her arched back and her
+mistress's face both betokened an outraged bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp's eyes and ears were stretched to the utmost. This autocratic
+young upstart had broken into the house and nearly stepped on her pet.
+All the same, if he hadn't done so, Miss Upton would still be keeping
+secrets from her. She had felt sure ever since Miss Mehitable's last
+trip to the city that there was something unusual in the air and that
+she was being defrauded of her rights in being shut out from
+participation therein. Had this young masculine hurricane not stormed in
+to-night, no telling how long she would have been kept in the dark; so
+she stopped, looked, and listened, with all her might.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what are you goin' to <i>do</i>, Ben?" asked Miss Upton, beseechingly.
+"You're not goin' to leave it so, are you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not. Carder is going to have me on his trail till that
+exquisite creature is out of his clutches. Never was there a sleuth with
+his heart in his business as mine will be. Oh!"&mdash;Ben, pausing not in the
+march which sent Pearl to the top of a bookcase, raised his gaze
+heavenward&mdash;"what eyes, Miss Upton! Those beautiful despairing eyes in
+that dreary, sordid den, cut off from the world!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, you stop!" whimpered Miss Mehitable, using her handkerchief.
+"You're breakin' my heart. And to think how you scoffed at me on
+Sunday!"</p>
+
+<p>"Wasting time like a fool!" ejaculated Ben. He suddenly stopped before
+the weeping Mehitable, nearly tripping over her roomy slippers. "Now,
+Miss Upton, this is what you are to do. I'm going to town the first
+thing in the morning and take steps to get on the trail of that sly fox.
+You go right up to see Mother and tell her all about Miss Melody." Again
+his gaze sought the ceiling. "Melody! What a perfect name for the most
+charming, graceful, exquisite human flower that ever bloomed!" Turning
+suddenly, the rapt speaker encountered Mrs. Whipp's twisted, acid,
+hungrily listening countenance. He emitted a burst of laughter and
+looked back at Miss Mehitable, who was wiping her eyes. "Tell Mother the
+whole story," he went on, "just as you did to me; and here's hoping my
+skepticism isn't inherited. And now, Mrs. Whipp"&mdash;addressing the faded
+listener who gave a surprised sniff&mdash;"I'll go home and wash my face. I
+know you'll approve of that. Good-night, Miss Upton; don't you cry. I'm
+going to put up a good fight and perhaps Geraldine&mdash;oh, what a lovely
+name!&mdash;perhaps she has the comfort of your letter by this time." Ben
+scowled with sudden introspection. "What hold has that rascal over her?
+That's what puzzles me. What hold <i>can</i> he have?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable blew her nose grievously. "Why, he's cousin to her rascal
+stepmother, you know. No tellin' what they cooked up between 'em."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, after her emissary had departed Miss Upton had to face Mrs.
+Whipp and her injured sniffs and silent implications of maltreatment;
+but she sketched the story to her, eliciting the only question she
+dreaded.</p>
+
+<p>"What did you say to the girl in your letter? Did you write her to come
+here?" Mrs. Whipp's manner was stony.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I did," replied Miss Mehitable bravely.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I s'pose I'd better be makin' other plans," said Charlotte, going
+to Pearl and picking her up as if preparing for instant departure.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's eyes shone with exasperation. "I wish you wouldn't drive me
+crazy, Charlotte Whipp. If you haven't any sympathy for a poor orphan in
+jail on a desolate farm, then I wouldn't own it, if I was you. You can
+see what chance she has o' comin' here. If the <i>law</i> has to settle it,
+she's likely to be toothless before she can make a move."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp was startled by the wrathful voice and manner of one usually
+so pacific.</p>
+
+<p>"I didn't mean to make you mad, Miss Upton," she said with a meek change
+of manner; and there the matter dropped.</p>
+
+<p>Now was a crucial time for Geraldine Melody. Her father's exhortation to
+her not to consider him and the doubt which his letter had raised as to
+his legal guilt, coupled with the memory of the vigorous young knight in
+knickerbockers, gave her the feeling that she might at least obey the
+latter's mysterious hint.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder was still in fear that he had pushed matters too fast, and
+the next morning, when his captive came downstairs to help get the
+breakfast, he contented himself with devouring her with his eyes. She
+felt that she must guard her every look lest he observe a vestige of her
+reviving hope and courage. She must return to the thought of becoming a
+"trusty." It would be difficult to steer a course between the docility
+that would encourage odious advances on the one hand, and on the other
+a too obvious repugnance which would put her jailer on his guard. Of
+course there were moments when the lines of her father's letter seemed
+to her to admit criminality, but at others the natural hopefulness of
+youth asserted itself, and she interpreted his words to indicate only
+his humiliation and disgraceful debts.</p>
+
+<p>There was an innate loftiness, an ethereal quality, about the girl's
+personality which Carder always felt, in spite of himself, even at the
+very moments when he was obtruding his familiarities upon her. She was
+like a fine jewel which he had stolen, but which baffled his efforts to
+set it among his own possessions.</p>
+
+<p>Already in the short time which had elapsed since bringing her to the
+farm, she had fallen away to an alarming delicacy of appearance. Her
+mental conflict and the blows she had received showed so plainly in her
+looks that Carder's whole mind became absorbed in the desire to build
+her up. She might slip away from him yet without any recourse to
+violence on her own part.</p>
+
+<p>That morning, her father's letter in the same envelope with Miss Upton's
+and both treasures against her heart, she came downstairs and saw Pete
+washing at the pump. Rufus Carder was not in sight, and she moved
+swiftly toward the dwarf, who looked frightened at her approach.</p>
+
+<p>"How can I thank you, Pete!" she exclaimed softly, and her smile
+transformed her pale face into something heavenly to look upon. Her eyes
+poured gratitude into his dull ones and his face crimsoned.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep away," was all he said.</p>
+
+<p>Carder appeared, as it seemed, up through the ground, and the dwarf
+rubbed his face and neck with a rough, grimy towel.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-mornin'," said Rufus in his harsh voice.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine turned a lightless face toward him. "Good-morning," she said.
+"Is this well a spring?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Have you noticed how good the water is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was just coming for a drink when you startled me. I didn't see you."</p>
+
+<p>"Allow me," said Rufus, picking up the half cocoanut shell which was
+chained to the wood. "Let's make a loving-cup of it. I'm thirsty, too."</p>
+
+<p>He held the cup while Pete pumped the water over it, and finally shaking
+off the clinging drops offered it to the guest.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine made good her words. An inward fever of excitement was burning
+in her veins. The proximity of this man caused her always the same
+panic. Oh, what was meant by those written words of the sunny-eyed,
+upstanding young knight who had obeyed her so reluctantly? Now it was
+her turn to obey him, and she must see to it that no suspicion of
+Carder's should prevent her.</p>
+
+<p>When she had drunk every drop, Rufus took a few sips&mdash;he had not much
+use for water&mdash;and they returned to the house together.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Carder and Pete had sent the hired men afield, the three sat
+down to breakfast as usual, and Rufus, moved by the guest's transparent
+appearance and downcast eyes, played unconsciously into her hands.</p>
+
+<p>"This is great weather, Geraldine," he said. "You don't want to mope in
+the house. You want to spend a lot o' time outdoors. I'll take you out
+driving whenever you want to go."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine lifted her eyes to his&mdash;the eyes with the drooping, pensive
+corners deepened by dark lashes which Miss Upton had tried to describe.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'm not feeling very strong, Mr. Carder," she said listlessly.
+"Long drives tire me."</p>
+
+<p>"Long walks will tire you more," he answered, instantly suspicious.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I don't feel equal to them now," she answered, her grave glance
+dropping again to her plate.</p>
+
+<p>He regarded her with a troubled frown.</p>
+
+<p>"That hammock chair and a hammock will be out to-day," he said. "I'll
+put 'em under the elm you're so stuck on, and I guess we can scare up
+some books for you to read."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's heart began to quicken and she put a guard upon her manner
+lest eagerness should crop out in spite of her.</p>
+
+<p>"It is early for shade," she replied. "The sun is pleasant. Everything
+is so bare about here," she added wearily. "I wish I could find some
+flowers."</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that Mrs. Carder, poor dumb automaton, volunteered a remark;
+and the most silver-tongued orator could not have better pleased
+Geraldine with eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>"Used to be quite a lot grow down in the medder," she said.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's heart beat like a little triphammer, but she did not look up
+from her plate, nor change her listless expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like to go and see if there are any," she said. "I love them. Where
+is the meadow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's just that swale to the right of the driveway," said Rufus.
+"It's low ground, and I s'pose the wild flowers do like it. I hope the
+cows haven't taken them all. You needn't be afraid o' the cows."</p>
+
+<p>"No, I'm not," replied Geraldine. "Perhaps I'll go some time."</p>
+
+<p>"Go to-day, go while the goin's good," urged Rufus. "Never can tell when
+the rain will keep you in. You shall have a flower garden, Geraldine.
+You tell me where you'd like it and I'll have the ground got ready right
+off."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," she answered, "but I like the wild flowers best."</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the dishes were dried, Geraldine went up to her room and
+delved into her little trunk. She brought out a white cotton dress. It
+had not been worn since the summer before, and though clean it was badly
+wrinkled. She took it down to the kitchen and ironed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Goin' to put on a white dress?" asked Mrs. Carder. "Kind o' cool for
+that, ain't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think so. I have very few dresses, and I get tired of wearing
+the same one."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder sighed. "Rufus will buy you all the dresses you want if
+you'll only get strong. I can see he's dreadful worried because you look
+pale."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I am going to try to become sunburned to-day. I'm so glad you
+thought of the meadow, Mrs. Carder. Perhaps you like flowers, too."</p>
+
+<p>The old woman sighed. "I used to. I've 'most forgot what they look
+like."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bring you some if there are any."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's eyes held an excited light as she ironed away. After the
+eleven o'clock dinner she went up to her room to dress. Color came into
+her cheeks as she saw her reflection in the bit of mirror. What a
+strange thing she was doing. Supposing Miss Upton's paragon had already
+become absorbed in his own interests. How absurd she should feel
+wandering afield in the costume he had ordered, if he never came and she
+never heard from him again.</p>
+
+<p>"Wear white."</p>
+
+<p>What could it mean? What possible difference could the color of her gown
+make in any plan he might have concocted for her assistance? However, in
+the dearth of all hope, in her helplessness and poverty, and aching from
+the heart-wound Rufus Carder had given her, why should she not obey?</p>
+
+<p>The color receded from her face, and again delving into her trunk she
+brought forth an old, white, embroidered cr&ecirc;pe shawl with deep fringe
+which had belonged to her mother. This she wrapped about her and started
+downstairs. She feared that Carder would accompany her in her ramble.
+She could hear his rough voice speaking to some workmen in front of the
+house, and she moved noiselessly out to the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder looked up from the bread she was moulding and started,
+staring over her spectacles at the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"You look like a bride," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll bring you some flowers," replied Geraldine, hastening out of the
+kitchen-door down the incline toward the yellow office.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, there," called the voice she loathed, and Carder came striding
+after her. She stood still and faced him. The long lines and deep,
+clinging fringe of the creamy white shawl draped her in statuesque
+folds. Carder gasped in admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"You look perfectly beautiful!" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>The young girl reminded herself that she was working to become a trusty.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the idea," he went on, "of makin' such a toilet for the benefit
+of the cows?" At the same time, the wish being father to the thought,
+the glorious suspicion assailed him that Geraldine was perhaps not
+unwilling to show him her beauty in a new light. It stood to reason that
+she must possess a normal girlish vanity.</p>
+
+<p>She forced a faint smile. "It's just my mother's old shawl," she
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Want me to help you find your flowers?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"If you wish to," she answered, "but it isn't discourteous to like to be
+alone sometimes, is it, Mr. Carder? You were saying at dinner that I
+looked tired. I really don't feel very well. I thought I would like to
+roam about alone a while in the sunshine."</p>
+
+<p>Her gentle humility brought forth a loud: "Oh, of course, of course,
+that's all right. Suit yourself and you'll suit me. Just find some roses
+for your own cheeks while you're about it, that's all I ask."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try," she answered, and walked on. Carder accompanied her as far
+as his office, where he paused.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, bless your little sweet heart," he said, low and ardently, in
+the tone that always seemed to make the girl's very soul turn over.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," she answered, without meeting the hunger of his oblique
+gaze; and crossing the driveway she forced herself to move slowly down
+the grassy incline that led to the meadow where a number of cows were
+grazing.</p>
+
+<p>Carder watched longingly her graceful, white figure crowned with gold.
+She was safe enough in the meadow. Even if she desired to go out of
+bounds, she would not invade any public way, hatless, and in clinging
+white cr&ecirc;pe. The cows were excellent chaperones. Nevertheless&mdash;he
+snapped his fingers and Pete came out from behind the office.</p>
+
+<p>Carder did not speak, but pointed after the white figure, and Pete,
+again dragging the mower, ambled across the driveway and followed on
+down the slope.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine heard the clicking and glanced around, sure of what she should
+see. She smiled a little and shook her head as she walked on.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor little Pete. Good little Pete," she murmured. "I owe him every
+moment of comfort I've known in this place."</p>
+
+<p>When she considered that she had gone far enough to be free from
+observation, she turned to let him catch up with her; but when she
+paused he did likewise and waited immovable.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to talk to you, Pete. I'm so glad of the chance. I'm so thankful
+to you," she called softly.</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf drank in the delicate radiance of her face with adoring eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on," he replied. "He is watching. He is always watching. You look
+like an angel, but the devil is at the window. Go on."</p>
+
+<p>She turned back obediently and continued down the slope. When she
+reached the soft, spongy green of the meadow, the cows regarded her
+wonderingly. Pete began mowing the long grass on the edge, working so
+slowly that the sound did not mar the hush of the place; and sometimes
+he sank down at ease and pulled apart a jointed stem, his eyes feasting
+on his charge.</p>
+
+<p>The cows had scorned certain blooms which grew lavishly and which
+Geraldine waited to gather until it should be time to return. Near a
+large clump of hazel-bushes she found a low rock, and she stretched out
+there in the sunshine and quiet, and tried to think.</p>
+
+<p>There had been a little warm spot in her heart ever since that hour when
+she read Miss Upton's letter. She was no longer utterly friendless. If
+some miracle should give her back her freedom, this good woman would
+help her to find independence. She longed to see that village of Keefe.
+She wished never again to see a city. Did Benjamin Barry live in Keefe?
+Geraldine summoned his image only too easily. Despite Miss Upton's
+recommendation she did not wish to know him, or to trust him; but think
+about him she must since she was dressed to his order and in the spot of
+his selection. How absurd it all was! What dream could he have been
+indulging when he wrote those words?</p>
+
+<p>The girl could not keep her eyes from the driveway nor banish the
+pulsing hope that she should see a motor-cycle again speeding up the
+road. She even rose from her reclining posture lest she should not be
+sufficiently conspicuous in the field; but the hours passed and nothing
+occurred beyond the cows' occasional cessation from browsing to regard
+her when she moved, and the occasional arising of Pete from the ground
+to push his mower idly along the turf.</p>
+
+<p>The flat landscape, the broad sky, everything was laid bare to the
+windows of the yellow office. She felt certain that should the dusty
+knight reappear, he would be recognized from afar, and that Rufus Carder
+would circumvent any plan he might have. He would stop at nothing, that
+she knew. She wondered if the law would excuse a man for murdering an
+intruder who had once been warned off his premises. She did not doubt
+that Carder would be as ready with the shot-gun she had noticed in his
+office as he was with the cruel whip. She covered her face with her
+hands as she recalled the sunny-eyed knight and shuddered at the thought
+of another meeting between the two. It had been plain that the visitor's
+youth, strength, and good looks had thrown Carder into a panic. He would
+stop at nothing. Nothing.</p>
+
+<p>A lanky youth with trousers tucked in his boots at last appeared,
+slouching down toward the meadow to get the cows.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine came out of her apprehensive mental pictures with a sigh, and
+rose. She gathered her flowers, and moved slowly back toward the house.</p>
+
+<p>She must appear to have enjoyed her outing, else it would not seem
+consistent for her to wish to come again to-morrow; and she must, she
+must come again! Her poor contradictory little heart found itself
+clinging to the one vague, absurd hope, despite its fears.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Bird of Prey</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Not until another sunny day had passed uneventfully did Geraldine
+realize how much hope she was hanging upon the knight of the
+motor-cycle. Despite his youth, his manner and voice had been those of
+one accustomed to exercising authority. He certainly had had something
+definite in mind when he wrote that message to her. She knew so well
+Pete's stupid demeanor, that, as she roamed in the meadow that second
+day, she meditated on the probability that the visitor had despaired of
+her receiving the message, and had concluded to abandon his idea,
+whatever it might have been.</p>
+
+<p>It was at least a relief from odious pressure to be out in the field
+alone. The soft-eyed cows, an occasional bird flying overhead, and the
+intermittent clicking of Pete's lawn-mower as he kept his respectful
+distance were all peaceful. There was not a tree for a bird to light
+upon. Even birds fled from the Carder farm. The great elm could have
+sheltered many, but the feathered creatures seemed not to trust it.
+Perhaps a reason lay in the fact that numbers of cats lived under the
+barn and outhouses. Nearly always one might be seen crouching and
+crawling along the ground looking cautiously to the right and left. None
+was ever kept for a pet or allowed in the house or fed. They lived on
+rats, mice, birds, and the field mice, and were practically wild
+animals. In their frightened, suspicious actions at sight of a human
+being, Geraldine recognized a reflection of her own mental attitude; and
+she pitied the poor things even while they excited her repugnance.</p>
+
+<p>Spring and no birds, she thought sadly, gathering her few wild flowers
+when the cows had gone home that second afternoon. She strained her eyes
+down the driveway, Blankness. Blankness everywhere. At the house,
+misery.</p>
+
+<p>The old fairy tales came to her mind. Tales where the captive princess
+pines and hopes alternately.</p>
+
+<p>"'On the second day all happened as before,'" she murmured in quotation.
+It was always on the third day that something really came to pass, she
+remembered, and she scanned the sky for threatening clouds. Ah, if it
+should rain to-morrow and the leaden hours should drag by in that odious
+house! After having indulged a ray of hope, such a prospect seemed
+unbearable.</p>
+
+<p>In her r&ocirc;le of trusty she had constrained herself to civility. She had
+taken Mrs. Carder the flowers last night, and Rufus had put some tiny
+blooms in his buttonhole and caressed them at supper-time with
+significant glances at her.</p>
+
+<p>When she awoke on the following day her first move was to the window
+with an anxious look at the sky. As soon as she was satisfied that it
+was not threatening, a reaction set in to her thought. She always
+hastened to dress in the morning, for her compassion for Mrs. Carder
+made her hurry to her assistance. Pete's eyes in this few days had taken
+on a seeing look and he worked with energy to follow every direction of
+his golden-haired goddess. In the kitchen he did not avoid her eyes, and
+the smiles he received from her were the only sunbeams that had ever
+come into his life.</p>
+
+<p>She was in many minds that morning about going again to the meadow. It
+seemed so absurd, so humiliating to costume herself as for private
+theatricals, and to go repeatedly to keep a tryst which the other party,
+and that a man, had forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Would the princess in the fairy tale do so? she wondered; but then if
+she had not persisted the story could never have been written.</p>
+
+<p>"Ain't you sick o' that meadow and the cows?" asked Rufus at the
+dinner-table. "Hadn't you better go drivin' to-day? I've got an errand
+to the village and just as lieve do it myself as send one o' the men if
+you'll go."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine, the two braids of her hair brought up around her head in a
+golden wreath that rested on fluffy waves, was looking more than usually
+appealing, he thought, and he congratulated himself on the restraint
+with which he was allowing her mind to work on the proposition he had
+made to her. She was evidently becoming more normal, finding herself as
+it were. Those flashes of red and white that had passed across her face
+in her intensity of feeling had ceased. Her voice was steady and civil.</p>
+
+<p>"The meadow seems to agree with me," she answered. "Why should my not
+going with you prevent you from doing your errand at the village?"</p>
+
+<p>Why, indeed? thought Carder, regarding her. She had no money, she was in
+a part of the world strange to her. If she again strolled forth arrayed
+in the white costume in which her girlish vanity seemed to revel, how
+could she do anything unsafe during the short time of his absence,
+especially with Pete to guard her? The dwarf had had it made perfectly
+clear to him that his life depended on Geraldine's presence.</p>
+
+<p>However, it was Carder's policy never to take a very small chance of a
+very big misfortune. 'Safe bind, safe find,' was a favorite saying of
+his.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as you feel thoroughly rested, we must take a trip to town," he
+said, and he advanced a bony, ill-kept hand toward hers as if he would
+seize it. "I think Ma works too hard," he added diplomatically as
+Geraldine slid her hand off the table. "We must go and see if we can get
+the right kind of help. You'll know how to pick it out. Then what do
+you say to havin' an architect come out and look over the old shack here
+and see what he thinks he can do with it, regardless of expense?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine felt that unnerving nausea again steal around her heart.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't too late for us to take a little flyer in to-day," he added
+eagerly, and the suggestion made the meadow and its cows look like a
+glimpse of paradise. Supposing <i>he</i> should come and she be gone! This
+was the great third day. "I&mdash;really&mdash;I"&mdash;stammered Geraldine&mdash;"I feel a
+little shaky yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, all right," Rufus laughed leniently. "Be it ever so humble and all
+that you know. <i>Home</i> for you, eh, Gerrie?"</p>
+
+<p>She longed to rise and strike his ugly smile at the sound of her
+father's pet name, and she trembled from head to foot. "A trusty," she
+said to herself commandingly. "A trusty."</p>
+
+<p>She did not hear another word that was said during dinner, and when she
+was free she flew up to her room and put on the poor little
+grass-stained dress and the rich cr&ecirc;pe of her mother's heirloom.</p>
+
+<p>"O God, send him!" she prayed, as her fingers worked on the fastenings.
+"O God, let him come"&mdash;then with tardy, desperate recollection, she
+added&mdash;"and O God, save his life!"</p>
+
+<p>It seemed difficult for Rufus Carder to separate himself from her that
+day. When she emerged from the house, she found him watching for her and
+she reminded herself again that if she angered him he might prevent her
+from doing as she pleased. It seemed to her now so intensely vital that
+she should get to the meadow that she felt panic lest something happen
+to prevent it.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't want to go down there again to-day," said Rufus coaxingly.
+"Let's take a walk up to the pond."</p>
+
+<p>"Is there a pond?" asked Geraldine quickly. She had often wondered if
+there were any body of water about the place deep enough for a girl to
+be covered in it if she lay face down.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, yes, I have a cranberry bog with a dam. Makes a pretty decent pond
+part o' the year. How would you like it if I got you a canoe, Gerrie?
+Say! would you like that?" The interest that had come into the girl's
+face at mention of the pond encouraged him. "Come on, let's go. You've
+had enough o' the cows."</p>
+
+<p>He grasped her arm and she set her teeth not to pull away.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind waiting?" She put the question gently and even gave him
+a little smile, the first he had ever seen on her face. The
+exquisiteness of it, her pearly teeth, the Cupid's bow of her lips
+flushed him from head to foot. "I seem to be getting attached to that
+meadow," she added. "You'd better have one more buttonhole bouquet,
+don't you think?"</p>
+
+<p>The delight of it rushed to Carder's head. He, too, had to put a strong
+restraint upon himself to let well enough alone. All was going so
+nicely. He must not make a false move.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he responded with a sort of gasping sigh, the blood in his face,
+"as I've always said, suit yourself and you'll suit me. Wind me right
+around your finger as you always have done and always will do."</p>
+
+<p>He walked completely down the incline with her to-day.</p>
+
+<p>She wondered if he had any sense of humor when she heard the clicking of
+Pete's lawn-mower behind them and knew that he was following. Carder did
+not seem to notice it; but he said: "I've a great mind to stay down here
+with you to-day and find out what the charm is."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it is just peace," she answered, and she was so frightened
+lest he carry out this threat that she felt herself grow pale to the
+lips. "I've passed through a great deal of excitement," she added
+unsteadily. "The silence seems healing to me."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, little one," he replied good-humoredly, "if it's doing you
+good, that's the main thing. You have had it pretty hard, I know that.
+I'm goin' to make it up to you, Gerrie, I'm goin' to make it up to you.
+Don't you be afraid. You're safe to be the most envied girl in this
+county. You'll make some splash, let me tell you, when my plans are
+carried out." He patted her cringing shoulder, and with one more longing
+look turned and left her.</p>
+
+<p>Her knees were still trembling and she sank down on her rock and watched
+Carder's round shoulders and ill-fitting clothes as he ascended the
+incline to the office.</p>
+
+<p>Pete was using a sickle on the stubbly grass, too stiff and
+interspersed with stones for the mower.</p>
+
+<p>The cows' big soft eyes were regarding Geraldine, as they always did for
+a time after her arrival.</p>
+
+<p>She turned her tired, listless look back to them and wondered what they
+did here for comfort in the heat of summer. There was no shade, and no
+creek to walk into.</p>
+
+<p>When Rufus Carder arrived at his office he found the telephone ringing.
+The message he received necessitated sending some word to a man out in
+the field.</p>
+
+<p>He went to the window and looked down at the white spot which was
+Geraldine. He saw her rise and walk about. Perhaps she was picking
+flowers. The distance was too great for him to be certain.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be right here," he muttered. Then he went to the corner of the
+office and picked up a megaphone. Going outside the door he called to
+Pete. "Come up here!" he shouted. The boy dropped his sickle and began
+to amble up the hill as fast as his bow-legs would permit.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine heard the shout, and turning saw the dwarf obeying the
+summons.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody but you to guard me now," she said to the prettiest of the cows
+with whom she had made friends.</p>
+
+<p>She watched Pete reach the summit of the incline and vanish into the
+yellow office.</p>
+
+<p>Presently he came out again and started off in the direction of the
+fields.</p>
+
+<p>"I think there is some one beside you to guard me now," went on
+Geraldine to the cow, who gave her an undivided attention mindful of the
+bunches of grass which the girl had often gathered for her. "I think the
+ogre has come out to the edge of his cave and is scarcely winking as he
+watches us down here. Oh, Bossy, I'm the most miserable girl in the
+whole world." Her breath caught in her throat, and winking back
+despairing tears she stooped to gather the expected thick handful of
+grass when a humming sound came faintly across the stillness of the
+field. She paused with listless curiosity and listened. The buzzing
+seemed suddenly to fill all the air. It increased, and her upturned face
+beheld an approaching aeroplane. Before she had time to connect its
+presence with herself it began diving toward the earth. On and on it
+came. It skimmed the ground, it ran along the meadow, the cows
+stampeded. She clasped her hands, and with dilated eyes saw the aviator
+jump out, pull something out of the cockpit and run toward her. She ran
+toward him. It was&mdash;it couldn't be&mdash;it was&mdash;he pushed back his
+helmet&mdash;it was her knight! Her excited eyes met his. "I've come for
+you," he called gayly, and her face glorified with amazed joy.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll kill you!" she gasped in sudden terror. "Hurry!"</p>
+
+<p>Ben was already taking off the cr&ecirc;pe shawl and putting her arms into the
+sleeves of a leather coat. A shout came from the top of the hill. Rufus
+Carder appeared, yelling and running. His gun was in his hand. The men
+from the fields, who had heard and seen the aeroplane, and Pete, who had
+not yet had time to reach them, all came running in excitement to see
+the great bird which had alighted in such an unlikely spot.</p>
+
+<p>"He'll kill you!" gasped Geraldine again. A shot rang out on the air.</p>
+
+<p>Ben laughed as he pushed a helmet down over her head.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be done," he cried, as excited as she. He threw the shawl into
+the cockpit, lifted the girl in after it, buckled the safety belt across
+her, jumped in himself, and the great bird began to flit along the
+ground and quickly to rise.</p>
+
+<p>Another wild shot rang out, and frightful oaths. Geraldine heard the
+former, though the latter were inaudible, and she became tense from her
+head to the little feet which pushed against the foot-board as if to
+hasten their flight. She clutched the side of the veering plane. With
+every rod they gained her relief grew. Ben, looking into her face for
+signs of fear, received a smile which made even his enviable life better
+worth living than ever before. No exultant conqueror ever experienced
+greater thrills. Up, up, up, they flew out of reach of bullets and all
+the sordidness of earth; and when the meadow became a blur Geraldine
+felt like a disembodied spirit, so great was her exaltation. Not a
+vestige of fear assailed the heart which had so recently wondered if the
+cranberry pond was deep enough to still its misery. She rejoiced to be
+near the low-lying, fleecy clouds which a little while ago had aroused
+her apprehensions for the morrow. Let come what would, she was safe from
+Rufus Carder and she was free. Her sentiment for her leather-coated
+deliverer was little short of adoration. Gratitude seemed too poor a
+term. He had taken her from hell, and it seemed to her as they went up,
+up, up, they must be nearing heaven. At last he began flying in a direct
+line.</p>
+
+<p>Below was her former jailer, foaming at the mouth, and Pete, poor Pete,
+lying on the ground rolling in an agony of loss. "She's gone, she's
+gone," he moaned and sobbed, over and over; and even Carder saw that if
+there had been any plot afoot the dwarf had not been in it. So long as
+the plane was in sight, all the farm-workers stared open-mouthed. None
+of them loved the master, but none dared comment on his fury now or ask
+a question. His gun was in his hand and his eyes were bloodshot. His
+open mouth worked. They had all seen the beautiful girl who had now been
+snatched away so amazingly, and there was plenty to talk about and
+wonder about for months to come on the Carder farm. Rufus Carder, when
+the swift scout plane had become a speck, tore at his collar. The veins
+stood out in his neck and his forehead. He felt the curious gaze of his
+helpers and in impotent fury he turned and walked up to the house. His
+mother, still in the kitchen, saw him come in and started back with a
+cry. His collar and shirt flying open, his face crimson and distorted,
+his scowl, and his gun, terrified her almost to fainting. She sank into
+a chair. Her lips moved, but she could not make a sound.</p>
+
+<p>"What did the girl tell you!" cried her son.</p>
+
+<p>She clutched her breast, her lips moved, but no sound emerged.</p>
+
+<p>Rufus saw that she was too frightened to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be scared," he said roughly. "All you've got to do is to tell me
+the truth." He made a mighty effort to control his rasping voice. "Did
+you know Geraldine was goin' away?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Carder shook her head speechlessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit up, Ma. Talk if you've got any sense. What did the girl tell you?
+Why was she dressin' up every day?"</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I thought"&mdash;stammered Mrs. Carder, "I thought she wanted to look
+pretty. I&mdash;I thought you were goin' to marry her. She never told me
+anything. Gone away?" Some curiosity struggled through the old woman's
+paralyzing fear. "How could she go away? She hadn't any hat on." She
+spoke tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>"Come up to her room," said Rufus sternly.</p>
+
+<p>He flung his gun into a corner and strode toward the stairs, the shaky
+old woman following him.</p>
+
+<p>Up in Geraldine's chamber he stood still for a moment scowling and
+viewing its neatness, then strode to the closet and opened the door. Her
+shabby suit was hanging there, and the pale-green challie gown she had
+worn in his office. He grasped its soft folds in crushing fingers. The
+gingham dress in which she worked every morning was also hanging on its
+hook. Her hat was on the shelf. That was all. Her few toilet articles
+were neatly arranged on the shabby old bureau. He opened its drawers and
+tossed their meager contents ruthlessly, searching for some letter or
+scrap of paper to throw light on her exit. He went to the trunk which
+contained some sheets of music and a few books. These he scattered
+about searching, searching between their leaves.</p>
+
+<p>His mother, trembling before him, spoke tremulously. "Did she have any
+money to go away?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," he growled.</p>
+
+<p>"You can see she didn't expect to go, Rufus," said the old woman
+timidly. "All her things are here. Why&mdash;why don't you take the car
+and&mdash;and go after her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because she went up in the air, that's why; and I'll kill him!" He
+shook his fists in impotent rage. "He'll find he didn't get away with it
+as neat as he thought."</p>
+
+<p>He stormed out of the room, and lucky it was for Pete that that
+threshold could tell no tales.</p>
+
+<p>The old woman stared after him in a new terror. Her son, the most
+important man in the county, had lost his mind, and all for the sake of
+that girl who had managed in some mysterious way to give him the slip.
+"Gone up in the air!" Poor Rufus. He had gone mad. She managed that
+night to get an interview in the woodshed with the grief-stricken Pete,
+and in spite of his incoherence and renewed sobs she learned what had
+happened. The dwarf believed that his goddess had been kidnapped. It
+never occurred to his dull brain to connect her disappearance with the
+letters he had conveyed to her.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Carder was amazed to have the boy seek him. Never before
+had Pete ventured to volunteer a word to him. He was sitting in his den
+gnawing his nails and revolving in his mind some scheme for Geraldine's
+recovery when the dwarf appeared at the door. His shock of hair stood up
+as usual and his eyes were swollen.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't we&mdash;can't we&mdash;look for her, master?" he asked beseechingly. "They
+may hurt her&mdash;the man that stole her. Can't you&mdash;find him, master?"</p>
+
+<p>Carder's scowl bent upon the humble suppliant.</p>
+
+<p>"I ought to have shot him the first time he came," he said savagely.</p>
+
+<p>"Did the&mdash;the areoplane ever come before?" asked Pete, amazed, his
+heart's desire to see again and save his goddess supplying him with
+courage to speak. His dull eyes opened as wide as their puffiness would
+permit.</p>
+
+<p>"No," snarled Carder; "but it was that damned fool on the motor-cycle
+without a doubt. I don't see how he got at her. No letter ever came."</p>
+
+<p>The speaker went back to gnawing his nails in bitter meditation and
+forgot the mourner at his door whose slow wits began to
+remember&mdash;remember; and who, as he remembered, began to shake in his
+poor broken shoes and feel nailed to the ground. At last he ambled away,
+thankful that his master did not recur to the questioning of that other
+day. His dull wits received a novel sharpening.</p>
+
+<p>Carder's few words had transformed the situation. His goddess had not
+been stolen. He recalled that first night when he had forced her back
+into her room to save his own life, unmoved by her pleading. Her
+sweetness had given him courage to risk concealing the tall visitor's
+letter and conveying it to her.</p>
+
+<p>If Carder should suddenly revert to that day and cross-question him, he
+must have his denials ready. He must show no fear.</p>
+
+<p>He fell now on the ground and rested his head on his long arms to think.
+It was so hard for him to think, and dry sobs kept choking him; but the
+wonderful fact slowly possessed him that he had served her. Pete, the
+stupid dwarf, butt of rough jokes and ridicule, had saved the bright
+being he adored. He understood now her fervent efforts to convey thanks
+to him. He felt dimly that the angel whose kindness had brightened his
+life for those few days had gone back to the skies she had left. The man
+of the motor-cycle had looked stern as he slipped the letter into his
+ragged blouse and said the few low words that imposed secrecy and the
+importance of the message.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure you love her," the man had said. "I'm sure you want to help
+her."</p>
+
+<p>The words had contained magic that worked; and Pete had helped her, and
+outwitted the man with the whip who owned him body and soul.</p>
+
+<p>Henceforth the dwarf had a wonderful secret, a secret that warmed his
+heart with divine fire.</p>
+
+<p>Remembering how his goddess had wanted to go out into the night alone to
+escape, he realized that she must have been as unhappy as himself. When
+he prevented her from departing, she had not hated him. Compassion was
+still in her eyes and voice when she spoke to him that next morning.</p>
+
+<p>Now he had helped her. An angel had fallen into that smoky kitchen and
+toiled with her white hands. He had helped her back to heaven. Pete, the
+dwarf had done it: Pete.</p>
+
+<p>He rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky. Clouds were
+gathering, but she had gone into the blue. She was there now, and it was
+through him. Perhaps she was looking at him at this moment. He knew how
+her face would glow. He knew how her voice would sound and her eyes
+would smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Pete. Thank you, good little Pete."</p>
+
+<p>He gazed up at the scudding clouds and his troubled soul grew quiet.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Palace</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Ben, taking an occasional look around at his passenger, flew directly on
+toward a landing-field. Their destination had hardly yet interested
+Geraldine. The whole experience, in spite of the noise of the motor,
+seemed as yet unreal to her. In reaction from the frightful nightmare of
+the last few days, her whole being responded to the flight through the
+bright spring air, and had Ben seen fit to do a figure eight she would
+have accepted it as part of the reckless joyousness of the present
+dream.</p>
+
+<p>As the plane began to descend and objects below came into view, she
+wondered for the first time where the great bird was coming to earth.
+Perhaps Miss Upton's ample and blessed figure would be waiting to greet
+her. Nothing, nothing was too good to be true.</p>
+
+<p>The plane touched earth and flitted along to a standstill. They were in
+a field, just now deserted, and her escort, pushing back his helmet,
+smiled upon her radiantly.</p>
+
+<p>"First time you've ever flown?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, except in dreams," she answered. "This seems only one more."</p>
+
+<p>"Were they happy dreams?"</p>
+
+<p>"None so happy as this."</p>
+
+<p>"You weren't afraid, then? You're a good sport."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I shall never be afraid again. I've sounded the depths of fear
+in the last week."</p>
+
+<p>The two sat looking into one another's eyes and the appeal in those
+long-lashed orbs of Geraldine continued the havoc that they had begun.
+Her lips were very grave as she recalled the precipice from which she
+had been snatched.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw that he frightened you terribly that day he gave me such a warm
+welcome."</p>
+
+<p>"He was going to marry me," explained Geraldine simply.</p>
+
+<p>"How could he&mdash;the old ogre?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was to consent in order to save my father's name. I'm going to tell
+you about it because you're a lawyer, aren't you, and the finest man in
+the world? I have it here."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine loosened her coat and felt inside her white blouse for Miss
+Upton's letter.</p>
+
+<p>Ben laughed and blushed to his ears. "I haven't attained the former yet.
+The latter, of course, I can't deny."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine produced the letter, inside of which was folded that from her
+father.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Upton wrote me about you and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You're not going to show it to me," interrupted Ben hastily. "I'm
+afraid the dear woman spread it on too thick for the victim to view."</p>
+
+<p>"You see, she knew how I hate men," explained Geraldine, "and she knew
+how friendless I was and she wanted me to trust you."</p>
+
+<p>"And do you?" asked Ben with ardor.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, perfectly. I have to, you know." She tucked back the rejected
+letter in its hiding-place.</p>
+
+<p>"And you're not going to hate me?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should think not," returned the girl with the same simple gravity;
+"not when you've done me the greatest kindness of my whole life!"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad I haven't named the plane yet," said Ben impulsively. "You
+shall name it."</p>
+
+<p>"There's no name good enough," she replied&mdash;"unless&mdash;unless we name it
+for that carrier pigeon that was such a hero in the War. We might name
+it <i>Cher Ami</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Good," declared Ben. "It is surely a homing bird."</p>
+
+<p>"And such a <i>cher ami</i> to me," added Geraldine fervently.</p>
+
+<p>Ben wondered if this marvelous girl never smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"You were going to tell me how the ogre was able to force you to marry
+him," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I don't like to tell you. It is very sad, and he crushed me with
+it." The girl's lips trembled for a silent moment, and Cupid alone knows
+how Ben longed to kiss them, close to him as they were.</p>
+
+<p>"He said that my father forged two checks, and that he only refrained
+from prosecuting him because of me. He said my father had promised that
+he should have me."</p>
+
+<p>Ben scowled, and the dark eyes fixed upon him brightened with sudden
+eagerness. "But that was a lie&mdash;about father giving me to him. I have
+Daddy's letter here." She felt again inside her blouse. "You will have
+to know everything&mdash;how my poor father was his own worst enemy and came
+to rely for money on that impossible man."</p>
+
+<p>She took out the letter and gave it to Ben and he read it in silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably it was a lie also about the checks," he said when he had
+finished.</p>
+
+<p>"No, oh, no," she replied earnestly. "He showed me those. He said that
+my father was held in affectionate remembrance at his clubs and among
+his friends, and that he could ruin all that and hold him up to contempt
+as a criminal, unless&mdash;unless I married him." Geraldine's bosom heaved
+convulsively. "I have been wild with joy ever since you came," she
+declared. "If I ever go to heaven I can't be happier than I was flying
+up from that meadow where there seemed a curse even on the poor little
+wild flowers but you can see how it is going to keep coming over me in
+waves that perhaps I have done wrong. You see, Daddy tells me not to
+consider him; but should I not guard his name in spite of that? That is
+the question that will keep coming up to me. Nevertheless"&mdash;she made a
+gesture of despair&mdash;"if I went through with it&mdash;if I married Mr. Carder,
+I'm sure I should lose all control and kill myself. I'm sure of it."</p>
+
+<p>Here Ben gave rein to the dastardly instinct which occasionally causes a
+poor mortal to fling all conscience to the winds when he sees an
+unexpected opportunity to attain a longed-for prize.</p>
+
+<p>"For you to become his wife cannot be right," declared Ben, endeavoring
+to speak with mature and legal poise; "but as you say, that heartrending
+doubt of your duty may attack you at times. How would it be to put it
+beyond your power to yield to his wishes by marrying some one else&mdash;me,
+for instance?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine regarded the speaker with grief and reproach. "Can you joke
+about my trouble?" She turned away and he suspected hurt tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Melody&mdash;Geraldine." What Ben had fondly hoped was the judicial
+manner disappeared in a whirlwind of words. "I'm in earnest! I've
+thought of nothing but you since the day I saw you with that cut-throat.
+It's my highest desire to guard you, to make you happy. Give me the
+right, and every day of my life will prove it. Of course, I saw that
+Carder had some hold over you. I've spent all my time ever since that
+day trying to ferret out facts that could give me some hold on him. I
+haven't found them. The fox has always left himself a loophole. Marry me
+to-day: now: before we go home. I'm well known in the town yonder. I can
+arrange it. Marry me, and whatever comes you will be safe from him.
+Geraldine!"</p>
+
+<p>The girl's gaze was fixed on the flushed face and glowing eyes beside
+her and she leaned as far away from him as possible.</p>
+
+<p>"You really mean it?" she said when he paused.</p>
+
+<p>"As I never meant anything before in my life."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"The best on earth."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet you would do this to her, just because I have nice eyes."</p>
+
+<p>It was a frigid bucket of water, but Ben stood up under it.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I could give her nothing better."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't even know me," said Geraldine. "How strange men are."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, those you hate; but how about me? You said you liked me."</p>
+
+<p>At this the girl did smile, and the effect was so wonderful that it
+knocked what little sense Ben Barry had left into oblivion.</p>
+
+<p>"Love at first sight is a fact," he declared. "No one believes it till
+he's hit, but then there's no questioning. You looked that day as if you
+would have liked to speak to me&mdash;yes"&mdash;boldly&mdash;"as if to escape Carder
+you would have mounted that motor-cycle with me and we should have done
+that Tennyson act, you know&mdash;'beyond the earth's remotest rim the happy
+princess followed him'&mdash;or something like that. I don't know it exactly
+but I'm going to learn it from start to finish and read law afterward.
+I've dreamed of you all night and worked for you all day ever since and
+yet I haven't accomplished anything!"</p>
+
+<p>"Haven't!" exclaimed Geraldine. "You've done the most wonderful thing in
+the world."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, <i>Cher Ami</i> did that. Tell me you'll let me take care of you
+always, and knock Carder's few remaining teeth down his throat if he
+ever comes in sight. Tell me you do&mdash;you like me a little."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's entrancing smile was still lighting her pensive eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, I don't like you. How can I? People don't like utter strangers.
+One feels worship, adoration for a creature that drops from the skies,
+and lifts a wretched helpless girl out of torturing captivity into the
+free sweet air of heaven."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that'll do," returned Ben, nodding. "Adoration and worship will
+do to begin with. Let us go over to the village and be married&mdash;<i>my
+beautiful darling</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine colored vividly under this escape of her companion's
+ungovernable steam, but she did not change her expression.</p>
+
+<p>"I certainly shall not do that," she answered quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Ben relaxed his tense, appealing posture.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then," he said, drawing a long breath, "if you positively decline
+the trap&mdash;oh, it was a trap all right&mdash;if you are determined to postpone
+the wedding, I'll tell you that I really don't believe your father
+forged those checks."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Barry&mdash;" the girl leaned toward him.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, or I won't go on."</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, then. It is no sort of a name compared to the one I have been
+giving you. I've been calling you Sir Galahad."</p>
+
+<p>Ben smiled at her blissfully. "Nice," he said. "I don't believe Miss
+Upton went beyond that."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, please go on, Mr. Barry&mdash;Ben&mdash;Sir Galahad."</p>
+
+<p>"Why couldn't our cheerful friend have shown you any checks he drew to
+your father's name and claim that they were forged?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's eyes shone. "I never thought of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I cannot be sure of it. I would far rather get something
+definite on the old scamp."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine shuddered. "He is so cruel. He is so rough to that poor little
+fellow Pete. Think what I owe that boy! He managed to get your message
+to me even when threatened with his master's whip. Mr. Carder saw you
+speaking to him and questioned him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mean that nut who took my letter?"</p>
+
+<p>"The hero who took your letter. He had to lie outside my door every
+night to keep me from escaping, and he slipped your message under it.
+Where should I be now but for him? Poor child, he is as friendless as I
+am"&mdash;Geraldine interrupted herself with a grateful look at her
+companion&mdash;"as I was, I mean. He had to follow me and guard me wherever
+I went, always keeping at a distance, because he mustn't speak to me and
+the ogre was always watching. How I thank Heaven," added Geraldine
+fervently, "that Mr. Carder himself had called Pete off duty for the
+first time before the&mdash;the archangel swooped down from the sky."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm getting on," said Ben. "If you keep on promoting me, I'll arrive
+first thing you know."</p>
+
+<p>"I should honestly be wretched if I had to think Mr. Carder was blaming
+Pete for my escape. The boy did tell me his life depended on my safety."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't understand," said Ben with a puzzled frown. "Who lies in
+front of Pete's door? Why does he stay there? Why doesn't he light out
+some time between two days?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Carder has told him no one would employ him, that Pete would
+starve but for him. Did you notice how ragged and neglected he looked?"</p>
+
+<p>"He looked like a nut. I was afraid he was so stupid that you would
+never receive the message." Ben looked thoughtful. "How long has he
+lived at the farm?"</p>
+
+<p>"For years. Mrs. Carder took him from the orphan asylum when he was a
+child. She thought he would be more useful than a girl. They keep him as
+a slave. You saw how very bow-legged he is. He can't get about normally,
+but he drives the car and helps in the kitchen and does every sort of
+menial task. There was such a look in his eyes always when he saw me.
+Little as I could do for him, or even speak to him, I'm afraid he is
+missing me terribly." Geraldine's look suddenly grew misty. "See how
+faithful he was about Daddy's letter. Poor little Pete. Mr. Carder will
+be out of his mind at my flight. I hope he doesn't visit it on that poor
+boy."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Ben, heroically refraining from putting his arms around
+her, "why don't we take him?"</p>
+
+<p>"We? Take Pete? How wonderful!" she returned, her handkerchief pausing
+in mid-air.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing, if you want him. Send him to the barber and have his hair
+mowed. Have some trousers cut out for him with a circular saw and fix
+him up to the queen's taste."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Barry&mdash;Ben! You don't know what you're saying. It would give me
+more relief than I can express, for the boy's lot is so miserable and
+starved."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, that is settled, my princess."</p>
+
+<p>"But you can't get him. I can't help feeling that anyone who has lived
+there so long, and been so unconsidered and unnoticed, must know more
+than Mr. Carder wishes to have go to the outside world. His mother
+hinted some things." Geraldine gasped with reminiscent horror of that
+low-ceiled kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>Her companion suddenly looked very alert. "Highly probable," he
+returned. "Why didn't you say that before? We certainly will take Pete
+in. What are his habits? You say he drives the car."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, he did until he was set to dog my movements. I often heard it
+referred to. Do you mean&mdash;you could never get him in this blessed
+chariot. He will probably never see the meadow again unless they send
+him to get the cows."</p>
+
+<p>Ben shook his head. "No; I think he will have to be bagged some other
+way. What's the matter with my going back to the farm on my motor-cycle
+and engaging him, overbidding the ogre?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine actually clasped her hands on the leathern arm beside her.
+"Promise me," she said fervently, looking into her companion's
+eyes&mdash;"promise me that you will never go back to that farm alone."</p>
+
+<p>"You want to go with me?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't joke. Promise me solemnly."</p>
+
+<p>Ben's lips took a grave line and he put one hand over the beseeching
+ones.</p>
+
+<p>"Then what will you promise me?" he returned.</p>
+
+<p>The blood mantled high over the girl's face. "You're taking me to Miss
+Upton, aren't you?" she returned irrelevantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you positively refuse still to go to the parson."</p>
+
+<p>The expression of her anxious eyes grew inscrutable.</p>
+
+<p>"I want your mother to love me," she said na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>Ben lifted her hands and held them to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't promised," she said softly. "I know he suspects you now. I
+think he is a madman when he is angry."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, I promise." Ben released her hands and smiled down with
+adoring eyes. "Now, we will go home," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Again the great bird rose and winged its way between heaven and earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now it was not as before when Geraldine's whole being had seemed
+absorbed in flight and freedom. The earth was before her and a new life.
+She had a lover. Wonderful, sweet, incredible fact. A good man, Miss
+Upton said. Could it be that never again desolation and fear should
+sicken her heart; that like the princess of the tales her great third
+day had come and brought her love as well as liberty? Happiness deluged
+her, flushed her cheeks, and shone in her eyes. She longed and dreaded
+to alight again upon that earth which had never shown her kindness.
+Could it be possible that she should reign queen in a good man's heart?
+For so many years she had been habitually in the background, kept there
+either by her stepmother's will or her own desire to hide her
+shabbiness, and when need had at last forced her to initiative, she had
+received such humiliating stabs from the greed of men&mdash;could it be that
+she was to walk surrounded by protection, and love, and <i>respect</i>?</p>
+
+<p>She closed her eyes. Spring, sunlight, joy coursed through every vein.
+When at last they began again to dip toward earth, the question surged
+through her: "Shall I ever be so happy again?"</p>
+
+<p>And now Miss Upton's figure loomed large and gracious in the foreground
+of her thoughts. She longed for the refuge of her kindly arms until she
+could gather herself together in the new era of safety and peace.</p>
+
+<p>The plane touched the earth, ran a little way toward an arched building,
+and stopped.</p>
+
+<p>Ben jumped out, and Geraldine exclaimed over the beauty of a rose-tinted
+cloud of blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Pretty orchard, isn't it?" he said. He unstrapped her safety belt
+and lifted her out of the cockpit. Her eager eyes noted that they were
+at the back of a large brick dwelling.</p>
+
+<p>"Is Miss Upton here?" she asked while her escort took off her leather
+coat and her helmet. The latter had been pushed on and off once too
+often. The wonder of her golden hair fell over the poor little white
+cotton gown and Ben repressed his gasp of admiration.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, this is dreadful," she said, putting her hands up helplessly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't touch it," exclaimed her companion quickly. "You can't do
+anything with it anyway. There isn't a hairpin in the hangar. Miss Upton
+will love to see it. She will take care of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I can't. How can I!" exclaimed Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, that's all right," said Ben hastily. "Miss Upton is right
+here. She will take you into the house and make you comfy. Let me put
+this around you."</p>
+
+<p>He took the cr&ecirc;pe shawl and put it about her shoulders, lifting out the
+shining gold that fell over the fringes.</p>
+
+<p>"I know it is very old-fashioned and queer," said Geraldine, pulling the
+wrap over the grass stains and looking up into his eyes with a childlike
+appeal that made him set his teeth. "It was my mother's and you said
+'white.' It was all I had."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton had come to Mrs. Barry's to receive her prot&eacute;g&eacute;e provided Ben
+could bring her. The two ladies were sitting out under the trees
+waiting. Miss Mehitable had obeyed Ben, and some days since had given
+Mrs. Barry the young girl's story, and that lady had received it
+courteously and with the tempered sympathy which one bestows on the
+absolutely unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's excitement when she heard the humming of the aeroplane and
+saw it approaching in the distance baffles description. She had been
+forcing herself to talk on other subjects, perceiving clearly that her
+hostess was what our English friends would term fed up on the subject of
+the girl with the fanciful name; but now she clasped her plump hands and
+caught her breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she ain't killed, anyway," she said. She longed to rush back to
+the landing-place, but instinctively felt that such action on the part
+of a guest would be indecorous. She hoped Mrs. Barry would suggest it,
+but such a move was evidently far from that lady's thought. She sat in
+her white silken gown, with sewing in her lap, the picture of unruffled
+calm.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton swallowed and kept her eyes on the approaching plane. "She
+ain't killed, anyway," she repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor Ben either," remarked Mrs. Barry, drawing the fine needle in and
+out of her work. "He is of some importance, isn't he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do you suppose he got her, Mrs. Barry?" gasped Miss Mehitable.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben would be likely to," returned that lady, who had been somewhat
+tried by her son's preoccupation in the last few days and considered the
+adventure a rather annoying interlude in their ordered life.</p>
+
+<p>"Why don't she say let's go and see! How can she just set there as cool
+as a cucumber!" thought Miss Mehitable, squeezing the blood out of her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>The plane descended, the humming ceased. Miss Upton sat on the edge of
+her chair looking excitedly at the figure in white who embroidered
+serenely. Moments passed with the tableau undisturbed; then:</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, still holding a rein over herself,
+mindful that she was not the hostess.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry looked up. She was a New Englander of the New Englanders,
+conservative to her finger tips. Ben was her only son, the light of her
+eyes. If what she saw was startling, it can hardly be wondered at.</p>
+
+<p>There came through the pink cloud of the apple blossoms her aviator son
+looking handsomer than she had ever beheld him, leading a girl in
+white-fringed cr&ecirc;pe that clung in soft folds to her slenderness. All
+about her shoulders fell a veil of golden hair, and her appealing eyes
+glowed in a face at once radiant and timid.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry started up from her chair.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother!" cried Ben as they approached, "I told you I should bring her
+from the stars."</p>
+
+<p>The hostess advanced a step mechanically, Miss Mehitable followed close.
+Geraldine gazed fascinated at the tall, regal woman, whose habitually
+formal manner took on an additional stiffness.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Miss Melody, I believe." Mrs. Barry held out her smooth, fair
+hand. "I hear you have passed through a very trying experience," she
+said with cold courtesy. "I am glad you are safe."</p>
+
+<p>The light went out of the girl's eager eyes. The color fled from her
+face. She had endured too many extremes of emotion in one day. Miss
+Mehitable extended her arms to her with a yearning smile. Geraldine
+glided to her and quietly fainted away on that kindly breast.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor lamb, poor lamb," murmured Miss Mehitable, and Ben, frowning,
+exclaimed: "Here, let me take her!"</p>
+
+<p>He gathered her up in his arms and carried her into the house and laid
+her on a divan, Miss Upton panting after his long strides and his mother
+deliberately bringing up the rear. Mrs. Barry knew just what to do and
+she did it, while Miss Upton wrung her hands above the recumbent white
+figure. When the long eyelashes flickered on the pallid cheek, Ben spoke
+commandingly: "I'll take her upstairs. She must be put to bed."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable came to herself with a rush. "Not here," she said
+decidedly. "If you'll let me have the car, Mrs. Barry, we'll be out of
+your way in five minutes."</p>
+
+<p>Ben looked at his mother, who was still cool and unexcited; and the
+expression on his face was a new one for her to meet.</p>
+
+<p>"She isn't fit to be moved, Mother, and Miss Upton hasn't room. Miss
+Melody is exhausted. She has had a frightful experience," he said
+sternly.</p>
+
+<p>If he had appealed she might have been touched, but it is doubtful. The
+grass stains, the quaint shawl, the hair that was rippling down to the
+rug, were none of them part of her visions of a daughter-in-law, and, at
+any rate, Ben shouldn't look at her like that&mdash;at her! for the sake of a
+friendless waif whose existence he had not suspected one week ago.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton, understanding the situation perfectly, saved the hostess the
+trouble of replying.</p>
+
+<p>"It won't hurt her a bit to drive as far as my house after she's been
+caperin' all over the sky!" she exclaimed, seizing Geraldine's hands.</p>
+
+<p>The girl heard the declaration and essayed to rise while her eyes fixed
+on the round face bending over her.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to go with you," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And you're going, my lamb," returned Miss Mehitable.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, you shall have the car," said Mrs. Barry suavely.</p>
+
+<p>She wished to send word to the chauffeur, she wished to give Geraldine
+tea, she was entirely polite and sufficiently solicitous, but her heir
+looked terrible things, and, bringing around the car, himself drove the
+guests to Miss Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine declined his help to walk to the door of the shop. Miss Upton
+had her arm around her, and though the girl was pale she gave her
+rescuer a look full of gratitude; and when he pressed her hand she
+answered the pressure and restored a portion of his equanimity.</p>
+
+<p>"I never, never shall forget this happiest day of my life," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And don't forget we are going to get Pete," he responded eagerly,
+holding her hand close, "and everything is going to come out right."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes"&mdash;she looked doubtful and frightened; "but if you get Pete don't
+let your mother see him. She is&mdash;she couldn't bear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't judge her, Geraldine," he begged. "She is glorious. Ask Miss
+Upton. Just a little&mdash;a little shy at first, you know. Miss Upton, you
+explain, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't fret, Ben," said Miss Mehitable. "You're the best boy on earth,
+and I want to hear all about it, for I'm sure you did something
+wonderful to get her."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, wonderful, Miss Upton!" echoed Geraldine, with another
+heart-warming smile at her deliverer whose own smile lessened and died
+as he walked back to his car. By the time he entered it he was frowning,
+thinking of his "shy" mother.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Mother and Son</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Miss Upton had looked upon the parting amenities of the two young people
+with beaming approval; and Geraldine's first words when they were alone
+astonished her.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they were inside the shop and the door closed, the young girl
+looked earnestly into her friend's eyes. Miss Mehitable returned her
+regard affectionately. The golden hair had been wound up and secured
+with Mrs. Barry's hairpins.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish there were some way by which I need never see him again," she
+said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Miss Melody, child, what do you mean? Every word I told you in my
+letter was true. Perhaps you never got it, but I told you that he is the
+<i>finest</i>&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, I believe it," was the hasty reply. "I did receive your
+letter, and some time I'll tell you how, and what a comfort it was to
+me. Oh, Miss Upton"&mdash;the girl threw her arms around the stout
+figure&mdash;"I can't tell you what it means to me for you to take me in; and
+this is your shop you told me of&mdash;" she released Miss Mehitable and
+looked about&mdash;"and I'm going to tend it for you and help you in every
+way I can. It is paradise&mdash;paradise to me, Miss Upton."</p>
+
+<p>Her fervor brought a lump to her companion's throat, but she knew that
+Mrs. Whipp was listening from the sitting-room, and Miss Mehitable did
+love peace.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes, dear child; it'll all come out right," she said vaguely,
+patting the white shoulder. "I have another good helper and I want you
+to meet her. Come with me." She led the girl through the shop.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp had retreated violently from the front window when she saw
+the closed car drive up, and now she was standing, at bay as it were,
+with eyes fixed on the doorway through which her employer would bring
+the stranger. Pearl was placidly purring in the last rays of the sinking
+sun, her milk-white paws tucked under her soft breast, the only
+unexcited member of the family.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp had excuse for staring as the young girl came into view.
+Short wisps of golden hair waved about her face. Her beauty struck a
+sort of awe to the militant woman, who was standing on a mental fence in
+armed neutrality holding herself ready to spring down on that side which
+would regard the stranger as an interloper come to sponge on Miss Upton,
+or possibly she might descend upon the other side and endure the
+newcomer passively.</p>
+
+<p>"This is our little girl, Charlotte," said Miss Mehitable; "our little
+girl to take care of, and who wants to take care of us. This is Mrs.
+Whipp, Geraldine."</p>
+
+<p>Charlotte blinked as the newcomer's face relaxed in her appealing smile,
+and she came forward and took Mrs. Whipp's hard, unexpectant hand in her
+soft grasp. "Such a fortunate girl I am, Mrs. Whipp," she said, "I'm
+sure I shall inconvenience you at first (this fact had been too plainly
+legible on the weazened face to be ignored), but I will try to make up
+for it&mdash;try my very best, and it may not be for long."</p>
+
+<p>Charlotte mumbled some inarticulate greeting, falling an instant victim
+to the young creature's humility and loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>"I look very queer, I know," continued Geraldine, "but you see I just
+came down out of the sky."</p>
+
+<p>"She really did," put in Miss Upton. "She came in Mr. Barry's
+areoplane."</p>
+
+<p>"Shan't I die!" commented Mrs. Whipp, continuing to stare with a
+pertinacity equal to Rufus Carder's own. "I believe it. She looks like
+an angel," she thought. Miss Mehitable watched her melting mood with
+inward amusement.</p>
+
+<p>"What a beautiful cat!" said Geraldine. "She's tame, isn't she? Will she
+let you touch her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Charlotte with a broader smile than had been seen on her
+countenance for many a day, "I guess they don't have cats in the sky."
+She lifted Pearl and bestowed her in Geraldine's arms.</p>
+
+<p>The girl met the lazy, golden eyes rather timorously, but she took her.</p>
+
+<p>"All the cats where&mdash;where I was&mdash;were wild&mdash;and no one&mdash;no one fed
+them, you see."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this cat is named Pearl," said Miss Mehitable. "She's Charlotte's
+jewel and you can bet she does get fed. How about us, Charlotte?" She
+turned to the waiting table. "I want to give Miss Melody her supper and
+put her to bed, and after she has slept twelve hours we'll get her to
+tell us how it feels to fly. Thank Heaven, she's here with no broken
+bones."</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Ben Barry had reached home and made a rather formal toilet for
+the evening meal. Even before his mother saw it, she knew she was going
+to be disciplined. While the waitress remained in the room the young
+man's gravity and meticulous politeness would have intimidated most
+mothers with a conscience as guilty as Mrs. Barry's. She was forced to
+raise her napkin several times, not to dry tears, but to conceal smiles
+which would have been sure to add fuel to the flame.</p>
+
+<p>She showed her temerity by soon dismissing the servant. Her son met her
+twinkling eyes coldly. She leaned across the table toward him and
+revealed the handsome teeth he had inherited.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Benny, don't be ridiculous," she said.</p>
+
+<p>This beginning destroyed his completely. He arrived at his climax at
+once.</p>
+
+<p>"How could you be so heartless!" he exclaimed. "She had told me she
+wanted you to love her. Your coldness shocked her."</p>
+
+<p>This appeal, so pathetic to the speaker, caused Mrs. Barry again to
+raise her napkin to her rebellious lips.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you," went on Ben heatedly, "she has been through so much that
+the surprise and humiliation of your manner made her faint."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, dear, be calm. Didn't I bring her to again? Didn't I do up her
+hair&mdash;it's beautiful, but I like it better wound up, in company&mdash;didn't
+I want to give her&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you suppose," interrupted Ben more hotly, "do you suppose she wasn't
+conscious, and hurt, too, by her unconventional appearance?"</p>
+
+<p>He was arraigning his parent now with open severity.</p>
+
+<p>"How about my shock, Ben? I'm old-fashioned, you know. You come, leading
+that odd little waif and displaying so much&mdash;well, enthusiasm, wasn't
+it&mdash;wasn't the whole thing a little extreme?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the situation was certainly very extreme. An old rascal had
+managed to capture that flower of a girl, and made her believe that to
+save her dead father's good name she must marry him. I come along with
+the Scout and pick her up out of a field where she was walking, he
+running, and yelling, and firing his gun at us. There was scarcely time
+for her to put on a traveling costume to accord with your ideas of
+decorum, was there?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry's eyes widened as they gazed into his accusing ones.</p>
+
+<p>"How dreadful," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; and even in all her relief at escaping, Miss Melody was in doubt
+as to whether she was not deserting her father's cause&mdash;torn, as the
+books say, with conflicting emotions. You may think it was all very
+pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"Benny, I think it was dreadful! Awfully hard for you, dear; and, oh,
+that wretch might have disabled the plane and hurt you! Why did I ever
+let you have it?"</p>
+
+<p>"To save her! That's why you let me have it."</p>
+
+<p>His mother regarded his glowing face. "What a wretched mess!" she was
+thinking. "What a bother that the girl is so pretty!"</p>
+
+<p>"You remember the other evening when I came home from that motor-cycle
+trip, and the next day Miss Upton came and told you Miss Melody's
+story?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, dear." Mrs. Barry added apologetically, "I'm afraid I didn't pay
+strict attention."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it is a pity that you did not, for I've known ever since that day
+that Geraldine Melody is the only girl I shall ever marry."</p>
+
+<p>His mother's heart beat faster as she marked the expression in those
+steady, young eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a space between them. She was the first to speak,
+and she did so with a cool, unsmiling demeanor which reminded him of
+childhood days when he was in disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you care nothing for what sort of mind and character are possessed
+by your future wife. The skin-deep part is all that interests you."</p>
+
+<p>"That's what she said," he responded quickly. "I suggested that she put
+affairs in a shape where it would be of no use for an irritating
+conscience to try to make trouble. I urged her to marry me this
+afternoon before we came home."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry's nonchalance deserted her with a rush. Her face became
+crimson.</p>
+
+<p>"How&mdash;how criminal!" she ejaculated.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what she said," returned Ben. "She asked if I hadn't a mother. I
+told her I had a glorious one; and she just looked at me and said: 'And
+you would do that to her just because I have nice eyes.'"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry bit her lip and did not love the waif the more that she had
+been able to defend her.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the use of being a mother!" she ejaculated. "What is the use of
+expending your whole heart's love on a boy for his lifetime, when he
+will desert you at the first temptation!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, she wouldn't let me, dear," said Ben more gently, flushing and
+feeling his first qualm. "I would stake my life that she is as beautiful
+within as without and that you would have a treasure as well as I. It
+wasn't deserting you. I was thinking of you. I felt she was worthy of
+you and no one else is."</p>
+
+<p>"This is raving, Ben," said his mother, quiet again. "He has escaped,"
+she thought, "and now nothing will come of it." She raised her drooping
+head and again regarded him deprecatingly. "Let us talk of something
+else," she added.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he returned firmly; "not until you understand that I am entirely
+in earnest. You had your love-affair, now I am having mine, and I am
+going through with it, openly and in the sight of all men. I urged her a
+second time to marry me this afternoon, and she looked at me soberly
+with those glorious eyes and her only answer was: 'I want your mother to
+love me.'" Ben looked off reminiscently. "It encouraged me to hope that
+she cares for me a little that your coldness bowled her over so
+completely."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry looked at him helplessly, and this time when she put up her
+napkin she touched a corner of her eye.</p>
+
+<p>"We stopped at the landing-field at Townley and had our talk," he went
+on.</p>
+
+<p>"And she seemed refined?" Mrs. Barry's voice was a little uncertain.</p>
+
+<p>"Exquisite!" he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>"You have standards, Ben," she said. "You couldn't be totally fooled by
+beauty."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled upon her for the first time and a very warming light shone in
+his eyes. "The best," he replied, leaning toward her. "You."</p>
+
+<p>She drew a long, quavering breath; but she scorned weeping women.</p>
+
+<p>Ben watched her repressed emotion.</p>
+
+<p>"Now you examine, Mother," he said gently. "Take your New England
+magnifying-glass along, and when she will see you, put her to the test."</p>
+
+<p>"When she will see me? What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Barry quickly.</p>
+
+<p>"Well"&mdash;Ben shrugged his shoulders&mdash;"we'll see. How much she was hurt,
+how long it will last, I don't know, of course. You can try."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Try!</i>" repeated the queen of Keefe, her handsome face coloring faintly
+above her white silken gown.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Miss Upton will be a good go-between, when she is placated. You
+saw the partisan in her."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, it was all very absurd, as Mrs. Barry told herself when they
+arose from the table; but there was no denying that her throne was
+tottering. Her boy was no longer all hers. Bitter, bitter discovery for
+most mothers to make even when the rival is not Miss Nobody from
+Nowhere.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning betimes Ben presented himself at the Emporium. He drove
+up in his roadster and rushed in upon Miss Upton with an arm full of
+apple blossoms.</p>
+
+<p>"How is she?" he inquired eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, hush! I think she's goin' to sleep again. She's had her
+breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother sent her these," he went on, laying the fragrant mass on the
+counter behind which Miss Mehitable was piling up goods for packing.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him and the corners of her mouth drew down. "Ben Barry,
+what do you want to tell such a lie for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because I think it sounds nice," he returned, unabashed. "Really, I
+think she would if she dared, you know. We had it out last night. Now
+what are you going to do about Miss Melody's clothes?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, what am I?" said Miss Upton. "Say, Ben"&mdash;she gave his arm a push
+and lowered her voice&mdash;"what do you s'pose Charlotte's doin'? She's out
+in the shed washin' and ironin' Geraldine's clothes." She lifted her
+plump shoulders and nudged Ben again. They both laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"Good for Lottie!" remarked Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, she's in love, just in love," said Miss Mehitable. "It's too funny
+to see her. She wants to wait on the child by inches; but clothes&mdash;Ben!
+You should have seen Geraldine in my&mdash;a&mdash;my&mdash;a wrapper last night!" Miss
+Mehitable gave vent to another stifled chuckle. "She was just lost in
+it, and we had to hunt for her and fish her out and put her into
+something of Charlotte's. Charlotte was tickled to death." Again the
+speaker's cushiony fist gave Ben's arm an emphatic nudge.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled sympathetically. "I suppose so," he said; "but aren't you
+going to town to-day to buy her some things?"</p>
+
+<p>"What with?" Miss Upton grew sober and extended both hands palms upward.
+"I've been thinkin' about it while I was workin' here. She's got to have
+clothes. I shouldn't wonder if some o' my customers had things they
+could let us have. Once your mother would 'a' been my first thought."</p>
+
+<p>"Hand-me-downs?" said Ben, flushing. "Nothing doing. Surely you have
+credit at the stores."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I have, but it's my habit to pay my bills," was the defiant reply,
+"and that girl needs everything. I can't buy 'em all."</p>
+
+<p>Ben patted her arm. "Don't speak so loud, you'll wake the baby. You buy
+the things, Mehit. I'll see that they're paid for."</p>
+
+<p>"How your mother'd love that!"</p>
+
+<p>"My mother will have nothing to do with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you ain't even self-supportin' yet," declared Miss Upton bluntly.
+"'T ain't anything to your discredit, of course; you ain't ready," she
+added kindly.</p>
+
+<p>Ben's steady eyes kept on looking into hers and his low voice replied:
+"My father died suddenly, you remember. He had destroyed one will and
+not yet made another. I have money of my own, quite a lot of it, to tell
+the truth. Now if you'd just let me fly you over to town&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable started. "Fly me over, you lunatic!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let us go in the train, then. I'll go with you. I know in a
+general way just what she ought to wear. Soft silky things and a&mdash;a
+droopy hat."</p>
+
+<p>"Ben Barry, you've taken leave o' your senses. Don't you know that
+everything I get her, that poor child will want to pay for&mdash;work, and
+earn the money? If I buy anything for her, it's goin' to be somethin'
+she can pay for before she's ninety."</p>
+
+<p>Ben sighed. "All right, Mehit! have it your own way, only get a move. I
+can't take her out till she gets a hat."</p>
+
+<p>"You haven't got to take her out," retorted Miss Upton decidedly. "She
+don't want to go out with you. It was only last night she was sayin' she
+wished she might never see you again."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!" ejaculated Ben. "Poor girl, I'm sorry for her, then. She is going
+to stumble over me every time she turns around. She is going to see me
+till she cries for mercy."</p>
+
+<p>He smiled into Miss Upton's doubtful, questioning face for a silent
+space.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't worry about that," he said at last. "Just go upstairs and put on
+your duds, like the dear thing you are, and get the next train." The
+speaker looked at his watch. "You can catch it all right."</p>
+
+<p>"I never heard o' such a thing," said Miss Mehitable. She had made her
+semi-annual trip to the city. The idea of going back again with no
+preparation was startling&mdash;and also expensive.</p>
+
+<p>Ben perceived that if there were to be any initiative here he would have
+to furnish it.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't expect to open the shop again until you have moved, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," admitted Miss Upton reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can take your time. Take these flowers upstairs, ask her what
+size things she wears, and hurry up and catch the train."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton brought her gaze back from its far-away look and she appeared
+to come to herself. "Look here, Ben Barry, I'm not goin' to be crazy
+just because you are. Her clean clothes'll be all ready for her by
+night. I can buy her a sailor hat right here in the village and maybe a
+jacket. She's got to go to town with me. The idea of buyin' a lot of
+clothes and maybe not havin' 'em right."</p>
+
+<p>"You're perfectly correct, Miss Upton."</p>
+
+<p>The young man took out his pocket-book and handed his companion a bill.
+"This is for your fares," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable's troubled brow cleared even while she blushed, seeing
+that he had read her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know as this is exactly proper, Ben," she said doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Take my word for it, it is," he replied. "Let me be your conscience for
+a few weeks. I may not see you for a day or two. I have another little
+job of kidnapping on hand; so I put you on your honor to do your part."</p>
+
+<p>He was gone, and Miss Upton, placing the sturdy stems of the apple
+blossoms in a pitcher of water, carried them upstairs. She tiptoed into
+the room where Geraldine was in bed, but the girl was awake and gave an
+exclamation of delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you an apple tree, too?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mr. Barry brought these over."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's face sobered as she buried it in the blooms Miss Upton
+offered. Miss Mehitable looked admiringly at the golden braids hanging
+over the pillows.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you feel rested?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly, and I know I have taken your bed. To-night we will make me a
+nice nest on the floor."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton smiled. "Oh, I've got a cot. We'll do all right. Do you
+s'pose there is any way we could get your clothes from that fiend on the
+farm?" she added.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine shrank and shook her head. "I wouldn't dare try," she replied.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you and I've got to go to town to-morrow," said Miss Upton, "and
+get you something."</p>
+
+<p>The girl returned her look seriously and caught her lip under her teeth
+for a silent space.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know what you're thinkin'," said Miss Mehitable cheerfully; "but
+the queerest thing and the nicest thing happened to me this mornin'. I
+got some money that I didn't expect. Just in the nick o' time, you see.
+We can go to town and&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine reached up a hand and took that of her friend, her face
+growing eager.</p>
+
+<p>"How splendid!" she exclaimed. "Then we will go and get me the very
+simplest things I can get along with and we'll keep account of every
+cent and I will pay it all back to you. Do you know I think this bed of
+yours is full of courage? At any rate, when I waked up this morning I
+found all my hopefulness had come back. I feel that I am going to make
+my living and not be a burden on anyone. It's wonderful to feel that
+way!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you are, child." Miss Upton patted the hand that grasped
+hers. "But first off, you'll have to help me move. I've got a lot o'
+packin' to do, you understand. I'm movin' my shop to Keefeport. I always
+do summers."</p>
+
+<p>For answer Geraldine, who had been leaning on her elbow, sat up quickly,
+evidently with every intention of rising.</p>
+
+<p>"Get back there," laughed Miss Mehitable. "Your clothes ain't ironed
+yet. I'll move the apple blossoms up side of you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't, please," said Geraldine, as she lay down reluctantly. "I think
+I'd rather they would keep their distance&mdash;like their owner."</p>
+
+<p>"Now, child," said Miss Mehitable coaxingly. "Mrs. Barry's one o' the
+grandest women in the world. I felt pretty hot myself yesterday&mdash;I might
+as well own it&mdash;but that'll all smooth over. She didn't mean a thing
+except that she was surprised."</p>
+
+<p>"We can't blame her for that," returned Geraldine, "but&mdash;but&mdash;I'm sorry
+he brought the flowers. I wonder if you couldn't make him
+understand&mdash;very kindly, you know, Miss Upton, that I want to be&mdash;just
+to be forgotten."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton pursed her lips and her eyes laughed down into the earnest
+face. "I'm afraid, child, I don't know any language that could make him
+understand that."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine did not smile. She felt that in those intense hours of
+yesterday, freed from every convention of earth, they two had lived a
+lifetime. She would rather dwell on its memory henceforth than run the
+risk of any more shocks. Peace and forgetfulness. That is what she felt
+she needed from now on.</p>
+
+<p>"He said he was goin' on another kidnappin' errand now," remarked Miss
+Upton.</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked up quickly from her introspection. A startled look
+sprang into her eyes and she sat up in bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Miss Upton, you know him!" she exclaimed, gazing at her friend.
+"Does he keep solemn promises?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure he does, child. What's the matter now?"</p>
+
+<p>"He promised me&mdash;oh, he promised me, he wouldn't go back to that farm
+alone." The girl's eyes filled with tears that overflowed on her
+suddenly pale cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable sat down on the edge of the bed and patted her, while
+Geraldine wiped the drops away with the long sleeve of Charlotte's
+unbleached nightgown. "Then he won't, dear, don't you worry," she said
+comfortingly. "Where's that courage you were talkin' about just now?"</p>
+
+<p>"That was for myself," said the girl grievously, accepting the
+handkerchief Miss Upton gave her.</p>
+
+<p>"Who else does he want out o' that God-forsaken place?" asked Miss Upton
+impatiently. "I wish to goodness that boy could stay put somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>"It's a servant, a dwarf, a poor little friendless boy who was kind to
+me there. If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here now. I should be
+dying&mdash;there! Mr. Barry is going to get him and bring him away. Oh, why
+didn't I prevent him!" Geraldine broke down completely, weeping
+broken-heartedly into the handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton smiled over her head. She knew nothing of Rufus Carder's
+shot-gun, and she was thinking of Geraldine's earnest request that Ben
+Barry should forget her.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, stop that right away, my child," she said, enjoying herself
+hugely. She had seen Ben Barry's heart in his eyes as he came walking
+under the apple blossoms yesterday and this revelation of Geraldine's
+was most pleasing.</p>
+
+<p>"Stop cryin'," she said with authority. "Ben Barry's just as smart as he
+is brave. He ain't goin' to take any foolish risk now that you're safe.
+I don't know what he wants the boy for, but probably it's some good
+reason; and if you don't stop workin' yourself up, you won't be fit to
+go to town to-morrow. I want you should stay in bed all day. Now, you
+behave yourself, my lamb. Ben'll come back all right."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine flushed through her tears. It was heavenly to be scolded by
+someone who loved her.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at the pitcher exiled to the bureau. "I&mdash;I think you might as
+well move the apple blossoms here," she said, wiping her eyes and
+speaking meekly.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said Miss Mehitable, beaming, and she proceeded to set a
+light stand beside the bed and placed the rosy mass upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Toward night came a parcel-post package for Miss Geraldine Melody. Miss
+Upton and Charlotte both stood by with eager interest while the girl sat
+up in bed and opened it. None of the three had ever seen such a box of
+bon-bons as was disclosed. It was a revelation of dainty richness, and
+the older women exclaimed while Geraldine bowed her fair head over this
+new evidence of thoughtfulness. The long sleeves of Charlotte's
+nightgown, the patchwork quilt of the bed, the homely surroundings, all
+made the contrast of the gift more striking. There was a card upon it.
+Ben Barry's card: Geraldine turned it over and read: "Is the princess
+happy?"</p>
+
+<p>She was back among the clouds, the bright spring air flowing past her,
+each breath a wonderful memory.</p>
+
+<p>The two women looked at one another. They saw her close her hand on the
+card. She lifted the box to them, and raised her pensive eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"It is for us all," she said softly; but her ardent thought was
+repeating:</p>
+
+<p>"He would&mdash;he <i>will</i> take care of himself, for me!"</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Transformation</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Into the village nearest the Carder farm rolled Ben Barry's roadster. He
+stopped at the inn which made some pretension to furnishing
+entertainment to the motorists who found it on their route, and after a
+luncheon put up his car and walked to the village center to the
+post-office and grocery store. He had most hope of the latter as a
+bureau of information.</p>
+
+<p>After buying some cigarettes and chocolate, and exchanging comments on
+the weather with the proprietor, he introduced his subject.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe Rufus Carder lives near here," he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yus, oh, yus," agreed the man, who was in his shirt-sleeves, and who
+here patronized the cuspidor.</p>
+
+<p>"He's pretty well-to-do, I understand. I should suppose if he is
+public-spirited his being in the neighborhood would be a great
+advantage to the village."</p>
+
+<p>"Yus, <i>if</i>," returned the grocer, scornfully. "The bark on a tree ain't
+a circumstance to him. Queer now, ain't it?" he went on argumentatively.
+"Carder's a rich man, and so many o' these-here rich men, they act as if
+they wasn't ever goin' to die. Where's the satisfaction in not usin'
+their money? You know him?" The speaker cocked an eye up at the handsome
+young stranger.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I've met him," returned Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"You might be interested, then, to hear about what happened out to the
+farm yisterday. P'r'aps it'll be in the paper to-night. A young girl
+visitin' the Carders was kidnapped right out o' the field by an
+areoplane. Yes, sir, slick as a whistle." Ben's look of interest and
+amazement rewarded the narrator. "One o' the hands from the farm come in
+last night and told about it, but the editor o' the paper thought't was
+a hoax and he didn't dare to work on it last night. Lots of us saw the
+plane, but the feller's story did sound fishy, and if the
+<i>Sunburst</i>&mdash;that's our paper&mdash;should print a lot o' stuff about Carder
+shootin' guns and foamin' at the mouth when he saw the girl he was
+goin' to marry fly up into the sky <i>and't wa'n't so</i>&mdash;ye see, 't would
+go mighty hard with our editor."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't he send somebody right out to the farm to inquire?" asked
+Ben.</p>
+
+<p>The grocer smiled, looked off, and shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You say you've met Rufus Carder? Well, ye don't know him or else ye
+wouldn't ask that. Don't monkey with the buzz-saw is a pretty good
+motter where he's concerned. I'm lookin' fer Pete now. This is his day
+to come in an' stock up. He's so stupid he couldn't make up anything,
+and we'll know fer sure if there's any truth at all in the story."</p>
+
+<p>"Who is Pete&mdash;a son?" Ben put the question calmly, considering his
+elation at his good luck. He had made up his mind that he might have to
+spend days in this soporific hamlet.</p>
+
+<p>The grocer looked at him quickly from under his bushy eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>"What made ye ask that? Some folks say he is. Say, are you one o' these
+here detectives? Be you after Carder? Pete's a boy they took out of an
+asylum, and if he'd ever had any care he wouldn't be bandy-legged and
+undersized, but don't you say I've told ye anything, 'cause I haven't."</p>
+
+<p>Ben smiled into the startled, suspicious face. "Not a bit of it," he
+answered. "I'm just motoring about these parts on a little vacation, and
+I got out of cigarettes, so I called on you."</p>
+
+<p>"There's Pete now!" exclaimed the grocer eagerly, hurrying out from
+behind the counter and to the door.</p>
+
+<p>Other of the neighbors recognized the Carder car and came out to
+question the boy, who by the time he entered the grocery found himself
+confronting an audience who all asked questions at once. Pete's shock of
+hair stood up as usual like a scrubbing-brush; he wore no hat, and his
+dull eyes looked about from one to another eager face. Ben had strolled
+back of a tall pile of starch-boxes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it true an areoplane come down in Mr. Carder's field yisterday?" The
+question volleyed at the dwarf from a dozen directions.</p>
+
+<p>He stared at them all dumbly, and they cried at him the more, one woman
+shaking him by the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here, shut up, all of you!" said the proprietor; "let the boy do
+his business first. Ye'll put it all out of his head. What d'ye want,
+Pete?"</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf drew a list out of his pocket and handed it to the grocer upon
+which the bystanders all fell upon him again.</p>
+
+<p>As Ben regarded the dwarf, he felt some reflection of Geraldine's
+compassion for the forlorn little object in his ragged clothes, and he
+realized that it was a wonder that the poor, stultified brain had
+possessed enough initiative to carry out the important part he had
+played in their lives.</p>
+
+<p>While the grocer's clerk was putting up the packages the man himself
+laid his hand on Pete's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Now then, boy," he said kindly, "an areoplane dived down out o' the sky
+into your medder yisterday and picked up a homely, stupid girl and flew
+off with her."</p>
+
+<p>"She was an angel!" exclaimed the dwarf. His dull eyes brightened and
+looked away. "She was more beautiful than flowers."</p>
+
+<p>"She was, eh?" returned the grocer, and the crowd listened
+breathlessly. "They say your master was goin' to marry her? That a
+fact?"</p>
+
+<p>The light went out of Pete's face and his lips closed.</p>
+
+<p>The grocer shook him gently by the shoulder. "Speak up, boy. Was there
+any shootin'? Did the air turn blue 'round there?"</p>
+
+<p>Pete's lips did not open for a moment. "Master told me not to talk," he
+said at last.</p>
+
+<p>A burst of excited laughter came from the crowd. "Then it's true, it's
+true!" they cried.</p>
+
+<p>The grocer kept his hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "Ye might as well
+tell," he said, "'cause Hiram Jones come in last night and told us all
+about it."</p>
+
+<p>Pete's lips remained closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Give ye a big lump o' chocolate if ye'll tell us," said one woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Master told me not to talk," was all the boy would say.</p>
+
+<p>The grocer's clerk went out to the auto with a basket and packed the
+purchases into it.</p>
+
+<p>Ben came from behind the starch boxes, went out the door, and accosted
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you want to make five dollars?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Do I?" drawled the boy, winking at him. "Ain't I got a girl?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then jump in and drive this car out to the Carder farm. I want to talk
+to Pete."</p>
+
+<p>"Eh-h-h! You're a reporter!" cried the boy. "Less see the money."</p>
+
+<p>Ben promptly produced it. "In with you now."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure, I'll have to speak to Pete," the boy demurred. "He can't walk out
+to the farm with them phony legs."</p>
+
+<p>"In with you," repeated the tall stranger firmly. "Go now or not at
+all." He held the bill before the boy's eyes. "I have my car at the inn.
+I'll take care of Pete."</p>
+
+<p>The boy looked eagerly at the money. "Can't I tell the boss?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll fix it with the boss. Here's your money. In with you."</p>
+
+<p>The next minute the car was rattling down the street and Ben went back
+into the store where Pete was still being badgered by a laughing crowd
+persisting in questions about the angel.</p>
+
+<p>As Pete caught sight of him, the obstinate expression in his dull eyes
+did not at first change, but in a minute something familiar in the look
+of the stranger impressed him, and suddenly he knew.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it you? Was it you?" the boy blurted out, elbowing the others aside
+and approaching Ben eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>The bystanders looked curiously at the stranger and at the excited boy.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to have a little talk with you, Pete," said Ben. The dwarf's
+staring eyes had filled.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she here? Has she come down again?" he cried, unmindful of the
+gaping listeners.</p>
+
+<p>"Be quiet," returned Ben. Then he turned to the grocer. "I've sent your
+boy on an errand," he said, and he handed the man a bill. "Will that pay
+you for his time? I've paid him."</p>
+
+<p>He put his hand on Pete's shoulder and led him through the crowd out to
+the street.</p>
+
+<p>"Master's car has gone," cried the dwarf, looking wildly up and down the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>"I have taken care of it," said Ben quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"But I must find it," declared Pete, beginning to shake.</p>
+
+<p>Ben saw his abject terror.</p>
+
+<p>"There's nothing to be afraid of, Pete, nothing any more," said Ben. "Do
+you want to see Miss Melody?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Master!" exclaimed the boy, looking up and meeting a kindly look.</p>
+
+<p>"Then come with me. Let us hurry." Reaching the inn, Ben paid his bill
+while Pete's eyes roved about in all directions for his goddess.</p>
+
+<p>Leading the boy out to the garage he bade him enter the machine. Even
+here Pete hesitated, his weight of terrifying responsibility still
+hanging over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Master's car!" he gasped, looking imploringly up into Ben's face.</p>
+
+<p>"It has gone home, back to the farm," said Ben. "Don't worry. There's
+nothing to worry about."</p>
+
+<p>Pete was trembling as he entered the roadster. He wondered if he were
+dreaming. All this couldn't be real. Nothing had ever happened to him
+before except his goddess.</p>
+
+<p>Ben put on speed and the car flew out of the village and along the
+highroad. They entered another village, but halted not. Through it they
+sped and again out into the open country.</p>
+
+<p>Pete felt dazed, but the man of the motor-cycle, Master had said, was the
+man of the aeroplane. He was here beside him, big, powerful. The dwarf
+felt that he was risking his own life on the hope of seeing his goddess,
+for what would Rufus Carder say to him when he finally returned to the
+farm, a deserter from his duty.</p>
+
+<p>Silently they sped on. Just once Pete spoke, for his heart had sunk.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall we see her, Master?" he asked unsteadily.</p>
+
+<p>Ben turned and smiled at him cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure thing," he answered. "She is well and she wants to see you."</p>
+
+<p>Pete had had no practice in smiling, but a joyful reassurance pervaded
+him. Let Rufus Carder kill him, if it must be. This would come first.</p>
+
+<p>Darkness had fallen when they finally entered a town and drove to a
+hotel. Ben looked rather ruefully at the poor little scarecrow beside
+him with his hatless scrubbing-brush of a head, but the keeper of the
+garage consented to give the boy a place to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"At least," thought Ben, "it will be more comfortable than the boards
+outside Geraldine's door."</p>
+
+<p>He saw to it that the dwarf should have a good supper, after which Pete
+presented himself at Ben's room as he had been ordered to do. Never
+before in his life had he had all the meat and potato he wanted, and
+still marveling at the wonderful things happening to him he was
+conducted to Ben, and stood before him with questioning eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she here, Master?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but we shall see her to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"When&mdash;when do I go back to the farm?" asked the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Never," replied Ben calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"Master!" exclaimed the dwarf, and could say no more. His tanned face
+grew darker with the rush of crimson.</p>
+
+<p>"You're my servant now," said Ben, and his good-humored expression shone
+upon an eager face that worked pitifully.</p>
+
+<p>"What&mdash;what can I do?" stammered Pete, his rough hands with their
+broken nails working together.</p>
+
+<p>"You can get into the bathtub."</p>
+
+<p>"Wha&mdash;what, Master?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben threw open the door of his bathroom.</p>
+
+<p>"Draw that tub full of water and use up all the soap on yourself. Make
+yourself clean for to-morrow. Understand?"</p>
+
+<p>Pete didn't understand anything. He was in a blissful daze. He had never
+seen faucets except the one in the Carder kitchen. Ben had to draw the
+water for him, showing him the hot and the cold; finally making him
+understand that he was not to get in with his clothes on, and that he
+was to use any and all of those fresh white towels, the like of which
+the boy had never seen; then his new master came out, closed the door,
+and laughing to himself sat down to wait and read a magazine.</p>
+
+<p>There was a mighty splashing in the bathroom.</p>
+
+<p>"Clean to see her. Clean to see her," Pete kept saying to himself. He
+was going to be able to speak to her with no one to object. He was going
+to work for this god who could fly down out of the sky. Rufus Carder
+might come to find him later and kill him, but that was no matter.</p>
+
+<p>When finally the bathroom door opened and again arrayed in his
+disreputable clothes the dwarf appeared, Ben spoke without looking up
+from his magazine.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you let the water out of the tub?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, Master. I didn't know."</p>
+
+<p>Ben got up, and Pete followed him, eager for the lesson. Ben viewed the
+color of the water frothing with suds.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you must be clean," he remarked dryly, as he opened the
+waste-pipe, "or at least you will be after a few more ducks."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Master, to see her."</p>
+
+<p>He showed the boy how to wash out the tub which the little fellow did
+with a will.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, then, to bed with you, and we'll have an early breakfast, for we
+have a busy day to-morrow. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Pete ambled away to the garage so happy that he still felt himself in a
+dream. To see his goddess, and never to go back to Rufus Carder! Those
+two facts chased each other around a rosy circle in his brain until he
+fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When Ben Barry came out of his room the next morning he found Pete
+squatting outside his door. He regarded the broken, earth-stained shoes
+and the ragged coat and trousers, which if they had ever been of a
+distinct color were of none now, and the thick mop of hair. The eyes
+raised to his met a gay smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, there," said Ben. "Did you think I might get away?"</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf rose. "I&mdash;I didn't&mdash;didn't know how much&mdash;much was a dream,"
+he stammered.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you had a real breakfast," said Ben.</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf smiled. It was a dreary, unaccustomed sort of crack in his
+weather-beaten face. "I had coffee, too," he replied in an awestruck
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>Ben laughed. "Good enough. You go out to the car and wait till I come.
+I'm going to my breakfast now."</p>
+
+<p>In less than an hour they were on their way. Pete's eyes had lost their
+dullness.</p>
+
+<p>Ben drove to a department store, on a small scale such as the cities
+boast. He parked his car, and when he told Pete to get out the boy
+began looking about at once for Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she here, Master?" he asked as they entered the store.</p>
+
+<p>"No, we shall see her to-night," was the reply.</p>
+
+<p>Then more miracles began to happen to Pete. He was taken from one
+section to another in the store and when he emerged again into the
+street, he hardly knew himself. He was wearing new underclothes,
+stockings, shoes, coat, vest; even the phony legs had been cared for in
+the trousers, cut off to suit the little fellow's peculiar needs, and
+his eyes seemed to have grown larger in the process. Under his arm he
+carried a box containing more underwear.</p>
+
+<p>Next they drove to a barber's where Pete's hair was properly cut; then
+to a hat store and he was fitted to a hat.</p>
+
+<p>When they came out, Ben regarded his work whimsically. The boy was not a
+bad-looking boy. He liked the direct manner of the dwarf's grateful,
+almost reverent, gaze up into his own merry eyes. There was nothing
+shifty there.</p>
+
+<p>When they re&euml;ntered the roadster, Ben spoke to him before he started the
+car.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know why I have done all this, Pete?"</p>
+
+<p>The boy shook his head. "Because you came down out of the sky?" he
+questioned.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it is just because you took care of Miss Melody; because you put
+those letters underneath her door."</p>
+
+<p>Pete's face crimsoned with happiness. "I helped her&mdash;I&mdash;I helped her get
+away," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and she will never forget it, and neither will I."</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you&mdash;asked me if I loved her," said Pete, his mind returning to
+the day of the motor-cycle visit.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and you did, didn't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and&mdash;and when she was gone up to&mdash;to heaven, I wanted to die till
+I&mdash;I remembered that she&mdash;she wanted to go."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, wanted to go just as much as you did, and more. Now <i>that</i> life is
+all over, Pete. Just as much gone as those old clothes of yours that we
+left to be burned. You've been a faithful, brave boy, and Miss Melody
+and I are going to look after you henceforth."</p>
+
+<p>Pete couldn't speak. Ben saw him bite his lip to control himself. The
+roadster started and moving slowly out of the town sped again along a
+country road.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Goddess</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>On the same day Geraldine and Miss Upton were patronizing the department
+stores in the city and getting such clothing as was absolutely necessary
+for the girl. Geraldine's purchases were rigidly simple.</p>
+
+<p>"I think you're downright stingy, child," commented Miss Upton when the
+girl had overruled certain suggestions Miss Mehitable had made with the
+fear of Ben Barry before her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. Don't you see how it's counting up?" rejoined Geraldine
+earnestly. "All these things on your bill, and no telling how soon I can
+pay for them."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton noticed how the salesgirls appreciated the beauty they had to
+deal with, and she was in sympathy with their efforts to dress Geraldine
+as she deserved.</p>
+
+<p>There were some shops into which the girl refused to enter, and it was
+plain to her companion that these had been the scenes of some of her
+repulsive experiences.</p>
+
+<p>Also they shunned the restaurant where they had met; and every minute
+that they were on the street Geraldine held tight to Miss Upton's
+substantial arm.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be so glad when we get home," she said repeatedly.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, look here," said Miss Upton, "there's one thing you've got to
+accept from me as a present. You're my little girl and I've a right to
+give you one thing, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"I'd much rather you wouldn't," returned Geraldine anxiously&mdash;"not until
+I've paid for these."</p>
+
+<p>She had changed the white dress she wore into town for a dark-blue skirt
+and jacket which formed the chief item of her purchases, and on her head
+she had a black sailor hat which Miss Upton had procured in Keefe.</p>
+
+<p>"I want to give you," said Miss Upton&mdash;"I want to give you a&mdash;a droopy
+hat!"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine laughed. "What in the world for, you dear? What do I need of
+droopy hats?"</p>
+
+<p>"To wear with your light things&mdash;your white dress, and&mdash;and everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Upton, how absurd! I don't need it at all. Don't think of such a
+thing. I shan't go anywhere."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe you know what you'll do," returned Miss Mehitable.
+"Just come and try one on, anyway. I want to see you in it."</p>
+
+<p>So, coaxing, while the girl demurred, she led her to the millinery
+section of the store they were in. Of course, putting hats on Geraldine
+was a very fascinating game, which everybody enjoyed except the girl
+herself. There was one hat especially in which Miss Upton reveled,
+mentally considering its devastating effect upon Ben Barry. It was very
+simple, and at the most depressed point of the brim nestled one soft,
+loose-leaved pink rose with a little foliage. Miss Upton's eyes
+glistened and she drew the saleslady aside.</p>
+
+<p>"I've bought it," she said triumphantly when she came back.</p>
+
+<p>"It isn't right," replied Geraldine, although it must be admitted that
+she herself had thought of Ben when she first saw the reflection of it
+in the glass.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you want me to have any fun?" returned Miss Mehitable, quite
+excited, for the price of the hat caused the matter to be portentous.</p>
+
+<p>"Let him pay for it," she considered recklessly. "What's the harm as
+long as he and I are the only ones who know it, and wild horses couldn't
+drag it out of me?"</p>
+
+<p>So, Geraldine carrying the large hatbox, they at last pursued their way
+to the railway station and with mutual sighs of relief stowed themselves
+into the train for Keefe.</p>
+
+<p>"What you thinkin' about, child?" demanded Miss Mehitable after a long
+period of silence.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine met her regard wistfully. "I was wondering if anybody is ever
+perfectly happy. Isn't there always some drawback, some 'if' that has to
+be met?"</p>
+
+<p>"Was you thinkin' about Mrs. Barry, Geraldine? I'm sorry she had one o'
+her haughty spells that day&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No, I was not thinking of her; it is Mr. Barry&mdash;Ben. He went on a very
+dangerous errand yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't say so! Why, he came in as gay as a lark with those apple
+blossoms and he went out to his machine whistlin'. He couldn't have had
+much on his mind. You know I told you yesterday he's as sensible as he
+is brave."</p>
+
+<p>"What good is bravery against a madman with a gun&mdash;still he promised, he
+promised me he would not go to the farm alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Then he'll abide by it. You do give me a turn, Geraldine, talkin' about
+madmen and guns."</p>
+
+<p>The girl sighed.</p>
+
+<p>"I haven't had anything but 'turns' ever since I first saw the Carder
+farm; but it is unkind to draw you into it. Sometimes I wish I had never
+mentioned Pete to Mr. Barry, yet it seems disloyal to leave the boy
+there when I owe him so much."</p>
+
+<p>And then Geraldine told her friend in detail the part the dwarf had
+played in her life.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry was, of course, able to think of little else than the new
+element which had come so suddenly into her calm, well-ordered life. She
+shrank fastidiously from anything undignified, and she felt that through
+no fault of her own she was now in an undignified position. In her son's
+eyes she was a culprit. Even her humble friend, Mehitable Upton, had
+revealed plainly an indignation at her attitude. When Ben left yesterday
+telling her that he might be gone several days, without explaining why
+or where, she felt the barrier between them even while he kissed her
+good-bye. He had made a vigorous declaration of independence that night
+at dinner, and now he had gone away to let her think it over, not even
+noticing that her eyes were heavy from a sleepless night.</p>
+
+<p>All that day, as she moved about her customary occupations, the thought
+of Geraldine haunted her; the way the girl had avoided her eyes after
+their first encounter, how she had clung to Miss Upton, and how eagerly
+she had urged departure.</p>
+
+<p>"So silly," thought Mrs. Barry while she fed her pigeons. "How absurd of
+her to expect anything different from a civil reception."</p>
+
+<p>Side by side with this condemnation, however, ran the consideration of
+how Ben had probably flung himself at her feet so far as the Scout plane
+would allow, and how he had even urged immediate matrimony. That hurt
+too much! Mrs. Barry saw the pigeons through a veil of quick tears. One
+more night she slept or waked over the problem, and as her thought
+adjusted itself more to Geraldine, the practical side of the girl's
+situation unfolded to her consideration. There would seem to be no
+question of returning to the irate farmer to get her clothing, yet that
+might be the very thing Ben was doing now; risking his precious life
+again for this stranger who was nothing to them. The more Mrs. Barry
+thought about it, the more restless she became. At last there was no
+question any longer but that her only peace lay in going to Miss Melody.
+After all, it was merely courteous to inquire how the girl had borne the
+excitement of her escape; but in the back of Mrs. Barry's mind was the
+hope that she might discover where her boy had gone now.</p>
+
+<p>She made a hasty toilet, jumped into her electric, and drove
+to Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions. The shades were drawn. The
+taking-account-of-stock notice was still on the door which resisted all
+effort to open it.</p>
+
+<p>Knocking availed nothing. Mrs. Barry's lips took a line of firmness
+equal to her son's. Walking around to the back door, she found it open
+and entered the kitchen. It was empty.</p>
+
+<p>She moved through the house into the shop. There was Mrs. Whipp, her
+head tied up in a handkerchief, bending over a packing-box. She started
+at a sound, raised her head, and stood amazed at the visitor's identity.</p>
+
+<p>"I knocked, but you didn't seem to hear me," said Mrs. Barry with
+dignity.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes'm, I did hear a knock," returned Charlotte, "but they pound there
+all day, and o' course I didn't know't was you. I tell Miss Upton if we
+kept the door locked and the shades down all the time, we'd do a drivin'
+business. Folks seem jest possessed to come in and buy somethin' 'cause
+they can't. Did you want somethin' special, Mrs. Barry?"</p>
+
+<p>"I came to see Miss Melody. I wished to inquire if she has recovered
+from her excitement."</p>
+
+<p>A softened expression stole over Charlotte's weazened face.</p>
+
+<p>"She ain't here. They've gone to the city."</p>
+
+<p>"Who&mdash;who did you say has gone?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry controlled her own start. Visions of two in that roadster
+swept over her. Perhaps, she herself having forfeited her right to
+consideration&mdash;there was no telling what might have happened by this
+time. Mrs. Whipp's smile was frightfully complacent.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Upton and her went together," was the reply. "Of course, all the
+girl's clo'es was in the den o' that fiend she got away from, and she
+had to git some more."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry breathed freer.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Upton cal'lated to get some things from her customers and fix 'em
+over, but Mr. Barry, he wouldn't have it so."</p>
+
+<p>"Are you referring to my son?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Miss Upton said he turned up his nose at hand-me-downs, so she had
+to jest brace up and git 'em new."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Whipp's eyes seemed to see far away and her expression under the
+protecting towel was one quite novel.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry cleared her throat.</p>
+
+<p>"My son was here, then, before he went away on his&mdash;his little trip."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied Mrs. Whipp, appearing to perceive Dan Cupid over her
+visitor's shoulder. "He come in to bring the apple blossoms and ask how
+Geraldine was, and that night sech a box o' candy as he sent her! You'd
+ought to 'a' seen it, Mis' Barry. P'r'aps you did see it." Charlotte met
+the lady's steady eyes eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>"No, I did not see it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that poor little girl she couldn't half enjoy them bon-bons,
+'cause she was so scared somethin' was goin' to happen to Mr. Barry."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she was afraid he'd gone back to that farm where they murder folks
+as quick as look at 'em." Charlotte sniffed a sniff of excited
+enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>"What would he go there for?" demanded Mrs. Barry. "Surely not to get
+those foolish clothes!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know. I only know Geraldine cried. Miss Upton said so; but she
+told her how Mr. Barry was jest as smart as he was brave and she took
+her to the city to git her mind off."</p>
+
+<p>Charlotte smiled with as soft an expression as the unaccustomed lips
+could reveal, and nothing but stamping her aristocratic foot could have
+expressed Mrs. Barry's exasperation.</p>
+
+<p>"I am quite sure my son would not take any absurd and unnecessary step,"
+she said, with such hauteur that Mrs. Whipp came out of her day-dream
+and realized that the great lady's eyes were flashing. Without another
+word the visitor turned and left the shop, her black and violet cape
+sweeping through living-room and kitchen and back into her machine.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day was spent by the lady in alternations of scorn,
+vexation, and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>Late in the afternoon she heard a motor enter the grounds, and hurrying
+to the door saw with a happy leap of the heart that it was Ben's
+roadster. Her relief drove her to forgive and forget and to hurry out to
+the piazza. The machine came on and she saw that her son was not alone.
+A boy sat beside him.</p>
+
+<p>The roadster stopped. Ben jumped out and kissed his mother, then
+beckoned to Pete, who obediently drew near and stood on his curved legs,
+his hat in his hand. He looked up at the queenly lady, and his eyes
+which had ceased to wonder were still seeking.</p>
+
+<p>"Is she here, Master?" he asked.</p>
+
+<p>"No, but near by," replied Ben.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother, I've engaged a new boy. His name is Pete. He is here for
+general utility. He is very willing."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry gazed in disapproval at the quaint, clean figure in his
+brand-new clothes. Pete's rough hands constantly twirled his straw hat.</p>
+
+<p>"You should have asked me," she said. "We don't need any more help."</p>
+
+<p>Ben put his arm around her and drew her close to him. "Yes, we do," he
+replied cheerfully, "down at Keefeport. Pete will go there and keep
+things in shape. You will wonder how you ever got along without him; but
+I need him first. He was one of the hands at the Carder farm&mdash;has been
+there from a child and he knows more about his master's devilment than
+anybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"Ben!" His mother looked up reproachfully into the young fellow's happy
+eyes. "Why did you need to risk your life again&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, not a bit of that," laughed Ben. "I picked Pete out of a grocery
+store&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Where is she, Master?" The voice of the boy was pleading again.</p>
+
+<p>"Pete was a good friend to Miss Melody, the only one she had, and now
+his reward is going to be to see her."</p>
+
+<p>"You don't mean," exclaimed Mrs. Barry, "that you have spent a couple of
+days to get this boy and dress him up in order to allow him to see Miss
+Melody?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, not exactly. I kidnapped him as an information bureau."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't you let that disgusting farmer alone?" asked the lady
+despairingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Because if I do, he won't let us alone," returned Ben shortly. "Well,
+now, we've shown ourselves to you and we'll be off to keep my word to
+Pete. Hop in, boy."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Miss Upton and Geraldine had reached home, hatbox and all, and were in
+the dismantled shop answering Charlotte's questions when they heard an
+automobile stop before the door and a cheery whistle sounded. The
+repellent shades were still down at the windows.</p>
+
+<p>"That's Ben Barry!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable. "Don't you dare to touch
+that hat!" she added severely to Geraldine, whose cheeks flushed deeply
+as a tattoo began on the locked door.</p>
+
+<p>So the girl was standing in the middle of the room wearing the droopy
+hat when Ben came in, followed by the dwarf at whom Miss Mehitable and
+Charlotte stared.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine forgot her hat, and Ben Barry&mdash;forgot everything but the eager
+adoration in the face of the transformed slave. "Why, Pete, Pete!" she
+cried joyously, running to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>The boy bit his lips to keep back the tears and his clumsy fingers
+worked nervously as his goddess rested both her hands on his shoulders.
+He couldn't speak, but gazed and gazed up into the eyes under the droopy
+hat.</p>
+
+<p>Ben Barry, his arms folded, looked on at the tableau while Geraldine
+murmured welcome and reassurance.</p>
+
+<p>"Aren't we the happiest people in the world, Pete?" she finished softly.</p>
+
+<p>He choked. "Yes, and I'm not going back," he was able to say at last.</p>
+
+<p>"I should say not," put in Ben. "I've brought somebody to help you move,
+Mehit," he added. Miss Upton was still staring at the dwarf's legs.</p>
+
+<p>"That's fine," said Geraldine. "Pete is just the right one for us."</p>
+
+<p>The boy kept his eyes on hers.</p>
+
+<p>"He can't ever get you again," he said, with trembling eagerness,
+"'cause I know all about the girls he had there before you, and how one
+jumped out the winder, and I know what hospital they took her to, for I
+drove, and I'm goin' there with Mr. Barry, and he's goin' to&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, Pete," interrupted Ben quietly. "We're going to take care
+of that without troubling Miss Melody."</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf dropped back as Ben advanced. Charlotte said afterward that it
+gave her a turn to see the manner in which the young man took both the
+girl's hands and scanned her changed appearance.</p>
+
+<p>"It looks perfectly absurd with this tailor suit," she said, blushing
+and laughing. "Miss Upton <i>would</i> give it to me. So extravagant!"</p>
+
+<p>The elaborate wink which Miss Mehitable bestowed on Ben as he glanced
+at her over his love's head was intended to warn him that he had a bill
+to pay.</p>
+
+<p>"Miss Upton has been your good fairy all along, hasn't she?" His look
+was so intense and he spoke so seriously that Geraldine glanced up at
+him half timidly and down again.</p>
+
+<p>Charlotte pulled Miss Upton's dress and motioned with her head toward
+the living-room; but, as Miss Mehitable said afterward, "What was the
+good of <i>their</i> goin' and leavin' that critter there?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you for the candy, Mr. Barry," said Geraldine, meeting his eyes
+again steadily, "but please don't. You have put me under everlasting
+obligation, but will you do me one more favor? Will you let me help
+these dear women and&mdash;and stay away, and&mdash;don't send me anything?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable understood this prayer, and she had a qualm as she
+thought of the price of the bewitching hat which was at the present
+moment doing its worst.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, for a little while," replied Ben. "Pete will get you moved and
+settled at the Port and then he and I will take a trip. I don't know
+how long we shall be away; but when we return you will understand that
+the ogre's teeth have been extracted, the tiger's claws cut, and the
+spider's web rent. How's that?" He smiled down into the girl's grave
+eyes, still holding her hands close.</p>
+
+<p>"If I could only find out what my father's debt to him really is, I
+would consecrate my life to paying it," she said in a low tone.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable felt that the atmosphere was getting very warm.</p>
+
+<p>"Come here, Pete," she said. "I want to show you my kitchen." The dwarf
+walked slowly backward to the door, his eyes on the young couple, as if
+he feared to let them out of his sight lest they vanish and he waken.
+"Come on, Charlotte."</p>
+
+<p>The three disappeared, Miss Mehitable urging Pete by the shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try to find out," returned Ben; "and if it is possible to do that,
+the debt shall be paid."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine caught her lip under her teeth and swallowed the rising lump.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mr. Barry&mdash;Ben," she said at last, "of course I have no words to
+thank you&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't wish to be thanked in words."</p>
+
+<p>"You're too generous."</p>
+
+<p>"Not in the least," returned Ben quietly. "I want to be thanked. I want
+each of us to thank the other all our lives. I to be grateful to you for
+existing, and you to thank me for spending my days with the paramount
+thought of your happiness."</p>
+
+<p>They looked at each other for a long silent minute.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Whipp says your mother came to call on me to-day," said Geraldine
+at last. "She described her manner so well that it is evident she came
+at the point of your bayonet. I understand the situation entirely. I've
+already heard that she is the great lady of the town. You are her only
+son. Do you suppose I blame her when out of a clear sky you produced me
+and made your feeling plain to her? Is it any wonder that she made hers
+plain to me? I should think"&mdash;Geraldine gave an appealing pressure to
+the hands holding hers&mdash;"I should think you could be generous enough
+to&mdash;to let me alone."</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes pleaded with him seriously.</p>
+
+<p>"What am I doing?" asked Ben. "What do you suppose is the reason that
+I'm wasting all these minutes when I might be holding you in my arms!"
+He had to stop here himself and swallow manfully. "If you knew how you
+look at this moment&mdash;and I don't kiss you&mdash;just because I'm giving
+Mother a little time, so that you will be satisfied&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Then you'll promise&mdash;will you promise&mdash;you kept your promise about the
+farm?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; I found Pete in the village."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you do keep promises! Tell me solemnly that you will leave your
+mother in freedom. If you don't, Ben&mdash;Sir Galahad&mdash;I'll run away. I
+really will&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>In her earnestness she lifted her face toward his, her eyes were
+irresistible, and in an instant he had swept her into his arms and was
+kissing her tenderly, fervently, to the utter undoing of the droopy hat
+which fell unnoticed to the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Voices approaching made him release her.</p>
+
+<p>Very flushed, very grave, both of them, they looked into each other's
+eyes, and Geraldine, being a woman, put both hands up to her ruffled
+hair.</p>
+
+<p>"I do promise you, Geraldine," he said, low and earnestly. "Whatever my
+mother does after this you may know is of her own volition."</p>
+
+<p>Pete burst into the room wild-eyed, followed by Miss Mehitable, who was
+talking and laughing.</p>
+
+<p>"He was afraid you'd go away without him," she said&mdash;"Mercy's sakes,
+Geraldine Melody, look at your hat!" She darted upon it and snapped some
+dust off its chiffon. "You'd better be careful how you throw this
+around. We can't buy a hat like this every day."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, do forgive me, Miss Upton!" murmured the girl, her eyes very
+bright. "It was her present to me," she added to Ben. "I'm so sorry!"
+She went to Miss Mehitable and laid her cheek against hers, and Miss
+Upton bestowed another prodigious wink upon the purchaser of the hat.</p>
+
+<p>It did not break his gravity; a gravity which Miss Upton but just now
+noticed.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Pete, we'll be going," said Ben, and his flushed, serious face
+worried Miss Mehitable's kind heart, especially as no sign of his merry
+carelessness returned in his brief leave-taking.</p>
+
+<p>When they were gone and the door had closed after them, she looked at
+the girl accusingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Something has happened," she said, in a low tone not to attract
+Charlotte.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be cross with me about the hat," said the girl, nestling up close
+to her again. "I just love it&mdash;much better even than I did in the
+store."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable put an arm around her, not because at the moment she
+loved her, but because she was there.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," she said, "if there's anything in this world that can make
+anything but a fool out of a girl before it's too late. I know you're
+just as crazy about him as he is about you! If you wasn't, would you
+have been snivellin' around because he might get hurt to the farm? And
+yet jest 'cause o' your silly, foolish pride you've gone and refused
+him. It's as plain as the nose on his splendid face. As if in the long
+run it mattered if Mrs. Barry was a little cantankerous. She's run
+everything around here so long that she forgets her boy's a man with a
+mind of his own. It's awful narrow of you, Geraldine, awful narrow!"</p>
+
+<p>Upon this the girl lifted her head and smiled faintly into the accusing
+face.</p>
+
+<p>"Won't it be nice to have Pete help us move," she said innocently.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton's lips tightened. She dropped her arm, moved away, and put
+the droopy hat back in its box.</p>
+
+<p>"You're heartless!" she exclaimed. There was such a peachy bloom on the
+girl's face. "I won't waste my breath."</p>
+
+<p>"I love <i>you</i>," said Geraldine, meekly and defensively.</p>
+
+<p>"Ho!" snorted her good fairy, unappeased.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Mermaid Shop</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>For the next few days Miss Mehitable had no time to worry over
+love-affairs. No matter how early she arose in the morning she found
+Pete arrayed in overalls sitting on the stone step of Upton's Fancy
+Goods and Notions, and when by the evening of the third day all her
+goods, wares, and chattels were deposited in the little shop at
+Keefeport, she wondered how she had ever got on without him.</p>
+
+<p>On that very day Ben Barry received a threatening letter from Rufus
+Carder demanding the return of Pete, and he knew that no more time must
+be lost. He flew over to the Port that afternoon, and alighting on the
+landing-field which had been prepared near his cottage walked to the
+little shop near the wharf. Here he found Pete industriously obeying
+Miss Upton's orders in company with his idol, the whole quartet gay amid
+their chaos. Even Mrs. Whipp had postponed the fear of rheumatism and
+had learned how to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>They had formed a line and were passing the articles from boxes to
+shelves when the leather-coated, helmeted figure stood suddenly before
+them.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of the apparition upon Geraldine with its associations was so
+extreme as to make her feel faint for a minute, and Ben saw her face
+change as she leaned against the counter.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable saw it too. "Aha!" she thought triumphantly. "Aha! It
+isn't so funny to break a body's heart, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Ben Barry," she said aloud, "why didn't you wait till we got
+settled?"</p>
+
+<p>The aviator stood in the doorway, but came no farther.</p>
+
+<p>"Because I have to take Pete away. I've had a <i>billet doux</i> from Rufus
+Carder and he wants him."</p>
+
+<p>The dwarf rushed to his new master on quaking legs. "Oh, Master! I won't
+go! I can't go." He looked off wildly on the big billows rolling in.
+"I'll throw myself in the sea."</p>
+
+<p>Ben put a hand on the boy's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you won't go," he said; "but you want to brighten up your
+wits now and remember everything that will help us. We're going to the
+city to-night and begin at once to settle that gentleman's affairs." He
+gave Geraldine a reassuring look. "I should like to take your father's
+letter with me," he added quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"But we mustn't get Pete into trouble," she replied doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not intending to show it. I want to familiarize myself with his
+handwriting. I expect to have an interview and perhaps there will be
+notes to examine."</p>
+
+<p>"But not at the farm," protested the girl quickly. "You'll not go near
+the meadow?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; the cows have nothing to fear from us this time."</p>
+
+<p>"And you'll"&mdash;Geraldine swallowed&mdash;"you'll be careful?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben nodded. "All my promises hold," he replied, looking straight into
+her eyes with only the ghost of his old smile, as Miss Upton noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine ran upstairs, brought down her father's letter, and gave it to
+him.</p>
+
+<p>He took it with a nod of thanks. "How do you think you will like to
+fly, Pete?" he asked. "You can go home with me, or, if you prefer it, in
+the trolley."</p>
+
+<p>"Anywhere with you, Master," returned the boy. He felt certain that
+Rufus Carder would not be met among the clouds, but who could be sure
+that he would not pop up in a trolley car.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then. Good-bye, everybody, and expect us when you see us."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, you dear boy," cried Miss Mehitable. <i>Somebody</i> should call
+him "dear." She was determined on that. "Always workin' for others," she
+continued loudly, "and riskin' your life the way you are." She moved to
+the door, and raised her voice still higher as the strangely assorted
+pair moved away up the road. "I hope you'll get your reward sometime!"
+she shouted; then she turned back and glared at Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>The girl put her hand on her heart. "It startled me so to see him&mdash;just
+as he looked on that&mdash;that&mdash;dreadful day," she was going to say, but how
+could she so characterize the day of her full joy and wonder? So her
+voice died to silence, and Miss Upton began slamming articles up on the
+shelves with unnecessary violence, while Geraldine, smiling into the
+packing-boxes, meekly set about helping her.</p>
+
+<p>Pete, like Geraldine before him, was in such terror of his former master
+and so full of trust in his present one, that he swallowed his fears as
+the plane rose for its short trip, and he found the experience
+enjoyable. Ben, when they reached the house, sought his mother. She was
+walking on the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>"You didn't tell me you were off for a flight," she said in an annoyed
+tone.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it was now you see me and now you don't this time, wasn't it? You
+had hardly time to miss me. I flew over to the Port to get Pete. We have
+to go to the city to-night. I'll be gone a few days, Mother, perhaps a
+week."</p>
+
+<p>"On some disgusting business connected with that unspeakable man, I
+suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Verily I believe it will be very disgusting; but it has to be gone
+through with."</p>
+
+<p>"Why does it?" His mother stood before him and spoke desperately. "Why
+can't you let it alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I've told you&mdash;because it affects the happiness of my future wife."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry's eyes were hard, though her cheeks grew crimson. "You
+haven't announced your engagement to me. Don't you think I should be one
+of the first to know?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm not engaged." Ben smiled into her angry, hurt eyes. "Something
+stands in the way as yet."</p>
+
+<p>"What?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you guess?"</p>
+
+<p>They continued to exchange a steady gaze. She spoke first.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean to say that anyone concerned in the affair still considers
+<i>me</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>Her boy's smile became a laugh at the deliberate manner of her sarcasm.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, cut it out, Mother mine," he said. And though she tried to hold
+stiffly away from him, he hugged her and kissed her and pulled her down
+beside him on a wicker seat.</p>
+
+<p>She could not get away from his encircling arm and probably she did not
+wish to.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben, I've had a most disagreeable day," she declared. "Everybody within
+fifteen miles knows that you flew into the village with a strange girl."</p>
+
+<p>"They said she was pretty, didn't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can't leave the house without somebody stopping me and asking me
+about it, and I'll have to order the telephone taken out if this goes
+on. I can hardly bear to answer it any more. I called on Miss Melody,
+but she had gone to town, and that hopeless Mrs. Whipp babbled about
+your attentions. I don't want you to break the apple blossoms anyway."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, honey, I won't. They're nearly gone; but I shall always love
+apple blossoms. They're fragrant like her spirit, pink and white like
+her, wholesome like her, modest like her. You see she has always been
+kept in the background. No one has taken the bloom from her freshness.
+She has had blows, has come in contact with some of the world's mud, but
+it washed away and disappeared under her own purity."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry looked into the speaker's flashing eyes. "My poor boy," she
+said at last. "I wonder whether you're crazy or whether you're right.
+What am I going to do!"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I don't know what you're going to do," he returned, his lips
+and voice suddenly serious. "It depends largely upon whether you want
+my future wife to hand out ice-cream cones to the trippers at
+Keefeport."</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean now?" Mrs. Barry asked it severely.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, the little girl is going to try to earn her living, of course, and
+she will be slow to leave Miss Upton's protection, for she has proved,
+that a girl's beauty may be her worst enemy. Miss Upton will do a bigger
+business than ever, that is easily prophesied. The hilarious, rowdy
+parties that come over in motor-boats will pass the word along that
+there is something worth seeing at Upton's this year. They will crack
+their jokes, and Miss Melody will be loyal to her employer. She won't
+want to discourage trade. They will make longer visits than usual and
+the phonograph will work overtime."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry had risen slowly during this harangue and now looked down
+upon her son with haughty, displeased eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall speak to Miss Upton," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"I advise you not to," returned Ben dryly, crossing one leg over the
+other and embracing his knee. "I don't think you are in any position to
+dictate. I left a merry party down there just now. Mrs. Whipp cracking
+the air with chuckles, Mehitable rocking the store with her activities,
+Miss Melody enveloped in a gigantic apron and with a large smudge across
+her cheek, having the time of her life unpacking boxes. I was sorry to
+bereave them of Pete, but it won't take them long now to be ready for
+business."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry did not speak. A catbird sang in an apple tree, a call to
+vespers.</p>
+
+<p>"This won't do for me," said Ben, suddenly rising. "I'll go up and throw
+a few things into my bag. Give us a bite to eat, Mother dear, and tell
+Lawson to bring the car around. We must get the seven-thirty."</p>
+
+<p>After her boy and his humble lieutenant had left for the train, the
+mother sat a long time on the piazza thinking. The telephone rang at
+last. She sighed, went to its corner, and sat down to stop its annoying
+peremptoriness. For days it had reminded her of an inescapable, buzzing
+gnat, a thousand times magnified.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Mrs. Barry," came a girlish voice across the wire. "Don't think me
+too inquisitive, but we're all dying to know if that beautiful girl,
+Miss Melody, is going to live with Miss Upton? Mrs. Whipp said they were
+going to take her to Keefeport with them, and somebody said they did
+move to-day and that she did go with them. We thought she was visiting
+you and I wanted to ask when we might come to call. We're all dying to
+meet her. You know Ben has been a sort of brother to us all, and we're
+simply crazy to know this girl and hear about her rescue."</p>
+
+<p>While this speech gushed into Mrs. Barry's unwilling ear, her martyred
+look was fixed upon the wall and her wits were working. It was Adele
+Hastings talking. She had always liked Adele. In fact this young girl
+had been her secret choice for Ben in those innocent days when she
+supposed she would have some voice in the most important affair of his
+life. She could not turn Adele off as she had other questioners.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose this is Adele Hastings speaking."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, didn't I say? I do beg your pardon. I just saw Ben on the station
+platform with the queerest little bow-legged boy. Ben looked like a
+giant beside him. I just flew home to the telephone to ask how you were
+and&mdash;and&mdash;about everything."</p>
+
+<p>"That is just a servant Ben has picked up." ("A member of our new
+menagerie," Mrs. Barry felt like adding, but held her peace and
+continued to look at the wall.)</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mother wanted me to say to you that if you were house cleaning,
+or there was any other reason why it was inconvenient for you to have
+Miss Melody with you, she would be so glad to have her come to us till
+you are ready. I told Mother she had probably gone to Keefeport to
+recuperate in the quiet before the season really begins. I haven't seen
+Miss Upton or that cross thing that tends store for her, but some people
+have, and we've heard such fairy tales about that lovely creature&mdash;I saw
+her on the train with Miss Upton&mdash;about her being shut up with a madman
+and Ben literally flying to her rescue and carrying her off under the
+creature's nose. Why, it's perfectly wonderful! I can hardly wait to
+hear the truth about it. Talk about the prince on a milk-white steed
+that always rescued the princess&mdash;Ben in his aeroplane makes <i>him</i> look
+like thirty cents."</p>
+
+<p>"Tut, tut," said Mrs. Barry; "you know I don't like slang."</p>
+
+<p>The girlish voice laughed. "But, dear Mrs. Barry, 'marry come up' and
+'ods bodikins' were probably slang in the day of the spear and shield.
+When may I see you and hear about it?"</p>
+
+<p>This direct question forced Mrs. Barry to a decision. The impossible
+Charlotte Whipp, who had not hesitated to tell her regal self of her
+son's attentions to the waif, had doubtless poured enough of the yeast
+of gossip into eager ears to set the whole village to swelling with
+curiosity, and her dignity as well as Ben's depended on the attitude she
+took at the present moment.</p>
+
+<p>Her rather stiff and formal voice took on a more confidential tone. "I'm
+going to ask you to wait a few days, Adele. We have been passing through
+rather stirring times. I thank your mother very much for her kind offer,
+but it seemed best for Miss Melody to go to the sea, at least for a few
+days. You know what an excellent soul Miss Upton is. Miss Melody knew
+her before, and as the girl was a good deal upset by some exciting
+experiences, and as I was a complete stranger, Miss Upton stepped into
+the breach. Please don't believe the exaggerated stories that may be
+going about. Ben was able to do the young lady a favor, that is all. As
+you say, she is very charming to look upon. We shall all know her better
+after a while."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, just one thing before you hang up, dear Mrs. Barry. I know you
+will excuse my asking it, because I know your standards, and you have
+been an even stronger influence upon me socially than my own mother; but
+is&mdash;is Miss Melody the sort of girl you will entertain as an&mdash;an equal?
+or does she&mdash;it sounds horrid to ask it&mdash;or does she belong more in good
+Miss Upton's class?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry ground her teeth together, and luckily the wall of her
+reception room was of tough stuff or her look would have withered it.
+She had a mental flashlight of Geraldine serving trippers with ice-cream
+cones behind Miss Upton's counter.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," she said suavely, "do you sound a little bit snobbish?"</p>
+
+<p>"No more than you have taught me to be," was the prompt reply. "I want
+to behave toward Miss Melody just as you wish me to. It looks to us all,
+of course, as if she were Miss Upton's friend and not yours."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry's cheeks flamed. This dreadful youngster was forcing her,
+hurrying her, and she would be spokesman to the village. Ben's
+infatuation left her no choice.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, quite in ours, quite, I judge," she said graciously. "Ben thinks
+her quite exceptional."</p>
+
+<p>The girlish voice laughed again: not so gleefully as Mrs. Barry could
+have wished. She hoped they were not sister-sufferers!</p>
+
+<p>"I should judge so, from what Mrs. Whipp has told people. Well, I will
+be patient, Mrs. Barry. We want to show all courtesy to Ben's friend
+when the right time comes. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye," replied Mrs. Barry, and hung up the receiver.</p>
+
+<p>She sat a few minutes more without moving, deep in thought.</p>
+
+<p>"I have no choice," she said to herself at last. "I have no choice."</p>
+
+<p>The next day she moved about restlessly amid her accustomed occupations
+and by evening had come to a conclusion and made a plan which on the
+following afternoon she carried out.</p>
+
+<p>After an early luncheon she set forth in her motor for Keefeport. Miss
+Upton's little establishment was in nice order by this time and the sign
+had been hung up over the door: "The Mermaid Shop." By the time Mrs.
+Barry's car stopped before it, the three residents had eaten their
+dinner and the dishes were set away.</p>
+
+<p>"There's so few folks here yet, there's hardly anything to do in the
+store," said Miss Mehitable to Geraldine. "Now's the time for you to go
+out and walk around and see the handsome cottages and the grand rocky
+shore. This wharf ain't anything to see."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think Pearl would like to go to walk?" said the girl, picking up
+the handsome cat, while Charlotte looked on approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>"Pearl does hate this movin' business," she said. "It'll be weeks before
+she'll find a spot in the house where she can really settle down."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine was burying her face in the soft fur when the motor flashed up
+to the grassy path before the shop, and stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"For the land's sake!" said Miss Mehitable. "It's the Barry car." She
+hurried forward, and Geraldine, still holding the cat against her cheek,
+saw the chauffeur open the door and Mrs. Barry emerge.</p>
+
+<p>Ben's assurance flashed into her thought. "Whatever she may do
+hereafter, remember it is of her own volition."</p>
+
+<p>The lady came in, and, smiling a return to Miss Mehitable's welcome,
+looked at the girl in the blue dress. She liked the self-possessed
+manner with which Geraldine greeted her.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm trying to make Pearl feel at home, you see," said the girl. "Mrs.
+Whipp says it is very hard for her to move."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know that is a pussy's nature. I like cats, but I like birds
+better, so I don't keep any. How nice you look here. Oh, what charming
+roses!" going to the nodding beauties standing in a vase on the counter.
+"Are those for sale? If so they're going home to Keefe."</p>
+
+<p>"No, Mrs. Barry, they ain't for sale," replied Miss Mehitable. "I'm so
+proud of 'em I can hardly stand it. Ben sent 'em to me. Wasn't he the
+dear boy to give the Mermaid such a send-off?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is a nice boy, isn't he, Miss Upton?" returned the visitor
+graciously. "I'm glad to see you looking so well, Miss Melody."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine certainly had plenty of color and she held to the cat as an
+embarrassed actor does to a prop. "I tried to see you one day at Keefe,
+but you were out."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I was dressin' the doll that day," said Miss Mehitable, smiling.
+She discerned friendliness in the air and was elated.</p>
+
+<p>"The result is very nice," said Mrs. Barry graciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I think blue serges are about the best thing at the seaside. I
+wanted to get her one o' these here real snappy sailor dresses, but she
+kept holdin' me back, holdin' me back, till it's a wonder we got any
+clothes at all!" Miss Upton laughed, and as Geraldine turned toward her
+with a smile, Mrs. Barry was conscious of a faint echo of that smile's
+effect upon her son.</p>
+
+<p>Charlotte stood at the back of the shop looking on and reflectively
+picking her teeth with a pin. "She's a real good worker, Geraldine is,"
+she remarked with a sniff, "I'll say that for her."</p>
+
+<p>An angry flash leaped up Mrs. Barry's spine. That settled it. This
+exquisite creature must not stay where that charwoman could speak of her
+so familiarly.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly there has been a lot of good work done here," she said,
+looking about, "but it is a little early to come down yet. I have a lot
+of curtains to make for my cottage. Miss Melody"&mdash;turning to the girl
+with her most winning look&mdash;"you have these people all settled, don't
+you want to come home with me and help me make my curtains?"</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's heart leaped in her throat. Although she had put up a brave
+front she was terribly afraid of the queen of Keefe.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that would be fine!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, her optimistic
+spirit at once seeing her clouds roll away and disperse in mist.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think everything is done here," said Geraldine; "I don't think
+you can spare me."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I can," returned Miss Mehitable vehemently. "You can go just
+as well as not." She perceived that this was not at all the answer the
+girl wanted, but she was determined to override all objections and even
+Geraldine's own feelings.</p>
+
+<p>The latter looked at Mrs. Barry with a faint smile. She only hoped that
+Miss Upton's mental processes were not such an open book to the visitor
+as they were to herself. She saw plainly that if it came to the
+necessity Miss Mehitable would throw her into the motor with her own
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>"She is not very complimentary, is she?" she remarked. "I thought I was
+so important."</p>
+
+<p>"She hain't seen the Port yet either. Have you, Gerrie?" came from the
+back of the store.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable turned on the speaker. "As if there was any hurry about
+that!" she said, so fiercely that Charlotte evaporated through the back
+door of the shop into the regions beyond.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm sure you were important," said Mrs. Barry, "but it is I who need
+you now."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll help you get your things," said Miss Upton, moving to the stairs
+with alacrity.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine dropped Pearl. She could not defend her any longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, Miss Upton," said Mrs. Barry. "How would it be for you to pack
+Miss Melody's trunk and express it after we are gone?"</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable's face was one broad beam. A trunk!</p>
+
+<p>"She hasn't got any," she replied. "Of course hers was left in that No
+Man's Land and we just brought things down here in suit-cases and
+boxes."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, we can take them with us."</p>
+
+<p>"But I shan't need&mdash;" began Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry interrupted her. "It is always hard to foresee just what one
+will need even in a week's time. We may as well take everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Such a small everything," added Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>A little pulse was beating in her throat. She dreaded to find herself
+alone with this <i>grande dame</i>. She believed that Ben had kept his
+promise and that this move of his mother was being made of her own
+volition, but in what capacity was she being invited? Was it a case of
+giving a piece of employment to a needy girl in her son's absence, or
+was she being asked on the footing of a friend? In any case, she knew
+her lover would wish her to go, and as for Miss Upton she would use
+violence if necessary.</p>
+
+<p>She went upstairs and came down wearing the black sailor hat of the
+Keefe brand, and carrying a suit-case. Miss Mehitable followed with
+sundry boxes which she took to the motor. Lamson jumped out and came to
+the shop to get the suit-case.</p>
+
+<p>"One moment more, please," said Miss Upton, and vanished upstairs. She
+returned bearing a large hatbox.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, Miss Upton!" exclaimed Geraldine as Miss Mehitable had known
+she would. "Keep that till I come back. It's a seashore hat."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not," said Miss Mehitable defiantly. "It is a town hat. She got
+the present of a beautiful hat, Mrs. Barry&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Dear Miss Upton doesn't say that she gave it to me herself," put in
+Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>No, dear Miss Upton did not; for she had a New England conscience; but
+she continued firmly:</p>
+
+<p>"She may want to wear it; she's got a white dress."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine colored. Mrs. Barry had seen her white dress.</p>
+
+<p>"By all means let us take the hat," said that lady, and Lamson bore off
+the box.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Au revoir</i>, then," said Geraldine, trying to speak lightly, and
+kissing Miss Mehitable. "I'll let you know what day I am coming back.
+Say good-bye to Mrs. Whipp for me."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry's face became inscrutable as Geraldine spoke. She had seen
+the counter, and the phonograph, and in fancy she could see the
+impending excursionists.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-bye, Miss Upton." And the shining motor started. "To Rockcrest,
+Lamson."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Mehitable went back into the house. She suspected she should find
+Charlotte weeping, and she did.</p>
+
+<p>"I s'pose I can't never say anything right," sniffed the injured one
+upon her employer's entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind <i>us</i>, Charlotte," responded Miss Upton. "That's a very big
+thing that's just happened. I'm so tickled I'd dance if I thought the
+house would stand it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see anything so wonderful in that stuck-up woman givin' the
+girl a job o' sewin'," returned Mrs. Whipp, blowing her nose. "When will
+Gerrie come back? How we'll miss her!"</p>
+
+<p>"I think," said Miss Upton, impressively&mdash;"I think it is very safe to
+say&mdash;Never!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what do you mean!"</p>
+
+<p>"I mean Mrs. Barry ain't goin' to let that girl stand behind my counter
+this summer." Miss Mehitable gave a sudden, sly laugh. "I wasn't goin'
+to let her anyway," she added, in a low tone as if the walls might have
+ears, "but Mrs. Barry don't know that, and I'm glad she don't."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Upton sat down and laughed and rocked, and rocked and laughed until
+Mrs. Whipp began to worry.</p>
+
+<p>"Thumbscrews," said Miss Mehitable, between each burst, "thumbscrews!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where shall I git 'em?" asked Charlotte, rising and staring about her
+vaguely.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevermind. Let's have some tea," said Miss Mehitable, wiping her eyes.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Clouds Disperse</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>And so with the entrance into that automobile began still another
+chapter in Geraldine Melody's life. While they drove through the
+attractive avenues of the resort and Mrs. Barry pointed out the cottages
+belonging to well-known people, the young girl was making an effort for
+her own self-possession. To be alone with the mother of her knight was
+exciting, and her determination was not to allow any emotion to be
+observable in her manner. She did not yet know whether she was present
+as a seamstress or as a guest. She felt that in either case she had been
+summoned for inspection, for of course Ben had left his mother in no
+doubt as to his sentiments. Mrs. Barry evinced no embarrassment. Her
+smooth monologue flowed on without a question. Perhaps she suspected the
+tumult in the fluttering heart beside her, and was giving the young girl
+time. At all events, nothing that she said required an answer, and
+Geraldine obediently looked, unseeing, at every object she pointed out.</p>
+
+<p>The motor rolled across a bridge. "Here you see Keefeport even boasts a
+little river," said Mrs. Barry. "The young people can enjoy a mild canoe
+trip as well as their exciting yachting. I am going to stop at my
+cottage and give a few orders, so long as I am here."</p>
+
+<p>Another five minutes of swift riding brought them to the driveway
+leading to a cottage placed on a rocky height close to the sea. "We have
+a rather wonderful view, you see," Mrs. Barry's calm voice went on.
+"Perhaps you would like to get out and walk about the piazza while I
+speak with the caretaker."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine followed her out of the luxurious car, feeling very small and
+insignificant and resenting the sensation made upon her by the imposing
+surroundings. She wished herself back with Miss Upton and the cat; but
+she mounted the steps and stood on the wide porch looking on the jagged
+rocks beneath. The sea came hissing in among them, flinging up spray and
+dragging back noisily in the strong wind to make ready for another
+onslaught. The vast view was superb and suggested all the poems she had
+ever read about the sea. Mrs. Barry had gone into the house and now came
+out with the caretakers, a man and wife, with whom she examined the
+progress of flowers and vines growing in sheltered nooks. Geraldine
+resolutely shut out memories of her knight. The girls whose summers were
+spent among these scenes were his friends, and among them his mother had
+doubtless selected some fastidious maiden who had never encountered
+disgraceful moments.</p>
+
+<p>"I belong to myself," thought Geraldine proudly, forcing back some
+stinging drops, salt as the vast waters before her. "I don't need
+anybody, I don't." She fought down again the memory of her lover's
+embraces. Ever afterward she remembered those few minutes alone on the
+piazza at Rockcrest, overwhelmed by the sensation of contrast between
+herself on sufferance in her cheap raiment, and the indications all
+about her of the opposite extreme of luxury&mdash;remembered those moments as
+affording her a poignant unhappiness.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't ask you to come into the cottage," said Mrs. Barry, approaching
+at the close of her interview. "The rugs haven't been unrolled yet, and
+it is all in disorder. Isn't that a superb show of sky and sea, and
+never twice alike?"</p>
+
+<p>"Superb," echoed Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"You are shivering," said her hostess. "It is many degrees colder here
+than over in the sheltered place where Miss Upton has her shop. I have
+quite finished. Let us go back."</p>
+
+<p>They went down to the car and were soon speeding toward Keefe. Beside
+Lamson sat the imposing hatbox. Somehow it added to Geraldine's
+unhappiness, as if jeering at her for an effort to appear what she was
+not.</p>
+
+<p>She must talk. Her regal companion would suspect her wretchedness.</p>
+
+<p>"What are you going to make your curtains of, Mrs. Barry?" she asked.</p>
+
+<p>The commonplace proved a most felicitous question. The lady described
+material, took her measurements out of her purse, and discussed ruffles
+and tucks and described location and size of windows, during which talk
+the young girl was able to throw off the spell that had held her mute.</p>
+
+<p>She did not suspect how her companion was listening with discriminating
+ears to her speech, and the very tones of her voice, and watching with
+discriminating eyes her manner and expression. Ben had told his mother
+to take her magnifying glass and she had begun to use it.</p>
+
+<p>When the motor entered the home grounds at Keefe, Geraldine resisted the
+associations of her last arrival there. A faint mist of apple blossoms
+still clung in spots to the orchard.</p>
+
+<p>Lamson carried her poor little effects and the hateful, grandiose hatbox
+into the living-room where one day she had regained her scattered
+senses.</p>
+
+<p>"You may take these things up to the blue room," Mrs. Barry said to the
+maid who appeared, "and you will give Miss Melody any assistance she
+requires."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine followed the girl upstairs to the charming room assigned to
+her. Every dainty convenience was within its walls. The pleasant maid's
+manner was all alacrity. It was safe to believe that she knew more than
+her mistress about Geraldine, and the attitude toward her of the young
+master of the house. The guest looked about her and recalled her room at
+the Carder farm, the patchwork quilt at the Upton Emporium, and her last
+shakedown under the eaves of the Keefeport shell house.</p>
+
+<p>Between the filmy white curtains at these windows she could see the rosy
+vestiges of the orchard bloom. The furniture of the room was apparently
+ivory, the bathroom silver and porcelain. Azure and white coloring were
+in all the decorations. The maid was unpacking her boxes. Geraldine was
+ashamed of her own mortification in allowing her to see the contents.</p>
+
+<p>"I think I'd rather do that myself," she said hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Some ladies do," returned the girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Especially," rejoined Geraldine, "when they are not used to being
+waited upon!"</p>
+
+<p>She accompanied this with a look of such frank sweetness that she
+counted one more victim to her charms.</p>
+
+<p>"She isn't one bit stuck-up," the maid reported downstairs, "and I
+never saw such hair and eyes in all my life."</p>
+
+<p>"They've done for Mr. Ben all right," remarked the chauffeur. "I guess
+Madam thought it was about time to get acquainted."</p>
+
+<p>When Geraldine came downstairs an hour later, she was arrayed in the
+cheap little green-and-white house dress which had been one of her
+purchases with Miss Upton, and was intended for summer use in the shop.
+As she wandered into the living-room, Mrs. Barry walking on the piazza
+perceived her through the long, open windows and came to join her.</p>
+
+<p>"Did you find everything quite comfortable?" she asked solicitously.</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," replied Geraldine. "It is quite wonderful after one has
+been leading a camping-out life."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry continued to approve her intonation and manner.</p>
+
+<p>"You certainly have passed through strange vicissitudes," she replied.
+"Sometime you must tell me your story-book adventures."</p>
+
+<p>"They are not very pleasant reminiscences," said Geraldine.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, then, you shall not be made to rehearse them."</p>
+
+<p>A maid appeared and announced dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's repressed excitement took away her appetite for the
+perfectly served repast. Mrs. Barry's regal personality seemed to
+pervade the whole establishment. One could not imagine any detail
+venturing to go wrong; any food to be underdone or overdone; any servant
+to venture to make trouble. The machinery of the household moved on
+oiled wheels. A delicate cleanliness, quietness, order, pervaded the
+home and all its surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry made no comment on her guest's lack of appetite. When they
+had finished, she led her out to the porch where their coffee was
+served.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, isn't this an improvement on Rockcrest?" she asked as they sat
+listening to the sleepy, closing evening songs of the thrushes. "Imagine
+trying to drink our coffee on that piazza where we were this afternoon.
+There is a more sheltered portion, a part that I have enclosed in glass;
+but my son likes the front to be all open to the elements."</p>
+
+<p>"It is very beautiful here," said Geraldine. "It must be hard for you to
+tear yourself away even later in the season."</p>
+
+<p>"That is what does it," returned Mrs. Barry, waving her hand toward a
+large thermometer affixed to one of the columns. "When you come down
+some morning and find the mercury trying to go over the top, you are
+ready to flit where there are no great trees to seem to hold in the
+air." The speaker paused, regarding the young girl for a moment in
+silence. An appreciation of her had been growing ever since they left
+Keefeport, and now for the first time she allowed herself a pleasure in
+Geraldine's beauty. It was wonderful camouflage if it was nothing more.
+"Do you enjoy music, Miss Melody?" she asked suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>The girl gave her a faint smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Foolish question, isn't it?" she added. "I usually play awhile in the
+evening." She set down her cup and rose.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine rose also, looked pleased and eager.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm so glad," she replied. "I have no accomplishments myself."</p>
+
+<p>A vague memory of having heard something about a cruel stepmother
+assailed the hostess. She smiled kindly at the girl. "Some people have
+gifts instead," she said. "Stay here. I will go in and try to give you
+some happy thoughts."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine sank back in her chair, her eyes fixed on the graceful elms
+and the vivid streaks across a sunset sky.</p>
+
+<p>As the strains of Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms came through the open
+window it necessitated some, effort not to have too happy thoughts. The
+skillful musician modulated from one number to another, and Geraldine,
+all ignorant in her art-starved life, of what she was hearing, gave
+herself up to the loveliness of sight and sound.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Barry reappeared, the girl's eyelids were red, and as she
+started up to meet her she put out her hands impulsively, and the
+musician laughed a little as she accepted their grasp, well pleased with
+the eloquent speechlessness.</p>
+
+<p>When Geraldine waked the next morning her first vague thought was that
+she must shake off sleep and help Mrs. Carder. That troubling sense
+faded into another, also troubling. She was to spend a whole day,
+perhaps several whole days, with the rather fearful splendor of the
+mother of her knight. That in itself would not be so bad, Mrs. Barry had
+shown a kind intention, but the knight himself might return at any hour.
+Why had she come? Yet how refuse when her previous hostess had so
+energetically thrown her out of the nest?</p>
+
+<p>The sun had gone behind clouds. She rose, closed her windows, and made
+her toilet, then descended to the hall where Mrs. Barry met her with a
+pleasant greeting and they went in to breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>"We're going to catch some rain, it seems," she said. "It is nice Miss
+Upton is moved and settled."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," rejoined Geraldine, "and curtain-making can go on just as well in
+the rain."</p>
+
+<p>"You had a good sleep, I'm sure," said the hostess, regarding her
+freshness.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am ready and full of energy to begin," said the girl. "I feel
+that I am going to do the work quickly and go back sooner than Miss
+Upton expects. It is nice for them to have some young hands and feet to
+call upon."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you don't feel in haste," returned Mrs. Barry politely. She was
+so courteous, so gracious, so powerful, and such leagues away from her,
+Geraldine longed to get at the work, and know what to do with her hands
+and her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon the curtain material was produced. Mrs. Barry had the sewing
+machine moved into the living-room where there was plenty of space for
+the billowy white stuff, and they began their measuring.</p>
+
+<p>The air was sultry preceding the storm, and a distant rumbling of
+thunder was heard. The house door was left open as well as the long
+French windows which gave upon the piazza.</p>
+
+<p>The guest had slept late, delaying the breakfast hour, and the two had
+been working at the curtains only a short time when a man, strange to
+Mrs. Barry, walked into the living-room. Approaching on the footpath to
+the house, Geraldine only had been visible to him through the window. He
+believed her to be alone in the room, and the house door standing open
+he had dispensed with the formality of ringing and walked in.</p>
+
+<p>Something in the wildness of the intruder's look startled the hostess
+and she pressed a button in the wall.</p>
+
+<p>She saw Geraldine's face blanch and her eyes dilate with terror as the
+man approached her, but no sound escaped her lips. The stranger put out
+his hand. The girl shrank back. The queen of Keefe stepped forward.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean by this?" she exclaimed sternly. "What do you wish?"</p>
+
+<p>The man turned and faced her. "I've come on important business with this
+girl. My name is Rufus Carder&mdash;you may have heard of it. Geraldine
+Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me." He turned back quickly
+to the girl, for Mrs. Barry's face warned him that his time was short.</p>
+
+<p>"You may have gone away against your will, Gerrie," he said. "It ain't
+too late to save your father. Come back with me now and there won't be a
+word said. Refuse to come, and to-morrow all his pals shall know what he
+was."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a>
+<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>"Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her Father gave her to
+me"</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<p>Geraldine straightened her slight body. Terror was in every line of her
+delicate face, but Mrs. Barry saw her control it. The details of the
+stories she had heard came back to her vividly. She realized the
+suffering and the fate from which her boy had delivered the captive.
+Geraldine was exquisite to look at now as she faced her jailer. That
+ethereal quality which was hers gave her spirituelle face a wonderful
+appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"Ben was right," thought Mrs. Barry with a thrill of pride. "She is a
+thoroughbred."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Carder," she said, approaching still nearer, her peremptory tone
+forcing him to turn his long, twitching face toward her, "Miss Melody is
+about to marry my son. He will attend to any business you may have with
+her."</p>
+
+<p>"Huh! That's it, is it? You don't look like the kind of woman who will
+enjoy having a forger in the family."</p>
+
+<p>The girl's eyes closed under the stab.</p>
+
+<p>"Geraldine, I should like you to go upstairs, dear," said Mrs. Barry
+gently. The girl moved slowly toward the door, Carder's eyes following
+her full of a fierce, baffled hunger.</p>
+
+<p>He turned on Mrs. Barry with the ugliest look she had ever beheld in a
+human countenance.</p>
+
+<p>"Your son has stolen my boy, too, my servant, and I've come after him,"
+he said. "The law'll teach that fellow whether he can take other
+people's property. That boy was bound to me out o' the asylum and I
+won't stand such impudence, I warn you. Where is he? Where is Pete? I've
+got a few things to teach him." The furious man was breathing heavily.</p>
+
+<p>"I understand that you have taught him a few things already," replied
+Mrs. Barry, her eyes as steady as her voice. "I think, as you say, the
+law may take a hand in your affairs. My son and Pete have gone to the
+city now, and I fancy it is on your business."</p>
+
+<p>"What business?" ejaculated Carder, fumbling his hat, his rage appearing
+to feel a check.</p>
+
+<p>"That I don't know, really. I was not interested; but I seem to remember
+hearing my son use your name.&mdash;Lamson, is that you?" she added in the
+same tone.</p>
+
+<p>The chauffeur was standing at the door. "Yes, Mrs. Barry, you rang."</p>
+
+<p>"Show this man the way to the station, Lamson."</p>
+
+<p>Rufus Carder gave her one parting, vindictive look, and strode to the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"Out of my way!" he said savagely, as he pushed by the chauffeur and
+proceeded out of doors and down the path like one in haste. Mrs. Barry
+believed he was, indeed, in haste and driven by fear.</p>
+
+<p>She proceeded upstairs to Geraldine's room and found the girl pacing the
+floor. She paused and gazed at her hostess, her eyes dry and bright.
+Mrs. Barry approached and took her in her arms. At the affectionate
+embrace a sob rose in the girl's throat.</p>
+
+<p>"When he says it, it seems true again," she said brokenly. "Ben says it
+is probably a lie, but I don't know, I don't know."</p>
+
+<p>"That wretch declaring it makes it likely to be untrue. Ben tells me you
+have lost your father, and if no proceedings were taken against him in
+his lifetime, I should not fear now. My son hints at disreputable things
+committed by this man, and if he can prove them, which he has gone to
+do, and Pete promises that they can do, then the culprit will not want
+to draw attention to himself by starting any scandal, not even for the
+joy of revenge on you. Forget it all, Geraldine." The addition was made
+so tenderly that the girl's desperate composure gave way and she
+trembled in the enfolding arms.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry loved her for struggling not to weep. She kissed her cheek as
+she gently released her. "You are safe, and beloved, and entering a new
+world. You are young to have endured so many sorrows, but youth is
+elastic and the future is bright."</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine's breast heaved, she bit her lip, and no eyes ever expressed
+more than the speaking orbs into which the queen of Keefe was looking.</p>
+
+<p>"I know all that you are thinking," said Mrs. Barry. "I know all that
+you would like to say. Don't try now. You have had enough excitement. I
+have always wanted a daughter. I hope you will love me, too."</p>
+
+<p>She kissed the girl again, on the lips this time, and there was fervor
+in the return.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Mrs. Barry telephoned to half a dozen of her son's girl
+friends and invited them to come to a sewing-bee and help with the
+curtains for her cottage. She said that Miss Melody was visiting her and
+that she would like them to know her. So they all came, wild with
+curiosity to see the girl that their own Ben had kidnapped and who was
+going to make him forget them; and Geraldine won them all by her modesty
+and naturalness. The fact that Ben's mother had accepted her gave her
+courage in the face of this bevy who had grown up with her lover from
+childhood. They were too uncertain of the exact status of affairs
+between the beautiful stranger and their old friend to speak openly of
+him to her, but almost every reminiscence or subject of which they
+talked led up to Ben. Of course, some among the six pairs of eyes
+leveled at Geraldine had a green tinge, and there were some girlish
+heartaches; and when the chattering flock had had their tea and cakes
+and left for home, there were certain ones who discussed the
+impossibility of there being anything serious in the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Ben was not even at home. Would he have gone away for an indefinite time
+as his mother said he had done, if he was as engrossed in the girl as
+gossip had said? Had not that very gossip proceeded from the humble
+walls of Miss Upton's shop where the stranger had apparently found her
+level? The Barrys had always held such a fine position, etc., etc., etc.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, but," said Adele Hastings, "that girl is a lady. Every movement and
+word proves it."</p>
+
+<p>"Besides," added another maiden, "her being humble wouldn't have
+anything to do with it. It never has, from the time of King Cophetua
+on."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," put in the poor little girl with the greenest eyes of all, "I
+think it is very significant that Ben has gone away. You notice Mrs.
+Barry didn't invite her to come until he had gone, and that common Mrs.
+Whipp called her by her first name. I heard her myself."</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, Geraldine had scored, and really, although she was at
+peace with the whole world, the fact of Mrs. Barry's approval dwarfed
+every other opinion and event; for it meant that no longer need she set
+up a mental warning and barrier against thoughts of her lover.</p>
+
+<p>A few days afterward Ben telephoned to have Lamson at the station at a
+certain hour, and he and Pete returned from their strange quest. Little
+he dreamed of the stir that telephone message caused in his home.</p>
+
+<p>All the way out to Keefe on the train he was planning interviews with
+his mother and wondering whether the seed he had dropped into her mind
+before leaving had borne fruit. He had promised Geraldine not to coerce
+her, and the girl's pride he knew would not submit to opposing his
+mother's wish. Therefore, when Mrs. Barry walked out on the piazza to
+meet him, it was a very serious son that she encountered.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, Benny?" she asked as she kissed him. "Have you
+failed?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed. I have succeeded triumphantly. I've got Carder in a box,
+and, believe me, he won't try to lift up the lid and let anybody see
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"He was here soon after you left," said Mrs. Barry calmly.</p>
+
+<p>Ben looked surprised and alert.</p>
+
+<p>"What did he want?"</p>
+
+<p>"Pete; and he was going to have him or put you in the lock-up. Also he
+wanted Miss Melody. He's a wretch, Ben. I'm glad you went after him."</p>
+
+<p>"He'll not trouble her any more," said the young fellow, walking into
+the house with his mother clinging to his arm. "Carder is going to have
+ample leisure to think over the game he has played. Isn't it a strange
+satire of fate that should make insignificant little Pete the boomerang
+to turn back and floor him? Pete's an ideal witness. He sees what he
+sees and he knows what he knows, and nothing can shake him because he
+doesn't know anything else. Great Scott! when I located the facts at
+that hospital and linked them together and brought an accusation against
+Carder, it was like opening a door to a swarm of hornets. He has made so
+many people hate him that when the timid ones found it would be safe to
+loosen up, they were ready to fall upon him and sting him to death. He's
+safe to get a long sentence, and it will be time enough when he comes
+out to talk to him about Mr. Melody's debts&mdash;if Geraldine wishes it."</p>
+
+<p>Ben looked around suddenly at his mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been to Keefeport to see Geraldine?"</p>
+
+<p>She returned his gaze smiling, and feigned to tremble. "I'm so glad I
+have, Ben. You look so severe."</p>
+
+<p>"And did you take that magnifying glass?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Wasn't I right?" asked Ben with some relief.</p>
+
+<p>"You were. I like the girl. I feel we are going to be friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, how about her being a clerk for Miss Upton?"</p>
+
+<p>Ben asked the question frowning, and flung himself down beside his
+mother where she had seated herself on a divan. Why couldn't her blood
+run as fast as his? Why must she be so cold and deliberate at a crucial
+time? "Going to be friends!" What an utterly inadequate speech!</p>
+
+<p>"I want to talk to you about that," rejoined his mother. "Will you
+please go into my study and bring me a letter you'll find on the table?"</p>
+
+<p>Without a word, and still with the dissatisfied line in his forehead,
+the young man rose and moved away toward the closed door of the
+sanctum.</p>
+
+<p>He opened it and there was a moment of dead silence. Mrs. Barry could
+visualize Geraldine as she looked standing there, radiantly expectant,
+mischievously blissful. The door slammed, and all was silence.</p>
+
+<p>The mother laughed softly over the bit of sewing she had picked up. For
+a minute she could not see very plainly, but she wiped her eyes and it
+passed.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Apple Blossoms</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Of course Ben wanted to be married at once, and whatever he wanted
+Geraldine wanted, but Mrs. Barry overruled this.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will go back to school, Ben, and get your sheepskin," she
+said. "I want you to live in the city, too, and leave Geraldine with me.
+I would like to have some happiness with a daughter before she is
+engrossed in being your wife. Wait for your wedding until the orchard
+blooms again."</p>
+
+<p>Ecstatic as Ben was, he could see sense in this; but vacation came first
+and Geraldine was a belle at Keefeport that summer. Her beauty
+blossomed, and all the repressed vivacity of her nature came to the
+surface. Her room at Rockcrest commanded the ocean, and every night
+before she slept she knelt before her window and gave thanks for a
+happiness which seemed as illimitable as the waters rolling to the
+horizon. She yachted, and danced, and canoed, and flew, all that
+summer. She gained the hearts of the women by her unspoiled modesty and
+consideration, while Ben was the envy of every bachelor at the resort.
+Nor did Geraldine forget Miss Upton. Every few days she called at the
+shop, and the two women there were never tired of admiring and
+exclaiming over the charming costumes in which Mrs. Barry dressed her
+child, and many a gift the girl brought to them, never forgetting what
+she owed to her good fairy.</p>
+
+<p>Pete was a happy general utility man and Miss Upton borrowed him at
+times; but he liked best working on the yacht, where he was never
+through polishing and cleaning, keeping it spick and span. He was given
+a blue suit and a yachting cap and rolled around the deck the jolliest
+of jolly little tars.</p>
+
+<p>When autumn came, Ben Barry took rooms in the city, coming to Keefe for
+the week-ends. Geraldine, who had had the usual school-girl fragments of
+music and languages, studied hard, and Mrs. Barry took her to town for
+one month instead of the three which she usually spent there. It was
+best not to divert Ben too much.</p>
+
+<p>So the winter wore away, and the snow melted and the crocuses peeped up
+again. The robins returned, and Ben understood at last why their
+insistent, joyous cry was always of <i>Geraldine, Geraldine, Geraldine</i>!</p>
+
+<p>The orchard was under solicitous surveillance this spring, and though it
+takes the watched pot so long to boil, at last the rosy clouds drifting
+in the sky seemed to catch in the apple boughs and rest there, and then
+the wedding day was set.</p>
+
+<p>The spacious rooms of the old house were cleared for dancing, for the
+ceremony was to take place out under the trees at noon. Miss Upton had a
+new black silk dress given her by the bridegroom with a note over which
+she wept, for it acknowledged so affectionately all that he owed to his
+bride's good fairy from the day when she so effectively waved her
+umbrella wand in the city. One of her gowns was made over for Mrs.
+Whipp, who on the great day stood with the maids and watched the wedding
+party as it filed out over the lawn to the rosy bower of the orchard.
+The six bridesmaids wore pale-green and white, and, as Miss Upton viewed
+with satisfaction, "droopy hats." She scanned the half-dozen of Ben's
+men friends who supported him on the occasion and mentally noted their
+inferiority to her hero.</p>
+
+<p>Geraldine&mdash;but who could describe Geraldine in her beautiful happiness
+and her happy beauty! Look over your fairy tales and find a princess in
+clinging, lacy robes, her veil fastened with apple blossoms, and the
+golden sheen of her hair shining through. Her bouquet of
+lilies-of-the-valley showered down before her and clung to her filmy
+gown as she stepped, and the sweet gravity of her eyes never left the
+face of the good old minister who had baptized Ben in his babyhood,
+until he came to the words: "Who giveth this woman to be married to this
+man?" Mrs. Barry stepped forward, took the hands of her children and
+placed them together. Mehitable Upton was not the only one in the large
+gathering who dissolved at the look on those three faces.</p>
+
+<p>In a minute it was over. The two were made one, and a soft, happy
+confusion of tongues ensued. After the kissing and the congratulations,
+a breakfast was served on the wide piazzas, and the orchestra behind
+the screen of palms began its strains of gay music.</p>
+
+<p>After Geraldine had cut the bride's cake and disappeared to put on her
+going-away gown, one of the waiters brought out the rice.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry begged the company not to be too generous with it. "Just a
+pinch apiece," she said. "Don't embarrass them."</p>
+
+<p>Adele Hastings, the maid of honor, laughed with her maids. She had come
+very close to Geraldine in the last weeks, and she had managed to get
+both umbrellas of bride and groom and put as much rice into them as the
+slim fastenings would permit. She believed the bridal pair were going to
+take a water trip, and she felt that the effect of opening the umbrellas
+on a sunny deck some day would be exhilarating.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry, as serene as ever, and very handsome in her lavender satin,
+disappeared upstairs for a few minutes. When she returned, Lamson was
+driving the automobile around to the front of the house.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, be merciful to those poor youngsters," she said again, as, armed
+with rice, they ranged themselves on the piazza and steps, making an
+aisle for the hero and heroine to pass through. They waited, talking
+and laughing, when suddenly there was a burst of sound. Over the
+house-top came an increasing whirr, and an aeroplane suddenly flew over
+their heads. An excited cry arose from the cheated crowd. Laughter and
+shrieks burst from every upturned face. <i>Cher Ami</i> circled around the
+house, flew away and returned, the young people below shouting messages
+that were never heard. At last down through the laughter-rent air came
+the bridal bouquet, and scrambling and more shrieks ensued. The little
+girl with the greenest eyes of all&mdash;one of the bridesmaids she
+was&mdash;secured it. We'll hope it was a comfort to her.</p>
+
+<p>Lamson was demurely driving the car back to the garage, and Mrs. Barry,
+her dignity for once all forgotten, was laughing gayly. The wedding
+party fell upon her with reproaches while the orchestra gave a spirited
+rendition of "Going Up," the aviation operetta of the day.</p>
+
+<p>They all watched the flight for a time, but the music invited, and soon
+the couples were disappearing through the windows into the house and
+gliding over the floor.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry and Miss Upton stood together, still following the swiftly
+receding aeroplane.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry shook her head and sighed, smiling. "Young America! Young
+America!" she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Miss Upton, "what would our grandfathers have thought of it?
+Talk about fairy tales! Do any of the old stories come up to that?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," returned Mrs. Barry, "but there is one feature of them that is
+ever new. It is the best part of all and no story is complete without
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know," said Miss Mehitable, nodding. They were both looking now
+at a small dark point vanishing into a pearly cloud. "I know," she
+repeated. "'And they lived happily ever afterward!'"</p>
+
+<p>THE END</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="By_Clara_Louise_Burnham" id="By_Clara_Louise_Burnham"></a>By Clara Louise Burnham</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME. Illustrated.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">HEARTS' HAVEN. Illustrated by Helen Mason Grose.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">INSTEAD OF THE THORN. With frontispiece.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE RIGHT TRACK. With frontispiece in color.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE GOLDEN DOG. Illustrated in color.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE INNER FLAME. With frontispiece in color.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">CLEVER BETSY. Illustrated.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">FLUTTERFLY. Illustrated.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE LEAVEN OF LOVE. With frontispiece in color.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE QUEST FLOWER. Illustrated.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE OPENED SHUTTERS.  With frontispiece in color.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">JEWEL: A CHAPTER IN HER LIFE. Illustrated.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">JEWEL'S STORY BOOK. Illustrated.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE RIGHT PRINCESS.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">MISS PRITCHARD'S WEDDING TRIP.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">YOUNG MAIDS AND OLD.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">DEARLY BOUGHT.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">NO GENTLEMEN.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A SANE LUNATIC.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">NEXT DOOR.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE MISTRESS OF BEECH KNOLL.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">MISS BAGG'S SECRETARY.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">DR. LATIMER.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">SWEET CLOVER.  A Romance of the White City.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">THE WISE WOMAN.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">MISS ARCHER ARCHER.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A GREAT LOVE. A Novel.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A WEST POINT WOOING, and Other Stories.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br /></span>
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Boston and New York</span><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 20901-h.txt or 20901-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/9/0/20901">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/9/0/20901</a></p>
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+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, In Apple-Blossom Time, by Clara Louise
+Burnham, Illustrated by B. Morgan Dennis
+
+
+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: In Apple-Blossom Time
+       A Fairy-Tale to Date
+
+
+Author: Clara Louise Burnham
+
+
+
+Release Date: March 25, 2007  [eBook #20901]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Stephen Hope, Fox in the Stars, Mary Meehan, and the
+Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+(https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 20901-h.htm or 20901-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/9/0/20901/20901-h/20901-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/9/0/20901/20901-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME
+
+A Fairy-Tale to Date
+
+by
+
+CLARA LOUISE BURNHAM
+
+With Illustrations
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston and New York
+Houghton Mifflin Company
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+Copyright, 1919, by Clara Louise Burnham
+All Rights Reserved
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Lifted the Girl in after it]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+       I. The Princess
+
+      II. The Ogre
+
+     III. The Prince
+
+      IV. The Good Fairy
+
+       V. The New Help
+
+      VI. The Dwarf
+
+     VII. A Midnight Message
+
+    VIII. The Meadow
+
+      IX. The Bird of Prey
+
+       X. The Palace
+
+      XI. Mother and Son
+
+     XII. The Transformation
+
+    XIII. The Goddess
+
+     XIV. The Mermaid Shop
+
+      XV. The Clouds Disperse
+
+     XVI. Apple Blossoms
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+_Drawn by B. Morgan Dennis_
+
+
+   Lifted the Girl in after it
+
+   Tingling with the Increasing Desire to knock down his Host
+   and catch this Girl up in his Arms
+
+   "Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me"
+
+
+
+
+DRAMATIS PERSONAE
+
+In the Order of their Appearance
+
+
+The Good Fairy      _Mehitable Upton_
+
+The Princess        _Geraldine Melody_
+
+The Ogre            _Rufus Carder_
+
+The Dwarf           _Pete_
+
+The Slave           _Mrs. Carder_
+
+The Prince          _Benjamin Barry_
+
+The Grouch          _Charlotte Whipp_
+
+The Queen           _Mrs. Barry_
+
+
+
+
+IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+The Princess
+
+
+Miss Mehitable Upton had come to the city to buy a stock of goods for
+the summer trade. She had a little shop at the fashionable resort of
+Keefeport as well as one in the village of Keefe, and June was
+approaching. It would soon be time to move.
+
+Miss Upton's extreme portliness had caused her hours of laborious
+selection to fatigue her greatly. Her face was scarlet as she entered a
+popular restaurant to seek rest and refreshment. She trudged with all
+the celerity possible toward the only empty table, her face expressing
+wearied eagerness to reach that desirable haven before any one else
+espied it.
+
+Scarcely had she eased herself down into the complaining chair, however,
+before a reason for the unpopularity of this table appeared. A steady
+draught blew across it strong enough to wave the ribbons on her hat.
+
+"This won't do at all," muttered Miss Mehitable. "I'm all of a sweat."
+
+She looked about among the busy hungry horde, and her eye alighted on a
+table at which a young girl sat alone.
+
+"Bet she'll hate to see me comin', but here goes," she added, slipping
+the straps of her bag up on her arm and grasping the sides of the table
+with both hands.
+
+Ben Barry was wont to say: "When Mehit is about to rise and flee, it's a
+case of Yo heave ho, my hearties. All hands to the ropes." But then it
+was notorious that Ben's bump of reverence was an intaglio.
+
+Miss Upton got to her feet and started on her trip, her eyes expressing
+renewed anxiety.
+
+A lantern-faced, round-shouldered man, whose ill-fitting clothes, low
+collar several sizes too large, and undecided manner suggested that he
+was a visitor from the rural districts, happened to be starting for the
+young girl's table at the same moment.
+
+Miss Upton perceived his intention.
+
+"Let him set in the draught," she thought. "He don't look as if he'd
+ever been het up in his life."
+
+With astonishing swiftness her balloon-like form took on an extra
+sprint. The man became aware of her object and they arrived at the
+coveted haven nearly simultaneously.
+
+Miss Mehitable's umbrella decided the victory. She deftly moved it to
+where a hurdle would have intervened for her rival in their foot-race,
+and the preoccupied girl at the table looked up somewhat startled as a
+red face atop a portly figure met her brown eyes in triumph. The girl
+glanced at the defeated competitor and took in the situation. The man
+scowled at Mehitable's umbrella planted victoriously beside its owner
+and his thin lips expressed his impatience most unbecomingly. Then he
+caught sight of the vacant table and started for that with the haste
+which, like many predecessors, he was to find unnecessary.
+
+"I'm sorry to disturb you," said Miss Upton, still excited from her
+Marathon, "but you'd have had him if you hadn't had me."
+
+The girl was a sore-hearted maiden, and the geniality and good-humor in
+the jolly face opposite had the effect of a cheery fire in a gloomy and
+desolate room.
+
+"I would much rather have you," she replied. "I couldn't have sat
+opposite that Adam's apple."
+
+Miss Mehitable laughed. "He wasn't pretty, was he?" she replied; "and
+wasn't he mad, though?"
+
+Then she became aware that if the disappointed man had not been
+prepossessing, her present companion was so. A quantity of golden hair,
+a fine pink-and-white skin, with dark eyebrows, eyes, and lashes, were
+generous gifts of Nature; and the curves of the grave little mouth were
+very charming. The girl's plain dark suit and simple hat, and above all
+her shrinking, cast-down demeanor made her appear careless, even unaware
+of these advantages, and Miss Mehitable noticed this at once.
+
+"Hasn't the child got a looking-glass?" she thought; and even as she
+thought it and took the menu she observed a tear gather on the dark
+lashes opposite.
+
+As the girl wiped it away quickly, she glanced up and saw the look of
+kindly concern in her neighbor's face.
+
+"I'd rather you would be the one to see me cry, too," she said. "I can't
+help it," she added desperately. "They just keep coming and coming no
+matter what I do, and I must eat."
+
+"Well, now, I'm real sorry." Miss Upton's hearty sincerity was a sort of
+consolation. After she had given her luncheon order she spoke again to
+her vis-a-vis who was valiantly swallowing.
+
+"Do your folks live here in town?" she asked in the tone one uses toward
+a grieving child.
+
+"Oh, if I had folks!" returned the other. "Do people who have folks ever
+cry?"
+
+"Why, you poor child," said Miss Mehitable. For the girl caught her
+lower lip under her teeth and for a minute it seemed that she was not
+going to be able to weather the crisis of her emotion: but her
+self-control was equal to the emergency and she bit down the battling
+sob. Miss Mehitable saw the struggle and refrained from speaking for a
+few minutes. Her luncheon arrived and she broke open a roll. She
+continued to send covert glances at the young girl who industriously
+buttered small pieces of bread and put them into her unwilling mouth,
+and drank from a glass of milk.
+
+When Miss Upton thought it was safe to address her again, she spoke:
+"Who have you got to take care of you, then?" she asked.
+
+"Nobody," was the reply, but the girl spoke steadily now. Apparently she
+had summoned the calm of desperation.
+
+"Why, that don't seem possible," returned Miss Mehitable, and her voice
+and manner were full of such sympathetic interest that the forlorn one
+responded again; this time with a long look of gratitude that seemed to
+sink right down through Miss Upton's solicitous eyes into her good
+heart.
+
+"You're a kind woman. If there are any girls in your family they know
+where to go for comfort. I'm sure of that."
+
+"There ain't any girls in my family. I'm almost without folks myself;
+but then, I'm old and tough. I work for my livin'. I keep a little
+store."
+
+"That is what I wanted to do--work for my living," said the girl. "I've
+tried my best." Again for a space she caught her lip under her teeth.
+"First I tried the stores; then I even tried service. I went into a
+family as a waitress. I"--she gave a determined swallow--"I suppose
+there must be some good men in the world, but I haven't found any."
+
+Miss Upton's small eyes gave their widest stare and into them came
+understanding and indignation.
+
+"I'm discouraged"--said the girl, and a hard tone came into her low
+voice--"discouraged enough to end it all."
+
+"Now--now--don't you talk that way," stammered Miss Mehitable. "I s'pose
+it's because you're so pretty."
+
+"Yes," returned the girl disdainfully. "I despise my looks."
+
+"Now, see here, child," exclaimed Miss Upton, prolonging her troubled
+stare, "perhaps Providence helped me nearly trip up that slab-sided
+gawk. Perhaps I set down here for a purpose. Desperate folks cling to
+straws. I'm the huskiest straw you ever saw, and I might be able to give
+you some advice. At least I've got an old head and you've got a young
+one, bless your poor little heart. Why don't we go somewheres where we
+can talk when we're through eating?"
+
+"You're very good to take an interest," replied the girl.
+
+"I'm as poor as Job's turkey," went on Miss Upton, "and I haven't got
+much to give you but advice."
+
+The girl leaned across the table. "Yes, you have," she said, her soft
+dark eyes expressive. "Kindness. Generosity. A warm heart."
+
+"Well, then, you come with me some place where we can talk; but," with
+sudden cheerfulness, "let's have some ice-cream first. Don't you love
+it? I ought to run a mile from the sight of it; and these fried potatoes
+I've just been eatin' too. I've no business to look at 'em; but when I
+come to town I just kick over the traces. I forget there is such a thing
+as Graham bread and I just have one good time."
+
+She laughed and the young girl regarded her wistfully.
+
+"It's a pity you haven't any daughters," she said.
+
+"I haven't even any husband," was the cheerful response, "and I never
+shall have now, so why should I worry over my waistline? Queen Victoria
+had one the same size and everybody respected _her_. Now I'm goin' to
+order the ice-cream. That's my treat as a proof that you and I are
+friends. My name is Upton. What's yours, my dear?"
+
+"Melody."
+
+"First or last?"
+
+"Last. Geraldine Melody."
+
+"It's a _nawful_ pretty name," declared Miss Upton impressively. "There
+ain't any discord in melody. Now you take courage. Which'll you have?
+Chocolate or strawberry?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+The Ogre
+
+
+It proved that Miss Upton's new acquaintance had an appointment later at
+a hotel near by, so thither they repaired when the ice-cream was
+finished.
+
+"Now tell me all about it," said Miss Mehitable encouragingly, when they
+had found the vacant corner of a reception-room and sat down side by
+side.
+
+"I feel like holding on to you and not letting you go," said the girl,
+looking about apprehensively.
+
+"Are you afraid of the folks you're goin' to meet here? Is it another
+job you're lookin' for? I can tell you right now," added Miss Mehitable
+firmly, "that I'm goin' to stay and see what they look like if I lose
+every train out to Keefe."
+
+"You are so good," said the girl wistfully. "Are you always so kind to
+strangers?"
+
+"When they're a hundred times too pretty and as young as you are I am,"
+returned Miss Upton promptly; "but this is my first experience. What
+sort of position are you tryin' for now?"
+
+"I don't know what to call it," replied Geraldine, with another
+apprehensive look toward the door. "General utility, I hope." She looked
+back at her companion. "When my father died, it left me alone in the
+world; for my stepmother is the sort that lives in the fairy tales; not
+the loving kind who are in real life. I know a girl who has the dearest
+stepmother. I was fourteen years old when my father married again. My
+mother had been dead for three years. I was an only child and had always
+lived at home, but my stepmother didn't want me. She persuaded my father
+to send me away to school. I think Daddy never had any happiness after
+he married her. He had always been very extravagant and easy-going.
+While my precious mother lived she helped him and guided him, and
+although I was only a little girl I always believed he married again
+because he was greatly embarrassed for money. This woman appeared to
+have plenty and she was so in love with him! If you had seen _him_, I
+think you would have said he was a hundred times too handsome. Well,
+from what I could see at vacation time she was never sufficiently in
+love with him to let him have her money; and I am sure the last years of
+his life were wretched and full of hard places because of his financial
+ill-success. Poor father." The girl's voice failed and she waited,
+looking down at the gloved hands in her lap. "I had been at home from
+school only a few months when he died," she went on. "My stepmother
+endured me and that was all. She is a quite young woman, very fond of
+gayety, and she made me feel that I was very much in her way no matter
+how hard I tried to keep out of it."
+
+"I'll bet you were," put in Miss Upton _sotto voce_.
+
+"As soon as my dear father was gone she threw off all disguise to her
+impatience. She put on very becoming mourning and said she wanted to
+travel. She said my father had left nothing, but that I was young and
+could easily get a position. She broke up the home, found a cheap room
+for me to lodge, gave me a little money and went away." Again
+Geraldine's voice broke and she stopped.
+
+"You poor child," said Miss Upton; "to try as you have and find all your
+efforts failures!"
+
+"My stepmother has some relatives who live on a farm," went on the girl.
+"Before my father died we three had one talk which it always sickens me
+to remember. My stepmother was saying that it was high time I went out
+into the world and did something for my own support. My father perhaps
+knew that he was very ill; but we did not. His death came suddenly. That
+day while my stepmother talked he walked the floor casting troubled
+looks at me and I knew she was hurting him. 'Everybody should be where
+she can be of some use,' said my stepmother. 'I think the Carder farm
+would be a fine place for Geraldine, and after all Rufus Carder has done
+for you I should think you'd be glad to send her out there.'
+
+"I shall never forget the light that came into Daddy's eyes as he
+stopped and turned on her. 'What Rufus Carder has done for me is what
+the icy sidewalk does for the man who trips,' he answered. My stepmother
+shrugged her shoulders. 'That was your own weakness, then,' she said. 'I
+think a more appropriate simile for Rufus would be the bridge that
+carried you over!' Her voice was so cold and contemptuous! Daddy came to
+me and there was despair in his face. He put his hand on my shoulder
+while she went on talking: 'Many times since the day that Rufus saw
+Geraldine in the park,' she said, 'he has told me they would be glad to
+have her come out to the farm and live with them. I think you ought to
+send her. She isn't needed here and they really do need somebody.' The
+desperate look in my father's face wrung my heart. He did not look at my
+stepmother nor answer her; but just gazed into my eyes and said over and
+over softly, 'Forgive me, Gerrie. Forgive me.' I took his hands in mine
+and told him I had nothing to forgive." The young girl choked.
+
+When she could go on she spoke again: "A couple of days after that he
+died. My stepmother was angry because he left no life insurance, and she
+talked to me again about going to work, and again brought up the subject
+of the Carder farm. She tried to flatter me by talking of her cousin's
+admiration of me the day he saw me in the park. I told her I could not
+bear to go to people who had not been kind to my father, and she replied
+that what Daddy had said that day must have been caused by his illness,
+for Rufus Carder had befriended him times without number."
+
+The girl lifted her appealing eyes to Miss Upton's face as she
+continued: "Of course I knew that my dear father had been weak and I
+couldn't contradict her; so after trying and failing, trying and failing
+many times, as I've told you, I came to feel that the farm might be the
+right place for me after all. Work is the only thing I'm not afraid of
+now. It must be a forlorn place if they need help and can't get it. I
+think they said he and his mother live alone, but I shan't care how
+forlorn it is if only Mrs. Carder is like--like--you, for instance!" The
+girl laid her hand impulsively on her companion's knee.
+
+At that moment a man appeared in the wide doorway to the reception-room
+and looked about uncertainly. Instantly Miss Upton recognized the long,
+weather-beaten face, the straggling hair, the half-open mouth, and the
+revealing collar of her restaurant rival.
+
+She gave her companion a mirthful nudge.
+
+"He's right on my trail, you see," she whispered. "Adam's apple and
+all."
+
+Geraldine glanced up and the stranger's roving gaze fell straight upon
+hers. He came toward her.
+
+"Miss Melody?" he said in a rasping voice.
+
+She rose as if impelled by some inner spring, her light disdain
+swallowed in dread.
+
+"This is Mr. Carder, then," she returned.
+
+"You've guessed right the very first time," responded the man with an
+air of relief. "I recognize you now, but you look some different from
+the only other time I ever saw you."
+
+"This is Miss Upton, Mr. Carder, a lady who has befriended me very
+kindly while I have been waiting for you."
+
+"Yes, and who prevented me from havin' lunch with you," responded the
+stranger, eying Miss Upton jocosely; but as if he could not spare time
+from the near survey of Geraldine his eyes again swept over her hair and
+crimsoning cheeks. "I thought I felt some strong drawin' toward that
+particular table," he added. "Well, we'll make up for it in the future
+you can bet. That your bag here? We'd better be runnin' along. Time,
+tide, and business don't wait for any man. Good-bye, Miss Upton, I'll
+forgive you for takin' my place, considerin' you've been good to this
+little girl."
+
+Miss Mehitable's face was as solemn as lies in the power of round faces
+to be. At close quarters one observed a cast in Mr. Carder's right eye.
+She disapproved his assured proprietary air and she disapproved him the
+more that she could see repulsion in the young girl's suddenly pale
+countenance. She had time for only one strong pressure of a little hand
+before Geraldine was whisked away and she was left standing there
+stunned by the suddenness of it all.
+
+"I never asked where it was!" she ejaculated suddenly. "I've lost the
+child!" People began to look at her and she continued mentally: "The
+critter looked as if he wanted to eat her up, the poor little lamb.
+Unless the mother's something different from the son she'll be driven to
+desperation. No knowin' what she'll do." Miss Upton clasped her plump
+hands together in great trouble of spirit. "I believe I said Keefe
+more'n once. Perhaps she'll have sense enough to write to me. Why didn't
+I just tell that old rawbones that her plans was changed and she was
+goin' with me. Oh, I am a fool! I don't know what I'd have done with
+her; but some way would have opened. Let's see. Where am I!" Miss Upton
+delved distractedly into the large bag that hung on her arm. "Where's my
+list? Am I through or not?" She seemed to herself to have lived long
+since her wearied entrance into that restaurant.
+
+In her uneventful life this brief experience took deep hold on her
+imagination. As she rode out to Keefe on the train that afternoon she
+constructed the scenes of the story in her mind.
+
+The weak, handsome, despairing father begging his child's forgiveness.
+The dismantling of the home. The placing of Geraldine in a cheap lodging
+while her father's widow shed all responsibility of her and set forth in
+new raiment for green fields and pastures new.
+
+The shabby and carelessly put on suit in which Geraldine had appeared
+this morning told a tale. The girl had said she despised her looks. Her
+appearance had borne out the declaration. The lovely hair had been
+brushed tightly back; the old hat would have been unbecoming if it
+could: all seemed to testify that if the girl could have had her way not
+an element of attractiveness would have been observable in her. Miss
+Upton waxed indignant as she went on to picture the probable scenes
+which had frightened and disgusted the child into such an abnormal frame
+of mind. The memory of Rufus Carder's gaze, as his oblique eye had
+feasted upon his guest, brought the blood to Miss Mehitable's face.
+
+"I'll find out where she is if I have to employ a detective," she
+thought, setting her lips. "Now there's no use in bein' a fool," she
+muttered after a little more apprehensive thought. "I shall get daffy if
+I go on thinkin' about it. I'll do my accounts and see if I can take my
+mind off it."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Meanwhile Geraldine with her escort was also on a moving train. A
+creeping train it seemed to her. Rufus Carder was trying to make himself
+agreeable. She strove with herself to give him credit for that. She had
+not lived to be a nineteen-year-old school girl without meeting
+attractive young men. Her stepmother had always kept her in the
+background at times when it was impossible to eliminate her altogether,
+quite, as Geraldine had said, like the stepmother of a fairy tale; but
+there had been holidays with school friends and an occasional admirer;
+although these cases had been rare because Geraldine, always kept on
+short allowance as to money and clothes, avoided as much as possible
+social affairs outside the school.
+
+She tried now to find amusement instead of mental paralysis in the
+proximity of her present escort, contrasting him with some men she had
+known; but recent bitter experiences made his probably well-intentioned
+familiarities sorely trying. There was a lump in his cheek. Geraldine
+hoped it arose from an afflicted tooth, but she strongly suspected
+tobacco. Oh, if he would but sit a little farther away from her!
+
+"So you've renounced the city, the world, the flesh, and the devil,"
+said Rufus when the conductor had left them, and he settled down in an
+attitude that brought his shoulder in contact with Geraldine's.
+
+She drew closer to the window and kept her eyes ahead. "He is as old as
+Father," she thought. "He means to be kind."
+
+"There is not much chance for those at school," she replied. "School is
+about all I know."
+
+"Well, you don't need to know anything else," returned Rufus
+protectingly. "I'll bet Juliet kept you out of sight." He laughed, and
+his companion turning saw that he had been bereft of a front tooth.
+
+"I didn't see very much of my stepmother," she answered in the same
+stiff manner.
+
+"I'll bet you didn't," declared Rufus, "not when she saw you first."
+Again he laughed, convinced that his companion must enjoy the
+implication.
+
+"I mean that I have been away from home at school for several years,"
+said the girl coldly.
+
+"Oh, I know where you have been, and why, and when, and just how long,
+and all about it." The tone of this was quiet, but there was something
+disquieting to Geraldine in his manner. "Perhaps you didn't know," he
+added after a pause filled by the crescendos and diminuendos of the
+speeding train, "that your father and I were pretty thick." At this the
+girl's head turned and her eyes raised to his questioningly. "Yes," he
+added, receiving the look, appreciative of the curves of the long lashes
+and lovely lips, "I don't believe anybody knew Dick Melody better than I
+did."
+
+"Do you mean," asked the girl, "that you were fond of my father?"
+
+Charming as her self-forgetful, earnest look was, her companion seemed
+unable to sustain it. He gave a short laugh and turned his head away.
+
+"My wife attended to that part of it," he replied.
+
+A flash of relief passed over Geraldine's face. "Your wife," she
+repeated. "I--I hadn't heard--I didn't know--I thought the Mrs. Carder
+they mentioned was your mother."
+
+"She is. My wife died nearly a year ago, but she had the nerve to think
+your father was handsomer than me." The speaker looked back at his
+companion with a cheerful grin. "She said Dick Melody'd ought to be set
+up on a pedestal somewheres to be admired. I don't know as bein'
+good-lookin' gets a man anywhere. What good did those eyes ever do him!"
+
+Geraldine sank closer to her window. The despair in those eyes, as her
+father begged for her forgiveness, rose before her. Never had she felt
+so utterly alone; so utterly friendless.
+
+"Yes, I say leave the looks to the womenfolks," pursued Rufus Carder,
+feasting his gaze on the girl's profile. "When Juliet set out to get
+Dick, I warned her, but it wasn't any use. She had to have him, and she
+knew pretty well how to look out for herself. I guess she never lost
+anything by the deal."
+
+"Would you mind not talking about them?" said Geraldine stiffly.
+
+"Please yourself and you'll please me as to what we talk about,"
+returned Rufus cheerfully. "Shouldn't wonder if you were pretty sore at
+Juliet. Look out for number one was her motto all right." A glance at
+the shrinking girl showed the host that her eyes were closed. "Tired,
+ain't you?" he added.
+
+"Dead tired," she answered. And as she continued to keep her eyes closed
+he contented himself by watching the lashes resting on her pale cheeks.
+
+"Ketch a little nap if you can, that's right," he said. She kept
+silence.
+
+She did not know how long the blessed relief from his voice had lasted
+when he announced their arrival.
+
+"Be it ever so humble," he remarked, "There's no place like home."
+
+To have him get out of the seat and leave her free of the touch of his
+garments was a blessing, and she rose to follow mechanically. The
+eternal hope that dies so hard in the human breast was suggesting that
+his mother might be not impossible; and at any rate a farm was wide. She
+would never be imprisoned in a car seat with him again.
+
+"There now, my lady," he said triumphantly when they were on the
+platform. "I suppose you thought you were comin' to Rubeville. That
+don't look so hay-seedy? Eh?"
+
+He pointed to a dusty automobile whose driver, a boy of eighteen or
+twenty, with a torn hat, eyed her with dull curiosity.
+
+"I suppose you expected a one-hoss shay. No, indeedy. You've come to all
+the comforts of home, little girl." His airy geniality of tone changed.
+"What you starin' at, you coot? Come along here, Pete."
+
+The boy moved the car toward the spot where they waited with their bags.
+
+Rufus put these in at the front and himself entered the tonneau with his
+guest. His conversation as they sped along the country road consisted
+mainly of pointing out to her the cottages or fields owned by himself.
+The information fell on deaf ears. The roughness of her host's tone to
+the boy added one more item against him and lessened her hope that the
+woman responsible for his existence could be a better specimen.
+
+"I'm free," thought Geraldine over and over. "I don't need to stay
+here." Of course the proprietary implication in every word the man said
+arose simply from the conceit of a boor. She would be patient and
+self-controlled. It might be possible still that she should find this a
+haven where she could live her own life in her leisure hours, few though
+they might be.
+
+It was with a weary curiosity that she viewed the weather-beaten house
+toward which they finally advanced. In front of it stood an elm-tree
+whose lower branches swept the roof of the porch.
+
+"That's got to come down, that tree," said Rufus meditatively.
+
+His companion turned on him. "You would cut down that splendid tree?"
+
+He regarded her suddenly vital expression admiringly.
+
+"Why not, little one?" he asked. "It's makin' the house damp and
+injurin' property. Property, you understand. Property. If I'd indulged
+in sentiment do you s'pose I'd be owner of all the land I've been
+showin' you?" He smiled, the semi-toothless smile, and met her horrified
+upturned eyes with an affectionate gaze. "However, what you say goes,
+little girl. You look as if you were goin' to recite--'Woodman, spare
+that tree.' Consider the tree spared for the present."
+
+The automobile drew up at the house and in high good-humor the master
+jumped out and removed Geraldine's bag to the steps of the narrow
+piazza. A woman's face could be seen appearing and disappearing at the
+window, and Pete, the driver, looked with furtive curiosity at the guest
+as she stepped to the porch without touching the host's outstretched
+hand.
+
+Rufus threw open the door. "Where are you, Ma?" he shouted, and a thin,
+wrinkled old woman came into the corridor nervously wiping her hands on
+her apron.
+
+Geraldine looked at her eagerly.
+
+"Well, you have to take us as you find us, little girl," remarked Rufus,
+scowling at his parent. "Ma hasn't even taken off her apron to welcome
+you."
+
+At this Mrs. Carder fumbled at her apron strings, but Geraldine advanced
+to her and put out her hand.
+
+"I like aprons," she said; and the old woman took the hand for a loose,
+brief shake.
+
+"I'm very glad to see you, Miss Melody," she said timidly. "I'm glad it
+has been a pretty day."
+
+"Show her her room, Ma, and then perhaps she'd like some tea. City
+folks, you know, must have their tea."
+
+Geraldine followed her hostess with alacrity as she went up the narrow
+stairway; glad there was an upstairs; and a room of her own, and a woman
+to speak to.
+
+She was ushered into a barely furnished chamber; a bowl and pitcher on
+the small wash-stand seemed to indicate that modern improvements had not
+penetrated to the Carder farm.
+
+"I s'pose you'll find country livin' a great change for you," said Mrs.
+Carder, pulling up the window shade. Geraldine wondered how in this
+beautiful state could have been found such a treeless tract of land. She
+remembered the threatened fate of the elm. Perhaps there had been other
+destruction. "My son never seemed to take any interest in puttin' in
+water here."
+
+The girl met the wrinkled face. The apprehension in the old eyes under
+Carder's scowl had given place to curiosity.
+
+"I have come to help you," said Geraldine, "I must get used to fewer
+conveniences."
+
+"It's nice of you to say that," said the old woman, "Rufus don't want
+you to work much, though."
+
+"But of course I shall," returned the girl quickly. "I'm much better
+able to work than you are."
+
+"Oh, I've got a wet sink this year," said Mrs. Carder. "I told Rufus I
+just had to have it. I was gettin' too old to haul water."
+
+"I should think so!" exclaimed Geraldine indignantly. "Mr. Carder is
+well off. He shouldn't allow you to work any more the rest of your
+life."
+
+Mrs. Carder smiled and shook her head, revealing her own need of
+dentistry. "I'm stronger than I look. I s'pose if I was taken out of
+harness I might be like one o' these horses that drops down when the
+shafts don't hold him up any longer."
+
+Geraldine regarded her compassionately. "I've heard--my stepmother told
+me it was very hard for you to get help out here. I suppose it is lonely
+for maids."
+
+The old woman regarded her strangely, and her withered lips compressed.
+
+"I don't mind loneliness," went on Geraldine eagerly. She had thrown her
+hat on the bed and the gold of her hair shone in the mean little room.
+"I love to be alone. I long to be."
+
+"That ain't natural," observed Mrs. Carder, regarding her earnest,
+self-forgetful loveliness. "Rufus told me you was a beauty," she went on
+reflectively. "Your father was the handsomest man I ever saw."
+
+"You knew him, then," said Geraldine eagerly.
+
+"He was out here a number o' times. Rufus seemed to be his favorite man
+o' business, as you might say."
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Carder, tell me all you can about his visits here." The girl's
+heart began to beat faster and she drew the clean, dried-up old woman
+down upon the edge of the bed beside her. Why should her father choose
+this dreadful place, this impossible man as a refuge? It could only have
+been as a last resort for him, just as it now was for her.
+
+"I was always away at school after his marriage," she went on. "I saw so
+little of him."
+
+Mrs. Carder looked uneasy.
+
+"I saw nothin' of him except at a meal sometimes. He and my son was
+always shut up in Rufus's office."
+
+"Did he seem--seem unhappy, Mrs. Carder?"
+
+"Well--yes. He was a sort of an absent-minded man. Perhaps that was his
+way. Really, I don't know a thing about their business, Miss Melody."
+The addition was made in sudden panic because the girl had grasped both
+the wrinkled hands and was gazing searchingly into the old woman's face
+as if she would wring information out of her.
+
+"You wouldn't tell me if you did," said Geraldine in a low voice. "You
+are afraid of your son. I saw it in your eyes downstairs. Had my father
+reason to be afraid of him? Tell me that. That is what I want to know."
+
+"Your father is dead. What difference does it make?" asked the old
+woman, looking from side to side as if for a means of escape from the
+strong young hands and eyes.
+
+"Yes, poor Daddy. Well, I have come to help you, Mrs. Carder." The
+speaker released the wrinkled hands and the old woman rose in relief. "I
+have come to work for you, not for your son, and I am not going to be
+afraid of him."
+
+The mother shook her head.
+
+"We all work for him, my dear. He holds the purse-strings."
+
+Geraldine seemed to see him holding the actual bag and leering at her
+over it with his odious, oblique eye and smile.
+
+"And let me give you a word of advice," continued the old woman,
+lowering her voice and looking toward the door. "Don't make him mad.
+It's terrible when he's angry." She winked and lowered her voice to a
+whisper. "He's crazy about you and he's the biggest man in the county."
+The old woman nodded and snapped her eyes knowingly. "You've got a home
+here for life if you don't make him mad. For life. I'll go down and make
+the tea. You come down pretty soon."
+
+She disappeared, leaving Geraldine standing in the middle of the room.
+She looked about her at the cheap, meager furniture, the small mirror
+that distorted her face, the bare outlook from the window.
+
+"For life!" she repeated to herself. "For life!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+The Prince
+
+
+Miss Upton's accounts were still in a muddle when she reached Keefe. Try
+as she might her unruly thoughts would wander back to the golden hair
+and dark, wistful eyes of that forlorn girl.
+
+"I was such a fool to lose her!" she kept saying to herself. "Such a
+fool."
+
+Arrived at her station she left the car, encumbered by her bulging bag
+and the umbrella which had performed a nobler deed to-day than keeping
+off the rain.
+
+"I don't know, though," soliloquized Miss Mehitable. "If I hadn't had my
+umbrella I couldn't have stopped him and he'd have sat with her and I
+shouldn't be havin' a span-tod now."
+
+From the car in front of her she saw descend a young man with a bag. He
+was long-legged, lean and broad-shouldered, and Miss Upton, who had
+known him all his life, estimated him temperately as a mixture of
+Adonis, Apollo, and Hercules. He caught sight of his friend now and a
+merry look came into his eyes. Miss Mehitable's mental perturbation and
+physical weariness had given her plump face a troubled cast, accented by
+the fact that her hat was slightly askew. The young man hurried forward
+and was in time to ease his portly friend down the last step of her car.
+
+"Howdy, Miss Mehit?" he said. "You look as if the great city hadn't
+treated you well."
+
+"Ben Barry, was you on this train?" she asked dismally.
+
+"I was. My word, you're careful of your complexion! An umbrella with
+such a sky as this!"
+
+"You don't know what that umbrella has meant to me to-day," returned
+Miss Upton with no abatement of the portentous in her tone. "Let me have
+my bag, Ben. The top don't shut very good and you might drop something
+out."
+
+"You must let me take you home," he said. "You don't look fit to walk.
+You have certainly had a big day. Anything left in the shops? The Upton
+Emporium must be going to surprise the natives."
+
+As he talked, the young man led his friend along the platform to where a
+handsome motor waited among the dusty line of vehicles. "Gee, I'm off
+for a vacation and I'm beginning to appreciate Keefe, Miss Upton. The
+air is great out here."
+
+"That's nice for your mother," observed Miss Mehitable wearily.
+
+They both greeted the chauffeur, who wore a plain livery. Miss Upton
+sank back among the cushions. "It's awful good of you to take me home,
+Ben. I'm just beat out."
+
+"Miss Upton's celebrated notions, I suppose," returned the young fellow
+as the car started. "They get harder to select every year, perhaps."
+
+"I've come home with just one notion this time," returned his companion
+with sudden fierceness. "It is that I'm a fool."
+
+"Now, Mehit, don't tell me you've fallen a prey in the gay metropolis
+and lost a lot of money."
+
+"That's nothin' to what has happened. I'm poor and I don't know what I'd
+do if I lost money, but, Ben Barry, it's much worse than that."
+
+"Look here, you're scaring me. I'm timid."
+
+"If I'd seen you on the train I could have told you all about it; but
+there isn't time now." In fact the motor was rapidly traversing the
+short distance up the main street and was now approaching a shop on the
+elm-shaded trolley track which bore across its front a sign reading:
+"Upton's Notions and Fancy Goods."
+
+Before Miss Mehitable disembarked, and this was a matter of some
+moments, she turned wistfully to her companion.
+
+"Ben, do you think your mother ever gets lonely?"
+
+"I've never seen any sign of it. Why? What were you thinking of--that I
+ought to give up the law school and come home and turn market-gardener?
+I sometimes think I'd like it."
+
+Miss Upton continued to study his clean-cut face wistfully.
+
+"Don't she need a secretary, or a sort of a--a sort of a companion?"
+
+"Why? Have you had about as much of Bright-Eyes as you can stand? Do you
+want to make a present of her to some undeserving person?"
+
+Miss Upton shook her head. "No, indeed, it ain't poor Charlotte I'm
+thinkin' of, Ben," again speaking impressively. "Can you spare time to
+come over and see me a little while to-morrow afternoon? I know your
+mother always has a lot of young folks in for tea for you Sundays."
+
+"She won't to-morrow. I told her I wanted to lie in the grass under the
+apple-blossoms and compose sonnets; but your feelings will do just as
+well."
+
+"I must tell somebody, and you know Charlotte isn't sympathetic."
+
+"No, except perhaps with a porcupine. You might try her with one of
+those. Tether it in the back yard, and when she is in specially good
+form turn her out there and let them sport together.--Easy now,
+Mehit--easy." For Miss Upton's escort had jumped out and she was
+essaying to leave the car.
+
+"If I ever knew which foot to put first," she said desperately,
+withdrawing the left and reaching down gingerly with her right.
+
+"Let me have the bag and the umbrella," suggested her companion. "Now,
+then, one light spring. Steady!" For clutching both the young man's
+hands she made him quiver to the shock as she fell against him.
+
+"I'm clumsy when I'm tired, Ben," she explained. "I'm so much obliged to
+you, and you will come over to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"To hear about the umbrella? Yes, indeed! Look at its fine open
+countenance. You can see at once that it has performed some great deed
+to-day." He shook the capacious fluttering folds and handed it to its
+owner.
+
+"Thank you so much, Ben, and give my love to your mother."
+
+The young fellow jumped into the car and sped away and Miss Upton
+plodded slowly up to her door whose bell pealed sharply as it was pulled
+open by an unseen hand, and a colorless, sour-visaged woman appeared in
+the entrance. Her hay-colored hair was strained back and wound in a
+tight, small knot, her forehead wore a chronic scowl, and her one-sided
+mouth had a vinegary expression.
+
+"Think you're smart, don't you?" was her greeting; "comin' home in a
+grand automobile with the biggest ketch in the village."
+
+"Yes, wasn't I lucky?" responded Miss Upton nasally. "I hope the
+kettle's on, Charlotte. I'm beat out."
+
+"Well, what did you stay so long for? That's what you always do--stay
+till the last dog's hung and wear yourself out." The speaker snatched
+the bag and umbrella and Miss Mehitable followed her into the house,
+through the shop, and into the little living-room at the back where an
+open fire burned in the Franklin stove and the tea-table was neatly set
+for two.
+
+Miss Upton regarded the platter of sliced meat, the amber preserve, and
+napkin-enfolded biscuit listlessly.
+
+"How nice you always make a table look," she said.
+
+"Well, set right down and give me your hat and jacket. Drink some tea
+before you talk any more. I should think you'd have some sense by this
+time."
+
+Scolding away, Charlotte poured the tea and Miss Mehitable drank it in
+silence. Her companion's monotonous grumbling was like the ticking of
+the clock so far as any effect it had upon her. The autumn before, this
+woman's drunken husband, Whipp by name, had passed out of her life. She
+was penniless, not strong, and friendless as much by reason of her
+sharp tongue as by her poor circumstances. Miss Upton hired her one day
+a week for cleaning and once upon a time fell ill herself, when this
+unpromising person developed such a kindly touch in nursing and so much
+common sense in tending the little shop, that Miss Mehitable, seeing
+what a godsend it would be to the poor creature, asked her to stay on;
+since which time, though no gratitude had ever been expressed in words,
+Mrs. Whipp had taken upon herself the ruling of the small establishment
+and its mistress with all the vigor possible. Miss Upton had told her to
+bring with her anything she valued and the widow had twisted her thin,
+one-sided mouth: "There ain't a thing in that shanty I don't wish was
+burned except Pearl," she said. "I'll bring her if you'll let me. She's
+a Malty cat."
+
+"Oh, bring her along," Miss Mehitable had replied. "I suppose I won't
+really sense that I'm an old maid until there's a cat in the house."
+
+So Pearl came, and to-night she sat blinking at the leaping flame in the
+open stove while the two women ate their supper in the long spring
+evening.
+
+"I brought some things home in my bag," said Miss Upton, "but most o'
+them are comin' out Monday."
+
+"Put in a good day, did you?" asked Charlotte, who, now that her mind
+was relieved of rebukes, was ready to listen to the tales she always
+expected when Miss Mehitable returned from her trips.
+
+"Yes, I think I did pretty well," was the answer.
+
+But the widow regarded her friend with dissatisfaction. This dispirited
+manner was very different from the effervescence which usually bubbled
+over in anecdote.
+
+"Well, next time don't stay till you're worn to a frazzle," she said.
+
+"I missed the train, Charlotte. That was what happened."
+
+"Well, didn't Mr. Barry have anything to say comin' out on the train?"
+asked Mrs. Whipp, determined to get some of her usual proxy satisfaction
+from Miss Upton's outing.
+
+"I never saw him till we got to Keefe. Oh, Charlotte, if I'd ever met a
+boy like him when I was young I wouldn't be keepin' a store now with
+another woman and a cat."
+
+"H'm, you're better off as you are. Ben Barry's young yet. He'll be in
+plenty of mischief before he's forty. His mother was in the shop to-day.
+With all her money it's queer she never married again."
+
+"Oh, she's just wrapped up in her flowers and chickens," remarked Miss
+Mehitable.
+
+"Well," returned Charlotte, "seems to me if I had a big house and
+grounds like that, I'd want somebody around besides servants."
+
+Miss Mehitable lifted her eyes from her meat and potato and gazed at her
+companion.
+
+"Queer you should say that," she returned. "I was speakin' of that very
+thing to Ben to-day. I should really think his mother would like
+somebody; somebody young and--and pleasant, you know."
+
+"Well," returned Charlotte, breaking open a biscuit, "I suppose havin'
+got rid of her husband she thinks she'll let well enough alone. She's
+the happiest-lookin' woman in town. Why not? She's got the most money
+and no man to bother her."
+
+"Why, Charlotte Whipp, you don't know what you're sayin'. Ben's father
+was a fine man. For years after he died Mrs. Barry couldn't hardly
+smile. Yes"--Miss Upton's thoughtful manner returned--"Ben's away so
+much I should think she'd like to have somebody, say a nice young girl
+with her. Of course, to folks with motors Keefe ain't much more'n a
+suburb to the city now, and Mrs. Barry, with her three months in town
+and three months to the port and six months here, has a full, pleasant
+life, and I s'pose that fine son fills it. Wasn't she fortunate to get
+him out o' the war safe? You'd ought to 'a' seen him in his Naval
+Aviation uniform, Charlotte. He looked like a prince; but he could 'a'
+bitten a board nail because he never got to go across the water. I
+s'pose his mother's average patriotic, but I guess she thanked Heaven he
+couldn't go. She didn't dare say anything like that before him, though.
+It was a terrible disappointment. Oh, Charlotte"--Miss Upton bent a
+wistful smile on her table-mate--"I can't help thinkin' what a
+wonderful home the Barry house would be for some needy girl--a lady, you
+know."
+
+"H'm!" Charlotte's twisted mouth contracted further as she gave a dry
+little sniff. "She'd probably fall in love with Ben, and he wouldn't
+give a snap for her, so she'd be miserable anyway."
+
+Miss Mehitable shook her head. "If all your probablys came true,
+Charlotte, what a world this would be."
+
+"What a world it _is_!" retorted the other. "Have some more tea"--then
+as Miss Mehitable demurred--"Yes, have some. It'll do you good and maybe
+brighten up your wits so's you can remember somethin' that's happened to
+you to-day."
+
+Miss Upton cudgeled her brain for the small occurrences of her shopping
+and managed to recall a few items; but she was not in her usual form and
+Charlotte received her offerings with scornful sniffs and silence.
+
+Miss Upton's dreams that night were troubled and the sermon next morning
+fell on deaf ears. Ben and his mother were both in the Barry pew near
+the memorial window to his father. She could not resist the drawing
+which made her head turn periodically to make certain that Ben was
+really there. Miss Mehitable respected men in general, especially in
+time of trouble, and in this case the legal mind attracted her. Ben was
+going to be a lawyer even if he wasn't one yet. The Barrys had money and
+influence, they were always friendly to her, and while she could not
+impart poor little Geraldine's story to Mrs. Barry direct without
+appearing to beg, it might reach and interest her via Ben.
+
+When the last hymn had been sung and the benediction pronounced, Miss
+Upton watched with jealous eyes the various interruptions to the Barrys'
+progress down the aisle. Everybody liked to have a word with them. All
+the girls were willing to make it easy to be asked to the hospitable
+house for Sunday tea. Miss Mehitable glowered at the bolder and more
+aggressive of these as she moved along a side aisle.
+
+When mother and son finally reached the sunlit out-of-doors they found
+Miss Upton waiting beside the steps.
+
+"Why, if here isn't the fair Mehit," remarked Ben as they approached,
+and his mother smiled and shook her regal head and Miss Upton's hand
+simultaneously.
+
+"I don't understand why you allow Ben to be so disrespectful," she said.
+
+"Law, Mrs. Barry," replied Miss Upton, "you must know that women don't
+care anything about bein' _respected_. What they want is to be _liked_;
+and Ben's a good friend o' mine."
+
+"Sure thing," remarked the young fellow, something in Miss Mehitable's
+eyes reminding him of her portentous yesterday and his promise. "Oh, I
+forgot to tell you, mother, Miss Upton is going home to dinner with us
+to-day."
+
+"No, no, I'm not, Ben," put in Miss Mehitable hastily. "I couldn't leave
+Charlotte alone for Sunday dinner; but"--she looked at Mrs. Barry--"I do
+want to see Ben about something and he promised me a little time this
+afternoon."
+
+"Mehit got into trouble yesterday," Ben explained to his mother.
+"Somebody tried to rob her of her notions and she beaned him with her
+umbrella. She's scared to death and she wants to consult the law." The
+speaker delivered a blow on his chest.
+
+"I know you hate to spare him the little time he's home, Mrs. Barry,"
+said Miss Upton apologetically; "but I'll keep him only a short time
+and--and I couldn't hardly sleep last night, though it ain't any o' my
+business, _really_."
+
+"It's a good business if you're in it, I know that," said Mrs. Barry
+kindly, "and I'll lend you Ben with pleasure if he can do you any good!"
+
+"Then when will you be over, Ben?" asked Miss Mehitable anxiously. "I'd
+like to know just when to expect you."
+
+"You don't tr-r-ust me, that's what's the matter," he returned. "Will
+you promise to muzzle Merry Sunshine?"
+
+"I--I think perhaps Charlotte will go out to walk," returned Miss Upton,
+somewhat troubled herself to know how to insure privacy in her
+restricted domain. "She does, sometimes, Sundays."
+
+"How does it affect the Keefe springtime to have her walk out in it?"
+inquired Ben solicitously.
+
+"I'll tell you, Ben," said his mother, sympathetic with the anxiety in
+Miss Mehitable's face, "bring Miss Upton over to see our
+apple-blossoms, and you can have your talk at our house."
+
+Relief overspread Miss Upton's round countenance.
+
+"Certainly. I'll call for you at three," said Ben, "Blackstone under my
+arm. If Merry Sunshine attacks me it will be a trusty weapon. Hop into
+the car, Mehit, and we'll run you home."
+
+Mrs. Barry laughed. "The sermon doesn't seem to have done him any good
+this morning, Miss Upton. We shall be glad to take you home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+The Good Fairy
+
+
+So again Mrs. Whipp saw her friend and employer descend from the Barry
+car.
+
+She didn't open the door for her this time, but sat, rocking, in the
+shop with Pearl in her lap, and sniffed at her as she entered.
+
+"You and your fine friends," she scoffed. "Pretty soon you won't demean
+yourself to use the trolley at all."
+
+"If you had only been willing to come to church, Charlotte, they'd have
+brought you home, too," said Miss Mehitable, hoping she was telling the
+truth.
+
+"'The Sabbath was made for man,'" snapped Mrs. Whipp, "not man for the
+Sabbath, to go and hear that man talk through his nose!"
+
+"Now, Charlotte, I refused to go home to dinner with them just so's you
+and I could have our meal together; so don't you make me sorry."
+
+Mrs. Whipp had started up at once alertly on her friend's entrance,
+spilling Pearl, and was already removing Miss Mehitable's jacket and hat
+with deft fingers and receiving the silk gloves she pulled off.
+
+"H'm, I don't believe they'll eat any better things than we're goin' to
+have. How can I go to church and have us a good hot dinner?"
+
+"Sunday dinner should be cold mainly," returned Miss Upton calmly. "Mine
+always was till you came. Of course you're such a splendid cook,
+Charlotte, it's kind of a temptation to you to spoil me and feed me up,
+yet you know I ought not to eat much."
+
+"Oh, pshaw," returned Mrs. Whipp. "More folks die from the lack o' good
+things than from eatin' 'em."
+
+"You'll have to look out," said Miss Mehitable warningly, following her
+friend's lead to the sunny living-room where the table was spread. "It's
+a sayin' that good cooks are always cross. The better you cook the more
+you must watch to have your temper as sweet as your sauces."
+
+"Ho! Vinegar's just as important as oil," retorted the other. "You're so
+smooth to everybody it's a good thing I came to live with you and keep
+you from bein' imposed upon."
+
+Miss Mehitable laughed. "You think together we make a pretty good salad,
+do you?" she returned.
+
+When dinner was on the table and they were both seated, Miss Upton spoke
+again:
+
+"I wonder how you're goin' to like it to the port?" she said.
+
+"Awful rheumatic, I sh'd think 'twould be," returned Mrs. Whipp.
+
+"Pretty soon we'll have to be goin'," said Miss Upton. "I usually lock
+everything up here tight as a drum for three months. I was talkin' to a
+man in town yesterday that thought it was a joke that folks in Keefe
+just went a few miles to their seashore cottages. He was from Chicago
+where you have to go a thousand miles to get anywhere. I told him I
+couldn't see anything funny about it. Keefe was a village and Keefeport
+was a resort; but he kept on laughin' and said it was like lockin' the
+door of one home and goin' across the street to another, then back again
+in the fall. I told him I was full as satisfied as I would be to have
+to make my way through Indians and buffaloes to get anywhere as you have
+to in those wild Western cities. He claimed that it was perfectly
+civilized around Chicago now; but of course he'd say that."
+
+"H'm," returned Mrs. Whipp, non-committally.
+
+"Now I was thinkin', Charlotte, that there ain't a reason in the world
+why you should go to the port if you don't want to. You can stay right
+here and look after the house. I shall move the shop goods just as I
+always do to my little port place."
+
+"You don't get along there alone, do you?" asked Charlotte hastily.
+
+"No; one o' the schoolgirls is always glad to live with me in vacation
+and work for her board. I had Nellie McIntyre last summer."
+
+"Oh, of course, if you'd rather have Nellie."
+
+"I wouldn't," said Miss Upton calmly; "but she don't have rheumatism nor
+mind the dampness. She thinks it's a great chance to be to the shore and
+swim every day, and she's happy as a bird from mornin' till night. If
+she ain't to go this year, I must let the child know, for I expect
+she's lottin' on it."
+
+The silence that followed this was broken only by the purring of Pearl
+who had established herself upon a broad beam of sunshine which lay
+across the ingrain carpet. Miss Mehitable was recklessly extravagant of
+carpets in Mrs. Whipp's opinion. She would not allow the shutting-out of
+the sunlight.
+
+Miss Upton drank her tea busily now to conceal her desire to smile. Some
+of Ben Barry's comments upon her companion returned to her irresistibly;
+for she easily followed Charlotte's present mental processes.
+
+Mrs. Whipp was in a most uncomfortable corner and her friend had driven
+her into it with such bland kindness that it made the situation doubly
+difficult. There was nothing Charlotte could resent in being offered a
+summer of ease in the Keefe cottage; but to be confronted with the
+alternatives of renouncing all right to complain of fog and storm, or
+else to part from Miss Mehitable and allow her to run her own life and
+notions for the whole summer, was a dilemma which drove her also to
+drinking a great deal of tea, and leaving the floor to Pearl for some
+minutes.
+
+Miss Upton did not help her out, but, regaining control of her risibles,
+continued to eat and drink placidly, allowing her companion to
+cerebrate.
+
+Well she knew that now was the time to defend herself from a summer of
+grumbling as continuous as the swish of waves on the shore; and well she
+knew also her companion's verbally unexpressed but intense devotion to
+herself which made any prospect of their separation a panic. So she
+waited and Pearl purred.
+
+One Mr. Lugubrious Blue flits through the drawings of a certain famous
+cartoonist. Mr. Blue's mission is to take the joy out of life and
+Charlotte Whipp was his blood kin. The tip of her long nose was as
+chilly as his and her gloom was similarly chronic. Miss Upton was
+determined that she would not be the first to break in upon Pearl's
+solo.
+
+Finally Charlotte spoke:
+
+"Do the Barrys have a house to the port?"
+
+"Yes, a real cottage. The rest of us have shelters, but you can't call
+'em houses."
+
+Mrs. Whipp looked up apprehensively. "Do you mean they let in the rain?"
+
+"Sometimes in storms," returned Miss Upton cheerfully, "but we run
+around with pans and catch it."
+
+Mrs. Whipp viewed her bread and butter gloomily, the down-drawn corner
+of her one-sided mouth unusually depressed.
+
+Miss Mehitable felt a wild desire to laugh. She wished she could keep
+Ben Barry out of her mind during this important interview. Her kind
+heart administered a little comfort.
+
+"You see, there isn't any lath and plaster to the cottage, but it's good
+and tight except in very bad weather," she said.
+
+"It's a wonder you don't get rheumatics yourself," vouchsafed Charlotte.
+
+"Nobody thinks of such a thing in that beautiful sun-soaked place,"
+returned Miss Upton.
+
+"Sun-stroke did you say?" asked Mrs. Whipp, looking up quickly.
+
+"No." Miss Mehitable indulged in one frank laugh. "Sun-soaked."
+
+"Sounds more like water-logged to me from your description," said the
+other sourly, returning to her dinner. "I don't see why you go there."
+
+"For two reasons. First, because I love it better than any place on
+earth, and second, because it's good business. I do a better business
+there than I do here. You think it over, Charlotte, because I ought to
+let Nellie know."
+
+"Well, you can let Nellie know that I'm goin'," replied Mrs. Whipp
+crossly. "What sense is there in your takin' a girl to the port to go in
+swimmin' while you work?"
+
+"Nellie was a very good little helper," declared Miss Mehitable, again
+taking refuge in her teacup. When she set it down she continued: "If you
+think, Charlotte, that you can make up your mind to take the bitter with
+the sweet, the rain and the sun, the fog and the wind, why, come along;
+but it don't do a bit o' good to argue with Neptune. He'll stick his
+fork right through you if you do."
+
+Mrs. Whipp stared, but Miss Upton's eyes were twinkling so she suspected
+this was just one of her jokes.
+
+"I never was one to shirk," she declared curtly.
+
+"Then I can tell Nellie you want to go?"
+
+That word "want" made Charlotte writhe and was probably accountable for
+the extra acidity of her reply:
+
+"Yes, unless you're tongue-tied," she returned.
+
+When dinner was over and the dishes washed and put away (Miss Upton's
+Sunday suit being enveloped in a huge gingham apron during the
+performance), Miss Mehitable watched solicitously to see if Charlotte
+manifested any symptoms of going out for a constitutional. She asked
+herself, with a good deal of severity, why she should dread to inform
+Mrs. Whipp of her own plan for the afternoon.
+
+"I guess I'm free, white, and twenty-one," thought Miss Upton. But all
+the same she continued to cast furtive glances at Mrs. Whipp, who showed
+every sign of relapsing into a rocking-chair with Pearl in her lap.
+
+"It's a real pleasant day, Charlotte," she said. "Ain't you goin' to
+walk?"
+
+Mrs. Whipp yawned. "Dunno as I am."
+
+"I've got to go out again," pursued Miss Mehitable intrepidly, but she
+felt the dull gaze that at once turned and fixed upon her. "I've got to
+see Ben Barry about some business that came up in the city yesterday."
+
+"I knew you had something on your mind last night," returned Mrs. Whipp,
+triumphantly. "I notice you wouldn't tell _me_."
+
+"You ain't a lawyer, Charlotte Whipp."
+
+"Neither is that young whipper-snapper," rejoined the widow, "but then
+of course he's a Barry."
+
+"You do try my patience dreadfully, Charlotte," declared Miss Mehitable,
+her plump cheeks scarlet. "If you didn't know when you came here that
+Mrs. Barry is one o' the best friends I've got in the world, I'll tell
+you so now. You needn't be throwin' 'em up to me just because they've
+got money. I'm goin' there whenever they ask me, and this afternoon's
+one o' the times."
+
+She felt like a child who works its elbows to throw off some hampering
+annoyance. How her companion managed to hold her under the spell of
+domination which seemed merely a heavy weight of silent disapproval, she
+did not understand. It always meant jealousy, Miss Mehitable knew that,
+and usually her peace-loving, sunny nature pacified and coaxed the
+offended one, but occasionally she stood her ground. She knew that
+presently the Barry car would again draw up before her gate and she felt
+she must forestall Charlotte's sneers.
+
+"How soon you goin'?" inquired the latter mildly.
+
+"At three o'clock," returned Miss Upton bravely.
+
+"Let me fix your collar," said Charlotte, rising; "your apron rumpled it
+all up."
+
+"Why can't I remember to bully her oftener?" thought Miss Mehitable. "It
+always does her good just like medicine."
+
+Promptly at three Ben Barry jumped out of his car before Miss Upton's
+Emporium, and Mrs. Whipp dodged behind the window-curtain and watched
+them drive away.
+
+"I saw that cute Lottie looking after us," said Ben.
+
+"Poor thing, I kind o' hate to leave her on a Sunday," said Miss Upton,
+sighing.
+
+"'The better the day, the better the deed,'" remarked her companion.
+"You've got me all het up about you and your umbrella. What's my part?
+To keep you out of the lock-up? Whom did you 'sault 'n' batter? When
+are you going to tell me?"
+
+"You see that's one thing that's the matter with Charlotte," said Miss
+Mehitable. "She does hate to think I'm keepin' anything from her and she
+felt it in the air."
+
+"Do you believe she'll visit you in prison? I'll address the jury
+myself. I maintain that one punishment's enough. You at least deserve a
+holiday. Say, Mehit, me dear, I've a big surprise for you, too. You know
+I told you I warned mother to have no guests this afternoon."
+
+"Yes, you said you wanted to write poetry--Ben"--the speaker suddenly
+grasped the driver's coat-sleeve--"I never thought of it till this
+minute, but, Ben Barry"--Miss Upton's voice expressed acute dismay--"are
+you in love?"
+
+"Why, does it mean so much to you, little one?" responded Ben
+sentimentally.
+
+"You wouldn't take near as much interest, not near as much if you've got
+a girl on your mind."
+
+"One? Dozens, Mehit. I'm only human, dear."
+
+"If it's dozens, it's all right," returned Miss Upton, relieved.
+"There's always room for one more in that case, but what is your
+surprise, then, Ben?"
+
+"I didn't want to be alone to write poetry. I wanted to gloat,
+undisturbed. My dandy mother is giving me something I've been aching to
+have."
+
+Miss Upton's face brightened. "Yes, I know. Something's being built way
+back o' your house. Folks are wonderin' what it is. It looks like some
+queer kind of a stable. What in the world can you want, Ben! You've got
+the cars and a motor-cycle, and a saddle-horse."
+
+"Well"--confidentially--"don't tell, Mehit, but I wanted a zebra. Horses
+are too commonplace."
+
+"But they can't be tamed, zebras can't," returned Miss Upton, much
+disturbed. "I've read about 'em. You'll be killed. I shall--"
+
+"I _must_ have a zebra and a striped riding-suit to be happy. While
+you're wearing the stripes in jail I'll come and ride up and down
+outside your barred window and cheer you up."
+
+"I don't believe it's a zebra," declared Miss Mehitable; "but if it is I
+shall tell your mother you cannot have it, Ben Barry."
+
+"And yet you expect me to sympathize with your umbrella--"
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" exclaimed Miss Upton suddenly; for now the tinted,
+pearly pink cloud of the Barrys' apple-orchard came in view.
+
+The house was a brick structure with broad verandas, set back among
+well-kept lawns and drives, and its fine elm trees were noted. Mrs.
+Barry was reclining in a hammock-chair under one of them as the car
+drove in, and she rose and came to meet the guest. Miss Mehitable
+thought she looked like a queen as her erect, graceful figure moved
+across the lawn in the long silken cape that floated back and showed its
+violet lining.
+
+"It's perfectly beautiful here to-day," she said as the hostess greeted
+her; "but, oh, Mrs. Barry, I suppose I'm a fool to ever believe
+Ben"--the speaker cast a glance around at her escort--"but you won't let
+him have a zebra, will you? They're the most dangerous animals. He says
+you're goin' to give him--"
+
+"My dear Miss Upton," Mrs. Barry laughed, "I do need a scolding, I know.
+I've allowed myself to be talked into something crazy--crazy. It's much
+worse than a zebra, but you know what a big disappointment Ben had last
+year--flapping his wings and aching and longing to go across the sea
+while Uncle Sam obstinately refused to let him go over and end the War?
+All dressed up and no place to go! Poor Benny!" Mrs. Barry glanced at
+her son, laughing. "He did need some consolation prize, and anyway he
+persuaded me to let him have an aeroplane."
+
+"Mrs.--_Barry_!" returned Miss Mehitable, and she gazed around at Ben
+with wide eyes.
+
+"I'm such a bird, you see," he explained.
+
+"Well," said the visitor after a pause, drawing her suspended breath,
+"I'm glad I can talk to you before you're killed."
+
+"Oh, not so bad as that," said Mrs. Barry. "He is at home in the air,
+you know, and he assures me they will soon be quite common. Come up on
+the veranda, Miss Upton. I'm going to hide you and Ben in a corner
+where no one will disturb you."
+
+"What a big place for you to live in all alone," observed Mehitable as
+they moved toward the house, and Ben drove the car to the garage.
+
+"Yes, it is; but I'm so busy with my chickens and my bees I'm never
+lonely. I'm quite a farmer, Miss Upton. See how fine my orchard is this
+year? I tell Ben that so long as he doesn't light in my apple-trees we
+can be friends."
+
+"I think you're awful venturesome, Mrs. Barry!"
+
+That lady smiled as they moved up the steps to the veranda, the black
+and violet folds of her shimmering wrap blowing about her in lines of
+beauty that fascinated her companion.
+
+"What else can the mother of a boy be?" she returned. "Ben has been
+training me in courage ever since he was born; apparently the prize-ring
+or the circus would have been his natural field of operations; so I have
+chained him down to the law and given him an aeroplane so he can work
+off his extra steam away from the publicity of earth."
+
+At last the hostess withdrew, and Miss Upton found herself alone with
+her embryo lawyer in a sheltered corner of the porch where the vines
+were hastening to sprout their curtaining green, and a hammock,
+comfortable chairs, a table and books proclaimed the place an
+out-of-door sitting-room.
+
+"Your mother is wonderful," she began when her companion had placed her
+satisfactorily and had stretched himself out in a listening attitude,
+his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes on hers.
+
+What eyes they were, Miss Upton thought. Clear and light-brown, the
+color of water catching the light in a swift, sunny brook.
+
+"She is a queen," he responded with conviction.
+
+"A pity such a woman hasn't got a daughter," said Miss Mehitable
+tentatively.
+
+"I'm going to give her one some day." A smile accompanied this.
+
+"Is she picked out?"
+
+Ben laughed at his companion's anxious tone. "You seem interested in my
+prospects. That's the second time you have seemed worried at the idea.
+No, she isn't picked out. I'm going to hunt for her in the stars. Why?
+Have you some one selected?"
+
+"Law, no!" returned Miss Upton, flushing. "It is a--yes, it is a girl
+I've come to talk to you about, though." The visitor stammered and grew
+increasingly confused as she proceeded. "I thought--I didn't know--the
+girl needs somebody--yes, to--to look after her and I thought your
+mother bein'--bein' all alone and the house so big, she might have some
+use for a--young girl, you know, a kind of a helper; but Charlotte says
+the girl would fall in love with you and--and--" Miss Upton paused,
+drawing her handkerchief through and through her hands and looking
+anxiously at her companion who leaned his head back still farther and
+laughed aloud.
+
+"Come, now, that's the most sensible speech that ever fell from Lottie's
+rosebud lips." He sat up and viewed his visitor, who, in spite of her
+crimson embarrassment, was gazing at him appealingly. "I don't believe,
+Mehit, my dear, that you've begun at the beginning, and you'll have to,
+you know, if you want legal advice."
+
+"I never do, Ben; I am so stupid. I always do begin right in the middle,
+but now I'll go back. You know I went to the city yesterday."
+
+"You and the umbrella."
+
+"Yes, and I was mad at myself for luggin' it around all the mornin' when
+the weather turned out so pleasant and I had so many other things; but
+never _mind_"--the narrator tightened her lips impressively--"that
+umbrella was all _right_."
+
+"Sure thing," put in Ben. "How could you have rescued the girl without
+it?"
+
+Miss Upton's eyes widened. "How did you know I did?"
+
+"The legal mind, you know, the legal mind."
+
+"Oh, but I didn't rescue her near enough, not near enough," mourned Miss
+Mehitable. "I must go on. I got awful tired shoppin' and I went into a
+restaurant for lunch. I got set down to one table, but it was so
+draughty I moved to another where a young girl was sittin' alone. A man,
+a homely, long-necked critter made for that place too, but I got there
+first. I don't know whether I'm glad or sorry I did. Ben, she was the
+prettiest girl in this world."
+
+Miss Upton paused to see if this solemn statement awakened an interest
+in her listener.
+
+"Maybe," he replied placidly; "but then there are the stars, you know."
+
+"She had lots of golden hair, and dark eyes and lashes, with kind o'
+long dark corners to 'em, and a sad little mouth the prettiest shape you
+ever saw. We got to talkin' and she told me about herself. It was like a
+story. She had a cruel stepmother who didn't want her around, so kept
+her away at school, and a handsome, extravagant father without enough
+backbone to stand up for her; and on top of everything he died suddenly.
+Her stepmother had money and she put this poor child in a cheap
+lodgin'-house tellin' her to find a job, and she herself went calmly off
+travelin'. This poor lamb tried one place after another, but her beauty
+always stood in her way. I'm ashamed to speak of such things to you,
+Ben, but I've got to, to make you understand. She said she wondered if
+there were any good men in this world. She was in despair."
+
+Ben's eyes twinkled, but his lips were serious as he returned his
+friend's valiant gaze.
+
+"Her name is Geraldine Melody. Did you ever hear such a pretty name?"
+Miss Upton scrutinized her listener's face for some stir of interest.
+
+"I never did. Your girl was a very complete story-teller. You blessed
+soul! and you've had all these thrills over that!" Ben leaned forward
+and took his companion's hand affectionately. "I didn't believe even you
+would fall for drug-store hair, darkened eyes, and that chestnut story.
+What did the fair Geraldine touch you for?"
+
+Miss Upton returned his compassionate gaze with surprise and
+indignation. "She didn't touch me. What do you mean? Why shouldn't she
+if she wanted to? I tell you her eyes and her story were all the truth,
+Ben Barry. I ain't a fool."
+
+"No, dear, no. Of course. But how much did you give her?"
+
+"Give her what?"
+
+"Money."
+
+"I didn't give her any, poor lamb." Into Miss Mehitable's indignant eyes
+came a wild look. "I wonder if I'd ought to have. I wonder if it would
+have helped any."
+
+Ben gave a low laugh. "I'll bet she had the disappointment of her young
+life: to tell you that yarn, and tell it so convincingly, and yet dear
+old Mehit never rose to the bait!"
+
+Miss Upton glared at him and pulled her hand away. He leaned back and
+resumed his former easy attitude. "When are you going to reach the
+umbrella?" he asked.
+
+"I've passed it," snapped Miss Mehitable, angry and baffled. "I kept
+that long-necked, gawky man off with it, pretty near tripped him up so's
+I could get to the table with that poor child."
+
+Ben shook his head slowly. "To think of it! That good old umbrella after
+a well-spent life to get you into a trap like that. All the same"--he
+looked admiringly at his companion--"there's no hay-seed in _your_ hair.
+The dam-sell--pardon, Mehit, it's all right to say damsel, isn't
+it?--didn't think best to press things quite far enough to get into your
+pocket-book. You call it a rescue. Why do you? Geraldine might have got
+something out of the gawk."
+
+Miss Upton's head swung from side to side on her short neck as she gazed
+at her friend for a space in defiant silence. His smile irritated her
+beyond words.
+
+"Look here, Ben Barry," she said at last; "young folks think old folks
+are fools. Old folks _know_ young folks are. Now I want to find that
+girl. I see you won't help me, but you can tell me where to get a
+detective."
+
+Ben raised his eyebrows. "Hey-doddy-doddy, is it as serious as that?
+Geraldine is some actress. It would be a good thing if you could let
+well enough alone; but I suspect you'll have to find her before you can
+settle down and give Lottie that attention to which she has been
+accustomed. I will help you. We won't need any detective. You shall meet
+me in town next Saturday. We'll go to that restaurant and others. Ten to
+one we'll find her."
+
+"She's left the city," announced Miss Upton curtly.
+
+"She told you so?" the amused question was very gentle.
+
+"That cat of a stepmother had a relative on a farm, some place so
+God-forsaken they couldn't keep help, so the cat kindly told the girl
+she was desertin' that if other jobs failed she could go there. I've
+told you why the other jobs did fail, and it's the truth whether you
+believe it or not, and at the time I met her the poor child had given up
+hope and decided to take that last resort."
+
+Ben bit his lip. "Back to the farm, Geraldine!"
+
+Miss Upton's head again swung from side to side and again she glared at
+her companion.
+
+"It would surprise you very much if we were to meet her in town next
+Saturday, wouldn't it?" he added.
+
+"I'd be so glad I'd hug her beautiful little head off," returned Miss
+Mehitable fervently.
+
+"Do that, dear, if you must. It would be better than bringing her out
+here to be a companion to mother." Miss Upton's eyes were so fiery that
+Ben smothered his laugh. "I'm nearly sure that Miss Melody wouldn't suit
+mother as a companion."
+
+"I wouldn't allow her to come anywhere near you," returned Miss Upton
+hotly. "I s'pose you think she didn't go to the farm. Well, I saw her go
+myself with that very gawk I tripped up with my umbrella."
+
+"Of course you did," laughed Ben; "and pretty mad he was doubtless when
+she told him she hadn't got a rise out of you. Those people usually work
+in pairs. We'll probably see him, too."
+
+Miss Upton clutched the iron table in front of her and swung herself to
+her feet with superhuman celerity.
+
+"Ben Barry, you're entirely too smart for the law!" she said. "You'll
+never stoop to try a case. You'll know everything beforehand. You're a
+kind of a mixture of a clairvoyant and a Sherlock Holmes, you are. If
+you'd seen as I did that beautiful, touchin' young face turn to stone
+when that raw-boned, cross-eyed thing looked at her so--so hungry-like,
+and took possession of her as though he was only goin' to wait till they
+got home to eat her up--and I let 'em go!" Miss Upton reverted to her
+chief woe. "I let 'em go without findin' out _where_, when in all the
+world that poor child had nobody but me, a country jake she met in a
+restaurant, to care whether that Carder picked her bones after he got
+her to his cave."
+
+"That what?"
+
+"Carder, Rufus Carder. The one thing I have got is his hateful name. He
+lives 'way off on a farm somewheres, but knowin' his name, a detective
+ought to--"
+
+Ben Barry leaned forward in his chair and his eyes ceased to twinkle.
+
+"Rufus Carder? If it is the one I'm thinking of, he's one of the biggest
+reprobates in the country."
+
+"That's him," returned Miss Upton with conviction. "At first I sized him
+up as just awkward and countrified; but the way he looked at the child
+and the way he spoke to her showed he wa'n't any weaklin'."
+
+"I should say not. He's as clever as they make 'em and he has piles of
+money--other people's money. He can get out of the smallest loophole
+known to the law. He always manages to save his own skin while he takes
+the other fellow's. Rufus Carder." Ben frowned. "I wonder if it can be."
+
+Miss Upton received his alert gaze and looked down on him in triumph.
+
+"You're wakin' up, are you?" she said. "I guess I don't meet you in town
+next Saturday, do I? Oh, Ben"--casting her victory behind her--"do you
+mean to say you know where he lives?"
+
+"I know some of the places."
+
+"That farm"--eagerly--"do you know that?"
+
+"Yes. Pretty nearly. I can find it."
+
+"And you mean you will find it? You dear boy! And you'll take me with
+you, and we'll bring her back with us. I can make room for her at my
+house."
+
+"Hold on, Mehitable. We're dealing with one of the biggest rascals on
+the top side of earth. If he wants to keep the girl it may not be simple
+to get her. At any rate, it's best for me to go alone first. You write a
+note to her and I'll take it and bring back news to you of the lay of
+the land."
+
+Miss Upton gazed in speechless hope and gratitude at the young man as he
+rose and paced up and down the piazza in thought.
+
+"Oh, Ben," she ejaculated, clasping her hands, "to think that I'm in
+time to get you to do this before you kill yourself in that aeroplane!"
+
+"Nothing of the sort, my dear Mehit" he returned. "Remember that, unlike
+the zebra, they are tamable in captivity, you'll be soaring with me
+yet."
+
+Miss Upton laughed in her relief. "If all they want is something heavier
+than air, I'm _it_," she returned.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+The New Help
+
+
+Geraldine, begging to be excused from supper on the night of her
+arrival, drank the glass of milk that Mrs. Carder gave her, and at an
+early hour laid an aching head on her pillow and slept fitfully through
+the night.
+
+A heavy rain began to fall and continued in the morning. She still felt
+singularly numb toward the world and life in general. Her own room was
+bad enough, but outside it was the bare landscape, the desolate house,
+and its vulgar host.
+
+Mrs. Carder, under orders from her son, presented herself early with a
+tray on which were coffee and toast, and the girl had more than a twinge
+of compunction at being waited on by the worn, wrinkled old woman.
+
+"This is Sunday," she said. "I feel very tired. If you will let me stay
+here and be lazy until this afternoon, I should like it, but only on
+condition that you promise not to bring me anything more or take any
+trouble for me."
+
+"Just as you say," responded the old woman; and she reported this
+request below stairs. Her son received it with a nod.
+
+All the afternoon he hovered near the parlour with its horsehair
+furniture, and about four-thirty the young girl came downstairs. He
+greeted her effusively and she endeavored to pass him and go to the
+kitchen. The most lively sensation of which she was conscious now was
+compassion for the old woman who had brought up her breakfast.
+
+"No, don't go out there," said Rufus decidedly. "Ma is giving the hands
+their supper. You'd only be in the way. Sit down and take it easy while
+you can."
+
+The speaker established the reluctant guest in a slippery rocking-chair
+of ancient days. The atmosphere seemed to indicate that the room had
+awakened from a long sleep for her reception.
+
+Rufus sat down near her. "We're a democratic bunch here," he said, eying
+his companion as if he could never drink in enough of her youth and
+beauty. "We usually eat all together, but distinguished company, you
+know," he smiled and winked at her while she listened to the clatter of
+knives and forks at the long table in the kitchen. "We'll have our
+supper when they get through."
+
+"I should think the servants might relieve your mother of that work,"
+said Geraldine.
+
+"Servants! Hired girl, do you mean? Nice time we'd have tryin' to keep
+'em here. Oh, Ma's pert as a cricket. She don't mind the work. That's
+real kindness, you know, to old folks," he continued. "All a mistake to
+put 'em on the shelf. They're lots happier doin' the work they're
+accustomed to."
+
+"To-morrow I shall be helping her," said Geraldine mechanically, her
+whole soul shrinking from the gloating expression in her companion's
+face.
+
+"Depends on how you do it," he responded protectingly. "I don't want
+those hands put in dishwater."
+
+"I shall do whatever your mother will let me do," responded the girl
+quickly. "That is what I came for. I've come here to earn my living."
+
+Rufus Carder laughed leniently, and leaning forward would have patted
+her hand, but she drew it away with a quick motion which warned him to
+proceed slowly. In her eyes was an indignant light.
+
+"You can do about as you like with me, little girl," he said fondly. "If
+it's a dishwasher for Ma that you want, why, I'll have to get one,
+that's all."
+
+"I heard that you have found it very difficult to get help out here."
+
+"I always get whatever I go after," was the reply. And the guest had a
+fleeting consolation in the thought that she might make easier the lot
+of that wrinkled slave in the kitchen.
+
+"You don't know yet all I can do for you," pursued Carder, and Geraldine
+writhed under the self-satisfied gaze which seemed to be taking stock of
+her person from head to foot; "nor what I intend to do," he added. "My
+wife was a plain sort of woman and I've been wrapped up in business. See
+that little buildin' down there side o' the road? That's my office. I
+can see everybody who comes in or goes out of the place and can keep my
+hand on everything that's doin' on the farm. I've held my nose pretty
+close to the grindstone and I've earned the right to let up a little. I
+know you find things very plain here, but I'm goin' to give you leave to
+do it all over. I intend you shall have just what you want, little
+girl."
+
+Every time Rufus Carder used that expression, "little girl," a strange
+sensation of nausea crept again around Geraldine's heart. It was as if
+he actually caressed her with those big-jointed and not over-clean
+hands. She still remembered the pleading of his mother not to make him
+angry.
+
+"Your mother should be your first thought," she said.
+
+"Well, that's all right," he returned. "Of course she's gettin' along
+and I put water in the kitchen for her this year; but it's legitimate
+for young folks to begin where old folks leave off. If it wa'n't so, how
+would there be any improvement in the world? You and I'll make lots o'
+trips to town until you get this old house to lookin' just the way you
+want it. I'm sorry Dick Melody can't come out and see us here."
+
+Tears sprang to the girl's eyes. Tears of grief and an infinite
+resentment that this coarse creature could so familiarly name her
+father.
+
+Mrs. Carder here appeared to announce that their supper was ready, so no
+more was said until in the next room they found a small table set for
+two.
+
+"Have you eaten your supper, Mrs. Carder?" Geraldine asked of the
+harassed and heated little woman who was hurrying back and forth loaded
+with dishes.
+
+"Yes, much as I ever do," was the reply. "I get my meals on the fly."
+Then, meeting her son's lowering expression, she hastened to add, "I get
+all I want that way, you know. It's the way I like the best."
+
+"It isn't the way you must do while I'm here," responded Geraldine
+firmly. "You're tired out. Come and sit down with your son and let me
+wait on you while you rest."
+
+"Don't that sound daughterly?" remarked Rufus exultantly. "Perhaps I
+didn't know how to pick out the right girl. What?" His mother, relieved
+by his returned complacence, became voluble with reassurances; and
+Geraldine, seeing that Rufus's hand was approaching her arm, hastily
+slid into her chair and he took the opposite place.
+
+"Didn't I tell you we'd make up for the lunch that great porpoise
+cheated us out of yesterday?" he said in high good-humor.
+
+Geraldine's desolate heart yearned after the kind friend so soon lost.
+
+"That'll do, Ma. I guess the grub's all on the table. Go chase yourself.
+Miss Melody'll pour my coffee."
+
+"Don't wash any of the dishes, Mrs. Carder, please, until I get out
+there," said Geraldine.
+
+The old woman disappeared with one last glance at her son whom Geraldine
+eyed with sudden steadiness.
+
+He smiled at her with semi-toothless fondness.
+
+"Give me my coffee, little girl. I'm famished. Isn't this jolly--just
+you and me?"
+
+Geraldine poured the coffee and handed him the cup; then she spoke
+impressively.
+
+"Mr. Carder, this is the last time this must happen. I refuse to sit
+down and make a waitress of your old mother. If you insist on showing
+her no consideration, I shall go away from here at once."
+
+Her companion laughed, quietly, but with genuine amusement and
+admiration.
+
+"By ginger," he said, "when you're mad, you're the handsomest thing
+above ground. Go away! That's a good one. Don't I tell you, you can do
+anything with me?" The speaker paused to drink his coffee noisily,
+keeping his eyes on the exquisite, stiff little mouth opposite him. "I
+know I ain't any dandy to look at. I've been too busy rollin' up the
+money that's goin' to make you go on velvet the rest o' your days:
+you're welcome to change all that, too. Yes, indeed. Never fear. When we
+do over the house we're goin' to do over yours truly, too. I'll do
+exactly as you say and you can turn me out a fashion plate that'll be
+hard to beat."
+
+"I'm not interested in turning you out a fashion plate," returned
+Geraldine coldly. "I'm interested in making the lot of your mother
+easier, that is all."
+
+Rufus regarded her thoughtfully and nodded. It penetrated his brain that
+he had been going too fast with this disdainful beauty. He rather
+admired her for her disdain; it added zest to the certainty of her
+capitulation.
+
+"Have it your own way, little girl," he said leniently. "I know you're
+tired, still. You're not eatin'. Eat a good supper and to-night take
+another long sleep and to-morrow everything will look different."
+
+Geraldine still regarded him with an unfaltering gaze. "We are
+strangers," she said. "I wish you not to call me 'little girl!'"
+
+Rufus smiled at her admiringly. "It's hard for me to be formal with Dick
+Melody's girl," he said. "What shall I call you? My lady? That's all
+right, that's what you are. My lady. Another cup o' coffee please, my
+lady. It tastes extra good from your fair hands. We'll do away with this
+rocky tea-set, too. You're goin' to have eggshell China if you want it;
+and of course you do want it, you little princess."
+
+His extreme air of proprietorship had several times during this
+interview convinced Geraldine that her host had been drinking. In spite
+of his odious frank admiration and the glimpses that he gave of some
+disquieting power, Geraldine scorned him too much to be afraid of him,
+and while she doubted increasingly that it would be possible for her to
+remain here, she determined to see what the morning would bring forth.
+The man's passion for acquisition, evidenced by his showmanship of his
+accumulations, might again absorb him after the first flush of her
+novelty wore off. She would enter into the work of the house, she would
+never again sit _tete-a-tete_ with him, and he should find it impossible
+to see her alone. His mother had warned her that he was terrible when he
+was angry, and Geraldine suspected that the mother always felt the brunt
+of his wrath. She must be careful, therefore, not to make the lot of
+that mother harder while endeavoring to ease it.
+
+As soon as she could, Geraldine escaped to the kitchen where she found
+Mrs. Carder at her wet sink.
+
+"I asked you to wait for me, Mrs. Carder," she said.
+
+The old woman looked up from her steaming pan, her countenance full of
+trouble.
+
+"Now, Rufus don't want you to do anything like this, Miss Melody, and
+Pete's helpin' me, you see."
+
+Geraldine turned and saw a boy who was carrying a heavy, steaming kettle
+from the stove to the sink, and she met his eyes fixed upon her. She
+recognized him at once as the driver of the motor in which she and her
+host had come from the station. As the chauffeur he had appeared like a
+boy of ordinary size, but now she saw that his arms were long and his
+legs short and bowed, and in height he would barely reach her shoulder.
+
+The dwarf had a long, solemn, tanned face and a furtive, sullen eye.
+Geraldine remembered Rufus Carder's rough tone as he had summoned him at
+the station. He was perhaps a wretched, lonely creature like herself.
+She met his look with a smile that, directed toward his master, would
+have sent Rufus into the seventh heaven of complacence.
+
+"I have met Pete already," she said, kindly. "He drove us up from the
+station. I'm glad you are helping Mrs. Carder, Pete. She seems to have
+too much to do."
+
+The boy did not reply, but he appeared unable to remove his eyes from
+Geraldine's kind look, and careless of where he was going he stumbled
+against the sink.
+
+"Look out, Pete!" exclaimed his mistress. "What makes you so clumsy? You
+nearly scalded me. I guess he's tired, too." The old woman sighed.
+"Everybody picks on Pete. They all find something for him to do."
+
+"Then run away now," said Geraldine, still warming the boy's dull eyes
+with her entrancing smile, "and let me take your place. I can dry dishes
+as fast as anybody can wash them."
+
+The dwarf slowly backed away, and disappeared into the woodshed, keeping
+his gaze to the last on the sunny-haired loveliness which had invaded
+the ugliness of that low-ceiled kitchen.
+
+Geraldine seized a dish-towel, and Mrs. Carder, her hands in the suds,
+cast a troubled glance around at her.
+
+"Rufus won't like it," she declared timorously.
+
+"Why should you say anything so foolish? What did I come out here for?"
+
+The old woman looked around at her with a brief, strange look.
+
+"You couldn't get help," went on Geraldine, "and so as I needed a home I
+came."
+
+"Is that what they told you?"
+
+"Yes. That is what my stepmother told me, and I see it is true. You seem
+to have no one here but men."
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Carder. "It--it hasn't been a healthy place for
+girls." She cast a glance toward the door as she spoke in a lowered
+voice.
+
+"Dreadfully lonely, you mean?" inquired Geraldine, unpleasantly affected
+by the other's timidity. "The woman has no spirit," she added mentally
+with some impatience.
+
+Mrs. Carder looked full in her eyes for a silent space; then: "Rufus can
+do anything he wants to--anything," she whispered.
+
+Geraldine, in the act of wiping a coarse, thick dinner-plate, met the
+other's gaze with a little frown.
+
+"Don't give in to him, my dear," went on the sharp whisper. "You are too
+beautiful, too young. He's crazy about you, so you be firm. Don't give
+in to him. Insist on his marrying you!"
+
+The thick dinner-plate fell to the floor with a crash.
+
+"Marrying him!" ejaculated Geraldine.
+
+"Sh! Sh! Oh, Miss Melody, hush!"
+
+Geraldine began to shiver from head to foot. The lover-like words and
+actions of her host seemed rushing back to memory with all the other
+repulsive experiences of past weeks.
+
+The kitchen door opened and the master appeared.
+
+"Who's smashing the crockery?" he inquired.
+
+"It's your awkward help," rejoined Geraldine, her teeth chattering as
+she stooped to pick up the plate.
+
+"I knew you weren't fit for this kind of thing," he said tenderly,
+approaching, to the girl's horror. "Where's that confounded Pete?"
+
+"I sent him away," said Geraldine, indignant with herself for trembling.
+"I wanted to do this; it is what I came for. The plate didn't break."
+
+The man regarded her flushed face with a gaze that scorched her.
+
+"Break everything in the old shack if you want to--that is, all but one
+thing!"
+
+He stood for half a minute more while his mother scalded a new pan full
+of dishes.
+
+"What is that poem," he went on--"What's that about, 'Thou shalt not
+wash dishes nor yet feed the swine'? Well, well, we'll see later."
+
+Geraldine's heart was pounding too hard to allow her to speak. She
+seized another plate in her towel, his mother, her wrinkled lips pursed,
+kept her eyes on her dishpan, so with a pleased smile at his own apt
+quotation the master reluctantly removed his presence from the room.
+
+"I'm very sorry for you, Mrs. Carder," said Geraldine breathlessly,
+meanwhile holding her plate firmly lest another crash bring back the
+owner, "but I can't stay here. I must go away to-morrow."
+
+Her companion gave a fleeting glance around at the girl, and her
+withered lips relaxed in a smile as she shook her head.
+
+"Oh, no, you won't, my dear."
+
+At the unexpected reply Geraldine's heart thumped harder.
+
+"I certainly shall, Mrs. Carder. I'm sorry not to stay and help you, but
+it's impossible."
+
+"It will be impossible for you to go," was the colorless reply. "Nobody
+goes away from here till Rufus is ready they should; then they leave
+whether they have any place to go to or not. It's goin' to be different
+with you. I can see that. You needn't be scared by what I said, a minute
+ago. You are safe. You've got a home for life. I only hope you won't let
+him send me away." The old woman again turned around to Geraldine and
+her tired old eyes filled with tears.
+
+"Nothing should be too good for you with all your son's money," rejoined
+Geraldine hotly.
+
+Her panic-stricken thought was centered now on one idea. Escape. The
+night was closing in. The clouds had cleared away. The stretches of
+fields in all directions, the lack of neighbors, the horrors of the old
+woman's implications, all weighed on the girl like a crushing nightmare.
+The dishes at last put away, she bade the weary old woman good-night,
+and apprehensively looking from side to side stole to the stairway
+without encountering anyone and mounting to her dreary chamber she
+locked the door.
+
+She hurried to the window and looked out.
+
+A half-moon in the sky showed her that the distance down was too far to
+jump. She might sprain or break one of those ankles which must go fast
+and far to-night.
+
+Packing her belongings back in her bag she sat down to wait. Gradually
+all sounds about the house ceased. Still she waited. The minutes seemed
+hours, but not until her watch pointed to midnight did she put on her
+hat and jacket and slip off her shoes.
+
+Then going to the door she gradually turned the key. The process was
+remarkably noiseless. If only the hinges were as friendly. Very, very
+slowly she turned the knob and very, very slowly opened the door. Not a
+sound.
+
+When the opening was wide enough to admit her body she was gliding
+through, when her stockinged foot struck something soft. She thought it
+was a dog lying across the threshold, and only by heroic effort she
+controlled the cry that sprang to her lips. The dark mass half rose, and
+by the faint moonlight she could see two long, suddenly out-flung arms.
+"Pete," she whispered, "Pete, you _will_ let me pass!"
+
+"I'm sorry, lady. He'd kill me. He'd tear me to pieces," came back the
+whisper.
+
+"Please, Pete," desperately, "I'll do anything for you. Please,
+_please_!"
+
+For answer the long arms pushed her back through the open door. Another
+door opened and Rufus Carder's nasal voice sounded. "You there, Pete?"
+
+A sonorous snore was the only answer. For a minute that other door
+remained open, but the rhythmical snoring continued, and at last the
+latch was heard to close.
+
+Geraldine again cautiously opened her door a crack.
+
+"Pete," she whispered.
+
+The dwarf snored.
+
+"Please talk to me, Pete. I'm sure you are a kind boy." The pleading
+whisper received no answer beyond the heavy breathing.
+
+"I want to ask your advice. I want you to tell me what I can do. I'm
+sure you don't love your master."
+
+A sort of snort interrupted the snoring which then went on rhythmically
+as before.
+
+Geraldine closed her door noiselessly. She sat down white and unnerved.
+She was a prisoner, then. For a time her mind was in such a whirl that
+she was unable to form a plan.
+
+She put her hand to her head.
+
+"I must try to sleep if I can in this hideous place. Then to-morrow I
+may be able to think."
+
+Locking the door, she drew the bureau against it; then she undressed and
+fell into bed. Her youth and exhaustion did the rest. She slept until
+morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+The Dwarf
+
+
+"You, Pete," said his master, approaching the pump where the boy was
+performing his morning ablutions, "what was the noise I heard in Miss
+Melody's room last night?"
+
+"Dunno," sullenly.
+
+"Well, you'd better know. I'll skin you alive if anything happens to
+her."
+
+"How--how could I help it if she jumps out the winder?"
+
+Carder smiled. "You're thinkin' of somebody else. _She_ went to the
+hospital. If Miss Melody hurts herself, we'll keep her here. She won't
+do that, though, and I hold you accountable for anything else she does.
+Night and day, remember. You've got to know where she is all the time.
+You understand?"
+
+The dwarf grunted and combed his thick, tousled hair with his fingers.
+
+"Watch yourself now. You'll pay if anything goes wrong. What was that
+noise I heard? Out with it!"
+
+The dwarf grunted his reply. "She moved the furniture ag'in' the door, I
+guess."
+
+"Oh, that was it."
+
+Rufus laughed and turned toward the house.
+
+The hired men had had their breakfast and gone to the fields and the
+drudge in the kitchen was prepared for the arrival of her son and his
+guest.
+
+Geraldine came downstairs fresh from sleep and such a cold bath as was
+obtainable from the contents of a crockery pitcher. Rufus's eyes
+glittered as he beheld her.
+
+"Well, my little--I mean my lady, you look wonderful. I guess there was
+some sleep in the little old bed after all; but you shall have down to
+sleep on if you want it."
+
+Geraldine regarded him.
+
+"I don't see how you expected I could sleep when you let a dog lie
+outside my door, a dog with the nightmare, I should judge, snoring and
+snorting. Be sure he is not there to-night. He frightened me."
+
+"Too bad, too bad," returned Rufus; "but you see you slept, or you
+couldn't look like a fresh rosebud as you do this morning; and you'll
+get used to good old Sport. He's a splendid watchdog."
+
+Geraldine turned to her hostess.
+
+"I don't know what your hours are, Mrs. Carder--whether five, or six, or
+seven is over-sleeping, but I'm ashamed not to have been down here to
+help you get breakfast. It shan't happen again."
+
+"Don't fret about that," said Rufus, "Sleep as long as you want to,
+little girl. It's good for your complexion."
+
+Geraldine flatly refused to sit down to breakfast unless Mrs. Carder was
+also at the table, so the old woman wiped her hands on her apron and
+took her place between her son and the beautiful girl, and Geraldine
+jumped up and fetched and carried when anything was needed.
+
+Rufus watched this proceeding discontentedly. "We've got to start in
+new, Ma," he said. "The Princess Geraldine and me are goin' to do this
+house over, and we'll get some help, too--help that knows how; the
+stylish kind, you know. Geraldine thinks the time has come for you to
+hold your hands the rest o' your days."
+
+"Just as you say, Rufus," returned his mother meekly, nibbling away at
+the bacon on her plate and feeling vastly uncomfortable.
+
+"What she says goes; eh, Ma?"
+
+"Just as you say, Rufus," repeated the mother.
+
+A light was glowing in Geraldine's eyes. It was day. She was young and
+strong. The world was wide. She laughed at her fears of the night. The
+right moment to escape would present itself. Rufus would have to go to
+the city, and even if he refused to leave without her, once in town she
+could easily give him the slip. Perhaps that was going to prove the best
+solution after all.
+
+"Your trunk came last night," he said, when at last the three rose from
+the breakfast-table. "You can show Pete where you want it put."
+
+Geraldine tried not to betray the eagerness with which she received this
+permission.
+
+The dwarf's strong arms carried her modest trunk up the stairs as easily
+as if it had been a hatbox. She feared Carder might follow them, but he
+did not.
+
+"Pete," she said, low and excitedly, as soon as they reached her room
+and he had deposited his burden, "you _will_ help me! I know you are
+going to be the one to help me get away from here."
+
+The dwarf shook his head. "Then I'd be killed," he answered, but he
+gazed at her admiringly. "I've got the marks of his whip on me now."
+
+"Why do you stay?" asked Geraldine indignantly.
+
+"He says nobody else would give me work. I'm too ugly. He says I'd
+starve."
+
+"That isn't so!" exclaimed the girl. "I will help you." The
+consciousness of the futility of the promise swept over her even as she
+made it. Who was she to give help to another!
+
+The dwarf, gazing fascinated at her glowing face, saw her eyes suddenly
+fill. A heavy step sounded on the stair.
+
+"Move it, move the trunk, Pete," she whispered, dragging at it herself.
+
+Rufus Carder appeared at the door just as the dwarf was shoving the
+trunk to another part of the room.
+
+"What's the matter?" he asked. "Seems to me you take a long time about
+it."
+
+"I'm always so undecided," said Geraldine. "I believe I will have it
+back under the window after all, Pete."
+
+So back under the window the boy lifted the trunk, his master meanwhile
+looking suspiciously from one to the other. It was quite in the
+possibilities that his fair guest might try to corrupt that dog which at
+night lay outside her door; but the dog well knew that no corner of the
+earth could hide him from Rufus Carder if he played him false, and the
+master felt tolerably safe on that score.
+
+All that day Geraldine watched to observe the habits of those around
+her. She found that the small yellow building near the drive which
+Carder had pointed out to her was the place where he spent most of his
+time: the cave of the ogre she named it. The driveway came in from a
+road which passed the farm and no one entered it except persons who had
+business with the owner.
+
+Again the girl marveled at the character of the country surrounding the
+farmhouse. Not a tree provided a hiding-place or shade for man or beast.
+Stones had been removed and built into low walls that intersected the
+fields. Even in the lovely late spring with verdant crops growing there
+were no lines of beauty anywhere. The ugly yellow office building reared
+itself from a strip of grass where dandelions fought for their rights,
+but a wide cement walk led to its door.
+
+"Come down and see my den," said Rufus late that afternoon. "The washing
+dishes and feeding swine can come later if you are determined to do it.
+It's a great little old office, that is. There's more business
+transacted there than you might suppose." He met Geraldine's grave gaze,
+and added: "Many a profitable half-hour your father has spent there.
+Yes, indeed, Dick Melody knew which side his bread was buttered on, and
+I'm in hopes of being as good a friend to his daughter as I was to him."
+
+Geraldine yielded to the invitation in silence. She wished to discover
+every possible detail which could make her understand how her father, as
+popular with men as with women, and with every custom of good manners,
+had often sought this brute. Doubtless it was to obtain money. Probably
+her father had died in debt to the man. Probably it was that fact which
+gave her jailer his evident certainty that he had her in his power. Her
+father was dead. Was there anything in the law that could hold her, a
+girl, responsible for his debts? It was surely only a matter of days
+before she could make her escape and meanwhile she would try not to let
+disgust overpower her reason. She was not sorry to be asked to see the
+abode of the spider, in the center of which he sat and watched the
+approach from any direction of those who dragged themselves of necessity
+into his web. Let him tell what he would about her father. She wished to
+know anything concerning him, of which Carder had proof. She would not
+allow her poise to be shaken by lies.
+
+It was bright day and the office was but a few hundred yards from the
+house. All the same, as they walked along, she was glad to hear a sharp
+metallic clicking a little distance behind them, and turning her head,
+to see Pete ambling along with his clumsy, bow-legged gait, dragging a
+lawn-mower. Little protection was this poor oaf with the scars of his
+master's whip upon him, but Geraldine had seen a doglike devotion light
+up the dull eyes in those few minutes up in her room, and in spite of
+the dwarf's hopeless words she felt that she had one friend in this
+place of desolation. She expected the master would drive the boy away
+when the mower began to behead the dandelions, but Rufus appeared
+unaware of the monotonous sound.
+
+"Pretty ship-shape, eh?" he said when they were inside the office. He
+indicated the open desk with its orderly files of papers and well-filled
+pigeon-holes. Placing himself in the desk-chair he drew another close
+for his visitor.
+
+Geraldine moved the chair back a little and sat down, her eyes fixed on
+the telephone at Carder's left. That instrument connecting with the
+outside world, the world of freedom, fascinated her. If she could but
+get ten minutes alone with it! She had some friends of her school days,
+and the pride which had hitherto prevented her from communicating with
+them was all gone, immersed in the flood of fear and repulsion which,
+despite all her reasoning, swept over her periodically like a paralysis.
+Rufus leaned back in his seat and surveyed his guest. She looked very
+young in the soft, pale-green dress she wore.
+
+"Here I am, you see, master of all I survey, and of a good deal that I
+don't survey--except with my mind's eye." He shook his head
+impressively. "I can do a lot for anybody I care for." He pulled his
+check-book toward him. "I can draw my check for four figures, and I'll
+do it for you any time you say the word. How would you like to have a
+few thousands to play with?"
+
+Geraldine removed her longing gaze from the telephone and looked at her
+hands. She could not meet the insupportable expression of his greedy
+eyes.
+
+"Two figures would do," she said, "if you would allow me to go to town
+and spend it as I please."
+
+"Why, my beauty," he laughed, "you can spend any amount, any way you
+please."
+
+"Alone?" asked Geraldine, her suddenly eager eyes looking straight into
+his, but instantly shrinking away.
+
+"Of course not," he returned cheerfully. "I ought to get something for
+my money, oughtn't I?"
+
+She was silent, and he watched her as if making up his mind how to
+proceed.
+
+"Look here," he said at last in a changed tone, "I don't know what I've
+got to gain by beating about the bush. I've shown you plain enough that
+I'm crazy about you and I've told you that I always get what I go
+after."
+
+Geraldine's heart began to beat wildly. She kept her eyes on her folded
+hands and the extremity of her terror made her calm.
+
+"I'm goin' to treat you as white as ever a girl was treated; but I want
+you, and I want you soon. I know we're more or less strangers, but you
+can get acquainted with me as well after marriage as before. I know all
+this ain't regulation. A girl expects to be courted, but I'll court you
+all your life, little girl."
+
+The lawn-mower clicked through the silence in which Geraldine summoned
+the power to speak. Indignation helped to steady her voice. She looked
+up at her companion, who was leaning forward in his chair waiting for
+her first word.
+
+"It is impossible for me to marry you, Mr. Carder," she said, trying to
+hold her voice steady, "and since your feeling for me is so extreme, I
+intend to leave here immediately. You speak as if you had bought me as
+you might have bought one of your farm implements, but these are modern
+days and I am a free agent."
+
+Carder did not change his position, his elbows leaning on the arms of
+his chair, his fingers touching.
+
+"I have bought you, Geraldine," he answered quietly.
+
+She started up from her chair, her indignation bursting forth. "I knew
+it!" she exclaimed. "My father died owing you money and you have
+determined that I shall pay his debts in another coin! He would turn in
+his grave if he heard you make such a cruel demand."
+
+The frank horror and repulsion in the girl's eyes made the blood rise to
+her companion's temples.
+
+He pointed to her chair. "Sit down," he said. "You don't understand
+yet."
+
+She obeyed trembling, for she could scarcely stand. His unmoved
+certainty was terrifying. "Your father was a very popular man. His
+vanity was his undoing. Juliet was too smart to let him throw away her
+money, so rather than lose his reputation as a good sport, rather than
+not keep up his end, he looked elsewhere for the needful, and he came to
+me, not once, but many times. At last he wore out my patience and the
+Carder spring ran dry, so far as he was concerned; then, Geraldine"--the
+narrator paused, the girl's dilated eyes were fixed upon him--"then, my
+proud little lady, handsome Dick Melody fell. He began helping himself."
+
+"What do you mean--helping himself?" The girl leaned forward and her
+hands tightened until the nails pressed into her flesh.
+
+Rufus Carder slipped his fingers into an inside pocket and drew forth
+two checks which he held in such a way that she could read them.
+
+"You don't know my signature," he went on, "but that is it. Large as
+life and twice as natural. Yes"--he regarded the checks--"twice as
+natural. I couldn't have done them better myself."
+
+Geraldine's hands flew to her heart, her eyes spoke an anguished
+question.
+
+"Yes," Rufus nodded, "Dick did those." The speaker paused and slipped
+the checks back into his pocket. "I breathed fire when I discovered it,
+and then very strangely something occurred which put the fire out."
+Again he leaned his elbows on the chair-arms, and bent toward the wide
+eyes and parted lips opposite. "I saw you sitting in the park one day,"
+he went on slowly, "you got up and walked and laughed with a girl
+companion. I found out who you were. I went to your father, who was
+nearly crazy with apprehension at the time, and I told him there was no
+girl on earth for me but you, and that if he would give you to me I
+would forgive his crime. I didn't want a forger for a father-in-law. It
+was arranged that this month he should bring you out here and make his
+wishes known. His reputation was safe. Even Juliet suspected nothing. He
+is still mourned at his clubs as the prince of good fellows; but his
+sudden death prevented him from puttin' your hand in mine."
+
+A silence followed, broken only by the rasping of the lawn-mower and
+Rufus Carder watched the girl's heaving breast.
+
+"So you see," he went on at last, "all you have to do to save your
+father's name is to sit down in the lap of luxury; not a very hard
+thing to do, I should think. You'll find that I'll take--" The speaker
+paused, for another sound now broke in upon the click of the lawn-mower,
+an increasingly sharp noise which brought him to his feet and to one of
+the many windows which gave him a view in every direction.
+
+A motor-cycle was speeding up the driveway.
+
+"That's Sam Foster comin' to pay his rent," he said. "There'll be many a
+one on that errand along about now," he declared with satisfaction.
+"Cheer up," he added, turning back to the pale face and tremulous lips
+of the young girl. "Your father wasn't the first fine man to go wrong;
+but they don't all have somebody to stick by 'em and shield 'em as he
+did. The more you think it over, the more--"
+
+The motor-cycle had stopped during this declaration, and the rider now
+stepped into the office-door. Geraldine, her hands still unconsciously
+on her heart, gazed at the newcomer. Could it be that Rufus Carder had a
+tenant like this youth? The well-born, the well-bred, showed in his
+erect bearing and in his sunny brown eyes, and the smile that matched
+them.
+
+The owner started and scowled at sight of him.
+
+"Mr. Carder, I believe," said the visitor.
+
+Rufus's chair grated as he advanced to edge the stranger back through
+the door.
+
+"Your business, sir," he said roughly. "Can't you see I'm in the midst
+of an interview?"
+
+Ben's eyes never left those of the young girl, and hers clung to him
+with a desperate appeal impossible to mistake. She rose from her chair
+as if to go to him.
+
+"Yes, Mr. Carder, and I won't interrupt you. I'll wait outside. I came
+to see Miss Melody with a message from one of her friends and I'm sure
+from the description that this is she." The young fellow bowed
+courteously toward Geraldine, who stood mute drinking in the inflections
+of his voice; the very pronunciation of his words were earmarks of the
+world of refinement from which she was exiled. In her distraction she
+was unconscious of the manner in which she was gazing at him above the
+tumult of grief at her father's double treachery. Her father had sold
+her, sold her in cold blood, and her life was ruined. Had the visitor in
+his youth and strength and grace been Sir Galahad himself, she could not
+have yearned more toward his protection.
+
+To Ben she looked, as she stood there, like a lovely lily in a green
+calyx, and her expression made his hands tingle to knock flat the
+scowling, middle-aged man with the unkempt hair and the missing tooth
+who was uneasily edging him farther and farther out the door.
+
+"Miss Melody don't wish to receive calls at present and you can tell her
+friend so," said Rufus in the same rough tone. "She don't wear black,
+but she's in mournin' all the same. Her father died recently. Ain't you
+in mournin', Geraldine?" He turned toward the girl.
+
+She had dropped her hands and seized the back of her chair for support.
+
+"Yes," she breathed despairingly.
+
+"Can't I see you for a few minutes, Miss Melody?" said Ben over the
+wrathful Carder's shoulder. "Miss Upton sent me to you. My name is
+Barry."
+
+"No, you can't, and that's the end of it!" shouted Rufus.
+
+Ben's smile had vanished. His eyes had sparks in them as he looked down
+at the shorter man.
+
+"Not at all the end of it," he returned. "Miss Melody decides this. Can
+you give me a few minutes?"
+
+As he addressed her he again met the wonderful, dark-lashed eyes that
+were beseeching him.
+
+Rufus Carder looked around at the girl his thin lips twitching in ugly
+fashion.
+
+"_You_ can tell him, then, if he won't take it from me," he said, "and
+mind you're quick about it. We ain't ready here for guests. Miss Melody
+don't want to receive anybody. She's tired and she's recuperatin'. Tell
+him so, Geraldine."
+
+The girl's lips moved at first without a sound; then she spoke:
+
+"I'm very tired, Mr. Barry," she said faintly. "Please excuse me."
+
+Rufus turned back to the guest.
+
+"Good-day, sir," he ejaculated savagely.
+
+Ben stood for a silent space undecided. His fists were clenched.
+Geraldine, meeting his glowing eyes, shook her head slowly. Her keen
+distress made him fear to make another move.
+
+"At some other time, then, perhaps," he said, tingling with the
+increasing desire to knock down his host and catch this girl up in his
+arms.
+
+"Yes, at some other time," said Rufus, speaking with a sneer. "Tell Miss
+Upton that Mrs. Carder may see her later."
+
+A tide of crimson rushed over Ben's face. He saw that there must be a
+pressure here that he could not understand, and again Geraldine's fair
+head and wonderful eyes signaled him a warning. He could not risk
+increasing her suffering.
+
+"Good-day, sir," repeated Rufus; and the visitor stepped down from the
+office-door in silence and out to his machine.
+
+Carder turned back to Geraldine, who met his angry gaze with despairing
+eyes.
+
+"What have I to hope for from you when you treat a stranger so
+inexcusably?" she said in a low, clear voice that had a sharp edge.
+
+[Illustration: Tingling with the Increasing Desire to knock down his
+Host and catch this Girl up in his Arms]
+
+"Let me run this," said Rufus with bravado. "You'll find out later what
+you'll get from me, and it will be nothin' to complain of when once
+you're Mrs. Carder. You can have that fat porpoise or any other woman
+come to see you, and when you're ridin' 'em around in the new car I'm
+goin' to get you, they'll be green with envy. You'll see. Let me run
+this."
+
+His absorption in Geraldine had distracted Carder's attention from the
+fact that he was not hearing the departure of that most satirically
+named engine of misery, "The Silent Traveler."
+
+He strode to a window and saw Ben Barry mounting his machine close to
+where Pete was mowing the grass.
+
+He hurried to the door. "Come here, you damned coot!" he yelled. And
+Pete dropped the mower and ambled up to the office-door.
+
+"What did that man want of you?" he asked furiously.
+
+"Wanted to know the shortest road to Keefe," replied Pete in his usual
+sullen tone.
+
+"You lie!" exclaimed Rufus. If Ben Barry had looked like a dusty Sir
+Galahad to Geraldine, he had looked dangerously attractive to Carder,
+who cursed the luck that had made him invite the girl to his office on
+this particular afternoon. "You lie!" he repeated, and stepping back to
+his desk he seized a whip which lay along one side of it.
+
+Geraldine cried out, and springing forward grasped his arm. He paused at
+the first voluntary touch he had ever received from her.
+
+"Don't you dare strike that boy!" she exclaimed breathlessly.
+
+Carder looked down at the white horror in her face and in her shining
+eyes.
+
+"I'm goin' to get the truth out of him," he said, his mouth twitching.
+"You go up to the house."
+
+"I will not go up to the house! Put down that whip! If you strike Pete,
+I'll kill myself." She finished speaking, more slowly, and Rufus,
+looking down into her strangely changed look, became uneasy.
+
+"I guess not," he said. "You go up to the house."
+
+"I mean it," declared Geraldine in a low tone. "What have I to live for!
+My own father, the only one on earth I had to love, has sold me to a man
+who has shown himself a ruffian. One thing you have no power over is my
+life, and what have I now to live for!"
+
+Carder dropped the whip. There was no doubt of her sincerity.
+
+"Now, Geraldine, calm down," he said, anxiety sounding through his
+bravado. "I'm sorry I had to give you that shock about Dick; but it was
+your own high-headed attitude that made it necessary. Calm down now. I
+won't touch Pete. What was it, boy," he went on, addressing the dwarf in
+his usual tone--"What did that man ask you?"
+
+"The shortest way to Keefe," repeated the dwarf. His eyes were fixed
+dully on Geraldine, but his heart was thumping. She had said she would
+kill herself if his master struck him.
+
+Rufus looked at him, unsatisfied.
+
+"What did he give you?" he asked after a silence.
+
+Pete put his hand in the pocket of his coarse blue shirt and drew out a
+half-dollar.
+
+"Humph!" grunted Rufus. "You can go."
+
+He turned back to Geraldine.
+
+"Is one allowed to write letters from here?" she asked.
+
+"Of course, of course," replied Rufus genially. "What a foolish
+question." His face had settled into its customary lines.
+
+"Where do we take them? Out to the rural-delivery box? I should like to
+write to Miss Upton. She was very kind to me."
+
+"No, don't mail anything there. It isn't safe. Right here is the place."
+He indicated a box on his desk. "Drop anything you want to have go right
+in here. I'll take care of it."
+
+"Yes," thought Geraldine bitterly. He will take care of it.
+
+Another motor-cycle now sped into the driveway and approached. This time
+it was the tenant Carder had expected, and Geraldine left the office and
+went back to the house. At the moment when she stepped out of the yellow
+building, Pete ceased mowing the grass. Looking back when she had
+traversed half the distance, she saw that he was following her, the
+mower clicking after him.
+
+"Poor slaves," she thought heavily. "Poor slaves, he and I!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A Midnight Message
+
+
+Sitting down at the supper table that evening was a severe ordeal.
+Geraldine had angered Carder, but she had also frightened him, and he
+was mild in manner and words and did not attempt to be either
+affectionate or jocose. Instead he dwelt on the good promise of the
+crops, and mentioned having extended the time of payment to a delinquent
+tenant.
+
+Geraldine forced herself to eat something, and the host addressed most
+of his remarks to his mother, who was again compelled to sit at table
+and allow the young girl to do the serving.
+
+"What do you think of throwin' out a wing or two or say a bay window to
+the house, Ma, while we're refurnishin'?" he asked pleasantly.
+
+"Just as you say, Rufus," was her docile response. "I think, though,
+Miss Geraldine would like a bathroom better."
+
+"Bathroom, eh?" returned Carder, regarding the girl's stiffly immobile
+face and downcast eyes. "It would mean a lot of expense, but what
+Geraldine says goes. I can stand the damage, I guess."
+
+No word from Geraldine. Rufus was made thoroughly uneasy by her rigid
+pallor. He blamed himself for not having waited longer to produce his
+trump card and clinch his possession of her.
+
+His own dreams were troubled that night and long in coming. Geraldine,
+as soon as the dishes were dried and put away, went up to her room and
+locked the door. She sat down to think, and strangely accompanying the
+paralyzing discovery of her father's downfall was the memory of the tall
+stranger with the dusty clothes and gallant bearing. She shut out the
+memory of his delightful speech, his speaking eyes, and the way he
+towered above Rufus and held himself in check for her sake.
+
+"For my sake!" she repeated to herself bitterly. "They are all
+alike--men. He would be just the same as the other at close quarters.
+Some have no veneer like this boor, and some have the polish, but they
+are all the same underneath. Even Father, poor Father."
+
+Geraldine felt hot, slow tears begin to scald her eyes. The last time
+she had cried she had been with Miss Upton and felt her hearty, motherly
+sympathy. That young man had come from her. Miss Upton was thinking of
+her. The tears came faster now under the memory of the kindness of her
+chance acquaintance on the day--it seemed months ago--that she had left
+the world and entered upon this living death.
+
+Miss Upton's messenger would return to her and tell of his fruitless
+quest and describe Rufus Carder, and she knew how that kind heart would
+ache; but Mr. Barry would also tell her that her young friend had
+repulsed him and would discourage her from further effort. Geraldine
+knew that no letter from the outside would be allowed to reach her, nor
+would any be allowed to go out from her, until she had paid the ghastly
+price which her father's protection necessitated.
+
+She did not know how long she sat on that hard chair in the ugly room
+that night. She only knew how valiantly she struggled to stifle the
+sobs that wrenched her slight body. Early in the evening she had heard a
+soft impact against her door, which she knew meant that the watchdog was
+in his place.
+
+Her kerosene lamp was burning low, when again a slight sound against her
+door made her look that way apprehensively and wish that she had
+barricaded it as on the night before.
+
+Something white caught her eye. It was paper being slowly pushed beneath
+the door and now an envelope was revealed. Geraldine started up and
+noiselessly crept toward it. Seizing it she carried it to the light. It
+was a letter addressed to herself:
+
+_Miss Geraldine Melody_
+
+And down in the left-hand corner were the words--_"Kindness of Mr.
+Barry."_ Across the face of the envelope was scrawled in another hand
+these words: "Courage. Walk in meadow. Wear white."
+
+Geraldine stared at this with her swollen eyes, the aftermath of her
+wild weeping causing convulsive catches in her throat which she stifled
+automatically. Turning the envelope over she saw that it was sealed
+clumsily with red wax.
+
+Running a hairpin through the flap she opened it and took out the letter
+with trembling hands. This is what she read:
+
+     DEAR MISS MELODY:
+
+     I can't help worrying about you, not knowing what you found when
+     you got to the farm, and whether Mr. Carder and his mother turned
+     out to be the kind you like to live with. I've wished a hundred
+     times that I'd brought you home with me instead of letting you go,
+     because, after all the hard experiences you went through, I wanted
+     to be sure that you found care and protection where you was going.
+     I'm poor and have only a small place, but I'd have found some way
+     to take care of you.
+
+     I worried so much about it, and Mr. Carder, the little I saw of him
+     that day at the hotel, acted so much as if he owned you, that I
+     thought it would be just as well to hear what a lawyer would say;
+     so I went to see Benjamin Barry. He's studying to be a lawyer and
+     he's the young man who has consented to hunt up the Carder farm
+     and take my letter to you. I know it ain't etiket to seal up a
+     letter you send by hand, but I'm going to seal this with wax just
+     so you'll know that Ben hasn't read it. After your experience with
+     men it will be hard for you to trust any man, I'm pretty sure. So I
+     just want to tell you that I've known Ben Barry from a baby and
+     he's the cleanest, _finest_ boy in the world. You can't always tell
+     whether he's in fun or in earnest, because he's a great one to
+     joke; but his folks are the finest that you could find anywhere.
+     He's got good blood and he's been brought up with the greatest care
+     and expense. If I had ten daughters I'd trust him with them all. He
+     is the soul of honor about everything, so don't hesitate to tell
+     him just how you're fixed. If you are happy and contented, that's
+     all I want to know; but if you ain't I want to know that posthaste,
+     for I shall want you to come right here to me at Keefe. Ben will
+     tell you how to come and you can tell Mr. Carder that you have
+     found a better position. Give him a week's notice; that's
+     _honorable_ and _long enough_. I shan't be easy in my mind till Ben
+     gets back, and he's so good to go for me that I should love him
+     for it all the rest of my life if I didn't already.
+
+     Now, good-bye, dear child, and be _perfectly frank_ with Ben.
+
+     Your loving friend
+     MEHITABLE UPTON
+
+In her utter despair and desolation this homely expression of
+affectionate solicitude went to Geraldine's heart like a message from
+heaven. She held the senseless paper to her breast, and her pulses beat
+fast as she read again those words scribbled across the face of the
+envelope.
+
+They meant an understanding that she was not a free agent. They meant
+that the young knight had not given up. He could never know--kind Miss
+Upton must never know--what it was that compelled her, and why nothing
+that they might contrive could save her.
+
+Good little Pete had risked brutal treatment to bring her this. Her
+heart welled with gratitude toward him. She felt that she could continue
+to protect him to a degree, for the infatuation of their master gave her
+power to that extent.
+
+She was no longer pale. Her cheeks were flushed, her sobs ceased. There
+were hearts that cared for her. Some miracle might intervene to save
+her. The knight was a lawyer. The law was very wonderful. A sudden
+shudder passed over her. What it could have done to her father--still
+honored at his clubs as the prince of good fellows!
+
+She reviewed her situation anew. It was established that she was a
+prisoner. Then in order to obey the message on the envelope she must
+follow the example of the more ambitious prisoners and become a trusty.
+Poor Geraldine, who had ceased to pray, began to feel that there might
+be a God after all; and when she was between the coarse, mended sheets
+of her bed she held Miss Upton's letter to her breast and thanked the
+unseen Power for a friend.
+
+When she awoke, it was with the confused sense that some happiness was
+awaiting her. As her mind cleared, the mental atmosphere clouded.
+
+Did not any hope which imagination held out mean the cruel revenge of
+her jailer? Could she betray her father as he had betrayed her?
+
+She dressed and went downstairs to help Mrs. Carder. The precious letter
+was against her breast.
+
+Pete was washing at the pump. She did not dare approach him to speak;
+but she soon found that as to that opportunities would be plentiful; for
+whenever she left the house she had a respectful shadow; never close,
+but always in the vicinity, and remembering yesterday and the lawn-mower
+she now realized that the watchdog who guarded her by night had orders
+to perform the same office by day.
+
+Rufus felt some relief at seeing his guest appear this morning. His
+dreams would have been pleasanter had he been perfectly sure that she
+would not in her youthful horror and despair evade him in the one way
+possible. He bade her good-morning with an inoffensive commonplace. He
+had shot his bolt; now his policy must be soothing and unexacting until
+her fear of him had abated and custom had reconciled her to her new
+life. She was silent at breakfast, speaking only when spoken to, and
+observant of his mother's needs; waiting upon him, too, when it was
+necessary.
+
+"I must get one o' these reclinin'-chairs for you, Geraldine," he said,
+"and put it out under the elm tree. Your elm tree, we'll have to call
+it, because you've saved its life, you know."
+
+"It is nice that there is one bit of shade here," she replied. "I
+suppose you hang a hammock there in summer for your mother."
+
+Rufus grinned at his parent, who was vastly uncomfortable under the new
+regime of being waited upon by a golden-haired beauty.
+
+"How about it, Ma?" he said. "Did you ever lie down in a hammock in your
+life? Got to do it now, you know. Bay windows and hammocks belong
+together. We got to be stylish now this little girl's goin' to boss us.
+
+"It's a sightly day, Geraldine. How would you like to go for a drive and
+see somethin' of the country around here? It's mighty pretty. You seem
+stuck on trees. I'll show you a wood road that's a wonder."
+
+Geraldine cringed, but controlled herself. Renewed contact with Rufus
+was inexorably crushing every reviving hope of the night.
+
+"I think it would be a refreshing thing for your mother," she answered.
+
+"No, no, indeed!" exclaimed the old woman, with an anxious look at her
+son. "I'm scared of autos. I don't want to go."
+
+"Well, you're goin', Ma," declared Rufus, perceiving that Geraldine
+would as yet refuse to go alone with him, and considering that as
+ballast in the tonneau his mother's presence would be innocuous. "This
+little girl's got the reins. You and me are passengers. Don't forget
+that."
+
+So later in the fresh, lovely spring day, Mrs. Carder, wrapped in an
+antiquated shawl and with a bonnet that had to be rescued from an unused
+shelf, was tucked into the back seat of the car.
+
+Rufus held open the front door for Geraldine, and though she hesitated
+she decided not to anger him and stepped in to sit beside him. He did
+all the talking that was done, the girl replying in monosyllables and
+looking straight before her.
+
+"I thought I'd stop to the village," he said, "and wire into town to
+have some help sent out. How would you word it?"
+
+"I came as help," replied Geraldine. "I think we get along with the work
+pretty well. Pete is very handy for a boy. Your mother seems to dread
+servants. Don't send for anybody on my account."
+
+The girl's voice was colorless, and she did not look at Rufus who
+regarded her uncertainly.
+
+"All right," he said at last. "Perhaps it would be as well to wait till
+some day we're in town and you can talk to 'em. I'll wire for some eats
+anyway."
+
+When they reached the village the car stopped before the
+telegraph-office. Carder left the car, and at the mere temporary relief
+of him Geraldine's heart lightened. A wild wish swept through her that
+she knew how to drive and could put on all the power and drive away,
+even kidnapping the shrunken, beshawled slave in the tonneau.
+
+But the thought of the dusty knight intervened. If she were going to
+betray her father, let it be under his guidance whatever that might be.
+She could not do it, though. She could not!
+
+A man loafing on the walk saw Mrs. Carder and, stopping, addressed her
+with some country greeting. Geraldine instantly turned to him.
+
+"Where is Keefe?" she asked quickly.
+
+"What?" he returned stupidly, with a curious gaze at her lovely, eager
+face.
+
+"Keefe. The village of Keefe. Where is it?"
+
+"Oh, that's yonder," said the man, pointing. "T'other side o' the
+mountain."
+
+She turned to Mrs. Carder. "I have a friend who lives there, a very good
+friend whom I would like to see."
+
+She made the explanation lest the old woman should tell her son of her
+eager question.
+
+Rufus came out, nodded curtly to the man beside his machine, jumped in,
+and drove off.
+
+Geraldine spoke. "I'm surprised this country seems so flat. I thought it
+would be hilly about here."
+
+"Not so close to the sea," replied Carder. "There is what they call the
+mountain, though, over yonder." He jerked his head vaguely. "Pretty
+good-sized hill. Makes a water-shed that favors my farm."
+
+Geraldine appeared to listen in silence to the monologue that followed
+concerning her companion's prowess as a self-made man and the cleverness
+with which he had seized every opportunity that came his way. Her mind
+was in a singular tumult. An incoming wave of thought--the reminder that
+she must be clever, too, and earn Carder's confidence in order that he
+might relax his espionage--was met by the counter-consideration that if
+she disappointed his desire he would blast her father's name. Just as
+happens in the meeting of the incoming and outgoing tide, her thoughts
+would be broken and fly up in a confusion as to what course she really
+wished to pursue. By the time she gained the privacy of her own room
+that night, she felt exhausted by the contradictions of her own beaten
+heart and she sat down again in the hard chair, too dulled to think.
+
+At last she put her hand in her bosom and drew out her letter. She would
+feel the human touch of Miss Upton's kindliness once again. Even if she
+gave "her body to be burned" and all life became a desert of ashes, one
+star would shine upon her sacrifice, the affectionate thought of this
+good woman who had made so much effort for her.
+
+She closed her eyes to the exhortation scribbled on the envelope.
+Whatever plan the tall knight had in mind, it was certain that her
+escape was the end in view. Did she wish to escape? Did she? Could she
+pay the cost? What happiness would there be for her when all her life
+she Would be hearing in fancy the amazement at her father's crime, the
+gossip and condemnation that would go the rounds of his associates.
+
+She held the letter to her sick heart and gazing into space pictured the
+hateful future.
+
+There was a slight stir outside her door. Something was again being
+pushed beneath it by slow degrees. Again it looked like an envelope, but
+this time the paper was not white. Geraldine regarded the small dusky
+square, scarcely discernible in the lamplight, and rising went toward
+it.
+
+She picked up the much-soiled object by its extreme corner. It bore no
+address. She believed Pete must have written to her, and was greatly
+touched by the thought that the poor boy might wish to express to her
+his sympathy or his gratitude. It had been a brave soul who stood
+stolidly before Rufus Carder and refused to give up Miss Upton's letter.
+Moving cautiously and without a sound, she took the letter to the
+bureau, and holding down the bent and soiled envelope with the handle of
+her hairbrush, she again used the woman's universal utensil, opened the
+seal, and drew out a letter. Her heart suddenly leaped to her throat,
+for it was her father's handwriting that met her eye. Unfolding the
+sheet, and cold with dread, she began to read:
+
+     MY DEAR GERRIE:
+
+     If this letter ever reaches you I shall be dead. The heart attacks
+     have been worse of late and it may be I shall go off suddenly. If I
+     do, I want to get word to you which if I live it will not be
+     necessary for you to read. I have not been a good father and I
+     deserve nothing at your hands. The worst mistake of all those that
+     I have made was marrying the woman who has shirked mothering you;
+     and after I am gone I know you have nothing to expect from her. I
+     am financially involved with Rufus Carder to an extent that gives
+     me constant anxiety. He has happened to see you and taken a
+     violent fancy to you, and this fact has made him withdraw the
+     pressure that has made my nights miserable. He has been trying to
+     persuade me to let you come out here. He knows that his cousin
+     Juliet is not attached to you, and, since seeing me in one of my
+     attacks of pain, he is constantly reminding me how precarious is my
+     life and that if he had a daughter like you she should have every
+     advantage money could buy. He is a rough specimen with a miserly
+     reputation. I won't go into the occasions of weakness and need
+     which have resulted in his power over me. Suffice it to say that he
+     may bring cruel pressure to bear on you, and I want to warn you
+     solemnly not to let any consideration of me or what people may say
+     of me influence your actions. You are young and beautiful, and I
+     pray that the rest of your life may have in it more happiness than
+     your childhood has known. I have interceded with Carder for Pete
+     several times, winning the poor fellow's devotion. He can't read
+     writing and will not be tempted to open this. I'm sure he will hide
+     it and manage to give it to you secretly if you come to this
+     dreary place. My poor child! My selfishness all rises before me and
+     the punishment is fearful. If there is a God, may He bless you and
+     guard you, my innocent little girl.
+
+     Your unworthy
+     FATHER
+
+Geraldine's hungry heart drank in the tender message. Again and again
+she kissed the letter while tears of grief ran down her cheeks. A tiny
+hope sprang in her breast. She read her father's words over and over,
+striving to glean from them a contradiction of the accusation that he
+had planned and carried out a deliberate crime.
+
+Rufus Carder had promised her father to treat her as a daughter. How
+that assertion soothed the wound to her filial affection, and warmed her
+heart with the assurance that her father had not sold her into the worst
+slavery!
+
+She soon crept into bed, but not to sleep. Her father's exhortation
+seemed to give her permission to speculate on those words of the
+stranger knight:
+
+"Courage. Walk in meadow. Wear white."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+The Meadow
+
+
+The knight was doubly dusty when, returning from his quest in the late
+twilight, he halted his noisy steed before Upton's Fancy Goods and
+Notions. He was confronted by a sign: "Closed. Taking account of stock."
+
+The young man tried the door which resisted vigorous turns of its
+handle. Nothing daunted, he knocked peremptorily, then waited a space.
+Getting no response, he renewed his assaults with such force that at
+last the lock turned, the door opened, and an irate face with a
+one-sided slit of a mouth was projected at him threateningly.
+
+"Can't you read, hey?" was the exasperated question, followed by an
+energetic effort to close the door which was foiled by the interposition
+of a masculine foot.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Whipp, I learned last year. I'm awfully sorry, but I have to
+come in." As he spoke the visitor opened the door in spite of the
+indignant resistance of Charlotte's whole body, and walked into the
+empty shop where kerosene lamps were already burning. "I have to see
+Miss Upton. Awfully sorry to disturb you like this," he added, smiling
+down at the angry, weazened face which gradually grew bewildered. "Why,
+it's Mr. Barry," she soliloquized aloud. "Just the same," she added, the
+sense of outrage holding over, "we'd ruther you'd 'a' come to-morrer."
+
+Ben strode through the shop and out to the living-room, Mrs. Whipp
+following impotently, talking in a high, angry voice.
+
+"'T ain't my fault, Miss Upton. He would come in. Some folk'll do jest
+what they please, whatever breaks."
+
+"Law, Ben Barry!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable with a start. "You've surely
+caught me in my regimentals!"
+
+Miss Upton's regimentals consisted of ample and billowy apron effects
+over a short petticoat. Her hair was brushed straight off her round face
+and twisted in a knot as tight as Charlotte's own; and she wore large
+list slippers.
+
+"Don't you care, Mehit. I look like a blackamoor myself. I had to see
+you"--the young fellow grasped his friend's hands, his eyes sparkling.
+"I'd kiss you if I was wearing a pint less dust. She's an angel, a star,
+a wonder!" he finished vehemently.
+
+Miss Upton forgot her own appearance, her lips worked, and her eyes were
+eager. "Ain't she, ain't she?" she responded in excitement equal to his
+own. "Is she comin'? When?"
+
+"Heaven knows. She's a prisoner, with that brute for a jailer."
+
+Miss Upton, who had been standing by the late supper-table in the act of
+assisting Charlotte to carry off the wreck, fell into a chair, her mouth
+open.
+
+"And you left her there!" she cried at last. "You didn't knock him down
+and carry her off!"
+
+"Great Scott, how I wanted to!" replied Ben between his teeth, his fists
+clenched; "but she wouldn't let me. There's something there we've got to
+find out. She shook her head and signaled me to do nothing. He told her
+to bid me go away and she obeyed him. Oh, Miss Upton, how she looked!
+The most beautiful thing I ever saw in my life, but the most haunted,
+mournful, despairing face--"
+
+"Ben, you're makin' me sick!" responded Miss Mehitable, her voice
+breaking. "Did you give the poor lamb my letter?"
+
+"He wouldn't let me get near enough to do that; but I gave it to a
+stupid-looking dwarf who was mowing the grass near by. I'm not even sure
+he understood me. Perhaps he was deaf and dumb. I don't know; but it was
+the best I could do. She showed me so plainly that I was only making it
+harder for her by insisting on anything, there was nothing for me to do
+but to come away, boiling." Ben began striding up and down the
+living-room, his hands in his pockets, his restlessness causing Pearl to
+leap up, barely escaping his heavy shoe. Her arched back and her
+mistress's face both betokened an outraged bewilderment.
+
+Mrs. Whipp's eyes and ears were stretched to the utmost. This autocratic
+young upstart had broken into the house and nearly stepped on her pet.
+All the same, if he hadn't done so, Miss Upton would still be keeping
+secrets from her. She had felt sure ever since Miss Mehitable's last
+trip to the city that there was something unusual in the air and that
+she was being defrauded of her rights in being shut out from
+participation therein. Had this young masculine hurricane not stormed in
+to-night, no telling how long she would have been kept in the dark; so
+she stopped, looked, and listened, with all her might.
+
+"Well, what are you goin' to _do_, Ben?" asked Miss Upton, beseechingly.
+"You're not goin' to leave it so, are you?"
+
+"I should say not. Carder is going to have me on his trail till that
+exquisite creature is out of his clutches. Never was there a sleuth with
+his heart in his business as mine will be. Oh!"--Ben, pausing not in the
+march which sent Pearl to the top of a bookcase, raised his gaze
+heavenward--"what eyes, Miss Upton! Those beautiful despairing eyes in
+that dreary, sordid den, cut off from the world!"
+
+"Ben, you stop!" whimpered Miss Mehitable, using her handkerchief.
+"You're breakin' my heart. And to think how you scoffed at me on
+Sunday!"
+
+"Wasting time like a fool!" ejaculated Ben. He suddenly stopped before
+the weeping Mehitable, nearly tripping over her roomy slippers. "Now,
+Miss Upton, this is what you are to do. I'm going to town the first
+thing in the morning and take steps to get on the trail of that sly fox.
+You go right up to see Mother and tell her all about Miss Melody." Again
+his gaze sought the ceiling. "Melody! What a perfect name for the most
+charming, graceful, exquisite human flower that ever bloomed!" Turning
+suddenly, the rapt speaker encountered Mrs. Whipp's twisted, acid,
+hungrily listening countenance. He emitted a burst of laughter and
+looked back at Miss Mehitable, who was wiping her eyes. "Tell Mother the
+whole story," he went on, "just as you did to me; and here's hoping my
+skepticism isn't inherited. And now, Mrs. Whipp"--addressing the faded
+listener who gave a surprised sniff--"I'll go home and wash my face. I
+know you'll approve of that. Good-night, Miss Upton; don't you cry. I'm
+going to put up a good fight and perhaps Geraldine--oh, what a lovely
+name!--perhaps she has the comfort of your letter by this time." Ben
+scowled with sudden introspection. "What hold has that rascal over her?
+That's what puzzles me. What hold _can_ he have?"
+
+Miss Mehitable blew her nose grievously. "Why, he's cousin to her rascal
+stepmother, you know. No tellin' what they cooked up between 'em."
+
+Of course, after her emissary had departed Miss Upton had to face Mrs.
+Whipp and her injured sniffs and silent implications of maltreatment;
+but she sketched the story to her, eliciting the only question she
+dreaded.
+
+"What did you say to the girl in your letter? Did you write her to come
+here?" Mrs. Whipp's manner was stony.
+
+"Yes, I did," replied Miss Mehitable bravely.
+
+"Then I s'pose I'd better be makin' other plans," said Charlotte, going
+to Pearl and picking her up as if preparing for instant departure.
+
+Miss Upton's eyes shone with exasperation. "I wish you wouldn't drive me
+crazy, Charlotte Whipp. If you haven't any sympathy for a poor orphan in
+jail on a desolate farm, then I wouldn't own it, if I was you. You can
+see what chance she has o' comin' here. If the _law_ has to settle it,
+she's likely to be toothless before she can make a move."
+
+Mrs. Whipp was startled by the wrathful voice and manner of one usually
+so pacific.
+
+"I didn't mean to make you mad, Miss Upton," she said with a meek change
+of manner; and there the matter dropped.
+
+Now was a crucial time for Geraldine Melody. Her father's exhortation to
+her not to consider him and the doubt which his letter had raised as to
+his legal guilt, coupled with the memory of the vigorous young knight in
+knickerbockers, gave her the feeling that she might at least obey the
+latter's mysterious hint.
+
+Rufus Carder was still in fear that he had pushed matters too fast, and
+the next morning, when his captive came downstairs to help get the
+breakfast, he contented himself with devouring her with his eyes. She
+felt that she must guard her every look lest he observe a vestige of her
+reviving hope and courage. She must return to the thought of becoming a
+"trusty." It would be difficult to steer a course between the docility
+that would encourage odious advances on the one hand, and on the other
+a too obvious repugnance which would put her jailer on his guard. Of
+course there were moments when the lines of her father's letter seemed
+to her to admit criminality, but at others the natural hopefulness of
+youth asserted itself, and she interpreted his words to indicate only
+his humiliation and disgraceful debts.
+
+There was an innate loftiness, an ethereal quality, about the girl's
+personality which Carder always felt, in spite of himself, even at the
+very moments when he was obtruding his familiarities upon her. She was
+like a fine jewel which he had stolen, but which baffled his efforts to
+set it among his own possessions.
+
+Already in the short time which had elapsed since bringing her to the
+farm, she had fallen away to an alarming delicacy of appearance. Her
+mental conflict and the blows she had received showed so plainly in her
+looks that Carder's whole mind became absorbed in the desire to build
+her up. She might slip away from him yet without any recourse to
+violence on her own part.
+
+That morning, her father's letter in the same envelope with Miss Upton's
+and both treasures against her heart, she came downstairs and saw Pete
+washing at the pump. Rufus Carder was not in sight, and she moved
+swiftly toward the dwarf, who looked frightened at her approach.
+
+"How can I thank you, Pete!" she exclaimed softly, and her smile
+transformed her pale face into something heavenly to look upon. Her eyes
+poured gratitude into his dull ones and his face crimsoned.
+
+"Keep away," was all he said.
+
+Carder appeared, as it seemed, up through the ground, and the dwarf
+rubbed his face and neck with a rough, grimy towel.
+
+"Good-mornin'," said Rufus in his harsh voice.
+
+Geraldine turned a lightless face toward him. "Good-morning," she said.
+"Is this well a spring?"
+
+"Yes. Have you noticed how good the water is?"
+
+"I was just coming for a drink when you startled me. I didn't see you."
+
+"Allow me," said Rufus, picking up the half cocoanut shell which was
+chained to the wood. "Let's make a loving-cup of it. I'm thirsty, too."
+
+He held the cup while Pete pumped the water over it, and finally shaking
+off the clinging drops offered it to the guest.
+
+Geraldine made good her words. An inward fever of excitement was burning
+in her veins. The proximity of this man caused her always the same
+panic. Oh, what was meant by those written words of the sunny-eyed,
+upstanding young knight who had obeyed her so reluctantly? Now it was
+her turn to obey him, and she must see to it that no suspicion of
+Carder's should prevent her.
+
+When she had drunk every drop, Rufus took a few sips--he had not much
+use for water--and they returned to the house together.
+
+When Mrs. Carder and Pete had sent the hired men afield, the three sat
+down to breakfast as usual, and Rufus, moved by the guest's transparent
+appearance and downcast eyes, played unconsciously into her hands.
+
+"This is great weather, Geraldine," he said. "You don't want to mope in
+the house. You want to spend a lot o' time outdoors. I'll take you out
+driving whenever you want to go."
+
+Geraldine lifted her eyes to his--the eyes with the drooping, pensive
+corners deepened by dark lashes which Miss Upton had tried to describe.
+
+"I think I'm not feeling very strong, Mr. Carder," she said listlessly.
+"Long drives tire me."
+
+"Long walks will tire you more," he answered, instantly suspicious.
+
+"Yes, I don't feel equal to them now," she answered, her grave glance
+dropping again to her plate.
+
+He regarded her with a troubled frown.
+
+"That hammock chair and a hammock will be out to-day," he said. "I'll
+put 'em under the elm you're so stuck on, and I guess we can scare up
+some books for you to read."
+
+Geraldine's heart began to quicken and she put a guard upon her manner
+lest eagerness should crop out in spite of her.
+
+"It is early for shade," she replied. "The sun is pleasant. Everything
+is so bare about here," she added wearily. "I wish I could find some
+flowers."
+
+Then it was that Mrs. Carder, poor dumb automaton, volunteered a remark;
+and the most silver-tongued orator could not have better pleased
+Geraldine with eloquence.
+
+"Used to be quite a lot grow down in the medder," she said.
+
+Geraldine's heart beat like a little triphammer, but she did not look up
+from her plate, nor change her listless expression.
+
+"I'd like to go and see if there are any," she said. "I love them. Where
+is the meadow?"
+
+"Oh, it's just that swale to the right of the driveway," said Rufus.
+"It's low ground, and I s'pose the wild flowers do like it. I hope the
+cows haven't taken them all. You needn't be afraid o' the cows."
+
+"No, I'm not," replied Geraldine. "Perhaps I'll go some time."
+
+"Go to-day, go while the goin's good," urged Rufus. "Never can tell when
+the rain will keep you in. You shall have a flower garden, Geraldine.
+You tell me where you'd like it and I'll have the ground got ready right
+off."
+
+"Thank you," she answered, "but I like the wild flowers best."
+
+As soon as the dishes were dried, Geraldine went up to her room and
+delved into her little trunk. She brought out a white cotton dress. It
+had not been worn since the summer before, and though clean it was badly
+wrinkled. She took it down to the kitchen and ironed it.
+
+"Goin' to put on a white dress?" asked Mrs. Carder. "Kind o' cool for
+that, ain't it?"
+
+"I don't think so. I have very few dresses, and I get tired of wearing
+the same one."
+
+Mrs. Carder sighed. "Rufus will buy you all the dresses you want if
+you'll only get strong. I can see he's dreadful worried because you look
+pale."
+
+"Well, I am going to try to become sunburned to-day. I'm so glad you
+thought of the meadow, Mrs. Carder. Perhaps you like flowers, too."
+
+The old woman sighed. "I used to. I've 'most forgot what they look
+like."
+
+"I'll bring you some if there are any."
+
+Geraldine's eyes held an excited light as she ironed away. After the
+eleven o'clock dinner she went up to her room to dress. Color came into
+her cheeks as she saw her reflection in the bit of mirror. What a
+strange thing she was doing. Supposing Miss Upton's paragon had already
+become absorbed in his own interests. How absurd she should feel
+wandering afield in the costume he had ordered, if he never came and she
+never heard from him again.
+
+"Wear white."
+
+What could it mean? What possible difference could the color of her gown
+make in any plan he might have concocted for her assistance? However, in
+the dearth of all hope, in her helplessness and poverty, and aching from
+the heart-wound Rufus Carder had given her, why should she not obey?
+
+The color receded from her face, and again delving into her trunk she
+brought forth an old, white, embroidered crepe shawl with deep fringe
+which had belonged to her mother. This she wrapped about her and started
+downstairs. She feared that Carder would accompany her in her ramble.
+She could hear his rough voice speaking to some workmen in front of the
+house, and she moved noiselessly out to the kitchen.
+
+Mrs. Carder looked up from the bread she was moulding and started,
+staring over her spectacles at the girl.
+
+"You look like a bride," she said.
+
+"I'll bring you some flowers," replied Geraldine, hastening out of the
+kitchen-door down the incline toward the yellow office.
+
+"Hello, there," called the voice she loathed, and Carder came striding
+after her. She stood still and faced him. The long lines and deep,
+clinging fringe of the creamy white shawl draped her in statuesque
+folds. Carder gasped in admiration.
+
+"You look perfectly beautiful!" he exclaimed.
+
+The young girl reminded herself that she was working to become a trusty.
+
+"What's the idea," he went on, "of makin' such a toilet for the benefit
+of the cows?" At the same time, the wish being father to the thought,
+the glorious suspicion assailed him that Geraldine was perhaps not
+unwilling to show him her beauty in a new light. It stood to reason that
+she must possess a normal girlish vanity.
+
+She forced a faint smile. "It's just my mother's old shawl," she
+replied.
+
+"Want me to help you find your flowers?" he asked.
+
+"If you wish to," she answered, "but it isn't discourteous to like to be
+alone sometimes, is it, Mr. Carder? You were saying at dinner that I
+looked tired. I really don't feel very well. I thought I would like to
+roam about alone a while in the sunshine."
+
+Her gentle humility brought forth a loud: "Oh, of course, of course,
+that's all right. Suit yourself and you'll suit me. Just find some roses
+for your own cheeks while you're about it, that's all I ask."
+
+"I'll try," she answered, and walked on. Carder accompanied her as far
+as his office, where he paused.
+
+"Good-bye, bless your little sweet heart," he said, low and ardently, in
+the tone that always seemed to make the girl's very soul turn over.
+
+"Good-bye," she answered, without meeting the hunger of his oblique
+gaze; and crossing the driveway she forced herself to move slowly down
+the grassy incline that led to the meadow where a number of cows were
+grazing.
+
+Carder watched longingly her graceful, white figure crowned with gold.
+She was safe enough in the meadow. Even if she desired to go out of
+bounds, she would not invade any public way, hatless, and in clinging
+white crepe. The cows were excellent chaperones. Nevertheless--he
+snapped his fingers and Pete came out from behind the office.
+
+Carder did not speak, but pointed after the white figure, and Pete,
+again dragging the mower, ambled across the driveway and followed on
+down the slope.
+
+Geraldine heard the clicking and glanced around, sure of what she should
+see. She smiled a little and shook her head as she walked on.
+
+"Poor little Pete. Good little Pete," she murmured. "I owe him every
+moment of comfort I've known in this place."
+
+When she considered that she had gone far enough to be free from
+observation, she turned to let him catch up with her; but when she
+paused he did likewise and waited immovable.
+
+"I want to talk to you, Pete. I'm so glad of the chance. I'm so thankful
+to you," she called softly.
+
+The dwarf drank in the delicate radiance of her face with adoring eyes.
+
+"Go on," he replied. "He is watching. He is always watching. You look
+like an angel, but the devil is at the window. Go on."
+
+She turned back obediently and continued down the slope. When she
+reached the soft, spongy green of the meadow, the cows regarded her
+wonderingly. Pete began mowing the long grass on the edge, working so
+slowly that the sound did not mar the hush of the place; and sometimes
+he sank down at ease and pulled apart a jointed stem, his eyes feasting
+on his charge.
+
+The cows had scorned certain blooms which grew lavishly and which
+Geraldine waited to gather until it should be time to return. Near a
+large clump of hazel-bushes she found a low rock, and she stretched out
+there in the sunshine and quiet, and tried to think.
+
+There had been a little warm spot in her heart ever since that hour when
+she read Miss Upton's letter. She was no longer utterly friendless. If
+some miracle should give her back her freedom, this good woman would
+help her to find independence. She longed to see that village of Keefe.
+She wished never again to see a city. Did Benjamin Barry live in Keefe?
+Geraldine summoned his image only too easily. Despite Miss Upton's
+recommendation she did not wish to know him, or to trust him; but think
+about him she must since she was dressed to his order and in the spot of
+his selection. How absurd it all was! What dream could he have been
+indulging when he wrote those words?
+
+The girl could not keep her eyes from the driveway nor banish the
+pulsing hope that she should see a motor-cycle again speeding up the
+road. She even rose from her reclining posture lest she should not be
+sufficiently conspicuous in the field; but the hours passed and nothing
+occurred beyond the cows' occasional cessation from browsing to regard
+her when she moved, and the occasional arising of Pete from the ground
+to push his mower idly along the turf.
+
+The flat landscape, the broad sky, everything was laid bare to the
+windows of the yellow office. She felt certain that should the dusty
+knight reappear, he would be recognized from afar, and that Rufus Carder
+would circumvent any plan he might have. He would stop at nothing, that
+she knew. She wondered if the law would excuse a man for murdering an
+intruder who had once been warned off his premises. She did not doubt
+that Carder would be as ready with the shot-gun she had noticed in his
+office as he was with the cruel whip. She covered her face with her
+hands as she recalled the sunny-eyed knight and shuddered at the thought
+of another meeting between the two. It had been plain that the visitor's
+youth, strength, and good looks had thrown Carder into a panic. He would
+stop at nothing. Nothing.
+
+A lanky youth with trousers tucked in his boots at last appeared,
+slouching down toward the meadow to get the cows.
+
+Geraldine came out of her apprehensive mental pictures with a sigh, and
+rose. She gathered her flowers, and moved slowly back toward the house.
+
+She must appear to have enjoyed her outing, else it would not seem
+consistent for her to wish to come again to-morrow; and she must, she
+must come again! Her poor contradictory little heart found itself
+clinging to the one vague, absurd hope, despite its fears.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The Bird of Prey
+
+
+Not until another sunny day had passed uneventfully did Geraldine
+realize how much hope she was hanging upon the knight of the
+motor-cycle. Despite his youth, his manner and voice had been those of
+one accustomed to exercising authority. He certainly had had something
+definite in mind when he wrote that message to her. She knew so well
+Pete's stupid demeanor, that, as she roamed in the meadow that second
+day, she meditated on the probability that the visitor had despaired of
+her receiving the message, and had concluded to abandon his idea,
+whatever it might have been.
+
+It was at least a relief from odious pressure to be out in the field
+alone. The soft-eyed cows, an occasional bird flying overhead, and the
+intermittent clicking of Pete's lawn-mower as he kept his respectful
+distance were all peaceful. There was not a tree for a bird to light
+upon. Even birds fled from the Carder farm. The great elm could have
+sheltered many, but the feathered creatures seemed not to trust it.
+Perhaps a reason lay in the fact that numbers of cats lived under the
+barn and outhouses. Nearly always one might be seen crouching and
+crawling along the ground looking cautiously to the right and left. None
+was ever kept for a pet or allowed in the house or fed. They lived on
+rats, mice, birds, and the field mice, and were practically wild
+animals. In their frightened, suspicious actions at sight of a human
+being, Geraldine recognized a reflection of her own mental attitude; and
+she pitied the poor things even while they excited her repugnance.
+
+Spring and no birds, she thought sadly, gathering her few wild flowers
+when the cows had gone home that second afternoon. She strained her eyes
+down the driveway, Blankness. Blankness everywhere. At the house,
+misery.
+
+The old fairy tales came to her mind. Tales where the captive princess
+pines and hopes alternately.
+
+"'On the second day all happened as before,'" she murmured in quotation.
+It was always on the third day that something really came to pass, she
+remembered, and she scanned the sky for threatening clouds. Ah, if it
+should rain to-morrow and the leaden hours should drag by in that odious
+house! After having indulged a ray of hope, such a prospect seemed
+unbearable.
+
+In her role of trusty she had constrained herself to civility. She had
+taken Mrs. Carder the flowers last night, and Rufus had put some tiny
+blooms in his buttonhole and caressed them at supper-time with
+significant glances at her.
+
+When she awoke on the following day her first move was to the window
+with an anxious look at the sky. As soon as she was satisfied that it
+was not threatening, a reaction set in to her thought. She always
+hastened to dress in the morning, for her compassion for Mrs. Carder
+made her hurry to her assistance. Pete's eyes in this few days had taken
+on a seeing look and he worked with energy to follow every direction of
+his golden-haired goddess. In the kitchen he did not avoid her eyes, and
+the smiles he received from her were the only sunbeams that had ever
+come into his life.
+
+She was in many minds that morning about going again to the meadow. It
+seemed so absurd, so humiliating to costume herself as for private
+theatricals, and to go repeatedly to keep a tryst which the other party,
+and that a man, had forgotten.
+
+Would the princess in the fairy tale do so? she wondered; but then if
+she had not persisted the story could never have been written.
+
+"Ain't you sick o' that meadow and the cows?" asked Rufus at the
+dinner-table. "Hadn't you better go drivin' to-day? I've got an errand
+to the village and just as lieve do it myself as send one o' the men if
+you'll go."
+
+Geraldine, the two braids of her hair brought up around her head in a
+golden wreath that rested on fluffy waves, was looking more than usually
+appealing, he thought, and he congratulated himself on the restraint
+with which he was allowing her mind to work on the proposition he had
+made to her. She was evidently becoming more normal, finding herself as
+it were. Those flashes of red and white that had passed across her face
+in her intensity of feeling had ceased. Her voice was steady and civil.
+
+"The meadow seems to agree with me," she answered. "Why should my not
+going with you prevent you from doing your errand at the village?"
+
+Why, indeed? thought Carder, regarding her. She had no money, she was in
+a part of the world strange to her. If she again strolled forth arrayed
+in the white costume in which her girlish vanity seemed to revel, how
+could she do anything unsafe during the short time of his absence,
+especially with Pete to guard her? The dwarf had had it made perfectly
+clear to him that his life depended on Geraldine's presence.
+
+However, it was Carder's policy never to take a very small chance of a
+very big misfortune. 'Safe bind, safe find,' was a favorite saying of
+his.
+
+"As soon as you feel thoroughly rested, we must take a trip to town," he
+said, and he advanced a bony, ill-kept hand toward hers as if he would
+seize it. "I think Ma works too hard," he added diplomatically as
+Geraldine slid her hand off the table. "We must go and see if we can get
+the right kind of help. You'll know how to pick it out. Then what do
+you say to havin' an architect come out and look over the old shack here
+and see what he thinks he can do with it, regardless of expense?"
+
+Geraldine felt that unnerving nausea again steal around her heart.
+
+"It isn't too late for us to take a little flyer in to-day," he added
+eagerly, and the suggestion made the meadow and its cows look like a
+glimpse of paradise. Supposing _he_ should come and she be gone! This
+was the great third day. "I--really--I"--stammered Geraldine--"I feel a
+little shaky yet."
+
+"Oh, all right," Rufus laughed leniently. "Be it ever so humble and all
+that you know. _Home_ for you, eh, Gerrie?"
+
+She longed to rise and strike his ugly smile at the sound of her
+father's pet name, and she trembled from head to foot. "A trusty," she
+said to herself commandingly. "A trusty."
+
+She did not hear another word that was said during dinner, and when she
+was free she flew up to her room and put on the poor little
+grass-stained dress and the rich crepe of her mother's heirloom.
+
+"O God, send him!" she prayed, as her fingers worked on the fastenings.
+"O God, let him come"--then with tardy, desperate recollection, she
+added--"and O God, save his life!"
+
+It seemed difficult for Rufus Carder to separate himself from her that
+day. When she emerged from the house, she found him watching for her and
+she reminded herself again that if she angered him he might prevent her
+from doing as she pleased. It seemed to her now so intensely vital that
+she should get to the meadow that she felt panic lest something happen
+to prevent it.
+
+"You don't want to go down there again to-day," said Rufus coaxingly.
+"Let's take a walk up to the pond."
+
+"Is there a pond?" asked Geraldine quickly. She had often wondered if
+there were any body of water about the place deep enough for a girl to
+be covered in it if she lay face down.
+
+"Oh, yes, I have a cranberry bog with a dam. Makes a pretty decent pond
+part o' the year. How would you like it if I got you a canoe, Gerrie?
+Say! would you like that?" The interest that had come into the girl's
+face at mention of the pond encouraged him. "Come on, let's go. You've
+had enough o' the cows."
+
+He grasped her arm and she set her teeth not to pull away.
+
+"Would you mind waiting?" She put the question gently and even gave him
+a little smile, the first he had ever seen on her face. The
+exquisiteness of it, her pearly teeth, the Cupid's bow of her lips
+flushed him from head to foot. "I seem to be getting attached to that
+meadow," she added. "You'd better have one more buttonhole bouquet,
+don't you think?"
+
+The delight of it rushed to Carder's head. He, too, had to put a strong
+restraint upon himself to let well enough alone. All was going so
+nicely. He must not make a false move.
+
+"Well," he responded with a sort of gasping sigh, the blood in his face,
+"as I've always said, suit yourself and you'll suit me. Wind me right
+around your finger as you always have done and always will do."
+
+He walked completely down the incline with her to-day.
+
+She wondered if he had any sense of humor when she heard the clicking of
+Pete's lawn-mower behind them and knew that he was following. Carder did
+not seem to notice it; but he said: "I've a great mind to stay down here
+with you to-day and find out what the charm is."
+
+"I suppose it is just peace," she answered, and she was so frightened
+lest he carry out this threat that she felt herself grow pale to the
+lips. "I've passed through a great deal of excitement," she added
+unsteadily. "The silence seems healing to me."
+
+"Oh, well, little one," he replied good-humoredly, "if it's doing you
+good, that's the main thing. You have had it pretty hard, I know that.
+I'm goin' to make it up to you, Gerrie, I'm goin' to make it up to you.
+Don't you be afraid. You're safe to be the most envied girl in this
+county. You'll make some splash, let me tell you, when my plans are
+carried out." He patted her cringing shoulder, and with one more longing
+look turned and left her.
+
+Her knees were still trembling and she sank down on her rock and watched
+Carder's round shoulders and ill-fitting clothes as he ascended the
+incline to the office.
+
+Pete was using a sickle on the stubbly grass, too stiff and
+interspersed with stones for the mower.
+
+The cows' big soft eyes were regarding Geraldine, as they always did for
+a time after her arrival.
+
+She turned her tired, listless look back to them and wondered what they
+did here for comfort in the heat of summer. There was no shade, and no
+creek to walk into.
+
+When Rufus Carder arrived at his office he found the telephone ringing.
+The message he received necessitated sending some word to a man out in
+the field.
+
+He went to the window and looked down at the white spot which was
+Geraldine. He saw her rise and walk about. Perhaps she was picking
+flowers. The distance was too great for him to be certain.
+
+"I shall be right here," he muttered. Then he went to the corner of the
+office and picked up a megaphone. Going outside the door he called to
+Pete. "Come up here!" he shouted. The boy dropped his sickle and began
+to amble up the hill as fast as his bow-legs would permit.
+
+Geraldine heard the shout, and turning saw the dwarf obeying the
+summons.
+
+"Nobody but you to guard me now," she said to the prettiest of the cows
+with whom she had made friends.
+
+She watched Pete reach the summit of the incline and vanish into the
+yellow office.
+
+Presently he came out again and started off in the direction of the
+fields.
+
+"I think there is some one beside you to guard me now," went on
+Geraldine to the cow, who gave her an undivided attention mindful of the
+bunches of grass which the girl had often gathered for her. "I think the
+ogre has come out to the edge of his cave and is scarcely winking as he
+watches us down here. Oh, Bossy, I'm the most miserable girl in the
+whole world." Her breath caught in her throat, and winking back
+despairing tears she stooped to gather the expected thick handful of
+grass when a humming sound came faintly across the stillness of the
+field. She paused with listless curiosity and listened. The buzzing
+seemed suddenly to fill all the air. It increased, and her upturned face
+beheld an approaching aeroplane. Before she had time to connect its
+presence with herself it began diving toward the earth. On and on it
+came. It skimmed the ground, it ran along the meadow, the cows
+stampeded. She clasped her hands, and with dilated eyes saw the aviator
+jump out, pull something out of the cockpit and run toward her. She ran
+toward him. It was--it couldn't be--it was--he pushed back his
+helmet--it was her knight! Her excited eyes met his. "I've come for
+you," he called gayly, and her face glorified with amazed joy.
+
+"He'll kill you!" she gasped in sudden terror. "Hurry!"
+
+Ben was already taking off the crepe shawl and putting her arms into the
+sleeves of a leather coat. A shout came from the top of the hill. Rufus
+Carder appeared, yelling and running. His gun was in his hand. The men
+from the fields, who had heard and seen the aeroplane, and Pete, who had
+not yet had time to reach them, all came running in excitement to see
+the great bird which had alighted in such an unlikely spot.
+
+"He'll kill you!" gasped Geraldine again. A shot rang out on the air.
+
+Ben laughed as he pushed a helmet down over her head.
+
+"It can't be done," he cried, as excited as she. He threw the shawl into
+the cockpit, lifted the girl in after it, buckled the safety belt across
+her, jumped in himself, and the great bird began to flit along the
+ground and quickly to rise.
+
+Another wild shot rang out, and frightful oaths. Geraldine heard the
+former, though the latter were inaudible, and she became tense from her
+head to the little feet which pushed against the foot-board as if to
+hasten their flight. She clutched the side of the veering plane. With
+every rod they gained her relief grew. Ben, looking into her face for
+signs of fear, received a smile which made even his enviable life better
+worth living than ever before. No exultant conqueror ever experienced
+greater thrills. Up, up, up, they flew out of reach of bullets and all
+the sordidness of earth; and when the meadow became a blur Geraldine
+felt like a disembodied spirit, so great was her exaltation. Not a
+vestige of fear assailed the heart which had so recently wondered if the
+cranberry pond was deep enough to still its misery. She rejoiced to be
+near the low-lying, fleecy clouds which a little while ago had aroused
+her apprehensions for the morrow. Let come what would, she was safe from
+Rufus Carder and she was free. Her sentiment for her leather-coated
+deliverer was little short of adoration. Gratitude seemed too poor a
+term. He had taken her from hell, and it seemed to her as they went up,
+up, up, they must be nearing heaven. At last he began flying in a direct
+line.
+
+Below was her former jailer, foaming at the mouth, and Pete, poor Pete,
+lying on the ground rolling in an agony of loss. "She's gone, she's
+gone," he moaned and sobbed, over and over; and even Carder saw that if
+there had been any plot afoot the dwarf had not been in it. So long as
+the plane was in sight, all the farm-workers stared open-mouthed. None
+of them loved the master, but none dared comment on his fury now or ask
+a question. His gun was in his hand and his eyes were bloodshot. His
+open mouth worked. They had all seen the beautiful girl who had now been
+snatched away so amazingly, and there was plenty to talk about and
+wonder about for months to come on the Carder farm. Rufus Carder, when
+the swift scout plane had become a speck, tore at his collar. The veins
+stood out in his neck and his forehead. He felt the curious gaze of his
+helpers and in impotent fury he turned and walked up to the house. His
+mother, still in the kitchen, saw him come in and started back with a
+cry. His collar and shirt flying open, his face crimson and distorted,
+his scowl, and his gun, terrified her almost to fainting. She sank into
+a chair. Her lips moved, but she could not make a sound.
+
+"What did the girl tell you!" cried her son.
+
+She clutched her breast, her lips moved, but no sound emerged.
+
+Rufus saw that she was too frightened to speak.
+
+"Don't be scared," he said roughly. "All you've got to do is to tell me
+the truth." He made a mighty effort to control his rasping voice. "Did
+you know Geraldine was goin' away?"
+
+Mrs. Carder shook her head speechlessly.
+
+"Sit up, Ma. Talk if you've got any sense. What did the girl tell you?
+Why was she dressin' up every day?"
+
+"I--I thought"--stammered Mrs. Carder, "I thought she wanted to look
+pretty. I--I thought you were goin' to marry her. She never told me
+anything. Gone away?" Some curiosity struggled through the old woman's
+paralyzing fear. "How could she go away? She hadn't any hat on." She
+spoke tremulously.
+
+"Come up to her room," said Rufus sternly.
+
+He flung his gun into a corner and strode toward the stairs, the shaky
+old woman following him.
+
+Up in Geraldine's chamber he stood still for a moment scowling and
+viewing its neatness, then strode to the closet and opened the door. Her
+shabby suit was hanging there, and the pale-green challie gown she had
+worn in his office. He grasped its soft folds in crushing fingers. The
+gingham dress in which she worked every morning was also hanging on its
+hook. Her hat was on the shelf. That was all. Her few toilet articles
+were neatly arranged on the shabby old bureau. He opened its drawers and
+tossed their meager contents ruthlessly, searching for some letter or
+scrap of paper to throw light on her exit. He went to the trunk which
+contained some sheets of music and a few books. These he scattered
+about searching, searching between their leaves.
+
+His mother, trembling before him, spoke tremulously. "Did she have any
+money to go away?"
+
+"No," he growled.
+
+"You can see she didn't expect to go, Rufus," said the old woman
+timidly. "All her things are here. Why--why don't you take the car
+and--and go after her?"
+
+"Because she went up in the air, that's why; and I'll kill him!" He
+shook his fists in impotent rage. "He'll find he didn't get away with it
+as neat as he thought."
+
+He stormed out of the room, and lucky it was for Pete that that
+threshold could tell no tales.
+
+The old woman stared after him in a new terror. Her son, the most
+important man in the county, had lost his mind, and all for the sake of
+that girl who had managed in some mysterious way to give him the slip.
+"Gone up in the air!" Poor Rufus. He had gone mad. She managed that
+night to get an interview in the woodshed with the grief-stricken Pete,
+and in spite of his incoherence and renewed sobs she learned what had
+happened. The dwarf believed that his goddess had been kidnapped. It
+never occurred to his dull brain to connect her disappearance with the
+letters he had conveyed to her.
+
+The next day Carder was amazed to have the boy seek him. Never before
+had Pete ventured to volunteer a word to him. He was sitting in his den
+gnawing his nails and revolving in his mind some scheme for Geraldine's
+recovery when the dwarf appeared at the door. His shock of hair stood up
+as usual and his eyes were swollen.
+
+"Can't we--can't we--look for her, master?" he asked beseechingly. "They
+may hurt her--the man that stole her. Can't you--find him, master?"
+
+Carder's scowl bent upon the humble suppliant.
+
+"I ought to have shot him the first time he came," he said savagely.
+
+"Did the--the areoplane ever come before?" asked Pete, amazed, his
+heart's desire to see again and save his goddess supplying him with
+courage to speak. His dull eyes opened as wide as their puffiness would
+permit.
+
+"No," snarled Carder; "but it was that damned fool on the motor-cycle
+without a doubt. I don't see how he got at her. No letter ever came."
+
+The speaker went back to gnawing his nails in bitter meditation and
+forgot the mourner at his door whose slow wits began to
+remember--remember; and who, as he remembered, began to shake in his
+poor broken shoes and feel nailed to the ground. At last he ambled away,
+thankful that his master did not recur to the questioning of that other
+day. His dull wits received a novel sharpening.
+
+Carder's few words had transformed the situation. His goddess had not
+been stolen. He recalled that first night when he had forced her back
+into her room to save his own life, unmoved by her pleading. Her
+sweetness had given him courage to risk concealing the tall visitor's
+letter and conveying it to her.
+
+If Carder should suddenly revert to that day and cross-question him, he
+must have his denials ready. He must show no fear.
+
+He fell now on the ground and rested his head on his long arms to think.
+It was so hard for him to think, and dry sobs kept choking him; but the
+wonderful fact slowly possessed him that he had served her. Pete, the
+stupid dwarf, butt of rough jokes and ridicule, had saved the bright
+being he adored. He understood now her fervent efforts to convey thanks
+to him. He felt dimly that the angel whose kindness had brightened his
+life for those few days had gone back to the skies she had left. The man
+of the motor-cycle had looked stern as he slipped the letter into his
+ragged blouse and said the few low words that imposed secrecy and the
+importance of the message.
+
+"I'm sure you love her," the man had said. "I'm sure you want to help
+her."
+
+The words had contained magic that worked; and Pete had helped her, and
+outwitted the man with the whip who owned him body and soul.
+
+Henceforth the dwarf had a wonderful secret, a secret that warmed his
+heart with divine fire.
+
+Remembering how his goddess had wanted to go out into the night alone to
+escape, he realized that she must have been as unhappy as himself. When
+he prevented her from departing, she had not hated him. Compassion was
+still in her eyes and voice when she spoke to him that next morning.
+
+Now he had helped her. An angel had fallen into that smoky kitchen and
+toiled with her white hands. He had helped her back to heaven. Pete, the
+dwarf had done it: Pete.
+
+He rolled over on his back and looked up at the sky. Clouds were
+gathering, but she had gone into the blue. She was there now, and it was
+through him. Perhaps she was looking at him at this moment. He knew how
+her face would glow. He knew how her voice would sound and her eyes
+would smile.
+
+"Thank you, Pete. Thank you, good little Pete."
+
+He gazed up at the scudding clouds and his troubled soul grew quiet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+The Palace
+
+
+Ben, taking an occasional look around at his passenger, flew directly on
+toward a landing-field. Their destination had hardly yet interested
+Geraldine. The whole experience, in spite of the noise of the motor,
+seemed as yet unreal to her. In reaction from the frightful nightmare of
+the last few days, her whole being responded to the flight through the
+bright spring air, and had Ben seen fit to do a figure eight she would
+have accepted it as part of the reckless joyousness of the present
+dream.
+
+As the plane began to descend and objects below came into view, she
+wondered for the first time where the great bird was coming to earth.
+Perhaps Miss Upton's ample and blessed figure would be waiting to greet
+her. Nothing, nothing was too good to be true.
+
+The plane touched earth and flitted along to a standstill. They were in
+a field, just now deserted, and her escort, pushing back his helmet,
+smiled upon her radiantly.
+
+"First time you've ever flown?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, except in dreams," she answered. "This seems only one more."
+
+"Were they happy dreams?"
+
+"None so happy as this."
+
+"You weren't afraid, then? You're a good sport."
+
+"I think I shall never be afraid again. I've sounded the depths of fear
+in the last week."
+
+The two sat looking into one another's eyes and the appeal in those
+long-lashed orbs of Geraldine continued the havoc that they had begun.
+Her lips were very grave as she recalled the precipice from which she
+had been snatched.
+
+"I saw that he frightened you terribly that day he gave me such a warm
+welcome."
+
+"He was going to marry me," explained Geraldine simply.
+
+"How could he--the old ogre?"
+
+"I was to consent in order to save my father's name. I'm going to tell
+you about it because you're a lawyer, aren't you, and the finest man in
+the world? I have it here."
+
+Geraldine loosened her coat and felt inside her white blouse for Miss
+Upton's letter.
+
+Ben laughed and blushed to his ears. "I haven't attained the former yet.
+The latter, of course, I can't deny."
+
+Geraldine produced the letter, inside of which was folded that from her
+father.
+
+"Miss Upton wrote me about you and--"
+
+"You're not going to show it to me," interrupted Ben hastily. "I'm
+afraid the dear woman spread it on too thick for the victim to view."
+
+"You see, she knew how I hate men," explained Geraldine, "and she knew
+how friendless I was and she wanted me to trust you."
+
+"And do you?" asked Ben with ardor.
+
+"Yes, perfectly. I have to, you know." She tucked back the rejected
+letter in its hiding-place.
+
+"And you're not going to hate me?"
+
+"I should think not," returned the girl with the same simple gravity;
+"not when you've done me the greatest kindness of my whole life!"
+
+"I'm so glad I haven't named the plane yet," said Ben impulsively. "You
+shall name it."
+
+"There's no name good enough," she replied--"unless--unless we name it
+for that carrier pigeon that was such a hero in the War. We might name
+it _Cher Ami_."
+
+"Good," declared Ben. "It is surely a homing bird."
+
+"And such a _cher ami_ to me," added Geraldine fervently.
+
+Ben wondered if this marvelous girl never smiled.
+
+"You were going to tell me how the ogre was able to force you to marry
+him," he said.
+
+"Yes; I don't like to tell you. It is very sad, and he crushed me with
+it." The girl's lips trembled for a silent moment, and Cupid alone knows
+how Ben longed to kiss them, close to him as they were.
+
+"He said that my father forged two checks, and that he only refrained
+from prosecuting him because of me. He said my father had promised that
+he should have me."
+
+Ben scowled, and the dark eyes fixed upon him brightened with sudden
+eagerness. "But that was a lie--about father giving me to him. I have
+Daddy's letter here." She felt again inside her blouse. "You will have
+to know everything--how my poor father was his own worst enemy and came
+to rely for money on that impossible man."
+
+She took out the letter and gave it to Ben and he read it in silence.
+
+"Probably it was a lie also about the checks," he said when he had
+finished.
+
+"No, oh, no," she replied earnestly. "He showed me those. He said that
+my father was held in affectionate remembrance at his clubs and among
+his friends, and that he could ruin all that and hold him up to contempt
+as a criminal, unless--unless I married him." Geraldine's bosom heaved
+convulsively. "I have been wild with joy ever since you came," she
+declared. "If I ever go to heaven I can't be happier than I was flying
+up from that meadow where there seemed a curse even on the poor little
+wild flowers but you can see how it is going to keep coming over me in
+waves that perhaps I have done wrong. You see, Daddy tells me not to
+consider him; but should I not guard his name in spite of that? That is
+the question that will keep coming up to me. Nevertheless"--she made a
+gesture of despair--"if I went through with it--if I married Mr. Carder,
+I'm sure I should lose all control and kill myself. I'm sure of it."
+
+Here Ben gave rein to the dastardly instinct which occasionally causes a
+poor mortal to fling all conscience to the winds when he sees an
+unexpected opportunity to attain a longed-for prize.
+
+"For you to become his wife cannot be right," declared Ben, endeavoring
+to speak with mature and legal poise; "but as you say, that heartrending
+doubt of your duty may attack you at times. How would it be to put it
+beyond your power to yield to his wishes by marrying some one else--me,
+for instance?"
+
+Geraldine regarded the speaker with grief and reproach. "Can you joke
+about my trouble?" She turned away and he suspected hurt tears.
+
+"Miss Melody--Geraldine." What Ben had fondly hoped was the judicial
+manner disappeared in a whirlwind of words. "I'm in earnest! I've
+thought of nothing but you since the day I saw you with that cut-throat.
+It's my highest desire to guard you, to make you happy. Give me the
+right, and every day of my life will prove it. Of course, I saw that
+Carder had some hold over you. I've spent all my time ever since that
+day trying to ferret out facts that could give me some hold on him. I
+haven't found them. The fox has always left himself a loophole. Marry me
+to-day: now: before we go home. I'm well known in the town yonder. I can
+arrange it. Marry me, and whatever comes you will be safe from him.
+Geraldine!"
+
+The girl's gaze was fixed on the flushed face and glowing eyes beside
+her and she leaned as far away from him as possible.
+
+"You really mean it?" she said when he paused.
+
+"As I never meant anything before in my life."
+
+"Have you a mother?"
+
+"The best on earth."
+
+"And yet you would do this to her, just because I have nice eyes."
+
+It was a frigid bucket of water, but Ben stood up under it.
+
+"Yes, I could give her nothing better."
+
+"You don't even know me," said Geraldine. "How strange men are."
+
+"Yes, those you hate; but how about me? You said you liked me."
+
+At this the girl did smile, and the effect was so wonderful that it
+knocked what little sense Ben Barry had left into oblivion.
+
+"Love at first sight is a fact," he declared. "No one believes it till
+he's hit, but then there's no questioning. You looked that day as if you
+would have liked to speak to me--yes"--boldly--"as if to escape Carder
+you would have mounted that motor-cycle with me and we should have done
+that Tennyson act, you know--'beyond the earth's remotest rim the happy
+princess followed him'--or something like that. I don't know it exactly
+but I'm going to learn it from start to finish and read law afterward.
+I've dreamed of you all night and worked for you all day ever since and
+yet I haven't accomplished anything!"
+
+"Haven't!" exclaimed Geraldine. "You've done the most wonderful thing in
+the world."
+
+"Oh, well, _Cher Ami_ did that. Tell me you'll let me take care of you
+always, and knock Carder's few remaining teeth down his throat if he
+ever comes in sight. Tell me you do--you like me a little."
+
+Geraldine's entrancing smile was still lighting her pensive eyes.
+
+"Oh, no, I don't like you. How can I? People don't like utter strangers.
+One feels worship, adoration for a creature that drops from the skies,
+and lifts a wretched helpless girl out of torturing captivity into the
+free sweet air of heaven."
+
+"Well, that'll do," returned Ben, nodding. "Adoration and worship will
+do to begin with. Let us go over to the village and be married--_my
+beautiful darling_."
+
+Geraldine colored vividly under this escape of her companion's
+ungovernable steam, but she did not change her expression.
+
+"I certainly shall not do that," she answered quietly.
+
+Ben relaxed his tense, appealing posture.
+
+"Well, then," he said, drawing a long breath, "if you positively decline
+the trap--oh, it was a trap all right--if you are determined to postpone
+the wedding, I'll tell you that I really don't believe your father
+forged those checks."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barry--" the girl leaned toward him.
+
+"Ben, or I won't go on."
+
+"Ben, then. It is no sort of a name compared to the one I have been
+giving you. I've been calling you Sir Galahad."
+
+Ben smiled at her blissfully. "Nice," he said. "I don't believe Miss
+Upton went beyond that."
+
+"Oh, please go on, Mr. Barry--Ben--Sir Galahad."
+
+"Why couldn't our cheerful friend have shown you any checks he drew to
+your father's name and claim that they were forged?"
+
+Geraldine's eyes shone. "I never thought of that."
+
+"Of course I cannot be sure of it. I would far rather get something
+definite on the old scamp."
+
+Geraldine shuddered. "He is so cruel. He is so rough to that poor little
+fellow Pete. Think what I owe that boy! He managed to get your message
+to me even when threatened with his master's whip. Mr. Carder saw you
+speaking to him and questioned him."
+
+"Oh, you mean that nut who took my letter?"
+
+"The hero who took your letter. He had to lie outside my door every
+night to keep me from escaping, and he slipped your message under it.
+Where should I be now but for him? Poor child, he is as friendless as I
+am"--Geraldine interrupted herself with a grateful look at her
+companion--"as I was, I mean. He had to follow me and guard me wherever
+I went, always keeping at a distance, because he mustn't speak to me and
+the ogre was always watching. How I thank Heaven," added Geraldine
+fervently, "that Mr. Carder himself had called Pete off duty for the
+first time before the--the archangel swooped down from the sky."
+
+"I'm getting on," said Ben. "If you keep on promoting me, I'll arrive
+first thing you know."
+
+"I should honestly be wretched if I had to think Mr. Carder was blaming
+Pete for my escape. The boy did tell me his life depended on my safety."
+
+"Well, I don't understand," said Ben with a puzzled frown. "Who lies in
+front of Pete's door? Why does he stay there? Why doesn't he light out
+some time between two days?"
+
+"Oh, Mr. Carder has told him no one would employ him, that Pete would
+starve but for him. Did you notice how ragged and neglected he looked?"
+
+"He looked like a nut. I was afraid he was so stupid that you would
+never receive the message." Ben looked thoughtful. "How long has he
+lived at the farm?"
+
+"For years. Mrs. Carder took him from the orphan asylum when he was a
+child. She thought he would be more useful than a girl. They keep him as
+a slave. You saw how very bow-legged he is. He can't get about normally,
+but he drives the car and helps in the kitchen and does every sort of
+menial task. There was such a look in his eyes always when he saw me.
+Little as I could do for him, or even speak to him, I'm afraid he is
+missing me terribly." Geraldine's look suddenly grew misty. "See how
+faithful he was about Daddy's letter. Poor little Pete. Mr. Carder will
+be out of his mind at my flight. I hope he doesn't visit it on that poor
+boy."
+
+"Well," said Ben, heroically refraining from putting his arms around
+her, "why don't we take him?"
+
+"We? Take Pete? How wonderful!" she returned, her handkerchief pausing
+in mid-air.
+
+"Sure thing, if you want him. Send him to the barber and have his hair
+mowed. Have some trousers cut out for him with a circular saw and fix
+him up to the queen's taste."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barry--Ben! You don't know what you're saying. It would give me
+more relief than I can express, for the boy's lot is so miserable and
+starved."
+
+"Well, then, that is settled, my princess."
+
+"But you can't get him. I can't help feeling that anyone who has lived
+there so long, and been so unconsidered and unnoticed, must know more
+than Mr. Carder wishes to have go to the outside world. His mother
+hinted some things." Geraldine gasped with reminiscent horror of that
+low-ceiled kitchen.
+
+Her companion suddenly looked very alert. "Highly probable," he
+returned. "Why didn't you say that before? We certainly will take Pete
+in. What are his habits? You say he drives the car."
+
+"Yes, he did until he was set to dog my movements. I often heard it
+referred to. Do you mean--you could never get him in this blessed
+chariot. He will probably never see the meadow again unless they send
+him to get the cows."
+
+Ben shook his head. "No; I think he will have to be bagged some other
+way. What's the matter with my going back to the farm on my motor-cycle
+and engaging him, overbidding the ogre?"
+
+Geraldine actually clasped her hands on the leathern arm beside her.
+"Promise me," she said fervently, looking into her companion's
+eyes--"promise me that you will never go back to that farm alone."
+
+"You want to go with me?"
+
+"Don't joke. Promise me solemnly."
+
+Ben's lips took a grave line and he put one hand over the beseeching
+ones.
+
+"Then what will you promise me?" he returned.
+
+The blood mantled high over the girl's face. "You're taking me to Miss
+Upton, aren't you?" she returned irrelevantly.
+
+"Yes, if you positively refuse still to go to the parson."
+
+The expression of her anxious eyes grew inscrutable.
+
+"I want your mother to love me," she said naively.
+
+Ben lifted her hands and held them to his lips.
+
+"You haven't promised," she said softly. "I know he suspects you now. I
+think he is a madman when he is angry."
+
+"Very well, I promise." Ben released her hands and smiled down with
+adoring eyes. "Now, we will go home," he said.
+
+Again the great bird rose and winged its way between heaven and earth.
+
+Now it was not as before when Geraldine's whole being had seemed
+absorbed in flight and freedom. The earth was before her and a new life.
+She had a lover. Wonderful, sweet, incredible fact. A good man, Miss
+Upton said. Could it be that never again desolation and fear should
+sicken her heart; that like the princess of the tales her great third
+day had come and brought her love as well as liberty? Happiness deluged
+her, flushed her cheeks, and shone in her eyes. She longed and dreaded
+to alight again upon that earth which had never shown her kindness.
+Could it be possible that she should reign queen in a good man's heart?
+For so many years she had been habitually in the background, kept there
+either by her stepmother's will or her own desire to hide her
+shabbiness, and when need had at last forced her to initiative, she had
+received such humiliating stabs from the greed of men--could it be that
+she was to walk surrounded by protection, and love, and _respect_?
+
+She closed her eyes. Spring, sunlight, joy coursed through every vein.
+When at last they began again to dip toward earth, the question surged
+through her: "Shall I ever be so happy again?"
+
+And now Miss Upton's figure loomed large and gracious in the foreground
+of her thoughts. She longed for the refuge of her kindly arms until she
+could gather herself together in the new era of safety and peace.
+
+The plane touched the earth, ran a little way toward an arched building,
+and stopped.
+
+Ben jumped out, and Geraldine exclaimed over the beauty of a rose-tinted
+cloud of blossoms.
+
+"Yes. Pretty orchard, isn't it?" he said. He unstrapped her safety belt
+and lifted her out of the cockpit. Her eager eyes noted that they were
+at the back of a large brick dwelling.
+
+"Is Miss Upton here?" she asked while her escort took off her leather
+coat and her helmet. The latter had been pushed on and off once too
+often. The wonder of her golden hair fell over the poor little white
+cotton gown and Ben repressed his gasp of admiration.
+
+"Oh, this is dreadful," she said, putting her hands up helplessly.
+
+"Don't touch it," exclaimed her companion quickly. "You can't do
+anything with it anyway. There isn't a hairpin in the hangar. Miss Upton
+will love to see it. She will take care of it."
+
+"Oh, I can't. How can I!" exclaimed Geraldine.
+
+"Certainly, that's all right," said Ben hastily. "Miss Upton is right
+here. She will take you into the house and make you comfy. Let me put
+this around you."
+
+He took the crepe shawl and put it about her shoulders, lifting out the
+shining gold that fell over the fringes.
+
+"I know it is very old-fashioned and queer," said Geraldine, pulling the
+wrap over the grass stains and looking up into his eyes with a childlike
+appeal that made him set his teeth. "It was my mother's and you said
+'white.' It was all I had."
+
+Miss Upton had come to Mrs. Barry's to receive her protegee provided Ben
+could bring her. The two ladies were sitting out under the trees
+waiting. Miss Mehitable had obeyed Ben, and some days since had given
+Mrs. Barry the young girl's story, and that lady had received it
+courteously and with the tempered sympathy which one bestows on the
+absolutely unknown.
+
+Miss Upton's excitement when she heard the humming of the aeroplane and
+saw it approaching in the distance baffles description. She had been
+forcing herself to talk on other subjects, perceiving clearly that her
+hostess was what our English friends would term fed up on the subject of
+the girl with the fanciful name; but now she clasped her plump hands and
+caught her breath.
+
+"Well, she ain't killed, anyway," she said. She longed to rush back to
+the landing-place, but instinctively felt that such action on the part
+of a guest would be indecorous. She hoped Mrs. Barry would suggest it,
+but such a move was evidently far from that lady's thought. She sat in
+her white silken gown, with sewing in her lap, the picture of unruffled
+calm.
+
+Miss Upton swallowed and kept her eyes on the approaching plane. "She
+ain't killed, anyway," she repeated.
+
+"Nor Ben either," remarked Mrs. Barry, drawing the fine needle in and
+out of her work. "He is of some importance, isn't he?"
+
+"Oh, do you suppose he got her, Mrs. Barry?" gasped Miss Mehitable.
+
+"Ben would be likely to," returned that lady, who had been somewhat
+tried by her son's preoccupation in the last few days and considered the
+adventure a rather annoying interlude in their ordered life.
+
+"Why don't she say let's go and see! How can she just set there as cool
+as a cucumber!" thought Miss Mehitable, squeezing the blood out of her
+hands.
+
+The plane descended, the humming ceased. Miss Upton sat on the edge of
+her chair looking excitedly at the figure in white who embroidered
+serenely. Moments passed with the tableau undisturbed; then:
+
+"Oh! Oh!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, still holding a rein over herself,
+mindful that she was not the hostess.
+
+Mrs. Barry looked up. She was a New Englander of the New Englanders,
+conservative to her finger tips. Ben was her only son, the light of her
+eyes. If what she saw was startling, it can hardly be wondered at.
+
+There came through the pink cloud of the apple blossoms her aviator son
+looking handsomer than she had ever beheld him, leading a girl in
+white-fringed crepe that clung in soft folds to her slenderness. All
+about her shoulders fell a veil of golden hair, and her appealing eyes
+glowed in a face at once radiant and timid.
+
+Mrs. Barry started up from her chair.
+
+"Mother!" cried Ben as they approached, "I told you I should bring her
+from the stars."
+
+The hostess advanced a step mechanically, Miss Mehitable followed close.
+Geraldine gazed fascinated at the tall, regal woman, whose habitually
+formal manner took on an additional stiffness.
+
+"This is Miss Melody, I believe." Mrs. Barry held out her smooth, fair
+hand. "I hear you have passed through a very trying experience," she
+said with cold courtesy. "I am glad you are safe."
+
+The light went out of the girl's eager eyes. The color fled from her
+face. She had endured too many extremes of emotion in one day. Miss
+Mehitable extended her arms to her with a yearning smile. Geraldine
+glided to her and quietly fainted away on that kindly breast.
+
+"Poor lamb, poor lamb," murmured Miss Mehitable, and Ben, frowning,
+exclaimed: "Here, let me take her!"
+
+He gathered her up in his arms and carried her into the house and laid
+her on a divan, Miss Upton panting after his long strides and his mother
+deliberately bringing up the rear. Mrs. Barry knew just what to do and
+she did it, while Miss Upton wrung her hands above the recumbent white
+figure. When the long eyelashes flickered on the pallid cheek, Ben spoke
+commandingly: "I'll take her upstairs. She must be put to bed."
+
+Miss Mehitable came to herself with a rush. "Not here," she said
+decidedly. "If you'll let me have the car, Mrs. Barry, we'll be out of
+your way in five minutes."
+
+Ben looked at his mother, who was still cool and unexcited; and the
+expression on his face was a new one for her to meet.
+
+"She isn't fit to be moved, Mother, and Miss Upton hasn't room. Miss
+Melody is exhausted. She has had a frightful experience," he said
+sternly.
+
+If he had appealed she might have been touched, but it is doubtful. The
+grass stains, the quaint shawl, the hair that was rippling down to the
+rug, were none of them part of her visions of a daughter-in-law, and, at
+any rate, Ben shouldn't look at her like that--at her! for the sake of a
+friendless waif whose existence he had not suspected one week ago.
+
+Miss Upton, understanding the situation perfectly, saved the hostess the
+trouble of replying.
+
+"It won't hurt her a bit to drive as far as my house after she's been
+caperin' all over the sky!" she exclaimed, seizing Geraldine's hands.
+
+The girl heard the declaration and essayed to rise while her eyes fixed
+on the round face bending over her.
+
+"I want to go with you," she said.
+
+"And you're going, my lamb," returned Miss Mehitable.
+
+"Certainly, you shall have the car," said Mrs. Barry suavely.
+
+She wished to send word to the chauffeur, she wished to give Geraldine
+tea, she was entirely polite and sufficiently solicitous, but her heir
+looked terrible things, and, bringing around the car, himself drove the
+guests to Miss Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions.
+
+Geraldine declined his help to walk to the door of the shop. Miss Upton
+had her arm around her, and though the girl was pale she gave her
+rescuer a look full of gratitude; and when he pressed her hand she
+answered the pressure and restored a portion of his equanimity.
+
+"I never, never shall forget this happiest day of my life," she said.
+
+"And don't forget we are going to get Pete," he responded eagerly,
+holding her hand close, "and everything is going to come out right."
+
+"Yes"--she looked doubtful and frightened; "but if you get Pete don't
+let your mother see him. She is--she couldn't bear it."
+
+"Don't judge her, Geraldine," he begged. "She is glorious. Ask Miss
+Upton. Just a little--a little shy at first, you know. Miss Upton, you
+explain, won't you?"
+
+"Don't fret, Ben," said Miss Mehitable. "You're the best boy on earth,
+and I want to hear all about it, for I'm sure you did something
+wonderful to get her."
+
+"Yes, wonderful, Miss Upton!" echoed Geraldine, with another
+heart-warming smile at her deliverer whose own smile lessened and died
+as he walked back to his car. By the time he entered it he was frowning,
+thinking of his "shy" mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Mother and Son
+
+
+Miss Upton had looked upon the parting amenities of the two young people
+with beaming approval; and Geraldine's first words when they were alone
+astonished her.
+
+As soon as they were inside the shop and the door closed, the young girl
+looked earnestly into her friend's eyes. Miss Mehitable returned her
+regard affectionately. The golden hair had been wound up and secured
+with Mrs. Barry's hairpins.
+
+"I wish there were some way by which I need never see him again," she
+said.
+
+"Why, Miss Melody, child, what do you mean? Every word I told you in my
+letter was true. Perhaps you never got it, but I told you that he is the
+_finest_--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I believe it," was the hasty reply. "I did receive your
+letter, and some time I'll tell you how, and what a comfort it was to
+me. Oh, Miss Upton"--the girl threw her arms around the stout
+figure--"I can't tell you what it means to me for you to take me in; and
+this is your shop you told me of--" she released Miss Mehitable and
+looked about--"and I'm going to tend it for you and help you in every
+way I can. It is paradise--paradise to me, Miss Upton."
+
+Her fervor brought a lump to her companion's throat, but she knew that
+Mrs. Whipp was listening from the sitting-room, and Miss Mehitable did
+love peace.
+
+"Yes, yes, dear child; it'll all come out right," she said vaguely,
+patting the white shoulder. "I have another good helper and I want you
+to meet her. Come with me." She led the girl through the shop.
+
+Mrs. Whipp had retreated violently from the front window when she saw
+the closed car drive up, and now she was standing, at bay as it were,
+with eyes fixed on the doorway through which her employer would bring
+the stranger. Pearl was placidly purring in the last rays of the sinking
+sun, her milk-white paws tucked under her soft breast, the only
+unexcited member of the family.
+
+Mrs. Whipp had excuse for staring as the young girl came into view.
+Short wisps of golden hair waved about her face. Her beauty struck a
+sort of awe to the militant woman, who was standing on a mental fence in
+armed neutrality holding herself ready to spring down on that side which
+would regard the stranger as an interloper come to sponge on Miss Upton,
+or possibly she might descend upon the other side and endure the
+newcomer passively.
+
+"This is our little girl, Charlotte," said Miss Mehitable; "our little
+girl to take care of, and who wants to take care of us. This is Mrs.
+Whipp, Geraldine."
+
+Charlotte blinked as the newcomer's face relaxed in her appealing smile,
+and she came forward and took Mrs. Whipp's hard, unexpectant hand in her
+soft grasp. "Such a fortunate girl I am, Mrs. Whipp," she said, "I'm
+sure I shall inconvenience you at first (this fact had been too plainly
+legible on the weazened face to be ignored), but I will try to make up
+for it--try my very best, and it may not be for long."
+
+Charlotte mumbled some inarticulate greeting, falling an instant victim
+to the young creature's humility and loveliness.
+
+"I look very queer, I know," continued Geraldine, "but you see I just
+came down out of the sky."
+
+"She really did," put in Miss Upton. "She came in Mr. Barry's
+areoplane."
+
+"Shan't I die!" commented Mrs. Whipp, continuing to stare with a
+pertinacity equal to Rufus Carder's own. "I believe it. She looks like
+an angel," she thought. Miss Mehitable watched her melting mood with
+inward amusement.
+
+"What a beautiful cat!" said Geraldine. "She's tame, isn't she? Will she
+let you touch her?"
+
+"Well," said Charlotte with a broader smile than had been seen on her
+countenance for many a day, "I guess they don't have cats in the sky."
+She lifted Pearl and bestowed her in Geraldine's arms.
+
+The girl met the lazy, golden eyes rather timorously, but she took her.
+
+"All the cats where--where I was--were wild--and no one--no one fed
+them, you see."
+
+"Well, this cat is named Pearl," said Miss Mehitable. "She's Charlotte's
+jewel and you can bet she does get fed. How about us, Charlotte?" She
+turned to the waiting table. "I want to give Miss Melody her supper and
+put her to bed, and after she has slept twelve hours we'll get her to
+tell us how it feels to fly. Thank Heaven, she's here with no broken
+bones."
+
+Meanwhile Ben Barry had reached home and made a rather formal toilet for
+the evening meal. Even before his mother saw it, she knew she was going
+to be disciplined. While the waitress remained in the room the young
+man's gravity and meticulous politeness would have intimidated most
+mothers with a conscience as guilty as Mrs. Barry's. She was forced to
+raise her napkin several times, not to dry tears, but to conceal smiles
+which would have been sure to add fuel to the flame.
+
+She showed her temerity by soon dismissing the servant. Her son met her
+twinkling eyes coldly. She leaned across the table toward him and
+revealed the handsome teeth he had inherited.
+
+"Now, Benny, don't be ridiculous," she said.
+
+This beginning destroyed his completely. He arrived at his climax at
+once.
+
+"How could you be so heartless!" he exclaimed. "She had told me she
+wanted you to love her. Your coldness shocked her."
+
+This appeal, so pathetic to the speaker, caused Mrs. Barry again to
+raise her napkin to her rebellious lips.
+
+"I tell you," went on Ben heatedly, "she has been through so much that
+the surprise and humiliation of your manner made her faint."
+
+"Now, dear, be calm. Didn't I bring her to again? Didn't I do up her
+hair--it's beautiful, but I like it better wound up, in company--didn't
+I want to give her--"
+
+"Do you suppose," interrupted Ben more hotly, "do you suppose she wasn't
+conscious, and hurt, too, by her unconventional appearance?"
+
+He was arraigning his parent now with open severity.
+
+"How about my shock, Ben? I'm old-fashioned, you know. You come, leading
+that odd little waif and displaying so much--well, enthusiasm, wasn't
+it--wasn't the whole thing a little extreme?"
+
+"Yes, the situation was certainly very extreme. An old rascal had
+managed to capture that flower of a girl, and made her believe that to
+save her dead father's good name she must marry him. I come along with
+the Scout and pick her up out of a field where she was walking, he
+running, and yelling, and firing his gun at us. There was scarcely time
+for her to put on a traveling costume to accord with your ideas of
+decorum, was there?"
+
+Mrs. Barry's eyes widened as they gazed into his accusing ones.
+
+"How dreadful," she said.
+
+"Yes; and even in all her relief at escaping, Miss Melody was in doubt
+as to whether she was not deserting her father's cause--torn, as the
+books say, with conflicting emotions. You may think it was all very
+pleasant."
+
+"Benny, I think it was dreadful! Awfully hard for you, dear; and, oh,
+that wretch might have disabled the plane and hurt you! Why did I ever
+let you have it?"
+
+"To save her! That's why you let me have it."
+
+His mother regarded his glowing face. "What a wretched mess!" she was
+thinking. "What a bother that the girl is so pretty!"
+
+"You remember the other evening when I came home from that motor-cycle
+trip, and the next day Miss Upton came and told you Miss Melody's
+story?"
+
+"Yes, dear." Mrs. Barry added apologetically, "I'm afraid I didn't pay
+strict attention."
+
+"Well, it is a pity that you did not, for I've known ever since that day
+that Geraldine Melody is the only girl I shall ever marry."
+
+His mother's heart beat faster as she marked the expression in those
+steady, young eyes.
+
+There was silence for a space between them. She was the first to speak,
+and she did so with a cool, unsmiling demeanor which reminded him of
+childhood days when he was in disgrace.
+
+"Then you care nothing for what sort of mind and character are possessed
+by your future wife. The skin-deep part is all that interests you."
+
+"That's what she said," he responded quickly. "I suggested that she put
+affairs in a shape where it would be of no use for an irritating
+conscience to try to make trouble. I urged her to marry me this
+afternoon before we came home."
+
+Mrs. Barry's nonchalance deserted her with a rush. Her face became
+crimson.
+
+"How--how criminal!" she ejaculated.
+
+"That's what she said," returned Ben. "She asked if I hadn't a mother. I
+told her I had a glorious one; and she just looked at me and said: 'And
+you would do that to her just because I have nice eyes.'"
+
+Mrs. Barry bit her lip and did not love the waif the more that she had
+been able to defend her.
+
+"What is the use of being a mother!" she ejaculated. "What is the use of
+expending your whole heart's love on a boy for his lifetime, when he
+will desert you at the first temptation!"
+
+"Well, she wouldn't let me, dear," said Ben more gently, flushing and
+feeling his first qualm. "I would stake my life that she is as beautiful
+within as without and that you would have a treasure as well as I. It
+wasn't deserting you. I was thinking of you. I felt she was worthy of
+you and no one else is."
+
+"This is raving, Ben," said his mother, quiet again. "He has escaped,"
+she thought, "and now nothing will come of it." She raised her drooping
+head and again regarded him deprecatingly. "Let us talk of something
+else," she added.
+
+"No," he returned firmly; "not until you understand that I am entirely
+in earnest. You had your love-affair, now I am having mine, and I am
+going through with it, openly and in the sight of all men. I urged her a
+second time to marry me this afternoon, and she looked at me soberly
+with those glorious eyes and her only answer was: 'I want your mother to
+love me.'" Ben looked off reminiscently. "It encouraged me to hope that
+she cares for me a little that your coldness bowled her over so
+completely."
+
+Mrs. Barry looked at him helplessly, and this time when she put up her
+napkin she touched a corner of her eye.
+
+"We stopped at the landing-field at Townley and had our talk," he went
+on.
+
+"And she seemed refined?" Mrs. Barry's voice was a little uncertain.
+
+"Exquisite!" he exclaimed.
+
+"You have standards, Ben," she said. "You couldn't be totally fooled by
+beauty."
+
+He smiled upon her for the first time and a very warming light shone in
+his eyes. "The best," he replied, leaning toward her. "You."
+
+She drew a long, quavering breath; but she scorned weeping women.
+
+Ben watched her repressed emotion.
+
+"Now you examine, Mother," he said gently. "Take your New England
+magnifying-glass along, and when she will see you, put her to the test."
+
+"When she will see me? What do you mean?" asked Mrs. Barry quickly.
+
+"Well"--Ben shrugged his shoulders--"we'll see. How much she was hurt,
+how long it will last, I don't know, of course. You can try."
+
+"_Try!_" repeated the queen of Keefe, her handsome face coloring faintly
+above her white silken gown.
+
+"Yes. Miss Upton will be a good go-between, when she is placated. You
+saw the partisan in her."
+
+Of course, it was all very absurd, as Mrs. Barry told herself when they
+arose from the table; but there was no denying that her throne was
+tottering. Her boy was no longer all hers. Bitter, bitter discovery for
+most mothers to make even when the rival is not Miss Nobody from
+Nowhere.
+
+The next morning betimes Ben presented himself at the Emporium. He drove
+up in his roadster and rushed in upon Miss Upton with an arm full of
+apple blossoms.
+
+"How is she?" he inquired eagerly.
+
+"Hush, hush! I think she's goin' to sleep again. She's had her
+breakfast."
+
+"Mother sent her these," he went on, laying the fragrant mass on the
+counter behind which Miss Mehitable was piling up goods for packing.
+
+She looked at him and the corners of her mouth drew down. "Ben Barry,
+what do you want to tell such a lie for?"
+
+"Because I think it sounds nice," he returned, unabashed. "Really, I
+think she would if she dared, you know. We had it out last night. Now
+what are you going to do about Miss Melody's clothes?"
+
+"Yes, what am I?" said Miss Upton. "Say, Ben"--she gave his arm a push
+and lowered her voice--"what do you s'pose Charlotte's doin'? She's out
+in the shed washin' and ironin' Geraldine's clothes." She lifted her
+plump shoulders and nudged Ben again. They both laughed.
+
+"Good for Lottie!" remarked Ben.
+
+"Oh, she's in love, just in love," said Miss Mehitable. "It's too funny
+to see her. She wants to wait on the child by inches; but clothes--Ben!
+You should have seen Geraldine in my--a--my--a wrapper last night!" Miss
+Mehitable gave vent to another stifled chuckle. "She was just lost in
+it, and we had to hunt for her and fish her out and put her into
+something of Charlotte's. Charlotte was tickled to death." Again the
+speaker's cushiony fist gave Ben's arm an emphatic nudge.
+
+He smiled sympathetically. "I suppose so," he said; "but aren't you
+going to town to-day to buy her some things?"
+
+"What with?" Miss Upton grew sober and extended both hands palms upward.
+"I've been thinkin' about it while I was workin' here. She's got to have
+clothes. I shouldn't wonder if some o' my customers had things they
+could let us have. Once your mother would 'a' been my first thought."
+
+"Hand-me-downs?" said Ben, flushing. "Nothing doing. Surely you have
+credit at the stores."
+
+"Yes, I have, but it's my habit to pay my bills," was the defiant reply,
+"and that girl needs everything. I can't buy 'em all."
+
+Ben patted her arm. "Don't speak so loud, you'll wake the baby. You buy
+the things, Mehit. I'll see that they're paid for."
+
+"How your mother'd love that!"
+
+"My mother will have nothing to do with it."
+
+"Why, you ain't even self-supportin' yet," declared Miss Upton bluntly.
+"'T ain't anything to your discredit, of course; you ain't ready," she
+added kindly.
+
+Ben's steady eyes kept on looking into hers and his low voice replied:
+"My father died suddenly, you remember. He had destroyed one will and
+not yet made another. I have money of my own, quite a lot of it, to tell
+the truth. Now if you'd just let me fly you over to town--"
+
+Miss Mehitable started. "Fly me over, you lunatic!"
+
+"Well, let us go in the train, then. I'll go with you. I know in a
+general way just what she ought to wear. Soft silky things and a--a
+droopy hat."
+
+"Ben Barry, you've taken leave o' your senses. Don't you know that
+everything I get her, that poor child will want to pay for--work, and
+earn the money? If I buy anything for her, it's goin' to be somethin'
+she can pay for before she's ninety."
+
+Ben sighed. "All right, Mehit! have it your own way, only get a move. I
+can't take her out till she gets a hat."
+
+"You haven't got to take her out," retorted Miss Upton decidedly. "She
+don't want to go out with you. It was only last night she was sayin' she
+wished she might never see you again."
+
+"Huh!" ejaculated Ben. "Poor girl, I'm sorry for her, then. She is going
+to stumble over me every time she turns around. She is going to see me
+till she cries for mercy."
+
+He smiled into Miss Upton's doubtful, questioning face for a silent
+space.
+
+"Don't worry about that," he said at last. "Just go upstairs and put on
+your duds, like the dear thing you are, and get the next train." The
+speaker looked at his watch. "You can catch it all right."
+
+"I never heard o' such a thing," said Miss Mehitable. She had made her
+semi-annual trip to the city. The idea of going back again with no
+preparation was startling--and also expensive.
+
+Ben perceived that if there were to be any initiative here he would have
+to furnish it.
+
+"You don't expect to open the shop again until you have moved, do you?"
+
+"No," admitted Miss Upton reluctantly.
+
+"Then you can take your time. Take these flowers upstairs, ask her what
+size things she wears, and hurry up and catch the train."
+
+Miss Upton brought her gaze back from its far-away look and she appeared
+to come to herself. "Look here, Ben Barry, I'm not goin' to be crazy
+just because you are. Her clean clothes'll be all ready for her by
+night. I can buy her a sailor hat right here in the village and maybe a
+jacket. She's got to go to town with me. The idea of buyin' a lot of
+clothes and maybe not havin' 'em right."
+
+"You're perfectly correct, Miss Upton."
+
+The young man took out his pocket-book and handed his companion a bill.
+"This is for your fares," he said.
+
+Miss Mehitable's troubled brow cleared even while she blushed, seeing
+that he had read her thoughts.
+
+"I don't know as this is exactly proper, Ben," she said doubtfully.
+
+"Take my word for it, it is," he replied. "Let me be your conscience for
+a few weeks. I may not see you for a day or two. I have another little
+job of kidnapping on hand; so I put you on your honor to do your part."
+
+He was gone, and Miss Upton, placing the sturdy stems of the apple
+blossoms in a pitcher of water, carried them upstairs. She tiptoed into
+the room where Geraldine was in bed, but the girl was awake and gave an
+exclamation of delight.
+
+"Have you an apple tree, too?" she asked.
+
+"No, Mr. Barry brought these over."
+
+The girl's face sobered as she buried it in the blooms Miss Upton
+offered. Miss Mehitable looked admiringly at the golden braids hanging
+over the pillows.
+
+"Do you feel rested?" she asked.
+
+"Perfectly, and I know I have taken your bed. To-night we will make me a
+nice nest on the floor."
+
+Miss Upton smiled. "Oh, I've got a cot. We'll do all right. Do you
+s'pose there is any way we could get your clothes from that fiend on the
+farm?" she added.
+
+Geraldine shrank and shook her head. "I wouldn't dare try," she replied.
+
+"Then you and I've got to go to town to-morrow," said Miss Upton, "and
+get you something."
+
+The girl returned her look seriously and caught her lip under her teeth
+for a silent space.
+
+"Yes, I know what you're thinkin'," said Miss Mehitable cheerfully; "but
+the queerest thing and the nicest thing happened to me this mornin'. I
+got some money that I didn't expect. Just in the nick o' time, you see.
+We can go to town and--"
+
+Geraldine reached up a hand and took that of her friend, her face
+growing eager.
+
+"How splendid!" she exclaimed. "Then we will go and get me the very
+simplest things I can get along with and we'll keep account of every
+cent and I will pay it all back to you. Do you know I think this bed of
+yours is full of courage? At any rate, when I waked up this morning I
+found all my hopefulness had come back. I feel that I am going to make
+my living and not be a burden on anyone. It's wonderful to feel that
+way!"
+
+"Of course you are, child." Miss Upton patted the hand that grasped
+hers. "But first off, you'll have to help me move. I've got a lot o'
+packin' to do, you understand. I'm movin' my shop to Keefeport. I always
+do summers."
+
+For answer Geraldine, who had been leaning on her elbow, sat up quickly,
+evidently with every intention of rising.
+
+"Get back there," laughed Miss Mehitable. "Your clothes ain't ironed
+yet. I'll move the apple blossoms up side of you--"
+
+"Don't, please," said Geraldine, as she lay down reluctantly. "I think
+I'd rather they would keep their distance--like their owner."
+
+"Now, child," said Miss Mehitable coaxingly. "Mrs. Barry's one o' the
+grandest women in the world. I felt pretty hot myself yesterday--I might
+as well own it--but that'll all smooth over. She didn't mean a thing
+except that she was surprised."
+
+"We can't blame her for that," returned Geraldine, "but--but--I'm sorry
+he brought the flowers. I wonder if you couldn't make him
+understand--very kindly, you know, Miss Upton, that I want to be--just
+to be forgotten."
+
+Miss Upton pursed her lips and her eyes laughed down into the earnest
+face. "I'm afraid, child, I don't know any language that could make him
+understand that."
+
+Geraldine did not smile. She felt that in those intense hours of
+yesterday, freed from every convention of earth, they two had lived a
+lifetime. She would rather dwell on its memory henceforth than run the
+risk of any more shocks. Peace and forgetfulness. That is what she felt
+she needed from now on.
+
+"He said he was goin' on another kidnappin' errand now," remarked Miss
+Upton.
+
+The girl looked up quickly from her introspection. A startled look
+sprang into her eyes and she sat up in bed.
+
+"Oh, Miss Upton, you know him!" she exclaimed, gazing at her friend.
+"Does he keep solemn promises?"
+
+"I'm sure he does, child. What's the matter now?"
+
+"He promised me--oh, he promised me, he wouldn't go back to that farm
+alone." The girl's eyes filled with tears that overflowed on her
+suddenly pale cheeks.
+
+Miss Mehitable sat down on the edge of the bed and patted her, while
+Geraldine wiped the drops away with the long sleeve of Charlotte's
+unbleached nightgown. "Then he won't, dear, don't you worry," she said
+comfortingly. "Where's that courage you were talkin' about just now?"
+
+"That was for myself," said the girl grievously, accepting the
+handkerchief Miss Upton gave her.
+
+"Who else does he want out o' that God-forsaken place?" asked Miss Upton
+impatiently. "I wish to goodness that boy could stay put somewhere."
+
+"It's a servant, a dwarf, a poor little friendless boy who was kind to
+me there. If it hadn't been for him I shouldn't be here now. I should be
+dying--there! Mr. Barry is going to get him and bring him away. Oh, why
+didn't I prevent him!" Geraldine broke down completely, weeping
+broken-heartedly into the handkerchief.
+
+Miss Upton smiled over her head. She knew nothing of Rufus Carder's
+shot-gun, and she was thinking of Geraldine's earnest request that Ben
+Barry should forget her.
+
+"Now, stop that right away, my child," she said, enjoying herself
+hugely. She had seen Ben Barry's heart in his eyes as he came walking
+under the apple blossoms yesterday and this revelation of Geraldine's
+was most pleasing.
+
+"Stop cryin'," she said with authority. "Ben Barry's just as smart as he
+is brave. He ain't goin' to take any foolish risk now that you're safe.
+I don't know what he wants the boy for, but probably it's some good
+reason; and if you don't stop workin' yourself up, you won't be fit to
+go to town to-morrow. I want you should stay in bed all day. Now, you
+behave yourself, my lamb. Ben'll come back all right."
+
+Geraldine flushed through her tears. It was heavenly to be scolded by
+someone who loved her.
+
+She looked at the pitcher exiled to the bureau. "I--I think you might as
+well move the apple blossoms here," she said, wiping her eyes and
+speaking meekly.
+
+"All right," said Miss Mehitable, beaming, and she proceeded to set a
+light stand beside the bed and placed the rosy mass upon it.
+
+Toward night came a parcel-post package for Miss Geraldine Melody. Miss
+Upton and Charlotte both stood by with eager interest while the girl sat
+up in bed and opened it. None of the three had ever seen such a box of
+bon-bons as was disclosed. It was a revelation of dainty richness, and
+the older women exclaimed while Geraldine bowed her fair head over this
+new evidence of thoughtfulness. The long sleeves of Charlotte's
+nightgown, the patchwork quilt of the bed, the homely surroundings, all
+made the contrast of the gift more striking. There was a card upon it.
+Ben Barry's card: Geraldine turned it over and read: "Is the princess
+happy?"
+
+She was back among the clouds, the bright spring air flowing past her,
+each breath a wonderful memory.
+
+The two women looked at one another. They saw her close her hand on the
+card. She lifted the box to them, and raised her pensive eyes.
+
+"It is for us all," she said softly; but her ardent thought was
+repeating:
+
+"He would--he _will_ take care of himself, for me!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+The Transformation
+
+
+Into the village nearest the Carder farm rolled Ben Barry's roadster. He
+stopped at the inn which made some pretension to furnishing
+entertainment to the motorists who found it on their route, and after a
+luncheon put up his car and walked to the village center to the
+post-office and grocery store. He had most hope of the latter as a
+bureau of information.
+
+After buying some cigarettes and chocolate, and exchanging comments on
+the weather with the proprietor, he introduced his subject.
+
+"I believe Rufus Carder lives near here," he remarked.
+
+"Yus, oh, yus," agreed the man, who was in his shirt-sleeves, and who
+here patronized the cuspidor.
+
+"He's pretty well-to-do, I understand. I should suppose if he is
+public-spirited his being in the neighborhood would be a great
+advantage to the village."
+
+"Yus, _if_," returned the grocer, scornfully. "The bark on a tree ain't
+a circumstance to him. Queer now, ain't it?" he went on argumentatively.
+"Carder's a rich man, and so many o' these-here rich men, they act as if
+they wasn't ever goin' to die. Where's the satisfaction in not usin'
+their money? You know him?" The speaker cocked an eye up at the handsome
+young stranger.
+
+"I--I've met him," returned Ben.
+
+"You might be interested, then, to hear about what happened out to the
+farm yisterday. P'r'aps it'll be in the paper to-night. A young girl
+visitin' the Carders was kidnapped right out o' the field by an
+areoplane. Yes, sir, slick as a whistle." Ben's look of interest and
+amazement rewarded the narrator. "One o' the hands from the farm come in
+last night and told about it, but the editor o' the paper thought't was
+a hoax and he didn't dare to work on it last night. Lots of us saw the
+plane, but the feller's story did sound fishy, and if the
+_Sunburst_--that's our paper--should print a lot o' stuff about Carder
+shootin' guns and foamin' at the mouth when he saw the girl he was
+goin' to marry fly up into the sky _and't wa'n't so_--ye see, 't would
+go mighty hard with our editor."
+
+"Why didn't he send somebody right out to the farm to inquire?" asked
+Ben.
+
+The grocer smiled, looked off, and shook his head.
+
+"You say you've met Rufus Carder? Well, ye don't know him or else ye
+wouldn't ask that. Don't monkey with the buzz-saw is a pretty good
+motter where he's concerned. I'm lookin' fer Pete now. This is his day
+to come in an' stock up. He's so stupid he couldn't make up anything,
+and we'll know fer sure if there's any truth at all in the story."
+
+"Who is Pete--a son?" Ben put the question calmly, considering his
+elation at his good luck. He had made up his mind that he might have to
+spend days in this soporific hamlet.
+
+The grocer looked at him quickly from under his bushy eyebrows.
+
+"What made ye ask that? Some folks say he is. Say, are you one o' these
+here detectives? Be you after Carder? Pete's a boy they took out of an
+asylum, and if he'd ever had any care he wouldn't be bandy-legged and
+undersized, but don't you say I've told ye anything, 'cause I haven't."
+
+Ben smiled into the startled, suspicious face. "Not a bit of it," he
+answered. "I'm just motoring about these parts on a little vacation, and
+I got out of cigarettes, so I called on you."
+
+"There's Pete now!" exclaimed the grocer eagerly, hurrying out from
+behind the counter and to the door.
+
+Other of the neighbors recognized the Carder car and came out to
+question the boy, who by the time he entered the grocery found himself
+confronting an audience who all asked questions at once. Pete's shock of
+hair stood up as usual like a scrubbing-brush; he wore no hat, and his
+dull eyes looked about from one to another eager face. Ben had strolled
+back of a tall pile of starch-boxes.
+
+"Is it true an areoplane come down in Mr. Carder's field yisterday?" The
+question volleyed at the dwarf from a dozen directions.
+
+He stared at them all dumbly, and they cried at him the more, one woman
+shaking him by the shoulder.
+
+"Look here, shut up, all of you!" said the proprietor; "let the boy do
+his business first. Ye'll put it all out of his head. What d'ye want,
+Pete?"
+
+The dwarf drew a list out of his pocket and handed it to the grocer upon
+which the bystanders all fell upon him again.
+
+As Ben regarded the dwarf, he felt some reflection of Geraldine's
+compassion for the forlorn little object in his ragged clothes, and he
+realized that it was a wonder that the poor, stultified brain had
+possessed enough initiative to carry out the important part he had
+played in their lives.
+
+While the grocer's clerk was putting up the packages the man himself
+laid his hand on Pete's shoulder.
+
+"Now then, boy," he said kindly, "an areoplane dived down out o' the sky
+into your medder yisterday and picked up a homely, stupid girl and flew
+off with her."
+
+"She was an angel!" exclaimed the dwarf. His dull eyes brightened and
+looked away. "She was more beautiful than flowers."
+
+"She was, eh?" returned the grocer, and the crowd listened
+breathlessly. "They say your master was goin' to marry her? That a
+fact?"
+
+The light went out of Pete's face and his lips closed.
+
+The grocer shook him gently by the shoulder. "Speak up, boy. Was there
+any shootin'? Did the air turn blue 'round there?"
+
+Pete's lips did not open for a moment. "Master told me not to talk," he
+said at last.
+
+A burst of excited laughter came from the crowd. "Then it's true, it's
+true!" they cried.
+
+The grocer kept his hand on the dwarf's shoulder. "Ye might as well
+tell," he said, "'cause Hiram Jones come in last night and told us all
+about it."
+
+Pete's lips remained closed.
+
+"Give ye a big lump o' chocolate if ye'll tell us," said one woman.
+
+"Master told me not to talk," was all the boy would say.
+
+The grocer's clerk went out to the auto with a basket and packed the
+purchases into it.
+
+Ben came from behind the starch boxes, went out the door, and accosted
+him.
+
+"Do you want to make five dollars?" he asked.
+
+"Do I?" drawled the boy, winking at him. "Ain't I got a girl?"
+
+"Then jump in and drive this car out to the Carder farm. I want to talk
+to Pete."
+
+"Eh-h-h! You're a reporter!" cried the boy. "Less see the money."
+
+Ben promptly produced it. "In with you now."
+
+"Sure, I'll have to speak to Pete," the boy demurred. "He can't walk out
+to the farm with them phony legs."
+
+"In with you," repeated the tall stranger firmly. "Go now or not at
+all." He held the bill before the boy's eyes. "I have my car at the inn.
+I'll take care of Pete."
+
+The boy looked eagerly at the money. "Can't I tell the boss?"
+
+"I'll fix it with the boss. Here's your money. In with you."
+
+The next minute the car was rattling down the street and Ben went back
+into the store where Pete was still being badgered by a laughing crowd
+persisting in questions about the angel.
+
+As Pete caught sight of him, the obstinate expression in his dull eyes
+did not at first change, but in a minute something familiar in the look
+of the stranger impressed him, and suddenly he knew.
+
+"Was it you? Was it you?" the boy blurted out, elbowing the others aside
+and approaching Ben eagerly.
+
+The bystanders looked curiously at the stranger and at the excited boy.
+
+"I want to have a little talk with you, Pete," said Ben. The dwarf's
+staring eyes had filled.
+
+"Is she here? Has she come down again?" he cried, unmindful of the
+gaping listeners.
+
+"Be quiet," returned Ben. Then he turned to the grocer. "I've sent your
+boy on an errand," he said, and he handed the man a bill. "Will that pay
+you for his time? I've paid him."
+
+He put his hand on Pete's shoulder and led him through the crowd out to
+the street.
+
+"Master's car has gone," cried the dwarf, looking wildly up and down the
+street.
+
+"I have taken care of it," said Ben quietly.
+
+"But I must find it," declared Pete, beginning to shake.
+
+Ben saw his abject terror.
+
+"There's nothing to be afraid of, Pete, nothing any more," said Ben. "Do
+you want to see Miss Melody?"
+
+"Oh, Master!" exclaimed the boy, looking up and meeting a kindly look.
+
+"Then come with me. Let us hurry." Reaching the inn, Ben paid his bill
+while Pete's eyes roved about in all directions for his goddess.
+
+Leading the boy out to the garage he bade him enter the machine. Even
+here Pete hesitated, his weight of terrifying responsibility still
+hanging over him.
+
+"Master's car!" he gasped, looking imploringly up into Ben's face.
+
+"It has gone home, back to the farm," said Ben. "Don't worry. There's
+nothing to worry about."
+
+Pete was trembling as he entered the roadster. He wondered if he were
+dreaming. All this couldn't be real. Nothing had ever happened to him
+before except his goddess.
+
+Ben put on speed and the car flew out of the village and along the
+highroad. They entered another village, but halted not. Through it they
+sped and again out into the open country.
+
+Pete felt dazed, but the man of the motor-cycle, Master had said, was the
+man of the aeroplane. He was here beside him, big, powerful. The dwarf
+felt that he was risking his own life on the hope of seeing his goddess,
+for what would Rufus Carder say to him when he finally returned to the
+farm, a deserter from his duty.
+
+Silently they sped on. Just once Pete spoke, for his heart had sunk.
+
+"Shall we see her, Master?" he asked unsteadily.
+
+Ben turned and smiled at him cheerfully.
+
+"Sure thing," he answered. "She is well and she wants to see you."
+
+Pete had had no practice in smiling, but a joyful reassurance pervaded
+him. Let Rufus Carder kill him, if it must be. This would come first.
+
+Darkness had fallen when they finally entered a town and drove to a
+hotel. Ben looked rather ruefully at the poor little scarecrow beside
+him with his hatless scrubbing-brush of a head, but the keeper of the
+garage consented to give the boy a place to sleep.
+
+"At least," thought Ben, "it will be more comfortable than the boards
+outside Geraldine's door."
+
+He saw to it that the dwarf should have a good supper, after which Pete
+presented himself at Ben's room as he had been ordered to do. Never
+before in his life had he had all the meat and potato he wanted, and
+still marveling at the wonderful things happening to him he was
+conducted to Ben, and stood before him with questioning eyes.
+
+"Is she here, Master?" he asked.
+
+"No, but we shall see her to-morrow."
+
+"When--when do I go back to the farm?" asked the boy.
+
+"Never," replied Ben calmly.
+
+"Master!" exclaimed the dwarf, and could say no more. His tanned face
+grew darker with the rush of crimson.
+
+"You're my servant now," said Ben, and his good-humored expression shone
+upon an eager face that worked pitifully.
+
+"What--what can I do?" stammered Pete, his rough hands with their
+broken nails working together.
+
+"You can get into the bathtub."
+
+"Wha--what, Master?"
+
+Ben threw open the door of his bathroom.
+
+"Draw that tub full of water and use up all the soap on yourself. Make
+yourself clean for to-morrow. Understand?"
+
+Pete didn't understand anything. He was in a blissful daze. He had never
+seen faucets except the one in the Carder kitchen. Ben had to draw the
+water for him, showing him the hot and the cold; finally making him
+understand that he was not to get in with his clothes on, and that he
+was to use any and all of those fresh white towels, the like of which
+the boy had never seen; then his new master came out, closed the door,
+and laughing to himself sat down to wait and read a magazine.
+
+There was a mighty splashing in the bathroom.
+
+"Clean to see her. Clean to see her," Pete kept saying to himself. He
+was going to be able to speak to her with no one to object. He was going
+to work for this god who could fly down out of the sky. Rufus Carder
+might come to find him later and kill him, but that was no matter.
+
+When finally the bathroom door opened and again arrayed in his
+disreputable clothes the dwarf appeared, Ben spoke without looking up
+from his magazine.
+
+"Did you let the water out of the tub?"
+
+"No, Master. I didn't know."
+
+Ben got up, and Pete followed him, eager for the lesson. Ben viewed the
+color of the water frothing with suds.
+
+"I think you must be clean," he remarked dryly, as he opened the
+waste-pipe, "or at least you will be after a few more ducks."
+
+"Yes, Master, to see her."
+
+He showed the boy how to wash out the tub which the little fellow did
+with a will.
+
+"Now, then, to bed with you, and we'll have an early breakfast, for we
+have a busy day to-morrow. Good-night."
+
+Pete ambled away to the garage so happy that he still felt himself in a
+dream. To see his goddess, and never to go back to Rufus Carder! Those
+two facts chased each other around a rosy circle in his brain until he
+fell asleep.
+
+When Ben Barry came out of his room the next morning he found Pete
+squatting outside his door. He regarded the broken, earth-stained shoes
+and the ragged coat and trousers, which if they had ever been of a
+distinct color were of none now, and the thick mop of hair. The eyes
+raised to his met a gay smile.
+
+"Hello, there," said Ben. "Did you think I might get away?"
+
+The dwarf rose. "I--I didn't--didn't know how much--much was a dream,"
+he stammered.
+
+"I hope you had a real breakfast," said Ben.
+
+The dwarf smiled. It was a dreary, unaccustomed sort of crack in his
+weather-beaten face. "I had coffee, too," he replied in an awestruck
+tone.
+
+Ben laughed. "Good enough. You go out to the car and wait till I come.
+I'm going to my breakfast now."
+
+In less than an hour they were on their way. Pete's eyes had lost their
+dullness.
+
+Ben drove to a department store, on a small scale such as the cities
+boast. He parked his car, and when he told Pete to get out the boy
+began looking about at once for Geraldine.
+
+"Is she here, Master?" he asked as they entered the store.
+
+"No, we shall see her to-night," was the reply.
+
+Then more miracles began to happen to Pete. He was taken from one
+section to another in the store and when he emerged again into the
+street, he hardly knew himself. He was wearing new underclothes,
+stockings, shoes, coat, vest; even the phony legs had been cared for in
+the trousers, cut off to suit the little fellow's peculiar needs, and
+his eyes seemed to have grown larger in the process. Under his arm he
+carried a box containing more underwear.
+
+Next they drove to a barber's where Pete's hair was properly cut; then
+to a hat store and he was fitted to a hat.
+
+When they came out, Ben regarded his work whimsically. The boy was not a
+bad-looking boy. He liked the direct manner of the dwarf's grateful,
+almost reverent, gaze up into his own merry eyes. There was nothing
+shifty there.
+
+When they reentered the roadster, Ben spoke to him before he started the
+car.
+
+"Do you know why I have done all this, Pete?"
+
+The boy shook his head. "Because you came down out of the sky?" he
+questioned.
+
+"No, it is just because you took care of Miss Melody; because you put
+those letters underneath her door."
+
+Pete's face crimsoned with happiness. "I helped her--I--I helped her get
+away," he said.
+
+"Yes, and she will never forget it, and neither will I."
+
+"You--you--asked me if I loved her," said Pete, his mind returning to
+the day of the motor-cycle visit.
+
+"Yes, and you did, didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, and--and when she was gone up to--to heaven, I wanted to die till
+I--I remembered that she--she wanted to go."
+
+"Yes, wanted to go just as much as you did, and more. Now _that_ life is
+all over, Pete. Just as much gone as those old clothes of yours that we
+left to be burned. You've been a faithful, brave boy, and Miss Melody
+and I are going to look after you henceforth."
+
+Pete couldn't speak. Ben saw him bite his lip to control himself. The
+roadster started and moving slowly out of the town sped again along a
+country road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+The Goddess
+
+
+On the same day Geraldine and Miss Upton were patronizing the department
+stores in the city and getting such clothing as was absolutely necessary
+for the girl. Geraldine's purchases were rigidly simple.
+
+"I think you're downright stingy, child," commented Miss Upton when the
+girl had overruled certain suggestions Miss Mehitable had made with the
+fear of Ben Barry before her eyes.
+
+"No, indeed. Don't you see how it's counting up?" rejoined Geraldine
+earnestly. "All these things on your bill, and no telling how soon I can
+pay for them."
+
+Miss Upton noticed how the salesgirls appreciated the beauty they had to
+deal with, and she was in sympathy with their efforts to dress Geraldine
+as she deserved.
+
+There were some shops into which the girl refused to enter, and it was
+plain to her companion that these had been the scenes of some of her
+repulsive experiences.
+
+Also they shunned the restaurant where they had met; and every minute
+that they were on the street Geraldine held tight to Miss Upton's
+substantial arm.
+
+"I shall be so glad when we get home," she said repeatedly.
+
+"Now, look here," said Miss Upton, "there's one thing you've got to
+accept from me as a present. You're my little girl and I've a right to
+give you one thing, I hope."
+
+"I'd much rather you wouldn't," returned Geraldine anxiously--"not until
+I've paid for these."
+
+She had changed the white dress she wore into town for a dark-blue skirt
+and jacket which formed the chief item of her purchases, and on her head
+she had a black sailor hat which Miss Upton had procured in Keefe.
+
+"I want to give you," said Miss Upton--"I want to give you a--a droopy
+hat!"
+
+Geraldine laughed. "What in the world for, you dear? What do I need of
+droopy hats?"
+
+"To wear with your light things--your white dress, and--and everything."
+
+"Miss Upton, how absurd! I don't need it at all. Don't think of such a
+thing. I shan't go anywhere."
+
+"I don't believe you know what you'll do," returned Miss Mehitable.
+"Just come and try one on, anyway. I want to see you in it."
+
+So, coaxing, while the girl demurred, she led her to the millinery
+section of the store they were in. Of course, putting hats on Geraldine
+was a very fascinating game, which everybody enjoyed except the girl
+herself. There was one hat especially in which Miss Upton reveled,
+mentally considering its devastating effect upon Ben Barry. It was very
+simple, and at the most depressed point of the brim nestled one soft,
+loose-leaved pink rose with a little foliage. Miss Upton's eyes
+glistened and she drew the saleslady aside.
+
+"I've bought it," she said triumphantly when she came back.
+
+"It isn't right," replied Geraldine, although it must be admitted that
+she herself had thought of Ben when she first saw the reflection of it
+in the glass.
+
+"Don't you want me to have any fun?" returned Miss Mehitable, quite
+excited, for the price of the hat caused the matter to be portentous.
+
+"Let him pay for it," she considered recklessly. "What's the harm as
+long as he and I are the only ones who know it, and wild horses couldn't
+drag it out of me?"
+
+So, Geraldine carrying the large hatbox, they at last pursued their way
+to the railway station and with mutual sighs of relief stowed themselves
+into the train for Keefe.
+
+"What you thinkin' about, child?" demanded Miss Mehitable after a long
+period of silence.
+
+Geraldine met her regard wistfully. "I was wondering if anybody is ever
+perfectly happy. Isn't there always some drawback, some 'if' that has to
+be met?"
+
+"Was you thinkin' about Mrs. Barry, Geraldine? I'm sorry she had one o'
+her haughty spells that day--"
+
+"No, I was not thinking of her; it is Mr. Barry--Ben. He went on a very
+dangerous errand yesterday."
+
+"You don't say so! Why, he came in as gay as a lark with those apple
+blossoms and he went out to his machine whistlin'. He couldn't have had
+much on his mind. You know I told you yesterday he's as sensible as he
+is brave."
+
+"What good is bravery against a madman with a gun--still he promised, he
+promised me he would not go to the farm alone."
+
+"Then he'll abide by it. You do give me a turn, Geraldine, talkin' about
+madmen and guns."
+
+The girl sighed.
+
+"I haven't had anything but 'turns' ever since I first saw the Carder
+farm; but it is unkind to draw you into it. Sometimes I wish I had never
+mentioned Pete to Mr. Barry, yet it seems disloyal to leave the boy
+there when I owe him so much."
+
+And then Geraldine told her friend in detail the part the dwarf had
+played in her life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Barry was, of course, able to think of little else than the new
+element which had come so suddenly into her calm, well-ordered life. She
+shrank fastidiously from anything undignified, and she felt that through
+no fault of her own she was now in an undignified position. In her son's
+eyes she was a culprit. Even her humble friend, Mehitable Upton, had
+revealed plainly an indignation at her attitude. When Ben left yesterday
+telling her that he might be gone several days, without explaining why
+or where, she felt the barrier between them even while he kissed her
+good-bye. He had made a vigorous declaration of independence that night
+at dinner, and now he had gone away to let her think it over, not even
+noticing that her eyes were heavy from a sleepless night.
+
+All that day, as she moved about her customary occupations, the thought
+of Geraldine haunted her; the way the girl had avoided her eyes after
+their first encounter, how she had clung to Miss Upton, and how eagerly
+she had urged departure.
+
+"So silly," thought Mrs. Barry while she fed her pigeons. "How absurd of
+her to expect anything different from a civil reception."
+
+Side by side with this condemnation, however, ran the consideration of
+how Ben had probably flung himself at her feet so far as the Scout plane
+would allow, and how he had even urged immediate matrimony. That hurt
+too much! Mrs. Barry saw the pigeons through a veil of quick tears. One
+more night she slept or waked over the problem, and as her thought
+adjusted itself more to Geraldine, the practical side of the girl's
+situation unfolded to her consideration. There would seem to be no
+question of returning to the irate farmer to get her clothing, yet that
+might be the very thing Ben was doing now; risking his precious life
+again for this stranger who was nothing to them. The more Mrs. Barry
+thought about it, the more restless she became. At last there was no
+question any longer but that her only peace lay in going to Miss Melody.
+After all, it was merely courteous to inquire how the girl had borne the
+excitement of her escape; but in the back of Mrs. Barry's mind was the
+hope that she might discover where her boy had gone now.
+
+She made a hasty toilet, jumped into her electric, and drove
+to Upton's Fancy Goods and Notions. The shades were drawn. The
+taking-account-of-stock notice was still on the door which resisted all
+effort to open it.
+
+Knocking availed nothing. Mrs. Barry's lips took a line of firmness
+equal to her son's. Walking around to the back door, she found it open
+and entered the kitchen. It was empty.
+
+She moved through the house into the shop. There was Mrs. Whipp, her
+head tied up in a handkerchief, bending over a packing-box. She started
+at a sound, raised her head, and stood amazed at the visitor's identity.
+
+"I knocked, but you didn't seem to hear me," said Mrs. Barry with
+dignity.
+
+"Yes'm, I did hear a knock," returned Charlotte, "but they pound there
+all day, and o' course I didn't know't was you. I tell Miss Upton if we
+kept the door locked and the shades down all the time, we'd do a drivin'
+business. Folks seem jest possessed to come in and buy somethin' 'cause
+they can't. Did you want somethin' special, Mrs. Barry?"
+
+"I came to see Miss Melody. I wished to inquire if she has recovered
+from her excitement."
+
+A softened expression stole over Charlotte's weazened face.
+
+"She ain't here. They've gone to the city."
+
+"Who--who did you say has gone?"
+
+Mrs. Barry controlled her own start. Visions of two in that roadster
+swept over her. Perhaps, she herself having forfeited her right to
+consideration--there was no telling what might have happened by this
+time. Mrs. Whipp's smile was frightfully complacent.
+
+"Miss Upton and her went together," was the reply. "Of course, all the
+girl's clo'es was in the den o' that fiend she got away from, and she
+had to git some more."
+
+Mrs. Barry breathed freer.
+
+"Miss Upton cal'lated to get some things from her customers and fix 'em
+over, but Mr. Barry, he wouldn't have it so."
+
+"Are you referring to my son?"
+
+"Yes, Miss Upton said he turned up his nose at hand-me-downs, so she had
+to jest brace up and git 'em new."
+
+Mrs. Whipp's eyes seemed to see far away and her expression under the
+protecting towel was one quite novel.
+
+Mrs. Barry cleared her throat.
+
+"My son was here, then, before he went away on his--his little trip."
+
+"Yes," replied Mrs. Whipp, appearing to perceive Dan Cupid over her
+visitor's shoulder. "He come in to bring the apple blossoms and ask how
+Geraldine was, and that night sech a box o' candy as he sent her! You'd
+ought to 'a' seen it, Mis' Barry. P'r'aps you did see it." Charlotte met
+the lady's steady eyes eagerly.
+
+"No, I did not see it."
+
+"Well, that poor little girl she couldn't half enjoy them bon-bons,
+'cause she was so scared somethin' was goin' to happen to Mr. Barry."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, she was afraid he'd gone back to that farm where they murder folks
+as quick as look at 'em." Charlotte sniffed a sniff of excited
+enjoyment.
+
+"What would he go there for?" demanded Mrs. Barry. "Surely not to get
+those foolish clothes!"
+
+"I don't know. I only know Geraldine cried. Miss Upton said so; but she
+told her how Mr. Barry was jest as smart as he was brave and she took
+her to the city to git her mind off."
+
+Charlotte smiled with as soft an expression as the unaccustomed lips
+could reveal, and nothing but stamping her aristocratic foot could have
+expressed Mrs. Barry's exasperation.
+
+"I am quite sure my son would not take any absurd and unnecessary step,"
+she said, with such hauteur that Mrs. Whipp came out of her day-dream
+and realized that the great lady's eyes were flashing. Without another
+word the visitor turned and left the shop, her black and violet cape
+sweeping through living-room and kitchen and back into her machine.
+
+The rest of the day was spent by the lady in alternations of scorn,
+vexation, and anxiety.
+
+Late in the afternoon she heard a motor enter the grounds, and hurrying
+to the door saw with a happy leap of the heart that it was Ben's
+roadster. Her relief drove her to forgive and forget and to hurry out to
+the piazza. The machine came on and she saw that her son was not alone.
+A boy sat beside him.
+
+The roadster stopped. Ben jumped out and kissed his mother, then
+beckoned to Pete, who obediently drew near and stood on his curved legs,
+his hat in his hand. He looked up at the queenly lady, and his eyes
+which had ceased to wonder were still seeking.
+
+"Is she here, Master?" he asked.
+
+"No, but near by," replied Ben.
+
+"Mother, I've engaged a new boy. His name is Pete. He is here for
+general utility. He is very willing."
+
+Mrs. Barry gazed in disapproval at the quaint, clean figure in his
+brand-new clothes. Pete's rough hands constantly twirled his straw hat.
+
+"You should have asked me," she said. "We don't need any more help."
+
+Ben put his arm around her and drew her close to him. "Yes, we do," he
+replied cheerfully, "down at Keefeport. Pete will go there and keep
+things in shape. You will wonder how you ever got along without him; but
+I need him first. He was one of the hands at the Carder farm--has been
+there from a child and he knows more about his master's devilment than
+anybody else."
+
+"Ben!" His mother looked up reproachfully into the young fellow's happy
+eyes. "Why did you need to risk your life again--"
+
+"Oh, not a bit of that," laughed Ben. "I picked Pete out of a grocery
+store--"
+
+"Where is she, Master?" The voice of the boy was pleading again.
+
+"Pete was a good friend to Miss Melody, the only one she had, and now
+his reward is going to be to see her."
+
+"You don't mean," exclaimed Mrs. Barry, "that you have spent a couple of
+days to get this boy and dress him up in order to allow him to see Miss
+Melody?"
+
+"No, not exactly. I kidnapped him as an information bureau."
+
+"Why can't you let that disgusting farmer alone?" asked the lady
+despairingly.
+
+"Because if I do, he won't let us alone," returned Ben shortly. "Well,
+now, we've shown ourselves to you and we'll be off to keep my word to
+Pete. Hop in, boy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Upton and Geraldine had reached home, hatbox and all, and were in
+the dismantled shop answering Charlotte's questions when they heard an
+automobile stop before the door and a cheery whistle sounded. The
+repellent shades were still down at the windows.
+
+"That's Ben Barry!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable. "Don't you dare to touch
+that hat!" she added severely to Geraldine, whose cheeks flushed deeply
+as a tattoo began on the locked door.
+
+So the girl was standing in the middle of the room wearing the droopy
+hat when Ben came in, followed by the dwarf at whom Miss Mehitable and
+Charlotte stared.
+
+Geraldine forgot her hat, and Ben Barry--forgot everything but the eager
+adoration in the face of the transformed slave. "Why, Pete, Pete!" she
+cried joyously, running to meet him.
+
+The boy bit his lips to keep back the tears and his clumsy fingers
+worked nervously as his goddess rested both her hands on his shoulders.
+He couldn't speak, but gazed and gazed up into the eyes under the droopy
+hat.
+
+Ben Barry, his arms folded, looked on at the tableau while Geraldine
+murmured welcome and reassurance.
+
+"Aren't we the happiest people in the world, Pete?" she finished softly.
+
+He choked. "Yes, and I'm not going back," he was able to say at last.
+
+"I should say not," put in Ben. "I've brought somebody to help you move,
+Mehit," he added. Miss Upton was still staring at the dwarf's legs.
+
+"That's fine," said Geraldine. "Pete is just the right one for us."
+
+The boy kept his eyes on hers.
+
+"He can't ever get you again," he said, with trembling eagerness,
+"'cause I know all about the girls he had there before you, and how one
+jumped out the winder, and I know what hospital they took her to, for I
+drove, and I'm goin' there with Mr. Barry, and he's goin' to--"
+
+"Never mind, Pete," interrupted Ben quietly. "We're going to take care
+of that without troubling Miss Melody."
+
+The dwarf dropped back as Ben advanced. Charlotte said afterward that it
+gave her a turn to see the manner in which the young man took both the
+girl's hands and scanned her changed appearance.
+
+"It looks perfectly absurd with this tailor suit," she said, blushing
+and laughing. "Miss Upton _would_ give it to me. So extravagant!"
+
+The elaborate wink which Miss Mehitable bestowed on Ben as he glanced
+at her over his love's head was intended to warn him that he had a bill
+to pay.
+
+"Miss Upton has been your good fairy all along, hasn't she?" His look
+was so intense and he spoke so seriously that Geraldine glanced up at
+him half timidly and down again.
+
+Charlotte pulled Miss Upton's dress and motioned with her head toward
+the living-room; but, as Miss Mehitable said afterward, "What was the
+good of _their_ goin' and leavin' that critter there?"
+
+"Thank you for the candy, Mr. Barry," said Geraldine, meeting his eyes
+again steadily, "but please don't. You have put me under everlasting
+obligation, but will you do me one more favor? Will you let me help
+these dear women and--and stay away, and--don't send me anything?"
+
+Miss Mehitable understood this prayer, and she had a qualm as she
+thought of the price of the bewitching hat which was at the present
+moment doing its worst.
+
+"Yes, for a little while," replied Ben. "Pete will get you moved and
+settled at the Port and then he and I will take a trip. I don't know
+how long we shall be away; but when we return you will understand that
+the ogre's teeth have been extracted, the tiger's claws cut, and the
+spider's web rent. How's that?" He smiled down into the girl's grave
+eyes, still holding her hands close.
+
+"If I could only find out what my father's debt to him really is, I
+would consecrate my life to paying it," she said in a low tone.
+
+Miss Mehitable felt that the atmosphere was getting very warm.
+
+"Come here, Pete," she said. "I want to show you my kitchen." The dwarf
+walked slowly backward to the door, his eyes on the young couple, as if
+he feared to let them out of his sight lest they vanish and he waken.
+"Come on, Charlotte."
+
+The three disappeared, Miss Mehitable urging Pete by the shoulder.
+
+"I'll try to find out," returned Ben; "and if it is possible to do that,
+the debt shall be paid."
+
+Geraldine caught her lip under her teeth and swallowed the rising lump.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Barry--Ben," she said at last, "of course I have no words to
+thank you--"
+
+"I don't wish to be thanked in words."
+
+"You're too generous."
+
+"Not in the least," returned Ben quietly. "I want to be thanked. I want
+each of us to thank the other all our lives. I to be grateful to you for
+existing, and you to thank me for spending my days with the paramount
+thought of your happiness."
+
+They looked at each other for a long silent minute.
+
+"Mrs. Whipp says your mother came to call on me to-day," said Geraldine
+at last. "She described her manner so well that it is evident she came
+at the point of your bayonet. I understand the situation entirely. I've
+already heard that she is the great lady of the town. You are her only
+son. Do you suppose I blame her when out of a clear sky you produced me
+and made your feeling plain to her? Is it any wonder that she made hers
+plain to me? I should think"--Geraldine gave an appealing pressure to
+the hands holding hers--"I should think you could be generous enough
+to--to let me alone."
+
+Her eyes pleaded with him seriously.
+
+"What am I doing?" asked Ben. "What do you suppose is the reason that
+I'm wasting all these minutes when I might be holding you in my arms!"
+He had to stop here himself and swallow manfully. "If you knew how you
+look at this moment--and I don't kiss you--just because I'm giving
+Mother a little time, so that you will be satisfied--"
+
+"Then you'll promise--will you promise--you kept your promise about the
+farm?"
+
+"Yes; I found Pete in the village."
+
+"Then you do keep promises! Tell me solemnly that you will leave your
+mother in freedom. If you don't, Ben--Sir Galahad--I'll run away. I
+really will--"
+
+In her earnestness she lifted her face toward his, her eyes were
+irresistible, and in an instant he had swept her into his arms and was
+kissing her tenderly, fervently, to the utter undoing of the droopy hat
+which fell unnoticed to the floor.
+
+Voices approaching made him release her.
+
+Very flushed, very grave, both of them, they looked into each other's
+eyes, and Geraldine, being a woman, put both hands up to her ruffled
+hair.
+
+"I do promise you, Geraldine," he said, low and earnestly. "Whatever my
+mother does after this you may know is of her own volition."
+
+Pete burst into the room wild-eyed, followed by Miss Mehitable, who was
+talking and laughing.
+
+"He was afraid you'd go away without him," she said--"Mercy's sakes,
+Geraldine Melody, look at your hat!" She darted upon it and snapped some
+dust off its chiffon. "You'd better be careful how you throw this
+around. We can't buy a hat like this every day."
+
+"Oh, do forgive me, Miss Upton!" murmured the girl, her eyes very
+bright. "It was her present to me," she added to Ben. "I'm so sorry!"
+She went to Miss Mehitable and laid her cheek against hers, and Miss
+Upton bestowed another prodigious wink upon the purchaser of the hat.
+
+It did not break his gravity; a gravity which Miss Upton but just now
+noticed.
+
+"Come, Pete, we'll be going," said Ben, and his flushed, serious face
+worried Miss Mehitable's kind heart, especially as no sign of his merry
+carelessness returned in his brief leave-taking.
+
+When they were gone and the door had closed after them, she looked at
+the girl accusingly.
+
+"Something has happened," she said, in a low tone not to attract
+Charlotte.
+
+"Don't be cross with me about the hat," said the girl, nestling up close
+to her again. "I just love it--much better even than I did in the
+store."
+
+Miss Mehitable put an arm around her, not because at the moment she
+loved her, but because she was there.
+
+"I wonder," she said, "if there's anything in this world that can make
+anything but a fool out of a girl before it's too late. I know you're
+just as crazy about him as he is about you! If you wasn't, would you
+have been snivellin' around because he might get hurt to the farm? And
+yet jest 'cause o' your silly, foolish pride you've gone and refused
+him. It's as plain as the nose on his splendid face. As if in the long
+run it mattered if Mrs. Barry was a little cantankerous. She's run
+everything around here so long that she forgets her boy's a man with a
+mind of his own. It's awful narrow of you, Geraldine, awful narrow!"
+
+Upon this the girl lifted her head and smiled faintly into the accusing
+face.
+
+"Won't it be nice to have Pete help us move," she said innocently.
+
+Miss Upton's lips tightened. She dropped her arm, moved away, and put
+the droopy hat back in its box.
+
+"You're heartless!" she exclaimed. There was such a peachy bloom on the
+girl's face. "I won't waste my breath."
+
+"I love _you_," said Geraldine, meekly and defensively.
+
+"Ho!" snorted her good fairy, unappeased.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+The Mermaid Shop
+
+
+For the next few days Miss Mehitable had no time to worry over
+love-affairs. No matter how early she arose in the morning she found
+Pete arrayed in overalls sitting on the stone step of Upton's Fancy
+Goods and Notions, and when by the evening of the third day all her
+goods, wares, and chattels were deposited in the little shop at
+Keefeport, she wondered how she had ever got on without him.
+
+On that very day Ben Barry received a threatening letter from Rufus
+Carder demanding the return of Pete, and he knew that no more time must
+be lost. He flew over to the Port that afternoon, and alighting on the
+landing-field which had been prepared near his cottage walked to the
+little shop near the wharf. Here he found Pete industriously obeying
+Miss Upton's orders in company with his idol, the whole quartet gay amid
+their chaos. Even Mrs. Whipp had postponed the fear of rheumatism and
+had learned how to laugh.
+
+They had formed a line and were passing the articles from boxes to
+shelves when the leather-coated, helmeted figure stood suddenly before
+them.
+
+The effect of the apparition upon Geraldine with its associations was so
+extreme as to make her feel faint for a minute, and Ben saw her face
+change as she leaned against the counter.
+
+Miss Mehitable saw it too. "Aha!" she thought triumphantly. "Aha! It
+isn't so funny to break a body's heart, after all."
+
+"Well, Ben Barry," she said aloud, "why didn't you wait till we got
+settled?"
+
+The aviator stood in the doorway, but came no farther.
+
+"Because I have to take Pete away. I've had a _billet doux_ from Rufus
+Carder and he wants him."
+
+The dwarf rushed to his new master on quaking legs. "Oh, Master! I won't
+go! I can't go." He looked off wildly on the big billows rolling in.
+"I'll throw myself in the sea."
+
+Ben put a hand on the boy's shoulder.
+
+"Of course you won't go," he said; "but you want to brighten up your
+wits now and remember everything that will help us. We're going to the
+city to-night and begin at once to settle that gentleman's affairs." He
+gave Geraldine a reassuring look. "I should like to take your father's
+letter with me," he added quietly.
+
+"But we mustn't get Pete into trouble," she replied doubtfully.
+
+"I'm not intending to show it. I want to familiarize myself with his
+handwriting. I expect to have an interview and perhaps there will be
+notes to examine."
+
+"But not at the farm," protested the girl quickly. "You'll not go near
+the meadow?"
+
+"No; the cows have nothing to fear from us this time."
+
+"And you'll"--Geraldine swallowed--"you'll be careful?"
+
+Ben nodded. "All my promises hold," he replied, looking straight into
+her eyes with only the ghost of his old smile, as Miss Upton noticed.
+
+Geraldine ran upstairs, brought down her father's letter, and gave it to
+him.
+
+He took it with a nod of thanks. "How do you think you will like to
+fly, Pete?" he asked. "You can go home with me, or, if you prefer it, in
+the trolley."
+
+"Anywhere with you, Master," returned the boy. He felt certain that
+Rufus Carder would not be met among the clouds, but who could be sure
+that he would not pop up in a trolley car.
+
+"Very well, then. Good-bye, everybody, and expect us when you see us."
+
+"Good-bye, you dear boy," cried Miss Mehitable. _Somebody_ should call
+him "dear." She was determined on that. "Always workin' for others," she
+continued loudly, "and riskin' your life the way you are." She moved to
+the door, and raised her voice still higher as the strangely assorted
+pair moved away up the road. "I hope you'll get your reward sometime!"
+she shouted; then she turned back and glared at Geraldine.
+
+The girl put her hand on her heart. "It startled me so to see him--just
+as he looked on that--that--dreadful day," she was going to say, but how
+could she so characterize the day of her full joy and wonder? So her
+voice died to silence, and Miss Upton began slamming articles up on the
+shelves with unnecessary violence, while Geraldine, smiling into the
+packing-boxes, meekly set about helping her.
+
+Pete, like Geraldine before him, was in such terror of his former master
+and so full of trust in his present one, that he swallowed his fears as
+the plane rose for its short trip, and he found the experience
+enjoyable. Ben, when they reached the house, sought his mother. She was
+walking on the piazza.
+
+"You didn't tell me you were off for a flight," she said in an annoyed
+tone.
+
+"Well, it was now you see me and now you don't this time, wasn't it? You
+had hardly time to miss me. I flew over to the Port to get Pete. We have
+to go to the city to-night. I'll be gone a few days, Mother, perhaps a
+week."
+
+"On some disgusting business connected with that unspeakable man, I
+suppose."
+
+"Verily I believe it will be very disgusting; but it has to be gone
+through with."
+
+"Why does it?" His mother stood before him and spoke desperately. "Why
+can't you let it alone?"
+
+"I've told you--because it affects the happiness of my future wife."
+
+Mrs. Barry's eyes were hard, though her cheeks grew crimson. "You
+haven't announced your engagement to me. Don't you think I should be one
+of the first to know?" she said.
+
+"I'm not engaged." Ben smiled into her angry, hurt eyes. "Something
+stands in the way as yet."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Can't you guess?"
+
+They continued to exchange a steady gaze. She spoke first.
+
+"Do you mean to say that anyone concerned in the affair still considers
+_me_?"
+
+Her boy's smile became a laugh at the deliberate manner of her sarcasm.
+
+"Oh, cut it out, Mother mine," he said. And though she tried to hold
+stiffly away from him, he hugged her and kissed her and pulled her down
+beside him on a wicker seat.
+
+She could not get away from his encircling arm and probably she did not
+wish to.
+
+"Ben, I've had a most disagreeable day," she declared. "Everybody within
+fifteen miles knows that you flew into the village with a strange girl."
+
+"They said she was pretty, didn't they?"
+
+"I can't leave the house without somebody stopping me and asking me
+about it, and I'll have to order the telephone taken out if this goes
+on. I can hardly bear to answer it any more. I called on Miss Melody,
+but she had gone to town, and that hopeless Mrs. Whipp babbled about
+your attentions. I don't want you to break the apple blossoms anyway."
+
+"All right, honey, I won't. They're nearly gone; but I shall always love
+apple blossoms. They're fragrant like her spirit, pink and white like
+her, wholesome like her, modest like her. You see she has always been
+kept in the background. No one has taken the bloom from her freshness.
+She has had blows, has come in contact with some of the world's mud, but
+it washed away and disappeared under her own purity."
+
+Mrs. Barry looked into the speaker's flashing eyes. "My poor boy," she
+said at last. "I wonder whether you're crazy or whether you're right.
+What am I going to do!"
+
+"Of course I don't know what you're going to do," he returned, his lips
+and voice suddenly serious. "It depends largely upon whether you want
+my future wife to hand out ice-cream cones to the trippers at
+Keefeport."
+
+"What do you mean now?" Mrs. Barry asked it severely.
+
+"Why, the little girl is going to try to earn her living, of course, and
+she will be slow to leave Miss Upton's protection, for she has proved,
+that a girl's beauty may be her worst enemy. Miss Upton will do a bigger
+business than ever, that is easily prophesied. The hilarious, rowdy
+parties that come over in motor-boats will pass the word along that
+there is something worth seeing at Upton's this year. They will crack
+their jokes, and Miss Melody will be loyal to her employer. She won't
+want to discourage trade. They will make longer visits than usual and
+the phonograph will work overtime."
+
+Mrs. Barry had risen slowly during this harangue and now looked down
+upon her son with haughty, displeased eyes.
+
+"I shall speak to Miss Upton," she said.
+
+"I advise you not to," returned Ben dryly, crossing one leg over the
+other and embracing his knee. "I don't think you are in any position to
+dictate. I left a merry party down there just now. Mrs. Whipp cracking
+the air with chuckles, Mehitable rocking the store with her activities,
+Miss Melody enveloped in a gigantic apron and with a large smudge across
+her cheek, having the time of her life unpacking boxes. I was sorry to
+bereave them of Pete, but it won't take them long now to be ready for
+business."
+
+Mrs. Barry did not speak. A catbird sang in an apple tree, a call to
+vespers.
+
+"This won't do for me," said Ben, suddenly rising. "I'll go up and throw
+a few things into my bag. Give us a bite to eat, Mother dear, and tell
+Lawson to bring the car around. We must get the seven-thirty."
+
+After her boy and his humble lieutenant had left for the train, the
+mother sat a long time on the piazza thinking. The telephone rang at
+last. She sighed, went to its corner, and sat down to stop its annoying
+peremptoriness. For days it had reminded her of an inescapable, buzzing
+gnat, a thousand times magnified.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Barry," came a girlish voice across the wire. "Don't think me
+too inquisitive, but we're all dying to know if that beautiful girl,
+Miss Melody, is going to live with Miss Upton? Mrs. Whipp said they were
+going to take her to Keefeport with them, and somebody said they did
+move to-day and that she did go with them. We thought she was visiting
+you and I wanted to ask when we might come to call. We're all dying to
+meet her. You know Ben has been a sort of brother to us all, and we're
+simply crazy to know this girl and hear about her rescue."
+
+While this speech gushed into Mrs. Barry's unwilling ear, her martyred
+look was fixed upon the wall and her wits were working. It was Adele
+Hastings talking. She had always liked Adele. In fact this young girl
+had been her secret choice for Ben in those innocent days when she
+supposed she would have some voice in the most important affair of his
+life. She could not turn Adele off as she had other questioners.
+
+"I suppose this is Adele Hastings speaking."
+
+"Oh, didn't I say? I do beg your pardon. I just saw Ben on the station
+platform with the queerest little bow-legged boy. Ben looked like a
+giant beside him. I just flew home to the telephone to ask how you were
+and--and--about everything."
+
+"That is just a servant Ben has picked up." ("A member of our new
+menagerie," Mrs. Barry felt like adding, but held her peace and
+continued to look at the wall.)
+
+"Well, Mother wanted me to say to you that if you were house cleaning,
+or there was any other reason why it was inconvenient for you to have
+Miss Melody with you, she would be so glad to have her come to us till
+you are ready. I told Mother she had probably gone to Keefeport to
+recuperate in the quiet before the season really begins. I haven't seen
+Miss Upton or that cross thing that tends store for her, but some people
+have, and we've heard such fairy tales about that lovely creature--I saw
+her on the train with Miss Upton--about her being shut up with a madman
+and Ben literally flying to her rescue and carrying her off under the
+creature's nose. Why, it's perfectly wonderful! I can hardly wait to
+hear the truth about it. Talk about the prince on a milk-white steed
+that always rescued the princess--Ben in his aeroplane makes _him_ look
+like thirty cents."
+
+"Tut, tut," said Mrs. Barry; "you know I don't like slang."
+
+The girlish voice laughed. "But, dear Mrs. Barry, 'marry come up' and
+'ods bodikins' were probably slang in the day of the spear and shield.
+When may I see you and hear about it?"
+
+This direct question forced Mrs. Barry to a decision. The impossible
+Charlotte Whipp, who had not hesitated to tell her regal self of her
+son's attentions to the waif, had doubtless poured enough of the yeast
+of gossip into eager ears to set the whole village to swelling with
+curiosity, and her dignity as well as Ben's depended on the attitude she
+took at the present moment.
+
+Her rather stiff and formal voice took on a more confidential tone. "I'm
+going to ask you to wait a few days, Adele. We have been passing through
+rather stirring times. I thank your mother very much for her kind offer,
+but it seemed best for Miss Melody to go to the sea, at least for a few
+days. You know what an excellent soul Miss Upton is. Miss Melody knew
+her before, and as the girl was a good deal upset by some exciting
+experiences, and as I was a complete stranger, Miss Upton stepped into
+the breach. Please don't believe the exaggerated stories that may be
+going about. Ben was able to do the young lady a favor, that is all. As
+you say, she is very charming to look upon. We shall all know her better
+after a while."
+
+"Well, just one thing before you hang up, dear Mrs. Barry. I know you
+will excuse my asking it, because I know your standards, and you have
+been an even stronger influence upon me socially than my own mother; but
+is--is Miss Melody the sort of girl you will entertain as an--an equal?
+or does she--it sounds horrid to ask it--or does she belong more in good
+Miss Upton's class?"
+
+Mrs. Barry ground her teeth together, and luckily the wall of her
+reception room was of tough stuff or her look would have withered it.
+She had a mental flashlight of Geraldine serving trippers with ice-cream
+cones behind Miss Upton's counter.
+
+"My dear," she said suavely, "do you sound a little bit snobbish?"
+
+"No more than you have taught me to be," was the prompt reply. "I want
+to behave toward Miss Melody just as you wish me to. It looks to us all,
+of course, as if she were Miss Upton's friend and not yours."
+
+Mrs. Barry's cheeks flamed. This dreadful youngster was forcing her,
+hurrying her, and she would be spokesman to the village. Ben's
+infatuation left her no choice.
+
+"Oh, quite in ours, quite, I judge," she said graciously. "Ben thinks
+her quite exceptional."
+
+The girlish voice laughed again: not so gleefully as Mrs. Barry could
+have wished. She hoped they were not sister-sufferers!
+
+"I should judge so, from what Mrs. Whipp has told people. Well, I will
+be patient, Mrs. Barry. We want to show all courtesy to Ben's friend
+when the right time comes. Good-bye."
+
+"Good-bye," replied Mrs. Barry, and hung up the receiver.
+
+She sat a few minutes more without moving, deep in thought.
+
+"I have no choice," she said to herself at last. "I have no choice."
+
+The next day she moved about restlessly amid her accustomed occupations
+and by evening had come to a conclusion and made a plan which on the
+following afternoon she carried out.
+
+After an early luncheon she set forth in her motor for Keefeport. Miss
+Upton's little establishment was in nice order by this time and the sign
+had been hung up over the door: "The Mermaid Shop." By the time Mrs.
+Barry's car stopped before it, the three residents had eaten their
+dinner and the dishes were set away.
+
+"There's so few folks here yet, there's hardly anything to do in the
+store," said Miss Mehitable to Geraldine. "Now's the time for you to go
+out and walk around and see the handsome cottages and the grand rocky
+shore. This wharf ain't anything to see."
+
+"Do you think Pearl would like to go to walk?" said the girl, picking up
+the handsome cat, while Charlotte looked on approvingly.
+
+"Pearl does hate this movin' business," she said. "It'll be weeks before
+she'll find a spot in the house where she can really settle down."
+
+Geraldine was burying her face in the soft fur when the motor flashed up
+to the grassy path before the shop, and stopped.
+
+"For the land's sake!" said Miss Mehitable. "It's the Barry car." She
+hurried forward, and Geraldine, still holding the cat against her cheek,
+saw the chauffeur open the door and Mrs. Barry emerge.
+
+Ben's assurance flashed into her thought. "Whatever she may do
+hereafter, remember it is of her own volition."
+
+The lady came in, and, smiling a return to Miss Mehitable's welcome,
+looked at the girl in the blue dress. She liked the self-possessed
+manner with which Geraldine greeted her.
+
+"I'm trying to make Pearl feel at home, you see," said the girl. "Mrs.
+Whipp says it is very hard for her to move."
+
+"Yes, I know that is a pussy's nature. I like cats, but I like birds
+better, so I don't keep any. How nice you look here. Oh, what charming
+roses!" going to the nodding beauties standing in a vase on the counter.
+"Are those for sale? If so they're going home to Keefe."
+
+"No, Mrs. Barry, they ain't for sale," replied Miss Mehitable. "I'm so
+proud of 'em I can hardly stand it. Ben sent 'em to me. Wasn't he the
+dear boy to give the Mermaid such a send-off?"
+
+"He is a nice boy, isn't he, Miss Upton?" returned the visitor
+graciously. "I'm glad to see you looking so well, Miss Melody."
+
+Geraldine certainly had plenty of color and she held to the cat as an
+embarrassed actor does to a prop. "I tried to see you one day at Keefe,
+but you were out."
+
+"Yes, I was dressin' the doll that day," said Miss Mehitable, smiling.
+She discerned friendliness in the air and was elated.
+
+"The result is very nice," said Mrs. Barry graciously.
+
+"Yes, I think blue serges are about the best thing at the seaside. I
+wanted to get her one o' these here real snappy sailor dresses, but she
+kept holdin' me back, holdin' me back, till it's a wonder we got any
+clothes at all!" Miss Upton laughed, and as Geraldine turned toward her
+with a smile, Mrs. Barry was conscious of a faint echo of that smile's
+effect upon her son.
+
+Charlotte stood at the back of the shop looking on and reflectively
+picking her teeth with a pin. "She's a real good worker, Geraldine is,"
+she remarked with a sniff, "I'll say that for her."
+
+An angry flash leaped up Mrs. Barry's spine. That settled it. This
+exquisite creature must not stay where that charwoman could speak of her
+so familiarly.
+
+"Certainly there has been a lot of good work done here," she said,
+looking about, "but it is a little early to come down yet. I have a lot
+of curtains to make for my cottage. Miss Melody"--turning to the girl
+with her most winning look--"you have these people all settled, don't
+you want to come home with me and help me make my curtains?"
+
+Geraldine's heart leaped in her throat. Although she had put up a brave
+front she was terribly afraid of the queen of Keefe.
+
+"Why, that would be fine!" exclaimed Miss Mehitable, her optimistic
+spirit at once seeing her clouds roll away and disperse in mist.
+
+"I don't think everything is done here," said Geraldine; "I don't think
+you can spare me."
+
+"Of course I can," returned Miss Mehitable vehemently. "You can go just
+as well as not." She perceived that this was not at all the answer the
+girl wanted, but she was determined to override all objections and even
+Geraldine's own feelings.
+
+The latter looked at Mrs. Barry with a faint smile. She only hoped that
+Miss Upton's mental processes were not such an open book to the visitor
+as they were to herself. She saw plainly that if it came to the
+necessity Miss Mehitable would throw her into the motor with her own
+hands.
+
+"She is not very complimentary, is she?" she remarked. "I thought I was
+so important."
+
+"She hain't seen the Port yet either. Have you, Gerrie?" came from the
+back of the store.
+
+Miss Mehitable turned on the speaker. "As if there was any hurry about
+that!" she said, so fiercely that Charlotte evaporated through the back
+door of the shop into the regions beyond.
+
+"I'm sure you were important," said Mrs. Barry, "but it is I who need
+you now."
+
+"I'll help you get your things," said Miss Upton, moving to the stairs
+with alacrity.
+
+Geraldine dropped Pearl. She could not defend her any longer.
+
+"Wait, Miss Upton," said Mrs. Barry. "How would it be for you to pack
+Miss Melody's trunk and express it after we are gone?"
+
+Miss Mehitable's face was one broad beam. A trunk!
+
+"She hasn't got any," she replied. "Of course hers was left in that No
+Man's Land and we just brought things down here in suit-cases and
+boxes."
+
+"Very well, then, we can take them with us."
+
+"But I shan't need--" began Geraldine.
+
+Mrs. Barry interrupted her. "It is always hard to foresee just what one
+will need even in a week's time. We may as well take everything."
+
+"Such a small everything," added Geraldine.
+
+A little pulse was beating in her throat. She dreaded to find herself
+alone with this _grande dame_. She believed that Ben had kept his
+promise and that this move of his mother was being made of her own
+volition, but in what capacity was she being invited? Was it a case of
+giving a piece of employment to a needy girl in her son's absence, or
+was she being asked on the footing of a friend? In any case, she knew
+her lover would wish her to go, and as for Miss Upton she would use
+violence if necessary.
+
+She went upstairs and came down wearing the black sailor hat of the
+Keefe brand, and carrying a suit-case. Miss Mehitable followed with
+sundry boxes which she took to the motor. Lamson jumped out and came to
+the shop to get the suit-case.
+
+"One moment more, please," said Miss Upton, and vanished upstairs. She
+returned bearing a large hatbox.
+
+"Oh, no, Miss Upton!" exclaimed Geraldine as Miss Mehitable had known
+she would. "Keep that till I come back. It's a seashore hat."
+
+"It is not," said Miss Mehitable defiantly. "It is a town hat. She got
+the present of a beautiful hat, Mrs. Barry--"
+
+"Dear Miss Upton doesn't say that she gave it to me herself," put in
+Geraldine.
+
+No, dear Miss Upton did not; for she had a New England conscience; but
+she continued firmly:
+
+"She may want to wear it; she's got a white dress."
+
+Geraldine colored. Mrs. Barry had seen her white dress.
+
+"By all means let us take the hat," said that lady, and Lamson bore off
+the box.
+
+"_Au revoir_, then," said Geraldine, trying to speak lightly, and
+kissing Miss Mehitable. "I'll let you know what day I am coming back.
+Say good-bye to Mrs. Whipp for me."
+
+Mrs. Barry's face became inscrutable as Geraldine spoke. She had seen
+the counter, and the phonograph, and in fancy she could see the
+impending excursionists.
+
+"Good-bye, Miss Upton." And the shining motor started. "To Rockcrest,
+Lamson."
+
+Miss Mehitable went back into the house. She suspected she should find
+Charlotte weeping, and she did.
+
+"I s'pose I can't never say anything right," sniffed the injured one
+upon her employer's entrance.
+
+"Never mind _us_, Charlotte," responded Miss Upton. "That's a very big
+thing that's just happened. I'm so tickled I'd dance if I thought the
+house would stand it."
+
+"I don't see anything so wonderful in that stuck-up woman givin' the
+girl a job o' sewin'," returned Mrs. Whipp, blowing her nose. "When will
+Gerrie come back? How we'll miss her!"
+
+"I think," said Miss Upton, impressively--"I think it is very safe to
+say--Never!"
+
+"Why, what do you mean!"
+
+"I mean Mrs. Barry ain't goin' to let that girl stand behind my counter
+this summer." Miss Mehitable gave a sudden, sly laugh. "I wasn't goin'
+to let her anyway," she added, in a low tone as if the walls might have
+ears, "but Mrs. Barry don't know that, and I'm glad she don't."
+
+Miss Upton sat down and laughed and rocked, and rocked and laughed until
+Mrs. Whipp began to worry.
+
+"Thumbscrews," said Miss Mehitable, between each burst, "thumbscrews!"
+
+"Where shall I git 'em?" asked Charlotte, rising and staring about her
+vaguely.
+
+"Nevermind. Let's have some tea," said Miss Mehitable, wiping her eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+The Clouds Disperse
+
+
+And so with the entrance into that automobile began still another
+chapter in Geraldine Melody's life. While they drove through the
+attractive avenues of the resort and Mrs. Barry pointed out the cottages
+belonging to well-known people, the young girl was making an effort for
+her own self-possession. To be alone with the mother of her knight was
+exciting, and her determination was not to allow any emotion to be
+observable in her manner. She did not yet know whether she was present
+as a seamstress or as a guest. She felt that in either case she had been
+summoned for inspection, for of course Ben had left his mother in no
+doubt as to his sentiments. Mrs. Barry evinced no embarrassment. Her
+smooth monologue flowed on without a question. Perhaps she suspected the
+tumult in the fluttering heart beside her, and was giving the young girl
+time. At all events, nothing that she said required an answer, and
+Geraldine obediently looked, unseeing, at every object she pointed out.
+
+The motor rolled across a bridge. "Here you see Keefeport even boasts a
+little river," said Mrs. Barry. "The young people can enjoy a mild canoe
+trip as well as their exciting yachting. I am going to stop at my
+cottage and give a few orders, so long as I am here."
+
+Another five minutes of swift riding brought them to the driveway
+leading to a cottage placed on a rocky height close to the sea. "We have
+a rather wonderful view, you see," Mrs. Barry's calm voice went on.
+"Perhaps you would like to get out and walk about the piazza while I
+speak with the caretaker."
+
+Geraldine followed her out of the luxurious car, feeling very small and
+insignificant and resenting the sensation made upon her by the imposing
+surroundings. She wished herself back with Miss Upton and the cat; but
+she mounted the steps and stood on the wide porch looking on the jagged
+rocks beneath. The sea came hissing in among them, flinging up spray and
+dragging back noisily in the strong wind to make ready for another
+onslaught. The vast view was superb and suggested all the poems she had
+ever read about the sea. Mrs. Barry had gone into the house and now came
+out with the caretakers, a man and wife, with whom she examined the
+progress of flowers and vines growing in sheltered nooks. Geraldine
+resolutely shut out memories of her knight. The girls whose summers were
+spent among these scenes were his friends, and among them his mother had
+doubtless selected some fastidious maiden who had never encountered
+disgraceful moments.
+
+"I belong to myself," thought Geraldine proudly, forcing back some
+stinging drops, salt as the vast waters before her. "I don't need
+anybody, I don't." She fought down again the memory of her lover's
+embraces. Ever afterward she remembered those few minutes alone on the
+piazza at Rockcrest, overwhelmed by the sensation of contrast between
+herself on sufferance in her cheap raiment, and the indications all
+about her of the opposite extreme of luxury--remembered those moments as
+affording her a poignant unhappiness.
+
+"I won't ask you to come into the cottage," said Mrs. Barry, approaching
+at the close of her interview. "The rugs haven't been unrolled yet, and
+it is all in disorder. Isn't that a superb show of sky and sea, and
+never twice alike?"
+
+"Superb," echoed Geraldine.
+
+"You are shivering," said her hostess. "It is many degrees colder here
+than over in the sheltered place where Miss Upton has her shop. I have
+quite finished. Let us go back."
+
+They went down to the car and were soon speeding toward Keefe. Beside
+Lamson sat the imposing hatbox. Somehow it added to Geraldine's
+unhappiness, as if jeering at her for an effort to appear what she was
+not.
+
+She must talk. Her regal companion would suspect her wretchedness.
+
+"What are you going to make your curtains of, Mrs. Barry?" she asked.
+
+The commonplace proved a most felicitous question. The lady described
+material, took her measurements out of her purse, and discussed ruffles
+and tucks and described location and size of windows, during which talk
+the young girl was able to throw off the spell that had held her mute.
+
+She did not suspect how her companion was listening with discriminating
+ears to her speech, and the very tones of her voice, and watching with
+discriminating eyes her manner and expression. Ben had told his mother
+to take her magnifying glass and she had begun to use it.
+
+When the motor entered the home grounds at Keefe, Geraldine resisted the
+associations of her last arrival there. A faint mist of apple blossoms
+still clung in spots to the orchard.
+
+Lamson carried her poor little effects and the hateful, grandiose hatbox
+into the living-room where one day she had regained her scattered
+senses.
+
+"You may take these things up to the blue room," Mrs. Barry said to the
+maid who appeared, "and you will give Miss Melody any assistance she
+requires."
+
+Geraldine followed the girl upstairs to the charming room assigned to
+her. Every dainty convenience was within its walls. The pleasant maid's
+manner was all alacrity. It was safe to believe that she knew more than
+her mistress about Geraldine, and the attitude toward her of the young
+master of the house. The guest looked about her and recalled her room at
+the Carder farm, the patchwork quilt at the Upton Emporium, and her last
+shakedown under the eaves of the Keefeport shell house.
+
+Between the filmy white curtains at these windows she could see the rosy
+vestiges of the orchard bloom. The furniture of the room was apparently
+ivory, the bathroom silver and porcelain. Azure and white coloring were
+in all the decorations. The maid was unpacking her boxes. Geraldine was
+ashamed of her own mortification in allowing her to see the contents.
+
+"I think I'd rather do that myself," she said hastily.
+
+"Some ladies do," returned the girl.
+
+"Especially," rejoined Geraldine, "when they are not used to being
+waited upon!"
+
+She accompanied this with a look of such frank sweetness that she
+counted one more victim to her charms.
+
+"She isn't one bit stuck-up," the maid reported downstairs, "and I
+never saw such hair and eyes in all my life."
+
+"They've done for Mr. Ben all right," remarked the chauffeur. "I guess
+Madam thought it was about time to get acquainted."
+
+When Geraldine came downstairs an hour later, she was arrayed in the
+cheap little green-and-white house dress which had been one of her
+purchases with Miss Upton, and was intended for summer use in the shop.
+As she wandered into the living-room, Mrs. Barry walking on the piazza
+perceived her through the long, open windows and came to join her.
+
+"Did you find everything quite comfortable?" she asked solicitously.
+
+"Perfectly," replied Geraldine. "It is quite wonderful after one has
+been leading a camping-out life."
+
+Mrs. Barry continued to approve her intonation and manner.
+
+"You certainly have passed through strange vicissitudes," she replied.
+"Sometime you must tell me your story-book adventures."
+
+"They are not very pleasant reminiscences," said Geraldine.
+
+"Very well, then, you shall not be made to rehearse them."
+
+A maid appeared and announced dinner.
+
+Geraldine's repressed excitement took away her appetite for the
+perfectly served repast. Mrs. Barry's regal personality seemed to
+pervade the whole establishment. One could not imagine any detail
+venturing to go wrong; any food to be underdone or overdone; any servant
+to venture to make trouble. The machinery of the household moved on
+oiled wheels. A delicate cleanliness, quietness, order, pervaded the
+home and all its surroundings.
+
+Mrs. Barry made no comment on her guest's lack of appetite. When they
+had finished, she led her out to the porch where their coffee was
+served.
+
+"Now, isn't this an improvement on Rockcrest?" she asked as they sat
+listening to the sleepy, closing evening songs of the thrushes. "Imagine
+trying to drink our coffee on that piazza where we were this afternoon.
+There is a more sheltered portion, a part that I have enclosed in glass;
+but my son likes the front to be all open to the elements."
+
+"It is very beautiful here," said Geraldine. "It must be hard for you to
+tear yourself away even later in the season."
+
+"That is what does it," returned Mrs. Barry, waving her hand toward a
+large thermometer affixed to one of the columns. "When you come down
+some morning and find the mercury trying to go over the top, you are
+ready to flit where there are no great trees to seem to hold in the
+air." The speaker paused, regarding the young girl for a moment in
+silence. An appreciation of her had been growing ever since they left
+Keefeport, and now for the first time she allowed herself a pleasure in
+Geraldine's beauty. It was wonderful camouflage if it was nothing more.
+"Do you enjoy music, Miss Melody?" she asked suddenly.
+
+The girl gave her a faint smile.
+
+"Foolish question, isn't it?" she added. "I usually play awhile in the
+evening." She set down her cup and rose.
+
+Geraldine rose also, looked pleased and eager.
+
+"I'm so glad," she replied. "I have no accomplishments myself."
+
+A vague memory of having heard something about a cruel stepmother
+assailed the hostess. She smiled kindly at the girl. "Some people have
+gifts instead," she said. "Stay here. I will go in and try to give you
+some happy thoughts."
+
+Geraldine sank back in her chair, her eyes fixed on the graceful elms
+and the vivid streaks across a sunset sky.
+
+As the strains of Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms came through the open
+window it necessitated some, effort not to have too happy thoughts. The
+skillful musician modulated from one number to another, and Geraldine,
+all ignorant in her art-starved life, of what she was hearing, gave
+herself up to the loveliness of sight and sound.
+
+When Mrs. Barry reappeared, the girl's eyelids were red, and as she
+started up to meet her she put out her hands impulsively, and the
+musician laughed a little as she accepted their grasp, well pleased with
+the eloquent speechlessness.
+
+When Geraldine waked the next morning her first vague thought was that
+she must shake off sleep and help Mrs. Carder. That troubling sense
+faded into another, also troubling. She was to spend a whole day,
+perhaps several whole days, with the rather fearful splendor of the
+mother of her knight. That in itself would not be so bad, Mrs. Barry had
+shown a kind intention, but the knight himself might return at any hour.
+Why had she come? Yet how refuse when her previous hostess had so
+energetically thrown her out of the nest?
+
+The sun had gone behind clouds. She rose, closed her windows, and made
+her toilet, then descended to the hall where Mrs. Barry met her with a
+pleasant greeting and they went in to breakfast.
+
+"We're going to catch some rain, it seems," she said. "It is nice Miss
+Upton is moved and settled."
+
+"Yes," rejoined Geraldine, "and curtain-making can go on just as well in
+the rain."
+
+"You had a good sleep, I'm sure," said the hostess, regarding her
+freshness.
+
+"Yes, I am ready and full of energy to begin," said the girl. "I feel
+that I am going to do the work quickly and go back sooner than Miss
+Upton expects. It is nice for them to have some young hands and feet to
+call upon."
+
+"I hope you don't feel in haste," returned Mrs. Barry politely. She was
+so courteous, so gracious, so powerful, and such leagues away from her,
+Geraldine longed to get at the work, and know what to do with her hands
+and her eyes.
+
+Very soon the curtain material was produced. Mrs. Barry had the sewing
+machine moved into the living-room where there was plenty of space for
+the billowy white stuff, and they began their measuring.
+
+The air was sultry preceding the storm, and a distant rumbling of
+thunder was heard. The house door was left open as well as the long
+French windows which gave upon the piazza.
+
+The guest had slept late, delaying the breakfast hour, and the two had
+been working at the curtains only a short time when a man, strange to
+Mrs. Barry, walked into the living-room. Approaching on the footpath to
+the house, Geraldine only had been visible to him through the window. He
+believed her to be alone in the room, and the house door standing open
+he had dispensed with the formality of ringing and walked in.
+
+Something in the wildness of the intruder's look startled the hostess
+and she pressed a button in the wall.
+
+She saw Geraldine's face blanch and her eyes dilate with terror as the
+man approached her, but no sound escaped her lips. The stranger put out
+his hand. The girl shrank back. The queen of Keefe stepped forward.
+
+"What do you mean by this?" she exclaimed sternly. "What do you wish?"
+
+The man turned and faced her. "I've come on important business with this
+girl. My name is Rufus Carder--you may have heard of it. Geraldine
+Melody belongs to me. Her father gave her to me." He turned back quickly
+to the girl, for Mrs. Barry's face warned him that his time was short.
+
+"You may have gone away against your will, Gerrie," he said. "It ain't
+too late to save your father. Come back with me now and there won't be a
+word said. Refuse to come, and to-morrow all his pals shall know what he
+was."
+
+[Illustration: "Geraldine Melody belongs to me. Her Father gave her to
+me"]
+
+Geraldine straightened her slight body. Terror was in every line of her
+delicate face, but Mrs. Barry saw her control it. The details of the
+stories she had heard came back to her vividly. She realized the
+suffering and the fate from which her boy had delivered the captive.
+Geraldine was exquisite to look at now as she faced her jailer. That
+ethereal quality which was hers gave her spirituelle face a wonderful
+appeal.
+
+"Ben was right," thought Mrs. Barry with a thrill of pride. "She is a
+thoroughbred."
+
+"Mr. Carder," she said, approaching still nearer, her peremptory tone
+forcing him to turn his long, twitching face toward her, "Miss Melody is
+about to marry my son. He will attend to any business you may have with
+her."
+
+"Huh! That's it, is it? You don't look like the kind of woman who will
+enjoy having a forger in the family."
+
+The girl's eyes closed under the stab.
+
+"Geraldine, I should like you to go upstairs, dear," said Mrs. Barry
+gently. The girl moved slowly toward the door, Carder's eyes following
+her full of a fierce, baffled hunger.
+
+He turned on Mrs. Barry with the ugliest look she had ever beheld in a
+human countenance.
+
+"Your son has stolen my boy, too, my servant, and I've come after him,"
+he said. "The law'll teach that fellow whether he can take other
+people's property. That boy was bound to me out o' the asylum and I
+won't stand such impudence, I warn you. Where is he? Where is Pete? I've
+got a few things to teach him." The furious man was breathing heavily.
+
+"I understand that you have taught him a few things already," replied
+Mrs. Barry, her eyes as steady as her voice. "I think, as you say, the
+law may take a hand in your affairs. My son and Pete have gone to the
+city now, and I fancy it is on your business."
+
+"What business?" ejaculated Carder, fumbling his hat, his rage appearing
+to feel a check.
+
+"That I don't know, really. I was not interested; but I seem to remember
+hearing my son use your name.--Lamson, is that you?" she added in the
+same tone.
+
+The chauffeur was standing at the door. "Yes, Mrs. Barry, you rang."
+
+"Show this man the way to the station, Lamson."
+
+Rufus Carder gave her one parting, vindictive look, and strode to the
+door.
+
+"Out of my way!" he said savagely, as he pushed by the chauffeur and
+proceeded out of doors and down the path like one in haste. Mrs. Barry
+believed he was, indeed, in haste and driven by fear.
+
+She proceeded upstairs to Geraldine's room and found the girl pacing the
+floor. She paused and gazed at her hostess, her eyes dry and bright.
+Mrs. Barry approached and took her in her arms. At the affectionate
+embrace a sob rose in the girl's throat.
+
+"When he says it, it seems true again," she said brokenly. "Ben says it
+is probably a lie, but I don't know, I don't know."
+
+"That wretch declaring it makes it likely to be untrue. Ben tells me you
+have lost your father, and if no proceedings were taken against him in
+his lifetime, I should not fear now. My son hints at disreputable things
+committed by this man, and if he can prove them, which he has gone to
+do, and Pete promises that they can do, then the culprit will not want
+to draw attention to himself by starting any scandal, not even for the
+joy of revenge on you. Forget it all, Geraldine." The addition was made
+so tenderly that the girl's desperate composure gave way and she
+trembled in the enfolding arms.
+
+Mrs. Barry loved her for struggling not to weep. She kissed her cheek as
+she gently released her. "You are safe, and beloved, and entering a new
+world. You are young to have endured so many sorrows, but youth is
+elastic and the future is bright."
+
+Geraldine's breast heaved, she bit her lip, and no eyes ever expressed
+more than the speaking orbs into which the queen of Keefe was looking.
+
+"I know all that you are thinking," said Mrs. Barry. "I know all that
+you would like to say. Don't try now. You have had enough excitement. I
+have always wanted a daughter. I hope you will love me, too."
+
+She kissed the girl again, on the lips this time, and there was fervor
+in the return.
+
+The next day Mrs. Barry telephoned to half a dozen of her son's girl
+friends and invited them to come to a sewing-bee and help with the
+curtains for her cottage. She said that Miss Melody was visiting her and
+that she would like them to know her. So they all came, wild with
+curiosity to see the girl that their own Ben had kidnapped and who was
+going to make him forget them; and Geraldine won them all by her modesty
+and naturalness. The fact that Ben's mother had accepted her gave her
+courage in the face of this bevy who had grown up with her lover from
+childhood. They were too uncertain of the exact status of affairs
+between the beautiful stranger and their old friend to speak openly of
+him to her, but almost every reminiscence or subject of which they
+talked led up to Ben. Of course, some among the six pairs of eyes
+leveled at Geraldine had a green tinge, and there were some girlish
+heartaches; and when the chattering flock had had their tea and cakes
+and left for home, there were certain ones who discussed the
+impossibility of there being anything serious in the wind.
+
+Ben was not even at home. Would he have gone away for an indefinite time
+as his mother said he had done, if he was as engrossed in the girl as
+gossip had said? Had not that very gossip proceeded from the humble
+walls of Miss Upton's shop where the stranger had apparently found her
+level? The Barrys had always held such a fine position, etc., etc., etc.
+
+"Oh, but," said Adele Hastings, "that girl is a lady. Every movement and
+word proves it."
+
+"Besides," added another maiden, "her being humble wouldn't have
+anything to do with it. It never has, from the time of King Cophetua
+on."
+
+"Well," put in the poor little girl with the greenest eyes of all, "I
+think it is very significant that Ben has gone away. You notice Mrs.
+Barry didn't invite her to come until he had gone, and that common Mrs.
+Whipp called her by her first name. I heard her myself."
+
+On the whole, Geraldine had scored, and really, although she was at
+peace with the whole world, the fact of Mrs. Barry's approval dwarfed
+every other opinion and event; for it meant that no longer need she set
+up a mental warning and barrier against thoughts of her lover.
+
+A few days afterward Ben telephoned to have Lamson at the station at a
+certain hour, and he and Pete returned from their strange quest. Little
+he dreamed of the stir that telephone message caused in his home.
+
+All the way out to Keefe on the train he was planning interviews with
+his mother and wondering whether the seed he had dropped into her mind
+before leaving had borne fruit. He had promised Geraldine not to coerce
+her, and the girl's pride he knew would not submit to opposing his
+mother's wish. Therefore, when Mrs. Barry walked out on the piazza to
+meet him, it was a very serious son that she encountered.
+
+"What is the matter, Benny?" she asked as she kissed him. "Have you
+failed?"
+
+"No, indeed. I have succeeded triumphantly. I've got Carder in a box,
+and, believe me, he won't try to lift up the lid and let anybody see
+him."
+
+"He was here soon after you left," said Mrs. Barry calmly.
+
+Ben looked surprised and alert.
+
+"What did he want?"
+
+"Pete; and he was going to have him or put you in the lock-up. Also he
+wanted Miss Melody. He's a wretch, Ben. I'm glad you went after him."
+
+"He'll not trouble her any more," said the young fellow, walking into
+the house with his mother clinging to his arm. "Carder is going to have
+ample leisure to think over the game he has played. Isn't it a strange
+satire of fate that should make insignificant little Pete the boomerang
+to turn back and floor him? Pete's an ideal witness. He sees what he
+sees and he knows what he knows, and nothing can shake him because he
+doesn't know anything else. Great Scott! when I located the facts at
+that hospital and linked them together and brought an accusation against
+Carder, it was like opening a door to a swarm of hornets. He has made so
+many people hate him that when the timid ones found it would be safe to
+loosen up, they were ready to fall upon him and sting him to death. He's
+safe to get a long sentence, and it will be time enough when he comes
+out to talk to him about Mr. Melody's debts--if Geraldine wishes it."
+
+Ben looked around suddenly at his mother.
+
+"Have you been to Keefeport to see Geraldine?"
+
+She returned his gaze smiling, and feigned to tremble. "I'm so glad I
+have, Ben. You look so severe."
+
+"And did you take that magnifying glass?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Wasn't I right?" asked Ben with some relief.
+
+"You were. I like the girl. I feel we are going to be friends."
+
+"Well, then, how about her being a clerk for Miss Upton?"
+
+Ben asked the question frowning, and flung himself down beside his
+mother where she had seated herself on a divan. Why couldn't her blood
+run as fast as his? Why must she be so cold and deliberate at a crucial
+time? "Going to be friends!" What an utterly inadequate speech!
+
+"I want to talk to you about that," rejoined his mother. "Will you
+please go into my study and bring me a letter you'll find on the table?"
+
+Without a word, and still with the dissatisfied line in his forehead,
+the young man rose and moved away toward the closed door of the
+sanctum.
+
+He opened it and there was a moment of dead silence. Mrs. Barry could
+visualize Geraldine as she looked standing there, radiantly expectant,
+mischievously blissful. The door slammed, and all was silence.
+
+The mother laughed softly over the bit of sewing she had picked up. For
+a minute she could not see very plainly, but she wiped her eyes and it
+passed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+Apple Blossoms
+
+
+Of course Ben wanted to be married at once, and whatever he wanted
+Geraldine wanted, but Mrs. Barry overruled this.
+
+"I hope you will go back to school, Ben, and get your sheepskin," she
+said. "I want you to live in the city, too, and leave Geraldine with me.
+I would like to have some happiness with a daughter before she is
+engrossed in being your wife. Wait for your wedding until the orchard
+blooms again."
+
+Ecstatic as Ben was, he could see sense in this; but vacation came first
+and Geraldine was a belle at Keefeport that summer. Her beauty
+blossomed, and all the repressed vivacity of her nature came to the
+surface. Her room at Rockcrest commanded the ocean, and every night
+before she slept she knelt before her window and gave thanks for a
+happiness which seemed as illimitable as the waters rolling to the
+horizon. She yachted, and danced, and canoed, and flew, all that
+summer. She gained the hearts of the women by her unspoiled modesty and
+consideration, while Ben was the envy of every bachelor at the resort.
+Nor did Geraldine forget Miss Upton. Every few days she called at the
+shop, and the two women there were never tired of admiring and
+exclaiming over the charming costumes in which Mrs. Barry dressed her
+child, and many a gift the girl brought to them, never forgetting what
+she owed to her good fairy.
+
+Pete was a happy general utility man and Miss Upton borrowed him at
+times; but he liked best working on the yacht, where he was never
+through polishing and cleaning, keeping it spick and span. He was given
+a blue suit and a yachting cap and rolled around the deck the jolliest
+of jolly little tars.
+
+When autumn came, Ben Barry took rooms in the city, coming to Keefe for
+the week-ends. Geraldine, who had had the usual school-girl fragments of
+music and languages, studied hard, and Mrs. Barry took her to town for
+one month instead of the three which she usually spent there. It was
+best not to divert Ben too much.
+
+So the winter wore away, and the snow melted and the crocuses peeped up
+again. The robins returned, and Ben understood at last why their
+insistent, joyous cry was always of _Geraldine, Geraldine, Geraldine_!
+
+The orchard was under solicitous surveillance this spring, and though it
+takes the watched pot so long to boil, at last the rosy clouds drifting
+in the sky seemed to catch in the apple boughs and rest there, and then
+the wedding day was set.
+
+The spacious rooms of the old house were cleared for dancing, for the
+ceremony was to take place out under the trees at noon. Miss Upton had a
+new black silk dress given her by the bridegroom with a note over which
+she wept, for it acknowledged so affectionately all that he owed to his
+bride's good fairy from the day when she so effectively waved her
+umbrella wand in the city. One of her gowns was made over for Mrs.
+Whipp, who on the great day stood with the maids and watched the wedding
+party as it filed out over the lawn to the rosy bower of the orchard.
+The six bridesmaids wore pale-green and white, and, as Miss Upton viewed
+with satisfaction, "droopy hats." She scanned the half-dozen of Ben's
+men friends who supported him on the occasion and mentally noted their
+inferiority to her hero.
+
+Geraldine--but who could describe Geraldine in her beautiful happiness
+and her happy beauty! Look over your fairy tales and find a princess in
+clinging, lacy robes, her veil fastened with apple blossoms, and the
+golden sheen of her hair shining through. Her bouquet of
+lilies-of-the-valley showered down before her and clung to her filmy
+gown as she stepped, and the sweet gravity of her eyes never left the
+face of the good old minister who had baptized Ben in his babyhood,
+until he came to the words: "Who giveth this woman to be married to this
+man?" Mrs. Barry stepped forward, took the hands of her children and
+placed them together. Mehitable Upton was not the only one in the large
+gathering who dissolved at the look on those three faces.
+
+In a minute it was over. The two were made one, and a soft, happy
+confusion of tongues ensued. After the kissing and the congratulations,
+a breakfast was served on the wide piazzas, and the orchestra behind
+the screen of palms began its strains of gay music.
+
+After Geraldine had cut the bride's cake and disappeared to put on her
+going-away gown, one of the waiters brought out the rice.
+
+Mrs. Barry begged the company not to be too generous with it. "Just a
+pinch apiece," she said. "Don't embarrass them."
+
+Adele Hastings, the maid of honor, laughed with her maids. She had come
+very close to Geraldine in the last weeks, and she had managed to get
+both umbrellas of bride and groom and put as much rice into them as the
+slim fastenings would permit. She believed the bridal pair were going to
+take a water trip, and she felt that the effect of opening the umbrellas
+on a sunny deck some day would be exhilarating.
+
+Mrs. Barry, as serene as ever, and very handsome in her lavender satin,
+disappeared upstairs for a few minutes. When she returned, Lamson was
+driving the automobile around to the front of the house.
+
+"Now, be merciful to those poor youngsters," she said again, as, armed
+with rice, they ranged themselves on the piazza and steps, making an
+aisle for the hero and heroine to pass through. They waited, talking
+and laughing, when suddenly there was a burst of sound. Over the
+house-top came an increasing whirr, and an aeroplane suddenly flew over
+their heads. An excited cry arose from the cheated crowd. Laughter and
+shrieks burst from every upturned face. _Cher Ami_ circled around the
+house, flew away and returned, the young people below shouting messages
+that were never heard. At last down through the laughter-rent air came
+the bridal bouquet, and scrambling and more shrieks ensued. The little
+girl with the greenest eyes of all--one of the bridesmaids she
+was--secured it. We'll hope it was a comfort to her.
+
+Lamson was demurely driving the car back to the garage, and Mrs. Barry,
+her dignity for once all forgotten, was laughing gayly. The wedding
+party fell upon her with reproaches while the orchestra gave a spirited
+rendition of "Going Up," the aviation operetta of the day.
+
+They all watched the flight for a time, but the music invited, and soon
+the couples were disappearing through the windows into the house and
+gliding over the floor.
+
+Mrs. Barry and Miss Upton stood together, still following the swiftly
+receding aeroplane.
+
+Mrs. Barry shook her head and sighed, smiling. "Young America! Young
+America!" she murmured.
+
+"Yes," said Miss Upton, "what would our grandfathers have thought of it?
+Talk about fairy tales! Do any of the old stories come up to that?"
+
+"No," returned Mrs. Barry, "but there is one feature of them that is
+ever new. It is the best part of all and no story is complete without
+it."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Miss Mehitable, nodding. They were both looking now
+at a small dark point vanishing into a pearly cloud. "I know," she
+repeated. "'And they lived happily ever afterward!'"
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+By Clara Louise Burnham
+
+    IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME. Illustrated.
+    HEARTS' HAVEN. Illustrated by Helen Mason Grose.
+    INSTEAD OF THE THORN. With frontispiece.
+    THE RIGHT TRACK. With frontispiece in color.
+    THE GOLDEN DOG. Illustrated in color.
+    THE INNER FLAME. With frontispiece in color.
+    CLEVER BETSY. Illustrated.
+    FLUTTERFLY. Illustrated.
+    THE LEAVEN OF LOVE. With frontispiece in color.
+    THE QUEST FLOWER. Illustrated.
+    THE OPENED SHUTTERS.  With frontispiece in color.
+    JEWEL: A CHAPTER IN HER LIFE. Illustrated.
+    JEWEL'S STORY BOOK. Illustrated.
+    THE RIGHT PRINCESS.
+    MISS PRITCHARD'S WEDDING TRIP.
+    YOUNG MAIDS AND OLD.
+    DEARLY BOUGHT.
+    NO GENTLEMEN.
+    A SANE LUNATIC.
+    NEXT DOOR.
+    THE MISTRESS OF BEECH KNOLL.
+    MISS BAGG'S SECRETARY.
+    DR. LATIMER.
+    SWEET CLOVER.  A Romance of the White City.
+    THE WISE WOMAN.
+    MISS ARCHER ARCHER.
+    A GREAT LOVE. A Novel.
+    A WEST POINT WOOING, and Other Stories.
+
+
+    HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+    Boston and New York
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN APPLE-BLOSSOM TIME***
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #20901 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20901)